China News on Women





Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page
Do you agree with President Trump's decision to prohibit transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. armed forces?
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Toshiba completes NuGen acquisition

26 July 2017

Share

Toshiba Corp is now the sole owner of NuGeneration (NuGen) after completing the acquisition of French utility Engie's 40% share in the UK nuclear power plant developer yesterday. The Japanese electronics conglomerate received notice from Engie on 4 April that it had exercised its right to require Toshiba to purchase all shares held by Engie in NuGen.

Toshiba owns Westinghouse Electric Company, whose Chapter 11 filing in late March met the definition of an 'event of default' under the terms of its NuGen shareholder agreement with Engie. Default entitles Engie to sell its entire shareholding in NuGen to Toshiba, or to acquire all the shares held by Toshiba.

Toshiba has a 60% stake in NuGen and owns 87% of USA-based Westinghouse, which on 29 March filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors to enable strategic restructuring amid "financial and construction challenges" in its US AP1000 power plant projects. Both Toshiba and Westinghouse stressed that only Westinghouse's US operations would be affected by the filing. NuGen plans to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Moorside in West Cumbria, England.

Announcing completion of the acquisition of Engie's stake in NuGen today, Toshiba said the share purchase price is JPY15.862 billion (GBP108.8 million). It will bear the additional cost JPY3.6 billion, which includes UK certification  the Generic Design Assessment - of the AP1000 reactor design which Westinghouse received in March.

The financial impact of the transaction will be reported in Toshiba's accounts for the first quarter of its 2017 financial year. This is forecast to be a JPY3.6 billion decrease in the profit and loss statement, the company said.

Toshiba has already made a provision of about JPY45.1 billion in its revised full-year financial for FY2016 for impairment of goodwill and fixed assets at NuGen.

Toshiba said it will continue to look for investors interested in investing in NuGen, and to consider the sale of its holding in the company.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Judge dismisses New York nuclear subsidy case

26 July 2017

Share

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the State of New York's zero emission credit (ZEC) program. Earlier this month, a similar lawsuit against Illinois' ZEC program was also dismissed.

Last August, the New York Public Service Commission formally approved a Clean Energy Standard recognising the zero-carbon contribution of nuclear power plants and ensuring the continued operation of four that had been at risk of premature closure. New York is home to four nuclear power plants: the single unit FitzPatrick and Ginna plants and the twin-unit Indian Point and Nine Mile Point plants. These six ractors produce about 60% of the state's emissions-free electricity.

Independent generators launched a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the state. They claimed the ZEC program intrudes on federal jurisdiction over power markets and violates the Constitution by disadvantaging out-of-state power plants.

However, yesterday the court's judge, Valerie Caproni, dismissed the case, ruling that the support provided under the ZEC program does not intrude on the Federal Energy Commission's jurisdiction over wholesale power markets and does not violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The judge said the program does not tether the receipt of a subsidy to participation in the wholesale market, but to the production of zero-emissions energy.

Exelon - which operates four reactors in the state - said the court's decision was "good news for New York's climate efforts and citizens across the state because it preserves the most cost-effective source of carbon abatement available to consumers". It noted New York's Clean Energy Standard employs the same legal policy mechanisms that states have been using for years to support investment in other sources of clean energy, such as wind and solar.

"We are confident that the court's ruling will be respected by state and federal regulators and other policymakers who support the continued operation of the nation's nuclear plants and the clean, resilient and affordable energy they provide," Exelon said. "As policymakers work toward reforms that will ensure that electricity markets properly value carbon, these programs serve as an important bridge to a fully market-based solution."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said: "I applaud today's ruling that supports our constitutional right to protect New Yorkers with our nation-leading initiative to ensure a healthy environment for all. We are in a global fight to combat climate change, and today's ruling ensures our progress will not be blocked or rolled back by fossil fuel interests and others seeking to maintain the status quo."

Cuomo added, "At a time when the federal government has abdicated its leadership on climate change, New York will continue to do all that we can to ensure that current and future generations have a clean and safe environment in which to live and prosper."

On 13 July, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a lawsuit challenging the ZEC program contained in Illinois' Future Energy Jobs Act, which was signed into law in December. Similar to the New York program, the Illinois ZEC program aims to preserve Illinois' nuclear facilities.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
In many places, the amount of terms that a leader can serve their country for is limited. However, this is not the case everywhere. This practice can be attributed to several factors such as lack of term limits and civil wars. However, sometimes it is open refusal to hand over power. Presidents go as far as changing the constitution to fulfil their greed for power. It is due to such selfishness and greed that Mohamed Ibrahim, a wealthy Sudanese, pledged a reward of $5 million every year for any African long serving president who would give up their seat in the interest of promoting democracy. Since 2007 only four presidents have heeded the call and won the prize.

Presidents Who Have Served For Over 30 Years

Cameroon

Paul Biya has been serving as the president of Cameroon for 41 years. He is currently aged 84 and has made history for being the longest serving president in the world. It is alleged that he still holds power due to fraud and irregularities that occur during elections.

Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Zimbabwe

Following closely in his footsteps are the presidents of Equatorial Guinea, Angola, and Zimbabwe who have ruled for 37 years. Teodoro Nguema became president of Equatorial Guinea in 1979 after organizing a coup against his uncle. Since then he has always won elections by over 90% of the total votes. However, the credibility of those elections has always been challenged by human rights groups and the opposition. President Nguema most recently elected his son Teodorin Obiang as the vice president.

Jose dos Santos was elected president after the death of Angolas first president called Agostinho Nesto. He has been accused of amassing wealth for himself and suppressing the opposition during his rule. The other president who has been president for 37 years is Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. He has stuck to his seat of power in spite of him being in his 90s. It is also quite unfortunate that in the many years of his presidency, the economy of Zimbabwe has dwindled until it has become one of the worst in the world. Other presidents who have ruled for over 30 years include Ali Khamenei of Iran who has reigned for 35 years. Nursultan Nazarbayev has been the president of Kazakhstan for 33 years. Then Hun Sen has been Cambodias president for 32 years.

Effects On The Country

Most of the presidents who have served for very long are dictators. They do not support democracy and it is common to hear that efforts by the opposition to have a new ruler are often thwarted. Another effect of such long presidencies is corruption and lack of development. Countries such as Angola exhibit high rates of corruption and Zimbabwe has the worst economy in Africa. These nations rarely uphold the rule of law and do not practise Human Rights as advanced by the United Nations.

Resolving The Challenges

The first action that needs to be taken is to ensure that every nation has a term limit for the presidents. This should be outlined in their constitutions. Secondly, theres need for multi-partism and strong oppositions to perform checks and balances on the government. Thirdly, there is a need for the international community to put sanctions on such governments so that the presidents step down. It is also the prerogative of the citizens to vote in the leaders that they want. They should not heed to any threats that they are given by the existing governments.
A diarchy is a type of government that is characterized by co-rule in the sense that two people rule a nation together either by force, collusion, or lawfully. One of the world's oldest forms of government is co-rule. There are several historical examples of diarchies including a few Polynesian societies, Carthage's judges, Rome's consuls and the Sparta's joint kingdom. Power to rule through inheritance also led to co-rule especially in Dacian and Germanic monarchies. A few countries of the world today are ruled or headed by two individuals who are also known as co-rulers. Some of the modern examples of diarchies include Swaziland, where the king and his mother share joint sovereignty, Andorra headed by the President of France and Bishop of Urgell in Spain both serving as co-princes, and San Marino a republic governed by two Captain Regent. Below are some of the examples of modern diarchies.

Diarchy In Swaziland

Officially known as the Kingdom of Eswatini, Swaziland is an absolute monarchy and also a diarchy. In conjunction with Mother Queen locally known as Ndlovukati, the King (Ngwenyama) and his mother rule together. However, in practice, the King of Swaziland has more power than the Queen Mother. Although it is argued that giving such wholesale authority to the monarchy's royal male is not a true traditional custom but is rather viewed as neo-traditionalistic.

Diarchy In Bhutan

As from July 18, 2008, became a constitutional monarchy. Initially, the country was an absolute monarchy between 1907 and the 1950s. Bhutan is also a diarchy whose commitment to existing as a traditional dual government is affirmed in the 2008 Constitution. Power in the country is shared between the King of Bhutan locally known as Druk Gyalpo and Buddhist religious authorities headed by the Je Khenpo. However, in practice, the religious authorities in Bhutan act more as the King's advisors than co-rulers.

Diarchy In San Marino

San Marino is a parliamentary representative democratic republic and a diarchy led by two Captain Regents. The country's captain regents are elected by the Grand Council, the Marinese Parliament, and the General Council after every six months. The captain regents who are usually selected from opposing parties serve as heads of both the government and the state.

Diarchy In Andorra

Andorra has not only a multi-party system but is also a parliamentary constitutional diarchy. Rulership of the principality is shared between the two ex officio princes who are the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the French President. While the Roman Catholic pope appoints the bishop of the diocese of Urgell, the President of France is elected by universal suffrage within his or her country.

Diarchy In Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a diarchy whose power is shared jointly between the First Minister and the deputy First Minister both serving as heads of state in the executive. Within the Northern Ireland Assembly, both positions also exercise identical powers. The idea was a result of terms written under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 whose primary intention was to bring political unrest in the region to an end.

How Diarchies Function?

There are several key factors that come into play especially when a country decides to adopt a particular type of government. Such factors include economic, political, or social conditions of the nation. Therefore, countries that have adopted the diarchy system as their form of government whether historically or currently decided that by doing so it would be socially, politically, and economically beneficial to the nations.
What is a Siberian Crane?

The Siberian crane, also known as the snow crane or Siberian white crane, is a bird species that has two distinct breeding grounds in Yakutia (in the east) and West Siberia (in the west) of the Arctic tundra region of Russia. Immature populations or non-breeding birds, spend the summers in Dauria, which is located on the border between China, Mongolia, and Russia. Small numbers of Siberian cranes have been recorded during the summer season in the central region of Mongolia. This bird has the longest migration route of any crane species and depends on a number of wetlands as resting and feeding grounds along the way. The West Siberia subpopulation migrates to Iran for the winters while the Yakutia subpopulation makes its way to China, where the vast majority (around 95%) of these eastern cranes can be found in the Poyang Lake basin.

This bird is all white in color, with the exception of black feathers, which can be seen under its wings mid-flight. The area around its face has no feathers and the skin is a dark reddish color. The Siberian crane stands on long, thin legs, which allow it to navigate through wetlands, and has a long, thin beak, which allows it to eat wetland grasses and occasionally catch fish and earthworms. It grows to approximately 55 inches in height with an 83 to 91-inch wingspan. On average, this species weighs between 11 and 19 pounds.

Conservation Status

The Siberian crane could once be found over a large range that stretched from the Ural mountains to the Kolyma region in far eastern Russia. Today, the population has decreased so significantly that it can only be found in 2 completely separated regions. The winter distribution of this species has also decreased over the years. For example, in 1974, researchers identified 75 Siberian cranes wintering in Bharatpur, India. By 1992, that number had decreased to 2 and became 0 in 2002. Historical evidence suggests that the western population once spent its winters as far away as the Nile river, although the Siberian crane can no longer be found there either.

Its current population size is between 3,750 and 4,000, which reflects a significant decrease over the last 3 generations. Of these individuals living today, around 99% belong to the Yakutia subpopulation of eastern Russia. This species has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000. Researchers believe that its population will continue to decline over the next 3 generations of the Siberian crane lifespan due to a number of threats. It is protected by several agreements, including: the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Convention Measures for the Siberian Crane (part of the Bonn Convention), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, and CITES.

Threats

One of the primary reasons for the critically endangered status of this species is the Three Gorges Dam development. Other infrastructure plans that negatively affect the waterways used by these birds include a number of dams along the Yangtze river and at the opening of the Poyang lake in China, which is the principal wintering ground.

Habitat destruction has been the cause of most of the population loss suffered by the Siberian crane. As waterways are diverted for agricultural, urbanization, and oil exploration purposes, this species is left with inadequate habitat for its survival and forced to find a source of food in other wetland areas. Other threats facing the Siberian crane are global climate change and polluted waterways.

Global climate change has caused widespread in the winters of the following years: 2003 and 2004, 2006 and 2007, and 2010 and 2011. The lack of rainfall caused the water level of the Poyang lake to reduce dramatically and left many Siberian cranes searching for food in waterways further upland. As temperatures increase in some areas, the permafrost will melt and result in higher water levels. As the water level rises, it will cover islands, sandbars, and shorelines used by this bird for breeding and nesting. Agricultural endeavors also contribute to habitat destruction as pesticides and other chemicals run off into important waterways.

Siberian Cranes in the Wild

As previously mentioned, the wild Siberian crane population numbers between approximately 3,750 and 4,000, which is up from the 2006 population size of 2,700. Along its migratory route, the Siberian crane relies on a number of wetlands and waterways, including the: Indigirka, Yana, and Kolyma rivers of Yakutia, Russia; the Aldan river in China; and wetlands in the Momoge National Nature Reserve. This species has also been sighted at the Huanzidong Reservoir in the Shenyang region and the Wolong lake. Additionally, a lone Siberian crane was sighted in Taiwan in December of 2014.

In Central Asia, the Siberian crane breeds and nests in the Kunovat river area in western Siberia. During the winter, this subpopulation once traveled as far away as the Keoladeo National Park in India, although no sightings have been reported since the 2001 and 2002 winter season. These birds are still found throughout Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

The western subpopulation of the Siberian crane is believed to have only 1 surviving specimen. Historically, this subpopulation had its breeding grounds along the Alymka and Konda river basins in western Siberia. The most important stopping point along its migratory route is the Volga river delta of Azerbaijan. Today, only 1 Siberian crane has been sighted in the Fereydoon Kenar area of Iran in the winter of 2006 and 2007.

Siberian Cranes in Captivity

Just 4 decades ago, less than 10 Siberian cranes were being held in captivity. Today, around 393 Siberian cranes (177 females, 166 males, and 52 unidentified) can be found in captivity in zoological parks, nature reserves, and research centers across the globe. This increase has been due to a captive breeding program pioneered by the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin in the US. This organization achieved the first successful captive breeding program by artificially inseminating female Siberian cranes, giving the eggs to other crane species for hatching, and creating artificially longer daylight hours like those found in the Arctic summer season. Siberian cranes can be found in captivity at the following locations: the Oka Nature Reserve in Russia, the Cracid Breeding and Conservation Center in Belgium, and the International Crane Foundation in the US.
Slovakia is a Central European country covering 19,000 square miles and houses an estimated population of about 5.4 million people. The population displays a broad range of diversity, with several ethnic groups existing within the Slovakian borders. The largest ethnic group is the Slovaks, which make up more than 80% of the population. Minority ethnic groups include the Hungarians, Czechs, Rusyns, Poles, Ukrainians and the Roma. These ethnic groups speak various native languages. The languages spoken in Slovakia are not strictly unique to the country since different indigenous communities in the European Union speak these languages. Apart from the ethnic languages, Slovakians also use foreign languages such as English. The deaf community in the country commonly uses Slovak Sign Language.

Slovak: The Official Language of Slovakia

Slovak is a Slavic language of the broader Indo-European language family spoken in Slovakia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Croatia, and Hungary. Slovak is the official language in Slovakia, is spoken by more than 80% of the population, and is given priority over other languages in Slovakia. Speakers of Slovak in the country use three common and mutually intelligible dialects: eastern, central, and western dialects. There also exists a standard version for teaching in schools. The language has developed and expanded over the centuries of its use due to influence from other languages such as Latin, Czech, Hungarian, English, and German, as well as the interaction with various forms of the language. The State Language Law regulates the use of Slovak in the country, with penalties and fines for incorrect use of the language.

Minority Ethnic Languages Spoken in Slovakia

In Slovakia, a minority language may earn a co-official status if it attains a legal threshold of 15% of the speakers in a particular municipality. Other nationals residing in the country through either migration or birth in the country speak minority ethnic languages in Slovakia. Hungarian is a Uralic language and one of the widely spoken in the European Union. Hungarians form the second largest ethnic community in Slovakia, making Hungarian the second biggest ethnic language spoken in the country. Slovakia recognizes Rusyn as a minority language, with about 33,000 of the population of Slovakia using the Rusyn language. Most Slovakians also understand Czech, mainly due to its existence as a part of the former Czechoslovakia. Other minority languages include Polish, Ukrainian, and Roma.

Slovak Sign Language

Slovak Sign Language is native to the country, with about 15,000 users. The deaf community of Slovakia uses the Slovak Sign Language as the primary mode of communication. The language is an Austro-Hungarian language of the French Sign Language family. The Slovak Sign Language displays relative disparities with the Czech sign language despite close similarities between spoken Slovak and Czech.

Foreign Languages Spoken in Slovakia

Slovakia is one of the leading countries in Central Europe with a large population that is fluent in more than one foreign language. Since Russian was formerly used as a study language in the country, a majority of the Slovakians understand the language. German is also relatively well known among the Slovakians, especially among youth and the highly educated members, followed by English. English is quickly gaining recognition in the country, in particular among the younger population.
Overview Of The Educational System In Saudi Arabia

The system of education in Saudi Arabia is administered by three government organizations: the Ministry of Higher Education, the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training, and the Ministry of Education. Public education is available to the entire population at no cost and is organized into primary, middle, and secondary levels. Primary school lasts for 6 years, while middle and secondary last for 3 years each. Kindergarten and preschool studies are voluntary and enrollment depends on the parents. By age 6, however, school attendance is mandatory and students begin studying in first grade. A typical school year runs from September through June.

In Saudi Arabia, boys and girls study in separate classrooms. Boys and girls have the same curriculum and take the same yearly exams. Additionally, boys are given a traditional Islamic education.

Structure Of The Educational System Of Saudi Arabia

Each level of education has a specific set of goals and objectives for the curriculum of its students. These objectives are also outlined for preschool, although attendance at this level is not mandated by the government. At the preschool level, students should become familiarized with the school setting and learn to use their imaginations.

At the primary school level, teachers attempt to create a sense of Islamic national pride, while developing basic language, math, and physical education skills. Enrollment for boys in primary school is estimated at around 99% and around 96.3% for girls. This percentage represents over 2.44 million students with a total of 217,555 teachers.

At the middle school level, the primary teaching goals include: providing a foundation for scientific rules and processes, guiding students to use their spare time for reading and participating in religious activities, and continuing to promote the idea of Islamic social life. Middle school enrollment is approximately 95.9% (or 1.14 million students) and girls make up about 47% of the total student population. Around 108,065 teachers are available at this level.

The secondary school encompasses the last 3 years before graduation. During this time, students can choose to take general education courses or to specialize their learning in vocational training programs. These programs are available in the following fields: commerce, industry, and agriculture. The estimated enrollment for this final stage of school is about 91% (or 1.01 million students for 87,823 teachers).

Classes are available for older students or for those with jobs in the evenings. Additionally, students may take final exams without attending classes frequently in order to obtain their graduation certificate.

Goals Of The Educational System Of Saudi Arabia

The Ministry of Education has established a 10-year plan to outline the goals of public education in Saudi Arabia. It covers a number of points, including how to offer the appropriate stages of education across a wide range of age groups. This Ministry hopes to instill a sense of national pride in its students by incorporating national issues into classroom lesson plans.

The Ministry of Education also places importance on the fields of math and science and makes preparing students for international positions in these subjects a top priority. School curriculum is based on Islamic beliefs and the country is dedicated to the training of teachers, according to the 10-year plan. Other goals as mentioned in this document include: to eliminate illiteracy, to increase community participation in education, to respond to the religious and social needs of the general population, to provide individualized programs for students with special needs, to make public education more efficient, and to establish a modern framework for technology of communication and information. This ten-year plan also identifies education as the most important method for developing children into adults, who are prepared to play a role as valuable members of society. These well-educated individuals will serve as the human capital of this country and help increase economic performance and the standard of living in Saudi Arabia.

Role Of Government In Education In Saudi Arabia

Although the Ministry of Education is in charge of administering public education in Saudi Arabia, it works closely with local and regional level governments to achieve this goal. Members of this Ministry tend to focus on planning and overseeing developmental and public awareness programs and projects as well as creating administrative educational policies while leaving actual operational activities to the local and regional governments. Additionally, the Ministry of Education provides support services to colleges and universities throughout the country and administers scholarships for students studying internationally.

At the provincial level, this country has 29 Provincial Educational Administrations and at the regional level, 13 General Education Departments. Some areas within provinces have established additional educational councils in order to properly administer this public service.

Role Of Religion In Education In Saudi Arabia

As previously mentioned, boys are given additional education in Islamic teachings and values. As part of this specialized curriculum for boys, they are trained to become members of the clergy, also known as the Ulema. This Ulema training begins in secondary school and includes classes on both Islamic and Arabic studies. Students are encouraged to incorporate traditional Islamic values in their personal lives. Additionally, as part of these studies, boys must learn to memorize and interpret the Quran. The Islamic University of Medina and the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University are responsible for coordinating this part of the education for boys.

Education For Girls

The education provided to girls in Saudi Arabia was previously overseen by the General Presidency for Girls Education, which was part of the Ministry of Education. This department was established in 1960, independent of the Ministry of Education and in response to public protest against private schools for girls that began opening in 1957. It was directed by religious figures in an attempt to ensure conservative values and Islamic teachings were incorporated into girls education. The establishment of this public organization is often cited as the beginning of improved quality in education for girls and the starting point from which education for both sexes was developed. This department administered every level of education and vocational training for women and girls (with the exception of universities), including literacy classes and colleges for teachers. In 2003, the government eliminated the General Presidency for Girls Education, leaving the Ministry of Education in charge of education for both boys and girls.
The Lhotshampa People

The Lhotshampa are people living in the country of Bhutan who are of Nepalese descent. They are indigenous to the the southern parts of Bhutan. The Lhotshampa people are referred to as the Southerners because the majority of them lived in the regions of the south of Bhutan. Since 2007, most of the Bhutanese refugees have resettled in countries as far wide as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere in Europe. At present, the number of refugees in Nepal is fewer than those in the countries in which they sought refuge.

History of the Lhotshampa People

The first groups of Nepalese people immigrated to Bhutan from eastern Nepal in the late 18th and early 19th century. By 1930, about 60,000 Nepalese cultivated southern Bhutan. By the end of the 1980s, the government of Bhutan estimated that 28% of its population was of Nepalese origin. Unofficial estimates, however, showed that as high as 40% of Bhutans population was of Nepalese descent. Following the governments census of 1988, the Nepalese were declared to be "illegal immigrants" which led to their forceful expulsion in 1989. The Bhutan government deployed their military that seized the Nepalese lands and property and even tortured the Lhotshampa people. The Lhotshampa people were forced to move to Nepal as refugees. Since 2008, there has been a resettlement of Bhutanese refugees in different parts of the world in countries including the United States and Europe. According to the refugee data as of 2015, the number refugees resettled in the US was 83,053.

Expulsion

There have been over 100,000 Lhotshampa people forced out of Bhutan since the late 1980s as the Bhutan government accused them of being illegal aliens. From the years 1988-1993, some Lhotshampa people left the country citing political and ethnic repression. The Bhutan Peoples Party began violence against the Bhutanese government leading to unrest among the Lhotshampa which made many flee. Many fled to refugee camps in Nepal and in 2010 it was recorded that there were 85,544 refuges in the seven refugee camps.

Culture and Language

The Lhotshampa people traditionally practice agriculture as their source of livelihood. Most of the Lhotshampa people are Hindus, however, groups such as the Tamang and the Gurung are Buddhist. Hindus practice cremation whereas the Buddhists bury their dead. The married women of the Lhotshampas wear a sindoor which is a mark that is placed on top of the forehead made from herbs. Following a childs birth, there is a naming ceremony eight days later dedicated to giving the newborn child a name.

The Nepali language is the first language of the Lhotshampas. In the earlier years, the Nepali language was taught in schools in southern Bhutan and the language was written and spoken in the area. The teaching of the Nepali language stopped during the 1980s when conflicts emerged between Nepali in Bhutan and Bhutanese. Dzongkha, the national language, was instead taught in schools. After the conflict, Nepali language is only taught in homes and is majorly a spoken language as most of its speakers cannot write in Nepali.
Islam: The Worlds Fastest Growing Religion

Islam is currently the second most widely practiced faith in the world. It is also the fastest growing religion and expected to have the largest number of followers by the year 2100. This growth is expected both in countries where Islam is already the majority faith and outside as well. The population in Europe, for example, is expected to be 10% Muslim by 2050. Between 2010 and 2050, Islam has a projected growth rate of around 73%, which is faster than the average global population growth of 35%. This increase represents a worldwide Muslim population size of 2.8 billion. The growth of Christianity lags behind at only 35%, followed by Hinduism at 34%. Experts attribute the rapid growth rate of Islam to a number of factors, including the younger average age of Muslims (22 years of age) and the higher average birth rate of Muslim women (3.2 children per woman). This article takes a closer look at which countries will have the highest Muslim population by the year 2050, according to a 2017 Pew research report.

India

Currently, India is home to 11% of the global Muslim population (around 172 million), which puts it in the number 2 position after Indonesia. By 2050, however, this country is expected to move to the top position with the largest Muslim population in the world, at 11.2%. This percentage represents a population size of approximately 311 million. Islam has a long history in this country and is already the majority practiced religion in the Lakshadweep Islands and the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Nearly half of the current Muslim population can be found the following Indian states: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.

Pakistan

Pakistan is currently home to 10.5% of the global Muslim population. In fact, Islam is the state religion of this country and practiced by the vast majority of its population, 97%. Sunni Muslims make up between 75 and 95% of the population here, while Ahmadi and Shia Muslims constitute the remaining 5 to 20%. Due to the expected population growth here, Pakistan will have the 2nd largest Muslim population by 2050. By then, approximately 9.9% of all Muslims will live in this country.

Indonesia

By 2050, Indonesia is expected to have the 3rd largest Muslim population in the world. Currently, this country has the largest percentage of followers of Islam at 13.1% of the global population. Muslims are the majority in the following regions: Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, North Maluku, and West Nusa Tenggara. Over the next 4 decades, this percentage will drop to around 9.3%, although not because of a decrease in the number of Muslims. This change is due to slower overall population growth in Indonesia than the previously mentioned countries are expected to experience.

Other countries that will occupy the top 10 list of the largest Muslim populations in 2050 include: Nigeria (8.4%, up from 4.8%), Bangladesh (6.6%, down from 8.4%), Egypt (4.3%, down from 4.8%), Turkey (3.2%, down from 4.5%), Iran (3.1%, down from 4.6%), Iraq (2.9%), and Afghanistan (2.6%). Of these countries, Iraq and Afghanistan will be on the top 10 list for the first time, replacing Algeria (currently with 2.2% of the global Muslim population) and Morocco (currently with 2%).
New Henblas Square Owners Confident They Can Provide Mixed Use Offering For Vacant Site

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 26th, 2017

The new owners of a long-standing vacant retail development in the heart of the town centre say they are confident they can provide a mixed-use offering for the area.

Henblas Square, once home to some of the biggest names on the high street, has notoriously been seen as eyesore in the town centre and also one of the causes of the drop in footfall around Queens Square and Chester Street.

Seen as a landmark development when it was built back in the late 90s/early 00s, Henblas Square has more recently seen all its high street retailers vacate the site either due to relocation or companies falling into administration.

The first major blow to the shopping area was the loss of TJ Hughes in 2011, which many saw as a link between the town centre and Chester Street and the Peoples Market.

Shops such as Bodycare, The Entertainer, Evans and the Post Office have also left site.

In August 2017 the last big name of Henblas Square, Bhs, entered administration  leaving one of the sites largest and most prominent retail units vacant.

Over recent months there have been rumours that there was interest in purchasing the site and last week it was confirmed that Henblas Square had been purchased by Manchester based MCR Property Group

Yesterday Wrexham Council released further details about the new ownership of Henblas Square, stating that its Housing and Economy Department had worked hard alongside MCR since the firm exchanged on the site to look at possible tenants.

Further conversations will be held to discuss the opportunities that this site holds in terms of delivering regeneration in a key part of town.

Cllr Terry Evans, Wrexham Councils Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, welcomed news that the deal on the site had been completed.

He said: When BHS went into administration, that was obviously very sad news for high streets across the UK. Times and trends are changing nationwide, and Wrexham wont be the only town that has to keep changing with them.

Were very pleased that MCR has decided to put their faith in Wrexham town centre, and invest in the heart of the town.

A spokesman for MCR said: The acquisition of Henblas Square is an exciting addition to our ever-expanding retail portfolio.

As a business, we have a proven track record of re-invigorating distressed assets and working in conjunction with Wrexham Council, we are confident we can provide a mixed-use offering to the area in keeping with the overall Town Centre Masterplan.

Details of Wrexhams Town Centre Masterplan were unveiled in October 2015, providing a strategic vision that could shape the town centre over the next ten years.

The plan, which was adopted by Wrexham Council in April 2016, focuses on several key sites in the town centre area, including Bridge Street, Queens Square, Henblas Street, Bodhyfryd and the soon to be vacant Fire Station on Bradley Road.

The hefty 84 page document details a number of proposals for the town centre, including retail, new housing and further pedestrianisation

Cllr Evans added: The Masterplan made the importance of Henblas Street and Henblas Square very clear, so its excellent to see the promise of new development in that part of town.

Weve always said that this part of town is crucial, forming the traditional town centre alongside High Street, Charles Street, Regent Street, Hope Street and Chester Street.
The death toll continues to rise among the 39 immigrants who were discovered in the sweltering trailer of a semitruck early Sunday morning in San Antonio, Texas. Nine were already dead when the trailer was opened, having succumbed to intense heat and lack of oxygen after being locked in the trailer for some 24 hours. Some survivors fled when the trailer, parked in a Walmart lot, was opened.

Federal authorities announced Monday morning that one of 20 survivors taken to the hospital in critical condition had died, bringing the number of fatalities to 10. They warned that others suffering from extreme heat stroke and dehydration might succumb.

New reports based on interviews with the immigrants in custody estimate that as many as 180 people may have been crammed into the sealed trailer as it made its way through Texas in a large-scale smuggling operation. One unidentified immigrant explained that people took turns gasping for air through a hole in the trailers side. Many passed out from the heat. Others shouted and banged on the walls to get the driver to stop.

After one immigrant entered the Walmart looking for water, a worker at the store called the police. Everyone inside the trailer had a heart rate of more than 130 beats per minute when the doors were opened. Their skin was hot to the touch.

At least 17 victims remain in critical condition as of this writing, with one source reporting that some may have irreversible brain damage from the high temperatures. The identities and nationalities of the passengers have not been confirmed but at least a portion are known to be citizens of Mexico and Guatemala, according to officials in those countries.

Jesus Romero, who directs the immigration service project ISAAC down the street from the Walmart, told the World Socialist Web Site that the incident was a tragedy of colossal proportions. Romero added, There were actually women and children in this truck, and some of them died. And their only sin is to have broken our immigration laws in order to come to work. It is so horrendous that these things have to happen to people who mean us no harm and contribute so much to our society.

Media coverage has focused on the truck driver, who has been arrested and faces charges that could bring life imprisonment or even the death penalty. This is a heinous crime. Yet the media is saying nothing about the government officials, business interests and politicians who bear the overriding responsibility for these deaths and the thousands more caused by their witch-hunting, persecution and exploitation of immigrant workers and youth.

Guilt begins with the Trump White House, Homeland Security Secretary Gen. John Kelly, those who run the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the border police, and their accomplices in both parties who have over the past several decades enacted a series of laws, under Democratic as well as Republican presidents, militarizing the border and imposing ever more vicious attacks on undocumented workers.

The criminalization of impoverished workers fleeing countries in Central and Latin America devastated by the depredations of US imperialism for more than a century has been carried out under increasingly onerous and antidemocratic laws backed and signed by presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, paving the way for Trumps program of mass arrests and deportations.

The surviving victims of the San Antonio death trailer will be thrown into detention centers and promptly deported, most likely without being given an opportunity to plead their cases before a judge.

The 60-year-old Florida man who was driving the truck, James Matthew Bradley Jr., has been charged with knowingly transporting illegal aliens. He denies knowing that anyone was locked in the trailer.

Ruben Garcia, who runs the immigration service Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, told the WSWS: Its interesting as I listened to the news reports and I heard the various law enforcement officers, they want to single out the smugglers for this horrific act. But there isnt a word, not a single word, about what pushes people to take these kinds of risks.

Garcia added, They have launched their investigations and they have arrested the driver and it will make it seem how righteous that we are going to go after these bad people. And no one will ever say what it is about the policies that push people to have to work this way.

Garcia has worked with immigrants for over forty years. He explained that nearly every immigrant who passes through his organization has been brought to the US by smugglers. The dangers posed by the drug cartels and the horrendous conditions that exist in countries such as Mexico compel immigrants to pay exorbitant amounts of money to be smuggled through in groups.

Garcia concluded, This tragedy in San Antonio serves as a symbol of the present environment. If our system is incapable of acknowledging that these are the kinds of realities that drive people out of their country, if enforcement is the only solution offered, where we say, They dont belong here, kick them out, lock them up, then they are going to turn to the smugglers and you are going to have the San Antonio situation again and again.

The deaths of the immigrants in San Antonio are a crime against the entire international working class, for which the American ruling class is directly responsible. Decades of imperialist aggression and plundering throughout the world, spearheaded by the United States, from the destruction of entire societies such as Iraq and Syria, to the 2009 ousting of the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has left 66 million people displaced worldwide, the highest number ever recorded.

The same politicians who organize imperialist violence against the international working class carry out brutal policies of austerity and repression against the workers at home. The tools of oppression forged in the attack on immigrants are being used against the working class as a whole. The massive surveillance apparatus, ostensibly erected for national security, is illegally spying on the entire country, native-born and immigrant alike. The same police forces, armed to the teeth with military equipment supplied by the Pentagon, that are being empowered under Trump and Kelly to help round up and detain immigrants, brutalize and kill US citizens every day with impunity.

All of the problems exposed by the tragic deaths in San Antonio are produced by the capitalist system. In an age where money, commodities and the elites move with ease across national boundaries, there remain millions who are forced to risk their lives entering countries without documents, while thousands of armed men hunt them down.

The Socialist Equality Party stands for the unconditional right of workers of every country to live and work in whichever country they choose. We call for full democratic and citizenship rights for all immigrants, including the 12 million or more in the US now classified as illegal.

We call on workers of all nationalities to unite in defense of immigrants all over the world. This fight is an inseparable part of the defense of the rights and social interests of all workers and the struggle against the growth of militarism and war. It requires a common struggle against the capitalist system and all those parties and political forces that defend it.
Returning to work after a two-week break, Victorian public school teachers are facing the full consequences of the treacherous sell-out deal brokered by the Australian Education Union (AEU) with the state Labor government. The new four-year Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) will perpetuate untenable workloads and the non-permanent employment of thousands of contract teachers and Education Support (ES) staff, while institutionalising the notorious and regressive standardised testing regime as the primary focus of the states public education system.

AEU officials, fully cognizant of the impact of two decades of ever-worsening conditions in schools and rising anger among teachers, understood that to get a majority Yes vote on the EBA would require a highly conscious and deliberate operation to block, suppress and sideline growing teacher and ES opposition. Its three-month campaign was anti-democratic from start to finish.

In the course of the unions year-long negotiations, conducted behind closed doors with the government throughout 2016, it commissioned a survey on workload, involving 13,000 teachers, principals and ES staff. The survey revealed that many teachers had reached breaking point; the majority were working more than 53 hours a week, with 15 hours unpaid; and workload pressures were driving many to quit the profession.

Ten days before announcing the unions final deal with the government, AEU President Meredith Peace threatened to authorise industrial action over the major sticking point of workload. The government was refusing to reduce face-to-face teaching time by just one hour, because it would cost $800 million over the course of the EBA. The unions response? It withdrew its token workload demand and signed off on a deal that, to all intents and purposes, maintained the status quo. It also called off any industrial action.

This was the first time in decades that the AEU had organised no mass meetings, work stoppages, strikes or work-to-rule bans to push for government concessions. Only four years earlier, during the 2013 EBA negotiations, three of the largest teacher mass meetings ever held had voted for industrial action, with 30,000 teachers participating in a work stoppage and 10,000 attending the final mass meeting. At that time, the unions supporters in the pseudo-left feigned opposition to the EBA, proposing left amendments in order to channel the growing militancy back behind the AEU.

Four years later, Peace and other bureaucrats, along with pseudo-lefts Mary Merkenich from Socialist Alliance and Lucy Honan from Solidarity, who sit on the AEU state council, were terrified that any such action could rapidly escalate out of their control. This time, after claiming the agreement contained some improvements, the pseudo-lefts remained virtually silent, allowing the union to proceed to ram the agreement through.

Meanwhile, the AEU was censoring its Facebook page, eliminating any oppositional posts from teachers or exposure of the EBA, such as links to articles on the World Socialist Web Site, or any mention of the Socialist Equality Party and its campaign for a no vote.

During the three months from March to June, the union ratcheted up its campaign of censorship, misinformation and lies. No expense was spared. AEU bureaucrats travelled throughout the state, addressing numerous delegates ratification meetings, on the benefits of a deal whose measures were the precise opposite of what the union was claiming they were. While officials spoke for an hour to put the yes case, delegates who wished to put the case for a no vote were either passed over, or allowed just three minutes.

As well, any motions for mass meetings to be held were simply ruled out of order, and no amendments to the EBA or the official resolution endorsing it were permitted.

Officially, the delegates meetings carried no weight in the final ballot on the EBA. They were organized in order to present the mass of teachers and ES staff with a fait accompli. If a large majority of delegates could be cajoled to vote yes, then this would place added pressure on all teachers to follow suit. Few delegates, let alone the vast majority of teachers and ES staff, had the time to read and assimilate the contents of the 50-page legal document. Officials even suggested to delegates that they could simply place their vote in the box and leave without hearing any of the reports or discussion.

At the same time, the union was dispatching large glossy posters to every primary and secondary public school, where they were prominently displayed. One, for example, read:

Vote Yes! Your AEU in-principle Schools Agreement features:

REDUCED WORKLOAD

PAY INCREASES

THOUSANDS OF CONTRACTS TO BECOME ONGOING

Weve fought for improvements on workload and contracts.

This enterprise agreement delivers for you.

Vote Yes!

Activate. Educate. Unite.

At none of the delegates meetings did union officials point out that embedded in the EBA was the adoption of measures proposed in the Bracks Reviewwhich will mean an escalation of the pro-market, privatisation agenda now underpinning public education in Australia. Nor was there mention that it endorsed the increased role of the NAPLAN standardised testing regime in determining teacher and school performance, which has become the source of immense anger and frustration among teachers, parents and students.

Between June 13 and June 20, a government-mandated secret ballot was conducted at all Victorian public schools. According to both the Education Department and the union, the outcome was a resounding yes vote by 87.5 percent of school staff.

This may be an accurate figure. If it is, then the union and their pseudo-left stooges are fully responsible. Theirs was a conscious and deliberate operation to subordinate angry, fed-up and frustrated school employees to the Labor governments ever-deepening cost-cutting and privatisation agenda.

On the other hand, the reported result of the secret ballot may be falsebut, if it is, no-one will ever know. That is because the voting procedure, set down by the Education Department, and conducted under the auspices of the Fair Work Act 2009, made a mockery of teachers democratic rights.

Principals were directed, in a letter from the Department, to conduct, together with a union representative, scheduled meetings of all employees at their schools, ensure a roll was taken at the meeting, provide each voting staff member with a ballot paper, instruct them to place their ballot in a box, ensure the ballot box was in safe-keeping, count the ballots, and then email the Department of Education before 5pm on June 20, with the results from their school.

Extraordinarily, the Departments final instruction was to insist on destroying individual ballot papers after the principal and the union representative have completed the  form and after the Department has been notified of the result. Moreover, when the AEU and the Department were telephoned and asked, the next day, for the ballot results at individual schools, both the government and the union declared that no such information would be forthcoming.

These decisions mean that teachers have been left in the dark about exactly how and where the unions sell-out achieved such a historically high vote. And it is now impossible to investigate any concerns that those who voted may have with the results.

What is known is that at nine Melbourne metropolitan schools, where the Socialist Equality Party had a strong and known influence, 61 percent of teachers and ES staff voted noa highly significant response.

There have been many reported irregularities with the vote. Principals at some schools failed to call meetingswhich may account for the nearly 29 percent of eligible voters who failed to cast a ballot. It may also mean that many teachers had no opportunity to hear the case for a no vote.

In other schools, meetings were held, but ES staff, who suffer the most exploitative conditions, were informed that they did not need to attend, and were simply eliminated from the ballot. At others, ballot papers were not distributed. At one such meeting, staff were asked to write their vote on a sticky note.

The principal at another school informed staff that there was no time for a meeting. He assumed that most teachers would vote yes. He instructed those who wished to vote no to email their vote, indicating a degree of influence, if not coercion.

The Fair Work Act 2009, the mechanism under which all unions conduct votes and secret ballots, provides for no independent oversight or supervision. This plays into the hands of the unions, which remain completely unanswerable to their memberships.

As the experience of the 2017 Victorian public education EBA demonstrates, there is a direct relationship between the anti-working class content of the agreement and the anti-democratic methods utilized by the AEU to push it through. It serves to underscore, yet again, that the AEU is not, in any meaningful sense of the term, a workers organization or union.

The AEU does not organize struggles, but imposes defeats. It is an outfit that exists to carry out the dictates of whichever government is in office and, more essentially, to facilitate the process of privatization to meet the profit interests of the major corporations and financial institutions. It does not fight for salary increases, or fair workloads, or secure and permanent jobs. Nor does it oppose the substitution of genuine education with a testing regime that has alienated and undermined virtually the entire school community.

The AEU cannot be reformed. To fight for a high-quality, free, and accessible public education for all, teachers must build new fighting organisations, with rank-and-file committees elected in every school, oriented to workers in all industries, workplaces and areas, in a common struggle for the democratic and social rights of the working class, throughout Australia and internationally.

Such a struggle requires leadership and a political partythe Socialist Equality Party. The SEP was the only party that fought for the interests of teachers and ES staff against the AEU and the Labor government, because it advances the fight for international socialism against the capitalist system itself.

We urge teachers and ES staff who want to develop the fight for public education to join the SEP.

The author also recommends:



Australian Education Union pushes through pro-market workplace agreement in Victoria

[1 July 2017]

Australian teachers agreement: The reality behind union victory claims

[6 April 2017]
Anyone believing there is a limit to the Social Democratic Partys rightward shift in the federal election campaign was disabused of this notion on Sunday.

Following the presentation of the SPDs so-called Germany Plan, which calls for a continuation of the anti-worker policies of former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and a major military build-up at home and abroad, the partys candidate for chancellor, Martin Schulz, jumped the last hurdle separating the SPD from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and other right-wing extremist parties by explicitly agitating against refugees.

Schulz chose the right-wing tabloid Bild to appeal for refugee policy to be placed at the centre of the election campaign. In 2015, more than a million refugees came to Germany in a largely uncontrolled way, Schulz declared, using the jargon of the AfD. That could not be allowed to be repeated, he said. He attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel from the right by accusing her of opening the borders to refugees without consulting other European states.

The situation in the Mediterranean is now highly explosive, warned Schulz, adding, If we dont act now, the situation is threatening to repeat itself. To prevent this, he demanded stepped-up measures to deter refugees. These would include a European immigration law, which would ensure that only selected applicants were allowed to come to Europe. Anyone rejected after applying for asylum would lose the right to immigrate forever.

Someone who applies for asylum cannot rely afterwards on the right to immigrate, Schulz told the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung.

At the same time, Schulz would force other European Union states under threat of financial sanctions to accept more refugees from Italy, where many people continue to arrive from across the Mediterranean. He explicitly excluded Germany from this. Now its the turn of the other EU member states, he declared.

Schulz, who has been active in politics for over 40 years, is well aware of the provocative impact of his statements. They encourage the growth of the AfD and similar right-wing extremist parties throughout Europe. Hysterical tirades against refugees coming from the established political parties and mainstream media led to a strengthening of the far-right two years ago.

Some commentators link the fact that the SPD chairman is playing the anti-immigrant card ( Rheinische Post ) with his increased desperation. With the artificially inflated hype around Schulz having fallen flat, the SPD is now far behind the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union in the polls and has little chance of choosing the chancellor after Septembers federal election.

But this is only a partial explanation. The SPD is reaching out to AfD voters not merely for electoral reasons. Its sharp shift to the right has deep social roots. The SPD is responding to the deepening social polarisation and emerging radicalisation of workers and youth.

Ever since the SPD betrayed its socialist program in 1914 and supported the First World War, in which millions of workers were senselessly slaughtered, it has seen its chief task as defending capitalism and suppressing all opposition to it. In periods of expansion, the SPD sought to ameliorate class tensions by means of social concessions, but in periods of crisis it always resorts to the most ruthless methods of repression.

At the end of the First World War, the SPD aligned itself with the right-wing Reichswehr (military) to drown the uprising of workers and soldiers in blood and murder its leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. When the Weimar Republic once again entered into crisis in 1929, the SPD backed the semi-dictatorial regime of Heinrich Bruning, which destroyed the social gains of the working class by means of emergency decrees and supported the election of Field Marshal Hindenburg as president. In January of 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor.

The economic upswing after the Second World War made possible a new phase of social reforms, which were already at an end by the mid-1970s. Helmut Schmidt, the Social Democratic chancellor at the time, introduced a fundamental shift in social policy that was continued by his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) successor Helmut Kohl and has been sustained to this day. In the early 2000s, it was once again an SPD chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, who created a massive low-wage sector with the Hartz reforms.

With the 2008 financial crisis, the extent of the global crisis of capitalism reached a point where even the appearance of social reforms was impossible. The social gains of the working class have been destroyed everywhere, while a tiny elite at the top of society has vastly enriched itself. The great powers are rearming, devastating entire regions, as in the Middle East, and are preparing for a new imperialist world war.

These policies are supported by all of the established parties. The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, the Free Democratic Party, the Greens and the SPD are competing as to who can build up the army most effectively, pursue the most aggressive foreign policy, hire the most police and impose the deepest social cuts. None of them flinch when it comes to brutally deterring refugees from the wars in the Middle East and Africa.

CDU General Secretary Andreas Scheuer rejected Schulzs criticism of Merkel by stating that the SPD had persistently blocked the CDUs push for more deportations, secure countries of origin, border controls and transit zones.

The Left Party also backs this agenda. It has subordinated all of its policies to the goal of forming the next federal government with the SPD. Its lead candidate, Sahra Wagenknecht, has long agitated against refugees in terms that are virtually indistinguishable from the AfD.

All of these parties are united by their fear of a rebellion of the working class and youth. They are more fearful of this than the rise of the AfD, which they are encouraging with their agenda based on policies they have adopted from it.

The SPDs embrace of the AfDs right-wing policies is not merely an expression of the bankruptcy of this party, which began its life as a Marxist workers party in the 19th century. It shows that not a single problemthe defence of refugees and democratic rights, resistance against social cuts and layoffs, the fight against warcan be resolved without combating its source, the capitalist system, which is defended by the SPD and the Left Party.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) is the only party standing in the federal election on a socialist program. It connects the struggle against war and the strengthening of the state apparatus with the defence of democratic and social rights, and fights for the construction of an international working class movement to overthrow capitalism. We call on all WSWS readers to support the SGPs election campaign and join the party.
New Zealands establishment political parties have recently begun releasing their policy statements ahead of the September 23 election.

The campaign already features the same appeals to nationalism, economic protectionism and right-wing populism that animated the US presidential campaign of Donald Trump and Brexit campaign in the UK. The New Zealand ruling elite is moving rapidly to the right, preparing to unleash fresh attacks on living standards and democratic rights.

The working class is increasingly alienated from the entire political establishment. The last election saw about a million people refuse to vote, in a county of just 4.5 million. A survey by polling company Ipsos, published on July 3, found 56 percent of respondents believed traditional parties and politicians dont care about people like them and 64 percent agreed the economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful.

The opposition Labour Party is in terminal crisis. It has been polling around 26 percent for years and has had four different leaders since 2008. The latest preferred prime minister poll has Labour leader Andrew Little in fourth place, behind current Prime Minister Bill English, NZ Firsts Winston Peters and Labours deputy leader Jacinda Ardern. Labour appears to be heading for a fourth landslide loss but it might still be able to form a government in a three-way coalition with NZ First and the Greens.

Labour has no significant differences with the National Party government. It has accepted austerity measures imposed following the 2008 crash, including cuts to public services, an increase in the Goods and Services Tax and the partial privatisation of power companies. Labour has criticised the government from the right, calling for a reduction in immigrant numbers by almost half and an increase in police numbers. It has joined the right-wing NZ First in scapegoating Asian immigrants for homelessness and unemployment.

As in the 2014 election, the Green Party is campaigning in a close alliance with Labour and NZ First. However, with the working class shifting to the left, the Greens are attempting to distance themselves, verbally at least, from their more blatantly right-wing allies.

With NZ First edging ahead of the Greens in some polls, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei declared in a TV 3 interview that NZ First was on a roll due to its racist immigration policies. The Greens previously promoted cuts to immigration but recently abandoned a policy to cap annual migrant numbers at one percent of the population.

NZ First has solidarised itself with Trump in the US and has repeatedly launched xenophobic attacks on Muslims, Chinese, Indians and Pacific Islanders. These attacks are combined with appeals for economic protectionism and increased support for the military.

NZ First leader Winston Peters dismissed the Greens accusation as spurious and threatened to sideline the party in post-election negotiations. Underscoring the Greens hypocrisy, Turei insisted she still regarded NZ First as a potential coalition partner, telling Radio NZ on July 10 that the Greens wanted to moderate their worst excesses. She has previously boasted about her good relationship with Peters and congratulated him on winning the 2015 by-election in Northland.

Several pro-Labour commentators initially criticised the Greens for threatening the viability of a Labour-Greens-NZ First government. Martyn Bradbury, editor of the trade union-funded Daily Blog, which supports NZ Firsts attacks on immigrants, declared the Greens had effectively handed the country back to the Nats [National] for another three years.

Within days, however, the same commentators had turned 180 degrees, extolling the Greens for their radicalism and courage. The reversal was occasioned by the release of the Greens social policy, entitled Mending the Safety Net, which promised to increase welfare benefits by 20 percent. Writing in the Guardian, Turei claimed the policy rolls back many of the benefit cuts and sanctions imposed by successive governments.

Posturing as the voice of welfare beneficiaries, Turei also revealed that two decades ago, as a young sole parent, she had lied about the number of people in her household in order to receive a benefit. Like many others, she said, I lied to survive. The admission prompted the pseudo-left International Socialist Organisation (ISO) to call on students to Stand with Metiria. On Facebook, the ISO heaped praise on the Greens, saying Turei was facing a barrage of bile for speaking truth to the reality of poverty in this country.

The Greens stance is, in fact, utterly hypocritical. The party acted as a vital prop to the 1999-2008 Helen Clark-led government, which refused to increase benefits after they had been slashed by 17-25 percent by the previous National Party government.

Like their international counterparts, the Greens are an overtly pro-capitalist party representing environmental businesses, and oriented towards affluent sections of the upper middle class. James Shaw, who entered parliament in 2014, was elected co-leader just months later largely on the basis of his business credentials as a former consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the HSBC bank.

In March the Greens formally agreed with Labour on a set of Budget Responsibility Rules, aimed at reassuring big business that in office they would deepen austerity measures against the working class. These rules, which expose the empty character of election-season promises of the Greens, include: delivering an operating surplus, reducing debt and maintaining core Crown expenditure at under 30 percent of GDP, roughly the same level as every government since the 1990s.

Even if they were implemented, the Greens proposals would leave welfare benefits, in real dollar terms, below what they were prior to Nationals infamous 1991 Mother of all Budgets, which drove thousands of recipients into poverty. This is of a piece with the Greens other very limited pledges, including an increase to the minimum wage of just $2 an hour.

As in previous elections, the big unmentionable is the ever-increasing danger of waralthough there is a steady stream of war propaganda surrounding the centenary of World War I, which the Greens have not objected to.

The nationalist and anti-immigrant outbursts by the Greens and its alliesNZ First, Labour, and the Mana Partyare feeding into the countrys incorporation into the US drive to war against China. The opposition parties agree with closer military and intelligence ties with the US.

Last year, after the government announced $20 billion in military spending to increase interoperability with the US and other allies, Shaw said the Greens recognise that defence spending is expensive and a lot of our equipment is outdated and we want to make sure our people have the best equipment they can and that they are as safe as possible.

The Greens election feint to the left has a definite political purpose. It reflects the need of the ruling elite to establish new mechanisms to contain the growing opposition among workers and youth to austerity, attacks on democratic rights and the build-up to war.

Currently, there is no figure like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK or Bernie Sanders in the US, falsely proclaiming socialism to channel deepening opposition sentiment to the social crisis back into the parliamentary set-up. The Greens are seeking to position themselves, with the help of the middle class pseudo-left groups and the trade unions, to fill the void.
The longstanding feud between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio erupted anew this week on the issue of accountability for the unprecedented and urgent crisis of mass transit in the New York metropolitan area.

With two derailments in the past month, increasingly unsafe conditions and daily disruptions that have provoked general outrage among commuters and other working people, Cuomo and de Blasio are frantically attempting to deny responsibility by pointing the finger at one another.

In the past few days, the warfare has taken the form of tit-for-tat exchanges between the mayor and Joseph Lhota, the newly appointed head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Cuomo, who nominates the MTA chief and controls the majority on the agencys board, named Lhota a month ago. A few days later the governor declared a state of emergency on the citys subways and directed Lhota, who had served an earlier stint as MTA chairman, to come up with a plan for reorganization of the system within 30 days.

That plan is due by the end of this week, and last Thursday Lhota held a press conference to demand the city furnish new money to solve the crisis.

On Friday Lhota stepped up his criticism. Whenever there is a problem with the subway, the city just throws up its hands or sits on its hand, he told the New York Times. Speaking directly of de Blasio, he added, The lack of collaboration, the lack of empathy for the ridershis citizensthat is the issue here.

The blunt attack on the mayor by the head of a state agency was very unusual, all the more because Lhota had said just one day earlier that he did not want his role to be viewed as political.

Not lost on de Blasio and his advisers is the fact that the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 2013, the man beaten by de Blasio in his successful run for the post, was none other than Lhota. Cuomos naming of Lhota to the MTA position, in the midst of the deepest transit crisis in recent decades, was another in a series of provocative moves by Cuomo against his rival.

De Blasio responded in kind in an impromptu eight-minute press conference held on a subway train in Brooklyn on Sunday, declaring, The governor should step up, say once again hes responsible.  Just take ownership and fix the problem.

On July 24, the de Blasio administration listed its own top five priorities for fixing the system. First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris reiterated de Blasios argument that money is not the problem. The mayors priorities were vague; they included immediate relief for riders, clear accountability for continual improvement and a meaningful state commitment to the needs of subway riders.

The Cuomo-de Blasio dispute can only be understood in the context of the breakdown of the system, and the inability of any section of the ruling class and its political hirelings to solve the crisis.

The subway system, which serves 5.6 million riders every day, dates its beginnings to 1904, well over a century ago. The antiquated signal system is 70 years old. The current crisis stems not primarily from the age of the system, but from the lack of necessary maintenance and upgrading, which has been deferred for decades in many areas.

An earlier transit crisis in the 1970s was part of the broader financial meltdown that nearly led to a declaration of bankruptcy. The conditions of the period exposed the contradictions of the postwar capitalist boom, which was rapidly unraveling.

As part of the reinvention of New York as a financial center, which included the promotion of tourism and a boom in real estate and luxury development that enriched Donald Trump and others, the transit system was revived, with billions of dollars spent in the course of a series of five-year capital plans. Subway cars were replaced and air conditioning became standard. The mean distance between failures (MDFB), as recently reported on the vox.com web site, rose from the dangerous level of 6,000 miles in the 1970s to 170,000 miles by 2010. In the past five years, this figure has been falling precipitously once again, a reflection of aging cars and equipment.

The capital spending and efforts to catch up on deferred maintenance, beginning in the 1980s, however, were only made possible by the buildup of a massive bond debt, now reaching about $40 billion. The servicing of this debt eats up a substantial portion of MTA revenues, leading to additional pressure to raise fares and cut service, just at the time when deferred maintenance has once again become an explosive issue, as it was 40 years ago.

The current crisis does not arise because the resources dont exist for the upkeep and modernization of the system, but because these resources are being siphoned off by the super-rich, including the hedge fund billionaires and real estate developers. The astronomical growth of inequality finds its expression in the form of the transit crisis. This is the price paid for Wall Streets sucking the lifeblood out of the city and attacking the most basic needs of the vast majority of the population.

Both de Blasio and Cuomo represent this corporate and financial elite. Cuomo, now in his second term as governor, is a cynical political operative. After years of arrogantly rejecting the most minimal reformseven the proposal for a minuscule tax increase on millionaires to fund the universal pre-Kindergarten program advanced by de Blasiothe governor has executed a calibrated tactical shift in the past year. No doubt looking at the primary votes for Bernie Sanders and thinking of his own possible run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020, Cuomo has begun making a few left noises.

The governor has also sought to get political mileage out of events such as last years opening of the new Second Avenue subway line in Manhattan, a measly expansion of the system to the tune of a few new stations in a generally middle class area of the city. As de Blasio has suggested, at times like these, the governor suddenly discovers that he is after all in charge of the system.

The mayor is no different, however, and no less cynical. The politician who ran on the slogan of A Tale of Two Cities and claimed he would lead a crusade against social inequality four years ago, never uses those words today. He has settled comfortably into his office, cultivating the closest of ties with real estate developers and other wealthy executives who are bankrolling his campaign for reelection this November.

De Blasio learned his lesson when the ruling elite essentially vetoed his meek request for the tiniest of tax increases. Has inequality lessened in the last four years? Or homelessness? On the contrary.

De Blasio has his own methods of changing the subject, as in his proposals for expanded ferry service and a proposed Brooklyn-Queens trolley connector. The mayor has focused on projects that will, even if fully realized, benefit only a small slice of the population. Meanwhile the crisis of deferred maintenance and a decaying system has erupted. Rather than presenting a program for the necessary drastic upgrading of the system, de Blasio tries to shift attention to Albanys responsibility.

Transport Workers Union Local 100, which claims to represent more than 30,000 bus and subway workers in New York City, has slavishly supported both these Democratic representatives of big business. The union, which issued its own toothless reform proposals this past week in response to the growing crisis, is an integral part of the capitalist status quo. It has collaborated in imposing attacks on its own members along with fare increases, which have hit working class commuters the hardest.

Far be it from either Cuomo or de Blasio, or their backers in the TWU, to suggest that massive increases in taxes on the wealthy are necessary to defend public services. The actions and records in office of both these corporate-controlled hacks demonstrates that only the independent political struggle of the working class, fighting for a socialist program, can defend living standards and all basic rights.

The author also recommends:

New York and New Jersey transit woes mount

[21 July 2017]

Number of New York City street homeless grew by nearly 40 percent in one year

[11 July 2017]
General Motors announced second-quarter profits of $1.6 billion Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations. Ford is scheduled to release its results today and Fiat Chrysler on Thursday, as the US-based automakers continue to record high profits even as sales of sedan-sized cars decline and companies extend their summer production shutdowns.

GM, which is carrying out a global restructuring, including winding down its operations in Europe, India, South Africa and Venezuela, has aggressively responded to Wall Street demands to lay off thousands of workers hired over the last seven years now that the sales boom has slowed. The Detroit-based auto giant has eliminated production shifts in Ohio and Michigan and carried out thousands of temporary and permanent job cuts even as it funnels more than $10 billion into dividend payments and stock buybacks for wealthy shareholders.

On Tuesday, GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens told investors that GM will cut North American production by 150,000 vehicles in the second half of 2017. Analysts have floated the possibility of shutting plants that produce slow-selling cars, including the factory in Lordstown, Ohio and GMs only assembly plant in Detroit.

The United Auto Workers union has blocked any resistance by workers to job cuts. Echoing management, the UAW claims that the layoffs are due to market conditions, not the relentless drive by Wall Street to slash costs and transfer money from wages and benefits to dividends and stock repurchase programs.

Asked by a reporter about the fate of the Lordstown and Detroit plants, UAW president Dennis Williams could barely rouse himself. Shutdowns, layoffs, market slowingthat raises our eyebrows, Williams murmured. Then sounding like a paid consultant, he added, The employer miscalculated the build cycle. There was a lot of overtime while stocks were growing. They have to get better at balancing so employees stay employed.

What really got Williams excited was his announcement that the UAW will be holding a contest on Labor Day for the best social media, television and radio material to promote the unions Buy American campaign. We want to educate the public on why it is important to buy American and how it supports one another as a people, as a nation, Williams said.

Williams said it was sometimes difficult to determine the origin of a vehicle and that he would prefer that big labels, with flags, be plastered in the windshields of new cars, saying China, Mexico, The United States and Canada. The UAW president went out of his way to praise President Trumps economic nationalist program, boosting the lie that the billionaire presidents trade war measures would improve the fortunes of American workers.

To call the complacent company hacks in the UAW hierarchy Neanderthals has always been a slight to our prehistoric ancestors. There is no such thing as an American-made car, any more than a Japanese- or German-made car. It is more likely, in fact, that one will find more American-made parts in a Toyota Camry produced in Georgetown, Kentucky than most vehicles made in GM, Ford and Chrysler factories in Detroit.

Autoworkers around the world are employed in one of the most globally-integrated industries on the planet, involving a world-wide division of labor. The relentless effort by the global corporations to drive down the living standards of workers is not due to unfair trade, let alone globalization in itself. It is product of the capitalist profit system, which is based on pumping the maximum amount of profit out of workers in every country.

Williams could not pass up the opportunity to pollute the consciousness of workers with toxic nationalism. Asked if Ford had discussed its plans to move production of the small Ford Focus to China, Williams blasted, If they are going to produce in China and keep it in China for that economy, thats fine. But employers produce it in China and bring it back like [GMs Buick] Envision. I am not happy about the Envision, which I refer to as the invasion. I feel the same about the Focus. If they want to produce in China, then sell it in China.

Asked about future plant closings, Williams responded, When an employer like GM, Ford or any other employer produces so many vehicles in Mexico and around the world and brings them back for sales, and comes to us with a plant closing, there is going to be a problem with us. Any corporation that deals with us and has that kind of philosophy, they are going to have an issue with the UAW. Youll hear me loud and clear.

Nobody in GM or Ford headquarters were shaking under their desks over Williams hot air. The UAW has not lifted a finger to oppose a single plant closing in 40 years. Instead, its incessant ranting against workers in Japan, China, Mexico and other countries for supposedly stealing American jobs has been used as a cover for the UAWs collusion in the shutdown of scores of factories and the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, as then-UAW President Douglas Fraser was brought on to the Chrysler board of directors, the UAW conducted a vicious anti-Japanese campaign, which included sledgehammer parties to destroy Toyotas, the banning of foreign-made cars from factory and union parking lots, and the sale of bumper stickers declaring Remember Pearl Harbor. This racist agitation led to the 1982 murder of Chinese-American Vincent Chin by a Chrysler foreman and his son.

Meanwhile, the UAW banned strikes, abandoned any shop floor representation and insisted that workers accept speedup, management abuses and wage and benefit concession to boost competitiveness and corporate profitability. Annual wage increases, cost of living adjustments, job security provisions, layoff protections and everything else was abandoned, and the UAW introduced multi-tier wage and benefit systems.

Not a single job was defended. Instead such policies led to the catastrophe that can be seen in the shuttered factories and decaying schools and neighborhoods. Far from sharing the fate of autoworkers, however, the UAW business executives thrived through the proliferation of joint labor-management training centers, scholarship funds, banking, real estate and other business ventures.

Today, the UAW functions as an unabashed tool of management, and its executives like Williams, Cindy Estrada and others sit on corporate boards, manage billions of dollars of corporate stocks and have a direct financial incentive to cut the wages, health care and retirement benefits of the workers they falsely claim to represent.

Pointing to the labor agreements signed by the UAW in 2015in the face of mass opposition from rank-and-file workersGM finance chief Chuck Stevens boasted to Wall Street analysts last year, We have a much more flexible workforce, enabling us to react to market dynamics and take costs out more aggressively compared with past cycles. This includes thousands of new part-time and temporary workers sanctioned by the UAW who have short layoff benefits, making it easier to cut jobs.

Williams first floated the idea of resurrecting the campaign against foreign-made vehicles last February, just weeks after the inauguration of President Trump. In March, Williams appeared alongside Trump and then-Ford CEO Mark Fields at the site of an abandoned World War II bomber factory in the Detroit area. Trump praised the collaboration of the unions, management and the government in building weaponry to win the war, and alluded to his plans for a massive military buildup to Make America Great Again.

While tens of millions of workers hate Trump for his attacks on health care and public education, the mass deportation of immigrants and reckless militarism, the UAW and other unions have found kindred spirits in Trump and his fascist aide Stephen Bannon.

A fight against a new round of layoffs is needed. The allies of American workers in this struggle are not the American corporate bosses, Trump or the Democrats, who are no less pawns of Wall Street than the Republicans. The allies of workers in the US are the autoworkers of Slovenia, Serbia, Korea, France, Mexico, China and around the world who are entering similar battles. New organizations, controlled by the rank-and-file and dedicated to the methods of the class struggle, not class collaboration, are needed.

Above all, the fight for good-paying jobs and all the social rights of the working class requires a conscious struggle to unite workers against the capitalist system and the two corporate-controlled parties that defend it. Economic life must be organized based on socialist principles, to meet the needs of the masses of working people who create societys wealth, not the corporate and financial parasites that monopolize it. The Socialist Equality Party is leading that fight, and we call on autoworkers to contact the SEP to take up this struggle.
Washingtons claim that an American spy plane had to take evasive action during an encounter with a Chinese fighter jet off the Korean Peninsula has underlined the extremely tense situation as the US continues to threaten military action against North Korea.

The incident last Sunday involved a US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft and two Chinese J-10 fighters. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis claimed that one of the Chinese fighters slowed, flew below the American plane and then emerged about 100 metres in front of ita manoeuvre he branded as unsafe

Davis declared that the EP-3 was on a routine mission in international airspace. What the Pentagon regards as routine, however, is sending reconnaissance aircraft and ships to gather electronic and other intelligence on both China and North Korea.

According to Reuters, the spy plane was flying in the East China Sea just 80 nautical miles (150 kilometres) from the Chinese city of Qingdao, the home base for Chinas North Fleet. Qingdao also sits opposite the Korean Peninsula. The Pentagon has, of course, not disclosed the nature of the EP-3 mission.

The Chinese defence ministry rejected the Pentagons claims and reiterated its opposition to US spy missions off the Chinese mainland. Spokesman Ren Guoqiang declared that the actions of the Chinese pilots had been legal, necessary and professional.

He called for an end to US spy missions, saying they threatened Chinas national security, harmed China-US sea-air military safety, endangered the safety of pilots from the two sides and were the root cause of China-US sea-air unexpected incidents.

The EP-3 reconnaissance operation took place amid continued speculation in Washington that North Korea could be on the brink of testing another long-range missile, or possibly conducting another nuclear test. An American official told the AFP news agency that the test could go ahead as early as July 27 and would either be an intermediate range missile or the type of long-range missile launched on July 4.

That test of what the Pyongyang regime claimed was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) triggered denunciations by Washington, an emergency session of the UN Security Council and US demands that China take tougher action against North Korea to force it to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that in the wake of the July 4 missile test, the Pentagons Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has revised its assessment of North Koreas capabilities, claiming that it could have a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM as soon as next yeartwo years earlier than previously estimated.

The article noted that one of the remaining technical hurdles facing North Korea was the ability of a ballistic missile to re-enter the Earths atmosphere without damage to its warhead as a result of intense heat. A US official claimed that North Korea was making final preparations for testing a new re-entry vehicle. Theyre on track to do that, essentially this week, the official told the Post.

The revised DIA estimate heightens the danger of a US attack on North Korea. The Trump administration has repeatedly declared that it will employ all options, including military force, to prevent North Korea from building a nuclear ICBM capable of hitting the US mainland. Further tests could provide the US with the pretext for launching military strikes.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum last weekend, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Joseph Dunford dismissed claims that the use of military force against North Korea was unimaginable due to the devastation another Korean war could cause. Such a war would be horrific and would result in a loss of life unlike any we have experienced in our lifetimes, he said, but it is not unimaginable.

Whats unimaginable to me is allowing a capability that would allow a nuclear weapon to land in Denver, Colorado. Thats unimaginable to me. So my job will be to develop military options to make sure that doesnt happen, Dunford said.

The Pentagons top general also made clear that time was running out for diplomatic efforts and tough sanctions to force the Pyongyang regime to change course. When it was suggested that the North Korean regime would never give up its nuclear weapons, Dunford declared that Secretary of State Rex Tillersons diplomacy might not succeed and there may have to be a follow-up option, which is the military option.

Dunford supported an effort to have a concerted economic and diplomatic plan that does cause [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un to come to the table to negotiate, but then pointedly added that it made all the sense in the world  to work this for a few more months.

In a separate Aspen session, CIA director Mike Pompeo suggested that the US was actively considering plans to assassinate Kim Jong-un and other top North Korean leaders. He told the audience that the problem was not so much Pyongyangs nuclear weapons, but the character who holds control over them. He said he was confident that the intelligence community will present  a wide range of options for the president to separate those twothat is, the nuclear weapons from the someone who might well have intent to use them.

The threat of war on the Korean Peninsula is aimed not just against North Korea but is being used as a justification for a US military build-up throughout the Asia Pacific directed against China. Beijing is not only under intense pressure from Washington to bully Pyongyang into submission, but confronts the danger of a war on its doorstep to oust a regime that has been a long-time ally and buffer against the US and its allies.

A lengthy article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday detailed Chinese military preparations along its northern border with North Korea. Based on a review of Chinese government and military web sites by US analysts, the article stated: Recent Chinese measures include establishing a new border defence brigade, 24-hour video surveillance of the mountainous frontier backed by aerial drones, and bunkers to protect against nuclear and chemical blasts.

It cited an article by a retired Chinese major general, Wang Haiyun, who suggested that China had drawn a red line for the US: if it attacked North Korea without Chinese approval, Beijing would have to intervene militarily. The Wall Street Journal suggested that the Chinese military was already preparing for such an eventuality, writing: Beijing appears to be enhancing its capability to seize North Korean nuclear sites and occupy a swathe of the countrys northern territory if the US or South Korean forces start to advance toward the Chinese border.

While the Wall Street Journal may well be hyping the Chinese threat for its own political purpose, the Chinese military preparations do underscore the risk of a war on the Korean Peninsula turning into a far wider conflict between major, nuclear-armed powers. In this tense and volatile situation that the Trump administration has recklessly placed on a hair trigger, the danger is that any incidentincluding an accidental mid-air collision between Chinese and US aircraftcan set off events that no-one can control.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A new school year means a new budget with some big changes for Leon County Schools.

Families and taxpayers got a chance to see and speak about the proposed budget during a public hearing at Tuesday night's school board meeting. The budget's general fund, which mostly pays for staffing and classroom expenses, is going from $297 million last year to $305 million this year.

Some changes, like more money for supplies and employee raises, are going over well. However, emotions are running high over a change for district employees who help out at local community centers.

Florida's hotly-contested House Bill 7069 sets a lot of new education rules, including how district's funding must be spent.

"The title 1 funding that is to be directed into the title 1 schools helps fund some of the staffing at the community center," said Alva Striplin, Leon County School Board Vice Chair. "The money has not declined, we're still receiving the same amount of funding. However, the state has put controls on an 8% only administrative fee. So instead of the district being able to provide staffing for the community centers, that funding is now going to be rerouted to the school."

Despite the new path this funding must go, Striplin says the district plans to find a workaround.

"They're going to find a way to be creative about how we can still reroute that money into those community centers and possibly revamp what's going on in those community centers," said Striplin.

This issue aside, parents and school employees definitely have reason to be happy about this budget.Bus drivers, food service workers, school bookkeepers, and para-professionals are all slated to get raises. The budget even includes a 20% raise for substitute teachers, something district officials say hasn't happened in more than a decade.

If this proposed budget passes, schools will also get $250,000 extra to buy supplies. Superintendent Rocky Hanna says the money will go to the principals, who will allocate it their teachers based on the number of students in their class.

"Parents are no longer having to pay for copy paper, dry erase markers, tissues," said Hanna. "A lot of these things that we're asking [for] should be part of a free and public education, and that's on our dime, not on our parent's backs."

District officials say this new budget does include an increase in state funding, but that's offset by a decrease in local tax dollars, so no significant changes in overall revenue.

The final budget hearing will be held on September 5th at 6:00 p.m. at the Howell Center.

Other notes from Tuesday night's meeting:

LCS supports Broward in state legislature lawsuit but will not pursue, too expensive.

LCS will not institute a no homework policy similar to Marions any time soon.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A billion-dollar lawsuit has been filed against the state of Florida.

The lawsuit filed Monday by two Florida State University donors calls for the state to match private donations to Florida's public colleges, universities and their students.

In 2003, two graduates of the FSU College of Law donated $100,000 to create an endowed scholarship for students.

According to the lawsuit, four statutes require the state to match private donations that support higher education.

While the state matched the initial donation, the FSU donors say two other donations in 2011 and 2015 weren't matched.

The law firm representing the donors says the state has an obligation to pay years' worth of donations to 40 public colleges and universities.

The governor's office says they are reviewing the lawsuit. Last month, a similar suit was filed by two University.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
TIFTON, GA (WTXL) - The Tifton Police Department is investigating the death of a man found in the crawl space of a home.

Agents are working to identify the man, whose body was discovered at 317 South Central Ave. His body will be sent to the GBI Crime Lab for an autopsy.

Tifton police have requested the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Local members of the LGBT community and others are speaking out against President Donald Trump's decision today to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

The president tweeted this morning, "the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military."

Many are expressing overwhelming disappointment with the president's decision, including here in the Big Bend.

"This is a very expensive and disruptive policy...that erodes military readiness and unit cohesion," said Sarah Sanders, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary.

After a controversial decision from President Donald Trump in a series of tweets Wednesday, a local transgender veteran says she's disappointed.

"I look at it as just another breaking of promises he made during the campaign," said Barbara Ann Myers, a local transgender veteran. "He's doing whatever he can to make those right-wing people happy."

Barbara Ann Myers served in the Navy for six years, including during the Vietnam War. She said there's little truth to the president's claim that medical costs would be tremendous.

"I don't see where it would be any more medical expense than taking care of any of the others," said Myers.

The Capital Equality Democratic Caucus says over 15,000 transgender Americans are already serving in the military. The Tallahassee-based group issued this statement: "It is clear from statements to the media from the president's own administration that this decision was made for political reasons and is not an issue of military readiness."

Local gubernatorial candidates also voiced their opinions on social media.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum tweeting this: "Proud to stand with the LGBTQ community as our president creates dysfunction and disunity yet again."

And former Congresswoman Gwen Graham with this: "A commander and chief shouldn't discriminate against any American who wants to serve in our military. This is disgraceful."

"When I was in the military, I was defending the rights and freedom of all citizens of the United States -- not just a select few, it was all," Myers asserted.

The Florida National Guard tells us it's in compliance with current policies regarding transgender service members but it does anticipate revised guidance from the Department of Defense.
TAYLOR COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A plant that produces snack foods is closing down in Perry by the end of September.

Snyder's Lance made the announcement that it's going to cut its workforce around the globe by 250 positions, effective by the end of this week.

County and city leaders met behind closed doors at the Taylor County Development Authority Tuesday to discuss the future.

WTXL was outside the meeting and no one there would give us additional details but they did hand us a statement saying:

"This morning the TCDA hosted a rapid response meeting on the Snyder-Lance closure announcement. A representative from Career Source-North Florida, Taylor County, City of Perry and TCDA were present.

This group has also been in close contact with the Governor's Office.

The group discussed a number of programs and intiatives to meet this challenge and will move forward on the agreed upon steps. All local parties are working hard to help offset the impact of the announcement to the employees and the community.

The TCDA will provide further written updates as more information is available."

WTXL spoke with a resident who told us what this plant means to the community:

Now the CEO says this is a difficult decision for the organization, but it is the required first step to improve financial performance.
A billboard created as part of a public health campaign addressing teen marijuana use is photographed on the 1100 block of North First Street in Yakima, Wash., Tuesday, July 25, 2017. The billboard prompted a social media outcry from people who believe the message was racially biased by focusing on Latino teens. (SHAWN GUST/Yakima Herald-Republic)
Lynnette Walters was last seen walking away from Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital around 10 a.m. Monday. Image courtesy of the Yakima Police Department.
Theres a famous verse from the Book of Isaiah: Your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you. Its usually seen as a gloomy prophecy: The people of Israel will be harmed by their own flesh and blood. The truth is, however, that this verse is actually a consolation prophecy. The prophet promises his people: The destroyers and those who laid you waste will leave, will go away.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



We should think about this verse at this time, as we approach Tisha BAv, especially in light of a growing, truly stunning phenomenon: A wild attack by Knesset members and ministers on the IDF and the Shin Bet.

The Shin Bet was asked in the past week for its professional opinion on the metal detectors affair. Apparently, so was the Military Intelligence Directorate. The evaluation was pretty gloomy, and in retrospectaccurate. Even before the cabinets decision to keep the metal detectors in place, the unrestrained attack was already underway.

Minister Regev visits Halamish following terror attack, calling Shin Bets claims delusional (Photo: TPS)

Coalition Chairman David Bitan threatened that if its true that the Shin Bet recommended removing the metal detectors, he would see it very seriously. Theres no point in joking about Bitans zero experience with security affairs, because the serious thing here is actually his attempt to terrorize the General Security Service. On Twitter, people followed in Bitans footsteps and accused the Shin Bet of covering its ass. A former MK, who used to be linked to Meir Kahane, wrote that the Shin Bet is a rotten body. There were a lot of supportive reactions.

Its a bit strange to be disgusted by an organization which is constantly working to prevent terrorists from blowing up buses. And why? Because the Shin Bet offered its professional opinion to the government, which it is obliged to do by law. But wait, because within a day and a half it turned out that the Shin Bet had been right and that there is a major flare-up, not just in Jerusalem but also in the territories, and then came the horrible terror attack in Halamish. As soon as that happened, all those who said that nothing would happen and that the Shin Bet was covering its ass jumped up and said that everything that happened would have happened in any event. Interesting logic.

That was just the introduction. Because then Culture Minister Miri Regev visited Halamish and said that the Shin Bets claims were delusional. In a different government, in different times, the prime minister (who is in charge of the Shin Bet), would have already summoned her for a serious talk. Here it ended quietly, because in Bibis government one can freely incite against the Shin Bet. Its a fact. Netanyahus deputy at the Foreign Ministry, Tzipi Hotovely, said in 2014 that Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen was taking part in a blood libel against Jews. Why? Because Cohen presented to the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee his organizations estimate that if MKs visited the Temple Mount it could spark a conflagration in the West Bank. Pay attention to the term she used: Blood libel.

Criticizing the Shin Bet is necessary, and it should be done in light of the organizations secret activity. The political echelon has the final word, even in cases in which the defense establishment presents an opposite opinion. Thats the meaning of democracy. Another meaning is that tiny politicians like Bitan, Regev and Hotovely shouldnt try to terrorize the professional security echelon.

Why are they doing it? Because they can get away with it. Where do they earn points for it? Among small, radical publics. If theres a consensus in the Israeli public, its around the defense establishment. But these politicians dont care about the need to hold a practical and rational debate on security issues. They want to make a quick profit among the radical right. These are the first people who will scream fifth column when referring to civil society organizations, but they are singlehandedly undermining one of the State of Israels big advantagesa professional and skilled defense establishment.

Isaiah doesnt just predict, he also demands that the destroyers be removed. A price must be paid for radicalism and incitement. The Arab MK, who spreads lies that Al-Aqsa is in danger must pay, and the same applies to the Likud MK who incites and tries to terrorize the Shin Bet (while inflaming the situation of course). Where do they have to pay? In the polls. Its in our hands. Otherwise, well remain captives in the hands of the radicals these MKs keep flattering. And the prophets consolation prophecy will turn into a destruction prophecy: Your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
The Cyprus Embassy in Israel informed the Foreign Ministry that it was revoking the title of honorary consul from businessman Miki Ganor after he became a state witness and incriminated himself in the submarine affair.

Cyprus' ambassador to Israel sent an official letter to the Foreign Ministry stating that due to the circumstances created by Ganor, he will not be able to fulfill his duties and as of July 24 his appointment as Cyprus' honorary consul in Israel has been suspended.
The Ministry of Interior, together with the Population and Immigration Authority, has finished formulating its standards for barring entry and citizenship to people who are actively engaged in boycotting the State of Israel.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



This followed the amendment to the Entry to Israel law, which was passed in March and states that "no visa or residence permit of any kind shall be granted to a person who is not an Israeli citizen or has a permanent residence permit in the State of Israel if he, the organization or body for which he is acting, has knowingly and publically called for a boycott of the State of Israel."

BDS in France (Photo: AP)

According to the new amendment, persons who are consistently and continuously engaged in boycotting the State of Israel will be barred from entering, while critics of government policy however, will be allowed to enter.

More specifically, Israel will deny entry and residence to "senior or significant officials in prominent boycott organizations, people who take active, consistent and continuous action to promote boycotts within the framework of prominent or independent boycott organizations, institutions that promote boycotts actively and continuously and activists who come to Israel on behalf of one of the most prominent boycott organizations."

In exceptional cases, officials can recommend entry for a person who meets these criteria. This is done out of the consideration that preventing their entry may cause more harm to Israel or because of political and humanitarian concerns.

Interior Ministry Aryeh Deri said, "The criteria do not leave room for questions. As the minister responsible for the entry of foreigners into Israel, I am obligated to preserve its security and to ensure that those who are likely to harm the state do not receive legitimacy and backing by having their entry into Israel approved."

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said, "No sane state would allow boycott activists who want to harm its existence entry. Foreigners who want to come to Israel in order to delegitimize us need to understand that this is not on the agenda."

As mentioned however, the law states that "the fact that an organization has a critical agenda towards the policy of the Israeli government does not constitute grounds for preventing the entry of its activists into Israel."
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is urging the U.N. Security Council to acknowledge that Hezbollahwhich it has not even named in recent resolutions"is a destructive terrorist force" and "a major obstacle to peace" that is "dedicated to the destruction of Israel."

She said the council must get serious about enforcing its resolutions that have been routinely violated by Hezbollah and its backer Iran, including many calling on the militant group to disarm.

Haley said the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon must also do "much more" to help prevent another conflict, starting by acknowledging "illegal weapons that Hezbollah parades in front of the media."

She warned that the dangers Hezbollah poses "are getting larger, not smaller" and it's time to acknowledge this and get serious about enforcing U.N. resolutions.
BEIRUT -- Air strikes killed at least nine people in the Eastern Ghouta area of Syria near Damascus overnight and insurgent shelling from the rebel-held area landed near the Russian embassy on Tuesday, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths in the town of Arbin marked the first civilian casualties since a Russian-backed truce in the area came into effect. The Syrian military declared a cessation of hostilities there on Saturday.

Later, two residents said jets believed to be Russian that people identify by their flight at high altitudes and in sorties struck again residential buildings in the same areas, killing at least two people and causing scores of injuries.
The full secret agreement that secured the return of the Israeli security guard from Amman hasnt been revealed and likely wont be revealed, certainly not in the coming days. What we do know is that the security guard was returned to Israel with Jordans consent, and that in return, Israel removed the metal detectors that had been placed near the Temple Mount gates.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The full details of the agreement are not the only thing we dont know. the truth is that the broad public, including the journalists covering the issue, is unware of all the strategic considerations that have to be taken into account by the prime minister, the cabinet ministers and the defense establishment heads.

Its certainly possible that if we had the full picture in front of us, we too would understand why it was the best decision to make at this time.

Netanyahu with the Amman embassy guard in Jerusalem. The prime minister should hope that we forget this affair as soon as possible (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus conduct since the security guards return from Jordan is quite puzzling. It seems Netanyahu has decided to turn this affair into a celebration at all costs. The image of the phone conversation and its recording were urgently distributed to all media outlets in the middle of the night.

The next day, Netanyahu met Israels ambassador to Jordan and the security guard at his Jerusalem office, and the pictures, the quotes and everything around them were distributed once again. It was all topped by the prime ministers rhetoric, so pompous and filled with pathos, as if this were a second Operation Entebbe, no less.

If we werent aware of the facts, we might have been under the impression that our fine young men showed up at the heart of the Hashemite Kingdoms capital in the middle of the night and rescued the brave security guard in a courageous and dangerous operation. Reality, as we know, is very different. The security guard was returned to Israel following an agreement that included Israeli concessions, and the main concession was likely the removal of the metal detectors.

Granted, the metal detectors themselves are not the foundation of our existence, but Israeli control of the Temple Mount is definitely a value in itself. The question whether the metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount increase security within the mountain should be directed at security officials. But the indisputable fact is that their removal under these circumstances reflected the fragility of the Israeli control of the Temple Mount in a very problematic way. Even if Israel has other, more critical interests that justify the decision, its definitely not a cause for celebration.

This isnt something Netanyahu should add to his diplomatic achievements basket, and he has many achievementsincluding diplomatic onesto take pride in.

The prime minister should hope that we, all Israeli citizens and especially his supporters, forget the security guard and metal detectors affair as soon as possible. The attempt to market this affair as another one of Netanyahus successes doesnt add a thing to the State of Israels strategic strength towards its neighbors.
Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman has expressed his approval of the cabinet decision to remove the Temple Mount metal detectors and cameras , saying that he believes it was the appropriate thing to do at the moment.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"Against the complicated and emotional background of the Temple Mount site, the cabinet decision balances many complicated considerations and it was the most appropriate decision for the security of the state and its citizens," Argaman told officials following the cabinet's decision.

Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Argaman told the same officials that the success of his visit to Jordan stemmed from cooperation and a longstanding relationship based on deep ties, understanding and trust.

Officials briefed by Argaman on the recent tensions said that the reality described by the Shin Bet was accurate and balanced, while taking into consideration the strategic complexity of those involved, including the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and neighboring countries.

Argaman had been sent to Jordan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after an Israeli embassy guard was attacked and stabbed by a 17-year-old Jordanian terrorist, who was shot dead along with another Jordanian bystander in the scuffle.

Police removing metal detectors (Photo: EPA)

The Shin Bet director met with Jordanian counterparts to discuss the diplomatic crisis between them as well as the current round of tensions on the Temple Mount.

In that capacity, Netanyahu also asked Argaman to check with the Jordanians whether the removal of the metal detectors would be enough to end the crisis. The Jordanians indicated the gesture would not be enough and the cameras should also be removed.

Following his visit, Argaman briefed Netanyahu, who immediately spoke with King Abdullah, effectively ending the diplomatic row between the two countries.

However, not all Israeli security officials were as supportive of the decision.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

During the cabinet meeting, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh warned, "If we surrender to this baseless claim of logic and remove the metal detectors and cameras, it will only give the Waqf an appetite for success."

Alsheikh continued, claiming that without metal detectors the situation will only deteriorate further and all other inspection methods will only be more invasive.

Alsheikh's views stand contrary to those of the IDF and Shin Bet, who both warned that if the metal detectors and cameras are not removed, Israel risks inviting a third intifada.

Meanwhile, Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour quoted senior Jordanian government officials who said a solution was imminent for the Temple Mount standoff. The solution would be based on the principles Jordan has insisted onreturning the situation to what it was before the July 14 terror attack.

The officials told the paper they were "convinced Jordan's efforts will cause Israel to go back on all of the steps it took in order to formulate a solution to the crisis. Israel knows Jordan insists on this and sticks to its terms, and will not concede even a millimeter."
NEW YORK - Five US Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders were barred from going to Israel under a new law that prohibits entry to the Jewish state by foreign activists who advocate a boycott of the country.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said in a statement Tuesday the five had a long record of advocacy for the movement known as BDS, which seeks to ostracize Israel by lobbying corporations, artists and academic institutions to sever ties with the Jewish state.

It is the first time the Israeli government has implemented the policy, which won approval in March, allowing authorities to keep out non-citizens who publicly support a boycott of Israel or work for an organization that does.

BDS protest in Marseille in 2015 (Photo: citizenside.com)

Supporters of BDSwhich stands for boycott, sanctions and divestmentsay they are using nonviolent means to promote the Palestinian independence efforts. The movement has grown into a global network of thousands of volunteers, from campus activists to church groups as well as some Jews.

Israel says the campaign goes beyond fighting on behalf of Palestinians and often masks a more far-reaching aim to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state. Some critics accuse the BDS movement of anti-Semitism because it singles out Israel for boycott while overlooking the Palestinian part in the conflict and ignoring countries with poor human rights records.

The five American leaders who were barred from entry were from the advocacy groups Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, which is active within the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Protestant denomination that voted three years ago to divest from some companies in protest of Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

Rabbi Alissa Wise, deputy director of Jewish voice for Peace, which has chapters around the country, said she and four other leaders were scheduled to join a larger interfaith delegation that planned visits with human rights activists in Israel and the West Bank. She said they went to check into a Lufthansa flight last Sunday night at Washington Dulles International Airport when they were told that the airline had an order not to allow them to fly all the way to Israel. They were told they could fly as far as Frankfurt, Wise said.

Tal Muscal, a spokesman for Lufthansa, said each country sets its own entry requirements. "Lufthansa has no influence regarding the implementation or enforcement of such regulations," Muscal said.

Tzahi Gavrieli, an official at Israel's ministry of strategic affairs, said the entry ban is strictly for those who are "undertaking ongoing consistent and significant actions to promote and advance a boycott of Israel." He said the ban is aimed at "individual activists who are major players, senior leadership in the BDS movement worldwide."

Wise said the policy calls into question Israel's commitment to democracy. "It crosses the line to stop peace activists from entering the country," she said in a phone interview from her Philadelphia home. She said she wasn't surprised by what happened, given the new Israeli policy, but said, "it's much more heartbreaking than I even anticipated."
A Knesset Joint Committee discussion on the contentious Nationality Bill got off to a rocky start Wednesday morning when MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) was removed by committee chairman MK Amir Ohana (Likud) after shouting that the proposed bill is racist.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



In addition to Dr. Tibi, Meretz MKs Ilan Gilon and Michal Rozin were also forced to leave the session after repeatedly interrupting Tourism Minister Yariv Levin's speech.

The stormy session was attended by bill initiator MK Avi Dichter (Likud) and other officials such as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and opposition chairman Isaac Herzog (Labor).

MK Michal Rozin being removed (Photo: Yoav Dudkevich)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was originally slated to appear as well, but cancelled due to an "urgent security consultation."

During his comments on the importance of the Nationality Bill, Ohana said, "Whoever says this bill is racist, says Zionism is racist."

Ohana went on to say there are minorities in Israel like in any other nation state, including those who have tied their fate to the country.

"We aren't legislating just any law here, we're defining what future generations call the State of Israel. This identity card will accompany the State of Israel," he said.

MK Amir Ohana (C), Minister Yariv Levin (L) and Minister Ayelet Shaked (R) (Photo: Yoav Dudkevich)

Minister Levin spoke for Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying, "This law isn't intended to establish new things, but rather to anchor the obvious fact that the State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people.

"Since the enactment of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation, which put an emphasis on the democratic character of the State of Israel, a reality of imbalance has been created concerning the Jewish identity of the state."

Opposition chairman Isaac Herzog attacked Ohana, saying, "You are playing with fire. The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people, period. It is clear, it is written on the Declaration of Independencea state that has a Jewish majority and an Arab minority, all equal citizens.

MKs Yitzhak Herzog and Avi Dichter (Photo: Yoav Dudkevich)

"The right wing has the greatest sense of insecurity about the future of the State of Israel because you want to get rid of the Palestinians. The Declaration of Independence calls for equality, but where is it in law? You're lighting a fire that could tear the country apart."

The nation state of the Jewish people

The bill was intended to anchor the status of the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people in law. This includes legally enshrining Israel's democratic character, its state symbols, Jerusalem as the capital, Hebrew as the official language and the right of return for Diaspora Jewry.

The bill also seeks to grant the right to preserve the heritage of all residents of Israel, regardless of religion or nationality, and protect the holy places of all religions.

Knesset (Photo: Amit Shaabi)

The bill also proposes to enshrine the Hebrew calendar as the official calendar of the state as well as adding Jewish and Israeli national holidays into the Basic Law. The proposal also states that Jewish law and the principles of Jewish heritage should serve as a source of inspiration for courts in their deliberations.

The proposal has drawn sharp criticism as a result of the need for the High Court to interpret Knesset legislation according to the definition of the State of Israel as Jewish before democratic.

Netanyahu requested to complete a first reading before the Knesset adjourns for the summer. However, Eyal Yanon, the Knesset's legal advisor, informed Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein that a proposal such as this cannot be advanced on such a short schedule.

According to Yanon in a letter to Edelstein, "The proposed amendment to the Basic Law is the most significant constitutional act that the Knesset has undertaken since the enactment of Basic Laws in 1992. The proposal is asking to define the legislative character of the State of Israel and redesign the existing constitutional formula.

"It is clear that such a move requires a thorough, substantial and proper legislative process in which members of the Knesset will be given an opportunity to express their views and hear from public figures, experts and academics."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his onslaught against Israel on Wednesday, saying the removal of the metal detectors from the Temple Mount was "not enough."

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"Israel's step back from the metal detector implementation that offends Muslims is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough," Erdogan said in a speech at Ankara's Higher Education Conference.

"Israel, benefiting from the weakness of Muslims, carries out illegal practices in Jerusalem, we won't be silent on Al-Aqsa," he added.

Turkish President Erdogan (Photo: MCT)

The Turkish president further warned that Israel is seeking to change the Islamic and historical character of Jerusalem, asserting the defense of Jerusalem was the responsibility of every Muslim.

He lamented that "Those who criticize our country whenever possible suddenly become silent when the issue is Palestine, Jerusalem, or Muslims rights or laws."

"Israel should honor the established customs of Jerusalem with respect to (international) law and human rights," Erdogan continued. Al-Aqsa's door, he said, "cannot be closed to the Muslims of the world."

Erdogan made similar accusations on Tuesday, telling legislators in the Turkish parliament that Israel "is using the fight against terrorism as a pretext to take al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of Muslims."

"Everyone who knows Israel is aware that restrictions on Al-Aqsa mosque are not due to safety concerns," Erdogan said in what is considered to be his strongest statement on the Temple Mount crisis since it began.

Entrance to the Temple Mount after the removal of the metal detectors (Photo: Reuters)

Israel's Foreign Ministry called Erdogan's remarks "absurd, unfounded and distorted."

"The days of the Ottoman Empire have passed," it continued. "Jerusalem was, is, and will always be the capital of the Jewish people. In stark contrast to the past, the government in Jerusalem is committed to security, liberty, freedom of worship and respect for the rights of all minorities."

"Those who live in glass palaces should be wary of casting stones," the statement concluded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office sarcastically wondered "what Erdogan would say to the residents of northern Cyprus or to the Kurds," saying that the Turkish president "is the last one who can preach to Israel."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the Israeli Foreign Ministry's response. Spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu described the statement by his Israeli counterpart Emmanuel Nachshon as "presumptuous" and called on Israel to fulfill its responsibilities by "acting with good sense, restoring the status quo (at the holy site) and lifting all hurdles to the freedom of worship."

"It is obvious that trying to cover up the fact that east Jerusalem has been under occupation will not benefit solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and achieving peace and stability in the region as the ongoing Israeli occupation has reached its 50th year in East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza," Muftuoglu said.

Israel had installed metal detectors outside the Jerusalem shrine, holy to both Muslims and Jews, in response to an Israeli Arab shooting attack there that killed two police officers.

It removed the devices following a wave of Muslim outrage. It said they will be replaced with "advanced technology," believed to be high resolution cameras.

Palestinians claim Israel is trying to cement control over the site. Israel emphatically denies the claims insisting the security measures are in order to prevent further attacks.
A quick-thinking Egyptian tank crew saved dozens of lives after crushing a vehicle packed with four suicide bombers and over 100 kilos of high explosives.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The four terrorists were attempting to carry out an attack in the northern Sinai before being stopped at a security checkpoint manned by the Egyptian army.

Egyptian tank pancakes terrorists

X

Before the armed men could exit their vehicle, the tank drove over the vehiclewith the terrorists still insideand incapacitated it, giving dozens of civilians time to flee the scene before the explosives detonated.

Car bomb explosion

The Egyptian Ministry of Defense released a video depicting the incident. Egyptian authorities claim that the tank driver's actions saved the lives of nearly 50 people.
Jordanian anti-Israel activists on social media falsely identified a 26-year-old Israeli from Kokhav Michael as the Israeli embassy guard who killed two Jordanians after being stabbed in an attack in Amman.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



After believing they had correctly identified the guard, agitators began posting pictures with the young man's face as well as that of his girlfriend. One of the posts read, "Drinking with his whore, and the tears of the righteous aren't even dry."

"Drinking with his whore, and the tears of the righteous aren't even dry"

"I was shocked, my girlfriend starting crying," said the young man in an interview with Ynet.

In addition to pictures of him and his girlfriend, the man received threats and hateful messages calling him a "murderer" and a "filthy Zionist." Further posts on Arab social media networks called for revenge against the "despicable murderer."

"This morning I woke up to one of my friends sending me a message with my picture and Arabic writing. They asked me if I was the security guard from Jordan," said the young Israeli, who immediately filed a complaint with police.

"It's important that they understand it isn't me. I've never been to Jordan and I have no intention of going there. My girlfriend called me and told me that she also got these pictures. It's terrifying that our pictures are all over the internet and people are swearing at me and calling for revenge against me."
BERLIN -- Germany and Sweden made a joint protest to Turkey on Wednesday about the jailing of two human rights activists, demanding that the men be told what exactly they are accused of, the foreign ministry in Berlin said.

Peter Steudtner of Germany and Ali Gharavi of Sweden were arrested July 5 during a raid on a hotel where they were attending a digital security workshop. They were among six activists, also including Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser, who were then jailed last week for allegedly aiding an unspecified armed terror group.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters in Berlin that Germany and Sweden complained to Turkey, saying that the two governments don't understand why the men were jailed. They also said they don't understand the circumstances of the men's arrests, and "expect that they at least now be told in substantiated terms what they are accused of."

Schaefer noted that Steudtner neither speaks Turkish nor had been to Turkey before, and is an information technology specialist. "What is the terror organization that Peter Steudtner allegedly belongs to?" he asked.
Businessman Miki Ganor, the Israeli representative of German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp who became a state witness, reportedly has sensitive information that implicates attorney David Shimron in the submarines affair, according to inside sources.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"It could send off shockwaves on a national scale, the kind of which has never been seen in Israel," one law enforcement source said.

The police is investigating corruption suspicions surrounding the procurement of submarines and patrol ships for Israel's Navy from ThyssenKrupp.

Miki Ganor (Photo: Raanan Ben Zur)

Shimron, a relative and close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, represented Ganor in his dealings with ThyssenKrupp, and is considered one of the main suspects in the case. He has been questioned under caution several times and was put on house arrest.

According to the inside sources, Shimron's role in the affair is larger than has been reported so far.

Shimron has been allowed to leave the country for a family vacation. He will reportedly be detained upon his return to Israel and confronted with Ganor, who has already provided police with seemingly problematic information about the lawyer's role.

Ganor, who agreed to cooperate with the police and the prosecution in return for only a year in prison and a hefty fine, claimed Shimron was a partner in some of his business dealings.

Shimron, who is currently in the US, gave an interview to Channel 2 News, denying this claim.

"An ocean of nonsense is being reported, and I obviously can't address each and every claim, because I don't want to obstruct (the investigation) in any way, but the amount of baseless reports is enormous," Shimron said.

Attorney David Shimron (Photo: Ido Erez)

"In the wake of the circumstances coming to light now, Miki Ganor is saying he is an arch-criminal," he asserted. "I didn't know this. On the contrary, I had the impression all this time I was dealing with a serious and honest man, a respectable businessman who behaves ethically."

Shimron insisted Prime Minister Netanyahu did not know of his business ties with Ganor. "Of course he hasn't heard even a word about it from me, and he shouldn't have had to. But I don't want to get into it. I'm simply not allowed, I'm forbidden to talk about it as a citizen and as a man under investigation," he said.

Shimron stated he was at the service of police at any time, seeming confident about the results of the investigation. "To the crux of the matter, I'm not worried. I'm worried about the process, but I'm not worried as far as I'm concerned from the end result," he said.

Shimron went on to say he preferred the police investigation over "an incessant and unprofessional crucifixion in the media when you can't comment... In a fair, serious investigation, you can bring the truth, and eventually in the great majority of cases the truth is what matters."
Hamas security services in Gaza held a military parade in the strip on Wednesday "in solidarity with the al-Aqsa mosque and in protest of the Israeli harm to it."

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The armed display, which included representatives from all different security services, made its way through the streets of Gaza City towards the Palestinian Legislative Council building.

Photo: AP





Photo: Reuters

Hamas also called on its members to rally on Friday after noon prayers and make their way to the border fence, where there are often clashes with Israeli security forces.

Photo: AFP

Photo: AP

The Gazan police commissioner, Taysir al-Batash, said that "The Interior Ministry organized the march, in which activists from the lowest to the highest ranks are participating to show solidarity with Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel set a plan for itself to take over al-Aqsa and build the temple there, but we remind it that al-Aqsa is the beating heart of every Muslim and Arab."

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

Ahmad Bahar, the deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and senior Hamas member, also participated in the parade. He claimed that "Israel is trying to deceive the Palestinian people by removing the metal detectors and installing cameras. The Palestinian resistance will continue to be at the forefront of the defense on the Palestinian issue and in al-Aqsa."

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP





Photo: AP

He called on the Palestinians to continue fighting against Israel's actions and on Arab nations to support the struggle.
They left their families, friends, and home countries, and came to Israel with one goal in mind: to enlist in the IDF.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Thousands of Jews from around the world come to Israel every year to enlist, and some of them remain in Israel after they complete their military service. In order to thank these lone soldiers, last month the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) and Yachad Lemaan Hachayal (The Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers and The LIBI Fund) held an event to salute them. Ahead of the event, we spoke with some lone soldiers who love Israel and feel Israeli in every respect.

FIDF supports Lone Soldiers in various ways, with some services provided in partnership with organizations such as the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Nefesh B'Nefesh, and Ach Gadol (Big Brother).

Oren Borstein, 21, came to Israel from New York, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, and now serves in the Givati Brigade. In a conversation with Ynet, he explains what led a young American to give up the idea of college and enlist in a combat unit: I came because of the education I received at home. My father spent a few years in Israel, served in the army, left the country, and married my mother. I heard about Israel all my life, and I grew up in a Zionist atmosphere. They were always saying, Israel is home.

Oren Borstein

And then came the decision to leave everything and come to Israel. At the age of 17  18, when all my friends were on the way to college, I said to myself that all my life I had heard Israel is home. And I didnt feel so connected to American culture. I wanted to do something meaningful with my life, he says.

Oren has been in Israel for four years, and, in November 2014, he enlisted to Givati, the brigade in which his two older brothers served. During his military service, the family was struck by a tragedy when his brother Koby was killed in a traffic accident near Beit Shemesh. I have relatives in Israel. I live on a kibbutz, and I have been adopted by a family, he says about his life today. And what does he plan to do after the army? Oren does not hesitate in his reply: Like every Israelito travel a little and then return to study and work here in Israel.

Also from the United States are Guy Zohar, 20, and Meital Shetlung, 20, who came from California to serve in the IDF. The two were together in the Jewish youth movement Garin Tzabar in America, and today are a couple. Meital, who comes from Orange County in south California, completed an officers course and is now serving as a coordination officer in Bahad (Training Camp) 1.

Meital says that she and her family immigrated to Israel when she was four, and four years later the family returned to the United States. In 2014 she made Aliyah on her own. I joined Garin Tzabar and made Aliyah with the group. We lived in Nir Yitzhak, in the Gaza envelope, she says. I enlisted in the IDF and I was an artillery instructor for about a year before taking an officers course. I completed the course and was assigned to Bahad 1.

Meital Shetlung

She lists her reasons for deciding to enlist in the IDF: I wanted to immigrate because I feel more connected to Israeli culture, it is a different culture. People are different. There is simply more connection with people here. There is a kind of fellowship here.

Some of the soldiers hardly have a trace of a foreign accent, and one of these is Guy, who comes from Los Angeles. He says that both his parents are Israeli, and they moved to America after serving in the IDF. Today he is a commander in the Paratroopers Brigade. There is a huge community of Israelis in Los Angeles. I felt I belonged to Israel. If I didnt do military service, I would think to myself what did I do for my country? he says. I made Aliyah with Garin Tzabar, which is connected to the Scouts movement. Meital was in my group. We got to know each other there. When we came to Israel, we got to know each other better. We have been together since we drafted in December 2014.

And they also have joint plans for the future, which naturally relate to Israel. We will both complete our service a week apart, says Guy. After Im discharged, I will go and work for a while, travel for six to eight months, and then I hope to come back and study here. Meital also plans to stay in Israel. I will take a trip and come back. I see my life being here in Israel, she says.

Guy Zohar

Lone soldiers dont only come to the IDF from the United States; they also come from Europe. Ruben Kabilia, 29, came to Israel from Italy, after having already completed a graduate degree in law. He is currently serving as a combat soldier in the Nachal Brigade.

Ruben talks of how the idea of coming to Israel and enlisting in the IDF came about: At the age of 20, I wanted to enlist, but my family was very concerned. So I said, Alright, perhaps this is just a little dream, perhaps Ill forget about it later. I completed my studies, and thought about the military. I did not want to spend my whole life thinking that I hadnt yet done something. It was really hard, because of my age. But, thank heavens, I completed combat training and survived.

This month, Ruben successfully completed the final beret trek, and his parents came to Israel especially for the ceremony: This is something that comes from the soul. I always felt, even in Italy, that I wanted to help the Jewish community in Rome, but I felt that this was not enough, he says. I said that enlisting would make me feel better inside. People like me have to protect the State of Israel. I wanted to do something in order to feel better all my life. I know that I have done my bit. It was hard with my family, at first they did not accept my decision.

Ruben Kabilia

And what does he plan to do after he completes his service? Ruben is still making up his mind: I am at an age when I need to find a good job, and to build a family. I dont know if I will stay. Now I know how much I miss my family, and how much my family misses me. I will wait until the end of my military service and see what work is available here. Life is full of surprises.

And there is also a representative from South America. Sharon Dorot, 21, came from Brazil with her twin sister Yarden, and they both enlisted in the IDF. After a Hebrew language course at Michve Alon, Sharon went on to serve in a coed combat infantry battalion, Bardelas. Regarding her decision to leave Brazil and come to Israel, she says: I wanted to come to Israel and enlist in the army. My sister said okay, Ill come too. But now we are in the armywe are not together.

Sharon says that she had already been to Israel in the past and studied Hebrew at an ulpan, and when she returned to Brazil she took the decision to leave everything and come to Israel with her twin sister.

Sharon Dorot

The FIDF and Yachad Lemaan Hachayal, in cooperation with the IDF, are to hold the Putting on Flip Flops event to salute lone soldiers on Thursday, at Shefayim Water Park, with some 6,000 lone soldiers from every corner of the world, some 1,000 welfare officers who accompany the soldiers during their military service, officers and commanders, FIDF supporters, and representatives of FIDF and Yachad Lemaan Hachayal.

The event aims to provide the soldiers with a refreshing break from their daily routine, and expressed gratitude and appreciation for their unique contribution to the State of Israel. As part of the event, there was a special performance by the band Strong Black Coffee in honor of the soldiers.
President Reuven Rivlin paid a condolence visit on Wednesday at the home of Elad Salomon, who was murdered together with his father Yossi and sister Chaya during a terror attack on Friday night in the West Bank settlement of Halamish.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



On his arrival to the house, Rivlin embraced the members of the bereaved family, and asked Tova, Yossis widow, about her recovery from injuries which she sustained in the brutal attack. Tova responded that she was getting stronger, and emphasizing her appreciation to the soldier who was able to stop the massacre and the terrorist. I raised him, said Tova, who was the soldiers kindergarten teacher, he was in my kindergarten, and now he saved me.

Rivlin with Michal Salomon, Elad's widow (Photo: Mark Neiman/GPO)

The family invited the general public to participate in the circumcision of the grandson, whose birth they celebrated on that Friday night in which the attack occurred. The circumcision will take place tomorrow at 17:00 local time at the Vizhnitz Conference Hall in Elad.

Orit, Elad's sister, told the Rivlin of how she discovered that the attack had been at her parents home, and of the horrific phone call from her sister-in-law, Michal. Rivlin seemed to be greatly moved when she told him of how Elad and Michals eldest, Avinoam, had acted, as he hugged Avinoam.

Rivlin with Michal and Elad Salomon's son (Photo: Mark Neiman/GPO)

The entire people of Israel are with me in this house today, astounded by your strength, and the family strength you displayed, said Rivlin, adding that he had learned of Elads special personality and could see how such a wonderful man had been raised.

Elad's widow, Michal, turned to Rivlin and emphasized her tremendous appreciation for the soldier who shot the terrorist. We heard all kinds of voices from outside asking questions about why he only neutralized him and did not kill him, she said. The president responded by saying, Anyone who asks this, should first ask themselves if they could do what he did.

Photo: Mark Neiman/GPO

Michal continued, The soldier was in the right place at the right time. Simply put, he stopped this massacre. Thanks to him and his father, my children and I are here today. It is truly important to me to say that. There are no words to express my appreciation to this family. I owe them my life. And it's important to me that it is understood: this man is a hero.

You also carry values within you that we wish all of us in the Jewish people will respect, said the President.

Before he left, the family members asked to thank the community in Halamish, and in Elad, for their unwavering support they had received from the moment of the terrible murders.
Shachiv Shnaan, former MK and father of Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan who was murdered in the Temple Mount terrorist attack earlier this month, stated on Wednesday that although he objects to the removal of the metal detectors from the entrance to the holy site, he understands why it had to be done.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The decision to remove the metal detectors was made by the Security Cabinet

on Monday night.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (R) with Shachiv Shnaan

"I was not at the decision-making table, and the facts presented to the cabinet members were not revealed to me," said the bereaved father. "I am sure that the prime minister, who visited me last night together with his wife and ministers, was privy to the facts, and that they made their decision in light of them."

Shnaan added that, in the end, he chose to remain "a citizen who respects the law and recognizes the elected government of the State of Israel (enough to) respect their decision."

Regarding the claims that the decision to remove the added security measures amounts to Israel surrendering to the violent backlash caused by the added measures, Shnaan said: "I have never been among those who are outraged, and I have never criticized a decision when I did not know all the reasons and implications. I truly believe that the Israeli government is doing what needs to be done for the good of the State of Israel.

"Whether it's surrendering or not is a subjective matter that is difficult to decide when you do not know the facts," he added.

The Shnaan family in mourning, visited by President Reuven Rivlin (Photo: Mark Neiman/GPO)

"Personally, I did not like the decision to remove the metal detectors," he added. "I want the Temple Mount policemen who do holy work to continue to work and to be safe and not to be exposed to any danger.

"I want them to return to work, to believe in themselves, to raise their morale, to bolster them, to give them the feeling that the state does not abandon them."

When asked if he actually thinks that the state does so, in light of some policemen expressing their objection to the removal of the metal detectors and saying that they won't return to duty until they are reinstated, Shnaan reiterated that that they should respect the rule of law and trust the government to do what's right.

"We are ultimately people who live in a state governed by law and this country has a chosen government that is supposed to make decisions and bear the consequences," Shnaan said. "A soldier or policeman must obey their order as long as it is not manifestly illegal.

"I call upon the Mount Temple police to be strong, to believe in themselves, and to trust the system. We must be united. The villains, the vile murderers who defiled the holy land on the Temple Mount, should not be allowed to, god forbid, succeed in instilling hatred and mistrust and breaking our spirit.

"(The policemen) must be strong and continue to believe in themselves."

Kamil Shnaan, who was murdered in the Temple Mount attack

Shnaan said that in recent days he has been strengthened and consoled from all corners of the country.

"I want to thank all the citizens of the State of Israel, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bedouins, Circassians, Druze, all the amazing people who consoled us and the Satawi family (who lost their son Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il in the same attack) and embraced us with their love.

"I am truly grateful to everyone, those who have shed a tear in their home and did not come, and especially to those who did, and I want to say to the Jewish people: blessed be your allies. You are wonderful people."
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah congratulated the residents of east Jerusalem and the Palestinians who came to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it.

Nasrallah said in a televised address: "They imposed a victory. What we saw in recent days is victory, this is a new model of resistance."

Nasrallah added that he would not respond to US President Donald Trump's statements against the organization, in order to ease the Lebanese government delegation that is in the US and not to embarrass it.
King Abdullah of Jordan spoke on the phone with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas about the crisis on the Temple Mount.

The two sides emphasized the continued coordination of efforts on the issue, in a manner that will ensure the return of the situation to its previous status and respect for the historic and legal status quo in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Palestinian coalition behind the demonstrations and processions in the West Bank against the added security measures set up at the Temple Mount following a deadly terrorist attack at the site earlier in the month, in addition to leaders of the Fatah party's military wing the Tanzim, gathered Wednesday in the offices of the Fatah leadership in Ramallah and decided to dedicate Friday to promoting confrontations between their supporters and Israeli security forces.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The decision constitutes a more extreme call to arms: last week, Fatah channeled its rallies to demonstrations held within Palestinian cities, while Wednesday's call is for out-and-out confrontations with security forces.

Demonstrators in Bethlehem rioting against added security measures at Temple Mount (Photo: AFP)

The meeting was also attended by members of the Fatah leadership, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' deputy Mahmoud al-Aloul, and Fatah Central Committee member Tawfik Tirawi.

Fatah Spokesman Osama Qawasmeh stated that the steps taken by the Palestinian leadership, such as ending security coordination and calling for demonstrations under the name were responsible calls to action.

"The matter has to do with sovereignty over Jerusalem, and the ball is in Israel's court, and it will be the one deciding whether the region is moving toward a calm or an escalation," Qawasmeh said, adding that Fatah opposes searches of the worshipers and stressing that if necessary, the demonstrations will continue.

Hamas's Gaza demonstration (Photo: AP)

Fatah member Nasser Al Qudwa held a press conference earlier Wednesday and called on Israel to remove all security measure added to the Temple Mount after July 14 when the attack took place which claimed the lives of two policemen.

Al Qudwa, who is the nephew of deceased Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, also gave a statement. "The removal of metal detectors is not enough. Israel must cancel all of its moves. Most of the gates to the Temple Mount are (currentlyed) closed, and more precisely, seven out of nine."

Jordan's King Abdullah called Abbas on Wednesday evening, and the two discussed the recent developments in Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque. They agreed to combine efforts and continue with joint consultations.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah congratulated the residents of east Jerusalem and the Palestinians in the West Bank who rallied against Israel's added security measures outside the al-Aqsa Mosque: "They imposed a victory. What we have seen in recent days is a victory. This is a new model of resistance," said Nasrallah.

Hamas's military wing protests against added Israeli security measures (Photo: AFP)

Also earlier in the day, Hamas security services held a military parade in the Gaza Strip "in solidarity with the al-Aqsa mosque and in protest of the Israeli harm to it."

The armed display, which included representatives from all different security services, made its way through the streets of Gaza City towards the Palestinian Legislative Council building. Hamas also called on its members to rally on Friday after noon prayers and make their way to the border fence, where there are often clashes with Israeli security forces.

Ahmad Bahar, the deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and senior Hamas member, also participated in the parade. He claimed that "Israel is trying to deceive the Palestinian people by removing the metal detectors and installing cameras. The Palestinian resistance will continue to be at the forefront of the defense on the Palestinian issue and in al-Aqsa."
Hamas responded to the decision of the European Court to keep it on the list of terrorist organizations of the European Union: "(We) recognizes the extent of political and media support Israel enjoys in Western institutions, but is also aware of the popular support for the Palestinian issue.

"We will continue to struggle against unjust policy decisions against the Palestinian people and against the organization. We will continue to adhere to our political plan to defend the rights of the Palestinian people without giving up a single inch of the land of Palestine or any human or civil right."
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that the reception that Israel had for the security guard who killed two Jordanians in the embassy compound in Amman was shameful and that Israel should have behaved diplomatically.
Washington: US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the US military will no longer allow transgender individuals to serve in "any capacity" in the military.



Trump said in a series of tweets that the military needs to be focused on "decisive and overwhelming" victory.



"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the US government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," Trump tweeted.



"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."
New York: US Muslims say they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, but also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society, a new survey finds.

Nearly three-quarters of US Muslims view Trump as unfriendly to them, according to a Pew Research Center report released yesterday.

Sixty-two per cent say Americans do not view Islam as part of the mainstream after a presidential election that saw a surge in hostility toward Muslims and immigrants.

At the same time, nearly half of Muslims said they had received expressions of encouragement from non-Muslims in the past year, an increase over past polls. And Muslims remain optimistic about their future. Seventy per cent believe hard work can bring success in America, a figure largely unchanged for a decade.

"There's a sense among the American Muslim population that others are beginning to understand them and beginning to sympathise with them,'" said Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist and adviser to Pew researchers.

Prejudice against Muslims has "pushed the average American to say, 'This is really not fair. I'm going to knock on my neighbour's door to see if they're all right," Jamal said.

The Pew survey is its third on American Muslims since 2007, and its first since Trump took office January 20. He promised to fight terrorism through "extreme vetting" of refugees and had a plan to temporarily ban travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The latest poll of 1,001 adults was conducted by phone, both landline and cellphones, between January 23 and May 2, in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.

The last several months have seen an uptick in reports of anti-Muslim harassment, including arson and vandalism at mosques and bullying at schools.

In the Pew survey, nearly half of US Muslims say they have faced some discrimination in the last year, such as being treated with distrust, threatened or called an offensive name. That percentage is only a slight increase over previous surveys.

However, the figure is much higher for respondents who said they were more visibly identified as Muslim, for example by a head covering, or hijab, for women. Sixty-four per cent of those with a more distinct Muslim identity said they had recently faced some type of discrimination.

Still, the survey found evidence of a growing sense of Muslim belonging in the United States. Eighty-nine per cent said they were proud be both Muslim and American and nearly two-thirds said there was no conflict between Islam and democracy
Washington: A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an armed US Iranian patrol boat on Tuesday, in the northern end of the Persian Gulf after the latter came within 150 yards of the vessel.

Citing two US defense officials, the CNN reported that the Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The officials said the Iranian boat approached and came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, a US Navy patrol ship.

The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by the USS Vella Gulf, which is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and two other US coast guard vessels at the time.

According to the report, the Iranians did not respond to any warnings from the US ship, including radio calls, firing of flares and five short blasts from the US Navy ship`s whistle.

Following this the Navy ship then fired warning shots into the water over concerns about the possibility of a collision.

Meanwhile, Iran`s Revolutionary Guard is claiming that it "foiled the US warship`s provocative move against an Iranian Navy patrol boat in the Persian Gulf," according to a statement published by Iran`s official news agency IRNA.

The statement alleged that the US warship aimed to instigate and frighten the Iranian boat by firing two warning shots.

This isn`t the first time two sides have had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf.

In June, the US military labeled the actions of an Iranian vessel "unsafe and unprofessional" after it trained a laser on a US helicopter that was accompanying a formation of American ships transiting the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis previously told reporters that there had been 35 incidents of unsafe or unprofessional behavior by Iranian vessels in 2016.
Houston: An Asian-origin teacher has decided to sue United Airlines as she was forced to hold her two- year-old son on her lap after the airlines gave away the toddler's seat to a standby passenger, according to a media report.

Shirley Yamauchi said she hopes her lawsuit will help protect other passengers from this type of treatment.

"United said they would change and I want to see that happen. I don't want anymore passengers possibly in danger," she said.

Her attorney says he is ready for a trial.

"United deserves everything we can do to them. We'll let the people decide what to do to people that are this greedy and put lives potentially in danger," attorney Michael Green was quoted as saying by the Hawai News Now.

Yamauchi, a Kapolei Middle School teacher, held her toddler, Taizo, for the entire three-and-a-half hour flight from Houston to Boston.

As children over the age of two years are required to have their own seat, she purchased a ticket for her son, Taizo - paying almost USD 1,000 each ticket.

When she brought the problem up to flight attendants, Yamauchi said she was ignored.

The airline did not apologise or respond to her until five days later, saying agents inaccurately scanned Taizo's boarding pass, the report said.

"It could have been resolved at that point, yet not a single flight attendant asked why he was on my lap the whole duration of the flight," Yamauchi said.

On her return trip back to Hawaii from a conference in Boston, she said the airline gave her free upgrades and perks, but she felt the gestures were not genuine.

"There was a representative waiting for us. We were escorted to their United lounge, but we explained we don't have a membership with them, yet they asked us to utilise their lounge. The three of us were moved to business class after getting our tickets.

He offered to carry my bag for me down to baggage claim. We both received a lei. A flower lei," she said.

When asked for comment about the potential lawsuit, United said, "We reached out to Ms Yamauchi to apologise to her and her son, and we also refunded their tickets."

The mother's ordeal during the flight comes following a slew of incidents in which United has been accused by passengers of insensitive behaviour.

In April, a passenger named David Dao refused to give up his seat on a United flight and was dragged, battered and bloodied down the plane aisle by police.

Navang Oza, an Indian-origin man in the US, claimed that the United Airlines cancelled his flight reservation because he filmed an employee during an altercation.

A giant rabbit, who was expected to outgrow his father to become the world's biggest bunny, also died under the care of United Airlines earlier this year.
Lahore: A 16-year-old girl was raped by a man in front of her family on the orders of the village council as a punishment after her brother was accused of raping the man's sister in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said on Wednesday.

Police have arrested 20 people after the incident that took place on July 18 in Rajpur village in Muzaffarabad in the province, Multan division police chief Ahsan Younis said.

"We have arrested 20 people including the head of the village council for ordering rape of the sister of Umer Wadda of Rajpur village," Younis told PTI.

He said Wadda was accused of raping the teenage sister of Ashfaq of his locality on July 16.

"The matter was brought to the village council that unanimously ordered the rape of Wadda's sister by Ashfaq. The Wadda's family protested over the decision but it was told that justice could only be done if the same act was repeated with the accused's sister," he said.

Younis said the police sprang into action when the victim's family reported the matter to it two days ago.

"The victim family did not report the matter until last Monday. We have registered separate FIRs against Ashfaq and over 30 village council members, and Wadda," he said, adding that the police was investigating all aspects of the case.

"We are also investigating whether the sister of Wadda was raped in front of her parents and the brother (which is the claim of the Wadda family)," he said.

He added that the station house officer of Muzafarabad police has become a complainant in the case so that both parties cannot reach a compromise and withdraw the FIRs against each other.

It is the same district where in early 2000 Mukhtaran Mai was raped on the order of the village council, triggering an international outrage.

Rights activist and former Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jehangir said a number of such cases are not reported.

"It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances," she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.
Patna: Amid tensions in 'Mahagathbandhan', Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs will meet on Wednesday in the presence of party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 12 noon.

Meanwhile, Janata Dal (United) MLAs will also meet at 5 pm today.

The meetings assume significance as the Bihar Assembly session will commence from July 28. There is a widening rift in the state's ruling Grand Alliance over the corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

The JD(U), Congress and RJD are partners of Bihar's ruling Grand Alliance, which is in the throes of a political crisis due to the CBI raids on RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav's premises over an alleged benami land deal.

The JD(U) has demanded Tejashwi Yadav to explain the alleged acquisition of massive wealth.

The BJP and its NDA partners have been strongly demanding for resignation of Tejashwi Yadav.

Notably, Tejashwi Yadav had a closed door meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for over 40 minutes on July 18. It was their first interaction since the crisis surfaced.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the CBI registered a case against Tejashwi in a benami property case and also raided his premises earlier this month, leading to demands for his resignation.
Patna: The BJP on Wednesday night handed over to Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi the letter extending support to Nitish Kumar for forming the next government in the state.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai and senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan late on Wednesday evening and handed over the letter.

JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.

When asked if he would return as the deputy chief minister, Modi laughed and said the BJP's central leadership would decide the issue, as per PTI.

In dramatic developments in Bihar, Nitish earlier today resigned as CM dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him and said it will join it too.



Ending a 20-month-long coalition of the Grand Alliance that defeated the BJP in 2015, Nitish met the Governor in the evening and handed his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

"I have been doing my best to provide good governance... But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the Governor and gave my resignation," he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan, as per IANS.

Shortly after, Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the developments in Bihar.



"Many many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 125 crore citizens of the country welcome and support this honest move," the Prime Minister tweeted.

"It is the need of the hour to rise above political differences for the bright future of Bihar and unite in the fight against corruption," he added.



Nitish Kumar responded: "I am thankful to Narendra Modi for supporting the decision I took."

(With Agency inputs)
Patna: Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar on Wednesday tendered his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister and reacting very quickly, the Bharatiya Janata Dal announced its unconditional support to Kumar for forming a government without the RJD and Congress.

While it is yet to be seen who forms the next government in the state, we take a look at the 243-members Bihar Assembly where the majority mark in Bihar is 122.

In the 2015 Bihar legislative assembly elections:

RJD: 80

JD((U): 71

BJP: 53

Congress: 27

Others: 12

After the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, the RJD-JD(U)-Congress formed a 'Mahagathbandhan' and with a total strength of 178, comfortable formed the government with Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister and Lalu's sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav as Health Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively.

Also Read: PM Narendra Modi congratulates Nitish Kumar for breaking with RJD, hails his 'fight against corruption'

After JD(U) has decided to move out of the grand alliance, both the RJD and the Congress with total 107 seats don't have the requisite number to continue the government in the state.

If the RJD and Congress still manage to convince all the 'other' 12 seats for the government formation, it would have 119 seats, which is still 3 seats short of the magic number of 122.

If BJP, with 53 seats, and its allies LJS, RLSP, HAM and CPI(ML) with 2, 2, 1, 1, seats respectively join hands with JD(U), the alliance can easily get 126 marks and form the next government in the state.

Well, the sudden development in Bihar politics has suddenly pushed the state into a crisis with no party having a majority in the 243-member assembly.
Patna: In a major political development, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, saying that he had quit in the interest of the state after failing to resolve a crisis plaguing the ruling Grand Alliance.



"I have resigned for the sake of Bihar," the Janata Dal (United) leader told the media after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi who accepted his resignation.

He added, "In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the Grand Alliance government."

"I tried to work it out... I did not ask for anybody's resignation... I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

The sudden development throws the politics of Bihar into chaos with no party having a majority in the 243-member Assembly.

Kumar's JD(U) has 71 seats, while RJD headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, has 80. The BJP has 53.

Asked if he will now form a government with BJP's support, Nitish said,"Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next."

Kumar was sworn in on November 20, 2015.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption" saying the entire nation supports his honesty.

JD(U) had ended its 17-year association with BJP after Narendra Modi was nominated the saffron party's campaign committee chief for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"Congratulations. Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," he tweeted.

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," PM Modi said.

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the CBI registered a case against Lalu, his wife and former CM Rabri devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Reacting to the development, Lalu gave a new twist to it, saying a pending case against Kumar and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejashwi was at the root the the JD(U) leader's "resignation drama".

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a woman was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

He claimed a court in Barh had taken cognizance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna High Court.

"Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejashwi issue a ruse to exit before that happens," the RJD boss claimed, as per PTI.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejashwi over graft charges against him, saying "We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?"

"There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this. Nitish has slapped the people of Bihar and now people like Sushil Modi (a top state BJP leader and former deputy CM) are eager to form government with JD(U)," he said.

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the Grand Alliance government for "love of his son".

"We were the largest party in the grand alliance. Tejashwi got the post of the Deputy CM. We had the mandate of the people," he said.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said it was for Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, who resigned as the Bihar Chief Minister, to decide whether he wanted to ally with the BJP to form the new government in the state.



"The break-up was bound to happen. There is no place for honesty and moral values in Lalu Prasad`s politics. There was no coordination... convenience was the only reason for the alliance (between JD-U and Rashtriya Janata Dal). Such alliance does not work long," the Union Minister for Law and Justice said here after Nitish Kumar`s resignation.



On the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party extending support to Nitish Kumar to form the new government, he said: "It is for Nitish Kumar to decide his future course. Nitish Kumar remained a minister in Atalji`s government (at the Centre). He governed Bihar with the help of the BJP for eight years. We did not leave him, but he left us in 2013."



The Minister said Lalu Prasad had made it clear that his son Tejashwi Yadav would not resign from the state Cabinet after allegations of graft.



Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said he quit as the Chief Minister in the state`s interest after failing to resolve the crisis plaguing the ruling Grand Alliance.
Patna: Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister after a standoff with ally RJD Deputy Chief Minister Tajashwi Yadav.

After meeting with Janata Dal (United) MLAs, Nitish went to Raj Bhawan where he tendered his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

His resignation came hours after Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav affirmed that his scam-tainted son and minister Tejashwi will not resign from his post.

Also Read  LIVE: Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM, says 'not possible to run govt in current environment'

This is not the first time when Nitish resigned from his post before completing his term.

Earlier, in May 2014, Nitish stepped down as the Bihar Chief Minister, a day after his party fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, winning just 2 seats against 20 seats in the previous election.

Nitish resigned, taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor performance in the election and party leader Jitan Ram Manjhi took over. However, nine months later in February 2015, he again assumed Office of the Chief Minister, on the backdrop of Bihar Legislative Assembly election.

After tasting record-breaking victory in Bihar assembly polls, Nitish was once again sworn-in as the state Chief Minister for the record fifth time and Lalu's youngest son Tejashwi was accorded the post of Deputy Minister of the state.

In June 2013, Nitish-led JD(U) ended its 17-year-old alliance with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on account of the fact that NDA was set to declare the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, something which didn't go well with the JD(U) chief.

In 1999, Nitish, who briefly served as the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, resigned as the Railway Minister following the Gaisal train disaster.

However, during his stint as the Railway Minister, Nitish brought in widespread reforms such as internet ticket booking facility in 2002, opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters and introducing the 'Tatkal scheme' for instant booking.

In the same year, Nitish rejoined and served as the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture. Nitish once again served as the Union Railway Minister from 2001 to May 2004.

Nonetheless, with Nitish's decision to move out of the grand alliance, Bihar has plunged into a major political crisis.

It remains to be seen if the JD(U) and BJP come back together again as political allies.
Patna: In a dramatic political development, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.



Nitish, whose resignation was immediately accepted by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the Opposition.

The ostensible reason for Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite Kumar's exhortations.

This is what Nitish said after his resignation:

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to the Governor.

He added that with a slew of corruption charges, he expected Tejashwi to give an explanation that could have formed the basis for his continuing in office.

"I waited so that we could have found a way out but nothing of the sort happened. The charges were against a member of the government. I was not in a position to do anything. There was no basis for the government to function. In such a situation, it was not possible for the government to function. I heeded to the call of my conscience and decided to resign," he said.

He said he told Lalu, Congress leader CP Joshi and the JD(U) Legislature Party about his decision to resign.



Kumar further said he faced a lot of criticism for supporting demonetisation, which had caught the people's imagination, and back Ram Nath Kovind - "who had done a good job as Governor of Bihar and whose becoming the President was a matter of pride for the state".

BJP extends support to Nitish to form government:

Soon after, senior BJP leader Sushil Modi announced that the BJP would support Nitish to form a new government in which it would be the junior partner.



"We will support the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. The BJP legislature party has full confidence in Nitish Kumar as its leader. The decision has also been conveyed to Nitish Kumar which he has accepted," he said, as per IANS.

The Bihar BJP leader also said that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10 am tomorrow. It would be Kumar's sixth term as CM.

RJD has 81 MLAs and Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03).

The JD(U)-BJP combine will now return to power after four years in the politically volatile state. Prodded by Kumar, the JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Lalu slams Nitish Kumar, calls his resignation 'drama':

Reacting to the development, Lalu gave a new twist to it, saying a pending case against Kumar and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejashwi was at the root the the JD(U) leader's "resignation drama".

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a woman was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish Kumar is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

The RJD chief claimed a court in Barh had taken cognizance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna High Court.

"Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejashwi issue a ruse to exit before that happens," he claimed.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejashwi over graft charges against him, saying, "We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?"

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the Grand Alliance government for "love of his son".

"We were the largest party in the Grand Alliance. Tejashwi got the post of the Deputy CM. We had the mandate of the people," he said, as per PTI.

PM Modi praises Nitish for joining fight against corruption:

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi hailed the resignation of Kumar as Bihar CM, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption.

Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, PM Modi tweeted, "Congratulations. Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty."

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," PM Modi added.

Nitish Kumar responded, "I am thankful to Narendra Modi for supporting the decision I took."

(With Agency inputs)
Patna: In what could be a major political development, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is on his way to meet the state Governor after a meet of JD(U) MLAs on Wednesday evening.

Earlier today, the standoff between allies RJD and JD(U) continued with Lalu Yadav ruling out resignation by his son Tejashwi Prasad as Bihar's Deputy CM following the lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case and blamed the BJP for the 'present crisis' in the state.

"Has Nitish asked for the resignation of Tejaswi Yadav?" Prasad had retorted in reply to a volley of questions by scribes regarding JD(U)'s insistence that the embattled Deputy CM should come clean on accusations in public.

"Are they (JD(U)) the police that we have to answer them?" he had shot back in response to another question that JD(U) spokesmen have been regularly saying that Tejashwi Yadav has to come clean on the issue.

Flanked by wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and senior party leader Jagdanand Singh, Prasad, in an apparent rejection of JD(U)'s demand, he had said, "I myself and Tejashwi will speak where it's required."

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Nitish Kumar will be sworn-in again as new Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday, as per media reports.

Senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said his party had decided to back the JD(U) leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

The BJP on Wednesday night handed over to Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi the letter extending support to Nitish for forming the next government.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai and Modi drove to Raj Bhavan late this evening and handed over the letter.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53. The two parties together have 124 MLAs, marginally ahead of the half-way mark.

Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP (02) and RLSP (02).

On a day of dramatic developments, Nitish earlier today resigned as CM, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

Citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejashwi, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supremo rejected outright the demand for his son's ouster.

His resignation capped days of stand-off between his party JD(U) and the RJD with the former insisting that Tejashwi defend himself against the allegations.

This is the sixth time that Nitish will be taking oath as CM of the state.

- He took oath as CM of Bihar for the fifth time last year after he led the Grand Alliance of JD(U), Congress and RJD to victory in Bihar decimating the BJP.

- Before this, Nitish took oath as CM of the state for the fourth time in February 2015 for the fourth time. This time he was back as CM after he had quit on 17 May 2014 over JD(U)s debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

- His first tenure as CM was for just seven days from 3 to 10 March 2000. Kumar had quit then in the absence of majority.

- He returned as Bihar CM on 24 November 2005 as part of NDA leader and his third term started from 26 November 2010.

(With PTI inputs)
Patna: Minutes after Janata Dal (United) Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation as the Bihar Chief Minister taking a high moral ground on irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the corruption issue, the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav came out in his defence and launched a counter attack on the former.



"I spoke with Nitish Kumar for 40 minutes last night and it was conveyed to him that corruption charges against me and my family were baseless," Lalu said as he addressed a press conference in the wake of resignation tendered by Nitish today.



"I still have fodder scam case against me. There is a court conviction in the case and an appeal has been made. Nitish was aware of the graft allegations against me. He never asked for any resignation. He only said we should clarify on the charges in the public domain," he said.



"We had a discussion with Nitish. There are several misinformation about the case in the public domain. We can't go to the public with that information. We will say everything when the agencies ask the questions," he added.

Meanwhile, Lalu's supporters gathered outside his residence in Patna.

Bihar: Lalu Prasad Yadav's supporters gather outside his residence in Patna. pic.twitter.com/ZQlfhLw72z  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

"Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused of Section 302. one of India's Chief Minister is main accused in murder and arms case. Nitish faces charges worse than corruption and we knew it," he said while launching a scathing attack on the JD(U) chief.



Lalu also used the platform to remind Nitish of his pledge on making the RSS-free country and to not join BJP in future.



"Nitish always said that he will die but not join BJP," he asserted.



"Nitish seems to have understood that he wouldn't be able to survive, and hence he has joined hands with BJP and RSS. I told Nitish Kumar not to resign, the public voted alliance for 5 years," he said.

Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi and scam-tainted Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav watch Lalu's addressing press conference post Nitish's resignation, at their Patna residence.

Bihar: Rabri Devi & Tejashwi Yadav watch Lalu Yadav's press conference post Nitish Kumar's resignation, at their residence in Patna. pic.twitter.com/4gSwhtgjKZ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Expressing his regret over the end of the grand alliance in Bihar, Lalu asserted, "I feel said over the break-up of Mahagathbandhan in Bihar".
Mumbai: Bollywood actress Vidya Balan says she is not interested in expressing her opinion on the ongoing debate on existing nepotism in Bollywood as she finds it "boring".

The actress, who was present here on Tuesday at an event for creating awareness about child sexual abuse, said: "With due respect to everyone who embroidered this controversy, I am bored with this discussion on nepotism.

"I mean I am seriously bored on who is on which side of the debate these days. I turn the page of the newspaper the moment I see the word... I am not interested."

Asked about her upcoming film Tumhari Sulu, Vidya said: "Yes, we are paying a tribute to Sridevi with the song 'Hawa Hawai'... I loved shooting the film, and now the film is in post-production and I am chilling."

Vidya came together with actor Rahul Bose to stand for an organisation Heal, which aims to eradicate child sexual abuse from society.
Chennai: A city-bound flight from Dubai suffered a technical snag after landing at the airport on Wednesday, however all 184 passengers and crew onboard got down safely.

A senior airport official told reporters that the pilots of the private carrier noticed 'minor black smoke' from an engine after the flight landed after which the technical crew was alerted.

Security and airport officials were put on standby and all 177 passengers exited the aircraft safely, they said.

A technical crew later attended to the snag and the carrier resumed its return flight to Dubai, they added.
Mumbai: Budget carrier GoAir has appointed Anand Sahai, the former Vodafone business head for East India, as its chief commercial officer (CCO) ahead of its plans to launch international operations later this year.

Sahai, whose appointment to the newly-created post is effective from July 24, will report to the airline's chief executive officer (CEO), GoAir said in a statement.

Prior to joining the Wadia Group-promoted carrier, Sahai was spearheading the launch of a multinational energy drink major as its country manager.

Following the appointment of Sahai to the post, the heads of the sales and marketing and revenue management will report to him, the statement said, adding that the deputy general manager for service quality and customer relations will also be working under him.

He carries with him significant expertise in sales, product development, retail merchandising, pricing strategy and opening new business opportunities.

In the past, Sahai has served as Vodafone business head for East India as well as vice president for operations at Pepsico India, among others.

Launched in November 2005, GoAir currently operates across 23 destinations with over 1,225 weekly flights, with a fleet of 24 Airbus A320 family aircraft, including the latest A320 Neo planes.

The airline flies to Ahmedabad, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Leh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Ranchi, Srinagar and Hyderabad.

GoAir CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer had last month said the airline plans to hit the international skies by the winter schedule.

The winter schedule of airlines in India starts from the last Saturday of October and goes up to the March end every year.
Bengaluru: Infosys Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan on Wednesday said the company certainly would not want to label co-founder and promoter N R Narayana Murthy as a shareholder activist, but consider him a "well-wisher."

"I would like to see him - Murthy - as a well-wisher of Infosys, which he has been and will continue to be so.. I don't think we should label him as A or B, and certainly not as a shareholder activist," he told PTI in an interview here.

Venkatesan was responding to a query whether the company would prefer to see Murthy, who has been flagging falling corporate governance standards, as shareholder activist or a well-wisher.

Venkatesan said he regards Murthy not only as the founder, but a mentor, and hoped that the relationship with him continues in a constructive and productive way for a long term.

"For most people whether they are employees or large number of investors, he will continue to be the founder, and certainly I regard him not only as a founder, but as a mentor. So, hope this relationship continues in a constructive and productive way for a long-term," he said.

Infosys had flagged actions by "activist shareholders" as a risk factor, which could potentially require the company to incur significant legal fees and public relations costs.

In its annual filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Infosys said such activities could interfere with the company's ability to execute its strategic plan.

Over the past few months, the country's second largest software services firm has been battling allegations by Murthy and other former senior executives of falling corporate governance standards.

Asked who are the sahreholder activists the company is wary about, Venkatesan said, "I think that is the question for CFO Ranga (Ranganath D Mavinakere)."

He however said the company's risks are not related to a single event, which unfortunately the media picked up, but to 55 risks incuding cyber security risk.

"We called out 55 risks.. We have clarified both the company and I that we didn't intend to call out anyone individual (Murthy) or group in particular, but as a generic risk," he added.

Asked if the company really wants to lose founders, especially Murthy at the trying times of new digital era by selling off their entire stake, Venkatesan said instead of deliberating much on the issue, the real issue for the company and CEO Vishal Sikka is how best they can perform and hope to keep their stakeholders and founders, including Murthy, invested in Infosys.

"As a company we can't comment on the intentions of the founders, but I hope if Infosys and the shares perform, then not only the founders, but all shareholders will continue to stay invested in the company," he said.

Venkatesan was replying to a query on media speculation on founders including Murthy selling off their entire stake and if the company really wanted to lose Murthy at the trying times of new digital era.

"This thing (speculation over founders selling entire stake)is actually incidental.. I think the real issue for Vishal; for Infosys; for the board, and all of us is about only one thing, it is about performance.

What matters right now is that Infy should be at the leading edge of change and our performance must be the best in the industry, and if we do that I am hopeful that all investors will continue to stay invested in us.. That is the real issue," he reiterated.

Venkatesan also said IT industry is changing dramatically and is not normal, and if the company does not change, it is going to be difficult days ahead (for Infosys).

Inspite of the "bad press" on various issues including severance package given to former CFO Rajiv Bansal and allegations over Panaya acquisition, the company's performance has been right at the top of the list.

"Inspite of all things (Bansal and Panaya issues) happening, from a performance standpoint, we were right at the top of the list.

If you look at Q1, you saw some other companies had a lot of challenges, but our performance was quite solid," he said.

Venkatesan further said the company should accelerate because half of its growth has come from new and future services like digital, cyber security, IoT and AI.

"Also, last year, which was year ended March 31, Infy's growth rate was the second highest in the industry.. We did the best job of maintaining margins. Our free cash flow generation was the best in the industry," he added.

Murthy and other founders have been vocal about Bansal and Panaya issues.
New Delhi: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani has quit as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's counsel in the civil defamation suits filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jethmalani's decision came after the Aam Aadmi Party chief on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that there was no instruction from him to his counsel Jethmalani to use objectionable remarks against Arun Jaitley in the defamation case filed by the Union Minister.

Jethmalani had used the word "crook" against the Finance Minister during his cross-examination before a Joint Registrar saying that he used the word on instruction from Kejriwal.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief also said that he has written a letter to Jethmalani to refute his claim that objectionable words were used in the proceedings before the Joint Registrar on May 17 as per his instructions.

In his affidavit, Kejriwal said it was "inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words."

The lawyer has also written a letter to the Delhi CM asking him to clear his legal fees amounting to Rs 2 crore.

Interestingly, in view of the controversy surrounding Arvind Kejriwal's move to make the taxpayer to foot his legal bills of Rs 3.42 crore for defamation cases filed against him by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, his lawyer Ram Jethmalani had earlier said that he is willing to fight the case for free if the Delhi CM can't pay the bills.

Accepting that he had sent bills for Rs 1 crore in retainership and Rs 22 lakh for each appearance in court to the Delhi CM, Jethmalani said, Everyone in the country knows that I charge only the rich and I work for free for the poor. And 90% of my clients are poor.

If he (Arvind Kejriwal) can't pay bills then also I will appear for him  and treat him as a poor client, he had said.

In December 2015, Jaitley had filed a civil defamation suit against Kejriwal and AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee, claiming that they made "false and defamatory" statements in the case involving the DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.

A fresh Rs 10 crore defamation suit was also filed by Jaitley against Kejriwal over his lawyer Jethmalani using the word "crook" during cross-examination of the previous defamation suit.

Jaitley, in the second civil defamation suit against Kejriwal, claimed the objectionable words caused him "permanent harm and disrepute".
New Delhi: The Cabinet on Wednesday gave ex-post facto approval for amendment to the Constitution to allow implementation of GST in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its ex-post facto approval for amendment of the Constitution (Application to J&K) Order, 1954 by way of the Constitution (Application to J&K) Amendment Order, 2017," an official statement said.

The approval paves the way for applicability of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in Jammu and Kashmir, it said.

The Constitution (Application to J&K) Amendment Order, 2017, had been notified in Gazette of India on July 6, 2017, after the President's assent.

While the entire country implemented GST from July 1, Jammu and Kashmir introduced the indirect tax regime on July 8.
New Delhi: As many as 1,396 government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the country will be upgraded through public private partnership (PPP), the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the Directorate General of Training under his Ministry has been making continuous efforts to improve the quality of training being offered by the ITIs functioning in the country.

Rudy said during Question Hour the government was upgrading the infrastructure of the ITIs through two centrally funded schemes for industrial value enhancement and upgradation of 1,396 government ITIs through PPP.

The minister said a number of other steps were also being taken for upgradation of quality of training in ITIs including training and re-training of ITI instructors, prescribing new affiliation norms for ITIs for quality training, grading of ITIs to evaluate their performance and ISO 29990 certification of ITIs to raise the overall quality and standards.
New Delhi: In a disgusting case of poaching, a Los Angeles man was arrested on Tuesday on charges of smuggling king cobras into the United States in potato chip cans.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was charged with illegally importing merchandise into the country after the US Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a shipment containing three live, highly venomous king cobra snakes inside potato chip canisters that were being mailed to his California home, federal prosecutors said.

US prosecutors said the 2-foot (0.61 metre)-long snakes concealed inside the canisters were found on March 2 when Customs and Border Protection agents checked a package that was mailed from Hong Kong.

Three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles were also found in the package, prosecutors said, adding that Franco on that same day mailed a box to Hong Kong with six protected turtles inside.

He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, although federal sentencing guidelines typically call for less time behind bars.

According to the National Geographic website, the king cobra, also known as Ophiophagus hannah, is the longest venomous snake, reaching up to 18 feet (5.5 metres) in length.

When confronted, king cobras can raise up to one-third of their bodies off the ground, flare out their hoods and emit a "bone-chilling" hiss before attacking.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, Franco admitted during an interview with authorities that he had previously two other packages with a total of 20 king cobras, but all of which, he said, had died in transit.

(With Agency inputs)
Brussels: The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday against a proposed deal to share passenger data between Canada and the EU, saying it violated the bloc's fundamental rights.

In 2014, the EU and Canada negotiated an agreement that would allow Passenger Name Record data on air travellers to be sent to a Canadian authority, which would store it for up to five years and possibly send it to third parties for anti-terrorism purposes, Efe news reported.

"The PNR agreement may not be concluded in its current form because several of its provisions are incompatible with the fundamental rights recognised by the EU," said the court in a statement on Wednesday.

The court highlighted that it particularly violated the rights to respect for private life and protection of personal data.
Beijing: Amid the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

He will meet Xi along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

As per PTI, officials here confirmed that Doval who will be taking part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing will be meeting President Xi.

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

Though the BRICS NSAs meeting is scheduled for two days, it was open for the media only on July 28, the last day when the top security officials of the five countries will formally meeting to discuss on global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security and energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

Besides Doval and Yang, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo of South Africa, Minister Sergio Etchegoyen of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of Brazil, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of the Russian Federation would also attend the NSAs meeting.

Withdrawal of Indian troops precondition for dialogue: China on Dokalam

Meanwhile, China reiterated that no meaningful dialogue could be held with India until it 'unconditionally' withdraws troops from the Doklam area.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday had claimed that India had 'admitted' to entering Chinese territory.

He said that India should 'conscientiously withdraw' its troops from the area.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

"I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into China?s territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," he added.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister and said it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the 'grand alliance'.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'grand alliance' was given a mandate for five years and the Congress will strive to respect that.

"We are deeply disappointed by the news of resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. We, in the Congress party, particularly Congress president and party vice president have great respect and affection for Nitish Kumar," he said.

The Congress leader said the 'Mahagathbandhan' was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on the policies, principles and cumulative leadership that was presented.

It was also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narender Modi, who challenged the honour of Bihar, he said.

"Responsibility lies up on each one of us to respect this mandate. The Congress party will do everything within its means (to see to it) that this mandate is honoured," he said.

"Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion," he said.

Nitish Kumar threw a political bombshell by announcing his resignation, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan in Patna after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.
New Delhi: No concrete evidence has emerged to conclude that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq three years back have been killed, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday and asserted that she "will not commit the sin" of declaring them dead without any proof.

In a forceful statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj rejected allegations that she misled the country on the issue and said the government will continue its efforts to trace them until getting evidence of their death.

"We will continue our efforts to trace them till the time we get evidence that they are dead, as declaring dead them without proof will be a sin and I will not commit that sin," Swaraj said.

"This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians are dead," she said, adding Vietnam still looks for soldiers who went missing or believed to be killed in the Vietnam war.

Even the US still looks for soldiers who went missing in World War II.

Her strong assertion on the issue came two days after Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said here that there is no "substantial evidence" on whether the Indians are alive or dead and confirmed that the prison at Badush, their last known location, has been demolished by terror group ISIS.

However, the Congress appeared to be not satisfied with her statement as its leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, "we will give a notice to discuss foreign affairs and then we will see what you (Swaraj) had said in 2014."

Kharge stated this after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan disallowed any questions on Swaraj's statement.

Earlier, the external affairs minister, referring to a statement she made in Lok Sabha in November 2014, said whatever she did in the case was with consent of the House.

Swaraj on July 16, based on information gathered by her junior minister VK Singh during his recent visit to Iraq, had stated that Badush jail in northwest Mosul was the last known location of the Indians.

In her statement today, she said she never said that the Indians were in the jail and that as per information, they were taken to Badush in early 2016.

"The Iraqi foreign minister said 'we do not have concrete information whether they are alive or not. He never said they are dead. He told me that in Iraq it is said that wait is worse than death," Swaraj said.

The Iraqi foreign minister also had said that ISIS had seized control of Badush jail and it was demolished.

Swaraj said she told her Iraqi counterpart that she will not accept anything on the issue without "proof" and requested him to continue search for them.

The external affairs minister cited an example of the Congress government declaring a soldier martyr in 1971 war and after 45 years, it was found that he was in a jail in Pakistan.

"If someone feels they are dead, then you are free to go to the families. But if the anyone of them (Indians) comes back, then it will be your responsibility. Similarly, their families are free to carry out ardas (rituals) but it will be their responsibility if someone comes back," Swaraj said.

Referring to demolition of the Badush jail, she said she had suggested to the Iraqi foreign minister to look for the jail warden and find out from him details about the Indians. She said even list of prisoners will help.

"Our questions are like if the jail was demolished, then were the Indians there and whether the inmates were killed. If they were killed, where are the bodies...Is there any blood trail," she said.

Swaraj said she met the family members of the abducted Indians, mostly from Punjab, for 12 times and had told them that there was no proof to conclude that the Indians were dead.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians.

"I have never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government get by misleading the people on the issue," she asked.

Swaraj said one person Harjit Masih, who was also abducted along with the 39 Indians but had managed to flee from captivity, had said the Indians were killed but six sources had told the government that they are alive.

"There were contradictions in Masih's version. That is why I told our embassy to find out details about them," she said.

Mentioning about her earlier statement, Swaraj said, "I had said that one person said the 39 Indians were killed while six sources said otherwise. I had asked should I go ahead believing the six sources. I had said then that I do not have proof of their being alive," she said.

The government, Swaraj said, has been in touch with countries of the region including Turkey which can help India in the case.

India had requested Iraq to locate the 39 missing Indians, mostly from Punjab, after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from ISIS.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh was also sent to Iraq days after the Iraqi prime minister announced victory in the fight to recapture Mosul from ISIS.
New Delhi: Five persons died and four others were injured after their car was hit by a dumper in east Delhi's Kalyanpuri early on Wednesday, the police said.

The accident happened around 3 a.m. when the nine persons were on their way to Meerut from the airport in an SUV, they added.

Five of them were declared "brought dead" to the hospital while four others were injured.

The driver of the dumper lost control over the vehicle and it broke the railing dividing the two sides of the road and went on to hit the SUV on the other side of the road, said a senior police officer.

The driver fled from the spot leaving behind the dumper that has a Haryana registration number.

Either the driver was driving rashly and lost control of the vehicle or he fell asleep at the wheel which led to the accident.

Police are looking for him to determine the exact sequence of events.
New Delhi: The Haj Committee of India (HCI) received 4,48,266 applications for the pilgrimage this year and 1,23,700 of them were considered, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

The HCI is a statutory body of the Indian government which organises pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

The committee received the maximum number of applications from Kerala (95,236). It got 57,246 applications from Maharashtra, 57,225 from Gujarat and 51,375 from Uttar Pradesh, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said while replying to a question.

India has a Haj quota of 1,70,025. Of this, 1,25,05 pilgrims travel through the HCI. The remaining devotees undertake the annual pilgrimage through private tour operators.
Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court has quashed the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to admit students to AYUSH undergraduate courses in different colleges of the state through a merit list prepared on the basis of NEET exam for admissions to medical courses.

The Lucknow bench of the court on July 25 directed the state government to conduct a Common Entrance Test for admissions in AYUSH courses and further directed it to complete the admission process by September 30, 2017.

Ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy are part of AYUSH courses.

A bench of justice D K Upadhyay passed the order on a writ petition moved by Amit Kumar and others.

The petitioners had challenged the state government's order issued on July 7, providing that for academic session 2017-18, the students for AYUSH course would be taken on the basis of the merit list of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

It was argued that the application for NEET was invited on January 31, 2017 which did not mention the said condition that AYUSH admissions would be taken by NEET merit list but all of a sudden, government issued another order on July 7, which came as a surprise for AYUSH aspirants.

Besides it, the central government's order of April 26, 2107 mandated AYUSH admissions from NEET list from academic session 2018-19 whereas it provided that if not possible for session 2017-18, the state government may take admission through a common entrance test.

Considering the circumstances, the bench said, the state government has chosen to make admission to these courses on the basis of NEET which has taken many students desirous of taking admission to AYUSH undergraduate courses by surprise.

"It has also resulted in denial of fundamental right of their participation in entrance test for the reason that many students might not have made their applications pursuant to the advertisement issued for NEET for the reason that it was never ever made known to them that admission to AYUSH under graduate courses shall be made through NEET even for the academic session 2017-2018, the court said.

The court had asked the state counsel to obtain detailed instruction on the issue on Tuesday. After considering reply of the state government, the court set aside the state government's order of July 10, 2017.

The court further was of the view that prior to inviting applications for NEET, aspirants were not informed that the selection for admission for AYUSH courses would be made through NEET list.

"Prima facie, the decision of the state government appears to be not founded on any reasonable ground or rationale, observed the bench.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country on the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," Modi said in a series of tweets.

"Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe," he added.

The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights.

It took about three months for the the Indian forces to recapture the posts.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017
New Delhi: The Kargil Vijay Diwas, which is celebrated across the country on July 26 every year, reminds us of India's military prowess and the great sacrifices made by the armed forces while steadfastly keeping the nation safe.

As we celebrates the 18th anniversary of the Kargil Vijay, a proud nation also remembers its fallen heroes who made supreme sacrifices during the 60-day armed conflict in the treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999. Here is a brief history of the Kargil War that took place between India and Pakistan-backed infiltrators, 17 years back between May and June in 1999.

1999 Kargil War

In 1999, between May and June, an armed conflict took place between India and Pakistan in the Kargil district of Kashmir and adjoining areas along the Line of Control (LOC), which serves as the de facto border between the two countries.

Pakistan-backed infiltrators had captured strategically important high-altitude outposts which prompted the Indian Army to launch a full-scale 'Operation Vijay' to recapture the lost posts.

The operation also aimed at clearing the Kargil-Drass Sector of infiltration by Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

The war that was fought for more than 60 days, finally ended on 26 July, and resulted in heavy loss of lives from both sides, India and Pakistan.

Finally on 26 July, 1999, India successfully took command of the high outposts which had been lost to Pakistani intruders.

India launched 'Operation Vijay' to clear the Kargil sector of infiltration by Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants on the Indian side of the Line of Control,

Kargil Vijay Diwas

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on July 26 every year to commemorate India's emphatic victory against Pakistan and in the honour of the Kargil War's Heroes.

On this day in 1999, the Indian Army successfully took control of posts at a treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, after fighting for 60 days.

This day is celebrated in the Kargil-Dras Sector and the national capital New Delhi, where the Prime Minister of India, pays homage to the martyred soldiers at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate every year. Various functions are also organized all over the country to commemorate the contribution of the Armed forces.

Key highlights of the 1999 Kargil War

Operation Vijay officially concluded on July 26, 1999 after the Indian armed forces gained full control over the mountainous Kargil-Drass sector.

General Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistan Army Chief, is widely believed to have orchestrated the Kargil conflict without the knowledge of the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

It began with the infiltration of Pakistan-backed terrorists into the Indian territory.

The intruders positioned themselves in key locations that gave them a strategic advantage during the start of the conflict.

The Indian Army received valuable inputs from the local shepherds which helped the armed forces to locate the position of infiltrators and other points of incursion.

After a go-ahead from the political establishment, the Indian Army launched 'Operation Vijay' to clear the Kargil Sector of infiltration by Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government was in power at the time of this war.

'Operation Vijay' was launched to clear the Kargil Sector of infiltration by Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

The bloody conflict between the two sides took place despite the Shimla Agreement that stated that no armed conflict shall take place on the said boundary.

The Indian Air Force played a major role during the war through 'Safed Sagar' Operation. The IAF used its air power at the height of 32,000 feet for the first time to aide ground forces recapture the lost high-altitude posts.

The operation was officially declared closed on July 26, 1999 by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

India lost more than 500 armed personnel due to the Kargil War while Pakistani media claimed that their country suffered a casualty of more than 3000 of their soldiers, mujahideens and infiltrators.

The 1999 Kargil War is also holds significance since it is one of the most recent high-altitude war that was fought on mountainous terrain.

The Government of India later awarded four Param Vir Chakras, nine Maha Vir Chakras, 53 Vir Chakras and other medals to felicitate the Kargil War heroes.
New Delhi: With the Madras High Court making singing of Vande Matarm compulsory in schools across Tamil Nadu, the Congress on Wednesday said that the judiciary should not involve itself in non-adjudicatory issues.

Congress leader K.T.S Tulsi asserted that the judiciary should not get involved in such issues."I don`t think judiciary should get in to all this. This is not judicially manageable issue. What will they do if there is violence if there are clashes if there is loss of life? Why should the judiciary take these decisions. This is not a judicatory matter," Tulsi said.

Yesterday, earlier, the Madras High Court ruled that `Vande Mataram` must be sung in schools, educational institutes and government offices.

Justice M. V. Muralidharan said that schools must be made to follow it at least once a week either on Monday or Friday, whereas, the National Song must be sang in offices once a month.

"Vande Mataram is of Sanskrit origin, and written in Bengali which is ought to be sung in every school and college," Muralidharan added.

Muralidharan said that in the event, if any person or organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the national song, he or she shall not be compelled or forced to sing it, provided there are valid reasons for not doing so.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court is also hearing a petition asking the Centre to make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in schools.

While the apex court had in April given the Centre four weeks to reply, the next date of hearing is scheduled for August 25.
Beijing: On the eve of Indian NSA Ajit Doval's China visit to attend the BRICS security summit, Beijing on Wednesday made clear that India's pullback from Doklam on the border remained the "precondition" for any dialogue on the issue.

The Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks, who on Tuesday blamed India for triggering the border row and asked it to withdraw its troops, were "authoritative".

"The solution as the Foreign Minister put it is that Indian border troops pull out unconditionally and this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between both countries," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

Doval will attend the two-day BRICS National Security Advisers meet in Beijing beginning on Thursday.

The meet, where the five-nation bloc traditionally discusses counterterrorism and security issues, assumes significance in the view of festering border row between India and China.

It is not known if Doval will meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi separately on the sidelines of the summit.

On Monday, an editorial said India should not pin hopes on Doval's visit to resolve the border stand-off.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own. New Delhi says troops from both sides should withdraw as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, has also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops in Doklam.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance to all three.

In June, the Indian Army stopped road construction by Chinese troops, leading to the stand-off that is now in its second month.
New Delhi: Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM leader Sitaram Yechury will not head to the Rajya Sabha for a third consecutive term.

CPM's central committee - party's highest decision-making body - has decided not to nominate Yechury for a third Rajya Sabha term, keeping in mind their internal policy of no leader representing party in the Upper House for more than two terms.

The decision was arrived after four hours of discussions among a deeply-divided central committee.

"The Kerala unit of the party was against taking help of Congress to get the party general secrtary re-elected," a top leader told PTI.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had ruled out the possibility of a third Rajya Sabha term for Yechuri.

Central committee members from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had also opposed the proposal, which had the backing of the West Bengal and Tripura units.

The central committee The proposal for a third term for Yechury was moved by the West Bengal unit of the CPM in June after the Congress' central leadership reportedly offered its support to help get Yechury re-elected.

The party's politburo had already rejected the proposal before it came up for discussion by the central committee on Tuesday.

The second term of Yechury, a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, ends next month.
New Delhi: More than 18,000 NGOs did not file their annual income and expenditure statements for the five-year period between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

"More than 18,000 NGOs, who did not file due annual returns from financial year 2010-11 to 2014-15, were given one month time to upload the missing annual returns pertaining to the above period," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply.

Rijiju said more than 8,000 NGOs complied with the directions of the government. Around 6,000 defaulting ones have been served showcause notices, he said.

The minister also said a number of NGOs, registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, with invalid bank accounts were asked to validate the same.

"Close to 25,000 NGOs are registered under FCRA, 2010, and as per record, over 20,000 NGOs have valid bank account numbers," he said.
New Delhi: Indian aviation ministry, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has issued an advisory to all airlines asking them to carry an equal number of both English and Hindi newspapers and magazines for fliers.

The notice has been issued to ensure that reading material in both English and Hindi languages are offered to the passengers.

It has been seen Indian aircraft don't carry Hindi newspapers and magazines or carry them in limited numbers, DGCA's Joint Director General Lalit Gupta said said in a letter to airlines.

This goes against official language policy of Indian union. Please ensure aircraft carry equal number of Hindi and English newspapers, he told all Indian airlines.

The move is likely aimed at empowering Hindi language.

Criticising the advisory, Congress lawmaker Shahsi Tharoor took to twitter and wrote, "DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)!"

Earlier this month, Air India decided to stop serving non-vegetarian meals to its economy class passengers on domestic flights, sparking a controversy which linked the move religious ideology which is alleged to be promoted by the Indian government. However, the Air India asserted that the initiative was taken to cut costs.



With ANI Inputs
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister and said that in doing so he had joined the fight against corruption.

PM Modi tweeted, "Congratulations. Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty."

"For the bright future of the country and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," PM Modi added.

Nitish Kumar resigned today as CM, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

"I tried to work it out... I did not ask for anybody's resignation... I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said, as per PTI.

Asked if he will now form a government with BJP's support, he said,"Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next."

Kumar, who led the Grand Alliance that also included the Congress to a stunning victory, was sworn in on November 20, 2015.

Ever since the CBI filed cases of corruption against Tejashwi, his father Lalud and his sister Misa Yadav, pressure has been mounting on Nitish to sack Tejashwi Yadav.

But any action against the Deputy CM could have evoked the wrath of the RJD on whose support was vital for the government.



In the 243-member Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the JD-U 71 and Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs and its allies LJP 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1.

There are four independents and four MLAs belong to the CPI-ML.



The JD(U) and BJP together make up for 124 seats and with BJP allies the total could go to 129, clearly crossing the half-way mark.



Nitish had run a coalition government with BJP.

But he resigned and severed ties with the party after it announced Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: After the Rajya Sabha witnessed major turbulence on Wednesday when a opposition leader tore into President Ram Nath Kovind after he compared Mahatma Gandhi with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, leaders of different political parties slammed the behaviour of Congress in the Rajya Sabha and deemed it disrespectful.

JD-U spokesperson Harivansh Narayan Singh said with the current situation in the Rajya Sabha, people with actual issues aren`t able to speak. He pointed out to the fact instead of these issues people should focus on the important ones.

He raised the issue where the Chinese Defense Minister openly threatened India when GST was being introduced. He said, "While our nation was on the historic verge of introducing GST, the Chinese defence minister openly threatened us. Where has the glory of the country slept?"

"It would have been good if we would have talked of our security issues" he added.

Speaking to ANI on the same, Kalraj Mishra, a BJP minister said, "It`s highly disrespectful of the opposition to say anything about the President." He also said that such actions send a bad message to the public.

Earlier, Congress leader Anand Sharma had said, "Gandhi ji has done a lot for the nation and his equation with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was a big disrespect." He also said that the President had not even mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi`s names.

Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India on Tuesday, remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters.
New Delhi: With heavy rains and floods causing widespread devastation in several states, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday expressed grief and condoled the death of the families affected.

President Kovind took to Twitter saying, "Nation condoles deaths due to heavy rains and floods in Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan and other states. Stands by families affected".

Looking at the flood fury increasing in parts of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to the next kin of those killed in Gujarat floods, and Rs. 50,000 to those injured.

He had also conducted an aerial survey of the flood affected areas in Gujarat.Several villages in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Assam have been put on red alert.

Food packets and water bottles have also been dispatched to villages surrounded by water.

In an overview, the floods in Rajasthan has killed scores of people and leaving several hundred homeless.

More than 30,000 people were relocated from low-lying areas while people stranded on rooftops and trees were evacuated.

The situation in flood-ravaged Assam improved considerably as the swollen Brahmaputra and Barak rivers, along with their tributaries, started flowing below the danger mark at most places.

In West Bengal, lowlands in Birbhum, Purulia, West Medinipore and Hooghly districts were inundated.

The Army, Indian Air Force (IAF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and local teams have intensified rescue and relief operations as several parts of the two districts were inundated with flood water.
New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday admitted to some error on the part of the Secretariat which appeared to give an impression that Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia was the target of attack by a ruling party member.



Mahajan said the confusion was created due to an error by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.



Scindia had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday and said that BJP member Virendra Kumar claimed during Zero Hour on Monday that the Congress MP got a hospital in his parliamentary constituency Guna in Madhya Pradesh "purified" by sprinkling Ganga water and re-inaugurated it after it had been earlier inaugurated by a Dalit BJP MLA.



Kumar was supported by BJP MPs Manohar Utawal and Nand Kumar Chauhan.



On Wednesday, Mahajan said that the reference in the debate transcript of the House appeared to be targeted at Scindia, but it was a clerical error.



In the Lower House, which had been witnessing ruckus since it met at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the Speaker asked members to hush up as she wanted to speak, and raised the issue soon after the Question Hour was over.



Mahajan said she had respect for Scindia, his grandmother and his father as well.



"Yesterday, Scindia was hurt, I gave him permission to raise the issue. Virendra Kumar also wanted to give an explanation but in the ruckus it could not happen," Mahajan said.



"It was a mistake of our office -- I saw the uncorrected debates. I ask the office to remove all references to names. Virendra Kumar had referred to Jyotiraditya Scindia as the MP of the constituency," Mahajan said.



She said following the instruction to remove the name, the Secretariat also removed the rest of the reference, and it appeared as if Scindia was being blamed for the incident.



"At places he said Congress, that was also removed. So Virendra Kumar did not level any allegations against him (Scindia)," Mahajan said.



An angry Scindia on Tuesday had blamed Kumar and others for making false allegations against him.



Congress members, including Scindia, rushed towards the Speaker`s podium and sought an apology from Kumar, who was present in the House.



Kumar wanted to respond but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow.
Patna: Branding Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi 'anti-Bihari', Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday slammed the former stating that he is an outsider who would never care about the state's development.

Speaking to the reporters here, Tejashwi said " Sushil Modi is not even a Bihari, he is an outsider- total 'Anti-Bihari'. Why would these people even care about Bihar's development or its peoples' concern. We have been here since ages and we know the state better and its people."

Yesterday, the BJP continued to put pressure on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) case against Tejashwi Yadav and warned that they will not let the House function if an adequate response did not come from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo.

Talking to the media in Patna, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, " Nitish Kumar has no defence so he must immediately suspend Tejashwi Yadav. JD (U) (Janata Dal (United)) is asking for a response since there has been enough delay in the matter. There is a strong case against Lalu Yadav's son. He has to clarify on the anonymous assets."

The CBI has registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and 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.

Lalu had earlier made it clear that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister saying 'politically motivated' CBI raids and filing of a first information report (FIR) can't be the ground for Tejaswi 's resignation.

"We are facing attacks from all sides. BJP is behind this. We will expose them in Bhajpa Hatao Desh Bachao rally on 27 August", Lalu added.

Tejashwi Yadav also remained defiant about not succumbing to the pressure or resigning, citing that the charges were a part of a political vendetta against him and his family.

"I can only say this is a political vendetta by the BJP. The main leaders attached to it are Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. They have always been scared of my father, but it seems they are scared of me too. Right from the beginning, they are trying to break the 'mahagathbandhan', and accuse us in all possible ways. Not just us, they are always ready to malign Bihar for all possible crime," he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP has stressed that Tejashwi has only two options now- tender resignation or get sacked.
New Delhi: Separatist leader Shabir Shah, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the alleged terror funding case, was on Wednesday sent to a seven-day custody.

Shabir, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, was arrested from his Sanatnagar residence on Tuesday evening in a 12-year-old money laundering case.

He was produced before the Delhi's Patiala House court after which he was sent to a 7-day custody of the Enforcement Directorate.

While defending himself on the matter, Shabir alleged political vendetta behind his arrest. "There is no truth in it. It is a political vendetta," ANI quoted Shabir as saying outside Patiala House court.

Shah was arrested in connection with a 12-year-old money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing. His links were first exposed when Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Mohammad Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, in August 2005. During an interrogation, Wani revealed that the money he possessed was funded from Pakistan.

Out of total Rs 63 lakh recovered from Wani, at least 53 lakh was supposed to go to Shabir Shah, the arrested hawala dealer had revealed during the investigation.

The Enforcement Directorate issued at least eight summons to Shabir, but he never deposed before the central investigating agency.
New Delhi: Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the top most Separatist of Jammu and Kashmir and his family have amassed wealth worth crores of rupees and also own benami properties.

According to sources, the government agencies have full details of the wealth amassed by the 13 top Kashmiri separatists. The huge wealth of these torchbearers of Azadi in Kashmir poses an important question: what is the source of their income when they do separatism, which they term as a movement for 'Azadi', as a full-time job?

The separatists whose properties and wealth are under scanner of government agencies are: Syed All Shah Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah @ Fatoosh, Naseem Geelani, Nayeem Geelani, Farooq Ahmad Dar @ Bitta Karate, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Shabbir Shah, Yasin Malik, Mir Waiz, Mehraj-ud-din S/o Mohd Amin, Bashir Ahmed Bhat @ Peer Saifullah, Asiya Andrabi, and Nayeem Mohammed Khan.

SYED ALI SHAH GEELANI

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman, All Party Hurriyat Conference, (Geelani faction) [APHC-G] has amassed wealth worth crores of rupees.

Geelani's ancestral bungalow at Dooru, Sopore, in Jammu and Kashmir is worth Rs 1 crore. It is a two story house on 2 kanals of land.

His office cum residence is built on 1.5 kanals land at Rehmatabad colony, which is registered in the name of Milli Trust with five members - Bashir Ahmed Shot @ Peer Saifullah, Mohd Ashraf, Sehraj, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Jawahira Begum and Dr Nayeed Geelani.

Geelani's two story house at Bulbulbagh, Barazulla has been transferred to Jel, Jammu and Kashmir.

There is one Unique Public School in Dooru, Srinagar, whose land is partially donated by villagers and partly out of Geelani's property. The school is run by a trust, and Geelani has appointed his younger son Naseem Geelani chairman of the school.

Geelani also owns a two-bedroom flat at Gupta Colony, Khirki Extension, Delhi for which Geelani paid Rs 8 Lakh and it has been registered in the name of GM Bhat (hawala conduit).

Geelani also owns one two story house at Bagh-e-Mehtab, Srinagar and has been registered in the name of Geelani's eldest daughter Chasfida.

Geelani's another three storied bungalow built on half canal land at Bemina, Srinagar has been registered in the name of his daughter Zahida. The octogenarian separatist also owns around 100-150 kanals of land at Singpore Pattan. Geelani has a double story house at Rehmatabad in his name.

Four vehicles in Hyderpora belong to Geelani.

Sources say that Geelani's son Naseem Geelani looks after real estate matters of the family.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Funtoosh, who has been looking after his affairs for a year, owns land in Dompora Sow. Altai Funtoosh, Advocate Shahfi Rishi and his nephew Yaseer Rishi (MLC) own around 100-150 kanals of land in Sumbal, Zainkund-Bandipora Road.

So far, four Benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.

ALTAF AHMED SHAH

Altaf Ahmed Shah is Chief Organiser of APHC-G and son-in-law of SAS Geelani. He owns two story house built on the half canal at Bagh-e-Mehtab, the two-room house at Bhatindi, and ancestral hosiery shop at LaI Chowk, Srinagar, eight canals land in village Handoora, Dist Ganderbal, Srinagar. He also owns a double story House No. 119 at HIG Colony, Bemina worth Rs 1.50 crore.

So far, three benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.

NASEEM GEELANI

Naseem Geelani, son of SAS Geelani, owns house built on five marlas at Rawalpora, Srinagar; Land /Orchard at Doru, Sopore. The NIA says that Naseem Geelani on March 2017 took over the charge of Unique Public School, Sopore as its Chairman, after a long tussle with G M Bhat (Former Chairman). Geelani family also wanted to own 8 kanals of land in Sopore that may have been given by local villagers in 1980 for the construction of the school.

So far, two benami properties being needs further verification, say the sources.

NAYEEM GEELANI

Nayeem Geelani, son of SAS Geelani, jointly owns four canals of agriculture land at Humana, Rawalpora Byepass, Srinagar with his brother Naseem Geelani.

He also owns land/Orchard on 40 kanals and Dooru, Sopore. Besides this, he also owns some ancestral property in the form of land and orchards.

Nayeem is also an owner of an eight-room house at Sanat Nagar, Srinagar. He also owns a flat in New Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. He also owns single story house having 10/12 rooms which are worth Rs 75 lakh.

He also owns Apple Orchard and two houses built on 5.5 Kanals. The market value of per canal is Rs. 5 lakh.

He is also an owner of Asian Minerals (Limestone quarry) which is in the name of his brother Muneer Khan.

So far, two benami properties need further verification, say the sources.

The Kashmiri separatists are under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after several top Kashmiri separatists were caught on camera confessing to receiving funds from across the border.

The sting operation, carried by a news channel, showed Hurriyat's Provincial President (Geelani Faction) Nayeem Khan admitting on camera that Pakistan is funding the violence in Kashmir Valley.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA has so far arrested seven Kashmiri separatists and produced them before a Delhi Court on Tuesday which sent them to the 10-day custody of NIA over money laundering charges to fund terror in the Kashmir Valley.

The arrested separatists are: Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate.
Srinagar: The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing the terror funding cases in Jammu and Kashmir, has found at least 28 WhatsApp groups that are being administered by members residing in Pakistan, a report said on Wednesday.

A report published in 'The Times of India' states some cadres of terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawaa are also involved in creating such WhatsApp groups.

The sources in the country's top anti-terror agency have told the newspaper that though the majority of the members are Kashmiris but a significant number are linked to Pakistani mobile numbers.

The sources have revealed that the phone numbers in the WhatsApp groups show up in the posters of JuD, which confirm that the terrorist group headed by Hafiz Saeed, is involved in fomenting trouble in the Valley.

These WhatsApp groups are used to instigate the Kashmiri youth to indulge in stone-pelting.

Seven people including Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were arrested on July 24 by the NIA in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.

A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded the seven Kashmiri separatists in NIA custody for 10 days.

Six of the separatist leaders were arrested from Srinagar on Monday and later flown to Delhi. Farooq Ahmad Dar was held in Delhi. They have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Ayaz Akbar is the spokesperson of Geelani-led Hurriyat.

The NIA said it had credible information that Hafiz Mohammad Saeed Amir of Jammat-ud-Dawaa and other separatist leaders, including Hurriyat Conference members, were acting in connivance with militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and Lashkar-e-Toiba and other groups to raise funds in India and abroad through illegal channels to fund terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

They entered into a larger conspiracy to wage war against India, it said.
Dras: While speaking at the eighteenth anniversary of the Kargil Vijay Divas organised by the Indian Army at Lamuchan Dras on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. D. Anbu, General Officer Commanding in Chief (GoC-in C) Northern Army Command of the Indian Army, assured the people that there won`t be a recurrence of a Kargil-like situation.

Lt. Gen. Anbu recalled the war of 1999 as a very proud moment for the Indian Army.He said, "It happened in 1999. A number of intruders from Pakistan entered and the Indian Army managed to evict them, and they did it with determination and valor.

"He added, "Every year from 20th to 26th we celebrate Kargil Divas to celebrate the victory and commemorate the martyrs."Speaking on the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said surveillance measures have been enhanced and the army is placed at the posts throughout the year.

Lt. Gen.Anbu also spoke about the infiltration and terrorism cases, which have lately risen. He said, "We are firmly in control in the LOC as far as counter infiltration is concerned. We have been extremely robust and nearly 36 (infiltrators) have been killed in the last three months alone.

They don`t give up, but we make sure that they can`t enter the land.""As far as the counter terrorism operation is concerned, the Army, along with the J&K Police and CRPF, we`ve been able to synergize our energy in the hinterland." he added.Speaking on the issue of sharing a border with China, he maintained that there is no tension in Eastern Ladakh with China.

"Coming to the border with China, it`s a disputed border. There is no demarcation as such. We have our own perceptions about the line, but the situation in Eastern Ladakh is peaceful because of the protocols and everything." he said.
Bengaluru: Troubles for former deputy inspector general of police (DIG) (Prisons) Roopa do not cease to end as now a legal notice has been served to her by the lawyer of Director General (Prisons) G. Sathyanarayan Rao.

Roopa grabbed headlines when she, in a report, said that All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader V.K. Sasikala availed VIP treatment in the Parappana Agrahara Central prison by bribing jail officials.

Roopa has been given three days of time to reply an unconditional apology.

The notice said that DIG Roopa tried to "damage the integrity and reputation of Sathyanarayan Rao," which according to law comes under defamation.

The notice also said that Rao will also be approaching the concerned Income Tax Department to find out the source from where the "alleged Rs. 2 crore were mobilised."

The notice further said that Roopa also alleged that Sasikala had set up a private kitchen, where special food could be made for her, but as she failed to take snaps of the place, it only shows that the place was "non-existent" although she (Roopa) claims that the evidence was erased.

The notice said that Roopa has tried to defame the "whole system" of this country, including the President of the nation.

The six page notice extensively talked about various issues concerning the case.

DIG Roopa has confirmed that she has received the notice.

Roopa, in a report to the Director General (Prisons), had said there are speculations that Sasikala paid bribe to prison officials to get special facilities for herself with rumours also of the DG being a beneficiary himself.

The report by the DIG (Prisons) had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by AIADMK chief VK Sasikala for, including the DG (Prisons), in order to avail special facilities in Parappana Agrahara central prison.

She was transferred to the traffic department as the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, after the statement.

Earlier on July 14, Roopa had also said she is being unnecessarily targetted and singled out for exposing irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central prison.

The DG (Prisons) categorically denied all the charges, where Roopa, maintained her stand, saying that she has no issue with an inquiry taking place into it.
Bhopal: Two students of Bhopals National Law Institute University (NLIU) have accused their seniors of indulging in ragging, sexual abuse and alcohol consumption on the campus.

One of the complaints filed by a male student accuses a female senior student of molesting and sexually abusing in an inebriated state.

The student alleged that even teachers and wardens knew that liquor was consumed in the hostel, yet they turned a blind eye to it.

Another student, who recently joined the campus, alleged that seniors ragged freshers and even forced them to watch porn movies till 5 in the morning.

The students filed complaints with University Grants Commissions (UGC) anti-ragging helpline.

Proctor Rajiv Khare said a probe has been ordered into the matter.

The Proctoral Board has started the probe. We will take stringent and appropriate action against the accused. We have received three complaints so far, Khare said.
Bhopal: Praveen Yadav, one of the key accused in the high-profile Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) or Vyapam scam, ended his life by committing suicide on Wednesday.

According to ANI, Praveen Yadav committed suicide at his residence in Madhya Pradesh's Morena.

The Vyapam scam, which cast a shadow on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in MP, pertains to alleged corruption in conducting examinations for recruitment to various state government jobs.

The massive recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh, estimated to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, is believed to be running for over a decade.

The scam pertains to manipulation in the selection process for government jobs conducted by MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB).

The scam is related to the pre-medical test and recruitment to various government services, including teachers, constables and food inspectors.

It first came to light when the local police busted a racket that helped candidates clear the PMT through unfair means.

Further investigation by the MP Police uncovered fraud in various other exams for State Government jobs.

Many high-profile persons, including senior IAS and IPS officials, retired judges, journalists and politicians are alleged to be linked with the MPPEB scam.
Mumbai: The death toll in the building collapse incident in suburban Ghatkopar has risen to 17 after five more bodies were pulled out from the rubble of the four-storey building here during overnight search and rescue operations.

The cause of the collapse of the ill-fated Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society is still unknown. However, locals alleged that the incident took place because of the renovation work being undertaken on the ground floor of a nursing home owned by Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap.

Shitap was on Tuesday night detained by the Mumbai Police and booked for culpable homicide.

Rescue operations are still going on. The Mumbai Fire Brigade, BMC rescue teams, NDRF and SDRF teams and others are at the spot to rescue the people.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday visited the site of building collapse in Ghatkopar and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to file a report on the incident within 15 days.

"The offence has been registered. Police is investigating the matter. I have directed the BMC commissioner to investigate and submit a report within 15 days," the Maharashtra CM told reporters.

The building was not listed among those in dangerous category, as per local residents.

According to a written reply by the government in the Legislative Assembly about unsafe buildings in the metropolis, a survey by the BMC earlier this year had identified 617 such structures.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap was arrested on Wednesday and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with Tuesday`s building collapse that claimed 17 lives, an official said.



Shitap, who was detained on Tuesday night, was formally arrested early on Wednesday and slapped with various charges under the Indian Penal Code including "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".



He was presented before a magistrate and remanded in police custody till August 2.



According to police and BMC, Shitap was the owner of a nursing home on the ground floor of the four-storey dilapidated private building, Sai Darshan, in Ghatkopar, which had 15 flats.



Preliminary investigation revealed that Shitap was allegedly carrying out illegal repairs and renovation of the nursing home to convert it into a guest house.



He reportedly demolished a supporting main pillar of the residential building which could have weakened the old structure and led to its sudden collapse on Tuesday morning.



The building residents and neighbours said they had repeatedly warned Shitap against making any structural changes but he ignored their pleas.



The crash found its echo in the monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly which was adjourned thrice on Wednesday morning as a belligerent opposition demanded a discussion on the matter.



Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar alleged that, as per documents available with him, the accused was planning to convert the nursing home into a liquor bar.



The Congress and other parties alleged that civic officials were reluctant to take action against Shitap due to the ruling Shiv Sena.



Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 200,000 to the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 100,000 to each permanently disabled, besides full cost of medical treatment for all the injured.



Meanwhile, the death toll in the building crash shot up to 17 and the search was called off after 30 hours.



Late on Tuesday, Fadnavis, who has ordered a probe into the crash, visited the spot.



"It is a very sad and unfortunate incident," he said, adding that the enquiry report would be submitted in a fortnight.



After meeting the victims and residents, Fadnavis promised strict action against those responsible for the disaster.



So far, 28 persons have been rescued, but a few more were still feared trapped under the rubble, said a BMC statement on Wednesday afternoon.



It added that contrary to reports, the building did not figure in the BMC`s list of dangerous structures as it was privately owned.



The displaced survivors -- who lost all their belongings including clothes, money, jewellery -- have been housed temporarily in local schools.



The government has assured that redevelopment permissions required to rebuild Sai Darshan building would be granted on priority.
Kochi: Arrested Malayalam actor Dileep Madhavan's wife, Kavya Madhavan was questioned at Kochi in connection with the abduction and assault case of a south Indian actress, police said on Thursday.

Additional Director General of Police B Sandhya-led special investigation team, which is probing the case, quizzed Kavya Madhavan at her residence in Aluva near here on Wednesday. Though the investigators did not divulge much details about the interrogation, Aluva Superintendent of Police (Rural) A V George confirmed that she was questioned.

"Kavya Madhavan was questioned. It is not possible to say now whether she will be questioned again in connection with the case," he told PTI.

The questioning of Kavya Madhavan, who married Dileep Madhavan in November last year, comes in the wake of allegations that prime accused Pulsar Suni had handed over the mobile phone, in which the crime was recorded, and a memory card to someone associated with the actor. The claim about handing over of the mobile phone and memory card was made in a letter purportedly written by Suni to Dileep from jail.

Dileep, who was arrested in connection with the case on July 10, has been charged under various sections of the IPC, including one for hatching a criminal conspiracy for abduction and assault of the actress in a moving car on February 17.

A city court had, on Wednesday extended by two weeks his judicial custody after the Kerala High Court rejected his bail plea two days ago. The south Indian actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and molested inside her car for two hours by the accused who had forced their way into the vehicle and later escaped.

Besides Dileep and Suni, five others have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.
Mumbai: Actress Vidya Balan said it is unfortunate that people don't even want to hear about child sexual abuse, which is "horrific" and "disturbing." The actress, who played a victim of abuse in "Kahaani 2", said she had several sleepless nights reading up about the issue.

"Child sexual abuse is something that we don't want to even hear, forget to know of. When I did 'Kahaani 2', I read up about certain things which made me sleepless. It was so disturbing. The most disturbing thing was that it happens in the family, which is the safest place for a child. It's horrific," she told reporters at Mumbai.

Vidya Balan was speaking at the launch of actor Rahul Bose's NGO HEAL (Help Eradicate Abuse Through Learning) on Tuesday evening. The 38-year-old actress said she too has been in situations where she didn't want to believe someone close to her was abused as a child.

"I know friends who've been through this and how it has scarred their lives. I feel very ashamed to say this but I must admit, there was a friend of mine who went through the same and another said, 'may be she is making it up because she needs attention'. "I won't deny that I didn't consider it because you don't want to accept that this could be true, could be happening in someone's family," she added.

Rahul Bose said through this, they want to create awareness and eradicate abuse as much as possible. The actor also said it was important for the person who has been abused as a child to not be ashamed or feel responsible for the act. "We do workshops and say it clearly - the shame is not yours, it's of the perpetrators. Sadly, everyone in the family tries to hush it down. They think if people get to know that someone from the family did this to a child, the whole family's name will be dragged," he said.
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped printing of Rs 2000 notes while it has shifted its focus on other denominations like the new 200 rupee notes, as per a report in the LiveMint.

RBI had stopped printing Rs 2000 notes about five months ago and is unlikely to print more in the current financial year, the LiveMint report said.

The report, quoting other sources said, RBIs printing press in Mysuru has also started printing the new Rs 200 notes, which are likely to come into circulation next month.

The central bank had reportedly decided to bring in Rs 200 notes in March after consulting the finance ministry, they said. The notes are going through multiple checks for security and quality at government printing presses.

The shortage of currency notes was trigged by the scrapping of high-denomination bills last year.

In a surprise announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced scrapping of old notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, wiping out over 85 percent of the cash in circulation.

The move was aimed at checking black money, counterfeit notes and terror financing.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) launched following the closure of 50-day demonetisation period did not draw a good response with only Rs 5,000 crore unaccounted income being declared under the amnesty scheme.

The scheme was launched in December last year to enable people with black money to come clean by paying tax and penalty of 50 percent.

Will the halt in production of Rs 2000 notes affect you?

The legality of the tender will not be impacted whether or not fresh notes are produced. True, RBI has stopped the printing of new Rs 2000 notes, but they still remain legal and it is not going out of circulation.

Meanwhile the introduction of the Rs 200 notes is aimed at easing the pressure on lower-denomination currencies that are in short supply.
New Delhi: In yet another incident, a 52-year-old grandmother from Punjab has proved that age is just a number! Paramjeet Kaur hailing from Mohali is among the bike taxi riders who ferry passengers for Uber.

With 100 other bike taxi riders, Kaur functions as part of the Punjab government's 'Apni Gaddi, Apna Rozgar' program. The bike taxi initiative was launched at the Indian School of Business in collaboration with UberMOTO. The venture has been introduced in Mohali, Kharar, and Zirakpur.

The women are facilitated with permits along with mobile phones to deliver the service smoothly. Kaur, whose car is already associated with Uber, said, "Sometime ago, I got a message flashed on my mobile about the companys new bike taxi service in Punjab. A little hesitant initially, I accepted the offer later," Hindustan Times quoted Kaur as saying.

Kaur who lost her husband at a young age had to struggle throughout her life to rear her kids. Paramjeet has been riding a scooter for the past 10 years. She has been trained well by the company expert to fit the role. "Though my family asked me not to slog hard at this age, I thought it is a good way to supplement the family income. I am very happy to become part of the new taxi service," she said.

Kaur believes people will appreciate her hard work. She further added, "A senior citizen I ferried on Monday as part of test run commended me for taking this step. He said more women should step out. Though my family asked me not to slog hard at this age, I thought it is a good way to supplement the family income. I am very happy to become part of the new taxi service."
Mumbai: Baahubali Prabhas Saaho is one of the most anticipated films! To be helmed by Sujeeth, Saaho is a tech-action-thriller that will present Prabhas in a never-seen-before avatar! But heres some bad news too! Anushka Shetty is no longer a part of it!

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Anushka has walked out of the project citing date issues. The pretty actress, who set the silverscreen ablaze with her sizzling chemistry with Prabhas, had signed a Tamil film much before she was approached for Saaho. And since she has already reserved her dates for the Tamil project, she will not be able to do Saaho which has gone on floors.

Fans of Prabhas and Anushka will certainly be unhappy with this latest update! Their chemistry in Baahubali: The Conclusion left audiences spellbound and soon fans wanted to see them as man and wife in real life too! Such is the craze for this jodi.

Nonetheless, going forward, Mohenjo Daro girl Pooja Hegde has reportedly been signed for Saaho.

The futuristic film promises some breathtaking visuals and jaw-dropping action sequences.

The film also stars Neil Nitin Mukesh.
New Delhi: Ending an 80-year-old pursuit, researchers at the Stanford and University of California claimed to have discovered the 'angel particle' - particle that's its own antiparticle.

In 1928, physicist Paul Dirac predicted that every fundamental particle in the universe has an antiparticle - its identical twin but with opposite charge. And when particle and antiparticle met they would be annihilated, releasing energy.

Few years later the first antimatter particle - electron's opposite, the positron - was discovered.

However in 1937, physicist Ettore Majorana predicted that in the class of particles known as fermions - which includes the proton, neutron, electron, neutrino and quark - there should be particles that are their own antiparticles.

Thus, scientists from the Stanford University and University of California in the US have found the first firm evidence of such as Majorana fermion.

They have named the Majorana fermion "angel particle," in reference to Dan Brown's best-selling thriller "Angels and Demons" in which a secret brotherhood plots to blow up the Vatican with a time bomb whose explosive power comes from matter-antimatter annihilation.

"This discovery concludes one of the most intensive searches in fundamental physics, which spanned exactly 80 years," said Shoucheng Zhang, professor at Stanford.

Although the search for the famous fermion seems more intellectual than practical, it could have real-life implications for building robust quantum computers, although this is admittedly far in the future, said Zhang, one of the senior authors of the study.

The particular type of Majorana fermion the research team observed is known as a "chiral" fermion because it moves along a one-dimensional path in just one direction.

Majorana fermions could be used to construct robust quantum computers that are not thrown off by environmental noise, which has been a big obstacle to their development.

Far in the future, scientists said, Majorana fermions could be used to construct robust quantum computers that arent thrown off by environmental noise, which has been a big obstacle to their development.

Since each Majorana is essentially half a subatomic particle, a single qubit of information could be stored in two widely separated Majorana fermions, decreasing the chance that something could perturb them both at once and make them lose the information they carry.

The study has been published in the journal Science.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Charging your handset while riding a two-wheeler has now become a reality, thanks to a engineering student from Chennai.

Mechanical engineering graduate, Aman Arun has invented a 'Power Aid' that can allow you to charge your mobile phone on a motorbike without the help of a power bank.

The 23-year-old said that he was inspired by his classmate to come up with such a device.

The Power Aid is meant for motorcycles and mopeds and requires a reserve potential energy from ignition to transfer the power to a mobile phone. The product is cost effective, said the young entrepreneur.

He further says that the device is compact and needs to be attached to the handle of the bike and then connected to the ignition system of the engine.

Chennai: An Engineering Graduate invented 'Power Aid', device which charges electronic gadgets while driving a 2-wheeler. pic.twitter.com/qc5agzbmXn  ANI (@ANI_news) July 24, 2017

The good thing about the charger is that it can charge the mobile even when the engine is off.
Mexico City: A young sea lion was found inside a cardboard box on a street in the Mexican city Morelia.



Residents of the Felix Ireta district found the marine mammal in a first-of-its-kind incident in the city, reports EFE.



Officials initially speculated that the sea lion had escaped from Benito Juarez Zoological Park, the third-largest zoo in Mexico and located just two streets from where the animal was found.



The young sea lion was apparently abandoned near the park by someone hoping that residents would take it to the facility, zoo director Josue Rangel Diaz told EFE.



The habitat of sea lions, which are listed as endangered, extends along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska.
New Delhi: NASA says updrafts - plumes of warm air rising from the solar-heated Earth - are more important than previously understood in determining what makes clouds produce drizzle instead of full-sized raindrops.

The new study by NASA scientists overturns a common assumption as well as offers a pathway for improving accuracy in weather and climate models' treatments of rainfall.

For the research, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; UCLA; and the University of Tokyo studied low-lying clouds over the ocean and over the land.

They found that low-lying clouds over the ocean produce more drizzle droplets than the same type of cloud over land.

Water droplets in clouds initially form on microscopic airborne particles, or aerosols. Scientists have been studying the role of aerosols in clouds and rain for decades. There are more aerosols over land than over the ocean, and scientists had thought the additional aerosols would tend to form more drizzle over land as well.

The new study shows that the presence of aerosols alone can't explain where drizzle occurs.

To understand what else plays a role, the research team leader Hanii Takahashi of the JPL and UCLA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering looked at updrafts.

Within tall thunderclouds, strong updrafts play a role in rain formation. In low-lying clouds, however, updrafts are known to be much weaker, and they havent received much scientific attention in connection with rain.

"There was a previous hypothesis that updrafts could be important," Takahashi said. "But the hypothesis had never been tested, and I wasnt sure if updrafts were strong enough to affect the size of rain droplets."

Existing measurement systems struggle to monitor updraft velocities directly. And to infer these velocities, Takahashi's team combined measurements from NASAs CloudSat and Aqua satellites and other sources with ground-level radar data from a US Department of Energy observing site in the Azores.

They found that the updrafts in low-lying clouds over land, while weaker than updrafts in tall thunderclouds, were still strong enough to keep drizzle droplets aloft. As the droplets floated within clouds, they continued to grow until the updrafts couldn't hold them up any longer. Then they fell as full-sized raindrops.

In similar clouds that formed over the ocean, updrafts were even weaker than over land. As a result, droplets fell out of the clouds as drizzle, before they had the opportunity to grow into full-sized raindrops. This helps explain the preponderance of drizzle over the ocean.

This finding gives new insight into the basic atmospheric process of rain formation, something that's helpful in both weather forecasting and climate modeling.

Takahashi hopes it will help her fellow climate modelers look beyond aerosols in their assumptions about low-lying clouds.

"If we make updraft velocities more realistic in the models, we might get both more realistic drizzle and more realistic surface temperature projections as a result," she said.

The results are published online in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
San Francisco: Adobe Systems Inc`s Flash, a once-ubiquitous technology used to power most of the media content found online, will be retired at the end of 2020, the software company announced Tuesday.

Adobe, along with partners Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc`s Google, Facebook Inc and Mozilla Corp, said support for Flash will ramp down across the internet in phases over the next three years.

After 2020, Adobe will stop releasing updates for Flash and web browsers will no longer support it. The companies are encouraging developers to migrate their software onto modern programming standards.

Few technologies have had such a profound and positive impact in the internet era, said Govind Balakrishnan, vice president of product development for Adobe Creative Cloud.

Created more than 20 years ago, Flash was once the preferred software used by developers to create games, video players and applications capable of running on multiple web browsers. When Adobe acquired Flash in its 2005 purchase of Macromedia, the technology was on more than 98 percent of personal computers connected to the web, Macromedia said at the time.

But Flashs popularity began to wane after Apples decision not to support it on the iPhone.

In a public letter in 2010, late Apple CEO Steve Jobs criticized Flash`s reliability, security and performance. Since then, other technologies like HTML5 have emerged as alternatives to Flash.

In the past year, several web browsers have begun to require users to enable Flash before running it.

On Google`s Chrome, the most popular web browser, Flashs usage has already fallen drastically. In 2014, Flash was used each day by 80 percent of desktop users. That number is now at 17 percent and continues to decline, Google said in a blog Tuesday.

This trend reveals that sites are migrating to open web technologies, which are faster and more power-efficient than Flash, Google said. Theyre also more secure."

Flash, however, remains in use among some online gamers. Adobe said it will work with Facebook as well as Unity Technologies and Epic Games to help developers migrate their games.

Adobe said it does not expect Flashs sunset to have an impact on its bottom line. In fact, we think the opportunity for Adobe is greater in a post-Flash world, Balakrishnan said.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday registered a case into the recovery of explosives in the Uttar Pradesh assembly earlier this month, an official said.

The central probe agency filed an FIR at its branch office in Lucknow and the probe would begin immediately, the official said.

The home ministry earlier today had ordered the National Investigation Agency to take up the case.

The ministry's decision came after it received a report and recommendation from the Uttar Pradesh government on the recovery of PETN at the assembly premises on July 12.

About 150 grams of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition, Ram Govind

Choudhary, in the assembly on July 12.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had described it as a "dangerous terror conspiracy" and recommended a probe into the incident by the NIA.
Mathura: Two persons including a child were killed and seven others of a family were injured when a speeding car rammed into a divider on Yamuna Expressway, police said on Wednesday.

The family was returning from their parental home based in Pachokara village in Ferozabad district when the driver lost control of the vehicle.

"The deceased have been identified as Vivek (20) and Palak (6), both residents of Delhi," police said.

The injured were rushed to a hospital in Noida where they are recuperating.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said his government is fully committed to safeguarding the interest of home buyers and redressing their problems.

Adityanath launched the website of UP Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP RERA) and said it will help the government redress problems of home buyers in a speedy manner.

The chief minister said buyers are disappointed over builders' failure to meet project deadlines.

Confidence between builders and consumers was essential for the growth of the real estate sector, he said.

"The state government is fully committed to safeguarding the interest of house buyers in the state and redressing all their problems," Adityanath said.

"There has been a lack of confidence between builders and consumers because of failure to meet project deadlines. The central government has now brought the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 ... Consumers will get their houses in time. It will also resolve issues of builders," he added.
Beijing: China stepped up its warning to Botswana on Wednesday over a planned visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next month, demanding the African nation respect China`s core interests.

The Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, 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.

China has already "clearly" expressed its point of view about the Dalai Lama`s visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing.

"Issues relating to Tibet concern China`s sovereignty and territory integrity. We demand the relevant country earnestly respect China`s core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter," Lu said, using stronger language than before on the issue.

"China will not interfere in other countries` internal affairs, but will certainly not tolerate another country doing anything that harms China`s core interests," he added, without elaborating.

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 sent its troops into Tibet in 1950.

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, denies he is seeking independence for his Himalayan homeland. He says he is merely seeking greater rights, including religious freedom and genuine autonomy.

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 neighbour, 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.
Kabul: An Afghan district chief and five of his bodyguards have been killed in a roadside mine blast in Farah province, an official said on Wednesday.



The incident took place late on Tuesday in Shib Koh district when Abdul Rahim Haidari was on way home from his office, Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.



"Haidari`s vehicle was hit by a roadside mine," the official said.



No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Brussels: The EU warned Poland on Wednesday it would suspend its voting rights in the bloc if it pushes ahead with controversial judicial reforms, sparking accusations of "blackmail" from a furious Warsaw.

Brussels said President Andrzej Duda's unexpected vetoing of two controversial reforms, including one targeting the supreme court, had not ended the risk to the independence of Polish judges.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the Polish crisis posed a threat to democratic standards not just in that country but across the 28-nation bloc.

"In this past week some things have changed in Poland -- and some things have not," Timmermans told a news conference in Brussels after a fresh high-level meeting on the crisis.

The Dutchman said the laws "would have a very significant negative impact on the independence of the Polish judiciary and would increase the systemic threat to the rule of law".

With Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party vowing to push ahead with the reforms, Timmermans warned in particular against the mass sacking of supreme court judges.

"If such a measure is taken the commission is ready to immediately trigger the Article 7 procedure," Timmermans said.

Article 7 is a never-before-used EU process designed to uphold the rule of law, a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers.

The legal reforms have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears for the rule of law in one of the EU's leading eastern former communist states.

Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads over the legal changes ever since the PiS took power in 2015 and announced reforms to Poland's constitutional court.

The latest threats infuriated Warsaw.

"We won't accept blackmail on the part of EU officials, especially blackmail that is not based on facts. All the laws prepared by the Polish parliament are in compliance with the constitution and democratic rules," Polish government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told the PAP news agency.

"We regret that Timmermans, who is unfamiliar with the draft laws and Poland's legal regulations, has formulated unfair criticism against Poland."

This month the Polish government pushed through a bill that would have reinforced political control over the Supreme Court and another allowing parliament to choose members of a body designed to protect the independence of the courts.

Duda vetoed those two while signing into law another measure that allows the justice minister to unilaterally replace the chief justices of the common courts.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has insisted that PiS will press ahead with the others.

The European Commission said it will launch separate legal action against Poland over the reform targeting the common courts. That could lead to Poland being hauled before the bloc's highest court and eventually given a fine.

EU President Donald Tusk -- a former Polish prime minister whose reappointment earlier this year sparked another big row between Warsaw and Brussels -- has warned that the Polish measures risk taking the country "backwards and eastwards."

The Poland crisis threatens to deepen an east-west split in the EU, with fears that authoritarian governments in eastern states are undermining the 28-nation bloc's fundamental democratic principles.

While the EU's announcement today marks a further raising of the stakes in its confrontation with Poland, the chances are slim that its voting rights could actually be suspended.

Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed he would instantly veto any such move by the EU.

Hungary itself faces EU legal action over laws targeting education and foreign civil society groups, while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also face action for ignoring the bloc's migrant relocation quotas.

The EU brought in Article 7 in response to fears about the rule of law in the wave of eastern states like Poland joining after 2004, although it was mainly intended as a backstop or threat that had little chance of being used.
Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said Tehran will respond to any breach of the nuclear deal by Washington after US House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill.

Iran`s national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session to discuss its response, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Iranians well know that they should resist and stand against their enemies," he said. "Over the past 40 years (following the victory of the Islamic Republic in 1979), Iranians have faced numerous pressures, sanctions and accusations by the US politicians and their propaganda machine."

"Americans cannot tolerate an independent and influential country (like Iran) in this sensitive region," he said.

Parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran`s missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The US House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday, targeting Iran`s Revolutionary Guards as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran`s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields".
Aden: Three Yemeni soldiers have died in an attack by suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen on a local security chief in the southeastern Hadramawt province, the army said on Wednesday.

The attack yesterday targeted the head of security for Dhaliah district, north of the provincial capital Mukalla, the army said in a statement.

Al-Qaeda militants remain active in southern and southeastern Yemen despite repeated campaigns against them by government forces.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Huthi rebels to expand its presence.

The United States has intensified its air attacks on suspected AQAP sites in Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.

Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

More than 8,000 people have been killed and a further 44,500 wounded since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the conflict in March 2015.
Bamako: A UN helicopter crashed in northern Mali on Wednesday in an apparent accident while serving with the 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in the country, a UN source told AFP.

"One of our helicopters crashed in northern Mali today... This was an accident. We will release the toll later," the source in the northern city of Gao said.

The UN source added that "nothing at this stage" would suggest the aircraft "was hit or shot at". Northern Mali is the site of frequent fighting between armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

The United Nations force, known as MINUSMA, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission.

In 2012, Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on civilians, the Malian army as well as on UN and French forces.

Previously two Dutch UN peacekeepers died in 2015 when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali.
Washington: The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to impose new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea for their dangerous and belligerent actions that undermine America and its allies.

The Russia, Iran and North Korea sanctions bill was passed with a 419-3 votes in the lower house of the US Congress yesterday.

The bill is aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. It also seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its "continued support of terrorism."

The bill, that notably constrains President Donald Trump's ability to waive the penalties, is now headed to the Senate, where there is support for sanctions but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the is one of the most expansive sanctions packages in the history.

"It tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," he said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said the bill seeks to make it harder for Russia to use that type of coercion and empower other nations to join us in standing up against Russian aggression.

"These three (Russian, Iranian and North Korean) regimes, in different parts of the world, are threatening vital US interests and destabilising their neighbours. It is well past time that we forcefully respond," Ed Royce, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, an author of the bill, said after the passage of the legislation.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said the House vote on this tough sanctions bill sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that meddling in US elections will not be tolerated.

"Senate Republican leaders should move this bill as soon as possible, so that it can be on the President's desk without delay. Passing the bill on a bipartisan basis will send a strong signal to the White House that the Kremlin needs to be held accountable for meddling in last year's election," he said.

On the House floor, Congressman Joe Crowley alleged Putin's interference in the 2016 presidential elections was a blatant attempt to undermine and weaken American democracy, threats that have been met with disregard from the Trump administration.

"I'm glad my colleagues in the House voted to impose stronger sanctions on the Russian government and make it harder for the White House to lift existing sanctions. House Republicans should have moved on this long ago, as this is an important step forward to ensure that Russian leaders will face consequences for their actions," he said.

He added that this vote will hopefully also allow the Congress to get back to work for the American people.

"The numerous scandals emanating from the Trump White House on Russia are a distraction that has kept Congress from focusing on the issues Americans want to see progress on jobs, the economy, and expanded opportunities for growth," Crowley said.

According to The Hill newspaper, the vote amounted to a rebuke of Trump, whose administration had pushed to water down the bill's provisions giving Congress the power to veto the lifting of sanctions.

"While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President's desk," White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders said.

Royce said the bill represents broad bipartisan, House-Senate agreement that the United States must enforce tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

The bill, he said, gives the administration important economic and diplomatic leverage by targeting the things that matter to Vladimir Putin and his allies the most, their corrupt efforts to profit from the country's oil wealth and their ability to sell weapons overseas.

To ensure the current economic sanctions remain in place as long as Russian aggression continues, Royce said this bill empowers the Congress to review and disapprove any sanctions relief.

"This strong oversight is necessary and appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," he added.

Tehran continues to threaten Israel by providing funding and advanced rockets to Hezbollah, its leading terrorist proxy, Royce claimed.

"It continues to hold Americans hostage while developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. To strengthen the US response to the threat from Iran this bill includes provisions originally introduced by my counterpart, Senator (Bob) Corker, which increase sanctions on those involved in the regime's human rights abuses, its support for terrorism, as well as its ballistic missile program," Royce said.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - US President Donald Trump issued a veiled threat against Iran on Tuesday, warning Tehran to adhere to the terms of a nuclear deal with world powers or else face "big, big problems."

A week after certifying Iran as complying with the 2015 agreement negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, Trump made clear to thousands of raucous supporters that he remains extremely wary of Tehran.

Trump administration officials, briefing reporters last week, said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile programme and for contributing to regional tensions.

Trump devoted part of his speech in Youngstown, Ohio, to Iran.

"If that deal doesnt conform to what its supposed to conform to, it`s going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me," Trump said.

"You would have thought they would have said `thank you United States. We really love you very much.` Instead, they`ve become emboldened. That wont take place much longer," he said.

Fresh from a rare legislative victory in Washington when the Senate voted to start a debate on repealing Obamacare, Trump called on Democrats to end their opposition to his efforts but doubted they would.

"It`s time for Democrats to stop resisting. That`s their term, resist, resist. They have to do finally what`s right for the American people, but probably we`ll do it ourselves," he said.

Trump used his speech to revisit some of the themes that helped him to his improbable victory in the presidential election in November.

He railed against "radical Islamic terrorists" and vowed he wanted to keep them from entering the United States after the "total devastation" he said they had caused in Europe.

"We only want to admit those into our country who share our values," Trump said.

Trump came to Ohio amid a simmering feud with his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and facing a prolonged investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election.

He cast himself as an anti-establishment figure fighting entrenched special interests in Washington, a point that his wife, Melania Trump, stressed when she introduced him on stage.

"Washington has fought him every step of the way, but I know my husband and he will never give up," she said.

Throughout the crowd were reminders of the campaign from chants of "drain the swamp" to "CNN sucks." Several protesters were ejected, including a youth waving a Soviet-style flag.

"Boy, he`s a young one," Trump said. "He`s going back home to mommy. And I bet mommy voted for us."

Trump rejected criticism that he has a style as president that is not politically correct. He routinely draws criticism for his tweets.

"I`d say with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president thats held this office," he said. "But we have to move a little faster than that. We will never be beholden to the lobbyists or the special interests."
Washington: The US Senate voted to begin debate on how to repeal and, eventually, replace the healthcare reform implemented by former President Barack Obama, although it is still not known what the final form of the bill might be.

Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, presiding over the Upper House, had to use his tiebreaking authority to overcome the impasse between Republicans and Democrats, given that conservative Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against the motion to begin debate on the bill, Efe news reported.

Senate Republicans are not in agreement on how to overturn ObamaCare, but President Donald Trump has been relentlessly pressuring the GOP to push forward with some kind of healthcare reform and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell convened the vote to begin debate without a concrete text for the bill in hand.

So far, the three bills presented to attempt to overturn ObamaCare have not managed to garner Republican consensus, and thus Trump and the party -- although it holds a majority in the Senate - have been unable to fulfill one of their key campaign promises.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his recent diagnosis of brain cancer, returned to Washington exclusively for Tuesday`s session so that he could vote on the motion to begin debate on the healthcare matter.

McCain reportedly voted to begin debate, despite the fact that various analyses have estimated that some 24 million people would lose their health care coverage over the next decade if Republicans manage to push through some kind of bill to overturn ObamaCare.

All Senate Democrats, along with Collins and Murkowski, voted against the motion to begin debate.

However, about half a dozen Republican lawmakers kept their cards close to the vest until the last moment on how they would vote, having expressed serious doubts about the legislative alternatives to ObamaCare presented to date.

In the meantime, the mini-victory does not guarantee that Republicans will be able to find consensus within their ranks for some kind of bill to repeal ObamaCare.
The state of Arkansas is home to Tysons, Walmart, a Nestle plant and a Frito-Lay factory, but much of the food produced in Congressman Rich Crawford (R) of Arkansass first district is grown on family farms. According to Crawford, his district supplies about half of the rice grown in the US. The state is number one in the country for rice production and number two for broiler chickens, so its no wonder that Crawford sits on the House Agriculture Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. Crawford recently led a hearing on technology and data in agriculture in preparation for drafting the next Farm Bill, coming in 2018.

We spoke to Crawford about what role, if any, technology will play in the next Farm Bill, the issues surrounding big data technologies in rural farming communities, and a few local issues in Arkansas.

How will technology be integrated into the farm bill in ways that it didnt four years ago?

I dont think were going to have a technology title per se, but I think what were looking at is reviewing technology: how we implement it in policy development. One of the things that came up today in our hearing was being able to streamline these programs at the (Farm Services Agency) FSA office and how the producers interface with those programs. I think were going to be looking at opportunities to incorporate technology and improve services. And I think what the federal government needs to do mostly with regard to technology, is get it out of the way and let it happen. I think that what youre seeing in the marketplace is that it has the ability to meet the demand out there. The governments role in that regard is mostly to make sure that folks are playing by the rules and that producers arent being taken advantage of. But, the government should create a favorable environment for those technological advances to take place.

One of the most interesting parts of the hearing today was around crop insurance and how technology can make that whole system more efficient and more accurate. Do you think there is a role for the federal government to play in integrating some of the existing digital agtech out there into crop insurance assessment and reporting since the government is such a huge stakeholder in that whole ecosystem?

I think obviously the government plays a role in that at this point in time. The question is going to be how much of a role will the government continue to play and for how long? And can we rely on technology to help bridge that gap? In the short term, certainly yes, the federal government is going to be involved and continue to be. In the long term, technology could make it much more favorable for the government to limit the role that it plays, and then rely more on the marketplace. None of this is going to change markedly overnight, but I do think were on a path to a greater reliance on technology and less reliance on government.

Lets move on to broadband. It seemed at the recent hearing as if both the representatives and the private sector witnesses were looking at each other asking What are you going to do about it? How do you think the rural broadband issue gets tackled and who makes the first move?

Well, one of the questions asked was how much will it cost? And so far, nobody knows. And so I think there has to be some consideration there because regardless of what role who plays, whether were going to rely on the federal government for this, or whether were going to rely on the private sector, we still need to get our arms around what this is going to cost because as I said in the hearing, I believe this is like a three-legged stool. One leg is the technology that changes quickly, so there are going to have to be rural telecoms, ideally, but not necessarily rural. Then we have the infrastructure. Whos got the infrastructure? Whos got access to these rural areas? And the third leg of that stool is finance. Whos gonna pick up the tab and how? Are we going to do a public, private partnership? You cant bond this out in rural communities because you dont have the population to pay that back. Were going to have to have probably some sort of public, private partnership. Whos going to step up and do that? We dont really know.

All were hearing is rhetoric in the private sector and rhetoric at the federal level. Its the next challenge for the 21st century, just like rural electrification was for the 20th century. I think the time has come to stop talking about it and actually figure this out. And the first step is can we get some estimate of what its going to cost so when we start talking about this investment, we can put a dollar figure to it? We do know that per person it is going to be considerably more expensive than it would be for broadband in major metropolitan areas. That is an issue and those are things that, as technology continues to advance, maybe that cost curve bends down in a more manageable way. But we first need to know in real-time today what its going to cost to connect rural America.

Could you ask that question, fund that research, and get that answer through the farm bill?

Sure! And I think that is probably going to come to fruition and that probably is the extent of the federal governments role at this point beyond whats already there in terms of rural utilities. We probably do need to put a provision in the farm bill to do some kind of a study so that we can know just exactly how much it would cost in 2018 dollars to connect rural America and then go from there. And then once we have a fairly good ballpark figure, then we can take that three-legged stool I mentioned before and start to engage those players. And as I said, Id like to see the federal government play less of role in these kinds of things, but we cant rely 100% on the private sector on this because I think the cost of this is going to be so much that there is going to need to be some federal help. But I do think there is potential for non-federal dollars at the state level and for private investment.

It seems like you have two major food players in your state that would have a vested interest in spreading broadband through rural communities. Do you talk to the big ag and food players in your state about this issue?

I talk to anybody that is interested. Obviously, I have an interest in my district, in my state. But I have an interest in rural America and I represent a rural district. And in spite of the fact that we have the metropolitan area of Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas which is home to Walmart and Tysons and a couple other industries, were still a decidedly rural state. If you think about North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, these are states that have a similar dynamic. We want to make sure that these folks that live down in Dumas, Arkansas have the same advantages that they would have in Little Rock or maybe St. Louis or Memphis.

We talk to a lot of startups and agtech companies for whom their physical hardware is quickly democratizing and so the value right now for precision agriculture is in that data and the analytics that they can draw from it. Todays hearing made it very clear that farmers are suspicious about data ownership and controlling their data. How do you think we mitigate this friction and keep technology moving forward?

Well, I think you have to bring it down to the turnrow level and you have to instill confidence in the producers. There are very valid privacy concerns and they are very well-founded. Farmers are inherently skeptical of the government as a lot of folks in rural America are, for good reason. I think weve seen some breaches that have taken place so that skepticism is certainly not unfounded.

One of the interesting things thats being developed is a co-op. Co-ops generally are comprised of farmers and generally have a board of directors, then they have a built-in level of trust there. So if you are able to create a tech co-op, then you would probably have a greater uptake and a greater willingness on the part of the farmer. It may be just as simple as that.

In every industry, it often seems to come down to trust between individuals, no matter how complex or impactful the technology.

Well, thats right and I think this is probably true in most farm communities and I represent a whole lot of them. Ya know, there are one or two bell-cows in the community that are early adopters and these are typically the more efficient producers, and theyre out in front on most everything. Theres something called the treadmill theory. The first ones on are the last ones to get kicked off. If you wait around too long to adopt technology, youre going to get left behind and were in an environment of consolidation already. So you dont want to contribute to that. If you expect to stay in business, youre going to have to adapt and implement new technology on your farm. So that means youre probably going to follow the bell-cow, but youre probably going to have to do it a little quicker and you might end up having to become a bell-cow yourself. And sometimes thats not the most comfortable position for farmers. But, in this day and age with these market dynamics, I think its important that you dont wait, but that you get out there proactively looking for every opportunity to improve your bottom line. Technology can certainly help do that.

Arkansas just accepted its first applications for cannabis growers today and Im wondering what you think about the potential for that industry in your state since its such a high margin crop compared to the mainstays of Arkansas.

I dont like it. I wouldnt grow it. Thats me.

So you werent in support of the approval back in November?

I wasnt. And Im sorry, I guess youre used to politicians giving you long-winded answers.

Well, in the agtech world, cannabis has been a force for innovation since the high margins allow for investment in research, technology, and genetics.

It all sounds good. Well see when we open Pandoras box. What we are not talking about are the security issues that are going to come with cannabis production. The equipment issues; so far there is no large, commercial equipment to harvest. Its like cutting cable. It all sounds real good. But maybe its going to be really labor-intensive. Maybe youre going to have folks camped out on the turnrow waiting for sundown so they can cut a bunch of it themselves and start selling it illicitly. We dont know. Are we going to put more pressure on our law enforcement now weve got to secure cannabis fields? These are the questions that havent been answered yet, so thats why I gave you the short answer.
YEREVAN, JULY 24, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Karen Nazaryan on July 24 held a meeting with representatives of different subunits of the European Parliament, press service of the Ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting the Armenia-EU recent developments, the ongoing works on forming legal framework at different spheres, Armenias participation in the EU programs were discussed.

Deputy FM Nazaryan said majority of commitments reflected in the joint declaration of Riga summit have been implemented, by attaching importance to the active cooperation both with the EU structures, including the EP, and the EU member states aimed at completely implementing them.

At the request of the guests, Deputy FM Nazaryan presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at creating respective conditions for moving forward the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and highlighted that Bakus unconstructive and provocative actions hinder that process.

Karen Nazaryan answered to numerous questions relating to urgent regional affairs.

Agreement was reached to continue such format meetings to discuss agenda issues.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan visited the National Gallery of Armenia, where he toured the exhibition on Armenian Kings and Queens in XVII-XIX European engravings and Armenian posters, which include unique and never before seen samples.

The exhibition includes materials from the collections of Hayk Demoyan, director of the Armenian genocide museum-institute, as well as the Armenian Museum of America of Boston, the Ararat-Eskijean museum and the History Museum of Armenia.

The Prime Minister also toured the History Museum of Armenia and viewed the collections and exhibitions.

The PM the museum executives discussed the digitization process and issues relating to boosting tourism.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. As of July 26, 2017, 65,000 tons of fruits and vegetables were exported from Armenia, deputy minister of agriculture Robert Makaryan told a press conference.

This year, 26,000 tons of apricots have already been exported, last year the figure was 19,900 tons. We havent had this kind of an indicator during the past 7 years. Apricot exports are underway, because stocked apricots are still available in refrigerators. Strawberry exports amounted 2500 tons, a two-time increase compared to last year. 5400 tons of potatoes were exported, which is three times more than last year. The main exports destinations are Russia, Georgia, UAE, Belarus and Ukraine, he said.

Makaryan said reprocessing companies have recorded nearly 67% increase in fruit and vegetable processing.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is taking insidious and provocative steps. The disinformation it spreads on Artsakhi ceasefire violations proves this, Davit Babayan, the spokesman of Artsakhs president told ARMENPRESS, commenting on Azerbaijans recent statement claiming that Artsakh has violated the ceasefire regime.

Essentially, Azerbaijans elite is outlining insidious and provocative steps. Thats why they initially work in the information field, prepare grounds by claiming that Armenians have violated the ceasefire regime, and they are the ones who open fire. During the latest Putin-Aliyev meeting, the stance that the issue must be solved through a peaceful way was clearly reaffirmed. Thats why, Azerbaijan is trying to make provocations to calm down its own ignored dignity to some extent, understanding that the international community opposes military operations, and also understanding that it is unable to settle the issue by force, he said.

Davit Babayan, and Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman of the Armenian defense ministry, said the situation in the Artsakh line of contact, as well as in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is generally calm.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament Ara Babloyan on July 26 hosted Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Argentina to Armenia Gonzalo Urriolabeitia, press service of the Parliament told Armenpress.

Welcoming the Ambassador, Speaker Babloyan highly appreciated the current level of relations with friendly Argentina.

In the context of expanding the inter-parliamentary ties, the Speaker of the Parliament attached importance to the productive cooperation of the parliaments and the friendship groups, as well as mutual visits between the two countries. Ara Babloyan said Armenia-Argentina friendship group is already formed at the parliament which will be chaired by Vice Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov.

Speaker Babloyan highly appreciated Argentinas official stance on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement which is in accordance with the stance of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, adding that Armenia sees the settlement of the conflict exclusively through peaceful negotiations.

In his turn the Argentine Ambassador thanked for the warm reception and congratulated Ara Babloyan on his election as the Parliaments Speaker. He expressed hope the traditional friendly relations between the two countries will further expand.

During the meeting the two officials discussed issues relating to the meetings and cooperation of the delegations of the two states within the frames of the Inter-parliamentary union assembly to be held in St. Petersburg in October.

The sides attached importance to the role and contribution of the Armenian community on developing the Armenian-Argentine ties.

The opportunities to constantly develop the relations between Armenia and Argentina and expand mutually beneficial partnership at various spheres were touched upon at the meeting.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Lake Sevan has potential for development of extreme tourism thanks to its peculiarity, underwater beautiful sites and wealth.

Today many divers are interested in high mountainous lakes, researchers of underwater basin of the Lake Sevan told reporters on July 26, Armenpress reports.

Sevan is a high mountainous and freshwater lake which is already a big difference. There are many divers who are interested in diving on high mountainous lakes. There are also other high mountainous lakes in Armenia. In terms of beautiful sites Sevan has great potential, for instance, rocky rocks, Ara Avagyan, vice president of the Underwater Research and Diving Center of Armenia, said.

He said the underwater flora is also unique, there are also different sized stone blocks that create a beautiful landscape.

Founder of the Center Stepan Kojayan stated that every tear they try to observe new sites, discover new and interesting places for diving. Recently we have invited people for diving aimed at making them get acquainted with this sport. We organize the diving based on the demand, he said.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Agriculture of Armenia Ignati Arakelyan on July 26 hosted the delegation led by Israels Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi who arrived in Armenia on official visit, press service of the ministry told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guests, the Agriculture Minister attached importance to the need to intensify the cooperation between the two states at various directions in agriculture field, stating that the Israeli experience in the agriculture field, mainly in terms of use of water resources, can be instructive for Armenia.

We are always open for cooperation and are ready to discuss all proposals which will boost the bilateral cooperation in agriculture field, as well as are ready to assist strengthening and promoting ties between the business circles, Ignati Arakelyan said.

In his turn the Israeli Minister attached importance to boosting the partnership between the two countries, by putting an emphasis on attracting the private sector and taking practical steps on that path. According to him, agriculture is perhaps the most natural field of mutual partnership between Armenia and Israel.

The guests informed that the Government of Israel plans to implement new programs in Armenia. In particular, the Israeli businessmen are interested in establishing a milk processing factory in Armenia, as well as holding long-term trainings for students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to introduce them on Israeli agricultural experience and install the latest technologies in Armenia.

Tzachi Hanegbi invited the Armenian Minister to visit Israel to attend Watertech and Agritech international agricultural exhibitions.

In his turn the Armenian Minister asked his Israeli counterpart to convey the invitation to take part in the ArmProdexpo annual specialized exhibition which will be held in Yerevan in October.
YEREVAN, 26 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 26 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 478.76 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.04 drams to 556.89 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 7.99 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.24 drams to 623.25 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 20.53 drams to 19308.34 drams. Silver price down by 2.96 drams to 251.05 drams. Platinum price down by 171.42 drams to 14253.45 drams.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

Vote

View Results
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is sentenced to three years imprisonment in Azerbaijan, has submitted an appeal with a request to be extradited to Israel, his attorney Edward Chernin told TASS.

Today I met with Lapshin. He submitted an appeal for his extradition to Israel, Chernin said, adding that the blogger refused to file an appeal against the courts verdict. Lapshin thanked the Russian Embassy for assisting on his extradition if he wishes, however, he wants to move to Israel, and for that purpose he sent a respective appeal, the attorney said.

Chernin informed that now the Israeli side must take an action, and in case of positive response Israel must officially apply to Azerbaijans justice ministry. According to procedure, the next step will take place in the court: the court will decide to extradite the blogger or not.

Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin was sentenced to three years imprisonment in Azerbaijan, for visiting Artsakh. An illegitimate arrest warrant was issued by Baku, followed by the travel bloggers arrest in Belarus and extradition to Baku, which sparked huge controversy and public discontent among scholars, journalists, human rights activists and politicians.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA)  the top Congressional expert on international tax law  continues to lead the way toward a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, a major Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) advocacy priority aimed at expanding job-creation and poverty reduction through increased bilateral trade and investment, ANCA reported.

ANCA leaders from across the United States met recently with Congressman Sherman on Capitol Hill to consult with him about the steps needed to bring about the start of talks toward this bilateral accord, and, more broadly, to share the Armenian American communitys appreciation for his longstanding leadership on U.S.-Armenia economic relations. Rep. Sherman has worked closely with the Department Treasury, the Armenian Government, and other stakeholders on this matter.

I am encouraged that Congressman Sherman, himself a former tax attorney, has taken the lead with respect to the negotiations needed to conclude a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, ANCA Board member Aida Dimejian said.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Head of the General Department of Civil Aviation Sergey Avetisyan on July 26 held a meeting with Deputy Director General of the Russian Civil Aviation State Experimental Institute, head of the center of experimental flights Ruben Yesayan, Deputy Director General of the Institute, Director of the Aviation Certification Center Oleg Stadomsky and Chief Constructor of the Ilyushin Aviation Complex Nikolai Talikov, the Departemnt told Armenpress.

During the meeting the sides stated that they plan to test Il-76 aircraft and Mi-38 helicopter in Armenia in high mountainous regions and under high temperature conditions within a year.

A working group has been formed for that purpose.

The flight tests will contribute to expanding the cooperation between Armenia and Russia in aviation field.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan on July 26 held a meeting with the students of the Foreign Ministrys Diplomatic School, press service of the ministry told Armenpress.

The Defense Minister presented the current developments of international military mutual partnership, as well as the ongoing joint programs with the member states of the CSTO and NATO.

During the meeting Vigen Sargsyan answered to questions of the DS students and expressed confidence that they will invest their entire professional potential on ensuring Armenias further progress in international arena.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan on July 26 hosted the delegation led by Adjutant General of the Kansas National Guard, USA, commander of the National Guard, Major-General Lee Tafanelli, press service of the ministry told Armenpress.

The delegation was accompanied by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the US to Armenia Richard Mills.

During the meeting the results of ongoing programs within the frames of cooperation between the Armenian defense ministry and the Kansas National Guard were summed up.

Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan attached importance to the achievements reached as a result of steps taken aimed at assessing the Armenian subunits getting prepared to take part in military medicine and peacekeeping missions, as well as outlined the cooperation development prospects.

The American side expressed readiness to continue the cooperation at these directions with long-term programs format, and highlighted the need to organize military-medical service, training and education for personnel, provide consultation on rehabilitation programs and in other spheres.

Other issues of mutual interest were also discussed at the meeting.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Armenia completely denies the joint statement of the Azerbaijani defense and foreign ministries according to which on July 26 the Armenian Armed Forces units have shelled the Azerbaijani military posts, as well as civilian settlements, press service of the ministry told Armenpress.

The ministrys announcement says:

The Armenian Armed Forces have not carried out any action along the entire length of the border and they even didnt fire any shot. Moreover, unlike Azerbaijans constant working style, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia never target civilian settlements, and the reports on shelling them are primitive disinformation or an information preparation attempt for further provocations of the Azerbaijani side.

Armenias Defense Ministry warns Azerbaijans military-political leadership that in case of any provocation the Armenian side will take tough counter measures and calls on to refrain from new adventurisms which can lead to unpredictable consequences for the entire region.

The best way to avoid the practice of empty accusations is the unconditional implementation of the 1994-1995 ceasefire agreements, the implementation of agreements reached at the Presidents level on increasing the capabilities of the team of the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and installing investigative mechanisms for incidents.
UPDATE: Several transgender servicemembers have contacted the ACLU and other civil rights organizations such as OutServe and Lambda Legal with the intention of mounting a lawsuit against Trump's policy.

TRUMPINGTON, D.C.Transgenders are the single most discriminated-against minority in the country today, and in a series of tweets published earlier this morning, U.S. Pr*sident Donald Trump announced that the U.S. government will now officially discriminate against transgendered individuals who are currently serving or who wish to serve in the U.S. military. The announcement was made on the 69th anniversary of President Harry Truman's executive order that that same U.S. military stop discriminating against persons of color and begin to fully integrate black Americans into all military units.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump wrote. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

But Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) wasn't having any of it.

"I know because I served on active duty," Lieu said. "The military doesn't care what your sexual orientation or identity is, or who you love. It cares about whether you can shoot straight and complete the mission. The president's discriminatory decision harms our military readiness for our volunteer-based military. Thousands of transgender Americans are already in the military. Why? Because they are qualified, patriotic and willing to die for their country. There is zero evidence a transgender sniper would be any less qualified than a gay sniper or a straight sniper. Today is a sad day for America."

Also coming out (no pun intended) on Twitter against the new policy were Hollywood personalities George Takei, Judd Apatow, Lena Dunham, Seth Rogen, James Corden, Ava duVernay, Paul Feig, Debra Messing, Samantha Bee, Mia Farrow, Rob Reiner, Alan Cumming, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Demi Lovato, Sandra Bernhard, Laverne Cox, Ellen DeGeneres, Miley Cyrus... and Caitlyn Jenner.

Trump's far-right religious supporters have universally condemned the fact that former President Obama sanctioned transgenders already serving in the military to be allowed to serve openly, and had set July 1 as the date on which openly transgendered individuals could enlist in the service, but Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis recently delayed that "open enlistment" for six monthsbut now it appears that not only will transgenders not be able to join up after all, but there is a likelihood that those trans people already serving will be discharged before their enlistments are up. It is also not known whether those discharges will be "honorable" or something else.

Trump's statement about the military being "burdened with the tremendous medical costs" appears to be the brainchild of Rep. Vicki Hartzler (R-Missouri), who had offered and then withdrawn an amendment to block transgender troops during a House Armed Services committee meeting in late Junebut said that she might revive the amendment depending on what the Defense Department (read: Secretary Mattis) had to say on the issue.

"The Obama transgender policy, which was implemented without input from members of Congress, is ill-conceived and contrary to our goals of increasing troop readiness and investing defense dollars into addressing budget shortfalls of the past," Hartzler said in a statement. "By recruiting and allowing transgender individuals to serve in our military we are subjecting taxpayers to high medical costs including up to $130,000 per transition surgery, lifetime hormone treatments, and additional surgeries to address the high percentage of individuals who experience complications."

However, science puts the lie to Hartzler's cost claims. In a study conducted by the RAND Corporation last year, researchers found that there are only approximately 2,450 transgendered servicepeople currently serving in the military, with a total enlistment of 1.3 million non-TGs currently on active duty, and that "Only a subset will seek gender transitionrelated treatment." Moreover, they estimated that "the cost of extending gender transitionrelated health care coverage to transgender personnel ... would increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures." Additionally, they found that "Commanders noted that the policies [of transgender integration] had benefits for all service members by creating a more inclusive and diverse force" with "little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness."

Oh, yeah; and then there's this little ditty: According to the Military Times, data from the Defense Health Agency indicate the U.S. Department of Defense spent $41.6 million on Viagra and $84.24 million total on drugs for erectile dysfunction in 2014.

As expected, the usual right-wing hate groups were all in favor of the ban.

"Liberty Counsel has been involved in this military issue by meeting with White House officials and others about the need to reverse the Obama policy," according to an email sent to supporters this morning by the conservative legal organization. "Last Friday, Jonathan Alexandre, Director of Public Policy at Liberty Counsel, met with White House officials and discussed this issue, stressing the importance of the President's power to direct his generals to prioritize unit cohesion and military readiness rather than sacrificing them to the demands of the transgender lobby...

"I applaud President Trump for making America safe again," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The military is a lethal weapon designed to protect America and our allies. It is not a social club, a social experimentation petri dish, or ClubMed. The focus should be military readiness and unit cohesion. The President has kept his promise to return to military priorities by not continuing the 'transgender' policy that undermines unit cohesion, preparedness, and morale. The duty of military officers is to appropriately lead and prepare their personnel to serve and protect, and they cannot do that when there is confusion, dysfunction, and safety issues within the barracks," said Staver. [All emphasis in original]

Not to be left out, the ultra-conservative Family Research Council also chimed in: "I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military prioritiesand not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nations military," claimed FRC President Tony Perkins, who called the move "fearless" and "gutsy." "The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda... The last thing we should be doing is diverting billions of dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery. However, the cost to readiness, recruitment, retention, morale and cohesion would have been even greater under the Obama policy. As our nation faces serious national security threats, our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically-correct distractions like this one."

And what would right-wing assholishness be without Don Wildmon's bigoted organization?: "The American Family Association has been highly critical of the transgender military policy of President Obamas administration. AFA applauds President Trump for his courageous decision to end the usage of our military for social engineering and political correctness. American families deserve a military that is focused solely on readiness and national defense."

The National Center for Transgender Equality had a somewhat different view: "This is simple bigotry. This attack has nothing to do with military readiness, reason or science. It is indefensible and cannot stand. NCTE is telling the President that using the lives, the careers, and the service of transgender troops to attempt to score political points is not OK," wrote Mara Keisling, NCTE Executive Director. "This is worse than 'dont ask, dont tell,' this is 'don't serve, don't serve.' And to turn away qualified recruits simply because of who they are is a shameful way to show our country's gratitude to the people who serve and protect our country." [Emphasis in original]

Several transgender actresses in the adult industry have also had experiences in the military, almost universally before they officially transitioned, though many were aware that their feelings about their own gender did not line up with what the military expected of them.

"I joined the Army when I was in my early 20s, well before I knew much about being trans, or even what being trans meant (I didn't transition until I was 50)," said TG actress Becca Benz in a statement to AVN. "I was trying to figure out what to do with my life and the military seemed like a good option. It was a good experience and I gained a lot of maturity and discipline, and met my future wife. But my dysphoria was difficult to manage at times, to the point where I'd shave my legs, even with the risk of getting caught and outed, and potentially discharged.

"I've always been very proud to have served my country; it was an honor," she added. "But after reading that Trump reinstated the ban, I felt like it was a slap in the face. Trans people have a higher rate of service than cis people and we have served honorably and proudly. Trans people like Navy SEAL Kristin Beck, and Shane Ortega, the first trans person to serve openly, have brought much needed positive attention to trans veterans and the issues we face, along with the fact that being trans does not make us any less of a soldier or less competent. So yes, I feel outraged at the betrayal of my country, and also that so many trans people voted for Trump."

Becca also devoted her column on Grooby.com to this issue.

Natalie Chen, who joined the military reserves right out of high school, after 9/11 and while the war in Afghanistan was in full swing, had a similar experience.

"This was really something I wanted to be a part of; I felt that I really wanted to go and experience and serve these people," Chen told AVN. "And also my grandfather was a Navy corpsman in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and I felt this would be a good way to connect with him and be part of that legacy. I did not know I was trans when I joined, and I joined the reserves because I was worried about my eyesight at the time, and I had to trick my mom into letting me get medical clearance first, which worked out. I went on deployment, and ended up coming back and going to school since I was in the reserves, and then had another deployment and came back and went to college as an undergrad in 2010. It was there that I figured out I was trans, since I was grappling with depression and trying to figure out my identity, and I started looking into transitioning at that time, but I stopped it because I thought, 'If I transition, I have to get out of the military,' and I wanted to stay in more than anything; I really, really enjoyed it, and I knew the war was still going on, we had deployments slated for Afghanistan, so I volunteered for another deployment. But while I was on leave, I realized that this transgender 'dysphoria' was not going away, though I thought I could ignore it and stay in the military, but I realized it wasn't going away, it would get worse, and I'd have to deal with it. But when the military canceled a scheduled deployment in 2012, I got out along with a lot of friends, and that's when I started going through my transition process."

Chen also has a unique if quite logical reaction to Trump's announcement.

"I feel like it's not coming from any real authentic concern for military efficiency," she said, "and it's ironic because a lot of the complaints are that, 'Oh, the military shouldn't be catering to a special group's wants or needs,' but basically, this whole ban is catering to a group that is transphobic and is afraid of trans people and is paranoid that they're going to go and exploit the military when they aren't; trans people just want to serve; they just happen to be trans. They aren't there to get any special benefits; they just want to serve the same as everyone else, so he's just catering to another group. They all say the military shouldn't be used as a political tool. Well, he's using it as a political tool."

Actress Isabella Sorrenti, on the other hand, was well aware of her trans feelings early on, though she was unsure how to cope with them, until...

"Reality bit me hard and I soon realized I needed to do something to help suppress my feelings and desires," she told AVN. "I wanted help so badly and didnt know who to reach out to. I was scared coming from a small hick town in the middle of nowhere. I had a friend reach out to me regarding the military and I thought, what the heck, why not? ... I thought to myself that this would be the perfect opportunity to become someone macho and surround myself with a bunch of testosterone-filled meatheads. This was going to be the answer to my confusion and feelings. This was going to help suppress it and hopefully rid me of the pain I had felt inside for many years. So, I signed the paperwork, took the official test and within a short time after that was on a plane to San Diego, California...

"When I was in my MOS (Military Occupational School) Id get rides off base with my fellow Marines," she continued. "Id always go and fool around with trans women. I just wanted to get to know them better and determine if this is what I needed to do? I started to learn about Hormone Replacement Therapy and everything needed to transition but held off on it for a while. I was still afraid and stuck in a shell that needed to be broken. I couldnt breathe. It was third year in the field, I was attached to an artillery unit, and these feelings grew rapidly by the day. I remember hanging out with one of the Marines from my unit and drinking some beer in his backyard around a fire. Liquid courage helped me get my feelings out but at a cost. I told him that I had been going to clinics and speaking to psychologists about transitioning. At first he didnt know what I was talking about. The further we got into the conversation the more understanding he became. His exact words were, 'Well, what are you waiting for? Transition. Do what you gotta do to be happy in this life because if you dont do anything about it now, youll regret it later when youre old and wrinkly.'"

But not everyone in the service was that understanding: "Within the next few days I was called into the office of my Communications Chief and he started questioning me and asking he heard rumors about me being a 'faggot' and wanting to dress up like a drag queen. I wanted to deny my feelings but the cat was already out of the bag. I said, 'Fuck it. Ive come this far. Yes, it's all true, Sergeant. I want to be a woman so I can be more comfortable with myself.' Shit hit the fan after that. ... They went ahead and told me I was an 'Unsatisfactory Participant of the Marine Corps' and 'Mentally Unstable' so I was discharged with an Other Than Honorable Discharge. Its not a good thing but it was the first step towards becoming who I am today."

Sorrentini also had a few choice words she'd like to deliver to the Commander-In-Chief: "Transgender military personnel have more bravery than you'll ever have, Mr. Five-Time-Draft-Dodger, so don't try and justify your actions with useless information that is inaccurate. As long as people are willing to serve and risk dying for this country, who cares what's between their legs? We need to embrace, NOT ban. The military is a job. Which means it is an unlawful employment practice to discriminate against any person because of that person's age, race, gender, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status or sexual orientation. This is a law, so how is it that YOU, Mr. President, are able to break it when YOU are supposed to be upholding our laws? I get that the people wanted someone different in the White House but come on??? This was the best choice? Expect your rating to go down even more after this debacle. As a former Marine myself I'm ashamed of this country and a lot of the people who uphold these archaic values. There is no progression whatsoever. This isn't the end of this because we will stand up, we will fight and we will be victorious in the end. You'll see."

One can only hope!

Pictured, clockwise from upper left: Isabella Sorrenti, Becca Benz and Natalie Chen.
Greggs has raised 85,718 for the Manchester Evening News (MEN) We Love Manchester Emergency Fund through in-store collections.

The donation, which is administered by the British Red Cross, will help support people who have been injured or bereaved by the Manchester Arena bombing in May.

Greggs said that, with a number of its customers and colleagues living and working in Manchester, this was a campaign that was very close to their hearts.

The baking industry has made several donations over the last few months to those affected by the Manchester attack. Warburtons raised 25,000 for the Together with Manchester Appeal, while Birds Bakery donated 10,000 to the British Red Cross Manchester fund.

A spokesperson for the MEN We Love Manchester Emergency Fund described the generosity of Greggs customers as incredible.

Weve been extremely touched by everyones efforts to raise money for the victims and those affected by the attack month, said the spokesperson. Thank you to everyone who helped raise the substantial amount for the M.E.N appeal.
Helmsley-based Thomas the Baker will mark Yorkshire Day on 1 August by selling special Yorkshire Day cupcakes.

The white rose cupcakes, which will be on sale from 1 to 3 August, will be priced 1.50 at its stores across the region. For every cupcake sold, a 50p donation will go towards the family businesss chosen charity  the Alzheimers Society.

John Thomas, founder of Thomas the Baker, said that as a Yorkshire company, it seemed right to mark the day with something special.

Weve got so much to be proud of in the region, with food and drink thats admired all over the world, and it should be something we shout about, Thomas said.

Introduced 42 years ago, Yorkshire Day celebrates centuries of Yorkshire traditions across the region.

In June, Thomas the Baker announced it had raised 10,000 for the British Heart Foundation through fundraising initiatives over the past 12 months.
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.
Heiniger and Eckerlin removed from government-sponsored forums when they questioned effects of large solar facilities on farmland



Tommy Cleveland, an official with the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, gives a presentation March 23 at the Moore County Cooperative Extension office. (CJ photo by Dan Way)

Ron Heiniger just wanted to be a farmer. He encouraged research to avoid solar industry encroachment on North Carolina's prime farmlands.But because of his academic study, the respected crop and soil scientist has become an unwilling poster child for anti-solar activists, vilified by the solar lobby, and chastened by his employer, N.C. State University.said Heiniger, who works at the Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center in Plymouth.Left unchecked, Heiniger says, replacing prime farmland with utility-scale solar projects could destabilize a fragile agricultural ecosystem. He warns about soil erosion, leaching contaminants, and ruining soil for future crop growth.Heiniger and Herb Eckerlin, an N.C. State professor emeritus of the College of Engineering, said they were silenced by the university. Cooperative Extension agents across the state were ordered to cancel popular public forums they had arranged independently to discuss pros and cons of the state's rapid solar growth.State lawmakers have jumped in, asking university officials if they have stifled viewpoints that don't align with those of the solar lobby.Local officials, higher education watchdogs, and grass-roots observers question whether N.C. State's North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center is a tax-supported lobbying arm of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association disguised as an academic pursuit.Heiniger and Eckerlin had been working with county and municipal governments to understand the complexities of proposed large commercial solar projects. They were encouraged to launch a speaking tour for farmers and other interested parties at county Cooperative Extension offices.Heiniger said.Neither Heiniger nor Eckerlin, who designed the Solar House at N.C. State, founded its Solar Center, and was instrumental in creating the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, oppose solar energy. They said they were interested in full disclosure about pros and cons so that government officials and North Carolina residents could make informed decisions about the renewable industry.They were joined by Tommy Cleveland, renewable energy project coordinator at the Clean Energy Technology Center, on a panel at Fayetteville.While Heiniger was driving to the event, Tom Melton, Cooperative Extension deputy director, called him and directed him to discontinue the series of scheduled forums. It was too late to cancel the Fayetteville session, but Melton eventually kept Cleveland on the panel, while replacing Heiniger and Eckerlin at future events.Melton said. Factually inaccurate information from the meeting was printed in newspapers, he said.Melton said he invited Eckerlin to lunch and told him if he would stick to facts and omit "the flamboyant comments" he could remain on the panel.Melton said he continued to be concerned after an event in Halifax that Eckerlin wasThe university and College of Engineering said Eckerlin was putting them in a bad light, according to Melton. To protect the university's reputation and educational mission, Melton told county Cooperative Extension offices not to allow Eckerlin or Heiniger on their programs.Melton said.State Reps. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, and Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, asked university officials to account for the removal of Heiniger and Eckerlin.Dixon said.Richardson attended the Fayetteville event. He called itMelton said forbidding Heiniger and Eckerlin from taking part in the panel forums resulted largely from complaints by Cooperative Extension agents. Eckerlin said agents were eager to work with them to arrange the meetings.Other complaints were registered by representatives of the solar industry, and the Clean Energy Technology Center, Melton said.Heiniger said.Eckerlin said.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told attendees of the Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Denver, that choice in education is good politics because it's good policy. The former philanthropist and gave a ringing defense of school choice and shared her intention to return more power to the states.The reason the Founders believed in empowering the states is because states are best equipped to solve the unique problems each of them face. I suspect all of you share that belief. New Hampshire has different challenges than Illinois, Utah or California. Leaders in each state are likely to better understand their own circumstances. They are closest to the issues, thus they are more able to devise solutions that someone perched in Washington DC.DeVos had strong words for critics who contend choice harms our public school systems.This isn't about "school systems. This is about individual students, parents and families. Schools are at the service of students, not the other way around. Now let's be clear, providing more educational options isn't against public schools It's actually not against anything. School choice is about recognizing a parents' inherent right to choose what is best for their children. That's the manifestation of expanding human liberty in America.Devos' themes of reducing government power and empowering parents were music to the ears of conservatives in attendance, many of whom had played key roles in the expansion of school choice programs across the nation and had grown used having no friends in the White House or at the Department of Education.How school choice will grow and change under an Administration and Education Secretary clearly supportive of such policies is not known, but after the last eight years, it's a refreshing topic to consider.Access Betsy DeVos' speech here
Only if the Republicans lose both the state House and Senate; otherwise, gridlock likely prevails

If you're a North Carolina political junkie, it must seem like Christmas came in July. Which Tar Heel politicos' stockings are filled with lumps of coal may depend on what happens Thursday in Greensboro.That day a panel of three federal judges finally will hear attorneys for the General Assembly, Gov. Roy Cooper, and a host of aggrieved voters argue why there should (or should not) be a special legislative election before the regular November 2018 contest. The panel must convince the U.S. Supreme Court that holding the special election under new legislative districts is important enough to set aside several provisions in the state constitution - particularly one mandating two-year legislative terms.The Supreme Court ruled in June the legislative districts, drawn in 2011, are unconstitutional. But the justices also said the lower court panel failed to justify the disruption a separate election would cause.Thursday's hearing will give those judges a chance to make their case to the high court.It's clear Cooper and the Democratic-friendly plaintiffs see a special election as their best chance to pick off enough Republican lawmakers to end the GOP's legislative supermajority. Democrats would have to gain three House seats and/or six Senate seats to break the Republicans' 60-percent margins in either chamber. Cooper then could force Republicans to negotiate, as a unified Democratic caucus would be able to sustain any vetoes.They also see opportunity. The Trump administration is unpopular and in turmoil. And midterm legislative elections in North Carolina tend to reflect national political trends - meaning the party controlling the White House (this time, Republicans) typically loses seats in the state legislature. Cooper launched a "Break the Majority" campaign last week with the backing of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Democrats prefer to strike quickly rather than wait for the regular election cycle to run its course.Whether you think justice demands a special election, or you see this lawsuit as an unconscionable violation of federalism, let's imagine the Supreme Court orders an election for a new legislature, late this year or early next year.What would the 2018 General Assembly do? Consider several scenarios:Seems unlikely, but remember the current General Assembly has sessions scheduled in August and September. They could schedule other sessions if needed. If Republicans have to hold a special election, they can and probably will load up the ballot with constitutional amendments designed to turn out conservative/Republican voters who might otherwise sit out an oddball election. And expand the General Assembly's powers in the process.Off the top of my head, I could see the GOP placing amendments on the ballot requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls; capping the state income tax rate at a lower level; enshrining hunting and fishing as constitutional rights; giving the General Assembly (rather than the governor) the power to appoint judges to vacant seats; removing the governor's veto powers; limiting the governor to a single term; limiting the governor's term to two years. All manner of mischief is possible, even if it's unwise as a matter of politics or policy.Upshot: If the supermajorities stand, Republicans will seek to shackle Cooper and future governors even more.Democrats and the governor are banking on one of these alternatives. Problem is, a divided General Assembly won't do much. Cooper will propose a budget. The legislature will ignore it and propose one of its own. Either it will pass by a margin that can't survive a veto or (if, say, the House goes Democrat and the Senate stays Republican) the two bodies won't agree on a budget and the General Fund plan passed earlier this year will stay on the books until June 2019.The two-year budget has enough money to fund state government until that time, unless we enter a recession, have a major emergency, or tax revenues come in far below projections.The General Assembly doesn't have to meet at all next year, so long as the government has enough money to operate at the level approved in the budget.Upshot: If the House and Senate can't pass a budget Cooper will sign, the current budget probably will stay in place and the 2018 General Assembly will do very little.This is the dream scenario for Democrats.Upshot: The new General Assembly would pass a budget reflecting the governor's expansive goals (and those of the newly empowered majority). Republicans and conservatives could not stop the liberal agenda.Democrats would try to cement their victories in the regular 2018 election, leaving Republicans divided and dispirited.If the special election takes place in 2017 rather than early 2018, I'd hedge my bets. I'd put some money on options 2 and 3. Yes, the president is floundering. And the Republican Congress can't get out of its own way.But the GOP's fundraising nationally is far ahead of the Democrats' - and a bunch of money outside North Carolina would flow into the state for a high-stakes special election.Even if the Democrats regain the General Assembly, they may not be in charge for long. They'll be held accountable if the state or national economy heads south, especially if Democrats reverse school choice, tax cuts, modest spending increases, expansion of state savings reserves, and other crucial components of the conservative agenda passed in recent legislative sessions.You can bet the mortgage on one thing, even so: If we have a special legislative election before November 2018, lawyers, political consultants, and lobbyists might as well have a license to print money. Some things about politics never change.
Law school faculties hold a sacred trust. We guard the outermost portals into the legal profession, a group that wields powers to shape society in profound and lasting ways.Several years ago, the law faculty on which I serve decided to fulfill our trust by educating lawyers in the great tradition of the liberal arts-to think critically and live virtuously. Students who enroll in the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law begin their studies in our Foundations of Law course, which is designed to dispose them to form their intellects and characters while they learn the techniques of legal practice.In the course, students consider matters both profound and useful. They examine the relationship between legal justice and natural justice, the difference between rights and privileges, the operation of formal logic in legal arguments, different approaches to interpretation and adjudication, and much more.Along the way, students are sure to encounter at least one idea that they find disagreeable. They learn how to disagree (rather than merely take offense), which requires them to understand ideas and not simply to reject words that they find emotionally uncomfortable.Our Foundations course, which all students take in their first semester, is unique among core law school courses. Yet that understates the neglect of virtue in legal education. Those who control the gates to legal practice think a lot about the knowledge, skills, and professional qualifications a person must attain before becoming a lawyer. But on the whole, they give little thought to what sort of person a lawyer should be.Law school admission standards, final examinations in courses, and the bar exam combine to filter out potential lawyers who lack the intellectual ability or public record to warrant admission to the bar. We sometimes disagree about the exact division of labor between admission officers, professors, and bar examiners in this filtering process. But few doubt that the overall job is to quantify and enforce objective standards, like a harvest operation assessing fruit for size, color, and shape. Data drive legal education toward the achievement of measurable skills, especially the ability to pass the bar exam and proficiency in the techniques of legal practice.Virtues, however, do not fit neatly in this process. They are not easily identified or quantified. In an era in which moral truth is thought to be subjective, lawyers are among the least likely to believe in objective standards of right conduct. Thus, law schools tend to emphasize only the information needed to pass the bar and the skills required for legal practice.Nevertheless, legal educators need not choose between training technicians to practice law competently and educating human beings to practice law virtuously. We can and should teach law students to discipline their minds and characters according to the habits, dispositions, and knowledge of law. That means not only techniques for achieving desired results for clients, but also a reason for choosing and acting in the world, a way of being and of bringing about legal and natural justice.In our Foundations of Law course, we pursue that goal through engagement with what one might call the "great books" of the law. The readings include not only landmark judicial decisions, declarations, and statutes, but also classic dialogues, treatises, letters, and stories. Socrates and Aristotle, Moses and Saint Paul, Blackstone and Bentham, Hamilton and Story, Holmes and Hart and Finnis. These and other ageless guides offer to lead students toward the elevation of their nature.Some of the most powerful readings in our course are parables. Parables defy contemporary pedagogical categories. But the parable is an effective (and ancient) method for teaching law and virtue, for it raises and motivates questions that are worth asking.In one parable, found in the Gospel according to Mark, a man plants a vineyard and builds a winepress and tower on his land. He then leases the whole enterprise to tenants and goes away. When the time comes, he sends servants to collect the rent. Rather than paying what they owe, the tenants mistreat the servants, sending some away empty-handed, beating others, and even killing some.Then comes the climax. The owner sends his own son. The tenants kill the son, mistakenly thinking that by their violent act they have acquired the son's inheritance. But the owner is on his way to destroy the tenants. The tenants do not understand that their doom is imminent. Overly confident in their affluence, they cannot see obvious truths. Their minds are darkened.A student who is not yet awakened to enduring truths might scoff at the tenants' folly. But one who recognizes that we inhabit legal institutions built by others, just as the tenants inhabited vineyards built by another, might be motivated to inquire whether we are more like the tenants than we care to acknowledge. A student who is merely motivated by self-interest will perceive at least the value of learning the law of inheritance.A student who is slightly more alert might ask why there are vineyards and wine presses rather than barren wilderness, and why there are courts and bar associations rather than a state of war of all against all. This inquiry might precipitate gratitude, which can transform one's understanding of property law from a simple grasp of rules to a richer understanding of dominion, stewardship, and authority to preserve and advance the common good.Further reflection along these lines might alert the student to the existence of duties toward those who came before us and those who will come after. Before the parable of the ungrateful tenants, students have read the dialogues of Socrates and Crito, Ismene and Antigone. The student awakened by gratitude might recall that Socrates and Antigone shared a sense of duty to something beyond themselves-Antigone to her dead brother, Socrates to the laws of Athens which secured for him life and all that makes one happy in it.A student who is fully alive might perceive that she is in some ways like the vineyard itself. She did not create her own faculties. That she came to exist was not inevitable. She might recognize that, like the vineyard, she can be made fruitful with the proper cultivation. She might wonder what sort of cultivation is fitting to a being of her kind. She might inquire with Aristotle what kind of being a human being is. With Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thomas Aquinas, she might ask what human nature signifies for justice and for law.With Locke, Blackstone, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence she might contemplate whether human beings are bearers of rights as such, apart from human law. With Bentham and Holmes she might perceive the imperative of listening to the articulate voice of the sovereign. And yet, with Lon Fuller she might also inquire whether the sovereign can make of law just what he wills it to be.Law students who grapple with such questions come gradually to see transcendent truths. They are not daunted by changes in the law, for they can locate new rules within enduring categories. And they perceive the ends that ennoble their practice of law.This summer, Carolina Academic Press will publish a text book that my colleague, Robert McFarland, and I designed based on our Foundations of Law course. We hope that the existence of such a book will bridge over one obstacle to the re-entry of virtue into law school curricula.




Canadas crime rate has remained essentially unchanged in 2016, according to report released by Statistics Canada. The latest release by the national statistics agency reveals a continuing trend of decreasing crime across the country over the past 20 years.

While Canadas overall crime rate, referred to as the Crime Severity Index (CSI), was up 1 per cent compared to 2015, it still sits 28 per cent lower than in 2006. StatsCan reports that violent crime declined by 1 per cent compared to 2015. However, there were increases among specific violations, with a 30 per cent increase of sexual violations against children, non-homicide related deaths were up by 14 per cent and aggravated sexual assault was up by six per cent.

The national homicide was down too, with the largest drops coming from Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia, giving the country a national homicide rate of 1.68 people per 100,000. Those were offset by rises in Ontario and Saskatchewan. The attempted murder rate also went down slightly compared to 2015, clock in at 2.14 per 100,000 people. Broken down to the provincial level, seven of Canadas thirteen provinces and territories reported decreases in their CSI values.

Thunder Bay was given a dubious mention for having the highest homicide rate among the census metropolitan areas, with 6.64 homicides per 100,000. The next worst city was Edmonton, which had a homicide rate half of Thunder Bays. However, the city with the highest total number of homicides was Toronto, with 96 recorded in 2016. Nevertheless, the citys homicide rate was 1.55 per 100,000, given the size of its population.

The latest numbers are likely to boost approval of the less punitive policies that Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals have pursued since coming to power. Since coming to power, they have moved to strike down tough-on-crime legislation that was pursued by the Harper government in the preceding years.
One of the men convicted of plotting to derail a Via Rail passenger train between New York and Toronto is now being treated for schizophrenia and wants to appeal his life sentence, a court heard on Wednesday.

Chiheb Esseghaier and his accomplice Raed Jaser were found guilty in 2015 of conspiring to commit murder for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group, as well as several other charges.

Esseghaier, who up until recently did not believe he was mentally ill and refused treatment, chose to represent himself at the trial, during which he ranted, fell asleep and spat in court.

While both men have already launched an appeal of their conviction, Esseghaier is now being treated with anti-psychotic drugs and realizes the "significance" of his sentence, his court-appointed lawyer said Wednesday.

Erin Dann said Esseghaier was suffering from schizophrenic delusions that caused him to believe he was going to die and ascend to heaven on December 25, 2014.

"He understands that to be a delusion. He understands it is currently 2017 and that his previous delusions in that regard were products of his mental illness," Dann said.

Esseghaier has instructed Dann to ask the Ontario Court of Appeal for more time to appeal his sentence.

"The diagnosis of schizophrenia has now been confirmed by a number of doctors. He has been treated with anti-psychotic medication and he is certainly doing much better than when I spoke to him soon after the verdict," Dann said in an interview following a brief hearing on Wednesday.

'Errors' made at trial

While Esseghaier was never examined prior to or during his trial, he underwent two psychiatric assessments ahead of sentencing.

Justice Michael Code ultimately ruled that Esseghaier was fit to be sentenced and there was not "a scintilla of evidence" from the pretrial and trial to suggest he was unfit to stand trial.

But Dann will argue to the Court of Appeal that Esseghaier's mental state meant he was not "meaningfully present" during his trial and unable to "fully engage" with the justice system.

Story continues

"I think there were errors made at the trial in that regard," she said.

Esseghaier was initially imprisoned at a correction centre in Quebec, but Dann revealed on Wednesday that he has since been moved to a facility in Abbotsford, B.C.

Dann said she does not know why this move was made or what led to Esseghaier's acceptance of his mental illness and treatment for it, something he had previously refused.

"I think it will be important to look at the progress he has made since coming under treatment for schizophrenia and the results of the treatment with anti-psychotics. That may also give us some insight into what bearing those mental health issues were having on him during the trial," Dann said.

Jaser appeal

Jaser's lawyer, John Norris, said questions about Esseghaier's are a big concern for his client.

Jaser sought to be tried separately from Esseghaier but the request was denied.

"It has a direct bearing on the severance question. For example, was Mr. Jaser required to have a joint trial with somebody who was in fact unfit to stand trial? That's a deeply troubling question that we'll be arguing fully," Norris said in an interview.
Learning Spaces

UC Merced Hosts Summer STEM Academy for Central Valley Students

Participating middle school girls learned to write code to help their robot automatically navigate a maze. Images courtesy of UC Merced.

In an effort to better prepare Central Valley students for university-level coursework, a program at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is holding on-campus summer workshops for middle and high school students to gain hands-on training in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The inaugural Bobcat Summer STEM Academy is led by engineering faculty and graduate students at UC Merced in collaboration with CalTeach, a UC-wide program that trains K12 math and science teachers. Several sessions are running June 12 through Aug. 4.

The summer academy consists of one- and two-week STEM workshops offered at $100 and $200 respectively. Students are taught the fundamentals of 3D design and prototyping, biology, biomedical sciences, computer science and robotics.

A student shows off her team's robot created in the Bobcat Summer STEM Academy. Credit: UC Merced.

To learn the basics of robotics, for instance, participating middle school students were given the Vilros Ultimate Starter Kit. Using Arduino microboards, student teams programmed robots to navigate through a maze. Meanwhile, students in the currently running high school track are using the Ultimate 2.0 STEM Robot Kit.

The summer academys short-term goal is to generate more high-quality, accessible educational opportunities in STEM for Central Valley students, according to Yanbao Ma, an associate professor in mechanical engineering who helped organize the summer academy.

There are lots of summer camps available throughout California, Ma told Campus Technology. Unfortunately, Central Valley kids dont have too many options at the higher academic level, especially compared to nearby students in the Bay Area. Educational outreach in the Central Valley area is very low. Many of these students are unprepared for higher education.

Eventually, Ma and other organizers would like to establish a hands-on learning lab as well as an institute dedicated to preparing Central Valley students for college, who are about half as likely to obtain a bachelors degree compared to the national average (16 and 32 percent for adults aged 25 or older respectively).

As the only research university in the area  one with many Central Valley students itself  UC Merced is in a unique location and position to take leadership and solve this problem, Ma believes. In other words, working with local schools districts is critical to UC Merceds future growth.

He noted the School of Engineering has shown enormous support for the summer academy thus far, offering students access to its 3D printing lab and additional resources. The lab and institute will serve to build a high-quality pipeline of students who are prepared for college and the future workforce.
Online Learning

Nobody's Watching: Proctoring in Online Learning

There is no single best way to handle proctoring for digital courses, as this community college system pilot discovered.

Using answers provided beforehand to pass online tests; checking a cell phone display to look up a formula in a closed-book exam; conferring with an unseen person in the room for the right responses. Cheating in an online course seems like it could be a simple matter for a motivated student.

That's why, as colleges and universities grow their online courses and programs, one aspect they need to nail down is how to ensure testing oversight traditionally handled by an impartial person sitting in the same room as the test-taker.

This is hardly a new challenge for schools. The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 lays out the rule: An institution offering "distance education" needs to have processes in place for verifying student identity to ensure that the student who registers for a class is the "same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit."

Yet, short of requiring students to come on campus to take their tests or sending out human proctors to every nook and cranny in the region, how does a school balance a desire to expand access to online offerings while still ensuring academic integrity? That was the challenge for the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative (CCC OEI).

Jory Hadsell, executive director of the CCC OEI, spoke at this year's OLC (Online Learning Consortium) Innovate conference and shared the solution: a combination of the use of an automated proctoring application and the creation of a network of colleges across the state that would provide no-cost proctoring on their campuses for students attending any of the member schools. Here's how CCC has succeeded.

The Background

The CCC has 113 independently accredited colleges, each with its own academic senate, curriculum and fiscal authority. There isn't necessarily course alignment among the schools, said Hadsell  and, by the way, the colleges "are set up to compete with one another for enrollments."

Twenty-four members of the CCC form the "pilot" colleges in the OEI, participating in a project to increase higher education degree attainment in the state while maximizing economies of scale by the sheer number of participants. As a body, they've adopted online course design standards, chosen Instructure Canvas as a common course management system and dipped into the use of open education resources. Those are fairly common practices among community colleges nowadays. But the "marquis" element of the OEI is an online course exchange.

Launched in 2016, the exchange provides the technical infrastructure to allow cross-enrollment among schools. "If a student needs a course that they can't get at their own college, there's an open seat at one of the other colleges," Hadsell explained. "In a really seamless way and with a couple of clicks they can enroll at that 'teaching college' and have all their units transfer back to their college." Getting that off the ground, he noted, "has been a heavy lift for us."

However, if students were going to able to obtain their credits online from any participating school, the one accepting those credits needed to know they were honestly earned. Likewise, the colleges were individually struggling to meet the regulatory requirements specifically related to student authentication.

Involve Faculty from the Beginning
News

Research: Improve Gender Equity in STEM by Emphasizing Environmental Protection

New research from Cornell University suggests that colleges and universities might be able to improve the representation of women in STEM fields by playing up the relation of those fields to the environment.

Researchers Dafna Gelbgiser and Kyle Albert, of the university's Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI), looked at nine million degree recipients in the United States from 2009 to 2014 and found that, in both STEM and non-STEM areas, green fields were systematically more gender balanced. The researchers suggest that such balance is the result of fewer gender norms and stereotypes in the green fields, which tend to be newer.

"The underlying implication of our results is that universities can likely increase the representation of men, or women, in gender-imbalanced fields like engineering or education if they emphasize their potential relation to the environmental movement," said Gelbgiser, a postdoctoral researcher at CSI, in a report about the research. "Our findings suggest that gender balance in STEM fields is malleable and these emerging fields can be a force leading to greater equality in higher education."

The researchers also suggest that women, who have traditionally been drawn to more care-oriented fields, may find STEM fields relating to environmental protection more appealing as they combine both caring and technical aspects.

"The 21st century has ushered in explosive growth at higher education institutions of such green fields as sustainability studies and environmental science; the total number of degrees awarded in green programs have increased by about 81 percent," according to information released by Cornell. "Although some of these fields are rooted in the life sciences  the STEM area with the greatest gender balance  most of them evolved from other fields, such as architecture, law and engineering, which have traditionally been male-dominated. The researchers found the greater the gender imbalance of the parent field, the greater the difference in the gender composition of green programs."

"Just by institutions changing how academic fields are framed, they can create better gender balance," said Albert, in a news release. "If universities carefully frame their curricular offerings to emphasize different themes, they can reduce the level of gender inequality in course enrollments."

The full paper is available at academic.oup.com.
The subscription box industry has come a long way since Birchbox started the trend in 2010. From healthy snacks to art supplies to books to accessories, there's a box for just about everything you can think of. In fact, there's so many options that aggregate sites like Hello Subscription and My Subscription Addiction have become a useful resource for shoppers hoping to find the best box for their buck.

There's no denying the convenience of having packages delivered right to your door. But when you sign up for a subscription box service, receiving those regular packages can tack on hidden costs you might not be considering. Read on to learn about the impact subscription boxes are having on the environment, local businesses, and your wallet.

It's Not Just Startups

The age of scrappy little companies putting together boxes on a shoestring budget seems to be ending. Big retailers are starting to cash in on the trend, too. Recently, Amazon joined the subscription box crowd, and began offering a variety of boxes. Subscribers can bag sweets, STEM toys, and even sample boxes (which can be essentially free after credits). Target offers beauty and baby boxes on a monthly basis, although they're in limited supply and they sell out fast.

A box full of Neutrogena and Secret samples from Target isn't going to impress Birchbox's crowd.

While some shoppers are obviously excited to try out boxes from big retailers, these boxes may disappoint more discerning subscribers. A box full of Neutrogena and Secret samples from Target isn't going to impress Birchbox's crowd. Even so, Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp recently wrote a Medium piece about how subscription services need to embrace a more traditional retail model if they want to survive.

Far From Green

Even environmentally conscious consumers might not think about the impact of having multiple subscription boxes delivered every month. Many subscription services are billed as "green" or "eco-friendly," and contain all kinds of natural, sustainable goodies. But how much sense does it make to buy a green box if it's being delivered by a vehicle that's adding to the pollution problem?

SEE ALSO: "Green" Cleaning Products Aren't That Expensive  But Aren't Always Green

Additionally, the idea of having organic snacks dropped at your door sounds great... unless you think about the non-green packaging. Even if the product is tucked into recycled or sustainable containers, it's unlikely that all the materials in those shipments are eco-friendly. Plus, it's up to the consumer to properly recycle everything that is recyclable. In the end, subscribing to an eco-friendly box is probably a step backwards if you're trying to reduce your waste.

Local Businesses Suffer

Subscription boxes are great for trying items you may not be able to find on your grocery store shelves. Services like the Cheese of the Month Club and OrangeGlad allow you to sample goodies from all over the country, and even the world. But when you buy that cheese from France, or that chocolate from Switzerland, you could be missing out on local businesses that are just as good (or maybe even better).

Opting for artisan monthly boxes means you're likely not supporting small businesses in the same category. And yes, that can have an impact on your local economy.

Opting for artisan monthly boxes means you're likely not supporting small businesses in the same category. And yes, that can have an impact on your local economy. When you're paying a steep $6 for a loaf of homemade challah or $4 for a jar of jalapeno relish, you're helping a local craftsman hone their skills. (At least you're saving money on shipping!)

Convenience Is Costly

Just because a box is offering you the chance to try a variety of products for one flat fee doesn't mean it's worth it. According to Liz Cadman, the creator of My Subscription Addiction, shoppers typically want the value of their boxes to be at least double what they paid.

SEE ALSO: Will New UPS Fees Make Your Holiday Shopping More Expensive?

Not every box can live up to that goal, though. For instance, paying for a meal kit delivery service can be incredibly convenient, as receiving the exact portions and ingredients for particular recipes makes cooking much easier. And yet, similar recipes can easily be found online  the kit's entire "value" stems from saving you a trip to the grocery store... where you could use coupons or choose cheaper brands to make your meal cheaper.

Not Every Item Is a Home Run

No matter what kind of subscription you prefer, there's always a risk of receiving a package of things you don't care about or can't use. And even if one box is great, that doesn't mean every shipment will be a winner.

No matter what kind of subscription you prefer, there's always a risk of receiving a package of things you don't care about or can't use.

Many boxes send out items based on a monthly theme. Other boxes advertise hand-picking or "curation" based on your personal style. Unfortunately, even personal stylists can't knock it out of the park every time. This is something to think about before deciding to go with something like Stitch Fix, where you pay for a box to be shipped to you, and then choose whether to buy the items in the box.

The Market Is Saturated

It's not uncommon to see a super niche company pop up, only to be followed by ten more copycat services trying to do the exact same thing. Even the most talented beauty gurus don't need eleven nail polish subscriptions every month.

And that's a shame, because it can mean your fav won't last. The box you take a chance on today might not be around a year from now. With heavyweights like Amazon and Target jumping on the subscription trend, you can expect to see more upheaval.

Readers, do you subscribe to any boxes? Do you think they're worth the price? Let us know in the comments below!
Anti-drugs czar Budi Waseso announced plans to guard a death-row prison

island with crocodiles. He now mulls adding tigers, piranhas and... ghosts.

Stories about drug kingpins operating their illicit businesses from inside Indonesias notoriously corrupt prisons pop up frequently, severely undermining the credibility of the countrys war on drugs. Budi Waseso, the head of Indonesias National Narcotics Agency (BNN), has often acknowledged this as a problem and recently suggested a supernatural solution to the problem  having prisons guarded by ghosts.





Ghosts cannot be bribed, except perhaps with frankincense, Budi said yesterday at BNN headquarters, as quoted by MetroTV





Now, to be fair, we must note that the media reports make it clear that the BNN chief was making a joke when he said that.





However, we must also remind our readers that this is the same Budi Waseso who previously pushed for the creation of a prison exclusively for drug criminals that would be built on an island and guarded by hungry crocodiles





Referring to that, Budi was also quoted yesterday as saying, Yes, Ive often said that if you do not believe in humans, we will work with crocodiles. If possible, ghosts would be the guards.





And, as he often made clear during the months in which his crocodile prison scheme was earning him mocking headlines around the world, he was not joking but totally serious about wanting to replace human guards with the incorruptible giant reptiles (as well as piranhas and tigers).





Budi said that BNN data showed that 50% of drug trafficking in Indonesia is controlled from inside prisons and blamed the lack of human resources from the government for allowing it to continue (for example, Cipinang Prison in Jakarta has 20 security officers overseeing 3,730 prisoners , which is perhaps how they failed to notice the luxurious AC and wi-fi equipped cell utilized by one elite prisoner).





The BNN chief also reiterated the seriousness of his crocodile prison proposal recently during an interview with ABC News Australia during which he (surprisingly) said he did not agree with the way that Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was conducting his countrys bloody war on drugs, but did recommend that the Indonesian government increase the use of the death penalty for drug traffickers as a means of deterrence.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
The Sixth Amendment provides that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall  have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. The right to counsel encompasses the right to an attorney -- a qualified attorney. Not, for instance, one who has been disbarred and prohibited from practicing law.





And yet, thats exactly what happened to TaiChin Preyor, who is scheduled for execution in Texas on July 27 . Mr. Preyor was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 for a murder in San Antonio. Mr. Preyors trial counsel, however, did not properly investigate known red flags regarding his background, including the violence and sexual abuse Mr. Preyor experienced as a child. These formative experiences are not an excuse, but this mitigation evidence, and other critical details about Mr. Preyors childhood, could have persuaded at least one juror to vote for a life sentence, rather than death.





Mr. Preyors trial counsels ineffective assistance at trial should have been presented to the state and federal courts on appeal. But, I contend that the individuals providing Mr. Preyors representation at that time were more interested in defrauding the courts than pursuing Mr. Preyors legal claims. One of his post-conviction attorneys, Brandy Estelle, was a California lawyer who practiced probate, estate planning and real estate and had no experience in death penalty cases -- which explains why her case files for Mr. Preyor included a printed-out Wikipedia page on Capital Punishment in Texas with highlights.





But Ms. Estelle didnt work alone. A recent investigation has revealed that she merely served as a front for the case, which actually was run by another individual, Philip Jefferson, who had long ago been disbarred in California for gross misconduct and chronic inattention to his clients interests.





Mr. Jefferson was introduced to Mr. Preyors mother, who was desperate to save her son, at the home of her niece over Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Jefferson told Mr. Preyors mother that he had worked with Johnnie Cochran, the famous attorney who received a not guilty verdict for O. J. Simpson. He offered to represent Mr. Preyor, but claimed his status as a retired attorney prevented him from signing and filing court documents. Instead, Mr. Jefferson offered to bring in a younger attorney, Ms. Estelle, to appear in court and file documents drafted by Mr. Jefferson and Ms. Estelle.





TaiChin Pryor

Ms. Estelle never informed the courts that a disbarred lawyer had a role in the case and was receiving compensation from Mr. Preyors mother -- even as she sought payments from both Mr. Preyors mother and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for the same work. In total, Ms. Estelle and Mr. Jefferson were able to get $45,000 from Mr. Preyors mother, wiping out her savings from years of work at the U.S. Postal Service, in addition to secretly seeking duplicative compensation from the courts for the same work.





That Mr. Jefferson and Ms. Estelle rendered services that were abysmal is not surprising. Among many examples of their shockingly deficient performance, the duo filed a federal habeas corpus petition that included no citations to record or extra-record evidence. A federal court later commented that the petition disregarded applicable federal law. Like his trial counsel, they also utterly overlooked compelling mitigation evidence in Mr. Preyors background and upbringing  including astonishing allegations that Mr. Preyor was sexually abused by a family member and removed from counseling as a young child out of concern that personal matters like this were being discussed.





Because of Ms. Estelles and Mr. Jeffersons efforts to mislead the courts and Mr. Preyors family, TaiChin Preyor never received anything close to competent representation in his state and federal appeals. He should not be penalized for Mr. Jefferson and Ms. Estelles seemingly unethical and potentially fraudulent scheme. Mr. Preyor has been appointed new, legitimate and qualified attorneys. And in May  just two months before Mr. Preyors scheduled execution  a federal court authorized funding for these attorneys to conduct an investigation and prepare a case on his behalf.





The courts or the Governor should allow Mr. Preyor the opportunity to be represented by legitimate attorneys  with valid law licenses  before his execution proceeds. If our system is to have integrity, we cannot allow the State to take Mr. Preyors life without a fair hearing, with effective legal representation, for his claims.





Source: ACS , Guest Post, July 25, 2017. The authors are John H. Blume, Samuel F. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques; Director of Clinical, Advocacy and Skills Programs; Director, Cornell Death Penalty Project, Cornell Law School.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
This month, U.S. Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., the Commander of United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) attended the dedication ceremony for the new multi-purpose training facility as part of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) in Gazipur and in support of the U.S. State Departments Global Peace Operations Initiative or GPOI program. U.S. Ambassador Marcia Bernicat and Bangladesh Army Chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq also made comments.

The new $3.6 million multi-purpose training facility provides the BIPSOT with a 750 seat auditorium and additional training rooms, and was part of nearly $5 million in U.S. Government assistance allocated to enhance Bangladeshs capacity to effectively train and conduct United Nations and regional peace support operations.

The BIPSOT will be the site for the Bangladesh Army and USPACOM co-sponsored Multinational Peacekeeping Exercise Shanti-Doot 4, scheduled to begin late February into early March of next year. The exercise is designed to increase participants interoperability and peacekeeping skills prior to deployment of UN missions.

2018 marks the 30th anniversary of Bangladeshs entry into UN Peacekeeping and Bangladesh is currently the fourth highest contributing nation with more than 6,900 troops and police serving in 13 UN peacekeeping operations.

The United States is proud to work with its partner, Bangladesh, to support the United Nations in providing needed peacekeeping to conflict areas.
The Russian Supreme Court recently upheld a ban against the Jehovahs Witnesses after the Russian Justice Ministry labeled the Jehovahs Witnesses an "extremist" group in April. It is the latest in a disturbing trend of persecution of religious minorities in Russia that includes the Church of Scientology.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert urged "Russian authorities to lift the ban on Jehovahs Witnesses activities in Russia, to reverse the closing of the Jehovahs Witnesses Administrative Center, and to release any members of religious minorities that continue to be unjustly detained for so-called extremist activities."

"We further urge Russia to respect the right of all to exercise the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief," said Ms. Nauert.

The Jehovah's Witnesses was organized in the 1880s in the United States. There are more than 8.3 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, including about 175,000 in Russia.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal committee responsible for making policy recommendations on international religious freedom to the president and Congress, also denounced the ban.

"The Supreme Courts decision sadly reflects the governments continued equating of peaceful religious freedom practice to extremism. The Witnesses are not an extremist group, and should be able to practice their faith openly and freely and without government repression," said Daniel Mark, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

This Commission has designated Russia as a "country of particular concern" for "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."

All religious minorities in Russia should be able to enjoy freedom of religion and assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Russian constitution.
The United States is deeply concerned over the recent violations of the ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which have resulted in multiple reported civilian and military casualties, including a young child. In a statement issued July 6, the State Department called on both sides to cease military action and return to the negotiation table.

In their statement released July 5, the Co-Chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group called upon the parties to cease military action as violence only begets further violence and accomplishes nothing. The Co-Chairs called upon the sides to return to the negotiation table in good faith. In an earlier June 19 statement, the Co-Chairs underscored that such negotiations are the only way to bring a lasting peace to the people of the region, who expect and deserve progress toward settlement of the conflict.

Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations Spokesman for the Secretary-General stated on July 6, that the UN also shares the concerns of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs over recent ceasefire regime violations, We [the UN] call upon the sides to refrain from any military action, and strongly urge them to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent further violence. An early return to the negotiation table in good faith is the only way to resolve this long-standing and dangerous conflict, Mr. Dujarric said.

For its part, the United States continues to engage intensely with the sides. The longstanding policy of the United States, shared by the Minsk Group co-chairs, is that a just settlement must be based on international law, which includes the Helsinki Final Act, in particular the principles of the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
Spains Interior Ministry has ruled out any jihadist motive behind an incident on Tuesday, which saw a 29-year-old man holding a large knife and shouting, God is great and Al Hoceima, freedom!  a reference to ongoing anti-government protests in that city  overpowered and arrested by police at the Beni Enzar crossing between the Spanish exclave of Melilla and Morocco.

Spanish authorities said that the mans actions were not motivated by jihadist sympathies and attributed his behavior to mental health problems.

The Spanish authorities said that the mans actions were the result of mental health problems

The incident took place at 7.45am, at a moment when the control point was very busy. The man was described by a witness as carrying a ham knife, given its large dimensions, and he threatened officers at the border control.

A quick-thinking police officer can be seen in a video from the crossing using a plastic traffic barrier to hit the man on the back of the head.

They took about three minutes to overpower him, using their batons and a shield, the same witness reported.

One of the officers suffered light injuries to one of his fingers during the incident.

The assailant has been placed under arrest but is yet to be identified. He is thought to be of Moroccan nationality.

Other police sources said the same man had caused a similar incident a few days earlier in the same spot after he tried to cross the border without identity papers. On that occasion he was not armed and was sent back to Morocco.

English version by Nick Lyne.
While in the Himalayas earlier this week, Spanish mountain climbers and expert guides Alberto Inurrategi, Juan Vallejo and Mikel Zabalza had something special planned: they wanted to trek from the Gasherbrum peak (8,080 meters) to Gasherbrum II (8,035 meters), without passing by the base camp, and taking a different route from the usual. On Sunday they realized they wouldnt be able to manage such a feat. But over the next few days, they would achieve something much more important, something invaluable: they saved the life of an Italian climber who had been left stranded at an altitude of 7,100 meters.

Alberto Inurrategi guides Italian climber Valerio Annovazzi, after his rescue on Gasherbrum II

The three veteran climbers were in the area as part of their Al ochomil en ocho pasos (To the eight-thousand meters in eight steps) expedition, which they are undertaking for their Walk On Project (WOP) Foundation, an organization that sees mountain climbing as a school of life, in which commitment, tenacity, effort and emotion are key, according to their website.

On Monday, while they were dealing with the disappointment of not managing to complete their chosen route, the team coincided with a group of climbers that were descending from the peak of Gasherbrum II, via the usual route. They were members of a commercial expedition  climbers who usually do not know one another, but jointly pay for the permission to go up to the summit, as well as for food services and porters. And unfortunately, this group had had to leave one member behind: 59-year-old Italian climber, Valerio Annovazzi.

The Italian had difficulties talking and was not making sense  symptoms of swelling of the brain

The group explained they had seen him alive at an altitude of 7,100 meters, but that he had difficulties talking and was not making sense  symptoms of swelling of the brain. Thanks to the telephoto lens of the WOP expedition photographer, Vallejo and Zabalza could see that the Italians tent was still up, and they decided to go in search of him at midnight on Monday, after taking a brief break to recover from their descent.

After 12 hours of slog, they managed to reach Annovazzis tent, giving him supplies, hydrating him and administering him medication. They immediately took him down to Camp 2, at 6,500 meters, where they all spent the night. Annovazzi, who had reached the summit, had not eaten or had anything to drink for four days, and was suffering from frostbite in his extremities. Unwilling to leave Camp 3, he was waiting for death, or for a miracle. Fortunately for him, he got the latter.

The climbers during the rescue.

The description from Mikel Zabalza via telephone of what happened is startling.

Valerio was almost frozen to death when we found him. I dont think he would have lasted another day. A doctor from the base camp explained to us how to give him dexamethasone [used to treat brain swelling] and with this medication and three liters of water the man came around. He had tried to come down by himself but he had no strength, and there is steep drop from Camp 3, and he had no fixed line. He was afraid that he would fall, and he tried it three times but had to come back, with no strength at all, to his tent.

Valerio was almost frozen to death when we found him. I dont think he would have lasted another day

Rescuer Mikel Zabalza

As he was unable to walk, they lowered him down with their ropes, something that took hours of effort.

By Tuesday, Annovazzi was able to get to his feet, and the three climbers used roping techniques to ensure the safety of the group and slowly started to walk down to the base camp. From Camp 1 to the base camp there were still nine kilometers of glacier to go  it wasnt steep, but it was full of cracks. Even though Valerio could walk, he was going so very slowly, and we had to stop constantly, explains Zabalza.

No helicopter could have reached us in those weather conditions, explains Juan Vallejo. For us this is the epitome of the mountain climbing that we believe in. Were happy because this is the best of the peaks. Life is a much more important summit. After the disappointment of the expedition we are hugely satisfied, says Mikel Zabalza.

The climbers descend a glacier.

No doubt Alberto Inurrategi was thinking about his brother Felix, who disappeared on the same mountain in the year 2000. He no doubt smiled to find himself in this situation, with its ironic twist of fate.

The type of climbing in which the trio believes is one that explores alternative paths, even though that might mean that when you leave the normal route and choose another, your chances of reaching the summit fall by 70%. The type of climbing in which they believe defends the values of the rope team: everyone goes up and everyone goes down together, they work as a team and everything is decided on as a group. The mountainside is not a battleground that allows for disorder, and three people working together are much stronger than three people thrashing around separately. For now, all of them would rather pass over a fact that, unfortunately, is all too common on mountains that are higher than 8,000 meters: that descents are usually a free-for-all that see the weakest left to fend for themselves.

Inurrategi was no doubt thinking about his brother Felix, who disappeared on the same mountain in the year 2000

Yes, its a story that you see happen again and again, says Zabalza. We understand the mountain from its noble side, and we will never get used to this kind of behavior. We knew Valerio from seeing him at base camp, so when we realized that he might be alive, we didnt think twice. How were we going to abandon him? he asks, adding that he felt very hurt by the attitude of many mountain climbers who didnt even stay at Camp 1 to give us a hand with the descent.

The history of Himalayan climbing contains beautiful stories of solidarity and some lamentable examples of selfish behavior. Valerio Annovazzi has seen the two extremes.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Russia should abandon the traditional pro-Armenian orientation so that everything goes smoothly in its South Caucasus policy, Yagub Mahmudov, Azerbaijani MP, director of the Institute of History at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), told Trend.

It is impossible to pursue a successful policy in the South Caucasus not taking into account Azerbaijan's interests, according to him. The ancient culture of our nation, todays strong potential of the country, its army and economic power create the basis for this. I really want Russia to stop defending Armenia in the issue related to Azerbaijan's territory. We support the policy of President Ilham Aliyev for the further development and deepening of Azerbaijan-Russia relations.

Mahmudov pointed out that the further development of ties between the two states can have a positive impact on Russias Eastern policy.

We have historical ties with Russia. Great Leader Heydar Aliyev played a very important role in the development of culture, science, healthcare and various socio-economic spheres in Russia, he said, adding that close historical ties between the Azerbaijani and Russian peoples are also rapidly developing today.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for the creation of Hajigabul Industrial Complex.

Under the presidential order, 4 million manats is allocated from the Presidential Contingency Fund for the establishment of the complex, which aims to encourage small and medium-sized entrepreneurship.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

The currently negotiated agreement on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU will open the way for broader cooperation with the Czech Republic as well, the Czech Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vitezslav Pivonka said in an interview with Trend.

"The Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are strategic partners and an agreement on this was reached in 2015 during the Czech President Milos Zemans visit to Azerbaijan. We are glad that Azerbaijan and the EU, where the Czech Republic is a member, have started the talks for updating the document that is the basis for their relations," the envoy said, adding the Czech Republic wants this document to open the way to broader cooperation, in economy as well.

Touching upon the Czech Republic-Azerbaijan ties, the diplomat noted that the level of these relations is very high.

"Both countries are similar to each other in many respects and it is not just about the population or territory size. The South Caucasus region is largely similar to the situation that prevailed in Central Europe several decades ago. In other words, we, the Czechs, are very well aware of all the nuances of living in the territory where the interests of many influential players of world politics intersect."

"My words are confirmed by the fact that our people cooperated even before the moment both our countries gained independence. We are right now working on a book that will for the first time present the rich history of the Czech-Azerbaijani relations. For example, in pre-revolutionary times, there was a Czech community in Baku numbering about 140 people," Pivonka noted.

The ambassador also pointed out the cultural influence of the Azerbaijanis on the Czech Republic.

"The Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are strategic partners. I am sure that this form of cooperation fully reflects the friendly relations between our countries. Moreover, we are successfully developing a database of documents defining the areas of cooperation between our countries. The intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, the meetings of which are held annually, helps us a lot in this," Pivonka added.

On November 14, 2016, the European Council issued a mandate to the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan on behalf of the EU and its member states.

The new agreement must replace the partnership and cooperation agreement signed in 1996 and must more take into account the common goals and challenges facing the EU and Azerbaijan today.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

Trend:

Continuation of Armenias war against Azerbaijan and occupation of its territories in breach and complete disregard to the norms and principles of international law, not only violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, but also poses serious threat to the regional peace and security, says a joint statement of Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, issued July 26.

With a view of ending the conflict and ensuring the peace and stability in the region the withdrawal of armed forces of Armenia from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is an absolute inevitability, says the joint statement.

According to the statement, the armed forces of Armenia by using heavy weapons continue in an intensive manner to violate the ceasefire and perpetrate provocations along the line of contact and the state border of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The armed forces of Armenia alongside with the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan deliberately and systematically shell civilians and civilian facilities in inhabited areas, says the statement.

It is very well known that on July 4, as a result of such brutal actions of the Armenian armed forces, 51-year-old resident of the village of Alkhanli of the Fuzuli district of Azerbaijan Sahiba Allahverdiyeva and her 2-year-old granddaughter Zahra Guliyeva were killed, and 52-year-old Sarvinaz Guliyeva was seriously wounded, which was strongly condemned by the international community.

The joint statement says that on July 25, the Armenian Armed Forces used a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) against the Azerbaijani army, dropping projectiles filled with incendiary and explosive substances, as well as metal fragments, onto the Azerbaijani armed forces positions on the line of contact near the Tartar District.

Further intensification of Armenias provocations in June and July are not sporadic, and isolated acts are being committed in a deliberate and systematic manner against the background of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs visit to the region, meetings for resolution of the conflict and serious calls by Azerbaijan, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the international community to re-engage in substantive negotiations, says the joint statement.

At the same time, such ill-intentioned actions of Armenia are accompanied by politically motivated provocative steps, according to the statement.

Regardless of international communitys rejection, holding fabricated presidential elections by the sham parliament of illegal regime established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is yet another vivid proof of that, says the joint statement. Thus, chronicle of events once again proves that when Azerbaijan with the support of the international community makes further efforts to resolve the conflict through serious negotiations, Armenia resorts to provocations to undermine the negotiations, to maintain the status quo of occupation and intentionally escalate the situation. Such actions of Armenia, as it was the case before, have to be rejected and condemned by the international community in strong and serious manner.

Despite the efforts of Armenias false propaganda machine, irrefutable facts demonstrate that Armenia and its armed forces conducted aggression against Azerbaijan and occupied its territories, and perpetrated ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijani population in the seized lands, says the joint statement.

The armed forces of Azerbaijan take and will take all necessary measures to prevent the cruel provocations of Armenia and guarantee the security of Azerbaijani civilian population inhabiting the vicinity of line of contact, according to the statement.

We over again declare that the responsibility for committed provocations and consequences of continuation of occupation lies completely on the Republic of Armenia, says the statement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

Trend:

Co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit in Baku in one month, PACE co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan Stefan Schennach tweeted July 26.

The co-rapporteurs will be in Baku in one month and take care of all the cases we got information in the last days, he tweeted.
Delegations from Tatneft company, Altemyevsk State Petroleum Institute, Tatneft corporate university and PrciewaterhouseCoopers company (PwC) visited Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS).

The visit was arranged upon the delegations initiative with the purpose to learn about BHOS academic programs, infrastructure and conditions at the Higher School new campus, BHOS cooperation with Heriot-Watt University (Great Britain) and other universities and transnational companies, achievements attained by the Higher School in developing academic teaching staff potential, conducting research work, attracting talented youth to study at BHOS and providing job opportunities to the graduates.

The Tatneft delegation included Deputy Director General on Human Resources (HR) and Social Development Rustam Mykhamadeyev, Deputy Director General on Oil Field Development and Exploration Rustam Khalimov, Head of HR department Rifdar Khamadyariv, Deputy Head of Strategic Planning Department Rinat Shayakhmetov, Head of Corporate University of Tatneft Andrey Glazkov and Head of HR department of the University Oksana Fedina. Acting Rector of Almetyevsk State Oil Institute Robert Nurgaliyev, Director of PwC company in Moscow Vladimir Bulat, Senior Manager of the company Vasily Sadovsky and Consulting Partner of PwC-Azerbaijan Emin Shikhgaibov also participated in the meeting.

Opening the meeting, BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov warmly welcomed the guests. He told about history and development of the Higher School, achievements attained in five years after its opening, academic and internship programs aimed at training of highly qualified engineers. The rector also informed the guests about students on-the-job training at SOCAR, national and transnational oil and gas companies as well as about first graduation ceremony recently held at the Higher School. Then a presentation about BHOS activities was delivered.

General Director Deputy on Human Resources (HR) and Social Development of Tatneft company Rustam Mykhamadeyev said that members of the delegation from Tatarstan were very pleased to visit BHOS, which is the leading higher educational institution in Azerbaijan. Speaking about long-term partnership relations between Azerbaijan and Tatarstan, he emphasized the importance of further developing cooperation between two republics in the field of science and education. Achievements attained by the Higher School and its rapid and dynamic development allowed BHOS to become the most prestigious higher educational institution in the country. This experience is very important for us, he said.

Acting Rector of Almetyevsk State Oil Institute Robert Nurgaliyev also expressed his satisfaction with his visit to Azerbaijan and BHOS. He informed that Almetyevsk State Oil Institute is a leading higher educational institution for training of specialists for oil industry of Tatarstan. He said, Currently, our team works with Tatneft managers and consultants from PwC company on the development strategy of the institute, as the republic leadership set an ambitious goal to establish a leading oil university in Russia based at our institute.

The meeting participants discussed prospects of developing cooperation of the Higher School with Tatneft company and Almetyevsk State Oil Institute. The guests also visited BHOS new campus where they were shown its infrastructure, conditions created for the students, and facilities including classrooms, accommodation, sports, recreation and leisure facilities.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

On August 14-18, Baku will, for the first time, host the World Scout Conference that is the largest event in the sphere of youth policy, Intigam Babayev, Azerbaijans deputy minister of youth and sports, told reporters in Baku.

Azerbaijan will be the first country in the CIS and the Turkic world to host such an event, he said, adding that more than 1,400 people from 153 countries registered to take part in it.

I believe this is expression of interest to Azerbaijan among socially active youth of the world, and we also expect participation of Parliament representatives and government officials from various countries at the event, said Babayev.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'B-/B' long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Uzbekistan-based Turon Bank, the rating agency said in a message. The outlook remains stable.

The affirmation follows Turon Bank's removal in June 2017 by the Uzbek government from a list of entities to be privatized. As such, S&P thinks that strategic uncertainty related to expected changes in the bank's ownership has been largely resolved at this time and that the bank will continue developing as a state-owned bank in the medium term.

The rating agency noted that, since the beginning of 2017, the government has provided Turon Bank about 78 billion Uzbek soums (about $19.5 million) of capital support and increased its stake in the bank to about 81 percent from 63 percent. As a result, S&P now considers the bank to be a government-related entity.

The rating agency believes there is a strong link between the bank and the government, mainly reflecting the governments major stake in the banks capital and its view that the bank will remain in state ownership in the medium term.

Nevertheless, S&P thinks that the bank still has a limited importance for the government, mainly due to its small market share and modest involvement in state-related projects. This leads S&P to anticipate only a moderate likelihood that the government would provide extraordinary support to the bank if needed.

S&P noted that this year's capital injection from the government has materially improved Turon Banks capitalization.

However, the rating agency now expects that the bank will demonstrate much higher asset growth than before, which will likely be close to 30-35 percent in 2017-2018 compared with a 15 percent average for the past four years. S&P also thinks that the bank's earning capacity will remain low, mainly due to poor operating efficiency.

The rating agency believes that the bank will not be able to support its growth through internal capital generation alone and will face eroding capitalization levels if it is unable to receive further capital injections from the government.

S&P now forecasts that the bank's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio will be in the 4.8-5.8 percent range, as adjusted for the banks negative earnings buffer. Although this reflects an improvement from 4.2 percent at year-end 2016, S&P still assesses the bank's capital and earnings as weak.

The stable outlook reflects the opinion that the capital support Turon Bank received from the government in 2017 and its likely greater involvement in government-related projects will help to preserve the banks credit profile.

S&P could take a negative rating action if it saws that its forecast RAC ratio drops below 3 percent, for example, due to materially-higher-than-expected lending growth. Unexpected substantial losses coming from the banks equity investments or high credit losses, which lead to pronounced capital erosion, may also prompt the rating agency to lower its ratings on the bank.

A positive rating action is remote at this stage. However, rating upside could stem from an improvement in the loan book's credit quality and the borrowers' payment culture. These supportive factors could lead the rating agency to view the bank's risk position more positively, provided other risks remain adequately managed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Additional production losses are required for a return of world oil prices to the level of $60 per barrel (bbl) and higher, Tom Kloza, Global Head of Energy Analysis in Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), owned by IHS research company, believes.

"Most likely, I see Brent crude trading broadly between $48-$52 bbl for the next nine months with WTI trading at perhaps $46-$50 bbl," Kloza told Trend by email.

He went on to add that if Venezuelan production is lost (it is a possibility thanks to potential sanctions or pure anarchy post-elections) these numbers might be raised by $1 bbl or $2 bbl.

"The case for a return to $60 bbl and higher would require multiple production losses (Nigeria, Libya, Venezuela, and a few others are prime candidates)," the expert said.

In late 2016 OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan. 1, with top exporter Saudi Arabia cutting as much as 486,000 barrels per day. Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce the output by 558,000 barrels per day. The agreement was for six months period, extendable for another six months.

In May, all the participants of last year's agreement agreed to extend it to another nine months.

Yesterday a Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee met in St. Petersburg to review the June 2017 report as well as the first six months of the Declaration of Cooperation. After the meeting the cartel announced that OPEC deal producing countries had achieved a conformity level of 98 percent in June 2017.

Same level of high conformity was observed for the first six months of January to June 2017. Between January and June 2017, the participating producing countries adjusted their production downwards by an estimated volume of 351 million barrels, OPEC said.

Kloza noted that it appears as though Saudi Arabia has agreed to do all the heavy lifting, and cut an additional 600,000 barrels per day of exports. However, according to the expert, this is a bit misleading since the Kingdom tends to reduce exports in summer and early fall months because of the need to generate power via crude as feedstock for the air conditioning season.

"So the cut, while significant, is not as considerable as it may appear to be," Kloza said.

Speaking about the influence of OPEC deal on the market in the next 9 months, the expert noted that it depends on its compliance from other OPEC members. According to Kloza, July has seen particularly poor compliance, and the countries that have produced over quota include Iraq, UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait -three of which usually adhere closely to the rules.

Commenting on oil production levels in Libya and Nigeria, both oil producing nations exempted from production cut to allow them restoring oil industry damaged in militant attacks, Kloza said that the "caps" put on output of these countries are well above likely 2017 production capability.

Earlier high representatives of Nigeria and Libya announced their plans to cap oil production at 1.8 million barrels per day and 1.25 million barrels per day in 2017, respectively.

"In 2018, Nigeria could ostensibly exceed the 1.8-million b/d cap and produce 2.1-million b/d if chaos does not return to the oil fields. Libya is probably not capable of sustaining production of more than 1-million b/d so the 1.25-million b/d cap is a bit meaningless," the expert said.

He also expects continued growth in US oil shale, and some new output in the North Sea, Russia and Brazil in the winter and spring months.

Kloza noted that probability of extension of oil output cut deal for a longer period is about 50 percent.

"The Saudis will not subsidize others production forever, and I doubt whether they will cut further," Kloza said, adding that the IPO of Saudi ARAMCO National Oil Company next year puts Saudi Arabia in a very difficult position in terms of strategy.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Katerina Papalexandri has been appointed as its new Greece Country Manager for Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the TAP consortium said in a message July 26.

Katerina replaces the current Country Manager, Rikard Scoufias.

Papalexandri brings almost 20 years of experience in the energy industry with her expertise being in gas markets and projects, commercial negotiations and stakeholder management. She joins TAP from BP in London, where she has held numerous senior positions throughout her career since she joined the company in 1998.

From 2006 to 2012, Papalexandri worked for BP based in Athens as Senior Market Advisor for Gas Europe & Africa, as well as Business Developer for Caspian Gas. She also has extensive experience of the Southern Gas Corridor value chain, working as Transportation Manager for Caspian Gas and as a Strategic Risk Manager for the Southern Corridor.

Most recently in November 2015, Papalexandri, took up the position as Senior Commercial Manager for the Southern Corridor, where, amongst her responsibilities, she managed the commercial aspects of the whole gas value chain.

TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south.

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).

TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
Details added (first version posted on 13:43)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Huseyn Veliyev  Trend:

Azerbaijans Baku Telephone Communications Production Association has changed its ownership form becoming a limited liability company (LLC), the company told Trend July 26.

Baku Telephone Communications provides telephone and radio communication, broadband Internet services and other types of telecommunications services to state and management authorities, enterprises and organizations, foreign legal entities and their representative offices and population in Baku.

Currently, more than 50 services and multimedia options are being provided.

Baku Telephone Communications LLC also includes telephone nodes (Yasamal, Sabunchu, Khazar, Khatai, Nizami and Garadagh telephone hubs and AzEuroTel LLC), Baku cable hub, "Bakinternet" internet access provider and others.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 26

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend

Political consultations between Turkmen and Iraqi deputy foreign ministers were held in Ashgabat, the Turkmen foreign ministry said in a message July 26.

The Iraqi delegation was headed by the countrys Deputy Foreign Minister Nizar Issa Abdul-Hadi Al-Khairalla.

"The Turkmen and Iraqi deputy foreign ministers exchanged views on topical issues of regional security and cooperation, the message said. The sides stressed comprehensive commitment to the development of cooperation in fighting terrorism.

According to the message, the Turkmen and Iraqi officials also discussed the possibilities of developing trade and economic cooperation and establishing direct contacts between the entrepreneurs of the two countries.

The sides also agreed to analyze the current state of the legal framework of the Turkmenistan-Iraq relations. Diplomatic relations between Turkmenistan and Iraq were established in 2009.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

US President Donald Trump will most likely sign the bill on imposing new sanctions against Iran, the head of the Department of Eurasian Integration and Development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the Institute of CIS countries Vladimir Evseev told Trend.

The law comes into force after being signed by President Donald Trump. Formally, he can reject it, but in case it collects more than two-thirds of the senate votes in a second ballot, the document will overcome the president's veto. Thus, Trump will not reject it, he said.

Commenting on the issue of Irans withdrawal from the JCPOA, Evseev noted that currently the US is studying this possibility.

According to the current statements at the level of [Iranian] President Hassan Rouhani, it can be argued that most likely Iran will retain its membership in JCPOA but will raise the issue that the US doesnt fulfill its obligations under this deal, he said.

Moreover, this issue could be raised by the UN Security Council which adopted the relevant resolution, according to Evseev.

The document has binding force at the level of the UN Security Council in case the US doesnt fulfill their obligations. It is clear that this is not something extraordinary for the US. The United States have always complied only with what they need, he noted.

Iran may try to exert pressure on the US, for example, by attracting other states to its side, according to the expert.

Islamic Republic can initiate consideration of this issue within the framework of the UN General Assembly where the non-involved states may support Iran. This will damage the political image of the United States as a global leader, he stressed.

Iran can also raise this issue in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through its special representative, however, the outcome of this is unclear, he said.

Europe has its own interests as this law relates not only to Iran but also to Russia and North Korea, respectively.

This law is expected to negatively affect the interests of the European Union because there is a desire, in particular, for France to participate in the development of the South Pars deposit, while Germany strives to realize the Nord Stream 2 project, Evseev said.

For now it is difficult to predict Europes further steps, it will most likely try to do as it has done before, that is, it will try to bring some projects out of the scope of these sanctions, he stressed.

In any case, Europe, especially France, will try to withdraw its companies that were involved in activities with Iran from the sanctions influence, Evseev said.

Obviously, all of these will have a negative impact on Islamic Republics economy, according to the expert.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iranian deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, has said that the US decision on imposing fresh sanctions on his country violates the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA/ nuclear deal).

The senior diplomat termed the US decision hostile move and said Tehran will issue a response, Mehr news agency reported.

He further said that the new sanctions would leave a negative impact on the nuclear deal.

Araqchi did not specify what measure Iran would take in retaliation.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support, Reuters reported.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

The US decision to impose fresh sanctions on Iran is a violation of a nuclear deal reached in 2015 between Tehran and the six major powers including the United States, a Norway-based Iranian financial analyst told Trend.

Elaborating on the recent decision by US House of Representatives to slap new sanctions on Iran, Mehrdad Seyed Asgari said that the new sanctions provide the US with a chance to covertly kill or avert the nuclear accord.

In this particular case aborting the deal means that the US will refuse to properly implement the articles of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal) aimed at placing the administration of President Hassan Rouhani under tremendous pressure.

Sanctions have been imposed on Iran with an aim to divide the countrys economic system in two parts of white and black, he mentioned.

Since the American lawmakers believe that sanctions work as a powerful tool, they appear to continue increasing pressure on Iran through introducing new sanctions.

The recent bill passed by the US House of Representatives on introducing new sanctions on Iran is very likely to become a law, he concluded.

The lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

The legislation in order to become a law still needs to be signed by President Donald Trump.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has played down the potential impact of the recent US sanctions on the policies of the Islamic Republic.

Such sanctions have no impact on the Iranian nation. They neither reduce the resistance of the people and the Islamic Republic of Iran nor change our manners and policies, IRNA news agency quoted the president as saying at a cabinet meeting this morning.

He further added that Iran will respond to the decision by the US House of Representatives on passing fresh sanctions on Tehran.

The president also stressed that Iran will continue to strengthen its defense might despite the international concerns.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support, Reuters reported.
Good-neighborly policy instills a positive impulse to security of the region and its integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, concurred the defence ministers of Macedonia and Albania, Radmila Sekerinska and Mimi Kodheli, at a joint meeting Wednesday in Tirana, MIA reported.

"It's my pleasure to pay my first official visit in the capacity of minister of defence to Albania and this is no coincidence. It upholds the clear position of the Macedonian government that regional cooperation is indispensable for the entire region to prosper," Sekerinska said after the meeting.

According to her, talks focused on discussing several key areas, including curbing risks, fighting fundamentalism and addressing terrorist threats.

On her part, Minister Kodheli said Albania was prepared to work with the new government in Macedonia to settle challenges facing the two countries.

"I'm confident that the countries' cooperation, with you as minister, will be improved even more and that a prosperous partnership between the two ministries and the armed forces will be established," noted DM Kodheli.

As regards mutual cooperation, Minister Sekerinska noted that the government of Macedonia had voiced a clear position about the country's neighbors. "We need our neighbors as much as they need us."

Also, Sekerinska and Kodheli singled out the need the region to integrate into NATO so as to boost security and prosperity of Balkan countries and beyond, the Macedonian Ministry of Defence said.

"Macedonia's accession to NATO will introduce a fresh impulse to security and stability in the region, which has played a crucial role in maintaining the security of Europe, especially involving the migrant crisis," Minister Sekerinska said adding the region could prosper only if it were safe.

Minister Kodheli said she appreciated Macedonia's efforts to reform the defence sector urging the country to pursue the reform path. Albania, she said, has been following closely Macedonia's efforts to join and we will strongly support the integration of Macedonia into NATO.

According to the Albanian Minister, Macedonia's integration into the Euro-Atlantic organization is favorable both for the Balkans and the Alliance.

As part of her official visit to Albania, DM Sekerinska is also scheduled to visit the special forces battalion of the Albanian armed forces.
The US Senate is expected to pass a bill to slap sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea in "short order," Senator Mark Warner said on Wednesday, Sputnik reported.

The US House of Representatives approved by a 419-3 vote on Tuesday a new version of a bill that would impose sweeping sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, and limit President Donald Trumps ability to lift the restrictions on Moscow. The measures target Russia's defense, intelligence, mining, shipping and railway industries, and restrict dealings with Russian banks and energy companies. The proposed bill also considers Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project as a threat to Ukraine's and the European Union's energy security.

The version of the bill passed on Tuesday was newly introduced in the House of Representatives last week.

"I expect this bill will pass the Senate in short order. At that point, it is incumbent upon President [Donald] Trump to immediately sign this legislation into law, or risk endorsing Moscows interference in future elections," Warner said in a statement.

Warner said the bill "sends a message to the Kremlin that attacks on our democracy will not be tolerated."

The senator was referring to allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election, an accusation that the Kremlin strongly denies.

Earlier in the day, France and Germany spoke out against the bill as one that adversely affects European industries while advancing US commercial interests.

In April, Gazprom's subsidiary Nord Stream 2 AG signed a deal with French Engie, UKs Royal Dutch Shell, Austrias OMV and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall, which agreed to provide part of long-term financing of the gas pipeline project, estimated at 9.5 billion euros ($10.6 billion).

The Nord Stream 2 project presumes the construction of two gas pipelines with a combined annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas. The new pipeline is planned to be laid along the existing Nord Stream pipeline route from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea, on to a hub in Germany.
Nine PKK terrorists were killed in northern Iraq's Zap area late on Tuesday, the Turkish General Staff has said, Anadolu reported.

Jets conducted an airstrike on the group as it prepared to attack Turkish bases.

The jets returned home safely, a military statement added.

The PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU - resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015.

Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of some 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including a number of women and children.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 25, 2017 - 12:42 | Sports, All

The Japanese gymnast pair of Takato Nakazono and Yamato Ishikawa took advantage of a slip-up by Russia to win bronze in the men's synchronized trampoline at the World Games on Monday.

While China claimed gold and Ukraine silver, Nakazono and Ishikawa, both 18-year-olds making their international senior debuts, collected a total of 50.550 points for difficulty, execution and synchronization with no penalty deduction at Centennial Hall.

The Russian pair of Dmitrii Ushakov and Andrey Yudin, who qualified for the eight-team final with the best score, performed last but could only finish seventh after an interrupted routine.

"I can't believe it. To be honest I didn't think we'd be able to win a medal. We were representing Japan but it was good that we weren't able to put too much pressure on ourselves," said Ishikawa.

"It was my first senior event and I was nervous, but we performed well. I'm glad that results followed. I'm proud of our efforts," said Nakazono.

Trampoline gymnastics consists of four events -- individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, double mini trampoline and tumbling. Individual trampoline is an Olympic sport, but synchronized trampoline is not.

Elsewhere for Japan in the July 20-30 multi-sport event, powerlifting athlete Yukako Fukushima won silver in the women's lightweight.
In another move to assert control over the South China Sea territory, Beijing opened a high-tech movie theater in Sansha, a city on the disputed Yongxing Island, also known as Woody Island.

More than 200 residents and soldiers on the island watched the Chinese movie, The Eternity of Jio Yulu, at the theater on Saturday, Chinas state-owned Xinhua news agency reported. The report said the new cinema hall is equipped with all advanced projection equipment including the latest 4K digital projectors and 3D perforated screen.

READ: China Protests US Destroyer Sailing Close To Triton Island

The cinema will show at least one film every day, so residents and soldiers on Yongxing Island can enjoy films simultaneously with moviegoers across the country," said Gu Xiaojing, general manager of Hainan Media Croup, which runs the cinema, was quoted as saying in the report.

While Chinas state media described the move as a part of a plan by local cultural authorities to establish community services on islands under Sansha's jurisdiction, this development can spark tensions in the disputed territory.

Yongxing Island is the largest island of the Paracels, a cluster of islands at the west edge of South China Sea. The Paracels has been at the center of dispute in South China Sea as these islands are claimed by China, as well as neighboring countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Vietnam has been constantly protesting against Chinas decision to establish administrative city on the island, BBC reported.

The area is a major shipping route and a rich fishing ground. It is believed to have abundant oil and gas reserves. While conflict in the area has been going on for centuries, tension has steadily increased in the recent years as Beijing began re-asserting its claim. China claims the largest portion of the territory. It also issued a map in 1947 detailing its claims.

READ: China-India Border Dispute Involving Bhutan: An Explainer

Story continues

China has built many artificial islands in the area of late, and houses military facilities in the disputed region. In April 2016, a public library was opened in Sansha. Beijing had also set up a stadium where many cultural activities are organized. The Sansha municipality was set up by the country in 2012.

However, an international tribunal in The Hague rejected most claims made by China in the region but Beijing did not abide by its ruling.

The United States has also challenged Chinas claims on the cluster of islands. Earlier this month, a U.S. Navy destroyer, USS Stethem, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the disputed Triton Island of the Paracel island cluster, Reuters reported. China termed the exercise a "serious political and military provocation," and dispatched military vessels and fighter planes in response to warn off the US warship.

This was the second such operation carried out by the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office in January. The first operation was carried out May 25, when the USS Dewey  a guided-missile destroyer  sailed less than 12 nautical miles from Mischief Reef, a part of the disputed Spratly Islands, south of the Paracels.

Related Articles
susan collins

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was caught on a hot mic Tuesday calling Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas "unattractive" during a legislative session Tuesday morning.

Last week, Farenthold singled out "female senators from the Northeast" as being responsible for hampering the Senate's effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare.

Collins, along with Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has opposed the Senate's proposed healthcare overhaul.

Farenthold said "if it was a guy from south Texas" opposing the legislation, "I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style."

Collins mentioned Farenthold's comments Tuesday morning while speaking with a male senator during a subcommittee hearing.

"Did you see the one who challenged me to a duel?" Collins asked her colleague.

"I know," he replied. "Trust me  you know why he challenged you to a duel? Because you could beat the s--- out of him."

Collins laughed and added, "He is so unattractive, it's unbelievable."

She later asked her colleague, "Did you see the picture of him in his pajamas next to this bunny?" before the microphone cut off.

Collins was most likely referring to this photo:

This is the photo Sen. Susan Collins was referring to when she commented on Rep. Blake Farenthold wearing pajamas in 2010. pic.twitter.com/jZYCPC4FYW  Beatrice-Elizabeth (@MissBeaE) July 25, 2017

The other senator wasn't immediately identified, but many reporters on Twitter speculated it was Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democratic member of the subcommittee.

NOW WATCH: A Harvard mathematician reveals how algorithms are making police and the courts more biased





More From Business Insider


Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images. The rivalry between India and China is heating up as the two heavyweight economies face territorial tensions on both land and sea.

The rivalry between India and China is heating up as the heavyweight economies face territorial tensions on both land and sea.

A fierce border standoff in Bhutan's Doklam region  triggered by a Chinese road construction project in a disputed area and a Bhutanese request for Indian help  is now entering its second month with soldiers from both sides engaged in skirmishes. But a new confrontation in the relationship is arising as New Delhi is growing concerned about a Chinese naval presence in its own backyard: the Indian Ocean.

"As the [Doklam] crisis stretches on, China is likely to seek ways to pressure India, both on the border and elsewhere, and this will compound the cycle of competition that is already well underway," Shashank Joshi, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said in a recent note published by the Lowy Institute.

Indeed, the recent joint naval drills between the U.S., India and Japan  known as the Malabar exercises  were widely interpreted as a coordinated response to perceived Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean.

In the run-up to Malabar, Indian media reported a surge in Chinese naval vessels around the area, noting sightings of 13 to 14 units in two months. Those included Luyang III class destroyers, hydrographic research vessels, an intelligence-gathering ship and a submarine.

Beijing does operate in the area for its "Belt and Road" initiative , an infrastructure program that involves developing port facilities in the Indian Ocean with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India isn't a member of the initiative and has repeatedly indirectly criticized the program for violating Indian sovereignty .

"China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean is showing signs of a qualitative shift," Joshi said, noting the mainland's growing patrols and the July 12 dispatch of Chinese troops to a military base in Djibouti  Beijing's first long-term foreign military deployment in almost 60 years.

"This Chinese facility is not just a platform from which China can project initially modest power into the western Indian Ocean, but will also justify and support a greater volume and pace of other patrols through the eastern and central Indian Ocean," Joshi added.

Story continues

New Delhi is certainly paying close attention to those developments, as reflected by the Malabar drills.

"With over 20 ships, including two submarines and over 100 aircraft and helicopters involved in complex maneuvers, [India's] strategic messaging to China seemed more than clear," Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at think tank Observer Research Foundation, wrote in a note.

"Indian commentators cast Malabar as a strategic precursor to a more proactive sea-denial strategy aimed at challenging People's Liberation Army Navy ships in the Indian Ocean."

The situation draws parallels with Beijing's behavior in a different body of water . The world's second-largest economy has been creating artificial islands in contested sections of the South China Sea. But unlike that international waterway, the Indian Ocean isn't a site of overlapping sovereign rights, meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to counter the mainland on his home turf may not be sustainable.

"There is something essentially flawed about the idea that Indian naval power can prevent Chinese warships and submarines from accessing India's near-seas. Modern-day trading nations regard the oceans as a shared global common, with equal opportunity rights for all user states," said Singh.

WATCH: Will Chinese companies dominate One Belt, One Road projects?





More From CNBC


Kristen Beck

A retired Navy SEAL Team 6 hero who is transgender had a message for President Donald Trump after he announced the US military would bar transgender people from serving.

"Let's meet face to face and you tell me I'm not worthy," Kristin Beck, a 20-year veteran of the Navy SEALs, told Business Insider on Wednesday. "Transgender doesn't matter. Do your service."

Beck said Trump's abrupt change in policy could negatively affect many currently or wanting to serve in the military. The RAND Corporation estimated in 2016 that there were between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender people serving. Many of them just want to serve their country like everyone else, Beck said.

"Being transgender doesn't affect anyone else," Beck said. "We are liberty's light. If you can't defend that for everyone that's an American citizen, that's not right."

Beck is not just your average service member. Born Christopher Beck, she served for 20 years in the Navy with SEAL Teams 1, 5, and, eventually, the elite 6. She deployed 13 times over two decades, including stints in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She received the Bronze Star award for valor and the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat.

Watch news, TV and more Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

"I was defending individual liberty," she said. "I defended for Republicans. I defended for Democrats. I defended for everyone."

In a series of tweets, Trump said the decision was based on the costs of medical services that transgender service members could use. But "the money is negligible," Beck said. "You're talking about .000001% of the military budget.

"They care more about the airplane or the tank than they care about people," Beck said. "They don't care about people. They don't care about human beings."

Story continues

When asked about potential problems with unit cohesion or war fighting, Beck said those were not issues that would arise from transgender service members, but from leadership.

"A very professional unit with great leadership wouldn't have a problem," Beck said. "I can have a Muslim serving right beside Jerry Falwell, and we're not going to have a problem. It's a leadership issue, not a transgender issue."

NOW WATCH: A Marine explains how intermittent fasting helped him 'see his abs'





More From Business Insider
Russia is showing increasing signs of propping up the regime of North Korea, according to a new report.

At the same time, North Korea vowed Tuesday to "strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S." amid a report the regime was prepping for a new missile test. Also, the U.S. indicated it would conduct another test of its anti-missile technology known as THAAD, which is the same technology the U.S. supplied to South Korea for defense against the North's missiles.

As for Russia, some experts believe Moscow's economic support for North Korea is likely to continue as Russian President Vladimir Putin uses it as leverage to squeeze concessions from Washington on Ukraine, Syria and other hot spots. That comes despite an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to use international sanctions to force Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

"When you consider all the different flashpoints the United States and Russia have, this is a perfect opportunity for the Russians to sort of stick it to the United States a little bit more," said Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a think-tank founded by former President Richard Nixon.

He added, "I wouldn't be surprised if in the months and years to come that the Russians were to reach out and really work with the North Koreans in a much greater extent."

A Tuesday report from South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said Russian exports to North Korea essentially doubled in the first five months of 2017, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a South Korean government-supported organization. About 90 percent of the exports were energy related.

Russia exports coal to North Korea as well as jet fuel, trucks and other goods.

Moscow also helps Pyongyang by employing about 50,000 laborers from North Korea, who work in timber and construction jobs in Russia. That is a source of hard-currency income for the regime led by Kim Jong Un and helps fund its weapons programs.

Story continues

"Moscow is fast emerging as a powerful backer of Pyongyang at a time when even China seems to be having second thoughts, and has been at the forefront of blocking discussion of further sanctions in the UN Security Council," said Chosun Ilbo.

Kazianis said North Korean leadership historically has viewed the Russians with fondness because the old Soviet Union helped prop up the regime for decades and scientists from the fallen Soviet empire helped bring critical rocket technology to Pyongyang. Pakistan provided the regime with know-how on the nuclear weapons side.

"A lot of the old officials have either passed away or moved on," said Kazianis. "But the linkages are still there. The North Korean missile program wouldn't exist today and be as powerful as it was if it wasn't for Russian scientists at the end of the Cold War, looking for jobs basically, and going to North Korea and building up that missile program."

President Donald Trump has previously emphasized how Beijing has been trying to help pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program but little has been said about the role of Moscow's trade and in boosting the regime.

"We call on all states, including Russia, to use every available channel and means of influence to make clear to the DPRK and its enablers that its weapons of mass destruction programs are unacceptable," said a U.S. State Department spokesperson in an email statement to CNBC. DPRK is a reference to North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Added the State Department official, "It is in everyone's interests for the United States and Russia to cooperate on problems like North Korea."

Both China and Russia are longtime trading partners of North Korea, but China still is considered the single largest foreign direct investor, accounting for more than $6 billion in trade last year, or about 90 percent of Pyongyang's international commerce.

China supplies fuel to North Korea, although gasoline exports were down in June from a year ago but up from the prior month, according to Chinese government data.

Reuters reported late last month that state-owned China National Petroleum suspended exports to the regime. It also reported that the move by the Chinese led to a surge of up to 50 percent in gasoline prices in North Korea.

United Nations sanctions against North Korea do not apply to fuel sold for non-military purposes, such as the state airline Air Koryo or other civilian planes. International sanctions also apply to rocket fuel but the North Koreans are believed to be capable of making their own rocket fuel, according to Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, a Berkeley, California-based think tank.

Meantime, North Korea on Tuesday blasted comments made by Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo over the weekend at the Aspen Security Forum that the people living under the 33-year-old leader "would love to see" regime change.

"Although his reckless remarks are just balderdash of a guy who has become so angrily desperate due to the ever-increasing nuclear strike capability of the DPRK, they have gone over the line," said a spokesman for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as quoted by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA quoted the regime's ministry official as a stating: "It has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK is the 'regime change' in the DPRK. Should the U.S. dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S. with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time."

The latest round of harsh comments from North Korea come amid reports the regime is about to set off another ballistic missile test, perhaps timed to the country's Victory Day anniversary on July 27.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Tuesday South Korean defense officials were on the lookout for a possible missile test-firing by the secretive regime.

"Our military is closely monitoring (North Korea's move) through the integrated operation of South Korea-U.S. combined surveillance assets against the possibility of North Korea's provocations," a spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff was quoted as saying, according to Yonhap.

On July 4, North Korea fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile, increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and raising the alarm of U.S. officials. The North already is believed to have ballistic missiles capable of reaching all of South Korea, Japan, Guam as well as Alaska.

The ICBM test-firing this month raised concerns Pyongyang also has range to reach Hawaii as well as the mainland U.S. However, it's still not entirely clear if North Korea is capable today of having an ICBM with a nuclear warhead survive extreme heat as it reenters Earth's atmosphere.

Nonetheless, U.S. military officials have indicated they are operating under the assumption North Korea has the capability of the ICBM to reach the U.S. mainland. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a Pentagon agency assessment concluded the North will be able to have a "reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year."

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency confirmed this week it plans to conduct a new experimental test of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile defense system. The test is expected to be conducted from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska.

The missile agency declined to provide further details in advance, citing "the need to safeguard critical defense information."

That said, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a notice to mariners of the imminent launch, suggesting it would likely take place Saturday evening but added that alternative launch times were Sunday and Monday.

WATCH:

Fmr. Sen.Max Baucus: North Korea's Kim Jong Un is not a 'nutcase'





More From CNBC


President Donald Trump said that Apple CEO Tim Cook promised to build "three big plants" in the United States in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

I spoke to [Cook], hes promised me three big plantsbig, big, big, Trump told the Journal.

Tim Cook Donald Trump

This isn't the first time that Trump has said he talked to Cook about a big manufacturing facility. During his campaign, Trump called several times for Apple to build its products in the United States.

In January, Trump said that Cook had "his eyes open" to building a manufacturing facility in the United States.

Of course, Apple doesn't do any of its own manufacturing, save for some production in Ireland. Apple also does contract some Mac Pro production in Texas to Flex. It contracts with big manufacturers like Foxconn to build its iPhones and other computers, mostly in China.

Foxconn is expected to make an announcement about building United States-based manufacturing in states including Wisconsin and Michigan as soon as Wednesday, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported on Tuesday.

Apple declined to comment on Trump's remarks to Business Insider.





More From Business Insider
Tim Cook Donald Trump

President Donald Trump is set to make a big jobs announcement Wednesday afternoon at the White House.

He's expected to appear with Foxconn CEO Terry Gou to announce a new factory in Wisconsin that will make liquid-crystal displays, or the screens that eventually get turned into flat-screen TVs, according to reports from The Associated Press, CNBC, and Bloomberg.

Foxconn is best known as Apple's primary manufacturing partner, and it assembles products like the iPhone. Apple spent $75 billion with Foxconn in 2016.

Foxconn does most of its manufacturing in Asia, though it has facilities in Brazil, India, and other countries. This factory would be its first major manufacturing facility in the United States. (In 2013, it announced plans for a plant in Pennsylvania, but it never was built.)

The factory will receive a $10 billion investment from Foxconn and employ 3,000 people at first, expanding over two and a half years, White House officials said on Wednesday.

It's unclear whether the expected announcement of a Wisconsin factory means other states vying for the plant did not receive a Foxconn contract. Foxconn is expected to announce additional plants as well.

Paul Ryan

Michigan's economic development corporation has been aggressively competing for the plant. On May 10, it signed a confidentiality agreement to negotiate for "Flying Eagle," which is what Foxconn has called the project, according to files seen by Business Insider.

Foxconn officials have also mentioned Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas as states where Foxconn may like to do manufacturing.

Win for Wisconsin Republicans

The plant will be in House Speaker Paul Ryan's district, according to reports, which would be a big win for the Republican leader.

On Wednesday morning, he tweeted a link to the planned announcement:

Wisconsin's governor, Scott Walker, also tweeted about a "major jobs announcement for Wisconsin" on Wednesday. His staff was involved with the negotiations with Foxconn, according to Bloomberg.

Story continues

It has been a team effort, with the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and the White House Office of American Innovation, led by senior adviser Jared Kushner, pitching in to help secure the plant, according to reports. Trump campaigned for the presidency on a promise to add manufacturing jobs, and the White House is likely to tout the Foxconn deal as a major victory.

Wisconsin most likely offered Foxconn a major incentives package with tax relief and other benefits to secure the plant, although the details of the "sweetener" package are not public. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that some experts believe it could total as much as $3 billion.

Big, beautiful plants

Donald Trump Tim Cook

Foxconn is best known for working with Apple, but it's unclear whether "Flying Eagle" will produce components for Apple products.

The LCDs produced by the plant will most likely end up in Sharp-branded TVs, Bloomberg previously reported.

Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Apple CEO Tim Cook had agreed to build "three big plants  big, big, big."

"I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won't consider my administration an economic success," Trump told The Journal. "He called me, and he said they are going forward."

During the presidential campaign, Trump called for Apple to build its computers in the United States, though most Apple products are assembled in China.

Foxconn is not Apple, though; Apple is just one of Foxconn's many customers.

Apple declined to comment on Trump's remarks, on where or when the plants were planned for, or on whether the Foxconn announcement was related to Apple.





More From Business Insider


President Donald Trump finally has something legitimate to crow abouta new factory to be built in Wisconsin by Taiwanese firm Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn.

The electronics giant, which assembles iPhones and builds components for many other devices, will break ground soon on a $10 billion plant to build flat-screen displays, which could create 3,000 decent-paying manufacturing jobs during the next four years, the White House says. That appears to be a down payment on a bigger investment in the United States Foxconn chairman Terry Gou promised after Trumps surprise election last November.

Trump isnt shy about claiming credit.

This is a great day for everyone who believes in the label, Made in the USA, Trump crowed during a televised appearance on July 26. If I didnt get elected, [Gou] definitely would not be spending $10 billion.

What Trump and Foxconn arent saying, however, is that the electronics manufacturer is a premiere deployer of robots that do jobs once done by humans. Since high labor costs are often the main reason firms flee the United States or decline to locate here in the first place, the ability to automate a large part of its Wisconsin operation may enable Foxconn to manufacture in the United States while keeping costs competitive with suppliers elsewhere.

In 2015, Foxconn rolled out a plan to automate 30% of its factories by 2020. It builds 10,000 robots per yearcalled Foxbotsand has fielded about 40,000 of them so far. At one Chinese factory alone, Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 workers with robots.

Foxconns push for robots isnt just about saving money. Critics have blasted the company for years for inhumane conditions that have led some workers to commit suicide. Foxconn had said that Phase 1 of its automation plan involves robots doing work that is dangerous or unappealing to humans.

Employees work inside a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in the southern Guangdong province. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Phase 2 will focus on streamlining assembly-line efficiency and even getting rid of some redundant robots. Phase 3 will involve the total automation of some factories. In the third phase, entire factories will be automated with only a minimal number of workers assigned for production, logistics, testing, and inspection processes, a senior Foxconn official wrote recently in Digitimes, a Chinese electronics journal. Some Chinese factories are already nearly automated, the official said.

Story continues

Thats not the way Trump characterized the Wisconsin operation.

Theyll be investing many, many billions of dollars and creating thousands of jobs, Trump said. He ballparked the final tally of new jobs 13,000 new jobs. In January, Gou suggested Foxconns investment could create 30,000 to 50,000 new US jobs. Robots may be the reason for the lower number now.

So the reality of the Foxconn factory may turn out to be less robust than the promisebut thats not necessarily a bad thing. Manufacturers everywhere are automating factory floors, including US automakers and many other American firms. This obviously portends a rocky future for lower-skilled manufacturing workers and even some higher-skilled ones. But this sort of innovation also allows manufacturers to stay nimble and competitivewhile spending a lot of money on sophisticated robots.

The technology futurists Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT recently told Yahoo Finance that the technological change of the last 20 years is nothing compared with the imminent revolution to be wrought by artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are never again going to have a large, prosperous, stable middle class in this country doing routine industrial-era work, McAfee said. The assembly line jobs of the 1970s, those jobs are gone. To try to go back to the 1950s, I find that un-American.

Foxconn, undoubtedly, is bringing the technology of the future to Wisconsin, not the technology of the past. Trump has had little to say up till now about the role of technology and automation on the economy and the labor force. He may get an education in Wisconsin.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman
Iran has been involved in the war in the Afghan province of Ghor and the fall of Taywara district, an Afghan official said on July 25.

Taywara fell to the Taliban on July 23.

The head of the provincial council of Ghor, Fazlul Haq Ihsan, also maintained that Iran has provided the Taliban with backup and facilities.

The Taliban have received military assistance from Tehran, and their [recent] operations were backed by Iran, he told Radio Free Afghanistan.

Ghor is one of Afghanistan 34 provinces and is located in central Afghanistan, toward the northwest.

Financially and logistically, Iran has supported the Talibans war against Afghan armed forces in Ghor to destroy Salma Dam in the neighboring province of Herat, as well as demolishing the Poze Lich Hydropower plant that is currently under construction in Ghor, Ihsan said.

Iran has been complaining that the construction of dams in Afghanistan reduces the flow of water across the border into Iran and contributes to water scarcity.

Moreover, Ihsan argued, since the Islamic State [IS] has a small unit in Morghab and Iran is scared of IS, Tehran has helped Taliban to destabilize Ghor and meanwhile annihilate the IS unit.

He did say, however, that he would not dismiss the possibility that Iranian forces have a physical presence in Ghors war, but most of the operations supporting the Taliban take place during the dark hours of the night.

Tehran denies the allegations.

Citing reports received from Taywara district, Ihsan said, After the fall of the district, the Taliban have massacred many people and torched several public buildings.

It is not possible to verify the prevailing conditions in the war torn districts.

Afghan officials usually accuse Pakistani military intelligence of assisting and guiding the Taliban in their military operations. An official from Ghors governors office told Radio Free Afghanistan that Pakistan might also be behind Taliban offensive in the province.

Radio Free Afghanistan attempts to reach the Pakistani embassy in Kabul for comments were unsuccessful while the Iranian embassy refused to talk about the case.

Ghor residents who fled the Taliban onslaught in their province held protests in Herat on Wednesday. In a video report sent by Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent, the refugees speak about Iran supplying weapons to the Taliban. They also condemn the Afghan government for its inability to defend them.

Iran has been accused of helping the Taliban at a time when President Hassan Rouhani has labeled the construction of dams in Afghanistan as problematic for Iran and warned that Tehran is not going to stand idly by against it.

Afghan forces have not yet been successful in taking back Taywara, although Kabul has declared that reinforcement forces have been deployed to reclaim the district.

Ghor provincial council officials have cautioned that Ghor faces a security problem that needs to be urgently addressed lest it spread to the capital of the province.
In a major sign of long-term support for Afghanistan, the United States is moving to support the weak Afghan Air Force.

The move might prove a major boost for the Afghan forces now struggling with containing the Taliban and other insurgents from running over the countryside while simultaneously striving to prevent militant attacks in the cities.

Washington has now earmarked billions of dollars to boost the Afghan Air Force, which needs training, equipment, and new aircraft to fill the gap left behind by the departure of NATO air assets.

"That [air force] is what will provide the asymmetric advantage to break the stalemate on the ground," U.S Brigadier-General Phillip Stewart told Reuters.

As the head of Train, Advise, Assist Command (TAAC)-Air, Steward oversees NATOs Resolute Support Missions effort to rebuild the Afghan Air Force.

He says a four-year $7 billion expansion plan is aimed at training more flights and maintenance crew and increasing the number of Afghan Air Force aircrafts. The force currently has 120 aircrafts, which include a mix of small and large aircrafts and helicopters.

"In 2014, remember, we [NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan] had the best air force in the world, and the coalition pulled out and we realized we hadn't grown the Afghan Air Force," Stewart said.

Western military officials say their aim is to eventually build enough Afghan air power capable of supporting troops in the mountainous country with sorties and by providing timely supplies and intelligence.

With its Brazilian-designed A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and specially adapted MD-530 scout helicopters, the Afghan Air Force already carries out limited air strikes.

Last month, an Afghan air crew conducted its first aerial supply drop by parachuting around 400 kilograms of provisions to an isolated border police outpost.

Major Khail Shinwari, an Afghan C-130 Hercules pilot, says they can already conduct most logistic operations. The force conducts some 140 daily sorties.

"We can do casualty evacuations, we can take cargo, we can take ammunition, we can transport vehicles to different places where they can't go by road," he said.

The Afghan Air Force once boasted hundreds of mostly Soviet-made aircrafts including advanced fighter jets. Restoring it to its past glory will take years if not decades. In addition, air power alone is unlikely to prove a decisive factor in defeating militants.

Thus the U.S. drones, F-16s, and Apache attack helicopters are still heavily engaged in areas like the southern restive province of Helmand. U.S. aircrafts conduct dozens of air strikes in the Helmand and other front lines every week.

For now, the Afghan A-29s are still using unguided bombs compared with the precision guided weapons used by the Americans. Afghan helicopters such as the MD-530 can fire machine guns and rockets.

"It's close air support, but not as anyone who grew up in the U.S. Air Force would understand it," Stewart said. "It's not precision, it's .50 [caliber machine guns] and rockets, but they get close to their work and they're very good."

Western mentors say Afghan pilots and technicians will need years to train to the level of their American counterparts.

So, for now, the emphasis is on stop-gap measures such as a force capable of handling less complicated equipment such as the C-208s or MD-350 helicopters "at the expense of maybe getting some bigger, sexier platform," Stewart said.

Such measures are guided by a modest military objective: to increase the Afghan forces capabilities to a level where they can force the Taliban to join peace negotiations.

The Afghan Air Force, however, faces increasing pressure from ground units fighting a widening insurgency now clearly aimed at capturing and holding territory.

"They just don't have the airplanes and sometimes the ground forces will become frustrated because they want more," Stewart said.

-- Reported by James Mackenzie for Reuters
Iranian lawmakers have proposed changes to the countrys tough antidrugs laws, a move that could abolish the death penalty for some drug-related crimes.

If approved by parliament, a proposed amendment could curb the number of executions in the Islamic republic, which has one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world.

Iran has been under mounting international pressure to curb its number of executions. Human rights groups say Iran executed at least 567 people in 2016 and nearly 1,000 in 2015, including men from Afghanistan, where the majority of illicit drugs come into Iran. Iranian officials say 70 percent of all executions in the country were for drug-related offenses.

In Iran itself, calls have been made to ease the use of capital punishment for drug-related offenses. Critics say the extensive use of the death penalty has done little to stop drug use and trafficking in the country that is on a major transit route for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan.

Iran has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. The death penalty can currently be invoked for the trafficking or possession of as little as 30 grams of heroin or cocaine.



On July 16, parliament approved a proposal to amend the law to disallow the death penalty for petty, nonviolent drug-related crimes. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, however, sent the draft bill back to the parliamentary judiciary committee for further deliberation.

"I have consulted the head of judiciary regarding this bill, Larijani was quoted as saying by the semiofficial ISNA news agency on July 17. They said they agree with the principle of the bill, but there are still some drawbacks that need to be resolved.

Before becoming law, the legislation needs to be approved by parliament and ratified by the Guardians Council, the powerful clerical body that must approve all proposed legislation.

Height Of Cruelty



The New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for the government to halt all executions for drug-related crimes while parliament debated the reforms.



It makes no sense for Irans judiciary to execute people now under a drug law that will likely bar such executions as early as next month, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. It would be the height of cruelty to execute someone today for a crime that would at worst get them a 30-year sentence when this law is amended.

In November, Hassan Nowruzi, the parliamentary judicial committee spokesman, called for parliament to change the law, revealing that 5,000 people were on death row for drug-related offenses, the majority of them aged between 20 and 30. He said the majority are first-time offenders.

In October, more than 150 lawmakers in the 290-member chamber called for the executions of petty drug traffickers to be halted. Lawmakers also suggested that capital punishment should be abolished for those who become involved in drug trafficking out of desperation or poverty.



In August, Mohammad Baqer Olfat, the deputy head of the judiciary's department for social affairs, said the death penalty had not deterred drug trafficking; in fact, he said, it was on the rise. Rather than the death penalty, he suggested, traffickers should be given long prison terms with hard labor.



Tough Stance



But hard-liners in the judiciary appear to be resistant to the idea of tweaking the country's harsh drug laws.

In comments published in September, Judiciary head Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani defended the bodys tough stance against amendments to the law.



In some cases, including drug trafficking, were forced to act quickly, openly, and decisively, said Larijani, while adding that the judges should not delay the implementation of sentences.



He said in some cases alternative punishments can replace the death penalty while respecting some conditions, but added that the death penalty cannot be ruled out.



Afghan Inmates



Thousands of Afghans involved in the illicit narcotics trade have ended up in Iranian prisons and have been executed. Afghanistan is the worlds largest producer of opium, which is used to make heroin, and Iran is a major transit route for the drug to western Asia and Europe.

The precise number of Afghans executed in Iran over the past several years is unknown. Tehran rarely informs or provides explanations to Kabul about the execution of its citizens.



Afghan media estimates that some 2,000 Afghans have been jailed in Iran on drug-smuggling charges and other criminal acts, while hundreds more face the death penalty.



Afghan lawmakers and human rights groups have raised concerns, saying many Afghans imprisoned in Iran do not receive fair trials because they lack access to defense lawyers and are not given the opportunity to get assistance from Kabul.
Pakistans numerous Islamist political parties are scrambling to unite in an electoral alliance before the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.

The effort aims to unite the now divided vote bank of religious political parties that mostly play a secondary role as coalition partners to mainstream political parties. Despite failing to win elections, these groups have proved themselves a vocal lobby capable of dictating legislative agendas, shaping public opinion, and blocking liberal policies and reforms.

Jamiat Ulema-e Islam  Fazl (JUI-F), one of the largest Islamist political parties, is now trying to unite disparate Islamist groups divided along sectarian and ideological lines.

Maulana Shuja-ul Mulk, a former JUI-F lawmaker, is part of his partys committee to reach out to leaders of fellow Islamist parties. He says he is optimistic about reviving an alliance that scored significant electoral victories in 2002.

Unlike the temporary alliances and seat adjustments [we carried forward with various political parties in recent years], this alliance will be based on the ideological affinity of religious political parties, he told Radio Mashaal. We want to unite all of them on a single platform.

Former lawmaker Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, a senior leader of Jammat-e Islami, says that unlike some botched efforts to unite the Islamist political parties in recent years, the current effort has more chances of success.

One positive thing is that these religious parties have always presented a united front on important religious questions inside the parliament, he noted.

Jammat-e Islami is distinguished by its modernist approach to organization and discipline. Unlike most conservative Islamist parties, it is not controlled by a clerical establishment or leading dynasty. Yet its hawkish policies have attracted few votes.

While Jammat-e Islami opposes sectarianism, most Islamist political parties in Pakistan are sectarian in nature because they follow or propagate one particular Muslim sect.

The solidarity of these parties has also been tested by the ultra-radicalism of the Taliban and other militant groups who have publicly ditched elections and participation in mainstream politics in favor of an armed struggle to impose their worldview on the country. In recent years, senior clerics and Islamic scholars have been targeted in militant attacks.

Some sectarian outfits are dedicated to targeting members of rival sects. Pakistans Shiite communities, estimated to be up to 20 percent of the countrys 200 million population, has been in the crosshairs of Sunni extremists, who frequently claim attacks against Shia.

Academic Qibla Ayaz is a keen observer of Islamist politics in Pakistan. He says the move is prompted by the realization that Islamist political parties are seen as declining even in traditional strongholds.

It is unfortunate that we never achieved a stable political arrangement in this country and politicians have been denied the opportunity to establish a steady political system, he told Radio Mashaal. Frequent military interventions in the form of martial law had sabotaged the political process, which paved the way for new characters to assume prominent political roles [at the cost of the older ones].

Much of the Pakistani political class has been on tenterhooks for the past couple weeks as the countrys top court looks into corruption allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs family. If found guilty of wrongdoing, Sharif could lose his office, which would trigger a political crisis prompting a new political alignment.

While allied with Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, respectively, JUI-F and Jammat-e Islami are visibly engaged in creating another option for securing their political fortunes.

The two allied with four more Islamist parties to form the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Council of Action, in 2002. Amid accusations of manipulation by the military government at the time, the alliance swept the polls in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

A new alliance might fail to repeat the spectacle but will definitely add to the Islamist parties influence in Pakistani politics.

Abubakar Siddique wrote this based on Radio Mashaal correspondent Muhmmad Imrans reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, FLA., July 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its ongoing effort to foster global education, research and international cooperation, Nova Southeastern Universitys (NSU) College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) have signed several memorandums of understanding with Latin America universities attending the 15th annual Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology, that took place in Boca Raton, FL last week.

The universities are: Universidad Nacional Del Este (Ciudad del Este, Paraguay); Universidad de Pamplona (Pamplona, Colombia); Universitaria Agustiniana - AUNIAGUSTINIANA (Bogota, Colombia); and Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria (Managua, Nicaragua).

These agreements come at a time when the CEC is really looking at innovative ways to grow our international student recruitment efforts and to strengthen our footprint abroad, said Yong X. Tao, Ph.D. and P.E., dean of NSUs College of Engineering and Computing department. The signing of these agreements marks the first step towards initiatives that will facilitate opportunities for not only our students, but also faculty members to conduct scholarly activities, such as seminars and workshops, and to conduct research in areas of mutual interest with our colleagues from Latin America.

Dr. Anthony J. DeNapoli, NSUs Associate Dean of International Affairs, added NSU is committed to research that improves our communities and is looking forward to further developing collaboration with universities abroad. He also emphasized that collaboration across borders will broaden our spectrum of research topics and enrich the experience for faculty members as well as students of both NSU and partner universities around the globe.

The universities selected are all highly competitive, research-oriented institutions.

Key representatives for these universities visited NSUs Fort Lauderdale last week, meeting with Dr. Tao and Dr. DeNapoli to sign the agreements.

Be sure to sign up for NSUs RSS feed so you dont miss any of our news releases, guest editorials and other announcements. Please sign up HERE.

###

About Nova Southeastern University (NSU): Located in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a dynamic research institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional degree levels. A private, not-for-profit institution, NSU has campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, while maintaining a presence online globally. For more than 50 years, NSU has been awarding degrees in a wide range of fields, while fostering groundbreaking research and an impactful commitment to community. Classified as a research university with high research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is 1 of only 50 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegies Community Engagement Classification, and is also the largest private, not-for-profit institution in the United States that meets the U.S. Department of Educations criteria as a Hispanic-serving Institution. Please visit www.nova.edu for more information about NSU and realizingpotential.nova.edu for more information on the largest fundraising campaign in NSU history.

About NSUs College of Engineering and Computing (CEC): Providing educational programs of distinction, CEC prepares students for leadership roles in the engineering, computer and information sciences field. With internationally recognized faculty, innovative curricula, and flexible online and campus-based formats for its four Bachelor of Science, four Master of Science, and three Ph.D. programs  CECs graduates are sought after around the world. Designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, their information assurance curriculum is recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency. For more information, please visit http://cec.nova.edu

About Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI): LACCEI is a non-profit organization of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) institutions that offer academic programs in Engineering and Technology as well as institutions (i.e. universities, colleges, schools and businesses) from other parts of the world that have demonstrated interest and activities with LAC institutions.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0dc41351-5e90-4ac9-86ac-c52d0e923f44
English Estonian

AS Pro Kapital Grupp informs that group companies have on 25.07.2017 concluded the contracts for the sale of group hotels PK Ilmarine and PK Riga (hereinafter also referred as Transaction). The object of the Transaction is the sale of both operating activities and real-estate of hotels.

Transaction concerning Estonian segment involved the sale of 100% shares of OU Hotel Management Services (operator of PK Ilmarine hotel) and sale of real-estate used by PK Ilmarine hotel, including parking. Transaction is completed, ownership of assets relating to hotel are transferred.

Transaction concerning Latvian segment involved the conclusion of sale contract for sale of 100% shares of SIA Hotel Management Services (operator of PK Riga hotel) and sale of 100% shares of SIA Investhotel (owner or real-estate of PK Riga hotel). Completion of the Transaction is dependent on conditions to be fulfilled by the buyer, buyer has until 30.09.2017 to complete the conditions.

Buyers of the real-estate related assets are Sisne Invest OU in Estonia and SIA Sisne Invest Riga in Latvia and buyers of hotel operating activity are companies connected to BBH Hotel Group OU, Transaction is not a transaction with related party in the meaning of the stock-exchange rules and the issuers council and management board are not personally interested in the Transaction. Estimated amount of the Transaction is 12 957 777 EUR, of which 6 878 741 EUR is the amount allocated to PK Ilmarine hotel (Estonia) and base price of PK Riga hotel (Latvia) is 6 079 036 EUR. Exact price of Latvian Transaction will be determined upon closing of the Transaction, as the price is dependent on result of economic activity of the hotel as of the closing. 630 000 EUR has been paid upon signing and the rest will be paid upon closing of the Latvian Transaction.

AS Pro Kapital Grupp CEO Paolo Michelozzi comment: The goal of the Transaction (including the disposal of the shares) is to exit Tallinn and Riga hotel market which has not been a core business for the group. Tallinn and Riga hotel market is in positive state, so for us it is the right moment for the exit. Our goal is to concentrate on development of residential and commercial real-estate and to use the monetary resources received from the Transaction to speed up the development of our core business, in the market which has positive trends.

The influence of the Transaction on the group is as follows: based on 2016 financial results the group revenue will decrease by 3,1 MEUR (includes only revenue of operators as SIA Investhotel revenue consists of internal group revenue) and net profit will decrease by 0,9 MEUR, at the same time based on 2016 financial results the financial liabilities of the group will decrease by 6,1 MEUR and cash assets will increase by 6,9 MEUR.

Disposed companys last 3 year financial results and other information required by stock-exchange rules:

Hotel Management Services OU (Estonian operator) Hotel Management Services SIA (Latvian operator) SIA Investhotel (Latvian real estate company) 2016 2015 2014 2016 2015 2014 2016 2015 2014 Revenues 1 617 421 1 508 130 1 519 035 1 446 771 1 507 433 1 485 569 591 835 587 329 595 212 Net profit 104 113 46 623 99 773 23 290 70 217 93 075 305 500 300 879 291 715 Dividend per share 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Basic and diluted earnings per share 104 113 46 623 99 773 0,41 1,23 1,64 0,31 0,30 0,29 Shareholder 100% AS Pro Kapital Eesti 100% AS Pro Kapital Latvia 100% AS Pro Kapital Latvia Relevant court cases none None none Board members Ervin Nurmela Olga Rudzika, Ilona Ahramovica, Paolo Michelozzi Ilona Ahramovica, Allan Remmelkoor, Paolo Michelozzi Council Members none None none

Disposed companys annual reports of last two year in comparable table form are in the file attached to the notice

After the end of last financial year no materials changes have occurred in economic activity of the companies.

The loans of disposed companies as of 30.06.2017:

SIA Investhotel loan balance in SIA Swedbank was 2 696 935 eurot.

As of closing the Transactions all contracts between issuer and disposed companies are terminated. Issuer shall conclude with the buyers the fix term license agreement for use of PK Hotels, PK Ilmarine hotel and PK Riga hotel trademarks. Due to the sale of PK Ilmarine hotel operator Head of Legal of Pro Kapital Ervin Nurmela resigned from the management board of OU Hotel Management Services and persons related to buyer were elected as new board members. Boards of companies related to Latvian Transaction will continue to serve as board members until closing of Latvian Transaction.

As the result of the Transaction Pro Kapital will exit Tallinn hotel market and after closing of Riga hotel Transaction will exit also from Riga hotel market.
mrzerog wrote:

Hi John! Long time admirer of your thoughtful and dedicated advices.

Sorry for not having taken the GMAT yet as I'm not yet confident I'm ready now. But please excuse me for the temptation to see the feasibility of my application goal for this application season.

So, here it goes...



Background

Work experience: 2.5 years at 1 cosmetics distribution company (very first job, shouldn't have done this as it's quite irrelevant) and 1 major automobile/motorcycle company (think like 30th, Global 500) as product/brand marketing roles. Not any promotion or any significant leadership roles yet, unfortunately; but I've been diligent at work and rewarded with multi-million dollar projects that I hope I can highlight in my application.

Extra curriculars: Events organizing at college clubs

Undergrad school/major: Business & Economics

Other education/coursework: None

Race/nationality: Asian (Vietnamese)

Sex: Male



Stats

GMAT Score (include breakdown!): Not yet taken, aim at 720-730 (I'm not a naturally strong Quant/data guy)

Undergrad GPA: 3.0 at top undergrad business school in my country



MBA Info

Goal of MBA: Continue brand management roles (CPG, B2B...)/ switch to product marketing for tech sector (think Amazon, Apple)/ media industry (think Walt Disney Company). Personally I'm a bit more creative kind of guy (not the typical business guy I think). I'll try my very best to live my American dream after graduation but if the employment picture for H1-B is too doomed, coming back to my country is also not so bad, considering CPG companies abound here too.



Target schools: Anderson, Kelley (stretch); Owen, Foster, Marshall, Carlson, Smeal, Purdue (reach), Fordham (safe - they have 2nd concentration in coms & media). Would like to secure some $ as well.



I think I'll try some schools in R1 and see how is my candidacy; if it doesn't look too good I think I'll hold off for 1-2 years and move to another job to strengthen my professional experience (think CPG marketing/assistant marketing manager role; or consulting - associate, Tier 2 level at my country - I am also looking at dipping into consulting. Tech firms are almost non-existent here)



Thank you very much!

Duc Anh

Dear Duc Anh,First off, the good thing is that opposed to countries where the Adcoms get TONS of Applications, Vietnamese applicants are still a bit rare, so that has the potential of working in your favor.Overall, I don't think your profile is that bad. A lot will depend upon the GMAT, and I try not to conjecture too much before you get your score, because then it can build a certain set of calcified choices, that actually need to be kept dynamic. I will only say that if you DO get your target score, you will be in pretty good shape. Maybe top 10 will still be a stretch for you, but there are other great schools.It's true that your work industry and experience are not necessarily typical... but that's not always bad. From here, it's a bit hard to say how strong or not your work experience is, since I am lacking significant detail. But if you have done well, you might be surprised what you can pull out.Other than that, I will say that STORY is more important than you think - where you come from, professionally AND personally, where you are going to.... what your ambitions and dreams are.I get the feeling that there is still much more hidden in your profile that we can dig out.And feel free to drop us a line for a more full-on Free Consultation: http://bit.ly/mbafcGC Best,JF
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
In the early hours of 24 July five oil thieves, or huachicoleros, were killed in a clash with security forces in Mexicos central state of Puebla, the state attorney generals office (FGE) reported.Illegal oil taps have been increasing at an alarming rate in Mexico over the course of the last five years. It took the death of 10 people, including four soldiers, in early May in violent clashes between a military patrol and thieves endeavouring to steal from a pipeline belonging to the state-owned oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), in one of the half a dozen municipalities that make up the so-called oil theft red triangle in Puebla, to spur the authorities into action. The security forces have since sought to crack down on the illegal activity.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 341 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options
Wang Jianlin is one of Asias richest men. He is chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, a large property business which owns many foreign companies.

However, Wang is now facing a number of actions from Chinese authorities.

The latest actions include Chinese authorities asking banks to stop financing Wanda Groups purchases of foreign companies.

Wanda Group currently owns a studio in Hollywood and AMC Theaters, among other foreign businesses. AMC Theaters has the most movie theaters in the United States.

Earlier this year, Wanda Group faced an investigation into its finances. Soon after, Wanda Group sold part of its business for $9.3 billion to a real estate developer based in Tianjin.

Wang Jianlin, the founder of Wanda Group, is known for his strong connections with the Communist Party. The Chinese governments actions have surprised some experts.

Christopher Balding is an associate professor of economics at Peking University. He said, "That is a surprising development in a lot of different ways. Wang Jianlin has many friends all through the political establishment in China."

While some people believe the government targeted Wang, other people believe the government was taking action against many companies.

Peng Liu is a professor of real estate and hotel management at Cornell University. He said the government actions were consistent with the desire to control financial risks.

In the past few years, Wanda Group has bought Nordic Cinema Group, a theater operator in northern Europe, for $930 million, and Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 billion. Carmike Cinemas is the fourth-largest theater operator in the United States.

However, earlier this year, Wanda Group was unable to buy Dick Clark Productions, a company that develops television shows. The deal was valued at $1 billion.

The government is asking companies to cut their financial risks. But it is unclear if there are other reasons it wants companies to limit the buying of foreign companies.

Balding said, It is not far-fetched to say that there is definitely a political message being sent, and they are using Wanda as an example to other companies, (to say) 'don't do this'."

He added that the actions involving Wanda could be a sign of hidden political disputes.

Yue Su is an economist with The Economist Intelligence Unit. She said the government is also investigating Fosun and Anbang. Those two companies have bought overseas businesses.

She said, The government is also worried that these companies are trying to move assets abroad and keep their debt within the country, which is worsening domestic economic conditions.

Christopher Balding said that in the past few years, regulators were encouraging Chinese companies to buy foreign companies.

He said, So while Wanda may have pushed the limits, they were doing nothing more than what they were being encouraged to do by Chinese regulators.

Currently, the Chinese government appears to not want companies to buy foreign businesses. However, Liu said that he believes they will allow overseas investments under the Belt and Road program. That program is a development project that supports trade across countries in Asia and Europe.

The Belt and Road program is the government's strategy. I think that is different. he said.

Im Olivia Liu.

And Im Mario Ritter.

VOA's Saibal Dasgupta reported this story from Beijing. Olivia Liu adapted this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

___________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

authorities  n. people with power to give orders or make decisions

far-fetched  adj. unlikely

regulators  adj. officials who enforce rules for a public activity or industry

encouraging  adj. to cause something to be more likely to happen

strategy  adj. a plan for reaching a larger or long term goal
North Korea may have a working intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, able to carry a nuclear weapon by next year.

Intelligence officials for the U.S. Defense Department made the estimate in a report published Tuesday.

Some Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about North Koreas missile and nuclear programs.

The Washington Post reported that the estimate decreases the expected time in which North Korea would be able to produce a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM program. Earlier estimates had stated that North Korea would need three years to build a working ICBM.

Mac Thornberry is the Republican committee chairman of the House Armed services committee. He said he was concerned about the apparent success of North Koreas launch of a long-range missile on July 4.

Thornberry wants to increase U.S. defense spending on missile defense by $2.5 billion. Analysts said that the missile launched on July 4 was capable of reaching the state of Alaska. Thornberry said Congress and President Donald Trump need to take action to ensure that the U.S. and its allies are protected.

The U.S. Defense Department has already increased the number of ground based anti-missile weapons based in Alaska. Missile defense systems are also based in the state of California.

VOA spoke to Ken Gause, the director of the International Affairs Group of the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia. He said North Koreas increased efforts to develop long distance missiles are aimed at bringing about talks with the United States.

He said North Korea considers its weapons programs as the only way to ensure its security.

Gause says the North Korean government wants to develop its economy, but is unwilling to limit its weapons programs.

They have moved away, over the last few years, away from a military first policy to a party/people first policy which the driving factor behind that is economic progress, but they cannot focus on that part of their agenda until they have security locked down.

Observers say the July 4 launch showed progress.

Scott Bray, an East Asia expert with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the recent test was not a surprise. However, he added that it presented a threat to the U.S. and to our allies in the region and to the whole world.

Im Mario Ritter.

Robert Burns reported this story for AP. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English with additional material from VOAs Victor Beattie. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ballistic missile adj. an explosive device able to travel long distances through the air

Reliable adj. something that can be depended on to do what is intended

Focus n. placing great or full attention on something

Agenda n. a plan for things that are to be done
This is Whats Trending Today.

A man in Los Angeles was arrested on Tuesday for illegally bringing Asian reptiles, including three king cobra snakes, into the United States.

The snakes were hidden inside cans of potato chips.

In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found a package from Hong Kong that contained the three snakes as well as three turtles.

The agents thought there might be illegal drugs inside the potato chip cans. They were surprised to see something moving inside when they opened them. The snakes were about half a meter long.

The turtles were albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the turtles vulnerable.

Government agents took the cobras, but permitted the turtles to be delivered to the home of Rodrigo Franco.

Agents later got permission to search Francos home. Inside, they found a lot of rare reptiles, including a crocodile and more species of turtles.

Government lawyers say all of the animals are protected under U.S. law.

The agents found a cell phone with messages from a person in Hong Kong. In one of the messages, Franco asked the person what he should feed the cobra snakes.

The answer? Other snakes.

Cobras live in the rainforests and flat lands of India, China and Southeast Asia. They have some of the most dangerous poison in the world.

Franco told government agents he received 20 more snakes, but they had all died. Agents do not believe him, however, based on messages they found on his phone.

Of the cobras found in the potato chip cans, two survived. They are now being cared for at a zoo.

The story was a trending topic on social media Wednesday. One person on Twitter wanted to know how you could get a large snake to coil up inside a small can.

Another person responded: very carefully.

One Twitter user compared the experience of opening a can and finding a snake to the surprise of opening and reading his emails.

Franco has been charged with illegally importing merchandise. If found guilty, he could spend up to 20 years in prison.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on reports by the Associated Press and Washington Post. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

What would you do if you received a snake in a can? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

conservation  n. the protection of animals, plants, and natural resources

vulnerable  adj. open to attack, harm, or damage

warrant  n. a document issued by a court that gives the police the power to do something

coil  v. to wind (something) into circles

agent  n. person who does business for another person : a person who acts on behalf of another

merchandise  n. goods that are bought and sold

package  n. a box or large envelope that is sent or delivered usually through the mail or by another delivery service

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants : a group of related animals or plants that is smaller than a genus
President Donald Trump is banning transgender people from serving in the United States military.

The president made the announcement Wednesday on Twitter. He wrote that he discussed the issue with generals and military experts. He said he then decided that the government, in his words, will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he wrote.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis is a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department. He declined to say whether transgender people already serving in the military would be removed. He also declined to say whether Trumps tweets mean a change in policy.

Davis told the Associated Press, Call the White House.

The AP reported that about 250 military service members are in the process of changing gender. Trumps announcement did not say what would happen to these service members.

The U.S. Department of Defense has not released the number of transgender people currently serving in the military. But a RAND Corporation study says that between 1,300 to nearly 7,000 transgender people are currently active in the services.

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military since last year. That was when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. The new policy was to go into effect fully on July 1. However, in June Defense Secretary James Mattis said the department would delay Carter's order in order to examine its possible effect.

Matt Thorn is head of OutServe-SLDN, an organization representing the LGBT population in the military. He said thousands of transgender people have served in the U.S. military without any issues.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, director of the Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project, said Trumps decision is harming lives for the sake of political gains.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on VOA News and the Associated Press reports. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

allow - v. permit

focus - v. direct your attention and effort

overwhelming - adj. very great in number, effect or force

burden - v. to make (someone) carry something heavy or deal with something difficult

tremendous - adj. very large or great

disruption - n. cause that interrupts normal progress or activity

entail - v. to have as a part of

LGBT - stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
American Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is examining federal guidance on how schools should deal with sexual assault.

The guidance was written during the presidency of Barack Obama. It advises school officials on a U.S. law known as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The law requires schools to take action to deal with issues like hostile educational environments and illegal sexual contact.

On July 13, DeVos spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C.

DeVos said she is considering how to balance the interests of sexual assault victims against those accused unfairly of sexual assault.

Demonstrators warn about weakening federal rules

The education secretary met at the conference with sexual assault victims and people who said they were falsely accused of sexually attacking others.

At the same time, Maya Weinstein, 23, and others demonstrated outside the headquarters of the Department of Education. Weinstein was raped by another student during her first year at George Washington University.

It is interesting to me how sexual assault is viewed as a different issue than any other crime, Weinstein told VOA. The false reporting statistics are comparable to that of someone saying they were robbed and we dont question those who come forward to say they were robbed.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reports that between two percent and eight percent of sexual assault charges are proven false. It says those rates are comparable to other crimes.

DeVos told the conference that existing rules might not protect the rights of people falsely accused. She spoke about meeting with students who say they were falsely accused.

Devos said, It was clear that their stories have not often been told, and that there are lives that have been ruined and lives that are lost in the process.

DeVos also said that sexual assault is a serious problem.

We cant go back to the days when allegations were swept under the rug, she said.



Last year, the company International Student Insurance made a video about sexual assault for international students at American colleges. It said countries have different ideas about what is acceptable and what is not.

In the United States, a sexual relationship requires consent, the video says. It describes consent as when both people agree to sexual activity without feeling pressured or intimidated and without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Sexual assault victim says not enough done for victims

Alyssa Peterson was a victim of sexual assault while attending Georgetown University in Washington. Like many victims, she decided not to bring charges against her attacker because she was not sure the process would be fair.

In 2015, the Association of American Universities said that half of college students did not report incidents of sexual assault because they did not think it was "serious enough." Others said they were embarrassed or thought "nothing would be done."

Even with the stronger federal guidance, punishment for sexual assault remains weak, Peterson said. She said few students are removed from college for sexually assaulting fellow students.

Peterson is now a Yale University law school student. She works with a group called Know Your Title IX, which supports victims of sexual assault.

Before the July 13 conference, the Education Departments acting assistant secretary for civil rights apologized for comments she made about sexual assault.

The official, Candice Jackson, had spoken to the New York Times newspaper. She said that 90 percent of sexual assault cases involve two drunken students and a student deciding our last sleeping together was not quite right.

In her apology Jackson said, What I said was flippant, and I am sorry. Jackson also said that she was a rape victim.

University settles case brought by student accused of rape

Columbia University in New York recently settled a case dealing with allegations of sexual assault. The case was brought by a former international student.

The former student, Paul Nungesser of Germany, had accused Columbia officials of failing to protect him.

The German man had been accused of raping another student, but the university cleared Nungesser of wrongdoing.

Nungessers lawyers said the university permitted his accuser to carry a mattress around on Columbias grounds as part of a school-approved art project.

The accuser said the mattress represented the schools failure to punish Nungesser for raping her. She even carried it to her graduation ceremonies in 2015.

The university said Nungessers time at Columbia had become very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience. It added that Nungesser is now attending a film school in Germany.

The woman who accused Nungesser of rape had criticized Columbia for being more concerned about their public image than keeping people safe.

Im Caty Weaver. And I'm Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

___________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

assault - n. the crime of trying or threatening to hurt someone physically

toll  n. the price for a service; a tax paid for some right

view - v. an opinion or way of thinking about something

statistics - n. number that represents a piece of information such as information about how often something is done, how common something is

allegation - n. charges against someone

swept under the rug - expression to hide something unpleasant or embarrassing

intimidate - v. to make someone afraid

embarrass - v. to make someone feel confused and foolish in front of other people

flippant - adj. lacking proper respect or seriousness

mattress - n. a cloth case that is filled with material and used as a bed


The recent deaths of 10 individuals in Texas again brought attention to people risking their lives in search of a better future.

U.S. officials say those who died were part of a group who paid smugglers to help them get into the United States illegally. They were being transported in the back of a tractor-trailer truck.

Police discovered eight bodies inside the trucks trailer early Sunday outside a Walmart store in San Antonio. Two more victims died after being taken to the hospital. Police said 39 people were inside the truck when rescuers arrived. But survivors said up to 200 people may have been inside during the trip.

The area reportedly had temperatures reaching 38 degrees Celsius. Rescuers said victims suffered from limited air, lack of water and heatstroke.

Officials said all those found inside were undocumented immigrants, most of them Mexican nationals. Their ages ranged from 15 to about 30 years old.

Human smuggling is a big business

Professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera is a residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. She has studied human smuggling along the southern U.S. border for many years. She says the tragedy in Texas is an example of how organized smuggling has turned into a big business.

This has become a multi-million dollar industry. From the countries of origin, several people are participating now in a much more organized way - including transnational criminal organizations that charge people to cross the river or to pass through the territories that are controlled by them.

She added that despite the high cost of smuggling and great risks to their lives, many people are still finding ways to get to the U.S.

It seems to me that people are trying to find different ways to get to the United States because they know that when they get to the United States, employers are providing them with a job.

Correa-Cabrera noted that if U.S. policies to protect borders and limit immigration get stronger, people will just seek out new ways to get around the laws. She said this is likely to only strengthen criminal groups operating on the other side of the border.

Global migration problem

Worldwide, the number of migrants reached 244 million in 2015, according to the latest United Nations report. Nearly two-thirds of all international migrants live in Europe (76 million) or Asia (75 million). North America hosted the third largest number (54 million), followed by Africa (21 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (9 million) and Oceania (8 million).

In 2015, mass graves found in Thailand and Malaysia led to the discovery of a large human trafficking operation involving mostly Rohingya migrants. Smugglers kept the migrants in camps under poor conditions before they were transported to other parts of Asia. Last week in Thailand, dozens of people  including 21 government officials  were convicted in the trafficking case.

One of the worlds biggest migrations involves people fleeing Africa to go to Europe. Millions also have fled fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Conflicts have forced many families to make the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea. In 2016, the number of deaths in the sea reached an all-time high of 5,000, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

People who fled war and persecution from their homeland are considered refugees. But most of the people who arrived in Europe are considered "economic migrants. In other words, they are looking for work.

Michelle Mittelstadt is with the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. She says the same issues drive the people trying to reach the U.S. from nations south of the border.

Whether it's in Europe or the United States or elsewhere, they're much more willing to put themselves in the hands of smugglers and to undertake journeys that they understand are very dangerous. But for them are worth the calculus because of the conditions in their countries of origin. They feel so little hope.



Issues for host countries

The huge migration into Europe has put pressure on schools and other government systems in several countries. This influenced some politicians to move farther to the right on immigration issues and to oppose increased immigration to their countries.

Mittelstadt says these developments did send a message that Europe can no longer accept unlimited migrants. However, she adds that the number of desperate attempts to flee to Europe and other places is likely to continue.

When you look at what's happening right now in Africa - and the famine and just the instability in some of these countries. And you look at the continuing unrest in Syria and the destabilization in the region and all of that, these are not problems that are ending anytime soon.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn reported this story for Learning English, with additional information from Reuters and the Associated Press. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

tractor-trailer  n. large truck used to transport loads of cargo

heatstroke  n. serious medical condition caused by staying too long in the heat

immigrant  n. person who goes to a country with the intention of living there

human smuggling  n. the importation of people into a country illegally, with those being smuggled generally cooperating

migrant  n. person who changes country of residence, especially to find work

human trafficking  n. the importation of people into a country against their will, for the specific purpose of exploiting them to work in the sex trade or other forced work situations

persecution  n. treating someone cruelly or unfairly

journey  n. traveling from one place to another

calculus  n cost or value of something

famine  n. situation in which many people do not have enough food to eat
Research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis sheds light on what might be happening in an anxious brain. A new study has identified a group of neurons that become active when an animal is faced with the possibility of an unpleasant event. Credit: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

From students stressing over exams to workers facing possible layoffs, worrying about the future is a normal and universal experience. But when people's anticipation of bad things to come starts interfering with daily life, ordinary worry can turn into an anxiety disorder. About one in four adults will struggle with anxiety at some point in their lives, making it one of the most common mental disorders in the United States.

Now, new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis sheds light on what might be happening in an anxious brain. A new study has identified a group of neurons that become active when an animal is faced with the possibility  but not the certainty  of an unpleasant event.

The study is published July 26 in Nature Communications.

"We found a population of neurons that activated specifically when monkeys thought something bad or annoying  like a puff of air to the face  might be coming, but not when they knew for certain it was," said Ilya Monosov, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience and of biomedical engineering and the study's author. "These neurons did not activate when the animals thought they might get something good, like a sip of sweet juice. Only an uncertain bad experience activated these cells."

The research provides opportunities for understanding the roots of anxiety and may eventually lead to new treatments for the disorder.

Monosov studied a part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex, an area on the outer layer of the brain that lies deep inside the groove where the brain's two hemispheres fold in to meet each other.

Differences in the anterior cingulate cortex have been found that distinguish healthy people and people with mental disorders such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit and depression, suggesting that the area plays a role in mental illness. However, the cells involved in these brain differences and their consequences are not well understood.

To study how the brain responds to uncertainty, Monosov turned to rhesus monkeys, which have anterior cingulate cortices similar to those of people. He trained two monkeys to recognize three geometric designs, one indicating they were about to get an annoying puff of air to the face, one that meant they had a 50-50 chance of getting an air puff, and one indicating nothing would happen.

Then, Monosov recorded the activity of individual neurons in the anterior cingulate while monkeys were shown these geometric images. When the animal knew the odds were even (50-50) that a puff of air was coming its way, a group of neurons started firing rapidly. These cells were not active when an air puff was guaranteed to happen, only when it might happen, which means the cells were not responding to the unpleasantness of the experience, but to the uncertainty of it.

Monosov also trained the monkeys to recognize geometric designs indicating the certainty or possibility of getting something good: a sip of juice. He identified an entirely different group of cells that changed their activity in response to the possibility or certainty of getting the treat. As with the air puff experiment, the neurons that responded when the animals knew they had the chance of a sip were different than the ones that responded when the juice was guaranteed.

These findings shed light on the cellular underpinnings of complex mental processes. How the brain responds to the possibility that something bad  or good  might happen is rooted in our neurons.

"Now that we know which cells are active when an animal is faced with the uncertainty of a bad experience, we can try to disrupt the activity of these cells," Monosov said. "It opens up avenues of research, which may one day lead to new ways to treat disorders such as anxiety and depression."

More information: Ilya E. Monosov. Anterior cingulate is a source of valence-specific information about value and uncertainty, Nature Communications (2017). Journal information: Nature Communications Ilya E. Monosov. Anterior cingulate is a source of valence-specific information about value and uncertainty,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00072-y
(HealthDay)Hyaluronic acid (HA) filler injection seems to be efficacious and safe for the treatment of horizontal neck lines, according to research published online July 20 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.

Soo-Keun Lee, M.D., Ph.D., from Mein Skin Clinic in Seoul, and Hei Sung Kim, M.D., Ph.D., from the Catholic University of Korea in Incheonboth in South Korea, conducted a retrospective chart review to assess the efficacy and safety of HA filler injection in the treatment of horizontal neck lines. Data were included from 28 neck halves from 14 patients, all of whom underwent a single treatment session with a 0.3 cc insulin syringe. At baseline and two months after treatment, the authors conducted a wrinkle assessment.

The researchers found that 35.7 and 64.3 percent of the 28 neck halves were treated with the linear threading technique (LTT) and the vertical technique (VT), respectively. Per side, the average amount of filler injected was 1.01  0.13 cc. At two-month follow-up after filler injection, the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale score of the horizontal neck lines was 4.04  0.79 overall, 3.60  0.70 with the LTT, and 4.27  0.75 with the VT. Complications, including skin irregularity and accentuation of neck lines, were transient.

"Our preliminary study results indicate that HA filler injection with a 0.3 cc insulin syringe could be a safe and effective treatment option for horizontal neck lines," the authors write.

Copyright  2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Florida Institute of Technology

A new study from Florida Institute of Technology has found that criminal defendants who graduated from mental health court demonstrated substantially reduced re-arrest rates a full three years following their release, the longest period of post-program behavior examined in a published study involving mental health courts and the clearest indicator yet of the potential for diversionary programs to ease the burden on the nation's overcrowded prison system.

Additionally, the study from Florida Tech's Julie Costopoulos, an assistant professor in the university's School of Psychology, and doctoral student Bethany Wellman found that for those who participated in mental health court, prior criminal behavior, no matter how serious, was not an indicator of post-release recidivism.

And even when they re-offended after failing to complete the full complement of treatment and support, participants committed less serious crimes in doing so, the study found, with the severity of offenses declining the longer they had remained in the mental health court.

"Jail doesn't stop crimes by the mentally ill, treatment does. Yet jails and prisons are now the largest mental health treatment facilities in the United States," Costopoulos said. "We know mental health court not only reduces jail overcrowding, it also helps participants find support to live independently and successfully while getting treatment. And now, with our study, we have shown that mental health courts also reduce arrests by the mentally ill, regardless of how much they have offended in the past."

The study, "The Effectiveness of One Mental Health Court: Overcoming Criminal History," was published online June 21 in the journal Psychological Injury and Law.

In the study, Costopoulos and Wellman note that their findings add to a growing body of evidence of the value of mental health courts from almost every perspective  human, economic, criminal justice, societal  compared to more traditional incarceration, which has been shown to be ineffective at reducing recidivism while actually exacerbating mental health issues.

Mental health courts combine judicial supervision with community-based mental health treatment and other support services. There are roughly 300 of them in the United States, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Nearly half of the total can be found in just five states  California, New York, Ohio, Florida and Illinois  and seven states have no mental health courts.

The first mental health court was created in Broward County, Florida, in 1992, modeled on a drug court program that brought community-based treatment and social welfare elements into the proceedings.

Defendants must be invited to participate in mental health courts by agreement of the state attorney and public defender and they must display evidence of mental illness.

For their study, Costopoulos and Wellman used data on 118 participants in the Brevard County, Florida, mental health court. Of those, 80 graduated and 38 were dismissed prior to graduation.

More information: 10.1007/s12207-017-9290-x Julie S. Costopoulos et al. The Effectiveness of One Mental Health Court: Overcoming Criminal History, Psychological Injury and Law (2017). 10.1007/s12207-017-9290-x Julie S. Costopoulos et al. The Effectiveness of One Mental Health Court: Overcoming Criminal History,(2017). DOI: 10.1007/s12207-017-9290-x
Pills. Credit: Public Domain

Forget to take your medication? Now you can get a reminder to find your pills - sent by the pill itself.

Chicago's Rush University Medical Center has become one of the few health care providers in the United States to use a grain-of-sand-sized sensor that, after being swallowed, can alert patients when they've forgotten to take medication.

Developed by Proteus Digital Health, the FDA-approved sensor is made from microscopic quantities of copper and magnesium. Powered by the human body (no batteries or antennas required), the tiny sensor turns on after reaching patients' stomachs, where it begins sending signals to a Band-Aid-like, Bluetooth-enabled patch worn on the torso. The patch then decodes those signals into meaningful health information and sends it to users and physicians in an app.

Tony Perry, vice president of Rush's ambulatory transformation program, said the hospital has been using the Proteus technology since January, hoping it could eventually better guide care for patients with chronic illnesses like hypertension or congestive heart failure.

As many as half of all patients undergoing drug therapy for chronic illnesses fail to regularly follow prescription instructions, Perry said.

"We know from a data perspective that when we write prescriptions, a good number of those prescriptions either don't get filled or don't get taken by people," he said. "The 'click in the head' was that this is a behavioral tool that was meant to help people help themselves, and that really seemed like a neat opportunity."

In addition to reminding patients to take their meds, the Proteus technology also tracks heart rate and other important health markers, said Perry, whose clinical practice is in geriatric medicine.

More than a dozen Rush patients are currently using the digital medicine tool. The cost to patients is "net neutral" after insurance, he said.

Rush is the first health care provider in Illinois and the eighth nationally to partner with Proteus; Barton Health in California was the first. Children's Health in Texas is also among Proteus' list of health care providers.

Amanda Tosto, director of system integration and population health at Rush, said the hospital's efforts have so far focused on how to successfully incorporate the tech into its operations. It has mostly begun using the Proteus sensor, patch and app with its more technologically friendly patients through hospital-provided iPads, she said.

"You've got your patients who are really going to like this and see it as an extension as their Fitbit or their MyFitnessPal app," Tosto said. "But we've also got a couple of patients who have really benefited from being able to work with their families on medication delivery."

The Proteus sensor is sealed into a capsule along with a patient's normal medication by the specialty mail-order pharmacy Avella; it is the only pharmacy that distributes the "smart pill" for Rush.

Proteus has raised more than $284.5 million since 2013. Kaiser Permanente, Medtronic, Novartis and Otsuka are among the privately held company's investors.

Although startups have introduced smart pill bottles and similar innovations that deliver medication reminders, Proteus considers itself the only company that does so through technology that's ingestible, according to Andy Thompson, co-founder and CEO of Proteus.

"What we are delivering in this industry is the ability to integrate silicon and software into its innovation toolkit," Thompson said. "Those are levers that every other industry has been using to massively boost their rate of innovation, and we think that same is true for pharma."

About half of all U.S. adults have one or more chronic health conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Treating patients with chronic diseases accounts for 86 percent of all health care spending, the CDC estimates.

The FDA cleared the Proteus sensor for marketing as a medical device in 2012. The agency rejected an application for a Proteus investor, Otsuka, to pair the sensor with the antipsychotic drug Abilify in 2016, however, citing the need for more data. Otsuka submitted a new application in May.

In 30 years, Thompson said that he believes every drug that's built is going to have some sort of active silicon inside.

"We're delighted to work with a leading medical center in Chicago," he said. "When we look at institutions like Rush, we believe they're magnifying their physical footprint with a digital footprint and helping folks who are sick manage their conditions where they live, work, play and pray."

2017 Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Participants in an MSU experiment on emotion control had their brain activity monitored by an electroencephalograph. Credit: G.L. Kohuth

The simple act of silently talking to yourself in the third person during stressful times may help you control emotions without any additional mental effort than what you would use for first-person self-talk  the way people normally talk to themselves.

A first-of-its-kind study led by psychology researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan indicates that such third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of self-control. The findings are published online in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal.

Say a man named John is upset about recently being dumped. By simply reflecting on his feelings in the third person ("Why is John upset?"), John is less emotionally reactive than when he addresses himself in the first person ("Why am I upset?").

"Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain," said Jason Moser, MSU associate professor of psychology. "That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions."

The study, partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the John Temple Foundation, involved two experiments that both significantly reinforced this main conclusion.

In one experiment, at Moser's Clinical Psychophysiology Lab, participants viewed neutral and disturbing images and reacted to the images in both the first and third person while their brain activity was monitored by an electroencephalograph. When reacting to the disturbing photos (such as a man holding a gun to their heads), participants' emotional brain activity decreased very quickly (within 1 second) when they referred to themselves in the third person.

The MSU researchers also measured participants' effort-related brain activity and found that using the third person was no more effortful than using first person self-talk. This bodes well for using third-person self-talk as an on-the-spot strategy for regulating one's emotions, Moser said, as many other forms of emotion regulation, such as mindfulness and thinking on the bright side, require considerable thought and effort.

In the other experiment, led by U-M psychology professor Ethan Kross, who directs the Emotion and Self-Control Lab, participants reflected on painful experiences from their past using first and third person language while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or FMRI.

Similar to the MSU study, participants' displayed less activity in a brain region that is commonly implicated in reflecting on painful emotional experiences when using third person self-talk, suggesting better emotional regulation. Further, third person self-talk required no more effort-related brain activity than using first person.

"What's really exciting here," Kross said, "is that the brain data from these two complimentary experiments suggest that third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of emotion regulation.

"If this ends up being true  we won't know until more research is done  there are lots of important implications these findings have for our basic understanding of how self-control works, and for how to help people control their emotions in daily life."

Moser and Kross said their teams are continuing to collaborate to explore how third-person self-talk compares to other emotion-regulation strategies.

More information: Jason S. Moser et al. Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI, Scientific Reports (2017). Journal information: Scientific Reports , Nature Jason S. Moser et al. Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04047-3
Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians

More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official

Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)

Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit

EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries

Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms

Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians

Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO

Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel

Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack

Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade

Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia

Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible

Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence

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
Establishment of a successful startup requires both passion and relevant knowledge, while the absence of at least one of them will lead to the failure of the startup.

Startup development specialist Anil Chhikara (India) told the aforementioned to Armenian News  NEWS.am on Wednesday.

According to him, the importance of knowledge for the creation of any project is apparent: even the most brilliant idea will cost nothing if one cannot make it true, this obviously requiring knowledge and skills. Moreover, if a startupper is going to develop a product, which will be used in an industry, he will need knowledge not only on the technical implementation of his idea but also on the specific industry, its issues and needs.

The specialist also noted that if the startuppers lack passion, they will be unlikely to breathe life into their project and advance it, facing the competition and all the difficulties on the path.

If there is no passion, it is impossible to build a successful project based on knowledge alone. But passion alone is not sufficient either. A successful startup requires both knowledge and passion. Besides, the perseverance is very important: when everything goes array, will the startupper be ready to pass another mile, when all the rest give up? he noted.

Exactly the passion and perseverance help startuppers overcome difficulties which they sooner or later face, Mr Chhikara said.

Annual Sevan StartUp Summit organized by StartUp Armenia Foundation is held on the beach of Lake Sevan from July 24 to 31. Over 1,000 participants, including 100 startups and teams of developers, investors, venture companies and mentors from over 10 countries of the world, take part in the event.

According to the organizers, the event is aimed at creating new ways of cooperation for startups and exchange of experience. The format of the summit is unique: during seven days all the participants, including the mentors and investors, share their household, communicate and participate in different competitions and events. Consequently, new companies will be established and many projects will be able to find investors and enter the market in the near future. Moreover, there will be competitions, whose winners will get over 20 monetary and other prizes.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Armenian Caucus Member Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) urged support for U.S. funding for demining efforts in Artsakh during the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats hearing entitled "Examining the President's FY 2018 Budget Proposal for Europe and Eurasia," reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

"Let's talk a little bit about demining in Artsakh. Our assistance programs for what was then called the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has since Fiscal Year 98 supported lifesaving maternal healthcare, provided for clean drinking water, and cleared mines and unexploded ordinance. HALO Trust, which is leading the demining efforts, reports that it has completed about 88% of its mission but continues to need US funds to continue its lifesaving work, additional humanitarian needs continue. Do we expect HALO Trust to be funded so that it can complete the demining effort?" Rep. Sherman asked.

U.S. Department of State's European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Ambassador John Heffern, in return, responded: "Over the years, as you know, we have given Nagorno Karabakh - the people of Nagorno Karabakh - $45 million in assistance, humanitarian as you described it, [for] water and demining. As I understood, the recent HALO Trust report estimated closer to 96-97% coverage on their demining efforts, which is very important, and there is going to be an assessment of that before we make decision on the next step."

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Europe and Eurasia Bureau Acting Assistant to the Administrator Margot Ellis added that demining is normally funded from their regional budget.

In the past we have sent a request to Congress for us to be engaged and we will put in a similar request, she added.

In its Fiscal Year 2018 testimony, the Assembly urged not less than $8 million be allocated for Arstakh, including de-mining activities. For a relatively small investment, America has the opportunity to make a significant difference in the everyday lives of the people of Artsakh, the Assembly stated in testimony.

Rep. Sherman also raised the importance of negotiating a bilateral tax treaty with Armenia and making this agreement a high priority at the State Department. He stated: "We've seen a surge in U.S. commercial engagement with Armenia, including as reported by the Ambassador upwards of $500 million in new American investments in the Armenia energy and mining sectors." Sherman continued: "the Department of Treasury has to prioritize where to put their tax lawyers, and a number of other countries want to negotiate these agreements with us. But it occurs to me that we have a national security interest in making sure that we have good commercial ties with the former Soviet states." Sherman noted that the Armenian government has gone on record stating that they will base it on the American model.

Earlier in the hearing, Amb. Heffern said that the U.S. is trying to move from an assistance-based relationship to a trade-based relationship with Armenia. Ellis added that USAID decided to focus on the IT and energy sectors because these were sectors that not only could promote Euro-Atlantic integration, but also provided opportunities for U.S. business expansion and partnership with Armenia.

In her written testimony, Ellis stated: "USAID works closely with the EU and other European donors to prioritize assistance, jointly fund projects, and attain maximum leverage while avoiding duplication. In Armenia, for example, we are partnering with the private sector, the host government, and Yerevan State University in a public-private partnership for the 'Establishment of Innovative Solutions and Technologies Center Project' worth $7 million over the course of three years. USAID's investment of $2.5 million is yielding $4.5 million in non-USG funding in support of this program, which will develop and strengthen the educational capabilities of Armenian higher educational institutions in information technology and enhance their research potential in education."

While we appreciate U.S. assistance toward more trade and investment with Armenia, those efforts are necessary, especially considering the ongoing debilitating effects of the coordinated Azerbaijani and Turkish blockades of Armenia and Artsakh, Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian said.

Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act precludes most U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, with the exception of democracy building and humanitarian assistance, 'until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh' or the President issues a waiver for reasons of U.S. national interests. Considering the mounting evidence against the Aliyev regime across the board, Armenia and Artsakh should be receiving more U.S. assistance in addition to trade and investment programs, they concluded.
A group of Armenian youths is developing a video editor, which will enable to increase the frame rate (Frames per Second (FPS)), as well as colorize videos.

Gor Matevosyan and Artur Poghosyan, who are working on this project together with their friends, told Armenian News  NEWS.am that the video editor called Lenz will be very simple and not require any knowledge of video editing or montage. Moreover, the video editor will work on mobile devices, although it is not ruled out that its desktop version will also be available in the future.

According to Matevosyan, they originally had an idea to create an app, which would increase the frequency rate of videos. After lengthy research and work they were able to achieve certain success and find a way to increase the FPS, following which they decided not to stop: the future app should have other features as well.

Colorization of videos became one of these features. In order to test it, the young men began colorizing the Armenian film Dreamers, which has been found out in achieves recently.

In the future, it is planned to add new features to the application as well: it will enable increasing the size/resolution of videos (for example, from 720p to 1080p). Besides, filters will be added, which will enable making a daytime video into a nighttime, or a video shot in summer into a winter one.

This project is still in a development stage but in order to realize their ideas the young men need funding for buying powerful computers and servers. Apart from this, they will be able to complete the project and release it into the market faster if they dedicate their entire time to it: currently, Grisha Tadevosyan, Arman Malkhasyan, David Hambartsumyan, Gor Matevosyan and Arman Hovsepyan dedicate only their free time to the project, all of them having their main job.

According to the preliminary plan, the app and majority of its functions will be free for users, but the functions, which will work by servers, may also be partially paid.

The authors of Lenz came to participate in Sevan StartUp Summit 2017 in the hope to find investments, which will help speed up the development of the project, as well as find interesting and useful acquaintances. The youths also plan to take part in the Seed-stage battle, which will be held within the framework of the summit.

Annual Sevan StartUp Summit organized by StartUp Armenia Foundation is held on the beach of Lake Sevan from July 24 to 31. Over 1,000 participants, including 100 startups and teams of developers, investors, venture companies and mentors from over 10 countries of the world, take part in the event.

According to the organizers, the event is aimed at creating new ways of cooperation for startups and exchange of experience. The format of the summit is unique: during seven days all the participants, including the mentors and investors, share their household, communicate and participate in different competitions and events. Consequently, new companies will be established and many projects will be able to find investors and enter the market in the near future. Moreover, there will be competitions, whose winners will get over 20 monetary and other prizes.
There is great potential of cooperation between the US and Armenia, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Heffern, who served as a US Ambassador to Armenia, said at the US Congress on Wednesday.

In his words, instead of providing humanitarian aid, the US wishes to develop trade and economic relations with Armenia, the Voice of America reports.

Mr Heffern is one of the persons, who is well-aware of the Armenian-American partnership. During his service as a US Ambassador to Armenia from 2011 to 2014, he contributed to the development of bilateral political and trade and economic relations.

Responding to the question of Congressman Brad Sherman, Heffern noted that they want to develop the bilateral relations based on provision of support, reaching relations based on commercial cooperation.

He also noted that the Armenian-American Trade and Investment Framework Agreement signed in May 2015 already contributes to the development of trade and economic relations between the two states. USAID representative Margot Ellis, for her part, noted that US considers cooperation with Armenia in the IT and energy spheres as promising.

According to her, these are the spheres, which can not only develop the uro-Atlantic integration, but also enable involving the US companies and develop the partnership with Armenia.

Brad Sherman expressed conviction that the drafting and signing of a double tax treaty plays an important role in developing the Armenian-American economic cooperation. The Congressman thus called on the representatives of the Department of State to urge the US Department of the Treasury to draft a tax agreement with Armenia, considering this as a priority issue.

John Heffern noted that the Armenian side has already officially stated that it is ready to start drafting the treaty based on the American sample. He also noted that the Department of the Treasury gives a priority to such issues only based on one standardwhether the US companies will favor from that treaty.

Heffern assured that they also consider the opinion of the Department of State.
Kansas Company Honored for 16 Years with No Lost-Time Accidents

The Kansas Department of Labor's Industrial Safety and Health division and Secretary Lana Gordon recognized Flame Engineering Inc. of LaCrosse, Kansas, this month for reaching 16 years with no lost-time accidents.

The Kansas Department of Labor's Industrial Safety and Health division and Secretary Lana Gordon recognized Flame Engineering Inc. of LaCrosse, Kansas, this month for reaching 16 years with no lost-time accidents. Gordon presented company officials a certificate during a special ceremony attended by management and staff members.

The company grew from the initial design by Ralph C. Pivonka and his son, Mike, of a propane torch for burning weeds and brush on their family farm. Their company grew through local demand until it outgrew their workshop. Known as Flame Engineering, Inc., it has expanded into national and international markets with the popular Red Dragon product line," according to KDOL's announcement of the event. It says Mike Pivonka, his son Jason, and his grandson Tyson are all working and active in the business.

Flame Engineering has also been part of the Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) since October 2000. SHARP provides incentives and support to small, high-hazard employers to work with their employees to develop, implement, and continuously improve the effectiveness of their workplace safety and health programs. Companies that have qualified for SHARP can participate in the SHARP Association, a self-governing group that serves members by networking about workplace safety and mentoring one another through idea sharing. To learn more about the SHARP program, visit http://www.dol.ks.gov/Safety/SharpProgram.aspx.
Looking for great food at an affordable price? Look no further than your local, neighborhood food truck. Mobile food operations provide fast, convenient meals at a price thats typically lower than a sit-down restaurant. And their grab-and-go convenience makes them the perfect choice for a weekday lunch or quick weeknight dinner.

The trickiest part of grabbing your meal from a food truck is determining where youre going to find one. Fortunately, weve got your number. This guide is tailor-made to be your go-to for where to find great food trucks in Downtown Milwaukee any day of the week.

Note: Food trucks at each of the following locations vary from day to day, and week to week. The best part about that? Theres always a nice variety of food from which to choose.

Monday

U.S. Bank Building

11 a.m.-1 p.m.

777 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Tuesday

Takeout Tuesday

April through October, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Schlitz Park, Cherry Street and RiverCenter Drive

U.S. Bank Building

11 a.m.-1 p.m.

777 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Wednesday

Westown Farmers Market

June 5-Oct. 30, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Zeidler Union Square, 3rd and Michigan Streets

U.S. Bank Building

11 a.m.-1 p.m.

777 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Schlitz Park

11 a.m.-2 p.m.

1555 N. Rivercenter Dr.

Newaukee Night Market

July 10, Aug. 14 and Sept. 11, 5-10 p.m.

West Wisconsin Avenue, between Plankinton and Vel R. Phillips Avenues

River Rhythms

June through August, 6:30-9 p.m.

Pere Marquette Park, 950 N. Old World 3rd St.

Thursday

Food Truck Thursday

11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Milwaukee County Courthouse, 901 N. 9th St.

Schlitz Park

11 a.m.-2 p.m.

1555 N. Rivercenter Dr.

U.S. Bank Building

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

777 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Friday

Food Truck Friday

10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Red Arrow Park, Water Street, between State Street and Kilbourn Avenue

U.S. Bank Building

11 a.m.-1 p.m.

777 E. Wisconsin Ave.

No time to wait in line for your lunch or dinner? Dont forget! You can also order from a variety of food trucks through online delivery services including grubhub.com, ubereats.com, eatstreet.com and seamless.com.
This Friday evening OnMilwaukee and FM/102.1 will host a fish fry dinner fundraiser for Donate Life Wisconsin at O'Lydia's in Walker's Point featuring the world's first fish fry eating contest. Donate Life will be at the event to register people as donors. Please join us.

I really thought I was an organ donor because I signed the back of my driver's license and had the "dot" sticker on the front. But, it turns out, when I checked in with donatelifewisconsin.org, I was not registered as a donor.

A representative of the organization told me that there was a change in the database about a decade ago and anyone who had not registered since would most likely no longer be listed as a donor. And so I registered online immediately and, although Im not one to "should" all over people, I really think you should, too.

This summer, I documented the story of Linda Sackett, a hardworking business owner in Milwaukee whose son recently gave her one of his kidneys. The beautiful irony of the story is that she was warned by her doctor not to give birth because of her kidney condition, and 28 years later, the child saved her life with a healthy organ.

"My kidney is going to outlive me," Sackett told OnMilwaukee.

In July, coworkers and I celebrated the "Kidneyversary" of my friends, Judges Derek Mosley and JoAnn Eiring. Eiring donated one of her kidneys to Derek and both are doing very well exactly one year later. Its inspirational to witness such caring and commitment from one friend to another and also fascinating that a petite womans kidney can function fully in a larger-built mans body.

I was extremely moved by these two firsthand experiences. I hope this encourages you to register, or re-register.

"It's important to remember that living donors (for kidneys) are always needed, as well," says Eiring.

Its really easy to register online, and they send you a nice certificate acknowledging your promise of donation.

Here is a FB Live from last summers "Kidneyversary" event:
A Bronze Age wooden container has been found in an ice patch at 2,650m in the Swiss Alps. Credit: Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern

A Bronze Age wooden container found in an ice patch at 2,650m in the Swiss Alps could help archaeologists shed new light on the spread and exploitation of cereal grains following a chance discovery.

The team of archaeologists were expecting to find a milk residue left behind in the containerperhaps from a porridge-type meal wolfed down by a hunter or herder making their way through a snowy Alpine pass.

But instead they discovered lipid-based biomarkers for whole wheat or rye grain, called alkylresorcinols.

The team say the discovery of these biomarkers in the residue could be used as a new tool to help archaeologists map and trace the development of early farming in Eurasia.

The domestication of plants, such as wheat, was one of the most significant cultural and evolutionary steps of our species, but direct evidence of their use in early culinary practices and economies has remained frustratingly elusive.

Plants quickly degrade in archaeological deposits therefore archaeologists are increasingly using molecular techniques to look for their remains.

Dr Andre Colonese, from BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, said : "We didn't find any evidence of milk, but we found these phenolic lipids, which have never been reported before in an archaeological artefact, but are abundant in the bran of wheat and rye cereals and considered biomarkers of wholegrain intake in nutritional studies."

Bronze Age wooden container found in an ice patch at 2,650m in the Swiss Alps. Credit: Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern

"This is an extraordinary discovery if you consider that of all domesticated plants, wheat is the most widely grown crop in the world and the most important food grain source for humans, lying at the core of many contemporary culinary traditions.

"One of the greatest challenges of lipid analysis in archaeology has been finding biomarkers for plants, there are only a few and they do not preserve very well in ancient artefacts. You can imagine the relevance of this study as we have now a new tool for tracking early culinary use of cereal grains, it really is very exciting. The next step is to look for them in ceramic artefacts," Dr Colonese added.

The team combined microscopic and molecular analyses to identify lipids and proteins using gas chromatography mass spectrometry, a technique routinely applied to ceramic artefacts. Over the last 30 years, thousands of ceramic artefacts from Europe have been analyzed for their molecular content, most revealing evidence of milk and meat products, but hardly any evidence of cereals.

Dr Jessica Hendy, from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, said: "The evidence of cereals came from the detection of lipids, but also from preserved proteins. This analysis was able to tell us that this vessel contained not just one, but two types of cereal grainswheat and barley or rye grains.

Combining these two kinds of molecular analysis, along with microscopy, is strong evidence that cereals were being transported across this alpine pass."

"Detecting a molecular marker for cereals also has widespread implications for studying early farming. It enables us to piece together when and where this important food crop spread through Europe," Dr Hendy added.

Dr Francesco Carrer, from Newcastle University, said: "This evidence sheds new light on life in prehistoric alpine communities, and on their relationship with the extreme high altitudes. People travelling across the alpine passes were carrying food for their journey, like current hikers do. This new research contributed to understanding which food they considered the most suitable for their trips across the Alps."
Pregnant panda Huan Huan is on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China

Delighted French zoo officials were bursting with joy Wednesday at the news their female panda is pregnanta first for France.

A scan by zoo vets on Wednesday revealed that Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China along with her male partner Yuan Zi, is expecting her first cub.

"It's exceptional. We just exploded in joy as we've been waiting such a long time for this moment," the zoo's communications director Delphine Delord told AFP.

"It also gives us hope for the conservation of pandas, which in nature are in danger of extinction."

The nine-year-old pandas are the only giant pandas living in France, and they arrived in Beauval in 2012 after intense, high-level negotiations between Paris and Beijing.

Only 19 zoos around the world, outside China, have been allowed to house pandas.

But breeding pandas, in captivity or in the wild, is notoriously difficult. The female panda is only on heat once a year for about 48 hours.

Huan Huan and her beau were brought together in February, with the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen, said Delord.

"So we did an artificial insemination," she added.

Since a panda's gestation period is only 50 days, the baby cub is now due on either August 4 or 5, likely weighing in at around just 100 grammes.

If all goes well with the pregnancy and birth, the cub will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.

Last year, zoo officials had been bitterly disappointed when Huan Huan had a fake pregnancy, a fairly common occurrence among female pandas.

 2017 AFP
Tridimensional structure of the protein relaxase bound to a DNA piece. Histidine, which is essential to cut the DNA and transfer it, is shown in blue (bottom right). Credit: Radoslaw Pluta, IRB Barcelona

Antibiotic resistance of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for 11,300 deaths a year in the United States alonea figure that corresponds to half of all deaths caused by gram-positive resistant bacteria in that country. Such high mortality is related to the speed at which the bacterium acquires resistance to antibiotics. A study performed at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and involving the collaboration of the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas (CIB-CSIC) in Madrid has identified the key component of the machinery that S. aureus uses to acquire and transfer genes that confer resistance to antibiotics. The work has been published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"The battle against bacteriaparticularly in the hospital setting where they are a major threatimplies understanding how genes are transferred to adapt to a changing environment. For example, when they are treated with new antibiotics," explains the head of the study and IRB Barcelona group leader Miquel Coll, also a CSIC researcher, who studies horizontal gene transfer from a structural biology perspective.

Halting the spread

"Horizontal gene transfer confers bacteria with an extraordinary capacity to evolve and adapt rapidlya capacity that humans do not have for example," says Coll. One of these pathways is called conjugation, a process by which two bacteria join and one of them transfers a piece of DNA called plasmid to the other. "A plasmid is a small piece of circular DNA that holds very few genes, often including those for antibiotic resistance and it takes only a few minutes to be passed between bacteria," he explains.

Horizontal gene transfer involves machinery in which the relaxase, an enzymatic protein, is a key component. Thanks to the 3-D resolution of the structure of the complex formed by the relaxase with a fragment of the plasmid DNA, the researchers have identified that an amino acid histidine is a pivotal element in the DNA processing and thus in the transfer and the spread of resistance.

"What we have discovered is that the relaxase of diverse strains of S. aureus differs because it uses an amino acid that is not used by any other relaxase that we know of," explains the first author of the study, Radoslaw Pluta, former "la Caixa" PhD student at IRB Barcelona, and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Poland.

Histidine is the catalytic residue that allows the relaxase to cut DNA, bind to it, and stretch one of the two strands and take it into the receptor bacterium, where the strand replicates to form a double strand of the plasmid again. This new plasmid now holds the resistance genes and the machinery to transfer them to another bacterium. The scientists indicate that this catalytic histidine is present in the relaxases of 85% of the strains of Staphylococcus aureus.

To test whether histidine is decisive in horizontal gene transfer,, researchers in Manuel Espinosa's group at the CIB-CSIC, who participated in the study, replaced it by a different amino acid and confirmed that it prevents transfer in culture dishes.

The mutation of histidine does not kill that bacterium but rather prevents gene transfer. How could this mechanism be exploited to fight infections? "I don't know," says Coll, "but we now know more details about a lethal bacterium and this may pave the way to the development of molecules to prevent the spread of resistant strains".

Coll explains that hospital infections are the most difficult types to tackle. "We are in a race that we always lose because when a new antibiotic is brought out, resistance quickly emerges and spreads," he describes. The scientist adds that the list of antibiotics for hospital use is "too" short. Apart from the difficulty involved in developing new antibiotics, Coll also comments on another obstacle impeding advancement. "There is little investment because the pharmaceutical industry has other priorities. While this is perfectly valid, resources from the public and private sectors should be pooled".

This work has involved the collaboration of Modesto Orozco's group, also at IRB Barcelona, which has performed the theoretical studies to validate the chemical reaction between the plasmid DNA and the protein via histidine. The structural resolution of the complex formed by the protein and the DNA has been achieved using data obtained by X-ray diffraction at the European synchrotron in Grenoble.
Electricity savings at summer heat: Mario Stucki developed a new type of membrane that cools rooms. Credit: Peter Ruegg / ETH Zurich

Climate change is leading to ever higher temperatures and aridity in many areas, making efficient room cooling increasingly important. An ETH doctoral student at the Functional Materials Laboratory has developed an alternative to electrically powered air conditioning: a cooling curtain made of a porous triple-layer membrane.

It all began with a vague idea: "We thought it would be interesting to combine opposing functions in one material," says Mario Stucki, a doctoral student at ETH Zurich's Functional Materials Laboratory. He combined two layers of hydrophobic (water-repellent) polyurethane with a middle layer of hydrophilic (water-attracting) polymer. The resulting membrane feels dry, although it is saturated with water, and since the outer layers are covered with holes of about one micrometre in diameter, water can escape from the middle layer into the environment.

An alternative for heat-afflicted areas

When Stucki realised how well the water transport works across the various layers, he came up with the idea of the cooling curtain. "Water evaporation requires a lot of energy," he says. "Heat is extracted from the air, it cools and at the same time humidifies the surrounding area." Conventional humidifiers work in the same way  but they need a lot of power, whereas Stucki's system is passive. "The sunlight that falls through a window on to the curtain provides enough energy for this type of air conditioning."

Such curtains could be a real blessing in hot and arid regions. In 2015, people in the Arabian Peninsula endured a heatwave with temperatures of more than 50C. Climate scientists forecast even higher temperatures and severe aridity for desert regions, which could lead to certain climate zones becoming uninhabitable. Cooling buildings and rooms is thus becoming increasingly essential, but it devours vast amounts of electricity. In the US, for example, about 15 percent of energy consumption can be attributed to air-conditioning equipment, and a huge amount of this energy comes from fossil fuels. The passive cooling curtain would be an environmentally and climate-friendly alternative.

Further development of an earlier innovation

Stucki attracted attention back in 2013 with his Master's thesis at ETH Zurich, when he developed a new material for outdoor use in no time. In contrast to conventional functional textiles, it does not contain fluorine compounds, which are harmful to the environment and human health.

Amazingly thin: the membrane is hardly thicker than a sheet of paper. Credit: Peter Ruegg / ETH Zurich

His current research makes use of that invention: he functionalised his textile using placeholders, for which he mixed tiny lime stone particles into the liquid polymer, which is later processed into the textile. The lime stone particles are then removed from the solid material with hydrochloric or acetic acid, so that tiny holes are formed at the sites of the nano particles. These are necessary for the material to function and to "breathe". The outer walls of the cooling curtain are made of this porous material in order that the middle hydrophilic layer can deliver water to the surrounding area.

Stucki used a method developed in 2012 by ETH professor Wendelin Stark and his group to combine the different layers into one material. These layers are not glued together, as is customary in industrial processes; instead, they are placed on top of each other in a suitable solvent, whereby the outer layers dissolve slightly and connect to the middle layer. This is the only way that the researchers can ensure that the outer material of the membrane remains porous.

A successful proof of concept

Stucki was able to prove the cooling curtain's basic functionality by experiment. He put the triple-layer membrane in a water bath and measured the water loss into the surrounding area at 30C and 50 percent humidity (between 1.2kg and 1.7kg water per day and square metre). The researchers calculated the results based on a cubic house with a 10m wall length. At an outside temperature of 40C and an inside temperature of 30C, the curtain surface of 80m2 was sufficient to dissipate more heat than supplied by the sunlight, meaning the house was passively cooled.

"We were able to show that our system fundamentally works," says Stucki, "but to commercialise it, we still have a lot of questions to resolve." For example, they need to determine how the material behaves microbiologically, since high temperatures and humidity form the ideal breeding ground for the growth of bacteria and fungi. Stucki says, however, that the synthetic material used for the outer layer could be replaced relatively easily with antiseptic materials; this is one of the advantages of functionalisation using lime stone nano particles.

A further challenge is to ensure that the curtain is able to evaporate water over the entire surface, which will require improvements to the water transport in the membrane. It is also still unclear how long the membrane can function stably.

After completing his doctorate in the summer, Stuck will concentrate on commercialising fluorine-free outdoor textiles. He is currently looking for financing partners. However, he has not ruled out the possibility that the new membrane also has potential in the outdoor sector, as it is ideally suited to the regulation and removal of sweat  one of the most important properties of functional textiles.

More information: Mario Stucki et al. Stabilization of 2D Water Films in Porous Triple-Layer Membranes with a Hydrophilic Core: Cooling Textiles and Passive Evaporative Room Climate Control, Advanced Engineering Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1002/adem.201700134
A new study finds that in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, heat-related deaths will increase sharply as temperatures rise due to climate change. Credit: Brown University

A new study projects that if climate change continues unabated, heat-related deaths will rise dramatically in 10 major U.S. metropolitan areas compared to if the predicted increase in global warming is substantially curbed and cities take steps to adapt.

"The conversation about climate change is typically focused on the costs of mitigation, but this paper shows the human toll of policy inaction," said senior author Gregory Wellenius, associate professor of epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health. "These results show the cost in terms of human lives due to just this one aspect of climate change: temperature. We have here an opportunity to save lives and improve people's health."

The analysis, published in the journal Environment International, is based on a set of internationally accepted temperature models through the decade 2085-2095 and the research team's calculations of present-day temperature-related mortality specific to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

The study forecasts deaths due to heat and cold for two different possible futures: A "better case" in which policy and technology mitigate climate change, yielding only a 1.8-degree Celsius increase in average global temperature by 2100, and a "worse case" in which greenhouse emissions continue growing at the current pace, leading to a 3.7-degree Celsius increase globally by 2100.

Across all 10 metropolitan areas, assuming no population growth at all, the study forecasts a "worse case" range of mortality averaging 10,300 heat-related deaths a year by 2050 and 26,000 heat-related deaths annually by 2090, compared to only about 2,300 in 1997. In the "better case" the heat-related deaths rise "only" to around 7,700 by 2050 and 10,400 by 2090 from the 1997 baseline.

"This paper highlights the importance of both mitigating and adapting to climate change, because what we see is that heat related deaths are going to increase even under the better case scenario," said lead author Kate Weinberger, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Public Health and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES). "We should try to avoid the worse case scenario, but we will still need to protect people from heat, even in the better case."

The projected increase in deaths rose significantly when the researchers factored in predictions of population growth from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency With population growth, heat related deaths across the 10 metros rose to around 12,300 in the better case and 16,400 in the worse case in 2050 and then 21,100 in the better case or 52,339 in the worse case in 2090.

The study also looked at cold-related deaths under both climate change scenarios and with and without population growth. Overall the authors found that while rising temperatures reduced the risk of dying from cold, the reduced threat of cold was overwhelmed in 8 of 10 metro areas by the much greater increased risk from heat, leading to a net increase in the number of temperature-related deaths under climate change overall.

For example, without population growth, total cold-related deaths, which are just shy of 27,000 in 1997, decline to 22,000 in 2050 and 17,700 in 2090 in the worse case or to 23,000 in 2050 and 21,800 in 2090 in the better case. These declines fall short of the projected increases from heat-related deaths above.

The effects vary in each metropolitan area because each is forecast to experience a unique combination of temperature change and population growth, and each has shown different historical rates of death from cold or warm temperatures, the researchers said.

The local temperature projections for each metropolitan area in the study came from the 40 climate models encapsulated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The population growth estimates are based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Climate and Land-Use project.

To determine each metropolitan area's propensity for temperature-related deaths, the researchers analyzed the relationship between mean daily temperature and daily mortality between 1986 and 2005.

More information: Kate R. Weinberger et al. Projected temperature-related deaths in ten large U.S. metropolitan areas under different climate change scenarios, Environment International (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.07.006 Journal information: Environment International
Credit: Wits University

The flexibility and ability to adapt to changing climates by employing various cultural innovations allowed communities of early humans to survive through a prolonged period of pronounced aridification.

The early human techno-tradition, known as Howiesons Poort (HP), associated with Homo sapiens who lived in southern Africa about 66 000 to 59 000 years ago indicates that during this period of pronounced aridification they developed cultural innovations that allowed them to significantly enlarge the range of environments they occupied.

This cultural flexibility may have been the key to success for modern humans, says a team of international researchers, made up of archaeologists, paleo climatologists, and climate modellers from the French CNRS1 and the EPHE PSL Research University, Bergen University as well as Wits University. Their research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The most distinct of the many cultural innovations in the HP culture were the invention of the bow and arrow, different methods of heating raw materials (stone) before knapping to produce arrow heads, engraving ostrich eggshells with elaborate patterns, intensive use of hearths and relatively intense hunting and gathering practices," says Professor Christopher Henshilwood, one of the team members from Wits and Bergen Universities.

Howiesons Poort is a techno-tradition in the Middle Stone Age in Africa named after the Howieson's Poort Shelter archaeological site near Grahamstown in South Africa. It lasted around 5 000 years between roughly 65 800 and 59 500 years ago.

Using paleo climatic data and paleo climatic simulations, the researchers of the current study found that the HP tradition developed during a period of pronounced aridity.

This paleo climatic data and the distribution of archaeological sites associated with the HP, as well of that of the Still Bay tradition, which existed in the same environments about 5 000 years before (76 000 to 71 000 years ago), enabled the researchers to model the emergence of these traditions with two predictive algorithms that permitted them to reconstruct the ecological niche associated with each tradition and determine whether these niches differed significantly through time.

The results clearly indicate that HP populations were capable, despite the pronounced aridity that characterised the period in which they lived, to exploit territories and ecosystems that the preceding Still Bay people did not occupy.

Credit: Wits University

While the Still Bay era is also characterised by highly innovative technologies  including engraving of ochre, use of personal ornaments, manufacture of highly stylised bone tools, heating silcrete (red rock) to produce better material for knapping bifacial points (spear points) using hard hammer and finally pressure flaking technology  the research team points out that HP's ecological niche expansion coincides with the development of technological innovations that were both efficient and more flexible than those of the Still Bay.

"It seems from the little evidence that we have that the population of Homo sapiens in southern Africa was considerably larger during the Howiesons Poort period," says Henshilwood.

"There are many more HP sites than Still Bay sites in southern Africa and their location is widespread across southern Africa. Note that neither the Still Bay or HP is found outside of southern Africa."

Henshilwood says the Still Bay people did not disappear. There just seems to be a gap between 72 000 years ago to 66 000 years ago, where there is almost no evidence of any people in southern Africa.

This study, which documents the oldest known case of an eco-cultural niche expansion, demonstrates that the processes that allowed our species to develop modern behaviours must be examined at regional scales and in conjunction with past climatic data.

About early human development

The emergence of our species (Homo sapiens) in Africa, at least 260 000 years ago, was not immediately accompanied by the development of behavioural characteristics of more recent prehistoric and historically documented populations. For tens of thousands of years after their emergence (anatomically), modern human populations in Africa continued to use technologies that differed little from those of the non-modern populations that preceded them or that inhabited other regions both inside and outside the African continent.

A number of archaeological discoveries during the past twenty years have shown that from at least 100 000 years ago some populations in Africa, especially those in southern Africa, made pigmented compounds, wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and manufactured bone tools. It is within this period, and those that follow, that archaeologists are able to recognize distinct techno- traditions, to determine with a certain degree of precision their age, and place these time periods within their proper climatic contexts.

More information: Francesco d'Errico et al. Identifying early modern human ecological niche expansions and associated cultural dynamics in the South African Middle Stone Age, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1620752114 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotaria citrea) inspect a possible nest site at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland. Prothonotary Warblers are one of more than 500 species monitored by the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The current issue of The Condor: Ornithological Applications includes a collection of papers presented at the 2016 North American Ornithological Conference, in a session celebrating the survey's 50th anniversary. Credit: W.A. Link

In 1966, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist named Chan Robbins launched an international program designed to measure changes in bird populations using volunteers recruited to count birds on pre-set routes along country roads. The result, the North American Breeding Bird Survey or BBS, is still going strong more than five decades later. This month The Condor: Ornithological Applications is publishing a special set of research papers to honor the program's fiftieth anniversary.

Unassuming but visionary, Robbins had studied DDT's effects on birdshis reports were edited by Rachel Carsonand he wanted to devise a way of monitoring the health of the continent's bird populations on a large scale. The simple field protocols he developed, able to be carried out by volunteer birdwatchers, have remained largely the same since the program's inception. Today, there are more than 4100 survey routes spanning North America from Alaska to Newfoundland, Florida, and northern Mexico.

The BBS provides long-term data for 424 species, with more limited data for an additional 122. Since data collection began in the 1960s, significantly more species have been declining than increasing. Looking at patterns of change in groups of birds sharing common attributes can be especially useful; for example, only 8 of 24 grassland bird species have seen increases. However, in the short term the picture is slightly rosiersince the survey area was expanded in 1993, 56% of the species surveyed have showed positive trends. Today, modern statistical techniques are letting ornithologists glean more insight from BBS data than ever before.

"The BBS is the only source of long-term, multi-scale population change information for more than 500 species of North American birds," according to the USGS's John Sauer, who has worked with the BBS since 1986 and was one of the co-editors for the special section along with Keith Pardieck and Colleen Handel, also with the USGS. "BBS results have allowed conservationists to identify bird species and regions undergoing population declines, alerting the public and scientists to population changes and facilitating the development of initiatives to better understand declines."

The papers that make up the special section in The Condor include:

Prioritizing areas for conservation by combining six years of BBS data with remotely sensed environmental data to model the predicted distribution of seven grassland bird species in the Northern Great Plains based on their habitat needs.

Statistical approaches for model selection in BBS analyses.

Combining BBS with off-road surveys to estimate population changes for birds that breed in Alaska, where habitats are being rapidly altered due to climate change.

Using long-term BBS data to rank the vulnerability of more than 460 landbird species, set population objectives, and track progress toward meeting conservation goals.

Analyzing how well road-based BBS routes represent larger landscapes, using data from 2011 National Land Cover Database, with the conclusion that any land-cover-based roadside bias in BBS data is likely minimal.

Combining BBS data with separate demographic data to estimate the size of the Atlantic Flyway's Wood Duck population.

Plus, a review of how the BBS has informed North American bird conservation since its inception.

The papers grew out of a research symposium held at last summer's North American Ornithological Conference in Washington, DC, to commemorate 50 years of the BBS. "The BBS provides a fundamental tool for understanding breeding bird distribution and abundance. We're pleased to publish these papers that celebrate Chan Robbins's vision and the hard work of thousands of volunteers through the latest results and analyses," said Philip Stouffer, Editor-in-Chief of The Condor: Ornithological Applications.

More information: www.bioone.org/toc/cond/119/3 , All of the papers will be open access.
UniCredit said that hackers obtained informaton on about 400,000 of its Italian customers, but not data that would give them access to bank accounts

UniCredit said Wednesday that hackers obtained informaton on about 400,000 of its Italian customers, but not data that would give them access to bank accounts.

The Italian bank said the breaches, which occurred via an outside partner last year and during the past two months, related to information on personal loans.

"No data, such as passwords allowing access to customer accounts or allowing for unauthorised transactions, has been affected, while some other personal data and IBAN numbers might have been accessed," the bank said in a statement.

UniCredit said it had immediately taken steps to close the breach and notified the authorities, and intended to file a criminal complaint.

 2017 AFP
Amphipods of the species Eulimnogammarus verrucosus react negatively to higher temperatures and pollutants like cadmium. Credit: V. Pavlichenko, ISU

Lake Baikal, with its exceptional species diversity and unique wildlife, is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site. As part of the Helmholtz Russia Research Group LaBeglo, UFZ researchers are studying the impact of climate change and environmental toxins on the lake's fauna. In a recent study, together with researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the University of Irkutsk, they addressed the question of how Baikal amphipods that fulfil important ecological functions in the lake react to pollutants in the water.

Lake Baikal formed between 25 and 30 million years ago and contains around 20 per cent of all unfrozen fresh water on Earth. At approximately 23,000 cubic kilometres, its water volume is even larger than that of the Baltic Sea. Lake Baikal is not only the oldest and largest lake on Earth, but with a depth of over 1,500 metres also the deepest. It may also be one of the coldest: the average water temperature near the shore is only about 6 C. "The water is crystal-clear, the salt and nutrient content is low and it's extremely oxygen-richeven at the very bottom of the lake," says Dr Till Luckenbach, an ecotoxicologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Over the course of evolutionary history, these particular conditions in Lake Baikal have resulted in a unique fauna. About 80 per cent of the 2,600 or so species living in Lake Baikal are endemicin other words they are not found anywhere else on Earth, indicating that they have adapted very well to the extreme conditions.

However, whether the fauna of Lake Baikal will remain so diverse and unique in years to come is uncertain. The lake is situated in a region in which global warming is particularly noticeable. Over the past 50 years, the average surface temperature of Lake Baikal has increased by nearly 1.5 C. "And it's still rising," says Luckenbach. "The period in winter when the lake is covered with ice has also become much shorter. In addition to this, there is detectable chemical pollution. Since the environmental conditions in Lake Baikal have remained stable for a very long time, these changes are dramatic." In the Helmholtz Russia Research Group LaBeglo, project leader Luckenbach and his team from UFZ have been working for the past six years with researchers from the University of Irkutsk, the AWI in Bremerhaven and the University of Leipzig to discover what consequences the changed environmental conditionssuch as rising water temperatures and chemical pollutionhave for the unique fauna of Lake Baikal. Two native amphipods of the genus Eulimnogammarus are being used as model organisms. Amphipods perform an important ecological function in water: they break down organic material, thus keeping the water clean, and serve as food for fish. This key role in the food network makes them important model organisms for ecotoxicologists.

Studies on the temperature sensitivity of Baikal amphipods carried out at the University of Irkutsk show that one species (E. cyaneus) can tolerate water temperatures up to around 20 C, which may occur in summer close to the shores of the lake. The research team found that E. cyaneus produces a constant level of so-called heat shock proteins, which protect important protein molecules in the organism that would otherwise be damaged at high temperatures. The other species, E. verrucosus, produces far fewer heat shock proteins and instead migrates to deeper, cooler regions of the lake to escape high water temperatures. "If water temperatures increase as a result of climate change, this could have far-reaching consequences not only for the individual species, but also for the balance of the ecosystem, which has developed over a long period of time," says Luckenbach. "In the case of E. cyaneus, the temperature maximum which the species can tolerate for long periods can sometimes already be reached in summera further temperature increase would be extremely critical. And if E. verrucosus has to migrate to deeper water more than is currently the case, the species will have to compete more with the amphipods living there for food sources."

Lake Baikal is not only the oldest and largest lake on Earth, but also the deepest at over 1,500 metres in depth. Credit: Till Luckenbach, UFZ

In their study, published recently in Environmental Science and Technology, a team of researchers from UFZ, the AWI and the University of Irkutsk investigated how these two species of amphipods react to chemical pollution in the water. The animals were exposed to the heavy metal cadmium, which served as a model toxin. Although the water in Lake Baikal is still largely unpolluted, cadmium is a relatively frequent environmental pollutant whose toxicity makes it extremely problematic to ecosystems. It seems likely that Lake Baikal could see increasing heavy metal pollution. The lake's largest tributary, the Selenga River, is increasingly polluted with mining waste water from Mongolia, and via air, pollutants reach the lake from the industrial region around Irkutsk.

The reactions of the amphipods were observed in the laboratory. "The smaller species E. cyaneus absorbed the pollutant faster and thus died at lower pollutant concentrations in the water," explains Dr Lena Jakob, an ecophysiologist at the AWI, who carried out the experiments at Lake Baikal. "We also observed that E. verrucosus slowed down its metabolism even at low concentrations of cadmium. This is a warning sign, because the animals might avoid feeding when this happens, do not reproduce and are more likely to fall prey to predators due to reduced activity. Even a low but constant level of chemical pollution in Lake Baikal could have massive impacts on individual species and the ecosystem as a whole."

In another study, the UFZ researchers together with bioinformatics experts from the University of Leipzig obtained the first insights into the genome of E. verrucosus. It is surprisingly largeabout three times the size of the human genome. The genome data will be used as the basis for further investigation of physiological adaptation strategies in different environmental conditions. According to Luckenbach: "We want to shed a little more light on this area, understand the physiological level even better and find out whether there are other mechanisms that enable the organisms to withstand the effects of climate change and exposure to pollutants, because ultimately we want to be able to predict how the ecosystem might change."
Scientific research at Kennedy Space Center could mean some loud booms along Canaveral National Seashore on Space Coast between New Smyrna Beach and Titusville next month, NASA officials said.

Research teams from Armstrong Flight Research Center at California's Edward Air Force Base and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., will visit Kennedy for nearly two weeks of tests.

The Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence flights, or SonicBAT, study low-altitude turbulence and their effects on sonic booms, which happen when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound.

"In SonicBAT, we're trying to figure out how much atmospheric turbulence changes sonic booms," said Ed Haering, SonicBAT's principal investigator at Armstrong, in a blog post at NASA's website.

While a previous test in California studied sonic boom behavior in dry climates, the Florida test will do so in a humid climate.

An F-18 will take off from a runway at Kennedy and rise to an altitude of 32,000 feet, speeding up to exceed the speed of sound, which is Mach 1.

The aircraft will fly two or three times a day starting Aug. 21 and ending sometime before the end of August or early September.

"Turbulence can make sonic booms quieter, or it can make them louder," Haering said. "Last summer we tested in the hot, dry climate of Edwards Air Force Base. We know that humidity can make sonic booms louder, so we need to test someplace wetter, and Kennedy fits that bill."

Haering said residents near the area around Kennedy and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station should not be worried when they hear the blasts.

"At the altitudes we are flying, sonic booms from aircraft have never been dangerous to people, animals or buildings, but they can be startling," he said.

2017 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Researchers used neutrons to probe a running engine at ORNLs Spallation Neutron Source, giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions. From left, researchers Orlando Rios, Ke An, and Lt. Eric Stromme show off a cylinder head made from the new alloy. Credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin

In a first-of-a-kind experiment, researchers used neutrons to investigate the performance of a new aluminum alloy in a gasoline-powered enginewhile the engine was running.

A team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with industry partners to perform the test, which looked at whether a high-performance alloy that is promising for automotive applications held up under the heat and stress of an internal combustion engine.

The feat was a first for the Spallation Neutron Source, said Ke An, lead instrument scientist for the facility's VULCAN instrument. "This was the first time an internal combustion engine has been run on our diffractometer, and, as far as we know, on any other," he stated.

The unique properties of neutrons allow them to penetrate materials in a nondestructive fashion, revealing fundamental details about a material's atomic structure. VULCAN uses neutrons to measure strain and stress on large industrial samples, which made it ideal for evaluating a cylinder head cast from an aluminum-cerium alloy ORNL developed in partnership with Eck Industries.

ORNL materials scientist Orlando Rios, who has been working through the Critical Materials Institute to explore the use of cerium as a strengthening agent for aluminum alloys, led the experiment.

"Our experiment confirmed that our alloy outperforms other aluminum alloys at elevated temperatures," Rios said.

"The automotive industry is currently interested in alloys that can hold up to high-heat demands of new, energy-efficient technologies," he explained. "Our aluminum-cerium composition shows exceptional stability at temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius [932 degrees Fahrenheit], which is unheard of for aluminum alloys."

Credit: ORNL/Jenny Woodbery

Lt. Eric Stromme, a Navy Tours with Industry Fellow who assisted on the project, added, "With an aluminum alloy stable at high temperatures, engines could run hotter, and components could be made lighter, boosting efficiency and fuel economy."

Aided by colleagues at ORNL's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility and the National Transportation Research Center, Rios' team cast the Al-Ce cylinder head using 3-Dprinted sand molds and retrofitted the component to a prototype engine designed specifically for VULCAN.

Over the three-day experimentwith the engine stopping and restarting via a remote ignition from VULCAN's control roomneutron diffraction allowed the researchers to "see" the high-temperature stability of Al-Ce during the engine's operating regime.

Materials experience complex forces and extreme temperatures during internal combustion, so the researchers wanted to measure material performance during actual operating conditions.

"We really took the engine through its paces. It was probably the loudest experiment to take place at SNS," noted Rios, who worked on the project with ORNL postdoc Michael Kesler and University of Tennessee Bredesen Center Fellow Zachary Sims.

"The entire team was impressed by the quality of the data from VULCAN, especially given that the neutrons had to travel through an entire engine structure before being observed by our detectors to supply information on the cylinder head at work," Rios said. "That is truly remarkable."

An added, "What we have accomplished is a proof-of-concept to prove the feasibility and value of this kind of experiment."

An noted the effectiveness of collaborating across disciplines between ORNL and industry partners to support the effort. He is currently working to streamline the process for future VULCAN users.

"This was a fundamental experiment not only to better understand this alloy but also to provide some broader analysis that will allow new alloys, not only aluminum compounds, to be processed in this way," Rios said. "The experiment demonstrates the benefits of coupling fundamental science with early stage research and development of new materials and technologies. We hope what we are learning through this experiment can be applied to many other materials in a wide range of applications."

This research was sponsored by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through the Critical Materials Institute, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, with additional funding from the DOE Office of Science. Partners include Ames National Laboratory, ORNL, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Eck Industries. The Materials Science and Technology Division at ORNL led the experiment in collaboration with the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, National Transportation Research Center, and the VULCAN instrument team.
Red-eyed tree frog, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Credit: Charlesjsharp/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

(Phys.org)A team of researchers with members from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada has found that human beings are able to accurately recognize emotionally based vocalizations made by a wide variety of land vertebrates. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team describes experiments they conducted with volunteers listening to recorded animal sounds and what they learned by doing so.

In addition to our spoken language, humans also utter a variety of sounds that reveal our emotional statesounds such as moans of pleasure during sex, frightened screams or even angry growls. Scientists have noted that other animals make sounds that correlate to their emotional states, as well. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn whether human beings are able to recognize which sort of emotional state other animals are experiencing based only on the sounds they emit.

In the experiment, volunteers listened to prerecorded animal sounds and attempted to identify the emotional state of the creature that made it. To rule out the possibility that some sounds might be more or less recognizable by people who speak different languages, the volunteer group included people who spoke German, English or Mandarin. In all, the researchers played 180 vocalizations for the volunteers representing a very diverse group: black-capped chickadee, hourglass treefrog, American alligator, common raven, giant panda, barbary macaque and the African bush elephant. The researchers also carried out an acoustic analysis of the sounds on the recordings, comparing the sounds with people's reactions to them and found that humans use many acoustic clues to understand emotional noises made by other animals.

The researchers report that the volunteers were quite accurate in their ability to distinguish animal emotional vocalizations, showing an ability to distinguish between such sounds as cries of pain, exhilaration or fear in all of the land animalsregardless of which language the people spoke.

This finding, the researchers suggest, hints at the possibility of common ancestral roots that evolved as a means of survivalbeing able to recognize the sounds other animals make when threatened, for example, could help humans prepare for what lies ahead.

More information: Humans recognize emotional arousal in vocalizations across all classes of terrestrial vertebrates: evidence for acoustic universals, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2017). rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or  .1098/rspb.2017.0990 Abstract

Writing over a century ago, Darwin hypothesized that vocal expression of emotion dates back to our earliest terrestrial ancestors. If this hypothesis is true, we should expect to find cross-species acoustic universals in emotional vocalizations. Studies suggest that acoustic attributes of aroused vocalizations are shared across many mammalian species, and that humans can use these attributes to infer emotional content. But do these acoustic attributes extend to non-mammalian vertebrates? In this study, we asked human participants to judge the emotional content of vocalizations of nine vertebrate species representing three different biological classesAmphibia, Reptilia (non-aves and aves) and Mammalia. We found that humans are able to identify higher levels of arousal in vocalizations across all species. This result was consistent across different language groups (English, German and Mandarin native speakers), suggesting that this ability is biologically rooted in humans. Our findings indicate that humans use multiple acoustic parameters to infer relative arousal in vocalizations for each species, but mainly rely on fundamental frequency and spectral centre of gravity to identify higher arousal vocalizations across species. These results suggest that fundamental mechanisms of vocal emotional expression are shared among vertebrates and could represent a homologous signalling system. Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

 2017 Phys.org
Case Western Reserve University researchers found that religious and nonreligious people can become convinced they're right in the face of contradicting evidence, despite differing in the way they think. Credit: Case Western Reserve University

Dogmatic individuals hold confidently to their beliefs, even when experts disagree and evidence contradicts them. New research from Case Western Reserve University may help explain the extreme perspectives, on religion, politics and more, that seem increasingly prevalent in society.

Two studies examine the personality characteristics that drive dogmatism in the religious and nonreligious. They show there are both similarities and important differences in what drives dogmatism in these two groups.

In both groups, higher critical reasoning skills were associated with lower levels of dogmatism. But these two groups diverge in how moral concern influences their dogmatic thinking.

"It suggests that religious individuals may cling to certain beliefs, especially those which seem at odds with analytic reasoning, because those beliefs resonate with their moral sentiments," said Jared Friedman, a PhD student in organizational behavior and co-author of the studies.

"Emotional resonance helps religious people to feel more certainthe more moral correctness they see in something, the more it affirms their thinking," said Anthony Jack, associate professor of philosophy and co-author of the research. "In contrast, moral concerns make nonreligious people feel less certain."

This understanding may suggest a way to effectively communicate with the extremes, the researchers say. Appealing to a religious dogmatist's sense of moral concern and to an anti-religious dogmatist's unemotional logic may increase the chances of getting a message throughor at least some consideration from them.

The research is published in the Journal of Religion and Health.

Extreme positions

While more empathy may sound desirable, untempered empathy can be dangerous, Jack said. "Terrorists, within their bubble, believe it's a highly moral thing they're doing. They believe they are righting wrongs and protecting something sacred."

In today's politics, Jack said, "with all this talk about fake news, the Trump administration, by emotionally resonating with people, appeals to members of its base while ignoring facts." Trump's base includes a large percentage of self-declared religious men and women.

At the other extreme, despite organizing their life around critical thinking, militant atheists, "may lack the insight to see anything positive about religion; they can only see that it contradicts their scientific, analytical thinking," Jack said.

The studies, based on surveys of more than 900 people, also found some similarities between religious and non-religious people. In both groups the most dogmatic are less adept at analytical thinking, and also less likely to look at issues from other's perspectives.

In the first study, 209 participants identified as Christian, 153 as nonreligious, nine Jewish, five Buddhist, four Hindu, one Muslim and 24 another religion. Each completed tests assessing dogmatism, empathetic concern, aspects of analytical reasoning, and prosocial intentions.

The results showed religious participants as a whole had a higher level of dogmatism, empathetic concern and prosocial intentions, while the nonreligious performed better on the measure of analytic reasoning. Decreasing empathy among the nonreligious corresponded to increasing dogmatism.

The second study, which included 210 participants who identified as Christian, 202 nonreligious, 63 Hindu, 12 Buddhist, 11 Jewish, 10 Muslim and 19 other religions, repeated much of the first but added measures of perspective-taking and religious fundamentalism.

The more rigid the individual, whether religious or not, the less likely he or she would consider the perspective of others. Religious fundamentalism was highly correlated with empathetic concern among the religious.

Two brain networks

The researchers say the results of the surveys lend further support to their earlier work showing people have two brain networksone for empathy and one for analytic thinking  that are in tension with each other. In healthy people, their thought process cycles between the two, choosing the appropriate network for different issues they consider.

But in the religious dogmatist's mind, the empathetic network appears to dominate while in the nonreligious dogmatist's mind, the analytic network appears to rule.

While the studies examined how differences in worldview of the religious vs. the nonreligious influence dogmatism, the research is broadly applicable, the researchers say. Dogmatism applies to any core beliefs, from eating habits whether to be a vegan, vegetarian or omnivore to political opinions and beliefs about evolution and climate change. The authors hope this and further research will help improve the divide in opinions that seems increasingly prevalent.

More information: Jared Parker Friedman et al, What Makes You So Sure? Dogmatism, Fundamentalism, Analytic Thinking, Perspective Taking and Moral Concern in the Religious and Nonreligious, Journal of Religion and Health (2017). dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0433-x
A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) in Central America has found that cattle ranching and other anthropogenic activities represent a major threat to the region's remaining rainforests. Credit: WCS

Central America's largest remaining forests are disappearing at a precipitous rate due to illegal cattle ranching, oil palm plantations, and other human-related activities, all of which are putting local communities and the region's wildlife species at high risk.

A new comprehensive study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) titled the "Human Footprint and Cow's Hoofprint Analysis" was presented this month for validation and analysis by indigenous groups, protected area agencies, and civil society organizations from nine countries. This spurred the development of a joint commitment known as "The Peten Declaration." Signed by 25 of the attending organizations, the declaration recognizes the causes of forest loss and commits to concrete actions to address them.

One of the most alarming discoveries made by the study's research team is that the three largest remaining forest blocks in Central America have been reduced in size by more than 23 percent in the past 15 years. The study was conducted by WCS in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Organization of American States to understand and protect Mesoamerica's last great forests. Data for the analysis was collected using satellite imagery, census data on people and cattle/agriculture, publications, interviews, and via a megaflyover expedition: an ambitious plane-based survey across the region's largest forests.

"The disappearance of huge swaths of forests over such a short time period has grave implications for the indigenous peoples in the region and the natural resources on which they depend," said Victor Hugo Ramos, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the WCS Mesoamerica program.

Guatemalan Protected Areas Council staff explain methods used to eliminate illegal cattle ranching within the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Credit: WCS-Guatemala

The rate of deforestation in Central America also threatens the survival of iconic species including jaguars, tapirs, and scarlet macaws. The white-lipped peccary, an important keystone species for the forests of Central America, is so threatened it may soon become extinct in the region. Traveling in large herds in search of fruit and other food in large forest tracts, white-lipped peccaries serve as both an indicator of forest health and connectivity and a crucial prey species for jaguars. The white-lipped peccary has been extirpated from 87 percent of its historical range in Mesoamerica, and is now only found in a few of the region's largest remaining forests.

Large-scale illegal cattle ranching, much of it taking place within protected areas and indigenous territories, has been determined to be the principal cause of deforestation. This illegal activity is sometimes connected to drug trafficking and money laundering.

"We, the indigenous people, are the guardians of the Mesoamerican biospheres who have cared for and protected them for thousands of years," said Taymond Robins of the Nacion Mayangna, an indigenous nation managing 1 million hectares in Nicaragua. "We will continue to fight against the injustice of invasion of indigenous lands and territories by colonists, who are decimating natural resources for cattle ranching, timber extraction, and exploration and exploitation of resources for companies and projects that greatly affect the life cycle of biodiversity in Mesoamerica."

The expansion of oil palm plantations has also contributed to deforestation in the region by displacing people and cattle into protected areas. The areas under the greatest threat include the Moskitia region within Honduras and Nicaragua and the Maya Forest landscape in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize.

Deforestation throughout Central America's remaining forests is threatening the survival of the jaguar and other iconic wildlife species. Credit: Levi Novey/USFWS.

"Considering the threats in our territory, we face great challenges in the governance and protection of natural resources," said Angel Matute, deputy director of the Honduran park service, ICF (Instituto Nacional de Conservacion y Desarrollo Forestal, Areas Protegidas y Vida Silvestre). "ICF is committed to working hand in hand with indigenous peoples in recognition of their ancestral rights for the management and conservation of the Honduran Moskitia."

The Peten Declaration includes a commitment to five concrete actions to recover the region's forests: 1) supporting local forests and indigenous communities to obtain land management 2) strengthening the conservation of protected areas 3) supporting the prosecution of environmental crimes 4) focusing on illegal livestock as the main driver of deforestation and 5) protecting environmental champions who risk their lives to protect Mesoamerica's largest forests.

"Indigenous leaders, community land managers, and park rangers are putting their lives on the line every day to protect Mesoamerica's forests and the services they provide for all of humanity," said Dr. Jeremy Radachowsky, WCS Regional Director for Mesoamerica and Western Caribbean. "This declaration represents a plea for help. We owe it to them to take this declaration seriously, and seek the financial, political, and technical support necessary to implement these five actions"

"Although Central America's forests and wildlife are under severe threat, we remain hopeful they can be conserved to ensure the survival of wildlife and to provide sustainable livelihoods for people living in these areas," said Ani Cuevas, Central America Program Officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's essential that conservation solutions are chosen and implemented by Central American leaders, and we look forward to continuing to support these important endeavors."
Hackathons are events where people collaborate to develop new software. Credit: Flickr/ Sebastiaaan ter Burg

Police and law enforcement staff are turning to hackathons  collaborative events for developing technology  to come up with new ways of searching for clues within the terabytes of data that many people produce every year.

"We are trying to get them to think like a few geeks in a garage," said Sean Gaines from Vicomtech, a visual interaction and communication technologies company in San Sebastian, Spain.

The idea is to show police how it is possible to acquire data, process it, get knowledge from it and visualise it all in one day.

Law enforcement agencies often use big data to aid investigations, which can range from the content of a personal computer, to intercepted voice conversations or YouTube videos. Yet, even a 1 terabyte hard drive, for example, can take weeks or months to process as several different file types, some possibly encrypted, would need to be analysed.

In addition, for recovered information to be usable as proof in court, it needs to be examined in a controlled and traceable way.

"If we can reduce the time it takes to gather intelligence, for example, it could prevent an incident," said Gaines. "Those hours are critical."

The first hackathon, which took place in Soesterberg, The Netherlands, in May with about 20 participants, was a success. "The idea is to quickly produce a tool that functions rather than waiting for something perfect," explained Gaines, who is working on an EU-funded project known as ASGARD.

Law enforcement agents will work together with research organisations and industry so that they learn how to collaborate, as specialised technology can be hard to get a hold of or customise and can be very expensive.

The next hackathon will take place in Paris in November, and the project is planning four more but hasn't decided on the locations yet. The researchers hope to create a community that will continue after the project has finished.

Critical

As the internet evolves, police will have more information at their disposal as connected gadgets like fitness trackers and smartwatches become more prevalent.

Professor Peter Druschel from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbrucken, Germany, explained: "Just by living and carrying these devices, information about movements and social interactions become visible."

He is looking at how to balance the needs of individuals who legitimately need privacy, like political dissidents and whistleblowers, with those of law enforcement agencies and service providers who require a certain degree of accountability as part of the IMPACT project, funded by the EU's European Research Council. Currently, he and his team are trying to understand how people feel about privacy, with a view to developing software that could make them safer online.

Existing technology works on the basis of a trusted infrastructure with well-defined policies. However, in today's internet, identities can be fluid and people often use global third-party platforms.

One of the systems the project is developing will be able to identify internet users based on certain criteria while allowing them to retain some degree of anonymity. An online community for teenagers, for example, wouldn't need to know people's real names, but would want to know if they are actually adolescents by verifying their age from a trusted authority.

Each person would also have a unique signature to prevent them from signing up with several pseudonyms. "Currently, a provider can block someone but they can't prevent them from signing up the next day with a new identity," said Prof. Druschel. "It's a massive problem."
The experiment on ISS begins. Credit: NASA

On a balmy evening in early June, Space X launched the Falcon 9 rocket, which ferried the Dragon spacecraft toward the International Space Station (ISS). As the Dragon broke the tethers of Earth's gravity three small, black boxes were safely nestled in its cargo hold. These innocuous boxes house an experiment that may help researchers develop new antidotes for nerve agents used in conflict zones.

Each box holds 30 chambers where crystals of the protein, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), will grow. The protein plays a pivotal role in the normal communication between nerve cells as well as nerve and muscle cells in the human body. When AChE is unable to function, the results are fatal.

AChE is inhibited by a group of chemicals commonly found in pesticides and nerve agents, called organophosphates. Exposure results in tremors, respiratory paralysis and, without an antidote, death. Worldwide, these chemicals are responsible for 200,000 deaths every year.

Antidotes work by reactivating the AChE protein and sweeping excess toxin from the body. The most commonly used FDA-approved antidotePralidoxime (2-PAM)disengages the organophosphate molecule from the AChE protein, which can return to normal functions. The few antidotes that are available for humans are insufficiently effective and slow.

"We need to develop antidotes that are effective against multiple kinds of organophosphates and can cross the blood-brain barrier to more easily reactivate multiple AChE proteins," said Don Blumenthal, associate professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Utah Health. "This is particularly important for a mass casualty scenario."

Blumenthal was the catalyst that brought a team of experts together from across the country led by the project's principal investigator Zoran Radic, associate professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in the quest for antidotes to these terrible toxins.

Upon arrival at the ISS, astronaut Jack Fisher recovered the boxes and, with a twist of a few levers, exposed capsules that contain the protein solution to a cocktail of various salts and buffers in each chamber. Over the next four months, the cocktail will dehydrate the protein solution, allowing the AChE protein to crystalize and grow in the microgravity of the space station.

Navigating the Catalytic Gorge

Scientists began mapping the structure of the AChE protein several decades ago using X-ray crystallography. Blumenthal, who has spent his career using this technique, describes these structures as mere snapshots of the protein's structure, captured at a frigid temperature, 100 Kelvin (-280 F). They revealed a complex protein structure with a distinct, deep chasm, called the catalytic gorge, at its center.

"The catalytic gorge is like a slot canyon," said Blumenthal. "The conundrum has been how do you get the organophosphate and the antidote molecule into this restricted space."

In its frozen state, the gorge cannot accommodate either large molecule, much less both at the same time, which has thwarted researchers' attempts at developing new antidotes.

Researchers will image the crystal structure of the AChE protein crystals grown in space on the IMAGINE sample station at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: DOE

Deep within the gorge lies the active enzyme site, where the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, is broken down and antidotes function.

"The active enzyme site has evolved to accommodate neurotransmitters quickly," said Radic. "Up to 10,000 neurotransmitters can pass in and out of the enzyme site every second."

Organophosphates bind to the active enzyme site and block the breakdown of the neurotransmitter.

"The only explanation for how organophosphates and antidotes navigate the gorge is that the protein breathes," said Blumenthal.

While the protein is not actually inhaling and exhaling, the researchers believe that its structure is dynamic and changes shape to accommodate large molecules. Using X-rays, Blumenthal and his colleagues identified the location of heavy atoms in the protein structure, but the magic behind the protein's movement lay in mapping the exact location of the lighter hydrogen atoms, which make up half of the atoms in the protein.

"Typically, we only have our imagination to map where the hydrogen atoms are in the crystal structure based on our chemical intuition and knowledge," said Andrey Kovalevsky, R&D staff scientist in the Biology and Soft Matter Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). "This doesn't always give us the right answer."

While neutron crystallography is more expensive, and less available than X-ray crystallography, Kovalevsky is constantly amazed by the unexpected results. Upon striking the crystal, the neutron beam spreads, producing a diffraction pattern that details the placement of every atom, even the hydrogen atoms, in the structure.

"The structures revealed by neutron diffraction can completely rewrite our understanding of the chemistry behind biological processes, from how enzymes function to the way drugs bind to a target," Kovalevsky said.

Bypassing Earth's Obstacles

But Kovalevsky was stymied. Despite spending years developing optimal growth conditions at Earth's surface, no cocktail grew these protein crystals large enough to diffract the neutron beam.

"Crystal growth is an art," said Kovalevsky. "Every crystallographer struggles with this process to produce crystals that are large enough and still a good quality."

Toward the center of the amoeba-like AChE protein (blue) lies the deep catalytic gorge where the organophosphate (gold) blocks neurotransmitters access to the active site. Credit: Don Blumenthal

That was when he had the crazy idea. Send the crystals to space.

His colleagues agreed.

"When I arrived at Oak Ridge, I learned about other scientists who tried this path and grew better crystals in space," said Kovalevsky. Then, he laughed, "Growing up in the Ukraine, I never imagined I would send an experiment into space."

While crystals in space may only grow slightly larger than their counterparts on Earth, they will grow longer along every dimension of its three-dimensional structure. As a result, the volume will increase dramatically.

In addition, they form in a more highly organized fashion. A crystal is composed of smaller units, which assemble like building blocks in a uniform pattern. In space, those blocks are brought together in a more regular pattern to form a better crystal.

"A bigger volume and a more organized crystal," said Kovalevsky. "It's all connected to produce a better diffraction pattern."

But Kovalevsky had to scramble. He had less than a year after his colleagues secured a place on a future space flight to re-optimize the system to grow these protein crystals within the confines of a space craft.

The crystals that will return to Earth in four short months will be a compounded crystal, consisting of the AChE protein plus one of three experimental antidotestwo created at UCSD and one widely-tested organophosphate antidote, MMB4. Kovalevsky will subject these crystals to a neutron beam at ORNL.

After nailing down the protein structure, they will use this information in computer simulations to design new molecules that can access the activation site at the base of the gorge. They will synthesize candidate antidotes and compare their effectiveness to the current FDA-approved treatment, 2-PAM.

The researchers must now play the waiting game until the crystals are brought back to Earth. They anticipate the return spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean in October. The 90 crystals contained within the small, black boxes will have traveled hundreds of miles from Earth to the ISS and home again.

"The faster we can get the crystal information, the faster we can start working on identifying and creating new antidotes," said Blumenthal.
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is used to create logic circuits capable of performing various computations. In new experiments, Green and his colleagues have incorporated RNA logic gates into living bacterial cells, which act like tiny computers. Credit: Jason Drees for the Biodesign Institute

The interdisciplinary nexus of biology and engineering, known as synthetic biology, is growing at a rapid pace, opening new vistas that could scarcely be imagined a short time ago.

In new research, Alex Green, a professor at ASU's Biodesign Institute, demonstrates how living cells can be induced to carry out computations in the manner of tiny robots or computers.

The results of the new study have significant implications for intelligent drug design and smart drug delivery, green energy production, low-cost diagnostic technologies and even the development of futuristic nanomachines capable of hunting down cancer cells or switching off aberrant genes.

"We're using very predictable and programmable RNA-RNA interactions to define what these circuits can do," says Green. "That means we can use computer software to design RNA sequences that behave the way we want them to in a cell. It makes the design process a lot faster."

The study appears in the advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Designer RNA

The approach described uses circuits composed of ribonucleic acid or RNA. These circuit designs, which resemble conventional electronic circuits, self-assemble in bacterial cells, allowing them to sense incoming messages and respond to them by producing a particular computational output, (in this case, a protein).

In the new study, specialized circuits known as logic gates were designed in the lab, then incorporated into living cells. The tiny circuit switches are tripped when messages (in the form of RNA fragments) attach themselves to their complementary RNA sequences in the cellular circuit, activating the logic gate and producing a desired output.

The RNA switches can be combined in various ways to produce more complex logic gates capable of evaluating and responding to multiple inputs, just as a simple computer may take several variables and perform sequential operations like addition and subtraction in order to reach a final result.

The new study dramatically improves the ease with which cellular computing may be carried out. The RNA-only approach to producing cellular nanodevices is a significant advance, as earlier efforts required the use of complex intermediaries, like proteins. Now, the necessary ribocomputing parts can be readily designed on computer. The simple base-pairing properties of RNA's four nucleotide letters (A, C, G and U) ensure the predictable self-assembly and functioning of these parts within a living cell.

Green's work in this area began at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, where he helped develop the central component used in the cellular circuits, known as an RNA toehold switch. The work was carried out while Green was a post-doc working with nanotechnology expert Peng Yin, along with the synthetic biologists James Collins and Pamela Silver, who are all co-authors on the new paper. "The first experiments were in 2012," Green says. "Basically, the toehold switches performed so well that we wanted to find a way to best exploit them for cellular applications."

This video demonstrates the basic principles of the RNA toehold switch. Credit: Arizona State University

After arriving at ASU, Green's first grad student Duo Ma worked on experiments at the Biodesign Institute, while another postdoc, Jongmin Kim continued similar work at the Wyss Institute. Both are also co-authors of the new study.

Nature's Pentium chip

The possibility of using DNA and RNA, the molecules of life, to perform computer-like computations was first demonstrated in 1994 by Leonard Adleman of the University of Southern California. Since then, rapid progress has advanced the field considerably, and recently, such molecular computing has been accomplished within living cells. (Bacterial cells are usually employed for this purpose as they are simpler and easier to manipulate.)

The technique described in the new paper takes advantage of the fact that RNA, unlike DNA, is single stranded when it is produced in cells. This allows researchers to design RNA circuits that can be activated when a complementary RNA strand binds with an exposed RNA sequence in the designed circuit. This binding of complementary strands is regular and predictable, with A nucleotides always pairing with U and C always pairing with G.

With all the processing elements of the circuit made using RNA, which can take on an astronomical number of potential sequences, the real power of the newly described method lies in its ability to perform many operations at the same time. This capacity for parallel processing permits faster and more sophisticated computation while making efficient use of the limited resources of the cell.

Similar to how computer scientists use logical language to have their programs make accurate AND, OR and NOT decisions towards a final goal, "Ribocomputing Devices" (stylized here in yellow) developed by a team at the Wyss Institute can now be used by synthetic biologists to sense and interpret multiple signals in cells and logically instruct their ribosomes (stylized in blue and green) to produce different proteins. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Logical results

In the new study, logic gates known as AND, OR and NOT were designed. An AND gate produces an output in the cell only when two RNA messages A AND B are present. An OR gate responds to either A OR B, while a NOT gate will block output if a given RNA input is present. Combining these gates can produce complex logic capable of responding to multiple inputs.

Using RNA toehold switches, the researchers produced the first ribocomputing devices capable of four-input AND, six-input OR and a 12-input device able to carry out a complex combination of AND, OR and NOT logic known as disjunctive normal form expression. When the logic gate encounters the correct RNA binding sequences leading to activation, a toehold switch opens and the process of translation to protein takes place. All of these circuit-sensing and output functions can be integrated in the same molecule, making the systems compact and easier to implement in a cell.

The research represents the next phase of ongoing work using the highly versatile RNA toehold switches. In earlier work, Green and his colleagues demonstrated that an inexpensive, paper-based array of RNA toehold switches could act as a highly accurate platform for diagnosing the Zika virus. Detection of viral RNA by the array activated the toehold switches, triggering production of a protein, which registered as a color change on the array.

The basic principle of using RNA-based devices to regulate protein production can be applied to virtually any RNA input, ushering in a new generation of accurate, low-cost diagnostics for a broad range of diseases. The cell-free approach is particularly well suited for emerging threats and during disease outbreaks in the developing world, where medical resources and personnel may be limited.

The computer within

According to Green, the next stage of research will focus on the use of the RNA toehold technology to produce so-called neural networks within living cellscircuits capable of analyzing a range of excitatory and inhibitory inputs, averaging them and producing an output once a particular threshold of activity is reached, much the way a neuron averages incoming signals from other neurons. Ultimately, researchers hope to induce cells to communicate with one another via programmable molecular signals, forming a truly interactive, brain-like network.

"Because we're using RNA, a universal molecule of life, we know these interactions can also work in other cells, so our method provides a general strategy that could be ported to other organisms," Green says, alluding to a future in which human cells become fully programmable entities with extensive biological capabilities.

More information: Alexander A. Green et al, Complex cellular logic computation using ribocomputing devices, Nature (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nature23271 Journal information: Nature

Provided by Arizona State University
President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a $10 billion US investment by Apple supplier Foxconn to build a plant in Wisconsin.

The businessman-turned-president made the announcement side by side with the Taiwanese tech giant's CEO Terry Gou, as he tried to show his "America First" economic rhetoric is making a difference.

Trump said the plantwhich will make LCD panelswill create at least 3,000 jobs in the midwestern state, and was quick to stress he played a role in making the deal happen.

"If I didn't get elected, he would not be spending $10 billion," Trump said, thanking Gou for his "faith and confidence in the future of the American economy."

Foxconn said the plant could eventually bring more than 13,000 new jobs to Wisconsin, with Gou adding it was the first in a series of facilities the company would build in several US states.

"Wisconsin offers a talented, hard-working workforce, and a long track record in advanced manufacturing, all of which presents an extraordinary opportunity," the Taiwanese tycoon said in a statement.

Manufacturing in the US would allow the company to better serve its customers, which included "iconic" American technology companies, Gou added.

Trump allies said Gou had spotted an abandoned factory and suggested it be used, and Trump personally met Gou in April to push the deal forward.

Trump has made returning manufacturing jobs to America's heartland a key plank of his domestic policy.

'Getting it done'

The investment is a double win for Trump, burnishing his reputation as a job creator and putting those jobs in a key battleground state, which he won in 2016 by a single percentage point.

It is also a victory for top Congressional Republican Paul Ryan, as the massive investment in his home state is tangible evidence that difficult relations with Trump do not preclude results.

"One thing we know about this president is how committed he is to reviving American manufacturing and bringing jobs home, this right here shows actual results, getting it done," Ryan said at the White House event.

The factory will be built in his Congressional district, which has an unemployment rate approaching 10 percent, much higher than the state-wide 3.2 percent.

The White House would not say what tax incentives were offered to entice the company, but local media reported a package of around $3 billion in tax breaks.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, has been mulling moving to the US since at least the beginning of this year, hoping to have better control over distribution networks.

The firm is the world's largest contract electronics maker and is best-known for assembling products for international brands such as Apple and Sony.

It employs around a million workers at its factories across China and has operations in more than 10 countries.

In the US, it has a plant in Virginia for packaging and engineering which employs over 400 people.

It has also announced a $40 million investment in a facility in Pennsylvania to build precision tools and develop a robotics program.

 2017 AFP
One of the biggest technology disruptors when it comes to shuttling people is now trying to transform the way goods are moved around the country.

This spring, Uber launched Uber Freight, an app that matches truck drivers with loads of goods to pick up and deliver. Texas played a key role in the San Francisco-based tech giant's inroads. Routes between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio served as its test ground before the app's launch.

Texas' large trucking business made it an obvious place to start, said Jeff Ogren, head of driver community and partnerships for Uber Freight. Fourteen percent of U.S. freight comes in and out of Texas, he said.

The state has continued to play a vital role in Uber's young business. About 70 percent of Uber Freight's loads and drivers are based in Texas, Ogren said.

The new business comes at a time when tech companies are exploring the future of trucking and automation. But analysts warn that Uber will need to offer something new to an industry that has already squeezed out greater efficiency and prove itself to truck drivers who may be skeptical of an unfamiliar player.

Mike Ramsey, a transportation and mobility analyst for Gartner, said Uber's new app is a way to leverage the technology that underpins its ride-hailing and food delivery business. It is also a way to learn a new industry, so it can explore ways to boost efficiency in the future with tools like automation, he said.

"What they are now is a technology company," he said. "Their aspiration seems to be a transportation company."

Ramsey said Uber has an edge with brand recognition, talent and capital, but he cautioned that its major leadership shakeup could shift business priorities. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned in June after months of reports of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment and practices that flouted law enforcement.

And he added that the Uber Freight app isn't as pioneering as the ride-hailing one. "They're trying to offer a better mousetrap for a mousetrap that exists," he said.

With its foray into trucking, Uber must compete with logistics companies, freight matching websites called load boards and other apps.

Similar to the ride-hailing app, Uber Freight allows truck drivers to pick up extra work when they want to. They also can find a job that fills up their truck on the way home.

For Sam Carrillo, a Dallas-area resident and independent truck driver, apps have made work simpler and more lucrative. For nearly two decades, he's relied on brokers to match him with freight from electronics to bottled water in his truck. Now, he gets almost all of his business from two apps - one of which is Uber Freight.

Before, he had to wait a month or longer for payment. Now, he said he receives it in seven days - and without docked broker fees. He said he ends up making $200 to $400 more per trip.

And the apps are a quicker way to find jobs. "Press a few buttons and you're set," he said.

Ogren said there's an appetite for new tech in the trucking industry. Before working for Uber, he worked at Trucker Path, a navigational app that took off in popularity with truck drivers.

"These guys are looking for tools to better empower their lives," he said. "They're away from their family 200 days a year. If you can develop tools, they are going to buy in."

Ogren said Uber wants to stand out from load boards and brokers through better customer service and faster pay. It plans to offer perks, such as reserved parking spots, passes that allow them to skip weigh stations, and discounts on fuel and tires. He said the company also may add a guide of truck stops and rest stops for drivers.

He declined to give the number of active users in Texas or the U.S. But he did say that a recent party drew about 100 current users - both drivers and fleet owners - to Dallas. It featured free barbecue, shirts and hats, and allowed drivers to get their questions answered.

"We plan on continuing to do things like that because we know we have to earn their trust," he said. "We want to eliminate any skepticism and show them we're here for you."

He said the apps could make the industry more appealing for younger people as truck drivers age and start retiring. "They want to be heard. They want to be treated with respect," he said. "We want to make trucking attractive again."

Texas' central location and large workforce makes it a major player in the trucking industry. Nearly 10 percent of the nation's truck transportation workforce lives in Texas. The Lone Star State has about 137,300 people in the industry, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the third highest number of tractor-trailer drivers, trailing only New York and Chicago, according a recent study by Dallas consulting firm Site Selection Group.

For the tech company, the new model cuts out the middleman - the trucking broker - and could lower the price for smaller companies that don't want a long-term contract or need additional pickups.

Uber has shown interest in trucking before. About a year ago, it bought self-driving truck company Otto. The startup has now been wrapped into a research group focused on autonomous cars and trucks.

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, an advocacy group that represents professional truck drivers, is watching the apps closely to see if they benefit members, said its spokeswoman, Norita Taylor.

She said she's not surprised tech companies have recognized the money that can be made in the trucking industry. "The question is 'Can they offer something that benefits independent truckers or not?'" she said. "And I don't have an answer to that yet."

2017 The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Masterpass speeds checkout for Costco shoppers in Canada

July 25, 2017  TORONTO  Mastercard today announced that Masterpass will be live in the coming weeks at Costco.ca for Canadian shoppers. Costco joins a rapidly expanding roster of online merchants including Air Canada, Joe Fresh, Pizza Pizza, Indigo, Landmark Cinemas and London Drugs offering fast, easy and secure digital payment with Masterpass.

Canadians are increasingly shopping online and expect an experience that is fast, convenient and secure, said Iain McLean, Senior Vice President, Canada Market Development at Mastercard. With Masterpass available at Costco.ca, members get the checkout experience they have come to expect with Masterpass, plus the excellent offers available from Costco.

Costcos offering of Masterpass at Costco.ca follows a 2014 announcement of Mastercard as the exclusively accepted credit network at Costco Wholesle Canadas 97 warehouses and the introduction of the Capital One Mastercard exclusively for Costco members.

Masterpass stores all payment information, including card details from Mastercard and other payment networks, and shipping information, in one convenient, secure place. All purchasing information is readily accessible when shoppers click on the Masterpass button at checkout and sign into their account. Canadians can sign up for an account at www.masterpass.ca.

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the worlds fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities  such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances  easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardCAnws, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

Other POS News:

Save
Sterling Payment Technologies Announces New Mobile EMV Payment Solution

TAMPA, FLA. (PRWEB) July 26, 2017  Sterling Payment Technologies, a leading provider of secure payment processing, today announced it is supporting ROAMpay X5, Ingenico Groups EMV-enabled mobile point of sale application for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Sterlings adoption of ROAMpay X5 strengthens its partnership with Ingenico Group to provide EMV-enabled, PCI-compliant payment solutions that are cost-effective, feature rich, and flexible.

ROAMpay X5 supports all electronic payment transaction types and acceptance methods, including EMV chip & PIN and chip & sign, magstripe, and NFC/contactless, such as Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Sterling offers two ROAMpay X5-compatible card reader options for merchants. The Moby/3000, designed to offer EMV acceptance at a price similar to magstripe-only card readers, connects wirelessly through Bluetooth to any iOS or Android device. The RP450c card reader accepts EMV, magstripe and NFC/contactless payments, and has two connection options, including audio jack and Bluetooth. Both card readers feature point-to-point encryption (P2PE).

Security is a top priority for Sterling. As more and more businesses turn to the convenience and flexibility provided by mobile point-of-sale solutions, its smart business for Sterling to offer secure solutions, such as ROAMpay X5, that are EMV compliant with the added security of point-to-point encryption, said Jim Raftice, President U.S. and Canada, EVO Payments International, parent company of Sterling Technologies.

EMV is smart chip technology that stands for Europay/MasterCard/Visa. The standard was adopted in the U.S. on October 1, 2015, when in-store fraud liability shifted from financial institutions that have invested in chip technology to merchants who have not upgraded to EMV. For merchants, using the proper EMV technology protects their businesses and customers from fraud.

Were proud that Sterling is offering our ROAMpay X5 mobile application and compatible card readers, said Russell Harty, senior vice president, US Sales for Ingenico Group. Our mobile card readers provide smaller businesses with a secure, low-cost, convenient way to access EMV technology using the most popular smartphones and tablets, creating a better, more secure payment experience for their customers.

Sterling Payment Technologies is dedicated to providing fast, affordable and secure payment processing to merchants throughout the U.S. Sterling excels at easy payment integrations that include EMV solutions, P2PE, tokenization, out-of-scope solutions, mobile solutions, and cloud-based POS reporting platforms. The companys focus on technology and service allows Sterling to provide superior customer support and a broad range of advanced solutions to its customers.

To learn more, contact Sterling Payment Technologies at (800) 383-0561, visit www.sterlingpayment.com, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Sterling Payment Technologies:

Sterling Payment Technologies, a division of EVO Payments International, is one of the most innovative, customer-focused payment processors in the industry. Founded in 2001, the company processes payment transactions for all major card brands including Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Sterling is committed to providing POS resellers, software application developers, and merchants with the most advanced payment solutions in the marketplace, including a complete range of electronic payment processing services, such as credit, debit, PIN debit, EMV, fleet, gift card, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT). The company has been recognized by Business Solutions Magazine as Best Channel Vendor for nine consecutive years, ranking Sterlings payment processing among the nations best. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Sterling is represented in communities throughout North America, Central America and Europe by point-of-sale equipment dealers and software developers, independent sales offices, banks, and an internal sales team.

Other POS News:
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

Read more
BEIJING (Reuters) - China stepped up its warning to Botswana on Wednesday over a planned visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next month, demanding the African nation respect China's core interests. The Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, 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. China has already "clearly" expressed its point of view about the Dalai Lama's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing. "Issues relating to Tibet concern China's sovereignty and territory integrity. We demand the relevant country earnestly respect China's core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter," Lu said, using stronger language than before on the issue. "China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, but will certainly not tolerate another country doing anything that harms China's core interests," he added, without elaborating. 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 sent its troops into Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, denies he is seeking independence for his Himalayan homeland. He says he is merely seeking greater rights, including religious freedom and genuine autonomy. 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 neighbour, 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 Nick Macfie)
The EU warned Poland on Wednesday it would suspend its voting rights in the bloc if it pushes ahead with controversial judicial reforms, sparking accusations of "blackmail" from a furious Warsaw. Brussels said President Andrzej Duda's unexpected vetoing of two controversial reforms, including one targeting the supreme court, had not ended the risk to the independence of Polish judges. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the Polish crisis posed a threat to democratic standards not just in that country but across the 28-nation bloc. "In this past week some things have changed in Poland -- and some things have not," Timmermans told a news conference in Brussels after a fresh high-level meeting on the crisis. The Dutchman said the laws "would have a very significant negative impact on the independence of the Polish judiciary and would increase the systemic threat to the rule of law". With Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party vowing to push ahead with the reforms, Timmermans warned in particular against the mass sacking of supreme court judges. "If such a measure is taken the commission is ready to immediately trigger the Article 7 procedure," Timmermans said. Article 7 is a never-before-used EU process designed to uphold the rule of law, a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers. - 'We won't accept blackmail' - The legal reforms have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears for the rule of law in one of the EU's leading eastern former communist states. Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads over the legal changes ever since the PiS took power in 2015 and announced reforms to Poland's constitutional court. The latest threats infuriated Warsaw. "We won't accept blackmail on the part of EU officials, especially blackmail that is not based on facts. All the laws prepared by the Polish parliament are in compliance with the constitution and democratic rules," Polish government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told the PAP news agency. "We regret that Timmermans, who is unfamiliar with the draft laws and Poland's legal regulations, has formulated unfair criticism against Poland." This month the Polish government pushed through a bill that would have reinforced political control over the Supreme Court and another allowing parliament to choose members of a body designed to protect the independence of the courts. Duda vetoed those two while signing into law another measure that allows the justice minister to unilaterally replace the chief justices of the common courts. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has insisted that PiS will press ahead with the others. The European Commission said it will launch separate legal action against Poland over the reform targeting the common courts. That could lead to Poland being hauled before the bloc's highest court and eventually given a fine. - Hungary veto threat - EU President Donald Tusk -- a former Polish prime minister whose reappointment earlier this year sparked another big row between Warsaw and Brussels -- has warned that the Polish measures risk taking the country "backwards and eastwards." The Poland crisis threatens to deepen an east-west split in the EU, with fears that authoritarian governments in eastern states are undermining the 28-nation bloc's fundamental democratic principles. While the EU's announcement on Wednesday marks a further raising of the stakes in its confrontation with Poland, the chances are slim that its voting rights could actually be suspended. Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed he would instantly veto any such move by the EU. Hungary itself faces EU legal action over laws targeting education and foreign civil society groups, while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also face action for ignoring the bloc's migrant relocation quotas. The EU brought in Article 7 in response to fears about the rule of law in the wave of eastern states like Poland joining after 2004, although it was mainly intended as a backstop or threat that had little chance of being used.
Two German UN peacekeepers were killed Wednesday when their helicopter crashed as they were monitoring clashes in northern Mali, German and UN officials said. UN diplomats confirmed that the attack helicopter and the crew had been supplied by Germany to MINUSMA, the UN mission in Mali. "Sadly we now know that two Bundeswehr (German army) soldiers have given their lives for our country," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in Berlin late Wednesday. According to German army Vice Admiral Joachim Georg Ruehle, standing beside her, the helicopter crew did not issue any distress calls and there were no firm indications as to the cause of the crash which happened at around 1220 GMT, 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of the city of Gao. The army believes the helicopter was the victim of "a massive technical failure," the German magazine Der Spiegel reported. MINUSMA in a statement confirmed the two UN peacekeepers had been killed and that the crash was thought to have been the result of a mechanical failure. A UN source in Gao said earlier that nothing at this stage would suggest the aircraft was hit or shot at as it monitored fighting in the area. The United Nations operation, launched in 2013, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission, with dozens of its staff killed over the last four years. - Helicopter operations suspended - Germany has reinforced its presence in Mali this year, deploying several Tiger combat helicopters and raising the number of Germans serving in MINUSMA to 639 as of June, the army's largest presence overseas. France has expressed hope its European neighbour will do more in the poor and insecure Sahel region. Following Wednesday's crash all helicopter operations have been suspended, Von der Leyen said. The crash comes two years after two Dutch UN peacekeepers died when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali. Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity. Fighting between the Gatia pro-government group and the CMA former rebel alliance close to the city of Kidal claimed numerous victims on Wednesday, a military source within the UN mission said, separate to the clashes near Gao. A local official accused the rebels of using "jihadist back-up" to gain an advantage over the pro-government fighters. The groups' disputes threaten the future of a peace deal they signed in 2015 aimed at curbing northern uprisings and keeping the jihadists in check, according to the UN. - 'Supreme sacrifice' - MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said Wednesday his staff were "devastated by the crash". "All MINUSMA personnel and myself salute the supreme sacrifice made by peacekeepers," he said in a statement posted on the mission's Facebook page. In 2012, key cities in Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising. While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army. Former rebels still control the northern city of Kidal, and fighting between groups previously loyal to the Tuareg rebellion and pro-government militia is common, in violation of a ceasefire. The United Nations has condemned such violations by the combatants, but the state is absent from much of Mali's northern territory and its terrain is very difficult to traverse.
The Philippines tried Wednesday to reassure Southeast Asian neighbours about its proposal to partner with Beijing in oil exploration in the disputed South China Sea, promising to consult them on any plans. President Rodrigo Duterte has softened his predecessor's policy opposing China's claims -- which expand to nearly the entire sea -- causing alarm among neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, which also hold partial claims. On Monday Duterte said his government was in talks with China over joint drilling for natural resources in the sea, reversing years of tensions. But Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Wednesday the Philippines would consult its nine fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members about the proposal. "It will not be a unilateral action from the Philippines because the premise of the president is peace and stability, and unilateral action by anybody leads to destabilisation," he told reporters. "There will also have to be consultations with the whole ASEAN because we want to keep the stability there." Duterte, 72, has played down his country's maritime dispute with China in favour of billions of dollars in trade and investment from Beijing. He has also refused to use as leverage a UN-backed tribunal's ruling last year which rejected Beijing's claims to most of the sea. His predecessor Benigno Aquino had sought the ruling and in 2015 suspended Philippine exploration activities at Reed Bank, where Manila's claims overlap those of China. Under Aquino the Philippines had forcefully challenged China through legal and diplomatic avenues including ASEAN events. Aquino rallied ASEAN to put up a united front against Beijing's reclamation and island-building activities in the sea -- a policy that Duterte reversed. At an April summit ASEAN under Duterte's chairmanship released a statement that failed to condemn China's push to control most of the sea. The South China Sea will be on the agenda as Cayetano meets his ASEAN counterparts in Manila next week. Cayetano refused to say if the joint China-Philippines oil and gas exploration would be in specific areas of the sea also claimed by ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. Taiwan also claims almost the entire area, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas reserves, but is not an ASEAN member. Negotiations for a joint exploration had "peaked" during Duterte's visit to Beijing in May where he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he intended to drill for oil in the South China Sea, according to Cayetano. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visiting Manila on Tuesday, said Beijing was open to joint development.
A man who threatened border agents in the Spanish territory of Melilla with a knife while shouting "Allahu Akbar" was remanded in custody without bail, a court said Wednesday. Security camera footage of Tuesday's incident -- which authorities say was not a terror attack -- showed the man in a blue top walking slowly through a border post between Melilla and Morocco holding a knife, police closing in on him. One of the officers hurled a portable road barricade at him, throwing him to the ground as other agents pounced to remove the knife. A court in Melilla, a Spanish territory on Morocco's northern coast, remanded him in custody pending further investigation. According to a statement, he is being probed "for disobedience, threats and disturbances." Spain, the world's third largest tourism destination, has so far been spared the kind of extremist violence that has occurred in nearby France, Belgium and Germany. But it was hit by what is still Europe's deadliest jihadist attack in March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda-inspired extremists.
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is making progress in talks with North Korean ally China on imposing new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang over its latest missile test, but Russia's engagement will be the "true test," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said. The United States gave China a draft resolution nearly three weeks ago to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea over the July 4 missile launch. Haley had been aiming for a vote by the 15-member Security Council within weeks, senior diplomats said. "We're constantly in touch with China ... Things are moving but it's still too early to tell how far they'll move," Haley said on Tuesday, adding that she was pleased with China's initial response to the U.S. proposal because it showed "seriousness." "We know that China's been sharing and negotiating with Russia, so as long as they are doing that, we're going to continue to watch this closely to make sure it is a strong resolution," she told reporters. China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told reporters: "We are making progress, it requires time, but we're working very hard." Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said any United Nations' moves should help ensure peace, stability and denuclearisation. "All sides need to maintain pressure, and also work hard to ease the tense situation on the peninsula as soon as possible, creating a beneficial environment and atmosphere for resuming contacts and talks," Lu told a daily news briefing. Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members, though diplomats said Washington informally keeps Britain and France in the loop. Along with Russia, those five countries are veto-wielding Security Council members. "The true test will be what (the Chinese) have worked out with Russia (and whether) Russia comes and tries to pull out of that," said Haley. The United States and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea. Western powers have said it was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Russia said the missile fired was only medium-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions. "Everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges that it's an ICBM. Whether they are willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question," Haley said. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches. President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and senior officials have said Washington could impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang. When asked how long Washington was willing to negotiate with China at the United Nations before deciding to impose its own secondary sanctions, Haley said: "We're making progress ... We're going to see what the situation is." "We want China and every other country to see it as serious and we're going to keep moving forward that way," she said. China's Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday that Beijing objected to secondary sanctions. In June, the United States blacklisted two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. "Such actions are unacceptable. They have severely impaired China-U.S. cooperation on the Korean nuclear issue, and give rise to more questions about the true intention of the U.S.," he told the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington. (Additional reporting by David Brunstrom in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by James Dalgleish and Clarence Fernandez)
Coffee businesses have seen massive growth over the last few years, especially as customers become more discerning about the perfect cup of coffee. Customers are flocking to coffee shops in search of the elusive perfect cup of coffee and the right coffee bean, making it the ideal time to start a coffee franchise.

What is a Coffee Franchise?

If youre looking to start a coffee business but dont quite know where to start, a coffee franchise could be the right option for you. Because the franchise already has an established brand, starting as your first coffee shop can be easier. There are many coffee shop franchise options available that offer top-quality coffee. Some franchises focus solely on brewing fresh coffee, while others have a coffee beanery option for roasting coffee beans.

READ MORE: See our Franchise Guide

The Coffee Industry in 2022

The number of coffee drinkers has grown, as with coffee options. The number of coffee shops has nearly doubled in the last decade and continues to increase to sell coffee, including espresso drinks. As coffee consumption continues to stay high, this is one of the best times to consider starting your own coffee cafe.

Why You Should Consider a Coffee Shop Franchise

There are many reasons to consider starting your coffee shop franchise and selling beverages and coffee beans, such as:

Ample brand resources: As an independent coffee shop owner, youll have to invest significant capital into branding and marketing. You can avoid that by opting for a coffee shop franchise instead. Serve a new market: Many discerning coffee drinkers are always looking to try new franchises, and as a coffee chain owner, you can bring the market to you with your coffee shop. Proven business model: With espresso beverages and coffee on the rise, there is a proven business model that demonstrates that coffee shops can operate successfully if there is enough market demand.

READ MORE: 10 Startup Tips from Affordable Franchise Coffee News

Best Coffee Franchises

There are some incredible coffee shop franchise opportunities available for business owners. These brands are known for their premium coffee beans, selection, and expertly crafted beverages. Well go through some of the best coffee franchises currently out there.

1. Biggby Coffee

Biggby Coffee is perfect for those seeking a local coffee shop opportunity that serves gourmet coffee and strong sales. Bob Fish initially started it to form Global Orange Development with a team of baristas. However, its name was changed to Biggby in later years. Biggby Coffee isnt just a coffee chain; it also fosters community and creates strong connections between people. The total investment needed to start your own Biggby franchise is estimated to be between $276,000  $439,000.

2. PJs Coffee

PJs Coffee is definitely a franchise to consider for premium cold coffee drinks and delicious coffee. It has a lot to offer with many locations, a high volume of unit sales, and strong company culture. The initial franchise fee will start at $25,000-35,000, with additional expenses depending on the location and size of the shop.

3. Dunn Brothers Coffee

A staple in the specialty coffee industry, Dunn Brothers, is a franchise opportunity that could be a great option due to its premium coffee quality. With both food and coffee options, its a full-service coffee location that customers will keep coming back to. The initial franchise fee starts at $37,500.

4. Aroma Joes Coffee

Many coffee shops have that comfortable, cozy feel, and Aroma Joes is one of them. For those who drink coffee and want a place to hang out and see friends, this could be the right franchising option. Aroma Joes offers an exclusive proprietary premium blend and a wide selection of food and beverage options.

5. Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees

Maui Wowi is a unique franchising option because its not just about coffee. The brand also offers fresh fruit smoothies, refreshing organic tea, and other menu items that set it apart from the rest. So whether its a cup of cold brew or something fruity and delicious, this is the franchise option that has it all.

6. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

Another titan of coffee, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, is one of the best coffee shop franchises out there. Its authentic Italian roasted coffee, trendy teas, and baked goods made a name for itself worldwide. This franchise can also be operated as coffee kiosks as well. However, their franchise agreement usually consists of multiple store commitments over a period of years.

7. Dunkin Donuts

An icon in the coffee industry, Dunkin Donuts has made a name for itself as not just a doughnut shop but for its premium coffee as well. One of the more popular franchises out there, Dunkin is known for its iced coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and value for money, which means its always a popular option with customers

8. The Human Bean

The Human Bean is worth exploring if youre looking for a drive-thru espresso brand. Its an industry leader, with relatively low startup costs compared to other franchises. In addition, no royalty or marketing fees are involved, and since theres no sit-down component, it lowers the initial investment needed.

9. Gloria Jeans Coffees

Gloria Jeans Coffee has a global presence due to its franchise model. The initial investment isnt all that high, and the business model has been shown to work. You can contact a representative from the brand to learn about possible locations where the coffee shop could work.

10. Bad Ass Coffee

Bad Ass Coffee is an excellent option for new business owners looking to enter the coffee world. They offer a lot of support to help the franchise succeed and have a distinct coffee blend that customers enjoy. Plus, the brand is known for its innovative coffee machines and approach to coffee, which resonates with customers.

11. Classic Rock Coffee Company

Classic Rock Coffee Company has a unique brand, making it easy to start this franchise. The whole brand works on an enjoyable theme that can be easy to adapt and run with, with great coffee systems and premium blends.

12. Its a Grind Coffee House

With a clever name and marketing, its no surprise that Its A Grind Coffee Shop has been so quick at expanding with multiple franchises. Customers enjoy the vibe, high-quality coffee, and innovative menu items, making Its A Grind Coffee Shop a strong contender for franchising options.

READ MORE: The Best Commercial Coffee Maker for Your Small Business

13. Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea

Sweetwaters is a neighborhood coffee brand that feels like a part of the community. Its about bringing love, care, and passion to coffee and the customer experience, with lots of support available to help the business succeed.

14. Scooters Coffee

Scooters Coffee isnt just about coffee  its also about fun merchandise that brings Scooters coffee to customers and doing business with integrity and passion. The franchise is another option for those seeking their own coffee kiosks and wanting a mobile coffee shop option to explore.

How to Choose the Best Franchise to Set Up Your Coffee Shop Business

Choosing from the top coffee franchises can be challenging, but here are some top factors to consider. These include what customers want, what the market is like in your chosen area, and who you will compete with.

See Also: 10 Startup Tips from Affordable Franchise Coffee News

Brand awareness and interest Initial investment versus predicted revenue Market demand for coffee shops, especially in rural or suburban areas Competitors in the area and pricing

READ MORE: How to Start a Coffee Shop of Your Own

How Much Does It Cost to Open a Coffee Franchise?

The initial investment to open a coffee shop can vary depending on the brand, the location, and the franchise fee associated with it. Generally, starting your coffee franchise can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000 and more.

Are Coffee Shop Franchises Profitable?

Coffee shop franchises can be profitable for many depending on the level of investment and the demand for coffee in a market. Some coffee shops also have a strong brand associated with them and may be familiar to consumers, making them potentially more profitable and expensive to get started with.

READ MORE:


Business owners often need to make employee compensation alterations for various reasons, whether its to adjust for new business goals, launch new incentive programs or simply lower expenses. Unfortunately, many organizations forget to include employees in the process. This can lead to an overall sense of disappointment, anger and frustration with the employer and ultimately, hostility and lower productivity. To help avoid any unwanted surprises and keep a calm and professional working environment, weve asked 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

When you find that you need to shift your employee pay structure, how best should you go about doing so without making many waves?

Tips for Managing Compensation Changes

Heres what YEC community members had to say:

1. Create Transparency

Your people should know what youre doing as soon as youve made the decision to do it, if you want a team thats built on trust. Making waves cant really be avoided in this case because its going to be a big deal to everyone no matter how its presented. People are serious about their compensation, and they expect to be informed of changes with time to make any decisions that need to be made. ~ Adam Steele, The Magistrate

2. Align Pay Shift with Company Strategy

Use the strategy to illustrate why you are making changes, so they can connect their pay with what they need to accomplish for the organization. They can then see that what they are doing will pay off for the company and themselves. ~ Angela Ruth, Due

3. Ask Employees for Input and Listen

Shifting pay structure can be a tenuous process. There is a natural inclination for management and C-suite talent to internalize this process, however, employees themselves can be a goldmine of ideas. Ask the very same employees how they would suggest the situation be addressed and truly listen to and heed the messages you receive. This will instill high morale and trust moving forward. ~ Ryan Bradley, Koester & Bradley, LLP

4. Hold Personal Meetings

Salaries are a very personal thing. When weve made adjustments in the past, we first had one-on-one meetings with those affected. It can take longer, but it allows employees to have a conversation and ask questions which they may not be able to ask in a group. Post private sessions, have a group meeting to re-discuss together so its not seen as taboo, but open for dialogue. ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

5. Communicate Often

When it comes to adjusting someones pay, its tough to avoid waves. Im a big believer in being honest and upfront as soon as possible. If an employee finds out the news before you have the opportunity to inform them, those waves will be tough. Sit your employee(s) down and explain why you have to adjust, then hear them out. Talking it out usually results in a better understanding. ~ Abhilash Patel, Abhilash.co

6. Send Out a Company Newsletter

The simplest way is to create a company email/official update regarding your policy and to direct any questions and concerns to your HR team. This keeps things highly professional and will allow for the most appropriate methods to handle concerns, which ultimately should come from HR. ~ Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

7. Have a Well-Defined Structure

I think every employee should have an idea of exactly where they are, salary-wise, throughout their career. I think they should be cognizant of the potential industry changes, which may affect their compensation. Within the company, they should have clearly defined goalsreaching these or failing to reach these will impact whether they get a raise, or exactly how much of an increase they will get. ~ Bryce Welker, Crush The CPA Exam

8. Create a Healthy Competition from the Get-Go

As an entrepreneur, I dont ask my customers for a raise. I expand, create, invent. It should be the same for an employee. Provide more in order to make more. When I find myself saying too many times things such as thank you or great job to an employee, a raise is needed. If I think or talk too much about one specific employee, thats a sign that I either need to fire or promote that employee. ~ Adrian Ghila, Luxe RV, Inc.

9. Time It Right

Everyone plans and budgets accordingly to what they make after tax. Therefore, make sure you do not make any pay structure changes, especially those that affect the take-home salary negatively, in the middle of a compensation cycle. If you are moving a fixed portion of salary to a performance-driven variable or to stock options, explain the reason and the timing. Give enough clarity to instill confidence. ~ Shilpi Sharma, Kvantum Inc.

10. Offer Goal-Based Compensation

Having a portion of compensation based on the completion of highly measurable goals is often a way to motivate key employees to choose the right priorities, and align their efforts with what is most important to the company mission. We also find that it is acceptable, as the employer, to reward partial completion, albeit perhaps with a lesser reward. ~ Joe Beccalori, Interact Marketing


Slovakia will pay Ladislav Kuc 15,000 after ECHR verdict becomes valid.

Font size: A - | A +

Ladislav Kuc, who is considered to be the first Slovak terrorist, will receive compensation of several thousands of euros after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) accepted his complaint against the length of and justification for his pre-trial detention on charges of endangering public safety.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Based on the ruling, Slovakia now has to pay Kuc 6,500 as non-pecuniary damage and another 9,000 for costs and expenses. He is expected to receive the money in three months, after the verdict becomes valid, the TASR newswire reported.

Kuc, who has a history of mental illness, was detained in January 2012 for sending home-made explosive devices to various individuals and exploding another device next to a fast food outlet in Kosice in late December 2011. He said that all was done to promote animal rights.

Nobody was injured in the explosion, and the blast caused only material damage.

Read also:

Read also: Court cancels verdict over first Slovak terrorist Read more

In June 2013, the district court in Kosice sentenced Kuc to 25 years in prison, but he appealed the verdict. The Kosice Regional Court accepted his objections in October 2013, and the case returned to the district court due to conflicting expert reports regarding Kucs mental health and ability to understand the illegality of his actions, according to the verdict of the ECHR. His case is still open.

Throughout this whole process, Kuc was kept in custody, which was said to be due to a risk of absconding. Kuc applied for release in December 2013, referencing his mental health condition and need for psychiatric treatment, but his application was dismissed on the grounds of the seriousness of the charges against him, combined with an alleged risk of reoffending and absconding.

Kuc meanwhile brought his complaint to the Constitutional Court, but his case was dismissed in April 2014, according to the verdict by the ECHR.

He then turned to ECHR, complaining about the excessive length of and lack of relevant and sufficient grounds for his pre-trial detention and arguing, in particular, that the domestic courts had failed to take into account his mental illness when assessing the necessity for his continued detention.
Yves Bot rejects arguments from Slovakia and Hungary on the legality of the relocation plan.

Font size: A - | A +

Advocate General at the European Court of Justice Yves Bot has proposed to dismiss the lawsuits filed by Slovakia and Hungary against the proposal to relocate migrants from Greece and Italy based on mandatory quotas.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The quota mechanism, adopted in September 2015, proposed to relocate a total of 120,000 migrants. Under the plan, Hungary would temporarily take in 1,294 asylum-seekers and Slovakia would take in 902, the Associated Press (AP) newswire reported.

Slovakia officially submitted the lawsuit against the plan on December 2, 2015, complaining that the mandatory quotas were adopted over the resistance of several countries. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania have also voiced criticisms of the plan, the SITA newswire wrote.

Read also:

Read also: Slovakia and Hungary in EU court over migrant quotas Read more

We claim that the decision approved by the Council of Interior Ministers is at odds with the European Councils decision that the mandatory quotas will not be adopted, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said about the lawsuit, as quoted by SITA.

He considered the decision illegitimate, claiming that it violates the rights of the European Parliament and the national parliaments.

Bot, however, rejected arguments from Slovakia and Hungary regarding the legality of the relocation plan, saying that it helps relieve the considerable pressure on the asylum systems of Italy and Greece, the AP reported.

The relocation effort has had only limited success so far, he added.

The proposal to dismiss the lawsuits was issued on July 26 in Luxembourg and is non-binding. The court has started deliberating on the case, the AP reported.
The Guide of Maternity Hospital project aims to provide mothers-to-be with comprehensive information about facilities in Slovakia.

Font size: A - | A +

The best maternity hospital in Slovakia is in the Teaching Hospital in Trencin, according to the experts and mothers who evaluated the facilities as part of a project run by the non-governmental Health Policy Institute (HPI) and the Rodinka.sk website.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Also high on the list were maternity hospitals in Martin and two hospitals that are part of the University Hospital Bratislava: Antolska and Ruzinov, the SITA newswire reported.

The Guide of Maternity Hospital project tries to provide mothers-to-be with comprehensive information about the facilities in Slovakia. Its main objective is to positively motivate and appreciate those who try to improve their services and adapt them to the needs of women and their children, according to the guides authors.

The evaluation of the maternity hospitals is composed of two parts. HPI communicates with hospitals and evaluates the quality of the health treatment provided based on medical indicators, while Rodinka.sk aks women to evaluate the care they received in the hospital.

The part conducted by HPI is then divided into four categories depending on the level of provided neonatal care. Slovakia has a total of six perinatal centres, which offer the highest neonatal care level. Their aim is to concentrate serious cases in the respective regions to improve the quality of care for pregnant women, mothers-to-be and mothers who have recently given birth, as well as for the newborns, SITA reported.

These centres are located at Antolska hospital in Bratislava, Teaching Hospital with Polyclinics in Nove Zamky, University Hospital in Martin, Teaching Hospital with Polyclinics in Banska Bystrica, Teaching Hospital with Polyclinics in Presov, and the University Hospital of Luis Pasteur in Kosice.

For the highest level of neonatal care provided, the best maternity hospitals were Sanatorium Koch in Bratislava (level I), the hospital in Liptovsky Mikulas (level II), the hospital in Trencin (level III), and the hospital in Martin (level III+).

The poll run at Rodinka.sk was taken by 3,404 mothers. They were most satisfied with the professionalism of the medical personnel (78.8 percent), while they mainly criticised the support of early contact between mother and her child. According to the poll, 55.6 percent of women had their first contact with the newborn directly at the birthing room, while 40.3 percent of women were allowed to be with their child after two hours after the birth.

The respondents picked Sanatorium Koch as the best maternity hospital, while the hospital in Martin and the facility Forlife in Komarno came in second and third, SITA reported.
Children are often manipulated against their parents while authorities decide about divorces and custody.

Font size: A - | A +

At the end of the school year in 2011, the eight-year-old son of Jozef Bednar was preparing for his final presentation at the school for gifted children. As his classmates cheerfully entered the classroom, they witnessed a traumatic scene.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The father came to see the sons presentation. He had not lived with his wife and boy for several years. He was carrying a camera with him and provided a record to The Slovak Spectator.

But I just want to see what you know, said Bednar, trying to calm the boy, who was fiercely hugging his grandmother and kicking his father away. I dont want to, said the crying boy.

When I was at the show in [the town of ] Galanta, you were performing so well, the father responded.

No, the son replied through tears and jumping from anger.

Jozef Bednar and his wife separated when the boy was four years old. He is convinced that his ex-wife has been manipulating his son into rejecting him. The mother told The Slovak Spectator that she could not speak a few weeks ago and has not responded to attempts to connect with her since then.

Bednar is one of the several fathers rejected by their children with whom The Slovak Spectator has been talking in recent months. After separating from their partners, they lost contact with their children, who subsequently became hostile towards them. Due to continuing lawsuits they lost their private life, savings, and one of them even ended up at the psychiatrists.

This is not a problem among a few families. In 2015 alone there were 9786 divorces with 9000 children affected. It is estimated that 15 percent of them were highly contentious divorces, according to Lucia Stano Salatova, a social worker from the Hope Center civic organization, which works with such families. It means that the number of threatened children is increasing by 1350 per year.

Manipulation is often the reason why children start denying or even hating one of their parents. The process is even more serious if the child does not meet the other parent for long time, according to Sue Cornbluth, a US expert in helping families dealing with divorce.

Sometimes they tell them that they dont want to see them and they hate them, but it is just the result of their manipulation by the other parent, Cornbluth told The Slovak Spectator. Those are not their words. They just repeat what theyve heard at home.

Read also:

Read also: Fathers also take care of their children Read more

Losing their children

When his two children were small, Zdenek Rucka had a very good relationship with them. After he lost his job he even stayed with his older daughter for a few months on maternity leave. Today, his pleasant moments with his children are just memories.

Even after all this time it's hard to talk about it, Rucka told The Slovak Spectator. It's incredible how theyve changed.

His ex-wife left him in 2008 when his son was five years old and his daughter eight. The court granted him the right to meet the children every other weekend and three weeks during the summer.

But it often happened that they were sick at that time, visiting the doctor, or had other reasons not to meet him. Once he was not able to be alone with them for six weeks due to such reasons. If he wanted to see them at least a short time, he had to come to his ex-wifes flat for a visit.

In addition, his ex-wife was always calling their children when they were visiting their fathers home, telling them how she loved and missed them. The children were annoyed by that and had the feeling they shouldnt spend time with their father so as to not hurt their mother, according to Rucka.

The children were increasingly less interested in meeting him after months of such a life and after a while they completely refused to visit Rucka.

"I am the father of children who were sending me replies to my dozens of emails and SMSs like We dont need you, we dont care about you, leave us alone, Rucka wrote on his blog, adding that mostly they did not reply at all.

On the other hand, there are also many cases when children prefer staying with a father who mocks their mother.

Usually it happens in cases of wealthy men who tell their wives that they are free to go but the children have to stay, said Stano Salatova. The children are in fact bought by the father and exchange their mother for material benefits.

The second strategy of such fathers is to portray the mother as incompetent and immoral so the children lose respect for her, Stano Salatova added.

Read also:

Read also: Handicapped children want to feel equal Read more

False accusation leading to jail

The slowness of authorities also play into the hands of parents manipulating their children, according to former journalist and activist Laco Durkovic.

In the past he used to spend 40 percent of his time with his 11-year-old son, and two expert testimonies proved he had good relationship with him.

Durkovic has not met him since June 2016. His mother ceased bringing the child to the agreed meetings ordered by the court and she also filed several criminal complaints that proved to be unjustified.

With police and judges dealing with the case the relationship between father and son changed over that time and the boy began rejecting him. Even the courts admitted that they had acted slowly and apologised to him.

When Durkovic arrived to the mothers apartment in October 2016 he did not even get through the front door. The son and his mother screamed through the window and sent him away. Durkovic asked his son why he was speaking to him like that and the son replied that he was speaking to him like a tyrant.

Durkovic recorded it and provided a copy to The Slovak Spectator.

Both Durkovic and Marian Rasla, a father with a similar problem, eventually suffered from one-sided psychological expert opinions created on the basis of their wives claims. Due to such opinions accepted by the courts, Durkovic was banned from seeing his son and Rasla lost the possibility of meeting his five year old daughter alone.

The court proceedings are still ongoing in both cases and both parents have seen how the behaviour of their children has changed. Raslas daughter, who is now at pre-school age, tells her father that she hates him and would kill him if she could.

One of the fathers we approached knows a lot about long proceedings. He wished to remain anonymous for the protection of his children but The Slovak Spectator knows his name.

This fathers wife, according to him, faked domestic violence by smashing glass at home and calling the police. He was temporarily jailed in 2006 but he ended up behind bars for about a year.

The accusations later turned out to be false, but the father has been forbidden from contacting his children since that time, which he considers to be beyond all understanding.

Meanwhile, my daughter has grown up and I last saw her when she was eight years old, he told The Slovak Spectator. I dont know what kind of people my children are.

The Ministry of Justice does not see any problem in the speed of court proceedings. When asked whether it plans on making changes in the system, spokesman Peter Bubla did not respond and described the options damaged parents have.

Nor did Minister of Justice Lucia Zitnanska comment on the topic at a recent personal meeting with journalists.

Read also:

Read also: Police join fight against online sexual extortion Read more

They want a change

Unlike the Justice Ministry, the Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology (VUDPaP) under Education Ministry stated that the topic of highly contentious divorce is an urgent and serious issue.

The Institute proposes building a so-called Supervision Institute that would help assess domestic violence in disputes involving children.

The state should also further support organizations that help divorced parents and children to meet one another. If their relationship were to improve, the police, authorities and courts would not be so burdened by endless conflicts, according to Stano Salatova.

She and Cornbluth advise rejected parents to not give in and try being in touch with children at least via phone or e-mail.

However, to avoid further trauma, parents should not call the police and file criminal complains in cases where they are prevented from meeting their children. Neither should they make videos of the meetings and show them to the public, according to Stano Salatova.

A rejected parent should retreat as if from a fight, but keep in touch, Stano Salatova says. When they grow into adults, children will not criticise their parents for leaving them.
Journalists living in countries where politicians (for now) do not send people to prison for their opinions, who only sigh in relief that they are lucky this story does not concern them, are deeply mistaken.

Font size: A - | A +

Kadri Gursel does not have the ambition to be a hero. He is a journalist who only wants to do his job. But he has been sitting in prison for more than a year now, and it is uncertain when he will again put his byline under a newspaper story.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

He and 16 other reporters of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet have been imprisoned. For their opinions. Their court process, which is taking place in Istanbul, clearly shows how the journalistic profession can become criminalised in the 21st century, just at the gates of Europe.

The ruling power has accused reporters, commentators, cartoonists and, even the head of the literary supplement, of helping terrorist groups.

Terrorism does not sound like something that governments need to deal with gently, and in the name of international security, which in this case means in the interest of the ruler, the government can seal the mouths of journalists for decades. Or even forever.

The Turkish government made journalists the enemies of the nation without proof. This process of ripping out journalists tongues has been called the cleansing of public life.

Journalists from Cumhuriyet did not ally with terrorists. They had only been doing their jobs when they warned that the country is dangerously drifting away from the principles of democracy. Prison is the punishment that shows that I was right when I wrote that Turkey is moving towards autocracy, Kadri Gursel said at the court.

The Turkish government, in their efforts to eliminate every person who they label as a participant in the coup, crosses the lines of rationality, Kadri wrote last August for Al-monitor, a website about the Middle East. In September 2016 he wrote about political purges in schools in the south-east, mostly Kurdish, area of Turkey. His last article that the website published before his imprisonment was an analysis about what the Turkish ground troops mission against the Islamic State will be.

None of the things he wrote make him an ally of terrorists.

Journalists living in countries where politicians (for now) do not send people to prison for their opinions, who only sigh in relief that they are lucky this story does not concern them, are deeply mistaken. Kadri and the more than 150 other journalists who are currently sitting in Turkish prisons have become victims of autocracy.

And autocrats almost always make the free press their first victim. Their big enemy. And is the road from eliminating free media to imprisoning journalists long enough to keep journalists outside Turkey comfortable? Who will stand up for the imprisoned journalists, if not their colleagues? Do we actually realise how very fragile the freedom of press is?

Beata Balogova is a member of the International Press Institute executive board.
Global Partners LP engages in the purchasing, selling, gathering, blending, storing, and logistics of transporting gasoline and gasoline blendstocks, distillates, residual oil, renewable fuels, crude oil, and propane to wholesalers, retailers, and commercial customers in the New England states, Mid-Atlantic region, and New York. The company is also involved in the transportation of petroleum products and renewable fuels through rail from the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada. Its Wholesale segment sells home heating oil, branded and unbranded gasoline and gasoline blendstocks, diesel, kerosene, residual oil, and propane to home heating oil retailers and wholesale distributors. It also aggregates crude oil through truck or pipeline in the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada, as well as transports it through rail and ships it through barge to refiners. The company's Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations segment sells branded and unbranded gasoline to gasoline station operators and sub-jobbers; operates gasoline stations and convenience stores; and provides car wash, lottery, and ATM services, as well as leases gasoline stations. Its Commercial segment sells and delivers unbranded gasoline, home heating oil, diesel, kerosene, residual oil, and bunker fuel to customers in the public sector, as well as to commercial and industrial end-users; and sells custom blended fuels. As of December 31, 2021, the company had a portfolio of 1,595 owned, leased, and supplied gasoline stations, which included 295 directly operated convenience stores; and owned, leased, or maintained storage facilities at 26 bulk terminals with a collective storage capacity of 11.9 million barrels. Global GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit

Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools:

Portfolio Monitoring

Top Stock Lists

Premium Reports

Stock Screeners

Live News Feed

Premium Support

Free for your first month.
Versie 0.188 van MAME en MESS is uitgekomen. MAME staat voor Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator en is een programma waarmee het mogelijk is om een grote hoeveelheid klassieke arcadespellen te spelen. MESS staat voor Multi Emulator Super System en emuleert een groot aantal oude computers, zoals de Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Gameboy en ZX Spectrum. Met ingang van versie 0.162 worden MAME en MESS niet meer los aangeboden, maar zijn ze samengevoegd. Ook wordt de software nu als opensource aangeboden. De uitgebreide lijst met veranderingen staat hier, de release notes kunnen hieronder worden gevonden.

MAME 0.188 comes to you with tales of perseverance, blind luck, and the kind of insanity youd get from no-one else. By sheer chance, a DECO Cassette system Brian Troha picked up cheap happened to come with a set of graphics ROMs for Explorer. While the Explorer program cassette was dumped sixteen long years ago, the graphics ROMs have proved elusive until now. We can finally all enjoy this Tempest-inspired title from the early 80s.

After much effort and rendering several boards inoperable, Peter Wilhelmsen and Morten Shearman Kirkegaard successfully extracted the programs from the DS5002FP protection modules on Gaelco World Rally 2 and Touch & Go. Yet another seemingly impenetrable protection scheme has been been emulated. Persistence has paid off. This is also a boon for people wishing to repair Gaelco games that have ceased to function after the lithium cell in the protection module has failed. After extracting the program from a working board, its possible to reprogram other boards running the same game.

As for MAMEdev-brand insanity, we are (to the best of our knowledge) the worlds first and only emulator for the INTELLEC 4. This system was used to develop software for Intels earliest microprocessor family, the 4004 and 4040. Weve even put together a user manual of sorts if by chance you want to see what interactive debugging was like in the 70s. It has lots of fun LEDs and switches!

Fans of handheld LCD games will be pleased to see the steady stream of improvements: 0.188 adds support for several Konami and Tiger handhelds, and vector backgrounds have been added for Mario Bros, Mickey & Donald, and Cement Factory.

On the arcade side, weve added support for Operation Wolf SC. This is a version of the military-themed shooter Operation Wolf with reduced difficulty intended for small cabinets located in shopping centres (hence the SC). Children could stay out of trouble storming concentration camps and powder magazines while their parents shopped in peace. Another very interesting addition from Taitos history is a very rare prototype of Bubble Bobble on Tokio hardware. It has different graphics and music, and includes a functional stage editor. Of course weve added an assortment of clones as usual, including versions of Act-Fancer, Kageki, Logger, Solar Assault, Street Fighter II, Taisen Idol-Mahjong Final Romance 2, and Xevious 3D/G.

Ill finish by mentioning that save states and scheduled exits should now work properly in Emscripten builds (thanks to James Baicoianu), colours are fixed for Time Limit and Omega (thanks to ShouTime dumping the PROMs), and ROM identification (-romident verb) is even faster (under ten seconds on my old notebook). Thats really all weve got space for here, but you can read about the rest of the exciting improvements from July in the whatsnew.txt file, get the source/Windows binaries from the download page and try it out.
HSBC has said its headquarters will remain in London but it could move about 20 per cent of trading operations to Paris (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

We export more to Ireland than we do to China, almost twice as much to Belgium as we do to India and nearly three times as much to Sweden as we do to Brazil. It is not realistic to think we could just replace European trade with these new markets. Theresa May, April 2016.

While the Prime Minister seems to understand that trade with the European Union is sizeable, she also seems to be under the illusion that Britain can pick and choose during the Brexit negotiations. Lets keep trade but stop immigration, payments to Brussels, and oversight from the European Court of Justice. This option wont be available.

MORE: Brexit trade deals: Where does the UK stand with countries around the world?

The reality is that Britain faces a trade-off. More distance from the EU means bigger income loss. The Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics estimates that a hard Brexit, i.e. falling back on World Trade Organization terms, will cut trade by 40% over 10 years. For the average household earning around 23,000, this translates into 600 less per year. The softest version of Brexit, i.e. the Norwegian model, still reduces trade by 20-25%, and household income by 300.

Unlike May, UK businesses are keenly aware of these trade-offs. After their dressing-down at the election, the government is finally listening to their demands. Here are the three things business needs and why it will be tricky to achieve these goals.

A transition period

According to a recent survey by the Confederation of British Industry, 40% of businesses say that Brexit affected their investment decision. And for 98% of them, its in a negative way. The main issue for them is uncertainty, businesses cant wait until a final deal emerges. Hence, the only solution is a commitment to a transition period that preserves access to the single market and membership of the customs union.

MORE: Time for Brexiteers to get real and sign up some experts  Warwick Business School

Story continues

Eurosceptics are reluctant to agree to such a transition period, as they are afraid it will turn into a permanent arrangement. The good news is that a recent statement by prominent Leaver Michael Gove indicates that they are coming round to the idea. The bad news is that EU members realised that this uncertainty is prompting companies to relocate parts of their business to Europe. Paris, Frankfurt, and Dublin are most excited about the prospects to grow their financial services sector, while an announcement by Easyjet to set up a new subsidiary in Vienna to keep its EU license after Brexit shows that other cities are hopeful too.

2. Access to the single market

Eurosceptics fear of a transition period turning permanent is not unwarranted. Businesses will certainly lobby for it as access to the single market and membership of the customs union is the best possible outcome for them anyway.

In a new study which I co-authored with Michael Mayer, Julia Hautz, and Richard Whittington, we show that British companies international activities were always less Europe-focused than those of their counterparts in Germany and France. Still, 44% of British exports go to the EU and 16% to countries with EU free-trade agreements. In many industries complex supply chains mean that a product crosses the Channel several times before it is completed. If the UK does not want these businesses to relocate, they have to ensure frictionless movement. Long queues at the border are just as bad as tariffs.

MORE: Brexit: There is no place in Europe that can replicate Londons success

A particularly tricky issue is passporting rights which allow financial institutions based in the UK and regulated by UK authorities the ability to offer their services across the EU. Even in a soft version of Brexit it is unlikely that these passporting rights will be maintained.

3. Access to EU workers

Immigration was repeatedly cited as the main reason why people voted leave. While this was often interpreted as a desire to reduce immigration, surveys typically asked about regaining control over immigration. In Lord Ashcrofts election day poll, for example, 49% of leavers cited this as their main motivation. Businesses do not have a problem with such a stance as long as control does not come with an avalanche of bureaucracy.

From a business perspective, the interest of the UK and the EU should be aligned. Access to EU workers benefits the economy as a whole. As a farmer who supported Brexit pointedly noted, his fruit empire faces ruin without EU migrant workers.

MORE: Brexit wont stop the UK leading the fourth industrial revolution

MORE: Leading economist says Brexit will never happen because Britain will throw in towel

Still, the anti-immigration beast will be hard to tame. The EU is not willing to hand over control over migration as free movement of people is one of the four freedoms. A solution could be an emergency brake that is available to members of the European Economic Area, such as Norway. Even a quota might be possible as Lichtenstein, another member of the EEA, has this already.

While a proper transition period, access to the single market, and the possibility to recruit in the EU are most important for UK businesses, the list is much longer.

The new efforts of the government to engage with business give cause for optimism. Most likely, the government has noticed that the voters mood has shifted. In a recent survey, 52% want a soft Brexit, while 44% prefer a hard Brexit. Unfortunately time is not on the UKs side and many business leaders are discouraged that Britain remains in a state of nervous breakdown rather than hammering out realistic suggestions.

Christian Stadler is the Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School. He is author of Enduring Success: What We Can Learn From The History Of Outstanding Corporations.
By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian police have broken up an Islamic State militant cell led by a former al Qaeda commander convicted in France more than a decade ago for planning an attempted bombing in Strasbourg, a security source said on Wednesday. Mohamed Yacine Aknouche, 43, was once a Europe-based affiliate of Algeria's Islamic Armed Group (GIA), and was sentenced in absentia by a French court in 2004 to eight years prison, said the source, who asked not to be named. The source told Reuters that Algerian forces captured Aknouche this week near Tipaza, a coastal city 50 km west of the capital Algiers where officials charge he had been planning to carry out attacks on security forces. It was not clear when he had returned to Algeria. Militant attacks and bombings are rarer in Algeria since the North African country ended its decades-long 1990s war with armed Islamists in which 200,000 people died. But remnants of al Qaeda brigades remain active and Islamic State has been trying to recruit more people. The Algerian newspaper Ennahar quoted unnamed security sources as saying the cell was based in the village of Ain Taggourait and had plotted attacks in Algiers. Aknouche's cell, it said, had trained in a nearby forest using homemade weapons. After the 1990s war, Algeria fought several armed groups in a bloody conflict that ended when many militants accepted a truce and reconciliation deal. There were around 35,000 active militants at the height of the conflict, but security sources say there are now between 800 to 1,000, mostly in remote mountain and border areas. A hardcore of militants that stayed in the mountains after rejecting the peace accord belong to both Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the local branch of Islamic State known as Jund Al Khilafa. They have mostly targeted security forces in remote areas with ambushes. In 2014, Algerian special forces killed the leader of Islamic State local branch. Security sources named him as Abdelmalek Gouri and said he was behind the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel in September 2014. Like Aknouche, Gouri was a veteran of the 1990s war. (Editing by Patrick Markey and Mark Heinrich)
Shutterstock

It has emerged that the team being sent to Brussels to lead on talks to take Britain out of the EU includes just one woman  out of nine named negotiators.

This imbalance is not only embarrassing. Its negligent. Failing to include women on the frontline of this incredibly important process jeopardises the quality of the negotiations.

Men dont know (or do) whats best for women

Having women on your team matters  and not just because of optics. It affects the quality of the laws that are made. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 were both passed by parliaments that were 96% male and 4% female. Both pieces of legislation are great achievements on the surface but both were deeply flawed. The original equal pay rules required a job evaluation survey, effectively meaning that women had to seek permission from their employers (back then: men) to mount an equal pay claim. Until the EU intervened, the Sex Discrimination Act appeared to require pregnant women to be compared to sick men, making it easier to sack them. This unfavourable treatment on the grounds of pregnancy was not considered sex discrimination.

When it comes to decision-making that isnt about equality, the male tilt of the law is even more problematic. Men are less likely to notice when something may be bad for women. So we live with decisions excluding part-time workers (disproportionately women) from rights, or excluding carers (disproportionately women) from rights. We live with budgetary decisions that are funded by cutting public sector employment (disproportionately impacting women) or by depriving lone parents (disproportionately women) of welfare and support.

Indeed, when the imbalance on the Brexit team first came to light, a House of Lords committee asked David Davis, secretary of state for exiting the EU, to clarify how many women were on his team. He did not know. He had not noticed.

Brexit is a feminist issue

The galaxy of complexity involved in the Brexit negotiations makes the silencing of women all the more concerning. Faced with a mountain of questions in need of resolution within a limited timeframe, the negotiators will look for solutions that seem easy to them.

Story continues

Pressure to get the job done could create costs that end up being paid for with more women-punishing austerity.

Immigration is a feminist issue

The UKs proposal on the rights of EU citizens in the UK also makes various assumptions that could have negative implications for women.

It is vague on the meaning of lawful residence and on the conditions that will be attached to qualifying for temporary residence after Brexit. The existing rules ignore the impact of domestic violence on a womans residence status, since it can interrupt her work history, and make it impossible to stay in her partners household. The rules also make it harder for women to establish a right to reside if they combine domestic care for the elderly or disabled or being a single parent with part time work.

Women and children are already overlooked, and are at significant risk of falling through the cracks in the new regime.

Trade is a feminist issue

When it comes to conditions attached to any future trade agreement, such as compliance with EU workplace rights, key womens rights are at stake too. Rights relating to pregnancy discrimination, to compensation for discrimination, to safety for breastfeeding mothers, to paid time off for antenatal appointments, and to equal treatment for part-time workers, are guaranteed through EU law. The nature of the withdrawal process, the commitments made, and the procedures for enforcing rights, will have gendered impacts.

Women improve decision-making

Having women at the table is not just important for making sure womens concerns are heard. Women improve decision making. The European Network on Gender Equality argues that women in greater than token proportions improve decision-making; improve shareholder value; and lower risk-taking. The European Commission has also found that women are rather good at doing business  reporting that companies with more women on their boards had a 53% higher return on equity.

On the specific issue of negotiation skills, evidence suggests that women are just as successful as men.

Too often, the myth of meritocracy is trotted out when people are asked to justify the gender imbalance on their teams. They point to experience, knowledge or qualifications, each defined to reproduce existing power and privilege. This has been called the social magic of merit. It is an illusion, in which the terms for measuring merit are set by those in charge, to mean like us.

If were looking for knowledge and understanding, we could start right at the top of the Brexit team. Davis has, after all, been criticised for failing to grasp even the basics of EU law when he suggested trading with Germany and Poland.

And since the UK has not had to lead international trade negotiations for more than 40 years, no one is experienced in the art of Brexit. It should therefore be the ultimate equaliser. Yet just one woman is representing the nation at a crucial moment in its history.

In 1970 the UK sent an all male negotiating delegation to get the UK into Europe. So at least the addition of one is progress. At this rate, we can look forward to women being equally represented on international negotiating panels in another 188 years.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Charlotte O'Brien has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.
Franz Wrousis

Schaffhauser Polizei

BERLIN (AP)  The suspect in a chainsaw attack on a health insurer's office in Switzerland that left five people wounded was caught on Tuesday after more than a day on the run, police said.

Franz Wrousis was arrested in Thalwil, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the scene of Monday morning's attack in Schaffhausen, police said. The lakeside town is in Zurich canton (state), Schaffhausen's southern neighbor.

Police issued a brief statement announcing the arrest but said they would give no further details before a news conference scheduled in Schaffhausen on Wednesday.

Authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for Wrousis, whom they described as aggressive and psychologically unstable. They said the 50-year-old has two previous convictions for weapons offenses and no fixed residence.

Wrousis is accused of attacking two employees of a health insurance company at their office in Schaffhausen's old town. One of them was seriously hurt, though the injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Authorities say Wrousis, a client of health insurer CSS, targeted the agency, although a motive remains unclear.

Two customers were treated for shock after they witnessed the attack, and another person was slightly injured during the subsequent police operation. All but one of the five have left the hospital.

In recent weeks, Wrousis was seen several times in forests just south of Schaffhausen. Police found a minivan he was believed to have been driving shortly after the attack, and searched the region near the German border with helicopters and sniffer dogs.

On Tuesday, they urged people to exercise caution when in the area's forests as long as the suspect remained at large. As the manhunt continued, the insurance company said it was keeping its offices in Schaffhausen and five other nearby towns closed for now "in view of yesterday's attack."

Police had described Wrousis as potentially dangerous and warned he might be armed.

Story continues

They also published several photos of the suspect, one of them taken shortly before the attack. It showed a tall, balding man with short brown hair walking along a street in a green jacket carrying a large black bag.

NOW WATCH: Watch Russias newest fighter jet in action  the MiG-35

See Also:
china military

Jon Woo/Reuters

China's military has been increasing the strength and number of its forces along its 880-mile border with North Korea as Pyongyang's military provocations cause the US and its allies to think long and hard about military action against the rogue regime.

A report from The Wall Street Journal says that China has established a new border-defense brigade, implemented 24-hour video surveillance of the border, and constructed bunkers to protect from possible nuclear or chemical attacks.

China conducted a live-fire drill in June and July with helicopter gunships and armored infantry units, including a simulated battle with artillery, tanks, and helicopters, according to The Journal. The nature of these military exercises goes beyond securing a border, and they mimic fighting a nuclear-armed adversary.

While China and North Korea exist on paper as allies, Sim Tack, an expert on North Korea at Stratfor, a geopolitical-analysis firm, previously told Business Insider that China would not likely defend Pyongyang from a US-led attack and instead try to prevent or dissuade the US from taking such a step.

Still, a US-led attack on North Korea remains unlikely. South Korea's new liberal government has sought to pursue engagement with its neighbor, and the US would ultimately need its support for such a campaign. From a purely military point of view, North Korea's artillery and nuclear arms hold too many civilians in Seoul at risk.

North Korea China border map

Google maps

In June, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis described possible conflict with North Korea as "a serious, a catastrophic war, especially for innocent people in some of our allied countries, to include Japan most likely."

Even short of war, China now has reason to view North Korea as a liability.

In response to North Korea's missile tests and military provocations, the US based its powerful Thaad missile-defense battery in South Korea, frightening Chinese military analysts who think the Thaad's powerful radar could one day effectively neuter China's ability to engage in a nuclear exchange with the US.

Story continues

Beijing, which could play a role in handling a refugee crisis, should the North Korean regime collapse, has now assembled forces sufficient to shape the outcome of any conflict between the West and Pyongyang.

NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains what to do if you're attacked by a dog

See Also:
A teenage girl has been arrested and charged with terror offences after she allegedly planned to carry out an attack in the UK.

The 17-year-old is said by police to have communicated with a fighter for the Islamic State terror group in Syria to arrange receiving weapons.

She is also alleged to have received instructions on how to train and use weapons and asked for assistance in completing a plan, contrary to the Terrorism Act 2006.

Read more from Yahoo News UK

Man with 24 wives and more than 145 children is convicted of polygamy

Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has already been solved

A nation of crooks: How many laws Brits break every day

The charge follows an investigation by officers from the Metropolitan Polices Counter Terrorism Command.

She was also previously charged on Wednesday April 12 with acts in preparation contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

The teenager is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday July 27 in relation to these matters.

The teenager was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Pic: Rex
By Alexander Tanas CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldovan lawmakers on Friday called on Russia to pull troops out of the pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transdniestria, speaking out in a stormy parliament session that underlined the split in the nation's loyalties between the West and Russia. Sixty-one MPs in the 101-member assembly approved a symbolic statement that called for Russia to withdraw troops, weapons and other military equipment from Transdniestria, which seceded from the ex-Soviet republic in 1990. The main opposition Socialists left the chamber in protest, calling it a provocation that would worsen relations with Russia and damage efforts to achieve a lasting settlement of Transdniestria's status. Parliament "calls upon the Russian Federation to recommence and finalise the process of withdrawing its troops..., its munitions, weapons and military equipment from the territory of the Republic of Moldova," the statement said. Moldovan politics is divided between a pro-Western government that has forged closer trade and diplomatic links with the European Union and Washington, and a pro-Russian president who wants to move Moldova back within Russia's orbit. The Russian-speakers of Transdniestria seceded from Moldova one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union amid fears that Moldova would shortly merge with neighbouring Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares. The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and declared itself an independent state, but it remains unrecognised by any country, including Russia. Attempts to resolve the dispute have made little progress. A 2006 referendum in Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine but not Russia, produced a 97.2 percent vote in favour of joining Russia. Moldova has been governed by pro-Western leaders since 2009 and inked an Association Agreement with the EU in 2014. Russia retaliated by halting the import of Moldovan farm produce. Relations between Moldova and Russia suffered further this year in a row in March over the treatment of Moldovan officials travelling to or through Russia, and the expulsion of five Russian diplomats in May. There was further tension in the run-up to Friday's vote when Moldova barred Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin from flying to Transdniestria in a military plane. (Writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Mark Heinrich)
By Inmaculada Sanz MADRID (Reuters) - Mariano Rajoy will on Wednesday become Spain's first sitting prime minister to be called to court as he appears as a witness in a long-running graft trial that has rocked his conservative party and hurt him at the ballot box. Rajoy returned to power for a second term last October with a severely diminished mandate, after a series of corruption scandals tainted several members of his People's Party (PP) and turned off voters. The prime minister's court appearance turns the spotlight back on one of the most prominent cases at a delicate time for Rajoy, who no longer enjoys a majority in parliament and has to scrape together votes to get laws through. He had sought to testify by videoconference, arguing that the journey to the court of San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid would be a waste of taxpayer money. But the request was denied by Spain's High Court. The trial follows a long graft investigation into several city councils which are alleged to have received illegal financing from a network of companies. Known in Spanish as the "Gurtel" case, after the nickname of supposed mastermind and businessman Francisco Correa, the probe ended up reaching several former high-ranking PP members and drew attention to an alleged party slush fund. Former PP party treasurer, Luis Barcenas, is among those on trial on charges of organised crime, falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. Rajoy is expected to be grilled about the alleged slush fund and his knowledge of party business in the early 2000s, when he held several senior positions in the PP. He has previously denied receiving any illegal funds. The prime minister has sought to distance himself over the years from this probe and other corruption scandals, but his turn as a witness is likely to be seized upon by opposition parties who have repeatedly called for him to step down. That is unlikely to have any immediate consequences - left-wing parties including the Socialists and Podemos ("We Can") have failed in their bids to oust Rajoy before, as they lack the clout in parliament and are divided on many fronts. But it could still be damaging for the prime minister and his party. "Corruption issues will continue to put a ceiling on the PP's electoral aspirations," Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence said in a note. "While Rajoy should be benefiting from (Spain's) strong economic rebound, the ruling party has been losing support in the polls recently." (Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
BAMAKO (Reuters) - A German military helicopter assigned to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali crashed in the West African nation's desert north on Wednesday, killing the two crew members, the German military said. The Tiger helicopter crashed around midday about 70 km (45 miles) north of Gao, burning out completely with no survivors. The crash was reported by a second helicopter following in the mission. "We have now certainty that two soldiers have given their lives in the service of our country," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference. The Germans were the first killed in combat since 2013 in Afghanistan, a military spokesman said. Germany increased its commitment to the MINUSMA peacekeeping mission this year with the deployment of eight attack and transport helicopters and 350 additional soldiers to Mali where fighters with links to al Qaeda regularly target Malian soldiers and U.N. troops. A German military officer in Berlin said there was no indication the helicopter had been downed by an attack. "The reason for the crash is still completely open. There is no evidence at this point of any outside factors," Vice Admiral Joachim Ruehle, deputy inspector general of the armed forces, told reporters. German military investigators will head to the scene on Thursday to search for the helicopters flight data recorder, he said. All routine flights by other Tiger helicopters will be suspended indefinitely, he said, and only flights deemed necessary for "life and limb" will be conducted. Germany now has around 1,000 troops serving in Mali as part of MINUSMA and a separate European Union mission. Helicopters are seen as key to MINUSMAs mission in northern Mali where they help monitor the position of armed groups that are officially signatories to a U.N.-led peace process. A Dutch helicopter crashed in 2015 and there is speculation about whether extreme heat and dust contributed to accidents. The mission has struggled to replace seven Dutch helicopters that were withdrawn this year. The crash comes at a politically sensitive time in Germany with just weeks to go to a national election in which Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Merkel's Social Democratic challengers have raised questions about increasing military spending to reach a NATO target of 2 percent of economic output, and blocked plans for leasing an armed drone to support troops, for instance in Mali. Four years after a French-led military intervention drove Islamist fighters from cities and towns they seized in 2012, northern Mali remains racked by violence, and attacks have made MINUSMA the world's deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission. (Reporting by Yvonne Bell, Souleymane Ag Anara and Emma Farge,; and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Gambian asylum seekers discuss their journey together while looking at a map on the wall at an asylum seeker reception center in Italy. UNICEF/Gilbertson VII Over 100,000 refugee and migrant children, a third unaccompanied, arrived in Europe last year. Many of them knew all too well that they could be killed or drown at sea. They fled anyway. As a young refugee in North Africa told me recently, you don't tear yourself from your family home, or put yourself in the path of violent traffickers, if you're not escaping something much worse behind you. At Unicef we are acutely aware of the dangers children face. Our striking new study with REACH helps us to better understand what motivates them to leave home in the first place, and what they endure on their journeys. And it calls on us to take action now, with solutions as simple as letting children be with their loved ones. What we found, in our 850 interviews with children who had arrived in Italy and Greece, was that the vast majority left home without telling their parents, fleeing poverty, conflict and violence. Many of the girls were escaping child marriage. As some peddle the narrative that children are coming to the EU in tens of thousands due to 'pull factors' we must respond with facts: as this new study shows, the majority have no intention to reach Europe at all. They leave in hope of a better life elsewhere in North or Sub Saharan Africa, but in countries such as Libya witness and suffer such extreme trauma and abuse that they are left with little option but to continue on in their search for safety. Almost half of children report being kidnapped for ransom in Libya - a truly staggering figure - while others are arbitrarily arrested or subjected to unimaginable violence and abuse. Some of their journeys took up to two years. These are children, let's not forget. The study showed us something we can take immediate action on: reuniting children with loved ones in the UK who are willing to care for them. We have seen children often arriving in Italy or Greece knowing they have family in other EU countries but on making an application to join them, find themselves waiting for months, even years. For example in Italy, out of the 14,229 people who requested to be reunified with family elsewhere in Europe in 2016, only 61 were transferred. The whole time the majority are alone and many drop out of official systems to take their future into their own hands, again falling prey to traffickers and smugglers who abuse and exploit them in return for the journeys they facilitate. We heard reports of children engaging in sex with strangers to finance journeys too, others sleeping under bridges with little or no access to food or water. Is this what children should have to endure to reach family waiting to give them the care they need? Even those who wait in official reception centres face risk, from violence and theft in camps to severe anxiety, distress and uncertainty. One can only imagine the impact this has on a child's mental health and we cannot be surprised when they give up on legal systems that don't appear to work or are too complex to understand. Despite what they go through, children remain determined to reach their family in other countries. Unicef UK is calling on the government to step up. The UK government can do something simple but effective. Currently, children need to reach European shores before they can apply to reunite with close family members in the UK. Through a simple change to our family reunion rules, we could allow them to apply from their country of origin instead, thereby preventing children having to make the terrifying journey across seas in the first place. The sad reality is that all too often children have lost their parents, been forced to leave them behind, or found themselves separated from them due to the perils of war. What they need is for our rules to allow them to reunite with not only parents, but also adult siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and to be able to do so from wherever they are. This simple change to the UK's family reunion rules would bring loved ones back together. It would prevent so many of these devastating journeys. It would cut off the trade of traffickers and smugglers. It would give children back their futures. There is added urgency to this desperately needed change - Brexit. As the UK gets underway with negotiations to leave the EU we cannot forget the implications for children. In the very likely case that we leave 'Dublin III' - the regulation that allows children within Europe to reunite with family elsewhere in the EU - unaccompanied children will have nothing to depend on aside from the UK's own rules, rules that aren't working right now. By fixing them we can stop children facing these horrors and losing their lives. If we're serious about continuing to be a compassionate, global Britain we must act now to uphold not only our moral but legal duty to children who desperately need us, and desperately need to be with their family.
By John Walcott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustration is mounting among leading foreign policy officials in President Donald Trump's administration as they chafe at some policy and bureaucratic defeats and complain they lack independence to do their jobs, officials say. The clash between internationalists urging the traditional U.S. leadership role in the world and advocates of an "America First" approach has worn down foreign policy and intelligence professionals inside the government, according to the officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he sees as disorganization and indiscipline on key policy issues inside the White House. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Tillerson was "very upset at not having autonomy, independence and control over his own department and the ability to do the job the way the job ... is traditionally done." The source said he had heard nothing about any possible departure, but added: "The situation doesn't seem to be getting any better, and in some respects appears to be getting worse." R.C. Hammond, Tillerson's spokesman, denied Tillerson was considering leaving or that his frustrations were boiling over, saying he had "plenty of reasons to stay on the job, and all of them are important to America." "There's a desperate need for American leadership in the world and that's where the secretary's focussing his attention," he said. Tillerson scored a policy win last week when the administration certified, albeit reluctantly, that Iran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal under which Tehran agreed to restrain its atomic programme in exchange for sanctions relief. He was upset, however, by fierce internal criticism from Trump, as well as his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and White House aide Sebastian Gorka, over the decision, said another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The secretary does not feel that White House staff members should be in a position to conduct hostile cross-(examinations) of Cabinet officials," the official said. Hammond disputed the account of harsh discord between Trump and Tillerson regarding recertifying the Iran nuclear deal, saying: "I don't buy this whole thing that there are tensions. Developing public policy is about vetting out ideas," he said. Following last month's move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to boycott Qatar, which they accuse of financing extremist groups and supporting terrorism, Tillerson publicly asked the nations to ease their blockade, and put the onus on both sides to end the crisis. Less than 90 minutes later, Trump accused Qatar of being a "high level" sponsor of terrorism and suggested he had helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders. "As a government we offered some confusing signals, but weve since been able to clear up and clarify that," Hammond said. Politico reported last month that Tillerson was furious with Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to key State Department posts. 'DISRUPTIVE FIGURE' Senior national security officials said McMaster was dismayed that his recommendations, backed by his senior director for Russia, Fiona Hill, about taking a tough stance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, had been ignored. Trump has questioned the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to try to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. McMaster, a three-star Army general who once praised Trump as a "disruptive" figure, is also troubled by a protracted debate about sending more U.S. forces to help Afghanistan reverse gains by the Taliban, officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. Asked to respond to the characterisations of the views of McMaster and other officials, a White House official said: "Assertions not of fact but of state of mind in internal thought have no place in a story like this." While circumspect, Tillerson talked about the challenges of his new job earlier this month, telling reporters that it differed from his former role as chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, where "I was the ultimate decision-maker. That always makes life easier." "I knew what to expect and we had very long-standing disciplined processes and decision-making," he said. "Those are not the characteristics of the United States government." (Additonal reporting by Steve Holland and Yeganeh Torbati; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Raquel Reedy is reviewing the districts low PARCC scores and working on a plan to improve.

Reedy called the results perplexing in a statement emailed to the Journal on Tuesday afternoon.

We made some gains, but we also saw losses, she said of the latest scores, which were released Monday by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Our high school students continue to outperform their peers across the state, but our elementary and middle school students didnt fare as well.

Overall, APS English proficiency dropped to 27 percent, down 2.1 percentage points since 2015. Math scores increased slightly to 19.7 percent over the same period.

Statewide, 28.6 percent of children met the benchmark for English and 19.7 percent for math  only marginally better than in 2015, the first year New Mexico administered the controversial assessment.

While APS high school students were relatively strong, with scores exceeding the state averages, they failed to show growth on a number of PARCC tests. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a rigorous exam aligned with Common Core standards, is administered by computer in grades 3-11.

APS 11th-graders reached 44.4 percent proficiency in English on the latest round of testing  about a percentage point above the state average  but they actually performed better in 2015 when their proficiency rate was 51.3 percent.

The districts English scores also slid significantly in 10th and third grades over the past three years. Math scores remained relatively flat or rose between 1 and 3 percentage points across most APS grade levels.

Christopher Ruszkowski, acting secretary of education, pointed to several large districts that saw stronger improvement but acknowledged that APS  with one-quarter of the states students at more than 80,000  had a huge impact on New Mexicos overall scores.

No question the largest district is a bellwether of how we are doing, he told the Journal. We cant move forward as a state without our largest district on board.

Reedy said APS is addressing concerns like low tests scores in a five-year academic master plan that outlines district goals and steps to reach them. One component is a new pre-K to graduation approach to education.

APS administrators are gathering this week for professional development, including a review of the plan.

We understand the work that needs to be done, and we wont be satisfied until our students are where they need to be, Reedy said.

Like many districts, APS saw some of its schools post strong gains, while others slid backward.

East Mountain High School was a standout for improvement in English and math, which rose 12.3 percentage points and 8.2 percentage points, respectively, from the previous year.

Conversely, Bandelier Elementary dropped 19.2 percentage points in math and Volcano Vista 11.8 percentage points in English.

Reedy noted that districts across New Mexico need to improve their results.

The truth is there are few scores in the state that we can be proud of, she said.
SANTA FE  Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver on Tuesday unveiled changes to proposed New Mexico political spending rules that  although popular during a recent public comment period  prompted sharp criticism from several conservative-leaning groups.

The changes include making it clear that court statements would not count as political advertising and adding a higher spending threshold before independent groups weighing in on statewide campaigns would have to disclose their donors.

They are intended to make complying with the proposed dark money rules a little easier after questions were raised at three recent public hearings, said Deputy Secretary of State John Blair.

What were trying to do is make the rule a little less ambiguous and a little more workable for people who are on the ground, Blair told the Journal.

The rules, which would be the first of their kind in New Mexico, have been touted as bringing more transparency to state campaign spending laws, large parts of which have been struck down by courts.

However, critics have raised legal issues and questioned whether Toulouse Oliver, a first-term Democrat, has the authority to implement the rules, which are largely based on bipartisan legislation that was vetoed earlier this year by Gov. Susana Martinez.

While Toulouse Oliver has insisted shes on solid legal footing, two former Secretary of States Office administrators  Bobbi Shearer and Rod Adair  wrote in a recent letter that the proposed rules would not withstand a court challenge on constitutional grounds.

As originally proposed, the rules would require groups active in New Mexico campaigns  but not coordinating with candidates  to disclose significant donors if they spend more than $1,000 on any single political advertisement or more than $3,000 total in an election cycle.

Under the changes rolled out Tuesday, those dollar amounts would remain the same for non-statewide races or ballot measures, including legislative races. But they would be set at $2,500 and $7,500, respectively, for statewide races or ballot measures.

Such a two-tiered system for political disclosure has been established in many other states, Blair said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of States Office said it will hold an additional public hearing  on Aug. 30 in Santa Fe  and accept more written comments on the changes to the proposed rules.

But Toulouse Oliver still intends to move forward with the rules by October, which would allow them to be in place for the states 2018 election cycle, Blair said.

We are continuing to work towards greater transparency and disclosure in political campaigns because New Mexicans have a right to know who is paying for the TV commercials and ads that are trying to influence their vote, Toulouse Oliver said.

Of the 327 written comments submitted to the Secretary of States Office on the original proposed rule, 88 percent were deemed to be in support.
SANTA FE  A state lawmaker asked his colleagues on Tuesday to envision a future in which self-driving cars and trucks navigate New Mexicos roads.

People might start sharing vehicles more often  either with carpooling or through ride-booking services  reducing the need for parking garages. Fewer collisions might reshape the insurance and medical industries. And state law would have to determine whos liable when there are accidents.

State Sen. James White, R-Albuquerque, led an hourlong discussion at the Capitol on Tuesday about preparing New Mexico for the future of autonomous vehicles. Some of the questions were mundane: Who gets a ticket if an officer sees a driverless vehicle violating the law? Others were more broad  like how autonomous vehicles might shape the development of cities and interstate corridors.

New Mexico doesnt have any legislation on the books addressing autonomous vehicles, but that could change in the next legislative session. Gov. Susana Martinez may add the topic to the agenda of the 30-day session beginning in January, said Tom Church, transportation secretary.

The federal government has proposed model legislation for states regulating the circumstances under which vehicle manufacturers can test and operate autonomous vehicles.

This industry is moving much, much faster than the government can keep up with, White told members of the Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee, a panel of legislators.

White said the initial hope among supporters of autonomous vehicles is that they can improve public safety. The technology can scan the surroundings many times faster than a human can  and apply the brakes more quickly.

They think they can save a lot of lives, he said.

White said he learned about autonomous vehicles  he even took a ride in one  during a recent meeting of the Council of State Governments.

New Mexico is one of several states that will participate in an experiment in the next few months involving trucks that communicate with one another and move in a platoon, allowing them to stay close together on a trip, said Church, the transportation secretary.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

When the new state Supreme Court commission studying guardianship reform met in May, the person who testified on behalf of professional guardians in New Mexico was Sharon Moore from Ayudando Guardians.

The same Sharon Moore appeared last week before a U.S. magistrate in Albuquerque to plead not guilty to federal charges of embezzling millions of dollars from Ayudando clients to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Alongside her in the courtroom was her business partner at Ayudando, Susan Harris, who  along with the company itself  is also charged in the 28-count indictment with criminal violations.

The indictment accuses the two women of charging up to $4 million in personal expenses, including travel, on the Ayudando company credit card and using funds from special-needs clients to pay the bills as they financed everything from cruises to luxury vehicles.

Two months earlier, Moore told the special commission that those employed by Ayudando adhered to a model code of ethics, and that the company had the trust of district judges who appointed it to act as guardian for clients in need of services.

According to the indictment, Ayudando receives government benefit payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Social Security Administration on behalf of many of its clients, and acts as a fiduciary or representative payee for these clients by paying their expenses and maintaining the balances for the benefit of the clients.

The indictment contends that Moore, the chief financial officer, filed fraudulent reports from January to November of last year with the VA involving about 10 veterans who are Ayudando clients.

An attorney for Moore, 62, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Since the indictment was unsealed last Wednesday, the state Office of Guardianship, which contracts with Ayudando to represent indigent clients, has not responded to Journal questions about the company  such as whether audits were conducted or bonds were required as a condition of receiving annual contracts.

The state sunshine portal shows that since July 2009, the state has contracted to pay Ayudando more than $5.7 million to act as court-appointed guardian for clients who are indigent or are otherwise eligible for a state-paid professional company to manage their living and other expenses.

The state Office of Guardianship, which approved Ayudandos most recent annual contract, for $640,000, has offered no explanation for its silence related to its oversight of Ayudando.

But Moore, in her testimony to the Supreme Court commission on May 12, offered some details about Ayudandos operations.

We do have standards

Moore said the company has about 185 clients, but she didnt provide a breakdown as to how many are indigent and therefore qualify for state-paid guardianship services, and how many are private.

Moore said her company, which she said has been in existence for about 14 years, employs nationally certified guardians. Both she and Harris are on the list of New Mexico guardians certified by national Center for Guardianship Certification in Harrisburg, Pa.

Such certification isnt required by state law but is mandated in Ayudandos contract with the state.

Moore said state district judges in New Mexico put their trust in Ayudando when appointing the company to act as guardians or conservator or both.

And therefore, we dont just run amok. We do have standards, Moore told the 16-member group in May.

The commission, which includes judges, lawyers, representatives for the aging, Governors Office appointees and a member of the public, was appointed by the Supreme Court in April after concerns were raised in the Journal and elsewhere that courts in New Mexico needed more oversight of the guardians, who typically operate under the public radar because such cases are deemed confidential and are sealed by law.

The checks and balances provided by the current guardianship system rely heavily on judges, who by law are supposed to review annual reports submitted by guardians as to the welfare of the incapacitated person under guardianship.

Additional oversight

In the case of Ayudandos work for the state, there was another layer of oversight, Moore told the commission.

We do a lot of work for the Office of Guardianship, she said. We are audited for sure once a year, and if there is a problem they (the office) get called in on, they come to us.

She said the caseload for each of the 12 guardians who work for the Albuquerque-based company, can be as many as 30 clients under the Office of Guardianship contract.

But Moore added, I try not to overwhelm them. Some might get to 30 if they have nursing home clients.

In contrast to family members who say they have been left out of the process when a professional guardian is appointed for a loved one, Moore said her company actually helps clients or their families write letters to the judges overseeing the case if there are concerns about a guardians conduct.

Federal prosecutors say it wasnt a judge or a state audit that prompted the investigation that led to the FBI, IRS, VA and Social Security Administration investigation of Ayudando. It was an unidentified Ayudando employee who contacted a federal law enforcement agency with the embezzlement allegations.

The indictment prompted one former Ayudando employee to contact the Journal via email, saying in part, Though I am sad for some really good people working at Ayudando Guardians, I am glad to know justice is being served against this heinous agency that duped so many vulnerable adults.

The U.S. Marshals Service, meanwhile, has assumed control of the business operations of the firm.
Bob Dylan famously sang that you dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. We could update Dylans adage to say that in 2017, you dont need a climatologist to see were in the midst of an ecological crisis. By way of review: 2016 was the hottest year on record. Before that, the hottest year was 2015. Before that, it was 2014. In fact, 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000.

The warming is having dramatic consequences. Here in New Mexico, we are experiencing record high temperatures, deadly dust storms and wildfire evacuations. In coming decades, the Rio Grande is expected to lose one-third of its water. Warmer winters will threaten our ski industry. We could even lose the pinon  our state tree.

Understandably, these challenges often take a back seat to more immediate economic concerns. Unemployment is still a major concern in parts of our state. Middle-class incomes have stagnated, and families are increasingly living paycheck to paycheck. In an age of drones and self-driving cars, things are likely to get worse. Some 47 percent of jobs may soon be at risk from automation.

Faced with these enormous economic and environmental challenges, we need to think big. Luckily, there is an elegant solution to both problems, with precedent in U.S. history. The solution is to create a Climate Conservation Corps to put Americans to work fighting climate change.

In 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office, the Great Depression was at its nadir. Less often remembered is that the nation was experiencing an ecological crisis. Forest coverage was at all-time lows. Overplanting and overgrazing were contributing to dramatic soil erosion, foreshadowing the Dust Bowl. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in response to these exigencies. Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC employed more than 3 million young men who planted nearly 3 billion trees, developed 800 new state parks and constructed 13,000 miles of hiking trails, helping to restore the environment and bring the country out of the Great Depression.

Since the Great Recession, a number of prominent commentators have called for bringing it back. Unsurprisingly, commentators have argued that a reconstituted CCC should focus on the battle against climate change.

The obvious place for such a program to begin would be with energy efficiency. Energy efficiency has the potential to save consumers a tremendous amount of money while greatly reducing emissions. The McKinsey consulting firm estimates that an aggressive approach to energy efficiency could save U.S. consumers nearly $600 billion while preventing 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions.

Government intervention is needed to realize this opportunity. According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. economy could support 3 million additional construction jobs in the energy efficiency sector, but over 80 percent of employers reported difficulty finding qualified employees. A Climate Conservation Corps could remove a key impediment to this sectors growth by training and deploying a new generation of workers.

Such a program would more than pay for itself in energy savings. It would also stimulate the economy as a whole. A 2009 study found a ten-fold increase in economic activity for every dollar invested in energy efficiency in New England. This stimulus effect was a result of lower energy costs, which lead to increased consumer spending and a reduction in the cost of doing business.

The scope of the energy efficiency opportunity is such that there would be little need to focus on anything else in the near term. But the new CCC should be designed with sufficient flexibility to take on other projects that contribute meaningfully to the fight against climate change, like solar installation, reforestation and wetland restoration.

The challenges we face are daunting. But we have the opportunity to take a huge step against climate change while jump-starting our economy. We should seize it.
We have a crime crisis in Albuquerque, and its now intolerable. This is a beautiful state with tremendous potential. None of this matters anymore when rampant crime impacts every aspect of our society and hurts people.

This isnt a partisan political issue  crime impacts everyone, and particularly the poor where crime rates are historically higher. No one has the perfect solution to this problem, but enforcing our laws with discipline and consistency is a necessary first step.

There are lots of excuses as to why this is happening, but too often its blamed on inequities in our society. Inequities arent an excuse for criminal acts; no one has a right to harm anyone. And, taking a soft approach to reducing criminal behavior doesnt work and never has.

Apparently one of our judiciarys concerns is reducing the recidivism rate of criminals. While thats noble, that responsibility belongs to the executive branch. Judges are releasing criminals who belong behind bars simply to reduce jail populations and make their own wishful effort at reducing recidivism. Thats absolutely reckless and puts citizens at risk.

The criminal justice system in the United States today ranges from Vermonts Restorative Justice policies at one end, to Texas tough on crime policies at the other. A fair system more closely aligned to Texas is what will keep Albuquerque safe. Our local governments are obligated to provide public safety, especially for the defenseless. Failing that, the elected officials in positions tasked to combat crime fail their obligation to our citizens.

Then there is the recently agreed compact between so-called judicial stakeholders that produced a new sentencing process to only send those criminals to jail who represent a risk to the public. An incarceration policy, by the way, developed by an out-of-state nonprofit organization that operates in concert with the ACLU and is financially supported by George Soros. That shouldnt make anyone feel good, much less feel safer. You simply cant release a thousand criminals from the county jail back on the streets of Albuquerque without really bad consequences.

We need to enforce our laws and seek common-sense solutions, such as adding temporary jail space. The latter, by the way, is not cruel and unusual punishment. As a 17-year-old Marine private I slept in a tent and ate in a field mess. We can keep convicted criminals, not the most dangerous ones of course, in these kinds of temporary facilities instead of allowing them on the streets. The increase in crime in Albuquerque is directly related to the failure of the judiciary to keep criminal predators in jail. Consequently the criminal activity now taking place is harming this community and killing its future. Weve had business leaders threaten to leave this city unless the crime problem is brought under control, and you cant fault them for that. Our company has had employees leave for the same reason. When people are scared, theyll vote with their feet. With our stagnant economy and disproportionally high poverty we shouldnt accept, nor can we afford, judges letting out-of-control crime chase people and businesses out of New Mexico.

The brave men and women of our local law enforcement agencies are doing the best job they can under difficult and dangerous circumstances. It is not without note that the number of police officers killed in the line of duty in the United States is up more than 30 percent for the past 12 months compared to the preceding year. The district attorney and the judiciary have no chance but to get tougher with criminals. So, for Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels, Second Judicial District Court Chief Judge Nan Nash, Metropolitan Court Judge Henry Alaniz, District Attorney Raul Torrez and Bernalillo County Manager Julie Baca, know that you have now taken ownership of Albuquerques crime problem. Fix it fast, or youll ruin Albuquerques struggling economy and well be well on our way to becoming another Detroit!
How can the Albuquerque Police Officers Association fail to recognize the blatant conflict of interest in having a police supervisor represented by the same union as the officers he/she supervises?

When theres a complaint against an officer, for example, and that officers sergeant and/or lieutenant recommends discipline and the union steps in, just whom does the union represent  the cop or the brass?

Ditto for when there are contract negotiations that reward one level of officer over the other  whom does the union speak up for, the rewarded or the unrewarded?

Fortunately, Ed Harness, director of the Albuquerque Police Oversight Agency, and James Ginger, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the federal court-ordered reforms at the Albuquerque Police Department, have connected those dots.

Harness heads up the agency that investigates civilian complaints against police officers and reviews officer-involved shooting cases. His agency reports to the Police Oversight Board, a nine-member panel that makes policy recommendations to APD and, when necessary, recommendations for officer discipline. The oversight agency and board are good checks against potential police abuses/blue walls of silence. And if the APD chief disagrees with any of the boards recommendations, he has to explain why, and in writing.

Ginger is overseeing reforms after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in 2014  which followed 24 shootings by APD officers over a four-year period  found systemic problems within APD, including a pattern and practice of excessive force and a culture of aggression.

Right now the Albuquerque Police Officers Association represents officers who hold the rank of lieutenant or lower. Harness maintains separating sergeants and lieutenants from officers in collective bargaining units will help mitigate the above-mentioned conflicts of interest and problematic use-of-force investigations Ginger has dealt with. It would also free ranking officers to speak up in the interests of the departments front-line leadership, and the rank and file to do the same for officers. And it could go a long way toward instilling public confidence that supervisors and rank-and-file arent in the same cozy group when it comes to filing a concern  that one really can investigate and, when appropriate, discipline the other.

Predictably, union president Shaun Willoughby is dead set against losing any members. Whenever you divide something, it becomes less influential, he says. It becomes less powerful.

Perhaps. But it also becomes less all of us (APD) vs. all of them (the public).

Police departments, which tend to fashion themselves after the military and heavily recruit military veterans, should understand the wisdom in the armed forces dividing the chain of command between the enlisted and officers, as well as the inherent problems of over-fraternization between the two.

No, APD is not the military, but having clear-cut divisions of responsibility  and union representation  can be invaluable in restoring and retaining public trust when it comes to investigating alleged wrongdoing by police officers. Currently, the public has little faith in internal investigations that overwhelmingly have police officers exonerating their own.

Harness suggestion has merit and should be given thorough consideration.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
ORLANDO, Fla.  A former Marine believed so strongly in the war against the Islamic State group that he secretly traveled to Syria, where he was killed this month while fighting for a Kurdish militia group.

David Taylor, a 25-year-old former Florida resident, had kept his plans to join the Kurdish group a secret from his family and only told a high school friend, whom he swore to secrecy. Taylors father said Tuesday that he didnt even know of his sons plans until after he had arrived in Syria last spring and was training with the group known as YPG.

I got an email and he said, Pops, dont worry. Im with the YPG,' David Taylor Sr. told The Associated Press from his West Virginia home. He said, Im doing the right thing. Its for their freedom.'

Taylor Sr. said when his son set his mind on something, he did it.

There was no middle ground. He wasnt wishy-washy, the father said.

A Kurdish militia group released a video saying Taylor was martyred fighting ISIS barbarism on July 16.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen being killed while fighting in Syria but offered no further comment. Taylors dad said the family was told about the death last weekend by a U.S. consular official.

Taylors high school friend emailed the father after he learned of the death. The friend said Taylor told him during a visit to St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, last February that he believed the Islamic State group needed to be stopped.

One night he got drunk and told me of the atrocities he had witnessed in the Middle East during his time in the Marine Corps, the friend, Alex Cintron, wrote in an email to Taylors parents.

He said to the effect that Isis was the bane of modern existence and needed to be stopped before they destroy any more lives and priceless works of human achievement,' Cintron said in the email.

Taylors father shared the email with the AP on Tuesday. Cintron didnt respond to a message for comment sent via social media.

Cintron said in the email that Taylor died from an improvised explosive device. The YPG video offered no details on how Taylor died.

Taylor grew up in Ocala, Florida, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando. He attended college in Florida and West Virginia before joining the Marines. He was deployed in Afghanistan, Japan, South Korea and spent time in Jordan before he was discharged last year, David Taylor Sr. said.

After his discharge, he came to the United States and visited family and friends in West Virginia, Philadelphia and Florida.

Last spring, he asked his father to drive him to the airport because he had decided to visit Ireland, where his family has ancestral ties.

Taylor Sr. received intermittent updates from his son about his travels in Europe until there was a period of silence for several weeks. Soon afterward, the elder Taylor received an email from his son, saying he had joined the Kurdish militia group.

The consular official told Taylor Sr. that the YPG is paying to transport Taylors body back to the United States.

He loved his country. He loved democracy, the father said. He had a mission, to go over there and advance democracy and freedom like we have it over here. It came at a horrible price.

___

Associated Press writer Matt Yee in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Criminal prosecutions are rare for people who fail to register as foreign agents, according to a top Justice Department official who testified Wednesday about an obscure law receiving new attention amid investigations into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general, told Senate lawmakers that the Foreign Agents Registration Act  a law aimed at ensuring transparency about lobbying efforts done in the U.S. at the direction of foreign governments or principals  contains multiple exemptions for registration and requires proof that someone intended to break the law by failing to disclose their work.

He said lawyers in a specialized Justice Department unit often prod someone to voluntarily register instead of seeking to charge them.

The high burden of proving willfulness, difficulties in proving direction or control by a foreign principal and exemptions available under the statute make criminal prosecution for FARA violations challenging, Hickey said.

Nonetheless, he said, the Justice Department will not refuse to bring a case if there is evidence of intentional wrongdoing. It has brought four criminal prosecutions under the statute since 2007, all of which he said have resulted in convictions.

The law has been broadly discussed in the last year because of Justice Department investigations into Trump campaign associates and because of a watchdog report last year that said the statute had been weakly enforced for decades. That report, from the Justice Departments inspector general, found that the number of FARA registrations had declined in the last two decades and that prosecutions and civil enforcement actions were rare. The report made several recommendations for improvement.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort belatedly registered in June with the Justice Department for political consulting work he did for a Ukrainian political party before joining the Republican candidates presidential bid. He acknowledged that he coached party members on how to interact with U.S. government officials.

Besides Manafort, Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and his consulting firm registered in the weeks after his ouster from the administration for lobbying work that could have benefited the Turkish government.

Manafort had been invited to testify at Wednesdays hearing but he did not appear. Instead, he agreed Tuesday night to turn over documents and to continue negotiating about setting up an interview with the panel.

The committee also removed Donald Trump Jr. from the list of witnesses scheduled for Wednesdays public hearing.

The panel has sought to talk with Manafort about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in New York with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, among other issues including his foreign political work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

On Tuesday Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff, providing his recollection of the Veselnitskaya meeting and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview. Manafort answered their questions fully, said his spokesman, Jason Maloni.

Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was also on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.

Both Manafort and Kushner have been cooperating with the committees which, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was flatly described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Trumps presidential campaign.

Manaforts discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors. Manafort had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee. He has now provided the committee with notes he took at the time, one of the people said.

The other person said Manafort has also said he will participate in additional interviews with the Senate Intelligence Committee staff on other topics if necessary. Those meetings havent yet been scheduled.

Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors Tuesday with the House intelligence panel. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the committees Russia probe, said he found Kushner to be straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had. He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.

The committees top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on a range of issues the committee had been concerned about.

We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today, Schiff added.

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is scheduled to arrive in New Mexico Thursday morning as part of two days of meetings and sightseeing ahead of his decision on whether to shrink the states two national monuments or leave them as they are.

On Thursday, Zinke will tour the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument by helicopter then meet with elected officials, ranchers, academics, border security experts, and others local stakeholders who represent all sides of the issue, according to the Interior Department.

On Friday, Zinke will hike with southern New Mexico veterans and then hold meetings with the Mescalero Apache, Fort Sill Tribe, and Friends of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks . On Saturday, the Interior secretary will hike and ride horseback with Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, both of whom are opposed to shrinking either monument.

Interestingly, the Interior Departments public announcement of Zinkes trip makes no mention of a visit to the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos. Those who have followed the monument review process closely have suggested that the Rio Grande monument appears to less likely to get reduced in size than the Organs monument, which Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican, has urged Zinke to shrink by as much as 88 percent.

President Donald Trump directed the interior secretary in April to review national monuments of more than 100,000 acres designated since 1996, saying some of them amounted to a massive federal land grab. In early May, Zinke produced a list of 27 monuments for possible alteration, including the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument, in southern New Mexico, and the Rio Grande del Norte monument, in the northern part of the state.

Democrats in New Mexicos congressional delegation strongly oppose altering the New Mexico monuments in any way, saying they protect cherished public land and spur tourism. Pearce contends the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is too large and hampers border enforcement and economic development.

The review is rekindling a fierce debate about oversight of lands marked by ancient petroglyphs and towering mountain spires.

The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association is urging Trump to eliminate certain large-scale national monuments.
CHARLESTON, W.Va.  West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, joined by four other states, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling they say infringes on gun rights.

In a brief Tuesday, they argue that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court majority erred in concluding police can frisk someone they believe has a weapon.

Morrisey, joined by attorneys general from Indiana, Michigan, Texas and Utah, said innocent gun owners have the right to carry weapons without the fear of being unreasonably searched.

They argue that existing case law requires police determine someone is dangerous as well as armed. Otherwise, people will have to choose between their right to bear arms and freedom from unreasonable searches

It is wrong to deem an individual dangerous solely because they are armed, Morrisey said.

The brief notes that half the people own guns in West Virginia, which is one of a dozen states that dont require a permit for carrying a concealed weapon. Another 25 states laws say authorities shall issue permits for concealed guns provided they meet certain statutory requirements.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear the case.

It involved Shaquille Robinson, a felon with an illegal gun in his pocket. He was arrested by Ranson police in West Virginias Eastern Panhandle after an anonymous tip about someone seen loading a handgun in a parking lot known for drug trafficking. Police responding to the tip stopped the car in which Robinson was a passenger because neither he nor the driver was wearing a seat belt and searched Robinson.

His attorney argued the search was illegal and violated Robinsons civil rights, that the tip identified seemingly legal conduct and the traffic stop provided no basis for frisking him.

The 4th Circuit Court, in a 12-4 decision in January, rejected that argument and concluded that an officer who makes a lawful traffic stop and who has a reasonable suspicion that one of the automobiles occupants is armed may frisk that individual for the officers protection and the safety of everyone on the scene.

Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote for the majority: The danger justifying a protective frisk arises from the combination of a forced police encounter and the presence of a weapon, not from any illegality of the weapons possession.
CHINO VALLEY, Ariz.  Yavapai County authorities say a Paulden man shot and critically wounded during a July 21 encounter with law enforcement officers in Chino Valley has died.

The Sheriffs Office says 70-year-old Martin Louis Avena died Monday evening at a Phoenix hospital.

The Sheriffs Office previously said the shooting occurred during a traffic stop Friday in Chino Valley where Avenas van was spotted following a domestic violence incident involving his wife in Paulden earlier Friday.

According to the Sheriffs Office, Avena confronted deputies and officers with a gun and was shot as a result of the threat.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating the shooting.
Investigators with the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office said they will pore over Medicaid bills with an eye for suspicious activity in an attempt to find Medicaid fraud throughout the state.

Attorney General Hector Balderas announced Wednesday plans to crack down on Medicaid fraud and elder abuse, saying both the states high number of elderly residents and babies born using Medicaid dollars are reasons to protect the integrity of the program. Medicaid is a health care program for people who cant afford to buy their own.

You have billions of dollars flowing through the system and Im concerned that you dont have enough adequate checks and balances and accountability at the top, he said.

He said the initiative will include reviewing Medicaid bills and data for suspicious practices, which could indicate fraud.

We will be targeting and mining key, specific data that will be an important, game-changing effort to bring about a more accountable system for the most vulnerable population in New Mexico, Balderas said at a news conference.

An awareness campaign that includes TV commercials is also part of the initiative.

About 40 percent of New Mexicans receive Medicaid funds and seven of 10 babies born in the state are born on Medicaid, Balderas said. He also said the states elderly population is expected to grow significantly in the next 10 years.

New Mexico is one of the most needy and vulnerable states in the nation to Medicaid fraud, he said. We need every Medicaid dollar to go to necessary services.

The office asked for and received a waiver from the federal government that allows investigators to proactively look for fraud rather than wait for complaints, according to a news release.

Juliet Keene, the deputy director of the attorney generals Medicare Fraud Control Division, said prior to this initiative, the division would investigate for possible fraud after getting a complaint. Going forward, the division will be reviewing Medicaid bills with an eye for anomalies to try to find fraud.

She said the office could take civil or criminal actions against possible suspects, depending on the circumstances.
If you are looking for work in New Mexicos bustling film and television industry, its about to get easier.

The state Taxation and Revenue Department has begun issuing film residency cards that full-time residents can present to production companies when seeking employment.

The cards aim to expedite the hiring process for New Mexico film and television industry workers because they list the all the information needed by production companies.

Nick Maniatis, director of the New Mexico State Film Office, and Ann Lerner, director of the Albuquerque Film Office, known as FilmABQ, discussed the cards at an Economic Forum meeting on Wednesday. The pair highlighted the agencies efforts to make New Mexico a more attractive place to film and work.

Maniatis said the state for three consecutive years has broken records for revenue brought in by direct spending from the film and television industry. In fiscal year 2015, film and television brought in $288 million in direct spending. That number jumped by $100 million in fiscal year 2016 to $387 million. Maniatis said those numbers do not include actors salaries. Though solid numbers are not yet available for fiscal year 2017, Maniatis predicted this year, revenue will approach half a billion dollars.

The productions are comfortable with our program and know how it works, Maniatis said. They know how good our crew is and how good our facilities are.

The residency cards are available from the state Taxation and Revenue Department by filling out an application and presenting proof of residency such as a drivers license or utility bill through mail, email or in person, according to a news release.

For information on how to apply, go to www.tax.newmexico.gov and search for NM Film Residency Certification Card.

Lerner said other film employment programs offered through FilmABQ and the State Film Office include veteran hiring efforts and a program that allows New Mexico residents to rent out their homes to productions for up to two weeks without paying state tax on the received income.

Lerner said the Albuquerque Film Commission won the Location Managers Guild International Award in 2014 for best film commission. It secured another nomination in 2017, but lost to the Royal Film Commission of Jordan.
The official trailer of the much-awaited Bengali film Maacher Jhol was launched today on the big screen in the presence of the cast and crew. Sony Pictures Networks Indias (SPN) latest offering, co-produced by Mojo Productions Pvt. Ltd and written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Pratim D. Gupta, is a heartwarming journey of an internationally renowned Masterchef struggling to cook the quintessential Bengali dish, Maacher Jhol (fish curry).

The official trailer, launched at the popular Kolkata cinema hall Priya, gave the audience a sneak peak of the film that has been shot in Kolkata and Paris and has music by Anupam Roy of Piku fame. Award-winning actor Ritwick Chakraborty plays Masterchef Dev D while the legendary Mamata Shankar plays his mother, and Paoli Dam his wife Sreela. Maacher Jhol is all set for a 18th August release in Bengal followed by a national release in the later weeks.

Speaking on the occasion, Tushar Shah, Executive Vice President, Sony Pictures Networks India said, Maacher Jhol beautifully captures the emotional bond between mother and son and how they make beautiful memories with food. It also brings out the flavors and aromas of Masterchef Devs relationship with various people who made an indelible impact on his life. We are confident that this heartwarming drama will change the way people watch Bengali cinema forever.

Joy B. Ganguly, Mojo Productions Pvt. Ltd, also added, We have reached an inflection point in regional cinema, and Bengali films are in the forefront. Our second co-production for Sony Pictures Networks India has been a great experience. Pratim's vision for Maacher Jhol will be a clutter breaker in the Indian film industry, the trailer is just one example.

Talking about the film, writer and director Pratim D. Gupta said: Maacher Jhol has turned out to be a visceral experience to be seen, heard, felt and, most importantly, tasted. It celebrates a very Bengali sentiment but is universal in its resonance. Partnering with Sony Pictures Networks India and Joy has been a very fulfilling and enriching experience, given their unalloyed passion for cinema.
STATESBORO, Ga., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FM Capital continues to expand their student housing portfolio with the recent acquisition of Campus Evolution Villages at Statesboro, a 528-bed (132 units) student-life community near Georgia Southern University. "We capitalized on this opportunity and recognized the quality of this asset. With the growth of GSU, we knew it was the ideal fit for our portfolio approach and value-add strategy," says Joe Fishman, VP Acquisitions, FM Capital.

FM Capital plans to rebrand the property, The Vault at Statesboro. An exclusive, well-located, and amenity-rich place for students to call home. FM Capital has many exciting enhancements in the works, including a new clubhouse/game room featuring game-viewing lounge seating, cafe seating, ping-pong and billiards tables. In addition, a full improvement will be made to the outdoor amenities, including a new hot tub, cabanas, fire pits, and grill stations by the pool. A new dog park will be added to the property as well. To suit student's active lifestyle, a new fitness center overlooking the pool, with on-demand exercise video software, will be completed by 2018. Lastly, to help students excel in their studies, a computer room and two private-study rooms will be built adjacent to the clubhouse.

FM Capital is actively acquiring student housing properties, in strong markets near and adjacent to universities with growing student populations.

For all inquiries and leads, please contact:

Joe Fishman, VP of Acquisitions

JFishman@fmcapital.com

(305) 722 - 6182

About FM Capital

FM Capital, LLC is a full service vertically-integrated Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment firm, headquartered in New York and South Florida. FM Capital invests in commercial real estate and debt strategies. FM Capital has a proven track record. Since their inception in 2007, they've acquired and disposed of more than $1 Billion in assets, over 15,000 multifamily units, and over 3,000 student beds. By utilizing a value-investing philosophy and hands-on investment management approach, they continue to prove this successful track record. Their commitment to their clients and investors has fueled their continuous growth.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fm-capital-acquires-528-beds-in-the-heart-of-georgia-southern-university-300494109.html

SOURCE FM Capital
SPARTANBURG, S.C., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of J M Smith Corporation has confirmed Philip J. Ryan, III as Chief Financial Officer and appointed Kevin Welch to the role of Chief Technology Officer. Ryan will also assume the role of Treasurer following the retirement of James C. Wilson, Jr. on October 1, 2017. Wilson has been employed with the company since 1987, serving first as controller before being elected Treasurer and then being named CFO.

"These appointments are significant steps on the path towards leadership excellence and operational excellence. Both Phil and Kevin are highly respected experts in their fields," said Alan Turfe, Chairman and CEO, J M Smith Corporation. "Their passion for our organization and their vision for moving it forward are impressive. I am looking forward to working with them in their expanded roles.

"The Board of Directors and I also greatly appreciate the years of service Jimmy Wilson has given to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement," stated Turfe. "Jimmy will continue in his role on the J M Smith Foundation Board, and he and his wife Judy will continue their volunteer work in the community. Not only are Judy and Jimmy pillars in our community, but they have become dear friends to me and my family. Their kind, giving spirits are an inspiration to us all."

"For the past 30 years, Jimmy Wilson has been integral to the success of J M Smith Corporation," said Paula Harper Bethea, Governance Committee Chair, J M Smith Corporation Board of Directors. "His intellect, insights and character have been invaluable to the company and to those of us who have served with him and learned from him. He is a remarkable gentleman and we shall all miss him greatly."

As CFO, Ryan has direct responsibility for the finance arenas of each of our business units as well as the corporation as a whole. The Vice Presidents of Finance for each of the business units will report to him. Ryan joined J M Smith Corporation in 2011, following a successful career with Sealed Air Corporation. During his tenure at J M Smith Corporation, he has been a key member of the team that handled the acquisitions of Radiate in Charleston, SC; Integra in Anacortes, WA; and Burlington Drug Company in Milton, VT. He holds a BS from Lehigh University, an MBA from New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Welch, who will maintain his role as President of Integra LTC Solutions, will also assume the role of Chief Technology Officer for all of J M Smith Corporation. In the CTO role, he will oversee the development of new technology within the J M Smith Corporation, streamlining the process of bringing technology to market. Welch became part of J M Smith Corporation with the acquisition of the company he founded in 1997, Integra. Welch holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research and Engineering Management from Stanford University and has served in senior positions at Genentech, Symantec and Microsoft. During his career he has designed and developed many industry leading software applications and systems.

"J M Smith Corporation has a long history of providing innovative technology to the market," said Welch. "The role of a CTO is to ensure that we are positioned to continue to have a technological edge. I am looking forward to this new challenge."

ABOUT J M SMITH CORPORATION

J M Smith Corporation, headquartered in Spartanburg, is South Carolina's third-largest privately owned company. Today, the corporation is focused in the areas of health care and technology, and operates through multiple business units, including Smith Drug Company, QS/1, Integral Solutions Group, RxMedic Systems, Integra LTC Solutions and Burlington Drug Company. For more information, visit www.JMSmithCorp.com.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/j-m-smith-corporation-south-carolinas-third-largest-privately-held-company-names-cfo-cto-300494942.html

SOURCE J M Smith Corporation
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
Google on Wednesday announced that Android Pay is now officially available in Spain, with the service rolling out in the European country as of today, adding that its mobile payments solution is already supported by more than a million stores. Spain is the sixth country on the Old Continent to receive Android Pay, though the platform will initially only be available to customers of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). Thats still a notable percentage of the population seeing how BBVA is the second largest bank in the country, and the Mountain View, California-based tech giant already promised to continue expanding support for Android Pay to more banks and financial institutions in Spain but didnt provide a more specific time frame to accompany that announcement, nor did it clarify on the matter in any other way.

Googles newly established partnership with BBVA may be significant in a more wider context than the one pertaining solely to Spain; the BBVA financial group is present in 35 markets throughout the world and its 133,000 employees presently serve over 70 million customers on the planet. The organization has an extremely large presence in Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, and a number of European countries, and the fact that Google now has direct access to the financial giant may bode well for the companys future ambitions pertaining to the expansion Android Pay. In the short term, the collaboration will allow BBVAs customers in Spain to use Googles mobile payments solution to pay in a wide variety of different store chains and online services, from Starbucks, Zara, Deliveroo, and Uterque to VIPS, Media Markt, Hotel Tonight, Vueling, and El Corte Ingles.

Spanish nationals looking to start using the service will need to download the Android Pay app from the Google Play Store and set it up with a compatible debit or credit card issued by BBVA. Not all of the banks cards are supported the service though most of them are expected to become part of the Android Pay ecosystem in the near future. To find out more details about the currently supported cards, refer to the source link below. The move marks the second major expansion of Android Pay this month, with Google recently expanding the scope of the service to 72 new banks and credit unions in the United States.
The Emperor Edition of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 may feature 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal flash memory, one industry insider said on Wednesday, adding that the South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is also currently in the process of testing a variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space thats believed to be the international model. Samsungs home country is set to receive both versions, whereas the Galaxy Note 8 Emperor Edition may be the only model that launches in China. Samsung lost a lot of market share in China in recent years and is now adopting a more aggressive product strategy for the largest smartphone market in the world, tempting local consumers with devices that offer significantly better value for money than their counterparts in most other countries do. The Galaxy S8 Plus Emperor Edition with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of native storage was also initially made for China and South Korea before eventually debuting in Japan this spring, and the most powerful variant of the Galaxy Note 8 may follow the same release pattern.

Rumors of the Emperor Edition of the Galaxy Note 8 have been circulating the industry for almost two months now, with one previous report indicating that Samsung is looking to make significant upgrades in terms of RAM with its next several Android flagship lineups, with the OEM reportedly being adamant not to stagnate like it did in the last two years, with the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S8, and the Galaxy S8 Plus all shipping with 4GB of RAM. Instead, the source claimed that the most premium variant of the Galaxy Note 8 will boast 8GB of RAM, whereas Samsung will equip the Galaxy S9 series with up to 10GB of RAM in spring 2018 and increase that memory amount to 12GB with the release of the Galaxy Note 9 next summer. The latest report also indicates that the Galaxy Note 8 will initially be available in three colors, including Orchid Grey and Midnight Black, with one previous rumor indicating that the third color option will be called Deep Blue.

Samsung already confirmed that the Galaxy Note 8 will be officially announced on August 23, with many industry watchers predicting that the phablet will be available for purchase in some parts of the world by the end of September.
Motorola and Lenovo held their official Hello Motoworld event earlier this morning to officially take the wraps off of the highly anticipated Moto Z2 Force, the next iteration in Motorolas Moto Z lineup, following the launch of the Moto Z2 Play from earlier this year, and following its predecessor, last years Moto Z Force. While there are definitely some similarities to be drawn between the Moto Z2 Force and the Moto Z Force from 2016, there are a fair amount of differences too, and there is one major change that will play to just about every consumer. This is the fact unlike the Moto Z Force, the Moto Z2 Force will be available from all major carriers. So for the U.S., subscribers on T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint will all have the opportunity to pick one up from their respective carriers, and Motorola and Lenovo will even be launching an unlocked model, so no one should be left out of the mix.

Moving beyond availability, which is due to start on August 10th for the U.S. carriers and likely elsewhere, the Moto Z2 Force brings a familiar design compared to last years Moto Z lineup as well as this years Moto Z2 Play, naturally, but also ups the ante by coming with a slew of upgraded hardware. This includes the latest from Qualcomm in the processor department, the Snapdragon 835, which comes paired with an Adreno 540 GPU for the graphics processing and can also be found in many of 2017s other flagship devices coming from other OEMs. In addition to the powerful CPU, the Moto Z2 Force also comes with a dual rear camera setup comprised of two 12-megapixel sensors, sporting special features like Selective Focus, Selective Black and White, and a Pro Mode for much more granular control over how the images turn out, something which should definitely appeal to the discerning photography enthusiast.

In addition to the Moto Z2 Force announcement, Motorola also showed off its Moto Gamepad Mod, one of the newest Moto Mods to join the pack, which is set to be available this Summer at some point for the price of $79.99. While the mod doesnt appear to currently be available, it should be up for sale in the very near future seeing as how Motorola officially announced it a little earlier this year. If you missed anything from todays Hello Motoworld event, you can recap everything from the links below.
As Samsung rolls out the English voice support of Bixby, the South Korean tech giant has provided some tips in order to maximize the use of its personal assistant. In order to activate Bixby Voice, the device owner will simply say the words Hi, Bixby. Once the handset detects these words, Bixby is then activated and ready for immediate use. Samsung advises that people speak at a distance of 15 to 20 centimeters away from the device. Any deviation from the said range could affect Bixbys accuracy in detecting instructions. The personal assistant also allows the user to set quick commands, which are basically shortened versions of complicated and multi-step requests. In order to set these quick commands, users may proceed to the My Bixby menu in Bixby Home.

The electronics giant also highlighted how deep learning technologies are used to improve the voice detection and functionality of its virtual assistant, Bixby. Samsung noted that deep learning allows Bixby to identify voices even in noisy environments by analyzing the frequencies that constitute sounds. In addition, deep learning technologies also allow Bixby to learn from its mistakes by asking the device owner to select the appropriate response in situations wherein its responses did not satisfy the user. Samsung also noted that its virtual assistant has the ability to learn dialects and understand the associated different intonations, grammatical structures, and words. Language complexity has been previously reported as one of the reasons why English support of Bixby was delayed.

Aside from Bixby Voice, Samsung also provided additional information and tips on Bixby Vision. Bixby Vision allows device owners to use their cameras to identify items and search for information. To get the most out of Bixby Vision, the object to be scanned should be in focus and the image is captured in bright environments. The camera should also be steady so that the details that may identify the object are preserved in the resulting photograph. Samsung collaborated with Pinterest to show related images and with retailers like Amazon and Samsung Pay Shopping to provide faster and easier purchasing experience. With the help of Googles translation database, Bixby can also scan and translate sentences through an included object character recognition (OCR) technology.
South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics appears to be developing a new high-end flip phone powered by top-tier internals. The device is currently referred to by the model number SM-W2018 which virtually makes it a direct sequel to last years SM-W2017. The new model has reportedly been certified by Chinas regulatory agency TENAA a few months ago running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 system-on-chip (SoC) coupled with 4GB of RAM, but according to a new tweet originating from a tipster in China, the SM-W2018 flip phone will employ the more recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory.

Needless to say, these hardware characteristics would make the SM-W2018 the most powerful flip phone to date. As for the question of whether this particular form factor has any appeal to consumers, flip phones have generally maintained some appeal in certain markets, especially in China and South Korea, where Samsung continued to launch such devices over the years, usually under the Galaxy Golden moniker. Furthermore, the company launched the Samsung Galaxy Folder 2 flip phone in South Korea last month for the price equivalent of $260. As for the mysterious SM-W2018 flip phone, additional leaks and rumors suggest that regardless of what Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset it will employ, the smartphone will make use of two 4.2-inch displays, each supporting a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Furthermore, the device is expected to carry a 12-megapixel main camera coupled with a 5-megapixel front-facing sensor, as well as a 2,300mAh battery.

The Samsung SM-W2017, which should technically be replaced by the SM-W2018, was officially introduced in China in November 2016 running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. The smartphone houses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 system-on-chip, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of native memory. It also uses two 4.2-inch Super AMOLED FullHD displays, a 2,300mAh battery, and a camera setup similar to the one rumored for the sequel. Having said that, the SM-W2018 could retain some of its predecessors characteristics  such as the camera, battery, and display setup  while employing updated hardware internals including the newer Snapdragon 835 chipset and more RAM. The new model could also make use of a fingerprint scanner not unlike last years variant, and will likely employ a more recent Android OS version. As for the exterior design, not much seems to have been changed compared to the SM-W2017, at least judging by the sketch seen below which was reportedly pulled from the phones leaked user manual.
If the analysts from New Street Research are to be believed, it is becoming increasingly likely that Sprint will partner with either a cable operator or T-Mobile in the near future. This comes as the end of an exclusivity negotiation period between Sprint and cable operators Charter Communications and Comcast approaches. Once the exclusivity period ends, the smallest of the four national carriers will be able to begin searching for other companies for possible partnerships. It is important for the carrier to find an established partner with many resources in order for Sprint to fully utilize the spectrum it currently owns. The company, which has been repeatedly facing budget constraints over the past few fiscal years, is having trouble keeping up with its competitors in terms of network speed and availability, and is presumed to be interested in a merger in an effort to improve its infrastructure.

The chances that either a cable operator or T-Mobile will acquire Sprint are close to 70 percent, according to New Street Research. However, the likelihood that T-Mobile will purchase the smaller carrier is a bit lower due to regulatory problems that the two carriers may have to face. The entire acquisition process could last for around a year and may not be successful. Due to those concerns, it might be easier and more beneficial for Sprint to tie up with a cable operator, New Street Research speculates. In addition, such a partnership could still allow for another deal with T-Mobile. If this sequence of events is followed, Sprint could both benefit from the deeper pockets of the major cable operators in the country and T-Mobiles technological offerings.

Within the past few months, Sprint has been increasingly active in its efforts to find entities interested in a merger, acquisition or investment. With Republicans at the helm, the American government is expected to be more open toward consolidation in the carrier industry, making this a good opportunity for the company to consolidate with another one. Sprints CEO has discussed the overall positive impact of the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint in the past, indicating that hes open to such a development. Meanwhile, the carriers chairman, Masayoshi Son, has recently spoken with Warren Buffet and John Malone regarding a potential investment. Recent reports claim that Buffet may invest $10 billion in Sprint, resulting in the business magnate commanding 23 percent of the carriers shares.
Free newsletter

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter service and well keep you up-to-date with the latest breaking news, cutting edge opinion, and expert analysis affecting both your business and the industry as whole.

Please enter your email address below and click on Sign Up for daily newsletters from Australasian Lawyer.
An American technology firm says that its artificial intelligence software is the worlds first robo-lawyer for real estate investing.Bootstrap Legals software automates the legal paperwork for those raising capital for real estate projects of up to U$2 million, allowing real estate investors to draft their own documents using artificial intelligence.The service can deliver documents to a customers email in 48 hours once a series of questions have been answered. The documents are attorney-grade and attorney-reviewed before delivery. Those who require additional help can be connected to a lawyer for individual advice.Founder Amy Wan says that the software both undercuts the legal fees associated with real estate capital raises and expedites the process.King & Wood Mallesons has hired two new partners for its European business, reinforcing its commitment to the region.Corporate and finance partners, Hui Zhao and Daniel Ehret will both join the Frankfurt office on 1 October 2017 to complement the existing four-partner team in the German office.The addition of Hui Zhao and Daniel Ehret to help spearhead the growth of our German practice in Europe underpins our vision and represents a significant strategic step forward, said KWMs global managing partner Sue Kench Hui Zhao is a corporate lawyer specialising in Chinese M&A in Germany and joins from German firm Noerr. Daniel Ehret is a finance and restructuring specialist who joins KWM from Latham & Watkins.A team from Norton Rose Fulbright has acted for Melbourne-based boutique fund manager L1 Capital on the launch of its UK Residential Property Fund.The team was led by Sydney-based corporate partner Fadi Khoury who said I am proud to be associated with this dynamic team, as they deploy their strong investment track record and experience in a Brexit environment in the UK residential property market.L1 Capital manages money for a range of clients including large superannuation funds, financial planning groups, family offices and high net worth individuals.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration is to open its first staffed office in Asia and only its second outside The Hague.The Singapore office administer PCA hearings held in the city state and the wider Asia region, which has seen a rise in cases to at least 7 in 2017, more than double that of 2015.The setting up of the PCA office will further augment Singapores position as an international hub for dispute resolution, particularly in the new area of investment dispute resolution. The growing number of PCA cases heard in Singapore is testament to the expertise Singapore offers, said Ms Indranee Rajah SC, Singapores Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Finance.Singapores Ministry of Law and the PCA signed a Host Country Agreement this week, which is a step-up from the current 10-year Facility Agreement where cases were administered from The Hague.The new office will be based at the Maxwell Chambers within the next 6 months and will be housed in the new Maxwell Chambers Suites, due for completion in 2019.The new office will take the Singapore-PCA partnership to a new level and will create more opportunities for Singapore lawyers and law firms, added Ms. Rajah.A cross-border team from Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Japans Prince Hotels on the $50 million acquisition of a portfolio of Australian hotels owned by Staywell Hospitality Group.The 18 current, and 12 in-development hotels, including the Park Regis and Leisure Inn brands will become part of a 100% owned subsidiary of Prince Hotels in Australia.The Norton Rose Fulbright team spanned Australia, the UK, the UAE, Singapore, China, Thailand, and Indonesia, which reflected the diversity of the location of Staywell Hotels assets.The due diligence was led by Tom Youngs team in Brisbane. Brisbane M&A partner Marshall Bromwich and his team played a key role in the transaction, dealing with the contract and negotiations. Georgina Hey, Sydney intellectual property partner, undertook the due diligence of the complex cross-border intellectual property rights involved in the transaction, while Martin Osborne, Brisbane partner and head of the firms employment and labour team in Australia, and Bronwyn Hammond, handled the employment contracts.Larry Sussman, Beijing managing partner and Asia transactions head at OMelveny & Myers is leaving the firm to join Hogan Lovells He will join the firms Beijing office as a corporate partner after 15 years with OMelveny including the last 8 as office managing partner.
Peter McDonald

Despite a decrease in the value of fines for cartel behaviour imposed by Australia in recent months, the space is likely to get a boost in activity in the country and in Asia, a top lawyer predicts.Allen & Overys global cartel enforcement report for the first half of 2017 recorded only one fine from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), totalling US$7m. In the first six months of 2016, the regulator issued four fines, valued at US$34.5m.Globally, cartel fines totalled US$1.64bn for the first half, but the figure is heavily influenced by the nearly US$1bn in fines the European Commission re-imposed on air cargo careers this year. With these specific fines removed, totals are significantly below mid-2016 levels.However, the decrease in fines in Australia doesnt mean that the ACCC has decided to slow down, said Peter McDonald, who is A&Os APAC competition head.The lower level of fines recorded in recent months in Australia does not suggest a slowing of enforcement activity. These investigations and legal proceedings take time and tend to deliver lumpy results, he tells Australasian Lawyer. In Australia, competition laws are well established and the ACCC is very active. Recent cases and public statements show the regulator is seeking to dramatically increase the value of corporate fines and to bring criminal prosecutions against individuals.A&O is expecting to see increased activity in the second half of 2017, he said, particularly because the ACCC is awaiting judgments on a number of proceedings, most notably its High Court appeal case against Flight Centre. Further outcomes will likely be seen in the coming months.Over the next twelve months, well continue to see the ACCC pushing strongly for higher penalties and criminal sanctions. The competition regulator has been publicly pursuing this agenda through the courts and the media for some time, McDonald said.Recent trends in Asian countries will also likely boost the cartel enforcement landscape in Asia, McDonald said.South Korea and Japan have similarly mature economies and established competition regimes, and have produced a steady flow of fines. We expect fine volumes to grow out of Hong Kong and Singapore as these jurisdictions become more established, he said. Well also see increasing activity in countries with rapidly developing economies where a competition law enforcement record has not yet been fully established, such as the Philippines and Thailand.The landscape will also be likely boosted by very large economies. China in particular is tipped to see results of its efforts in the near future.The very large economies of China and India will play a much greater role in enforcement in the near future. Both China and India have established competition laws in place, but much of the cartel enforcement focus to date has been domestic. With the internationalisation of investigations, China in particular will be the country to watch as it continues its path to be a major anti-trust jurisdiction along with the EU and US, McDonald said.China is already an established key regime for merger control, and Chinas cartel regulators are keen to be more active in cartel enforcement. Given the level of sophistication and constant improvement theyre displaying in the merger space, thats likely to eventuate in the near future, he said.With all these factors currently in play in the cartel enforcement space, businesses should expect higher fines and more regulatory action in both Australia and the larger Asia region.Its worth noting that China and several other APAC regulators are also pushing for higher fines for breaches of competition law, so it is almost certain that increasing penalties for cartel behaviour will continue across the region, McDonald said.The combined impacts of the introduction of enforcement in countries where it has previously been lacking, and the increasing activity and international cooperation of established players, means the enforcement landscape is rapidly developing and businesses operating in APAC must be more conscious of questionable practices across the region, he said.
We've been keeping an eye on their $160,000 campaign, which involved a crowdfunding effort and sponsors, ever since January , with the crew having recently hit the ring with two 2017 Viper GTS-R. We're talking about bone stock cars here - the GTS-R is basically a Viper ACR-E turned into a special edition. And, with Kumho sponsoring this stunt, the two supercars run on the company's Ecsta V720 rubber (295/25 up front and 355/30 at the back).Speaking of which, you should keep in mind that the Dodge will only set one back $118,890, which is just a fraction of the cost of the beasts it can rival on the Nordschleife And the Vipers have not set a provisional Ring lap time of 7:03.45, as Road & Track , which has followed the team to the infamous German track, reports. But the effort doesn't stop here.You see, the underdog nature of this attempt means that the pair of V10 beasts only had a small window (read: dry weather, no traffic) to do their thing.And the team aims to have another go at it before the week is over. Keep in mind that one of the two drivers is Dominik Farnbacher . We're talking about the racing driver who manhandled the works-backed fourth-gen Viper ACR Nurburgring effort back in 2011, with the adventure leading to a 7:12.13 time. And you can check out some photos of the stunt in the gallery above (credits go to the Ring attempt's dedicated Facebook page ).As such, we're ready to bet the 2017 GTS-R will join the sub-7 club, which would be a nice send-off for the soon-to-be-retired slab of America.
ICE

SUV

Welcome start but need urgent plan to cut air pollution *now* - proper clean air zones, funded diesel scrappage, invest in public transport https://t.co/Cr4iIBvOWJ  Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) July 25, 2017

Originating from a write-up published by The Guardian that cites government sources, the United Kingdoms commitment to addressing polluting vehicles is uncannily similar to that of France. The circumstances are all the more curious considering that post-Brexit UK took an example from one of the leading members of the European Union.As per a government spokesman, poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible. Stop me if you head this one before, but its rather side-splitting how governments have only recently started to take CO2 and NOx pollution seriously, pointing out at the health risks and environmental impact ofvehicles.Prior to the decisions imminent vote into law, the United Kingdom plans to enforce a series of measures designed to tackle the worsening air quality. Retrofitting public transport (i.e. buses and taxis ) with cleaner engines, re-programming traffic lights, altering speed humps, examples are plentiful and all of them can only be classified as temporary solutions.British automakers are already bracing for 2040, with Jaguar taking a step in this direction with the imminent debut of the I-Pace electric SUV . BMW-owned MINI has confirmed an all-electric variant of the 3-door hatch for 2019, and for what its worth, pretty much the entire automotive industry will embrace hybridization and electrification in the near future.When all is said and done, its your countrys government you have to thank for cars getting more fuel efficient with each and every year. Over in the U.S., for example, the CAFE 2025 target is a corporate average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg. Regulators arent too sure things will go as planned for two particular reasons: President Trumps agenda and thecraze.It's official! The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has let the cat of the bag, adding that hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles are exempt from Britain's gas and diesel car ban.
AWD

FWD

HP

TDI

At least that's what the press releases say, because we've seen some German dealerships listing cars way sooner than expected. Anyway, what are you supposed to know about the Karoq besides the fact that it's difficult to pronounce?Well, it's the smaller brother of the Kodiaq. It's classed as a compact car and measures 4,382 mm in length, is 1,841 mm wide, and 1,605 mm high. Those proportions are basically identical to the SEAT Ateca . Also identical are two wheelbases: 2,638 mm or 2,630 with. Why the difference? Because themodels get a rigid rear axle. So there's something that was downgraded compared from the Yeti But everything else seems to be a little better. For example, it boasts up to 1,630 liters of trunk space with all the seats down or 521 liters with them in place. And the engines are either more powerful, more economical or both. The range kicks off with 115versions of the 1.6or 1.0 TSI and ends with the 190 horsepower and 400 Nm of torque from a 2.0-liter TDI. While most journalists will recommend buying the 1.5 TSI, the average 2.0 TDI is sure to be more popular, at least for a while.While the Octavia was the first Skoda with Internet, the Karoq marks the debut of digital dashboards. The Czech brand uses the same 12.3-inch optional display as Volkswagen and Audi, but the graphics are different.The start of series production for the new Skoda Karoq is an important milestone for the entire company and, of course, for our workforce at the Kvasiny plant in particular, said Michael Oeljeklaus, Skoda Board Member for Production and Logistics. Over recent months, the entire team has prepared intensively for our new SUV model going into production."
Mule deer in Wyoming (Courtesy of Wyoming Game and Fish Department)

An always-fatal neurologic disease is contributing to declines in Western deer and elk herds and raising the possibility of local extinctions.

Bryan Richards, chronic wasting disease project leader within the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, has seen clear patterns of increasing spread and prevalence.

"Where it's established, it's spreading and growing," he said. "We have a lot of geographic areas with relatively recent detections, and we really do not have a very effective arsenal of tools with which to manage this disease once it becomes established in a free-ranging herd."

Where it is new, he said, "It looks more or less like one would expect if you drop disease at a focus on the landscape, and you have, over time, deer-to-deer-to-deer transmission."

Dr. Todd E. Cornish, a pathologist and associate professor who studies chronic wasting disease at the University of Wyoming, said two of his recent field studies show the disease has driven population declines among the mule deer and white-tailed deer studied. The article he co-authored on white-tailed deer, published a year ago August in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE (http://jav.ma/CWDdeer), described a 10 percent annual decline among deer in an area with a CWD prevalence of about 33 percent. His mule deer figures are pending publication.

Melia DeVivo, PhD, collared mule deer in southeastern Wyoming from 2010-14 to study CWD's effects, and she reported in her 2015 doctoral dissertation that the disease had caused significant declines in the herd studied.

In scenarios modeled for the dissertation, Dr. DeVivo and her co-authors found that the mule deer herd could be extinct within 41 years, although selection for a known genetic resilience to CWD could preserve a population about one-tenth the size of the originalseveral hundred deerthrough the next 100 years. The minority of mule deer with that trait still acquire fatal infections but tend to live longer than others with CWD.

Where it's established, it's spreading and growing. We have a lot of geographic areas with relatively recent detections, and we really do not have a very effective arsenal of tools with which to manage this disease once it becomes established in a free-ranging herd. Bryan Richards, chronic wasting disease project leader within the USGS National Wildlife Health Center

"While natural selection may not occur quickly enough to prevent a severe reduction of some cervid populations, the sustainability of a remnant population comprised of mostly less-susceptible genotyped deer remains to be determined," the dissertation states.

Richards said some genotypes in mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk are categorized as resistant to CWD because, in wild, free-ranging populations, these animals seem to have lower infection rates and prolonged incubation periods. While a typical white-tailed deer could have a CWD incubation period of 18-24 months before clinical signs are seen, for example, a resistant deer could have an incubation period of 50-60 months, he said. But those deer also may shed infectious prions for a longer time.

The misfolded prion proteins responsible for CWD spread through saliva and waste. They are resistant to heat and ultraviolet light, andlike the prions that cause scrapie in sheepthey may remain viable for decades, Richards said. They also escape immune responses, so wildlife managers lack vaccines.

CWD prions are not known to cause infections in humans, but public health advisories recommend against eating meat of infected animals.

Adapted from a map by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center

Difficult to control

A state natural resource agency needs to detect CWD emergence soon after introduction to have a chance at eliminating it, Richards said. But state governments have reduced surveillance of cervids killed by hunters since the Department of Agriculture reduced its funding to states five years ago, he said.

Donna Karlsons, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said APHIS ended its cooperative agreements supporting state-run CWD surveillance when appropriations to the agency declined in fiscal year 2012. APHIS had spent about $10 million in the preceding two fiscal years.

Congress appropriated $3.5 million to APHIS for all cervid health activities, including CWD, for the fiscal year ending this September, an increase from $3 million annually in the past several years, Karlsons said.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is trying to eliminate the disease in Fillmore County in the state's southeast corner, where a cluster of 11 infections has been found in wild deer since the fall 2016 hunting season. Lou Cornicelli, PhD, wildlife research manager for the Minnesota DNR, said the infections could have emerged from three sources: illegal movement of a deer carcass, migration of a young male deer, or contact between wildlife and deer from a captive cervid farm with an unidentified infection.

Fillmore County alone has 23 of the state's 460 cervid farms, and at least two farms in other counties have CWD infections. Before the outbreak in fall 2016, Minnesota had found one CWD-positive wild deer, in 2010, also in the southeast and likely transmitted from a farm with infected captive elk, Dr. Cornicelli said.

Dr. Michael W. Miller, senior wildlife veterinarian for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said surveillance is identifying CWD in new areas, most of them adjacent to where the disease is endemic.

"However, our surveillance efforts in recent years lack the intensity to assure the early detection of geographic extensions," he said. "Consequently, some of these 'new' foci were likely established some time ago but detected only recently."

Existing surveillance indicates one Colorado deer herd has had a decline in CWD prevalence since the state used sustained hunting and culling campaigns in the early 2000s, whereas other affected herds have had stable or increased prevalence, Dr. Miller said. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is gathering data to try to identify which hunter-based management strategies are most likely to stabilize or lower CWD prevalence. The state also is implementing required participation by hunters in some areas.

"Developing sustainable approaches for CWD management is a subject of keen interest among several western wildlife management agencies, so hopefully we'll be able to make progress on this in coming years," Dr. Miller said in a message.

University of Minnesota fish and wildlife students Breanna DiMartino (left) and Hailey Walters remove lymph nodes from a deer during chronic wasting disease surveillance in November 2016 in southeastern Minnesota. (Courtesy of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources has been dealing with the disease for 15 years, and data show increases in prevalence and distribution there as well, said Tami Ryan, the DNR's Wildlife Health section chief. It is endemic in southern Wisconsin, and newer cases have been found in central Wisconsin and once in the northwest.

The state was aggressive the first five years, intending to eradicate the disease through all conceivable responses: expanded hunting, professional sharpshooting, and trapping and removal, she said. Prevalence declined where CWD-positive animals were removed.

But hunters became discouraged because they saw fewer deer, Ryan said. Public acceptance of those tools waned, and funding declined, so the department shifted to disease monitoring.

Some tools remain, such as special hunting seasons and a program requiring that hunters kill an antlerless deer to be allowed to shoot a buck. The state also works with a citizen advisory team on increasing participation in surveillance.

Dr. DeVivo, who now works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said strong management practices, such as culling, are not viable for the Wyoming population she studied. The disease agent likely was circulating in the herd decades before it was identified there in the early 2000s, when prevalence was already at 15 percent, she said.

"The environmental contamination in that area is probably some of the highest that you'll see in any area, just because CWD has been there for so long, and we know that the environment does play a role with transmission," she said.

Herds in the area can have disease prevalence upward of 30 percent in female deer and 50 percent in males.

"Without any of those typical tools that you might employ for other diseases that we just don't have as a resource for this disease, our best tool right now, quite honestly, is continuing to study the disease in this population as well as continuing surveillance of the disease," Dr. DeVivo said.

"And some might find surveillance and research to be doing nothing, but it's doing a whole lot because this is an area where we have so much historic data already. To know exactly what it's doing now and into the future will only help us to get, possibly, somewhere with management."

Richards said his heart sank when he read an article (J Gen Virol 2006;87:3737-3740) that indicates the infectious agent of sheep scrapie can remain viable in an environment for at least 16 years, which he said has implications for the survival of CWD.

That article indicates a farm in Iceland had a scrapie outbreak in 1982, removed sheep from the barn until 1998, and experienced another outbreak in 2000. The authors wrote that epidemiologic investigation established "with near certitude" that the disease had not been introduced from outside the farm.

Dr. Mary Wood, Wyoming state wildlife veterinarian, said her agency will work with the public to find and test new strategies to manage CWD.

"Any management strategy that we try is going to be somewhat experimental in nature," she said.

Wyoming's surveillance indicates CWD is spreading westward, but Dr. Wood notes that the surveillance is imperfect, and CWD has uneven distribution even in herds with high prevalence. In a herd with low prevalence, it can be difficult to detect.

By the time CWD surveillance began in Wyoming's core endemic area, she said, prevalence there was higher than 10 percent.

Dr. Edward A. Hoover (right), a professor and infectious disease researcher at Colorado State University (Courtesy of Colorado State University)

"We have certainly seen prevalence increase in those areas, and we've seen prevalences at 40 percent in some areas," Dr. Wood said. "And it does appear that, now, we're seeing other areas with an increase in prevalence as you look at the areas that surround our core endemic area."

While prevalence seems to be increasing, Dr. Wood needs larger sample sizes to know for certain. Wyoming, like many states, relies on diagnostic samples collected from cervids killed by hunters, most of them mule deer, followed by elk, white-tailed deer, and moose. Other samples come from roadkill and animals seen with clinical signs.

Answers are elusive

CWD prions are amazing for their ability to spread as a virus would, through saliva, urine, and feces as well as contaminated environments, according to Dr. Edward A. Hoover, a professor and infectious disease researcher at Colorado State University. The Hoover laboratory's CWD research includes assay and vaccine development, although Dr. Hoover said the latter is a difficult prospect because of the lack of a known immune response to prion diseases.

A typical prion protein produced within an animal cell folds in a specific way, and a typical misfolded version is degraded through cellular editing, he said. Prion diseases result from misfolded prions that not only escape the editing mechanisms but also cause a zombie outbreaklike chain reaction among normal proteins within a cell, resulting in generations more of misfolded prions.

In terms of prion disease research, Dr. Hoover said understanding how misfolded prions cause this chain reaction would be like finding a holy grail.

The misfolded proteins escape the cell where they were created, enter other cells, cross mucous membranes, spread to other tissues such as those in the lymphoid systemwhere they replicateand spread to the brain, Dr. Hoover said. In the case of CWD, they again spread across mucous membranes to infect other deer.

Yet, he thinks there may be a way to interrupt the disease process or spur an immune response without causing an autoimmune disease. Any such solutions could have implications for human neurologic diseases involving misfolded proteins, including Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease.

Dr. Hoover also noted that, as far as we know, a species barrier is protecting humans from epidemics with CWD and scrapie, neither of which are known to infect a broad range of species as bovine spongiform encephalopathy can. But he also recommends caution since much about that barrier remains unknown.

Dr. Wood said that, while a vaccine candidate study was wrapping up at Wyoming's state wildlife research center, the results were not promising.

"We don't think that we have the ability, at least with the tools we have now, to eradicate the disease," Dr. Wood said. "So, our goal now is to try and figure out how to manage it to minimize its impact on our free-ranging deer and elk herds."

Developing sustainable approaches for CWD management is a subject of keen interest among several western wildlife management agencies, so hopefully we'll be able to make progress on this in coming years. Dr. Michael W. Miller, senior wildlife veterinarian, Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Dr. Wood said that, even where the prevalence is 10 to 20 percent, CWD is affecting herds.

"I think it makes them less resilient and less able to bounce back after a harsh winter, less able to grow, less robust," she said. "And, so, even at lower prevalences, even if there's not a true decline in the population due to the disease, it still impacts that population, it still causes added mortality."

Dr. Cornish, of CSU, said applying any action across broad swaths of the CWD-endemic areas of Wyoming or Colorado, where deer, elk, and moose are vulnerable to the disease, would be daunting. He also noted that mule deer in particular are stressed by human development, droughts, and harsh winters.

A Minnesota DNR announcement about the state's disease response included a reminder that feeding wild deer, including providing salt or mineral blocks, is prohibited in the five counties of the state's southeastern tip to reduce deer congregation and disease transmission. Dr. Cornicelli said the state also prohibits scents or other lures that could entice deer to congregate within that disease management area, and it forbids movement of adult deer carcasses from that area, absent negative test results for CWD.

"We also have mandatory CWD testing that gives us the opportunity to define our prevalence, our change in prevalence, and also our spatial distribution of disease," he said.

An elk in Colorado (Courtesy of CSU)

The Minnesota DNR also is trying to gain funding for research on deer movement patterns.

"Most of us who work in this professiondeal with big game populations and wildlife diseasedon't want to live in a world where CWD is on the landscape 100 or 200 years from now," he said. "I think we're starting to see these population-level effects in the Western states that have had the disease for 50 years, we're starting to see these big increases in prevalence in Wisconsin, so they're, ultimately, going to have a population-level effect on deer, and we're doing what we can to hold back that tide."

Dr. Cornicelli expects surveillance will find more CWD infections, but he hopes to see a decline.

"If we can knock it back to seven and then, the next year, it's four, and then it's two, and then we don't find it for three years, then I think we're in good shape," he said. "But, if we find 13 next year scattered 20 miles away, then I'll have a completely different attitude."

Related JAVMA content:

First successful CWD vaccine tested in deer (Feb. 15, 2015)
26 July 2017 14:23 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia has introduced several specific initiatives related to the Nation Army concept that the government launched last year.

One of them, I Have the Honor, targets for the university students of Armenia  they are proposed to pass military training and then serve in the army for three years as officers. Another program called I Am is designed for those recruits who wish to serve on the border  that means mainly in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. They will serve same three years and will get more than $10,000 at the end of the service.

The authorities launched this program with a clear aim to militarize Armenia, already one of the most heavily militarized countries of the world.

Armenian and foreign experts have already noted that through the new concept the Armenian government intends to give the national army great influence over the shaping of the countrys future. The government wants to make the population the slaves of the army, who would mindlessly obey orders of the authorities.

The Nation Army concept is part of a trend in Armenia in which the government is raising not a citizen but a soldier, head of Armenias Peace Dialogue nongovernmental organization Edgar Khachatryan has recently told EurasiaNet.

In the future, this citizen will not assert their rights but will follow orders... This is the shortest way to the establishment of a military dictatorship and I see everything goes to that, added Khachatryan.

A rights activist and head of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Artur Sakunts, in turn, notes that the Nation Army concept is aimed at forcing poor people to serve in the Armenian army and not to leave the country.

The children of oligarchs will still avoid service in the army, corruption will not stop, and the generals will continue to enrich at the expense of the army, he told EurasiaNet.

It is noteworthy that recently, the Armenian government adopted a decision to reduce the funds allocated for education. Thus, the funding will be reduced from 3.2 percent of the countrys GDP in 2016 to 1.85 percent in 2020.

The report of the World Bank indicates that the United States allocates 5.4 percent of its GDP for education, Iran provides 4.7 percent, Russia  4.1, Azerbaijan and Georgia  3.2. However, Armenia decides to reduce this funding.

Apparently, this decision of the countrys government is also linked with its will to enslave the countrys population.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 11:59 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

After the adoption of the plan for the restructuring of external debts of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) by foreign creditors, Moody's upgraded the ratings of the bank.

Thus, the rating of long-term deposits in local and foreign currency increased from Caa2 to the level of Caa1. The senior unsecured foreign currency debt rating rose from Caa3 to Caa2. The Baseline Credit Assessments (BCA) has been raised from ca to caa3. At the same time, the long-term Credit Risk Assesment (CRA) increased from Caa1 (cr) to B3. The rating of long-term deposits of the bank was given a positive outlook.

The rating action concludes Moody's review of IBA's ratings initiated on May 26 and follows the approval of the bank's restructuring plan by its creditors, announced at the claimant's meeting on 18 July.

Moody's expects bank's asset quality to improve following the planned additional tranche of bad assets transfer, which is to be completed by the end of 2017.

Moody's believes that the bank will remain loss-making throughout 2017 and may only return to profitability by the end of 2018, subject to resuming new lending, which is dependent on the recovery of economic environment in Azerbaijan.

The IBA, has earlier announced that it would halt foreign currency-denominated loan repayments in order to restructure its foreign obligations and swap them for sovereign debt. It has $3.3 billion of outstanding debt.

In July 2015, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the measures for rehabilitation related to the preparations for privatizing the state-owned shares of the International Bank of Azerbaijan JSC.

The shortcomings in the management, investment and loan policy of the IBA, as well as financing of less efficient, risky investment projects worsened the Bank's financial state, caused increase in the share of distressed assets and reduced its liquidity.

The major foreign creditors of the IBA include the American company Cargill, Citibank, Rubrika Finance Company Limited, Credit Suisse AG.

The Bank appealed to the New York court for support in the process of their restructuring. Foreign creditors will not be able to make claims against IBA assets in the process of voluntary restructuring of the bank's foreign obligations, according to the court decision adopted on May 12, 2017.

Then the London court took a positive decision on the IBA to prevent lawsuits in the UK from foreign creditors regarding the bank's assets.

The IBA has been operating since 1992 as one of the country's two state banks.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

"HAUTE COUTURE" COSMETICS IN PULLMAN SPA.

"High fashion" cosmetics, "haute couture" for SPA centers, skin premium care - each of these expressions accurately reflects the ANNE SEMONIN cosmetics brand, now presented in a full range at Pullman SPA.

Elena Tselepidou, an international instructor and client service manager of the ANNE SEMONIN, told us about this brand and its capabilities.

What is the ANNE SEMONIN brand?

In 1985, the famous French cosmetologist Anne Semonin, who was responsible for the beauty of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, decided to create her own beauty line of cosmetics. She used absolutely natural, but at the same time active components and exclusive, professional methods of treatments for this. The success was immediate. Celebrities such as Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche and Carla Bruni have become loyal fans of the brand.

And for more than 30 years ANNE SEMONIN has been offering a full line of cosmetics for face and body, which is very loved by women all over the world and is actively used in sanatoria, resorts, SPA centers and international luxury brand hotels.

Tell us about the products and components?

First of all, I'll tell you what the ANNE SEMONIN products consist of:

These are naturally active ingredients - plant extracts, essential oils, trace elements, marine extracts, marine and spring water.

Also used are top quality vegetable oils, such as sesame, hazelnut and precious essential oils - mainly tea tree, ylang-ylang, sage.

Ingredients obtained in France - are algae of Brittany, lavender from Provence and sea salt from Noirmoutier.

A Botox similar peptide and hyaluronic acid are obtained by the latest advances in biotechnology.

This magic cocktail of active ingredients brings amazing results, thanks to detoxification and skin regeneration. By combining a variety of products, as well as traditional and exclusive methods and procedures, ANNE SEMONIN allows you to achieve the maximum satisfaction of specific customer needs.

The entire product line is signature, which means, adapted to the environment, to the specific features of the area and to the needs of the customer. This is an "individual approach". ANNE SEMONIN builds relationships with consumers on the basis of this.

And what is the main difference between ANNE SEMONIN products from many other lines of premium cosmetics and skin care products?

The founder of the brand, Anna Semonin, worked for many years with various dermatologists and knows exactly how the skin works or reacts to cosmetics or physical treatments. ANNE SEMONIN is not just cosmetics and care products, it is primarily a set of products and components for use along with specially developed techniques. Only in this case the greatest effect can be achieved.

During the special trainings for the personnel conducted at Pullman SPA are shown the latest developments of the combination of ANNE SEMONIN procedures and cosmetics.

In the Pullman Spa, ANNE SEMONIN cosmetics will be intervened in various procedures to achieve the best results. Using natural oils and extracts during such procedures in the Pullman Spa, like Thai or Balinese massage, will speed up the process of skin detoxification, moisturize and give a healthy radiance. The combination of the Sublime Radiance Express with a special scrub, the facial skin will get the right level of nutrition and maximum depth cleaning. Also, in Pullman SPA available the procedure of total body skin rejuvenation - the Age Defense treatment. The usage of natural ANNE SEMONIN essences will make this process the most effective.

Additional information about these and many other treatments and massage procedures can be obtained at Pullman SPA, by phone: +99412 538 90 90
26 July 2017 10:15 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Urbanization is proceeding quite rapidly around the world and even now half of the world's population lives in cities. In the 21st century, the state of the urban environment is not determined only by the availability of infrastructure. A smart city needs smart solutions that provide a qualitatively new development.

The term smart city has become a popular topic of conversation in the tech industry for a few years.



But what is a smart city? The overarching mission of a smart city is to optimize city functions and drive economic growth while improving quality of life for its citizens using smart technology and data analysis.

When we think of a smart city, our imaginations start running and think of a technologically advanced civilization where everything is automated and run by smart, self-aware machines -- that is true. Today there are more than 100 smart cities with intellectual stuffing all over the world.

This system partially operates in Azerbaijan, but it's too early to talk about the full transition to the system.

Andrew Beklemishev, regional director of the International Data Corporation (IDC) for Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Mongolia believes that Baku has all the prerequisites to become the best example of smart city in the region.

This requires a unified strategy and approach as well as a clear vision of how it is possible to achieve objectives with the help of modern digital technologies, based on the experience of other cities and given the specifics of Baku, he told Trend.

As for the cost of implementation of the smart city concept, it is necessary to see the current plan of Bakus development and what can be done with the help of digital technologies.

Creating the smart city concept does not mean it is expensive, Beklemishev said, adding that everything depends on cooperation of the civil society, business and the government.

The idea of smart city is that by collecting and processing information in real time, it is possible to use available resources with greater productivity and thus save money, act more rationally and provide higher-level service.

It is the smart technologies that will allow achieving the objectives in a short time at minimum cost, Beklemishev said.

Not just technologies make a city smart but their rational and efficient use. I am sure that in Baku people are able to qualitatively implement projects while meeting the set deadlines, he said.

Baku, an extraordinary and impressive capital city of Azerbaijan, today is known far beyond the region thanks to its fairy beauty and sustainable development.

Incredible construction boom of the recent years in Baku, also known as the City of Winds, amazes many by new hotels, office buildings, skyscrapers, sporting complexes and museums of modern art.

The city is quickly rejuvenated and the population of Baku may reach four million people by 2035.

Today, a number of the country's ministries including Internal Affairs Ministry and Transport Ministry are using smart city capabilities. Recently, this system is increasingly used in financial transactions, to ensure transparency, in particular, when it comes to the city's budget.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 10:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Rainless and windy weather is forecast for July 26.

The temperature will be +21-24C at night, +30-34C in daytime in Absheron peninsula, +22-24C at night, +32-34C in the afternoon in Baku, the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry reported. North-west will blow in some places.

Atmospheric pressure will be 754 mm Hg, below the norm. Relative humidity will make up 75-85 percent at night and 45-55 percent in afternoon.

On Absheron beaches the temperature of sea water is expected to be 25-26 degrees in Sumgayit, Novkhani, Pirshaghi, Nardaran, Bilgah, 26-27 in Zagulba, Buzovna, Mardakan, Shuvalan, 27-28 in Turkan, Hovsan, Sahil and Shikh.

The weather will be mainly rainless in Azerbaijan's regions. Lightning and intermittent rain is predicted in some northern and western regions. West wind will blow in some places.

The temperature will be +20-25C at night, +33-38C in daytime, +13-18C in mountains at night, +24-29C in daytime.

The windy weather in Baku will last until July 27.

Gulshad Mammadova, Acting Director of the of the Bureau of Hydrometeorological Forecasts of the Department of National Hydrometeorology told Report.az

"Occasionally intensifying wind in Baku will last till July 27," said Mammadova.

She said that occasionally intensifying north-western wind blows in the capital city from July 24.

"Dominance of Khazri wind will last till July 27. Occasionally intensifying north-western wind will blow in Baku and Absheron peninsula on July 25-26. The temperature will vary between 30-35 degrees in the daytime", she added.

The expert said that no change is expected in the temperature in the next two days.The temperature will rise gradually from July 27.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 14:08 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The new agreement negotiated between Azerbaijan and European Union, aiming to replace the one issued in 1996, will open new page in the cooperation of Baku with European continent.

The new agreement must replace the partnership and cooperation agreement signed in 1996 and must take into account the common goals and challenges facing the EU and Azerbaijan today.



Czech Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vitezslav Pivonka also believes that negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement currently underway between Azerbaijan and the EU will open the way for broader cooperation with the Czech Republic, as well.

Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are strategic partners since 2015 following the Czech President Milos Zemans visit to Azerbaijan. The current state of relationships provides an adequate framework and atmosphere for further developing and intensifying of bilateral cooperation.

The bilateral relations are not burdened with any substantial problems and both countries are similar to each other in many respects and it is not just about the size of population or territory

The two countries are successfully developing a database of documents defining the areas of cooperation between the two. Annual intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation also plays a big role in this regard.

Today, Azerbaijan significantly increases the energy security of the Czech Republic and the national oil provides about a quarter of the annual consumption of the Czech Republic, therefore Azerbaijan, which has made a significant contribution to the diversification of Czech energy resources, has become an important strategic partner of this European country.

Czech companies are interested in modernizing the Baku oil refinery, which provides Georgia, Turkey, post-Soviet and European countries with its products, according to the ambassador.

We know that a project is underway to modernize the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev. Czech companies have tremendous experience in this regard. Even during the Soviet era, Czech companies participated in the construction of refineries throughout the USSR and in many countries of the Middle East, including the Baku Refinery, said Pivonka told Trend.

The plant modernization project is interesting for Czech companies that can participate in this project. The Baku oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, owned by the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR, exported 27.2 percent of the production in 2016.



The Czech diplomat also wants to speed up the work on signing a memorandum of understanding in the energy sphere and work on the project has been going on for a long time.

"Unfortunately, the work on it has been carried out since the beginning of the change of the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, and then the premature passing away of Azerbaijans Energy minister Natig Aliyev." We very much hope that despite these unfortunate events the work on the memorandum will be brought to a successful conclusion," said the ambassador.

Pivonka also said that the Czech Republic is going to offer Azerbaijan interesting projects of economic cooperation.

In this context, we see very big potential for the further development of trade relations between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan. For example, we all know well that the agriculture was approved by Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev as one of the priority sectors for the development of the Azerbaijani economy. The Czech Republic is able to offer very interesting cooperation projects in this regard, said the ambassador.

According to Pivonka, the Czech Republic is one of the leading states where agriculture, particularly, livestock, fish farming, grain growing and others, are developed.

Czech entrepreneurs play active role in Azerbaijans economy investing $1.3 billion so far. Czech companies as contractors are involved in various projects in Azerbaijan, totaling $16 billion.

Czech entrepreneurs have work experience in Azerbaijan, and they are interested in its successful continuation, just as the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs are interested in cooperation with the Czech Republic, said the diplomat.

Czech Republic, a reliable partner for Azerbaijan in several fields, so this year the trade turnover between the countries has grown by one third.

Currently, the two countries, who enjoyed $201.011 million of trade turnover in January-June 2017, intend to focus on non-oil sector. The Czech Republic ranks the 12th in the list of main importers of Azerbaijani goods.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 16:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Continuation of Armenias war against Azerbaijan and occupation of its territories in breach and complete disregard to the norms and principles of international law, not only violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, but also poses serious threat to the regional peace and security, says a joint statement of Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, issued July 26.

With a view of ending the conflict and ensuring the peace and stability in the region the withdrawal of armed forces of Armenia from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is an absolute inevitability, says the joint statement.

According to the statement, the armed forces of Armenia by using heavy weapons continue in an intensive manner to violate the ceasefire and perpetrate provocations along the line of contact and the state border of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The armed forces of Armenia alongside with the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan deliberately and systematically shell civilians and civilian facilities in inhabited areas, says the statement.

It is very well known that on July 4, as a result of such brutal actions of the Armenian armed forces, 51-year-old resident of the village of Alkhanli of the Fuzuli district of Azerbaijan Sahiba Allahverdiyeva and her 2-year-old granddaughter Zahra Guliyeva were killed, and 52-year-old Sarvinaz Guliyeva was seriously wounded, which was strongly condemned by the international community.

The joint statement says that on July 25, the Armenian Armed Forces used a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) against the Azerbaijani army, dropping projectiles filled with incendiary and explosive substances, as well as metal fragments, onto the Azerbaijani armed forces positions on the line of contact near the Tartar District.

Further intensification of Armenias provocations in June and July are not sporadic, and isolated acts are being committed in a deliberate and systematic manner against the background of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs visit to the region, meetings for resolution of the conflict and serious calls by Azerbaijan, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the international community to re-engage in substantive negotiations, says the joint statement.

At the same time, such ill-intentioned actions of Armenia are accompanied by politically motivated provocative steps, according to the statement.

Regardless of international communitys rejection, holding fabricated presidential elections by the sham parliament of illegal regime established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is yet another vivid proof of that, says the joint statement. Thus, chronicle of events once again proves that when Azerbaijan with the support of the international community makes further efforts to resolve the conflict through serious negotiations, Armenia resorts to provocations to undermine the negotiations, to maintain the status quo of occupation and intentionally escalate the situation. Such actions of Armenia, as it was the case before, have to be rejected and condemned by the international community in strong and serious manner.

Despite the efforts of Armenias false propaganda machine, irrefutable facts demonstrate that Armenia and its armed forces conducted aggression against Azerbaijan and occupied its territories, and perpetrated ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijani population in the seized lands, says the joint statement.

The armed forces of Azerbaijan take and will take all necessary measures to prevent the cruel provocations of Armenia and guarantee the security of Azerbaijani civilian population inhabiting the vicinity of line of contact, according to the statement.

We over again declare that the responsibility for committed provocations and consequences of continuation of occupation lies completely on the Republic of Armenia, says the statement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 10:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkeys foreign minister has said being a journalist does not entitle an individual to commit crime, Anadolu reported.

Mevlut Cavusoglu was speaking in Brussels on Tuesday during a series of high-level talks with EU officials.

At a news conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik, Cavusoglu said: "Having the identity of a journalist does not justify committing any crime."

"We are fighting with terrorist organizations. We suffered a coup attempt and we did not receive adequate support from the EU. We started to receive adequate support after one year, but support with statements."

He added whoever was inside the failed coup of July 15, 2016 in Turkey or supported the plot -- whether a soldier, a police officer, a politician or a journalist -- were all the same.

"Therefore if we do not know the difference between a real democratic opposition and those who support terrorism; the problem starts there," Cavusoglu said.

He also said Turkey was ready to share information with the EU regarding this.

The minister said an ongoing state of emergency in Turkey was operating in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and did not differ from similar measures currently in place in France.

FETO

Cavusoglu said the EUs failure to recognize the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) as a terrorist group meant it saw every step by the Turkish government as a violation of the law.

He said Taner Kilic, chairman of Amnesty International Turkey -- and currently in detention -- had communicated with senior FETO figures abroad through the ByLock smartphone messaging app.

Cavusoglu said Kilic had been remanded in custody but that "does not mean Turkey is against Amnesty International; it is related with the person".

Kilic was remanded in custody on June 10 in Izmir, western Turkey.

ByLock was allegedly used by FETO members during last years coup attempt. The app is believed to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies, allowing them to identify tens of thousands of apparent FETO supporters.

Turkey accuses FETO of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and some 2,200 injured.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 13:46 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The U.S. President Donald Trump said that he would be surprised if in three months, after another verification of the deal with Iran on Tehran's nuclear program, the Iranian side adhered to the nuclear deal.

"Well talk about the subject in 90 days but I would be surprised if they were in compliance," Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in response to a question whether the administration intends for the third time to confirm compliance with Iran.

"If that deal doesnt conform to what its supposed to conform to, it's going to be big, big problems for them, the Journal quotes the Presidents words.

The president must certify to Congress every three months that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran and six international mediators (the U.S., Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany) in mid-July 2015 reached an agreement on the nuclear program of Tehran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has pledged to turn the Fordo plant into a technology center, and reorganize the Arak reactor in accordance with the project of an international consortium, the spent fuel from it will be exported outside the country. Tehran also promised not to enrich uranium above 3.67 percent and limit its volume to 300 kilograms for a period of 15 years.

The agreement, negotiated between Iran and world powers, placed strict limits on Tehrans nuclear program in return for elimination of economic sanctions.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed that Iran would stop the implementation of the agreement if the U.S. prolongs sanctions against Iran.

Sanctions against Iran prohibit the export to Iran of nuclear, missile and a significant part of military products, foreign direct investment in Iran's gas, oil and petrochemical industry, exports of fine refined products, as well as any contacts with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, banks and insurance companies, financial transactions and cooperation with the Iranian navy.

Currently, presidential administration is reviewing policy on Iran, not only looking at Tehran's compliance with the nuclear deal but also its behavior in the region.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 15:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and Russias Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation discussed cooperation in nuclear energy.

Deputy Head of AEOI Behrouz Kamalvandi, Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachov and his Deputy Nikolay Spasskiy hold a meeting in Moscow, Russia, RIA Novosti reported.

The sides discussed the cooperation in the operation of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plants power unit 1 and the program for the construction of the second and third power units of this station.

The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plants power unit 1, completed with the participation of Russia, was connected to the national energy system of Iran in September 2011. The block was finally transferred to Iran in operation in April 2016.

The deputy heads of the AEOI thanked Russia for cooperation in the framework of the joint commission of Iran and six international mediators (the U.S., Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany) and expressed hope that all parties will fulfill their obligations in the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.

Rosatom and the AEOI signed a road map in January 2017 in Moscow for the implementation of the memorandum on expanding cooperation in nuclear energy.

The memorandum signed in Moscow on November 11, 2014, envisions building on the Iranian territory eight new nuclear power units under a Russian project, including four units at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant site. The project for the completion of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was launched on September 10, 2016.

Iran and six international mediators reached an agreement on the nuclear program of Tehran in mid-July 2015. The Islamic Republic of Iran has pledged to turn the Fordo plant into a technology center, and reorganize the Arak reactor in accordance with the project of an international consortium, the spent fuel from it will be exported outside the country. Tehran also promised not to enrich uranium above 3.67 percent and limit its volume to 300 kilograms for a period of 15 years.

The agreement, negotiated between Iran and world powers, placed strict limits on Tehrans nuclear program in return for elimination of economic sanctions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 July 2017 17:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in response to the incident with the U.S. Navy ship in the Persian Gulf, demanded Washington abandon aggressive policies to preserve the safety of international shipping in the region.

Rouhani stressed that for 40 years the U.S. has exerted pressure, boycotted, arranged provocations against Iran, and also mobilized some countries of the region against them, but was defeated.

"If the Americans want the region to be more stable and the key water arteries be safe for the world, they must stop their hostile actions," the Iranian President said.

An incident took place on July 25 in international waters in the northern part of the Persian Gulf with the participation of a U.S. Navy ship and a patrol boat of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) [a branch of Iran's Armed Forces].

The American combat ship fired two shots in the air toward the Iranian vessel, with "the purpose of provocation and intimidation," according to the version of the Iranian military.

The American side says that the crew of the Iranian ship violated the international regulations for preventing collisions at sea, when it went on a dangerous rapprochement with the U.S. navy ship in the Persian Gulf.

A similar incident happened on January 8, 2017. Then the American Mahan destroyer opened a warning fire towards four Iranian military boats that approached him in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump warns Islamic Republic to be in compliance with the nuclear deal, otherwise Iran can have big problems.

If that deal doesnt conform to what its supposed to conform to, it's going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me, the Wall Street Journal quotes the Presidents words

Iran and six international mediators (the U.S., Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany) reached an agreement on the settlement of the Iranian nuclear problem on July 14, 2015. Its implementation removes from Iran the previously imposed economic and financial sanctions from the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. and the European Union. The plan came into force on January 16, 2016.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz




First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How To Recognize A Good & Trustworthy Doctor? Wellness oi-Sravia

Finding out a good doctor to treat you is a very important thing, as it plays a crucial role in determining the good and bad outcomes of your health.

Gone are the times when your parents used to push you to a clinic or hospital to get you checked. When you move into a new city, to explore more, you hardly give a thought about you falling ill due to some reason.

It is at that time when you think of hitting the doctor's desk and you don't know whom to go to, given the plethora of options in front of you. This article will let you know how to recognize a good doctor.

There are several clues that help you determine a good physician around. A good doctor is not determined by his qualifications alone, but also by his means of interaction with the patients and his expertise.

The most important difference between a doctor and a patient is knowledge. A doctor will know very well of what is going on inside the patient's body. Hence, the doctor has a duty to share a portion of this to the patient.

He/she must carefully address the questions and doubts of the patients. Further, a doctor must give the patients the choice of taking up appropriate treatment options.

How he/she deals with a patient or the people who take care of the patient plays a huge role in determining if a person is a good or bad doctor.

In this article, we have listed out the signs of a good doctor. Read further to know how to recognize a good doctor from the rest.

1. A Good Doctor Does Not Create Unnecessary Fear And Panic: When a patient approaches a doctor, he/she must not be driven to panic or be rushed into taking major decisions like a surgery. If the doctor gives you the time to wait and take a balanced decision, then you have found your right doc. 2. Does Not Pretend To Know Everything: Sometimes, the doctor himself does not know the exact cause of a particular illness. A doctor must let you know about his limitations regarding that case and must also not hesitate to take an expert's advice. 3. Does Not Demand Additional Treatment Upon The Patient's Request: Since more is considered better, some people can demand the doctor for additional investigations and procedures into his/her ailment. If the doctor does not give into such futile demands, then he/she is a good doc. This is one of the top signs of a good doctor. 4. Caring And Sympathetic Attitude: It is important to find a doctor who you trust and be comfortable with. A doctor who genuinely cares about your well-being gives more attention to your symptoms and also checks on if the treatment is working or not. This will let you know how to identify a good doctor from the rest. 5. An Open And Responsive Manner: Listening to you is the most important courtesy of a doctor. Hence, you need to look for a doctor who is responsive to you and also patiently considers your doubts and queries. 6. A Good Reputation: Most people choose their doctor through a word of mouth. You can consult many number of people if a particular doctor is good or not. This will let you know how to find a good doctor around. 7. Easily Available: If a doctor has limited amount of consultation time and is not available most of the time, or comes in late for consultation, then you have to reconsider your choice of seeing that doctor.

GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 18:18 [IST]
Interesting Festival Of India Where Men Dress Up As Women Life oi-Syeda Farah

India is a rich land of many cultures and rituals. There are certain festivals that simply define its vast culture and one such is the celebration of a festival where men dress like women and offer their prayers to the Goddess of that temple!

This is a unique festival that falls on the 10th and 11th days of the Malayalam month - Meenam and is known as Chamayavilakku. This festival is held at the Kottankulangara Sree Devi Temple, Chavara, near Kollam, Kerala.

You May Also Like To Read: The Borodevi Temple Where Human Blood Is Offered!

During this festival, thousands of men, irrespective of their religious faith, dress up as women and offer prayers to the Goddess Bhagavathy, who is the deity of the temple. She is believed to be a 'Swayam Bhoo'(Self originated) goddess.

This famous temple is the only temple in Kerala having no roof for the sanctum sanctorum.

So, find out more about this unique festival.

How Is It Celebrated... About 4000 people visit the temple to pray to the deity wearing half-saris, kasavu saris, and bright-coloured chudidars with matching jewellery, loud makeup and hairdos, complete with jasmine flowers - to celebrate this 2-day festival. The Belief It is believed that by dressing up as a woman and offering prayers while holding the Chamayavilakku that is a five-wicked lamp, the goddess Bhagavathy is said to forgive the man's sins. There is no age limit to participate in the ritual. It's Festive Time For Transgenders... This is a much-awaited event for the transgenders in the community, as on these two days, they get their freedom to dress as women and travel in buses without much stigma. A Source Revealed... "It is a festival where people of every caste and religion come together and is attended by 95% of the Trans people. Just like how Attukal Pongala is for women, this festival has turned to be the largest congregation of TG community in Kerala. I have been observing the ritual for the past 22 years without any break. I follow a strict vritham every year prior to the festival." More About It Over the last couple of years, this unique festival is said to have seen an increased presence of the homosexual and transgender communities from various parts of India like Kerala, Karnataka and even Maharashtra.

All Images Source
Do You Think Cancer Can Be Cured By Eating A Vagina? Pulse oi-Syeda Farah

Scientists have been trying to find the best cure for cancer and this is something that we have been hearing to since decades.

The moment we hear about this deadly disease, we jump to the conclusion that the person is nearing their death very soon.

You May Also Like To Read: Vaginal Facts That Can Amaze You

Scientists have been using most of their time in trying to find out new solutions for cancer, as this problem is one of the most common ailments that we see these days in the society.

One solution to cure cancer is said to be - eating a vagina! We wonder how!!

Check out for more details below about the weirdest solution that the scientists have come up with to cure this deadly disease!

The Research Has Been Done... According to a study, it was concluded that eating a vagina can indeed prevent cancer. It was conducted by the State College of New York study group. Wondering How Is It Even Possible? The studies reveal that the body hormones such as DHEA and oxytocin are produced in the human body, and every time whenever you eat a vagina, these hormones are said to prevent cancer. Other Bizarre Cure For Curing Cancer: The Blue Scorpion Venom Though this cure is still in the research phase, people believe that the intake of diluted venom from blue scorpions, that are only found in Cuba, has been used to fight cancer for more than 10 years now! What Do You Think? With these bizarre cures, we wonder if these will really work or not when used on a large scale. What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 19:56 [IST]
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Photo: Contributed

Pacific NorthWest LNG says it will not be proceeding with the $36-billion liquefied natural gas megaproject it had planned to build in British Columbia.

The consortium says the announcement by Petronas and its partners comes after a careful review of changes in market conditions.

Anuar Taib, executive vice-president and CEO for Petronas, says prolonged depressed prices and shifts in the energy industry made the decision necessary.

LNG prices have been hit by a global oversupply as numerous projects have come online, challenging the economics of the development and others that were proposed in the province.

The consortium has already sunk billions into developing the natural gas fields in the B.C. interior, but the project would have required much more investment including an $11.4-billion LNG terminal in Port Edward, B.C.

The project, which secured Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's approval last year, was proposed as a way to reduce coal use in Asia, but it has also faced criticism for the potential greenhouse gas emissions that would have resulted.
Photo: Contributed

Ground crew for 30 airlines at Pearson International Airport could be walking a picket line Thursday, potentially delaying flights.

The union representing 700 Swissport workers at Pearson filed a 72-hour strike notice on Monday and will ask its members to shoot down the company's final offer.

"We are suggesting that our members reject this offer," said Christopher Monette, a spokesman for Teamsters Local 419.

If this happens, the workers  including baggage and cargo handlers and cabin cleaners  will be able to walk off the job on Thursday night.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said Tuesday it has an contingency plan in place in the event of a strike or labour disruption by the Swissport workers, who service 30 of the 74 airlines using the airport.

Monette didn't give specifics on why the union wants its members to reject Swissport's final offer, because the union hadn't yet presented it to its membership.

But the Teamsters recently raised issues with the company's decision to hire 250 temporary workers last May.

A statement issued by the Teamsters last week claimed the temporary workers only receive three to four days of training, rather than the three to four weeks afforded to their union counterparts.
Celiac.com 07/25/2017 - Enzymes are playing an increasing part in both the treatment of celiac disease, and in the manufacture of gluten-free baked goods.

DSM recently showcased their new rice-based baker's enzyme, Bakezyme, at the annual meeting of Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Las Vegas. The product took DSM two years to develop and perfect, and promises to improve the softness and moistness of gluten-free bread.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A12):

Bakezyme is so good, says DSM, and leaves gluten-free bread so soft and so moist that it can compete with wheat-based breads in texture. Designed to meet an array of manufacturer needs, Bakezyme is available in five different enzyme classesamylase, protease, xylanase, glucose oxidase and amyloglucosidase.

The version with amylase, an anti-staling enzyme, for example, will retain the softness for at least nine days.

Fokke Van den Berg, DSM global business manager for baking says that Bakezyme grew out of DSM's efforts to tackle the two biggest consumer complaints about gluten-free bread, the hardness, and the dryness.

While most baker's enzymes are derived from wheat, Bakezyme is made of fermentation-derived microorganisms added to rice flour, making it suitable for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Because the enzymes are deactivated during baking, Bakezyme is regarded as a processing aid and thus is not required to be listed as an ingredient.

DSM tested Bakezyme on two types of dough, oat and a mixture of potato and rice, with each requiring a slightly different formulation for similar results.

Beyond the slight costs of ensuring that Bakezyme is gluten-free, its overall price is on par other enzyme ingredients, partly because such a small amount is needed. One kilo of Bakezyme is enough to produce 10,000 kilos of bread.

The company expects most demand to come from the US and UK as well as other European countries, but the gluten-free trend is also spreading to Brazil, Turkey and Morocco, said Van den Berg.

Read more at FoodNavigator.com.
LafargeHolcim reports 2Q earnings growth

26 July 2017

LafargeHolcim reported today its fifth consecutive quarter of like-for-like adjusted operating EBITDA growth. Middle East Africa, Latin America and North America regions all contributed to the earnings momentum with the US, Nigeria and Mexico among the notable performers.



Net sales were up by 3.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis to CHF6850m (US$7175m). Despite positive results in India, which continued its recovery post-demonetisation, the Asia-Pacific region was weighted down by persistent challenging market conditions in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Earnings in Europe were down marginally for the 2Q, though underlying trends are positive, the group noted.



Like-for-like cement volumes of 53.9Mt were up slightly compared to the prior year. Globally, cement prices improved by 5.5 per cent compared to the prior-year comparison. Sequentially, prices were 2.3 per cent higher than 1Q17.



Adjusted operating EBITDA increased by 10.1 per cent to CHF1735m on a like-for-like basis. Pricing, cost discipline and synergies were drivers for higher margins, with Adjusted operating EBITDA margin up by 150 basis points like-for-like in 2Q17.



Recurring net income rose by 22.7 per cent to CHF700m for the quarter. Recurring earnings per share increased by 23.4 per cent to CHF1.16 compared with 2Q16.



Net debt was CHF15.7bn at the quarter end, down approximately CHF2.4bn from a year earlier.

Synergies of CHF121m were delivered in 2Q17. At quarter end the group was close to delivering CHF1bn of total synergies, well ahead of its accelerated target of year-end 2017.



Beat Hess, chairman and interim CEO of the group, said: LafargeHolcim delivered positive earnings growth for the fifth consecutive quarter supported by favourable pricing, cost discipline and synergies.

The unique strengths of our balanced portfolio are once again evident in our results with key countries such as the US, India, Nigeria, and notably in this quarter, Mexico making significant contributions to earnings, more than offsetting headwinds in some of our markets. On that basis, and with our performance to date, we remain confident that we will achieve our full year guidance and our 2018 targets.

Published under
Church under attack: Bomber strikes at Mexican bishops headquarters

An explosive device was set off by unidentified individuals at the headquarters of the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM) in Mexico City early yesterday.

No one was injured in the incident, according to a conference spokesman, but a bishop said that it reflected the situation in Mexico, where three priests have been killed this year.

'The headquarters of the Mexican Bishops' Conference has been attacked with a three cylinder explosive device,' Bishop Ramon Castro of Cuernavaca said yesterday. 'I believe this reflects the situation in Mexico.'

The Catholic News Agency reported that the conference's press office director, Aramando Cavazos, said in a statement that 'today in the early hours of the morning, around 1:50 am, an unknown type of explosive device was placed at the main door of the CEM building'.

Cavazos added the explosion only caused 'material damage to that door' and said that 'no one outside or inside' was injured.

'The pertinent investigations are taking place, as apparently this is not the first case occurring in that area of Mexico City,' he said.

The incident follows the news earlier this month that a third priest had been killed in Mexico this year.

A statement from the local diocese said: 'With great pain and dismay we inform of the death of our diocesan priest Luis Lopez Villa, 71, who on July 5 was killed by criminals who managed to break into San Isidro Labrador Parish, in the municipality de Los Reyes.'

World Watch Monitor reports that Christians are often targeted because they stand against the drug trade by, for example, setting up rehabilitation centres. It says there are other reasons too. 'Christians are also targeted because of the perception that churches and their leaders have a lot of money, so congregations offer a ready source of cash  cartels can simply enter, lock the doors and ask the congregation to empty their pockets.'

A priest was killed in March, while a bishop went missing in January, only to be found dead later. These are just the latest incidents in a rising trend of violence towards clergy. Other Christians have also been targeted.

Mexico's drug trade has claimed numerous casualties in recent years. Christian Solidarity Worldwide said: 'The number of violations of freedom of religion or belief, specifically threats against and attacks on religious leaders by criminal networks, has risen in recent years across the country.'

In contrast to other North American countries, Mexico is predominantly Catholic, with a significant Protestant community and much smaller numbers of adherents of other religions.
Boycott Campaign Against Israel Is Latest 'Mutation' Of Oldest Hatred Says Former Chief Rabbi

The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (BDS) is 'dangerously wrong', according to the former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, now Lord Sacks.

In a video posted on his website, he says: 'Because beneath the service, it is an attempt to delegitimise Israel as a prelude to its elimination. No Jew, and no humanitarian, can stand by and see that happen.'

He said the BDS campaign will harm the very people it seeks to protect and prolong the situation it seeks to end and 'lead to wrongs in the name of rights'.

He said he supports the right of Palestinians to a state of their own, and of Palestinian children to future of 'dignity and hope'.

But the BDS campaign will achieve neither of these things. He said that to focus on one nation, and the only one with an effective democracy in the Middle East, looks 'less like a campaign for human rights than campaign against Israel's very right to be'.

Israel's enemies had tried to destroy it by war, by economic sanctions, politically and then by a campaign of suicide bombings. 'Now through the BDS campaign, they are trying to deligitimise it morally.' He said the campaign will fail, but it was still serious.

He said the campaign against Israel is the latest 'mutation' of the world's oldest hatred, antisemitism. He accused its proponents of seeking to silence and intimidate supporters of Israel.

He was speaking days after an unprecedented decision by one university to cancel 'Israel Apartheid Week'. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organisation which counters antisemitism, hate crime and terrorism, welcomed the decision by the University of Central Lancashire to cancel the week and called on other universities to follow suit.

Israel Apartheid Week is part of the growing BDS movement targeting Israel.
Campaigners Against Antisemitism Call For An End To 'Israel Apartheid Week'

Campaigners against antisemitism have called on other British universities to cancel 'Israel Apartheid Week' after an unprecedented decision by one university to do so.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organisation which counters antisemitism, hate crime and terrorism, has welcomed a decision by the University of Central Lancashire to cancel the week.

Israel Apartheid Week is a series of university lectures and rallies that is part of the growing BDS or 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' movement targeting Israel.

The University of Essex Palestinian Solidarity Group and Goldsmiths Palestine Society are among those planning events.

The University of Central Lancashire cancelled the week on the grounds that it violated a newly adopted definition of antisemitism.

The new definition of antisemitism adopted last year by The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance states: 'Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.'

The United Kingdom is among the first countries to adopt this definition of antisemitism.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiestenthal Center, said in reference to the university decision: 'This precedent may prove a turning point in the struggle to curb the demonisation of the Jewish state at universities. It provides a legal and moral context for universities in the UK to reject extremism designed to intimidate and isolate Jewish students on campus at a time when there has been a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes in the UK.'

Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the Wiesenthal Center, who played a pivotal role in gaining acceptance for the definition of antisemitism among many European countries, said: 'The University of Central Lancashire's decision, which is based on the recently adopted Working Definition of Antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, offers firm evidence that this internationally accepted definition can play a vital role in the fight against antisemitism.'

Weitzman added: 'We strongly urge other countries to follow the lead shown by the United Kingdom in adopting the IHRA definition and applying this valuable tool in the struggle against antisemitism.'

The Jewish Chronicle reported earlier this week that the University of Central Lancashire had cancelled the event, organised by the university's Friends of Palestine group and billed as a panel discussion looking at the boycott of Israel.

But a spokesperson for the university said the event, 'Debunking Misconceptions on Palestine', contravened the definition of antisemitism adopted by the government.

In a statement the spokesperson said: 'The UK government has formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's new definition of what constitutes antisemitism.

'We believe the proposed talk contravenes the new definition and furthermore breaches university protocols for such events, where we require assurances of a balanced view or a panel of speakers representing all interests.'

Christian Today has approached Israel Apartheid Week for comment.
'Close to my heart': Pope Francis sends approving email to nun who ministers to trans gender people

Pope Francis has approvingly replied to an email from a nun who works with transgender women, saying he holds the women who are trying to escape prostitution and abuse 'close to my heart'.

According to Crux, the Pope answered an email last week from Sister Monica Astorga, a Discalced Carmelite nun who ministers to the transgender women in his native Argentina.

Last Thursday, Astorga wrote an email to Francis, updating him on the new developments in the ministry she oversees in the southern Argentine province of Neuquen. Astorga informed the Pope that the city authorities had given her a plot of public land, where she planned to build 15 one-room homes for the transgender women she works with.

The nun told Crux that the papel reply came the following day, on Friday.

The Pope reportedly wrote: 'I have you and the convent close to my heart, as well as the people with whom you work, you can tell them that.'

Astorga said that she and the Pope had known one another since 'before he was a bishop'.

The then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolgio visited the convent where she lives in 2009 and told the nun not to abandon the work she was doing there.

She has worked with transgender women since she was asked to speak to one of them, Romina, who arrived at the convent on July 7, 2006.

'I listened to her for two hours without being able to say a word,' Astorga told Crux. 'I invited her to search for others who wanted to leave prostitution, and she came back five days later with four more. I invited them to pray, and then asked them to tell me their dreams'.

She added: 'I felt stabbed when [one of the women] Katy told me, "I want a clean bed where I can die."'

The nun said that she has been unable to 'rest at ease' thinking of what transgender women go through when living on the streets, including abuse and even murder.

'I always say that to accompany one of them, we have to listen to them from the heart.'

Katy today has her own sewing shop, and has been going to AA meetings for over four years, Astorga told Crux.

Since 2006, some 90 transgender women have gone through the convent, and Astorga has no intention of slowing down her work.

Pope Francis has written to the nun before. Some years ago, he sent her a note saying that 'In Jesus' times, the lepers were rejected. They are the lepers of today. Don't leave the frontier work you were given.'

In 2016, during an inflight-press conference coming back from Georgia and Azerbaijan, Francis spoke about a transgender man, whom the Pope welcomed in the Vatican.

'He who was a she, but is a he,' the Pope said, referring to the trans person who had written to him from Spain.

'Life is life, things have to be accepted as they come. Sin is sin,' Francis said. 'Tendencies, hormonal imbalance, have and cause so many problems... we must be attentive. Not to say that it's all the same, but in each case, welcome, accompany, study, discern and integrate. This is what Jesus would do today.'

He added: 'Please don't say that the Pope will sanctify trans [transgender people], because I read the headlines in the newspapers. I want to be clear, this is a problem of morals. It's a problem. It's a human problem that has to be resolved as it can, always with God's mercy.'
French president leads mourners honouring Fr Jacques Hamel on first anniversary of his murder

The French president Emmanuel Macron will lead mourners marking the one year anniversary of the murder by Islamist militants of the priest Fr Jacques Hamel.

A monument will be unveiled and Mass will be said and televised in the same church of St-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Rouen, Normandy where Hamel was slain last year.

The French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb will also be attending, alongside Anouar Kbibech, the former president of the French Council of Muslim Worship.

On July 26, 2016, two 19-year-olds who claimed allegiance to Islamic State stormed the altar during morning Mass. Witnesses said the murder was filmed by the killers and Islamic rites were recited. Two nuns were held hostage as the terrorists brought Hamel to his knees before they slit his throat. One of the nuns was able to escape and call the police, who arrived quickly and shot the attackers dead as they fled the church shouting 'Daesh' (another name for ISIS).

The anniversary Mass will be a rare display of Church and state unity in a country often defined by fierce secularism.

This evening, Vespers will be held at the Basilique Notre-Dame de Bonsecours in Rouen, followed by prayers at Hamel's tomb.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen has triggered the formal process of sainthood for Hamel to be officially declared a martyr. Statements will be heard from members of the congregation who witnessed his death, along with the priest's family members, clergy and Muslim friends.

Pope Francis has waived the traditional five-year period before the cause for sainthood could normally commence.

In April, a special Mass was held by the Pope in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Rome's Tiber Island, where a holy book of Hamel's is on display near relics of Spanish and Italian priests.

During that Mass, Hamel's sister, Roseline, said that while he had been fragile, 'he was also strong  strong in his faith in Christ, strong in his love for the Gospel and for people, whoever it was, and, I am certain, also for his killers'.

Hamel was born on November 30, 1930 in Darnetal, France, and ordained on June 30, 1958.

Before becoming a priest, Hamel was a soldier in Algeria for 18 months, refusing to become an officer because he did not want to issue orders that would lead to deaths.
Hope for Sudan as Archbishop of Canterbury inaugurates new Anglican province

The Archbishop of Canterbury will inaugurate the 39th province of the worldwide Anglican Communion at a service in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on Sunday. Archbishop Justin Welby will also visit Uganda, home to many hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled violence in the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

The Anglican church in Sudan has until now been administered from Juba, the capital of South Sudan, which is the world's newest country and which is predominantly Christian.

The new province, formed out of what was previously called the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan. will be led by the Archbishop of Sunday and Bishop of the Diocese of Khartoum, Ezekiel Kondo.

Sudan is predominantly Muslim and there are restrictions on Christian activity, such as a ban on the building of any new churches. At least five Sudanese Christians were killed last year alone and 12 imprisoned for their faith, according to Open Doors.

Archbishop of Hong Kong Paul Kwong, chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), said: 'I send my warmest and heartiest congratulations to the Church of Sudan on your inauguration as the 39th Province of the Anglican Communion. The birth of a new member province brings not only joy and excitement to the global Anglican family but also richness, encouragement and hope. We look forward to walking together closely with you to serve as light to the world that leads many into the Kingdom of God and to enable the Word of our Lord to be proclaimed to set many free.'

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, the Primate of Sudan and South Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng, with the challenge of overseeing two countries. The four and a half million Anglicans are based mainly in South Sudan.

In 2016 a formal application was made to the ACC for the internal province of Sudan to be granted autonomy.

Archbishop Kondo said: 'I would like to say that the Christians and the entire people of Sudan are very much looking forward to welcoming the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and Mrs Welby to inaugurate the New Province of Sudan, number 39, which represents 39 Articles of faith of the Anglican Church and the 39 books of the OT! It is my prayer and hope that the occasion will strengthen the church in Sudan for God's glory and extension of His Kingdom.'

Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, ACC secretary general, said : 'It's a welcome development that we now have another Anglican Province in a predominantly Muslim country. We hope the province will stand and proclaim Christ in a way that will be meaningful in that context. Having Sudan as a separate province of the Communion will benefit Christians in Sudan; now they will know they are not alone, that they are a part of the worldwide Anglican family, a family of 85 million believers.'

Bishop Anthony Poggo, Archbishop Justin Welby's adviser for Anglican Communion Affairs, who is himself from South Sudan, said: 'This is a sign of growth. I don't think any of us think it is going to be easy. There will be challenges. But the challenges will be more easily solved by the people themsleves in Sudan than by an Archbishop based in Juba in South Sudan.'

Archbishop Welby will also visit Kadugli, one of five dioceses in Sudan, where there has been violent conflict. He will open a new office, replacing one that was previously destroyed in the violence.

Sudan is currently Number 5 on the Open Doors world watch list of countries where persecution is most severe. Open Doors reports: 'Sharia (Islamic law) is the foundation of Sudan's legal system, and leaving Islam is punishable by death; Christians are afraid even to talk about their faith in case this is construed as an "act that encourages apostasy". When President al-Bashir wants to gain support his government will often use inflammatory language against the West; Christianity is seen as Western, so this has a knock-on effect on Sudanese Christians.'

International awareness of the problems was raised after the case of Meriam Ibrahim, a young doctor and mother, who was sentenced to death for apostasy even though she had always been a Christian. Sudan counted her Muslim because her father was Muslim. Her sentenced was overturned after international pressure and she now lives in the US, but for many Christians remain in serious danger in Sudan.

Islam became even more deeply embedded in Sudan after the secession of the largely Christian South Sudan, where the ongoing conflicts are tribal and political, rather than religious. Church leaders play an imporant role in peace and reconciliation. Archbishop Justin, who was powerfully affected by his visit to South Sudan in 2014 where he saw bodies of those killed in the conflict that had not yet been buried, believes local church leadership is crucial to this process and that a new, autonomous province for Sudan will empower this for both provinces in both nations.
Three women arrested for gang raping a pastor in Zimbabwe say they were 'just playing around'

Three women all in their twenties have been accused of gang raping a pastor in Zimbabwe.

Sandra Ncube, 21, Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, 23, and Mongiwe Mpofu, 25, appeared in court in Bulawayo where they denied raping the unnamed pastor but admitted to an indecent assault charge, according to the Chronicle.

According to the report, the pastor had gone to their house to demand money they allegedly owed him. When he entered the house, he says the three women forced him onto a bed and proceeded to undress and assault him.

Prosecutor Mr Petros Shoko said one of the women sat on his chest while another held his legs together.

Ncube was the only one out of the three who had intercourse with the pastor against his will, Mr Shoko told the court.

She took to the stand during the court hearing and told the judge: 'We were just playing around Your Worship. I did not think that he would take it seriously.'

Mlauzi claimed in court that the pastor had previously walked in on her bathing and that she wanted to 'fix' this.

'He always walks in on me bathing and claims to be unmoved as a man of God. I just wanted to see if he was going to be aroused or not,' she said.

'I did not plan to execute the whole rape thing Your Worship.'

Mpofu claimed she 'was not part of it' but admitted bringing condoms into the room.

The rape is alleged to have happened on July 14.

The pastor's identity is being protected during the proceedings but Mr Shoko said he pastors a church in the Cowdray Park area, the same suburb where the three women live.

They have been remanded in custody until August 7 when a full trial will commence.

According to the Daily Mail, a medical examination was carried out on the complainant at Mpilo Central Hospital and a report is being prepared for the magistrates.
Top papal advisor silent as he enters Melbourne court facing charges of sex abuse

Cardinal George Pell, the Pope's financial adviser and highest-ranking figure in the Australian Catholic Church, was silent this morning as he entered Melbourne Magistrate's Court where he faces charges of historic sex offences.

Pell announced late in June that he was taking leave following historic allegations of sex abuse.

Pell, 76, is the most senior Vatican official to have faced charges of sexual abuse. At a Vatican press conference in June, he strongly denied the accusations and plans to clear his name from the charges. 'I am looking forward finally to having my day in court. I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me,' he said.

Today, he entered silent, surrounded by a gaggle of press and onlookers, into Melbourne Magistrate's Court, where the small courtroom was also packed with reporters, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The details of the charges against Pell are still unknown to the media, though police confirmed last year that the prelate was under investigation for historic offences in the state of Victoria in the 1970s. There was no trial today, the meeting only set a date for evidence to be served on Pell's legal team on September 8, and for Pell to return to court for a hearing on October 6.

Pell's defence barrister Robert Richter, QC, told the court: 'For the avoidance of doubt ... Cardinal Pell will plead not guilty to all charges, and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has.'

Pell has recently faced criticism for his handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal in the Australian Catholic church, after an independent inquiry uncovered unprecedented levels of child abuse. Pell said that the Church had made 'catastrophic choices' in its dealing with the scandal, and admitted he could have done more to investigate claims of abuse.
Turkish president urges Muslims to visit and 'protect' Jerusalem after clashes over metal detectors

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged all Muslims to visit and 'protect' Jerusalem in the wake of violence over metal detectors that Israel installed and later removed from the Temple Mount.

Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan said: 'From here I make a call to all Muslims. Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque [the ancient mosque adjacent to the Dome of the Rock]. Come, let's all protect Jerusalem.'

After an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers, Israel installed the metal detectors at entrances to the mosque compound, which also contains the Dome of the Rock. The move led to deadly clashes, with at least three Palestinians and three Israelis reportedly killed.

The area around the Temple Mount, which includes the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa mosque and the Western Wall, and is a stone's throw from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, remains central to any elusive solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

'They are attempting to take the mosque from Muslim hands on the pretext of fighting terrorism. There is no other explanation,' added Erdogan, in a speech to ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) law-makers in parliament.

Edrogan added that Israel's legitimacy depended on the extent of the respect it showed to the rights of Palestinians.

An Israeli foreign ministry statement described the Turkish president's comments as 'mind-blowing, false and distorted', and suggested that he 'deal with the problems in his own country'.

The Israeli statement added: 'Jerusalem is a city whose government is committed to security, freedom, freedom of worship and respect for the rights of all minorities.'

Erdogan earlier also condemned attacks on synagogues in Turkey, following reports that an ultra-nationalist group last week threw stones at a synagogue in Istanbul.

'It does not make sense to attack synagogues here because something has happened at Al-Aqsa mosque,' he said. 'This does not suit our religion and it is not allowed.'
US churches are known for feeding the poor and hungry  but most 'good deeds' go unnoticed

American Christians are known for feeding the hungry and giving clothes to the poor, but many of their other 'good deeds' go unnoticed to the average American, a new study suggests.

The survey by the Nashville-based LifeWay Research suggests much of the Church's social activity goes unnoticed to the average US citizen. Of 1000 surveyed, six in ten said they knew of Christian efforts to serve the hungry, and half said they know that churches give clothes to the poor.

The survey asked if responders had heard of churches being involved in any of 13 service programs listed by LifeWay, in the past six months.

Several activities go under the radar: few Americans knew that churches help people sort their taxes (eight per cent), foster children (12 per cent), teach job skills (13 per cent) or teach English to immigrants (13 per cent).

Americans are more aware of Christian aid in disaster relief (39 per cent) and sheltering the homeless (33 per cent). Responses to other service programs can be seen in the chart below.

Fourteen per cent of Americans weren't aware the Church was involved in any of them, seventeen per cent weren't sure.

LifeWay found that those who attend Church, especially those who attend at least once a month, are far more likely to be aware of such Church activities.

Scott McConnell, the executive director of LifeWay Research, said the figures were a problem since many Church outsiders won't be aware of the social help they could be receiving, or supporting.

'People who need help may be missing out,' McConnell said. 'And Americans who want to lend a hand might miss the chance to help out and along the way connect with the church.'
White evangelicals worry more about personal health than terrorism and mass shootings

Health is the main worry among white evangelicals, with 75 per cent worrying about a personal health crisis.

That is compared to 66 per cent who worry about being the victim of a terrorist attack and just 38 per cent who worry about being the victim of a mass shooting.

According to a new Pew Research survey, 26 per cent worry 'a lot' about their health, while only 15 percent who worry a lot about terrorism and just 5 percent who worry a lot about mass shootings.

The questions about worries were broken out for Christianity Today by Pew as part of its in-depth study on firearms.

White evangelicals are more concerned about their health than they are about any of the other six personal issues posed by Pew, including not being able to pay bills, losing a job, having their home invaded, or being the victim of a violent crime.

Members of other faith groups worry even more about their health, including Catholics (90 per cent), black Protestants (88 per cent), white mainline Protestants (86 per cent), and the religiously unaffiliated or 'nones' (84 per cent).

Those who attend religious services weekly are just as concerned as while evangelicals about their health (76 per cent), while those who attend less often are even more worried (86 per cent).

Americans with low levels of religious commitment, with measures including firm belief in God and daily prayer, are more likely to worry about their health (85 per cent) than those with high levels of religious commitment (77 per cent).

White evangelicals are almost as worried about having their homes broken into (72 per cent) as about their health. Catholics are the most likely to be very worried (27 per cent) about a home invasion.
Why the gospel made me give up fast fashion

It's 3 am and we've cranked the heat to full blast in our dad's Ford F-150. Yes, we only got a few hours of sleep, but all the same we're quite sensationally (read: pathetically) following Mariah Carey's key changes, boldly declaring 'all I want for Christmas is youuuu', soaring through the lamp-lit streets of Northwest Portland. Armed with Starbucks lattes and iron resolution to seize as many of the cheapest jumpers and scarves that high street can offer, my sister and I join the teenage ranks bouncing up and down to keep warm, eagerly awaiting the magic moment when 4 am strikes and we all rush in. The Urban Outfitters queue stretches three city blocks. 3:59. Almost time. Ready...set...shop! It's November 27, 2009: Black Friday.

The scene is not an unusual one. Like so many British and American millennials, I began my consumer career with an infatuation for fast fashion. Even during my time at university I was a devotee. Though I never had a liberal shopping budget, I always managed to scrounge up enough change for a regular purchase at H&M, New Look or Topshop, even if it meant sacrificing a soya latte (or two). The price hardly mattered because an on-sale blouse cost 4.50. I reveled in my frugality and when complimented on a new wardrobe addition I often replied, 'Thanks, it was only 8!' Since high street clothes were inexpensive, I rarely gave thought to what I bought, and felt little remorse for never actually wearing my newest finds. The garments I pined after were low-cost and disposable, yet totally irresistible. Why? Because buying new clothes every week was fun.

It was also during my time at university that I learned about human trafficking through the 2011 Nefarious documentary. It shook me. Once I found out that an estimated 27 million people (now 45.8 million according to Global Slavery Index) were enslaved worldwide, I knew that I had to join the modern-day abolition movement. God's heart for emancipation was obvious to me. It was unproblematic: slavery is unjust and God wants us to join him in ending it.

Still buying fast fashion, I began volunteering for A21 Campaign and International Justice Mission (IJM) anti-slavery events. I organised prayer nights devoted to abolition. I blogged about God's heart for physical freedom and dreamt up plans for modern-day emancipation literature and campaigns. Yet, despite my growing passion for slavery's end, I did not perceive the misalignment between what I campaigned for, wrote on, and believed in  and what I wore.

My perspective began to shift last summer when I picked up a copy of The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence, written by IJM founder Gary Haugen. Expecting a treatise on slavery and brothel raids, I was surprised to find myself plunged in a wider argument about global poverty and its complexities. For me, it raised an ever-expanding host of questions. If exploitation occurs wherever there is vulnerability, and 2 billion people worldwide live in poverty, what systems are oppressing the global poor? Where is exploitation occurring, and how am I buying into it without even realising it? Who is benefiting from human capital on the cheap?

It finally clicked. This is where our clothes come from: exploitation of the poorest of the poor. Not long afterwards, I decided to do some digging on textile, leather, and hardware supply chains. This is what I found.

Forced and child labour

Forced and child labour occur in fashion supply chains throughout the globe, including but not limited to the following (based on data from the United States DOL). Coerced and child labour occur within western European fashion supply chains as well, particularly due to refugee migration to Europe, leaving millions of people vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of local language knowledge, financial resources, familial support, and documentation. In one paradigmatic 2016 case, The Guardian uncovered Syrian refugee children as young as 12 years old working as child labourers for garment producers in Istanbul at 60 hours a week for 138 a month.

Abuse and lack of safety measures

In 2013, Bangladesh's Rana Plaza factory  a supplier for many major UK and US brands  collapsed, resulting in the death of 1,134 garment workers. The collapse was due to lack of proper building maintenance, a problem typical of many fashion industry factories. Baptist World Aid notes that factory fires and unsafe working conditions persist worldwide, and Know the Chain reports that many factory managers hide undocumented and child workers when they are audited. Concealed code violations and subcontracted work are major problems facing garment workers worldwide, who also report suffering physical, verbal, and sexual abuse from factory supervisors.

Low Wages

Though the fashion industry is valued at approximately 2 trillion, many suppliers and producers are paid nothing or very little for their work (and/or held in debt bondage). The International Labour Organization reports: 'In 2015, an estimated 327 million employed people were living in extreme poverty (those living on less than US$1.90 a day) and 967 million in moderate or near poverty (between US$1.90 and US$5 a day).' Many of the employed poor work in textiles, garments, and cotton (commonly in the Asia Pacific region, which employs over 40 million garment and textile workers.)

Low wages mean the inability to provide for basic necessities, such as in Salaheya Khatun's story. Having experienced domestic violence, child marriage, and pregnancy at a young age, Khatun now works 72 hours a week in a Dhaka-based garment factory for approximately 67 a month  not nearly enough to provide for both her daughter's needs and her own.

Environmental destruction

From toxic wastewater and deforestation in leather production to genetically modified cotton and post-purchase waste, the fashion industry has a major environmental impact on a global level. In particular communities, the insidious changes wrought by these industries have caused long-term diseases and deformitiesand our habit for throwing old clothes in the bin has contributed to 620,000 tonnes of residual textile waste in a given year (according to 2013-2014 statistics for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

The more I researched, the more I came to find that the same issues that grieved my heart for slavery also characterised the fashion industry. In fact, the only real difference between an enslaved labourer and an abused fashion industry worker was a technical one: fashion industry workers are paid, albeit a wage that is often too small to afford a daily meal. Though a garment worker may not be enslaved, socio-economic context (amongst many other factors) often coerces both adults and children to sell their labour in fields, factories, mines, and tanneries where physical violence, sexual abuse, inadequate pay, exposure to toxic chemicals, and lack of protective equipment are industry standard for millions worldwide.

Companies and consumers are often ignorant of these abusesor apathetic about them. Yet while corporations ignore and deny human suffering, God does not. He knows it full well, and he deeply, intimately cares.

Jesus cares about fast fashion

As Christians, we serve a King who is profoundly attentive to the needs of people. Our God's heart is passionately invested in every single person and he longs for each of us to live in holistic freedom. Our God intervenes to defend the poor against those who exploit their vulnerability, as the writer of Proverbs says: 'Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case.' The Bible is not unclear: exploitation is wrong, and God will fight for the poor.

In Jeremiah and Isaiah, God's messengers speak to Israel about clothing specifically. Jeremiah declares to Israel, 'On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor,' and Isaiah records God's judgment against Israel: 'You trade the poor for a pair of sandals.'

Though the context differs from our discussion today, at its core, how is our complicity any different from what God speaks against in Jeremiah and Isaiah? Today, human abuses are woven into the fibres of our clothes. When we score a 'fab deal' on an outfit, it often comes at great cost to another living person created in the Imago Dei  the image of God.

Indeed, it is not unlike trading a poor factory worker for a pair of 12 New Look sandals. Shima's story proves the point: after having been locked in a factory room, battered with punches, struck with chairs, slashed with scissors, and had her head thrown against the wall for making an attempt to unionise, the 23-year old Bangladeshi garment worker confessed in the True Cost documentary, 'People have no idea how hard these clothes are for us to make. I believe the clothes are produced by our blood.'

Jesus came to set captives free, to bring holistic restoration to the earth, and to communicate the heart of God toward all people  a heart that CS Lewis described as holding prodigious value for every person. How can we respond as followers of Jesus?

1. Do your research

Start with searching the brand's name on Project Just, a research collective that examines the social and environmental impact and transparency of the brand's production methods and supply chains. Companies that meet labour and environmental standards are awarded the #JUSTApproved label. When navigating a brand's website, read the 'About' and 'FAQ' sections for detail on transparency, production reports, sustainability initiatives, and certifications such as Fair Trade, Organic Cotton, or SA8000 standard. Read critically (beware of greenwashing!) and remember that both less expensive and haute couture brands are prone to unethical and unsustainable practices.

If a brand ranks poorly on Project Just, continuously appears in the news for labour abuses, and/or does not disclose production data on their website  stop supporting them. When it comes to accessories and apparel, you vote with your .

2. Shop secondhand

Ethical fashion can be exclusive due to its higher price tag, but everyone can make a difference by shopping secondhand. UK-based e-commerce consignment store Vinted allows consigners to sell their clothes online and connects shoppers to quality, pre-owned pieces from their favourite high street brands. Charity and vintage shops such as Oxfam and Beyond Retro are prime spots for finding unique pieces whilst also promoting the circular economy model. See Four Square's 15 Best Thrift and Vintage Stores in London list here.

3. Repair your threads and kicks

Clothing and accessories should not be disposable. When the inner lining on your jacket comes undone, take your jacket to a seamstress. When your boot's zipper detaches on its own accord, take the boot to a cobbler. When your shoes show scuffmarks, buy a shoe cleaning solution. Show your clothes a little love, and they'll last much longer  a win for the planet and for your wallet.

4. Talk to brands

Once a year, Fashion Revolution runs the 'Who Made My Clothes?' campaign, an initiative that spurs shoppers to ask brands about where their clothes came from. Follow the campaign here, and send an email, letter, or hashtag-notification to your favourite brands!

5. Support ethical brands and shops

The UK is home to many socially and environmentally conscious designers and shop owners. Clothing and accessory brands People Tree UK, Know the Origin, and Elvis and Kresse are each committed to challenging traditional methods in order to pioneer models that honour each resource and individual involved in a garment's production.

Brothers We Stand, The Acey, We Are Thought, Birdsong London, and The Keep Boutique (featured in the Guardian article, 'Why I Gave Up So Much to Open an Ethical Fashion Boutique') have curated socially and environmentally conscious pieces that are available on their e-commerce platforms and/or brick and mortar shops throughout the UK.

If you decide to purchase a garment first-hand, consider supporting an ethical brand or shop.

It's about God's kingdom

Shopping ethically is not only about God's heart for peopleit is also about his glory and his coming kingdom. In Surprised by Hope, NT Wright reminds the Church:

'What you do in the present  by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself  will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.'

When God's kingdom comes fully on this earth, our clothes will not be made by means of slavery and exploitation, because God's kingdom is established in love for all people. As Christians today, we have a unique opportunity to give glory to God in what we buy and how we think about the things we wear. We buy, sell, and trade within a global economy  this is certain  but the question remains: how can we build God's kingdom and love our neighbours through fashion?

It's a question I hope the Church in the UK and beyond will begin to answer with action and hope.

Savannah DiMarco is a 24-year-old Jesus-follower, ethical fashion advocate, Greek literature nerd and vegan flat white lover. Visit her blog The Ethical Fashion Journey.
World Council Of Churches Activist Refused Entry To Israel And Deported

The World Council of Churches has said it "deeply regrets" a decision by Israel to refuse entry to a woman on the grounds that she was working against the interests of the state.

Dr Isabel Phiri, from Malawi, was turned back at Ben Gurion airport on Monday.

According to Breaking Israel News, this sets a precedent which could see thousands of activists denied entry in future.

The refusal to admit her came a few months after Israel's interior minister Aryeh Dery and public security minister Gilad Erdan announced plans to deny entry to Israel to advocates of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) movement and to deport anyone already there.

Phiri was travelling to Israel to take part in consultations in Jerusalem on the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), which is a programme of the World Council of Churches.

Israeli officials believe the EAPPI programme is anti-Israel.

Dery told Breaking Israel News: "Granting an entry permit to activists such as Phri would in effect reinforce the wrongful activities she and her peers are advancing and I have no intention of lending a hand to that.

"I will use any authority at my disposal to avert harm to Israel.

"The place of the boycotters is outside the country's borders and we shall continue to do everything possible to prevent them from entering our country."

The WCC, which has lodged an appeal, said it "deeply regrets the Israeli antagonism against the WCC's initiatives for peace with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis".

The WCC noted that Phiri was the only African member of the WCC staff delegation and the only one denied entry.

The reason given for her deportation was "prevention of illegal immigration considerations".

WCC general secretary Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said: "The accusations made against the WCC and the EAPPI programme in the interrogation of Dr Phiri and published in the media today are completely false.

"I am very surprised and dismayed that the Israeli Ministry of Interior is apparently basing its decisions on incorrect and unreliable sources."

The EAPPI programme was set up in response to an appeal from church leaders in Jerusalem in 2002.

They wrote in a letter: "We would respectfully request protection of all people in order to assist the re-establishment of mutual trust and security for Israelis and Palestinians. Further, we would call on all peace-loving people from around the world to come and join us in a manifestation for just peace".

More than 70 churches, ecumenical bodies and specialised ministries in 22 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America actively participate in the programme. Almost 1,800 "accompaniers" have taken part, travelling to the West Bank to monitor and help local communities.

Earlier this year, several WCC staff and other representatives were detained by security staff at Ben Gurion airport.

The Church of England officially has supported EAPPI. In 2012, General Synod passed a motion "encouraging parishioners to volunteer for the programme and asking churches and synods to make use of the experience of returning participants." A few months later, the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby expressed regret at his support for the motion which on reflection he felt did not "adequately reflect the complexity" of life on the ground in Israel. He said he would have been happy to have supported the motion if it had stated that Israel had the right to "live in security and peace within internationally agreed borders, and the people of the region have the right to justice, peace, and security, whoever they are."

Christian Today has asked the Israeli Embassy in London for comment.
World Council Of Churches Voices 'Grave Concern' Over Israel Clampdown On Boycott Support

The World Council of Churches has issued a statement describing its 'grave concern' over a new law passed in Israel this week.

The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, passed the 'Entry to Israel Act (Denial of Visa to Non-Residents Who Knowingly Call for a Boycott on Israel)' on Monday.

It's aimed at activists who call for a boycott of Israeli goods in protest at the Israeli government's treatment of the occupied Palestinian territories.

WCC General Secretary Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said: 'It would be a clear violation of freedom of expression, that is critical for those who want to visit Israel, for those who have to live under the occupation, and for those who want access to the Palestinian territories.'

The statement also suggests the law is a, 'significant violation of freedom of religion'. Tveit says it is 'because of our Christian principles and teachings that we in the World Council of Churches find the purchase and consumption of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories immoral, and it is for the same reason many churches and Christians around the world choose to divest from companies that profit from the illegal occupation'.

Other critics have suggested the law is far too sweeping, in that it targets both those who call for a boycott just of Israeli settlements in the West Bank (considered illegal under international law) and those who advocate a wider boycott of Israel (a more minority position).

Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett supported the law saying it, 'allows Israel to protect itself against conspirators'.
'You know the reason': Justin Bieber denies he quit tour for 'religious reasons'

Pop megastar Justin Bieber appears to have denied suggestions that he quit his third world tour in order to start a church.

When asked by TMZ if he had quit the worldwide Purpose tour because of 'religious reasons', a puzzled Bieber responded: 'No...you already know the reason.' The 23-year-old was quizzed as he casually sought sushi in Beverly Hills, LA on Tuesday.

Reports broke out yesterday that Bieber had quit his tour because he planned to start a church. A 'world exclusive' from Australia's Today Extra reported that 'I am led to believe that the real reason he's come off the road is because he wants to reconnect with his faith and maybe even planning to start his own Church,' according to The New Zealand Herald.

They added: 'Whether he's looking at teaming up with [Hillsong] ... or starting his own church, we're not quite sure ... That's the word from an inside source.'

Sources close to Hillsong told TMZ that Bieber dropped the tour because he had now 'rededicated his life to Christ'.

Bieber is well established with Hillsong, is close with its megachurch pastor Carl Lenz, and has made frequent references to his Christian faith in recent months. However, his response that 'you already know the reason' suggests his reason is, as he has implied on social media, needing rest and relaxation after a year and a half of relentless performance.

The original statement on the tour cancellation read: 'Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin Bieber will cancel the remainder of the Purpose World Tour concerts. Justin loves his fans and hates to disappoint them. He thanks his fans for the incredible experience of the Purpose World Tour over last 18 months.

'He is grateful and honoured to have shared that experience with his cast and crew for over 150 successful shows across 6 continents during this run. However, after careful consideration he has decided he will not be performing any further dates.'
Seizing the opportunity created by a stumbling president whose White House seems incapable of fulfilling his biggest campaign promises, Democrats counterattacked this week, touting a new slogan and policies as they look ahead to the 2018 midterm elections. The sloganA Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wageswas quickly derided by Twitter wags as reminiscent of Papa Johns Pizza marketing (Better ingredients, better pizza). And the policies rolled out a day later were retreads of Hillary Clintons policy positions in her failed presidential campaign. Its tempting to speculate, given this uninspired effort, that Democrats are coasting on the assumption that President Trump is so toxic that their victory in the midterms is assured. But this is the second reassessment the party has performed on itself after devastating political losses in the last three years, and in each case the message to America seems to be: Dont worry so much about our ideas: just trust that were on your side.

Maybe the Democrats ideas really are the problem. Its worth remembering that Trumps surprise victory last November was not the first major setback that Democrats have suffered since Barack Obama won his historic election in 2008: other than his reelection four years later, its pretty much been all downhill. Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. At the state level, the party faced a sustained run of bad results that included losing some 900 local legislative seats, while watching Republicans capture 31 governorships. Republicans now boast 25 state trifectasin which they control the legislature and the governors officecompared with just six for Democrats. To comprehend the magnitude of Democratic losses, consider that Republicans hold more power in the states than at any time since the Civil War.

Democrats knew after 2014 that they had serious problems. A party task force examining that years election results acknowledged the stark losses. But the groups recommendations for revival were bland at best, focusing largely on organization and infrastructure rather than on ideas that might appeal to the electorate. Recommendations included expanding voting rights, working harder to control redistricting, and building an open and accessible party. The resulting document said almost nothing about policies except in the broadest terms, and ignored the fact that Republicans were winning in many states with an agenda that included fiscal restraint and a pro-business approach to economic growth. And the task-force report made no acknowledgment that the increasingly leftward drift of the party had driven away many of its traditional blue-collar constituents. As early as 2013, trade unions whose membership once formed part of the Democratic Partys core were in revolt against the Affordable Care Act, the growing power of public-sector unions, and the increasing influence that the environmentalist, no-growth agenda had on the party. Many of those trade union members defected to Trump in 2016.

The Democrats latest effort to craft an electoral comeback concedes, in a new op-ed by Senator Chuck Schumer, that Americans are clamoring for bold changes. But the prescriptions that Schumer offers can only be described as bold if you ignore Clintons 2016 campaign platform. The new, better deal Democrats propose includes, for instance, a $15 minimum wage, a key Clinton proposal. Thats not only new packaging for an old idea but also an unusual proposition, considering that even Democratic economists worry that boosting mandatory wage floors so dramatically (the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour) will undermine the economy, especially in light of a new study showing that Seattles $15 minimum is destroying low-wage jobs. The new proposals also include limiting the ability of pharmaceutical companies to raise drug pricesanother Clinton proposaland thwarting mergers that consolidate power among big companies, a policy that Clinton backed as far back as October of 2015.

Strikingly absent from the new agenda are any ideas that might appeal directly to the partys defecting blue-collar voters. Trump won a majority of votes among those without a college degree, and so far hes governing like hes mindful of those voters. Since taking office, Trump has greenlighted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project, an initiative that the Obama administration blocked for years. Hes touted a $1 trillion infrastructure-building program, and on the first day of his presidency, he invited union leaders to the White House to ask their support in getting it through Congress. Trump rolled back Obama-imposed regulations on coal mines that would have significantly raised operating costs for mining companies. Indeed, Trumps outreach to blue-collar workers has been so extensive that hes even worried many traditional Republican constituencies with his plans to rewrite trade pacts to slow the seepage of American jobs overseas, potentially at the cost of higher prices at home.

A recent poll found that only 37 percent of voters think that the Democratic Party stands for anything beyond opposing Trump; Schumer acknowledged that it was the partys fault for not coming up with a more compelling message than Resist. But what the Democratic agenda does offermore regulations to rein in corporations, to dictate wages, and to restrain pricesis not necessarily what these voters want. Trump has yet to deliver on the big stuff that the experts judge presidents onin his case, tax policy, a new health-care law, a border wall, among other items. But he has given the voters whove turned away from the Democratic Party more, in the form of lessless government bureaucracy blocking workers opportunity to earn. And that is making a difference for these voters, at least so far.

Its going to take some innovative thinking for Democratsa party now controlled by public-sector unions, progressives disposed to government control of the economy, and environmentaliststo appeal to voters left behind. So far, for all their show of doing so, the Democrats arent really trying.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The racial bias is inescapable: A drug crisis that is largely affecting suburban and rural whites is being treated with a drastically different attitude and approach in words and imagery than those used to characterize heroin use in the 1970s, crack cocaine in the late 1980s, and the drug problem plaguing Americas people of color and urban poor today.

Elected officials, the criminal justice system, and the American media have adopted a kinder and gentler tone around the opioid crisis. The attitude and phrasing of a recent New York Times articletitled: In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugsis both an example and an illustration. As is Times just-published photo story A caring lens on the opioid crisis. The visual language is just as illuminating. The opioid crisis has been framed as a threat from outside, with drug users facing an illness or a disease rather than a personal moral shortcoming.

You can see in this photo how demonstrators cast addicts who have died from drugs as victims, and in the inset photo, literally as an angel. In another photograph, you can see how the same group, FedUp!, has co-opted the quilt as a protest symbol reminiscent of the AIDS crisis.

ICYMI: Six rare images that capture Trumps TV addiction

The largely white drug epidemic were facing now bears little resemblance to the scenes of squalor, sociopathy, and criminality depicted in this 33-photo Getty package shot in the Bronx and published in June. And photos from the urban war on drugs dont look much different today than they did 30 years ago.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

The photo above by Scott Applewhite, also shot in the Bronx, appeared in 1989. It was published to illustrate an eight-week federal anti-drug initiative characterized by armed police raids on inner city crack houses. Suffice it to say police in general have taken a different approach to white opioid drug users (more on that later).

Over the years, photographers have produced many landmark photo stories and bodies of work about drug addiction. The subjects and the settings have been uniformly harsh, the subjects primarily indigent and wayward, and the environs largely decrepit. Those stories include Larry Clarks Tulsa, shot in the mid-1960s and published in 1971; Jessica Dimmocks The Ninth Floor, shot in the Flatiron District of Manhattan and published in 2007; Michel Du Cilles Pulitzer Prize winning work in 1988 documenting crack addiction in Miami.

A post shared by Le Plac'Art Photo (@leplacartphoto) on Feb 14, 2017 at 12:20am PST

Another important photo story in the canon of addiction is Eugene Richardss Cocaine True Cocaine Blue. The project was shot primarily in New York and Philadelphia from 1988 to 1992 and published in 1994. The Instagram post above captures the visual tone and sensibility of that historical investigation. Notice the difference in tone between the historical work and a opioid story in June in The New Yorker shot by Richards in one West Virginia county.



This tweet depicts four of six Richards images that illustrated the story. In the top left photo, the girl playing in the yard lives with her grandmother. She lost her father to a heroin overdose. The top right photo shows people running a project that helps place addicts in rehab. The middle photo shows a mother, a recovering addict, showing off her newborn. And the last photo is a doctor who offers free public classes in the use of Narcan, the drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

ICYMI: 11 images that show how the Trump administration is failing at photography

What are the larger themes of photo coverage of the opioid crisis, centered on rural and suburban white America, and where do they contrast with coverage of drugs in cities? Photos are almost always shot in color rather than the starker black and white. We typically see daytime or well-lit indoor photos, as opposed to night action on seedy streets or dark alleys. There is minimal engagement with courts, jail, or the police. And there is a stress on domesticity. The photos often are shot at a home, the spaces mostly tidy or pulled together. Bedroom portraits are common.

Opioid stories typically stress the bonds and commitment of family, extended family, and community.

#KARMA

WHITE FAMILY OVERDOSE

A photo of Courtney Griffin, who died of a heroin overdose w/her sister Shannon, left, and her mother Pamela pic.twitter.com/U4Jc9ylnwF  CRIMES AGAINST MELAN (@CrimesMelan) April 21, 2017



This image in the tweet above appeared in The New York Times gentler drug war story mentioned above. Its a photo of Courtney Griffin, who died of a heroin overdose in 2014. The picture in the center show Courtney closely flanked by her sister and her mother. Emphasizing love and closeness, as well as nostalgia and irony, the photo exemplifies how the opioid imagery stays away from pain, despair, isolation, and, of course, relationship problems.

Victims are often depicted in a sympathetic light, with an emphasis on family bonds and survivor grief. A sub-theme of opioid crisis coverage: Many stories showcase children who have been saved by loving grandparents.

Children of Heroin Crisis Find Refuge in Grandparents Arms https://t.co/wjVwFzxkAB  The New York Times (@nytimes) May 21, 2016



In the photo accompanying a Times story, notice the child safe in her bedroom, the letters on the wall spelling out her name, reinforcing identity and continuity. This pattern is a dramatic contrast to the narrative of broken homes, addicted babies, mothers depicted as unfit, the engagement of state agencies, and children routinely placed into foster care that is so characteristic of drug stories focused on black families in cities.

This photo, in contrast, comes from a two-part series in The Washington Post in 1989. It chronicled the life of six-year-old Dooney Waters, who lived with his mother in a Prince Georges County crackhouse. According to the original article: The locks on the door had been replaced with balled-up socks. The walls were full of holes kicked in by addicts, and white paint patches sporting grafitti were spread indiscriminately. Dooneys father, a former convict, ultimately separated him from the complex, and his mother.

Opioid stories, on the other hand, tend to focus on treatment and recovery.

This photo by Jahi Chikwendiu appeared in a Washington Post article highlighting a recovery house in Bowie, Maryland. Opioid stories consistently stress close-knit towns and support communities.This is a reunion picnic with residents, graduates, family members, and supporters. Of course, the bonding and intimacy in these photos obscure the alienation and the emotional isolation that go hand in hand with addiction.

The issue of responsibility is largely absent until the theme of recovery comes into play. At that point, users and addicts are often shown exercising remarkable will and winning the battle with the disease. Photos stress dignity, help-seeking, coping skills, and self-reliance in the face of poverty and other challenges.

Consider this AP photo of a young man showing a picture of himself after a near-fatal overdose in 2015. Its like it cant be the same person, the Nike Just Do It accentuating a sense of agency over addiction.

A post shared by Natalie Keyssar (@nataliekeyssar) on Jul 12, 2017 at 12:01pm PDT



This photo was featured in a major article on the opioid crisis published this month by The New York Times Magazine. Faith, love, and patriotism are themes that often lace photos of the opioid crisis.

In this photo from Getty, we see a look of conviction on the mans face and an American flag in the background. This formerly homeless man started a wildly popular Facebook group after his friend died of heroin and is now a sought after drug counselor. Whats more American than bringing nationalism, patriotism, and a sense of can-do to a problem otherwise riddled with shame?

ICYMI: Paper makes audacious decision to highlight silent epidemic

When you do see photos of actual drug use, the images are typically clinical and objective, as opposed to desperate and dingy. After all the crafted photojournalism like the images you see above, its jarring to see these user pictures more in the style of stock photography.

This photo by John Moore is part of a Getty story about New London, Connecticut, which is suffering an unprecedented heroin and opioid pain pill epidemic. Youll notice that the user wears a crucifix, a symbol of faith and a visual buffer with the drug use. Unlike other drug scourges, where photos of users using were common and showed faces, many opioid portraits hide the users faces. We hardly ever see anguish, craving, or the high, the rush, or the stupor. The subjects look as if they are doing a routine task, like brushing their teeth.

Compare this to a frame from a Getty package in May 2015 on the rise of synthetic marijuana, or K2, in New York City.

This photo by Spencer Platt shows a black male drug user unceremoniously splayed out on an East Harlem sidewalk.

Of course, there are exceptions.

A mass killer: St. Louis heroin deaths hit new high. Heroin overdoses surpass homicides https://t.co/QDS9MMkFXJ via @stltoday pic.twitter.com/Gt87vuWlgg  David Carson (@PDPJ) February 18, 2017

This tweet captures several photos from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story that the public found widely disturbing. Administration of heroin in most opioid stories is visualized in a casual way. In the unusual instance that depiction is blatantly graphic or inordinately casual though, a much stronger impact has been elicited. In this case, a couple is photographed shooting up at home, the woman six months pregnant. Beyond the act of administration, however, the rest of the imagery still conforms to many of the domestic norms described above. The February 6, 2017 photo was made in the kitchen, as the couple apparently prepared a meal. The place looks otherwise spotless; both wear clean clothes, and the dishes on the far counter seem to be washed. In the accompanying images by photojournalist David Carson, the drug use fits a larger routine. It might be a horror, but its a particularly antiseptic and contained one.

In light of campaign politics and now the debate over healthcare, geography has been almost as prominent a theme in the opioid crisis as demographics. A great deal of the towns are down-and-out, suffering from poverty and a loss of industry. In many cases, however, the photography softens the blow.

America's poorest white town: abandoned by coal, swallowed by drugs https://t.co/rwh9sPzbfR pic.twitter.com/6UEO8YAgOO  The Guardian (@guardian) November 12, 2015



This photo led a Guardian story titled: Americas poorest white town: abandoned by coal, swallowed by drugs. The photo by David Coyle shows a house along Crystal Creek in Beattyville, Kentucky. Adopting a documentary style, there is an eerie quiet and a haunting beauty to the scene. Beattyville might be a town under siege, but the photo imparts a sense of dignity to the desperate locale.

You can compare that bucolic scene to the one above by Michel du Cille which was part of his 1988 Pulitzer Prize winning photo essay on crack cocaine addicts in a Miami housing project. Far from sympathetic, the black-and-white image and the harsh light gives the housing project the feel of a prison.

The visual narrative around the opioid crisis has largely sidestepped criminality. In fact, many opioid stories depict police as social advocates fighting for the community, as exemplified by the July New York Times Magazine cover story. In some cases, they are even a lifeline for users thanks to first responders who carry the drug Naloxone for reversing an overdose.

Contrast this August 2015 arrest photo from East Harlem, the charges unspecified, (shot in this case by Spencer Platt for Getty Images), with the NYPD Instagram post below, from May.

A post shared by NYPD (@nypd) on May 25, 2017 at 6:07pm PDT

As a form of public service announcement, the two officers promote their use of Naloxone spray accompanied by an account of how they saved a man from a potentially fatal overdose just the week before. In fact, the visual stories hardly address the dealers and distributors of opioids at all. (Thats in shocking contrast to the drug action, and even a dealer waving a fistfull of bills, in this story about drug abuse among the homeless in Chicago published in 2015 by The Daily Mail.)

Im not sure what the race or ethnicity was of the person the NYPD rescued, but a thorough news image search reveals that most articles about Narcan or Naloxone either feature white drugs users or addicts, photos of white people who are being resuscitated (such as in this slideshow), or else they feature trainings or simulations with white volunteers and, almost exclusively, white mannequins.

There is a clear double standard in the visual framing of the opioid crisis. The gentler tone presents a marked departure from historical drug coverage, and the bias in the depiction of the problem as it plagues urban people of color feels baked in. What is even more concerning is the prospect for closing this perceptual gap. Besides racial disparity in journalism, the dog-whistle politics of President Trump is encouraging divisiveness and driving a deeper wedge. Still worse, the GOP leadership is patronizing addicts and states with proportionally larger populations of afflicted rural white populations with the promise of increased prevention and treatment funding as part of its argument for repealing Obamacare.

Kinder and gentler is only relevant until you see the omission. And then it compounds the disease.

CJRs health care reporting is sponsored in part by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund.

ICYMI: How drug reporting is changing

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Michael Shaw is publisher of the nonprofit visual-literacy and media-literacy site ReadingThePictures, an analyst of news photos and visual journalism, and a frequent lecturer and writer on news imagery, photojournalism, and documentary photography. Follow ReadingThePictures via Twitter and Instagram.
The jury is in: Bots played a huge role in promoting the spread of misinformation and disinformation during and following the 2016 campaign season. A just-released study from a group of scholars at Indiana University in Bloomington, which analyzed 14 million Twitter messages, finds that bots were more likely than humans to be super spreaders of fake stories, playing a crucial, early role in making certain stories go viral. Bots spread the stories through tweets, retweets, replies, and mentions. Bots will repetitively add @realDonaldTrump to a tweet with a false claim, for instance, to propel false stories to surface more often.

While this is not a eureka moment in the battle against fake news, it is compelling evidence that so-called bot armies are a cornerstone of the misinformation strategy. The studys findings also suggest a path forward for the fight against fake news. If bots are able to take advantage of an ecosystem that rewards their sheer force of numbers, then disabling overactive bots would be a way to slow the spread of such claims. Researchers, including those at Indiana, are developing more reliable ways to detect whether a particular account is a bot or not. The study I described above relies on a tool called a Bot-o-meter, which scores Twitter accounts based on how likely they are to belong to a human.

This story also comes after the recent controversy in the Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in which bot armies promoted smear campaigns against Qatar and Al Jazeera. As David Carroll pointed out: [Bot armies are a] global problem deployed as info ops against media outlets. BahrainWatch.org provides a fascinating list of propaganda bot networks and hashtags involved.

Elsewhere in bot news:

PerimeterX, a cybersecurity company, raised $23 million to discover and fight bots online, reports Fortune.

Meanwhile, Twitter says it is having success on the online harassment front, both in stopping abusive users and hiding abuse from its targets. But, as The Verge points out, Twitter isnt yet providing real data to back it up.

Fake news cousin is fake ads, which trick companies into buying space on their ghost-town websites, among other ways. Google has been quietly investigating how bad the problem is, and testing a potential solution.

Are big tech companies to blame for the decline of workers share of national income, the rise of inequality, the decrease in business startups, the dearth of job creation, and the fall in research and development spending? asks Bloombergs Paula Dwyer.

Other notable stories

Vice has an excerpt from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievichs new book on the forgotten role of female soldiers in WWII. The excerpt tells the story of a female sniper.

In 2015, NBC fired Trump. . By 2017, the media was his enemy. In The TV That Created Trump, The New Yorkers Emily Nussbaum rewatches The Apprentice.

Journalist Katherine Boo has 15 rules for narrative nonfiction at Nieman Storyboard. Rule #13: Even if Im telling urgent stories, I can still experiment with form and make it a creative process.

ICYMI: Last week Thomas Frank wrote a fiery take in The Guardian on the medias war with Trump. Frank condemns the homogeneity of the press, calling it not liberal but privileged.

For laughs, CJRs Meg Dalton came across People of Local News, a Tumblr that collects screenshots of TV news chyrons and the people featured with them.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

Correction: This post previously identified Svetlana Alexievich as winner of a Pulitzer.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Nausicaa Renner is digital editor of CJR.
Reverend Jeffrey Brown is used to the pulpit. But these days, hes trading it for a microphone in a cozy recording studio in Allston, Massachusetts. For the last few months, the Boston-based minister has been producing his own podcast, The Courage to Listen.

When youre preaching, you have an audience of people, Brown says. Theres a call-and-response pattern in his work as a preacher. With the podcast, theres only one person in front of him. There may be an audience, but the audience wont be talking back to you.

For someone whos spent most of his career writing sermons, not scripts, adjusting to the new medium presented certain challenges. One was becoming aware of both the tone and loudness of his voice. When I first heard it [my voice], I thought, Oh my gosh, is that me? As I kept listening to my voice, there were ways in which I could speak that could be appealing. It was helpful to hear it in order to figure out how to speak in podcast, he says. Browns producer, Geoff Nesnow, still reminds him to maintain the same distance from the mic throughout the interview: I cant help that I like to move.

Its taken eight months, but Brown feels more confident about his podcast skills these days. Thats because he and his producer arent working in isolation. Since last September, theyve relied on a community of emerging and experienced audiomakers at the Podcast Garage. The duo has gotten feedback, technical support, and skill-building as theyve created, produced, and launched their show out of the space, which is nearing its one-year anniversary.

The brick-and-mortar enterprise is the brainchild of Public Radio Exchange (PRX). At its core, the Podcast Garage is one part community recording studio, one part educational hub for audio storytelling. Kerri Hoffman, CEO of PRX, calls Podcast Garage the networks skunkworks, a laboratory where diverse voices can hone their stories and talent.

Its the latest in a series of experiments by PRX. In the 14 years since its founding, the nonprofit has evolved from humble origins as a distributor of radio programs into an award-winning digital media company. It still pushes out content from independent producers, but PRX also launched the podcast network Radiotopia, developed the curation app RadioPublic, and co-founded the media-focused accelerator program, Matter Ventures.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

RELATED: 10 podcasts to help you keep up with the news cycle

The Podcast Garage was originally conceived as a pop-up program of Zone 3, a Harvard-led initiative to activate Western Avenue in Allston and Brighton, two up-and-coming neighborhoods in Boston. Last summer, PRX was approached by Zone 3 to create a pop-up listening lounge for people to partake in podcasts in a communal setting. Hoffman didnt think the idea was sticky enough, so she counter-proposed, pitching a permanent audio production facility and community center. Theres a real hunger to learn how to do audio storytelling, she says, both from journalists in public radio stations and also individuals.

The Garage sits in a nondescript parking lot a few blocks south of the Charles River. Imagine an old Jiffy Lube, but with a colorful, hi-tech facelift. Outside, a mosaic of blue and yellow hexagons cover the walls, juxtaposed against a simple logo containing the words Podcast Garage PRX. The Garages three glass doors, spaced evenly across the front, are a throwback to the spaces original purpose.

It was literally a garage, and we thought that was the right aesthetic, Hoffman says. Garages are places where things get fixed and tinkered with.

Today, the building provides a different kind of tune-up. Inside, air compressors and frame machines have been replaced by bean bag chairs and soundboards. Theres a community room on one side of the space, a recording studio on the other. The community room is multimodal; it adapts to the programming as needed. On a Monday afternoon, work tables and chairs transform it into a coworking setup. Later that night, the scene could be cleared out for a lecture or cocktail party. So far, the Podcast Garage has adapted to the needs of 80 different classes and workshops.

For the past year, audio storytellers have gathered for production and narrative skill-building workshops; veteran radio producers have trained and mentored aspiring journalists; and podcast fans have eagerly listened as producers of their favorite Radiotopia shows unpacked their latest episode.

We think of the space as engendering a love of audio and contributing to the growth of the field, Hoffman says.

The studio space has attracted seasoned shows, like Americas Test Kitchen, and novice podcasters alike. The larger studio fits up to four people around the table, and a smaller vocal tracking booth accommodates an additional two. Both are outfitted with high-end recording and sound equipment from companies like Shure, Sonos, and Sennheiser. Members can operate the sound-isolated studios on their own or bring an engineer. At the garage, podcasters can record, edit, and publish their shows with audio-editing programs like Pro Tools and Hindenberg. It was important to build the studio with the digital environment in mind, Hoffman says, while also keeping the costs low for the community.

The membership model is constantly evolving; Hoffman and her team have tweaked it based on feedback from the community. Right now, members pay $35 per month for perks like discounts on studio time, access to the coworking space, and free feedback sessions at the end of every month. Weve made it so that its accessible to people at any income level, Hoffman says. So far, there are 20 members who record shows spanning topics from social justice to comedy.

ICYMI: Thank God the brain cancer waited for the Pulitzer

Reverend Brown is one of those members. For his show, The Courage to Listen, Brown invites one or two guests to the Podcast Garage, where they share their stories, insights, and solutions on reducing violence in Boston and other cities around the country. Hes spoken to activists pushing for body cameras in Boston, academics studying Black Lives Matter, and organizers advocating for nonviolence in Chicago.

Brown was one of the architects behind The Boston Miracle, a collaborative effort between black ministers, the Boston police department, and social scientists to reduce youth violence in the city. In a now-popular TED Talk, Brown explains how listening, and not preaching, to those kids helped them reduce violence in their own neighborhoods. His podcast, and soon-to-be-published book of the same name, follows that guiding principle. Its an outgrowth of the work hes been doing for the past 20-plus years.

I like the form [of podcasting] and getting peoples voices on there, he says. You get into the interiors of someones actions and give them space to mold and shape as they see it.

Theres a certain freedom with podcasting that other mediums dont allow, Brown says. With each episode, he can delve into someones life in a way he cant do with his Sunday sermons. Hes not preaching; hes in conversation. It feels one-to-one, even though its one-to-many. When youre preaching to someone, you dont get a chance to talk to each and every person, he says.

Brown started working on his podcast with Nesnow, his producer, during the fall of 2016. Before then, his knowledge of podcasts, let alone how to make a podcast, was limited. I knew my children listened to podcasts a lot, he jokes. When Geoff first introduced the idea of making a podcast to me, I needed to call my kids. He listened to shows like This American Life and Serial, and was immediately hooked. Ive listened to some other podcasts, and they didnt seem professionally done, he says. With the Garage, you have the opportunity to produce a quality project.

Thats a big reason Brown and Nesnow became members. The quality sounds professional, and their guests are always impressed by the setting. Its much than better meeting these guests at someones home or in a noisy cafe, especially given the subject matter. The studio has also forced Brown to improve his hosting skills. Theres a certain way to preach, but this isnt about preaching into the microphone, he says. Its about having a conversation. Brown approaches each interview as though its happening in his living room. You have to be aware of moments when you need to go off script and go where the spirit takes you, he says.

Outside the studio, Brown and Nesnow have turned to their Podcast Garage peers for other tips and tricks. Theyve participated in forums and workshops, plus more informal listening nights for shows like Ear Hustle. Browns biggest takeaway from his fellow podcasters? Be yourself. Listening to some of the other podcasters, the ones I like and admire are relaxed and break away from journalism, he says. They let their personalities come out.

Peer-to-peer support is part of the Garages DNA. Just like blogging in the early 2000s, podcasting can be done anywhere. Its a medium unconstrained by geography and physical space. And its often a remote and solitary endeavor. Theres a common (albeit relatively accurate) narrative that podcasters sit in their closets, blankets over their heads and microphones in hand. The overwhelming majority arent This American Life or Radiolab or WTF with Marc Maron. With approximately 400,000 podcasts listed in the Apple Podcast store, only 1 percent have 50,000 or more downloads per episode. It can feel lonely, Hoffman says. The real power of podcasting comes when people leave the (dis)comfort of their closets.

A few years ago, a space like the Podcast Garage wouldnt have been possible. The so-called podcast boom following the success of Serial catapulted the medium into the zeitgeist. Everyone has a podcast now, maybe even your dentist. Podcasting is a growing field, but its suffering a talent gap, Hoffman says. Right now, PRXs goal is to move content from good to better, from better to great. You can do that through four-week training programs on narrative structure, or workshops on design thinking, she says. In the case of Browns podcast, they needed the technical tools to create a quality product. The Courage to Listen is one of 17 podcasts that have launched out of the Podcast Garage. Think of the space as an open invitation to the next generation of makers.

Weve taken a two-pronged approach: Provide access to high-quality equipment for current podcasters, who are working from home or coffee shops, and open the community to create more opportunities for people entering the field, Hoffman says.

In Boston, there are more opportunities for fledgling audiomakers than exist in other cities. It has its own audio ecosystem, the Podcast Garage being just the latest addition. The city has two longstanding public radio powerhouses, WBUR and WGBH, which were born out of the citys sprawling university scene. Theres the Sonic Soiree, a meetup for audiophiles organized by independent audio producer Daniel Gross. Bostons also home to the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), a global network of audio producers; multimedia journalists; and public media programs, networks, and stations. And, of course, theres PRX.

As the intellectual hub of the country, if not the world, Boston breeds an intellectually large and curious audience, says Anne Donohue, an associate professor of journalism at Boston University. Shes an award-winning public radio producer and editor who has contributed to Monitor Radio, NPR, the BBC, WBUR, and WGBH. Boston is an academically driven city, and public radio was an offshoot from that intellectual fervor, she says. A place like the Garage seamlessly fits into this community. The Podcast Garage is just the beginning, a prototype, according to Hoffman. PRX wants to expand the concept to other cities, but investing in permanent facilities carries risk. So theyre experimenting with ways to scale the model. One such experiment includes a pop-up storytelling weekend in Kansas City, Missouri, this fall, which will be half training and half technical, like a hackathon for audio. Theyre also flirting with the idea of launching an online curricula and Web tools based on their current programming.

Tonight, the Podcast Garage celebrates its first birthday. The one-time auto body shop has come a long way from its days of oil changes and brake alignments, but to some degree, the space still serves a similar purpose. Were not knocking things down, says Hoffman. Were building things up.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Meg Dalton is a freelance journalist and audio producer based in Connecticut. She's reported and edited for CJR, PBS NewsHour, Energy News Network, Architectural Digest, MediaShift, Hearst Connecticut newspapers, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @megdalts. Find her on Twitter @megdalts.
The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Limited, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Limited, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AFD.TECH, AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, AIG Shared Services Business Processing Inc, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co. Ltd., Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) Pty Ltd, Accenture (UK) Limited, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Agencia Interativa Ltda, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture B.V., Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BPS Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A., Accenture Canada Holdings Inc, Accenture Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Limited, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co. Ltd, Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Pty Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SASU, Accenture Customer Services Ltd, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Delivery Poland S.p. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance II Limited, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services S.r.l., Accenture Financial Advanced Solution & Technology S.r.l., Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Global Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Global Engagements Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Limited, Accenture Global Services Limited, Accenture Global Solutions Limited, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc, Accenture Holding Brasil Ltda, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SASU, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services B.V., Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture International B.V., Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea B.V., Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Lithuania UAB, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Marketing Services LLC, Accenture Marketing Services Limited, Accenture Middle East B.V., Accenture Minority I B.V., Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi Pty Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations GmbH, Accenture Operations S.p. z o.o., Accenture Operations Services Private Limited, Accenture Operations Services Sdn Bhd, Accenture Outsourcing S.r.l., Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations B.V., Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru SRL, Accenture Post Trade Processing SASU, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture Qiyun Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture S.p. z o.o., Accenture S.p.A., Accenture SASU, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sdn Bhd, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services and Technology S.r.l., Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Single Member S.A. Organization Information Technology & Business Development, Accenture Solutions Co. Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions S.p. z o.o, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc, Accenture Sub III Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions S.r.l., Accenture Technology Solutions SASU, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures B.V., Accenture Technology Ventures SPRL, Accenture Tecnologia Consultoria y Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co. Limited, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Ltda, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Advoco, Agilex Technologies Inc., Alfa Consulting, Allen International, AlphaBeta Advisors, Altevie Technologies S.r.l., Altima, Altima (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Altima Asia Ltd, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Altius Consulting Limited, Altius Data Solutions Private Limited, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Apis Group Pty Ltd, Appaloosa Technology SASU, AppsPro, AppsPro, Arca, Arca Ingenieros y Consultoria S.L., Arca Telecom S.L., Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Artio People (Payroll) Pty Ltd, Artio People Pty Ltd, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Automation Partners Pty Ltd, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc, Avanade Consulting Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Limited, Avanade Europe Services Limited, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SASU, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade Inc, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy S.r.l., Avanade Japan KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Middle East Limited, Avanade Netherlands B.V., Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain S.L., Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Limited, Avanade do Brasil Ltda , Avanade Osterreich GmbH, Avenai, Avieco, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCS Consulting, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BENEXT, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, BRIDGEi2i, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Zhidao Future Consulting Co. Ltd, Benext, Berico Technologies LLC, Bionic, Bionic Solution LLC, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Bow & Arrow, Bow & Arrow Limited, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, Byte Prophecy Private Limited, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CS Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, CS Technology (UK) Limited, CS Technology Group LLC, CS Technology LLC, CadenceQuest Inc., Callisto Integration Europe B.V., Callisto Integration Europe Limited, Callisto Integration LLC, Callisto Integration Ltd, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc, Certus Solutions Consulting Services Limited, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cirrus Connect Australia Pty Ltd, Cirrus Connect Limited, Cirruseo, Clarity Insights, ClearEdge Partners, Clearhead, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas Japan G.K., Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Limited, Cloudeasier SAS, Cloudpoint Limited, Cloudsherpas Inc, Cloudworks, Cloudworks Consulting Services Inc, Cloudworks Technology LLC, Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda, Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda, Context Information Security, Context Information Security LLC, Context Information Security Limited, CoreCompete LLC, CoreCompete Limited, CoreCompete Private Limited, Corliant Inc., Creative Drive LLC, Creative Drive US LLC, CreativeDrive, CreativeDrive Digital Content Services (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., CreativeDrive EMEA Limited, CreativeDrive Singapore Pte Ltd, CreativeDrive UK Group Limited, Cutting Edge Solutions Limited, Cygni AB, Cygni Norrsken AB, Cygni Stockholm AB, Cygni Syd AB, Cygni Vast AB, Cygni Ost AB, Cygni Ostersund AB, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Limited, DI Futures Corporation, Data Essential SARL, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings LLC, Decora Marketplace LLC, Decorado Marketplace Ltda-EPP, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digital Results Group LLC, Double Digit Limitada, Double Digit Pty SA, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Limited, Duck Creek Technologies, ESR Labs, ESR Labs AG, EdenOne Solutions Limited, Edenhouse ERP Holdings Limited, Edenhouse Solutions Limited, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting LP, End to End Analytics LLC, End-to-End Analytics, Endorphin Medici (M) Sdn Bhd, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Limited, EnergyQuote JHA, Enimbos, Enimbos Global Services S.L., Enkitec, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions LLC, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V., Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enthusian Pty Ltd, Entropia, Entropia (M) Sdn Bhd, Entropia Holdings Pte Ltd, Entropia Intercraft Sdn Bhd, Epylon, Ergo, Espedia S.r.l., Ethica Consulting Group, Ethica Consulting S.p.A., Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Experity, Exton Consulting, Exton Consulting Spain Strategy&Management S.L., Exton Germany GmbH, Exton International SAS, Exton Italia S.r.l., Exton SAS, FGM LLC, Fairway Technologies Inc, Farah BidCo Limited, Farah MidCo Limited, Farah Topco Limited, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Formicary, Founders Intelligence, Fruendo S.r.l., FusionX, Future State Consulting LLC, FutureMove (Beijing) Automotive Technology Co. Ltd., FutureMove Automotive, FutureMove Automotive Co. Ltd., GRA Supply Chain Pty Ltd, Gagel Group S de R.L. de C.V., Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gevity, Gren utvikling AS, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hahntel Ltda, Halo Partners LLC, Hamilton Holding Company S.A, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Happen GP Limited, Happen Limited, Headspring, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl A/S, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn Bhd, IBB Consulting, ICM.S S.r.l., IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INSITUM, IQSP Consulting LLC, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Icon Integration (NZ) Limited, Icon Integration Pty Ltd, Imagine Broadband (USA) Limited, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Imaginea Technologies LLC, Industrie IT (Hong Kong) Ltd, Industrie IT (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Industrie IT Group Pty Ltd, Industrie IT Pty Ltd, Industrie&Co, Infinity Works Consulting Limited, Infinity Works Holdings Limited, Infinity Works Management Limited, Infinity Works Midco Limited, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Innotec International EAD, Innotec International S.p. z.o.o., Innotec Marketing GmbH, Innotec Marketing International Ireland Limited, Innotec- Marketing Spain S.L, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., International Biometric Group LLC, International Biometric Group UK Limited, Intrepid, Intrepid Futureworks Sdn Bhd, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Technology Ltd, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, ItSafer Continuity Services S.L., JKD Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, K Comms Group Limited, KSC Studio LLC, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, King James Group, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Limited, Kogentix Singapore Pte Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LINKBYNET Indian Ocean (L.I.O) Ltd, LabAnswer, Lexta GmbH, Lexta UK Limited, Lien par le reseau Inc, Lien par le reseau infrastructures Inc, Lin Bo (Shanghai) Network Technology Co. Ltd., Link By Net SAS, Link By Net SRL, Link By Net Vietnam Company Limited, Linkbynet East Asia Ltd, Linkbynet Singapore Pte Ltd., Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, Lumenup S.A., MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision LLC, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte Ltd, Mackevision UK Limited, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd, Maihiro, Matter, Maud Corp Pty Ltd, Maxamine International, Measuretek LLC, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing LLC, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mistral Wind Operations  Servicos Empresariais Unipessoal Lda., MobGen, Mortgage Cadence LLC, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, Mudano Limited, Myrtle Consulting Group LLC, N3, N3 (Dalian) Business Consulting Co. Ltd., N3 Brazil Consultoria em Marketing Ltda, N3 Germany GmbH, N3 LLC, N3 North America LLC, N3 Results Australia Pty Ltd, N3 Results Ireland Limited, N3 Results Japan G.K., N3 Results Limited, N3 Results Malaysia Sdn Bhd, N3 Results Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., N3 Results S.A.S., N3 Results Singapore Pte Ltd, N3 Results Unipessoal Lda, NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Nell'Armonia Israel Ltd, Nell'Armonia SAS, Nell'Participation SAS, NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda, New Energy Group, News Imaging LLC, NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage Pte Ltd, Northstream, Novetta Holdings LLC, Novetta LLC, Novetta Solutions LLC, Novetta Topco LLC, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Olikka Pty Ltd, Olympus Systems Corporation, Openmind, Openmind S.r..l., Openminded, Openminded SAS, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium AG, Orbium Consulting Limited, Orbium Inc., Orbium Ltd, Orbium Pte Ltd, Orbium Pty Ltd, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PLM Systems S.r.l, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, PacificLink Group, Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production A/S, Pegasus Production K/S, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pollux Automation Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pollux Canada Inc, Pollux S.A.S., Pollux USA LLC, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Limited, Pramati Technologies Europe Limited, Pramati Technologies Private Limited, Presence of IT Workforce Management North America LLC, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Limited, Procurian Inc., Prof. Homburg GmbH, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co. Ltd., RBCP Fund 1-A Vapor Blocker LLC, RBCP Platform Vapor Blocker I LLC, REPL Consulting LLC, REPL Consulting Limited, REPL Digital Limited, REPL Group K.K., REPL Group Pty Ltd, REPL Group Worldwide Limited, REPL Pte Ltd, REPL Software Limited, REPL Technology Limited, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Root LLC, Rothco, Rothco Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Salt Solutions, Sandbox Studio LLC, Sapling Bidco Limited, Sapling Midco Limited, Sapling Topco Limited, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Search Technologies BPO Inc, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Securiview SAS, Sentelis, Sentor Managed Secuirty Services AB, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Seven Seas Business Ventures LLC, Shackleton, Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton S.L.U., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., SigInt Technologies LLC, Silveo, Silveo Consulting India Private Limited, Simian Pty Ltd, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., Sirvart S.A., Sistemes Consulting S.L., Skylink SAS, Soltians Limited, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Somers Ventures Ireland Limited, Somers Ventures LLC, Spacelink SAS, Storm Digital, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Synership LLC, Systor AG, T.A. Cook, TXF LLC, Tambourine, TargetST8, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Ltd, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Tquila, Trivadis, Trivadis AG, Trivadis Austria GmbH, Trivadis Denmark AS, Trivadis Germany GmbH, Trivadis Holding AG, Trivadis Partner AG, Trivadis Services AG, Trivadis Services SRL, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Vector Acquisition Company LLC, Vector Topco LLC, Verax Solutions, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd, Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, WaveStrike LLC, White Cliffs Consulting LLC, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wise Partners SAS, Wolox, Wolox Colombia S.A.S, Wolox LLC, Wolox Mexico S.R.L de C.V., Wolox S.A., Wolox SpA, Workforce Insight, Workforce Insight LLC, Yesler, Yesler LLC, Yesler Limited, Yesler Singapore Pte Ltd, Zag, Zag Australia Pty Ltd, Zag Limited, Zag USA LLC, Zebra Worldwide Australia Pty Ltd, Zebra Worldwide Group Limited, Zebra Worldwide Media Pty Ltd, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines Inc, Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc, Zestgroup, Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, solid-serVision.com GmbH, and umlaut.

Read More
Service Corporation International provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses. The company also provides professional services related to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles; arranging and directing services; and removal, preparation, embalming, cremation, memorialization, and travel protection, as well as catering services. In addition, it offers funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise. Further, the company's cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, such as developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options; and sells cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placements, graveside services, merchandise installations, and interments, as well as offers preneed cemetery merchandise and services. Service Corporation International offers its products and services under the Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society brands. As of December 31, 2021, it owned and operated 1,471 funeral service locations; and 488 cemeteries, including 299 funeral service/cemetery combination locations covering 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The company was incorporated in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
AptarGroup, Inc. provides a range of dispensing, sealing, and material science solutions primarily for the beauty, personal care, home care, prescription drug, consumer health care, injectable, and food and beverage markets. The company operates through three segments: Pharma, Beauty + Home, and Food + Beverage. The Pharma segment provides pumps for nasal allergy treatments; and metered dose inhaler valves for respiratory ailments, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in pharmaceutical market; elastomer for injectable primary packaging components; and active material science solutions. The Beauty + Home segment primarily sells pumps, closures, aerosol valves, accessories, and sealing solutions to the personal care and home care markets; and pumps and decorative components to the beauty market. The Food + Beverage segment offers dispensing and non-dispensing closures, elastomeric flow control components, spray pumps, and aerosol valves to the food and beverage markets. It sells its products through own sales force, as well as independent representatives and distributors in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The company has a strategic partnership with PureCycle Technologies LLC to develop ultra-pure recycled polypropylene into dispensing applications; and a collaboration with Sonmol for developing a digital therapies and services platform targeting respiratory and other diseases. AptarGroup, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..

Read More
07/26/2017

Earlier this month, Chipotle temporarily closed one of its stores in Sterling, Virginia after reports came in that some of its customers were getting ill. Health officials said that the symptoms were consistent with norovirus, but the specific cause of the outbreak was not yet clear.

On Monday, health officials confirmed that a second person who visited the restaurant had norovirus. In all, 135 people have reported becoming ill after visiting the location between July 13 and July 16, but no such incidents have been reported since it reopened on July 19.

Two ill patrons have tested positive for the same strain of norovirus. Based on symptoms reported and these preliminary laboratory results, the cause of the outbreak is believed to be norovirus, though the specific source of the norovirus has not yet been identified, said Dr. David Goodfriend of the Health Department.

More bad news for Chipotle

While the investigation has not yet concretely tied the outbreak to Chipotle, this latest news will be a bitter pill to swallow for the beleaguered company. Back in 2015, a multi-state E. coli outbreak linked to the company infected 55 people in 11 states, leading to 21 hospitalizations.

While that was bad enough, another smaller E. coli outbreak in three states was soon tied to the company, which led to five illnesses and one hospitalization. Thankfully, no consumer deaths were attributed to either outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points out that norovirus affects nearly 20 million people each year, and that it is usually contracted after close contact with infected people or by eating contaminated food. The agency says that 70% of cases from contaminated food can be attributed to infected food workers, but taking common food safety precautions and not working when sick can often mitigate the threat.

Sickness from norovirus usually manifests within 12-48 hours after a consumer has been exposed and includes symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, cramps, diarrhea, malaise, fever, and muscle pain.

The Loudon County Health Department encourages consumers who have these symptoms to report it immediately. Officials say that any person with questions or concerns about this particular outbreak can contact the department at health@loudon.gov.
Mario Ferreira, who is behind the effort to build a series of expedition ships at the WestSea Yard, is hoping his cruise ship newbuilding focus benefits the Portuguese economy.

According to a statement Ferreira posted on Facebook, he hopes to underline the Made in Portugal aspect of his new ships, which will be chartered out under the Mystic Cruises and Mystic Invest umbrella.

The 200-passenger World Explorer, the first in a series of vessels, will be in Antarctica for the 2018-2019 season sailing for Quark Expeditions.

She will operate for Nicko Cruises in summer 2019, according to the company.

Along with our rich maritime history, never has Portugal tried to go so far in difficulty and technological sophistication, said Ferreira, who is CEO of Douro Azul, a river cruise line.

With the commitment of several companies, national and international,, and in particular with the help and support of the technology developed by Rolls-Royce Marine, we can now state with great certainty this will be one of the most modern and sophisticated expedition ships, he added.
CACI International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides expertise and technology to enterprise and mission customers in support of national security missions and government modernization/transformation in the intelligence, defense, and federal civilian sectors. It operates in two segments, Domestic Operations and International Operations. The Domestic Operations segment offers information solutions and services to the U.S. federal government agencies and commercial enterprises in the areas, such as digital solutions, C4ISR, cyber and space, engineering services, enterprise IT, and mission support. The International Operations segment provides a range of IT services, proprietary data, and software products to the commercial and government customers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and internationally. The company designs, implements, protects, and manages secure enterprise IT solutions. It also offers software-defined, full-spectrum cyber, electronic warfare, and counter-unmanned aircraft system solutions; and platform integration and modernization and sustainment, as well as system engineering, naval architecture, training and simulation, and logistics engineering. In addition, the company provides enterprise cloud solutions for classified and unclassified networks; and intelligence support that ensures continuous advances in collection, analysis, and dissemination to optimize decision-making. CACI International Inc was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
South and Central America-focussed upstream gas company Echo Energy announced the signature of a technical evaluation agreement (TEA) for the Rio Salado Block, onshore Bolivia on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the TEA between itself, Pluspetrol and YPFB (Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos) was signed on 25 July 2017 at the YPFB 2017 Gas & Oil Congress in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

It said the agreement would enable the companies to progress a technical evaluation of the block over the next 12 months.

On completion of the technical evaluation, the companies would have the opportunity to negotiate a commercial agreement with YPFB which would define a work programme, and was reportedly likely to include the drilling of an exploration well.

We are delighted to announce the signature of the technical evaluation agreement, further strengthening our relationship with our partner Pluspetrol and YPFB, the state oil company in Bolivia, said chief executive Fiona MacAulay.

This agreement enables the company to evaluate the highly prospective and potentially multi TCF exploration area which extends around the Huayco block.

Echo said the Rio Salado Block, which surrounds the Huyaco Block, contains an extension of the structure previously identified by the company.

As a result, the firm;s seismic reprocessing programme for the Huayco Block would now be extended to incorporate additional data over the Rio Salado acreage for a minimal incremental cost over the greater Huayco area.

The acquisition of an interest by Echo Energy in Rio Salado remained contingent on final commercial terms being agreed, and accordingly the company confirmed it does not have an interest or the right to acquire any interest at this stage during the non-exclusive evaluation period.

This is the second of many pre-identified strategic transactions in Bolivia demonstrating Echo's ability to move quickly and deliver on its stated strategy, Fiona MacAulay added.

This is an exciting time for the Company and I look forward to updating the market in due course.
Thousands of people in south-eastern France have been forced to evacuate as wildfires continued to rage for a second day on Wednesday.

At least 10,000 people fled raging fires near Bormes-les-Mimoses in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region of the country, a day after France had requested help from its European neighbours to tackle flames which had broken out, including near the resort of Saint Tropez.

Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to tackle fires in the region, with a several dozen emergency services reported by authorities to have been injured or affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday.

Around 4,000 hectares of land had already burned along the Mediterranean coast and on the island of Corsica, while other wildfires have hit amid dry conditions as far and wide as Portugal, Italy and Albania.

The wildfires began blazing along Frances Mediterranean coast two days ago, with flames reaching the edge of Saint-Tropez.

Even 80km inland, forests caught light, with local officials blaming the authorities for failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making forests a fire hazard.
Engineer GKN reported a jump in first-half profits on Wednesday as it said it has closed its UK defined pension scheme, but margins were down across the board and the performance of the aerospace division failed to impress.

In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit rose to 559m from 182m in the same period a year ago, as sales increased to 4.9bn fro 4.2bn. The company upped its interim dividend by 5% to 3.1p per share.

GKN also said that it has closed its UK defined pension scheme and plans to inject a lump sum of 250m to address the deficit and reduce future deficit recovery payments.

In the aerospace division, the company saw organic sales growth of 1%, as a 3% drop in commercial sales was offset by a 15% increase in military. The driveline business saw organic sales growth of 8%, helped by the group's broad geographic footprint and increased content per vehicle, while the powder metallurgy unit saw organic sales growth of 4%.

Margins were down across all three divisions. The margin in aerospace fell to 9.3% from 9.9% in 2016, partly due to higher UK pension costs, while the trading margin in the Driveline business slipped to 7.8% from 7.9%. Powder Metallurgy saw a drop to 11.3% from 12.6%, reflecting principally the higher raw material surcharge and an investment in powder capability in China.

Chief executive Nigel Stein said: "We made progress in the first half and are on track for the full year. We are performing well against our key markets, demonstrating once again the strength of our businesses, strong market positions and leading technology. We continue to invest for growth and have made significant progress to address our UK pension deficit.

"Our focus on innovation in key areas such as electrified drivetrains, additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0 is paying dividends and underpins our confidence in the longer term.

"2017 is expected to be another year of growth. Our reputation for technological leadership in our key markets, our focus on driving flexibility and productivity through our manufacturing plants and our market leading position in all three divisions mean we are well placed for the future."

At 1010 BST, the shares were down 1.3% to 322.60p, with some analysts suggesting that news of a ban on new diesel and petrol cars in the UK from 2040 could be weighing on the stock.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nicholas Hyett pointed to the lower margins and the fact that the performance in the aerospace unit was "fine rather than spectacular" as possible reasons behind the move lower.

He added: "The group is alive to the dangers a shift to electric vehicles might pose and an early move into the market has given it a strong position, with 400,000 systems already delivered to the groups global customer base.
Results from the NEAT study of more than 400 patients with HIV and concluded that switching to a regimen based on its dolutegravir medication was non-inferior to continuing existing HIV treatment regimens based on boosting protease inhibitors, because it maintained viral suppression and improved overall lipid profile in patients.

Michael Aboud, a GSK vice president and global medical lead for Dolutegravir, said as simply having HIV is a risk factor for premature cardiovascular disease, "so it is important for people with HIV and other CVD risk factors to have effective treatment options that avoid adding to that risk".

He said the NEAT-ID group on this study showed switching to a dolutegravir-based regimen not only maintained viral suppression in a population with HIV and high risk for CVD, but also improved their overall lipid profile.

GSK also announced positive results from another trial of dolutegravir carried out by ViiV Healthcare, of which the majority is owned by GSK, which concluded that there were significant and clinically-relevant differences in favour of the HIV medication, dolutegravir and that the boosted lopinavir HIV treatment would be discontinued.

This was because no subjects in the dolutegravir arm of the study failed treatment with either the enzyme integrase or the compound nucleoside.

John C Pottage, the chief scientific and medical officer of ViiV Healthcare, commented: "the initial results from DAWNING are important because they not only provide information that may help guide second-line treatment decisions in resource-limited settings, but also reaffirm the position of dolutegravir at the core of HIV care"

"We are working with investigators to ensure that dolutegravir can be provided to patients in the control arm and are looking forward to sharing the 48-week results, as soon as they will be available".
Sage Group reported slowing third quarter trading and guidance for the full year, as it put out a pair of announcements after hours on Tuesday that also included its largest ever acquisition.

The FTSE 100-listed accounting software group said organic revenue increased 6.3% in the third quarter, down from 7% in the second quarter and meaning the top line has grown 6.4% in the first nine months of the year.

Sage will pay 654m ($850m) cash and share options for California-based Intacct, which provides cloud-based financial management systems to a customer base of 'thousands' across North America.

Intacct's software and services are targeted at growing businesses looking for "process automation, seamless integration with their existing software, advanced features and a modern user experience".

Chief executive Stephen Kelly said: "Today we take another major step forward in delivering our strategy and we are thrilled to welcome Intacct into the Sage family.

"The acquisition of Intacct supports our ambitions for accelerating growth by winning new customers at scale and builds on our other cloud-first acquisitions, strengthening the Sage Business Cloud. Intacct opens up huge opportunities in the North American market, representing over half of our total addressable market."

Chief financial officer Steve Hare confirmed the acquisition of Intacct was expected to complete "within weeks".

"In addition to organic revenue we expect Intacct, Sage People (Fairsail) and Compass to add approximately 20m of revenue in this financial year."

For the existing Sage business, including North American Payments, organic revenue increased by 5.6% in the third quarter, down from 6.3% in the second, resulting in 5.7% growth for the nine months of its financial year to 30 June.

Management restated their guidance for the full year of at least 6% organic revenue growth including the contribution from North American Payments through to completion of the disposal and an underlying operating margin of at least 27% that takes account of any investments in Sage Intacct, Sage People and Compass.

Organic recurring revenue for the first nine months grew by 9.3%, down from 9.9% in the first half, driven by software subscription growth of 30.6%.

Software and software related services (SSRS) revenue shrank 5.9% for the first nine months of the year, an improvement on the 7.5% for the first six months, as management continue the migration to subscription as part of the strategy.

"North America is showing encouraging progress, driving growth through X3 and the cloud-enabled versions of the Sage 50 and the Sage 200 family," the company said in a statement.

While France's challenges continued due to a first-year premium being charged in prior years as customers were migrated to subscription, though if France is ignored organic revenue growth over nine months for the remaining business was 7.6% with recurring revenue growth of 11.1%.

"Performance for the year to date continues to be in line with our expectations and we remain confident of building on this performance in Q4, exiting the year with accelerating momentum," said Hare.

Net debt fell to 415m from 434m as at 31 March.
As part of a government strategy to improve air quality, Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health. The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the governments much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle. - Guardian

Almost 40% of corporate investments channelled away from authorities and into tax havens travel through the UK or the Netherlands, according to a study of the ownership structures of 98m firms. The two EU states are way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of being a preferred option for corporations who want to exploit tax havens to protect their investments. - Guardian

Metro Bank tabled plans to raise up to 278m through a share issue after experiencing "strong and accelerating organic lending growth", which had propelled it to its fourth straight quarterly profit. The challenger bank said lending rose 67pc year on year to 7.8bn in the three months ended June 30.  Telegraph

The Guardian has developed plans to erect a paywall around its website and apps if its existing membership scheme and appeals for donations do not meet financial targets amid upheaval in the news market. It is understood that the publisher has called in consultants to work on the details of compulsory subscription charges for some material, despite the growth of voluntary contributions. The proposals are "finished and ready to go", a source said.  Telegraph

Unilevers sale of its 6 billion spreads division looks set to begin in earnest after two of Americas biggest private equity firms teamed up to make an offer. Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Bain Capital are understood to have formed a consortium to construct a possible bid for the business, which includes Flora, Stork and I Cant Believe Its Not Butter among its brands.  The Times

Janet Yellen is in the running to serve a second term as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, President Trump said yesterday, completing a remarkable reversal of his position on the campaign trail last year. Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs banker who serves as chief economic adviser to the president, is also a candidate to run the central bank, Mr Trump said.  The Times
The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), an American Institute of Biological Sciences member society, fosters research, education, public awareness, and understanding of living organisms from molecules and cells to ecology and evolution. For this episode of BioScience Talks, we chatted with presenters and personnel from SICB's 2017 annual meeting, which was held earlier this year in New Orleans. At the meeting, researchers shared hundreds of findings that highlight the value of interdisciplinary, cooperative science integrated across scales, as well as new models and methodologies to enhance research and education.

Abstracts are now being accepted for the 2018 Annual SICB Meeting in San Francisco. See http://sicb.org/meetings/2018 for details.

To hear the whole discussion, visit this link for this latest episode of the BioScience Talks podcast.

###
In 1966, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist named Chan Robbins launched an international program designed to measure changes in bird populations using volunteers recruited to count birds on pre-set routes along country roads. The result, the North American Breeding Bird Survey or BBS, is still going strong more than five decades later. This month The Condor: Ornithological Applications is publishing a special set of research papers to honor the program's fiftieth anniversary.

Unassuming but visionary, Robbins had studied DDT's effects on birds--his reports were edited by Rachel Carson--and he wanted to devise a way of monitoring the health of the continent's bird populations on a large scale. The simple field protocols he developed, able to be carried out by volunteer birdwatchers, have remained largely the same since the program's inception. Today, there are more than 4100 survey routes spanning North America from Alaska to Newfoundland, Florida, and northern Mexico.

The BBS provides long-term data for 424 species, with more limited data for an additional 122. Since data collection began in the 1960s, significantly more species have been declining than increasing. Looking at patterns of change in groups of birds sharing common attributes can be especially useful; for example, only 8 of 24 grassland bird species have seen increases. However, in the short term the picture is slightly rosier--since the survey area was expanded in 1993, 56% of the species surveyed have showed positive trends. Today, modern statistical techniques are letting ornithologists glean more insight from BBS data than ever before.

"The BBS is the only source of long-term, multi-scale population change information for more than 500 species of North American birds," according to the USGS's John Sauer, who has worked with the BBS since 1986 and was one of the co-editors for the special section along with Keith Pardieck and Colleen Handel, also with the USGS. "BBS results have allowed conservationists to identify bird species and regions undergoing population declines, alerting the public and scientists to population changes and facilitating the development of initiatives to better understand declines."

The papers that make up the special section in The Condor include:

Prioritizing areas for conservation by combining six years of BBS data with remotely sensed environmental data to model the predicted distribution of seven grassland bird species in the Northern Great Plains based on their habitat needs.

Statistical approaches for model selection in BBS analyses.

Combining BBS with off-road surveys to estimate population changes for birds that breed in Alaska, where habitats are being rapidly altered due to climate change.

Using long-term BBS data to rank the vulnerability of more than 460 landbird species, set population objectives, and track progress toward meeting conservation goals.

Analyzing how well road-based BBS routes represent larger landscapes, using data from 2011 National Land Cover Database, with the conclusion that any land-cover-based roadside bias in BBS data is likely minimal.

Combining BBS data with separate demographic data to estimate the size of the Atlantic Flyway's Wood Duck population.

Plus, a review of how the BBS has informed North American bird conservation since its inception.

The papers grew out of a research symposium held at last summer's North American Ornithological Conference in Washington, DC, to commemorate 50 years of the BBS. "The BBS provides a fundamental tool for understanding breeding bird distribution and abundance. We're pleased to publish these papers that celebrate Chan Robbins's vision and the hard work of thousands of volunteers through the latest results and analyses," said Philip Stouffer, Editor-in-Chief of The Condor: Ornithological Applications.

###

The special section on the Breeding Bird Survey will be available July 26, 2017, at http://www.bioone.org/toc/cond/119/3. All of the papers will be open access.

About the journal: The Condor: Ornithological Applications is a peer-reviewed, international journal of ornithology. It began in 1899 as the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Club, a group of ornithologists in California that became the Cooper Ornithological Society, which merged with the American Ornithologists' Union in 2016 to become the American Ornithological Society.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (July 26, 2017) -- The nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) announced today that it has received a competitive award of up to $25 million over five years from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The award will expedite the potential licensure and market introduction of a new HIV prevention microbicide product for women, who continue to be disproportionately affected by the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Specifically, the award will support the potential rollout of IPM's monthly dapivirine vaginal ring, which IPM developed under previous USAID awards, along with support from other donors. IPM designed the flexible silicone ring to offer a discreet, long-acting HIV prevention option for women. Last year, the ring became the first microbicide shown to reduce women's HIV risk in two large concurrent clinical trials, The Ring Study and ASPIRE.

IPM recently submitted the product for review to the European Medicines Agency. With USAID's support, IPM also plans to submit applications to the South African Medicines Control Council, the US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory authorities in African countries where women face the highest risk. The new award will also help finance IPM's work to conduct market research and establish partnerships to ensure the monthly microbicide ring is available and affordable to women, pending regulatory approval.

This award will also support IPM's plans to continue DREAM -- an open-label extension study that is now providing the dapivirine ring to former Ring Study participants and to young women at high risk who are using the product for the first time. The DREAM study is an important part of IPM's continuing efforts to understand barriers to HIV prevention product use and how to help women to overcome them.

Other ongoing clinical research on the ring includes a similar open-label study called HOPE, which includes former ASPIRE participants, as well as a study called REACH set to begin later this year that will assess ring use among young women and adolescent girls in four African countries. Both studies are supported by the US National Institutes of Health.

"Today's news is critical to offering women potentially lifesaving new microbicides like the dapivirine ring," said Dr. Zeda Rosenberg, IPM's founder and CEO. "We applaud USAID's leadership in championing HIV prevention innovations that could provide women with the options they need to overcome urgent threats to their health."

HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. In sub-Saharan Africa, women make up 60 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS, and young women are as much as three times more likely than young men to become infected.

The USAID award will also help speed the development of, and the regulatory process for, a next-generation product -- a three-month dapivirine-only ring that would offer women greater convenience and reduce the ring's annual cost because women would only need four rings per year.

Dapivirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor that works by blocking HIV's ability to replicate itself inside a healthy cell. IPM holds an exclusive worldwide license for dapivirine from Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and holds royalty-free licenses for eight other ARVs from five major pharmaceutical partners. These licenses help ensure that women in low-resource settings have affordable access to future microbicides.

Today's announcement follows four previous awards from USAID, bringing the institution's total committed investment in IPM to date up to $91 million. IPM also receives generous support from the Flanders Department of Foreign Affairs, Irish Aid, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the KfW Development Bank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, UK aid from the United Kingdom government, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

###

About IPM: IPM is a nonprofit organization that developed the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring, and is dedicated to developing other new HIV prevention tools and sexual and reproductive health technologies for women, and making them available in developing countries. Our partnerships with public, private and civil society bring scientific ingenuity, political will and financial resources to bear on developing and delivering products designed to have significant public health impact. IPM has offices in the United States, South Africa and Belgium. Visit us at http://www.IPMglobal.org.
Since 2010, MIT Hacking Medicine has grown from a one-time event to a global brand, with more than 80 healthcare hackathons being hosted this year, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Quito, Ecuador. The programs are open to everyone, but are particularly popular with 20- to 30-something engineers, doctors, researchers, and entrepreneurs who form teams under mentorship and identify healthcare issues to solve. At least 15 groups have started companies and raised more than $100 million in venture funding after meeting at a Hacking Medicine event. In a commentary published July 26 in the journal Cell Systems, the organizers describe how their model stands apart from typical hackathons.

"The short- and medium-term gains in healthcare are not going to be from one-off Thomas Edisons doing their own thing to invent the light bulb," says senior author Christopher Lee, a former engineer-turned-scientist at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. "Everything is so multi-disciplinary now that you need to know where you run short of expertise and complement your skill sets through collaboration."

A healthcare hackathon follows a four-phase approach: identification, description, alteration, and implementation. At the start of the weekend, each group chooses to work on a pain point that one of the participants brings up from their day-to-day experience working in healthcare (e.g., patients are waiting over an hour to see their doctors, children are accidently pulling out wires next to their hospital bed). Once selected, the team interviews relevant people who are affected by the problem and researches existing solutions. They develop prototypes that solve problems they've identified and then compete for endorsement from mentors and judges.

Some of the ventures that have so far evolved from these meetings include PillPack (prescription adherence), CAKE (end-of-life care), Augmented Infant Resuscitator (improved bag-valve-mask for neonates), Perfect Latch (breast pump design), Arsenal Health (patient scheduling), and Podimetrics (diabetic foot ulcers). Other former participants go on to work on research or non-profit projects such as mobile diagnostics applications, ultrasound probes, and electronic health record automation tools.

Lee emphasizes the social and academic values of the hackathons, which help participants meet like-minded individuals and learn how to innovate. "Our goal isn't for our event to launch companies, it's to teach people to incorporate design thinking and user feedback--or how to conduct an interview so that you know what you're designing is hitting the right levers," he says. "We see ourselves as an education program that all the MIT Hacking Medicine community members have put a lot of love into."

MIT Hacking Medicine, which mostly covers the New England area, has been involved in about a quarter of the healthcare hackathon events that now take place around the world. In addition to university- and academic-sponsored events, the group also helps healthcare technology groups and institutions design accelerators and incubators and helps hospitals and pharmaceutical companies host internal hackathons.

MIT Hacking Medicine recently published a free handbook that serves as a resource for anyone looking to host these events in their community. Lee recommends hackathon planners raise money for space, prizes, food, and of course, coffee. Due to the popularity of the events, it sometimes is necessary to use an application system to screen for participants.

"Research is all about being out there and being totally new, and that's great, but at the same time, we have such a wealth of problems to solve today, right now," Lee says. "We are showing scientists and physicians that no matter what they are working on, they can be an entrepreneur and incorporate the design process without getting an MBA or being a consultant in a previous life. People come to our events and feel like they can do this."

###

Cell Systems, Gubin et al.: "A Systems Approach to Healthcare Innovation using The MIT Hacking Medicine Model" http://www.cell.com/cell-systems/fulltext/S2405-4712(17)30084-4

Cell Systems (@CellSystemsCP), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal featuring papers that provide, support, or apply systems-level understanding in the life sciences and related disciplines. Research describes novel discoveries, milestone achievements, applied research, translational findings, broadly useful tools or resources, or insights into the use of technology. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell-systems. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Despite the millions companies spend to gather information about customer satisfaction, senior managers often fail to understand those customers' expectations.

Neil A. Morgan, professor and PetSmart Distinguished Chair of Marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, and four co-authors of a recent journal article present a huge disconnect between managers and customers in terms of understanding what drives customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The researchers used data from 70,000 American Customer Satisfaction Index surveys and compared it with responses to the same questions posed to 1,068 marketing managers and those in customer-facing roles at the American Customer Satisfaction Index-measured companies, predominately Fortune 500 firms.

Their results show that managers in a wide cross-section of industries often overestimate their customers' satisfaction. This leads them to rely on unrealistic expectations when making marketing decisions and allocating resources to address marketplace issues.

"Clearly there's been a communication breakdown," Morgan said. "Either the messages aren't being disseminated, or they aren't being understood within organizations. Otherwise, managers would have a better understanding of both the level and drivers of dissatisfaction among customers.

"That means that there are customer satisfaction problems that are not being solved, because managers don't know or don't believe that they exist," he added. "Even if they did, they try fixing the wrong things."

The paper, "Do Managers Know What Their Customers Think and Why," appears in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Most of the large consumer-focused firms in the study sample have customer-satisfaction monitoring and feedback systems in place and invest heavily in them. Morgan believes that managers aren't being exposed to the customer feedback data or they aren't understanding it accurately.

"These overly optimistic managers are likely to miss trouble signs when they appear," the researchers wrote. "This is compounded by managers significantly underestimating the proportion of customers who have complained about the firm's products or services in the recent past.

Inaccurate understanding of what drives customers' perceptions of products and services hampers a company's ability to react to an issue. Even when managers recognize a need to improve customers' perceptions, they may fail to do so in a way that leads to the desired outcomes.

For example, the survey results indicate that managers are more likely to underinvest in raising customer quality perceptions as a way to enhance customer satisfaction.

"Our findings may also provide an explanation for overemphasis on cost-cutting and efficiency observed in firms' strategies relative to that on quality improvements or achieving differentiation," the study said. "Where managers overestimate their own customer perception of the firm's performance, cutbacks that undermine the quality of service, for example, may seem less dangerous than they really are."

"There seems to be a belief in lots of companies -- and it's kind of an urban myth -- that most people who are unhappy won't complain," Morgan added. "Therefore, the complaints that you get are not representative of the level of satisfaction that exists among general customers. This data suggests that they shouldn't be treating complaints as something different. They should be used as part of an overall customer feedback system."

Customer satisfaction is a significant factor on the bottom line, and previous studies have found that customer complaints impact stock returns.

"For managers, the results of our study should serve as a wake-up call that all is not well with most firms' customer satisfaction and complaint monitoring systems," the researchers wrote. "Despite often being the single biggest line-item of most firms' market research expenditures, existing customer feedback systems are not performing an effective management control role."

###

Other authors of the research paper are G. Tomas Hult of Michigan State University, Forrest Morgeson III of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Robert Smith of the University of Maryland and Sunil Mithas of CFI Group.
WASHINGTON, DC -- This year's top mathematics educators were honored at for their dedication to teaching the next generation of quantitative thinkers with the mathematical skills to tackle real-world problems at the Mathematical Association of America MathFest in Chicago on July 27. The awards honor mathematics teaching and the authors of education materials used in the classroom.

"The MAA values dedicated mathematics education to advance the understanding of mathematics and its impact on our world. The educators honored today set the standard for inspiring and teaching the next generation of mathematicians," said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA.

Henry L. Alder Awards:

Each year the MAA honors beginning college or university faculty whose teaching has been highly effective and successful in teaching undergraduate mathematics. This year the Henry L. Alder Award goes to Steven Klee, professor at Seattle University, who is known for seamlessly incorporating undergraduate research into his classroom curriculum and mentoring student researchers who go on to publish and present their work. The second Alder Award recipient is Mary Beisiegel, professor at Oregon State University, for her superb teaching, cultivating engaging classrooms, and her work building up professional development among her teaching peers,

Mary P. Dolciani Award:

The 2017 Mary P. Dolciani Award winner is Tatiana Shubin, professor at San Jose State University, for her devotion to to mathematical education at the K-12 student level. Shubin has dedicated her life to bringing Math Circles to new communities, particularly indigenous populations. Her work developing the Navajo Math Circles and the Math Teachers' Circle Network are just two of her distinctive projects.

Daniel Solow Author's Award:

The Daniel Solow Author's Award is a brand new recognition for author(s) of undergraduate mathematics teaching materials. The first ever recipient of this award is Ted Sundstrom, professor at Grand Valley State University, for his textbook Mathematical Reasoning: Writing and Proof. Sundstrom is honored for the book's impact on undergraduate education in mathematics as a resource for educators to help bridge the transition between mathematics courses.

###

About MAA

The Mathematical Association of America is the world's largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. We accelerate the understanding of our world through mathematics because mathematics drives society and shapes our lives. Learn more at maa.org.
Nobody will deny it: science is very complex. But it does not mean that only a select few should be able to grasp scientific concepts. Many recent efforts have been directed towards involving the public in the scientific process and broadening access to scientific data. Consistent with this approach, scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) just published their research on ADHD in a most unusual academic journal: the Frontiers for Young Minds is an electronic scientific journal whose primary audience comprises children from elementary and junior high schools. Moreover, children are also involved in the fact-checking process necessary for any respected scientific journal, including the thorough peer-review of submitted articles.

In this case, the 'Champions of Science' at the Chabot Space and Science Center, California, USA - their ages ranging from 12 to 15 years -- performed the peer-review of the collaborative research by the OIST Human Developmental Neurobiology Unit, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the D'Or Institute for Research and Education in Brazil. Supported by trained scientists, the young teenagers checked the robustness of the science but also the quality and clarity of the language for everyone to understand the scientific article, titled "Focusing is hard! Brain responses to reward in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder". The young reviewers then provided their feedback to the authors.

The process seems even more appropriate with the topic at hand being the influence of ADHD on children's behavior. More precisely, the scientists long-term plan is to not only understand the nature of ADHD, but to understand how ADHD affects brain processes and how this translates into everyday behavior.

"Kids with ADHD are often misunderstood and thought as 'problem kids' in school and by parents," commented Dr. Emi Furukawa of OIST. "They tend to have more difficulties in everyday activities, sometimes remaining through adulthood, and we want to find out why that might be."

Even if pharmacological treatment is already available, its efficiency is limited due to our lack of understanding of the neurobiology of ADHD.

"We do have some behavioral and pharmaceutical interventions reducing the symptoms of ADHD, but we do not know exactly why they sometimes work and sometimes don't, along with the potential side effects as well," added Dr. Furukawa. "So we want to know exactly what might be happening in the brains of children with ADHD to better refine the interventions for them."

The scientists looked at the part of the brain called the striatum - pronounced "strai-ay-tuhm" as the article explains to the young audience -- which is represented as the reward/pleasure center of the brain.

In short, a group of college students with or without ADHD completed a simple task in an fMRI scanner that measured activity in the striatum when waiting for a reward and when the reward was delivered. Through the fMRI brain scans, the study revealed the striatum of students without ADHD to be much more active in anticipation of the reward, potentially helping to focus onto the task at hand knowing reward was likely to follow. Students with ADHD however displayed the opposite pattern: receiving the reward triggered higher activity in the striatum compared to the anticipation the prize. This may negatively impact the ability of children with ADHD to stay focused if there is no reward immediately at hand.

"As psychologists, we have known we have to reward children with ADHD more frequently," added Dr. Furukawa. "But parents and teachers have a hard time doing so because they wonder 'why do I have to more often reward children who misbehave?'"

As counter-intuitive as more frequent rewards for children who are not following directions might seem, Dr. Furukawa thinks that providing neurobiological-based explanations about ADHD might make more sense to caregivers or parents and help encourage them to implement a behavior management strategy that benefits children with ADHD.

In any case, Dr. Furukawa acknowledged having children "peer-reviewing" the research paper was very beneficial. "They came up with questions that none of the scientific reviewers thought to ask, asking about another part of the brain that lit up in both the ADHD and control groups and wondering about its function. Children have a different way at looking at the world, which as a scientist sometimes makes you re-think the way you explain your research," she concluded. "This system also facilitates fostering the next generation of scientists."

###
Osaka University research team modifies the surface texture of both the front and back of silicon solar cells to cheaply enhance light harvesting and boost power conversion efficiency

Osaka, Japan - Power generation cost using solar panels depends on getting as much electricity out of the panels as possible while keeping the manufacturing costs low. Anyone who has considered installing solar panels might be aware of the trade-off between efficiency and the initial cost of the panels. Engineers and researchers are finding new ways to obtain power out of solar modules, but doing so without adding to their costs is becoming more and more difficult.

Now a team of scientists at Osaka University has taken a step closer to making inexpensive solar cells that can deliver the same high efficiency as more complex and expensive cells.

"Unmodified silicon solar cells throw away light energy in the form of reflection, so most solar cells have some kind of antireflective coating," explains first author Daichi Irishika. "To avoid using these extra coatings we fabricated a submicron structure using a simple wet treatment directly into the silicon surfaces to give the cell its own antireflective coating."

Antireflective coatings, similar to those used on reading glasses, can help to get more light into solar cells and boost their electricity output. However, these coatings are expensive to produce, especially for covering large areas.

The Osaka team has previously made low reflection silicon cells using a much cheaper process based on the surface structure chemical transfer (SSCT) method to fabricate so-called black silicon. Chemically treating the front side of silicon cells produces tiny submicron silicon structures, which prevent light reflection and give a black appearance. The team has also developed a method to passivate the submicron silicon structures with huge surface area to prevent the recombination loss by deposition of phosphosilicate glass followed by heat treatment. This method can simultaneously form pn-junction to separate photo-generated electrons and holes, and therefore, it isn't an additional process.

Building on their previous success, the Osaka team turned their attention to the back side of the silicon cells and created rougher light-trapping microstructures to capture even more infrared light.

Group leader Hikaru Kobayashi says, "Making very high efficiency solar cells is important but we should also consider the economics and practicality of any processes used to increase efficiency. The wet processes we have developed are simple yet effective, and our work with black silicon has real-world applications in making cost-effective silicon solar panels."

###

The article, "Improvement of Conversion Efficiency of Silicon Solar Cells by Submicron-Textured Rear Reflector Obtained by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching" was published in Solar RRL at DOI: 10.1002/solr.201700061
An agreement among WestGate Authority, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane), Purdue University and Purdue Research Foundation to pivot patented technologies developed for the U.S. Department of Defense has shown strong adaptability to serve other societal purposes in the public sector.

"Purdue and Crane are already doing this through our previous agreement, but this new expanded collaboration called Purdue@WestGate takes our commercialization, startup creation activities and educational opportunities to Southern Indiana," said Dan Hasler, chief entrepreneurial officer of the Purdue Research Foundation. "With this new partnership, Purdue now has a physical presence in the WestGate Technology Park facility where we can offer unparalleled services for entrepreneurs, innovators and collaborators."

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization signed an agreement in 2014 with NSWC Crane to co-market available technologies including a technology transfer collaboration in 2015, 2016 award for its technology transfer partnership and a 2017 technology showcase.

"Our ongoing relationship with Purdue has been beneficial for everyone involved," said Capt. Mark Oesterreich (O-strike), NSWC Crane's Commanding Officer. "Purdue's physical presence in the park should foster collaboration that will lead to support of both the region's and our innovation pipelines."

Examples of Crane technologies being marketed through Purdue include a real-time vehicle damage detection system to identify damage to aircraft, commercial vehicles and space-based systems and a signal transmission surveillance system to help first responders and others pick up RF signals and identify locations needing assistance on a digital map. Click here to view other available technologies based on NSWC Crane research and marketed through Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.

"The state of Indiana is a hotbed of innovation, commercialization and startup creation and combining resources and talent from Purdue, Crane and Southern Indiana will help move these life-changing technologies to the public at an even faster rate," Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger said. "We look forward to supporting even greater collaborations across the state that can build economic development and create more jobs for Hoosiers."

The Purdue and WestGate agreement includes startup creation assistance from Purdue Foundry; increased tech transfer support from Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization; and company incubation space and amenities from WestGate@Crane Technology Park and Purdue Research Park.

"The talent and opportunity is already well recognized in Southern Indiana, and we look forward to bringing the Purdue Foundry and its programming and networking opportunities to the area," said Greg Deason, senior vice president of Purdue Research Foundation and director of innovation and commercialization for the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Purdue University's Discovery Park. "Working with the WestGate Authority and Crane, we can expect a strong impact and expedient results from this collaboration."

WestGate Authority covers the WestGate@Crane Technology Park, a certified tri-county technology park located in Greene, Daviess and Martin counties, which includes the Battery Innovation Center. WestGate is the only multi-county tech park in Indiana.

"Purdue has several successful tech parks across Indiana and having them at WestGate is monumental for everyone in the area," said John Mensch, WestGate Authority president. "The whole region is excited for what this means in tech research and commercialization, economic growth and educational opportunities."

Purdue Polytechnic Institute will provide classes for degree or continuing education and Purdue's Krannert School of Management will establish an NSF Midwest I-Corps Node.

"The educational opportunities we plan to provide will complement the other initiatives and programs already being done or slated to begin," said Gary Bertoline, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. "We will focus on technology and innovation and include the location as part of the technology satellite programming we provide to nine other locations across Indiana."

The just published Purdue Foundry and Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization Startup Guide: WestGate Edition is available for innovators and entrepreneurs in the area. The 26-page booklet provides information on technology transfer law and policy, types of licensing agreements, entrepreneurial considerations, securing funding and additional resources.

Other partners with WestGate include the University of Southern Indiana's SwISTEM Resource Center, an equipment lending service located in the technology park, and Radius Indiana, a regional partnership encompassing eight counties in South Central Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington.

"With this agreement, we are building on the hard work of many, many people throughout Southern Indiana and we all welcome Purdue to the area with its successful startup programs," said Becky Skillman, chairman of the board for Radius. "We look forward to the 'early wins' that will soon be generated from this collaboration."

###

About WestGate

Many professionals, elected officials, business leaders, and civic figures have worked for the development of a technology park adjacent to NSA Crane Division and CAAA. WestGate@Crane Technology Park collaborates with numerous tenant, and a variety of organizations and businesses such as local and state economic development corporations, NSWC Crane Division, I-69 Innovation Corridor, Indiana Office of Defense Development, and WorkOne. WestGate@Crane Tech Park is the ideal location for business to grow and thrive due to its very strategic location.

About NSWC Crane

NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with focus areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's warfighter. The Warfare Center's research and development efforts support the Warfighter by providing capabilities and resources to advance technologies for the military. The mission of NSWC Crane is to provide acquisition engineering, in-service engineering and technical support for sensors, electronics, electronic warfare and special warfare weapons.

About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. Purdue Research Foundation manages the office. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. Managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Foundry received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.
Amphibians, reptiles, mammals -- all of them communicate via acoustic signals. And humans are able to assess the emotional value of these signals. This has been shown in a new study conducted by researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, in collaboration with colleagues from Alberta, Canada, and Vienna, Austria, in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B". They interpreted these findings as evidence that there might be a universal code for the vocal expression and perception of emotions in the animal kingdom. Previous studies had demonstrated that humans are capable of identifying emotions in the voices of different mammals. The new study results have been expanded to include amphibians and reptiles.

The team headed by Dr Piera Filippi, currently at the University of Aix-Marseille and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, included, amongst others, three academics from Bochum: philosophy scholar Prof Dr Albert Newen, biopsychologist Prof Dr Dr h. c. Onur Gunturkun and assistant professor Dr Sebastian Ocklenburg.

Animal voices for different classes of vertebrates

Participants in the study included 75 individuals whose native language was English, German or Mandarin. They listened to audio recordings of nine different species of land-living vertebrates in the classes mammals, amphibians and reptiles, with the latter including birds and other reptiles.

Participants were able to distinguish between high and low levels of arousal in the acoustic signals of all animal classes. To do so, they mainly relied on frequency-related parameters in the signal.

"The findings suggest that fundamental mechanisms for the acoustic expression of emotions exist across all classes of vertebrates," conclude the authors. The evolutionary roots of this signal system might be shared by all vocalizing vertebrates. This finding goes in the direction of what Charles Darwin suggested more than a century ago, namely that acoustic expressions of emotion can be traced back to our earliest land-dwelling ancestors.

###

Audio files online

Recordings of low and high arousal calls of different animals can be found online at: http://news.rub.de/english/press-releases/2017-07-26-evolution-humans-identify-emotions-voices-all-air-breathing-vertebrates

Funding

The collaboration between Piera Filippi and the researchers from Bochum was realised thanks to a fellowship that was awarded by the Center for Mind, Brain and Cognitive Evolution in Bochum.
HOUSTON - (July 26, 2017) - Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen to produce clean energy can be simplified with a single catalyst developed by scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston.

The electrolytic film produced at Rice and tested at Houston is a three-layer structure of nickel, graphene and a compound of iron, manganese and phosphorus. The foamy nickel gives the film a large surface, the conductive graphene protects the nickel from degrading and the metal phosphide carries out the reaction.

The robust material is the subject of a paper in Nano Energy.

Rice chemist Kenton Whitmire and Houston electrical and computer engineer Jiming Bao and their labs developed the film to overcome barriers that usually make a catalyst good for producing either oxygen or hydrogen, but not both simultaneously.

"Regular metals sometimes oxidize during catalysis," Whitmire said. "Normally, a hydrogen evolution reaction is done in acid and an oxygen evolution reaction is done in base. We have one material that is stable whether it's in an acidic or basic solution."

The discovery builds upon the researchers' creation of a simple oxygen-evolution catalyst revealed earlier this year. In that work, the team grew a catalyst directly on a semiconducting nanorod array that turned sunlight into energy for solar water splitting.

Electrocatalysis requires two catalysts, a cathode and an anode. When placed in water and charged, hydrogen will form at one electrode and oxygen at the other, and these gases are captured. But the process generally requires costly metals to operate as efficiently as the Rice team's catalyst.

"The standard for hydrogen evolution is platinum," Whitmire said. "We're using Earth-abundant materials -- iron, manganese and phosphorus -- as opposed to noble metals that are much more expensive."

The new catalyst also requires less energy, Whitmire said. "If you want to make hydrogen and oxygen, you have to put in energy, and the more you put in, the less commercially viable it is," he said. "You want to do it at the minimum amount of energy possible. That's a benefit of our material: The overpotential (the amount of energy required to trigger electrocatalysis) is small, and quite competitive with other materials. The lower you can get it, the closer you come to making it as efficient as possible for water splitting."

Graphene, the atom-thick form of carbon, is key to protecting the underlying nickel. One to three layers of graphene are formed on the nickel foam in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace, and the iron, manganese and phosphorus are added on top of that, also via CVD and from a single precursor.

Tests by Bao's lab compared nickel foam and the phosphide both with and without graphene in the middle and found the conductive graphene lowered charge-transfer resistance for both hydrogen and oxygen reactions.

"Nickel is one of the best catalysts to make graphene," said co-lead author Desmond Schipper, a Rice graduate student. "Essentially, we're using the nickel to help improve the nickel." He said the manganese adds a level of protection as well.

Whitmire said the material is scalable and should find use in industries that produce hydrogen and oxygen or by solar- and wind-powered facilities that can use electrocatalysis to store off-peak energy.

It may also be adapted to produce other advanced materials. "Our method could be widely applicable to a large number of metal phosphide materials for catalysts -- not just for water splitting, but for a range of things," he said.

"A critical factor is that we're able to make phase-pure materials with different compositions. Currently, people have very little control over the phase they get on a surface, and in many cases they get a mixture. When that happens, they don't know which phase is actually responsible for the catalysis. With our process, they can know."

###

Zhenhuan Zhao of the University of Houston and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, is co-lead author of the paper. Co-authors are Andrew Leitner, Jing-Han Chen and Zhiming Wang of Rice and Hari Thirumalai, Lixin Xie, Fan Qin, Kamrul Alam, Lars Grabow, Shuo Chen, Dezhi Wang and Zhifeng Ren of the University of Houston. Whitmire is a professor of chemistry and associate dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences at Rice. Bao is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston and an adjunct professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Supporting the research were Rice University, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Robert A. Welch Foundation. Computing resources were provided by the University of Houston uHPC cluster, the NSF-supported Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment and the Department of Energy Office of Science National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

Read the abstract at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221128551730441X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.07.027

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2017/07/26/triple-layer-catalyst-does-double-duty/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

David Ruth

713-348-6327

david@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu

Related materials:

Artificial photosynthesis steps into the light: http://news.rice.edu/2017/03/23/artificial-photosynthesis-steps-into-the-light-2/

Whitmire Research Group: http://wrg.rice.edu/Whitmire_Research_Group/Home.html

Bao Group: http://www2.egr.uh.edu/~jbao/

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0731_ENERGY-1-WEB-1lf8s20.jpg

A catalyst developed by Rice University and the University of Houston splits water into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for expensive metals like platinum. This electron microscope image shows nickel foam coated with graphene and then the catalytic surface of iron, manganese and phosphorus. (Credit: Desmond Schipper/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0731_ENERGY-2-WEB-1a69fww.jpg

A catalyst developed by Rice University and the University of Houston splits water into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for expensive metals like platinum. This electron microscope image shows nickel foam coated with graphene and then the catalytic surface of iron, manganese and phosphorus. (Credit: Desmond Schipper/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0731_ENERGY-3-WEB-1e7x5sf.jpg

A catalyst developed by Rice University and the University of Houston splits water into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for expensive metals like platinum. This electron microscope image shows nickel foam coated with graphene and then the catalytic surface of iron, manganese and phosphorus. (Credit: Desmond Schipper/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0731_ENERGY-4-WEB-16k41be.jpg

A film of high-surface-area nickel foam coated with graphene and a compound of iron, manganese and phosphorus serve as a water-splitting catalyst that can produce hydrogen and oxygen simultaneously. The material was created at Rice University and tested at the University of Houston. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0731_ENERGY-5-WEB-102z3oz.jpg

Desmond Schipper, left, and Kenton Whitmire. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
Even a single urban tree can help moderate wind speeds and keep pedestrians comfortable as they walk down the street, according to a new University of British Columbia study that also found losing a single tree can increase wind pressure on nearby buildings and drive up heating costs.

The researchers used remote-sensing laser technology to create a highly detailed computer model of a Vancouver neighbourhood down to every tree, plant and building. They then used computer simulation to determine how different scenarios -- no trees, bare trees, and trees in full leaf -- affect airflow and heat patterns around individual streets and houses.

"We found that removing all trees can increase wind speed by a factor of two, which would make a noticeable difference to someone walking down the street. For example, a 15 km/h wind speed is pleasant, whereas walking in 30 km/h wind is more challenging," said lead author Marco Giometto, who wrote the paper as a postdoctoral fellow in civil engineering at UBC.

Trees also moderated the impact of wind pressure on buildings, particularly when it goes through small gaps in and between buildings.

"Wind pressure is responsible for as much as a third of a building's energy consumption. Using our model, we found that removing all the trees around buildings drove up the building's energy consumption by as much as 10 per cent in winter and 15 per cent in summer," said Giometto.

The researchers compared the simulated scenarios against a decade of measured wind data from a 30-metre-tall research tower operated by UBC in the same Vancouver neighbourhood. They discovered that even bare trees in the winter months can moderate airflow and wind pressure, contributing to a more comfortable environment.

"Even bare branches play a role. Deciduous trees, which shed their leaves every year, reduce pressure loading on buildings throughout the year-it's not only evergreens that are important in the city," said Marc Parlange, who supervised the work while a professor of civil engineering at UBC.

The model, piloted last year, is the first to simulate a real urban neighbourhood in extreme detail, added study co-author and UBC geography professor Andreas Christen.

"Information from such models can improve weather forecasts in order to predict the effects of a storm on a building and pedestrian level," said Christen. "It could also help city planners in designing buildings, streets, and city blocks to maximize people's comfort and limit wind speed to reduce energy loss."

###

"Effects of trees on mean wind, turbulence and momentum exchange within and above a real urban environment" was published recently in Advances in Water Resources. Nicholas Coops, a professor of forestry and Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing at UBC, also contributed to the study.

Flickr images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubcpublicaffairs/albums/72157686609330636
When an infectious airborne illness strikes, some hospitals use negative pressure rooms to isolate and treat patients. These rooms use ventilation controls to keep germ-filled air contained rather than letting it circulate throughout the hospital. But, in the event of an epidemic, these rooms can quickly fill up.

Now, a team led by CU Boulder researchers has found a simple, cost-effective way for medical facilities to expand this technique to better prepare for disease outbreaks. By sealing off a whole hospital wing and adjusting the existing ventilation system, hospitals can dramatically increase their capacity to contain and treat large numbers of patients with airborne illnesses.

The new study was recently published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

"You can apply engineering approaches to reduce exposure to all sorts of air pollution," said lead author Shelly Miller, a professor in CU Boulder's Department of Mechanical Engineering and lead author of the new research. "I've been working quite a bit on how we keep infectious diseases from spreading throughout buildings and communities."

Under normal hospital conditions, airborne pathogens can escape patients' rooms and float around hallways, threatening to infect staff and patients. Epidemics of airborne illnesses, therefore, require quick planning to contain their spread.

When faced with the possibility of having to admit many infected patients at once, hospitals have traditionally purchased ventilation-controlled tents, which can cost millions of dollars. However, community hospitals often do not have the budget for such measures, forcing patients to travel to larger regional hospitals.

Miller and her collaborators thought they might be able to solve this problem by applying Miller's expertise in air pollution engineering controls. The researchers found a hospital in the San Francisco area with an existing plan for using a ward to control disease spread and motivated staff members interested in testing the plan.

Miller's team sealed off a 30-bed wing and set up a separate buffer room inside its fire doors, ensuring that the ward remained isolated from the rest of the hospital. Next, they reduced the supply of air to the ward by 60 percent and pumped out air inside the ward at the ventilation system's maximum capacity.

Because air was being sucked out faster than it was being brought in, the ward became negatively pressurized compared with the rest of the hospital.

For the next 24 hours, the scientists monitored air pressure sensors located at the entrances and inside the ward while the area continued its usual operation, with staff and patients periodically entering and exiting.

Throughout the entire 24-hour period, the ward stayed at a negative pressure. When doctors, staff and patients opened the doors to the ward, air rushed inside but--crucially--no air escaped into the rest of the hospital.

However, within the ward, it was hard to keep the patient rooms at a greater negative pressure than the hallways and offices. Miller said this means hospital staff would still have to wear protective equipment during a disease outbreak. Still, she considers the results promising.

"I think it could be pretty straightforward, and done pretty quickly, for a lot less than it takes to purchase these huge tents," Miller said.

Most hospitals already have plans for what to do during disease outbreaks. Now, they can incorporate negative pressure wards into these plans, too. Miller said it would just take some extra planning on the part of hospital staff and engineers. This would enable even small community hospitals to be ready for rapidly spreading airborne illnesses.

"I hope the impact of my research will be to improve the understanding of controlling airborne infections, and making sure we can keep people healthier," Miller said. "That's the real goal of my work. Airborne pollution causes people to get sick and die--how do we stop that?"

###
Theoretical astronomer Neal Katz at UMass Amherst has received a Fulbright to collaborate with South African colleagues to teach, study and guide observations on a new radio telescope with computer simulations to advance understanding of galaxy formation

AMHERST, Mass. - Theoretical astronomer Neal Katz at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a Fulbright Scholarship to collaborate with colleagues in South Africa to study, teach and help guide observations on a new radio telescope by performing computer simulation models that will advance understanding of galaxy formation.

The Fulbright Scholar program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, was established in 1946 and emphasizes science diplomacy and international research collaborations between American researchers and their colleagues around the world. Over the past few years, Katz says, an average of two have been awarded each year in astronomy.

Beginning in September, Katz will embark upon a series of three visits lasting a few months each to work with colleagues at the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and the South African Astronomical Observatory to create computer simulations modeling galaxy formation. They will also build a large new array of radio telescopes to detect hydrogen in distant galaxies. The Fulbright award will pay for his travel and local support in Cape Town.

Katz is no stranger to southern Africa. In fact, several years ago he drove across the continent with a telescope, stopping in many villages to let people look through it at the stars. "During that trip I made a lot of connections that helped with planning this research," he notes.

One of the more creative parts of his Fulbright study program will be for the first time incorporating some difficult-to-model processes in new, next-generation simulations of galaxy formation, Katz says. Galaxies are made of as many as 10 billion stars, but stars are a tiny fraction of a galaxy, the astronomer points out. Another big component that must be modeled is dark matter, something that is not ordinary or "baryonic" matter.

"By using computer simulations, we make a little model of the universe and we put in the physics we think is relevant," he explains. "This can be very technically challenging. We need to simulate a large enough model so it is statistically significant but we also need to achieve small resolution. This limits our ability to include everything that might be relevant, but if you get to include all the relevant physical processes you wouldn't need a model."

Thus, he adds, one of the main difficulties in understanding galaxy formation today is which processes to include, and how to include them, in the simulations. "Once we have a simulation ready to go, it will take months to run on the world's fastest supercomputers. Because they take so long we can't do a lot of parameter exploration, that is, tweaking the variables. The better the simulation, the more reliable your results will be."

Katz says the observational project, known as LADUMA, will be performed on a new radio telescope called MeerKAT. It is the precursor for an even large telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which he believes is the biggest technical project ever attempted in Africa and will take many years to complete. Instead of one large dish, the telescope will be built as a linked array of many smaller dishes spread over several countries. When finished in 10 or 20 years it will have an effective dish size of almost one square kilometer.

"It's a radio telescope that can detect hydrogen using a specific radio wavelength (21cm) to detect very distant galaxies," Katz explains. "It's very hard to detect individual galaxies so we will add images together from the different parts of the array. The trick of it is you have to add together the same types of galaxies, so the more you can refine the process the more precise you can be. That's where simulations come in. You add galaxies together in different ways until you get what looks like a refined group. It offers a superior way of including the same types."

Katz says, "By the time of my last visit, LADUMA data will be available and then we can actually use the simulations to figure out how to best analyze it."

As part of its mission to "expand and strengthen relationships between people of the United States and citizens of other nations," Fulbright Scholars are expected to give public talks, mentor students and engage with the host community in addition to their research and teaching?.

###
A Bronze Age wooden container found in an ice patch at 2,650m in the Swiss Alps could help archaeologists shed new light on the spread and exploitation of cereal grains following a chance discovery.

The team of archaeologists were expecting to find a milk residue left behind in the container -- perhaps from a porridge-type meal wolfed down by a hunter or herder making their way through a snowy Alpine pass.

But instead they discovered lipid-based biomarkers for whole wheat or rye grain, called alkylresorcinols.

The team say the discovery of these biomarkers in the residue could be used as a new tool to help archaeologists map and trace the development of early farming in Eurasia.

The domestication of plants, such as wheat, was one of the most significant cultural and evolutionary steps of our species, but direct evidence of their use in early culinary practices and economies has remained frustratingly elusive.

Plants quickly degrade in archaeological deposits therefore archaeologists are increasingly using molecular techniques to look for their remains.

Dr Andre Colonese, from BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, said : "We didn't find any evidence of milk, but we found these phenolic lipids, which have never been reported before in an archaeological artefact, but are abundant in the bran of wheat and rye cereals and considered biomarkers of wholegrain intake in nutritional studies."

"This is an extraordinary discovery if you consider that of all domesticated plants, wheat is the most widely grown crop in the world and the most important food grain source for humans, lying at the core of many contemporary culinary traditions.

"One of the greatest challenges of lipid analysis in archaeology has been finding biomarkers for plants, there are only a few and they do not preserve very well in ancient artefacts. You can imagine the relevance of this study as we have now a new tool for tracking early culinary use of cereal grains, it really is very exciting. The next step is to look for them in ceramic artefacts," Dr Colonese added.

The team combined microscopic and molecular analyses to identify lipids and proteins using gas chromatography mass spectrometry, a technique routinely applied to ceramic artefacts. Over the last 30 years, thousands of ceramic artefacts from Europe have been analyzed for their molecular content, most revealing evidence of milk and meat products, but hardly any evidence of cereals.

Dr Jessica Hendy, from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, said: "The evidence of cereals came from the detection of lipids, but also from preserved proteins. This analysis was able to tell us that this vessel contained not just one, but two types of cereal grains -- wheat and barley or rye grains.

Combining these two kinds of molecular analysis, along with microscopy, is strong evidence that cereals were being transported across this alpine pass."

"Detecting a molecular marker for cereals also has widespread implications for studying early farming. It enables us to piece together when and where this important food crop spread through Europe," Dr Hendy added.

Dr Francesco Carrer, from Newcastle University, said: "This evidence sheds new light on life in prehistoric alpine communities, and on their relationship with the extreme high altitudes. People travelling across the alpine passes were carrying food for their journey, like current hikers do. This new research contributed to understanding which food they considered the most suitable for their trips across the Alps."

###

The study involved collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, the Integrative Prahistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archaologie, Newcastle University, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford, and is published in Scientific Reports.
NEW YORK (July 25, 2017) - Central America's largest remaining forests are disappearing at a precipitous rate due to illegal cattle ranching, oil palm plantations, and other human-related activities, all of which are putting local communities and the region's wildlife species at high risk.

A new comprehensive study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) titled the "Human Footprint and Cow's Hoofprint Analysis" was presented this month for validation and analysis by indigenous groups, protected area agencies, and civil society organizations from nine countries. This spurred the development of a joint commitment known as "The Peten Declaration." Signed by 25 of the attending organizations, the declaration recognizes the causes of forest loss and commits to concrete actions to address them.

One of the most alarming discoveries made by the study's research team is that the three largest remaining forest blocks in Central America have been reduced in size by more than 23 percent in the past 15 years. The study was conducted by WCS in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Organization of American States to understand and protect Mesoamerica's last great forests. Data for the analysis was collected using satellite imagery, census data on people and cattle/agriculture, publications, interviews, and via a megaflyover expedition: an ambitious plane-based survey across the region's largest forests.

"The disappearance of huge swaths of forests over such a short time period has grave implications for the indigenous peoples in the region and the natural resources on which they depend," said Victor Hugo Ramos, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the WCS Mesoamerica program.

The rate of deforestation in Central America also threatens the survival of iconic species including jaguars, tapirs, and scarlet macaws. The white-lipped peccary, an important keystone species for the forests of Central America, is so threatened it may soon become extinct in the region. Traveling in large herds in search of fruit and other food in large forest tracts, white-lipped peccaries serve as both an indicator of forest health and connectivity and a crucial prey species for jaguars. The white-lipped peccary has been extirpated from 87 percent of its historical range in Mesoamerica, and is now only found in a few of the region's largest remaining forests.

Large-scale illegal cattle ranching, much of it taking place within protected areas and indigenous territories, has been determined to be the principal cause of deforestation. This illegal activity is sometimes connected to drug trafficking and money laundering.

"We, the indigenous people, are the guardians of the Mesoamerican biospheres who have cared for and protected them for thousands of years," said Taymond Robins of the Nacion Mayangna, an indigenous nation managing 1 million hectares in Nicaragua. "We will continue to fight against the injustice of invasion of indigenous lands and territories by colonists, who are decimating natural resources for cattle ranching, timber extraction, and exploration and exploitation of resources for companies and projects that greatly affect the life cycle of biodiversity in Mesoamerica."

The expansion of oil palm plantations has also contributed to deforestation in the region by displacing people and cattle into protected areas. The areas under the greatest threat include the Moskitia region within Honduras and Nicaragua and the Maya Forest landscape in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize.

"Considering the threats in our territory, we face great challenges in the governance and protection of natural resources," said Angel Matute, deputy director of the Honduran park service, ICF (Instituto Nacional de Conservacion y Desarrollo Forestal, Areas Protegidas y Vida Silvestre). "ICF is committed to working hand in hand with indigenous peoples in recognition of their ancestral rights for the management and conservation of the Honduran Moskitia."

The Peten Declaration includes a commitment to five concrete actions to recover the region's forests: 1) supporting local forests and indigenous communities to obtain land management 2) strengthening the conservation of protected areas 3) supporting the prosecution of environmental crimes 4) focusing on illegal livestock as the main driver of deforestation and 5) protecting environmental champions who risk their lives to protect Mesoamerica's largest forests.

"Indigenous leaders, community land managers, and park rangers are putting their lives on the line every day to protect Mesoamerica's forests and the services they provide for all of humanity," said Dr. Jeremy Radachowsky, WCS Regional Director for Mesoamerica and Western Caribbean. "This declaration represents a plea for help. We owe it to them to take this declaration seriously, and seek the financial, political, and technical support necessary to implement these five actions"

"Although Central America's forests and wildlife are under severe threat, we remain hopeful they can be conserved to ensure the survival of wildlife and to provide sustainable livelihoods for people living in these areas," said Ani Cuevas, Central America Program Officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's essential that conservation solutions are chosen and implemented by Central American leaders, and we look forward to continuing to support these important endeavors."

###

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.
From: Joyce L. Gioia, CMC, CSP -- The Herman Group Austin , TX Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Herman Trend Alert July 26, 2017 Using Chatbots for Recruiting According to HR guru, John Sullivan, though chatbots have been used in recruiting for over 10 years, they are just coming into common use among employers now. Chatbots are on-page dialogue boxes that may be used by visitors to websites to get answers to their questions. In the case of commercial websites, the chatbots are used to get information about products or policies or even account information. According to Gartner Research, within the next three years, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse. Raising the level of conversation Used in recruiting, chatbots are a way of raising the conversation and upgrading the candidate experience. But the key is to maximize the return on investment by buying the system that best fits your budget while enhancing your candidate experience. Benefits of using chatbots The overarching benefit is that chatbots create more informed candidates. But the value does not stop there. There are three additional benefits of using chatbots. First, employers will enjoy higher quality applicants, because top performers often ask more questions and want more information before completing an application. By having easy access to those answers, employers will have an advantage. Second, employers will end up with fewer unqualified applicants, because those who are not qualified will self-select out. Imagine the time savings for both recruiters and hiring managers? Delivering a better candidate experience Almost 80 percent of candidates believe job postings do not provide enough information. Providing access to that information improves candidates' perceptions of how they are being treated in the recruiting process. What's coming Very soon, employers will be able to buy a chatbot in a box. Employers will be able to plug in their own information and the bot will deliver the information to applicants 24/7. Whether employers choose a basic, human-assisted, or artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot, this technology is likely to remain a part of the recruiting landscape for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the use of chatbots is only the beginning. As we move into the future, expect to see chatbots will be applied to many transactional HR processes, including providing information on benefits programs. Special thanks to TAtech Insights and the Peter Weddle's Technacious Recruiter for their recent article on this important topic. The Herman Group is a firm of Strategic Business Futurists concentrating on workforce and workplace issues. We forecast the future and advise clients regarding relevant trends and how those trends may affect their lives. Applying our expertise as Certified Management Consultants, we advise corporate leaders regarding employee retention and organizational development to help them build workforce stability. We help organizations become Employers of Choice. We also work with Employer of Choice, Inc. to formally recognize employers that meet the stringent standards dictated by the labor marketplace. As authors of management books and as active professional speakers, we inform and inspire people to make a positive difference in the world of work. You did really get the ball rolling with our retention presentation, overall we have seen a move in the right direction with our turnover. In practice since 1980, we have served a wide variety of clients throughout the United States and in other countries. Our global affiliates assist us in sharing our expertise and advice with clients internationally. Our team of professional consultants and trainers is supported by an administrative staff that gets things done. We also have consultants certified to deliver our programs in your local area. Delivering to both small and large groups across 100 industries, The Herman Group has provided over 2,500 educational and informative keynote speeches and training seminars worldwide. Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, we travel extensively to meet the needs of our clients. We can always be reached through the support team in our office at (800) 227-3566. Overseas callers may reach us through 336-210-3547. Should you have any questions after touring our website, please call or e-mail us at info@hermangroup.com. Get started now on improving the stability and performance of your workforce and increase your chances for success in the future.


The Welsh government has been urged to rethink its woodland strategy and aim to 'significantly increase' planting rates, according to a National Assembly committee.

A new report calls on the government to be more ambitious on woodland policy in Wales.

It urges the government to address barriers to increasing planting, which the report says can bring environmental benefits, improve well-being and support businesses in Wales.

The Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee launched its report, Branching out: a new ambition for woodland policies, at the Royal Welsh Show.

Recommendations for the Welsh Government include the need for greater clarity on how to use trees as a nature-based solution to flooding.

The Welsh Government has also been urged to consider developing a National Forest Company to help regenerate the south Wales valleys.

'One tenth'

Chair of the Committee, Mike Hedges AM said: We visited woodlands in Newport, Dinas Powys, Crumlin, Merthyr Tydfil, Newbridge, Maesteg and Pwllheli to learn more about the challenges and opportunities facing woodland owners and managers in Wales, and consider how everybody in Wales can benefit from our trees and forests.

Since 2010, we have seen only one tenth of the Welsh Governments tree planting target by 2030 met, and we know that the main barriers to meeting this are regulatory and financial, with a perception amongst investors that Wales is closed for business when it comes to woodland creation.

Our report found that there is great potential in Wales to plant more trees and create more woodlands, and to meet demand for timber that exists in other parts of the UK.

Benefits of agroforestry

Last week, a letter was sent by leading farming organisations to Defra Secretary Michael Gove explaining the benefits of agroforestry, which also called for more support.

The letter highlights the benefits of cultivating trees and crops or livestock on the same area of land.

It states that the current Rural Development Programme for England does not include options to support agroforestry, the result of a perceived lack of demand from farmers and landowners to adopt the practice.

In June, a major conference on agroforestry  organised by the Soil Association, the Woodland Trust and the Royal Forestry Society  brought together 250 farmers, foresters and researchers.
Police and the family of a teenager who was reported missing from the Royal Welsh Show have said their concerns are growing for his welfare.

19-year-old James Corfield, from Montgomery, Powys, has been missing since around midnight on Monday (24 July).

A post on Dyfed-Powys Police's Twitter page says: "We are concerned for 19 year old James Corfield, missing from the YPV at the Royal Welsh Show. Please contact us on 101 with any information."

Cffi Maldwyn Montgomery Yfc said on a Facebook post: "James Corfield has not been seen at Royal Welsh since last night. The police have been informed.

"If anyone has had any sight of him or spoken to him at all in the last 24 hours please call his Mum on 07740 202254."

Posters have started going up around the Royal Welsh showground and in Builth Wells.
British dairy farmers have said they have suffered a blow today after the Advertising Standards Agency approved a vegan campaign which describes milk production as 'inhumane'.

The ASA received seven complaints, many from those working in the dairy industry.

Farmers, including NFU's national dairy board chairman Michael Oakes, said they were 'angry and disappointed' with the ruling.

The campaign, which was launched by the organisation Go Vegan World, said drinking milk is cruel to cattle as production separates calves from their mothers 'fresh from their wombs.'

Sandra Higgins, director of the group which is based in Ireland, said the dairy industry had been trying to 'silence' the group.

"We have been having this debate for hundreds of years on how to improve the conditions of those animals we use and it hasn't been effective. We wouldn't swap places with them," she said.

'Demoralising'

NFU dairy board chairman Mr Oakes told The Times: "Our members, who are constantly looking to improve welfare standards, found it upsetting and demoralising.

"Animal welfare standards in the UKs dairy industry are the highest possible.

"I am a dairy farmer and what I do all day is look after animals who in turn look after me. Their wellbeing is my priority."

When the advertisement was launched, appearing in the Sunday Telegraph, the advertising agency received seven complaints from people working in the dairy industry.

But those complaints were rejected by the ASA as they said, despite it being 'emotional and hard-hitting' it did not mislead.
Drones will have to be registered and users will have to sit safety awareness tests under new rules to better regulate their growing use, the government has announced.

Owners of drones weighing 25kg and over will in future have to register details of their drones to improve accountability and encourage owners to act responsibly.

Farmers have called for tougher rules on drone use to protect privacy of property owners in the countryside.

The number of incidents in the UK involving drones reported to police has increased more than twelve-fold over the past two years.

Complaints, including allegations of snooping, burglary scoping exercises, mid-air near-misses and the smuggling of contraband into prisons, rose to almost 10 a day (3,456) last year, compared with 283 in 2014.

Last years figure was almost three times higher than the 2015 total of 1,237 incidents.

'Sheep worrying'

NFU Vice President Guy Smith said there are 'exciting' developments in the pipeline for on-farm done use, but warns of dangers.

There are exciting developments, such as crop applications, which could keep British farming at the cutting edge and internationally competitive.

However, we are also very aware of instances of irresponsible use of drones by members of the public and have already seen the first instances of sheep worrying by drones.

We are calling for government to address this and are hopeful that any new legislation will introduce measures to protect farmers and landowners from this behaviour.

In any instance, we would stress to drone owners the importance of not flying near livestock, who react in very unpredictable ways. There is risk of causing distress to the animals, sometimes fatal, and it can lead to trampling.

These actions impact greatly on farm businesses and we urge that care is taken when flying in areas of farmland in particular.

Safety awareness test

In addition to drone registrations, a new drone safety awareness test means owners will have to prove that they understand UK safety, security and privacy regulations.

Drones represent an exciting opportunity for the agricultural industry in UK, are already of substantial benefit to farm business and are central to the governments Industrial strategy.

NFU Assistant Land Management Adviser, Rupert Weave said: "The countryside has vast potential for drone use, with on-farm applications both by farmers and organisations such as the Environment Agency, as well as by utility companies for inspecting the infrastructure which crosses our countryside."

"These applications have numerous potential advantages for farmers, from economic and environmental benefits from more targeted management decisions, through to less disruption from utility companies."

Indeed, it is not only farmers who can take advantage of drones.

Rural crime in Lincolnshire now has a new pair of eyes thanks to a drone initiative by the local police.
Welsh political party Plaid Cymru has unveiled three demands which the party argues will 'guarantee' a better future for rural communities post-Brexit.

The party has said that the Westminster government must meet the three key criteria on funding, trade, and connectivity, to 'mitigate the impact of Brexit'.

The guarantees set out by the party include the demand that the Westminster government gives rural communities a fair deal after Brexit.

Plaid Cymru has also urged the government to protect trade and exports. It has been urged to secure tariff free access to European markets and prevent farmers from facing 'trader barrier burdens'.

Finally, the third guarantee is connecting communities, to ensure that rural areas have better provision when it comes to mobile phone signal, broadband and transport.

'Blocks devolved powers'

Speaking after the press conference in the Royal Welsh Show, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Simon Thomas said: The current approach to Brexit by the Westminster Government blocks the exercise of devolved powers by the National Assembly and endangers the control people in Wales have over their lives.

The Westminster Governments European Union (Withdrawal) Bill rolls back powers from the people of Wales, the Welsh Government and our Parliament, which incorporates the sovereignty of Wales.

Weve had 20 years decision making on devolved matters like agriculture from Wales and the people of Wales resoundingly endorsed that in the 2011 referendum on the powers of the Assembly.

We cannot now allow Tories who do not represent Wales making decisions on devolved issues.

'Underpinned'

The party said that environmental law will be most significantly affected by Brexit.

Mr Thomas continued: A large amount of Welsh law is underpinned by over 200 EU regulations that relate to environmental protections and the regulation of agriculture and fisheries.

Decisions about Wales should be made in Wales. This is particularly true of laws relating to agriculture and our environment, where Wales has different needs that are not understood by a distant Westminster Government.

Wales needs an EU Continuity Bill to enshrine all existing EU regulations into Welsh law and stop power grab from the Westminster Government.
A man has been arrested after being pursued by police through the Yorkshire Dales on a stolen quad bike.

At about 2am on Tuesday (25 July), an officer from North Yorkshire Police's Rural Taskforce on patrol in the Coniston Cold area, near Skipton, spotted a quad bike being driven in suspicious circumstances.

It failed to stop, and was pursued by Roads Policing Group officers along the A629 and surrounding roads, and eventually into Silsden, West Yorkshire.

The vehicle was abandoned in a housing estate, and the driver ran from the scene. Officers deployed to contain the immediate area, and a police dog located a man hiding between some bins nearby.

A 20-year-old man from Bradford was arrested on suspicion of burglary, dangerous driving and failing to stop. He has been released under investigation while enquiries continue.

The quad bike was recovered by police, and will be forensically examined. It had been stolen from a garage in a remote, rural area near Austwick.

The farming industry has rallied around the Government to take action on the blight of rural crime hitting the UK recently.

The NFU has warned in particular that farmers should not be seen as a 'soft target' for criminals.

Vehicle security

Police forces across the UK have focused on the rise of vehicle crime in rural areas.

Just this week, a Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) was stolen from a farm in broad daylight, and the whole incident was caught on CCTV in stalled on the farm.

North Yorkshire Police's Rural Taskforce is one of those forces that have been raising awareness of the importance of quad bike and ATV security in recent months.

PCSO Sally Breen, from the Taskforce, said: I am urging anyone who owns a Land Rover or a quad bike  and particularly if they live in a rural area  to take extra steps to ensure their vehicles are left safe and secure.

Its much better to spend a bit of time and money now on better security than to go through the inconvenience and upset of having your vehicle stolen.

Members of the public act as our eyes and ears in rural areas, and so if you are aware of any suspicious activity, dont hesitate to contact us, and we will take action.

Vehicle crime prevention tips

 Always leave your vehicle locked and alarmed if possible

 Consider fitting an after-market approved immobiliser

 Park in a locked garage or other secure area if you have one, or in a well-lit open space if not

 Never leave the vehicles keys in the ignition, in the same outbuilding as the vehicle, or near your front door inside your home

 Be vigilant when using your vehicle for anyone taking an interest in it

 Consider fitting a transponder-based security marking system and tracker device

 Have the vehicles windows etched with the vehicle identification number
Producers see losses increase to 26-28 per pig, estimates show
Karan Tacker As The Main Antagonist

As per a Mumbai Mirror report, the makers have finalized popular TV actor to play the main antagonist to Tiger Shroff's hero in this Punit Malhotra directorial.

Karan To Sign The Dotted Line Soon

The tabloid quoted a source associated with the project as saying, "Karan's turn will see him come up with obstacles for the hero. He has already started his prep. Tiger will be sporting a new look for the film that includes a short crop." The actor is expected to sign the dotted line soon.

Punit Malhotra Refuses To Spill The Beans

When the daily contact Punit, he refused to divulge details, saying shortly, "Student of the Year 2 features Tiger Shroff and two new girls. As of now, the only person on-board is Tiger. We will announce the rest of the cast soon."

Ananya Pandey To Make Her Bollywood Debut With SOTY2

If reports are to be believed then Chunky Pandey's daughter Ananya has been finalized to play one of the leading ladies. Earlier, there were rumours being Sara Ali Khan debuting for this film, but one hears that her mother Amrita Singh was keen that her daughter choose Sushant Singh Rajput starrer Kedarnath as her debut vehicle.

How Jhanvi Kapoor Lost The Race

While Jhanvi was quite keen to do SOTY2, her mother Sridevi thought otherwise. The actress was quoted as saying, "She wanted to do the film and initially, I wasn't in favour. I don't think it's a bad industry. I am a creation of this world." Now, buzz is that Jhanvi might make her Bollywood debut with Karan Johar's Sairat remake.
For decades, Procter & Gamble (PG -0.15%) has created enormous wealth for its investors. But in recent years, the consumer goods titan has failed to keep pace with the overall market as its growth has decelerated. Is P&G doomed to underperform going forward? Or could it be poised for a rebound to its market-beating ways?

Let's take a look at the key aspects of P&G's business that are most likely to determine the answers to these questions.

1. Portfolio transformation

Since embarking on a major brand overhaul in 2014, Procter & Gamble has shed more than 100 underperforming brands to better focus on the 65 with the best growth and profitability prospects. P&G believes its new streamlined portfolio will make it a "faster-growing, more profitable, and far simpler company."

2. Getting leaner

As dramatic as its brand transformation has been, Procter & Gamble's organizational changes have entailed far more than just shedding brand assets. P&G completely redesigned its manufacturing and supply chain systems, slashed its overhead costs, simplified its organizational structure, and instituted a more focused advertising campaign for its best brands. Taken together, these moves have helped to drastically improve P&G's profitability.

3. Margin expansion

As part of its restructuring program, P&G cut more than $10 billion from its cost structure over the past five years, and it plans to achieve an additional $10 billion in cost savings over the next half-decade. These cost cuts have helped P&G's "core" (a non-GAAP measure that adjusts for restructuring and other non-recurring charges) gross and operating margins improve by several percentage points since 2012. In turn, P&G has delivered significant increases in core earnings per share even as its sales growth has remained sluggish.

4. Cash production

Another area where Procter & Gamble continues to excel is in its ability to generate sweet beautiful cash. The company's long-term target is to deliver annual adjusted free cash flow productivity (cash flow as a percentage of earnings) of at least 90%. P&G has crushed this goal over the last two years, and its adjusted free cash flow exceeded $12 billion in fiscal 2016, up about 20% from 2014. P&G's rising cash production has gone hand in hand with its cost-cutting initiatives, and investors should expect more of the same in the coming years.

5. Capital returns

As Procter & Gamble continues to gush cash, management remains committed to passing a large portion of these profits on to investors. In fact, the company plans to return a whopping $22 billion to shareholders in fiscal 2017 and up to $70 billion total from fiscal 2016 to 2019.

6. Dividend growth

Perhaps the most important aspect of Procter & Gamble's capital return program is its steadily growing dividend. Impressively, P&G has paid a dividend for 127 consecutive years, including 61 straight years of annual increases.

Over the last decade, dividends have accounted for more than half of P&G's total returns to shareholders. Yet with its dividend growth now slowing -- P&G's annual increases averaged only 2.3% over the last three years -- investors may need to adjust their expectations, as lower dividend growth could lead to lower overall returns going forward.

7. International opportunities

One area where Procter & Gamble does still have significant room for growth is in developing economies. Nearly half of its sales are generated in North America -- a well-developed market in which growth is likely to be modest from this point forward. Therefore, much of P&G's future sales growth will need to come from emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. So, investors should monitor P&G's sales and market share figures in these regions closely, as these metrics will likely have a major impact on Procter & Gamble's stock price performance in the years ahead.

Looking forward

All told, Procter & Gamble remains a highly profitable business and a reliable cash generator. Yet achieving the type of sales growth needed to produce market-beating returns may prove challenging, and P&G will likely need to find a way to win in high-potential international markets if it's to do so. Still, investors seeking a steady, high-yield, and relatively low-risk stock could do far worse than Procter & Gamble.
What happened

Shares of The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG 4.57%) were tumbling today after the advertising umbrella company posted a disappointing second-quarter earnings report.

As of 11:39 a.m. EDT, the stock was down 12.6%.

So what

Interpublic Group, which owns a number of ad agencies including McCann and FutureBrand, said overall revenue slipped 1.7% to $1.88 billion, below estimates at $1.95 billion. Organic revenue, which accounts for foreign currency translation, increased 0.4%. Adjusted earnings per share, meanwhile, fell from $0.33 a year ago to $0.27, missing estimates at $0.34.

CEO Michael Roth noted "increased caution" among clients, but added that there is no evidence of a "broad-based economic downturn." He was otherwise optimistic, touting the company's investments in talent and success at industry award competitions.

Now what

Roth said the company's organic revenue growth for the year was headed for the low end of the previously announced 3%-4% range, which should offer some consolation to investors after the disappointing quarter. Roth also noted that clients had said they would be spending more in the second half of the year.

The broader industry has also seen weaker performance during the first half of the year, a sign that Interpublic's troubles have more to do with macro concerns than with its own execution. If the company can meet its guidance for the year, the stock should recover today's losses.
Boeing (BA -0.05%) has been one of the best-performing large-cap stocks of 2017, with shares up more than 35% year to date. On Wednesday, it backed up those big gains with strong earnings for the second quarter of 2017, despite a significant year-over-year decline in commercial airplanes deliveries.

Most impressively, free cash flow nearly doubled last quarter, continuing on its strong trajectory. Boeing's cost-cutting program is paying big dividends, while the 787 Dreamliner is finally becoming a reliable cash cow. Moreover, the company raised numerous aspects of its full-year guidance.

Q2 by the numbers

Last quarter, revenue plunged 8.1% year over year, as the company reduced deliveries across several of its commercial jet families. However, Boeing was able to avoid incurring any major earnings charges, something that had plagued it during 2016. Furthermore, its underlying operational performance continues to improve.

Metric Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Year-Over-Year Change Revenue $22.7 billion $24.8 billion (8.1%) Commercial Airplanes Deliveries 183 199 (8%) Core Operating Margin 9.7% (2%) N/A Free Cash Flow $4.5 billion $2.5 billion 79% Core EPS $2.55 ($0.44) N/A Total Order Backlog $482 billion $472 billion 2.1%

The result was a strong 9.7% core operating margin, close to the company's goal of generating double-digit margins. Boeing's core EPS reached $2.51 (compared to a loss in the prior-year period), beating even the most optimistic analysts' expectations.

Dreamliner profitability is rising quickly

Boeing's free cash flow generation of $4.5 billion was especially impressive. Some of the $2 billion increase was driven by the impact of Boeing's companywide cost-cutting program. That said, improving profitability of Dreamliner production also played a major role.

A year ago, Boeing wasn't even breaking even on the Dreamliner. Since then, the delivery mix has shifted further toward the more profitable 787-9 variant, while production efficiency continues to rise.

As a result, Boeing is now generating strong cash profits on the 787 family. During the second quarter, the deferred production balance for the 787 program slipped by $531 million. Meanwhile, the amount of unamortized tooling costs fell by $191 million. The sum of those two figures ($722 million) is a rough proxy for the cash profits generated by Dreamliner production.

Dreamliner profitability is set to rise even further in the coming years. Production will increase somewhat in the second half of 2017, spreading overhead costs over a larger number of deliveries. In 2018, Boeing will begin delivering the larger (and even more profitable) 787-10 variant. Lastly, production of the low-margin 787-8 will soon decrease to a negligible amount.

Guidance flies higher

In light of its strong second quarter performance and solid outlook, Boeing has increased several pieces of its financial guidance for 2017. Boeing bumped up margin estimates for each of its business segments and revised its expected effective tax rate for the year down from 31% to 29%. As a result, core EPS is now expected to reach a range of $9.80-$10.00, compared to a prior estimate of $9.20-$9.40.

The biggest change related to cash flow. Boeing now expects to generate at least $12.25 billion of operating cash flow in 2017, up by $1.5 billion from its previous estimate.

About half of this increase ($700 million) comes from expected tax benefits related to Boeing's decision to contribute $3.5 billion of stock to its pension plan this quarter. The rest of the increase reflects strong operating performance, as seen in Boeing's stellar second-quarter cash flow. Boeing also reduced its capex guidance by $300 million, providing a further boost to free cash flow.

Boeing's cash flow trajectory should strengthen further as 737 MAX deliveries ramp up over the next three years or so and Dreamliner profitability continues to improve. Boeing stock isn't cheap anymore, but the company's strong cash flow prospects probably justify its buoyant share price.
Google has recently added some fresh imagery to Google Earth. It is currently only visible in the default layer, so there will be more to see once Google updates the historical imagery layer as well.

Volcanic Island in Alaska

Bogoslof Volcano, located in the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean, erupted in late May. When it was first reported we had a look in Google Earth and there was no imagery at all of the Island. Google has now added a DigitalGlobe image captured in early May before the eruption.



Bogoslof Island, May 11th, 2017.

If we are lucky, we will see images of the eruption once Google updates historical imagery. DigitalGlobe did capture imagery during and after the eruption and you can see them here. The eruption altered the island quite significantly. According to Wikipedia, Bogoslof Island first appeared in 1796, and changes over time with each eruption and subsequent erosion.

Interestingly, we can see some animals on the beaches, which are probably seals or sea lions (Wikipedia lists both as breeding on the island). They can be seen in all the DigitalGlobe imagery and didnt even leave during the eruption.



Animals on the beaches of Bogoslof Island, probably seals or sea lions.

Fires in Russia

In late May, there were several fires in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region in Russia, destroying 80 houses. Google has added some imagery relating to the event, but unfortunately it only covers one of the fires. We were able to find a burnt outbuilding at a timber processing facility where one of the fires is believed to have started. It would appear this particular fire did not spread to the nearby town as the town had deployed Fast Fire Watch Services and upon hearing about the nearing fire, quick prevention measures were taken by them.



Burnt building at timber facility near Gorodishche, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.

Another fire destroyed 30 houses in Strelka, which is just south of the new imagery. You can see an aerial photo of the damage in Strelka here.

To find the locations above in Google Earth, download this KML file .
Facebook might launch a touch-screen operated smart speaker News oi -Chandrika The smart speaker will get launched in Q1, 2018.

From apps to modular phones, Facebook is said to be trying its hands on a lot of different things lately. Now, a report by DigiTimes claims that the social network giant is working on a touch-screen operated the smart speaker.

Facebook's sudden entry into the foray of smart speakers doesn't really come as a surprise. In recent time, AI-powered smart speakers have been generating a lot of interest among the customers. While currently, Amazon's Echo is dominating the market, Google Home is not far behind. Also, Apple is going to release its own smart speaker called HomePod later this year.

Coming back to the alleged Facebook speaker, it is believed to come with a 15-inch inbuilt touch display. So other than voice commands, it could be operated with that display as well. The source says this feature will make the speaker stand out.

The device is said to be designed by Facebook's Building 8 and manufactured by Taiwan-based company Pegatron Technology. The source further reveals that we will get to see the speaker in the first quarter of 2018.

Other than that, we don't have any information about the upcoming smart speaker. Hopefully, more details regarding the device will surface in the upcoming days. Also, you shouldn't forget it is just a tip, which should be taken with pinch of salt.

Not only Facebook, there are rumors suggesting that other tech giants like Microsoft and Samsung will soon introduce their own smart speaker units. However, Samsung has dismissed these claims as false, stating that Amazon's Echo has a monopoly over the global market.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications
Nokia 2 spotted on GeekBench listing revealing key specs News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Nokia 2 specs out.

Having released the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 Android smartphones in the global markets, it looks like HMD Global is all set to take the wraps off the second wave of smartphones.

Going by the speculations and leaks that we have come across so long, the second batch of Nokia smartphones is said to comprise of the Nokia 8, Nokia 7, and Nokia 2. HMD has already sent out media invites for the launch a flagship smartphone on August 16 and it is believed to be Nokia 8 that has been hitting the tech headlines aggressively in the recent times. Also, a previous leak revealed the names of the entire list of Nokia Android smartphones along with the processors used in them tipping that the Nokia 2 will be the entry-level smartphone to be launched this year.

Since the past few days, we have been seeing the sketches of Nokia 2 hit the web showing the front and rear design of the smartphone. The images of the Nokia 2 were revealed along with that of the Nokia 3 that is already available in the market. From the leaked image, it is likely that the Nokia 2 might feature rounded corners and thick bezels around the display. There appears to be no physical home button at the front.

Now, the alleged Nokia 2 has appeared on the Geekbench database with the name Unknown Heart shedding light on some of the key specifications. From the benchmark listing, the Nokia smartphone in question is said to be based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and make use of a quad-core Snapdragon 212 processor clocked at 1.27GHz paired with 1GB RAM. The handset seems to have achieved a score of 422 in the single-core test and 1146 in the multi-core test.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications
A SHADOWED image of Volvos upcoming XC40 compact SUV has been leaked online after the Swedish car-makers German arm accidentally posted the image on its website.



The leaked image shows the rear half of the XC40 in profile, showing a boomerang-style tail-light design with the long, vertical strips synonymous with other Volvo SUVs.



One point of difference for the XC40 is that the tail-lights fan outwards towards the cars flanks, whereas modes like the XC60, XC90 and V90 Cross Country have tail-lights that curve inwards toward the number plate.



The teaser image also reveals a roof spoiler, black cladding for the rear bumper and large profile alloy wheels.



Punters can expect the XC40 to adopt the Thors Hammer lighting signature in the headlights, and a vertically-striped grille with the Volvo badge intersected by a diagonal line.



The XC40 will be built on Volvos Compact Modular Architecture platform, which will be shared by parent company Geely for use on its own models as well as those of newly-formed Lynk & Co.



It was first previewed by the Concept 40.1 which was revealed in May last year, with the rear design seeming to stay faithful to the concept design.



Powertrain options for the XC40 are most likely to be petrol and diesel-powered versions of Volvos 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines that have proliferated across its range.



As part of its effort to sell one million electrified vehicles globally by 2025, it is likely Volvo will introduce an all-electric powertrain variant as well as a Twin Engine plug-in hybrid model.



In the case of the hybrid, a three-pot petrol engine will be the most logical internal combustion option.



Speaking at the time of the concept reveal last year, Volvo Car Australia managing director Kevin McCann said the small SUV would help broaden Volvos appeal to Australians.



By taking a modular approach to both vehicle architecture and powertrain development we have succeeded in leap-frogging many of the players in the prestige segment, he said.



Our new battery electric powertrain variant opens yet another exciting chapter in the unfolding Volvo story.
The Coolest foldable Laptop You'll Ever Own - Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED https://youtu.be/QOsqWQGSkjc via @YouTube




Haiti - Politics : Moise brings together 8 mayors and made promises against insalubrity





Monday at the National Palace, President Jovenel Moise, met with the mayors of the 8 communes of the metropolitan area around the ways and means to mobilize to combat lasting insalubrity in the capital and its surroundings.



This important meeting, following last July's meeting between the Chief of Staff of President Wilson Laleau and the mayors of the metropolitan region, allowed the Head of State to discuss the need for public services to fight hard against the rubbish encumbering the streets of the capital. Moise said he wants to work to strengthen the capacities of communes by providing them with adequate materials and equipment for the implementation of their sanitation policy.



The return of staff of sanitary officers, the implementation of a sanitation plan for the areas of Bolosse, Saline and Croix-des-Bossales, the clearing of gullies and drainage of canals in the different neighborhoods of the metropolitan area were some of the points addressed by the various actors who all affirmed their willingness to work to change the face of the capital and its bordering communes.



The Head of State expressed his willingness to involve all public institutions concerned with the issue of sanitation and promised to the mayors that he will spare no effort to allow the populations of the area Metropolitan and the rest of the country to operate in a healthier environment.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19586-haiti-environment-port-au-prince-declares-war-to-the-rubbish.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-17964-icihaiti-environment-the-mayors-of-the-metropolitan-area-are-talking-about-waste.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17952-haiti-environment-the-tourism-investments-compromised-by-waste.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11559-haiti-environment-smcrs-wants-to-get-out-the-metropolitan-area-of-its-insalubrity.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Health : Soon a training in optometry in Haiti





A Memorandum of Agreement has been signed to establish the first ever School of Optometry in Haiti. The School is a collaboration between lUniversite dEtat dHaiti (UEH), Brien Holden Vision Institute, Optometry Giving Sight, VOSH International and Charity Vision with support from University of Montreal. The signatories hope that the first students will commence their studies in October.



"This is a great moment in the development of eye health in Haiti," said Dr. Jean Claude Cadet, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at UEH, which is the lead local implementing partner for the project. "We are grateful to our international partners for helping us to realize our vision of establishing Optometry as a profession in Haiti in order to improve access to primary eye care for the millions of people in need."



There are currently only 3 optometrists and 58 ophthalmologists (6 in the public sector) to serve Haiti's population of 10 million people. These are predominantly located in the capital, making it difficult for the majority (70%) of people to access primary eye care services.



"This project will seek to graduate 16 optometrists per year, in what will be a 5-year Bachelor of Vision Science degree," said Dr. Luigi Bilotto, Director Global Human Resource Development, Brien Holden Vision Institute, which is the lead international implementing partner for the project.



The development of a locally trained workforce will have a huge impact on the well-being of people in Haiti, according to Dr. Ellen Weiss, President of VOSH International.



"VOSH chapters have been undertaking voluntary mission trips to Haiti for many years," said Dr. Weiss. "We have seen tens of thousands of people and made a real difference in many peoples lives, but we think that the School of Optometry will help to provide a lasting solution and enable our teams to refocus their efforts on providing additional training and mentoring to the students once they graduate."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : Installation of the National Health Reform Commission





On Monday at the National Palace, President Jovenel Moise, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Jack Guy Lafontant, Marie Greta Roy Clement, the Minister of Public Health and members of international organizations involved in the health sector in Haiti, proceeded to the installation of the members of the National Committee for the Reform of the Health System and Hospital Care.



The Head of State spoke about the reasons that led to the creation of this Commission, whose mandate is to study and recommend all measures likely to facilitate the reform of health and hospital services in Haiti and explained "The situation is marked by a global deficiency in the management of our services, disillusioned staff and repeated strikes in our hospitals. All this contributes to demotivation of staff, absenteeism, deterioration in the quality of care and under-funding of the sector. Such a picture, which is not exhaustive, explains the poor performance of the health system and its overall inefficiency despite significant investments in infrastructure in recent years."



According to Moise, this Commission must make it possible to come up with concrete proposals that will enable the State to have pragmatic and feasible solutions that will satisfy the right to health of the population "All the population must benefit from the services that respond to its needs and not in function of its pocket. It will be required that this reform also puts the users of our services outside the spectrum of ruinous healthcare spending. We expect all citizens to find services and health care wherever they are," concluded Moise, who believes that the measures to be taken should include health financing, hospital management, the establishment of the health model and universal health coverage.



For her part, Yolene Surena, the President of the Commission, while outlining some of the ways in which the Commission works, gave the guarantee that the Commission will work to "provide the country with an evolving, balanced health system where preventive and the curative cohabitates and through which each Haitian will have access to essential services of quality."



The Commission is composed of Yolene Surena (President) and 10 members : Gerard Abel, Lucille Charles, Ronald Laroche, Gerard Blot, Gardner Michel, Carl Francois, Ewald Jeune Joseph, Marc-Henry Pierre-Francois, Roseta Georges Alisma and Fils-Lien Thelot.



HL/ HaitiLibre




















Eight months after receiving a multi-million dollar investment to accelerate its expansion throughout Asia, Red Planet Hotels, the fast-growing Pan-Asian budget hotel chain, today reveals it has begun building its empire with the help of the global hotel industry's leading cloud platform, SiteMinder.

Red Planet Hotels owns and operates 24 hotels in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, and says employing the market's most powerful distribution technology is necessary to sell rooms that over the next two years will see exponential growth in numbers. The company's expansion roadmap includes the opening of four new hotels in 2017 and a further eight hotels before the end of 2018 to offer travelers more than 4,000 rooms in total.

"Red Planet Hotels has become a recognized brand for travelers who visit Asia and are in search of value. So, it's important we aren't expanding for expansion sake, but are creating greater options for accommodation that are not only appealing to value-driven travelers, but that can be found and booked," says the hotel chain's regional director of revenue management in the Philippines, Leah Teresa De Los Santos.

"We knew early in the process that we would need technology to compete in the complex channel distribution landscape that exists within today's travel industry, and SiteMinder has solved that challenge for us. Without their platform, our strategy for room distribution would be inefficient and therefore very costly in terms of lost revenue and occupancy. However, since this partnership, our overall revenue has clearly increased."

What made SiteMinder a lucrative option to Red Planet Hotels, Ms De Los Santos says, was its vast connections to online booking sites and its seamless integration with the chain's property management system, RoomKey PMS. This integration supports the continuous flow of availability, rates and reservation data between the chain's hotels and their guests.

SiteMinder's managing director for Asia, Glenn Andrews, says, "SiteMinder is proud to be helping hotel businesses like Red Planet Hotels to achieve optimum success, and to be part of their growth journey. We have supported Red Planet Hotels' existing properties for many years and we are delighted to provide this same support to all the exciting new properties to come."

Founded in 2010, Red Planet Hotels offers travelers style and value, with properties that are centrally-located and feature high-speed Wi-Fi. All guests are subject to a dynamic brand experience that employs leading-edge, customer-focused technology, including their own mobile app and In-Stay mode to make booking and communication with staff easy.

About SiteMinder As the leading cloud platform for hotels, SiteMinder allows hotels to attract, reach and convert guests across the globe. We serve hotels of all sizes with award-winning solutions for independents and groups alike, wherever they are in the world.

SiteMinder's products include The Channel Manager, the industry's leading online distribution platform; TheBookingButton, a wholly-branded booking engine for direct bookings via the web, mobile or social; Canvas, the intelligent website creator for independent hoteliers; Prophet, the real-time market intelligence solution that takes the guesswork out of pricing rooms; and GDS by SiteMinder, a single-point of entry to a six-figure network of travel agents and the world's major GDSs. With more than 26,000 hotel customers and 550 of the industry's top connectivity providers as our partners, today we have presence in more than 160 countries on six continents.

For more information, visit www.siteminder.com.

About Red Planet Hotels Red Planet Hotels, founded in 2010, is a privately-owned regional hotel company focused on Asia's expanding value hotel sector. The company owns and operates 26 hotels (24 under the Red Planet brand) in Indonesia (7), Japan (4), the Philippines (10), and Thailand (5) for a total of 4,118 rooms, growing its portfolio through the acquisition of existing hotels and development of new hotels. Red Planet's robust and scalable technology platform provides both advanced reservation software and local attraction guides for customers, ensuring a fast and efficient booking process. Red Planet comprises a stylish value hotel offering, with all of its properties centrally located and featuring high-speed Wi-Fi.

Red Planet's companies based in Jakarta (Red Planet Indonesia - PSKT:IJ) and Tokyo (Red Planet Japan - 3350:JP) are listed on the Indonesian and Japanese stock exchanges, respectively. For more information, visit www.redplanethotels.com.

Maria Cricchiola

Director of Brand Communications & PR

+61 2 8031 1287

View source
ALPHARETTA, GA  July 26, 2017  The Rainmaker Group (Rainmaker), the hotel revenue and profit optimization cloud, experienced record setting growth through the first half of 2017, adding to its momentum in becoming the de facto standard in hotel revenue management software and services. Since January 2017 Rainmaker has expanded its reach in the number of properties using its platform, with a 41% increase in grouprev and 21% increases in both guestrev and revintel. Additionally, in this same time period, Rainmaker's revcaster platform has activated nearly 500 new properties globally, surpassing 5,000 active installs for that product line.

"It has been a banner year so far for Rainmaker as a company and for our entire team," said Tammy Farley, Rainmaker president. "Our solutions continue to bring exceptional results to each hotelier and casino operator we work with, and our partnerships continue to grow beyond our projections. I attribute this continued success to our staunch dedication to developing the most advanced technologies and continuing to expand our platform, while remaining focused on supplying the best client support and problem solving for all of our current and future customers."

Using advanced math and science-based algorithms, Rainmaker's integrated platform of solutions is designed to help hotels and casinos streamline their operational efficiencies, enhance revenue optimization processes, improve lead performance and generate greater demand from every segment of their business.

For more information on Rainmaker's hotel revenue and profit optimization cloud, please visit www.letitrain.com.

About Rainmaker

The Rainmaker Group, a Cendyn company, is the premier provider of revenue and profit optimization solutions to the hospitality industry. Rainmaker's intelligent profit platform helps hotels, resorts and casinos optimize revenue, drive increased profitability, save valuable time & outperform competitors. As part of Cendyn, Rainmaker offers a complete set of software services for the industry, aligning marketing, sales and revenue teams to optimize their strategies and drive performance and loyalty across their business units. To learn more about Cendyn and its suite of hotel revenue management and profit optimization solutions, visit LetItRain.com or www.cendyn.com.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is the leading innovative cloud software and services provider for the hospitality industry. With a focus on integrated hotel CRM, hotel sales, and revenue strategy technology platforms, Cendyn drives sales, marketing and revenue performance for tens of thousands of hotels across the globe. The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud offers a complete set of software services for the industry, aligning marketing, sales and revenue teams to optimize their strategies and drive performance and loyalty across their business units. With offices in Boca Raton, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, London, Munich, Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok and Tokyo, Cendyn proudly serves clients in 143 countries, delivering over 1.5 billion data-driven, personalized communications on behalf of their customers every year. For more information on Cendyn, visit www.cendyn.com.

Dana Glaze

Marketing Manager

470-440-2041
Brett Morganti, CCIM, serves as the Managing Broker of the Hospitality Division for Ascent Real Estate and the firms primary contact for hospitality advisory services. Mr. Morgantis business career spans more than 20 years and he and his colleague, Dan Emert, Broker Associate, specialize in business sales and cash-flow properties with a particular focus on hospitality properties.

Hotel Brokers International, the industrys leading hotel real estate sales organization, is pleased to announce that Colorado-based Ascent Real Estate, LLC has joined their experienced network of successful lodging investment advisors. Brett Morganti, CCIM, serves as the Managing Broker of the Hospitality Division for Ascent Real Estate and the firms primary contact for hospitality advisory services.

Mr. Morgantis business career spans more than 20 years and he and his colleague, Dan Emert, Broker Associate, specialize in business sales and cash-flow properties with a particular focus on hospitality properties. Prior to his business and real estate career, Mr. Morganti served his country and is a decorated former Navy SEAL. Mr. Emert has many years of experience in ownership and management in the restaurant business.

Morganti states that the teams focus is to serve the hospitality market with emphasis in Colorado. He credits their Navy SEAL background, for their active approach in hunting down the most viable opportunities for their clients. They dont sit behind their desks and wait for things to happen  they make them happen. More detailed information may be accessed online at www.MtnTownCRE.com.

Founded in 1959, Hotel Brokers International members lead the industry in hotel real estate sales. HBI hotel brokerage specialists have successfully negotiated nearly 10,500 hotel real estate transactions and consistently account for the largest share of all select-service and economy hotel sales in the United States. The organizations database currently comprises more than 100 property listings and the HBI website attracts visitors from around the world. Founder and host of the popular Hotel Investors Marketplace Webcast, HBI also developed the Certified Hotel Broker professional designation program. In addition to hospitality real estate advisory services, HBI offers affiliate membership to professionals in allied fields, including franchising, lending, appraisals and investment services. For more information about HBIs hotel listings or to become a broker or affiliate member, visit www.hbihotels.com.

For more information contact:

Brett Morganti, CCIM

Managing Broker, Hospitality Division

Ascent Real Estate, LLC

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

303.248.6105

brett@mtntowncre.com

Glenda J. Webb

Managing Director

Hotel Brokers International

Kansas City, Missouri

816.505.4315

gwebb@hbihotels.com
DoubleTree by Hilton Turin Lingotto

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) has signed a franchise agreement with Lingotto Hotels S.r.l., which will see NH Lingotto Tech hotel become part of the DoubleTree by Hilton brand in early 2018. The 142-guestroom DoubleTree by Hilton Turin Lingotto will benefit from a EUR1.6m refurbishment in order to bring its facilities in line with the brand's upscale offering.

"Turin is a city that has benefitted greatly from the tourism legacy of the 2006 Winter Olympics and its proximity to the 2015 Milan EXPO, making it an attractive destination for both business and tourist travel," said Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president, development, EMEA, Hilton. "Tourism revenue was up by more than a tenth in 2015[1], so this is an ideal time for us to be introducing our first hotel in the area with a well-established local partner in Lingotto Hotels S.r.l."

The rebranding process is set to begin later this month and is scheduled to be completed early next year. In the meantime, the hotel will continue to welcome guests under the NH brand until the conclusion of its existing contract with Lingotto Hotels S.r.l. at the end of 2017. The team in place will remain largely the same under the leadership of General Manager Simona Calabrese who has been in charge of the property for two years.

Giorgio Cavallo, sole director, Lingotto Hotels S.r.l. said: "Following the conclusion of our successful partnership with NH regarding Lingotto Tech hotel, we have taken the decision to work with Hilton on the next chapter of this property. We're proud to be bringing one of the best known names in global hospitality to Turin for the first time and will be making a substantial investment in the property to ensure this rebranding is not only successful for us but offers an improved guest experience."

DoubleTree by Hilton Turin Lingotto will be located at Via Nizza, 230 10126 Turin - Italy.
Mumbai, July 26 (IBNS): Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap was arrested on Wednesday morning following an enquiry into the building collapse which occurred a day ago, media reports said.

17 people were killed after a four-storey residential building collapsed in east Mumbai's Ghatkopar on Tuesday.

According to reports, 30 people have been rescued so far.

Shitap was arrested after several residents of the building alleged the leader was carrying out a renovation on the ground floor which actually brought about the collapse.

Reports suggested that police found Shitap was carrying out an illegal renovation in a nursing home owned by him on the ground floor.

The Sena leader has been booked for culpable homicide, not amounting to murder.

Following the collapse of the building, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered an inquiry into the whole matter and Shitap's arrest is the latest development to it.

Fadvanis, who visited the place on Tuesday, was quoted by News 18: "Police are investigating the matter and BMC will also investigate and submit its report within 15 days. The government will take stringent action against culprits."
Srinagar, July 26 (IBNS): Suspected militants shot dead a policeman in south Kashmiras Kulgam district on Wednesday evening, officials said.

According to senior police officer , Gowhar Ahmad Tantray, was on his motorcycle, when militants opened fire on him near the Kanjikulla bridge in Kulgam.

Investigations are on in the case and a manhunt has been launched for the militants.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
New York, July 25(Just Earth News): Strongly condemning yesterday's suicide attacks on the two camps for internally displaced persons in northeastern Nigeria, United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres has called for the perpetrators of this aheinousa act to be swiftly brought to justice.

According to a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General reiterated the UN support to the Government of Nigeria in its fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

These terrorist acts are targeting people who had already fled their homes as a result of Boko Haram violence, said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, in the statement.

Preliminary media reports said that at least eight people have been killed in the attacks that took place near the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.

Haq said the Secretary-General offered his condolences to the people and Government of Nigeria for the loss of life, while also wishing a quick recovery to those injured.

Borno state has been plagued by violent attacks carried out by the Boko Haram insurgents, and Maiduguri has been targeted many times.

Photo:UNICEF/Abubakar

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 26(Just Earth News): The United Nations envoy on Middle East peace has warned that developments over the past 11 days at holy sites in the Old City in Jerusalem have demonstrated the agrave riska that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could become a religious conflict that could ultimately engulf the rest of the region.

While recognizing that Israelis and Palestinians fortunately have not succumbed to the torrent of violent upheaval that has engulfed the region in recent years, Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, nevertheless told an open debate in the UN Security Council that: For nearly a century, despite myriad peace efforts, one conflict has evaded solution.

His briefing highlighted the latest clashes and rising tensions over the past two weeks in the Old City in Jerusalem. Violence has resulted in deaths on both sides.

These developments demonstrated the grave risk of dangerous escalation that exists, a risk of turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one and dragging both sides into the vortex of violence with the rest of the region, Mladenov said, stressing the need for all parties to show restraint and promptly end this crisis.

Noting that the final status issue concerning Jerusalem needs to be negotiated and decided by the two sides, he urged Israel to fulfill the responsibility to uphold its obligations under international human rights law and humanitarian law. He also urged Palestinian leaders to avoid provocative statements that further aggravate an already tense environment.

The latest incidents have taken place against a backdrop of other developments, the envoy stressed.

Throughout the month, Israel continued to advance its plans to construct settlements in East Jerusalem. I must once again emphasize that settlement activity in occupied territory is illegal under international law, and undermines the chances for the establishment of a viable, contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, he warned.

Palestinians and Israelis must return to an environment conductive to negotiations

On a positive note, an interim power purchasing agreement between the two sides was signed on 10 July, which set the stage to negotiate a more comprehensive power purchasing agreement towards Palestinian energy independence. In addition, an agreement was reached to increase water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Turning to the situation in Gaza, he reiterated that the political standoff between two Palestinian factions  Fatah and Hamas  has taken the two million people living in the tiny enclave hostage.

Since violently seizing control of Gaza, Hamas has tightened its grip on power and suppressed dissent, he explained.

The punishing measures taken against Hamas, including electricity cuts, have worsened the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Whatever the political differences between the Palestinian factions, it is not the people of Gaza who should pay the price, Mladenov underscored, calling on Palestinian leaders to address the destructive consequences of the split.

Finally, he said recent events are a reminder of how easy it could be to reach a dangerous escalation, and he, expressed hope that Israel's agreement with Jordan and positive engagement with religious authorities would result in actions that would circumvent violence in the future.

We must not lose focus on the need to restore a political perspective, on the need to bring Palestinians and Israelis back into an environment that is conductive to negotiations on a final status arrangement and avoids turning the national Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one, he emphasized.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias



Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 26(Just Earth News): The UN refugee agency is seeking an additional $9.5 million to scale up its activities in northeast Nigeria, as a result of an unexpected surge in self-organized returns of Nigerian refugees mainly from Cameroon since the beginning of the year.

This is a new emergency, which requires urgent attention, said Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a press release.

Between January and June 2017, nearly 135,000 refugees returned to Nigeria, mainly women and children. The majority left Minawao and Kolofata refugee settlements, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

Many of these returnees are unable to go back to their homes due to security concerns and end up being displaced again, in dire humanitarian conditions, he added.

The situation is particularly difficult in the town of Banki, where many are forced to live outdoors and have limited access to drinking water, food and medicine.

During my recent visit to the region, I was not only appalled by the scale of the humanitarian needs, but also deeply shocked at the level of trauma, social division and distrust, said Turk, who visited both Nigeria and Cameroon over the past three weeks.

We urge the international community to pay more attention to this highly complex and challenging humanitarian and security situation, he added.

As vulnerabilities increase over time, funding is, unfortunately, lagging behind needs. So far, UNHCR has received $41.1 million from donors out of a total funding requirement of $179.5 million for 2017 for Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Additional funding would allow UNHCR to increase its presence in border locations and improve border and protection monitoring. The agency also plans to expand reception facilities and launch mass information campaigns to ensure that Nigerian refugees in Cameroon's Far North have accurate and updated information on the situation prevailing in areas of return in Nigeria.

Turk said that the Governments of both countries gave him assurances that action has been taken to stop involuntary returns.

The first meeting of the Tripartite Commission, comprising representatives from UNHCR, Nigeria and Cameroon, is expected to take place early August. The Commission was set up after the signature, last March, of a tripartite agreement on voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees.

It will be a positive step forward, Turk said.

Photo UNHCR/Romain Desclous

Source: www.justearthnews.com
A new study released by the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association details the economic benefits of tribal casinos in the state.

According to The Oklahoman, tribal casinos employ about 28,000 people. When direct and indirect jobs are included, the impact grows to 42,700, the paper said. In total, employee earnings pumped $2.275 billion into the state economy.

"Oklahoma tribes and the state of Oklahoma have reasons to be extremely proud of what is happening here in the Indian gaming industry," Jim Klas , a co-author of the study, told The Oklahoman.

Oklahoma is home to 131 tribal facilities, the most of any state. The region has shown growth in recent years, according to data released by the National Indian Gaming Commission , a federal agency.

Gross gaming revenues in 2016 by region. Source: National Indian Gaming Commission

Revenues in the Oklahoma City region, for example, increased 5.7 percent in 2016. In the Tulsa region, revenues grew 4.0 percent.

In Oklahoma City region, which also includes facilities in Texas, gross gaming revenues were $2.3 billion. In the Tulsa region, which includes casinos in Kansas, revenues hit $2.3 billion.

The success reflected in the 2016 gross gaming revenue is due, at least in part, to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Acts promotion of tribal self-determination principles, Chairman Jonodev O. Chaudhuri. of the NIGC said in a press release . Overall, tribal casinos took in $31.2 billion, an increase of 4.4 percent.

More detailed information about the 2016 gross gaming revenue can be found at nigc.gov/public-affairs/media-center

Read More on the Story: Indian gaming helps drive rural Oklahoma economies, report finds (The Oklahoman 7/26)

Join the Conversation
The latest whistle blown on the Democrats contrived anti-Russian hysteria comes from Veteran Intelligence Professionals who describe why they believe the Russian Hack of the Democratic National Committees computers were an Inside Job at https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/24/intel-vets-challenge-russia-hack-evidence/ and on video, by one of the authors of that article, Ray McGovern, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs The article of 7/24/17 entitled U.S. Intelligence Veterans Believe the Russian Hack of DNC Computers May Have Been an Inside Job states in pertinent part:After examining metadata from the Guccifer 2.0 July 5, 2016 intrusion into the DNC server, independent cyber investigators have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that telltale signs implicating Russia were then inserted.Key among the findings of the independent forensic investigations is the conclusion that the DNC data was copied onto a storage device at a speed that far exceeds an Internet capability for a remote hack. Of equal importance, the forensics show that the copying and doctoring were performed on the East coast of the U.S.It was of course the Republican tossing of the black vote in contested states, the same as they did in 2000 and 2004, that made possible sufficient Electoral College votes for a Trump victory. The Russians had nothing to do with it, yet the Democrats are determined to revive the warmongering anti-Russian hysteria which threatens the planet.The Democrats are not outdone in their anti-Russian hysteria, with practically the entire Congress, Democrats and Republicans together, in a 419 to 3 vote supporting sanctions against Russia for no good reason whatsoever. See https://www.rt.com/news/397539-us-sanctions-retaliation-russia/ andOnly Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky and Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee voted No.San Franciscos millionaire Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi voted for sanctioning Russia, was one of 117 Democrats voting for $696 billion for the war machine, more money than Trump requested but just cannot seem to support the only viable solution to the American medical fiasco, the Improved Medicare for All Act, HR 676, which only has 115 co-sponsors. Se https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/676/cosponsors?q=%7B%22cosponsor-state%22%3A%22California%22%7D Socialized medicine, such as Medicare for All, is not a new concept. It has existed in Germany since 1883, and now exists in all of Europe, Israel, Cuba, Canada, Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.On the billions for war vote, see HR 2810 may be found at https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2810 Roll Call 378 may be found at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/index.asp then go toThe US Congress has 435 members of whom there are 240 Republicans, 194 Democrats and 1 vacancy. See http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/cong.aspx Clearly, we have no government. We have a gang of millionaires and upper middle class lackeys of this bankrupt social order in which we live, capitalism, engaged in vicious attacks on the workingclass, such as destroying a minor reform of the medical system, Obamacare, and all other gains of the workingclass, to enrich themselves as their greed is insatiable.A Peoples Congress of Resistance is meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 16-17, 2017 at Howard University, with people from all 50 states attending to provide an alternative program to that of the US Congress, much as the Continental Congress met in 1776 to write the Declaration of Independence and carry out the American Revolution. We need a second American Revolution and a new Constitution. Unlike the Continental Congress of 1776, which consisted of local capitalists and their agents, all white male property owners, the Peoples Congress of Resistance is of, by and for the workingclass, of all colors and genders. For a list of endorsers, see http://www.congressofresistance.org/endorsements Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party are well-represented among the endorsers of the Peoples Congress of Resistance, always support socialized medicine and all other needs and interests of the workingclass and oppose war and warmongering anti-Russian hysteria, unlike the twin parties of war and fascism, the Democrat-Republicans.You can register online for either one of these 2 pro-peace, pro-labor, pro-environment parties at https://covr.sos.ca.gov/?language=en-US For more information, see:
Burma Analysis: UN Disappointed, So All Are Disappointed

Yanghee Lee speaks at a press conference in Yangon on July 21. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar today is reminiscent of rule under the military regime, said UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee after concluding her recent visit to the country on July 21.

In her end-of-mission statement, she said that she was disappointedan official expression used by several UN envoys over the past decades working on Myanmar issues.

Lee said she was disappointed to see the tactics applied by the previous government still being used, in reference to the intimidation that her sources told of experiencing.

In turn, the UN envoys remarks thereby disappointed the countrys top government leaders, sources in Naypyidaw told The Irrawaddy.

Lee spoke about the worsening security and human rights situation in the country. She also strongly urged the government to allow an international independent body to investigate allegations of rights abuses particularly in Rakhine State.

During her visit, she met civil society groups, journalists, and went to Rakhine, Shan and Karen states, though she reported being barred from visiting a number of locations, including Hsipaw, northern Shan State, where three journalistsincluding The Irrawaddys Lawi Wengare being detained.

Lee met State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw during her visit but expressed further disappointment at not being able to meet Myanmar Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

Further Disappointment

Soon after Lees press briefing, opposition to her statement was palpable.

The State Counselors Office said it was also disappointed with the Special Rapporteurs end of mission statement and declared that Lees statement contained many sweeping allegations and factual errors.

Under the previous regime, if UN representatives were denied visas or not allowed to visit then detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, there was a public outcry.

Now the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition-turned-government is crying foul concerning the UN mission.

In Parliament, Daw Thandar, a well-known human rights activist and NLD MP, submitted an emergency proposal to the Lower House on Monday to condemn Lees remarks on the situation in Rakhine State.

The irony was that Daw Thandars husband, Aung Kyaw Naingalso known as journalist Par Gyidied in army custody in October 2014. He was detained while covering fighting between the government and rebel forces in Mon State. The army statement then said he was shot when he attempted to seize a soldiers gun and escape detention.

Daw Thandar explained the reasoning behind her proposal to The Irrawaddy: I am not saying there are no human rights violations in Myanmar. But [Lees] statement on Rakhine State is incomplete. I want to highlight this.

During Tuesdays discussion, the Parliament unanimously approved the proposal. Daw Pyone Kaythi Naing, an NLD MP from Kalaw, Shan State, even proposed sending special envoys to the UN to counter international allegations and provide briefings outlining the Myanmar legislatures perspectives of the current reality in Rakhine State.

The situation is a particularly sensitive issue that creates daily debates among Myanmars general population, and this is where the UNs Yanghee Lee touched a raw nerve for many in the country.

The UN was stonewalled when it asked the government to allow an international fact-finding mission into Rakhine State, mandated by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva; members of the mission have been denied Myanmar visas.

Last week, Myanmar National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun, who also served under the previous regime, said that the UNs fact-finding mission would only aggravate tension between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine State and described it as less than constructive.

Myanmar allowed representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to visit the region, and, after blocks on aid, allowed international NGOs to distribute rations to internally displaced people, although there has been criticism about equal access to this aid by both the Muslim and Buddhist populations. A series of campaigns abroad drawing attention to the plight of the Muslim Rohingya have made some headway in keeping the government at bay.

We are told not to expect Myanmar to transition into a democracy overnightthat it needs time and space, Lee said. But in the same way, Myanmar should not expect to have its close scrutiny removed or its special monitoring mechanisms dismantled overnight. This cannot happen until there is real and discernible progress on human rights.

Mounting Pressure

Yanghee Lees visit took place during a time in which tension has developed between the NLD-led government and military.

But on the issue of the situation in Rakhine State, the two sides may see eye-to-eye and resist outside pressure.

But it seems the governments diplomatic offensive has been hit and miss compared to those in neighboring countries when facing similar crises.

In power for less than two years, the NLD government faces mounting pressure from the inside and outside, and a strong focus on Rakhine State.

Last week, the countrys largest opposition party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and its allies submitted an undisclosed letter to Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, after two days of meetings regarding the countrys current affairs. In the letter, they called on him to address Rakhine States situation.

The USDP was founded in 1993 as a mass association under the military junta. One former patron was Snr-Gen Than Shwe who is now in his retirement, and the current leaders of the USDP are still former military generals.

On the growing insecurity in Rakhine State, the military wanted to hold a National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) meeting. The NDSC is comprised of 11 members including the President, both Vice Presidents, speakers of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, the armys commander-in-chief, the deputy commander-in-chief, the foreign minister, and the ministers for defense, home and border affairs.

The government has held quasi-NDSC meetings to discuss security issues including the situation in Rakhine State, but has not yet called a full NDSC meeting. It is believed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been cautious in holding such gatherings in which her people would be outnumbered by those in the military, but that she holds ad-hoc security briefings with some top brass.

Earlier this month, the USDP and its allies called for martial law to be imposed in troubled areas in Rakhine State, citing security concerns after recent civilian attacks, threats of violence against both the Muslim and Buddhist Rakhine communities and the discovery of tunnels and arms belonging to Muslim militants.

As to the USDPs call, there has been no response from Myanmars still powerful military leadersnot yet.
Burma Army Resists Article 66(d) Reforms

A campaign promoting press freedom in Mandalay. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  A military representative in the Upper House argued against granting bail for controversial Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday.

In amending the law, Maj. Thet Min Oo said consideration should be given not only to human rights, but also to national security, politics, economy, and government.

Granting bail for articles 65, 66(b), and 66(d) would amount to the legislative branch intervening in the judicial sector, said the major, who called for a review of the amendment to the law. Under the current law, the judge decides whether or not to grant bail.

It is not appropriate to grant bail to individuals and organizations that disrupt the communications network, he added.

The telecoms law was enacted under the previous Thein Sein government in 2013 to control the countrys booming communications industry, but has been criticized for suppressing freedom of expression using a clause on online defamation.

Thirteen lawmakers debated amendments to the law proposed by the Upper House Bill Committee. Seven lawmakers proposed scrapping the law, and other lawmakers favored granting bail, but the military representatives rejected both.

National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmakers called for granting bail to the defendants and only allowing the aggrieved party to file a lawsuit, as the existing law allows a third party to file a lawsuit on behalf of the party.

The lawmakers said the law was vague, adding that defendants in more than 90 cases charged under Article (66)d were wrongly accused and given jail sentences.

Article 66(d) states that whoever uses a telecommunication network to extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb inappropriately influence or intimidate, on conviction can be punished with imprisonment for a term extending to a maximum of three years, and shall be liable to fine or both.

However, lawmaker U Htay Oo of Yangon Region (2) said the article should be scrapped altogether.

Article 66(d) is unnecessary as the circumstances in its provisions are already covered in the Penal Code, he told the parliament.

Though satirical description of state leaders and institutions is a widely accepted culture in other countries, it is different in Myanmar, said lawmaker U Khin Maung Latt of Rakhine State (3).

In our society, there is deep sensitivity over such a culture, plus there is a bad habit of reprisal, said Khin Maung Latt.

Speaker of the Upper House, Mahn Win Khaing Than, assigned the bill committee to review the draft amendments.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Myanmar Floods Displace More Than 130,000

A family walks in a flooded street in Kyaikto Township, Mon State, on July 22, 2017. / Soe Zayar Tun / Reuters

YANGON  More than 130, 000 people have been displaced by recent heavy rains and subsequent flooding across the country, with two deaths reported, according to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

One man drowned in the floods in Hkamti Township, Sagaing Region and a man in Chin States Tonzang Township was killed while crossing a stream, the ministry reported.

As of July 23, a total of 134,591 people from 33,233 households have been evacuated in Magwe, Sagaing, Bago, Irrawaddy and Naypyitaw regions and Rakhine, Mon and Karen states.

The floods have hit Magwe Region the worst, with 90,417 people displaced, followed by Sagaing division with 23,595 people forced from their homes.

The ministry reported that they have distributed flood relief aid in the affected areas, funds to those who lost their homes, and a compassionate grant of 300,000 kyats (US$218) to the families of the two men who died.
Burma News Analysis: State Counselor Seeks Support from Kachin Church Leaders

Phare IDP Camp at the 6 mile marker on the China-Myanmar border in Chi Phway Township, Kachin State in 2016. / The Irrawaddy

In a surprise move, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi met with 12 members of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) on Monday.

According to statements from both parties, the meeting between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the KBC leaders was productive. However, any resolution on halting the Myanmar Army offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) remained elusive, according to Kachin sources. No military representatives were seen attending the meeting, although the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement and the chairman of the peace commission were present.

As her original hopes of achieving peace during her current government term have appeared to dim, the meeting with KBC suggests that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her advisers have apparently turned to new sources to attempt to reconcile the divide between her government, and ethnic nationalities and their respective armed groups.

With a membership of over 400,000, the KBC is an influential organization among the ethnic Kachin who are largely Christian.

KBC chairman Rev. Lalawk Gyung Hkawng issued a statement in Burmese before the meeting on July 21, expressing a desire for peace to prevail in Kachin State; meanwhile, fighting between the Tatmadaw and the KIA has intensified in areas like Tanai Township.

In the statement, KBC leaders praised Daw Aung San Suu Kyis leadership and election campaign slogan of change, but pointed out that conflict with ethnic armed groups had grown under her National League for Democracy (NLD) government.

The KBC representatives urged the State Counselor to engage in further discussions toward building a federal Union instead of convincing armed groups to sign the controversial nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), which the KIA, like most of Myanmars ethnic armed organizations, opted out of. The NCA, the statement said, depends on political assurances, which cannot be upheld as long as the countrys armed forces have supremacy over the government.

During the meeting, the KBC asked the government to look into the crisis facing internally displaced Kachin people, of which there are more than 100,000, following the breakdown of a ceasefire between the Tatmadaw and the KIA in 2011. The representatives urged Daw Aung San Suu Kyis administration to set up a pilot project to deliver aid and allow for international assistance to operate in Kachin State without obstruction. The organization also asked the government to acknowledge the drug eradication campaign taking place in the region, pointing out that the production of drugs is related to political conflict.
Burma Parliament Rejects UN Envoy Statement

UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee during a tour of Kyaukphyu Township in Rakhine State, on July 11. / Moe Myint / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The Lower House unanimously agreed on Monday to an urgent motion objecting to the end-of-mission statement from UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee on July 21 after her recent visit to the country.

National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker for Einme Township, Daw Thandar, called for the motion because, if the report, which will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in October, is biased, the decisions made that are based on this report could be wrong.

I dont deny there are human rights violation issues in the country, but I wanted to highlight that the findings of Ms. Yanghee Lee are incomplete in regard to Rakhine State affairs, said Daw Thandar, who is also a member of the parliamentary Citizens Fundamental Rights Committee.

Lee told a Yangon press conference on July 21 that she was disappointed as the new government had kept the old tactics of the previous government during her tour. She expressed dismay that her visit, which included Rakhine, Karen, and Shan states, was marked by many travel and time restrictions.

U Kyaw Tin, the deputy foreign minister, told lawmakers Ms. Yanghee Lees statement lacked accuracy and was unfair, concluding that she did not follow the ethics of a special rapporteur.

He cited the State Counselors Office announcement that said the envoys statement contains many sweeping allegations and a number of factual errors.

The special rapporteur included unverified information and allegations in her report, but left out the explanations she heard from the [ministers and officials] regarding the allegations, added Kyaw Tin.

Thirteen lawmakers, including two Union Solidarity and Development Party, one Arakan National Party, two Myanmar Army representatives, and NLD legislators echoed the governments view.

Activist-turned-lawmaker U Pyone Cho urged the human rights envoy to systematically study the information and sources, and emphasized this was a critical time for the country.

He also rejected Lees claims that she had time restrictions for the trip, and said she was given the chance to collaborate with the government but instead had raised doubts among the international community over the government.

Military appointee Maj Myint Maung added, Such a statement neglecting Myanmars efforts, and aiming to cause confusion among the UN and the international community is an intentional act.

We all must be united in order to protect our national interest, as there could be possible international pressure in the future, he added.
Burma Union Lawmaker Switches Rakhine Parties

Upper House lawmaker Daw Htoot May . / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Ethnic Arakanese politician and Upper House lawmaker Daw Htoot May has resigned from the Arakan National Party (ANP) to join the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD).

At a press conference in Yangon on Tuesday, Daw Htoot May said she resigned from the ANP the previous day because she believed that she would be able to better serve the interests of Rakhine State and Arakanese people with the ALD.

Ive resigned from the ANP because it is high time I made a decision. As a young woman, I feel like I should no longer stay in the comfort zone, just following the steps of the seniors, said the 38-year-old lawmaker.

She also posted her resignation on her Facebook page on Monday.

In June 2013, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) and ALD merged under the name Arakan National Party (ANP) to avoid vote-splitting in the 2015 election.

The newly formed party contested 63 seats in Rakhine and Chin states and Irrawaddy and Yangon regions. It won 10 seats in the Upper House, 12 in the Lower House and 22 in Rakhine State Parliament.

In January 2017, former leaders of the ALD announced that they were splitting from the ANP and were re-registering with the Union Election Commission (UEC) for the 2020 elections. On July 18, the UEC confirmed the registration of the ALD as a political party.

Daw Htoot May joined the ALD in 2006, and became an ANP member after the merger. In the 2015 election, she contested the Upper House seat of Ramree and Ann townships.

As I am back in my mother party ALD now, Ill be able to engage in issues related to Rakhine State more freely, she said.

U Kyaw Myint, current leader of the ALD, told the same press conference on Tuesday that the partys central executive committee would be chosen soon.

As we have been officially registered as a political party now, well engage in the interests of Rakhine State and the internal peace process. We are ready to cooperate with all democratic forces including the NLD, said Kyaw Myint.

He said the ALDs manifesto enshrines ethnic equality, self-determination, resource sharing and ensuring Rakhine politicians lead in serving the interests of the state and its people.

The ALD would also strive for the rule of law, he added, create jobs, promote education, and push to amend the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
An Indian federal minister has pledged to keep driverless cars off the country's roads due to fears that they may lead to a loss of jobs.

Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport and highways, was quoted as saying: "We wont allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this. We wont allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have unemployment, you cant have a technology that ends up taking peoples jobs."

A number of countries have been testing out driverless vehicles, with Australia being among them. Companies like Google have tested out the technology and many others are following suit.

A report in the Hindustan Times said Gadkari had pointed to the fact that the country needs a total of 2.2 million commercial drivers. To meet this need, a plan had been formulated to open driver training institutes.

He said as a result of this move, half a million people would be employed over the next five years.

A bill which is pending in the upper house of India's parliament permits the testing of technology that can be used in driverless vehicles.

The relevant clause runs thus: "In order to promote innovation and research and development in the fields of vehicular engineering, mechanically propelled vehicles and transportation in general, the central government may exempt certain types of mechanically propelled vehicles from the application of the provisions of this Act.

The report said that automobile experts were of the view that there was a lack of consensus on the use of driverless vehicles due to the implications for employment.

It quoted Abdul Majeed, automotive leader, Price Waterhouse, as saying: "India is not immune to the debate. Today jobless growth is a big issue, but you cant just go ahead and ban new technologies.

"There was a similar debate when computers came in. Not all technology leads to joblessness. You have to have the right balance. Technology has to co-exist.
Australia and New Zealand is Progress's biggest market in the Asia Pacific region, and that was behind the company's decision to locate its APJ headquarters in Melbourne, vice-president and managing director of international operations for APJ and EMEA, Mark Armstrong, told iTWire.

Eight people have already been hired, and another four to six appointments are planned. "We're investing (in Australia)," he said. Progress has taken on many new partners  "it's a big market for us."

Progress is trying to help its partners  notably ISVs  realise that the mantra should not longer be "mobile first" but rather "cognitive first." That is, applications should take advantage of technologies such as machine learning in order to allow the automation of complex situations such as predicting equipment failure.

McKinsey has estimated that predictive maintenance alone could yield worldwide savings of US$630 billion over five or six years, he said. "The potential savings are huge."

Industries such as manufacturing and logistics would increasingly expect to see AI capabilities in the software they use, Armstrong suggested.

Three of Progress's Australian partners have been recognised internationally for their moves into the cognitive arena. For example, Revolution Software Services is already applying Progress' technology to its automotive dealer software, using face recognition to create heat maps of people's movements around the showroom. It also plans to build in predictive analytics, for instance to indicate when someone in the showroom is most likely to buy.

Companies in Australia and in APJ more generally are typically smaller than those in North America, and Progress realises it is unlikely many of them will be able to take advantage of advances in data science of their own accord.

So its strategy is to provide a platform that will allow ISVs to build cognitive software for SMEs, without needed lots of data scientists.

"Our goal... is to make data science available to the SME market through ISVs," Armstrong told iTWire.

The development of that platform is in its early days, he admitted, but the recent acquisitions of Kinvey and DataRPM are steps towards it. These acquisitions give Progress a "big opportunity in Australia," he said.
Watch out, AVG, Avast, Microsoft and anyone else with free AV, Kaspersky has launched Kaspersky Free Anti-Virus, but its paid suites still offer many features definitely worth paying for.

Kaspersky Lab has been in the news of late, more over US concerns than for its Internet security prowess, but has taken back the initiative following the companys 20th birthday with the launch of Kaspersky Free AV.

And, for the time being, Kaspersky Free is only available on Windows.

The news comes via the companys eponymous founder, Eugene Kaspersky, in an official blog post entitled KL AV for Free. Secure the Whole World Will Be.

The free antivirus wont be competing with Kaspersky's paid-for versions.

In the paid-for versions there are many extra features, like: Parental Control, Online Payment Protection, and Secure Connection (VPN), which easily justify the ~$50 for premium protection.

There are a lot of users who dont have the ~$50 to spend on premium protection; therefore, they install traditional freebies (which have more holes than Swiss cheese for malware to slip through) or they even rely on Windows Defender (ye gods!).

An increase in the number of installations of Kaspersky Free will positively affect the quality of protection of all users, since the big-data-bases will have more numbers to work with to better hone the machine learning.

And based on those three deductions, Kaspersky realised they had to do one thing, and fast: roll out a Kaspersky Lab freebie all over the planet!

The great man himself notes that the company has been working on this release for a good year-and-a-half, with pilot versions in a few regions, research, analysis, tweaks and the rest of it, and after all of that, Kaspersky and his team have deduced the following:

Kaspersky also noted the free version had been successfully piloted in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China, and also in the Nordic countries (thats Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, in case you were wondering).

So, how successful was this pilot programme?

Kaspersky exclaimed that successfully would be an understatement, given that with practically zero promo activity, the Kaspersky Free product was installed several million times, in doing so cranking up our market share considerably".

He notes that a simple increase in market share isnt the aim, instead our aim is to raise the overall level of protection on the Internet, and gives thanks to all Kaspersky Free users for helping us save the world!

The product also comes hot on the heels of Kaspersky Lab's 20th birthday, (last month on June 26), with the planet getting Kasperskys present.

Also the rollout isnt global on an immediate basis, will be done over four months in waves as per different regions. The first wave will be the US, Canada, and many of the Asia Pacific countries; September: India, Hong Kong, Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Latin America; October: Europe, Japan and South Korea; November: Vietnam and Thailand".

So if you go to the Kaspersky Free AV AV page, you might not see the free download yet.

With that, and by then, Kaspersky believes that will be the whole planet covered".

So, what is in Kaspersky Free?

Eugene explains:

Its a version with all the bare essentials: file, email and web antivirus; automatic updates, self-defense; quarantine; and so on.

This arsenal ensures convenient and safe Web surfing (is it still surfing? Sounds a bit 90s to me), working with USB sticks and other portable storage media, and protection against both phishing and infected files being run.

In short, the indispensable basics that no one on the planet should do without.

Kaspersky Free is also lighter on system resources and quicker than its big brothers.

Its based on the same technologies as those older brothers, which you all know always come out on top in independent testing.

This means that, though it features just the bare basics, it still packs a punch  "a punch were no less proud of".

The same protection without compromise: "we detect any cyber threat regardless of its origin or intention  even if certain folks dont like it".

At the same time Kaspersky Free doesnt come cut with all the usual nonsense like advertising-oriented user-habit tracking and confidentiality infringements  which free AV normally suffers badly from in order to make it financially worthwhile to its manufacturers.

Kaspersky also proudly boasts of several other free Kaspersky utilities you can find here.
Australia and New Zealand rank among the top four countries in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, that are the most capable and ready to generate efficiencies linked to IoT solutions, according to a newly published report.

According to the IDC Asia/Pacifics Internet of Things (IoT) readiness index in APeJ report, New Zealand and Australia come in third and fourth place respectively in IoT readiness.

Governments in Australia and New Zealand are start-up and business friendly in general, fostering an innovation market where there is fierce competition for venture capital funds, says associate vice-president for IoT research IDC Asia Pacific, Hugh Ujhazy.

This aspect may lure IoT experimentalists to capital markets outside of ANZ as they seek funding to scale beyond early proof of concepts.

Ujhazy says the report reveals that the countries at the top of the index like South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia ranked well in all measures of stature, business readiness and technological preparedness. Other countries included in the benchmarking exercise are China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, and ASEAN countries namely Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

IDC predicts that the APeJ loT market will grow from US$335.6 billion in 2016 to US$565.5 billion in 2020 as the global IoT landscape continues to mature.

According to IDC, with such growth and business opportunities at hand, loT vendors and service providers are faced with an increasingly complex set of choices as to which markets to enter to gain the most value and globalise their offerings.

On the impact for vendors operating in the market, both Australia and New Zealand must be considered attractive investment targets by virtue of their level of overall infrastructure maturity, size of the digitally-aware skills base and the level of innovation expressed in those markets, says Ujhazy.

Knowing where a country stands in the loT index will help global and local IT vendors identify the opportunities that lie ahead of them as they line up their strategies at federal, local, and enterprise levels.

Key highlights from the IDC report and market assessment include:

New Zealand scores exceptionally high on measures such as ease of doing business and start-up procedures, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and innovation, all of which point to necessary components for a business environment that is ready for the growth of the IoT. This is considering they have a relatively small GDP and population compared with G20 countries.

Australia and New Zealand ranked in the second quartile in terms of country competitiveness, a combination of GDP and the Global Innovation Index.

New Zealand edged out Australia in infrastructure investment, having higher overall ICT spend per capita than Australia, while Australia had a higher ratio of secure server deployment.

In terms of regulation and ease of doing business, both countries were on par, falling slightly behind Hong Kong and Singapore in this respect.

In terms of the skills to support IOT deployments and the creation of intellectual capital through the number of local patents, both Australia and New Zealand were on par with each other, sitting slightly behind South Korea in this category.

Governments in Australia and New Zealand are start-up and business friendly in general, fostering an innovation market where there is fierce competition for venture capital funds. This aspect may lure IoT experimentalists to capital markets outside of ANZ as they seek funding to scale beyond early proof of concepts, says Ujhazy.

According to Ujhazy, at the country level, the IoT readiness index also hopes to provide the public sector and policy makers the opportunity to look at specific concerns or opportunities for their country, regardless of their high or low ranking.

For example, a country with a high level of patents but a low number of tertiary graduates may be able to create innovation but lacks a skilled workforce to roll-out real life solutions. Then, the action then could be to either import skills, develop local gap training programmes or go somewhere else. In summary, this model helps its users not only decide where to offer IoT based solutions but also the actions required to deliver success in those markets, IDC notes.
The automotive and communications sectors are the two most likely to be hit by business disruptions due to semiconductor shortages being compounded by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine
When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney-General George Brandis get down to the nitty-gritty of formulating proposed changes to encryption laws which they have talked about, they might like to stop and consider one fact: most tech companies will bend over backwards if they have something to gain from it.

The case of Apple is illustrative. The company earned kudos from champions of personal privacy last year when it put up opposition to an FBI move to gain access to the contents of an iPhone which had been used by one of the terrorists involved in an incident in San Bernardino, California.

Annoyed by the FBI's move to take the matter to the courts, without first quietly approaching the company, Apple put up stiff resistance.

But the same Apple has now announced plans for opening a new data centre in China in order to comply with the government's demands to store Chinese customer data within the country. Despite the cost and inconvenience, Apple realises that there is a lot of money to be made in China.

Hence it has bent over as the price is right.

Take the example of Microsoft. In May, the company released a version of its Windows operating system known as Windows 10 China Government Edition, a version vetted by the Beijing authorities and deemed suitable for use by the country's public sector.

There is plenty of money to be made by supplying operating systems to China's public sector; given that Microsoft was willing to show its crown jewels to the authorities. Money does indeed make the mare go.

One could go on. Practically every big tech company jumps through hoops when there is a pot of gold on the other side. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo!, they all say one thing in public, but buckle down to government demands provided there is something in it for them.

Given this, Turnbull and Brandis might like to think of some carrots that they can dangle in front of the tech companies whose encrypted products they are seeking access to. Wielding a stick, as Turnbull has done thus far, is unlikely to help.
Internet service provider MyRepublic says newly commissioned research has found that three in four (76%) Australians want speeds of 1Gbps or more, with two in three people (66% ) claiming it would have a positive effect on their work and leisure time.

MyRepublic released research carried out by Galaxy in the wake of the launch of what it says is the first Australian Gigatown in Wollongong and to prove Australians want  and need  affordable ultra-fast Gig speeds.

According to Nicholas Demos, managing director at MyRepublic Australia, the research also sends a clear message to the nations ISPs and government: Australians are dissatisfied with their slow home internet speeds, they want 1Gbps speeds or more, they are worried about losing the digital economy race, and believe we are getting a raw deal compared to our Kiwi cousins.

Demos claims the research findings support MyRepublics Gigatown and prove Australians hunger for reasonably priced access to higher speed, premium fibre products.

When we asked Australia to tell us why their town should become the first Gigatown, the overwhelming theme was the need for affordable ultra-fast speeds of up to 1Gbps.

We know that people dont need 1Gbps all the time, but when someone wants to stream the latest 4K movie, someone wants to download the latest version of IOS for their mobile, someone else wants to download the latest game for their PlayStation, it all just works and thats what Gig speeds provide.

As the winning city of Gigatown, MyRepublic lit up Wollongong with speeds of up to 1Gbps. In addition to the 100 MyRepublic customers who have received free speed upgrades, from today, MyRepublic has also opened up the 1Gbps speed tier plan to a limited number of new customers in Wollongong at $129.99 per month.

Demos says MyRepublic believes that the 1Gbps plan is a premium product and have positioned it at the $129.99 price point as we believe that is fair.

However, based on the current regulated AVC and CVC wholesale pricing the product would realistically retail well over $200, and as our research showed, only one per cent of people are willing to pay this price.

According to Demos, MyRepublic is investing more than half a million dollars to subsidise Gigatown and to prove there is an appetite for the Gig product at the same price point the Kiwis pay.

Demos cites Bill Morrow, NBN chief executive, as recently saying that NBN Co is considering, and is in consultation, looking at a restructuring of the AVC and CVC pricing mechanism.

There has been hot debate about wholesale AVC and CVC pricing and whilst we are encouraged by NBNs reduction in CVC pricing, we agree with Mr Morrow and believe the whole model needs to be reviewed as it does not go far enough. In the other countries MyRepublic operate in, the wholesale network (equivalent to NBN in Australia) provide alternative pricing models that allow us to deliver affordable speeds of up to 1Gbps to the consumer market, Demos says.

As the fibre broadband leaders in the APAC region, we know the level of network capacity that is necessary to deliver on the customer promise and ensures the customers experience matches the underlying performance claims of each plan and this differentiates us from our competition. The current finger pointing between RSPs and NBN on who is to blame for poor network speeds is not constructive and we would rather focus our energies on ensuring the combined AVC/CVC wholesale price regime works for everyone - the wholesale provider, RSP and the end consumer.

MyRepublic says the research study revealed more than half of Australians (53%) believe their current home internet speed is too slow to run a business from home, with only about one in four (28%) confident it was up to the task.

And, it also revealed that just one in three homes connected to the NBN (34%) believe their speed is good enough for a home-based business, and one quarter of those surveyed complained their internet is so slow they struggle to use multiple devices at the same time.

We invested in the nations first Gigatown to show the possibilities of what a premium 1Gbps NBN service could deliver for Australian residences, businesses and communities. Australia should be taking advantage of the digital economy. We need to open up more opportunities for people to be able to work remotely, reducing the requirement for commuting and drive innovation, generating real economic and social benefits like more jobs, improve efficiency and economic growth, Demos notes.



Finding that more than half of our survey respondents believe their current internet speed is too slow to run a business from home is very concerning for business growth, given the rising trends of home-based micro-businesses, working from home and flexible work agreements. It clearly drives the need for affordable ultra-fast 1Gbps internet speeds. Australia has a great track record of starting innovative companies from the home but we need to support them to survive in the digital world  with the right speed like Gigatown.

Demos says the survey showed Trans-Tasman rivalry is alive and well  "and New Zealand is winning".

According to MyRepublic, while Australians struggle with slow speeds at home, New Zealanders can access high-speed internet services (up to 1Gbps) for as little as $130 per month.

The ISP also says the majority of Australian home Internet users (85%) believe the 1Gbps service should be available here  and that is should cost the same (as NZ) if not less  and that only 1% believed it is fair to pay more than $200 per month for 1Gbps high-speed Internet service which, based on current wholesale pricing, it would have to retail at.
Reddit Email 224 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Trump keeps tweaking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in press interviews and on twitter, complaining bitterly that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, which started in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Trump seems to imagine that if only he could get Sessions to resign, he could appoint someone else as AG and then have that person fire Mueller and quash the investigation. In the real world, acting this way could lead to impeachment if the Dems take the House and Senate in 2018.

Sessions people are leaking to the press that he is determined not to resign despite being treated so shoddily by his boss. This brave face, though, may just be bravado. Sessions might find it difficult to get the kind of respect he needs to be effective if he is a laughingstock. Trump is so erratic, moreover, that you never know when he could just summarily fire Sessions. That sort of thing, after all, is what the television-watching public knows him for, and maybe what they expected of him.

Not only must the morale of Sessions and his people be rock bottom, but this treatment is demoralizing the rest of the cabinet, too. Rumors are swirling that Rex Tillerson, who from day one seems to have regretted accepting the position of Secretary of State, is thinking seriously of resigning over how Sessions has been treated. Tillerson is used to being CEO and boss of a multi-billion dollar company, and being bossed around by young neophytes on the White House staff never suited him. He certainly would not put up with being tweet-dissed by the likes of Donald Trump.

So Tillerson just announced that he is taking some personal time back home in Texas.

Whaaat? The Department of State is not a small operation and US foreign policy might, like, be somewhat important. Everybody goes on vacation time to time, but then they announce it as such. Tillerson may or may not ever come back to Washington.

So thats at least two key members of the Trump cabinet who are more or less sidelined.

Then there is the Great Afghanistan Brouhaha. National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster and Secretary of Defense have been thinking about what to do with Afghanistan, which is collapsing even more alarmingly than the Trump government, as Solaiman M. Fazel argued Monday in these pages.

So McMaster did a big study and decided on a modest troop escalation. He passes it by Rex Tillerson and SecDef Jim Mattis, according to Politico, and they go ballistic and shut McMaster down. They dont believe the civilians in the West Wing such as far rightwing Steve Bannon will go for a troop surge.

Trump kept talking about giving military affairs into the hands of the generals when he was a candidate, but now he slaps down two former generals and says no. You can only have a few troops, not a whole escalation.

Instead, Bannon appears to have pitched sending in mercenaries organized by Erik Prince, the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVoss. Princes old Blackwater outfit so outraged Iraqis over time that they at one point banned it when they got out from under W.

Trump allegedly didnt go for that plan, either.

So hell send a few more token troops in, which wont do the trick (likely nothing can do the trick).

It seems a little unlikely that McMaster took this rejection (at the instance of civilians) well.

So the Secretary of State is AWOL, the Attorney General is in a tweet dog house, and the National Security Adviser has been slapped down. The USS Trump seems to have been rammed by reality and is taking on a great deal of water.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

CBS This Morning: U.S. needs a political strategy in Afghanistan, says Michele Flournoy
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 26, 2017) - Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (OTC: DNCVF) ("Defiance") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Roy Bonnell to the position of President and CEO. Mr. Bonnell has over 20 years of experience in venture capital investment, finance and mergers & acquisitions. Mr. Bonnell provides Defiance with the financing and management abilities necessary to rapidly advance and grow the San Acacio Silver deposit in Mexico.

From 2007-2015, Mr. Bonnell served as President and CEO of Argex Titanium Inc., overseeing its rapid expansion from a mining exploration company to an emerging specialty chemical producer. Argex grew to be the Second Best Performing Mining stock on the Venture's 2013 Top 50 list. From 2005-2009, he was Managing Director & Founder of Atwater Financial Group, an independent financial and strategic advisory service. He also served at investment dealers and merchant banks including Dundee Securities Limited, Hampton Securities Limited, Benvest Associates Inc. and Two Roads Investments Inc.

Mr. Bonnell is a graduate of the London School of Economics (1995) where he received a M.Sc. in Accounting and Finance; McGill University (1993) where he received a MBA, University of Western Ontario (1991) where he received an LL.B and Queen's University where he received a B.A.H. (Political Studies). He has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1996.

"Defiance's San Acacio Silver Deposit is on track to become one of Mexico's premier high grade wide-vein silver deposits," commented Mr. Bonnell. "I look forward to working with the company's experienced technical and management team in advancing San Acacio further as the project's significant exploration potential remains open along strike and at depth. Our goal is to aggressively drill and grow the resource at San Acacio."

Defiance also announces the resignation of Mr. Bruce Winfield. The Board wishes to thank Mr. Winfield for his hard work and dedication as President, CEO and Director over the past 6 years. Mr. Winfield has agreed to stay on as an advisor to ensure a smooth transition.

Defiance has granted under its Stock Option Plan, options to purchase an aggregate of 300,000 common shares to officers of the company. The options are exercisable for 5 years at an exercise price of $0.31 per share.

A Panoramic Video on the San Acacio Deposit is available on our website, or Click Here to visit our Defiance YouTube Channel. Defiance Silver Corp. is a silver explorer and developer advancing the San Acacio Deposit, located in the historic Zacatecas Silver District of central Mexico. Defiance is managed by a team of proven mine developers with a track record of exploring and developing 7 operating mines to date. Defiance's corporate mandate is to expand San Acacio to become one of Mexico's premier high grade wide vein silver deposits.
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - July 26, 2017) - Komet Resources Inc. ("Komet" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:KMT) is pleased to announce a new set of results from its drilling program completed on the Dabia South permit (previously known as Moussala) in Mali. The new results from RC drilling (true widths of intersects not determined) are from a new zone located South-West of the main gold-rich Kabaya structure that runs North-South and is traced over a strike length of 500 m and a width of 230 m. Drill holes 51 and 52 intersected this new zone over a length of 200 m and a width of 50m. Notable intersections include 2.63 g/t Au over 35 m and 4.84 g/t Au over 11 m. For previously released results, please refer to the press release dated March 27, 2017, and the press release dated May 2, 2017.

Summary table of the results:

Drill # From (m) To (m) Interval (m) g/t Au Km2017rc51 2 37 35 2.63 incl 23 34 11 4.83 Km2017rc51 50 52 2 0.92 Km2017rc51 58 74 16 0.83 incl 58 59 1 1.83 incl 66 69 3 1.40 Km2017rc52 10 13 3 1.38 Km2017rc52 31 37 6 3.62 incl 33 34 1 11.70 Km2017rc52 41 46 5 0.62 Km2017rc52 50 60 10 1.41 Km2017rc52 68 80 12 1.42

Mr. Andre Gagne, president and CEO, stated: "This new zone on the Dabia South permit confirms the great potential of the Kabaya target which is still open in all directions."

Samples were analysed by fire assay with AA finish on 50 g sample aliquots at the SGS Laboratory in Bamako, Mali. Drilling supervision and sampling at the drill site were performed by qualified technical staff. The QA/QC program and the processing of results were designed by qualified geologists according to NI 43-101 regulation standards and best industry practices. One blank or standard or duplicate sample was inserted for every 20 samples analyzed.

More information about the corporation is available at: http://kometgold.com.

Jacques Marchand, P.Eng. P.Geo., is the Qualified Person who has reviewed this news release and is responsible for the technical information presented herein.
TORONTO, July 25, 2017 /CNW/ - LSC Lithium Corporation ("LSC" or together with its subsidiaries, the "Company") (TSXV:LSC) announced today that it has accepted the resignation of Wayne Richardson, as the Company's Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"). Mr. Richardson was instrumental in establishing a strong footing for LSC to operate in Argentina and has been a strategic asset during the growth stage of the Company. Mr. Richardson has resigned to focus on the continued growth and advancement of Enirgi Group Corporation ("Enirgi Group") and it's portfolio of global projects and technologies, including Enirgi Group's proprietary Direct Xtraction Processing Technology, which has successfully been deployed at Enirgi Group's DXP Plant on their wholly-owned Salar del Rincon in Salta, Argentina. Enirgi Group's technology is a key element of the strategic relationship agreement between LSC and Enirgi Group. LSC will continue to benefit from Mr. Richardson's leadership as the Chairman of LSC.

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Mr. Carlos Galli, LSC's Chief Operating Officer, will act as the interim CEO until a new Chief Executive Officer is appointed. The appointment of Mr. Galli as CEO is subject to certain conditions. Mr. Galli has been working with ADY since 2010, first as Industrial Manager and then as General Manager of Operations. Mr. Galli has participated in the construction and management of a lithium carbonate plant operation in the Puna plateau of Argentina, which delivered product to 5 countries. Among his past work experiences, he was an Industrial Segments Manager in SKF Latin America, and a Process Technology Business Manager in Alfa Laval.

The Board of LSC is very pleased to have Mr. Galli in this new role. With an Argentinian exploration focus, Carlos' professional knowledge, exploration experience and enthusiasm is a key to driving the accelerated and expanded exploration program. This change also benefits LSC as Enirgi Group will be focused on delivery of QP sign-off of their DXP Plant and funding for the final 50,000 tonne per year lithium carbonate commercial plant, which once successfully delivered, will be of demonstrable benefit to LSC.

Exploration Update

LSC has recently initiated a major exploration program on its Salar de Pozuelos property ("Pozuelos"), following up on the success of its initial exploration (see LSC press release dated April 10, 2017) and the closing of the acquisition of LitheA which owned 100% of Pozuelos.

The current program incorporates 15 holes to test all depths of Pozuelos and collect brine and relative Brine Release Capacity (RBRC) samples. Drilling for the current program commenced the week of July 14 in the south end of Pozuelos. The first hole drilled, SP-2017-15, intersected highly fractured halite to 35 m depth, followed by fractured halite with intercalated clays and very coarse gravels to 81.5 m. The hole was stopped at 81.5 m, cased with filters and brine samples obtained by air-lift tests. The brine density exceeded 1.2 kg/L. Brine assays are expected within the next two weeks. The second hole, SP-2017-11, had advanced to 45 m as of July 20. It encountered an initial 5 m interval of organic material followed by 35 m of highly fractured halite intercalated with some clay and significant coarse gravel. The hole is planned to advance to 60 m with the collection of brine samples at selected intervals. LSC is encouraged by the drilling results to date, which indicate the potential for high porosity formations.

A drilling program on LSC's tenements on nearby Salar Pastos Grandes is scheduled to start as soon as permits are received, which are expected by the beginning of August. This program will complement the work on Pozuelos. Other exploration programs are scheduled to start in early August on LSC's projects at Salar Rio Grande and Salar Jama. In addition, LSC anticipates receiving permits to undertake initial exploration work on its Salar Salinas Grandes tenements in Salta Province in late Q3/17 following a successful community relations engagement program.

Qualified Person/Data Verification

The scientific and technical information included in this press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Donald H. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC and Lithea.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the "Lithium Triangle," an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the world's most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - July 26, 2017) - Excellon Resources Inc.(TSX: EXN) (OTC: EXLLF) ("Excellon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from its ongoing exploration program at the Platosa Mine in Durango, Mexico.

Highlights

Multiple intersections of high grade mineralization potentially expanding the 623 Manto and connecting the 623 and Guadalupe South mantos, including: 886 g/t Ag, 8.8% Pb and 20.5% Zn or 2,318 g/t Ag equivalent ("AgEq") over 6.76 metres in EX17UG323; 2,965 g/t Ag, 16.4% Pb and 0.9% Zn or 3,702 g/t AgEq over 1.45 metres and 1,171 g/t Ag, 9.3% Pb and 2.9% Zn or 1,713 g/t AgEq over 1.06 metres in EX17UG324; 1,600 g/t Ag, 6.4% Pb and 8.7% Zn or 2,319 g/t AgEq over 3.70 metres in EX17UG325; 3,574 g/t Ag, 28.2% Pb and 18.7% Zn or 5,727 g/t AgEq over 1.27 metres in EX14UG200; and 1,238 g/t Ag, 5.3% Pb and 2.9% Zn or 1,611 g/t AgEq over 2.10 metres in PH17-27;

Dry conditions are facilitating efficient underground exploration around the Platosa mantos.

"Today's results confirm the potential to add significant high-grade mineralization to the 623 Manto and demonstrate continuity between the 623 and Guadalupe South mantos," stated Ben Pullinger, Vice-President, Geology. "This mineralization is near mine workings and therefore has the potential to increase near term high-grade production. Our drilling program continues to successfully demonstrate the ability to expand Platosa's mineralized footprint around existing resources. Dry conditions are also providing easier and more efficient access to strategic areas for underground drilling around the Platosa mantos."

Exploration Results

Approximately 15,000 metres have been completed in 120 drill holes from surface and underground in the ongoing drill program. Material intersections reported today are summarized below:

Hole ID Interval(1) Interval(2) Ag Pb Zn AgEq(3) From To meters g/t % % g/t EX17LP1116 321.35 323.54 2.19 104 2.6 1.2 276 EX17UG310 7.80 11.25 3.45 124 5.2 5.2 616 EX17UG323 20.75 27.51 6.76 886 8.8 20.5 2,318 EX17UG324 73.82 75.27 1.45 2,965 16.4 0.9 3,702 and 78.64 79.70 1.06 1,171 9.3 2.9 1,713 EX17UG325 87.80 91.50 3.70 1,600 6.4 8.7 2,319 EX17UG326 90.90 92.70 1.80 316 3.2 0.9 496 and 97.70 99.00 1.30 287 6.3 0.6 584 EX14UG200 60.60 61.87 1.27 3,574 28.2 18.7 5,727 PH17-27 9.90 12.00 2.10 1,238 5.3 2.9 1,611

(1) From-to intervals are measured from the drill collar, with drill holes marked UG or PH drilled from underground stations.

(2) All intervals are reported as core length.

(3) AgEq in drill results assumes $16.50 Ag, $1.00 Pb and $1.25 Zn with 100% metallurgical recovery.

The Company commenced a 25,000-metre diamond drilling exploration program in Q3 2016. This program encompasses drilling from surface and from underground. The program is currently focused on definition and growth of the existing resource in areas that will be in production in 2017, and exploring for new manto mineralization accessible from mine workings above the water table.

Underground drilling in six holes has successfully delineated an area of approximately 100 metres by 25 metres that may expand the 623 Manto and connect the 623 and Guadalupe South mantos. EX14UG200 was a previously unsampled hole identified as mineralized through ongoing review of historical core. EX17UG323, EX17UG324, EX17UG325 and EX17UG326 followed up on EX16UG274, which intersected 662 g/t Ag, 4.9% Pb, 25.5% Zn and 0.57 g/t Au over 13.00 metres (see press release dated October 27th, 2016). These holes delineate a growing area of mineralization that runs from the Guadalupe South Manto, which is currently in production, to the upper level of the high-grade 623 Manto (M+I resources of 83,000 tonnes at 1,866 g/t AgEq) and may, therefore, be rapidly incorporated into existing mine plans. Mine operations are currently driving the 795 heading towards this area. Follow up drilling is underway to further delineate this connector zone.

Diamond drill hole EX17LP1116 targeted the extension of the NE-1 Manto and successfully increased the mineralized area of this manto by approximately fifteen metres. Above the mineralized horizon, EX171116 intersected what appears to be a flat thrust fault, which seems to be a control on mineralization as the system moves east. This fault will be modeled for follow-up later in the year.

Exploration for the remainder of 2017 will focus on defining high-grade manto mineralization around existing Platosa resources and will also continue to define structural controls within the resource that may lead to further discoveries of manto and feeder-style mineralization. Surface drilling is currently on hold, pending ongoing permitting of drill pads and is expected to re-commence later this year. The Company also continues to develop its regional exploration program for CRD/Source-style (skarn) mineralization.

Platosa drill core samples are prepared and assayed by SGS Minerals Services in Durango, Mexico. The lab is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025. The Company has a comprehensive QA/QC program, supervised by an independent Qualified Person.

Qualified Person

Mr. Ben Pullinger, P. Geo, Vice-President Geology, has acted as the Qualified Person, as defined in NI 43-101, with respect to the disclosure of the scientific and technical information relating to exploration results contained in this press release.

About Excellon

Excellon's 100%-owned Platosa Mine in Durango has been Mexico's highest-grade silver mine since production commenced in 2005. The Company is focused on optimizing the Platosa Mine's cost and production profile, discovering further high-grade silver and CRD mineralization on the Platosa Project and capitalizing on the opportunity in current market conditions to acquire undervalued projects in Latin America.

Additional details on the La Platosa Mine and the rest of Excellon's exploration properties are available at www.excellonresources.com.
Gangcheonsan County Park in Sunchang-gun, North Jeolla Province, will host a special event next month where visitors can enjoy light shows.

All visitors can enjoy three themed light shows at the park, between Aug. 11 and Aug. 20. Entrance costs 3000 won ($2.70). In the Beongpung Waterfall Media Facade zone, LED lights will be projected onto a 40-meter high waterfall and streams, while in the Canvass Interactive Art zone, visitors will paint pictures onto stone walls with lights. In the Teepee Tent zone, visitors can enjoy augmented reality games at eight installed teepees, tents formerly used by Native Americans.

Various other events, such as a Tarot card reading in the forest and glow-in-the-dark face painting, will also take place.
By Lakhvinder Singh



For more than 60 years the USA-Korea alliance has acted as the bedrock of security not only for Korea but in the entire Asia-Pacific region. It has kept complicated historical legacies in check and provided a strong economic impetus for growth. With overwhelming military strength, it has succeeded in keeping the balance of power for more than six decades.



Lately China has heavily invested in its defense forces. For over a decade its military budget has grown by double digits and now its modernization is affecting this established balance. If this trend continues the day is not far when China will replace the USA as the most powerful military force in the region, enjoying complete naval and air superiority and dominance over all countries.



This shift of power in the region has put smaller counties, like South Korea, in very a difficult situation. They are being asked to choose between the old reliable but declining power, and the new promising but untested friend. Their choice will influence their wellbeing for centuries to come.



Today China is South Korea's biggest trading partner. Unfortunately, this increasing economic dependence on China has made it vulnerable to Chinese pressure. Any disruption in China-Korea exchanges has serious consequences for South Korea, as demonstrated by the recent THAAD controversy.



To avoid Chinese retaliation, many analysts have suggested that it will be better to jump over to the Chinese camp and enjoy all the benefits that come with aligning with a rising power rather than wait for the declining USA revive its past glory.



Currently South Korea is a full-fledged, functioning democracy that has delivered unprecedented benefits to its society. Aligning with China, which does not believe in the democratic way of life, can disrupt this whole system.



Some scholars have suggested that South Korea can align with China and still can keep its democratic way of life. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done as it is natural for a bigger power to influence the smaller. Just as South Korea's alliance with the USA led it toward democracy and a free market economy, Chinese governing philosophy will surely influence it one way or another. There is no escape from this iron law of politics. Thus, alignment with China means South Korea may need to rewire its economic, political and social systems. There is no such thing as a smooth transition from a democratic system to totalitarian system without serious disruptions in all aspects of national life.



Furthermore, aligning with China at this stage will have serious implications for South Korean sovereignty and territorial integrity. With American muscle gone, there will not be much it can do against Chinese territorial claims and intervention in domestic matters.



What can South Korea do in this changing scenario? How can it keep its security and economic interests safe? Since South Korea is a small nation with fewer resources than China, it may not be possible for it to stand alone and protects its territorial integrity and way of life. South Korea needs to start building new multilateral security institutions with the help of the other likeminded regional countries, especially those who are equally worried about the post-American uncertainties. Countries like Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and India would be natural partners. Given South Korea's closer economic ties with China, it could be duly aligned in this multilateral security and conflict resolution mechanism based on the democratic principles of the rule of law and equality of all nations.



Though the USA withdrawal is expected to be gradual, there no reason for Koreans to be apathetic about their security. To avoid the uncertainties of the future, they should start investing today while they still have time. A small window of opportunity may close soon as China reaches its growth peak and starts dictating terms of war and peace. Let us hope the South Korean leadership will rise to the occasion and develop a large regional security perspective which goes beyond the Korean peninsula.



The South Korean people should expect this much from their new leadership.





The writer is the director of the peace program at the Asia Institute in Seoul. Contact parvkaur@hanmail.net.












By Casey Lartigue Jr.





As if diplomatic failures over the past seventy years haven't been enough, the video of an alleged North Korean re-defector and a speech by a former member of North Korea's elite are the latest reminders of the challenges facing those dealing with North Korea.

Jang Jin-sung, a former member of the North Korean government information warfare division, said last month in a speech at the TNKR Global Leadership Forum that there are two main reasons why the North Korean regime hasn't collapsed

One, North Korea survives because the United States and South Korea treat it like a normal country. The North's leadership won't negotiate away its nukes or give up power, as hopes have sprung eternally over the last seven decades. The North Korean elite have one goal: Survival on its own terms. Juche once upon a time may have been envisioned as a way to build a great country, but now it is for the elite to live in luxury.

They are living the good life, treating North Korea like personal property. The bad news is that they are bloodsucking tyrants exploiting wealth and ruining the lives of many others. The good news is that those selfish bastards won't start a war with the U.S. or South Korea because they don't want an interruption in the flow of expensive wine, food and cars from abroad.

Will the latest presidents of South Korea and the U.S. make a difference? Moon Jae-In is a supporter of the sunshine policy, but North Korea only allows in enough sunshine to grab goodies from abroad. That won't change even if Moon issues more statements from Germany.

President Donald Trump is the wild card. He is known for "Art of the Deal" negotiations, but how can you make a deal with someone who refuses to sit at the table or have a burger with you? Trump has tried both tough talk and dangled possible meetings. The regime has seen various tactics over the decades, and gotten back to its work of exploiting North Koreans and testing its missiles.

A second reason the regime survives is due to its policy of punishing family members for the crimes of others. Escaping North Korea, Jang said, means you must betray not only your country, but also your family.

This context is missing or mentioned in passing when morality questions about North Korean refugees land on college philosophy exams and in the media. North Koreans are living it with stakes higher than grade point averages or web hits, the consequence that their entire families could be wiped out from the moment they consider escaping from North Korea.

The video of the North Korean re-defector grabbed international headlines. Was she a spy? Abducted while trying to help family members escape? Inquiring minds wanted to know.

North Korea is not a normal country, the questions lack context. North Koreans are, as refugee author Yeonmi Park has said, "kidnapped at birth." North Korean refugee Jihyun Park has said all of North Korea is a prison. The system forces all-or-nothing bad choices about staying or leaving.

Engagement, sanctions, strategic patience, has anything worked? An internal revolution, which is the best solution, seems unlikely as long as entire families can be wiped out for plotting against the regime.

There aren't many good choices when it comes to a regime that brutalizes its own citizens and rarely negotiates with outsiders. The popular prediction, dating back to the early 1990s, has been that the regime would collapse within five to seven years. That prediction has been based on the illusion of North Korea being a normal country.

North Korean refugee Lee Ae-ran sees the regime for what it is _ a "murderous demonic gang." She openly lobbies for the third North Korean dictator to be assassinated. I'm not suggesting that, but it will take abnormal means to deal with an abnormal country. So far Moon has shown he will treat North Korea like a normal country that can be reasoned with. Trump, the deal-maker, hasn't completely shown his hand.





Casey Lartigue Jr. can be reached at CJL@post.harvard.edu
A scientific hypothesis is a tentative, testable explanation for a phenomenon in the natural world. It's the initial building block in the scientific method. Many describe it as an "educated guess" based on prior knowledge and observation. While this is true, a hypothesis is more informed than a guess. While an "educated guess" suggests a random prediction based on a person's expertise, developing a hypothesis requires active observation and background research.

Hypothesis basics

The basic idea of a hypothesis is that there is no predetermined outcome. For a solution to be termed a scientific hypothesis, it has to be an idea that can be supported or refuted through carefully crafted experimentation or observation. This concept, called falsifiability and testability, was advanced in the mid-20th century by Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper in his famous book "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" (Routledge, 1959).

A key function of a hypothesis is to derive predictions about the results of future experiments and then perform those experiments to see whether they support the predictions.

A hypothesis is usually written in the form of an if-then statement, which gives a possibility (if) and explains what may happen because of the possibility (then). The statement could also include "may," according to California State University, Bakersfield (opens in new tab).

Here are some examples of hypothesis statements:

If garlic repels fleas, then a dog that is given garlic every day will not get fleas.

If sugar causes cavities, then people who eat a lot of candy may be more prone to cavities.

If ultraviolet light can damage the eyes, then maybe this light can cause blindness.

What makes a hypothesis testable?

A useful hypothesis should be testable and falsifiable. That means that it should be possible to prove it wrong. A theory that can't be proved wrong is nonscientific, according to Karl Popper's 1963 book "Conjectures and Refutations (opens in new tab)."

An example of an untestable statement is, "Dogs are better than cats." That's because the definition of "better" is vague and subjective. However, an untestable statement can be reworded to make it testable. For example, the previous statement could be changed to this: "Owning a dog is associated with higher levels of physical fitness than owning a cat." With this statement, the researcher can take measures of physical fitness from dog and cat owners and compare the two.

Types of scientific hypotheses

The null hypothesis might be: There will be no difference in spin speed between a turbine with 6 versus 8 blades. (Image credit: SDI Productions/Getty Images)

(opens in new tab)

In an experiment, researchers generally state their hypotheses in two ways. The null hypothesis predicts that there will be no relationship between the variables tested, or no difference between the experimental groups. The alternative hypothesis predicts the opposite: that there will be a difference between the experimental groups. This is usually the hypothesis scientists are most interested in, according to the University of Miami (opens in new tab).

For example, a null hypothesis might state, "There will be no difference in the rate of muscle growth between people who take a protein supplement and people who don't." The alternative hypothesis would state, "There will be a difference in the rate of muscle growth between people who take a protein supplement and people who don't."

If the results of the experiment show a relationship between the variables, then the null hypothesis has been rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis, according to the book " Research Methods in Psychology (opens in new tab)" (BCcampus, 2015).

There are other ways to describe an alternative hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis above does not specify a direction of the effect, only that there will be a difference between the two groups. That type of prediction is called a two-tailed hypothesis. If a hypothesis specifies a certain direction  for example, that people who take a protein supplement will gain more muscle than people who don't  it is called a one-tailed hypothesis, according to William M. K. Trochim (opens in new tab), a professor of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University.

Sometimes, errors take place during an experiment. These errors can happen in one of two ways. A type I error is when the null hypothesis is rejected when it is true. This is also known as a false positive. A type II error occurs when the null hypothesis is not rejected when it is false. This is also known as a false negative, according to the University of California, Berkeley (opens in new tab).

A hypothesis can be rejected or modified, but it can never be proved correct 100% of the time. For example, a scientist can form a hypothesis stating that if a certain type of tomato has a gene for red pigment, that type of tomato will be red. During research, the scientist then finds that each tomato of this type is red. Though the findings confirm the hypothesis, there may be a tomato of that type somewhere in the world that isn't red. Thus, the hypothesis is true, but it may not be true 100% of the time.

Scientific theory vs. scientific hypothesis

The best hypotheses are simple. They deal with a relatively narrow set of phenomena. But theories are broader; they generally combine multiple hypotheses into a general explanation for a wide range of phenomena, according to the University of California, Berkeley (opens in new tab). For example, a hypothesis might state, "If animals adapt to suit their environments, then birds that live on islands with lots of seeds to eat will have differently shaped beaks than birds that live on islands with lots of insects to eat." After testing many hypotheses like these, Charles Darwin formulated an overarching theory: the theory of evolution by natural selection.

"Theories are the ways that we make sense of what we observe in the natural world," Tanner said. "Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts."

Additional resources

Read more about writing a hypothesis, from the American Medical Writers Association. (opens in new tab)

Find out why a hypothesis isn't always necessary in science, from The American Biology Teacher. (opens in new tab)

Learn about null and alternative hypotheses, from Prof. Essa on YouTube (opens in new tab) .

Bibliography

Encyclopedia Britannica. Scientific Hypothesis. Jan. 13, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/science/scientific-hypothesis

Karl Popper, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery," Routledge, 1959.

California State University, Bakersfield, "Formatting a testable hypothesis." https://www.csub.edu/~ddodenhoff/Bio100/Bio100sp04/formattingahypothesis.htm

Karl Popper, "Conjectures and Refutations," Routledge, 1963.

Price, P., Jhangiani, R., & Chiang, I., "Research Methods of Psychology  2nd Canadian Edition," BCcampus, 2015.

University of Miami, "The Scientific Method" http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/161/evolution/161app1_scimethod.pdf

William M.K. Trochim, "Research Methods Knowledge Base," https://conjointly.com/kb/hypotheses-explained/

University of California, Berkeley, "Multiple Hypothesis Testing and False Discovery Rate" https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~hhuang/STAT141/Lecture-FDR.pdf
Live Science is bringing our readers a monthly series on personal health goals. We'll give you tips and tricks for reaching those goals, based on the advice we've gathered from the countless health experts we've interviewed. Each month, we'll focus on a different goal, and the goal for August is "Get Better Sleep." Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to connect with other readers who are working toward these goals.

Jump to: January  Lose Weight | February  Eat Healthy | March  Start Exercising | April  Cope with Allergies | May  Protect Yourself from Sun and Heat | June  Stay in Shape Outdoors | July  Get Gutsy About Gut Health

Falling asleep  sounds simple, right? But for people who struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep through the night, or for those who can't stop hitting the snooze button in the morning, getting good sleep can feel pretty complicated. On this page, Live Science brings you the science behind sleeping more soundly. We've rounded up our best reporting, from bedtime tips to the latest studies on the science of sleep, to help you get the shut-eye you need.

Why sleep?

For starters, why do we even need to sleep in the first place? The answer is a bit murkier than you simply sleep because you feel tired. In fact, why people need sleep remains somewhat of an unsolved mystery in science. But research has shed some light on the reason for our slumbers, including that sleep may help the brain cleanse itself of toxins at night.

More info:

And although the exact reason for sleep remains unknown, scientists do know a bit (though not everything) about what goes on while a person sleeps. Experts break down sleep into several stages, known as the stages of sleep. Here's what goes on in each of them:

(Image credit: Purch Creative Ops )

Falling asleep and staying asleep

Some scientists compare the process of falling asleep to a computer shutting down: The brain goes through a series of steps, "shutting down" certain areas as sleep sets in. But what can help a person fall asleep, and then stay asleep? And how much sleep do you actually need?

More info:

(Image credit: Purch Creative Ops )

All about insomnia

More than 1 in 4 Americans say they don't get enough sleep from time to time, and nearly 1 in 10 say they have chronic insomnia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But what, exactly, does it mean to have insomnia? People with insomnia may have trouble falling asleep at night, or they may have trouble staying asleep, the CDC says. Some people with insomnia may wake up too early in the morning, and they may be unable to fall back to sleep.

More info:

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is another common sleep disorder  but people don't always know they have it, because the condition often goes undiagnosed, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). People with sleep apnea experience short pauses in their breathing during sleep, often because the breathing tube closes or becomes blocked. These pauses can last a few seconds to a few minutes and typically end with a loud snoring or gasping sound. Although the condition sounds frightening, many people with it don't realize they have it, simply because they continue to sleep through the night. But sleep apnea takes a toll: The condition causes people to shift out of deep, restorative sleep and into light sleep, the NHLBI says.

More info:

(Image credit: Purch Creative Ops )

How sleep affects your health

Not getting enough sleep can be a drag if it happens once in a while, but if you miss out on it regularly, the effects can build up and take a serious toll on your health. Recent research has shown that sleep deprivation can increase a person's risk of diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

More info:

Benefits of a good night's rest

On the other hand, getting a good night's rest can do wonders for your health, from improving your mood and appearance to even giving the brain a chance to reset its neural networks to prepare for the day ahead. Here's the latest on the benefits of sleep:

Seriously  get your tech out of the bedroom

Are smartphones, tablets and laptops ruining your sleep? A slew of science studies point to a pretty clear "yes." Certain types of light from these devices can trick the brain into thinking it's daytime, suppressing the brain's release of the sleep hormone melatonin. Experts agree: The best way to put a stop to this particular sleep obstacle is to simply keep your tech devices out of the bedroom.

More info:

Strange sleep conditions

For some people, sleep troubles can stem from conditions beyond insomnia and sleep apnea. These sleep conditions can sound strange and frightening  and, in some cases, such as sleep paralysis or "exploding head syndrome," they are. Here's the lowdown on a few of the stranger things that can go wrong during sleep.

More info:

Originally published on Live Science.
For some skywatchers, the upcoming total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 is more than just a chance to catch a rare sight of the phenomenon in the United States. It's also an opportunity to duplicate one of the most famous experiments of the 20th century, which astrophysicist Arthur Eddington performed in an attempt to prove that light could be bent by gravity, a central tenet of Albert Einstein's theory of general theory.

Amateur astronomer Don Bruns is among those hoping to re-do the experiment. "I thought of it about two years ago. I thought, surely, other people have done it," he told Live Science. "But no one had done it since 1973," Bruns said, when a team from the University of Texas went to Mauritania for the solar eclipse on June 30 of that year.

The group ran into technical problems, though, and could not confirm Eddington's results with much accuracy. Other attempts  such as one made for an eclipse on Feb. 25, 1952, in Khartoum by the National Geographic Society  fared somewhat better. [10 Solar Eclipses That Changed Science]

In 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which states that light will bend around massive objects because space itself becomes curved around such objects. A chance to test the theory came several years later, when a total solar eclipse was set to darken skies on May 29, 1919.

For the 1919 eclipse, Eddington led an expedition to measure the deflection of light from stars near the sun in the sky. Observing from Brazil and Africa, simultaneously, Eddington and his colleagues noted that the position of the stars close to the solar limb differed by a small amount from their catalogued positions, agreeing with the predicted 1.75 arc seconds (or 0.00049 degrees). The announcement that the experiment was a success made Einstein famous.

But later analyses of Eddington's data seemed to suggest that the astrophysicist's confirmation might not have been the slam dunk he thought it was. Bruns said the debate over Eddington's data is why he wants to do the experiment again.

"All these experiments, and the best they could get was maybe 10 percent error," he said. "I think I can get 2 percent." Modern instrumentation, as well as more accurate measurements of the positions of the stars, should help refine the measurements needed to replicate Eddington's experiment this time around, he added.

Bruns is taking few chances; he's going to a high-altitude location in Wyoming, where he's likely to have clear skies for the eclipse. And to make sure his telescope's aim is as accurate as it can be, he plans to stabilize his telescope mount by laying down a concrete slab the day before. "We have some quick-set cement," he said. The slab will also help ensure his mount is absolutely level.

And Bruns is not alone. Richard Berry, the former editor in chief of Astronomy Magazine, will be using his home-built observatory (known as Alpaca Meadows Observatory) to duplicate the Eddington experiment from Lyons, Oregon. [How to Make a Solar Eclipse Viewer (Photos)]

"I'm working in coordination with Toby Dittrich of Portland Community College and a group of four physics students," he told Live Science in an email. "Toby will be on the Oregon coast, and one of the students will be in eastern Oregon at the Oregon Star Party. Since I live on the center line [the path of totality], one or two of the students and I will take images for the experiment."

Berry has taken spectrographic images of the solar corona before, but this experiment is harder, because it involves taking an image of the star field that the sun is located in when the sun isn't there, and it requires getting a very precise measurement of the stellar positions when the sun is there during the eclipse.

There's also an outreach element to duplicating the experiment, said Rachel Freed, a science-curriculum consultant at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. "There's been a massive move to raise awareness," she said, in light of the August eclipse being visible across the United States. Sonoma State's Education and Public Outreach department has a website that describes how amateur astronomers can take part in the event, and what equipment they should use to view the eclipse.

Bradley Schaefer, a professor of astronomy at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, has detailed the equipment that skywatchers will need to do a modern-day version of Eddington's experiment. On Schaefer's website, he says it's possible for modern skywatchers to use off-the-shelf equipment and get much better accuracy than Eddington did nearly a century ago. According to the site, his goal is to get many people involved, because more measurements mean better precision and accuracy. In that sense, amateur astronomers could make some real contributions to science during the upcoming solar eclipse.

But even if you don't plan on conducting any science during the celestial event, an eclipse is still well worth seeing, Freed said  even without any fancy equipment. "During totality, you don't want to use anything," she said. "Just look at it, especially if you've never seen one."

REMEMBER: Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. Our sister site Space.com has a complete guide explaining how to view an eclipse safely.

Original article on Live Science.
President Donald Trump said today (July 26) that transgender individuals could not serve in the military.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump tweeted.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming  victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he continued in another tweet. [The 10 Most Outrageous Military Experiments]

A few thousand transgender people currently serve in the military, according to a 2016 report from researchers at the RAND Corporation. In June, the Trump administration delayed making a decision on whether to allow new recruits who are transgender to join the military, according to The New York Times.

Trump's announcement today goes against a policy enacted in June 2016 by the Obama administration, which allowed transgender individuals to openly serve in the military.

In that 2016 report from RAND, researchers led by senior political scientist Agnes Gereben Schaefer looked at the implications of having transgender individuals serve openly in the armed forces. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization that focuses on public policy. Here are five facts about transgender individuals in the military that the researchers found.

The total number of transgender individuals in the military is very low.

In 2014, there were an estimated 1,300 to 6,600 transgender individuals serving in the military, according to the RAND report.

That year, there were more than 1.3 million active service members, meaning that transgender individuals made up between 0.1 and 0.5 percent of the total active military, according to the report.

In the Selected Reserve (the non-active portion of the military), the RAND study estimated there were between 830 and 4,160 transgender individuals in 2014.

Not all transgender service members seek transition-related treatments.

A subset of the total number of transgender individuals in the military choose to engage in any type of procedures to transition to a gender that differs from the one they were assigned at birth, according to the RAND report. And even among those who choose to do so, the transition may be "primarily social" and involve no medical treatments.

When medical treatments are involved, they can include hormone therapy, hair removal and for some, surgery.

Transition-related treatment would disrupt less than 0.1 percent of the active military.

The RAND researchers estimated that between 29 and 129 active-duty transgender individuals would seek transition-related treatment that could disrupt their ability to deploy each year. This estimate represents less than 0.1 percent of the total number of people in the military.

In comparison, in 2015, approximately 50,000 active-duty military personnel, or 14 percent, in the Army alone were ineligible to deploy for various legal, medical or administrative reasons, according to the RAND report.

Gender transition-related health care costs are "relatively low."

Though Trump cites "tremendous medical costs" related to transgender individuals serving in the military, the RAND study estimated these costs would fall between $2.4 million and $8.4 million each year.

These costs would increase overall military health care spending by an "exceedingly small" amount, the report said. Between 0.04 and 0.13 percent of the approximately $6 billion spent in 2014 would go to transition-related health care costs, the researchers found.

Foreign militaries can offer insights.

In 2016, 18 countries allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military, according to the RAND report.

For their report, the researchers focused specifically on four countries  Australia, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom  and found that none of these countries' militaries "reported a negative impact on the operational effectiveness, operational readiness or cohesion of the force."

Originally published on Live Science.
Composite images from NASA's satellite imagery reveal the slow calving of a massive iceberg from Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf over many months.

Gorgeous new images reveal the movement of an enormous, trillion-ton iceberg that recently broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica

Right now, it is winter in Antarctica and the coldest continent is shrouded in a long night. But the movement of the Delaware-size hunk of ice was captured thanks to infrared satellite imagery from NASA that can see in the dark. [See Images of Larsen C Ice Shelf and Rift]

The massive iceberg's split from the continent had been predicted for years, due to the rapid movement of the ice shelf. Sometime between July 10 and July 12, the gargantuan hunk of ice, weighing in at a mind-boggling trillion tons, finally broke off, shaving off between 9 and 12 percent of the ice shelf's total mass, Live Science previously reported.

Gorgeous new "dark" images of a massive iceberg moving off from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica were recently captured by a NASA infrared sensor aboard a satellite. (Image credit: NASA Goddard/UMBC JCET, Christopher A. Shuman)

The new images were snapped between July 14 and July 21 by the Thermal Infrared Sensor aboard NASA's Landsat 8 satellite. The eerie new images reveal that the 2,240-square-mile (5,800 square kilometers) iceberg has already begun its inevitable disintegration. The main iceberg, dubbed A-68, has already lost some pieces, according to NASA. Currents are carrying the big berg northward, away from its shelter in a bay near the main ice shelf.

The images also reveal three new baby icebergs that are also likely to make their way into the sea soon.

Originally published on Live Science.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 25, 2017

Canada's highest court recently upheld a controversial order requiring Google to remove certain results from its worldwide search listings. Now, Google is asking a federal judge to rule that that the Canadian order is unenforceable in the U.S.

"Without a declaration from a United States court that enforcement of the Canadian order in the U.S. is unlawful, Google believes that Equustek will continue to pursue enforcement of the Canadian order," the company writes in a complaint filed Monday in San Jose, California. "Google now seeks a declaration from this court that will protect its rights."

The battle over the search results dates to 2012, when technology company Equustek asked a judge in British Columbia to order Google to remove search results for Datalink Technologies -- which allegedly stole trade secrets from Equustek and engaged in counterfeiting.

advertisement advertisement

The Canadian issued a worldwide injunction prohibiting Google from displaying search results for Datalink. That order was upheld last month by Canada's Supreme Court.

The digital rights groups Electronic Frontier Foundation, which weighed in on Google's side, criticized the Canadian court's ruling.

"The courts decision will likely embolden other countries to try to enforce their own speech-restricting laws on the Internet, to the detriment of all users," the EFF wrote. "Its not difficult to see repressive regimes such as China or Iran use the ruling to order Google to de-index sites they object to, creating a worldwide hecklers veto."

Google argues in its new court papers that enforcing the Canadian court's order in the U.S. would violate free speech principles. Among other arguments, Google says that the First Amendment prohibits injunctions that are not "narrowly tailored" to achieve a substantial interest.

"The existence of the Datalink websites is, and remains, a matter of public record," Google writes. "Equustek cannot show that it has no alternatives available other than enjoining Googles search results outside of Canada."

Google adds that Equustek has not sought injunctions against other search engines and social media sites and has not stopped Amazon from selling Datalink products.

Google also argues that the order shouldn't be enforced because it's "repugnant" to public policy in the U.S. "The ... standard applied by the Supreme Court of Canada did not come close to satisfying well-settled United States law for imposing injunctions," Google writes.

"The Canadian court placed the burden on Google, a non-party, to disprove Equusteks rights in every country outside of Canada, rather on Equustek, the plaintiff in the action, to prove its entitlement to removal of search results in each country in which it sought removal," Google writes. "Moreover, the Canadian standard took no account of the 'public interest' at all."

While Google says it's trying to protect the company's rights, it's uncertain how this lawsuit will do so, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman. That's because even if Google prevails, it's not clear that a victory in the U.S. would prevent a Canadian court from holding the company in contempt, Goldman says.

"There could still be Canadian enforcement actions that would not be governed by U.S. law," he says.
by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, July 26, 2017

After years dishing out mockery, it is finally time to eat a little crow, or humble pie, or perhaps my hat.

Indeed it came as something of a revelation this week when I perused the latest rankings of online media companies from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. Topping the social-media category was none other than Google+.

Yes, Google+, long dismissed as the also-ran and afterthought of the social-media world, is actually well liked by the relatively small group of people who use it.

According to the ACSI, which conducts an annual survey of roughly 180,000 consumers about their perceptions and sentiments regarding major brands, Google+ scored a satisfaction rating of 81 out of 100. That compares to an overall average of 73 for the social-media category at large.

advertisement advertisement

Not far behind was Pinterest, with an approval rating of 78, providing more proof that bigger isnt always better.

Wikipedia, which eschews advertising altogether, was in third place with 77. It's down slightly from last year, reflecting the difficulty of maintaining article quality amid a continuing decline in the number of editors, according to ACSI.

Instagram and YouTube are just hovering above the industry average, at 75 and 74, respectively. Instagrams rating is up 1%, apparently due to its introduction of enhancements, including stories. YouTube (another Google property) is down 4%.

Twitter and Facebook are both below the category average. Twitter received an approval rating of 70, despite being the favored communication channel of the commander-in-chief, while Facebook got a dismal 68.

As for Google+, it was always easy to mock, especially as it came on the heels of other failed attempts by Google to conquer social networks  remember Wave? Also, because it seemed like the tech giant, then the undisputed master of the Internet, wanted to conquer what little free territory remained.

In fact, around a decade ago, Facebook actually looked like the underdog.

How things have changed. OK, Google is still an 800-pound gorilla with arguably monopolistic practices. But now, so is Facebook, and its flaws highlight the virtues of Googles diminutive, unpretentious social network.

Sure, Google+ is small, but in an era when the worlds biggest social network has little to recommend it besides scale  and seems intent on using that scale to crush or absorb smaller rivals  there may be some virtue in smallness.

Its easier to countenance a niche social network, with a small but highly satisfied and engaged user base, than it is a huge one. Especially one that succeeds by manipulating users emotions, deliberately stoking envy and fear of missing out or by stringing along brands and content providers with constantly shifting rules and targets.
by Tanya Gazdik , July 26, 2017



Honda achieved The Blue Book Five by winning at least one category in each of the Kelley Blue Books major awards programs for 2017.

With more than 350 new cars to choose from each year, the biggest challenge for consumers lies in sifting through all of them, according to KBB. To provide shoppers with short lists they can use to start their new-car research, the editors at Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com, have named the 10 Most Awarded Cars of 2017 and the 10 Most Awarded Brands of 2017.

Kelley Blue Books analysts sorted through the winners from the brands 2017 awards programs, to compile two lists of the vehicles and brands that were recognized most often by Kelley Blue Book this year.

This year, Honda vehicles were featured on Kelley Blue Book award and accolade lists more than 30 times. The Honda Accord and Civic were the top two vehicles, followed by the Jeep Wrangler, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Impala, Kia Sportage, Honda CR-V and Subaru Impreza.

advertisement advertisement

Honda was also the top overall brand, followed by Chevrolet, Toyota, Subaru, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Jeep, Porsche and Ford.

KBB.coms major awards programs include the Best Buy Awards, Best Auto Tech Awards, Best Resale Value Awards, 5-Year Cost to Own Awards and Brand Image Awards. In addition, the various accolade car lists created by the KBB.com Editorial staff this year -- including the 10 Coolest Cars Under $18,000, Best Family Cars, 10 Most Comfortable Cars Under $30,000 and others -- were also factored into the final tally.
by Tanya Gazdik , July 26, 2017



In the U.S., by the age of 5, Millennials are five-times more well-traveled than their grandparents were at the same age. Millennials also are the most likely to discover new places to visit each year, according to online travel agency eDreams.

More than 50% of Americans travel more than they did 10 years ago, however, 94% of Americans choose to vacation domestically, according to the global report Travel Through the Generations.

The reports specifically looks at how travel has changed today compared to 50 years ago in the following countries: U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Compared to the other nations surveyed, Americans tend to begin international travel much later in life (average age of first trip abroad is 17 years old) and a large percentage never leave the country at all. When Americans do travel internationally, Mexico is the most popular destination.

advertisement advertisement

Nineteen percent of U.S. Millennials have visited 1-2 countries by the age of 5, compared to just 5% of Baby Boomers. Americans aged 18-29 today had also traveled internationally five times more than 50+-year-olds had by the age of five, this is 2.5 times more than Germans and Swedish Millennials, who are among the two most traveled countries in this study.

Over a quarter of Millennials (30%) are now more likely to book a sport or adventure based vacation than they were in 2007 and 16% would consider a volunteer-based vacation. Beach and food inspired vacations are also on the rise, with 42% of 18- to 29-year-old Americans saying they would be more inclined to consider a beach vacation now than they would have done 10 years ago. Millennials are also more likely to consider booking a culture-inspired vacation, with 37% doing so compared to just 22% of those aged 50 years or older.

Online booking has changed the way people plan their vacations and has played a major role in increasing the frequency and accessibility of travel. Globally, people are now 75% more likely to book vacations using an Online Travel Agent, then they were ten years ago, with 72% of Americans saying they book using this method today.

The research included responses from over 13,000 participants representing eight nations reflecting the travel preferences of those with children (aged 0  19), Millennials (aged 18-29) and Baby Boomers (aged 50 years or older) were included in the findings.
by Larissa Faw , July 26, 2017

PIA Agency is expanding to Portland, Oregon, its third office. The shop also has operations in San Diego and San Francisco.

The women-owned agency counts tech giant HP among its clients, and the firm has a significant presence in Oregon. This expansion will help serve that client relationship, as well as make it easier to work with brands based in the Northwest region of the country.

The decision to expand to Portland rather than Seattle was also based, in part, on the potential accessibility to top industry talent. Case in point: Industry veteran Marie Murphy is departing Razorfish to join as creative director, Portland.

The agency plans to hire as many as 40 creative, technical and account staff for the Portland office in the coming year. This will nearly double the agency's headcount, currently totaling 50 staffers working at its other locations.

"Portland is renowned for its independent spirit, talented workforce and outstanding quality of life. We are looking forward to being a part of this community, said agency CEO Cheryl Pia.

PIA will occupy two floors at 115 SW Ash Street in the New Market Theater building, located in the historic Old Town-Chinatown district of Portland.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 26, 2017

Adobe said Tuesday it has finally agreed to "end-of-life Flash," and will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020.

The company encourages content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to open formats such as HTML5, and points to the progress that Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and others have made.

"As open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web," wrote Adobe in a post.

Google in early 2016 set a deadline to stop running display ads in the Flash format. At the time the company said the move to HTML5 meant it would stop running Display ads in the Adobe Flash format on the Google Display Network and through DoubleClick in January 2017.

advertisement advertisement

Call Flash an innovation at the time, but as technology progressed, malicious thieves found ways to breach security that created holes to infuse viruses and malware. Those holes allowed for malware and other viruses to forge attacks on major desktop platforms, advertising, and operating systems.

Adobe began pushing content creators and those who focus on advertising creatives to HTML5 years ago. Sunsetting Flash doesn't mean an end to Adobe's streak in innovating the development of new web standards. In fact, the company said it will continue to actively participate in the creation as a way to advance technology.

The company will continue to contribute to the HTML5 standard and participation in the WebAssembly Community Group.
by Wayne Friedman , July 26, 2017

Fox Television Stations has struck a deal to sell ad inventory with programmatic technology company WideOrbit.

Local Fox TV station ad inventory will be offered in three ways -- in an open marketplace for Fox Stations-controlled advertising inventory; as programmatic/automated transactions with selected buying partners; and with inventory integrated with CoreMedia Systems for direct-response ad buyers.

Fox has 28 TV stations in 17 markets, covering more than 37% of U.S. TV homes. The companies say Fox is the largest U.S. local TV broadcast group to commit to programmatic advertising sales.

Based on our tests over the last year, we are convinced that programmatic advertising will be a complementary additional sales channel for our stations, stated Jim Burke, president of sales of Fox Television Stations.

WideOrbit claims a programmatic TV footprint of 750+ stations reaching over 93% of U.S. homes and 270 million people.
Before this months upswing, the latest price rise implemented by Brazilian mills  of around 8% was in January this year.

Since then, local flat steel makers have been granting occasional discounts for inventory-origin materials, as well as for purchases involving large volumes, but list prices have remained unchanged.

Weak demand levels were behind the discounts.

Usiminas was the first company to announce a 10.70% increase in hot rolled coil (HRC) prices for the domestic market, a move followed by both ArcelorMittal and Gerdau, which also raised prices by 10%.

The adjustment reflected the rebound in HRC prices in the international market, as a result of increasing demand for flat steel products globally, according to Usiminas.

In addition, market participants said that Usiminass decision to raise HRC prices was an attempt to return the hot rolling mill at its Cubatao works, in Sao Paulo state, to profitability, thus increasing the companys margins.

Although rising HRC prices in the international market, mostly in China, have indeed created the room for such an upswing, the July adjustment could also have been driven by the imminent conclusion of a trade case in Brazil, according to local sources.

An anti-dumping probe involving HRC imports from China and Russia is expected to be concluded by the end of this month, with duties being applied to products imported from both countries.

Import market

The rising HRC prices globally have also affected the import market in South America.

Metal Bulletins weekly price assessment for HRC imports into the region, including Brazil, surged to $530-540 per tonne cfr on Friday July 21, from $490-500 per tonne cfr on June 30.

This is the highest price level since the end of March.

The price growth was mostly due to high-priced offers from China.

Meanwhile, a Brazilian steelmaker has been reported as selling HRC volumes to other South American countries to fight for the regional market, making the competition with Chinese products fiercer.

Import prices for not only HRC, but other flat steel goods such as cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot dipped galvanized coil (HDG), are expected to continue to rise in the coming weeks, as the arguments for the present price rises will not change after the end of July, Metal Bulletin has learnt.

As a result, Metal Bulletins weekly price assessment for flat steel imports into South America are predicted to rise on July 28 for the seventh time in a row.

Export market

Export prices for flat steel products out of Latin America have also increased this month.

Recent export offers of HRC from Brazil were reported at $540 per tonne cfr to other South American countries, or around $500-505 per tonne fob, in line with higher Chinese offers.

In late June, HRC export prices were reported as high as $455-465 per tonne fob.

Also, Metal Bulletins weekly price assessment for Latin America-origin CRC exports rose to $540-545 per tonne fob on July 21, from $525-530 per tonne fob on July 7, as a result of higher offers and deals heard in Europe.
The Royals are in talks with the Blue Jays on starter Francisco Liriano, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Kansas City has been rumored to be looking at starters even after striking a deal to add Trevor Cahill from the Padres. The club may also have some interest in Jays righty Marco Estrada, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation notes on Twitter.

Liriano, a 33-year-old southpaw, has had a rocky season thus far, posting a 5.99 ERA over 76 2/3 innings over 17 starts. After providing good results late in 2016 upon arriving in Toronto, his longstanding walk problems have resurfaced as his swinging-strike rate has fallen to a career-low 9.7%. On the year, he has managed only 8.2 K/9 to go with 4.9 BB/9.

The Jays are surely interested in finding a taker for Liriano with the club sputtering in the standings. Doing so will undoubtedly require eating a significant portion of the remainder of his $13MM salary. As K.C. looks to find improvements without giving up much in the way of prospects or taking on huge additional payroll obligations, the pending free agent could represent something of a buy-low candidate; he might also conceivably pair well with Cahill if the team sees merit in the idea of piggybacking the two pitchers rather than dedicating a single rotation spot to either.

That said, it is unclear as yet whether the Royals will ultimately choose to go after Liriano. MLB.coms Jeffrey Flanagan hears (Twitter link) that Kansas City has watched his last two outings. But the southpaws inconsistency has been concerning to the Royals talent evaluators.

Inconsistency has indeed marked Lirianos career. He was one of the games most productive hurlers from 2013 through 2015, when he turned in 510 innings of 3.26 ERA ball. But he has managed only a 5.11 mark in his 239 innings since. And this year, Liriano has made it through more than six innings only twice; he also spent time on the DL with shoulder inflammation.
Well known Ghanaian artiste, Dawn ODG the CEO of Unbeatable Music Recording Studio and Make It Work Technologies has joined the team of blondes as he stuns in a new hairdo.

The musician/Young Entrepreneur who is currently set to release his next Single Ebony Reigns , however, has joined the likes of Wizkid,Olamide, Lil Kesh, Kanye West and co, who had tinted their hair for this while or so.

He took to Instagram to share his new blonde looks as he posed in a classic outfit . The look is also making his fans wonder what inspired his new hairstyle.

Mr Unbeatable (Dawn ODG ) has been one of the motivating hand to youths in

Ghanaian societies.

Following one of his epic release "Ghana Must Rise" he has always played a major role in the society by motivating youth to focus on their dreams.

Photo credit: Dela Photography

Tags : Dawn ODG,Ghanaian Musicians,Wizkid,Olamide,Lil Kesh,Blonde Hair,Kanye West,Blonde Hair Musicians

Kate Ansu |Official Publicist for Dawn ODG |Bio Chemical Student at KNUST |I love to write stories and Make new friends |

Image1[1].jpeg

Image1[1]
Veteran Ghanaian high life musician, Nana Ampadu, has given thumbs up to contemporary highlife star, Kumi Guitar's new song titled 'Dream'.

The new song was released on Friday, July 21 with an official video which features Nana Ampadu and other great highlife musicians such as Pat Thomas, Charles Amoah and veteran music producer, Zapp Mallet. They played various roles in the video even though they were not on the original song.

Currently, there are indications that the song is already receiving great airplay, and the video is enjoying encouraging viewership online.

During an official release ceremony at Zylofon Media offices in Accra, Nana Ampadu gave his blessing to Kumi and pledged to support his career in any way he can, especially in the area of songwriting to help revive the highlife music industry. He encouraged the media and the general public to support highlife music.

He also couldn't hide his enthusiasm with the celebrity treatment he was offered while working with Zylofon.

Charles Amoah, on the other hand, also indicated his readiness to work with Zylofon beyond the video, except the company should promise him that it won't be promoting nudity with its music videos and also invest into production for quality work done.

If Zylofon will give me that promise I wouldn't mind working with them. For your information, I came to Ghana to produce, he said.

Although they are not featured on the original song, the highlife geniuses' appearance in the video was to support Kumi Guitar's theme of reviving highlife music in the country.

'Dream' is a beautiful highlife piece that highlights the young musician's quest to breathe a new lease of life in the genre and make it attractive for the youth.

It is produced by Zylofon Media's in-house producer, Linkin Beats, the video was shot at three locations  Cape Coast, Elmina and Takoradi.

The video was directed by Zylofon Media's in-house video director Abass, with supervision from Enoch Attakorah.

Since joining Zylofon Media in January this year, he has also released 'Brown Sugar' and 'Problem'.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )
Patrons of the July edition of the Corporate Wednesday, Ghana's premium networking event which will take place today, July 26 at the Accra City Hotel, will be treated to refreshing live musical performances from selected award-winning Ghanaian artistes.

Trigmatic, the headline artiste for the night, will also be on stage to entertain patrons and his teeming fans.

The 'Motromodjo' hit maker has promised to perform for, at least, two hours to entertain his numerous fans who will attend the event.

The monthly event will bring together hundreds of personalities from, at least, 200 companies in Ghana to party and network after work.

According to the General Manager of Corporate Wednesday, Gladys Osei Owiredu, the outgoing Country Director for UNICEF, Cameroonian-born Susan Ngongi, will be the outstanding personality to be celebrated as the Corporate Wednesday Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the month, July 2017.

Susan, who has recently been appointed as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Eritrea and is due to take up her new post in August, became the country representative for UNICEF in Ghana in 2014.

She achieved remarkable feats within her time and she is happy the corporate community in Ghana is appreciating her with a citation at Corporate Wednesday.

Corporate Wednesday is also partnering the Kokrokoo Charity Foundation founded by Peace FM's ace presenter, Kwame Sefa Kayi, to help raise funds to support the foundation to buy 100 baby incubators to reduce infant mortality at birth.

By George Clifford Owusu
The former chief executive officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Tsatsu Tsikata says if not for divine grace, he would not be around by now to tell any story. He was recalling his period of incarceration at the Nsawam Prisons during the tenure of former President Kufuor.

According to the distinguished lawyer, he was rushed from 37 Hospital to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where he spent five days at the Intensive Care Unit, because the Nsawam Prisons Hospital and 37 Military Hospital could not respond to his critical health condition at the time.

Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata was speaking at a durbar organised in his honour by the Chiefs and people of Srogboe in the Keta municipality of the Volta Region. It was a way of recognizing the important role the legal luminary has played in the country as well as his town. The well-patronised programme brought together a cross-section of the people of the town and other neighbouring ones to among other things celebrate his freedom. People from other adjoining towns including Whuti, Atorkor, Xenui, Fiaxor and Alakple all joined in the celebration amid cultural display.

Dressed in all-white attire and flanked by his wife, Mr. Tsikata recounted the trauma coupled with the legal battle he went through in the courtroom and during his incarceration at the Nsawam Prison.

In his address, the Dufia of Srogboe,Torgbi Tsikata Agbodzie II, described the incarceration of "one of the great sons of this great family as unfortunate since he was wrongfully accused. He commended the effort of the FREE TSATSU MOVEMENT that put pressure on the then government to reverse the decision.

Torgbi Agbodzie II used the occasion to advise school children to study hard, to become like the man, Tsatsu Tsikata. He said "our forefathers established stools of war bravery but today, we shall establish brain war stool in the family ".

On her part, Mama of Srogboe, Mama Biana Dadzie, said the former GNPC CEO, is God- sent, strong, yet humble. To her, Mr. Tsikata helped the nation to gain and cited a very recent case of NIB which he won for the state, as one of his biggest financial achievements for the Nation.

Mr. Tsikata was imprisoned on 18 June 2008 and was granted Presidential pardon just when former President Kufuor was exiting office. He rejected the pardon and went to court to clear his name. The court has since acquitted him of the charge and granted that his incarceration was wrong.

Some of the traditional leaders at the function


Libreville (AFP) - Ten people were injured in Libreville Tuesday as Gabon police broke up a rally organised to mark the return of opposition leader Jean Ping following a trip to Europe.

The injured received first aid at Ping's headquarters where the former foreign minister had addressed thousands of his supporters following his return from a European tour.

"Two of them suffered deep wounds and had to go for emergency treatment," a volunteer doctor at the scene told AFP.

The police dispersed the Ping supporters near the airport shortly before 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) after which they marched to his offices.

The interior ministry had warned that no rally would be allowed to mark Ping's return from abroad.

Ping, a 74-year-old career diplomat, was narrowly defeated by incumbent Ali Bongo in presidential elections last August.

Bongo's re-election by just a few thousand votes led the opposition leader to accuse the administration of electoral fraud.

Violence broke out days after the vote, and opposition figures say more than 50 people were killed in clashes. The official toll was only three dead.

A 25-year-old Ping supporter, who gave his name as Jospin said that armed and hooded men had attacked people not far from the airport before Ping's aircraft landed on Tuesday.

"I jumped to one side as they fired tear gas canisters. Suddenly I couldn't feel my legs, but I kept running," said Jospin, who was among those treated at Ping's headquarters.

Ping was returning from a trip to Europe where he gave several interviews to newspapers claiming that he was the "elected president" and that Ali Bongo was going to have to give up power.

He has been contesting Bongo's re-election for the past ten months, though the vote results have been confirmed by the Constitutional Court.

Bongo took over power from his father Omar Bongo, who ruled for 41 years until his death in 2009. His second mandate has received a cool reception from the African Union, EU and United Nations.

Gabon has large oil, mineral and tropical timber resources, and its per-capita national income is four times greater than that of most sub-Saharan nations.

But about a third of its population of 1.8 million still live below the poverty line -- the result, say specialists, of inequality, poor governance and corruption.
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Wednesday, April 13, 2016. Destination: On route to Lingbinsi in North Gonja District of the Northern Region of Ghana. What for? Well, I will let you know in a bit. First, let me get this off my chest.

In Ghana, getting directions around are poor. So poor! It is only in Ghana that local food vendors kiosks or tables are better landmarks than public buildings. It is common to hear this: Go straight. Then left, you will see the Dokono wura (the Kenkey seller) there, ask anyone around for. Near and far are 2 words that are used interchangeably here. Its a Ghana thing though since even foreigners who have lived in the country long enough are culprits.

So back to my story. It all begun about 2 months prior when I met Samira on Facebook. Am not a social media stalker, dont even begin to think that. Actually, I should say, it is Samira who found me by liking a comment of mine. And I am glad she did. As they say, one thing led to another until finally, I had to do the manly thing and visit her in her parents'' house in far away Lingbinsi.

An expedition was about to unfold. But, something major was off. During the early mouth-rapping stage of the relationship, I had bragged about working at Jumia Travel and visiting every corner of Ghana and Africa except of course her house (I would have otherwise discovered that damsel already). Her mum was very interested in the relationship. Afterall, a son-in-law who travels here and there is a gold investment worth making.

Truthfully, however, I have lived and studied in Accra my whole life. It wasnt that I didnt know Lingbinsi or the North. It was that, I didnt know anywhere outside Accra and sadly it was now too late to admit it to them.

Friends were of no help. And the internet was vague. On a few sites that I tried, I guess their ignorance of the area surpassed mine. Until, I found a crazy map online called Google Maps. Google Maps is an online mapping service developed by Google that provides various geometric and travel information using web-based technology.

I am not a fan of these online apps, let alone trust one to give me any accurate description of something. Nonetheless, I found a saviour in Google Map that day and I was amazed at the tremendous travel assistance it gives. It has kept me wondering if one can find a better travelling assistant than Google map. It is more than just a map and here are a few reasons why.

Google Maps & Satellite Imagery

For one Google maps is solid. It uses up-to-date technology to provide satellite imagery of almost anywhere on earth. This means that you can see images of exactly where you are going before you actually go. As long as the place has a name, Google maps will find it.

Google Maps & Street Views

Aside being able to add favourite locations and measure the distances between 2 places, Google maps lets you see images of the street view. See the historical sites, landmarks and even the store in front of your house. See all these with images taken from street level with Google maps Street view.

Share your location

It gets better with this app. Are you lost somewhere in town? Or do you urgently need to let someone know your whereabouts? Yes? Google Map has the key. Just share your location and let them come to you. It is like clock work with a shared location because the recipient will only have to follow the path from his/her location to yours.

View in 3D

If you think Google maps is awesome, there is more. The service allows you to view get isometric views of places. Meaning, users can go around buildings just like that. The days of being confused by look alike buildings are fading. To be sure, look around it so many times with Google Map.

Get up-to-the minute Travel info

Google Map is revolutionary. In this one service, users are fed with which buses, trains and airlines are travelling and when. Also catchy is the real time traffic update delivered by the service. It calculates travel distance and presents the fastest routes and best transportation alternatives.

I could go on and on about my new found travel assistant. In fact, there are several more features time and space wont allow us to discuss. But something is more pressing now. Our wedding is coming up in 3 weeks.

Thanks to Jumia Travels amazing hotel discounts , my dream of a honeymoon in one of the luxury hotels in Ghana will be a reality at the Zaina Lodge . All decor and reservations have also been made. Special arrangements have been made for guests from Tamale with top hotels in Tamale . Hopefully it will be a graceful ceremony.
No matter what our doubtful Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) experts suggest to save the head of Mrs Charlotte Osei, the Chair of Ghanas Electoral Commission, she is already a goner. Her head is about to roll and it must roll.

About three days ago, I read on the Ghana internet news portal, from Ghanaweb and Modernghana to be precise, the views expressed by one Dr Gyampo, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, regarding how best to resolve the unfolding crimes alleged to have been committed by Mrs Charlotte Osei and her deputies at the Electoral Commission. I was not at all excited about his proposal although he is entitled to his views as I am to mine.

He suggested an alternative resolution of recalling the petition as submitted to the President but to approach some elders to resolve the case between Charlotte Osei and her deputies amicably as done at the local levels and in our villages.

In the villages or traditional level, when one offends a family member, it is taken before the family head or the chief to resolve their differences. This is the type the lecturer was suggesting as the best solution to the problems between Charlotte Osei and her mutinous deputies rather than pursuing it in court as it will finally turn it following the petition to the President, Nana Akufo Addo.

Again, when I listened to an online radio programme hosted in Ghana this morning, Tuesday, 25 July 201, another ADR expert by a name I cannot correctly remember or make up, although it sounded like Ogwami, Agbemi, Odami etc., was suggesting a similar incomprehensibly fatuous solution. He said in spite of all the allegations and counter allegations against Charlotte Osei and her deputies, the case must not be investigated but taken to a panel of elders to resolve it amicably between them.

What he said that really pissed me of is his shameless assertion that the alleged crimes are not peculiar to the Electoral Commission but it cuts across all public and private sectors in Ghana. In every department or small office that one goes to in Ghana, whether public or private, one will find such acts of committal of crimes going on. Therefore, we should let the EC staff off the hook since they are not alone in committing such crimes. He further queried, are we going to every office to investigate everyone and prosecute them? If we should, then every Ghanaian will go to prison he seemed to claim.

This man calls himself an Alternative Dispute Resolution expert who draws a salary or consultation fees from those seeking his advice to resolve their problems. He was of the same view as the University lecturer named above.

For the attention of both experts, please note that in the case of Charlotte Osei and her deputies, their acrimonious disputes border on committal of crime but not on any ordinary banter or nuisance squabble between two women fighting over a man or a position or people fighting over something that each claims ownership of as it was in the biblical case of two women of whom each claimed ownership of a child hence the case ending before King Solomon. The case of the EC staff members is a revelation of committed serious crimes against the State and the people of Ghana.

We are in the process of obliging all those who have committed crimes of financial loss to the state, embezzlement of funds and assets and involvement in all acts of corruption that have adversely affected Ghana and the citizenry to surrender themselves for accountability. How can we then let be brushed under the carpet the unfolding crimes allegedly committed by Mrs Charlotte Osei and her deputies?

Are the mentioned ADR experts really serious about helping President Nana Akufo Addo solve the problems of corruption that continue to savage Ghana and render most Ghanaians poor in the land of abundance?

The experts must be careful since they are listened to all over the world due to modern technology where the world can easily interact with them remotely online. Many are the more knowledgeable persons that listen to them online to assess their level of expertise and wisdom when they offer solutions or suggestions.

Anyway, Charlotte Osei and her deputies are all goners deducing from the crimes they have committed against the state as alleged by themselves. They will surely be investigated and if found guilty which of course they will, depending on the volume of information they have already made available in the public, they will be prosecuted and punished according as the law will determine.

I had severally warned Charlotte Osei against her obstinacy which I always say to be the cause of the horns of the hornbill. I advised her amid warnings but she never listened. She is now in the situation of the fly that has no one to advise it hence follows the corpse into the grave.

I have no pity for this stubborn woman even though I detest he who gloats over the demise or misfortune of his/her fellow human being no matter how evil the person might be.

The situation in which Charlotte Osei finds herself must serve as a lesson to all obstinate public office holders who abuse their position to suppress others or to corrupt themselves. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Over to you Captain Smart of Adom FM radio Ghana.

Rockson Adofo
26.07.2017 LISTEN

All is set for the ruling New Patriotic Party to hold this years Annual Delegates Conference of the party. The conference which will be held at Bedtime hotel, Koforidua is expected to bring on board all Ministers from the region, members of Parliament, Municipal and District Chief Executives as well as all party constituency executives and supporters from the region.

In a memo signed by Mr. Prince Aboagye the regional secretary and sent accross inviting people for the program and copied it read "The Eastern Regional Leadership of the New Patriotic Party with pleasure invites you to attend its Regional Delegates Conference on Wednesday, 26th of July, 2017.

The venue for the Regional Delegates Conference is Bedtime Hotel-Koforidua on the Koforidua Technical University Road at 10:00 am prompt.

Your presence would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation."

Speaking to the media on their preparation towards the program, Mr. David Prah, the regional communication's officer stated that measures have been put in place to ensure an incident free conference.

He stated that leadership of the party at the constituency level have been tasked to see to it that proper transportation arrangements are made for people who will be attending the program.

He added that security issues have been dealt with and they are looking forward for a successful regional delegates conference.
GCNet has won the coveted ICT Company of the Year award at the 7th Edition of the Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards 2017 (GITTA) held in Accra.

GCNet also emerged as Public Sector e-solutions Provider of the Year for the second successive time, capping years of pioneering leadership as an Innovator and Leader in the Provision of e-Solutions to Government and its agencies through the deployment of a Single Window platform which connects over 10,000 actors in the trade space.

GCNets recognition as ICT Company of the Year and e-Solutions Provider of the Year for the Public Sector stemmed from its continued investments in building I.T infrastructure and capacity consistent with its mission to provide ICT based solutions that foster Trade Development and Facilitation, promote business competitiveness and ensure effective mobilization of revenue for Government.

GCNet provides e-Solutions to Government, by offering electronic platforms for Revenue Mobilization and Trade Facilitation, easing trade processes with system availability nationwide and has successfully deployed an EDI system namely Ghana TradeNet, a Customs system, the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS), the i-Transit Systems for the processing of goods in transit, an Electronic Business Registration System and an Electronic Tax Administration System.

These awards come on the back of the recent milestones chalked at the maiden Ghana Shippers Awards where GCNet took home the two top most awards: Trade Facilitation Company of the Year and CEO of the Year.

The GCNet deployed systems are extensively identified as centralto Government revenue mobilization with 98% of GRA revenue collected through the GCNet platforms. Its Trade Facilitation infrastructure support structure is anchored on five data recovery centres across the country including a Tier III facility which operates on international models of guaranteeing 99.982% availability for Tier III facilities.

As a repository of government data, GCNet also continues to leverage on many international certification regimes including ISO 27001 for information security management and ISO 9000 for quality management to further ensure security standards and compliance catering for the over 97 Customs sites and more than 50 Tax offices of the Ghana Revenue Authority across the length and breadth of the country.

Commenting on the awards, Mrs. Aba Lokko, Corporate Communications Manager, observed GCNet will continually strive to be and remain the leader in the provision of e-solutions in Africa with tailored service offerings to ease the burden of doing business and add value to the trade chain while maximizing revenue collection.

We will build on our 15 year track record of excellence and innovation while working with Government and the people of Ghana to contribute to national development for the benefit of all GhanaiansMrs. Lokko assured.

In all, more than 20 companies competed for over 20 award categories including the flagship recognition for the night, CEO of the Year award, which was won by the Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Ebenezer Asante.

Mr. Joseph Acquah (left) from GCNet receiving the Public Sector e-Solutions Provider Award at the 7th GITTA Night held in Accra.
Congratulations to Barima Ba Emmanuel Aboa Boateng for winning the over all best student at UMaT graduation 2017.

Koforidua Sectech is a school that was established with a unique purpose and aim.

The school was established by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with the sole aim to produce students with science and technology bias to feed the science and technology faculties of our universities.

Barima Ba Emmanuel Aboa Boateng has lived to the said unique aim and has brought honor to his alma mata Koforidua Secondary Technical School.

Barima Ba Emmanuel completed with an unprecedented CWA record of 90.86 which culminated into his winning the over best student award.

He took home the Ghana Institution of Engineers Excellence Award

Both awards were presented to him by the Minister of Science and technology Prof. Frimpong Boateng.

He again took the Prof. Jonas Addai Mensah Excellence Performance Award which was gracefully presented by himself. Prof Jonas Addai Mensah is the Associate Director at University of South Australia, Australia

Last but not the least Barima Ba Emmanuel crown the 3 awards with that of UMaT Alumni Excellence Award.

On behalf of the Executives, Patrons and the entire Mmarima Mma clan we wish to congratulate you for such laurels.

Another honor awaits you during the upcoming golden jubilee climax from 27th November to 3rd December 2017.

Your success story is a motivating factor for the current students.

We are proud of you Barima Ba Emmanuel Aboa Boateng.

Scofray Nana Yaw Yeboah

President - Koforidua SecTech Old Students Association.
Spokesperson for the family of late President John Evans Atta Mills, Paul Atta Ackom has disclosed that the late President would still be alive if he had listened to the warnings of the family not to join the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to him, the family warned President Mills not to join the NDC because they are not trustworthy but their warnings fell on deaf ears.

Registering his disappointment in the NDC on Maakye educative morning show hosted by Akwasi Boateng on Hot93.9fm, Mr. Paul Atta Ackom claimed that , the NDC did not inform or invite any member of the family to the 5th anniversary of the passing of the late President which was held at the Asomdwe Park, Monday July 24, 2017.

"Yesterday we (the family) were very sad because he (Atta Mills) has served the country as Vice President for four years and President for three years, so if it has been five years since his demise, the family should have been informed about arrangements which were being put in place for his 5th year anniversary but no member of the family was informed about any arrangements whatsoever but we the family members, we do not blame anyone but the NDC. We warned Atta Mills not to join the NDC but he paid no heed to our warnings which has led him to Asomdwe Park." he complained bitterly.

The 70 year old cousin of late President Mills, said the disrespect the NDC showed to the family of the late President is the reason why the party lost in the 2016 elections and declared that the party will stay in opposition for a long time.

"After Atta Mills died, we sent a letter on two occasions 19th February, 19th March to the flagstaff house but we did not get any response. We leave them to God, that is why they lost the elections, they will stay in opposition for a longtime. The main reason why they (NDC) lost is because they did not show respect for the family of Prof. Mills after his death. If he had not joined the NDC, he would still be alive today and not resting at Asomdwe Park. It is really painful but we will leave everything in the hands of God." He indicated sadly.

Mr. Ackom concluded by backing the late President's son Sam Kofi Mills' claim of not receiving any autopsy report made on the body of the late President to ascertain what actually killed him.

"The NDC never gave any family member an autopsy report on what killed my brother to this day. Ask the NDC which if us was told what exactly killed Prof. Mills. He retorted.

Kindly listen to the full interview below!
Last Saturday as the summer is still breezing in the atmosphere, the sun set so high ringing through Ghanaians in Hamburg ears and sting in their eyes as a newly and well establish union was born and outdoor in a colourful ceremony - KAPSONG

All unions in Hamburg fell in love with KAPSONG because of their warm reception like a warm wind carried on the sea and they all prayed that KAPSONG days in Hamburg last long as they wish.

A new union has been born into the family of GaDangme associations in Germany mainly in the city of Hamburg to engage in issues concerning the GaDangmes and Ghana as a whole.

As it is known in the GaDangme culture, every child born is outdoored before the morning star by the family; Referring to this tradition one can be certain to state that the newly founded union named KAPSONG Culture Association was inaugurated last Saturday amidst fun and excitement by members and the general public who grace the occasion. The venue of attraction was Kulturhof Dulsberg, Ater Teichweg was a night that will never forgo as one of the best ever performance by KAPSONG and other union in and around Hamburg to showcase Ghanaian culture by regional basis

The aim of this association is to promote and educate the GaDangme Culture in the Diaspora especially in Germany and also to get a platform for the GaDangmes basically from the Dangmeland ranging through Ada, Osudoku, Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, Shai, Sega, Kpong, Agomenya, Ningo, Odumase-Krobo, Prampram, Kpone and Dodowa.

KAPSONG consists of Dangme lands with its meaning. K stands for Kpong, A for Ada, P for Prampram, S for Se, O for Osudoku, N for Ningo and G for Ga. (PAPSONG) With the composition of these alphabets and as the unions slogan says WEKU KAKE meaning united as one family.

Special cultural display by KAPSONG gives an insight of Dangme culture known as Depo. Depo is a puberty rite performed for an adolescent girl growing into adulthood. This is to purify the girl before growing into the life of a woman. There were other interesting acts from the Dangme people. Aside that live documentations were given to upgrade the knowledge of the visitors about the Dangme people.

The union is embarking on an enormous project which bears the name The OWiM Project which stands for Our Widows Mite, a biblical allusion to the example by the poor widow who offered her little contribution with a genuine heart that turned out to be the most valued effort (Luke 21:1-4). The association mainly exists to promote the welfare of the people and the Krobo state on issues of education, development and general welfare. The proposal is a wake-up call for the plight of the pupils and teachers of the 53 years old Kpong Presby Junior High School. This project is to help re-build the school, create a better learning structure, to prevent collapse of the old classroom block, arrest the declining performance of the school and its pupils. The new structure of this well dwelling project are aside three classrooms which has been fitted with access ramps to be disabled-friendly will have facilities like a spacious library, an ICT centre, head teachers office, staff common room and a compound to be landscaped.

This well meant project is already in progress since outstanding works have taken place and are still taking place. A fund raising activity was held to help make the project of the KAPSONG Association of Hamburg become great and fulfilled.

The KAPSONG Association of Hamburg has inaugurated itself with its ambitions. With the help of all GaDangmes this project will successfully be brought to an end since any little contribution can be a valuable effort. The educational lives of GaDangme youths must not be at stake when we have competent leaders for that matter KAPSONG Association of Hamburg is on the right path to help GaDangme to rise up again.

All GaDangmes and unions across the globe wish the newly inaugurated association good luck and success.

2017-07-25 172814

2017-07-25 172853
Work on a new Maternity Block for the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) is progressing steadily.

Africa Building Partners, the contractors, put the extent of work done so far at 30 per cent, adding work will be completed within schedule.

Project Engineer, Stephan Coret says a new technology deployed for the construction -- which involves the use of polyesters -- will speed up the pace of work. The use of the polyesters will conserve energy.

These came to light when a joint team from the First Lady's Office and Multimedia Group Limited toured the project site, Tuesday.

The Contractors say they have overcome unfavourable weather conditions which initially hampered work.

The construction of a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit has been added to the ongoing project.

Project Engineer, Stephan Coret is hopeful the project would be completed on time to meet the June deadline.

"We are working exceptionally long hours; exceptionally hard to achieve the deadline and we are going to achieve it."

The project is under the auspices of First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the Multimedia Group.

It is meant to address the needless death of children and women due to lack of space at the existing Mother and Baby Unit.

Two separate fund-raisers in Accra and Kumasi saw individuals and corporate entities contributing about 10 million Ghana cedis in support of the project.

Plans to construct the Mother and Baby Unit follows a documentary by Joy News' Seth Kwame Boateng which highlighted the plight of nursing mothers and their new- born babies at the hospital.

Managing Director of Multi TV, Santokh Singh, is overwhelmed by the progress of work.

"I'm happy with the progress [of work]. It's amazing looking at the technology being used to build this building. I am happy about the energy-saving technology," he said.

He said the Multimedia Group is committed to ensuring the early completion of the project to save more babies from dying.
ACCRA, 25th July 2017 - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has started providing technical support to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and companies producing for exports in Ghana.

The support to the private sector by the Trade Capacity Building Programme for Ghana, a project implemented by UNIDO with funds from SECO will offer technical assistance to private enterprises in the cocoa, fish, fruit and wood value chains to implement relevant quality management systems to facilitate trade  both locally and internationally.

The offer to support SMEs with technical assistance was advertised in the dailies and interested companies have signed on.

The Project team organized a meeting with the successful applicants to establish modalities for implementation.

In his welcome address, the Project Coordinator, Mr. Victor Mills, informed participants that the Project will provide Experts tasked with helping the companies design and implement quality management and food safety systems in accordance to the requirements of the international standards.

We have already trained experts who will assist selected companies and pay them till you get the international standards, he said.

Mr. Mills noted that the project, aimed at improving the countrys sustainable value chains for exports, has for the past three years upgraded national inspection bodies to a point where they are ready for accreditation to international standards this year.

He revealed that the current focus of the project is on helping the private sector who are the end users of such services.

Now is the turn to focus on the private sector since we have done so much with the public sector. We are not asking you to pay anything but just be committed to signing on the program and be committed to getting the desired results, he added.

Companies will be assisted to implement relevant quality management systems and marketing standards in ISO 9001, FSC Control Wood or Chain of Custody Standards, Food Safety Standards such as HACCP, ISO 22000 and IFS. Representatives from about 30 companies were present at the meeting.

This support to the private sector will help selected SMEs and companies to obtain food safety and management system certification funded by the TCB programme.

The support is line with UNIDOs mission of helping Ghanas private sector in creating jobs and wealth by providing technical access to resources and support services through certification, inspection, accreditation, and standardization in order to boost private sector competitiveness.

The UNIDO TCB Programme provides support to national quality infrastructure institutions, actors and companies in the export sector in order to improve industrialization of Ghanas economy and promote export trade.

UNIDO's primary objective is the promotion and acceleration of industrial development in developing countries and the promotion of international industrial cooperation.

UNIDO has since 2007 been implementing the Trade Capacity Building Programme funded by the Switzerland Government through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI).
Ghana will by end of this year make public a petroleum register for all agreements, licenses, permits and authorisations.

Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Petroleum, Dr Mohammed Amin Adams disclosed this at the just ended 2nd Africa Open Data Conference in Accra.

The measure will provide clarity on the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act of 2016.

The Minister, however, did not come clear whether full-text contracts or just a simple list of agreements would be made public -- the law provides for a readily available and accessible register.

Dr Amin Adam is convinced the register will promote effective and beneficial ownership as part of efforts to address corruption in the sector.

We have taken a decision that the petroleum register which is required to be set under section 56 of the law act 911 should be established where all the contracts will be published.

Apart from providing this information we must have a portal within the register where primary contracts can be downloaded by citizens and scrutinise, he said.

The Minister revealed that there will be an additional portal that provides a data repository similar to what pertains in the mining sector; where data on production, pricing, lifting, even expenditure of revenue generated from the exploitation of oil can be accessed.

Two portals going side by side so that people will be able to reconcile whether we are disclosing the real amount of revenue due the state whether the state share of oil corresponds with what is negotiated in the contracts etc, he said.

The move is in fulfilment of Ghanas promise at an anti-corruption summit in the United Kingdom.

Ghana promised to remain committed to preventing the misuse of companies and legal arrangements to hide the proceeds of corruption and commits to strengthening further both the Companies Bill and the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Bill that are currently before Parliament to ensure that we have public beneficial ownership information and central register for all sectors, including oil and gas sector, in line with UNCAC and FATF Recommendations as well as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards that Ghana is implementing; ensuring that accurate and timely company beneficial ownership information, including in the extractives, is available and accessible to the public.

Dr Amin Adams also revealed that there will also be a value-for-money audit within the public procurement authority to deepen contract transparency.

Whiles contracts are disclosed, citizens will ask questions about the cost and efficiencies used.

But if we take for granted that only disclosing money leads to value for money, then we may be misleading ourselves, he stressed.

The move he believes will ensure that the country is not short-changed by contractors whether foreign or local.

Meanwhile, Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, indicated that civil society organisations are doing the best they can.

Speaking at a session during the 2nd Africa Open Data Conference, he complained that most of the oil contracts are conspicuously missing on government websites.

Government must leave by its word and open the contracts and once that is done civil society will do a good job with it, he charged.

The 2nd Africa open data conference was a five-day engagement with stakeholders across the close that opened on July 17 and closed on July 21.
Last week, some faceless and nameless employees of Ghanas Electoral Commission (EC), through their Attorney, petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo for the impeachment of the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution. This article is a contribution to the national discourse on the petition and the ongoing undeclared open warfare between the key leaders at the heartbeat of Ghanas democracy.

This unfolding spectacle began with reports of Mrs Charlotte Osei allegedly reporting the Deputy for Finance and Administration, Mrs Georgina Opoku-Amankwah to EOCO for what appeared to be some financial irregularities and the refusal of the Finance Director to proceed on leave over missing workers welfare funds, which then snowballed into a petition by some faceless and nameless workers of the EC.

Initially, there were suspicion that the petitioners were politically motivated or their Attorney had a personal vendetta against Mrs Charlotte Osei. The worst of it was that the contents of their petition was made public through the media. Immediately, some of us were of the view that the petition suffered from two constitutional hurdles of faceless and nameless identities of the petitioners and second, putting in the public domain the contents of the petition. In fact, whilst many were of the view that, under Article 146(3) the president had no choice but to forward the petition to the Chief Justice once received, on the contrary, I was of the view that, the two constitutional flaws committed by the petitioners rendered the petition null and void and therefore the president had a choice not to forward it to the Chief Justice.

By mid-week public response to the petition was an indication that unlike the case of the former CHRAJ boss, there was no public appetite for the impeachment of Mrs Charoltte Osei for a number of reasons. First the former CHARJ boss was easy to impeach because there was political consensus between NDC and NPP. Moreover, she was appointed by an NDC president (the late President Mills) and being impeached by another NDC president (the President Mahama). The Chairman of the Peace Council called for a dialogue between the petitioners and the EC boss. Prof Ransford Gyampo also called for cool heads in dealing with the petition. Senior Journalist and renowned street lawyer, Kwaku Baako almost dismissed the petition as dead on arrival. Then, NDC mischievously claimed they would resist any attempt by President Nana Akufo-Addo to remove Charlotte Osei as EC Chair, very symptomatic of their new-found position of confused state of mind, yet to recover from the December 2016 defeat and too eager to oppose and criticise without the necessary facts.

Then, bizarrely, the ECs Attorneys also publicly responded to the allegations contained in the petition and committing the same offence by the petitioners. This was followed by the publication of Charlotte Oseis full responses to the twenty-seven allegations against her contained in the petition. What was disturbing and perhaps self-inflicting wound were not only the counter allegations but also insinuations against her two Deputy Commissioners (Mrs Georgina Opoku-Amankwah and Mr Sulley Amadu in-charge of Operations). When I read the responses on Sunday night, I could not believe my eyes that the EC Chair who is a lawyer would stoop so low.

In fact, the contents of the response portrayed nothing but a disorganised and dysfunctional EC led by squabbling adults in the struggle for who is who at the EC. Its tantamount to the infighting at childrens playground when friends fall out with each other over nothing and everything. I could not believe that Mrs Charlotte Osei and her two Deputies were not on speaking terms. These are very serious allegations of criminal offences being levelled against each other.

In the same vein that I though some of the allegations against Mrs Charlotte Osei by the petitioners were frivolous and vexatious, some of her responses were indeed infantile. For example, on the allegation that she goes on leave or travels without informing the two deputies, her defence and justification is that she does not work for or under them. In other words, she does not need to inform them. How can the organisation operate effectively in such a situation where even those next to you in hierarchy do not know your whereabout? Is Charlotte Osei not aware that in her absence one of her deputies must hold the fort for her and what happened to the concept of teamwork? Was she operating one woman show?

So far, the allegations, counter allegations and the insinuations by the petitioners, EC Chair and her deputies are such that the EC is nothing but being led by incompetent bunch of indisciplined, waring and self-seeking individuals, who have nothing new to offer Ghana. In fact, they are a danger to Ghanas democracy and should not be allowed near the smallest electoral unit anywhere in Ghana, let alone the ECs head office.

In fact, I was one of those who opposed Mrs Charlotte Oseis nomination and appointment by President Mahama in the first place, not because she was not qualified but because President Mahama breached Article 234 of the 1992 Constitution (Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or in any other law which is not inconsistent with this Constitution, the Commission [NCCE] shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority in the performance of its functions), by removing her as Chair of NCCE and reassigning her to the EC. That was abuse of his powers and a dangerous precedent that could be abused by future presidents for political expediency. Her removal amounted to interference and control of NCCE contrary to the above quoted Article (see my article, Has President Mahama acted Unconstitutionally with the EC Appointment, Ghanaweb, July 1, 2015). There were also rumours at the time that she was arrogant and antagonised those she worked with at NCCE. She rebranded NCCE at a huge cost against advice and lo and behold she has the same at EC.

It is abundantly clear to all and sundry that Mrs Charlotte Osei and her deputies by their behaviour have shown that they are not fit to remain at the EC, let alone be at the helm of affairs. They have not only been childish, selfish, and incompetent but also brought the EC into disrepute and must resign without any further delay. Failure to do so, President Nana Akufo-Addo must forward the petition to the Chief Justice immediately and suspend them pending further action by the Chief Justice.

To restore public confidence in the EC there must be root and branch reorganisation of the entire commissioners. The remaining commissioners must be retired for their failure to raise the alarm regarding the dysfunctional leadership. The president in consultation with the Council of State, House of Chiefs, Civil Society Organisations, etc must reconstitute the EC commissioner with entirely new members from across the political divide, professional bodies, academia, civil society organisations and all key stakeholders. These rotten men and women must go before they plunge Ghana into civil disobedience or conflict.

Ghana owes a debt of gratitude to the faceless and nameless petitioners and their Attorney. By their bold and courageous action, they have prevented a future calamity that was waiting to implode in one election year, whether be in 2020, 2024, 2028 or 2032, it would surely have happened had the nation left these war mongers in-charge of the EC for longer. Whatever happens, there should comprehensive investigations into all the allegations, counter allegations and insinuations for appropriate actions to be taken against those found wanting, including prosecutions and incarcerations.

Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK
26.07.2017 LISTEN

The Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Professor Edmund Delle has described the recent appointment of the 2016 Presidential Candidate of the Peoples National Convention [PNC] Dr. Edward Nasigri Mahama as a way of depriving the smaller opposition parties in the country of quality human resource.

This he said the smaller parties have on numerous occasions planned to merge and become a united force to wrestle power from the major political parties but their efforts have yielded no results due to appointments that are often given to some of their executives.

According to him many CPP members were given appointments during the NDC and NPP era under the guise of serving their country but those appointees never return to their party as they enjoyed their stay in power.

He added that the appointment of Dr. Mahama was to ensure that the smaller partys aim of uniting never see the light of day.

He further stated unequivocally that Dr. Mahama cannot criticize the NPP government on any issue due to the appointment given to him by President Nana Addo but will champion the agenda and policies of the NPP whether good or bad.
26.07.2017 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament [MP] for the Tano North Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region,Hon. Freda Prempeh, has commended students in Yamfo College of Health chapter of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the NPP, for their immense contributions they played in the 2016 general election as massive campaign they did to help NPP win 2016 elections and task them by ensuring that they win more supporters for the party.

"I am excited at this opportunity to inaugurate your association and have a conversation with you,thank you so much for this warm and tumultuous welcome. in fact I(Freda) and President Nana Addo,really thank you so much for massive campaign you did for us in 2016 elections".

Hon. Freda Prempeh, who is also Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, urged students to be committed to the policies and measures of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and explain them to the people well.

The Minister, told Sunyani based radio Metro 90.5FM,after she inaugurated and sworn - in new executives of the Yamfo College of Health chapter of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the NPP at Yamfo in the Tano North constituency in the Brong Ahafo region at the weekend.

Do not sit down for NDC to continue the propaganda against our party (NPP), but make sure to defend the party and work harder and educate the people on the good policies and programmes of the party, to enable us to win 2020 elections she added.

Work hard, be committed and united than before to retain NPP in power 2020.

She charged the new executives to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently to help raise the image of the party.

Hon. Freda Prempeh, therefore called on the students to eschew truancy and be committed to their studies as it is the surest way to become successful.

Take your lessons serious, and not be bothered by the geographical of the school or your location and make sure you make no time for unnecessary things except your books she stated.

I will continue to support you as quality education and health is my priority for people in my constituency she said.

Meanwhile, Miss Ivy Ackah, President of TESCON Yamfo College of Health chapter, said the association was formed with the aim to involve their vibrant youth in politics, to participate in shaping the political will of the members by disseminating information on political ideas, social and economic programs of their party (NPP) and to promote the growth and stability of party.

Coordinate with other wings in the various tertiary institutions in the country in the fight to win political power in all elections, to foster and actively promote unity among all members of the association regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, gender and status she stated.

TESCON-COHY CHAPTER came into existence in the year 2016 with the then acting president Sarpong Emmanuel, Ivy Ackah(Vice President), Atuahene Martin(secretary), Antwi Agyei Bismark(treasure) and many others.

We started this association with only 17 members when the then presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo came to Yamfo .Before we went into the 2016 polls had 97 committed members but today, we can boast of over 247 committed members. As the old adage goes; climbing is not without difficulty she added.

According to Miss Ivy Ackah, their efforts contributed a lot in securing election victory for the party (NPP) in the Tano North Constituency.

She appealed to Member of Parliament [MP] for the Tano North Constituency, Hon. Freda Prempeh to come to their aid with a hostel facility for the boys since they live very far away from campus and to also seek support to asset Tescon members with scholarship schemes and other financial support when the need arise.

We pray that the government will come to our aid and help keep the name of TESCON on this campus forever she stated.

The President, Miss Ivy Ackah, thanked Hon. Freda Prempeh(MP for Tano North Constituency), Hon. Ernerst Kwateng(DCE), the Patron Mr. Tia Gideon, constituency executives especially Patrick Agyemang Boateng, Nana Osei Bonsu, David Boakye Dankwa for their inspiration and financial support during the inauguration, and we pray for your continue support she concluded.
When I heard that about twenty two galamseyers died in a galamsey pit somewhere in Prestea while prospecting for gold, I jubilated throughout the day. I admit that the death of every human being is painful but surely not the death of any galamseyer. If these nation wreckers think the fight against galamsey is going to be a nine day wonder, then they better begin writing their wills. Since the unfortunate lynching of Major Adam Mahama by galamseyers, I have become so bitter that even as an Earth Angel, I have decided to become my irreverent self and spit fire. Probably the restless ghost of the late Major Mahama has started teaching them lessons. Serves them right.

The Executive President of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo, clergymen, Imams, chiefs, farmers, fisher folks, all political parties leadership, chiefs, fetish priests and priestesses and a cross section of Ghanaians including foreign governments have decried the galamsey menace yet galamsey operators continue to treat everybody with contempt. Those of us who will like the president to succeed as far as the fight against galamsey is concerned will always go down on our knees to pray to the Almighty God to command galamsey pits to continue to cave in, killing more people. If that is the language they understand, so be it.

The last time I saw River Birim on my way to Accra, I smiled. The ancient river which used to be the pride of the people of Akyem turned yellow due to the activities of these galamseyers but barely two months after the sector minister of Lands and Natural Resources gave the order for galamsey operators to seize operation, River Birim is picking the pieces again. If we are able to sustain the fight and refuse to succumb to any pressure, in a matter of years, all polluted rivers in Ghana will be clean again and fishes will get places to stay and multiply for all of us to get fish on our dining tables.

The very few Ghanaians who are speaking against the stoppage of galamsey because of the little they gain from the operations of the galamseyers, should also be treated as enemies of the good people of this country. The president has told Ghanaians that if even it will cost him the presidency, he will relentlessly fight galamsey to its logical conclusion and yet there are people out there who want to call the bluff of the president as if galamsey operations are the only jobs in Ghana and that if they do not do galamsey, they will die. What sort of nonsense is this? Galamsey operators are well built and able bodied men and women so they can also get involved in farming.

Luckily, the government of President Akufo Addo has introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs programme which is catching on well with the youth in the rural areas with chiefs competing to give out lands for the programme. The sad aspect of this nonsense called 'galamsey' is that lands which should have been used for the Planting for Food and Jobs are being destroyed by these criminals on daily basis. And to add insult to injury some cocoa farmers are selling their cocoa farms to galamseyers to cut the cocoa trees and use the land to prospect for gold. Do these people ever sit down to think of the future or it is a matter of eat, drink, enjoy and die? What is annoying is that some of these cocoa farms were inherited from their dead relatives who saw it necessary to engage in cocoa farming in order to leave a legacy for the future generations. I do not believe in ghosts either than that I would have invoked the ghost of Tette Quashie to kill any cocoa farmer who will sell his farm to galamseyers to prospect for gold.

Today in Ghana, apart from the Greater Accra and Volta Region, these galamseyers operate everywhere. I recently read in the newspapers that the Ghana Armed Forces are going to train Special Forces to fight galamsey and that to me is most appropriate. Even though we are not in a military regime, if these Special Forces arrest galamseyers they should drill them in public, take pictures and post them on social media to serve as a deterrent to others. Government should also as a matter of urgency lay a bill in parliament making the operation of galamsey illegal. If we do that those who have been given license to operate as small scale miners but have veered into galamsey should face the full force of the law.

Additionally, heavy earth moving machines seized from these galamseyers should be distributed to MMDAs to be used to repair feeder roads in the villages, that is after the galamseyers have been forced at gunpoint to cover the pits they dug with the machines. If you are living in Accra or Ho, you will not understand the danger posed by these galamseyers. If you visit a galamsey operation site, you will curse the day you were born in Ghana. In some places, prostitution and gay flourish like what happened during the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. What is heart raking is that because of the poverty level in the country, some students in Senior High Schools go to these galamsey areas to practice prostitution during vacation.

If the Special Force to fight galamsey starts operation, chiefs who give out lands for people to do galamsey should not be spared at all. They should be stripped naked and whipped before their subjects. What I know is that our chiefs hold the land in trust for their subjects but sadly it is not the case these days. They sell the lands to galamseyers and pocket the monies. In some cases, they buy luxurious cars and marry more wives and any of their subjects who would dare challenge them is invited to their palaces where they are made to slaughter sheep to appease the gods because they have challenged the overlord of the land.

Assembly members who control galamsey areas like the guy at Denkyira Obuase who organized the lynching of Major Mahama are also deep in the business. They are treated like tin gods because in the villages, the assembly member is revered and his word is law. If these galamseyers go to the village to engage in this crazy business, they first pay courtesy call to the chiefs and thereafter go to introduce themselves to the assembly member. After operating for sometime, they go to the assembly member to give him his share of the booty and assure him of more cash if the business goes on well. If the mighty assembly member waits for sometime and money is not coming, he goes to their operational sites to warn them that if they fail to honour their pledge he will report them to the task force. That is why you see some unemployed assembly members whose jurisdictions fall under galamsey sites riding posh cars.

YES, KWAKU BURGER WILL CONTINUE TO GLOBE-TROT

The NDC desperados, led by defeated Baba Jamal, the Al Shabbab jihadist have coined a new name for the President, Nana Akufo Addo and that is good. They call him Kwaku Burger because according to them, he travels a lot. In their case they stayed back home and squandered the state coffers and so if someone else decides to travel out there to redeem the tainted image of Ghana they become jealous of the person. They did the same thing to ex-president Kufour and before they could say Jack Robin, goodies started falling on Ghana like manna from heaven. The NDC will stay in opposition for a long time because they have still not been able to learn the ropes as far as modern governance is concerned.

When they started complaining that ex-president Kufour used to travel a lot, the ex-president told them that in this modern era you don't sit in your country as a president and expect good things to come your way. During one of the numerous trips of ex-president Kufour, he visited India and told the then government that the seat of government of Ghana was a slave dungeon and that India should help Ghana build a befitting State House for the country. The Indian government moved in sympathy with Mr. Kufour and granted Ghana $30,000,000 for the construction of the Jubilee house which was re-christened Flagstaff House by the name  changing regime of Atta Mills and his NDC. Even when the edifice was under construction, Mr. Asiedu Nketia said when completed and they came to power, the place would be turned into a hospital since the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital was over crowded. Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe also said the place will be turned to a poultry farm when they came to power. You see, God works in mysterious ways. The NDC led by the late president Mills came to power but because of the way they spoke about the edifice, Mills never stayed in the magnificent building. As for Mr. Mahama he and his ministers and government functionaries occupied the place like the way chickens occupy poultry farms.

Ex-president Kufour went to the UK and met the Queen where he told her that the maternal death rate in Ghana was unacceptable so the Queen should help. The result was the Free Maternal Care which was destroyed by the NDC. For the past six months wherever President Akufo Addo and his Vice visited, they came back with monies to revamp the rundown economy. If that is why Jihad Baba Jamal and co decide to call the president, 'Kwaku Burger', so be it.

Eric Bawah
It was not for nothing that the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) candidate for the presidency, President John Dramani Mahama, lost the 2016 presidential election by such a wide margin. And, as we all know, the party also lost its parliamentary majority on top of that loss in the presidential election - mainly because its leaders misjudged the mood of the nation.

Sadly, it appears that the NDC, which is now the nation's biggest opposition party, still continues to misjudge the national mood - which is really tragic for Ghanaian democracy and could prove fatal for the party in the 2020 elections: as it will only delay the much-needed reforms that have to be carried out by the next party executives who will be selected to lead it into the 2020 polls.

It is vital that all the leading members of the NDC understand clearly that their party lost power essentially because the vast majority of ordinary people in Ghana had become fed up with their party as a result of the many allegations of egregious cases of the blatant ripping off of Mother Ghana - which the then main opposition New Patriotic Party's (NPP) communicators cleverly blamed the NDC for: during the campaign for the December 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Most voters therefore wanted to hasten the end of the era of impunity superintended over by the regime of President Mahama - and thus usher in the day of reckoning for the Mahama-era's many alleged thieves-in-high-places: whom the NPP's well-focused negative campaign narratives had convinced millions of voters were busy stealing hardpressed taxpayers' monies and getting away with it.

Today, many ordinary people in Ghana are glad that at long last the day of reckoning now beckons for those perceived thieves-in-high-places during the Mahama-era - as the government of President Akufo-Addo has now laid the bill for the establishment of the office of the independent public prosecutor before Parliament.

Instead of burying their heads in sand and threatening to disrupt the work of Parliament because they think that the former power minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, is being unfairly harassed by the authorities, the NDC's parliamentary caucus ought to ponder what message such daft parliamentary tactics designed to shield a colleague being investigated to ascertain the exact nature of his role in the controversial AMERI power agreement will convey to ordinary people across Ghana.

The question there is: Does the 1992 Constitution not enjoin Ghanaians to fight against corruption and help expose all acts of corruption that come their notice personally?

The NDC's parliamentary caucus must also understand clearly that parliamentary privilege is essentially to ensure that MPs can freely speak their minds in the House during debates without fear of being sued for slander. However, parliamentary privilege most certainly does not and cannot protect MPs from being investigated for allegedly causing financial loss to the Republic of Ghana. Obviously.

That is why so many fair-minded and independent-minded Ghanaians feel that it is outrageous for any group of MPs to threaten to make it next to impossible for Parliamentary business to go on - merely because a fellow caucus member is being investigated for allegedly allowing Mother Ghana to be ripped off by foreign crooks and their local collaborators in the AMERI power deal.

It is disappointing in the extreme that the NDC's leading lights still seem unable and unwilling to distance their party from 'wrongdoers' in their midst who allegedly shortchanged our homeland Ghana in sundry one-sided agreements that were inimical to our country and its hapless citizens, which were entered into during their party's eight long years in power. Pity.

Participating in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana is a serious crime against that part of humanity that lives in Nkrumah's Ghana. If they want their party to remain relevant in our nation's affairs the leadeship of the NDC would be wise to distance their party from all those party members who allowed Mother Ghana to be ripped off during the Mahama-era.
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 25, GNA - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), has hailed the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) of the University of Ghana, for its success in training plant breeders for Africa.

The training is part of efforts to help address the food and nutrition insecurity problem on the continent.

Dr Rufaro Madakadze, AGRA Programme Officer in-charge of Capacity Building, said AGRA was proud of what WACCI had been able to achieve since its inception over the past decade in transforming the agricultural sector in Africa.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the sideline of the University of Ghana's College of Basic and Applied Sciences Congregation, Dr Madakadze said: "WACCI is 10 years old now and this the highest numbers of people we have graduated from there. Today, they graduated 17 people from seven countries in West Africa."

"This is unprecedented on the continent, we haven't heard such a concerted effort in training plant breeders as we've seen WACCI do," she added.

The WACCI is now the leading centre in plant breeding education producing a record number of PhD graduates in a single programme in Africa.

At this year's congregation of the University of Ghana, WACCI presented 17 PhD candidates in plant breeding programme, which is the highest record of PhD candidates to be graduated in a single programme in Ghana in particular and Africa general.

The 17 PhD students from seven African countries were made up of nine from Francophone, and eight from Anglophone; of which nine were males and the rest females.

Indeed, it would be recalled that at the 2015/2016 academic year's Congregation, the Centre also presented 7 PhD candidates.

WACCI, one of the World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence, is a partnership between the University of Ghana and Cornell University, United States that was established in June 2007 with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) at the University of Ghana to train Plant Breeders in Africa working on the improvement of African crops in local environments for farmers in Africa.

AGRA provided the initial funds for the establishment of the Centre and provided full scholarships for 53 PhD students, in addition to administrative support.

Its vision is to become the foremost Centre for post-graduate training and research in crop improvement in Africa.

Dr Madakadze said, WACCI graduates were now working on a wide range of crops: maize, pearl millet, cassava, and all the priority crops for the West African sub-region.

"Some of the students graduated are doing great exploits out of here. We have the first maize varieties released in Mali, which are drought tolerant and short seasoned and is something that has transformed the country and sub-region," she said.

She also mentioned sweet potatoes varieties in Burkina Faso, with rice varieties coming up in Ghana: "so this is something great," she added.

On the way forward after the end of the AGRA support programme for WACCI by the end of this year, Dr Madakadze said: "we will still be working with WACCI, but it may be in a reduced capacity..

"In the last 10 years we fully funded the training of 53 of the 108 students that WACCI has.

"Thus AGRA's role is to catalyse. So we've catalysed, we've funded the first 53, we've funded the establishment of a world class programme.

"Now WACCI is mainly at the donor's muscle, but where ever we can chip in, we will be working closely with them to see what we can do."

She noted that their focus in the next few years was not funding postgraduate levels so much but rather funding the lower level of capacity close to the farmers so that varieties that were released get to the farmers.

Professor Eric Y. Danquah, the founding Director of WACCI, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sideline of the University of Ghana's Congregation, congratulate the students for their sterling performance.

He said all the graduates were returning to their home institutions to take their PhD research to the next level and work towards releasing improved and climate-smart varieties of staple crops for increased productivity in farmers' fields in seven countries in West and Central Africa.

Two of the fresh graduates Dr Adesike Oladoyin Kolawole of Ladoke Akinlota University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria and Dr. Solomon Olufemi Afuape of the National Root Crop Research Institute, Nigeria, expressed their gratitude to AGRA for funding their PhD programme.

Dr Kolawole, who researched on improving maize grains yield said: "I have been equipped with knowledge and skills at WACCI.

'My teaching and data analysis skills have improved. We were exposed to modern approaches in plant breeding as well advances in pedagogy. So as a lecturer, I have learnt a lot of things, I can go back and impact teaching and learning in my university. I can adequately supervise students since I am equipped to do that now. Thanks be to WACCI".

Dr Afuape, who also researched on sweet potatoes said, the knowledge that he had gained would be used to develop new varieties to help address the food and nutrition insecurity situation in Africa.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 25, GNA - Mr Wisdom Kafui Honu, a final year student of University of Professional Studies, Accra, emerged winner of 'Youthinnovate4SDGs' contest, an initiative by Reach for Change, a non-governmental organisation.

Mr Honu was awarded a prize of $ 750 to enable him to establish a library for rural Ghanaian children at Agbogbloshie, which forms part of his project idea.

The contest was launched on the Day of African Child on June 16, and challenged prospective contestants from all across Africa to share their ideas to improve African children's lives and contribute towards the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

He was among five finalists in the reach for Change contest, including Ms Kokubanza Timanywa from Tanzania, Ms Houzibe Lama from Chad, Ms Phoeba Emefa, and Mr Lawrence Antwi-Boasiako from Ghana.

Mrs Abena Osei Asare, the Deputy Minister of Finance, who was the special Guest for the Event, commended the finalists for the brilliant innovative ideas to improve development in rural communities.

She said the achievement of the SDGs involved all and sundry and government was ready to partner with the private sector to work to accelerate economic growth and prosperity of the country.

Mrs Asare said government was building an entrepreneurial nation through the National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Plan that would provide support for early stage businesses, saying government has set up a 100 million dollar package to fund the plan.

Mrs Amma Sefa-Dedeh Lartey, Africa Regional Director, Reach for Change said Mr Honu who won the contest received the most votes for his idea in an open online poll and that he would be connected to a mentor to guide him implement his project.

She said for the past three years, the organisation had organised the Pan-African innovation contest to encourage and empower African children and youth to take the initiative to address issues for children they observe in their communities.

She said this year, organisation added the SDGs to the criteria to provide young Africans with opportunities to contribute to achieving the goals in their own communities.

Mr Honu said his project on libraries focus on developing problem-solving, ICT and basic literacy skills among children to help improve their future careers.

The five finalists were presented with certificates.

GNA

By Kodjo Adams, GNA
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 25, GNA - The President of PowerChina International Group Limited and Chairman of Sinohydro, Mr Song Dongsheng, on Tuesday paid a courtesy call on Mr Fred Oware, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Power Authority (BPA).

The working visit afforded Mr Song and Mr Oware the opportunity to discuss the 200MW solar generation farm to be constructed by Sinohydro at Bui.

It would be constructed under a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement between BPA and Sinohydro.

The discussions also bothered on collaborating with BPA to develop hydropower potential on the Western Rivers.

Sinohydro was the Contractor for the 400 Mega Watt (MW) capacity at Bui Generating Station and adding the solar would make the Bui Generating Station a hybrid power generator.

BPA has already completed the expansion works on the Bui Switchyard to be able to evacuate the solar power generated from the solar farm to be located within the Bui environ.

The construction of another 50MW solar power generation plant at Bui had already been awarded to another company.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency after the meeting, Mr Oware said the construction of the solar farm was likely to begin somewhere this year and hopefully, by the close of next year, it would be generating electricity.

He said upon the completion of the solar generation project; BPA hybrid generation capacity of solar and hydro would be 650MW.

Mr Song said there was very good cooperation between Ghana and China, and that PowerChina and Sinohydro were willing to invest more in Ghana's economic development.

He said construction works on the 200MW solar generation project would begin next year; adding that PowerChina would be investing about four billion dollars in different modules in Ghana.

Mr Song, who is on official visit to Ghana, would be holding talks with government officials in the energy sector. GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, July 25, GNA - Patronage for Instant Pay has witnessed significant surge, indicating public interest in the electronic payment system, which is the quickest interbank payment channel in the country.

The Instant Pay service is the latest initiative by the Ghana Interbank Payment system (GhIPSS) that allows the transfer of funds from one account to another of a different bank in a matter of seconds.

Latest figures from GhIPSS suggest that in the first quarter of this year, 1,254 Instant Pay transactions took place but the number had gone up by some 472.6 per cent to 7,181 transactions by the end of the second quarter.

The value of the transactions was worth about 5.5 million Ghana cedis in the first quarter and more than 16 million Ghana cedis by the end of the second quarter, a growth of almost 200 per cent.

Mr. Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, said Instant Pay was 'as good as cash but even more secured'.

He explained that with the service, money in the bank account could be quickly moved around even faster than cash, urging the public to request for it anytime they needed to make quick payments.

'Banks are offering instant pay as internet banking and on mobile phones so you don't need to step out to send huge or small sums of money and the recipient will get it immediately,' he added.

Instant Pay and mobile money have been tipped as the two electronic payment services that can speed up financial inclusion in Ghana.

Mr. Hesse said Instant Pay would boost confidence in the banking system as it empowered customers to send and receive money instantly, although the funds were actually held in their bank accounts.

He, therefore, urged the banks to continue to create awareness as it could form strong basis to rope in the unbanked, particularly, those in the vibrant informal sector.

GIP went live late last year and has been recording impressive patronage by the banking public. Most of the banks have customised the service and allow their customers to use both online and mobile phone applications to access it.

Interbank transfer, which used to be a nightmare in Ghana, has become a common and easy transaction.

Currently, apart from cheques, interbank transfers can also be done through Automated Clearing House (ACH).

However, these services take at least 24 hours for the transaction to be effected except under the express service window, which takes a couple of hours at the minimum.

The introduction of the Instant Pay, which ensures that the interbank transfer is immediate, comes handy for businesses and individuals who need to urgently send or receive money.

GNA
Accra, July 25, GNA - Mr John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has called on the special anti-galamsey taskforce to reverse the destruction of the environment caused by the activities of the illegal miners.

He said government was focused on ensuring that the menace was fully addressed and that mining in the country was done in accordance with the law.

Mr Awemu made the call when he visited the joint military and police anti-galamsey taskforce at the Bundase Training Camp at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.

The taskforce, undertaking a three-week training, christened: 'Operation Halt Three' has an objective to help salvage the polluted water sources, farmlands and forests as well as save lives of the miners.

The team was trained in battle drills, advance rifle marksmanship, and hasty crowd control and physical training to enable them to uproot the canker.

Many illegal miners have also lost their lives operating in poorly dug pits to reach precious metals.

The taskforce forms part of the President's Special Initiative against Galamsey and resourced to pursue its objectives adequately.

He said mining had been taking place in Ghana for over 100 years and a lot more gold was mined from Ghana than Johannesburg but the two countries were a complete mismatch when it comes to development.

Mr Amewu said the efforts to combat the menace had yielded some positive results including a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses for small-scale mining.

He said equipment impounded on the field would be used to reclaim lands destroyed through galamsey.

Lieutenant General Obed Akwa, the Chief of the Defence Staff, tasked the team to achieve success in its operations to preserve the environment.

He asked the Military and the Police to exhibit the highest professional standards in the discharge of their duties and called for inter-agency and community collaboration to curtail the menace.

He urged media practitioners to be objective and accurate in their reportage during the exercise.

The Minister's entourage included Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, the Deputy Minister, Mr Emmanuel Okyere, the National Security Advisor, Colonel Eric Aggrey Quarshie, the Director of Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), Air Commodore Amoah-Ayisi, the Director General of Joint Operations, GAF, and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, Director in-charge of Duties of the Ghana Police Service.

GNA

By Kwamina Tandoh, GNA
Accra, July 25, GNA - The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) of the University of Ghana graduated 17 PhD candidates in plant breeding at the graduation ceremony on Friday, July 21 at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana.

The 17 PhD students from seven African countries were made up of nine from Francophone, and eight were from Anglophone; of which nine were males and the rest females.

Indeed, it would be recalled that at the 2015/2016 academic year's Congregation, the Centre also presented seven PhD candidates.

In five successive years, WACCI has graduated the highest number of PhD students in the University of Ghana.

WACCI, one of the World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence, is a partnership between the University of Ghana and Cornell University, United States that was established in June 2007 with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) at the University of Ghana to train Plant Breeders in Africa working on the improvement of African crops in local environments for farmers in Africa.

AGRA provided the initial funds for the establishment of the Centre and provided full scholarships for 53 PhD students, in addition to administrative support.

Its vision is to become the foremost Centre for post-graduate training and research in crop improvement in Africa.

Professor Eric Y. Danquah, the Founding Director of WACCI, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sideline of the University of Ghana's Congregation, congratulated the students for their sterling performance.

He said all the graduates were returning to their home institutions to take their PhD research to the next level and work towards releasing improved and climate-smart varieties of staple crops for increased productivity in farmers' fields in seven countries in West and Central Africa.

He said a number of strategic partnerships with world class institutions globally such as Cornell University, University of Illinois, the the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), AfricaRice, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the National Agricultural Research Institutions (NARIs) in Africa had allowed WACCI to churn out in record time, these students who received quality plant breeding education.

"We acknowledge the financial support from AGRA, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), World Bank, Kirkhouse Trust and other institutions," he said.

"Our recently launched $ 50 million endowment fund and sustainability plan should see WACCI evolving into one of the top-tier plant breeding education institutions globally in the next decade," he added.

Prof Danquah said in 10 years, the Centre had demonstrated that working with strategic partners and taking giant strides, had produced quality PhD graduates, who were game changers and who were making history on the African Continent.

Dr Rufaro Madakadze, AGRA Programme Officer in-charge of Capacity Building, lauded WACCI for its success story in training plant breeders for Africa, as part of efforts to help address the food insecurity problem on the continent.

She said AGRA was proud of what WACCI had been able to achieve since its inception over the past decade in transforming the agricultural sector in Africa.

Two of the fresh graduates Dr Adesike Oladoyin Kolawole of Ladoke Akinlota University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria and Dr Solomon Olufemi Afuape of the National Root Crop Research Institute, Nigeria, expressed their gratitude to AGRA for funding their PhD programme.

Dr Kolawole, who researched on improving maize grains yield said: "I have been equipped with knowledge and skills at WACCI.

'My teaching and data analysis skills have improved. We were exposed to modern approaches in plant breeding as well advances in pedagogy. So as a lecturer, I have learnt a lot of things, I can go back and impact teaching and learning in my university. I can adequately supervise students since I am equipped to do that now. Thanks be to WACCI".

Dr Afuape, who also researched on sweet potatoes, said, the knowledge that he had gained would be used to develop new varieties to help address the food and nutrition insecurity situation in Africa.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 25, GNA - Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, the Minister of Works and Housing, has urged local contractors and engineers to strive for the highest level of competence.

He said this was because the award of contracts was based on merit or who could do quality work, and not whether a person was a citizen or not.

The Minister said when he interacted with journalists, at the end of a day's working tour within Accra, which saw him visiting the Engineering Council of Ghana, the Architects Registration Council, the UNDP Flats and the Hydrological Services Department.

He said whilst there were some very good local contractors and engineers, there were others that lacked the expertise to perform excellently.

The Minister said one measure that could help to ensure that these professionals improved to match the world best, was for them to come up with superintending bodies that would ensure that the right standards were set and adhered to.

He said there was also the need to create internal capacity building outfits, to ensure that standard practice prevailed.

The Minister was accompanied by his two deputies, Mrs Freda Opare Prempeh and Eugene Boakye Antwi, as well as a number of senior officials from the Ministry.

GNA

By Robert Anane, GNA
Accra, July 25, GNA - Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection would be the Guest Speaker for the 64th Graduation Ceremony of the Government Secretarial School (GSS).

The graduation is scheduled to come off on Friday, August 28, at the forecourt of the school in Accra.

A statement signed by Mr Tony Goodman, the Head of Public Relations at Head of Civil Service said the Minister, who would be assisted by Nana Agyekum Dwamena, the Head of Civil Service, would commission for use, a newly constructed 52-bed capacity hostel for the school.

The statement said the graduation was on the theme: 'Professional Secretarial Education and Training a Critical Tool for National Development.'

The Government Secretarial School which is one of the training institutions under the Office of the Head of Civil Service (OHCS) runs numerous programmes in the field of professional secretarial training.

The statement noted that one of the cutting edge and system-wide training enhancement programmes was the full-time post Senior High Secretarial course.

'It also organises capacity development programmes for top level secretaries within the Public and Civil Service to sharpen the skills and competencies of these beneficial secretaries for efficient and effective service delivery at the middle level and the top rank of Government Administration,' it stated.

The Government Secretarial School (GSS) was established in May 1952 by the British Colonial Administration and placed under the Establishment Secretariat now the OHCS.

GSS was mandated to offer training and examine Secretarial staff of the Establishment Secretariat.

Since its establishment, young women and men nationwide and internationally had undergone training and development in the school.

The statement said some of the students attained higher social status in the country.

'Some of our students can be found in the Office of the President, Bank of Ghana, Ghana Commercial Bank, Agricultural Development Bank, ECOBANK, National Investment Bank, and Prudential Bank Ghana.

Others are with Embassies and High Commissions, the United National and Geneva.

The rest are impacting their rich experience as teachers on our campuses,' the statement noted.

GNA
Monitoring and Evaluation Minister, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has disclosed that his outfit will by October this year give an account of the performances of the various ministries towards achieving set targets.

According to him, the ministries have already submitted reports detailing their key priority areas to be assessed on.

Ghana's Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation, the first within the West African sub-region is to co-ordinate the activities of the various ministries by constantly monitoring their operations towards attaining economic development.

The Minister's disclosure also comes on the back of appeals for West African economies to intensify their monitoring and evaluation units to achieve set targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

All the Ministers have but we are refining them to meet the standard. We will be organizing a workshop on that in the next two weeks so we finalise them and forward to cabinet. But all of them have submitted the first draft but it takes some time to define precisely what results you want. It is not easy to talk of what exactly you want to achieve in 2017; it could be tangible results or just output, he explained.

Although he couldn't readily disclose which sectors his outfit will commence with, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei however intimated that targets for the finance and energy ministries will be paramount in the assessment.

Finance and energy are always top on the line because of the relationship to the general welfare of the country. When there are power crisis, generally businesses do not do well so if the minister tells me he will be able to eliminate dumsor by December, then I expect him to do so, he again stated.

Dr. Akoto Osei was speaking at the first West Africa Monitoring and Evaluation conference organized by the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED).

The two day conference drew over 100 delegates with extensive background in monitoring and evaluation.

The discussions largely centered on agricultural activities to give value for money.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamists have kidnapped 10 members of an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, colleagues and the state-run oil firm said on Wednesday.

"About 10 staff from the survey and geological department of the University of Maiduguri were abducted on Tuesday," said Ndu Ughamadu of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Ughamadu said the NNPC had contracted the team to carry out research work on oil exploration activities taking place in the Lake Chad basin.

"They were kidnapped around Jibi village in Borno state after a gun duel between the security agents accompanying them and suspected Boko Haram fighters," he told AFP.

Efforts were under way to track down the captors before a possible rescue operation. Jibi village is in the Magumeri area of Borno, northwest of the state capital, Maiduguri.

University of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the abduction and said the institution was awaiting further details from security operatives.

"There is no denying the fact that this incident happened, involving our staff, NNPC workers and security escorts from the military and the (civilian militia)," he added.

"Our staff who were recruited as consultants were on the team that was ambushed."

The oil prospecting team had been working in the Magumeri area of Borno state for the last month, according to another member of staff, who asked not to be identified.

"It was clear Boko Haram studied their movements before attacking them," he said.

Oil production has been concentrated in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta region since it was first found in commercial quantities in 1956.

But repeated attacks by militants wanting a fairer share of profits for local people has forced the government to look elsewhere.

Exploration has been started in inland basins ranging from central Benue state to Boko Haram's heartland in northeast.

But insecurity caused by the jihadists' insurgency over the last eight years has disrupted work, with the latest kidnapping underlining the continued threat.

Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war in the conflict. Thousands of women and girls have been seized while men and boys have been made to fight in the Islamist ranks.

Recent kidnappings of more high-profile targets appear to have a financial motivation, possibly to raise ransom money for the cash-strapped group.

On June 20, armed gunmen abducted 10 women after an attack on a convoy of vehicles travelling towards the town of Damboa from Maiduguri.

In May, Britain and the United States updated security advice for their nationals in northeast Nigeria, warning that Boko Haram was "actively planning" to kidnap foreign workers.
In the wake of the cross fire at the Electoral Commission between the Chairperson of the Commission and her two deputies, the Majority Leader is asking the three leaders to step aside until investigations into allegations and counter allegations have been done

Only then can any of the three leaders of the Commission return, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said.

He was speaking to Joy News Raymond Acquah on the turf war at Ghanas election management institution.

Even though the turf war had been raging, at least internally over the last few months, a 27-point petition pregnant with allegations of misconduct and demanding the impeachment of the Chairperson Charlotte Osei escalated the matter into the public domain.

The petition intended for the president to begin the quest for an impeachment was leaked to the media and has since been followed by counter allegations from the Chairperson on one side, with the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Finance Georgina Opoku Amankwa, as well as the Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations Sulley Amadu on the other.

The allegations range from managerial incompetencies, bad human relations, fraud and breach of procurement laws.

In the midst of the controversies, the Chairperson has sued the lawyer of the petitioners Maxwell Opoku Agyemang for defamation.

The petition has also been referred by the president to the Chief Justice who shall conduct a preliminary investigation and decide whether there is a prima facie case to continue with the impeachment of the Chairperson of the Commission.

Ahead of the investigations, the three Commissioners have been summoned by Parliament to attempt to resolve the matter amicably even while criminal investigation continue at the Economic and Organised Crime Office.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is part of the leaders of Parliament meeting the embattled Commissioners early on told Joy News it is better for the three Commissioners to step aside at least for now.

When I contributed to the affairs of the EC in March, I said that looking at the signs on the wall I thought that the issue was salvageable, if we had people sit down with them and deal with it. But now given where we have travelled to I think we should allow an in-depth inquiry into the conduct of business at the EC, he said.

Given the heat that the three of them have succeeded in generating, I think it will be better if they step aside for a proper investigations to be conducted.

Who knows at the end of the day it will be much ado about nothing and they get back to work again, he stated.

Even though some have suggested that the three may not be able to work together again even if they are exonerated by the investigations, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu suggested that maybe they could be talked into behaving themselves.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
A high-powered government delegation is heading to the Northern regional capital of Tamale, to assess the situation on the ground after a flood that left hundreds of residents homeless.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor told Joy FM, Wednesday, that President Nana Akufo-Addo is awaiting their report to enable him to take appropriate action.

So far four people are reported dead including a seven-year-old school girl and a woman in her 50s. A thousand others have been displaced following torrential rains.

Some of the communities severely affected include Dohinayile, Jakarayili, Fou, Taha, and Sawaba.

He [President] is terribly sad with the situation. We have not had many floods which are relatively devastating floods in Accra because the Minister of Housing has been putting in a lot of measures since we came into office.

We all pray and hope these measure bear fruits, he said.

Schools and hospitals have been submerged with many homes destroyed.

One person whose house was flooded said, they least expected the rains to have poured with such intensity over the four-hour duration.

It was disastrous as many houses around here are on waterways. The situation is very bad since it happened yesterday.

There was nothing I could pick from my room. I am still wearing my cloth from yesterday, I am really confused and dont know what to do, one of the affected persons told Joy News.

Another victim said he had to sleep over at a friends place and will be at his home to see what he can salvage from what the flood left.

He said he is scared to clean up and move in as the clouds are showing signs of another downpour in the offing.

You clean and the rain comes again and the place gets flooded again, work done is zero, he said.

Joy News regional correspondent, Martina Bugri, reports that the situation is very terrible as those affected are yet to recover from the shock.

One of the zonal directors of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Salisu Lukman, said they could not do much on Tuesday when the rain was at its worst.

He said their efforts were hampered because they did not have the equipment to go to the affected communities.

The reporter spoke of total despair and dejection among the affected people as NADMO is yet to distribute any relief items to them.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim
Kinshasa (AFP) - The United Nations named three international experts on Wednesday to investigate atrocities in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, some of which have involved government troops.

Experts from Senegal, Canada and Mauritania will be tasked with investigating the massacres in Kasai, according to a statement from the UN's human rights body, the OHCHR.

President Joseph Kabila's administration rejected a proposal to send an independent mission there to investigate the violence.

Under the compromise deal, Kinshasha will cooperate with the investigators who will in turn share their information with the authorities. And anyone suspected of involvement in the killings will be tried in Congo's courts.

Government troops, militia fighters and police officers have all been implicated in the killings, with a military court having already jailed government soldiers for killing civilians.

The violence in Kasai erupted last September after the death in clashes of a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the authority of Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The killing sparked violence that has escalated, including gross alleged violations of human rights such as extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture and the use of child soldiers.

Two Western experts sent to investigate the conflict by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went missing in March. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave by peacekeepers a fortnight later.

The government blamed the tribal militia for their murders and the trial of their alleged killers opened last month.

In less than a year, the violence has claimed more than 3,300 lives, according to a tally by the influential Roman Catholic Church, and displaced 1.4 million people.

Around 80 mass graves have been uncovered in the region and the UN children's agency says more than 600,000 of the displaced are children.
26.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 26, GNA - It is time to limit unequal and unfair competition between industrial fishing fleets and artisanal fisheries in order to protect the artisanal fishing industry, Mr William Hanna, the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, has said.

'We need to protect artisanal fisheries. This is what this project is about. It will only succeed if all stakeholders play their part,' Mr Hanna said at the national launch of the Far Ban Bo, a Fante name (to wit protecting fisheries livelihoods) Project in Accra.

'Far Ban Bo - Protecting Fisheries Livelihoods' is a four-year project in Ghana, funded by the EU and being implemented by a consortium consisting of CARE (the Lead), Friends of the Nation (FoN) and Oxfam.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to sustainable fisheries resource management to improve food security, nutrition and livelihoods of smallholder fishers and other users of fishery resources.

The Project implementing partners, led by CARE, had already organised four pre zonal launches in Takoradi, Cape Coast, Keta and Kpando to introduce the project to key stakeholders in the respective locations.

Mr Hanna said the main focus of the project was on the vulnerable, disenfranchised fishermen and women who are considered to be most at risk from impacts of Illegal Unreported (IUU) Fishing.

He said the EU was funding the project because they were concerned about illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Mr Hanna said in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the EU and its member states would support sustainable management, use of natural resources, and the conversation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem including forests, oceans, coastal areas and river basins.

'The consensus commits us to enhance the integration of sustainability in all cooperation sectors and to raise the profile of environment issues with partners,' he said.

'We commit to promote the protection and restoration of marine ecosystems, achieve healthy and productive oceans and sustainable management of ocean resources and sustainable fisheries through improved ocean governance and the development of the blue economy,' he added.

He said: 'So, at the highest level in Europe and in Ghana, as partners in development, our leaders are today emphasizing sustainability and showing new commitment to fighting against practices which are unsustainable.'

Mr Hanna said illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing was such an unsustainable practice; adding; 'It's a free for all, in which the powerful grab the resources, the powerless suffer, and in the end - if it goes on this way - there will be no fish left for anyone'.

He urged the Government to ensure that no foreign trawlers flying Ghanaian flags flout the law.

'They must not be allowed to fish illegally in foreign waters, fish without licenses; engage in transhipment, light fishing, use of undersized mesh, dumping of fish at sea and use of explosives and poison. All these are illegal activities,' he said.

He urged all the partners of this project to work closely together to achieve the results of the project to enhance the lives of the coastal fisher folks and protect fisheries resources for future generations.

Ms Aforley Quaye, the Minister of Fisheries, said the Government would continue to empower the fishers to enforce the fisheries regulation because in spite of the works of the Fisheries Enforcement Unit, illegal fishing practices were prevalent, especially at the marine coastal fishing landing sites.

'I also request that when fishers make an arrest for infraction of the fisheries law and regulations all should play their various roles as mandated by law to ensure that the arrested fishermen were prosecuted,' she said.

Mr Elkanah Odembo, the Country Director CARE International, said the project had been designed to work with stakeholders towards ensuring that smallholder (artisanal) fishers and other users of fisheries resources benefited from equitable and sustainable fisheries resources management in Ghana.

Nana Kwesi Agyemeng IX, the Paramount Chief of Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, called on all and sundry to support the project because it would bring a lot of benefits to the fishing industry in the country.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, July 26, GNA - The Chairperson of Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, has arrived in Parliament House at the invitation of Legislative body to answer some pertinent questions of national interest.

Before she arrived, Parliament was suspended for an hour in an apparent preparation to sit in the Committee of a whole.

Mrs Osei is expected to answer questions on the total amount of money that the EC collected from media representatives who covered the 2016 General Election, the replacement of lost and misplaced voter ID cards and how the monies have been utilised.

The media will sit in hear part of the deliberations.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier today referred a petition against Mrs Osei, the Chief Justice.

A statement signed by Mr Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, said President Akufo-Addo received the petition whilst out of the country.

It said pursuant to Article 146(3) of the Constitution, which was invoked by the Petition, the President referred same to Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo for resolution in accordance with the dictates of that Article.

Article 146(3) states: "If the President receives a petition for the removal of Justice of a Superior Court other than the Chief Justice or for the removal of the Chairman of a Regional Tribunal, he shall refer the petition to the Chief Justice, who shall determine whether there is a prima facie case or not."

Subsequent clauses of Article 146 also enable the Chief Justice, where he or she decides that there is a prima facie case, to set up a committee consisting of three Justices of the Superior Courts or Chairmen of the Regional Tribunals or both, appointed by the Judicial Council.

In addition to these are two other persons who are not members of the Council of State, nor members of Parliament, nor lawyers, and who shall be appointed by the Chief Justice on the advice of the Council of State, to investigate the complaint and make its recommendations to the Chief Justice who shall forward it to the President.

The President initially received the Petition undated and unsigned, but subsequently, counsel, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, Esq., by a letter dated 20th July, 2017, wrote to the Office of the President setting out the names of the petitioners and the date of the Petition.

The Petition accuses Mrs Osei of taking decisions without recourse to the Commission and taking actions that compromised the independence and neutrality of the Commission, among other charges.

She has since denied any wrong doing and made counter allegations against two of her deputies.

She has also sued Mr Opoku Agyemang for defamation.

GNA
26.07.2017 LISTEN

A number of Ghanaian Banks obsess with the number of press statements send out by their PR officers and the number of news stories the media publish about them.

But, should PR campaigns just be volume of news material and organizing activities? The answer is obviously no, PR should be measurement oriented instead of just activities driven.

Banks that cannot measure the activities of their brand are sitting on a time ticker because their competitors who have strategic PR tactics would take advantage over them in the competitive market. A successful PR involve developing and adopting effective communication strategies to enable the corporate leverage the competitive market by promoting brand-health and penetration.

What seems to be a developing story in the Ghanaian banking sector has it that, 9 Commercial Banks are financially distressed and have been asked by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to submit recapitalization plans.

According to a report by the Ghanaian Times Newspaper on page 26, Wednesday 26 2017, the affected banks were found after the BoG conducted Asset Quality Review (AQR) on the 36 banks in the country.

Though the identity and the core reasons behind the development remains sketchy, media analyst at the Centre for Media Analysis believe that, the PR department of those banks could have fought for considerable results with their PR Tactical Strategies. PR is a functional tool for sales driven objectives if it is well harnessed.

What strategy could have been adopted by the PR departments to salvage the looming crises? Obviously, it should have been adopting effective media monitoring to scientifically track, analyze and measure the activities and strategies of their competitors and also develop effective communication strategies to enable them leverage the competitive banking sector market.

Tracking their competitors both in the traditional and non-traditional media would have also enable them gather intelligence on what their consumers and journalists say or write about their brand.

Of course, a person without a communication eye may argue that, the reasons behind the banks distress is capital not media strategies, but the question is what would have been the end result if the banks were leveraging on the chocked Ghanaian banking sector through brand-content measurement, brand-content penetration and brand-sentiment appraisals?

In the 21 century PR goes beyond flipping through newspapers, going around distributing press releases to various media outlets and promotional activities but rather, editorial oriented strategies of adopting effective communication tools to be ahead andbe able to take advantage of the competitive beat.

As the BoG is reported to have given the affected banks 2 months ultimatum to submit their recapitalization plans, Analyst at the Centre for Media Analysis (CMA) admonishes the PR department of the banks to review their PR Tactical Tools which are their strategies to enable them change the fortunes of the banks. The synergy between PR and Marketing departments should be well integrated to avert future profit slips.
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) was be 10 years on 25th May, 2017. It celebrated the occasion on 1st and 2ndJuly, 2017 in Abuja by gathering experts in the field to review the past and chart the way forward. It has been a wonderful experience being in an establishment saddled with the responsibility of serving the guests of Allah, a responsibility that is herculean, tempting, yet spiritually compelling and rewarding.

The history of Hajj administration in Nigeria calls for reflections. In contemporary times, I can unarguably assert, the history are in two parts: between 1975 and 2007 and between 2007 and 2017. The first era was when the spiritual journeys were subjected to diverse challenging hiccups and run under different bodies. The nomenclature of the Hajj organizing body changed from era to another.Before 1975, pilgrims affairs were administered by regional governments, private organizations and individuals. At the beginning of the new era, precisely in 1975, it was named Nigerian Pilgrims Board (NPB).

Late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmoud Gummi, of blessed memory, was the pioneer chairman of federal governments Hajj administrative body. He chaired the NPB from 1975 to 1980. It remained NPB under different leaderships until 1989 when it transformed to Nigerian Pilgrims Commission (NPC). In 1991, the body was relegated to a mere department in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was called Directorate of Pilgrims Affairs (DPA).

In 1995, apparently due to inefficiency and difficulties in operations, the body was turned into a Presidential Committee on Hajj (PCH), named Office of Pilgrims Affairs under the Presidency. From the year 2000 to 2004, Hajj operations were organized by a National Committee on Hajj (NCH) under the Presidency. Between 2004 and 2006, the DPA of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs came on board again due to claims and counterclaims that foreign trips by Nigerians, under whatever guise, fall within the purview of the ministry. I recall that, as a field journalist then with the Daily Trust in Port Harcourt, no single pilgrim was airlifted from the Port Harcourt zone of the then DPA during the December 2005/January 2006 Hajj. That year was probably the worst experience in Hajj operations during the period under review.

The journey of Hajj management to such greatness and stability is simple. In 2006, the National Assembly enacted a law that established a full-fledged body, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON). For the 2006 Hajj, probably to forestall reoccurrence of the very ugly experiences witnessed in the past, especially during the previous years Hajj, a Presidential Committee on Hajj resurfaced. This time, it was put under the chairmanship of one egalitarian administrator, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello. Methinks, sincerely, that the coming of Muhammad Bello into Hajj management and his successor, Barr. Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad, MON, has stabilized Hajj operations in Nigeria. In the contemporary Hajj experiences in Nigeria, nothing can be more manifest than the achievements the duo has made for the Nigerian Muslim Ummah in general and the yearly teeming Umrah and Hajj pilgrims in particular. The past years of Hajj with tears were gradually turned to Hajj with ease. In that years Hajj, despite some insurmountable challenges that were quite natural and some bed-ridden from the past, the overall assessment was simply Hajj with very little tears.

The achievements of the Commission speak for themselves as those who embarked on the spiritual trip before 2006 and those who are conscious of contemporary happenings and developments will attest to this fact. Hajj will continue to the end of the world, God willing. So the management of Hajj in Nigeria should never be subjected to any form of hazardous arrangements as it was between 1975 and 2006. No Nigerian Muslim should be fooled into believing that Hajj can be managed better without NAHCON of today.

NAHCON was set up to regulate and organize Hajj and umrah operations in Nigeria, in such a manner that the pilgrim should obtain Hajj mabrur with ease or with the barest unavoidable challenges. NAHCON was born by an Act of the National Assembly (NASS), endorsed by the then President Obasanjo and the then clerk of the NASS, Nasir Ibrahim Arab. This followed the constitution of a Governing Board for the Commission and the transfer of staff of the former Directorate of Pilgrims Affairs (DPA) to the new establishment. As mentioned, DPA was then a department in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

To achieve this target for the Nigerian pilgrim, the Commission gathered its board members, management and senior staff and other highly placed personalities in Hajj affairs to analyze the NAHCONs Act 2006 and the inherent challenges in its implementation; sensitize the board and staff members on the Federal Governments procedures and financial regulations; and develop a strategic plan that would guide the Commissions operations. One of the architects of the NAHCON Act 2006 and former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Usman Bugaje, stirred the assemblage, harping on the grey areas in the Act, dealing particularly with Sections 7 and 11 which provide for the enlightenment of pilgrims, biometric matters and improving the general health of the pilgrims, Hajj Savings Scheme, among others. Late Professor Abubakar Gwandu showcased the relationship between an employer and an employee with special emphasis on the Islamic perspective.

NAHCON staff must work with a focus, trust one another and in perfect harmony in a complementary manner that would depict them as being Allah-conscious at all times. They must see themselves as employees of the pilgrims for whose reasons they have earned the job and also gotten benefits. In addition, they must serve to attain Allahs abundant mercy as promised those who facilitate any good deed, the university don summed up.

Muhammad Bello was very lucky to have wonderful and dedicated board members despite individualistic shortcomings. The board of reputable representatives each from the six geopolitical zones of the federation, some from Federal Ministries and agencies including Foreign Affairs, Finance, Health, Aviation, Interior (Immigration), Central Bank of Nigeria, and the two apex Islamic organizations in Nigeria: Jamaatu Nasril-Islam (JNI) and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) worked with him. He was described by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhhamad Saad Abubakar III, as small but mighty. And he was exceptionally intelligent, frugal and forbearing, indeed.

The Board served its two tenures and bowed out. It was a painful exit especially because they touched the lives of the staff and the pilgrims most of whom they encountered for the first time in life. Many of the members, led by Bello made indelible prints on the path of Hajj management and transformation in Nigeria. No doubt, they have sown sadaqatul-jariyah (ceaseless charity) that will outlive them. This is the type of good deeds every believer in Allah and in the Day of Resurrection strives to attain.

But alas, such a very interesting job! Such a very compelling and rewarding assignment! O, what a very dangerous duty! What a very enticing but risky religious opportunity! And what a pitiful end for those who struggle for such perilous Islamic assignment for mere worldly praise and gratification! Imagine the rewards for those who have sincerely served nearly one million guests of Allah. And imagine the opposite.

I recall my encounters with some of these Nigerian Hajj managers. As the Port Harcourt zonal coordinator, I encountered an experience with the Chairman/CEO that encouraged me. With that anxiety to deliver, I felt that contacting him for clearance was the best option. He allowed me for some time and then one day told me boldly Mr. Man, we sent you there to represent the Commission and solve the problem that may arise from the states under you. Unless otherwise, then you contact the commissioners in charge. Thank you.

Another time was when I wrote an article on Hajj transformation in Nigeria in the Leadership Newspapers which used his portrait. In that article, there was an accolade to his effort in the transformation story of Hajj administration in the country. Rather than thank me for a publication well written, the Chairman was very angry with me. He called me into his office and rattled me for quarter of an hour. At first, I felt bad. My crime was that the revolution in Hajj management in Nigeria was ascribed to him and the use of his picture for that story. However, as part of his characteristics, he later called me, advised me and apologized.

One other time was very personal. The talk among the staff of the Commission about Bello was that he was so frugal that he hardly approved any financial transaction without backings by federal government financial regulations. They would ask many times: Why does the chairman prefer to return huge sums of money to the federal government every year? And at many fora with the staff, the chairman would repeat: I cannot generate memos. If you cannot utilize the funds genuinely, then they have to be returned to the government.

The board of the commission was made of very hard working Nigerian citizens. The Commissioner for Policy, Personnel Management and Finance (PPMF), Alhaji Ibrahim Yusuf Adebayo is money preserver. He would always say, This is government money and we have to account for it. You must retire advances made to you appropriately. He took over from Alhaji Liad Tella who resigned his appointment in 2011 to pursue a political ambition in his state, Osun. Alhaji Tella was the man for all staff who often believed in Give every worker his entitlement. The then Commissioner Operations, Barr. Muhammad Abdullahi Mukhtar, now the Chairman/CEO, was the rule of law. Many of the transformational indices in the Commission were initiated by him even when he was a commissioner. He took over from Prof. Badmos Lanre Yusuf who resigned his appointment in 2011 to pursue his professorship degree at the University of Ilorin. Dr. Badmus was a silent but stringent mover of the operations. Barr. Mukhtar took over from Mallam Bello as the Chairman/CEO in May 2014.

The Commissioner for Planning, Research, Statistics, Information and Library Services (PRSILS), Sheikh Dr. Saleh Okenwa was a quiet but man of due diligence. His concern was my work first and he would never compromise his duty. He earned the admiration of all the Board members and staff. It suffices to describe him as a non-materialistic, frank and trustworthy citizen. I learnt two simple sentences from him. Number one was: Its okay. Sheikh would repeat this sentence as many times as possible when his explanations on a matter are not understood and the listener prefers to put up an argument. As far as I knew him, he would ensure that he doesnt regret his action. I often thought he was the proponent of the proverb that says: Think twice before you leap. The second sentence is Where are you? This statement reveals that the person questioned is not available at that particular time. And Sheikh, always time-conscious, dislikes absence when presence was needed. Another big thing about Sheikh is his reluctance in approving government financial transaction.

The six geopolitical board members in reminiscence were: Northwest - Alhaji Ado Shinkafi (Bunun Katsina) was replaced by Hajiya Aisha Maidubu Muhammad, North-Central  Sheikh Musa Isa who I call the General being the strong man who coordinated the Madinah operations for many years. He was replaced by Hajiya Rahmatu Bala Usman. Southeast  Sheikh Abdullah Adam Idoko who was the Commandant of Hijra Operations in Madinah throughout his service to the Nigerian pilgrims in that capacity was replaced by Chief Alhaji Ibrahim Ezeani. South-South  Ahmad C. Efebeli who would always demand for record of every event in his zone and follow up the activities of the states he represented was succeeded by Alhaji Abdurrahman Zikeyi popularly called the Sultan of the Niger Delta; Southwest  Hajiya Fatimah Oyekan, who I refer to as the protector of Nigerian female pilgrims was succeeded by the humble Islamic scholar and Imam, Alhaji Fuad A. Adeyemi of the renowned Alhabibiyyah Islamic Society; Northeast  Hajiya Hannatu S. Birma, who I describe as the mother of Nigerian pilgrims. She would always ask when she worked in Madinah: How are our pilgrims today? She was replaced by Alhaji Danjuma Salihu Usman. The representative of Jamaatu Nasril-Islam (JNI)  Dr. Sheikh Haroun Ogbonnia Ajah championed the National Reception Team (NRT), an innovation that tremendously turned around the Hajj operations during arrival and departure of pilgrims at Saudi airports in Jeddah and Madinah. He was replaced by Professor Abubakar Mustapha.

Others were Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA)  Professor K. K. Olosho who took over from Ambassador Ibrahim Gusau whose predecessor was Ambassador Mamu Sanusi; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  Abubakar Isa who took over from Muhammad Nda; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs  MJZ Abubakar Waziri who took over from Mahdi Jibir; the Ministry of Aviation - Dr. Ibrahim Idris who was succeeded by Alhaji Wakil Adamu; the Ministry of Health - Dr. Ibrahim Kana who took over from Dr. Abdurrazzaq Badamasi whose predecessor was Professor Abdussalam A. Nasidi OON; the Ministry of Finance  Suleiman Minna who took over from Abdurrazzaq Salau; the Ministry of Interior (Immigration)  Aminu Bako Yarima who took over from Muhammad Babandede now Comptroller-General of the Immigration. He took over from Isa Bukar. Others were the representatives of the Presidency  Ambassador Arab A. Yadam who took over from Capt. Shehu Usman Iyal.

The Amirul Hajj for 2006 was former Senate leader, Senator Taslim Folarin; that of 2007 and 2008 Hajj was former Speaker of the House of Representative, Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole; and that of 2009 Hajj was Senator Kanti Bello. In 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan made the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saadu Abubakar, mni, CFR, the permanent Amirul-Hajj and Leader of the Federal Government Delegation on Hajj. In 2015, President Muhammad Buhari abolished the Amirul-Hajj position and the federal governments delegation on Hajj, a prelude to gradual hands-off of government from Hajj matters. However, the emir of Kano, HRH, Alhaji Dr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in company of some few Muslim leaders went Saudi Arabia that year as a volunteer body on Hajj under the auspices of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). In 2016 Hajj, the Estu Nupe, Alhaji Yahya Abubakar also went as the leader of a delegation set up by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) on Hajj.

NAHCON has zonal offices and staff. The main function of the zonal offices is to serve as a link between the states of the federation and the national headquarters of the Commission. It coordinates all airlift operations of pilgrims to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, coordinating state activities at the Holy Land among others. The zones are also often referred to as departure centers.

The Commission had eleven zonal offices before 2014 Hajj. The eleven zones are: Abuja/Minna, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin, Sokoto, Yola, Port Harcourt and Gombe which used to operate on adhoc basis. In 2014 Hajj, four new departure centers were created: Dutse in Jigawa state where the inaugural flight for 2014 Hajj was flagged off on 6th September, 2014; Birnin-Kebbi of Kebbi state, Enugu of Enugu state for South Eastern states and Bauchi of Bauchi state. These departure centers are being restructured and may be reduced on the accounts of vibrancy and frugality in the management of Hajj funds.

Interestingly, a major challenge that was encountered by the Commission after its birth was the stabilization of pilgrims airlift to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This key component constitutes over seventy percent of the entire Hajj operations. There was the use of e-passport by the Nigerian pilgrims. Three years into its establishment, precisely in 2009, the Saudi Arabian authorities banned globally the use of the then conventional Hajj passports. The Commission immediately visited the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Abuja to discuss the matter. Request for proper arrangements for e-passports for all the 95,000 Nigerian pilgrims across the Federation for that years Hajj was made. In March 2009, officials of State Muslim Pilgrims Boards/Agencies/Commissions were summoned to Abuja to discuss the matter and agree on modalities to pursue it at their various state levels. It also demanded serious orientation for the intending pilgrims. NAHCON sent a team led by the Commissioner in charge of planning, research, statistics, nformation and library services (PRSILS), Sheikh Dr. Saleh Okenwa, to the Kingdom to meet with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj, the Muassassah and the United Agents on the e-passport.

Another serious challenge the Commission faced was that of Mahram in 2012 Hajj. That was the first time in the history of Hajj operations in Nigeria that the Saudi authorities denied many Nigerian female pilgrims entrance into the Kingdom on the basis of Mahram. Over 1,500 female pilgrims were initially refused entry by the Saudi Immigration, though most of them were brought back to Nigeria and reissued visas with proper Mahram. However, Nigerians were taken unawares because right from the preparations for 2012 Hajj which was officially launched in February 2012 with the signing of the 2012 Hajj Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Saudi Arabia and Nigerian, there was no mention of the Mahram issue either verbally or in written document.

Yes, the Saudi authorities in Nigeria were also taken unawares because several meetings were held between NAHCON and the Saudi Embassy and Consulate in Abuja and Kano respectively during the preparatory stages and before the issuance of Hajj visa began. There was no mention of the matter. I argued that the Saudi Embassy in Abuja and its consulate in Kano couldnt have done Nigerian female pilgrims any good by issuing them visas, knowing that they cannot enter their country with the visas. Added to that, the process of acquiring a Hajj visa is such that the data and all relevant information of the intending pilgrim are posted online to the visa portal of Saudi Arabias Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The posted information is viewed by all relevant Saudi authorities before approval is granted for issuance of the visa via the Saudi Embassy and its Consulate.

In a related issue, there was a case of 4,000 additional Hajj slots granted to Nigeria at the end of 2011 Hajj preparations by the Saudi Government which insisted it must be completely utilized by Nigeria if it must continue to have it. Nigeria complied and it was distributed to the states that requested for additional allocations. But when NAHCON signed the 2012 Hajj agreement, the 4,000 slots were not included, and on enquiry, the Commission was told that it was only a bonus for 2011 Hajj. This was after the Commission had distributed the 2012 Hajj seats to the State Boards and agencies based on the 4,000 additional slots of 2011.

Under NAHCON of today, all issues concerning accommodations and airlift of pilgrims are often concluded few months before the airlift operations commence. NAHCON has made air transport for the Nigerian pilgrims more formidable, comfortable and affordable. Some portfolio air carriers which used to fail pilgrims have been phased out. Accommodation arrangement for Nigerian pilgrims in Makkah and Madinah used to be characterized by controversies and inadequacies. The Nigerian pilgrims were before the birth of NAHCON left to the mercies of the accommodation providers who give the same services to pilgrims from all other countries of the world. Nigerian pilgrims accommodations in Madinah have changed. Pilgrims are now accommodated at the Markaziyyah hotels around the Prophets Mosque, though they have to pay more for the accommodation. Feeding arrangements for Nigerian pilgrims have improved and extended to Madinah; not only at the holy sites of Mina and Arafat. Caterers who render the service are subjected to thorough screening and prequalification exercise by NAHCON. These are unlike before ten years ago.

In the past, the inefficiency in airlifting Nigerian pilgrims to the Holy Land because of lack of a national carrier gave private airlines the ample opportunities to salvage the situation in most times. Many Nigerian airliners like Kabo, Meridian, Medview, Belleview and Mangal now Max Air, among others came into the scene. It is worthy to note that some of them, especially Max Air, Medview and Flynas of recent have maintained consistency and shown the ability to deliver at different levels and capacities. However, airlifting of pilgrims is associated sometimes with hitches that are beyond the control of human powers. Departure and arrival points for Nigerian pilgrims are many but there are only two arrival points in Saudi Arabia; Jeddah and Madinah. There is only one departure point for Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia which is the King Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Jeddah. Simple arithmetic reveals the impossibility of matching the Saudi-bound airlifts and the Nigeria-bound.

In February, 2016, the commission issued guidelines for better Hajj management as follows:

guidelines for the provision of accommodation for Nigerian pilgrims in Makkah and Madinah; guidelines for the provision of feeding services to Nigerian pilgrims; guidelines for pilgrims registration; and licensing of states Muslim pilgrims welfare boards/agencies/commissions.

NAHCONs success stories are simply understandable. The Commission is an autonomous corporate establishment which has the whole time of the year to plan, strategize and carry out the activities which used to be discharged within two to three months by ad-hoc committees formerly constituted every year during Hajj operations. NAHCON is made up of citizens selected to man this important agency. NAHCON has received tremendous support from the Presidency under which the agency operates. All the relevant ministries and government agencies have given the Commission the necessary support. Also, the support from both chambers of the National Assembly  the Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs  has added weight to the balance the Commission needs to push forward. Airliners, suitcase providers/suppliers, caterers and accommodation providers are thoroughly prequalified and screened, full time inspections are carried out on the services provided by the certified companies and all matters related to tour operators have been addressed and periodically reviewed. NAHCON has also taken full control of umrah operations.

Meetings with State Muslim Pilgrims Boards/Agencies/Commission are regularly held, pre-hajj visits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to secure suitable and adequate accommodations for the pilgrims and to conclude other contractual agreements with the Saudi authorities, matters related to accommodations and airlift of pilgrims and other logistics arrangements are concluded in good times. Distribution of hajj slots to 36 States, the FCT and the Armed Forces as well as the slots to tour operators, announcement of hajj fares, the printing and distribution of passport appendices used in conjunction with the e-passports to the State Pilgrims Boards/Agencies/Commissions, all health issues including vaccines against CSM, yellow fever and precautionary measures against airborne diseases and others are carried out in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Health. Aggressive pilgrims enlightenment programmes are equally undertaken with all seriousness.

In the 2016 Hajj, NAHCON recorded milestone achievements for the first time in the history of Hajj operations in Nigeria by accommodating all the Nigerian pilgrims in high rising buildings around the Prophets Mosque. Also, the Commission made sure that all the Nigerian pilgrims visited Madinah during the pre-Arafah operations. Over 80% of the flights from Nigeria were direct into the Prince Muhammad Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Madinah while only 44 flights undertaken by Max Air landed in the King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah. The pilgrims were therefore transported from Jeddah to Madinah by road before proceeding to Makkah, thus completely overcoming the Miqat palaver that often raise some dust among the Nigeria ulama. Feeding of Nigerian pilgrims in Makkah and Madinah to guard against hazardous food vendors around pilgrims accommodations has been successful. And the introduction of national medical team as well as national media team has been very fruitful and wonderful.

The management of NAHCON since 2007 to 2017, the State Hajj administrators at their various times of service, the tour operator companies, all government agencies involved in Hajj activities as well as volunteer groups have done well. Almost all arrangements for 2017 Hajj have been concluded and expectations are very high for a greater success. In the simplest summary, before the Commission was born, hajj administration and operations were a nightmare. But today, as confirmed by many national and international groups and individuals, including the host country  Saudi Arabia and His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), Nigerian hajj operations under NAHCON are now hitch-free, easier and ultimately commendable.

It has not been easy to achieve this lot. It demanded selflessness, dedication, honesty, commitment, focus, integrity, broadmindedness, self-restraint, patience, forbearance and above all the fear of Allah. I pray that Allah grant Hajj managers in Nigeria more ample opportunities to do more good and be rewarded by Allah with Jannatul Firdaus on the Day of Judgment. Ameen. Happy anniversary to the NAHCON family!

Muhammad Ajah is an advocate of humanity, peace and good governance in Abuja. E-mail [email protected]
The 77th edition of the Scientific and Technical Council Conference of the Africa Water Association (AfWA) has been opened in Accra.

The five-day event which has members of the Association from 40 countries in Africa in attendance is being hosted by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel under the theme Enhancing WASH Sector Programme in Africa.

In his address, Managing Director of GWCL, Dr Clifford Braimah applauded the organisers for the chosen theme for the year, adding that it was a promising moment for all water utilities in Africa.

He said this years council meeting just like previous years was organised as a platform for members throughout Africa to share experiences and knowledge through technical sessions, seminars, workshops and so on to facilitate the development of professional capacity in all areas of water and sanitation.

According to Dr Braimah, the Ghana Water Company Limited was committed to meeting the increasing demand for better service delivery.

We are committed to the efficient management of our core business of production and distribution of potable water and having an effective customer management system in the urban areas of Ghana, he added.

He emphasised that GWCL is working together with the government of Ghana to attain 100% access to potable water in urban Ghana by 2025.

Established in 1980 with 18 members, AfWA is a professional association of institutions and individuals in the water and sanitation industry with over 100 members from 40 countries in Africa.
The President of the University of Education, Winneba chapter of the Graduate Students' Association of Ghana (GRASAG), Stephen Osei Akyiaw, has suggested the need for government to devote enough funds for research to enhance the formulation and implementation of the 'One District, One Factory' programme.

According to him, a strong link between government's plan and related quality research works will form a bedrock for the implementation of the policy.

Osei Akyiaw gave the suggestion in an interview with Citi News at the chapter's 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference for Post Graduate Students held today (Tuesday) at the University on the theme: Reshaping Graduate Studies for Sustainable Development of the African Continent.

He, however, asked the academia for well thought out quality research works that will prove relevant to industry and national policy.

It will surprise you to know that some of the research works done by some graduate students are not the best, so sometimes you send it and you realize that the supervisor or the institution has no option than to push it aside. Some are also very relevant, and I can tell you that most of the relevant ones are pushed, he explained.

Government has announced an ambitious industrialization plan through its 'One District, One Factory' policy; however, concerns from diverse quarters have been expressed about the clarity of the policy and its success.

The graduate students are of the view that tapping the rich findings and recommendations from various research works that relate to the policy could be a way of addressing the concerns.

dav

On his part, the guest speaker at the conference, Chief Dr. Ramon Adegoke Adedoyin of the Oduduwa University, Nigeria, observed that most African brains in the academia are leaving the continent for financial reasons.

He urged African governments to be alive to their responsibilities and pay more attention to academia and other vital areas.

Chief Adedoyin, on the other hand, disagreed that that the various curricula in Africa should be overhauled, arguing, the curriculum we have here is far different from the curriculum in the developed countries, and things are changing here because people are already giving more attention to technical education rather than the old form of curriculum we had.



By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Effutu MP Alexander Afenyo Markins caused a stir in parliament after he subtly invited Charlotte Osei to explain a criminal allegation she has leveled against her deputy.

Although the question time was limited to media accreditation fees allegedly unaccounted for, Afenyo Markin managed to sneak in a question relating to internal wranglings at the EC.

Charlotte Osei has accused her deputy Amadu Sulley of collecting 6million from political parties for the organisation of party primaries without the knowledge of the commission's Finance Department.

But the Effutu MP wanted to know whether the money collected by the deputy was lodged into the same EC account which held accreditation fee for the media in the 2016 general elections.

Photo: Amadu Sulley sat quietly throughout the entire proceedings.

The question caused a stir among the Minority before the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Joe Osei Owusu shot it down. He explained the question is not related to the substantive reason for which the chairperson was invited

North Tongu MP Okudzeto Ablakwa also tried to sneak in a question about procurement processes at the commission. Charlotte Osei has been accused of breaching procurement law in the award of some contracts.

She replied, she needed to prepare an explanation because her summon to parliament did not relate to procurement issues.

Minority leader used his opportunity to express satisfaction about the EC's response. But the Majority leader jabbed that his political rival had turned a question time into "praise-singing time".

Haruna Iddrisu has been defensive of the EC after a petition calling for her impeachment surfaced in the media.

He accused the governing NPP of being behind an unprecedented attempt to remove the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|[email protected]
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Wednesday warned that the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region could face further turmoil unless a political deal reached six months ago to pave the way to elections is implemented.

Under the agreement reached on New Year's Eve, elections are to be held this year in the large mineral-rich African country that would be the DR Congo's first democratic transition.

Concerns are growing however that the deal is unraveling after the head of the electoral commission said this month that the vote will likely not be held this year.

In a unanimous statement drafted by France, the council warned that "unless political actors demonstrate renewed good faith and political will to deliver on the promises they made to their people on New Year's Eve 2016, the DRC and the wider region are set to face an increased risk of insecurity and instability."

The Congolese opposition is planning a nationwide strike on August 8 and rallies on August 20 to push President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, to step aside and allow elections to take place.

Opposition leaders said at the weekend that Kabila must agree by the end of September to an election date or else they will no longer recognize him as president as of October 1.

In the statement, the council stressed the "urgency of swift implementation" in order to organize "peaceful, credible inclusive and timely elections, no later than December 2017" and achieve a peaceful transfer of power.

Council members also said they were ready to "act accordingly regarding all Congolese actors whose actions and statements impede the implementation of the agreement and the organization of elections."

At a council meeting earlier this month, the United States demanded that the electoral commission immediately publish an electoral calendar and specifically a date for the presidential vote.

Washington threatened unilateral sanctions and said the Security Council should consider imposing measures to pile pressure on all sides over the elections delay.

The council also condemned violence in the Kasai region, where UN officials say they have uncovered dozens of mass graves and two UN experts were killed while investigating the killings.
A search party has finally found the remains of a school pupil (name withheld) of Methodist Primary School in Tamale who drowned following floods that affected some communities in the Tamale Metropolitan Area.

The corpse was found at Fuo which is one of the flood prone communities in the Tamale Metropolitan Ares.

The deceased has been buried in accordance with the tenets of Islam.

Meanwhile, hundreds of school pupils did not go to school today Wednesday, July 26.

Parents were afraid to send their wards to private schools located in communities along the Tamale-Bolgatanga highway.

The floods affected private schools including Foundation Hills Academy, Future Leaders Academy and Sandabbi.

In a related development, a government fact finding team has arrived in Tamale to assess the gravity of the floods.



By: By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Bamako (AFP) - A German helicopter with two crew on board crashed in northern Mali on Wednesday in an apparent accident while monitoring clashes for the peacekeeping force, UN sources told AFP.

The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has sent a team to the site to check for possible casualties and find out what happened, said spokesman Farhan Haq in New York. The helicopter cam down near Tabankort, south of Gao.

UN diplomats separately confirmed that the attack helicopter and the crew had been supplied by Germany to MINUSMA.

And a UN source in the northern city of Gao described a German helicopter crashing in "an accident" in the Ilouk area, adding "we will release the toll later."

That source added "nothing at this stage" would suggest the aircraft "was hit or shot at" as it monitored ongoing fighting in the area.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

The United Nations operation there, launched in 2013, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission, with dozens of its staff killed in the last four years.

Germany has reinforced its presence in Mali this year, deploying several helicopters and raising the number of Germans serving in MINUSMA to 639 as of June. France has expressed hope its European neighbour will do more in the poor and insecure Sahel region.

The crash comes two years after two Dutch UN peacekeepers died when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali.

In 2012, key cities in Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Former rebels still control the northern city of Kidal, and fighting between groups previously loyal to the Tuareg rebellion and pro-government militia is common, in violation of a ceasefire.

The United Nations has condemned such violations by the combatants, but the state is absent from much of Mali's northern territory and its terrain is very difficult to traverse.
Ghana has been included in the list of beneficiary countries of the EUs Emergency Migration Fund, designed to assist in the return and reintegration of Africans into EU societies, President Nana Akufo-Addo has revealed.

Welcoming the President of Malta, President Marie-Louise Preca, he assured, government will collaborate with Malta and EU member states to help find solutions to the factors that trigger illegal migration.

Discussing the thorny issue of migration, the President bemoaned the high numbers of young Africans taking distressing risks across the Sahara and around the Mediterranean, trying to reach a better life.

Whilst we strive to provide youths with the right environment in Africa, which would enable them to enhance their skills, receive appropriate training, and have access to digital technology and enhanced economic opportunities.

Her Excellency the President and her delegation have reiterated their commitment to champion the need for humane treatment of illegal migrants as well as the protection of their human rights in accordance with international law, both at home and on EU platforms, he added

Ghana and Malta also pledged to strengthen the ties of co-operation that exist between the two countries, as well as collaborate further and provide mutual support for each other at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

This was the outcome of a roundtable discussion held between the ministerial teams of Ghana and Malta, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, as part of events marking the 3-day State Visit to Ghana by the President of Malta, Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Describing the visit to Ghana by President Preca as a landmark one, as it is the first time a sitting President from the Republic of Malta is paying a State Visit to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo, in his remarks at a joint press conference with the Maltese President, stated that their discussions bordered on several issues of importance to both countries.

These issues, he stated, included the improvement in the volumes of trade between Ghana and Malta; mutual support for candidates from the two countries vying for positions with international organisations; issues of migration; and the deepening of political consultations on matters of mutual interest to the two countries, amongst others.

President Akufo-Addo noted that his Maltese counterpart and her team have resolved to give voice to Ghanas cause and interests at the European Union.

Ghana, on the other hand, the President stressed will also help to facilitate the provision of a platform for enhanced economic engagement between Malta and the member countries of ECOWAS.

This, according to President Akufo-Addo, should boost the trade volumes, and help bring prosperity to the peoples of Ghana and Malta.

On the matter of reforms of the global political order, President Akufo-Addo made it clear that the inability of the United Nations to undertake the reforms of its institutions that will reflect the realities of our times, and not the realities of the post-war world, represents a manifest injustice against the peoples of Africa.

The Ghanaian team, according to President Akufo-Addo, stressed the importance it attaches to the process of UN Reform, especially of the UN Security Council, as set out in Africas Common Position on UN Reform, based on the Ezulwini Consensus, and solicited the support of Malta for this position.

It is time to correct the longstanding injustice that the current structure and composition of the UN Security Council represent for the nations of Africa. Her Excellency and her delegation shared this sentiment and expressed its desire to collaborate with Ghana to this end, he added.

It was also agreed that Ghana and Malta extend support to candidates from their respective countries vying for positions in international organisations.

Ghana has, therefore, given support to Malta's bid for membership of the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) elections, which take place later this year. Malta, on the other hand, will support Ghana's bid for a Non-Permanent Seat at the UN Security Council from 2020 to 2021, the President said.

He continued, This support mechanism has also been to the candidature of Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, as a Judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). An MOU, to this end, would be signed after this session by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries.

The President said, "a Business Forum between our two Chambers of Commerce, as well as with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), has been scheduled to take place at the Accra International Conference Centre tomorrow, July 27, 2017, to identify the trade and business opportunities that exist and would be mutually beneficial to our two countries, he added.

It was the hope of President Akufo-Addo that as we shape the future of Ghana, and position Ghanaian enterprises to compete effectively in the global market space, we have friends, such as the Republic of Malta, to support us in this objective.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Hon. Freddy Blay has told the Daily Guide that, he will not hestitate to recommend the KANTANKA Vehicles for government to purchase for Public Institutions to use, if he gets the opportunity.

According to him, apart from being a Ghanaian product, the vehicles have proven to be good, strong and durable, just as others that are imported from outside the country.

One 4-Wheel Hard-Body KANTANKA OMAMA Pick-Up was spotted among the vehicles forming the National Chairman's convoy he travelled to Bolgatanga with, on Monday July 24, 2017.

Asked how he sees the KANTANKA OMAMA Hard-Body Pick-Up in his convoy, the Acting National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, said,  I have been watching the vehicle as we travelled from Accra all the way to Wa and we are here in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. I don't think it has given us any problem, neither has it caused us to delay on any of the routes we have taken. The drivers and Security Officers are full of praise for the Pick-Up and I endose it too. If I get the opportunity to recommed any type of Vehicles for Public Institutions to use across the country, I will mention KANTANKA. He said.

[AD]The National Chairman and some other National Executives were in Bolgatanga for the Upper East Regional Congress of the New Patriotic Party.

Earlier in an interview with a local Radio Station, Tanga Radio, Hon. Freddy Blay, said the New Patriotic Party government is bent on making the lives of many Ghanains better than it is now.

Even with transportation; apart from Air Transport, government also wants to improve on land transport, and that is why the government will be paying more attention and some investment to the railway network. Government intends stretch the Railway all the way to Paga in this region. If this is done, transporting goods across the country will be faster and effective. Hon. Blay noted.

The Marketing Manager for KANTANKA Automobile Company Limited, Kwabena Agyepong, has assured that, the Company has grown and can meet the demands, if the government decides to order KANTANKA vehicles for Public Institutions.

Currently, we produce according to clients demand.  if we are to operate at our optimum capacity, the Company can produce 20 Vehicles a day from all our five sites. Our Vehicles are strong and can go through any terrane. Mr. Agyepong assured.

Touching on the Party's victory in the 2016, Hon. Freddy Blay said, the victory was not a magic, rather, it was as a result of hard work and the fact that, the National Democratic Congress government then, had lost ideas and many Ghanaians saw the government then, as encouraging corrupt practices and engaging in unnecessary and profligate expenditures.

Contrary to fears that the Free Senior High School Education may be aborted before the next academic year, Hon. Blay stressed that, President Akufo-Addo is committed to the initiative and had put people together to do all the checks and put the figures together, so that, the Free SHS Education can take off in September 2017.

Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga
The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) Ghana has joined calls for the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and her deputies to step aside, following allegations of financial malfeasance levelled against them.

Madam Charlotte Osei and her deputies have come under intense pressure to resign, following allegations of corruption made against her by employees of the Commission in a petition and her response, which highlighted corrupt practices at the Commission.

IDEG in a statement also proposed that an interim Chair should be appointed to create a more conducive environment for the Commission to do its work normally.

While calling on President Nana Addo , the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Parliament and the Chair of the Council of State to confer both on the appointment of the interim Chair and the investigations, IDEG said these four institutions have constitutional responsibilities towards the EC and carry a moral burden to work collectively towards the restoration of public faith and trust in the institution.

The investigations, it said, should be undertaken quickly and the findings and recommendations implemented as soon as possible.

This would enable the EC to return to stability and effective operations while securing the necessary conditions for its structural reforms, it said.

The EC's tensions came to the fore after some employees of the Commission petitioned President Akufo-Addo to dismiss Charlotte Osei for alleged financial malfeasance.

Among the allegations, the aggrieved employees claimed that Mrs. Osei awarded a GHc 3.9 million contract for work on an office complex without consulting the Commission.

Mrs. Osei rubbished the allegations in a comprehensive response to the employees, and fired some accusations at the Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations at the EC, Amadu Sulley.

She has sued the employees for making what she described as unsubstantiated allegations against her.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Accra, July 26, GNA - The monies the Electoral Commission (EC) took from media persons for accreditation to cover last year's general election are intact at the GCB.

Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chair of the Commission told Parliament on Wednesday that the money was estimated at GH2.5 million, but did find expression in the 2017 Budget statement.

'It was an oversight,' she said, adding that she was speaking as the Chair for the Commission, and not for all the Commissioners.

She indicated that the oversight was discovered after she got the letter last week from Parliament to answer the question.

Mrs Osei's appearance in Parliament followed an urgent question filed by Mr Eugene Antwi, Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin over some discrepancies in the Commission's 2017 financial statement.

The MP for Subin had explained to the media that he had detected discrepancies in the Commission's 2017 financial report and that Government's 2017 Budget had shown that the EC did not raise any money internally last year.

The MP said he did not understand the development as the Commission raised some monies during the December 2016 general election from journalists and citizens.

The Commission charged Gh10.00 from journalists for media accreditation and GH5.00 for replacement of lost voter's ID cards ahead of the elections, but the total accrued was not captured in the EC's financial statement submitted to the government.

She said the money charged from journalists for accreditation cards during the 2016 elections was handed to the contractors.

"The producers charged GH 8.00 and the EC took GH 2.00," she said, adding that the money the printers took did not include VAT and NHIS charges.

Mrs Osei said the practice of collecting money from journalists was not a new practice and that it had been done in other elections in other elections, especially in the district assembly elections to allow more journalists to cover the elections and to give them access restricted areas.

'This is not the first time the Commission has charged journalists for accreditation. This had happened in the district assembly elections and so it wasn't the first time,' she said.

'Judging by the numbers; that's 4,271 and the way that the media covered the elections very effectively, we don't think it is a bad practice.'

She gave the assurance that the Commission would liaise with the Ministry of Finance to correct the mistake.

Meanwhile, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu on Wednesday withdrew the Office of Special Prosecutor Bill, for the Bill to be taken through the normal procedure as recommended by the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, rather than a certificate of urgency requested by the Government.

The Minority has been demanding the Government to withdraw the bill because it was not laid in accordance with the required provisions.

The Zongo Development Fund Bill was also withdrawn.

GNA

By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
The OZ Minerals Ltd [ASX:OZL] share price climbed 10.04% higher today on the back of a positive earnings report. The miner released their second-quarter figures yesterday, which showed numbers were up across the board.

How well did OZ Minerals do?

Copper production is up 12% from the first quarter, while gold production was up 23% in the same period. All up, its resulted in a boost for the company as their cash total surged to $625 million. Thats an increase of $31 million over the March quarter.

CEO and Managing Director Andrew Cole said:

Strong production and lower costs quarter on quarter see us tracking positively towards achieve annual guidance. The Prominent Hill mine plan has production ramping up in the latter half of the year, supported by completion of the second permanent decline expected in late August.

OZ Minerals Prominent Hill project was the big winner. It boasted a 17% increase on quarter-on-quarter production. This represents a strong finish to the first half of 2017.

What next for OZ Minerals?

OZ Minerals will certainly be hoping for stronger results from Prominent Hill moving into the second half of the year. The strong production numbers are a good sign; hopefully the company can continue the trend.

As for the companys other projects, progress seems to be on track. Investors can expect an update on other projects before the end of the year. All in all, it looks as though OZ Minerals is well on track to have a productive 2017. Well keep you posted on any further updates to this story.

Regards,

Ryan Clarkson-Ledward

Junior Analyst, Money Morning

PS: If you want to get involved in Australian resource stocks, dont invest a cent before reading our latest report, Australias Top 10 Mining Stocks for 2017.

Resource specialist Jason Stevenson guides you on how to pick the best miners in the market right now.

A small stake in each of these companies could potentially double or triple your money in as a little as two years. To get your free copy, click here.
Sonora's Mother Lode Fairgrounds Red Cross Evacuation Center, Image July 20, 2017 View Photos

Update at 3:11pm: As part of their recovery phase assistance, American Red Cross workers are conducting client casework and distributing cleaning supplies for residents impacted by the Detwiler Fire.

According to Red Cross officials, caseworkers will be available tomorrow and Friday at Sonoras Mother Lode Fairgrounds (220 Southgate Dr.) from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. each day. They will also be onsite tomorrow at Mariposa Elementary School (5044 Jones St.) from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

These workers are specifically trained to help people navigate through the confusions and complications often inherent with the process of disaster recovery. Additionally, Red Cross emergency response vehicles are now gearing up to bring meals and snacks and clean-up kits (containing a mop, broom, gloves, disinfectant, tarps, and sifters) to residents who have returned to assess damage at their homes.

Residents seeking assistance at the Sonora fairgrounds or at Mariposa Elementary should, if possible. bring proof of residency as it will help speed up the process. For more information, contact the Red Cross public information line at (559) 343-2549.

Original Post at 11:58am: Sonora, CA  Today marks the seventh day of service for Sonoras Mother Lode Fairgrounds as a Red Cross-run refuge for Detwiler Fire evacuees. Here is the latest word for those looking to provide support.

As reported here, the shelter opened last Tuesday evening on Day Four of the blaze, which triggered evacuations in northern Mariposa County as well as advisories in southern Tuolumne County.

Today, Bill Slotter, a Red Cross spokesperson who is working onsite, shares with Clarke Broadcasting, We could use about five volunteers to help with feeding over the next four daysthey will be working with the Lions Club, who is doing the cooking. Helpers are needed to work from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, as well as Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Anyone interested should sign up by calling in advance at (916) 468-8675.

The fairgrounds continues to remain open in support of Mariposa County residents as well as due to concerns about wind patterns and low humidity in the weather forecast over the next few days, according to Fair CEO Ken Alstott, who met with Red Cross officials Tuesday afternoon. He says between the campgrounds and Red Cross shelter building onsite, the fairgrounds is currently housing about 30 people.

Slotter, a government operations liaison for the Red Cross who hails from Pennsylvania, emphasizes what he calls an amazing amount of community support for the shelter, which has helped operations remain in good shape, supplies-wise.

Last week, the Red Cross and Tuolumne County Deputy Administrator OES Coordinator Tracie Riggs shared a few ideas (click here for details) for those wanting to donate items. Those wanting to support disaster response to California wildfires through a direct Red Cross donation can get more details on how to do that by clicking here.

Current Red Cross figures indicate that during the course of its Detwiler Fire response to date, it has assisted with 960 shelter stays for families, along with serving 13,000 meals and snacks; facilitating more than 450 health contacts and distributing more than 2,000 relief items.
Primary Health Care in Nigeria has always been an issue. This country has always needed better solutions and services in the area of medicine. A lot has already changed since the country`s independence, but there is still work to do. Without overcoming the challenges, there is no future for health care in Nigeria!

Components of Primary Health Care in Nigeria

Nigeria is hoping to follow the eight primary components of health care adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Declaration of Alma-Ata. This declaration was made to create the basis which could help to provide healthcare globally. Therefore, Nigeria is working towards following these main eight pillars of the world`s primary health care system.

- Public education is the first pillar of primary health care. According to WHO, knowledge is the best weapon against the spread of diseases.

- Nutrition is the second pillar of the healthcare system. Health Care in Nigeria is trying to control malnutrition in the country. However, due to the unstable political situation in some of the states, there are problems when it comes to controlling nutrition.

- Supply of clean and safe drinking water. It`s also a problem for some parts of Nigeria. As a result, Nigeria must works towards providing its population with clean and drinkable water.

- Primary health care which includes adequate treatment for children, mothers, and future mothers.

- WHO informs countries about the necessity of global immunization. It can help to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

- Prevention and control of local diseases are another critical issue for primary health care in Nigeria.

- Access to proper medical care is one of the principles of primary health care in Nigeria!

- The arrangement of essential pills and medicine so they can be available to patients.

Challenges of Primary Health Care

Even though the country acknowledges all the eight pillars of primary health care, it does not mean that people in Nigeria get adequate medical treatment. The medical system in Nigeria has a lot of issues. Health care problems have become very obvious in Nigeria. Let`s take a look at the most challenging issues in the primary health care system in Nigeria.

1. Lack of political will

The Government's commitment to the cause is certainly a key element in the decentralization of health services, which can improve primary health care in Nigeria. Most leaders do not show a strong political will to change the situation in health care in Nigeria. Most of the local health programmes managed to succeed only with the help of international agencies.

2. Inadequate funding

According to the instructions of WHO, a country should spend at least 5% of GNP on health. Most of the developed countries spend at least 10% of GNP on health. Developing countries use from 1.5 to 4% of their GNP on health. The inadequate financing and dependence on the international agencies can have a terrible effect on the system of health care in Nigeria. Therefore, it`s necessary to get rid of the dependency and rely on the resources of Nigeria only!

3. Bad inter-sectoral collaboration

READ ALSO: Trace the history of primary health care in Nigeria

According to the instructions of WHO, one of the key elements of primary health care is a good inter-sectoral collaboration. This involves bringing together the components of healthcare in Nigeria. It means that Nigeria should achieve a collaboration between sectors, like health, housing, water industry and education.

WHO experts inform that health care system in the country mirrors the political system in the country. Therefore, the Federal Government should take the main responsibility for the problems of the health care in Nigeria. It`s especially true with the financing of tertiary health care facilities.

4. Poor Quality of Services in Primary Health care facilities

One of the main problems for Nigerians is a common misconception that primary health care facilities in rural areas are not adequate for treatment. Therefore, Nigerians prefer to stay in long queues in city hospitals, than to ask help from rural health facilities. They even prefer to treat common ailments in hospitals. Another common misconception is that primary health care facilities are for lower class citizens.

5. Low community participation

Community participation is one of the main basics of health care in Nigeria. In this case, it does not provide much help to the primary health care facilities. The institutionalized organizations, like Village Development Committees and Ward Development Committees, should pitch in when it comes to solving the health facilities` problems.

Unfortunately, the inadequate community mobilization and conflict between communities and the government can`t support the stable development of primary health care in Nigeria!

6. Human Resources in health care facilities

You will not find any health care system that can work without adequate personnel. Human resources form the very backbone of any health care system. But unfortunately, our primary health care is suffering from a lack of human resources. There are a lot of problems connected with

- Poor job satisfaction;

- Inter-Cadre Conflicts;

- Inadequacy of personnel;

- Poor professional quality of personnel.

In addition, there is no adequate planning for human resources in the medical health care facilities in Nigeria. New interns do not desire to serve in the rural areas of the country. Therefore, primary health care facilities in rural areas experience a lack of personnel.

Primary Health Care in Nigeria Conclusion

Nigeria is one of the many developing countries in the world. It faces a lot of troubles. One of the most important of them is primary health care. Unfortunately, the instability in this sector remains the same.

READ ALSO: List of social problems in Nigeria

Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigerian Senate is considering reducing the minimum age for the office of president to 35

- There are also 32 other proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution of Nigeria

- The report on constitution amendment bill was presented on Tuesday, July 25, by the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu

The 1999 Nigerian constitution is about to receive a huge face-lift. On Tuesday, July 25, the Senate received a 33-item report on the fourth alteration of the constitution.

The report which calls for huge changes in the constitution was presented by the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.

One major change being proposed is the alteration bill which seems to be in tandem with the not too young to run movement in Nigeria, seeking improved access for the Nigerian youth in government.

The bill now proposes 35 as the minimum age for the office of the President and being elected to the Senate; and 25 for the House of Representatives.

According to Premium Times, other amendments included in the 33-item list are:

1. Reducing the powers of the federal government in the exclusive legislative list

2. Financial autonomy for local government and state legislature

3. Downward review of the minimum age for elective public officers, among others.

4. Devolution of power to the states.

5. The bill also seeks constitutional provision to compel president and governors to submit list of ministers and commissioners respectively, with portfolios and 35 per cent affirmative action for women, within 30 days of inauguration.

6. The bill also seeks to ensure that minister for the Federal Capital Territory is appointed from one of the six area councils that constitute Abuja, so that that FCT will be represented in the Federal Executive Council.

7. In seeking autonomy for local government areas, it proposes that only democratically elected councils can directly receive allocations from the federation accounts. In effect, the bill intends to abrogate state-LG joint-account system.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: 57 newly elected Lagos chairmen sworn in (photos)

8. Also, the bill proposes that anyone who has been sworn in as president or governor to complete the term of the elected president or governor cannot do more than a single term.

9. The bill also seeks to obligate the president to address a joint session of the National Assembly once every year on the state of the nation, and also seeks to expand the National Council of State to include the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives.

In the circumstance of unelected council, the bill calls for no allocation to such local council.

However, Foster Ogola, a PDP senator from Bayelsa complained saying: This issue that concerns my own people is excluded, while making an argument for true federalism and economic restructuring so that everybody can control his resources.

Also, an APC senator from Kebbi, Adamu Aliero, asked the Senate to step down the item on devolution of power, because it was wrong to give state more powers without greater share of the national revenue.

On 35% affirmative action for women Danjuma Goje said: In some states, you can get many women professors and technocrats, but in some states, you cannot.

He also said that the Senate should allow the lawmakers to make further consultations before voting on the provision for affirmative action for women.

But Binta Masi, of APC Adamawa, countered Mr Goje, urging his colleagues to sustain the item in the alteration bill.

Senator Dino Melaye of APC Kogi, added a proposal that the Independent National Electoral Commission should conduct local government elections.

READ ALSO: Senate finally passes Peace Corps bill for assent by Acting President Osinbajo

How do we speak of local government autonomy, without addressing the foundation? he asked.

The Senate is expected to vote on each of the proposals from Wednesday, July 26, though Kabiru Marafa, APC Zamfara, and Mr Goje demanded further consultations with their constituents before taking decision.

Meanwhile, 'The Not Too Young To Run' movement has commended speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara for reaffirming his commitment to the passage of the Not Too Young to Run bill.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

The Not Too Young To Run bill has been a subject of discuss recently seeks to remove the age limits in the requirement for Running for elective office as stated in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended.

Watch this Legit.ng video as PDP women speak on the state of the nation:

Source: Legit.ng
- Some oil workers were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno state

- They were sent on an oil exploration mission in the state

- Some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force who accompanied the workers were feared dead

- The kidnapped oil workers have however regained their freedom

Seven persons kidnapped by Boko Haram on Tuesday, July 25, have regained their freedom.

NAIJ.com had reported that some oil explorers hired by NNPC were kidnapped by Boko Haram alongside their security aides.

In a report by Premium Times, seven of the abducted persons have been freed after a rescue-mission embarked upon by a joint force of soldiers and local security personnel.

Zanna Modu, the council chairman of Magumeri local government area of Borno state told newsmen that the rescue mission was effected on Wednesday July 26.

According to him, the troops rescued four Civilian-JTF members, two NNPC personnel and a staff of the University of Maiduguri.

Legit.ng had initially reported that many people are feared dead following an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on oil exploration workers around Jibi village situated between Magumeri and Gubio local government areas of Borno state.

Vanguard reports that the incident occurred on Tuesday, July 25 when the oil workers who were working for a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were ambushed by the terrorists.

READ ALSO: Rochas Okorocha gives 2 conditions for contesting for presidency in 2019

It was reported that some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force who accompanied them were also feared dead.

Top politicians in the region on the condition of anonymity confirmed the attack.

Meanwhile, four Boko Haram suspects including a father and son affiliated with the group were arrested by some soldiers in conjunction with vigilantes at Kurnari village and Nayinawa in Yobe state.

The army spokesperson, Brig-Gen Sani Usman, in a statement on Tuesday, July 25, stated that the insurgents were arrested on Monday, July 24, by troops of 233 Battalion, 27 task force brigade of Operation Lafiya Dole with the assistance of vigilantes who were on routine patrol.

General Usman gave the names of the suspects as Bukar Waziri, aged 25 years and Mammade Lawan, aged 20 years, from Buk, while the father and son, Muhammadu Damina, aged 40 years and Isah Muhammadu aged 15 years, were from Talala.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below on an operation against Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
- Nnamdi Kanu's former aide insisted the IPOB leader cannot stop Anambra election

- Ezenwanyi Eberechukwu Anigbogu who is also leader of MOBIN, a group canvassing for political means of agitation, said the use of political power is the only way to achieving Biafra

- She said Biafrans are tired of weaklings as political leaders, hence, Kanu should see participation in the coming Anambra election as a way of electing a governor who is sympathetic to the cause of Biafra

A day after Biafran Reformation Movement criticized Nnamdi Kanu's call for boycott of Anambra election, the director general of the Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria (MOBIN), and former aide to the IPOB leader under Radio Biafra, Ezenwanyi Eberechukwu Anigbogu told newsmen that Kanu has no power to stop elections in southeastern Nigeria.

Her statements came on the heels of a vigorous campaign by Nnamdi Kanu's faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) for a boycott of elections in Anambra state.

Anigbogu who was responding to questions in Awka at the weekend stated that the mission of her organisation, MOBIN was to mobilize Biafrans to vie for political positions, or to vote for those who are vying, in order to sack politicians who do not believe in Biafra.

READ ALSO: Official: 7 governors off to meet President Buhari in London (List)

She said: "Nnamdi Kanu should be aware that Biafrans are hungry for good governance. Biafrans are tired of governors who only shed crocodile tears when Fulani herdsmen kill their families without taking any action. Biafrans are tired of governors who sit and watch while unarmed, protesting Biafrans are being shot on the streets.

"Biafrans are tired of weaklings who pay allegiance to Emirates and sultanates of the north in order to oppress their own people. We are raising an army of Biafra conscious politicians to take over the political space of Biafraland, and sack them all. We are raising politicians who think, talk and act Biafra.

"We have discussed with him (Kanu) to see reasons why Biafra, as a matter of urgency, needs its own sons and daughters in power. We will not allow Fulani military administrators become the administrator in Anambra when their is chaos here.

"We will not allow people who who don't have value for our lives rule over us and kill us. Kanu cannot stop the take over of this land by Umu Biafra. I am Ada(daughter of the land), and I speak the voice of my ancestors. Kanu cannot stand in the way of the same Biafra he and I have worked together to achieve. He must understand this.

Speaking further, she said: "We are sure a core Biafran will win the elections come November 2017, that is the starting point. As soon as we have a pro Biafran or a Biafran activist as the governor of Anambra state, that automatically means that we have gotten one state out of core Igbo states for Biafra. From here, we will begin to spread our tentacle. Come 2019, we hope to have core Biafrans as governors of Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Imo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa and Rivers states.

Anigbogu, who was also the first female leader of the IPOB Worldwide argued that the call for referendum by Kanu was too premature, since the area she describes as Biafraland is very politically weak.

She said: "You see, once you rush into referendum, it is sure to be hijacked by the same elements who describe we Biafran activists as riffraff. You have to get them out of power and replace them with politicians who are Biafra-conscious. Of course you know that referendum is a political process, you cannot just come out and you are singing referendum, without any plans, maybe setting out a process of achieving it. Referendum is politics and politics is referendum.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

"One thing you have to know is that we are Biafrans who are still living in Nigeria. As long as we are living in Nigeria, and we want to go, there are methods to use. One is that we have to prepare for referendum. We have a Biafran national political party, and we will have to register and have our voters card, because it's this voters card that we will use to register during referendum.

"The United Nations will not just come into Biafraland and bring people together. There must be a process. If you look at Scotland, who are also calling for sovereignty from Britain, there is a Scottish national party who involve in, and win political positions. If we have adopted the United Progressive Party(UPP) as the Biafran national party, when the time of referendum comes, it's through that process.

She also wondered why Kanu would expect Nigeria to fix a date for referendum, when it's clear that they don't like to see the emergence of a Biafran state.

"Nigeria cannot even call for referendum because it's not they who want freedom. Biafrans must build their own political space, Biafrans must design a coherent political environment that is acceptable in the comity of nations. It's only when there is such a political climate that the same Biafrans will constitute a political process for referendum, supervised by the United Nations, ECOWAS, AU, and other such organisations.

"Of course, Nigeria will play a role, but they will only be campaigning and lobbying for people not to vote for exit. MOBIN is building that political environment, just like Catalonia and Scotland have done. But Biafrans are more focused, resolute, determined and united in our quest for freedom, so, we have absolute faith that in no distant time, the fruits of today's efforts will bring smiles to the faces of all Biafrans," she added.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported the Biafran Reformation Movement (BRM) had put a clog in the reported progress of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.

The BRM, on Monday July 24, while Kanu was relishing some support in Ebonyi state, said the IPOB leader was carrying out actions dangerous to the interest of the Igbo people. While speaking with journalists in Enugu, the leader of the group, Mr Ndubuisi Igwekani, said Kanus call for the boycott of Anambra election was ill-mannered.

He said Kanu was behaving like an enemy to the Igbo people adding that the forthcoming election in Anambra state must hold.

Watch this video relating to Nnamdi Kanu and his agitation:

Source: Legit.ng
- Boko Haram has continued its campaign of terror in Borno state

- This is despite efforts by the Nigerian military to completely wipe out the insurgents

- The military is now bouncing back gradually and neutralising the insurgents even before they strike

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole fighting insurgency in the north-east have neutralised not less than eight suspected female bombers in the last one week, according to an official.

Lt. Col. Kingsley Samuel, deputy director, Army public relations department, said this in a statement issued to journalists on Tuesday, July 25 in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, NAN reports.

He said the bombers were unleashed by remnants of desperate Boko Haram terrorists trying to cause mayhem in the region.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole in the past few days intensified efforts towards checkmating bombings in Borno in North-east Nigeria.

The troops recorded huge feat in foiling bomb attacks by neutralising not less than 8 female bombers who were unleashed by remnants of desperate Boko Haram terrorists, he said.

Samuel said one of the suspected female bombers was neutralised last Sunday by troops of 251 Battalion of the 7 Division Garrison, while trying to infiltrate Dalori Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.

The female bomber who was sighted by vigilant sentries refused several warnings to halt when challenged.

Subsequently, she was neutralised resulting in the detonation of her vest killing her without any other casualty on the side of troops or civilians.

Unfortunately, the blast from the detonation of the female bombers vest created a hole on the fence of Dalori IDP Camp 2, Samuel said.

The army spokesman said that troops were maintaining strict vigilance in the state to forestall any breach of security.

He said that on July 16, two suspected female bombers trying to infiltrate military locations at Mammanti village at about 10.15 p.m. were neutralised.

One suspected female bomber who was attempting to infiltrate a location between Cimari and No-Mans-Land was promptly neutralised in the early hours of July 17 at about 2a.m.

On July 18 at about 10 p.m. vigilant troops neutralised a suspected bomber who was attempting to infiltrate a location at Dala village along Maiduguri to Damboa, Samuel said.

According to the spokesman, on July 22, troops neutralised three female bombers in Kawuri area in Konduga local government of Borno state.

He attributed the successes recorded to active collaboration with other security agencies.

The Nigerian Air Force has contributed significantly to the war with consistent air fire power. Photo credit: NAF

The successes so far recorded have been possible with the active collaboration of the Nigerian Police Force, Department of State Services, the Civilian Joint Task Force, vigilantes and other security agencies.

The security forces have reinforced security as well as stepped-up aggressive patrols within and outside Maiduguri metropolis; while also reinforcing security at the University of Maiduguri.

We commend the increasing information and tip-off volunteered by well meaning members of the communities that are helping in the capture of these bombers recently.

Apparently, Boko Haram terrorists have been decimated; hence their desperation and resort to the use of innocent young female bombers in perpetuating their criminal acts.

Their ploy is an orchestrated propaganda to create panic and fear in the minds of the innocent citizenry and to lay hold to claims that they are still a potent force to reckon with.

The antics of the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists are now common knowledge to the Nigerian public who are now resolved to end the menace.

Nigerian troops of Operation Lafiya Dole are constantly working in tandem with other security agencies to halt bombing within the region.

The general public is therefore requested to be vigilant and report unknown and suspicious persons in their midst, Samuel concluded. (NAN)

READ ALSO: Boko Haram launch attack against oil workers

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory police command on Sunday, July 23, arrested the second in command of a unit in Boko Haram at Gwako village in Abuja.

The suspect, 20-year-old Seth Yakubu hails from Obi local government area in Nasarawa state.

Legit.ng gathered that he was arrested at about 11.30am after police received a tip-off on his suspicious behaviour from people around him.

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
- The recent increase in Boko Haram activities around the north-eastern part of Nigeria is becoming a cause for concern

- Mohammed Sahnun Idris, the president of the Non-Violent Peace Initiative, linked this increase to politicians

The recent increase in attacks carried out by Boko Haram against security agents and citizens have a link with the coming 2019 presidential election, a civil society group, Non-Violent Peace Initiative (NPI), has revealed.

NPI alleged that some politicians were behind the new rise in the attacks by the terrorist group.

READ ALSO: Osinbajo will be sworn in soon, but give way to Atiku from 2019

The claim is coincided with the abduction of some oil workers in the north-eastern part of country by the group.

Daily Trust quoted the NPI president, Mohammed Sahnun Idris, as saying in Abuja as confirming that the current administration actually defeated Boko Haram.

What is currently happening in relation to the activities of the group is mere politics, he said.

As far as we are concerned, Boko Haram has been defeated by the Buhari government. The recent attacks perpetrated by the sect are mere political game ahead of 2019, he said.

He pleaded with the government and security agencies in the country to tackle the political aspect of the terrorist activities before it degenerates to another humanitarian crisis.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Our organization, in partnership with government, has initiated a peaceful dialogue in the liberated areas of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa with the view to supporting and sustaining the efforts of the government in returning peace and hope to these states he added.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng recently reported that Boko Haram terrorists launched an attack against the Hunters Association killing its commander, Bukar Jimeta, and three of his men in Adamawa state.

The terrorists engaged in a gun fight with the hunters n Dagu, a Borno village along the border with Adamawa throughout the night of Saturday, July 22.

Watch this video of the experience of a Nigerian and his experience in detention:

Source: Legit.ng
- Senate wants Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct local govt elections

- The bill to amend the 1999 Constitution was presented by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu

- The bill also proposes that no local council should receive allocation except it is democratically constituted

The Senate has voted to alter the 1999 Constitution after the constitutional amendment report was submitted to the red Chamber on Tuesday, July 26.

The lawmakers believed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) henceforth should be conducting local government elections of states.

The alteration is part of constitutional reforms by the legislature to make local governments become independent of states, Premiums Times reports.

READ ALSO: Reason for Fayose's absence, 4 other things to know about visit to Buhari

Legit.ng gathered that the proposal became the 33rd item of the report on the bill to amend the 1999 Constitution and which was presented by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Mr Ekweremadus report originally had 32 items, including autonomy for local government areas.

Meanwhile, Dino Melaye, APC-Kogi, said that permitting states to oversee conducts of local government elections make a mess of the call for autonomy.

Mr Melaye support the move that the Independent National Electoral Commission should conduct the local elections.

How do we speak of local government autonomy, without addressing the foundation, He argued while in seeking states to be stripped of the power to constitute state electoral commissions to conduct local government elections.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Ekweremadus report had only included proposal for democratically elected local councils, which can directly receive allocations from the federation accounts.

The bill also proposes that no local council should receive allocation except it is democratically constituted.

It was learnt that the Senate is still in session considering other items in Mr Ekweremadus report on the bill to further amend the Constitution as at the time of filing this report

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the 1999 Nigerian constitution was about to receive a huge face-lift. On Tuesday, July 25, the Senate received a 33-item report on the fourth alteration of the constitution.

The report which calls for huge changes in the constitution was presented by the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.

Watch this Legit.ng video as PDP women speak on the state of the nation:

Source: Legit.ng
- 2 Nigerians living in Korea have been arrested for scamming Koreans

- The suspects reportedly scam people through online romance site

- They reportedly duped both men and women of the sum of 640 million won ($571,000)

Two Nigerians have been arrested in Korea for belonging to a group of online scammers who duped male and female Koreans of over 640 million won which is about N179 million ($571,000).

According to the Daejeon Police Agencys Cyber Bureau, the two men were indicted for running romance scams targeting Koreans via social media.

Legit.ng gathered that they were reportedly part of a large syndicate operating the same scam all over the world.

Their accomplices, based outside of Korea, set up fake Facebook profiles and sent friend requests along with affectionate messages to their targets.

READ ALSO: 7 governors off to meet President Buhari in London (list, photos)

A screenshot of Facebook conversation between one of the scammers and a victim. Photo credit: Koreaherald

Forty-one Korean victims - 28 of whom were men and 13 women - have been identified with each one losing between 2 - 130 million won to the scammers.

Lee Sung-seon, chief of the Daejeon Police Agencys Cyber Bureau said: One should have second thoughts when accepting friend requests from an unknown foreign person on social media.

Putting too much personal information on social media can make you vulnerable to such fraud.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, two Nigerian women identified as Grace Akintaro and Victoria Nwogu, were arrested for fraud.

Akintaro, 24, was said to have posed as a woman named Amanda Jenson, and had connected with several men looking for relationships online.

She succeeded in getting over 100,000 (about N45 million) from those unsuspecting men. Nwogu, 22, was said to have gotten 3,490 (about N1.5 million) from Akintaro for playing a small part in the scams.

Meanwhile, read what Nigerians have to say about online Ponzi scheme called MMM:

Source: Legit.ng
Constant flooding has been a part of every day for most people driving in Lagos and indeed throughout Nigeria during this rainy season.

As most drivers know, driving in areas prone to flooding can be quite dangerous and therefore requires some extra caution to stay safe.

The Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos shared some vital tips via their Facebook page under the title: Safety tips in times of constant rainfall or flooding.

They started the post by reiterating that flooding can happen anywhere in Lagos stat and it is important to be prepared for flooding if you live in a low-lying area near a body of water, such as near a river, stream, or culvert; along a coast; or downstream from a dam or levee.

Cars submerged by rain in Lagos. Source: Facebook, Rapid Response Squad

Below are the safety tips they shared:

1. Turn around dont drown!

2. Avoid walking or driving through flood waters.

3. Do not drive over bridges that are over fast-moving floodwaters. Floodwaters can scour foundation material from around the footings and make the bridge unstable.

READ ALSO: Flood in Nigeria: why did the latest disaster happen?

4. Just 6 inches of moving water can knock you down, and one foot of moving water can sweep your vehicle away.

Flooding on Lagos highways. Source: Facebook, Rapid Response Squad

READ ALSO: Lagos state gives quit notice to owners of properties blocking drainage channels

5. If there is a chance of flash flooding, move immediately to higher ground.

6. If floodwaters rise around your car but the water is not moving, abandon the car and move to higher ground. Do not leave the car and enter moving water.

7. Avoid camping or parking along streams, rivers, and creeks during heavy rainfall. These areas can flood quickly and with little warning.

Meanwhile, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has warned residents of flood prone areas to quickly evacuate to avoid danger as environmental experts predict intense flooding across Nigeria this year.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

Legit.ng gathered that in a statement by its head, Press Unit, Paul Odenyi, emphasised that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) in their rainfall prediction and flood outlook for 2017 had listed local council areas in almost all the states of the federation as likely to be affected by flooding this year.

Watch this video of Lagos residents speaking on flooding in the state:

Source: Legit.ng
Discover how a middle aged woman with arthritis who was unable to stand or turn a key and unlock her own front door beat the joint pain, stiffness, and exhaustion of arthritis without drugs.

Find out how to save yourself from the daily misery, frustration, and money drain of unending joint pain by using natural supplements!

But before we delve deeper into my discoveries let's read what other people have to say...

People write me all the time telling me how grateful they are to finally being able to escape their life-long dependency on arthritis.

TESTIMONIAL from Mrs. Maria in Ondo State.

My name is Maria. I am 68 years old. Since my youth I have been suffering from joint pain, especially knees and back pain. With years the condition has worsened. Almost every fall I had to go to physiotherapy, and then Ibuprofen, Advil and some other painkillers helped me through the raining season. Even with that, the condition has been worsening in the recent years. My spine started to deteriorate. My doctor prescribed Celebrex and Glucosamine. I had great troubles with my liver and stomach after taking Celebrex. I started drinking FOREVER FREEDOM three months ago, with great doubt about improvement.

However, after a short time, I started feeling better and better. I was surprised at the ease with which I could get out of bed, get in and out of car, and a general ease of movement. Incredibly, the movement of my joints, especially knees and fists, has returned. Back pains have disappeared. I started to move normally up and down the stairs. My stomach is ok. I no longer have joint pains, am not tired, my cholesterol has improved as well as my blood pressure, and my general state of health is much better than before Aloe.

TESTIMONIAL 2

When I was told Dad, were going to have to sell your cars and send you abroad for treatments, I was ready to try anything. YES ITS TRUE they were going to sell my house too. It was hard to imagine as I had just completed my house. I was in really bad shape laid up in bed using crutches. I was in terrible health.

My neighbor gave me some FOREVER FREEDOM to drink. It consisted of a pure grade of Aloe Vera with other products used for Arthritis  Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Vitamin C and MSM. These products are needed to maintain healthy joint function. I had tried some of these products before. But not in this liquid formula. After 3 bottles I was out of bed without crutches using a cane. Within a few months I was on my own and shortly afterward went to abuja with family and walked over 20 blocks Like a New Born Baby Now most of my family and many friends use Forever Freedom and its wonderful to hear their good stories.

As you can see, these are regular people, just like you and me, who decided they wanted a life without joint pains with the help of this product Im about showing you how to get.

I Cured My Arthritis You Can Too! After 23-Years of Suffering with Arthritis I Shocked My Doctors (Who Predicted I'd Soon Need A Wheelchair) When I Naturally Cured My Arthritis... Without Expensive Medication Or Surgery! And I Know You Can Do The Same!

Yes, the story of my arthritis cure seems almost impossible. And, incredible as it seems, it's all true.

Dear Friend,

My name is Nkechi Babatunde, I am from Okigwe in IMO State, I got married to my husband who is from Oyo state. It was July, 2015 when Dr. Jack Goldstein said these magic words to me: "Arthritis is the easiest disease to cure". I heard those stunning words in disbelief, because I had spent 23 years suffering with Arthritis.

As he spoke them, I was at the end of my rope. I could not bear to get up in the morning. I could not face another day with the pain that had been wearing on me for so long. - AND THEN I HEARD ABOUT THIS "MIRACLE WORKER"!

It was almost too much for me to believe, and perhaps it is for you, too! You, as I was, probably have been told there is nothing to be done to eliminate the pain. You've probably been told, "Just go home and learn to live with it.

"For 23 years I had been told by as many as 13 Doctors, all recommended by the well-known hospitals, to "Take these drugs for pain and go home and learn to live with it."

AND these heartbreaking words... "There is no cure for Arthritis!" At the young age of 21, I was even told that I would be in a wheel chair in 5 years. And here was this Doctor telling me that... Arthritis Is the Easiest Disease To Cure!!

I heard these words after spending 23 years and thousands of Naira on doctor bills and pain medication that did not work.

I spent many nights crying myself to sleep because of the pain.

Yes, I was skeptical, but I followed his advice.

The result? I found an alternative arthritis treatment and am now pain free!

Ask yourself this question

"DO I WANT TO BE FREE OF PAIN?"

IF YOUR ANSWER IS "YES" - READ ON...

I'm about to let you in on the secret that got me thrown out of an Health conference - For trying to tell the truth that the arthritis sufferers attending DIDN'T NEED the expensive drugs and treatments they were being sold...

Now YOU can get rid of arthritis using a natural treatment that the medical community wants to keep from you - because it's not profitable to them.

I Was Thrown Out Of An Health Conference!

Do you want to know something depressing?

The "Health Industry" -The groups who earn millions of naira with their expensive treatments for arthritis sufferers - DO NOT WANT YOU TO CURE YOUR ARTHRITIS!

To illustrate, let me tell you what happened about 5 months after I was pain free. I heard that there was to be a large conference for the Arthritis Foundation at a nearby hotel in Lagos. I was thrilled! I felt I had explosive news for them. I told my husband, Olushola Babatunde..."I am going there!" I felt sure they would welcome me with open arms.

WAS I EVER WRONG!!!

Olushola let me out at the entrance of the hotel and went to park the car. By the time he got inside, he was greeted by three Security People from the Conference forcing me out..........BODILY! I could not believe it!! But it happened.

I was told by the people in charge that I had no place there - that no one wanted to hear about my 'so-called remedies'! They were very rude and not at all polite about their position. I was devastated, but we left.

I called Dr. Goldstein, and he wasn't even surprised. He said he had a similar response when he tried sharing this alternative with his fellow doctors.

He had used this same solution to cure his colitis. He had been told to have a colostomy or be dead in 6 months. He was a young man and could not stand the thought of this procedure.

He found another way...THIS SOLUTION!! He did everything he was told...he stayed with it. He dedicated himself to this remedy.

About a year after Dr. Goldstein started sharing this remedy he was back to work. He heard about an Annual Health Conference to be held for doctors who treat colitis. He felt he owed it to them to share his findings. When he called and said he wanted to talk about colitis, he asked if he could have a spot on the program, the response was 'yes'. About three minutes into his talk he was asked to leave....... the only reason given....

ARE YOU CRAZY? DO YOU WANT US TO COMMIT FINANCIAL SUICIDE?

Like me, he was heartbroken.

I know most doctors are hard-working and doing their best and in many cases are achieving astonishing things. However, the pressure to use drugs and more drugs is overwhelming.

It is not their fault! It is ours!! We go to them for a magic bullet and expect them to heal us...and without having to make any lifestyle changes. Is this fair to the doctors? Of course not!!

 You must take charge of your body and your destiny.

Here's another example of why you may not have heard of this remedy before....

Non-profit organizations who collect donations given by sincere people and organizations who would like to see an end to misery and heartbreak of arthritis have huge budgets. They pay their top people some of the highest salaries in the industry plus giving out lots of perks. Sorry to say, here is a vested interest in not seeing arthritis disappear - status quo! I went to their experts for help. I got doctors' names and pamphlets and discouragement! And no help!!

Compared to many other countries, Nigerians are in poor health.

WHY???

Because we listen to television and other media telling us what to eat and drink... We sit long hours in our offices and cars at traffic jams with little or no time for exercise and we get sick. People who move to Nigeria from countries who have better health than ours find themselves as sick as we are in about 7 years.

WHY?? Because they take up our habits and our food choices.

And most recently...countries with great health track records are finding their populations suffering from health conditions that they did not have just a decade ago.

WHY?? The Nigerian Diet is moving over to them!

So you see...You need help! This Solution was not invented by me. I have just refined and expanded it and made it into a combo product anyone can use at home.

Some get instant relief. Others have to use the remedies longer. People get varying degrees of relief. I was committed to being pain-free. And I did it!!

Please let me help you as well.

HERE IS THE PRODUCT IM TALKING ABOUT  Forever Freedom

It is not uncommon that pain at joints and bones increase with age. Pain can cause stress and immobility, and affect the quality of life negatively. On a positive note, pain is the body's signal for action. Both arthritis and osteoporosis can cause pain but it is important to note the differences.

Arthritis is the inflammation of joints, and can cause a lot of pain. Its common symptoms, depending on severity are :-

* Joint stiffness, especially within first 30 minutes after waking up, or after a long day.

* Creaking sound

* Pain during movement, and in severe cases, pain at rest.

* Deformity of joints.

Besides relying on medication, arthritis can be better managed with quality nutrition and appropriate types of exercise. Good nutrition provides building block and lubrication for joints.

The Products you are getting for the Treatment is: Forever Freedom, Forever Active HA and Aloe Heat Lotion.

Forever Freedom: Aloe Vera beauty natural health products will help to maintain your joint and arthritis problems. Forever Freedom has combined aloe Vera with substances that are helpful for the maintenance of proper joint function and mobility in a tasty, orange-flavored juice formula.

Forever Active HA: Provides a unique form of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, with moisturizing and lubricating properties, plus Ginger Oil and Turmeric - making it one of the most powerful nutritional joint and skin moisturizing supplements on the market.

With low molecular weight HA, plus the power of Ginger Oil and Turmeric, Forever Active HA is your key to becoming a well-oiled machine again! Lubricates the joints and moisturizes skin, Unique form of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, Contains beneficial ginger and turmeric root for joint support.

Aloe Heat Lotion: When youre looking for soothing relief, reach for Aloe Heat Lotion. MSM stands for Methyl Sulfonyl Methane, an organic sulfur found in almost all living organisms. In fact, sulfur is the third most abundant substance in our body.

Read what people are saying after using this Remedy

Testimony 1:

My daughter purchased your product for me. When I saw the title, I was very skeptical. I was told by my doctor that my condition (knee OA) was age-related, irreversible and I needed joint replacement surgery. Nevertheless, I used your product and started to follow your guidelines because I had nothing to lose. And to my biggest surprise my condition has improved a lot. Last raining season I had serious trouble walking. This time around I was able to travel all the way to Abuja on holiday with my daughter! Thank you for your great supplements. Blessing Sambo from Lagos

Testimony 2:

I'd been having a sharp pain in my knee for months, and it just didn't want to go away. I refused to take any meds because I'd had really bad experiences with them. One of my friends recommended your product to me. What an eye-opener it was! It helped me reverse my pains and I am so happy now the pains have gone. Chike from Anambra

Testimony 3:

I'm a Traffic Warder, so standing for long hours is a big part of my job. Last year I had a bad knee injury, but none of the prescribed medications helped me recover fully. I have to stand 4-5 hours in between breaks every day, as you can see my job's most important assets are my legs... That is why I'm so excited about the effects after using your product! I could feel remarkable improvement only after a month, and now my left knee feels more stable than ever without pain. Samuel Oguntade from Abuja

Testimony 4:

I cannot believe that I now sleep effortlessly without any drugs to help me. I am 52 years and a mother of 3 handsome boys. Just after the last child left for University, I started having sleepless nights due to joint pains. I met with my doctor and I was told it is normal for my age and he gave me some sleeping pills to assist me. I became tired of the sleeping pills and its side effects. But glory be to God for my womens leader who introduced me to this great remedy that has cured my joint pains and sleepless night. Uwaila from Benin city

Testimony 5:

I never expected my legs will improve this fast. I have had this forever freedom for 90 days now. I no longer feel pains in my knee cap and I now walk around and sleep without pains. I must say i am trilled. God bless you. Pastor Richard from PH

Testimony 6:

I can't thank you enough. I have been thinking of buying forever freedom for a few weeks. Thank God i finally did. My waist improved so fast. My wife is so excited and she just got two more for her mother in the village. keep up the good work. Sunday from Anambra

Testimony 7:

I was involved in an accident few months ago that took my driver's life and i had a neck sprain. I was unable to turn my neck for months until my doctor introduced me to Forever Freedom. In less than a month, i was able to turn my neck and sleep well. After 3 months of consistent use, my neck is back and my skin is so fine that one would not even know i was involved in an accident. Hilda Eyo from Uyo

LET ME ASK YOU:

 Do you wake up at night in pain?

 Do you take large amounts of pain killers...getting little or ---no relief and then suffer the side-effects?

 Do your legs swell anytime you sit or drive for a long time?

 Are your hands too stiff to use?

 Do you have trouble getting out of a chair?

 Do you avoid outings due to pain?

 Does your life revolve around your pain?

 Do you find yourself snapping at people?

This Remedy will help to:

Eliminate most, if not all, of your pains! Get you back into having fun... sporting... travelling...driving... ---whatever you used to do and had to give up due to Arthritis.

My hands used to be so swollen and hurt so much that I never held hands with my husband or let anyone touch them if I could help it. Today I get a great big smile on my face every time I see my nice, smooth un-swollen hands with clearly defined knuckles. I can knock on doors again! Who would think that such a simple task could bring so much pleasure?

If you suffer from arthritic pain, you know exactly what I am talking about!!

In the 23 years I suffered the agonies of Arthritis, I estimate I spent from a minimum of 20,000 Naira a year to over 100,000 Naira. Doesn't sound like much money in today's naira standards, but that was prior to 2006 and we know how the cost of medicine has increased while the value of the naira has decreased! YOU can calculate what YOUR current medical expenses relative to arthritis are.

Why not spend that money on something FUN, instead of arthritis medication?

After spending all my money, I STILL had arthritis - and all the side effects from the drugs. I had been prescribed all sorts of drugs for pain: codeine, darvon, sprays, and even 'gold treatments' and more!

One solution offered by a recommended doctor, after he found that one of my legs was shorter than the other, was to put a lift in the left shoe...actually in ALL my left shoes!! Let me tell you, it cost a bundle! I would have been glad to spend the money...if it worked! What do YOU think? That's right.. .it did no good!

Another time I was put in traction with a large weight to stretch my body. I was tied to the bed and could not move for a week!. It did not work! I tell you this...not to make you feel sorry for me...but to demonstrate that I HAD BEEN THROUGH IT ALL... UNTIL I STUMBLED ON THIS NATURAL ARTHRITIS TREATMENT!

How about YOU??

 How much have YOU gone through?

 How much have YOU spent with little or no relief?

You might like to figure how much YOUR arthritis has cost YOU! Don't forget to figure in sick days that you lost at work. Those count, too!

You will save the cost of this remedy over and over again...year in and year out. AND, you will be pain-free!

HERE'S HOW I'M GOING TO HELP YOU GET BETTER

Tens of Thousands Of People Have been healed Naturally With This Product. And I havent heard from a single person who tried this product, and didnt see improvements. Because it just works!

If you're getting excited about the idea of finally living without pain but are worried you won't be able to afford the Solution, let me put your mind at ease right now...

With a 90 Day Money Back Guarantee

Use this product and if, anytime within 90 days, you do not feel this program is for you, we will refund your purchase price, no questions asked.

So please, stop wasting money on expensive drugs and treatments that will not guarantee you any solution and grab your ARTHRITIS WELLNESS PACK without ANY risk whatsoever. Because if youre unhappy with it for any reason, Ill send you a refund, no questions asked!

What are you waiting for?

This is the best possible investment that you can make for your health, your life, and your well-being. Begin healing your joints naturally and permanently NOW.

Now, I know you can't wait to lay your hands on this GUARANTEED solutions...

So how can you get it?

Here is How to Get FOREVER FREEDOM that I and many others used

PLEASE NOTE: This product is not sold in any Store and this product is far different from any other one you might see elsewhere.

Trial  1 Bottle of Forever Freedom (17,000 Naira)

3-in-1 Treatment Pack for Severe Arthritis  (40,000 Naira)

100% safe, no side effect and gives a lasting result.

As you can see above, if we are to calculate the normal cost of the 1 Month Treatment (1 Bottle) the 2 months treatment and the 3 month treatment, the cost is more than the discount price. That's not a big money for those who know what it means to have been going through this.

This definitely gives result!

You will only have to pay;

Trial (1 Bottle) = N17, 000

3-in-1 Treatment Pack (3-in-1) = N40, 000

THE MOST RECOMMENDED TREATMENT IS THE 3-IN-1 TREATMENT PACK, YOULL GET YOUR DESIRED RESULT WITH THAT.

ORDER NOW  BONANZA PRICE

Delivery is FREE & its Payment on Delivery.

Is This Approved And Legal To Use? Absolutely, Aside from the fact that this is approved by NAFDAC itself, it has also been approved by various agencies round the world including the Kosher Seal which is the highest form of approval in the world that any product can have.

REMEMBER, IT TOOK ME 23 YEARS OF SUFFERING TO BRING THIS TO YOU!

Why wait??

You can search high and low -- but I can tell you that you won't find a remedy like this. This is a natural arthritis treatment used by me and thousands of people who had arthritis and got rid of it.

I am not a medical person and I do not give medical advice. I do not recommend you stop taking any drugs. You will do that on the advice of your doctor! As he sees you getting better, he will reduce and then cancel your medication.

I have already made all the mistakes -- tried all the arthritis cure's -- gone to over 13 physicians -- had the gold treatments -- the drugs -- the shoe lifts -- the traction -- the FAILURES!! Even a Gym for 3 months!

Don't waste precious time going the trial and error route that I did! For over 23 years worth when you can get 20 years of experience right here!

You will have everything to help you. The actual price is a very small amount considering you are probably spending much more each month in medication alone...for pain medication that does not get rid of Arthritis and usually doesn't stop the pain -- plus you have to put up with the side effects. The only side effect from using this product are RESULTS!!

So you need to hurry, act fast, place order and get this solutions right now...

No Need To Fear If This is real or Not because...You only pay when the product has been brought to you face to face by our courier company within 2-4 days after placing your order. And secondly, we do not charge you any extra fee for delivery (shipment), we bring it down to your doorsteps anywhere you live in Nigeria at no extra cost  WE CALL These, FREE DELIVERY AND YOU PAY ON DELIVERY.

Here's How to Order your own Forever Freedom at a Discount Price today

How to Place Your Order Now!

Hurry Up & place your order like this

Send a Text Message (SMS) to => 09029086908 <= with the below details:

* Item Name: (3-in-1 Forever Treatment Pack e.g 3-in-1 Forever Treatment Pack)

* Your Full Name

* Your Phone Number (Provide 2 numbers if available)

* Full Address (Home or Office, we deliver to anywhere you want)

Send Text Message (SMS) to this number ==> 09029086908

NOTE: Your address Must Include Local Government and State. Detailed Enough to make it traceable by our courier company that will come around to deliver to you.

DELIVERY TIME:

Once, we received your details to place an order through text message (SMS), and your details are correct, you will receive sms confirmation from us. Your products will then be sent to our courier service partner (the delivery company we use to deliver products). You receive it within 2-4 business days... and pay the dispatch person upon delivery.

For orders in Lagos, expect your item to get to you within 1 - 2 days, once your order has been confirmed and shipped out. While for orders outside Lagos, depending on the state/city, you will receive your items within 2 - 5 working days.

How to Make Payment:

You dont have to pay before you order, just send your details to place an order. Once, the delivery agent calls you to deliver and the product gets to you. You collect the product and give the money to him. He will remit it to the companys account.

Option 2:

If you live in Lagos or nearby, you can also walk into our courier (delivery) department office to pick up the products. You will meet our team ready to give you these products at same price...That is, you Pay at our office, and get it instantly.

Lagos Adress: Suit 25B Aoose Shopping Complex Alakija by Festac 3rd gate, Lagos.

We do not have any office except the Lagos address but if you live anywhere in Nigeria, JUST send your details to place an order, we will still deliver the product to you.

What are you waiting for?

Hurry Up & place your order like this

Send a Text Message (SMS) to => 09029086908 <= with the below details:

* Item Name: (3-in-1 Forever Treatment Pack e.g 3-in-1 Forever Treatment Pack)

* Your Full Name

* Your Phone Number (Provide 2 numbers if available)

* Full Address (Home or Office, we deliver to anywhere you want)

Send Text Message (SMS) to this number ==> 09029086908

[Sponsored]

Source: Legit.ng
- 82 senators have voted to allow independent candidates contest in elections in the country

- 87 senators also voted to change the name of the Nigeria Police Force to become Nigerian Police

- The alterations by the National Assembly must to be signed into law by the Nigerian president before they become effective

The Nigerian Senate has voted to alter the constitution to allow independent candidates contest elections in the country and to change the name of the Nigeria Police Force.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Senate approves independent candidacy for elections

As an independent candidate, an individual will be able to contest in an election without belonging to any political party.

In supporting the bill on independent candidacy during plenary on Wednesday, July 26, 82 senators voted YES to support the bill while 14 senators voted NO and 5 abstained.

The Senate has also voted to support the bill to change the name of the Nigeria Police Force to become Nigerian Police.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

In the vote on the name change, 87 senators voted for YES while 2 voted for NO with 1 abstaining.

The following amendments were made during the debate on report for constitution review which had been earlier adopted adopted by the joint session of the committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

But the alterations by the National Assembly have to be signed into law by the Nigerian president before they become effective.

Legit.ng recalls that Senate president, Bukola Saraski, had said that the Senate will commence the debate on report for constitution review on Tuesday July 25.

The Senate president who made the statement on Monday July 24, in a tweet added that the debate will be streamed live on all the social media platforms of the Senate

In the video below, Legit.ng TV asked some Nigerians if they support calls for the scrapping of the Senate.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Senate has passed the bill which seeks age reduction for elective offices in Nigeria

- The Nigerian Senate has reduced the minimum age for the office of president to 35

- The new bill has also reduced the age for the office of governor or senators to 30

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, July 26, passed a bill which proposes 35-years as the minimum age for the office of the president.

Now Nigerian youths can contest for the post of governor or senators at the age of 30, away from the initial 40 and 35 years limit mandated by the 1999 constitution.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Senate amends Nigeria constitution (Checkout details)

Legit.ng gathered that the bill goes on to stipulate that 25-year-olds can now legislate in the national and state assemblies in Nigeria.

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that on Tuesday, July 25, the Senate received a 33-item report on the fourth alteration of the constitution.

The report which calls for huge changes in the constitution was presented by the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.

One major change being proposed is the alteration bill which seems to be in tandem with the not too young to run movement in Nigeria, seeking improved access for the Nigerian youth in government.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

NOTE: For the bill to take effect, it needs the endorsement of 24 state assemblies and presidential assent. Senate's approval is just one of the steps required to amend the constitution.

Watch this Legit.ng video as PDP women speak on the state of the nation:

Source: Legit.ng
- One of the newly promoted army officers, Lieutenant Medawa, has been killed by Boko Haram in Sambisa forest

- The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, had on Monday July 24 announced the promotion of 468 lieutenants to captain

- Nine other army officers were also killed in the battle with Boko Haram insurgents

A Nigerian Army Lieutenant, Medawa who would have become Captain on Thursday July 27, has been killed in Sambisa forest in the clearance operation declared days ago by the Chief of Army Staff, Yusuf Buratai.

Sahara Reporters reports that General Buratai gave his men 40 days to capture Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, dead or alive, a task that has not been accomplished in about seven years.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: President Buhari receives governors in London (photos)

Legit.ng gathered that the late Lt. Medawa, who was due to be decorated as Captain on Thursday July 27, served at the Brigade of Guards in Abuja before his posting to the war theater in Borno.

A newly promoted army officer, Lieutenant, Medawa killed by Boko Haram in Sambisa forest. Credit: Sahara Reporter

He was leading troops of the Nigerian Army 5 Brigade when his unit came under heavy artillery fire from the terrorists.

According to a military source, Medawa and nine other soldiers were killed in the ensuing battle, while several others are still missing.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, announced the promotion of a total of 468 lieutenants to captain.

Watch this Legit.ng video as the Nigerian Air Force recently decorated some officers:

Source: Legit.ng
- President Muhammadu Buhari has met with some selected Nigerian governors in London

- Buhari had on Sunday July 23 met with some leaders of APC

- The governors were led by the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum Governor AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara

Seven governors who left Nigeria on Tuesday, July 25 have met with President Muhammadu Buhari who was visibly in high spirit as he received them on Wednesday, July 26.

The governors were selected to represent the six geo-political zones in the country and were led by the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Nigerian Senate amends Nigeria constitution (Checkout details)

There has been concern about the health status of the president since he left the country more than 60 days for medical treatment in the UK.

President Buhari all smiles as he receives governors in London Credit: Instagram, Bayo Omoboriowo, Nigeria Presidency

Some critics had described the presidents picture taken with leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as fake and this new visit from governors selected from the ruling party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party may help confirm his true status.

President Buhari shaking hands with Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo Credit: Instagram, Bayo Omoboriowo Nigeria Presidency

The other governors present are:

1. Dave Umahi (Ebonyi)

2. Umar Ganduje (Kano)

3. Kashim Shettima (Borno)

4. Samuel Ortom (Benue)

President Buhari and wife Aisha in London. Photo: Bayo Omoboriowo Nigeria Presidency

5. Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom)

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

6. Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo)

Legit.ng had reported that Garba Shehu was asked why Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti was not selected as one of the governors to meet with the president and he revealed that the selection was done by the NGF and not the federal government.

The seven governors hold a meeting with President Buhari in London Credit: Instagram, Bayo Omoboriowo, Nigeria Presidency

In the video below, Legit.ng TV asked some Nigerians what they have to say about President Buharis absence away from the country for so long:

Source: Legit.ng
Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 takes Marvel's secret history to a whole new level with a real world historical figure

If you know who Gavrilo Princip is, prepare to be shocked
Russia is building two new icebreakers designed patrol the Arctic Ocean, capable of smashing through five feet of sea ice and Russia will add 30 to 200 kilowatt high-powered lasers. Russia began construction of two Project 23550, the Ivan Papanin-class icebreakers.

The two ships will displace about 8,500 tons, about the size of modern destroyers, but much of that weight is due to the reinforced hull needed by icebreakers to plow through thick sea ice. Dimensionally, the Papanin class will be only about the size of a frigate. The ships will carry one AK-176MA 3-inch multipurpose deck gun (76.2-millimeter), a Kamov Ka-27 search and rescue helicopter, and eight Kalibr anti-ship missiles or longer-range cruise missile variants. The ships will be powered by diesel electric engines mounted in azipods generating a combined horsepower of 9,160 horsepower, and will carry bow thrusters for precise maneuvering.

Later this year Russian engineers will test a 30-kilowatt laser on the icebreaker Dikson, with an eye toward eventually fielding a 200-kilowatt seagoing laser.

The Project 23550 ship, laid down at the St. Petersburg Admiralty Shipyards in April, is expected to be delivered to the Navy by 2020. A second Ivan Papanin-class vessel is expected to be laid down in late 2017 or early 2018. Russia is also building several other similar Arktika-class ice breakers.

Russia is putting a lot more emphasis and building more ships able to traverse and stake claims in the arctic. Canada and The USA have minimal arctic ice capable ships.
The first systematic review and meta-analysis of trends in sperm count reports a significant decline in sperm concentration and total sperm count among men from Western countries. The study is published today in Human Reproduction Update, the leading journal in the fields of Reproductive Biology and Obstetrics and Gynecology.

By screening 7,500 studies and conducting a meta-regression analysis on 185 studies between 1973 and 2011, the researchers found a 52.4 percent decline in sperm concentration, and a 59.3 percent decline in total sperm count, among men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand who were not selected based on their fertility status. In contrast, no significant decline was seen in South America, Asia and Africa, where far fewer studies have been conducted.

The study also indicates the rate of decline among Western men is not decreasing: the slope was steep and significant even when analysis was restricted to studies with sample collection between 1996 and 2011.

No significant decline has been seen in South America, Asia and Africa, but the researchers point out that far fewer studies have been conducted on these continents. However, Dr Levine is concerned that eventually sperm counts could fall in these places too.

Given the importance of sperm counts for male fertility and human health, this study is an urgent wake-up call for researchers and health authorities around the world to investigate the causes of the sharp ongoing drop in sperm count, with the goal of prevention, said Dr. Hagai Levine, the lead author and Head of the Environmental Health Track at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, in the Hebrew University of Jerusalems Faculty of Medicine.

There is no clear evidence for the reason for this apparent decrease. But it has been linked with exposure to chemicals used in pesticides and plastics, obesity, smoking, stress, diet, and even watching too much TV.

Dr Levine says that there is an urgent need to find out why sperm counts are decreasing and to find ways of reversing the trend.

We must take action  for example, better regulation of man-made chemicals  and we must continue our efforts on tackling smoking and obesity.

Defining a persons sperm count is a complex process. There are a number of measurements that are considered in semen analysis. First, a physician will look at the concentration  how many sperm there are per cc or milliliter of semen (the fluid). Next, we need to know how many cc of semen are present. So a count of 40 million sperm per cc with only 1cc of fluid may not be as good as a count with 18 million and 4cc. We like to see more than 20 million sperm per cc and 2-5cc of semen. Another measurement to consider is what percentage of the sperm is moving forward progressively; 50 percent motility is considered normal. The next factor is sperm morphology which determines what percentage of sperm look normal. When you assess the fertilizing potential of a given specimen, you must consider all these factors. Thus, a slight abnormality in sperm count may be compensated for by better motility or an increase in volume.
You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person.



Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else.
By Ssebuliba Samuel:

The inspector general of police has with immediate effected suspend four senior officers, who were implicated in enforcing a false court order in the eviction of traders in Jinja in the year 2011.

Yesterday the inspector general of police Gen Kale Kayihura appeared before the land commission of inquiry where he admitted that his officers under the command of the then DPC Apollo Kateba enforced an illegal eviction that saw destruction of several shops along Aldina Visram road in.

Now upon commencement of the investigation, the inspector general has suspended these officers including Apollo Kateba who is the current Regional police commander Rwenzori,Twinomujuni Julius from directorate of human rights , Nyabongo Edgar the current regional police commander Kidepo, and Mugizi alex who is now the district police commander Kumi.

According to the suspension letter undersigned by the inspector general of police gen kale kayihura, this has been done to enable the commission do its investigations with a lot of ease.
By Samuel Ssebuliba:

Police in the eastern border towns is set to start profiling Kenyan nationals who are entering Uganda for fear of possible election violence as the country prepares for the August general elections.

In 2007 Kenya experienced unprecedented post- election violence in which hundreds lost their lives, while thousands were forced to seek refuge in Uganda.

Speaking to KFM, Soweli Kamulya the Bukedi regional police spokesperson says many Kenyans are already entering Uganda through the porous borders and some have started settling in the neighboring towns like Tororo, Jinja and Mbale.

He says profiling them will help government establish the actual number for proper planning.
From Counterpunch

The $600 billion annual cost of the US military budget eats up 54% of all federal discretionary funds. It's no wonder we don't have money to address the crisis of global warming, build effective public transportation systems, institute a Medicare-for-All health system, or provide the free college education that all our youth deserve.

You would think it would be easy to form a united front with activists from different movements who want to redirect our tax dollars. Students ghting for free education should understand that stopping just one weapons system, the expensive and unnecessary Lockheed Martin F-35 ghter jets, would fund the education of all college students for the next two decades. Nurses ghting for universal health care should understand that if we cut the bloated military budget, we'd have plenty of money for a national healthcare system like the Europeans have. Environmentalists paddling their kayaks to block oil-digging ships should understand that if we dramatically cut our military spending, we'd have hundreds of billions of dollars to propel us into the era of green, sustainable energy. Unions should recognize that the military is one of the worst creators of jobs in relation to money spent.

It was easier to connect with other movements when the peace movement was strong while trying to stop George W. Bush's Iraq war. Students came to anti-war rallies calling for "Books not Bombs," nurses called for "Healthcare not Warfare," union leaders formed U.S. Labor Against the War. Globally, we universalized our protests, organizing a global day of action on February 15, 2003, a day that made the Guinness World Records as the largest demonstration in world history. So strong was our movement that The New York Times called global public opinion the "second superpower."

When Barack Obama was elected, the rst casualty of his Presidency was the anti-war movement. People dropped out of the movement for a variety of reasons, but mainly because many people thought that Obama would end US military adventurism.

President Obama did achieve a few critical wins for diplomacy, but he invaded Libya, and he also championed a dangerous, new kind of remote controlled killing: drone warfare.

Drones were designed as a way to kill enemies with great precision without putting American troops at risk. But they kill many innocent people -- and they stir up anti-American sentiment that fuels an endless cycle of violence.

Drones allowed the US military and CIA to intervene militarily with ease, even in places where we were not at war. These institutions operated secretly, without Congressional approval, and they lied to the public about the accuracy and effectiveness of drone strikes. We were appalled when a 2012 poll revealed that a whopping 83% of Americans supported the killing of "terrorist suspects" with drones. How could so many Americans think we had the right to murder people thousands of miles away who were never charged, tried, or convicted of anything? Our rst reaction was, "How are we going to change public opinion so that we can change policy?" We never thought we could build a mass movement against drone warfare as we had built a movement against the Iraq war, but we did think that a small group of committed activists could help move public opinion and then inuence government policy.

CODEPINK, along with groups like Veterans for Peace and Voices for Creative Nonviolence, set about educating the public on the horrors of drone warfare. We organized two Global Drone Summits in Washington DC; we wrote books, articles, and op eds; we traveled around the country giving talks at universities, churches, and community centers. We protested at dozens of private and government entities connected with killer drones: the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, Congress, factories and homes of drone manufacturers. We engaged the public by getting tens of thousands of people to sign petitions, and call the President and their Congressional representatives. We encouraged drone pilots to quit and become whistleblowers, and amplied the voices of those who did.

Civil disobedience was a key component of our campaign. We disrupted Congressional testimonies by drone czar John Brennan and Secretary of State John Kerry. We organized die-ins at the CIA. The most creative resistance happened at US military bases where drones were piloted. Hundreds of people were arrested at the bases. Some went to jail for just a day and others for as long as six months.

One way this campaign universalized resistance was by connecting with the families of drone victims. We took delegations to Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In Yemen, among the family members we met was Mohammed Al-Qawli, whose innocent brother had been killed by a drone while driving his taxi, leaving behind a young wife and three children. Visibly angry, Al-Qawli told us the Americans refused even to explain why his brother was killed. "In our culture when someone commits a crime or a terrible mistake, they have to acknowledge what they did, apologize, and compensate the family," he said. "Could it be that my tribal culture is more evolved when it comes to justice than the USA?"

In Pakistan, we learned that drones had attacked weddings, funerals, markets, and schools, terrorizing entire communities. "To Americans, we are disposable people; our lives are worth nothing," an irate young man told us.

We were so moved by hearing directly from these families that we brought some of them to the United States to hold press conferences and speak before Congress. In 2013, the Rehman family -- a father with his two children -- traveled from the Pakistani tribal territory to the U.S. Capitol to tell the heart wrenching story of the death of their 67-year-old grandmother. Listening to 9-year-old Nabila relate how her grandmother was blown to bits while picking okra softened the hearts of even the most hardened DC politicos. From the Congressmen to the translator to the media, tears owed, and dozens of sympathetic stories appeared in the media.

With the globalization of the sale of drones, we also connected with groups in Europe, holding an international gathering that led to the formation of a European network to stop proliferation in their countries.

Our education campaigns, actions, and protests, while never constituting a mass movement and not successful in ending drone warfare, have had a major impact on both public opinion and policy. Public opinion in favor of drone warfare shifted from 83% in 2012 to 60% by 2014. President Obama was pressured to acknowledge and discuss the US drone program, promising that his Administration would reduce drone strikes and minimize civilian casualties. In Pakistan, strikes fell dramatically from a high of 128 in 2010 to 13 strikes in 2015.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
From Paul Craig Roberts Website

America has been a discouraging landscape ever since the neoconservatives took over US foreign policy during the Clinton regime and started the two decades of war crimes that define 21st century America, and ever since US corporations betrayed the US workforce by moving American jobs to Asia.

The outlook became darker when the Obama regime resurrected the Russian Threat and elevated the prospect of military conflict between the nuclear powers.

As Europe is caught in the middle, in normal circumstances European countries would have insisted that Washington cease the gratuitous provocations of Russia. But normal circumstances have not existed. Since the end of WW2, European countries have been vassals without independent economic and foreign policies.

Europe hosts US military bases that threaten Russia. Europe has backed Washington's wars of aggression against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Washington's air attacks on provinces of Pakistan, and Washington's use of Saudi Arabia to fight its proxy war against Yemen.

Europe has backed Washington's gratuitous economic sanctions against Iran and Russia, sanctions that have cost Europe much and Washington little.

Accustomed to having its way with Europe, Washington commits Europe without even consulting the vassal governments. Now it seems Washington's extraordinary arrogance and hubris has resulted in overreach. Confronted with a new round of sanctions against Russia, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission told Washington that the time has passed when Washington can put its interests first and Europe's last.

The new sanctions have devastating economic and political consequences for Europe. Juncker said that if Europe's "concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days."

The German and French foreign ministries added their support to Juncker. The German foreign ministry said: "It is not in the Americans' right to judge or stipulate which way European companies may engage in cooperation with any third parties -- particularly, with Russian energy companies."

The French foreign ministry said: the sanctions "contradict international law" due to their "extra-territorial reach."

Europe views the sanctions as a tool of US industrial policy that elevates US business interests over Europe's business interests.

Let's hope that Washington's arrogance will not permit Washington to back down and that Europe will give Washington the finger and disengage from the American Empire. Without Europe to host its military bases and to parrot its propaganda, Washington's ability to threaten Russia would significantly decline. Indeed, a continuation of the hostile threatening attitude toward Russia would leave Washington isolated in the world. No country wants the risk of experiencing nuclear war merely for the sake of Washington's unilateralism.
From Unz Review

Made in Israel?

The horrific execution by police of an Australian woman in her pajamas that took place last week in Minneapolis has again produced a torrent of criticism over killings initiated by law enforcement in situations in which the officers are in no way threatened. America has always been a violent place relative to much of the rest of the world, but even so there has been a noticeable shift in how, since the trauma of 9/11, some policemen believe themselves to be superior to and detached from the society they are supposed to be protecting.

And the public is reciprocating, seeing the police frequently as a force that is no longer there to serve the people and instead something that should be feared. Even in the upper middle class predominantly white county that I live in, residents not infrequently discuss the increasingly visible and aggressive police presence. It is widely believed that arguing with cops or showing even the slightest attitude in contacts with them is done at one's peril.

Even in low crime parts of the country, the police are able to deploy fully armed and equipped swat teams that are more military than civilian in their threatening demeanor as well in the body armor and weapons they carry. Many cities and counties now have surplus military armored vans for crowd control even if they have no crowds. Armed drones are increasingly becoming part of the law enforcement arsenal and it sometimes appears as if the police are copying the military as a model of "how to do it."

The various levels of government that make up the United States seem to be preparing for some kind of insurrection, which may indeed be the case somewhere down the road if the frustrations of the public are not somehow dealt with. But there is another factor that has, in my opinion, become a key element in the militarization of the police in the United States. That would be the role of the security organs of the state of Israel in training American cops, a lucrative business that has developed since 9/11 and which inter alia gives the "students" a whole different perspective on the connection of the police with those who are being policed, making the relationship much more one of an occupier and the occupied.

The engagement of American police forces with Israeli security services began modestly enough in the wake of 9/11. The panic response in the United States to a major terrorist act led to a search for resources to confront what was perceived as a new type of threat that normal law-and-order training did not address.

Israel, which, in its current occupation of much of Palestine and the Golan Heights as well as former stints in Gaza, southern Lebanon and Sinai, admittedly has considerable experience in dealing with the resistance to its expansion manifested as what it describes as terrorism. Jewish organizations in the United States dedicated to providing cover for Israeli's bad behavior, saw an opportunity to get their hooks into a sizable and respected community within the U.S. that was ripe for conversion to the Israeli point of view, so they began funding "exchanges."

Since 2002 there have been hundreds of all-expenses-paid trips including officers from every major American city as well as state and local police departments. Some have been sponsored by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has also been directly funding trips since 2008, explaining that "As a people living under constant threat of attack, the Israelis are leading experts in security enforcement and response strategies." The intent? To "learn" and "draw from the latest developments" so the American cops can "bring these methods back home to implement in their communities."

AIPAC has several pages in its website dedicated to security cooperation between the two countries. It asks "Did you know? In May 2010, 50 retired Generals and Admirals wrote to President Obama, highlighting the value of U.S. Israeli cooperation." It goes on to cite an Alabama sheriff who enthuses that "There is no other country [Israel] that shares the same values and overarching goal to allow others to live in peace." Regarding airport security, it also quotes a U.S. "security expert" who states "We should move even closer to an Israeli model where there's more engagement with passengers...We've just started to do that at TSA..." Indeed. That's called profiling and pre-boarding interrogations.

Even the federal government has gotten onto the Israel bandwagon, perhaps not a surprise given the number of Israel Firsters in Congress. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security established a special Office of International Affairs to "institutionalize the relationship between Israeli and American security officials." The New York City Police Department has a branch in Israel and carries out frequent exchanges.

It should be noted from the git-go that Israel is no more knowledgeable about possible responses to acts of terror than is anyone else. The techniques employed to create physical barriers, to develop sources for intelligence gathering, and to train in tactical responses are quite familiar to anyone who has studied modern-style terrorism since it emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s.

Most countries that have a high or even moderate risk level deriving from terrorists, either domestic or foreign, have recruited and trained special police and paramilitary forces that are familiar with the basic techniques and are quite capable of responding. Ironically, even though the United States government and local police forces have tended to look at the "real pro" Israelis for guidance, state of the art resources for learning about how to deal with terror are available right here at home. JSOC has teams that are every bit as effective -- and lethal -- as anything the Israelis can muster and the CIA and FBI together know far more about terrorists and how they behave than do the ideologically driven Mossad and Shin Beth.

The American policemen who go on the "exchanges" are probably only dimly aware that what they are being shown is part of Israel's military justice system, which has nothing to do with Israeli criminals, but instead is designed to keep the lid on the millions of Palestinians who live in what has become a virtual outdoor prison camp. It is an apartheid police state that uses deadly force as a form of crowd control. And the Palestinian former residents of the lands Israel now holds are the "terrorists" that Israel is protecting itself against.

You can bet that the American guests for their part clearly do not realize that they are being trained as prison guards and you also can be sure that they never catch so much as a glimpse of the 300 child prisoners that Israel continues to hold without charges.

Israel's reputation for "dealing with" terrorism has in any event been glamorized by the Israel-friendly media and entertainment industry while also being promoted by Jewish organizations. It has meant in practical terms that many of the contract security firms operating at airports in the United States and Europe are Israeli. They have also infiltrated state Homeland Security agencies and corporate security in the U.S. Many of the Israeli companies with offices in the United States work closely with Mossad and might reasonably be considered arms of the Israeli government.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
From Other Words

Who needs roads when you've got a private jet?



(Image by (Photo: Flickr/DonkeyHotey)) Details DMCA



Charles and David Koch -- the billionaire oil men who've financed a vast network of right-wing advocacy groups -- have stayed out of the national limelight recently. But they're still trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy.

In fact, in late June, they held a meeting of the Koch Boys Billionaires Club, gathering about 400 other uber-wealthy rascals to plot some political high jinks for next year's elections.

The club meets every year at some luxury hideaway, and its attendees have to pay $100,000 each just to get in. But participants are also expected to give generously to the brothers' goal of spending $400 million to buy a slew of congress critters, governors, and others in 2018.

This year, the group gathered in Colorado Springs at the ultra-lux Broadmoor Hotel and Resort, owned by the brothers' billionaire pal and right-wing co-conspirator, Philip Anschutz.

Among the recent political triumphs that these elites celebrated in the Broadmoor's posh ballroom was the defeat this year of a Colorado tax hike to fix the state's crumbling roads.

After all, who needs adequate roads, when you can arrive in private jets?

This attitude of the Kochs' privileged cohorts explains why the public is shut out of these candid sessions. A staffer for the Koch confab hailed such no-tax, no-roads policies as a "renaissance of freedom." For the privileged, that is -- the freedom to prosper at the expense of everyone else.

Indeed, their agenda includes killing such working class needs as the minimum wage and Social Security, and privatizing everything from health care to public education. This self-absorbed cabal of spoiled plutocratic brats intends to abandon our nation's core democratic principle of "We're all in this together."

If they kill that uniting concept, they kill America itself.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey has signed a deal to buy Russian S-400 missiles. He made the announcement while addressing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers in parliament.

He said the era of a submissive Turkey bowing to every Western demand is over. "The West wants Turkey to do, without question, whatever they want ... I am sorry to say that Turkey no longer exists," Erdogan said.

There is no harm in Turkey's missile defense system purchase from Russia, Turkish President said in response to U.S. top general's concerns over the issue, the Turkish daily Hurriat reported Tuesday.

"Why will it cause tension? A country should be in search for the ideal ways for its own security," he said.

Greece is a NATO member and has been using Russian-made S-300 systems for years, Erdogan said.

"We have now taken steps with Russia about this issue. Deals have been inked. In God's will, we will see S-400 missiles in our country and precede the process with joint production," he said.

Turkey was not able to cooperate with the U.S. over the missile system, the president noted, adding that this was why Turkey was seeking alternatives.

Erdogan's remarks came days after U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, said that Turkey and Russia could not agree on the procurement of the missile defense system.

"It would be a concern, were they to do that, but they have not done that," Dunford reportedly said at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado on July 23, when asked about media reports on Turkey purchasing the Russian system.

Turkey will cooperate with France and Italy on developing a national missile defense system project, Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isk said on July 4, when he was the defense minister, adding that the focus was on the "development of systems" rather than purchasing.



However, the country will meet its immediate demands by buying S-400 systems from Russia, he said, adding that "All technical work is completed."

The S-400 is an anti-aircraft and anti-missile system capable of intercepting all types of modern air weaponry, including fifth-generation warplanes, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles at a maximum range of nearly 250 miles, according to Sputnik news agency. The Russians have an S-400 missile system operating in Syria after Turkey shot down one of its military aircraft in 2015.

Tension with US & EU

Turkey has been in NATO since the early years of the Cold War, playing a key role as a frontline state bordering the Soviet Union. But ties with fellow members have been strained in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursuing a more assertive and independent foreign policy as conflict engulfed neighboring Iraq and Syria, Bloomberg said adding:

"Tensions with Washington mounted over U.S. support for Kurdish militants in Syria that Turkey considers terrorists, and the relationship with the European Union soured as the bloc pushed back against what it sees as Turkey's increasingly autocratic turn. Last month, Germany decided to withdraw from the main NATO base in Turkey, Incirlik, after Turkey refused to allow German lawmakers to visit troops there....

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
From Consortium News

French President Emmanuel Macron has positioned himself as a possible go-between in facilitating a reduction of tensions between the U.S. and Russia, a move that makes sense for France but may anger Official Washington's hawks who want to escalate the New Cold War.

I interviewed Paris-based journalist and historian Diana Johnstone about Trump's recent visit to Paris. Johnstone is the author of From Mad to Madness: Inside the Pentagon's Nuclear War Planning Machine, recounting the experiences of her father, Paul Johnstone, as a senior analyst in the Pentagon's Strategic Weapons Evaluation Group and a co-author of the Pentagon Papers. I spoke to her by telephone in France on July 19.

Dennis Bernstein: Diana, please give us your response to the recent Trump visit to Paris to meet with Emmanuel Macron.

Diana Johnstone: Well, first of all, it is clear that Emmanuel Macron has seen an advantage in being the only friend of the friendless Trump. It is clear that this can strengthen Macron's hand in dealing with Germany, the main part of his mandate being to influence Germany in changing EU policy.

Also, Macron is in a position to be an intermediary in this rapprochement between Trump and Putin, which of course the War Party in Washington is doing everything to obstruct. So Macron has situated himself in an interesting position.

I think that any of the contenders in the recent French election would have followed the same path. It was absolutely in the cards for France to change its foreign policy. The intellectuals in the government -- the diplomats and so on -- realize that this Syria policy isn't working and, at the same time, that sanctions against Russia are very harmful to the French and European economies, while they benefit the US. So what Macron is doing is just what the intellectual community was going to do, regardless of which candidate won the election.

DB: Give us your analysis of this Russia-gate madness.

DJ: Well, I am not a psychiatrist, but seen from over here in Europe, it's unbelievable. I just saw Tucker Carlson's interview with Max Boot on Fox News. This raving maniac on foreign affairs is on the Council of Foreign Relations, when he ought to be undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Of course, the Clinton machine has taken over the Democratic Party and made it into the War Party. What in the world is wrong with people talking to members of another country? The whole idea that it is something traitorous to talk to Russians is completely insane. At every time in history, even when governments were actually at war with each other, they had some sort of contact, just for simple intelligence reasons.

To try to criminalize and ban any contact at a more or less official level with the Russians goes beyond what is diplomatic practice even in war time. I think that the real problem in Washington is that there is a real War Party who welcome a nuclear war with Russia if that is what it takes to prevent them from becoming as strong as we are.

DB: The big story at the G-20 was that Trump spoke to Putin and therefore should be tried for treason, along with his whole family.



President Trump meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017.

(Image by (Screenshot from Whitehouse.gov)) Details DMCA



DJ: I am sure that the Russians draw the conclusion that we are preparing for war. How else can they take this? We are doing everything to convince the Russians that we want war with them no matter what. Of course, this means they are going to start a military build-up in order to be able to strike back. Putin has consistently made friendly moves to the United States and they are simply dismissed. The only possible explanation is that we are bent on war.

Unfortunately, in 2013, Obama painted himself into a corner with his "red line" rhetoric, requiring that the US strike if it detects any use of chemical weapons in Syria. Of course, since then, it has been well established by very serious investigators, including Seymour Hersh, that this use of chemical weapons was a false flag.

Next Page 1 | 2 | 3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Turkey's Erdogan restarted the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish people led by PKK in July 2015 following two-year-long peace negotiations. The negotiations in time became apparent that it was tactical negotiations by President Erdogan.

President Erdogan of Turkey is not seeking peace in Turkey and the Middle East based on his actions since 2011. He began peace negotiations in late 2012 but failed to progress in light of the growing tensions on the border with Syria in late 2014 because Turkish President was helping ISIS Islamic terrorist for Kurdish people elimination in Syria while doing peace negotiations with PKK leadership. President Erdogan of Turkey prevented Kurds of Turkey from sending support to their brothers and sisters of Kurds who were fighting against ISIS during the Siege of Kobani.

On 24 July 2015, Turkey announced an official military operation against PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava respectively after a few incidents in Turkey, staged by the Islamist terrorist in Turkey. It was clear that President Erdogan never wanted to solve the conflict between Turks and Kurds in Turkey peacefully. He was working to use Kurds of Barzani against Kurds of Turkey and Syria while helping Islamic Arab terrorist forces of ISIS to kill a large number of Kurds in Syria.

PKK forces are attacking Turkish troops from Iran-Iraq border to Black Sea region. Turkish army lost more than 6000 men in last two years according to the PKK reports. Turkish military forces are hopeless in the Zagros Mountain range; they are attacking unarmed civilian Kurds in the cities because of their losses in the Mountains.

President Erdogan is waging war against the entire Kurdish people (more than 25 million Kurds within Turkey) and waging war against Turkish followers of Islamic leader Fethullah Gulen who used to be his Islamist ally in Turkey.

Turkey's economy is surviving the war because of cheap oil supplied by Massoud Barzani of Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG). PKK forces can stop Massoud Barzani family partnership with Erdogan family in the oil business. But PKK forces are avoiding stopping oil flow because of unknown reasons. Only PKK leadership can explain that reason. In the past oil companies used to pay forces who can halt the flow of oil.

The economic collapse of Turkey can force President Erdogan to a true peace negotiation table. Why is PKK not attacking oil flow of Barzani and Talabani mafia families of KRG region of Iraq? PKK are prolonging the war by allowing Barzani and Talabani mafia families to deal with Turkey and Iran.

Kurdish people are suffering in Kurdistan (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria). PKK will lose Kurdish people support if they continue to deal with Barzani and Talabani mafia families.

References

Turkey-PKK conflict: UN report tells of '2,000 dead' since truce collapse

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39228548

Is this the list of weapons distributed to YPG in Syria?

https://www.dailysabah.com/syrian-crisis/2017/07/24/is-this-the-list-of-weapons-distributed-to-ypg-in-syria

Calakiya Xapuske a Giredayi Semzinan - 14 Heziran 2017

https://www.gerillatv.org/watch.php?vid=45888ba39

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
By Ruth Anderah:

A Student drags to court her former School, Namirembe Hillside High School seeking, for a recovery of 100 million shillings in damages over negligence that cost her, her virginity when she got raped by a fellow student.

Lydia Kamwine says she was in senior five third term when the traumatizing incident befell her in February 2016 following her admission to this school.

She claims that on 26/October/2016 around lunchtime 1:30pm, her tormenter Geoffrey Kalemera of senior six unlawfully intercepted her, as she was coming from another class, dragged her up to a senior 2 class room and pounced on her, up to 2pm when Kalemera realized that students were returning to class for the afternoon lessons.

That she then reported the matter to the Headmaster who instead asked her to make a written apology that subsequently earned her an indefinite suspension, a result of which she also missed writing her third term promotional exams.

Through Pearl Advocates and Solicitors Kamwine contends that the conduct of the Headmaster and the entire school administration of failing to subject her case to a prompt and appropriate scrutiny, or forwarding the same to police for investigation and necessary action, amounted to negligence, discrimination and breach of parental duty of care the School owed her.

She petition the High court in Kampala to issue declarations that the School was negligent against her student, and an order to pay her 100 million shillings in damages for the injuries, humiliation, and loss of self-esteem, mental anguish and inconvenience she suffered.
From Reader Supported News

I can already hear some of my establishment Democrat friends saying that the People's Platform being pushed by progressive groups is unachievable. Of course in this Congress they are right. So, what if the Democrats were to push an agenda that is achievable in this Congress? What would that look like? It would be a blank piece of paper, since the GOP Congress will not let the Democratic Party get credit for any legislation, even if it fits in with their right-wing agenda.

That is why the "Summer for Progress" campaign launched by many progressives is so important. It's time to create a platform that defines the Democratic Party as the people's party again. Of course Improved Medicare for All will not even get a vote in Paul Ryan's house, but it's time for all Democrats to co-sponsor the bill, and those who don't should prepare for a primary next year.

The People's Platform is about more than healthcare. At Summer for Progress, you will find bills that progressive organizations are demanding House Democrats sign onto as co-sponsors. Those bills are:

Medicare for All: H.R. 676 -- Medicare For All Act

Free College Tuition: H.R. 1880 -- College for All Act of 2017

Worker Rights: H.R.15 -- Raise the Wage Act

Women's Rights: H.R.771 -- Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017

Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 -- Automatic Voter Registration Act

Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill -- Renewable Energy

Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R.3543 -- Justice Is Not for Sale Act of 2017

Taxing Wall Street: H.R. 1144 -- Inclusive Prosperity Act

It is a bold agenda. It has to be, to breathe new life into the Democratic Party. My establishment Democratic friends will say that Hillary got 3 million more votes than Trump. They are right, but it was also nearly 4 million votes less than Barack Obama received in 2008 and less than Obama got in 2012.

Click Here to Read Whole Article
From Paul Craig Roberts Website



Donald Trump - Caricature

(Image by DonkeyHotey) Details DMCA



What is the Congress up to with their stupid bill that imposes more sanctions and removes the power of President Trump to rescind the sanctions that President Obama imposed?

Congress is doing two things. One is that Congress is serving their campaign contributors in the military/security complex by being tougher with Russia, thus keeping the orchestrated threat alive so that Americans denied health care don't start looking at the massive military/security budget as a place to find money for health care.

The other is to put President Trump in a box. If Trump vetoes this encroachment on presidential power, Congress and the presstitute media will present the veto as absolute proof that Trump is a Russian agent and is protecting Russia with his veto. If Trump does not veto the bill, Trump will have thrown in his hand and accepted that he cannot reduce the dangerous tensions with Russia.

In other words, the bill is a lose-lose for Trump. Yet Republicans are supporting the bill, thus undermining their president.

Yesterday I heard an orchestrated, staged "interview" between two women on NPR's "All Things Considered" (on NPR all things are never considered). It was a propaganda show focused on Trump's expression of disappointment in Jeff Sessions, whom Trump mistakenly appointed Attorney General.

When Trump nominated Sessions, the Democrats and the presstitutes went berserk. Sessions was "unqualified," a "racist," blah-blah. But now Sessions is the hero of the presstitutes and Democrats. They love him, because he has sold out Trump on the question of the justification for an investigation of Trump as a suspect "Russian agent" by an independent prosecutor who happens to be a member of the anti-Trump ruling establishment.

In other words, Sessions, who has been beat up previously by the establishment, is too afraid to do his job.

In other words, Trump had, as I predicted, no idea what he was doing when he chose his government.

So now he suffers for his ignorance.

What was the point of the staged NPR interview between the two women? The point was that Sessions, unlike Trump, respects the rule of law whereas Trump wants to bend the law in order to cover up for himself. The interview was staged so that without the two women having to say it, Trump's anger at Session was proof that Trump was guilty of some illegitimate "Russian connection."

In other words, it was carefully constructed innuendo. Who constructed the innuendo? NPR's women were just reading from a script.

As far as I can tell, there is no one in Trump's government who is loyal to him or who is willing to back Trump's effort to stop provoking the Russians and to cease serving as Israel's military force in the Middle East. As far as I can tell not only the Democratic Party but also the Republican Party supports the left-wing's view that Trump's election was illegitimate, because he was elected by the votes of illegitimate people -- "the deplorables" to use Hillary's term.

Who are "the deplorables?" They are the remnants of the American working class. They are the people whose jobs were sent overseas to Asia by the global US corporations in order to enrich their shareholders and executives via higher profits from lower labor costs. They are the people who in order to stay afloat had to rely on debt in place of the missing income and whose debt is now so high that they have no disposable income. A huge proportion of the American population is incapable of raising a measly $400 without having to sell personal possessions.

In other words, they are refugees from a destroyed American middle class.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).


John Wayne WW2 Movie, The Expendables (1945)

(Image by twm1340) Details DMCA



Yes, I'm going to tell you what's missing from this film without watching the film. Trump has, as promised, made me so sick of winning that I really could enjoy watching a defeat film, but I think I'll pass. If I'm wrong about what's missing from it (I mean one of the many things that are, no doubt, missing from it), I promise that I will eat an entire plan for victory in Afghanistan annually for the next decade.

One of the oddest things about World War II is how it has been marketed as a humanitarian war since the moment it ended.

One reason this is odd is that several times the number of people killed in German concentration camps were killed outside of them in the war (at least 50 million worldwide vs. 9 million killed in the camps). And the majority of those people were civilians. So a war against killing people in camps would be a very strange way to understand World War II, unless killing many more people can be made an acceptable means of opposing killing people. The scale of the killing, wounding, and destroying made WWII the single worst thing humanity has ever done to itself in any short space of time.

Even odder is that zero effort was actually ever made to prevent the mass-murder in the concentration camps. There was no poster asking you to help Uncle Sam save the Jews. A ship of Jewish refugees from Germany was chased away from Miami by the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. and other nations refused to accept Jewish refugees, and the majority of the U.S. public supported that position. The U.S. engaged in no diplomatic or military effort to save the victims in the Nazi concentration camps. Anne Frank was denied a U.S. visa.

Peace groups that questioned Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his foreign secretary about shipping Jews out of Germany to save them were told that, while Hitler might very well agree to the plan, it would be too much trouble and require too many ships. Here is an interesting passage from Nicholson Baker:

"Anthony Eden, Britain's foreign secretary, who'd been tasked by Churchill with handling queries about refugees, dealt coldly with one of many important delegations, saying that any diplomatic effort to obtain the release of the Jews from Hitler was 'fantastically impossible.' On a trip to the United States, Eden candidly told Cordell Hull, the secretary of state, that the real difficulty with asking Hitler for the Jews was that 'Hitler might well take us up on any such offer, and there simply are not enough ships and means of transportation in the world to handle them.' Churchill agreed. 'Even were we to obtain permission to withdraw all the Jews,' he wrote in reply to one pleading letter, 'transport alone presents a problem which will be difficult of solution.' Not enough shipping and transport? Two years earlier, the British had evacuated nearly 340,000 men from the beaches of Dunkirk in just nine days. The U.S. Air Force had many thousands of new planes. During even a brief armistice, the Allies could have airlifted and transported refugees in very large numbers out of the German sphere."

In other words, the story of Dunkirk, the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, is a story of how the Allies treated people they had some use for, and a demonstration of how they could have treated other people if they had had any use for them.

Since the moment the war ended, the U.S. military has had enormous use for those it callously allowed the Nazis to murder. They have been front and center in the argument for war after war after war.

Since World War II, during what U.S. academics think of as a period of unprecedented peace, the United States military has killed some 20 million people, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in 81 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries. This extravaganza of criminal killing is documented here. But it isn't much of a secret. To my knowledge, every single military assault has involved a reference to a new Hitler and a passionate plea to retroactively save his victims. Of course the humanitarian consequences have differed dramatically from those stated intentions.

Somehow I doubt any of that is mentioned in the Dunkirk film.
From Counterpunch

For Americans who oppose perpetual war, no member of Congress has been more admired than Barbara Lee. Ever since she cast the only vote against a blank-check war resolution, three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Oakland Democrat has earned a reputation for bravely speaking antiwar truth to militarist power.

But, now, the core wisdom of her eloquent speech on the House floor nearly 16 years ago is under threat -- from Lee herself.

When Lee beseeched her colleagues to "think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control," she was looking far beyond the politics and passions of that moment on Sept. 14, 2001. In a July 7 tweet, she has stepped away from steadfast support for the necessity of diplomatic initiatives.

Finding alternatives to war must include diplomacy. In the case of the "war on terror" that Lee resisted from the start, what spiraled out of control was endless and boundless war. These days, the escalating tensions with Russia could spiral out of control all the way to nuclear holocaust.

That's a major reason the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the symbolic hands of its Doomsday Clock even closer to apocalyptic midnight early this year. The nuclear peril is terribly real, and it's growing.

For that overarching reason, former Sen. Sam Nunn joined with three seasoned ex-diplomats to co-sign an open letter in late June, urging Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin to discuss four specific proposals for reducing the dangers of nuclear war. Nunn -- drawing on his experience as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- knows that top-level talks between the Russian and U.S. governments are crucial to reduce the risk of the world blowing up.

But Lee addressed the Trump-Putin meeting at the G20 summit in a very different way. Right after it was over, she sent out a tweet that denounced the very idea of the two presidents sitting down and talking: "Outraged by President Trump's 2 hr meeting w/Putin, the man who orchestrated attacks on our democracy. Where do his loyalties lie?"

Yet real diplomacy often requires that leaders we don't like -- at the top of a foreign government and maybe our own -- sit down together, talk and negotiate. In the case of the world's two nuclear-weapons superpowers, that could turn out to mean the difference between coexistence or co-annihilation.

During her historic 2001 speech on the House floor, when she insisted that "some of us must urge the use of restraint," Lee was refusing to be swept up in the easy and dangerous conformity of the times. She saw that militarized confrontation would be a tragically unwise alternative to diplomacy.

Lee now seems to have cast aside such understanding, at least as far as relations with Russia are concerned. Her constituents, as well as other supporters in California and beyond, should encourage her to return to it.

Certainly, Lee deserves credit for ongoing efforts to repeal the 2001 war authorization. Yet this month she veered way off the peace track by proclaiming that she was "outraged" because Trump and Putin had a meeting.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Rep. Lee offered profound insight and leadership instead of confusion and fear. That's why the saying "Barbara Lee speaks for me" took hold and lasted. But now we must let her know when she no longer speaks for us.
Quicklink Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them.



To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here.
Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.
Perhaps the biggest battle that humanity has had to face thus far has only just begun, and its already claiming lives across the world by the dozens. Although its already taking a toll on populations of every species, it seems that many are only just now beginning to pay attention to it as it starts to claim the lives of those who look more familiar to us.

That being the case, though, there is still a significant number of people out there who deny that it even exists in the first place, and this denial has become intertwined in the politics of many countries across the globean issue of exceptionally contentious debate.

What is this uphill battle, really, you might ask? Well, its none other than climate change, of course.

Climate change is essentially a change in either local weather or Earths climate. Doesnt sound too bad, right?

Wrong.

If left unchecked, climate change will wreak havoc on every single one of Earths ecosystems, causing everything from extreme droughts and flooding, to rampant wildfires, mass extinction events and a quintessentially uninhabitable planet. With such a grim picture looming over the horizon as early as the turn of the next century, one might wonder what humanity could possibly do at this point to stop it.

Although it may seem like the U.S. has taken a turn for denial with Trumps recent decision to pull our country out of the ground-breaking Paris Climate Agreement, there is still hope for our planet yeta whole hell of a lot of it, in fact.

Thankfully, countless other countries across the globe have determined to put fighting climate change at the top of their agendas, and the global push-back against such a rampant beast has really only just begun.

Here are some of the countries leading the way.

Information courtesy of Climate Reality Project, Official SwedenEcoWatch, and The New York Times

Sweden; Costa Rica; Nicaragua; Germany; and China

Main photo by kansasphoto, CC BY 2.0

Natalie Wickstrom is a freelance writer based in Athens, Georgia.

1 of 5 Sweden: Back in 2015, Sweden was one of the first countries to put their foot down, committing to the complete elimination of fossil fuel-usage within their country, as well as turning their investments to various forms of renewable energy. As of right now, only 20 percent of the country's energy consumption is a result of fossil fuel-usage. In addition to this, despite the fact that Sweden is one of the top energy consumers per capita, the average Swede only releases around 4.25 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while the EU average remains around 6.91 tonnes and the U.S. continues to sky-rocket at 16.15 tonnes per person. What does this mean? Sweden has somehow found a way to reduce their carbon emissions while simultaneously growing their economy. It also means that the rest of the world better take notice. tsaiproject / Flickr, CC BY 2.0

2 of 5 Costa Rica: Not only has Costa Rica committed to being completely "carbon-neutral" by 2021, but they also managed to generate 99 percent of their power from renewable energy back in 2015. With prime geography and climate for solar and wind power, in particular, the country has become a beacon of hope for the renewable energy movement, committing themselves to complete and total environmental preservation and protection going forward. kansasphoto / Flickr, CC BY 2.0

3 of 5 Nicaragua: Having invested the fifth-highest percentage of their GDP in the world into renewable energy development in its various forms back in 2012, the country was able to power 54 percent of their electricity generation with renewables by 2015. The majority of its renewable energy comes from solar, wind and geothermal sources, and the Nicaraguan government is aiming for their country to achieve 90 percent total renewable power by 2020. With its exceptionally sun-coverage and 19-plus volcanoes, the country has plenty of renewable natural resources to be able to develop their energy projects for years to come. Flickr, CC BY 2.0

4 of 5 Germany: Despite Germany's population of more than 80 million people, the country still manages to power a day's worth of electricity for every citizen with as much as 78 percent renewable power. Politically, the European country was one of the first to declare themselves on-board with the fight against climate change, simultaneously committing themselves to becoming leaders in the development of the solar industry. To this day, Germany remains the world leader in its solar PV capacity despite its near-constant cloud cover, proving to the rest of the world that not even geographical limitations can hold a country back from fully investing in renewables. Bill Tyne / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

5 of 5 China: Although China is currently the world's largest carbon-emitter, they are also one of the most committed to reversing the effects of their poisonous consumption habits. Despite the factor, perhaps, due to the factthat Chinese cities have some of the worst air-quality in the world, the country became the leader in the amount of wind capacity installed in 2014, alone, and have since continued to lead the scoreboard in terms of the sheer number of solar panel and windmill installations done every year. Though still heavily-reliant on coal and fossil fuels to power their north-of-a-billion citizens on a daily basis, China hopes to phase both forms of energy out of their markets completelya task which they are already surpassing the U.S. on completing in leaps and bounds. Mike Behnken / Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
Montreals Just For Laughs Comedy Festival is partnering with a South African-based conglomerate to expand their reach and begin Just For Laughs Africa. Just For Laughs is the biggest event in comedy, routinely helping comics break into the international spotlight. The long-term continental partnership was announced today during the 35th Montreal Comedy Festival, with the news that the first Just For Laughs Africa will take place in Durban, South Africa in 2018. The event will offer comedy fans the best of local, continental and international artists, which will grow year-on-year in its Durban home, thanks to a partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government.

Weve already established successful Just For Laughs festivals beyond Montreal, noted president and founder of Just For Laughs Groups Gilbert Rozon, who mentioned Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney as regions South Africa will join in the Just For Laughs group. Comedy is thriving across the whole continent nowadays, with comedians from countries like Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana enjoying growing fan bases in their home countries and beyond. Some comics who have come through Just For Laughs include The Daily Shows Trevor Noah, John Vlismas, David Kau, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Riaad Moosa and Basketmouth. Moyikwa Sisulu is the director for Just For Laughs Africa and said in a press release, The opportunity to bring the experience of the Just For Laughs team to developing African comedy was one we just couldnt turn down.

Just For Laughs recently announced its new Faces of Comedy for 2017, and Paste is currently covering the Montreal festival, happening now through the end of July. Find out where well be here.
Ghana is to take delivery of new polio vaccines next week, following the settlement of a 3.4 million dollar debt the government owed suppliers of the vaccine.



Health facilities across the country have run out of the supply of the vaccine, putting hundreds of new born babies and infants at risk of contracting the childhood killer disease.



There are more than 2.5 million children under-five years in Ghana each of whom need to be vaccinated against polio. Just two drops in the mouth would help protect them against polio.



Its unfortunate that we have allowed things to get to this point, Chairman of Parliaments Health Committee, Dr. Kwabena Twum Nuamah noted in an interview with Joy FMs Super Morning Show host, Kojo Yankson, Monday, July 24, 2017.



The vaccine is available to Gavi-supported countries from as little as 0.75 per dose. Middle-income countries are able to buy the vaccine through UNICEF for between 1.49 and 2.40 per dose.



Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a publicprivate global health partnership committed to increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.



The government, the Berekum East Parliamentarian said, has already made the transfers to the vaccine suppliers, and Im reliably informed that in less than a week the vaccines will be in the country.



Unicef, the organization through which the vaccines are supplied to Ghana, has confirmed that the Ghanaian government has released funding for the supply of the drug.



Health Specialist at Unicef Ghana, Dr. Peter Baffoe explained that per arrangements, UNICEF only serves as conduit through which the vaccines are supplied.



This [polio] vaccine we are talking about is not bought on credit, he stated indicating that government probably delayed in the payment for the vaccines to be shipped into the country.



Yes the payment has been made and within a few days we are hoping that the vaccines will be received, Dr. Baffoe assured.

Source: myjoyonline.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
By Ruth Anderah:

Makindye General Court martial has released on bail two women accused of causing a 2.7 billion shilling loss to government when they recruited a ghost pilot in the UPDF Air force.

The two are Caroline Kyakabale a Human Resource Officer in the Ministry of Defense and a one Evas Twinomugisha a wife to the Air force officer Major Maj. Kapalaga Lubega.

Through their Lawyer Retired Major Ronald Iduuli, they filed a bail application on grounds that it is their constitutional right, the charges against them are bailable by the same court, and that they have substantial sureties.

Lt General Andrew Gutti released the duo on a non cash bail of 20 million shillings each, and each of their sureties was bonded 10 million shillings not cash.

Hearing of this matter has been adjourned to August 21st 2017.

Prosecution states that the trio and others still at large between October 2005 and January 2016 caused the Ministry of Defense to enter into an employment contract with a non-existing pilot purportedly to be a Russian by Names Valerir Ketrisk
The junior high school graduate from Berekum, whose explicit video has topped social media trends for almost a week now, has threatened to sue her critics if they continue to insult her.



Rashia Muhammed, popularly known as Rashida Black Beauty, became the talk of the town last week when a video showing her stark nakedness started to circulate on social media sites.



The video sparked an uproar, with several persons passing rather unprintable insults on the lady. Some have called for her arrest, while others have suggested she needs some urgent psychological attention.



Apparently unsettled by the continuous insults, Rashida has put out another video on social media in which she described half of Ghanaians as fools who are in a haste to criticise before they investigate.



Youre here in Ghana fooling, even people in US and UK are calling me and you in Ghana. Almost half of Ghanaians are fools. When something happens instead of you to find out the cause, all you do is to start insulting the personIf you joke with me, what Ill do to you, Ill let the law deal with you. If you are foolish then keep on insulting me, she said in the video.



In the same video, Rashida was heard asking her critics whether they did not come from the female organ and why they were overly-excited after seeing her organ.



This outburst is in sharp contrast to a rather sober apology Rashida first put out not long after the naked video started making rounds.



Her first response on July 21 and posted on her Facebook wall at 2:29pm read: Hello Ghana, I am sorry and I regret my actions, there is a lot of explanation to this video but I guess the harm has already been done so no one will be willing to hear what I have to say or tell them. All I want to say is I regret my actions and I hope Ghanaians do forgive me . . . Thank You!



Then on July 22 at 7:59am, Rashida, again, posted another apology on Facebook:



Good morning people of Ghana. Well, I took time to read all the comments that came in on my apology post yesterday as well as comments circulating on social media about the video and I realised that majority of the comments were all insults and just filthy talks about me which I wont say I dont deserve, yes I know that for my actions I do deserve all those things said about me.



But let me make this clear: If you are a lady here and you have sent a nude of yourself to your guy before and if you are a guy and you have also received a nude from your girlfriend before, I will say you are no better person than I am. I admit I have made a very big mistake with some even thinking that I made that video on purpose just for fame and exposure, which I know is false, I wasnt the one who released the video as well. Thanks to friends and sympathisers who called to console me, I really do appreciate it.



And as I said in my previous post, trying to explain will make things worse so I will just repeat what I said yesterday one more time  Yes I know the harm has already been done but I have learnt my lessons and I do promise to never repeat this, may the Good Lord and Ghanaians forgive me.

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
Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, a former Minister of Petroleum, has been adjudged winner of the 2017 edition of the African Leadership Excellence Award.



He won the prestigious award for the immeasurable role he played in positioning Ghanas oil and gas industry to a higher level, especially his contribution to the implementation of Ghana's no flaring gas policy.



The African Leadership Magazine, organisers of the award scheme in Atlanta, United States of America, presented the award to Mr Buah.



The reputable magazine has been recognising leaders who have distinguished themselves and have played instrumental leadership roles in helping their countries in Africa to develop.



Mr Buah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle was, therefore, recognised for his contribution to the establishment of the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) and the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant (AGPP).



The citation accompanying the award also recognised Mr Buah for the critical role he played to the successful completion of the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) and OCTP projects.



These projects have helped in boosting Ghana's oil and gas fortunes, according to the Magazine.



The Magazine also recognised his role in the passage of the Local Content Law that has empowered Ghanaians; the passage of a new Exploration and Production Law that has made Ghana the investment destination.



The citation further recognised his role in developing a gas master plan to guide Ghana's Gas development for the next four years.



Mr Buah, on receipt of the award, said: I'm very humbled by the award. Thank God for the opportunity to serve my country at a crucial period and in a sector that was considered critical at the time.



I dedicate it to the ordinary people of Ghana and to former President John Dramani Mahama for the incredible leadership he provided, he said.



The award was given on the sidelines of the ongoing Doing Business in Africa Investment Forum organised by the African Leadership Magazine in Atlanta, Georgia.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Fishermen in Upper and Lower Dixcove in the Western Region have threatened to relocate to Ivory Coast to ply their trade since they cannot get premix fuel for fishing in Ghana.



According to them, July and August make up their bumper harvest season and they expect that enough premix would be available to enable them maximise the best of their peak season, but for the past three to four weeks, they have not had a single drop of the fuel.



They say the situation is forcing some of them to contemplate running away to Ivory Coast just as their other colleagues have.



Some fishermen who spoke to Class News regional correspondent Abraham Mensah expressed disappointment with the government over the situation.



Its been three weeks since I last went fishing because there is no fuel for fishing. A lot of us have, therefore, made up our minds to leave this country; we will not vote for a change of government and suffer. Our children are hungry, they are unable to go to school, so, if we travel to Ivory Coast and find things easy there, well stay. If there is no fuel in Dixcove, we will move to Ivory Coast and fish there and be free. We are frustrated, one fisherman stated.



This is a bumper harvest for us but close to one month now, there is no fuel for fishing and nobody is giving us any explanation. We are suffering because we cant take care of our families. Everyday, a fisherman travels to Ivory Coast. We know the NPP is good with providing fuel but we dont know what is happening. If government does not resolve this, we will vote them out in the next election, another fisherman added.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Adventure in the Alps Words, photos, & video by Tito Tomasi What a feeling to be in the Dolomites. Humbling!

Not much gear here. 6 kilos max in the pack, not including the food for the day.

Slovenia

Solvenian via ferrata!

Flow trails in Italy!

Italy

Sasso Patto area is definitely a must visit!

The Rhone's sources.

Switzerland

Droping into Vals valley.

Around the Mt Blanc. Means epic trails and breathtaking scenery.

France

Queyras region delivers the good time. Always.

Riding my childhood trails.

This is pure happiness and a little bit of fatigue...

The trail and border to Italy.

High pass in Switzerland. What an atmosphere!



Always with my diary.

Not always the time to draw...

This was a hell of a good time on my bike. 4 countries, 1650 kilometers and 58800 meters of elevation in 21 days 50+ mountain passes 1 flat tire, 1 back tire, 1 pair of brake pads 1 dead iPhone, 1 dead GoProIn 2012 I crossed the French Alps on the famous GR5 trail, but then I started thinking about going to Slovenia and finishing the job: I wanted to cross the Alps from beginning to end. I've been planning my trip since last year, aiming for some time in the summer.Preparation was centred on three points: Get the bike setup right. My Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt was perfect with a 140mm fork, it makes the bike a bit more capable in the rough terrain. Get the logistics dialled. Having everything I'd need: parts, extra kit, and new shoes... I needed to prepare the itinerary and a backup, so I bought a GPS and loaded the route on my phone too. Get ready. I know myself well and my weakness is that I ride too much, so sometimes I can overtrain and be fatigued. I didn't ride in January and March, but in April and May I rode a lot, doing long and technical rides (about 30,000 meters or 90,0000 feet of elevation per month). June was more normal to relax.June 27 I'm on a plane wearing my bike kit and riding shoes. I landed in the afternoon, got my bike box, unpacked it, and started my ride. Straight to the mountains, I was feeling free and so happy to start a new adventure.After just one hour of riding the rain came, but I wasn't feeling bad about it. This was the start and I was making the most of this new trip. The landscape was beautiful, with small mountains, deep forests, and castles everywhere. I left the Ljubljana area and quickly started to cross remote and mountainous zones. I loved the rough trail and the nice villages.But the rain didn't stop. I rode the first three days in the rain. I lost my phone and camera in a big thunderstorm, possibly due to a close call with some lightning? Well, Slovenia was a short, beautiful, and intense.I entered Italy on the trails through a beautiful canyon on a centuries-old path. It was rough, but the sun came out and I passed Venzone with a blue sky. The itinerary brought me to Sauris Lake area, where the riding was as good as the food! Awesome riding to enter the Dolomites. I was so happy to enter the famous region, taking in the iconic mountains was humbling. Eventually I crossed the Alta Badia area before entering the Sasso Patto small range. Here the landscape was unique, with green meadows and deep forests dominated by white and massive peaks. This was the beginning of the South Tyrol region, a beautiful place where I was happy to find so many good trails.I bought a new camera in Moreno and took the road to the famous Stelvio pass. It was a long long day on a bike lane with a big pass at the end, so I took the detour to find the balcony trailunfortunately I was out of luck, the trail was destroyed in a land slide years ago. On my way back to the road, I had a stupid crash and cut my calf quite deep, and I had to ride 18 kilometres to get to the hospital. A few stitches later I was back on the bike and climbing the road. The descent from Stelvio pass was incredible, riding this carved trail was impressive! I had a ton of fun, and after a few big passes I arrived in the Livigno area to ride a few smooth trails.After the Livigno area, there is a 2694 meter pass where I entered Switzerland and the Uris canyon. After passing through the Saint Moritz valley and its beautiful lakes I entered another mountainous area, crossing two or three passes every day. I was on the trail for more than ten days, but still feeling pretty fresh, despite the rain, the efforts, and the camp nights. After Andermatt, I changed my route to admire the Rhone's glacier. The trails up there were sketchy and rocky, but the view was worth it!Just before entering the Grindelwald area, a deep valley with massive mountains, the storm came back and hammered me again. The landscape turned apocalyptic. Still, riding near the Eiger was an experience. The grades there are rough, with huge climbs (1100 meters each time!), steep descents, and incredible views of waterfalls, cliffs, and glaciers.I finally entered the Valais region around the resort of Les Diablerets and was pretty happy about that because from there I knew the people spoke French! A beautiful zone, with awesome riding. I went through the region quite fast and reached the Tour du Mt Blanc shortly, which meant a fantastic ride with some of the best views in Europe! After Val Ferret, I entered Italy for a quick visit, where I knew a balcony trail that gives me a huge smile every time! I was so pumped to be so close to France and to realize I was actually crossing the Alps for good.When I passed Courmayeur and the Italian Mt Blanc, I crossed the Seigne's pass and entered France in Savoy. I had to stay high in the mountain and cover a large distance in the Beaufortin range, famous for its cheese but not for the alpine trails. It was the third time I was actually crossing the French Alps, so I knew about the options, the climbs, and the downhills. I made my way through Tarentaise Valley then Maurienne, finally arriving in Galibier range making a stop in Briancon right before starting the last part of the trip. Entering the Queyras, I arrived in the southern Alps, with beautiful landscapes, warm and dry weather, and most importantly, awesome trails! I posted on the Izoard side and remembered the ton of fun I had on the balcony trails following the valley. I posted the different and classic cool of the Queyras while entering the Ubaye region. I saw the landscape changing again when I got into Verdon valley, with high alpine trails, massive mountains, different vegetation and the Mercantour National Park very near. I love this place and always have a good time there! The closer I was getting to the sea, the dryer it was, with rocky trails and warm weather.The riding in the region of Nice is just mind blowing. The twentieth day was the longest and most physical one, with almost 4000 meters of climbing in one day. I camped near Valberg for that very last night, and my dad joined me for the company. It was a good time, and emotional also as I was getting to the end of the trip. I was ready to finish with it, and close this chapter of my life after planning it for so long. This feeling of achievement is always strong, and gave me so much energy for the last day. I needed itthis last day was hard and hot, and especially because I choose to climb one last mountain. This mountain is also the mountain where I first learned about big mountain biking, twenty years ago.I rode the last mountain, crossed the river, and followed the Var river to the sea. Riding the bike lane, I was reflecting on my trip, from where I started three weeks ago. I ended on the beach, happy, shivering, and tired. My mom and one of my best friend were there to meet me.I don't have many words about it. The moment was strong and represented why I do this, for the adventure, for the achievement, and for sharing.This is my personal story that I hope will inspire you to take your bike and ride.
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.




Vibrant Johannesburg is the chosen venue for CMT's Biomass Trade & BioEnergy Africa summit. Held on 28-29 September, it zooms in on Africa's vast yet untapped biomass and biogas energy markets  showcasing recent projects and new opportunities.

Biomass Trade & BioEnergy Africa

Contact

Ms. Grace Oh

***@cmtsp.com.sg Ms. Grace Oh

End

-- The Biomass Series in Africa has on-board some of the early movers of Africa's unexploited biomass and biogas energy markets. South Africa's power utility  Eskom that is planning to build its first biomass plant  shares its 'Biomass Co-Firing Strategy' at the summit with details of its torrefaction process at its existing power stations and upcoming plants. Namibia's utility Namibia Power Corporation  that plans to build 40MW and 20MW biomass-fueled power plants, informs about 'Biomass Power Capacity Growth in Namibia' sharing details of growth drivers, case studies, opportunities and challenges.Africa's energy producer Sunbird Bioenergy  with sustainable biofuel projects in Sub-Saharan Africa  presents 'Case Study of Implementing 32MW Biomass Power in Sierra Leone'  highlighting sustainable feedstock production, community engagement and regional roll-out. Plus, another case study by LafargeHolcim spotlights on its use of coffee husks to produce biomass thermal energy for its cement kilns in Hima. Joining these key presenters, is Africa's prominent finance organization  African Development Bank joins the summit with a presentation on 'Boosting Bioenergy (Renewable Energy) Electrification in Africa'.The summit also delves into Africa's biogas energy production with two key presentations  Commercial Biogas Development & Growth in South Africa by Southern African Biogas Industries Association and 'Field Experiences on Current Progress of Biogas Project & Regulatory Challenges in Ghana' by Biogas Association of Ghana.Organized by Centre for Management Technology (CMT), the summit also spotlights on:  Benefits of Torrefaction for Co-Firing of Biomass in Coal Power Stations  Blackwood Technology Setting Up Biomass Export Operations from West Africa  Africa Renewables (AfriRen) Biomass & Waste Valorization through Thermo Chemical Conversion  ECN Combined Heat & Power (CHP) Technology for Localised Energy Generation & Industrial Utilisation  VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Wood Pellet Export Opportunities for African Producers - Overview of Pellet Market & Future Outlook  Poyry Management Consulting African Biomass: Opportunities for Export & Development of the African Biomass Power Value Chain  Asia Resource PartnersFor more information, visit Biomass Trade & BioEnergy Africa website http://www.cmtevents.com/ aboutevent.aspx? ev=170915& pu... or contact Ms. Grace Oh at +65 63469147.
The Jaya House River Park Hotel in Cambodia has developed 'Mobili-Tuk-Tuks' to enable wheelchair users to visit the local sites. This is a first for Cambodia and follows on from the hotel's innovative move to employ female tuk-tuk drivers.

By: Bamboo Travel

The Unique Mobili-tuk-tuk

Contact

Mick Thompson, Travel Dog PR

***@traveldogpr.co.uk Mick Thompson, Travel Dog PR

End

-- In what is believed to be a first for the country, the owners of the recently-opened Jaya House River Park Hotel in Siem Reap, decided to adapt some of the tuk-tuks used by the hotel so that they can provide access for wheelchair users.Christian De Boer, the General Manager of Jaya House said: "Our hotel has been vetted by a Norwegian Paralympic Team member and we have taken advice from him on room design and its facilities, so that some are now wheelchair friendly."But of course people in wheelchairs also want to see all of our famous sites so we came upon the idea of adapting some of the hotel's tuk-tuks, which we provide free of charge for hotel guests to explore the nearby Temples of Angkor  we have nicknamed them 'Mobili-Tuk-Tuks'."The wheelchair-friendly tuk-tuks are the latest innovation from the hotel which recently trained Cambodia's first female tuk-tuk drivers.Recognising that women tend to be more cautious and less reckless drivers, Christian and his team decided to train a group of women to become the first female tuk-tuk drivers, and the move has been well received by hotel guests.Bamboo Travel includes the Jaya House River Park Hotel in Siem Reap on a wheelchair-friendly version of its 11-day Highlights of Cambodia tour ( http://www.bambootravel.co.uk/ tours/highlights- of-cambodi... ).Highlights of the trip includes a private tour of the capital, Phnom Penh, a road journey to the provincial town of Battambang via the temples of Udong, to see local lifestyles, and explore the surrounding countryside, and a four-night stay in the lively city of Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor.Whilst based in Siem Reap there will be tours of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, The Bayon and Ta Prohm.The holiday costs from 2,695 per person (two sharing), which includes flights, all transportation, private tours throughout, eight nights' B&B, sightseeing and entrance fees, plus a guide.Bamboo Travel (020 7720 9285, www.bambootravel.co.uk ).
A travel & cookery book and TV series about the food & recipes, history, customs & culture of Le Marche Region of Italy

By: Cookucina

Contact

Damien Conrad

***@villasanraffaello.com Damien Conrad

End

-- A Recipe for disaster is a new book that describes life in the agricultural heartlands of Marche Italy.The novel follows the adventures encountered whilst making a TV cookery series with an Italian chef who speaks no English and an English trainee chef who can cook absolutely nothing. In fact she doesnt even know which cooking utensils she owns or where indeed they may be located.The book describes life in an Italian rural community, the campanilismo (literally loyalty to one's bell tower) which sees customs, traditions and recipes passed down through generations. It explores the local geography and history and the impact of world war 2 on this part of Italy.The Cookucina cookery series is a celebration of local life and the bountiful landscape that provides wonderful seasonal food for its inhabitants. Each episode includes 3 recipes and sees the hosts travel far and wide through medieval villages, vineyards and into rugged mountains to source the best ingredients. This is real farm to table local cookery that has remained unchanged over centuries. Please read more http://www.villasanraffaello.com/ marche-region- italy-book... about the Italian cookery book & TV series for more information and where to buy the book and TV series
Cushman & Wakefield has represented VMA Polska in its lease of nearly 3,900 sq m of warehouse and manufacturing space in Hillwood Park Wrocaw I Bis in Wrocaw. VMA Polska Sp. z o.o. is a member of the VMA Group active in the whole range of electrotechnical installations and technologies.

Robby Bos...

[]
South African fund Hystead acquires The Mall, located in the capital city Sofia. The acquisition, upwards of 156 million, represents the fourth investment in the region by Hystead Limited, a joint venture between Hyprop Investments and Homestead Limited, who previously acquired the Delta City shopping centres in Podgorica and Belgrade

[]
If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
The Vernon County Board of Supervisors approved spending about $20,000 for an internet expansion partnership with a communications company during a meeting Tuesday morning at the Courthouse Annex in Viroqua.

The public-private partnership with Vernon Communication Cooperative looks to expand broadband internet service to rural areas of Vernon County. The $353,000 project proposal seeks about half its cost from state grants, which are administered through the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.

The remainder of costs would mostly be covered by Vernon Communications Cooperative. The project will not advance if the $176,000 grant isnt awarded to the company.

Also under discussion was the construction of a new Highway Department garage. Members of the 28-person board appeared to have split opinions on the big-ticket project.

The Board was engaged in discussion whether to approve roughly $400,000 to hire a construction management firm to lay out plans for a new garage, which some supervisors said would cost an additional $10 million to build, likely through a bond.

Some supervisors said the new highway garage is sorely needed and long overdue. Other supervisors disagreed.

Im not finding any love out there in my community for a $10 million garage, one supervisor said.

The Broadcaster left the meeting prior to a vote on the garage issue to make deadline. See next weeks Broadcaster for more on the story.
Readinglike travelingopens borders, challenges preconceptions, and can have the effect of jolting both readers and wanderers out of their comfort zones. Travel and reading converge at Restless Books, a publisher of international literature, housed in an office located in the converted Old American Can Factory in Brooklyns Gowanus neighborhood. Publishers Weekly visited Restless Books to learn about its newest venture, Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers, a childrens imprint launching this fall that is fittingly represented by a logo displaying an anthropomorphic pair of binoculars.

Restless Books publisher and co-founder Ilan Stavans, who is the author of (among others) Spanglish, On Borrowed Words, and Dictionary Days, as well as the editor of numerous story and poetry collections, is originally from Mexico. He had long been appalled by the scarcity of books in translation being published in the English language, and on the eve of his 50th birthday, he recounted, I decided to do something about it. Teaming with writer and editor Joshua Ellison, Stavans launched Restless Books, which began as an e-book publisher of international adult titles before Stavans and Ellison signed with Simon & Schuster for print distribution. On the experience as a whole, Stavans reflected that: I could not have imagined how hard and how exciting it would be. In addition to Stavans, the Restless Books team now consists of Nathan Rostron, editor and marketing director; Brinda Ayer, managing editor; Jackson Saul, assistant editor; Alicia Lopez, editorial assistant; and editor-at-large, Annette Hochstein, who lives in Jerusalem. The team publishes between 1520 adult titles per year.

The mission behind Restless Books is to give voice to those who dont have a voice, said Stavans. The house is also deeply resistance driven in its approach to publishing, striving to remove barriers to cross-cultural communication at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is pervasive. Restless Books has published books from Cuba, Madagascar, Brazil, Iceland, Malaysia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Mexico, Israel, and more. The house also publishes Restless Classics, which are works of literature presented in new formats with the aim of drawing young people to discover them and adults to reread them. The Prize for New Immigrant Writing, which awards $10,000 to immigrant authors, represents the publishing houses latest effort to support immigrant authors. The inaugural prize was awarded this year to Deepak Unnikrishnan for his novel Temporary People.

As an immigrant himself, Stavans understands the complex challenges that come along with both learning a language and adapting to a new culture. Despite the number of non-English speakers living in this country, Stavans said he detects enduring resistance not only to learning foreign languages, but to reading literature in translationsomething that he hopes to change, one book at a time. He also believes that the literature available to Americans can better reflect the lives of immigrant communities who make up the texture of the United States.

The Birth of a Childrens Imprint

The idea for a childrens imprint arose through a desire to further diversify the voices within Americas body of literature. If readers become comfortable with reading books from other cultures at a young age, they may carry that comfort with them as they age into other books, Stavans thought. He also arrived at the idea for Yonder based on input both from Restless readers and independent bookstores that the house is closely tied to. He believes that booksellers and readers are eager for books for children and teens that reflect more international experiences.

Being less familiar with the world of childrens books than adult books, Stavans did his research. He and staffers have relied on insight from these knowledgeable booksellers, as well as their global network of translators, scholars, and independent publishers, to learn more about the landscape of international childrens publishing. Stavans takes seriously the responsibility of finding the right books that will open the shelves for child readers in the way that Restless Books has opened them for adult readers. Yonders books will run the gamut of genres and formats, from picture books to middle grade and YA.

At its heart, Yonder is about expanding the linguistic and cultural landscape of readers, said Stavans. Doing so demands effective and powerful translation. Cultivating relationships with translators is critical: A translator is like an author for us, Stavans said. In translating a work into English, the translator is faced with the task of both maintaining the books evocation of its culture of origin, while also providing a level of accessibility for readers outside of that culture.

A frequent argument concerning publishing works in translation is that culturally specific content is non-transferrable or untranslatable across borders. While Stavans charges that many American readers are allergic to other languages, he rejects the notion that children are unwilling to open themselves to stories that represent other cultures, voices, and experiences. In Americas publishing worldparticularly when it comes to childrens bookshe believes that there is a needlessly protective approach. Its time we become less protective, he said.

Restless and Wild

Yonder makes good on its promise of diverse offerings with its first titles, beginning this October with the release of The Wild Book, written by Mexican author Juan Villoro and translated by Lawrence Schimel. The middle grade novel is about a boy who goes to stay with his eccentric, book-collecting uncle, who takes him on a quest to find the infamous wild book that has never allowed itself to be read; it is illustrated by Mexican artist Eko. Next up, in spring 2018, is Ramayana: An Illustrated Retelling by Arshia Sattar, illustrated by Sonali Zohra, which is based on the classic Indian story. In summer 2018, Yonder will publish the YA novel In the Line of Fire by Silvana Gandolfi, translated from the Italian by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. The novel is about a Sicilian boy whose family is destroyed by the Mafia. In fall 2018 comes the picture book Who Left the Light On?, which is about differences, creativity, and challenging convention. Its written by French author Richard Marnier and illustrated by Aude Maurel. Finally, in spring 2019, Yonder will release Nervous Maria, a YA novel set during the Spanish Civil War, written by Laura Atwood Duran. Stavans and his team are actively on the lookout for international titles to publish in later seasons, and Stavans plans to attend the Bologna Childrens Book Fair in 2018 to further expand his contacts in childrens publishing abroad.



Yonder, like Restless Books, seeks to publish books that vary significantly in terms of country of origin, voice, and format. Yet all of the books in both the adult and childrens imprints are kindred spiritsRestless ones. To Stavans, a restless book is about the world today, is in motion, and crosses borders, he said. At a point when America is sharply divided along political lines, to the degree that it feels like we are in different cultures, said Stavans, he and the team at Restless are even more committed to the mission of connecting readers through literature and a common humanity. In fact, Restless has launched a Reading is Resistance campaign, which urges readers to resist doctrines of xenophobia by embracing internationalism, immigrant culture, and great literature.

Rostron, who is heading up the campaign, spoke about how the team is hoping that resistance will also be a defining force within the Yonder imprint. Our driving impulse at Restless is to explore beyond whats familiar to us through great books. With Yonder, were aiming to bring that same sense of discovery and exploration to kids. As any lifelong reader can tell you, the books you read when youre young can have a huge impact on your world view and imagination later on. We want kids to begin their lives as readers with the broadest possible scope, and help them grow up into savvy global citizens, he said.

For Stavans and the whole Yonder/Restless team, the wave of xenophobic sentiments in the age of the Trump administration has been discouraging, but at the same time, galvanizing. In a way, I thank Trump for pushing us, he said. Im furious. And Im turning my fury into good books.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  SPEAK MODalities, a Purdue-affiliated company developing autism technology that helps communication and language development for children and families affected by severe, nonverbal autism and developmental disabilities, has been named a finalist for the eighth annual Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) and the 2017 Edison Best New Product Award.

The Edison Award winners will be announced at the 2017 Edison Awards Gala today (April 20) in New York. Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition finalists will travel to Philadelphias Penn campus on Tuesday (April 25) to pitch their ventures to investors, researchers, and practitioners.

SPEAK MODalities, a startup commercializing the autism technology apps SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore!, was selected as one of 11 for the EBPC Venture Path finalists through a judging crowd-sourced with teachers, investors, entrepreneurs, and researchers. The company is the only finalist from Indiana. The EBPC features multiple cash prizes totaling $120,000.

The EBPC is considered the largest competition of its kind for education-related startups, so we are thrilled to be named a finalist, said Oliver Wendt, co-founder of SPEAK MODalities and Purdue assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences, and educational studies. Being named a finalist for this competition shows the potential our startup has to discover new customers in the educational tech space and make an impact directly in the school system.

The annual Edison Awards competition honors excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centered design, and innovation. The Edison Awards symbolize the persistence and excellence personified by Thomas Edison, while strengthening the human drive for innovation, creativity, and ingenuity.

The Edison Award is a global recognition program to honor innovation and innovators that make a positive impact in the world. We believed this was the perfect fit for our new language training application, SPEAKmore!, which we released last fall with research and development support through the National Institutes of Health, Wendt said. The award has a great emphasis on social impact and innovation and has its own category for Language Learning Products, which we thought is a great way to highlight the unique qualities of SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore!.

The SPEAKall! application has been downloaded more than 34,000 times and is used by eight augmentative and alternative communication centers and 16 speech and language clinics across the globe. It is estimated that up to 66 percent of the 2 million individuals diagnosed with autism are initially nonverbal and do not develop sufficient speech and language to meet daily communication needs. A video about the company can be viewed here.

In 2016 SPEAK MODalities won the R&D 100 Award in the software category and received a Certificate of Recognition from the State of Indiana for making a critical impact on the lives of Indiana families affected by autism. SPEAK MODalities also received the 2015 Best of Education Tech Mira Award from the Indiana TechPoint initiative and placed second in the 2015 Purdue InnovateHER competition. Wendt won the "2015 Outstanding Research of the Year" award by the Autism Society. The company won the International 2014 GAIN-TEN Business Pitch Challenge, an award for startups that have the potential to make an impact on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2013, the SPEAKall! application was recognized with the Focus Award for outstanding contribution to the furthering of Purdue's commitment to disability accessibility.

The SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! technologies are patented and licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. SPEAK MODalities receives entrepreneurial assistance through the Purdue Foundry, a startup support center based in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, and Wendt has participated as a scholar in the Purdue Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy.

About SPEAK MODalities

SPEAK MODalities was formed in 2013 and obtained an exclusive license to the SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! technologies from the Purdue Research Foundation. The first commercially supported version of SPEAKall! was released in January 2014. SPEAK MODalities has a mission to expand the reach of SPEAKall! and subsequent products that assist children with special needs to develop speech and language skills.

About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Hillary Henry, 765-588-3586, hkhenry@prf.org



Source: Oliver Wendt, 765-494-2462, olli@purdue.edu
After almost a year of slow recovery, Brazils pay-TV sector has shown a strong decline for second month in a row.





According to the Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes (Anatel), the market ended May 2017 with 18.64 million subscribers, over 135,000 less than the previous month, and a decrease of nearly one percentage point.A similar fall was reported in April , when the market decreased by 0.9% after losing 170,000 subscribers.In fact, these two months have been enough to negate the slight recovery achieved during the past year. Over the 12-month period, the market dropped more than 260,000 net subscribers (down 1.39%).Regarding pay-TV operators, the figures support the trend highlighted over the past year. Only Oi, despite its financial troubles, is managing to increase its subscriber base, thanks to its fibre-based offering. In fact, fibre is the only distribution technology that is on the up, having grown by 16.7%.America Movils Claro and AT&Ts SKY show the strongest decline, while Telefonica has managed to reduce its losses.
Venezuela-based channel teleSUR has launched a high definition (HD) feed as it celebrates its 12th anniversary.





The network, which offers 12 hours of daily programming in both Spanish and English, is broadcast across most of Latin America, as well as some European countries, including Spain, the UK, Belgium and France.The channel is also available via satellite in North America and is free via the Internet for the rest of the world.The HD format is part of a technological commitment which is to add more quality to our news content, while we continue delivering responsible and ethical information aimed at Latin Americas integration, said Paulo Romero, VP, operations and technology, teleSUR Founded by the Venezuelan Government in 2005, the network is also financially supported by Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Uruguay.Before, Argentina was also part of the teleSUR project , but withdrew a year ago, and as a result the network left the countrys free-to-air DTT distribution network.
Thai broadcaster MV International (MVI) has leased transponder space from regional satellite operator Thaicom to launch a pay-TV platform in Laos.





MVI has contracted Ku-band capacity on the Thaicom 8 satellite over an undisclosed amount of years. Thaicom 8, which entered service in July 2016, has a total of 24 Ku-band transponders covering Thailand, South Asia, and Africa. Co-located with Thaicom 5 and Thaicom 6 at 78.5 east longitude, it now offers a number of TV channels.Thaicom and their Thaicom 8 satellite enable us to establish a pay-TV platform in Laos to deliver high quality broadcasting services and programming. Thaicoms premium satellite communications services present MVI the opportunity to expand our business into new media and broadcast service segments of the South East Asian market, said Chaiyuth Tavipvordech, president, MVI.Kuntima Sarika, vice president ASEAN market, Thaicom, said: We are pleased to support MVIs development of a pay-TV platform in Laos . The commissioning of Thaicom 8 in 2016 has helped further consolidate Thaicoms video channel neighbourhood of high-power satellites at the 78.5 east orbital slot as the point of reference for broadcasting in Southeast Asia.Patompob (Nile) Suwansiri, chief commercial officer of Thaicom, added that the deal underlines Thaicoms long-term commitment to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).He said the development of satellite enabled communications infrastructure is essential to the realisation of ASEANs goal of economic integration.
End-to-end systems integrator Alticast has strengthened its EMEA presence with the appointments of Brian Koo as MD of Europe and of Frederic Gounard as vice president of sales, Europe.





Koo and Gounard bring almost 30 years of experience and contacts within the EMEA television community to their new positions. The two executives will have responsibility for ensuring that Alticast capitalises on what the company claims is new market demand for its expertise.The rapid pace of technology advances and changes in consumer behaviour are drastically altering the needs of pay-TV operators, said Mansoo Han, CEO of Alticast . Brian Koo and Frederic Gounard have the technological background, the market expertise and the industry relationships to help customers in Europe and beyond better understand the positive impact that Alticast can have on their businesses and their bottom lines.Koo joins the Alticast team after nearly 18 years with Humax , for which he served as executive director of Humax UK in London and as MD of two other Humax EMEA offices, in Milan and Istanbul. He will be based in Alticasts Amsterdam headquarters.Gounard most recently had been the EMEA sales director for Espial, and also spent nearly a decade in various capacities with Wyplay, including two years as head of set-top box engineering and four years as sales director for the European and India markets. Earlier in his career, he served seven years as CEO and founder of Physitech Electronique Medicale, a developer of innovative physiotherapy devices.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry says 26 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in the southern province of Kandahar, although other government officials said the death toll was at least 30.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said 80 Taliban militants were also killed or wounded in the attack on the Karzyalay military base in Kandahars Khakrez district early on July 26.

The attack came amid a deadly surge of violence in Afghanistan, where government forces are struggling to fend off a resurgent Taliban that controls more territory than at any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that at least 30 soldiers were killed in the attack.

Sediq Esa, a spokesman for the 205th Corps in Kandahar, also said at least 30 Afghan military personnel were killed.

Esa said the militants seized the base and captured weapons and vehicles.

In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had killed 74 soldiers and captured six others.

The Defense Ministry said government forces, backed by the air force, recaptured the base after several hours.

Kandahar has been the scene of constant militant attacks since 2001. The province is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and located on the porous border with Pakistan, where the militant groups leadership is believed to be based.

Taliban militants have ramped up their attacks on military bases across the country, challenging the thinly stretched security forces.

The U.S. Special Inspector-General for Reconstruction (SIGAR) has called the casualty rate among Afghan forces "shockingly high." Last year, more than 6,800 were killed and another 12,000 wounded, according to a SIGAR report this year.

In April, at least 140 soldiers were killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, one of the deadliest-ever Taliban attacks on a military installation.

In March, gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital -- the country's largest military hospital -- in Kabul, killing 50 people.

The Taliban is threatening to overrun districts in Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Helmand, Farah, and Uruzgan provinces, according to officials.

The militants captured three districts in the past seek, although the ministry said Kohistan district in the northwestern province of Faryab was recaptured late on July 25.

On July 24, a Taliban suicide car bombing killed at least 26 people and wounded 41 others in the capital, Kabul, many of them employees of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

The Taliban was driven from power in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

With reporting by BBC Persian and Reuters


Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov appears to have capitalized on Daghestani authorities' perceived failure to address grievances that led to a brawl between Chechens and Avars last month in order to cast Chechnya's controversial parliamentary chairman in the role of peacemaker.

The chairman, Magomed Daudov, is currently the subject of a probe by Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, after the head of its office in Chechnya accused Daudov, a former Chechen resistance commander, of trying last month to extort 30 million rubles ($507,140) from him.

The village standoff that Daudov is reported to have successfully averted has its roots in the uneasy coexistence of Chechens and Avars in the former Aukh district of western Daghestan that was part of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic prior to the deportation to Central Asia in 1944 on orders from then-Soviet leader Josef Stalin of the entire Chechen and Ingush nations.

In 1956, the deported peoples were exonerated from the charge of collaborating with advancing Nazi forces and formally permitted to return to their homes. But by then, the border between Chechnya and Daghestan had been redrawn, thousands of Laks (Daghestan's fifth-largest ethnic group) had been forcibly resettled in the Chechens' abandoned homes, and the Aukh district had been formally renamed Novolak.

For the past 30 years, since then-Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev launched his policy of glasnost to promote the discussion of hitherto taboo topics, Daghestan's Chechens have been lobbying to get their property back and for Novolak to revert to its previous name.

In 1991, the third Congress of Peoples of Daghestan formally approved the Chechens' right to their lawful property, and the following year, the Russian government duly adopted a program to resettle some 13,000 Laks from nine villages in Novolak district where they had lived for almost half a century.

That resettlement process is still in process, however, due to a combination of factors, including the Laks' reluctance to leave Novolak and the lack of federal funding to provide them with adequate housing elsewhere in Daghestan.

Mass Brawl

Meanwhile, the Chechens have come up with a further demand: the revision of the border between Novolak and the neighboring Kazbekov district to incorporate into the reconstituted Aukh district the Kazbekov villages of Leninaul and Kalininaul. Technically, that is not feasible, however, given that under Russian law any change to the borders of a municipality must be put to a referendum and the Kazbekov Avars would be likely to vote "unanimously" against.

The population of the two villages is approximately two-thirds Avar and one-third Chechen, and the tensions between the two nationalities have spilled over into violence on a number of occasions. The most recent was on June 25, the Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan, when an altercation between two adolescents escalated into a mass brawl that was eventually suppressed by police.

According to senior members of the Council of Elders of Chechens of Daghestan, nine young Chechens were savagely beaten by police officers; three policemen were also reported injured. Ten people were arrested, of whom six face criminal charges.

A few days later, Republic of Daghestan head Ramazan Abdulatipov, himself an Avar, convened a meeting of local officials in the nearby town of Khasavyurt, at which he affirmed that the Chechens and Avars have always lived peacefully together and warned that "provocateurs" who seek to destabilize the situation will have to answer for their actions in court.

Some Chechens construed those remarks as a threat. Calls by the Council of Elders of Chechens of Daghestan for a formal probe into the allegedly brutal police reaction were ignored.

Meanwhile, the Chechen Republic leadership, which on previous occasions has retaliated swiftly and forcefully to any perceived unjust treatment of Chechens in Daghestan, refrained from any public comment. In footage posted to YouTube on July 3, one young Chechen activist deplored that silence, asking whether Grozny needed to obtain permission from Moscow before making a public statement.

Chechen Convoy

Whether in response to that rhetorical question or to similar posts on social media, on July 7 up to 1,000 Chechens and Ingush gathered at a Grozny mosque and set forth in a convoy of up to 500 vehicles for Leninaul to "support" the village's embattled Chechen population, the news portal Caucasian Knot reported on July 10, quoting a participant.

In light of the security measures Kadyrov has put in place to contain the perceived threat from Islamic militants, it is unlikely that any such convoy could have assembled in Grozny and then driven across Chechnya without Kadyrov's personal permission, if not his orders.

The convoy reportedly crossed the border between Chechnya and Daghestan without incident but was intercepted by Daghestani traffic police on the outskirts of Leninaul, giving rise to a massive traffic jam.

At that juncture, Kadyrov reportedly dispatched parliament speaker Daudov, together with Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov and presidential-administration head Vakhit Usmayev, to Leninaul to defuse the rising tensions between the Chechen visitors and the local Avars. According to Daudov, his intervention was agreed on during a phone conversation between Kadyrov and his Daghestan counterpart, Abdulatipov.

Caucasian Knot quoted eyewitnesses as saying that stones were thrown at Daudov's motorcade and that his bodyguards then fired into the air as a warning. Daudov subsequently contacted Caucasian Knot and provided his version of what happened. He said the stone-throwing took place before his arrival on the scene and that he met with village elders and appealed for calm, and went with them to the mosque to pray.

Daudov also said he spoke with Daghestan Security Council secretary Abdulmuslim Muslimov, whom Abdulatipov had apparently dispatched from Makhachkala together with Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Karpov. According to Daudov, Karpov agreed to raise with his superiors the Leninaul Chechens' demand that the local Avar police officers be replaced by a contingent from elsewhere within the Russian Federation.

Destructive Forces

Having seemingly wrested the initiative from the Republic of Daghestan leadership, Kadyrov then received a delegation of Chechens from Leninaul in Grozny late on July 8. Like Daudov, he reportedly warned that resorting to violence in an attempt to resolve grievances is inadmissible. Then on July 13, Kadyrov cited the standoff in a bid to discredit his longtime enemy, Republic of Daghestan Transport, Energy, and Communications Minister Saygidpasha Umakhanov, whom he once publicly branded "a bandit."

Umakhanov is an Avar and served for many years as Khasavyurt mayor. He is said to enjoy the respect of the Avar population of western Daghestan, and reportedly traveled to Leninaul on July 7 but arrived only after Daudov had left.

In a July 10 post on his Instagram account, Umakhanov acknowledged that there is a history of tensions and violence in Leninaul for which, he said, both Avar and Chechen activists bear the blame. He stressed the need to resolve disputes peacefully, but in an apparent reference to Daudov's intervention, concluded with the observation that "there are enough wise politicians in Daghestan capable of resolving the thorniest problems without interference from outside."

Kadyrov responded by claiming Umakhanov had publicly commented apropos to Daudov's arrival in Leninaul that "our enemies have arrived." He further implied that Umakhanov is positioning himself as a possible successor to Abdulatipov, in which case "he needs to tone down his language and leave us in peace."

In Makhachkala, Daghestan's Nationalities Ministry issued a brief statement blaming the July 7 standoff in Leninaul on "destructive forces" that circulated on social media an appeal to Chechens to converge on the village to engage in "illegal actions." Republican Prosecutor-General Ramazan Shakhnavazov has since traveled to Leninaul, where he undertook to launch a probe to establish the identity of those responsible. Meanwhile, Abdulatipov continues to refrain from any public comment on the altercation, a failure that has elicited widespread criticism.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.


U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry discussed climate change, expanding American coal exports to Ukraine, and natural gas during a recent phone conversation with a Russian prankster who Perry thought was Ukraine's prime minister.

Perry actually was talking with pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksei Stolyarov, who have posed as political leaders in phone calls with other well-known people, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said on July 25.

British pop star Elton John was targeted by the pair, who call themselves Lexus and Vovan, in a 2015 call he thought was from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The 22-minute call with Perry on July 19 was recorded and posted online.

During the call, Perry discussed sanctions against Russia and helping Ukraine develop oil and gas, among other topics, with a person he thought was Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman.

Perry said the Trump administration opposes Nord Stream 2, a Russian project to bring natural gas to Europe across the Baltic Sea. He also said that U.S. technology could help Ukraine develop gas.

"Giving Ukraine more options with some of our technology is, I think, in everyone's best interest, with the exception of the Russians. But that's OK," he said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and The Washington Post




A 26-year-old woman was killed in a two-vehicle crash early Tuesday in the town of Greenfield.

Maria Gartner was driving west on Hwy. FO at Yanzer Road about 5:25 a.m. when her car was struck head-on by a pickup truck driven by David Sanders, 32, according to the La Crosse County Sheriffs Office.

Gartner died at the scene. Sanders is hospitalized at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.

There were no passengers in either vehicle.

The sheriffs office and Wisconsin State Patrol will reconstruct the crash to determine the cause.
The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

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.

Sullivan spoke hours after 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.

Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia's announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson," Wallace said in a statement. "Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: 'What was it all for?'"

Video posted online showed people on the streets, flying Ukraine's national flag and chanting as Ukrainian troops arrived in the city. Photos circulating on social media on November 12 showed Ukrainian activists removing memorial plaques put up by the occupation authorities the Kremlin installed to run the Kherson region.

"We are winning battles on the ground. But the war continues," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after Ukraine's recovery of Kherson.

Speaking at the summit in Cambodia on November 12, Kuleba said that reclaiming the city was "quite an exercise.

I understand that everyone wants this war to end as soon as possible. We are definitely the ones who want that more than anyone else," Kuleba said during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities, such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said that Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

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.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said.

"In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy, he said.

The Ukrainian military said on November 12 that it had carried out stabilization measures near Kherson following the end of the eight-month Russian occupation.

In a regular social media update, the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said the Russians were fortifying their battle lines on the river's eastern bank after abandoning the capital. About 70 percent of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.

With reporting by AFP
BRUSSELS -- European Union ambassadors have agreed to impose sanctions on four additional Russian individuals and three Russian entities after the revelation earlier this month that four gas turbines from the German company Siemens had been "illegally diverted" from Russia to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, sources told RFE/RL on July 26.

The European Union ambassadors backed a push by Germany for the additions to the EU's existing sanctions list, according to two officials who are familiar with the matter but were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision.

The identities of the Russian individuals and entities have not been released, but a person familiar with the matter told RFE/RL that they are likely to include Russian firms and corporate leaders responsible for transferring the Siemens turbines from Russia to Russia-occupied Crimea.

Crimea has been subjected to EU sanctions on energy technology since Russian military forces seized control of the Ukrainian region in March 2014 and the Kremlin staged a referendum that has been deemed as illegitimate by most countries in the world.

The EU has 150 people and 37 entities on a current sanctions list that has been in place since 2014. The list was renewed in March 2017 for six months and is expected to be extended again in September.

Siemens has said the turbines were "illegally" diverted "against our will" to Crimea and that it was cutting some of its ties to Russia following reports of the illegal shipments.

It said the turbines originally had been sold for use at the Taman power plant in southern Russia.

Siemens on July 21 said it would halt deliveries of power-generation equipment under its existing contracts with Russia's state-controlled entities "for the time being" in response to the revelations.

With reporting by AFP
TBILISI -- Georgias Interior Ministry has urged an activist group not to patrol the "contact lines" separating government-held territory from land controlled by Russia-backed separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Ministry representatives met with members of the Power In Unity movement on July 25 and advised them not to go ahead with plans for civilian patrols, citing the risk of undesirable consequences.

Power In Unity earlier announced plans to begin patrols in order to "protect local residents" in areas close to separatist-held territory.

Ministry officials said that a European Union Monitoring Mission and Interior Ministry units are patrolling the areas and that unauthorized patrols could be considered illegal.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi in 2008 and maintains thousands of troops in the two regions.

The United States and all but a handful of countries consider the breakaway regions to be parts of Georgia.

Georgian authorities have accused Russia and the separatists of taking control of additional territory in recent months.
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed it has identified two more German women among a group of suspected female members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group captured in Iraq.

The ministry said the women were identified after officials from the German Embassy in Baghdad visited the northern city of Mosul, where the suspects were being held.

Iraqi security forces said they had detained a total of 20 foreign female fighters after liberating Mosul from IS militants this month.

It brings the total number of German women identified to four.

German officials have already confirmed that a 16-year-old, identified as Linda W., and another woman were among the suspected female fighters captured by Iraqi forces.

German prosecutors said on July 24 that they were investigating Linda W. on suspicion of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

After running away from home following her conversion to Islam a year ago, Linda W. said she regretted her decision and just wanted to go home to my family, German media reported.

Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters
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
Iranian President Hassan Rohani said at a cabinet meeting on July 26 that his country will respond if the United States enacts a new sanctions bill. The new legislation, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 25, would impose mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The bill requires a vote by the Senate and endorsement by U.S. President Donald Trump to become law. (Reuters)
CHISINAU -- The Constitutional Court of Moldova says it will announce its ruling on July 27 about a presidential decree calling for a referendum in September on whether to expand presidential powers.

The court started discussing the issue on July 26.

Moldova's pro-Russia president, Igor Dodon, signed the decree in late March.

The decree calls for a nationwide referendum on September 24 about whether the president should be allowed to dissolve Moldova's parliament and announce early elections.

The referendum also asks voters whether the number of parliamentary deputies in the single-chamber legislature should be reduced from 101 to 71.

It also asks whether Moldovan history classes should be abolished at secondary schools across the country, and whether a law should be revoked that calls for public funds to reimburse finances that were misused by major banks during the last 25 years.

The Liberal Party of Moldova has challenged the decree, calling it unconstitutional.


Two Pakistani diplomats who were abducted in June have been "safely recovered" by security forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says.

A ministry statement on July 26 said the diplomats, who were with the Consulate General in Jalalabad, had been abducted on June 16 while traveling from Jalalabad to the Afghan-Pakistan border crossing at Torkham.

It said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had phoned Pakistan's charge d'affaires in Kabul to inform him that the two men had been recovered by Afghan forces in a security operation.

The statement said the men were handed over to Pakistan's Embassy in Kabul and would soon be flown back to Pakistan.

The ministry statement did not provide further details about the security operation or who was suspected of carrying out the abductions.

Afghanistan's relations are often tense with Pakistan, which has been accused by Kabul of secretly supporting extremists who are attempting to overthrow the Afghan government.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

Based on reporting by AFP and Radio Pakistan


Local cancer survivors and their caregivers will take the celebratory first lap at 6 p.m. Aug. 4 during the annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Houston County event at Hokah Fire Station, 9 Mill St.

Anyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers are encouraged to join the celebration. As the survivors walk, other participants will cheer them on in a demonstration of support and celebration.

The Relay For Life of Houston County is a community event where teams and individuals come together to honor, celebrate, and raise funds and awareness in an effort to free the world from the pain and suffering of cancer. Money raised will help the American Cancer Society provide free information and support for people facing the disease today, and fund cancer research that will help protect future generations.

If you are a cancer survivor or caregiver and would like to be part of the Relay For Life event, visit RelayForLife.org or relayforlife.org/houstoncountymn, or call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345.
Is Vladislav Surkov the true father of the "Little Russia" project?

The veteran political operative was, after all, the first -- and thus far only -- Kremlin official to endorse the Russian-backed separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko's call last week to replace Ukraine with a new state called Malorossia, or "Little Russia," with its capital in Donetsk.

Shortly after both Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Boris Gryzlov, Russia's main negotiator on Ukraine, distanced themselves from the idea, Surkov weighed in saying: "all this hype about the fantasy Malorossia state is useful."

He added that Zakharchenko's initiative shows that he "is fighting not to separate from Ukraine but for its territorial integrity, for all of Ukraine and not for just a part of it. There is a civil war in Ukraine between forces that see its future differently: Kyiv wants a pro-European utopia, Donbas replies with the idea of Malorossia."

Surkov's reaction is worth noting because he is the Kremlin's point man on Ukraine and is involved in formulating -- and not just executing -- policy.

Moreover, the Malorossia initiative -- a fake virtual state conjured up by a Kremlin proxy that serves the regime's interests, albeit with just enough plausible deniability -- bears all the main hallmarks of a Surkov project.

It was just the kind of thing he excelled at when he manufactured fake political parties, social movements, and assorted other cutouts as the Kremlin's top domestic political manager.

And it is in line with the Kremlin's needs of the moment.

Russia doesn't want or need a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine -- and that is exactly where this war appears to be heading.

The war in the Donbas has never been about the Donbas. It has always been a means to the end of crippling and controlling the entire country.

As military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer notes, the Malorossia project "is in line with the Kremlins longstanding strategic goal to take back all of Ukraine under Russian domination as part of the so-called 'Russkiy Mir.' In essence, Zakharchenko followed up with what the Kremlin has been seeking to obtain all along."

Resetting The War

Moreover, when Kremlin spinmeisters or proxies start dreaming up new names for Ukraine -- or, more accurately, digging up old Tsarist-era names -- it's often a sign that trouble is on the way.

Russia's war in the Donbas, of course, commenced as the term Novorossia, or "New Russia," came into vogue in Moscow to refer to the crescent-shaped strip of land stretching from Kharkiv in the north to Odesa in the south.

But there is also another piece to the puzzle.

According to Ukrainian Security Service chief Vasyl Hrytsak, in a meeting of top Russian officials in May, Vladimir Putin sharply criticized Surkov for failing to "destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine."

Hrytsak added that according to his information, Putin "also set a new task - to achieve in the shortest possible term the so-called, verbatim, 'reset of the ruling regime in Ukraine.'"

The claim, of course, is hard to verify. But what is clear is that the past two months have witnessed a marked increase in tensions in Ukraine.

Ukraine was the target of a massive cyberattack and two of its military intelligence officers were assassinated in June.

Moreover, the Observer Mission in Ukraine for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says that there was a 20 percent increase in cease-fire violations during the second week of July. And according to the Ukrainian military, Moscow-backed separatists launched 27 attacks from July 24 to July 25 alone.

Additionally, Ukraine's General Staff says Russia has increased its troop presence on Ukraine's border, amassing three divisions of motorized rifle troops capable of conducting rapid offensive operations.

Switching To Plan C

The Malorossia initiative needs to be viewed not in isolation, but in this broader context.

"The Kremlin never was interested in the Donbas. Instead, it triggered the conflict in 2014 because it thought this would swiftly force Kyiv to capitulate and accept Moscows hegemony," Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague wrote in BNE Intellinews.

"Since this failed, the Russians have found themselves stuck with recalcitrant bandit kingdoms dependent on support from their already-overstretched federal budget."

Russia appears ready to switch to Plan C on Ukraine.

Plan A, of course, was to seize all of so-called Novorossia, establish a land bridge to Crimea, and use the eastern Ukraine as a beachhead,

That plan failed when locals in much of eastern Ukraine proved more loyal to Kyiv than expected and the Ukrainian armed forces performed much better than anybody dared hope.

The Kremlin then switched to Plan B: Force Kyiv to reintegrate the Moscow-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts into a decentralized and dysfunctional Ukraine.

But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has played a very bad hand very well and has prevented Moscow from getting its way in implementing the Minsk peace deal.

So it appears to be on to Plan C: a fresh effort to destabilize Ukraine on multiple fronts.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.
Protester Dmitry Ishevsky was released from prison in Russia's Yaroslavl region after serving three years for fighting with police during a rally on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in May 2012. Amnesty International has condemned the convictions of Ishevsky and other protesters, saying the cases were politically motivated. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
One of several activists imprisoned following clashes at a protest on the eve of President Vladimir Vladimir Putin's inauguration to his current term has been released after serving a 38-month sentence.

Dmitry Ishevsky was freed from a prison in the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow on July 26.

Ishevsky was one of more than 400 people detained after clashes erupted between police and demonstrators at the May 6, 2012 rally on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square.

Ishevsky pleaded guilty to using violence against a law-enforcement officer during the protest, where activists accused police of provoking the clashes.

The rally was one of a series of large opposition protests sparked mainly by anger over electoral fraud and dismay at Putin's decision to return to the presidency after a stint as prime minister.

More than 30 people were prosecuted in connection with the clashes, and more than 20 were sentenced to prison or served time in pretrial custody.

Amnesty International has said that the police action at the rally "was not the quelling of a riot but the crushing of a protest," and that all those prosecuted were "victims of a politically motivated show trial."

Another activist jailed over the Bolotnaya Square protest, Ivan Nepomnyashchikh, is serving time in the same Yaroslavl regional prison.

The coordinator of the Levy Front (Left Front) opposition movement, Sergei Udaltsov, who was convicted of involvement in organizing the Bolotnaya protest, is serving a 4 1/2-year prison term in the Tambov region.

Another Bolotnaya protester, Maksim Panfilov, has been placed in a psychiatric clinic in Astrakhan.

Dmitry Buchenkov, who claims he did not take part in the Bolotnaya protest, is currently on trial in Moscow for allegedly assaulting police on Bolotnaya Square.

With reporting by OVD-Info
NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia -- Dozens of would-be homeowners who made down payments a decade ago on apartments that were never completed have started a hunger strike in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.

The thwarted investors, who paid all or part of the cost of their future apartments in 2007, started the hunger strike on July 25. They vowed to continue until local authorities meet their demands.

Protesters went on a four-day hunger strike in June. They stopped their hunger strike after authorities promised to solve the problem, but that has not happened.

Hundreds of people in the same predicament rallied in cities across Russia on July 25, demanding local authorities abide by presidential decrees on protecting the rights of what are called "failed homeowners."

Russian officials said earlier that some 40,000 families spread across 67 regions of Russia have been waiting for years for apartments they have paid for.


The coordinator of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalnys election staff in the city of Volgograd has been charged with desecrating Russian military symbols.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on July 26 that Aleksei Volkov was ordered not leave the city before his trial. A date for the trial has not been determined.

The probe was launched after Navalny's supporters in March distributed posters of Russia's Soviet-era "Motherland Calls" monument with the face of the memorial's major figure -- a woman symbolizing Russia, painted in green.

The activists said their idea was to urge officials to investigate attacks against Navalny, whose face was splashed several times in recent months with a green antiseptic known as zelyonka.

Volkov refused to answer investigators' questions.

Dozens of Navalnys campaign workers have been detained or questioned in Moscow and other cities in recent weeks.

Anticorruption blogger Navalny is actively campaigning for the March 2018 presidential election, in which President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to seek and win a fourth term.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax


Residents of the Taimyr Peninsula in a remote part of northern Russia are calling for a referendum that would restore the area's former status as an autonomous region.

Activists who support the change lodged a formal request with the Electoral Commission of the Krasnoyarsk Krai -- a huge region whose capital is more than 1,000 kilometers south of Taimyr -- to stage a referendum on the issue.

Activist Stella Kokh told RFE/RL on July 26 that representatives of another former autonomous region, Evenkia, had sent a letter to the Constitutional Court on July 25 urging it to "assess" the federal law under which Taimyr and Evenkia lost their autonomous status within the Krasnoyarsk Krai on January 1, 2007.

Taimyr and Evenkia -- whose residents include members of the indigenous, traditionally nomadic Nenets, Nganasan, Dolgan, and Evenk peoples -- have been fighting to restore their status as autonomous regions since 2009.

They say that local infrastructure, medical services, education facilities, and housing have been in decline because taxes from local industrial facilities go to central Krasnoyarsk Krai coffers instead of serving local needs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2003-2008 campaign to unite federal regions eliminated six out of 10 autonomous regions with indigenous populations, merging them into larger administrative areas.
Russian officials and lawmakers are sharply criticizing U.S. legislation that would impose new sanctions on Moscow and make it harder for President Donald Trump to ease or lift punitive measures.

The European Union also voiced concern on July 26, saying it is ready to take swift action if the legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives a day earlier ends up undermining EU energy security.

In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the House vote was a "step toward the destruction of prospects for the normalization of relations" between Washington and Moscow.

"We have said dozens of times that these actions will not be left without a response," state-run Russian news agency TASS quoted Ryabkov, the Foreign Ministry's point man for relations with the United States, as saying.

Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency the new sanctions are pushing Russia and the United States "into uncharted territory both in the political and diplomatic sense."

The bill, which would also impose new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, passed in a near-unanimous vote of 419-3 on July 25.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said news of its passage was "very sad from the point of view of Russian-American relations and the prospects of their development."

The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it was "no less discouraging from the point of view of international law and international trade relations."

It is not clear when the U.S. Senate will address the bill.

After initially indicating Trump would sign the bill, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on July 25 that while "the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the presidents desk."

If Trump rejects the bill, Congress could override his veto if there is enough support for the legislation.

meanwhile, Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's upper parliament house, said the U.S. legislation would do further harm to relations and called for a response that would be "painful" for the United States.

Strong bipartisan support for the sanctions legislation adds to pressure on Trump, whose presidency has been clouded by allegations that Russia meddled in the election on his behalf.

The Justice Department and Congress are conducting separate investigations into Moscow's alleged interference and whether there was any collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Trump repeatedly indicated during the campaign that he would seek to improve ties with Moscow, which have been badly damaged by Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula and aggression in eastern Ukraine, where it supports separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

But relations have remained severely strained amid the multiple investigations into what the U.S. intelligence community says was an "influence campaign" of cyberattacks and propaganda ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to help Trump and denigrate his Democratic rival on the November 8 ballot, Hillary Clinton.

The new sanctions would add to punitive measures, mostly targeting the Russian economy and associates of Putin, imposed by the administration of former President Barack Obama in response to Russia's interference in Ukraine.

Passage by such a large margin in the House indicates many lawmakers from both parties want to punish Russia for its alleged attempts to interfere in the U.S. election as well as its actions in Ukraine and in Syria, where it has given President Bashar al-Assad's forces crucial support in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"It is well past time that we forcibly respond," said House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce, a Republican from California. "Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression."

Republican House speaker Paul Ryan said the sanctions package "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe."

Some members of Trump's Republican Party saw the bill as a mild rebuff of what one suggested was his excessive eagerness to improve relations with Russia.

Trump's "rhetoric toward the Russians has been far too accommodating and conciliatory up to this point," said Representative Charlie Dent, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

"Russian behavior has been atrocious," he said. "They deserve these enhanced sanctions. Relations with Russia will improve when Russian behavior changes and they start to fall back into the family of nations."

Under the bill, Trump would be required to send Congress a report explaining why he wants to suspend or terminate sanctions imposed on Russia. Lawmakers would then have 30 days to decide whether to allow him to act.

The bill has drawn criticism from European Union allies, who have warned it could end up penalizing European firms that work with Russia on joint energy projects like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea.

House leaders said that they had altered language in the bill to try to address those concerns, but the EU indicated on July 26 that it still was worried.

In a statement, the European Commission said that the wording of the bill endorsed by the House "demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account.

"It nevertheless foresees the imposition of sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernization, or repair of energy export pipelines by the Russian Federation. Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe -- for instance, the maintenance and upgrade of pipelines in Russia that feed the Ukraine gas-transit system. It could also have an impact on projects crucial to the EU's diversification objectives, such as the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas project," the statement said.

The bill "could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests. This is why the commission concluded today that if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days," it quoted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying. "America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last."

The bill's sanctions on North Korea would bar ships owned by Pyongyang or by countries that refuse to comply with UN sanctions against North Korea from operating in American waters or docking at U.S. ports. Goods produced by North Korea's forced labor would be prohibited from entering the United States.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani said his country would respond if the United States enacts the bill.

The sanctions against Iran would impose mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic-missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization and enforce an arms embargo against Iran.

Iranian officials say the bill violates the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers under which Tehran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same, too," Rohani said at a cabinet meeting aired by state broadcaster IRIB on July 26.

With reporting by RFE/RL Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, TASS, Interfax, RIA, Reuters, AFP, and AP
Relatives of Raoul Wallenberg have filed a lawsuit against Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to provide uncensored documentation that could help determine the fate of the former Swedish diplomat and war hero.

Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from slaughter during World War II, was captured by Soviet forces in 1945 and died two years later in prison.

Russia has only said that Wallenberg died in 1947 in Moscow's notorious Lubyanka prison, which was run by the KGB security service, although details of the death remain unclear. The FSB is the successor agency of the KGB.

Wallenberg's niece, Marie Dupuy, said on July 26 that she had asked the Russian legal association Team 29 to file suit in a Moscow court because "numerous requests to Russian authorities over many years, publicly and privately, by myself, by expert historians, and Swedish officials, have failed to yield any results."

Dupuy claimed Russian archives contained documents with direct relevance related to Wallenberg's fate but said his family and independent experts have not been allowed to examine the documents.

"Our search for answers will continue until we know what happened to Raoul Wallenberg, and why," Dupuy said.

The FSB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters


Russia's upper house of parliament has asked President Vladimir Putin to start preparing sanctions on Poland over its plans to demolish Soviet monuments, Russian state media reported on July 25.

But the Kremlin said Putin has made no decision yet on taking measures against Poland over legislation recently passed in Warsaw that authorizes the government to dismantle as many as 500 Soviet monuments viewed as relics of a totalitarian regime.

Polish officials have said the Soviet Union was an occupying state during the four decades following World War II and, with nationalist sentiment rising, they want to remove hundreds of monuments erected during that era.

Last week, Russia's Foreign Ministry warned against the plans, saying that removing Soviet monuments would violate heritage agreements between Russia and Poland.

Based on reporting by dpa, Interfax, and TASS
Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and Ukrainian governor who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship on July 26, may be forced to seek asylum in the United States, a Ukrainian legislator said.

Saakashvili said on Facebook that he was visiting the United States when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stripped him of his citizenship, but he did not indicate whether he would seek to stay there.

The Ukrainian legislator from Poroshenko's faction in parliament, Serhiy Leshchenko, said on Facebook that if Saakashvili seeks to return to Ukraine, he would face extradition to Georgia to face charges for alleged crimes that occurred during his presidency.

Poroshenko had appointed Saakashvili, a reformist who became president of Georgia during the 2003 Rose Revolution but later fell out of favor, to be governor of the Odesa region in 2015. Poroshenko saw him at that time as an ally.

But Saakashvili resigned the post last year, complaining of official obstruction of his anticorruption efforts.

Saakashvili's supporters on July 26 called Poroshenko's action to strip Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship an "unconstitutional" reprisal for Saakashvili's criticisms.

Poroshenko offered no public explanation for the move, but Leshchenko said late on July 26 that the president's intention was to force Saakashvili to stay out of the country and seek refuge in the United States.

"Saakashvili cannot return to Ukraine even physically, as he will be detained at Boryspil [Airport] upon arrival and will be extradited to Georgia," Leshchenko said.

Since Saakashvili cannot return to Ukraine and is in danger of being extradited to Georgia, Poroshenko's decision was designed to force Saakashvili "to take an asylum in America and forget about Ukrainian politics," Leshchenko said.

The move derails any chance Saakashvili could seek office in Ukraine, though the party he formed is seeking early elections there. Under Ukrainian law, only Ukrainian citizens can lead political parties or be elected to parliament.

Other lawmakers in Poroshenko's bloc criticized the president's decision.

"Stripping Mikheil Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship is the most stupid thing that one could think up, a sign of weakness not befitting a president of Ukraine," said legislator Mustafa Nayyem.

"One may disagree with Mikheil, some may not like him, but overall Saakashvili is on our side of civilized barricades," he said."In the end, the winner in the squabble between the two presidents could be anyone, but not Ukraine."

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and Interfax






An older man contacted me recently with a problem. A visit to the doctor left him with thousands in unpaid bills. Medicare deemed the tests routine and not a medical necessity. But the gentleman was told, for his occupation, the tests were absolutely necessary.

He was left with a medical bill costing more than his 2017 income.

The top-notch staff at the Department of Health Services (DHS), discovered the man was likely eligible for Medicaid. But the man wasnt interested.

The constituent relations department within DHS has been a godsend over the years, helping me solve many difficult medical cases. Im very grateful for their help. Im sure they saved many lives by connecting people to health coverage. But, if a person doesnt want state help, there is little they or I can do.

Unless we change our state health care system and the perception of seeking assistance.

What if everyone had affordable health care? If you hadnt signed up, you could sign up the first time you saw the doctor, physicians assistant or nurse practitioner.

Behind the scenes, hospitals and clinics know theyd be paid. If you were eligible for Medicaid, youd get the benefits. Seamlessly, payers would pay bills, providers would be paid and people would no longer pay any insurance premiums.

You could choose a provider in your area from several options. Your plan would include comprehensive benefits including maternity and mental health coverage.

If you lost your job, you could keep your health coverage. If you took a new job or started your own business, you could keep your health coverage.

Employers no longer would worry about health coverage. Sure, they could offer extra benefits if they wanted, but basic coverage would be disconnected from employment  taking a huge irritation off a companys plate.

Health care doesnt have to be so complicated. Other countries have figured out how to solve this problem. And Wisconsin can too.

In fact, ten years ago this summer, Wisconsin actually had a plan on the table to create such a system. Senate Democrats introduced Healthy Wisconsin, a plan written by Senators Erpenbach, Miller and myself. Under our plan, coverage would have cost 14.5% of payroll  split between employers and employees.

This summer, an idea to offer BadgerCare for all attracted attention. I support the plan and see the idea as a first step. Details of the plan are sparse, but it would require the Trump administration to allow a public option in Wisconsin on the federal marketplace Healthcare.gov.

Minnesotas Governor Dayton introduced a plan to offer MinnesotaCare as a public option. He used the states authority and the states own health care marketplace, MNsure. He put together a plan that leveraged federal dollars and the states large Medicaid pool to add self-employed and small business people. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the cost would be entirely funded by premiums and tax credits.

GOP controlled Legislators didnt deliver Daytons request, but Minnesota is a lot closer to moving to a public option than Wisconsin. Wisconsin needs the flexibility of our own marketplace to explore options that work best for our state. Thats why I recently introduced a bill to create Wisconsins own health care marketplace.

Senate Bill 359 and Assembly Bill 445, the companion co-authored by Representative Sargent, creates a unique badger-based approach to a health marketplace. Using innovations to balance high quality, cost control and wide access, Wisconsin can have its own approach.

We can move toward a system that minimizes the everyday hassles of health insurance and eliminates the fear of a loss of coverage just when you need it the most.

Access to affordable, high quality health care is a duty of our society to everyone. Health care for all is a moral responsibility of our people to each other. Finding the best way to pay for and deliver the care should be the topic of discussion. Instead, some public officials propose dropping coverage and cutting state budgets. Harsh talk stigmatizes Medicaid.

Instead, lets share our vision of what health care for all looks like for each of us. And, meanwhile, support leaders who find ways to work together and take steps toward our mutual vision.
The latest blaze broke out in Bormes-Les-Mimosas, in Provence. The blaze may have been started by arsonists, said Francois Arizzi, the mayor of Bormes-les-Mimosas. The investigation will tell us, but I suspect there was malice. Some people were forced to sleep on the beach at Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var region in southern France . France asked for Europes help to tackle the flames.



People sleeping on beach

On Tuesday over 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilized. At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation. had devoured around 4,000 hectares (15 square miles) of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on Corsica. A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained. Its a disaster area. Theres nothing left, deputy mayor Rene Carandante said. In Carros, north of Nice, local mayor Charles Scibetta described waking up to a lunar landscape and said residents had a lucky escape. Portugal has been battling fresh blazes since Sunday in centre of the country, forcing the evacuation of around 10 villages.
The Eclipse Safari mobile app from Simulation Curriculum is one of many mobile tools you can use to make the most of the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.

Eclipse day is almost here! On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will sweep coast to coast across the United States. To help you make the most of your experience, consider packing an eclipse app in your pocket.

Below are seven such apps, which can provide you with information about when the eclipse will take place in your location, scientific information about the eclipse, and even audible announcements about when to put on and take off solar glasses. And if clouds obscure your view of the big event, you can watch NASA's live stream on most of these apps.

REMEMBER: Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. See our complete guide to find out how to view the eclipse safely.

Eclipse Safari (iTunes, Google Play)

We must admit we're a bit biased when it comes to this app, because it features a section of up-to-date eclipse articles from Space.com, as well the Space.com Twitter account. And that's just the start: Eclipse-goers will delight in the number of features offered in this free app, including a countdown timer, an interactive eclipse map (for any location on Earth), a shadow tracker, an eclipse simulator and even a live stream on eclipse day. This app comes from Simulation Curriculum, the company behind the mobile astronomy app SkySafari.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=simulationcurriculum.com.simcur_eclipse&hl=en

https://itunes.apple.com/ng/app/eclipse-safari/id1249431306?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

NASA GLOBE Observer (iTunes, Google Play)

The NASA-sponsored Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program is asking citizen scientists to submit their eclipse observations through this app. You can contribute observations of the total solar eclipse or partial solar eclipse. Data collected from the app will contribute to real NASA science. You can learn more about the app here.

Users can continue using the GLOBE Observer app after the total solar eclipse is over. The app can also be used to submit observational data of Earths cloud cover (which is then compared to NASA satellite observations) and the location of mosquito habitats (to reduce the threat of misquito-borne disease).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/globe-observer/id1090456751?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.nasa.globe.observer&hl=en

Smithsonian Eclipse 2017 (iTunes, Google Play)

We love this free app not only for its eclipse features, but also because it brings the latest Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory news to your pocket. Other features include a connection to NASA's live stream of the eclipse, an interactive eclipse map to tell you when the eclipse will occur in your location, and lots of science content such as views of the sun from space and a virtual view inside an eclipse simulator.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=simulationcurriculum.com.eclipse&hl=en

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smithsonian-eclipse-2017/id1231609009?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

Total Solar Eclipse by the Exploratorium (iTunes, Google Play)

The total solar eclipse mobile app from the Exploratorium science museum is one of the mobile tools that can help you on eclipse day. (Image credit: Exploratorium)

In this free app from the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, both science and content are key. The app features a mind-blowing five live streams of the eclipse, including one with an orchestral arrangement happening at the Exploratorium. Other features include both Spanish- and English-language discussions about the eclipse, as well as a live view of the eclipse from Wyoming and Oregon. Also bundled in there are science facts about total solar eclipses, and how to view the event safely.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.exploratorium.totalsolareclipse&hl=en

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/total-solar-eclipse/id1230195450?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

Solar Eclipse App by timeanddate.com (iTunes only)

If you want a free "just the facts" approach to the eclipse, this app has you covered. It focuses on the essentials to get you looking at the sky at the right place and the right time, providing a map of the eclipse, a countdown to when it happens, animations of its path and some general information to help you with your view.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1200401017 (opens in new tab)

Eclipse 2017 from eclipse2017.org (iTunes, Google Play)

Another (mostly) free, but fully functional eclipse app is the one made by the people behind the Eclipse2017 website. The app's makers promise that "no astronomy degree is required" to understand the information. It focuses on the two basic things every person needs to know about the eclipse: where the total eclipse will be visible and what time will it happen depending on where you are. The free version has no ads, but if you'd like the app to use your GPS to help you on eclipse day, you'll need to pay for an upgrade.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipse2017.org&hl=en

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eclipse2017.org/id1176818506?ls=1&mt=8 (opens in new tab)

Solar Eclipse Timer (iTunes, Google Play)

This interesting and free app, made by a person who has observed many total solar eclipses, offers several features: audible voice countdowns to the "contact" times (points during the moon's progress across the face of the sun), announcements about interesting things to look for (such as lighting changes or drops in temperature) and even when it's safe to take your solar glasses off. If this sounds complicated, no fear  there's a demo mode to let you practice ahead of time. This app is perfect for anyone planning to photograph the eclipse or observe it with a telescope, because the app alleviates the need for you to remember things like when to take off your camera's or telescope's solar filters.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/solar-eclipse-timer/id1203105865?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foxwoodastronomy.solareclipsetimer&hl=en

Totality by Big Kid Science App (iTunes, Google Play)

Just like the Exploratorium app, this free app was created by a group of professional science educators. It includes all the basics, such as information about what you'll see at your current location, the nearest spot where totality will be visible (if you're not currently inside the path), plus basic information about how, why and when eclipses occur. This app might be ideal for teachers and educators, as it also features activities for families and schools.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/totality-by-big-kid-science/id1199242023?mt=8 (opens in new tab)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.germinateapps.totalityapp

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Mitochondria: totally real cell organelles that convert sugars, fats and oxygen into usable energy for cells. Midi-chlorians: completely made-up and widely derided microscopic life-forms that give Jedi warriors their ability to use the Force in the "Star Wars" movies.

See the difference? A handful of "peer reviewers" apparently didn't, as a paper that subbed in "midi-chlorians" for "mitochondria" got accepted into four journals this week. The paper mashed up lightly altered text from Wikipedia on mitochondria with Star Wars-related rambling, including the infamous monologue on the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise from "Revenge of the Sith."

The paper was a hoax written by the so-called Neuroskeptic, who blogs pseudonymously for Discover magazine. The point? To expose "predatory journals," which claim to offer peer-reviewed, open-access publication but in fact publish almost anything for a fee, according to the Neuroskeptic. [Nice Try: Top 5 Retracted Science Studies of 2016]

"It's all about money," said Jeffrey Beall, a research librarian at the University of Colorado Denver who has long worked to expose predatory publishers. In many cases, Beall said, the peer reviewers who are supposed to check the papers submitted to these journals don't even exist, or the owner of the journal poses as the reviewers. [Dog 'Scientist' Sits on Editorial Board of Medical Journal]

"Star Wars" sting

Neuroskeptic's sting isn't the first to expose these journals for what they are. These journals make a profit by charging authors fees to publish; as the papers are published online only, the publishers' cost is minimal. They often spam researchers' email accounts with solicitations to publish. In one case, a predatory journal actually accepted paper by two researchers that just read "Get me Off Your F---ing Mailing List" over and over again. In another sting, researchers made up a fake scientist, Dr. Szust (Polish for "fraud") and got her onto the boards of 48 separate predatory journals (opens in new tab).

Inspired by these stings, Neuroskeptic put together a fake paper mixing up mitochondria and midi-chlorians, even admitting in the text that most of the wording had been stolen from Wikipedia. A sample:

"Midichlorians-mediated oxidative stress causes cardio-myopathy in Type 2 diabetics. As more fatty acids are delivered to the heart, and into cardiomyocytes, the oxidation of fatty acids in these cells increases. Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It is not a story the Jedi would tell you."

(The tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, a monologue by the actor Ian McDiarmid playing the character of Palpatine, became a meme among "Star Wars" fans in early 2017.)

Journals' responses

Neuroskeptic sent the paper to nine journals responsible for spamming scientists. Four  The American Journal of Medical and Biological Research, the International Journal of Molecular Biology: Open Access, the Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the American Research Journal of Biosciences  accepted the nonsensical paper. The latter three even published it without receiving a fee. Most likely, Beall said, those journals were using the paper to artificially inflate their publication record and to make their websites look more legitimate. The Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the International Journal of Molecular Biology: Open Access later removed the paper.

The Journal of Translational Science, Advances in Medicine and Biochemistry & Physiology: Open Access rejected the paper. JSM Biochemistry and Molecular Biology requested Neuroskeptic revise and resubmit the paper; whoever read it there got the joke and asked that the revised paper include such citations as Palpatine, et al. 1980. Meanwhile, the Journal of Molecular Biology and Techniques (not to be confused with the Journal of Molecular Biology) simply asked that "midichlorians" be changed to "mitochondria" and that the paper be resubmitted. Representatives of the all of these journals did not respond to requests for comment.

"They just really want to earn the money from the authors, so they find any way they can to accept the papers," Beall told Live Science of predatory journals.

Most predatory journals are headquartered overseas, and there is no real way to combat them legally, Beall said. Instead, organizations such as Think, Check, Submit encourage researchers to look for warning signs that a journal isn't legitimate. These signs include journals with titles very similar to the names of big journals in a field, often with just an extra word added, Beall said, or with websites chock-full of grammatical errors.

The journals hurt science by luring in unsuspecting researchers and charging them to publish, Beall said. Some scientists also exploit predatory journals to pump up their publication count in order to secure jobs and promotions.

"This really hurts the researchers who publish in the top journals and who do honest research," Beall said.

Not all references to midi-chlorians are a sham, though: A group of bacteria discovered in 2004 are known as Midichloria. They live inside ticks  but probably don't give those bloodsuckers the ability to use the Force.

Original article on Live Science.
Planet Earth is feeling the heat.

With the world facing increased warming, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, intense weather events and other global disasters, scientists are exploring ways to re-engineer the planet to counter the effects of global warming.

Earth's surface has warmed, on average over land and sea, 1.53 degreesFahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) since 1880, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international organization created by the United Nations to evaluate the state of climate change science. [Changing Earth: 7 Ideas to Geoengineer Our Planet]

In the most recent issue of the journal Science, published online Thursday (July 20), two researchers provided perspective on two geoengineering methods that could reduce the so-called greenhouse effect, under which gases and clouds in Earth's atmosphere trap the sun's heat. Both schemes could contribute to a cooler climate, but they are not without risks. And as both researchers made clear, neither idea addresses the rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere that is primarily to blamefor global warming and higher levels of oceanic acid. This acidity is killing the coral reefs that shelter marine life and support the fish that humans eat.

Ulrike Lohmann and Blaz Gasparini, both researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Scienceat ETH Zurich inSwitzerland, proposed a counterintuitive plan : Seed the upper atmosphere with tiny particles of desert dust to reduce cirrus clouds. These are the wispy, nearly invisible clouds that form at high altitudes. Unlike fat, billowy clouds that reflect sunlight, these clouds trap heat energy radiating up from Earth out into space.

"If cirrus clouds behave like a blanket around the Earth, you're trying to get rid of that blanket," Lohmann, a professor of experimental atmospheric physics at ETH Zurich, told Live Science.

Thinning the clouds

Seeding the atmosphere with dust would paradoxically thin out cirrus clouds, Lohman said. Under normal circumstances, the atmosphere at altitudes of about 16,000 to 40,000 feet (4,800 to 12,200 meters) is full of tiny particles. Some are solid particles like mineral dust, and some are liquid aerosols, such assulfuric acid. The liquid aerosols freeze instantly and create ice crystals that form long-lasting cirrus clouds.

Cirrus thinning changes this dynamic, Lohman said. The idea, Lohmann said, is to inject solid particles, like desert dust, into the atmosphere at spots slightly lower than where cirrus clouds would naturally form. The quantity of dust introduced would be far less than the number of particles that exist higher up. This part is key, because fewer particles will attract more water vapor, creating larger crystals. As the ice crystals grow to larger and heavier, they would and fall as precipitation, and depending on the conditions would evaporate before reaching the ground.

"You remove the water vapor, you remove the humidity and you prevent the normal cirrus cloud formation," Lohmann said. [8 Ways Global Warming is Already Changing the World]

Ideally, the method would be applied to locations most susceptible to cirrus cloud formation, Lohmann said  geographical latitudes above 60 degrees, including the Arctic, where temperature increases from CO2 are the greatest.

The researchers' computer models have shown that if done correctly, cirrus thinning could reduce global temperatures by 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C), Lohmann said. But if done incorrectly, the activity could produce cirrus clouds where none existed before, contributing to the very problem it's meant to solve, she added.

Risky business

The risk of doing more harm than good is a concern, said Ulrike Niemeier, a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and her colleague Simone Tilmes, a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Niemeier and Tilmes published a separate commentary in this week's issue of the journal Science that discusses a geoengineering method called stratospheric aerosol modification (SAM).

SAM involves injecting sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere to increase the reflectivity of Earth's atmosphere. Computer models have shown that SAM could reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the planet's surface. The effect would resemble that of ash clouds that linger after volcanic eruptions, which have been shown to lower global temperatures, the researchers wrote.

But the science behind SAM is in its very early stages, and the technologies to deploy it are not developed, the researchers added.

"It was our intention to say that [geoengineering] is not something that we should have in the back of our minds as the main solution," Niemeier told Live Science.

Niemeier and Tilmes wrote that different computer models consistently identify side effects to SAM. For example, reducing incoming solar radiation also reduces evaporation, which in turn reduces precipitation, and that can slow the hydrological cycle, particularly in the tropics, the authors wrote. Less rainfall could increase droughts that are already devastating parts of the world.

Although computer models tend to agree that its best to inject the aerosols into the stratosphere above the tropics or subtropics, and that the aerosols would disperse globally, the models differ on the extent of injection required for a given level of cooling, the authors wrote.

"Most current Earth-system models do not adequately capture important interactions, such as the coupling between stratospheric aerosols, chemistry, radiation and climate. They cannot, therefore, simulate the full impact of the interventions," Niemeier and Tilmes wrote.

Complicated solutions

Even if scientists could figure out a precise method, the economics are mind-boggling. Using SAM to bring down global temperatures just 2 degrees F (1 degree C), to preindustrial levels, would require injection amounts equivalent to one volcanic eruption per year the size of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo blast in the Philippines  the largest volcanic eruption in the last 100 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The cost of dispersing that much content artificially would cost $20 billionper year and require 6,700 aircraft flights per day over 160 years, the researchers wrote.

No single method can solve the climate change problem as a whole, either, they said.

"Any geoengineering method we know of can only offset part of the global warming that we have," Lohmann said.

And no method designed to cool the planet deals with the gases in the atmosphere that are the sources of the problem and are contributing to increasing levels of acid in the oceans, the researchers said.

"It doesn't get at the heart of the problem," Lohmann said. "The ocean acidification is ongoing."

If society decides to undertake any geoengineering method, she said, this action should be accompanied by large efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Niemeier said emission reductions should be the primary focus. "We are quite critical about [geoengineering], and we want people to be aware it would be a difficult."

Original article on Live Science.
Artist's illustration of Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander on the surface of the moon.

A private moon lander now has a ride to space for its maiden lunar mission in 2019.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic's robotic Peregrine lander will lift off atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket on its first trip to the moon's surface two years from now, representatives of both companies announced today (July 26).

"Astrobotic is thrilled to select a ULA launch vehicle as the means to get Peregrine to the moon," Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a statement. "By launching with ULA, Astrobotic can rest assured our payload customers will ride on a proven launch vehicle with a solid track record of success."

During the 2019 mission, Peregrine will carry 77 lbs. (35 kilograms) of payload to the lunar surface. Astrobotic has already signed 11 contracts with customers who want to participate in this flight, company representatives said.

This first mission is a demonstration designed to prove out Peregrine's capabilities. Astrobotic envisions the lander eventually entering relatively frequent service, ferrying up to 585 lbs. (265 kg) at a time to the moon for a variety of customers, from government space agencies such as NASA to companies that aim to exploit lunar resources, Astrobotic representatives said.

Peregrine may not be the first private lander to touch down on the moon, however, even if Astrobotic's 2019 schedule holds. Five teams remain in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP), which will award $20 million to the first privately funded group to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon, move it at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) and have it beam home high-resolution photos and imagery.

These five teams  Hakuto, Moon Express, SpaceIL, Synergy Moon and TeamIndus  have until the end of the year to accomplish these goals; the prize expires after Dec. 31, 2017.

Astrobotic was a participant in the GLXP, but the company dropped out last year.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
SPARTA  Francis Butch Gene Blackburn, 78, of Sparta died Monday, July 24, 2017, at Gundersen Health System, La Crosse. A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Patricks Catholic Church, Sparta. Burial with full military honors will follow in Woodlawn Cemetery, Sparta. Family and friends may visit from 9 a.m. to time of service at the church. Torkelson Page-Smith Funeral Home of Sparta is assisting the family with arrangements.
Shaheed El-Hafed, 24 July 2017 (SPS) - Minister Counselor to the Presidency of the Republic, member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, Bashir Mustafa Sayed, chaired Monday a meeting of the subcommittee for national and international program of solidarity with the Sahrawi political prisoners group and condemnation of the unjust sentences issued against them.

The subcommittee established a comprehensive national program at national and international levels for solidarity with all Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons, condemnation of the occupation regime in various ways and means available and pressure to ensure international protection of human rights and accelerate the decolonization of the last African colony, Western Sahara.

The subcommittee held the Moroccan occupation state fully responsible for consequences of that might result from its unfair sentences against the Sahrawi militants who demand the Saharawi people's right to freedom and dignity, calling on the Saharawi people to pursue the comprehensive mobilization of solidarity and support for the Gdeim Izik prisoners. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




K aty Perry, Caitlyn Jenner and George Takei are among the stars who have publically condemned Donald Trump for banning transgender people from serving in the US military.

A host of celebrities voiced their disbelief and rage on their social media accounts after the President of the United States made the shock announcement on Wednesday.

Reality star Jenner, who supported Trump during the US elections, asked him what had happened to his promise to protect the LGBT community.

She wrote: 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?

Staunch Hillary Clinton advocate Perry wrote: ALL those who defend our right to live freely should be able to serve freely! There are THOUSANDS currently serving! #ProtectTransTroops.

Star Wars actor Takei angrily tweeted: Donald: With your ban on trans people from the military, you are on notice that you just p***** off the wrong community. You will regret it.

He added: History shall record that you are not only the stupidest, most incompetent president ever, but also the cruelest and pettiest. #Shame.

I grew up in a military w/ LGBT people serving in the shadows. We can't let DT turn back the clock on our brave, trans soldiers. #RISEUP, wrote filmmaker Dustin Lance Black.

Transgender activist and former soldier Chelsea Manning wrote: so, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? sounds like cowardice #WeGotThis.

She said militaries like the US army have always been a social experiment just as much as a fighting force.

Donald Trump bans transgender people from the military

She added: Today is further reason we should dismantle the bloated and dangerous military/intel/police state to fund #healthcare for all.

On Wednesday, Trump wrote: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.
Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe
This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for:

Enter Search Term(s):

Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL.

Thank you for visiting state.gov.
Jordan has donated at least six AH-1F helicopter gunships to Kenya. American military aid will apparently pay for some or all of the maintenance support provided by the manufacturer. Kenya already operates the similar UH-1 transport helicopter and many countries with small defense budgets prefer the older UH-1 and AH-1 helicopters because they are much cheaper to operate than more recent models and are relatively inexpensive to keep operational by replacing worn out engines and other components.

Most current AH-1s are based on the American AH-1F, a 4.5 ton helicopter equipped with a three barrel 20mm automatic cannon and 750 rounds of ammo. Also carried are four TOW, or eight Hellfire missiles. The AH-1F can also carry unguided 70mm rockets or Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. The AH-1F is also equipped for night operations, has a crew of two and stays in the air for up to four hours per sortie. Max speed is about 270 kilometers an hour, and cruising speed is about two-thirds that. The aircraft also carries countermeasures for anti-aircraft missiles. Jordan has operated AH-1s since the 1990s and is now replacing some of them with AH-6I gunships. Jordan began receiving 31 AH-1s from the United States in the late 1990s.

The AH-1 was developed in the 1960s and entered service with U.S. troops in Vietnam during 1967. Many countries still use it. But time and change are inevitable. In 2014 Israel revealed that it was replacing all of its 33 elderly AH-1 helicopter gunships with armed UAVs. Israel is a major developer and manufacturer of UAVs and its armed UAVs were increasingly being sent to carry out on surveillance missions long handled by the AH-1s. Moreover, the UAVs could stay in the air longer (over 12 hours compared to about 90 minutes for the AH-1s) and were cheaper to operate and did not expose Israeli pilots to danger. So Israel decided to stop using the AH-1s (except for emergencies) and see if UAVs could effectively replace the choppers. The UAVs could and did. That worked and all the AH-1s were retired in 2015. As is Israeli custom most were put in storage, just in case.

In 2015 Israel donated 16 of its recently retired AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships to its neighbor Jordan. This all began in late 2014, with help from the United States to handle upgrades and maintenance. While the helicopters are provided free Jordan will assume operational and maintenance costs, which will not be a great burden because Jordan already operates twenty or so older AH-1Fs. Some of the Israeli AH-1s were used for spare parts and rest will be used to increase border security. Islamic terrorists are increasingly threatening Jordan and helicopter gunships are frequently used to deal illegal border crossers. Only about a dozen of the Jordans AH-1s are operational because of age and lack of spare parts. The United States is helping out with the maintenance issues and Israel has some parts left over from the 17 AH-1s earlier retired.
In the northwest (Xinjiang province) the government has introduced mandatory spyware installation on all smart phones used by residents of the province. There are many Turks (Uighurs and other Central Asian minorities) in Xinjiang and most of them are Moslem and the source of most of the few Islamic terrorism recruits China has produced. The main cause of unrest in Xinjiang is ethnic and economic but China justifies (at least to the outside world) the growing list of restrictions in Xinjiang with the need to eliminate Islamic terrorism. Nationwide most of the violent unrest is because corruption and government failures but that sort of thing is not given as much media coverage as Islamic terrorism and other foreign threats (like American warships passing through the South China Sea). The new mandatory spyware in Xinjiang monitors smart phone use in much more detail and constantly reports back to the government censors. Normally most of the several million people working for the national Internet censorship bureaucracy look for anti-government activity online. The use of the new spyware is an earlier effort to introduce similar spyware nationwide. That generated more trouble (and backlash) than it was worth and was halted. The Xinjiang effort seems to be another test of the idea. Police in Xinjiang are checking locals (who must produce their ID cards at the many checkpoints established in the past few years) and those whose smart phones do not have the spyware are punished. Naturally the spyware is not popular but the government publicized some recent arrests (for incorrect through online) to the spyware.

Meanwhile Xinjiang is a problem and more so than Tibet, the other troublesome western province. Xinjiang has about eight times the population of Tibet but only a third more territory. Unlike Tibet Xinjiang is still angry enough to generate lots of violent attacks on security forces and recent migrants from eastern China. There was less violence in 2016 but at the end of the year three Uighurs drove into the government compound, set off a bomb and were shot dead by police. A policeman and a civilian also died. Aside from the bomb the Uighur attackers were only armed with knives.

The government has had a media blackout in Xinjiang for years but Chinese language media outside of China has been able to interview Xinjiang residents, including some who recently served in the security forces there. Those witnesses tell a different story, indicating that during 2016 there were about twenty protests and violent incidents a week in Xinjiang. Those familiar with how Chinese censors work point out that the government can get away with saying nothing is happening as long as no ethnic Han Chinese, with kin elsewhere in China, are killed. This is especially true when the dead are soldiers, police or government officials. These deaths stir up Internet chatter among the Han majority in China. The censors can suppress such forbidden chatter but cannot eliminate it. When the government does have to admit to anti-government violence in Xinjiang they describe the perpetrators as common criminals or Islamic terrorists.

The reality is that the Xinjiang problems are more about the native ethnic Turk population resisting being overwhelmed by Han Chinese migration to the area. China accuses Islamic terror groups among the ethnic Turks (Uighurs) of Xinjiang for all these problems. Unhappy Uighurs are increasingly aggressive in protesting, if not attacking, the growing Chinese presence among them. The Xinjiang Uighurs never responded well to growing pressure from Han Chinese soldiers and intrusive Han government officials. Because of that many Uighurs continue to support anti-Han activity and this made it possible for some Islamic terrorists to survive and operate there for a while. Most Uighurs are found in Xinjiang province where nine million of them are now less than half the population and most of the rest are Han Chinese. The government has been publicly urging soldiers and police to be more aggressive against uncooperative Uighurs and in 2015 the security forces were told to do whatever they thought necessary to keep the peace. That attitude has intensified since then. The government accuses Uighur activists of endangering state security and tries to keep the unrest out of the news. The same thing is happening in Tibet, where the government is using the same tools to keep everyone under control. Since 2011 several hundred have died in Xinjiang because of Uighur violence against Han rule. Thousands of Uighurs have been arrested and hundreds sentenced to prison, or death. While Islamic terrorism is seen as a major threat in the West the Chinese regard that threat in China as largely confined to Xinjiang. Despite the occasional attack, the Chinese now believe they have it under control but not eliminated.

Making Corruption Useful

President Xi Jinping is accused of using the anti-corruption campaign to purge the government of officials he considers insufficiently loyal. There is some truth to that but so far there have been no false accusations but some corrupt officials have escaped punishment and many of those appear to be cozy with Xi and his cronies. The anti-corruption effort against senior officials has been going on since 2012.

So far in 2017 0ver 201,000 government officials have been punished for corruption. That is on track to match the number punished for all of 2016. What is most encouraging is that many more very senior officials are being hit and hit hard with jail time and confiscation of what they stole. This is where the accusations against Xi Jinping fade because most Chinese dont care, for the moment. The fact is that there are so many corrupt senior officials going to jail who long considered themselves immune to punishment. If taking down many of these senior crooks also eliminates someone who displeased Xi Jinping that is not a problem until it is. China is still a communist police state, but an uncharacteristically prosperous one. There are well-founded fears that Xi Jinping is trying to make himself leader for as long as he wants. Most Chinese dont care as long as the good economic times last and they otherwise feel good to be Chinese. .

Meanwhile Xi Jinping regularly meets with the senior leadership and repeats how important it is to eliminate corruption in the military and for the military to keep in mind that its primary loyalty is to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). A growing number of junior officers are indicating that they are not focused on that aspect of their military duties. The government has been taking several steps to educate everyone. In November 2016 Xi Jinping persuaded the senior members of the government to add to his titles one (translated as core or core leader) that makes him equal to communist China founder Mao Zedong. No other Chinese leader since Mao Zedong (who died in 1976) has had that kind of power. While Mao has become popular with many Chinese, those who lived through the 1960s see Mao as a major failure. That is what led to the economic reforms that have transformed China. Xi Jinping has, as expected, used this Mao-grade power to deal with the corruption that still persists in the senior ranks of the government and military. To demonstrate that as soon as Xi was declared a core leader the Communist Party Central Committee announced punishments for many senior party officials for corruption. Since then there have been regular announcements about senior officials being accused or punished for corruption.

Keeping India Scared And Pakistan Safe

For the first time since 2008 another ancient and unresolved border dispute between China and India escalated because China wanted it to. This is taking place in the south, in Tibet where northeastern Indias Sikkim State borders China to the north, Bhutan to the east and Nepal to the west. Sikkim is small (7,100 square kilometers) and has a population of less than 700,000. East of Bhutan is the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims most of. China claims smaller bits of Bhutan and Sikkim. The problem with Sikkim is that it was an independent monarchy until 1975 when the king allowed a referendum on joining India, which won. China protested Sikkim becoming part of India in part because of the border disputes China long had with independent Sikkim. The current incident began in mid-June when China began building a road into Bhutan that was seen as part of a Chinese effort to threaten the Siliguri Corridor (a 22 kilometer wide strip of land between China and Bangladesh that connects northeast India to the rest of India). India had agreed to help Bhutan oppose Chinese efforts to just grab the disputed area (which is 3,000 meters up on a plateau that has no real value to anyone). China and India had signed an agreement in 2012 to respect the existing Bhutan border. But like most Chinese territorial claims revived recently incidents like this serve to make the Chinese government look like it is serving the people and are carried out at little cost in lives or money. So thousands of Chinese and Indian troops have been moved to this inhospitable part of the world because the Chinese government wants some good publicity inside China.

Pakistan is more of an economic problem. For example Pakistan regularly threatens to block road access to Afghanistan if the United States does not back down on its efforts to shut own Islamic terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. This escalation threat ultimately fails for Pakistan because the only major ally they have is China and the Chinese have made it very clear that they will not join Pakistan in such an escalation. China is more concerned maintaining order and economic growth in Afghanistan. China has also made it clear that the Pakistani ability to protect that thousands of Chinese coming into Pakistan each year to build new infrastructure projects is vital to the continued good relations with China. Pakistan has over 100,000 soldiers and police dedicated to the security of these Chinese and their growing number of work sites. There are still thousands of Islamic terrorists inside Pakistan who see the Chinese as a legitimate target.

Pakistan does indeed encourage and support Islamic terrorists who attack India and Afghanistan and China warns that whenever this Pakistani obsession threatens China economically or otherwise China will act swiftly and without warning. Meanwhile China has a grand strategic plan involving Pakistan and a lot of other Asian countries. This is Obor (One Belt, One Road) and Chinese describes it as a revival of the ancient Silk Road but with a major difference. The ancient Silk Road was only partially run by the Chinese. Most of it was operated by other major powers (Iranian, Indian and Arabs) and was largely put out of business after the 16th century by European innovations in ship building and management of sea routes that provided a safer and cheaper way to move goods worldwide. Moreover, until the late 20th century Chinese leaders never encouraged (and often banned) foreign trade. For most of Chinese history the leaders believed China had all it needed (largely true) and considered all non-Chinese and their products inferior. The big change now is that China needs international trade and Obor is the Chinese plan to control as much of it as possible. This is essential for a prosperous economy because without that the communist rulers are in big trouble. Obor means China owning or otherwise controlling as many of the new roads, railways, ports, pipelines and sea routes as possible. China is investing nearly $200 billion in Obor construction. This includes land routes through Central Asia to Europe and the Middle East, another through the Himalaya Mountains to the Indian Ocean (soon to be under new management if China has its way) and new land connections into Southeast Asia. The key to Chinas new sea routes is asserting ownership of the South China Sea.

Another feature of Obor is that it offers business relationships that are more acceptable (than Western ones) to most of the countries Obor is investing in. The Chinese can, as they like to put it, be more flexible and respectful of local customs. In other words the Chinese dont see bribes and corruption as a defect but an opportunity. This is great for the foreign political and business leaders but less so with most of the others and this is causing problems. Africans and Asians living near many Chinese foreign operations complain that China is the major investor in illegal extraction of raw materials and keeping local gangsters and corrupt politicians in business. The Chinese also violate local labor laws with impunity and prefer to hire their own armed security personnel who will shoot to kill if threatened by angry workers or local residents. Keeping local tyrants in power serves Chinese interests when it comes to things like establishing new military bases or preventing other nations from doing so. Corrupt locals also make it easier to carry out espionage operations (locally or in nearby areas). Helping to keep unelected leaders in power also serves to maintain the legitimacy of the current Chinese government which is basically a communist police state and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) wants to keep it that way. All this is nothing new. For example once China got its seat in the UN back (from Taiwan) in 1971 it has been notorious for encouraging and using corrupt practices in the UN. Many nations play along and as China became wealthier they were willing and able to buy whatever they needed inside the UN. The latest example of this is how Chinese pressure has caused the UN to withdraw investigators (responding to local complaints of serious crimes) looking too closely at Chinese owned operations in Africa.

Korea

China continues to go through the motions of enforcing the sanctions on North Korea. In effect China makes it a crime on their side of the border to export a growing list of goods to North Korea. Couple that with the increasing anti-corruption efforts in China and border security personnel in both countries note that this is a situation where boldness can make to rich. This is less of a problem in China, where living standards have grown rapidly since the free market economic reforms of the 1980s. For Chinese corruption is a problem but in North Korea corruption is often a matter of life or death but for those collecting the bribes it is way to get out alive. By amassing enough money to bribe your way out of the country you and members of your family get to live. With the corruption spreading throughout the North Korean security services there is hardly anything you cannot bribe your way out of or past. But for most North Koreans the heavier use of bribes means that the cost of everything goes up. More police and security personnel now see it as a fringe benefit of their job to demand bribes whenever they can. So they do.

The bribes required to escape across the border into China are much higher this year and often do not work. This is the case on parts of the border where North Korea has installed an electrified fence. While the Chinese are sending more troops to the North Korean border this is more for keeping out deserting North Korean soldiers, who often come across in uniform with their weapons and create a very visible (and embarrassing) North Korean threat in China. In part because of that this year China finished installing all-weather surveillance cameras all along the border.

The growing number of Chinese troops on this border are mainly there to stop any large scale movement of desperate North Koreans trying to escape a government collapse in North Korea. In the last few months these Chinese troops have carried large scale training exercises on the North Korean border, visible from the North Korea side of the rivers that form most of the border.

Although North Korea GDP rose a bit (4 percent) in 2016 that was mainly because of all the weather related disasters North Korea suffered from in 2015. This year does not look as promising. Moreover North Korea has a miniscule GDP ($29 billion in 2016) which is pathetic compared South Korea ($1.3 trillion), Russia ($1.2 trillion) and China ($11 trillion, second only to nearly $19 trillion for the United States.) On a per-capita basis South Korea GDP is more than 20 times larger than the north and per capita GDP of China and Russia is more than five times larger than North Korea. The problem here is that the current North Korean leadership insists on developing ICBMs with nuclear weapons so they can threaten the wealthiest nations to give them all the economic aid they need to make their communist police state viable. China is not threatened by any North Korean economic or military threat but is concerned about a flood of North Korean refugees heading for China in a crises. The Russian border and economy are much less accessible and the South Korean border is protected by minefields and massed North and South Korean troops. What makes this worse for China is the fact that most Chinese despise the North Korean leadership and what they have created. This is one thing most Chinese and South Koreans can agree on.

Since 2016 China has been enforcing more economic sanctions on North Korea and has agreed to cooperate more with the UN, the U.S. and South Korea to enforce the sanctions. But one area China is reluctant to discuss is the role of corruption in China that enables North Korea to bypass a lot of the economic sanctions. The Chinese government is very visibly waging a major campaign against its own corruption but does not like to go into details with foreigners. Same with South Korea where the capital and much of the economy is built so close to the North Korean border that North Korea could destroy most of the economic prosperity (and millions of South Koreans) using the capabilities they already have. The North Korean ICBM threat to the United States is not seen as comparable to what North Koreas neighbors face if they push North Korea too far.

July 23, 2017: Two Chinese jet fighters threatened a U.S. Navy EP-3 maritime patrol aircraft flying in international air space (the East China Sea 140 kilometers from the Chinese coast). One of the Chinese fighters flew close enough (under 100 meters) to cause the American aircraft to maneuver away. A similar encounter in 2016 involved a Chinese jet moving to within ten meters of an EP-3. Since the late 1990s China has been trying to keep American recon aircraft away from their coast to prevent these aircraft from detecting and recording activity by Chinese air defense systems and other military electronics. Carefully analyzing these systems from a distance (international waters are anything at least 22 kilometers from the coast) reveals vulnerabilities that U.S. could exploit in wartime. This is doubly troubling to the Chinese because the Americans are known to share this kind of information with their allies, especially Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

July 21, 2017: For the first time Chinese warships visited the Baltic Sea. The Chinese are there for joint training exercises with the Russian Navy. This has been an annual event since 2012 but until this year were held in the Pacific. One of the Chinese ships in the Baltic is a Type 052D destroyer, one of the most modern Chinese warships and equipped with a radar system similar to the Aegis system popularized by the United States over the last few decades. These naval firsts are popular news items in the Chinese state-controlled media and have been occurring a lot in the last decade. For example in late 2013 Chinese warships carried out multiple firsts. This included warships visiting Chile and Argentina and passing through the Strait of Magellan. At the same time a Chinese amphibious ship with marines on board visited Syria. This was the first time a Chinese amphibious ship had visited the Mediterranean.

July 20, 2017: India turned down the Chinese offer to mediate the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. China also has territorial claims on Kashmir and is a close ally of Pakistan.

July 16, 2017: In Iran another American citizen was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison (10 years) for espionage. The latest victim is Xiyue Wang, a graduate student in Iranian history who was born in China but is a naturalized American citizen. He was arrested in mid-2016 and, like all other foreigners imprisoned this way, to be used to trade for the freedom of Iranians arrested in the West for espionage, smuggling or whatever. China considers overseas Chinese as still subjects of China and will make similar arrests and accuse American citizens of Chinese ancestry of treason to the motherland. Iran often does that with Iranian-Americans who return for a visit. The overseas Chinese have been a presence in Asia and elsewhere for centuries. But until now the Chinese government was never much concerned with them. China was never, until the late 20th century, a major international trading power. Now China is and it is spending heavily to finance the migration of more Chinese to settle in foreign lands, and never forget where they came from. For those who do, when the motherland calls, the Chinese government will remind the unwilling that they still have kin or other links back in China and how shameful would it be if this lack of cooperation became known.

July 12, 2017: Its been a year since the Permanent Court of Arbitration, after two years of deliberations, ruled that that China was acting illegally with its claims in the South China Sea. Britain and other Western nations said they would enforce any penalties levied but none were. While the Permanent Court of Arbitration is universally recognized (and backed by the UN) its rulings require other nations to enforce them, or not. It this case China pushed back and nothing has really happened because of the ruling. The Philippines, America, Australia, Japan and South Korea all openly opposed the Chinese claims early on while other nations in the area (Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and India) held back for a while but eventually lined up against China. Only Japan, the United States and Australia openly called on China to obey the court rulings. The United States told China that any efforts to build an artificial island on Scarborough Shoal and install a military base would be resisted with more than diplomatic protests. The base was built and is still there. Another reason for the lack of success in halting Chinese aggression is because China offers to hold regular talks with the Philippines over these disputes. The Philippines refused at first because it did not consider the situation a dispute but rather a case of unwarranted Chinese aggression. But around the same time the court ruling came through the Philippines elected a new president who was willing to negotiate. Now China has offered the Philippines $24 billion in economic aid plus trade deals. This has changed attitudes in the Philippines.

July 11, 2017: Thailand approved a $5.5 billion Chinese railway project that will build six stations and a 250 kilometer high-speed line linking Bangkok and the northeast. As a practical matter this will cut travel time (from Bangkok to the north) 75 percent (to 90 minutes). Once this project is completed in 2021 China will seek to get that high speed line extended to the Laos border and have further railroad projects under way. China has been trying to get this first rail project approved since 2010 but many Thais opposed the financial terms and the control China wanted over running the rail line. In 2016 China agreed to a lower price for a joint Thai-China railroad project. China says it has now basically agreed to the terms Thailand insisted on since 2010. But the final approval came as the military government invoked some emergency powers to disregard remaining delays and order construction to start by September. Thus Thailand will build a rail line of their own design and finance it themselves with some technical assistance and financing help from China. This will enable China to eventually construct a 900 kilometer rail line from the Laotian border to Bangkok. China hopes to have the new railway operational by the mid-2020s. Meanwhile China is building a high speed line in Laos that will complete a 1,250 kilometers line from China (Yunan) to Bangkok. This is part of a larger project to build a Shanghai to Singapore high speed rail line. This would cut the cost of travel (currently mainly by air) for Chinese by more than half and increase the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand by at least two million a year. The Chinese were too insistent for too long on doing the 900 kilometer long rail line their way and resisted Thai suggestions and preferences. Many Thais dont trust the Chinese and negotiations continued until China quietly agreed to comply with the Thai preferences. Meanwhile the military government, using the power it seized in 2014, managed to silence most of the public criticism of the China railroad deal. The generals have been less successful silencing the growing number of Thais pointing out how China is expanding its influence in Thailand with the active cooperation of the military government. Nany Thais see their own military shifting from protecting Thailand against foreign threats to becoming a partner with the largest regional threat as a means of keeping the unelected military government in power.

July 4, 2017: Russia and China have come up with a new plan to deal with the North Korean crises. This one involves North Korea agreeing to temporarily halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and in return South Korea, the United States and Japan would temporarily halt joint training exercises. At that point all parties would enter negotiations to develop a permanent solution. Russia and China also want South Korea to consider getting rid of its anti-missile defenses, especially THAAD, as it is seen by China and Russia as a threat to the effectiveness of Chinese and Russian ballistic missiles. These proposals did not gain much, if any, acceptance from anyone they were directed at. China and Russia understand that what North Korea wants is cash and access to essential imports (food, oil and all manner of tech) and will not accept any substitutes.

July 2, 2017: An American warship (the destroyer USS Stethem) carried out a FONOP (freedom of navigation operation) in the South China Sea and came closer than 22 kilometers to Triton Island in the Paracel Islands. The U.S. Navy last did a FONOP off Triton in 2016. China has claimed (and occasionally occupied) Triton Island since 1974 when it used force to drive off South Vietnamese forces seeking to take possession. China considers Triton Island part of China and that all waters within 22 kilometers of this Chinese territory are Chinese as well and unauthorized visits by foreigners are forbidden. The problem is that international law does not recognize this Chinese claims and the Chinese make it clear they do not care what the rest of the world thinks. Triton Island is still claimed by Vietnam as well as Taiwan. Chinese media reported report these FONOPs as a violation of international law and often triggering a response by Chinese warships or warplanes. In reality China rarely opposes the American warships. These exercises are meant to affirm that many of the Chinese claims to the entire South China Sea are invalid and that the right to free passage through Chinas EEZ is assured.

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 2016 failure was the first for the Long March since 2013 and had proved reliable. The failure today 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.

June 28, 2017: China launched the first of four Type 055 destroyers. This was not unexpected because evidence of such a ship (Internet photos of ship mockups for training and chatter) began showing up in early 2015. Back then it appeared that this new (Type 055) 12,000 ton cruiser class ship would have 128 VLS (vertical launch system) tubes and much else besides. China claimed this ship would be the equivalent of a U.S. Burke class destroyer. The Type 055 would be, and now is, the largest surface combat ship China has ever built. Before 2015 the new Chinese Type 052 destroyers were described as similar to the Burkes but in reality the Type 052s were Burke Lite while the Type 055 is much closer to the Burkes in capabilities and, at least on paper, surpasses the American ships in some ways. The first Type 055 wont enter service until early 2018 and the sea trials will be closely watched by foreign navies. This is usually very revealing about what works and what doesnt. The Chinese have, so far, been quite persistent in fixing flaws discovered during sea trials and regular operations and that makes the new Chinese ship designs rather more frightening.

China flew in some emergency military aid to the Philippines in the form of 3,000 CQ-A5 assault rifles (and five million rounds of 5.56mm ammo) and 80 CS-LR4 7.62mm sniper rifles (and 800,000 rounds of ammo). The aid was valued at $7.3 million. It was noted that these two weapons, while Chinese made, looked like two famous rifles from the 1960s; the U.S. 5.56mm M-16 and the Russian 7.62mm SVD sniper rifle. Both are indeed that, Chinese copies of these two weapons manufactured mainly for the export market. Filipino troops have long used the M-16 as their standard assault rifle and Filipino snipers use several different sniper rifles and like variety. The Philippines thanked China and later thanked the United States as well for providing intel resources as well as American Special Forces troops on the ground to advise and assist.
High prices for avocados means opportunistic thieves out to make an easy buck are raiding Western Bay of Plenty orchards.

Police have reported more incidents of avocado thefts in Katikati, Te Puna, and Whakamarama in recent weeks.

In an update for Katikati Neighbourhood Support, Sergeant Steve Hindmarsh says a Walford Road orchardist reported arriving at his orchard on the morning of July 21 to find a white Toyota Hiace van or similar with grey primer on the bottom parked outside.

A male Caucasian aged 45 to 55 years, solid build with a grey beard was with the van. On entering the orchard the orchardist found avocado trees had been raided and a sleeping bag was found nearby containing about 100 kg of fruit.

The van then left the area in a hurry. We would like to hear from anyone who saw the van in the area or from anyone who thinks they may know the occupant of the van. The orchardist did the right thing and called 111 straight away.

Steve adds that, ironically, he was helping out the Tauranga Police at the time with enquiries into an avocado theft in Whakamarama, and were unable to locate the van heading in their direction.

Katikati Senior Constable John Fitzgerald says police tend to see a spike in avocado thefts when the price of the fruit is high.

Wed like growers to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity. Its a good idea to make a note of registration numbers, and put in place any preventative measures they can.
Adobe announced a cloud-based photo editing app at last year's MAX conference it called Project Nimbus. The new app is based off Adobe's Lightroom and looks to simplify the user interface and make the program more friendly for mobile users. Nimbus will join a niche of "lite" versions of other Adobe offerings like Photoshop Express and Illustrator Draw.

A beta was due out for the new app sometime this year, but according to French website MacGeneration, the app was inadvertently released to some Adobe Creative Cloud users. The company quickly caught the mistake and pulled the app, but not before some users snapped screenshots of it being downloaded.

While Nimbus is based on Lightroom, it is not quite the same. Aside from being more user-friendly, the app does not require you to sync your photos with Creative Cloud. The app will store photos automatically to the cloud to make moving from mobile app to desktop to web as seamless as possible. Plus, when working with an image, the original picture is saved separately as are all modifications. Users should never have to worry about ruining the original photo. All work is stored on a huge 1 TB allotment of cloud storage, so Nimbus will be able to handle even the biggest projects.

After the mistaken release, Adobe released the following statement to Engadget:

"We mistakenly shared Project Nimbus with a small group of Adobe Creative Cloud customers. As you will recall from MAX in October 2016, Project Nimbus is next-generation photo editing technology that we have been exploring as part of our Lightroom and Photoshop ecosystems. We cannot share any further details at this time but will keep you posted on future developments."

If all goes as planned, a beta for the app should be released before the end of the year.
MINNEAPOLIS, July 26, 2017 -- Indian Motorcycle, America's first motorcycle company, elevated its 2018 motorcycle lineup from its entry-level Scout Sixty to its long-distance touring Roadmaster. Along with the newly introduced Indian Scout Bobber, headlining the 2018 model year is the ultra-premium Indian Roadmaster Elite and blacked-out, toughed-up Springfield Dark Horse. Also receiving a noticeable upgrade is the Chieftain Dark Horse, starting at $23,999. Riders will see a 19" ten-spoke blacked-out wheel with an open front fender and the industry-leading Ride Command infotainment system now included standard.

A limited production model, the ultra-premium Roadmaster Elite features custom-inspired two-tone candy paint that takes 30 hours to complete and is finished by hand, with real 23K gold leaf badging on the tank and lowers. Starting at $36,999, the Roadmaster Elite comes standard with a large number of premium amenities, including the industry-leading Ride Command system, a 300-watt premium audio system, passenger armrests, billet aluminum passenger and driver floorboards, a premium touring console, and stylish pinnacle mirrors.

Joining the Roadmaster Elite in 2018 is the Springfield Dark Horse  a blacked-out, toughed-up bagger, starting at $20,999. Similar to other Dark Horse models, the Springfield Dark Horse features matte black paint with gloss black details. The Springfield Dark Horse features an open fender to showcase the new 19" ten-spoke, blacked-out front wheel. Its quick-release windshield features a blacked-out bracket. The stylish windshield protects riders from the elements, or can be easily removed to give a more mean, slimmed down look.

"The Roadmaster Elite and Springfield Dark Horse are two fantastic motorcycles, with two different attitudes. The Roadmaster Elite packs all the bells and whistles perfect for riders looking for the best of the best, while the Dark Horse brings blacked-out style to the Springfield line," said Reid Wilson, Marketing Director  Indian Motorcycle. "Beyond these two offerings, we have elevated each and every model  listening to our consumers to bring new features and colors they have asked for."

Continuing through the 2018 Indian lineup, the Chieftain platform receives notable upgrades  adding a Chieftain Classic model, starting at $23,999, that will feature the brand's iconic valanced front fender and genuine leather seat with fringe, available in three colors, including Indian Motorcycle Red, Thunder Black Pearl and Star Silver Smoke. The Chieftain Limited, starting at $24,499, remains at the head of the pack and adds three new color, including Thunder Black Pearl, Blue Fire and Bronze Smoke. The Chieftain, available in Steel Gray, receives a lowered price of $21,499, and also receives a 19" blacked-out ten spoke wheel and open fender as standard.

For those looking to add a more modern style, the 10-spoke 19" wheel, in both black and contrast cut, along with an open front fender, are available as an accessory for the Roadmaster, Roadmaster Classic, Chieftain, and Springfield motorcycles. The wheel and open fender will fit those models from model year 2014 onwards.

The Indian Chief Classic also receives upgrades, now available with white wall tires, wire wheels, and full chrome hand controls. Available starting at $19,499, it is available with gorgeous Burgundy Metallic paint.

Indian's iconic Chief Vintage line receives new offerings for 2018, starting at $19,999. Thunder Black and Star Silver over Thunder Black will for the first time ever feature black genuine leather saddlebags and seats to add to its beautiful styling.

Joining Indian's recently announced Scout Bobber in the 2018 lineup is the Scout Sixty and Scout. The Scout Sixty, starting at $8,999, receives two new colors, including Polished Bronze and Thunder Black over Titanium Metallic. Meanwhile, the Scout, starting at $11,499, receives a new look and improved performance. Now standard are a cartridge fork front suspension and Pirelli tires, along with passenger accommodations, including a genuine leather passenger pillion and pegs. Scout receives two new colors for 2018, Metallic Jade and Willow Green over Ivory Cream.

Indian's 2018 model lineup will be available at dealers in the U.S. and Canada starting in September. You can be the first to see and demo the entire 2018 line-up by visiting the Indian Motorcycle display at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally from August 5-13. Learn more about Indian Motorcycle by visiting IndianMotorcycle.com and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media channels.

ABOUT INDIAN MOTORCYCLE

Indian Motorcycle is America's First Motorcycle Company. Founded in 1901, Indian Motorcycle has won the hearts of motorcyclists around the world and earned distinction as one of America's most legendary and iconic brands through unrivaled racing dominance, engineering prowess and countless innovations and industry firsts. Today that heritage and passion is reignited under new brand stewardship. To learn more, please visit www.indianmotorcycle.com.
Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.
Telecom Argentina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Argentina and internationally. The company offers telephone services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, as well as public telephone services; and other related supplementary services, such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calls, caller ID, voice mail, itemized billing, and maintenance services. It also provides interconnection services, such as traffic and interconnection resource, dedicated Internet access, video signals transportation in standard and high definitions, audio and video streaming, dedicated links, backhaul links for mobile operators, data center hosting/housing services, dedicated links, layer 2 and layer 3 transport networks, video links, value-added services, and other services. In addition, the company offers mobile telecommunications services, including voice communications, high-speed mobile Internet content and applications download, online streaming, and other services; and sells mobile communication devices, such as handsets, Modems MiFi and wingles, and smart watches under the Personal brand. Further, it provides internet connectivity products, including virtual private network services, traditional Internet protocol links, and other products; data services; and programming and other cable television services. The company was formerly known as Cablevision S.A. and changed its name to Telecom Argentina S.A. in January 2018. Telecom Argentina S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

Read More
Right before pinball jumped the shark in the early 90s, there was this movie called Demolition Man. It starred Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Wesley Snipes, and the guy who played the evil warden in Shawshank Redemption. IMDB readers scored Demolition Man a 6.6 out of 10, which is generous. But, thats not the point of this post.

But, thats not the point of this post.

In Demolition Man, citizens get an RFID chip implanted in their hand so that the government can monitor their movements.

Nearly 25 years later, a Wisconsin company plans to implant an RFID chip about the size of a grain of rice into the hand of its employees. No, its not mandatory, and the company claims that the chip will not be used to track employee movement. Rather, according to this New York Times report the chip assists employees with swiping into the office building, paying for food in the cafeteria.

And, apparently, many in the workforce are stoked! Heres one example from the NYT story:

It was pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me, said Sam Bengtson, a software engineer. In the next five to 10 years, this is going to be something that isnt scoffed at so much, or is more normal. So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.

According to the NYT report, the chip is FDA approved and not nearly as powerful as other RFID technology, such as the stuff that you carry around in your smartphone.

But still, I can see how someone would be creeped out by the privacy and health implications of getting a chip embedded under the skin.

Still, who am I to judge?

Id like to hear from you. Take this quick poll and Ill post the results tomorrow.
A 26-year-old woman was identified Wednesday as the driver killed in a two-vehicle crash early Tuesday in the town of Greenfield.

Maria Gartner was driving west on Hwy. FO at Yanzer Road about 5:25 a.m. when her car was struck head-on by a pickup truck driven by David Sanders, 32, according to the La Crosse County Sheriff's Office.

Gartner died at the scene. Sanders is hospitalized at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.

There were no passengers in either vehicle.

The sheriffs office and Wisconsin State Patrol will reconstruct the crash to determine the cause.
In its first event under new leadership, the crowd-funding effort known as La Crosse SOUP raised more than $1,900 to help buy household items for kids aging out of the foster care system.

Each year Family and Childrens Center works with about 95 foster children from western Wisconsin who are approaching their 18th birthday or high school graduation to prepare them for the transition to independent living. The agency provides social support and helps kids find a place to live, but kids often lack the pots, pans, dishes and other household items to furnish a home.

A lot of the kids unfortunately dont have a lot of belongings, development director Jamie Korn said. They havent had control over numerous aspects of their lives  . They didnt ask for the life they were given.

Wisconsin program director Vanessa Southworth pitched a crowd of more than 200 people who gathered in the alley behind the Root Note Tuesday night on a project to supply La Crosse County foster children with apartment kits.

Using the money from SOUP, Family and Childrens Center will be able to purchase cooking utensils, dishes, towels, blankets, pillows and other essentials in a plastic tote, which itself will be a luxury for some of the kids.

A lot of times they take their things from place to place in a garbage bag, Korn said. This provides them a little more dignity I think.

The Family and Childrens Center project won out over pitches to buy fishing rods and other recreation equipment for people in drug and alcohol addiction programs, build beginner mountain bike trails, and to provide local kids with books that feature people of color as main characters.

SOUP plans to highlight each pitch on its website, and the Beer By Bike Brigade will hold pop up fundraisers for each of the three that didnt win.

Launched in 2015, SOUP is a micro-granting dinner designed to support creative projects in La Crosse. For $5, attendees get soup and bread and listen to pitches for projects. They vote for their favorite, and the money goes to the winning idea.

Past events have provided money for a bike fix-up station, a community forest and to send kids from the Boys and Girls Club to a leadership summit.

Tuesdays gathering was the first since the organization was incorporated under a board of directors and bylaws designed to increase accountability and restore credibility after its founder last year admitted using $8,500 donated to support 10 student-driven projects to pay for a video promoting La Crosse entrepreneurs, including himself.

Executive director Josh Court said the mission remains the same: to support creative projects that bring the community closer together.

Quarterly gatherings will showcase pitches vetted by the 12-member board, and winners will be expected to provide periodic updates to the board and the community. Board members will also help strengthen proposals and the execution of projects.
In whats being called the largest economic development project in state history, Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn plans to build a $10 billion plant in Wisconsin that would create liquid-crystal display panels and employ as many as 13,000 people.

The planned Wisconsin plant is expected to open in 2020 and be part of a 20 million-square-foot campus on at least 1,000 acres  a location Gov. Scott Walker has dubbed Wisconn Valley.

The state would offer $3 billion in economic incentives, Walker said.

The plant  announced Wednesday at a White House ceremony by President Donald Trump, Walker and others  could be the first of several facilities the company wants to build in the United States.

It starts today with this investment in Wisconsin, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said at the White House.

The Wisconsin facility is expected to employ 3,000 people initially and add up to 10,000 more workers in future years.

In addition to Gou, Trump and Walker, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and Vice President Mike Pence attended the announcement. Other members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, and state lawmakers, were there.

Today were announcing the single largest economic development project in the history of Wisconsin, Walker said, noting the plant would be 11 times the size of Lambeau Field. These panels will be made in America, proudly in the state of Wisconsin.

Ryan said the planned project is an absolute game-changer for southeastern Wisconsin, where his district lies.

Trump, in turn, said his election helped make the deal possible. He said Foxconn is coming to a state thats very close to my heart  Wisconsin.

If I didnt get elected, (Gou) definitely would not be spending $10 billion on the project, Trump said.

There are indications Foxconn was considering a major U.S. investment long before Trump took office, though the companys plans may only have solidified this year. Foxconn told CNN in 2012 that, as part of its long-term plans, Foxconn is exploring the opportunity to expand its existing manufacturing operations in the U.S.

Estimated 22,000 additional jobs

The plant is intended to be one of the largest manufacturing campuses in the world, according to Walkers office, and could draw 10,000 construction jobs over the next four years while the plant is built.

Walkers office projected the project would create at least 22,000 indirect and induced jobs throughout Wisconsin and will generate an estimated $181 million in state and local tax revenues annually, including $60 million in local property taxes.

Earlier Wednesday, a White House official told reporters the deal signals the country will not only see a return of those manufacturing sectors but will be positioned to be globally dominant within skilled and advanced manufacturing.

The liquid-crystal display panels could have entertainment, health care, automotive and other uses.

The location of the campus is still being determined, according to Walkers office, but will likely be in southeastern Wisconsin.

The deal with Foxconn is a culmination of many months of discussion between a team of Republicans from the White House, Wisconsin and Foxconn officials, the White House official said.

The negotiations included Trump, his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief of staff Reince Priebus, Ryan and Walker, he said.

This has the opportunity to be one of the largest job creators in U.S. manufacturing, the official said. These are excellent-wage jobs and has the ability to create tremendous spinoff benefits as the supply side gets built up around these large manufacturing plants.

Walker said the Foxconn jobs will have an average annual salary of more than $53,000 plus benefits.

Ryans office said in a statement that since June, Ryan has worked with Foxconn officials and governmental officials, including Trump and Priebus, to bring Foxconn to his district.

Foxconn had potential sites across the country, but the speaker persistently and effectively made the case for Wisconsin and its workers, the statement said.

UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank also said Wednesday she met with Foxconn officials recently to promote the State of Wisconsin as a possible destination and illustrate the advantages of having an internationally ranked research partner like the University of Wisconsin-Madison nearby.

Todays decision by Foxconn Technology Group, a top international manufacturer, to locate a plant in Wisconsin is a major leap forward for our states economy, Blank said in a statement. It also illustrates the importance of a culture of innovation, along with a strong public research university, to regional economic development.

$3 billion in incentives

Walker and state officials have been building an incentive package for weeks to lure Foxconn, a contract manufacturer of electronic products known for making iPhones and iPads. A number of other states also sought the plant.

The White House official said there will be no new federal programs to provide new incentives for Foxconn to build in Wisconsin, but also said the company could be eligible for existing incentives offered by the federal government.

State lawmakers will need to approve the state incentive package for Foxconn as part of the deal. A special legislative session will be called to pass the package, Walkers office said, which will total $3 billion over 15 years.

The incentives include $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for job creation, up to $1.35 billion in state income tax credits for capital investment and up to $150 million for the sales and use tax exemption.

A contract between the state and Foxconn will include clawback provisions requiring the company to pay back the tax credits if jobs and investment are not kept in Wisconsin, according to Walkers office.

The $3 billion figure does not include local government incentives. Walkers office said tax incremental financing is another incentive expected to be part of the project.

Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said Wednesday that lawmakers next month could take up a bill that would provide state incentives for Foxconn.

Some skepticism

Economic experts have said such a facility or facilities, even if located in southeast Wisconsin, could create myriad economic opportunities in Dane County.

But some Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism about Foxconns reported plans.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, called the announcement a promising opportunity but added Governor Walker must get this right and make sure this deal works for taxpayers.

Any and all taxpayer subsidies must be tied to Foxconn keeping the commitments they have made, Baldwin said in a statement.

The bottom line is this company has a concerning track record of big announcements with little follow through, Sen. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said, referring to the companys 2013 announced plans to build in Pennsylvania that never materialized. Given the lack of details, Im skeptical about this announcement and we will have to see if there is a legislative appetite for a $1 (billion) to $3 billion corporate welfare package.

State Rep. Jimmy Anderson, D-Fitchburg, blasted the deal as a multibillion-dollar handout and said taxpayers should not be subsidizing private corporations at the expense of our children, schools and roads.

Democratic lawmakers from the region where Foxconn is expected to locate were more receptive to the news.

Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, called the announcement a great thing for southeastern Wisconsin. Barca hailed it as an exciting opportunity.

Foxconns plans would fulfill a promise Trump made in June during a visit to Waukesha County, when he said he and Walker were negotiating to bring a major, incredible manufacturer to the state.

During a panel discussion with Walker, Cabinet secretaries, students and CEOs, Trump mentioned that he and Walker were negotiating with the manufacturer behind the scenes.

We have a lot of companies moving into the United States and we are negotiating with a lot of companies, Trump said then. I think theyre going to give the governor a very happy surprise very soon.

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. In the original version, the party affiliation of state Rep. Jimmy Anderson was incorrect. He is a Democrat.]
The local unemployment rate ticked up in June, following a typical seasonal pattern, but remained well below last years level.

About 650 more La Crosse metropolitan area residents joined the workforce, pushing the jobless rate to a seasonally unadjusted 3.2 percent, down from 4.1 percent in June 2016, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The jobless rate typically jumps in June as students enter the workforce faster than the labor market can absorb them. Unemployment was up from May but down from the previous year in all 12 metro areas.

La Crosse had the fifth lowest rate among all metros, which ranged from 2.7 percent in Madison to 4.2 percent in Racine. The statewide unemployment rate held steady at a seasonally-adjusted 3.1 percent.

Thats the lowest June unemployment rate since 1999.

The local economy added about 1,400 private sector jobs in June.

Private education and health services posted the largest gain, followed by wholesale trade and hospitality. Those gains were offset by losses in manufacturing and retail trade.

Employment was up about 1,500 compared to June of 2016.
The School District of Onalaska will now do its business from the same building Festival Foods started in.

Onalaskas School Board voted Monday night to use next years projected budget surplus to buy the first-ever Festival Grocery Store at 237 Second Ave. for $872,000. It was listed at $1.15 million.

The district also likely will spend $450,000 to renovate and remodel the interior.

The current district offices at 1821 Main St. are going to be sold to Altra Credit Union for $570,000.

The $750,000 difference in prices will be covered by various areas of budget surplus, such as added state aid and Medicare reimbursements.

Its perfect, board vice president Heather Sysimaki said. The stars have aligned.

Paul and Jane Skogen started what would become a chain of over 20 grocery stores at the site the school district just voted to move into. That was in 1946, and the grocery store stayed for a little over 50 years until it became a Festival Foods Support Center. But the company outgrew the support center under the direction of Pauls son Dave Skogen, building a larger building on the other side of town.

Im happy they decided that this was their place to be for another one hundred or two hundred years, Dave Skogen said. The school district will take good care of it.

The support center is about three times the size of the current district offices, with enough room to include offices for pupil services, data services and the districts Buildings and Grounds Committee under one roof. All of these take up 8,000 square feet at Onalaska High School and Irving Pertszch Elementary School  space which will be converted into six classrooms as part of the move.

I dont think enough can be said about getting everybody in the same building, board treasurer Jim Driscoll said.
Kendrick Lamar

Tuesday, July 25, at the Air Canada Centre

As the kids would say, Tuesday evenings Kendrick Lamar show at the Air Canada Centre was lit.

The self-proclaimed greatest rapper alive first delighted fans during the day, just by showing up for those who lined up for hours at a merchandise pop-up shop downtown. Then, for the thousands in attendance at the nights stop on his Damn. tour, the man delivered an intense show, running through his excellent recent album and stellar back catalogue in a way that didnt leave much doubt about his boast.

With a spartan, but at times bright stage highlighted by a large visuals-filled backing and the occasional blast of pyrotechnics, the spotlight was singularly on Lamar, and the 30-year-old showman showed he is more than capable of soaking it all in.

Coming out with urgency, he kicked off with a fiery DNA and didnt let up for a good 45 minutes, following that with Element and older song King Kunta, with much of the audience rapping along.

Rap started off in  and for many, still belongs in  a sweaty club and one of the best ways to judge a hip-hop arena show is if the performer can make a cavernous room feel intimate, and Lamars show pulled that off with aplomb.

It began with a video introduction about a lost legend: the rappers recently unveiled persona Kung Fu Kenny, clearly reminiscent of the Wu-Tang Clans obsession with fighting styles. (Lamar showed off yellow and red sweat suits, the first obviously inspired by Bruce Lee in Game of Death.) There was a moment early on when a ninja appeared onstage and the Compton, Calif., star fought him off with rhyme. That sounds unbelievably goofy  it kind of was  but it didnt really distract from Lamars focus and cool.

With the aid of Auto-Tune, opener Travis Scott had the crowd going with his tracks, but his set seemed a little repetitive and wasnt helped by a muddier sound mix than the headliner got. The sonics might not be what people remember, anyhow: he performed the majority of his set in a harness atop a giant, Spinal Tap-esque robotic eagle that flew about 6 metres above the stage.

In an already great year filled with critical acclaim for his latest release, Damn., Lamar has had a good couple of days. The album was recently certified double platinum and also received eight MTV VMA nominations for the powerful video for Humble, but none of that was mentioned during the show. In fact, Lamar mostly stuck to the business at hand  there were just a few Toronto shout-outs and a few lags in the middle of the show, but the man likely needed a timeout from the breakneck pace.

It also ended strongly, with Bitch, Dont Kill My Vibe, Alright and then the penultimate performance of Humble, where he did stop and take a break, soaking it all in and getting a standing ovation from the crowd. On Pride, Lamar raps that he put my faith in these lyrics, and for those lucky enough to see him perform live that was clearly a wise choice.

Kendrick Lamars Damn Tour returns to the Air Canada Centre with YG and D.R.A.M. on Aug. 23.

SHARE:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's August issue and heads are turning.

The overall glowing story by writer Stephen Rodrick calls Trudeau a progressive, rational, forward-thinking leader who overcame tragedy to become Canadas prime minister, such as the death of his younger brother Michel who was killed in an avalanche and the death of his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

On the front cover, Trudeau is pictured with the words Why cant he be our President? He stares intensely with a slight smile as he leans against a dark glossy table.

The photos are paired with a lengthy profile, with the usual comments about his hair (which Rodrick writes is a color found in nature), his appeal to young Canadians and how hes a self-proclaimed feminist.

Read more:

Rolling Stone gazes fondly, but not deeply, at Justin Trudeau: Menon

Syrian family names baby Justin Trudeau after Canadian PM

Seeking U.S. ties apart from Trump, Trudeau will be first PM to address governors meeting

This leads up to Rodricks comparison of Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trumps stances on abortion, pot legalization, climate change, and Russia.

Trump's son met with Russian nationals who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trudeau's foreign minister is Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent who is banned in Putin's Russia, writes Rodrick.

Justin Trudeau is trying to Make Canada Great Again. He is using, let us say, different methods.

Trudeau tells Rodrick that while he disagrees with Trump "on a whole bunch," the pair have "a constructive working relationship."

Trudeau adds that going out of his way to "insult the guy or overreact or jump at everything he says (that) we might disagree with is not having a constructive relationship."

There is some critique of Trudeaus government towards the end of the article, such as getting hammered by the right wing for Omar Khadr $10.5 million settlement as well as broken campaign promises on electoral reform and the lack of improvement on the quality of life for Indigenous people.

Some, not as excited about Trudeaus cover, took to Twitter to say theyd happily offer him up to the U.S.

Hes exactly socks-and-selfies deep. If thats your dream leader, please take him, tweeted Andrew Scheidl.

Oh for the love ofwill you PLEASE knock it off. Hope for the free world? Yeah, hes a regular super hero. Stop tweeted Mike OHara.

Others displayed their happiness with the Prime Minister.

He knows what he doing. True North Strong and Free. tweeted Janis Sexton.

Excellent article. Haters heads exploding, tweeted another.

With files from Canadian Press

Read more about:

SHARE:
WATERLOOCanada has once again stripped Helmut Oberlander, 93, of his citizenship for serving in a Nazi death squad and lying about it to enter Canada.

Its the fourth time the government has taken this step after Oberlander defeated the government in court three times to restore his citizenship.

For the fourth time Oberlander is going to court to overturn the political decision, made this time by the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Read more:

Helmut Oberlander, ex Nazi death squad member, once again wins chance to keep Canadian citizenship

Father was never charged with war crime, family says

We are determined to deny safe haven in Canada to war criminals and persons believed to have committed or been complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, Pierre Deveau, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said in a statement.

Liberal and Conservative governments have been pursuing the retired Waterloo developer since 1995 in a case thats into its third decade and fourth prime minister.

Oberlanders lawyers suspected the government was poised to announce its decision when two RCMP officers surprised Oberlander last month by appearing at his door and asking to speak with him.

I suppose they were trying to determine if he was still of sound mind and health and could receive the decision, said Ron Poulton, Oberlanders lawyer.

Poulton said Oberlander felt intimidated and called his daughter to his home. The pair asked police why they came. They were kind of cagey about it and we couldnt really get any answers on it, but we knew something was coming, he said. The police left.

In 1995, the government announced its prosecution days after two RCMP officers surprised Oberlander by visiting him at home to talk about the Second World War.

Oberlander is an ethnic German born and raised in Ukraine under Soviet rule. He served as a decorated, low-level interpreter in a mobile death squad that murdered at least 23,000 civilians, mostly Jews, between 1941 and 1943.

He says he was conscripted by invading Germans the month he turned 18 in 1942. He denies participating in war crimes and denies lying about it to immigrate in 1954.

Oberlander was made a German citizen in 1944 to honour his service. Canada made him a citizen in 1960.

No evidence was presented to a court that Oberlander personally participated in war crimes. In 2000, a court found that he lied about his membership in the death squad before entering Canada, where he pursued a successful career as a developer.

We thank and applaud the Government of Canada, Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in a statement.

Fogel said Oberlander has been exploiting our judicial process to avoid prosecution in Germany. There is no statute of limitations for such heinous crimes, and the government deserves credit for its tireless efforts in this case.

This latest development is an important milestone in bringing a measure of justice to his many victims and their families.

The decision distressed Ernst Friedel, a director with the German-Canadian Congress, who said Oberlander is being unfairly prosecuted for translations he provided as a young man without a choice.

This has nothing to do with justice, Friedel said. I compare it to the Middle Ages, to declare someone something bad, and to go after that person relentlessly.

Trudeau said in 2016 that his government is committed to prosecuting immigrants such as Oberlander who lie about their past to become citizens.

There is one condition in which citizenship can be revoked, and that is when it was acquired based on fraud, misinformation and not representing clearly who one was, Trudeau said while visiting Waterloo.

And that is at the core of this case Im sure . . . Canadians are rightly proud, not just of our citizenship, but of the values that are articulated by that citizenship, and we have to make sure that were doing everything to defend the principles and values that it mean to be Canadian.

Poulton said its remarkable the government is still pursuing Oberlander after he defeated them in court three times.

Given his age and the number of times theyve lost, Ive never seen the government pursue someone like this to such a degree, he said.

While the federal cabinet argues it has the right to strip Oberlanders citizenship because he lied to get it, courts have repeatedly told cabinet it must also weigh other factors, such as Oberlanders level of complicity in the death squad.

Poulton said the governments latest decision ignores and misstates evidence. They really stretched this time to try to find him complicit.

Last fall, the government gave Oberlander 90 days to respond to a government report and to explain why his citizenship should not be revoked. He did this and cabinet chose to revoke his citizenship again, on June 20.

We also know the value of Canadian citizenship and cannot allow anyone to defraud the system or diminish its integrity, said Deveau, spokesperson for the government. We dont take citizenship revocation lightly, but it is necessary in cases of fraud and serious misrepresentation.

Oberlander is seeking a judicial review of cabinets decision, as he has done previously. A court hearing is expected in the fall or early 2018.

Bernie Farber, former chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, blames Federal Court of Appeal rulings rather than government failures for a case thats dragged on for decades. Hes heartened that governments have not given up, but expects Oberlander may die before the prosecution concludes.

The government sends a strong message in this day and age to would-be war criminals and would-be alleged war criminals that they will be hunted til their dying days, he said.

Farber argues against seeing Oberlander as 93. We ought not to think of him as he is today. We ought to remember him and those others who participated in the murder of tens of thousands of people as they were: young, vibrant bullies and alleged murderers, he said.

To think about them in their old age denies really the sweet lives of those that were caught up in the web of mass murder that the Nazis perpetrated. They never got to live. He did.

SHARE:
OTTAWANDP leadership candidate Guy Caron will unveil a wide-ranging jobs plan Wednesday that would add $90 billion over 10 years to the governments already-pricey infrastructure spending, and implement a $15-an-hour minimum wage and seven-hour workday for workers under federal jurisdiction.

In an interview with the Star before his announcement, the Quebec MP said his goal is to push back against a narrative  propagandized by other parties, he claimed  that the NDP is lax on fiscal and economic issues.

Read more:

NDP leadership candidate Niki Ashton targets corporate greed in green platform

A hard NDP shift to the left in the Corbyn, Sanders era: Harper

NDP leadership hopeful Charlie Angus promises help for Indigenous kids

Were just seen on the economy as being tax-and-spend and we dont know how to manage, Caron said.

The NDP will have to demonstrate that we understand the challenges of the future, and that we will be in a position to manage this economy towards the changes that are expected.

Caron said his Workers First plan aims to do just that. He identifies four prevailing challenges for 21st-century workers: the transition to a green economy; increasing machine and computer automation; precarious work; and trade agreements. The governments responsibility, Caron said, is to ensure workers can weather these challenges and make the most of opportunities they present.

We need to ensure they are not being punished by the various changes we will be facing, he said.

The big-ticket item in his jobs plan is the $90 billion over 10 years for infrastructure. This would include $32 billion for renewable energy production, $30 billion to make buildings more energy efficient, $18 billion for public transit and $10 billion for high-speed rail. Caron said this is on top of the $125 billion  up to 2026  that the current Liberal and previous Conservative governments have already earmarked for infrastructure.

The plan includes pledges to push for paid sick leave, fair scheduling and full-time work. Caron would also ensure that workers transitioning out of declining industries  such as oil and gas, he said  would get training for new jobs. Workers who are laid off in declining industries could also start collecting Canada Pension Plan payments at 60, the plan says.

To pay for it all, Caron acknowledged some deficit spending may be necessary. However, he also plans to hike the federal corporate tax rate to 19 per cent from 15 per cent  which he said would more than cover the extra $9 billion per year in infrastructure spending that he proposes  and implement a robust carbon tax. Details on that will come in a forthcoming policy announcement on climate change, he said.

He said his vision also includes his big proposal for a basic minimum income, which is designed to support Canadians who are working less or lose their jobs as the economy changes. It all amounts to his pitch for progressive economics which Caron said is an alternative to the privatization, deregulation and trade agreements pursued by Liberal and Conservative governments.

No one can tell us were better off now than we were in the past, he said. We need to change tack.

Caron is among the four remaining candidates vying to take over the federal NDP leadership from Thomas Mulcair. His opponents include Ontario MP Charlie Angus and Ontario NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh, both of whom have also proposed $15-an-hour minimum wages for federal workers. Niki Ashton, a Manitoba MP who is also running, has pitched a new tax on financial transactions and hikes on corporations and the wealthy.

NDP members will vote for a new leader by ranked ballot, with online voters able to resubmit their choices each week in October until a single candidate gets at least 50 per cent.

Voting is slated to begin Sept. 18.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Chief Mark Saunders is defending a decision not to notify a police watchdog after one of his officers was charged in the assault of a Black teenager, saying the off-duty officer didnt identify himself as police at the time of the incident.

The officers that were investigating from an SIU perspective were dealing with the information that they knew at the time, and they thought it through, and at the end of it their decision was that he did not identify himself as a police officer to the person that he was in contact with, Saunders, told reporters  whom he accused of manufacturing stuff  after an event at police headquarters.

That contradicts the version of events detailed to the Star by 19-year-old Dafonte Millers lawyer, who says Const. Michael Theriault made known he was a police officer both before he allegedly attacked the teen and in a 911 call.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), an arms-length body that probes cases of death, serious bodily harm and sexual assault involving police officers, charged Theriault and civilian Christian Theriault last week with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and public mischief after the early morning attack in Whitby last December.

Miller was punched, kicked and hit repeatedly in the face with a metal pipe, said his lawyer, Julian Falconer. Miller was beaten so badly his left eye will need to be surgically removed.

According to Falconer, Christian Theriault is Michael Theriaults brother. John Theriault, the father of the two accused, is a longtime detective working in Toronto polices professional standards unit, which investigates police misconduct internally.

Neither the Durham Region police, who responded to the scene, nor the Toronto police, notified the SIU. It was Falconer who told the watchdog of his clients injuries in April.

According to Falconer, Theriault identified himself as a police officer at least twice during the course of the Dec. 28 incident.

The Theriaults were in the garage of a Whitby home when they saw Miller and two of his friends walk past, Falconer earlier told the Star. The group of friends, the lawyer said, were heading to another friends house near the home Miller shares with his family.

The Theriaults approached the young men, and Michael Theriault told them he was a police officer, asking them where they lived and what they were doing in that neighbourhood, Falconer said.

When Miller and his friends continued walking, Falconer said, the Theriaults chased them and when they caught up to Miller, started beating him.

Miller managed to dial 911, Falconer said, but Theriault grabbed the phone out of his hand and told the operator he was a police officer who had made an arrest.

When Durham police officers arrived, they arrested Miller and charged him with weapons and drugs offences. All of the charges against Miller have since been dropped.

Meaghan Gray, a Toronto police spokesperson, earlier confirmed to the Star that Toronto police were notified of the Dec. 28 incident on the day it occurred.

Saunders said Wednesday that Toronto police would have been called, obviously, by Durham about the incident.

Obviously at some point in time it was revealed it was a police officer, but the question is, when the occurrence took place, who knew what? Saunders said.

Saunders said although it may seem confusing, the threshold of when to report is clear.

On its website, the SIU says it normally does not investigate incidents involving off-duty officers acting in the course of their private lives.

If, however, an officer is off duty and police equipment or property is involved, or the officer identifies himself/herself as a police officer in the course of the occurrence, the SIU will investigate the incident if it involves serious injury, death or an allegation of sexual assault, the site says.

Saunders promised a fair and transparent internal investigation following on the SIUs investigation. He committed Wednesday to releasing an internal report to be prepared for the police board, which is required by law to address issues such as officer discipline arising from an SIU investigation.

After reporting by the Star and public pressure to improve transparency, the Toronto police board, which oversees the service, has previously promised to make such reports public.

To say that this is a coverup is misleading, Saunders said. It was not a coverup. My officers acted in good faith.

Although Toronto police did not report the incident to the SIU, its unknown what, if any, action was taken internally once Toronto police became aware one of their officers was involved. Following the criminal charges, Theriault has been suspended with pay.

Mayor John Tory said he remains concerned after reading information he is privy to as a member of the police board. One such report is scheduled to be discussed in secret at a board meeting on Thursday.

I think there are some unanswered questions and its not so much what the chief said, but the entire history of this event, Tory told reporters outside police headquarters. I continue to have a concern about this both in terms of the process and obviously the fact that someone was assaulted by a police officer either on or off duty.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said the way in which Millers case was reported to the SIU needs to be examined.

At that juncture where the police officer should have reported to the SIU, thats where the question is, you know, because the SIU cant take action if the SIU doesn't have information, she told Newstalk1010.

With files from Vjosa Isai

Read more about:

SHARE:
A man dubbed Canadas most notorious bank robber has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of armed robberies between 2010 and 2015 in Greater Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary.

Jeffrey James Shuman, 55, nicknamed The Vaulter for his habit of jumping over bank counters, was also ordered to pay more than $400,000 in restitution when he appeared in court Tuesday.

He pleaded guilty to seven counts of robbery with a firearm on June 12.

The defendant appears to have robbed these banks to live a relatively luxurious lifestyle, Justice Cindy Johnston told the court. (That includes) the defendants purchase of a Rolex watch for which he paid $11,000 at Yorkdale Mall.

She also said 100,000 euros, which Shuman admitted were proceeds from the robberies, was hidden in a garbage bag under his sink in his apartment in France.

Johnston described how the use of a firearm, even though it was a pellet gun, during the robberies was calculated to instill fear.

Shuman was identified after his fingerprint was located on a black binder he mistakenly left at a bank.

Shuman was arrested in Geneva in September, 2015 on an international warrant issued by York Region police.

Shuman faked a heart attack to force a plane to land in the United Kingdom, before yelling that he was an E.U. citizen and should not be allowed on the second plane that detectives booked for him. The Ministry of the Attorney General had to charter a private jet to transport him to Canada, costing almost $100,000.

His actions caused a commercial flight to make an unscheduled landing, inconveniencing other passengers, Johnston said. This type of behaviour causes me to doubt any true feeling of remorse by the defendant.

Shuman, who is an American and French dual citizen, will be eligible for parole after eight years.

His lawyer, Stephen Proudlove, said the sentence was higher than hed expected and was considering an appeal.

Shuman was also dubbed the Reebok Bandit in the U.S. in the 90s after robbing 14 banks in Florida and Tennessee.

With files from Vaughan Citizen

SHARE:
The woman at the centre of an extraordinary case, in which a split-second decision left one man dead, says she would not be alive today if it werent for the angel who ran her alleged assailant down with his car.

Alicia Aquino says that Anthony Kiss, the man who hit and killed Dario Romero in June, and who now faces charges of manslaughter in his death, was the only passerby to answer her calls for help.

I owe my life to him, Aquino told the Star in an emotional interview Tuesday. He has four children, and its not fair to charge this man.

Aquino, a hotel room attendant who was on her way to work in the early hours of June 7, said she decided to speak to the Star after hearing how the charges have negatively affected Kisss life.

She felt compelled to tell her story, she said, because she could not imagine Kiss being sent to prison, away from his four children, for several years. She also wanted to add her perspective to a story that has been playing out, and debated, online.

In a previous interview with the Star  details of which were corroborated by his girlfriend, who was in the car at the time  Kiss, 31, said he ran Romero down because he saw him wielding a knife and chasing a woman into the street. He did it, Kiss said, to save her life.

Neither Kisss nor Aquinos version of events have been tested in court.

Kiss is charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death, over 80 mgs operation of a motor vehicle causing death and failure to stop at scene of accident causing death. Kiss told the Star he had a few beers at a concert that night, but wasnt impaired.

He said he blew just over the legal limit. He said he left the scene of the crash before he was arrested because he was in straight shock and panicked. He is out on bail and will return to court Aug. 3.

In her telling of the story, 59-year-old Aquino did not provide granular details of what happened during the alleged attack out of respect for police requests to not compromise evidence in the case. She was advised by criminal lawyer, Daniel Brown, whom her family reached out to after seeing his comments on the case in a Star article.

She wanted a lawyer to help her tell the story within the boundaries of what she was allowed to share, but without compromising the integrity of the investigation, said Brown, who is not being paid for his work.

Romeros brother-in-law, who didnt want to be named citing the nature of his work with children, said the public cant know the full story because Romero is dead.

People should remember that Dario isnt here to give his account of the story, he said. These stories can influence potential jurors.

The alleged attack took place around 4:30 a.m. at the bus stop near Eglinton Ave W. and Black Creek Dr. Aquino said she was on her way to work at a downtown hotel, where she has been working for 27 years. She had been taking this particular route for seven years. At the time, she was standing by the bus stop texting with her girlfriend, who was asking her to pick up two coffees  one black, one double double.

Usually I will go and stay in the shelter, but this time something told me no, stand at the bus stop dont go to the shelter,  she said.

Thats when she noticed a man approaching. Initially, she thought nothing of it.

When I see this gentleman coming towards me, I dont think (anything) because I meet all kinds of people in the morning, she said.

Romero, 37, spoke to Aquino, she said, but he wasnt making any sense. Romeros family has previously told the Star that he was a wonderful father to a young son, and that he had been diagnosed with extreme paranoia.

He said two sentences to her, Aquino said, adding she did not respond to him. She had never seen him before.

Aquino said that Romero then pulled out a knife and tried to slash at her. She says she ran away from him, but he knocked her to the ground on the street and kicked and stomped her.

Im screaming and I see cars passing by, nobody stopped, she said, through tears. I was calling for help.

She fought with Romero on the ground and managed to get away. Romero continued to chase her and tripped her, and she fell down again, this time on the median, she said.

And I hear this thing, boom! behind me, she said. At that point, Aquino, a single mother of five and grandmother to seven, said she thought it was over.

I just crossed my arms, and I said Im dead, Im not going to see my grandchildren and my kids,  she said, adding that she had not yet seen her youngest granddaughter, who had just been born and was still in the hospital.

A few seconds later I open up my eyes and I can feel that I was in a lot of pain. I have no idea what had happened.

Aquino was not stabbed during the altercation. Her injuries to the lower half of her body were caused by the attacker kicking and tripping her, she said. The boom she heard, she now knows, she said, was Kiss driving into Romero.

The next thing Aquino said she remembers were three men surrounding her, two of them construction workers.

Its okay, youre okay, she remembers one of the men telling her. She asked them to call the police, and they told her they already had.

Aquino said she then asked one of the men helping her to take her to the driver of the car, but he told her to wait for an ambulance instead. She says she yelled in the direction of where she believed Kiss was  but she doesnt know for sure if it was him because her glasses were knocked off and she could only see shadows.

 Youre my angel, you saved me!,  Aquino said she remembered shouting. Of Kiss, she added, hes the only one who put his family on the side to save me, to do something for me.

An ambulance took Aquino to St. Josephs hospital, where she stayed for a couple of hours. She says that she has trouble walking and that her physical injuries have prevented her from returning to work  a job that requires physical exertion. The hotel where she works provided her sick leave at a portion of her salary for six weeks, but it has now expired and she is struggling to pay basic bills. She has had to give up her weekend jobs cleaning houses.

The incident has also taken a drastic toll on her mental health, she said.

She is not eating or sleeping properly and is afraid to leave the house alone.

Im 59, I feel like 80 now, she said. I have sweats, I wake up sweating, I have to have someone around 24/7.

Adding to her stress is her knowing that Kiss is facing jail time for what he did, she said, adding she would be devastated if he was convicted: Its not fair when somebody stood up to the plate.

In response to online comments the public has made that Kiss should have just honked his horn, Aquino said she does not believe it would have made a difference.

I was the target, so no matter what other people did, I dont think so, she said.

Brown, the lawyer who advised Aquino, said he believes that what Kiss did was well within the boundaries of the law.

In Canadian law, the use of deadly force is only permitted in very rare circumstances  for example, where it is necessary to protect someone from death or serious bodily harm, Brown said in an email to the Star.

Some of the factors a judge will consider in assessing this defence include whether the use of force was imminent and whether there were other means available to respond to the potential use of force. In this case, Mr. Kiss could not have done anything less to stop this vicious attack. While tragic, the facts completely support Mr. Kisss response to this violent encounter.

Toronto police declined to comment on the case.

Aquino said she has made it clear to the Toronto police officers investigating the case that she would like to meet Kiss. The police told her that would compromise the case.

Said Aquino: I feel this (interview) is the only way for now to get it out there so people can understand why he did what he did.

SHARE:
SAN ANTONIOInvestigators believe a truck driver accused in the deaths of 10 people found inside a packed, sweltering tractor-trailer is just one member of a larger organization involved in human smuggling that they are looking to identify and dismantle, a U.S. immigration official said Tuesday.

Some of the 29 identified survivors have told authorities they hired smugglers who brought them across the U.S. border, loaded some of them onto trucks that took them to the tractor-trailer, and marked them with different coloured tape to identify them to various smugglers who would be picking them up after the tractor-trailer reached its destination.

Were certainly not stopping at looking at the driver. Were trying to investigate and identify the different cogs, the stash houses, the other members, where the money came from, Shane Folden, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations office in San Antonio, told The Associated Press.

Read more:

Smugglers offer crammed semi trucks as VIP treatment to would-be migrants

Immigrants who died in Texas smuggling wept, pleaded for water and pounded on the truck

The driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, is facing charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. Bradley could face the death penalty. Authorities allege he drove a trailer full of immigrants from South Texas that was discovered in the parking lot of a Walmart in San Antonio early Sunday morning.

Folden said charging Bradley is just the first step in the case as investigators work to find others involved in the scheme, including those responsible for facilitating money transfers and bringing the immigrants across the border.

The ultimate goal is to dismantle the complete organization. You dont get there by only focusing on one aspect. You have to look at potential targets and potential related locations, both north and south, he said.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar from Texas said he was informed by law enforcement the tractor-trailer had cleared a Border Patrol checkpoint 29 miles north of the border on Interstate 35 near Laredo. Cuellar said he didnt know whether the immigrants were loaded into the truck before or after it crossed the checkpoint.

U.S. authorities are still trying to determine how many people were inside the tractor-trailer because some fled before police arrived, Folden said.

Thirteen people who rode in the trailer remained hospitalized Tuesday in San Antonio, said ICE spokesman Greg Palmore. He declined to say how many were critical or in life-threatening condition. Officials say at least 29 people survived the smuggling attempt.

Delmin Dario Lopez Colomo, 23, a Guatemalan survivor who remains hospitalized, said the migrants in the tractor-trailer were delivered by various different smugglers, according to Cristy Andrino, the consul of Guatemala in McAllen, Texas.

Adan Lara Vega, 27, a migrant from Mexico who survived the smuggling attempt, told the AP on Monday that they boarded the truck on a Laredo street Saturday night for the two-hour trip to San Antonio. He said the trailer was already full of people, but it was so dark he couldnt tell how many.

At least some of the survivors are likely to become witnesses and receive consideration to remain in the United States to testify, Folden said.

Its likely that most if not all of the survivors will be allowed to stay in the country to help authorities in their investigation, said Jeff Vaden, a former federal prosecutor who helped oversee the prosecution of a 2003 smuggling attempt in Victoria, Texas, in which 19 people died.

Many of the more than 50 immigrants who survived that attempt were able to identify the people who harboured them or transported them or to whom they paid or spoke. Thats what enabled the government to put together the larger smuggling case above just the driver. Just like in any crime, the victims are critical witnesses, said Vaden, who now is a partner at the Houston law firm of Bracewell LLP.

Jacob Monty, an immigration lawyer in Houston, said the help the survivors give to authorities could lead to permanent residency.

The driver, Bradley, remained jailed on Tuesday. He had his commercial driving privileges for a truck driver suspended by Florida three months before Sundays deadly smuggling attempt, officials said Tuesday.

Court records show that Bradley had been cited repeatedly for violating federal motor carrier safety regulations in Iowa dating back to 1995. At least two of the tickets were for logging more hours than allowed.

Federal regulators said they are also conducting an investigation into an Iowa trucking company whose name was on the trailer. Brian Pyle, owner of Pyle Transportation, said the trailer had been sold on May 10 to an individual in Mexico and Bradley was working as an independent contractor to drive it to Brownsville, Texas, to carry out the sale.

Its unclear what will happen to one of the migrants who died, identified as 19-year-old Frank Guisseppe Fuentes.

His parents, who live in Maryland and are in the U.S. illegally, havent yet told Guatemalan officials what they want done with his body, and may fear agents could come after them if they claim their son, Andrino said.

SHARE:
FRESNO, CALIF.Prosecutors charged a teenage driver Wednesday with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other counts after she lost control of her car while livestreaming on Instagram and recorded a crash that killed her younger sister.

The behaviour of 18-year-old Obdulia Sanchez captured by the video was disturbing and shocking, Merced County Chief Deputy District Attorney Harold Nutt said in a statement.

He did not elaborate, but the footage shows she was dancing to music while she drove and taking her hands from the steering wheel.

Prosecutors say the video will be a key piece of evidence in the case.

Sanchez was driving the car on Friday when it veered onto the shoulder of a road about 120.7 kilometres northwest of Fresno, authorities said.

She overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn into a field, ejecting and killing her 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, authorities said.

After a gap in the livestream, the driver is seen leaning over the girls body, saying she was sorry. She said she expected to spend the rest of her life in prison but doesnt care.

This is the last thing I wanted to happen, OK? ... Rest in peace, sweetie, the teen says. If you dont survive, Im so (expletive) sorry.

Another 14-year-old girl suffered a leg injury in the crash.

The five counts against Sanchez also include drunken driving resulting in injuries. Prosecutors say Sanchez could spend more than 13 years in state prison if convicted of all the charges.

Sanchez is expected to appear in court later in the day. An attorney representing her could be reached for comment.

Her father, Nicandro Sanchez, has called it an unexplainable accident.

What I think is she knows shes done something wrong, he told Fresno television station KFSN. She feels bad for herself, but she killed her own sister.

He said Obdulia had been in the custody of Child Protective Services the past two years.

The girl who survived the crash said she wasnt mad at anyone and doesnt blame the driver.

Instead, Manuela Seja blamed social media, which she said has taken over peoples lives, television station KSEE in Fresno reported.

Its all affected by social media. Thats what life is now, Seja said. And its going to advance more and more. That what its going to be about.

SHARE:
LONDONCritically ill baby Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice and taken off life support unless his parents and a hospital agree on a plan that could potentially keep the child alive for a bit longer, a British judge ruled Wednesday.

High Court judge Nicholas Francis gave 11-month-old Charlies parents and the hospital that has been treating him until noon Thursday to come to terms on an end-of-life care plan for the infants final hours or days.

The baby suffers from a rare genetic disease, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to breathe unaided. Recent tests found Charlie has irreversible muscular damage.

It is in Charlies best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only, the judge said as a medical and legal battle that has drawn international attention nears a wrenching conclusion.

The parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for experimental treatment. They gave up their fight on Monday, acknowledging that the window of opportunity to help him had closed.

On Tuesday, they said they hoped to bring their son, whose 1st birthday is next week, home to die. Francis said Charlies mother and father now accept that the only options for their son are the hospital or the hospice.

The Thursday deadline is meant to yield a plan for what happens after the baby is transferred to a hospice. The parents want him kept on his ventilator for a time. The hospital, in fighting the parents earlier effort to secure experimental treatment, had indicated that it was responsible for sparing Charlie unnecessary pain.

Francis said if the parties do not reach an agreement, Charlie will be taken to hospice and the ventilation system keeping him alive will be turned off. He issued an order barring publication of the name of the hospice and the date when Charlie is taken there.

The judge said it was a very, very sad conclusion.

Charlies mother left the courtroom in distress before the judge gave his ruling.

What if it was your child? Yates said amid sobs. As she left, she said: I hope you are happy with yourselves.

In conceding that Charlie would leave the hospital for a hospice instead of home, Yates requested a medical team of her choosing that would work to keep her son alive for a week. He is not expected to survive for more than a few hours once his ventilator is removed.

Read more:

Charlie Gards parents ask court to let them take critically ill baby home to die

Charlie Gards parents drop legal action over their critically ill baby

U.K. hospital insufferable for insisting that baby Charlie Gard die on its terms: DiManno

The request indicated that the parents had backed away from their earlier expressed wish to take Charlie home for a few days of tranquility before his ventilator was disconnected and he was allowed to slip away.

Great Ormond Street Hospital said it was not practical to provide life-support treatment for days at the couples home. Nurses from the hospital nonetheless have volunteered to care for him in his final hours.

The parents cause caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis and also garnered widespread grassroots support. U.S.-based anti-abortion activists have flown to London to support Charlies parents.

The case has become the catalyst for discussions on health care funding, medical intervention, the role of the state and the rights of the child.

The heated commentary has prompted the judge to criticize the effects of social media and those who know almost nothing about this case but who feel entitled to express opinions.

SHARE:
BROOKHAVEN, MISS.A grand jury can decide whether to indict a Mississippi man charged with killing a deputy, his mother-in-law and six others who were his relatives or acquaintances, a judge said Wednesday.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 35, remains jailed without bond as he has been since his arrest May 28, shortly after the fatal shootings that started after witnesses say Godbolt was arguing with his estranged wife.

The killings May 27 and 28 occurred at three homes in and around the south Mississippi city of Brookhaven, about 110 kilometres south of Jackson. A deputy responded to a disturbance call at Godbolts in-laws home, and the shootings started there.

Read more: I aint fit to live: Mississippi man in custody after 8 killed in rampage

Deputy William Durr, Godbolts mother-in-law Barbara Mitchell and two others were killed at the first home. Two cousins, an 11-year-old and an 18-year-old, were killed at the second home. A husband and wife were slain at the third home.

Judge Bryan Harbour heard testimony Wednesday from a state law enforcement officer who helped investigate at two of the three houses. Jason Leggett, the officer from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the Highway Patrol, identified Godbolt as the suspect in all of the killings.

I find that the state has successfully convinced me that eight crimes were committed and that Mr. Godbolt committed those crimes, the judge said, though he noted the probable cause hearing was not a trial.

There was a heavy police presence at the hearing and about 50 friends and relatives of the victims packed the courtroom. One teenage girl started crying when a shackled Godbolt walked in. Though he wore an orange jail jumpsuit to the courthouse, he had on a yellow golf shirt and khaki pants during the hearing. Most of the audience sat quietly. Godbolt showed no emotion.

He is charged with one count of capital murder, which could carry the death penalty, in the deputys killing. Hes also charged with seven counts of murder, which could carry life without parole.

This was just a preliminary hearing. We have a long, long way to go, one of Godbolts defence attorneys, Paul Luckett, said after court.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing Wednesday, Shon Blackwell said he and his family have been seeking comfort in God since his son, 18-year-old Jordan Blackwell, was killed at the second home.

We just keep praying. Thats whats been carrying us, said Blackwell, an assistant pastor at a Missionary Baptist church attended by many of the victims.

Moments after he was arrested May 28, a handcuffed Godbolt told a reporter from The Clarion-Ledger, on video, that someone in the first house called law enforcement while he was talking to his wife and in-laws about his wish to take his children home.

My pain wasnt designed for him. He was just there, Godbolt said of the deputy.

Godbolt also said in the video: My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention. I aint fit to live, not after what I done.

.

SHARE:
MANILA, PHILIPPINESHuman rights groups asked the Philippine president on Wednesday to retract a threat of airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning that such attacks would constitute war crimes.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes, adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, is also a war crime.

Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Womens Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack Indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the countrys south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.

Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a gun battle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.

In a news conference late Monday after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said the rebels were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under guerrilla control without government permits.

Get out of there, Im telling the Lumads now. Ill have those bombed, including your structures, Duterte said. I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. Ill really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government.

Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch said Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, is directing the military to commit war crimes.

Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits governments to supporting the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.

Duterte became president last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown.

Duterte also called for the abolishment of the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman  an anti-graft prosecutor  route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations.

Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, then do not investigate my army and police.

Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. which runs Indigenous schools in the south, said Dutertes threats have heightened fear among Lumads already affected by attacks by the military and the security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining.

The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools, said Magbanua, who is among 300 teachers, students and parents who travelled to Manila this week to join street protests and complain before the Commission on Human Rights over reported shootings and troop encampment in their schools.

There are about 200 Lumad schools in the south with about 4,000 students and 88 teachers. One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she said, denying that they teach students to become communist rebels.

We only hold chalk, ball pen and paper, she said, asking Duterte to visit the schools if he wants to find out.

Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating childrens right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since last July.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla denied soldiers were behind the attacks and said troops have gone to the tribal communities to secure them and allow government-recognized schools to be established.

Read more about:

SHARE:
WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trumps guidance. His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, the commander in chief tweeted.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with my generals and military experts, but he did not mention Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this does not presuppose the outcome of the review, but Trumps tweets appeared to have done just that.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Criticism for Trumps action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

His action is harmful, misguided and weakens, not strengthens our military, said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Read more: Trump says medical costs are the main reason to ban transgender troops. The military spends five times more on Viagra

John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong.

Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, he said. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

Not everyone at the Capitol agreed.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, The presidents decision was the absolute right decision. ... Its about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business.

Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next.

Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared, said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.

Akbarian, who said his chain of command was supportive as he transitioned from female to male, said his time to re-enlist is coming up and he might stay to ensure there is a strong voice for transgender troops like himself.

Im going to remain hopeful, he said. America is really progressive and definitely smart, and there are a lot of transgender members serving in critical roles.

Shane Ortega, a 30-year-old retired staff sergeant in Los Angeles, said hes concerned more for civilians than transgender troops.

Ortega, who transitioned to male while serving in the Army and served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, When Donald Trump attacks what America calls its heroes or its warrior class, it means its only a matter of time before he starts attacking and disassembling the American public, and thats what I have the most fear of.

Hours after Trumps tweets, Mattis, who has been on vacation this week, was publicly silent and the Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon was working with the White House to address the new guidance from Trump. That suggested there is not yet any new written policy or executive order.

Read more:

The 17 most jaw-dropping moments of Donald Trumps speech to Boy Scouts

Trump drags scouts down to his level: Keenan

I think hes crazy: U.S. senators caught on hot mic say theyre worried about Trump

Trumps sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obamas Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step.

Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so. He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagons personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the readiness and lethality of our forces. That is the prism through which Mattis has viewed most, if not all, personnel issues. Just last week he ordered a high-level Pentagon review aimed at verifying that all military personnel policies support and enhance war-fighting readiness and force lethality.

In a series of tweets, Trump said allowing transgender troops to serve is an unacceptable burden on the militarys ability to fight and win wars.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he wrote.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for an estimate of these costs. The Rand Corp., a federally funded think-tank, has estimated that each year between 29 and 129 service members will seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy. It also estimated that extending gender transition-related health care coverage to transgender personnel would cost the military $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, out of a yearly Pentagon budget of more than $600 billion.

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a real friend of their community.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made a military decision. She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service erodes military readiness and unit cohesion.

Sanders said the presidents national security team was part of this consultation and that Trump informed Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday.

Carter, who served as defence secretary the last two years of Obamas presidency, issued a statement criticizing Trumps move.

I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified, Carter wrote. To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military.

Trumps tweets followed a fight in Congress over federal funding of gender transition surgeries. Earlier this month, the Republican-led House rejected a proposal to end the Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay such costs.

Read more about:

SHARE:
WASHINGTONHis grandfather served and his older brother served. Hes a natural helper and leader. So when two recruiters from the U.S. Marines came to Lucas Rixons English class last year to make their patriotic pitch, he was a quick sell: he decided he would become a soldier, too.

His tattoos got him rejected when he tried to sign up in the winter. He planned to try again.

Until the president declared him permanently unfit for duty.

Rixon, an 18-year-old in North Carolina, learned Wednesday that he would need to pursue some other career goal. In a three-tweet morning statement, Donald Trump announced that he would not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Read more: Trump values bottom line more than soldiers well-being: Teitel

Trumps abrupt decision left Pentagon officials, Congress and transgender advocates scrambling for answers. When would the policy take effect? What did the policy actually say? What would happen to transgender soldiers currently serving? Trumps press secretary had no further information, pledging that the details would be worked out later.

Rixon had heard enough. The president, he said, is a bigot.

It makes us seem like were not humans. Any human can get into the military. But we cant, he said. Now we cant go into the military, so people are going to look at us like, Oh, they are really much, much different from us. When were really not.

Trump announced the decision on the 69th anniversary of Harry Trumans decision to desegregate the military, in the middle of his administrations American Heroes Week, and the month after his White House declined to acknowledge Pride Month.

If the decision is indeed implemented  and there was lingering uncertainty about the outcome given that there was no formal policy ready to go  it will reverse a decision made one year ago by Barack Obama.

That decision allowed existing transgender soldiers, who number somewhere between 2,500 and 15,000, to serve openly for the first time. As of July 1 of this year, openly transgender recruits were supposed to be allowed to enlist.

Instead, Defence Secretary James Mattis gave the military another six months to study the issue. Then, with Mattis on vacation, Trump reversed the entire initiative via Twitter.

After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, he wrote. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

U.S. allies including Canada, Israel, the U.K. and Australia all welcome transgender troops. A 2016 study by RAND Corp. found that research on the subject was limited but that these countries had experienced little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness.

Shane Ortega, a transgender Marine and army veteran who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was outraged, disgusted and heartbroken by the suggestion that transgender people are impeding military success.

He said Trump, who obtained student and medical deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, has no authority or knowledge base to make any sort of tactical decision.

All you have to do is look at my military record. Ive deployed five times, in two combat zones, I had no tactical issues. Zero, said Ortega, 30, who joined in 2005. Im completely furious because: heres a man who isnt willing to step up himself to sacrifice his own body, and yet he wants to police the bodies of people who are willing to do that very sacrifice which he holds in supposed high regard.

Ortega said his military peers knew he was transgender for years. He came out to his commanders in 2014, he said, then served as a staff sergeant until 2016.

He said active transgender soldiers were panicking Wednesday. He worried about whether troops booted from the military under Trumps directive would receive honourable discharges.

Who is good enough? he said. Who is human enough to be human in this government?

Trumps decision was widely seen as a strategic attempt to excite the social conservatives among his political base. One senior official in Trumps administration told the website Axios that they were attempting to force Democratic candidates in the Rust Belt to take complete ownership of this issue.

But it also seemed possible that Trump had blundered into a problem. Several Republican senators came out against the move. House Republicans, Politico reported, had sought Trumps help with their attempt to get the military to stop paying for gender reassignment surgery  but never asked him to ban transgender troops entirely.

Regardless of his motive, Trump set alight any goodwill he had managed to earn in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities with his campaign promise to fight for LGBT people.

He had differentiated himself from his Republican rivals by expressing support for the right of Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender Republican former Olympian, to use the bathroom of her choice at Trump Tower. And he had boasted of becoming the first Republican nominee to have an openly gay person, businessman Peter Thiel, speak at his convention.

But LGBT communities were always skeptical.

Activists noted that he mentioned LGBT people almost exclusively in the context of justifying his policies to discriminate against Muslims. He surrounded himself with social conservatives hostile to LGBT interests. And his words of support were always followed by criticism and hesitation.

In October, Trump declared Obamas policy on transgender troops ridiculous. Despite his comfort with Jenner, he deferred to party activists who wanted to deny transgender people the right to use the bathroom matching their gender identity. In February, he rolled back Obamas bathroom instructions to schools.

I knew the entire time. Hes with the Republican Party, and that is the party that  while some of them are more moderate  stands against everything that trans people and LGBT people are, said Destiny Clark, a transgender woman who is president of Central Alabama Pride. That was just for TV, to try to get a little bit of publicity.

Rixon will soon enter college to study criminal justice. If he cant serve in the military, he said, he will try to serve in another way: joining the FBI.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Justin Trudeau seems to have found a new defence for his choice to make a convicted terrorist a wealthy man.

After first blaming the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then the Supreme Court, then the previous government, Trudeau is now saying the Government of Canada could pay now, or it could pay later. Omar Khadr, according to the Liberals, was going to get his millions either way.

The Liberals are deliberately saying things that are not true to hide the fact that this payout was 100 per cent their choice. But the majority of Canadians simply arent buying it.

The Supreme Court of Canada never ordered a multimillion dollar payout to Omar Khadr, and in fact never dictated any monetary compensation at all.

The Supreme Court ruled that in very narrow circumstances, Omar Khadrs rights were violated. Conservatives accept that finding. We accept the extremely important principle that the Charter applies to all Canadians, no matter how heinous the crime.

The inconvenient truth for the Liberals, is that the court left it to the government of the day to determine the appropriate compensation for these violations. A lower-court ruling had indicated that the appropriate remedy for Omar Khadr would be repatriation. In other words, the wrong could be righted by allowing Khadr to serve out the rest of his sentence in Canada.

The previous Conservative government accepted the court finding. Omar Khadr was brought back to Canada and able to enjoy the benefits of the Canadian justice system  the same justice system that has been generous enough to give him his freedom today, while his victims remain dead, wounded, or grieving. That is all the compensation he deserves. Anything above that is a secondary compensation that goes over and above what any court has ordered.

Yet Justin Trudeau felt it appropriate to turn Khadr into a millionaire, even rushing payment to him as quickly and quietly as possible.

By handing payment to Omar Khadr in secret, Justin Trudeau would surely have understood that Tabitha Speer and her children  the family of Omar Khadrs victim, Sgt. Christopher Speer  could be denied any access to the compensation.

Justin Trudeau could have taken a stand and fought the Khadr case until the very end. Last week, in his latest desperate attempt at deflecting blame, Trudeau has asked us to believe that he was so worried about spending taxpayers money, that he surrendered the legal fight.

For the man who is plunging Canada into massive deficits and borrowing more and more money from future generations of Canadians, this last excuse is almost laughable. Besides, principles are worth fight for.

Conservatives believe in supporting the women and men in uniform who put their lives on the line to keep us safe, not those who target them.

So I understand the vast majority of Canadians who are upset by the prime ministers decision. I am too. A government I lead would be guided by a set of principles that would have ensured we fought this case to the end.

For Justin Trudeau to suggest this was OK  indeed, to go even further by attempting to dodge any responsibility once he got caught  is not what we need in a prime minister.

Justin Trudeau had a choice. He could have fought this in court. No court decision is ever a given, no matter how many Liberals pretend otherwise.

And when the House of Commons returns in the fall, our Conservative caucuss first task will be to hold Justin Trudeau accountable for his choice.

He cannot hide from it. That isnt to say he hasnt tried.

Trudeau was absent for the Liberal governments apology to Omar Khadr. He was absent for the announcement of the payout. He has let others in his government do the dirty work, and made himself invisible in the meantime.

Most shockingly, after being forced to explain his decision, Trudeau claimed he speaks for all Canadians when it comes to his secret Khadr payout.

It is typical Liberal arrogance for Trudeau to claim he represents what Canadians think and feel about this issue. He represents the government of Canada, not the core beliefs of its people.

So my question to you is simple.

Do you agree with Trudeaus secret payout to Omar Khadr? Does Trudeau speak for you?

Andrew Scheer is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Read more about:

SHARE:
New Democratic Party federal leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh is unorthodox in more ways than one.

So far, the newest entrant in the four-person race to replace Tom Mulcair has been deemed noteworthy for his style (natty) and his religion (Sikh).

His supporters  and Singh himself  argue that the 38-year-old Brampton politician is best-positioned to persuade younger voters, as well as those from the ethnically diverse ridings of suburban Canada, to vote NDP.

But Singh has also shown on an unusual willingness to take on established party policy. In particular, he is breaking with the NDPs long-held support for universal Old Age Security.

His Canada Seniors Guarantee would scrap OAS and roll it, along with three other programs aimed at those 65 and over, into one means-tested benefit for the elderly poor.

Its a bold move that bears an uncanny resemblance to an idea floated  but never acted on  by Jean Chretiens Liberal government in 1996.

Given the NDPs affinity for universal social programs it may also be foolhardy.

The NDP Policy Book, a kind of Bible for the party, states explicitly that New Democrats believe in maintaining the universality of Old Age Security.

Singh argues, as he did earlier this month during a Saskatoon leadership debate, that OAS is not universal now. And technically, he is correct.

Under rules put in place in 1989 by Brian Mulroneys Conservative government, every eligible senior receives OAS  currently up to $583.74 a month. But the wealthiest must pay all or some of it back to the federal treasury.

Currently, this so-called clawback begins when a seniors annual income exceeds $74,788. Those who earn $121,279 or more face having all of their OAS clawed back.

But only a very small percentage of seniors earn such high incomes. The Caledon Institute calculated that in 2012 just 6 per cent of seniors were affected by the clawback. Only 2.3 per cent had to repay the entire amount.

The dispute over universal social programs has a long history. On the one side are those, including many on the liberal-left as well as the hard right, who argue that social programs should be targeted to the truly needy.

Its offensive to me that millionaires or people who are earning over $100,000 are receiving payments while people are living in poverty right now, Singh said in Saskatoon.

Thats not much different from the argument Conservative Mulroney made in the 80s when he complained about universal social programs that benefitted the apocryphal wealthy bank president.

Are we making proper use of taxpayers money by giving a bank president who makes $500,000 or $600,000 a year a baby bonus? he asked rhetorically in 1984. Could that money not be more properly used to assist someone who desperately needs help?

Nor does it differ much from Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus rationale for doing away with the Conservatives universal child care benefit. Families like his, said millionaire Trudeau, simply dont need the money.

On the other side are those who argue that social programs must benefit a broad swath of the middle class, as well as the very poor, if they are to have political legitimacy.

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent used to make this case eloquently when defending universal programs, such as OAS and the baby bonus.

The easiest way to erode social programs, he would say then, was to limit them to people like the very poor that most voters dont care about.

Even medicare could be means tested  as is the U.S. health care program for the poor known as Medicaid. But if so, it would no longer be the popular nation-defining symbol that it is in Canada.

Until now, it seemed that most New Democrats agreed with this analysis. Some still do.

You, my friend, you make it seem as if this is a great progressive idea, fellow leadership contender Charlie Angus told Singh during the Saskatoon debate. Well where I come from thats not progressive.

Seniors fought for that and seniors should have that protected.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

SHARE:
What will it take to beat Justin Trudeau?

Thats the question bubbling through Conservative and NDP minds as the Liberals, despite the Omar Khadr mess, continue to rate 43 per cent in the polls. It must feel like, to paraphrase Donald Trump, Trudeau could shoot someone on Yonge St. and not lose voters.

Despite his apparent Teflon coating, Trudeau does have an Achilles heel. Or at least his office does: its ability to navigate scandal.

The prolonged fumble over future Governor General Julie Payettes expunged second degree assault charge and involvement in a fatal traffic accident is just the latest example of the Prime Ministers Office giving a bad story legs.

Had Team Trudeau confirmed the obvious with Payette  that a background check had been done and that it did turn up these incidents, and that they were comfortable enough with the explanations given to proceed anyway  the story would have come and gone in a day.

Lessons are clearly not being learned.

Earlier this month the Prime Ministers Office took five long days to figure out its story on the Omar Khadr settlement, putting them, for the first time in their mandate, massively offside with public opinion. They still havent confirmed the precise amount paid out to Khadr, or why that amount is appropriate.

The PMO took a similar amount of time to come up with their lines on the prime ministers ritzy Christmas vacation to the Aga Khans private island. And last summers response to the brouhaha over the six-figure moving expenses for key PMO aides was no better.

Now, every political office struggles with scandal. What should be worrying for Trudeau is the struggles listed above have been in response to known bad news. They werent bolts from the blue.

The moving expenses were submitted in response to a Parliamentary question with a known tabling date. The prime ministers vacation was obviously planned. The Khadr settlement didnt pop out of thin air. Nor did the appointment of Payette.

Equally troubling is the political importance of the people implicated in these scandals: the prime minister himself; his two top aides; and Her Majestys representative in Canada.

These are five-alarm fires. And yet, in each instance, the prime minister and his office struggled to put out a coherent story and get their arms around its poor reception.

If Justin Trudeau and his team put as much effort into defence as they do their offence they would govern Canada for the rest of the century. Perhaps the thinking is they will always be able to outscore their opponents.

There is certainly no one Id want more to build a political image in the 21st century than Team Trudeau. They are digital ninjas, the swamis of selfies, and magical with memes.

But every government, no matter how successful, eventually grapples with an existential crisis. An unknown unknown that strikes out of the blue. And unless the Prime Ministers Office shapes up it wont be able to get out from under it when it finally arrives.

Im not familiar with the intimate details of how this PMO operates, but it seems the issues management team (defence) is out of sync with their colleagues in communications (offence).

In the normal run of business this isnt a problem. The communications teams focus is on putting the prime minister out to frame the governments positive messages, while the issues management team keeps an eye on the niggling daily fires that need putting out.

Its when these two worlds collide that serious trouble lurks. Something, whether its a process or the personalities involved, is preventing the government from responding effectively.

If Justin Trudeau wants to keep his exalted position in the polls hell need to devote some of his summer holiday to sorting this problem out.

Andrew MacDougall is a London-based columnist and commentator. He was director of communications for prime minister Stephen Harper.

SHARE:
From the long-running Omar Khadr saga, a controversy thats evoked some of the least admirable of human emotions and conduct, has come a voice almost breathtaking in its honesty, humility and humanity.

When we see politicians exploiting the worst in us, as Canadian parliamentarians spread hate in the U.S. media, and Donald Trump continues to inflict his mean, crude worldview on Americans, it is a story that stands as a refreshing reminder of decency and duty, of compassion, and of the merit of looking hard into ones soul and conscience.

Thanks to reporter Colin Perkel of The Canadian Press, we learned this week of retired American serviceman Donnie Bumanglag and his role 15 years ago in saving a young boys life.

In 2002, Bumanglag was a 21-year-old medic supporting U.S. special forces in Afghanistan. He was aboard a helicopter returning to base when it was diverted to Khost to pick up an enemy fighter who had been shot.

That fighter was 15-year-old Omar Khadr.

When Bumanglag and his team reached the boy, he was lying on a wooden door and appeared barely alive.

American soldiers - anguished at the loss of colleague Sgt. Chris Speer, killed by a grenade, and the blinding of another of their men - told Bumanglag the boy had killed Speer, that he was a Canadian who had been Osama bin Ladens houseboy, and to keep him alive, if possible, as a source of information.

Khadr, covered in blood and sand and looking to Bumanglag like a little kid, was taken aboard and the helicopter lifted off. The American medic immediately began trying to save him.

On unlikely circumstances do life and death sometimes pivot. Khadr, it turned out, looked like one of Bumanglags cousins. Perhaps that resemblance saved his life.

All I seen was a kid that looks like a kid that I knew, Bumanglag said.

Even so, he was confronted as he worked with waves of conflicting impulses.

He wondered whether he should even try to save this terrorist, or whether hed be using up supplies that his own men might need.

He thought, he said, of simply pushing Khadr out of the helicopter.

But he knew also that saving a victim so grievously wounded would demonstrate his skill under pressure.

As the sun went down that afternoon, Bumanglag worked on Khadr for more than two hours, into darkness, in the back of the helicopter. The boy was brave, he said. He fought for his life as much as we fought to save him.

By the time they touched down at the U.S. base in Bagram, Bumanglag had plugged all the holes and kept things viable. But when he passed Khadr off, he didnt know if the boy would live or die.

Thanks to Bumanglags efforts Khadr did survive. But he was soon enough consigned to the new horror of Guantanamo, all but abandoned there until 2012 by successive Canadian governments.

For that failure to safeguard a citizens rights, the current Liberal government  spurred by judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada  recently apologized to Khadr and paid a reported $10.5 million in compensation.

Bumanglag, now 36, left the military in 2003 and returned to his native California. He became a police officer for 10 years. Suffering flashbacks and post-traumatic stress, he retired five years ago and studied educational psychology, in part to come to terms with his own experience.

His deep, courageous reflections on what happened when his paths crossed with the young Canadian in Afghanistan show a maturity and empathy seldom if ever seen in the bizarre and mortifying antics of his president.

In recounting his experience, he also shames those Canadian politicians who resorted with unseemly haste to political opportunism after the federal governments settlement with Khadr. Some, such as Conservative MPs Peter Kent and Michelle Rempel, have even taken to U.S. media to pander to anti-Muslim sentiment there.

Bumanglag knows how self-serving such grandstanding and unmerited claim of the moral high ground can be.

This is war, he said. This is something that most people cant fathom, and they want to be real quick to give an opinion just because it makes them feel good about themselves,

He said that, unlike Khadr, the Americans killed and injured in Khost were grown men who had signed on as elite professional soldiers knowing the risks.

Khadr was a boy taken by his father to another country and tossed into an ideology and war over which he had no say or control, Bumanglag said.

Its naive, he said, to think the boy could have walked away from the compound to which his father had taken him.

Unlike many of Khadrs critics, Bumanglag showed the ability to put himself in anothers shoes.

Had he found himself, like Khadr, under heavy bombardment that July day, with his fighters killed and the enemy closing in, Bumanglag said he probably wouldnt have hesitated to throw a grenade.

While there has been criticism of both the fact and the reported amount of the compensation paid Khadr, Donnie Bumanglag offered an informed professional opinion of the latter.

If you say youd go through what he went through for $10 million, youre out of your mind, and thats the truth.

Fifteen years on, he says: Everybody may hate him, but Im glad I saved his life.

SHARE:
By now, U.S. President Donald Trump has more or less lost the ability to shock.

Its been clear for some time that almost nothing is too coarse or outlandish for him to say, no place or person  be it standing in front of a CIA memorial, or speaking to Boy Scouts - immune from his delusions, deceits and self-exaltations.

What Trump has not lost is the ability to appall. He did so again Wednesday by banning transgender Americans from service in the countrys military in any capacity, turning back hard-won progress in human rights.

The United States is hardly alone in having subjected LGBTQ soldiers to witch-hunts, abuse, discrimination and purges over the decades. In Canada, too, men and women were hunted out and driven from the service on the basis of sexuality and gender identity.

But the world, if slowly, changed. Last year, under President Barack Obama, 25 years after the Canadian military lifted its ban on transgender people and had an estimated 200 in the ranks, the U.S. military similarly opened its doors.

In Trumps America, those doors are being summarily slammed shut.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, Trump said in a tweet.

Fitting protest - and revulsion  soon followed.

Ashton Carter, defence secretary under Obama, said in a statement that what matters in choosing service members should only be qualifications. To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military. There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.

Former Sgt. Shane Ortega, the first transgender soldier in the U.S. military to go public, was less diplomatic. Trump is a man who is literally a war-dodger, who comes from a life of privilege and silver spoon, who has no connection to reality whatsoever, he tweeted

In the presidents pinched vision, it seems there is nothing more useful than some other to vilify. Transgender soldiers have been added to a long list of categories of humankind  Mexicans, Muslims, media etc.  that Trump and his supporters disdain.

Vice President Mike Pence, an ardent Christian who opposed Obamas repeal of the Dont ask, Dont tell policy in 2010 and as governor of Indiana opposed a federal directive on transgender bathroom use in schools, had reportedly been campaigning for such a move.

There was also speculation that such an emotional wedge issue would be useful to Republicans in the 2018 elections, obliging Democrats, if so inclined, to take up an argument on behalf of transgender people that might not play well in Rust Belt states.

As for Shane Ortega, a former helicopter crew chief in the Armys 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, he might just have been the subject of one of the best openings in 21st-Century journalism when he was profiled by reporter Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post two years ago: Over the past decade, Sgt. Shane Ortega has served three combat tours: Two in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. Two as a Marine and one in the Army. Two as a woman and one as a man.

Would that Donald Trump had a fraction of such service and courage on his resume.

SHARE:
This weeks federal court ruling that the indefinite jailing of immigration detainees does not necessarily violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should not be confused with an endorsement of Canadas broken detention regime.

The court acknowledged that our system, which too often leaves unwanted migrants, convicted of no crime, languishing in maximum-security prisons for years at a time, is in need of reform. The Trudeau government should follow through on its promise to adopt a better approach to applying the law.

Moreover, whether or not the current law, which allows for indefinite detention, violates the constitution, it is clearly unacceptable in a democracy. That's why many of our peer nations, including the United States, have imposed time limits on immigration detentions. The court's ruling should not discourage Ottawa from joining this international mainstream.

According to Justice Simon Fothergill, the systems significant shortcomings are due to the misapplication of the law, not to the law itself. In particular, the problem is the "misadministration" of the quasi-judicial Immigration and Refugee Board, which reviews cases every 30 days.

There is no doubt some truth in this diagnosis. As an investigative series by the Stars Brendan Kennedy revealed earlier this year, these reviews amount to little more than automatic rubber-stamp sessions. Detainees are often unrepresented, the governments evidence is untested and accepted as fact, and there is no meaningful disclosure. Two immigration lawyers described the hearings as Kafkaesque.

The case before the federal court was that of former immigration refugee Alvin Brown, who spent five years in a maximum-security jail before the government was able to deport him to Jamaica. His story is by no means unique. Thousands of unwanted migrants are detained without trial, many for just a few weeks, but some, like Brown, for years. The Trudeau government has taken commendable steps to find alternatives to incarceration for these migrants, but clearly much more must be done.

As Jared Will, one of Brown's lawyers, rightly pointed out, the problems with the current system may not be a necessary consequence of the law as written, but nor does the law preclude them. The Trudeau government should rewrite the legislation to strengthen the review process and constrain the power of immigration officials.

Furthermore, whether or not it is required by the constitution, the government should impose a reasonable limit on how long migrants can be detained. Canada is part of a shrinking group of democratic nations that imposes no such time limit, a fact lamented by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2015.

We need only look to the European Union for an idea of what reasonable might be. Most countries there have set an 18-month limit on immigration detention, while several countries have set even lower thresholds. Courts in the United States, meanwhile, have ruled that if after six months deportation is not likely in the reasonably foreseeable future, the detainee should be released. Mexico, too, has a 60-day limit on immigration detention.

Brown's lawyer says he will appeal the federal court's ruling, but the Trudeau government shouldnt wait for a higher court to order it to do what's right. No one, without trial or conviction, should ever languish indefinitely in a jail cell.

SHARE:
Re: Take a spin down memory lane with Centre Islands carousel, July 24

Take a spin down memory lane with Centre Islands carousel, July 24

I doubt I am alone in my adverse reaction to the sale of the Centre Island carousel for $3 million. Judging from the photographs accompanying the article by Fatima Syed, several of the animal figures, if not all, were carved by one of the masters of the trade, Charles Louff, and date from the late 1880s.

To quote from the book Early American Woodcarving by Erwin Christensen, Louffs carvings are known for their individualized action, elaboration of trappings and a fusion of realism and abstraction to suggest intense liveliness.

To have this carousel in Canada is a real coup, as the form represents a cultural icon of the late 19th century in North America. I can remember riding on them as a child, as I imagine many others can, too.

Although it was an apparent failure as a business proposition in its current context, one has to think that an authentic, vintage, 52-animal carousel properly positioned as a modern tourist attraction in an accessible, highly visible venue in Toronto could have been an ongoing success. Sadly, we will never know.

Shaun Markey, Ottawa

SHARE:
Re: Police union warns Toronto is dangerously underserviced, Opinion, July 23

Police union warns Toronto is dangerously underserviced, Opinion, July 23

This column by Mike McCormack, who is president of the union, reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. The only supporting statistic given is the growth in the population of Toronto. On subjects such as the decline in crime, including violent crime, there is a palpable silence.

Substituting for data analysis, we are given a few anecdotes, stories without context, which are supposed to be examples of an understaffed constabulary. Why not add some of my anecdotes, such as police officers riding around on bicycles in groups never smaller than three? There is the persistent issue of having two officers in cruisers on regular shifts. Or paying for 28 hours of policing in every 24-hour day, four hours for overlap, handoffs, etc.

Yes, there is a future model of policing coming in the next few years, where some tasks now done by officers will be undertaken by other staff, which we can hope will help reduce the fantastically bloated police budget. But in the meantime, there are measures that can be taken within the current model that would provide more policing from existing resources. We are not underserviced, merely serviced inefficiently.

David Kister, Toronto

SHARE:
PSA Group SA (PUGOY) lifted its full-year outlook for European sales after posting record first half profits thanks to aggressive pricing and ongoing cost cuts.

The maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars said net income for the six months ending in June rose 3.6% to 1.26 billion ($1.5 billion) as revenue grew 5% from the same period last year to just over 29 billion. PSA Group raised its European growth forecast to 3% from 1% and its China outlook to 5%.

"Groupe PSA record performance was achieved thanks to our customers who have made our last commercial launches great successes, and thanks to the continuous commitment of all Group employees in the execution of the Push to Pass plan, combining agility and business sense," said chairman Carlos Tavares. "The way the teams overcame headwinds brings confidence for the coming challenges."

CFO Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon told investors that the group's automotive margin for the first half of the year hit a record 7.3%, a figure that is well north of the company's "Push to Plan" aim of a 4.5% average between 2016 and 2018 and over 6% by 2021.

Earlier this year, Peugeot said it will buy the Opel and Vauxhall brands of General Motors (GM) - Get Free Report for around 1.3 billion while PSA and BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, will take joint 50% stakes in Opel/Vauxhall financing for around 900,000, creating Europe's second-largest carmaker behind Volkswagen AG (VLKAY) with a 17% market share.

PSA Group shares rose 5.5% in Paris to change hands at 19.05 each, extending their year-to-date gain past 22% and well ahead of the 0.68% decline for the Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts subindex.

Watch More from TheStreet:
Global oil prices climbed back above $50 a barrel on Wednesday and threatened to blow past two-month high as traders took heart from OPEC members' promises to cut exports and from signs that U.S. stocks were dwindling just as shale production growth slows.

Brent crude futures for delivery in September, the global benchmark, traded Wednesday morning at $50.61, up 0.82%, their highest mark since the end of May. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures for delivery in September traded at $48.39, up just over 1%.

The rally was kick-started earlier this week by Saudi Arabia, which exited an OPEC meeting in Moscow on Monday with a promise to curb exports. That commitment was later joined by the UAE, while Nigeria, which is exempt from OPEC's current production caps, said it would be prepared to cap or cut production once its output stabilized near its target 1.8 million barrels per day.

Further support for prices came late Tuesday when the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. inventories likely declined by a larger-than-expected 10.2 million barrels in the week ending July 21. Traders will now look for confirmation of that forecast from the Department of Energy, which is due to release its oil inventory figures on Wednesday.

"Some caution is warranted," warned Goldman Sachs. "The API forecasts have set the bar high, while Saudi exports to the US are unlikely to be as low as they were last week."

U.S. shale producers have also played their part in the current bullishness surrounding oil, and could, as ever, prove its undoing. The number of shale rigs declined, albeit by just one, in the week ending July 21, sparking hope that 14-months of stunning growth in shale output may have peaked.

WTI at close to $45 a barrel over recent weeks cooled U.S. onshore drilling's growth, and given the lag between prices and drilling activity may continue to have an effect for some weeks. On the flip-side WTI's move back toward $50 a barrel could be the trigger for a new wave of drilling that will once again weigh on prices.

In the meantime investors will have one eye on the oil price and the other on European oil company reporting. Royal Dutch Shell plc undefined , Total SA (TOT) - Get Free Report , Statoil ASA (STO) and Repsol SA (REPYY) all of which release their second quarter figures on Thursday, July 27.

Don't miss these top stories on TheStreet:
Uncertainty for Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (BWLD) continues to rule the day, after they reported second-quarter earnings of 66 cents per share, well below analyst estimates of $1.05 per share. Forward guidance was also a complete disaster, after the company said it sees fiscal-year 2017 earnings of $4.50 to $5.00, well below analyst estimates of $5.25 a share.

Shares plunged as much as 10% in after-hours trading.

TheStreet's original story posted at 1:36 p.m. Wednesday:

Restaurants operator Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. is set to report earnings on Wednesday after the market close. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect Buffalo Wild Wings to report revenue of $513.27 million on earnings of $1.05 per share.

This comfort-food player has been under heavy pressure from sellers over the last six months, with shares falling sharply by 23.7%. The company recently announced that CEO Sally Smith plans to resign by the end of the year, and investors in June voted to add three activist investor nominees to the board.

The company has also started to launch a new type of store, dubbed the B-Dubs Express, which is geared toward attracting millennials with a focus on takeout and seating for 35 to 50 customers. The new-store concept has started to roll out in Minnesota.

Chipotle's Founder Should Be Fired Because He Is Nothing Like McDonald's CEO

McDonald's CEO: Our Gain Will Bring 'Pain' to Rivals. Here Are 5 Companies That Could Bleed

All these recent developments create a lot of uncertainly heading into the quarter, especially from the standpoint of how new management will execute with a new and improved business model toward more franchised stores.

Despite being down 23% over the last three months heading into this quarter, shares of Buffalo Wild Wings are struggling to muster even a modest really as I type this, with the stock off by 1.66% to $121.65 a share.

The current short interest as a percentage of the float for Buffalo Wild Wings stands at 8.4%. That means that out of the 14.91 million shares in the tradable float, 1.26 million shares are sold short by the bears. This is a decent interest, and with 3.8 days-to-cover, that's the type of ratio that could hurt the bears if we see a solid report.

As much as I want to like this stock here for a possible earnings short-squeeze trade, I just don't see it. It has too much uncertainty and is trending bearish ahead of the quarter.

If you take a look at the chart for Buffalo Wild Wings, you'll notice that this stock has been downtrending badly over the last three months, with shares moving lower off its high of $165.70 to its recent low of $119.55 a share. During that downtrend, this stock has been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. This type of price action clearly demonstrates that this stock is in full control of the bears at the moment.

I would avoid this stock heading into earnings and would remain bearish on near-term prices if it breaks some key support at $119.55 a share post-earnings with big volume. Any break below $119.55 with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 466,506 shares could send this stock back towards its next significant support levels at $100 to $94, or even $90 a share following its earnings report.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Ever since Uber Technologies Inc. began looking for a CEO, there have been plenty of names floated to help drive it out of its months-long PR storm, but none of them have been balked at more than Facebook Inc. (FB) - Get Free Report COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Most agree that Sandberg would be just what Uber needs to lift itself out of its recent string of controversies, which span issues with sexual harassment, toxic workplace culture and shady business tactics. The events ultimately led to former CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation last month, kicking off the company's search for his successor, as well as replacements for several members of its top brass. Sandberg herself has called Uber's recent issues "super troubling."

Facebook's Q2 Results Should Make Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Wish He Had Accepted a $3B Buyout Offer

Snap Is Being Torn Apart by Facebook, Analyst Hints

Bloomberg reported late Wednesday that Uber has put together a list of about six CEO candidates, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. CEO Meg Whitman, who met with Uber's management in recent weeks. Liane Hornsey, Uber's head of human resources, said she believes the company could find a replacement for Kalanick within six weeks, Bloomberg noted, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Uber board member Arianna Huffington is said to have advocated for Sandberg as CEO, the New York Post reported last month, citing sources close to the situation. That news was quickly disputed by Recode's Kara Swisher, who said sources familiar with the matter believe Sandberg is happy with her role at Facebook.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman has been floated as a possible candidate for Uber CEO.

It's easy to see why the folks at Uber would want to snag Sandberg, but it does seem that Sandberg has a pretty great job being second-in-command to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. She's helped scrub Facebook of its own bro culture and has emerged as a champion of gender equality and diversity in the workplace. Sandberg is credited as being behind Facebook's massive and successful advertising business, helping to create the company's integral $13 billion mobile advertising business in just four years.

Facebook is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells FB? Learn more now.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:

Editors' pick: Originally published July 26.

These achievements would equip her to possibly do the same at Uber, although analysts have argued that she's likely not interested in fixing Uber's mess.

"She'd be wonderful but it doesn't seem like a realistic possibility," said Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Ventures, who was an early adviser to and investor in Uber beginning in 2011. "But someone with her gravitas, wisdom, experience and ability would be ideal."

Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, said Sandberg would be the "best antidote" to Uber's internal crises, adding that Sandberg's strong operations and sales expertise could of critical value, especially as Uber considers a possible IPO at some point.

Sandberg has been pegged for other major roles in the past. Her name was thrown into the ring as a replacement for Disney (DIS) - Get Free Report CEO Bob Iger, but she dispelled those rumors, saying she "doesn't want another job." That answer was also her response to rumors of her entering politics, of which there have been many. Some thought Sandberg might run for governor of California or for a U.S. Senate seat, or even for president.

Aside from Sandberg's loaded resume, Uber may be approaching powerful women in particular as a means of sending a message that its bro culture is no longer an acceptable norm at the company.

"In terms of gender, while the board should pick the best person available, most of Uber's problems are related to its culture and not the business itself," Tusk explained. "So a female CEO would certainly send a strong message."

Dawson reiterated that point, adding that Uber doesn't "have to hire a female CEO," but doing so would show that erasing the bro culture is a key priority, and that "women employees, customers and drivers will be treated better in the future."

If not Sandberg, Uber will be looking to hire a CEO that has the perfect combination of leadership characteristics and experience to help steer the company out of its tumultuous environment. A female CEO would be "terrific" for Uber, but that shouldn't be prioritized over finding the best CEO for the role, said Jason Hanold, managing partner at Hanold Associates, an executive search firm.

"Uber needs a compassionate, proven, authentic, and brilliant, IQ plus EQ in equal measure, leader who willing to be vulnerable and can concurrently heal the culture, drive innovation and inspire talent to join and stay," Hanold said.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
Oshkosh Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies worldwide. The company's Access Equipment segment provides aerial work platforms and telehandlers for use in various construction, industrial, institutional, and general maintenance applications. This segment also offers rental fleet loans and leases, and floor plan and retail financing through third-party funding arrangements; towing and recovery equipment; carriers and wreckers; equipment installation services; and chassis and service parts sales. Its Defense segment provides heavy, medium, and light tactical wheeled vehicles and related services for the department of defense. The company's Fire & Emergency segment offers custom and commercial firefighting vehicles and equipment; and commercial fire apparatus and emergency vehicles, such as pumpers, aerial platform, ladder and tiller trucks, tankers, rescue vehicles, wild land rough terrain response vehicles, mobile command and control centers, bomb squad vehicles, hazardous materials control vehicles, and other emergency response vehicles. This segment also provides aircraft rescue and firefighting, snow removal, and broadcast vehicles, as well as command trucks, and military simulator shelters and trailers. Its Commercial segment offers front-and rear-discharge concrete mixers for the concrete ready-mix industry; refuse collection vehicles and related components to commercial and municipal waste haulers; and field service vehicles and truck-mounted cranes for the construction, equipment dealer, building supply, utility, tire service, railroad, and mining industries. Oshkosh Corporation provides its products through direct sales representatives, dealers, and distributors. The company was formerly known as Oshkosh Truck Corporation and changed its name to Oshkosh Corporation in February 2008. Oshkosh Corporation was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quanta Services: (De) Lazy Q Ranch LLC, 1 Diamond LLC, 1Diamond AS, 618232 Alberta Ltd., 8246408 Canada Inc., Advanced Electric Systems, Advanced Electric Systems LLC, Advanced Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Alexander Publications LLC, Allteck GP Ltd., Allteck Limited Partnership, Apprenticeship Programs Inc., Arby Construction, Arcanum Chemicals LLC, Arnett & Burgess Oil Field Construction Limited, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners (Rockies) LLC, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners Ltd., B&N Clearing and Environmental LLC, Banister Pipelines Constructors Corp., Banister Pipelines Constructors GP Ltd., Banister Pipelines Limited Partnership, Brent Woodward Inc., Brink Constructors Inc., Brink Constructors Inc. A Corporation Of South Dakota, Brown Engineering and Testing, CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership, CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership (Regd Name) CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-Spec Limited Partnership, Canadian Utility Construction Corp., Cat Spec Limited LP, Cat Spec Ltd, Cat Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat Spec Ltd. LP, Cat Spec. Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd (A Domestic limited Partnership), Cat-Spec Ltd LP, Cat-Spec Ltd., Cat-Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat-Spec Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd. Limited Partnership, Catalyst Changers Inc., Chatham Electric, Citadel Industrial Services L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Coe Drilling Pty Ltd., Computapole, Conam Construction Co., Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd, Conti Communications Inc., Crux Subsurface Canada Ltd., Crux Subsurface Inc., Cutting Technology - 1 Diamond LLC, DB Utilities Inc., DE Lazy Q Ranch LLC, DNR Pressure Welding Ltd., Dacon Corporation, Dashiell (DE) Corporation (Dashiell Corporation), Dashiell Corporation, Dashiell Corporation DBA Dashiell (DE) Corporation, De Mears Group, De Mears Group Inc., Delaware Quanta Technology LLC, Delaware Underground Construction Co., Didado Utility Company Inc., Digco Utility Construction L.P. Digco Utility Construction Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services. Ltd. L.P., Driftwood Electrical Contractors, EHV Power ULC, ELITE PIPING & CIVIL L.P., ELITE TURNAROUND SPECIALISTS LTD, Elite Fabrication Ltd. Elite Fabrication LP, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Lp, Elite Piping & Civil Ltd L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. Limited Partnership, Elite Piping and Civil L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists L.p., Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. LP, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. Limited Partnership, Energy Consulting Group LLC, Enscope, Enscope Pty Ltd, FIC GP LLC, Field Personnel Services LLC, First Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC, First Infrastructure Capital GP L.P., Five Points Construction Co., G-Tek, G-Vac, GEM Engineering Co., Grand Electric Inc., Great Lakes Line Builders, Grid Creative Inc., Grid Manufacturing Corporation, Grid Training Corporation, H.L. Chapman Pipeline Construction Inc., Haverfield Aviation, Haverfield Aviation Inc., Haverfield International Incorporated, Heritage Midstream LLC, IM Electric Inc., IUC ILLINOIS LLC, IUC Nebraska LLC, InfraSource Construction LLC, InfraSource Field Services LLC, InfraSource Services LLC, InfraSources Construction LLC, Infraestructura ETP de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Infrasource Engineering Company PC, Infrasource Iowa Underground LLC, Infrasource Of Pa LLC, Integracion Tecnologica del Peru SAC, Intermountain Electric Inc., Intermountain Electric Inc. A Corporation of Colorado, IonEarth LLC, Irby Construction Company, Irby Construction Company Inc., Iron Mountain M.J. Electric LLC, Island Mechanical Corporation, J.C.R. Construction Co. Inc., J.C.R. Utility Construction Co., J.W. Didado Electric Inc., J.W. Didado Electric LLC, J.w. Didado Electric, JBT Electric LLC, Kingston Contracting Inc., Lazy Q Ranch LLC, Lazy Q Training Center LLC The Lazy Q Lineman School, Legend Foundation Services, Lex Engineering Ltd., Lindsey Electric L.P., Logical Link, Longfellow Drilling, M. G. Dyess Inc., M. J. ELECTRIC LLC IRON MOUNTAIN, M. J. Electric LLC, M. J. Electric LLC - Iron Mountain, M. J. Electric LLC DBA M. J. Electric Iron Mountain LLC, M.J. Electric LLC DBA M.J. Electric Iron Mountain, M.J. Electric LLC Iron Mountain, MTS Field Services, MTS Field Services (Richmond Co), MTS Quanta LLC, Manuel Bros. Inc., Marathon Construction Services, Mears Canada Corp., Mears Equipment Services LLC, Mears Group Inc., Mears Group Pty Ltd, Mears Installation LLC, Mearsmex S. de R.L. de C.V., Mejia Personnel Services LLC, Mercer Technical Services, Microline Technology Corporation, Mid America Energy Services Inc., NACAP Niugini Ltd., NC Northstar Energy Services Inc, NGI Construction, NGI Construction Inc., NGI Construction Inc. (FN), NLC CA. Inc., NLC FL. Inc. Northwest Lineman Center, NLC ID. Inc. Northwest Lineman College, NLC TX. Inc., NPC Energy Services LLC, Nacap Australia, Nacap PNG Limited, Network Communication Services, North Houston Pole Line L.P., North Houston Pole Line Limited Partnership, North Sky Communications, NorthStar Energy Services Inc., Northern Powerline Constructors Inc., Northstar Energy Solutions LLC, Northwest Lineman Center, Northwest Lineman College, Northwest Lineman Training Center, Northwest Lineman Training Center Inc., Nova Constructors LLC, Nova Constructors LTD, Nova Equipment Leasing LLC, Nova Group Inc, Nova Group Inc (CA), Nova Group Inc., Nova Group Inc. DBA NGI Construction, Nova NextGen Solutions LLC, O. J. Pipelines Canada Corporation, O. J. Pipelines Canada Limited Partnership, O.J. Industrial Maintenance, O.J. Pipelines Canada, One Call Locators Canada Ltd., P.D.G. Electric, PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., PDG Electric Co., Par Internacional S. de R.L. de C.V., Performance Energy Services Guyana Ltd., Performance Energy Services L.L.C., Phasor Engineering Inc., Phoenix North Constructors Inc., Phoenix Power Group Inc., Potelco Inc., Potelco Incorporated, Power Delivery Program Inc., Price Gregory International Inc., Price Gregory Services LLC, Probst Construction Inc., Probst Electric Inc., QEPC, QEPC Power Solutions LLC, QES GP LLC, QP Energy Services LLC, QPS Engineering LLC, QPS Engineering LTD., QPS Engineering PLLC, QPS Environmental, QPS Flint Construction, QPS Flint Tank Services, QPS Global, QPS Global Services, QPS Global Services (Richmond Ci), QPS Professional Services, QPSE, QS Mats, QSI Engineering Inc., QSI Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance (Cayman) Pvt. Ltd., QSI Finance Canada ULC, QSI Finance GP (US) LLC, QSI Finance I (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance I (US) LP, QSI Finance II (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance II (Lux) S.a r.l, QSI Finance II (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance III (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance III (Lux) SARL, QSI Finance IV (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance IX (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance V (US) L.P., QSI Finance VI (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance VII (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance VIII (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance X (Canada) ULC, QSI Inc., QSN Lux Holdings I SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings II SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings III SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings IV SCSp, QTSL LLC, QUANTA FOUNDATION SERVICES, Quanta APL GP II Ltd., Quanta Asset Management LLC, Quanta Associates L.P., Quanta Aviation Services LLC, Quanta Canada GP ULC, Quanta Canada Holdings III Limited Partnership, Quanta Canada Holdings LP, Quanta Canada III GP Ltd., Quanta Capital GP LLC, Quanta Capital LP L.P., Quanta Capital Solutions Inc., Quanta Cares, Quanta EPC Services, Quanta Electric Power Construction LLC, Quanta Electric Power Construction Management Inc., Quanta Electric Power Services LLC, Quanta Electric Power Services West LLC, Quanta Energized Innovations Ltd., Quanta Energized Services U.S. LLC, Quanta Energized Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Energy Services LLC, Quanta Environmental Solutions, Quanta Equipment Company LLC, Quanta Government Solutions Inc., Quanta Holdings I (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Holdings II (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Infraestructura de Chile SpA, Quanta Infrastructure Services LLC, Quanta Infrastructure Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Quanta Inline Devices LLC, Quanta Inspection Services, Quanta Insurance Company Inc., Quanta International Holdings (US) LLC, Quanta International Holdings II Ltd., Quanta International Holdings Ltd., Quanta International Limited, Quanta Kingsvale LP Ltd., Quanta Lines Pty Ltd., Quanta Maine Services LLC, Quanta Middle East LLC, Quanta Pipeline Services Inc., Quanta Power Australia Pty Ltd, Quanta Power Generation Inc., Quanta Power Inc., Quanta Power Solutions India Private Limited, Quanta Resource Development, Quanta Services Africa (PTY) Ltd., Quanta Services Australia Pty Ltd., Quanta Services Chile SpA, Quanta Services Colombia S.A.S., Quanta Services Costa Rica Ltda., Quanta Services Guatemala Ltda., Quanta Services International Holdings II LP, Quanta Services International Holdings LP, Quanta Services Management Partnership L.P., Quanta Services Netherlands B.V., Quanta Services Panama S. de R.L., Quanta Services Peru S.A.C., Quanta Services Puerto Rico LLC, Quanta Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface LLC, Quanta Tank Services, Quanta Technology Canada ULC, Quanta Technology LLC, Quanta Technology UK Ltd., Quanta Tecnologia do Brasil Ltda., Quanta Telecom, Quanta Telecom Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services LLC, Quanta Telecommunications Services LLC, Quanta Underground Services, Quanta Underground Services (Culpeper Co), Quanta Underground Services (Spotsylvania Co), Quanta Underground Services Inc., Quanta Utility Engineering Services Inc., Quanta Utility Installation Company Inc., Quanta Utility Operation LLC, Quanta West LLC, Quantecua Cia. Ltda., R. R. Cassidy Inc., RMS Holdings LLC, RMS Holdings LLC (Delaware), RMS Welding Systems, RMS Welding Systems LLC, Ranger Directional, Realtime Engineers Inc., Realtime Utility Engineers Inc., Redes Andinas de Comunicaciones S.R.L., Riggin & Diggin Line Construction, Rms Welding LLC, Rms Welding Systems LLC, Road Bore Corporation, Ryan Company Inc. The, Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, Ryan Company Inc.(The), Seaward, Seaward Corp, Seaward Corporation, Service EC (DE) Inc., Service Electric Company (DE), Service Electric Company Inc., Service Electric Company of Delaware, Servicios Par Electric S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Infraestructura del Peru S.A.C., Southwest Trenching Company Inc., Specialty Tank Services L.P., Specialty Tank Services LP, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Ltd., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. (LP), Specialty Tank Services Ltd. L.P., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold General LLC, Stronghold Holdings (BVI) Limited, Stronghold Inspection L.P., Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Lp, Stronghold Inspection Ltd L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Limited Partnership, Stronghold Ltd., Stronghold Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Management Holdings LP, Stronghold Specialty General LLC, Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Tower Group LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd., Stronghold Tower Group Ltd. LP, Stronghold VI LLC, Subterra Damage Prevention Specialists Ltd., Summit Line Construction, Sumter Utilities Inc., T. G. Mercer Consulting Services Inc., TA Construction, TC Infrastructure Services Ltd., Taylor Built, Texas Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, The Aspen Utility Company LLC, The ComTran Group Inc., The Hallen Construction Co. Inc., The Massachusetts Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc Of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc. (Massachusetts), The Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Incorporated of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Of Massachusetts Inc., The Ryan Company of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company of Massachusetts (FN), Tom Allen Construction Company Inc., Tom Allen Construction Company of Delaware, Trans Tech Electric, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd., TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey I&E Ltd., Turnkey Automation Ltd. L.P., Turnkey Automation Ltd. LP., UCC Underground Construction Co. Inc., Ucc - Underground Construction Co., Underground Construction Co. Inc., Underground Construction Co. Inc. (Delaware), Underground Electric Construction Company LLC, Utilco Inc., Utility Fleet Services, Utility Line Management Services Inc., Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Utility Training Services Corporation, VALARD Polska sp. Z o.o., Valard, Valard, Valard Construction (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Construction (Quebec) Inc., Valard Construction 2008 Ltd., Valard Construction Australia Pty Ltd, Valard Construction LLC, Valard Equipment (AB) Ltd., Valard Equipment GP Ltd., Valard Equipment Limited Partnership, Valard Geomatics (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Geomatics BC Ltd., Valard Geomatics Ltd., Valard Mechanical Ltd., Valard Norway AS, Valard Sweden AB, Valard Zagreb d. o. o., Wade D. Taylor Inc., West Coast Communications, Winco Helicopters, Winco Inc., Winco Inc. an Oregon Based Corporation, Winco Powerline Services, Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Services Inc., World Fiber Inc., and mmit Line Construction Inc..

Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group Public: 360 Connect S.A., 3@ Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus  Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way  Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U.  Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited  Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal  Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V..

Read More
The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United states and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers' compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers' liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said work is progressing at a steady pace on its research and development (R&D) centre being built at a cost of Dh500 million ($136 million) at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.



Leading international consultant Stantec International is responsible for design and construction of the R&D centre along with Reem Capital Contracting (RCC).



The hi-tech facility will ready for operations in 2020, said the senior management of Dewa after getting firsthand experience of the progress of work at the R&D centre in Seih Al Dahal area of the emirate.



The R&D centre, which was launched in 2014, will focus on four key operations - production of electricity using solar energy, integration of smart grids, energy efficiency, and water.



According to Dewa, the R&D centre infrastructure includes indoor laboratories - to study and test the reliability of systems - and outdoor labs to conduct field tests of techniques and tools, which include studies on mitigating the effects of dust on the performance of solar panels.



"This is part of Dewas efforts to promote the production of clean energy, and reduce operating costs," remarked Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive.



"The R&D centre will adopt a strategic perspective to keep abreast of scientific and research developments in the field of renewable energy, and will support the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to diversify energy sources and enhance energy efficiency," he noted.



Dewa pointed out that the hi-tech facility includes an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) lab, built with 3D-printing technology. The utility firm is also studying the possibility of using 3D-printing technology in the development of spare parts, to improve the performance of UAVs, based on artificial intelligence (AI) in the maintenance and operations in its work.



Al Tayer said the new facility aims to support Dewas vision to promote sustainability in energy supply, diversify energy sources, and create a business environment that encourages innovation.



"It also aims to support Dubai's strategy to build a knowledge-based economy by improving efficiency standards and supporting renewable energy initiatives, especially the solar energy and related initiatives and activities. The R&D Centre will contribute to strengthening Dubai's position as a global hub, for research and development, in the field of solar energy, smart grids, and energy and water efficiency," explained the Dewa chief.



"It will also enhance capacity building in these sectors to enable Dubai to meet the requirements of sustainable development in the emirate. We aim to create a platform for innovation and creativity in renewable energy and clean technologies, and we will train our national capabilities, to keep up with this requirement," he added.



Dewa said through key R&D initiatives it is utilising 3D printing and additive manufacturing, as innovative solutions for its internal printing operations for non-metallic spare parts for equipment thus helping the utility to reduce costs and extend the lifetime of the equipment.



The new R&D centre will also help Dewa to study the possibility of utilising the 3D-printing technology to promote innovation and creativity, in co-operation with prestigious research centres and universities around the world, said Al Tayer.



Dewa has already signed agreements with several national entities, institutions, and companies, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy, and the Spanish National Renewable Energy Centre (Cener) in R&D, and the latest developments in the fields of energy, water and the environment.



The company is also collaborating with the United Arab Emirates University and Khalifa University in the field of joint research and studies in renewable energy.-TradeArabia News Service
An official website of the United States Government
When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.
- Kenyas hotly contested General election has created tension not only locally but also internationally

- The political rhetoric being spewed by politicians and the online vitriol has generated enough heat to make foreign nations issue warnings to their nationals in Kenya

- Such include travel advisories and warnings of possible violence during and after the elections

At least eight countries have publicly cautioned their citizens residing in Kenya to be wary of eventualities during the electioneering period here.

Below is a list of the countries who want their citizens to be alert and hopefully, Kenyans will vote peacefully and prove the naysayers wrong.

1.United Kingdom- The UK on Monday July 26 told it citizens through its Foreign and Commonwealth office that they ought to remain vigilant.

READ ALSO: Luo musician's song in praise of Uhuru lands him in trouble with his kinsmen

2.United States-The US has been issuing travel advisories for the longest time possible warning its citizens in Kenya to avoid certain areas not only due to elections but also because of the danger posed by al-Shabaab terrorists.

3.Russia- The Eastern Europe nation is the latest to warn its citizens to be aware of possible protests on the eve of the August 8 elections

4.Canada- The country in an update on travel advisories on July 13 asked its citizens to be careful ahead of the elections.

READ ALSO: Raila welcomed by anti-Uhuru chants in Meru a day after presidential debate(video)

READ ALSO: Jubilee and rival supporters clash ahead of Uhuru's tour in Marsabit

5.Sweden- The Federal Council has cautioned Swedish citizens in Kenya of possible political upheavals saying: Until the date of the elections, throughout the pre-election period and until the voting is announced, there is danger that political circumstances will lead to renewed violence in all regions of the country.

6.France- The country issued a warning on June 28 asking its citizens to be vigilant due to possible violence.

7.Spain- The Spanish government issued its warning on January 24 and is yet to review it.

READ ALSO: The millions of Kenyans Uhuru missed but Raila reached during the live Presidential Debate

8.Australia- Through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Australia has asked its citizens to avoid political rallies and protests as they may quickly turn violent.

I've slept with over 100 men, tried taking away myself 5 times

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- President Uhuru has described the state Kenya will be in if Raila Odinga clinches the presidency

- He said Kenya will descend into chaos and the economy will collapse

- His sentiments caused outrage on his Facebook page as NASA and Jubilee supporters took on each other

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto took their campaigns to Marsabt county on Wednesday, July 26, in efforts to solidify support for his re-election.

While in Marsabit town, President Uhuru sparked chaos on social media when he took time to describe what a Raila Odinga presidency  the National Super Alliance presidential candidate- would entail for Kenya.

On the 8th of August all Kenyans have to make a decisive decision. The difference between NASA and Jubilee is like night and day. Choose Jubilee for progress and say a resounding NO to NASA because of the risk they pose as merchants of divisive politics and power games,

READ ALSO: Emerging details reveal how the Presidential Debate was a plot to 'hurt' Uhuru Kenyatta

UhuRuto in Marsabit town on Wednesday, July 26. Photo: Facebook, Raila Odinga.

READ ALSO: Uhuru is too proud and he thinks that Kenyans owe him votes, Joho goes ham on the president

Raila cares only about power for himself and playing politics to get power. He has no credible plan and only complains from the sidelines. His divisive leadership would mean chaos for Kenya and a weakened economy translating to fewer jobs, higher prices and no peace and security for you and your family, said Uhuru in a post seen by TUKO.co.ke

Kenyans flooded his Facebook wall to express outrage at such sentiments, only for Jubilee Party supporters to attack NASA supporters in the end.

Tell your lies to your jubilee sycophants; your regime must fall by all means!, wrote Samwel Obara.

Wacha uongo!!! We are sending u back home.....you are the one playing divisive politics, wrote Francis Okola.

READ ALSO: 8 countries predict eruption of election violence in Kenya

NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga. Photo: Facebook, NASA Coalition.

Install TUKO App To Read News For FREE

Being unable to think for yourself and tribal chauvinist is the primary requirements to vote for the 'juu bill' failures, wrote Patrick Wesonga.

And most Kenyans are NOT listening but truth be told. Raila can NOT and has NO intention of making Kenya greater the way he says it, wrote Idriss Gianni.

Instead of telling us not to vote NASA, tell us to vote wisely. Mature politics. Now who is dividing us here? wrote Ivan Evamovic.

Runaway corruption, failed health care system, failed economy those are your achievements, wrote Marrassi Ezra.

READ ALSO: List: 5 counties where KDF officers shall be deployed on August 8

Uhuru and Raila are the two main presidential candidates to watch on August 8. Photo: Daily Nation.

READ ALSO: Millie Odhiambo's strange dream about Uhuru

Uhuru, I will vote u back not because u give me anything but because you are the right person there...not someone so arrogant na Vitisho ati Bila yeye no peace...na promises za uongo ati free houses na hata choo hawezi jengea watu wake, wrote Essy Suzzy.

So Ironic ...in fact we are experiencing the issues you are talking about in your govt...NASA tibim, wrote Simon Kavi Peter.

I agree Rao only wants revenge, wrote Melvine Onkoba.

Confirmed. it's hard for you to sell your manifestos without mentioning NASA/Raila. You avoided your electorates in the previous debate but still you have the gut to spit venom on your campaign tours,Canaan is real,Nasa tsunami is real,change is inevitable unaenda Gatundu soooonn wrote Sharon Lundu.

Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Watch this young lady's stunning testimony below:

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The President General of the NUGFW and NATUC, James Lambert says, too many people in the cou
Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

Your notification has been saved.

There was a problem saving your notification.

{{description}}

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Ukraine expects positive decisions of different countries on the provision of defensive weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak wrote this on his Facebook page.

"Equipping the Armed Forces of Ukraine with modern weapons and military equipment is a key task of the defense reform. Support of foreign colleagues is very important for us. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression Ukraine has appealed to different countries around the world to provide the Ukrainian army with defensive weapons. Now we are waiting for the relevant decisions and we will positively accept this assistance," Poltorak said.

As reported, the United State is not yet in the process of considering the issue of providing defensive weapons to Ukraine, but at the same time Washington doesn't rule out the situation may change.

ish
Israel and Ukraine have started the sixth round of negotiations on the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement in order to continue considering access to agricultural and industrial goods markets and, in particular, to determine the degree of lowering the customs tariffs.

Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska wrote this on her Facebook page.

"The sixth round of talks on the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Israel has started," Mykolska wrote.

According to her, the purpose of the sixth round of talks is to continue the detailed consideration of issues related to the access to agricultural and industrial goods markets, particularly, to determine the degree of lowering the customs tariffs.

"It is very important for us to ensure the duty-free access to the Israeli market for Ukrainian goods, and our negotiating team is actively moving in this direction," the Trade Representative of Ukraine noted.

ol
Ukraine has stopped power supplies to the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk region.

Interim director of Ukrenergo, Vsevolod Kovalchuk posted this on his Facebook page.

At 00:00, July 26, 2017, the flow of electric power into the temporarily uncontrolled areas of Donetsk region was stopped, Kovalchuk wrote.

According to him, the temporary occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions now do not consume electricity generated by power plants in the government-controlled part of Ukraine. The needs of the occupied territories for energy are covered by Starobeshivska and Zuyivska TPPs, other producers in the temporarily occupied territory and supplies from the Russian Federation that were excluded from the list of interstate lines. The power flows along those lines are not accounted for in the general system of power flows between Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

ol
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has appointed Petro Tsyhykal as new chairman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

The new chairman was introduced to the personnel of the Service in the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"As President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I signed the decree pursuant to the relevant recommendation for the appointment of Petro Tsyhykal as new Chairman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine," the President said.

Earlier, Petro Tsyhykal headed the operational department of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

As reported, Head of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service Viktor Nazarenko submitted a letter of resignation because of a health reason.

ol
The United State is not yet in the process of considering the issue of providing defensive weapons to Ukraine, but at the same time Washington doesnt rule out the situation may change.

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert stated this at a press briefing on July 25, when asked whether Washington is considering the issue of delivering arms to Ukraine.

Sometimes the headline writers  you all would know this  will get ahead of the story. So there was a headline that implied that we were in the process of doing what you just described. We are not there yet. Let me take out the word yet. We are not there. The United States has not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled it out to provide to the Ukrainians, she said.

As reported, earlier new US special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker stated in an interview with BBC that the US authorities are actively reviewing whether to send weapons to Ukraine so that to help fighting against Russian-backed militants.

iy
The European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine in 2017 implements 45 projects and allocates more than two million euros to promote the reform of the law enforcement system of Ukraine.

Head of the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine Kestutis Lancinskas said this in an interview with DW.

"We have already approved 45 projects to be financed. We will finance training course and trips of our colleagues to other European countries to share the best practices. We will also finance equipment for law enforcement agencies," Lancinskas said.

The creation of a system of cooperation between Europol and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, as well as community policing, is among the most important projects that are currently funded by the mission.

ish
The United States sees some progress on North Korea. Martial law extended in Philippines fight against militants. Myanmar works on law affecting freedom of speech. China moves annoying wholesale markets out of town. Smog still a U.S. problem. Teaching drones to see.
Afghan security forces Wednesday safely recovered two Pakistani diplomats weeks after they were abducted in eastern Afghanistan.

The men were serving at Pakistan's consulate general in the Afghan city of Jalalabad and traveling back to their country on June 16 when they went missing. No one had claimed responsibility for kidnapping the diplomats.

President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistan's Charge d'Affiares in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said.

The two officials were later handed over to the embassy and were to be flown back to Pakistan to join their families as soon as possible, the ministry said, and thanked the Afghan government for the rescue.

The ministry statement did not provide further details about who was behind the kidnapping or from where in Afghanistan the two men were rescued.

Jalalabad is the capital of volatile Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, and where Taliban insurgents and militants linked to a local branch of Islamic State also have strongholds.

The kidnapping of the diplomatic officials and their subsequent rescue by Afghan forces come as Kabul's relations with Islamabad have deteriorated in the past several years.

The two countries share a long border and routinely accuse each other of sponsoring terrorist attacks on each other's soils.
Ten-year-old Madina was collecting firewood with her friends Thursday in eastern Afghanistan when a roadside bomb went off and seriously injured her.

"We were on a hill close to my home, collecting firewood, when I heard a loud sound underneath my feet," she said from her hospital bed in eastern Jalalabad city, where she is being treated.

Madina's wounds highlight the growing number of civilian injuries and deaths due to violence in Afghanistan, according to a midyear report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

UNAMA said 1,662 civilians have been killed during the first six months of 2017 as a result of suicide attacks, roadside bombs and the government's ongoing crackdown on militants across the country. Another 3,581 civilians have been injured during the same period, according to UNAMA.

The U.N. blames Taliban, IS and other armed militant groups for the majority of the civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths

Amnesty International has denounced attacks on civilians, charging that it constitutes a war crime, and demanded the Afghan government ensure the safety and protection of its citizens.

"A record number of civilians have been killed in the first half of this year, with women and children being the worst affected. And neither the Afghan government nor the international community is paying enough attention to their plight," the rights group said.

UNAMA, too, warned anti-government forces not to deliberately target civilians.

"UNAMA reminds anti-government elements that employment as a civil servant tasked with providing public services to Afghan citizens on behalf of the government is a civilian function. Attacks deliberately targeting civilians, and the intentional killing of civilians, are war crimes," UNAMA said following Monday's suicide attack.

Doctors said Madina, who lost both legs in the blast, is in stable condition and will eventually receive prosthetic limbs.

However, the explosion has changed Madina's life forever, and she is having trouble understanding the severity of her injuries. "I want the hospital to fix my legs," she said.

The incident took place in eastern Nangarhar's Sangena district. Family members claim the roadside bomb was planted by Islamic State (IS) militants in the region.

Roadside bombs

Madina's grandmother, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told VOA that IS militants have planted mines in the region.

"IS militants came to our village and implanted mines," Madina's grandmother said, adding that Madina was the only family member who helped her father with household errands.

Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, spokesperson for the Nangarhar police chief, told VOA that Taliban and IS militants are responsible for planting roadside bombs in the region  targeting one another, as well as civilians.

The increase in roadside bomb blasts has taken a toll on civilians, not only in eastern Nangarhar province, but across Afghanistan, according to officials.

Civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, whether it be from roadside bombs, Taliban suicide attacks or government operations, rights groups say.

On Monday, a Taliban suicide car bombing killed at least 35 people and injured dozens more in the Afghan capital, Kabul, security officials said.

Responsibility

Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying its bomber targeted two minibuses carrying personnel of the Afghan intelligence agency, or NDS.

But a Kabul police spokesman told VOA the victims were mostly employees of the ministry of mining and petroleum industry.

The blast took place while the bus was passing through a crowded marketplace, killing shopkeepers and passersby, according to eyewitnesses at the scene.

In late May, a truck bomb hit the diplomatic area of the Afghan capital, killing at least 90 people and injuring more than 350, all of them civilians. Taliban denied responsibility for that attack.

Analysts theorize that Taliban militants tend not to claim responsibility for attacks that have high civilian death tolls.
Amazon has some job openings. Lots of them.



The company said Wednesday that it's looking to fill more than 50,000 positions across the U.S.



It's planning to make thousands of offers on the spot on Aug. 2, when it opens the doors to potential hires at 10 Amazon.com Inc. shipping sites.



There will be more than 10,000 part-time jobs available at sorting centers, and some supporting and managerial positions.



The labor market is growing tight with back-to-school and holiday shopping around the corner. Others will be competing for those same hires.



The unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, near a 16-year low, yet the average hourly pay rose just 2.5 percent in the past year. The last time unemployment was this low, wages were rising at roughly a 4 percent rate.
In 2016, an Iraqi-American artist sat down with Bahjat Abdulwahed  the so-called "Walter Cronkite of Baghdad''  with the idea of launching a radio project that would be part documentary, part radio play and part variety show.



Abdulwahed was the voice of Iraqi radio from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, but came to Philadelphia as a refugee in 2009 after receiving death threats from insurgents.



"He represented authority and respectability in relationship to the news through many different political changes,'' said Elizabeth Thomas, curator of "Radio Silence," a public art piece that resulted from the meeting with Abdulwahed.



Thomas had invited artist Michael Rakowitz to Philadelphia to create a project for Mural Arts Philadelphia, which has been expanding its public art reach from murals into new and innovative spaces.



After nearly five years of research, Rakowitz distilled his project into a radio broadcast that would involve putting the vivacious and caramel-voiced Abdulwahed back on the air, and using Philadelphia-area Iraqi refugees and local Iraq war veterans as his field reporters. It would feature Iraqi music, remembrances of the country and vintage weather reports from a happier time in Iraq.



"One of the many initial titles was "Desert Home Companion,'' Rakowitz said, riffing on "A Prairie Home Companion,'' the radio variety show created by Garrison Keillor.

Rakowitz recorded an initial and very informal session with Abdulwahed in his living room in January 2016. Two weeks later, Abdulwahed collapsed. He had to have an emergency tracheostomy and was on life support until he died seven months later.



At Abdulwahed's funeral, his friends urged Rakowitz to continue with the project, to show how much of the country they left behind was slipping away and to help fight cultural amnesia.



Rakowitz recalibrated the project, which became "Radio Silence,'' a 10-part radio broadcast with each episode focusing on a synonym of silence, in homage to Abdulwahed.



"The voice of Baghdad had lost his voice,'' Rakowitz said, calling him a "narrator of Iraq's history.''



It will be hosted by Rakowitz and features fragments of that first recording session with Abdulwahed, as well as interviews with his wife and other Iraqi refugees living in Philadelphia.



Rakowitz and Thomas also worked with Warrior Writers, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia that helps war veterans work through their experiences using writing and art.



The first episode, on speechlessness, will launch Aug. 6. It will be broadcast on community radio stations across the country through Prometheus Radio Project.

One participant is Jawad Al Amiri, an Iraqi refugee who came to the United States in the 1980s. He said silence in Iraq has been a way of life for many decades.



"Silence is a way of survival. Silence is a decree by the Baath regime, not to tell what you see in front of your eyes. Silence is synonymous with fear. If you tell, you will be put through agony,'' he said at a preview Tuesday of the live broadcast. He said he saw his own sister poisoned and die and wasn't allowed to speak of it.



When he came to the U.S. in 1981, his father told him: "We send you here for education and to speak for the millions of Iraqis in the land where freedom of speech is practiced.''



Lawrence Davidson is an Army veteran who served during the Iraq War and works with Warrior Writers also contributed to the project. He said the project is a place to exchange ideas and honestly share feelings with refugees and other veterans.



The project kicks off on July 29 with a live broadcast performance on Philadelphia's Independence Mall  what Rakowitz calls the symbolic home of American democracy. It will feature storytelling, food from refugees and discussions from the veterans with Warrior Writers.
It was the fair and right thing to do, former President George H. W. Bush said in an interview in 1999 when asked why he supported the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which he signed into law on July 26, 1990.

I think there are a lot of people who, if given access to the workplace, for example, can achieve things, Bush continued. But if they are denied that, they wont have a shot at the American dream.

In his remarks at the signing ceremony, Bush noted that there were 43 million Americans living with disabilities.

The ADA bars discrimination against Americans with disabilities in jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and privately-owned places that are open to the general public.

The signing of the legislation marked a rare moment of bipartisanship in Washington politics.

Even the most hardened politicians, such as Lee Atwater, a senior Bush adviser who was considered a key architect of the negative campaign concept, supported the measure.

A priest with no arms attended the signing ceremony, using his feet to hand the president a pen to sign the bill.

Before becoming law, the ADA faced some resistance, mostly by small business owners concerned about the cost of outfitting workspaces with the proper facilities to accommodate disabled workers.

Since 1990, the ADA has been retooled, by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as medical treatment for some chronic conditions like muscular sclerosis have dramatically improved.

In the digital era, the challenges for disabled employees have shifted from building ramps for those in wheelchairs and making other office accommodations to unmet technical needs for others who cannot use computers without assistance.


Thirty-two people, most of them soldiers with Cameroons elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, remain unaccounted for after their ship capsized off the coast of the Bakassi Peninsula over a week ago. Relatives of the missing are demanding answers.

Dozens come every evening to comfort the residents of a house in the Yaounde-Nkoabang neighborhood of the capital. It is the home of Alex Alega, one of the 32 soldiers still missing after a Cameroonian military vessel went down off the Atlantic coast July 16.

His brother, Theophile, is anxious for news. He says it is unacceptable that, to date, the military has not explained to the Cameroonian people what happened and why it has not been able to retrieve the corpses. He says the military should provide an account of what happened.

The Defense Ministry issued a written statement the day of the incident, saying the circumstances had not yet been established. No other statement has been released since then.

The military logistics ship was carrying 37 people when it went down. Three soldiers were rescued, and two victims were retrieved from the vessel three days later.

However, Colonel Henri Belinga, commander of the coast guard sector of Cameroon's elite corps, says harsh weather has made it difficult to carry out search-and-retrieval missions.

Belinga says operations continue to try to recover the bodies from the vessel, which is 35 meters underwater. He says he wants to reiterate that this was an accident. He says they have asked for and obtained the support of the navy to help them find the bodies.

The Bakassi Peninsula remains a site of some tension in Cameroon. It was the source of a decades-long border dispute with Nigeria. Nigeria officially ceded the oil-rich peninsula to Cameroon in 2008 following a ruling by the International Court of Justice.

Belinga told VOA reports that the ship may have been attacked by pirates protesting alleged bad treatment of Nigerians in the Bakassi Peninsula are false.

The vessel was transporting equipment for construction work at a military base on the peninsula. Officials say the construction work and the transfer of supplies to troops in Bakassi have been halted since the lone supply vessel sank.
Colombian officials received $27 million in bribes from Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht, more than double previously thought, as the company sought to win a road-building contract, Colombia's attorney general said on Tuesday.

As fallout from a massive corruption scandal continues to bite Odebrecht, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said bribes paid for the contract to build a 528-km (328-mile) highway were much more than the $11 million originally estimated.

Martinez said criminal charges for money laundering would be filed against two Brazilian citizens, one Portuguese and three Colombians. He will also ask the Supreme Court of Justice to investigate five congressional lawmakers.

Seven people, including a former senator and an ex-vice minister of transport, have been jailed for involvement in the corruption scandal.

Odebrecht's bribes in Colombia spilled over into the election campaigns of President Juan Manuel Santos, who in March acknowledged that his 2010 election campaign received illegal payments. He said he had no knowledge at the time of the payments.

Odebrecht allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in association with infrastructure projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, between 2002 and 2016.
Seventeen people are now confirmed dead in Tuesday's collapse of a multi-story residential building in Mumbai, India.

Search and rescue crews uncovered more bodies in the wreckage during a frantic search for survivors overnight.

Authorities said they will launch an investigation into the tragedy after reports surfaced that the building, located in the suburb of Ghatkopar, was undergoing renovations at the time.

Also on Tuesday, at least two people were killed when a portion of a 100-year-old building collapsed in the city of Kolkata in eastern India. Many more were feared trapped.

Building collapses are common in India, especially during the monsoon season between June and September. Contractors take advantage of lax regulations by using substandard materials or add unauthorized extra floors.

Dozens of people were killed in 2013 in the collapse of a residential building, one of Mumbai's worst housing disasters.
U.S. President Donald Trump fired new barbs Wednesday at Jeff Sessions, his embattled attorney general, in another salvo against the country's top law-enforcement official.

In a pair of Twitter comments, Trump questioned why Sessions has not replaced Andrew McCabe, the current acting chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump described McCabe as a friend of James Comey, the FBI chief Trump fired in May while he was leading the agency's investigation of Russian meddling in last year's presidential election.

Trump said McCabe headed the investigation last year that cleared Clinton of wrongdoing in her use of a private email server while she served as U.S. secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Trump said McCabe "got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!"

The campaign financing Trump referred to was money that a Clinton ally, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, steered to Jill McCabe in her unsuccessful campaign for a Virginia state senate seat.

U.S. media reports said White House aides have urged Trump to end his almost daily broadsides against Sessions. The former U.S. senator from Alabama was the first prominent U.S. political figure to endorse Trump last year during the early stages of his long-shot, but ultimately successful, run for the White House.

But Trump for days has lobbed attacks at Sessions, a highly unusual public spat in Washington between a president and a member of his Cabinet. Associates of Sessions have told the White House he has no intention of quitting his post at the U.S. Justice Department, and so far Trump has not fired him.

Sessions was at the White House on Wednesday for meetings, but did not talk with Trump. He reputedly has not been in direct contact with the president began criticizing him publicly - in speeches as well as on Twitter.

Watch: Trump Continues to Speak of Displeasure With Attorney General Sessions

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said even though Trump is "disappointed" in Sessions, the president wants him to continue to run the Department of Justice and focus on controlling illegal immigration and investigating leaks of classified government material to journalists.

Trump has told aides for months that he was angry when Sessions removed himself from oversight of the Justice Department's investigation of Russia's election meddling last year during the Republican candidate's ultimately successful campaign to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Sessions said Justice Department rules required him to step aside from the probe because of ethical conflicts created by his own involvement in the Trump campaign and contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.

Trump said he would not chosen Sessions in January to be attorney general, the top law-enforcement official in the United States, if he had known that Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation more than a month later, following the president's dismissal of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey.

When Sessions withdrew from his role as supervisor of the Russia probe, his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, appointed a special counsel, former FBI chief Robert Mueller, to lead the criminal investigation.

Over the ensuing four months, investigations of Russian meddling in U.S. politics, by Mueller and numerous congressional panels, have consumed much of the attention of the Trump administration, frustrating the New York real estate mogul turned Republican politician.

Asked Tuesday at a White House news conference about possibly firing Sessions, Trump said, "I'm very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell."

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Trump "probably" wants Sessions to resign.
Lisa Moore, Mia Carter and Jennifer Glass, professors at the University of Texas at Austin, had their day in court recently. They lost.

The professors had petitioned for an exemption from Texas Senate Bill 11, which permits concealed carry license holders to bring firearms into most locations at public colleges and universities in Texas, including into classrooms and labs.

Moore, Carter and Glass argued that the presence of firearms in the classroom has a chilling effect on classroom discussions, which sometimes involve controversial, emotional subjects.

The ruling, issued in district court July 6, notes that One professor avers in an affidavit that the possibility of the presence of concealed weapons in a classroom impedes my and other professors ability to create a daring, intellectually active, mutually supportive, and engaged community of thinkers.

But Judge Lee Yeakel found that the Plaintiffs present no concrete evidence to substantiate their fears, but instead rest on mere conjecture about possible...actions. 

Adding insult to injury, the judge suggested that the professors, themselves, were to blame: ... the chilling effect appears to arise from the Plaintiffs subjective belief that a person may be more likely to cause harm to a professor or student as the result of the law and policy.

He blames any dampening of classroom discussions on the professors self-imposed censoring caused by their own fears.

In other words, the professors own fantasies about threats from concealed carry license holders are to blame. Which is just what you would expect from effete liberal academics at a large liberal university. And women, at that!

Still, my 30-plus years of teaching in college classrooms suggest that these professors concerns are driven by more than hysteria.

I teach basic courses, mostly freshman composition. But to write is to engage with ideas, which means that even in my humble classes students sometimes talk about ideas that are closely connected to their emotions and beliefs. Their responses to challenges to their ideas arent always predictable.

Furthermore, a college classroom can be a place of considerable stress and tension. Students are required to perform under pressure and sometimes confront challenges that test their psychological and emotional resources. And at the end of every semester, professors Moore, Carter and Glass must make decisions about their students performances that have impacts  on students sense of self-worth, as well as their finances  that are much greater than they might face in, say, small claims court.

Emotions are involved and the stakes are higher than one thinks. I suspect that Judge Yeakel wouldnt relish making judgments in his courtroom among plaintiffs and defendants who were carrying weapons.

Besides, if professors Moore, Carter and Glass are fantasizing about the dangers of armed students, other kinds of fantasies are at work here, as well. Concealed carry license holders are not supposed to reveal when theyre carrying firearms, but generally my students are far from shy about revealing their possession of a license.

And I suspect that a small percentage  theres no way of knowing how small  of students and teachers will find it difficult to keep the presence of a weapon in the classroom a secret. For many, the point of a weapon is to project power. There are more than a few George Zimmermans among us, fantasists who dream of using a weapon in heroic defense of their classmates.

But the fact that even trained peace officers  much less untrained students  have trouble maintaining fire discipline is one of the reasons administrators, faculty and many law enforcement agencies in Texas strongly resisted concealed carry on college campuses.

Then theres the ultimate firearms fantasy: Gun policy in our nation is driven by the National Rifle Association and firearms manufacturers. They imagine an extremely dangerous world in which good people must have guns to resist bad people. You simply cannot be safe without a weapon.

And if that vision of culture can be forced into classrooms at a large, putatively liberal state university, even at the expense of daring, intellectually active thinking, well, mission accomplished.
There have been many chaotic weeks during the short presidency of Donald Trump, but this one may rank as one of the most tumultuous yet.

The Senate scrambled to keep alive hopes of an Obamacare replacement bill, a key Trump campaign promise, while the president waged a Twitter barrage against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, over his decision months ago to recuse himself from the Russia investigation looking into possible meddling between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year's election.

Stoking the base

In the midst of it all, Trump held a campaign-style rally Tuesday in Ohio before thousands of enthusiastic supporters and a smattering of protesters who were booed by the pro-Trump crowd.

For Trump, a health care victory in the Senate  far from certain  might turn around his low poll numbers and get his agenda back on track. With that in mind, the president was in campaign mode during his rally in Youngstown, Ohio. "No president has done anywhere near what we have done in his first six months. Not even close," Trump told the crowd.

Trump seems to enjoy the energy of supporters who so far have remained loyal no matter how low he dips in national polls.

Unique but controversial style

Trump's unique presidential style was clearly on display in Youngstown. "He is trying to gin up the crowd at rallies to be more boisterous. He sees it as a popularity and a media presence," said Dan Mahaffee, the Director of Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington.

Trump's Youngstown visit came at a moment when his agenda has largely stalled. The outcome of the Senate debate on health care is uncertain, and so is the timetable for when Congress might tackle tax reform or infrastructure spending.

Trump also generated plenty of interest this week with his tweets targeting Sessions, as well as his announcement via Twitter on Wednesday that he wants transgender Americans barred from serving in the U.S. military.

'Good numbers' with Republicans

Critics have slammed the president's Twitter habit as a distraction and, in some cases, not presidential. But Trump had a ready comeback during his speech in Ohio. "Sometimes they say, 'He doesn't act presidential,'" Trump told supporters. "With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that has ever held this office. That I can tell you."

Youngstown was also a reminder that, while Trump has historically low approval ratings for a new president, he remains popular with his core supporters. "He retains pretty good numbers with Republican voters, usually 80 percent approval or better," noted University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik.

Watch: Trump Rallies Supporters Amid a Chaotic Week in Washington

Democrats warn on Russia

Democrats remain unified in opposing Trump's agenda in Congress. They also fear that Trump's tweets targeting Sessions signal his desire to end the investigation into possible collusion with Russia in last year's election.

"Many Americans must be wondering if the president is trying to pry open the Office of Attorney General to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire Special Counsel Mueller and shut down the Russian investigation," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Several Republicans have also expressed dismay with Trump's Twitter campaign against Sessions.

Trump's base has shown little concern about the Russia investigation. But Mahaffee warned that Trump's focus on pleasing his base could limit his success down the road. "He has made no attempts, really, to push beyond his base of support and he has actually doubled-down on media like Fox News or Breitbart, outlets that speak directly to people who are conservative or want conservative-leaning news."

Staying the course

The Youngstown rally was further proof that despite his critics, Trump seems determined to stay the course and stick with his unique style of governing.

"Mr. Trump is a unique president. We've never had anybody quite like him in the Oval Office before," said Brookings Institution scholar William Galston. But Galston added that "If you want to have a 40 percent approval rating, then just imitate Mr. Trump. If you would like a governing majority, then you may want to choose a different course."
Ranna, 24, an Oromo Ethiopian woman, is not only a third-generation refugee, but also a two-time refugee. Indonesia, which is home now, is the second place to which she has been displaced in her young life.

She was born in Saudi Arabia because her mother, the daughter of a prominent dissident, fled Ethiopia before her birth. But that country did not recognize asylum-seekers and she was officially stateless. After a brief interlude in Ethiopia, where she was deported to at age 16 and where she earned a bachelors degree, she was again forced to flee during a government crackdown on Oromo activists in 2015.

After a harrowing interlude in Djibouti, where she says Oromo asylum-seekers were being rounded up and deported because of an agreement with the Ethiopian government, Rannas smuggler booked her, her mother and her brother on a flight to Indonesia. It was a country where they knew no one and did not speak the language.

They were granted refugee status within a year and able to make a home in Pasar Minggu Baru, a South Jakarta neighborhood that abuts a commuter train line and station. Over the last three years, the neighborhood has come to house an enclave of East African refugees and asylum-seekers, some of whom arrived, like Ranna, through unscrupulous smugglers. Others got stuck in transit when Australia blocked maritime refugee arrivals in 2014.

East African asylum seekers face years-long wait times to even be granted refugee status in Indonesia, according to Trish Cameron, an independent refugee lawyer based in Jakarta. And if that happens, they face even longer wait times for resettlement out of Indonesia -- if they are resettled at all, which is not a given, especially as developed countries have closed their doors in recent years.

"There's not really anywhere to go right now," said Ranna.

Pasar Minggu Baru community

There are about 200 Oromo refugees in Jakarta, according to Cameron, and "hundreds" of East African refugees in Pasar Minggu Baru. Ranna said she finds it quite safe.

They dont make you feel like a stranger, maybe because refugees have been hosted here for a long time, said Ranna. There also is a small Arab market nearby, a happy coincidence because her family speaks Arabic from their time in Saudi Arabia.

Although Ranna has been a Muslim her whole life, she began wearing a headscarf only when she moved to Jakarta, out of respect, she said, for her neighbors.

About 16 percent of the 14,093 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR Indonesia are from East Africa, said Mitra Salima Suryono, a spokesperson for the agency. Most are from Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, plus a handful from Eritrea, Uganda and Mozambique.

Today, Ranna volunteers intensively as a translator  she is fluent in Oromo, Arabic, Amharic and English, and is now conversational in Bahasa Indonesia  to help asylum-seekers in her community prepare for their interviews.

Oromo unrest

The Oromo people are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, split about evenly between Muslims and Christians [Ethiopian Orthodox and Protestant], and account for about one-third of the countrys population.

The protests that began in 2015 grew out of a grass-roots movement led by students in the Oromia region. There also is a history of armed struggle for self-determination, however, led by the Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition group formed in 1973 after a military coup. The government has outlawed the OLF as a terrorist organization and blames anti-government protests on OLF and other groups that it labels anti-peace elements.

Rannas grandfather was a member of OLF and was the earliest family member to flee Ethiopia as a refugee. Although Ranna came to her homeland only as a young adult, she quickly picked up the nationalist energy that ran through her family. She became a prominent student activist and public health official, and was in her first year of medical school when she had to leave for Indonesia.

There is grief inside me whenever I think about our people, said Ranna. Even in my short time there I could see how wrong it was.

She spent a night in jail (it felt like a year) for her activism, but her middle brother suffered a worse fate before he could flee: He simply disappeared.

Human Rights Watch says more than 800 protesters have been killed since the unrest began in November 2015 and thousands more people have been arrested.

In December 2016, the Ethiopian government announced it would release nearly 10,000 people detained for rehabilitation.

Rannas youngest brother had just finished 10th grade when they fled, and in him, she sees signs of the aimless boredom that is now typical of the refugee experience in Indonesia, where refugees cannot legally work or attend school. Her mother has diabetes, and is in and out of hospitals.

She still manages to make spongy injera bread in their makeshift house. Ranna herself has acute anxiety and trouble sleeping at night, bearing, as she does, the weight of her family and community, and extant fears about the Ethiopian state.

Ranna doesnt regret her activism, even as she and her family prepare for an indefinite stay in Indonesia. I couldnt see people dying in front of me and do nothing, she said. I could not.
An extension of martial law in the Philippine south through December indicates the government lacks a quick way out of its armed conflict against a group of ISIS-inspired Muslim rebels, but underscores how seriously its taking the fight.

On Saturday, the Philippine Congress voted 261-18 to put the southern island of Mindanao under martial law through the end of the year and give troops a new edge in their fight against the Maute Group in battles characterized by ambushes and executions of civilians.

The war is still ongoing and its difficult for people in Manila to know whats going on, said Rhona Canoy, president of an international school and part of a political family in the Mindanao city Cagayan de Oro. The president or the military, they have to make an instant decision, she said, speaking hypothetically. Mindanao being under martial law would make that an easier situation to deal with.

Protracted battle against Muslim rebels

Troops have been fighting in Marawi city since May 23 to rout the rebels suspected of forming ties with Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine group known for kidnapping and beheading foreign tourists. ISIS, the Muslim terrorist group based in Iraq and Syria, has tapped an Abu Sayyaf leader to be its Southeast Asia emir, news media and academic studies say.

Gunfire in Marawi has killed 105 troops, 428 militants and 45 civilians, domestic media said Sunday.

Officials from the government of President Rodrigo Duterte said in June the Maute Group had been confined to four neighborhoods of Marawi, a city of 200,000 people before civilians began fleeing the battle scene. But that month the Armed Forces of the Philippines apologized that the war was taking so long and hinted at a longer struggle.

Fighting could endure because, per military accounts, the rebels have received help from sympathizers in fellow Muslim countries such as Indonesia. Scholars believe the Maute Group also has enough money to arm itself for longer than the government might expect.

The Maute Group, which formed in 2013 by two brothers said to dislike non-Muslims, may be getting money from trade in illegal drugs such as the methamphetamine strain shabu, a professor in Mindanao told Philippines-based ABS-CBN News in June. Weak governance structures and institutions on the island make it easy for drug lords and even war lords, the news report said.

How martial law helps troops fight militants

Martial law lets troops make some staffing and resource decisions without checks and balances that could set back plans. Road checkpoints and curfews give troops an idea of who's where.

The rebellion in Marawi continues to persist and we want to stop the spread of the evil ideology of terrorism and free the people of Mindanao from the tyranny of lawlessness and violent extremism, Dutertes spokesman Ernesto Abella said on the presidential office website. The Constitution allows for martial law to handle invasion or rebellion, he added.

As of Sunday, 1,723 people had been rescued from villages hit by fighting. Some reports say militants have killed civilians for giving sensitive information to troops.

Martial law gives troops the option to broaden its fight to other parts of Mindanao that might pick up the Maute Groups cause if its quashed.

Previous defeats in Mindanao, where 20 Muslim rebel groups are based, tend only to anger sympathizers into regrouping according to Eduardo Araral, Mindanao native and an associate professor at the National University of Singapores public policy school.

Muslims who settled on Mindanao and along the adjacent Sulu Sea centuries ago resent the Philippine Catholic majority for what they see as control of national resources. Many in their region live in poverty, seeding armed rebellions that have left about 120,000 people dead since the 1960s.

In the long history of warfare in Mindanao, when the leader is killed, usually the organization would splinter into different smaller groups, Araral said. Its like an amoeba, they just break up. You whack it and then they just splinter into smaller groups and they form again.

Public support for martial law

An opinion poll by the Metro Manila-based research institution Social Weather Stations found that 57 percent of Filipinos support the extension of martial law.

People in Cagayan de Oro face a major highway checkpoint on the way to the local airport and hear air force helicopters overhead, Canoy said. But for most people there, she said, life is going on.

Outsiders such as investors may be heartened that Congress backed up Dutertes request for an extension of martial law, showing that checks and balances work, but may worry about whether the government can get a grip on rebels after an optimistic start in May, said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moodys in Singapore.

He added sentiment toward Mindanao was never strong.

From the outsider point of view, I think the bar has been so low at the outset that failures to meet (the governments) desired objective didnt come as a surprise, so I dont think theres been a big change from their outsider perspective, de Guzman said. Its always been kind of negative.
Gazing at the exposed, rocky bottom of the Great Ruaha River, known as the jewel of Tanzania, Rosemary Kasenza ponders what the future holds for her family now that there is no longer enough water for her crops.

"I am worried because it's the dry season and I don't have enough food to feed my children," she said.

Kasenza grows potatoes, maize, onions and bananas on 3 hectares (7 acres) of land in the fertile Ruaha basin in southern Tanzania.

She says she used to have no problem irrigating her crops, but now the river flow slows to a trickle in the dry season.

"We have experienced long periods of drought which have badly affected the river flow," said Kasenza, who runs a channel to drain water from the river to her farm.

The 51-year-old mother of six is among the roughly 1 million small-scale farmers who produce much of the East African nation's food, many cultivating rice on water-intensive farms.

In the Ruaha basin, the government accuses farmers of illegally squatting on protected land along the river banks.

Now, thousands face eviction as authorities try to protect wetlands critical for the river's flow  and the survival of local wildlife.

The government says farmers' water-intensive methods and herders' cattle have brought the once mighty river close to death, but farmers and pastoralists say they have lived in harmony with nature for decades, and are victims of drought.

"I don't have anywhere to go. We have been staying here all our lives. My children have known no other home than this one," Kasenza said.

Wildlife and water

Described as the "ecological backbone of Tanzania," the Great Ruaha River flows nearly 500 km (300 miles) from its source in the Kipengere mountains, through vast wetlands and the Ruaha national park before emptying into the Rufiji River in the southeast.

The Ruaha river produced more than half of Tanzania's hydropower for decades but increasingly frequent periods of drought have forced the government to shift to fossil fuels, including gas, for electricity production.

A task force set up this year by the Tanzanian government to examine the river's continuing degradation highlighted the impact of intense agriculture on the river's health and recommended the eviction of farmers and pastoralists from some areas.

Speaking in May after reviewing the task force report, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania's Vice President, said the government would consider removing farmers who encroached on water sources to help restore the river's flow.

"[We must] come together to save the ecosystem of the valley for the welfare of our lives and the interests of the nation as a whole," she was reported as saying in local media.

During a visit to the river basin in the Kilolo area last month, muddy, drying ponds were visible along the river, and crocodiles and hippos seemingly found it difficult to cool themselves.

In another area, vultures hovered above mounds of dead fish rotting in the sun.

Officials say the degradation of the river spans its entire length, from source to mouth.

In an interview with Reuters, January Makamba, minister of state in the vice president's environment office, said farmers who divert water from the river to their farms were responsible not only for the degradation of the environment but also for the death of wildlife.

It is illegal to divert water from the river in wetland areas the government deems to be protected sites.

"We are going to take stern measures against them regardless of their status or position in order to save the river ecology," he said. "We feel it is necessary to be very aggressive and uncompromising in enforcing the laws."

Long-term problems

Authorities say that the Ruaha river dried up for the first time during the dry season of 1993. Water levels have dropped and dry spells have lengthened since, sometimes lasting several months, the minister said.

"You can say, without fear of being contradicted, that the river is collapsing. And, for once, God is not responsible," Makamba told Reuters.

He said that unless urgent action is taken to restore flows to the river, Ruaha National Park  the largest in east Africa and home to about 10 percent of the world's lions  will die.

"The beauty of nature across the basin was breathtaking, its destruction is heart-breaking," he said.

According to the minister, farmers with legitimate land claims will be compensated and allocated plots elsewhere but those who occupied land in the river's basin illegally would have to return to "where they came from."

"If someone settles in an area that he clearly knows to be protected land, they will not be compensated," the minister said.

According to local analysts however, the government's decision to evict poor farmers from the river basin and the more fertile areas of wetland will cut off families from natural resources they have relied on for generations.

"Smallholder farmers along river banks have for a long time managed to feed themselves and their families adequately without causing any harm to nature," said Lucas Mnubi, an environmental expert and the editor of Nature magazine in Dar es Salaam.

Mnubi said authorities should instead teach communities how to harvest river water sustainably, not evict them from the land.

Local farmers say they are being unfairly singled out and the move to evict them would destroy their livelihoods.

"We are being accused of destroying water sources, but the government doesn't realize the biggest enemy is drought," said Benjamin Nzuki, a farmer in Kilolo.

According to Nzuki, local farmers have always tried to conserve water sources, especially in the catchment areas.

"We always plant water-friendly trees in order to protect catchment areas so as to allow free flow of the water," he said.

Nzuki called on the government to work with local communities instead of "harassing them and branding them invaders."

The minister said farming methods that were less water-intensive would be introduced in some areas, and communities taught about the importance of protecting water sources.

"We have [also] put a limit on the number of cattle that each household can keep to cope with land scarcity and manage water sustainably," Makamba said.

However, herders who graze their animals in the riverlands are not happy.

"Pastoralism is business like any other, if you ask me to keep ten cows instead of hundreds you will obviously deny me income," said Leikim Saburi, a herder in Kilolo district.
Against a backdrop of cyberattacks that have grown into full-fledged sabotage, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos is bringing a new message to hackers and security experts at the Black Hat conference.

In short: It's time for hackers once known for relatively harmless mischief to shoulder responsibility for helping detect and prevent major attacks.

The Black Hat security gathering, starting Wednesday in Las Vegas, follows a series of attacks and data breaches that have paralyzed hospitals, disrupted commerce, caused blackouts and interfered with national elections.

Stamos, a keynote speaker, is calling for more emphasis on defense  and basic digital hygiene  over the thrilling hunt for undiscovered vulnerabilities.

Stamos joined Facebook from Yahoo, which last year disclosed breaches of more than a billion user accounts.
The Dominican Republic on Tuesday granted a one-year extension to some 230,000 Haitian migrants trying to renew or obtain residency permits, an issue that has soured relations between the neighboring countries.



The announcement comes as Dominican nationalist groups demand the ouster of Haitian migrants who do not have permits, including those who enrolled in a government residency plan but only received provisional permits.



The residency plan was created after a court ruled in 2013 that children born in the Dominican Republic to non-citizens did not qualify for automatic citizenship because their migrant parents were "in transit.'' The vast majority of those affected have been descendants of Haitian migrants.



Without the extension announced on Tuesday, more than 220,000 Haitian migrants could have faced deportation. They have not been able to finalize residency requirements for several reasons, including lack of a work contract, a birth certificate or a passport. Many employers in the Dominican Republic do not issue work contracts, and the Haitian government also has lagged in providing the required documents.

William Charpentier, leader of a migrant support group, praised the government's decision but also accused authorities of deporting more than 100 Haitian migrants in recent weeks even though they had provisional permits to stay in the Dominican Republic.

Some 7,000 migrants have completed all requirements under the government's residency plan.



Those who oppose the program accuse Haitian migrants of abusing it.



"I understand perfectly that the entire Haitian population wants to move to the Dominican Republic. They would be better off here. The question is: Should we allow it?'' tweeted Vinicio Castillo, a former legislator whose party opposes the plan.



Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, and Castillo has long proposed building a wall between the two countries.



Government officials said migrants can start the residency process in late August.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday in favor of imposing new sanctions on Iran, a move that most likely will further exacerbate tensions between Washington and Tehran.

U.S. officials said further sanctions were warranted as a result of Tehran's destabilizing influence in the Middle East and support for terrorist groups, as well as the Iranian government's continuing missile development program, in defiance of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the United States and other major powers.

The sanctions bill targets not only Iran, but also North Korea and Russia. It toughens sanctions on Russia because of its interference in the U.S. presidential election last year. North Korea was included as a result of its "provocative" missile tests and avowed intention to build an intercontinental nuclear weapons system.

The bill, which passed 419-3, was seen as a rebuff to President Donald Trump, whose administration had sought to weaken the bill by preventing Congress from blocking any subsequent presidential decision to lift the sanctions. The only "no" votes came from three members of the House Republican majority.

The House vote followed a similarly overwhelming vote on the new sanctions last month by the U.S. Senate.

Displays of advances

Some analysts have suggested that Tehran could respond to the sanctions by displaying more of the advances achieved by its missile development program. The agreement between Iran and the major powers  the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as it is known formally  included restrictions on Iran's missile program as part of the overall goal of ensuring that Iran takes no action to develop nuclear weapons.

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan announced this week that his country had made a "great achievement" by beginning production of Sayyad 3-missiles  rockets that can reach an altitude of almost 17 miles (27 kilometers) and travel up to about 75 miles (120 kilometers).

The Sayyad-3 missile is more of a psychological weapon than one with military significance, according to Farhad Rezaei, a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Washington.

Rezaei said Tehran's announcement about Sayyed-3 production was a message from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that additional sanctions from major powers would be met by the Iranian government with increased investment in its missile arsenal.

Military experts think Iran's new missile is akin to the SAM S-200, a surface-to-air missile designed to destroy aircraft or other missiles.

"This missile is supposed to tackle different types of threats, such as radar-evasive fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles," said Babak Taghvaee, a military expert based in Malta.

Moscow ban

Taghvaee said the Sayyed-3 is now part of the arsenal of the Iranian air defense force's HAWK-I SAM program, which was begun after Russia stopped supplying advanced S-300 missiles to Iran.

Russia froze the transfer of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran for several months in 2010, until Tehran reached an agreement with the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members over its nuclear program. Moscow later lifted the ban.

Iran's Press TV aired a report showing the new missile's precise targeting abilities. Some analysts said it was clear that Iran had accelerated the work of its missile program since Trump took over in Washington this year.

"Accelerating the country's missile program projects is a natural reaction by Tehran, toward an administration in Washington that challenges its existence," according to retired Iranian Admiral Houshang Aryanpour.

The U.S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis, infuriated Iran last month when he called for a change of government in Tehran during an interview. In addition, the recent $110 billion military deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia, announced during Trump's visit to Riyadh two months ago, was seen as threatening by Iran.

"The level of insecurity Tehran feels from Washington has increased, and after the deal with the Saudis that the Trump administration cut," Aryanpour said. "Decision-makers in Tehran pushed for a greater effort to show off their missile capabilities, as a means of deterrence."
Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer and major supplier to Apple Inc., has announced plans to build a $10 billion plant in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, to make LCD display screens.

The company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry and which supplies Apple with screens for the iPhone, made the announcement Wednesday as company executives paid a visit to U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House.

Trump said at the meeting that the Foxconn commitment was a result of his election win. And, in fact, just two days after Trump was inaugurated, Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou told reporters his company plans to invest $7 billion in a U.S. factory to make computer displays.

"If I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion," Trump said on Wednesday. "We are going to have some very, very magnificent decades."

Trump: 'If I Didn't Get Elected He Would Not Be Spending $10 Billion'

In addition to Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who said the project will be the largest economic development project in Wisconsin history, were at the White House event.

Foxconn has pledged to invest $10 billion over the next four years to build a factory that will create a projected 3,000 jobs with a potential to add 10,000 more, the company said in a statement.

Trump: Foxconn Will Create More Manufacturing Jobs Than US Has Seen in Decades

But Foxconn made a similar pledge for a factory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2013, promising it would invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a plant to be built there. The deal was widely praised by state and local officials, but the factory was never built.

The Washington Post reported that Gou made similar announcements about planned projects in Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Brazil. In some cases, projects have begun, but fallen far short of the expansive results Gou promised.

Foxconn also has a history of worker safety issues and labor unrest. The company got unwanted international attention in 2010 when, between March and May of that year, 10 workers at Foxconn's Shenzhen committed suicide. Foxconn's Shanxi site was the site of a four-hour worker riot in September 2012 that involved some 2,000 people. It was eventually quelled by security personnel.

Watch: US President Donald Trump Announces Plans for a Foxconn Factory in Wisconsin

Apple has defended its supplier, but an audit it requested by the Fair Labor Association found that Foxconn workers were subjected to forced overtime, frequent accidents and unrealistic production quotas.

VOA's Jim Randle contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump seemed to blow the lid on the cancellation of a covert CIA program in Syria when he tweeted about it this week. But, intelligence agencies still won't talk about it.

The program arming Syrian rebels has long been an open secret, but for years no one was authorized to discuss it - and few would even after news reports last week that Trump had ordered the CIA to end it.

But Trump essentially confirmed the existence of the program and its cancellation Monday night when he lashed out at The Washington Post. The president tweeted that the newspaper fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting (Syrian President Bashar) Assad.

Yet intelligence agencies still are mum. The CIA declined comment on Tuesday. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also declined to discuss it. The tweet was a topic of chatter among staffers on Capitol Hill, but even there, lawmakers refused to comment publicly because in their minds, the program is still classified.

Technically I doubt that the tweet would constitute declassification, though it appears to be a disclosure of classified information, said Steven Aftergood, director of the government secrecy project at the Federation of American Scientists.

This isn't the first instance that Trump has casually disclosed classified information. In May, Trump shared intelligence about an Islamic State threat involving laptops carried on airplanes with Russia's foreign minister and Moscow's ambassador to Washington in an Oval Office meeting.

A president is authorized by law to declassify anything he wants. It's not against the law when he does it. In January 2012, for example, former President Barack Obama officially acknowledged the classified CIA drone program to kill terror suspects.

The Syrian program, which was started by Obama, was aimed at putting pressure on Assad to relinquish power. The CIA began the covert operation in 2013 to arm, fund and train a moderate opposition to Assad.

For years, the CIA effort had foundered and some lawmakers had proposed cutting its budget. Some CIA-supported rebels had been captured; others had defected to extremist groups. But in late 2015, CIA-backed groups, fighting alongside more extremist factions, had begun to make progress in south and northwest Syria.

Last week at a conference in Colorado, Gen. Raymond Thomas, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, did acknowledge the program's existence - and that it had ended.

At the Aspen Security Forum, an annual gathering of intelligence, homeland security and foreign policy officials and experts, Thomas said he thought the decision to end the program was not a conciliatory gesture to Russia, which opposed it, but was based on the program's utility.

It was, I think, based on assessment of the nature of the program, what we're trying to accomplish, the viability of it going forward, and a tough, tough decision, Thomas said.
The Italian government on Tuesday threatened to shut down humanitarian groups that operate migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean out of the country's ports if they do not sign a code of conduct.

Italy fears that the ships are making it too easy for smugglers to operate and that they act as an incentive for migrants who want to reach Europe. An Italian court has also suggested they collude with Libya-based smugglers, which the charities deny.

Italy's coastguard coordinates all rescues off the coast of Libya, which has been shattered by years of civil war. Almost 100,000 have been brought to Italy this year, adding to the half a million brought over the three previous years.

As a high-ranking Interior Ministry official illustrated the 12-point document that charities fear will limit their capacity to save lives, one of the groups, Proactiva Open Arms, recovered 13 bodies off the Libyan coast.

Accused of working with smugglers

A photograph posted on Twitter showed the corpses strewn across the bottom of a large yellow raft that had been crammed with more than 160 migrants. More than 2,200 people have died in the Central Mediterranean this year.

Several pregnant women and mothers among the (dead), Proactiva's founder Oscar Camps wrote on Twitter, adding, and we are apparently the only ones who need a code of conduct.

Members of the nine non-governmental groups working at sea sought changes to the document, ultimately driving Mario Morcone, chief of staff for Interior Minister Marco Minniti, to express his frustration, according to a source who attended the meeting.

Your solidarity with Italy is hypocritical, he quipped, according to the source.

There will be another meeting on Friday at the ministry, when the NGOs must submit the changes that they are seeking.

Since February the charities have been accused of colluding with people smugglers and attacked in the Italian media. This week a dozen far-right activists are setting out to sea to monitor their work.

The NGOs have repeatedly denied any ties to smuggling and no evidence of wrongdoing has ever been presented. They say their only objective is to save lives.

'Urgent need of support'

We are fully aware that Italy is in urgent need of support from European member states, Sandra Mammamy, a Sea-Watch coordinator, told Reuters after the meeting. But the code of conduct is a desperate attempt to blame someone else for Italy's problem.

Among the most controversial points is one that asks NGOs to let police on board so they can search for smugglers hidden amongst the migrants.

Another point forbids ships from transferring people to other boats, a measure apparently aimed at shutting down smaller rescue ships that normally transfer migrants to larger vessels to be brought to Italy.

Violation of maritime law

Fulvio Vassallo, a professor of international law at the University of Palermo, said in an interview on Radio Radicale that many points in the code of conduct would be in violation of international maritime law.

The code of conduct isn't meant to save more lives but to limit the number of people rescued by the NGOs, Vassallo Paleologo said. It's being sold to the public as something that will lower departures from Libya, which it will not do. Unfortunately, it could increase the number of victims.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is paid not to tell the truth about school choice, and she deserves a raise.

In a speech last week, she purported to uncover the racist roots of the school-choice movement in massive resistance to school desegregation in the 1960s. She noted that segregationist politicians in Prince Edward County, Virginia, notoriously shut down the public schools rather than integrate, and set up a private school system that white kids could use tuition grants and tax credits to attend.

Make no mistake, Weingarten said, by way of prefacing not just a mistake, but a historically perverse smear, this use of privatization coupled with disinvestment are only slightly more polite cousins of segregation. Therefore pro school choice Education Secretary Betsy DeVos bears an ideological relation to George Wallace. Q.E.D.

Weingarten must know that no one in the school-choice movement looks for inspiration to Prince Edward County, even if she doesnt let that stop her.

The intellectual seed of school choice was first planted in 1955 by Milton Friedman, the late Nobel Prize-winning libertarian economist never mistaken for a bigot. Friedman believed widely available vouchers would create a new dynamism in a state-dominated sector characterized by stasis.

The real-world political impetus for choice has been developing alternatives to rotten public schools for poor minority kids without other options.

The first notable law came in the late 1980s in Minnesota, championed by its Democratic governor, Rudy Perpich, and passed by its impeccably progressive legislature. It permitted parents to send their kids to school districts where they didnt live with public money. The liberal American Prospect reported at the time that supporters of the reform included 1960s-era open school progressives.

Then came an experiment in Milwaukee to provide poor parents assistance to send their kids to private schools. Polly Williams, an African-American state assemblywoman from Milwaukee, became a high-profile advocate of choice. A Black Panther and the state chairman of Jesse Jacksons presidential campaign, Williams was open about her pro-black views and even said in private that she didnt much like white people. Harry Byrd, the Virginia champion of massive resistance, she was emphatically not.

From these beginnings, choice has burgeoned into the educational mainstream. Half of states have private school choice programs, and more than 40 charter school laws. They dont aim to take white kids out of integrated schools, but to take minority kids out of underperforming de facto segregated schools.

Weingarten used to head the teachers union in New York, where her nemesis was Eva Moskowitz, the founder of the Success Academy Charter Schools. Moskowitz is a Democrat who happens to believe poor kids deserve better than what they get in the traditional public school system. According to the New York Post, her 41 schools enroll about 14,000 kids, almost all of them minorities. The demand is vast, with annual waiting lists exceeding 10,000 families.

The analogue for todays choice programs arent the segregationist academies of Prince Edward County, but the efforts by black leaders to bypass a system long designed to deny their children a proper education. An analysis of American history, a recent piece in The Atlantic related, indicates that the use of private means was a critical aspect to ensure quality education for African Americans legally excluded from access to public institutions.

Today, black kids arent legally excluded from the best schools but are legally bound to failing ones. In her speech, Weingarten bizarrely compared defenders of the status quo  amply funded by union dues, and embedded in entrenched bureaucracies  to David, and the reformers fighting for every inch to Goliath.

These are the words of a woman who knows the other side has the moral high ground, and the only way she can try to regain it is through obfuscation and tortured rationalizations. Hers, in short, is the voice of someone who is losing  and deserves to.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made clear that he has no plans to resign in the face of harsh criticism from President Donald Trump, but he is said to be considering action that could ease the president's displeasure.

Trump kept up pressure Wednesday on Sessions. In a two-part Twitter post, he asked why the attorney general had not replaced acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, whose wife received a large campaign donation from Democrats last year when she ran for political office in Virginia.

Trump had expressed disappointment in Sessions earlier this week, though White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that doesn't necessarily mean he wants the attorney general to resign. "You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job," she told the daily White House briefing.

Watch: Attorney General, Under Fire From Trump, Could Launch Intel Leak Probe to Appease President

However, when asked whether the president has confidence in Sessions, Sanders was noncommittal. "The president wants the attorney general to focus on his duties as attorney general," she replied.

Trump's Twitter blast at McCabe this week is seen as part of his attempt to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, which has been expanded to include possible White House involvement with Kremlin agents in attempting to influence last year's presidential election. As acting FBI director, McCabe effectively oversees the Mueller investigation.

White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said Wednesday that Sessions soon would launch a Justice Department investigation into the government leaks of sensitive information that have annoyed and distracted Trump throughout his presidency.

"I think he [Sessions] has got a plan that he's put together, and at some point, I don't know if it will be today, tomorrow or next week, he will announce that plan," Scaramucci told Fox News. "We have to crack down on leaks on a number of different fronts."

The Washington Post first reported that the leak investigations are in the works.

Such investigations undoubtedly would be good news to Trump, answering one of his longstanding concerns about leaks that have appeared in major U.S. newspapers, sometimes contradicting the official version of events offered by administration officials.

News of the pending investigations came hours after the president tweeted his displeasure with Sessions' lack of action on the probes.

A senior Republican senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee, said Wednesday the president appears not to want to fire Sessions, a loyalist who was the first senator to back Trump's candidacy. "I think they [Trump's advisers] understand that [firing Sessions is] problematic, highly problematic," Corker said. "But I do think it's evident that the president is making it difficult for secretary  um, Attorney General Sessions. I think it's something Jeff has got to decide."

Another prominent Republican, Senator Lindsay Graham, told CNN on Wednesday that Trump's attacks on Sessions amount to a show of weakness. "The weakness is that the president is trying not to use his powers. He's trying to get Sessions to quit," Graham said. "And I hope Sessions doesn't quit, and if the president wants to fire him, fire him."

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who has maintained a steady stream of withering criticisms of Trump, said Wednesday the president's tweets against Sessions had gone "far beyond the dangers of a chilling effect" at the Department of Justice. He said Americans should wonder why Trump is "publicly, demeaning and humiliating such a close friend, supporter and member of his Cabinet."

"They should wonder if the president is trying to pry open the Office of Attorney General to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire Special Counsel Mueller and shut down the Republican investigation," Schumer said. "Let me say, if such a situation arises, Democrats will use every tool in our toolbox to stymie such a recess appointment."

Trump has told aides for months  and in the last week, reporters  that he is angered that Sessions removed himself from oversight of the Justice Department's Russia investigation. Sessions said Justice Department rules required him to step aside from the probe because of ethical conflicts created by his own involvement in the Trump campaign and contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.

Trump has said that he would not have named Sessions as attorney general if he had known that Sessions was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

With Sessions removed from the probe, his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, appointed special counsel Robert Mueller, another former FBI chief, to lead the criminal investigation of the Russian interference.
Hours after the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted to begin debate on repealing former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, the chamber rejected a comprehensive bill aimed at that end.

Lawmakers Tuesday night voted 43-57 on a measure drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would have ended the expansion of Medicaid, the program that provides health insurance for poor Americans, cut subsidies to help low-income people buy private health insurance plans, and eliminated tax penalties on people who do not buy health insurance.

The measure also included an amendment by Texas Republican Ted Cruz that would let health insurers offer less generous plans than those required under the Affordable Care Act.

WATCH: Senators Welcome McCain for Vote

Tuesday night's vote is the first of many that will be taken this week in the Republican Party's years-long effort to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare. The Senate's move to begin debate occurred after McConnell tried and failed over the past month to pass two different versions of the bill. But even that move nearly failed, as all Democrats and two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voting against the so-called motion to proceed, leaving the chamber deadlocked at 50-50.

It took Vice President Mike Pence, in his constitutional role as presiding officer of the Senate, to cast the tie-breaking vote.

A decisive vote was cast by Arizona Republican John McCain, who returned to Capital Hill just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer. McCain received a rousing ovation from his colleagues when he strode onto the Senate floor, and they broke into applause to cheer the sometimes stern message that he delivered.

McCain calls for bipartisanship

"I stand here today, looking a little the worse for wear," the Arizona Republican said, poking fun at his appearance post-surgery. He had a small scar above his left eye from the surgery, which removed a blood clot. Further tests revealed that he had a glioblastoma multiforme, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

McCain chided his colleagues for the lack of progress they have made in deciding what to do about the Affordable Care Act. He called on all senators to govern better by embracing compromise, bipartisanship and the Senate's traditional way of doing business.

WATCH: McCain: 'Let's Trust Each Other' in Health Care Debate

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and internet. To hell with them! They don't want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood,'' McCain said.

"Let's trust each other. ... We've 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 said.

Despite the warm reception for McCain by senators of both parties, Democrats slammed the Republicans' tactics on the health care issue, in which a relatively small group meeting behind closed doors considered legislative drafts, with Democrats excluded.

Which version will they debate?

"I have never seen a process like this, where the senators are in the dark, and you're talking about a sixth of the American economy [the health care industry]," said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. "All the [Republican] options provide for worse care for millions of Americans, more expensive care, and care with less coverage."

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leading the push to replace Obamacare, which has been in effect since 2010. Over the past month, however, the veteran senator from Kentucky has been forced to retreat when it became clear there were not enough votes to pass either of two different versions of the bill.

President Donald Trump was quick to praise Tuesday's vote. "Inaction is not an option," he said in a statement released by the White House. "And now the legislative process can move forward."

Republicans acknowledged, however, that beginning debate does not guarantee a bill's final passage.

"We have a distance to go to get where we need to be," said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. "I will be happy when we get it done, accomplish what we set out to: honor our promise to repeal Obamacare and fundamentally expand consumer freedom and lower premiums for families who are struggling."

Details to determine final vote

Several moderate Republicans who had withheld their support for weeks ultimately voted "yes" Tuesday to open debate, but said they could well vote "no" on final passage unless changes are made to protect their poor and vulnerable constituents. Nine Republicans voted against the McConnell sponsored bill Tuesday night.

"If the final product isn't improved for the state of Nevada, then I will not vote for it; if it is improved, I will support it," Senator Dean Heller said in a statement.

It remained unclear which version of the legislation McConnell would put in play. Republicans have said a less comprehensive version of the latest Senate measure would have the best chance of gaining a majority vote to dismantle Obamacare. If the Senate approves a scaled-down version of the bill, a conference committee of the two houses of Congress will have to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions.

In a series of tweets early Tuesday, Trump said Obamacare was "torturing" Americans.

Trump has repeatedly pressed the Republicans in Congress to set aside any misgivings and vote as a bloc to repeal Obamacare. A day earlier, he said the legislative process so far had been marked by "enough talk and no action."

'We are not the president's subordinates'

McCain said he would not vote for the current version of the bill that McConnell has been preparing. He advised his colleagues on the Senate floor Tuesday to consider the issue carefully: "Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president's subordinates. We are his equal!''

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected the effects of various Republican health care plans. All would result in millions of Americans losing health insurance care coverage, but would yield budgetary savings.

Republicans are counting on those savings to help pay for tax cuts and their other legislative priorities. With the party controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, the health care vote is seen as a critical test of Republicans' ability to govern.

Recent public opinion surveys, however, show that Americans view the existing Affordable Care Act more favorably than any of the Republicans' proposals to replace it.

Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota said the uncertainty about which bill the Republicans would bring to the floor was "deeply troubling."

"This is reckless. This is irresponsible," Franken said. "The American people deserve better."

Franken said the vote to proceed with debate "is a vote to move forward with conceivably any one of these bills, and all of these bills are terrible."

VOA's William Gallo contributed to this report.
One day after getting a green light to debate health care in America, Senate Republicans struggled Wednesday to put forth a politically viable plan to repeal former U.S. president Barack Obama's health care law, despite continuing pressure from the White House.

Nine Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus late Tuesday to vote down a plan Republican leaders crafted behind closed doors to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a system that pares back the federal government's role in health care.

On Wednesday, the chamber voted 55-45 to defeat a bill that would terminate Obamacare but leave its replacement for a future date.

"It seems the Republican majority is no clearer on what the endgame is, because there's no good way out of this," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Health care blueprint

The Senate's Republican leaders have conceded they do not know what, if any, health care blueprint might get majority backing, and have set aside floor time for members to propose legislation that would get swift consideration, in what is called a vote-a-rama (rapid voting cycle).

I know members of both parties have health care ideas they'd like to offer, said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. If you've got one, bring it to the floor. We'll consider many different proposals throughout this process from senators on both sides of the aisle.

Should the chamber fail to coalesce around any health care formula, McConnell is widely expected to force a vote on a partial Obamacare repeal that strips the law of some of its least popular elements: a tax on medical devices and a requirement that Americans either purchase health care insurance or pay a fine.

Ultimately, we want to get legislation to finally end the failed Obamacare status quo through Congress to the president's desk for his signature, McConnell said. We have to keep up the work now so we can get this done.

Passage of a partial repeal, called the skinny option, would set up negotiations between members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to hammer out a final bill. Democrats noted the Republican-led House already passed a full repeal measure, and that bicameral negotiations would likely yield a product similar to legislation the Senate already rejected or stall entirely.

It's likely that a conference would produce no agreement at all, keeping the incredibly toxic and unpopular Trumpcare bill the topic of conversation for another three months, stalling the legislative agenda for another three months, and in the end getting nothing done, Schumer said.

Bipartisan legislation suggested

Rather than a haphazard Senate vote-a-rama on health care, a sector that accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy, Democrats suggested crafting legislation on a bipartisan basis in committee, with public hearings to vet ideas.

If we stop this effort with Trumpcare, with repeal or repeal and replace, we can go back in committee and improve the present health care system, Schumer said. Get premiums lower, get health care better.

In response, some Republicans complained that, so far, Democrats are spending more time shooting down Republican proposals than putting forth ideas of their own.

We'd have a lot more confidence in getting a solution if there were a single positive suggestion from the other side for a change, Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming said. Until that happens, there isn't much confidence on our side that the promise of bipartisanship is going to happen.

Amid the squabbling on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump has made clear he wants results.

Trump took to Twitter to blast Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of two Republican senators who voted against Tuesday's motion to begin debate on health care. The president wrote that Murkowski had really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!
When astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon 48 years ago this month, the scene transfixed a small girl in Costa Rica watching on a neighbors TV.

"I was 7 years old when I saw the Apollo landing. ... I told Mami, 'I want to reach the moon,' " Sandra Cauffman recalled.

Since seeing that 1969 event, Cauffman has watched rockets roar into space carrying the Mars-orbiting MAVEN satellite and other exploratory equipment she has worked on while leading or supporting teams as a NASA engineer. "I marvel at my own journey, and how I came to help probe the mysteries of outer space," Cauffman said in a 2014 TED Talk.

Cauffman, deputy director of NASA's Earth Science division, is believed to be among a handful of Hispanic women leaders at the space agency she joined as a contractor in 1988. While shes proud to have worked on the Hubble space telescope and other high-profile projects, shes also committed to another mission: encouraging young people  especially girls  to pursue careers in science and technology.

"What I have been trying to do for a long time now is to plant those seeds in those little girls that just because youre a girl doesnt mean that you cannot be a scientist or an engineer," she told VOA in an interview earlier this month at NASA headquarters. "And just because your parents didnt go to school doesnt mean you cannot go to school."

WATCH: Sandra Cauffman talks about her work

Struggles in early life

Cauffman grew up in poverty, and even briefly was homeless  but she got a wealth of encouragement from her mother. Maria Jeronima Rojas worked two and sometimes three jobs at a time to support her daughter and younger son, insisting that they concentrate on schoolwork.

Jeronima Rojas eventually married a U.S. citizen, who brought the family to the eastern U.S. state of Virginia. "When I arrived in the USA, I spoke no English and had to study a lot," Cauffman recalled. She wasnt good at math initially, "but I kept going."

That persistence helped the young Sandra overcome the sexism she faced in college.

At the University of Costa Rica, a counselor convinced her that industrial engineering was more "ladylike" than the electrical engineering she wanted to study. But three years later, when she enrolled in northern Virginias George Mason University, she switched course and majored in both electrical engineering and physics. A male teacher predicted that she and the two other female students would not complete his class  "but we finished it, of course."

Soon after graduation, she landed a contracting position at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington.

"Working at NASA has enabled me to design and test hardware, work side by side with talented scientists and design new missions for space exploration," Cauffman told the TED audience. "I work with so many amazing people who think of things nobody had ever done before, and they inspire me so much every day."

The engineer has become a source of inspiration herself. In March, Cauffman was among three women that Costa Rica honored with postage stamps for contributions in their respective fields.

Supportive presence

Cauffman champions engineering and science, fields in which women are sorely underrepresented. While women account for half of the overall U.S. workforce, they make up just 28 percent of science and engineering workers, the National Girls Collaborative Project reports.

"We need their diversity," Cauffman says of women. "We think differently, we look at things differently. We also need role models. You know, we also need to encourage the flow of girls" into science and tech.

Married and with two sons in their early 20s  the elder working on a Ph.D. in applied cognition, the younger studying electrical engineering  Cauffman, 55, understands how family obligations can constrain womens career goals.

"We are the caregivers  we have to take care of the kids, we have to take care of the house, we take care of our parents, so that kind of stalls our careers," said Cauffman, who nonetheless earned her masters degree in electrical engineering while working full time and starting her family. "And as you go higher in the organization, there are more demands on your time."

Cauffman also tended to her mother, who was ailing for a time and lives near the family. "I waited until my sons grew up and my mother was well before I attempted applying for positions of more responsibility and visibility," she explained.

Urges setting goals

Now Cauffman plans to set up a foundation to help young people surmount stereotypes and other obstacles.

As she said in her TED Talk, "Life is never easy. But the circumstances of your birth should not dictate the kind of person that you can become. You have control of your destiny, so set lofty goals with intermediate goals along the way."

Cauffman reached one such goal in March. In Costa Rica for the postage stamp ceremony, she was accepted into the countrys electrical engineering society  which once refused to admit women.

VOA Spanish Services Mitzi Macias contributed to this report.
Suspected Christian militiamen killed two Moroccan peacekeepers from the United Nations mission in Central African Republic on Tuesday, the mission said, in the second deadly attack on Moroccan forces this week.

The peacekeepers were ambushed by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the town of Banagassou, 700 kilometers (435 miles) east of the capital Bangui, as they stocked up on water to deliver to the population, the mission said in a statement.

Thousands have died in an ethnic and religious conflict that broke out when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.

Tuesday's raid, which injured a third soldier, followed similar attacks by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the diamond-mining town in recent days, including one on Sunday that killed a Moroccan peacekeeper and left three others wounded.

The violence has prompted several humanitarian organizations to suspend their activities in Bangassou, where fighting in May killed at least 115 people.

It also points to the inability of the 13,000-strong U.N. force to contain violence in a country where government control barely extends outside the capital.

"I am shocked by these new losses of human life and I firmly condemn this flagrant violation of the right to life and of international law," mission chief Parfait Onanga-Anyanga said in the statement.

Violence has escalated in Central African Republic since former colonial power France ended its peacekeeping mission in the country last year, and despite a peace deal signed between the government and rival factions in Rome last month.
As the world's AIDS experts meet at a conference this week in Paris, health workers in Cameroon still struggle to identify and treat HIV-positive mothers and babies.

Myriam Anang lost her husband and three-month-old baby two years ago to HIV. Now, Anang works as a peer educator in a government-initiated program to help others become better informed.

She was among the speakers in northern Cameroon at a gathering addressing AIDS and HIV.

Anang said that when she tries to persuade sick villagers to go with their babies for HIV screening, they argue that they are not ill, but bewitched by their relatives. She said she knows three men who died of HIV, yet their wives have refused to take their babies to the hospital, claiming the families are suffering from a spell.

Anang did not have prenatal care. She delivered her baby at a traditional birth attendant's home. It was only afterward, when she became sick, that she went to a hospital and found out she had HIV.

In 2016, the government found that seven out of 10 women in the northern part of the country were not visiting hospitals when they were pregnant. About a third of those who did go to a hospital never returned for postnatal visits, even if they had tested positive for HIV.

The job of the peer educators is to identify pregnant women in their villages and encourage them to get medical care, even reminding them of their hospital appointments.

The government says that since the start of the program, seven out of 10 pregnant women identified by peer educators now visit a hospital.

Obstacles for care

The results of a mother's HIV test take a day. However, newborns need a special screening, and the bloodwork can only be processed a thousand kilometers away in the capital Yaounde, says Georgette Wekang, head of HIV Control and People Living with AIDS in Cameroon's Ministry of Health.

Wekang says it takes between six and seven months for the results to be brought back from Yaounde and that, at times, those results are delivered after the babies have died. In addition, she says, fear of stigma prevents some women from returning with their babies for follow-up appointments.

The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that in northern Cameroon, 40 percent of HIV-positive children do not receive treatment.

Health officials say it is important to begin treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis.

The government of Cameroon has begun trials with new testing machines to reduce the time parents must wait for a baby's test results. While antiretroviral drugs are provided for free, patients are requested to pay for laboratory tests.

In northern Cameroon, parents are told they can take their children to the town of Garoua for treatment. However, Mireille Yaki, the medical officer in charge of the hospital, says the facility regularly runs short of the antiretroviral drugs, and many parents stop bringing their children for treatment.
Qatar said on Wednesday a decision by four Arab states to add 18 groups and individuals allegedly linked to Doha to their "terrorist" lists was "a disappointing surprise" and that it was doing all it could to fight extremism.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain put another nine groups based in Yemen and Libya and nine people from several Arab countries on the blacklist, saying all were associated with Qatar.

"[The new list] comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed al-Thani, director of the Gulf kingdom's Government Communications Office, said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism. As we have previously stated, all individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted."

Sheikh Saif said Qatar constantly reviews its anti-terror laws to "remain on the front foot in the fight against extremism and terror financing."

The four countries severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the major gas-exporting Gulf state of financing terrorism, meddling in the affairs of Arab countries and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran.

Western-backed efforts by Kuwait to mediate in the dispute, the worst between the Gulf states in years, have so far yielded little progress. On Wednesday, remarks by a senior UAE official suggested no compromise would come any time soon.

It was important to look beyond "crisis" and to think of it as a "new set of relations in [the] Gulf replacing old ones," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter, adding that the current state was set to continue.

"We have to go on without Qatar; a conservative Gulf monarchy, in [a] totally anachronistic place. Promoting policies and values it does not practice," he wrote.

The boycotting countries want Qatar to cut back ties with Iran, close down a Turkish military base in Qatar and shut the Al Jazeera TV channel, which they view as critical of their governments.

Qatar and Turkey have been important backers of the Muslim Brotherhood movement that has challenged entrenched Arab rulers.

Qatar, however, said last month that charges of support for Islamist militancy "hold no foundation in fact."

Doha signed an agreement earlier this month with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson aimed at combating terrorist financing, part of a U.S. effort to end the worst rift between Western-allied Arab states for years.

In Tuesday's statement, the four countries accused Qatari, Kuwaiti and Yemeni nationals of helping raise funds for al-Qaida militants. Their blacklist now includes three Yemeni charities, three Libyan media outlets, two armed groups and a religious foundation, some of which are already subject to U.S. sanctions.
Civil society activists say a move to exclude South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar from a regional peace process will ensure that South Sudan remains engulfed in war.



Ministers of the East African bloc IGAD said Monday that Machar will not be invited to the next meeting for the peace process, which is aimed at revitalizing a 2015 peace agreement between the rebels and South Sudanese government.



We already agreed that the process, all opposition groups including Riek Machars ideas, the representatives of Riek Machar, can be involved in this process. For the time being, physically we are not inviting Riek Machar, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu said at the end of the ministers' meeting in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

Machar, a former South Sudanese vice president, currently lives in exile in South Africa, where he fled after an outbreak of violence in Juba in July 2016 killed nearly 300 people.

Talks could fail



South Sudanese activists said the IGAD decision not to invite Machar is wrong-headed, and throws into question whether the regional bloc is operating as a neutral entity.



Rajab Muhandis, executive director of the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections, or SSuNDE, said any revitalization process that excludes certain parties to the agreement risks failure.



It will be very challenging if the peace agreement that is going to be revitalized does not adequately include all the parties to the conflict. If half of the parties are included (and) others are not, theres likelihood that those not involved may not have other options but violence as an option to find their way to the political process, Muhandis told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Top leaders need to be included



Activist Jame David Kolok, executive director for the Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance, said excluding key leaders is not wise.



If there are any avenues through which people like Dr. Machar are part of this process then this is a sign that this country is moving towards the path of stability, Kolok told South Sudan in Focus. Those "people" would include former Sudanese foreign minister Lam Akol and renegade General Thomas Cirillo, he said.



More than four million South Sudanese have been displaced from their homes during a war triggered by violence between supporters of Machar and backers of President Salva Kiir in December 2013.

Key problems still to be addressed



Kolok said it is high time IGAD leaders renew efforts to restore calm in South Sudan and called IGAD resolutions passed on Monday nothing new.



We have seen emphasis being made in regards to this country stopping the war, emphasis being made in terms of question of inclusivity, emphasis being made in terms of ensuring that there is respect for cease-fire. Unfortunately, time is going and these things are not being realized, he said.



Muhandis said the resolutions from the IGAD Council of Ministers do not outline the key problems that need to be fixed.



There are clear challenges to the implementation. There are clear causes which South Sudan is in crisis and we would love to see IGAD and its council of ministers coming out very clear to outline the issues, Muhandis said.
Western and regional powers must use their influence on Yemen's warring parties to end a two-year conflict that has exacerbated a huge cholera epidemic and left the country in ruins, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

A Saudi-led coalition is battling the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa, in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than three million.

"Definitely we would hope that Western countries understand the deep crisis, the risk of this enormous crisis for international stability, for the stability of the region," ICRC President Peter Maurer told reporters, speaking from Sanaa during a five-day mission to Yemen.

"I came here to urge the international community to take action and step up its response to this outbreak, which is - let's be very clear - a man-made outbreak. It's largely the consequence of warfare and destruction of public services," said Maurer, after visits to Taiz and Aden.

He called for finding solutions to pay workers' salaries and allowing aid supplies including medicines into the port of Hodeidah and Sanaa airport, both controlled by the Houthi rebels, to ease massive suffering.

Yemen's health system is in tatters, salaries have not been paid for 10 months, waste is "piling up" in the streets, and hospitals, water stations and other vital infrastructure have been attacked and destroyed, he said.

The cholera epidemic that erupted in April is still raging, infecting about 400,000 people, and despite signs of its spread slowing, could be reignited by the rainy season, Maurer said.

"The pace of increase of cases is slightly diminishing. Which does not mean overall the cases are decreasing but the pace is slightly diminishing," he said. "The problem is most experts expect the pace to increase when the rainy season starts."

Maurer said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their coalition as well as Yemeni parties were all "critical actors to find solutions" to the crisis.

"I would also hope that those countries outside the region should use their influence to nudge these parties into compromise, to use their influence in order to find solutions," he added.

Maurer said he hoped to "break the deadlock" over ICRC visits to detainees who are held by all sides, including by the coalition. He sought an "atmosphere where exchanges of prisoners can be negotiated between the parties".
Somalia is suffering from a renewed displacement crisis as people flee drought and conflict, particularly in the countrys southern region.

Gerard Waite, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration Somalia, told VOA that about 800,000 people have fled their homes in response to the drought over the past seven months. That is in addition to the 1.1 million people who were previously displaced in the country.

We have a displacement crisis on top of a drought crisis, Waite said. The 800,000 new IDPs [internally displaced persons] that have resulted from the drought have put incredible pressure on the existing camps. The formation of new camps has developed, [and] these camps are, by and large, not very well managed. They are normally on private land in very cramped conditions. They do not have the basic services in these camps.

A side effect of this displacement is people living in squalid conditions and being forced to drink unclean water. This has resulted in over 71,000 cases of cholera or acute watery diarrhea in 2017, resulting in nearly 1,100 deaths.

The acute water shortages have meant that people are drinking higher-risk water, taking water which they know to be contaminated but they drink it anyway, Waite said.

Climatologists report that the Gu rainy season, which lasts from April to June, was well below average this year. The next rainy season is not expected until October, and analysts are warning about significant crop losses.

Worse still, climate models forecast a 45 percent chance of an El Nino weather event late in 2017, which could have a further negative effect on rain patterns.

Waite said about 6.7 million people in Somalia are either in a situation of food crisis or on the edge of crisis.

Learning from lessons past

IOM and other organizations have learned lessons from Somalia's 2011 drought, he said, which resulted in over 200,000 deaths.

The need to deliver health systems to these places is extremely pressing, but, at the same time, we are managing and trying to manage the situation and working with the government to establish spaces that are more controlled or more managed," he said.

"We also do this with a view to looking at the post-crisis period because, if we can manage the displacement, then we also have a better opportunity to manage the post-crisis period and to manage the return, Waite said.

In a May interview with VOA, Somalias finance minister, Abdirahman Duale Beyle, said the droughts are frustratingly cyclical in Somalia, and its time for a change.

Other countries, they have addressed the issues of water management, of human and livestock management, resettlements, settlements of people and building schools and infrastructures for them. We have been busy doing something else, he said.

Beyle said he believes Somalia has become overly reliant on external aid.

Our issue is always there will be no rain today, there will be the same problem, the international community will come, even feed our people, we would run around a bit, the rains will come, we will forget it and then tomorrow the same thing happens. We have to change that kind of attitude, Beyle said.

Projects are underway to improve resilience, including an effort by the IOM to introduce drought-resistant potatoes. The U.N. Development Program is helping with several projects, including an effort in Somaliland to install below-surface water tanks, wells and community water storage ponds.

Beyle said now is the time for Somalis themselves to take ownership and solve the problem.

We have the technology, the intelligence and the know-how to break the link between drought and famine. Its the fragility of our society, he said. It doesnt rain one year, and people are dying so close to each other. It doesnt happen elsewhere because we have not made any investment in the rural areas.
Last week, Gov. Scott Walker signed January 2017 Special Session Assembly Bill 7 (SS AB 7), which I coauthored with Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, to expand graduate medical education in addiction specialty.

SS AB 7 is part of a bipartisan package of bills known as the Heroin, Opioid Prevention, and Education (H.O.P.E.) Agenda that is focused on combating Wisconsins heroin epidemic. Since the HOPE Agenda began in 2013, there have been 28 separate proposals that have been introduced, passed both houses of the legislature and signed into law.

One of the primary goals of this effort is to prevent addiction before it happens. We know from the medical community that in the majority of cases, heroin addiction begins with an addiction to prescription medications. Every persons body reacts differently to pain and pain medication. While many seek temporary relief from pain through prescription medication, others cannot manage without strong pain relief and ultimately succumb to the addictive qualities of these drugs.

When prevention is unsuccessful, there must be options for treatment, and in order for treatment to be successful, you need qualified medical personnel trained in addiction specialties. SS AB 7 allows the Department of Health Services (DHS) to award grants to a hospital for the development of an addiction specialist training program with the graduate medical training programs in rural hospitals.

Graduate Medical Education (GME), often referred to as residency training," is the training that medical students receive after graduating from medical school, and is a key factor in determining where physicians practice. In fact, data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association shows that 86 percent of students from Wisconsin who attend medical school in Wisconsin and complete their residency training in Wisconsin then practice in Wisconsin.

Statewide estimates show that Wisconsin will need an additional 2,000 to 4,000 physicians by 2035. In addition to SS AB 7, the Joint Finance Committee has added $1.5 million in the proposed budget to expand the GME program for all specialties. Since 2013, the program has helped create seven new residency programs and trained 79 physician residents (including 31 new psychiatrists and 33 new family medicine physicians) in Wisconsin. The state contribution is matched dollar-for-dollar by the hospitals, health systems and medical schools to advance this public-private partnership.

This funding will help the Rural GME Training sites located in the 17th Senate District that serve Grant, Green, Iowa, Richland, and Sauk Counties. In addition, the UW Family Medicine Department also has training locations for the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program (WRPRAP) that are located in Dodgeville, Lancaster, Monroe, Reedsburg and Richland Center, along with developing programs in Mineral Point and Platteville.

Efforts such as these programs, and other initiatives are a proactive solution to help address the physician/health care shortage with home grown talent. Changing demographics also factor into the equation, Wisconsins population is expected to grow 12 percent by 2035, but within that growth the number of senior citizens is expected to increase by 69 percent. Seniors tend to go to the doctor three times as frequently as the rest of the population, which makes this need more acute.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative has a comprehensive site called the Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural GME, http://wcrgme.org/. Their site has a directory of current programs, information on how to start rural training site, and funding.
Mariano Rajoy will on Wednesday become Spain's first sitting prime minister to be called to court as he appears as a witness in a long-running graft trial that has rocked his conservative party and hurt him at the ballot box.

Rajoy returned to power for a second term last October with a severely diminished mandate, after a series of corruption scandals tainted several members of his People's Party (PP) and turned off voters.

The prime minister's court appearance turns the spotlight back on one of the most prominent cases at a delicate time for Rajoy, who no longer enjoys a majority in parliament and has to scrape together votes to get laws through.

He had sought to testify by videoconference, arguing that the journey to the court of San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid would be a waste of taxpayer money. But the request was denied by Spain's High Court.

The trial follows a long graft investigation into several city councils which are alleged to have received illegal financing from a network of companies.

Known in Spanish as the "Gurtel" case, after the nickname of supposed mastermind and businessman Francisco Correa, the probe ended up reaching several former high-ranking PP members and drew attention to an alleged party slush fund.

Former PP party treasurer, Luis Barcenas, is among those on trial on charges of organized crime, falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes.

Rajoy is expected to be grilled about the alleged slush fund and his knowledge of party business in the early 2000s, when he held several senior positions in the PP.

He has previously denied receiving any illegal funds.

The prime minister has sought to distance himself over the years from this probe and other corruption scandals, but his turn as a witness is likely to be seized upon by opposition parties who have repeatedly called for him to step down.

That is unlikely to have any immediate consequences - left-wing parties including the Socialists and Podemos ("We Can") have failed in their bids to oust Rajoy before, as they lack the clout in parliament and are divided on many fronts.

But it could still be damaging for the prime minister and his party.

"Corruption issues will continue to put a ceiling on the PP's electoral aspirations," Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence said in a note. "While Rajoy should be benefiting from [Spain's] strong economic rebound, the ruling party has been losing support in the polls recently."
Promising startups in the United States receive a shred of the billions of dollars investors pump into them when led by women, a major study found Tuesday.

Between 2011 and 2013, companies with a female CEO received $1.5 billion of the $51 billion that venture capital investors poured into those they deemed promising, or a mere 3 percent of available dollars, according to the study by U.S. researchers.

They also found that all-male teams were four times more likely to win venture funding than teams counting at least one woman among them.

Venture capital is money invested in small businesses thought to have high-return potential.

The findings published in the journal Venture Capital confirmed a pattern of historically low levels of venture funds flowing into businesses led by women.

A prior milestone study, the Diana Project, had found that venture capital injected into female-led companies never exceeded 4 percent of total funds invested between the early 1950s and the turn of the century.

In the new study, researchers examined nearly 7,000 U.S. companies that received venture capital between 2011 and 2013. They then identified companies with women on their executive teams.

'Not in the right network'

Just why female-led companies were recipients of less venture capital raised questions about the industry's inner workings, said co-author Candida Brush, a professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts.

"What is the disconnect?" Brush said in a phone interview.

"My hypothesis on the disconnect is that women are not in the right network [or] they're either being put through a tighter screen," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The report's authors, who include other Babson College professors and an entrepreneurial consultant, found there was no significant performance difference between companies whose CEOs were women and those whose leaders were men.

The ratio of male to female startup entrepreneurs is fairly equal, according to the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's Global Report.

But the venture capital industry in the United States, where most leading venture capital firms are located, is 92 percent male, said Brush.

"Those are things that have to be looked at," she said.

Earlier this month, prominent Silicon Valley investor Dave McClure resigned from his position as a partner at the venture capital firm 500 Startups following allegations of sexual harassment.

McClure's resignation came after entrepreneur Sarah Kunst accused the investor of misconduct in a New York Times story.
The U.S. State Department flatly denied Tuesday that Secretary Rex Tillerson might be considering leaving his job.

The first question department spokeswoman Heather Nauert was asked at an on-camera news briefing was whether it was true that Tillerson was thinking about resigning or leaving the administration early.

"That is false," Nauert said. "We have spoken with the secretary. The secretary has been very clear. He intends to stay here at the State Department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us. He recognizes that he is deeply engaged in that work. We have meetings scheduled, he has meetings scheduled for the rest of the week here in Washington."

Then she added: "He does, however, serve at the pleasure of the president, just as any Cabinet official would."

When reporters noted Tillerson did not have any public events on his schedule for Tuesday, Nauert said he was taking a few days off that had been scheduled in advance.

State Department spokesman R.C. Hammond has also strongly denied any reports Tillerson may be leaving early, saying the thought of quitting has never crossed his mind and that there is plenty of work to do.

CNN report

CNN reported Monday that Tillerson had told close associates he was determined to stay at the helm of the State Department until at least the end of the year, but was growing increasingly frustrated by foreign policy differences with President Donald Trump.

Trump and Tillerson have expressed different views about the U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate change accord, Iran's compliance with the international nuclear deal, and the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar.

In June, several media outlets reported an alleged showdown between Tillerson and a White House official in charge of personnel over the White House's reported thwarting of Tillerson's picks for a number of critical assistant secretary-level positions at the State Department, which remain unfilled six months into the Trump administration.

Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state who is now with the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan global policy center in Washington, told VOA the Trump administration was being run differently than any other he had seen.

"I worked for the State Department for 25 years, six secretaries of state. I have never seen anything quite like this," he said.

Usually, Miller said, a president will find one person  "the secretary of state, almost always"  in whom to invest authority for foreign policy matters. But in the Trump administration, he said, there are multiple power centers.

Kushner assignment

Miller noted that Trump has assigned the Middle East peace process to his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who this week answered questions from Senate and House committees as part of those panels' investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Kushner "has been given the authority over perhaps the one issue that secretaries of state, no matter how difficult it is, pride themselves in wanting to try, which is the Arab-Israeli issue," Miller said. "Yet that has been removed from his purview."

Speculation about Tillerson comes as Trump continues his verbal attacks on his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, expressing disappointment in him for recusing himself in the investigations into possible collusion between Trump officials and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

CNN reported that Tillerson was one of many officials who viewed the president's public rebukes of Sessions as unprofessional.
Some of the illegal immigrants who survived a deadly human-smuggling journey into Texas are seeking visas to stay in the United States in exchange for testimony against those responsible for an operation that killed 10 people on a sweltering truck, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

There is precedent for such visas and it could help U.S. authorities bring more people to justice, experts said.

So far, only one person has been charged, the driver of the truck who said he was unaware of the human cargo aboard until he took a rest stop in San Antonio. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

The case could also provide a test for the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and the criminal syndicates responsible for human trafficking.

At least 100 immigrants in truck

Silvia Mintz, an attorney representing the Guatemalan Consulate in Houston, said she has contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to see if it would consider granting U visas, available to victims of crimes such as human trafficking who have pertinent information to provide law enforcement.

At least 100 illegal immigrants, mainly from Mexico and Guatemala, were crammed into the back of the truck after crossing the U.S. border.

If we are able to establish the case, we will go ahead and seek the U visa, Mintz said in a telephone interview.

22 people in hospitals

Shane Folden, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio, said most of the people found alive at the scene are still in local hospitals. He said it was too early to talk about possible visas.

There are a number of paths toward immigration relief for situations such as this, he said in a telephone interview, adding, we are not at that point yet.

Of the 39 people found at the scene, 10 have died, 22 were in hospitals and seven have been released and were being questioned, he said.

Most of those aboard the truck fled before authorities could capture them.

Temporary visas

U.S. law enforcement has granted temporary visas previously for immigrants who provided testimony in what is considered the worst illegal immigrant-smuggling case in U.S. history, when 19 people died after traveling in an 18-wheeler truck through Victoria, Texas, in 2003.

Temporary visas for about 40 people aboard that truck helped U.S. prosecutors charge more than a dozen people with conspiracy in the case, prosecutors said at the time.

Alonzo Pena, a former deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said witnesses in the San Antonio case can be released into the community under strict conditions that could include wearing electronic monitoring devices.

Authorities would likely repatriate the others, said Pena, who runs a San Antonio consulting business, in a telephone interview.

Two visa options

A U-visa is valid for four years and offers a path to apply for permanent residency status. Congress limited the number to 10,000 a year, and the program is heavily oversubscribed.

Those on the truck may also try for a T-visa for victims of human trafficking.

Agent Folden said U.S. authorities want to topple the criminal groups responsible for human trafficking.

Our primary goal is to disrupt and dismantle these organizations, he said.
Afghan officials confirmed Wednesday a Taliban attack has left at least 26 soldiers dead and 13 others wounded in the southern province of Kandahar.

The overnight assault in the Khakrez district targeted an Afghan National Army, or ANA, base, an official statement quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri as saying.

He said the ensuing fighting also killed and wounded 80 Taliban assailants but gave no other details.

Local air force commanders told reporters airstrikes in support of ground troops forced insurgents to retreat and military helicopters then transported wounded soldiers to nearby hospitals.

The Taliban reportedly took away weapons and other military equipment with them.

A Taliban spokesman claimed it captured the army base after killing 74 Afghan soldiers and capturing six others.

It was not possible to independently verify claims made by either side.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Taliban insurgents staged an early morning attack against a key district center in the eastern Noortistan province.

Chief of the Wantwigel district, Rehmatullah Rehmat told VOA fierce fighting is raging in the area and all government security outposts were under attack.

A Taliban statement claimed its fighters have overrun major security outposts around the district, inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan security forces.

The fighting is currently taking place 200 meters from the district center, it said.

The insurgent group has overrun the eastern district three times in the past 15 years but it could not hold the territory for long in the face of retaliatory attacks by Afghan forces.
A top technology aide to Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives was arrested Monday at a Washington airport while attempting to leave the United States for Pakistan.

Imran Awan, an IT aide who worked for the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and several other congressional Democrats, was arrested on fraud charges related to a housing loan he received.

Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, who also worked as a technology aide for Democrats, requested and received a home loan from Congressional Federal Credit Union (CFCU) for $165,000 under the pretense that the couple would occupy the home, according to Awans arrest warrant. The couple didnt occupy the house, but instead rented out the property to tenants, in violation of their loan agreement.

Within a week of accepting the loan money on January 12, 2017, Alvi requested a wire transfer form from the CFCU branch located within the U.S. Capitol in the amount of $283,000 to be sent to two individuals in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

According to the arrest warrant, a representative from the bank called Alvi on January 18, 2017, to confirm the purpose of the outgoing wire transfer.

The person answering the call, who was a male, pretended that he was Alvi, the arrest warrant says.

While on the call, the bank representative asked the purpose of the wire transfer, to which the male pretending to be Alvi responded that it was to be used for funeral arrangements. The bank representative informed the man that funeral arrangements wouldnt necessarily qualify as an acceptable reason for the wire.

After a long pause, the male said that the reason for the wire was buying property, and the representative accepted that reasoning before initiating the wire transfer to Pakistan, the warrant says.

Bank records showed that $165,000.00 of $283,000.00 wired to Pakistan came from the illicit home loan.

A little more than a month after wiring the money to Pakistan, Alvi and her three children boarded a plane to Pakistan and never returned to the U.S.

According to the arrest warrant, the children were abruptly taken out of school without notifying their teachers, and investigators do not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States.

Awan purchased a ticket for a flight departing from Washington to Pakistan Monday night, but was arrested at the airport by federal agents prior to boarding.

Awan pleaded not guilty to the bank fraud charge Tuesday during an arraignment in federal court in Washington. He was released but was forced to turn over all his passports and wear a GPS monitoring device.

Chris Gowen, Awan's attorney, told Politico the arrest is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim."

"A quick glance at what the government filed in court today confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client, he said.

In March, a group of House Democrats fired Awan and Alvi after they allegedly stole IT equipment from congressional members and may have exposed House information online. The couple had been barred from accessing House computer networks since early February.

Two of Awans relatives, Abid Awan and Jamal Awan also worked as IT aides for Democrats, and are linked to the criminal investigation.

Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as chairwoman of the DNC last year after emails released by WikiLeaks appeared to show the organization working to unfairly support Hillary Clinton over her former rival Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary process.

Awan and his relatives began working for congressional Democrats more than a decade ago, and records show Awan made nearly $2 million since starting IT work on Capitol Hill in 2004. His wife, Alvi, who started working for Democrats in 2007, earned more than $1.3 million during that time.

The two were considered shared employees, which means they worked for dozens of Democrats at the same time, and no one member paid their entire salaries.
The most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis made his first court appearance in Australia on Wednesday in a scandal that has stunned the Holy See and threatened to tarnish the pope's image as a crusader against abusive clergy.



Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis' top financial adviser, has maintained his innocence since he was charged last month with sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as "historical'' sexual assault offenses  meaning crimes that occurred years ago.



Pell did not say anything during his court appearance or as he left court, surrounded by police and journalists.



He has not yet entered a plea. On Wednesday, his lawyer Robert Richter told the court Pell planned to plead not guilty at a future court date.



The cardinal's court appearance lasted just minutes and was remarkably routine. Yet the image of one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church standing before a cramped courtroom overflowing with journalists and spectators was anything but.



The pedestrian setting of the Melbourne Magistrates' Court could scarcely have been further in both geography and atmosphere from the hallowed halls of the Vatican, which has been rocked by the charges against Pell. Though many clerics have faced allegations of sex abuse in recent years, Pell is by far the highest-ranking church official ever charged.



He entered the courthouse flanked by security guards, and received a smattering of applause from several members of a local parish who attended the hearing to support the cardinal. To them, the cardinal has been preemptively and unfairly condemned before the facts of the case are known.



"We're coming here open-minded  we'd like to hear the facts,'' said Trevor Atkinson, who has met Pell previously. "It's really a matter of giving him a fair go.''



To others, the appearance in court of one of the church's most esteemed officials was a long overdue acknowledgement of the suffering felt by so many victims of clergy abuse.



Julie Cameron of Melbourne stood outside the courthouse holding a painting of Mary cradling an infant Jesus  an image she said was symbolic of the church's duty to protect children.



"This is where the actual Catholic Church has to go through renewal,'' Cameron said. ``It has to acknowledge the crimes that were committed on children.''



The case places both the cardinal and the pope in potentially perilous territory. For Pell, the charges are a threat to his freedom, his reputation and his career. For Francis, they are a threat to his credibility, given he famously promised a "zero tolerance'' policy for sex abuse in the church. Advocates for abuse victims have long railed against Francis' decision to appoint Pell to the high-ranking position in the first place; at the time of his promotion in 2014, Pell was already facing allegations that he had mishandled cases of clergy abuse during his time as archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney.



In 2014, Francis created a commission of outside experts to advise him and the broader church about the best ways to fight abuse and protect children. But the commission suffered a credibility setback when two members who were abuse survivors left in frustration. And the commission's signature proposal  a tribunal to hear cases of bishops who covered up for abuse  was scrapped by the pope himself after Vatican officials objected.



So far, Francis has withheld judgment of Pell, saying he wants to wait for Australian justice to run its course. And he did not force the cardinal to resign, though Pell took an immediate leave of absence so he could return to Australia to fight the charges. Pell said he intends to continue his work as a prefect of the church's economy ministry once the case is resolved.



In recent years, Pell's actions as archbishop came under particular scrutiny by a government-authorized investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to the sexual abuse of children. Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse  the nation's highest form of inquiry  revealed earlier this year that 7 percent of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children in Australia over the past several decades.



In testimony to the commission last year, Pell conceded that he had made mistakes by often believing priests over those who said they had been abused. And he vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued abuse victims in his hometown of Ballarat.



But over the past year, the allegations against Pell moved beyond the way he had handled cases of clergy abuse to accusations that he, himself, had committed abuse. Australian detectives flew to the Vatican to interview him last year and last month, he was formally charged.
Dozens of teen pregnancy prevention programs deemed ineffective by President Donald Trump's administration will lose more than $200 million in funding following a surprise decision to end five-year grants after only three years.

The administration's assessment is in sharp contrast with that of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which credited the program with contributing to an all-time low rate of teen pregnancies.

Rachel Fey of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said Tuesday that grantees under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program were given no explanation when notified this month their awards will end next June. The program, begun under President Barack Obama's administration, receives about $100 million a year.

"We know so little about the rationale behind cutting short these grants," said Fey, who said the teen birth rate has fallen by about 40 percent nationally since the program went into effect in 2010. The focus of the program is on evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing teen pregnancy. It does not pay for or provide contraceptives.

Competing outcomes

A Health and Human Services spokesman said late Tuesday that an evaluation of the first round of grants released last fall found only four of 37 programs studied showed lasting positive impacts. Most of the other programs had no effect or were harmful, the department said, including three that it said increased the likelihood that teens would have unprotected sex and become pregnant.

"Given the very weak evidence of positive impact of these programs, the Trump administration, in its ... 2018 budget proposal, did not recommend continued funding for the TPP program," the department statement said.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists urged the administration "not to turn back the clock" on progress.

"It's as though the evidence and the facts don't matter," ACOG President Dr. Haywood Brown said.

The North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens, one of more than 80 current grantees around the country, will lose just under $1 million a year, about three-quarters of its budget, Executive Director Terry Goltz Greenberg said. The program worked with more than 1,700 kids last year in high-poverty neighborhoods where the teen birth rates are three to five times the national average, she said.

"Most of the evidence-based programs are not just talking about contraception but are putting it in the context of bigger goals in life, such as, `Where do you want to be in three years?' `How does a kid fit into that,"' she said.

Elizabeth Gomez, 44, said the Texas program's after-school classes taught her how to discuss difficult topics with her three daughters in a respectful way that made them listen and respond.

"For Hispanics, it's difficult, because it's a taboo to talk about sex," she said.

A letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price signed by 37 Democratic senators called the decision short-sighted. Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grantees served a half-million youths from 2010 to 2014 and were on their way to serve an additional 1.2 million through 2019 when the grant was scheduled to end, the senators said. Their letter asked Price for an explanation and questioned the timing of the notifications in advance of congressional action on fiscal year 2018 appropriations.

'Line of communication'

Two of Shawanda Brown-Cannon's children take classes once a week through a southwest Georgia program called Quest for Change which, according to its director, will lose about 87 percent of its total budget.

The classes prompted both her 17-year-old daughter, Amaya, and her 13-year-old son, Chandler, to talk with their mother about what they've learned, for instance a Valentine's Day class on how to show love without sexual activity.

"It opens up a line of communication," Brown-Cannon said.

Angelina Jackson, a 17-year-old high school senior, is a member of Quest for Change. She helps run classroom lessons and organize events as a member of the youth leadership council focused on her school.

"Some people are not able to talk to their parents at home about the stuff that Quest does," Jackson said. "They provided a comfortable environment where people could ask questions or talk about their concerns."

Vermont-based Youth Catalytics was informed July 5 that its five-year, $2.8 million federal grant had been cut off June 30, the end of the first year. The grant provided about half of the organization's annual budget. As recently as July 3, people from the organization had been working with HHS officials about the details of the program, said Meagan Downey, the group's director of special projects. The grant covered about half of her salary.

Downey said her organization was one of five grant recipients nationwide that lost their funding immediately. Others were given until July 1, 2018, to prepare for the loss of the funds.

Leaders of the HOPE Buffalo program always had an eye toward establishing partnerships with city and community leaders that would enable its work to continue beyond the five-year lifespan of the grant, which provided $2 million a year, Project Director Stan Martin said. With less time and less funding, he said, "our efforts were just accelerated."
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara has agreed to purchase Russias S-400 missile systems, despite NATO concerns.

The controversial purchase comes as Ankara tries to court Moscow, after a Turkish jet downed a Russian bomber operating from Syria in 2015.

"We have now taken steps with Russia about this issue [buying S-400 systems]. Deals have been inked," Erdogan announced Tuesday to his parliamentary deputies. "In God's will, we will see S-400 missiles in our country and precede the process with joint production."

The Turkish president did not miss an opportunity to dismiss concerns of his NATO partners. "Why will it cause tension? A country should be in search for the ideal ways for its own security," he said.

Turkey's allegiances questioned

Ankara is at loggerheads with its Western allies over their support for Syrian Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State militants, the former considered to be terrorists by Turkey, along with growing criticism over human rights.

Ankaras NATO partners have voiced concern about the compatibility of the Russian system with its technology, along with fears that Moscow could use the S-400 as a Trojan horse to compromise NATO systems. The controversy will only add to growing questions over Ankaras allegiances.

NATO and EU member Greece purchased the S-300 [an earlier version of the Russian missile system] a couple of years ago, said Zaur Gasimov, an Istanbul-based research fellow at the Max Weber Foundation working in the field of Russian-Turkish relations. "However, it is an expensive measure of the Turkish side to demonstrate its sovereignty. It is a signal to the U.S., EU and Germany ... by buying the S-400, Ankara demonstrates it's willing to get closer to Moscow.

The Pentagon weighed in, telling VOA that the United States has "an open dialog" with Turkey on the issue. Spokesman Johnny Michael told VOA on Wednesday: "We have concerns about the purchasing of the S-400 systems, which we have relayed to the government of Turkey."

Michael said the United States emphasizes the importance of remaining compatible with the NATO system on any major defense system procurements. But he noted that "the United States and Turkey have a robust and significant defense trade and military sales relationship" and said the U.S. "is committed to expediting the delivery of equipment purchased by Turkey, when possible."

Ankara insists the missile system, which is acknowledged as being one of most effective on the market, offers the best value for its money. The deal, worth $2.4 billion, is bolstered by Russias commitment to transfer technology, which also is a Turkish government priority.

Sanctions factor

There may be more than defense considerations, though, behind the missile purchase. Ankara is trying to persuade Moscow to end all of the economic sanctions imposed after the Turkish jet downed the Russian bomber.

Some of those sanctions have been scaled back following a succession of meetings between Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Russia has lifted an embargo pertaining to the import of some Turkish goods and has ended a ban on Russian tourists visiting Turkey, which had devastated Turkeys lucrative tourism industry.

But Moscow is extracting a heavy price from Ankara.

"All the rest of the concessions are actually demands, which are advantageous to the Russian side. These are the sale of the S-400 air defense systems to Turkey [and] the completion of Akkuyu, the nuclear plant by Rosatom [a Russian company]," pointed out former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an analyst. Export of [Turkish] tomatoes is not solved yet. The issue of visas for Turkish citizens is not solved yet.

Russia was once Turkeys biggest export market for tomatoes, with the trade valued at $250 million annually.

During Erdogans March meeting with Putin, the Turkish president reportedly lobbied hard for an end to the tomato ban, to no avail. But a breakthrough may be in the offing. On the same day Erdogan announced the decision to buy the S-400, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced negotiations on the tomato ban would resume August 18.

But Moscows reluctance to make speedy concessions offers an insight into the wider nature of bilateral relations.

With multiple outstanding differences between Moscow and Ankara  in particular over Syria, with the two nations backing rival sides in the civil war  and Russia's support for Syrian Kurdish rebels that Ankara calls terrorists, the possibility of a re-emergence of tensions remains.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this story.
A new bout of violence in the Central African Republic, where two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed Tuesday, risks derailing years of efforts to restore a fragile stability, the United Nations warned Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the killing of the peacekeepers, who were ambushed in the southeast town of Bangassou on Tuesday.

The U.N. chief called on all parties to stop the violence and "take action to avoid a further deterioration of the fragile security situation in the country.''

The country is struggling to emerge from a civil war that erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former President Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition.

The coup led to the formation of "anti-balaka" (anti-machete) vigilante units of Christians who began to target Muslims. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.

Tuesday's raid, which injured a third soldier, followed similar attacks by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the diamond-mining town in recent days, including one on Sunday that killed a Moroccan peacekeeper and left three others wounded.

The latest incidents prompted 14 humanitarian workers from six organizations to suspend activities in the town, east of Bangui on the Congolese border.

Violence has escalated since former colonial power France ended its peacekeeping mission in the country last year. It continues despite a peace deal signed in Rome last month between the government and rival factions.
Geralda Marcelus graduated from nursing school in Haiti in June, thanks to the generosity of South West Prairie, North West Prairie and Franklin Lutheran churches. The churches paid for her four years of nursing school.

Marcelus parents died when she was little. When Pastor Francois found her, she was starving and had sores on her head. Marcelus became the first orphan taken into Calvary Cross Orphanage in Pignon, Haiti. Pastor Francois and his wife now have 24 orphans under their care.

The orphanage sends the children to school to get an education. Since there are no free public schools in Haiti, they are required to pay for each child. The money is provided by people in the United States. Marcelus was a good student and received the top score on the national test for high school graduation in their region. This was the first time a girl had the top score. When the three churches heard about Marcelus and her desire to attend nursing school, they said, We can do this, and agreed to pay for her education.

Pastor Jim Folz, former pastor of the three churches, videotaped an interview with Marcelus on his recent trip to Haiti. Marcelus said she is thankful for the generosity of the churches.

Even if my parents had lived I would not have been able to attend nursing school, she said. Without the orphanage and help of the churches I would probably be a beggar or dead.

Pastor Francois and his wife said they are proud of Marcelus. They have good reason to be proud, she is a very fine young lady, Folz said.

Marcelus would like to return to Pignon to set up a health clinic to provide care for the orphans and other poor people.
U.S. Muslims say they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trump's presidency. But they also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society. That's according to a new survey.

The Pew Research Center report says nearly three-quarters of U.S. Muslims view Trump as unfriendly to them. Sixty-two percent say Americans do not view Islam as part of the mainstream after a presidential election that saw a surge in hostility toward Muslims and immigrants.



At the same time, nearly half of Muslims said they had received expressions of encouragement from non-Muslims in the past year, an increase over past polls.


The Republican-led U.S. Senate is set to vote Wednesday on a bill that would repeal former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, one day after the chamber rejected a comprehensive bill aimed to amend the law.

The latest legislation would repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has provided coverage to millions of Americans, but would not provide a replacement. Some Republicans are concerned that repealing the law without replacing it would result in the loss of health care coverage for many Americans, an approach that does not appear to have enough support.

Senate Republican leaders have also considered a so-called "skinny" bill that would repeal a few primary provisions in the current law, such as penalties imposed on people without insurance and businesses that do not provide insurance to their workers.

If lawmakers pass a bill, the nation's health care problems will not be resolved in the near future, new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Wednesday on CNN.

"If you're expecting an instant panacea or an instant cure, it's not going to be provided by anybody here in Washington," Scaramucci said.

Measure rejected Tuesday

Lawmakers Tuesday rejected a measure drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would have ended the expansion of Medicaid, the program that provides health insurance for poor Americans, cut subsidies to help low-income people buy private health insurance plans, and eliminated tax penalties on people who do not buy health insurance.

The measure also included an amendment by Texas Republican Ted Cruz that would let health insurers offer less generous plans than those required under the Affordable Care Act.

Tuesday night's vote was the first of many that will be taken in the Republican Party's yearslong effort to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare. The Senate's move to begin debate occurred after McConnell tried and failed during the past month to pass two different versions of the bill. But even that move nearly failed, as all Democrats and two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voting against the so-called motion to proceed, leaving the chamber deadlocked at 50-50.

It took Vice President Mike Pence, in his constitutional role as presiding officer of the Senate, to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Murkowski drew the ire of President Donald Trump in a Wednesday tweet.

A decisive vote was cast by Arizona Republican John McCain, who returned to Capitol Hill just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer. McCain received a rousing ovation from his colleagues when he strode onto the Senate floor, and they broke into applause to cheer the sometimes stern message that he delivered.

McCain calls for bipartisanship

McCain chided his colleagues for their lack of progress. He called on all senators to govern better by embracing compromise, bipartisanship and the Senate's traditional way of doing business.

"Let's trust each other. ... We've 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 said.

Despite the warm reception for McCain by senators of both parties, Democrats slammed the Republicans' tactics on the health care issue, including a relatively small group considering legislative drafts behind closed doors without participation from Democrats.

"We have a distance to go to get where we need to be," said Cruz. "I will be happy when we get it done, accomplish what we set out, to honor our promise to repeal Obamacare and fundamentally expand consumer freedom and lower premiums for families who are struggling."

Details to determine final vote

Republicans have said the "skinny" bill, a less comprehensive version of the latest Senate measure, would have the best chance of gaining a majority vote to dismantle Obamacare. If the Senate approves a scaled-down version of the bill, a conference committee of the two houses of Congress will have to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected the effects of various Republican health care plans. All versions would result in millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage, but would yield budgetary savings.

Republicans are counting on those savings to help pay for tax cuts and other legislative priorities. With the party controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, the health care vote is seen as a critical test of Republicans' ability to govern.

Recent public-opinion surveys show that Americans view the existing Affordable Care Act more favorably than any of the Republicans' proposals to replace it.
One of Democratic Republic of Congo's most notorious warlords, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, wanted for alleged crimes against humanity, surrendered to U.N. peacekeepers on Wednesday, the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUSCO) said.

Sheka's militia, Mai-Mai Sheka, is one of a patchwork of armed groups in eastern Congo regularly accused by the United Nations and rights groups of using rape as a weapon of war.

After six years on the run, Sheka surrendered to U.N. forces in the town of Mutongo in Walikale territory and was transferred to the eastern city of Goma, said MONUSCO spokeswoman Fabienne Pompey.

It was not immediately clear why he had turned himself in.

He will be handed over to DRC authorities after the regular procedure and checking is done by MONUSCO, Pompey told Reuters.

Despite the 2003 end to years of war in eastern Congo that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease, dozens of armed groups continue to operate there, exploiting vast mineral reserves and preying on the local population.

According to the United Nations, Sheka's forces and two other armed groups raped at least 387 civilians between July 30 and Aug. 2, 2010 to punish them for allegedly collaborating with Congolese government forces.

Congolese authorities issued a warrant for Sheka's arrest in January 2011 but despite joint operations by the Congolese army and U.N. forces against his group, he remained at large in Walikale's remote forests.

In 2015, Human Rights Watch said Sheka's forces had killed at least 70 civilians since the arrest warrant was issued, many of whom were hacked to death by machete and whose body parts were paraded around town as the fighters chanted slurs against rival ethnic groups.
The death toll from flooding in India climbed to 119 on Wednesday as floodwaters began to recede, officials said.

That number includes 25 people, including 17 from one family alone, that were found dead in the Banaskantha district, Gujarat on Wednesday.

"In all 25 bodies were fished out from two villages on the bank of Banas river," assistant superintendent of police Aksharaj Makwana told AFP.

In the neighboring state of Rajasthan, the death count rose to 19. The streets continued to look more like canals, as trapped residents huddled on the rooftops of residential buildings awaiting the arrival of rescue workers.

Using boats and helicopters, rescue workers continued to take flood victims to safety. They have already evacuated 36,000 people from affected areas.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted an aerial survey of the states hardest-hit by monsoon flooding on Tuesday, including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, and Gufarat - his home state. He urged resiliance and promised a quick government response.

The Indian Meteorological Department predicts more rain for the region for the rest of the week.
Firefighters in France have intensified their efforts to control a wildfire that began sweeping through parts of the Riviera coast Tuesday night and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

The fire is the most recent of several wind-fueled blazes that are consuming forests and scrublands between Marseilles and the city of Nice in southeastern France.

At the nearby marinas of Saint-Tropez resort, the fast-approaching fire prompted the evacuation of about 10,000 people, including 3,000 from campsites.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze, with planes and helicopters dropping tons of water on the area's hilly terrain, where fires regularly break out during the summer season.

Fire began raging along the coast Monday, forcing smaller evacuations as flames approached a corner of Saint-Tropez. Firefighters also fought blazes farther east in Artigues and contained another Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer.

So far, no deaths have been reported as a result of the blazes.

France's Mediterranean coast is especially susceptible to wildfires because of its huge forests, dry summer conditions, and sea winds that fuel the flames.
Presidential candidate Dr. Nkosana Moyo says in his first 100 days if elected president in Zimbabwes 2018 general elections he will start by building trust between the government and local people.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Studio 7, Dr. Moyo said this would ensure that people become agents of social, economic and political transformation in a nation that has been ruled by President Robert Mugabe for more than 37 years.

Its going to sound very strange in the sense that most people say economy, economy but the signaling that begins to build trust between the people and their government actually leads people beginning to be agents in developing the economy.

So, one of those issues as I have indicated to you (in previous interviews) is to tackle the issue of corruption and make sure that Zimbabweans see that  I draw a line in the sand and say on this side of the line, guys you cross this line, there is lots of trouble for you. We will put you inside and throw away the keys.

He said the other fundamental issue is to employ competent Zimbabweans. So, the construction of the administration itself will begin to signal to Zimbabweans that what we were being told was not just rhetoric  Here is a foundation of performance being set up. People whose CV (curriculum vitae) I can look at, whose track record I can look at and I can say to myself on the basis of the CV and the track record and what they have done in the past these people are credible. Those are the signals 

He noted that he will always fight for the empowerment of Zimbabweans.

Dr. Moyo is expected to clash with President Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and several others in the presidential election.

The former Zimbabwean cabinet minister resigned his post under protest in 2001 and left for South Africa after claiming that he was unable to work under President Robert Mugabe, whose party lacked vision and trust of the electorate.

Mr. Mugabe will contest the presidential election next year at the age of 94.
German company Birkenstock, which dates back to 1774, pulled it shoes from Amazon.com earlier this year. Here, a worker at one of the companys production halls in Goerlitz, Germany. (Arno Burgi/AP)

The chief executive of Birkenstock USA has emerged as an unlikely crusader in a growing battle between smaller retailers and ever-expanding giant Amazon.com.

His message to shop owners: Dont even think about selling our shoes to Amazon.

In a blistering five-page email obtained by The Washington Post, David Kahan last week derided the online behemoth for contacting shop owners and offering to buy their products at full price.

Birkenstock stopped selling its shoes on Amazon earlier this year, citing a rise in counterfeit products and unauthorized sellers.

[Read Kahans complete letter about Amazon here]

Amazon, in an attempt to grow even bigger, has recently ramped up its efforts to stock its site with third-party goods. In past weeks, the company has contacted tens of thousands of U.S. retailers, asking them to sell their products directly to Amazon. Among the merchants it contacted were shoe stores that sell only Birkenstocks. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

In the email, Kahan called the entreaty a desperate act and a PERSONAL AFFRONT.

Birkenstock does NOT sell [to] Amazon, he wrote in the email to retail partners. And it is clear that they are seeking back-channel means by which to obtain our brand.

He emphasized that the German shoemaker prohibits shop owners from selling, distributing or shipping its products to resellers.

I will state clearly, any authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER, Kahan wrote. I repeat, FOREVER.

Kahan added that he is considering legal action against Amazon.com for knowingly encouraging a breach of our policy.

A spokeswoman for Amazon said the company buys products from third-party businesses to offer customers a wider selection of great brands, and that those sellers can opt out at any time. She declined to comment on Kahans complaint.

In our mission to be Earths most customer-centric company, Amazon strives to provide our customers with the largest selection, at the lowest price, and with the fastest delivery, the spokeswoman said in an email.

[Amazons bid for Whole Foods sparks speculation on what it might gobble up next]

But Kahan said that allowing unauthorized retailers  in this case, Amazon  to sell the companys iconic cork-and-leather sandals could tarnish its brand and reputation. Also at risk, he said, is the ability of companies to control how  and where  their products are sold.

This is modern-day piracy on the high seas, Kahan said in an interview. This is a middle finger to all brands, not just Birkenstock.

For years, Amazon was one of the countrys largest sellers of Birkenstocks. But about a year ago, Kahan announced he would end the partnership after deeming that Amazon wasnt doing enough to guard against fakes.

He announced his decision in an email, which was obtained by CNBC.

BUYER BEWARE, he wrote in the letter. The Amazon marketplace creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand.

Whether to do business with the online behemoth has become a fraught question for retailers big and small. Last week, Sears announced that it would begin selling its Kenmore appliances directly on Amazon, following in the footsteps of others such as Nike, Samsung, Microsoft and Bose.

[Sears is giving shoppers even fewer reasons to go to its stores]

But Amazons partnerships havent always been successful. In 2009, the company agreed to pay $51 million to settle a five-year battle with Toys R Us after the toy company accused Amazon of breaking their contract by allowing other companies to sell toys, games and baby items on the site. Amazon countersued Toys R Us, alleging chronic failure to keep products in stock.

More than half  55 percent  of Americans now begin their online shopping trips on Amazon, according to a survey commissioned by BloomReach, a marketing-research firm. Even if shoppers do not begin their search on the site, they often end up there, with roughly 90 percent of consumers checking Amazon before they make a purchase, the survey found.

The owner of a North Carolina chain that specializes in Birkenstock shoes said he has been contacted by Amazon multiple times with solicitation offers.

Through the years, theyve always tried to get our business, said the owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. But I never paid much attention. Its just not something Im going to do.

For his part, Kahan says he has expressed his displeasure to Amazon. He added that he is not anti-Amazon and is not trying to pick a fight.

Birkenstock, which was founded in Germany in 1774, did not arrive in the United States until nearly two centuries later. The companys signature two-strap sandals quickly caught on during the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s, becoming synonymous with hippie fashion.

[How street style lost its meaning and its power]

The brand has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. Earlier this month, Vogue magazine compared the companys shoes to kale: Its neither glamorous nor exotic  no asparagus, no quinoa  yet it makes people feel good, almost virtuous.

At Martins Family Shoes in Gettysburg, Pa., owner John Fidler says sales of Birkenstocks are up about 20 percent this year, which he attributes at least partly to the companys split with Amazon. He was encouraged, he said, to receive Kahans ticked off email last week.

It was great that somebody finally put Amazon in its place, he said. I dont see any reason to sell there.

Read more:

Amazon is trying to chip away at brick-and-mortar clothing stores last big advantage

How seeds and superhot gas could take down the $80 billion diamond industry

The battle over a $52 sports bra goes to court

Hackers have been stealing credit card numbers from Trumps hotels for months


Bartender Tyler Jensen with customers at the Riggsbys bar. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

The pot brownie sundae is named for the vessel, not any ingredients. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

(Good)

Sign of the times in Washington: You can bag a pot brownie at the Riggsby these days. The dessert offering has less to do with the Districts relaxed attitude toward marijuana than with a pastry chefs sense of humor.

To be clear, the brownie is trotted out in a cast-iron pot, and served as a sundae. Think about that, then LOL.

The American restaurants chef de cuisine is pushing an envelope or two as well, using testa, or head cheese, as a filling for a corn dog and radically rethinking such classic preparations as paella.

Both chefs are relatively new to the Riggsby, the retro American dining room inside the Kimpton Carlyle Hotel in Dupont Circle. Theyre part of a recent hiring spree by Boston chef Michael Schlow, whose dining empire has grown to six places in the Washington area . Alex Levin, late of Osteria Morini , was appointed executive pastry chef for the Schlow Restaurant Group in February and oversees the Riggsbys desserts. In April, Schlow installed Jay Caputo, formerly of Espuma in Rehoboth Beach, Del., as the restaurants chef de cuisine.

The chefs rewrites make for some interesting meals, some better than others, in a plummy room that has always enjoyed the patina of age. Glittering from the center of a skylight is a weighty chandelier; ringing the room are booths the color of red wine and the size of Mini Coopers. The words supper and club are implied, a look best captured at the Riggsbys keyhole-shaped entrance, which frames the handsome bar within. The menu furthers the illusion of having been around for ages with a Mad Men lunch special: two courses plus two glasses of wine or two martinis for $35. Reading about it feels slightly naughty. Indulging in it necessitates a nap afterward. (No surprise, hotel guests are the deals primary buyers, says Caputo, 44.)



New chef de cuisine Jay Caputo comes to the Riggsby from Espuma in Rehoboth Beach, Del. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

The Riggsbys dinner menu begins, as so many do, with bar snacks. They are mostly familiar dishes with contemporary touches. The fine crunch in the deviled eggs comes from chicken skin, the gentle heat from Calabrian chiles. Hummus is a surprising green, buttery avocado having been mashed into the expected chickpeas. Instead of pita, the spread, bright with lime and biting with serrano, is scooped up with pieces of soft corn tortilla. Foie gras butter is wasted on the Parker House roll, dull and dry when I sampled it, and truth be told, I would have preferred something sturdier inside my one-bite corn dog than the jellylike testa, improved by a swipe in horseradish sauce.

Before revising the menu, Schlow and Caputo talked about classic dishes they thought didnt need embellishment and traditions they believed they could tinker with. In the former category are Caesar salad, a textbook version with anchovies and garlic informing the creamy dressing, and lobster fra diavolo, spicy seafood spaghetti. Caputo introduces the morsels of lobster to the steamy house-made pasta at the last moment, a move that results in tender (as opposed to rubbery) seafood. The tomato sauce is racy with red pepper flakes, but not so fiery you cant enjoy the lobster, and garlicky toasted bread crumbs add just the right punctuation.

Every other restaurant seems to be addressing summer with a variation of gazpacho, and this one is no exception. Unfortunately, gazpacho with a little island of coconut panna cotta is not nearly as compelling as its components suggest. The dark red base is heavy, and the primary seasoning seems to be black pepper (too much of it). The soup smacks more of a condiment than a finished dish, and the white custard, faintly sweet, feels misplaced.

Servers are quick to tell you the paella, described on the menu as broken, is unlike any you may have experienced in a Spanish restaurant. While the entree fits in the usual chorizo, chicken and mussels, the saffron rice takes the form of Italian arancini, or fritters. Interesting idea, but I prefer a bed of fluffy-crusty rice. This version makes it a chore to get, in a single forkful, the flavor of the whole.



Walleye pike with sweet corn puree, potato confit, a potato tuile and parsley juice. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

This son of Minnesota was cheered to see walleye pike, among the prizes of the Great Lakes, on the Riggsbys new menu. Hoping to summon a backyard barbecue, but conscious of his swank setting, Caputo presents the pan-seared fish with a brushstroke of sweet corn puree (in the role of corn on the cob) and a shattering potato tuile, seasoned with mustard (a stand-in, together with potato confit, for potato salad). Eating the dish places me near the land of 10,000 lakes, at least with my eyes closed.

Schlows nostalgia for a youthful memory, prime rib with horseradish, inspires the Riggsbys hamburger. Its a stellar if messy stack of dry-aged ground beef  chuck, brisket and short rib  crammed into a toasted milk bun thats sturdy enough to contain all the juices. Adding to the height and heft are a thatch of fried onions, melted cheddar cheese and a pepper-ignited horseradish sauce whose inclusion of lemon juice mimics the tang of pickles. The sandwich  definitely not polite, admits Schlow  is a lot to get your lips around and goes by the same name he is called by his friend Mario Batali: Schlow Burger.

Another sandwich channels a Cuban, except pork is replaced by duck confit between slices of pressed sourdough bread on which melted cheese, crisp pickled zucchini and zucchini jam weigh in with their respectively creamy, tangy and sweet attributes. Like the hamburger, the duck sandwich, a lunch mainstay, arrives with a silver cone of very good french fries.



The Schlow Burger. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Lobster fra diavolo. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

As lovely as the fruit desserts are, the headiest of sweets is the aforementioned pot brownie, an ode to decadence forged from the obvious (warm) brownie, vanilla gelato, garnishes including chocolate toffee and hazelnut brittle and lashings of chocolate sauce.

Theres a surprise inside, teased one of my servers. Pause. Hazelnut ganache.

The only buzz youll get from the confection is a sugar rush. But dude, its good stuff.

More Tom Sietsema reviews:

At La Puerta Verde, the Mexican flavors are a precious cargo

Mike Isabellas newest restaurant, Arroz, shines the brightest

A new chef freshens up the Ashby Inn, just in time for road-trip season



For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit WP Magazine.

Follow the Magazine on Twitter.

Like us on Facebook.

Email us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.
Fort McCoy is asking for volunteers to assist with the annual Army Concert Saturday, Aug. 12 at Constitution Park.

As many as 300 volunteers are needed to put on the show, said Daryl Budda, chief of business activities for the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation.

This years concert features Toby Keith with special guests Cassadee Pope and Waterloo Revival.

Proceeds from the Army Concert go back to the soldiers through a central fund that is used for programs, infrastructure, equipment and wages, Budda said.

He said Fort McCoy saves approximately $20,000 in wages during the concert through volunteer support.

Karla Rynes of DFMWR is the volunteer coordinator for the concert and has been working with concert volunteers for about 10 years.

Its a good turnout. People seem to be more apt to do it because its for the military, and they want to support the troops, Rynes said. A lot of volunteers return to help again the next year, Rynes said.

Volunteers must be 16 years old. There are no physical restrictions to volunteer, but Rynes said that most jobs require standing for long periods of time.

Several concert volunteer jobs still are available. People can serve beverages in either the soda or the beer tents, sell or collect concert tickets, help direct parking, work in the will-call area handing out tickets to people who made online purchases or help clean Constitution Park the next day.

Rynes said volunteers especially are needed to help clean up.

You get to come in the night before for free; you just have to show up the next day to clean up, she said.

Each volunteer, in addition to listening to the concert for free, receives a t-shirt and an invitation to Volunteer Appreciation Night at McCoys for a free meal and beverages.

The banquet is just a time to say thank you for what theyve done because we couldnt do it without them, Rynes said.

Martha Gnewikow, a DFMWR employee, has volunteered for the concert almost since it began at Fort McCoy in 1997. She said when she first began volunteering, she did so because she wanted to attend the concert for free.

But then I got the point where I just enjoy going and doing it and spending the time with other people, she said.

Rynes encouraged people to contact her if theyre interested in volunteering.

Its a good time, she said. People have a lot of fun. Tickets are $50 until the day of the show. Day-of-show tickets cost $55.

Tickets can be purchased on post at McCoys Community Center, building 1571, and Pine View Campground.

Off post, tickets can be purchased at the Market Bar and Fox Hole Pub in Sparta, Ace Hardware in Tomah and La Crosse, and Festival Foods in Onalaska. Tickets also can be purchased online or by calling 877-864-4969.

For more information about volunteering for the Army Concert, contact Rynes by phone at 608-388-4161 or by email at karla.m.rynes.naf@mail.mil.


Bags of coffee bought from two Washington-area Whole Foods Markets include some sold after their best by date. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post)

The bag of Peruvian coffee from Toms Roasting says the beans are best used by Dec. 3. The bag of Kenyan beans from Allegro Coffee Roasters indicates they are good through Sept. 19, while the bag of Rwandan beans from One Village Coffee notes they were roasted to perfection on May 26.

These coffees were among dozens sitting on the shelves in mid-July at two randomly selected Whole Foods Market stores in the Washington area. The dates stamped on these bags whisper promises to shoppers: that the freshly roasted coffee beans, or at least some of them, will taste the same months from now, maybe even half a year from now.

The promises are, in all likelihood, hollow. Specialty roasters  the people who buy and roast the highest-grade beans in the world  will tell you that only coffees sold in special packaging, such as nitrogen-flushed bags that prevent oxidation, can survive on the shelf for months. Otherwise, after about 30 days, those coffee beans will be about as flavorful as summertime peaches in October.

We continue to give the basic recommendation that, if you really want to enjoy the coffee, buy it within a week of the roast, buy it locally and drink it within a week of purchasing it, says Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association .

Supermarkets have historically been poor places to find good beans. They tend to favor blends, so customers can have a consistent cup every time. They lean toward darker roasts, so the coffees flavors wont diminish much as the beans degrade. And they tend to treat their coffees more like canned goods than fresh produce, sometimes leaving bags on the shelves for weeks after their best by dates.



A Whole Foods Market in Manhattan. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

But Whole Foods, the organic grocer that Amazon is set to purchase later this year, raised the bar for supermarket coffee, especially after the chain bought the respected roaster Allegro Coffee in 1997. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Colorado-based Allegro became, for all practical purposes, the house roaster for Whole Foods, but regional stores also supplemented Allegro products with coffees from specialty roasters in their area, offering customers a robust selection of blends, single-origin and espresso beans. Whole Foods seemed to be making a pledge: Well be a friend to specialty coffee.

[I thought cold-brew wasnt worth a hill of beans  until I used the right ones]

To some in the trade, Whole Foods commitment to freshness in other parts of the store  to selling produce at its peak, for example  ends at the coffee aisle. Ask Chris Vigilante, founder of Vigilante Coffee, a roaster based in Hyattsville, Md. He says he stopped selling to a pair of Whole Foods stores in the Washington area in late 2015 after finding his beans on sale months after their roast date. Vigilante says his beans are best brewed within a 30-day window after the roast.

Vigilante started selling coffee to the Friendship Heights Whole Foods in Chevy Chase in March 2015. The stores initial purchase was 120 bags, a large order from a roaster still relatively unknown outside specialty circles. Over the course of four or five months, the same coffees were still sitting there, Vigilante says.



Chris Vigilante at his roastery and coffee shop in 2015 in Hyattsville. (Amanda Voisard/For The Washington Post)

One day, Vigilante took matters into his own hands. He walked into the Friendship Heights store, grabbed a cart and bought all the remaining stale coffee on the shelf. I cleared like 50 bags, he says. He figured taking a bath on the coffee was better than taking a hit to his young companys reputation.

Vigilante sold only about 330 bags before pulling the plug on his relationship with Whole Foods stores in Friendship Heights and Tysons Corner. But then last year, out of nowhere, he got an order from a Whole Foods store in Chicago. He turned down the request, but then felt compelled to write a blog post about his brief, frustrating time with Whole Foods. He never published the piece, but he shared it with The Post. Among other complaints, he wrote, their ordering techniques are designed to sell products over a span of months, not weeks or days.

Whole Foods declined to comment for this story, other than to provide background information about its commitment to local suppliers in general, not coffee roasters in particular. Whole Foods has a low-interest loan program to help innovative suppliers grow, and the chain will provide the tools and feedback to help suppliers succeed. If they do succeed and have ample capacity, suppliers can expand from a single store to national distribution, a plum for just about any producer.

Rhinehart of the Special Coffee Association is sympathetic to roasters concerns about freshness, but he says theres always a trade-off when selling to large grocery chains, even Whole Foods. For the convenience of offering products in the same place where shoppers can buy dozens of other household items, Rhinehart says, roasters should expect certain sacrifices in quality.



This bag of Red Rooster Coffee Roaster Funky Chicken was still on the shelf at a Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring in early July, even though it should have been removed on May 12, a month after it was roasted, according to the roasters co-owner, Haden Polseno-Hensley. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post)

I dont think that roasters that sell coffee to Whole Foods can have it both ways, Rhinehart says. Theyre like, Id like you to pay me a premium price, give me great distribution, give me access to your customers, promote my product, and, oh, by the way, if it doesnt sell, its your problem. This is not a way to have a long-term relationship with Whole Foods or any grocery store, frankly.

Nonetheless, the grocery chain aims high with so many of its foods  organic produce, sustainable seafood, naturally raised meat  that its commitment to specialty coffee can strike roasters as lukewarm. A July walk through the Whole Foods in Silver Spring conducted several days after the aforementioned random trips, would appear to validate this notion: At least three bags were available after their best-by dates had expired. One bag of Funky Chicken, a certified organic decaf blend from Red Rooster Coffee in Floyd, Va., said it was roasted on April 12. It wasnt packaged in a nitrogen-flushed bag.

This is an ordering issue, says Haden Polseno-Hensley, co-owner of Red Rooster. Buyers at individual Whole Foods stores will sometimes place orders for coffee that Polseno-Hensley knows will sit on the shelves for months, like that decaf blend. Im never really sure how to address it when a company might order a coffee that doesnt sell as well as the other coffees.

[How much better can coffee from a Keurig pod machine get?]

One argument among specialty roasters goes something like this: Their beans are an agricultural product that degrades in quality in a matter of weeks, not unlike heartier fruits and vegetables, such as apples and onions. So why doesnt a place like Whole Foods treat coffee beans more like produce and rotate out the older beans?

The problem with this logic, says SCAs Rhinehart, is that coffee beans can still be consumed well past their best-by date. Unlike some produce and meats, old coffee beans dont grow mold or become contaminated with bacteria, which could lead to illness or even death. The beans may not even smell bad, unless they were roasted so dark their surface oils have turned rancid.

In many grocery stores, coffee is more akin to dried legumes, Rhinehart says. At supermarkets, consumers dont expect managers to toss, say, dried kidney beans that have been on the shelf for a year because everyone knows those beans are still edible when rehydrated, seasoned and slowly cooked.

That, in some sense, is the same with coffee, Rhinehart says. Theres a marked difference in quality between freshly roasted and four months old, but it wont kill you. Its consumable. It will taste like coffee, probably not great coffee.



This single-origin coffee from Thailand, roasted by Allegro, was sitting on a Whole Foods Market shelf more than a month after its best if used by date of June 9. Whole Foods owns Allegro. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post)

Some specialty roasters, such as One Village Coffee, have developed ways of working within the Whole Foods system. The Souderton, Pa., roaster, for instance, has employees who manually fill each bag with nitrogen, which flushes out most of the oxygen and extends the shelf life of the coffee. Victoria Perez, director of sales and marketing for One Village, says Whole Foods allows nitrogen-flushed bags to remain on the shelves for 120 days vs. 30 days for those without the gas.

Then again, One Village has the motivation to find solutions. The company has no retail stores or cafes of its own and relies exclusively on supermarkets for sales. The grocery is our focus, and its not the focus of many specialty roasters, Perez says.

[Swings Coffee: From old school to new-wave]

The Alexandria-based Swings Coffee also has found ways to work with Whole Foods that benefit the roaster. For starters, says owner Mark Warmuth, Swings sells small quantities to each of 20-plus Whole Foods stores that offer its coffee, to make sure its turning over. The roaster will then conduct in-store brewing demonstrations two to three times a week to market its products. And, lastly, Swings doesnt push its seasonal, single-origin coffees on Whole Foods, to better differentiate itself from the Allegro products. Some Washingtonians, after all, may have a lifelong relationship with Swings blends, some of which date back decades.



This single-origin Dominican coffee from Cafe Kreyol is in a nitrogen-flushed bag, which means the beans will lose some flavor but are actually good for six months, not the three months listed on the package, says Joey Stazzone, owner of the Manassas, Va.-based roaster. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post)

We shy away from single-origins, Warmuth says. Thats intentional, just knowing what the Allegro brand is trying to represent and whats going to move for us.

No one seems to have a clue whether Amazons ownership will change the coffee program at Whole Foods, even though the online behemoth is based in Seattle, the unofficial coffee capital of the United States. Polseno-Hensley of Red Rooster says he already thinks Whole Foods is always trying to adapt to a changing market in coffee, while Vigilante says it wont matter to him what Amazon does. He doesnt plan to sell to grocery stores again. They can never treat his product as well as he does.

Rhinehart says he hopes Amazon lets Allegro, the Whole Foods subsidiary, focus on what it does best: source, roast and package great coffee. Theyve underutilized this incredible resource that theyve owned for all these years, he says. Theyve never managed to capitalize on what could be the value of that.

Beyond that, Rhinehart says he hopes Amazon will improve freshness in the coffee aisles at Whole Foods.

Amazon is extraordinarily good at distribution, and I dont know if that will translate into something very positive for the consumer, a chance to use those distribution skills to move very good, very fresh coffee out very quickly, Rhinehart says. Or whether coffee will not rise to the level of importance for Amazon that it should.
Girl Scouts of Central Maryland watch as Girl Scout badges are manufactured during a tour of the Lion Brothers factory in Owings Mills, Maryland. The Girl Scouts of the USA is unveiling 23 new badges related to science, engineering, technology and math. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Girl Scouts from Daisies to teen Ambassadors may earn 23 new badges focused on science, technology, engineering and math.

Its the largest addition of new badges in a decade for Girl Scouts of the USA. The effort takes a progressive approach to STEM and also nudges girls to become citizen scientists using the great outdoors as their laboratory.

Among the new badges are those that introduce kindergarten and first-graders to the world of robots and engineering. Scouts can learn basic programming and build prototypes to solve everyday problems. Older Scouts will have the chance to enhance those skills, learning more about artificial intelligence, algorithms and how to formally present their work.

Other new badges focus on race car and aviation design using kits from GoldieBlox, a girl-focused toy company. The leave no trace approach to interacting with the environment and the study of meteorology by learning to predict weather patterns and potential hazards are among activities geared to new outdoors badges.

Cayla Hicks, 7, is grateful. Shes a Baltimore Brownie whos interested in the Designing Robots badge.

A Girl Scout badge for learning how to program a robot is seen amid a sample of new STEM badges. Other offerings among the new badges focus on the outdoors, including meteorology and conservation. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

I want to be a scientist. I like building things, and I like discovering things. Me and my brother  well, I usually ask my brother if he wants to look through my telescope. Usually he says no, Cayla said as she recently demonstrated how to make a robotic arm out of sticks and fasteners.

Sylvia Acevedo, the head of the national Scouting group, was just like Cayla as a girl growing up in tiny Las Cruces, New Mexico.

My troop leader looked at me and saw me looking at the stars, and she taught me that there were constellations, she taught me there were systems and patterns to the stars, Acevedo said in a recent interview. Because I got my science badge, I developed that courage and that confidence to study science and math at a time when girls like me werent studying science and math. Girls like me, statistically, werent even finishing high school.

Acevedo was one of the first Hispanic students, male or female, to earn a graduate engineering degree from Stanford University. Her first job was as a rocket scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. More recently Acevedo was a tech executive.

The new badges, some of which were requested by Scouts themselves in a survey, are available starting this week. Next year, another initiative will allow Girl Scouts to earn cybersecurity badges.

As for STEM overall, Acevedo said, a lot of girls are not confident about pursuing education and careers in those fields.

A lot of girls havent made that shift from using technology to, You can actually be a programmer, she said. That youre the one who can make that coding. For a lot of girls, they need to have that hands-on experience so they feel confident.

The Scouts, who are 1.8 million strong in the United States, has offered such opportunities in the past but consider the new badges and related programming a major push.

Its really all about how do we capture that interest in science and technology, Acevedo said. The other thing is the girls are learning not just how to do a specific skill but also how to think, how to think like an inventor, how to think like a creator, how to think like a maker. Those are the types of things that we want to ignite in the girls.
Dear Heloise: My husband loves Swedish meatballs, but I dont have a recipe for them. Do you?

Karen C., Middletown, N.Y.

Karen C.: In fact I do, and here it is:

2 cups bread crumbs

 cup milk

8 ounces ground beef

8 ounces ground sausage (spicy)

 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon soy sauce

 teaspoon monosodium glutamate (optional)

5-ounce can of sliced water chestnuts, chopped

Mix the bread crumbs and milk in a large bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Roll the meat mix into 1 -inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet with sides, close together (these shrink when cooked). Bake at 350 degrees until well done and golden brown (about 30 to 40 minutes). Remove from the oven, and drain on a paper towel. Serve with spicy jelly sauce. To make the sauce, use equal portions of grape jelly and cocktail (red, shrimp) sauce. Stirring constantly, cook over a low heat until bubbling. Remove from heat and pour over meatballs.

This recipe could become a favorite in your family, and I have many others in my Main Dishes and More pamphlet. To order a copy, go to my website at Heloise.com, or send a stamped (70 cents), self-addressed, long envelope, along with $3, to: Heloise/Main Dishes, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Swedish meatballs can be a great appetizer for a party, or are great over noodles as a main dish.

Dear Heloise: Ive been a fan of yours since I was a young girl.

I love the convenience of packaged organic salad mixes. However, 95 percent of the time, these go bad before the date listed on the package. Is there a solution to making these last longer?

Camilla G., via email

Camilla G.: Line a plastic container with two layers of paper towels. These will absorb moisture from your salad greens. For large bags of greens, use four layers, and make sure the lid fits tightly or that the bag is closed securely. Store your greens in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Always buy greens at least five days before the expiration date.

Dear Heloise: My son and I are concerned about the possible dangers of cooking with aluminum cookware. Yet our stores continue to sell aluminum items for food preparation. Whats the answer?

Fil B., Camarillo, Calif.

Fil B.: The debate rages on. Nearly all aluminum cookware today is anodized, which means that very little aluminum is leached from the product, especially if its coated with a nonstick material. However, there are many products that contain aluminum, such as cans for beverages, cake mixes, toothpastes, antacids and baking powder, just to name a few. Some experts feel its not the aluminum from cookware, but rather the cumulative effects of aluminum in so many products that might cause toxic levels in the body, although ingested aluminum is most often excreted in the urine.

Heloises column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.


Just some of the merry band of lawyers now employed by the president or his associates. Clockwise from top left: Ty Cobb, Jay Sekulow, Marc Kasowitz and Michael Cohen. ((Jerry Cleveland/The Denver Post via AP; Steve Helber/AP; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP; Richard Drew/AP) )

Early last year, in the midst of his primary campaign, Donald Trump hopped on a stage in Reno, Nev., to brag about his vast legal knowledge.

Does anyone know more about litigation than Trump? he bellowed. Okay? I know a lot. Im like a PhD in litigation.

At the very least, in his long life of lawsuits and bankruptcies, deals and developments, Trump certainly has known a lot of lawyers. Now that hes president and embroiled in scandal, hes getting the opportunity to meet a bunch more.

The White House has its own counsel, of course, and now Trump has his own personal attorneys. So does the Trump Organization. There are lawyers for each member of the Trump family. And thats not counting the layers of lawyers for everyone working in the administration. There are lawyers all the way down.

Follow the money, the adage says. But with so much of that money going to lawyers these days, it might just be easier to follow the lawyers. (Legal disclaimer: Dont actually follow the lawyers.)

Trump promised to drain the unsavory elements out of politics, but long before the public ever loathed entrenched politicians, corrupt lobbyists or biased news media, they hated lawyers. Trump hated them, too, early on.

I dont like lawyers, the young developer told the Machiavellian super-attorney Roy Cohn in 1973, according to his own account in his book Trump: The Art of the Deal. He elaborated: I think all they do is delay deals. . . . Every answer they give you is no, and they are always looking to settle instead of fight.



Roy Cohn, left, and Donald Trump, right, in the 1980s, with journalist Ed Kosner. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)

At the time, Trump was in the thick of his first real scandal, as the Justice Department sued him and his father over alleged racial bias in the way they operated their housing developments. When Cohn proposed a countersuit, arguing that the best defense was a good offense, Trump gave him the job. Cohn, who once served as red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthys lawyer, was a cutthroat operator, once described by Esquire as the toughest, meanest, loyalest, vilest, and one of the most brilliant lawyers in America.

Trump had finally found a lawyer he liked.

Over the years, attorneys would play a bigger and bigger role in Trumps life, and Cohns never-back-down strategy would become his mantra. There were the divorce negotiations (the first of which Cohn reportedly brokered wearing nothing but a bathrobe), the six bankruptcies of Trump companies, and the many, many lawsuits. (An investigation last year by USA Today found that over the past three decades Trump has been a party to more than 4,000 of them.) Sometimes it could feel as if Trump was as much a litigation maestro as a real estate mogul.

[As president, Trumps legacy of lawsuits and minimal briefings isnt helping]

When we first started doing deals, hed read everything, Jonathan A. Bernstein, a former attorney for one of the Trump Organizations top law firms, Dreyer and Traub, said in an interview with The Washington Post. When he got busy and trusted more, he read less and less and let the lawyers be the lawyers.

Thomas M. Wells, a lawyer brought on to help Trump try to build the largest building in northern New Jersey (the deal collapsed), said that watching the president operate today has given him flashbacks to working with him in the 1980s.

None of this should be surprising, he said. He used lawyers a great deal, but I dont think he had a high regard for them. Hes a man who uses the law to his own ends in any way that makes sense for him.

Like a plot out of the movie Multiplicity, many of Trumps lawyers seem like less effective clones of Cohn.

All in all, a cozy bunch of backstabbing cutthroats, Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive, said about the lawyers that made up the company. Nothing less than you would expect.

In time came Michael Cohen, once known as Trumps pit bull, who worked for the Trump Organization and who once warned a reporter at the Daily Beast to tread very f---ing lightly, because what Im going to do to you is going to be f---ing disgusting. (Cohen recently hired his own lawyer to help him navigate the Russia investigation.) There was Marc Kasowitz, who until recently was heading up the outside legal response to the Russia investigation, and who recently responded via email to a critic by telling him to watch [his] back, bitch.

Don McGahn in New York last year. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Now, Trump has hired a mustachioed prosecutor named Ty Cobb to come to the White House, and while Cobb may lack his namesakes hitting ability, hes equally colorful.

If the president asks you, you dont say no, Cobb told the National Law Journal about his recent decision to come on board. I have rocks in my head and steel balls.

Its hard to keep track of all the lawyers and what they do. Theres Jay Sekulow, the former lead attorney for Jews for Jesus and a radio talk-show personality, who represents Trump personally. Theres Don McGahn, the former Federal Election Commission member and bar band guitarist, who represents the office of the presidency.

[Trump attorney Jay Sekulows family has been paid millions from charities they control]

After it was revealed that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, the presidents son hired two of his own lawyers, Alan Futerfas and Karina Lynch, to help him through the mess.

Normally, a D.C. scandal is a gold mine for white-shoe law firms, for people who dont blush when theyre referred to as the smartest man in Washington. In this case, several top law firms turned down the opportunity to represent Trump as the Russia investigation plays out. One exception: Abbe Lowell, the famed fixer and one of the smartest men in Washington, joined Jared Kushners legal team last month and this week expanded his portfolio to include Kushners wife, Ivanka Trump.



Jared Kushner, center, with his attorney Abbe Lowell, at right, after Kushners closed-door interview with Senate Intelligence Committee investigators on Monday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

I think this is the most lawyered administration, at least within the first few months, Ive ever seen in my lifetime, said David Lat, a lawyer who maintains the Above the Law blog. Its astounding.

That really is saying something, considering Lats lifetime included the era of Kenneth W. Starr, Lanny Davis and William H. Ginsburg. Back when Ginsburg, then Monica Lewinskys attorney, went on all five Sunday news-punditry shows, his feat was of such note that to this day its still called the Full Ginsburg. If it happened today with Sekulow, a near-constant television presence, its possible that no one would notice.

The lawyers are everywhere, but its not entirely clear that Trump or his family are interested at all in taking advice. What lawyer worth his double malt would let the president tweet about why he fired FBI Director James B. Comey, or allow Don Jr. to release his emails regarding his desire to get some Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton?

Its utter chaos, a lawyer who has worked with many of Trumps lawyers said. Sometimes it can be like no one knows who is in charge.

Really, its clear that there is just one person in charge: Donald Trump. And Trump is many things, but hes no lawyer.

Drew Harwell contributed to this report.
Out of the blue, with no new data and the same team of generals, President Trump has decided that he wants to reinstate the ban on transgender people in the military, reversing Obama administration regulations allowing all men and women, regardless of gender identity, to serve their country.

This is the same man who, when running for office, claimed to be a friend of the LGBT community. Perhaps hes forgotten that the T stands for transgender.

Make no mistake, the presidents anti-transgender offensive is an attack on the entire LGBT community and on our core American belief in equality of opportunity.

The commander in chiefs early-morning tweets on Wednesday calling for reinstatement of the ban laid out a bogus argument, leaving out the most important point: This is a political move intended to appease Trumps base and to push Democrats to take complete ownership of this issue, according to an unidentified Trump administration official quoted by Jonathan Swan, a national political reporter for Axios.

Heres what the president had to say:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

Who are these generals and military experts? I posed that question to Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, an organization that represents the LGBT community in the military. Your guess is as good as mine, he said. Thorn pointed out that the current service chiefs signed off on the Obama policy last year and that those individuals havent changed. There have been no replacements.

He also reminded me that it was a 2016 study by the Rand Corporation (commissioned by the Pentagon) that led Obama defense secretary Ashton B. Carter to lift the ban. No new study has been conducted or published since then, meaning that theres no new data.

Whats also deeply unsettling, to say the least, is that Trump tweeted this intended policy change only a few weeks after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gave military chiefs a six-month extension, until Dec. 1, to determine whether transgender service members would affect the militarys readiness and lethality. Is Trump undermining yet another of his Cabinet members? Curiously, Mattis is apparently on vacation, according to numerous news reports. If youre going to consult your experts, shouldnt the defense secretary be one of the top voices in such an important and far-reaching decision?

As for the tremendous medical costs that would result if transgender people were allowed to continue serving, the Rand study is the gold standard on that question as well. The think tank estimated that between 30 and 140 new hormone treatments a year could result, as well as 25 to 130 gender-transition-related surgeries. The estimated impact on the militarys health-care costs would fall between $2.4 million and $8.4 million, or a tiny bump of 0.13 percent, which is hardly tremendous. (And thats for all medical costs, not just transition-related ones.)

What about the disruption supposedly caused by allowing openly transgender men and women to serve? Theres no there there. Service members have been serving openly with no issues to readiness, Thorn said. Theyre serving in elite units, like SEAL Team 6 [and] in the Joint Chiefs of Staff office. Theyre leading commands and leading battalions. Its not true.

The same claims were made of gay and lesbian service members during the dont ask, dont tell era; its fearmongering, plain and simple.

With no rationale, and no new data or studies, the president has thrown the LGBT community  and notably transgender people  under the bus. Conservative groups such as the Family Research Council, long apposed to LGBT equality, applauded the presidents move, especially his termination of what they called a social experiment. Its an interesting footnote that on the same date in 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which abolished racial discrimination in the military. He called for equality of treatment and opportunity in the military.

My question for President Trump: Why does that same principle not apply to transgender Americans who want to serve their country?
The sign for J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Va., is seen on July 20. (Matt Barakat/AP)

A year-long debate over changing the name of a high school in Northern Virginia that is named after a Confederate general may come down to simply removing three initials.

The Fairfax County School Board is poised to vote on a measure Thursday night that would rebrand J.E.B. Stuart High after a divisive inquiry into the history of the school and the legacy of its namesake. One option under consideration is to remove the initials J.E.B. and call the school Stuart High.

J.E.B. Stuart High appears to be one of at least three public schools in Virginia named after the Rebel officer, according to state records. Two others are in Petersburg and Richmond.

The name-change discussions in Fairfax come amid a polarizing debate about the way the Confederacy is commemorated in public spaces across the South. In South Carolina, lawmakers voted in 2015 for the Confederate flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds. In Louisiana, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu led a movement this year to take down statues honoring Confederate leaders.

In Fairfax, the campaign to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High began in 2015 when students approached board member Sandy Evans (Mason), whose district includes the school.

J.E.B. Stuart was a Confederate general during the Civil War. (Library of Congress)

[Fairfax County schools list of woes includes its Confederate Rebel name]

The high school is among the most diverse in the county. More than three-quarters of the schools 2,130 students are either Hispanic, black, Asian or multiracial. Whites comprise 22 percent of enrollment.

The board first proposed examining the legacy of J.E.B. Stuart High after determining that the school was originally named in 1958 as part of the countys massive resistance against the U.S. Supreme Courts order to end racial segregation of public schools.

The School Board finds there is a compelling need to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School to one that better reflects Fairfax County values and diversity, Evans wrote in a proposal this week to change the name, including the fact that some of the Confederacys foundational principles run counter to the values of diversity, inclusion and equity that are fundamental to the mission of Fairfax County Public Schools.

[Oscar winners work to strip schools Confederate name]

The effort gained momentum after prominent Hollywood producer Bruce Cohen and actress Julianne Moore  Oscar winners who met at J.E.B. Stuart in the 1970s  started a change.org petition that garnered 35,000 signatures.

The board voted last summer to formulate a commission to examine the issue, seeking to build community consensus. But, like the nation during the Civil War, the committee ended up splitting into two sides: the keepers, who sought for the name to remain the same, and the name changers. What followed was a months-long slog as the two sides, pitted against one another, failed to agree on a way forward. Members of the committee submitted competing reports outlining reasons for and against changing the name.

J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Va., is shown in 2014. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Were all struggling with this one, Evans said. Theres strong, heartfelt feelings on both sides.

The end result is what Evans, who chaired the board from July 2016 until earlier this month, calls a compromise. Evans proposes to rename the school simply Stuart High. Evans told The Washington Post that the name Stuart would not in particular reference any individual.

[A debate over a school named for a Confederate general divides a community]

Evans said her proposal is not a recommendation. She said it is one thing were asking the community to consider. How the majority on the 11-member board will vote is unclear.

The Evans proposal could save money. An assessment from the administration estimated that a complete name change would cost more than $675,000. Evanss proposal calls for the board to finance the name change using private money, including possible corporate partnerships with the county.

If the board votes to approve changing the name, other hurdles remain. The change would not go into effect until 2019 to account for a lengthy process the district must undergo to consult with the community about possibilities for the new name.

Board member Elizabeth Schultz (Springfield) said that she opposes changing the name and does not believe that the board has the authority to even consider renaming the school.

Are we governing to impose what we believe is morally right onto the people who elected us? Schultz asked. She said the lengthy discussion about the issue had been unfair to those who oppose the name change. The scales have been weighted against them from the outset.

Schultz noted that several schools in the county besides J.E.B. Stuart have names with Confederate ties. They include Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, named for the Confederate general; Lanier Middle School in Fairfax City, named for a Confederate soldier and poet; and Sangster Elementary in Springfield, named for a prominent slaveholding family loyal to the Confederacy. Dozens of other schools, including the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Schultz said, are named after slave owners and their families or estates.

But Evans said that there is no current movement to change the names of those schools.

I dont see that happening anytime soon, Evans said, noting that the decision must arise organically. That would be up for that community to initiate it.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to the tenure of Fairfax County School Board member Sandy Evans as chair of the board. Her one-year term as chair ended on July 13. This version has been updated.

Get updates on your area delivered via email
Thurgood Marshall, center, chief legal counsel of the NAACP, sits on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 22, 1958, after he filed an appeal in the integration case of Little Rock's Central High School. (AP)

Education for black students in the United States has long been unequal and inadequate, but the solution to that problem does not lie in the school choice movement, NAACP leaders said at the organizations national conference Wednesday.

The nations oldest civil rights group called for tighter regulation of existing charters and an outright ban on those operated for profit, as well as greater investment in traditional public schools, particularly those where students struggle most.

While high-quality, accountable, and accessible charters can contribute to educational opportunity, by themselves, even the best charters are not a substitute for more stable, adequate and equitable investments in public education, wrote members of the NAACPs task force on quality education in a report released Wednesday.

The report comes as the Trump administration has put expanding school choice at the center of its education agenda, and a year after the NAACP  long skeptical of charter schools  dove headlong into the education policy fight with a resolution supporting a moratorium on new charter schools.

That stance underlined a deep rift in the black community over how to improve education, particularly in urban centers where many children are faced with bleak opportunities.

While the NAACP has emphasized strengthening public school systems, other black leaders have pushed for giving families more tools  including charter schools and private-school vouchers  to leave public schools that are failing to serve them well.

What we are attempting to do is to give more power to low-income and working-class parents, said Howard Fuller, a former superintendent of schools in Milwaukee and one of the nations foremost advocates for school choice. The reality is the NAACP does not represent all black people in this country.

[School-choice advocates divided over Trump and DeVos]

Last year, after calling for the moratorium on new charter schools, the NAACP formed an education task force that traveled the country, holding hearings in seven cities to solicit input on charter schools promise and problems.

The report released Wednesday was the culmination of those hearings, which at the time were contentious but which featured unanimity on one issue, according to the task force: Too many students of color living in central cities are being deprived of the educational opportunities they deserve and need.

It acknowledges that some charter schools are clearly offering students more opportunities than neighborhood public schools. But it argues that loose regulations in many states have allowed charter schools to exclude the neediest students and to continue operating despite consistently poor performance.

The task force also argues that the push to expand charter schools, coupled with a lack of coordination and planning about where those schools are located and whom they serve, has in some cities resulted in a disjointed education landscape that leaves students with no guarantee they can attend a school close to home.

To address those issues, the NAACP wants school districts to be the only entities allowed to approve new charter schools, a position anathema to many school-choice advocates who argue that district leaders  unlike universities and independent nonprofits  are hostile to competition and unlikely to embrace charter schools.

[Five myths about charter schools]

The civil rights organization also wants a crackdown on enrollment and retention policies to prevent charter schools from informally screening families during admissions and from kicking out students who struggle. And it wants charter schools to be required to hire certified teachers.

Finally, the NAACP is seeking a ban on all for-profit charter schools, saying that there is a conflict of interest between making a profit and best serving children.

If charters care about our children, they wont mind being regulated, transparent and accountable, said Alice Huffman, chair of the task force.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools responded in a statement that did not address the NAACPs specific recommendations but pushed back against the notion that the charter school model is in need of more regulation. It also highlighted a 2015 study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes showing that in urban areas, black students in charter schools showed larger learning gains than black students in traditional public schools.

Too many school boards have looked the other way while generations of students have been failed by low-performing public schools, the alliance said, while charter schools are already held fully accountable by their authorizers and the families they serve.
MARYLAND

Former Hogan aide

named chief of staff

Matthew Clark, Republican Gov. Larry Hogans former communications director, is returning to Annapolis as Hogans chief of staff.

Clark replaces Sam Malhotra, who worked for Hogan for more than two years, initially as secretary for the Department of Human Resources. Malhotra will return to the private sector and serve as a senior adviser to the governor on technology and innovation issues.

Clark has spent the past year as a managing director with D.C.-based FTI Consulting, a business advisory and strategy consulting firm.

 Ovetta Wiggins

Man is charged with murder in May crash

A Temple Hills man has been charged with murder in the death of a man who crashed his car into a school bus in May while being pursued by a gunman, police said.

A Prince Georges County grand jury on Tuesday indicted Bernard Gibson III, 24, in the slaying of Tavon Todd, 24, of Southwest Washington, police said.

Surveillance video captured Gibson shooting at Todds car in a parking lot in the 6300 block of Allentown Road on May 18, according to police.

Todd fled and was pursued by Gibson, police said. Todd crashed into a county school bus in the 5400 block of Temple Hills Road about 5 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A medical examiner ruled Todds death a homicide, citing the injuries he suffered in the crash while fleeing the gunman, police said.

Gibson is in jail on a no-bond status.

 Lynh Bui

VIRGINIA

Two men found dead

in car idling in Lorton

Two Dumfries men were found dead in a car idling on a residential street in Lorton on Wednesday in a double homicide that may be drug-related, Fairfax County police said.

Gregory Dennis, 19, and Ryan Cross, 20, were discovered suffering from upper-body trauma in a four-door Acura, which was stopped in the middle of Dolsie Grove Drive near Pohick Road, police said. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers were called to investigate shortly after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday by a resident, who drove by the car on the way to work and reported it as suspicious.

Detectives are exploring any potential connection to drugs, said Officer Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax County police spokesman.

 Justin Jouvenal
Truck Driver James Matthew Bradley Jr., who is charged with smuggling immigrants for financial gain resulting in death. (Eric Gay/Associated Press)

Thirteen undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Honduras are being held as material witnesses in the federal death penalty case against a truck driver who allegedly smuggled dozens of people in an overheated tractor-trailer, leading to 10 deaths, according to federal court records.

Nine of the potential witnesses, including one woman, their faces drawn and arms cuffed, appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday in San Antonio. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney told them that they were not facing criminal charges but would remain in federal custody, be assigned a lawyer, and be asked to give a video deposition in the case in late August.

Four other immigrants appeared in court as possible witnesses earlier in the week.

The court appointed Michael McCrum, a former federal prosecutor, to represent the immigrants. In a telephone interview, McCrum said he planned to meet with the immigrants soon to determine if they would serve as witnesses in the federal case. He said he thought federal officials should provide them visas, instead of taking their testimony and deporting them.

They should be treated as people, McCrum said. So often we think of their situation as just chips in a monopoly game  These are people with real problems, with real needs who have been victimized.

Young girls take part in a vigil at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio for victims who died while being transported in an overheated tractor-trailer. (Eric Gay/Associated Press)

[Truck victim grew up in U.S., was deported and was trying to get back]

The immigrants, wearing matching blue prison scrubs, listened to a simultaneous translation of the court hearing and nodded somberly as they answered the judges questions.

James Matthew Bradley, Jr., the truck driver charged in the case, has waived his right to a bond hearing and will not appear in court on Thursday as previously scheduled, according to the court clerks office. Bradley is charged with smuggling immigrants for financial gain resulting in death, and is being held without bail.

His defense lawyer, Alfredo Villarreal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a separate news conference Wednesday, Reyna Torres, the consul general of Mexico in San Antonio, said 13 Mexican citizens who were on board the truck remain in area hospitals, some are in serious condition.

Of the 39 victims who remained on the scene when authorities arrived, 34 are Mexican citizens, she said. Those who are not hospitalized have been transferred into federal custody. Two immigrants remain unidentified, she said.

Two are minors, she said. One is hospitalized, another is in federal custody.

The immigrants hailed from a dozen states in Mexico, including 10 from the state of Aguascalientes. Seven of the 10 people who died were of Mexican descent.

Witnesses have told authorities that more than 100 passengers were crammed into the stifling hot cargo bay before the truck stopped in a Walmart parking lot late Saturday night. When the doors were opened, many passengers reportedly fled in SUVs and on foot.

Torres said U.S. officials are working with the consulate to allow relatives in the United States and from Mexico to visit immigrants in the hospital.

Torres said they have been able to identify migrants using fingerprints in Mexican government databases, taken when their citizens seek a passport or other forms of government identification. She urged immigrants who may have fled the truck to get in touch with the consulate if they need assistance.

This is a very sad moment, she said. I am very grateful for the support that I have received.
The Vernon County Fair has banned the sale of confederate battle flags.

John McClelland Jr., is the vice president of the Vernon County Fair, a nonprofit organization. He said the 11-member board voted to bar the vending of confederate battle flags in June, but declined to clarify the margin by which the vote was passed.

As a board, we decided it wasnt a necessary item, McClelland said in reference to the flag. Its a piece of our history, but someone got their feelings hurt. So we decided not to sell it.

McClelland said people have contacted him upset over the boards decision, and that when he thinks of the confederate battle flag, he thinks of the television show The Dukes of Hazzard, which first aired during the late 1970s, and not of racism or hate.

It goes both ways, McClelland said. You make two people happy and 50 people get angry.

While many people view the flag as a part of history, others view it as a symbol of bigotry and slavery, and banning the confederate insignia fits in with a national trend. Across the country, especially in southern states, memorials and statues honoring confederate soldiers and leaders have been removed from public spaces.

In 2015, South Carolina legislators voted to remove the confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds. More recently, the New Orleans City Council removed a 16-foot bronze figure of Gen. Robert E. Lee  arguably the Confederacys best-known hero  who helped lead the confederate forces into battle, including at Gettysburg.

Last year, local resident Mark Kastel approached a vendor at the fair whose goods included the confederate flag, Kastel said. When he confronted the vendor for selling the flag, Kastel said the vendor became intimidating and began cussing.

It angers me personally because I consider (the confederate battle flag) a symbol of hate, Kastel said. Family members of mine who were active in the Civil Rights Movement were beaten up in the past.

Kastel said he filed a police report against the vendor, and petitioned the Fair Board to ban the flags sale at a meeting last winter.

Kastel said the Vernon County Fair, although it is run by a nonprofit organization, receives county assistance and should be treated as a public  not private  event, and therefore should keep everyone feeling safe and secure.

Despite the board approving the ban, Kastel said many members were less than enthusiastic when hearing his argument.

I just dont have a lot of sympathy for people who claim that (the confederate battle flag) is some important part of their heritage, he told the Broadcaster. Im asking the board to be conciliatory to everybody in the community. Even if there is one person negatively affected by this, thats too many.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is making key changes to his executive staff, announcing Wednesday that Matthew Clark, his former communications director, will return to Annapolis as his new chief of staff.

Clark, who served as communications director for the first 18 months of Hogans term, rejoins the governors executive team after working for the past year as managing director with D.C.-based FTI Consulting, a business advisory and strategy consulting firm.

We are thrilled to welcome Matt Clark back to our team in this leadership role, Hogan said in a statement. His experience in both the private and public sectors working on numerous challenging issues will be a great asset to the administration.

The changes come as Hogan gears up for a reelection campaign. A number of Democrats have already entered the race to try to oust him.

Clark replaces Sam Malhotra, who served in the Hogan administration for more than two years. He was the secretary for the Department of Human Resources before he was tapped in October to serve as chief of staff. Malhotra will return to the private sector and serve as a senior adviser to the governor on technology and innovation issues.
A statue of Lonnie Bo Pilgrim, the longtime chief executive and chairman of Pilgrims Pride, outside the companys distribution center near Pittsburg, Tex. (LM Otero/AP)

Lonnie Bo Pilgrim, a Texas farmhand who built a feed-and-seed store into one of the worlds largest poultry producers while also becoming one of his states most colorful political donors  at one point handing $10,000 checks to legislators on the floor of the state Senate  died July 21 at his home in the east Texas town of Pittsburg. He was 89.

The Erman Smith Funeral Home in Pittsburg, Tex., announced his death but did not disclose the cause.

Mr. Pilgrim led Pilgrims Pride for four decades, using quirky marketing and taking on significant debt to grow the business from a small-town outfit to an international powerhouse that supplied fast-food chains such as KFC and Wendys. Under his leadership as chief executive and chairman, the company went head-to-head with Conagra Brands, Perdue and Tyson before surpassing them all in late 2006.

It was an unlikely ascent for a man who was born on the cusp of the Great Depression and came of age without electricity or running water. But for Mr. Pilgrim, a Baptist who stocked his private planes with Bibles and built a 75-foot structure called the Prayer Tower in central Pittsburg, it was a holy mission that traced its roots to the book of Genesis.

Chickens, he said, were part of the biblical fowl of the air, created by God to sustain man. To that end, he spent most of his life ensuring that man was fed.

In 2005, Mr. Pilgrim and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is now U.S. energy secretary, at the dedication of Pilgrim Prides new headquarters in Pittsburg. (Herb Nygren/Tyler Morning Telegraph via Associated Press)

His company received national recognition in 1984, when  inspired by a food trend in Japan  he marketed Americas first whole boneless chicken. By some accounts, it was Mr. Pilgrim who perfected the knifework that enabled the bones to be cleanly removed from the carcass. His public-relations chief described the result as flat and ugly  it looked like a truck had run over it, but the item became a hit after Mr. Pilgrim started hawking it on television.

Its a mind-boggling thing, he said in one commercial, holding a beloved stuffed chicken named Henrietta and wearing a pilgrims hat. Presenting his boneless creation, he said, Id put it right up there with marriage and my first bicycle.

Mr. Pilgrim went on to become the rare celebrity in the world of chickens, eggs and industrial slaughterhouses. His silhouette was featured in Pilgrims logo for many years, and both the hat and the man became regular fixtures in Pittsburg, a town that Mr. Pilgrim and his company helped transform from a small cotton community into a kind of chicken mecca  or poultry hell, depending on ones species.

Bos town, as it is sometimes known, was once home to a coffee shop that sold its wares from inside a building shaped like Mr. Pilgrims hat. A towering 40-foot bust of Mr. Pilgrim stands near a company distribution center, and on a hill south of a town is a 20,000-square-foot mansion that Mr. Pilgrim called Chateau de Pilgrim, or my wifes house. Some residents preferred the name Cluckingham Palace.

In Pittsburg and Mount Pleasant, a larger community to the north, some residents also filed environmental complaints against Pilgrims Pride. In a predominantly African American neighborhood near the companys mill in Mount Pleasant, chicken fat was said to flow like thick, foul-smelling soup down the gutters, the magazine Texas Monthly reported in 1994.

Mr. Pilgrim dismissed the dozens of complaints that were filed with the state environmental agency, saying that all large food companies from time to time have fines.

He maintained generally cordial relations with Texas politicians. In part, it was the result of generous donations to Republican causes and candidates, including governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry.

Mr. Pilgrim was an outsized voice for the business community in Texas, said Ross Ramsey, executive editor of the Texas Tribune. Legislators wanted him at their hearings, on their side, because he was the kind of person who would bring attention to their cause.

He brought unwanted attention in July 1989, strolling onto the Senate floor to hand personal checks to nine of the chambers 31 members while the body was debating a workers compensation bill that interested him. Most of the lawmakers returned the checks after Mr. Pilgrims actions  what he described as contributions, not bribes  were reported by the news media, and the incident led to a tightening of the states campaign finance rules.

Mr. Pilgrim was born May 8, 1928, in the 55-person town of Pine, six miles south of Pittsburg. His father ran a general store and died when Mr. Pilgrim was about 10. When his mother remarried, Mr. Pilgrim  one of nine children  moved in with his grandmother. With nine pigs and a few hundred pounds of grain to his name, he supported himself by finding work as a farmhand, gravel-hauler, cotton-picker and grocery sacker.

His brother Aubrey Pilgrim bought a feed store in 1946, and Mr. Pilgrim joined him after graduating from high school. He took over in 1966, after Aubrey died of a heart attack.

The company embarked on major acquisitions, culminating in the 2006 purchase of Gold Kist for $1.1 billion, but was eventually crippled by debt and high corn prices. It filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and Mr. Pilgrim  by then a board member  remained to help reorganize the company. He retired two years later.

The business is now controlled by JBS USA, and claims to be the worlds second-largest poultry producer, processing 10 billion pounds of live chickens each year.

Survivors include Mr. Pilgrims wife of 61 years, Patty Pilgrim of Pittsburg; two sons, Ken Pilgrim of Pittsburg and Pat Pilgrim of Lake Creek, Tex.; a daughter, Greta Henson of Dallas; a sister; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

In speeches, Mr. Pilgrim often said that although God had blessed him with a successful business, money alone was not enough. What is the profit if a man gains the whole world and loses his soul? he asked at a 1994 gathering in Pittsburg. My focus is not on selling more chickens, because when I face Jesus Christ on Judgment Day, he wont ask how many chickens I sold.
Thursday, JULY 27

Manassas farmers market Thursday 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and Tuesday 5-8 p.m., Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St. Also Saturday 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Prince William Lot, Prince William Street, Manassas. 703-361-6599. visitmanassas.org.

Bingo Proceeds support Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary programs and community activities. Thursday and Tuesday. Doors open 5:30 p.m. Games begin 7:30 p.m. VFW Post 1503, 14631 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. 703-670-4124. $10 minimum.

U.S. Navy Sea Chanters Bring a lawn chair or blanket for the outdoor concert. 7 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. Free.

Photography exhibit Christine Grubbs displays photographs inspired by history. Through Aug. 31. The Hall at City Hall, 9027 Center St., Manassas. 703-257-8456. Free.

Honor, Courage and Commitment: Marine Corps Art, 1975-2015 The first exhibit in the Combat Art Gallery features 100 works by 22 artists. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 703-784-6107. Free.

Tailor-Made: Vintage Fashions from the Museums Collection Unveiled Curated by Meaghan Reddick, the exhibit looks at the fashion of the first quarter of the 20th century. Through Sept. 24. Manassas Museum, 9101 Prince William St., Manassas. 703-257-8453. Free.

Still Life and From Life Paintings by Deena Hunkler-Sanks and sculpture by Francesca Di Lorenzo. Through Aug. 6. Loft Gallery, 313 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-490-1117. Free.

Down the Shore An exhibit of fused glass by David and Dale Barnes, pencil paintings by Tina Kannapel and oil paintings by Steve Myles. Through Aug. 7. Artists Undertaking Gallery, 309 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-494-0584. Free.

Friday, JULY 28

Floatable monitoring and water-quality monitoring Volunteers needed at Dawkins Branch. Sponsored by the Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District. 9:30 a.m.-noon. Victory Elementary School, 12001 Tygart Lake Dr., Bristow. 571-379-7514. waterquality@pwswcd.org.

Tequila and Taco Festival Mariachis hosts a block party featuring live music, tequila tastings and taco vendors. 3 p.m.-midnight. Mariachis Tequileria and Restaurant, 9428 Battle St., Manassas. 703-369-6022. $5-$32.

American Legion dinner The public is invited to dinner with a different special every week. Proceeds support local veterans and the community. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Woodbridge American Legion, 3640 Friendly Post Lane, Woodbridge. 703-494-4304. vapost364.org. $5-$15.

Summer concert series Fairfax cover band the Excellent Drivers performs. 8 p.m. Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, 15201 Potomac Town Pl., Woodbridge. 703-583-1202. stonebridgeptc.com. Free.

Oklahoma! Prince William Little Theatre stages the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. 8 p.m. Through Sunday. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. 703-993-7759.

$15-$25.

Saturday, JULY 29

Yoga on the Lawn Vinyasa yoga taught by certified yoga instructor Christopher Glowacki. 9 a.m. Rippon Lodge Historic Site, 15520 Blackburn Rd., Woodbridge. 703-499-9812. pwcgov.org/ripponlodge. $5.

Yoga for flexibility Ebony Lambert leads a beginner class through 10 yoga poses. 9-10:30 a.m. Prince William Ice Center, 5180 Dale Blvd., Woodbridge. 703-730-8423. $20

Canoe tour A ranger leads a guided tour on Powells Creek. 1 p.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. $9, registration required.

Wood crafting and painting exhibit A reception for artist Lila Sanchez de Polo. 2-5 p.m. Art a La Carte, 310 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-496-9540. Free.

Music at the Marina The U.S. Army Band Downrange plays the latest rock, pop, country and R&B hits, as well as patriotic arrangements. 7 p.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-730-8205. dcr.virginia.gov. Free, parking $7.

Movie Under the Stars Bring a blanket or lawn chair for Sing. 7 p.m. Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, 15201 Potomac Town Pl., Woodbridge. 703-583-1202. stonebridgeptc.com. Free.

Saturday Night Adult Dance Special Occassions performs. 8-11 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. Free.

Sunday, JULY 30

Dale City farmers market 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Dale City Commuter Lot (behind Center Plaza Shopping Center), Dale Boulevard, Dale City. 703-670-7112 ext. 227. pwcparks.org.

Bird walk at Merrimac Farm Bring binoculars and cameras. 8 a.m. Merrimac Farm, Stone House, 15014 Deepwood Lane, Nokesville. 703-499-4954. alliance@pwconserve.org. Free, registration required.

Ice cream social Sol Roots Band performs. 3 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-7230. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Monday, JULY 31

Bingo Proceeds support local veterans. Doors open 7:30 a.m. Games 9:15 a.m.-noon. American Legion Post 10, 9950 Cockrell Rd., Manassas. 703-369-4900. $16.

Volunteer Monday Wear work clothes and boots and bring water to help clean up the park. 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free.

Park West Lions Club bingo Proceeds support local sight, hearing and youth projects. Doors open weekly at 4 p.m. Games begin at 7 p.m. Park West Lions Club, 8620 Sunnygate Dr., Manassas. 703-392-0077. pwlions@aol.com. $10.

Bingo Proceeds support Dale City Knights of Columbus activities and charities. Doors open 6 p.m. Games begin 7:30 p.m. VFW Post 1503, 14631 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. 703-491-2378. $9 minimum.

Tuesday, AUG. 1

Take Out Tuesday Concert Local rock, funk and blues band Harlen Simple performs. 6 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Wednesday, AUG. 2

Colonial childrens games Learn about games played during the Revolutionary and Civil wars. For children 4 and older. 11 a.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free.

Cello Fury A trio of cellists and a drummer bring movie themes to life in Melodies, Moods and Movies. 11 a.m. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. 703-993-7759. $5-$15.

U.S. Navy Band concert The Sea Chanters perform sea chanteys and patriotic, contemporary and Broadway tunes. 7-8:30 p.m. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 877-635-1775. Free.

Lake Ridge Toastmasters Club Members 18 and older develop their public speaking and leadership skills. 7:30-9:15 p.m. Tall Oaks Community Center, 12298 Cotton Mill Dr., Lake Ridge. 703-491-3020. contact-8913@toastmastersclubs.org. lakeridge.toastmastersclubs.org. $34-$64 membership fee.

 Compiled by Sarah Lane

TO SUBMIT AN EVENT

Email: pwliving@washpost.com

Details: Announcements are accepted on a space-available basis from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be received at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include event name, dates, times, exact address, prices and a publishable contact phone number.
A woman who heard a late-night noise in her Arlington home last week found a 60-year-old man hiding in her attic.

She heard the footsteps a little before 1:30 a.m. on June 21, coming from above in the house she rents on 22nd Street South near South Hayes Street. The woman called her landlord, who called police, spokeswoman Ashley Savage said.

Officers approached the attic of the home from the back staircase, calling out as they did so that anyone upstairs would come down, Savage said. Anthony Jones, 60, revealed himself, the spokeswoman said, and was arrested without incident.

Police found a backpack, bedding and some clothing in the attic. They do not know how long Jones had been staying there, Savage said, because he would not speak to police. He has been charged with unlawful entry.

Its not the first time an apparently homeless person has been found trying to sleep in an Arlington attic. In 2015, employees of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church discovered that a man had been living in the churchs attic for three years.

The podcast Criminal recently profiled a woman who, when she was 20, moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Washington state and for months wondered about strange noises and missing items. She finally realized that someone was living in her attic when she came out of the bathtub to find the door to the crawl space open. She moved out of the apartment, without ever seeing the trespasser.
Photos of Zella Ziona. On the far left is her mother, Tyshika Smith. (Family photos)

Nearly two years ago, Tyshika Smith went looking for her second-oldest child, a 21-year-old transgender woman whose life was in danger. Smith rounded a corner in Gaithersburg, Md., looked down the alley and saw a masked man open fire  to her childs head first, then the body.

They just shot my son! she said in a 911 call.

On Tuesday, shortly before 3 p.m., Smith sat in the front row of a Montgomery County courtroom, clutching the hands of her fiance and one of her sons.

Praise God, she said softly, her eyes filling with tears as the jury announced its guilty verdict of first-degree murder in the killing of Zella Ziona, also known as DeAndre Smith.

The gunman, Rico LeBlond, 22, showed no reaction at the verdict. He looked down at his clasped hands on a table in front of him.He is set to be sentenced in October.

(Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office)

We are disappointed with the jurys verdict, said LeBlonds lawyer, David Felsen. We certainly thought there was reasonable doubt.

An earlier trial of LeBlond, in January, ended in a hung jury.

[Arrest made in slaying of transgender woman in Montgomery County]

In arrest documents in October 2015, police indicated that Zionas transgender status may have played a role in her death. They said she had earlier approached LeBlond in a shopping mall in front of LeBlonds friends, embarrassing him by acting in a manner that suggested the two knew each other.

Detectives also learned of a fight among a group of men about an hour before the murder and in the same area.

They came to believe that Ziona was being beaten by someone with a stick and that the incident may have been an effort to draw her into a fight in an alley.

The case attracted broader attention, and there were questions of whether prosecutors would bring hate crime charges.

They did not, and the trial that ended Tuesday did not dwell on Zionas gender identity.

Rather, the proceeding centered on witness accounts and crime scene evidence.

One of those witnesses was Tyshika Smith, who walked jurors through an account of how she had spoken to her child moments before the shooting, sensed trouble, gone looking for Ziona and then saw a short man in a black mask shooting.

Extremely compelling, one of the jurors said after the verdict, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. The details that she supplied allowed us to reach a consensus when compared to the physical evidence and other testimony.

Before testifying about the crime, Smith spoke about Ziona.

About a year before she died, Smith said, Ziona began dressing as female in front of family.

Prosecutor Patrick Mays asked her whether Ziona had troubles because of her gender identity. Smith said yes and spoke about receiving a call at work from Ziona on the morning of Oct. 15.

Ziona had been having trouble with a group of people, she told the jurors.

Felsen limited the details Smith could offer, owing to rules covering hearsay. But she was able to describe events from later on Oct. 15.After Smith got off work, she went to a hardware store and took a seat outside on a bench, awaiting a ride.

Ziona walked up.

He gave me a hug, Smith testified. I begged him to stay with me . . . I thought something was going on, about to happen.

Ziona said she was going home, and she left.

My motherly instincts just kicked in and said something wasnt right, she testified. So I took off, running around the corner.

She got her phone out, ready to call 911, and looked down the alley.

A group of guys came out, it looked like they huddled up and turned around and started moving forward towards my son, Smith told the jurors. For whatever reason, I zoomed in on the short one that was in the middle. I saw him pull the gun out.

Smith paused several times to collect herself.

Im yelling, No!  she testified.

I saw the short one go up to my son and shoot my son. I saw my son drop to the ground, she said.

And then he walked up over the top of my son and shot him again.

After the verdict, Smith hugged her family members. She said they were planning to go to a lake and go swimming. She spoke of the therapy she had gone through to stop her mind from replaying the images of the murder.

I dont see him falling anymore in my sleep, she said after the verdict. Its more of a peace in my mind.
A man was killed early Wednesday in Bladensburg, Md., officials said.

His name was not immediately released, pending notification of his family.

The Bladensburg Police Department said the incident happened just after midnight when officers responded to the 4300 block of 57th Avenue for a report of the sound of gunfire. When they arrived, they found a man with trauma to the upper body.

He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said they are trying to figure out a motive and find a suspect or suspects in this case. The Prince Georges County Police Department will lead the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call 301-772-4925.

The D.C. region has seen more than 150 homicides so far this year, according to tracking by The Washington Post. Of those deaths, 63 have been in Maryland, including 55 in Prince Georges County.
The plan, as revealed in court Wednesday, was to get into the drug dealers house in Silver Spring and rob two pounds of pot.

Moments after arriving, a gunshot sounded in an upstairs bedroom, according to police, even as the victim kept clutching the marijuana. One man punched him until he released his hold on the drugs. The attackers fled, followed by a woman who rapped on the window of the getaway car and screamed murder!

Another suspect ran off, getting away in an Uber.

The chaos, described Wednesday by polices newly filed arrest affidavits and by prosecutors in court, unfolded about 9:50 p.m. July 19 along Belvedere Boulevard in Montgomery County. The victim  Jon-Christian Kemachet-Webster, 20  was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where he died.

On Wednesday, police said they have charged three suspects with first-degree murder.

The case represents the fourth time in the countys 10 homicides this year that there has been a nexus to marijuana distribution, said Capt. Darren Francke, commander of the county police departments major crimes unit.

A significant number of people in society are glamorizing marijuana use while failing to discuss or think through the extreme risk of buying and selling it, Francke said.

One suspect, Oliver Waltz Farley, 19, of Arlington, Va., appeared in Montgomery County District Court on Wednesday to have terms of his bond reviewed by a judge.

This was a drug deal that went bad, Montgomery Assistant States Attorney Mark Anderson said in court. These guys came armed to this.

An attorney representing Farley, John Lavigne, noted Farley actually has a lot of positive things that have been going for him. Among them, Lavigne said, were very concerned and very supportive parents, who sat in the front row of the courtroom. Farley also is a trained audio-video technician, having held internships or worked at a local university, a Washington think tank and at a law firm, according to Lavigne and court records. Lavigne indicated Farley had been arrested last week at the firm where he worked for a contractor.

He is not alleged to have been the shooter, Lavigne said.

District Judge Eric Nee ordered Farley held without bond, pending further court actions. Farleys parents declined to comment after the hearing.

Police identified the other suspects as ReQuan Kasim Hopson, 21, of Arlington, who on Wednesday was being held in jail in Virginia; and Brian Anthony Mackall, 20, of Suitland, Md., who on Wednesday was being held in jail in the District. Both are expected to be brought to Montgomery County. Mackall was the alleged shooter, according to the prosecutor.

It is unclear from court records if Mackall or Hopson have attorneys yet in the case.

According to charging documents, detectives believe the day before the murder, Farley called an acquaintance about buying two pounds of marijuana. The next night, Farley met the acquaintance, whose identity detectives kept confidential in records because the person fears reprisal.

That meeting led to the three suspects arriving at the home on Belvedere Boulevard: Hopson, who was driving, stayed in the car, while Farley and Mackall went inside, according to police.

The victim, Kemachet-Webster, took out two large packages of marijuana, Detective Frank Springer wrote in a court affidavit. A shot was fired, striking Kemachet-Webster in the chest.

Oliver [Farley] then began punching Kemachet-Webster in an attempt to pull the large marijuana packages from the victims grasp, Springer wrote, adding Farley grabbed the two large packages and handed one to the shooter as he exited the room.

Detectives used witness accounts and cellphone records to identify suspects.

On July 20, Hopson was arrested in Arlington County for alleged offenses unrelated to the alleged homicide. Montgomery detectives interviewed him, and Hopson said he drove Farley and Mackall to the home, police said.

Police then picked up Farley and Mackall.

In court Wednesday, the prosecutor, Anderson, said detectives have established Farleys presence in the home based on his statements to detectives, cellphone records, and his Uber ride out of the area.

Detectives also recovered a substantial amount of narcotics in Arlington, with packaging that matches what detectives say was used for the pot in the home.
A fire broke out at a U.S. government facility in Southwest Washington that provides heat to other buildings. One worker was exposed to diesel fuel and taken to a hospital. (Courtesy of D.C. Fire)

A worker at a U.S. government facility that heats federal buildings in Southwest Washington was hurt Wednesday after a generator broke, diesel fuel spilled and a small fire was ignited.

The workers injuries were not considered serious. He was taken for observation to a hospital, according to D.C. Fire officials.

The fire was quickly put out when the buildings sprinkler system was activated.

The incident happened around midday in the 300 block of 13th Street SW. The generator malfunctioned, although what caused it to break is still under investigation.

When it broke, some diesel fuel spilled and a fire started, according to Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman for D.C. Fire.

Fire crews stayed on the scene to be sure there was no further damage to the building. A hazmat crew was also brought in to deal with spilled diesel fuel in the basement, according to Maggiolo. Some fuel fell on the worker, Maggiolo said.
Calvert County

These were among reports received by the Calvert County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to call the Criminal Investigation Division at 410-535-2800 or 301-855-1194, the Crime Solvers line at 410-535-2880 or the state police Prince Frederick Barrack at 410-535-1400.

CHESAPEAKE BEACH AREA

DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY

15th St., July 2. The finish on five vehicles was damaged.

LUSBY AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

San Gabriel Ct., July 13. A bicycle was stolen.

NORTH BEACH AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Chesapeake Lighthouse Dr., July 15. A home was forcibly entered.

PRINCE FREDERICK AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Helena Dr., July 2-July 9. A storage trailer lock was cut; nothing was reported stolen.

Helena Dr., 4:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 10. A go-cart was stolen from a yard.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Augustus Dr., July 14. A vehicle was stolen and recovered.

ST. LEONARD AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

St. Leonard Rd., July 14. A sailboat and trailer were stolen from a lot.

Charles County

These were among reports received by the Charles County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. For information, call 301-932-2222 or 301-870-3232. The website ccso.us has crime statistics and information on crime prevention programs.

REWARDS FOR INFORMATION

Crime Solvers will pay a reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment. The 24-hour hotline is 866-411-8477. Callers may remain anonymous.

WALDORF AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Crain Hwy., 12:10 .am. July 17. Items were stolen from multiple vehicles.

Hanover Ct., 4:21 p.m. July 17. A male youth broke down a door at a home and fled when he saw a resident.

Jesmond Ct., July 15. Lawn equipment was stolen from a shed.

Western Pkwy., 4:05 a.m. July 18. Two men hid in a department store after closing. They smashed electronic devices, stole clothes, electronic devices, food and two bikes. Two Waldorf men, both 19, were charged with burglary, theft and destruction of property.

WHITE PLAINS AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Skylark Dr., July 13 to 14. A purse was stolen from an unlocked vehicle.

St. Marys County

These w ere among reports received by the St. Marys County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. For information, call 301-475-8008. To submit a tip, call Crime Solvers at 301-475-3333. The Leonardtown Barrack of the state police has an anonymous tip line at 301-475-2936.

ABELL AREA

ASSAULTS

Canoe Neck Way, June 29. A woman assaulted an acquaintance. An Abell woman, 59, was charged with first- and second-degree assault.

CALIFORNIA AREA

ASSAULTS

Baringer Dr., July 1. A man assaulted an acquaintance. A California man, 42, was charged with assault.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Armsworthy Ct., July 16. Cash was stolen from a vehicle.

GREAT MILLS AREA

ASSAULTS

Foxchase Dr., June 27. A woman damaged a vehicle and assaulted an acquaintance. A Lexington Park woman, 47, was charged with assault and destruction of property.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Norris Rd., July 16. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

HOLLYWOOD AREA

ASSAULTS

Briscoe Thompson Way, July 10. A man assaulted an acquaintance. A Hollywood man, 26, was charged with assault.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Half Pone Point Rd., July 13. Cash was stolen from a vehicle.

LEONARDTOWN AREA

ASSAULTS

Archer St., July 9. A man assaulted an acquaintance. A Leonardtown man, 48, was charged with assault.

Leonardtown, July 10. A male inmate assaulted two correctional officers. A Lexington Park man, 25, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault on a department of corrections employee.

Leonardtown, July 11. A man at a detention center assaulted another man, 30, who then grabbed him n an inappropriate area. A Lexington Park man, 27, was charged with second-degree assault and second-degree assault on a department of corrections employee. A Mechanicsville man, 30, was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree assault on a department of corrections employee and fourth-degree sex offense sexual contact.

LEXINGTON PARK AREA

ASSAULTS

Ketch Ct., July 1. A woman assaulted a female at a party. A Charlotte Hall woman, 18, was charged with assault.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Carver School Blvd., July 18. An attempt was made to gain entry to a shed.

Esquire Ct., July 13. Property was stolen from a shed.

Scarborough Dr., June 28. A man refused to return a generator he had borrowed. A man, 50, was charged with theft of less than $1,000.

Sylvan Way, July 16. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Queen Annes Apartment, June 8. Items were stolen from a storage shed. A Lexington Park man, 50, was charged with second-degree burglary and theft of less than $1,000.

Rosewood Ct., July 13. Cash was stolen from a vehicle.

Rosewood Terr., July 19. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Spinnaker Cir., July 19. A home was damaged.

MECHANICSVILLE AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Delabrooke Rd., July 16. Property was stolen from a vehicle.
The Westby Police Department reported the arrest of four people in connection with a series of burglaries at the Bethel Butikk in Westby. Arrested were Calos P. Trevino, age 36, of Westby; Ronnilee Meyer, age 37, of Westby; Samuel Dier Cyngier, age 29, current address unknown; and Samantha Marie White, age 29, address unknown, but formerly held residency in Sparta and Viola.

The burglaries occurred in June and July, with the suspects netting about $1,300 over the course of eight confirmed entries to the building. The building was entered on June 24 and 26, July 7, 14, 19 and twice on July 22. There was money missing, but not reported to police, in early June. Without any signs of forced entry into the building, the Westby Police installed surveillance cameras in late June and worked with management to apprehend the suspects. The suspects were captured on video surveillance several times, but were wearing hooded clothing and had their faces covered making them difficult to clearly identify.

Westby PD caught a break in the case on Sunday, July 24, when Officer Matt White responded to an unrelated matter regarding a car theft at 109 Milwaukee St., where Samantha Marie White reported that Cyngier had taken her vehicle and failed to return it. Officer White recognized a unique piece of clothing being worn by the reporting party (Samantha Marie White) as the same sweatshirt worn by one of the suspects in the Bethel Butikk surveillance video taken during the latest break-in on Saturday, July 22.

Upon further questioning, White was taken to the Westby Police Station where she initially denied any connection to the Bethel Butikk burglary, but changed her tune after she was shown surveillance video of the July 22 break-in. White then admitted to being a party to the crime, but denied receiving any of the money. She said she learned about the Bethel Butikk from Meyer, who also resides at the 109 Milwaukee St. address. White said Meyer told her how easy it was to jimmy the lock of the Bethel Butikk front door and gain entry. According to White, Trevino and Meyer had entered the building several times netting quick cash.

On Saturday, July 22, at about 10:15 p.m., White and Cyngier drove to the Bethel Butikk. They attempted to jimmy the lock of the front door, but failed, so they went around the back of the building and kicked in the door. Once inside they stole money out of the cash register and the business checkbook before returning to the Milwaukee Street address. They were both caught on surveillance video inside the store at 10:24 p.m. Also on July 22, at 10:50 p.m. the surveillance video captured Meyer attempting to steal money from the same cash register inside the Bethel Butikk, which had already been emptied by White and Cyngier, a short time earlier.

While at the Westby PD, White said she was homeless and needed the money to feed her three children, but Cyngier never gave her any of the cash. Officer White arrested Samantha Marie White and transported her to the Vernon County Sheriffs Department on Monday, July 24.

Westby Sgt. Scott Stuber arrested Cyngier, Trevino and Meyer, in the city of Westby, and transported them to the Vernon County Sheriffs Department on Tuesday, July 25.

White and Meyer were released on signature bonds on July 25; Cynigier remains in jail; Trevino, a convicted sex offender, remains in jail on a parole violation, plus burglary charges. All suspects were charged with burglary and White and Cyngier were also be charged with criminal damage to property.

Information has been sent to the Vernon County district attorney and all suspects could face further charges.
A bill that would spin the nations air traffic controllers and thousands of people working on modernizing the aviation system into a private nonprofit corporation has not been scheduled for debate. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Almost two months after President Trump with great fanfare endorsed removing them from the payroll, the fate of more than 30,000 federal employees will not be decided before the House adjourns for its summer recess.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) had hoped to find both the necessary votes and time on the House floor for consideration of a bill that would spin the nations air traffic controllers and thousands of people working on modernizing the aviation system into a private nonprofit corporation.

But in the maelstrom of last-minute action before the House heads home Friday, the bill has not been scheduled for what was expected to be a contentious debate on the floor. The proposal still faces bipartisan opposition in the Senate.

With precious few days in session in the coming weeks, Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline for reauthorization of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration. The House bill approved by Shusters committee includes the decoupling of the controllers and modernization workers from the FAA. A Senate bill has no such provision.

If the two houses remain at loggerheads, the likely result will be the second extension of FAA funding at current levels in as many years. The Sept. 30 deadline was the result of a 2016 extension after they disagreed over the same issue.

Indecision on the bill is another setback for a White House already enmeshed in a health-care debate and consumed with investigations of communication between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Debate over those issues has shoved the question of splitting the FAA deep into the shadows.

When Trump endorsed severing the FAA workers June 5, he summoned an audience to the White House and was flanked by the current and three former secretaries of transportation.

Trump said the FAA had wasted $7 billion on modernization efforts and should not be trusted with continuing the program, adding the aviation agency didnt know what the hell they were doing.

[White House formally backs plan to transfer air traffic control system to private corporation]

The concept of limiting the FAA to regulatory functions, like most other federal agencies, while privatizing the air traffic controllers has been kicking around Washington for decades. With Shuster at the helm of the House committee, and Trumps endorsement, it seemed to have gathered momentum this year.

I, along with the entire leadership team in the House, am committed to moving this bill through the House and into a conference committee with the Senate, Shuster said Tuesday. Every day, our bill gathers new support, both from Republicans and Democrats, on and off [Capitol] Hill. The more time we have to explain this bill, the more support there is.

He pointed to a letter endorsing that plan that several former Clinton administration officials  including former transportation secretary Federico Pena  sent to House members last week.

Shuster can point to a long list of organizations that support the move  including one of the two big unions whose members would be affected  but there has been blow back from those who fly small planes and corporate jets, and from smaller airports who fear being lost in the shuffle if airlines come to dominate the corporation.

There also is bipartisan opposition in Congress from some who harbor similar worries or who simply dont think anything so precious as the national airspace ought to be governed without Congress having a big say in its operation. That concern is particularly pronounced in the Senate, which moved a bill out of committee that ignored the desires of Trump and Shuster.

The near daily parade of consumers airline horror stories should illustrate to Congress just how little passengers interests matter to a hyper-consolidated airline industry, Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, said in a conference call with reporters on July 12.

[Senate ignores Trump, moves bill that keeps FAA intact]

Therein lies the crux of the debate. While some say the FAA is making progress on an estimated $36 billion modernization program and critics say any progress is too little, too late, the big battle is over how much influence the airlines would have on the board of a new nonprofit corporation.

Trump and Shuster have proposed a 13-member board with two members appointed by the secretary of transportation and two members selected by the other board members. The rest of the panel would include one member each from the major airlines, the regional airlines, the cargo airlines, small-plane owners, corporate plane operators, the air traffic controllers, the airports, commercial pilots and the corporations chief executive. That chief executive would be selected by the board.

Critics worry that the board could become heavily populated by those sympathetic to the airlines, at the expense of small-plane operators and smaller airports that get minimal or no service by commercial airlines.

Consumers and passengers have expressed grave concern over giving the big airlines unchecked power, said Selena Shilad, executive director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America, which represents the general aviation community. We need to keep Congress in charge of our air traffic control system.
An increasingly powerful coalition of faith-based activists won a commitment from a majority of the Alexandria City Council on Tuesday to increase support for public housing and affordable housing in the city.

About 200 supporters and members of Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) jammed St. Josephs Catholic Church in Alexandria to call for stronger commitments and more money to house lower-income residents who increasingly find themselves priced out of areas once affordable to them.

Since 2000, spiraling rents and upscale redevelopment have reduced by 90 percent the stock of privately owned apartments affordable to people who make about half of the median income for the area, according to a recent city report. That means that 1,749 privately owned apartments in the city are affordable for a four-person household with an annual income of $66,180 or less  less than 6 percent of the rental housing stock.

Alexandria, one of the few cities in the area with a public housing authority, also has 1,150 public housing units for the poorest residents, but there is a years-long waiting list for those apartments.

The housing crisis affects churches as well as families. The Rev. Donald Fest, pastor of St. Josephs, said his church spent $60,000 last year in rental and moving assistance on its parishioners, many of whom live or lived in the historically African American neighborhood known as the Berg.

Prompted by a plan by the public housing authority to redevelop the 48-year-old Andrew Adkins apartments just east of the Braddock Road Metro station, VOICE members said all 90 of the public housing units should remain on the site. The authority has planned to let a private developer rebuild 60 of the public housing units while putting about 500 new, more expensive apartments at the site. The other 30 units would be moved elsewhere in the city.

Alexandria Vice Mayor Justin Wilson (D) told the crowd that he and council member John T. Chapman (D) told the authority and developer last week that the council expects all 90 apartments to remain on the site. But, he noted, its a three-way negotiation between the city, the Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority and the developers.

The housing authority is in the midst of consolidating its public housing project and partnering with private developers to raise money. Federal funds, which for years supported public housing, are vanishing, and the authority says it needs another source of revenue to maintain and operate its projects.

Chapman and council member Willie Bailey Jr. (D), both of whom grew up in affordable and public housing in the city, said they fully support VOICEs agenda. Wilson and council member Timothy Lovain (D) said they support the principles but would not commit to allocating $8 million more in the city budget each year for housing.

Im with you 95 percent of the way, Lovain said.

I just generally dont make monetary commitments outside the budget process, Wilson said in a later interview.

The members of the council, in the middle of its two-month summer recess, said they are at work strengthening and modernizing the citys 36-year-old commitment, known as Resolution 830, to replace any of its public housing units with equally priced apartments.

VOICE, which was founded in 2008, also has gotten a commitment from Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova to discuss a plan to create a dedicated fund to make transit more affordable for low-income residents, and is pushing to use 30 percent of Metro property for affordable housing.

VOICE supported a plan in 2015 and 2016 to rebuild and replace the 15 Ramsey Homes public housing units with 37 additional apartments. It has also been active in Arlington County planning decisions and electoral politics on a variety of issues.
(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

President Trumps decision to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military highlights recent votes on a related issue by two Republican members of Congress from Virginia whose districts are being targeted by Democrats in 2018.

They took opposite stances on a measure that would have blocked an Obama-era practice requiring the Pentagon to pay for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy.

The Hartzler amendment  named after Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who proposed adding it to the annual defense policy bill  failed by a vote of 214 to 209.

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) of Northern Virginia was among the 24 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting against the amendment.

Congresswoman Comstocks vote on this issue reflected her view that [Defense] Secretary [Jim] Mattis, and the professionals at the Defense Department are best equipped to define these policies, her spokesman, Jeff Marschner, said in a statement. The congresswoman trusts that Secretary Mattis will provide the clarity and details on what is in the best interest of military readiness going forward.



Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.). (Jeff Taylor/Associated Press)

Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R), a freshman from Virginia Beach, voted for the amendment, despite a record of supporting LGBT causes through legislation.

Taylor said that Trumps ban, announced Wednesday via Twitter, is premature because the Defense Department is in the midst of a review of its policies addressing transgender members of the military. There are heroic military members willing to put their lives on the line and give the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, regardless of their gender identity, he said in a statement.

He said he voted for the Hartzler amendment on the basis of individual medical readiness, meaning that he did not want taxpayers to cover the year-long post-surgery recuperation period.

Nationally, Democrats hoping to capitalize on Trumps low approval ratings in Virginias urban regions consider Comstocks and Taylors districts possible pickup opportunities. Multiple Democrats are vying for the nominations to challenge them both.

[Its grilling time: Five women line up to challenge Rep. Brat]

They say Comstock, whose district voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump by 10 points, is out of step with moderate voters in Loudoun County, in the heart of the district. She has at times criticized Trump and voted against the House Republican health-care bill.

Trump won by three points in Taylors district, which has for brief periods been represented by a Democrat.

Trump said in tweets that the government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

He added: Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.



Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.). (Steve Helber/Associated Press)

Taylor, a former Navy SEAL and defense hawk who supports Trump, has backed LGBT rights. In the state General Assembly, he sponsored a bill that would have banned LGBT discrimination in housing. Within two months of joining Congress, he introduced similar federal legislation.

Last month he won praise from the Human Rights Campaign as one of two House Republicans  among 238  to support a federal ban on LGBT discrimination.

Vivian Wise, a transgender woman and Navy officer who works in off-ship communications and lives in Virginia Beach, said the ban leaves her wondering whether she should search for a new job and place to live.

She said she considers Taylors vote for the Hartzler amendment an example of naked bigotry and a backlash against progress the transgender community has made in recent decades.

Frankly I wasnt surprised at all, she said. Representative Taylor is something of a water carrier for his party. He seems to be someone who will go along with the majority.

James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, said the fact that Republican support helped kill the Hartzler amendment proves advocacy efforts on behalf of the transgender community are working.

These are patriotic Americans who are putting their lives on the line to protect our country and preserve our freedoms and there should be no question about whether they should have the same benefits that all active duty members of the military and veterans have, he said.

Democrats in Congress and across Virginia criticized the ban. Gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, a former Army combat medic and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, tweeted:

Anyone who wants to serve our country in the military should be welcomed. Theyre patriots and should be treated as such.

Danica Roem (D), a transgender woman who is challenging incumbent Del. Robert G. Marshall (R) for a statehouse seat representing Prince William County, posted a series of tweets, including: Transgender military members like Logan Ireland & Laila Villanueva have done more to serve & protect America than Donald Trump ever will.

A spokesman for Ed Gillespie, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, said Gillespie does not support barring transgender people from the military but would be open to changing his views if a Pentagon review of the current policy concludes otherwise.

Gillespie also opposes taxpayer funding for gender transition surgeries for service members, the spokesman said.

Fenit Nirappil contributed to this report.
Thursday, JULY 27

Learn to fish Learn how to cast a rod and identify types of fish in this hands-on program. 8:30-10 a.m. National Wildlife Visitor Center, Powder Mill Road, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel. 301-497-5887. fws.gov. Free; registration required. Donations welcome.

Archaeology for kids Explore artifacts and fossils with a certified archaeologist. 10 a.m. Mount Rainier Library, 3409 Rhode Island Ave., Mount Rainier. 301-864-8937. pgcmls.info. Free; registration required.

Lunch and learn The National Campaign for Financial Literacy leads this class to learn how to save more money, understand investments, build wealth and protect your money. Noon. Oxon Hill Library, 6200 Oxon Hill Rd. 301-839-2400. pgcmls.info. Free.

STEM-tastic friendship bracelets Ages 13-18 can celebrate International Friendship Day by making craft bracelets. 3 p.m. Laurel Library, 507 Seventh St., Laurel. 301-776-6790. pgcmls.info. Free.

Teen anime, manga and comics drawing workshop Staff from Artway Alliances Go & Draw program teach ages 13-18 how to draw comics using professional tools. 3 p.m. South Bowie Library, 15301 Hall Rd., Bowie. 301-850-0475. pgcmls.info. Free.

Reptile world An exploration of snakes, lizards and their relatives. 3 p.m. Oxon Hill Library, 6200 Oxon Hill Rd. 301-839-2400. pgcmls.info. Free.

Friday, JULY 28

College Park Needle Arts Society Crafters can work on quilting, knitting, embroidery and counted cross-stitch projects. 9:30-11:30 a.m. Berwyn Heights Town Hall, 5700 Berwyn Rd. 301-474-5000. Free.

The new classics A board games workshop for age 60 and older. 10 a.m. Bowie Senior Center, 14900 Health Center Dr. 301-809-2300. cityofbowie.org. Free.

Discover the Leader Within A two-day leadership conference to learn how to find your path in life. Friday from 7-9 p.m. and from Saturday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The Soul Factory, 7823 Parston Dr., Forestville. 301-772-7325. thesoulfactory.com. $40; registration required.

Teen poet homecoming The Prince Georges Teen Poet Ambassadors return from national competition and perform. 3 p.m. South Bowie Library, 15301 Hall Rd., Bowie. 301-850-0475. pgcmls.info. Free.

Maria Santiago: A Geometric and Color Encounter The Argentinean artist uses oil, canvas, burlap and collage to create abstract geometric paintings. Closes Friday July 28. Harmony Hall Regional Center, 10701 Livingston Rd., Fort. 301-203-6070. arts.pgparks.com. Free.

Saturday, JULY 29

Summer flea market Shop a variety of new and used items from over 70 vendors. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. St. Joseph Catholic Church, 2020 St. Joseph Dr., Largo. 301-390-7150. fleamarkets2017@gmail.com. Free.

Birds of Greenbelt Forest Learn about common bird species found at the park. 9:30 a.m. Greenbelt Park, 6565 Greenbelt Rd. 301-344-3944. nps.gov/gree. Free.

Miller Farms farmers market Shop fresh produce, baked goods, flowers, and seasonal displays from the Clinton farm. Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. National Harbor, 137 National Plaza, National Harbor. 877-628-5427. nationalharbor.com. Free.

Childrens tram tour A naturalist leads this tram tour and scavenger hunt for age 4 and older. 10:30 a.m. National Wildlife Visitor Center, Powder Mill Road, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel. 301-497-5887. fws.gov. Free; registration required. Donations welcome.

Kids coding club Ages 5-12 can learn to create games, apps, graphic novels and more. 11 a.m. South Bowie Library, 15301 Hall Rd., Bowie. 301-850-0475. pgcmls.info. Free.

Stuff-a-Bus Drop off new school supplies to give away to children at the seventh annual Prince Georges County Public Schools Back-to-School Fair. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The Mall at Prince Georges, 3500 East-West Hwy. Hyattsville. 301-559-8844. mallatprincegeorges.com. Free.

Games People Played Learn to play popular games from history such as Parcheesi, Shut the Box, Goose and Jacks. Noon-4 p.m. Belair Mansion, 12207 Tulip Grove Dr., Bowie. 301-809-3089. cityofbowie.org. Free.

Raptors Reign Licensed falconer Rodney Stotts introduces live birds and shares his experiences with nature. 1-3 p.m. National Wildlife Visitor Center, Powder Mill Road, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel. 301-497-5887. fws.gov. Free; donations welcome.

Readin, Ritin, Rithmetic  Reality A presentation on mid-19th-century education and how schools went from being private to open to everyone. 4-6 p.m. Surratt House Museum, 9118 Brandywine Rd., Clinton. 301-868-1121. history.pgparks.com. Free-$5.

Campfire talk Rangers discuss the history of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. 8:15 p.m. Greenbelt Park, 6565 Greenbelt Rd. 301-344-3944. nps.gov/gree. Free.

Sunday, JULY 30

Greenbelt walking club A 1.4-mile group walk to improve health. 9:30 a.m. Greenbelt Park, 6565 Greenbelt Rd. 301-344-3944. nps.gov/gree. Free.

The secret life of trees Professor Pricklethorn leads this interactive program to learn the importance of trees and their role in preserving our planet. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Accokeek Foundation, 3400 Bryan Point Rd., Accokeek. 301-283-2113. accokeekfoundation.org. Free.

Pickle magic A modern homesteading workshop to learn how to preserve food through pickling and fermentation. 1-4 p.m. Accokeek Foundation, 3400 Bryan Point Rd., Accokeek. 301-283-2113. accokeekfoundation.org. $25-$30; registration required.

Monsters, Inc. An outdoor screening of the 2001 animation movie about monsters who power the city by scaring children. Through Sept. 24. 6 p.m. National Harbor, 137 National Plaza, National Harbor. 877-628-5427. nationalharbor.com. Free.

Monday, JULY 31

O Is for Opossum Stories, games and hands-on activities to learn about North Americas only marsupial. 10:30-11:30 a.m. National Wildlife Visitor Center, Powder Mill Road, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel. 301-497-5887. fws.gov. Free; registration required. Donations welcome.

Mike Rose The magician performs comedy and magic tricks for ages 5-12. 1 p.m. Fairmont Heights Library, 5904 Kolb St., Fairmont Heights. pgcmls.info. 301-883-2650. Free.

Touch-a-Truck Ages 5-12 can safely explore big trucks and heavy machinery. 6:30 p.m. Laurel Library, 507 Seventh St. 301-776-6790. pgcmls.info. Free.

Brown bag lunch lecture Bring lunch and hear museum staff discuss the types of art at the historic home. 1 p.m. Belair Mansion, 12207 Tulip Grove Dr., Bowie. 301-809-3089. cityofbowie.org. Free.

CardioHIT No Excuse Workout leads this outdoor group fitness class for all ages. 7-8 p.m., through Oct. 23. National Harbor, 137 National Plaza. 877-628-5427. nationalharbor.com. Free.

Tuesday, AUGUST 1

District Heights National Night Out The annual national safety campaign features food, games, music, a childrens play area, health and safety exhibits, backpack giveaways, and more. 5:30-8:30 p.m. District Heights Municipal Center Ball Field, 2000 Marbury Dr. 301-336-1400. districtheights.org. Free.

Wednesday, AUGUST 2

Yoga in the parks An outdoor wellness session for mind and body. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Walker Mill Regional Park, 8840 Walker Mill Rd., District Heights. 301-218-6700. pgparks.com. Free.

 Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett

TO SUBMIT AN EVENT

Email: pgliving@washpost.com

Fax: 301-618-1780

Mail: Community Calendar, Local Living, The Washington Post, 9500 Arena Dr., Suite 400, Largo, Md. 20774

Details: Announcements are accepted on a space-available basis from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be submitted at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include event name, dates, times, exact address, prices and a publishable contact phone number.
People attend the Islamic Society of North America annual convention in Chicago on June 30. Muslim Americans pointed to recent attacks against Muslims as evidence of increased Islamophobia. (Nova Safo/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Anti-Muslim discrimination is common and on the rise  and so, too, are expressions of support for Muslims, according to a new study on one of the United States fastest-growing religious minorities.

The Pew Research Center on Wednesday released the results of a far-reaching new survey of Muslims nationwide that highlighted a broad sense of anxiety and unease about their place in the United States and with a president who most consider unfriendly toward Muslims.

Overall, Muslims in the United States perceive a lot of discrimination against their religious group, are leery of President Donald Trump and think their fellow Americans do not see Islam as part of mainstream U.S. society, the studys authors wrote.

Pew surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Muslim adults by telephone between January and May this year, and overall results carry a six-point margin of sampling error.

The share of U.S. Muslims who have experienced discriminatory treatment is trending upward, the research center found, with 48 percent of respondents saying they were subjected to at least one discriminatory incident based on religion over the past year, compared with 40 percent a decade ago.

A large majority  75 percent  said there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the United States. Nearly three-quarters said Trump is unfriendly toward Muslims, compared with just 4 percent who said that of President Barack Obama in 2011. And about two-thirds said they dont like where the nation is headed.

One immigrant Muslim man, who spoke to Pew on the condition of anonymity, said that the start of Trumps Muslim ban  a travel ban that the president sought to enforce against the citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries  felt like the official launch of a campaign of anti-Muslim persecution.

Because we had read the history of Europe and what happened to the Jewish people in Germany, he said. These little steps lead to bigger issues later on. So, we really felt we were threatened.

Most of the estimated 3.35 million Muslims living in the United States are immigrants or the children of immigrants. And nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they think the American public does not consider Islam a part of mainstream society.

The poll finds that Trump is not the only source of mistrust. Six in 10 respondents said they think U.S. media coverage of Islam and Muslims is unfair.

About a third of Muslims said they have been treated with suspicion at least once over the past year, the highest in Pew surveys since 2007. Nearly 1 in 5 said they have been called offensive names, and a similar share have seen anti-Muslim graffiti in their communities. Six percent said they were physically threatened or attacked, identical to the share saying this in 2011.

Those who appear Muslim  either because of the way they look, dress or speak  are significantly more likely to experience discrimination for being Muslim, and women overall are more likely to report discrimination than men.

And a significant minority  one third  said they are at least somewhat worried that the government is tapping their phones because of their religion. The poll finds that 30 percent said they are skeptical of law enforcement sting operations against suspected terrorists, thinking that authorities mostly arrest people who were tricked and did not pose a real threat. More, 39 percent, said Muslims arrested in such operations are mostly violent people who pose a real threat.

Amid all that, the study also reflects a couple of profound paradoxes that may result in part from the experiences of a deeply polarized nation.

The study found that Muslims are overwhelmingly proud of both their Muslimness and their Americanness, with 89 percent expressing pride in both. And although nearly half of American Muslims said they have experienced some form of discrimination in the past 12 months, a similar 49 percent said they had experienced support for being Muslim  a sizable shift from 10 years ago, when only 32 percent said they had received support.

In a sense, with rising Islamophobia has come more support from the American public, said Amaney Jamal, a politics professor at Princeton University who served as an adviser on the study.

The findings underscored a strange optimism amid the wariness toward Trump and the anxieties about hate crimes. Pew found that there has been a slight increase in the percentage of Muslims who say that Americans are friendly toward Muslims  from 48 percent in 2011 to 55 percent in 2017. Muslims are also 19 percentage points more likely than the general public to say that Americans are friendly toward Muslims. Muslim immigrants and men are the most likely to have a sunny outlook on how Americans view them.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.
On Wednesday, July 19, I had cousins arrive for a short visit from Florida, Michigan and Milwaukee. As every other summer when they come, a small gathering of Westby relatives also come to my home so everyone can visit for the evening. After the severe wind and rain had passed, it was time for me to drive Harvey Olson, my dads cousin, home.

Although Harvey gets along very well and is sharp as a tack at age 90, he uses a walker and has difficultly with stairs, so someone was helping him to the car. As this was happening, Matt White of the Westby Police Department was driving by my house on patrol and saw us. Officer White stopped at the end of the driveway to ask if we needed any help!

I want to formally thank Officer White for being so conscientious. I feel very fortunate to live in Westby where we have concerned and attentive police officers looking for situations as they drive through our neighborhoods where they can be helpful. Television show a constant barrage of bad news about law enforcement, but not in Westby. They take care of our community and for that I am very grateful.

Officer White, your consideration and your action were a wonderful topic of conversation the entire time my relatives were in Westby.

Mange Tusen Takk,

Kathy Anderson
MINNESOTA

Officers must turn on cameras on every call

Police in Minneapolis must now activate their body cameras during every call for service or any self-initiated work, officials said Wednesday, a change that comes amid a lingering controversy over an officers fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman there earlier this month.

An officer fatally shot Justine Damond, 40, who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home on July 15. For reasons that still remain unknown, one of the two police officers responding to Damonds call shot and killed her, and neither officer present had activated their body cameras.

Damonds death sparked international outrage and prompted the ouster of the citys veteran police chief. Authorities have questioned why Officer Mohamed Noor drew and fired his gun, and have been critical of the lack of video footage.

Every patrol officer in Minneapolis is equipped with a body camera, and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called it unacceptable that no footage existed of the shooting. Hodges forced out Janee Harteau, the Minneapolis police chief, last week. She joined the new police chief, Medaria Arradondo, Wednesday in announcing the expansion of when body cameras would be utilized.

Under the previous Minneapolis police policy, officers have been required to activate body-worn cameras before any use of force or, if that is not possible, as soon as it is safe to do so. The new policy directs officers to activate their cameras before a wide range of actions and no longer states that cameras must be activated before a use of force. Instead, it states that cameras must be activated for any use of force situation.

 Mark Berman

SOUTH CAROLINA

Domestic violence law is unconstitutional

People in same-sex relationships in South Carolina should get the same legal protections against domestic violence as heterosexual couples, the states highest court ruled Wednesday, deeming a portion of the states domestic violence law unconstitutional.

The court was asked to weigh in after a woman tried to get a protective order against her former fiancee, also a woman, and was denied.

Current law defines household members as a spouse, former spouse, people with a child in common, or men and women who are or have lived together. It does not include unmarried same-sex couples.

Then-Justice Costa Pleicones, who wrote the majority opinion, said during oral arguments in March 2016 that he felt the law was pretty clearly unconstitutional in its discriminatory impact upon same-sex couples.

Other states have addressed this issue since the U.S. Supreme Courts 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. The Ohio Supreme Court in 2016 adopted the use of gender-neutral references in family court cases. California and Massachusetts proactively changed language in their laws.

 Associated Press

CALIFORNIA

Teen who livestreamed sister die is charged

Prosecutors charged a teenage driver Wednesday with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other counts after she lost control of her car while live-streaming on Instagram and recorded a crash that killed her younger sister.

The behavior of Obdulia Sanchez, 18, captured by the video was disturbing and shocking, Harold Nutt, chief deputy district attorney of Merced County, said in a statement. The footage shows she was dancing to music while she drove and taking her hands from the steering wheel.

Prosecutors say the video will be a key piece of evidence in the case.

Sanchez was driving the car on Friday when it veered onto the shoulder of a road about 75 miles northwest of Fresno, authorities said. She overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn into a field, ejecting and killing her 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, authorities said.

After a gap in the live stream, the driver is seen leaning over the girls body, saying she was sorry.

Another 14-year-old girl suffered a leg injury in the crash.

The five counts against Sanchez also include drunken driving resulting in injuries. Prosecutors say Sanchez could spend more than 13 years in state prison if convicted of all the charges.

 Associated Press
BRITAIN

Hospice care likely for critically ill infant

Critically ill baby Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice and taken off life support unless his parents and a hospital agree on a plan that could keep him alive for a bit longer, a British judge ruled Wednesday.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis gave 11-month-old Charlies parents and the hospital that has been treating him until noon Thursday to come to terms on an end-of-life care plan for the infants final hours or days.

The baby suffers from a rare genetic disease, mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to breathe unaided. Recent tests found that he has irreversible muscular damage.

It is in Charlies best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only, the judge said as a medical and legal battle that has drawn international attention nears a wrenching conclusion.

The parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for experimental treatment. They gave up their fight Monday, acknowledging that the window of opportunity to help him had closed.

On Tuesday, they said they hoped to bring their son, whose birthday is next week, home to die.

Francis said the parents now accept that the only options for their son are the hospital or the hospice.

 Associated Press

IRAN

2 top reformist leaders said to be in poor health

The two opposition leaders who disputed the results of Irans 2009 presidential election, triggering mass protests, are in poor health and one has been hospitalized after a heart attack, news outlets cited family members as saying.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and fellow reformist Mehdi Karroubi became standard-bearers for Iranians who took to the streets after the vote, which brought back hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown that followed, according to rights groups.

Mousavi and Karroubi have been under house arrest since 2011 after they called for demonstrations in Iran in solidarity with the pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa that year.

Mousavi, 75, is suffering from irregular blood pressure and dizziness and cannot walk without assistance, the opposition Kaleme site reported Wednesday, citing information from his daughters.

Karroubi, 79, was admitted to the hospital this week after suffering a heart attack, one of his sons told the Iranian Labor News Agency.

 Reuters

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban kills 26 soldiers in southern province

Twenty-six Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban assault on a military base in the southern province of Kandahar , an Afghan official said Wednesday.

Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said the Taliban assault also wounded 13 soldiers.

Kandahar is considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban.

In previous reports, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has called the casualty rate among

the countrys security forces shockingly high. More than 6,800 security personnel were killed and 12,000 wounded in 2016, according to a SIGAR report earlier this year.

The security forces number 195,000 troops and more than 150,000 police officers.

 Associated Press

Ukraine strips citizenship of former Georgia leader: Ukraines president has rescinded the citizenship of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who moved to Ukraine to run one of its regions and later resigned. Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in 2015 after being appointed governor of Ukraines Odessa region, but Georgia seeks his extradition to face criminal charges.

2 U.N. peacekeepers killed in Central African Republic: The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic said two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed in a southeastern town where another Moroccan was killed Sunday. A statement said the two peacekeepers were killed by suspected anti-Balaka militia while another peacekeeper was injured. Hundreds of people have been killed in the Central African Republic in the past two months. Sectarian violence that began in 2013 has moved into the countrys central and southeastern regions.

 From news services
La Farge Medical Clinic was recently recognized as University of Wisconsin-Madison celebrated its annual Community-University Partnership Awards on June 28 at Olin House in Madison. The Community-University Partnership Awards are given to programs that are making a significant difference in the lives of Wisconsin residents.

Through the collaboration of University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Pediatrics and the La Farge Medical ClinicCenter for Special Children (a program of Vernon Memorial Healthcare), the Wisconsin Plain Community Project was one of seven Community-University partnerships that were recognized. Dr. James DeLine and the La Farge Medical Clinic  VMH have been collaborating with UW-Madison faculty since 2012 to improve access to high quality and affordable care for Plain families with genetic and metabolic diseases.

The Center for Special Children is one of six programs/clinics in the United States dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of children born with genetic and metabolic diseases. Dr. DeLine and the La Farge Medical ClinicVMH have been addressing these unique challenges for more than 30 years. With continual collaboration, biomedical research projects for UW faculty continue to expand and improve the medical care for those affected with rare genetic and metabolic diseases. Since its inception in 2016, the Center for Special Children is a testament to this.

Additional funding for the project comes from donations and auctions held in Cashton and Withee. Proceeds from community-sponsored benefits help the Center for Special Children program offer affordable health care to the families that qualify. For further information about the program, visit http://www.vmh.org/content/center-special-children.
Why is Dana Milbank, and apparently the Democratic Party leadership, concerned about a lack of message? According to his July 20 Washington Sketch column, Aiming to be more than just anti-Trump, Mr. Milbank thinks a simple resist strategy is wrongheaded.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made his chops resisting. He attempted to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Resist. He stole a Supreme Court seat. Resist. He now has the Senate, Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has the House, Donald Trump has the White House, and Republicans have the Supreme Court. Resist.

When Democrats win, people encourage reaching out. It seems incumbent on Democrats alone to reach across the aisle.

It seems resist is the single best ticket to success. In todays real world, results matter. Mr. McConnell has succeeded by resisting. Pie-in-the-sky moralists may despair and speak of branding and messaging and other marketing terms, but Mr. McConnells one-word strategy is a surefire recipe for success.

Who could argue with that? Resist.

Billy Byrd, North Beach, Md.
Police officers work on a crime scene on July 23 after eight people were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio. Two more people died later in a hospital. (Ray Whitehouse/Reuters)

THE TABLEAU of misery inside a tractor-trailer packed with undocumented immigrants at a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio last weekend was beyond horrific. At one point, before dozens of the migrants were offloaded by human traffickers, more than 100 people  possibly many more  were crammed into the trailers lightless, nearly airless interior, baking in the South Texas summer heat and taking turns to suck air through a hole in the vehicles side. By the time police were summoned, early Sunday, eight people lay dead inside the trailer; two more died in the hospital in the ensuing 24 hours. Many others, having succumbed to heatstroke and related afflictions, suffered grievous injuries.

This unimaginable spectacle of suffering was the product of desperation on the part of the immigrants for better economic circumstances and callous criminality on the part of traffickers. The carnage in the Walmart parking lot was neither the first nor even the worst such incident. In 2003, 19 undocumented immigrants, including a 7-year-old boy and a 91-year-old man, were found dead from heat and asphyxiation in the back of a truck in Victoria, Tex.

It is to be hoped that state and federal authorities will sweep up the traffickers responsible for this outrage in San Antonio and that sentences will be harsh. (The truck driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr. of Florida, is in custody. He denies having known that people were locked in the truck before arriving at the Walmart and hearing banging and shaking in the trailer, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court. Inexcusably, he apparently failed to call 911 even after discovering the bodies.)

The magnetic pull of the U.S. economy and its demand for low-wage, low-skilled labor has for decades attracted poverty-stricken workers from south of the border willing to take inordinate risks and enter into bargains with unscrupulous smugglers.

The Trump administration, so far at least, has managed to drive down the number of illegal border crossers, partly by toughening actual enforcement but mainly by jawboning  establishing an inhospitable political environment. Undocumented immigrants, said Thomas D. Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, should be afraid.

But not all have been or will be dissuaded. In Texas in just the first week of this month, Border Patrol agents came upon 72 illegal immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer, unable to escape. Nineteen more, in two separate incidents, were spotted lost in ranchlands in searing heat. And 10 others were found inside a tractor-trailer at an inspection checkpoint. All that was just a snapshot of activity from the Border Patrols Laredo Sector.

Those undocumented immigrants were the lucky ones, discovered in good health. Without an overhaul of the nations dysfunctional immigration laws, dont expect illegal immigration or human trafficking or further terrible tragedies to end anytime soon.
Eventually, everyone in this town seems to wind up with the word poor in front of his or her name.

Such a fate is especially likely if one has associated with President Trump. As in, Poor Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He is latest to the firing line that has included such formerlys as FBI director James B. Comey, national security adviser Michael Flynn and acting attorney general Sally Yates, as well as the voluntarily resigned  press secretary Sean Spicer and communications director Michael Dubke.

Trump has begun making inquiries about firing Sessions, barring a resignation prompted by the presidents tweeted attempts at shaming him into resigning. His crime? A perceived lack of loyalty. Having recused himself from involvement in the FBIs Trump-Russia investigation  and, therefore, from defending the president, as Trump sees it  Sessions is no longer useful. (For the record, Sessions did reportedly offer to resign at one point.)

Speaking of loyalty, Trump offers little of what he expects from others. Way back in early 2016, when few were willing to sidle up to the Republican front-runner, Sessions bet the farm on this reality-show celebrity. He was the first sitting senator to endorse Trump, trading his legacy for the near-certain promise of a top position in the new administration.

Whatever Sessionss hopes for the job, Trump apparently assumed that the attorney general would serve at his pleasure, regardless of what inconvenient ethics might preclude Sessions from also acting as the presidents personal defense attorney  that is, should any preemptive measures prove inadequate to thwart unwanted scrutiny.

Sessionss recusal wasnt only correct but also probably unavoidable. It was revealed the day before his announcement that he had twice met with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in July and September of 2016, despite having said during his confirmation hearing that he hadnt. Like so many others who joined the Trump White House, Sessions seemed to have forgotten the meetings.

Kislyak must be one forgettable fellow. Everyone he meets from Trump World suffers amnesia, recalling not so much as a handshake. Though Ive not had the pleasure, Kislyak looks like a jovial sort who enjoys a hearty chuckle. His sides must be splitting these days as Trump repeals and replaces officials who are investigating Russia or who deny knowing any Russians.

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions said that his meetings with Kislyak, come to think of it, were routine and part of his activities as senator, not as campaign operative. Except for the fact that Sessions was part of the campaign at the time of those meetings, theres no reason to doubt him.

Trump seems less bothered that Sessions, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner all have contradicted his claims that none of his campaign people had ever met with any Russians associated with the government than by the realization that Sessions isnt protecting his backside. To the nations chief executive, the latter spells kaputzkah. In recent tweets, the president called the attorney general beleaguered, accused him of being very weak on Hillary Clinton (why now?), and questioned his competence, saying: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign  quietly working to boost Clinton. So where is the investigation A.G. (Say this for Trump: He has resisted servitude to punctuation and grammar.)

Sure, Trump must know that Sessions vowed during his confirmation hearing that, if confirmed, he would recuse himself from any matters concerning Clinton. After all, the hearing was televised. But why mention Clinton in this episode of Trumps reality presidency? Because when the heat is on, Trump always sprinkles a little Clinton in the mix. How better to turn his supporters against Sessions and create momentum for him to resign than to remind Republican voters that Sessions let Clinton get away with (fill in the blank)?

In the latest in his series of off-the-cuff true confessions, Trump last week told the New York Times that he never would have nominated Sessions as attorney general had he known hed recuse himself. Recall that he also said he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Nobody ever accused the president of subtlety. The question now is, whos next?

Well know soon enough, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price might want to keep his medical license current. As the Senate was preparing to vote again on the Obamacare repeal bill, Trump gave a rousing speech, saying he knew Price, who formerly sat on the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health, would get out there and get those votes.

1 of 58 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  A look at President Trumps first year in office, so far View Photos Scenes from the Republicans first six months in the White House. Caption Scenes from the Republicans beginning months in the White House. Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News Wait 1 second to continue.

If not, Trump quipped, Youre fired!

Poor Price.

Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
The July 21 news article Interior Dept. pulled climate experts from Zuckerbergs park tour reported that Interior Department officials instructed the superintendent of Glacier National Park and a U.S. Geological Survey expert on the parks glaciers not to participate in Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerbergs visit to the park. The official reason given was that allocating such extensive government resources to a celebrity would have been a waste of money and a disservice to average parkgoers.

The article noted that this capped off days of internal discussions among top Interior Department and National Park Service officials about how much to do for Mr. Zuckerberg, who has been critical of President Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. The real waste here was the money paid to all those top officials working for days to manage a couple-hour visit with the parks most knowledgeable staff so it would not highlight the disconnect between what climate change is doing to this iconic park and Mr. Trumps damaging actions in the climate arena. This attempt to stop influential people such as Mr. Zuckerberg from being given the best scientific, on-the-ground facts is the real disservice to the average parkgoer, who, thanks to Mr. Trumps actions, may soon be visiting Glacierless National Park.

Bill Hafker, Oakton
Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.

Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News

A look at President Trumps first year in office, so far

A look at President Trumps first year in office, so far

Welcome to the United States of Anarchy.

Health-care legislation languishes without presidential leadership. The Senate fails to pass a measure crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fails to pass an outright repeal and even fails to pass a proposal to go back to the drawing board.

Huge majorities in Congress, declining to bless President Trumps love affair with Vladimir Putins regime, vote for new sanctions against Russian officials; legislation passes the Senate, 98 to 2, and the House, 419 to 3. The veto-proof rebuke to the president seizes a foreign-policy function from an unreliable commander in chief.

As the deadline looms to avoid a default on U.S. debt, Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate committee chairman, is heard on a hot mic saying shes worried about the presidents stability and calling his administrations handling of spending matters just incredibly irresponsible. She says she doubts Trump even knows how the budget process works.

Trump, baffling and alarming allies, goes on the attack against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who was an outspoken supporter of Trumps candidacy. Trump clearly wants Sessions to resign, but Sessions is ignoring him. Sessionss former colleagues in the Senate back him over his boss  and they hope Trump isnt crazy enough to start a crisis by firing Sessions and then special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

(U.S. Senate)

Meanwhile, the president continues to sow chaos with perpetual distractions. He fires off a tweet Wednesday morning announcing he is banning transgender people from serving in the military. The tweet apparently catches even the Pentagon by surprise and draws rebukes from pro-military Republicans who argue that all able-bodied, patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve.

And the ship of state sails on, rudderless. This is what it might look like if there were no president at all: stuff happens, but nothing gets done. Actually, the majority in Congress has great difficulty even doing nothing.

McConnell and his team scheduled a vote on repealing Obamacare for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday  a proposal that was, by all accounts, destined for failure. But when the appointed hour came, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), sponsor of the repeal measure, requested a quorum call  a Senate procedure to stall for time.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) rose. Mr. President, I think there was some confusion  he began.

But Enzi objected, Wyden was forbidden to speak, and the quorum call resumed  for 43 silent minutes.

Senators arrived for the scheduled pre-lunch vote. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) went to the clerks table to give a thumbs up and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) went to give a thumbs down, and both were told the same thing: Were not voting. Senators milled about the chamber and huddled in clusters while aides and Senate leaders came and went to resolve the impasse, an arcane dispute about points of order and procedures for amendments.

Finally, Enzi spoke: The vote would be postponed for four more hours.

The Sisyphean act, all for a proposal that was going nowhere, encapsulated the whole Dada enterprise of health-care legislation. McConnell, thwarted in his quest to round up votes for the House-passed version of Trumpcare, or for his own Trumpcare alternative, or even for a repeal of Obamacare without a replacement, decided instead to risk everything on a motion to proceed  a parliamentary maneuver that allows debate to begin.

McConnell won that vote Tuesday by the thinnest possible margin, a 50-50 tie, broken by Vice President Pence. But then McConnell was the proverbial dog that caught the car. Hours later, he brought up his health-care legislation, and it went down, 43 to 57, losing nine of his fellow Republicans and falling 17 votes short of what he needed.

On Wednesday came Enzis repeal proposal, which wouldnt have taken effect for two years to buy lawmakers more time to draft an Obamacare replacement. After the four-hour delay, it went down, 45 to 55, with seven Republicans defecting. Senators then voted down, on party lines, a Democratic proposal to send the whole thing back to committee.

Republicans, after complaining for years that they had been jammed by Democrats on the passage of Obamacare, brought their alternative forward in a secretive, rushed, Republican-only process without hearings. Far from giving lawmakers time to read the bill, GOP Senate leaders had them vote to begin debate without knowing which legislation they would be debating.

Soon comes a vote on skinny repeal, which, if it became law, would sabotage Obamacare by eliminating individual and employer requirements to provide health insurance. But it wont become law; it would merely become an excuse for more negotiations that would pit Senate GOP moderates against House GOP conservatives.

So it goes when a president doesnt act like one: all fury, no function.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Imagine that the presidents national security team walked into the Oval Office and proposed the following U.S. policy in Syria: Lets create an al-Qaeda haven in southern Syria, by working with Russia to establish a cease-fire area where the terrorist network behind 9/11 is free to operate without fear of U.S. attack.

Then lets have the Pentagon tell most pro-American Sunnis who want to fight with us that we will arm and train them only if they sign a pledge promising not to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has massacred their families with mortars and poison gas  likely driving most of the fighters into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda (which promises to help them against Assad). Then lets cancel the covert CIA program under which we did allow a small number of rebels to fight Assad, and put out word that we are doing so as a concession to Moscow.

Instead of Sunni fighters, well team up with the Kurdish Marxist Peoples Defense Force (YPG), a terrorist organization at odds with NATO ally Turkey. Well use the YPG to attack just the Islamic State, leaving al-Qaeda unscathed and thus helping it reassert its supremacy over its rival for leadership of the global jihad.

Lets also have Defense Secretary Jim Mattis say publicly that we shouldnt do anything to push back on the unprecedented expansion of Iranian military force in Syria, and even suggest that Iran can help with the fight against the Islamic State  totally undercutting the presidents stated aim of being tough on Iran. Then well have Secretary of State Rex Tillerson state that Russia has the same . . . interest that we do in Syria so we can help al-Qaeda recruit more Sunnis to its cause by telling them that the United States is allied with Russia, Iran, Shiites, Alawites and Kurds in a campaign to annihilate them  a message against which we will have no effective response because it will be true.

Sound like a good plan? Because that is a description of precisely what the Trump administration is doing in Syria today.

Current US strategy empowers al-Qaeda, which has an army in Syria, is preparing to replace ISIS . . . [and] is more dangerous than ISIS, says a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the American Enterprise Institutes Critical Threats Project (CTP). Our approach, the report declares, is inadvertently fueling the global Salafi-jihadi insurgency because Sunnis see the United States as working with their mortal enemies. Al-Qaeda is taking advantage of this perception to build support among Sunni tribes, portraying itself as the defender of Sunni Arabs against a U.S.-Russo-Iranian axis intent on subjugating and destroying them.

Alienating the Sunni population is not the way to win the war against Islamist radicalism. Right now, al-Qaeda has established itself as the tip of the spear in the fight against the Assad regime, so many Sunnis who do not share al-Qaedas ideology are flocking to al-Qaeda because it is the only game in town for fighting Assad. Al-Qaedas goal is to take charge of the anti-Assad uprising and slowly transform it into a global jihad against Iran, Russia and the United States. Instead of undermining these efforts, we are helping them, by focusing almost exclusively on the Islamic State and driving the Sunni population to ally itself with al-Qaeda.

This is insane. We should be working to strip Sunni tribes away from al-Qaeda. And the United States has a proven record to draw on. During the 2007 surge in Iraq, we successfully rallied the Sunni tribes that had been fighting alongside al-Qaeda in Iraq and got them to turn on the terrorists and help us drive them out. The result was both a military and ideological defeat for the Salafi-jihadist cause. Not only were the terrorists driven from their havens, but also they suffered a humiliating popular rejection by the very Sunni masses of whom they claimed to be the vanguard.

We need a similar military and ideological victory in Syria. So why are we not working to repeat this success? We need to restore the CIAs covert train-and-equip program and lift the Defense Departments restrictions preventing Sunnis who join us from fighting the Assad regime. We must then facilitate the emergence of a Sunni Arab partner force in southern Syria that will fight alongside U.S. forces to expel not just the Islamic State but al-Qaeda as well, while helping stop Iran from imposing Persian-backed domination by the Alawite minority against the Sunni majority. As the ISW-CTP report puts it, We must stop attacking the Sunni Arab community from the outside through proxies, and instead embed ourselves within that population as its defenders.

The Trump administration needs to understand a fundamental truth: We cannot defeat the Islamic State or al-Qaeda or the global jihadist movement on our own. We cannot do it with Kurdish or Iranian proxies.

We need Sunnis to do it.

Read more from Marc Thiessens archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Senate and House leaders struck a deal late Wednesday to send a long-debated sanctions bill imposing new measures against Russia, Iran and North Korea to the presidents desk, after securing promises that Congress will consider even more stringent measures against North Korea down the line.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced that he agreed to have the Senate take up the measure that the House passed Tuesday on a vote of 419 to 3, after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed that in the near future, the House would expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea portion of the bill.

Chief among the enhancements Corker had sought up to the last minute was a provision that would have given Congress the ability to block the president from being able to ease punitive measures against North Korea in the future.

Such a provision, known as congressional review, would have been modeled on similar language in the sanctions bill that pertains to Russia sanctions. In addition to codifying and enhancing existing sanctions against Moscow, the legislation requires the president to notify Congress whenever he wants to change Russia sanctions policy. That notification then triggers a 30-day period in which Congress can vote to prevent the president from easing punitive measures against Moscow.

That level of congressional review is unprecedented in sanctions bills but was roundly popular in Congress, where many lawmakers have been uneasy about President Trumps apparent coziness with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite the administrations considerable efforts to get lawmakers to abandon the congressional review, members and senators endorsed the approach, both for the Russia sanctions in the pending legislation and as a model for future sanctions bills  a reflection of lawmakers continuing distrust of the presidents conduct in foreign affairs.

Although House Republican leaders have been noncommittal when it comes to endorsing congressional review as an approach for future sanctions measures, Corker has been one of its most vocal advocates in Congress. He told reporters Wednesday that most other senators wanted to see such a provision attached to the North Korea sanctions in the legislation  even threatening at one point to strip the North Korea sanctions out of the bill entirely to force more debate.

Earlier on Wednesday, Corker laid out three options for the Senate: pass the bill as it is, strip the North Korea sanctions provision from it and start negotiating with the House  which I know theyre adamantly opposed to, Corker acknowledged  or try to make more changes to the legislation before sending it back across the Capitol.

In a Wednesday morning forum at The Washington Post, Corker appeared to favor taking out the North Korea provisions entirely, telling Post columnist David Ignatius that what likely will happen is we will strip out the North Korea piece and send it back to them so that the two pieces weve negotiated together will remain intact.

Thats the likely scenario, Corker said, saying that its not an affront, its just a timing issue.

But later in the day, he dismissed his commentary as just kind of having a flowing conversation with Ignatius, saying that senators would pick an option in concert with the House . . . and do it very quickly, because we know theyre leaving on Friday.

Last night when we left the floor, that was what was being discussed, Corker added. I understand thats not where the House wants to be, and were going to have to figure something out.

[House passes Russia sanctions bill, setting up veto dilemma for Trump]

Meanwhile, the House leaders have been growing impatient with the Senate.

The House passed the Iran, Russia, North Korea sanctions package in a decisive bipartisan vote of 419 to 3, and we look forward to the Senate acting on it without delay, said AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

Last month, the Senate passed a version of the sanctions bill that contained measures against Russia and Iran only by a vote of 98 to 2. But leaders in the House delayed their action over what they identified as a procedural violation of a constitutional rule that all measures that could affect government revenue must originate in the House.

It took some time to iron out a fix to that problem, and upon its resolution, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) officially threw North Korea into the sanctions mix, announcing about two weeks ago that the House would package its bill of sanctions against Pyongyang with the Senate-approved measures focused on Russia and Iran. According to one person with knowledge of the discussions, negotiators were always aware that House leaders had hoped to add a North Korea provision to the bill.

Corkers timeline of events is different.

If we had known that North Korea was coming over, we would have been negotiating those over the last six weeks, he told reporters on Wednesday, adding that well figure it out. . . . First and foremost is to cause this bill to become law.

House leaders also stressed Wednesday that taking a stand against North Korea was a matter of utmost urgency.

The Senate did not take up the bill, even after Kim Jong Un launched a new [intercontinental ballistic missile] that could soon be capable of hitting California, said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce, a Republican from that state. Now the House has acted again, by a vote of 419 to 3. Further delay on North Korea is completely unacceptable.

The resolution appears to have given leaders in both chambers what they wanted: The House will get the Senates stamp of approval for the North Korea sanctions they initially passed as a stand-alone bill in May, and the Senate has secured a promise from the House to debate expanded congressional review authority for North Korea  a move that may set a precedent for future sanctions bills, as the provision is extremely popular with the Houses rank and file.

The precise timing for the Senate to consider the legislation is uncertain, as the chamber is occupied with votes related to health care, but senators are expected to vote on the measure this week.

Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
Sen. John Cornyn counts Attorney General Jeff Sessions as one of his best friends in Washington, and their wives are even closer, making the couples regular double-date partners.

We occasionally get together to break bread, the Senate majority whip said Wednesday. One of those double dates came recently enough that Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sessions could not avoid the elephant in the room: President Trumps public taunting of his attorney general, in a manner that suggests he wants Sessions to resign.

We didnt talk in any great detail about this, but obviously its in the news, Cornyn said, reiterating his strong support of Sessions remaining in office.

Cornyn is not alone in rallying to the defense of Sessions, who, despite sometimes having waged lonely battles as one of the chambers most staunch conservatives, still has many friends among Senate Republicans. Most have issued statements of support, and several are making private calls to reassure Sessions that they are behind him.

But the tension over Trumps treatment of Sessions goes beyond the senators defending a friend.

(Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

Unlike any other controversial move that Trump has pondered in his six months as president, Senate Republicans are sending preemptive signals that firing the attorney general or pressuring him to resign would be a terrible move.

Some have warned high-level White House officials that it would look as though Trump were making the move solely to shut down an investigation of his campaign and the White House, now overseen by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, while also making clear that they agree with Sessionss decision to recuse himself from an investigation of the Trump campaigns connections to Russia.

Replacing Sessions would be difficult, and the idea of Trump making a recess appointment during the planned four-week break in August is foolhardy. Democrats can indefinitely stall a resolution to fully adjourn the Senate, having already forced minute-long periods during even shorter breaks to prevent Trump from having the authority to make temporary appointments while the Senate is away.

Democrats may have vehemently opposed Sessionss nomination, but they have no intention of allowing Trump to fire him and name a new attorney general with a recess appointment, and frankly, Republicans do not seem to want to give Trump that power either.

Trumps hard-line actions have an intellectual godfather: Jeff Sessions

Beyond concerns about the controversy that firing Sessions would bring, Senate Republicans say, Trumps behavior is unseemly toward someone they respect, given that Sessions went out on a limb for the first-time candidate, becoming the first senator to endorse Trumps candidacy.

I think Sessions deserves to be treated much more fairly. I mean, Jeff was there when no other senator was, said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the longest currently serving Republican in the Senate. Hatch spoke to Sessions last Thursday to declare his support, a message he conveyed to White House officials, and Hatch is trying to set up a call to Trump to deliver the same message.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made clear in a brief interview Wednesday that his backing of Sessions has gone up the chain of command. Asked if he told Trump of his support, McConnell smiled.

Ive conveyed that to the public and to others, he said.

The support for Sessions runs deep across the Republican Party. Former senator Jim DeMint (S.C.), a conservative renegade who often clashed with McConnell, praised the attorney general Wednesday during a visit to the Capitol.

One of the best guys I ever worked with, he said. I hope he and the president can work it out.

The question, however, is how Senate Republicans will respond if Trump does force their friend out of the Justice Department  a move that might be followed by firing Mueller, setting off another crisis at least as big as the ouster of James B. Comey as FBI director in May.

Would there be any ramification beyond just expressing dismay?

That remains to be seen, but some are warning that the fallout would be devastating to the rest of Trumps agenda.

I think Jeff Sessions is doing a good job, and I think it would be incredibly disruptive and make it more difficult for the president to accomplish his agenda, Cornyn told CNN early Wednesday.

By lunchtime, Cornyn declined to say what the ramifications would be, instead focusing on the attorney generals decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Sessions had served as an adviser to the Trump campaign, a high-profile surrogate who would travel with him and often introduce him at rallies. He also got caught up in a controversy by not fully revealing during his confirmation process all of his contacts with Russian officials.

Jeff Sessions should have been a tough sell in the Senate, but hes too nice

That made it a by-the-book call to recuse, delegating the investigation to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who then appointed Mueller shortly after he was involved in the Comey firing  which is now its own piece of the Mueller inquiry.

I cant imagine any future nominee would have decided the recusal issue any differently from Jeff Sessions, Cornyn said.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who was elected along with Sessions in 1996, became visibly angry when discussing Trumps treatment of his former colleague. Its very difficult, its disconcerting, its inexplicable, he said. I dont know why you have to tweet with regards to your feelings about people in your own Cabinet.

One fallout from Trumps treatment of Sessions could be to guarantee that no Senate Republican will again be willing to give up a seat to accept a job with Trump.

There are some well-qualified individuals, who otherwise would be inclined to serve, who might be discouraged from doing so given the rift that he has had with one of his most loyal supporters, said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who became friends with Sessions as part of the 1996 class.

After Comey was fired, Sessions led the recruiting effort to get Cornyn the nomination to run the FBI. Their wives talked about the idea and Cornyn warmed to it, before other Republicans signaled that he would be too political a choice to run the independent investigative body.

Now, their double dates take on a different tone when they discuss working for Trump.

Hes doing fine, Cornyn said of Sessions. He did the right thing, and I think he has the confidence that he did the right thing.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.


Kelsie McBlain, 15, left, and Jack Mowat, 17, volunteers with the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, talk with Brad and Laura Schroeder while canvassing door-to-door in Omaha on Saturday. (Ryan Henriksen/For The Washington Post)

It was a humid Saturday morning, 473 days before the next election, and Jack Mowat was walking door to door to support his congressman. At home after suburban home, voters heard a knock, then heard the pitch.

Im with the Congressional Leadership Fund, Mowat, 17, told a voter in workout gear. Do you support Congressman Don Bacon?

The answer was yes. Awesome, said Mowat, updating his doorknocking phone app. And what would you say is your most important issue? The answer: Bacon was a military guy.

That was all Mowat needed to hear. As one of dozens of volunteers for the Congressional Leadership Fund, the deep-pocketed super PAC backed by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), he was on a months-long mission to knock on the doors of semi-frequent voters and tell them that their congressman was doing what they sent him to do. In Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District, where Bacon narrowly defeated Democrat Brad Ashford last year, the goal was to build up the Republican before Democrats had a chance to try to tear him down.

The CLFs multimillion-dollar campaign, unfolding this year in 20 targeted districts and expanding next year to 30, is an ambitious bet that the Republican House majority can be spared from midterm backlash over President Trump. If it works, each endangered Republican will be reintroduced to voters as a post-partisan who delivers on their key issues; each Democratic challenger will be framed as a vote for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to snatch back the speakers gavel while empowering an anti-Trump resistance that only wants to wreck the country.

In an interview at the CLFs Washington office, where the targeted districts are scrawled on the wall across from his desk, the PACs executive director, Corry Bliss, said the strategy was the culmination of what hed learned in a run of winning campaigns. Veterans of Bacons 2016 campaign were running the CLF effort in Omaha; theyd scoured local high schools for volunteers who would work free to help their congressmen, gaining political experience while no other campaigns were underway.



Messages supporting Don Bacon, representing Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, line the walls in the Congressional Leadership Fund super PACs office. (Ryan Henriksen/For The Washington Post)

We dont care about the national narrative, said Bliss. You cant control the national narrative. You can control the narrative in 30 districts.

The CLF spent more than $10 million to rescue Republicans in four special elections this year, investing early in opposition research and get-out-the-vote campaigns. In Georgias sixth district, Republicans won fewer than 98,000 total votes in an April 18 jungle primary. Over the nine-week runoff campaign, the CLF complemented its TV ads with get-out-the-vote money; on June 20, Rep. Karen Handel (R-Ga.) won 134,799 votes, beating Democrat Jon Ossoff. In the CLF office, the race is commemorated with a banner that waved outside the final candidate debate: San Francisco Loves Ossoff.

For 2018, the strategy is to do more of the same, framing races as a choice between local heroes and resistance-obsessed Democrats, on a hoped-for $100 million budget.

Donors get really excited about this, said Bliss. For the cost of one TV ad buy, you knock on tens of thousands of doors. We do a microdata survey in every district, and our goal is to come out of it in the 60,000 to 80,000 voter range. If we can switch 20,000 votes in the district, thats the difference between winning or losing.

The ads and materials being distributed by the group make no mention of the president or which party currently runs Congress. A door hanger for Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), whose district voted heavily for Hillary Clinton last year, tells the story of how his family built a successful dairy farm and how he wants to fix our broken immigration system. A door hanger for Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), who represents a swing seat in Upstate New York, calls him an independent voice whos working to combat the heroin and opioid crisis and ensure clean, safe drinking water.

In Omaha, there were already targeted ads aimed at Trump supporters reporting that Don Bacon is fighting for President Trumps agenda. But most of the campaign for Bacon was built around his long military service, especially his years commanding the districts Offutt Air Force Base. We have a list of 41,000 people who say: Thats my issue, said Bliss.

But the effort to portray Bacon as Offutts savior had already raised eyebrows. The door-knocking campaign had been complemented by a digital ad campaign that thanked Bacon for fighting to keep Offutt Air Force Base open. When the Omaha World-Herald pointed out that there was no serious effort to close the base, Bliss explained that Bacon offered a stark contrast to Democrats opposition, led by Nancy Pelosi, to strengthen our military.



Volunteers with the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC make calls. (Ryan Henriksen/For The Washington Post)

That line was familiar to Ashford, the defeated Democrat who announced last week that he would run again in 2018. In an interview in the district  interrupted, briefly, by a barista who recognized him from an Obama rally  Ashford suggested that the early CLF expenditures were a sign that opponents took him seriously. In 2016, CLF was among the groups that battered him for supporting Pelosi. Asked if he would support her again, Ashford said it wasnt clear whether shed even run for speaker again and pivoted to a criticism of Ryan.

For me, the criteria is a willingness to work with the other side, said Ashford. I dont think you can overstate how ineffective these guys are at that. Paul Ryan and his team can come in here with guns blazing, like they did before, but they have nothing to show for it. They cant govern.

The CLFs strategy, though, was to convince voters that Bacon could govern  and that as loyal Republicans, they should want an ally instead of a Democrat who would wreck everything they loved. Ashford, Bliss said, would be driven to the left to please Democratic activists and put away a primary challenger, making a contrast race even easier.

Democrats, not cocky, were also not convinced. The CLFs well-funded campaign was limited by laws that separate campaigns and super PACs, and some of its targeting of voters might duplicate what Republicans were doing already. Resistance groups, demonized in GOP TV ads, were also organizing in Nebraskas 2nd District as they were across the country  hence the CLFs need to counteract them.

Veterans of the 2010 and 2014 Democratic routs were also skeptical that Republicans could divorce themselves from Trump. Jesse Ferguson, who joined the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2010 cycle, watched dozens of Democrats in the South and Midwest run on local issues and get dragged under by an anti-Obama wave.

Candidates can sometimes be successful creating their own brand and demonstrating to voters their independence, but political parties cant separate themselves from their political leaders, said Ferguson. For most people voting in 2018, the election will be a referendum on President Trump and whether Republicans in Congress have done their job to be a check and balance. Spoiler alert: They havent.

On Saturday, on the trail and in the CLFs western Omaha campaign office, Trump was an afterthought. At the doors, Mowat met fan after fan of Bacon; a voter named Gina Engel praised him for acting fast on a Veterans Affairs issue, while a voter named Brad Schroeder said the whole Republican agenda was on track.

Im not worried about Obamacare, Schroeder said. Thats going to collapse by itself.

At the office, decorated by homemade Bacon signs, about 20 volunteers were making calls using the CLFs script, which focused on how Congressman Bacon knows what it takes to protect our country. Asked how hed rate Trumps performance in office, Mowat emphasized the confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and the unfurling of regulations that didnt always get coverage.

The way Trump has gone about the business of passing legislation has been a problem sometimes, said Mowat. Youve got voices like Sean Spicer, who were really boisterous. I wish Trump would speak a little bit less and focus a little bit more on his policy.

Mowat sat down to make calls, and his fellow volunteers kept reading the script, which did not mention the president at all.

Read more at PowerPost
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) departs the Capitol after returning to the Senate to vote on health-care legislation on Tuesday. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post)

Sen. John McCain was greeted by applause from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as he walked onto the Senate floor, delivering Republicans a crucial vote to begin debate on an unknown plan to overhaul the health-care industry.

Then the Arizona Republican, done with the niceties, delivered a 15-minute excoriation of the modern Senate. A Senate riven by partisan infighting and almost no effort to work across the aisle. A Senate that has abandoned the principle that legislative committees had ownership of the process.

A Senate so broken that the only way to even begin a health-care debate was to drag an 80-year-old man, diagnosed last week with brain cancer, 2,300 miles across the nation from Phoenix to cast that critical vote.

Lets trust each other. Lets return to regular order. 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, McCain told his colleagues, who gave him the floor for an unusual address usually reserved for a retiring senator. Were getting nothing done, my friends. Were getting nothing done.

His mere presence gave Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) his biggest victory since the April confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, allowing debate on a still unformed legislative package designed to replace the Affordable Care Act. McConnell joined a long line of senators embracing McCain upon his arrival.

(U.S. Senate)

While McCain cast blame far and wide for the Senates shrunken status, he left no hint of subtlety in singling out the GOP leaders secretive, zigzagging effort to draft the health-care bill.

All weve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasnt very popular when we started trying to get rid of it, McCain said, noting rising support for the 2010 Affordable Care Act. I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered. I will not vote for this bill as it is today. Its a shell of a bill right now.

Despite this warning, McCains vote on Tuesday helped enable the broken process on health care that he came to the floor to decry. It allows McConnell to continue to circumvent the committee work and bipartisan negotiations McCain said represent the best of the Senate. A no vote would have forced leaders back to the drawing board, possibly into a bipartisan negotiation, but now, they will barrel ahead, possibly for weeks or months, on the Republican-only effort.

There was nothing new about a defiant McCain speech. On July 12, two days before his surgery to remove a blood clot that led to the diagnosis of a brain tumor, McCain delivered a fiery speech with the same themes  it was delivered to an almost empty chamber. Just McCain being McCain.

But Tuesday, McCain wasnt just being McCain.

He spoke for more than 225 years of Senate history, trying to force his colleagues to break free of this eras political spell. No one quite knew where he would end, almost sounding as if he were about to announce his retirement.

Almost every senator sat in his or her seat, hanging on every word. McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) twisted themselves sideways so they could look directly at McCain, his left eye still deeply swollen from the surgery.

Both leaders grew visibly emotional at times, McConnells face bright red as Schumers eyes glistened.

Whether his words will have any lasting impact remains to be seen and, frankly, is not very likely. When McCain concluded, Vice President Pence cast the tiebreaking vote, and both sides marched out to partisan news conferences blaming one another for the gridlock in Washington.

This legislation is open for amendment, not just by Republicans but by Democrats as well, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the majority whip, told reporters. Should our Democratic colleagues, in the spirit of Senator McCains remarks, decide to participate in the process and build a bipartisan piece of legislation, this could well be the beginning of that healing process for this institution.

Yet Cornyn knows full well that is not going to happen, that the process being used now is a fast-track effort under rules that allow budgetary measures to pass on a simple majority without having to clear a 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. Long ago, Democrats said they wanted no part of the work on an Affordable Care Act repeal, and McConnell was more than happy to take them up on that non-offer.

McCain now finds himself among the last of a generation in the Senate. He is venerated across the nation for surviving more than five years of captivity and torture during the Vietnam War. But he is worshiped inside the Senate for the latter half of his 30 years here, when he took on the role of bipartisan elder statesman.

McCain acknowledged that he has not always lived up to his own ideal. His temper legendary, his clashes with some colleagues have been incendiary. Sometimes Ive let my passion rule my reason. Sometimes I made it harder to find common ground because of something I said to a colleague, he said.

He and McConnell have had an on-again-off-again relationship. Its rockiest patch came 15 to 20 years ago as they clashed over campaign finance legislation restricting large donations to political parties. McCain beat McConnell on the Senate floor, but McConnell won in court, leading the legal battle that gutted McCains eponymous bill.

When McCain returned to the Senate following his loss in the 2008 presidential election, McConnell effectively deputized him to lead the GOP caucus on national security issues. In recent years, McConnell has sometimes relied on McCain as an emissary to Democrats, particularly Schumer, who grew close to McCain during the 2013 effort to overhaul immigration and border laws.

But in recent weeks, McCain has grown increasingly angry with the way McConnell abandoned any hint of regular order, working with an ad hoc group of Republicans in his office and then drafting the legislation on his own, reworking it each time he ran out of support from within the GOP caucus.

I dont think thats going to work in the end and probably shouldnt, McCain said.

Democrats applauded the call for bipartisan effort, prompting McCain to remind them that Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act with only their votes eight years ago.

As Republicans cheered at those remarks, Schumer made a bowing gesture toward McCain, acknowledging the point.

Were not getting much done apart, McCain told his colleagues. I dont think any of us feels very proud of our incapacity. Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isnt the most inspiring work. Theres greater satisfaction in respecting our differences but not letting them prevent agreements.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.


In the Burke Junction development in Fairfax city, single-family houses are priced from $899,990 to $999,990. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)

The cozy neighborhood of Burke Junction, ideal for commuters, is just a short walk from the Burke Centre train station served by the Virginia Railway Express Manassas line and the Amtrak Northeast Regional train.

Once completed, the Fairfax City community will have 17 single-family houses, a walking trail and park. It opened in May and the builder has already sold about half of the home sites that wrap around the long cul-de-sac street.

Adam Hall, sales associate for the community, said the development is drawing interest from buyers in Northern Virginia as well as those relocating for jobs from other parts of the region.

[Fairview Manor in Bowie delivers estate-sized homes, many on one-acre lots]

In addition to being near the train station, Burke Junction is also close to Old Town Fairfax and Fairfaxs trendy Mosaic District which has an eclectic mix of independent boutiques, restaurants, healthy food stores and an art house cinema.

There are six floor plans, and most have four bedrooms. But large families in need of extra space will appreciate the most spacious plan, the 4,244-square-foot Louisville that comes standard with five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and a three-car tandem garage.

1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Buying New | Burke Junction in Fairfax City, Va. View Photos The single-family houses are priced from $899,990 to $999,990. Caption The single-family houses are priced from $899,990 to $999,990. The cozy neighborhood of Burke Junction, ideal for commuters, is just a short walk from the Burke Centre train station served by the Virginia Railway Express Manassas line and the Amtrak Northeast Regional train. Benjamin C. Tankersley/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Sliding glass doors: All of the houses have bright and airy floor plans with high ceilings throughout all three floors. Exterior elevation choices include columned entryways, bay windows and covered front porches large enough to fit a set of four rocking chairs to take in the peaceful view.

The sales office is in the Berwyn model home. This is the midrange floor plan which starts at 3,681 square feet and has three full baths and a main-level powder room.

A wide foyer greets guests at the entry and separates the living and dining rooms. One of the unique features about this plan is that it comes with the option to add two sets of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors to close off the formal rooms from the foyer.

A set of stairs is unobtrusively placed beyond the foyer just before the kitchen and family room entrance. The 19-by-19-foot family room is surrounded by windows and the model showcases a wall height fireplace with the television mounted above it.

[Buchanan Park brings 32 new townhouses (some with elevators) to Capitol Hill]

A light-colored wood flooring can be seen throughout the main level from the foyer to the back portion of the home.

The family room flows seamlessly into the kitchen with only a center island serving as the separation point. This makes it easy when entertaining or when the cook doesnt want to feel left out of the action.

This isnt just any center island, its an obvious gathering hub big enough to fit at least five stools and comes with a small secondary sink. There are recessed lights throughout the main-level rooms but four pendant light fixtures hang over the island adding even more style to the gourmet kitchen.



One of the most unique features about the Berwyn model plan is that it comes with the option to add two sets of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors to close off the formal rooms from the foyer. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)

White cabinetry and light-colored granite countertops keep with the light and airy theme. Some of the cabinets come with glass doors. Theres also an 11-by-8-foot dining area with access to a patio door that opens onto a deck spanning the width of the family room. Another plan, the Dover, comes with an option to add a covered porch off the kitchen.

Around the corner from the kitchen is a cozy hidden workspace with a built-in desk, cabinets and a window, perfect for children doing homework. This space is outside of a separate room which can serve as a home office. The model uses it to highlight a fifth-bedroom option with a walk-in closet.

Second-floor loft: A wide set of stairs leads to the second level where the first thing guests will see is an oversized loft space that can be used as a second family room. This loft also has built-in desks and can come with a double-door entry.

There are four bedrooms spread throughout the long hallway. They each have ample closet space, and two of the rooms share a buddy bath accessible by both bedrooms. The third bedroom is next to the owners suite and includes its own private full bath.

The 19-by-17-foot suite has a tray ceiling, dual closets and spa bath with dark cabinetry and granite counters. This level is also home to a large laundry room.

The model home has a finished lower level with a large recreation and game room with a wet bar and wall of cabinetry. Nearby, theres a closed off room that can serve as the den or another bedroom and bathroom. But the highlight of this lower level is the exercise studio with wood floors and mirrored walls. And theres still plenty of unfinished space for storage as needed.

Schools: Bonnie Brae, Robinson Secondary School for middle and high school.

Transit: There are plenty of options to get around  Burke Centre Amtrak Station, VRE, Fairfax County Parkway and Interstate 66.



A rear deck spans the width of the family room. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)
In 2015, a migrant from Syria holds a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he and about 800 others arrive from Hungary at a railway station in Munich. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The refugee wave that buffeted Germany in 2015 is now crashing down on the nations courts, as migrants seeking relief from the Syrian civil war challenge efforts by one of Europes most welcoming states to limit their rights.

Some 250,000 asylum appeals are pending across Germany, according to estimates from an association of administrative court judges. Nearly 13,500 are ongoing in the capital alone, part of a tenfold increase over the past year.

Stephan Groscurth, a spokesman for Berlins administrative court, said the appeals  filed by the growing number of migrants who have been denied protection or given less than they were seeking  make up two-thirds of court business. This will paralyze us for years, a judge told Der Tagesspiegel, a German daily based in Berlin.

The courts are the last bastion of hope for Amira Suleiman, 44. She has not seen her husband or 12-year-old son for two years  not since she fled to Germany from Syria, setting out from the Palestinian refugee camp at Yarmouk, a war-ravaged place in Syria that had once been their home.

The separation was supposed to be temporary, as family reunification is a right owed to refugees under European law. But Suleiman is not a refugee, according to Germanys Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.





Instead, the migration office assigned her only subsidiary protection status that carries no right of family reunification, recognizing that she may suffer harm in her country of origin but denying her protection as a refugee. Hundreds of thousands are in the same position, as Germany has substantially reduced the rate of refugee claims it accepts.

I have no other way of making my family whole again, Suleiman said. I thought this was my right, and when I heard, I thought, How could this possibly be? 

She filed an appeal in December. More than half a year later, she is still waiting for a decision.

The conflict over subsidiary protection and family reunification remains in the shadows of an intensifying global debate over the duty of nations to aid refugees. A recent flash point is the situation in the Mediterranean Sea, where a record number of people died last year fleeing war and poverty in North Africa.

But the debates throbbing heart is still Germany, whose chancellor, Angela Merkel, said last week that she would not cap the number of asylum seekers her country would admit.

In 2015, she welcomed more than a million migrants, saying, We can do this  a declaration of German resolve tinged with enduring national guilt over the crimes of the countrys Nazi past. But now, thousands of asylum seekers are taking her government to court for denying them protection under the 1951 Geneva Conventions on refugees.

Many have won.

Amira Suleiman, 44, fled Syria in 2015, along with two of her sons, including Amjad Waked, 9, pictured. Two of her sons had already come to Germany, and one stayed behind in Syria. There wasn't enough money for smugglers to transport everyone. (Isaac Stanley-Becker/The Washington Post)

Asylum seekers from Syria have seen a nearly 90 percent success rate on appeal, according to the federal migration office, although higher courts have reversed some of those decisions. The overall success rate for asylum seekers appealing their decisions is lower, but it has climbed in recent years.

An administrative court judge in Berlin, Kai-Christian Samel, said the task is deciding whether migrants are as individuals subject to political oppression or if they are just in fear of indiscriminate danger. This is also what the migration office is charged with doing.

The courts are cleaning up the mess, said Nora Markard, a law professor at the University of Hamburg. The success rate tells us how important judicial review is  and how important it is for people to have legal representation.

The surge of appeals reveals the precariousness of policies adopted by the European Unions largest state to address the most extreme displacement of people since World War II. It comes as the German government pivots to limit migrants rights, spurred by public opinion that has turned against an open-door policy following attacks carried out by militants from Muslim-majority countries.

The cases reflect the resistance of asylum seekers to a reinstatement of Europes old border regime. And they point to the critical link between migration and family reunification, knotted issues also under scrutiny in American courts weighing the legality of the Trump administrations travel ban.

But the backlog in German courts also shows how policy changes geared toward efficiency  the goal pursued by Germany in signing a 2015 contract with McKinsey & Co. to streamline its asylum procedures  can backfire, trading one bureaucratic morass for another, with high stakes for people such as Amira Suleiman caught in between.

[How McKinsey quietly shaped Europes response to the refugee crisis]

Suleiman was denied refugee status following an interview in November 2016, more than a year after she had filed for asylum. In the three-hour interview, she explained how she had been born in Yarmouk, how she had seen rapes and torture, how a rebel sniper had threatened to kill her, how she had cancer and was being treated in Berlin.

She expected Germany to recognize her as a refugee  a status hinging, under Geneva guidelines, on a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

She had good reason to be confident, according to experts, who said Palestinians should qualify as refugees on leaving a U.N. sanctuary.

For me, that would be a clear-cut refugee case, said Constantin Hruschka, an asylum lawyer formerly with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Germany and Geneva.

But the migration office found no evidence of concrete threats or attacks that are so severe that they are violations of fundamental human rights, it wrote.

Subsidiary protection allows Suleiman a one-year residence permit, instead of the three years for refugees, and it imposes more stringent qualifications for obtaining a long-term license to stay in Germany. Otherwise, it affords many of the entitlements granted to refugees, including unrestricted access to the labor market.

But in legislation passed in February 2016, the German Parliament stripped the right of family reunification from migrants with subsidiary status. The restriction is set to remain in effect until at least March 2018. It accompanied a raft of changes, promoted by the conservative wing of the ruling coalition, that included fast-track asylum centers, expedited denial for certain classes of migrants and broader grounds for expulsion.

Simultaneously, the Interior Ministry instructed the federal migration office to abandon written procedures that classified migrants from Syria as refugees. Instead, it required individual interviews, a more discretionary system that enabled officials to grant only subsidiary protection to multitudes of asylum seekers.

Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, had broadcast the changes as early as November 2015, saying of Syrian asylum seekers: Were telling them, You will get protection, but only so-called subsidiary protection  that is to say, for a limited period and without family unification. 

A March 2016 letter from Aydan Ozoguz, Germanys commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, assured a refugee law clinic in Hamburg that the Interior Ministry had not directed the federal migration office to favor the lower status.

What is now clear, however, is that asylum policy has reversed course. Just 0.6 percent of migrants from Syria who received asylum decisions in 2015 were granted subsidiary status; 41 percent received it in 2016; 60 percent have so far in 2017.

The federal migration office denies having made a policy decision to rely on subsidiary status. The director of the office, Jutta Cordt, said officials evaluate every individual refugee story very carefully and grant subsidiary protection if a person has not been individually persecuted but fled from civil war.

[On World Refugee Day, 5 correspondents reveal what its like to cover the crisis]

But for Christoph Strasser, former commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid, this explanation isnt plausible. He sees the increase in the use of subsidiary status for asylum seekers from Syria, who are in no less danger today than they were two years ago, as confirmation of the concerns that led him to resign his position when lawmakers adopted the restrictive measures.

We have been duped, Strasser said. When the rule suspending family reunification was under consideration, he recalled, the Interior Ministry claimed that a maximum of 1,500 people would be affected by this.

But the asylum center in his Munster constituency, he said, confirmed that there had been instructions by the Interior Ministry to increasingly give subsidiary protection to Syrians.

Experts said this violates international law.

If they are really motivated by the desire to avoid family reunification to persons who are in fact refugees, said James C. Hathaway, a professor of refugee law at the University of Michigan, thats both legally and morally wrong.

That is the gist of Suleimans appeal. And without a decision from the court, said her attorney, Oda Jentsch, every day is torture.

Suleimans husband tells her to give up and go back to Syria; that way, at least, they would be together. But her lawyer promises there soon will be a verdict.

I try to forget and live normally, Suleiman said. But I want a permanent solution.

Stephanie Kirchner, Taha Sheikh Dieh and Alexandra Rojkov contributed to this report.

Read more

Italy offers swimming lessons for refugees traumatized while crossing the Mediterranean

Aided by Portugals Schindler, these WWII refugees are trying to help others

Europes fixer, Merkel faces test in preparing the continent to confront Trump

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, left, and Russias then-ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, right, arrive for a meeting at the U.S. State Department on June 17. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

Senior Russian officials and lawmakers on Wednesday attacked new financial sanctions passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, saying they ended hopes for the detente between Moscow and Washington that President Trump promised during his campaign.

The new sanctions, which passed the House on Tuesday evening by an overwhelming vote of 419 to 3, targeted key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscows alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. Iran and North Korea were also targets.

The sanctions passage cemented views in Moscow that Trumps election has provided few deliverables for the Kremlin and that the American president is being held hostage by a foreign policy establishment that seeks conflict with Russia.

The sanctions also may prove to be an inflection point. Even for a relationship characterized by saber-rattling and dire predictions, the Russian response was notably stark.

Washington is a source of danger, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, whose portfolio includes relations with the United States, told a state news agency in an interview. Later, he added, Essentially, the possibilities for normalization of relations in the foreseeable future are closed.

(U.S. House of Representatives)

Others said that Russia should finally expel several dozen U.S. diplomats, ending a hopeful period in Moscow that Trump would reverse President Barack Obamas decision late last year to expel 35 diplomats and seize two diplomatic compounds that Obama said were used to gather signals intelligence.

In this case I am a supporter of symmetrical responses, said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russias parliament. I believe their time has come.

The sanctions bill and the deportations of diplomats were punishment for Russias alleged intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections. Russian officials say they believe those accusations are just a pretext to undermine the Trump administration.

The sanctions bill passed by the House would force Trump to seek congressional approval to roll back other sanctions against Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, resisted the congressional push, but the overwhelming majority in the House suggests that a presidential veto would probably be overridden. The sanctions bill still would require approval by the Senate.

While Trump has shown that he wants a closer relationship with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials are now convinced of the limits of his power and ability to control his own party.

The new sanctions came just weeks after Trump and Putin met for the first time during the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, speaking for more than two hours behind closed doors and then once more after a dinner, at a meeting attended only by Trump, Putin and Putins interpreter. The two discussed, among other topics, Moscows ban on adoptions of Russian children by American parents. The Russian ban was a response to U.S. sanctions.

Kosachev had said he was hopeful after that meeting for a breakthrough in relations.

President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg on July 7. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

After Tuesdays vote in the House, he struck a different chord.

Hope dies last but it is dying, Kosachev wrote on Facebook, where he regularly posts his thoughts on international politics. The further degradation of the bilateral cooperation is inevitable, even though it seems like it couldnt get any worse.

The Russian governments frustration has reached fever peak. The main adjectives for Russian views on the United States are disgust, disdain and contempt, said Sergey Karaganov, a foreign-policy analyst who works at the Higher School of Economics. He said that policy thinkers have discussed how the United States internal political divisions and wild emotions are turning the country into a failed state.

There have been some upsides for Russia to the Trump presidency. The focus on damaging internal politics in Washington, he said, has given Russia breathing room in Ukraine but also in Syria, where cooperation with Russia has become central to the Trump administrations plan to fight the Islamic State.

Also, Karaganov said, the United States loss of prestige is Russias gain.

Because of your internal affairs, you have made Russia and Putin supreme. Who is ruling the world? You say its Russians. In terms of PR, its unbelievably good, he said. But seriously, on the real issues, security, the situation in the world, we are very much concerned.

Read more

U.S. attempt to handcuff Trump on Russia could backfire, Europe says

House passes Russia sanctions bill, setting up veto dilemma for Trump

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
President Trump renewed his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, questioning on Twitter why the top U.S. law enforcement official had not replaced the acting FBI director  a move that Trump himself has the authority to do.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote: Why didnt A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!

Trump has for days been attacking his attorney general, and he has similarly been critical of McCabe, who took over as the acting director of the FBI after Trump fired James B. Comey. But the presidents latest attack is curious.

[The standoff between Trump and Sessions escalates]

Sessions was not the attorney general during the FBIs investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. And the president himself could remove McCabe without Sessions. Administration officials actually contemplated doing so after Comeys firing. Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein met with four other candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, though the administration ultimately stuck with McCabe.

The others who interviewed were Michael Anderson, the special agent in charge of the FBIs Chicago division; Adam Lee, the special agent in charge of the FBIs Richmond division; Paul Abbate, the executive assistant director of the FBIs Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch; and William Bill Evanina, the national counterintelligence executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Asked during the White House news briefing Wednesday why Trump hadnt simply removed McCabe himself, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted he had nominated Christopher A. Wray, a white-collar defense lawyer who had previously led the Justice Departments criminal division, to take the permanent FBI director job. She said Trump was looking forward to getting him confirmed soon.

[Trump is ratcheting up his abuse of Jeff Sessions. And Sessions has no good options.]

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The FBI also declined to comment.

In recent days, Trump has talked with advisers about replacing Sessions as his attorney general, and he has simultaneously criticized him in public. He has called Sessions very weak on investigating Hillary Clintons crimes and claimed he had not aggressively hunted those who have leaked intelligence secrets since he has been in office.

At a news conference Tuesday, he said he was disappointed in Sessions and declined to say exactly what his future was.

We will see what happens, Trump said. Time will well. Time will tell.

Sanders said Wednesday that Trump was disappointed in Sessions, though she hinted that didnt necessarily mean he would be ousted.

You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job, Sanders said.

Sanders also seemed to reject the notion that Sessions could redeem himself by, for example, launching a leak investigation.

I dont think thats the nature of the relationship, Sanders said.

Officials have said Sessions is due to announce in coming days a number of criminal leak investigations based on news accounts of sensitive intelligence information. Sanders said she did not believe the president and Sessions had spoken this week, though Sessions had been at the White House for a principals committee meeting.

Congressional Republicans have come to the defense of Sessions, publicly urging Trump to back off his criticism of the attorney general.

[Sen. Bob Corker: No professional reason for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down]

In a brief interview Wednesday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reiterated his public support for Sessions, which came Tuesday when McConnell praised Sessions job performance and voiced support for the attorney generals recusal of the Russian investigation.

McConnell declined to say if he directly raised the issue with Trump but made clear that he has voiced that support for Sessions to high-level officials.

Ive conveyed that to the public and to others, McConnell said.

A person familiar with internal White House discussions about Sessions said Trumps attacks on Sessions are a public airing of what the president has been saying for months privately  that he blames Sessionss recusal for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible ties to Russia. But the person cautioned that neither the president nor his advisers have articulated a plan for replacing Sessions with someone else, and the angry words are primarily a venting of the presidents anger, rather than a calculated effort to drive the attorney general out of office.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily.

In a recent conversation, Sessionss chief of staff, Jody Hunt, told White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that the attorney general had no intention of stepping down. Hunt, according to people familiar with the conversation, made it clear to Priebus that Sessions plans to move forward with his agenda in the department, and he has no plans for resigning. Priebus, for his part, did not say Trump planned to fire Sessions if he did not leave, these people said.

Trump has also shown some ire for McCabe, who seemed to put himself at odds with the Trump administration in May when, during an appearance before Congress, he rejected the White Houses characterization of the Russian meddling probe as a low priority and delivered a passionate defense of Comey.

[Acting FBI director contradicts Trump White House on Comey, Russia probe]

Trumps latest line of attack refers to an issue that emerged late in the 2016 presidential campaign, when it was revealed that the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the 2015 state senate campaign of McCabes wife, Jill McCabe. The Virginia Democratic Party, over which McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to McCabes campaign in the form of mailers, according to state campaign records.

Andrew McCabe was a senior FBI official at the time of that 2015 election, which Jill McCabe lost. After that election, Andrew McCabe was promoted to the No. 2 position at FBI headquarters under then-FBI director Comey. As deputy director, McCabe was part of the senior leadership team overseeing the Clinton email investigation, and a stalled probe involving the Clinton Foundation. Within the FBI, some agents were concerned about McCabes involvement in those cases, given the previous campaign donations, but FBI ethics officials told McCabe it was not a conflict of interest to be involved with those cases. The issue is now being investigated by the Justice Departments inspector general.

When the president fired Comey in May, McCabe became acting director of the FBI, and even had a White House interview to take the job on a permanent basis. Since Comeys firing, many inside the agency and the larger federal law enforcement workforce have rallied to support McCabe, who is generally regarded internally as trying to maintain and defend the agencys independence in the face of criticism from Trump.

Trump himself has the power to replace McCabe as the interim FBI director. When officials were considering doing so months ago, they were relying on the Vacancies Reform Act, which says only the president can do so. Officials said at the time that if McCabe were to have been replaced, he would have returned to his role in the No. 2 spot.

Paul Kane, Philip Rucker and Jenna Johnson contributed to this article.
Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
Welcome to The Independent Herald E-Edition! Check back each week on Tuesday to see our[Read More]
Dear reader, we're asking for your help to keep local reporting available for all. Your financial support keeps stories like this one free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood.

Start your day with LAist Sign up for How To LA, delivered weekday mornings. Subscribe

As the old Pringles slogan goes: Once you pop, the fun don't stop. In this instance, however, the "fun" could mean a fatal dose of neurotoxins.

On Tuesday, a Monterey Park man was arrested for illegally importing king cobras into the United States hidden inside potato chip canisters.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rodrigo Franco, 34, was arrested Tuesday morning and is charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise into the United States. That "merchandise" included three king cobras, which the United States Customs and Border Protection had intercepted on March 2. The cobras were each approximately two-feet long, and were hidden inside potato chip canisters that are similar to the ones used by Pringles. Authorities say that three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles were also part of that parcel (the DOJ doesn't mention if they, too, were stored in some snack-related packaging).

Federal agents later executed a search warrant at Franco's home in Monterey Park. The investigation discovered that Franco had tanks that contained a live baby Morelets crocodile, alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle, and five diamond back terrapinsthe DOJ notes that they're all protected species.



(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice)

Franco also told authorities in a subsequent interview that he'd received 20 king cobras in previous shipments, but all the cobras died while in transit.

If convicted, Franco could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

We should mention that the king cobra is wholly deserving of its notoriety. "It seems unfairly menacing that a snake that can literally 'stand up' and look a full-grown person in the eye would also be among the most venomous on the planet, but that describes the famous king cobra," National Geographic says of the feared snake. They add that, "Their venom is not the most potent among venomous snakes, but the amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single biteup to two-tenths of a fluid ounceis enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant."
It was March 2020, and the world was closing down as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. At first, the news of...
KeyCorp operates as the holding company for KeyBank National Association that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Bank and Commercial Bank. The company offers various deposits, investment products and services; and personal finance and financial wellness, student loan refinancing, mortgage and home equity, lending, credit card, treasury, business advisory, wealth management, asset management, investment, cash management, portfolio management, and trust and related services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. It also provides a suite of banking and capital market products, such as syndicated finance, debt and equity capital market products, commercial payments, equipment finance, commercial mortgage banking, derivatives, foreign exchange, financial advisory, and public finance, as well as commercial mortgage loans comprising consumer, energy, healthcare, industrial, public sector, real estate, and technology loans for middle market clients. In addition, the company offers community development financing, securities underwriting, brokerage, and investment banking services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated through a network of approximately 999 branches and 1,317 ATMs in 15 states, as well as additional offices, online and mobile banking capabilities, and a telephone banking call center. KeyCorp was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday that places new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, and limits the Trump administrations ability to overturn them. The vote was 4193 on a measure that will significantly increase geopolitical conflicts between the United States and its major rivalsnot only Russia, but also the imperialist powers in Europe.

The bill will now move to the Senate, where an earlier version (without the North Korea sanctions) was approved by a similar margin, 972, in June. Trump has given mixed signals about whether he will sign the bill, but the veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress mean that it is almost certain to be adopted into law.

The new sanctions expose the essential issues behind the election hacking campaign of the US media and political establishment, spearheaded by the intelligence agencies that are opposed to any shift away from the anti-Russia policy developed under the Obama administration. The near-unanimous vote in both houses of Congress (all no votes in the House were from Republicans) testifies to the degree to which the CIA, NSA and other spy agencies directly control the institutions of the state and the personnel that compose them.

The real issues at stake in the bitter internecine conflict within the ruling class were spelled out in a Washington Post editorial Monday (Congresss drasticbut necessaryrebuke to Trump). The Post, which along with the New York Times has been a leading media voice in the anti-Russia campaign, hailed the bill as necessary to protect the vital interests of the US.

The sanctions agreement, the Post wrote, placed Trumps policy toward the regime of Vladimir Putin in receivership, preventing him from lifting sanctions without congressional agreement. Trump has displayed an inexplicable affinity toward Russia, the newspaper wrote, and has cast doubt on Russias intervention in the US election campaign.

For the US intelligence community, the Post asserted, there is no such doubt Mr. Trumps refusal to accept those conclusions, and the possibility that he might reverse sanctions imposed on Russia for that interference and for its military invasion of Ukraine, has generated an extraordinary consensus in an otherwise polarized Congress.

None of the allegations made by the Post about Russias involvement in the election can be proven, and the declarations of the US intelligence community are no more believable than the claims that the government of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even if one were to accept the conclusions as true, there is no doubt that Clinton was working with all manner of governments to advance her election campaign.

The real issue is not Russian hacking, but the geostrategic interests of American imperialism. As the Post makes clear, its main concern is that Russia has obstructed the operations of US intelligence agencies and the military in Ukraine and Syria. The reference to the military invasion of Ukraine refers to Russias annexation of Crimea and the internal civil war that followed the 2014 regime-change operation organized by the US, and spearheaded by fascistic organizations, to unseat a pro-Russian government.

The editorial later complains that Trumps actions are handing Russia major concessions for nothing, including the withdrawal of US support for rebel forces in Syria. This refers to Trumps decision to end CIA support for Syrian opposition forces, dominated by Al Qaeda, who have been waging a US-backed civil war to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The editorial acknowledges that the sanctions bill could have some unintended consequences, including on US-European coordination on Russia. It is nevertheless essential because Trump cannot be trusted to protect vital US interests against persistent Russian aggression.

What are these vital US interests? They do not involve the Trump administrations assault on health care, its brutal assault on immigrant workers, or its militarist agenda. Rather they refer to the interests of the ruling class in dominating the Middle East and its vast energy resources and expanding US power in Eastern Europe. For the factions of the ruling class for which the Post speaks, moreover, US aggression against Russia is seen as essential for keeping the European powers in line and for taking on China.

The new bill will be adopted under conditions of explosive geopolitical tensions that can very rapidly escalate into a direct military conflict involving nuclear-armed powers. Within just the past 24 hours, the US fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel; the Chinese military intercepted a US aircraft; the Wall Street Journal reported on preparations by China for a US war against North Korea; and China staged joint military operations with Russia in the Baltic Sea.

The various countries affected by the bill will take it as a clear sign that the US intends to sharply pursue its economic and military confrontation with them. A leaked European Union memo reported the statements from European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker that the EU should stand ready to act within days of the bills passage, and that the sanctions could impact a potentially large number of European companies doing legitimate business under EU measures with Russian entities.

The Trump administration, increasingly embattled and isolated, could decide that the best way to resolve its internal crisis is to start a warperhaps with Iran or North Korea. And if Trumps opponents are successful in forcing a change in his policy or in removing him, it will mean a shift toward an even more aggressive policy in the Middle East and, above all, against Russia.

However bitter the divisions within the state, the American ruling class is driven by a relentless logic. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought with it not an end of history, but a quarter century of unending and expanding war, in which the ruling class has sought to reverse the decline of American capitalism and maintain its global economic position through the use of military force. This mad and reckless policy is now bringing the entire world to the brink of a Third World War.
President Donald Trump broke with nearly 80 years of tradition during his Monday speech at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree when he used the West Virginia event to discuss politics, a topic past Presidents generally avoided.

The eight previous Presidents to speak at the Jamboree  a list that extends back to President. Franklin D. Roosevelt  have largely avoided politically sensitive topics. Franklin Roosevelt spoke about being a good citizen, while President George H.W. Bush used the occasion to talk about serving others, according to the Washington Post.

But Trump took the opportunity to boast about his electoral victory and joke about firing Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. That led some critics to argue his speech sounded more like a campaign rally rather than a speech to the Boy Scouts of America.

Here are three controversial statements President Trump made while speaking to the Boy Scouts of America National Scout Jamboree:

Trump joked about firing Secretary Tom Price

President Trump joked about firing HHS Sec. Tom Price if he doesnt get the votes to kill this horrible thing known as Obamacare. Trumps comments came a day before Senate Republicans were set to vote on a measure to begin debate on a health care bill Tuesday.

Secretary Tom Price is also here today. Dr. Price still lives the Scout oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our secretary of Health and Human Services. And hes doing a great job, Trump said. And hopefully hes going to gets the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare thats really hurting us.

By the way, are you going to get the votes? He better get them. He better get them. Oh, he better. Otherwise Ill say, Tom, youre fired. Ill get somebody, the President added.

Trump said we could use some more loyalty

During his speech, Trump applauded the patriotic American values and traditions that Boy Scouts learn as a road to American success.

Story continues

Someday, many years from now, when you look back on all of the adventures in your lives you will be able to say . . . I got my start as a Scout, just like these incredibly great people that are doing such a good job for our country.'

He continued to say that Boy Scout Values are American values, and that great Boy Scouts become great, great Americans, before adding that As the Scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal  we could use some more loyalty, I will tell that you that.

Trumps comments about loyalty came after former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey claimed Trump had asked him for his loyalty before abruptly firing him in May. Its unusual for a President to make such a request from an FBI Director.

Trump gave the Boy Scouts career advice inspired by a controversial developer

Trump recounted a time when he saw William Levitt, a famed real estate developer, at a time when Levitt was suffering from a string of failed business endeavors.

I saw [Levitt] at a cocktail party and it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party, he said. Trump then approached Levitt to introduce himself, he recalled, and then asked the developer what happened that caused his businesses to fail.

And he said, Donald, I lost my momentum. I lost my momentum. A word you never hear when youre talking about success, Trump said.

He lost his momentum, meaning he took this period of time off long, years, and then when he got back, he didnt have the same momentum, Trump added. In life, I always tell this to people. You have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum. And if you dont have, it thats O.K.

The anecdote was meant to encourage the Boy Scouts to never quit, never give up, Trump said. But as some social media users pointed out, Levitt was criticized for refusing to sell homes to African-Americans and other minority groups. His practice led civil rights groups to demonstrate at one of his properties in Bowie, Md. in 1963, according to The New York Times. Levitt died of progressive kidney disease in 1994 at the age of 86.
By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Long Island, New York, investment adviser accused of engaging in insider trading after being tipped off about Pfizer Inc's $3.6 billion acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals Inc pleaded guilty on Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.

Tibor Klein, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Klein faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

New York-based Pfizer announced it would acquire Tennessee-based King in October 2010.

Prosecutors have said Klein learned about the deal in advance from Robert Schulman, who at the time was a partner at the law firm of Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C., and had represented King in patent litigation since 2009.

Prosecutors said Klein, founder of Valley Stream-based, Klein Financial Services, then bought King securities for himself, Schulman and clients, and passed the tip to his friend Michael Shechtman, a Florida stockbroker, resulting in more than $400,000 of overall illegal profit.

Schulman, of McLean, Virginia, was convicted on insider trading charges in March by a jury in Brooklyn federal court. He was a partner at the law firm Arent Fox in Washington, D.C. at the time of his arrest last August, and was later put on leave.

Shechtman, a former Ameriprise Financial Inc stockbroker, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn in November 2014 to a conspiracy charge, and has cooperated with prosecutors. He has not yet been sentenced.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related civil lawsuit in September 2013 against Klein and Shechtman in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida. That case was later put on hold until the criminal case was resolved.

Although the SEC did not sue Schulman, it alleged that he became intoxicated on several glasses of wine while dining at home with his wife and Klein in August 2010, and blurted out: "It would be nice to be King for a day."

Klein took the hint and bought 60,600 King shares, including 800 for himself and 3,000 for Schulman, on the next trading day, the SEC said.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
As senior government officials from Ankara prepare to meet with their European Union counterparts, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making clear that he will not bow to pressure over human rights concerns.

The West wants Turkey to bring about their demands no questions asked, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday in Ankara. I am sorry to say that Turkey no longer exists.

Erdogans provocative comments were to his partys legislators, shortly before his foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, and EU affairs minister, Omer Celik, were to meet with the EU high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, in Brussels. The parties are expected to discuss, among other things, Turkeys bid for EU membership and visa-free travel, as well as immigration and the fight against terrorism.

But human rights activists are also urging the EU to use the opportunity to raise the issue of the mass detention of opposition and civil society figures who are among the over 50,000 people detained in Turkey since the failed July 2016 coup.

Seventeen journalists charged with membership in a terror group from the independent paper Cumhuriyet are among those detained. Their trial began on Monday. They maintain that they were simply doing their jobs as journalists. Turkey detained more journalists than any other country in 2016, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists

A provisional verdict is expected Friday. Some see that court proceedings as a test for the independence of the judiciary in Turkey.

At least in the past, however, Erdogan has resisted outside attempts to pressure Turkey on human rights. After a German human rights activist was detained three weeks ago, Germany threatened to withhold backing investments in Turkey.

Those who carried out historys most merciless, bloody, vicious massacres during the first and second world wars should not lecture us on humanity, Erdogan responded.

Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
With the Congress hardly making efforts to look into the possibilities of impeaching President Donald Trump, a new poll revealed that 42 percent of Americans feel the president should be impeached. Surprisingly, an equal number of Americans are against his impeachment.

The online poll conducted by USA TODAY/iMediaEthics also revealed that one third of the those surveyed said they would be upset if Trump is not impeached, while an equal number said they would be upset if he is impeached.

READ: Is Demand For Impeaching Trump Gaining Speed?

The report said nearly seven in 10 Democrats were of the opinion the president should be impeached. Around 36 percent of the Independents and 15 percent of Republicans were of the same opinion.

The poll also found that 46 percent of those surveyed think that Trump is not likely to complete his first term, while 27 percent opined that he would complete it.

One in ten Republicans is doubtful about Trump president completing his term, the poll revealed.

Regarding the work being done by the president, 44 percent of respondents said they approve of the job he is doing while 51 percent disapproved of his work. However the poll said the opposition to the president's work was intense. The poll found that while only 22 percent strongly approved of Trumps work, 38 percent expressed strong disapproval of his work.

The poll also found that young people were more inclined towards impeachment than older respondents. While 55 percent of those under 35 said that Trump should be removed, only 33 percent of those above 50 said so.

Another data of the poll revealed that more women were in favor of impeachment than men. Forty-six percent women said the president should be impeached, while only 36 percent of men were in favor of removing Trump.

The report said that while 27 percent believed that Congress has enough evidence to impeach Trump, 30 percent believed they do not have sufficient evidence. Moreover, 31 percent believed that there will never be enough evidence to impeach him.

Story continues

READ: Impeaching Trump: The Pros And Cons Of Removing A President From Office

Similar surveys have also been conducted during the rule of other presidents. In 2014, a survey by CNN/ORC revealed that only one-third of those surveyed were in favor of impeaching Barack Obama, while 65 percent had said he should not be removed. In 2006, only 29 percent of those surveyed had said that President George Bush should be impeached, USA Today reported.

During the Watergate scandal, the number of those who wanted former President Richad Nixon to be impeached grew from 19 percent in June to 57 percent in August in 1974.

Related Articles
A demonstrator waves a rainbow flag in front of the US Capitol in Washington: Maria Belen Perez Gabilondo/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trumps sudden ban on transgender service in the US military has been deemed vile and appalling by politicians and LGBTQ advocates alike.

This is discrimination, plain and simple, tweeted California Senator Kamala Harris. I stand with the brave transgender Americans who selflessly serve our military.

Mr Trump announced his decision through a Twitter thread, appearing to catch even the Pentagon off guard.

"Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military," he wrote.

The President added that he had consulted with generals and military experts before determining that transgender service would impose tremendous medical costs and disruption on the military.

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

The decision sunsets an Obama-era policy that allows current transgender service members to serve openly, receive medical care, and change their gender identity in the Pentagons personnel system. The Trump administration has been weighing the roll-out of the last phase of this policy, which would allow new, openly transgender individuals to enlist.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi condemned the decision on Twitter, calling it a vile attack on LGBTQ Americans.

Transgender Americans have proudly  if silently  served in our military for years, she wrote. But instead of honouring their patriotism, @POTUS has decided to attack their dignity and the very value of their service.

.@POTUS has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by prejudice. https://t.co/PHTlXMhEJg pic.twitter.com/X9rYhn5Jic  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 26, 2017

The RAND Corporation, which helped analyse Mr Obamas transgender service policy, estimates that there are roughly 4,000 transgender individuals currently serving in the military. Extending health care to these individuals, they say, would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year  a less than 1 per cent increase in annual active-duty health care spending.

Story continues

But Tony Johnson, a national security researcher and former Pentagon adviser, said the conversation about transgender service should not revolve around numbers.

This is a values issue, its not a numbers issue, he told The Independent. The question is, first, are we a nation that respects our values and our citizens or not? And second, will we welcome everyone who wishes to serve to work in the vital service of protecting our nation?

Mr Johnson, a military veteran who was forced to resign under Don't Ask, Dont Tell, admitted that transgender service is a complicated issue for both service members and policy makers. Still, he doubts Mr Trumps announcement will be well-received within the military.

This is a complex issue for the uniformed services, and it is a complex and difficult issue for the policy makers, he said. But it should be said that in my experience, all those people have been dedicated to the principles and values that the US purports to have, and to defend across the world.

Charles Clymer, a military veteran who identifies as genderqueer, seconded that opinion.

"Every officer I know doesn't care if a soldier is transgender," they told The Independent. "They care about one thing and one thing only: whether or not they can meet the highest standards expected of any American serving in uniform."

This is retired U.S. Navy SEAL Kristin Beck. 13 deployments, 7 in combat. I dare you to call her unworthy or unfit.#TransgenderAmericans pic.twitter.com/TJmaOYulfE  Charles Clymer (@cmclymer) July 26, 2017

To Kimberly Acoff, a transgender veteran who served six years in the Army National Guard without disclosing her identity, the decision was nothing less than dehumanising.

It was numbing for me, she told The Independent, because Im an American, and the last thing I would think I would have to do is be threatened by my president, who is supposed to protect me.

She added that the decision creates a dangerous environment for transgender individuals who are already facing a challenging environment as it is.

Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, appeared to recognise that danger in a tweet.

Trans people put their lives at risk every day - even more so when they serve, he wrote. Donald Trump wishes he had their bravery.
(SAN ANTONIO)  The tractor-trailer was pitch-black inside, crammed with maybe 90 immigrants or more, and already hot when it left the Texas border town of Laredo for the 150-mile trip north to San Antonio.

It wasnt long before the passengers, sweating profusely in the rising oven-like heat, started crying and pleading for water. Children whimpered. People took turns breathing through a single hole in the wall. They pounded on the sides of the truck and yelled to try to get the drivers attention. Then they began passing out.

By the time police showed up at a Walmart in San Antonio around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and looked in the back of the truck, eight passengers were dead and two more would soon die in an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone tragically awry.

The details of the journey were recounted Monday by a survivor who spoke to The Associated Press and in a federal criminal complaint against the driver, James Matthew Bradley, who could face the death penalty over the 10 lives lost.

After an hour I heard  people crying and asking for water. I, too, was sweating and people were despairing. Thats when I lost consciousness, Adan Lara Vega, 27, told the AP from his hospital bed. By the time he came to, he was in the hospital, where his ID bracelet identified him by the last name Lalravega. Mexican consulate and U.S. officials later told AP the correct spelling was Lara Vega.

Bradley, 60, of Clearwater, Florida, appeared in federal court on charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. He was ordered held for another hearing on Thursday.

He did not enter a plea or say anything about what happened. But in court papers, he told authorities he didnt realize anyone was inside his 18-wheeler until he parked and got out to relieve himself.

In addition to the dead, nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke.

Mexicos foreign ministry released a statement Monday night that said according to preliminary information, 25 of the migrants inside the rig were Mexican.

Story continues

Four of those who died and 21 of those hospitalized were Mexican, the statement said. Some of the others inside the truck were from Guatemala.

Many of the immigrants had hired smugglers who brought them across the U.S. border, hid them in safe houses and then put them aboard the tractor-trailer for the ride northward, according to accounts given to investigators.

Even though they have the driver in custody, I can guarantee you theres going to be many more people were looking for to prosecute, said Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bradley told investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas. After hearing banging and shaking, he opened the door and was surprised when he was run over by Spanish people and knocked to the ground, according to the criminal complaint.

He said he did not call 911, even though he knew at least one passenger was dead.

Bradley told authorities that he knew the trailer refrigeration system didnt work and that the four ventilation holes were probably clogged.

The truck was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. President Brian Pyle said that he had sold the truck to someone in Mexico and that Bradley was supposed to deliver it to a pick-up point in Brownsville.

Im absolutely sorry it happened. I really am. Its shocking. Im sorry my name was on it, Pyle said, referring to the truck. He said he had no idea why Bradley took the roundabout route he described to investigators.

Bradley told authorities that he had stopped in Laredo  which would have been out of his way if he were traveling directly to Brownsville  to get the truck washed and detailed before heading back 150 miles (240 kilometers) north to San Antonio. From there, he would have had to drive 275 miles (440 kilometers) south again to get to Brownsville.

I just cant believe it. Im stunned, shocked. He is too good a person to do anything like this, said Bradleys fiancee, Darnisha Rose of Louisville, Kentucky. He helps people, he doesnt hurt people.

One passenger described a perilous journey that began in Mexico, telling investigators he and others crossed into the U.S. by raft, paying smugglers 12,500 Mexican pesos (about $700), an amount that also bought protection offered by the Zeta drug cartel.

They then walked until the next day and rode in a pickup truck to Laredo, where they were put aboard the tractor-trailer to be taken to San Antonio, according to the complaint. The passenger said he was supposed to pay the smugglers $5,500 once he got there.

Another passenger told authorities that he was in a group of 24 people who had been in a stash house in Laredo for 11 days before being taken to the tractor-trailer.

Lara Vega told the AP that he was told by smugglers who hid him and six friends in a safe house in Laredo that they would be riding in an air-conditioned space.

The Mexican laborer from the state of Aguascalientes said that when they boarded the truck on a Laredo street Saturday night for the two-hour trip to San Antonio, it was already full of people but so dark he couldnt tell how many.

He said he was never offered water and never saw the driver. Lara Vega said that when people are being smuggled, they are told not to look at the faces of their handlers  and its a good idea to obey.

Bradley told authorities that when he arrived in San Antonio, nobody met the tractor-trailer. But one passenger said six black SUVs were waiting to pick up the immigrants and were full in a matter of minutes. And San Antonio police said store surveillance video showed vehicles picking up some of the immigrants.

Lara Vega said he was deported from the U.S. three years ago but decided to take another chance because the economy is depressed where he lives with his wife, 4-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

A person makes decisions without thinking through the consequences, he said, but, well, thanks to God, here we are.
Ashley Judd gives the princess look a try in J. Mendel lilac dress. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ashley Judd is heading back to television. And while her latest look might make it seem like shes joining the cast of the rebooted Once Upon a Time, shes actually starring as a badass CIA boss in the second season of EPIXs Berlin Station.

Talking at the 2017 Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour, the 49-year-old wore a J. Meldel sheer lilac dress with soft embroidery. She paired the romantic dress with strappy gold Stuart Weitzman sandals. Judd completed the look with sparkling diamond accessories which pulled the whole princess-like ensemble together.

Total babe. Ashley x J. Mendel on the way out the door to promote #BerlinStation for #TCAs || hair by @robertvetica and makeup by @moyramulholland #AshleyJudd #JMendel #tapforcredits A post shared by Samantha McMillen (@samanthamcmillen_stylist) on Jul 25, 2017 at 11:06am PDT

Judds makeup matched the tone of her gown, with her porcelain skin illuminated by the choice of blush and lip color. Her hair was styled in soft old Hollywood glam waves to the side.

#noretouching needed @ashley_judd #berlinstation #epix beauty @moyramulholland @samanthamcmillen_stylist #robertveticahair #loyaltyiseverything A post shared by Robert Vetica (@robertvetica) on Jul 25, 2017 at 11:17am PDT

The actress, who is also a political activist, wasnt shy about sharing a getting-ready-fresh-faced-selfie on her Instagram page.

Good morning Television Critics Association, @berlin_station !!! #ATeam @moyramulholland @robertvetica @samanthamcmillen_stylist @martinkatzjewels A post shared by Ashley Judd (@ashley_judd) on Jul 25, 2017 at 8:00am PDT

Everyone has always loved my #eyebrows. Thanks, Mom!! @moyramulholland @robertvetica @martinkatzjewels #Ateam @berlin_station A post shared by Ashley Judd (@ashley_judd) on Jul 25, 2017 at 9:10am PDT

Her followers loved the bare look, with commenter writing,  You dont need makeup. God made you a natural.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Story continues

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.




Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website.

Eight years ago, Pia Hauk, M.D., a pediatric allergist at the National Jewish Health hospital in Denver, received the kind of phone call no parent wants to get: Her young daughter had suffered a serious allergic reaction to peanuts. Hauk rushed to the school but found that her child was fine. School employees knew exactly how to proceed because they had her daughter's emergency action plan on file. That's a list of a childs allergies and steps to take in case of an allergic reaction.

Children spend eight hours a day, five days a week in a school environment, says Robert Lemanske, M.D., past president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and a professor of allergy and immunology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Its critical that we do everything we can to prevent them from having an allergy or asthma attack while they are there.

But not all parents provide schools with the necessary information about their childs allergies or asthma, and not all schools are as prepared for emergencies as Hauks was.

Heres how to keep your child safe while at school.

Start With Your Doctor

As close to the start of the school year as possible, have your pediatrician or allergist review the allergy or asthma medications your child needs, Hauk says.

Make sure youand, if appropriate, your childknow when and how to use those drugs, including an inhaler for asthma and an automatic epinephrine injector, such as an EpiPen, for a severe allergic reaction. Work with your doctor to make sure your child understands what they are allergic to or what can cause asthma attacks, so they can try to avoid those triggers. The older they get, the more responsibility you can put on the child, Hauk says.

Also ask your doctor whether your child needs to bring medications to school. And, if necessary, ask him or her to prepare an action plan that outlines the steps school officials should take in case of an allergic reaction or asthma attack. All children with asthma need such a plan, and many with food and other allergies do, too, Lemanske says. Also ask the doctor to complete any paperwork the school might require. (Read about when and how you should have your child tested for allergies.)



Story continues

Talk With the School

Schedule time to talk with your schools nurse. If it doesnt have one, ask who's in charge of student health issues and talk with that person. Provide the school with any paperwork you already have from your doctor and ask whether any additional information is needed. In addition, ask these questions:

How do they store medication to keep it safe and to prevent it from being confused with medication for other students?

How do they ensure that essential medication travels with students on school trips?

Is medication accessible during after-school activities? In some cases, the office where such medication is stored is locked up at the end of the school day. In that case, you may need to provide an extra set of emergency meds and instructions for the after-school program.

Allergies: Identify Triggers

About 15 percent of children with food allergies have an allergic reaction in school, according to the nonprofit Food Allergy Research and Education organization.

If your child has a food allergy, talk with the school to see whether the cafeteria can provide meals that avoid your childs triggers. If not, pack lunches and snacks, and make sure that your child understands the importance of not sharing food with other students, Hauk says.

Give the teacher a supply of allergy-free treats to have on hand for classroom celebrations. And show your child how to check food labels for known allergens.

Many times allergies stem not from food but environmental triggers, such as pollen. If you suspect your child is having a reaction to pollen, talk with the school about keeping windows closed to prevent pollen from drifting into the classroom, and also running the air conditioning, Hauk says.

Classroom pets might also be a problem for some children. Ask your childs teacher about swapping guinea pigs and other pets with fur for turtles or fish. And because pet hair can be transported on clothing, children should not borrow friends coats.

Asthma: Prevent Attacks

Schools pose special risks to children with asthma, for a few reasons.

First, exercise is a common cause of asthma attacks, so gym class can present challenges to some students. Lemanske says that exercise-induced asthma should never prevent children from participating in physical education, but that students prone to the problem may need to use an asthma inhaler first and should always have one on hand.

Chalk dust can also trigger asthma in some people, so children should make sure to wash their hands after writing on the board.

And last, returning to school increases exposure to germs that can cause colds or the flu, and that can increase the risk of having an asthma attack. So its important for children with asthma to get the flu vaccine and to practice good basic hygiene, like washing their hands regularly, Hauk says.





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Copyright  2006-2017 Consumer Reports, Inc.
Did this fashion retailer use a thin model to sell plus-size clothing? (Photo: Boohoo)

Fashion retailer Boohoo is in the social media hot seat for hiring a thin model to rep its curvy clothing line and is being accused of charging plus-size customers a so-called fat tax.

On Tuesday, a Scottish manicurist called out the U.K.-based brand (which also sells in the U.S.) on Twitter. Anyone else majorly offended that this is a plus size bikini on a plus size model?!?! No wonder girls think they are fat, @suzzillee_main wrote, posting two photos depicting a blonde Boohoo model wearing a $32 plus-size white-and-pink crochet bikini (marked down to $20).

Anyone else majorly offended that this is a 'plus size' bikini on a 'plus size' model?!?! no wonder girls think they are 'fat'. #boohoo pic.twitter.com/emNTfGKBpD  Suz (@suzziiee_main) July 25, 2017

Boohoo plus size models are actually so skinny how can they be classed as plus size  K8lin (@tizkellin) July 25, 2017

Makes me so angry!!  Adelle Carson (@adellexcarson) July 25, 2017

Shook to the core at what Boohoo call 'plus size' models  Pennie (@R_louisepennie) July 25, 2017

The outcry followed a Monday tweet, which pointed out that the same blonde model  this time wearing a $23 plus-size jersey tie-waist jumpsuit  was also too thin to be considered plus-size.

So @boohoo  is this a typo or do you actually have a size SIX modelling your plus range?? #boohoo #curve #wtf pic.twitter.com/laU5tdT305  Holly (@thot_hanks) July 24, 2017

Also on Tuesday, a U.K.-based body-positive campaign called Free to Be OK With Me speculated that Boohoo was charging plus-size customers a fat tax, an additional fee traditionally imposed on unhealthy foods, to help combat obesity.

Story continues

To illustrate its point, the campaign tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be the exact same Boohoo maxi dress on the U.K. site, represented in both the straight and plus lines, with the latter costing an additional $5.

Why so blue? Because this @boohoo plus size dress IS FIVE WHOLE POUNDS more expensive than the main collection #fattax pic.twitter.com/0lCyq88atn  Free to be OK (@FreetobeOK) July 25, 2017

The use of non-plus models to represent plus-size lines encourages body dysmorphia, especially when [Boohoos] target market is largely young women vulnerable and impressionable to marketing, Jen Eastwood, an organizer for Free to Be OK, tells Yahoo Style, adding that while the size of the Boohoo model is unclear (Im estimating a 12, at most) in the U.K. plus-sizing begins at size 18.

Its unclear whether the maxi dress the campaign points to is the same item in both straight and plus sizes. However, says Eastwood, selling plus sizes at a higher price would entail taking advantage of an increasing plus-size population by charging more.

Yahoo Style could not reach a Boohoo representative for comment, and we also reached out to the model who appears to be featured on the Boohoo website, and will update if we hear back.

Back in 2016, Boohoo angered customers who claimed that size 12 Swedish model Anna Fritzdorf, 25, did not represent a true plus-size woman. In response, Fritzdorf dove into the Instagram comments section to clarify. Its me on the picture, and I wanna say that I fit the test for plus-size as good as the straight-size models fit their size, she wrote. I have to use pins sometimes but 90 percent of the time the test size fits perfectly, so please try to find correct info before you put things out. I have a small waist and small boobs, but I still fit in the sizes. Not all plus-size models need to have massive boobs.

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.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan takes questions about the Senate health care bill during his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2017. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)

WASHINGTON  If House Republicans vote to advance a $788 billion spending bill this week, Congress could find itself in a budget quagmire due to a provision that allocates funds for President Trumps controversial border wall.

The funding is part of a negotiations strategy as House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., courts more conservative lawmakers, who have threatened to oppose the bill if money for the wall isnt included.

Democrats have labeled the wall funding a poison pill that will sink their support. And Democrats have leverage, as Republican leaders in the Senate need minority support to advance the spending measures.

But if House conservatives rally behind the wall  a core part of Trumps campaign platform, though he vowed that Mexico would pay for 100 percent of it  they could also thwart the spending measures. Four spending measures have been rolled together into a so-called minibus, and congressional leaders are aiming to pass 12 appropriations bills by October in order to avert a government shutdown.

If lawmakers are at an impasse, party leaders may opt for continuing resolutions to keep the government funded. Such measures simply continue previous funding levels for a set period of time  and likely would not include the wall funding.

Without a doubt there [are] enough conservative members who will not support any funding mechanism that does not include border wall funding  conservatives are definitely going to support the president in demanding that there be funding for the border wall, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Breitbart earlier this month.

Meadows, the chair of the influential conservative Freedom Caucus, walked that statement back, saying he thought that the border wall funding would happen without a government shutdown.

The odds of a government shutdown are very minimal when it comes to [the wall], Meadows said Monday.

Democrats in the House, meanwhile, have blasted the wall funding ahead of Wednesdays vote on the minibus package. Ryan and House Republican leadership used a procedural move to attach the wall funding to the package, even though it doesnt include funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which would be charged with building the barrier.

Story continues

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has been leading the charge against the wall provision. He says Democrats would have supported the bill without the wall funding but decried the barrier along the U.S-Mexico border as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Paul Ryan and House Republicans are using taxpayer money to fund a shallow idea of border security, Gallego told reporters Tuesday.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters that his caucus would be united in opposing the border wall funding.

I believe all members of the Democratic caucus believe this is bad policy and will vote against it, Hoyer said.

In the Senate, the wall funding has an even murkier fate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said that his caucus will not help Republicans get to the 60-vote threshold to bypass a filibuster.

To my Republican friends in the Senate, Id say persuade your colleagues in the House to abandon this dangerous, irresponsible path theyve put us on which can only lead to a government shutdown, Schumer said earlier this month.

But Trump has encouraged Republican lawmakers to go to the mat for the funding, which would only cover roughly 28 miles of the wall that became a hallmark of his campaign. In May, he tweeted that the country needed a good shutdown to pass the Republican agenda.

either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good shutdown in September to fix mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017

But Trump backed down from a similar showdown in April, after previously demanding that a crucial spending bill also include a down payment on the barrier. Trump told conservative reporters at the time that the White House would be willing to revisit the issue later in the summer.

It is unclear if Trump would be willing to veto a spending measure that would come to his desk without the wall funding in it, even if it meant a government shutdown.

Read more from Yahoo News:
CAIRO (Reuters) - Seven civilians, including two young children, were killed by a car bomb that exploded at a security checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula on Monday, Egypt's army spokesman said. The military said it intercepted the vehicle at a checkpoint near the city of Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, and tried to contain the expected blast by running over the car with a tank. However, the bomb exploded after the tank had driven away and the civilians nearby were caught in the blast, according to images seen in video released by the army. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Four gunmen were inside the vehicle, the army said. An insurgency in Egypt's Sinai region has gained pace since the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, following mass protests against his rule in mid-2013. (Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Patrick Markey and Alison Williams)


Charlize Theron is an Oscar-winning actress, a longtime Hollywood A-lister, and also the reigning queen of action cinema, thanks to her starring roles in both 2015s Mad Max: Fury Road and this Fridays Atomic Blonde. In the latter case, she assumes the role of a spy in Cold War Berlin who finds herself mired in all sorts of dastardly double-crossing business related to the death of her former beau. Its yet more proof that shes at the top of the cinematic class when it comes to kicking on-screen you-know-what, although as Yahoo Movies latest exclusive video with her proves, that doesnt mean people actually know how to pronounce her name. (Watch the clip above.)

In the above sit-down with Yahoo Movies Kevin Polowy, Theron finally sets the record straight by teaching her interviewer  and the moviegoing world at large  how to properly identify her. Apparently, in her native South Africa (she was born in Benoni), Theron is pronounced in one of two ways, neither of which is the customary way its enunciated here in the States. The actress says she chose to Americanize it on the advice of her original manager, who thought it would be easier to say it as its spelled, rather than in a more accurate South African manner. But then, as she admits, Americans still opted to go with a different inflection  not that she ultimately cares one way or another.

To hear Theron discuss the many variations of uttering her surname, check out our chat with her above. Atomic Blonde is in theaters this Friday.

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde: Watch a trailer:

Read more from Yahoo Movies:
Checking In: Unique Airbnb Picks of the Week Is there anywhere more exotic-feeling than the heart of a rainforest? (Victoria Reay/Flickr)

Its no secret that rainforests are vanishing. They once covered 14 per cent of the planet, but now only cover 6 per cent, and the outlook for the future isnt much better.

Youll never find a hotel in the heart of the rainforest, but there are other ways you can experience their natural wonder before theyve completely disappeared.

This week, we look at some of the most unique places you can stay inside a rainforest. Visit one of these homes in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Ucuelet, Canada or Rawang, Malaysia for a taste of living in one of the rarest habitats on Earth.
Piano playing Jokgu the Chicken returned on America's Got Talent in hopes of moving on to the live rounds. The chicken had previously wowed the judges with her inspired performance of "America the Beautiful" on the piano. In order to step up her performance for the second round, Jokgu was joined by her sister AiChan -- who allegedly is quiet the pianist as well. The song they elected to play was Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild." Unfortunately, when it came time to perform the chickens laid an egg, figuratively. The performance quickly went a-fowl after the chickens failed to play after their lead-in. Despite their handlers best efforts the chickens refused to "tickle the ivory," as it were. After a few awkward seconds, the judges started hitting their buzzers until ultimately all the buzzers were pushed. Judge Heidi Klum told the chickens, "This is breaking my heart, you have no idea." But guest judge DJ Khaled was not familiar with act, nor had he seen the first performance so he didn't know what he was missing. In fact he didn't know anything as the music producer simply told the act, "I'm confused...God bless." While this is the end road for the chickens on AGT, who knows, maybe we'll see them again on Eggs Factor.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry has urged a halt to oil drilling in a disputed part of the South China Sea, where Spanish oil company Repsol had been operating in cooperation with Vietnam. Drilling began in mid-June in Vietnam's Block 136/3, which is licensed to Vietnam's state oil firm, Spain's Repsol and Mubadala Development Co of the United Arab Emirates. The block lies inside the U-shaped 'nine-dash line' that marks the vast area that China claims in the sea and overlaps what it says are its own oil concessions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China had indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha islands, and jurisdiction over the relevant waters and seabed. "China urges the relevant party to cease the relevant unilateral infringing activities and with practical actions safeguard the hard-earned positive situation in the South China Sea," Lu said at a regular briefing, when asked if China had pressured Vietnam or the Spanish company to stop drilling. He did not elaborate. This week the BBC reported that Vietnam had halted drilling there after Chinese threats, but there was no independent confirmation and neither Vietnamese officials nor Repsol made any comment on the report. Thomson Reuters data showed the drilling ship Deepsea Metro I was in the same position on Monday as it had been since drilling began on the block in the middle of June. An Indonesian naval ship that passed there on Saturday reported that three coastguard vessels and two Vietnamese fishing boats were nearby and there was no sign of trouble. The Norwegian drilling ship operator, Odfjell Drilling Ltd., did not respond to an emailed request for comment. China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. China's naval build-up and its increasingly assertive stance over disputed territory in the South China Sea have unnerved its neighbors. The United States has criticized China's construction of islands and military facilities there, concerned they could be used to restrict free movement and extend Beijing's strategic reach. (Reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing and Matthew Tostevin in Bangkok; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Jurud Arsal (Lebanon) (AFP) - Surveying the rocky no-man's land on Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, Hezbollah fighters recalled the "difficult" battle they fought to recapture much of the terrain from militants.

The Lebanese Shiite movement has waged a five-day offensive across the scraggy landscape known as Jurud Arsal to oust what it says are ex-Al-Qaeda Syrian jihadists.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah brought journalists to its positions overlooking the last pocket of enemy territory.

Despite plumes of black smoke in the distance, fighters appeared relaxed after several days of clashes, grinning in the blistering heat.

"Jurud Arsal's topography is tough and the battle against Al-Nusra Front here was difficult," said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Al-Nusra was entrenched in its hilltops and valleys, turning these areas into combat facilities that even airplanes couldn't reach."

Al-Nusra was Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch before it broke off ties and rebranded as Fateh al-Sham Front last year.

Hezbollah has fought the group in Syria since intervening in support of the Damascus government in 2013.

Jurud Arsal -- a mountainous area around the Lebanese border town of Arsal -- is mostly barren, save for some orchards of cherry and apricot trees that ripened long ago without being picked.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in and around the town, some in camps.

But security has long been a concern, with Lebanese security forces battling jihadists there in 2014.

On Wednesday, Lebanon's flag had been planted next to the yellow and green flag of Hezbollah in Jurud Arsal.

Around 200 fighters were in a pocket "that does not exceed nine square kilometres," or about three and a half square miles, the Hezbollah commander said.

- Air strikes -

Syrian warplanes have backed the push with regular air strikes from their side of the frontier.

A Syrian army colonel accompanied by Hezbollah fighters could be seen atop a tank Wednesday in the porous border area.

Story continues

Lebanon's army has not officially declared its participation in the operation but has shelled "terrorists" in the area.

Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday said they had helped protect "the Lebanese army's back".

"We're shouldering the danger for Lebanon -- the danger of explosions and terrorist cells," the commander said.

Hezbollah's involvement in Syria has intensified pre-existing divides among Lebanese political parties, but the assault in Jurud Arsal has appeared less controversial.

Despite Hezbollah's announcement Monday that the operation was nearly over, the field commander said there was still work to do.

"The battle in Jurud (Arsal) is not over yet," he told journalists.

"Nusra has an ideology and its fighters are tough. But we too are strong and have an ideology, even if it's a different one."

Extreme Sunni militant groups such as Al-Qaeda consider Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority of Hezbollah's members and supporters, as apostates.

Since its offensive began, Hezbollah has buried around 20 of its fighters and says around 120 enemy combatants were killed.

Its head Hassan Nasrallah will give a televised address Wednesday, with fighters expecting him to announce the conclusion of the battle's "first phase".

"Tonight, he will define the course of the fight against Daesh," the commander said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

IS controls swathes of territory in Jurud Arsal and around two neighbouring border towns, the commander said.

"It won't be a difficult task. Its fighters are only a few hundred and spread out in this vast territory."
President Donald Trump - REUTERS

President Donald Trump has announced on Twitter that transgender citizens will not be allowed to serve in the US military, saying that the armed forces "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption" of transgender people.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

The announcement reverses an Obama-era policy.

"This legalises discrimination," said Ben Cardin, a Democrat senator for Maryland. "We should be focused instead on winning wars."

Joe Biden, the former vice president, reacted with dismay.

Every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve. Full stop.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 26, 2017

John McCain, the elder statesman of the Republican party, chairman of the armed services committee and a former Vietnam prisoner of war, criticised Mr Trump's announcement, describing it as "yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

He said the statement was "unclear", and added: "Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving."

Story continues

Any American who meets current medical & readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving - my full stmt: https://t.co/6rHm5OWQzc  John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 26, 2017

Chelsea Manning, the world's most famous transgender soldier, who was released from prison for leaking documents to Wikileaks, tweeted that Mr Trump's move sounded "like cowardice".

She said that the military had "always been a social experiment as much as a fighting force".

so, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people  but funds the F-35?  sounds like cowardice  #WeGotThis  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) July 26, 2017

In response to one Twitter user, with the account "We are Trump", Miss Manning tweeted sarcastically about wanting to throw her in prison.

so not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar  https://t.co/11s6C7VUS8  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) July 26, 2017

And Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic athlete who has been Mr Trump's most high-profile transgender supporter, accused the president of reneging on his campaign promises.

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? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr  Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017

Sarah Huckerbee Sanders, the White House press secretary, denied that Mr Trump had gone back on his promise to support LGBTQ communities.

"This was a decision about military readiness," she said. "I think the president has made very clear he is committed to fighting for all Americans.

"This was about military cohesion and nothing more."

She added that it was "a decision based on what was best for the military and military cohesion, and on the advice of his national security team."

Pressed repeatedly, she was unable to say what it meant for the thousands of transgender service members currently on active duty.

"Sometimes you have to make decisions," was her reply.

A Trump administration source told Axios, a political news website, that the announcement was made to draw political battle lines.

Just spoke to a Trump administration official about the transgender military decision. Here's what they said... pic.twitter.com/eOWdvlxTfd  Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 26, 2017

One year ago the Pentagon lifted the ban on transgender personnel already in uniform, and established the conditions and timeline by which new applicants could join either through enlistment or as officer candidates.

"The Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions," said Ash Carter, Mr Obama's defence secretary, in July 2015.

"At a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most important qualification for service members should be whether they're able and willing to do their job, our officers and enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them the opposite.

"Moreover, we have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines - real, patriotic Americans - who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that's contrary to our value of service and individual merit."

trump's America Puff

The department of defence was given a July 1 deadline to set out the timeline.

Mr Trump's announcement now cancels that policy.

The president described himself as a "real friend" of the LGBTQ community, on the campaign trail in 2016.

Trump to LGBT community in 2016: 'I'm a real friend' https://t.co/Hizry2npZzpic.twitter.com/qjFAWaQA17  CNN International (@cnni) July 26, 2017

But he has been inconsistent in his views.

In April 2016 he said that transgender people should use the bathroom they feel is appropriate, but later said the issue should be left up to the states.

That angered Caitlyn Jenner, who is Mr Trump's highest-profile transgender backer.

In June 2016, at his first campaign rally since the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, he attempted to portray himself as a better friend of LGBTQ Americans than Hillary Clinton, in part because of his opposition to immigration from Middle Eastern countries.

We want to live in a country where gay and lesbian Americans and all Americans are safe from radical Islam, which, by the way, wants to murder and has murdered gays and they enslave women, he said.

We dont know who they are, where theyre coming from, theres no documentation.

Crooked Hillary wants to increase these immigration numbers very, very substantially.

Shes no friend of women. And shes no friend of LGBT Americans. No friend, believe me.

But in office that changed. In June this year he became the first president since 1999 not to mark Pride Month.

And has made no secret of his scepticism of Mr Obama's decision regarding the military.

In May Jim Mattis, the defence secretary, distributed a document to military leaders allowing them to voice their concerns. The memo was carefully crafted to explain that plans would proceed "unless they cause readiness problems that could lessen our ability to fight, survive and win on the battlefield."

The army and the Marines have put up the strongest resistance, according to Military Times.

The defence department estimates that as many as 7,000 transgender troops serve in the active-duty force of 1.3 million. Their future is now unclear.

Mr Mattis's predecessor sought to define accommodations for them, but he encountered significant internal resistance among civilian staff who believed the military's uniformed leadership did not support the change, a former Pentagon official told Military Times recently.

At its most extreme, this individual said, there were calls to require transgender troops to wear bathing suits while using communal showers.
Decision marks a reversal of a policy initiated under Obama in 2016



Nancy Pelosi: Cruel and arbitrary decision to humiliate transgender Americans

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the US military in any capacity, reversing a policy put in place by Barack Obama a year ago.

The US president tweeted: After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow  transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military.

He added: Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming  victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Later, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, was not able to say if the thousands of currently serving transgender people would be thrown out of the military. She said: Thats something that the department of defense and the White House will have to work [on] together, as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully.

Trumps decision marks a sharp reversal of a policy initiated under Obama in 2016, in which the Pentagon ended a longtime ban on trans people serving openly in the military.

Huckabee Sanders denied that Trump was breaking his campaign promise to protect the LGBTQ community. The president has a lot of support for all Americans and certainly wants to protect all Americans at all times, she said. The presidents expressed concern since this Obama policy came into effect, but hes also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy and, based on consultation that hes had with his national security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, and made the decision based on that.

Unusually, the new press secretary threatened to end the briefing if questions on the topic continued. If those are the only questions we have, Im gonna call it a day, but if we have questions on other topics, Ill be happy to take them.

Story continues

The next question was about cabinet morale, but then a reporter returned to the issue of transgender people in the military. The briefing ended two minutes later.

The Pentagon appeared to be caught off guard by Trumps announcement, and deferred to the White House when reached for comment.



We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief on trans individuals serving the military, a spokesperson for the defense department said. We will provide revised guidance to the department in the near future.

Under Obama, then defense secretary Ashton Carter announced on 30 June 2016 that any trans person already in the armed forces could serve openly effective immediately.



Backlash to Trumps decision was swift, and transcended party lines.

Carter told the Guardian: What matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified.

To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military. There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.

Arizona senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate armed services committee, said: The presidents tweet this morning is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter.

He added: Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

Several studies had already found that reversing the ban was unlikely to have a negative impact on the military.

A 2016 study by the Rand Corporation estimated there are up to 6,630 trans people on active duty and up to 4,160 in the select reserve. There are roughly 1.4 million active-duty US service members.

The same study estimated that medical care for individuals who transition would cost roughly $2.4-$4m annually. Every year, the Pentagon spends approximately $6bn on medical care for active members of the armed forces.

Trumps decision comes after the Pentagon recently delayed a deadline set by the Obama administration of 1 July 2017 to decide whether incoming recruits who openly identified as trans could enlist.

Last month, defense secretary James Mattis outlined the six-month delay on trans recruitment in an internal memo, in which he wrote: We will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality.

The delay was negotiated after the chiefs of the army, navy, air force and marine corps requested more time to prepare for the recruitment of transgender service members. Reports have suggested the joint chiefs asked for an additional six months, while others wanted another two years. But there was no public indication that the joint chiefs were seeking an outright ban.

Mattis was on vacation at the time of Trumps announcement, signaling a lack of coordination between the White House and the relevant agencies.

This disgusting ban will weaken our military and the nation it defends Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader

An administration official fueled speculation over the presidents motives by suggesting that the shift was a political ploy that would force Democrats facing re-election in states won by Trump into complex culture wars.

As a candidate, Trump cast himself as a supporter of LGBT rights and indicated he would uphold certain Obama-era policies designed to protect transgender people. But upon taking office, he rescinded his predecessors guidance requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

The president lifted the guidance in February, despite saying during his campaign that trans people should use whatever bathroom they feel is appropriate.

Trumps decision on Wednesday came on the anniversary of Harry Trumans 1948 executive order desegregating the US military.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, condemned Trump for a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who stepped forward to serve our country.

Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs on duty in Iraq, also chastised Trump. When my Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq, I didnt care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else. All that mattered was they didnt leave me behind.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted down a measure that would have restricted funding for trans members of the military. The amendment would have prevented the defense department from providing medical treatment related to gender transition to service members, with an exception for mental health treatment.

Although the measure passed a House committee on a party line vote, it failed on the House floor on a 209-214 vote. Twenty-four Republicans banded together with Democrats to kill the proposal.

The author of the proposal, Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, celebrated Trumps decision on Wednesday. Im glad to hear the president will be changing this costly and damaging policy, she said. Military service is a privilege, not a right.
President Donald Trump speaks about the healthcare vote during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump has cast aside stories about White House infighting, describing the leaks as employees bickering over who loves me the most.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump said his Justice Department should start cracking down on federal employees who leak to the media  except those who have positive things to say about him.

Number one, they should go after the leakers in intelligence, he said. I dont mean the White House stuff where theyre fighting over who loves me the most, OK? Its just stupid people doing that.

Its unclear which stories Mr Trump was referencing in his comments, which elicited laughter from the room. But the press has been replete with stories about White House intrigue in recent days, as the Trump administration has undergone a dramatic staffing shakeup.

Last week, the President appointed former Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci to lead his communications team, despite protest from his top advisers. Shortly thereafter, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced his resignation, saying, Organisationally, they need to get a fresh start.

Mr Scaramucci seems inclined to provide that fresh start, telling reporters he will fire everybody if leaks from the White House continue.

Im going to fire everybody, thats how Im going to do it, Mr Scaramucci said. Youre either going to stop leaking or youre going to be fired.

The first casualty of this new policy was assistant press secretary Michael Short. Mr Scaramucci told Politico on Tuesday morning that he planned to fire Mr Short. Mr Short offered his resignation that afternoon.

This is the problem with the leaking, said Mr Scaramucci, who leaked the news of the firing himself. ...The fact that you guys know about [Mr Shorts firing] before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has been pressuring his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to resign. The President told the Wall Street Journal that he was "disappointed" in Mr Sessions, and later tweeted that the Attorney General had taken a "VERY weak position" on Hillary Clinton's alleged crimes.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was reportedly disturbed by the Presidents' attacks on his Attorney General, announced recently that he is "taking a little time off," according to a spokesperson.
Parents have expressed anger at a politically charged speech that Donald Trump delivered to tens of thousands of Boy Scouts on Monday.

The President was also reminded on social media of the organisation's values, with many claiming Mr Trump had shown noticeably anti-Boy Scout behaviour.

US President Donald Trump waves after speaking to Boy Scouts during the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Summit Bechtel National Scout Reserve in Glen Jean, West Virginia Credit: AFP

With his White House embroiled in investigations surrounding his campaign's ties with Russia, Mr Trump flew to West Virginia to a field full of 40,000 chanting and cheering Boy Scouts, telling them he was happy to leave Washington behind.

"Who the hell wants to speak about politics?" Mr Trump said, telling the boys at the National Scout Jamboree he wanted to talk about how to achieve their dreams.

Donald Trump gestures as former boys scouts, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, watch at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree Credit: AP

But politics proved too hard for Trump to resist on a day he spent pleading for Republican senators to vote to advance his long-promised health care overhaul and watching his son-in-law Jared Kushner being grilled on Capitol Hill about contacts with Russia.

"Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. you've been hearing about with the fake news and all of that," he told the teenaged boys, sitting state by state in brightly coloured t-shirts.

"You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians and I see the swamp and it's not a good place," said Mr Trump.

Scouts and their leaders listen to President Donald Trump Credit: AP

"In fact, today I said we ought to change it from the word 'swamp' to the word 'cesspool' or perhaps to the word 'sewer.' It's not good. I see what's going on and believe me, I'd much rather be with you, that I can tell you," Mr Trump said.

He told the boys that the media were dishonest and would not show the size of their jamboree on television. "Fake media, fake media," Mr Trump said, drawing a chorus of boos and cheers.

The most sustained round of cheers and jeers came when Mr Trump mentioned his predecessor President Barack Obama, who had declined invitations to speak to the scout gathering while he was in office.

Story continues

"By the way, just a question: did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?" Mr Trump said.

#2017Jambo- Remember your duty. Honor your history. Take care of the people God puts into your life  and LOVE & CHERISH your country! pic.twitter.com/DnNYxGJm4I  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Mr Trump said he has 10 former Boy Scouts serving in his cabinet and White House, and brought a few on stage as examples of Boy Scout leadership in action, including Tom Price, his health secretary.

"Hopefully he's going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare," Mr Trump said, referring to Obama's signature health care legislation, as the boys booed.

"He better get them, otherwise I'll say, 'Tom, you're fired!'" he said, borrowing the catch phrase from his reality television show, "The Apprentice."

The political-style rally drew widespread criticism on social media, particularly from parents.

My son is saying the same. We were involved with boy scouts for years. I would never want to be associated with organization now.  Kate (@Mamaofthreebear) July 25, 2017

Politics do not belong in the jamboree. Citizenship does. I'm the charter organization rep for my son's Troop.

Will be contacting district  Ann  (@GeekTalk51) July 25, 2017

Especially appalled as I'm in a scouting family that includes two Eagle Scouts and my son aspires to be one. Disappointing, @boyscouts .  Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) July 24, 2017

Right & left in agreement that Trump hijacked Boy Scouts for political rally.



As a former Senior Patrol Leader, no @boyscouts for my son. https://t.co/ICtfKnxSOr  Nathan Newman (@nathansnewman) July 25, 2017

You have made me ill, @boyscouts! Do I now have to worry my son will be indoctrinated into a Trump youth org when he attends a BSA event??!  Leila Rice (@Leila_A_Rice) July 25, 2017

Mr Trump also provoked a backlash on Twitter after he himself started to cite Scout values.

"Boy Scout values are American values, and great Boy Scouts become great, great Americans. As the Scout Law says: 'A Scout is trustworthy, loyal'  we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that," he told the crowd.

A Scout is:

Trustworthy,

Loyal,

Helpful,

Friendly,

Courteous,

Kind,

Obedient,

Cheerful,

Thrifty,

Brave,

Clean,

and Reverent https://t.co/vDTTjiKfRw  Ronnie Ellis (@cnhifrankfort) July 25, 2017

Donald Trump is speaking to the Boy Scouts. Has a President ever been in deeper contradiction with Scout values? pic.twitter.com/UYfdi39nH9  Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) July 24, 2017

As an Eagle Scout, I can't imagine a worse role model for young men who less embodies scouting's values than President Trump. https://t.co/uTcUdlknCz  Morgan Bolt (@MBoltAuthor) July 24, 2017

Although Mr Obama did not attend the jamboree during his two terms, he addressed a 100th anniversary event in 2010 by video.

Pete Souza, the former White House photographer, also pointed out that Mr Obama had personally met scouts, adding that the former president did not boast to them about "his electoral college victory".
Ever wanted to ride to work in a screaming roller-coaster gun? If your answer was yes: good news!

Elon Musk  of SpaceX and Tesla Motors fame  recently proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed floating train thats accelerated by magnets and coasts between destinations. Hailed as the train of the future, the concept is indeed pretty fancy. Described by Musk himself as the fifth mode of transport, its intended to provide fast and safe transit, largely self-powered with electricity generated by its own solar panels.

Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015

Musk recently announced his company would build a test track in California. But I dont think the Hyperloop is going to work well in California  or in fact anywhere else on Earth. It could, however, work quite well on a different planet. Mars, for instance. But to appreciate why, we need to take a closer look at the train in more detail.

How would Hyperloop work?

The Hyperloop train concept is based on the idea of a vactrain. Thats a high-speed train run in a tube that has had all the air removed, making it a vacuum  hence the name. Having no air in the tube means (almost) no drag, the aerodynamic force that pushes in the opposite direction from which a train is traveling. So a vactrain could potentially travel really fast  think thousands of miles an hour.

This idea is not new; it has existed for decades. But while a vactrain sounds like a good concept, its relatively unfeasible to actually build. In this sense, Musks Hyperloop project is not a novel application of science but a novel application of engineering  using existing technology in new ways to get around the inherent challenges of a vactrain.

The Hyperloop concept uses small pods that hold passengers or freight as they travel through vacuum tubes, floating on a cushion of air. Its a bit like a hovercraft in a tube. This configuration allows the train to travel very fast with minimal drag. Without going into too much detail, this setup overcomes many of the problems usually encountered when trying to build a vactrain. The user experience of the Hyperloop is likely to be akin to sitting in a rattling rocket.

Story continues

Normal high-speed trains already exist that can travel at about 300-400 mph. The Hyperloop train concept would travel faster than this because it runs within a low-pressure vacuum tube thats had 99.9% of the air inside removed; with most of the air gone, most of the drag is gone too. The Hyperloop is predicted to have top speeds of about 760 mph.

An expensive advance

But heres the catch. Conservative cost estimates for building a single Hyperloop track from Los Angeles to San Francisco come in at US$6 billion. Taking the technology nationwide would cost hundreds of billions of dollars more. When you consider that normal, boring airplanes already travel at about 500-600 mph  about two-thirds as fast as the Hyperloops predicted speed  you might begin to wonder if an extra 200 mph is enough of a payoff for those hundreds of billions of dollars.

Theres certainly a niche market for faster travel between certain locations. For instance, the Concorde supersonic airliner would cruise at 1,354 mph, almost twice the speed of the proposed Hyperloop train. Passengers could make it from New York to London in under three hours. But the Concorde project was retired in 2003 because there wasnt enough of a market to sustain it  and it didnt have a $6 billion price tag.

In short, it would be tough to get the hyperloop project to work on a national scale. Maybe theres enough of a market to build it between a few select cities. Some riders might appreciate the environmental advantages of a self-powering mode of transport. But if you want fast and safe travel with minimal carbon footprint, investing hundreds of billions of dollars into developing biofuels for aircraft makes much more sense to me. Planes are already fast and relatively safe. They can go anywhere with ease, including over oceans. The only real hurdle is making them more renewable, an avenue toward which many are working.

Hyperloop goals further afield?

So why bother with the Hyperloop?

Well, Elon Musk is no idiot, and he certainly has the money to hire some of the best and the brightest. Either he really thinks he can drive the costs down on the Hyperloop project or perhaps he has a different plan?

The Hyperloop project has its challenges in places that have air. But in places with little air and no fossil fuels, where you cant fly and theres little drag, it makes a lot more sense.

Places like Mars.

Elon Musk has a habit (SpaceX/SolarCity/Tesla Motors) of trying to use his money to start private ventures that he, and many others, believe are also important to humanity. Musk has spoken about his own commercial venture to put people on Mars, and SpaceX was listed as a potential launch vehicle for Mars One, another private outfit aiming to travel to the red planet.

While the Mars One project currently doesnt seem to be going that well, such an elaborate venture is bound to have hurdles. Consider that it took the combined effort of almost every country interested in launching a rocket to get a habitat into our planets orbit, in the form of the International Space Station. Whatever its current status, Mars One has certainly helped rekindle a public fascination with what lies beyond our tiny blue dot. For this reason alone, I think the venture was a success.

Space. The solar system. Mars. If humanity intends to continue to expand and consume, then we likely need the resources and expanse found in these places.

Given the apparent setbacks for Mars One, Musk might have realized he cant fund the mission to Mars alone. But he can certainly help develop and nurture the technology we will need when we finally arrive. A high-speed, safe, self-powered transportation system will be vital to connect Martian settlements  likely to be few in number and separated by large distances.

Perhaps Mars is where this technology is really headed.

This article has been updated to correct the location of the test track Hyperloop will be building.

Leon Vanstone, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Texas at Austin

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

conversation logo

Photo: The Conversation

The Conversation

Related Articles
Https%3a%2f%2fvdist.aws.mashable.com%2fjw%2f2017%2f5%2f413519df 9dd4 f414%2fthumb%2f00001

NASA is working to bring supersonic speeds to commercial flights in the United States, which could cut travel times in half. The key? Keeping the noise down.

The agency has a design for a new supersonic jet meant to reduce the effects of sonic booms to a much less noticeable "quiet thump." It hopes to take bids from aircraft manufacturers starting in August to build a demo model, according to a Bloomberg report.

Sonic booms typically occur once a plane pushes beyond 660 mph and breaks the sound barrier, causing disturbances all the way down on the ground below. The phenomenon was one of the major reasons the super-fast transport was largely banned over U.S. soil back in 1973.

NASA's jet design, which was created with the help of Lockheed Martin and successfully tested in a small model format recently, could play a part in finally bringing supersonic speeds to overland flights by minimizing the shockwaves produced by supersonic flight. The agency has a budget of nearly $400 million for the project over five years as it aims to construct a large demo vehicle, the "X-plane," for trial flights over populated areas.

SEE ALSO: Delta's new program will let you use your fingerprint to board your plane. But there's a catch.

Peter Coen, the project manager of NASA's commercial supersonic research team (seen below), told Bloomberg that his team is aiming for a sound level between 60 and 65 A-weighted decibels (dBa), which is roughly as loud as the sound of a luxury car driving on the highway.

NASA plans to test the prototype X-plane in the airspace of up to six communities starting in 2022, according to the report. The agency will then share its design expertise and test results with major U.S. plane manufacturers to encourage the development of the supersonic tech.

One of those manufacturers is Boom Jets, a startup looking to democratize supersonic travel through lower seat costs that counts Virgin CEO Richard Branson as a major backer. The company has reportedly secured reservations for 25 of its next-gen supersonic jets and could wind up servicing Dubai and other international locations. Boom only plans to offer transoceanic routes under current regulations  if the ban is lifted however, the company would be able to fulfill its promise for flights across common domestic flight paths like New York to Los Angeles.
Chairman Ed Royce participates in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing: Getty

The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed legislation that punishes Russia for election meddling and makes it harder for Donald Trump to ease sanctions on Vladimir Putins government.

The 419-3 vote came as federal and congressional investigators probe whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian operatives to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

Negotiators from both the House and Senate, which passed an earlier version of the bill 98-2, reached an agreement over the weekend on the measure. The Senate must now take up the legislation before it can be sent to the President's desk.

The bill also sanctions Iran and North Korea for their illicit ballistic missile programmes and support for terrorism.

The Trump administration had sought changes to the bill, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying that the measure would not provide the administration with flexibility to deal with the Russian government.

Despite telling reporters that the White House supports new sanctions on Russia, Marc Short, its legislative director, declared that the bill would set an unusual precedent of delegating foreign policy to 535 members of Congress.

But the White House did not get its way, and Mr Trump can still veto the bill.

This [bill] empowers Congress to review and to disapprove of any sanctions relief, that the President might offer to Russia, said Republican Representative Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This strong oversight is necessary and it is appropriate.
John McCain voted twice in favour of pushing forward with Donald Trumps controversial new health bill  despite telling the US Senate in an impassioned speech he will not vote for this bill as it is today.

The senator, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, returned to Washington DC to have his say on the divisive legislation that aims to dismantle Obamacare.

He first voted to begin a debate on the Republican bill, despite having the power to derail the knife-edge vote on the measure that Mr Trump has spent the last week cajoling and seemingly even threatening senators to support.

Mr McCain joined the 51 senators who narrowly passed the motion to proceed with the bill, the bare minimum needed to pass the motion, as 50 senators, including two Republicans, voted against it.

This crucial yes vote was incongruously followed by a long speech from the 80-year-old, who condemned his partys new healthcare plan, calling it a shell of a bill.

I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered, he said. I will not vote for this bill as it is today.

Standing on the Senate floor, a scar from a recent blood clot removal surgery visible over his left eye, the Senator lambasted his partys leadership. Were getting nothing done my friends, were getting nothing done, he said.

On the effort to repeal and replace the American Care Act, known as Obamacare, he added: All weve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasnt very popular when we started trying to get rid of it.

Six hours later, senators voted on the bills initial amendment  with Mr McCain, who stood against Barack Obama as a presidential candidate in 2008, again voting in favour of the changes.

While technical in its wording about budget requirements, Tuesday evenings ballot was seen by many as another vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act itself, which is designed to repeal and replace Barack Obamas signature healthcare policy.

Story continues

With nine Republican senators voting against the amendment, it failed to pass with 57 no votes compared to 57 yes votes, underscoring how hard it will be for the chambers divided Republicans to pass a sweeping replacement of the law.

The bill Mr McCain helped to advance  a version of the repeal and replace bill passed by the House  is notably unpopular with voters.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will result in 23 million people losing health coverage in the next 10 years. Even as Mr McCain was entering the Capitol, protesters were being removed from it, some of them screaming: Dont kill us, kill the bill!
Senator John McCain, the 30-year Senate veteran diagnosed last week with an aggressive form of brain cancer, recently returned to Congress to help advance a Republican healthcare plan that even he decried as a shell of a bill.

Democrats and Republicans alike stood and applauded as the outspoken 80-year-old stepped onto the floor, minutes after arriving from his home in Arizona. He cautiously embraced his Senate colleagues before casting his crucial vote: A yes on the motion to begin debate on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The bill Mr McCain helped to advance  a version of the repeal and replace bill passed by the House  is notably unpopular with voters. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will result in 23 million people losing health coverage in the next 10 years. Even as Mr McCain was entering the Capitol, protesters were being removed from it, some of them screaming, Dont kll us, kill the bill!

The irony was not lost on some.

"So it happened," tweeted MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid. "McCain returned to the Senate to a standing ovation, and promptly voted to take away millions of people's healthcare."

Even so, the vote marked a decisive victory for Senate Republicans, who had thus far failed to muster the 50 votes necessary to even debate the legislation. Even Tuesday's motion to proceed passed with the bare minimum of 51 Republican votes, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to step in to break the tie.

President Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter to congratulate Republicans, and to thank Mr McCain for turning out for the vital vote.

Thank you for coming to D.C. for such a vital vote, he tweeted. Congrats to all Rep. We can now deliver grt healthcare to all Americans!

I hope we can rely on humility, cooperation & dependence on each other to better serve the people who elected us https://t.co/QbaZvUwkfE  John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 25, 2017

Mr McCain, however, marked the occasion with a speech condemning the legislation he had just voted onto the floor.

Story continues

I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered, he said. I will not vote for this bill as it is today.

Standing on the Senate floor, a scar from a recent blood clot removal surgery visible over his left eye, the Senator lambasted his partys leadership.

Were getting nothing done my friends, were getting nothing done, he said. All we've really done this year is confirm Neil Gorsuch.

On the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, he said: "All weve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasnt very popular when we started trying to get rid of it."

The fiery Senator went on to condemn the lack of regular order in the Senate, and the secretive tactics employed by both parties. He accused the GOP leadership of devising their health care proposal behind closed doors and then then springing it on sceptical members, trying to convince them its better than nothing.

What is truly needed, Mr McCain said, is input from both sides of the aisle.

Our health care insurance system is a mess, he said. We all know it, those who support Obamacare and those who oppose it. Something has to be done.

Thanks to Mr McCains vote, something probably will: The motion to proceed sets off 20 hours of debate on the bill, ending with a vote to pass on Thursday. Amendments can also be added during that time period, meaning the bill thats voted on on Thursday will likely look nothing like Wednesdays version.

And even if that bill does not pass, Mr McCain seemed to suggest that the important part was trying.

Incremental progress, compromises that each side criticise but also accept, just plain muddling through to chip away at problems and keep our enemies from doing their worst isnt glamorous or exciting, he said. ...But its usually the most we can expect from our system of government, operating in a country as diverse and quarrelsome and free as ours.
Famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass and his team say they've found evidence of a tomb that could belong to King Tut's wife.

The archaeologists eventually plan to excavate the new tomb, which is located near the tomb of the pharaoh Ay (1327-1323 B.C.) in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Hawass told Live Science.

"We are sure there is a tomb there, but we do not know for sure to whom it belongs," Hawass told Live Science in an email. On July 7, National Geographic Italia published an article in Italian suggesting that a team led by Hawass had found a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and Hawass confirmed that discovery to Live Science. [See Photos of Egypt's Valley of the Kings]

"We are sure there is a tomb hidden in that area because I found four foundation deposits," Hawass said, explaining that the foundations are "caches or holes in the ground that were filled with votive objects such as pottery vessels, food remains and other tools as a sign that a tomb construction is being initiated."

"The ancient Egyptians usually did four or five foundation deposits whenever they started a tomb's construction," Hawass said. Additionally, "the radar did detect a substructure that could be the entrance of a tomb."

As for whose remains were buried there, Hawass said the tomb could belong to Ankhesenamun, who was the wife of Tutankhamun (reign 1336-1327 B.C.). Ankhesenamunmarried Ay after King Tut died, so it's possible that her tomb is located near Ay's, Hawass said.

Hawass said he will direct the future excavations at the site.

Hawass was head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities between 2002 and 2011, and was Egypt's first minister of state for antiquities after the post was created in January 2011. He resigned from the post in July 2011. Currently, Hawass is Director of the Italian expedition in the Valley of the Kings.

Update: In an email to Live Science on July 10, Hawass cautioned that until excavations take place, he can't say for sure that a tomb has been discovered, and it is still possible that there is no tomb. "It is all possibilities until we excavate," Hawass said.

Story continues

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
Lets All Tell Harley-Davidson What to Do

Iconic company has been continuously producing motorcycles for more than a century but seemingly everyone thinks they can do better

You might have noticed a number of stories in recent days  both here on RideApart and elsewhere across interwebs  addressing the apparent unsteadiness of the Good Ship Harley-Davidson. As good Americans, we find this troubling.

First there was the news that the iconic brands sales are continuing a three-year slide, with expectations for a particularly grim third quarter. This was followed by the announcement that some 83 folks at Harleys Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, plant will soon be receiving pinks slips.

Its news that appears to run in contrast to best-ever results of other premium-brand competitors like BMW, Indian (although Polaris motorcycle segment struggled overall in Q2, actual sales of Indian Motorcycle products were up), and Triumph. And its news that has been met with undisguised glee by some folks  along with a flurry of pontification as to how the company got itself into its current situation and what, if anything, can be done to return the company to its former dominance.

Meanwhile, its a well-established fact that the boardroom boys and girls in Milwaukee read RideApart on a regular basis, hanging on its every word. So, it occurs to me that we have here an opportunity to provide a public service. Its pretty simple, really: we should just tell them what to do.

Because another well-established fact is that internet commenters are geniuses. They definitely know how to run a business better than a company that has been constantly producing motorcycles through two world wars, the Great Depression, and roughly 20 US recessions. And right now that company needs our help.

Daily Editor Jason Marker and I will get the ball rolling, but hopefully youll be willing to throw forth your two cents in the comments below. If you were in charge, what would the worlds most iconic motorcycle brand be doing to stave off financial ruin?

Story continues

First, though, lets set some ground rules:

Anyone who includes a supermoto or sport tourer in their solution is automatically removed from consideration. Yeah, I know you dig those types of bikes  I do, too  but sales of those two genres suggest youre in a minority. Harley is not going to get richer by making something most people dont care about. In that same vein, lets also not waste time talking about sportbikes. Your dream of a Harley entry in MotoGP is silly.

Secondly, lets not get too lost in masticating the past. What Harley has done previously is obviously relevant here, but as my grandmother used to say: That was a thing that happened. It cant be undone. In addressing what someone should do, theres not a great deal of value in working to death the issue of what they should have done.

RideApart Director Chris Cope

The first thing I'd note is that Harley-Davidson presently retains roughly 48 percent of the US market share. It is still selling hundreds of thousands of bikes  several times more than the companies mentioned above who are experiencing their best-ever years. So, this whole idea of Harley struggling is a little bit of a stretch. Its not doing as well at the moment as it might like, but its not going anywhere.

That said, a lot of the pontification on what Harley should be doing seems to center on the word Millennials and Harleys understanding of it, or lack thereof. The basic premise is that the kids these days aint got no money, and that Harley needs to heed the advice of OT Genasis: Your price is way too high, you need to cut it.

Certainly anecdotal evidence suggests theres some truth to the first part of that statement. Riding in my old stomping grounds of Minnesotas Twin Cities recently I was delighted to see that the claim of motorcyclists growing ever older is not necessarily true  not in the urban areas, at least. An annoyingly small percentage of Minnesotans wear helmets or adequate gear, so I was able to see that most of my fellow riders were younger than me  lots and lots of dudes and dudettes in their 20s. More than I remember there being when I was in my 20s. But heres the thing: the bikes they're on are ancient. Ninjas from the 80s, Yamahas from when friendship bracelets were a thing, and sooooooooo many antediluvian Honda Shadows.

So, it seems theres a mighty disparity between what manufacturers are asking and what new riders can afford. Perhaps some manufacturers are getting it; the only new bike I saw ridden by young people was the Honda Rebel 500  probably the most all-round useful machine on our recent list of six bikes for less than $6,000.

To this end, many people will say Harley should slash its prices. But weve talked about this before  that aint gonna happen. Harley is, at its heart, a premium brand and part of what makes it as such is the fact its prices dont go down. It can offer incentives, maybe. But cutting prices would ultimately be detrimental.

So, if I were Harley Id keep doing what its doing right now.

Especially what its doing in Europe.

Despite a 1.6-percent drop in quarter two sales in 2017, the EMEA has generally been an area of growth for Harley-Davidson in recent years, where Harley carries less of the Old Mans Brand stigma. Indeed, its been my experience in recent years that it has done a very good job of connecting with younger riders.

Go to the hip parts of London, Paris, etc, and youll see any number of Iron 883s and Forty-Eights rumbling through the streets alongside all those Triumph Bonnevilles and Thruxtons. Go to a motorcycle show and the Harley area is all DJs and stylish clothing. Harleys are cool. No, really. And with the Street Rod the company has taken a solid step into the world of true Not Cruiserdom. The price is right, it is a marked improvement over the Street 500/750 in terms of build quality, and in Europe it comes better-equipped than in the United States: ABS, an immobilizer, and a security alarm all come standard.

Id like to see Harley continue down this path with a greater sense of self-belief. Id like to see a Street Rod with the fit and finish of a Forty-Eight: a bike that is knee-bucklingly good-looking and equally fun to ride. Work to develop a rival to the Indian Scout engine and put it in a chassis that allows it to shine. Don't be afraid to offer more useful technology on bikes; look at what Triumph is doing. And use your influence to encourage tire companies to provide better tire options  tires that can actually tolerate wet roads  to improve the all-round usefulness of the product.

Of course, dont abandon the big twins (because, damn it, the Milwaukee Eight-powered Road Glide is lovely), but perhaps work toward a future where something larger (and more expensive) than a Street Bob is a lesser part of your portfolio. And, you know, perhaps finally put the V-Rods Revolution engine to good use. Put it in a sport tourer or something.

Oh, damn it...

My recent personal experiences with Harley-Davidson have been generally positive and a lot of fun. This obviously affects my view of the brand as a whole and influences my upbeat outlook for the company.

RideApart Daily Editor Jason Marker

Since Chris rolled out all the actual data because he's the brains of this outfit, I guess I'll do the anecdata stuff. Honestly, I agree with everything he said up there. Despite its currently sagging sales and seeming inability to market to any American that isn't a 50-year-old suburban dentist, Harley's in a relatively good place. It has a pack of really interesting new non-big twin bikes  including the fantastic welterweight Street Rod and a slew of my beloved Sportsters  and it's killing it in the European markets. I don't really have any advice for the Motor Company on production or design or marketing  aside from "gimme back my 883R"  and it seems to be doing OK there without my two cents. I do, however, have some real strong opinions about Harley-Davidson dealerships and the environment within them.

Way, way back in the early aughts, while I was still figuring out what to do with my life post-college, I had the misfortune of working at a Harley-Davidson dealership here in Michigan. It was, without a doubt, the worst job I ever had  and I used to cook professionally. I was a paid liar, a confidence man selling middle-aged suburban dads their badness and a whiff of their young adulthood. I saw these guys  guys just like my dad, who worked hard for their money  come in every day to buy the American Dream and I sold them a $500-a-month payment on a vehicle they couldn't use six months out of the year. I hated it (I was also really bad at it) and needless to say I didn't last long.

We used a sales technique called "Four Square"  a conniving system designed to give just enough information to the customer to keep them interested, but never enough to actually, you know, allow them to make an informed decision. We were also one of those "no prices on the bikes" kind of dealerships, so negotiating prices was a farce. Then, once we nailed the customer down to a price, it was off to the finance manager to get saddled with borderline predatory loans. You know the automotive bubble people are talking about right now? Similar garbage was going on with Harley 20 years ago. Just so some guy with a modest income and a nice life could have a taste of that James Dean/Marlon Brando/Easy Rider life.

We sold bikes, sure, but were the customers ultimately happy? How many of those bikes, with their six-year, 8-percent interest, $500-a-month payments (in 2001 dollars, mind you), were repossessed within a year? Within three? I'm not sure, but I bet it was a lot.

It's worth noting that the dealership I worked for went under not long after I left; I wasn't the only one unhappy with their BS. Additionally, that was a long time ago, so things may have changed. But still, my advice to Harley is that all customer-facing employees at Harley dealerships need to be trained in customer service. I know that takes time and money, but hear me out.

Don't patronize your customers. Don't talk down metric cruisers or Indians or any other bikes when selling your own, and especially don't talk down Sportsters when someone comes in specifically asking about a new Sportster. Make sure your parts employees know how bikes work, and ensure they do more than act bored on the phone and tell customers they don't have a part  even though they do  simply because they can't be bothered to look. Motorcycles are rad and they're for everyone. Harleys are rad and are for everyone. Make sure that's evident as soon as a potential fellow or sister rider steps over the shop's threshold.

So Harley, come get your salespeople. And your sales managers. And your parts managers, your finance managers, your mechanics, your porters, and everyone else associated with the off-putting atmosphere in your dealerships. Actually train your people in customer service, and make sure knowledgeable individuals are in key positions in parts and service. Make sure everyone is welcome, that consumers have all the information they need to make informed decisions, and that they get matched with the perfect bike for them no matter what their budget or engine preference is. Fit a customer with a bike like you're tailoring them a suit, not forcing it down their throats. They came to you because they know they want a Harley, help them find theirs.

Also, stop trying so hard to make your dealerships look like the platonic idea of a biker bar. Especially with younger customers, people don't want to buy into the whole weekend warrior/play-pretend pirate thing anymore. They also do not want Harley-themed Christmas ornaments, knick-knacks, and other branded junk designed to live in boxes and gather dust on shelves. You know that article that came out recently about how no one wants your parents' furniture and china? Same goes for their collection of commemorative Harley-Davidson die-cast trucks or whatever the hell is sold in dealerships' Accessories and Lifestyle section. Younger riders  and I count myself among them even though I'm a ways away from actual youth  want motorcycles and like-minded people to ride with, not tchotchkes.

So, yeah. Harley, retool your dealerships. Get away from the weekend-warrior pirate thing  those riders are aging out. Make sure that everyone who comes through your doors is treated like a long-lost friend. Who knows, if you do all this maybe you can sell more bikes than Indian! Also, gimme back my 883R.

(I'll step in here and say that I've not seen such negative experiences in the Harley-Davidson dealerships I've visited in Europe. At my local H-D dealership in the UK, you will practically have to step over Street Rods to get through the door. Then you'll find rows of Iron 883s, Forty-Eights, and Roadsters. Touring bikes are off in the back, Salespeople are laid-back, knowledgeable, and stress the importance of getting a bike that actually suits you. Chris)

The 883R was effectively an 883cc version of the current Sportster Roadster.
A former sailor in the US Navy stabbed a woman 119 times when she revealed she was transgender after they had sex, a court heard.

Dwanya Hickerson, 21, "lost it" after learning Dee Whigham, 25, had been born a man.

Mississippi's Jacksonville Circuit Court heard that he knifed Ms Whigham multiple times in the face and slashed her throat in a hotel room before showering and leaving her for dead.

The pair had been chatting online for two months after making contact through a dating site.

They decided to meet for the first time when Ms Whigham was visiting the city of Biloxi, where Hickerson lived, on July 23 last year.

The hospital nurse picked him up at the gates of Keesler Air Force Base, where he was training to be a weather forecaster, and drove them to her hotel, the court heard.

CCTV footage showed them walking into her room together at Best Western at about 8.30pm. Hickerson was seen leaving 23 minutes later with his shirt around his neck.

Dwanya Hickerson, 21, was jailed for 40 years for murder (Jackson County Sheriff Department)

Ms Whigham's body was found at about 9.45pm by her friends.

An Air Force instructor later recognised Hickerson in a police appeal over the killing and reported him to detectives, according to the WLOX news channel.

Hickerson later told police he and Ms Whigham had sex at the hotel before she told him she was transgender.

"I lost it, I lost it," he said, adding he did not remember much afterwards.

He was jailed for 40 years without parole after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He will also have to serve 15 years for a robbery charge after taking Whigham's purse and mobile phone.

Hickerson could have faced the death penalty if he had been convicted of capital murder.

Ms Whigham's mother, Vickie Blackney Whigham, criticised Hickerson's sentence.

"I think the plea is a slap in the face," she said. "He gets a chance to see his family and I don't have that chance with my child."

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.
Not all planets are as fortunate as Earth to have a solar system to call home  the Milky Way is full free-floating masses called rogue planets that wander around instead of orbiting a star. And now scientists say they have a better idea of just how common these homeless planets are.

Rogue planets, also known as orphan planets, simply orbit the center of the galaxy, in the absence of a star to revolve around. They may have been blown out of the solar system in which they formed when their star exploded  a supernova explosion, which is the biggest kind there is  or during a close encounter with other stars or planets in which a gravitational pull ripped them away. But they remain mysterious objects, in part because it is so hard to see them.

Read: Scientists Have Found a Ton of Planets, So There Are Probably Aliens Out There

Astronomers now say there are fewer than 25 rogue planets the size of Jupiter for every 100 stars in our galaxy, despite previous reports that suggested they were far more prevalent, according to a study in the journal Nature. But there still could be a common variety of rogue planets: ones that are the size of Earth. The scientists say their observations suggest many of that latter group exist.

To make their analysis of the contents of the night sky they relied on an observation method called gravitational lensing. Because planets do not create light themselves, but rather reflect light cast upon them, they cannot be seen in darkness. Scientists instead can detect their presence because when, from the point of view of a telescope on Earth, the rogue planets pass in front of a more distant light source, their gravity warps that incoming light.

The astronomers analyzed these light curves, amounting to observations of about 50 million stars over six years, to determine how many rogue planets were passing in front of stars. Within the more than 2,600 significant gravitational lensing events that they identified in that bunch, they did not find many that lasted a whole day or two  a length that would indicate a free-floating mass the size of Jupiter passing through.

Story continues

They also viewed some gravitational lensing events that lasted a few hours, which indicate the presence of objects the size of Earth or a bit larger.

The sensitivity of our experiment to such events is very low, meaning that a very few detections imply the existence of a large population of Earth-mass free-floating planets, researcher Andrzej Udalski said in a statement from the University of Warsaw.

rogue-planet

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The results contradict previous research that suggests Jupiter-like rogue planets are abundant. That research came in 2011, after other scientists looked at almost 500 lensing events and found about 10 lasting for one or two days, indicating 10 large rogue planets between 10,000 and 20,000 light years from Earth.. At the time, that team said that the Milky Way might have twice the number of Jupiter-mass rogue planets as it does stars. The group came to that conclusion by taking the proportions in the sample size and applying them to the size of the entire galaxy.

These results, however, do not match predictions of planet-formation theories and surveys of young clusters, the new study in Nature explains.

Read: Is This the Smallest Star in the Universe?

They also dont account for the gravity of planets  according to the researchers, planets the size of Jupiter would be more able to hang on to the solar system where they formed, instead of being blown out easily like an Earth-mass planet.

The new estimates of these rogue planet populations appears to solve the riddle. However, the Polish scientists noted that more observations would be required, to further study the short gravitational lensing events and better understand them. While they could imply the presence of Earth-size rogue planets, we cannot exclude the possibility that some of the ultrashort events that we found may be unknown flaring stars or some other astrophysical sources, co-author Jan Skowron said in the university statement.

planet-gravitational-lensing

Photo: J. Skowron/Warsaw University Observatory

Related Articles
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is barring transgender people from serving in any capacity in the United States military, reversing a ruling last year under President Barack Obama that allowed them to serve openly. But hundreds if not thousands of transgender people are already in the armed forces, according to a recent study.

Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter lifted the ban on transgender people serving openly in 2016, and commissioned a report by the RAND Corporation that studied the consequences of the ruling. There is no official or exact figure for how many transgender people serve. But the 2016 RAND study estimated that between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members are in the active duty military, while between 830 and 4,160 members are in reserves duty. RAND based its study on data from previous research, and estimated midrange figures of 2,450 transgender people in active duty and 1,510 in reserves. There are about 1.2 million active duty military servicemembers overall.

Its unclear what will happen to transgender people already serving. A Department of Defense representative declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump also cited tremendous medical costs for transgender people as a burden the U.S. military cannot handle. But The RAND study said that of the thousands of transgender service members, only between 29-129 serving in active duty would seek out medical treatment for gender transitions.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona returns to Washington, D.C., Tuesday, after being diagnosed with brain cancer last week. McCain will join his Republican colleagues as they move closer to a vote on crucial health care legislation.

Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, McCains office said in a statement Monday.

READ: Will McCains Return To Washington Help Republicans Push The Health Care Bill?

McCains vote is critical to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells effort to repeal and replace, or just repeal, the Affordable Care Act, the signature law passed from the Obama administration. McConnell seeks to have a vote on a motion to proceed, which allows the Senate to begin discussions on a health care bill. McConnell has been secretive about what bill he would bring to the floor for discussion if a motion to proceed passes.

McConnell needs 50 votes for a motion to proceed, Vice President Mike Pence casts a tie-breaking vote. There are 52 Republicans in the Senate for McConnell to lean on, all 48 Democrats and the Independents they caucus with are opposed to the Republican plan.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, has said she will not go along with the vote.

Given McCains diagnosis of Glioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer, and the rush to return to the Capitol for a vote that could take health care away from millions opened up the senator for criticism on Twitter.

McCain has not yet indicated how he will vote, and calls from International Business Times to his office have not yet been returned. Many fear the Senator will toe the party line.

Will cancer-stricken @SenJohnMcCain help a draft-dodger who called him a loser take health care from millions? Then this will be his legacy.  David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 25, 2017

Lots of veterans depend on Medicaid, which John McCain knows, yet he's still going to rise from his hospital bed to gut their health care.  Nate (@inthesedeserts) July 25, 2017

.@SenJohnMcCain please think of me when you cast your vote today. I know I'm not as powerful as Trump but I really like living. pic.twitter.com/4gnCsSqg7D  Shannon DeVido (@shannondevido) July 25, 2017

John McCain, If you vote for an evil Bill allowing millions 2 lose the coverage you enjoy,then SHAME ON YOU! @SenJohnMcCain #TuesdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/A60nqlzUqC  A.Silver-MeMEs-GIFs (@SilverAdie) July 25, 2017

For the 23 million Americans who would lose health insurance under TrumpCare, a diagnosis like John McCain's would be a death sentence.  Stop the Speaker (@StopTheSpeaker) July 25, 2017

READ: John McCain Diagnosed With Glioblastoma, Symptoms To Know About Aggressive Brain Tumor

Story continues

Over the years, President Trump has had public feuds with McCain, criticizing the former Navy pilot for being captured in the Vietnam War. On Tuesday, however, after learning he would return to Washington for a key vote, Trump praised the six-term senator.

So great that John McCain is coming back to vote. Brave - American hero! Thank you John.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Trump on @SenJohnMcCain July 2015: "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." https://t.co/CYKA9DZU9T  Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 25, 2017

Related Articles
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A child killer was put to death with no apparent complications Wednesday in Ohio's first execution since a problem-plagued one 3 years ago triggered an uproar over the reliability of the lethal injection drugs used by the state.

Ronald Phillips, 43, was condemned to die for the 1993 rape and slaying of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evans. He was given a three-drug combination never used in Ohio before.

As he lay on the execution table, he apologized to the child's aunt and half-sister, who were there to watch him die for his crimes.

"I know that Sheila Marie didn't deserve what I did to her," he said.

Donna Hudson, the victim's aunt, said: "God forgave him, but, I'm sorry, I don't think I can."

Phillips' case could open the way for the full resumption of capital punishment in Ohio, which has 26 executions scheduled through 2020, the next on Sept. 13.

"I have confidence that we are going to continue to do this in a dignified, peaceful, humane way, and I'm committed to do that," Ohio Prisons Director Gary Mohr said just before Phillips' execution.

It was Ohio's first execution since 2014, when an inmate gasped and snorted repeatedly during a procedure that took an unusually long 26 minutes and involved a never-before-tried drug combination.

Gov. John Kasich reacted by putting all executions on hold. The delays continued when the state had trouble finding new supplies of drugs and death row inmates sued over Ohio's proposed new three-drug combination, saying it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The drugs include midazolam, a sedative used in some problematic executions in Ohio, Arkansas and Arizona. The inmates were backed up by 15 pharmacology professors who said midazolam is incapable of inducing unconsciousness or preventing serious pain.

Phillips lost his final appeal on Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied his requests for more time to pursue the challenge to the new drug combination or his claim that he deserved mercy because he was only 19 at the time of the crime.

Story continues

He died about 10 minutes after giving his final statement. He showed no signs of distress. His chin dropped and his belly heaved slightly as the lethal drugs were administered.

Allen Bohnert, a public defender who worked on the case, contended Phillips' execution was not problem-free, it just looked that way. He said the executioners accelerated administration of a paralytic to mask Phillips' pain.

"Hiding the physical evidence does not change the reality that Ohio used a painful and unnecessary method of execution to kill Ron Phillips today," Bohnert said.

It was the nation's 15th execution of the year.

Phillips staved off lethal injection three other times, including in 2013, when he made a last-minute request to donate a kidney to his mother and possibly his heart to his sister. The request was ultimately denied. His mother has since died.
Earlier in July, Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence was in the news after she had to leave a Broadway production of 1984 when she started to, as Page Six put it, barf. On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, one of the stars of 1984, Olivia Wilde, was asked by a caller if Lawrence had apologized for it.

Olivia Wilde felt bad for Jennifer Lawrence and was happy she was feeling better. (Photo: Bravo)

Listen, she didnt need to apologize, said Wilde. I felt so bad and I sent her some matzo ball soup and bagels and she feels much better. She had a stomach flu. The poor thing walked in sick.

You know where she was supposed to go after seeing your play? asked Cohen. She was supposed to come here. She was going to watch the show that night. So random. [The Real Housewives of Orange County star] Vicki Gunvalson was on and she really wanted to come. Not even kidding.

Her whole night was ruined, added Wilde. She is doing better, thank the lord because shes the best.

Lawrence isnt the only person to have taken ill during the show. Multiple audience members have thrown up and fainted during 1984. The Hollywood Reporter says its due in part to extreme torture scenes and special effects like strobe lights, sudden blackouts and jackhammer sounds. Even Wildes co-star Tom Sturridge exited a performance on a stretcher after he became dehydrated. Wilde herself broke a tailbone while rehearsing.

Check out Olivia Wilde talking about breaking her tailbone while rehearsing for 1984:

Read more from Yahoo TV:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
Usher got his Carpool Karaoke going on The Late Late Show With James Corden. Corden and Usher drove all over Los Angeles talking about everything from veganism to feminism  but most of all, they sang!

Considering that Usher has sold more than 43 million albums worldwide, its safe to say he has a lot good songs. And they sang several of them, including Yeah!, Burn, Caught Up, I Dont Mind, and OMG.

Usher also took time to teach Corden some dance moves, as well as how to step into the club.

When Usher noticed that they had driven past his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they stopped and gave a thorough cleaning.

The two even pulled over to help push a freshly painted Porsche 914 down the street. In fact, Usher used his body to block oncoming traffic.

Like all Carpool Karaoke episodes, it was a load of fun. And it gave Corden a chance to show off his rapping skills.

The Late Late Show With James Corden airs weeknights at 12:37 a.m. on CBS.

Watch the entire Usher episode right here:





Read more from Yahoo TV:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Augusts upcoming total solar eclipse is offering scientists nationwide a unique opportunity to study the fairly rare event, the sun and the Earth. NASA is funding a total of 11 projects nationwide and asking citizens to pitch in by reporting data from their locations as well. One of those projects involves two research jets, fitted with telescopes, traveling in the shadow of the eclipse.

From the ground, the full total eclipse will occur Aug. 21 in 14 states, but will last no more than roughly two and a half minutes in any given area. By chasing the eclipse via jet the research teams can conduct research under prolonged eclipse conditions of more than seven minutes.

eclipse planes

Photo: NASA

Read: Solar Eclipse 2017: NASA Wants You To Help Collect Data On Event

The WB-57F jets are mounted with telescopes on the nose of the planes, says NASA. The plan is to use them to capture the clearest images of the suns atmosphere, called the corona, ever taken. In addition to photos of the sun, the mission will take the first thermal images of Mercury ever. The jets will take off from Texas, near the Johnson Space Center, and fly North to head high into the stratosphere where there is less turbulence and it is significantly darker than it will be on the ground. Each plane will travel for three and a half minutes over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee making observations.

When the moon moves into position between the sun and the Earth it will perfectly block the light from the sun, making the corona easier to see than it usually is. Part of the reason researchers are so interested in learning more about the corona is that its actually hotter than the surface of the sun, a strange phenomena that perplexes researchers. During the eclipse the planes will capture 30 photos a second of the corona to hopefully aid in the study of whether the waves in the corona move away or towards the sun and their size and strength, according to NASA. This could help unravel the mystery of nanoflares on the sun.

Story continues

Read: Total Solar Eclipse August 2017: What It Is, How And Where To See It

nasa eclipse jet

Photo: NASA

Those photos of the sun will be taken in visible light wavelengths more specifically the green light that ionized iron gives off. This is best for showing the area of the corona and offers a view that other telescopes dont capture.

The observations of Mercury will be taken a half hour before the eclipse and a half hour after while the sky is still dark in infrared to map the temperature of the planet. The planet has great variation in temperature due to its long days. Examining how quickly the surface cools during an event like this can help scientists determine what the surface is made of and how the rocky planet formed, says NASA. Information that could potentially be applied to other planets like Mercury.

Related Articles
Allegiant Air reportedly left almost 200 passengers stranded in Las Vegas, Nevada Sunday following a canceled flight to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, according to FOX 5 Vegas. The airline informed customers that they would not be placed on another flight until Thursday, leaving passengers stranded at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for four days after their original scheduled flight.

"This is an unusual situation  canceling without a reschedule is rare, and is only invoked when there are truly no other options available for switching aircraft or rescheduling," Krysta Levy, a spokeswoman for Allegiant Air, told International Business Times. "Unlike many larger carriers, Allegiant does not have daily service to all markets served from Las Vegas. In many instances, these are two-times weekly flights."

Levy added, "All options were explored to get our passengers to their destination, but unfortunately, there were no practical solutions given the heavy Sunday and Monday schedules in our network."

Mechanical issues with the air craft disrupted Allegiant Flight 454 from taking off. The 160 passengers were offered a $300 check but were told it wouldn't arrive in the mail for seven to 10 business days. Passengers could use the check to rebook their flight with Allegiant, or they would receive a refund if they chose not to rebook their flight with the airline.

Read: Ann Coulter Blasts Delta For Removing Her From Airplane Seat, Twitter Reacts

Jennifer Falsetti, a FOX 25 reporter in Oklahoma City, tweeted pictures of the letters passengers on Flight 454 received from Allegiant upon the carrier's cancellation. Allegiant sent an email and traditional mail letter to the flight's passengers.

"We regret to inform you that your upcoming Allegiant flight 454 originally scheduled to to depart McCarran International Airport (LAS) to Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) on Sunday, July 23 at 04:03 pm has been canceled," the apology email read. "Visit Allegiant.com and select Manage Travel to view the options available for your itinerary."

Story continues

About 200 Allegiant passengers are stranded in Las Vegas after flight is canceled to OKC. They offer no flights to OKC until Thurs @OKCFOXpic.twitter.com/0hWQD79N51  Jennifer Falsetti (@JenniferFOX25) July 24, 2017

Airline issues aren't a new phenomenon, but Twitter users have expressed their disdain towards of the carrier following the company's latest scandal, with some deeming it the "worst airline on the planet."

"Your company is a JOKE! My daughter is stuck in Vegas Airport due to you cancelling her flight Customer service IS HORRIBLE," a woman wrote on Twitter, sharing her frustrations with Allegiant in a series of tweets. "@Allegiant told her they could get her to Chicago for an additional 150.00 and she is stuck in O'Hare now with NO LUGGAGE! @Allegiant HAD APPARENTLY LOST HER LUGGAGE....ALONG WITH MANY POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS AFTER THIS!"

One user commented on the frustrated woman's rant, saying, "A dozen of my friends stranded in Vegas until Thurs, and given 300 bucks. They're awful."

Another user tweeted a separate complaint, saying, "Extremely disappointed in @Allegiant . My roommate's flight from Vegas has been cancelled and we're not getting any responses from staff!"

Some customers tried to make the best of the situation, with one group of friends embarking on a road trip from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City, according to NBC News affiliate KFOR.

Read: EU Airplane-Style Drone Regulations May Be Issued By 2019

Spokeswoman Levy issued an official apology on behalf of Allegiant for the disruption of customers' travel plans, saying the airline has issued refunds and additional benefits to all passengers who would have boarded flight 454 to Oklahoma City.

"We sincerely apologize for the interruption to our passengers' travel plans. All passengers have been issued refunds for the flight, as well as an additional $300 to help defray costs associated with the disruption to their plans," she said. "In addition, each passenger has been issued a $150 voucher toward future travel on Allegiant. Passengers were also given the option to be re-accommodated on another Allegiant flight at no charge, for example, some chose to take yesterdays flight from Las Vegas to nearby Tulsa, OK."

Allegiant Air

Photo: Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter @dory_jackson

Related Articles
By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors questioned their last witness in the securities fraud trial of Martin Shkreli on Tuesday, while the former drug company executive's lawyers said they do not expect to call any witnesses of their own, setting the stage for closing arguments later this week.

Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that they expect to rest their case on Wednesday after legal arguments about admitting evidence, which will take place without jurors present.

The prosecutors and Shkreli's lawyers told Matsumoto they expect to deliver closing arguments Thursday morning, just over a month after the June 28 opening arguments.

Shkreli, 34, outraged patients and U.S. lawmakers by raising the price of anti-infection drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50 in 2015, when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

The charges he now faces are not related to Turing, but instead stem from Shkreli's management of his previous drug company, Retrophin Inc, and of hedge funds MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare between 2009 and 2014.

Prosecutors have said that Shkreli lied about the funds' finances to lure investors and concealed devastating trading losses. They said he paid investors back with money and shares stolen from Retrophin, which he founded in 2011.

Prosectors' last witness, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Michael Braconi, offered a look at the relationship between Shkreli and a lawyer who worked for him during that time, Evan Greebel, who faces a separate trial on fraud charges in October.

Braconi read a series of emails showing Shkreli repeatedly berating Greebel as Shkreli scrambled to pay back investors using agreements with Retrophin, which prosecutors say were fraudulent.

"Why can't you do your job?" Shkreli asked Greebel in one email.

Later, Shkreli wrote Greebel, "You embarrass me."

When Greebel warned Shkreli that there could be legal problems with Shkreli acquiring Retrophin shares at below-market prices, Shkreli responded, "f that."

Story continues

Greebel's lawyers have said in court filings that Greebel was deceived by Shkreli, and did not take part in any fraud.

During the trial, jurors heard from several MSMB investors who testified that Shkreli had deceived them. In cross-examining those witnesses, Shkreli's lawyers sought to emphasize that none of them lost money, and that some made large profits.

Jurors also heard from the former chairman of Retrophin's board of directors, Steven Richardson, who said Shkreli never got board approval for agreements he reached between Retrophin and his investors.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)
By Sofia Menchu and Lizbeth Diaz

GUATEMALA CITY/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Delmin Lopez Colomo landed in a San Antonio hospital on Sunday along with 28 other migrants who slipped across the U.S. border and climbed into the back of a truck for a suffocating ride that killed 10 people.

For the 23-year-old Lopez, it was the second attempt to sneak into the United States - in part, so he could pay off debts he got into financing his first bid for a better life.

Now fear of another failure sits heavily on his loved-ones in western Guatemala, where his mother Eulalia Colomo frets his deportation could ruin the family of 12 children she said she had raised in a mountain village of cinder block homes.

Colomo, a 57-year-old housewife, said the family took a loan against their house to pay for her son's first trip last year that ended some 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from home with his capture just short of the U.S. border in the violent Mexican city of Reynosa.

"I hope they do us the favor of letting him stay because otherwise there's no way we can pay our debts," Colomo said by telephone from the village of Santa Irene in the western highlands of the central American nation. "My husband is a farmer and there are days he works and other days we don't eat."

U.S. law enforcement has granted temporary visas in previous migrant smuggling cases. Some survivors of the ordeal in Texas are seeking visas in exchange for testimony against those responsible for the incident, said Silvia Mintz, an attorney representing the Guatemalan Consulate in Houston.

Ten migrants died and 29 were hospitalized after more than 100 were packed into the stifling tractor-trailer for a 150-mile (240-km) drive from the border to San Antonio, where survivors spilled out in a Walmart parking lot on Sunday.

The truck driver accused of smuggling the migrants said he was unaware of the human cargo in the back until he took a rest stop in Texas, court papers showed on Monday. If convicted, James Bradley Jr., 60, could face the death penalty.

Story continues

Delmin Lopez was found badly dehydrated but alive, and spoke to his mother from hospital for the first time since setting off on the perilous journey northward two months ago, she said.

Like many others crammed into the container, Lopez reasoned the chance of finding work in the United States outweighed the risk of becoming another statistic in U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Figures suggest Trump's rhetoric has been a deterrent.

Apprehensions on the southwest border were down nearly 47 percent in the first six months of the year to 104,288 people, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics.

But having paid smugglers nearly $7,000 the first time, and with his mother facing bills for treatment of a throat ulcer, Lopez doubled down, paying another 24,000 quetzals ($3,300) to get into to the United States a second time, Eulalia Colomo said.

"He was very determined," she said.

Plagued by gang violence and poverty, the trio of Central American nations, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador together send the bulk of migrants entering the United States illegally.

However, turf wars between gangs have sparked a surge in violence in Mexico in the past 18 months, raising the incentive for some young Mexicans to risk the crossing.

So far authorities have identified a 20-year-old Guatemalan and four Mexicans among the dead in the truck. At least 21 Mexicans were also hospitalized, Mexico's government said.

Four of the migrants in San Antonio-area hospitals were from the small town of Calvillo in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes, according to officials and family members.

"In this town there is practically no family that does not have some (family) member in the U.S.A," said Adan Valdivia, the mayor of Calvillo, who said 24-year-old Mario Ramirez, was among the migrants trapped in the back of the truck.

Viridiana Ramirez, 25, said her brother Mario had struggled to find work in Calvillo and that friends already living in the United States convinced him to hazard the journey. "They said there's work here and you could come," she said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the uncle of another of the Mexicans hospitalized in San Antonio said traffickers had charged some of the Mexicans between $3,500 and $4,500 to get them from the center of the country into the United States.

"They left about two weeks ago, and my nephew called us to get someone to please stop the truck. He told us they couldn't breathe. The people were dying," he said. "It's not Trump; it's Mexico that's making our people die this way."

Separately, Guatemala's foreign ministry said that three of its citizens - one woman, a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl - were found dead after trying to cross the Rio Grande, between the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez and the Texan city of El Paso.

(Writing by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Dave Graham and Lisa Shumaker)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday announced progress in talks to get Russia to supply its latest S-400 air-defence system to Ankara.

"We have signed with Russia. God willing, we will see S-400s in our country," Erdogan said in a speech to his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers in parliament.

It was not clear what part of the deal for a potential sale of the hi-tech system by Russia had been signed between Moscow and Ankara.

But late Monday, Erdogan said most of the meetings for the deal had been completed.

Erdogan hit back against any potential criticism of the sale, pointing to NATO ally Greece's use of the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.

"Why didn't anyone say anything then? Why are they uncomfortable when it is Turkey?" Erdogan asked.

If the deal is completed, it would be a significant step after the two countries repaired relations damaged by Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border in 2015.

Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met several times since the rapprochement last year and Russia has rolled back most of its retaliatory sanctions.

But the two countries remain on opposing sides of the Syrian conflict, with Moscow backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey supporting opposition fighters.

Last week, Sergei Chemezov, head of Russian state arms conglomerate Rostec, said technical issues on the deal had been decided and only administrative issues remained.

burs-raz/jj
By Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday shot down a legislative effort by Democrats to obtain Treasury Department documents that could show any ties between the finances of President Donald Trump, his inner circle and the Russian government. The bill was rejected amid intense sparring with Democrats openly wondering whether or not Trump, a Republican, is compromised by a foreign power and Republicans dismissing it as a political stunt. Representative Jeb Hensarling, the Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee that rejected the proposal, said the panel would not be spending any time exploring Trump's financial network. Hensarling cited open investigations by congressional committees and a special counsel into conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election campaign to help New York businessman Trump win. Moscow has denied any meddling and Trump has denied and collusion between his campaign and Russian officials. The bill, known as a "resolution of inquiry," is a rarely used legislative tool that allows Congress to formally request certain documents from the executive branch. But following Tuesday's voice vote in the committee, the bill is not expected to receive consideration by the full House of Representatives. Specifically, the bill sought documents that may have been unearthed by the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that could show any ties between Trump's finances and Russia. Democrats on the committee have been trying for months to obtain financial records tied to Trump. In particular, they have pressed for information involving his business dealings with foreign banks, and any potential connection to Moscow. "Clearly we have something afoot in this country that leads right to the top," said Representative Earl Perlmutter, a Democrat. "We need to make sure that this nation isnt under the thumb of another nation because of financial leverage or whatever it might be." The resolution asked for any records of loans or credit from a number of banks to Trump, and 22 of his closest associates, including family members and top White House and campaign advisers. The banks include Deutsche Bank AG and Russian lenders Sberbank and Gazprombank. Hensarling chided Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the panel who has called for the president's impeachment, for pushing the bill. He said it was "frankly and regrettably, a procedural tool that is blatantly political of nature and one that I do not necessarily consider to be worthy of debate." (Reporting by Pete Schroeder; editing by Grant McCool)
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry thought he was discussing American energy interests with Ukraines prime minister during a lengthy phone call last week.

But according to the U.S. Energy Department, Perry was duped into the 22-minute call with Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov, a pair of pranksters who are sometimes referred to as the Jerky Boys of Russia. The Jerky Boys were an American comedy duo whose routine consisted mainly of prank phone calls.

These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement to Reuters.

Perry and the pranksters discussed a wide range of topics, including Russian sanctions, the Paris climate accord, coal, oil and gas projects in the region and the United States helping Ukraine develop its own energy program.

Giving Ukraine more options with some of our technology is, I think, in everyones best interest with the exception of the Russians, Perry said on the July 19 call, which was posted online Tuesday. But thats OK.

Rick got rolled. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

The energy secretary is not alone in falling for the duo. In 2015, Elton John was crank-called by Krasnov, who was pretending to be Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Afterwards, the pop star posted a message on Instagram thanking Putin.

I look forward to meeting with you face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia, John wrote.

Perrys boss, President Trump, has been the target of similar pranks in the past.

In 2003, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed Trump on Da Ali G Show, a satirical comedy series that featured Cohen conducting interviews in his wannabe rapper character.

But Trump soon realized he was being punked and walked out.

Good luck, folks. Its been nice seeing you, he said. You take care of yourself, OK?

I never fall for scams, Trump tweeted years later. I am the only person who immediately walked out of my Ali G interview.

Story continues

I never fall for scams. I am the only person who immediately walked out of my Ali G interview  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2012

Cohen disputed Trumps account on CBS Late Late Show last year.

He claims that he saw through the interview, but actually he was there for seven minutes, Cohen said.

Is that long for an Ali G interview? host James Corden asked.

Yes, Cohen replied. Quite a long time.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, quickly announced their opposition Wednesday to President Trumps Twitter announcement that the U.S. military would not accept or allow transgender military service members.

Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, McCain wrote. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

He continued: We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so  and should be treated as the patriots they are.

McCain chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee and is widely hailed for his service in the Vietnam War, during which he was tortured and held captive for more than five years. He recently returned to the Senate after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

His criticism of Trumps policy was partly echoed by Ernst, a 20-year military veteran who also serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The panel had not been briefed on the new policy prior to Trumps tweet on the matter.

She believes what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life, Ernsts spokesperson told the Des Moines Register. While she believes taxpayers shouldnt cover the costs associated with a gender reassignment surgery, Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity.

McCain further called the new policy unclear and said that major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter.

Last year, the Obama administration allowed transgender people to serve openly. But Trump argued on Twitter that transgender people would ratchet up military medical costs and could pose a disruption to operations of the military. Transgender medical costs only make up a tiny fraction of military health care spending.

Story continues

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

It is not yet clear what Trumps declaration means for the thousands of transgender military members currently serving.

The Department of Defense is currently researching how transgender people would affect medical costs and military readiness, McCain said. The Arizona Republican added that its not appropriate for any new policy decisions until the Defense Department study is complete and vetted by Congress, the secretary of defense and military leadership.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will continue to follow closely and conduct oversight on the issue of transgender individuals serving in the military, McCain promised.

Other GOP senators also broke with party lines to bite back at Trump for his policy announcement.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said on CNNs Newsroom Wednesday that he believes everyone should be able to serve, but added that he wanted to look into the policy further before making a final judgment.

I think you ought to treat everybody fairly and you ought to give everybody a chance to serve, said Shelby, who serves on the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told a Vox reporter, I dont agree with the president about transgender people in the military.

Sen. Gardner on Trump's tweet on transgender Americans in the military: "I don't agree with the president"  Tara Golshan (@t_golshan) July 26, 2017

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also came out against the ban, stating, I dont think we should be discriminating against anyone.

Hatch continued: Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them. I look forward to getting much more information and clarity from our military leaders about the policy the President tweeted today.

Additional reporting by Olivier Knox.

Read more from Yahoo News:
It is always an important moment the first time in a scandal when we get to hear from the scandals subjects  not the allegations against them but their responses to those allegations, not the obligatory comments, no-comments, or denials in the story itself but the subjects own version of the story. These moments are particularly clarifying when that story comes not in the form of some impulsive reaction  say, an angry presidential tweet  but instead as a carefully prepared presentation, one put together by competent counsel based on an extensive review of the record available to the subject. Such a presentation can be particularly useful when criminal consequences will attach to any knowing lies within it; this can happen either because the subject gives the statement under oath or because he or she gives it under circumstances in which false statements are otherwise barred by federal law.

In such situations, and Jared Kushers statement on Monday presents one such situation, we can with reasonable confidence make a few working, though always rebuttable, presumptions:

that none of the factual statements contained within it are, to the lawyers knowledge anyway, lies;

that none of the factual statements contained within it are clearly at odds with the record counsel has reviewed;

that the statement constitutes the most favorable construction of the facts possible for the client;

and that counsel does not expect any facts to emerge that will render any statement in it provably false.

These are the presumptions with which the careful reader should peruse Kushners 11-page statement given today to congressional committees. The document reflects his lawyers review of a large volume of emails, phone records, calendar entries, and other documents available to them. It also reflects his memory. It is carefully prepared. And he could face prosecution if any of it is knowingly and intentionally false on a material point.

Kushners statement responds more confidently and convincingly on some allegations than on others. And in at least one major area, the statement maintains a conspicuous silence. Given that Kushners discussions with the committee on Monday, and others today, were closed, we do not know whether it held up well under questioning. But based on the document alone, here are seven observations about Kushners conduct we think are safe to tentatively advance at this stage.

The first notable feature of the document is that Kushner released it at all. Lawyers who believe their clients have potentially serious criminal exposure generally do not let them make public statements to congressional committees, particularly not public statements rife with firm factual claims the record may come to contradict. The very existence of this statement, in other words, is itself a show of confidence to some degree that Kusher  whatever problems he might have  is not in the sort of legal jeopardy which counsels silence. That he was apparently willing to answer questions about these matters from the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday and the House Intelligence Committee today without asserting his Fifth Amendment rights further suggests his attorneys feel relatively good about their legal position.

Second, Kushner shows particular confidence on matters related to his meetings with Russians during the campaign. He describes what purports to be all of his contacts, certain or possible, with Russian government officials, and disputes some alleged contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported by Reuters. He treats all of the contacts as trivial, incidental interactions. As he will be in rather grave potential jeopardy if any evidence of more serious interactions emerges, its probably reasonable to expect that he and his lawyers are fairly certain that no more serious interactions will come to light. Notably, Kushner only disavows other contacts or any collusion with a narrow category of individuals  those who were or seemed like they might be representatives of the Russian government. The statement thus leaves some ambiguity about contacts with figures whom a reasonable person in Kushners position might be understand as cutouts.

Third, to minimize his own contacts with Russian government representatives, Kushner rather casually throws his brother-in-law Donald Trump Jr. under the bus on the subject of the now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer peddling dirt on Hillary Clinton on behalf of the Russian government. In Kushners version of the story, he arrived late and left early  thereby conveniently missing all of the untoward stuff about the dirt; he didnt read the relevant emails, nor the subject line; and when his lawyers discovered the matter, he disclosed it:

I arrived at the meeting a little late. When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting. Reviewing emails recently confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and that, in looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work, I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting. I had not met the attorney before the meeting nor spoken with her since. I thought nothing more of this short meeting until it came to my attention recently. I did not read or recall this email exchange before it was shown to me by my lawyers when reviewing documents for submission to the committees. No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted. Finally, after seeing the email, I disclosed this meeting prior to it being reported in the press on a supplement to my security clearance form, even if that was not required as meeting the definitions of the form.

This strategy of exculpating himself at the expense of his fellows shows up also, albeit in a softer way, during his discussion of his transition contacts with Russian actors. In his account of the December 1 meeting with Kislyak and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at Trump Tower, he writes that:

[A]fter pleasantries were exchanged, as I had done in many of the meetings I had and would have with foreign officials, I stated our desire for a fresh start in relations. Also, as I had done in other meetings with foreign officials, I asked Ambassador Kislyak if he would identify the best person (whether the ambassador or someone else) with whom to have direct discussions and who had contact with his President. The fact that I was asking about ways to start a dialogue after Election Day should of course be viewed as strong evidence that I was not aware of one that existed before Election Day [emphasis in original].

Note here that in the bolded passage, Kushner is not denying that a relationship existed before Election Day. He is merely contending that there is strong evidence that he was not aware of any relationship that existed before Election Day. He makes a similar move right at the end of the statement, where he declares that I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government. This is Kushners code for saying that he knows he did nothing wrong but cannot and will not vouch for anyone else. A reasonable reader should conclude that these statements might be stronger were Kusher more confident of the behavior of his fellows.

Fourth, Kushners account of the back-channel communications system he proposed to Kislyak during the campaign is more damaging to himself. But again, the fact that hes willing to talk about it suggests that he does not fear criminal charges related to the subject. And, indeed, his explanation is at least a little bit less bizarre than the news stories that suggested he had proposed a secret ongoing line of communications to get around U.S. intelligence. In Kushners telling:

The Ambassador expressed similar sentiments about relations, and then said he especially wanted to address U.S. policy in Syria, and that he wanted to convey information from what he called his generals. He said he wanted to provide information that would help inform the new administration. He said the generals could not easily come to the U.S. to convey this information and he asked if there was a secure line in the transition office to conduct a conversation. General Flynn or I explained that there were no such lines. I believed developing a thoughtful approach on Syria was a very high priority given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and I asked if they had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use where they would be comfortable transmitting the information they wanted to relay to General Flynn. The Ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration. Nothing else occurred. I did not suggest a secret back channel. I did not suggest an on-going secret form of communication for then or for when the administration took office. I did not raise the possibility of using the embassy or any other Russian facility for any purpose other than this one possible conversation in the transition period. We did not discuss sanctions.

To be clear, Kushner is admitting here a gross impropriety. The right approach in this situation would have been to call the State Department and ask how to handle a sensitive communication from Russian generals who couldnt travel to the United States. Proposing the solution he advanced here could not have been better calculated to raise the hairs on the necks of FBI counterintelligence investigators.

Nor does Kushers statement address the substantive concerns about his being willing to have such talks at all during the transition period. For the relevant period, President Barack Obama was still the commander-in-chief. Holding talks with foreign governments regarding ongoing military engagements  without any input from or visibility to the Department of Defense  is highly unusual during a transition period. It violates the fundamental rule that the country has one president at a time. Recall that much of the scandal regarding Flynns contacts with Kislyak stemmed from concerns that he might have been working to undermine the sanctions policy of the sitting U.S. president.

If Kushner appreciates in retrospect the impropriety, he does not say so, but he and his lawyers have clearly decided to absorb the criticism he will  and should  face for it. They also appear to have decided that there was nothing criminal in the impropriety, and thus it is better to put out there so he can take the heat and move on.

Fifth, Kushners explanation of his meeting with a Russian banker close to Putin, by contrast, is actually reassuring. There has been a lot of speculation that this meeting was really about Kushners business. This had a menacing edge because the banker in question, Sergey Gorkov, is known to be close to Putin, so the idea of his lending money to Kushner or doing business with him raised obvious national security concerns  much as the payments to Flynn continue to.

But on this point, Kushner claims that Gorkov appeared not in his capacity as a banker but as an emissary from the Russian president and that they did not discuss business matters at all:

My assistant reported that the Ambassador had requested that I meet with a person named Sergey Gorkov who he said was a banker and someone with a direct line to the Russian President who could give insight into how Putin was viewing the new administration and best ways to work together. I agreed to meet Mr. Gorkov because the Ambassador has been so insistent, said he had a direct relationship with the President, and because Mr. Gorkov was only in New York for a couple days. I made room on my schedule for the meeting that occurred the next day, on December 13. The meeting with Mr. Gorkov lasted twenty to twenty-five minutes. He introduced himself and gave me two gifts  one was a piece of art from Nvgorod, the village where my grandparents were from in Belarus, and the other was a bag of dirt from that same village. (Any notion that I tried to conceal this meeting or that I took it thinking it was in my capacity as a businessman is false. In fact, I gave my assistant these gifts to formally register them with the transition office). After that, he told me a little about his bank and made some statements about the Russian economy. He said that he was friendly with President Putin, expressed disappointment with U.S.-Russia relations under President Obama and hopes for a better relationship in the future. As I did at the meeting with Ambassador Kislyak, I expressed the same sentiments I had with other foreign officials I met. There were no specific policies discussed. We had no discussion about the sanctions imposed by the Obama Administration. At no time was there any discussion about my companies, business transactions, real estate projects, loans, banking arrangements or any private business of any kind. At the end of the short meeting, we thanked each other and I went on to other meetings. I did not know or have any contact with Mr. Gorkov before that meeting, and I have had no reason to connect with him since.

Sixth, Kushners account of his security clearance forms describes, at best, a terribly careless process. In his account, he didnt lie on his SF-86 form. An underling submitted it prematurely before it contained not just Russian but any foreign contact information. He then quickly notified the transition office that it needed to be supplemented but took many months to do so completely.

This is remarkably bad management. The Trump administration blames LAffaire Russe on media obsessions and bias, but at least as far as Kushner goes  and this by his own account  its largely a function of his failure over time to correct his own errors. After all, had each incremental development in the scandal not contradicted his SF-86 (assuming, of course, that his underlying narrative is accurate) the scandal would never have developed as it has. Kushner Met with Russian Ambassador as Disclosed on His Clearance Forms just isnt much of a headline.

The degree of carelessness with which Kushner apparently approached his SF-86 also reveals the perils of nepotism. Of course, mistakes happen. But most people fill out the SF-86 as if their job depends on getting it right. This is because for most people, their jobs do depend on their getting it right. Evidently, that assumption does not hold when youre married to the presidents daughter. Kusher showed the care of an individual confident he would not face any consequences for many errors uncorrected over a long period of time, and indeed, he hasnt.

Finally, theres at least one big area that is not discussed at all in Kushners statement. That is the question of the Trump campaigns and Cambridge Analyticas use of data analytics to target voters and the apparent micro-targeting of voters in key swing states by Russian trolls and bots. This is a matter of ongoing concern to the Senate Intelligence Committee, as Vice Chairman Mark Warner said recently on CBSs Face the Nation:

John Dickerson (host): You- Another area that it appears youre interested in is the data operation of the Trump campaign, which Jared Kushner was overseeing. Explain that. And is that, again, another extrapolation? Or do you have some evidence for that inquiry? Sen. Mark Warner: Well, we do know that there was a series of Russian trolls, paid individuals, who worked for the Russian services that were trying to interfere and put fake news out. We also know they created whats called bots. In effect, internet robots that actually could interfere as well. The question we have is: Did they somehow get information from some of the Trump campaign efforts to target that interference? We dont know that for sure. But what we do want to know is  Id like to talk to the folks with Cambridge Analytica. Id like to talk to some of the folks from the Trump digital campaign. We do know as well that Facebook, for example, that denied any responsibility during our election, by the time the French elections took place this past spring, they literally took down 30,000 fake sites. So they have in effect got religion about the need to police fake news. We also know that Twitter  its been reported that literally 8 percent of the Twitter accounts are fake. So those accounts can be manipulated as well. Id like not to re-litigate 2016. But I think the whole role of these social media platforms, in terms of disseminating fake news, is a policy question that were going to have to address.

Kushner did nothing to reassure on this point for reasons that are unclear.

All in all, Kushner did himself some good with this statement. Without seeing how he held up under examination from skeptical Senate staffers, it is hard to know how much good. But narrowing the field of contested facts is critical to isolating the signal from the noise in this sprawling scandal. Kushners statement is one small step in that direction. Putting an end to LAffaire Russe will take many more, much larger steps from many other people  including President Donald Trump himself.

Photo credit: YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images
A gay couple who was turned away from a bridal store for reasons of faith is hitting back on social media.

Shannon Kennedy, left, and Julie Ann Samanas were turned away from a bridal boutique because theyre gay. (Photo: Tara Beth Photography)

On July 8, Julie Ann Samanas, 30, and Shannon Kennedy, 34, visited W.W. Bridal Boutique in Bloomsburg, Pa., to purchase Julies wedding dress (to match Kennedys custom-made tux) for their March 2018 nuptials.

We arrived for our appointment and were asked to fill out a questionnaire about our budget and the dress, and where it asked for the grooms name, Julie wrote bride, Kennedy, a corrections officer, told Yahoo Style.

According to Kennedy, a saleswoman helping the couple then asked, Is this for a same-sex wedding? When Shannon answered yes, the woman replied, We dont know if youve heard, but were Christian and we dont believe in same-sex marriage. We cant sell you a dress.

Stunned, the couple of one year looked at each other. We were just like, OK says Kennedy. Then we went to our next dress appointment.

Later that afternoon, Julie Ann posted about the experience on Facebook. Ill gladly take my money somewhere else, when a business wont allow you to try on wedding dresses simply because youre gay, she wrote, tagging the bridal store.

The post received hundreds of comments and many called the incident unacceptable and discriminatory.

W.W. Bridal Boutique co-owner Victoria Miller did not return Yahoo Styles request for comment. But according to Philadelphia Gay News, the store posted and then deleted the following message: The owners of W.W. Bridal Boutique reserve the rights afforded to them by the First Amendment of the Constitution to live out our lives according to our faith. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. We will continue to serve our customers based on the tenets of our faith.

This is the second time that W.W. Bridal Boutique has been involved in a discrimination incident, according to PGN. The site reports that in 2014, the owners refused to give an appointment to a lesbian couple, sparking the Bloomsburg town council to propose an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance, which ultimately did not pass.

Story continues

However, Samanas and Kennedy refuse to let the negative experience ruin their search for the perfect wedding dress. The other bridal stores weve visited were awesome, says Kennedy. Now, Julie is narrowing down her choices.

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.
Discoverys Shark Week continues Wednesday with two specials that take viewers to places that may feel entirely new.

In The Lost Cage (9 p.m.), a team of biologists sets out to determine if man-made fish aggregating devices (FADs) used by commercial fishermen to create artificial reefs that attract tuna also lure in sharks, which may then get caught in their nets. To do that, they turn an aluminum cage into an ecosystem and set themselves adrift for seven days in the Gulf of Mexico aboard a research raft (nicknamed the Man o War) floating above it.

The goal is to tag sharks and see if they follow the cage, which, much like the oil rig in the clip above, becomes a pit stop in the open ocean. If a tagged shark returns and comes within 300 feet of the Man o War, a signal will be heard. (Spoiler alert: It happens. Seven days and more than 200 miles later, the real star of the show, an aggressive 9-foot mako they name Scar, reappears, suggesting sharks have learned that FADs are a good place to hunt and may be in danger.)

The clip below gives you a taste of some of the hours most tense moments  night dives.

Devil Sharks (10 p.m.), meanwhile, explores the reasons why volcanoes  whether active, dormant, or extinct  are shark hot spots around the globe. Florida International Universitys Mike Heithaus and his team conclude that the mild magnetic field in undersea lava ridges in the Caribbean may become a roadway guiding sharks from island to island. As the sneak peek below shows, mazes of lava tubes off Hawaii are used for shelter by smaller sharks, like whitetip reefs, to hide from bigger sharks that prey on them.

The hour culminates with a trip to the Rangiroa atoll in French Polynesia. The lagoons shallows are a nursery for blacktip reef sharks, but its in the deep water outside where you get the hours most thrilling sequence  when French freediving champion Francis Le Gall, who can hold his breath up to four minutes, tries to get a tissue sample from a pack of silvertip and grey reef sharks with his spear gun. Hes lining up a shot when, all of the sudden, the sharks disappear. Enter a 12-foot tiger

Story continues

Freediver Francis Le Gall in Devil Sharks. (Credit: Discovery)

Shark Week continues through July 30 on Discovery.

Read more from Yahoo TV:
With Adam Rawnsley and Robbie Gramer

House vs. Moscow, and Trump in the middle. In a rare display of bipartisan comity, the House on Tuesday passed a measure that would slap new sanctions on Moscow. The package, which sailed through 419 to 3 despite objections from both the White House and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, targets specific Russian officials in retaliation for that countrys interference in the 2016 presidential election, and adds penalties against Iran and North Korea.

The bit the White House most objects to requires the president to obtain congressional approval before relaxing any sanctions against Moscow. The Senate is expected to quickly pass a similar measure. Trump hasnt committed to signing the bill, and any presidential veto would easily be overturned on the Hill. On Wednesday, the Kremlin fired back that it could retaliate if the bill goes through.

Messaging. European diplomats have raised concerns about the sanctions effect on gas projects but Republicans have explained its less about Russia and more about Congress sending a message to Trump, one western diplo said.

Kush. FPs Moscow correspondent Amie Ferris-Rotman takes a deeper look at the man the Kremlin sent to meet with Jared Kushner, armed with a bag of dirt.

Russia looks to profit on Syria war. Moscow has stepped up a campaign to get the United Nations to demine Syrias Roman ruins in Palmyra, FPs Colum Lynch tells us that some Western diplomats fear the Kremlin is only seeking to get other countries to help it exploit the citys rich natural resources:

The Russian governments push to protect Syrias ancient ruins, these diplomats note, coincides with reports of an effort by Russia to convince private security companies to secure territory around Palmyra from Islamic State militants in exchange for the rights to lucrative gas and mining rights. More from Colum here.

House Republicans feel VP pressure in transgender bill. Vice President Mike Pence and his team have taken an active role in trying to overturn a Pentagon policy that funds medical medical procedures for transgender service members, sources tell FPs Paul McLeary. The calls to the Hill come amid a flurry of last-minute activity in which House Republicans have submitted three separate but identical amendments to the 2018 defense spending bill that would prohibit the Pentagon from using government money to provide medical treatment related to gender transition. Votes on the amendments are expected Wednesday.

Story continues

North Korea could have ICBM by next year. Pyongyang is expected to be able to field a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as 2018, the Defense Intelligence Agency says in a confidential assessment obtained by the Washington Post. The new assessment shaves a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Koreas ICBM program, was prompted by recent missile tests showing surprising technical advances by the countrys weapons scientists, at a pace beyond what many analysts believed was possible for the isolated communist regime.

Another vacant seat at State Department. Rex Tillersons State Department has forced out the top State Department official in charge of preventing another Benghazi-style attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities. On Tuesday, CBS News reported Bill Miller, the acting assistant secretary for diplomatic security, will leave this week, with no word on his replacement. Two insiders tell FP he was forced out by the administration.

Current and former State officials see some irony in the exit under a Republican administration. It is absolutely bizarre that a party that was so obsessed with Benghazi suddenly does not give a damn about the security of our people overseas, Tom Countryman, a former State Department official for 35 years who retired earlier this year, told FP.



Dont Discount the Boy Scouts. President Trump gave a very Trump-ian speech before the National Boy Scout Jamboree on Monday, sparking inevitable controversy, shock, and ire. But lost in that debate is the impact on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Eagle Scout and national president of the Boy Scouts. Several State Department sources tell FP Trumps treatment of the scouts and political grandstanding discouraged the secretary, and could have added another layer of discord between the president and his secretary of state. This, already at a time when rumors of a Rexit are swirling.

Mattis wants to reform military training. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently told military leaders he wants to reduce the amount of mandatory training service members undergo, and focus more on how to equip more ready and lethal forces, Fox News reports. The goal will be to regain a concentration on the art and science of warfighting.

Guns of July. The Pentagon released footage of an incident in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday when an Iranian naval vessel came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, leading U.S. sailors to fire warning shots near the craft. Video here. The incident comes several weeks after Iranian forces harassed the USS Bataan and USS Cole, shining floodlights on them from a distance of 800 yards and pointing a laser at an airborne U.S. helicopter.

Friends! Or something. U.S. Army Europe released pictures of Russian military observers invited to observe NATO exercises in Eastern Europe this week. The pics might be a bit of a shot at Moscow just before its upcoming Zapad exercises, which will unlikely include NATO observers on the invite list. FPs Paul McLeary has more here about those exercises, and why NATO is concerned.

Welcome to SitRep. Send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley.

Sanctions. The Trump administration could drop more sanctions against Chinese entities for trading with North Korea sometime in the next month. Acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia Susan Thornton told lawmakers on Tuesday that the department was also considering whether or not to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism after taking Pyongyang off the list in 2008.

Russia. Its not just China whose companies are trading with North Korea. Chosun Ilbo reports that Russia has doubled its trade of oil and other goods to the North in the first five months of 2017, with data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency showing that Russian trade had jumped from $24 million through May of 2016 to $48 million in the same period this year. South Korean officials tell the paper they suspect Russia has increased its trade with Pyongyang in order to gain leverage against the U.S. and South Korea.

Iran. President Trump is hinting that his administration may scuttle the Obama administrations nuclear deal with Iran by refusing to certify that Iran is in compliance with the terms of the agreement in the next three months. Under the terms of the deal, the administration has to periodically certify Iran is living up to its end of the deal but in an interview with the Wall Street Journal President Trump said hed be very surprised if they will be in compliance, saying that If it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago.

Afghanistan. The Taliban is racking up more progress, taking control of three new districts across the country, Long War Journal reports. Insurgents claim to have seized districts in Faryab in the north, Paktia in the east, and Ghor in central Afghanistan, demonstrating an ability to take territory across the country. President Trump has recently expressed some interest in Afghanistans mineral wealth, a promise of riches that no one has yet been able to fully prove out.

Djibouti. New satellite photos of Chinas first overseas military base in Djibouti show the Peoples Liberation Army hardening the facility with new perimeter security features and an underground facility that can store vehicles and hide activities from prying eyes overhead.

Bomb heist. Someone stole dozens of grenades, explosive charges, and other assorted weapons from a Portuguese military arsenal in June and now European counterterrorism officials are worried that the cache could find its way into the hands of terrorists.

Libya. French President Emmanuel Macron has helped negotiate a ceasefire between forces loyal to Libyas internationally-recognized government and Khalifa Haftar, a warlord based in the countrys east. Haftar and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj agreed to hold U.N.-monitored elections in the near future. Libya has been plagued by fighting between various factions since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, and France fears that further violence could undermine gains made against the Islamic State in Libya.

Hacking. A new report says that an Iran-linked hacking group has been targeting the U.S., Israeli, German, Jordanian, and Turkish governments with relatively basic tools. ClearSky Cybersecurity and Trend Micro released a report linking a group dubbed CopyKittens to a campaign of hacks, including the use of fake social media accounts to spread malicious links on Israeli social media.

Iraq. Iraq may be buying Russias latest tank, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iraqi Vice President Nuri al-Maliki discussing a possible T-90 purchase in a recent meeting. Russia has been looking to export the T-90 to countries across the Middle East, sending them to help Assad regime forces and trying, thus far in vain, to interest Irans military.
Shannon Purcifer didnt attend her school prom after being bullied for years. (Photo: Facebook/ClaireCarstens)

A 16-year-old girl got her own prom after missing her schools prom due to bullying.

Shannon Purcifer was taunted by bullies for years for suffering from ulcerative colitis, a form of bowel disease.

The student, who lives in Gosport, England, decided not to attend her school prom last month because she was unable to face her bullies.

Shannons story came to the public eye in June after her mother, Claire Carstens, posted a photo of her daughter wearing her gorgeous prom dress on Facebook. If Shannon had gone to prom tonight she would of worn this beautiful dress, her mom wrote in the caption. Thanks to nasty vile bullies shannon decided she didnt want to go and mix with scum that made her so miserable. For a girl that has had so much to deal with in life.coeliac disease, ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis, she is one strong young lady with an even stronger mind!! Love you girl.

She also asked for peoples help to give Shannon the prom that she deserved. Hundreds came forward to offer their support.

On Saturday, 120 bikers escorted Shannon to a prom that had been created especially for her. More than 100 friends and family members also attended the celebration, equipped with a buffet and a dance floor.

Shannon was finally able to wear her prom dress, accessorizing it with a tiara and a corsage that carried a picture of her late father, who died in 2007, serving in the Royal Navy in Germany.

Shannons mother asked for help to create a prom for her daughter. (Photo: Facebook/ClaireCarstens)

It was better than I could ever have imagined, Shannon said. It was far better than if I had gone to my own school prom.

There was lots of dancing, and I generally just had an amazing time. There were people there Id never even met who had gone out of their way to help me. It was really emotional.

Shannons mother said there was no better way to stick two fingers up at bullies than to go out and enjoy yourself.

More than 100 friends and family members turned up for Shannons big day. (Photo: Facebook/ClaireCarstens)

The night [Shannon] was supposed to go to her prom, she just did nothing. She tried the dress on, but it was heartbreaking for her to choose not to go, Carstens added.

Story continues

She had been looking forward to it for months and we bought the dress as far back as February, but the bullying got so bad, she knew she wouldnt enjoy it if she went.

Were so happy that Shannon now has a fond prom memory to look back on.

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.




By Syed Raza Hassan and Asif Shahzad KARACHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Owners of Pakistani fuel tankers ended their protest strike on its third day on Wednesday, dispelling fears of a fuel shortage that had prompted long queues of panicked fuel buyers at petrol stations countrywide. Pakistan has 10 to 11 days of oil stock reserves, media said, but many service stations were shuttered, and carried "Petrol Finished" signs, following panic buying in the nation of nearly 200 million people. Tanker owners were protesting against police corruption and a new safety push by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) following one of the worst accidents in Pakistan's history last month, a fuel tanker explosion that killed 216 people. "The oil supply will resume by 4 p.m.," said Yousaf Shiwani, president of the oil tankers' association, adding that government officials had accepted the body's demands to extend the timeframe to adopt the new safety measures. As fears of a fuel shortage peaked, protesters in the southern port city of Karachi attacked tankers earlier on Wednesday, at least one of them appearing to involve gunfire. "The latest attack took place this morning, in which the tanker driver suffered gunshot injuries," Naseem Aftab, a spokesman for Pakistan State Oil, told Reuters, adding that three of the company's tankers had been targeted. Government officials say safety has to improve in a country where few trucks are roadworthy, posing a danger to the public. Pakistan's safety regulator suspected oil marketing companies were backing the strike and would "expose" the firms, its spokesman said. "We will not allow this blackmailing," OGRA spokesman Imran Ghazanvi told a news conference. But the bribes continually demanded by motorway, traffic and excise police can prove ruinous, said Shamas Shiwani, vice-chairman of the All-Pakistan Tankers' Association. "A tanker driver has to pay so much in extortion that he hardly manages to keep his clothes," he told Reuters. Petrol stations in the Punjabi city of Multan had mostly exhausted stocks, media said, while Peshawar and other cities limited the value of fuel purchases to 1,000 rupees ($9.50) per car and 100 rupees per motorbike. "It is better to fill the tank," said Waseem Sheikh, one of hundreds queuing at a Shell petrol station in Islamabad, the capital. "I don't want to face a hard time just because I don't have fuel in my car." Last month's accident in the eastern province of Punjab was triggered by a fireball caused by a leak from a tanker carrying fuel, killing villagers who had flocked around in hopes of salvaging some of the drips. ($1=105.1200 Pakistani rupees) (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic and Saad Sayeed; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Richard Pullin and Clarence Fernandez)
Ain Issa (Syria) (AFP) - Civilians fleeing the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion of Raqa are paying smugglers to lead them out of the city safely, only to find themselves caught up in harrowing attacks.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Raqa and the surrounding province since the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an offensive to capture the jihadist stronghold last year.

But the journey is perilous, with IS preventing civilians from abandoning its shrinking territory and enforcing its ban with deadly violence.

In the Ain Issa camp, where thousands of people displaced from Raqa have sought refuge, many civilians say they were promised safe passage by smugglers who ended up leading them into deadly situations.

Ali, 25, asked around in his village of Qahtaniya, about six kilometres (nearly four miles) northwest of Raqa, to find a smuggler.

"The smugglers don't reveal their real names, they use false ones. Ours called himself 'Al-Hout' (The Whale)," he told AFP.

"I agreed with The Whale on the details and I paid him 222,000 Syrian pounds ($418)," he said, an amount that covered him and eight family members, the youngest of them a five-year-old child.

On the night of their escape, they left the village in Ali's car at 2:00 am and headed for a rendezvous point where the smuggler and other fleeing civilians were waiting.

The smuggler moved ahead of the group and then brought them to a halt.

"We arrived at a place that he told us was safe, and then we came under a barrage of Daesh gunfire," Ali said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

He gunned his car engine and managed to reach a nearby SDF checkpoint safely, but a woman who had joined them at the meeting point was wounded in the attack.

"We don't know what happened to her, but the blood of those (who have died fleeing) is on the hands of the smugglers," he said.

- Captured by IS -

The Kurdish and Arab fighters of the SDF entered Raqa in June and have since captured more than 40 percent of the city from IS.

Story continues

But the UN estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside in dire conditions.

The UN says civilians are paying between 75,000 and 150,000 Syrian pounds ($150-$300) per person to smugglers to organise their escape.

When Ahmed al-Hussein, 35, decided to flee Raqa, he agreed to pay a smuggler 70,000 Syrian pounds and hand over his motorbike, worth another 30,000 Syrian pounds, when he reached safety.

"We were a group of 250 people. We were moving for 15 hours until we reached an SDF checkpoint in the Al-Mazeila area, 23 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Raqa, at the break of dawn," he told AFP.

"As soon as we arrived, the jihadists launched an attack on the area, and we were caught in the crossfire. The smugglers disappeared completely."

IS captured him and other civilians and took them to the village of Al-Salihiya, where they beat them and stole their money and identity papers.

They also interrogated the civilians, trying to learn who had smuggled them out.

"It was impossible because we really had no idea. The smugglers could have been Daesh themselves," he said.

- Intercepted by smugglers -

Hussein was eventually released, and moved to another IS-held village, remaining there until it was captured by the SDF several months ago.

Throughout the ordeal he managed to hang onto his motorbike, which sat next to him in his tent.

All of those interviewed by AFP about their experiences fleeing Raqa with smugglers declined to be interviewed on camera, citing fears not only of the smugglers but also of IS.

Elsewhere in the camp, 38-year-old Abu Ahmed was repairing tyres and motorbike parts to bring in a little cash to supplement the meagre supplies available to the displaced.

He fled the Daraiya neighbourhood of Raqa three months ago, but opted to make his own way without resorting to a smuggler.

"I left Raqa with my family before the SDF arrived. We stayed on a nearby farm for about a month until Daesh fighters came and burned our tents," he said, his shirt stained with oil.

The family managed to escape and headed through the desert, searching for the nearest SDF checkpoint.

"Before we reached the checkpoint, we were intercepted by smugglers who asked us to pay them 50,000 Syrian pounds to help us, saying the road ahead was long and unsafe," Abu Ahmed said.

But as he was talking with the smugglers, a shepherd approached him.

"Don't give them your money," the shepherd told him.

"The checkpoint is no more than 500 metres (yards) from here, and the road is safe."
Todays a big day for Facebook (FB) shareholders with the company set to release Q2 earnings after the close.

Heres what to expect from earnings, and why, according to some analysts, there could be a major surprise to the upside.

The bad news: slowing revenue growth

Facebook, at the end of the day, is an advertising company97% of its revenue comes from ads.

Heres the bad news: Facebook has been warning for the past year that revenue growth in 2017 is going to slow meaningfully. During last quarters earnings call, Facebooks CFO noted, Ad loads will play a less significant factor in driving revenue growth after mid-2017.

Thats in part because Facebook ran out of space to put ads in its News Feed, and its largest and most profitable user baseNorth Americais already highly saturated at 80% of the population over 14.

Theres only so much more growth you can expect. But even so, revenue growth has been around 50% for the past few quarters.

This quarter investors anticipate revenue of about $9.2 billion, or growth of 43%-45% from a year ago. That would be the smallest growth since 2015, but for any other company a 43% jump in revenue is pretty darn good.

The good news: Facebook revenue tracks a key Google metric

Another area of concern for investors: Earnings of Google parent Alphabet disappointed, as the company reported cost per click on ads was down 26% from a year ago. That news hit Facebook hard on Tuesday.

Heres the good news: Analysts at Citi note that another key metric in Googles earnings report could mean a big upside surprise for Facebook.

Citi analyst Mark May shows that Facebooks ad revenue has been highly correlated with Googles core sites' revenue at 93% over the last five quarters.

Using that metric, May predicts a 51% increase in Facebook ad revenue versus the 43%-45% investors expect. And that would put earnings per share at $1.44, versus the current estimate for $1.13.

Stick with Yahoo Finance for more on Facebook. We will have the earnings report live today on the Final Round, starting at 3:55 p.m. ET.
Kristin Beck - AFP

A transgender former member of the elite Navy Seal Team 6 challenged Donald Trump to tell her face to face that she was "not worthy" to serve.

Kristin Beck spoke out after Mr Trump announced he was banning transgender people from the US military, calling it a "terrible decision".

Miss Beck was a Navy Seal for two decades including in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia.

"Let's meet face to face and you tell me I'm not worthy," She told Business insider. "Transgender doesn't matter. Do your service.

"Being transgender doesn't affect anyone else. We are liberty's light. If you can't defend that for everyone that's an American citizen, that's not right."

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

The 51-year-old veteran, who was born Christopher Beck, told CNN: "Millions of people are affected by this indirectly. Mr Trump, you just empowered one of the largest grass roots groups you could, and we're going to vote."

She added: "I was shocked. I can't believe he came out with it on Twitter. How about some respect? Everybody's upset. We're confused. I'm blindsided.

"I don't want anything extra, just what everyone else has, dignity and respect and the chance to serve my country. I want to have the freedom to say I'm transgender without the worry of a witch hunt. Take that into account.

"There are transgender people serving with honour. Are you going to witch hunt those folks?"

Story continues

Krisitn Beck serving in the US military

She also accused Mr Trump of "caring more about the airplane or the tank than people".

She told the Tampa Bay Times the decision would cost huge amounts in legal cases from transgender people currently serving.

She said: "A lot of good leaders were working to make sure there was no effect to morale or readiness or combat effectiveness."

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the US military since last year, when former Defence Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban.

Since October 1, they have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Mr Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military.

His successor Jim Mattis announced earlier this month that he was giving military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services would affect the "readiness or lethality" of the force.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving.

A Rand Corp study last year estimated about 2,450 transgender people in active military, out of about 1.3 million troops.
President Trump continued his public campaign against his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Wednesday, knocking his longtime ally for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

Trump, who fired James Comey as FBI director in May, also has the authority to replace McCabe. Its unclear why Trump is singling out Sessions on the issue, other than to add pressure as he reportedly mulls firing him.

Why didnt A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp! Trump wrote on Twitter.

Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Trump was referring to the acting FBI directors wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, a Democrat who ran for a Virginia State Senate seat in 2015. Her campaign was supported by the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The PACs support was not from Hillary Clinton and her representatives, though McAuliffe is a longtime Clinton ally. And Jill McCabe lost her state Senate race.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, left, and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe at a July 13 news conference. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The president has waged a weeklong attack on Sessions, who was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trumps campaign. In an explosive interview with the New York Times last week, Trump indicated he regretted appointing Sessions because the top U.S. law enforcement officer recused himself from any investigation related to the Trump campaign  including the probe into whether the campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election.

Story continues

Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else, Trump told the Times.

Sessions recused himself after it was revealed the Alabama lawmaker had met twice with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign but denied any such meetings at his Senate confirmation hearing.

On Monday, Trump described Sessions as beleaguered and publicly encouraged him to investigate Clinton, whom the president defeated more than eight months ago.

So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

He echoed that sentiment Tuesday, when he grumbled about Sessions weak position on Clinton and intelligence leaks.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

The continued undermining of the nations top law enforcement official raised the possibility that Sessions would either resign or be fired. So far, Sessions, in his only public statement on his job security so far, declared that he would continue in his role as long as that is appropriate.

The president, however, has taken a less definite position. In a Tuesday interview with the Wall Street Journal and at a press conference at the White House, Trump left open the possibility that he would dismiss Sessions.

Im very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell, Trump said.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Jerusalem (AFP) - The UN warned Monday that the crisis over new security measures at a volatile Jerusalem holy site must be swiftly resolved, as a top US official arrived in Israel to try to ease tensions.

The crisis, which saw a weekend of deadly violence, was also discussed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan, a day after an Israeli guard at its embassy in Amman shot two Jordanians dead after an attack.

UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov's warning and the visit by US President Donald Trump's top aide Jason Greenblatt come after more than a week of tensions over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen.

"It is extremely important that a solution to the current crisis be found by Friday this week," Mladenov said after briefing the UN Security Council, which met to discuss how to defuse the tension.

"The dangers on the ground will escalate if we go through another cycle of Friday prayer without a resolution to this current crisis," he said, warning that violence there could spread "beyond the Middle East itself".

Palestinians view the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site. They have refused to enter the compound in protest and have prayed in the streets outside instead.

Israeli authorities say the metal detectors are needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to shoot the officers.

Clashes have broken out during protests over the measures, leaving five Palestinians dead.

Three Israelis were also killed when a Palestinian sneaked into a house in a West Bank settlement and stabbed them.

- Netanyahu, Abdullah II speak -

Greenblatt met Netanyahu along with US envoy to Israel David Friedman Monday, an Israeli official told AFP.

Story continues

In Amman, Jordan insisted on questioning an Israeli embassy security guard who according to Israeli officials shot dead a Jordanian attacker Sunday night, killing a second Jordanian at the time as well, apparently by accident.

Israel said the guard had diplomatic immunity.

He arrived back in Israel late Monday along with the rest of the embassy staff, a statement from Netanyahu's office said, but details of how we was able to return were not given.

It followed a phone conversation between Netanyahu and King Abdullah, who reiterated Jordan's demand that Israel remove all the recent security measures at the Al-Aqsa compound, an official Jordanian statement said.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

The king stressed "the need to find an immediate solution and remove the reasons for the ongoing crisis at the Haram al-Sharif compound", the statement said.

The head of Israel's Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, visited Amman Monday to try to calm the situation, the internal security agency told AFP.

Israeli officials have signalled they may be open to changing the measures at the holy site. Cameras have been installed at entrances in a possible indication of an alternative to the metal detectors.

- 'Playing with fire' -

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit has accused Israel of "playing with fire" with the new security measures, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called them an insult to the Muslim world.

Arriving back in Ankara late Monday at the end of a trip to the Gulf, Erdogan went further still, accusing Israel of flouting international law.

"Israel is mistaken in the steps it has taken and -- I will say this very openly -- is heading into isolation," he warned.

Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa -- brought the situation to a boil.

Clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinians around the Old City, elsewhere in annexed east Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank, leaving three Palestinians dead.

They continued on Saturday, leaving two more Palestinians dead.

Friday evening also saw a Palestinian break into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank during a Sabbath dinner and stab four Israelis, killing three.

The Israeli army said the 19-year-old Palestinian had spoken in a Facebook post of the holy site and of dying as a martyr.

The holy site in Jerusalem has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.

It is in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

Considered the third holiest site in Islam, it is the most sacred for Jews.
In a speech to the Boy Scouts of America's National Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia, President Donald Trump called on rhetoric from his 2016 presidential campaign rallies while addressing thousands of attendees Monday evening. "Boy, you have a lot of people here," Trump said at the beginning of the rally. "The press will say it's about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people." "Tonight, we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington D.C. you've been hearing with the fake news and all of that. We're going to put that aside," Trump said. "I said, 'Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts,'" Trump said. RELATED: A look at President Trump's Boy Scouts appearance However, Trump took the stage to fire several political shots toward his opponents, including his predecessor, Barack Obama, who previously turned down an invitation to speak at the Jamboree in protest of the Boy Scouts' policy of disallowing gay members and leaders from joining their ranks in 2013. "By the way, just a question," Trump asked. "Did President Obama ever come to a Jamboree?" The event has been held every four years since 1910. Trump was the eighth president to attend, following George W. Bush's appearance in 2005. Obama delivered a video address to the event for the organization's 100th anniversary in 2010. Trump continued his speech, harking back to a position on a highly debated topic amongst conservative evangelical leaders and businesses. "Under the Trump administration, you'll be saying 'Merry Christmas' again when you go shopping, believe me," Trump said, reviving an old campaign-trail yarn. "They've been downplaying that little beautiful phrase." "Boy Scout values are American values," Trump continued. "And great Boy Scouts become great, great Americans. As the Scout law says, a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, we could use some more loyalty I can tell you that." Trump also interjected portions of his speech with comments about the crowd size, a typical refrain for Trump on the 2016 campaign trail and, more recently, in reference to his January inauguration. "I'm waving to people back there so small, I can't even see them," Trump said. "By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting, is going to be shown on television tonight. One percent or zero?" The contentious 2016 presidential election was also a talking point in Trump's boy scout speech. The president took a swing at his rival Hillary Clinton's campaign that was widely believed to win Michigan. "Do you remember that famous night on television, November 8, where they said, these dishonest people, where they said 'There is no path to victory for Donald Trump,'" Trump said while pointing at what appeared to be media members. "Do you remember that incredible night with the maps, and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say." "We worked hard [in Michigan]," Trump said. "You know, my opponent didn't work hard there because she was told she was gonna win Michigan." But the message to the thousands of attendees didn't merely center on politics. Trump gave what ostensibly was a motivational speech amid cheers and chants of "U-S-A," and appeared to receive support from many in attendance. "So I have to tell you, what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for 'Make America Great Again.'"
When Evelyn Lee was applying to colleges as a high school senior, she knew that she would need financial aid to be able to afford to go.

But her parents, who are from Korea, were in no position to help her fill out the federal form -- the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA -- necessary to apply for federal grants, loans and work-study funds .

"I remember feeling a little bit daunted when I first started because I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to put in," says Lee, now 25 and a 2014 graduate of California State University--Long Beach. "I kind of had to figure out everything myself."

At 108 questions, the FAFSA is longer than a 1040 tax form, with questions about student and parent income, savings, family make up, number of students in college and more.

[Watch this video to avoid common FAFSA mistakes.]

"It can seem terribly intrusive , and it can be confusing," says Peter Van Buskirk, former dean of admission at Franklin & Marshall College and founder and president of Best College Fit. "There are a lot of nuances associated with questions that can leave you scratching your head about, 'What should I put here?'"

Even so, the biggest mistake a student can make is not completing the form, says Kim Cook, executive director of National College Access Network, an association of college access and success programs. She says once a family gets started, the average completion time is about 30 minutes, although it may take more like 45 minutes for a first-time filer.

"About 85 percent of students who complete the FAFSA receive some sort of financial aid," she says. "This is definitely an endeavor worth doing."

Avoid glitches by being prepared, gathering key information, keeping track of deadlines and checking definitions , among other tasks.

-- Know your deadlines: The FAFSA for the 2018-19 academic year will be available on Oct. 1.

And while technically the filing deadline is June 30, 2019, Cook recommends that families fill out the FAFSA in October or as soon as possible to hit " priority filing deadlines," or deadlines that states and institutions use to award aid. That's because both those sources, which rely on the FAFSA data, often have limited funds and could run out of money. Check with the institutions where you plan to apply to get those deadlines; they are typically in February or March, she says.

Story continues

-- Get an FSA ID: An FSA ID -- or Federal Student Aid ID -- is a username and password that you will need to sign your FAFSA online. If you are a dependent student, both you and a parent need your own, separate FSA IDs.

Request your FSA ID a few days in advance of filling out the FAFSA. It can take up to three days before you can use it to sign your FAFSA, according to the Department of Education, and your name must match exactly with the Social Security Administration's records.

Cook says students and families should have their FSA IDs ready "rather than trying to deal with that when you're poised and ready with your information to complete the FAFSA."

[Read about the importance of filling out the FAFSA early.]

-- Gather documents: Collect all the documents you will need to fill out the FAFSA. "You want to have the tax return from two years prior at your fingertips," Van Buskirk says. "Use the return from 2016 if you're filling out the FAFSA for the 2018-19 school year."

In addition to the tax return, you'll need to know the balance in your checking and savings account s and information about other assets, not including your primary residence or retirement accounts.

-- Check definitions: There may be some unfamiliar terms on the FAFSA, so be sure to check definitions, particularly when it comes to how parents are defined, the number in your household and the number in college, Cook says.

"These questions often have different definitions or calculations than on your taxes," Cook says. "It's important to read those questions carefully, including the backup instructions."

Lee says she recalls being confused by some unfamiliar terms but f ound it easy to look them up on the online FAFSA form.

-- Include all schools: Make sure to include all schools that you think you might attend so that your information is sent there.

"It's very important to do that ; otherwise , the schools won't have your data to use for award-packaging, and they may not even know that you're seeking aid," Cook says.

If you decide later to apply to more schools, you can always go back and add more schools to your completed FAFSA for no fee.

-- Sign the form: When you've finished, sign the form electronically with your FSA ID -- and with your parent's FSA ID , if you're a dependent student. There's also a way for a parent to print a signature page, sign a paper copy and mail it back if he or she doesn't want to use an FSA ID.

Lee, who applied for financial aid via the FAFSA all four years of college, says it ended up being "pretty simple."

"I'm so thankful because I would not have been able to go to college without it," she says.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

Deborah Ziff is a Chicago area-based freelance education reporter for U.S. News, covering college savings and 529 plans. You can follow her on Twitter.
By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's commission investigating voter fraud may request voter roll data from U.S. states, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a setback for groups that contend the effort could infringe on privacy rights. The judge said a lawsuit by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) watchdog did not have grounds for an injunction in part because the collection of data by the commission was not technically an action by a government agency so was not bound by laws that govern what such entities can do. Washington-based U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also pointed out that the commission was an advisory body that does not have legal authority to compel states to hand over the data. Most state officials who oversee elections and election law experts say that voter fraud is rare in the United States. Trump, who set up the commission by executive order on May 12, has charged without evidence that millions voted unlawfully in the November presidential election. Republican Trump won the Electoral College, which tallies wins in states and determines the presidential winner. But he lost the popular vote to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. "We look forward to continuing to work with state election leaders to gather information and identify opportunities to improve election integrity," the commission's vice chair Kris Kobach said in a statement after Monday's ruling. Kobach is the secretary of state for Kansas and a high-profile advocate of tougher laws on immigration and voter identification. Civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have said the commission could lead to new ID requirements and other measures making it harder to vote. The panel, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, met for the first time last week. It ran headlong into controversy when Kobach asked states to turn over voter information. The data included names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliation, felony convictions and voting histories. Some states refused, and others said they needed to study whether they could provide the data. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a separate lawsuit against the commission to ensure that it follows open government laws. "The commissions efforts to gather personal data should not escape judicial review," EPIC's senior counsel Alan Butler said in a statement, adding the group would closely watch what the commission does next. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Andrew Hay and Grant McCool)
By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ng Lap Seng's dream of "fame and more fortune" drove the Macau billionaire to bribe United Nations officials to win support for a multibillion-dollar conference center he hoped to build, a U.S. prosecutor said on Tuesday near the end of Ng's criminal trial. In her closing argument in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg said Ng bypassed the rules of international diplomacy to try to construct the "Geneva of Asia," and "cement his legacy." But a lawyer for Ng, Tai Park, accused prosecutors of spinning a "spider web of inferences and suppositions" to transform activity the defendant was asked to do by diplomats into crimes. "It is frankly outrageous," he said. Ng, 69, has pleaded not guilty to bribery and money laundering charges. Prosecutors said he hoped the Macau center would regularly host events for developing countries as well as fuel the expansion of his real estate empire through the nearby construction of luxury housing, hotels, a shopping mall, marinas and a heliport. Ng is accused of paying more than $1 million of bribes to Francis Lorenzo, a former deputy ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the U.N., and the late John Ashe, a former U.N. General Assembly president, during a five-year scheme. "The defendant cheated," Echenberg said. "Having the United Nations be a central part of this project would bring tens of thousands of people to Macau, and the defendant himself could take credit for making Macau, as he called it, the 'Geneva of Asia.'" Park countered that Ng wanted to work with the U.N. through public-private partnerships, but was victimized by greedy diplomats. "There is nothing wrong with what he did," Park said. "You had a public-private partnership where the U.N. said, 'Please send us money.'" Closing arguments were expected to resume on Wednesday. The trial began on June 29. Lorenzo pleaded guilty to bribery and money laundering and was the government's main witness against Ng, testifying for more than a week under a cooperation agreement. Echenberg told jurors the case was not about whether Lorenzo was "a good person," but rather whether Ng bribed him. Ashe, a former U.N. ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, was also charged, but died accidentally at home in June 2016 after dropping a barbell on his neck. Ng, who has sat on the Chinese government's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has been free on $50 million bail and allowed to live under 24-hour guard in a luxury Manhattan apartment. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Phil Berlowitz, G Crosse)
Washington (AFP) - The US House of Representatives votes Tuesday to slap new sanctions against Russia, a move that limits President Donald Trump's ability to tinker with the penalties and has also triggered uproar in Moscow and Europe.

The legislation, which is the result of a congressional compromise reached at the weekend and is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and Russia's annexation of Crimea, could end up penalizing European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector.

New sanctions against Iran and North Korea for their actions on or testing of ballistic missiles are also included in the bill.

Key among the provisions is one that handcuffs the US president by making it difficult for him to unilaterally ease penalties against Moscow in the future -- effectively placing him under Congress's watch.

Initially, Trump resisted the legislation. But faced with near-total consensus among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the White House blinked.

In mid-June, the Senate voted 98-2 in favor of tough sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, but the text stalled in the House.

Now that an agreement was reached Saturday, the House vote could be similarly overwhelming.

The measure would then return to the Senate for final passage, likely before summer break in mid-August.

The bill includes sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests.

"I am pleased to see the Congress work as a whole to hold Iran, Russia, and North Korea accountable for their continued destabilizing activities across the world," Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said in a statement.

The bill also "sends a clear message to the president that Congress is prepared to act with a united voice," he added.

While the commander in chief has called for improved relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, the White House has said Trump backs sanctions on Russia.

Story continues

But it did not say directly that Trump would sign the bill.

"He's going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday on Air Force One.

US lawmakers, including Republican leaders, have remained wary of the intentions of the billionaire businessman-turned-president regarding a relaxation of pressure on Putin.

Even if Trump ended up vetoing the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

- Russia, Europe alarmed -

The Kremlin on Monday warned that fresh sanctions on Russia would hit the interests of both sides.

"We consider such a continuation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive and harmful to the interests of both countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

From Paris to Berlin the sanctions bill was seen as Washington's unilateral action that disrupts a carefully crafted order.

To date, sanctions against Russia have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic, so the Western bloc appeared united.

"For us, G7 unity regarding sanctions is of key importance as it is the respect of implementation of Minsk agreement," European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has signalled that the European Union would be prepared to respond.

Several European nations including Germany are livid because the new law would allow the punishment of companies engaged with pipelines from Russia, for example by limiting their access to US banks.

The provision could theoretically pave the way for sanctions against the European partners in Nord Stream 2, a project to build a pipeline carrying Russian gas across the Baltic which could boost supplies to Germany from 2019.

Such partners include France's Engie, Germany's Uniper and Wintershall, Austrian firm OMV and the Anglo-Dutch Shell.

To date, Washington and Brussels had agreed that sanctions would not affect Europe's gas supply.

In an apparent concession, the House slightly modified a provision so that the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those which merely pass through Russia, such as the Caspian pipeline which carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots toward an Iranian vessel near the northern Arabian Gulf on Tuesday after the vessel came within 150 yards (137 meters), a U.S. official told Reuters. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the USS Thunderbolt fired the warning shots after the Iranian vessel ignored radio calls and the ship's whistle. The Thunderbolt was being accompanied by several U.S. Coast Guard vessels. The Iranian vessel appeared to be from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the official added. Years of mutual animosity had eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Tehran last year as part of a deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. But serious differences remain over Iran's ballistic missile program and conflicts in Syria and Iraq. RELATED: United States and Iran Relations throughout time U.S. President Donald Trump's administration recently declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was not following the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it. During the presidential campaign last September, Trump vowed that any Iranian vessels that harasses the U.S. Navy in the Gulf would be "shot out of the water." Similar incidents happen occasionally, the last in January when a U.S. Navy destroyer fired three warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels near the Strait of Hormuz after they closed in at high speed and disregarded repeated requests to slow down. (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Angry parents have pledged to withdraw their sons from Boy Scouts amid an outcry over Donald Trump's highly politicised speech to tens of thousands of youngsters.

The US President broke with tradition to attack his political foes, threaten to fire federal employees, and denounce the media in a rambling address at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree.

His speech, which also contained innuendo-laden anecdotes, was likened by one commentator to that of "a drunk stepdad".

Previous presidents to have addressed the Jamboree, held every four years, have typically steered clear of politics and instead saluted Scout values such as trustworthiness, loyalty, and bravery.

Many parents called on the Boy Scouts of America to condemn Mr Trump's speech and were further angered by the organisation's lukewarm response.

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

"The Boy Scouts of America is a wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy," the group said in a statement, adding it was "long-standing custom to invite the US President to the National Jamboree".

Thousands of people have posted angry comments on the organisation's social media pages since Monday night's speech in West Virginia.

"I will be pulling my son out of Scouting after the silence following the political indoctrination at the Jamboree. Shame on you for allowing this to go unchallenged," wrote Marc Frischhertz wrote on Facebook.

Jude Nevans Cleaver said: "I want you to know that as of this moment, my son is being pulled out of Boy Scouts. You apparently got very confused about what makes for a good role model."

John Footen added: "I am now suddenly questioning whether Scouts represent [the] values that I want my children to learn if this is someone they put forward as a role model with no qualification or cautions to the children."

Story continues

One Twitter user said her family was withdrawing 14 boys from the Scouts "after what was basically [a] Hitler Youth rally".

Just saw what you allowed the president to do to 40thousand young men... I'm pulling my boys out of the boy scouts.

 Sal Frate (@FrateSal) July 25, 2017

I'll be pulling my son out of boy scouts after this disgusting episode, wouldn't want him to attend another Trump rally at a jamboree.

 RobMcLaughlin (@RobMcLaughlin30) July 25, 2017

The President's speech was watched by a crowd of 40,000 people including tens of thousands of boys aged between 12 and 18.

While he praised Scouts as having "character and integrity" and lauded the virtues of "hard work and perseverance," Mr Trump's 35-minute speech also repeatedly touched on politically loaded themes.

He decried the healthcare law championed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, regaled the crowd of cheering boys with his take on the "incredible night with the maps" when he was elected in November, and encouraged them to boo Hillary Clinton.

A large part of Trump's speech consisted of a long story about a cocktail party he went to decades ago filled with "the hottest people in New York".
When President Donald Trump sent a series of tweets Wednesday morning announcing that transgender people would no longer be able to serve openly in the military, waves of shock and sadness struck the transgender community. Some of those who reacted most intensely were transgender veterans, many of whom had to hide their gender identity while in uniform and had come to hope that they were the last generation who would have to do so.

Transgender people are already serving in the military. Weve always been here, says Sasha Buchert, an attorney and a transgender woman who served as a scout sniper in the Marine Corps in the 1980s. Its an insult to transgender service members to refer to them as distractions. We are people who are willing to lay down our lives for this country.

In his tweets, Trump said he decided not to accept or allow transgender people to serve in the military in any capacity because doing so would cause disruption. He also expressed angst over the medical costs of providing soldiers, sailors, Marines and other military members with transition-related care. Though there is no exact figure showing how many transgender people are currently serving, estimates range from about 5,000 to nearly 10,000. A 2014 study from the Williams Institute estimated that there are about 150,000 transgender individuals who have served or are currently serving.

One of them is Alaina Kupec, who followed in her fathers and brothers footsteps by joining the Navy in the 1990s, after leading her ROTC battalion in college. There are so many transgender people who have served in silence like myself, says Kupec, now a director of marketing at Pfizer. Kupec previously served as an intelligence officer, briefing pilots before they flew on missions to places like Bosnia and Iraq. My heart hurts for those sailors and soldiers around the world who are transgender, who have been giving themselves to this country and have had their careers swept out from underneath them with one careless tweet, she says.

Knowing that she could be discharged if she were open about her feelings of being a woman when she had joined the military as a man, Kupec says that she made the decision not to reenlist after four years. The ban forced me to make a choice I wouldnt have otherwise made, she says. A member of an FA-18 squadron, Kupec says that her gender status had no bearing on her ability to provide information to pilots on which they depended in order to come home alive.

Kupec was awarded two medals for leadership during her time on active duty. The least of anyones concerns should be the gender of the person they are serving beside, she says, noting that transgender troops can serve openly in countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom.

Some transgender veterans argue that Trumps decision to tweet out a major military policy change will cause more disruption than transgender troops have since Obama ended the ban on their open service last year. They say that the move will confuse commanders who are currently overseeing troops who have come out since that time, as well as transgender troops who are currently deployed overseas. At this point, it is not clear how Trumps decision will affect the status of transgender Americans on active duty.

It will disrupt our ability to conduct our mission far more than simply providing medical care, says Brynn Tannehill, who served as a lieutenant commander who flew helicopters and marine patrol craft in the Navy. Why are we doing this to people who are doing their jobs today, who want to do their jobs and can do their jobs? This is a disservice to people who just want to serve their country.

Veterans also argue that Trumps move will have a chilling effect on LGBTQ people who would otherwise consider a military career. Trump is not only banning Americans who want to serve, he is discriminating against a minority group who has been having to hide their gender issues in the service, Madeline Martinez, a former Army infantry member, told TIME via text message. He is telling the world that transgender individuals in America do not have the same rights as most of the American public.

Buchert, who now works at LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal, says that she and other advocates are ready to challenge any step backward for transgender people who want to serve in the military. Its unclear how that battle might unfold. Legally, its hard to address changes of policy that come through social media, she says. But, she adds, Trans people arent going away, and we will beat back these attacks on our community.
By Chris Kenning

(Reuters) - A woman slapped the back of police squad car just before the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman in Minneapolis, according to newly released court documents.

The detail came in an application for a search warrant, made public Monday in court documents, from state investigators examining what led to the July 15 shooting of Sydney native Justine Damond, 40.

The fatal incident outraged the public in Australia and Minnesota, and led to the resignation of Minneapolis' police chief. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the shooting "shocking" and "inexplicable."

"Upon police arrival, a female 'slaps' the back of the patrol squad. After that, it is unknown to BCA agents what exactly happened, but the female became deceased in the alley," the court document reads. It does not say whether the woman who slapped the car was Damond.

Damond family attorney Robert Bennett could not be reached to comment on Tuesday. Previously, Bennett had said: "Usually people who call the police in their pajamas are not ambushers."

One responding officer, Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was startled by a loud sound near the patrol car shortly before his partner, Mohamed Noor, fired through the open driver's-side window, striking Damond.

Damond, who had made Minneapolis her home and was engaged to be married, had called police about a possible sexual assault in her neighborhood just before midnight. A cellphone was found near her body, according to the court documents.

Last week, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau resigned at the request of Mayor Betsy Hodges, who lost confidence in the chief after the shooting.

Over the weekend, metal street signs mocking the police appeared in the city, reading "Warning: Twin Cities Police Easily Startled," according to KARE-TV.

Noor's lawyer, Tom Plunkett, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Story continues

Noor has refused to be interviewed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the shooting. Plunkett previously released a statement in which Noor expressed condolences to the Damond family, but declined to discuss the shooting.

Harrity's attorney, Fred Bruno, could not be reached for comment. Bruno previously told the Star Tribune it was "certainly reasonable" for the officers to fear they could be the target of a possible ambush.

Police also on Monday released the officers' partly redacted personnel files, which include records of employment and completed training, including weapons training. However, the files reveal little about job performance.

(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by David Gregorio)
President Donald Trump will give a joint press conference with the Lebanese Prime Minister on Tuesday amid a busy week in Washington for the Russia investigation and health care.

Trump will meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the White House this afternoon to discuss issues ranging from the fight against terrorism to the economy to the refugee crisis, according to the White House. The two will give a joint press conference that is expected to start at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

Trump tweeted early Tuesday morning on the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act; the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president, enters his second day of closed-door meetings with investigators; and his recent criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions subjects  and others.

The Senate is expected to vote on a procedural motion for the GOP health care bill. Arizona Sen. John McCain will return to the Capitol a week after being diagnosed with brain cancer in time for the vote.

Kushner will also return to the Capitol to continue private meetings with congressional investigators on possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. On Monday, Kushner denied any collusion with Russia.

Trump will also have the chance to address his ongoing public criticism of the Attorney General, who Trump claims has not been tough enough on investigations into alleged crimes by Hillary Clinton. On Monday, when a reporter asked Trump if Sessions should resign, he smirked and rolled his eyes.

The joint press conference is expected to begin at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Watch the event live in the video above.
By Miriam Berger JERUSALEM (Reuters) - For 10 days, Jerusalem has been in the grip of the worst bloodshed for years over Israel's decision to install metal detectors at the entrance to the Old City's holy compound. Some readers and observers have wondered how a simple matter of metal detectors - so common in so much of the world - could provoke such violence: a Palestinian man stabbed to death three members of an Israeli family in their home and three Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes. But as with anything connected to politics and religion in the Holy Land, the dispute is about much more than the security devices themselves, touching on issues of sovereignty, religious freedom, occupation and Palestinian nationalism. Here are some answers to questions on the issue. WHY, WHERE AND WHEN WERE THE METAL DETECTORS INSTALLED? Israel put the devices in place on July 16, two days after two Israeli policemen were shot and killed by Israeli-Arab attackers who had concealed weapons in the compound in the heart of the Old City. It is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located, and to Jews as Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism, where ancient temples once stood. The detectors were put up at the entrances Muslims use to enter the compound each day for prayers. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit the area as tourists and they enter through a separate gate where metal detectors have long been used. WHY ARE PALESTINIANS SO ANGRY ABOUT THE MOVE? The first issue is consultation. The Palestinians say they were not informed by the Israelis about the detectors. Israel says it informed Jordan, the custodian of the holy site. Either way, the measures were imposed rapidly and had an immediate impact on Palestinians, even though Israeli-Arabs carried out the attack that prompted the installation. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed them, a move not recognized internationally. As a result, it is to this day seen by much of the world as an occupier, and the status of the area is regarded as disputed until resolved via negotiations. Hence the Palestinians reject Israel's authority, its heavy security presence and the unilateral move on metal detectors. But the dispute goes deeper. For centuries, a delicate status quo has existed at the Noble Santuary-Temple Mount whereby Jews and Christians can visit, but only Muslims are allowed to pray. When Israel captured the area, it committed itself to that agreement. Yet many Palestinians are upset that more and more religious-nationalist Jews visit the compound each day, with some attempting to pray. They are usually ejected by Israeli police, but Palestinians feel the status quo is changing. The installation of metal detectors has contributed to the impression that Israel is changing the rules, a view rejected by the Israeli government. WHAT ARE THE POLITICIANS DOING? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure internationally to back down and remove the metal detectors, but he has resisted those calls, saying security is paramount. He is meeting senior cabinet members to examine a way forward, with signs that alternatives, such as face-recognition cameras or selective searches, might be proposed. The problem is any Israeli-led initiative is likely to be rejected by the Palestinians and possibly Jordan. So the United Nations, the United States, Europe and Russia may get involved. U.S. President Donald Trump's regional go-between, Jason Greenblatt, is scheduled to return to the region on Monday. On the Palestinian side, tempers are frayed. "Sovereignty over the blessed mosque is for us," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech last week. "We are the ones who should be monitoring and standing at its gates." Abbas has broken off security coordination with Israel, a significant move since Palestinian and Israeli forces work together daily on security in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule. WHAT ARE THE PEOPLE SAYING? Israelis are wondering what all the fuss is about, commenting on Facebook and Twitter about how metal detectors are normal everywhere in the world and pointing out that Jews have to pass through them to get to the Western Wall, the holiest place where they are permitted to pray. Palestinians see it very differently. The Noble Sanctuary has become a symbol of national aspiration, with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque painted on murals all over Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The area, a large stone and marble plaza lined with Cypress trees is one of a few open spaces for Muslims in the Old City, used for celebrations and gatherings. "Our problem is not just the gates, our problem is the Israeli occupation," said Walid Alhawany, 48, a shopkeeper in the Old City. "Al Aqsa Mosque is not a place where you put security gates and you feel like it's an Israeli institution." (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Luke Baker and Louise Ireland)
The White House announced new sanctions Wednesday on 13 current and former Venezuelan officials and threatened further economic measures if President Nicolas Maduro follows through with plans rewrite the countrys constitution.

Maduro, whose approval rating has slipped dramatically in recent years, argues this step is a necessary step to transform the country into a direct democracy. But opposition lawmakers charge its a naked power grab from an authoritarian leader who has lost support.

The White House apparently agrees. The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, President Donald Trump said in a statement July 17 calling for free and fair elections.

A senior administration official said the new sanctions add to a steady drumbeat of pressure meant to compel Maduro to back down, and said more measures are in the works if he doesnt halt a vote to convene a constituent assembly, scheduled for July 30.

Anyone who decides to join the national constituent assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions, an official told reporters in a call Wednesday.

The sanctions are targeted at prominent individuals, including members of Venezuelas National Guard and police, as well as high-ranking government officials who have supported the constituent assembly, like Tibisay Lucena Ramirez, president of Venezuelas National Electoral Council. They will be barred from accessing U.S. assets and will be unable to travel to the United States or do business with Americans.

The decision to apply sanctions seems to be one of the few priorities Congress and the White House agree on. The Venezuelans targeted track closely with a list prepared Tuesday by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), hailed the news as an important step to hold Venezuelas leaders accountable for their actions.

Story continues

If Maduro doesnt back down, the Trump administration may choose to impose a more expansive oil embargo. All options are still on the table, a senior administration official confirmed.

Currently, oil exports accounts for about 95 percent of all Venezuelan exports, but cutting off oil trade would worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country  the countrys economy is already cratering thanks to a dip in the price of oil, and Venezuelans are suffering acute medicine and food shortages. Such an embargo might also backfire by giving Maduro a convenient punching bag for his countrys woes: the ever-interventionist Yanquis.

Photo Credit: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images
Wildfires force French Riviera evacuations Flames and smoke fill the sky above a burning hillside as tourists swim on the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas, in the Var department, France, July 26, 2017. (Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote dAzur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday.

A raging wildfire began late Tuesday in the dry Mediterranean forests around La Londe-les-Maures before being pushed by the mistral winds to Bormes, a tourist magnet with houses clustered on a hill surrounded by dense forests of scrub and trees.

The local Var Matin newspaper reported that 12,000 people were forced to take refuge in gymnasiums and other places, including thousands of campers. It said some people sought safety on local beaches. (AP)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.
Yaounde (AFP) - Blandine, a 28-year-old mother of a baby girl, sits restlessly on a chair in a women's health centre in Cameroon's capital, not knowing how or what to feel as she waits for an HIV test.

Blandine is HIV positive.

But the waiting is not for her -- it is to find out whether her one-year-old girl also has the human immunodeficiency virus.

A few minutes later, she has her answer.

"I am so relieved," Blandine said upon learning that her baby's blood tests came back negative for HIV. "I feel like I've won a battle with my child, a battle I was unable to win for myself."

In Cameroon, more women are living with HIV than any other group, and they are also more stigmatised than their male counterparts.

Blandine, a teacher, was willing to share her story but preferred to use an alias to protect her identity and her family, including her husband, who has public responsibilities.

"I have a life to build," she said.

"There is progress but we cannot say that the stigma has disappeared. When you have a certain role in society, you have to defend your husband and your in-laws.

"You have to protect your children."

Blandine discovered she was HIV positive nearly two years ago, after a long illness. Her husband was the one who broke the bad news to her, as she was too weak to speak to the doctor herself.

She is still not sure how she came to contract the virus. Her husband, like their daughter, does not have it.

"It is really due to my husband's love that I was able to live through that situation," she said.

Blandine said many HIV positive women are rejected by their husbands and families and then isolated from society as a whole.

"Some women don't even dare talk about their status for fear of being abandoned," she said. "They deal with it on their own, without even opening up to their husbands."

- 'Afraid' of sex -

Serodiscordant couples -- where one partner is HIV positive -- face an extra set of hurdles in a relationship, especially as it relates to personal hygiene and sexual relations.

Story continues

For Blandine and her husband, adjusting to her status meant regular visits to health professionals and a sex education course at the hospital.

"When you get the results, it's not obvious you can go back to a normal sex life," she said. "You are always afraid at the beginning."

At the hospital, the couple was taught the best way to continue having safe sex, but the most important thing was to remain faithful to each other.

"Fidelity is essential, for him but also for me, because we don't know the (HIV) status of people outside our relationship".

Blandine, whose HIV positive status is "nearly undetectable" because of her continued treatment, never thought she would be able to live such a happy, normal life -- with healthy children.

"I was always told that I could be a mother like any other, in spite of the HIV, and I am now just understanding that it is not a dream," she said.

"You can give birth to your child and breastfeed them like the other children. I am really happy."

As soon as she was born, Blandine's daughter benefited from immediate HIV treatment, and her first test at six weeks showed she had no HIV antibodies.

The baby will have to undergo her final test when she turns 18 months.

- 'We see progress' -

In the cheerful waiting room of the women's health centre of the Chantal Biya Foundation, Blandine sits surrounded by other HIV positive mothers and their babies.

Cameroon, a country of 23 million that hugs Africa's Gulf of Guinea, had a 5.75-percent HIV prevalence rate for pregnant women in 2016, making it one of the 10 countries responsible for 75 percent of new paediatric infections worldwide.

"We see progress in the prevention of the transmission (of HIV) from mother to child," said Therese Nduwimana, director of the HIV and AIDS section at the UN's children agency, UNICEF, in Cameroon.

In its efforts to lower the prevalence rate, the country has launched programmes where pregnant women can get tested for HIV during prenatal visits.

According to Nduwimana, "79 percent of those who find out they are positive are immediately started on treatment" and their children also receive treatment as soon as they are born.

Still, 17 percent of pregnant women skip their prenatal visits and about 12 percent refuse the test.

Cameroon has also invested in rapid HIV testing, which delivers results within the hour as opposed to a month.

When Blandine first tested her daughter at six months, the month of waiting was not easy.

"For weeks, you have a feeling of guilt, you cannot stop thinking that maybe you've passed a virus to your child that they'll have to fight for the rest of their lives."

In her work as a teacher, Blandine has been able to advise younger women living with HIV, without revealing her status.

But she hopes one day to be able to live openly with HIV.
A pair of brides welcomed a couple of A-list wedding crashers to their reception over the weekend: Kristen Stewart and model girlfriend Stella Maxwell, whose celesbian status earned them a spot on the dance floor, sans invitation.

We got to be formally introduced before they came in and partied with us. We got a chance to shake her hand and shake Stellas hand, Kayleigh Jennings, who married Kirsten Jennings on Saturday in Winnipeg, Manitoba, told CBC News. I actually wasnt as starstruck as I thought I would be.

Kayleigh and Kirsten could not be reached for comment by Yahoo Style. But according to their wedding website, the two met on Grand Cayman island while working together as bartenders in 2009. They reportedly tied the knot in a backyard ceremony in Winnipeg and then headed over to the restaurant Pizzeria Gusto for their reception, where proprietor Bobby Mottola soon approached the new spouses with a unique request.

The owner came up to me, and he said, Hey, is it OK if Kristen Stewart and her girlfriend, Stella [Maxwell], come and have a few drinks with you guys? and I was like, Yeah, totally! Yeah, no problem. Um, who is that?' Kayleigh told CBC.

A post shared by Stella! (@stellamaxwell) on Jul 25, 2017 at 11:05am PDT

Stewart had recently been in Winnipeg shooting the movie JT, the story of the literary hoax JT Leroy, co-starring Laura Dern, James Franco, and Diane Kruger, and told CBC that Mottola had helped her out at an event recently. Mottola did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Style, so its unclear how and why Stewart came to attend the wedding. But the brides were happy to accommodate.

I told Kir, Hey, lets just treat them as random guests. Lets just treat them with kindness  Southern hospitality. Winnipeg hospitality, said Kayleigh, who is from Oklahoma. The women reported that the two celebs were excellent guests who didnt grandstand.

Kristen Stewart surprise at a wedding in Canada. pic.twitter.com/MJeErIHK7e  FRANCK (@multifranck77) July 23, 2017

They looked just like two normal girls. They look a little Hollywood, but if we didnt know who they were, I dont know if I would have known, Kirsten noted. We said, Hey, you know, come on and meet your guests and, you know, dont segregate yourselves. Come and party. Stewart and Maxwell did just that, drinking, dancing, and making song requests, and staying from about 10 p.m. until 1 a.m., Kirsten said, adding, There were only a few people who were starstruck. My Aunt Linda was extremely excited.

Story continues

The weddings DJ, K Chedda, aka Karli Colpitts, posted an image of the brides with Stewart on her Facebook page, adding, Djed a gorgeous wedding for these gals last night and Ms Kristen Stewart (twilight) even made an appearance! Hilarious and amazing night! Colpitts tells Yahoo Style that Stewart was a lovely guest and so were her friends, and that she requested that Colpitts play Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. I played it and she thanked me and danced the night away, she adds. All very normal stuff

Social media users were generally tickled by news of the wedding crashers.

Kristen Stewart and her gf Stella crashing a lesbian wedding added 10 years onto my life  A (@disflowerblooms) July 24, 2017

Video of Kristen doing her little dancings on a wedding!! Cutie  #KristenStewart via @imTulip pic.twitter.com/AkKZJTQY6i  Jess KStew (@jess_kstewart) July 23, 2017

kristen stewart crashed a wedding but honestly she could crash a car into me and Id thank her  babajoosh (@JoshRamsassy) July 25, 2017

At least one was confused.

Lesbian movie star crashes lesbian wedding-

I believe in live and let live but some things are head scratchers.https://t.co/NlZ8HQDzL2  Henry Makow (@HenryMakow) July 25, 2017

Perhaps Stewart and Maxwell, who reportedly moved in together recently, were doing research for their own future nuptials? They have even, allegedly, adopted a dog.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:
US aerospace giant Boeing has signed a billion-dollar contract with French industrial software company Dassault Systemes to modernise its production system, French media said Tuesday. (AFP Photo/CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT) (AFP)

Paris (AFP) - French industrial software company Dassault Systemes announced Tuesday it has reached a deal with US aerospace giant to modernise its production system, in what it said was its biggest ever contract.

"Boeing will expand the deployment of products developed by Dassault Systemes," the company said in a statement, confirming information published by French newspaper Le Figaro.

The paper, which like Dassault Systemes is part of the Dassault Group, said "Boeing has signed a 30-year contract worth a billion dollars, renewable every 10 years".

Contacted by AFP, Dassault Systemes declined to confirm the value of the deal, but said it is "the biggest in its history."

Dassault Systemes also said Tuesday its second quarter net profit was up 21.4 percent at 123 million euros ($143 million), and lowered some of its objectives to take into account the rise in the value of euro.

The partnership with Boeing will focus on the use of its 3DEXPERIENCE software "to design future products, to modernise the entire production system and to deploy new services", Le Figaro said.

It will hasten the digital switchover of Boeing's production system and to give it "a competitive advantage in the commercial field, by reducing excessive delivery times", Le Figaro said.

Boeing and its European rival Airbus have years of backlogs of orders for the most popular models of their commercial aircraft, and they get paid only when they deliver planes to their clients.
Editor's Note: An Apple representative told Laptop Mag that all systems running up to date versions of OS X 10.11 El Capitan or macOS 10.12 are protected from all known strains of the FruitFly malware. To make sure your Mac is up to date, open the App Store app, click Updates and click Update All.

Mac-targeting malware seems to be taking a page from summer blockbusters. Fruitfly 2 -- the successor to January's Fruitfly -- has been discovered to be a bigger, badder version, tracking hundreds of home users around America.

This sequel expands the reach of the original, which stole screenshots and webcam activity from Macbooks and other macOS machines for years. Currently, there is no way to check if your Mac is infected with Fruitfly 2, and we will update this story if we find out how.

shutterstock 589452071

Patrick Wardle -- Director of Research at the Menlo Park-based Synack security firm -- discovered this new version of Fruitfly, and discovered that it's infected hundreds of users , 90 percent of which are in the United States. According to a tweet he posted, Wardle's now alerted police authorities to this matter.

Wrote C&C server to analyze-virus for @BlackHatEvents/@defcon talk. Took over a C&C addr & 100s  (90% in ): 'hi, task us'now involved pic.twitter.com/DxS1y8KYZB  patrick wardle (@patrickwardle) July 21, 2017

Much like the original Fruitfly, this newly-discovered strain appears to have been in the wild without anyone noticing. Wardle told Motherboard "that when he first discovered FruitFly 2, no anti-virus software detected it," though now that he's reported it to the authorities, that hopefully has changed -- or will soon.

MORE: Best Antivirus Software for Mac

As always, this is as good occasion as any to remind Mac users that, yes, they need to use anti-virus software. Our sister site Tom's Guide's favorite option is the $59.99 per year Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, but the free Sophos Home for Mac also offers strong protection.

Story continues

While Apple released a background-downloading security update to squish the first Fruitfly, it's unclear if they company has acted to destroy this new unwanted pest. We expect to learn more on Wednesday, when Wardle presents a 25-minute briefing on this topic at the Black Hat USA 2017 security convention in Las Vegas.

Fruitfly 2 looks to have been in the wild longer than Fruitfly 1, as the original version only traced back to 2014, while Wardle says the sequel "may have been lurking around for 5 or 10 years." During that time, Fruitfly 2 appears to have surveilled infected machines, collecting data to send to its home base.

But unlike the first Fruitfly, which appeared to target biomedical research facilities to possibly pilfer trade secrets, the successor isn't going after corporate users. Wardle told Ars Technica that Fruitfly 2 mostly affected home users, most of the "close to 400 infected Macs connected to the [malware's] server," were located in homes across the United States. In comparison, the original Fruitfly was found on only four Macs.

The other similarity Fruitfly 2 bears to the original is that Wardle doesn't know how it infects systems in the first place. It could be used via a social engineering attack -- a rather popular means to get users to click links or email attachments they shouldn't -- or a macOS flaw could be the entry-point.

Credit: Andreas Berheide / Shutterstock
The Fox News Specialists co-host Kat Timpf has no idea why an angry, pathetic man drenched her with a large bottle of water on Monday night as she was about to speak at a campaign event in Brooklyn, New York, but the political commentator fears the encounter could have been much worse.

I didnt know if he was about to punch me in my face, Timpf told TheWrap of the unknown attacker who splashed her with a 1.5-liter bottle of water. He didnt say anything to me, he just dumped it on my head and splashed it on my face and walked out. He was a huge, huge guy.

Timpf continued: The fact that anyone who doesnt like me can seek me out and do that is scary.

Also Read: Fox News' Kat Timpf Gets Soaked With Water Before Speech, Goes on Twitter Storm

Timpf took to Twitter to recount the encounter, which occurred at the Williamsburg bar Union Pool where libertarian podcaster Ben Kissel was holding a rally for his campaign to be Brooklyn borough president.

However, she assumed that her association with Fox News was the motivation  and criticized local authorities as unhelpful when she first tried to get them to look at security video of the attack.

Nobody really cares because it was not like acid, it was just water, Timpf said, who filed a police report after the incident. She also noted, My eyes were uncomfortable  they were burning.

A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment on the investigation.

Also Read: How 'Fox News Specialists' Emerged as Potent, Youthful Face of Network in Post-O'Reilly Era

The Libertarian commentator said the political climate right now is so volatile that her haters would take great pleasure from seeing photos of the attack.

People would be delighted by that, she said. Some people would love it. I dont know what to do.

Timpf said she has a few questions for her attacker if she should ever meet him again: Do you have anyone to hang out with? Do you have any friends you could talk to that would tell you thats not how adults behave? How sad and pathetic is your life that this is what you need to do with your time?

Story continues

Also Read: Fox News Rips NY Times for 'Hyperventilating to the Media' After Paper Requests Apology

Since Monday, Timpf said she is more attuned to how vulnerable she is  and relieved that the attack only involved water. Its not lost on me that it could have been worse, she said.

By the time Timpf cleaned herself up and calmed down, she missed her opportunity to speak about criminal justice reform at the campaign event for Kissel, whom she has endorsed as a fellow libertarian.

Thats really unfortunate and I hate that [the attacker] kind of won by depriving her of a chance to speak, she said. It was a mess. It was a lot of water. It was all over me.

Related stories from TheWrap:

Fox News' Kat Timpf Gets Soaked With Water Before Speech, Goes on Twitter Storm

How 'Fox News Specialists' Emerged as Potent, Youthful Face of Network in Post-O'Reilly Era

13 Most-Watched Fox News Shows Since Tucker Carlson Replaced Bill O'Reilly (Photos)
Mr. Waters, you have become the most prominent spokesperson for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. BDS has been gaining traction over the last decade, especially on the Left, indicating people feel concerned, with good reason, about the plight of the Palestinian people. However, the goals of the movement you support are both immoral and illegal. They are immoral because BDS espouses a moral Manichaeism. They are illegal because it calls for the destruction of Israel.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



BDS is Manichaean because it places all the blame on Israel for the absence of peace in the region. Nevertheless, it is undeniable both sides are responsible for the current stalemate. Of course, settlement activities in the West Bank are unacceptable. However, the Palestinians have missed three opportunities that would have allowed them to recover nearly all of the West Bank (in 2001, 2008 and 2014).

Furthermore, Hamaswhich calls for the destruction of Israeland other Palestinian extremist factions have decimated Israels peace camp by sowing fear among the Israeli population. As a result, Israelis are convinced that if they pull out of the West Bank, this territory will be turned into a launching pad to fire rockets on Israel. This fear is totally legitimate, and BDS doesnt address it at all.

Roger Waters. Should heed the words Antigone is right, but Creon is not wrong (Photo: Getty Images)

It's worth nothing that BDS pretends not to target Israeli individuals, unless the Israeli government funds them. However, most Israeli artists and academics are not rich enough to work without public funding.

As for the destruction of Israel, it is true BDS doesnt call openly for it. However, its objectives are such that if Israel were to accept them, this country would cease to exist. BDS has three stated objectives: (1) to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories; (2) to end all discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel; (3) to implement an unlimited right of return for all Palestinian refugees (including their descendants) who fled or who were expelled during the first Arab-Israeli War of 1947-49, in which 10 percent of Israeli Jews were driven out of their homes as well by Arab forces.

The two first claims are legitimate, but the third is not. If all refugees were to go back to Israel (as Israeli citizens), Palestinians would become the majority in Israel proper. Omar Barghouti himself, the founder of BDS, has said: If the refugees were to return, you would not have a two-state solution, youd have a Palestine next to a Palestine. This is illegal under international law. Even if the right of return exists (under UN General Assembly resolution 194), its not an unrestricted right, for Israel also has the right to exist as a Jewish state (under UNGA resolution 181).

Thus, a fair balance between the right of return and Israels right to exist is required. This is why UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which take precedence over General Assembly resolutions, as well as the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice on July 9, 2004, do not talk about an unlimited right of return. They refer explicitly to a just solution to the refugee issue that takes into account the right of all states in the region to exist in peace and security, including Israel. This is also why in 2000, former US President Bill Clinton proposed the return of only part of the refugees in exchange for compensations reaching $30 billionthe highest amount of money ever offered to descendants of refugees.

Interestingly enough, BDS rejects even the creative compromise proposed by The Two States, One Homeland movementthat is, an Israeli-Palestinian confederation (two associated states with an open border) that would allow both Palestinians and Israelis to live on both sides of the border while retaining their original citizenship. BDS is so extreme that it went as far as disrupting the activities of Two States, One Homeland, forcing it to cancel its inaugural event in the West Bank.

In fact, BDS refuses any compromise that would not spell the end of Israel. To quote Omar Barghouti once again: Colonizers are not entitled to self-determination, by any definition of self-determination." This claim is totally absurd. Who would dare say the United States, Canada or Australia have no right to exist because of their colonial origins?

Even still, though it would not change anything with regards to Israels right to exist, the idea that this country is a European colony is really a matter of perspective. What the Palestinians understand as a colonial invasion is, for Israelis, a return to their ancient homeland. This is not surprising. If one looks at the situation with an open mind, it is obvious it is not a struggle between good and evil but rather a Greek tragedy (a clash of rights).

In the first half of the 20th century, the Jews were persecuted. Hence, they needed a state of their own to protect themselves against anti-Semitism. Furthermore, according to the theory of the redistribution of wealth, it is just to share out the land so homeless peoples, as were the Jews, can exercise their universal right to self-determination in their land of origin. However, the Palestinians refusal to share their land with the Jews is understandable as well, because they are the only ones who were made to pay for the creation of Israel. The rest of the world should have at least compensated them to share the burden.

Antigone is right, but Creon is not wrong, said Albert Camus to express the essence of tragedy that characterizes so well this conflict. Mr. Waters, you should heed these words!
US President Donald Trump called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East on Tuesday, accusing it and Iran of fueling a humanitarian disaster in Syria.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region," Trump said at a joint press conference alongside Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the White House.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel... With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."





Hariri and Trump at the White House (Photo: MCT)

Hezbollah's "true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran," he said.

Trump demurred when asked to comment on sanctions against Hezbollah.

"I'll be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours," he said. "I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others, so I'll be making that decision very shortly."

Trump also accused Syria's leader Bashar Assad of committing "horrible" crimes against humanity, and vowed to prevent his regime from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

"I'm not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible," Trump said.

Recalling that he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Assad for using chemical weapons, Trump said: "I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do."

Trump also said he believed there might not be any Russian or Iranian involvement in Syria today had former president Barack Obama taken action against Assad.

Hariri and Trump at the White House (Photo: AP)

Trump and Hariri pledged solidarity in their joint fight against terrorism by the Islamic State group and others.

Hariri said he hoped the anti-terrorism partnership between the two countries would continue until terrorists are defeated.

"We will do that," Trump replied.

Trump expressed confidence that Hariri would eventually defeat ISIS and other terrorist groups. "Ultimately you will win ... we have great confidence in you," Trump said.

The leaders also met in the Oval Office. The White House said last week that Trump and Hariri would discuss terrorism, refugees and the economy, among other issues.

Hariri and Trump at the White House (Photo: AP)

Hariri is likely to ask for US financial aid to cope with the flood of Syrian refugees entering his country because of the civil war there. Syrian refugees make up about 25 percent of Lebanon's population of about 6 million people.

Other issues on the prime minister's agenda are continued US support for the Lebanese military, and US plans to tighten sanctions on Hezbollah.
Last month, a diverse class of 36 graduate students from the Ono Academic College received an MA in Jewish Studies, among them Muhammad and Aida Masarwa, a Muslim couple from the village of Sulam in the north.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Their classmatesa group dominated by ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Jewswarmly embraced them throughout their years of study together.

Muhammad, 62, is a retired teacher of Arabic and civics, while Aida, 52, continues to teach Hebrew in their local grade school. In recent years, the couple has studied Bible, history, Jewish philosophy, Hebrew literature, Kabbalah, liturgical poetry, midrash, as well as Jewish viewpoints on exclusion and social justice.

Aida and Mohammed Masarwa

"We wanted to study for a Master's Degree, and we heard there was an option to study Judaism, so we said we would try," explains Mohammed Masarwa. "Since retiring, I have worked as a tour guide. This program interested me, and it does not seem strange to study Judaism. We live in this country, we hear about Judaism, and we wanted to expand our knowledge."

Masarwa added, "I am a Muslim, and although I have extensive knowledge of Judaism, its clear to me that I still have a lot to learn. But to our surprise, we discovered that many of our Jewish classmates did not necessarily know more about Judaism than my wife and I did. The reason for this, in my opinion, lies in the fact that Judaism is similar to Islam in certain respects."

Muhammad and Aida had already earned bachelors degrees, so encountering Jewish students in an academic setting was nothing new to them. "Despite the differences between the students, the classes had a free, open atmosphere, and everyone felt comfortable stating their opinion," Masarwa said.

Among the students, he said, "the atmosphere was very open and pleasant. They received us very respectfully, which is notable because the Jewish students did not resemble each othereach of them came from a different background and from a different culture. Together, we created an interesting discourse about Judaism and Islam."

Graduates receiving an MA in Jewish Studies

The couples four children are also in academia (medicine, optometry and pharmacology) and welcomed their parents decision to return to school. "They know we always enjoy learning new things, they just laughed at the fact we would be studying for a Master's Degree at our age," he said.

Their family was also very positive about their decision to study Judaism in depth. "We are open people and live with Jews, so everyone embraced our decision. Our children come from an academic background, so it was not strange to them that we decided to study for another degreeeven in Judaismconsidering the fact that we are educators," Masarwa explained.

Muhammad and Aidas classmates included students from all parts of Israeli society. Moshe Yisraeli, a graduate of the hesder yeshiva in Kiryat Shmonaa program that combines traditional Jewish studies and military servicesaid he approached graduate school with some concern.

"This is a kind of Jewish study that is different from what I have known all my life. It was very interesting to be in classes with Reform, secular and religious people. The arguments were not as volatile as the media often likes to present them," Yisraeli said.

Dr. David Biton, head of the School of Jewish Studies at Ono Academic Colleges Kiryat Ono campus, said that after the success of this first class, enrollment has doubled for future classes.

"The MA program exposes students to different dimensions of Judaism and to the various groups that comprise it, creating connection and belonging between the past and the present, between East and West, between the visible and the concealed, and between tradition and modernity. The purpose of the program is to make higher education accessible to all segments of the Israeli population," he said.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Washington Post reports with several updates on the migrants deaths in a San Antonio truck, including the fact that one of the deceased individuals was a 19-year old named Frank Fuentes. Fuentes had originally arrived in the U.S. as a toddler, grew up in Northern Virginia where he graduated from high school, and received DACA. His DACA was terminated and he was deported in March after receiving an assault-related conviction.

A former classmate shared that when she "last spoke to Fuentes on Snapchat a month ago, ... he confided how much he was struggling in an unfamiliar country. 'Hes been here forever,' she said. 'He doesnt know what Guatemala was. His home is here, his friends are here, his family is here.'"

-JKoh

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2017/07/one-migrants-suffocated-to-death-in-texas-track-was-a-daca-recipient-arrived-to-us-as-toddler.html
Tuesday, July 25, 2017

A mishandled bankruptcy led to a two-year suspension imposed by Colorado Presiding Disciplinary Judge.

Ted Taggart (Respondent) was hired to file a bankruptcy petition for a married couple. After filing the petition, he failed to submit the required financial documents, and the bankruptcy case was dismissed. He promised to refile the petition but he did not do so promptly, so the clients terminated his representation. He did not refund any of his fees. The clients filed a second bankruptcy petition pro se, yet later learned that Respondent had filed a third petition for them after he had been terminated. He then disregarded requests for information from the disciplinary authorities, and he defaulted in this proceeding.

The facts

Cora Gipson and her husband met with Respondent at a Starbucks cafe on November 17 or 18, 2014, to discuss filing for bankruptcy. At the time, Gipson was sixty-six years old and the couples finances were in dire straits. They paid Respondent $905.00 to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition for them. Gipson signed a fee agreement but never received a copy of the agreement from Respondent, even though she requested a copy on several occasions. Respondent cashed the check on receipt, using the funds for his personal needs before earning them. He did not maintain adequate records of the funds he received from the couple.

The couple told Respondent they wanted their bankruptcy filed promptly because of an upcoming court date. Respondent told the couple not to worry about the court date or paying creditors. He advised the couple to file under Chapter 13 rather than Chapter 7. Gipson was concerned about filing under Chapter 13 because of her age and the uncertainty of the required monthly payment amount. Respondent decided to file a Chapter 7 petition for Gipson and a Chapter 13 petition for her husband. Gipson did not understand his reasoning. Respondent did not answer her questions about filing under Chapter 13.

When Respondent sent Gipson the draft of the Chapter 7 petition, it was riddled with errors, including misspelling Gipsons name, checking a box indicating that Gipson lacked a social security number, and misstating her salary. Gipson gave Respondent a list of corrections yet he failed to implement them.

Respondent did not file the bankruptcy petitions until April 7, 2015.Respondent told Gipson that the filing was delayed because he was waiting for a good trustee and that the current trustee was terrible. A meeting of creditors was set for May 5, 2015. Even though the couple twice sent Respondent their required bank statements, he did not send them to the trustee. As a result, Gipsons petition was dismissed on May 29, 2015. Respondent did not tell Gipson that her petition had been dismissed.

On June 5, 2015, Gipson was notified by the court that her petition had been dismissed. Gipson called Respondent but received a recording that his voice mailbox was not activated. She then emailed Respondent and sent him a message through Facebook. Respondent did not respond. Gipson called the court and was directed to file a letter with the judge. The couple wrote the letter but it was too late as a matter of law to reopen her Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Thereafter, Respondent emailed Gipson, stating that he would refile her Chapter 7 petition for no charge. He then sent her a new draft of the petition; again, it contained many errors. Respondent failed to answer Gipsons questions about the refiling.

Respondent again delayed the filing of the second petition, claiming that he was waiting for a good trustee. Gipson realized that the credit counseling course that she and her husband completed had expired, which would have resulted in the dismissal of the second petition had Respondent filed it.

On July 20, 2015, Gipson emailed Respondent and terminated his representation, effective immediately. She requested that Respondent pay any filing fees associated with her pro se Chapter 7 filing. On August 3, 2015, Gipson filed a Chapter 7 petition pro se, attended the meeting of creditors on August 28, 2015, and later received a discharge of her debts. Gipson herself paid the additional filing fee of $335.00.

Gipson later discovered that Respondent had filed a third Chapter 7 petition for her on August 7, 2015two weeks after he had been terminated. Gipson was shocked to learn

of this and immediately called Respondent. She received a recording that his number was no longer in service. Respondent never told Gipson he had filed another petition, nor did he give her his new address or phone number. Gipsons credit report shows three bankruptcies as opposed to one.

The People sent Respondent numerous letters during their investigation. He failed to respond to any correspondence or to participate in this disciplinary proceeding.

Harm to the client

At the sanctions hearing, Gipson testified about how Respondents conduct caused her harm. Gipson explained that Respondents failure to act with diligence and his filing of a third bankruptcy petition after he had been terminated resulted in three bankruptcies, rather than just one, appearing on her credit report. As a result, she stated, her credit was tarnished and she was unable to qualify for a new apartment lease. She and her husband wanted to downsize from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom apartment to save money on rent, but they were unable to due to their credit report. Additionally, Gipson testified that she was engaged in payment negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concerning the couples tax debts. She explained that the IRS stopped negotiating with her after it discovered three bankruptcies on her credit history, and as a result, she was penalized in the amount of $3,000.00 in interest and penalties. Respondents conduct also caused Gipson unnecessary stress and anxiety because he did not inform her about the status of her case and because she had discovered that Respondent had filed a third petition without her authorization.

Sanction

Respondents misconduct, coupled with his disregard for these disciplinary proceeding, persuades the Court that the public cannot be protected unless Respondent is required to demonstrate his fitness to practice law before seeking to reinstate his law license. Thus, taking into account the presumptive sanction, the balance of aggravating and mitigating factors, and the relevant case law, the Court concludes suspension for two years is warranted here.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/07/ted-taggart-respondent-was-hired-to-file-a-bankruptcy-petition-for-a-married-couple-after-filing-the-petition-he-fa.html
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Minnesota Supreme Court has imposed a sanction as reciprocal discipline for a sanction ordered by the PTO.

This case presents the question of whether we should impose reciprocal discipline on respondent Alan Richard Stewart. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) imposed on Stewart what its regulations call exclusion from practice for misappropriating $8,000 in unearned fees, neglecting a client matter, failing to communicate with a client, engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, and failing to cooperate with the disciplinary proceedings. The Director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (Director) petitioned to impose reciprocal discipline in Minnesota, arguing that the identical Minnesota discipline is disbarment.

We hold that, in a reciprocal discipline case, the identical discipline to exclusion from practice before the USPTO is an indefinite suspension from the practice of law with no right to petition for reinstatement for a minimum of 5 years. We further hold that the USPTOs discipline procedures were fundamentally fair and that a 5-year suspension would not be unjust or substantially different from the discipline warranted in Minnesota. We therefore indefinitely suspend Stewart with no right to petition for reinstatement for a minimum of 5 years.

The original matter

In February 2016, the USPTO notified the Director that it had excluded Stewart from practice. According to the USPTO, Stewart engaged in multiple forms of professional misconduct in proceedings before that agency. First, the USPTO found that Stewart neglected the patent application of his client, F.W; failed to communicate with her; and misappropriated $8,000 in unearned fees. Stewart told F.W. that he would file her patent application within 2 or 3 weeks of receiving her paperwork. F.W. provided Stewart her notes and drawings and then checked on the status of her application 3 weeks later. Stewart told F.W. that he had not yet worked on her application, attributing the delay to family medical issues and injuries he had suffered from a bicycle accident. He never completed the patent application and stopped responding to F.W.s communications. Nonetheless, Stewart cashed F.W.s two advance-fee checks totaling $8,000 and failed to return these unearned fees even after F.W. terminated the representation and demanded a refund. Stewart cashed F.W.s second check on the same day that F.W. terminated the representation.

Second, the USPTO found that Stewart engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. Stewart has been ineligible to handle USPTO matters since February 2015, when he was

no longer an active member of any state bar. But between March 2015 and June 2015, Stewart filed multiple trademark matters on behalf of clients as attorney of record and as a purported member of the Wisconsin bar.

He also failed to cooperate in the PTO investigation.

One issue was the meaning of the PTO order "excluding" the attorney

We...hold that, in a reciprocal discipline case, the identical discipline in Minnesota to exclusion from practice before the USPTO is an indefinite suspension from the practice of law with no right to petition for reinstatement for a minimum of 5 years.

Bottom line

Finally, although the question is a close one, an indefinite suspension with no right to petition for reinstatement for a minimum of 5 years is not substantially different from the discipline warranted in Minnesota. The Director argues that disbarment is appropriate because we would have disbarred Stewart had his disciplinary action originated in Minnesota. But that is not the question before us in a reciprocal discipline case. Overboe, 867 N.W.2d at 487. Rather, we will impose the identical discipline if it is not substantially different from the discipline warranted in Minnesota. Rule 12(d), RLPR (emphasis added).

A dissent of Chief Justice Gildea

I respectfully dissent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) excluded respondent Alan R. Stewart from practice for misappropriating $8,000 in client funds, neglecting a client matter, failing to communicate with a client, engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, and failing to cooperate with the disciplinary proceedings. I agree with the majority that the discipline in Minnesota identical to exclusion before the USPTO is an indefinite suspension with no right to petition for reinstatement for 5 years (5-year suspension). I also agree with the majority that the discipline warranted in Minnesota for Stewarts misconduct is disbarment. I disagree with the majority on whether a 5-year suspension is substantially different than disbarment. Because a 5-year suspension is substantially different than disbarment, I would not impose reciprocal discipline and instead would disbar Stewart.

Justice Hudson joined the dissent. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/07/the-minnesota-supreme-court-this-case-presents-the-question-of-whether-we-should-impose-reciprocal-discipline-on-respondent.html
Remembering those who died in the mid-valley. Photos submitted by family members to accompany their obituaries in the Albany Democrat-Herald a
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its Indian associate Paytm E-commerce Pvt are in talks to invest about USD200 million for a stake of roughly 20 percent in Indias leading online grocer, Bigbasket, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

Alibaba and Paytm are in a 60-day exclusive pact with Bigbasket and are conducting due diligence, said the person, who did not want to be quoted as the negotiations are private. The two could invest as a team or separately, the person said.

Several others are also said to be interested and in various stages of conversation with Bigbasket, including global retail titan Amazon.com, said a different person familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley is advising Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt, which owns the Bigbasket brand, on the fundraising, that person said. Bigbaskets existing investors include the Dubai-headquartered Abraaj Group and Sands Capital. The talks were reported earlier by local media, including the Economic Times.

Bigbasket has been pushing Indians to shop for everyday essentials via their smartphones, and roped in Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan to market its services. Khan, who has a massive following, declares in the commercial, Mein ek Bigbasket-eer hoon, aur aap? (I am a Bigbasket-eer, and you?). The grocers express delivery feature brings regularly-needed essentials to customers door in 60 minutes.

As time-starved urban Indians ditch the neighborhood kirana (grocery) stores and the crowded supermarkets in favor of buying daily staples and produce online, the countrys online grocery segment is heating up.

Amazon, which recently acquired specialty grocer Whole Foods Market Inc in the U.S., has got the governments nod to invest $500 million into food retailing in India. An Amazon spokeswoman said in an email, We have received the government approval for food retail based on our application for the same. We are excited by the governments continued efforts to encourage FDI in India for a stronger food supply chain.

The worlds leading online retailer is making a series of moves to capture the vital Indian market where e-commerce is growing at a rapid pace. Currently, Amazon has tied up with local kirana stores and its Amazon Pantry offering promises next-day delivery of groceries.

An investment in Bigbasket will give the Alibaba-Paytm duo the strategic arsenal to take on Amazon in India and the two have a broader collaboration in the digital payments space where the Alibaba and Ant Financial-backed Paytm Payments Bank Pvt is the dominant player. Meanwhile, Flipkart too is ramping up in the online grocery space. Bloomberg
China yesterday denied its fighter jet pilots operated dangerously during an encounter with a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace in which the American pilot took evasive action to avoid a possible collision.

Spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement on the defense ministrys microblog that the performance of the pilots of the two J-10 fighters was legal, necessary and professional.

Ren criticized frequent close-in surveillance runs by U.S. planes as raising the chance of accidents, saying such missions threatened Chinas national security, harmed China- U.S. sea-air military safety, endangered the safety of pilots from the two sides and were the root cause of China-U.S. sea-air unexpected incidents.

The U.S. should stop such unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly military activities, Ren said, in a repetition of Chinas standard policy toward U.S. surveillance missions intended at collecting Chinese computer and voice data in hopes of gaining insight into the workings of the Peoples Liberation Army.

Asked about the incident at a daily briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing objected to such missions but remained committed to building military mutual trust with other countries.

U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the Chinese fighters intercepted the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane Sunday in international airspace between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, in an area he described as west of the Korean Peninsula.

Davis said one of the Chinese planes approached at a high rate of speed from beneath the American plane, then slowed and pulled up, prompting the EP-3 pilot to take evasive action. He called the Chinese pilots move unsafe.

China in 2013 declared an air defense identification zone over a partly contested portion of the East China Sea, demanding foreign aircraft declare their presence and follow Chinese orders. The U.S. and others swiftly dismissed the zone as invalid and have largely ignored it. It wasnt clear if Sundays encounter took place inside the zone.

Such incidents continue to occur despite an agreement between the two sides to prevent them from sparking an international crisis, as happened in April 2001 when a Chinese jet fighter collided with a U.S. EP-3. That led to the death of the Chinese pilot and Chinas detention of the U.S. air crew for 10 days after their crippled plane landed at a PLA Navy air base on the island province of Hainan.

While China has long chafed at U.S. surveillance operations targeting its military, the PLA itself has been conducting such missions further and further from its home ports.

Earlier this month, China sailed a spy ship through the narrow Tsugaru Strait separating the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, while another was spotted last week within Australias exclusive economic zone where allies Australia and U.S. were conducting major war games. AP
The first Beijing-Macau flight from Beijing Capital Airlines landed at Macau International Airport (MIA) yesterday, marking the beginning of flights bringing passengers to Macau from Beijing and then to the Lisbon terminal.

Beijing Capital Airlines held an inauguration ceremony at MIA to launch its new routes, Beijing-Macau-Lisbon and Lisbon-Beijing-Macau.

An additional four flights per week will fly the Beijing- Macau route every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and are now available to all passengers. Considering the new route and all the others, there is now a total of 25 flights every week from Macau to Beijing.

The Beijing-Lisbon route, which is also operated by Beijing Capital Airlines, will start its journey today with the first Lisbon flight departing from Beijing.

The Beijing-Lisbon route will be operated thrice per week, on every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The flight from Macau to Beijing takes approximately three and a half hours, while it takes approximately 13 hours to fly from Beijing to Lisbon.

Flights between Beijing and Macau are operated by the Airbus A319/A320, and flights between Beijing and Lisbon are operated by the Airbus A330, giving travelers a journey on a new Airbus A330-200 twin-aisle, wide-body aircraft that can accommodate 475 passengers.

On the sidelines of the inauguration, Simon Chan, president of the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau, said that Macaus aviation departments are working continuously to expand the citys aviation network.

However, due to the characteristics of the market, maybe it is not realistic for Macau to open many direct long-distance flights in a short time, explained Chan.

Chan then commented on the Beijing-Lisbon route, saying that it is the first flight between an Asian city and Lisbon. Chan claimed that the route will be extremely convenient for transportation between China and other countries, adding that the route helps Macau serve as the platform between China and the Portuguese- speaking countries.

The flight from Macau to Beijing departs from MIA at 4.40 p.m., and arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport at 8.05 p.m.

The flight from Beijing to Lisbon departs from Beijing at 1.10 a.m., and arrives at the Lisbon airport at 7.30 a.m., Lisbon time, on the same day.

The flight from Lisbon to Beijing departs from the Lisbon airport at 10.15 a.m., and arrives in Beijing on the next day at 5.55 a.m., Beijing time.

The flight from Beijing to Macau departs from Beijing at 7.50 a.m. and arrives in Macau at 11.20 a.m.

At yesterdays ceremony, Beijing Capital Airlines officials declined to speak to media about the sales for the aforementioned routes.
Lawmaker Chan Meng Kam expressed his opposition towards the proposal to ban lawmakers from displaying posters and banners at the Legislative Assemblys (AL) plenary meetings. Chan asked, What is the problem with displaying [banners] to the government officials? Moreover, he remarked that these methods help lawmakers to explain themselves better, and that displaying banners do not affect the solemnity of AL meetings.

DSEJ accused of unfair treatment of therapists

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) has been accused of treating its hired therapists unfairly, according to a report by TDM. DSEJ has issued a statement denying the accusation and emphasizing that the bureau places high importance on all therapists working in local special needs education. According to DSEJ, the bureau has hired therapists for its own special needs education and therapy consultation centers, as well as for public schools. In total, there are five speech therapists, six occupational therapists and five physical therapists.

New rules for tuition centers being drafted

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) will start drafting rules for private tuition and related after-school services by the end of this year. According to TDM, there are around 80 centers in Macau providing private tuition and after-school care services but only 30 are properly registered with a tutorial license. The head of DSEJs Continuing Education Department, Kong Ngai, told TDM that there are grey areas in the current law, in which many private tutoring and childcare services are not properly regulated. He added that when the new law comes into effect, these tutorial centers will need to obtain licenses. The new law aims to regulate the education level of individual service providers and have requirements regarding tutorial spaces. Officials say that once the law comes into effect, service providers will have two years to meet the new requirements.

FSS introduces new fund system to gambling enterprises

The Social Security Fund (FSS) has introduced the contents of the Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund System to representatives of the six gambling enterprises in Macau. The Vice-President of the Administrative Committee of the FSS, Chan Pou Wan recently had a meeting with the heads of legal affairs, human resources and financial departments of major gambling enterprises at the headquarters of the FSS. The meeting focused on topics such as the interface between the private pension fund and the central provident fund, protection for the gambling enterprises and employees rights and interests under the new system, and the practical operations of the system. The FSS hopes to deepen the gambling enterprises understanding of the new law in order to facilitate their voluntary participation into the non-mandatory central provident fund system.

UMs science summer camp begins

The University of Macaus (UM) Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) recently held an opening ceremony for its Summer Camp 2017. According to a press release from the university, the event attracted over 100 people, including local secondary school teachers, students and their parents. Dean of FST, Philip Chen, stated at the opening ceremony that the camp aims to help participants discover their interests and potential in science and technology and to improve their organizational skills and teamwork. Chen added that this years camp attracted 140 students from 26 secondary schools. He encouraged young people to keep dreaming and learning about science. This years six summer camps will cover various topics, such as civil engineering, 3D reconstruction with quadcopters, and robot and artificial intelligence.
Taiwans minister of foreign affairs is visiting the Dominican Republic to boost diplomatic ties in the region after recently losing Panama as an ally.

David Lee Tawei is scheduled to meet with Dominican officials and Taiwanese ambassadors based in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a two-day trip that began on Monday.

Officials did not release further details about the meetings except to say Lee is scheduled to visit ongoing development projects in the Dominican Republic.

The visit comes a month after Panama broke diplomatic relations in favor of China. Taiwan has 20 remaining official allies, including 11 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Taiwan is a self-governing democracy that China has long claimed as its territory after both sides split amid civil war in 1949.
The 2017 Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macau Film Production Investment and Trade Fair kicked off yesterday at the Regency Art Hotel Macau.

The two-day fair is exclusively for members of the film industry.

The event features 26 film projects. More than 70 investors from all three regions are participating.

During the fair, film producers will present their projects and meet with potential investors in order to explore pairing services, investment and development opportunities for their film projects.

Three awards will be presented at the end of the Investment Fair to recognize promising projects.

The winning projects will be decided by individual investors votes after the interviews.

A seminar themed New Trend in Online and Theater Film Distribution will also be held during the fair.

Prior to the fair, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) met local film producers in preparation for the event.

The fair was first held in 2014, and aimed to offer a quality platform for exchange between producers and investors from the three regions, creating a shared film investment and cooperation channel; supporting small and medium-sized film production, training industry professionals, and promoting the development of the film industry in the three regions according to organizers.

IC president Leung Hio Ming said, There are young film producers from Macau who are chosen by the film investors each year [since the Fairs first edition].

According to the ICs vice-president Ieong Chi Kin, the fair accepts a maximum of 10 movies a year from the three regions.

We hope that each place [Guangdong, Macau, Hong Kong] can arrange a minimum of 20 film producers, or investors, [] to meet with our producers, said Ieong, adding that the Fair has accumulated more than 190 successful matches between producers and investors since its first edition.

The movies that were selected during previous editions of the fair have already been produced and released.

In addition, Ieong told the media that films produced by local teams and subsidized by ICs financial support programs have already been released across many regions.

This year marks the second time that the IC has handed out a specific subsidy to film producers. This years round of subsidy applications has already commenced, with the IC receiving 15 applications so far. The selection process has entered its second and final round.

The subsidy is granted to four films each year, with winners being offered MOP1.5 million to complete their movie production process, including the release of the final feature film.
President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker for a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa.

The series of meetings at a chateau in La Celle Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, will bring together Fayez Serraj, prime minister of the U.N.- backed unity government, and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the Egyptian- backed commander of Libyas self-styled national army. Macron plans separate meetings with each ahead of an encounter between the two Libyans in the presence of U.N.s newly appointed special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame.

French officials hope the meetings will facilitate a political entente. The encounters are to end with a joint declaration stating, among other things, that there can be no military solution to the crisis. It would also lay down the principle of a cease-fire  except for fighting Islamic militants, an official of the French presidential palace said. The declaration would be simple but constructive, according to the official, and be a first between the two protagonists despite past meetings. The official could not be named in keeping with presidential policy.

The encounter is not expected to resolve the knotty problems of Libya, politically fractured and awash in militias and human traffickers preying on migrants who use the Libyan coast as a jumping off point to Europe, mainly Italy. But it would be a basis for the U.N. envoy to come up with proposals in the weeks and months ahead.

Libyas instability, triggered by the fall of leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, has an impact beyond its borders, for Europe and for France, and for African neighbors. Macrons bid to work toward laying the groundwork for a state with a functioning government and institutions is a priority of his presidency.

For French officials, the time is ripe for forward movement in the search for a resolution to the Libyan crisis. Sharing the international spotlight with Macron, elected less than three months ago, could boost the resolve of the Libyan rivals to seek a way out of their impasse.

Serraj and Hifter met in early May in Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates said later there had been a significant breakthrough. Libya TV said the men agreed on holding presidential and parliamentary elections next year in the fractured country.

Paris has made clear that the French initiative is not meant to brush aside numerous initiatives by others, including the European Union, the African Union and individual countries, like Morocco. Elaine Ganley, Paris, AP
Airbus SE is working on vital sales campaigns aimed at extending the life of its flagship A380 superjumbo, with outgoing marketing chief John Leahy seeking to secure orders by the Dubai Air Show in November, people familiar with the matter said.

Key to the push is a requirement for 20 jets worth USD8.7 billion at leading A380 customer Emirates, with follow-on orders from British Airways owner IAG SA, Japans ANA Holdings Inc. and Thai Airways International PCL also in the mix, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the talks are private.

Airbus may not feel that it can proceed with the smaller sales, likely to be for five to 10 planes apiece, without the Emirates deal to bolster the program, the people said. In the absence of new orders the company is set to pare output to less than one A380 a month, most likely sounding the death knell for the jet amid a dwindling backlog, and could detail the envisaged cut in an earnings update this week, they said.

An Airbus spokesman declined to comment ahead of the financial report, which the Toulouse, France-based company has scheduled for Thursday. The double-decker A380, which entered service in 2008, ranks as the worlds biggest passenger plane, seating 550 in a standard cabin layout.

Boeing has already said it could end production of the rival 747, where the rate has been cut to just one plane every two months so that the current backlog will last almost four years. At the same time the original jumbo is also offered as a freighter, giving it a wider potential market than the passenger-only A380.

Landing a life-extending deal for the A380 would help cap the career of Leahy, 66, who announced in May that hed be stepping down after 23 years as marketing boss and more than $1 trillion in sales. The American remains adamant that fast-growing markets will favor the model in years to come if it can be kept going, and is holding off on his departure to focus on the Emirates talks, one person said.

Emirates is evaluating an upgraded version of the superjumbo unveiled at the Paris Air Show in June and dubbed the A380 plus. The design adds fuel-saving winglets, which combined with an already-announced layout revision accommodating 80 more people would shave 13 percent from per-seat costs, though Tim Clark, the airlines president, says he doesnt need extra berths.

Airbuss head of programs Didier Evrard said in May it would decide by the end of this year whether to reduce production of the A380  which has a list price of $436.9 million  to fewer than 12 jets a year. A failure to get the Emirates deal done could see output fall to a 0.7-a-month equivalent rate, a figure reported by Frances Challenges magazine last week.

The planemaker may still be forced to cut the A380 rate even with a follow-up order from Emirates if the airline opts to take the jets at a later date because of overcrowding at its Dubai hub. That said, Clark has suggested the planes would most likely replace older superjumbos coming off lease from 2020.

Even the move to one plane a month, known as rate one and currently due to take effect from 2018, was widely viewed as the beginning of the end for the struggling A380 program when it was announced last year, though Airbus says that its able to break even at that production level on a per-plane basis.

The company has handed over 213 A380s to date, including 28 last year, to 13 customers. Of the remaining 104 still listed in the official backlog, as few as 57 could actually be delivered, according to Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris, representing less than five years of production at one plane a month. That includes 47 for Emirates.

Airbus shares rose as much as 1.4 percent Tuesday and were trading 1.1 percent higher at 72.45 euros as of 11:04 a.m. in Paris. That extended their gains this year to 15 percent, valuing the planemaker at 56 billion euros. Benjamin Katz, Bloomberg
In the late 1980s, Pakistani clerics beseeched Indonesia to pray for them after Benazir Bhutto became prime minister and the first woman to govern a Muslim majority nation.

Khofifah Indar Parawansa, now a cabinet minister in Indonesia, recalls the incident with some irony. The clerics told Abdurrahman Wahid, who would later become Indonesias president, that Pakistan would be unlucky for being ruled by a woman, she said.

Parawansa, 52, is one of nine female ministers in the worlds most populous Muslim nation, exemplifying the countrys success in breaking gender and religious stereotypes.

At 26 percent, Indonesia has the largest ratio of female ministers among the 10 biggest countries based on population size, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union or IPU, a global organization of parliaments based in Geneva.

Women have made grounds in Indonesia from politics to central banking. High profile officials include Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi  a first in the countrys history  and Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Rosmaya Hadi became Bank Indonesias only female deputy governor this year.

Part of Indonesias success has been setting gender quotas for candidates that political parties put forward for public office. Females now hold almost a fifth of the seats in Indonesias national parliament, up from 8 percent in 2003 when a non-compulsory quota was first introduced, according to IPU.

In countries like Rwanda, Cuba and Iceland, women lawmakers make up more than 40 percent of parliament. Among the most populous nations, China leads the way with about a quarter.

But there is still a long way to go for Indonesia to boost gender diversity in its economy. The Southeast Asian nation has one of the lowest female participation rates in the labor market in Asia at 38 percent, compared with 44 percent in China and 43 percent in Japan, according to the World Bank.

Womens participation in the labor force, particularly in developing nations, has remained low despite significant progress in boosting economic growth, lowering fertility rates, and improving education. In places like Indonesia and the Philippines, social norms still dictate what kind of jobs women can do, with many restricted to handling mainly housework and childcare responsibilities.

This social structure has economic costs. The removal of gender bias in education, the labor market, and the household would increase per capita income by 70 percent over a generation in a typical Asian economy, according to the ADB.

Parawansa, who is now social affairs minister, said her advance up the political ranks has had its challenges. She was a young member of the parliament in 1998 at 32 when she stood up to speak out against then-dictator Suharto, calling for political reformation. The speech was controversial enough that her husband worried for her safety, she recalled.

The seniors were trying to block me: This little kid, a woman, what is she up to? Parawansa said in an interview from her office in Jakarta, dressed in a modest long-sleeve Batik shirt and pumpkin-colored headscarf. Many people were surprised with my speech. I could see that not all people liked the speech.

Women in public office in Indonesia also need to contend with growing religious conservatism in the country. The election of Jakartas governor this year was marred by religious and ethnic tensions, and President Joko Widodo last week banned an Islamist organization in the country, adding to political risks in the country.

For Parawansa, opportunity is key to getting more women into high profile roles.

Today, I see both men and women are equally tenacious, she said. It shouldnt be waited, opportunity must be pursued. MDT/Bloomberg
Maldivian security forces locked down parliament on orders from the president Monday, leading to clashes after opposition lawmakers stormed the compound in an attempt to vote on whether to impeach the parliamentary speaker.

President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has been accused of rolling back democratic gains the Maldives has made since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008.

A no-confidence motion against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed was scheduled to have been taken up Monday, according to the opposition. It said the motion had support from 45 lawmakers in the 85-member house, which if it had succeeded would have challenged the presidents power.

The government, however, said no voting had been scheduled for Monday.

Members of the armed forces padlocked the gates of parliament on orders from Yameen, and lawmakers were forcibly prevented from entering the parliamentary compound, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party said.

Some opposition lawmakers broke through the barrier, but they were forcibly thrown out by military and police who even pepper-sprayed them, said party spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.

In a statement, the opposition party called Yameens action desperate, illegal and unconstitutional.

The presidents office said all the members have been informed that the next parliament sittings will be on July 31.

The parliament secretariat asked Maldives forces to strengthen security in the parliament building premises due to security concerns as certain parties were calling for protests near parliament, the office said in a statement.

Maldives police said the government restricted access to the parliament building as the session was canceled and that police were asked to intervene by Maldives National Defense Force in clearing out individuals who forcefully entered the parliament building.

In a statement, police also said they are investigating the obstruction of police duty by the lawmakers who broke into the restricted area.

The support for the no-confidence motion was uncertain after the election commission announced last week that four members who supported the motion had lost their seats because they left the ruling party.

Yameens control over parliament is threatened by a new understanding between the Maldives former strongman and its first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed. The Maldivian Democratic Party routed Yameens party in local council elections earlier this year.

A similar opposition bid to oust the speaker was defeated in March with no dissenting votes after opposition lawmakers were either evicted or walked out from the vote following a dispute over problems with the electronic voting system.

The opposition coalitions plan to wrest the parliamentary majority was aimed at reforming the judiciary, elections commission and other bodies perceived as being partial toward Yameen.

In March, Nasheed and former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and two other parties signed an agreement to form an opposition alliance.

Maumoon runs a rival faction within the Progressive Party of Maldives, which is led by the current president, his half brother.

Nasheed was jailed in 2015 for 13 years for ordering the arrest of a senior judge when he was president in 2012.

He received asylum in Britain last year after traveling there on medical leave. Three other leading politicians have also been jailed after trials criticized internationally for a lack of due process.

Maldives is a South Asian archipelago known for its luxury tourist resorts. Bharatha Mallawarachi, Colombo, AP
A suicide bomber struck near a police team in the eastern city of Lahore Monday killing at least 26 and wounding another 54, many of them police officers. An outlawed Taliban faction claimed responsibility.

Senior police officer Haider Ashraf said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted police guarding a demolition site at Kot Lakhpats vegetable market on the outskirts of Lahore.

Ashraf said it was believed earlier that the bomb was in a car, but it was later discovered that the vehicle belonged to a police officer, among the eight officers killed.

He said many of 54 wounded are policemen and several bystanders were wounded by the impact of the powerful blast. Ashraf added that near the blast site a high rise building houses important information technology offices but the apparent target was the police gathering.

The outlawed militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, confirming they used a suicide bomber on a motorcycle.

Rana Sanaullah, the home minister of eastern Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital, said anti-state elements who want to see instability in the country were behind the attack.

No matter what name they use, these terrorists are one but they cannot demoralize the Pakistani nation, said Sanaullah.

Malik Mohammad Ahmed, a spokesman for the Punjab government, said the blast occurred near the secretariat of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif but that he was not in the office oat the time.

Sharif in a statement condemnead the attack and called for the best possible medical service for the survivors.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack in the strongest terms and underlined the obligation of all countries to help Pakistan bring those responsible to justice. Members reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned attack in Lahore and called for those responsible to be brought to justice, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

He supports the efforts of the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism and violent extremism with full respect for international human rights norms and obligations, Haq said.

Lahore has faced scores of terror attacks in recent years. A suicide bombing earlier this year killed 16 police on a busy road while another killed over 70 people during Easter last year.

Elsewhere in Pakistan Monday, gunmen riding on a motorcycle in Karachi opened fire on traffic police officers, killing one and critically wounding another, said Rao Anwar, a senior counterterrorism police officer.

Anwar said the gunmen also snatched away a dead officers rifle and fired on another nearby police patrol but caused no casualties. Zaheeruddin Babar, Lahore, AP
The controversial plan, approved yesterday by the Executive Council, will effectively turn a quarter of the West Kowloon Terminus of the future high-speed rail link into mainland territory. Mainland officers will be allowed to carry out customs and clearance duties at the terminus.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong, reported that the HKSAR government is claiming that the new move will not violate the constitutional ban on applying national laws in Hong Kong.

Several Basic Law articles that explicitly bar mainland officials from interfering in local affairs or enforcing national laws will not apply to the Terminus area leased to the mainland, which will be called the Mainland Port Area (MPA).

In a joint statement, the Justice, Transport and Security bureaus said: Since the MPA is legally regarded as outside the territorial boundary of the HKSAR, stipulations of Article 8, 18, and Article 22 of the Basic Law do not apply and therefore the co-location arrangements would not be contravening the Basic Law.

According to RTHK, the government said all mainland laws will be enforced within the 105,000-square-metre area that includes trains and platforms, except for specific cases where Hong Kong law will be applied  such as for civil matters between passengers, or between passengers and the railway operator.

Hong Kong construction, fire safety, and insurance standards will continue to apply, and railway staff will be allowed unfettered access to this area.

Officials claimed that it is impossible to only apply mainland laws that relate to clearance procedures instead of all national laws, because no clear distinction can be set.

Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen organized a press conference to dismiss concerns over the new arrangement.

The implementation of co-location arrangement is neither a directive nor an order by the Central Peoples. Besides, the implementation of co-location would require the consent of both the Hong Kong SAR government and the Central Peoples Government before it can be done, he said.

Yuen said that the local legislature and the HKSAR citizens will then be given time to discuss the matter, before the National Peoples Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) makes a decision endorsing the arrangement.

According to the government, Article 20 of the Basic Law will provide the legal basis for such a law to be enacted, as it allows the NPCSC to confer unspecified other powers upon the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The Legislative Council is expected to enact this law sometime during its 2017-18 session, so the Express Rail Link can open on schedule by the third quarter of 2018.

Yuen stressed the convenience of the plan, saying that by allowing mainland officials to clear passengers in advance in Hong Kong, they will gain quick and easy access to a vast array of mainland cities by rail, which will foster closer social and economic ties between both sides.
A Vietnamese court yesterday sentenced an activist to nine years in prison on charges of producing videos that defamed the countrys leadership, in the latest crackdown on dissent.

Tran Thi Nga was convicted of spreading propaganda against the state in the one-day trial at the Peoples Court in Ha Nam province in northern Vietnam, her lawyer said.

Nga, 40, campaigned against environmental pollution, police brutality and illegal land confiscation, and called for a tougher stance toward Chinas assertive territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The court also imposed five years of house arrest following her prison term, lawyer Ha Huy Son said.

I think this is an unjust verdict, Son said. She did not commit the crime for which she was convicted by the court.

Nga maintained her innocence during the trial, saying she did not oppose anyone, but was only against corruption and injustice, Son said.

Son said there was no proof that 13 videos used against Nga in the trial  11 taken from the internet and two allegedly found on her computer  were hers.

The videos were about subjects such as toxic chemicals dumped last year by Formosa Plastics Groups steel complex in central Vietnam in one of the countrys worst environmental disasters, Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, and corruption, Son said.

Human Rights Watch has called for her release.

The Vietnamese government consistently goes to extremes to silence its critics, targeting activists like Tran Thi Nga with bogus charges that carry a long prison sentence, and subjecting their families to harassment and abuse, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Monday.

International human rights groups and some Western governments often criticize Vietnam for jailing people for peacefully expressing their views, but Vietnams government says only law-breakers are punished. MDT/AP
MALDIVES Security forces locked down parliament on orders from the president Monday, leading to clashes after opposition lawmakers stormed the compound in an attempt to vote on whether to impeach the parliamentary speaker. President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has been accused of rolling back democratic gains the Maldives has made since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008.

VIETNAM A court yesterday sentenced an activist to nine years in prison on charges of producing videos that defamed the countrys leadership, in the latest crackdown on dissent.

MYANMAR Health officials in Myanmar say the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, has killed three people out of 13 confirmed cases this month. Confirmation of the new cases has been widely discussed on social media and more people than usual have been wearing surgical masks in crowded areas of Yangon, the countrys commercial capital.

PAKISTAN A suicide bomber struck near a police team in the eastern city of Lahore Monday killing at least 26 and wounding another 54, many of them police officers. An outlawed Taliban faction claimed responsibility.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE Muslim leaders urged the faithful yesterday to keep up their prayer protests and avoid entering a contested Jerusalem shrine, even after Israel dismantled metal detectors that initially triggered the tensions. Israel said it would replace the metal detectors with new security arrangements.

LIBYA French President Emmanuel Macron will host a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, his office said Monday, to try to contribute to an end to the Libyan crisis, which is feeding Islamic militants, people traffickers preying on migrants and instability in the region.

SOMALIA-based al-Shabab is mocking President Donald Trump in a new video that calls him a brainless billionaire as his administration steps up military efforts against what has become the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

SOUTH AFRICA media say rescuers have recovered the bodies of four miners who were trapped underground during an earth tremor.

EUROPEAN UNION The International Monetary is more optimistic about the economy of the 19-country eurozone after a run of elections saw populist politicians defeated and risks to its outlook abated.

BRAZIL Police have arrested five teenagers on suspicion of gang-raping a 13-year-old girl on multiple occasions at a Rio de Janeiro public school.
MALDIVES Outside governments yesterday asked the Maldives to restore its legislatures independence, days after the opposition said parliament was locked down on orders from the president in an attempt to prevent a vote to impeach the parliamentary speaker.

INDONESIA moved a step closer to hunting down tens of billions of dollars it believes its citizens have hidden abroad after political parties agreed to seek a parliamentary approval for a law that will give tax officials access to financial data held by other countries.

THAILAND Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose bank accounts were frozen this week, says she will fight to prove her innocence as a trial that could put her in prison for 10 years enters its final stages.

SRI LANKAs government deployed army troops yesterday to restore fuel distribution crippled during a strike launched by trade unions who want to stop leases of oil tanks to India and China.

AFGHANISTAN An official says 26 soldiers have been killed in a blistering Taliban assault on an Afghan National Security base in southern Kandahar province. Kandahar is considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban.

EGYPTs Interior Ministry says security forces have killed four suspects who were behind the killing of five policemen earlier this month in an attack near Cairo.

CYPRUS Authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus say they have lifted restrictions on Maronite Christians reclaiming homes and property in villages that have been under Turkish military control for over four decades.

SERBIA The Belgrade airport says a passenger plane flying from Germany to Egypt has made an emergency landing in the Serbian capital because of an indication of smoke in the aircraft cabin.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military in any capacity, citing tremendous medical costs and disruption.

VENEZUELAs intelligence agency detained two more judges Tuesday that the government-stacked Supreme Court had threatened with arrest after they were appointed by the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

BRAZILs Attorney Generals office announced that it has tripled its 2018 budget for the investigation into a sprawling corruption scandal that has engulfed political and business leaders across Latin America. Federal prosecutors decided to boost spending on the so-called Car Wash investigation from USD165 million to more than $500 million.
The Zonta Club of Macau recently held a dinner in celebration of its second anniversary at the official residence of the Consul General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong.

The Zonta Club is a member of Zonta International, a global non- profit organization of empowering professional women worldwide through service and advocacy.

Guests of honor included Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, Consul-General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong, Vitor Sereno, and Deputy Head of the Coordination Department of the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government, Bian Tao.

During the dinner, the Chartered President of the Zonta Club of Macau, Christiana Ieong, highlighted the activities the club had carried out in the past year and expressed her gratitude to the Macau government for inviting the club to participate in the committee of women and childrens affairs.

Ieong added that Zonta Macau will continue to closely monitor the implementation of the law on preventing and combating domestic violence, and expressed her hopes that the government will look into the need to revise the adoption regulation and establish legislation against sexual harassment.

Zonta Macau regularly holds community events to support women and children. The club is a supporter of the Macau Breastfeeding Association and the Macau Down Syndrome Children Association. The club often visits local orphanage, Cradle of Hope, as well as orphanages in mainland China.

Zonta International has more than 30,000 members and 1,200 member clubs in 67 countries and regions. According to its official website, the organization envisions a world in which womens rights are recognized as human rights, where every woman is able to achieve her full potential, has access to resources, is represented in decision-making positions on an equal basis with men, and lives in a world without the fear of violence.
JEROME  A man who led police on a chase in Eden in March has been sentenced to prison.

Brian Pinell, 26, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced last week to between three and eight years. He will also be fined $2,145.50.

Authorities said Pinell crashed his Dodge SUV during the chase, pointed a gun at deputies and fled into the desert on foot. He turned himself in the next day.
TWIN FALLS  Codi Garner used to have five children in day care  and a huge bill to pay.

It was crazy, she said. I was spending more on day care than I was actually bringing home.

It wasnt working out, so Garner decided to become a stay-at-home mother until her children were old enough for school.

Now, shes back in the workforce. She relies on part-time childcare  costing $180 per month for her 3-year-old son while she works as a cosmetologist in Burley.

For parents, it can be a major challenge to figure out how to pay for high-quality childcare or decide to stay home with children instead.

A new national report from Child Aware of America  Checking In: A Snapshot of the Child Care Landscape  2017 Report  concludes Idaho lacks high-quality, affordable child care. And only 4 percent of programs are nationally accredited.

Whats the average yearly cost for parents? $6,390-$9,980 for infant care, $6,180-$8,970 for toddler care and $5,835-$8,060 for 4-year-old care.

That can be higher than the average cost of public college tuition: $6,818 per year in 2016.

We have a lot of work to do to support our working families, Beth Oppenheimer, executive director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, said in a statement earlier this month. The simple fact is, if parents cant afford or find quality child care, both our economy and the development of our young children suffer.

A child care centers perspective

The biggest message people need to understand: birth through 8 years old is the most critical time for children in their development, said Gena Anderson, owner of Right On Track Child Care in Twin Falls.

We need to invest in good childhood experiences so were not missing out on the opportunity for them to develop, she said.

Anderson started working in early childhood education about 25 years ago. About 14 years ago, she started her business.

Now, Right On Track Child Care accommodates about 80 children per day from birth through 5 years old, including preschool.

The center has six classrooms, all of which use a curriculum and lesson plans. Each child receives ongoing developmental assessments.

The cost for families depends on a childs age, and whether its part or full-time care.

On the high end for full-time care, it costs from $110 per week for 4-and 5-year-olds to $140 per week for infants.

That comes out to $2.75 to $3.50 per hour, for a 40-hour work week.

The majority of our parents have pretty decent jobs, so they are able to cover those costs, Anderson said.

But the center does serve low-income families, she said, and several use the Idaho Child Care Program to get state assistance with child care expenses.

Its offered through the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare for low-income families who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants who are working, going to school or participating in approved training. It covers a portion of child care expenses.

To qualify, a family of two must have a monthly income not exceeding $1,736. The limit is $2,184 for a family of three and $2,633 for a family of four, and goes up incrementally from there.

At Right On Track Child Care, a few families are receiving financial help with childcare from a different source  their childs grandparents.

The families we serve recognize that were offering a high-quality program, Anderson said, so theyre willing to figure out how to pay for those costs.

Making decisions about childcare

Tuesday was Kimberlee LaPrays first day back at work after maternity leave. Shes a public information specialist at the College of Southern Idaho.

Her 10-week-old daughter and 6-year-old daughter are spending daytime hours with one of LaPrays friends, a stay-at-home mother.

LaPray pays her friend an average of $350 per month. Plus, she brings groceries over to her friends house for breakfasts and lunches for the children.

Once the school year starts up, her older daughter  whos going into first-grade  will go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Magic Valley after school.

She started going to the club last year in kindergarten, which cut down on a lot of expenses, LaPray said.

LaPray said she knows many mothers who stay home because they cant afford to have two or more children in day care.

Twin Falls resident Kourtney Shaw is a stay-at-home mother to her 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old stepson.

She said she wants to go back into the workforce to help pay bills, but cant afford child care  especially, since the family is trying to find a place to live. Theyre living with her parents and helping them with bills.

Shaw said her daughters biological father is out of the picture and doesnt provide financial support.

Children are parents pride and joy, and parents want to seek the best childcare, she said.

But Twin Falls isnt the wealthiest city and Idaho isnt the wealthiest state, she added, and its hard to afford child care on top of paying the rent and other living expenses.
JEROME  Its unusual for nine national bands to come through Jerome.

But thats the lineup youll find at the second annual EdgeFest on Sunday, Aug. 13 at the Jerome County Fairgrounds.

The music festival is organized by local rock music radio station 103.1 The Edge and Diamondz Event Center in Jerome.

This is by far the biggest rock show that comes to the valley each year, Diamondz owner Greg Dodson said. Theres nothing even close.

It will feature nine national bands  Saliva, P.O.D., Lit, Royal Bliss, Jack Russells Great White, Alien Ant Farm, Gemini Syndrome, Through Fire and Ded  and three Idaho groups.

Diamondz Event Center launched the music festival last year after finding out a seven-band tour was coming to Jerome.

We decided to start a music festival, Dodson said, for the same time. It was kind of a gift because it was already seven bands that (were) touring together.

About 2,000 people came to the event, he said. For the first year and this area, thats pretty amazing.

Its an all-ages show, but alcohol will be available for those 21 and older who have a valid identification. Local vendors will also offer food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Salt Lake City-based rock band Royal Bliss is among the participating bands this year.

After getting a call with an invitation to perform, obviously, we said yes, guitarist Taylor Richards said.

Many clubs and bars dont want to book Sunday or Monday gigs, he said, so its a good time to play at a music festival.

Royal Bliss formed 19 years ago with a group of high school friends in the Salt Lake City area.

Richards and his friends were jamming and recorded a little CD, he said. Next thing we know, were starting to get really good gigs.

Three of the original band members, including Richards, are still with Royal Bliss.

As the years went by, the band signed with Capitol Records. It recorded a total of six albums  two of which were with the major record label.

The rest were independent releases. Thats the case for the bands new record, which is slated to come out around September.

The Twin Falls area holds a special significance for Royal Bliss. Its where the group got its first big break.

About 15 years ago, someone got their hands on a Royal Bliss CD and Twin Falls radio station 99.9 FM played a few of the songs.

It turned out they were the most requested songs for two months, Richards said.

When they were invited to do a CD signing event in Twin Falls, there was a huge crowd, he said. The band members were shocked.

It was a turning point for the band. And Richards says southern Idaho is still one of their favorite places to perform.
SHOSHONE  Firefighters are tackling a fire near Shoshone with hand tools due to difficult access in lava rock.

The Lagoon Fire was reported close to midnight, and by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday it had burned an estimated 765 acres. It was burning 2 miles west of Shoshone.

Although there are structures in the area, none were in immediate danger, Bureau of Land Management Twin Falls District spokeswoman Kelsey Brizendine said.

Engines and dozers have been unable to get close enough for mobile attack, she said.

Its impossible. They have to park and walk, she said.

Thats because beneath the sagebrush and grass, the area is covered with lava rock.

Three helicopters, one air attack and four air tankers were working to keep the fire in check. Notch Butte Rangeland Fire Protection Association and Sawtooth National Forest were assisting.

Fearing thunderstorms could bring wind, crews were able to slow the fires progress. By Wednesday evening, most of the flames were out.

Everythings looking pretty good out there, Brizendine said.

The fires exact cause is unknown, but lightning is suspected.

Another fire that began Tuesday morning south of Murtaugh was contained that same evening at 68 acres. Crews left the area Wednesday night. The cause of the Antelope Valley Fire is under investigation.

Meanwhile, the human-caused Martin Canyon Fire east of Bellevue had burned 4,072 acres, with estimated containment Wednesday night. The fire should be completely out by Sunday.

There is no immediate threat to structures, but Muldoon Canyon Road is closed from the entrance of EE-da-ho Ranch to Muldoon, and from Little Wood Reservoir Dam to Muldoon. Muldoon Canyon is closed to recreation and camping.
Idaho has set the goal of having 60 percent of our 25-34-year-old workers hold a postsecondary credential by 2020. This goal was established because studies show 6 out of 10 workers need education after high school to qualify for a job.

Unfortunately, that goal is often misunderstood to mean that 60 percent of our workers must obtain a four-year bachelors degree. The fact is that we need employees with all levels of postsecondary education  workforce-ready certificates and college degrees.

Even as policymakers admit we may not hit the 60 percent goal by the deadline, Idahos employers are crying out for workers with more education. And the talent crisis may even get worse. The Department of Labor estimates that by 2024 we will have 49,000 jobs that cannot be filled because candidates wont have the necessary education.

Last January, Gov. Otter formed two task forces to help address this employment crisis: the Governors Task Force on Higher Education and the Governors Task Force on Workforce Development.

The first task force is focused on strengthening our higher-education system. Its recommendations are due on the governors desk in September.

The Workforce Development Task Forces mission was to recommend ways to strengthen our career-technical education, or CTE. That task force gave the governor its recommendations two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, this spring Idaho Business for Education conducted a study to identify whats working and not working in CTE and looked to other states for best practices that could strengthen our programs.

Here are key recommendations from the two studies:

Create more CTE programs and facilities, especially in rural areas

Incentivize local educators to help more students obtain CTE certificates

Ensure that CTE programs have enough qualified instructors

Expand work-based learning opportunities for students

A major challenge is we dont have enough students working toward CTE certifications. Its a classic supply-and-demand problem. There is great demand among Idaho employers for workers with CTE skills, but the candidate pool is relatively dry.

One reason is a view that CTE leads to so-called dirty jobs that are less attractive than those requiring a college degree. Yet, in the 21st century CTE is science, technology, math, engineering and traditional careers like welding, plumbing and diesel mechanics. Todays CTE jobs pay well above the state average and are in plentiful supply.

Many students dont want to attend college. Yet they dont see CTE as a pathway. As a result, many of them get no post-high school training that will help them attain a well-paying career.

Idahos economy cant grow unless we have highly-educated workers who have all levels of postsecondary education, including CTE.

Its not college or nothing for students. Lets ensure that they know all their options. For their sake  and Idahos.
The United States announced Tuesday it is providing more than $140 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Lebanon to help the Middle Eastern country address the urgent needs of refugees from Syria and those of Lebanese host communities.

This announcement was made by the State Department during the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariris visit to Washington, DC.

Lebanon hosts more than 1.5 one million registered refugees, representing nearly a quarter of its population, a sign of the great hospitality and generosity of the Lebanese people, the State Department said, calling on other donors to join Washington in providing additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by the crisis in Syria, and also to fulfill not yet funded previously made pledges.

The newly announced funding brings U.S. humanitarian assistance to Lebanon to more than $1.5 billion since the start of the Syria crisis in 2012.

The State Department which described the magnitude of suffering and urgent humanitarian need in Lebanon as unprecedented said the U.S. funding will serve to provide food assistance, shelter for the most vulnerable families, emergency and hospital care, humanitarian protection, and child immunization and nutrition to the more than one million refugees and Lebanese host populations that are in need.

The United States will also support infrastructure projects that improve access for Lebanese and refugees to safe drinking water and wastewater services.

This assistance supports the critical humanitarian needs addressed in the 2017 Lebanon Crisis Response Plans appeal of $2.8 billion. The new funding supports the operations of UN humanitarian agencies in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, the Lebanese Prime Minister met with President Donald Trump and held on Wednesday a meeting with Secretary of state Rex W. Tillerson.

President Trump said after the meeting that the United States would continue to support the Lebanese army in its fight to stop Islamic State and other militant groups gaining a foothold inside the country.
In Yemen, the worlds worst cholera outbreak is unfolding amid the worlds largest humanitarian crisis, crippling health, water and sanitation facilities in the country, and creating ideal conditions for diseases to spread, according to the heads of three United Nations agencies, who pointed out that nearly 80 per cent of Yemens children need immediate humanitarian assistance.

The country is on the brink of famine, with over 60 per cent of the population not knowing where their next meal will come from, said UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the UN news center said in a press release.

The three agency chiefs, who visited together the crisis-torn nation, pointed out that nearly two million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, and malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera; diseases create more malnutrition [] a vicious combination.

The UN officials, who witnessed on the spot the scale of the humanitarian crisis, observed that over the last three months, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900.

They recalled that more than 1,000 diarrhoea treatment centers and oral rehydration corners have been set up and that the delivery of food supplements and medical supplies is ongoing.

The rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals, health centers and the water- sanitation network is also ongoing.

We are working with the World Bank in an innovative partnership that responds to needs on the ground and helps maintain the local health institutions, the UN agencies heads said.

Drawing attention to their meeting with Yemeni leaders in Aden and Sanaa, the UN officials pressed for humanitarian access to fighting-affected areas and urged for a peaceful political solution.

We now call on the international community to redouble its support for the people of Yemen. If we fail to do so, the catastrophe we have seen unfolding before our eyes will not only continue to claim lives but will scar future generations and the country for years to come, concluded the UN heads.
The Ethiopian government plans to use 80% of the total area of land suitable for cotton growing as the country projects to generate $30 billion in foreign exchange earnings from the textile and garment sector by 2030, Bogale Feleke, Ethiopian Deputy Minister of Industry said.

We intend to increase our area of cotton production. At present, only 20 percent of the three million hectares are used for cotton production while we aim to increase it to around 80 percent, local media quoted Feleke as saying.

This strategy, according to the report, will enable the country to increase its cotton production in order to meet the raw material needs of the manufacturing industry and take advantage of the many opportunities offered by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). AGOA is a US legislation seeking to assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the United States and the region.

According to the World Investment Reports 2016 edition, Ethiopia is the second largest in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the textile industry sector, next to Vietnam.

However, in May, a report from Verisk Maplecroft claimed Ethiopias cotton sector, particularly, will be increasingly exposed to security and reputational risks, limiting the opportunity to expand sustainable production.

Therefore, businesses viewing Ethiopia as an opportunity to diversify their textile and cotton supply chains will need to navigate a multitude of risks across their product value chains, said the report.
Zambias economy will grow by 4.3 percent this year from around 3.2 percent last year supported by better agricultural output, improved electricity generation and higher mining production, Finance Minister Felix Mutati said on Tuesday.

The Finance Ministers statement comes weeks after the International Monetary Fund announced the possibility of granting Zambia a credit facility of $ 1.3 billion over three years to help it close its budget deficit estimated at around 7 percent.

The IMF loan would be also a growth enabler and help the government to broaden its sources of external credit, officials said.

The southern African nation, the continents second-biggest copper producer, has struggled with ballooning budget deficits in recent years as metal prices fell and government spending increased.

Zambias external debt has increased to $6.9 billion while the total debt stock stands at about $10 billion, according to the government.

A power crisis worsened the situation as government paid hundreds of millions of dollars for electricity imports, while economic growth fell to the lowest since 1998.

The country has sold $3 billion in Eurobonds, the most recent sale being $1.25 billion in 2015.
Some 300 Congolese illegal immigrants have been deported from Angola by the security forces of the oil-rich nation over the last weeks.

The deportees, who were living in the northern province of Cabinda, were repatriated through three borders shared with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville, Angolan state-run news agency Angop reports.

Fifty-four nationals of the DR Congo and 8 from Congo Brazzaville are in detention for violation of the Angolan border, Angop added.

Densely forested, Cabinda is separated from the rest of Angola by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The province of 700,000 people suffers from widespread poverty even by Angolan standards.

Authorities in Luanda earlier this year, vowed to reduce significantly illegal migration as the country prepares for a transition of political powers in August.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,500 immigrants from DRC have been expelled from Angola.
Two Moroccan peacekeepers lost their live Tuesday at Bangassou, South-East of the Central African Republic, in an ambush laid by Christian-dominated Anti-balaka armed group.

The latest attack against the UN Multinational Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is the second in less than a week, as another Moroccan was killed on Sunday in this town near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

The soldiers were killed as their contingent was fetching water for local populations. Another Moroccan peacekeeper was slightly injured in the attack.

The Moroccan contingent of the MINUSCA has been tasked to protect Muslim populations of the town, which is located some 700 km to the east of capital Bangui.

The international community had condemned in the strongest terms the Sunday attack where a Moroccan peacekeeper was killed and three others were injured.

The UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned, in separate statements, this aggression, noting that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.

Guterres voiced deep concern about the continued fighting in the southeast of the Central African Republic and called on all parties to cease violence, while the Security Council urged CAR Government to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The French Foreign Ministry, which also denounced the attack, underscored Moroccos commitment to peacebuilding in Africa, and called for an effective disarmament of armed groups in CAR.

Morocco is participating with 1470 peacekeepers in MINUSCA, which has a total of 12,870 uniformed personnel including 10,750 military personnel and 2,080 police personnel.

Attacks against MINUSCA in Bangassou have become rampant. Six blue helmets among whom 2 Moroccans were killed in May in attacks attributed to the Christian group.

Two Moroccan peacekeepers, including an officer, were killed in January after their patrol came under attack from the Christian Anti-balaka rebel group.

In April last year, another Moroccan peacekeeper died of his wounds after the armed group targeted their unit.

CAR descended into civil war in 2013 following removal of Christian President Francois Bozize by Muslim armed group, Seleka.

The civil war has left hundreds dead and caused internal and external displacement of refugees.

Violence in capital Bangui has relatively died down since the election of President Faustin-Archange Touadera in 2016 but the internal part of the country is still embroiled in brutalities between the two religious groups.
Deputy Minister: Procedure of export from Armenia to EU will be facilitated in 2018

The procedure of exports from Armenia to the European Union will be facilitated in 2018.First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia, Garegin Melkonyan, told the aforementioned to NEWS.am.In 2016, the number of exporters and export transactions from Armenia to EU was higher than it is currently.Starting from 2018, Armenia will join the exporter database Rex (Registered Exporter). In this case there will be no need to receive a certificate of origin for each export consignment.Within the framework of the GSP+, nearly 6,400 thousand types of goods (commodity positions) can be exported from Armenia to the EU at a zero or lowered customs rates. The certificate of origin is also important for enjoying exemptions.Now it will be enough to get registered in the system once as a producer from Armenia, there being no need to receive a certificate every time. Thanks to this we expect growth in the number of exporters to the EU, Melkonyan added.
Recognition of Georgias driving license in EU

By Messenger Staff

Georgias Interior Ministry claims they are actively engaged in effort to achieve the recognition of Georgias driving license by European countries, which will be a benefit for those travelling or staying in EU states.We have to actively work on the recognition of our driving license, especially in EU countries, Deputy Interior Minister Shalva Khutsishvili told journalists within an ambassadorial reception in Tbilisi on July 19."We are actively involved in international cooperation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is one of the agencies which have signed most of the international documents, memorandums and agreements over the past three years, Khutsishvili stated.The Deputy Minister stressed that they officially started a dialogue with several countries and now need to move this process to a more active phase.We think that after the exams to receive a driving license will be more complicated and will include driving the vehicle in the traffic. The process of recognizing our driving license in the EU member states will become easier as standards of driving improve," Khutsishvili said, and added that they are trying to achieve the recognition of driving licenses in the EU.There are many drivers in Georgia who took their licenses when it was easier to pass the national driving test.It is uncertain at this time whether the EU will let such drivers or only those who would pass more complicated exam on their streets.Georgian drivers still need to obey the rules and this is very obvious for the diplomatic corps representatives stationed in Georgia; former British Ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall criticized standards of Georgian driving. The diplomats play a decisive role in every aspect of Georgias integration process.If the Ministry takes all relevant steps and ensures the proper enforcement of most of the strict regulations they initiated, getting Georgian driving license in the EU will be easier. The will to ensure relevant measures in this direction is quite obvious and clear from the Georgian side.Though it is not clear whether it will be achieved in the near future, but the recognition of Georgian driving licenses is crucial considering the fact that mainly those Georgian citizens leave the country frequently who have business or job-related tasks abroad and know the importance of obeying the rules of the road.
NATO starts military exercise in Georgia

By Mariam Chanishvili

NATO's multinational military exercise 'Noble Partner - 2017' will take place on Vaziani military aerodrome near Tbilisi from July 20 to August 12.The armed forces of eight countries: Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Slovenia and Ukraine will be taking part in the military training. These countries will be united under the banner describing the motto of the exercise Strength through Partnership.The training includes more than 2800 military servicemen. The German-made armored fighting vehicle Boxer will participate in the exercise for the first time. U.S. Abrams Main Battle Tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Stryker Armored Fighting Vehicles and C-130 Hercules aircraft will be represented in it as stated by the Ministry of Defense of Georgia.The military exercise will be a great step to improve the countrys defense capabilities and develop the Georgian Armed Forces in conformity with troops of NATO and partner countries.A preliminary conference involving planners from the partnering countries was held in Georgia in March.Established in 2015, the Noble Partner Exercise was founded to train service members from Georgian Armed Forces and NATO member states for the NATO Response Force (NRF) unit.This military exercise will improve defensive and/or offensive skills of participants, deepen cooperation between representatives of Georgias armed forces and NATO member countries, improve training capabilities of NATO forces, and develop cooperation among NATO countries.US Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend the opening of the exercises. During the visit, he will meet the Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Seventeen Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang members were charged on July 19 with a dozen murders and other violent crimes committed on Long Island.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said the arrests dealt a huge blow against MS-13, and that the community will prevail against acts of savagery.

The indictment comes three months after the brutal slayings of four young men Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobosin the Long Island town of Central Islip in April.

On April 11, two female associates of MS-13 allegedly lured five young men to a wooded area in Central Islip, according to the Eastern District of New York in press release . Once there, the females texted their location to nearby MS-13 members.

Alexis Hernandez, 20, Santos Leonel Ortiz-Flores, 19, Omar Antonio Villalta, 22, and the other MS-13 members approached and surrounded the victims, and attacked and killed Llivicura, Lopez, Tigre and Villalobos using machetes, knives and wooden clubs, the release said. The fifth victim escaped.

The MS-13 members and associates dragged the victims bodies to a more secluded spot and fled the scene, the Eastern District of New York said. The victims bodies were discovered the following evening, on April 12.

William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the FBIs New York field office, said MS-13 is the agencys number one priority on Long Island.

Because much of what they do and how they behave boils down to violence for violence sake, Sweeney said in a press release. The idea that human life means nothing to these gang members should shock the conscience, and we cannot allow this type of thinking to take hold in our youth.

MS-13 gang members have been charged with more than 40 murders in the Eastern District of New York since 2010.

MS-13, a transnational criminal organization, has flourished in places like Suffolk County in the last several years. Although the gang formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s, it has deep ties to El Salvadorand, with an influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America resettling in Suffolk County, its violence has been escalating.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Long Island two weeks after the killings of the four men, specifically to bring federal attention and resources to the efforts on Long Island against MS-13.

I have a message for the gangs that target young people: We are targeting you. We are coming after you, Sessions said in April at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, less than three miles from the park where the four men were found murdered. The MS-13 motto is kill, rape, control. Our motto is going to be justice for victims and consequences for criminals.

We are committed to bringing violent criminals to justice, and this indictment is the next step in our mission of finding, prosecuting, and eradicating the MS-13 threat, Sessions said in a press release on July 19.

Bridget Rohde, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said law enforcement is committed to rid communities, including Central Islip, of MS-13, using every law enforcement resource at our disposal.

The senseless murders charged in this superseding indictment further demonstrate MS-13s compulsion to commit horrific acts of violence in communities in our district, she said in a press release.

The charges also include the Jan. 30 murder of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, a suspected rival gang member of MS-13, and the assault of an innocent bystander at a deli in Central Islip.
Gov. Rick Scott was in Miami Wednesday to promote the state's upcoming three-day back-to-school sales tax holiday (Aug. 4-6 for backpacks and certain other school items that cost $60 or less). A photo released by the governor's office shows Scott surrounded by young children at the Office Depot Foundation, where he said he's working to help every Florida child get "a great education."

At the same time, the Tax Foundation issued a report that calls sales tax holidays "politically expedient but poor tax policy, costing states revenue while providing little benefit."

The report can be found here. The group says Florida is one of 16 states with tax holidays this year, compared to a nationwide high of 19 states in 2010. The report says that pro-holiday politicians "distort consumer decisions" by picking and choosing which consumer items are tax-free, and that sales tax holidays favor big businesses over Mom-and-Pop retailers because the big retail chains use it as a form of free advertising.

Some news outlets have accused the Tax Foundation, founded in 1937, of peddling propaganda and of having a conservative bias, but Governor Scott himself has cited the foundation's statistics when they have portrayed Florida as having a stronger pro-business tax climate than other states.

Here's a link to the Department of Revenue's web page explaining how the back-to-school tax holiday works.
@alextdaugherty

Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a longtime proponent of LGBT rights who has a transgender son, was quick to deride President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military.

"No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from honor + privilege of serving our nation," Ros-Lehtinen tweeted.

Her remarks came less than an hour after Trump announced the decision via Twitter Wednesday morning.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump tweeted. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis, who was conducting a review of transgender military service, was on vacation when Trump made the announcement Wednesday morning.

Ros-Lehtinen and Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo voted against a proposal earlier in July that would have banned U.S. military funding for medical costs associated with transgender individuals like hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgeries. The proposal, sponsored by Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler, failed after 24 moderate Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.
@alextdaugherty

South Florida Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and Ted Deutch, D-Fort Lauderdale, held a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday with Doug Levinson, the son of Coral Springs native Bob Levinson, and other families whose loved ones were detained in Iran.

Levinson is a former FBI agent from Coral Springs who went missing from Kish Island, Iran, while working on an unauthorized mission for the CIA in 2007.

Ros-Lehtinen and Deutch, the chairwoman and ranking member of the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, held the hearing to raise awareness of individuals held as hostages in Iran.

Deutch introduced a resolution calling on Tehran to do more to bring Bob Levinson home safely.

"Iran's outrageous disregard for international law should give every country, every company-especially every American company, pause as to whether this is a country they should welcome back into the community of nations," Deutch said during the hearing.

Earlier in July, Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson sent a letter to the White House urging President Donald Trump to maintain pressure on Iran to see that [Bob] is returned as soon as possible.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Levinson family met with senior State Department officials in Washington, and that many senior U.S. officials believe that Levinson is no longer alive.
@PatriciaMazzei

The Trump administration plans to sanction 13 Venezuelans tied to the government of President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday, four days before the South American nation plans to hold a vote that the U.S. says will turn Maduros rule into a dictatorship.

The U.S. will freeze assets and ban travel visas for the 13 individuals, who are high-ranking current or former leaders of the government, military and state oil producer, in an attempt to continue punishing Maduro loyalists for undemocratic actions. The White House, which has yet to announce the sanctions, is expected to brief key members of Congress about the decision Wednesday.

Eight of the names will coincide with a list of 10 Venezuelans that U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., sent President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggesting possible sanction targets.

The five new names are: Elias Jaua, who served vice president from 2010-12 and as foreign affairs minister from 2013-14; Nestor Reverol, minister for interior relations and justice; Alejandro Fleming, who served as vice-minister for North America and Europe from 2015-16; Sergio Rivero Marcano, commander general of the Bolivarian National Guard; and Franklin Garcia Duque, director of the Bolivarian National Police.

The other eight Venezuelans to be sanctioned are: Tibisay Lucena, president of Venezuelas National Electoral Council; Carlos Erick Malpica Flores, national treasurer; Iris Varela, minister of Venezuelas correctional system; Tarek William Saab, ombudsman; Jesus Suarez Chourio, commander of the Bolivarian Army; Carlos Alfredo Perez Ampueda, director of the Bolivarian National Police; Simon Zerpa, vice president of finance of state oil producer PDVSA; and Rocco Albisini, president of the national center for foreign trade, known as CENCOEX.

More here.

Photo credit: Fernando Llano, Associated Press
@alextdaugherty @amysherman1

When a computer expert who worked for congressional Democrats was accused of stealing computers and data systems in February, members of Congress cut him loose within days, leaving Imran Awan with no supporters five months later.

Except for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The Weston Democrat has not explained why she continued to employ Awan until Tuesday, when she fired him  after he was arrested on bank-fraud charges at Dulles International Airport in Virginia attempting to board a flight to Pakistan.

Nor has she elaborated on what work Awan did for her after he lost access to the House computer network.

She declined to answer questions about Awan in Washington on Wednesday, and her spokesman, David Damron, accompanied her to the House floor, instructing a reporter that Wasserman Schultz would not take questions about her former employee.

Wednesday evening, Wasserman Schultz released a statement:

After details of the investigation were reviewed with us, my office was provided no evidence to indicate that laws had been broken, which over time, raised troubling concerns about due process, fair treatment and potential ethnic and religious profiling, she said. Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated.

Damron told the Miami Herald that Awan was still working for Wasserman Schultz in an advisory role until Monday, and was fired Tuesday. Wasserman Schultz was one of more than two dozen Democrats in Congress who employed Awan, 37, and four other information-technology staffers accused in February of stealing computer systems.

But months after Awan was fired by everyone else, Wasserman Schultz grilled Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa in May over why computer equipment was confiscated from her office as part of the investigation into Awan even though she was not under investigation.

Under my understanding the Capitol police are not able to confiscate members equipment when the member is not under investigation, Wasserman Schultz said. It is their equipment and it is supposed to be returned.

Verderosa told Wasserman Schultz that he couldnt return the equipment without the permission of the investigation.

Until thats accomplished I cant return the equipment, Verderosa said.

Wasserman Schultz was not pleased.

I think you are violating rules when you conduct your business that way and you should expect that there will be consequences, she said.

The Capitol Police declined to comment on the investigation.

Read more here.
The director of elections and voter services appointed by Secretary of State Corey Stapleton earlier this year has left the office.

Derek J. Oestreicher confirmed Wednesday morning he no longer works for the secretary of state.

"All that I will say is that it was an incredible opportunity to work in Corey Stapleton's administration, and it was a privilege and an honor to serve the Secretary of State Office, to serve the people of Montana and to administer the first special election in our state in 48 years. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity."

Stapleton did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

Elections officials around the state had heard of Oestreicher's departure.

Missoula Deputy County Attorney Matt Jennings said Thursday he was surprised by the change. Missoula County and Stapleton have been at odds over the secretary of state's claims of ballot fraud in the county.

"I had talked to Derek a couple of times about some of the comments that his boss had made with Missoula County employees," Jennings said.

An email exchange between Stapleton and Missoula County Elections Administer Rebecca Connors earlier this year showed a rift over what Stapleton called voter fraud but Connors says was a mix-up.

There was a single miscounted ballot in the county during the May special election for Montana's U.S. House seat, and 91 ballots were rejected because of signature issues out of 47,000 cast. Stapleton has singled out the county, though more ballots were rejected in other counties.

"I thought we had an opportunity with Derek to sort of get a little bit more accurate information, tone down some of the rhetoric, make sure we all sort of understood what was actually going on with some of these signature issues," Jennings said.

"I was kind of optimistic with Derek we were going to be able to have some productive conversations and get to the bottom of this," he said. "... What I've heard the last couple days is maybe things aren't as smooth over there in the Secretary of State's Office as we'd hope."

Regina Plettenberg, president of the Montana Association of Clerks and Recorders and Election Administrators, said Wednesday she is sad to see Oestreicher go.

We are very sorry because although Derek was new to elections, he has now been through a federal election and he was really great to work with.

She said that though her members and the Secretary of States Office had gotten off to a rocky start  Stapleton opposed conducting the May special election by mail while all but two of the states county clerks supported it because it would have saved money  she hopes the relationship can improve going forward.

The organization has invited Stapleton to its upcoming convention in the hopes of improving communication.

"We do want to understand the concerns so that we know how to move forward in the future with handling signature verification and rejection of ballots," Plettenberg said.
A car ended up in the Clark Fork River on Wednesday morning after a short police chase.

The driver, Cory Kendall, swam from the south side of the river just downriver from the Russell Street bridge, to the north bank, and was arrested by waiting police officers.

Kendall, 44, had been out of custody for just over a week after he was released awaiting sentencing in a pair of felony criminal cases, where he likely would have received a fully suspended sentence. He was involved in a shooting outside a Missoula apartment complex in April, posted his bail and was arrested again in May after leading officers on a high-speed chase.

Missoula Police Sgt. Travis Welsh said Wednesdays chase began around 10:05 a.m. when a license plate check on a vehicle near the intersection of Mount Avenue and Lawrence Street showed the vehicle was stolen.

The car drove off before the officer could stop it, but other officers patrolling the area saw it shortly afterward near the intersection of Wyoming and Johnson streets.

Kendall led officers on a short chase that went to River Road, where he drove into the river just downstream from the Russell Street bridge, Welsh said. Kendall got out and floated with the car for awhile before swimming across the river. The car floated downstream before getting stuck on the south bank.

Firefighters with the Missoula Fire Department donned drysuits to hook winch lines from a pair of two trucks to the car so they could pull it out of the water and up the bank.

Its unclear what new charges, if any, will be filed as a result of Wednesdays chase.

***

In May, Kendall was arrested after leading officers on a chase that reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour from Bonner to Missoula and onto Interstate 90. Kendall's car forced drivers off the road during the pursuit, and he was only arrested after his car hit spike strips laid out near the Orange Street exit.

That chase occurred when police attempted to apprehend Kendall, who had bonded out of jail in April and submitted a drug test that was positive for methamphetamine use, leading prosecutors to ask for a new arrest warrant.

He'd already been charged in relation to the shooting outside a Missoula apartment building that police believed was drug-related.

Kendall also has a prior conviction for felony drug possession after selling medical marijuana to his 16-year-old girlfriend in 2011. He received a fully deferred sentence in that case.

A week ago, Kendall was released to pretrial supervision pending a Sept. 12 sentencing after he pleaded guilty to charges from the apartment shooting and May car chase. In the apartment shooting, Kendall pleaded guilty for a felony for solicitation of evidence tampering in exchange for a charge of endangering the welfare of a child being dropped.

He also pleaded guilty to felonies for criminal endangerment, escape and drug possession from the May chase (methamphetamine was found in the car.)

The pair of plea agreements in those cases included an overall recommendation of a 10-year, fully suspended sentence to the Department of Corrections. At the end of the July 18 hearing, District Court Judge Robert Dusty Deschamps allowed Kendall to be released on pretrial supervision under strict conditions that included wearing a GPS tracking unit and house arrest, except for driving to his attorneys office, the courthouse or his probation or pretrial supervision offices.

Its unclear what effect the new arrest will have on Kendalls plea agreements.

Hours after his arrest on Wednesday, District Court Judge Leslie Halligan set a new $50,000 bail for Kendall.
Rockets flew into the air and kids climbed over on walls at Kidsfest 2017 on Tuesday in Caras Park.

The festival was organized by the city of Missoulas Parks and Recreation Department as a way to get kids up and moving, and to help people in the community get connected with services for kids.

The event itself, as well as the activities at the more than 40 participating booths, was free, said Gretchen Sutherland, youth programs coordinator with Parks and Recreation.

Thats a hard thing to come by now, Sutherland said.

Booths featured places like the Child and Family Service Network, a division of Western Montana Mental Health Center. The network focuses on providing mental health services to children and adolescents who have serious emotional concerns. The network goes to Kidsfest as part of its outreach effort. At its booth, kids tossed bean bags to get prizes.

Emergency responders also set up at the festival, with Missoula Police Department Lt. Sandy Bjorklund handing out junior police officer badge stickers.

We come out for the kids, Bjorklund said. It is the perfect opportunity for kids to have positive interactions with law enforcement. Its always a lot of fun. There are a lot of shy kids who want to sit in the patrol cars.

Bjorklund said the cops tease the Fire Department over who gets the most kids, with Missoula City Fire senior firefighter Joel Gaertig offering kids a peek into one of the citys fire trucks.

Its fun to see the kids eyes get big, Gaertig said.

The Missoula Food Bank, 1720 Wyoming St., handed out free lunches, and Missoula Fresh Market provided fruit.

The food bank had prepared about 500 to 600 meals for the event, said Aaron Brock, executive director of the food bank.

Its an easy extension of the work were already doing, Brock said.

The food bank also had a booth promoting its EmPower Place, a space within the food bank that brings in science exhibits, role models from the University of Montana and library books, in addition to free snacks and meals from the food bank. The space was created in partnership with the University of Montana spectrUM Discovery Area and the Missoula Public Library.

Students like 10-year-old Brittlynn Callison with the eNDVR Homeschool Learning Space, helped other kids launch rockets at her schools booth. St. Joseph Elementary student Brandon Grutsch, 7, stomped on a Coke bottle and almost fell over watching the rocket soar.

I just came with my mom, Grutsch said. The rockets are awesome.

The activities were the real draw for parents like Kerry Zahn, who brought her two daughters, 5-year-old Salimata Zahn and 3-year-old Minna Zahn. Zahn grew up in Missoula but moved back only two years ago.

It's just something fun to do, Kerry Zahn said. The services are just a side benefit.

The event is growing, Sutherland said. The festival has existed for about 20 years, and this year saw some of the largest participation by organizations in the community, Sutherland said. Sutherland began working on the festival in February and each year, the end of the four-hour event is bittersweet.

Its nice when its over, but you start planning for next year and hearing feedback on what could be changed, she said.

In addition to the organizations who put up booths, Kidsfest is sponsored in part by Republic Services, Missoula Federal Credit Union, Missoula Food Bank, the Missoula Downtown Association, the Montana Club, Community Medical Center and U 104.5FM.
Eleven tenured professors accepted and finalized buyout agreements with the University of Montana this week, after the college first made the offer to 48 faculty members in May.

The university said previously about 14 tenured UM professors over the age of 65 expressed interest in the buyouts, but that was before the agreements were finalized.

The lack of interest in the May buyouts caused UM to make a second round of offers in June to about another 50 professors between the ages of 60 and 64, said Kevin McRae, deputy commissioner for communications for the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education. Last month, only six professors had expressed interest in that offer.

UM made the May and June offers in an attempt to save $4 million in personnel costs.

The state Legislature appropriated $2 million to the Montana University System this year to fund buyout incentive payments for professors across the state, McRae said. The university system will use about $580,000 of that appropriation on the 11 finalized buyouts at the University of Montana.

That shakes out to a one-time payment of about a half a years salary for each of these professors, Paula Short, director of communications at UM, said Wednesday.

In addition, UM will pay the one-time costs of employment termination, which include sick leave payouts and Teacher Retirement System contributions. The cost to the university will be about $889,000. Had these professors decided to retire anyway, those costs would have been paid regardless of the buyouts.

"In a hypothetical world where we were not doing any retirement program payouts and those faculty had said they wanted to retire, UM would have had to pay those costs anyway," McRae said.

In total, the higher education office and UM will spend about $1.5 million on termination costs for the 11 professors and save $2.86 million over the next two years.

Short was not able to provide a list of the professors who have agreed to take a buyout or their departments.

UM will not fill these positions, Short said. Should a department be at risk of losing its accreditation due to the loss of permanent faculty, a full-time position may be moved from one department or another.

The ultimate reduction in faculty positions might not correspond position-to-position in departments, McRae said. "We are still going to make sure educational services in each department will be adequately staffed to meet enrollment and educational needs."

UM gave professors in the June round a modified buyout option because they are under the age of 65. Those professors could opt for insurance premium coverage, with the money to pay for those premiums coming from the 50 percent salary incentive offer.

Acceptances for the buyout offers in the June round still need to be finalized, Short said. That is expected to happen this month, with cost figures available in early August, she said.

Depending on how many professors in the second group opt for the buyouts, the university system may need to make an additional offer to younger tenured professors at the UM or start looking on other campuses in the state for buyout opportunities, McRae said.

If there are not enough volunteers for the early retirement option, the university system may have to consider layoffs, McRae said.
LOLO CREEK  Safe to say that no one event in the history of the Nez Perce people left scars as deep as their running battle with the U.S. Army in 1877.

Horrific and epic as it was, along a trail of nearly 1,200 miles from Idaho to the final surrender at the Bear Paw battlefield near Chinook, the war was laced with minor episodes of intrigue like the Fort Fizzle incident that occurred five miles west of Lolo.

We kept going, and crossed the Lolo Pass into the Bitterroot Valley, Wetatonmi, Chief Ollokots wife (and Chief Josephs sister-in-law) told historian L.V. McWhorter nearly 50 years later. Soldiers tried to stop us in Lolo Pass, but the chiefs paid little attention to them.

Tuesday marked 140 years from the day Capt. Charles Rawn and his men from Fort Missoula set up a barricade in a narrow slice of the creek canyon to block the Indians path from Idaho.

We got up to this point here and Captain thought it was very defensible, Corp. Charles Loynes, also known as John Turner of the First U.S. Volunteer Infantry re-enactment unit told a small knot of people at the U.S. Forest Services Fort Fizzle Historic Site on a steamy Tuesday evening.

So all of the volunteers and us 30 regular guys, we started digging up the entrenchments and felling the trees and putting the head logs down and basically getting ready for the Nez Perce to come at us.

Friday, then, will mark 140 years from the day the Nez Perce didn't attack. Some 750 men, women and children and 2,000 horses left Woodman Gulch, took to the ridges north of the canyon and exited unscathed at Sleeman Gulch.

We were pretty sure at daybreak on the 28th they were going to attack us, and we waited all night, had our rifles ready, Loynes 21st-century re-enactor said.

Dr. Robert Brown, who wrote the book on Rawn and plays the captain at events like this, joined Turner to give his take on the Fort Fizzle affair, despite its ignominious outcome for Rawn and his men.

Brown said Rawns command, vastly outnumbered and outgunned, was under orders not to shoot unless shot upon. He didnt know that Looking Glass, the Nez Perce war leader, had delivered the same message.

A few Indians did fire from above at the small group of soldiers and the volunteers who hadnt already deserted.

We just had these single-shot Springfields, but they had lever-action Winchesters. One of the volunteers, Harlan, said, Hey, were going to be massacred just like Custer, related Turner, as Corp. Loynes.

It turned out the shooters were simply pinning down their confronters while the Indians slipped by.

We sent 14 of our guys under Lt. Coolidge. He led us up on the hill and those Nez Perce shooters, they headed back down, he said. We found out that Chief Joseph and all his people, they went around us. So there we were, in their rear. So that was that.

The Nez Perce turned up the Bitterroot toward more momentous battles, the first being the bloodiest, in the Big Hole Valley.

Tuesdays commemoration was presented by the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History in conjunction with the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, and had a decided military bent to it. The two re-enactors, dressed in period Army uniforms, spoke in the shade at a mock military frontier minicamp at the park alongside U.S. Highway 12.

Tate Jones, director of the Fort Missoula military museum, set up the re-enactors with a description of the summer of 1877 and events leading up to Fort Fizzle.

On Aug. 5, the Nez Perce themselves will camp, dance and remember at the Big Hole Battlefield to commemorate the 140th anniversary of that battle, which actually began on Aug. 9, 1877.

Loynes wasnt one of the better-known figures in the Nez Perce pursuit that summer, but he lived longer than any of the whites who participated in either the Sioux war of 1876 or the Nez Perce War in 1877. Loynes died in Miami in December 1946 at age 94 after writing about his experiences on the western frontier for Winning the West magazine and corroborating late in life with McWhorter for the authors book Hear Me, My Chiefs.

Hes the voice that endures, said Turner, a public affairs officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls.

The last Nez Perce survivor, Josiah Red Wolf, died in 1971 in Lapwai, Idaho. He was 4 years old in 1877 and was likely on horseback with his mother as they slipped above and past Fort Fizzle that July morning. According to his obituary, Red Wolf was also held by his mother when she was shot during the early morning attack in the Big Hole.

Roger Peterson, the Forest Services Missoula-based public affairs specialist for the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail, said a civic group in the early part of the 20th century located the purported site of the Fort Fizzle escarpment and put cement slabs at the site. Peterson and a Forest Service archaeologist were among a small group that located the last remnants of one a few years ago, on the north side of the highway near the base of the mountain.

That site is unmarked, but a reconstructed barricade is part of the historic display, replete with interpretive signs at the Fort Fizzle Historic Site.
A man who authorities believe was involved in the murder of a woman over the weekend in Jefferson City apparently took his own life late Tuesday night during a traffic stop in Missoula.

The Ravalli County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident because the apparent suicide took place during a standoff with Missoula police.

Missoula Police Department spokesman Travis Welsh said officers attempted to make contact with the man in the 3600 block of Rattlesnake Drive at around 11:51 p.m. on Tuesday.

Welsh said that police had information that the man may have had a weapon and were also aware that the man was associated with a homicide investigation in another county. The woman who was found dead on the side of a road on Sunday between Butte and Helena has been identified as 45-year-old Cassandra Dean Morrison. According to public records, Morrison is from Butte.

Welsh said the man shot himself during a traffic stop as officers awaited backup. According to Eric Sell, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Justice, officers were conducting surveillance on the suspect at the request of the Division of Criminal Investigation, and knew the suspect was potentially armed. Two other people were in the car and have been taken into custody.

Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton said he isn't going to release much information on the incident until the investigation is further along.

However, he said the information he has so far is that the suspect also may have been armed and had explosives with him.

On Sunday morning, a woman's body  that of Morrison  was found on the side of the road near Jefferson City in Jefferson County between Butte and Helena.

The state Department of Justice was asked to assist the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in investigating the woman's death after investigators deemed it suspicious. The body of the woman was taken to the state crime lab for an autopsy.
Less than a quarter mile from the edge of the 2,640-acre Arrastra Creek fire, 6 miles northwest of Lincoln, a young team of firefighters worked to clear out dead wood. With their yellow fire-resistant shirts caked in dirt, ash and sweat, they cut down and dragged out dead beetle-infested lodgepole pines along the edge of Beaver Creek Road, creating a fuel-less boundary the fire cant cross.

These firefighters arent just hired hands though. For them, its an afterschool activity.

The 13-member crew came to Lincoln from Job Corps sites in Colorado and South Dakota, learning the art of fire management and gaining valuable work experience. Led by Patrick Owens, assistant fire manager out of the Collbran, Colorado Job Corps site, the so-called Buzzard Creek crew is scheduled to work on the fire for two weeks.

Sarah Loncle, 19, said she joined Job Corps to learn carpentry skills, and happened to fall in love with firefighting.

I wanted to set myself up for a better life, she said. Eventually I want to join the Marines so I can protect my family and people that I love. Plus, its just really badass.

The crew of 18- to 24-year-olds are from across the country, including some from Texas, New Mexico, and even one originally from Thailand. Job Corps offers a chance for young people to gain a high school equivalent diploma in addition to apprenticing in a chosen trade, such as welding, plumbing and culinary arts.

The firefighting training is an extracurricular program taught by people like Kelly Broadbear, 28, who came on to help teach firefighting skills after 7 years with the Forest Service.

Its a district high school like any other, combined with a trade school, all in one. Being a senior firefighter for Job Corps means I get to teach them everything I know and love about fire management and fire behavior.

The Arrastra Creek fire is winding down a bit after exploding from 77 acres to more than 2,000 in one day last week, but crews are still setting up contingency lines to stop the fire from spreading to state and private lands. The fire has mainly spread northeast toward an area burned by the 2015 Sucker Creek fire.

Operations section chief Kevin Smith said the Sucker Creek area was still low on fuel from the 2015 burn, but if the Arrastra Creek fire continues to burn into the next few weeks, the grasses that have filled in the area will dry and could burn.

The Job Corps firefighters go through all the same training as regular Forest Service hires, including the physical fitness test, in which trainees must hike 3 miles with a 45 pound pack in less than 45 minutes. They also learn chainsaw safety and line building techniques.

Jose Rodriguez, 19, of Farmington, New Mexico, said he liked traveling to work on fires and being part of a team.

We basically get to do all the same stuff as other firefighters," he said. "I was kind of messing up in my life and wanted to get my diploma. Now Ive got some experience for my resume and real life skills.
Two defendants were given lengthy federal prison sentences Wednesday in separate, back-to-back horrific crimes of violence against children last year that rattled residents of a Montana American Indian reservation and prompted tribal leaders to blame rampant drug use.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sentenced a woman from the Fort Peck Reservation to 20 years in prison for the murder of a 13-month-old who had been under her care. Less than two hours earlier, Morris handed down a 42-year prison term to a man who kidnapped and raped a 4-year-old girl on the reservation.

Tribal leaders said the crimes, which occurred within weeks of one another, were rooted in the rising scourge of methamphetamine use on the sparsely populated reservation in northeastern Montana near the U.S. border with Canada.

While the sentencings closed out two cases that put a spotlight on the problem, tribal officials have said drug use continues and that they lack the resources to deal with it.

Fort Peck is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and has a population of about 10,000 people.

In the murder case, prosecutors said Janelle Red Dog, 43, abused 13-month-old Kenzley Olson, used methamphetamine while the child was unconscious and when the girl stopped breathing, put her body in a duffel bag and threw it in a trash can.

Red Dog pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder after acknowledging she hit Kenzley twice on April 18, 2016, in an attempt to quiet her.

The child died of multiple blunt force injuries, and an autopsy found she had numerous bruises from head to toe in various stages of healing, suggesting a pattern of continued physical abuse and neglect.

Red Dog had been caring for Kenzley for three to four weeks prior to her death, court records said. Tribal Chairman Floyd Azure has said Kenzley's mother was being held in the tribal jail when the girl died.

Red Dog's mother, Rhea Starr, said her daughter was caring for Kenzley because no one else would.

In the kidnapping case, John William Lieba II was accused of chasing down a 4-year-old girl, brutally raping her and leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup in the middle of winter near the town of Wolf Point.

A jury convicted Lieba of kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and assault resulting in serious injury on a minor. He faced up to life in prison.

He became a suspect almost immediately after the girl's Feb. 26, 2016, disappearance and was arrested a day later.

A friend of the victim testified at his trial that she watched Lieba snatch the 4-year-old girl after they'd been playing in a Wolf Point park. He was recognized by the mother of another girl he chased earlier the same night in the park but who got away, according to court records.

The victim was not found for two days, when a sheriff's deputy noticed her shoeless footprints in a patch of mud behind a fertilizer plant and discovered the girl  alive but traumatized  on a makeshift bed in the cab of an old pickup truck.

Bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck indicated Lieba had tried to strangle the girl, according to law enforcement officers and doctors who examined her.

The defendant's attorneys said Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events.
Fire crews and equipment in Garfield and Petroleum counties, battling what is the largest wildfire in the nation, have exceeded what officials ordered, even before any were mobilized with a state fire emergency declaration.

Gov. Steve Bullock issued the declaration Sunday as the 270,000 acre Lodgepole Complex fires continued to grow, though at a much slower rate.

About 55 small firefighting engines, five larger engines, and about 20 water tenders have arrived from more than 30 states to fight the blaze.

"We've got the field personnel that we need at this point," said Tim Engrav, a spokesman for the fire's incident command team, who also said there had been no conversation with the governor's office about additional resources for the fire.

Bullock spokeswoman Ronja Abel confirmed that no National Guard troops have been mobilized, nor have additional resources been directed at the fire. She noted that the "National Guard stands ready to deploy as circumstances on the ground change" in an email.

Engrav said that good progress has been made on the complex fires on Tuesday as temperatures cooled. Between a historic drought and recent hot temperatures, low humidity and shifting winds, conditions have been ripe for fires to take off.

The complex is made up of three fires, the Barker Fire, the South Breaks Fire, and the Bridge Coulee Fire, which was reported on July 19.

A noon update Thursday from the Bureau of Land Management pegged the Barker Fire at about 2,500 acres, the Bridge Coulee Fire at 800 acres, and the South Breaks Fire at 600 acres.

A 4 p.m. update the same day noted the Barker Fire had grown, and the South Breaks and Bridge Coulee fires were already about 2,500 acres.

Five hours later, the Bridge Coulee fire had blown up to more than 32,000 acres. The Barker Fire was about 10,000 acres and the South Breaks Fire was larger than 5,000 acres.

The blaze continued to grow on Friday. By 8 p.m., evacuation notices were issued for areas north of Highway 200. Acreage estimates updated at 9 a.m. Saturday pegged the fires at 125,000 acres.

The fire sprinted across Highway 200 and jumped fire lines four bulldozers widths thick on Saturday, charring a massive swath of land south of the road. By the end of the day, acreage estimates were up to 200,000 acres and a dozen homes had burned.

The fire has continued to grow, with acreage estimates up to 270,000, but the explosion occurred in the fire's early days. Containment, which has been a challenge for fire officials to measure, is now estimated at 34 percent.

Ranchers have put out desperate pleas for hay to feed cattle whose pasture land was turned into a blackened moonscape. At least some cattle perished.

More than 300 local firefighters and ranchers battled the blaze early on before more help arrived, and several other fires burning across Montana  including a fire just west of the Lodgepole Complex  demanded their own resources.

A command post was established in Sand Springs on Saturday, and firefighters and equipment continued to arrive Sunday and Monday. Officials lifted an evacuation order for a swath of Garfield County on Tuesday afternoon.

Montana's fire season is still young; more than 300,000 acres have already burned in the state this year, far more than last year. But it's dwarfed by the 1.2 million acres that burned in 2012, the year fire officials have cited as the last year with comparable fire conditions in Eastern Montana.

Engrav noted Tuesday afternoon that a new fire was reported in Powder River County. National Guard troops might not show up on fire lines for the Lodgepole Complex, he said. That doesn't mean they won't end up battling other blazes this year.
Well, boys and girls, fire season is upon us once again. Where are the tree-huggers? You know, those people suing the government to stop timber harvesting, shutting down mills, getting timber workers laid off, forced to import foreign timber, etc.? Yes, where are they?

They care so much to save a tree but are really too opinionated with no backbone to actually have a hands-on experience! They are the same people protesting to stop the oil pipeline, only to leave "Mother Earth" weeping and covered with garbage when they leave the area. Perhaps they would want to help save the trees and actually be a productive part of America?

OK, so also ask yourselves how much pollution enters the atmosphere from the fires? Planes to fight fires? Lives lost? Economy damage? Etc.

We are back to "stupid is as stupid does" liberal philosophies. God save us all; at least those who still support Christian religion.

Ron Albrecht,

Kalispell
An investigation into the suspicious death of a female found Sunday near Jefferson City continues, Eric Sell with the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

The identity of the victim, an adult, has not yet been released.

Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich said Tuesday that the victim appeared to be from Butte.

Sell said that an autopsy was performed Monday. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the Division of Criminal Investigation, part of the DOJ, are receiving assistance from the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office, Helena Police Department, Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department and the Montana Highway Patrol, according to a press release sent Monday.

Officials said that there is no immediate threat to the public based on initial findings.
A North Dakota woman accused of starting a fire at a small home in Anaconda remains a person of interest in two other recent fires in that city.

The other fires include a July 14 blaze that destroyed the historic Shields Mansion and a July 17 fire that broke out in the basement of a radio station, Anaconda Police Chief Tim Barkell said Tuesday. Both structures are on Main Street.

Kellie Jeanette Olson, 48, of Fortuna, N.D., was arrested July 16 on a felony arson charge after a neighbor from the 200 block of Front Street told police she allegedly saw Olson lingering near the home there shortly before the small fire broke out. The neighbor said she witnessed Olson return to the home the next day.

Barkell said that, in addition to the mansion fire, Olson is also a person of interest in the KANA radio-station fire despite being arrested the day before the fire was detected.

The chief explained that the KANA fire  which was detected around 5:30 a.m., July 17  could have smoldered before becoming intense enough to become noticeable.

The initial report of the KANA fire came from an Anaconda resident who saw smoke emanating from the building and called 911, Fire Chief RJ Tocher told The Standard on the day of the fire. Tocher also said the radio station was empty at the time of the fire.

Last week Barkell said Olson, who gave North Dakota as her place of residence and was driving a car with North Dakota license plates, may have just been passing through Anaconda. But the chief said Tuesday it now appears that Olson has been in Anaconda since at least January, at which time she made a transaction at a local casino.

Barkell said the investigation into the three fires remains ongoing. Anaconda police are interviewing witnesses, he said, and are reviewing security-camera footage from businesses near the KANA radio station and from Anaconda High School (which is near the Shields Mansion) and photos and videos taken by residents during and after the fires.

Anaconda police have also sent evidence to the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, Barkell said. The evidence includes fingerprints and possible paper ignition source found at the radio station and paper found at the Front Street fire.

Olson remains detained in the Anaconda jail.
TARKIO  The Sunrise fire to the west of here dropped one position, to third, on the national priority list of wildfires Tuesday but that did nothing to quell the urgency.

Infrared mapping showed a gain of 1,000 acres, to 2,350, after a windy Monday on the fire 11 miles south of Superior, to the south of the Clark Fork River and Interstate 90.

No evacuations have been ordered, but the Mineral County Sheriffs Office has put homes on all sides on get-ready status.

Incident commander Shawn Pearson of the Northern Rockies Type II Incident Management Team pulled firefighters off Sunrise Mountain after the horseshoe-shaped fire jumped a fire line on the north side Monday and spotted behind them. All reached safety, including some at a helispot inside the fires perimeter, and a bulldozer left behind emerged undamaged.

No injuries have been reported on the fire and, while some 50 structures are threatened, none has burned.

Winds calmed Tuesday but the humidity was high and temperatures were hotter. The fire is now expected to come down the mountainside into Quartz Creek, where a dozen or so homes have been readied for the assault.

Were running 24-hour shifts, and the plan is to burn out around those structures and turn on sprinklers and have engines down there, said information officer Jill Cobb. Theyve done as much as they can to take a stand when fire comes to that area, so were not going to leave our guys in there.

Lightning lit the fire on July 16 in the Meadow Creek drainage, and it spread kind of like a big amoeba over adjacent ridges, she said.

On the north side of the horseshoe, the fire was within three-quarters of a mile above several homes on Sunrise Creek, where crews buttoned up home protection measures and turned their sights on Quartz Flats to the north. The small community of Rivulet to the east along the river and Verde Creek to the northwest are next in line for sprinklers, hoses and other structure protection.

Cobb said attention has turned from trying to stop the fire on Sunrise Mountain to building a new line of defense one ridge over, between Sunrise and Verde creeks.

A five-piece heavy equipment task force arrived Tuesday to begin working on the new line on the ridge. A relatively new concept in the Northern Rockies region, the task force consists of a feller buncher, a lowboy, a skidge, a Type II dozer and a rubber-tired skidder.

Were making plans and trying our best to control the fire where we can, but right now our options are really limited, Cobb said.

She watched with others after dark Monday from the camp on Tarkio Flats to the east as the fire burned. Its speculated that many more acres would show up as casualties after the next infrared flight, Cobb said.

Access to the fire has been a challenge, as has the heavy fuel of subalpine fir at the top of the mountain. It took 90 minutes to get equipment up to the fire on Sunrise, Pearson said. The drainages in the area are generally box canyons, with only one way in and out.

We didnt have any roads to choose from, Cobb said. Mother Nature gave us this fire in a terrible location. We did everything we could to confine it to one little spot, but it broke out of our fire line. Now that game has changed a bit. Were going to have the fire come to us.

A public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Lozeau Lodge, off Exit 55 on Interstate 90.

Tuesdays incident management situation report from the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise moved the Buffalo fire in southeast Montana up to its second priority, ahead of Sunrise and smaller companion Burdette, burning 11 miles away in the Fish Creek drainage. The Buffalo has burned 2,000 acres after starting on private land in timber, brush and grass, and was exhibiting extreme fire behavior with crowning, running and short-range spotting, the report said. Structures threatened. Road and area closures in effect.

The Burdette fire 13 miles southeast of Tarkio has expanded to 540 acres and has a Type II incident command team assigned as of Tuesday. It has a team of 52 assigned, and mainly burns in an inventoried roadless area.

***

Still at the top of the national priority list is the Lodgepole Complex burning between the Missouri River and Jordan in eastern Montana. It had grown to 250,000 acres by Tuesday, with 26 structures lost and 611 personnel fighting the fire.

A new smoke column that appeared on Missoulas northern horizon Tuesday afternoon marked the expansion of a fire on the Flathead Indian Reservation that had been burning since July 15.

The Liberty fire and the South Fork fire burned together two days ago and together went from 15 acres to 77 acres, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal fire prevention specialist C.T. Camel said Tuesday. The helicopter measured it at 143 acres yesterday. Today theres a column, so its probably over 200 acres now.

The fire is burning in the South Fork Primitive Area north of the Rattlesnake Wilderness near the Jocko Road, but is not threatening the road or other facilities, Camel said. A team of 40 firefighters is on scene, with more personnel headed there on Tuesday.

A public meeting on the Lolo Peak fire 10 miles southwest of Lolo was scheduled for Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. in the Stevensville High School, 300 Park Ave. An aerial firing operation using helicopters to drop plastic balls of napalm on Monday burned out fuels on the southeast corner of the 1,090-acre fire near the Bitterroot Divide.

That helped reduce the fires intensity in a particularly steep terrain. Heavy burning also took place in the Falls Creek area with some spotting across to Lantern Ridge. The 211-person team will build hand line from Mill Creek on Highway 12 toward the Percell Ranch area, while a Hotshot crew will start working along the Mormon Peak Road.

Both the Sunrise and Lolo Peak fires continued to affect air quality in Missoula and Frenchtown. While the air quality remained good to moderate Tuesday, smoke from those fires could settle in the valleys overnight into Wednesday, according to the Missoula City-County Health Department.

Florence, Lolo, Rock Creek, Frenchtown and possibly Missoula may see smoke at unhealthy for sensitive groups or at unhealthy levels, meaning that people with heart or lung disease, smokers, children and the elderly should limit heavy or prolonged exertion and limit time spent outdoors.

The Rice Ridge fire six miles north of Seeley Lake was reported at 20 acres on Tuesday, with a 20-person crew en route to confront it. Helicopters and retardant bombers attempted to slow down the fire growth Tuesday. The nearby Monahan fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex has grown to 584 acres, but is in monitor status with a crew of five lookouts on scene.

The Sapphire Complex now includes the Goat Creek, Sliderock and Little Hogback fires all burning in the Rock Creek area 27 miles east of Missoula. The combined fires have burned about 5,464 acres and have a crew of 287 personnel assigned.

Mandatory evacuations for the Brewster Creek Road residences affected by the Goat Creek fire were lifted Tuesday evening by the Granite County Sheriff's Office. All residences in Brewster Creek and on Rock Creek Road between mile markers 5-13 are now under pre-evacuation warnings (yellow area).

Mandatory evacuations (red area) remain for the cabin sites on Sliderock Mountain.
MONTGOMERY, Ala.  It is said that America's armed forces have been stressed by 16 years of constant warfare, the longest such in the nation's history. For the Air Force, however, the high tempo of combat operations began 26 years ago, with enforcement of the no-fly zone in Iraq after Desert Storm. With an acute pilot shortage, particularly in the fighter pilot community, and with a shortfall approaching 4,000 among maintenance and staffing personnel, the service is, as Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson says, "too small for what the nation expects of it."

At the Air University here at Maxwell Air Force Base, officers are studying what expectations are reasonable. Technological sophistication  America's and that of near-peer adversaries (Russia and China)  is changing capabilities. This, and the political and military primitivism of some adversaries (e.g., the Islamic State), are reshaping the environment in which airpower operates, and the purposes of this power. The traditional U.S. approach to warfare  dominance achieved by mass of force produced by the nation's industrial might  is of limited relevance.

Gen. Steven L. Kwast, president of the Air University, recalls that Gen. George Marshall, who in 1939 became Army chief of staff, asked a two-star general in the horse cavalry how he planned to adapt to the challenges of tanks and planes. The two-star, who replied that the horses should be carried to the front in trailers so they would arrive rested, was retired in 1942.

Kwast notes that in 1940 the Navy was preparing to devote most of its budget to building the sort of battleships that had been "kings of the sea" since President Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet around the world. After Pearl Harbor the Navy turned toward aircraft carriers and away from big battleships. Twenty years earlier, Gen. Billy Mitchell had used an airplane to sink a battleship, but changing the trajectory of military thinking, and hence procurement, often requires changing a service's viscous culture.

Kwast wonders: What are the horses and battleships of our age? Some say: Aircraft carriers, because they are too vulnerable to long-range weapons and too expensive for the budget constraints of America's entitlement state. Also, some say, remotely piloted aircraft, aka drones, flown from, say, Nevada are many times cheaper than most manned aircraft, and are capable of loitering over a contested area to conduct "find, fix, finish" missions for up to 48 hours without refueling.

Now, says Kwast, war is shaped by the digital networked age, where power does not flow in industrial-age channels. U.S. forces can spend millions to kill one high-value target in Syria, where the enemy, for a few hundred dollars, can recruit 10 men who flow up from entry-level positions.

Nuclear weapons are still essentially a 70-year-old technology delivered by a 60-year-old technology, ballistic missiles. Before long there will be space-based sensors and directed energy (DE) weapons  war at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second. It is preferable to shoot down an enemy's cruise missiles, which cost a few hundred thousand dollars, with space-, ground- and sea-based DE weapons rather than with defensive missile interceptors costing up to $20 million apiece.

The Air University's military intellectuals are impressive enough to be forgiven for using "architect" as a verb: Hitler was defeated using great violence, but it would be better to architect responses to threats by projecting power in ways that are less expensive and much more efficient than even today's precision-guided weapons  never mind World War II gravity bombs, 80 percent of which fell at least 1,000 feet from their targets.

Viewed from the not-too-distant future, Kwast says, today's Air Force, although it is a century distant from the Flanders trenches, might seem to have dug into the equivalent of trench warfare by operating below the altitude of 70,000 feet. Such thoughts are considered here at a university where "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" are serious matters.
As Montanans, myself included, we tend to be skeptical where the federal government is concerned, and even more so, with their top down approach to land management. That being said, I support Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes revisiting the national monuments to evaluate whether the monuments are truly meeting the requirements set forth in the Antiquities Act.

I further support Secretary Zinkes recommendation to maintain the monument designation for the Upper Missouri River Breaks, here's why: Substantive changes to any monument designation will likely trigger litigation from the environmental community, which will only add costly delays to otherwise workable solutions, versus solving any real problems.

Instead, our policy-makers should focus on what is realistic. I prefer a local control solution, where local stakeholders, public officials and landowners are given deference in the management plan for national monuments, including the Upper Missouri River Breaks.

Having served with Secretary Zinke, during his time as a State Senator, I assure you that he feels this is the path to the best and most realistic outcome for Montana. We as a state are very fortunate to have Secretary Zinke in his position to help lead this effort.

 State Senator Jeff Welborn, R-Dillon, serves the 36th district
Two core values that Montanans share make our state great: a deep respect for private property rights as well as a dedication to public land. Defending both of these values is essential to our way of life.

Montana is blessed with 28 million acres of public land that supports hunting, hiking, camping, and countless other outdoor pursuits. However, the majority of Montanas land is in private ownership. Unlike some Western states that are a majority public land, and Eastern states that are all private, Montana enjoys a mix. This balance of public and private land is crucial to our outdoor traditions and our farming and ranching heritage. Generations of Montanans have hunted both private and public lands. Our livestock industry, and the communities that depend on it, also rely on public and private land. Montanans deeply respect private property and at the same time are dedicated to protecting public access to public land.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 60 percent of Montanans hunt on private land. It is in everyones interest to provide incentives and financial support for landowners who wish to allow access to their land. This provides opportunity for hunters, and it benefits landowners by controlling the damage that elk, deer and other game cause to crops and fences.

In fact, Montana has a suite of solid programs for private landowners who want to allow public access. The Block Management program provides cash compensation to hundreds of landowners for hunter access. The Unlocking State Lands program gives a tax credit for access across private land to landlocked state parcels. Numerous locally-based collaborative efforts such as the Devils Kitchen Working Group near Cascade bring landowners and hunters together to forge access agreements for private land.

Last legislative session, the Montana Wildlife Federation worked with other sportsmens and agricultural groups to increase compensation to landowners in Block Management and renew the Unlocking State Lands program. MWF and other groups are also working together to forge better relations between landowners and hunters to open up more private lands to hunting.

Even as we work to support private landowners who provide access to their land, we also must maintain a strong defense of public access to public land. This includes protecting legally recognized public roads and trails and defending access to public streams.

Its unfortunate that there are people who want to limit the ability of Montanans to access our public lands, often so they can profit personally from that access. Because private property rights are such an important Montana value, people sometimes claim them as their excuse for blocking access to public land. Its a distraction. Illegally blocking legal access to public property is not the same as deciding what happens on your private property. Its an affront to legitimate property rights, and its unfair to all Montanans to play private property rights against public land access.

Montanans need leaders who will support private property rights and public access rights. This means continuing to provide incentives and support for private landowners to expand access to their land. It also means standing up for public land managers who defend public access, and not just talking the talk about access. The current controversy surrounding public access in the Crazy Mountains illustrates how important it is that we support and defend the professional employees who are working to protect public access and private property.

Working together, and being honest about private property rights and public land access, is the best way to protect our Montana values and outdoor heritage.
NOTICE:

TO BE CLEAR:

WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. OUR DATABASE CANNOT BE USED TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT CONSUMER CREDIT, EMPLOYMENT, INSURANCE, TENANT SCREENING, OR ANY OTHER PURPOSES THAT WOULD REQUIRE FCRA COMPLIANCE. MUGSHOTS.COM PARTICIPATES IN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS WITH VARIOUS COMPANIES. WE MAY EARN A COMMISSION WHEN YOU CLICK ON OR MAKE PURCHASES VIA LINKS. MUGSHOTS.COM IS AN AGGREGATOR OF THE TODAYS CRIME NEWS. IN EACH FRONT-PAGE POST, THE HYPERLINK TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE IS SPECIFIED. ALL TRADEMARKS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS, ALL MATERIALS TO THEIR AUTHORS. IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OF THE CONTENT AND DO NOT WANT US TO PUBLISH YOUR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT US BY EMAIL mugshots.com1@gmail.com. THE CONTENT WILL BE DELETED WITHIN 48 HOURS.

MUGSHOTS.COM IS A NEWS ORGANIZATION. WE POST AND WRITE THOUSANDS OF NEWS STORIES A YEAR, MOST WANTED STORIES, EDITORIALS (UNDER CATEGORIES - BLOG) AND STORIES OF EXONERATIONS. OUR CONTENT REVOLVES AROUND CRIME, ARRESTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT. WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE...
Two apparently abandoned county properties are causing disposal or ownership headaches for the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, which discussed both during its regular meeting Tuesday.

For the past few months, the board has been periodically meeting with Carl and Denise Stogdill and their neighbor Tim Dunbar over splitting up an abandoned alley in the unincorporated community of Wyman, about 17 miles west of Wapello.

Following a public hearing and a meeting last week, the supervisors thought they had been able to settle the split between the neighbors. Although no final decision was made, it appeared both sides had agreed to a split what would essentially provide the north half of the abandoned alley to Dunbar and the south half to the Stogdills.

However, Carl Stogdill, who had not been able to attend last weeks meeting, returned this week with new questions and ideas. He said officials with New Alliance FS, Inc. had contacted him concerning a portion in the south half of the alley that actually abutted the companys property and not Stogdills land.

He said the company was now interested in acquiring that piece and he was willing to relocate the proposed dividing line with Dunbar farther to the south to meet the companys wish.

He said the new proposal would actually increase the amount of property Dunbar would receive, eliminate some angled property lines created by the original proposal and allow New Alliance to acquire the alley abutting its property.

County officials were leery of altering the earlier proposal, pointing out New Alliance FS had been contacted earlier about the public hearing and had not attended that meeting or notified the county of any interest.

I think we have to sell it, supervisor Brad Quigley said, suggesting an auction now seemed the best alternative.

Auditor Sandi Elliott cautioned the board about diverging from its earlier informal decision to equally split the property between the Stogdills and Dunbar.

I dont want to get in trouble, she said, reminding the board it had already directed Louisa County Attorney Adam Parsons to draw up quit claim deeds for the alley based on the earlier discussion.

The supervisors finally agreed to consult with Parsons before making any new decision.

Meanwhile, Louisa County Engineer Larry Roehl attended Tuesdays meeting with two representatives of Kinder-Morgan, an energy infrastructure company that operates an underground natural gas storage facility in the county.

According to operations manager Mike Bohannan and operations supervisor Chris Finnell, residents Dave Kerr and Jerry Ball recently installed gates on a section of Q Avenue between County Road G62 and 90th Street, which was preventing the company from accessing some of its facilities.

Roehl acknowledged the road was not included on his list of county roads, but he could not find any record the roadway had been officially vacated. He said the county had been rocking the road until recently when a new district supervisor discovered the roadway was not included on the engineers list of county roads.

After learning that, neighbors had installed the gates.

There is a difference between abandoned and vacated, supervisor Randy Griffin said.

Roehl said he would talk with the residents and report back to the board.

In other action, the supervisors held a department head meeting with several county office administrators.
MUSCATINE  During a special election Aug. 1, Fruitland residents will decide whether to allocate tax dollars to pay for an ongoing major road project or continue funding a potential city-wide sewer system.

City officials are trying to find funding for the Fruitland Road paving project, which began last month. The city council is hoping to use an existing 1 percent local option sales tax to pay for the project.

Fruitland residents have been paying the 1 percent tax for the past decade, according to City Clerk Kim Thompson, and the revenue goes into a sewer and water fund. The Iowa Department of Resources required communities to create the sewer fund, to set aside money for a potential city-wide sewer system.

The fund balance, Thompson said, is more than $700,000, which could pay for a portion of the $1.4 million paving project, if voters approve. Muscatine County will pay for the rest of the cost for the project, at about $1.1 million, according to the countys contract.

City council member Tom Haynes said $700,000 would hardly make a dent in the cost to install and operate a city-wide sewer system. Currently, residents purchase and maintain individual septic systems.

Haynes does not expect Fruitland will plan to build a sewer system in the next few decades.

[The fund] was set up a long time ago, looking at what if we ever have to (install a sewer system), but theres no indication of a short-term or near-future need for this, Haynes said.

For a city of about 1,000 residents, Haynes said it would be difficult to maintain and operate a sewer system. He said another option ultimately would be connecting Fruitland residents into the city of Muscatines sewer system, which could cost residents about $5,000 each.

What I anticipate is if we ever did that, residents would hook into that system, and a resident would have a one-time fee of a certain amount, and then be on billing system, he said.

In the past few decades, the Iowa DNR has pushed for unsewered communities to develop city-wide sewer systems, to help stop water pollution. Haynes said some communities that have installed sewer systems in the past decade have run into problems because regulations change.

Haynes said it is possible the DNR will require Fruitland to construct a sewer system in the future, or the city could determine installation is necessary. If that happens and the current sewer fund is not available, the project would be more expensive and taxes would likely be increased.

There are pros and cons to each option, Haynes said, but he feels Fruitland residents would benefit from tax dollars being used to fund the ongoing road paving. Thompson said transferring the tax revenue to the general fund, to pay for Fruitland Road paving, would keep residents tax rates the same.

"It would be good for taxpayers because it allows citizens of Fruitland to be able to use money today and money everyone has put in, in the course of their lifetime," he said.

Haynes said if the existing tax revenue is not used to fund the road paving project, taxes would likely be increased in the future to pay for the work.

Paving on Fruitland Road is starting this week, according to Muscatine County Engineer Keith White.

The new pavement, Haynes said, should reduce the need to put down tar and gravel each year to maintain roads.

"It's going to beautify the community and reduce the amount of tar that's going up on vehicles every year from road projects we do  because concrete is a better solution," he said.

Thompson said holding the special election should cost around $1,000, which was not accounted for in the budget.

Residents can vote on the proposed change to the 1 percent local option tax at a special election Aug. 1 at Fruitland City Hall. Polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m.
MUSCATINE  With how commonplace it has become for voters to take a selfie with their I Voted sticker in the hopes of encouraging others to 
 

 :      

  ,         ,       .
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 []
A new law paves the way for Napa Valley College and other California schools of higher learning not only to teach brewing, but to sell the resulting beer to support their programs.

Gov. Jerry Browns signing on Monday of Senate Bill 228 removes the ban on beer sales for instructional brewing programs on California campuses, effective Jan. 1. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Bill Dodd, gives brewing educators the same privileges as winemaking instructors who already can sell the products of their programs, as NVCs wine program does.

California is an internationally recognized leader in the production of wine and beer, Dodd, a former Napa County supervisor, said in a statement Wednesday. Many of these products are made by students who learned their trade in our public colleges. We need to ensure that we are able to meet the future workforce demands of the California and teach students practical skills.

NVC officials had awaited the passage of the beer-sales bill as they pondered debuting a brewing science course at the main campus in response to rising interest in craft beers. The program could start as early as 2018.

Although the program likely would begin as a fee-based, non-credit class, leaders at the two-year school supported the Senate bill as a way to let students absorb the complete beer-making trade  sales and marketing as well as fermentation.

We figure a lot of our students are going to work for Downtown Joes or other individual brewers, and if they have some knowledge of branding and sales, they would become better employees, NVC president Ron Kraft said in April.
The murals that have wrapped the sides of two Napa Valley Expo buildings may be on their way out  but not for a few more months.

Despite earlier plans to remove the boldly geometric full-width paintings ahead of next months Town & Country Fair, the artworks  originally created to liven up the downtown Napa fairground before the 2015 BottleRock music festival  will stay in place through the fair Aug. 9-13.

Instead, the Expo will take up plans for replacing the murals in September, board vice president Jeri Gill said at the boards meeting Tuesday.

Covering over the BottleRock-inspired graphics will form only one part of a comprehensive repainting of Expo buildings, Gill said. The announcement follows suggestions the board made in April to consider working with the community to create artworks to replace one or all of the murals, which decorate Chardonnay and Riesling halls.

Since 2015, Riesling Hall has sported black-and-white patterns created by the artist Ian Ross, while Chardonnay Hall has been draped, in part, with a Zio Ziegler-painted tapestry of colors topped by human figures in a Mesoamerican style.

Latitude 38, the company that produces BottleRock, paid to create the murals ahead of the third annual festival two years ago. An agreement with the Expo gave the fairs directors the right to take down the artwork at any time at Latitude 38s expense.

That time came this spring, when Expo board members declared they would seek out building graphics appropriate to the site for those times when festivals are not taking over the fairground on Third Street. Were somewhat of an institution here; we should present ourselves as such, board member Tom Trzesniewski said at the time.

While Gill had earlier suggested repainting the two exhibition halls in neutral colors after BottleRock, the murals will instead get one final mass viewing during the Town & Country Fair, which attracted an estimated 36,000 spectators in 2016.

Permanent artistic treatments for the two exhibition halls would continue a trend of large-scale public paintings that has taken root across Napa during the past year.

Near the Napa Valley Vine Trail, two Polish artists have created the nighttime tableau Knocking on Heavens Door behind the Napa Valley Register newsroom, and the Matthews Mattress building just south has become a backdrop for Felipe Pantones abstract Chromodynamica.

Also, a mural featuring floating houses by artist Cinta Vidal, from Barcelona, Spain, was painted on the back of a building at NAPA Auto Parts.

In addition, the Napa Latino Heritage Mural was returned to its display on the Carithers Building on downtown First Street last September after a restoration by Jose Charles, one of the paintings three original creators in 2002.
As part of the Napa Valley PopUp Pianos project, five Napa Valley artists have transformed five pianos into works of art for all to enjoy at the CIA at Copia through Aug. 4.

Cindy Skinner, founder of the PopUp Pianos project, said the partnership with CIA at Copia is mutually beneficial: We hope to heighten awareness of PopUp Pianos, and they hope to heighten awareness of their new format and offerings, including wine tasting, The Restaurant at CIA Copia and culinary gift shop.

Piano teachers, students, and anyone who ever learned how to play Chopsticks is encouraged to visit, play, listen, have a glass of wine and enjoy this unique experience, Skinner said.

There is a silent auction underway to sell off the pianos. On Friday, Aug. 4, there will be a musical evening celebrating PopUp Pianos in Napa Valley. Tickets are available at http://bit.ly/2tposOU

While pianos in public spaces (aka street pianos) are all the rage throughout Europe, the East Coast and San Francisco, Skinner said her project was just now bringing this unique experience to the Napa Valley.

Locally, Skinner debuted PopUp Pianos in May at Yountvilles Out Loud festival. Yountville purchased the projects first PopUp Piano, Notes of Sauvignon Blanc, painted by Penelope Moore, and installed it near the Community Center.

The goal was to bring life to an otherwise dull location in front of the Community Center and its working, Skinner said. Town officials report than no less than 30 people stop and play per day, she said.

In Napa, the first PopUp Piano made its debut April 30 at Festival Napa Valleys free concert at Oxbow Commons.

The goal is to sell all five pianos at the CIA at Copia to hotels, wineries and shopping centers where the pianos can continue to be used by the public, then invest the proceeds in creating more PopUps, she said.
Most Americans say theyre interested in scientific discoveries, but they may be thinking of the kinds of findings that lead to new gadgets and wonder drugs. When it comes to discoveries about hazards and risks  especially the risks of those wonder drugs  Americans seem more likely to tune out.

Such ambivalence might help explain how opioid misuse became such a problem in America. Despite 20 years of warnings from scientists about the dangers of addiction, the rate of prescriptions has tripled between 1999 and today. It hit a peak around 2012 and has started to decline slightly, going from 81.2 per 100 people to a still-enormous 70.6 per 100, new data show. Indeed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. doctors wrote 259 million prescriptions for potentially addictive painkillers in 2014  enough for every adult in the country to have a bottle.

All the while, neuroscientists have found that opioids can cause long-term changes in the brain even after an addicted person experiences the severe nausea and other withdrawal symptoms typically associated with quitting. That lingering hazard might have given patients and prescribing physicians pause.

But its not too late to start listening to scientists. Brain research can help inform policy on how to help the 2 million Americans who are currently addicted to prescription opioids, as well as the 1 million addicted to heroin. Neuroscience definitely has things to offer helping us understand the reality of the addicted brain, said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Stanford University. He and several colleagues urged a greater role for neuroscience in shaping policy in a commentary last month in the journal Science.

Neuroscience research has shown, for example, that addictive drugs can alter the brain circuitry that controls motivation and reward, and they can wreak havoc on the brains decision-making center, the prefrontal cortex. And yet, he said, insurance providers tend to stop coverage after an addict goes through detoxification and withdrawal, based on the old idea that the disease is over at that point.

Other treatment programs require people to prove theyre motivated by abstaining for some period of weeks, he said, but its the motivational circuitry thats damaged in the brains of addicts. Its not that its hopeless, he said, but treatment might save more lives if designed for dealing with addiction as a long-term brain disease.

Newer research also shows how environmental cues can trigger cravings in people who have been addicted. Other studies provide insight into why some people are vulnerable to addiction and others face no temptation. Humphreys said that people dont necessarily have to use these drugs recreationally in order to become addicted  it can happen while patients are following doctors orders. All this points to a policy that protects vulnerable people by requiring doctors to exercise more care and restraint in prescribing.

Age and environment also matter. Theres evidence from neuroscience that people in their teens and early 20s are more likely to become addicted because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, suggesting that stronger measures need to be taken to protect teens. A recent New York Times column by psychiatrist Richard Friedman brought up studies that suggest low social status also increases peoples risks of becoming addicted, not just to opioids, but also to other substances and to overeating. Friedman implies that the solution is in creating a just society  a lofty goal, even if, in the shorter term, careful prescribing is more practical.

What is clear is that current drug policies in the U.S. arent working to stem the tide of opioid addiction. While rates of prescription have tapered off a bit, rates of addiction increased almost 500 percent from 2010 to 2016. Opioid addiction is now the leading cause of death in people younger than 50.

Scientific discoveries do sometimes reveal the hazards behind what people thought were life-enhancing or lifesaving drugs. People dont have to use opioids recreationally to develop deadly addictions. This may not be what people want to hear, but with 91 Americans dying every day from opioid overdose, we have an obligation to start listening.
July 2017 Auction Ends Thursday, July 27th, 5pm Pacific

Category Search By: Title & Description Lot Number Title Description

Lot #117: Donald Trump Signed Drawing of the New York City Skyline -- Rare Original Artwork by the President

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/27/2017

Donald Trump hand-drawn and signed sketch of the New York City skyline, with Trump Tower at its center. Composed and signed ''Donald J Trump'' in gold marker, artwork measures 11.5'' x 9'', nicely matted against gold and framed to 18.5'' x 16''. Light smudge and abrasion to right side, otherwise near fine condition. Originally drawn by Trump for a charity event, and very rare, with only a handful of such drawings known.

Donald Trump Signed Drawing of the New York City Skyline -- Rare Original Artwork by the President Click above for larger image.




It also does not reflect the views of the Firm of which the Author is working for.





Since the inception of this blog, the Author has avoided writing views and opinions of his clients or views and opinions which third parties has paid him to write.





The Author has maintained editorial independence since Day One.





Any individual or group affected by the opinions and views of the Author can write the author thru mangubat.patricio@gmail.com.

Opinions and views expressed in this blog are personal views of the Author and does not involve organisations and companies being serviced by the Author as part of his profession as a Strategic Communications professional.
In the battle against cancer, new drugs and therapies make the news. Behind the scenes, pediatric nursing researcher Janice Withycombe PhD MN RN CCRP knows that better care leads to better outcomes for young cancer patients, their families, and clinicians.



"Children with cancer will teach you how to live," says Withycombe, assistant professor in the School of Nursing. "Children are incredibly resilient. One way that we can help them through treatment is to recognize and treat symptoms that can impact their quality of life."



Upon joining Emory in 2015, Withycombe found a strong mentor in oncology nursing researcher Deborah Bruner PhD RN FAAN and a strong connection with the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Aflac Cancer Center, one of the largest and best in the country.



"Childhood cancer is rarer than adult cancer. In order to do our best work, pediatric oncology researchers have to band together," Withycombe says.



Accurate and effective communication is at the heart of her research, which focuses on symptom identification and management in children undergoing cancer treatment and patient/family education for children newly diagnosed with cancer.

Giving children a voice



In the United States, about 15,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year. While most adult cancer patients don't participate in a clinical trial, the majority of children are enrolled because that has become the standard of care.



The federal government mandates that adverse events (AE) during any cancer trial be collected and recorded. There are 790 AE terms according to the National Cancer Institute's Common Terminology Criteria. Almost a third of the AE terms have some subjective component, such as pain, fatigue, or depression.



Research shows that parents or clinicians most often report a child's symptoms, but their rating doesn't always reflect the child's experience. And they often under-report the burden of cancer and treatment on the patient.



"We were missing the child's voice, so our team designed a survey for the iPad that children can use so they can tell us how they're doing," Withycombe says.



The Pediatric Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) includes 130 questions that assess 62 symptoms. Its language is kid-friendly, based on what researchers discerned from talking with 117 children with cancer, from ages 7 to 15, at seven hospitals in the United States and Canada. All of the hospitals are now testing the survey.



"When I asked a young patient what she thought of the survey, she said, 'It was easy, because it was all about me.' That's exactly what we were trying to domake it easy for children to tell us how they are feeling and functioning during therapy," says Withycombe. When adopted by more institutions, the pediatric PRO-CTCAE has the potential to increase the accuracy of symptom reporting in clinical trials and improve the care given to young cancer patients.
Before entering medical school, Anne Marie Kerchberger worked for an ophthalmologist who saw up to 80 patients a day.

Kerchberger wanted the chance to develop strong relationships with her patients and to spend as much time as she could with each one.

But she was beginning to think this kind of doctoror level of caredidn't exist anymore.

Kerchberger's recent training at Emory's Paul W. Seavey Comprehensive Internal Medicine Clinic opened her eyes to doctors who fulfill a modern version of the iconic family physicianthe trusted expert who spends time listening to their patients' concerns.

Located in Emory Clinic A, the internal medicine clinic reflects the charismatic style of the late Paul Seavey, a long-time Emory internist and professor of medicine who treated three Emory presidents as well as other prominent community members. His friendships with these Atlanta leaders led to a continued philanthropy that helps fund the clinic's eight physicians. "Dr. Seavey epitomized the essence of the Emory physician," said Amy Rollins Kreisler, whose grandfather O. Wayne Rollins was a Seavey patient and whose family foundation recently made a second $5 million gift to the clinic. "That is what we hope will be instilled in the doctors who are training here."

Other VIPs treated at the Seavey Clinic express gratitude for their care by paying it forward: More than $35 million in donations have come from grateful patients in the past 28 years. That philanthropy helps recruit great medical students regardless of their financial need, recruit and retain faculty physicians, and support research.

Personal care

"This is going to feel a little bit uncomfortable," Kerchberger, 25, says to Frank Erbrick, 77, a retired UPS information technology executive, as she palpates his abdomen. "Take a deep breath in . . . and all the way out."

She is in her third semester of medical school, and David Roberts, who trained under Seavey and now runs the clinic, has told her to find Erbrick's liver. The conversation and atmosphere between the three is casual and relaxed, covering Erbrick's dog walking, smoking, and family members with cancer. Roberts and Erbrick have been doctor-patient since the early 1990s, when Roberts flat out told Erbrick he had to sober up or find another physician. Erbrick did more than that. When the Seavey Clinic needed technology upgrades, Erbrick helped get them installed; other patients donated funds. "He's the best thing that ever happened," Erbrick says of Roberts. "My family could never pay for the care he has given us. He is the consummate ideal of what a doctor should be."

No one rushes much at the Seavey Clinic; it has more of a business feel than medical. Ricky Aaron, the Emory Healthcare director of infrastructure virtualization, has the next appointment. At 59 and Roberts' patient for more than 20 years, Aaron mentions that he is building a barn, and that a sleep study has helped with his apnea.

He has a wart on his left elbow that Roberts freezes with liquid nitrogen. "You have to kill the base of the wart," Roberts tells Kerchberger. "That's where the virus and rapidly growing cells are. They're like coral, but the living part is on the bottom, not the top."

Seavey's legacy

Roberts learned his approach to care at the side of Seavey, especially the soft skillsmaking a patient feel that nothing matters more than their health.

After serving in World War II, Seavey attended Emory College then the medical school on the GI Bill. During his residency, he lived in a closet-like room at Emory Hospital and later married an Emory nurse. He was known for his starched white coat, white hair, and confident manner. He strove to be accessible to his patients all the time, responding quickly to their concerns.

This brand of medicine was exactly what Roberts desired, and, as his own medical school years wound down, he refused to be pressured into specializing. Close, personal relationships with patients are not a bygone, romantic ideal to him; they offer an antidote to physician burnout. "The only other physicians in my family were a great-uncle and his father who made house calls in Missouri in a horse and buggy and got paid in chickens and apples," Roberts says. "The image of being one-on-one with a patient over time is what I wanted, and you can't do that in other fields of medicine."

Perhaps the best measure of Seavey came from the many doctors who sought him for their own treatment. Seavey believed that no one could care for the whole person better than the general internist, who by definition is in charge of every aspect of a patient's health. Because these types of doctors generally have fewer research and scholarship opportunities and their productivity is usually measured by the number of patients they treat, Seavey advocated for more academic resources and promotions for them.

With patients ranging from former President Jimmy Carterwho threw a surprise birthday party for himto Emory trustees and everyday Atlantans, Seavey was driven by intense curiosity. "He was a listener who loved stories," says his daughter Cheryl Seavey Murphy, who like her sister Susan trained as an Emory nurse; sister Carol is an Emory College grad. "From Georgia farmers to international executives, he loved their stories. People opened up to him, and his bottom line was that the rest of their health may be related to their stories. That's why he would take one and a half hours for an initial workup. His overarching theme was 'what matters in life is people.' "

John Rollins, the brother of O. Wayne, became such good friends with Seavey that they and their wives vacationed together abroad, traveling in the Rollins jet. Seavey cared for four generations of Rollinses. "They both loved rags-to-riches stories, that if you had intuition and grit and hard work, you could achieve your dream, and Emory offered that possibility," Murphy says. "Whether you succeed or fail, you just keep going."

Seavey's first major gift came in 1988 with a $1 million donation from Jack Lupton, a Coke bottler whose philanthropy transformed downtown Chattanooga. The Seavey Endowment encouraged Emory's top primary care doctors through special awards, research funds, opportunities for lifelong learning, and generous distinguished clinician awards.

Off the treadmill

"Dr. Seavey wanted to make sure physicians weren't on a treadmill of 25 to 30 patients a day, to protect the time to get down to what's going on," said Ronnie Jowers, recently retired vice president and CFO of Woodruff Health Sciences Center. "For Emory physicians, the endowment money is the carrot of opportunity to practice differently."

Seavey established Emory's executive health program, which along with Special Diagnostics Services is headquartered at the clinic. "An executive physical is part of the benefits package that recruiters use, like stock options," says Seavey Clinic nurse manager Trish Archer, who partnered with Seavey for almost 20 years. "He knew that to get quality residents in primary care, you had to give them a great experience." The O. Wayne Rollins Fund for Clinical Excellence supports the Seavey Clinic's faculty physicians, known as Rollins Distinguished Clinicians, and the Executive Health Discovery Database, which identifies and measures markers of health and disease.

The most recent $5 million Rollins donation allows the Seavey model to move forward with sustainability.

Patricia Keegan, an advanced nurse practitioner in cardiology at Emory, says training at the Seavey Clinic "reaffirmed my faith that it's OK as a provider to look at each person as a whole, that understanding their social interactions, and financial and medical concerns are part of developing goals of care and meeting them." This, she says, is especially important with tough conversations, such as how an elderly patient plans to maintain independence. "I hope to be able to teach others by example," Keegan says.

Just as Seavey would have wanted.
The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-24 23:06:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Maurice Obstfeld (C), chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) addresses to the media in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 24, 2017. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday revised up China's growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 to 6.7 percent and 6.4 percent respectively. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Xinhua) -- China's growth will continue to be a key driver for a firming recovery of the world economy, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Monday.

Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF's economic counsellor and director of research, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua as the IMF revised up China's growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 to 6.7 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.

The updated World Economic Outlook report published here Monday, which came days after China posted a stronger-than-expected second quarterly performance, was a reflection of a solid first quarter underpinned by previous policy easing and supply-side reforms, including efforts to reduce excess capacity in the industrial sector, according to the IMF.

"We have seen very strong growth and especially beyond our update, second quarter number of 6.9 percent is also above expectation. So clearly growth is proceeding at pace," Obstfeld said.

"Strong Chinese growth drives growth particularly in Asian region but also throughout the world," Obstfeld added, noting that China is a big contributor to the overall growth and has a very large spillover effect to the world economy.

As China is transforming its economy from traditional manufacturing sector to service and consumption oriented sector, its structural transformation and the rebalancing of its economy should lower the growth rate and put growth on a firmer basis over time, the chief economist said.

"It's very important for the world economy not just that China grows at a strong rate, but that it grows in a stable fashion, dependable fashion without big fluctuation," he said.

The prestigious economist expressed the IMF's concerns on China's credit driven growth and some vulnerabilities in its financial systems that could derail growth, but he also pointed out that the Chinese government is clearly recognizing these issues and has taken actions.

The recent strengthened coordination between the People's Bank of China and the State Council on financial oversight "is a big step forward" that will lead to more effective oversight of the financial markets, he said.

China announced that it will set up a committee under the State Council to oversee financial stability and development during the recent National Financial Work Conference.

Obstfeld said China has entered the debate of globalization in a positive way, which will be helpful not only to major economies but also for other countries.

He said China could take concrete actions to promote the global system, and that the Belt and Road Initiative is "very important" in the context.

Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

It promises not only a lot of useful infrastructure investment but to lower trade cost between very important parts of the world, which promotes international trade and prosperity across the wide stretch of Eurasia, Obstfeld said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-25 02:33:50|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ADDIS ABABA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has a target to generate 30 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange earnings from the textile and garment sector by 2030, according to Bogale Feleke, Ethiopian Deputy Minister of Industry.

The deputy minister made the remarks while addressing a workshop organized to promote Ethiopia's textile industry sector held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on Monday.

"We intend to increase our area of cotton production. At present, only 20 percent of the three million hectares are used for cotton production while we aim to increase to around 80 percent," local media FBC quoted Feleke as saying.

Noting his country's commitment in developing 13 industrial parks in the near future, majority of them in the textile and apparel sector, Feleke revealed that Ethiopia intends to have close to 150 textile and garment companies by the year 2020.

The east African country is on the constant effort to increase its cotton production, Feleke told workshop participants gathered from the Ethiopian Investment Promotion and International Trade Centre.

Ethiopia has nearly 175 textile units and it is increasing the investment scope with the provision of energy supply, trained work-force and other necessities at an affordable price, according to Feleke.

According to the World Investment Report's 2016 edition, the east African country is the second largest in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the textile industry sector, next to Vietnam.

With a workforce of more than 47 million and a burgeoning younger generation, Africa's second most populous country is striving hard to generate employment opportunities, in which the textile and garment industry sector is said to be at the forefront. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 00:14:11|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with his Philippine counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano during their bilateral meeting in Manila, thePhilippines, July 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative will play a key role in the cooperation between China and the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

Wang said the Philippines is an important part of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, as the Southeast Asian country was the first stop of the Chinese commercial ships from Fujian province.

Like in history, the Philippines will once again be a vital part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, he said.

Wang said under the framework of Belt and Road, China will help the Philippines strengthen its infrastructure like bridges and roads that can facilitate connectivity in the region.

Wang made the remarks at a joint press conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano in Manila.

Wang noted that the relations between China and the Philippines have improved after President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to China in October last year.

At the press conference, Cayetano expressed support to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Cayetano said the Philippines, chair of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) this year, will include the initiative in the ASEAN development plan to further enhance ASEAN-China relations.

In their talks on Tuesday, the two foreign ministers discussed a slew of topics, including anti-terrorism, anti-illegal drugs, infrastructure, economy and trade, people's wellbeing, defense, arts and culture.

Cayetano said the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have now entered a "golden age," adding that the ties have grown deeper.

The two ministers also discussed the South China Sea, both agreeing that the situation in that region has stabilized.

They recognized the support of ASEAN member countries, noted the progress made by China and ASEAN in crafting the framework of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

The two sides also vowed to further strengthen coordination and communication, so as to further strengthen relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 00:24:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

MANILA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Philippine counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano held discussion on joint exploration in South China Sea at a press conference here Tuesday.

Cayetano said the two countries must work together to safeguard peace and ensure stability in the South China Sea. He also stressed the need to cultivate a peaceful environment in the South China Sea.

Cayetano noted that under the leadership of current Philippine and Chinese leaders, the two countries could have the wisdom to find proper ways on joint exploration in the South China Sea, with the aim of benefiting peoples of the two sides.

For his part, the visiting Chinese foreign minister said in waters where there is overlapping of maritime rights and interests, if one party goes for unilateral development, the other party will take the same actions, and that might complicate the situation.

That might lead to tensions, and as the result, nobody might be able to develop the resources, Wang said.

He noted that joint exploration doesn't affect and involve the respective legal systems of both countries. It is about agreeing on common rules and arrangements acceptable to both sides, Wang added.

He said ties between China and the Philippines have significantly developed and it is necessary that the two countries make decisions that could benefit the peoples of both countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 03:51:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ST. PETERSBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia's participation in Middle Eastern issues has prevented the region from falling apart, specifically in Syria and Iraq, said visiting Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki here on Tuesday.

Maliki made the remarks ahead of an official meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Kremlin transcript.

"If it were not for Russia's contribution, the map of the region would have changed for the worse for us," Maliki told Putin.

Despite all the progress in the joint fight against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, Moscow and Bagdad need to make more efforts to cooperate in this area, said the Iraqi official.

"The spectre of a resurgent terrorist threat will always be there, as long as Iraqis remain divided by religious quarrels," Maliki said.

The situation in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole remains "challenging," said Putin.

Stressing importance of military technical cooperation between the two countries, Putin said Russia is proactive in this area and Iraq benefits from its assistance.

Putin said that a lot has yet to be done in terms of bilateral economic cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 05:42:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

CHICAGO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- General Motors (GM) on Tuesday reported 2.4 billion U.S. dollars income in the second quarter from continuing operations, down 11.3 percent from a year ago.

GM delivered 725,000 total vehicles in the United States, driven by a 24-percent increase in retail crossover sales during the period. GM added that the Q2 crossover results were the best in his history.

However, GM's U.S. daily rental sales were down about 25,000 vehicles or 35 percent compared to Q2 2016. The daily rental sales were 6 percent of total vehicle sales in Q2, the lowest of any full-line automaker.

In China, GM's biggest market, its deliveries of 852,000 vehicles set a second-quarter record, up 1.6 percent compared to Q2 2016. Strong sales of Cadillac and Baojun vehicles led the way, up 62 percent and 66 percent respectively.

For the first half of 2017, GM sold a total of 2,342,675 vehicles globally. Its sales saw increases in South America and China, while recording declines in Europe, North America and other markets.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 06:28:03|Editor: Yang Yi

Chinese Tibetan delegation meet with officials of Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin, Ireland, July 25, 2017. A Chinese Tibetan delegation on Tuesday wrapped up its two-day trip to Ireland. They visited the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, UCD Confucious Institute, and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), where they talked with government officials, teachers and researchers on issues ranging from the Belt and Road Initiative to Tibetan economic development and its environmental protection. (Xinhua/Xiong Sihao)

DUBLIN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Tibetan delegation on Tuesday wrapped up its two-day trip to Ireland, where they visited a government department, a university and a think tank.

The delegation visited the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, UCD Confucious Institute, and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), where they talked with government officials, teachers and researchers on issues ranging from the Belt and Road Initiative to Tibetan economic development and its environmental protection.

Wang Chunhuan, vice dean of the Tibetan Academy of Social Science, said the Belt and Road Initiative, put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping, will bring development opportunities to China's Tibetan area, adding that Tibet will adapt itself to the initiative, build a gateway to South Asia and enhance trade and cultural exchanges with South Asian countries.

She also said Tibet's economy continues to keep a double digit growth for over two decades, adding that Tibet has great potentials in areas like handicrafts, agriculture and animal husbandry, Tibetan medicine, natural drinking water, and tourism.

John Murphy, deputy director of Asia-Pacific Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said he was happy to see Tibet's higher economic growth and spoke highly of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese initiative will benefit both China and other countries along the Belt and Road, he added.

Ireland is the second leg of the delegation's visit, which also took the delegation to Britain.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 07:20:04|Editor: Liangyu

A Sudanese couple attends a collective wedding ceremony in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, on July 25, 2017. A total of 120 Sudanese couples happily tied the knot together on Tuesday in a collective wedding ceremony attended by Health Minister Mamoun Humaida. The collective wedding ceremony, the second this year held in the capital, was hosted by the Youth Support Charity Fund (YSCF), which aims to help young couples get married without taking up too much financial and social burdens. (Xinhua/Mohamed Babkir)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 07:23:33|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

MEXICO CITY, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Five police officers and two development bank staff were murdered on Tuesday by assailants who stole social security money in Ahacuotzingo, in the southern state of Guerrero.

The state government issued a statement that police officers and workers at a federal savings bank (Bansefi) were intercepted at 9 am, when they drove in official vehicles on a country road.

Guerrero's security spokesperson, Roberto Alvarez Heredia, wrote that the armed robbers stole 977,000 pesos (about 54,985 U.S. dollars) belonging to the Prospera social inclusion program, which were set to be delivered to officials in various communities around the area.

After killing the seven people and stealing the money, the gang fled and no information is known about their current whereabouts, according to the statement.

Alvarez Heredia stated that soldiers and state police had been deployed to hunt for the criminals, after one Bansefi employee, who was wounded in the attack, reported the crime. The state's prosecutor-general has opened an investigation.

Prospera is a program from the Ministry of Social Development which helps over 6 million families living in poverty with financial aid and other social help.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 07:38:40|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

HAVANA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Cuba announced Tuesday that it had received 3 million foreign tourists so far in 2017, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Speaking to a parliamentary commission, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said that this growth showed that tourism was sustaining its strong improvement as one of the pillars of the national economy.

The 3 million target was reached 75 days earlier than in 2016, marking a growth of 24 percent in the number of foreign holidaymakers coming to Cuba, the ministry wrote in a statement.

The main markets from which tourists come to Cuba are the U.S., despite restrictions on Americans travelling to the island, Canada, Spain, France, Italy and Germany.

In the first half of 2017, Cuba received 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in revenue from foreign tourism, 9 percent more than in the same stage in 2016.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, Cuba is hoping to receive 4.7 million foreign tourists for all of 2017, 16.5 percent more than in 2016, the year in which Cuba first passed the 4 million bar.

Marrero also told the commission that the island should receive 5 million visitors in 2018, while he urged the rapid construction of 100,000 new hotel rooms by 2030.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 08:04:14|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

BRASILIA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A Brazilian court dealt a blow to the government of President Michel Temer on Tuesday by suspending a government-proposed plan to increase fuel tax.

On last Thursday, the government said the price of fuel would increase by 0.41 reais a liter (0.13 U.S. dollars), with the objective of bringing in an extra 10.4 billion reais (3.28 billion U.S. dollars) of public revenue in 2017. This would have helped the government reach its target of lowering the country's deficit to 139 billion reais (43.7 billion U.S. dollars).

According to Economy Minister Henrique Meirelles, the rise is necessary to cover this yawning deficit, while he also did not rule out future tax rises.

Speaking on Monday to a group of businessmen in Sao Paulo, Meirelles said that "everything is possible, if it proves necessary. Right now, we are concerned about sources of income."

However, numerous business groups came out against the measure, saying it would slow down Brazil's economic recovery after more than two years of recession.

The opinion taken by federal judge Renato Borelli said that the tax increase should have been passed through a federal law, and not by an executive order.

"The adequate legislative instrument for the creation and increase of a tax is, without exception, a law," he wrote in his decision.

The government may appeal the decision to a higher court.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 08:24:26|Editor: Yang Yi

Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe (L) speaks at a media briefing in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 25, 2017. Sri Lankan cabinet has approved agreement with China on Hambantota Port, describing it as "a win-win situation for both countries." (Xinhua/Ajith Perera)

COLOMBO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan cabinet has approved agreement with China on Hambantota Port, describing it as "a win-win situation for both countries."

Under the agreement, China Merchants Port Holdings will own 70 percent stake of the port while Sri Lanka Ports Authority will own 30 percent, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said late Tuesday.

Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, Samarasinghe said the matter will also be discussed in parliament on Friday and all legislators will be briefed about the agreement signed between the two countries.

"This agreement will be a win-win situation for both China and Sri Lanka. We hope to strengthen the operations of the Hambantota Port which will be beneficial for Sri Lanka," Samarasinghe said.

China Merchants Port Holdings will manage the operations of the port. Sri Lanka will manage the security of the port along with the navigation and approvals.

Samarasinghe added that although negotiations with China Merchants Port Holdings took a long time, all matters regarding the agreement had been thoroughly discussed for the benefit of both China and Sri Lanka.

He further explained that after 10 years, if Sri Lanka wished to purchase an additional 20 percent stake of the port, they could do so by purchasing it, resulting in China and Sri Lanka owning an equal share of 50 percent each.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 10:57:12|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

MOSCOW, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab Tuesday launched its free version of antivirus software Kaspersky Free to "secure the whole world" amid celebration of its 20th anniversary.

"We believe that everyone has the right to be free of cybersecurity fears," Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky lab, wrote on their website.

In announcing the software via a blog post, the company founder said they have been working on this release for a good year and a half, and the software would roll out globally across the next few months.

Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the United States, Canada, and several Asia Pacific countries on the heels of being piloted last year in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China and also in the Nordic countries.

The company said this free software will "positively affect the quality of protection of all users," since an increase of installations would bring more numbers to big-data bases for better machine learning.

According to the company's website, over 400 million users are protected by its technologies and they help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 11:17:26|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

YANGON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's House of Representatives (Lower House) on Tuesday unanimously denounced the statement of UN envoy Yanghee Lee which criticized the country over its human rights situation.

Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, issued a statement recently at the end of her 12-day mission in the country, criticizing the Myanmar government over its alleged restriction on her trip to Myanmar as well as inaction on alleged abuses in conflict areas,

In response, Myanmar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs U Kyaw Tin said that inheriting numerous issues including armed conflicts, differences in political viewpoints, all-round slow development and poverty, the Myanmar government is building trust between different social sectors and trying to turn many differences into a driving force for resolving these issues.

Welcoming constructive criticism to practically deal with the situation of the country, U Kyaw Tin insisted that the government favors a communicative approach as opposed to direct confrontation on matters of human rights, adding that cooperation with the United Nations is a foundation in Myanmar's foreign policy.

Meanwhile, a statement of the Ministry of the Office of the State Counselor also criticized Lee's statement as containing many sweeping allegations and a number of factual errors.

Myanmar had expected the statement to reflect the difficulties of resolving the problems that are a legacy of decades of internal conflict, isolation and underdevelopment, the statement said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 12:47:50|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Photo taken on July 25, 2017 shows the rescue site of a four-storey building collapse accident in Mumbai, India's Maharashtra state. The death toll in a building collapse in India's Maharashtra state has risen to 17, while 11 others were rescued in injured condition from the rubbles, officials said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Stringer)

NEW DELHI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in a building collapse in India's Maharashtra state has risen to 17, while 11 others were rescued in injured condition from the rubbles, officials said Wednesday.

The 40-year-old four-storey building collapsed on Tuesday in Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb of Mumbai, India's financial capital.

"We pulled out 17 bodies and 11 survivors from the debris of the collapsed building," a senior official of disaster management cell at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

"Of the injured, six persons have been discharged, while five others are still admitted in hospital."

Meanwhile, rescue teams from disaster response force, fire brigade personnel, police as well as locals are searching underneath the rubbles to locate survivors and retrieve bodies.

Local officials feared 30 to 40 people were trapped under the debris.

Reports said around 15 to 16 families used to reside on three floors of the building, with a nursing home operating on the ground floor.

Officials said the nursing home was vacant at the time of collapse. However, the owner was carrying out illegal renovation in the building. Police have detained the owner.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered in-depth enquiry and asked BMC commissioner to submit report in 15 days. He assured strict action against the culprits.

Deadly accidents due to failing infrastructure (either new or old) is common in India.

Construction experts blame the lax administration and corruption for flouting building rules that often results in using poor quality materials, inadequate supervision and poor safety standards for workers.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 12:52:53|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

SYDNEY, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Leading health experts have called for a global rethink of cancer screening processes on Wednesday, with new research suggesting current practices lead to unfavourable health outcomes for many patients.

The need to adequately ensure that the health of patients is secure still remains paramount, but researchers argue that adopting a "one size fits all" methodology is actually detrimental to many who are being screened, particularly for prostate and breast cancers.

A primary concern for experts is overdiagnosis, and it is often difficult to ascertain when a person has actually been overdiagnosed, and often patients will still undergo potentially harmful cancer treatments, Jolyn Hersch, a doctor at the University of Sydney School of Public Health told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"Cancer treatments can have a lot of important effects on people, both short term side effects, and also long term side effects," Hersch said.

"It can increase people's risk of having other health problems, it can lead to important symptoms that affect their everyday life - and apart from the actual treatment - just being diagnosed raises a lot of anxiety and affects how people feel, it can change their lives immediately."

Mental health concerns that stem from the overdiagnosis of patients is a real problem, according to Hersch, who said that they not only affect the individual going through the process, but also their families, friends, and those who care about them.

"Things like anxiety, depression, are increased in people who have cancer. They can be body image issues that come along with some of the treatments that they undergo. It can really be a life changing thing," Hersch said.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology figures in 2010 estimated the global cost of cancer was 1.16 trillion U.S. dollars, which when long term costs are added, balloons to 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars per annum.

Hersch said that the ongoing cost of medical intervention has to be factored into the debate regarding overdiagnosis.

"All of that medical intervention that people are going through takes resources away from people that might potentially need those treatments more, or other broader public health initiatives that could really have a bigger effect on helping people," Hersch said.

Another issue when considering the best way to handle overdiagnosis is the notion of autonomy, which raises the question as to the line that needs to be drawn between the patients choice of treatment, and external pressure on that decision making process.

"A patient generally should be free to make his or her own healthcare decisions. This is especially important in relation to decision making and risk warnings as this is the part of the doctor patient relationship where the patient has the most amount of power and autonomy," Julia Werren, senior law lecturer at the University of New England, told Xinhua recently.

Despite the possibility of patients "slipping through the cracks" with a more balanced approach to cancer diagnosis, Werren said that at least in the state of New South Wales, tort reform has ensured that these outcomes are far less likely to result in litigation against doctors should a diagnosis be missed.

"It is much more difficult for a patient to have a viable action against a doctor in negligence. Aside from a tortious or negligent action, there are other mechanisms which can be used by patients, such as the systems relating to health care complaints," Werren said.

Despite the implications for doctors who attempt to avoid overdiagnosis - and the need for further education of the public in terms of screening - Hersch, and the other researchers, believe that there can be a balance struck between all parties to deal with what drives this prevalent issue.

"There's a lot of drivers, and I think most of what clinicians do, is really trying to do what they believe is best for the patients," Hersch said.

"And also, patients believing that finding things early and treating them early is the best thing to do."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:33:07|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

HANOI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Sonca, the fourth tropical storm in the South China Sea so far this year, landed in some of Vietnam's central provinces, causing considerable property losses, the country's Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said Wednesday.

The storm blew away roofs of 57 houses in Quang Tri province, inundated nearly 2,900 hectares of rice in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces, damaged roughly 1,300 hectares of other crops in Quang Tri, and broke 600 meters of dykes in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, the committee told Xinhua.

Heavy rain and whirlwinds in Ha Tinh province injured two local people, and damaged 62 houses and two schools on Tuesday, said the committee.

In the first half of the year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed or left missing 27 people, injured 30 others, damaged 5,900 houses and inundated 11,400 hectares of crops, causing property losses of over 433 billion Vietnamese dong (19.2 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:38:15|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

MELBOURNE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's pre-school enrolment rate is falling behind global benchmarks, a study published on Wednesday has found.

The study, compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found 70 percent of Australian three-year-olds participated in formal education in 2014 as compared to a 90 percent rate of enrolment in other OECD nations.

The OECD report also established the importance of early childhood education with 15-year-olds who attended more than one year of pre-school performing significantly better academically than those who did not.

Paul Mondo from the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) said many families could not afford kindergarten or childcare for three-year-old children.

In Victoria, the government funds pre-school for 12 hours a week for four-year-olds but provide no funding for younger children.

"Australia is one of the lowest countries spending on early childhood development," Mondo told Australian media on Wednesday.

"It fails to recognize the return benefit that investment in early childhood education brings in later years.

"Victoria is striving to be known as the education state but this is one gap that, if we fill, can have an impact quite quickly."

Martin Foley, Victoria's acting minister for families and children, said the state government had committed 160 million U.S. dollars to childhood education reform, making easier access to early childhood and kindergarten services.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:53:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

The United Nations Security Council holds an open debate on the situation in the Middle East at the UN headquarters in New York, July 25, 2017. Recent developments in East Jerusalem dominated the monthly United Nations Security Council session on the Middle East held on Tuesday, a risk of violence spreading was warned and tensions were urged to be eased. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

By William M. Reilly

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Recent developments in East Jerusalem dominated the monthly United Nations Security Council session on the Middle East held on Tuesday, a risk of violence spreading was warned and tensions were urged to be eased.

"Developments over the past 11 days at the holy sites of the Old City in Jerusalem, however, have demonstrated the grave risk of dangerous escalation that exists, a risk of turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one and dragging both sides into the vortex of violence with the rest of the region," said Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.

On July 14, three Arab-Israeli gunmen opened fire and killed two Israeli police and were later shot dead inside the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque, known as Temple Mount to Jews. After the shootings, Israel installed metal detectors and surveillance cameras at the entrances. The Israeli security move sparked widespread Muslim protests including sit-ins and street prayings that sometimes turned into deadly clashes.

At the scheduled session on the Middle East, Mladenov also welcomed the Israeli decision Monday night to remove metal detectors and some of the surveillance cameras, while expressing the hope that the Israeli move will ease the tension there, leading to an end to the Palestinian boycotting of the holy site.

On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded Al-Aqsa Mosque's return to the status quo prior to July 14 before resuming contact with the Israeli side.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, echoed Mladenov's concerns during the UN session, criticizing Israeli measures as "reckless and destructive" and describing the situation in East Jerusalem as "fragile."

"The fragile situation in Occupied East Jerusalem has been inflamed yet again as Israel, the occupying Power, presses forth with its reckless and destructive agenda against our people and holy sites, especially A1-Haram A1-Sharif, which houses holy A1-Aqsa Mosque, in absolute contempt for international law and the will of the international community," Mansour said.

Mentioning the risk of "the stoking of a religious conflict," he warned against "the dangers of such provocations and incitement and the fueling of yet another cycle of violence, which will surely have far-reaching consequences in this already-volatile climate."

Ambassador Liu Jieyi of China, who holds the rotating security council presidency this month, called for efforts of the international community to keep the situation between Palestine and Israel under control.

"The international community should proceed from the need of maintaining peace in the Middle East and the world, have a long-term vision, promote the political settlement of the question of Palestine by addressing both the symptoms and the root causes, maintain the legitimate rights and interests of the Palestinian people, keep the situation between Palestine and Israel from going out of control and prevent the Middle East from sliding into a bitter crisis," said Liu.

Liu reaffirmed China's support for the just cause of the Palestinian people and for peace between Palestine and Israel.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:53:23|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

SYDNEY, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The burning problem of fire ant infestation is one step closer to a solution in Australia on Wednesday, as the government committed to an action package to stem the tide of these deadly creatures.

Agricultural ministers from across the country announced the 10-year 380 million Australian dollar (300 million U.S. dollar) action plan, hoping to put an end to the long running plague of red imported fire ants (RIFA) who have been sweeping across substantial tracts of rural Australia, causing millions of dollars in damage.

The new flow of funding was announced at the Agricultural Ministers Forum in Melbourne, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said that he sees this new funding arrangement as a "successful outcome."

"Today's additional 10 year agreement by all governments is a successful outcome and commits an estimated further 380 million (Australian) dollars to the plan - or 411.4 million (Australian) dollars on an indexed basis, following 16 years of shared eradication and containment efforts," Joyce said.

Andrew Cox, chief executive officer of the Invasive Species Council, told Xinhua on Wednesday that fire ants are "one of the world's most invasive species."

"They impact on humans - because people could die from an allergic reaction - they have an impact on agriculture from loss of productivity and death of livestock, and also the environment, with a wide range of species potentially facing extinction," Cox said.

Cox also cautioned that maintaining high standards in biosecurity will play a crucial role in ensuring no further RIFA make their way into the country.

Previous to this latest announcement, over 150 million Australian dollars (118.46 million U.S. dollars) had been provided by the government towards containing, and eradicating fire ants in Australia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:58:26|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

CANBERRA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- An Australian senator who overnight resigned from his cabinet position after finding out he was a dual citizen may not have to quit parliament, his party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said on Wednesday.

Matt Canavan, senator for the Nationals Party, resigned from his position as resources minister and minister for Northern Australia overnight, after finding out that his mother secretly lodged documents for him to become an Italian dual citizen back in 2006.

He is the third senator in two weeks to have discovered they were dual citizens, after two Greens senators, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam found out they are citizens of Canada and New Zealand, respectively. Under Australian law, dual citizens cannot serve in parliament.

However, unlike the Greens pair, Canavan has not resigned from parliament because he and Joyce believed because his mother, not himself, did the paperwork, the dual citizenship may not be valid.

Speaking to the press in Canberra on Wednesday, the deputy PM said the "sloppy" Canavan may be free to reclaim his cabinet position, pending an investigation from the High Court.

"That still has to be checked, that it's actually valid, because the premise being can you be signed up for something you never signed up for, that you never knew about?" Joyce said.

"The High Court will look at this and we'll accept the verdict of the High Court."

When announcing his resignation as resources minister overnight, Canavan said he was confident that he would be able to remain in parliament considering he never signed any paperwork.

"I was not born in Italy, have never been to Italy, and have never even stepped into an Italian embassy," he said overnight.

"In 2006, my mother lodged documents as the consulate in Brisbane to become an Italian citizen. In doing so, it would appear she also made an application for me."

Canavan will serve on the back bench until the High Court's decision is handed down.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 13:58:29|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

MANILA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Vice Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Choe Hui Chol visited the Philippines on Wednesday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The purpose of the visit is to discuss preparations for DPRK foreign minister's participation at next week's meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, the statement said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told a news conference that the delegation met with senior officials from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

He said he is looking forward to meeting the DPRK foreign minister next week. "(The visit) is just consistent with our hosting ASEAN with consultations," Cayetano said.

The Philippines is the chair of ASEAN this year.

The regional forum is an important one for security dialogue in Asia. It draws ASEAN members and ASEAN dialogue partners together to discuss security issues of the Asia Pacific region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 14:03:31|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

CANBERRA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Trade Minister Steve Ciobo on Wednesday declared Indonesia as his "number one trade priority" for 2017, saying the government is confident of signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with Indonesia before the end of the year.

Speaking on local television, Ciobo said negotiations surrounding the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership (IA-CEPA) were progressing smoothly after leaders from both nations met at the G20 summit in Hamburg earlier this month.

"Indonesia is my number one trade priority and I'm putting a lot of focus on doing this deal," Ciobo told Sky News.

"We saw at the G20 in Hamburg that Indonesia's President Joko Widodo and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull both recommitted to concluding this by the end of the year.

"We want a good quality deal, one which we can both announce as a win-win for both countries."

The latest round of negotiations for the IA-CEPA commenced early in 2016, and if delivered, it will be the fourth major agreement Australia sign with a major Asian nation in recent years, after FTAs with China, Japan and South Korea.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 14:18:38|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

NEW YORK, July 25 (Xinhua) -- New York City's transportation authority unveiled a nearly 1-billion-U.S.-dollar emergency subway repair plan Tuesday, promising to put the brake on nightmarish delays and derailments within one year.

"The subway system is no doubt in distress and we're here for solutions," said Joseph J. Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) at the MTA headquarters Tuesday as he issued an immediate subway stabilization plan of 836 million dollars that includes sweeping, repairing and cleaning of subway trains and stations within the next year.

The new measures amount to the first phase of upgrading and modernizing the problem-plagued 113-year-old subway.

Phase Two, which will cost about 8 billion dollars, will "get it out of the late 19th century and get it into the 21st century quickly," Lhota said.

Lhota asked New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to help raise funds for the plan and he suggested the city and the state split the cost evenly.

Blasio, who has resisted pouring money into the subway since the state runs the system, called Lhota's plan an "important first step" in a news conference at the City Hall subway station Tuesday evening but he refused to commit more city money to support it.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said Lhota's plan was "substantive and realistic" and he agreed to split the cost with the city.

Cuomo declared a state of emergency last month to speed up repairs on the subway, which dates back to 1904. He tasked Lhota, who was appointed to the job the second time, to submit a rescue plan within 30 days.

New York's subway has long been the lifeblood of the city. However, the number of subway delays partly due to the aging infrastructure tripled in the past five years, to 70,000 per month, according to a report last month. About 5.7 million people take the subway on an average weekday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 14:28:44|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

MAIMANA, Afghanistan, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces after fierce fighting recaptured Kohistanat district in northern Faryab province from Taliban militants on Tuesday's night, Defense Ministry said in a statement released here on Wednesday.

"The National Defense and security forces launched counter-operations early Tuesday and recaptured Kohistant district late Tuesday night," the statement said.

Taliban militants have run away after suffering huge casualties including 23 deaths and several more injured, the statement asserted.

The armed militants who overrun the headquarters of Kohistanat district on Sunday have yet to make comment on the situation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 14:28:45|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Several Afghan troops were feared killed and many others injured after Taliban attacked an army outpost in a remote district in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar overnight, a local source said on Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 14:59:25|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Video Player Close

CARACAS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday that his country is in a "decisive week" for peace, ahead of elections for a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) on the weekend.

"We are in a decisive week so that Venezuela definitely takes the path of peace," said Maduro in a public address in Caracas.

According to the head of state, Venezuelans will choose between "peace or war," "the future or the past," "independence or colonialism," and "the sovereign power of the people or the oligarchic, imperialist coup."

On July 30, about 20 million venezuelans are invited to elect 545 members of the ANC, who will draft a new constitution.

However, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has been relentless in protesting the move, which it sees as a power grab by Maduro.

Street protests since April against the Maduro government have claimed at least 102 lives.

Venezuela's attorney-general Luisa Ortega Diaz, who has lodged two unsuccessful appeals against the ANC to the Supreme Court, accused President Maduro of seeking to rewrite the constitution in order to prolong his stay in office.

While Ortega Diaz was appointed by the regime, she has now become one of Maduro's principal critics, slamming his call for a National Constituent Assembly as unconstitutional.

On May 1, Maduro called for the July 30 ANC, reckoning it as the only way to lead the country out of the current political and economic crisis.

However, in an interview with daily El Nacional on Tuesday, Ortega Diaz said the leader wanted to "keep the people subjugated, to plague them with hunger and misery, repression, anguish and despair."

The country's chief prosecutor dismissed the ANC as "deceitful, as it will not resolve the major problems of food, of hospitals, of insecurity."

She pointed out that the government has made no announcements on what actions it will take to resolve these severe problems.

"The ANC has been promoted under threat," Ortega Diaz said, warning that if it takes place, there would be more misery, insecurity, uncertainty, despair, sadness, and oppression.

The attorney-general, who turned on Maduro three months ago, added she would do "everything in my power" to disrupt it.

Maduro's government has responded by labelling Ortega Diaz a "traitor" and has vowed to review all the staff from her office "one by one" after the July 30 election.

A motion to dismiss Ortega Diaz has also been lodged at the Supreme Court, which is accused of favoring the government.

The clash between the government and the opposition became a constitutional crisis since January 2016, when the latter won control of the National Assembly and ended a 17-year control by former president Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro.

In mid-July, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable held its own unofficial referendum to protest the ANC, in which it said over 7 million Venezuelans turned out to reject any attempt to rewrite the constitution.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 15:29:41|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

FARAH, Afghanistan, July 26 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan district chief together with five of his bodyguards has been killed in a roadside mine blast in western province of Farah, the provincial governor spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

The incident took place late on Tuesday in Shib Koh district of the province, when Abdul Rahim Haidari was on the way home from office, spokesman Mohammad Naser Mehri told Xinhua.

"Haidari's vehicle was hit by a roadside mine leaving him and all of his five guards dead on the spot," the spokesman added.

Among those killed bodyguards was a son of the slain district chief, said the official.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 15:44:50|Editor: Yamei

Video Player Close

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (Front) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on July 25, 2017. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans -- Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie -- voting against the bill.

Political analysts said the move will bring more uncertainties to the country's relations with the three countries.

"The House's 419-3 vote on the sanctions bill reflects changes in its evaluation of threats from the three countries," said Teng Jianqun, director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies.

Teng said the sanctions bill also shows that the United States now has great worries about its national security.

"The bill, undoubtedly, will bring a negative impact and more uncertainties to America's relations with the three countries, as well as solutions to related regional issues," Teng added.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted on under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto.

The measure aims to target key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital U.S. interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbors," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block U.S. President Donald Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" U.S. foreign policy in connection with Russia.

"This strong oversight is necessary. It is appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," Royce said, according to news website The Hill.

The White House on Sunday signaled that Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of interfering in U.S. elections. The Kremlin has said that they viewed the U.S. sanctions bill "negatively."

"Extremely negatively," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying when asked about the Kremlin's take on the draft bill on Monday.

The Kremlin also warned that fresh sanctions on Russia would adversely affect both sides, as well as interests of third countries.

"We consider such a continuation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive and harmful to the interests of both countries," Peskov said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes part in a news conference near the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. (Reuters Photo)

TEHRAN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian official said Wednesday the fresh sanctions by the U.S. against Iran will have adverse impacts on the "successful" implementation of the nuclear deal, official IRNA news agency reported.

Given the U.S. commitments, "they should have implemented the JCOPA with goodwill and in constructive atmosphere, and they should have avoided the measures which might have (negative) impacts on the successful implementation of the deal," Abbas Araqchi, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator and deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying.

However, the recent move of the U.S. congress to impose sanctions on Iran runs counter to the U.S. commitments, Araqchi told reporters.

"Iran will definitely respond to the U.S. hostile move," he noted.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Sanctions against Iran is in response to Tehran's growing missile program.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Iran maintains its right to respond to the U.S. if the latter does not comply with the nuclear deal.

On Friday, Araqchi told media in Austria's capital Vienna that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal should be fully implemented in all aspects, and Tehran is not satisfied with the U.S. because of the sanctions imposed on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

During his U.S. presidential campaign, Donald Trump quarrelled with the Iranian nuclear deal which was achieved during the Barack Obama Administration. The Trump Administration is now reviewing U.S. policy on Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that new U.S. sanctions contravene the nuclear deal after a lot of diplomatic efforts made with world major countries in 2015.

Iran and six world powers, namely Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue in July 2015, which put Tehran on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 16:50:39|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang on Wednesday reaffirmed China's position on the Dalai Lama's visits to foreign countries.

Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing that Tibet-related issues concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, saying that "we urge countries concerned to respect China's core interests and make the right decisions."

It is reported that Botswana on Tuesday confirmed it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit next month.

Lu said China never intervenes in the internal affairs of other countries, nor will it allow other countries to harm its core interests.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 17:00:49|Editor: Yurou Liang

Video Player Close

DHAKA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government will soon decide on the three selected sites for the construction of a new mega international airport on the outskirts of capital Dhaka.

A foreign consulting firm is working on the site selection.

A 1.2-billion-taka deal was signed with a Japanese firm in September last year to conduct feasibility studies, selecting site and making a master plan for the airport in the name of Bangladesh's founding father Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also father of incumbent Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

"We'll make a decision on the site location soon as feasibility studies for selecting the site to construct the Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Airport will be completed this month," Bangladeshi Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon told journalists on Wednesday.

No further details were available about the project which is still under planning stage.

The Bangladeshi government had selected three possible sites, two of which are in districts close to Dhaka and the other inside Dhaka district.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal had earlier said the government would construct the new airport, which is to be the largest in South Asia, on the west bank of Padma River where wide-bodied aircraft equivalent to Airbus A380 could land and take off.

"We're keen to construct the airport so that it can function as one of the key airports of the South Asia region," he said.

Bangladesh has been making many mega infrastructure projects centering the largest Padma bridge. The 25-meter-wide and 10-km-long bridge is being built over Padma River, one of the three major rivers in Bangladesh.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 17:05:54|Editor: Yurou Liang

Video Player Close

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Some U.S. industry associations, think tanks and renowned business brands are joining a chorus of opposition to possible hefty tariffs on imported solar panels.

In the latest sign of a growing coalition against a petition asking President Donald Trump to impose heavy import duties on solar panels, electric automaker Tesla announced Tuesday that the company is lobbying against the petition, filed in May by solar manufacturers Suniva and SolarWorld.

"Although we are currently building the largest solar cell and module manufacturing plant in the U.S., we still oppose this petition," a Tesla spokesman told the press.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will decide by Sept. 22 whether solar imports have harmed domestic producers and recommend remedies to the president by Nov. 13.

The prospect of a drastic price hike has prompted concern within the solar sector and beyond.

A steep rise in panel prices "could be huge and disastrous for large-scale solar," Tom Werner, chief executive of leading U.S. solar company Sunpower Corp., told Reuters.

Thanks to low-cost solar products from China and several other Asian countries, the U.S. solar sector has registered robust performances in the past several years and now provides more than 260,000 jobs, mostly construction workers installing rooftop panels or building solar farms.

Earlier this month, the Energy Trade Action Coalition (ETAC) officially started to coordinate opposition to the solar trade case.

The ETAC will "fight the misuse of trade remedies, with an initial focus on the Section 201 trade petition on imported solar components," according to a statement it issued to announce its establishment.

The coalition states its mission is to "raise awareness of the importance of maintaining access to globally priced products to support American energy industry competitiveness, sustain tens of thousands of good-paying American manufacturing jobs, and preserve the principles of free trade in a global marketplace."

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), which spearheaded the fight against new import tariffs, is also a member of the ETAC.

"SEIA has been vehemently opposed to this petition from the beginning, and we know there are a lot of other organizations and industries that have similar beliefs about this case," Dan Whitten, the company's vice president of communications, told Greentech Media.

"This coalition provides a coordinated platform for groups to come together to voice concerns about the harm this could cause to the more than 260,000 Americans working in solar today. This is not a partisan issue. The damages that would result if this petition prevails would be widespread," he said.

A recent study by the SEIA found that a third of the current U.S. solar workforce would be lost if the Suniva-SolarWorld proposals are granted.

The Heritage Foundation is also a member of the ETAC. Tori Whiting, a researcher with the think tank, said imposing solar tariffs as requested by Suniva and SolarWorld "would be a step backward by adding another layer of federal subsidies, which is something the Heritage Foundation opposes in all instances."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 17:26:12|Editor: Yurou Liang

Video Player Close

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-Cambodia country director Nick Beresford praised China on Wednesday for its great success in reducing poverty, lifting hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty.

According to the China's State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, since the launch of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, over 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, and the number of the rural poor in China had declined to 43.35 million by the end of 2016.

"Like most people, I am a huge admirer of what the People's Republic of China has achieved in terms of helping people move themselves out of poverty," Nick told Xinhua on the sidelines of the 11th ASEAN-China Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province.

"That is the biggest single movement of people out of poverty the world has ever seen," he said, referring to the number of Chinese people who had got out of poverty.

Nick said China's high political commitment was the most important factor contributing to the country's great success in alleviating poverty.

Besides, pro-poor development strategy, social protection policy, and human resources development are the key policy to reduce poverty in China, he added.

He said China's best practices and successful experiences in poverty reduction should be a "role model" for ASEAN countries.

China has set itself the goal of lifting 10 million people out of poverty every year from 2016 and is committed to eradicating poverty entirely among the rural population by 2020.

Nick said with the strong commitment by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, the world's second largest economy would be surely able to achieve its target.

During the forum on Tuesday and Wednesday, China's best practices and successful experiences on poverty alleviation were shared with more than 120 participants who are government officials, experts, and scholars from China and ASEAN countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 17:51:31|Editor: Yurou Liang

Video Player Close

NEW DELHI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- India Wednesday said there is no concrete evidence that 39 of its nationals kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants from the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014 are dead.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said "it's a sin" to presume that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq are dead given that so far, "there are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos."

"Declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and I won't commit a sin. This government won't end the search for our missing citizens until we have proof they are not alive," Swaraj told the parliament, responding to allegations that she was "misleading the house" on the issue.

"We don't have any proof of them being alive. However, we didn't get any corpses, blood trail or any list published by the ISIS either which could have confirmed that they are dead."

The Indians, all laborers, were taken hostage by IS militants when it overran Iraq's second largest city of Mosul in 2014. They were trying to leave Mosul at the time.

On Monday, Iraq said it was "not 100 percent sure" whether the missing Indians were alive or dead. "We are equally concerned. We're not sure 100 percent they're alive or not, we don't know, we are going to do our best," visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari said.
Photo taken on June 20, 2016 shows Sunway TaihuLight, a new Chinese supercomputer, in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Hi, here's what you need to know about China for the past 24 hours.

BEIJING -- Papers written by Chinese academics account for 23 percent of the world's total, according to figures released at a Chinese computer summit Tuesday.

Over 100 academics and entrepreneurs gathered to exchange views on undergraduate computer science education at the Future Computer Education Summit 2017, held by China Computer Federation.

---

BEIJING -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang on Wednesday reaffirmed China's position on the Dalai Lama's visits to foreign countries.

Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing that Tibet-related issues concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, saying that "we urge countries concerned to respect China's core interests and make the right decisions."

---

MONROVIA -- Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Tuesday lauded the Chinese government for donating assorted equipment which worth more than 2 million U.S. dollars to the local police.

Sirleaf, in a statement, said the donation would go a long way, especially at a time the police were preparing for the country's crucial presidential and parliamentary polls on Oct. 10.

---

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-Cambodia country director Nick Beresford praised China on Wednesday for its great success in reducing poverty, lifting hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty.

According to the China's State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, since the launch of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, over 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, and the number of the rural poor in China had declined to 43.35 million by the end of 2016.


Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:11:43|Editor: Yurou Liang

Video Player Close

TEHRAN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Rouhani said Wednesday Iran would respond in kind to any breach of the nuclear deal by the U.S. after its House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The U.S. House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous U.S. sanctions in the non-nuclear fields."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:16:52|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MOGADISHU, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations mission in Somalia has kicked off a series of consultative meetings across Somalia to seek views on the traditional justice system and how it hinders women's access to justice.

The UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) said in a statement on Wednesday that the meetings which started in the southern Somalia brought together local women leaders, government officials and civil society representatives focusing on the challenges women face in accessing justice and also addressed proposals for reforms.

"The idea was to give women space to express how they feel about the traditional justice system and whether it protects women's rights or not," said Virginie Blanchard, a Judicial Affairs Officer from the UNSOM Rule of Law and Security Institutions Group (ROLSIG) which convened the meetings.

"They identified practices that they don't want to accept any more. Like, for example, the fact that in the traditional justice system, a young girl will be given as compensation to another clan in case of murder," Blanchard added.

The UN official said the two meetings held in Baidoa and Kismayo identified concrete steps that women can take to achieve better representation within the country's formal and traditional judicial systems.

Speaking at the forum in Kismayo, Abshira Qamis Ismail, the Chairperson of the Kismaayo Women's Cooperation organization, attributed the obstacles facing women to a lack of female representation in the formal and traditional justice sectors. She added that these challenges had been compounded by ignorance about the law.

"We don't have women to whom we can report our cases. We don't have female elders to whom we can tell our private issues. We don't have women to address the problems we face," Abshira said.

Farhiya Ahmed Abdi, an officer of the Somali Police Force told a forum in Baidoa that traditional elders prefer to resolve cases regarding the abuse of women outside the formal courts - where cases are adjudicated more quickly - and within the traditional justice system instead, where most male perpetrators go unpunished.

"Every day we receive cases of women who are physically abused and tortured by their husbands. The challenge we face is that whenever we arrest the man and present the cases to courts for prosecution, traditional elders go to the courts and interfere with the cases," Abdi said.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the death anniversary of the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran, Iran, June 4, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

TEHRAN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Rouhani said Wednesday Iran would respond in kind to any breach of the nuclear deal by the U.S. after its House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The U.S. House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous U.S. sanctions in the non-nuclear fields."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:31:56|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

KABUL, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Nine Taliban militants were killed Wednesday when Afghan Special Operation Forces conducted an airstrike in the country's eastern province of Kunar, the military said.

"Nine key members of Taliban terrorist group were killed after Afghanistan Operational Coordination Group (AOCG) carried out an airstrike at around 11:15 a.m. Wednesday in Dara-e-Pech district, Kunar province," the AOCG said in a statement.

The statement noted that further details about the strike will be shared with the media later on the day.

Afghan security forces have beefed up security operations against militants recently as the war-weary Afghans have been witnessing a surge in attacks by Taliban fighters and Islamic State (IS) affiliates across the country.

The militants responded by armed attacks and bombings. On Monday, 24 persons were killed and 43 others wounded after a Taliban suicide car bombing hit a government employees' bus in Kabul.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:37:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MADRID, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Spanish civil guards have arrested a 22-year-old Moroccan man in northern Spain on charges of spreading propaganda for the Islamic State (IS) on the Internet, the Spanish Interior Ministry said here Wednesday.

The detainee has been maintaining "direct contact" with IS fighters in Syria and publishing materials that they sent him on his Facebook account, the ministry said.

He had also been spreading propaganda for the IS and other jihadist groups, such as Al Qaeda and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham since 2013, as well as praising attacks carried out by these groups and commemorating the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, according to the ministry.

Civil Guards also searched his home looking for information about other IS sympathizers in Spain, while the Interior Ministry reported that 231 people accused of jihadist terrorism have now been arrested in Spain since the start of 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:47:08|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

WELLINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand dairy exports to China were up 102 percent in value to reach 373 million NZ dollars (277 million U.S. dollars) in June, and up 63 percent in quantity, which boosts the country's exports, its statistics department Stats NZ said on Wednesday.

New Zealand exports rose 11 percent year on year to reach 4.7 billion NZ dollars (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) in June, said a release from the department.

Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the rise, up 45 percent to 1.2 billion NZ dollars (890 million U.S. dollars) and up 11 percent in quantity.

"The milk powder, butter, and cheese group continues to be a key export commodity, and accounts for over a quarter of our total exports," international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said in the release.

Total monthly imports were valued at 4.5 billion NZ dollars (3.3 billion U.S. dollars), up 7.7 percent from June 2016, Stats NZ said.

Imports of cars led the increase in total imports in June, up 31 percent to reach 505 million NZ dollars (375 million U.S. dollars).

New motor cars led this increase, up 86 million NZ dollars (64 million U.S. dollars) in value, which was 2,566 more new cars than in June 2016, and was the 11th consecutive increase in value year on year, it said.

The trade balance for June was a surplus of 242 million NZ dollars (180 million U.S. dollars), or 5.1 percent of exports. This is the fourth consecutive surplus, Stats NZ said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 18:47:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for Daimler told Xinhua on Wednesday that there was "nothing more to say", after reports surfaced that BMW had cancelled talks concerning future cooperation between the two German luxury carmakers.

Over the weekend, allegations that leading German automotive brands -- including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz -- have colluded illegally since the 1990s were widely publicized by press.

According to information about the scandal obtained by the newspaper Spiegel, Daimler had made a voluntary self-declaration of illicit meetings to European Union (EU) antitrust authorities as early as 2014.

Another newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday night that this circumstance has deeply angered BMW which has a long tradition of official cooperation with Daimler and consequently feels betrayed.

Speaking to Xinhua, Daimler said it was unable to comment on what it described as "media speculations".

In order for Daimler not to endanger its status as a principal witness, and hence potentially evade prosecution, the Stuttgart-based company must maintain strict communicative silence over the allegations of industry collusion in public.

"The trust [between the firms] is completely damaged," Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited people close to the matter. Carmakers now found themselves "in the midst of a tsunami".

Daimler and BMW employees confirmed to Sueddeutsche Zeitung that cooperation talks had been frozen. While no formal decision has been made by BMW's directors, the firm's management wants to critically reassess joint projects in areas such as corporate strategy and supply chain management.

Plans for Daimler and BMW to work together on the establishment of a refueling network for electric vehicles are still on track, although likely to be delayed. Both carmakers have also held talks for months to form an alliance between their car-sharing subsidiaries Car 2 Go (Daimler) and Drive Now (BMW). Industry experts expected the fusion of marketing platforms to be complete within the second half of 2017.

BMW and Daimler are competitors in the segment of high-powered luxury vehicles. However, they are both small producers with roughly 2 million cars sold annually each, compared to giants such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Toyota.

To offset added costs caused by a lack of similar economies of scale, the two firms therefore have a long-standing tradition of cooperating in areas such as sourcing to negotiate better contracts with suppliers.

According to BMW and Daimler, such joint ventures result in savings worth hundreds of millions of euros every year.

Daimler's voluntary self-declaration to competition authorities at the European Commission concerns working groups with five German carmakers. The EU is currently investigating whether illicit collusion occurred during these meetings which would have led to added costs for consumers.

The supervisory boards of Volkswagen and Daimler are scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the "cartel scandal". Volkswagen also filed a voluntary self-declaration of illicit industry collusion with competition authorities in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:07:31|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Volker Treier, head of international trade at the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), voiced concerns on Wednesday that German firms could be adversely affected by new U.S. sanctions against Russia.

The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a legislative draft which would lead to stricter economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and DPRK. The law still has to pass the Senate and be signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in order to be enacted.

Nonetheless, Treier expressed worries that wording of the legislation could harm the economic prospects of businesses outside of the U.S. including in Germany.

Important projects to ensure energy supply in Germany could be frozen if German firms were no longer allowed to cooperate with Russia on the construction of gas pipelines.

"That would heavily affect the German economy was well," Treier warned. He called on the European Commission to demand a clarification from Washington and prevent that new U.S. sanctions against Russia applied to firms in different countries.

"The impression remains that the U.S. side is prioritizing its own economic interests," Treier added with view to the U.S. oil and gas industry.

German business representatives had warned ahead of the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives that long-standing cooperation on energy supply between Germany and Russia could be threatened by new sanctions. Both the construction of new pipelines such as Nordstream 2 and Blue-Stream, as well as the maintenance of existing infrastructure were at risk.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:07:32|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Registration of candidates for electoral councils, which will elect deputies from Hong Kong and Macao to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), concluded in the special administrative regions Tuesday.

Thirty-six deputies from Hong Kong and 12 deputies from Macao will be elected, according to a plan released by the NPC Standing Committee this April.

Registration offices were opened in Hong Kong and Macao at the beginning of July to receive applications of those who want to become members of the electoral councils.

More than 1,900 people in Hong Kong and over 480 in Macao have registered, the General Office of the NPC Standing Committee said.

The election of the 13th NPC deputies from Hong Kong and Macao should be conducted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Current deputies to the NPC, China's top legislature, will end their term in March 2018, and the election of deputies to the 13th NPC shall be completed in January 2018, according to the NPC Standing Committee.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:12:36|Editor: Yamei

Video Player Close

Muslim worshippers protest outside Jerusalem's Old City, on July 25, 2017. Hundreds of Muslims stayed away from Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Tuesday despite Israel had removed metal detectors from the site, saying the move does not fulfill the requirement of Muslim worshippers. (Xinhua/Muammar Awad)

by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Years of stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians are taking their toll as a new crisis over Jerusalem's holy site has lasted more than two weeks without signs of ending.

Despite Israeli reassurances that the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which has been delicately maintained for decades, is not changed, they have fallen on deaf ears, a testament to the deep divide between the two skeptical sides.

After almost two weeks of heightened tensions, which began with two Israeli policemen being killed by Arab assailants in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the dismantling of metal detectors at the entrance to the holy shrine, a security measure that has stirred up a furore among the Palestinian Muslims. But the elusive calm has yet to arrive.

The crisis, with losses of life on both sides, has evolved into a stand-off between Israel and the entire Muslim world, who sees the Jewish state as trying to impose sovereignty on the site.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third most sacred site in their religion. For Jews, the Western Wall which is directly under the mosque, is considered their holiest site.

Although Israel gained control of the compound from Jordanian hands in the 1967 Middle East war, the international community has never recognized its sovereignty in East Jerusalem, which is seen by Palestinians as the capital of their future state.

The fragile status quo since the war is gradually falling apart, causing a series of deadly ramifications.

Israel has kept control of the area throughout the years, but it has never controlled the compound religiously, allowing the Waqf, a Jordanian religious council, to manage the Islamic edifice.

However, the perception that the Israeli government is trying to alter the status quo is fuelling the crisis and has rallied Muslims worldwide despite their internal devides on other pressing issues.

Scenes of clashes around Jerusalem's Old City could be seen almost every evening since the crisis began.

"The (Israeli) statements are heard and perceived on the Palestinian side as baseless, unreliable to say the least. Because of years of disconnect, there is no dialogue; there is no prospect for peace," said Kamal Hassan, a policy researcher at the Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.

Footage showing the metal detectors being removed has not defused the crisis. Modified security measures will put in place and for many Muslims this is still cause for protest.

According to polls published in recent days in the Israeli media, Netanyahu's image as a hawk has taken a beating in the Jewish country. In a Channel 2 poll, 67 percent of the surveyed rate the Israeli leader's approach to the crisis as "not good."

The media has widely reported that Netanyahu was told by security officials not to set up metal detectors because of their insidious impacts.

Naftali Bennett, a cabinet minister who leads the nationalist Jewish Home party, wrote on his Facebook page that "Metal detectors are not to blame, but our enemies."

The Israeli prime minister is maneuvering between his right-wing coalition which demands stringent security arrangements on the ground and a growing regional crisis that may adversely affect Israel.

This week, a shooting incident in which an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanians at Israel's embassy on Sunday, has added to the crisis about security checks at the holiest site in Jerusalem.

The sentiments around the 37-acre compound are extremely touchy, as the disagreement goes much deeper than security measures at the site.

Besides, geopolitical changes in the Middle East also serve to feed the crisis.

"The crisis in Jerusalem needs to be understood in the context of changes in the region. The connection to religious sites has become part of the problem in the Middle East. Religious places have become part of popular struggles, a leading characteristic in recent waves of protest," said Kamal Hassan.

The current crisis is the culmination of years of distrust between Israelis and Palestinians, who last sat down for negotiations over three years ago.

Open channels of dialogue between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world could have averted the bloody impasse.

"Israel should go back to how things were on the Temple Mount and open a multilateral dialogue, not just with the Palestinians. Israel needs to talk about a peace process with the Palestinians because this is the most pressing issue in the region and the one that inflames this whole situation," said the Israeli expert.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:12:38|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

URUMQI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has shut down hundreds of wells on Kulustay, a grassland on the China-Kazakhstan border, to protect groundwater levels, local authorities said Wednesday.

More than 370 groundwater-pumping wells have been closed, and another 1,519 wells have been installed with measuring equipment to protect groundwater, said Zhang Gang, director with the office of local ecological rehabilitation administration.

In addition, more than 14,000 hectares of farmland were returned to grassland and 12 sandpits on the grassland were shut down, Zhang added.

Zhang said the wells were used for farmland irrigation and that in terms of grounwater supply, Kulustay once had a water level almost 180 meters underground, the hardest-hit region in the area in history.

Kulustay, home to a number of wetlands, provides a perfect habitat for wildlife and migrant waterfowl. However, overgrazing, deforestation and excessive land reclamation have scarred the land since the 1980s, resulting in severe soil erosion, shrinking wetlands and wildlife extinction.

"At first, there were only several goats raised by every household, but later the number jumped to hundreds," said Yeshanbik, a local resident. "Animals eating on the grassland left ugly bald spots everywhere."

Xinjiang has sped up Kulustay grassland restoration since the end of 2015, implementing measures including closing groundwater-pumping wells, as well as prohibiting and delaying grazing.

The local government said 330 households and nearly 270,000 livestock were expected to leave the grassland by 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:32:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

by Justice Lee Adoboe

ACCRA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- As some major banks in Ghana are struggling to meet up with the roadmap and deadline for recapitalization, some experts are of the view that the country's banking sector needs serious capital injection to enable the banks to remain in competition.

Sam Bediako-Asante, Managing Director of SamBed Consult, a leading financial market consultancy in the country, told Xinhua Tuesday via telephone that some of the smaller banks should merge with bigger ones in order to create that synergy with which to do serious business.

"I think there should be mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry. Our traditional banks should come together to form very big banks. That will be good for the economy, because the capital base of our traditional banks is too small and so they are not able to compete with even the foreign banks that come here to do business," Bediako-Asante said.

The Minimum capital requirement for commercial banks in Ghana is 120 million Ghana cedis (27.2 million U.S. dollars) with the central bank considering at least doubling that figure by the end of the year.

The industry analyst was of the opinion that if that were done, the banks could consolidate their strengths and then boost economic activities in the country, which will further help them to boost their own capital base and then venture on to the African terrain and then perhaps compete globally as well.

About nine out of the 36 commercial banks have been going through crippling liquidity challenges partly due to excessive exposure to the country's energy sector and the central bank has drawn a roadmap of recovery for them which expires in September.

Comparing the Ghanaian situation with other countries, Bediako-Asante urged Ghanaian banks to learn from Nigeria and South Africa where there are few banks but are well resourced and are doing business across the continent and even some on the global stage.

He therefore urged that the minimum capital requirements for banks be raised to either 500 million cedis (113.3 million dollars) or 1 billion cedis (226.7 million dollars).

The expert urged the central bank to crack the whip against any of the local banks which is unable to meet the September deadline for recapitalization.

Central bank governor, Ernest Addison observed during the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference on Monday that although the financial sector remained vibrant, the quality of lending weakened "over the last few years with non-performing loans reaching 21.7 percent in May 2017."

"Following the Asset Quality Review (AQR), the Bank of Ghana has been implementing a roadmap for recapitalization which required the few banks which did not meet the minimum capital adequacy ratio to submit capital restoration plans. The implementation of the roadmap is on course. Most of these banks have met the minimum requirement and a few are on course to doing so within the stipulated timeframe," Addison, assured.

He cautioned that any bank which does not meet the deadline of September would face the whip of the regulatory dictates.

"If you recollect at the time that the asset quality review was done and the road-map for financial stability was agreed on the banks were written to in March with various hurdles to meet

"We had a 90-day hurdle, and 90 days from March I think ended in June, and another 90 days ends in September so those are the times that have been stipulated for meeting those requirements," he stressed.

In his comment another banking expert, Nana Otuo Acheampong, Executive Director of the Kumasi based Osei Tutu II Centre for Executive Education and Research (OTCEER), told Xinhua he was confident that the nine banks would be able to meet the September deadline stipulated by the central bank for meeting the Capital Adequacy ratio, especially as just two are left to do so.

Acheampong, a former Head of the Faculty of Corporate Reporting and Investment at the Ghana Banking College, cautioned that nothing be done to disturb the banking environment since it is one of the engines of growth in the economy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 19:37:58|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

KAMPALA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of South Sudanese refugees fleeing to neighboring Uganda has reduced despite continued fighting back home, a new report by the UN Refugee Agency has said.

According to the situation report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number in June went down to over 600 from the 2,000 recorded daily several months ago.

Katherine Wainwright, Senior External Relations Associate UNHCR Uganda, told Xinhua on Tuesday by telephone that the reduction could be attributed to several factors.

She highlighted one as the ongoing rainy season which impedes the movement of refugees.

She said the majority of the refugees move through bushes to cross to Uganda fearing to be arrested by armed groups who mount road blocks.

"Almost everyone that comes across is travelling through the bush for many days. This becomes more difficult obviously in the rain season," she said.

The other factor is said to be reduced fighting near the border of the two countries. This reduces the fleeing.

Wainwright said although the number of those fleeing reduced, the refugee crisis has not gone down. She noted that the refugees are still in dire need of humanitarian help.

She said in the next several days, the number of South Sudan refugees who have crossed to Uganda is going to hit 1 million. They are currently over 990,000, according to Uganda government figures.

According UNHCR, there are ongoing preparations to re-open up a refugee settlement in the northwestern district of Arua to cater for the increasing numbers.

Uganda is Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest today, after Turkey and Pakistan.

UN figures show that the country hosts more than 1.2 million refugees from neighboring countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, among others.

Although Uganda has been hailed for its open refugee policy that avails land for cultivation and refugees with skills allowed to work, such huge numbers are placing pressure on state and host community resources, especially social services like health and education.

Uganda and the UN late last month hosted a refugee summit aimed at raising money to cater for the refugees.

According to the UN, Uganda needs 8 billion dollars to cater for refugees over the next four years.

During the summit, 358 million dollars was made in pledges.

Experts have argued that whereas it is critical to address the refugee crisis, the root causes have to be addressed too.

There are ongoing efforts to stop the fighting in South Sudan, both at regional levels and through intermediaries.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is leading efforts to end the fighting by bringing the warring parties together.

Last week, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and part of the rebel delegation were in Uganda to devise ways of ending the fighting.
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)

by Lyu Tianran and James Gashumba

KIGALI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The incumbent president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, will seek his third term in the presidential elections on August 4, where he will face challenges from other two candidates.

Kagame, also the chairman of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), holds advantage over the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's Frank Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, as he has a good track record and enjoys high popularity in the country, analysts told Xinhua.

"He is extremely popular and has the experience. He is the author of Rwanda's emergence among nations," said Herman Musahara, Associate Professor and Researcher of College of Business and Economics at University of Rwanda. He predicted another landslide victory of Kagame.

This year's presidential elections will be the third since the end of the ex-genocidal regime in 1994. Kagame gained landslide victories in the last two presidential elections held in 2003 and 2010 by winning 95 percent and 93 percent of the total votes, respectively.

The 1994's Rwanda genocide claimed over 1 million lives, mostly ethnic Tutsis. After ending the genocide, RPF led by Kagame formed a coalition government, which brought parties that did not participate in the genocide together, and started the journey of reconstruction and reconciliation.

He has been head of a government that has become the 7th in efficiency globally and the third in Africa in ease of doing business, said Musahara.

Kagame is cherished more profoundly as having led stopping the Rwandan genocide in 1994 under difficult conditions, and then went on to forge a unique and successful model of national unity and reconciliation, said the expert.

Supporters of Rwandan presidential candidate Paul Kagame, the incumbent President of Rwanda, hold up flags of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front at a presidential campaign rally in Ruhango, Rwanda, on July 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

"Since the (July 1994) liberation, Rwanda has started a journey of recovering its unity and identity... which had been put aside, put down, by colonial rulers and subsequent regimes of the first and second regimes," executive secretary of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) Fidele Ndayisaba told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in June.

Rwanda's reconciliation status is at 92.5 percent, up from 82.3 percent of five years before, according to Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer released by NURC in 2016.

The government has now adopted a policy of single national identity. Citizens are registered simply as Rwandans, with no ethnic or tribal references anymore on their identification papers.

According to Musahara, Kagame's achievements in his last seven-year term include overseeing rapid economic and social development of Rwanda and Rwandans, taking Rwanda to a high positioning in visibility and competitiveness globally as a model of a developmental state, and maintaining peace and security in the country and the region.

"Life for Rwandans has generally continued to improve, and it is obvious to many that the government tries its best to work for them and in their interest," said Frederick Golooba-Mutebi a researcher and writer on politics and public affairs.

He told Xinhua that other candidates can't convince Rwandans that they have a viable alternative agenda that would make people's lives better than they have been made over the last 23 years.

Kagame has a strong and clear track record, said the researcher, adding that most of what he and the government they lead have promised, they have delivered.

Where they have not delivered to expectations, fair-minded Rwandans would agree that it was not because they were taking care of their own interests at the expense of those of the ordinary person.

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, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board Anastase Shyaka said during RPF's congress, where Kagame was elected as RPF's presidential candidate.

Others include universal health insurance cover for Rwandans and rural development, he said.

Campaigns for the three candidates started on July 14 and will end on August 3, just a day before the elections.

About 6.8 million people will participate in this year's presidential elections, according to the National Electoral Commission of Rwanda.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:25:13|Editor: Zhou Xin

An employee fills the tank of a motorcycle at a fuel station in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on July 26, 2017. A countrywide strike by oil tanker owners in Pakistan against the government's safety measures, which has affected fuel supply across the country, was called off on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
The photo shows Florence Mayor Dario Nadella and Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Salaare are riding Mobikes. (Photo courtesy of smart bike-sharing firm Mobike)

ROME, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A new kind of bicycles designed by China's leading smart bike-sharing company Mobike have entered Italian city of Florence, the company announced Tuesday.

The silver-orange smart bicycles had been placed in strategic locations across city of Florence to help alleviate automobile traffic and sustainably enhance mobility.

During the initial trial operation phase, several hundred Mobikes will be launched in selected high-demand areas with a promotional rate of 30 euro cents per 30 minutes.

Starting from August, formal services will be provided to all residents in Florence as well as Milan, with a plan to launch around 4,000 bikes in each of the two cities, according to Mobike.

A launch ceremony was hosted by Florence Mayor Dario Nadella at the "Palazzo Vecchio", home of the Mayor's office on Monday. Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala also attended the ceremony.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice towards sustainable mobility today. We are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italy's first stationless bikeshare," Nadella said.

Sala said: "We strongly welcome the launch of Mobike in Milan. This launch shows that cities with a touristic and international profile like ours understand the strategic importance of investing in this form of sustainable mobility."

Mobikes are designed with a series of proprietary high-tech features that benefit both users and partner cities. Every Mobike is equipped with unique smart-lock technology and built-in GPS connected via the Mobike IoT network. This is an invaluable feature for cities, which no other bikesharing company provides.

Mobike's technology locates and monitors the condition of each bike, as well as location-based demands for bikes in real-time to manage supply and help solve the "last-mile" challenge.

Mobike was Launched in Shanghai in April 2016. Italy is its fourth overseas market following Singapore, Britain and Japan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:13:25|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

JAKARTA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei will have a meeting over the weekend in Indonesia, planning out a strategy to battle terrorists in Marawi city of the Philippines, an official said here on Wednesday.

Indonesian Chief Security Minister Wiranto said the two-day meeting will kick off on July 29 in Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi, Wiranto said.

The minister revealed that the meeting would deepen observation on the latest situation linked with terrorist activities in the Marawi city, and how to find a strategy to anticipate it.

"All countries in Southeast Asia are certainly to reject the shifting of their countries to a new base of IS (Islamic State)," said Wiranto in a statement.

The meeting would discuss various ways to terminate the activities of the IS in southern Philippines, particularly in Sulu area, he said.

The official did not disclose the list of the participants of the meeting.

Indonesia has stepped up patrol in waters and air on the country's border with the southern Philippines to prevent the IS fighters from crossing into Indonesian territory.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:23:31|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

NEW DELHI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government said on Wednesday that left-wing Naxalite rebels have killed as many as 94 civilians in the first half of this year suspecting them of working as police informers.

"Ninety-four civilians have been killed in 2017 by left-wing extremists," India's junior Home Minister Hansraj Ahir said in the parliament.

Claiming that those killed by Naxalites were accused of being police informers, the minister said that the rebels did torture before eliminating their enemies. "The methods of killing include shooting, multiple beatings and hacking with sharp weapons," he added.

Naxalite uprising began in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal's village of Naxalbari back in 1967.

Although this was eventually quashed by police, over the years the rebels have regrouped and asserted control over vast swathes of land in central and eastern India.

The Naxalites are active in more than a third of India's 600-odd districts across the eastern states of Jharkand, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared Naxalites as the country's biggest internal security threat.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:23:33|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

DUBAI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is optimistic that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member states and non-OPEC countries will comply with the planned crude output cuts, UAE Minister of Energy, Suhail Al-Mazroui, said on Wednesday.

Al-Mazroui said UAE "is committed to its share in OPEC production cut and will reduce Crude Export for September for all of its crude types."

In November last year, OPEC agreed for the first time in eight years to cut the production of oil by 1.2 million barrels per day and to limit the combined output at 32.5 million barrels a day.

But the deal failed to lift the price of the "black gold."

The price of oil has been trading for the last 12 months in a range between 40 dollars a barrel to 54 dollars a barrel.

But the majority of OPEC member states need a price of higher than 60 dollars a barrel in order to reach fiscal break-even, according to figures compiled by the International Monetary Fund.

The UAE harbors approximately seven percent of the world's known oil reserves. Ninety percent of the UAE's crude reserves is located in the capital sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi.
A Ugandan police inspects the belongings of a South Sudanese refugee at Ngomoromo in Lamwo, northern Ugandan, April 12, 2017. Since the start of the year, some 192,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring Uganda, a country currently hosting 832,000 refugees from South Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported. (Xinhua/Ronald Ssekandi)

KAMPALA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of South Sudanese refugees fleeing to neighboring Uganda has reduced despite continued fighting back home, a new report by the UN Refugee Agency has said.

According to the situation report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number in June went down to over 600 from the 2,000 recorded daily several months ago.

Katherine Wainwright, Senior External Relations Associate UNHCR Uganda, told Xinhua on Tuesday by telephone that the reduction could be attributed to several factors.

She highlighted one as the ongoing rainy season which impedes the movement of refugees.

A South Sudanese refugee carries her mattress at Ngomoromo in Lamwo, northern Ugandan, April 12, 2017. Since the start of the year, some 192,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring Uganda, a country currently hosting 832,000 refugees from South Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported. (Xinhua/Ronald Ssekandi)

She said the majority of the refugees move through bushes to cross to Uganda fearing to be arrested by armed groups who mount road blocks.

"Almost everyone that comes across is travelling through the bush for many days. This becomes more difficult obviously in the rain season," she said.

The other factor is said to be reduced fighting near the border of the two countries. This reduces the fleeing.

Wainwright said although the number of those fleeing reduced, the refugee crisis has not gone down. She noted that the refugees are still in dire need of humanitarian help.

She said in the next several days, the number of South Sudan refugees who have crossed to Uganda is going to hit 1 million. They are currently over 990,000, according to Uganda government figures.

According UNHCR, there are ongoing preparations to re-open up a refugee settlement in the northwestern district of Arua to cater for the increasing numbers.

Uganda is Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest today, after Turkey and Pakistan.

UN figures show that the country hosts more than 1.2 million refugees from neighboring countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, among others.

Although Uganda has been hailed for its open refugee policy that avails land for cultivation and refugees with skills allowed to work, such huge numbers are placing pressure on state and host community resources, especially social services like health and education.

South Sudanese refugees are seen at Ngomoromo in Lamwo, northern Ugandan, April 12, 2017. Since the start of the year, some 192,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring Uganda, a country currently hosting 832,000 refugees from South Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported. (Xinhua/Ronald Ssekandi)

Uganda and the UN late last month hosted a refugee summit aimed at raising money to cater for the refugees.

According to the UN, Uganda needs 8 billion dollars to cater for refugees over the next four years.

During the summit, 358 million dollars was made in pledges.

Experts have argued that whereas it is critical to address the refugee crisis, the root causes have to be addressed too.

There are ongoing efforts to stop the fighting in South Sudan, both at regional levels and through intermediaries.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is leading efforts to end the fighting by bringing the warring parties together.

Last week, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and part of the rebel delegation were in Uganda to devise ways of ending the fighting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:28:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

WINDHOEK, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's ruling party Swapo has withdrawn the dismissed deputy minister of land reform Bernadus Swartbooi from parliament with immediate effect.

Swapo secretary general Nangolo Mbumba made the announcement Wednesday during a media briefing held in Windhoek.

Swartbooi was asked to resign as land reform deputy minister in 2016 after he had accused the land reform minister Utoni Nujoma of resettling people from other regions in the south of the country.

Although Swartbooi was dismissed as deputy minister, he retained his parliamentary seat.

After his dismissal, Swartbooi formed the Landless People's Movement that is calling for a return of ancestral lands to the rightful owners.

The Landless People's Movement is largely made up of the Nama and Herero tribes whose ancestors fought against the German forces between 1904 and 1908.

The Germans then took over the land from the two tribes after they had thwarted what was known as rebellions.

On Saturday, Swartbooi told an audience during a gala dinner for the Landless People's Movement at Keetmanshoop, about 500 kilometers from Windhoek that he would not stay a minute longer if Swapo expelled him.

Swartbooi also said that he would not hesitate to transform the Landless People's Movement into a full-fledged political party.

After the comments by Swartbooi, Mbumba told the local media Monday that the party would deal with Swartbooi.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:33:43|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

TUNIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Tunisians celebrated on Tuesday the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Tunisia, which was proclaimed in the Republic Act passing through the parliament on July 25, 1957.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi handed over the Order of the Republic, the highest decoration of the Tunisian Republic, to former Prime Minister Habib Essid, who is considered the first head of government following the adoption of the new constitution in early 2014.

Essebsi also decided to pardon 1,583 prisoners, of whom 412 will be released, according to the Tunisian presidency.

Earlier in the day, the Tunisian president inaugurated "the Square of the Martyr" in tribute to Mohamed Brahmi, the founder and former leader of the People's Movement, who was assasinated on July 25, 2013.

"This tribute proves that Tunisia will always recognize the sacrifices of its martyrs especially since it is a strong message to future generations," said Essebsi at the ceremony attended by the family of Brahmi and Mohamed Ennaceur, the president of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People.

The 60th anniversary is the starting point for a second republic "based on a new constitution that separates powers and gives birth to a new political regime that will never be spared from certain handicaps," said Nizar Makni, a Tunisian political analyst.

"This new republic will opt for a more open and participative approach of all components, in the total respect of the sovereignty," he added.

For other observers, the Tunisian Republic's Day is an important occasion to gauge the economic, political and social progress of the country since its independence in March 1956.

"The 2011 revolution has redistributed the roles of the Tunisian intellectual elite to better adapt to the aspirations of the people," said Monia Arfaoui, a political analyst in Tunisia.

Arfaoui said the presidency has regained its role as the guarantor of the supremacy of law and the loyalty to the constitution.

This National Day appeals to all Tunisians because it represents the abolition of the monarchy in the country, with Habib Bourguiba serving as the first president of the republic, the Tunisian expert said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:33:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MADRID, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Spain's opposition parties are quick to criticize the testimony given by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who took the stand on Wednesday as a witness in a major graft trial.

Rajoy's one hour and 45 minute appearance as a witness in the trial, which is being held in San Fernando de Henares, made him the first ever serving Spanish prime minister to appear as a witness in a criminal trial.

The Gurtel trial is investigating a cash-for-favor scandal and the illegal financing of Rajoy's People's Party (PP) during the period 1999-2005.

However, despite having occupied a series of high-ranking positions in the party over the past 30 years, Rajoy told the court he knew nothing about its finances, saying he had only been occupied with political affairs.

"I never had anything to do with accounting ... All I worried about is that we had positive reports, because my responsibilities are political... I was a politician, I went to Parliament to defend positions," said Rajoy, whose performance was applauded by his own party.

A spokesperson for the PP said they were content with the prime minister's testimony, which they described as "convincing, answering all the questions and making clear his functions in the PP".

The PP spokesman in the Spanish Congress, Rafael Hernandez, said Rajoy had been "impeccable" in court, "showing his clear collaboration with justice".

Spain's opposition parties took the opposite view, with Socialists and left wing formation Podemos both highly critical of a man they accused of doing untold harm to Spain's image.

Socialist Party leader Pedro Sanchez said Rajoy's testimony showed the "corruption behind those who govern us" and that it damaged Spain's image abroad.

He said the only way out of the chaos was for Rajoy to "present his resignation to the King .... so as not to drag the image of Spaniards down with him".

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias also attacked Rajoy saying his attitude in court showed the "shameful arrogance with which he treats the citizens".

Iglesias added he would call Sanchez to try and convince the Socialists to present a no-confidence vote.

Meanwhile the center-right party, Ciudadanos, whose votes allowed Rajoy to return to power in October 2016 were also unconvinced by the prime minister's performance.

Ciudadanos, spokesman Jose Manuel Villegas, said it was "surprising that Rajoy directed election campaigns without knowing anything about their budget or spending", adding that it was "sad" Rajoy had to appear in court to declare about the "illegal financing of his party".

Villegas said it was therefore imperative that Rajoy appeared in front of the Congressional Committee currently investigating PP finances.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:38:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

SOFIA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Bulgarian cabinet on Wednesday decided to send 50 more military personnel to participate in the NATO-led Resolute Support mission (RSM) to Afghanistan, the government Information Service said in a statement.

Currently, the Balkan country has a 110-member contingent in the RSM, the statement said.

However, "the complicated military-political situation in Afghanistan has forced NATO military bodies to reconsider the composition of the forces involved in the mission and to call on the participating countries to increase their contribution," the statement said.

Meanwhile, in the area where Bulgarian troops perform their duties, reconstruction and extension of the facilities are carried out, as a result of which the guard posts will be significantly increased.

Therefore, the strength of the Bulgarian contingent will reach 160 troops. Bulgaria, a NATO member since 2004, has been participating in the NATO-led missions in Afghanistan since 2002.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:54:01|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

CAIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The future Syria should be a sovereign state without any place for terrorist groups on its territories, the Arab League (AL) Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said on Wednesday.

The AL chief's remarks came during a consultation meeting of Arab permanent representatives at the league attended by Deputy UN Special Envoy for Syria Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, held on Wednesday at AL headquarters in Cairo.

"There shall be no room for foreign militia, foreign fighters and terrorist groups on the territories of future Syria," said Aboul-Gheit, stressing the importance of the ongoing temporary ceasefire to stop bloodshed in the war-torn country.

"These temporary arrangements should not be an alternative for a political solution to the Syrian crisis," he added.

Latest UN-sponsored peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, failed to reach an agreement between the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, mainly backed by Russia and Iran, and the exiled opposition.

Since erupting in March 2011, the Syrian crisis has claimed the lives of about half a million people and displaced and wounded over 14 million.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 20:54:03|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. rice exports to China are yet to go through legal procedures, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

The two countries reached an agreement on inspection and quarantine protocols for U.S. rice exports to China during the first China-U.S. Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED) on July 19, 2017.

That was just the first step of legal procedures the two sides must go through, said an MOC spokesperson.

There are two further steps: one is that the U.S. government will recommend registered rice exporters to Chinese inspection and quarantine authorities who will recognize qualified companies; the other is that U.S. authorities will use methods approved by Chinese experts to fumigate rice from qualified exporters in order to prevent harmful biological threats, according to the spokesperson.

The CED saw the world's two largest economies resolve a number of issues in their trade relationship while agreeing to work together to solve outstanding problems.

According to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. rice exports to China can begin following the completion of an audit of U.S. rice facilities by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. It will be the first time the United States has exported rice to China, said the department.

China and the United States exchanged views on issues such as the removal of the ban on Chinese and U.S. poultry products on a reciprocal basis and the export of Chinese dairy and seafood products to the United States.

The CED is one of the four major dialogues established by the two countries in April.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:04:13|Editor: Liangyu

People dance to celebrate the National Volunteer Day in Khartoum, Sudan, on July 26, 2017. The Sudanese government marked on Wednesday the National Volunteer Day in the capital Khartoum to boost the humanitarian work in the country. (Xinhua/Mohamed Babkir)

KHARTOUM, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government marked on Wednesday the National Volunteer Day in the capital Khartoum to boost the humanitarian work in the country.

"The procession of the voluntary work in our country is pressing ahead with confidence, dedication, innovation and ability to achieve the aspired goals of the state and society," Bakri Hassan Saleh, Sudan's first vice president and prime minister, said in his address to a celebration.

The Sudanese society boasts a solidarity-based culture to provide support for the needy, he said, urging the national voluntary organizations to continue their assistance in the humanitarian work.

Mashair Al-Dawalab, Sudan's minister of Welfare and Social Security, also hailed the "great" role being played by the national organizations in Sudan.

"Our national voluntary organizations have played a great role in providing humanitarian aid in all conflict and displacement areas," she said.

"What the national voluntary organizations have done in the past and the present in providing support for the affected population, as the latest in Jebel Marra area, constitutes a great example of a pure national effort," she noted.

Ahmed Mohamed Adam, Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, called for support for the voluntary organizations to enable them to perform their national roles, and stressed the partnership between the national organizations, the UN agencies and other international organizations.

"We have great hope that the government's sponsorship for the national voluntary organizations would continue with provision of further support and facilitations together with support for the programs of the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) to strengthen the response and boost the coordination among all partners of the voluntary work," Adam said.

In 2014, the Sudanese government introduced the "Sudanization of Humanitarian Work Program" and required the ministries to arrange projects in coordination with the United Nations and its agencies, but the program has not been implemented.

The program was meant to enhance the role of national voluntary organizations in Sudan to establish an effective mechanism responding to humanitarian needs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:04:17|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

TIRANA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Albania counts on Bulgaria's strong support for opening of membership negotiations into the European Union (EU) family," Albania's newly-elected president Ilir Meta told visiting Foreign Affairs Minister of Bulgaria Ekaterina Zaharieva on Wednesday.

One of the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2018 is to revive EU's enlargement policy.

Both officials agreed on further encouraging economic and trade exchanges and common regional projects of development.

Meta praised Bulgaria's role in maintaining good neighborly relations and emphasized the importance of cooperation between the two countries in the context of initiatives and regional organizations for sustainability, development and Euro-Atlantic orientation of Western Balkan countries.

Meta and Zaharieva, who is also Bulgaria's deputy prime minister, agreed judicial reform was an important step toward consolidating institutions and fighting against corruption and organized crime.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:04:20|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

PARIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of French firemen on Wednesday are still struggling to contain a huge wildfire which still menaces the southeast, notably in the department of Var where 10,000 people have been evacuated, according to local authorities.

The department of Var where popular resorts are located experienced "a violent spread of fire" on Tuesday night. Ten thousand civilians, including 3,000 campers, have been asked to quit their homes in Bormes-les-Mimosas town where 800 hectares have already been destroyed.

A total of 3,000 hectares have been ravaged in the region by fierce fire which broke out on Monday. Ten firefighters were wounded, the department of Var said in a statement.

About 2,000 firefighters and 19 aircraft, including 10 Canadair water bombers, have been mobilized to battle the flames in southeastern France.

The French government has asked its European Union partners to send two extra air tankers to fight the wildfire. The summer in France has been exceptionally hot and dry.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:19:33|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

JAKARTA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said on Wednesday that Indonesia decided to purchase 11 Russian-made Sukhoi 35 fighter jets as negotiations over the deal had already been finalized.

"There will be 11 planes. After two years, it was finally finalized," the minister said in the presidential palace.

The Russian-made aircraft were intended to replace F5 E/F Tiger II warplanes, which have been in service with the Indonesian Air Forces since 1980s.

Reports said delivery of the Su-35 fighter jets to Indonesia would be conducted next year.

The Su-35s would join the Flanker-family fleet of the Indonesian Air Forces, which now operate 11 Su-30s and five Su-27s respectively.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:19:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

Employees work at Power Public Corporation's South Field lignite mine which is adjacent to Aghios Dimitrios power station at the outskirts of Kozani, Greece, June 6, 2017. Greece's Power Public Corporation (PPC), the largest power utility in the country, is undergoing great changes as part of efforts to overcome the 7-year Greek debt crisis and plans the future seeking credible partners, PPC Chairman and CEO Manolis Panagiotakis told Xinhua in a recent interview. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

By Maria Spiliopoulou

KOZANI, Greece, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Greece's Power Public Corporation (PPC), the largest power utility in the country, is undergoing great changes as part of efforts to overcome the 7-year Greek debt crisis and plans the future seeking credible partners, PPC Chairman and CEO Manolis Panagiotakis told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The agreements PPC has sealed with major Chinese companies over the past year and bilateral collaboration so far indicate that the future for Sino-Greek cooperation in the energy sector is bright and Chinese firms can hold a key role in Greece's new strategic energy planning, Panagiotakis said.

Seven years into the debt crisis and bailout programs, PPC faced accumulating overdue bills and creditors' demands to open up the market to competition and sell assets.

By 2019 the state-controlled company will lose its monopoly status. Currently PPC has an almost 90 percent share of Greece's retail market which needs to be reduced by 40 percent under bailout commitments.

PPC will also lose 40 percent of its lignite capacity by selling mines and lignite powered plants.

In this context, Panagiotakis welcomes as a "positive development" the purchase of a 24-percent stake of power grid operator ADMIE by China's State Grid which was finalized this June following an international tender.

"In a few years, PPC will be entirely different.... Our target is to rebuild a company which will be operating in many fields, not only the production and sale of electricity," the official told Xinhua.

"In this framework, we are seeking partners to for joint ventures. Since such projects require capitals, but mainly advanced technology and knowhow that Chinese companies have, I believe there is great potential for bilateral cooperation," he said.

At the moment Panagiotakis and Greek Energy Ministry officials are finalizing the list of units that will go on sale with the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition.

Regardless of this procedure, the memorandum of understanding PPC signed with CMEC a few months ago to build a new coal-fired electricity producing plant in Florina in northern Greece will go ahead, he told Xinhua.

Xinhua reporters visited recently the area where beats the "energy heart" of Greece. Within a zone stretching about 100 kilometers between the cities of Florina and Kozani, some 500 kilometers north of Athens, are operating for several decades power plants that generate most of Greece's electricity. They are fed by nearby lignite mines.

Since Greece possesses rich lignite energy capacity, the "brown coal" has powered Greek economy for more than half a century. As the country gradually turns to other sources, its "energy heart" is also changing.

Aghios Dimitrios power station at the outskirts of Kozani is Greece's largest lignite- fired power plant. Its first unit was constructed in 1984 and the fifth in 1997, its director Panagiotis Tsanoulas and other PPC employees said while giving Xinhua a tour at the impressive premises and explaining the stages of operation.

Approximately 700 people work at the power plant and a further 1,000 at the nearby mine which supplies it with lignite via a conveyor belt 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The South Field lignite mine which is adjacent to Aghios Dimitrios processing plant is the largest in the Balkans. Gigantic excavators reaching up to 45 meters high are extracting the "brown coal" since 1983.

Lignite resources are still in abundance, but Greece faces pressure to reduce lignite fired production of electricity in the future, although investments have been made and measures are taken to keep below European standards dust and gas emissions in the area.

PPC's stance is that for the near future Greece needs to keep at least 27 percent of its electricity produced by lignite fired plants to ensure that its energy needs will be covered and the country will not be largely dependent on natural gas in cases of spikes in prices in the international market, Panagiotakis said.

PPC proposes carefully planned investments in lignite production, such as the Florina project, and joint ventures with investors in upgrading current units and other projects in Greece and the wider Balkans region.

During his two visits to China in 2016 and 2017 as part of the Greek government delegation led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Panagiotakis had contacts with 21 Chinese companies, visited state-of-the-art power plants and was impressed by the high level of technology used, he said.

The PPC chief is convinced that in Chinese enterprises Greece can find the credible partners she seeks. He is eager to discuss the idea of establishing a smart meters production unit in Greece with CMEC or cooperation in the electric cars sector and the transfer of electricity via underwater cable interconnections linking Crete to the mainland with State Grid, he told Xinhua.

The Greek official was also impressed by Shenhua's research center which is a pioneer in environment protection, as he noted. PPC will explore the prospect of cooperation in research programs.

"I believe that there are great prospects for collaboration," Panagiotakis said.

PPC has a strong brand name in the Balkans and can play a leading role in developments in the energy sector in the area in the future, he added.

An employee works at Power Public Corporation's South Field lignite mine which is adjacent to Aghios Dimitrios power station at the outskirts of Kozani, Greece, June 6, 2017. Greece's Power Public Corporation (PPC), the largest power utility in the country, is undergoing great changes as part of efforts to overcome the 7-year Greek debt crisis and plans the future seeking credible partners, PPC Chairman and CEO Manolis Panagiotakis told Xinhua in a recent interview. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:19:40|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MOYALE, Kenya, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday commissioned the 420 million U.S. dollars Isiolo-Moyale road in northern region which connects Kenya to Ethiopia.

The Isiolo-Moyale road is the Kenyan section of the Trans-Africa Highway Corridor, which was upgraded to bitumen standards by the government with support of the African Development Bank (ADB) and China Exim Bank.

The Isiolo-Moyale highway is also a key plank of the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia (LAPSSET) Corridor Project, an economic and transport corridor that stretches from Lamu port in the coastal Kenya to South Sudan and Ethiopia.

The road project was implemented in three phases: 121 km Merille River-Marsabit, 121 km Marsabit-Turbi and 121 km Turbi-Moyale.

Speaking during the launch, Kenyatta said the commissioning of the new road and the Isiolo International Airport last week will promote cross-border trade and lift the lives of Kenyans.

"There will no longer be challenges of traveling and even accessing markets for our goods and services. With this road and the Isiolo international airport, Kenyans are sure of improving their economy," he said.

Kenyatta said his administration is also implementing the Lamu port project which will be completed by next year.

He said once complete the government will launch the construction of Lamu-Garissa-Isiolo road which will open up the second transport corridor in Kenya.

"With the opening up of this road, Moyale will become a market centre for Kenyan goods and services. Our brothers from Ethiopia will be coming here to purchase goods from us," said President Kenyatta.

"Once all these projects are complete, Moyale residents will not be waking up saying they are going to Kenya. Rather they will enjoy all services like other Kenyan citizens," he added.

The road is also a key link to the Great North Trans African Highway that links Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt and has been identified as a priority project in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) short-term action plan.

Coupled with the planned resort city of Isiolo as well as the Isiolo International Airport, the Isiolo-Moyale road will significantly boost security and tourism in Northern Kenya.

Kenyatta said the new road is also set to open up Northern tourism belt to increase the tourism activities in Mt. Kenya, Samburu, Meru, Aberdares and Marsabit National Parks as well as the wildlife conservancies within the region.

He said the reason he is seeking a second term, is so that Jubilee can entrench the transformational development trend the country has embarked on over the last four-and-a-half years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:24:44|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

HOHHOT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Ganzhaorog clicked the mouse, and his cattle appeared on the screen.

"Look, they are quietly grazing. I can even see their facial expressions," said the 42-year-old herdsman from Huugjilt Village, Sunite Left Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Ganzhaorog raises over 1,000 sheep, 100 cattle, 100 horses and 10 camels on his 1,340-hectare farm.

"In the past, I had to go and see how my herds were doing hourly every day, but now I don't have to worry that much, and can just sit back and watch them from home," he said.

In 2014, his farm became one of the first in the village to have a video monitoring system. By last year, four cameras had been installed.

Ganzhaorog said with the local government subsidy, he only paid 30 percent of the total 80,000 yuan (11,840 U.S. dollars) for the system.

"The cameras can monitor up to four kilometers, so I am able to see everything on my farm," he said, adding that with a mobile phone app, he can watch the herds when he is away.

According to Ganzhaorog, the system has not only saved him time physically going to check his herds, but also helped cut labor costs. "In the past, I hired three to four workers to take care of the herds, and now, I do it all myself."

The monitoring system project is part of local government efforts to improve herders' lives, said Chen Xiaogang, deputy head of the banner's finance bureau.

Last year, Ganzhaorog's farm was also equipped with an automatic drinking system to ensure adequate water for his herds.

The drinking system has a sensor that keeps the water at a certain level. If the water level gets too low, it will be refilled automatically.

Though far from the city, Ganzhaorog has access to the Internet in his Mongolian yurt. "We installed WiFi in 2015, and I can use WeChat or watch my favorite programs. My life is so convenient now," he said.

Altancang, 45, a herdsman who lives on the edge of the Kubuqi Desert, near Ordos, also enjoys assistance from a positioning system supported by China's self-developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System.

All of his cattle were fitted with GPS collars last year, Altancang is able to view their locations on his computer or phone. He said he previously travelled 60 to 80 kilometers a day on his motorcycle to keep track of his cattle.

"But now with the GPS collars, herding is much easier. It works in the middle of nowhere, and has an excellent battery life of up to two years," he said.

The Beidou Navigation Satellite System is China's largest navigation and positioning system, featuring faster speeds, higher accuracy and wider coverage. The positioning system, jointly developed by Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology and the animal husbandry bureau of Hangjin Banner, Ordos was officially put into use in Inner Mongolia in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 21:24:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

SINGAPORE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Three cases of locally transmitted Zika virus infection have been confirmed in Singapore, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Wednesday.

The new cluster at Serangoon North Avenue 1 was notified on Wednesday, and the NEA has commenced vector control operations in the area.

Residents and stakeholders are urged to maintain vigilance and continue to eliminate mosquito breeding habitats, as there could be asymptomatic or mild, undiagnosed cases which might result in further transmission of the virus if there are mosquitoes in the vicinity.

Health authorities have been conducting preventive inspections in the vicinity before the new cluster was notified to detect and destroy any potential mosquito breeding habitats.

Residents are requested to allow NEA officers to carry out inspections and indoor spraying of their homes. The NEA urges all residents and stakeholders to maintain vigilance and take immediate steps to eliminate mosquito breeding habitats.

Zika is a virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which could cause birth defects for pregnant women.

The NEA confirmed two Zika cases on June 21. By now, Singapore has recorded 42 Zika cases in 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:00:01|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

XI'AN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The embankment of a reservoir in northwest China's Shaanxi Province was breached on Wednesday, forcing nearby residents to evacuate.

Water burst out of the Qingshuigou Reservoir, a drinking water source for 45,000 residents in the county seat of Zizhou, at 1:50 p.m., disrupting the water supply, according to the local publicity department.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the reservoir water had passed along the Dali River with no casualties reported.

The small reservoir had a storage capacity of 370,000 cubic meters.

Torrential rain has battered the city of Yulin since Tuesday evening with disruptions to power supplies, telecommunication and the Internet.

In the worst-hit Suide and Zizhou counties, precipitation from 8 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday exceeded 200 millimeters, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.

In Zizhou, more than 20,000 residents living in low-lying areas were relocated to two schools. Two water trucks are supplying emergency water supplies to the county seat.

The rain also flooded sections of two railway lines, forcing 91 train services to be canceled.

A total of 1,350 rescuers have been sent to combat the floods and handle the aftermath. The city government has allocated 25 million yuan (3.7 million U.S. dollars) in disaster relief.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:05:05|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Beijing, capital of China, July 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday met with former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Beijing.

Li praised Samaras for his contribution in promoting bilateral relations and cooperation as well as facilitating the Sino-Greek cooperation at Piraeus port.

China is ready to work with Greece to deepen political mutual trust, expand cooperation and boost mutual understanding between the two peoples, so as to advance win-win cooperation, said Li.

In the face of the complex and volatile international situation, China hopes to beef up cooperation with the European Union nations including Greece to cope with the uncertainties, support trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and push forward the economic globalization in the direction of balanced development, shared benefits and win-win progress.

Samaras said developing friendly cooperation with China has become the consensus of various circles in Greece.

He hoped that the two sides could constantly expand pragmatic cooperation in all sectors so as to achieve more win-win results.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:10:11|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- German politicians from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Left Party on Wednesday called for an exact date to discontinue gasoline and diesel cars.

"The farewell to combustion technology will have to be launched in the near future," CDU politician Oliver Wittke said to German media.

Wittke noted that Germany would have to make a binding agreement after consultation with its European partners. "The right time for an exit is still to be clarified," he said.

Left Party politician Herbert Behrens also called for clear, timely decisions for the removal of fossil fuels in transport.

The British government announced its plan to ban petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles by 2040 on Wednesday in a bid to improve air quality by reducing nitrogen dioxide emissions.

In addition, both politicians also demanded full clarification of all lately cartel allegations against leading car producers.

Since the past weekend, German media reported widely about the allegations that leading German automotive brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler, colluded illegally since the 1990s triggering heated debate.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:15:12|Editor: Mengjie

Video Player Close

DUBAI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Council of Dubai and China's Huawei Consumer Business Group sealed on Wednesday a partnership that will see Dubai Font as a standard pre-loaded font in the mobile operating system from the Chinese ICT giant.

The signing was attended by Ahmad bin Amer Al Mahri, assistant secretary general of Dubai's Executive Council, and Jiao Jian, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group for Middle East and Africa.

The Dubai font will be available in the upcoming Huawei flagship smartphone launched first in the Middle East and Africa later this year, and then in the rest of the world by next year, said Jiao.

As a reflection of the modernity and innovation of Dubai, the signing is the latest in a series of steps seeing the city cement its position as a global cultural hub, according to the executive council.

The Dubai government and U.S. software giant Microsoft (MS) launched the Dubai font on April 30, 2017.

It reflects "the style of Dubai as an open city and is available in 23 languages on MS word applications and social media channels like twitter and instagram, among German, English, French, Arabic, Urdu, but not yet in Mandarin," Al Mahri told Xinhua.

"We are working on Mandarin and we hope to announce its inclusion very soon to the Dubai Font family," he added.

Huawei's Jiao said the Shenzhen-based ICT giant's "brand value is also recognized by multiple authoritative global agencies."

"According to the Fortune 500 ranking published on July 20, Huawei ascended to the 83rd from the 129th of last year, with revenue of 78.51 billion U.S. dollars, making the top global 100," he said.

Abdullah Al Shaibani, secretary general of the Executive Council of Dubai, also spoke highly of the partnership.

"Dubai Font is a new tool for self-expression and communication in the region and around the world, and we are confident that this agreement will leave its mark on the world. Huawei has a good reputation and this seems a natural fit for us moving forward," he said.

As the first font created by a city and named after it, the Dubai font is available to more than 100 million users of Microsoft Office 365 around the world. It could also be downloaded through the Dubai Font website for other usages and operating systems.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:20:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev co-chair the 13th round of strategic security consultation between China and Russia in Beijing, capital of China, July 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Cui Xinyu)

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia agreed to strengthen communication and coordination as the two sides Wednesday held the 13th round of strategic security consultation in Beijing.

The consultation was co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Hailing the strong momentum of bilateral ties as "their best in history," Yang called on the two sides to further enhance strategic mutual trust and coordination, promote cooperation in security, and strengthen support on issues of each other's core interest.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia early this month, Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

"The two sides should implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, promote bilateral ties, safeguard their common strategic security interests," Yang said.

"Promoting the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is a priority in Russia's diplomacy," Patrushev said, pledging more cooperation with China in strategic security and further coordination in international affairs.

The two sides also agreed to strengthen coordination for the success of the seventh meeting of BRICS High Representatives for Security Issues, which will be held in Beijing Thursday to Friday.

Yang will chair the meeting, which will be attended by senior representatives on security issues from BRICS countries, including Patrushev.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:25:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MOSCOW, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia will respond to a new round of sanctions by the United States should they become law, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

"The attitude to this will be formulated after careful analysis, and the decision will certainly be taken by the head of state, President Vladimir Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Peskov said the decision of U.S. lawmakers was "very sad news" for Russia-U.S. relations, international law and international trade relations.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill by an overwhelming majority that would impose sweeping sanctions on Russia, targeting its defense, intelligence, mining, shipping, energy and railway industries, and restrict dealings with its banks.

The bill must now pass the U.S. Senate before being signed into law or vetoed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:30:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ADDIS ABABA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) urges leaders and policy makers to, among others, confront the political drivers of vulnerability and hunger to capture full benefit of food assistance.

The report entitled, "World Food Assistance 2017: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead," was launched on Wednesday at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The report analyzes trends, challenges and solutions in food assistance while placing humanitarian action, risk and vulnerability at the core of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (zero hunger).

The report calls for efforts to increase humanitarian access, promote stability, and reduce the cost and enhance the effectiveness of food assistance.

Presenting the report, Steve Were Omamo, WFP official, told reporters that there should be continued effort to address political factor to benefit from food assistance.

The report underlines also the need to improve the quality of food assistance programmes, boost emergency preparedness and response, resilience, gender equality, nutrition and food system performance; strengthen national capacity and South-South cooperation to capture the full benefits of food assistance.

Stating that food assistance is vital to international humanitarian assistance, the report indicates that about 40 percent of total humanitarian spending is on food assistance.

Food assistance expenditures by WFP more than doubled from 2009 to 2016, increasing from 2.2 U.S. dollars billion to 5.3 billion dollars, according to the report.

While food assistance from national governments is much larger than that from international actors, funding for international food assistance is at record levels.

The report reveals, however, that international food assistance is not sufficient to meet needs, identifying a funding gap of 937 million U.S. dollars in 2013, and 3.16 billion dollars in 2015 and 2.68 billion dollars in 2016.

It also finds that spending on international food assistance differs by region and income level, while it has changed significantly in recent years.

Food assistance is constrained by lack of humanitarian access, instability and poorly performing food systems, according to the report.

From different sources, challenges facing food assistance include, climate change, conflict, urbanization and inequality, financing, access, protection and security as well as the structure and functioning of food systems.

The launch of the report is timely and pertinent to Africa, given the humanitarian crises now besetting the continent currently due to violent conflicts and climate-induced natural calamities leading to forced displacement, said Khabele Matlosa, AU Director for Political Affairs.

Africa hosts 17.8 million forcibly displaced people, of this 5.6 million are refugees and asylum seekers, according to the official.

Stating that a total of 13.2 million are internally displaced persons, the Director said, "The problem of food insecurity and malnutrition is particularly severe in situations of forced displacement, especially among women and children."

"As we launching this publication, we are addressing one of the major challenges facing Africa today, namely food insecurity largely as a result of violent conflicts, drought, famine, floods, and other climate-change effects," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 22:50:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

DAR ES SALAAM, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) said on Wednesday it plans to build a dry port in the east African nation's western region of Kigoma to cater for East Africa and the Great Lakes region.

Morris Nchindiuza, Kigoma region TPA Acting Manager, told a news conference in the port city of Tanga that the project will be among the biggest investments made by the authority in modern times. He did not reveal the cost of the project.

Nchindiuza said TPA has finalized plans for the massive project which will largely serve landlocked countries of Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

He said TPA has already disbursed 5.5 million U.S. dollars to compensate 1,228 people who were living in the project area.

Early this month, President John Magufuli launched a project to upgrade the east African nation's largest port in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DSMGP) will be undertaken by China Harbour Engineering Construction Company (CHEC), a subsidiary of the state-run China Communications Construction Company Ltd. The project was expected to be completed in 36 months.

Bella Bird, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi and Somalia, said the Dar es Salaam port was vital for the economies of Tanzania and neighboring countries.

She said upgrading of the port will enhance its operational potential and boost trade and job creation across the region.

"The project will also reduce the current cost of 200 to 400 dollars for each additional day of delay for a single consignment," said Bird.

The port of Dar es Salaam currently has 11 berths, with seven of these dedicated to general cargo and four to container operations.

The port handled 13.8 million tons in 2016 up from 13.1 million tons in 2013 and 10.4 million tons in 2011 reflecting an average growth of 9 percent per year over the last five years while recent numbers indicated a slowdown.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 23:00:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BRUSSELS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission pressed ahead on Wednesday to the second stage of legal actions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over refugee sharing.

The Commission said it had sent "reasoned opinions", the second step in infringement procedures, to the three European Union (EU) member states for "non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation".

The three countries were given one month to respond, instead of the usual two-month deadline.

The move came a month and a half after the Commission launched infringement procedures by sending "letters of formal notice" to the three countries.

The Commission said the three countries' replies to the letter "have not been found satisfactory as none were accompanied by an indication that these member states would start relocating swiftly to their territory."

According to the Commission, Poland and Hungary haven't taken in any refugees since September 2015, when EU member states pledged to relocate a total of 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy within two years. The Czech Republic has not relocated anyone since August 2016 and has not made any new promises for over a year.

If the three counties still refuse to comply, the Commission may refer the case to the Court of Justice, which may impose financial penalties on them.

As of July 24, the total number of relocations stands at 24,676, of which 16,803 from Greece, 7,873 from Italy, according to the latest Commission report on the relocation of refugees released Wednesday.

As for resettlement, 17,179 persons have been resettled since July 2015, when member states agreed to resettle a total of 22,504 asylum seekers.
A soldier patrols on USS Gerald R. Ford before its commissioning ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, the United States, on July 22, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots at an Iranian patrol boat on Tuesday in the northern end of the Persian Gulf, U.S. media reported Tuesday.

The Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, CNN quoted a defense official familiar with details of the incident as saying.

The Iranian boat, which approached and came within 150 yards (about 137 meters) of the U.S. ship, did not respond to any warnings from the U.S. ship, including radio calls, firing of flares and five short blasts from the U.S. Navy ship's whistle, the report said.

The U.S. Navy ship then fired warning shots into the water over concerns about the possibility of a collision, a U.S. defense official said, adding that the Iranian ship then stopped approaching the U.S. ship but lingered in the area for some hours.

Similar incidents between the United States and Iran occurred in the past. In January this year, a U.S. navy ship fired warning shots at five Iranian ships when the vessel and two other U.S. ships were entering the Strait of Hormuz.

In March, the U.S. media reported that a U.S. navy surveillance ship was "harassed" by Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that had been rejected by Iran as the White House's media hype against Tehran.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 23:36:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BRUSSELS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission outlined radicalization and cyber crime as the evolving security threats to be addressed in a report on Wednesday.

The report is the ninth in a series of monthly reports on progress made towards a Security Union, according to a Commission statement.

To address the challenges, the Commission is continuously analyzing the need to establish a high level expert group on radicalization.

In the coming months, the Commission will also review the EU's cyber security strategy to provide an up-to-date response to the growing threat of cyber crime.

The report, published Wednesday, also highlights the steps taken to prevent terrorist financing and improve the interoperability of EU information systems.

European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos said: "In this rapidly changing security environment, we must intensify our efforts to deliver on all essential elements and work swiftly to achieve a genuine and effective Security Union."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 23:46:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Beijing police have detained 63 members of Shanxinhui, a company suspected of organizing and leading a pyramid scheme, who gathered in the city on Monday.

The suspects were held in police custody for allegedly "impairing the administration of social order," police said Wednesday.

Another four people were put under non-criminal detention for "disrupting order in public places," according to police.

Some suspects who "took the lead in creating trouble and refusing to listen to police orders" have been taken away for further investigation.

An earlier police statement said "some members of Shanxinhui were incited by those with ulterior motives to illegally gather in Beijing, seriously disturbing the capital's social order."

The gathering allegedly broke laws and rules, it said.

Chinese police have previously investigated Shanxinhui for allegedly manipulating people into taking part in pyramid selling and cheating them out of huge amounts of property under the guise of helping the poor.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-26 23:56:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ADDIS ABABA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia has, for a second time, extended an amnesty program for undocumented migrants to leave.

According to a press statement by Ethiopian consulate mission in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the extended amnesty program, which lasts for one month, will be effective as of last Monday July 24.

Saudi Arabia announced in March 2017 a three months amnesty program for undocumented foreign migrants to voluntarily leave the country before the amnesty's expiration in late June.

However, Saudi Arabia gave a one-month extension ending July 24 to provide more time to undocumented foreign migrants to voluntarily return to their home countries.

Ethiopia has one of the highest numbers of undocumented migrants in Saudi Arabia with the government undertaking vigorous campaign to return undocumented Ethiopian migrants back to home.

So far about 70,000 undocumented Ethiopians living in Saudi Arabia have returned home with another 60,000 undocumented Ethiopians having registered at Ethiopian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia to return.

There are no exact figures on the number of Ethiopians illegally living in Saudi Arabia but some estimates put the number close to 400,000, taking up jobs ranging from maids to construction sites.

With a growing population currently at around 30 million and a squeeze in international oil price, Saudi Arabia is on a drive to indigenize its work force currently dominated by millions of illegal and legal migrants.

The approaching deadline recalled painful memories of Ethiopians in the last deportation debacle in November 2013 when a deportation round by Saudi authorities on illegal migrants left many Ethiopians in Saudi detention camps and returned home penniless.

The Ethiopian government has already dispatched a dozen diplomats in its embassy in Riyadh and consular offices in other Saudi cities to give consular advice to stranded Ethiopians.

With an eye to curbing illegal migration, the Ethiopian government in May signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabia government for an overseas employment agreement to help future legal Ethiopian migrants.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:01:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ABUJA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's police chief Ibrahim Idris on Wednesday said the menace of kidnappings in the West African country can only be abated when abductors are handed tougher punishments.

Idris spoke at a meeting in Abuja, saying it was sad that kidnappers in Nigeria even enjoyed more freedom than law-abiding citizens.

"We have not seen where kidnap suspects were convicted and jailed for committing the offense," he said at the meeting with heads of police in states across the African most populous nation.

Seeking stringent punishments for the kidnappers would make them desist from their evil ways, he said.

Kidnapping has been rampant in Nigeria, to a degree that hardly a day passes without news of abduction in parts of the country.

Hundreds of people in towns and villages have been kidnapped so far this year, including high profile kidnapping cases, according to local media.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:01:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

CAIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian armed forces said on Wednesday that they have received two more Rafale fighter jets from France as the fourth batch of a deal signed in February 2015.

The pair raises the number of French-made Rafale warplanes delivered to Egypt to 11 out of a total of 24 stated in the deal.

According to the agreement, France is to sell Egypt 24 Rafale warplanes and a FREMM multi-mission frigate. Egypt received the frigate in June 2015 and nine Rafale jets in three batches in July 2015, January 2016 and April 2017, respectively.

"The new Rafale jets are considered a strong addition to the capabilities of the armed forces due to their high technical characteristics and fighting and firing systems," said the military in a statement.

Military experts view the deal as a real development in the capabilities of the Egyptian armed forces and a massive upgrade to their air fleet.

Egypt seeks to upgrade its military forces amid the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East region and the growing conflicts in Arab states including Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan.

Signed between Egypt and France in mid-February 2015, the deal is worth 5.6 billion U.S. dollars.

In October 2015, the two countries signed another contract on the purchase of two French Mistral warships, which were delivered to Egypt in June and September 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:11:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BEIRUT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A top UN relief official in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the United Nations is committed to deliver assistance and protection for the Palestinian refugees in the country.

Claudio Cordone, director of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), made the remarks during his visit to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the UNRWA said in a statement.

Cordone, accompanied by Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, met with representatives of the camp, including women and youth groups.

"UNRWA is committed to deliver its assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees to the best of its ability, in particular by assisting the families most in need due to poverty and displacement by the recent fighting," Cordone said.

On the difficult life conditions in the camps and recurring outbreaks of violence, the two UN officials pointed to the calm and stability the residents need to lead their lives without fear of violence.

"The important message of this visit is complete and continued support for the Palestinian refugees under the aegis of UNRWA while they are residing in Lebanon," Kaag said.

Kaag and Cordone hailed the cooperation between the Palestinian security forces and the Lebanese military and security agencies to improve the security in the camp.

More than 57,000 Palestinian refugees are registered by UNRWA as living in Ain el-Hilweh.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:31:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

LONDON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The British government confirmed on Wednesday that it will end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040, which is part of the new plans to tackle air pollution.

Today's announcement is focused on delivering nitrogen dioxide (NO2) compliance at the roadside in the shortest amount of time, according to the government. Next year Britain will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution.

To accelerate action local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year. The British government will help towns and cities by providing 255 million pounds (332 million U.S. dollars) to implement their plans, in addition to the 2.7 billion pounds already being invested.

The government will also issue a consultation in the autumn to gather views on measures to support motorists, residents and businesses affected by local plans, such as retrofitting, subsidized car club memberships, exemptions from any vehicles restrictions, or a targeted scrappage scheme for car and van drivers.

Britain is one of 17 European Union (EU) countries breaching annual targets for nitrogen dioxide, a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions, according to the government.

Today's plan sets out how the government will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide, said Michael Gove, Britain's environment secretary.

This is one element of the government's three-billion-pound program to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions, added Gove.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:41:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

NAIROBI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenya said on Wednesday that the increased demand for land and urban development is threatening wildlife conservation that remains the country's main foreign exchange earner.

Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu said on Wednesday that urgent conservation measures must be put in place to save the declining species of wildlife from extinction.

"Kenyan wildlife species has decline by 67 percent between 1977 to 2013, more than a third and continue to be extreme in some species," Wakhungu said during the launch of a report on protection of wildlife corridors and dispersal areas in Kenya.

She noted that the role played by wildlife in the economy is huge since 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated and continues to provide economic benefits at all levels, including support to sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.

"Local communities benefit directly from numerous payments for wildlife conservation through partnerships with tour operators in community-based conservancies across the country hence the need to conserve the wildlife," Wakhungu said.

The report attributes the decline to changes in government land policies and rapid population growth which discourages pastoralism and promotes privatization of land tenure, leading to land sub-division.

It said that agricultural development and settlement policies that promote farming in rangelands exacerbate the destruction of habitats and exclusion of wildlife.

"Cultivation resulting in habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss, constrained seasonal mobility and displacement or exclusion of wildlife from pastoral lands is also to blame for the decline of wildlife," says the report.

The report blames the decline to escalating human-wildlife and land-use conflicts, poaching and expansion of settlements and cultivation into the rangelands.

Wildlife also decline due to inadequacy of national parks and reserves to sustain viable populations of large mammals and diminishing opportunities for expanding existing protected areas.

The East African nation has over 25,000 species of wild animals and 7,000 species of wild plants, making the country as one of the biodiversity-rich countries in the world.

The country is endowed with an extraordinary wealth of mammals, birds and other biodiversity, a unique heritage for the people of Kenya.

"We have over 50 protected areas, across all ecosystems in the country to ensure the diversity of wildlife and its beauty is preserved for present and future generations," Wakhungu said.

The report recommends that to avert and reduce wildlife declines, there is need to urgently secure dispersal areas and migratory corridors.

It calls for the identification and mapping of wildlife dispersal areas and migratory corridors to help the country's spatial planning and guide the process of securing wildlife areas already interfered with by human activities.

It further calls for the creation and developing community and private wildlife conservancies, and diversification of rural livelihoods through benefits from ecosystem services.

"Rationalize and implement the policies, laws and regulations related to land use, wildlife conservation, forestry, water, and agriculture," the report adds.

Wakhungu called for collaboration to help secure space for wildlife and healthy ecosystems for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

"Just as the roads and railways are connected and mapped, Kenya's conservation areas and dispersal areas are also going to be connected and mapped," she noted.

The U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec called on wildlife experts to conduct regular monitoring and evaluation for effective management of wildlife dispersal areas and migratory corridors.

"Regular consultations on data gathering can help solve the human-wildlife conflict by creating harmony," Godec noted.

The study is based on the recognition that a significant proportion of Kenya's wildlife seasonally or permanently exists outside protected areas and is exposed to increasing human pressures that have negative impacts on species' populations, dispersal areas and migratory corridors.

It has identified and maps wildlife habitats and their desired connectivity.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:41:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

TEHRAN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Iranian officials on Wednesday unanimously denounced Washington's fresh sanctions against Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting that Iran is used to these kinds of "hostilities" and will give a necessary response to the new sanctions, official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iranians well know that they should resist and stand against their enemies," he said. "Over the past 40 years (following the victory of the Islamic republic in 1979), the Iranians have faced numerous pressures, sanctions and accusations by the U.S. politicians and their propaganda machine."

"The Americans cannot tolerate an independent and influential country in this sensitive region," he said.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that slaps tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Sanctions against Iran is mainly in response to Tehran's growing missile program. The bill should be approved by the Senate and signed by the president in order to become legal.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Iran maintains its right to respond to the United States if the latter does not comply with the nuclear deal.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that the fresh sanctions by the United States will have adverse impacts on the "successful" implementation of the nuclear deal, official IRNA news agency reported.

Given the U.S. commitments, "they should have implemented the nuclear deal (JCOPA) with goodwill and in constructive atmosphere, and they should have avoided the measures which might have (negative) impacts on the successful implementation of the deal," Araqchi, also senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying.

However, the recent move of the U.S. congress to impose sanctions on Iran runs counter to the U.S. commitments, Araqchi told reporters.

"Iran will definitely respond to the U.S. hostile move," he noted.

On Friday, Araqchi told media in Vienna that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal should be fully implemented in all aspects, and that Tehran is not satisfied with the United States because of the sanctions imposed on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

During his presidential campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump quarreled with the Iranian nuclear deal, achieved during the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama. The Trump administration is now reconsidering U.S. policy on Iran.

Iran and six world powers, namely Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue in July 2015, which put Tehran on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.

Besides, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said Wednesday that the U.S. Congress bill against Iran will jeopardize the implementation of the JCPOA.

The U.S. fresh sanctions against Iran is "an illegal and insulting act," Qasemi said, adding that the United States should not overlook its obligation vis-a-vis the nuclear deal.

Moreover, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri condemned the U.S. congressional decisions and warned Washington to be more cautious about its approaches toward the Islamic Republic, Tasnim news agency reported.

Jazayeri said that Iranian armed forces, heedless of U.S. pressures, "will push their ways to reach the peaks of progress and will make it (the United States) regret its mischievous acts."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:52:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ROME, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella urged the country's lawmakers on Wednesday to put their differences aside and work together to come up with a new electoral law ahead of the next general election in early 2018.

"Elections are almost upon us," Mattarella said at the annual ceremony before the summer recess that the existing electoral rules are rife with "disparities and gaps."

Italy currently has two different voting systems for each of the houses of parliament -- a first-past-the-post system for the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies, and proportional representation for the 315-member Senate.

Elections held under the current system could lead to political gridlock by delivering different results in the two chambers, which have equal powers.

Mattarella, who has the power to dissolve parliament, has said no vote will be held until the voting procedures for both houses are made homogeneous.

"The possibility of intervention still remains," Mattarella said, warning lawmakers against "brawling" and using "illusory slogans" to curry favor with potential voters.

Mattarella went on to list the positive and negative aspects of Italy's overall situation.

"Our economy is growing," he said. "The banking system has finally been made secure."

The president called on credit institutions to now do their part to work with businesses and keep the economy moving forward.

He also said the next national budget should "heal the social wounds inflicted by the crisis of years past" and "ensure job creation".

Mattarella praised the tourist sector for contributing over 10 percent to gross domestic product (GDP).

"In 2016, there were 57 million international arrivals, a number almost equal to that of our population," the president said.

On the down side, Mattarella named the drought and the raging wildfires that have devoured thousands of hectares of land this summer, and the "migration phenomenon born of poverty, misery, climate change, wars, persecutions."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:52:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

NEW DELHI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chief Minister of India's eastern state of Bihar Nitish Kumar resigned from his post Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences with the alliance partner, officials said.

The differences in the ruling coalition triggered over charges of corruption against state's deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Yadav is son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the head of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

"In the present circumstances it was becoming impossible for me to continue and work," Kumar told media outside governor's office in Patna, the capital city of Bihar, after submitting his resignation.

Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi has accepted Kumar's resignation.

Kumar decided to tender his resignation during party legislators' meeting on Wednesday.

The cracks in the coalition cropped up after India's premier investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), lodged case against Yadav in land graft case. The agency has also filed case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi. Both senior Yadav and his wife have served as chief minister of the state.

Kumar's resignation has triggered political crisis in the state with no party having a majority in the 243-member Assembly (lawmaking body). Kumar's Janta Dal (United) has 71 seats, while RJD headed by Tejashwi's father Lalu Prasad, has 80 seats. The rightwing Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), which is the opposition has 53 seats.

JDU and RJD combine branded as a game-changing Maha-gathbandhan (grand alliance) had stalled the BJP's emergence in Bihar. However, the alliance survived for only two years.

The senior Yadav has accused Kumar of hobnobbing with BJP and said his resignation was preplanned.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kumar for joining the fight against corruption, saying that 1.25 billion people of the country were welcoming and supporting honesty.

Analysts said BJP is likely to support Kumar in the new government formation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:52:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ISLAMABAD, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said on Wednesday that the country's two diplomats in Afghanistan, who were abducted on June 16, were safely recovered.

The two officials of the Pakistani Consulate General in the eastern Jalalabad city had gone missing while travelling from Jalalabad to the border town of Torkham. It was unclear who had been behind the kidnapping. No group had claimed responsibility.

"President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistan's Charge d'Affiares in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation," the foreign ministry said late Wednesday.

Later in the evening, the two officials were handed over to the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul. They would be flown back to Pakistan to join their families as soon as possible, a ministry's statement said.

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua talked to Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and conveyed Pakistan's deep gratitude to the Afghan government for safe recovery of the two abducted Pakistani diplomatic officials.

Pakistani sources had earlier stated that the officials were travelling to Pakistan by road, but could not reach Torkham crossing. They were coming to Pakistan for the Muslim festival of Eid.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 01:07:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BAGHDAD, July 26 (Xinhua) -- China will provide Iraq with humanitarian aids, according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Chinese ambassador Chen Weiqing and Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji attended the signing ceremony of the MoU on economic and technical cooperation between both countries.

The aids provided by China will be used on implementation of humanitarian projects in Iraq.

Chen Weiqing congratulated Iraqi government for the victory in the fight against terrorism and said that Chinese government will encourage Chinese companies to participate in Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

Qasim al-Araji praised the good bilateral relations and said that Iraq appreciated the support of Chinese government and Chinese people.

Large part of territories in northern and western Iraq came under the control of extremist Islamic State group in 2014, including the second largest city Mosul.

On Oct. 17, 2016, Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally announced the liberation of Mosul on July 10, 2017.

According to Iraqi government's statistics, nearly a million civilians were displaced during the battles for Mosul.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 01:27:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

GENEVA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A group of 47 World Trade Organization (WTO) members issued a joint call on Wednesday for fellow members to work together to ensure the sound functioning of the WTO-based multilateral trading system as it faces a number of important challenges ahead.

In their joint statement, the group, including Australia, Canada, China, Russia, Singapore, etc., said they were "strongly supportive of the multilateral trading system and are concerned that the WTO is facing challenges" as it prepares for its 11th ministerial conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires in December.

"To date, the political will to find compromises and to forge consensus is lacking. Even the legitimacy of discussing topics of interest to members has been put into question," the group noted.

The statement added that other important functions of the WTO were also facing challenges, such as compliance with notification obligations and the functioning of the WTO's dispute settlement system.

The group called on members to safeguard the integrity of the open, rules-based trading system embodied in the WTO.

"The WTO continues to be essential to achieving inclusive and sustainable global growth and development, including through the further integration of LDCs (least developed countries) into world trade," concluded the statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 01:32:17|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ARUSHA, Tanzania, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Revenues from Tanzania's tourism sector are expected to shoot up by 30 percent this year, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jumanne Maghembe, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, said: "Such anticipation follows the number of tourists that visited the country this year."

"It is without any doubt that the sector is flourishing, we have never witnessed such a thing but I've seen it for myself and can attest to it," the minister said without divulging figures of tourists that had visited the east African nation so far this year.

Maghembe also expressed optimism over the prospects offered by the country's tourism sector.

The official said the country was lucky to host prominent visitors who he said had boosted the sector.

According to Maghembe, all tourist bookings as of Aug. 29 this year had been sealed, an indication of the number of tourists the country could host in the near future.

"The future looks rosy for the sector, I urge tour operators to exhibit professionalism while guiding their guests during their stay in the country," the minister explained.

He singled out the recent visit by 52 Young Presidents Organization (YPO) who toured different attractions found in Tanzania as an icing on cake.

Maghembe however admitted that some of the roads leading to national parks and other tourist attractions were in bad shape, assuring that the government will have them fixed.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) Chief Conservator Freddy Manongi, said Geo Park was a new form of tourism that was fast becoming common in Asia.

"Such sites and landscapes are of international geological significance at the moment and as a country we are determined to capitalize in this kind of tourism," he said.

Known as the Lengai-Ngorongoro geo-park, the project will include run through Karatu, Monduli, Ngorongoro and Longido districts thus boost the country's tourism prospects. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 01:32:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ADEN, Yemen, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-backed Yemeni troops recaptured on Wednesday a strategic military base from the Shiite Houthi rebels after months of intense fighting and intensified airstrikes that left scores killed from both sides on the country's western coast.

The Yemeni state TV channel based in Saudi Arabia announced that "the national armed forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition air power managed to take full control over the strategic military base of Khaled-bin Walid from the Houthi militias in coast city of Mocha."

The internationally-backed President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi congratulated the pro-government forces and the people of Yemen on the victory and the complete liberation of Khalid-bin Walid military base, the Yemeni TV reported.

Pro-government local media quoted the commander of the Fourth Regional Military Command as saying that Hadi's armed forces stormed the strategically important military base of Khalid-bin Walid from various directions and Houthis were kicked out from the area.

Four days ago, the Yemeni troops backed by UAE armored vehicles surrounded the Houthi-controlled military base from all sides leaving Houthi fighters with no place to withdraw to.

In the past weeks, pro-government Yemeni forces launched a number of major ground and air offensives aimed at defeating Houthi fighters and seizing the military base but ended in complete failure due to thousands of landmines planted by the rebels there.

Yemen's internationally-backed government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the country.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a mostly Arab military coalition and imposed an air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Iranian-backed Houthis, who invaded capital Sanaa militarily and seized most northern Yemeni provinces.

Statistics showed that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict in 2015.

The impoverished Arab country is facing the world's largest cholera outbreak with 5,000 more Yemenis falling sick every day with symptoms of acute watery diarrhoea and is on the edge of famine.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:02:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

ANKARA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Israel's decision to remove metal detectors from Al-Aqsa Mosque is "a step in the right direction, but it is not enough," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the presidential complex in Ankara, Erdogan said that Israel is attempting to damage the Islamic character of Jerusalem with new practices every day by taking advantage of the current weakness of Muslims.

Israel should avoid policies that put the region in "a chamber of fire" and stop threatening others if it wants to "live in peace in this world," he was quoted by state-run Anadolu Agency as saying.

The Turkish president urged Israel to respect human rights and Jerusalem conventions.

Later on Monday, Israel's security cabinet decided to remove the metal detectors amid a row over an escalation in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

A statement said the devices will be replaced with "advanced technology," believed to be high resolution cameras.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Ministry strongly criticized Israeli Foreign Ministry's recent statement over President Erdogan's remarks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, described it "presumptuous."

In a written statement released on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu called on Israel to return to the status quo at Al-Aqsa "immediately" and completely lift all the restrictions on the freedom of worship.

On Tuesday, Israel dismissed Erdogan's remarks after he accused the country of taking away holy sites in Jerusalem from Muslims.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called Erdogan's comments "delusional, baseless and distorted."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:02:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

MOSCOW, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia's economy growth accelerated in the second quarter of 2017 and is likely to exceed 2 percent for the entire year, Russian Economic Development Ministry said Wednesday.

"The Russian GDP, according to our estimates, grew in the second quarter by approximately 2.7 percent year-on-year. We estimate the economy growth in the first half of the year at 1.6 percent," Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin was cited by Sputnik news agency as saying.

Based on the encouraging performance of the past quarter, Oreshkin said the ministry's previous two-percent forecast for economic growth this year now "seems a little conservative."

"We expect further strengthening of positive tendencies in the economy this fall," Oreshkin said, highlighting the gradual recovery of wages and income.

Russia's economy has worsened since 2014 due to low oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Official data showed that its GDP fell 0.2 percent year-on-year in 2016, compared with a 2.8 percent drop in 2015.

Russian officials have predicted the country's GDP would grow by 1.5 to 2.0 percent this year.

Speaking of the brewing new round of U.S. sanctions, Oreshkin said they will not seriously affect Russia's economy or the rouble exchange rate.

"As a matter of fact, our macroeconomic policy is arranged in such a way that external shocks connected with sanctions, have not had a very serious impact on the Russian economy," he said.

"We have a floating exchange rate. There are always fluctuations, so here some movement is possible, but we expect absolutely nothing out of the ordinary," he added.

The minister also said the sanctions would not lead to a drastic revision in the macroeconomic forecast, since the ministry had expected "overall deterioration in capital flows" in the second half.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill by an overwhelming majority that would impose sweeping sanctions on Russia. The bill must now pass the U.S. Senate before being signed into law or vetoed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2016 shows a Russian aircraft transfering the Russian assisted weapons to Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.

MOSCOW, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Wednesday denied a report that it supplied arms to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, calling the allegation "groundless."

"Russia does not support the Taliban, and maintains contacts with it exclusively to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Afghanistan and to encourage it to join the process of national reconciliation," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

CNN on Tuesday showed a video in which militants of the hardline Islamic movement demonstrated sniper rifles, Kalashnikov variants and machine guns, claiming that the weapons were originally supplied by Russian government sources.

Although the video does not provide incontrovertible proof of the trade, it offers "some of the first battlefield evidence of a flow of weapons that have the Afghan and American governments deeply concerned about Moscow's intentions here," the CNN report said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the allegations were "groundless," pointing out that it was impossible to determine the origin of the shown weapons in the video, as they were stripped of any means of identification.

"They are not stamped by the manufacturer" and the serial numbers are unclear, the ministry noted.

Such weapons were produced in some Eastern European countries, and some Americans massively sold them to Afghanistan in the early 2000s, it added.

No evidence has been provided that could confirm the accusations against Russia, according to the ministry.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:17:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday slapped sanctions on 13 current or former senior officials of the Venezuelan government amid political turmoil in the South American country.

The Venezuelan officials were blacklisted for their association with the election of the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC) and their government's "rampant violence against opposition protesters and its corruption," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

As a result of the move, all assets of these individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with them.

The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30 election of the ANC that the U.S. Treasury Department says "will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions."

"As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

"Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions," he added.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against Venezuela's government if Venezuela goes ahead to pursue the creation of the ANC.

According to a strongly worded statement released by the White House, Trump warned that if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "imposes" the ANC on July 30, the U.S. will "take strong and swift economic actions."

In response, the Venezuelan government rejected the U.S. pressure to cancel the constitutional initiative.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said, "it is not the first time we have denounced and confronted crazy threats such as those contained in this unusual document," and vowed to hold the vote as planned, despite this latest "brutal threat."

Venezuelans will go to the polls on July 30 to elect the 545 members of the ANC. The vote comes at a time of high tension in Venezuela, with the anti-government protests organized by the opposition, Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), having led to more than 90 deaths since early April.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:22:53|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

FREETOWN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank Country Director for Sierra Leone, Parminder Brar Wednesday pledged 10 million U.S. dollars to support the implementation of the new land policy project in Sierra Leone.

Brar made the above disclosure at the commencement of a two-day National Land Conference organized at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown with the theme "The way forward for land reform in Sierra Leone."

He said the World Bank is concerned with land issues, which he said was very much central to the social and economic well-being of the country.

"Land issues in Sierra Leone are extremely complex as it comprises a free hold and customary system," Brar said.

He continued that the bank was concerned about what has been going on in the Land Management System, reiterating that land is central to development and "we are ready to support and work with the government."

Brar said in May 2017, the World Bank had a team of consultants, who did an assessment of large scale agricultural land acquisition and that the report was now ready with several recommendations.

Also speaking was the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Country Director, Samuel Gbaydee Doe, who expressed delight to be in attendance at the conference to deliberate and define operational framework for the national policy on land.

"First, because of the fast growing population. By 2030, we would be at least 8.5 billion on earth. Sierra Leone for example has grown from 5 million to 7 million just in the last few decades. As the population increases, there is increased demand for land," he said.

He stated that Sierra Leone was not yet at the critical threshold of scarcity as it has not yet fully maximize the potential of its land, which he said makes land governance urgent and imperative .

While making the keynote address, Deputy Minister of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment, Mamoud Tarawally, expressed optimism that the National Land Policy will succeed in Sierra Leone, adding that the government of Sierra Leone through the Agenda for Prosperity will support the full implementation of the policy. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:32:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

by Mahmoud Darwesh

Tripoli, July 25 (Xinhua) -- It appears recently that France, the country who led the international coalition to overthrow Gaddafi's regime in 2011, no longer stands as a spectator, but seeks a role in the icebreaking of the political deadlock in Libya.

French President Emmanuel Macron has managed to broker a joint and direct meeting between rival factions in Libya, namely the UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, and the commander of the Libyan armed forces, General Khalifa Haftar.

The meeting, held in Paris, announced a 10-point joint agreement to cease fire in all Libya and holding parliamentary and presidential elections in March 2018.

It also stressed keenness of the two sides to strengthen efforts in combating terrorism in Libya and to speed up the integration of fighters wishing to join the regular forces, as well as calling for disarmament and demobilization of other fighters and reintegrating them into civilian life.

"The French mediation has a great influence on the Libyan file. It will definitely end the deadlock in Libya since signing the Skhirat agreement, especially since Paris has lately shown keenness and interest in the Libyan affair," Mohamed Abdullah, a Libyan parliament member, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

He went on saying that France's participation also has an influence on Libya's neighbors, such as Tunis and Algeria, which consider the Libyan affairs as a common interest since the close connection between each other in terms of fighting terrorism.

"We should not be overly optimistic, despite the outcome of the Paris meeting between Haftar and Serraj appears to be reassuring," the lawmaker added, "French President Emmanuel Macron did not explain the pressure mechanisms to be applied to the parties to ensure the outcome of the meeting, most importantly the holding of next year's elections."

The Libyan parliament welcomed the meeting of Sarraj and Hafter, stressing that the application of the agreement must pass through the parliament and its dialogue committee.

Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Building Party of Libya rejected the outcome of the meeting, stressing that "there is no value for any amendments to the political agreement outside the umbrella of the United Nations."

"Holding meetings under the auspices of individual countries is a deviation on the path of political agreement. This opens the way for the agendas of those countries to give leverage for one party over the other, or deepen the division and continue the crisis. Some countries are the problem, not the solution," the party said in a statement.

Serraj and Hafter's meeting in France comes more than two months after a similar talk was held in Abu Dhabi, where the two agreed to develop a strategy for the development and building of a unified Libyan army, the integration of the military institution under civilian authority, and the unification of all efforts to fight terrorism.

Since the Abu Dhabi meeting, there has been no direct meeting between the two parties to implement the outcome of the Abu Dhabi meeting, with no reasons specified.

Under Article 8 of the Libyan UN-sponsored political agreement, senior military and security posts are appointed by the government, whose prime minister holds the rank of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

However, this article remains controversial. It was rejected by the head of the Parliament and the army commander Hafter, insisting that the Supreme Commander of the army is the head of the Parliament.

The National Human Rights Commission in Libya welcomed the outcome of the Paris meeting, considering it very positive and important to resolve the political crisis and helping the success of the Libyan political agreement.

"It is important to speed up the development of mechanisms to implement the Paris joint statement as well as the Abu Dhabi meeting outcome, according to a specific timetable in order to end human, security and economic suffering in Libya due to political division," said Ahmed Abdel-Hakim Hamza, Rapporteur of the National Committee for Human Rights in Libya.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:43:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

CAIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said on Wednesday that Arab immigrant and refugee issue should be given priority on the international agenda.

Aboul-Gheit made the remarks during a meeting in Cairo with Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Laura Thompson.

The Secretary-General stressed that IOM, as an international organization, has to ensure that host countries comply with their obligations towards the Arab immigrants, noting that those migrants are victims of human trafficking.

The Arab region is the source of international migration due to the ongoing military conflicts in many Arab countries, with Palestinians constituting half of the world refugees.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:48:10|Editor: Yang Yi

Portuguese Minister of Planning and Infrastructure Pedro Marques speaks at the inaugural ceremony of the first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to Portuguese capital Lisbon via Beijing, capital of China on July 26, 2017. The flight landed at the Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon on Wednesday. An air route between Hangzhou, Beijing and Lisbon was inaugurated Tuesday, the first direct flight connecting the capitals of China and Portugal. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

LISBON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- An airbus A300 aircraft on its first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to the Portuguese capital via Beijing landed on Wednesday at Humberto Delgado airport after a 13-hour flight.

Portuguese minister of planning and infrastructure Pedro Marques said at a ceremony marking the event that the launching of the first direct flight route between the two countries had been the government's dream for many years.

He said he hoped the route would strengthen the role Portugal has been playing as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run said in his speech that the direct flight path between China and Portugal was of great significance to the development of bilateral relations as it would promote economy, trade, investment, and tourism between the two countries.

Additionally, the opening of the route is more convenient for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, he said.

Nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists came to Portugal last year.

A Portuguese family was busy with check-in for the aircraft's return flight from Lisbon to Beijing, also on Wednesday. Lona, a prosecutor in his late forties, told Xinhua that he and his family had a strong interest in China as it is a big and important country.

"As summer vacation is going on, my wife and I, together with my son and daughter, will visit Beijing and Tianjin for ten days. We want to see the world-famous Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and famous Olympic buildings like bird's nest and water cube," he said.

The first Hangzhou-Beijing-Lisbon flight was carried out by Beijing Capital Airlines. Both flights were 90 percent full. Currently, there are three flights per week and one more will be added in winter of this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 03:03:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

HARARE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday urged Zimbabweans to maintain peace ahead of elections set for mid 2018.

He said political violence should be avoided because it results in discredited polls.

"As we prepare for the 2018 harmonized elections, I urge all Zimbabweans to remain united in upholding peace. We should not present our detractors with an opportunity to discredit our own internal democratic processes," Mugabe was quoted as saying by the state run news agency New Ziana.

He said he was confident that police would be up to the task in maintaining peace and order.

Last year, Zimbabwe was rocked by a series of violent anti-government demonstrations, held at the behest of shadowy groups and opposition parties.

Government accused Western countries, through their embassies, of active involvement in sponsoring the protests.

Mugabe will be seeking re-election after his ruling ZANU-PF party endorsed him as its presidential candidate for next year's elections when he will be 94.

In the past two months, he has been holding youth interface rallies to drum up support ahead of the polls.
Refugees plead with Greek police officers to let them continue their journey to western Europe on the outskirts of the town of Didymoteicho, two kilometers away from Greek borderline with Turkey, on Jan. 24, 2016. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)

BRUSSELS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission pressed ahead on Wednesday to the second stage of legal actions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over refugee sharing.

The Commission said it had sent "reasoned opinions", the second step in infringement procedures, to the three European Union (EU) member states for "non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation".

The three countries were given one month to respond, instead of the usual two-month deadline.

The move came a month and a half after the Commission launched infringement procedures by sending "letters of formal notice" to the three countries.

The Commission said the three countries' replies to the letter "have not been found satisfactory as none were accompanied by an indication that these member states would start relocating swiftly to their territory."

According to the Commission, Poland and Hungary haven't taken in any refugees since September 2015, when EU member states pledged to relocate a total of 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy within two years. The Czech Republic has not relocated anyone since August 2016 and has not made any new promises for over a year.

If the three counties still refuse to comply, the Commission may refer the case to the Court of Justice, which may impose financial penalties on them.

As of July 24, the total number of relocations stands at 24,676, of which 16,803 from Greece, 7,873 from Italy, according to the latest Commission report on the relocation of refugees released Wednesday.

As for resettlement, 17,179 persons have been resettled since July 2015, when member states agreed to resettle a total of 22,504 asylum seekers.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 03:18:25|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ACCRA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Ghana and Malta on Wednesday pledged to strengthen ties of cooperation and provide mutual support for each other at the bilateral and multilateral levels.

This came after a ministerial roundtable discussion in Accra as part of three-day official visit to Ghana by Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Speaking at a joint press conference, President Nana Akufo-Addo said their deliberations also centered on driving investment opportunities, domestic and foreign, in the two countries, and the need for enhanced cooperation and partnership.

He said his Maltese counterpart and her team had resolved to give voice to Ghana's cause and interests at the European Union while Ghana, on the other hand, would help to facilitate the provision of a platform for enhanced economic engagement between Malta and member countries of the West African bloc, ECOWAS.

This should boost the trade volumes and help bring prosperity to the peoples of Ghana and Malta, he said.

On the issue of migration, Akufo-Addo bemoaned the high numbers of young Africans taking distressing risks across the Sahara and around the Mediterranean, trying to reach a better life.

He said the Maltese president and her delegation had reiterated their commitment to champion the need for humane treatment of illegal migrants as well as the protection of their human rights in accordance with international law, both at home and on EU platforms.

He said Ghana would collaborate with Malta and EU to help find solutions to the factors that triggered illegal migration.

This is the first visit to Ghana by any sitting Maltese president. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 03:18:26|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

SKOPJE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Wednesday unveiled at a press conference here details about the agreement on good-neighborly relations with Bulgaria.

Following the claims and suspicions raised by the members of Macedonian opposition, Zaev highlighted that the agreement with Bulgaria was in adherence with Macedonia's national interests.

Zaev said the agreement would be transparent for the public while he noted that it would serve as a basis for good neighboring relations between the two countries, in order for them to work closely with each other.

"The agreement offers great opportunities for cooperation and settling, not creating problems," Zaev said. "Bulgaria is our friend and neighbor, which unconditionally supports Macedonia's accession to the European Union and NATO."

He added that the agreement would be signed in Macedonian language and in Bulgarian.

Late Tuesday, the Macedonian government gave the green light to Zaev to sign the agreement for friendship and good neighboring relations with Bulgaria.

According to a government announcement, the agreement would be accessed by everyone while noting that it addressed the pending issues with Bulgaria, in particular, on the issue of language and history.

After Zaev made public the details of the friendship treaty with Bulgaria, lawmakers of the largest opposition party here, VMRO-DPMNE, asked the Parliament to hold a "public, open and urgent" session in view of the announced signing of the friendship treaty with Bulgaria.

"The Parliament should review the agreement and reach conclusions on whether it should or shouldn't be signed," MP Ilija Dimovski told a news conference Wednesday.

According to opposition MPs, the treaty is detrimental to Macedonia and could deteriorate relations between the two neighboring countries. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 04:29:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

CAPE TOWN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A spate of armed robberies at retail premises and cash-in-transit trucks around the country have rocked South Africa, prompting Parliament on Wednesday to urge proactive action from the police.

"We need to see good detective and intelligence-driven work to apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes and work towards a situation where criminals are prevented from carrying out these crimes," said Francois Beukman, Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police.

Beukman expressed belief that these criminal acts could be reduced if the Crime Intelligence Division of the South African Police Service (SAPS) commissioned effective, proactive network operations and projects that will intercept the plans of syndicates involved in these robberies.

His statements were made amid growing concern over the spate of cash-in-transit heists in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape, provinces as well as armed robberies at retail premises around the country.

In a recent armed robbery in Wellington outside Cape Town, gunmen stormed a shopping mall, killing a shop owner.

In a cash-in-transit robbery in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga Province on Tuesday, about 10 men in four vehicles intercepted an armored vehicle loaded with cash and opened fire, wounding a security guard. The group escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash and firearms.

Earlier in April, a gang of armed robbers blew up an armored cash-in-transit truck in busy traffic in Johannesburg, escaping with an undisclosed amount of money.

Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police is deeply concerned that employees and clients have been injured and killed during armed robberies at retailers and during cash-in-transits, said Beukman.

The Visible Policing Division, another unit of the SAPS, is critical in the reduction of these incidents, he said.

"This division should implement proactive plans at cluster level and ensure adequate policing at retail outlets," he said.

Beukman called for better cooperation between the SAPS and business owners to mitigate any risks that could encourage these kinds of criminal activities.

South Africa is among the countries that have the highest crime rate in the world. As crimes keep rising, people have lost faith in the police with the level of satisfaction having declined from 64.2 percent in 2011 to 58.8 percent in 2015/2016, according to a recent survey by Statistics South Africa.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 04:39:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

HOUSTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Two gang members are being sought in connection with several homicides across the Houston region, local police said Wednesday.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced that Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez, 20, and Carlos Alberto Gonzalez-Barahona, 26, were added to the "Texas 10 Most Wanted" list, according to local news reports.

Investigators said Herrera-Hernandez, who is also known as "Terror," is wanted on a capital murder charge in connection with the death of a 16-year-old boy in 2016. He is also wanted on a murder charge in connection with the death of Kevin Alvarez, 26, in June.

Herrera-Hernandez is believed to be traveling with his girlfriend and their baby, police said.

Gonzalez-Barahona is wanted on a murder charge in connection with the shooting death of his girlfriend in northwest Houston in June, according to authorities. They said he is also wanted on an aggravated kidnapping charge after he kidnapped the driver of a pickup at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, Texas releases the latest gang threat assessment Wednesday, saying as many of 100,000 gang members operate in Texas.

According to the report released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Tango Blast is considered the greatest gang threat in Texas, with more than 19,000 members.

Back in April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an anti-gang initiative to fight Houston gang violence.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 04:44:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

CARACAS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Venezuelan government suspended on Wednesday meat imports from Colombia, for six months, due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

In a public speech, Agriculture Minister Wilmar Castro announced the decision to ban beef, pork, lamb and goat meat imports due to the disease being present in the neighboring country.

Several other countries, including Mexico and Russia, have taken similar steps after at least cases of the disease were detected in the Colombian provinces of Arauca, Cundinamarca, Caldas, Antioquia and Santander.

The disease is rarely harmful to humans since it dies during the pasteurization of milk and the processing of meat.

"This ban on agricultural products from Colombia will be maintained for six months until Colombian authorities can control the outbreak of the disease," said Castro, adding that Venezuelan territory was 95 percent free of foot-and-mouth disease.

Colombia has taken steps to address concerns, stating that they feared the disease had been brought into the country illegally through cattle smuggled the border. It has begun more aerial surveillance of its borders and all people crossing between Colombia and Venezuela must cross a disinfectant mat while vehicles will be sprayed down.

This comes at a time of high tensions between Colombia and Venezuela. At the end of June, Colombian Agriculture Minister Aurelio Iragorri Valencia insinuated the disease had come from Venezuela, with an early case being reported in the frontier state of Arauca.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 04:44:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BEIRUT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced Wednesday "the great and massive victory" in the battle against the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants in Arsal outskirts.

In a televised speech, Nasrallah stressed that the goal of the battle was to get the militants out of the area controlled by al-Nusra Front, whether in Flita or Arsal outskirts.

Praising the Lebanese Army's role in achieving this victory, Nasrallah stated that what the army did in Arsal was essential in achieving this victory.

"Hezbollah did its duty and expect no one to thank it for its resistance. For everyone who aided us by support, words, prayers, blood donation...I thank you all," Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah also said "we are ready to hand over area to the Lebanese Army following the victory."
A person points at an image of Aedes Aegypti mosquito, carrier of the Zika virus, on a laptop screen, in Santiago, capital of Chile, on April 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas)

SKOPJE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Two people, a father and a son, died within 48 hours at the Clinic for Infective Diseases here after suffering from symptoms of an undiagnosed illness, Macedonian health authorities revealed on Wednesday.

The two were admitted to hospital with high fever and vomits, and their condition quickly worsened.

The father and son lived in the village of Simnica, near the western Macedonian town Gostivar. At least four other inhabitants of the same village have been hospitalized with light symptoms of the apparently contagious disease.

According to the director of the Commission for the Prevention of Contagious Diseases, Zvonko Milenkovic, there is no need to raise the alarm among the citizens.

"In this specific case, it is certainly not a disease with a high degree of transmission among humans. This is the reason that I don't see any need to create panic or insecurity among the people," Milenkovic told Xinhua in Skopje on Wednesday.

The authorities suspect the infectious disease might be a dangerous hemorrhagic fever transmitted by ticks and rodents, or a case of the mosquito-born West Nile virus.

One of the reasons the disease has yet to be determined is the lack of the needed reagents at the country's cash-strapped Institute for Public Health, Macedonian media revealed.

The institute's financial situation has been poor and its accounts have been blocked for some time due to unpaid electricity bills.

"Aside from all the difficulties that the institute has faced in recent period, we managed to get the reagents. We expect the results from the analysis by tomorrow afternoon," the institute's director Shaban Memeti said to web portal Nova TV.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 05:19:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Facebook Inc., an online social media and social networking service, said Wednesday it will work with a Harvard University project against hackers who target elections in the United States.

The company headquartered in Menlo Park, Northern California, said it will provide initial funding of 500,000 U.S. dollars for the project, called Defending Digital Democracy (DDD), launched a week ago by the Belfer Center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

At the time, the Belfer Center said the project will include Facebook and Google to "identify and recommend strategies, tools, and technology to protect democratic processes and systems from cyber and information attacks." Facebook made its move Wednesday during Black Hat, an annual security event held in Las Vegas.

The project will be co-led by Robby Mook, Democrat Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign manager, and Matt Rhoades, Republican Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign manager. "By creating a unique and bipartisan team comprised of top-notch political operatives and leaders in the cyber and national security world, DDD intends to offer concrete solutions to an urgent problem," the center stated in a news release.

"Americans across the political spectrum agree that political contests should be decided by the power of ideas, not the skill of foreign hackers," Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center and former assistant secretary of defense, was quoted as saying. "Cyber deterrence starts with strong cyber defense - and this project brings together key partners in politics, national security, and technology to generate innovative ideas to safeguard our key democratic institutions."

The project aims to develop solutions to share threat information with technology providers, governments and political organizations; provide election administrators, election infrastructure providers, and campaign organizations with "playbooks" to improve their cybersecurity; assess emerging technologies that may improve the integrity of systems and processes vital to elections; and convene civic, technology, and media leaders to develop best practices that can shield public discourse from "adversarial information operations."

The efforts are based on the assumption, according to the center, that foreign nations and non-state actors are not backing down in their efforts to hack, alter the outcome and undermine confidence in U.S. elections.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 05:59:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

BUCHAREST, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Romanian Defense Minister Adrian Tutuianu said on Wednesday that the country is considering acquiring modern Patriot missile batteries and a payment towards the deal could be made this November.

The government is considering acquiring the most up-to-date configuration of the Patriot system, namely PAC 3 Plus that has an estimated useful life of 30 years, the minister told a press conference, underlining that the acquisitions are to be made in the context of the partnership with the United States and the risks and threats to Romania's airspace.

His statement was soon confirmed in a way by Prime Minister Mihai Tudose who said that an acquisition plan of the Defense Ministry for the Army will be discussed and approved next week.

"We earmarked 2 percent (of the gross domestic product) to the Defense Ministry's budget...the money will be spent on what the National Defense Ministry decides and requests," said the prime minister.

According to the defense minister, the small and medium-range surface-to-air missile systems currently used by Romania are largely obsolete, as most of them were made in the USSR, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and technical operating resources are almost overused and their chances for upgrading are unsustainable.

"If things go as planned, we expect that somewhere at the end of October, we can have a final result to communicate to the public," said the official, adding that "we are expecting to make a payment towards the acquisition this November."

Tutuianu estimated that a first Patriot system could reach Romania in 2018.

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador in Bucharest Hans Klemm told local media late Monday that Romania began negotiations with the United States on the purchase of Patriot batteries earlier this year.

According to Klemm, the acquisition will not only provide protection against aggressive air attacks for Romania, but "also contributes to the defense of Romania's neighbours and the NATO alliance as a whole." On July 11, the U.S. Department of State approved a possible sale of Patriot systems to Romania worth 3.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 06:10:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

LISBON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said Wednesday that he was pleased that the list of victims of the devastating forest fires last month had put to an end to the speculation over the death toll.

Costa said that this week has been "absolutely pitiful" in terms of speculation and political exploitation of the number of people killed in the forest fires erupted in Pedrogao Grande, some 200 km northeast of Lisbon on June 17.

"I am very pleased that the list has put an end to this speculation and confirmed what all the authorities had said for several weeks," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Portuguese attorney general confirmed that 64 people were killed in the forest fires in Pedrogao Grande and a list of the names of the victims has been made public.

Portuguese government has been accused of hiding the truth, as speculations have put the death toll of the forest fire higher than 64.

The final casualties of 64 killed and some 250 injured have made the forest fires in Pedrogao Grande the worst tragedy in Portugal's history for decades.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 06:15:04|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

RABAT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan King Mohammed VI has strongly condemned the "unacceptable" Israeli policies in Jerusalem.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the king insisted on the need for resolute action on the part of the international community and the influential powers to compel Israel to put an end to its "provocative practices."

He warned that Israel through its policies seeks to impose a fait accompli and decide single-handedly the fate of the City of Jerusalem, an issue which should be addressed within the context of final status negotiations.

They may lead to an outpouring of anger and an overall public reaction that could compound the situation in the Palestinian territories, he added.

These provocative practices arouse the feelings of Arabs, Muslims and freedom lovers in the world, he said, warning that they could incite extremist tendencies that may lead to further tension, animosity and violence in the entire region.

"I must also warn against the risk of turning the issue into a religious conflict, and exploiting the cultural heritage to incite hatred, fuel extremism and undermine the ideals of tolerance and affection between the followers of the revealed religions," the letter insisted.

On July 14, three Arab-Israeli gunmen opened fire at two Israeli policemen and shot them dead, while police forces fired back at the gunmen and killed them. The attack took place at the yard of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

After the attack, Israel closed the mosque and later installed electronic gates and cameras at the entrances to the mosque. The action provoked protests by the Muslims who refused to enter the mosque through these gates. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 06:30:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

PARIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Giant panda Huan Huan, which is on loan to France from China, is pregnant and likely to give birth to the first French cub in early August, Beauval zoo announced Wednesday.

Ultrasound tests on the female giant panda detected "a small heart beating" and a fetus at 3.4 cm.

After a 50-day gestation period, the new comer is expected on either August 4 or 5. It will likely weight just 100 grammes, according to a statement of the zoo.

The female panda and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived in central France's Beauval zoo in January 2012.

"It is a very good news. We are very happy. Everything is ready for birth, and it takes two or three months for the baby to be visible," said Delphine Delord, the zoo communication director.

"In February, we had an artificial insemination," she added.

The female panda is only on heat once a year for two days.

There are about 2,000 pandas in the world. They are classified as "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 06:35:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

HELSINKI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish police have confiscated some 400,000 illegal medical pills intended for intoxication purposes, the police said on Wednesday.

The police are investigating a major European criminal organization that has brought illegal medical pills for street sales in Finland. The Rivotril pills are originally for treatment of epilepsy.

Senior criminal police inspector Jukka Paasio told national broadcaster Yle that the confiscation is large in European perspective. Currently 20 people have been in detention, and they are all foreigners.

"This is totally professional criminality, managed from continental Europe," Paasio said.

The pills had been brought to Finland hidden in private cars, said the police.
TT not making use of free trade agreement with Costa Rica

One such opportunity is the Costa Rican market. Sheri Joseph, business development executive in the TT Trade Promotion Office at Procomer, the Costa Rican export promotion agency, said last year Costa Rica exported $60 million worth of products to this country while local businesses sent a mere $16 million worth of goods to the Central American country.

This despite the fact CARICOM and Costa Rica signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2005.

Joseph said the reason the trade between the two countries is so lopsided is lack of information among local businesses. To correct this shortcoming, Procomer and Essential Costa Rica, another Government agency in that country, joined exporTT to host a forum Why Costa Rica? at the Westmoorings office of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The forum was held in conjunction with JMMB and the Guardian Group and chief executive officer of the chamber Gabriel Faria said in his welcome remarks it will form part of the chambers BusinessInsights series.

Joseph said in a couple of months there will be another workshop attended by an official from the Caricom Secretariat, another joint effort between the Chamber, Procomer and exporTT.

She said at that workshop they will look at companies which, based on yesterdays workshop, have determined what opportunities they want to explore, look deeper into the process required to get products into Costa Rica or get products from Costa Rica to Trinidad; examine different areas of the Free Trade Agreement such as rules of origin and even look more at the expansion of trade in services. She said the area of services has not been explored at all and there were very few companies doing it but there are a lot of advantages for companies in that area.

We have a Free Trade Agreement but its not being used.

People tend to look at other markets but Costa Rica is going to be a natural market for us. In fact, Costa Rica looks at CARICOM as a natural market for their products which is why Costa Rica opened a trade promotion office here because they saw how important it was. So we want to see if that can be done reciprocally. Joseph runs the Procomer office in Trinidad and Tobago which was opened 14 years ago. We are very proud now that 90 per cent of the carrots on the local market are Costa Rican carrots and if you look in the supermarket you will see pasta, sauces and jams and construction products. She said a lot of the pepper sauce on the market is being made from pepper mash imported from Costa Rica because some local companies went to Costa Rica and showed the farmers how to grow the peppers they needed and to produce it in the required quantities and ship it here and they used that as the raw material to produce the pepper sauce.
RBC, CAL launch new Visa Platinum Card

At the cards launch on Monday at the Hyatt Regency, RBCs managing director Darryl White said the card has been around for many years but they felt the need to improve on it.

We are a bank that prides ourselves in challenging the status quo, trying to give more to our clients and it was a product that weve had for a while and people loved it and people will keep asking for the miles card, White said.

What we have discovered is, even when we launched other cards, nobody wanted to give up their CAL card. He said earlier this year, RBC and CAL renewed their partnership and commitment to their clients.

He said as a business, they have to challenge themselves and deliver the right products and service day in and day out and a differentiated experience that gives clients the convenience, choice and freedom they want.

As consumers when we use our cards, we want that confidence that the transaction will be protected and the new RBC visa card ensures our clients have the highest level of safety and protection of their assets and their purchases. This speaks to who we are as a bank. We imagine what is possible for our clients and we work hard to turn those possibilities into realities.

At RBC we strive to be innovative because we know our clients want the freedom and the convenience to do the things that are important to them. Vice president of maintenance and engineering at CAL, Colville Carrington said the launch of the card was another milestone in their relationship.

Our brands are all committed to delivering improved products and services that cater to the evolving needs of the market place.

This commitment is central to Caribbean Airlines strategy and to our strategic plan and is expressed in our new mission connecting people, realising dreams, he said.

The card offers its users purchase protection benefits, emergency medical services, auto rental and travel accident insurance, travel information services, exclusive offers and concierge service.
Ansa acquires Lewis Berger

We recognise the importance of partnerships in accelerating growth and we are now poised to leverage our combined teams and resources to produce even greater value for our customers in the Caribbean architectural coatings market. He added,  We are pleased to have all three Berger entities as new operating subsidiaries of the ANSA McAL Group and look forward to working with all Bergers employees to execute on our vision.

Together, we will define the future of the paints and coatings industry in the Caribbean. ANSA McAL is publicly listed on the TT Stock Exchange with market capitalisation of US$1.7 billion. Through its ANSA Coatings Limited subsidiary, the group has produced and marketed paints, coatings and materials trusted by customers for over 55 years.

LBOH is a privately held British company with equity-ownership stakes of 100, 70 and 51 percent respectively in Berger Paints Barbados Limited, Berger Paints Trinidad Limited and Berger Paints Jamaica Limited respectively.

The combined Berger Caribbean business has estimated net sales of US$35 million.
Newborn still on ice

A relative said that to date, no birth certificate has been issued and this document is needed in order to get a death certificate which is also needed before a body can be lawfully disposed.

The relative said that the protracted wait for burial has been traumatic for the babys parents Cindy Gail Sooknanan, 22, and Kimraj Jorai.

The mother wants to bury her baby but the body has to remain at the funeral home until procedures are completed. It is taking too long I find. A decision has to be made by the authorities because you cant just leave the body at the funeral home forever, the relative said.

Sooknanan who is unemployed, lives with her father Rajesh Sooknanan, 42, and twoyear- old daughter at Sewlal Trace in Fyzabad. On July 1, Sooknanan gave birth inside a car which was parked in the driveway of her relatives home at Chatoor Avenue, Fyzabad. She was seven months pregnant.

After the birth, it was assumed that the baby was taken to the Siparia health centre but the family later learnt that the baby was given to a doctor who they assumed had taken the child to hospital. On July 11, police acting on information, executed a search warrant at the doctors office and found the babys corpse in a fridge.

An autopsy confirmed death was due to complications arising out of a premature birth and lack of immediate medical care. The doctor, was detained, has since been released without charge.
Complaint to be filed in mans death

Head of the Waajihatul Islaamiyyah Umar Abdullah yesterday said things are to be put in place before they file the complaint. He said the complaint would be filed sometime this week. Martins associates claim he was an innocent man seeking to turn his life around. In a media release, Abdullah stated one of the biggest mistakes people make is they allow first impressions to define how a person is viewed and treated. Shortly before 4 pm last Friday, Martins opened fire on officers at Caroni Savannah Road, Chaguanas near a car dealership, police said.

Martins of Enterprise, Chaguanas was wanted for a series of crimes including murder. Associates are claiming Martins was unarmed and went to the dealership to purchase a car when he was gunned down by police.

Martins, formerly of Diego Martin, was buried on Tuesday following a funeral service at the Munroe Road Masjid. He leaves to mourn, a young wife and a five-monthsold baby. May the wrath of Allah descend on those responsible, Abdullah said in the release.
PH driver, passenger jailed

Edmund Seelal, 49, of Pascal Road, Piparo and Felix Bhola, 39, of Tabaquite stood before Senior Magistrate Cheryl-Ann Antoine charged with robbery with aggravation.

The charge alleged that on July 12, 2016, they robbed Daniel Deokumar, 54. Last month, the trial began after both men pleaded not guilty.

Deokumar testified that at about 10.30 pm, he flagged down a car at Reform Road Junction.

He told the driver he was going to Marabella. Seelal, he said, was driving and Bhola was in the back seat. The driver turned onto the Gasparillo Link road and stopped the car.

The victim testified that Bhola brandished a cutlass and shouted, Gimme everything you have. He was relieved of $260, a Nokia cellphone and a pack which contained cigarettes. PC Lyndon Ramcharan later charged the men. Yesterday, Magistrate Antoine ruled that the evidence showed Seelal was culpable although he was the driver. She then sentenced both men.
Mom was raped, strangled with own dress

MOM DEAD IN HOUSE

On Monday evening, a woman who decided to pay her mother a visit, found the 59-year-old womans nude body inside her (the victim) Valencia shack. The victim, Christiana Lewis, a mother of three, lived alone. Her wooden house was ransacked. An autopsy done yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre by Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov revealed that Lewis was raped and strangled.

The killer used the womans own dress as a weapon as it was found wrapped around her neck.

The autopsy determined that Lewis, who was last seen alive on Saturday, was attacked and killed on Sunday. No arrest has been made in this case.

MURDERED WHILE LIMING

In an unrelated incident, patrons at a bar off Sunshine Avenue in San Juan, had to duck and run when gunmen opened fire shortly after midnight yesterday. When the smoke cleared, four limers lay on the ground, bleeding from gunshot wounds. One of them, 20-year-old Lawrence Kareem Sydney of Bagatelle Extension, Sunshine Avenue, San Juan was later pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Sydney was liming at the bar when gunmen opened fire. His relatives yesterday said that country was at a stage where people face being murdered even while liming and having fun.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre, they said Sydney was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He liked to make people laugh. He was loving, humble and helpful. He never did anything to anyone. The most he would do is drink and play cards, said a relative who asked not to be identified.

At the bar, an eyewitness told Newsday that one moment he was drinking a beer and then without warning, shots rang out. It was bow, bow, bow, bow... rapid gunfire and we all scattered. I not lying to tell you that I ran for cover.

People fell to the ground playing dead as the gunshots continued, the patron said. An autopsy concluded that Sydney had been shot six times. The other injured men remain warded.

BANDIT KILLED

Yesterday, Vishnu Dowlath - identified by police as a bandit - was shot and killed when he was confronted by a security guard at a casino in Chaguanas.

According to reports, Dowlath and another man announced a hold-up at the casino at Tobago Road in Chaguanas at about 3 pm.

When the armed security challenged both bandits, there was an exchange of gunfire and Dowlath slumped to the ground. No one else was injured. His accomplice managed to flee the scene.

Dowlath who hailed from Enterprise in Chaguanas was later pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy yesterday revealed he was shot three times in the chest. The guard, who works for a security company and is licensed to carry a firearm, later gave a statement to the police.

WHO IS THE BAD MAN HERE?

In the final act of crime and mayhem (up to press time), a man entered a yard in Malabar yesterday and asked people who were liming, who is the bad man here? He then pulled out a gun from his pants pocked and opened fire.

Two people, a 15-year-old boy and a 21-year-old woman, were shot.

They were taken to hospital and police last night refused to give their names saying they remain warded under police guard since the gunman has not yet been held.

The victims were liming in a yard at Daniel Trace at about 3.50 pm, when the gunman approached.

The teen was shot in the left hand while the woman was shot in the neck.

Detective Cpl Ramdeen of the Malabar police station is leading investigations
Govt gets go-ahead to liquidate CLF

In a late evening ruling yesterday, appellate court judges Peter Rajkumar, Andre des Vignes and Charmaine Pemberton overturned a ruling by Justice Kevin Ramcharan and granted Governments application for the appointment of two provisional liquidators. The court also varied the orders sought by the Government as relative to the powers of the provisional liquidators.

In delivering their reasons, Justice Rajkumar said the reversal of Justice Ramcharans ruling given last Wednesday, was justified and weighed heavily in favour of the application to preserve and protect the further dissipation of CLF assets, in the publics interest, as taxpayers are the conglomerates major creditors.

As a result of yesterdays ruling, Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton, will be appointed joint provisional liquidators in accordance with provisions set out in the appellate judges order. Hearing of the winding-up petition, which came up before Justice Ramcharan yesterday, was adjourned to today.

Senior Counsel Deborah Peake who represented Government at the hearing, insisted the State did not rush to have the company wound-up. We came to court when it became clear the company does not have the assets to pay its debt, she said. An insolvent company is not supposed to be trading.

This company is not temporarily insolvent, this company is chronically insolvent.

Since 2009, government has been in rescue mode to see what can be done to recover the debt without liquidation. But there comes a time when enough is enough. This application is to stop the haemorrhaging of the company, Peake said.

Yesterdays hearing was deemed urgent by government as there was the possibility that a meeting of CLF shareholders also carded for yesterday, would have seen them appointing Kirk Carpenter and Carlton Reis to the board which would have given majority shareholders control of the board and thus, control of the company. As it stands, government controls the CLF Board by a four to three margin.

Attorneys representing the United Shareholders Group (USG) led by Carpenter and DALCO, represented by Reis, both of which together holds 60 percent of the shareholding in CLF, contended that Justice Ramcharan asked the right questions in law and correctly applied the test in determining whether provisional liquidators are to be appointed for CLF. As the principal creditor - by virtue of the $23 billion bailouts of CLF and its subsidiaries in 2009 - the Government has the majority of the directors on the board. (See Page 11A)
AG proposes law amendment to deal with Ayers-Caesars cases

In a letter dated July 20, Al-Rawi said the outstanding indictable and summary matters which were part heard before Ayers-Caesar continue to be unresolved.

The government has been urged to consider exigent legislative intervention in order to ensure the orderly disposition of these matters and prevent any further delay and/or future recurrence of such stymied progress in criminal matters due to administrative factors, Al-Rawi said.

He said the bill seeks to expand the existing limited jurisdiction of the Director of Public Prosecutions to prefer a voluntary bill of indictment pursuant to Section 234(8) of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act, Chap 12:01 to include instances where a presiding magistrate is unable to complete or continue a preliminary enquiry for any reason.

He said the bill also seeks to create a power of another magistrate to hold a new preliminary enquiry or continue the preliminary enquiry in the interest of justice and with consent of parties.

Al-Rawi said Government was eager to proceed with the legislation and wanted input from the association as they were a valued stakeholder.

One attorney Israel Khan SC said he endorses and supported the draft bill saying it was the perfect solution.

As a practitioner for the past 38 years at the criminal bar, I do not foresee any sensible and/or rational criminal attorney having any disagreement or legal concerns with this bill. It is a perfect bill having regard to the right of all accused to speedy justice, those who find themselves in similar positions as those of the accused in the said 54 part heard matters. I dare say that the office of the Attorney General should be commended for initiating same.

This bill needs the support of a simple majority in Parliament and it should be law upon the president signing same, he said.
Shareholders postpone meeting

A decision was made to postpone the meeting, called at 3.30 pm, since at that time, the Court of Appeal had not yet given its decision on an appeal by Government against a ruling last week of High Court judge Kevin Ramcharan which put a halt to the states plan to appoint liquidators and have the company wound up.

The shareholders met at the CLICO Box at the Queens Park Oval in Port of Spain yesterday with the specific task of appointing two additional directors - Carpenter and Reis - to the seven-member CL Financial board which at present has more government-appointed directors than those appointed by the majority shareholders.

Chairman of the Clico Policyholders Group Peter Permell said that Carpenter and Reis had given an undertaking not to offer themselves for election to the CL Financial board until October. He said that undertaking was an interim measure pending a full hearing of the matter involving the appointment of the provisional liquidator.

In other words, it gives everybody some time because the four Government-appointed directors who are there remain in control...

so there is no shift in the balance of power. The Government remains in control until such time as a meeting is held to elect the two additional directors or a provisional liquidator is appointed, Permell said.

The Court of Appeal, in a 6 pm ruling, gave government the green light to appoint two provisional liquidators to preserve assets of CL Financial, as it seeks to recover a $15 billion debt left from the 2009 bailout.

Speaking before the ruling, Permell said the appointment of a liquidator would be a stain on CL Financial.

Once you appoint a liquidator, that sends all sorts of signals to the financial community and the economy of Trinidad and Tobago. This is not a parlour, as our attorneys have argued, this is a multi-billion dollar company that they are seeking to have wound-up. These are matters that you have to take very seriously and serious consideration has to be given, certainly by the judges in making their final decision, Permell said.
Kamla: Money could fund 20,000 students

Minister of Works and Transport, Rohan Sinanan, yesterday assured all was above-board with the ferry leasings.

Persad-Bissessar also vowed to personally prosecute the case of an injured policeman who cannot access compensation due to the Government failing to activate the Protective Services Compensation Committee.

She expressed anger over Governments handling of tertiary education and her suspicions over the leasing of the ferries.

Persad-Bissessar alleged that one ferry was leased for $52 million more than its predecessor the Super Fast Galicia, a sum which, she said, could fund 17,000 tertiary students, while another ferry, the Cabo Star, was allegedly costing US$7,500 per day more than it should cost, a sum that could fund another 2,500 students.

She called on Sinanan to name the directors and shareholders of Bridgemann, saying they are seemingly not listed in the TT Companies Registry.

Persad-Bissessar alleged the firm came to this country in May to give technical advice to the Port Authority and the next month brought two boats which they then chartered to the authority.

This is scandal of the highest order. No procurement process whatsoever. A company with no track record. This stinks of corruption. Sinanan refuted the claims.

On claims that one ferry is overpriced by $52 million, he said this was leased on a short-term contract and represents what was available. After this lease ends, Government will aim for a fresh three-year lease at a better rate.

Mrs Persad-Bissessar said a lot of things that were not correct. On claims the Cabo Star is costing US $7,500 per day too much , Sinanan asked who was feeding Persad-Bissessar wrong info, saying, I have no idea what shes talking about. He said the Government charted the vessel for a price from Bridgemann.

Sinanan likewise queried her claim of Bridgemann visiting here in May, saying, To my knowledge that is not true. Bridgemann was never hired here as a consultant. On the claim that firm being unknown, he said Persad-Bissessar should question the doing her research.
Sinanan: Land owners, developers contributing to flooding

Sinanans observations were made after he toured Chester Trace, Debe which, several weeks after the passage of Tropical Storm Bret, had not completely recovered as a large number of drains and culverts were still under water.

The residents have contributed significantly to the problem, Sinanan said, adding, They admit that they filled the land and in doing so, they blocked most of the drainage and that is basically responsible for the problem that they are facing there. Yes the government has a responsibility, local government and the Ministry of Works, to go in and try to bring some sort of relief, but the problem there is a problem that was caused by the residents. Speaking with reporters from atop an embankment built as part of the Debe to Mon Desir highway segment, he said the areas hydraulic system had to be looked at before any work could recommence on that segment.

Sinanan said due to contractual obligations, government was obligated to complete work which had been started by Brazilian contractor OAS.

He also touched on the perennial flooding which occurs in Port of Spain saying there had not been any improvement in the underground drainage system for some time. He said high tides coupled with heavy rainfall usually led to flash flooding within the city and a temporary solution may involve the use of pumps while the long-term solution may be large retention ponds to store the water during high tides and release it when the tides receded.

Sinanan also sought to dispel reports that no work was being done on the major water courses in south Trinidad and cited works which were being performed on the Cuchawan river.

A lot of work has been going on, the problem we would have had is the storm Bret, there is no way we could engineer for that amount of rainfall, however the problem here is the embankment that we see here, and if you look at the outflows, they are very small. We definitely have to do something about that but there is a river cleaning program going on and that have started a couple of months ago. He also downplayed the absence of Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal from the tour saying the ministry had only decided on the tour two days ago and Moonilal sent a representative who brought a list of infrastructural work which needs to be done.
COP election set for August 20

The three candidates are: Dr Sharon Gopaul- McNicol, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Nicole Dyer-Griffith.

In a media statement, following a general membership meeting at the partys Charlieville headquarters on Sunday, outgoing political leader Dr Anirudh Mahabir stated members had engaged in full and exhaustive discussion of the issues raised in the pre-action protocol letter which questioned Dyer-Griffiths candidacy.

The meeting also decided by a margin of 2 to 1, that the election will proceed with all three candidates as contenders for the top post of leader of Congress of the People, the release stated.

General secretary Clyde Weatherhead, when contacted, seemed unsure whether legal action was still possible following the general membership meeting saying the member who sent the (pre action) letter, had attended the meeting and voiced his concerns.

That meeting was to resolve issues and thats what we felt happened, Weatherhead said. Asked whether the member was no longer threatening legal action, Weatherhead said: I dont know. He was there, he spoke and he voted and all of that so I dont know but I would hope not. Weatherhead reiterated that the party was prepared to hold the election on July 9, but had been forced to reschedule due to the challenge of Dyer-Griffiths candidacy.

The media statement also noted that all members acknowledged the importance of the election for the rebuilding process and future of the Congress of the People as a political party representing an alternative to the entrenched traditional parties.

Members were also reminded that once their membership was verified and approved, they would be entitled to vote on August 20, for the next political leader of the party.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have expanded their list of terrorist groups and individuals having links with Qatar.

Nine entities, based in Yemen or Libya, were thus added to the list. They include charity foundations, media and militia groups. Nine individuals, labeled as terrorist by the Arab quartet, are nationals of Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Libya.

A statement released by the quartet claimed that the entities and individuals have direct and indirect ties with Qatari authorities. It added that some of the individuals have embarked on fundraising campaigns to support Al Nusra Front, Syrian rebel groups and al Qaeda in Yemen.

The Syrian rebel groups that have received such support were not named.

It could be recalled that several Gulf States supported armed groups fighting against the Assad regime.

The statement also accused Doha of fueling the crisis in Libya. Qatari authorities have played an active role in spreading chaos and devastation in Libya, despite serious international concern over the destructive impact of such practices.

Doha has not reacted to the new allegations, but it had rejected previous claims made by the four boycotting Arab States.

Regarding the memorandum of understanding on counterterrorism concluded recently between the United States and Qatar, the quartets statement stressed that such steps are not enough while urging for practical urgent actions.

Qatars foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani who admitted that it has been a very long two months since the rift began, signaled that blockading nations and not being responsible for such illegal actions poses a high risk for world order, not just for Qatar as a small state.

He accused the quartet of kindling a baseless conflict fueled by disinformation.

Doha is seemingly adamant to resist the pressure. Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid Attiyah announced plans to conduct joint military exercises soon with the US and Turkey. Part of their 13 demands that need to be fulfilled before any normalization, the four Arab States want Qatar to close the Turkish military base that it is hosting.
Mediterranean interior ministers have agreed to enhance joint actions to combat illegal migration, migrants smuggling and human trafficking networks, a growing lucrative business threatening peace and stability in the region.

At the end of a meeting held lately in Tunis, the European and African Interior Ministers stressed the importance of addressing the roots of illegal migration, promoting legal mobility and adopting a human approach in migration management.

They reviewed a plan seeking to regularize the flow of refugees from Africa to Europe and to deport illegal migrants from Italy in addition to the fight against migrants smugglers.

The plan, supported by the UNHCR, aims to set up screening systems for EU-bound migrants in countries en route to Libya, such as Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Chad and Sudan.

The EU has set aside funds for 40,000 regularized refugees with as many as half coming from claimants in Syria, and the remainder from Africa.

Italy is gripped by deep political and civil divisions on the issue, with more than 90,000 migrants reaching Italy from Libya this year.

UNHCRs new special envoy to the central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel said, we need to regularize the system and stop these dangerous journeys into Libya.

Italy also needs to be able to process claimants so the economic migrants are returned much more quickly, or else there will be no deterrent to travel to Italy. Only a third of the migrants reaching Italy are found to be in need of international protection, he stressed.

It is believed that there are 300,000 Africans from outside Libya trying to get across to Europe or to get some work in Libya. They are living in Libyan detention centers or in warehouses or so-called connection houses in the hands of traffickers. The refugees need to be taken out of Libya from these detention centers so they can be processed elsewhere.

In the first six months of this year, 2,171 refugees and migrants died or went missing in the central Mediterranean, and many others are believed to have died trying to cross into Libya.

During a visit paid lately to Libya, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi said he was shocked at the harsh conditions in which refugees and migrants are held in Libya, a situation due to lack of resources.

Children, women and men who have suffered so much already should not have to endure such hardship, he added, announcing that UNHCR has decided to step up its presence in Libya in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from conflict, insecurity, political instability and a collapsing economy in the North African country.
Two other Moroccan peacekeepers operating under MINUSCA, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) were killed on Tuesday and another was injured in an ambush by Anti-Balaka rebels in the second deadly attack, just two days after the death of a Moroccan soldier from the same contingent.

The MINUSCA regrets to announce the deaths of two more blue helmets on Tuesday afternoon in Bangassou, a town 700 kilometres (430 miles) east of the capital Bangui, the peacekeeping force said in a statement.

The UN peacekeepers were attacked as they were stocking up with water for the humanitarian needs of the town, the statement added.

On the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangassou has in recent weeks become the epicenter of the unrest in the Central African Republic.

Despite the warnings by the international community that attacks on peacekeepers amount to war crimes, the Christian Anti-Balaka rebels continue to target humanitarian convoys of the UN in the country, particularly in the area of Bangassou.

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

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

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

Morocco sent 1470 peacekeepers to the MINUSCA, which has a total of 12,870 uniformed personnel including 10,750 military personnel and 2,080 police personnel.

Since 2013, the Central African Republic has been mired in a civil conflict after clashes surged between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and Anti-Balaka militias.
Morocco and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development signed a financing agreement of the second phase of the high-speed train TGV worth 474 million Dirhams.

This loan attests to the strong partnership between the two countries and the interest of Kuwait in Moroccos strategic development projects, said Moroccos economy and finance minister Mohamed Boussaid who signed the agreement in Rabat Tuesday with the director of the Kuwaiti Fund Ahmed Al Badr and the director general of Moroccos railways (ONCF) Mohamed Rabie Khlie.

The event was an occasion to highlight the significance of the TGV, which will be the first of its kind to operate in Africa, as part of the flagship projects launched by Morocco under the leadership of King Mohammed VI.

The setting up of a modern rail system is conducive to boosting Moroccos economic development notably between the two industrial hubs of Tangier and Casablanca, said the Moroccan Minister.

The Kuwaiti Fund finances several development and social projects in Morocco, underscored Al Badr, noting that it has already loaned $85 million to Morocco to achieve the first phase of the TGV, which brings the Funds overall contribution to $130 million.

For his part, Khlie said that works to complete the TGV line between Casablanca and Tangier have reached a progress rate of 91%.

The project is expected to be ready by the end of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 will be dedicated to technical tests before the official launch.

These massive investments aim at upgrading Moroccos railways with a view to lay the foundations for an efficient and modern rail transport system, Khlie added.

The TGV has set the target of transporting 6 million passengers a year with departures every hour from Casablanca and Tangier, with the aim to achieve an average occupancy rate of 70%.

Morocco bought 12 high-speed trains from France train manufacturer, Alstom. The trains will operate at 320km/h on the high-speed line to achieve a Tangiers  Casablanca journey time of 2h 10min, instead of 4h 45min today.

Moroccos TGV costs about $1.9 billion, largely funded by France, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
Libyas political rivals agreed Tuesday in France to set aside their contentions and make way for peace, endorsing the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) signed in Skhirat, Morocco, in December 2015, as the only political roadmap for the countrys reconstruction, after the six-year long chaos that followed the removal of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed revolution.

Head of UN-backed Presidency Council (PC), Faiez Serraj, and commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar, reached the agreement at a meeting convened near Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The two men convened that there could only be a political solution to the Libyan crisis, and pledged to work to put the Libyan Political Agreement approved at Skhirat into full operation, reported the Libya Herald on its website.

Part of a ten-point declaration, the two leaders said, We commit ourselves to a ceasefire and we make a solemn commitment to work for the presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible.

They pointed out in the declaration that the State Council and the HoR would play a role in the political dialogue and that they would make every effort to integrate combatants who wish to do so into the regular Libyan armed forces and help others who want to demobilize reintegrate into civilian life.

They also agreed to work on a roadmap that would see a united military combatting terrorism and dealing with illegal migrant flows, and called on the UN Security Council to support their agreement and the new UN special envoy Ghassan Salame to undertake consultations to that end with the various key Libyan stakeholders.

During the Tuesday encounter between Serraj and Haftar, one of the rare public appearances of the two rivals since entering the Libyan political life, French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the historic courage of the two men, saying that today, the cause for peace in Libya made major progress. Serraj called it a great step towards reconciliation and lasting peace.

The Commander of the Libyan National Army had so far opposed the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), which places him under the authority of the Presidency Council that Haftar accuses of advancing foreign agendas.

His LNA controls vast territories of the North African country.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has strongly condemned as unacceptable Israels practices in Jerusalem that are meant to impose a fait accompli in the city, and urged the international community to take decisive actions to compel Israel to put an end to these provocative practices that could incite extremist tendencies, further tension, animosity and violence in the entire region.

In a letter he addressed to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, King Mohammed VI, in his capacity as Chairman of the Al Quds Committee, deplored the Israeli authorities continued, systematic violations in the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a blatant violation of international law.

The Monarch recalled Israels serious provocative measures that undermine regional and international efforts to revive the peace process and settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He mentioned in this respect the unprecedented celebrations on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the annexation of Al-Quds, the development plans sketched for the Old City, and the various bills introduced by the Israeli Government to Judaize education in the occupied city of Al Quds, annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other areas in East Jerusalem, set up a unified Jerusalem, and ban the call to prayer in the city and surrounding Arab neighborhoods.

The Israeli authorities are launching a comprehensive campaign of escalation against the Old City in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its surroundings by confiscating Palestinian land, by denying Palestinians the right to build and by carrying out arbitrary evictions, the Monarch underscored.

He denounced more serious illegal measures taken by Israel, which, on July 14, he recalled, proscribed the Friday prayers, closed Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshipers for three days and, for the first time in half a century, banned the call to prayer. It also detained, for several hours, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian territories.

Israel has increased tension in the region by introducing additional provocative and unacceptable security measures, installing surveillance cameras throughout the Al Aqsa Mosque compound as well as security gates to check the worshipers, and assaulting officials and employees of the Islamic endowment department, the King stated in his letter, underlining that these illegal actions undermine the dignity of the inhabitants of Al Quds and constitute a provocation for all Palestinians.

The Monarch warned that these unacceptable Israeli policies may lead to an outpouring of anger and an overall public reaction that could compound the situation in the Palestinian territories.

These provocative practices arouse the feelings of Arabs, Muslims and freedom lovers in the world. They could incite extremist tendencies that may lead to further tension, animosity and violence in the entire region, said King Mohammed VI who reiterated that in his capacity as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee he strongly condemns these unacceptable Israeli policies.

The Monarch called the international community and the UN Secretary General to compel Israelis to respect the legal and historical status of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the Holy Places, and to ask them to cancel all illegal measures, including the additional security arrangements.

These measures have prompted suspicion that there might be an Israeli plan for the spatial and temporal division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the King stated, insisting on the centrality of the issue of Jerusalem and its special spiritual significance.

No infringement on its symbolic character or its time-honored cultural identity can be tolerated, he said warning against the risk of turning the issue into a religious conflict, and exploiting the cultural heritage to incite hatred, fuel extremism and undermine the ideals of tolerance and affection between the followers of the revealed religions.
Is CNN ISIS? Americans disagree. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Throughout his campaign and early presidency, Donald Trump has argued that the First Amendment gives journalists too much protection, most reporters are scum, and the mainstream news media is the enemy of the American people.

A sizable chunk of said people have taken these words to heart: A new YouGov/Economist poll finds that 55 percent of Republicans believe the courts should be allowed to fine news media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased or inaccurate  while 45 percent say that the judiciary should have the power to shut down biased media organizations. Only 12 percent of GOP voters oppose the first proposition, and just 20 percent object to the second.

Among the broader public, 34 percent support courts fining news outlets for biased or inaccurate reports, while (only?) 28 percent think judges should be able to shut down nonobjective outlets.

Its unclear where, precisely, a majority of GOP voters would like courts to draw the line separating legitimate reporting from illegal bias. But a new Politico/Morning Consult survey suggests that for many Republicans, the boundary between fact and fiction lies wherever president Trump says it does: 49 percent of Trump voters told those pollsters that the president won the popular vote last November, while just 40 percent said Hillary Clinton did.

This data certainly suggests that Trump is eroding conservatives support for the First Amendment  even as some of his most fervent supporters cast themselves as champions of free speech. But its possible that the data also reflects a contraction in the number of Americans willing to identify as Republicans. A recent working paper from political scientists at Emory University suggests that the stability of Trumps approval rating with Republicans  and the voting blocs strong support for his most authoritarian inclinations  may be, in part, the product of Trumps Republican detractors choosing to cut ties with their old party. According to Gallup, GOP identification has fallen four points since the 2016 election.
People watch a TV report on North Koreans missile launch at the Seoul Railway Station on July 4, 2017. Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

When former president Barack Obama handed the White House over to Donald Trump in January, he informed his successor that the most urgent problem he would face as president was North Korea and its accelerating nuclear weapons program. Since January, Pyongyang has conducted a series of ballistic missile tests, including one on July 4 of a missile believed to be capable of reaching Alaska. Hawaii is now taking measures to prepare for a potential nuclear air burst over Honolulu.

The latest bad news out of North Korea came on Thursday, when the Washington Post reported that U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials now believe Pyongyang will be able to produce a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile by next year, two years ahead of previous estimates.

While the Norths missile program has made significant progress, it has not yet proven that it can solve the atmospheric reentry problem (i.e., designing a missile that can withstand the upper atmosphere without damage to the warhead), but officials believe it is preparing to test a reentry vehicle as early as this week. Nor has the regime of Kim Jong-Un proven to the world that it has figured out how to miniaturize a nuclear warhead so that it can be delivered via ICBM, though it claimed to have done so last year. Nonetheless, Washingtons and Seouls updated assessments of the progress of the Norths nuclear program suggest Pyongyang will soon overcome this hurdle as well.

Possessing the ability to launch a nuclear strike on American cities will give the isolated Stalinist dictatorship an intolerable amount of leverage in extorting concessions from the international community and dash any hopes of forcing the regime out of power. Thats why its government enjoys threatening, as it did again on Thursday, to strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S. with our powerful nuclear hammer if the U.S. dares make any attempt at regime change in Pyongyang. Seoul and Tokyo are more likely targets for an actual strike than Honolulu or Los Angeles, but as always in nuclear politics, its the threat that counts.

More alarming still, a North Korea with the ability to field nuclear-tipped ICBMs will raise the stakes of regional geopolitics and diplomacy in North Asia by orders of magnitude, especially given the Kim regimes paranoia and habit of lashing out at perceived threats. Needless to say, this is not an ideal moment for the U.S. to have a president prone to mouthing off, making cryptic and contradictory public statements, issuing idle threats, and shaking down our allies (including South Korea) for protection money  yet here we are.

Another factor in this crisis is Russia, which has its own complicated relationship with the Trump administration. Russian exports to North Korea doubled in the first five months of 2017, CNBC reports, suggesting that Moscow is ramping up its economic support for its Soviet-era client. Russia also blocked U.S. efforts to have the United Nations Security Council condemn Pyongyangs missile test earlier this month, and is resisting the imposition of additional U.N. sanctions. Russia could be trying to use North Korea as a pawn to pressure the U.S. on issues like Syria and Ukraine. Add North Korean ICBMs to the board, and that pawn becomes a queen.

Then theres China: North Koreas main investor, trade partner, and economic lifeline. Beijing has been pushing a proposal that would see Pyongyang freeze its nuclear program in exchange for a halt to large-scale joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea (both developments that would suit its interests nicely). The North Koreans are apparently receptive to this dual freeze arrangement, but the U.S. and South Korea are not.

So how should the Trump administration handle this crisis? As Mark Bowden explained in his recent Atlantic cover story, all of Washingtons military options for bursting Kims nuclear ambitions would have catastrophic risks and no guarantee of fulfilling their objectives. Some voices on the right are urging the U.S. to increase pressure on China to contain its troublesome ally, whether through sanctions, an Asian counterpart to NATO, or a missile-defense arms race. Others say the best path forward is to open good-faith negotiations with Pyongyang, as South Koreas new president Moon Jae-in has expressed interest in doing.

What the administration will do is another question entirely. An embattled White House, an intelligence Establishment disdained by the president, and a systematically depopulated State Department are not the best partners to devise a coherent strategy for facing down the North Korean threat.
Republicans trudge into the Senate chamber to bury their past handiwork on how to deal with Obamacare. Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Amid the confusion and procedural obscurity surrounding Senate consideration of the FY 2017 budget-reconciliation bill this week, something remarkable is happening that should not be missed: The Republican-controlled chamber is in the process of repudiating two solid years of GOP health-care policy.

Late last night the latest version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act went down to defeat on a procedural vote with no less than nine Republican senators voting to kill it. Lest we forget, the BCRA is really just a variation of the House-passed American Health Care Act. It represents the closest thing Republicans have to a consensus repeal-and-replace plan for Obamacare.

Before the GOP made the fateful decision to develop an Obamacare replacement, its big plan was known as repeal and delay, based on the legislation Congress passed late in 2015 to simply repeal key elements of the Affordable Care Act with effective dates delayed long enough to allow for future replacement legislation. A replica of that 2015 legislation, now known as the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, is up for a vote in the Senate today. It is universally expected to fail, and in fact is probably only on the floor because Senator Rand Paul and other hard-core conservatives wanted to register a vote for it badly enough to make that a condition for their support of yesterdays must-pass motion to proceed.

So in less than 24 hours, the 201516 and 2017 GOP plans for dealing with Obamacare will be tossed into the dustbin of history. Yes, it is possible that yet another version of BCRA/AHCA  also known as Trumpcare  will emerge from the ashes for another Senate vote or, more likely, will be adopted by a House-Senate conference if the Senate can pass anything. Thats what is behind the talk of a skinny repeal bill that simply kicks the can down the road and into a conference where the real decisions will be made.

Its instructive, though, that all this misdirection and deception are necessary. For seven years Republicans behaved as though getting rid of Obamacare was a fait accompli once they won both Congress and the White House. Now the two main strategies they devised for achieving this no-brainer are going down to defeat in their Washington, and can only be revivified, if at all, by stealth. Its a sign of both intellectual bankruptcy and political fecklessness that does not bode well for the rest of the GOP agenda.
COPYRIGHT NZCIVAIR

All information and photographs used on this blog are copyright to NZCIVAIR.


How is it doing on the charts? Is it on them?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It had a good first week and debuted like 21 or something but it has since fallen to number 40 . The song and woman are both solid, kesha deserves better.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's doing surprisingly well. Radio is playing it and it's gaining pretty quickly. Streams are holding well as well.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yes it should!! It's sooo good!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I see Wild Thoughts ending its reign. God has always protected Mariah's record, don't see why that should stop now.

Or a surprise lead single from Terror Swift could do it. May she use her witchcraft for good.



Edited at 2017-07-26 12:51 am (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

love his bod tbqh

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





WTF, I'm dealing with pre-flight anxiety right now - I don't deserve to be assaulted like this. Ugh I need to cleanse my mind of all this negativity.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Love it idgaf 

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

UGH

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Thought that was katy perry as i scrolled

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Seek Jesus!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

This is darksided

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

why r u punishing me

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

but I hate 'One Sweet Day'. It is by far my least favorite song by Mariah and Boys 2 Men. I remember it would come on the MTV/BET and I would turn so fast from it.



Even though I didn't like the song I would rather have Mariah and B2M keep their record especially over this song.



Edited at 2017-07-26 12:54 am (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

oh god, same. I'm old so I remember it from back then and I thought it was awful and sappy and dull. I never understood why it held the record. But Despacito is certainly no better, ugh. :-/

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Only Rita's Your Song can break One Sweet Day's record



Edited at 2017-07-26 12:55 am (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

mte

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I have never heard this song, and I plan to keep it that way

Reply

Thread

Link

I still love Despacito



ngl

Reply

Thread

Link

My mom loves the song so I love the song

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

it's a good song

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I love it but those lyrics tho..."Sign the walls of your labyrinth / And make your whole body a manuscript"...I don't want to imagine him jizzing in a vagina like that...eww

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

The non-Bieber version, Ia. I had it on repeat yesterday.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link





*peers out the window*



"take the hit."



it's time i make the call. *finishes last hit of blunt and picks up cellphone**peers out the window*"take the hit."

Reply

Thread

Link

WHY AM I CACKLING I CANNNNNNOT

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Omg lol! Rihanna should re-release kiss it better and snatch that number 1.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Been waiting on that sunshine boy, I think I need that back

Can't do it like that

No one else gonna get it like that

So I argue, you yell

But you take me back

Who cares when it feels like crack?

Boy you know that you always do it right

Man, your pride

Just take it on back, boy take it on back boy

Take it back all night

Just take it on back, take it on back

Mmm, do what you gotta do, keep me up all night

Hurting vibe, man, and it hurts inside when I look you in your eye





Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

GET THEM SIS!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

What kind of ganj u smoking good sis?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

I hate this song so fucking much.

Reply

Thread

Link

I sure hope not

Reply

Thread

Link

This always gets speculated every time a song goes oast 10 weeks

Reply

Thread

Link

You know what? Taylor, come back and end this.

Reply

Thread

Link





Don't say that!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lmao ia

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I was low key thinking this right now. Like just come back and end this already. If we are gonna get something out of her comeback, let it be this.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





If this is the sacrifice we have to make...

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lol, watch Taylor get blocked.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I hate ha but for real.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lmao yas indeed

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

A) YOUR ICON, THOSE EYEBROWS



B) I hope she does it in week 15 lmao

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link
We were rooting for you.gif

Reply

Thread

Link

What i came in here hoping to find.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

WHY DO THE PEOPLE I ROOT FOR ALWAYS GOTTA FUCK IT UP

Reply

Thread

Link

And you know she doesn't have the penis or the paleness to get a second chance.



Apology forthcoming, but it ain't gonna do any good.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

The black community will let it slide if there's talent.



Bill cosby

R kelly

Michael vick















O.J. Simpson...

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Well, that was fun while it lasted

Reply

Thread

Link

damn. how bad is her publicist? all this public support suddenly behind her and...

Reply

Thread

Link

Right tho? Someone dont love her

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

very bad.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

my first thoughts, jfc. why in the middle of his very obvious public scandal would you say that.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Seriously, and right after she's being called the breakout star of Girls Trip

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

She probably doesn't have a big name publicist with any kind of pull. I bet her publicist has a gmail address.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

welp girl

Reply

Thread

Link

LOL, she was doing so well too

Reply

Thread

Link

damn she just ruined her own career, she had all the yt ppl buzz and everything

Reply

Thread

Link

GDI TIFFANY 

Reply

Thread

Link

LMAO YASSS

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Oop, I was reading from the bottom up.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

not so much in this case because it's pretty inexcusable but I always wonder how often "offensive" jokes cracked by female comics on press tours are made as a defense mechanism/out of nerves in a very male-dominated environment. mostly because that was how I coped with being in those environments during college lmao..i feel like it could be easy to overcompensate

Reply

Thread

Link

Oh it's definitely why. It's like "I'm not like those stick in the mud bitchy girls who are always complaining about toxic masculinity and the patriarchy and making a big deal out of every little date-rape! I'm a cool girl."

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

She is a rape victim herself so it's mind boggling to me.



I get that Bill Cosby, his career and tv shows, are so influential to the black community because he is a legend but girl, he's a serial date rapist. You didn't need to mention him.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

YEP. Women still strive to be "In" with the men. Any solidarity with women is thrown away if they can get on the Men's Raft.



This is also why all-female alliances NEVER work in Big Brother (don't laff, I have a lot of thots about this).

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I feel like it has more to do with the fact that comedians make a whole lot of jokes, people general have a few problematic opinions, and the way people's entire worldviews tend to be revealed when they're given the opportunity to make a lot of jokes.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

ia. i'm that "annoying bitch" at my workplace because i always start something when someone says an offensive joke which is like ALL THE TIME cuz i work in a male-dominated industry that attracts a certain type of alpha-male personality which i despise. i would imagine it is a lot easier and advantageous to joke along because i know i have been passed over for promotions cuz they think i'm a humorless bitch. i empathize with her...still want to have a conversation with her about how saying this shit on such a big platform doesn't help #illtalktojay

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

i mean she could've even stopped at 'i'd still work with bill cosby' which would've been bad enough but she had to throw in the rape 'joke' and take it even further... there's just no defending that

Reply

Thread

Link

well if you're going to stick your foot in it might as well go all the way

Reply

Thread

Link

daaaaamn she done fucked up. jada, come get your girl.

Reply

Thread

Link

W O W

Reply

Thread

Link

Well that didn't take long at all.

Reply

Thread

Link
This is just a distraction from the healthcare vote, don't fall for it. Keep calling your senators and reps.

Reply

Thread

Link

i agree



and russia



and the digging into his own personal finances



and don jr colluding



and jared



and all the other drops of this never ending shit show

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Just because he's announcing it at this moment and in this way is an attempt at distracting us doesn't mean it doesn't also deserve our attention. He has every intention to follow through on this policy change - we can care about both at once.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

this. they're not mutually exclusive

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

ty! i'm sick of all the "this is a distraction!" takes.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I hate that I'm so disillusioned on bothering with my senators. I'm in NC and they're both Republican. One has said he's not running again, and he was very clear that because he received so much in the way of complaints and outrage against DeVos, he decided to vote *for* her confirmation. They're useless and can't be swayed.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Distraction may be the partial intent, but he literally just fired like 15,000 people for no reason. With a tweet. For them it's way more than just a distraction.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

good thing i'm great at multi-tasking

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Yep going back to his rally style fear mongering shtick- huge distraction



eta: distraction as in he wants his base and other repubs to fall over him again and forget everything else (pentagon didnt even know he was saying this now). ie real issue to get bigots back on board cause sessions stuff is making some turn



Edited at 2017-07-26 03:26 pm (UTC)

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Covfefe is a distraction, this affects real people and real lives just like the healthcare vote.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Can you not? Simply saying "this is a distraction" invalidates the existence of trans people and paints them as less important that whatever you're asking us to focus on. Its not a distraction to the thousands of very real trans men and women currently serving in the military.



Also, its also possible to be angry and concerned about multiple things (ie, LGBT issues, healthcare, etc). Use your whole brain.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

birch, I got ADD, I can pay attention to five things at once.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

this being the first comment makes so much sense for ontd

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2016





Edited at 2017-07-26 02:44 pm (UTC) This was a year ago. I hate this motherfucker.

Reply

Thread

Link

His tweets never do.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

i was going to say, "like him" but he's always looked like cottage cheese.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

His tweets age like he does.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

my god. what must it be like to be able to go through life lying this brazenly and blatantly with every breath?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Did anyone besides the trolls over at r/The_Donald honestly believe this?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I hate this dumb bitch lol

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I believe in a way she is more dangerous, - Susan Sarandon

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

"Fear of Donald Trump is not enough for me to support Clinton" - Susan Sarandon

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Some people feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately, - Susan Sarandon

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lolz its cute people will blame everyone for hillz loss except hillz and her god awful staff and good old ameriKKKan racism



Edited at 2017-07-26 02:50 pm (UTC)

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

GOd with every Trump action i hate the Susan Sarandons of this world just a bit more. To me they are much worse than Trump voter cause they knew better to be honest. The bullshit, they are the same thing rings in my ears everytime he does something to further hurt people. Fuck her and all her kind

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

liberal obsession with people who don't fall 100% in line w/ their fave imperialists is always boring. get over it

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

ppl thinking twitter accounts or celebs had a bigger effect on the election than democrat incompetence are delusional



1,000+ seats lost under obama and you're gonna blame some b-list actor who isn't lockstep in your political opinion? i know this is hard to comprehend for online liberals who only consume their politics via media (ie you) but nobody cares what susan says. maybe we'd get somewhere if you all focused your attention on the losers and not irrelevant people

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

smdh

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Mueller seriously needs to hurry the fuck up and get this piece of shit out of here already. I know there's still everyone else there who is equally as awful but I'm just really losing hope at this point.

Reply

Thread

Link





After consultation with our staff, here is our current statement regarding @POTUS's transgender service tweets. "FUCK YOU."  Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) July 26, 2017

It's too early for this, smh.

Reply

Thread

Link

Just spoke to a Trump administration official about the transgender military decision. Here's what they said... pic.twitter.com/eOWdvlxTfd  Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 26, 2017





white house literally admitting they're kicking "distractions" out of the military for votes in 2018 bc every blue collar worker in the rust belt is transphobic



i can't with these fucking assholes anymore white house literally admitting they're kicking "distractions" out of the military for votes in 2018 bc every blue collar worker in the rust belt is transphobici can't with these fucking assholes anymore

Reply

Thread

Link

fuck the rust belt. i cant wait for the studies on how those deplorables are dying of preventable diseases.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

wish i could swoop in and rescue the people who live in those states who did not vote for trump/don't support him. everyone else can rot

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Srsly, if the rust belt didn't exist in this country, it'd be a much better place.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I don't even see why they think it would lose people votes (supporting trans individuals' right to serve in the military). All any candidate would have to say is, "Anyone who feels the call to serve their country proudly should be able to do so." I have a hard time seeing that as a "controversial" statement to anyone who would be on the fence over who to vote for.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Yeah, ask the governor of NC how that worked out for him?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

WI has Tammy Baldwin (out of the closet lesbian) in the Senate, so maybe my state isn't *completely* backwards when it comes to LGBTQ individuals.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

This sniveling, craven, pandering, draft-dodging motherfucker. And no, it is not just a ~distraction~ from the healthcare thing, it is both an attempt at a distraction and also genuine, flagrant bigotry. We can care about more than one thing at once.

Reply

Thread

Link

...only to be told (on Twitter, no less) that their Commander in Chief doesn't want them in any capacityit's outrageous!  Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) July 26, 2017



Reply

Thread

Link

this makes me wanna cry

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I can't imagine how hard it already was for them. Now it's going to be so much worse. Fuck this clown.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Talk about fucking ungrateful.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I wonder if Caitlyn Jenner still supports this asshole? I bet the answer is yes.

Reply

Thread

Link

Of course she will.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Eh, I don't think it's fair to drag Caitlyn into this. She hasn't been Trans for that long and her trans experience is extremely limited in comparison to someone like Tula, Jazz or Kim Petras. She'll never understand what that road is like and too old to go through what those girls went through to fully understand what it is to be transsexual.



IMO, Caitlyn will never connect what it truly is to be transsexual because she's lived the majority of her life as a White Man.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

It's absolutely fair to drag Cait into this. She has gone hard for the president. and even voted for him.





She has been trans for a long time, because she's been alive longer than any of the people you mentioned.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

She dragged herself into this...

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Of course it's fair. She supports this asshole all over the media. She deserves to be dragged just like anyone else who does the same.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

"She hasn't been trans for that long" see this is my problem with liberal america's attempt at simplifying very complicated aspects of gender identity for politicalization. she has been trans her entire fucking life if we are going to follow the liberal guide book to "gender identity" that is becoming so commonly preached - but comments like your's literally jeopardize the entire platform trans people are currently trying to build their identities upon. "hasn't been trans that wrong" don't you mean hasn't been out that long? or are we openly admitting that gender identity is a sudden and random thing and not innate or structured.



Edited at 2017-07-26 03:16 pm (UTC)

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Caitlyn has been outspoken about her support for Trump, so it's absolutely fair to drag her into it.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

She's rich and white, so of course she does.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

"No one could have predicted this."

-- Caitlyn Jenner, probably.

Reply

Thread

Link

She'll just say something about saying the pledge of allegiance in kindergarten and believing in the Constitution or put out some stupid video like the last time saying



~call me~



bitch they don't care about you. they rather put losers like kid rock and scott baio on their platform before her. she doesn't realize they all think she's disgusting and going to hell for being trans.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

He is trying to save the precious trans life by keeping them away from the frontlines. - Caitlyn Jenner, definitely.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lol her twitter team was so great

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

How can this runaway train of a government be stopped?!?!

Reply

Thread

Link

not gonna happen, especially when people continue to put on pedestal politicians for doing the bare minimum OR just letting them go by thanks to witty interns who @ fatty in chief

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Do what other countries where the USA have been politically involved: get together and throw the government away.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

This is the only option

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lol it just keeps getting worse by the minute we gon die

Reply

Thread

Link

how can he talk about people like this? people still willing to fight and defend their country under his fucked up administration no less? despicable. for someone who is running a fucking country he doesn't seem to like many people living in that country.

Reply

Thread

Link

Because he doesn't actually care about Americans. He's a fucking traitor who has spent most of his life money laundering for Russians, draft dodging, harassing women and poc, and trying not to pay his taxes. He doesn't give a fuck about this country or anyone in it, just his unfortunate looking children.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Well, only one of his unfortunate looking children.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

He doesn't gaf about anyone but himself...and Ivanka.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

You know what I remember many people who said he is just talking out of his ass during the campaign trail. He was an ex-Democrat who is probably not going to do anything to ACA or disenfranchise the minorities. So many of you tried to sell him as the "peace candidate" aka non-interventionist who has now racked up more civilian deaths in his 6 months than Obama ever did in his entire presidency. Obama was rightly criticized for his deportation policy but Trump's ICE takes it to a whole another level with an ICE official claiming under anonymity that they are specifically ordered to target even those that harmless, law-abiding, etc. You guys loved to paint Democrats and Republicans are the same except they are not. Some of those people no longer post here and some pretend to be disgusted by his behavior.

Reply

Thread

Link

i think when people say dems and repugs are the same they mean in a corporate way. they favor the rich over the people.

people saying all the other stuff you mentioned are also privileged and weren't going to be impacted by any of his social issues regardless.

i'm not defending anyone tho, but i think most feel that way. i went hard for bernie in the primaries and would again but voted hillary during the general because i believed trump.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

plus a lot of Dems are pro-interventionism too.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

They aren't even close to the same in a corporate way though. They both do tend to favor the rich, but the Republicans are consistently much worse on every single issue in that department than the Democrats. Their whole goal is to cut taxes by getting rid of most social services and to make it as difficult as possible for people to hold corporations accountable because they believe businesses deserve freedom too.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Even that is a lie, on a corporate level they are not the same. Are democrats the all for the people that some on the left want?no. But to say they are the same in their treatment of business is being willfully obtuse and ignorant of the actual actions these people take when in office.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yeah. The secret dem who is more left than Hillary people are totally silent now. Except for revertigo. I want to go find old posts and make a list.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link




Capito confirms that she is accepting the $750 billion in Medicaid cuts she denounced last week bc of an amendment that added $100 billion. https://t.co/kFqYZZ8pbd  Taniel (@Taniel) July 26, 2017

These evil people can burn in hell.

Reply

Thread

Link

She's a dumb bitch

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

...plus the 5 million she was likely paid off with.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's always suprisingly cheap to buy of senators.. Some of them are pro-coal for like a 100 grand..

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

She must be doing the new DeVos math.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

what is math I guess

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Does this mean that she thinks 750 billion in cuts is too much but 650 billion in cuts is ok?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

John McCain lecturing everyone and doing his little "I will not vote for this bill" thing and then literally 6 hours later voting for the bill is one of the most John McCain things ever.

Reply

Thread

Link

I love your icon.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lol right? oomggg i hope he dies soon, cant wait to dance on his grave! maybe if we're lucky he'll end up back in this hospital this week!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

if he dies [while in office] does the seat remain vacant until the next election? i mean i obvs know the protocol for prez, but i never thought about it for congress

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I love alot of Sunny's views but isnt she one of those i love gay people but i dont agree with their llifestyle types!?

Reply

Thread

Link

Fuck Caitlyn Jenner

Reply

Thread

Link

Thank you, John McCain, for teaching us the valuable lesson that even in times of extreme difficulty, people can be fucking awful.  Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) July 25, 2017



Reply

Thread

Link

The people who work with you think you're mentally ill, the people you work for think you're mentally ill.....I mean.



Even the 3am tweets could easily be a result of sundowning.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I hope what he did yesterday tears him apart for the rest of his probably short life.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

My last View post will be August 15, 2017.

Reply

Thread

Link

I'm going on vacation. I've been contemplating stopping making View posts for awhile now.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

How long until your post usually get approved or go live, bby? If no-one emails you yes or no after a day, is that normal?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Have the best time on your vacation and good luck with all of your studies!



I can't thank you enough for all the political posts here on ONTD. It has been a safe place for me to talk about the shit that is going on with (relatively) like minded people and I have learned so much from other ONTDers sharing their experiences (and their loved ones). I didn't know where to go after the shit results of the election and I just wanted to thank you (and all the other ONTDers leading the posting charge) for continuing to create a place for us to talk about all the bullshit.



<3

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

who shall take the torch?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Sad news but thank you for your hard work. :( Enjoy your vacation.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Aw thanks so much for all your hard work and good luck with your studies!!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I enjoy your The View posts so thank you for doing the Lord's work. Have a good vacation and good luck studying! <3

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Aww. We thank you for your service, bb <3

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

your service to ONTD has been commendable <3

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I cant take Whoopi thinking shes the authority on everything and jumping over EVERYONE. I mean, do I necessarily mind when she's doing it to shut Jed's stupid ass up (btw that bitch really tried it trying to say that shit about ~Morale~ of the troops under the guise of "this is what some military ppl are saying")? No! But when she's talking over Joy or Sara or Sunny...SHUT UP. You're the moderator, doesnt mean your words the only one we should hear or that it's the final point. She's so fucking annoying.



As for the hot mic video...I LOL'd at Senator Reid accurately indicating that Senator Collins would beat the shit out of that loser ahahhahah. When she called him fat and that picture gross (the playboy one) I liiiived.

Reply

Thread

Link

Senator Lee got caught texting about the bill and he said this is a tax break for the rich

Reply

Thread

Link





GOP Sen. Lee was seen texting re: health bill: "This bill is nothing more than bailing out insurance companies." https://t.co/uvbodGAipl  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 26, 2017

hmm

Reply

Thread

Link

and he'll vote for it anyways i bet. its maddening.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

But by god, he's gonna vote for it!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

idgi

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

RS put Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on their cover with the same headlines lmfao

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Awww Deanie Baby

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





IN AMERICA WE DON'T WORSHIP GOVERNMENT - WE WORSHIP GOD!https://t.co/jIejSgVnnA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

the fucking lunatic is spiralling even more out of control. IMPEACH. NOW.

Reply

Thread

Link

HE HAS AN INSTA?! GODDAMNIT.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

He does this to rally his INSANE base: insult a minority (transgender people) and pivot to God even though this man is the least religious, godless man ever. It's actually insanity, what has him so spooked?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

That person who thinks legislation has to be approved by the Supreme Court omg

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

wrong on both counts, we worship the military

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

wow

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

And you, Donnie, worship only yourself.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I did a double take tbh, what in the fuck.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Mike Pence has taken over his brain, his mission has reached Phase 2

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

i called him a terrorist.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

he's reaaally losing it isn't he? I don't know if this is good or bad

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

HOW MUCH FUCKING LONGER ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT?! OMFG this is so fucking ridiculous, like every goddamn day the shitshow gets more fucked!! What the fuck is it going to take to turn this country back around and get all these fuckers out?! UGH!!!

Reply

Thread

Link

WH source: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner determined that their political capital be spent elsewhere" https://t.co/o4jK3Z8LpK  The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 26, 2017



Reply

Thread

Link

IF I SEE ONE MORE "IVANKA AND JARED DISAGREED" ARTICLE I WILL LOSE MY SHIT! Journalists really gotta stop feeding into their shit.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

What "political capital" do those useless grifting charlatans have?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

we been knew. Imagine your fallback (well its not a fallback since they lean on it pretty much at the forefront too) prejudice and hatred? Like when things are going to hell in a handbasket these monsters think "oh you know what will help?!? Discriminating against someone!"...And because this country is filled with disgusting humans who mirror this adminstration, THEY'RE RIGHT!





Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Heh. Sounds like Kush and Vanks are distancing. Meeting with their lawyers and determining the best way to leave daddy high and dry on his shit no doubt.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Any chance of this actually passing?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link
is this a cult?

Reply

Thread

Link

Man, remember when days used to be so much simpler and everyone was just into Kaballah?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Ugh, that's so disgusting. And massive churches (and any that I call "franchise churches" where there's like a chain of them in different towns) make me go "Yep, this is a fucking cult". I heavily side-eye all these leaders for callously taking people's money for this shit.



Speaking of, Lea Remini's Scientology documentary series comes back soon. I watched the hell out of season one, it's scary how the "church" manipulates everyone.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

creepy! where'd you grow up (if you don't mind me asking)?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yes



Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

damn i really do need to watch this show



Edited at 2017-07-26 06:12 pm (UTC)

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

i'm still only halfay through the most recent series

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Or kyrie just hates lebron's entitled ass

Reply

Thread

Link

this is more likely

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Eh, Kyrie legit thinks the Earth is flat.



Like Bieber, he's exactly the type of rich fool a cult like this would target and manipulate.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I mean, of the two, Kyrie is the one who couldn't back up his wants with his talent, when he had the opportunity to do so, lmao.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

But lebron is a massive asshole.....

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

lmao Kyrie wants to be the #1 on the team, but when Lebron was out, he couldn't lead so that's too bad

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

I'm just stunned that a man who thinks the earth is flat would let this cult make his decisions for him.





I know school isn't for everyone, but I truly believe that some of these ball players need the extra years where they actually do more than focus on sports.

Reply

Thread

Link

Cults freak me the fuck OUT.

Reply

Thread

Link

i really do hope this boy finds what he's looking for and gets spiritually fulfilled but this is fucking creepy. also his tour had soft sales and had upwards to 15-20 k unsold seats.

Reply

Thread

Link

orly?



im surprised, his songs are unbelievably popular.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

why is he such a piece of shit

Reply

Thread

Link

wtf. i never saw this tweet. this country is such a fucking embarrassment rn.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

smdh

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I don't understand hipster Christians. It's the fucking weirdest thing. As someone who's grown up in typical black churches (although I'm a queer ass agnostic sinner), any time I see white people doing their own little form of Christianity, it's like super bizarre lmao.

Reply

Thread

Link

Thank you! I agree.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yeah, I think the fact that cults start out so welcoming and the process is so gradual for a lot of them is what scares me the most. Cult leaders know exactly what they're doing with that, too; lure in people who are vulnerable, looking for more meaning in their life, or just looking for SOMETHING fulfilling, and take advantage of them.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

IA. And I'm not adding anything really important but I wanted to share my first exp with a church similar to this.



I've seen and been to those big mega churches, and I was used to brushing those off. But this one was different bc one of my teachers was giving us flyers for this hangout after school where you could play games, have a quiet place to do homework, and so on. My teacher also bragged that they had a concert once a month for just kids. It was mainly lite-punk bands, like All American Rejects or w/e, to appeal to us. My mom was alright with it, as many parents were, bc my teacher was backing it and there weren't many places for young kids to hang out. (I was 10 or 11 at the time.)



The first time I went was also the last time. I was with a few friends playing games that were set up there, and some older guy came up and started to talk about Jesus to us. (Like alright, idc. My extended family was religious and my mom had been too--Jesus talk is just what you grow up with in the midwest.) However this guy kept circling back around to us, interrupting our time, asking personal questions like how our home life was, if we were left alone, if we had "bad thoughts" and if we wanted to talk about them bc jesus forgives everything. He was really trying hard to connect with us and to get us to come back to talk to him sometime. It was a big wtf moment. Towards the end of the afternoon, they formed a circle to pray and guilted some other kids into praying with them by saying shit like "God, please forgive the children that aren't praying with us right now. They don't know they're hurting you..."



Anyway, it was pretty fucked up, but I can see how younger people, esp' kids, are pulled into that. If I hadn't been such a paranoid and religion averse kid I prob' would have been, too. Annnd this is super long and ot. My bad.



Edited at 2017-07-26 07:18 pm (UTC)

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

they're targeting people who are easily brainwashed. luckily there's some churches that call them out on their bs. i respect that. http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/03/17/why-hillsong-music-is-dangerous-for-your-church/

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

It's like the two worst groups combined.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

mte. and tbh these mega churches are just another way of making sure there are people in the next generation who stay conservative.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

creepy

Reply

Thread

Link

Yo this very culty and freaking me out. A lot.



Reply

Thread

Link

Bieber's a selfish douchebag and dumb enough to be in a cult? Colour me shocked.

Reply

Thread

Link

Jesus take the wheel here.

Reply

Thread

Link

I can't wait for the inevitable docu-series that some ex-member does a decade from now about how horrible this church is.

Reply

Thread

Link

your icon nnnnnn

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

ajdfhkjdahfadkjh @ that icon

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I still can't believe those eyebrows. How do they grow that way?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I swear they're drawn on. Like she chooses to draw them that way

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link
Indonesia is open to rejoining OPEC, but only if it can determine its own production levels, the countrys Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan told Reuters in an interview.

We would have to have a concession for not following cuts from time to time, Jonan said.

Indonesia, which produces some 800,000 bpd, left OPEC last November, right after OPEC agreed to curb production to prop up international prices. That happened less than a year after the cartels only East Asian member rejoined its ranks.

Per the agreement, OPEC had asked Indonesia to cut 37,000 bpd from its daily output, which, Jonan said at the time, the country would not do. What he agreed to was a 5,000-bpd cut that was stipulated in the 2017 budget.

Indonesia is a net importer of crude oil, and a massive one: it imports twice what it produces, as local fields near depletion and demand grows. Current prices are comfortable for net importers, and Indonesia is no exception, especially in the context of an investment program announced earlier this year that should boost its local production.

The US$200-billion investment plan was announced in late April and will involve tendering 14 untapped oil and gas blocks in hopes that foreign players will show an interest in developing them. To sweeten the offer, Jakarta has offered potential bidders tax-free imports of equipment and technology. Related: Electric Car Industry Faces A Looming Supply Shortage

The energy ministers current visit to the U.S. is part of an international tour aimed at promoting the program to investors including Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips.

At the same time, the state-owned energy major, Pertamina, is expanding its international presence, with a focus on Iran and Russia. The company is already present in Algeria, Iraq, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Its international oil and condensate production capacity is 150,000 boepd, while domestic production is around 308,000 bpd.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port plans to start exporting crude by early next year, in the latest indication theres an oil export boom in the worlds top oil consumer. According to media reports citing an emailed LOOP statement, the private company operating the port is currently looking for potential producers interested in shipping their crude from LOOP.

LOOP is certainly not the only port eyeing exports as shale output continues to grow. Yet it is the deepest one: it is the only port on the U.S. Gulf Coast capable of handling Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, which have a capacity of up to 2 million barrels of crude.

As we noted earlier, the Gulf Coast is bustling with port-expansion activity as producers rush to send their crude overseas. Until relatively recently, the Port of Houston was where all the oil action in Texas took place. Now, things are changing, with energy companies expanding along the states coast, shunning the busyand more expensivebig port.

Energy independents such as Cheniere, Occidental Petroleum, and refiner Phillips 66 are building capacity along the Texas coast, and Occidental even tested a VLCC at its Corpus Christi facility earlier this year. Yet on the whole, the usual way to load VLCCs in the Gulf is to first load the crude on smaller vessels and then transfer it to the supertanker in deeper waters. Related: Saudi Arabia Regains Influence Over Oil Markets

This is where LOOPs main advantage over the other ports lies: there is no need for the transfer, which increases costs and potentially, the risk of a spill. This is an important advantage as U.S. crude is not terribly competitive with lower-cost producers such as those in the Middle East.

LOOP is the most obvious place for U.S. crude exports since as a deepwater port it makes it more manageable to load up a large ship such as a VLCC, the head of commodities and energy research at Morningstar, Sandy Fielden, told Bloomberg. It makes huge sense from a logistical perspective as it will allow for more efficient cargo shipments.

According to McQuilling Services, as quoted by Bloomberg, demand for VLCC ton-miles for the Far East this year will shoot up 52 times. The Far East is one of the most natural destinations for U.S. crude, so chances are that producers will waste no time to take advantage of the LOOP export capacity, which according to analysts, could boost Americas total daily export rates by 300,000 barrels.

This year, the U.S. has been exporting an average daily of 758,000 barrels through June 14, according to the EIA, with exports hitting a record-high of 1.303 million bpd for one week in late May. By 2020, PIRA Energy forecasts, exports could reach 2.25 million bpd, which is more than what Kuwait and Nigeria, separately, ship overseas. To compare, last year the average daily rate of U.S. oil exports was 520,000 barrels, according to EIA data.

At such rates of growth, LOOP is doing the only sensible thing: using the advantages it already has to benefit from the export rush. For now, its only competitor is the Corpus Christi facility of Occidental.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The sweltering heat of Saudi Arabian summer will feel like a cool breeze compared to the geopolitical fire that could soon take over the country if ongoing internal power struggles destabilize the Kingdoms Royal Family and national security in the coming weeks.



After his successful elevation to Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) has been appointed by King Salman to be in charge during his holiday to Morocco. The Kings holiday comes at a time of relative instability in the Kingdom, as the effects of the removal of former Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef at the end of the Ramadan period continue to linger.

King Salmans choice to award his son the position of Crown Prince was expected, but insiders are warning that his predecessor still holds a great deal of influence. To put MBS in charge during this already very volatile period in the Gulf, as the Saudi-led alliance continues to up the pressure on Arab neighbor Qatar, is feeding into uncertainty.

The young Crown Prince also faces some personal pressure. The lack of progress in the Yemen War (against the Houthis and Iran), the fledgling Saudi strategy to stabilize the oil market, and the Qatar crisis, have put a major dent in the current GDP growth projections of international rating agencies. The negative impact of these issues is being kept at bay by the enormous financial reserves of Saudi Arabia, but as the list of failing MBS initiated endeavors grows, his position in the Kingdom is under increasing pressure. Related: Libyas Oil King Wont Be Stopped By OPEC

At the same time, rumors are spreading that the health of King Salman has further deteriorated. Some Saudi sources have indicated in the media that King Salman is even considering to abdicate in the next few months and put MBS on the throne. The current rule of MBS during the Kings holiday could be a taste of things to come.

As the MENA region is in peril, with economic pressure building due to low oil prices, Saudi Arabia is facing a total restructuring of its security apparatus. MBS is now being charged with removing the old power base of former Crown Prince Mohamed Bin-Nayef, while also dealing with internal and external security threats.

In recent weeks, King Salman has stripped the Interior Ministry of many of its key mandates, including counter-terrorism. All these powers have been transferred to a newly created body that is fully overseen by the King himself. Former Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, before his removal, was also Minister of the Interior. The new entity, called the Presidency of State Security, is under the command of the King, who is also the Prime Minister. A royal decree stated that whatever concerns security of the state, including civil and military personnel, budgets, documents, and information will also be transferred to the new authority.

The sudden and drastic change of the security services however, also indicates that there is still some opposition in the Kingdom to Crown Prince MBS. The appointment of General Abdulaziz Al Howairini is seen as an attempt to build more support for MBS, as he is perceived as a MBS supporter. At the same time, Al Howairinis appointment is also meant to counter fears in the West that Saudi Arabia is changing its attitude in the global fight against terrorism.

The main threat, however, still exists inside of the Kingdom itself. The position of MBS is not undisputed, a significant group of the royal family members still seems to oppose the position of MBS in general. Possible opposition exists within the old guard of the MBN led security forces, with Miteb Bin Abdullah, currently head of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, seen as a possible target for removal. The National Guard is regarded, if used by the opposition, as a real threat to MBS in general and is very loyal to former King Abdullahs entourage. The Guards were not mentioned in the latest Royal Decree, a sign of their importance and power within the Kingdom.

Several scenarios are currently being discussed both within and outside of the Kingdom. It is expected that MBS will become King within the next year, although the pretext to such a move is not yet clear. The star of MBS is still rising, while a possible success story to solidify his position is on the horizon. Related: China Outpaces Competition In Renewable Race

A second possible scenario is that regional conflicts will blow up, creating the need for drastic change in the Kingdom. A confrontation with Iran or Qatar would definitely call for a strong young leader to deal with these issues. Looking at the pro-active approach already taken by MBS, his elevation to Crown Prince is a logical one. MBS will also get the support of the main Gulf rulers, such as UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. Kuwait is also currently cuddling up to MBSs views on the region it seems.

The most worrying scenario is that MBS would take an even more aggressive stance use his current power position to change the internal security structures. This move could be successful but would fully depend on the coordination of all Saudi military and security forces. At present, this is not possible without upsetting the National Guard and other internal forces.

Over the next weeks, analysts should keep an eye on these developments. A destabilized Saudi Arabia will put not only the region at risk but also energy supplies. MBS opponents are waiting for a mistake to make a move. Iran and others will be supporting any opposition to remove the Crown Prince from power. Lets hope Riyadh will only be hit by the normal summer heat and not the repercussions of internal power struggles combined with regional aspirations of others. MBS would do well to remember the words of Saladin, who stated that the ability to inspire rather than enforce loyalty is a critical quality of leadership.

By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Despite the fact that oil prices have failed to materially rise six months after the OPEC cuts started, the worlds five biggest non-state oil companies are expected to report increased profits for the second quarter this year compared to Q2 2016, analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

U.S. supermajors Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are expected to report later this week that Q2 net earnings more than doubled from the same quarter last yeara much higher increase than the 8-percent gain in Brent price, according to analyst estimates. The other U.S. supermajor, Chevron, is projected to return to a US$1.7-billion profit in Q2 2017 from a loss of US$1.47 billion for Q2 last year. Frances Total SA is seen slightly raising profits compared to last year, but it would be its third consecutive quarter of annual rises in profits, according to the estimates that Bloomberg compiled.

Thanks to higher oil prices in the first quarter this year, the major oil and gas companies reported much higher profitsbeating estimatescompared to the first quarter last year, when oil prices had slumped to below US$30.

According to analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein, cash flows are expected to rise and the largest oil companies will be able to pay out dividends with the cash flows they generate, and eliminate scrip dividendsdividends paid in shares instead of in cashwhich should bolster investor returns and confidence.

Big Oil is now more disciplined in spending and is conservatively assuming that lower will be for longer.

Earlier this month, BPs CEO Bob Dudley told CNBC that for us, were going to plan around ($)50 for five years, get the discipline and the capital discipline in place, get our costs down and we will get our break-evens well into the 30s.

At the end of last year, Wood Mackenzie predicted that the oil majors would continue to trim investment in projects, which is expected to drop 8 percent this year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Republicans announced that the United States Senate will vote this week on the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. I doubt it, but it they do it will fail. The Senate may then vote on just the repeal of Obamacare. Again I doubt it, but if they do it will fail by an even larger margin. They will fail for two reasons.

First, the Republicans have made the same mistake as the Democrats did in enacting Obamacare. They have assumed that healthcare coverage can only be solved at the federal level and that there is only one solution for everyone  one size fits all. Obamacare has demonstrated what a monumental mistake that is.

This is a diverse country. The responses to welfare programs such as those contained in Obamacare vary significantly across America and it is these welfare programs that are at the heart of the collapse of Obamacare and the disagreement as to its replacement. (The welfare programs consist primarily of expanded Medicaid eligibility funded by taxpayer resources, premium subsidies for individual plans funded by a combination of taxpayers resources and surcharges, and unnecessary mandated coverage forcing individuals to pay for coverage they neither need nor want  for instance a thirty year old single male does not need pregnancy coverage and a fifty year old woman does not need prostate coverage and yet both are required by Obamacare.)

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that there is a societal responsibility to care for the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled. There is greater disagreement as to the role of government in addressing that responsibility. However, what constitutes the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled varies enormously  often by state, more often by local jurisdiction.

Poverty in the backwaters of Mississippi differs significantly from poverty in New York City and that differs from poverty in Portland. The definition of poverty often is more dependent on the willingness of those in power to spend other peoples money than the actual state of deprivation of the recipients. There is a reason that the poor migrate towards liberal bastions such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Easy access to welfare creates a huge incentive for not just the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled, but also the cheats, the malingerers, and the indolent.

The conditions under which those who are poor, elderly, sick and disabled should be entitled to welfare benefits  like Obamacare  likewise differ greatly by state and even more so by local jurisdiction. Some areas believe that there should be requirements for work  including community work  for the able-bodied receiving welfare payments. Some areas believe there should be stricter scrutiny of those claiming disabilities. Some areas believe that sustained access to welfare promotes generational dependency and time limits should apply. And some areas believe that residence status should be asked and checked with regard to those who receive welfare payments.

These regional and local differences account, in part, for the failure of the Republicans to coalesce around a replacement bill. And these regional and local differences are precisely why imposition of healthcare coverage at a federal level is inappropriate. The only value to a federal solution is the ability of the government to spread the cost of any such plan across a broader population than can any state  sometimes size does matter.

A far better method would be to allow the states to craft their own healthcare coverage solutions with federally funded block grants and income tax credits available to offset the cost of coverage to the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled. Such a plan would allow each state to define eligibility, duration, and coverage. Voters are much more likely to hold state and local officials accountable for their decisions on healthcare coverage than they will for congressional members  or for that matter, members of the permanent federal bureaucracy who control these programs without having to participate in them. (This would seem to be a perfect solution for Republican congressional members who seem to spend most of their time trying to avoid responsibility for difficult decisions.)

Second, at a congressional level there really is no Republican Party. Its more like a dining club than anything else. The only thing the members  particularly members of the United States Senate  have in common is a card that says Republican and which entitles them to be in each others company. There are no core beliefs. There are no commitments of support for each other  or even a majority of the others. There is no deference for expertise  each Republican senator thinks that he or she is the smartest person on Earth and that only he or she has to the solution to any given problem  more likely that they dont have a solution at all but everyone elses solution must necessarily be wrong. They embrace the concept that perfect is the enemy of good and, therefore, nothing can progress unless it is perfect.

The only time that they can be said to be in concert is when they are opposing a plan constructed by the Democrats  particularly if they know that there opposition will not succeed. Thus for seven years the Republicans have run their mouths about repealing and replacing Obamacare safe in the knowledge that as long as President Obama was in office or one of the houses of Congress was under the control of the Democrats, their big talk wouldnt amount to a hill of beans  well, other than being a good campaign slogan. They would not have to accept responsibility for their actions because their actions would be for naught.

Even in the 2016 election when Mr. Obama could not be re-elected, the Republicans were so sure that Hillary Clinton was going to beat President Donald Trump, that they continued to run their mouths assured that they would never be called on to succeed. You would have thought that someone  anyone  with a lick of sense in the mainstream media might have asked the Republicans that if they were going to repeal and replace Obamacare what is it that would replace it. Of course the mainstream media never bothered because they, like the Republican elites, assumed that Ms. Clinton would win and the Republicans could continue whining instead of legislating. As a result there never was a plan because they never thought they would have to have one. Every Republican senator had a plan and none of them could draw more than a half-dozen votes  most of them couldnt withstand five minutes of superficial scrutiny. In a Senate caucus meeting, the Republican members cannot even agree on directions to the bathroom. It is the sound of their own voices that make them crazy.

With the exception of preventing the Democrats from gaining control of Congress, there is simply no good reason to return an incumbent Republican member to the House or the Senate.

What this country needs is a new party. A party consisting of mainstreet businessmen and women, working men and women (including private sector unions representing skilled trades), farmers and ranchers, educators who have rejected the public employee and teachers unions and most importantly the large body of legal immigrants who now represent the pursuit of the American dream  they are the ones who work hard, sacrifice greatly, take risks and focus on a better life for their children. The country does not need a party dominated by people on the extreme edges or addlepated by a single issue. It needs people who are dedicated to getting something done. Were I Mr. Trump I would kiss the current set of losers good-bye and get started on a new party by eschewing political ideology and focusing on solving the long list of problems confronting the nation. He could find substantial help in current and former governors like Bobby Jindahl (R-LA), Rick Perry (R-TX), Scott Walker (R-WI), and Ted Schwinden (D-MT) or former and current Senators like Jim Webb (D-VA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Kyl (R-AZ). Add to that Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Jack Welch  forget party affiliations, these men and women are problem solvers.

Young and old, the people of American have become disillusioned with the federal government as it has evolved  securing its own power and comfort in lieu of solving problems. And they have soured even more over a media that they now know deliberately slants and withholds news coverage in pursuit of its own liberal/progressive values. A democratic government succeeds only by the voluntary compliance of its citizens. When you destroy the faith of those citizens in the politicians and the media, you greatly endanger the continuity of the government.
For many millennials, Microsoft Paint was their first blank slate to express creativity. With no need of pen and paper, one could carelessly imagine and create using simple tools. Now 32 years after it was launched, Microsoft has finally decided to let go of Microsoft Paint with the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

However, calling it entirely dead won't be correct. Microsoft wants its users to shift to a more advanced Paint 3D. As the name suggests, Paint 3D lets you access 2D as well as 3D tools to create a more immersive content. The company believes this software should also be able to replace the 3D Builder app.

Few of the most notable characteristics of the Paint launched in 1985 were simplicity and versatility. Right from plain old scribbling to sophisticated pieces of art, Microsoft Paint could cater to a wide range of users. The latest version of Paint came a long way from the one launched 32 years back but it still maintained a similar interface throughout these years.

Update: Microsoft clears that Paint won't die and will still be available on the Windows Store. However, the app will not come pre-loaded with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

The blog states, "we've seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there's anything we learned, it's that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It's been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app. Amidst today's commentary around MS Paint we wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight, clear up some confusion and share some good news:MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon, in the Windows Store where it will be available for free."

The online community has come forward in reminiscing old days of Microsoft Paint.

MS Paint represents nostalgia, creative democracy, playfulness, and it got kids into drawing/painting - Amanda Jenkins (@MrsHuwLtd) #r4today - Nico Macdonald (@Nico_Macdonald) July 25, 2017

MS Paint is soon gonna become I miss Paint. #Deep - Avinash Iyer (@IyerAvin) July 25, 2017

i'm kind of emotional about ms paint being killed off, i remember all the sonic sprites i edited back in 2006 - teenage dortbag (@gere720) July 25, 2017
Three women have appeared before a court accused of gang raping a pastor who went round to their home to demand money they owed him.



Western Commonage Magistrates Court in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, heard how the holy man was grabbed and forced onto a bed and then stripped.



The three women Sandra Ncube, 21, Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, 23, and Mongiwe Mpofu, 25, were in the dock charged with aggravated indecent assault.



Prosecutor Mr Petros Shoko said the complainant, who is not being named to spare his blushes, was a pastor at a church in Cowdray Park.



He said the male victim had gone to the home of the three women as he was owed money and he was invited inside the house to collect it.



But once inside he alleged he was grabbed by one woman around the waist and his trousers were pulled down by another who then fondled him.



Mr Shoko said: 'On July 14 at 7pm the complainant went to the accused persons residence to collect money which Mlauzi owed.



'They forced him to lie on the bed and undressed him. Ncube sat on his chest and he tried to push her away.



'However Mlauzi held his legs together and sat on his top pressing him against the bed



'Mpofu was in another room and brought condoms and placed them on the complainants manhood and helped to hold him down.



'Ncube had sexual intercourse with the complainant once without his consent' Mr Shoko said.



The three denied raping the pastor but admitted indecent assault.



Ncube said: 'We were just playing around Your Worship. I did not think that he would take it seriously'.



Mpofu denied taking part but admitted bringing the condoms saying: 'We keep them around the house and I just brought them'.



Mlauzi said she wanted to 'fix' the pastor who she claimed had a habit of walking in on the women when they were bathing.



She said: 'He always walks in on me bathing and claims to be unmoved as a man of God. I just wanted to see if he was going to be aroused or not.



'I did not plan to execute the whole rape thing Your Worship'.



Magistrate Lungile Ncube was told by Mlauzi that she just wanted to prove to the pastor that he had 'feelings like everybody else'.



She said: 'I wanted him to see that he was not special and was not immune to sexual arousal.



'When I touched him he immediately got aroused and that is all we wanted to see' she said.



The complainant was taken to Mpilo Central Hospital for a medical examination and the report will be prepared for the magistrates.



All three were remanded in custody until August 7 for a full trial.



















Source: Dailymail.co.uk









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
Health professionals at a Physicians for Human Rights asylum training in October 2016.

For Spyros Orfanos, PhD, a psychologist at New York University (NYU) and a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) partner, the current negative political environment surrounding immigrants strikes a personal chord.

In the early 1960s, his uncle  an undocumented Greek immigrant working in New York City  was arrested during an immigration raid. Instead of sending him to a detention center, Dr. Orfanos says, police brought him to the prison at Rikers Island, where he was beaten before being sent back to Greece.

It was a very powerful and emotional experience for me, the 66-year-old doctor said. And it inspired him to begin working on behalf of immigrant communities. It became important to try and be helpful to people who are undocumented.

Today, Dr. Orfanos runs a postdoctoral clinic at NYUs program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. He and his colleagues provide services to patients at a low cost. And now, amid increasing hostility to immigrants in the U.S., the New York City native is working to broaden the clinics services to include people who are seeking asylum in the United States.

We dont want to just talk about things; we dont want to curse the darkness, he said. We want to light the candles.

Dr. Orfanos attended a training conducted by PHRs asylum program this spring to recognize and document the physical and mental scars of torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence. After completing their initial training, participants like Dr. Orfanos can join the more than 500 clinicians in PHRs Asylum Network who volunteer their time and expertise to draft medical affidavits for people seeking asylum in the United States.

Dr. Orfanos has been working on these issues for most of his career. After becoming a licensed psychologist in 1986, he became an adult trauma specialist and set up an independent practice, diagnosing and treating patients suffering from all forms of trauma.

But Dr. Orfanos was eager to do more. In 2003, he participated in a training led by the humanitarian organization Doctors of the World, and shortly after began volunteering for their human rights clinic. There, Dr. Orfanos conducted forensic evaluations for Tibetan monks seeking asylum in the United States, documenting both the physical and psychological trauma they had experienced at the hands of Nepals police. One monk told him the police hadnt just tortured his body, but also his soul.

Now, Dr. Orfanos says, in the midst of heated rhetoric about immigration in the United States and globally, hes been inspired to incorporate what hes learned from his own experience and from PHR into his clinic at NYU. This past March, the clinic began a pilot program with NYU Law Schools Immigration Rights Clinic to conduct psychological evaluations for adults and children facing deportation.

The feeling of my professional community has been one of moral outrage at the gross misunderstanding of our common humanity and our global responsibilities, he said of the current political moment.

Indeed, since the election of Donald Trump, more than 90 health professionals in his clinic have expressed interest in working with asylum seekers, Dr. Orfanos said. He is exploring the option of working with PHR to build on and harness that enthusiasm through targeted trainings and referral relationships.

Dr. Orfanos is also considering setting up a support group for his own clinicians and evaluators, which would allow them to talk about the cases they encounter in a systematic way and to discuss the vicarious trauma they may experience while treating asylum seekers.

PHRs training came at just the right time for Dr. Orfanos. Its given him a springboard to energize not just his own practice but to inspire those who are also moved to help asylum-seekers in the United States.

I felt much better prepared to handle cases, he said after attending the PHR asylum program training. Its exciting for me to think of organizing something at NYU with the help of PHR and their expertise and values.
This is the latest in a series of posts about when Glens Falls native Charles Evans Hughes was governor of New York.

The Columbia Republican of Hudson on March 5, 1909 published a lengthy letter to the editor from Silas Holcombe of Philadelphia, reprinted from The New York Sun.

Holcombe rebutted a commentary in the Sun that was critical of groundhogs.

In his defense of groundhogs, Holcombe praised New York Gov. Charles Evans Hughes.

Or, perhaps, it was tongue-in-cheek reference to the governors trademark whiskers.

I could take a groundhog up Broadway on a leash and guarantee that he could produce a greater effect that your most prominent citizen  possibly with the singe exception of Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Holcombe wrote, in the commentary which can be found on the New York State Historic Newspapers website, a project of public libraries.

Click here to read the most recent previous report in the series.
This is the latest in a series of posts about mid-year campaign finance reports for area state legislators and potential opponents.

Morgan Zegers, a college student seeking the Republican nomination to challenge state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, in 2018, has continued to build groundwork for her campaign, attending numerous party and candidate events over the past six months.

Zegers mid-year campaign finance report, filed with the state Board of Elections, shows expenditures for Zegers to attend events held by the Womens Republican Club of Saratoga County, Town of Ballston Republican Committee, Saratoga County Young Republicans, Albany County Young Republicans, and Saratoga County Conservative Party.

Her campaign also paid for Zegers to attend fund-raising events for four town and county Republican candidates.

Zegers had $10,039 in her campaign fund, as of July 13, a sizable amount for a challenger at this point in the race, but far less than Woerner, who had $37,417 in her campaign fund.

Zegers campaign raised $5,363 between Jan. 13 and July 13, about a third of it in small dollar contributions, and spent $1,694.

Her largest contributions were $1,000 from Jerry Ovens of Binghampton and an in-kind contribution of $1,000 from Jack Moulton, a staff campaign adviser to U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro.

Moulton contributed the value of his web site design services.

Other contributions of $200 or more are as follows:

Jill Homan, Washington, D.C., $500; Dan Van Wagenen, Clifton Park, $650; Robert Hayes, Saratoga Springs, $250.

Zegers, of Ballston Spa, is slated to graduate in May 2018 from American University in Washington.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.
State Police arrested an immigrant from Mexico who was in the U.S. illegally for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl early Wednesday.

Police said the man had been detained last fall for illegally overstaying a visa, but was not deported.

The investigation and arrest led to the arrest of several other immigrants who were working at the same farm as the suspect and were also living in the country illegally, authorities said.

Ricardo Barajas-Suarez, 33, was charged with a first-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, after an investigation by State Police from the Greenwich station.

Barajas-Suarez was working at a farm in southern Washington County and was accused of forcing the teen to have sexual contact early Wednesday at a home off the farm property where he had been staying, police said.

State Police were called after the girl, with whom the defendant was acquainted, ran from her room screaming about the attack, authorities said. She suffered no other physical injuries, police said.

The sexual assault complaint led to a check of other workers at the farm where Barajas-Suarez was working, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took several others into custody. Police said the farm owners were cooperative during the investigation.

Police said Barajas-Suarez had been arrested by ICE agents last November when he was found to have overstayed a work visa, but he was released a short time later because he did not meet the (federal) administration requirements for deportation at the time, officials said.

State Police did not identify the farm where Barajas-Suarez or the others who were detained had been working.

He was arraigned in Fort Edward Town Court and sent to Washington County Jail. The criminal charge, which is punishable by up to 25 years in state prison, will be adjudicated before he goes through deportation proceedings.

The investigation by State Police and ICE was continuing Wednesday.
Russell Finley, a beef cattle farmer and real estate broker from St. Lawrence County, is challenging U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, in a Republican primary in 2018.

I have a job right now that I love. But unless somebody better does this, nobodys going to have anything, Finley said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Finley, a Republican who previously ran twice unsuccessfully for state Assembly, recently filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, a required procedure to begin raising and spending money for a congressional campaign.

He also has established a campaign Facebook page.

Finley lives in Lisbon. He said he will challenge Stefanik in a Republican primary and will ask the Conservative Party for permission to challenge in their primary, as well.

I am going to ask for a primary, not the sole (Conservative Party) endorsement. I think thats only fair, he said.

Under New York election law, candidates not enrolled in the political party must get permission from party leaders to run.

Finley said he will not seek the Independence Party endorsement or run in the general election as an independent.

Finley said he is a true conservative, who has a strong work ethic and is familiar with the 12-county 21st Congressional District.

He said he worked on the snowmaking crew at White Face Mountain ski center to earn money for college and has climbed many of the Adirondack High Peaks.

Do you know when my last day off was?  Aug. 13, 1998, he said. I am a small government conservative that believes in the free market, and I believe in keeping peoples money in their pockets.

Warren County Republican Chairman Michael Grasso, contacted Wednesday, said he is not familiar with Finley, but said Stefanik, a two-term incumbent, is highly respected among Republicans in the district.

Never heard of him, Grasso said. I cant see him getting any traction among the Republican Party. Elise has been doing the right thing.

St. Lawrence County Conservative Party Chairman Hank Ford, contacted Tuesday, said he is familiar with Finley, but was not aware of his congressional bid.

This is the first Ive heard about it, he said.

Finley, asked twice, would not specify votes Stefanik has cast that he disagrees with.

There are many things that I disagree on, but I want to stay above the fray. I want to be polite and professional, he said. This isnt about Elise and what she has done that I disagree with. This is about making sure the people of the district have a voice.

Finley, continuing a theme of criticism of Stefanik voiced by Democrats in recent months, said he would be open and transparent and would participate in public town hall forums open to all.

Stefanik has said small group meetings, telephone conference calls, and forums moderated by the media are more productive than open town hall forums with unstructured discussion.

I am going to be open and transparent. If dissenters want to show up at my meetings and try to shout me down  well, good luck with that. Ive got a pretty good set of lungs, Finley said. I will sit down with anyone  left wing, right wing, it doesnt matter. And if you can make me a good point, thats fine. But I do not and will not concede to or believe in the progressive agenda.

Finley was the Conservative Party candidate for state Assembly in the 116th District in 2014, placing third in the general election, and lost a Republican primary in the 116th District in 2016.

Among other political parties, four candidates have announced they are seeking the Democratic nomination in the 21st Congressional District in 2018.

The Democratic candidates are as follows:

Tedra Cobb of Canton, a business consultant and former St. Lawrence County legislator;

Emily Martz of Saranac Lake, an economic development adviser;

Patrick Nelson of Stillwater, a political activist and Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention;

Katie Wilson of Keene, a political activist and business owner.

Grasso, the Warren County Republican chairman, dismissed the strong interest among Democrats as just another vocal movement by the Democratic Party.

Grasso said he is confident Stefanik will win both the primary and general elections.

Her record has been impeccable, and we certainly appreciate what she is doing, he said.

Democrats, however, have said Stefanik could be vulnerable, because of dissatisfaction among the electorate with President Donald Trump and with Stefaniks vote in favor of repealing and replacing former President Obamas health care plan.

Stefanik is well positioned financially for her re-election bid.

She had $875,477 in her campaign fund, as of June 30, the most recent quarterly report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

If Stefanik continues the same pace of fundraising, she will have more than $2.6 million to spend on her re-election bid.

She also has become a prolific fundraiser for other GOP House candidates, which can win her support from the Republican Party if she faces a competitive primary or general election challenge.

Stefanik, through her E-PAC political action committee, contributed $10,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in June, bringing her PACs total contributions to the NRCC to $15,000 so far this year.

Through E-PAC, Stefanik also contributed $1,000 each in June to the re-election campaigns of 13 of her House Republican colleagues.

Among Democratic candidates, Nelson, of Stillwater, had $10,121 in his campaign fund, as of June 30.

The other three Democratic candidates had not yet begun fundraising, as of June 30.
Fifteen residents toured the school facilities in Salem last week to see the problems for themselves.

Salem is in a fix.

School officials say they need to spend a minimum of $10 million just to get their buildings up to code.

Thats a lot of money for just 525 students.

And thats just the minimum. There are no frills, no extras that would enhance the educational experience in the rural school district. Those kinds of amenities would run the tab closer to $20 million.

Finally, one resident spoke some sanity.

He said the district should consider merging.

Superintendent David Glover quickly countered that there was no will in the community to do that.

That is nothing new.

School mergers have rarely been popular in New York.

Since 1996, there have been just 26 of them. Another 30 proposed mergers failed.

Residents of little villages like Salem live there for the small-town charm and next door neighbors they can trust. They like having that local control and identity where the school is the center of their universe and their kids often walk just down the road to school.

But with student numbers dwindling each year, it is going to cost them to keep it. While Salem is just the latest school in this fix, there will be others, and the challenges will continue to mount.

Fort Edward is seeing a dramatic erosion in its tax base with the closing of the dewatering plant.

Each year, voters are being asked to approve million-dollar capital projects to modernize campuses and keep school buildings operating efficiently.

The burden for taxpayers will continue to spiral.

Someone like me will point out that Cambridge is just 11 miles away from Salem and the drive is just 15 minutes. Greenwich is just 13 miles.

Thats not too bad, right?

But I suspect many in Salem consider that the other side of the moon.

They might be surprised to learn many children in Queensbury  where my son went to school  spend a good hour on the bus each day.

They dont appear to have suffered.

Salem is expected to prepare a capital project that voters will have to approve.

They will point out that the state might pick up a good chunk of that $10 million and that the Salem taxpayers wont be on the hook for the whole bill, but it will be part of what we all pay in state taxes.

What is unique about this case is that the savings from a merger might be enormous because of the money saved by not renovating buildings. There are enormous savings when you close a campus.

Naturally, that would make many in Salem heartsick.

But merging needs to be the first consideration, because investing in brick and mortar is a 25-year investment.

At some point, the taxes will be too high and the number of students too few.

Some say we are already there.
























Russia has quietly moved troops to a point in southern Syria that is 8km from Israels Golan border, in the face of Israeli objections, Moscow used the uproar over the Temple Mount standoff and the diplomatic crisis between Israel and Jordan to cover its creeping troop deployment almost up do Syria's borders with Israel and Jordan.

Tuesday, July 15, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avidor Lieberman and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott visited Bashan Division headquarters on the Golan for a rundown on the Russian deployment just opposite. (see photo)









DEBKA file s military sources report that some 800 Russian troops face Israel and another 400 are positioned on the border with Jordan. They have set up a roadblock east of Quneitra 8km from Israeli positions on the Golan. They have also strung an additional four to six lookout posts, some of them 13km from Israeli military positions, along the 64km Syrian-Israeli border - from Mount Hermon in the north, up to a point south of Qunetra in the south.

Most of the Russian troops were recruited in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, republics known for their Muslim extremist activity.









Israel has repeatedly objected to the proximity of this Russian military presence, and asked the Trump administration to prevent it. But the protests from Jerusalem went unheeded in Washington and Moscow. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis regard the creation of US-Russian sponsored ceasefire zones in southwestern Syria as an essential component of their military cooperation in Syria and the war on ISIS.





Moscow announced the Russian deployment after the fact in messages to Washington, Jerusalem and Amman. They were all too engrossed in coping with the crises that had sprung up over Temple Mount and in relations between Jerusalem and Amman to pay much attention to this Russian fait accompli.





According to the announcement by Col.-Gen Sergey Rudskoy, Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, the Russian units were in already in place on July 21 and 22: We informed our colleagues from the United States, Jordan and Israel, through military diplomatic channels in advance of the deployment of the Russian-controlled forces around the perimeter of the de-escalation zone in southern Syria, he wrote.





































China's military has been increasing the strength and number of its forces along its 880-mile border with North Korea as Pyongyang's military provocations cause the US and its allies to think long and hard about military action against the rogue regime. report from The Wall Street Journal says that China has established a new border-defense brigade, implemented 24-hour video surveillance of the border, and constructed bunkers to protect from possible nuclear or chemical attacks. China conducted a live-fire drill in June and July with helicopter gunships and armored infantry units, including a simulated battle with artillery, tanks, and helicopters, according to The Journal. The nature of these military exercises goes beyond securing a border, and they mimic fighting a nuclear-armed adversary. While China and North Korea exist on paper as allies, Sim Tack, an expert on North Korea at Stratfor, a geopolitical-analysis firm, previously told Business Insider that China would not likely defend Pyongyang from a US-led attack and instead try to prevent or dissuade the US from taking such a step.

Still, a US-led attack on North Korea remains unlikely. South Korea's new liberal government has sought to pursue engagement with its neighbor, and the US would ultimately need its support for such a campaign. From a purely military point of view, North Korea's artillery and nuclear arms hold too many civilians in Seoul at risk.









In June, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis described possible conflict with North Korea as "a serious, a catastrophic war, especially for innocent people in some of our allied countries, to include Japan most likely." Even short of war, China now has reason to view North Korea as a liability. In response to North Korea's missile tests and military provocations, the US based its powerful Thaad missile-defense battery in South Korea, frightening Chinese military analysts who think the Thaad's powerful radar could one day effectively neuter China's ability to engage in a nuclear exchange with the US. Beijing, which could play a role in handling a refugee crisis, should the North Korean regime collapse, has now assembled forces sufficient to shape the outcome of any conflict between the West and Pyongyang.









































The Taiwanese Defense Ministry has bared their teeth, promising that they are ready to defend their island from mainland China aggression if need be. This comes in the wake of a new exchange of provocations and saber rattling between the two. After Chinese fighters buzzed Taiwanese (and Japanese) airspace by weaving their aircraft through narrow channels of international waters, ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi appeared at a news briefing. "The People's Liberation Army has never given up on the idea of resolving problems through the use of military force," ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told a news briefing.

"We believe in peace. We will not take the initiative that could lead to war. But we will not back down in the face of threats."









Chen added that Taiwan was ready to defend itself even against a much larger and more powerful Chinese military by both air and sea. On July 12, China sailed their sole active aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, into the air defense identification zone around Taiwan's capital city of Taipei. China has also conducted numerous drills of military aircraft and warships, coming very close to Taiwan.





































Russia and China are about to kick-off the operational phase of their first ever European joint naval exercises in the Baltic Sea. The exercise is an indication of the growing strategic partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing. For Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Navy, the Maritime Cooperation-2017 exercise is an opportunity to demonstrate its global reach and to show its support for a strategic partner. For the Kremlin, the war games are an important demonstration to show that Moscow has friendsif not alliesdespite its isolation from the West. "The first stage of the Russian-Chinese naval exercises Maritime Cooperation-2017 will be held from July 21 to July 28. It consists of two stages - a coastal stage, from July 21 to July 24, and an active sea stage, from July 25 to July 28, Russian Baltic Fleet official Roman Martov told the TASS news agency It is the first time in the history of Russian-Chinese relations that Chinese warships visit Baltiysk.





Effectively, the message from Moscow and Beijing is that the era of Westernand particularly Americannaval dominance is coming to a close. But there are questions as to how durable the partnership is between the two great Eurasian powers. Moscow and Beijing have had troubled relations in previous decades during the Soviet-era where tensions have nearly spilled over into open warfare between the two.





The message is that the end of the age of Western maritime mastery is at hand. A couple of bonus effects - the PLA Navy gets to show it can operate effectively very far from home, while Moscow and Beijing get to make a show of unity, Holmes said.




























































Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
T20 World Cup: Babar Azam wants Pakistan to continue with winning momentum in title clash

T20 World Cup: Morgan backs Willey to play ahead of Jordan in the final if Wood is unavailable

India's tour of New Zealand would be a great learning experience for Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen: Zaheer Khan
A DeWitt, Iowa, man has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents in June.

Gavin Vaugh William Glasz, 18, waived his right to a formal arraignment and filed a written plea through his attorney, public defender Derek Jones, Tuesday in Clinton County District Court.

He remained in the Clinton County Jail Wednesday on a $1 million cash-only bond.

District Court Judge Mark Lawson set a pretrial conference for Sept. 14, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Clinton County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched around 9:30 a.m. June 13 to the home of Brian Paul Glasz, 51, and Michelle Renee Glasz, 54, in the 3700 block of U.S. 30 in rural DeWitt for a welfare check after Brian Glasz failed to arrive at work.

Inside the home, deputies saw what looked like a body wrapped in blankets or comforters. They discovered Brian Glasz, whose throat appeared to be cut, according to an arrest affidavit. The body was found in the laundry room on the main level of the house, according to the affidavit.

Michelle Glasz also had been wrapped in blankets and was found in a room in the basement. She was cold to the touch and had blood on her, according to the affidavit.

A friend told deputies that Gavin Glasz had commented about "stabbing people" the day before the Glasz's bodies were discovered and that "my mom and dad need to be with my grandpa ... off this earth," according to the affidavit.

Deputies also found evidence at the scene, including bloody clothing, that they say linked Gavin Glasz to the death of his parents.
A Bettendorf couple is facing drug trafficking charges after they were caught with nearly 1 pound of packaged marijuana that had been sent to them through the mail, police say.

Tanner Kathleen Werthmann, 21, and her boyfriend, Steve Le, 24, both of 3208 Chateau Knoll, each are charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver marijuana not exceeding 50 kilograms, failure to affix the required state drug tax stamp, and conspiracy to commit a non-forcible felony.

Each of the charges is a Class D felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Bettendorf Police Officer Joshua Paul, on Tuesday at 9:23 a.m., Le picked up a package from the post office that was addressed to Werthmann.

The packaged smelled strongly of fresh marijuana.

Authorities followed Le to the Chateau Knoll residence where they initiated a traffic stop and seized the package. Inside the package was nearly 1 pound, 440 grams or .968 of a pound, of marijuana in 16 individual ounce-quantity bags, according to the affidavits.

Text messages between Le and Werthmann confirmed that both were selling the marijuana, according to the affidavits.

In a post-Miranda interview both Le and Werthmann stated they were selling the marijuana to help pay bills as money is tight, according to the affidavits.

Le said it was the third package sent to Chateau Knoll, according to the affidavits.

Both Le and Werthmann were each being held Tuesday night in the Scott County Jail on a $15,000 surety bond.
As we waded through shin-deep floodwater near the edge of the driveway, I feared the worst.

Hours before the Rock River was expected to crest Tuesday night around 15.3 feet, it stopped about 2 inches shy of the ground floor of my rental home on Moline's North Shore Drive.

A short celebration ensued when Quad-City Times photographer John Schultz broke the news.

"You don't have any water in here, bubba," he said as he peeked through a window.

Since this marked my first flood as a resident on the Rock River, I decided to make it a memorable one by returning to my neighborhood before the crest.

Schultz and my buddy, Jeff Phillips, came along for the ride. Quad-Citians may know Phillips, a resident of East Moline, as "Stick Man." He forages area riverfronts for driftwood he carves into pieces of art.

Because the roads that lead to my place were completely under water, we hitched a ride on a 16-foot jon boat, captained by longtime North Shore Drive resident Mark Neels.

He picked us up near the intersection of 39th Street and 49th Avenue and transported us about a half mile south toward the river. He also towed our canoe, which we used to paddle back after our adventure.

This was not Neels' first rodeo.

The retiree, who has lived on the Rock since 1992, said he has learned to appreciate the floods over the years.

"It's so eerily quiet back here because nobody's out," he said, offering up a few wise words of advice. "You've just gotta go with the flow.

"If you get mad, what good does it do?"

Although water did not seep into my landlord's house, his detached garage on the property collected about a foot of water. Thankfully, when the river began to rise last Saturday, we had picked up everything off the floor of the building and packed our bags for the week.

Before we took off, a team of us managed to move a pontoon boat and dock to shore.

At that point, the river was just beginning to creep onto the beach on the south side of the house.

When I returned to that same spot Tuesday, I stood knee-deep in a pool of murky water.

The National Weather Service initially forecast the river at Moline to reach 16.5 feet, which would have tied the record set in 2013. Flood stage is 12 feet.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi River crested at 15.86 feet Tuesday morning at Lock & Dam 15, where the flood stage is 15 feet.

As the intimidating projections circulated around the Rock River community, Kevin Iams, who owns Iams Boarding Stables on 49th Avenue, said his phone began to blow up with calls and text messages.

"Everybody kind of panicked," he said.

Concerned that floodwaters could reach his barn just north of North Shore Drive, Iams temporarily relocated eight of his 12 horses to three other stables in the area.

On Tuesday, however, he confirmed the flood spared his property.

"We're not under water," said Iams, who donned chest waders to walk to his land. "It could've gotten bad, but right now we're fine."

As the river approached record levels on Monday, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner declared eight counties, including Rock Island County, disaster areas.

In response, the American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter in East Moline for residents displaced by flooding.

Apparently, those affected by the flood, including myself, either waited it out, or found other places to stay.

The shelter transitioned to standby mode Tuesday because it did not have any overnight occupants, a spokeswoman for the organization said.

Were prepared to reopen it any minute if there should be a need, but as of right now, there is no need for sheltering people, said Trish Burnett, regional communications director for the American Red Cross.

Many of my neighbors seemed at ease as we paddled past them. One guy even offered me a drink.

"Just enjoy it," another man said.

So I did.

On our way back to shore, we spotted a variety of wildlife, including a large snake, a beaver and a family of ducks that took refuge on separate logs at the water's surface.

Stick Man caught a leopard frog he later gave to his son.

As the flood recedes in the coming days, I'm looking forward to paddling back to North Shore Drive and cleaning up the mess in the garage.

The Rock River is home now.
A lawsuit challenging the legality of Iowas school funding formula has been dismissed in district court.

The ruling highlights remaining questions as to whether education is a basic right in the state.

Former and current students of the Davenport Community School District brought the lawsuit in December, arguing the states funding formula creates inequities in school funding across the state.

The formula allows for some school districts to spend as much as $175 more per student. Those extra dollars can mean additional hundreds of thousands for districts general funds, which are used to pay for staff and curriculum needs.

On June 29, a district court judge dismissed the lawsuit, partly because plaintiffs asserted the formula violates a fundamental right to a public education.

Whether the right to education is a fundamental right remains an open question in Iowa, the ruling states. ... Iowa Courts do not currently recognize the right to education as a fundamental right.

Chase Cartee of the Cartee Law Firm in Davenport, which represented the plaintiffs, said they are considering an appeal.

I think this case is probably destined to go the Iowa Supreme Court at some point, Cartee said. Its for them to decide if education is a fundamental right in Iowa or not. ... Theyve never really ruled on it, (and) this might be the one.

When it was created in the early 1970s, Iowas funding formula for schools sought to create more equitable funding among the states school districts, Iowa Department of Education spokeswoman Staci Hupp said. Before a statewide formula was created, funding varied widely among districts.

In the early 70s, we moved toward a school funding formula that increased state aid substantially, Hupp said. The change there was driven by two goals  to make sure funding was more equitable across school districts  and to protect property taxpayers.

The state sets a funding level for all school districts  $6,591 per pupil in fiscal year 2017  but districts that were spending more per student when the formula was created still are authorized to spend at those higher levels.

The Davenport Community School District, for example, was authorized to spend $6,591 per student, while its neighboring districts of Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley were authorized to spend $6,665 and $6,724, respectively.

In the Cedar Rapids area, the Cedar Rapids, College Community, Mount Vernon and Solon school districts also are authorized to spend at the $6,591 per pupil level. Other districts are authorized to spend more per student: Marion Independent, $6,693; Clear Creek Amana, $6,627; Iowa City, $6,608; Linn-Mar, $6,592.

The Davenport lawsuit had named the state of Iowa, the state Legislature, former Gov. Terry Branstad and the Iowa Department of Education as defendants.

The Davenport district had no involvement whatsoever with the lawsuit, Superintendent Art Tate said in an email. He declined to comment further.

A spokeswoman for the school district, Dawn Saul, said the district will move forward despite the gap between its funding and other schools.

Theres an inequality in the school funding formula in Iowa, Saul said. ... Davenport and many other districts, probably about half around the state, have said, Hey, we, too, would like equal funding.

Were the Davenport school district authorized to spend at the highest rate allowed in the state, it would have added $863,000 to its budget in fiscal year 2017.

The Iowa Department of Education filed an ethics complaint against Tate in December, Hupp said. Tate and the school board decided to dip into the districts reserve funds to make up that difference, despite state law forbidding it.

The Board of Educational Examiners, which handles such complaints and has the authority to revoke educators licenses, declined a request from The Gazette for comment on the status or existence of a complaint or investigation, citing confidentiality.
The Rock Island Arsenal's Army Sustainment Command got a new leader on Tuesday, with the installation of Maj. Gen. Duane Gamble.

Gamble, who previously was a deputy commander at ASC, arrives on the island from a post in Germany where he oversaw sustainment operations for the U.S. European Command.

At an hour-long ceremony at Memorial Field, Gamble told the assembled soldiers and civilians the readiness function they have built "is decisive to our country, it's decisive to our national interests and decisive to the future of our nation."

He added that their mission is growing, too.

The Army Sustainment Command, whose headquarters is on the island, provides logistics capability and materiel readiness across the globe.

Gamble will replace Maj. Gen. Edward Daly, who served about a year as the command's leader. That's less time than usual, but Daly has been nominated for a third general's star. Where he will be sent next isn't known, officials with the command said.

A native of Maryland, Gamble received his commission in 1985, and he was deputy commander of ASC in 2012 and 2013. Now, will become not only ASC's leader but the island's senior mission commander.

Gamble said Tuesday it is good to be back.

"This community is special," he said. "Rock Island is special."

On hand for Tuesday's ceremony was Gen. Gustave Perna, the commander of Army Materiel Command, the Alabama-based higher headquarters for ASC.

During the ceremony, Perna credited Daly with changes in the command that led to cost savings and improved readiness. And he noted his oversight of establishment of new Army prepositioned stocks in Europe. The Army is building up its presence as Russia has taken a more aggressive tack.

"He directly impacted unit readiness every day," Perna said of Daly.

As for Gamble, Perna credited him with a deep institutional knowledge and vast leadership experience.

"I am highly confident that Maj. Gen. Gamble is the right commander at the right time for ASC," Perna said.

The Army Sustainment Command employs 7,000 uniformed and civilian personnel worldwide and overseas about 30,000 contractors. It has an annual budget of $3 billion.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voiced her opposition Wednesday to President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender individuals won't be allowed to serve in the military.

Ernst's office said that the senator thinks "Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity."

The president took to Twitter Wednesday morning and, in a series of messages, said: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you"

The Obama administration had decided to allow transgender people to serve, with the Pentagon lifting a ban on transgender men and women openly serving in June 2016. There are various estimates of how many transgender people are in the military. A Rand study last year put the number at 2,500 on active duty, out of 1.3 million overall. A 2014 study by the Williams Institute estimated the number at 15,000 who are on active duty, in the Reserves or National Guard.

Ernst, who is a veteran, doesn't think taxpayers should pay for gender reassignment surgery, her office said in an email, but added that "what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life."

On a conference call Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would defer on the question to military officials and to Ernst.

Told of Ernst's response, he said, "I have respect for what she has to say." He said he would study the issue further.

Also Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., issued a statement saying the president's announcement comes on the anniversary of President Harry Truman signing an executive order to desegregate the military.

"Instead of honoring the progress we have made on this historic day, the President chose to put our military, once again, in the middle of a discriminatory policy," he said.
A World War II veteran who turned 100 last month will be honored for his service at an event this weekend.

Pershing Johnson, who was named after World War I Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, according to family members. He was assigned to the 9th Armored Division and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, taking the bridge at Remagen, Germany, and liberating concentration camps.

He was born June 22, 1917. In 1948, he married Eleanor Challman of Moline and farmed in Calamus, Iowa, until retiring to Davenport in 1987. He now lives at Senior Star on Elmore Avenue, Davenport.

Johnson will be honored at 1 p.m. Saturday at All Saints Lutheran Church, 5002 Jersey Ridge Road, Davenport. The family invites the public to attend.
I read with some alarm, the recent guest column by Matt Sinovic of Progress Iowa warning of the Iowa Republicans courting the Koch-funded Reason Foundation to review Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) with the intent of changing public pensions from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution (401k) individual retirement plan. This comes after the last legislative session, in which we saw another Koch-funded group, Americans for Prosperity, spearhead the dismantling of collective bargaining rights in Iowa.

I hope legislators from both sides of the aisle practice due diligence and toughly examine the pros and cons of drastically altering a retirement system that has, since 1953, provided great retirement security for state, school, and public safety employees in Iowa.

I would refer them, and all my fellow Iowans, to check out the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). NIRS is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute headquartered in Washington, D.C. A December, 2014 research brief titled, Still a better Bang for the Buck: Update on the Economic Efficiencies of Pensions finds pension plans are a far more cost-efficient means of providing retirement income as compared to individual defined contribution accounts.

The study further claims that the economic efficiencies embedded in defined benefit pensions enable these retirement plans to deliver the same retirement income at a 48 percent lower cost than 401(k)-type defined contribution accounts. You may read the entire brief and over 30 other related briefs on the NIRS web site.

Lets let Iowa reason prevail and not out-of-state dark money.

Rich Toohill

Davenport
CEDAR RAPIDS  Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Jim Trainor issued his first citation for texting while driving three days after the ban took effect.

It was on Blairs Ferry Road, a busy east-west arterial in northern Cedar Rapids, and she was right beside me texting, the trooper said. I buzzed my horn at her, but she didnt notice, so I pulled her over.

More motorists on Iowa roads will be taking notice of the texting ban as the patrol steps up enforcement efforts of the distracted driving law in new and creative ways.

The law, which took effect July 1, bans reading, writing and sending electronic messages while driving. Violators can be fined $30.

On Interstate 80 near the Quad-Cities, one enforcement action had troopers patrolling in a recreational vehicle, which gave them a higher vantage point to see texting drivers, said Lt. Brian Votroubek of Post 12 in Stockton.

Although not many citations have been issued, Votroubek said the enforcement actions have been successful.

It helps get the word out that were doing it, he said. Were just trying to keep people safe and keep the roadway open.

Post 11, which includes Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Poweshiek and Tama counties, is using more informal enforcement actions, Trainor said. In some cases, troopers are driving unmarked cars while looking for texting drivers as well as motorists violating speed and seat belt laws.

Votroubek expects Post 12 will continue enforcements in short bursts. Its hard to do longer enforcements because troopers get other service calls. In two cases, Votroubek said, troopers have been called away from enforcement actions to respond to traffic crashes.

An enforcement action Tuesday by Post 11 was interrupted when troopers had to respond to fatal crashes, Trainor said.

In another enforcement action, Department of Natural Resource officers relayed sightings of texting drivers to troopers, Trooper Alex Dinkla said.

Driving through a construction zone? The man or woman on the side of the road in construction gear might just be a trooper, he said.

Drivers have been surprised when pulled over for distracted driving because they assume theyre being pulled over for something else, Votroubek said.

When we talk to them, they understand theyre not supposed to be doing it, he said.

Troopers do get blowback from drivers saying they were not texting but instead using a GPS app, which is permitted along with making phone calls, Trainor said.

But it you see them holding the phone and their thumbs are moving, its pretty obvious, Trainor said.

One common misconception is that texting is permitted at stop signs and stop lights. But unless a vehicle is off the traveled portion of the road and in park, thats illegal, Trainor said.

Drivers have been stopped not only texting but playing video games and watching YouTube videos, Votroubek said.

In some cases, Trainor said, troopers are issuing warnings rather than citations. Some also have handed out cellphone sleeves. When a phone is placed in the sleeve, conductive fabric lining blocks radio frequencies from reaching it.
Senate Republicans are winging it. It's a troubling reality at a moment when Congress is needed most.

So much for the world's greatest deliberative body.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cornered his fractured caucus Tuesday, calling a vote that rammed the House's disgraceful health care bill to the floor even though the draft stands no chance of adoption. From there, the Republican replacement will be rewritten on the fly. McConnell was clearly annoyed after weeks of intraparty bickering. And after seven years of GOP hyperbole about the failings of President Barack Obama's landmark domestic policy  the Affordable Care Act  McConnell wanted his members on record.

Consider the process here:

McConnell's last political option forced an ethereal, yet-to-be drafted health care policy  affecting 16 percent of the U.S. economy and millions of lives  to a floor fracas more akin to a county fair auction than legitimate governance.

Unacceptable.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, reached the same conclusion when they opposed McConnell's attempt at herding cats. Tuesday's procedural vote, which required Vice President Mike Pence's support for passage, assures even more dysfunction.

The GOP chaos proves just one thing. All the hype and rancor aimed at Obamacare, all the promises to "repeal and replace" were utterly hollow. They were nothing but meaningless talking points meant to turn out the base. Reality, however, has caught up with the rhetoric and smashed by the Congressional Budget Office.

It was easy to vote to repeal ACA when Obama held the veto pen, a fact McConnell acknowledged last week. Without Obama as a foil, ruling Republicans in Congress are in chaos. That's because, as McConnell also noted on the Senate floor, President Donald Trump will sign whatever Congress sends him. Trump doesn't appear to care what's in the bill. Nor does Trump have the commitment to bother understanding the issue. His only concerns are sound bites and retribution against the left. Trump knows only red meat.

And yet, with their complete dominance of Washington, congressional Republicans can't even frame out a plan.

On the health care front, this is good news. Nothing offered so far would improve the lives of Americans. Every objective analysis of the various GOP's draft health care plans, either public or private, has predicted skyrocketing premiums for the elderly, millions without health insurance and a general decline in the social welfare.

But at 30,000 feet, there's something exceedingly troubling about Congress' total inability to govern.

President Trump is a man without vision, tact or a respect for law. Solely capable of stump speeches, Trump is vacuous on policy. Politically, his disdain for anyone unwilling to blindly kiss the ring is a legitimate threat to the country.

It falls to Congress to enforce the limits on presidential powers that Trump so willingly flouts. It would be Congress' job to rein in a rogue president should he act on his impulse and fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller. But, so far, Republicans in Congress are more concerned with letting out Trump's leash because of fear of his online troll army.

Congressional investigations into Russian election meddling have, at times, been riddled with too many attempts to provide Trump cover through deflection. Congressional Republicans have shrugged as Trump's conflicts mounted and his inner circle repeatedly failed to disclose contacts with foreign agents. On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan punted when asked about his concerns if Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions for disloyalty, the first step in crushing Mueller's investigation. It's not even clear if Congress would resurrect the independent prosecutor  free from Trump's Justice Department  if the president again attempted to squash the investigation that dogs him.

Regardless of party, the country needs an independent, fully functional Congress as Trump's daily attacks on democratic norms hurtle toward a constitutional crisis.

Yet, ruling Republicans can't even work among themselves, let alone rein in a president unhinged.
PIERRE | Officials from a county in central South Dakota have decided to revise wind energy development ordinances amid public debate.

The Hughes County Planning and Zoning Commission made the decision Monday after holding a public forum to take questions and discussion on the issue, the Pierre Capital Journal reported.

The statewide debate landed in Hughes County this spring after several ranchers and farmers leased land to Infinity Renewables, a California wind-and-solar-energy company planning to develop two wind farms south of Harrold.

The company pays landowners $10,000 to $15,000 per turbine annually over a 50-year lease, said Michael Bollweg, who turned down the company's offers to build up to 10 wind turbine systems on his family's land.

Bollweg said the hunting lodge he runs attracts clients around the nation and world, making "the aesthetic value" of their land without windmills worth more than money from Infinity. He's also worried that neighboring landowners may allow windmills to be built, diminishing Bollweg's land, hurting the views and making noise.

One revision increases the setback distance of windmills from a neighbor's residence from 1,000 feet to 1,400 feet. Bollweg said he'd rather see a half-mile setback.

Infinity representative Christine White told the zoning commission that a half-mile setback would make it difficult to find enough sites for the turbines.

The zoning panel asked county staff to add some revisions to the proposed ordinance, including a solid definition of property boundaries, before the next zoning meeting in late August.

The county commission put a six-month halt on wind development until the county ordinances have been revised and finalized.
PIERRE | South Dakota lawmakers bore down Tuesday rather than back off their inquiry into the GEAR UP program.

They agreed to seek testimony from four witnesses: Melody Schopp, the state education secretary; Tamara Darnall, her financial officer; Brinda Kuhn, who wrote the original grant request for GEAR UP a decade ago and later was a paid evaluator regarding the programs effectiveness; and Rep. Kyle Schoenfish, R-Scotland, whose father heads the firm that audited Mid-Central Educational Cooperative at Platte.

The Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee agreed on 8-0 votes to issue letters inviting them to testify later this year.

The committees immediate focus is the $4,000 value that Mid-Central placed on each of 500 licenses for Microsoft software in 2014 and again in 2015.

Mid-Central officials applied the $4 million of value  $2 million per year  as part of its required match for the federal grant.

GEAR UP is a federally funded program that attempts to acquaint students and their families from lower-income households with education opportunities after high school.

Weve got to get to the bottom. This is an insult to government, said Sen. Neal Tapio, R-Watertown.

The South Dakota Department of Education is the federal grant recipient. The state department subcontracted with Mid-Central to manage it. Mid-Central in turn further sub-contracted with three more nonprofit organizations.

Representatives of 14 public school districts comprised Mid-Centrals board. They voted last year to disband Mid-Central effective June 30, 2017. A new cooperative named Core formed in its place.

The state Department of Legislative Audit determined in a special review that Mid-Central illegally sent money back and forth between its account and the three other nonprofits.

Legislative auditors reported they cant determine the whereabouts of nearly $1.4 million.

Mid-Central managed GEAR UP until Schopp terminated the contract Sept. 16, 2015, in a telephone call to Dan Guericke, who was Mid-Centrals director at the time.

Guericke spoke repeatedly later that day with Mid-Central business manager Scott Westerhuis, who was traveling.

Sometime later that night Scott Westerhuis allegedly shot to death his wife, Nicole, and their four children, then set their house on fire and shot himself to death. She was an assistant business manager at Mid-Central. Black Hills State University at Spearfish now manages GEAR UP.

The air seemed to leave the room when Schopp told the committee Monday none of the missing $1.4 million came from GEAR UP. She said her department paid only reimbursements.

However, she didnt address the money moving between Mid-Centrals bank and the three other nonprofits. Schopp said Mid-Central received approval for the GEAR UP grant in September 2011. The award was $24 million over seven years.

Mid-Central sought $13.9 million in reimbursement during the first four years and the department agreed to $10.9 million, according to Schopp.

Auditor General Marty Guindon said Tuesday his staff didnt find any documentation showing GEAR UP activated the Microsoft licenses for its summer program or after-school program, in either 2014 or 2015.

Each of his departments 2014 and 2015 state audits went to the U.S. Department of Education. Federal officials sent a letter last year to Gov. Dennis Daugaard accepting the $4,000 value for each of the 500 software licenses in 2014.

Guindon said federal officials havent ruled on 2015. Thats their decision to make, he said. Guindon noted roughly one-third of Mid-Centrals local match for the federal GEAR UP grant resulted from the value placed on the software licenses.

Thats pretty significant, in our mind, he said.

There wasnt documentation from Mid-Central, either, according to Guindon. We asked repeatedly and there was nothing that came, he said.
In November 2018, former First Circuit Court Judge Tim Bjorkman of Canistota hopes to capture the U.S. House of Representatives seat set to be vacated by Rep. Kristi Noem, who is running for South Dakota governor.

But on Tuesday afternoon in the Rapid City Public Library, he simply tried to grab the attention of about 35 people during his first town hall listening session after announcing his candidacy for the House earlier this month.

Addressing the crowd for nearly 40 minutes at the start of the meeting, Bjorkman pulled from his experience as a judge to highlight problems with the American justice system, its subsequent effects on South Dakota and America, and how that experience ultimately compelled him to run for office.

A year or two ago, running for Congress was not on our radar, said Bjorkman, of Canistota. It became clear that many of the underlying problems that I saw in the criminal justice system called for answers that were outside the authority of the justice system.

Bjorkman said that the majority of cases brought before him involved people without high school diplomas who often had untreated addictions and mental illness from years of child abuse and neglect in dysfunctional, impoverished homes. The impact of such a system stretched from the state to the national budget, economy and fabric of American culture, he added.

We have the greatest gap between poor kids graduating from high school and well-off kids graduating from high school of any state in America, Bjorkamn said of South Dakota, before listing statistics highlighting the income, educational, criminal justice, health care and overall opportunity inequality plaguing the state and county.

Of the low-income population suffering most from these conditions, Bjorkamn said pointedly, those are the people that I sent to prison.

The right to a fair shot, thats what I fear we are losing today, he later added.

Bjorkman went on to attack the current health care system in America. He called health care subsidy programs a subsidy for corporations like Walmart that pay low wages and force their employees to seek government assistance, rather than subsidies for low-income people.

Bjorkman said he supported raising the minimum wage to help offset this problem before voicing his support for universal health care.

At the conclusion of his remarks, attendees were offered the chance to voice opinions and ask questions, though Bjorkman said he hoped to simply listen to peoples concerns instead of directly answering them at this point.

Issues such as funding for education, clean energy, Planned Parenthood and the Pentagon were raised, with audience members seemingly in agreement that cuts to defense spending and increased funding for education, birth control and renewable energy options were necessary.

Health care was also addressed on multiple occasions, especially the high costs of coverage, operations and simple equipment like the tubing on oxygen tanks.

Perhaps the most important concern for Bjorkmans camp came at the start of the town hall comments, though, when one woman asked him how, facing such difficult odds in the Republican stronghold of South Dakota, Bjorkman would convince enough independents to vote for him.

Sitting beside a lectern, Bjorkman simply smiled and jotted something down in his notebook.
WASHINGTON- U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would immediately allow emergency haying and grazing on more than 450,000 Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in South Dakota that are categorized as environmentally sensitive and up to this point have been off limits to emergency haying and grazing.

On June 15, 2017, Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) asked USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue to open these environmentally sensitive acres in the wake of the drought that is now plaguing nearly the entire state. Thune and Rounds also asked Perdue to open other non-environmentally sensitive CRP acres to emergency haying and grazing ahead of schedule, a request that was granted on July 10. As a result, emergency CRP haying and grazing on certain land began on July 16, two weeks earlier than normally allowed. Thune, in a letter, during a recent phone call with Secretary Perdue, and through other communication with USDA, has kept pressure on USDA to open these additional CRP acres as soon as possible.

Todays announcement means that USDA has used nearly every CRP option thats available to assist South Dakota livestock producers who are suffering from these increasingly severe drought conditions, said Thune.

Over the last few weeks and months, Secretary Perdue has proven to be the leader that we all hoped he would be when the president nominated him, continued Thune. He has already visited South Dakota and has been accessible and willing to discuss issues with me that are important to South Dakota farmers and ranchers. His quick action on my recent requests has been welcome news to everyone who has been affected by the drought. I will continue to keep a close eye on drought conditions in the state and seek additional assistance when and where it is available.

In June 2017, USDA approved Thunes common-sense recommendation to reverse an earlier USDA decision that would have forced ranchers to destroy useable hay on CRP-enrolled acres that are subject to CRP mid-contract management in 2017. As a result of USDAs decision, that hay can now be used to feed livestock in areas that are suffering from drought conditions.

USDA also granted Thunes request to allow immediate access to emergency haying and grazing on CRP-enrolled acres for any county in which any part of its border lies within 150 miles of a county that has been approved for emergency grazing of CRP. That means all of South Dakota and North Dakota, two-thirds of Montana, half of Wyoming and Nebraska, and portions of Iowa and Minnesota were made available for emergency haying and grazing on land enrolled in non-environmentally sensitive CRP practices. Last week's announcement immediately released environmentally sensitive CRP acres in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana for emergency haying and grazing on all practices other than CP25 and CP42.

CRP participants who would like to hay or graze their CRP-enrolled land should contact their local Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices to complete necessary paperwork, obtain approval, and identify the areas they wish to hay or graze.
WHITEWOOD  Kay Marrs has a philosophy that is fitting for any part of life and thats to remember you dont have to do it like everyone else does it. She has carried that thought through the years and it has helped to carry her to the place of Lady in Waiting, ready to take the crown of Miss Rodeo South Dakota 2018. She will be the Lady in Waiting for the next six months as she prepares to take on the role of representing South Dakota throughout the United States as an ambassador of rodeo and the cowboy way of life.

Marrs has been a part of her familys ranch east of Whitewood, S.D. Horses have existed in her life since she can remember. She points out though that she didnt compete much in horse events, but in the everyday ranch life she loves.

She was taught early on how useful a horse was to work cattle by her mother, Linda. Linda added that its very necessary to know how to handle a horse and the fine points of riding. Using a horse every day for ranch work is not the same as riding a horse in an arena or on a parade route, she said.

When Marrs was a youngster, she attended the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City, S.D. and had her first look at a rodeo queen. Thats was all it took for her to dream about one day being one. She said that her family never left the Stock Show without getting an autograph from one of the queens. In fact, sometimes they waited and searched until one was found and available to sign an autograph.

Looking back, she marvels at what the future has brought her. She never realized that the little girl waiting for an autograph would one day be wearing the crown of Miss Rodeo South Dakota. She appreciates that nothing is impossible and she adds that its important to strive to be the person you looked up to because you never really know what you can accomplish until you try, she said.

Growing up, Marrs showed livestock as a member of the Range Riders 4H Club, one of the oldest in the state and one in which her father, Paul, was a member. Its an honor for her to be a part of that legacy. Every year she looked forward to the Butte Lawrence County Fair and this year is no exception as she helps her younger brother to prepare his livestock to show.

Marrs first encounter as a contestant in the rodeo queen arena was when she was 16 years old and Kathy Thompson, Miss Rodeo South Dakota Pageant Director, took her under her wings and showed her a new world. Thompson and others helped Marrs with horsemanship, interview skills, and all that was involved with the rodeo queen life.

I have been blessed by all the people who helped me, Marrs said. She especially contributes her success to become Miss Rodeo South Dakota to neighbors, Keela and Jeremiah Deaton. Its difficult to put into words how helpful they have been. Deatons patiently guided her in horsemanship and gave her the tools she needed for the contest.

They are amazing mentors, she commented.

Its interesting to note, she pointed out, that although she had ridden most of her life, horsemanship in the arena is much different than horsemanship used to work cattle. To teach Rusty, her 12 year old gelding, to run a reining pattern and to behave in a parade took time. But, she said, the process helped her to grow. She learned more about Rusty and his personality and what it took to get him to respond to her in the arena and during a parade.

What does a queen contestant need to know before she enters the arena? Marrs laughed as she said its necessary to be well-rounded; you need to know more than horse stuff and that you need to know the facts. It is important to understand politics, PETA, animal rights, and a variety of information. The main point is to be respectful and answer in a calm manner.

There were a few words of wisdom from this vibrant young woman that are worth keeping track of beginning with the idea to be the woman you needed when you were younger. As a rodeo queen you are an ambassador and a role model, so strive to be the person you looked up to.

Her role models in life have been eclectic. Of course, she said, her family has been part of the wonderful people in her life. Marrs is thankful for all the help and support from past rodeo queens But, she continued, it was watching the old cowboy movies her gave an example to follow, too.

Men like John Wayne and other cowboy heroes helped to form the old west tradition of her life.

And, she added, theres always Hank the Cow Dog. He always had words of wisdom.
This was another hot week, with more fires around the area, including one at Scott and Lori Beslers on Monday that burned a few bales. Unfortunately, the Besler fire broke out again when the wind came up a couple days later and burned 250 to 300 hay bales. Thats a big loss any time, but its really tough in a year when there isnt much hay to be found anywhere around here.

K Bar J Leather in Newell became world famous last week when they got a call from the White House inviting Jack and Kelly Gully to Pres. Trumps Made in America meeting in Washington, DC. Only one Made in America business from each state was invited and K Bar J was the presidents pick from South Dakota! After finding out the call was legitimate, Jack and Kelly booked a flight to DC and then Jack contacted his friend Ty Littau, who used to work for Sen. Thune. Ty went with them to the White House and was pictured on the news shaking Pres. Trumps hand. Dawn Littau teaches in Harding County and Ty is her son, making another west river South Dakota connection. K Bar J was a good pick for this position and they do great work. I just love the concealed carry holster Jack made for me.

Congratulations to the K Bar J!

We got a hard wind and .63 hundredths rain on Thursday. We were thankful for the rain and really thankful that we didnt get hail like Newell and Vale got hammered with this week.

South Dakota celebrated the Day of the American Cowboy on Saturday. The Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche celebrated with a barbecue and auction that afternoon. That was taking place at the same time that Paul Higbees Open House at the High Plains Western Heritage Center in Spearfish to present his new book, South Dakotas Cowboy Governor, Tom Berry. Several of Gov. Berrys relatives came to the Open House and book signing. I cant wait to read my copy!

There was a chuckwagon dinner and show at the Heritage Center that evening. Gordy Pratt and Daylce Sellers presented a wonderful music show celebrating The Spirit of the American Cowboy with special guests Cody Landstrom and JD Henderson. I was introduced as the sponsor of the law making the Day of the American Cowboy on the 4th Saturday in July a legal holiday in South Dakota. I dont deserve the credit though, Peggy Ables, the director of the High Plains Western Heritage Center was the impetus behind the bill. I had never heard of it until Peggy gave me the information to work with. The Legislative Research Council wrote the bill for me and Sen. Billie Sutton agreed to be the Senate sponsor. A lot of ranchers and cowboys in the legislature were co-sponsors, it passed both the House and Senate without a single no vote, and Gov. Daugaard signed it into law in 2014.

Caseys family got home from the National High School Rodeo finals in Gillette late Saturday night. Lanie, Matt and Trace went out to watch Trig in the rodeo and they came back to the ranch to spend Sunday with the family. Amanda also went to watch Trig on Saturday and then she and Copper went to watch Taz at the rodeo in Cheyenne on Monday. It was really hot Sunday afternoon when I went down to watch the Turtle Races at Reva. There was a big crowd of kids and turtles, but it was too hot for me so it wasnt long before I came home to join the bunch in front of the air conditioner.

With all the cowboy stuff happening this week, Ill leave you with another cowboy joke:

This cowboy rides into town one day and stops at the saloon for a drink.

The locals in the saloon have a nasty habit of picking on strangers, which of course the cowboy was.

After he finishes his drink, the cowboy goes outside only to find his horse has been stolen. So he goes back into the bar, flips his gun into the air, catches it over his head without looking and finally fires a shot into the ceiling.

He then angrily yells, "Which one of you fools stole my horse?"

There's a silence as no one answers, so the cowboy yells even more angrily, "Alright, I'm gonna have one more beer, and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I finish, I'm gonna do what I did in Texas! And let me tell you I don't like to have to do what I did in Texas!"

Some of the locals shift nervously in their seats.

The cowboy has another beer as he said he would and then walks outside. His horse has been returned and tied to the post where he originally left it.

So the cowboy saddles up and starts to ride out of town. As he does so, the bartender walks out of the bar and asks him, "Say pardner, before you go... what happened in Texas?"

The cowboy turns to him and says, "I had to walk home."
NEWELL-Piles of leaves, branches, and debris littered the streets of Newell from last nights storm that hit the area. Windows were broken and crops devastated. Wind, hail, and rain came in a flash and took many of the areas residents by surprise at the ferocity of it.

As is the way of small towns and the people of South Dakota, help was available quickly. Butte County Sheriff Fred Lamphere contacted Dakota Lumber in Belle Fourche to bring pallets of plywood sheeting to Newell shortly after the storm had abated. As soon as Newell Hardware owner, Julie VanDerBoom heard that a central place was needed to distribute the plywood, she and husband, Troy, opened the doors and were available to aid anyone who needed the wood.

We wanted to be sure the people who needed it, got it, she said.

The morning after the storm found Newell city crews piling branches and picking up debris along city streets and assisting Newell residents. Debris was being taken to the city campground, according to city worker Kurt Olson, anyone could bring branches and leaves. No plastic bags, though.

There was minor damage to the City offices, according to Mayor Mike Keolker.

We are working on getting things fixed, he said. There may be more damage reported in the future he added.

Keolker had measured the rate of the rain at one point as 25/hour. Officially, the total rainfall within the city was 1.46 at the Belle Fourche Irrigation District office. The highest wind gust was clocked at 92 mph (then the gauge broke).

Area farmers gave reports of fist sized hail and water flooded fields. In a narrow strip south of Newell, fields were flattened. There is hope for the second cutting of alfalfa hay since the fields can be clipped now and new growth will come quickly.

Most of the farmers shake their heads and wonder at the destruction, and make plans for the future.

The Newell School was hit hard by the storm, but according to Superintendent Robin Dutt school will start on the time on Aug. 21. She said that they are all working hard to get everything repaired or patched and that there may be some tasks left when school starts.

"We are all flexible and resilient," she said. We will make it work.

That seems to be the theme throughout the Newell and Vale area - we will make it work.
BELLE FOURCHE - Earl Deke Walter Davis, 83, died Monday July 17, 2017, at Fort Meade Veterans Hospital.

Earl Davis was born Nov. 23, 1923, to William and Vera (Hultenschmidt) Davis in Alzada, MT. He attended the South Thomas School on the 3V road through the 7th grade. After completing the 7th grade, he worked on various ranches in the area. He was called to the service in the Army on December 27, 1950. He serviced our country in the Korean War through December 18th, 1953. He was wounded in action and awarded a purple heart.

Earl never married, but spent many of his years with George and Darlene Krininger and family attending many horse events and branding events. Earl liked to be called a snowbird and spent his winters in Arizona with Georges family and friends. He then would return to Belle Fourche in the spring and worked for Chuck Watson hauling sand and gravel in his spare time. Earl loved watching traffic come through town and loved having coffee at the Belle Inn. He enjoyed word search puzzles and spending time with family.

Earl is survived by his brother Tom Davis, Belle Fourche and several nieces and nephews. He was proceeded in death by his parents William and Vera Davis; Brother Billy Davis, Sisters Mary Ann Homer, Mae Pierce, and Florence Stagemeyer, and best friend George Krininger.

Graveside services will be held Aug. 1, at 3 p.m. at the Black Hills National Cemetery.

Friends and family may sign his online guestbook and leave written condolences for the family on the funeral home website.

Black Hills Funeral Home of Sturgis
A rich cultural tradition will return to the northern Panhandle, extending historys reach and perhaps boosting the City of Crawfords economy.

The White River Wacipi Committee hosted its first-ever wacipi at the Crawford Park and Rodeo Grounds over the weekend. While there was no dancing this first year, the group accomplished the construction of the entire arbor and is already preparing events for the months and years to come.

The Sioux used to camp here, said Angie Taylor, committee chairman, pointing to the land beyond the newly-erected arbor not far inside the gates of the city park.

A group of individuals have been wanting to have a powwow in Crawford for five or six years, she explained, though she prefers to use the more traditional word wacipi.

We just couldnt get it off the ground.

Finally, over the course of the last year, they organized their committee and approached the Crawford City Council.

Mayor Dave Nixon said from a cultural and historical perspective providing the committee with a location for their permanent structure was a no-brainer. With the disappearance of the annual powwow at Fort Robinson, the White River Wacipi can call the City of Crawford home, adding one more item of value to the citys park and rodeo grounds. Visitors to the annual wacipi will no longer have to pay a park fee, either, to enjoy the festivities.

Were glad to have them, Nixon said.

Those on hand Friday worked to construct the arbor, while Saturday included an intertribal ceremony. Memorial songs floated through the air, drifting over the ground once inhabited by the areas Sioux people.

Taylor laughed as she described the groups work to design arbor without measuring tape.

We stood out there holding (a length) of rope. We were like pioneers, she said, invoking an image of her long ago relatives, camped above what is now the rodeo grounds. Taylors great-great-grandfather rode with Crazy Horse, and here great-great-grandmother was part of the Cheyenne Outbreak at Fort Robinson.

We still have a long ways to go. Were doing this on a shoestring, Taylor noted. All of the funds for constructing the arbor were donated, and the committee is planning a fundraiser at the site during the Aug. 21 solar eclise. Taylor hopes to have a storyteller available to talk about the Native American star stories, and maybe a dancer. All of the funds raised  or donated to the White River Wacipi through the Crawford Chamber of Commerce  will be used to maintain and improve the site and to host an annual wacipi. The committee hopes to one day add lights and running water at the location.

Pauline and Madeline Garnier were pleased to take part in the weekends events. Descendants of Spotted Elk, their great-great-grandfather was Little Bat Garnier, a scout and interpreter for General Crook. Garnier was killed by a bartender in Crawford and is buried in the Fort Robinson Cemetery. A Nebraska State Historical Society plaque still honors his memory at 20 Main Street in Crawford.

The Garnier sisters recall camping with their family along the banks of the White River during the summers, returning to the reservation in the winter; regardless of where they were living, their father insisted that hard work and education be their priorities.

Bringing a piece of their familys history and culture back to the traditional camping grounds of their ancestors was a sight to see.

It made me happy, said Pauline, summing up their feelings succinctly.
To the Editor:

The Fall River County Fair is just around the corner. 4-H youth from across your county are working hard preparing their exhibits for judging. Besides the feeling of accomplishment and receiving ribbons, another culmination to a year of hard work is the 4-H livestock auction. Here, the 4-H kids who exhibit livestock have the opportunity to market their animals. This is also an opportunity for area businesses to support the youth and their families for doing business locally all year long.

Those of you that have been there in the past to support the sale, thank you, you are greatly appreciated. I challenge the rest of you to get involved and support this event. Many of the kids rely on this sale to help with college or starting their own business.

For those of you that would like to get involved, I would be glad to explain the options. For example, we have a buy-back option if you dont need the animal, this allows you to pay a smaller sum, but still support the sale, or maybe partnering with another business on a purchase. Call me; I will go through the details. Come support these fine youth on Friday, Aug. 4 at 6 p.m., lets fill the seats and make this one of the best auctions to date!

A special feature this year will be a roll-over auction on a donated butcher hog to help support the 4-H effort in upgrading the fairgrounds livestock facilities.

Brad Grill

Fall River Co. Fair

Board member

4-H Livestock committee

member, parent and volunteer

To the Editor:

Pity the poor taxpayer. Were worse off than dogs according to the FR County Commissioners shameful provisional 2018 budget. The elderly and working poor are taxed into poverty to pay for dog food, child care and cheap bus fares, to name some of commissioners pet charities.

As examples, the BM Humane Society is budgeted to get nearly $10,000 (they used to get no county tax money), while elderly meals in Hot Springs is a pitiful $3,800. Unlike dogs, the elderly are expected to pay for their lunch. In addition to the many charities we are forced to fund, the commissioners have budgeted themselves nearly $150,000, almost $30,000 per commissioner!

Commissioners play Santa Claus with our disability payments, meager Social Security and tight incomes. This is a socialist tyrannical wealth transfer of the most cruel and insipid kind.

The county wants to radically reduce funds for the Sheriffs office and jail, while we suffer in fear due to rampant unabated crime caused by insufficient law enforcement money and a judiciary soft on criminals.

Charities must stop shamelessly claiming their causes are more important than the sick, elderly, poor, and disabled citizens theyre taking money from -- money taken from us under fear of becoming homeless. If we dont pay sky-high property taxes, were thrown out on the streets while the county takes away our homes.

Those who can afford to move away, do so. For the rest of us, the only way we leave is in a pine box.

Pat Duffy,

Hot Springs

To the Editor:

The county is working on their 2018 budget. I will probably oppose the budget, because I think we inefficiently spend too much of your money already.

Why does this happen? It is hard to turn down requests from the poor, kids, economic development, libraries, elderly, etc. It is also easier to use your money (instead of our own) to fund those groups.

In the budget areas I understand well, the waste is obvious. That is why I worked to better invest county fundsbefore the change, we were letting $100,000 in interest slip through our fingers annually.

SHEDCO has asked for $10,000 to fund a geothermal study. The studiers will generate a report which will fund the studiers but will not benefit the county. Edgemont has had 120-degree overflow from the city wells next to its industrial park for 30 years. If no entrepreneur has made a fortune exporting hothouse tomatoes, why will a geothermal study suddenly make that happen? There are smart and well-meaning folks in Shedco, but they are chasing a red herring.

I believe taxpayers know best how to spend their own money, so Ill probably vote, No, on the overall budget. If you support a group, mail them a personal check. We should mostly limit the county to funding roads, law enforcement, and the courthouse. If we got those areas right, taxes would drop. Do you really want us spending your money and our limited time buying swamp coolers for the animal shelter?

Paul Nabholz

Fall River County Commissioner

To the Editor:

Those of us who never could sing or who are past creeping on our knees pulling weeds, thank the people in this community who make things better for everyone.

Thank you for the downtown flower pods, which have been beautiful this summer. Thank you for H.M.S. Pinafore: such wonderful young voices, so many long hours rehearsing, such a good funny show.

Bill and Mary Sue Waxler,

Hot Springs

To the Editor:

In November 2016, South Dakotans passed a ballot initiative, IM-22, called the Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act. It received nearly 52% of the vote. IM-22 got repealed by the legislature.

As a result of the repeal of IM-22, a state-wide collaborative effort commenced in Spring of 2017 to surmount the less than satisfactory effort by the 2017 Legislature in addressing these same issues. Over fifty people across the state have contributed thoughtfully to the authorship of this Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption (VPAC) amendment. When passed by voters as a Constitutional Amendment, it will have greater standing in our system of laws than would a simple initiated law. Now we are gathering signatures to enable the approval of this VPAC amendment for state-wide balloting in 2018.

Its reasonable to want lawmakers to totally focus on doing the most good for the most people. It should not be so important that corporate moneyed people be kept happy. There are vast amounts of internet information that lawmakers can draw upon for forming viewpoints and justifications. They simply need to do the research. Lobbyist write-ups and money should take a back seat to independent research by lawmakers.

Dave L. Wegner,

Sioux Falls
Southern Black Hills Water System looks back at 13 years of service

HOT SPRINGS  Access to a supply of clean, readily-available water is something most people take for granted: You turn on the tap, water comes pouring out nothing to it, right?

Wrong.

Ask those who have to haul water by the pickup truck load to a cistern for their daily use how precious a good supply of water really is; or a cattleman hauling water for his stock tank; or the guy who just shelled out $40,000 for a new well; or remember that time when that tap didnt work.

For the last 13 years, the Southern Black Hills Water System (SBHWS) has been providing a clean, abundant supply of water for some 365 taps  an individual water user  across northern Fall River County and southern Custer County.

This rural water system  one of 33 formally organized systems across the state  began with a single well on what was the Streeter Ranch in 2004, and now serves an area from roughly 7-11 Road, west across Argyle Rd., to the developments in southern Custer County west of Hwy. 89.

However, it is in Phase III of a 12-phase program that would cover an area from Spring Creek Road, roughly 5 miles south of Rapid City, all the way south and west to both the Wyoming and Nebraska state lines.

The system

According to SBHWS Chairman Ted Wick and Manager Don Peterson, the project began with a single well  the Streeter Well, on Red Valley Road  that SBHWS got permission from the state to begin tapping in 2004. This Madison aquifer well pumps 109 gallons of water per minute (gpm) and remains a primary source for the entire water system.

The water from the well is pumped into a nearby $890,000 treatment facility, built in 2010, where chlorine is added to make the water meet federal and state drinking water standards.

From there, the water is pumped up the hills to the reservoir facility located along Hwy 385 near southern entrance to Wind Cave National Park.

Here, in 2010, a $283,000, 140,000 gallon reservoir was built to hold and help distribute the water. Along with this came a $30,000 supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software and hardware system that allows the pipeline to be monitored and operated to its highest efficiency.

From the reservoir, the water is distributed across the 17-mile system, including a big blue water storage tower on the top of the hills near Hwy. 89, that also helps add pressure to the system from gravity.

Where gravity feed cannot bring enough pressure to serve individual taps, pumping stations  called boosters  add additional pressure to move the water through the 120 total miles of pipeline in the system. Argyle Road has several booster stations along it.

Peterson talked about how, in the past, when he worked for another water system, he had to climb a water tower tank, look into it and gauge the amount of water in the system. With the SCADA system, he can monitor the entire system from a computer, and communicate with individual elements of the system  say upping the pressure in a pumping station  to keep the system operating smoothly.

Peterson said the 365 taps represent an average of 2.5 people each, so the system serves more than 900 people in its present state.

Building the system

Building the system was a major undertaking for SBHWS.

Unlike prairie water systems, where trenching water lines requires only cutting through topsoil, SBHWS ran into a lot of rock  lots of hard, tough to go through rock.

Wick and Peterson talked about how, creating the 30-inch wide, 6 foot deep trenches required for the 120 miles of water pipeline, especially going west of the Streeter well, progress was very slow.

There were two ways to go about cutting through rock, they said, dynamite or a special trenching machine. To avoid damaging the geology of the region, SBHWS chose the trenching machine.

Both talked about how this special trenching machine, imported from Wisconsin, was essentially an enormous chainsaw with carbide-tipped teeth that could cut a 30-inch swath through rock. When it hit the Southern Hills, it made only 1 foot per day progress, while it could typically do 2 miles per day through prairie country soils.

Still, SBHWS pushed on, bringing a water connection within 50 feet of homes, ranches and businesses along the route.

The water tower tank, built in 2013, along with the booster stations also resulted in a larger SBHWS investment - $573,000 for the tank, and $8,000 each for the boosters.

Peterson said that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rural water development money and state help from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was a big help in developing the SHBWS system, and remains important to expanding it.

Initially, the cost of hooking up with the system was a good intention investment of $150, followed by a total hookup fee of $1,500. However, cutting through the rocks required a jump in fees to $2,500 as time continued.

Future

The immediate push is to acquire six propane-fueled standby generators  these will kick on automatically when utility power drops  for critical locations in the system to ensure a continuous water supply for customers, a $150,000 cost, paid for with a grant from DENR.

The next phase of the plan will take the project down Cascade Road, near J. M. Keith Memorial Park, also down Sheps Canyon Road, into the western side of Angostura Reservoir.

Wick and Peterson expect an additional 400 customers to serve from this advancement.

The overall coverage area of the SBHWS is from the Wyoming border, east to about Hwy. 79, and south to Nebraska.

The real value of SBHWS and rural water said both Wick and Peterson is having water on tap, at hand, available, especially considering the alternatives  paying for water hauling; a water well costing $25,000 - $50,000 to drill; or the hassles of hauling water in a tank in the back of a pickup.

Peterson recounted the story of going to a Washington, D.C. conference and talking about how some rural water users must haul water to their homes or cattle. The reaction of people at the conference who heard about this was shock that this was taking place in the U.S.

Laying out the $3.2 million investment in the system so far, both said here is where the money was spent. They also pointed to their all-volunteer board of directors, who donate their time and energies to the effort, and how supportive USDA and DENR were in helping the project move along.

Contact -

For more information about SBHWS, visit the website at http://www.southernblackhillswater.com/ or call 745-4669.
The South Dakota prison inmate accused of killing a retired Rapid City teacher pleaded not guilty to the crime at the Pennington County Courthouse on Tuesday morning.

Andrew Eastman, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and an alternative of second-degree murder in the death of Larry Mintzlaff, 64, in June. Eastman can be convicted of only one of his alternative charges.

The body of Mintzlaff, who had been a longtime teacher at North Middle School, was found June 6 at his house on Wisconsin Avenue. Police say he and Eastman had known each other, and that a letter from Eastman had been discovered at Mintzlaffs residence.

Investigators say Eastman, a minimum-security inmate, went to Mintzlaffs home after escaping community service work at the Rapid City landfill on June 2. Authorities say he left the landfill in a city-owned pickup, later found abandoned about two blocks from Mintzlaff's residence.

According to a Pennington County sheriff's deputy report, obtained from the courthouse Tuesday, the keys to the pickup were kept in an unlocked office.

A fellow inmate working at the landfill told investigators Eastman had joked about taking the keys and going to Mexico. Another inmate said he had been acting strangely that day.

The Rapid City government said it has since tightened security procedures involving access to its vehicles at the landfill.

Eastman was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 9 while driving Mintzlaffs missing car.

Eastman is also charged with second-degree escape from the Department of Corrections minimum-security facility, as well as two counts of grand theft for allegedly stealing the city pickup and Mintzlaffs car. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Judge Robert Gunsinsky, of the Seventh Circuit Court, informed Eastman of the penalties his charges carry.

First-degree murder is punishable by death or life in prison; second-degree murder, life in prison; second-degree escape, five years; and each count of graft theft, five years.

If Eastman is convicted and his previous felonies are confirmed, the penalties for his new charges can be enhanced, bringing his total prison time for escape and theft from 12 to 40 years.

At the time he left the landfill, Eastman was serving sentences for drug offenses out of Hughes County and grand theft out of Pennington County.

He is detained at the Pennington County Jail and is due back in court Sept. 12.
A state prison inmate placed on escape status after he walked away from a minimum-security facility in Rapid City earlier this month is back in custody.

State corrections officials say Christian Voldbaek was apprehended in Rapid City on Monday, nearly three weeks after going missing from the Rapid City Community Work Center on the Fourth of July.

Voldbaek is serving a total of six years in prison on convictions in Lawrence and Butte counties for drug distribution and use, forgery and eluding police.
Around 42% of Russians believe Dadayev guilty of Nemtsov murder  poll

MOSCOW, July 26 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Around 42 per cent of Russians believe that Zaur Dadayev, sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, is guilty of the crime, a survey carried out by the Russian public opinion poll center VTsIOM shows.

About 35 per cent of Russians aware of Nemtsovs activities (19 per cent in the 18 to 24 age group and 44 per cent in the group of 60-year old and above respondents) closely followed the court hearings, VTsIOM says in the survey report. Out of the total number of respondents, 42 per cent said Dadayev was guilty, 19 per cent disagreed, and 39 per cent were unsure how to answer the question. Eighty-one per cent of respondents who have heard about Nemtsov could not provide any opinion about alleged organizers of the murder.

Boris Nemtsov, 55, a prominent opposition politician, who held a number of high-ranking posts in the Russian government in the 1990s and in the 2000s joined the opposition, was shot down in the center of Moscow as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin on the night of February 28, 2015.

Investigators believe that the conspirators in the murder had thoroughly prepared to commit this crime and spied on the victim. Five men have been charged with contract murder, illegal acquisition, carrying and keeping of weapons.

On July 13, the Moscow District Military Court sentenced murderers of Nemtsov to prison terms varying from 11 to 20 years. The court ruled in accordance with the will of the jury panel founding all defendants guilty. Zaur Dadayev, Nemtsovs first-hand killer was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Anzor Gubashev was sentenced to 19 years, Shadid Gubashev to 16 years, Temirlan Eskerkhanov to 14 years and Khamzat Bakhayev to 11 years behind bars. The court fined defendants 100,000 rubles (about $1,700). Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Eskerkhanov and Bakhayev were also subjected to additional restriction of freedom for two years.

Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer in Chechen Interior Ministry, is believed to be a mastermind of the murder. He was placed on the international wanted list in November 2015. Beslan Shavanov, who allegedly was also implicated in the crime, reportedly killed himself when police tried to arrest him. Criminal prosecution of Shavanov was dismissed because of his death. Investigation into Mukhudinov is underway.




Moscow court pardons Master-bank former executive

MOSCOW, July 26 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul)  The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow has given Yevgeny Rogachyov, former chief of corporate business of Master-bank, a 4-year suspended sentence and pardoned him, lawyer Ivan Sustin told RAPSI on Wednesday.

Twelve defendants in the case over illegal cashing 2 billion rubles ($33.5 million at the current exchange rate) were sentenced to suspended terms ranging from 2 to 4 years, the attorney added.

Rogachyov was pardoned along with other defendants as part of the broad amnesty program on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II.

According to investigators, he was a member of an organized group which offered businessmen a range of services, including tax evasion and money laundering schemes.

In November 2013, the Central Bank revoked the license of Master-bank for false data reporting, low-quality loans and loss of capital. Master-bank was ranked among top 100 Russian banks by assets and operated one of the largest ATM systems.

The Moscow Commercial Court later declared the bank bankrupt and started bankruptcy proceedings, with the Deposit Insurance Agency as the insolvency administrator.

In May 2015, Moscow police launched a criminal case against former executives of Master-Bank, a mid-sized Moscow bank, on suspicion of staging premeditated bankruptcy of the company. According to investigators, they were responsible for granting bad credits with no chance of return. Overall, they allegedly had given away 17 billion rubles ($283 million). Later the damage was estimated to be at 61 billion rubles ($1 billion).

Master-bank, founded in 1992, held 47.3 billion rubles ($790 million) in private deposits as of October 1 and 80.9 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) in assets as of November 1, 2015, according to RIA Novosti rating.




Russian womens right to military service is restricted - ombudsman

VLADIMIR REGION, July 26 (RAPSI)  Russian womens right to military conscription is restricted, Russias High Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova said during the National Educational Youth Forum Terra Scientia on Wednesday.

The ombudsman regularly receives applications from women willing to do military service, master military professions, become pilots. The situation in this field is to be altered, Moskalkova stated.

Russias authorities are also to take more effective measures to support widows of servicemen, she added.

The Russian Educational Youth Forum Terra Scientia was opened on June 27. The conference is held on the Klyazma River bank in the Vladimir Region, 200 kilometers from Moscow, by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, the Public Chamber and the Center of civil and patriotic education. The Forum is aimed to create conditions for the youths self-realization and development of youth professional associations.

The institute of human rights ombudsman is a government body involved in protection and promotion of rights and freedoms, and competent legal assistance. Moskalkova was appointed as the country's human rights ombudsman in April 2016.




Police arrest swimmer who could conquer Neva river lengthwise

ST. PETERSBURG, July 26 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  Officers of the St. Petersburg police responsible for water-borne traffic arrested swimmer Alexey Seredkin, who attempted to stage a record race lengthwise the 80 kilometers of the Neva river watercourse, the Interior Ministry's press service told RAPSI on Wednesday.

According to the police, when patrolling the waterway of the Neva river, they detected a group of people padding in boats. After checking out, the officers found out that the rowers had no permission to sail in the territory of the St. Petersburg port.

As the traffic police found out, the press-service says, one of the arrested persons was a professional swimmer trying to set a record accompanied by five people in boats.

Investigation into the incident is underway.

An organizer of the Seredkins swim told RAPSI, it was planned to conquer the Neva river lengthwise from the Ladoga Lake to the Gulf of Finland. In total, the swimmer could negotiate 77 to 80 kilometers, thus setting a record as he was arrested when already in the territory of the St. Petersburg sea port closed for boats.

Seredkin was released after a short detention, now he plans to cross the English Channel.




Forest City Bank Building.JPG

The Snavely Group plans to redevelop the Forest City Bank Building and a neighboring building on Detroit Avenue as affordable apartments, as part of a larger project spanning both sides of the high-profile West 25th Street intersection.

(Lisa DeJong/Plain Dealer file)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A dozen Northeast Ohio affordable-housing projects won coveted tax credits this month, during an annual round of awards to support renovation, construction and purchases of homes for low-income residents.

In Cleveland, developers will use the credits to:

Turn empty upper floors of two historic Ohio City buildings into apartments.

Build houses in the Kinsman neighborhood on the East Side.

Build houses in the International Village on the West Side.

Replace the blighted former Brooklyn YMCA on West 25th Street with apartments to house the chronically homeless.

The other winning projects (listed below), including three in Akron, stretch from Elyria to Ravenna Township.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency's board announced more than $27 million in awards - federal housing tax credits that trickle down to developers through the state - for 33 projects on July 19. More than 80 applicants requested more than $67 million in credits this year.

Developers claim the tax credits over a 10-year period to offset the costs of building or rehabbing homes. In return, the developers must rent those apartments or houses to low- to middle-income residents, at affordable rents calculated based on local household incomes.

In Ohio City, the Snavely Group finally won credits for a $10.8 million apartment project, on the third try. The developer, with an assist from the nonprofit Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, plans to remake the Forest City Bank Building and the neighboring Seymour Block as 38 dwellings, with a maximum monthly rent of $785.

The buildings are part of a larger development that includes ground-up construction of much pricier apartments across the street; a West Side outpost of the Music Settlement school; a co-working space; and other new businesses at two corners of West 25th and Detroit Avenue. The affordable housing could open in early 2019, said Pete Snavely, Jr., the Chagrin Falls-based company's vice president of development.

"We think that this is a model for how mixed-use, mixed-income projects can be done nationally," he said, "and we're going to continue to do work like this."

The redevelopment also includes federal and state tax credits for historic preservation. And Snavely expects to qualify for tax incentives tied to renewable energy, since the renovated buildings will draw much of their power from solar panels on the roof, the sub-roof and the top of a carport that will shade a parking lot to the south.

Three miles south on West 25th, the empty Brooklyn YMCA complex at 3881 Pearl Road could be demolished in the middle of next year. Cleveland Housing Network plans to develop a 71-unit apartment building that will provide permanent supportive housing - a place for people who have been homeless for a year or more to find stable shelter. Tenants might start out rent-free, but they ultimately pay rent equal to 30 percent of their income.

A rendering shows a preliminary design for an apartment building that will replace the former Brooklyn YMCA in Cleveland's Brooklyn Centre neighborhood. The project is part of an initiative to combat chronic homelessness in Cuyahoga County.

Cleveland Housing Network and Emerald Development and Economic Network, Inc., a nonprofit agency commonly called EDEN, have opened 10 such facilities in Cuyahoga County as part of a broader push to combat homelessness. The Brooklyn building, which would open in late 2019, could be the last, said Rob Curry, executive director of Cleveland Housing Network.

"We're getting closer and closer to a functional zero rate of chronic homelessness - the most at-risk subset of homelessness," he said.

The Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp. - the county land bank - took possession of the old YMCA in August 2015, in a deal arranged to avoid a foreclosure. Ultimately, EDEN will own and operate the apartment building, and FrontLine Service will provide on-site support.

Cleveland Housing Network also is the developer behind the plan for new single-family homes in the International Village, an area within roughly half a mile of an English-immersion public school called Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy on West 46th Street. Public officials, nonprofits and neighborhood-development groups are trying to attack vacancy and blight by pitching new and renovated homes to immigrants, refugees and migrants.

"This is part of our strategy to build on the 300 vacant lots in the neighborhood that are really there because of the foreclosure crisis," International Village Director Tony Bango said.

Twenty-two new homes will rise between mid-2018 and late 2019 on empty property that Cleveland Housing Network already controls or plans to acquire. The houses will be part of a lease-purchase program that the developer has used across the city. A similar project is under construction in Slavic Village, also aided by housing tax credits.

The one- to three-bedroom houses will be rentals for 15 years, with anticipated rents of $640 a month. After that, the low-income renters can become homeowners. Cleveland Housing Network currently sells such houses for $25,750, Curry said.

"There's a vision there," he said of the International Village, "and that vision makes sense to us."

A similar, scattered-site housing project could kick off next year on the East Side, where neighborhood nonprofit Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc., plans to build 36 homes on empty lots along Colfax Road and Minnie Street.

Renderings show likely designs for the Colfax Family Homes project in Cleveland's Kinsman neighborhood. The single-family homes will be restricted to low-income renters.

The two- and three-story houses will rent for $740 to $800 a month, according to a project summary posted by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. As in the International Village, they will eventually be available for purchase, for roughly $30,000.

To live in the new homes, the renters must make no more than 60 percent of the area's median gross income. That's about $40,000 a year for a family of four.

Jeffrey Sugalski, real estate development director for Burten, Bell, Carr, said the project was dreamed up years ago as workforce housing that would position families close to new jobs created by the Opportunity Corridor project. The corridor is a planned boulevard that will run from East 55th Street and Interstate 490 to University Circle, through neighborhoods that were hard-hit by the housing crisis and scarred by vacancy and blight.

The other tax-credit winners in Northeast Ohio were:

Knickerbocker Apartments in Bay Village: A $15 million rehabilitation of an existing, eight-story apartment building for low-income, elderly residents. The renovation will cut 21 units from the building, increase the number of one-bedroom apartments and create eight accessible units for people with physical disabilities.

Cottages at Riverview in Elyria: A senior-housing project that will comprise 62 apartments in 18 buildings within walking distance of downtown, near the Black River. The land previously was a mobile-home park and, before that, part of the old Lorain County Fairgrounds.

Arlington Square Apartments in Elyria: A $7.7 million renovation of a 1970s apartment building on David Drive for very low- to moderate-income families.

Ravenna Township Family Housing: A 30-unit, new-construction project on Prospect Street in Ravenna Township, in Portage County.

Spring Hill Apartments, phase three, in Akron: Renovation of an eight-building, 1970s apartment property occupied by very low-income renters.

Middlebury Commons in Akron: A new, senior-housing project in Akron, with 40 apartments above retail on East Market Street.

Arlington Ridge Homes in Green: A new, 46-unit apartment development aimed at low-wage workers and their families in Summit County. The project, on Moore Road, will offer services including financial assistance for adult education, access to public transportation, an on-site health clinic and educational programming for children.

International House at San Tomasso: A new, 50-unit apartment project intended as refugee housing, through a partnership between the Testa Companies, a developer, and the nonprofit International Institute of Akron. The homes will fill vacant land near Summa Health System's St. Thomas campus and St. Anthony of Padua Parish.
KATHMANDU: The National Vigilance Centre has directed the local representatives to submit their property details through the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development.

Accordingly, newly elected local representatives have started furnishing details of property in their or family members name, said Parshu Ram Pokharel, chief of property detail collection section at the Centre.

The local representatives who have been directed to do so include elected representatives including mayor and deputy mayor of metropolitan and sub metropolitan city, municipality and chiefs of rural municipality.

The deadline for the representatives to provide their property details is by the second week of June, said Pokharel.

Spokesperson for the Ministry Rudra Singh Tamang said the details of property of elected local representatives were being collected.

Clause 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002 requires public service job- holders to submit property details in their or family members name along with sources or evidence thereof, within 60 days of assuming the office or thereafter within 60 days of the completion of each fiscal year.

In case of a failure to do so within the given time, one will be liable to a fine of Rs 5,000 each or the concerned body or official may launch investigation into the property in the persons or family members name.
Review Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has expanded his cabinet on Wednesday. With the expansion of the cabinet for the second time, the number of cabinet has reached 29. Following the expansion of the cabinet, the newly appointed ministers have been sworn in today itself amid a function held at Sital Niwas, the office of the President.

Prime Minister Deuba has expanded his cabinet by including 10 ministers from his own party, Nepali Congress, 6 from CPN Maoist Centre, 2 from Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar-led Nepal Loktantrik Forum and 1 from CPN-United. Constitutionally, at least 33 percent seats should have allocated to the women, but he has allocated space to only three female candidates in his cabinet, which is less than one percent.

Among the newly inducted ministers from the Nepali Congress, Mohan Bahadur Basnet has been appointed as the Minister for Information and Communication, Bhimsen Pradhan as Minister for Defence, Ambika Basnet as Minister for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Mahendra Yadav as Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation, Rajan KC as Minister for Youth and Sports, Min Bishwakarma as Minister for Commerce, Ram Krishna Yadav as Minister for Agricultural Development, Bir Bahadur Balayar as Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Yagya Bahadur Thapa as Minister for Law and Justice.

Likewise, the newly inducted ministers from CPN Maoist Center includes as Giriraj Mani Pokharel as Minister for Health, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi as Minister for Energy, Santa Kumar Tharu as Minister for Livestock Development, Tek Bahadur Basnet as Minister for General Administration, Asha Koirala as Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Development, Sanjay Kumar Gautam as Minister for Irrigation and Shiva Kumar Mandal as Minister for Supplies.

Similarly, the ministers inducted from the Gachhadar-led Nepal Loktantrik Forum were Gopal Dahati as Minister for Land Reforms and Management and Jeetendra Dev- as Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture. Mithila Chaudhary of the CPN-United has been appointed as Minister for Population and Environment.
WASHINGTON, July 26: President Donald Trump is barring transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, citing tremendous medical costs and disruption.

Trumps announcement Wednesday morning on Twitter did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

The president tweeted that after consulting with Generals and military experts, the government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he added.

Trumps decision drew immediate angry responses from groups that represent transgender service members.

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the U.S. armed forces without causing any issues.

Its an absolute absurdity and another overstep, Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesdays decision is not reversed.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, director of the Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project, National LGBTQ Task Force, said Trump has stood against the trans community with this decision and is harming lives for the sake of political gains.

The military is often the last resort for people who cant find jobs because of discrimination, Rodriguez-Roldan said. She said the transgender community will not stop fighting for justice.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagons personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagons personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military if they meet physical, medical and other standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people to enlist.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if theyre discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, defense officials have said.

They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Blog Archive June (1) May (16) April (23) March (20) February (17) January (13) December (22) November (40) October (57) September (45) August (55) July (52) June (165) May (121) April (141) March (32) February (76) January (141) December (85) November (130) October (146) September (96) August (89) July (82) June (64) May (99) April (41) March (98) February (61) January (64) December (67) November (51) October (70) September (75) August (52) July (66) June (76) May (104) April (93) March (151) February (168) January (107) December (42) November (56) October (69) September (103) August (75) July (191) June (171) May (207) April (302) March (490) February (155) January (138) December (135) November (226) October (146) September (107) August (160) July (292) June (316) May (361) April (460) March (327) February (49) January (2) November (13) October (3) September (37) August (43) July (6) June (12) May (1) April (29) March (30) February (58) January (27) December (11) November (16) October (34) September (81) August (81) July (93) June (12) May (1) February (1) November (3) October (2) September (6) August (1) July (2) June (14) May (10) April (8) March (13) February (1) January (5)
" " Forgetting isn't always a brain malfunction, new research shows. In fact, it's an important part of memory processing. Sadeugra/E+/Getty Images

From flashcards and textbooks to puzzles and online brain twisters, countless adults spend years info-cramming. There are approximately 100 billion neurons (which are integral to the memory storage process) in the human brain, so there's a lot of room for that information. And science has placed much value on people's ability to remember more info for long periods. But according to a new research review published in the journal Neuron, we may be better off if we just forget some memories, instead.

University of Toronto neuroscientists Blake Richards and Paul Frankland, co-authors of the paper, suggest that good memory does not equate to remembering many accurate details over time, a concept known as persistence. Actually, they propose, our brains are working to forget memories, in order to encourage intelligent decision-making. The goal of memory is to hold on to valuable information, not just that which is accurate, they say in the research. This way, we can draw from useful, significant memories to make real-world decisions.

Advertisement

"If you're trying to navigate the world and your brain is constantly bringing up multiple conflicting memories," says Richards in a press release, "that makes it harder for you to make an informed decision."

Lending credence to their argument, the researchers found that forgetting, or transience, plays an important role in the brain that's separate from memory storage. Synaptic connections between neurons are purposefully weakened or tossed. And as new neurons flood the brain's hippocampus to encode and store memories, they overwrite existing connections, which can become more difficult to access.

The researchers even looked into mechanisms associated with artificial intelligence to understand memory loss better. They concluded that forgetting obsolete or distracting information promotes decision-making by allowing the brain to generalize past events to create new ones, a principle called regularization in AI. Breaking memories down into simpler forms without unnecessary and outdated details, like a summary, makes them more effective in current situations. We are able to make informed choices in new situations because we only apply important, broad recollections, rather than specific ones.

Think of it this way: Forgetting irrelevant details is like packing only important items when moving and leaving behind all the random knickknacks, to create room for more valuable belongings.

The team suggests that the degree of memory persistence and transience varies depending on environment, and the interaction between the two is key. For instance, a banker who sees many new people may remember customer names for short periods, while financial planners will remember names longer since they see clients more regularly. However, don't point to this research if you forget your anniversary or other significant events constantly. Psychologically, natural forgetting is a gradual process and shouldn't be equated with serious memory loss, such as dementia.

But when it comes to the small stuff, don't sweat it  forget it.

Now That's Interesting The USA Memory Championship  an "Olympiad for thinking games," as the site describes the tournament  features memorization competitions, including names and faces, poetry, and random words.
If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).
Its getting harder to find the worlds unexplored cities, simply because fewer of them exist. But Canada is home to many places that offer elite cultural and culinary experiences, and are still somewhat under the radar  at least, for now.

Nestled in the heart of Canada, Winnipeg is one such place. This bustling city in Manitoba has an established and diverse arts and culture scene normally found in cities twice its size, coupled with a burgeoning culinary landscape propelled by a host of talented young chefs. Throw in a favorable exchange rate, and Winnipeg becomes an ideal destination for American travelers.

Obviously, with so much to do, it helps to have a little guidance, so weve mapped out this 4-day itinerary to help you plan your stay.



Day One





Any first morning in Winnipeg should be spent visiting the citys most stunning architectural feat, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The latest in digital museum technology brings the story of human rights around the world to life as you take the journey from darkness to light up to the Tower of Hope, where youll also witness stunning 360-degree views of the city and beyond.

Situated on the same site as the museum and located at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers is The Forks. A place of historic significance, it has served as a meeting place for the areas Indigenous population for 6,000 years. Its also one of the citys busiest spots with a bustling food market, year-round activities, and numerous festivals. Stop in for lunch at Tall Grass Prairie bread company, where the flour is all sourced locally and the cinnamon buns are the stuff of which legends are made.

Spend the afternoon outdoors exploring The Forks 54 acres of green space, complete with walking paths, river walk, and bike rentals. Refresh with a craft beer from The Common inside The Forks Market and feel free to sip and browse the wares.

Cap off the day at deer+almond, where Chef Mandel Hitzer has been not-so-quietly transforming Winnipegs culinary landscape. The co-creator of RAW:almond, a pop-up restaurant on a frozen river that happens every January and February in the city, Hitzer has brought his enthusiasm and passion for Winnipeg to his Michelin-worthy menu.

Day Two



Photo: Exchange District // Travel Manitoba

Start the morning with a visit to Parlour Coffee, located in Winnipegs historic Exchange District. Many credit Parlour with being the leader of the citys indie coffee movement. The WiFi-less spot encourages interaction, and Winnipeggers are renowned for their friendliness.

Explore the Exchange District and its shops, cafes, and art galleries. Hop on one of numerous walking tours to learn more about the beautifully preserved turn of the century buildings that make up this trendy area.

Continue learning about the areas history at the Urban Shaman Gallery, where artistic voice is given to Indigenous artists from Manitoba and across Canada. Explore powerful exhibits that speak to the everyday lives and history of Canadas first people.

Head to Peasant Cookery for dinner, where rustic French-inspired cuisine fills you up with house-made charcuterie, traditional French Canadian tourtiere, and the always popular buck-a-shuck oyster night.

Day Three



Photo: Manitoba Legislature // Travel Manitoba

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is home to the worlds largest collection of contemporary Inuit art, boasting a collection of almost 11,000 pieces. Head to the WAG to explore numerous works of Canadian art and special visiting exhibits of some of the worlds best-known works.

Next door, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art features Manitoba artists and is dedicated to sharing their voice with the world through experimental mediums. Both galleries are sure to keep you busy for most of the day.

If you need a pick-me-up, head down to Stellas Bakery located in the same building as Plug In. This local institution serves up all-day breakfasts that cause lineups out the door on weekend mornings.

Later in the afternoon, head to the Manitoba Legislature where a mystery is waiting to be cracked. The Hermetic Code here is a mind-bending, clue-riddled tour that will reveal the buildings hidden-in-plain-site hieroglyphic inscriptions and freemasonic symbols. Secretly incorporated by the architect, they went unnoticed for almost a hundred years.

Finish off your day at neighborhood staple fusion grill; Chef Lorna Murdoch and owner Scot McTaggart helped spearhead the local food movement in Winnipeg, so why not visit where it all began? Tuck into Manitoba-caught pickerel or locally-raised grilled bison.

Day Four



Photo: Cathedrale de Saint-Boniface // Travel Manitoba

Across the river is the areas French quarter, St. Boniface. This euro-style neighborhood boasts French shops and restaurants, along with green spaces for walking and exploring the river banks. Peek into Chocolatier Constance Popp for a Manitobar (a keystone-shaped bar filled with local grains and honey). Nibble as you explore the stunning facade of St. Boniface Cathedral and the cemetery where Louis Riel, the leader of the Canadian Metis rebellion, is buried.

This afternoon, head to the outskirts of the city to FortWhyte Alive, an urban nature preserve. Get up close to their 40-head herd of bison, make bannock over a fire, and go for a paddle in a canoe.

Your visit in the city ends with dinner at Segovia, where you can nibble on Spanish and Middle Eastern inspired dishes like halloumi with smoked tomato, lamb empanadas, and churros for dessert. Chef Adam Donnelly can be credited with bringing small plates to Winnipeg and they still do it to perfection every night.

This post is a sponsored collaboration between Destination Canada and Gothamist staff.


President Trump's announcement  via Twitter  Wednesday morning that he planned to ban trans people from military service is already sending waves of anger through the LGBT community and has hopefully, finally, made Caitlyn Jenner regret voting for him. (As of last week on Jimmy Kimmel she was still saying she "didn't agree" with him on some issues but she "liked some of the things he's done.")

According to a study by the RAND corporation, approximately 2,450 active-duty service members are transgender, out of a total of 1.3 million. Under Trump's own Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appears to have been caught off guard by the President's policy decision, as the New York Times reports.

Social media reaction has been swift, and is growing.

Jenner's onetime advisor in trans issues, Jennifer Finney Boylan, was quick to ask for Jenner's thoughts on Twitter, which have not yet arrived.

Chelsea Manning has already chimed in, as the San Francisco Chronicle notes, with a series of tweets both sarcastic and combative with those lashing out against her.



2018 California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom of course had a few words.

Today's decision by @POTUS is the height of cruelty & ignorance. He has weakened our country, and we are all less safe for his cowardice.  Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 26, 2017

... as did House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

69 years ago, President Truman desegregated the US Military. This morning, @POTUS turned anti-#trans prejudice into policy.  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 26, 2017

And the legal community, including the ACLU and Lambda Legal, are going to be putting up an immediate fight.

Trans people are not a disruption.

Trans people are not a disruption.

Trans people are not a disruption.

Trans people are not a disruption.  Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) July 26, 2017 For any trans service member affected by todays announcement: Please get in touch with us, because we want to hear from you.  ACLU National (@ACLU) July 26, 2017 TLC's statement on Donald Trump's offensive, inaccurate tweets this morning: https://t.co/vHRlITviPY  TransgenderLawCenter (@TransLawCenter) July 26, 2017

Sidebar: Twitter is latching on to the fact that the military spends far more on erectile dysfunction medication than it does on medical care for trans service people, which was one of the reasons cited by the president for the ban.

Annual military spending on

Viagra: $41.6 million

Cialis: $22.8 million

Trans medical care: $8.4 millionhttps://t.co/XDjNHUn5m0  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) July 26, 2017



Related: Trump Administration Will Bar Transgender Individuals From Serving In The Military
A man was shot to death in the Tenderloin Tuesday night, by a suspect police describe only as an unknown male.

According to the San Francsico Police Department, the fatal shooting was reported at 9:38 p.m. Tuesday, on the 100 block of Taylor Street, which is between Turk and Eddy Streets.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office tells SFist that the deceased man has been identified as 42-year-old Oakland resident Robert Pleasant. Police say that Pleasant was shot by a man with a handgun, but citing the ongoing investigation declined to provide additional details. They did confirm that no arrests have been made in the case.

An SFPD spokesperson could not immediately confirm San Francisco's homicide count for 2017 following Pleasant's death. The shooting follows last Thursday's fatal stabbing of 42-year-old SF resident Jason Little in Hayes Valley. At the time of Little's slaying, SFPD spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca said his was SF's 39th homicide for 2017. As of publication time, Little's attacker remains at large.

Related: SF Resident Slain In Hayes Valley


A woman waiting for the bus Wednesday morning was attacked and robbed, police say, by a skateboarding suspect who remains at large.

Police say that the crime occurred at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday, at the intersection of O'Farrell and Shannon Streets, which is between Taylor and Jones Streets.

Police say that a 54-year-old woman was waiting at a Muni stop when a male suspect who appeared to be in his early 20s approached.

The man "grabbed money out of [the victim's] hand," police say, leading to "a slight tussle" between victim and thief.

To end the confrontation, the suspect "threw [the victim] on the ground," a report from the San Francisco Police Department says. The mugger then fled in an unknown direction via skateboard.

The woman was transported to an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries sustained in the assault, according to the SFPD. The suspect remains on the loose, and police say that no arrests have been made in the case.
Are Apple's CEO Tim Cook and America's CEO Donald Trump best buds? Trump is sure making it sound that way (despite some photographic evidence that would suggest otherwise).

In a recent 45-minute interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Trump claims Cook has promised to build "big plants, beautiful plants" here in the US.

"He's promised me three big plants  big, big, big," said the president. "I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won't consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward."

For clarification here, we are talking about factories, not actual green plants that grow with sunlight.

CNet reminds us that these "big, big, big" plants fall in line with Trump's election promises to return manufacturing to the United States. Apple products are currently assembled by little babies overseas, namely in China.

According to CNet, "Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones for Apple in China, is already considering a facility in the US. The Journal reported on Monday that an announcement on a plant in Wisconsin could come sometime this week."

ICYMI- This week we hosted a #MadeInAmerica event, right here at the @WhiteHouse! If it is MADE IN AMERICA, it is the BEST! USA pic.twitter.com/q4vB9GdE5y  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2017

You might remember that earlier this year, Cook sat down to dinner with Ivanka and Jared, and later announced that he did not support the ban on immigrants. Cook did show up to last year's Trump tech meeting, a gathering which many big wigs in the industry refused to attend. Cook did, as we reported at the time, look miserable throughout the whole ordeal.

Bringing Apple production and assembly to the United States is something Cook has been considering for a long time, including in cooperation with former President Barack Obama. In fact, MacObserver reminds us that Cook got a shout-out in one of Obama's State of the Union Addresses. Should Cook not bring tens of thousands of jobs to America  which he planned to try and do anyway  just because Trump wants him to? Does Cook's willingness to work with Trump (on a first name basis, no less) constitute collusion with other polices like the Muslim-ban or the ban on transgender soldiers from serving in the military? Please advise.

Apple hasn't released an official statement on Trump's interview. And Trump's interview didn't include any information on when or where these gorgeous, fabulous plants would be built.

Related: Watch Apple's New Ad In Response To The Paris Climate Decision
This month in dining, the Ambassador Hotel revamps its drinking and dining options, a combined breakfast spot and art gallery opens in north Bay View and a new style of pizza comes to Milwaukee.

DiModa Pizza

1758 N. Water St.

414-331-0020

dimodapizza.com

$$-$$$

Located in the former Trocadero space, DiModa Pizza serves up Roman-style pies. Theyre baked in a wood-fired oven from Wood Stone Ovens in Washington state. The crust is thicker and chewier than the Neopolitan-style pizzas that have been springing up all over the city lately. There are nine specialty pizzas to choose from, like the Bacon, Egg & Fig ($14) and the Devils Own ($14) with Nduja sausage, pickled peppers, giardiniera and smoked provolone. The menu also includes nine pastas, like a 12-layer lasagna Bolognese ($15), numerous starters, sandwiches and entrees. Brunch is available, as well as a dog menu for pups who accompany their humans on the patio.

The Love Shack

106 W. Seeboth St.

414-897-8392

love-shack.com

$$

Polynesian-inspired food and cocktails abound at The Love Shack. The two-story space located on the river was formerly home to Wine Maniacs. The space has been completely remodeled, with palm trees, volcanos and palapa umbrellas on the patio. The food menu includes about a dozen dishes, from Spam Musubi ($10), popular in Hawaii, to shrimp skewers ($13) with pineapple, scallion and sticky chive rice. Cocktails include many classic tiki choices like the Mai Tai ($9), as well as some originals, all served in novelty glassware. The second floor houses a smaller space called The Rhum Bar with its own cocktail menu, patio and lounge atmosphere.

Sabrosa Cafe & Gallery

2316 S. Howell Ave.

414-834-1929

sabrosa.cafe

$-$$

Chef and owner Frank Sanchez returns to Bay View for Sabrosa Cafe & Gallery. He previously owned Taqueria Azteca, just a few blocks from his new spot. Sabrosa serves breakfast, lunch and brunch, and doubles as an art gallery for local artists. The menu features breakfast and brunch classics with some Italian and Mexican influences. Instead of biscuits, sausage gravy is served over jalapeno cornbread ($11). The Italiano scramble ($12) riffs on caprese salad with mozzarella, arugula and heirloom tomatoes with eggs over vegetable hash. Come lunch, options include Sanchezs popular sopa azteca ($3-$6), sandwiches, enchiladas and tacos.

Mazorca Tacos

414-550-7644

facebook.com/mazorcamke

$

A new food truckwell, a transformed vintage aluminum trailerhas appeared in the vacant lot at First Street and Pittsburgh Avenue in Walkers Point. Jesus Gonzalez, a native of Milwaukee who went to culinary school in New York, is creating tacos based on family recipes from the Jalisco region of Mexico. On the menu are four tacos ($2.50-$2.75): birria, a braised, shredded meat thats made with beef here, al pastor, bistec marinated in beer, and a vegetarian option with Muenster cheese and guacamole. All corn tortillas are handmade in the truck. Unlike most food trucks, Mazorca stays put at its location, and is open all day Monday-Saturday.

The Fitz / Gin Rickey / Deco the Cafe

$-$$$

2308 W. Wisconsin Ave.

345-5015

thefitzmke.com

With the hiring of new Culinary Director Jason Gorman, the Ambassador Hotel has remodeled and rebranded its restaurants and bars.

The Fitz replaces Envoy as the hotels flagship restaurant. The name is a nod to F. Scott Fitzgerald, which fits in with the hotels Roaring Twenties feel. The Fitz will serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner in a gold-accented art deco dining room. The dinner menu consists of some retro classics, like rumaki made with chicken livers and pork belly ($12), crab louis salad ($16) and lamb chops with sweet pea potato pancakes ($32).

Gin Rickey is a bar that also serves small plates, sandwiches and a few entrees. The cocktail menu consists of mostly pre-Prohibition era cocktails ($10-$12), including the sidecar, whiskey sour, negroni and French 75. Food available runs the gamut from hazelnut-crusted goat cheese ($9) to fried chicken and waffles with Korean chili maple syrup ($14).

Deco is a casual spot open for breakfast and lunch and serves Valentine coffee and other beverages, pastries, simple breakfast items, sandwiches, salads and soft serve ice cream.
Street Eats, the Shepherd Express popular food truck event, returns to the Third Ward this Friday with an Irish theme. But it also features more than a dozen food trucks with appetizing selections that span the globe from Jamaica to India, from Brazil to the American South. Youll find everything from hamburgers and waffles to jerk chicken and vegetable biryani.

And dont forget the beer. Lakefront Brewery will be pouring five different beers. The first purchase is $5 and comes with a souvenir cup. Refills will be $4.

There will be lots to do aside from eating and drinking. Milwaukee Irish Fest will be on hand with games and giveaways and Milwaukee Irish Dance Company and the Cashel Dennehy School of Irish Dance will perform. The Hearthfire Duo will provide Irish music.

Street Eats Food Vendors include: Chillwaukee, Drift, GypsySoul, Ians Pizza, Jamaican Kitchen, Jerichos BBQ, Marco Pollo, Palermos Pizza, Pedros South American Food, Pig Tailz, Press Belgian Liege Waffles, Punjabi Accent, Richs House of Cakes, Shawarma House, Taqueria La Guacamaya, Tasty Cafe, That Salsa Lady, The Fatty Patty, Tudo Sabor Brasil and YellowBellies.

Street Eats runs 4-8 p.m. on Friday, July 28 at Catalano Square in the Historic Third Ward.
 Expand Wisconsin State Fair communications director Kristi Chuckel on the fair's famous cream puffs.

To folks with a sweet tooth, the Wisconsin State Fair means one thing: cream puffs. Its the only place you can get the official version of the crusty pastry shell filled with mounds of lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream. Since 1924, when cream puffs were first sold at the fair, the Wisconsin Bakers Association has managed the operation and baking of the Original Cream Puffsnow a registered trademark. In this 94th year of cream puff bliss, we caught up with Kristi Chuckel, communications director of Wisconsin State Fair Park, for a little off-the-cuff chat about the puff.

Where did the recipe for the Original Cream Puff come from, and do you still use it?

The Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff was created in 1924 when Governor John Blaine asked Wisconsin food inspector Charles Kremer to come up with a food item that would highlight Wisconsins dairy industry for fairgoers. Kremer was chosen not only because he was a state food inspector, but because his family also owned a bakery on the South Side of Milwaukee. While there have been a few minor tweaks throughout the years to improve upon the original recipe, it is essentially the same recipe that Kremer created in 1924.

How many cream puffs do you sell each year?

An average of 350,000 cream puffs are consumed each year. And there are no calories in any State Fair food because you burn them off walking around the Fair. [OK, finethey really do have approximately 500 calories, but whos counting calories at the Fair?]

How important do you think cream puffs are to the success of the State Fair?

The Wisconsin State Fair Original Cream Puffs are not only delicious, but the entire process of watching them being made is a time-honored tradition for many fairgoers. They would certainly be missed if they werent at the Wisconsin State Fair, but we also would never measure the success of the fair on one food item. There are literally thousands of foods at the fair made by more than 200 different vendors. And this is just the food!

Its been announced that the fair is getting a brand-new cream puff building for 2019. What we can expect?

The governors office announced earlier this year his approval of a request to enumerate funding for an expanded and renovated Cream Puff Pavilion. While the project is enumerated in the state budget, funding still must come from gifts and grants. We are currently seeking donors for this project and working with architects on plans to expand the footprint of the bakery and improve productivity, while still honoring the history of the Dairy Building (which was built in 1909) and the tradition of watching cream puffs being made.
 Expand Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Fernandez

My life makes sense because of what people did before me, my friend Jane Brite concluded after sketching for me, on the eve of her 81st birthday, the major chapters of her life in service to Wisconsin art and artists.

Are you an artist?

I never made art. My grandmother was a well-known decorator in Chicago; my grandfather was an architect. All my aunts are artists. I love to tell the story of going with my older brother to the Chicago Art Institute every Saturday morning. I sat there while he took the class. But I did get the sense for it.

How did you join the art world?

We moved to Milwaukee my freshman year at Whitefish Bay High School. I went to a womens college in Washington, D.C., then got married in Germany after my fiance got drafted. He was an engineer so they put him to work on atomic bombs in a cave near Frankfurt. Im not sure that didnt have something to do with him getting MS later. After his service we lived on Farwell Avenue. Lots of artists lived on that block and one friend asked me to volunteer at the Milwaukee Art Center, now MAM. They had that Gallery of Wisconsin Art on the third floor of the War Memorial. So I became a docent in 1962. Docents took classes once a week as long as you were a docent. And I took art history classes at UW-Milwaukee.

And became the director of that gallery?

Stay on top of the news of the day

Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays. SIGN UP

And expanded it. I would go around the state to universities and colleges and I would say, I want to meet other artists in your community who arent connected with your school, and they were very nice about it. I would do that every yearhalf the state one year and the other half the next. So I really got to know a lot of Wisconsin artists. I started bringing artists from all over the state instead of only the Milwaukee area. I started doing one or two-man shows with catalogues. It was just a small part of what the museum did, one little section.

And the Lakefront Festival of the Arts?

I didnt do it my first year, but for many years after I organized all the art of it. I chose the jurors. A friend of mine worked at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and I had him come as a juror and that brought a lot of artists because thats an opportunity for them; if they see the work, they might want to use it. From then on I brought national jurors and it became one of the better art fairs in the country.

You started Gallery Night!

I did a big show and catalogue at the Art Museum in 1986 on fiber art called Fiber R/Evolution. I knew Chicago had a gallery night. We checked it out and did a gallery night for the fiber show. And it lasted.

The next year you became the founding director of Walkers Point Center for the Arts.

Steve Chicorel and his mother, Phyllis, got the building and hired me. They had a dream to help the neighborhood develop. I was happy I could do performance art there, too, because it was new then. I was there about 12 years. It took a while to build, took a while for that community to feel comfortable with it. Probably we should have had more Latin shows early on but thats not so easy to access. We started an after-school childrens program for the neighborhood. Marlene Jaglinski and I wrote a book from that, Art After School. Its still on Amazon and it still sells. Its got five stars.

And now?

There was a flood in Louisiana and they brought victims here to the State Fair grounds. A friend of mine asked if someone could find a muralist so the victims could do a mural. I know a muralist from Green Bay and he came and did one with them. That started me bringing artists to the homeless shelters. Thats what I do now. Its called Milwaukee Art and Hope. We go in for six weeks. The first two or three weeks, the residents learn how to make what were going to make. They get to keep those pieces. Then we make a piece that stays in the shelter. And I also work with at-risk teenagers at a wonderful place on MLK Drive called the Milwaukee Center for Children and Youth. We do after-school and summer art programs for kids who are in trouble in many ways, to help them straighten out.

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

Why do this?

It comes from my background. I had a very socially conscious family. Its better than to go around doing nothing to make the world better. Ive seen how art makes a difference in peoples lives. I feel lucky that Ive had these opportunities fall into my lap. I love working with Wisconsin artists. I love how the artists and the kids learn from each other. It changes lives on both sides.
Shepherd Express will serve as a clearinghouse for all activities in the greater Milwaukee area that peacefully push back against discriminatory, reactionary or authoritarian actions and policies of the Trump administration and other activities that seek to thwart social justice. We will publicize and promote actions, demonstrations, planning meetings, teach-ins, party-building meetings, drinking-discussion get-togethers or any other actions that are directed toward fighting back to preserve our liberal democratic system.

Thursday, July 27

Planned Parenthood Leadership Council Summer Social @ Company Brewing (735 E. Center St.), 5:30-8 p.m.

At this social to benefit Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, you can try an exclusive IPPA beer. Admission is free, and there will be a raffle and activity prizes.

Beyond Sherman Park @ Parklawn Assembly of God (3725 N. Sherman Blvd.), 6:30-9 p.m.

10thirtysix host Portia Young and WUWMs LaToya Dennis will lead a community discussion on whats making a difference (and what still needs work) regarding housing, unemployment, education, community pride and police relations, as well as the impact these have on neighborhoods and residents beyond Sherman Park.

Shorewood Solidarity Network Monthly Meeting @ North Shore Presbyterian Church (4048 N. Bartlett Ave.), 7-9 p.m.

The first monthly meeting of the Shorewood Solidarity Network will focus on how to mobilize the community to support immigration rights and how to separate local police from immigration enforcement.

Saturday, July 29

Medicaid For All Rally @ Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (9620 W. Greenfield Ave.), 11 a.m.-noon

On the 52nd anniversary weekend of the passage of Medicaid, Citizen Action of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals are hosting a rally in favor of a Medicaid public option.

Peace Action Wisconsin: Stand for Peace @ The corner of 16th Street and Greenfield Avenue, noon-1 p.m.

Every Saturday from noon-1 p.m., concerned citizens join with Peace Action Wisconsin to protest war. Signs will be provided for those who need them. Protesters are encouraged to stick around for conversation and coffee afterwards.

Sunday, July 30

Savor, Sip and Cycle for Sustainability @ Boone & Crockett (2151 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.), 1-6 p.m.

This biking fundraiser for Milwaukee Area Science Advocates begins at Boone & Crockett and then goes to Classic Slice, Cafe Corazon, LuLu Cafe and Goodkind. There is a $75 donation per team.

Wednesday, Aug. 2

Refuel the Resistance @ Bounce Milwaukee (2801 S. Fifth Court), 5-8 p.m.

Every Wednesday, Bounce Milwaukee offers a space to organize (as well as a free drink) to anyone who brings evidence of resistance action in the past week, including protest signs, an email to an elected official or a selfie at the capital.

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

Black & Pink @ Milwaukee Public Library (2727 W. Fond du Lac Ave.), 6-7:30 p.m.

Black & Pink is a group of LGBTQ prisoners and allies who support each other in the midst of violence in the prison system. Every first Wednesday of the month, the group meets to write letters and make birthday cards for the incarcerated.

To submit to this column, please send a brief description of your action, including date and time, to savingourdemocracy@shepex.com. Together, we can fight to minimize the damage that this administration has planned for our great country.
 Expand Ron Johnson. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

During the appalling Republican senate debate about whether the party could get away with destroying health care for tens of millions of Americans, West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito was one of the few Republicans to take a stand for human decency, tweeting: I did not come to Washington to hurt people.

That sentiment is rare among Republicans these days. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson told a Green Bay newspaper that, for him and many other Republicans, hurting the poor and disabled by throwing millions of them off Medicaid was their favorite part of the Senate bill. Many of us, one of the main reasons we are willing to support a bill that doesnt even come close to repealing Obamacare, Johnson said, was because at least we were  putting some level of sustainability into an unsustainable entitlement program. You know, by tossing the growing number of people who can no longer afford health care off Medicaid.

So, when Johnson caught wind of a secret plot by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell not to fully implement the most devastating cuts to Medicaid coverage for the poor and the disabled, he denounced it as an outrage. If the Senate bill wasnt going to make the most savage cuts it promised to health care for the millions dependent on Medicaid, Johnson asked rhetorically, why support the bill, then? It was the latest sick twist from Johnson, who has flopped back and forth like a beached catfish on whether to vote for the Republican attempt to repeal and replace President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act.

Johnsons ideological objection to McConnells bill was simply that it wasnt cruel enough. It still provided some government assistance for people in need. In Johnsons free market world, people shouldnt receive any more health care than they can afford. Otherwise, they wont care how much health care costs and will waste tax money willy-nilly by staying alive.

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

But Johnsons hatred of McConnell was personal. Johnson resented McConnell for giving up on his re-election chances and withholding Republican senate campaign funds from Johnsons race. Johnson reveled in making McConnells difficult task of passing an overwhelmingly unpopular Republican health care bill even more difficult.

Sure, McConnell resorted to some reprehensible political tactics, but Johnson and other Republicans had always supported McConnells reprehensible political tactics against Obama. McConnell crafted the Senate health care bill in secret so fewer voters would ever know what was in it. Then, even after the bill was released, McConnell began making side deals with both the extreme right wing and more moderate Republicans to fudge details in the bill every which way before the final vote. One of those fudgy little details totally infuriated Johnson. McConnell told moderate Republicans not to worry about the most drastic cuts to Medicaid; those cuts were intentionally set so far in the future that they would never take place.

McConnell Had to Hide Benefits for Poor and Disabled

It tells you everything you need to know about the Republican Party today that if McConnells bill didnt devastate Medicaid, that needed to be kept hidden in provisions that appeared heartless, but would never be implemented. Otherwise, the bill could never gain support from the vicious, anti-government, Republican House Freedom Caucus or tea party senators like Johnson.

Enter courageous whistleblower Johnson: If our leader is basically saying dont worry about it, weve designed it so that those reforms will never take effect, first of all, thats a pretty significant breach of trust, and why support the bill, then? Golly, imagine Republicans breaching the public trust. This is the party whose president promised a beautiful health care plan that would cover everybody at much lower cost than Obamacare without cutting Medicaid. Instead, U.S. Senate Republicans debated plans to destroy health care for either 22 million or 32 million Americans and send premiums and co-payments soaring for older Americans and anyone with a pre-existing condition.

The biggest lie, of course, was that the Republican health care bill was ever about providing health care. It wasnt. It was about cutting almost $800 billion out of health care spending over 10 years by destroying health care for tens of millions of people in order to give nearly a trillion dollars in Republican tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America.

The latest Washington Post running tally of lies and misleading statements by the nations pathologically lying Republican president is 836 in his first six monthsaveraging 4.6 lies a dayonly microscopically fewer than his first 100-day daily average of 4.9. One of the leading topics for Trumps repeated lies was health care.

If Mitch McConnell slightly exaggerated the cruelty of Republican Medicaid cuts toward the poor and disabled to win votes from tea party extremists as Johnson charged, that should qualify as an unexpected, pleasant surprise rather than some kind of shocking party scandal.
Because we love all people, we shall be relentlessly optimistic in the face of tragedy.

Pardeep Kaleka shares this translation of a traditional Sikh prayer to emphasize his point that it is engrained in the very fabric of Sikh belief that suffering and sacrifice should be met with forgiveness, love and relentless optimism, chardhi kala.

Kaleka is a trauma therapist, co-founder of the peacemaking and service organization Serve 2 Unite, public speaker and activist for social justice. He is also the son of Satwant Singh Kaleka, who served as president of the Sikh temple, or gurdwara, in Oak Creek until his death at the hands of white supremacist Wade Michael Page on Aug. 5, 2012. The massacre also claimed the lives of temple members Sita Singh, Ranjit Singh, Prakash Singh, Suveg Singh and Paramjit Kaur. Four others, including first responding police officer Brian Murphy, were hospitalized for injuries sustained.

As the fifth anniversary of the shooting approaches, we take stock of the Sikh community locally and nationally; hate crimes in America; religious and governmental responses; the ways in which media messaging has shaped our understanding of the ongoing struggle with xenophobia; and peacemaking efforts going forward, including the Oak Creek temples annual 6K run-walk.

Who are the Sikhs?

Sikhism, founded more than 500 years ago by Guru Nanak in what is now the Punjab state of India, has 25 million adherents worldwide, making it the fifth largest world religion. In the United States, the Sikh population is conservatively estimated to be 500,000, with immigration beginning in the late 1800s, and yet a January 2015 report from the National Sikh Campaign revealed that 60% of Americans admit to knowing nothing about Sikh Americans. Mandeep Kaur, a lead organizer and spokesperson in Oak Creek for the Sikh Coalition for the last five years, shares that most American Sikhs have historically chosen to reside on one of the coasts, but that living expenses have increasingly driven them to the Midwest, especially in the past 15 years. In 2013, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel estimated that about 3,000 Sikh families live southeastern Wisconsin.

In the greater Milwaukee area, the majority of Sikhs reside in the Oak Creek and Brookfield areaalso the locations of the areas two gurdwaraswith many first-generation Sikhs working as gas station or liquor store owners and taxi drivers. Although most Sikhs reside in the suburbs, many of their businesses are in the inner city. Kaur observes that, as the second generation comes into adulthood, more and more are entering professional fields such as medicine.

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

To understand the Sikh response to the 2012 shooting, it is important to gain a basic grasp of Sikhisms tenets and worldview. Kaur summarizes the religions core principals, thus: One is living an honest life, making an honest living and being hardworking. And one is caring for the people that arent able to care for themselvesso volunteering, going out and providing food to anyone who cant get it for themselves, living in high spirits, in other words, chardhi kala, taking events or incidents in life as Gods will and always seeing the positive side to it. And spirituality, making sure that, not just by appearance, youre showing that youre a Sikh by actually living by the teachings of Sikhismcleansing yourself internally and always trying to live by the teachings of Sikhi.

The religion is monotheistic, stresses the equality of all people in the eyes of God, has no designated priests, espouses gender equality, encourages teaching and learning, and places a premium on selfless giving. Kaleka notes, For Sikhs, its really a falling in love with the process of growth and learning. Sikhism is likewise not a religion of conversion. To a point, a Sikh will always tell you, I want you to be the best Christian possible, the best Hindu possible, the best Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, meaning that they want you to be the best person possible, says Kaleka.

Speaking of the founding of Sikhism, Kaleka continues, Nanak was a reformer. He was born Hindu. As he attained enlightenment, the journey says that he went into the river and didnt appear for a couple days and once he did, his first words were, There is no Hindu and there is no Muslim. Those were the two main religions of the time in India. He went from there to talk about reforming the way that we look at God and really emphasized that there is one God and that no matter who you are, everyone should be treated equally. There was this sense of what now we would call social justice. But he came up with this thing before the word was ever around and formed a faith based on it that said that if someone says that someone else is unequal, you go out of your way to deny that and even to the point that you sacrifice your life.

Responding to August 5

The immediate response of the Sikh community to the 2012 shooting was fully in keeping with these principles. Many individuals, both from other religious groups and the general populace, took this fine example and began working assiduously for social change. According to Tom Heinen, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, Sikhs who were interviewed on television and quoted in print publications after the shooting called for broad interfaith understanding, urged community unity and forgave the shooter. There were no angry outbursts or calls for vengeance. Amid the grieving, their community graciously served food to law enforcement officers and others who had come to help them.

Heinen recalls that Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards, at an outdoor candlelight vigil after the shootings, said that he had seen a lot of crime and vengeance in his career, but that hed never seen reactions like the Sikhs, adding that these people have something to teach us. At the observance of the first anniversary of the shooting, speaking to a crowd in the Oak Creek temple as one of several dignitaries, he also noted that Sikhs came up to him during the aftermath of the shooting and asked how he was doing. People never ask the cops how they are doing, he added as he described the hospitality and demeanor of the Sikhs he encountered.

Looking to the longer-term response of the community, Kaur shares the story of Panjab Singh, the Sikh temple member so grievously injured in the shooting that he remains in long-term care to this day. We tend to focus a lot on the Sikhs that we lost, but we tend to forget the one thats still with us. He cant talk or function on his own, but hes very well aware of whats going on around him. Before this incident he was a very spiritual individual, literally someone who lived by the Sikh key principles. Now, when you visit him and ask him questions, he acknowledges that he understands by blinking his eyes. When you ask him if hes still in chardhi kala, hell blink his eyes. Its just thathes an example of what were trying to teach the people in the community, in the country and around the world.

On an institutional level, the events of Aug. 5, 2012, were the direct impetus for Kaleka forming Serve 2 Unite, which travels the country working in schools to engage youth in positive identity development through service, artistic response and global engagement; and also visiting communities undergoing demographic change (including the recent influxes of refugees). Kaleka shares his recent personal story and also provides insight on what it is like to be an immigrant to America in the modern era.

Describing the psychology Serve 2 Unite encounters, he notes, A lot of times it comes back to fearfear of immigrants, fear of change, fear of not being inclusive. Typically, the solution is not just talking it out; its action steps. The action steps are definitely service. These community members have to actually work togetherto actually build something together, to build their community together, because part of the narrative comes back to You dont belong here. Youre a new incoming immigrant and you havent invested enough into the American dream to really have a part in it. So thats part of the narrative. Trying to counter that looks like service.

In the broader community, many efforts have been made to counter hate crimes and build empathy and understanding. Heinen notes the Interfaith Conferences participation in numerous events ranging from prayer services and interfaith dialogues to talk-backs after relevant theatrical productions and a panel discussion of the documentary The Sikh Temple Shootings: Waking in Oak Creeka community rocked by hate is awakened and transformed, which was created in 2013 and which Kaleka uses to present alternatives to vengeance for communities across the nation.

The Interfaith Conferences most prominent legacy is its Amazing Faiths Dinner Dialogue program. Heinen says that more than 500 people have participated since the pilot events in 2012; the program entails small gatherings of 8-12 people of different faiths, philosophies, races and cultures for a simple vegetarian meal and moderated dialogue to share stories of their lived experiences. To learn more about these events, visit interfaithconference.org or call 414-276-9050.

Governmental response has also included notable gains. The FBI began tracking hate crimes against Sikhs as a direct response to the 2012 shooting, with the policy going into effect in 2015. Kaur also praises efforts made by the Obama administration to foster unity with the countrys Sikh community, including the (pre-2012) institution of a White House celebration of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. She states, During the Obama administration, we had individuals that were turban Sikhs that were helping with the administration, so they held positions in the White House, which was a big plus for us.

Of changes to legislation, Kaleka says, Right here in Wisconsin weve been able to institute hate crimes legislation. Sikhs werent part of hate crimes legislation until August 5, and so that led directly to that. Next month, Ill be in Indiana. Indiana is one of five state that hasnt adopted hate crime legislation and so, with that said, theres still work to be done.

Rephrasing the Conversation About Hate Crimes

Kaur notes that some of the progress made over the past five years has been undermined under the current administration and that, while reported hate crimes committed against Sikhs seem to be on the decline, much religious and racially based violence and bigotry persist in the U.S. Moreover, reported hate crimes do not tell the whole story. As Kaleka notes, many hate crimes against Sikhs likely go unreported precisely because, he says, we are a culture of resilience.

A recent survey by the Southern Poverty Law Center showed that, in 2016, the number of hate groups in the country rose for a second consecutive year, with the most significant growth in the near-tripling of anti-Muslim groups from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016. FBI statistics cited in the survey show that hate crimes against Muslims likewise grew by 67% in 2015.

The first reported revenge killing after 9/11 was not committed against a Muslim, but against Sikh gas station manager Balbir Singh Sodhi in a rash of violence that many media outlets describe as cases of mistaken identity. By religious prescription, many Sikh men wear turbans and long beards, which, due largely to the Osama bin Laden videos made viral in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, led many Americans to erroneously believe Sikhs are Muslims.

Beyond the obvious horror of the atrocities committed over the past 16 years against innocent members of minority faiths in America is the danger of implication. To call a murder such as Singh Sodhis a case of mistaken identity allows for the implication that hate groups should simply target Muslims instead of Sikhs. This is in no way an appropriate response.

Janan Najeeb, president of the Milwaukee Muslim Womens Coalition states, An important point that those that endorse the mistaken identity concept forget, is that people that endorse bigotry and racism seldom target one group, because it encompasses anyone and everyone that do not look and think as they do. When the white supremacist entered the Sikh temple and killed innocent people, he most probably did not know if he was killing Sikhs, Muslims or people from another galaxy; he most likely had no clue or understanding of their beliefs, and it really did not matter because he wanted to destroy anyone that did not look like him. Thats the racism that fuels violence.

Kaleka offers further insight on the psychology of hate crimes from his work as a trauma therapist: One of the things about trauma is it makes you look at the world in black and whiteus and them, good and badand all of a sudden there becomes no gray complication; when the reality is that this world is full of the gray, and theres really rarely a good or bad, a black and a white.

His work thus involves helping people understand that racism, xenophobia and othering of all kinds can be seen as a trauma response, even a misplaced survival mechanism (he cites the necessity for black-and-white thinking in the context of the battlefield, for example). He strives to help people understand that, what theyre doing and how theyre believing is not all about racism or Islamophobia or xenophobia, its about trauma and hurt and pain. It might just be pain that theyve suffered in this lifetime, but it might also be a generational pain that is passed. Then, the goal becomes addressing it and admitting that this world is complicated.

Looking Forward

Although there is still much work to be done in educating Americans about Sikhism and working to counter hatred with love, the Sikh community remains committed. To mark the fifth anniversary of the shooting, the Oak Creek gurdwara will host the Chardhi Kala 6K run-walk, named for the principle of relentless optimism and high spirits. Meanwhile, across the nation, cities have organized National Day of Seva events (named for the Sikh word for service) in solidarity with the Oak Creek event. Community members are encouraged to remember the sacrifice of Oak Creeks Sikh community by engaging in any kind of service they feel is appropriate.

Kaur, who organizes the annual Oak Creek event, says there will be activities for children, a free meal and a speech by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, a prominent Indian entertainer, on the message of chardhi kala and love. All components of the event are free, and donations will primarily go to support a scholarship fund that honors the 2012 victims by aiding students who dedicate themselves to community service.

Describing the ideological thrust of the event, Kaur says, We always try to remember Orlando or any of the shootings that happened in the last four years. This year, the focus is more on looking forward and how the incident itself has taught us to not only live in high spirits but show by example and actually go out into the community and make that difference and teach people that the more we know about each other and the more we work together, the better. I know it sounds weird coming out of my mouth, but we are taking the good that came out of the incident and trying to make that a ripple effect across the country.

To learn more about and register for the Chardhi Kala 6K and its related events, call 414-690-6435 or visit chardhikala6kwi.org.
Editor's Note: Issue of the Week presents the Shepherd Express opinion on an important issue in the news. It is usually written by the Shepherds editor, but at times we invite someone outside of the paper who is either working in the field or has some other level of expertise. Jon Erpenbach is the Wisconsin State Senator for the 27th Senate District.

Regardless of what happens in court or the call back from President Donald Trump, the Wisconsin Elections Commission will follow Wisconsin law and grant a request to release limited information about our voters, as they must under our open records law. The name and address of voters, as well as when and where they voted, will be given to Trumps commission if they pay for the records. But the secret ballot, party preference, Social Security number and date of birth are rightly protected by our laws. There is no other choice because our law on open records is clear.

However, violating our voters rights in search of fraud is a waste of time and a violation of privacy because the Republican claim of voter fraud has been proven false more than once. This national ploy will show nothing different. Voters are not the ones committing fraud in elections; politicians who pass laws rigging the maps so only they can win create the true voter fraud.

This fraud is so great that a panel of three federal judges overturned it and demanded new maps be drawn. This fraud is so valid that the U.S. Supreme Court will now hear how fraudulent our maps are and how dirty Wisconsin elections have become under this one-party rule. This should make no one proud. The voter fraud of rigged maps is what needs attention. Taking away the right to one person-one vote, without political interference, is the crime.

Voters in this state must work hard to access the ballot, and that is not something that has been made easier with the elimination of special registration deputies and additional identification at every single electionnot just when you register to vote. But these barriers and intimidation will not break the Wisconsin voter spirit. We have fortitude, we have strength, we are stubborn and we wont let Republican voter intimidation take away our right to vote.

Coming off an election where the party I belong to did not perform well, this optimism and faith in voters may seem misplaced. But I believe in the value of the right to vote, even if people dont vote for me. The process of clean elections and the value of the right to vote are bigger than any politician, bigger than any party.

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

If you would like additional information on voters rights and the violation of those rights with the current one-party rule in Wisconsin, call my office at 608-266-6670 or send an e-mail to sen.erpenbach@legis.wi.gov.
There on the table were four scoops of flavor, each more alluring than the last, along with slices of a baguette.

Where to begin, when the options are salted maple, blueberry basil, raspberry with pickled rhubarb, and chocolate?

On another day, I would have been fooled into thinking these were treats from the freezer. But not today, as I sat across from Beth Fisher, who has taken on the role of consultant for Rustica Bakery. The longtime chef, most recently of Wise Acre Eatery and, earlier, Lucias, has a new playground.

Im having a blast, she said with the exuberance of a child with a new toy. Im using everything Ive learned over the years to look at things differently.

Which brings us to the colorful mounds before us.

Rustica sent me home with every loaf of bread they make, and all I could think of was butter. This was one of my first projects: Bring butter to the bread, she said.

So Fisher developed the flavored varieties  called compound butters in the food world  to be paired with the distinctive loaves.

Id tried them several months earlier at a fundraiser when she was starting to experiment with the flavorings, and I knew I wanted to make these at home.

On this day, Fisher was offering a taste of the possibilities, and giving me a gentle nudge to mix and match these in the kitchen.

WHERE TO USE FLAVORINGS

You may have used a pat of herb butter to top off a grilled steak or fish fillet. But dont stop there. Consider these options from Fisher:

 Use chocolate butter on sesame bagels or nut bread, or on French toast or pancakes. Or try a maple version on the same. How about an orange-cardamom variety? You get the idea. Make breakfast better.

 Add a tarragon-mustard version to a pot of mussels.

 Add a spoonful of either sweet or savory flavored butter to finish meat or seafood in the pan.

 Use it as a reverse marinade. Fisher grills chicken thighs and then tosses them with a flavored butter. (Typical spicy Buffalo wings coating is nothing more than butter, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce, she said.)

 Place the flavored butter on a cheese board, with other offerings.

HOW TO MAKE AT HOME

There are few rules to making compound butters  these are, after all, simple combos. But Fisher has some tips for making the most of this effort.

 You dont need the best quality butter, but it does need to be good. Land OLakes works, said Fisher. Use unsalted butter so you can control the sodium amount.

 Use really good ingredients  fresh and flavorful  when adding them to the butter and take advantage of seasonal produce. Fresh raspberries in the summer will taste much different than those from midwinter. Most herbs can be simply chopped up and added to the mix, but rosemary  with its stronger flavor  should be blanched first. Keep the texture of the other ingredients intact by not processing them first. Leave the ingredients in chunks, which is prettier and tastes good, too. Fisher suggests keeping small berries whole.

 Let butter soften  but not too much  before you mix in the flavorings. Fisher uses a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. She prefers not to whip the butter, as it adds too much air to the finished item.

 Some cooks roll the butter into a log when completed (foils for this are available online), but Fisher prefers to transfer the butter to a small container for serving.

 Store the butter in the refrigerator due to the flavorings youve added, but let the mixture sit out on the counter for about an hour before you use it. The exception is if adding the butter to hot food, as in a sauce; then the butter should be cold when added.

As for the chocolate butter, with the recipe at right, theres one word. Well, maybe two. Yum and Mmm come to mind.

It looks like a chunk of chocolate, but of course its more than that.

You have to remind yourself youre eating butter, Fisher said with a laugh.

Yes, indeed. Really good butter.
SHELDON, Iowa | A Sheldon woman is facing a felony charge after she allegedly assaulted someone while pulling the person through a screen window in May.

Kathryn Carroll, 20, was booked into the O'Brien County Jail Tuesday for first-degree burglary, a class-B felony, and assault causing bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor.

Court documents say Carroll was attempting to enter an apartment in the 400 block of Pine Street in Sheldon on May 8 and was shouting at a female resident to let her in. The victim refused and Carroll then ripped the screen off the entry door window and unlocked it from the outside.

The victim pushed back on the door to prevent Carroll from entering. She was then accused of grabbing the victim and pulling her partially out of the window and assaulting her. The blows left red marks and abrasions on the victim, the documents said.

Carroll admitted to police there was a verbal altercation but denies physically assaulting the other person.

She was arrested Tuesday for the past-tense altercation and was released from jail the same day.

According to Iowa code, first-degree burglary is punishable of up to 25 years.
WEST POINT, Neb. | A woman charged in connection with the death of a Rosalie, Nebraska, man has asked that prosecutors prove that there is enough evidence to support the charges against her.

Becky Weitzenkamp had been scheduled for an arraignment in Cuming County Court Wednesday. Instead, she requested a preliminary hearing in which the state must establish that it has enough evidence to proceed with its case.

Judge Michael Long scheduled the preliminary hearing for Aug. 2 and continued Weitzenkamp's $100,000 bond.

Weitzenkamp, 41, of Oakland, Nebraska, is charged with accessory to a felony and first-degree arson in the March 11 death of Ernest Warnock. Authorities say Weitzenkamp was at Warnock's home with Derek Olson and his father, Jody Olson, when the two men had an altercation with Warnock. Derek Olson is accused of stabbing Warnock several times before setting his house on fire.

The body of Warnock, 64, was found inside the burned rubble of his rural Rosalie home later that day. An autopsy found that he had died before the fire.

Weitzenkamp is accused of buying a can of lighter fluid and driving Derek Olson to Warnock's home to start the fire.

Derek Olson, 27, and Jody Olson, 47, both of Oakland, are charged with second-degree murder, accessory to a felony, use of a weapon to commit a felony and first-degree arson. Both are seeking dismissal of their charges, and hearings are scheduled for Aug. 3.
SIOUX CITY | The Sioux City School Board took the first step Tuesday toward paying $1.5 million to buy unused portions of the downtown Sioux City Museum building to hold specialty courses for high school students and others.

Board President Mike Krysl, district Superintendent Paul Gausman and Director of Secondary Education Jim Vanderloo explained that making the move will provide a much more centralized way to offer both Life Academy and Career Academy courses. Those courses are now spread through all three public high schools, Western Iowa Tech Community College and the Ho-Chunk Centre downtown.

While all the academy courses won't ultimately fit into what is planned to be 19 classrooms converted in the museum facility by the 2018-19 school year, it will be more consolidated, Vanderloo said.

The school board voted 7-0 to approve a purchase agreement with Museum Building Property Inc. to pay $1.5 million for 75,000 square feet of the building. Gausman said that is the first of many steps that will be required to finalize the sale, with the Sioux City Council needing to approve pieces too.

If it all pans out, Vanderloo said some new rooms would be constructed in a portion of the museum building, which at one time held the Delta Air Lines call center before it closed in 2012, severing 165 jobs. The building was originally a J.C. Penney retail store more than three decades ago.

Gausman said his conversations with Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott and City Manager Bob Padmore make him believe city officials like the proposed plan.

Krysl said the plan is a "very viable" way to aid the growing Career Academy, where high school students take specialty courses in business and marketing, family and consumer science, health science, and industrial technology.

"We simply don't have enough room for them," Krysl said.

The Sioux City School District has held Life Academy courses at WIT, but college officials have said they need that space for other uses. The Ho-Chunk Centre space is being leased by the district for Career Academy courses, at the cost of $75,000 annually through 2024.

Vanderloo said the earliest any courses could be held in the museum building would likely be in the second semester 2018. He said a full offering of courses in the 19 rooms would come in 2018-19.

As an example of how more courses would follow, Vanderloo said making the move could allow a fashion course to be offered downtown through an expanded family and consumer science academy.

"We've got all the funding to make this happen," Gausman said.
SIOUX CITY | Coming off a period in which the Sioux City School Board members said they investigated and found no fault in the leadership of Superintendent Paul Gausman, the board voted Tuesday to raise his salary by 1.11 percent.

The Sioux City School Board voted 5-2 to raise Superintendent Paul Gausmans salary from $235,904 to $238,523 for the 2017-2018 school year.

The topic was set on the consent agenda portion of the meeting, which typically gets little discussion and proceeds with a quick vote. School Board President Mike Krysl said during a Journal interview following the meeting that the 1.11 percent raise was set in conjunction with talking to Gausman, and to match the percent of allowable growth, or new money percentage approved by the Iowa Legislature for K-12 state schools.

The vote was 5-2 for Gausman's raise and three other items on the consent agenda. Board members Paul Gorski and David Gleiser voted nay, while affirmative votes came from Krysl, Jackie Warnstadt, Mike McTaggart, John Meyers and Perla Alarcon-Flory.

Last year, Gausmans base salary grew from $229,000 to $235,904.

He also will receive an increase in the annual contribution the district makes to a tax-sheltered retirement annuity of his choice, raising that total from $33,306 to $35,778 per year. Krysl said the annuity and salary bumps were the only portions that changed from Gausman's prior contract.

Krysl said "holding (Gausman's) salary to 1.11 percent is the right thing to do" given the school district's financial stress for 2017-18.

"In better times, we could do more for him... He is receiving a competitive salary," Krysl said.

Gausman has been working off a series of rolling three-year contracts, with one year added each summer. The new contract extends him through June 2020. Gausman was hired as superintendent in 2008.

The school district Finance Director John Chalstrom leveled a series of allegations against Gausman through an intermediary in February. Chalstrom accused Gausman of creating a hostile workplace and threatening his job if he shared alternative budget proposals with board members outside of regular meetings.

Gausman has vehemently denied all of the charges.

At the end of the June 29 board meeting, Krysl told the Journal the internal investigation was finished and the board found no evidence of wrongdoing by Gausman, a former Iowa superintendent of the year.

"(The public) can rest assure that the board did take this seriously and undertook a fact-finding mission of its own.... We don't think it is necessary to take any other action," Krysl said at the time.

A few days later, Chalstrom told the Journal he was not questioned as part of the recently completed school board investigation into the charges.

Board members by a 5-2 vote on April 10 approved a settlement agreement with Chalstrom. Under the deal, he remains on paid administrative leave until the expiration of his contract on Friday, the end of the district's current budget year. Additionally, he will receive about $35,000 in severance pay through Sept. 30.

On Tuesday, Krysl didn't directly reference the investigation, but said Gausman isn't a perfect superintendent.

"He has learned a lot over the last year," Krysl said, adding the school board members will work closely with Gausman "to avoid any pitfalls along with him."

Krysl continued, "He has moved the district forward to a level of progress that hasn't been realized for a long time."

Sioux City is the states fourth largest school district.

A Journal analysis in August 2015 found Gausmans base salary was in a virtual tie for second place in the state, just $27 less than the superintendent for Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest district. His salary was fourth largest last year.

Krysl said Gausman's relative salary rank among Iowa metro schools will likely drop in 2017-18, under the presumption that superintendents in other large districts will get higher percentage raises.

The school board negotiated pay raises for unionized teachers in a two-year contract that recently moved to the second year. Teachers received a 3.5 percent increase in the total pay and benefits package the first year, and a 3.55 percent increase for the year from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018.
SIOUX CITY | The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors authorized a lease-purchase plan for a Sheriff's Office training center on the Prairie Hills grounds at their meeting Tuesday.

Building Services Director Kenny Schmitz said the structure would replace the services of the tattered Prairie Hills jail annex.

The 60- by 120-foot building would be erected across the road south of Prairie Hills, located at 1600 County Home Road.

The facility would have enough space for K-9 training, staff training, file storage, classrooms, locker rooms, and a weight room.

The Board unanimously approved the lease plan and now the county can begin refining projections and present them to the planning and zoning commission.

In its current state, the project would cost $524,718.

The Communications Workers of America Local 7177, that represents more than 30 Sheriff's Office employees, has offered to contribute $40,000 to the project. And Schmitz believes a chiller in the old Prairie Hills building can be sold for $15,000 and a private donation drive could provide additional funds.

He also mentioned there is a potential to make money by turning the new building into a regional training center for other entities to use.

Since 2015, county officials have signaled plans to shutter Prairie Hills due to numerous flaws associated with upkeep.

County officials have said it would cost an estimated $8.8 million to fully modernize the building, where low-risk inmates once were held until recently.

In an April meeting, supervisor Keith Radig proposed selling the building to a commercial real estate agent as a rural housing option. The other supervisors slashed the motion saying chances of a developer buying the old building next to a firing range are slim.

The main Prairie Hills building is 100 years old. It was initially a so-called County Home, an institutional place for paupers and others. A wing was added in 1975, with two large classrooms, a full-size gymnasium and a large weight room and workout area for employee training.

The county converted Prairie Hills to a jail annex in 2000. A program hailed as a way to help inmates with alcohol problems and reduce jail numbers was ended at Prairie Hills in 2015.

The Journal's Bret Hayworth contributed to this report.
Sioux City

Carol Lee Boyle, 84, of Sioux City, passed away Sunday, July 23, 2017, at Sunrise Retirement Community in Sioux City.

Services will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel, with the Rev. Roger Madden officiating. Entombment will be in the Logan Park Mausoleum. Visitation will be 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Condolences may be sent to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Carol was born Nov. 6, 1932, in Algona, Iowa, the daughter of Archibald "Doc" and Caroline (Bailey) Whitlow. She grew up in Armstrong, Iowa. Following high school graduation, she began studying English at Grinnell (Iowa) College. After two years there, she realized she would rather be a nurse than write the great American novel. She transferred to the University of Iowa, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

While working on the psychiatric ward at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City, she met her husband, Don Boyle. He was working as an attendant and finishing his undergraduate degree. After a short nursing stint in San Antonio, Texas, Carol joined Don in Louisiana, where he was stationed as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and she worked in a pediatrician's office. They married Oct. 10, 1958.

After Don's active duty, they returned to the University of Iowa for Don to attend medical school. She went back to working at the VA. Their son Douglas was born in 1963 before they moved to Oakland, Calif., for Don's internship. Carol continued to work as a nurse in California, and after that year, during his residency back at Iowa, she worked again at the VA. Their daughters were born during that time, Susan in 1965 and Sarah in 1966.

When they moved to Sioux City for Don to begin general surgery practice, Carol stopped nursing and concentrated full time on raising her children, creating a warm and welcoming home. She was active in the schools and community as well. During the years, she served in the PTA, and was a room mother many times and a den mother for Cub Scouts. She was involved with PEO, Traveler's Club, Medical Wives Auxiliary and League of Women Voters. She volunteered at the Florence Crittenton home, and served in many positions at church.

Carol was key in starting an investment club for women, "Dollars and Sense" -- it only recently disbanded. She was always a learner, and that never-ending curiosity made her a voracious reader, a gift she passed to her children

Carol never met a stranger -- she would look for opportunities to meet new friends wherever she went. She created a home where there was often an extra place or two at the dinner table, and she loved that. Her kids' friends were always welcomed, and her hospitality was well known. She supported her husband in all of his endeavors, and was her children's greatest cheerleader. Carol had a rock solid foundation of faith that not only sustained her through the years, but was also a beacon of hope for others on their spiritual journeys.

Survivors include two daughters, Susan of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Sarah (Troy) Hansen of Sioux City; five grandchildren, Carrie Salsness, Jenni Salsness-Tvedten, Trevor and Jessica Hansen, and Nick Boyle; two great-granddaughters, Grace Salsness-Tvedten and Eleanor Salsness-Tvedten; and a sister, Rose Coyle of Minneapolis, Minn.

She was preceded in death by her parents; three siblings; her husband, Don; and her son, Douglas.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be directed to the Siouxland Food Bank or Hospice of Siouxland.

Many thanks to the family and friends who came to see Carol, and who cheered her on. She was blessed to have an abundance of folks who cared about her. Truly, to have known her was to have loved her.
SIOUX CITY | Hamid "Ham" Shirvani has ended another short-lived college leadership position, as Briar Cliff University officials on Wednesday announced his resignation as university president, after 14 months on the job.

A release from the Sioux City college said Shirvani will continue as president through the end of the fall semester. He could not be reached for an interview.

This has not been an easy decision for me to make, and is a result of a combination of family, personal and professional considerations, Shirvani said in the release.

I have enjoyed working with the campus community, particularly with the faculty who represent the core of the university.

Shirvani, 67, will continue to work on special projects under the direction of the board of trustees but Rachelle Karstens, the universitys chief of staff and legal counsel, will oversee all day-to-day operations moving forward.

The trustees will begin a search for a new president in the coming months and will share more details later.

Charese Yanney, a Sioux City businesswoman who has been on the board for more than a dozen years, lamented the loss of Shirvani.

"I am sorry to see him go," she said. "He had a real vision for Briar Cliff and tried to make it a better place, to raise the standards of education and learning."

In November 2016, Shirvani revealed a five-year plan for BCU. The pieces ranged from a possible new athletic complex to changes in standards for students and staff. One option included bringing back a degree in special education instruction for fall semester 2017.

Shirvani, a controversial figure who has drawn both praise and criticism for his management style during two decades as a college administrator, was introduced in April 2016 as the 10th president of Briar Cliff University.

He succeeded Bev Wharton, who led the private Sioux City college for 15 years, the longest tenure in its 85-year history. He started as BCU president on June 1, 2016.

Reaffirming its support for Shirvani, the college's board of trustees in May dismissed a local media report that Shirvani was investigated for sexual harassment, saying it "inaccurately and inappropriately cast a cloud" over his leadership.

When he was hired, Sister Cathy Katoski, chairwoman of the Briar Cliff board of trustees, said Shirvani was a unanimous choice.

"This is a monumental day for us. Dr. Shirvani's prior experience, his proven leadership, his strong character and his deep Catholic beliefs make an excellent fit to lead this university," Katoski said in April 2016, at a ceremony at the Stark Center. Shirvani was greeted by applause from the crowd of more than 150.

Briar Cliff officials also pointed out that Shirvani was responsible for more than $700 million in development and fundraising activities, as well as more than $1 million in research grant funding, at the prior institutions he served.

In the Wednesday release, Katoski said, "The board of trustees thanks Dr. Shirvani for his service to the university and wishes him  and his family  the best in the future. Our focus now is on filling the role of president and ensuring that we continue to deliver a rigorous, world-class education to our valued students. This is a top priority, because it is important we remain a place of opportunity that is committed to providing students a quality, liberal arts education rooted in our Franciscan values.

Shirvani left a position as senior fellow at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington D.C., to come to Briar Cliff.

In April 2016, Shirvani said he wanted to grow Briar Cliffs academic programs, facilities and the student population. At the time, the college had an enrollment of 1,149 and 66 faculty members, not counting adjunct instructors.

The most recent BCU student count for fall semester 2016 was 1,316 students.

As he arrived, Shirvani defended his record and answered questions about controversies during his leadership roles at public universities in North Dakota and California.

Every institution that I've been at I've left in a better way than when I started," he said.

Shirvani lasted just 11 months as chancellor of the North Dakota University System, which oversees the state's 11 public campuses. In June 2013, the North Dakota Board of Higher Education unanimously voted to approve a buyout of the final two years of his contract at a cost of nearly $925,000.

The buyout came after months of growing concern among state lawmakers, university system officials, faculty and student groups over Shirvanis management style and treatment of staff.

Prior to going to North Dakota, Shirvani served as president of California State University Stanislaus, where he also was a controversial figure during his seven-year tenure, from 2005 to 2012.

Four years into his term there, 91 percent of the 264 professors on campus expressed "no confidence" in his leadership.

"I made decisions which were the right decisions for the students and the faculty were displeased with some of the decisions. As a result they expressed themselves by a vote of no confidence, Shirvani said.

Briar Cliff University is located in the northwest part of Sioux City. It was founded in 1930 as a Catholic college for women.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to reinstate the ban transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the US armed forces.

The decision reversed a policy initially approved by the Defense Department under President Barack Obama, which was still under final review, that would allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced last month that he was delaying enactment of the plan to begin allowing transgender individuals to join the US military.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump said in a series of tweets Wednesday morning. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

"Thank you," he added.

Ash Carter, the Defense secretary under Obama, ended the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military in 2016, but allowed for a year-long review process to allow the Pentagon to determine how it would accept new transgender recruits into the military.

On the eve of that one-year deadline, Mattis announced that he was delaying the implementation of the new policy, saying he needed more time.

"Since becoming the Secretary of Defense, I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?" Mattis said in a memo late last month. "Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America's military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services."

A 2016 Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department concluded that letting transgender people serve openly would have a "minimal impact" on readiness and health care costs, largely because there are so few in the military's 1.3 million-member force.

The study put the number of transgender people in the military between 1,320 and 6,630. Gender-change surgery is rare in the general population, and the RAND study estimated the possibility of 30 to 140 new hormone treatments a year in the military, with 25 to 130 gender transition-related surgeries among active service members. The cost could range from $2.4 million and $8.4 million, an amount that would represent an "exceedingly small proportion" of total health care expenditures, the study found.

Trump's decision marks a setback for LGBT rights groups who have expressed concerns that the Trump administration could chip away at progress the community has seen in recent years on the backs of a series of landmark decisions in recent years that have included the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide and a repeal of the ban on gay people openly serving in the military.

Trump's decision is also another setback for the transgender community following his decision several months ago to reverse an Obama administration policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

The Obama administration faced heated criticism from the right last year when it announced the military ban and several Republican members of Congress have urged the Trump administration to reverse the decision, arguing that the decision does not serve the US' defense interests.
Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley voted Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the first in a series of actions this week as Republicans attempt to come up with a health care solution that so far as eluded them.

The Iowa Republicans joined most of the other Senate Republicans in backing a repeal, which would not have put in place an immediate replacement. They also voted late Tuesday for a repeal measure.

Both failed, however, because several Republicans joined a unified front of Democrats in voting against them.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, both Illinois Democrats, voted against the repeal efforts. Durbin complained the bills were drafted in secret and would throw millions off health insurance.

On a conference call with reporters before Wednesday's vote, Grassley said it would be painless because repeal would be delayed for two years giving Republicans time to come up with a replacement.

Nobodys going to be hurt over that two-year time as we work on replacement," he said.

Democrats rejected that idea. They said no insurer would take a chance on joining the marketplace with all the uncertainty surrounding a repeal.

Republicans have struggled to come up with a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act that can garner enough votes. The House passed a bill, but that was panned in the Senate.

Subsequent Senate plans also have been opposed by enough Republicans to stymie them.

On the conference call Wednesday, Grassley said the goal in the Senate is to get something through the body so there can be a House-Senate conference.

"Id hate to say anything, but youre going to have a conference anyway, so getting to conference is a necessary step for me ...," he said.

Despite the hope the Senate can pass something, Grassley said he still is "pessimistic" a bill will clear Congress.
A section of street named for Shelby Houlihan? Fine with us.

In fact, we wholeheartedly support Mayor Bob Scott's suggestion of renaming an existing stretch of Lincoln Way near East High School "Houlihan Run" after the East graduate and track standout who represented the United States in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. (The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the idea on Tuesday, sending it to the City Council for a vote on Aug. 7.)

But let's not stop there.

We have another suggestion (one we have made before) for renaming one section of one street after a local figure of prominence and achievement. Two figures, actually.

How about Ann and Abby Way?

Esther Pauline Friedman and Pauline Esther Friedman, better known to America as beloved advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, respectively, were born in Sioux City - a fact, as we have said in this space before, our community doesn't recognize in visible fashion to the extent it should.

We propose city leaders consider renaming for Ann and Abby the one-block section of Pavonia Street in which The Journal is located. That strikes us as a fitting location for such an honor, since the work of Ann and Abby graced the pages of our daily product for decades. In fact, Dear Abby - produced today by daughter Jeanne Phillips - remains a Journal staple.

Renaming part of a street is a fitting way to provide a high-profile, lasting tribute for local men and women of significance.

Shelby earned the honor. So did Ann and Abby.
LEONARDTOWN, Md.

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme.

(July 26, 2017)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office =released the following incident reports.FATAL CRASH: On July 13, at 5:55 p.m., a 2010 Dodge Avenger being operated by Holly Anne Blankenship, of Mechanicsville, attempted to cross northbound Three Notch Road in the area of New Market Turner Road when the motor vehicle failed to yield-right-of way and was struck by a 2015 Dodge Durango being operated by a 60-year-old male of Waldorf. The Blankenship was transported to MedStar Washington Hospital Center where she was initially in critical condition, but later succumbed to her injuries. The operator of the Dodge Durango was not transported from the scene for medical attention.BURGLARY: Unknown suspect(s) entered a shed in the 21000 block of Esquire Court in Lexington Park and stole property. Corporal M. Worrey is investigating the case. CASE#36830-17BURGLARY TO MOTOR VEHICLE: During the overnight hours, unknown suspect(s) forced entry into a motor vehicle and stole cash in the 23000 block of Rosewood Court in Lexington Park. Corporal D. Corcoran is investigating the case. CASE#36830-17BURGLARY TO MOTOR VEHICLE: Unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle and stole cash in the 24000 block of Half Pone Point Road in Hollywood. Corporal D. Snyder is investigating the case. CASE#36851-17BREAKING AND ENTERING TO A MOTOR VEHICLE: During the overnight hours, unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle in the 22000 block of Slyvan Way in Lexington Park. Corporal Reppel is investigating the case. CASE# 37363-17ATTEMPTED BURGLARY: Over the weekend, unknown suspect(s) attempted to gain entry into an empty shed in the 46000 block of Carver School Boulevard in Lexington Park. Deputy D. Smith is investigating the case. CASE#37508-17BURGLARY: Unknown suspect(s) entered a residence in the 48000 block of Spinaker Circle in Lexington Park and caused damage. Deputy P. Henry is investigating the case. CASE# 37581-17ASSIST OTHER AGENCY: St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office deputies assisted the Maryland State Police with the apprehension of a suspect who attempted to flee the Town Creek Area. The Maryland State Police charged the suspect. Case#37686-17BURGLARY TO MOTOR VEHICLE: Unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle and stole property in the 21000 block of Rosewood Terrace in Lexington Park. Deputy First Class J. Maguire is investigating the case. CASE#37741THEFT, RECOVERED PROPERTY: A trailer stolen from the Harry Lundenberg School was located near Lancaster Park. Corporal M. Worrey is investigating and Deputy First Class S. Tirpak recovered the trailer.THEFT: Unknown suspect(s) stole a victim's registration plate sometime between 7/17/2017 and 7/21/2017 in the 20000 block of Chingville Road in Leonardtown. Deputy S. Bowie is investigating the case. CASE#38351-17THEFT: Unknown suspect(s) stole an empty beverage container from Corner Liquors in Lexington Park. DFC J. Maguire is investigating the case. CASE#38352-17BURGLARY: Unknown suspect(s) attempted to force entry into a residence in the 21000 block of Manon Way in Lexington Park. No entry was made and Deputy P. Henry is investigating the case. CASE#38765-17BURGLARY: Unknown suspect(s) entered an unsecured shed and stole property in the 21000 block of Garfield Street in Great Mills. DFC. R. Steinbach is investigating the case. CASE#38783-17COUNTERFEIT COMPLAINT: An individual attempted to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at Cadillac Jacks on Great Mills Road in Lexington Park. DFC Beyer is investigating the case. CASE#39008-17BREAKING AND ENTERING TO A MOTOR VEHICLE: During the overnight hours, unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle and stole property in the 23000 block of Esperanza Drive in Lexington Park. Deputy Siciliano is investigating the case. CASE# 39194-17BREAKING AND ENTERING TO A MOTOR VEHICLE: Sometime during the overnight hours, unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle and stole property in the 21000 block of Three Notch Road in Lexington Park. Deputy Bush is investigating the case. CASE# 39139-17BREAKING AND ENTERING TO A MOTOR VEHICLE: On July 18, 2017, unknown suspect(s) entered a motor vehicle in the 27000 block of Point Lookout Road in Loveville. Corporal Flerlage is investigating the case. CASE#38982-17
SOLOMONS ISLAND, Md.

(July 26, 2017)The Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association Southern Maryland Chapter (MSSA-SMC) donated to Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) a gift certificate and new equipment to support field and laboratory work in fisheries research and management.CBL Director and Professor, Dr. Tom Miller attended a recent meeting of the MSSA-SMC to accept the donations. "We are honored by the generosity of the MSSA-SMC members", said Dr. Miller. "We are pleased to continue working with MSSA-SMC as it supports our active research programs on the fishes in the Chesapeake Bay and the coastal Atlantic. We are also pleased to support MSSA-SMC outreach activities like kids fishing camps."The mission of the MSSA-SMC is to provide a unified voice to preserve and protect the fisheries resources, the rights of recreational fishermen, the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the opportunity to support activities that enhance the overall marine environment.CBL is located where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay. For more than 90 years it has been a national leader in fisheries, estuarine ecology, environmental chemistry and toxicology. CBL is the oldest publicly supported marine laboratory on the East Coast. Some 2017 research highlights: Advising agencies on blue crab management to support the resurgence of blue crab in the Bay; Developing a citizen science program to understand dolphins in the Bay ( Chesapeakedolphinwatch.org ); and Monitoring water quality in Southern Maryland bays and creeks.
Ashley Roberts Cedric Williams Corey Bridgett Daniel Dement Devin Webb Greg Taylor Jonathan Anderson Kevin Howell Lawrence Cross Maurice Stoney Michael Aud Rasheehad Butler Sandra Johnson Scott Greenwell Steven Cave Tavis Floyd Thomas Gordon Previous Next

LEONARDTOWN, Md.

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme.

(July 26, 2017)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office today released the following incident and arrest reports.6/29/2017 ASSAULT: Deputy A. Budd responded to the 21000 block of Canoe Neck Way in Abell for a reported assault. The investigation revealed the suspect,, assaulted the victim. There were visible signs of injury. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center, where she was charged with both First and Second Degree Assault. CASE# 33860-176/28/2017 THEFT: Dep. C. Ball responded to a residence in the 21000 block of Scarborough Drive in Lexington Park in reference to a theft. The investigation revealed the suspect,, refused to return a victim's generator after he borrowed it. On June 30, 2017, the suspect was arrested on an arrest warrant for the charges of Theft Less than $1000.00. CASE# 33764-176/27/2017 ASSAULT: Corporal W. Ray responded to the 45000 block of Foxchase Drive in Great Mills for a reported assault. Upon arrival, the investigation revealed the suspect,, assaulted and damaged the victim's vehicle. The victim displayed visible injuries. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where she was charged with Property Destruction and Assault. CASE #33639-176/30/2017 BURGLARY: On June 8, 2017, Deputy M. Beyer responded to a reported burglary at Queen Anne's Apartments in Lexington Park. The investigation revealed that items belonging to the Apartment complex had been stolen out of a storage shed. Further investigation revealed the suspect,, had pawned several of the stolen items at Pawn It. Cpl. T. Teague arrested the suspect and charged him with Burglary 2nd Degree and Theft L/T $1000. CASE#30047-177/01/2017 POSSESSION OF CDS/POSSESSION OF COUNTERFEIT BILLS: Deputy J. Smith responded to the 30000 block of Three Notch Road in Charlotte Hall for the reports of a suspicious person sleeping in a motor vehicle. The investigation revealed the suspect,, was in possession of suspected CDS Marijuana, suspected CDS Not Marijuana as well as suspected Counterfeit US Currency. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Possession CDS Not Marijuana and Possession Forged Currency. The suspect was also charged with the Possession of Suspected Marijuana on a Civil Citation. CASE# 34342-177/01/2017 ASSAULT: Deputy. J. Bare responded to the 45000 block of Baringer Drive in California for a reported assault. The victim alleged, the suspect,, assaulted the victim. The victim displayed injuries consistent with the allegations. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Assault. CASE# 344827/01/2017 DISORDERLY CONDUCT: Deputy J. Bare responded to the area of Suburban Drive and Pleasant Drive in Lexington Park for a reported disturbance. Upon arrival, the suspect,, was found to be acting in a disorderly manner; screaming and yelling, punching trash cans, and disrupting others in the neighborhood. She was asked numerous times by officers on scene to cease her behavior. She was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where she was charged with Disorderly Conduct and Failure to Obey a Reasonable and Lawful Order of a Law Enforcement Officer. CASE# 34457-177/01/2017 ASSAULT: Deputy J. Bare responded to the 45000 block of Ketch Court for a disturbance at a party. Upon arrival, he observed the suspect,, assaulting the victim by striking her in the face with a closed fist. The suspect was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where she was charged with Assault. CASE#34329-177/02/2017 POSSESSION: Deputy First Class D. Potter was on patrol on Midway Drive in Lexington Park when he observed a motorist perform a traffic violation. During the traffic stop, the suspect displayed signs of impairment, and a K9 scan was conducted with a positive alert to the presence of CDS. The investigation revealed the suspect,, was in possession of suspected CDS Crack Cocaine. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Possession of CDS Not Marijuana and Possession of CDS Paraphernalia. CASE #34648-177/03/2017 HANDGUN VIOLATION/POSSESSION OF CDS NOT MARIJUANA: Deputy M. Beyer was on foot patrol in the area of Foxchase Apartments. When Beyer approached a group in the area, one of them, suspect, quickly took off running. Beyer gave chase and observed a silver gun fall from the suspect's possession. The suspect was taken into custody, and further investigation revealed the suspect was also in possession of suspected CDS: Not Marijuana. The suspect was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Possession of CDS Not Marijuana and Handgun on person. CASE# 34706-177/09/2017 ASSAULT: Corporal J. Davis responded to a reported assault in the 22000 block of Archer Street in Leonardtown for a reported assault. The investigation revealed the suspect,, had assaulted the victim leaving visible signs of injury. The suspect was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Assault. CASE #35995-1707/10/2017 ASSAULT: Deputy B. Fennessey responded to the 25000 block of Briscoe Thompson Way in Hollywood for a reported assault. The investigation revealed the suspect,, had assaulted the victim leaving visible signs of injury. The suspect was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Assault. CASE #36257-1707/10/2017 CDS VIOLATION: Deputy First Class D. Potter observed a traffic violation in the area of Midway and North Essex Drive in Lexington Park. Potter initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and made contact with the operator of the vehicle, suspect. Suspected Marijuana was recovered from the vehicle. Further suspected CDS was recovered and when officers attempted to place the suspect into custody, the suspect fled on foot. He was apprehended and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Possession of CDS, Possession of CDS Not Marijuana and issued a civil citation for the Possession of suspected Marijuana. CASE #36281-17.07/10/2017 ASSAULT SECOND DEGREE/DOC EMPLOYEE: Deputy M. Beyer responded to the St. Mary's County Detention Center for a reported Assault on a correctional officer. Upon arrival, the investigation revealed that Corrections Officers Fretwell and Edelen had been assaulted by suspect. Williams was charged with two counts of Assault 2nd/DOC Employee. CASE # 36275-1707/11/2017 ASSAULT SECOND DEGREE ON AN INMATE: Deputy K. Molitor responded to the St. Mary's County Detention Center for a reported Assault. The investigation revealed, the suspect,, had assaulted the victim,. Webb then assaulted the suspect by grabbing him in an inappropriate area. Webb had visible signs of injury requiring medical treatment. Webb was charged with Assault 2nd Degree, Assault 2nd Degree/DOC Emp., Sex Offense 4th Sex Contact. Anderson was charged with Assault 2nd Degree, Assault 2nd Degree/DOC Emp. CASE #36325-14.6/27/2017 ASSAULT: A 16-year-old female juvenile of Great Mills was arrested for Assault Second Degree by Deputy M. Beyer. CASE #33637-177/04/2017 ASSAULT: A 14-year-old male juvenile of Port Tobacco was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy S. Bowie. CASE# 34985-177/05/2017 ASSAULT: A 12-year-old male of California was arrested for Assault and Vandalism. The juvenile was arrested by Deputy M. Byer. CASE# 35255-176/24/2017 POSSESSION:, was charged via Criminal Summons for CDS Possession of Paraphernalia, CDS Possession Not Marijuana. Served by DFC V. Pontorno.6/26/2017 THEFT:, was charged via Criminal Summons for Theft Under $1000.00. Served by C. Edwards06/18/2017 ASSAULT:, was charged via Criminal Summons for Assault Second Degree. Served by Cpl. J. Kirkner. CASE#28500-1707/05/2017 ASSAULT:, was charged via Criminal Summons for Assault Second Degree. Served by Dep. C. Edwards. CASE#28500-1707/09/2017 DOP:, was charged via Criminal Summons for Malicious Destruction of Property/Value Under $1000. Served by Dep. S. Bowie. CASE#32283-1707/07/2017 FAILURE TO REGISTER:, was charged via Criminal Summons for Failure to Register Sex Offender/False Info. Served by Cpl. G. Knott CASE#34170-1707/10/2017 POSSESSION:, was charged via Criminal Summons for: CDS Possess Not Marijuana, 3 counts of CDS Possess Paraphernalia, and Prescription Obtain by Fraud. Served by Cpl. J. Kirkner. CASE#29301-1707/10/2017 THEFT:, was charged via Criminal Summons for: 3 counts Theft Less Than $1000, Theft Less than $100, 2 counts Credit Card Receive Unlawfully. Served by Dep. C. Edwards. CASE#21599-177/05/2017 THEFT: Deputy C. Edwards responded to the Walmart in California for a reported theft. The investigation revealed, the suspect,, only scanned a few items in his cart at the self-checkout station and exited the store without paying for the other items. He was issued a citation for Theft Under $100. CASE#35227-177/06/2017 THEFT: Deputy First Class D. Potter responded to the Walmart in California for a reported theft. The investigation revealed, the suspect,, exited the store without paying for merchandise. She was issued a citation for Theft Less Than $1000. CASE#35414-177/08/2017 ASSAULT: Deputy A. Schultz responded to the 21000 block of Eric Road in Lexington Park for a reported assault. The victim alleged the suspect,, grabbed the victim by the throat and then proceeded to strangle the victim. The victim displayed visible injuries. Gordon was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center and charged with Second Degree Assault. CASE#35670-177/09/2017 POSSESSION: Deputy S. Kerby responded to the St. Mary's County Detention Center for the report of possession of contraband. The investigation revealed, the suspect,, conspired with an individual over the phone to bring him cigarettes during visitation hours. The cigarettes were found by Correctional Officer C. Luffey hid in the soap dispenser in the bathroom. Bridgett was charged with Possession of Contraband in place of Confinement and released back to the custody of the detention center. CASE#36004-17
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.




Jeff Gural is a tower in Standardbred racing. As the owner of three racetracks  The Meadowlands in New Jersey Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs, both located in New York State, he has become a driving force in keeping trainers suspected of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs and those trying to buy or sell horses to slaughter out of his three racetracks.

Gural will receive the Ellen and Herbert Moelis Equine Saviour Award for his commitment to the humane fate and aftercare of horses bred for racing, their safety during their racing careers and toward maintaining integrity and honesty in racing.

The world-renowned equine surgeon, Dr. Patricia Hogan, who was honoured by Equine Advocates at this event in 2008, had this to say about her friend, Jeff Gural.

"Horse racing faces many modern challenges today, not the least of which is a shaken public confidence in the integrity of the competition itself, but also in the racing community's ability to handle the whole host of welfare issues surrounding the care (and aftercare) of our magnificent horses. Jeff Gural has certainly been a trailblazer in implementing innovative ideas that have chipped away at these problems and started some

very important conversations in racing that no one wanted to have, but were sorely needed. Oftentimes, he is doing these things alone - at great personal and financial cost. He richly deserves this recognition and more from our industry."

The gala will be held on Thursday, August 3rd at the historic Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs.

(With files from Equine Advocates)
Anti-Christian Bernie Sanders Mocked with Godbusters Squad Street Theater Wednesday

Contact: Public Advocate,

703-845-1808, email,

twitter: @eugenedelgaudio



WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Senate debate on the repeal of Obamacare begins and Public Advocate's "Bernie Sanders Godbusters Squad" arrives Wednesday at 12 noon, July 26th, 2017 to sing a mock "Bernie Sanders Godbusters" ballad to the tune of the Ghostbusters Movie theme song.



Photo: Patches that will be on the uniforms being worn



At noon Wednesday the group Public Advocate will host a six member singing troupe staring "Senator Bernie Sanders" in front of the U.S. Supreme Court at 1 First Street, Northeast, Washington D.C. opposite the front entrance on the public sidewalk. The group has a song and will walk over to the Dirksen Senate Office Building (First and Constitution Avenue NE) to "bust" or "catch" Christians wearing inflated balloon "proton packs" around the building as the Obama Healthcare Repeal debate in the Senate begins.



Participants will wear costumes, black oval shaped patches with Senator Sanders photo as "Godbuster" and other patches with a round shaped brown colored Christian Cross with an international bright red cross out and a participant with a Brooklyn borough style "New Yawk" (New York) accent will "hunt" Christians.



"Real compassion means not allowing Senator Bernie Sanders attacks on Christians in public hearings to go unchallenged. He recklessly attacks those who believe in God, and dare to hold public or government office. We are mocking this abusive act with our Bernie Sanders Godbusters Squad and will sing until he changes his tune or apologizes," says Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate.



The songs tune is from the popular Ghostbusters movie with the following words.



GODBUSTERS song lyrics (Sung to Ghostbusters movie theme song)

If there's someone prayin' / In your neighborhood,

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



If they share the Word / About bad and good,

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!

I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!/ I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!



Are religious things / Making you see red?

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



And a sinful past / Makes you spiritually dead?

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!

I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!



Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



If you're all annoyed / By that spiritual void,

Give Bernie a call at Godbusters!

Song also posted here

publicadvocateusa.org/media_library/videos.php
Contact: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, 866-FRC-NEWS, 866-372-6397



WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Family Research Council (FRC) praised President Trump's decision today rescinding the Obama era transgender policy. A Rasmussen survey released last month finds "just 23% of likely U.S. voters think the U.S. military's decision to allow openly transgender people to serve is good for the military."

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Marine veteran, released the following statement:

"I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities -- and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military. The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda.

"President Trump recognizes what the nation's military leadership and the American people realize, this Obama policy makes no sense.

"The last thing we should be doing is diverting billions of dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery. However, the cost to readiness, recruitment, retention, morale and cohesion would have been even greater under the Obama policy. As our nation faces serious national security threats, our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically-correct distractions like this one.

"Now that we are assured that the Defense Department has its fiscal priorities in order, Family Research Council withdraws our opposition to increasing the budget of the Department of Defense through the 'Make America Secure Appropriations Act' and looks forward to seeing that legislation pass," concluded Perkins.
ABC/Jeff NeiraRussell Simmons fans know the Def Jam Recordings co-founder is not only a prolific mogul, he's also a hardcore vegan, yogi enthusiast and environmental activist.

And on September 23, Simmons will be honored for his environmental activism with the Missions in Music Award at the 27th annual Environmental Media Awards.

The official Instagram account for the EMAs states, "From animal activism to educational programs on climate change, Russell Simmons has worked tirelessly to make the world a better place for both humans and animals."

Past EMA honorees include Jaden Smith, who's hosting this year's event, Justin Timberlake and Rosario Dawson.

Simmons will accept his honor this year at the Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California.

For information on tickets and how to attend, head over to Green4EMA.org.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
This piece is more designed for my readers who don't live and breathe Florida politics: there is a State Senate election on September 26th you should be paying attention to, a race that could be an interesting test of how the GOP's institutional advantages measure up to Trump's policies, favorability, Democratic enthusiasm, and demographic trendlines. Honestly, it is a race providing a real opportunity for both parties.

First, it is important to remember State Senate seats in Florida are not much smaller than Congressional districts, and this one, when fully engaged in the state's most expensive media market, will see the spending tab run well into the millions. In a typical election cycle, spending in Florida's top State Senate races will outpace most Congressional races down here.

So a little about the district -- this is Senate District 40. Located in Dade County, SD 40 is almost 75% Hispanic by census, and depending on the election, typically falls in the mid-60's Hispanic among actual voters. There is also a significant Black population, which in Dade is both African American and Caribbean American. On its surface to an outsider, it looks like a Democratic lay-up. But keep in mind, a substantial proportion of Hispanics in Dade are Cuban, which means one key thing: a much more Republican orientation than Hispanic-dominated urban districts outside of Florida (or frankly, outside of SE Florida).

Hillary Clinton easily dispatched Donald Trump in this district, carrying it by 16 points (56-40). Like a lot of Dade County districts, some of my Democratic friends look at those Clinton numbers and say, "well that is our seat." But the Clinton number is highly deceptive, and doesn't tell the full story. For example, Marco Rubio carried the district by 4 points (51-47), and among the precincts this district shares with the highly competitive Congressional District 26 - roughly 2/3rds of registered voters in SD 40 are also in CD 26 - Carlos Curbelo carried the district by 13 points. To show just how volatile this district can be -- in those same CD 26 precincts, Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 18 points, a marginal swing of 31 points.

In the fall, Republicans carried this seat by ten points, as then State Representative Frank Artiles defeated then State Senator Dwight Bullard in an entirely new seat created by the court-mandated redistricting in 2015/16. If you talk to Florida observers, you will get a lot of reasons why Bullard lost by this margin, but one interesting point in the data, the percentages that Bullard received are almost identical to the percentages that CD 26 Democratic nominee Joe Garcia received in the precincts that they shared. In fact, in 75 or the 92 identical precincts between the seats, the two Democrats saw their share deviate by less than 3%. In other words, it is fair to say that the Bullard/Garcia numbers are the Democratic floor in SD 40.

Along the same lines, the Rubio race might be a better view of the GOP ceiling in the race than either of the races above. Rubio/Murphy was more of a truly "contested" race - particularly when compared to the aforementioned State Senate and Congressional campaigns. And in all honesty, Murphy still wasn't running at the same levels as Rubio, who by and large, runs as a Miami hometown hero. The fact Rubio only won by four in this seat truly shows how much has changed in Miami Dade County over the last decade.

This seat was destined to be a battleground seat in 2018, but the incumbent Frank Artiles was forced to resign this spring (like most Florida political messes, it is quite a story -- you can google the details if you wish), setting up this 2017 showdown.

Tuesday's primary left us with a general election between Republican State Representative Jose Felix 'Pepi' Diaz, and Democratic businesswoman Annette Taddeo. Both have interesting Trump-era stories -- Diaz was on The Apprentice, and Taddeo, a 2016 Congressional candidate, was a victim of the Russian hacking. In full disclosure, both are friends: Taddeo was Crist's LG nominee (I was an adviser to Crist), and Diaz and I are both active in a non-partisan international political exchange organization.

In their primary, Republicans chose right. Diaz is a well-liked and earnest legislator, who is generally considered to be a moderate in his party. For example, he took on many in his own party to lead the fight in Tallahassee to remove a Florida statue of a Confederate General from the US Capitol, and he led an effort to expand children's health care for immigrants. Diaz fits the mold of the type of Republican who can and do succeed in districts like this in South Florida.

The Democrats also chose the stronger of their two candidates. Taddeo, is an energetic and engaging candidate, who has truly lived the American Dream immigrant story -- coming to America in her teens, learning English, putting herself in college, and building a very successful small business. She's been on the ballot several times, running for Congress as a Hispanic Democrat in Dade long before that was the politically smart thing to do, but in doing so has built a strong network among Democratic donors and activists.

In my humble view, this race comes down to basically two competing factors/questions:
Play at the new site will be free and first come, first served through the...
Your closet is filled with yesterdays fashions.

Youre reluctant to donate a thread, though, because hey, skinny ties, Hammer pants or shoulder pads could come back any day now, right? Or maybe, as in the new book Woolly by Ben Mezrich, re-emergence is best done with bigger things.

Growing up near the swamps of west-central Florida, George Church had a laboratory for his back yard. Born with burning curiosity, Church taught himself etymology when he was 5 years old and left his peers behind in every stage of public school. In college, he fell in love with science and almost flunked out because he was so focused on lab work. He eventually become a full professor and landed at Harvard University.

There, in a typical nerdy-but-brilliant-George-Church way, he wooed a co-worker, married and started working in the then-new world of genomes. Cells consumed him. DNA fascinated him with information and possibilities. It became an obsession when he talked with a journalist who asked if, considering the advances made in the science of genomes, was it possible to bring back extinct species?

Say, a woolly mammoth?

It wasnt such a far-fetched thing. In 2003, Spanish scientists cloned a Pyrenean ibex and brought the species back three years after it went extinct. But woolly mammoths? While many carcasses were frozen nearly intact, they had been gone for thousands of years.

But was it ethical to revive a creature that may have died out anyhow?

The answer came to him in 2012. When two well-known conservationists held a workshop think-tank on the subject of revival, Church discovered Russian scientist Sergey Zimov, who spent two decades of his life studying permafrost in Siberia. Zimov claimed thawing permafrost, in conjunction with global warming, was poised to do great damage to the planet. He explained how ancient animals forestalled the issue millennia ago, and that damage could be reversed by reversing time.

He made it his lifes work, as did certain Chinese scientists.

That was all Church needed to hear.

If you do nothing but imagine a meadow filled with 12-foot-tall, shaggy mammoths, then you know a little bit of what youre getting from Woolly. That, of course, and a totally blown mind.

In a true story that reads like a novel, author Ben Mezrich takes some "Jurassic Park," a bit of "The Big Bang Theory" and mixes it with jaw-dropping scientific findings to show how a formerly extinct mammal or bird may sooner-than-later arrive in a forest near you. As you might guess, there is international intrigue and adventure in this, and more: Mezrich looks ahead and behind us; he delves deeply into his subjects personalities: where zoology fits in, how scientists wrestle with the ethics of revival, where lines are drawn and where those lines are push-able.

That makes this a book that will cause you to think and think and think for days to come, eager and excited, or frightened senseless. For science-minded readers, thrill-lovers, or dreamers, Woolly is a mammoth-sized read.
It can be so tempting.

Youre behind the wheel, stopped at a red light; youve got about 30 seconds to kill. Next to you, often just inches away, your cellphone beckons. Your car isnt moving, so what the harm in firing off a quick text or checking your email, right? In fact, it could cost you plenty.

Starting today, drivers caught holding a cellphone or any other electronic device while stopped at a red light or intersection will be subject to a $136 fine under Washingtons strict new E-DUI law. The fine for repeat offenses within five years is $234.

Drivers who are pulled over and found carrying out other types of dangerously distracted behavior such as grooming, smoking, eating or reading can also receive a secondary fine of $99.

The new law does allow minimal use of a finger to activate an app or device, so a single touch or swipe is still permitted.

The new law is part of the states push to reduce traffic fatalities, which are increasingly tied to distracted driving. According to a recent study by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, nearly 10 percent of motorists are holding a device at any given moment. A recent HuffPost/YouGov survey found that more than half of smartphone users between the ages of 18 and 44, and 40 percent of users aged 45 to 64, have texted while stopped at a red light.

Erica Mascorro, a spokeswoman for the traffic commission, said using a phone while stopped a traffic light or intersection is still dangerous even if the drivers car isnt moving.

Were supposed to use that time to scan the intersection and were supposed to pay attention to how traffic is moving ahead, she said.

In 2015, the commission recorded 171 deaths from distracted driving in Washington  a 30 percent increase from the previous year.

In 2016, the Washington State Patrol had more than 13,000 contacts with motorists for cellphone use while driving and more than 3,300 contacts for texting while driving. Overall, troopers issued more than 9,000 distracted driving-related citations.

Longview Police Sgt. Chris Blanchard said the new regulation is a natural extension of Washingtons 2011 law that prohibits talking on a phone or texting while driving. Blanchard said the new regulations make it clear that people need to pull over to the side of the road and come to a complete stop before holding any type of electronic device.

This codifies things more specifically and is more encompassing, he said.

In Cowlitz County, the number of phone-related citations and vehicle collisions increased with the growing popularity of smartphones.

In 2008, the year after the iPhone was released, there were two fatal crashes and five crashes that resulted in serious injury from distracted driving. Fast forward to 2016, the most recent year for publicly available data, and there were two fatal crashes and 12 serious injury crashes.

The number of citations issued by law enforcement in Cowlitz County has also risen as smartphone technology has become ubiquitous. From 2011 to 2012, the number of citations issued for cellphone use while driving more than doubled in Cowlitz County. Texting-while-driving citations during the same time period increased by more than 1,000 percent locally.

While citations have generally been trending downward since then, thats more a reflection of staffing levels than any other factor, Kelso Police Captain Darr Kirk said. For example, Kelso officers issued 88 illegal cellphone use tickets in 2011, accounting for nearly 80 percent of all cellphone use infractions in the county that year. The following year, the police department lost eight staff members to retirement and only issued 21 citations.

Everything is a priority for us, but we do have to prioritize, Kirk said. When call volume is low, officers have time to conduct proactive traffic patrols, he said. But Kelso doesnt have a dedicated traffic unit and officers have to respond to calls as they come in, he said.

Longview Police appear to be enforcing distracted driving laws on a routine basis, with roughly 1,100 citations issued since 2008  twice as many as the Olympia-based Washington State Patrol unit.

Sgt. Chris Blanchard said distracted driving has become as big a problem as drunk driving. Based on the behavior of a vehicle, it can be impossible for officers to tell the difference between an intoxicated driver and a distracted driver, he said.

People who text while behind the wheel have a 23 percent higher chance of causing a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those are roughly the same odds as someone whos had four beers and decides to drive.

Blanchard said Longview Police is not planning on conducting additional enforcement as a result of the new legislation, but will continue to enforce traffic laws as they are written.

Local state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who voted against the law, said his main concern was that parts of it are poorly worded.

Some of the language about the one-finger operation was convoluted, he said.

Walsh also said he thinks the new law could disproportionately affect rural and suburban drivers.

I think this law may not be applied to the same standard everywhere, he said.

When Kelso resident Shalisa Caskey was cited in late May, she said Officer Roy Slaven explained that Kelso has a zero tolerance policy for talking on a phone while driving.

Caskey had just finished dropping off her boys at daycare and was about five blocks away from her house.

Reached by phone while she was pulled over on the side of the road, Caskey said she hasnt used her phone while driving since receiving the $136 ticket.

I will never talk on my phone and drive ever again, she said. It was stupid.
More than a dozen women have contacted police following the arrest of a Battle Ground chiropractor accused of inappropriately touching female patients during treatment sessions. However, nearly half of the new cases fall outside the statute of limitations to press charges, according to the prosecutor.

The Clark County Prosecuting Attorneys Office has filed additional charges against Mark S. LaRue to include six new alleged victims, in addition to the two women who first reported they had been abused.

LaRue, 64, who resides in Kalama, was in Clark County Superior Court on Tuesday for arraignment, but the hearing was pushed back to Friday in light of the new charges.

LaRue is now facing one count of second-degree rape and eight counts of indecent liberties without forcible compulsion. He previously posted $10,000 bail, but the prosecution plans to ask for bail to be increased.

He owns Battle Ground Family Chiropractic at 713 W. Main St., Suite 201, and has practiced chiropractic medicine at his clinic since 2002. He is licensed in both Washington and Oregon.

The Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners issued an order of emergency suspension of LaRues license July 2.

The board found that the alleged misconduct is grounds for immediate license suspension and amounts to unprofessional conduct.

Licensees practice constitutes a clear and present danger to the health or safety of his patients and the public if allowed to continue before a hearing may be held, the board wrote.

LaRues license has not been suspended in Washington, according to the Department of Healths website. However, as part of his conditions of release, the court ordered that he cannot treat female patients, Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said.

LaRue was originally accused of touching a 22-year-old woman and her 47-year-old mother in a sexual manner during massage appointments in April and May. But since his arrest on June 29, investigators have spoken with 15 women, as documented in court records, all of whom were patients. That includes three former patients who had previously filed complaints against LaRue with the Department of Health. But police said there was insufficient evidence at that time to charge him.

Bartlett said that complaints by those three women and four others fall outside the three-year statute of limitation to charge LaRue with indecent liberties.

According to a newly filed probable cause affidavit, the 22-year-old woman reported to police that the sexual contact happened on several occasions.

During her last appointment, LaRue took her to a storage room where he provided her with marijuana, and they smoked together. He then kissed her without her permission, and later inappropriately touched her during her massage, according to the allegations.

The womans mother  who typically scheduled her appointments after her daughters  said that during her own massages LaRue inappropriately brushed his body against hers and she believes it was intentional, the affidavit states.

In an interview with police, LaRue admitted to smoking marijuana with the younger woman and to kissing her. He said that during her massage, he may have accidentally touched her inappropriately, but he denied the other allegations. He also told police that in 2003 he was investigated by the Battle Ground Police Department for inappropriately touching a female patient.

After learning of the most recent allegations, LaRues receptionist reportedly told police that she wasnt surprised. She said she noticed several things that were odd about how LaRue treated the 22-year-old woman compared with other clients. Her appointments always went longer, the massage room door was closed, and the woman never used a gown and removed her pants during the massage, court records said.

The investigation is ongoing and detectives ask that anyone with information contact Detective Sgt. Kim Armstrong at 360-342-5252 or by email at kim.armstrong@cityofbg.org.
With some of the Democratic Partys most high-profile politicians joining former presidential candidate Bernie Sanderss call for a Medicare-for-all health care program, national enthusiasm for a single-payer system appears to be catching on locally.

Between 25 and 30 Democratic activists rallied outside of the Monticello Hotel on Monday in support of a single-payer health care model. The multi-generational group waved signs, and cars honked as they drove by the event organized by the Cowlitz County Women Democrats.

For 76-year-old Hans Schaufus, it was his first political demonstration since he participated in the protests against the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago.

I dont think 65 should be the magic number where you qualify for coverage under single-payer, said Schaufus, a former librarian. Under Medicare, the federal government uses tax money to pay most of the health care costs for seniors aged 65 and older.

Schaufus said he wishes the United States would emulate countries like Austria and Germany, where he lived for four years.

For some reason we dont seem to borrow enough good ideas from other countries, and thats a real shame, he said.

Tom Samuels, a 39-year-old Lower Columbia College employee, said he was motivated to come out and hold a sign because he believes a single-payer health care system is the best way to cover everyone.

Its the only sensible option, he said.

Samuels said that while he personally receives excellent health care coverage through his wife, a professor at LCC, hes fed up with with the current system.

Im tired of waiting for the right thing to happen, he said. Its time to call a spade a spade.

But with congressional Republicans clinging to a slim two-seat majority in the Senate and a 46-seat majority in the House of Representatives, a single-payer health care bill is likely out of reach until after the 2018 congressional midterm elections at the earliest.

Samuels said he would like to see congressional Democrats work to the repair the Affordable Care Act while local grassroots organizations work to elect candidates who support a single-payer system.

We shouldnt throw the baby out with the bathwater, he said.

Despite the groundswell of public support for Medicare-for-all, its still unclear what a single-payer system would look like or how it would be implemented. Sanders has promised to introduce his own Medicare-for-all bill if congressional Republicans current efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act fail. Senate Republicans have a tentative repeal vote scheduled for Tuesday but its unclear what bill they will vote on or if it will have enough votes to pass.

Critics of a Medicare-for-all approach point to the big tax increases such a plan would entail. The Urban Institute, a liberal think tank, estimated that a Medicare for all plan would cost $32 trillion over 10 years. (For comparison, the 2016 federal budget was $4 trillion). Sanders campaign officials dismissed the $32 trillion. Other states such as California and Vermont have also attempted unsuccessfully to start their own state-run single-payer systems.

Sherry Davis, president of the Cowlitz County Women Democrats, said the group will continue to organize over the rest of the summer. The groups next official event will be on Aug. 26 for the Womens Equality March commemorating the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, with guaranteed womens voting rights.
For an election campaign that is officially nonpartisan, the race for Longview City Council Position 5 has a decidedly partisan feel.

Megan Richie is the Vice President of the Cowlitz County Democratic Womens Club.

MaryAlice Wallis is the President of the Cowlitz County Republican Womens Club.

And even though hes not a political party official, George Brajcich has served three terms as president of the Georgia-Pacific Wauna Mill union.

The three are competing for the open seat vacated by Mary Jane Melink, who has been perhaps one of the councils most liberal voices. All three challengers are taking their first shot at citywide elective office.

The top two primary votegetters will move on to the November general election. Two other Longview council seats are up for election this year, but only Position 5 has a contested primary.

MaryAlice Wallis: Its exciting to do something hard

MaryAlice Wallis has been involved in many organizations and is well-known in the community.

The Mark Morris High School alumna was a speech language technician for the school district before leaving to homeschool her four children 18 years ago. As her children have grown, Wallis has become more involved in representative governance.

Im not afraid of the party Im in, Wallis said. Im very proud of it, but (I want) the voters to make a decision based on my platform and the person I am, rather than the party that I associate with.

With one daughter getting married and moving, and her third child about to embark on a two-year church mission, Wallis said she was looking forward to finishing her homeschooling resource manual this year. However, when it was clear Melink would not run for re-election, Wallis said she got three phone calls in one week from people asking her to run.

After that I was kind of looking around like, Wait a minute, is there a spotlight on me? she said. Its flattering. Its exciting to be asked to do something that is really hard to do.

Wallis said she does not have a particular agenda if elected, but she wants to address homelessness through job creation and counseling.

The next step out of homelessness is to be working, Wallis said. My feeling is some people just dont want to change. If you provide the opportunities and they dont choose to go in that direction, I dont know that the council or the city can be (held) accountable.

Wallis said she wants to see the port exploding with activity like it was when she was growing up.

She said she has enjoyed campaigning.

I want to hear your voice, she said. I may not vote the same way you would want to, or have in the past, but I want to listen to you and help be a solution and not part of the problem.

Megan Richie: Advocate for LGBT youth

Megan Richie, on the other hand, said campaigning can be difficult. Nobody wants to doorknock if they dont have to, she said with a laugh.

Richie said part of her doorknocking anxiety is the result of an incident when Federal Way police officers assaulted her after one solicited her for sex. She said five officers dislocated her jaw and held her for three days without processing. Richie took the police department to federal court and the city agreed to create in-house nonviolent de-escalation training, a program Richie said she would like to see everywhere.

Her injuries meant that when she moved to Longview four years ago for her husbands internship with Northwest Psychological Resources, Richie could no longer work as a medical massage therapist. So she got involved with the local Democratic Party.

Through her volunteer work, Richie has sought to create avenues for LGBT youth in Longview. She works with the Rainbow Youth Group at the library, the Diverse Sexualities and Gender club at Lower Columbia College and the Columbia River Trans Group.

This year was Longviews first gay pride parade, after three years of Richie driving people to the festival in Portland.

Its really important (that) our youth have that exposure to show that there is a world out there that accepts them, she said.

Richie started attending City Council and homeless ad hoc meetings to make sure shelter space would be available for LGBT youth. As she grew increasingly frustrated with the citys continual extension of moratoriums on shelters, Richie ultimately decided to run for City Council.

For the past three years, Richie also has been a member of the Landowners and Citizens for Safe Communities  a group that opposes the proposed coal and methanol terminals.

We need to be able to be reassured that everyone is going to be represented when we sit on that council, not just the few, Richie said. I think thats really important that not only do I empower women to show them that it can be done, but to show me that it can be done.  Now I can be of service to my community in a larger capacity.

George Brajcich: Ive made tough decisions

George Brajcich said he brings his experience as president of the Georgia-Pacific Wauna Mill union to the City Council.

Brajcich grew up in Clatskanie and started working at Wauna on his 18th birthday. He was drafted in 1969 and served 19 months in the military then studied in Atlanta for two years to be a computer programmer.

But he returned to the mill and stayed there for 39 years until retiring in 2008.

In addition to serving as union president, Brajcich served terms in all the other union administrative positions, such as vice president, secretary and treasurer. As president, Brajcich was responsible for assuring fair representation for his coworkers and negotiating with the company.

Being involved in a labor contract going down to Friday, knowing that maybe that day you were going to ask your membership to go out on strike.  thats how serious things can get, Brajcich said. You start affecting peoples lives.

Because of these experiences, Brajcich said he would not be overwhelmed or intimidated by issues facing Longviews City Council.

Since retiring, Brajcich fishes about 160 days a year, but he started to think about how he could get involved. Two years ago, he started attending the council meetings.

Brajcich said he would like to create jobs and housing through zoning changes. He would like to see zoning for higher density from Commerce Avenue to Seventh Avenue, and he said Barlow Point needs roads and other utilities so it can be developed.

But the council also shouldnt get bogged down in immediate issues, he said.

Lake Sacajawea was created 100 years ago. Somebody built it for us, for the future, Brajcich said. Thats what you have to think about  whats Longview going to look like in 100 years?
More top-down authority, less public access. This has been a hallmark of Gov. Scott Walkers administration since its start. Now Walker wants to make the University of Wisconsin System more top-down, too, by transforming it into a so-called public authority.

A public authority is a corporate model for deregulating state services. Walkers proposed UW System authority would deregulate higher education in Wisconsin by repealing dozens of state statutes designed to protect its public nature. These statutes also provide some of the strongest legal protections in the country for the quality of the academic workplace. In place of these laws, the authority would make the mostly unelected Board of Regents the absolute decision-makers about higher education in our state.

Of the 18 members of the Board of Regents, 16 are appointed by the governor. Under the authority, these appointees and their two colleagues would create all new policies for UWs 26 campuses and extension programs. They could change everything from tuition to whether or not UW-Oshkosh  where I teach writing  has a College of Education. They could eliminate the services that UW-Extension provides to farmers and small business owners across the state. And they might be able to offer good bottom-line reasons for doing so.

But public higher education is about more than the bottom line. It provides transformative experiences that build knowledge and skills and prepare people to be citizens. A businesss primary goal is to make profit. To say that higher education and business serve different purposes isnt to denigrate either. But different goals demand different priorities. The proposed authority would fundamentally alter the UW Systems current structure, which prioritizes public access and needs over profit.

One of the UW Systems most important priorities is to provide a well-rounded education to all people, regardless of class, race or sex. For hundreds of years, only rich men and religious students had the privilege of higher education. As our nation grew and states invested heavily in public universities, the democratization of higher education helped spur the unprecedented growth of the U.S. middle class. Public colleges continue to be one of the primary vehicles for upward mobility in the U.S., and almost every democratic country has followed this model of investing in public higher education to create widespread prosperity.

Now Walker is doing the opposite. Combined with historic budget cuts to higher education, his authority would make it harder for low- and middle-income people to get ahead. Walkers budget eliminates mandatory recruitment of minority and disadvantaged students, and it funds higher education with sales tax revenues, which disproportionately burden lower-income people. With limited state money and no obligation to diversify, UW campuses would likely divert more resources into raising private money and recruiting wealthier students instead of educating Wisconsinites from all backgrounds.

In addition, tuition would almost certainly rise. Some UW campuses are already considering increasing tuition while enrolling more out-of-state students. In California and Michigan, this scenario has played out dramatically. Tuition has skyrocketed as has the number of out-of-state students. A 2014 paper by education researchers at the universities of Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona concluded that out-of-state students paying higher tuition crowd out low-income and under-represented minority students at public research universities. The result, University of Michigan professor Scott Kurashige wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education, is that the university not only reflects the race and class inequities inherent in our society, it actually reinforces and aggravates them.

Michigans example points toward a future UW-Madison no longer able to accept as many in-state students because out-of-staters pay the bills. And at campuses such as UW-Oshkosh, rising tuition, larger classes, and fewer support services would make college increasingly difficult to finish for the large number of students who work full-time.

At the same time, the UW System authority Walker proposes would make it harder for citizens to have a voice about higher education, further limiting their access to it. Now, if Wisconsinites dont like how the UW System works, they can lobby their state legislators or elect someone else. But under an authority managed by the Board of Regents, this voice would be mostly lost.

Walker and UW System President Ray Cross havent addressed these potential problems. Instead, they focus on the flexibilities the authority would provide. Of course, having autonomy over purchasing  one of the primary flexibilities they cite  could help UW System campuses save money. But its not clear how much, and such autonomy could be granted without eliminating dozens of state statutes and compromising the UW Systems ability to serve all Wisconsinites.

By connecting an overhaul of the UW System to the biennial budget process, Walker has created a false sense of urgency. A change like this necessitates time, transparency, and opportunities for public input. The state of Virginia took several decades to arrive at a successful model for restructuring its public universities. Its model requires institutions to enroll certain numbers of in-state students and students from under-represented groups to receive more autonomy. Neither Walker nor Cross has proposed such requirements. And they are telling Wisconsin to make this monumental change within months.

Walker and Cross should have led by starting public dialogue about concrete options for the UW System. But since they didnt, Wisconsinites should reject their radical departure from our states educational traditions so that all options for the UW Systems future can be vetted. We should demand greater investment in the UW System  one of the states best economic drivers  and demand that any change to the system include ensuring that it serves everyone in the state. The common good and our childrens ability to get a quality college education close to home are at stake.

Douglas Haynes is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. www.douglas-haynes.com

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
WASHINGTON  It is no surprise, but it is still a shock, to see how little President Trump understands about the independence of the Justice Department and the importance of the rule of law.

Trumps jaw-dropping interview with The New York Times featured an unprecedented and unvarnished invitation to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to quit, an invitation Sessions on Thursday declined, at least for now.

Sessions sin is failing to do his job, which, as Trump sees it, is not overseeing the impartial administration of justice but assiduously protecting the legal interests of Donald J. Trump. Thus, in Trumps view, it was very unfair to the president  actually, extremely unfair, and thats a mild word  for Sessions to have recused himself from overseeing the departments probe into Russian meddling into the election and the possible role of the Trump campaign.

Let us review the facts and the law.

The facts: Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump and served as a close campaign adviser. That is conflict enough, but he piled conflict on conflict by meeting during the campaign with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and then omitting to inform the Senate Judiciary Committee of the meetings when questioned about it.

The law: Justice Department regulations provide that no employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with the subject of the investigation or any person or organization which he knows has a specific and substantial interest that would be directly affected by the outcome of the investigation or prosecution. A political relationship means a close identification with an elected official ... arising from service as a principal adviser thereto.

So Sessions situation and the question of whether he could oversee the Russia investigation isnt a close call. As Sessions told the Senate Intelligence Committee last month, That regulation states, in effect, that department employees should not participate in investigations of a campaign if they have served as a campaign adviser. In other words, its a no-brainer, at least if you understand basic concepts of conflict of interest. What Trump perceives as betrayal is Ethics 101.

Trumps related argument  that Sessions at the very least should have given him a heads up in advance so that he could have picked a different attorney general at the start  suffers from a similar flaw. A different attorney general might not have needed to recuse himself, but in the end that attorney general would have come to the same conclusion as the deputy left acting in Sessions place, that a special counsel was required to oversee the investigation.

Again, the law: Justice Department regulations require appointment of a special counsel when the attorney general, or someone acting in his stead, determines that investigation through the normal departmental processes would present a conflict of interest for the Department. How could this not be true of the Russia matter? Even leaving aside the question of whether the president himself is under investigation, it involves the presidents campaign and closest advisers, including relatives. The special counsel regulations were not put in place to torment presidents but to reassure the public that, even in politically sensitive cases, justice would proceed impartially and unimpeded.

Which raises the question of what Trump hoped to achieve by taking his beef against Sessions public. What does the president imagine would happen if, as he seems to hope, Sessions goes and, along with him, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein? In confirming their successors, the Senate, even this Senate, would no doubt want some assurance that special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation would be allowed to continue unimpeded. When the Senate confirmed Elliot Richardson as attorney general in the midst of the Watergate scandal in 1973, it conditioned approval on Richardsons commitment to appoint, and protect, a special prosecutor. At least a few Republican senators ought to be willing to make their support for a Sessions replacement contingent on similar backup for Mueller  who remains Trumps chief problem, and for that reason perhaps his ultimate target.He was up here, and he wanted the job, Trump said of interviewing Mueller about the possibility of resuming his former role as FBI director. After Mueller was named special counsel instead, I said, What the hell is this all about? Trump said. Talk about conflicts. But he was interviewing for the job. There were many other conflicts that I havent said, but I will at some point.

This is the essence of Trump  exquisitely sensitive to conflicts, real or perceived, when they may work against him; resolutely obtuse to the imperative of independence when unquestioning loyalty better serves his needs.
tech2 News Staff

In what is likely the most serious data breach of its kind, Swedens entire vehicle and license register was uploaded to cloud servers and emailed in plain text to marketers. More horrifying is the fact that register contains information on police and military vehicles as well as information on individuals in witness protection programs.

Swedish media reported the breach, with some stating that the Swedish Transport Authority handed over the keys to the kingdom to, well, everyone. The database even includes information on the weight capacity of all the roads and bridges in Sweden. This is a serious security risk.

According to The Hacker News, the names, photos and addresses of all members of the air force, the police, special forces and members of Swedens witness relocation program have been leaked. The Type, model, weight, and any defects in all government and military vehicles, including their operator, was also leaked, adds the report.

The Local reports that the breach can be traced to Maria Agren, Director General of the Transport Agency, who was fired for undisclosed reasons in January this year. She was later fined 70,000 kronor (around Rs 5.5 lac) for being careless with secret information, which was the point at which media discovered and reported the data breach.

In a bid to cut down on expenditure, the Transport Authority, at Maria Agrens behest, apparently outsourced the management of the vehicle and license register to IBM in April 2015. The Authority was reportedly facing a severe cash crunch and was pressed for time; as a result, the contract was handed over to IBM without a proper security audit.

While the Swedish government has no issue with outsourcing IT security and data, it expects that a thorough security audit be done. In this case, an unknown number of Eastern European security professionals  including some in the Czech Republic -- who did not have the proper clearance apparently handed the data.

The data was also uploaded to IBMs cloud servers without a security audit of said servers. To top it off, The Hacker News reports that the Transport Authority itself mailed the entire database in plain text to marketers.

Sensitive databases are normally encrypted. In the event of a data breach, a hacker would still have to decrypt the database to extract useful data. For a properly secured database, this task should be virtually impossible. The fact that the database was emailed in plain text means that all the information contained in the database is readily accessible to anyone with access to the database.

Swedens security police unit Sapo is currently handling the investigation. The breach occurred in 2015, but wasnt discovered until 2016. Reports suggest that it wont be contained till later this year.

The extent of the Swedish data breach reveals the importance of securing all-encompassing databases like Aadhaar and even brings into questioning the necessity of maintaining a centralised database of this nature.

It takes just one misstep to compromise the privacy of an entire nation.
Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone India has introduced Mobile Workforce Essentials, a cloud-based business application suite that empowers enterprises to get the most out of their field force.

Mobile Workforce Essentials is a brand new addition to Vodafones robust CloudStore portfolio that includes Collaboration Productivity and CRM among other cloud-based offerings.

With workplace dynamics changing, organizations are witnessing a substantial increase in their mobile workforce. Almost every enterprise today relies more than ever on its field force. Mobile Workforce Essentials helps enterprises manage their mobile workforce better to increase productivity, gain efficiency, improve accountability and reduce costs. Employees can remotely manage their attendance from their mobile app as well as receive and despatch work orders while on the field.

Employers, on the other hand, can monitor workforce routes through the GPS Tracking feature. The flexible platform also allows for replacement of manual, paper-based forms with 200+ pre-built industry specific forms and added smart features like Photo Capture, Digital Signature, Calculations and Emails for digital receipts.

One of the early customers of Mobile Workforce Essentials is a major states Election Commission which deployed the solution during a recently concluded state assembly elections.

Vodafone has partnered with ActSoft, a leading field-force management application vendor, to launch Mobile Workforce Essentials in the Indian Market.

Anil Philip, Senior Vice President, Vodafone Business Services adds In todays digital world, organizations need to rapidly evolve and manage the dual challenges of cost optimization with workforce productivity. Vodafone Mobile Workforce Essentials is a 360-degree application suite with which enterprises can gain a competitive edge by better mobilizing and empowering their employees.

Kevin Thigpen, Chief Operating Officer, Actsoft, Inc. said, Vodafone Mobile Workforce Essentials empowers businesses to enhance operational efficiencies, while reducing costs across their organization. Partnering with Vodafone was critical to our strategy to penetrate the Indian market. Leveraging the power of their wireless data network, our software solution delivers businesses an immediate return on investment from a single, integrated platform.

Vodafone Mobile Workforce Essentials is uniquely designed to suit the needs of all enterprises  SMEs, large corporates and global companies. It is a simple, self-service, web-based setup which ensures easy manageability, dedicated account management and a seamless onboarding experience.

Mobile Workforce Essentials is available on the Vodafone CloudStore (www.cloud.vodafone.in)  a completely online automated marketplace that features the full range of Vodafones cloud-based business applications. With the Vodafone CloudStore, customers can buy online, opt for simple, flexible payment options [monthly/quarterly/half-yearly/annual]; and manage their users and licenses online. Vodafone also extends a dedicated Cloud Support infrastructure that helps with onboarding and in-life support.
Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy
How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time. Kindness is a gateway for all of us to connect and care for each other.  Morgan Freeman Whether its a supporting...

MAKING CONNECTIONS Editors note: The following random acts of kindness were emailed or called into County Press editor Jeff Hogan at jhogan@mihomepaper.com. The following acts of kindness experienced by County Press readers...

Ed-Tech students connect with community ATTICA TWP.  The Lapeer County Education and Technology Center (Ed-Tech) is a place where students can get a taste of the career opportunities that exist in their field of...
N Korea's missile could soon reach US cities

North Korea threatened to harm US with its \"powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time\"

AP, Washington :

Intelligence officials believe North Korea will have a reliable, intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year, according to a report published Tuesday amid a warning from a top Republican lawmaker who says he has grown increasingly alarmed about Pyongyang's weapons program.

The Washington Post reported that a new confidential assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency trims two years off the timeline for when North Korea could strike North American cities with atomic weapons. The assessment was triggered by recent North Korean missile tests that indicated the nation's program was further along than expected.

The newspaper said that U.S. officials who had seen the assessment said it concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be able to produce a "reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM" program by sometime next year, allowing the program to move from prototype to assembly line.

The House Armed Services Committee held a classified briefing for all members of the chamber on Tuesday to discuss North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile development. The briefing team included Rob Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy; Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency; and representatives from the DIA and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

"The apparent success of the July Fourth test is an alarming development as North Korea accelerates its pursuit of being able to hold the United States at risk with nuclear weapons," Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said after the classified briefing, "I have grown increasingly alarmed that North Korea is acting with a greater sense of urgency than we are."

North Korea raised the stakes with its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile as Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4. The test marked a significant step toward North Korea's goal of developing a missile with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States

Thornberry, who is pushing for a $2.5 billion increase to the Pentagon's missile defense budget, said Congress and the Trump administration need "to take forceful, swift steps to see that the U.S. and our allies are protected."
Taliban kill 30 Afghan soldiers as fighting intensifies

Taliban attacked a military base in Kandahar province in Afghanistan.

Reuters, Kandahar :

Taliban fighters killed 30 soldiers in an attack on an army base in the southern province of Kandahar, an army spokesman said on Wednesday, as heavy fighting raged across the country.

Sediq Esa, spokesman for the 205th Corps in Kandahar, said the Taliban attacked an outpost in Khakriz district, to the north of Kandahar city, overnight, seizing the outpost and capturing weapons and vehicles.

"As a result of the fighting, 30 army personnel have been killed and others wounded," he said.

However the 205th Corps commander, Gen. Imam Nazar, disputed the death toll and said reinforcements had arrived to beat back the insurgents.

The attack came after days of fierce fighting across Afghanistan and underlined the steadily deteriorating security in much of the country, which has also seen a string of high profile attacks in cities including the capital Kabul.

While the fighting has intensified, the United States, which is expected to send around another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan to bolster its existing training mission, is still to announce its new strategy for the region.

The Taliban, fighting to restore Islamic rule to Afghanistan 16 years after being driven from power by a U.S.-led campaign, controls or contests at least 40 percent of the country, inflicting what U.S. advisers say are unsustainable casualties on Afghan security forces.

In the first 10 months of last year alone, some 6,785 soldiers and police were killed.

On Wednesday, the Taliban's main spokesman said the insurgents were close to taking Waygal district in the eastern province of Nuristan, a day after they took Jani Kheil district in Paktika province, further to the south.

Over the past week, the insurgents have also taken districts in Ghor province in the west and Faryab in the north, although the defense ministry said government forces had retaken Kohistan district in Faryab.

Kunduz, the northern city which the Taliban captured briefly in 2015 and managed to enter in 2016, has also been under heavy pressure.
KHULNA: Md Abdul Halim Molla, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC, North) addressing an Open House Day at Daulatpur Upazial Police Station as Chief Guest on Monday.
The monthly coordination meeting of Rangamati Development Committee was held at Zillla Parishad Auditorium on Tuesday.
Ideal body weight / a global issue

Life Desk :

A study published in Lancet in 2010 indicates that almost 1 in 5 men and over 1 in 6 women are overweight in India. The study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looked at the burden of overweight population in six countries-Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa-and found that between 1998 and 2005, India's overweight rates increased by 20%. The experts said that "In absolute numbers, the burden of overweight population would be mammoth in India and China."

OECD author Michele Cecchini said, "The results varied across countries surveyed. Seven in 10 Mexican adults are overweight or obese, while nearly half of all Brazilians, Russians and South Africans are also in this category. China and India report lower levels of obesity, but are also rapidly moving in the wrong direction. Low- and middle-income countries have far fewer health care resources to deal with the consequences of obesity, which include higher rates of cardiac disease, cancer and diabetes."

Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In another Lancet study the prediction is that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease.

Manuel Uribe of Mexico has worry etched large on his face. At 560 kilos he has earned himself the dubious distinction of the World's Fattest Man, an honor that he can hardly gloat about. Videos of him holed up in his modest home with layers of fat for company is bound to stir the sensitivity of fellow humans. Besides suffering from low self esteem, due to an aesthetically deplorable body, Manuel is incapacitated in many ways

Man's fascination for his body has been well documented since his cave- dwelling days. His idea of perfection stems, perhaps, from the sculpted bodies that have found a place of pride in several sites of worship and mythological texts. Although science has helped to define an ideal body in the modern sense, the aesthetic adulence given to body contours remains untarnished.

Problems with prosperity

That obesity is on the rise, globally, is hardly a contentious issue. From being a poverty-stricken country, post independence, India has cruised her way to her place on the global pedestal. But not before offering a pound of her flesh! India has been crowned the diabetes capital of the world.

A growing bandwagon of computer potatoes, plentiful money and food and lack of exercises are some of the reasons behind India's 'crowning glory'.

Third world countries, such as India and China, which are the epicenters of a booming economy, are now witnessing a steady ascent in weight-related issues. The reasons for these recent trends are many. Globalization is the prime accused. Coffers are flowing and the bulging signs of prosperity are also harbingers of a vicious cycle of fast food, little or no exercises, stress, obesity and deadly life-style diseases.

-From Internet


SRK and Anushka`s chemistry is talking point of Jab Harry Met Sejal

After a series of mini-trails, the trailer of Jab Harry Met Sejal, featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, was unveiled on Friday.

The new promo showcases the lead pairs chemistry with a slice-of-life presentation, digging deeper into Harry and Sejals characters.

While Anushka and director Imtiaz Ali were at the trailer launch, SRK joined them through video conference from Los Angeles.

The actor, also the producer of the film that releases on August 4, had visited Ahmedabad and Jodhpur among other cities to kick-start the promotions.

SRK essays the role of a Punjabi tour guide, while Anushka plays a Gujarati chhokri in search of her special ring. The film, shot in multiple locations across Europe and India, blends drama and comedy with intense romance.


Readers Forum

Inward remittance downfall and remedies :

Remittance sent by Bangladeshi expatriates through legal channels has seen a sharp decline recently. The Bangladesh Bank, to revamp the remittance inflow, asked commercial banks to reduce the charges involved in sending remittance. As it turns out, it was actually the exchange houses that imposed exorbitant charges, discouraging people from sending their hard-earned money back home. Moreover, the bank USD/Taka exchange rate is below the rate in the informal channel, which encourages remittance senders to use illegal channels like Hundi instead. Hundi service providers deliver remittances to the doorsteps of the receivers, whereas the banking channel involves cumbersome procedures.

The authorities should take appropriate actions against the illegal Hundi system. Remitters must get a good rate against their currencies and be freed of cumbersome processes. Setting up remittance desks in bank branches might be a good idea.



Mohammad Zonaed Emran

Dhaka
Govt, BCG to launch CEO Outreach Prog

UNB, Dhaka :

The government in collaboration with US-based global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is going to launch CEO Outreach Programme (COP) to boost investment and create job opportunities in the ICT sector, officials said.

They said, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak will inaugurate the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Outreach Programme on July 31 at a city hotel.

Officials said the World Bank-financed Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under ICT Division has appointed BCG to work for international business-to-business (B2B) development and matchmaking programme among IT firms and CEOs.

"The entire spectrum of activity under CEO outreach programme will help bring investment and create job opportunities for the IT sector," said Palak.

He said, the BCG has been asked to carry out a short- and long-term international B2B business development plan and matchmaking programme among IT companies to bring investment and enhance ICT export earnings.

"The government under Sheikh Hasina's visionary leadership and at the

suggestions of ICT Affairs Adviser to the PM has set the ICT export target up to $5b by 2021," the ICT state minister said adding that the government has taken various initiatives, including implementation of ICT infrastructure and appointment of BCG, to achieve the target.

Palak said, the Jessore Sheikh Hasina Software Technology Park is ready for the investors, and local and foreign companies are coming to invest there.

There will be huge ICT infrastructure ready for the investors of both and local and foreign ones as the construction of IT Parks in Kaliakoir, Rajshahi and Sylhet is going on, he said.

According to sources, BCG has started talking to stakeholders to carry out a long-term international B2B business development and matchmaking programme that will help bring investment for the ICT sector, creating jobs and catalysing subsequent industry growth.

BCC Executive Director Swapan Kumer Sarker said the business development activity and matchmaking programme are very important for the country's IT sector. This activity under CEO outreach programme will help increase ICT export, he said.

LICT component team leader Sami Ahmed said a comprehensive programme of activities are being launched under COP that will attract a targeted number of international IT/ITES captive or non-captive operations in Bangladesh.

LICT Project Director Md Rezaul Karim said a brief and targeted sector instrument strategy will be developed for assessing the potential of the IT/ITES market with a specific focus on demand side activities needed to bring international IT/ITES businesses and jobs enabled by validation of requisite supply side enablers.
Devastating flood in late Aug

Anisul Islam Mahmud warns

Staff Reporter :

Country's is likely to be affected by a devastating floods in the third week of August as heavy downpours already have submerged the low-lying areas in many parts of northern and northeastern regions following the influence of early monsoon, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said on Wednesday.

He came up with this warning during Wednesday's session of the three-day annual deputy commissioners conference that began on Tuesday.

"As the country might be plunged into a devastating flood in the third week of August, instruction has already been served to the Water Development Board to take all out preparation to face the ensuing disastrous situation," he told journalists at the Secretariat in the city.

Replying to a question Anisul Islam Mahmud said the deputy commissioners have also been asked to repair the weak embankments in their respective areas.

"The country has also been experiencing moderate to heavy rainfall. So, we have issued a warning message to the PDB and deputy commissioners to get prepared," he said.

Anisul claimed that what recently happened across the country was not flood but waterlogging caused by excessive rain.

"Real flood occurs when the water level of the major rivers like Padma, Meghna and Jamuna marks a substantial rise," he said.

Describing the river erosion as an alarming issue, he said it came up for discussion at the conference.

The Minister also said at least 50 percent of the Ministry's next budget will be allocated for preventing the river erosion

Meanwhile, some northern and northeastern districts have been affected by flood in the second week of June.

"This is unusual as normally flooding starts at the end of June or July. But floods hit the country too early this year," an official of Flood Forecasting and warning Centre said.

He said now most parts of the country, particularly Cox's Bazar, Khagrachari, Barisal, Chittagong, Teknaf are now experiencing incessant downpour due to the influence of depression in the Indian State of Orissa.

He added, many areas of Khagrachari and Chittagong districts were affected by moderate floods in the last few days.

The official said water levels at Brahmapautra and Meghna river basin are likely to continue rising throught the month of July, causing major flood during that period.

An official of Bangladesh Meteorological Department said coastal parts of the country are witnessing heavy rainfall as monsoon is active over Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal.

The rainfall trend is likely to continue in the next few days and it may submerge some parts of the south and southeastern regions, he added.

"Onrush of water from upstream Indian states mainly causes flooding in the country," he said adding flood situation may be worsened in next month.




ASP Mizan murder 2 suspect killed in gunfight

UNB, Dhaka :

Two suspected murderers of ASP Mizanur Rahman were killed in a reported 'gunfight' with a team of Detective Branch of police in Mirpur Beribandh area in the capital early Wednesday.

"We assumed that the two deceased were reportedly involved in the killing

of ASM Mizanur Rahman as their physical appearance matches with the photographs of the suspected killers which were earlier received by DB police," said Joint Commissioner of the Detective Branch Abdul Baten.

Sub Inspector Momin of Rupnagar Police Station took the injured two suspected muggers to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) around 5:00 am, said sub-inspector Bachchu Mia, in charge of DMCH Police Camp.

Later, the duty doctor declared them dead, he added.

Contacted, Masudur Rahman, Deputy commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told UNB that till now, identities of the deceased could not be known. We are trying to identify them.

On July 22, detectives arrested Shah Alam from Tongi area in Gazipur city in connection with the ASP Mizanur Rahman murder case. During primary interrogation, Shah Alam said he along with his three associates-Mintu, Kamal and Faruk-took part in the killing. ASP Mizanur Rahman of Dhaka Highway Police was found dead at Mirpur Beribandh (Embankment) area.

Mizanur, who joined the Bangladesh Police as a sub-inspector in 1988, set out from his Uttara residence after Fazr prayers for his workplace at Savar, police said.

Victim's younger brother Masum Parvez filed a case with Rupnagar Police Station against several unknown miscreants on the same day.




Case of Bangabandhu`s picture must be judicially enquired before punishing anybody

Editorial Desk :

Bangabandhu's picture incident needs investigation first before punishing police or the District Magistrate. It is evident that there was tremendous political pressure both on police and the court. Political pressure on lower courts though not desirable it happens. The truth is that using police power for politics is another reality that must also be blamed.

Defamation case cannot be filed by everybody. If Bangabandhu was defamed no local political leader was in a position to bring a defamation case against the UNO for using the picture drawn by a child. The law of defamation has to be stretched too far to allow anybody to file case for defaming Bangabandhu. But no defamation was meant by the child whose picture should be seen the child's expression.

There is another side to the defamation case that is greed. The defamation case was filed for damages of Taka four crore against the UNO. Defamation for damages is a civil matter, so no complaint case was to be entertained, the case not being criminal defamation.

As the case about Bangabandhu's picture was filed by an eminent local Awami League leader who is also the president of the District Bar Association, we have to think of the consequences for Chief Metropolitan Magistrate if he had tried to put on a finer point on law to refuse the complaint case. He would have been blamed for being disrespectful to Bangabandhu. Only the close relatives of the dead person can have a case for defaming a dead relative.

We are surprised to believe that an eminent lawyer did not know the law. Cheap politics got better of him. It is sad.

So the CMM, Barisal just obliged the leader of Awami League and when the UNO presented himself before the court he could not release him immediately on bail.

The circumstances were so created that it would not have been safe either for the UNO or the judge if the UNO was given bail instantly. But after some time he was set him free on bail. The judge was aware of the heat of politics and political pressure. It is also not unknown to him how sensitive the issue is to Awami League leadership at the top.

For Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, she has a lot to do to put politics of her party right. Sycophants are not politicians and they must be kept at a safe distance.

The complainant is a lawyer of considerable eminence and one wonders how could he claim Taka four crore as damages for defaming Bangabandhu. Who is he to get damages? He saw an opportunity to extort money from the UNO. We do not know what was in his mind.

There was strong reaction among the officials for harassing the UNO and the Prime Minister also reacted to take a reasonable view about the picture drawn by a child. Things then started to change. Now everybody talks about punishing the police and the CMM, Barisal for encouraging illegality. The nature of local politics everywhere should be brought under scrutiny. Politics is not greed and extortion.

The whole episode cannot be explained without understanding the kind of politics prevailing in the country. Locally political leaders and police work together to be all powerful. The local police must obey the orders of local leaders of the government if they have to keep their job. Such cooperation is also helpful to both sides for their mutual gain.

The Supreme Court must hold an enquiry and call the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Barisal to know what has happened. The reality of politics has to be kept in mind. Harassing the UNO is unacceptable and harassing judge will be demoralise for the judiciary.

The Awami League leader who moved so illegally to exploit Bangabandhu's name is liable to answer many questions. Many who know how our politics is going would like to see change in politics.








Govt seeks probe into Barisal judge

Staff Reporter :

The government in a letter to the Supreme Court (SC) has sought investigation into several allegations brought against the Barisal judge who had sent a civil servant to prison over defamation charge.

The Law Ministry asked the SC for steps concerning Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ali Hossain in the letter issued on Tuesday.

It said, the judges transfer is important for safe guarding the image of the judiciary. The term of his current post is over, it added.

Besides, considering the current situation, it is important to investigate and establish the truth behind the incident, the letter said.

The High Court Divisions Additional Registrar Sabbir Foyez confirmed receiving the Ministrys letter. The Supreme Courts General Administration Committee will let the Law Ministry know about its decision, he told The New Nation.

The judge recently paid Tk 93,950 to the District Administration for staying in the Circuit House for eight months and two days. The Ministrys letter also accused him of not paying fare for travelling on Green Line buses. Judge Ali Hossain became news headlines after rejecting a bail plea filed on behalf of Barguna Upazila UNO Tariq Salmon.

While serving as the UNO at Barisals Agailjhara, Salmon used a drawing on Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by a fifth-grader on the invitation card for Independence Day event.

Tarique Salmon, now stationed in Barguna, was sued by Barisal Bar Association President Obaidullah Saju for using the drawing, which he claimed was wrong.

On July 19, Salmon appeared in court and said in his defence that the portrait was one of the winners of an official drawing competition for school children on the occasion of the National Childrens Day.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ali Hossain rejected his bail plea and the public servant was kept in a lock-up of the court for two hours until the same judge granted him bail.

Citizens flooded social media with angry posts that included photos of Salmon being taken to jail from the court with handcuff.

Civil servants body, Bangladesh Administrative Service Association in a statement condemned the incident and called for actions against those involved.

A day after the court hearing, the Awami League suspended Saju, who sat on the partys Barisal district unit body, over the lawsuit and sought his explanation.

The next day, police withdrew six of its men, including three officers, who were on duty in Barisal court that day. On Sunday, the Awami League leader dropped the charges and pleaded to the court to withdraw the lawsuit, which was granted.

The government on Monday stripped Barisal Deputy Commissioner Gazi Md Saifuzzaman and Barguna DC Bashirul Alam of official responsibilities, while the Cabinet Division has opened a probe.

The Public Administration Ministry said they have been removed as punishments for failing to perform their duties. An additional secretary-led panel will investigate whether the case against Salmon and the subsequent events breached the law, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media on Monday.






50,000 BD men intend to return home from KSA

Expats in last-minute rush as amnesty ends

Saudi Gazette :

Thousands of undocumented expatriate workers intensified their efforts to benefit from an amnesty which is coming to an end on Monday.

Expatriate affairs departments at deportation centers across the Kingdom from Arar in north to Asir in south witnessed huge crowds on Sunday.

The Shumaisy deportation center on Harmain express road in Makkah, the largest facility in the Kingdom, also witnessed a huge rush of expatriates from various countries.

A total of 7,421 Indonesians left Saudi Arabia by registering at the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah, said a source.

This number is three times less than the number registered during the amnesty in 2013.

Umar Badarsyah, vice consul for information, social and cultural affairs at the Indonesian consulate, told Saudi Gazette that many undocumented workers were expecting another extension of amnesty considering the advent of Haj.

Many of these expats decided to stay during Haj to make some fast bucks before returning home.

Badarsyah said the Indonesian consulate general relentlessly tried to convince them to use this opportunity to return home yet the number of those who registered did not increase.

Some Indonesians did not benefit from the amnesty because they were reported to the police, others had problem in their data entry in the system.

Indonesian diplomatic missions issued over 13,000 travel documents in Jeddah and Riyadh to their nationals, according to officials at Indonesian embassy in Riyadh.

Yemen consulate in Jeddah is processing the exit papers of 300 Yemenis daily through border check post via Shahrouh in Najran province. Yet several Yemenis are on waiting list to complete exit procedures at Shumaisi deportation center, according to Yemeni diplomatic sources.

Nearly 60,000 Ethiopian nationals from Jeddah region alone applied for exit visas.

We are confused due to the lack of information, admitted Ethiopian Consul General Wubishet Dimise.

Sudan also intensified efforts to facilitate paperwork of its works. More than 46,000 Sudanese expatriates  32,000 from Riyadh and 14,000 from Jeddah  are returning home, many of them came to the Kingdom as shepherds and agriculture farm workers.

Over 75,000 Pakistanis have applied for travel documents in Riyadh and Jeddah, according to Pakistani diplomatic sources.

Over 50,000 Bangladeshis intend to return home, according to Bangladesh diplomatic sources. Some 45,000 were able to complete their exit procedures across the Kingdom. A total of 20,000 have already left the Kingdom.

Nearly 31,000 Indians came forward to return home under the amnesty. Many of them have left the Kingdom, but officials have no idea how many still remain as the information has to be shared by Saudi officials.






Major reshuffle in police admin

banglanews24.com :

In a latest development, police administration witnessed a major reshuffle as seven Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and 16 Superintendent of Police (SP) have been transferred.

Home Ministry issued different orders in this regard on Wednesday (July 26).

DIG of Barisal Sheikh Maruf Hasan has been made DIG of the Naval Police. On the other hand, Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam has been made the new DIG of Barisal Range.

Dhaka Range Additional DIG Mahabubur Rahman has been transferred as new Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

Moreover, Naval Police DIG Moniruzzaman has been made DIG of Police headquarters, DIG of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Shoibal Kanti Chowdhury has been made DIG of SPBN, DMP Joint Police Commissioner AYM Belalur Rahman has been made (acting) additional police commissioner and Additional DIG of Police Headquarters Abu Hassan Tariq has been made acting DIG of the Police Headquarters.

Barisal Superintendent of Police (SP) Aktaruzzaman is transferred as the AIG of the Police Headquarters, Naogaon district police superintendent Md. Mozammel Haque has been made Deputy Commissioner of DMP and also Habiganj Police Superintendent Joydeb Kumar Bhadra was transferred to DMP.

DMP Uttara zone DC Bidhan Tripura has been made SP of Habiganj, DMP DC Saiful Islam was posted as Barisal Superintendent of Police and SPBN Superintendent of Police Md Iqbal has been transferred as Naogaon SP.








Blake Miguez, Steve Miguez and Ridge Miguez Photo by Robin May

When the price of crude oil drops, so does the revenue of companies like Miguez Fuel, a distributor of bulk fuels and lubricants.

From 2015 to 2106, the companys revenue fell more than a million dollars.

Our gallons that we deliver all over the state of Louisiana increase daily, but when crude oil drops, so do our lubricant sales dollars, says George Aitken, vice president and general manager at Miguez Fuel.

Aitken says the price also drops for the customer. The sales dollars are not really a true picture of the lubricant business, Aitken continues. You gotta look at the gallons you sell every year. Weve sold more gallons; lubricant and fuel volume increased.

He says this is a direct reflection of prices at the pump. Unleaded is less than $2 now; two years ago it was probably like $2.30 a gallon. Its a direct reflection of decrease in sales.

But that doesnt really affect Miguez Fuel  not directly, at least.

It affects the oil business, which affects us because theyd be more active if the prices were up, Aitken explains. Were running pretty good right now, but if the oilfield would start to pick up and some of these companies would start cranking back up, I mean, we would be off the chart. It would just be great.

Miguez Fuel, a 35-year-old company, was started by Steve Miguez when he purchased D&D Fuel Dock in New Iberia. Aitken says Miguezs intent was to expand the marine business, SeaTran, which was called Iberia Marine Service, so that they had somewhere to park their vessels and do maintenance on them.

SeaTran Marine is run by Miguezs son, New Iberia state Rep. Blake Miguez.

In addition to supplying non-ethanol gas to service stations and delivering products directly to other customers, Miguez Fuel filters oil.

Filtration is a small percentage of what we do, Aitken explains. Its an additional service that we provide under circumstances where your oil will get wet or get particulate in it.

And instead of getting rid of the oil or disposing of it, we can bring it here and run it through our filtration system, pull all moisture out of it and bring it back to the customer to be reused for about half the cost of new oil.

Aitken is optimistic about 2017 and beyond. I think that weve seen the bottom and that things should rise from here, he says. We track sales and everything seems to be cranking up, both price and volume.
Frankie Russo Photo by Robin May

It was only a decade ago that then-26-year-old Frankie Russo and his younger brother Giorgio cofounded Potenza Creative  now Potenza Inc., a media and marketing agency. Today its one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.

For the past three years, the brother-run powerhouse made Inc. Magazines annual Inc.

5000 list as one of the top 500, placing it in the top 10 percent of the nations 5,000 fastest-growing private businesses  and it isnt difficult to see why when you consider that big brother and overachiever Frankie Russo, CEO, was a mortgage broker before he graduated college. Russo says he just received word that the company is officially an Inc. 5000 company for its fourth year in a row.

When I found out [in 2014], I was actually in an airport, he reminisces. I got an email notification in the Dallas airport, and I got this overwhelming emotion. For the first time in years, I felt validated because, as a business owner, when youre growing that fast its hard to have a milestone. It was an amazing feeling.

In addition, Russo says Potenza has just become a Google Premier Partner, something the company has been aspiring to for years.

It sets us apart with other digital agencies, Russo says of the program.

We built Potenza from nothing, Russo tells ABiz. Building a company that fast, you bear the brunt of all of it. I didnt have 60, 70 employees in place.

In fact, there were only four people when Potenza started out, including the Russo brothers. Now, 60 people are employed at the Lafayette-based advertising, marketing, creative and software company.

Between 2010 and 2014, Potenza had more than 650 percent growth; between 2015 and 2016, the companys revenue rose more than $3 million to $10 million.

Russo says the No. 1 thing that drove business up was the companys release of the software platform Return Flight, a digital advertising tool to measure your results.

Potenza bought the software platform in 2015 to bring it in-house. Then, last January, Potenza released the 3.0 version of its software.

Its just continued to evolve rapidly each month, Russo says. At the end of the day, weve been a fast growing company for a while [and are] already on pace to be higher [this year].

Looking forward, Russo says hed like to be able to really build a great platform for the marketing industry while continuing to deliver best-in-class services on the agency side. However, Russo says his big vision has less to do with Potenza and more to do with helping out others who want to start their own businesses.

Russo published The Art of Why, a book on mastering your purpose, as the front cover reads. An Amazon best-seller in the self-help section, the book has led Russo to give talks and workshops.

Ive done them in a lot of the U.S. major cities, Russo says. The main talk I do now is called Passion, Purpose and Profits: How to Turn One Into the Other, he says. I want to reinvest into other entrepreneurs to help them do what Ive done.
To Be or Not To Be?

Its Festival time, when it becomes abundantly clear how much we love the arts in Acadiana. Festival International hits it on all cylinders: music, food, visual and performing arts, arts education and cultural exchange. Locals flock to the streets of Downtown to join tourists who navigate their way to Lafayette from all corners of the globe.
The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.
CARBONDALE  Even without a proper sign, regular hours or any real marketing, a new burger joint in the Murdale Shopping Center has seen lines out the door since it opened a few weeks ago.

Dales Burger Shack is located at 1709 W. Main St. in the space previously reserved for Chicago It Up!, the eagerly anticipated storefront version of a popular hot dog stand. The restaurant sat empty for years.

Everyone loved Christine (Miklosik, owner), said Dales co-owner Josh Liechty.  I was one of her customers. Just like everybody else in town, we all just wanted that place to open, and when it came to fruition that it wasnt going to open and she left town, I jumped on it as fast as I could.

Liechty, 27, has worked at various restaurants in Carbondale and helped open Bombay Olive last year. He told the landlord he was interested in opening a business that was similar to what Miklosik had originally envisioned.

In June, I got a call one morning saying, Hey, the place is yours if you want it, Liechty said.

Liechty and his business partner, Gordon ONeal, 26, signed the lease just a few days later. They opened the doors July 7.

For those two weeks that we were in there after we got the keys before we opened, we would have 20 or 30 people just walk in thinking that we were already open, so all we needed to do was just get open one day and the sales were there, Liechty said.

The restaurant, which already offers delivery services, will have its grand opening on Aug. 17. After that date, it will be open and offer delivery services 24 hours a day.

We never thought that it would be this successful right off the bat, especially because were still in pop-up status, Liechty said.

Dales, named after Carbondale and Murdale, serves handmade burgers, house-cut fries, Vienna Beef hot dogs, Italian beef, Philly cheesesteaks made with ribeye and tenderloin from Arnolds Market in Carbondale, and old-fashioned milkshakes.

Liechty said the restaurant will eventually get all its beef and bacon from Arnolds Market and will carry pies from Rule of Pie in Murphysboro.

I spent a very long time trying to find all of the right ingredients, because thats whats most important to us. Our main goal is to be able to provide affordable food thats made pretty much from scratch, Liechty said.

Liechty said it was important to him to start his employees above minimum wage. His staff members currently make $10 an hour, and he hopes to be able to pay them more soon.

Everyone has to have a food handlers certificate, everyone has to work in a slightly hazardous environment in regards to heat and knives and everything. I think if you have to have a certificate, if you have to work in that stressful environment, you deserve more than minimum wage.

" ... My partner and I arent looking to get rich off of this place and were not looking to make very much money at all off of this place. We just want to be able to provide affordable food to the community and have 10, 15, 20 people working for us that are happy and can provide for themselves from that work. I dont want people having to have three jobs and juggling that all around. Its a lot of stress on an individual  Ive been there myself, he said.
CARTERVILLE  Mike Eader, owner of Firemasters, believes when people think of the Amish, they think quality.

Firemasters had a large space on the west end of its building that was being used for storage, but Mike Eader, owner of the business, thought the space could be put to better use. In fact, he thought about places that would be unique to the area, but also the kind of place he likes to go.

When people think Amish, they think quality and homemade. Its a good thing, Eader said. And, theres nothing in our area like that.

Eader begin doing some research, and learned that most Amish stores carry items that are not made by the Amish.

We wanted to make sure everything was 100 percent Amish-made, Eader said.

He traveled to Kentucky and Pennsylvania to talk to Amish manufacturers. He found Amish-made outdoor furniture and baskets in Kentucky, bread and cheese in Arthur, jams and jellies in Ava and Arcola.

Eader said most people know there is an Amish store in Ava, but few people realize three manufacturing plants are located in the small town. Two of the plants, Millers and Country Kettle, manufacture food items. The third makes skylights.

The Amish Store opened at 9 a.m. Monday and Eader says the reception from the public has been really good.

Amish products cost a little more than products at other stores. Its different, and you can taste the difference, Eader said.

They sell fresh bread, fresh cakes and fresh pies. They only last so long. They have to be sold or thrown away.

I have really enjoyed dealing with the Amish. They are unbelievable. They always have time to give advice or help a guy out, Eader said.

Eader said he discovered some pretty unique items during his research. For example, he is stocking tables and chairs made in Pennsylvania. The tables range in length from 42 inches to 16 feet and seat from 4 to 26 people. But, the range of sizes is not the only way they are unique. The tables incorporate reclaimed wood in their design, so they are not blemish-free.

The store also carries gooseberry jelly, homemade buttercream frosting and just about any kind of pickle you could want, including pickled green beans and Brussels sprouts. They have a selection of gluten-free items, too.

The Amish Store is located on Illinois 13, just east of the new Wolf Creek Interchange.
Prosecutors began presenting their case Tuesday against a Holly Hill man accused of having sexual intercourse with a 5-year-old girl and exposing her to HIV.

Oscar James Small Jr., 58, of 1157 Lowell St., stands accused of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and exposing a person to HIV.

The alleged offenses took place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 22, 2015.

Assistant Solicitor Ashley Cornwell told the jury that the now-7-year-old girl did not contract HIV.

The girl testified on Tuesday, but Circuit Judge R. Ferrell Cothran Jr. ordered all non-essential courtroom personnel to leave the courtroom.

Jurors also watched video of the girls forensic interview.

During the interview, the girl alleged she was watching TV in the den when Small dragged her to the bedroom that he shared with his wife.

The girl said Smalls wife and sister were at church at the time.

Small told the girl not to tell anyone about what happened, she said.

The girls aunt testified in court that shes been a caretaker to the girl since soon after her birth.

She said the girl would often visit the Smalls household on long weekends and would sometimes go on vacations with them.

She said it was after one of those weekend visits that she noticed her nieces behavior change.

She started doing inappropriate things with my daughter, the aunt testified.

She told my daughter to get on top of her and stuff like that, she said.

After the school year began, the girls mother received a call from school officials that her daughter was behaving inappropriately with male classmates.

The girl alleged at that time she had been sexually assaulted by Small, whom she called Daddy.

An Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office deputy responded to the school, but ultimately the Holly Hill Police Department handled the case because the alleged assault took place in its jurisdiction.

If a jury convicts Small of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, he faces a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison.

Hes been housed at the Orangeburg County Detention Center since his arrest in mid-December 2015.

Hes represented by attorney Scott Palmer.

Palmer maintains that his client is innocent and that the case presented by prosecutors wont add up.

More testimony is expected Wednesday.
Two groups are coming together Thursday to write letters to Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter showing their support following a May incident involving Rep. Jerry Govan.

The Womens Rights and Empowerment Network and South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are hosting the letter-writing event.

We hope to really emphasize that we support civil dialogue. Were just trying to keep this positive, said Eme Crawford, director of Communications and Learning for WREN.

She said civility is crucial to the progress of South Carolina.

In a letter, Crawford said, We cannot accept a culture where a woman who speaks up is treated this way.

On May 11, the last day of the General Assemblys legislative session, Cobb-Hunter and Govan got into a heated dispute regarding a bill designed to consolidate Orangeburg Countys school districts.

The argument between the Orangeburg Democrats ended with Cobb-Hunter wearing ice packs on her wrists for two days.

Cobb-Hunter has said Govan was literally twisting my arms and my wrist and pushing me.

Govan has said he didn't initiate the physical contact, but has not given specifics.

House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, later released a letter to the lawmakers saying neither would be punished for the confrontation. He told them to keep future engagements civil and professional.

Cobb-Hunter was not pleased that Lucas seemed to have assigned equal blame and has since retained a lawyer to investigate the confrontation.

Govan said Tuesday, God knows my heart, and knows my mind, and knows what happened.

The speakers ruled on the matter and everybody else has moved on, he added. I dont see any good in continuing to try and stir this stuff up.

Govan said he would live by his faith and take the high ground.

Before folks judge, they should take pause and deal with the facts, he said. I think thats essential in particular of terms of people who know me and know my character. I would ask people to extend that kind of respect.

My hope is that we can move forward and work together in terms of addressing the real issues and concerns, he added.

Cobb-Hunter could not be reached for comment.

The letter-writing event will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Spotted Salamander at 1531 Richland St. in Columbia.

WREN focuses on getting more women involved in politics.

Crawford said Cobb-Hunter has long been a voice for women at the statehouse.
NORTH -- Four years ago, the Town of North opened the doors of its Senior Citizen Center dedicated to serving the needs of individuals 55 or older through programs such as exercise programs, puzzles and games and cards.

The center, which operates through the efforts of many volunteers, charges seniors 55 years old and older a $5 application fee and a $5 a month membership fee. Those younger than 55 are charged a $10 application fee and a membership fee of $10 a month.

We always have a good time, and we have a good turnout whenever we are open. There are no paid employees. Everything is done by volunteers, and we hope anyone who lives in the North area and would like to will come out and join us," volunteer LaDoskie Inabinet said.

The seniors celebrated the center's fourth anniversary with a picnic on Saturday, July 22, at the Woodford Community Center.

"Deacon Melvin Benjamin is our volunteer cook out under the trees here at the Woodford Community Center. Our goal is to promote a better sense of community through our programs and fellowship. Everybody looks after everybody else, and we all try to stay healthy through exercise, said Ann Fairey, who is currently serving as the volunteer treasurer.

We have a lot of members and always seem to have a good turnout for our activities. In addition to our other activities, we also have a Bible Study on Thursday mornings, and we always keep a jigsaw puzzle in progress on one of the card tables," said Sam Anthony, volunteer president. "So far, we have completed and framed four puzzles.

Anthony added, The North Community Senior Citizen Center has members from North, Neeses, Livingston, Norway and Sawyerdale. I dont know whose idea it was originally, but I am very thankful that the town decided to open the center and that the county helped provide the funding. It is a very nice building and I encourage everyone to come visit and join.
South Carolina State University President James E. Clark announced the appointment of several key executives to his leadership team, including the universitys first female chief financial officer, during a special called Board of Trustees meeting on July 19. He also named a permanent director to lead the award-winning Marching 101.

With nearly a decade of experience in senior administrative roles in the Division of Academic Affairs at S.C. State, Dr. Learie B. Luke has been named the chief academic officer. The universitys first female vice president for Finance and Management, Teare Brewington, was promoted to her new position after serving three years as controller. Attorney Mercedes Pinckney Fabers, who joined the university family in May, has been named the chief legal officer. Fabers is believed to be the first female general counsel in 14 years at S.C. State. Dr. John Robinson, the interim band director of the Marching 101, is now director of university bands.

The recent appointments of key S.C. State leadership signify the universitys steady trajectory of growth. This previous year, the university made significant strides in the areas of academics and finance. Much of the progress is attributed to the remarkable work of Dr. Luke and Mrs. Brewington, who developed various strategic initiatives to enhance their respective areas," Clark said. "As the cornerstones of the executive team, their demonstrated leadership will be integral to the universitys continual progress as we seek to be recognized as a premier institution of higher learning committed to responsible stewardship."

"With this advancement comes new opportunities through partnerships and collaborations, research and development, as well as increased chances to leverage the S.C. State University brand to generate additional support," he added. "Attorney Fabers acumen in legal affairs of higher education will ensure that the universitys best interests are protected while we venture into new landscapes. She has already demonstrated the significant value that she brings to the S.C. State enterprise."

Clark also noted, Finally, Dr. Robinsons ability to maintain a highly successful, quality band program despite recent university challenges shows he possesses the strong leadership skills and foresight necessary to increase the level of excellence for all university ensembles, most especially the Marching 101. Furthermore, critical to his selection is his focus on academics first."

The university also provided profiles on the other appointees.

Dr. Learie B. Luke, chief academic officer, has held numerous senior administrative roles in the Division of Academic Affairs, most recently as acting and interim provost. The tenured associate professor of history formerly served as interim associate vice president for Faculty and Programs and interim associate vice president of Academic Affairs.

He has published numerous works including his book, "Identity and Secession in the Caribbean: Tobago Versus Trinidad, 1889 to 1980." He has served as principal investigator of various funded projects since 2006 worth more than $1.5 million, covering issues dealing with the integration of technology and instruction, faculty development and the internationalization of the university.

Luke, who serves as a commissioner for the S.C. Department of Archives, has earned graduate degrees in history from Morgan State University and Howard University. He holds undergraduate degrees in theology and history from Caribbean Union College and Andrews University, respectively. He and his wife, Sharon, have been married for 23 years, and have a teenage daughter, Sharlene.

As S.C. States chief financial officer, Teare Brewington brings more than 20 years of progressive experience in the areas of accounting, auditing and management. She has been employed with the university since July 2014 when she was hired as controller. In her current role, she provides strategic vision and leadership for fiscal and administrative support service units of the university.

Brewington has worked in both public and private sector organizations, including controller at Livingstone College, director of Finance and Administration at a large not-for-profit in Cleveland Ohio, and she has worked in public accounting, servicing public and private entities.

She earned a bachelor's degree and an MBA from the University of Akron, and is a certified public accountant licensed in Ohio and North Carolina. She holds numerous professional association memberships, such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Mercedes Pinckney Fabers, General Counsel, is a native of Ridgeville, General Counsel Mercedes Pinckney Fabers is the former assistant general counsel of the College of Charleston. She earned her undergraduate degree in political science from the College of Charleston, and was awarded her law degree from North Carolina Central University School of Law. Fabers also studied intercultural human rights at St. Thomas University School of Law, where she earned a Master of Laws degree.

With active bar licenses in North Carolina and South Carolina, Fabers is a member of the North Carolina State Bar, South Carolina State Bar, Charleston County Bar Association and the National Association of College University Attorneys, for which she served on the 2016-2017 membership committee.

In addition to his recent appointment as director of university bands, Dr. John Robinson is associate professor of music at S.C. State University. Prior to his current role, he was assistant professor of woodwinds at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where he also was an active band staff member of the Marching 100 from 2004-2009.

He has served as a guest clinician for numerous schools, conducted double reed clinics and master classes in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. He founded and coordinates the biennial artist symposium, giving students the opportunity to perform with guest artists in Florida and South Carolina.

Robinson earned his bachelors degree in music education and masters degree in woodwind performance from the University of Georgia and the Doctor of Music degree in oboe performance and certification in early music from Florida State University. Among the many organizations in which he holds membership, Robinson is active in the International Double Reed Society, the South Carolina Music Educators Association and College Band Directors National Association.
I recently had the privilege of representing the hard-working small business owners in this country by testifying before the House Tax Policy Subcommittee about how tax reform will help Americas small businesses and will provide for lasting economic growth.

Congress has a unique opportunity to pass meaningful tax reform legislation this year, and I hope that my testimony can help them craft a modernized tax code that works for small businesses, rather than the current code that hinders growth.

Almost 30 years ago, my mother and I started Neutral Posture in my garage with nothing but hard work and determination, and now our business has blossomed into a successful company. While we encountered many challenges along the way, the most persistent and burdensome has been dealing with our antiquated, overly complicated tax code.

After just two years, our small business was confronted with a tax bill of $86,000 because we did not know how we were supposed to navigate our mess of a tax code and were not counting our inventory as a deductible expense. Luckily, we managed to survive and we learned the lesson that we must dedicate a great deal of money and time to our taxes or else our business could encounter significant problems.

Unfortunately, far too many small-business owners have faced similar challenges due to our tax code and a few have been put out of business because of it. Those of us who have ventured out to start our own companies take pride in the goods and services we provide, and we believe that the small-business owners in this country provide the best and most innovative products available.

Small-business owners in this country deserve a pro-growth, modern tax code that allows them to expand and hire more employees. We are currently saddled with a code that takes a team of accountants to figure out and that charges rates as high as 40 percent. This is simply unacceptable.

This does not even take into account things like the estate tax and corporate loopholes that compound the many issues with our code. It is a system where some can be double taxed after someone passes away, while others do not have to pay their fair share only because they have an army of accountants finding ways out of paying what they owe. These things need to be addressed and the time is now.

In my testimony, I asked Congress to get to work on a complete overhaul of our tax code that simplifies the process, lowers rates for all businesses, and fixes the other issues like loopholes and the estate tax. I also told representatives that small businesses across the country need comprehensive tax reform as soon as possible and that there are no excuses for inaction.

The business community in this country will not continue to support representatives who cannot pass legislation to fix our tax code.
Bamberg County on Aug. 8 will take a key step in providing medical care to the community.

The Regional Medical Center will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a new, freestanding emergency department for Bamberg and Barnwell counties at the construction site on Highway 70 east of Denmark. The facility will include 24-hour emergency care with CT scan, X-ray and ultrasound diagnostic imaging, lab and observation services.

Before celebrating a date that many have looked to since the closure of Bamberg County Hospital in 2012, the community on Wednesday will mourn the loss of another icon in medical care.

Dr. F. Marion Dwight III of Bamberg died Sunday at the age of 83 after an extended illness. His funeral will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Bamberg First Baptist Church.

Dwight will be remembered by many individuals and the community as a whole as a vital ingredient in the Bamberg County health care prescription for more than 50 years. His death marks the third significant loss of physicians in Bamberg County in less than a year.

Dr. Herbert "Herb" Abraham Moskow of Denmark, who practiced family medicine in Bamberg County from 1968 until his retirement in 2010, died in December.

And days later, Bamberg lost its longtime physician Dr. Michael "Mike" C. Watson, who retired in 2001 after nearly 50 years of service to the community.

The doctors shared more than a county in which they practiced.

Dwights education took him to the then-Clemson College and the Medical University of South Carolina. Near the end of his residency, Watson invited him to join his practice in Bamberg. He served Bamberg County from 1959 on, with Moskow joining Dwight in 1994.

Dwight was active in the Bamberg community beyond medicine.

In 2011, he was elected chairman of the Bamberg Board of Public Works Commission, succeeding the late Carl Kilgus and promising Kilgus and the community to do my best to live up to the standards you set.

It was not his only involvement. Dwight served with the chamber of commerce and in volunteer roles such as building ramps for the handicapped.

Dwight also spoke out with concern about Bambergs loss of a county hospital and the missed opportunity a decade ago to get a new facility. And while he likely would not say the new ER is the hospital equivalent, the doctor would join in celebrating the facility as a needed medical service to the community.

It is a community that meant much to Dwight, and which honored him in ways such as naming him marshal of the Bamberg Christmas Parade in 2011.

Drs. Watson, Moskow and Dwight cared for thousands and thousands of people over long careers in Bamberg County. Their contributions were immense. Their dedication is a matter of record.

As stated in Dwights obituary, Attending to his patients over the course of three generations gave him such pleasure. It was truly his life's calling!
U.S. Attorney's Office(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) -- A California man has been arrested on a federal smuggling charge stemming from the seizure of a package that contained three live king cobras hidden inside potato chips canisters, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.



Special agents with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service arrested 34-year-old Monterey Park resident Rodrigo Franco on Tuesday, the DOJ said in a statement. He was charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise to the U.S. and was expected to make his first appearance in court Tuesday afternoon.



On March 2, U.S. Customs and Border Control agents inspected a package sent from Hong Kong and discovered the cobras, a "protected and highly venomous reptile," according to an affidavit filed in the Central District of California. Each snake was approximately 2 feet long, court documents state.



In photos provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the cobras appeared to be coiled inside of the potato chip canisters, which appeared to be sealed with a plastic lid.



The parcel, which was sent through the U.S. Postal Service, also contained three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles, the DOJ said.



Franco allegedly mailed six additional turtles -- including desert box turtles, three-toed box turtles and ornate box turtles -- from the United States to Hong Kong, but the package was intercepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



The United States Postal Inspection Service made a controlled delivery of the soft-shelled turtles to Franco's residence, but the snakes were removed from the package due to danger associated with cobras, the DOJ said.



Once the package was delivered, agents from the USFWS and the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement executed a search warrant of Franco's home, where they found several protected animals, including a live baby Morelet's crocodile, alligator snapping turtle, a common turtle and five diamond back terrapin turtles, according to the affidavit.



During an interview, Franco admitted to authorities that he had previously received 20 king cobras in two prior shipments, but he said all of those snakes died during transit, according to the DOJ. An investigation also revealed that Franco had allegedly exchanged messages with an individual in Asia that detailed shipping turtles and snakes between the U.S. and Asia.



The messages indicate that Franco had allegedly previously received live cobras from his contact in Asia and that he intended to place five of the snakes to a relative of the individual in Asia, according to the DOJ.



The smuggling charge against Franco carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.



It is unclear if Franco has retained an attorney or entered a plea.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Bahrain-based wholesale Islamic Investment bank, Ibdar Bank, has announced the successful exit of three Q400 aircraft on lease to Falcon Aviation, marking the fourth successful aviation exit by the Bank within the last two years.



Commenting on the successful deal, CEO of Ibdar Bank, Ayman Sejiny said: These successful exits further underscore the bank as the reference aircraft leasing and investor platform in the GCC, and are testament to Ibdars capability for placement of future deals, and its ability to provide clients with income generating assets.



The sale of the three aircraft, which were acquired in June & July 2015 and leased to Abu Dhabi-based specialised airline Falcon Aviation Services, is the banks fourth successful aviation leasing transaction in the last two years comprising the sale of 9 aircraft. To date, the Bank has completed $277 million in aviation transactions, and is working on bringing to market new transactions in the sector to replace the exited assets.



Mohammed Kettani, executive director and head of the banks Private Equity division, added: The bank continues to build its aviation vertical in line with investor demand for yielding products. Ibdar Bank, with the backing of its shareholders, will further develop its aviation leasing platform with the purchase of additional assets during 2017



In addition to its signicant expertise in aviation investment, the bank has built an impressive track record in infrastructure, maritime, oil and gas, and real estate among others. - TradeArabia News Service
Business leaders in Dubai are more positive about their expectations of business conditions and business confidence in the third quarter of 2017, according to a new survey conducted by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.



The Business Leaders Outlook Survey revealed that 39 per cent of respondents expect to see business conditions improve in Q3-2017..



Around 43 per cent of surveyed business leaders expected no change in business conditions, while 18 per cent expected conditions to worsen over the same period.



The survey revealed that 45 per cent of business leaders expected business confidence to strengthen in the third quarter of this year, compared to the 37 per cent who predicted no change and 18 per cent who expected confidence to weaken during the quarter.



Expectations for access to financing, manpower quality, and access to facilities and infrastructure all saw quarter-on-quarter improvements in Q3-2017. The easing of visa restrictions on Indian, Chinese and Russian tourists was seen by 57 per cent of respondents as having a positive impact on overall business confidence.



The survey found that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were more optimistic than large companies in their expectations about business confidence and business conditions in Dubai during Q3-2017.



Around 49 per cent of SME respondents said they expected business conditions to improve in the third quarter of this year, compared to 25 per cent of large companies. In addition, 49 per cent of SMEs expected business confidence to strengthen in third quarter, compared to 38 per cent of respondents from large companies.



Hamad Buamim, president & CEO of Dubai Chamber, said the latest Business Leaders Outlook Survey reflected a higher level of business confidence for the third quarter of 2017, especially when considering the high number of residents who travel abroad for summer holidays during this period.



He revealed that the growing confidence came in line with an increase in the number of new companies joining Dubai Chamber in the third quarter, which is an indicator of business activity in the emirate.



Buamim described the survey as a useful tool to take the pulse of Dubais business community, gain valuable perspectives and insights, and gauge the future outlook for business leaders.



By measuring business confidence and evaluating business conditions in Dubai, the Chamber can more effectively represent the emirates private sector and protect its interests. It also helps us identify obstacles that can potentially hinder growth, as well as factors that can support the development of business in Dubai, he added.



Price competition, debt collection, payment defaults, and high employment costs were cited as the key limiting factors impacting businesses Q3-2017 operations, in addition to the high costs of capital, bank services, and raw materials.



Surveyed business leaders identified high commercial rents and licensing fees, as key challenges for which government action is needed. They also called for more government support on regulatory matters such as settling late payments, while they also suggested the introduction of long-term residency visas to reduce the cost of doing business. - TradeArabia News Service
Swift has announced that its SWIFTSmart eLearning platform is growing at a rapid rate and now offers training modules to all banks in the UAE.



Employees of over 170 banks, financial institutions and corporate customers in the UAE will be able to use SWIFTSmart modules for their training needs, it said.



Live since November 2016, SWIFTSmart is an interactive, cloud-based educational service that provides Swift customers with a training solution adapted to todays challenges in the banking industry. From large global communities to smaller niche players, training content needs to be disseminated across the globe in a universal, effective, efficient and flexible way, and with minimal disruption to day-to-day business activities. The modules are now available in 10 different languages globally.



With more than 200 online courses, how-to videos, exercises, quizzes and games currently available, SWIFTSmart offers customised training programmes and individual modules, from introductory to expert level, covering topics such as: basic knowledge about Swift, Swift software and connectivity, security and audit, message standards for payments, treasury, trade and securities, and compliance and shared services.

Access to the platform is available to all employees of Swift-connected organisations and registered providers, and requires no software installation. Users simply need to log in through their swift.com account.



As a cloud-based service, SWIFTSmart is accessible anytime, anywhere and from any device, allowing banks, financial institutions and corporate customers to get introduced to Swift, grow their existing knowledge or get the latest information on key industry topics like security and compliance.



SWIFTSmart is the cornerstone of Swifts entire training portfolio and can be complemented with tailored trainings or certification programmes, says Dana Brants, head of services marketing, Swift. eLearning is about getting the most qualitative and accurate learning material in the hands of our community, in an attractive and interactive way. SWIFTSmart delivers that experience and offers a highly flexible, qualitative and personalised eLearning experience for all of our customers, whether they are in the office or working remotely in different countries.



Today, over 12,000 users representing more than 4,000 financial institutions globally are using SWIFTSmart. With its user base on the rise, Swift is regularly adding new learning modules in various languages as well as improving the platforms features. In 2017, Swift will publish 80 new learning modules covering topics like corporate actions, ISO 20022 adoption, cyber-security and real-time payments innovation. In parallel, SWIFTSmart users will also experience an updated version of the platform, which will include a set of new social and interactive features, such as a customisable homepage, group discussions with colleagues, ratings of courses and influence on the catalogue. SWIFTSmart version 2.0 will be available as of July 2017.  TradeArabia News Service


Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has announced the establishment of an arbitration hearing centre on Al Maryah Island by early 2018.



The milestone augments the recent development and agreement with world-leading arbitral institution, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Court), to launch its Middle East representative office in ADGM.



The ADGM Arbitration Centre will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and hearing facilities, which will be available to all parties seeking to resolve their disputes through arbitration or mediation. The centre will also provide best-in-class training in dispute resolution services. The centre, which is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2018, will be based in Al Maqam Tower on Al Maryah Island.



The ICC Court is the leading arbitral institution, with a long-standing and highly respected reputation as the benchmark for international dispute resolution. It has administered disputes in a total of 23,000 international commercial, business and investment arbitration cases since 1923, and is widely used in international transactions in the Middle East.



The ICC Courts representative office is expected to become operational by January 2018. The local staff will in due course be able to accept the registration of arbitration cases under the ICC Rules, which will then be administered by one of the ICC Court Secretariats existing case management teams.



ADGM stands out as a leader in the Mena region with its modern, pro-arbitration framework that has been modelled on the UNCITRAL Model Law. ADGM has made contemporary modifications and enhancements to the UNCITRAL Model Law to ensure it is a seat that reflects best international arbitration practice and to accommodate the needs of users in the Mena region.



Sultan Al Badi, UAE Minister of Justice, said: This is a very positive development for the UAEs strategy and vision aiming to promote the consolidation of the rule of law, and uphold the country's position as one of the strongest global leaders in international dispute resolution. The opening of this arbitration centre in Abu Dhabi Global Market and the decision of this world-leading arbitral institution to set up its Mena representative office in Abu Dhabi demonstrates the UAEs significant progress in realising its vision.



Chancellor Yousuf Al Abri, Undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, said: The Judicial Department encourages ADGMs efforts to enhance Abu Dhabis international status as a global hub for business and investment.



The Judicial Department is confident that ADGM will achieve through these developments local, regional and international business confidence in Abu Dhabis dispute resolution system. The Judicial Department is committed to placing its technical, professional and academic expertise to ensure that the ADGM Arbitration Centre meets the highest standards in international commercial arbitration."



ICC Court president Alexis Mourre said: Our new representative office in Abu Dhabi is an affirmation of the increasing relevance of international arbitration in the Mena region. It will spread the vast experience of the ICC Court and its Secretariat in matching the needs of arbitration users. We are delighted to work with ADGM in bringing our services closer to our users in the region, in real time and in local language.



Ahmed Al Sayegh, chairman of ADGM said: I warmly welcome ADGMs long-term engagement with ICC, a highly regarded global leader in arbitration. These significant developments underscore ADGMs commitment to having a strong global presence in dispute resolution that accords with the outstanding services expected of a leading international financial centre. I look forward to our working with ICC in the continued successful expansion of its business.



ADGM and ICC will be hosting a by-invitation-only event in September 2017 to mark this agreement.  TradeArabia News Service
Bracewell, a leader in assisting clients with all types of infrastructure projects, has announced that Adrian Creed has joined the firm as a partner in its Dubai office.



Creed has more than 20 years of experience representing clients in the Mena region, most recently as a partner with Clyde & Co.



Adrians expertise in power and Mena-focused infrastructure projects makes him a terrific fit for our Dubai office, said Bracewells managing partner Gregory M Bopp. We are pleased to welcome Adrian to the firm and to our internationally recognised energy and infrastructure practice.



Creeds addition is part of the firms global initiative to expand its international energy and infrastructure practice. In May, the Dubai office was named by The Middle East Legal Awards 2017 as the Infrastructure and Energy Projects Team of Year for its work on precedent-setting projects throughout the region.



Adrian is a well-respected lawyer with over two decades of experience in the Mena region, said Dubai office managing partner Chris Williams. We are confident that his addition will further cement Bracewells role as a premier go-to law firm for clients in the projects and infrastructure sectors.



Creeds practice focuses on Mena energy, utilities and infrastructure projects and project financings. His clients include a mixture of developers and host governments and are located throughout the region, including the UAE, Oman and Libya. He has extensive experience working on Mena Public-Private Partnership (PPP) transactions, including advising on large scale project financings in the power, water and district cooling sectors.



Bracewell offers an excellent platform in energy and infrastructure in the Mena region, said Creed. I am thrilled to be joining a firm that has been internationally recognised for its work in assisting clients develop the regions most significant projects.  TradeArabia News Service


Abu Dhabi University said work on the new extension to its female dormitory has been completed and is set to open with the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, said a report.



Designed to cater to the rise in demand for on-campus student housing, which already accommodates 408 students in segregated male and female dorms, the Dh17.5 million ($4.76 million) project adds 93 rooms spanning over 4,200 sq m that can accommodate 144 female students, reported state news agency Wam.



The new facility will offer state-of-the-art services and facilities, such as a multi-purpose hall, a gym, discussion and reading rooms, several service rooms and outdoor courtyards, it said.



The university currently hosts more than 7,000 students from 70 nationalities across its campuses in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, according to the report.



The number is expected to rise as its new postgraduate campus in Dubai opens in the academic year 2017-2018, it added.
The Egyptian government aims to attract foreign and local investments worth $30 billion to the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) over the next five years, said an Egyptian ministry official.



The ministry is cooperating with the SCZone in order to attract these investments in sectors of infrastructure and utilities, thus providing about one million direct and indirect jobs, Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, was quoted as saying in a Daily News Egypt report.



The minister was speaking at a session at the Youth Conference held in Alexandria, in the presence of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.



The minister said she will visit Singapore in August, together with Mohab Mamish, head of the SCZone, to promote the regions most important investment opportunities.
A high level delegation from Saudi Arabia is currently participating in board meetings of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), being held at its headquarters in London, UK.



The meeting which kicked off on July 24 will run until July 28.



The kingdoms high-profile delegation was led by Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Saudi Arabias Minister of Transport; Dr Rumaih bin Mohammed Al Rumaih, president of the Public Transport Authority; senior Bahri officials including Wael Al Sarhan, senior vice president  marketing; and Abdulaziz Sabri, vice president, Bahri Ship Management, as well as other representatives from the maritime sector in the kingdom, said a statement.



During the meeting, the delegation met with the secretary-general of IMO, Kitack Lim, to review the kingdoms efforts in the maritime transportation sector, with discussions ranging from the security and safety of its territorial waters and its fight against piracy to marine environment protection, it said.



The meeting comes as part of the kingdoms preparations to submit its candidacy for the membership of the IMO Council under Category (C), it added.



The kingdom, represented by Bahri, a global leader in transportation and logistics, will host the members of IMO today (July 26), to review the efforts initiated by the various stakeholders, said a statement.



During the visit, IMO members will explore the tremendous growth achieved by Bahri, the worlds largest owner and operator of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), with a fleet of 86 tankers and vessels operating across sectors, with one of its new VLCCs, Amjad, securing its registration under the Saudi flag in April earlier this year.



In addition to its commitment to playing a significant role in contributing to Saudi Vision 2030, the company is continuously expanding and developing its services, thus opening up new trade routes and strengthening the kingdoms position as a unique regional gateway to three continents in logistics, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
McAfee, one of the worlds leading cybersecurity companies, today announced several new innovations that expand machine learning and automation capabilities to strengthen human-machine teams.



Plus, McAfee has announced support of OpenDXL.com, a new, independent collaboration portal that offers forums, free apps and more, giving OpenDXL users easy access to ideas and resources available for application integrations.



Todays security teams are facing244 new cyber threats every minute, amid a serious talent shortage. Siloed security, without automation, managed by overwhelmed teams is not a sustainable defence strategy, said Raja Patel, vice president and general manager, Corporate Security Products, McAfee.



Expanded machine learning and integrated analytics are part of McAfees vision for a fundamental shift in the way humans and machines work together to secure our digital world. By aligning the strengths of humans and machines, organizations elevate their operational maturity to better defend against the cyber threats we face todayand tomorrow.



Machine Learning and Automation



McAfee technology seeks to improve the way humans and machines work together to protect the digital enterprise, through implementation of an intelligent security platform that takes advantage of powerful new technologies, such as machine learning and automation. McAfee Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) software now joins the growing portfolio of McAfee products that incorporate machine learning, including McAfee Endpoint Security with Real Protect and McAfee Global Threat Intelligence (GTI).



The newly released McAfee ATD v4.0 software introduces an innovative deep learning technique to enhance detection and expands advanced analysis capabilities within email attachments, resulting in more comprehensive protection across the network as new threat intelligence and reputation updates are shared throughout the ecosystem. New capabilities include:



 Enhanced Machine Learning Detection: Machine learning now bolsters McAfee ATD detection capabilities, resulting in an expanded ability to identify malicious markers that may be hidden, or not fully executed.

 Expanded, Closed-Loop Detection-to-Protection for Email: McAfee ATD Email Connector now enables email security gateways to forward suspicious attachments to McAfee ATD for analysis, preventing malware from spreading on internal networks.



New enhancements for McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) include integrated, patented countermeasure-aware risk analysis to help security operations teams identify threats and assess the impact of new vulnerabilities, as well as new support for critical SOC use cases.



 Accurate Insight into Exposure and Risk: McAfee ESM now improves risk assessment by factoring in active, relevant countermeasures and priority guidance from McAfee GTI, providing a more accurate understanding of exposure and potential impact. The new Asset Threat Risk Content Pack 2.0 feature delivers security configuration, compliance posture and patch assessment in a single view

 Rapid Use Case Deployment: The new McAfee Connect content portal simplifies access to freely available, simple to deploy use cases and solution integrations. Through the portal, McAfee customers can find tools to activate monitoring, detection and incident management tasks, including user behaviour analysis and detection of malware exploits and reconnaissance

 Effortlessly Monitor and Analyze Cloud Activity: Easy incorporation of Microsoft Office 365 actions and events enables monitoring and analysis of user activity within cloud services



Fully Unified Data Loss Prevention



McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint, DLP Prevent, DLP Discover and DLP Monitor are now fully unified. New capabilities include:



 Improved Business Efficiency: Unified policy management across network and endpoint DLP built upon a common classification engine, dictionaries, regular expression engine and syntax

 Faster Investigation and Remediation: Simplified incident and case management speeds investigation and remediation of risk or suspicious user behaviour by line-of-business data stewards and information security professionals alike

 Consistent Event Analysis: Common file, email, web traffic and database analysis across endpoint and network DLP ensure consistent enforcement of corporate data usage policies



Dynamic Endpoint Protection



McAfees dynamic endpoint protection collaborates across products, allowing new technology to easily integrate without a complete architecture rebuild, and leverages machine learning to improve detection capabilities. New capability includes:



 Integrated Cloud Threat Detection: New integration between McAfee Cloud Threat Detection (CTD) and McAfee Threat Intelligence Exchange (TIE) enables McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) to forward suspicious samples to a cloud sandbox for in-depth analysis.



Open source and industry collaboration



McAfee announced the OpenDXL initiative in 2016, launching an open industry standard for all developers to increase integration flexibility, simplicity and opportunity. McAfee has now expanded its commitment to open source through support of a new, independent open source community, OpenDXL.com. This collaborative portal includes:



 Community Innovation Forum: A place for participants to connect, get ideas, exchange questions and solve new problems

 Freely Available App Marketplace: Created for sharing, the app marketplace features new, creative use cases for OpenDXL, packaged and ready for implementation

 Bootstrapper to Simplify Integration: Makes it even easier to create OpenDXL integrations with a bootstrapper toolkit, which helps developers and integrators create API service wrappers in a few easy steps.  TradeArabia News Service
Compareit4me.com, a leading comparison site in the Middle East, has launched its brand identity. As of today (July 26), the website will be known as yallacompare.



The new identity brings with it new opportunities to more closely align itself with the Middle Eastern market, while still carrying forward the home-grown, entrepreneurial spirit that has made the company so successful, a statement said.



With the same young team of driven professionals, the adoption of yallacompare is the next step in a journey that has cumulatively saved UAE residents millions of dirhams, and will even allow greater savings to be brought to the wider Middle East, it added.



When we first started the company, we had no idea that it would become the business that it is today. We honestly didnt think ahead to international growth and expansion, and we didnt realise that what wed built would become as successful as it has been across the Mena region, said Jon Richards, CEO of yallacompare.



Our success outside of the UAE is whats informed our decision to create a brand that better represents our English- and Arabic-speaking customers. Today, we compare everything from personal loans to flight tickets; were the largest insurance aggregator in the Middle East by a considerable margin; and were active in nine markets across the region. We needed an identity that better reflected these realities.



Of course, its risky changing your identity when youve already built up so much. But behind the scenes, we still have the same world-class team running things, and we still stick to our ideals of saving people time and money through sensible innovation and keeping things simple. And with an infinitely more recognisable brand name that pays homage to our Middle Eastern roots, we hope to be the go-to resource for regional consumers looking to save money on everything from insurance policies to telecoms packages, he added.



The name change comes at a critical juncture in the companys history. Two months ago, the comparison site announced that it had raised $3.5 million of its $10 million Series B round of funding to be completed in the coming months. Once completed, this will take the total amount of investment that the company has raised to over $16 million.



These latest funds have been used to expand the companys state-of-the-art call centre, which is now housed in a new, 7,000-sq-ft office staffed by 120 employees, as well as to fund the launch of online insurance comparison in Saudi Arabia. It is intended that the new name will not only be more appealing to users in Saudi Arabia, but will also simplify the companys operations in Middle Eastern countries outside of the UAE.



The Saudi Arabian factor was crucial in our decision to rebrand to yallacompare. In several markets around the Middle East, including Saudi, weve been operating under the amwalak.com brand name, as it resonated more with markets in which Arabic is the primary language. With yallacompare, were bringing everything together under one roof, in an easy-to-understand, powerful call to action. Do you need a financial product or insurance policy? Yalla, compare! said Samer Chehab, COO of yallacompare.



yallacompare is set to open a permanent office in Saudi Arabia in the coming months, as it begins the roll-out of online insurance comparison for Saudi consumers.



That office will serve as a call centre for insurance customers needing assistance, as well as a main point of contact for the companys Saudi banking clients. And by next year, yallacompare aims to be the first comparison site to offer online insurance comparison for consumers in Egypt.  TradeArabia News Service
Four international companies are vying to establish a 250MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez in Egypt, a report said.



The companies include Vestas and Siemens, as well as Enercon and Ray Power, Daily News Egypt reported, citing sources at the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA).



The new bids will be received from companies by the middle of August, it added.



A total of 21 companies, including Orascom, General Electric, Lekela Power, and Nordic Power, had bought the tender prospectus, according to the sources.



NREA had also signed a loan with the European Investment Bank worth 115 million ($134 million) to finance the farm.



The sources added that the feasibility study has been completed and a consultancy office has been contracted to provide consultancy services during the implementation stages. The project is expected to start next year.



They said that a Toyota alliance is close to completing the financial closure for another 250MW wind power plant, adding that the contracts of the power purchasing agreement will be signed with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company in August.
SNC-Lavalin has been awarded a contract by Brahms Oil Refineries Limited to undertake a front-end engineering design (Feed) conversion to EPC contract for a 10,000 barrel per day crude oil refinery in Kamsar, Guinea.



The Feed will provide a budget cost estimate to obtain a final investment decision (FID) for the project in the third quarter of 2017, a statement said.



SNC-Lavalins scope for this phase of the work includes project management, coordination and management of the process licensor, management of the geotechnical and topographic survey contractors, preliminary engineering and procurement, as well as estimating services and EPC execution plan for the complete grassroots refinery, including the tank farm and marine works required for import of crude oil by ship.



The contract signed to date is for the short form Feed, with a process to agree a phased development of the project ultimately into an EPC project following FID approval, it said.



We are delighted to be working with Brahms Oil Refineries on the first refinery to be built in Guinea to process West African crude oil, commented Martin Adler, president, oil & gas. This project allows us to demonstrate our expertise in modular design and supports our objective to grow our business in downstream oil and gas. We look forward to helping our client achieve FID and progressing to the EPC phase of the project.



The plant will be designed to produce diesel, gasoline and jet A fuel to be sold to the local Guinean market.



Brahms Oil Refineries Limited is a private company focused on developing downstream projects aimed at contributing to the industrialisation of Sub-Saharan African countries. It was established to help increase refining capacity in Africa by building modular crude oil refineries in select Sub-Saharan countries.  TradeArabia News Service


Global hospitality company Dusit International has appointed Prateek Kumar as regional vice president  EMEA region.



He will be responsible for strengthening Dusits operations and supporting development efforts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.



For the past two years Kumar was area general manager in charge of Dusits operations in Dubai. In his new role, he will continue to serve as general manager of Dusit Thani Dubai while also linking with the companys head office in Bangkok to supervise operating and pre-opening properties in the EMEA region.



Kumar has a Bachelors Degree in Hotel Management from Griffith University in Australia. Prior to joining Dusit International as general manager of Dusit Thani Manila in 2008, he was responsible for the successful pre-opening of Ascott Raffles Place, a luxury all-suite hotel set in the heart of Singapores financial cityscape. He has also worked for Raffles Hotels & Resorts, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Renaissance Hotels.



In line with our strategy for sustainable and profitable growth, which includes balancing our portfolio of hotels to have half of our operations outside of Thailand by 2022, we are committed to increasing our resources to facilitate our expansion in the EMEA region, said Lim Boon Kwee, chief operating officer of Dusit International. Kumar has a proven ability to create strategic approaches, drive revenue growth, set best operational standards, and deliver results, so we are confident he will help establish a strong presence for our brands in the region.



With 29 properties currently in operation across four brands in eight countries, Dusit International is in a significant growth phase which will see the number of Dusit properties reach 70 within the next three to four years across key markets worldwide. - TradeArabia News Service


Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TA Abu Dhabi) embarked on a whirlwind three-city roadshow to the US recently to help create more awareness about the emirate and encourage more US travellers to visit.



The delegation, led by the authority, was in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, hosted meetings with major travel agents and key influencers from some of the USs leading travel organisations including Altour, American Express Travel, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, Signature and Virtuoso.



The US is a key tier one market for Abu Dhabi with the emirate welcoming 67,000 American hotel guests in the first five months of this year, making it currently the fifth largest overseas source market. In 2016, the US provided 136,657 hotel guest arrivals spending 592,235 guest nights across Abu Dhabi, Al Ain Region and Al Dhafra Region.



Mubarak Al Nuaimi, director promotions and overseas offices, TCA Abu Dhabi, said: The US is one of our priority markets which is showing consistent growth year-on-year. Our extensive marketing campaigns in the US, combined with the promotion of Abu Dhabi through our office based in New York, help us showcase our world-class destination and rich diversity of cultures and attractions. - TradeArabia News Service
Marriott International has welcomed Dany Dagher as the complex general manager for the Sheraton Sharjah Beach Resort & Spa and Four Points by Sheraton Sharjah, which is scheduled to open later this year.



In his new role, Dagher will be responsible for the overall management of both properties. With over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Dagher has worked with various hotel groups across three continents and has extensive knowledge and skills in both pre-opening and operating properties.



A Canadian national, Dagher began his career in Toronto, Canada at the Westin Prince Hotel after obtaining his Culinary Management Diploma from George Brown College. He subsequently moved to Aerostar Hotel, Moscow as executive sous chef before moving to Sheraton Lisbon Hotel & Towers, Lisbon as the executive chef and director of Food & Beverage. Dagher has been in Dubai since 2004 when he joined the Sheraton Jumeira Beach Resort as director of F&B before being promoted to general manager of the property in 2009.



Dagher brings a refreshing commitment to the food and beverage offering at the complex. He has a proven track record of being a visionary leader working closely with his team in delivering unparalleled level of service and creating memorable guest experiences.



Im very excited to be a part of Sharjahs promising hospitality landscape, representing two iconic hotel brands in the city, said Dagher. In addition to further cementing Sheraton Sharjah Beach Hotel & Spas position as a market leader, I am privileged to be part of the launch of the Four Points by Sheraton brand in the emirate later this year. - TradeArabia News Service
AccorHotels announced today the grouping of Travel Keys, Squarebreak and onefinestay with the intention to integrate the three companies under the onefinestay brand before the end of the year.



The announcement signifies the finalising of an agreement with the founders of Squarebreak for the acquisition of the entire share capital in the company. AccorHotels has owned 49 per cent of this French company, a leader in villa rentals, since February 2016. This transaction will be effective in the coming weeks. AccorHotels also acquired Travel Keys earlier this year and onefinestay in 2016.



The integration of the three hospitality innovators means onefinestay guests will be able to experience over 10,000 of the worlds finest homes combined with worldwide professional hospitality and concierge services. Onefinestay will now span the worlds most desirable destinations in six continents  from metropolitan centres such as New York, LA, Rome and San Francisco to exotic island getaways in St Barts, and Bali, to Mediterranean escapes in France, Italy and Greece.



The portfolio will be placed under the responsibility of Javier Cedillo-Espin, who has been appointed chief executive officer of onefinestay to head up the grouping of the three brands collaboratively with a team of executives from onefinestay, Travel Keys and Squarebreak.



Cedillo-Espin said: With this new step in consolidating our leadership position, onefinestay now has a sound platform combining brand excellence, a vast and complementary offer and distribution efficiency. We are hugely excited about the global development potential for our network. Our guests are always asking for more places where they can enjoy our professional hospitality and concierge experience and the integration of these 3 innovative brands is the answer. - TradeArabia News Service
U.S. oil production next year could break a record set in 1970, according to some forecasts, but what Wyoming really needs is for production to slow enough for prices to rise.

The Energy Information Administration released its short-term outlook recently, projecting the average daily production of U.S. oil in 2018 to hit 9.9 million barrels, which would shatter the previous high of 9.6 million barrels, set in 1970.

However, that forecast is a step back from early June, when the agency said 2018 could see 10 million barrels a day. As shale production slows in places like the Permian Basin in West Texas and oil production cuts internationally continue to impact overstock of crude, the forecast may continue to fall.

That would be good for Wyoming, where operators need better pricing and say a steady improvement feels just out of reach. Less drilling means higher oil prices, which means more drilling. And more local drilling means more money and jobs in a state strapped thin on both fronts.

That 1970s record might stand for a while, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago. Im afraid what we are going to see in the next report is that they are going to have to lower that number again because of what we are seeing as far as the shale pullback.

Flynns referring to a number of recent signs. Halliburton, one of the largest of the oil field service companies, announced recently that it expected a slowdown in the boom. Anadarko, the oil and gas giant that operates in Wyomings Powder River Basin and elsewhere in the state, recently said it was scaling back on spending.

The guys Im talking to in the industry say were busy as we ever have been, but we are not making money, Flynn said.

The price of crude held at over $50 a barrel from January to March, after news that OPEC and nonmember countries would adhere to a production cap. But when the cartel later agreed not seek more severe cuts, the news shook the market. Many believed production had to be drawn down further if the supply of oil was going to align with the demand for oil, said Flynn.

The price has seen steep falls, first in March, then in May, then again in June. The price settled at $48.55 Tuesday.

Meanwhile in Wyoming, signs of desire in future drilling, despite the modest price environment, abound. From robust lease sales held by state and federal agencies to spikes in the number of applications to drill in Wyoming, interest is high.

Thats not to say that we are not seeing improvement, particularly from last year, said John Robitaille, vice president of the Wyoming Petroleum Association. Our rig counts are definitely improving, which is telling me that likely well see that surge of production when those wells come back on and that will benefit us, no question.

What Wyoming operators are really sensitive to is stability, he said.

The dramatic swings that we saw seem to be leveling out, he said. We are leveling at a price now, and as long as we can maintain the level of certainty, I think youll see this slowly return.

One company that has been very active in terms of setting up acreage is Wold Oil, a Casper-based family enterprise. Peter Wold said the company is about to begin a new drilling program and is watching the short-term price fluctuations with concern. Long term, hope abides.

The long and the short of it is we are aggressive, he said. We are trying to prove up the big land position that we have in the [Powder River Basin] with the idea that it is going to be there for the future for many years, with literally hundreds of drill site locations that can be developed as the demand dictates.

Internationally, stockpiles are being drawn down thanks to the production caps set by the OPEC cartel, Flynn said. The predicted leveling out of supply and demand appears to be slowly taking place, he said.

Give them credit, he said of OPEC. If you look at the oil inventories in the U.S. and around the globe, [OPEC] were right. We are seeing signs that the market is getting in balance.

Some of that balancing out is purely technical.

Horizontal wells in the Permian are starting to see the steep decline in production common to those types of wells, Flynn said. Combined with a reduction in both the completion of wells being drilled and a decrease in spending from firms waiting out the price lows, the number of rigs out drilling new wells will likely go down in the latter part of the year, he said.

When prices go back up, perhaps even in 2017, the rig count and the investment dollars will follow, Flynn said.

But it will take time to ratchet up production if companies slow down now, giving the price of oil more room to rebound.

For those like Wold, the boom in production in shale plays, even those in Wyoming, is a double-edged sword.

I think we still feel like one of the long-range projections for oil is that we are going to see demand outpace production, and that is going to increase the price  When that is going to happen is anybodys guess, he said.

A lot of that delay frankly is caused by the success that we are all seeing in not only in the Permian Basin but in the [Powder River Basin] where some really wonderful wells have been brought in very recently.

Amidst the uncertainty of prices and production, there is reason to hope, some say.

And that matters for both the operators in Wyoming seeking to do business, and state officials hoping the downturn in prices reverses and the revenue streams return.

Its a global market and its extremely hard to predict what is going to happen, said Robitaille, of the Petroleum Association. But there is a lot of optimism, and that is encouraging for a state like ours.
Bayard Bart and Liz (Smith) Rea of Casper celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on July 26.

They were married July 26, 1952, at Princeton Chapel in Princeton, New Jersey.

He is a geologist and she is an artist and homemaker and neither is retired.

He was a naval officer until 1955, and since then has been a practicing geologist and member of many local and national non-profit organizations, both as a leader and also as a regular member.

She has been an artist since 1950 and a homemaker since 1952, and is as well a member of many non-profit organizations, in leadership and membership roles.

Their children are Marjory of Sheridan, Dan of Casper and Bill of Bozeman, Montana. They have two grandchildren, Mackenzie and Katie, both of Bozeman.

There is no planned celebration but the couple would love to hear from friends via email, a card or a call.
RIVERTON  A 25-year-old Wyoming man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2014 stabbing death of another man in bed with his estranged wife.

Jeremiah Shull, of Riverton, entered the plea Monday, negating the need for a second trial after the Wyoming Supreme Court had overturned his first conviction in February because of flawed jury instructions.

Shull's second trial had been scheduled for Aug. 7.

Prosecutors say Shull stabbed and slit the throat of Jacob Willenbrecht as Willenbrecht slept in bed with Julie Cordell-Shull on Oct. 19, 2014.

In a statement to the court, Shull said he had gone to his wife's house not with any ill intent, but in a last attempt to save his marriage.

Shull remains in the State Penitentiary pending sentencing.
The consultants hired to examine Wyomings education funding system will also study at least three alternative models that would overhaul how schools are paid for here, researchers from the firm testified Tuesday.

The consultants, Denver-based Augenblick, Palaich & Associates, will work through the process of recalibration for the rest of this year and into January ahead of a shortened legislative session in February. Four researchers from the firm presented their plan to lawmakers Tuesday in their first public appearance, which also provided a first look at their strategy for examining the funding model as the state tries to tackle a massive education deficit.

Recalibration normally takes place every five years  and last happened in 2015  but lawmakers accelerated the timeline this year because of the looming shortfall. Last month, the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration recommended  and legislative leadership approved  the hiring of the consulting firm, the first time since 2005 that the state made a change with the consultants it used.

Lawmakers have said the decision doesnt necessarily mean theyre moving toward an entirely new funding model, which would overhaul how funding levels are determined for all 48 of Wyomings school districts. House Speaker and committee member Steve Harshman, a Casper Republican, said it was far too early to tell what path the committee would recommend in November.

The consultants explained Tuesday that they would undertake a complete evaluation of the current model for funding schools, a complex system unique to Wyoming that sets a price for all parts of school operations, from textbooks to teacher salaries.

That process will include a look at Wyomings educational standards that must be provided to every K-12 student here. Educators have for months said that if cuts continue, then lawmakers should look at the basket of goods, as the standards are called, and consider lessening a curriculum thats become harder to maintain as resources are slashed.

That review will be the first step in the consultants work, which is crucial to the process, committee chairman Rep. Albert Sommers said during the meeting Tuesday at the Oil and Gas Commission building in Casper.

I want to get back to the fact that Im asking you about whats a quality education in Wyoming, he told the four consultants. They and lawmakers had been discussing comparing Wyomings educational system  and students performance  to other states.

Sommers suggested comparisons arent as vital as protecting the integrity of schooling here.

How does this get to the question of providing adequate education to all students? he said.

Besides, its difficult to make comparisons to other states, officials said, because Wyoming is a geographically large rural state with constitutional restraints on funding.

There are other factors that make side-by-side looks difficult: For instance, its true that the states ACT scores rank 39th in the country. But its also true that Wyoming is one of just 13 states that require all students, college-bound or not, to take the test. Of those states, Wyoming ranks fourth.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, a Laramie Democrat, said the consultants shouldnt compare Wyoming just to neighboring states. Republican leaders in the Senate have for months noted that Wyoming pays substantially more than its regional neighbors, and theyve charged the state doesnt get an acceptable return on its investment.

But Rothfuss said officials should be comparing schools here to the very best in the country, which are located largely on the East Coast.

If all we want to do is beat our neighbors, were doing that, he said. What do we want? To be the best of seven (nearby) states and then stop trying to compare to rest of the country? Or do we want to have education system thats equal to East Coast states or West Coast states?

Lawmakers and the APA consultants didnt settle Tuesday on what states Wyomings system should be compared with.

Alternative options

On top of their review of the states current funding model, the consultants will also explore three alternative systems: successful schools, which looks at the best districts in the state, determines their resource levels and applies them to other districts across the state; professional judgment panels, which would bring together educators and experts from across the state to determine adequate funding levels; and a statistical approach, which would compare funding levels with students results.

Lawmakers could recommend one of those options over the current model, particularly if it would save the state money. But theres also the potential that the examinations of all of the models could actually raise the bill for the state, said Sen. Bill Landen.

The consultants told lawmakers that if any of the alternative models produced cheaper results, they would investigate why to ensure it didnt cut funds at the cost of a poorer education system.

Though state lawmakers have stuck with the current funding model for 12 years  they even turned down a change recommended by their old consultants in 2015  theres still potential they could move on, Harshman said. He pointed out that this system has parts of both successful schools and professional judgment panels rolled in, and any change in the system would probably incorporate elements of the current model.

In addition to their review of the system options, the consultants will conduct studies of other aspects of the education world here. One will look at the viability of consolidating some of the states 48 districts. Another will survey districts to see how theyve been collaborating to save money on services.

Landen said those studies will include a look at transportation and special education. Every dollar districts spend on those services is reimbursed in full by the state, which Landen said provides no incentive for districts to look for savings.

Lawmakers considered cutting reimbursements for both transportation and special education during last winters legislative session but ultimately decided to freeze transportation spending. But committee members repeatedly asked the consultants about looking at those two areas, and Landen said that meant the issues were far from dead.

He said the consultants work will likely also examine average daily membership, a calculation of a districts attendance that determines how much money that district receives from the state. Before this legislative session, a student needed to be in school for only 51 percent of the day to be counted. But lawmakers made a change, so students must be in school at least 80 percent of the time.

The recalibration process is operating on a tight time frame, lawmakers acknowledged. The consultants will have to work quickly to complete the needed examinations by November, when legislators have said theyd like to consider the consultants recommendations. But the consultants plan puts their timeline for completing that process in December or January, which would give lawmakers little time to weigh their options before the Legislature convenes in February.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 26 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.
PHOENIX  A judge has ruled that an Arizona law that caps employer contribution rates to retirement funds for judges and elected officials is unconstitutional.

The Maricopa County judge on Monday ordered the Legislature to significantly increase funding for the statewide pension system for judges and other elected officials that is in danger of going bankrupt.

Colin Campbell, an attorney for the two retired judges who filed the lawsuit, said the rates set by the Legislature in 2013 were bleeding the fund dry.

Judge Timothy Thomason did not tell the Legislature how to fix the shortfall in the fund. But he advised that payments from public employers, such as the state, would need to nearly double or lawmakers would need to pump an additional $43 million a year into the trust.

If lawmakers decide to increase contribution rates from the current level to 53 percent, it will cost the state and counties $78,002 a year to pay the pension benefits of a Superior Court judge earning $147,175 annually.

Assets in the trust are expected to be depleted in the next 10 to 13 years if changes are not made.

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, a Chandler Republican, said he expects an appeal of the judges decision.

Then at some point, were going to have to tackle all the pension-related issues, Mesnard said.

Mesnard said state lawmakers have two options: Either divert money from other public needs, such as health, public safety or education, or send a constitutional amendment to the voters.
What would it take for the city of Tucson to allow a farmers market to set up in Udall Regional Park?

An act of Congress.

A 28-year-old bureaucratic mistake related to land exchange between the city and the Bureau of Land Management has limited the growth and development of the northeast-side park and blocked nearly any type of commercial enterprises inside the park, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.

The city, which operates the park, has been quietly lobbying Congress to remove the BLM restriction on the park, but stepped up its efforts last week with City Manager Michael Ortega and U.S. Rep. Martha McSally testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, the bill was approved by the committee and will be sent to the House for a floor vote.

The bipartisan bill authored by McSally, the Udall Park Land Exchange Completion Act, would complete a 28-year-old land exchange and allow the city to own outright the land where the 173-acre park sits.

Documents from the 1989 land exchange indicate it was the intention of the BLM to transfer full title to the city for land where Udall Park is located without any constraints on how to develop it.

As part of the agreement, the city in 1989 negotiated to transfer 297 acres of city land worth about $4 million adjacent to Saguaro National Park to the BLM for the title of the land where Udall Park is sited.

The deal was never finalized because of staff changes at the BLM, the city and other involved parties, and commercial activity is prohibited at the park, according to the city.

My legislation would formally complete the long-overdue agreement on land that has already been exchanged at fair market value, McSally testified at the hearing.

Udall Park is a beautiful place for our Southern Arizona community to gather, but the city of Tucson has been unable to improve and expand the park to its full potential, McSally told the committee.

Federal red tape should not stand in the way of communities developing local parks.

Ortega said the city has long had its hands tied in terms of commercial opportunities to supplement park funding.

The legislation is needed to complete what should have been completed almost 28 years ago and to provide an enhanced recreational and economic future for the citizens of Tucson, Ortega said.

With the restrictions lifted, the city could allow for part-time leases like a farmers market or something more permanent, like cell towers.

Councilman Paul Cunningham says a developer approached him a few years ago about a possible partnership at the park, but it never went past the preliminary stages due to the BLM restriction.

Ortega cautioned that while the bill is a good first step, he didnt expect companion legislation to be heard in the Senate until sometime next year.

Any large-scale changes to the park are likely years away, he said.
Untreated wastewater is pouring into the Nogales Wash after city employees found a partial breach of an eroding pipeline that carries more than 10 million gallons of raw sewage per day from Nogales, Sonora, to Arizona.

During a Tuesday inspection workers found that a dislodged section of cement that encases one of the manhole accesses to the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI), partially sheared the pipe below the waterline, about 200 yards north of the intersection of Old Tucson Road and the Nogales Wash.

Santa Cruz County Health Services is advising people who live in areas where there is water running in the wash and tributaries east of the Nogales Wash to keep out of those areas. The Santa Cruz County Emergency Operation Center has been partially activated to support the efforts of local authorities, officials said in a news release.

Nogales City Manager Carlos Rivera said they dont know yet how extensive the break is, but they can see sewage bubbling out and estimate fixing the problem will cost between $1 million and $2 million.

The IOI carries wastewater nearly nine miles from Sonora to a treatment plant in Rio Rico.

The 42-year-old pipeline runs about three feet below the bottom of the Nogales Wash and over time has developed cracks and half of its thickness has eroded.

When it rains, groundwater infiltrates the pipe and increases the volume in the wastewater system.

IOI has had major failures every year from 2007 until 2011, some of which impacted the Santa Cruz River, according to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, which sued the commission in 2012 for allowing untreated industrial wastewater to cross the border at Nogales.

"The wastewater that originates in Mexico is also industrial which is difficult, if not impossible to treat," Henry Darwin, director of the department said in 2013. "So if the IOI breaks, the water can be contaminated with chemicals too."

A hotline has been established for public and media inquiries at 520-375- 7784.

Updates will also be posted on the County Facebook page, Santa Cruz County, Arizona and Twitter page.
This policy is based on the legality of Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order, if you do not believe the president has the right to unilaterally set immigration policy for one set of people who arrived in the country illegally then the court must decide with the people of Arizona who want state benefits saved for legal residents or citizens of Arizona. If, however, you believe the president has the right to ignore Congress and make up his own immigration policies, then the DACA students are now temporary legal residents and entitled to in-state tuition.
Re. the July 24 letter to the editor Canadian health care isnt a bed of roses.

The letter writer told stories of Canadians having to wait for doctor appointments, lab results and surgery. With such hardships it is hard to understand how these poor people, and citizens of every other civilized country in the world, manage to survive, let alone have higher life expectancies, higher literacy rates, thriving economies and better health-care cost containment than the U.S.

Maybe the writer should hear the stories of citizens of our country who, by mere chance, either shell out their savings (if they are so lucky to have any), or watch one of their loved ones suffer a slow death because they cant get decent insurance.

Bill Smith

Vail
Kelli Ward is a physician and a physicians first rule of professional conduct is do no harm. Kelli Ward is a politician and the politicians first rule is get elected. The second is go up higher. Having been elected to the Arizona Senate, Ward set her sights on the U.S. Senate and last year challenged John McCain in the Republican primary. She lost and immediately began a campaign to challenge Jeff Flake in next years Republican primary.

But Kelli Ward is in a hurry. Bringing a physicians knowledge to bear on John McCain's unfortunate diagnosis, shes aiming at becoming his successor, gratuitously diagnosing that hes not up to doing his job and should resign to make way for her to be appointed to his seat. Her unbridled ambition harms McCain, her party, her state and not least herself. My prescription: apologies all around, Dr. Ward; back off and enjoy life as a physician in Havasu City.

Frank Bergen

Northeast side
Re: the July 22 article "Unrest over contested shrine kills 3 Palestinians, 3 Israelis."

It is no wonder so many Americans think that all Palestinians are terrorists and murderers! Palestinians are killers is what you, the media, teach us. Take the recent article by the Associated Press that describes the deaths of three Israelis, including two children, in detail while describing the deaths of three Palestinians as the product of clashes.

The article says the assailant was upset by the events at the Jerusalem shrine," but fails to describe how Israeli police killed a protestor at the shrine hours earlier, or how an Israeli settler killed an 18-year-old Palestinian in East Jerusalem. There is no way that Americans could ever be honest brokers for Middle East peace so long as our press fails to tell us the whole truth.

John Prugh

Foothills
Re: the July 24 column "Int'l education programs secure our place in world."

David Dunford's column reminded me of when University of Arizona President Manuel Pacheco headed a delegation to visit the Middle East, including Oman, where Dunford served as U.S. ambassador. We were all honored to have him represent our country and through his good offices we were welcomed by many high officials of Oman, which opened new doors for the university.

I also well remember his stand on Iraq and I wish more people followed his advise. We have many opportunities at the UA to benefit from "practical" scholars like Dunford and I hope that they pursue that. I also hope the government will support international education programs for our great country.

Simon Horness

Northeast side
The old Senator John McCain showed up on Tuesday, upbraiding the Senate for descending into partisan warfare when it should be cooperating to solve important national problems. Unfortunately, Old McCains thoughtful speech came a little too late. His nemesis, New McCain, had already cast the deciding vote to advance a health care bill embodying everything Old McCain denounced.

Had New McCain voted otherwise the Senate would have been forced to step back, hold hearing, and seek a bipartisan solution. These are, of course, exactly the actions Old McCain said he wants the Senate to take. Too bad he was foiled when New McCain flew in at the last moment to pull his partys partisan chestnuts out of the fire.

I wish John McCain the best. I hope he gets better and I hope the Old McCain comes back strong.

David Shannon

Midtown
A 6% cut to Federal Employees pay. $487 billion in cuts to Medicare and $3.5 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade. Deep cuts to food programs. Giant reductions in college aid programs. This is only part of the Houses proposed fiscal year 2018 budget, which was drafted by Republicans without any Democratic input.

But there is a ray of hope. House moderates in the Tuesday Group have drafted a letter calling this budget impractical, and asking for a bi-partisan approach that doesnt cut so deep.

Our swing district here in Southern Arizona, held by Republican Martha McSally, is lucky in that she is a member of the Tuesday Group. Please ask our Tuesday Group Representative to lobby hard on our behalf to use a scalpel and not the cudgel in this budget and to protect the programs and people who would otherwise be hurt by this toxic proposal.

Kristen Randall

East side
Help India!

Patna, (IANS): Welcoming the resignation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday said his party was not in favour of mid-term assembly elections.

He said a three-member committee had been formed to decide the future political strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.

Support TwoCircles



We welcome Nitish Kumars resignation on corruption issue. He refused to give into Congress pressure and resigned. He has not compromised on the issue of corruption, Sushil Kumar Modi, a former Deputy Chief Minister, told the media here.

People have voted for their MLAs so that they can complete their five-year term. We dont want mid-term elections in Bihar, he added.

A three-member committee has been formed. Nityanand Ray, Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar and I have been appointed to talk to party MLAs. After taking into account the partys decision, the central leadership will be informed.

Whatever decision the central leadership takes, we will work to implement it. The committee will work as a bridge between the state unit and the central leadership. It will work on devising the future political strategy, he added.
Help India!

TCN News

Delhi : Modi governments diktat, made at the behest of the Sugar Lobby of the mill owners, ordering the price of sugarcane be fixed using the Rangarajan formula is this Governments latest attack on farmers and farming, accused Swaraj Abhiyans founder Yogendra Yadav in a press statement.

Support TwoCircles



Rejecting the decision, Yogendra Yadav, founder of Swaraj Abhiyans Jai Kisan Andolan said that the sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh will not accept the Rangarajan formula at any cost.

It is worth noting that Modi Governments concerned director GS Sahoo had written a letter to the UP Government asking it to abandon the State Supported Price (SSP) for the Centres FRP (Fair and Remunerative Price) for sugarcane farming.

FRP is neither fair nor remunerative, Yogendra Yadav said.

Yadav termed it as a tool to sacrifice the farmers interests for the interests of the Sugar Lobby.

Yogendra Yadav said, The previous Manmohan government had also attempted to do this but the farmers of Uttar Pradesh resisted it and ensured that the government does not succeed in its nefarious plans.

He also said that Jai Kisan Andolan will not let the Governments nefarious plan to succeed and promised to unite all pro-farmer organisations to protect the interests of sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister Modi should not go back on his pre-poll promise of providing the farmers a profit of 50 percent over the production cost and the same should be provided to the sugarcane farmers as well, Yogendra Yadav said.
Wildfires in South Eastern France have forced 12,000 local people and holidaymakers to evacuate as overnight fires created a developing state of emergency, say local officials.

'We are going to find burnt fortifications'

The latest massive blazes rage a day after France asked for help fighting the fires from EU neighbours. At least 4,000 hectares (15,4 sq miles) of land and forests have burned in Toulouse, along the Mediterranean coast near Bormes-les-Mimosas (Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region), in the mountainous interior and on the northern side of Corsica island.

Saint Tropez, 1000 km east of Nice, was another of the worst ravaged areas by the blaze. British tourist Lisa Minot, one of 3000 people evacuated from Saint Tropez, confirmed to BBC that all tourists were evacuated at about 2 am local time.

There were a lot of children being evacuated she added. Tourists have been moved to the beach as it was not safe in the wooded campsites, while residents sheltered in a local gymnasium. Several people curled up in sleeping bags on the sand, while behind them black smoke rose to the sky.

Reports show that some campsites were totally burned by the fire. Francois Foucier, a member of a coastal member group, told the Guardian there would be victims of the fires in Hermann's Tortoises Holiday Village.

We are going to find burnt shells and fortifications", he said. Desolated Deputy Mayor Rene Carandante described the landscape as a disaster area.

20 emergency workers have been hurt

The fires along the Riviera and Corsica began on Monday. Experts said the flames have been spread by strong Mistral winds and lack of rain. Sylvie Houspic, a VAR official, told BFMTV news Channel that the fire that started Tuesday evening near Bormes-Les-Mimosas and had torched a trailer park in a densely populated area.

Ms Houspic added that two houses had burned down and that a firefighter had suffered a broken wrist. More than 20 of 4,000 emergency workers fighting the fires have been injured through smoke inhalation since the fires broke out.

Calling on everyone's civic-mindedness

Summer fires are not unusual in southern European regions but Gregory Allione, the head of the Fire Department in the Bouches-du-Rhone region, claimed on Monday there are suspicions of malicious acts in several cases. "I call upon everyone's civic-mindedness, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb posted on Twitter on Monday night before sending six more Canada Air water bombers into the afflicted area.
In March 2015 Raffaele Sollecito, the victim of a travesty of justice which occurred in Perugia, Italy back in November 2007 was finally exonerated of all charges. The Guardian reported that back then he was accused of the murder of British student Meredith KercherItalys. Now Italy's highest court proclaimed that his exoneration stemmed from the simple fact that absolutely no evidence existed to warrant his incarceration in the first place.

Just because the courts have admitted their mistake doesnt change the harm that has already been done.

Up until March 2015, Raffaele lived a life in limbo.

The uncertainty of whether or not he was really a free man, made dusting himself off and picking up the pieces of years unjustly stolen from him was really an uphill battle. He was constantly associated with a murder he was proven to have unequivocally had nothing to do with. Raffaeles life was akin to being frozen in time.

Refusing to pay up is nothing short of deplorable.

Clearly, the Italian courts have never been told that just because youre sorry doesnt make things right. For all accidents and mistakes compensation to the victim should be rendered without question. Italian judicial officials giving themselves a pat on the back for exonerating Raffaele doesnt automatically get them off the hook.

Raffaeles years of injustice and suffering were once again cast to the side when in February of this year his claim of 500,000 was denied.

Following this, the Italian Judicial System had the nerve to issue an unbelievable claim that Raffaele had somehow entrapped himself within the unfortunate situation that took years of his life away.

Clearly a scapegoat to cover up their mistakes and nothing more

So now the Italian judicial system has the nerve to insinuate that its Raffaeles fault he was imprisoned with absolutely no evidence?

Who in their right mind would ask to go to jail? Clearly, this is yet another form of injustice that Raffaele is forced to undergo.

Are we being punked?

Raffaeles life which was full of promise and opportunity was taken from him. He had the world at his fingertips. To even insinuate that Raffaele asked to be put in the situation is ludicrous.

He has been denied compensation for far too long. Its about time the Italian judicial system made an effort to make things right. Apparently, they seem to have forgotten the years which were robbed from Raffaele that he is never going to get back.
US President Donald Trump gave a speech to the Boy Scouts at their annual Jamboree event in West Virginia, and it was one of the most hilarious speeches of all time. He got heavily political throughout his speech, reiterating his 2016 victories and complaining about the Republican Partys commitment to his healthcare bill, and since he was talking to a bunch of kids, it was hysterical. As usual with Trumps tirades, it left his supporters cheering and his detractors scratching their heads and laughing.

Some of his lines seem to have come from a comedy sketch

A lot of Trumps lines in his speech appeared to have come from a comedy sketch or a South Park episode, but certainly not an actually US President speaking to young children. Ready to laugh? Okay, here are the funniest lines. For starters, he said that he thought that maybe a few of the Scouts who were there at his speech had "camped out in this yard" back when his Vice President Mike Pence was Indiana's Governor. The kids he was talking to don't care who's Governor. Trump added that even though Pence was the Governor, "the scouting was very, very important. Oh, good. Thank God. I was worried for a second.

Trump went on to tell the following anecdote: Ill tell you a story thats very interesting for me when I was young.

There was a man named William Levitt  Levittowns, you have some here, you have some in different states. He clearly had no idea who he was talking to. He was telling a bunch of little kids in Virginia about life in New York just after the end of World War II. Whats the point?
US President Donald Trump has recently appeared in West Virginia at the annual Jamboree event to give a speech to a crowd of Boy Scouts. He said, Who the hell wants to speak about politics when Im in front of the Boy Scouts, right? to which his many right-wing fans cheered. However, what followed was a long, hilarious speech during which Trump spoke about politics. He slammed people, ranted about the political climate, and thanked the boys, who are all under the voting age, for voting for him.

You set a record today. You set a record.

Parents were furious about the speech, with one commenting that the President sounded like a drunk stepdad as he spoke to their kids.

Trump said, Boy, you have a lot of people here. He then voiced his estimate at the attendance: 45,000 people. He added, The press will say its about 200 people, in reference to the inauguration ceremony debacle where what Trump and his former Press Secretary Sean Spicer were saying contradicted not only what the press were saying, but actual photographic evidence.

With regards to the attendance of the event, Trump said, You set a record today. You set a record. There is no record for Boy Scout Jamboree attendance that I know of, nor would it be something to brag about. Plus, even if it was a record-breaking attendance, Trump just guesstimated that  he couldnt be sure. Its just something he decided to say, as usual.

The press  or at least the Charleston Gazette  actually guessed more than 200. The Gazette estimated 40,000, and they also added that the press werent allowed to bring film equipment into the venue.

Trump got very political very quickly

It didnt take long for Trump to break his promise  as usual  and start talking to the Boy Scouts about politics.

He discussed with them his plans to switch out the word swamp in favour of words like cesspool or sewer. Do the Boy Scouts really care about that? He also pointed out that ten of the top advisors on his Cabinet team used to be Boy Scouts. However, he failed to mention Attorney General (and Eagle Scout) Jeff Sessions at all during his speech.

Trump and Sessions arent getting along so well at the moment.

Just as Trump was introducing Rick Perry  his Secretary of Energy  he said, Were doing a lot with energy. Does it get any vaguer than that? Thats because Rick Perry isnt the greatest guy, so any more specific details about the lot hes doing with energy and Trump would have had a mutiny on his hands. At least he specified energy. At least we know what were doing a lot with. At least it wasnt just, Were doing a lot with stuff. But still, a little more detail would be nice.

Trump also made veiled threats about Tom Price, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Price was standing awkwardly right next to him on the stage at the time.

Trump said, He better get them. Oh, he better. Otherwise, Ill say, Tom, youre fired. Ill get somebody. The President has been trying to get Jeff Sessions to resign, and now it looks like hes doing the same with Tom Price. As God is Trumps witness, he will get Trumpcare passed through Congress, one way or another.

We could use some more loyalty

Trump finally got back to talking about the Boy Scouts, the guys he was really there for  but only for five words. He started quoting Scout Law and said, A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, before going off on a politically driven tangent about loyalty. We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that. Hes referring to Jeff Sessions, and the Republican Partys lack of commitment to Trumpcare and doubts over Trumps healthcare bill, and the White House staff leaking information to the press. But did it ever occur to Trump that perhaps hes the problem and not everybody else?
A tech junkie recently bought one of the tech giants original and working Apple-1 computers for a whopping 278,428 at an auction that went down at Christies New York City office.

About the Apple-1 computers

Apple-1, the tech companys first personal computer was launched in 1976. Designed and created by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the computers were originally sold at 521.68. Around 200 Apple-1 computers were made back then, 50 of these models were purchased by a tech store soon after their release.

In his 2006 autobiography iWoz, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote that Jobs did not help build the Apple-1 computers.

Instead, Wozniak claimed that he engineered the computer on his own, while Jobs focused on selling them.

The auction

The Apple-1 computers catapulted the California-based company into fame thanks to its pre-assembled motherboard, which put Apple far ahead of its competitors, according to Christies auction listing. A computers motherboard is the main printed circuit board that contains key components like a central processing unit (CPU) and memory chips that are necessary for the computer to function.

Christies estimates that Apples first personal computers are worth between 234,760 and 391,267. However, the auction house didnt mention why this particular computer was sold for a lower price than others.

Meanwhile, AppleInsider.com speculates that it may be that bidders wanted a "pure" machine.

Last month, an Apple-1 computer that belonged to a software engineer was sold at an auction in Germany for 97,184 approx. The PC is extremely rare as it is one of the eight working models in the world. In October 2014, another Apple-1 was sold by Bonhams auction house in New York for approximately 710,444.

According to Christies, about 50 of these original computers still exist, with many being displayed at museums across the globe, like at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Other vintage Apple products that have been sold for some serious money

In 2012, an original Apple 1 motherboard was sold at Sothebys for 293,196.

The motherboard is a rare item as it is a part of many Apple products from 1976. According to Sothebys, the Apple 1 motherboard would fetch approximately 140,856. Whats more, a letter from Steve Jobs was sold for as much as 21,128 approx. at the same auction.

Besides computers and motherboards, other Apple products have also been sold for a lot of cash.

Recently, branded sneakers created by the tech giant were put on eBay with a starting price of 11,744. The sneakers were created when Apple was considering getting in the clothing business. But the shoes never made their debut and were distributed among the companys employees instead.

First released in October 2001, Apple iPods were all the rage in early 21st century. Today old Apple iPods are being sold for thousands of pound on eBay and other sites. In fact, some of these music devices are now selling for over 15,000.
Associate Professor Eman Ghoneim Receives Egyptian Presidential Invitation to Egyptian Women Can" Conference

Eman Ghoneim, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences and the director of the Remote Sensing Research Lab, was among 30 prominent Egyptian women leaders from around the world selected to present at the Egyptian Women Can" Conference, a summit on womens empowerment in Egypt. The summit was sponsored by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

Ghoneim received a presidential invitation from the Ministry of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs to attend the July 2-3 conference held in Cairo. The goal of the conference was to recognize the achievement of Egyptian women in the areas of science and economics.

Such an invitation demonstrates faith of the Egyptian presidency in the importance of the participation of Egyptian women in outlining the future development map of Egypt Vision 2030, said Ghoneim, who grew up in Tanta City, located in the middle of the Nile Delta. Egypt Vision 2030 is the countrys sustainable development strategy.

Ghoneim, the editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Remote Sensing Application, is a physical geographer whose research includes utilizing advanced geospatial technology in the study of natural resources (including surface and groundwater exploration in dry environments), natural hazards (including flash-flood risk, drought, coastal erosion and sea level rise as a result of climate change) and coastal wetlands management.

Her presentation focused on the applications of remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems technology in the exploration of natural resources in Egypt and modeling risks from natural hazards such as floods, sea level rise and coastal erosion. Her talk was broadcasted live on the Egyptian national TV channel. She was also selected to deliver the summit final remarks.

I strongly believe that applied sciences can always improve the conditions of life for people who are in desperate need of help and can ultimately lead to great advances in society over time. Apparently, such abiding belief is what has shaped my research interest, said Ghoneim, recipient of the 2017 Chancellors Teaching Excellence Award. I am trying to apply my skills and knowledge in understanding the cause of some of the problematic issues that affect the lives of a large number of people worldwide and see how, by science, we can minimize such negative effects.

Ghoneim was presented an award for her scientific achievements from the Minister of Emigration and Egyptian Expats Affairs and the president of the National Council for Women in Egypt. She was also recognized by the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport in Egypt.

I am deeply honored to receive the Egyptian Women Can Award, she said. It is really humbling to receive the award in the presence of so many great Egyptian leaders and ministers.

The event was organized by the ministry and the government in cooperation with the National Council for Women. Egyptian leaders hope, as a result of the conference, that women leaders will lend their expertise to help boost development in Egypt.

This will open doors and will lead to opportunities to collaborate with the government and with other universities, Ghoneim said.

- Venita Jenkins

#CAS

#GLOBAL

Eman Ghoneim (center) received an award for her scientific achievements during the "Egyptian Women Can" Conference from Dr. Nabila Makram, the Minister of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs (right) and Dr. Maya Morsi, president

of the National Council for Women, Cairo, Egypt.
It's no secret that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are no fans of the affordable care act. While the president was making yet another speech to bash Obamacare, Trump made an embarrassing mistake.

Trump on Obamacare

Just over a year after Barack Obama was sworn into office, he went on to sign Obamacare into law in January 2010. The landmark piece of legislation changed how millions of Americans received their health insurance, while creating one of the widest partisan divides in recent memory. During the entire time Obama was in office, Republicans made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act their number one priority.

During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare at any and all costs. However, since his upset general election win over Hilary Clinton last November, Trump and the Republicans in Congress have failed to get on the same page to deliver the American people a suitable alternative for health care. With the GOP plan on the back-burner, Trump is pushing to simply repeal Obamacare outright. As reported by Mediaite on June 24, Trump addressed the issue during a speech, but made a careless blunder while doing so.

Doh! President Trump Bemoans How Obamacare Has Been Destroying America for 17 Years https://t.co/T5rQYbJmYF pic.twitter.com/yT620EpjEs  Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 24, 2017

While speaking about his thoughts on the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump claimed that Obamacare has been bad for the United States for almost two decades, despite being signed into law just over seven years ago.

"For the past 17 years, Obamacare has wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent, hardworking Americans," Trump claimed. As expected, Trump's mistake was highlighted across social media.

Twitter reacts

Not long after Donald Trump made his Obamacare mistake, Twitter users were quick to take notice and fire back. "Trump begins: 'For the past 17 years, Obamacare has wreaked havoc...' It was passed seven years ago," Daniel Dale tweeted out.

Apparently, even before Obama, there was OBAMACARE, wreaking havoc on the American health system.  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 24, 2017

Trump begins: "For the past 17 years, Obamacare has wreaked havoc..." It was passed seven years ago.  Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 24, 2017

I'm a cancer patient and I'd just like to remind you that Trump is lying, because Obamacare saved my life, and many others  Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 24, 2017

"Apparently, even before Obama, there was OBAMACARE, wreaking havoc on the American health system," actor George Takei wrote.

"I'm no historian, but I think it's fake news to say Obamacare started 17 years ago," another social media user added.

I'm no historian, but I think it's fake news to say Obamacare started 17 years ago.  TDPattillo (@TDPattillo) July 24, 2017

Watching Trump lie through his teeth about Obamacare makes me feel physically sick enough to want to go visit my excellent Obamacare doctor  Ben Wikler (@benwikler) July 24, 2017

"Watching Trump lie through his teeth about Obamacare makes me feel physically sick enough to want to go visit my excellent Obamacare doctor," Ben Wikler tweeted out. As the backlash continued, it was made clear that the opposition to Donald Trump was not going to end anytime soon. Over the next few weeks, it will be made more clear how the Trump administration and the United States handles health care moving forward.
During the Obama Administration in 2009, there was a threat from the North Korean Government to hit Hawaii with its nuclear armaments. The US government positioned its anti-missile equipment to strengthen its defenses in the Pacific State. Now the threat is real and back after the rogue nation successfully tested its ICBM that is capable of hitting Alaska and Hawaii.

Pyongyang specified Alaska and Hawaii as the primary ICBM targets

America's two Westernmost states of Alaska and Hawaii are the most likely targets that the North Korean Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles seem capable of reaching.

Hawaiian politicians are pushing to prepare the 1.4 million Hawaiians in the event of a nuclear fallout with the backing of Governor David Ige and his Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi, reports The New York Times.

Governor Ige is working with the Department of Defense under Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. at the US Pacific Command headquarters in Oahu to assure the defense of Hawaii against a nuclear attack. Besides the availability of survival guidelines, new measures are being practiced like nuclear drills in public schools and establishments all over the state island.

US West Coast preparing for imminent nuclear strike

Antimissile equipment brought about by fleets of military trucks, boats, and aircraft ready the defenses along the lines of Los Angeles.

The state of California is also bracing for an impending Nuclear Strike. The US is not taking any chances but to be always ready, in case the situation blows up in nuclear proportions, says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford.

Weapons Expert David Wright of the Association of Concerned Scientists says that at the rate of progress of North Korea's nuclear program, Other states like Portland and Seattle will be in the range of their ICBMs after a couple of years.

Hawaiian Legislator Matthew Lopresti says that a wipe-out is what people usually think in a nuclear aftermath, it is not. People will die, but more people will be saved if they are prepared to face the consequences of the event, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Missile defense systems recommissioned by Pentagon for testing

Meanwhile, United States Department of Defense and the Pentagon will soon be retesting its missile defense systems.

The THAAD (Thermal High Altitude Area Defense) missiles will be on test on a specified island of Kodiak, Alaska. The Mayor of Anchorage, Ethan Berkowitz jokingly said that he is more concerned of the moose in Alaska than the ICBMs striking the State.

At any rate, Hawaii and Alaska are better off preparing for the clear and present danger that both states are facing. These two islands will surely be sounding their sirens when an ICBM is set towards their destination.
Ivanka Trump became the subject of internet trolls for attempting to quote Albert Einstein in her tweet posted on June 23, 2013. While there is nothing wrong with quoting a famous personality, the presidential daughter may have got the wrong facts for her Sunday inspiration.

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein #quote #sunday  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 23, 2013

Four years later, a representative of the Albert Einstein estate replied to Ivanka Trump to inform her that the popular physicist is not the author of the said quotation.

The account even attached a reference of Albert Einstein's sayings and wrote, "We can confirm that Albert Einstein never said this quote."

The internet trolls Ivanka Trump

The presidential daughter, on the other hand, refused to comment on the correction and has remained tight-lipped on social media. As expected, the internet was quick to respond to Ivanka Trump's misquotation of the physicist. Some of them made fun of her by coming up with their made-up quotations, while others labeled the presidential daughter "ignorant" among other derogatory nicknames.

@IvankaTrump is just as ignorant corrupt and evil as her conman dad she just looks better on the outside https://t.co/6TYL57lu9k  Fight For Democracy (@ImpeachTheNazi) July 25, 2017

No Churchill said:

"Never gonna give you up,

Never gonna let you down,

Never gonna turn around and desert you"  Nima Tavallaey (@NimaTavRood) July 23, 2017

Say something stupid and attribute it to me. Ignorant people will accept it. - Stephen Hawking or maybe Dwight Eisenhower  Miss Carlene H Lyons (@cerista) July 24, 2017

While everyone was attacking the presidential daughter for a social media post she wrote four years ago, Ivanka Trump was photographed all smiles while leaving their family home on Monday.

But before she stepped out for yet another manic Monday, the mother of three shared an adorable photo of her kids Arabella (6) and Theodore (1). "Good way to start the day," she captioned the post.

Kushner addresses Russian meetings

Ivanka Trump's husband, jared kushner, is currently in hot water for meeting with Russians in the wake of the presidential campaigns last year.

The presidential son-in-law, who was a member of Donald Trump's campaign team, confirmed his presence when Donald Trump Jr. met with Atty. Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016.

Speaking from the White House on Monday, Jared Kushner denied that he colluded with Russia during the 2016 U.S. elections. "I do not know of anyone else," he said as cited by CNN.

His recent remarks support the statement he submitted to confirm his attendance during the meeting.

He, however, clarified that there was nothing "improper" about the meeting with Russia. Jared Kushner also denied that he relied upon them to "finance [his] business activities in the private sector." The senior adviser is hopeful to see the end of this controversy after giving his statements.

"I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form, above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest," he added.
Having gone through a considerable amount of time and drama even to debate the matter of reforming Health Care Reform, the United States Senate will now set about trying to find something that at least 50 senators will agree to. The theory is that whatever passes can then be brought to the conference and reconciled with the House bill. The formula that the Republican Senate leadership has hit about is called skinny repeal.

What is skinny repeal?

Skinny repeal would get rid of three of the more obnoxious provisions of Obamacare, the Individual Mandate, the employer mandate, and the tax on medical devices.

The individual mandate requires everyone to carry very expensive and mostly useless health insurance. The employer mandate requires companies to provide health insurance if they employ a certain number of full-time employees. The medical device tax helps to finance the Obamacare regime.

The provisions have caused a lot of unintended consequences, particularly the employer mandate that has caused companies to cut back on hiring and hours for employees. Eliminating it, by some estimates, would knock a half of a percentage point from the unemployment rate and would enhance economic growth.

The idea would be woefully incomplete

Skinny repeal would be incomplete, which is why it will almost certainly not be the final bill that would go to President Trumps desk for signing.

The removal of the individual mandate, for example, would accelerate the death spiral that the Obamacare markets are already experiencing. Without something like the Cruz amendment that allows for free market health care plans that compete with Obamacare compliant ones, skinny repeal does not work.

The politics going forward

The politics of reforming health care reform is only going to get uglier. A bill advanced by the Senate leadership to repeal and replace Obamacare went down with nine Republicans joining all of the Democrats to vote against.

The conservative wing and the moderate wing of the Senate Republican caucus are still hopelessly divided.

Getting a formula that enough of both sides will be quite a challenge.

Meanwhile, the Senate Democrats are essentially on strike. Having made a mess of things by passing the Obamacare law in the first place, Democrats are refusing to participate in cleaning things up. They are saying no to everything, using apocalyptic rhetoric to attack every idea that the Republicans advance. They have made the political calculation that this strategy will be to their advantage in the 2018 midterms. If the Democrats take over one or both houses of Congress, they mean to set about enacting what they have really wanted all along, single payer, government run health care.
The State Senate in Texas has voted in a preliminary hearing to keep laws in place which state that a person must use whatever bathroom is assigned to their gender as written on their birth certificate. Human and civil rights groups have claimed that the bill, which is not yet officially a law, discriminates against those in society who are transgender. The Senate in Texas is dominated by the Republicans, as is the House of Representatives where a final check of the bill will take place and a final decision regarding its legal standing will be made.

Typically, this takes thirty days so a final result on the bill can be expected to be released around the middle of August 2017. The bill has brought into question the treatment of those who identify themselves as a gender, not specified on their birth certificate, and the enactment of perceived socially discriminatory laws by conservative parties and supporters.

What does the bill mean for the transgender community in Texas?

Simply, the bill, if put into law, will mean that everyone must use public toilets and any other publically-owned amenities such as changing rooms, school locker rooms etc. in accordance with the sex that is specified on their birth certificate. If a person does not identify with the sex on their birth certificate, they will still be required by law to use facilities which have been created specifically for their "official" gender.

If a person was, in theory, not to adhere to these rules and regulations it would be a criminal offense. As reported by Reuters, conservatives " have said the proposed bathroom restrictions promote public safety and protect vulnerable Women And Children". This old-fashioned view has not gone down well with liberals and those in support of transgender and non-gender specific rights.

Fear is currently brewing amongst these communities that the approval and enactment of such a bill will cause a domino effect in terms of conservative demands.

Opponents of bill trying to fight back

Those who are in opposition to the bill are ensuring that their voices are heard. Human rights activists have argued that stating the safety of women and children is a very damaging notion and potentially very dangerous for the transgender community, as this group in society are already the victims of many discriminatory laws and views.

It has also been said that negative behavior aimed specifically at the transgender community could occur as a result of the implications of this bill.

At the preliminary hearing in the Senate, the vote in favor of enacting the bill was 21-10.
Actor Stefan Kapicic told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that Colossus is set to have a bigger part to play in the upcoming "Deadpool 2" movie.

A colossal growth

Kapicics take on Colossus back in the first Deadpool film became an instant hit, particularly his pairing with another X-men colleague Negasonic Teenage Warhead (played by Brianna Hilderbrand).

During Kapicics interview, he said that Colossus didnt have time to develop in the previous "X-men" movies despite the fact that hes one of the more iconic characters in the comic books.

He also explained that Colossus needed that space and Tim Miller, Ryan Reynolds, and Fox decided to give him a spot that the character can use to continue his growth.

The actor said that the sequel would answer many questions the fans are asking right now regarding the first film. He also added that some questions he read on the internet are already answered in the upcoming sequel. Kapicic stated that hes a comic book fan. And with the incredible state of the upcoming "Deadpool" sequel, hes very excited and would love to share some information regarding the upcoming movie if he could.

David Leitch as the new director

The film has only been in production for less than a month, and Kapicic expects to be a lot busier until April 2018 during the post-production.

Its no secret that after Tim Millers unexpected departure from the project due to some creative differences between him and Ryan Reynolds, the fans of the first film became worried about the state of the upcoming sequel. However, basing on Kapicics reaction about Millers replacement, it seems like the new director David Leitch is doing an amazing job picking-up after the previous directors work.

Stefan Kapicic stated that Leitchs way of handling the project, particularly his character Colossus is unbelievable. He added that the director is pretty relaxed, intelligent and absolutely visionary which can reflect in his other movies such as the upcoming film Atomic Blonde.

"Deadpool 2" will star Ryan Reynolds as the titular character.

Other returning cast includes Morena Baccarin, TJ Miller, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, Zazie Beets, and Stefan Kapicic. Josh Brolin also enters the fray in this sequel as the iconic member of the X-force as Cable. David Leitch currently helms the movies production based on the script written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

"Deadpool 2" is set to hit the theaters on June 1, 2018.
The activities of North Korea are shrouded in secrecy and unpredictable. It claims to have mastered the art of making missiles and has developed an ICBM which can launch an attack on the United States. Pyongyang has also identified Alaska and Hawaii as two likely targets, hence the Pentagon plans to carry out testing of its Thaad Missile Defense System in Alaska.

Of course, the Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, had indicated that he was more worried about the moose rather than any ICBM attack. As far as Hawaii is concerned, it has started to educate its people on the actions that must be taken in case of a nuclear missile attack.

Obviously, there is tension in the air because any such attack would be disastrous with large-scale death and devastation.

Strategy of the Pentagon

Fox News reports that the Pentagon has selected Kodiak Island, Alaska, to carry out another test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). It would launch a rocket from a facility on the island, and the U.S. Coast Guard has warned vessels in the region to stay away from the area. The tentative date of this exercise, as informed by Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis to a section of the media is July 29.

It may be recalled that on July 11, one week after North Korea test fired its ICBM, the United States test-fired its THAAD anti-ballistic missile system from the same Kodiak Island and it successfully intercepted a rocket that was launched from the air in Hawaii.

In the opinion of experts, North Korea wanted to make a statement with an ICBM that it had acquired the capability to target the U.S.

What is THAAD?

THAAD is a missile defense system that has been developed by the U.S. to intercept short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles but, it does not target ICBMs. It is already positioned in South Korea and Guam to counter missile threats from North Korea and can boast of a cent percent record of hitting targets.

The system is now under test in Alaska.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford, while replying to questions at the 2017 Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, has confirmed that the U. S. military has the ability to defend itself and its allies in the region, namely South Korea and Japan. He went on to add that the regime in North Korea is intent on pursuing its nuclear programs and has, apparently, acquired a level of expertise to launch a limited missile attack. He did not rule out any possible military options against the country but, also said that his priority is to prevent any nuclear strike on American soil.
Surveillance aircraft intercepted by 2 J-10 fighter jets over East China Sea

China urged the United States to immediately stop its "unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly dangerous military activity" after a US Navy surveillance plane flew in airspace over the East China Sea on Sunday.

"China's Air Force dealt with it in accordance with laws and regulations. The Chinese pilots' maneuvers are legal, necessary and professional," Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to media reports, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Monday that two Chinese J-10 fighter jets intercepted a US EP-3 plane over the East China Sea during the weekend, with one jet coming within about 90 meters of the US aircraft.

Reuters cited a US official as saying that the Chinese jet was armed and the interception took place 80 nautical miles, or about 148 km, from Qingdao, Shandong province.

Ren said the US military aircraft's surveillance activities threatened China's national security, damaged both countries' military security and posed a danger to the safety of both the Chinese and US pilots.

"These actions are the root cause of the security issue between China and the US, both in the air and at sea," he said, "The US should immediately cease such kinds of unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly, dangerous military activity."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang also said on Tuesday that US warships and warplanes over a period of time have carried out long-term and frequent surveillance activities near China's coast.

"Such activities seriously threaten China's maritime and air security. We urge the US to immediately stop such surveillance activity and prevent such incidents from happening again," he told reporters at a daily news conference.

Lu also said China has been devoted to safeguarding flight order and security at sea as they apply to international laws and related rules.

"We are also actively working to establish military mutual trust with other countries in order to appropriately manage and control disputes," he added.

On May 17, a US WC-135 Constant Phoenix reconnaissance aircraft carried out operations in airspace over the Yellow Sea and Chinese aircraft acted to identify and investigate in accordance with the law.

Major General Ma Gang, a professor at the PLA National Defense University, said the "countless" surveillance activities in recent years reflect that some people in the US cannot take a correct view of China's development, especially in terms of military power.

"China has to take just and professional actions when warnings do not work anymore," he said.
Members of the Togtoh Ulan Muqir from Togtoh county prepare for a performance at a grazing site in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region.[Photo/Xinhua]

Songs and dances reflecting the herdsman's life entertain those living in Inner Mongolia's remotest areas

It was the middle of the afternoon, but the herdsmen stopped their work and gathered for the arrival of the Ulan Muqir, or Red Bud Troupe.

Ulan Muqir is the Mongolian name for a troupe that travels from one grazing site to another, performing for herdsmen who live in some of China's most remote areas. Since it was formed in 1957 in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, generations of performers have sung and danced for herdsmen and taken root in the prairie.

This time, Ulan Muqir was set to perform in Xar Moron township in Inner Mongolia's Chifeng.

"I am so excited that they have finally come. Ulan Muqir's performances are my favorite," said Tumendelger, a herdsmen.

Yilan, 83, a first-generation Ulan Muqir performer, still remembers when the first Ulan Muqir formed.

"It was June 17, 1957. We gave our first performance in the Sunite Right Banner in Xilingol League. So many herdsmen came to watch our performance. The blue sky was our curtain and the grassland our stage," she said. "The herdsmen were so happythey sang and danced with us and didn't want to leave."

According to Yilan, as herdsmen lived in prairies far from the city, they did not have books, newspapers or radios, or access to folk art.

"But they had the need, and that was why we formed the first Ulan Muqir," she said. "At that time, we only had a gramophone, two gas lamps, several musical instruments and a few costumes."

Yilan said that nine members of the troupe traveled more than 3,000 kilometers in the following two months, bringing over 30 performances to herdsmen living deep in the prairies.

The troupe rode horses in summer and camels in winter.

"The road was often very bumpy," she said. "Despite the difficulties, we all felt very happy as the herdsmen and us were like a family. They treated us just like their children, with hospitality and the best food they had."
US House Speaker Paul Ryan (Front) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the United States, on July 25, 2017. The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). [Photo/Xinhua]

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans - Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie - voting against the bill.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto.

The measure aims at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital US interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbors," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" US foreign policy in connection with Russia.

"This strong oversight is necessary. It is appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," Royce said, according to news website The Hill.

The White House on Sunday signaled that President Donald Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary sSarah Huckabee Sanders.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during an emergency meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on July 25, 2017. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Tuesday that the situation at Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem should get back to the status quo before July 14. [Photo/Xinhua]

RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Tuesday that the situation at Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem should get back to the status quo before July 14.

"There will be no changes in the Palestinian position," Abbas told in Ramallah at an emergency meeting, attended by senior officials from Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah Party and Palestinian security unit, according to the state-run news agency WAFA.

"All measures taken against Al-Aqsa Mosque after July 14 should be cancelled and ended," said Abbas, adding "the situation in Jerusalem has to get back to normal, then we will resume ties between us and Israelis."

Abbas went on saying that the people of Jerusalem have risen up as one man to reject all the actions taken by Israel and that Palestine will support them.

"What we have decided is to freeze security coordination (with Israel) and this is still valid, defending our sanctities still valid too. We want to study what happened from that day until now, to see what we can do," he added.

On July 14, three Arab-Israeli gunmen opened fire at two Israeli policemen and shot them dead, while police forces fired back at the gunmen and killed them. The attack took place at the yard of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

After the attack, Israel closed the mosque and later installed electronic gates and cameras at the entrances to the mosque. The action provoked protests by the Muslims who refused to enter the mosque through these gates.
 Courtesy of vivalapenler - Fotolia.com



The New England Holocaust Memorial was built as a beacon of memory and hope in in 1995. Visitors may walk under the six glass towers, which can be visited when walking the Freedom Trail, and reflect on the events of the Holocaust and the importance of human rights. Providing an emotional experience, the six towers have been said to symbolize many things: the six different major extermination camps, the six million Jews killed, the six years the mass extermination took place, or the six candles of a menorah.

Engraved on the outside of the glass panels of each tower is the number representing the people killed, and inscribed on the inner walls are quotes from survivors of each camp. Symbolizing an important part of history, the New England Holocaust Memorial is an important learning experience for the entire family.

98 Union St, Boston, MA 02129, 617-457-8755





-- "25 Best Places to Visit in Boston for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top
State of the Blog

I'm not keeping up the blog like I used to. Posts will be here and there, as the mood strikes. Most of what I have to say is in my book. Thank you for reading.


Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page.

Loading...

Checking your browser before accessing the website.

This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly.

Please wait a few seconds.
HA NOI  Leaders of qualified State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will face demotions, salary cuts, fines and even criminal charges if they fail or delay listing on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).

These are some of the drastic measures being considered by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Government Office (GO) as part of efforts to speed up equitisation and induce more transparency into the process.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue has also instructed the MoF and GO to investigate and hand out stiff punishments to businesses and commercial banks that do not finalise the procedures despite being qualified to list on the UPCoM.

The MoF will compile a list of equitised SOEs where the State still retains 36 per cent or more of its stake, as well as those with zero to 36 per cent of State capital, though the decision for the latter to become listed is contingent on the companys shareholders.

In the last six months of 2017, any enterprise tardy about going public on the UPCoM will be heavily fined under Circular 36/2017/TT-BTC which has been in effect since June 15, 2017.

Companies failing to list or register 12 months later than requested by the State Security Commission of Viet Nam will attract fines of VN300 million to VN400 million (US$13,342 to $17,790).

The MoF has also asked the Government and responsible departments and localities to consider disciplinary action against the leadership of companies that are dragging their feet on completing listing procedures.

The disciplinary actions would range from demotions, transfers, salary cuts to more serious criminal charges.

The threat of severe action has prompted several companies to hasten their listing procedures. Officials expect a spate of companies being listed in the second half of the year.

In just five days (July 17- 21), 14 companies have successfully listed their stocks on the HNX, UPCoM and the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), with a total of more than 500 million shares.

On July 20, the Binh Duong Water Environment Joint Stock Company, with stock code BWE, listed 150 million shares listed on the HOSE at the referential price of VN14,300 per share (63 cents); while the Viet Thang Corporation, stock code TVT, listed 21 million shares at VN35,000 per share ($1.55).

Meanwhile, the PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power) is preparing its initial public offering (IPO) for late next month. The Government is seeking strategic investors for the firm and planning to decrease its holdings to below 50 per cent. Around 45 per cent of PV Powers total shares will go to the strategic investors, while three to four per cent will be reserved for the IPO.

The Deputy PM has ordered that all State-owned commercial banks are listed on the UPCoM in order to improve transparency in their operations and generate more opportunities to raise capital.

As of now, at least 10 banks with a total charter capital of VN95 trillion ($4.2 billion) plan to be listed on the UPCoM. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank, with a chartered capital of VN14.06 trillion ($625 million), has registered to list more than 1.33 billion shares on the HOSE.

In a document published last week, Deputy PM Hue also demanded that a list of 730 equitised companies yet to be listed on the UPCoM as of June 2017 be published on the Governments online portal.  VNS
HA NOI  Many leading fashion houses have switched from Chinese to Vietnamese makers of leatherware, acknowledging the improved quality of leather craftsmanship in Viet Nam, industry insiders say.

The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) announced recently that Viet Nam was the fifth largest exporter of handbags and suitcases in the world, accounting for 5.4 per cent of global supply.

The country produces over US$3.2 billion worth of handbags, suitcases and backpacks that are exported to 10 major markets. A large number of factories have become trusted producers for major multinational brands.

Nguyen uc Thuan, LEFASOs Chairman, said the nations leather industry has grown by 10 to 15 per cent per year for the past five years, driven significantly by international fashion brands moving their handbag manufacturing facilities to Viet Nam.

Thuan said a majority of fashion houses have chosen to replace Chinese manufacturers with Vietnamese ones through foreign direct investment.

In the first five months of 2017, the US was the largest market for Vietnamese suitcases, backpacks, and handbags worth $555 million, a six per cent increase over the same period in 2016, according to the General Department of Customs.

The EU was second, importing goods worth $365 million, up 8.2 per cent year on year.

Exports to other main markets included Japan at $146.5 million, up 1.7 per cent; China at $57.6 million, down 6.8 per cent; and South Korea at $52.8 million, down 0.4 per cent.

Nguyen Minh Phong, Head of the Economic Research Section of the Ha Noi Socio-Economic Development Research Institute, had said in June that bag producers in Viet Nam should diversify their export markets, with emphasis on the US and EU markets.

Phong also said that the founding of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 would pose new challenges for Vietnamese leatherware industry. However, he believed the country could turn this into an advantage and expand exports to other ASEAN markets instead.

He recommended that Vietnamese bag makers work together with their counterparts in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia to create better value chains, cut costs and increase productivity, as materials are more accessible within the AEC than outside.

As local bag and suitcase manufacturers mainly perform outsourced tasks for FDI companies, they need to increase investment, expand production scale and improve product quality to gain a foothold in the domestic market.

At present, China still reigns as the worlds largest producer and exporter of backpacks, suitcases and handbags, churning out more than 40 per cent of total global output every year.  VNS
Customers and staffs at Shinhan Bank office in Hoan Kiem District, Ha Noi.  VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

HA NOI  In addition to the wave of investments in the banking and finance sector from financial institutions in Japan, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the US, there will be a marked presence of South Korean banks in the Vietnamese market in the near future, observers forecast.

The observers, who declined to be named, told Tri thuc tre (Young Intellectual) online newspaper that there could be big deals involving South Korean companies in the future, following a series of co-operation agreements between South Korean and Vietnamese financial institutions recently.

In the middle of July, a major South Korean bank, Daegu, announced that a comprehensive co-operation agreement had been signed with Viet Nams Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB).

Nguyen inh Tung, general director of OCB, said Daegu would support OCB in various areas, such as international money transfer, product development, SME services, training exchange programmes on risk management, information technology, and product development in South Korea.

Daegu Bank has pledged to provide the best companion programmes to facilitate OCBs growth among the South Korean business community in Viet Nam, and to share its experience so that OCB will eventually hold a 50 per cent market share in SME services in the country.

In South Korea, Daegu holds over 50 per cent of the market share in the loans to local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) area.

In mid-April, Korea Development Bank (KDB) marked its presence in Viet Nam through a comprehensive co-operation agreement with Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV).

KDB is the top bank in South Korea in terms of total assets and equity, and ranks 94th in the world. It has a presence in 22 countries.

With the State holding around 95 per cent of its charter capital, BIDV, which tops Viet Nams commercial banks in total assets, has most room for foreign investors among Viet Nams privatised banks, of up to 30 per cent.

Ever since BIDVs shares were listed on the stock market in 2014, its leaders have repeatedly stated that the bank is looking for foreign strategic partners, and could sell 25 to 30 per cent of its stake. With the co-operation, there is a possibility that the Korean partner may become one of BIDVs strategic shareholders.

Besides co-operation agreements, financial institutions from South Korea have also been taking more direct, stronger steps into the Vietnamese financial market.

Take the case of Shinhan Bank, which received a licence and became one of the first five banks with 100 per cent foreign capital in Viet Nam in 2008.

In April this year, Shinhan surpassed its four rivals to acquire the lucrative retail segment of ANZ Vietnam.

Previously, after acquiring a 50 per cent stake in Shinhan Vina (a joint venture between the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam or Vietcombank and Shinhan Bank with 50 per cent stake for both), the bank was renamed Shinhan Bank Vietnam in 2011.

ANZs retail segment serves around 125,000 individual customers in Viet Nam and A$320 million in outstanding loans. The handover is underway and expected to be completed before the end of 2017, sources revealed.

In November last year, the largest lender by assets in the Republic of Korea Woori Bank also officially set up a wholly foreign-owned bank in Viet Nam. The banks representatives said that Woori Bank would boost its retail business and target becoming the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnamese market.

With the advantage of established trade relations, Viet Nams untapped potential and global integration goals will make it an ideal destination for South Korean banks. So Vietnamese banks, though they have been receiving investments, should be well-prepared to compete, if they want to survive and grow.

While Vietnamese banks are still struggling to lend to FDI firms and have seen very modest results in the area, foreign banks, especially South Korean ones, are showing much stronger initiative in not only providing loans to local enterprises but also to Viet Nams huge projects.

Most recently, South Koreas Keximbank expressed interest in investing in several metro lines in HCM City and received enthusiastic support from the transport sector. Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia has encouraged Keximbank to invest not only in the metro lines in HCM City, but also in metro projects in Ha Noi. In particular, Nghia hopes Keximbank will fund three other transport projects of Tan Van-Nhon Trach, Lo Te-Rach Soi and My Thuan 2 bridge.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese businesses won a contract to supply 175,000 metric tonnes (MT) of rice to the Philippines via an open tender for 250,000 metric tons of governments rice importation, which was organised by the National Food Authority (NFA) in Quezon City on July 25.

The news was confirmed by Chairman of the Viet Nam Food Association Huynh The Nang.

Nang said the tender was conducted under G2P (Government to Public), not G2G (Government to Government) under the memorandum of understanding on rice trade between Viet Nam and the Philippines.

The rice imports will be 25 per cent broken, well-milled, long grain white rice.

The four Vietnamese winners are Vietnam Southern Food Corp II, Tan Long Group Joint Stock Company and Hiep Loi Food JSC. The remaining 75,000 tonnes was won by foreign companies.

At the tender, the total volume of 250,000 MT is divided into eight lots: six lots of 25,000 MT each and two lots of 50,000 MT each. A bidder can bid for a maximum of 50,000 MT only.

"The volume was divided into lots to allow more private sector participation and to give small bidders a chance to participate," NFA Deputy Administrator Tomas Escarez, who chairs the special bids and awards committee for this importation, said in a message on the NFA website.

There were 20 companies qualified to attend the tender from Viet Nam, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar. Of which, eight were from Viet Nam.

Nang said the rice exporters would supply rice from different ports so that the bid price would be different. Official information on the bid prices was not yet available.

However, this was the first time the Philippines announced the ceiling price on Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF) at US$450 per tonne, which is equal to $380 per tonne based on average free-on-board (FOB) prices in HCM City, Nang said.

According to the terms of reference of the importation, all deliveries shall be paid by NFA within 15 days from receipt of the complete set of original documents from the suppliers.

The Vietnamese rice exporters will deliver rice to the Philippines in August and September, Nang said.  VNS
HCM CITY  Locals being granted permission to gamble at domestic casinos has given Viet Nams growing hospitality industry an added boost, according to JLL experts.

The government is allowing Vietnamese locals to gamble at two locations  the first in Van on and the other on Phu Quoc Island  as part of a three-year pilot scheme. A third site in Ho Tram is expected to be added to the list.

The news has evoked the interest of big international names such as Las Vegas Sands, along with local conglomerates like Sun Group, which is, so far, the only Vietnamese company approved to develop a casino in Van on. More hotels across the country are installing electronic gaming to boost revenue, according to the real estate services firms latest report.

With Melco Crown Philippines being recognised as the best performing casino stock globally in 2017, it demonstrates that financial success can be achieved with the right planning, and has motivated investors to pursue such opportunities, Frank Sorgiovanni, head of Research, Hotels and Hospitality JLL APAC, said on the appeal of casinos.

Viet Nams tourism industrys renaissance has also driven corporate demand for hotels across the country, while visa exemptions, introduction of new direct air routes and improved marketing efforts have boosted appeal for leisure travellers, Sorgiovanni said.

Viet Nams gastronomical offerings are proving a further attraction for repeat visitors, especially from Asia, Sorgiovanni said. The country is fast becoming a foodie destination with a vastly improving food and beverage scene, he added.

The outlook for the tourism and accommodation sector is bright with continued marketing efforts, improvements in infrastructure and further development of human resources and services, Sorgiovanni said.

Foreign investors from across the region have shown significant interest in Viet Nam over the past 18 months and the country is becoming one of the most talked about markets in the Asia Pacific, he added.  VNS
HA NOI  Twenty-one students from the Ha Noi-based London College for Design and Fashion (LCDF) will display their graduate collections here between August 3 and 5.

Dubbed The Innovators, the graduates will introduce their creative and trendy fashion designs.

The fashion exhibition will take place at 3pm, August 3, at the college campus, 98 To Ngoc Van Street while the show will be organised at 7.30pm, August 4 and 5, at Melia Hanoi Hotel, 44B Ly Thuong Kiet Street.

The students chose their own topic for their creations, like Le Anh Chis "Roman Holiday", a collection inspired from her memory of a holiday in Rome, or Nguyen Minh Trangs The Abandoned collection, inspired by abandoned amusement parks.

The highlight of this years collections is most certainly our graduates ability to be experimental and dynamic with both colour and unique silhouette structures, said Donna Bramhall, a lecturer of the graduates.

New approaches to the design process this year focused on the development and exploration of concept research by encouraging more observational drawing, mixed media and sampling that would in turn be directly used to create more innovative and unique silhouettes, textures, and textiles," she said.

Metallics, laser cutting, 3D embellishment techniques and digital printing on diverse and sculptural silhouettes are seen as the key strengths of this years graduate collections, she added.

As a result of the training at The London College of Design and Fashion, I see already across Viet Nam graduates a longevity associated with their brands, having the creative knowledge and ability to reboot their brand on a regular basis, in order to maintain the buying publics interest, with the ability to increase their market share, noted Prof Douglas MacLennan, an educational consultant from the UK.

The event will also provide an opportunity for designers to exchange ideas, meet business representatives and learn about market trends and demands.

Designer Lam Gia Khang, a former student at the college, will introduce his latest collection, while Prof MacLennan will share his experience in the field.

An area at the exhibition will showcase new uniform design for needy primary pupils in the city.

Visitors will have a chance to learn about the study programme, from entrance through to graduation, as well as receive free consultations on personal styles for different occasions.

Established in 2004, the college has trained various popular designers for domestic fashion sector like Kelly Bui, Bobby Nguyen, LAttelier, Rue des Chats, Vu Ta Linh, Lam Gia Khang and Vu Thao.

I think the college should expand its number of students and enhance the study quality so that graduates then will be capable to design on fibres and not only on textiles, said Vu uc Giang, chairman of Viet Nam Textile and Garment Association, The sector plans to produce 18-20 per cent of the whole textile products under the brand names of Vietnamese designers rather than by industrial plants by 2030.

Last year, the college opened two new programmes: graphic design and interior design.  VNS




LOS ANGELES  Ever yearned to swap tales of the sea with Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet?

Well strap on your life jacket, because the pair are auctioning off a private dinner in their exclusive company for charity, a spokesman for the actor said on Tuesday.

The glamorous date  planned for a restaurant of the winners choice in New York City in the fall  is among several lots being offered at the star-studded Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala in the French resort of Saint-Tropez on Thursday.

The environmentally-minded charity raised US$45 million during its auction last year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Oscar winners DiCaprio, 42, and Winslet, 41, played star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose in James Camerons 1998 retelling of the sinking of the Titanic, and were reunited in 2009 as a warring couple in Revolutionary Road.

While saving the planet has been DiCaprios preoccupation for years, Winslet is involved with charities helping autistic children, as well as organisations for the homeless and disadvantaged people with cancer.

The lot is the latest example of a burgeoning celebrity trend of offering dinner dates or other face-to-face meetings to raise cash for charity.

British actor Idris Elba agreed to share Valentines Day this year with the highest bidder in aid of the W.E. Can Lead initiative, which provides education for African youngsters.

"It is one of the easiest ways for celebrities to contribute," a public relations specialist said on condition of anonymity, adding that it generates huge amounts of cash.  AFP
HA NOI  The Peruvian Embassy to Viet Nam donated 20 books on culture, landscapes, ancestral traditions and customs of Peru to the National Library of Viet Nam on Wednesday.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Luis Tsuboyama, chief of Peruvian Mission to Viet Nam, said relations between Peru and Viet Nam are strengthening and expanding to include many aspects, from the political and the economic to the cultural and social.

In this context, the Embassy of Peru has the privilege of donating books to the National Library of Viet Nam, which we believe will contribute to the dissemination of information on Perus literature, culture, gastronomy and tourism, and give Vietnamese people access to information and knowledge about our country, he said.

Kieu Thuy Nga, director of the library, appreciated the donation. These books will be added to our stock of English and Spanish books on Peru that will help Vietnamese readers understand better this distant country rich in culture, heritage, colours, customs and flavours, and diverse landscapes, she said.  VNS
HCM CITY  The HCM City Conservatory of Music on Monday received valuable books on music from Bui Thanh Tung, husband of the late musician Hoang Lan.

Among 100 books given to the conservatory, 35 are about classical European music.

Hoang Lan wanted to provide students at the conservatory with extensive knowledge about music, Tung said.

Ta Quang ong, director of the conservatory, said the school welcomed Lans contribution.

This contribution shows that, though they live overseas, Vietnamese expats always have the country in their heart, ong said.

Hoang Lan, who was born and raised in Vung Tau City, moved to France at the age of 12.

She graduated from a music school in Paris and performed Vietnamese folk music and classical European music.

She died in 2012.  VNS
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue meets Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop in Canberra.  VNA/VNS Photo Khanh Linh

CANBERRA  Viet Nam and Australia yesterday agreed on measures to reinforce their comprehensive partnership in politics, economy-trade, agriculture, development assistance, education-training, science-technology-renovation, tourism and people-to-people contacts.

The agreement was reached in talks held by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue and his Australian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce; as well as working sessions with Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment Steven Ciobo in Canberra.

The Australian officials lauded Viet Nams active role in the Southeast Asian region, and affirmed Australia accords priority to its relations with Viet Nam.

The two sides expressed satisfaction at the strong growth of Viet Nam-Australia relations, especially since the two countries lifted their ties to a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 and released a Joint Statement on Enhancing the Comprehensive Partnership in March 2015.

They agreed to deepen the bilateral relationship and work closely to prepare for visits of senior leaders of both countries in late 2017 and early 2018 to mark the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

They also agreed to strengthen bilateral economic, trade and investment ties and increase two-way trade from the current US$5 billion per year, while increasing investments in promising areas like agriculture, education, infrastructure, and creative technology.

The two countries will work together for establishing a dialogue mechanism at the ministerial level towards setting up an economic partnership in the future.

They also agreed to work towards removing obstacles hindering bilateral trade in agricultural and aquatic products, promoting business connectivity, and increasing added-value for farm produce.

Banarby Joyce and Steven Ciobo said they would work closely with Vietnamese partners to support the import of fruits and fresh shrimp to Australia.

Australia will also continue providing official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam in several areas including climate change adaptation, human resources development, private sector capacity enhancement, and gender equality.

The two sides also shared views on regional and international matters. They agreed to continue coordinating closely and supporting each other at multilateral forums, especially the ASEAN.

Australia affirmed its comprehensive support and active assistance for ASEAN to fulfill its targets in building the ASEAN Economic Community, strengthening connectivity, narrowing the development gap, reinforcing intra-bloc solidarity and promoting its central role in dealing with strategic matters in the region.

The two sides also underlined the importance of maintaining peace, stability, overflight and maritime security, safety and freedom in the region, as well as the settlement of disputes through peaceful measures on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

They highlighted the significance of respecting diplomatic and legal processes, exercising self-restraint, not taking unilateral actions to escalate tensions and dispute, strictly implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and the early formation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

The Vietnamese and Australian officials stressed the need to enhance cooperation, seek suitable orientations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and speed up the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Before concluding his three-day visit to Australia, the Deputy PM visited the Innovation Xchange run by the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an initiative of Minister Julie Bishop to enhance the efficiency of development support projects and programmes that Australia operates in the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions.  VNS
iStock/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- Dallas police are searching for information after a successful dancer-turned-teacher was mysteriously shot dead this weekend.



At about 2:50 a.m. Sunday, Dallas officers were flagged down about a car accident at an intersection, police said. Responding officers learned the driver had been shot before his car crashed into a parking meter, the police said.



The victim, identified by police as 45-year-old Darrell Cleveland, was taken to a hospital, where he later died, police said.



No arrests have been made. Police have not said if the shooting was random or targeted.



Cleveland's death, described by a former employer as a "terrible shock," has now left a dance community in mourning.



Cleveland's professional career as a modern dancer took off at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre in the 1990s, Dallas Black Dance Theatre founder Ann Williams told ABC News. He spent 10 years with the company and traveled throughout the world, including trips to South Africa and Sicily, she said.



An undated photo of Darrell Cleveland provided by the Dallas Black Dance Theatre.



Williams describes the slain dancer as a "perfect gentleman."



"Very kind and very calm ... a wonderful person," she said. "Grew up with good guidance from his mom ... loved his mom dearly and came out of a family out of Florida, a southern family that was very caring."



Cleveland eventually transitioned from a dancer to an accomplished choreographer and teacher, working at dance schools and universities, she said.



Williams said she was like a second mother to him, and "after he finished dancing as a company member we really just grew to be friends."



"Because he was so good and so wonderful with youth, and dependable ... several very prominent academies throughout the city of Dallas hired him," Williams said. "As he taught throughout the community, I always was the one that gave him recommendations and he would call for advice."



He taught modern dance and jazz at the Ballet Academy of Texas in Coppell for 15 years, and also did choreography there, said Lisa Slagle, director of the Ballet Academy of Texas.



Slagle told ABC News that Cleveland had a "positive, infectious energy."



"He walked in and smiled and it just lit up the room. He just had a way about him of getting his students to move in a way I don't think they thought they could," she said. "He was just a wonderfully vivacious, energetic, agreeable person."



Slagle said she doesn't think Cleveland ever sat while teaching -- he was always "up moving around, inspiring the dancers and pushing them to do more and do better."



"I think he was not only an inspiration to our students but also to our staff," she said. "The standards were high. He brought a professionalism to our productions."



Slagle, who called his death a "terrible shock," said Cleveland was planning to return to teach at her academy next month.



"I will just miss him," Williams said. "It's like when they pass on, that's my child. So it's hard. But we have faith ... we have lots of memories, so we've been looking at videos, pictures, and thinking about the times we all were together. We know he's in a good place and we'll get through this."



Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Dallas police at 214-671-0524.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
President Tran ai Quang (R) receives Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, General Nikolai Patrushev in Ha Noi.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  Viet Nam wishes to strengthen its partnership with Russia in an extensive and effective manner to bring benefits to both countries, President Tran ai Quang said yesterday.

He was speaking at a reception held for visiting Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, General Nikolai Patrushev in Ha Noi.

President Quang noted that during his visit to Russia in June, the leaders of both sides had discussed major orientations and specific measures to strengthen bilateral affiliations in the future, including fostering co-ordination in ensuring national security and coping with non-traditional security challenges.

He stressed that Viet Nam highly values its defence and security ties with Russia based on signed agreements as well as existing mechanisms such as co-operation deals between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Defence of Viet Nam and Russias Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Defence, and Security Council.

He also said Viet Nam welcomes Russias role in the Asian-Pacific region as well as an enhanced role at regional security forums such as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus. Viet Nam is also willing to co-ordinate closely with Russia at these forums, he added.

President Quang also stated that Viet Nam hopes to strengthen cooperation with Russia in UN peacekeeping. He said constructive engagement of Russia was very important for maintaining maritime security cooperation, and ensuring peace and stability in the region.

He requested Russia to continue assisting Viet Nam by training officials in its defence and security sectors.

General Nikolai Patrushev briefed his host on the outcomes of talks held with Minister of Public Security To Lam and his meeting with Defence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich.

He thanked Viet Nam for sending a delegation to join the eighth international high-level security meeting in the Russian region of Tver in May and making positive contributions to events success. -- VNS
HCM CITY  Water levels are rising quickly in areas adjacent to Cambodia in ong Thap Province, weather forcasting and local authorities have reported.

According to the National Hydro Meteorological Forecasting Centre, the water level is currently 2.33 metres at Tan Chau station at the Tien River and 1.95 metres at Chau oc station at the Hau River, 0.2-0.3 metres higher than the same period last year.

The water level is forecast to reach its peak of 2.9 metres at Tan Chau and 2.45 metres at Chau oc today and tomorrow, respectively, about a half metre higher than the same period last year.

Farmers and fishermen have been waiting for the annual flooding season to earn more money as the water is expected to wash away saline residue and protect aquatic resources.

Farmers living in coastal areas in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Kien Giang provinces are relieved that water is slowing from the Mekong River as they will not have to face drought or saline intrusion, which occurred last year with devastating consequences.

For the last few days, farmers have been catching linh fish, a specialty caught during the flooding season in the Mekong Delta.

Pham Ut, 70, who lives in ong Thap Provinces Hong Ngu District, which borders Cambodia, said the soil had become impoverished this year.

Ut usually plants three crops a year, but he decided to plant only two crops this year to wait for the water to enter the closed embankment, as required by district authorities.

For many years, farmers who grew three crops a year faced low productivity because of the exhausted soil, and the fishery resources also became depleted. I hope the flood season this year arrives soon so we can take advantage of it, Ut said.

In the past, farmers in the Mekong Delta struggled to find ways to live with the floods, including resettling to other areas, if necessary.

To cope with flooding, the government has issued many policies to give loans to farmers to rebuild or improve their houses.

Closed dikes have also been built to help farmers protect their rice fields from flooding.

However, water from the Mekong River has been decreasing in recent years in Delta.

For many years, the region has had no flood season, causing a decline in fishery resources and production losses.

Traditional crafts such as knitting nets and building of fishing boats have also become rare.

Ut and many farmers like him in the Mekong Delta are concerned that countries through which the Mekong River traverses are continuing to build dams at a fast pace, causing unpredictable impacts on the lower Mekong River.  VNS
HA NOI  With the rapid spread of dengue fever nationwide recently, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien yesterday requested hospitals be selective of inpatients and not to let them share beds.

Central-level hospitals such as the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, National Childrens Hospital and Bach Mai Hospital should classify patients to decide who should be hospitalised, she said during an online conference on disease prevention in the rainy season between Ha Noi and HCM City yesterday.

Avoid receiving everyone and overloading the hospitals, which might lead to negligence of severe patients and fatal consequences, she said.

Those whose symptoms are less severe should be transferred to hospitals at lower levels, she added. The number of inpatients relatives staying at the hospitals should also be limited.

Some 60,000 dengue cases were recorded in 61 provinces and cities as of yesterday, causing deaths, Kinh te o thi (Economic and Urban Affairs) newspaper reported. Some 55,000 patients have been hospitalised in the first seven months of this year, an increase of 12.6 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

The capital city came third in the country  after HCM City and the central province of a Nang  with 6,700 dengue patients, with three deaths. Roughly 90 per cent of those infected have recovered.

Deputy director of Ha Nois health department Hoang uc Hanh said that some 1,000 beds are always available at medical units throughout the city for dengue patients.

Nguyen Van Kinh, director of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Ha Noi, said that the hospital conducted careful screenings to avoid overcrowding, hospitalising only about 800 out of 5,000 dengue patients. The remaining ones were advised to go to lower-level hospitals or receive treatment at home, he said.

Three and a half days is the average treatment duration for dengue inpatients at our hospital, and seven days is the maximum, Kinh added. They will also be transferred to lower-level hospitals when their symptoms become less severe.

Le Hung, director of the ong a General Hospital in the capital city, said that bed-sharing only occurs on Saturdays and Sundays and in 10 per cent of beds. We have some 100 beds at the hospital always ready to receive patients, he said.

Proactive prevention

As dengue fever is often transmitted by aedes aegypti mosquitoes, Health Minister Tien said leaders of localities should emphasise the importance of killing mosquito larvae.

Spraying chemicals is only a temporary solution, clearing bushes and draining sewers only prevent mosquitoes from transmitting encephalitis, she explained. Killing mosquito larvae is at the core of dengue fever prevention.

The most effective dengue fever prevention measures are emptying containers of stagnant water, flipping down all containers, eating carefully-cooked food and sanitising the environment, she said.

Tran ac Phu, director of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health (MOH), said that the ministry has formed seven working groups to monitor dengue fevers progress in the 14 provinces with the most patients. A GPS system has been utilised to monitor patients in HCM City, he said.

Fifty mobile disease prevention groups were formed and 90 training workshops on disease monitoring, insect inspection, serous sampling and chemical spraying were held in Ha Noi.

The health sector will continue launching sanitation campaigns in different localities and ask local authorities to organise trash clean-ups once or twice a week, he said.

Zika may return

It is possible the Zika virus disease will re-emerge in Viet Nam, Mai Trong Khoa, deputy director of the Ministry of Healths Department of Medical Examination and Treatment told Zing online newspaper.

Dengue fever and Zika are easily mistaken as they have similar symptoms such fever, rash, muscle aches, headaches and eyesore, and their incubation periods both last from three to twelve days, he told the newspaper. Testing is the only way to tell them apart, he added.

Twenty-seven cases of Zika were discovered in seven provinces and cities in the first seven months of this year, twenty-one in HCM City, according to statistics from the citys health department.  VNS
HA NOI Trinh Quoc C., 6, was playing with his friends at a kindergarten in Hai Phong City seven years ago when he cried out in pain. He had been struck with a sudden, severe stomach ache.

His mother rushed him to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with appendicitis and an operation carried out soon after. That should have been the end of his stomach ache. Unfortunately, two months later, the little boy was still suffering from stomach ache, and he had a distended belly.

C. was then taken to the Viet Nam National Childrens Hospital (VNCH) in Ha Noi. He was first hospitalised for more than a month in the infectious diseases department so that all possibilities of diseases could be eliminated before being transferred to the liver and gallbladder department where doctors found that he was suffering the Wilsons disease.

At that time, we thought we would lose our son. Even doctors said his chance was only nine per cent optimistically, said his mother Vu Thi H.

C. was lucky to survive after the doctors treated the genetic disorder in which a persons liver fails to eliminate redundant copper from the body.

He has been living a normal life until now by taking medicines daily and getting his health checked every three months, said the mother.

According to doctors, C. can have a normal family in the future. He just has to avoid having a partner with the same disease.

Nguyen Ba Bac found out he had Wilsons disease 10 years ago when he was a high school student. But thanks to early detection and treatment, he has been living normally. The copper rate in his body has decreased and he stopped taking medicines three years ago. He graduated from the Ha Noi University of Architecture last month.

But not all children and young people with the disease are diagnosed early.

Nguyen Minh Tan, 31, had a normal childhood and a normal life as a youth until he was diagnosed with the disease very late as a second-year college student. As a result, he suffered muscle contractions and had to be confined to a wheelchair.

This is a rare disease in Viet Nam. Right now the hospital is treating 136 children with it, said Dr Le Thanh Hai, VNCHs Director.

If the disease is discovered early, it can be cured in time, helping the patient to integrate into the community, but if not, it can have bad consequences, even death, Hai said.

Dr. Nguyen Pham Anh Hoa, head of the hospitals liver and gallbladder department, said that the rate of Wilsons disease was at 1 per 100,000 in men and 4 per 100,000 in women.

The disease is caused by excess copper accumulation in the bodys organs with a variety of clinical manifestations, most commonly brain, liver, eye, kidney, joint, and bone damage, Hoa said, adding that the disease was difficult to detect because it is easily confused with other liver or neurological diseases.

"Wilsons disease is still quite uncommon, not just for lay people, but also for doctors and nurses in the country. Many patients with this problem are taken to hospitals without diagnosis or diagnoses of hepatitis or epilepsy, she said.

Hoa said it is estimated that more than 2,000 people in Viet Nam have the disease. But the number of patients diagnosed was much less because a large number of people with Wilsons Disease have not been diagnosed and treated or are being treated for secondary diseases in other organs like hepatitis, arthritis, nephrotic syndrome or neuropathy, she said.

In the early stages, the symptoms of the disease are often very discreet, such as elevated liver enzymes without clear reasons that are often confused with hepatitis, emotional or movement abnormalities. Such symptoms are often overlooked, but if detected early, will be the most effective treatment for the disease, Hoa said.

In later stages, patients may have symptoms like speech difficulties, languid speech, drooling, while children are distracted, hot-tempered and suffer cognitive decline. At a heavier stage, patients suffer jaundice, dry eyes, fatigue, hard joints, movement like robots and even nosebleeds and vomiting blood. Worse yet, it leads to liver failure where the mortality rate can be as high as 95 per cent without a liver transplant, Hoa added.

Hoa said that the biggest concern of many Wilson disease patients was that health insurance only covers medicines for patients under 17, when many patients have to take drugs for the rest of their lives.

"Every day, a patient with Wilsons disease spends more than VN100,000 (US$4.5). Many patients are in a difficult situation, so they want the insurance to cover medicine fees for older people as well, Hoa said.

The department organised a club for patients with Wilsons disease more than a year ago. The club has attracted more than 100 members and their families who share experiences and updated knowledge about the disease.

"Our volunteers in this club are all patients with the disease. Many of them have been treated and become stable, Hoa said.

"There are many children out there, many patients with this disease have been ignored. I hope that more people know about this disease to help early detection and treatment, especially for children, she said.  VNS
HCM CITY  A Long An-based company on Tuesday said it has sued HCM City Waterway Police Department for illegally seizing its vessels and causing a loss of VN34.4 billion (US$1.5 million).

Minh Hang Co., Ltd said that on August 10, 2016, police officers from the HCM City Waterway Police Departments Team 3 seized its three mud-carrying vessels for transporting minerals without legal origin.

On August 11, the company submitted legal documents to establish where the mud came from, as well as documents stating that the mud is not a mineral.

Despite this and despite failing to prove that the vessels had violated any law, the police kept the three vessels in their custody for one month, and also slapped a fine on the company, it has alleged.

As the vessels were with the police, Minh Hang company could not deliver the goods to its partner and had to pay VN33 billion for breaking the contract. It also had to spend money hiring three vessels.

The company is demanding compensation of VN34.4 billion to make up for the loss it incurred when the police seized the three vessels, online newspaper VietNamNet reported.  VNS
HA NOI  Around 313,700 houses will be renovated and/or built for Vietnamese citizens in recognition of their contribution to the nation in the second phase of the national housing aid project.

These houses will be built from now until 2018.

The project was launched in April 2013 by the then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Around VN7.3 trillion (US$321 million) has been mobilised for the second phase; another VN840 billion ($37,000) will come from the State budget.

Eligible households can use their own money to build and renovate their homes and will receive reimbursements from the State later.

Spouses of Vietnamese citizens who died for the country can renovate their homes using the Government aid, provided they are able to present their house registration books and live at the same address as stated in the books.

In case both the husband and wife are dead, their children will receive aid from the local budget, if local authorities establish that they are facing housing problems, and if they present relevant documents.

Local authorities are responsible for mobilising annual local budgets and other financial sources for eligible candidates who have not been included in the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA)s proposal for housing aid, dated May 31 this year.

Those who wish to renovate their existing house and not build a new one, and vice versa, and do not exceed the amount allocated in the central aid can proceed without delay. Local authorities are responsible for mobilising the local budget and other sources for those who exceed that amount.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) are assigned with the task of dividing the amount of aid from the State budget to localities.

The local peoples committees are responsible for identifying and reviewing residents who should be prioritised for receiving aid.

Around 80,000 households received VN2.8 trillion ($123 million) in housing aid in the first phase of the project, which was implemented from 2013 to 2016.

Increased allowances

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed to raise the allowance of organisations and individuals that work towards the search for the remains of fallen soldiers.

The allowance for those who work in the country and abroad has been increased from VN280,000 ($12) to VN500,000 ($22) per person, to be paid twice a year.

Those that are directly involved in the process of searching, excavating and collecting fallen soldiers remains in the country will have their allowance increased from VN100,000 ($4.4) to VN220,000 ($9.7) per person per working day.

Apart from salary, allowance and other benefits, members of steering committees, task force groups and specialised committees at all levels will receive VN220,000 as subsistence allowance per person per working day.

People who provide information about the remains of fallen soldiers will receive VN3-10 million ($132-440), depending on the number of soldiers remains collected.  VNS
WATERLOO -- Police are seeking the public's help finding a suspect they say robbed a convenience store clerk at gunpoint early Wednesday.

Waterloo Police responded to an alarm at 12:50 a.m. Wednesday at Yesway, 1976 Franklin St.

Police say the 21-year-old clerk working at the store, Alexander Bowers, told them a male suspect armed with a handgun came into the store just before midnight and threatened to kill Bowers if he did not give him the money from the store's register.

The suspect then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash from the store, according to police. Bowers was not injured.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. He was wearing a navy-colored Nike hooded sweatshirt at the time of the robbery.

Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call Waterloo Police at 291-4340 or Cedar Valley Crimestoppers at 855-300-8477.
Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley voted Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the first in a series of actions this week as Republicans attempt to come up with a health care solution that so far has eluded them.

The Iowa Republicans joined most of the other Senate Republicans in backing a repeal, which would not have put in place an immediate replacement. They also voted late Tuesday for a repeal measure.

Both failed, however, because several Republicans joined a unified front of Democrats in voting against them.

On a conference call with reporters before Wednesdays vote, Grassley said it would be painless because repeal would be delayed for two years giving Republicans time to come up with a replacement.

Nobodys going to be hurt over that two-year time as we work on replacement, he said.

Democrats rejected that idea.

They said no insurer would take a chance on joining the marketplace with all the uncertainty surrounding a repeal.

Republicans have struggled to come up with a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act that can garner enough votes. The House passed a bill, but that was panned in the Senate.

Subsequent Senate plans also have been opposed by enough Republicans to stymie them.

On the conference call Wednesday, Grassley said the goal in the Senate is to get something through the body so there can be a House-Senate conference.

Id hate to say anything, but youre going to have a conference anyway, so getting to conference is a necessary step for me, he said.

Despite the hope the Senate can pass something, Grassley said he still is pessimistic a bill will clear Congress.
CEDAR RAPIDS -- A Waterloo man was sentenced to prison after admitting to his second felon-in-possession conviction.

John Daniel Forehand III, 31, of Waterloo was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to seven years in federal prison.

Forehand pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm on March 20, his second such conviction.

At the time of his plea, he admitted to possessing a loaded Smith and Wesson .22 caliber pistol in December.

Waterloo Police gave evidence at an earlier hearing that they found the pistol, which had an obliterated serial number, during a traffic stop. Police also testified they found a digital scale and cup with marijuana residue in the same bag as the pistol.

Forehand has previously been convicted of felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release after his prison term.
CEDAR RAPIDS -- A Waterloo man was sentenced to prison after admitting he sold a stolen firearm during an undercover sting operation.

Vernon Montrell Webster, 44, of Waterloo was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 15 years in prison.

Webster plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm on March 17.

At the time of his plea, he admitted to unlawfully possessing a 44-Magnum revolver and 30 rounds of ammunition in July of 2015.

Testimony at earlier hearings showed Webster sold the revolver and ammunition to another person during an undercover sting operation. Other testimony showed Webster had previously sold a bulletproof vest stolen from a reserve police officer during another undercover sting operation in December.

Webster has previously been convicted three times of felony burglary, with one felony drug conviction.

Webster was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after his prison term.
WATERLOO -- Two men were arrested after police say they fled from police at a high rate of speed and crashed their vehicle into a house.

Waterloo Police say Nathaniel Donya Whitaker, Jr., 23, of 704 W. Fifth St., was a passenger in a vehicle in the 700 block of Beech Street at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Because police knew him to have an active warrant, they attempted to pull over the vehicle he was riding in when driver Tyran Cedrick Collins, 18, of 650 Kern St., took off, according to a police report.

Police say the vehicle reached speeds of 80 mph in a 35-mph zone through neighborhood streets, running three stop signs and one red light in the process.

The vehicle lost control in the 200 block of Conger Street and crashed into the southeast side of a house at 204 Conger St., breaking out a portion of the home's foundation, according to a police report. The pair then briefly fled from police on foot.

Collins was arrested and charged with eluding police, assault on a peace officer, interference, reckless driving, speeding, failure to obey stop signs and lights, controlled substance violation, possession of a controlled substance and failure to have insurance. He remained in the Black Hawk County Jail on a $16,000 bond.

Whitaker was taken to Unity Point Health-Allen Hospital for a laceration to his head, then arrested on charges of interference and a parole violation. He remained in the Black Hawk County Jail on a no-bond hold.
Opportunity is built explicitly into the American social contract, writes J.D. Vance, author of the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy, in his introduction to the Heritage Foundations upcoming Index on Culture and Opportunity. He highlights the nonpartisan nature of opportunity.

We declared independence by noting a God-given right to pursue happiness, he writes, and one of the few philosophical issues that unite both sides of our political spectrum is the idea that we should have some measure of equality of opportunity in our society. Its one of the few contemporary pieces of evidence of our shared national identity, he says.

You dont even have to look at a newspaper or turn on the TV to know the day-in, day-out slog of politics involves a near-total squandering of opportunity. But on the campus of Villanova University last week, I saw something else budding. About 70 conservative college newspaper editors were at a boot camp organized by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). One student told me how listening to an archbishop from Iraq last summer, at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, had rerouted his priorities and aspirations. He realized the impact the media can have by what an editor, for example, chooses to cover and highlight.

Another asked me how to avoid falling into the traps of fake news. The answer lies in telling the truth, of course, and in refocusing our lens on good stewardship, human dignity and the opposite of todays constant avalanche of bad news. This is what so many of these students want to be about, if their questions and conversations were any indication: clarity in the midst of confusion. Rising above the noise and lifting people up.

Some cultural indicators show signs of improvement; others, not so much. As Dr. Aaron Kheriaty notes in an August First Things article: Depression is now the most common serious medical or mental health disorder in the United States. Also: Suicide is now the leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, and the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States.

The American Dream is in crisis on both spiritual and cultural levels, as Vance commented. Culture, he writes, must serve as the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one, and proper conversation about culture will never be used as a weapon against those whom Christ described as the least of these. It will be a needed antidote to a simplistic political discourse that speaks often about the vulnerable even as it regularly fails to help them.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in a recent TED Talk on facing the future together without fear, pointed out when you tell a story and your identity is strong, you can welcome the stranger, but when you stop telling the story, your identity gets weak and you feel threatened by the stranger. Sacks advises the road to rediscovery of identity starts in overhauling todays radical individualism  perhaps best symbolized by the selfie. Next time youre tempted to turn the phone around, turn the eyes of your heart toward some other person who might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten.

In 1988, at ISIs 35th anniversary dinner, William F. Buckley Jr. said, We are basket cases of ingratitude, so many of us. ... To live without any sense of obligation to those who made possible lives as tolerable as ours, within the frame of the human predicament God imposed on us without any sense of gratitude to our parents, who suffered to raise us; to our teachers, who labored to teach us; to the scientists, who prolonged the lives of our children when disease struck them down  is spiritually atrophying.

Being grateful for any and all opportunities may be the place to start, along with helping others see those same opportunities and soar in the possibilities. It will require fewer selfies, though, for sure.
Anthony Scaramuccis rollout as Donald Trumps new communications director received mainly good reviews. He is, as any White House job in the current administration requires, a skilled sycophant. His on-air abjection  including a Sunday talk show apology for past disloyalty made directly into the camera  smacks of self-criticism during Chinas Cultural Revolution. But comrade Scaramucci does have a knack for being aggressive without being angry. And he is good on TV, which means hell play a starring role in Trumps main obsession.

The presidents intention in choosing Scaramucci was clear from the announcement. We have accomplished so much, said Trump in his statement, and we are being given credit for so little. Scaramuccis calling is to be a more effective harvester of credit.

This staff change is probably a good thing for the president. It also reveals a complete blindness about the true source of his administrations current struggles.

Who can look at the wreck of the White House  bitterly divided, dysfunctional and hemorrhaging leaks  and think a better communications approach is the answer? Who can look at the wreck of Trumps agenda  stymied in spite of Republican control of the House and Senate  and think the real problem is insufficient credit-taking on television? I could name half a dozen White House jobs that more urgently needed new blood  including the chief of staff  than communications director. Jobs in the press department are what the press and the president mainly see. But obvious problems are not always the most urgent.

To be fair, the idea that words are always the real problem is not unique to the Trump administration. I saw the same communications fallacy in my White House experience during George W. Bushs presidency. It is typical for politicians and party officials to believe the fault lies, not in themselves, but in their flacks. As head of presidential speechwriting, I heard more than my share of if only. If only the administration would make such-and-such a point, the Katrina mess could be put behind us. If only the president said some magic words  suggested language attached  the erosion in support for the Iraq War would be reversed. If only the president were to give 60 speeches in 60 days on Social Security reform, Americans would finally understand the problem and our plan would pass.

We actually tried that last one in 2005. The trip was carefully designed to pressure gettable Democratic senators. Bush was loose, informed and effective. And the plan never even got out of committee. We did not have a communications problem. We had a reality problem  as we did with Katrina and Iraq. In such cases, hiring a new head of speechwriting would probably not have helped.

The Trump administrations reality problem is a historically unpopular president, pushing historically unpopular legislation (at least on health care), in a historically divided party, to a historically polarized country. Hiring a new head of communications will not fundamentally alter this state of affairs.

Words generally cannot improve facts on the ground, but they do have the power to complicate them. Part of the reason Trump is, from his perspective, given credit for so little is so little has been accomplished. But another part is the insanely high expectations Trumps own words have created. Youre going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, he promised. Its going to be so easy. Tax reform benefiting the middle class would come in the first 100 days. He would build an impenetrable physical wall across the continent and the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall. There would be a package spurring a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending. Middle East peace is frankly maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years. And further: I will give you everything and achieve every dream you ever dreamed for your country.

The president would probably not be politically comfortable in fulfilling some of my dreams. But even more generally, this is what happens when a politician promises the world while knowing so little about how it actually works.

Trumps greatest need is not someone who will defend him on cable television. It is an administration capable of even the baby steps of governing  defining a positive, realistic agenda and selling it to Congress, starting with ones own party. Trump does not have a communications problem; he has a leadership problem.
Candidate Donald Trump promised a health care program that never added up:

Were going to have lower premiums, much lower costs and much better protection.

Everybodys going to be taken care of much better than theyre taken care of now.

Youre going to see pre-existing conditions and everything else be part of it, but the price will be down, and the insurance companies can pay.

Republicans who want to cut SS & Medicaid are wrong.

In February, it finally dawned on Trump that health care is an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.

After seven years of deriding the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and now finally controlling all three branches of government, the complexity has overwhelmed Republicans.

Trump celebrated the Houses American Health Care Act victory in May, but a month later called it mean and wanted more heart from the Senate.

So Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who complained eight years ago that Obamacare was written behind closed doors without input from anyone devised legislation in secret. No hearings were held.

Trump hosted a celebratory dinner with GOP senators that didnt include Sens. Jim Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah, who subsequently issued a statement against it, joining Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky in opposition.

Trump did the curious math. The vote would have been pretty close to, if you look at it, 48 to 4, he tweeted, ignoring Democrats and wavering Republicans. Thats a pretty impressive vote by any standard.

Well just let Obamacare fail, he remarked. Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it.

He could wreak further havoc on Obamacare by not paying billions in cost-sharing reductions  subsidies insurers get  that are the subject of a Republican lawsuit. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis estimated killing the cost-sharing reductions would boost Silver plan costs by 19 percent.

But Trump reversed field again, backing a 2015 replacement bill vetoed by President Barack Obama.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would reduce the deficit by $473 billion over 10 years, but 17 million more people would be uninsured by next year and 32 million by 2026. Premiums would double by 2026 in an individual marketplace dominated by older, sicker people.

Insurers couldnt reject people because of pre-existing conditions or base premiums on health status. But individual mandates requiring insurance would end, so younger and healthier people could flee the market.

Obamacares assorted taxes  a source of subsides and credits  would be repealed.

In two years Medicaid expansion in Iowa and 30 other states would end. Traditional Medicaid wouldnt be reduced.

Republicans criticized the report by the nonpartisan CBO, which is led by a Republican appointee, as flawed.

Rather than repeal and replace, Republicans should focus on repair, requiring maturity not evident in Washington.

So we turn to Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, who advocated fixing ACA exchanges, then Medicaid in a recent New York Times column.

If we want to move Americans off Medicaid, there must be somewhere stable for them to go. For all its faults, at least Medicaid is currently a stable system for those who need it. The exchanges are anything but, and need immediate improvements, he wrote.

One vital improvement would be to provide adequate tax credits, which would help keep health plans in the individual market and encourage  not undermine  robust competition. Companies should also be required to continue following reasonable guardrails like ensuring minimum coverage that is genuinely useful and covers pre-existing conditions.

He added, Congress should then take up needed improvements to Medicaid as part of comprehensive entitlement reform, calling for transitioning to a block grant or per-capita cap on Medicaid.

Democrats have derided new GOP Medicaid formulas and cuts, but Medicare has a vehicle to limit growth. Obama cut Medicare by $716 billion while finding savings to make ACA costs more palatable.

Kasich wants states to assume a higher Medicaid share in return for tools to manage the rising cost of pharmaceuticals  the fastest growing component of Medicaid. Thats long overdue.

Finally, Kasich wrote, we can never truly fix the rising cost of health care unless we start paying for value rather than volume. We are making this transition in Ohio by paying physicians for providing better care, not simply more care, in order to pursue better health outcomes.

Thats essential considering U.S. health care spending per capita in 2013  before ACA implementation  was $9,086 compared to a median of $3,661 for the 11 major Western industrialized nations.

Kasich offers a sensible start. The recent Senate bill retained ACA taxes to lessen the impact on low-income Americans. To overcome the individual mandate backlash as an affront to liberty with its onerous fines, link it to the standard deduction.

Forget the posturing and bluster. Just fix the problem.
RIDGEWAY  The Winneshiek County Sheriffs Office has arrested a Spillville man following an incident Monday afternoon at a residence on Highway 9.

Jeremy Meyer, 45, faces charges of felony assault on a peace officer, aggravated misdemeanor assault on a peace officer, interference with official acts, four counts of first-degree aggravated misdemeanor harassment and trespassing.

Deputies said they responded to a report of trespassing at a residence near Ridgeway. Meyer was at the residence and began making several threats to multiple individuals and resisted arrest.

He was then transported to the Winneshiek County Jail, where he assaulted two deputies. One of the deputies sustained injuries, the report states, but does not elaborate.

Lime Springs man

sentenced to prison

LIME SPRINGS  A Lime Springs man who sold meth for more than a year while possessing more than 20 guns was sentenced to 13 years and four months in federal prison.

Judge Leonard Strand sentenced Shawn Valentine Chevchuc, 45, on Monday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids following a guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of firearms by a felon. He will have to serve five years of supervised release following prison.

According to prosecutors, Chevchuc admitted he was involved with others in selling meth from 2015 through 2016. Information disclosed during the sentencing hearing indicated, during this time period, Chevchuc was involved with selling more than 2 kilograms of methamphetamine and possessed firearms, including one gun that had been previously stolen during a burglary.

Chevchuc is barred from handling firearms because of multiple prior felony burglary and drug convictions in Stephens County, Illinois, and Winneshiek County, Iowa.

Court records allege he was found to be in possession of five rifles, one shotgun and one pistol in February 2016, and nine rifles, eight shotguns and a muzzleloader in November 2016.
Advertisement

By The Associated Press

Jul. 24, 2017 | WASHINGTON, DC

By The Associated Press Jul. 24, 2017 | 05:14 PM | WASHINGTON, DC

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pressing dissenting Republican senators to back the GOP's reeling health care bill in a threshold vote he says will occur Tuesday.



In remarks opening Monday's session, the Kentucky Republican said the Senate will vote on whether to begin debating the GOP legislation. He did not describe which version of the measure the chamber would initially consider.



McConnell needs 50 of the 52 GOP senators' votes to begin debate. More Republicans than that have said they're opposed to the GOP legislation.



McConnell says he's made a commitment to his state's voters to scuttle President Barack Obama's law. He says he'll keep that commitment by voting to start debate.



And he says he hopes other Republicans will do the same.
Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.

Your Full Name: (optional)

Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required.
Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

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

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
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.


Superstar Mahesh Babu and star Tamil director AR Murugadoss much-awaited spy thriller, Spyder, is almost complete except for a song. The films teaser is going to be unveiled on August 9 as Maheshs birthday treat for fans.

As per the latest updates, the films unit will shoot a romantic duet featuring Mahesh and Rakul from August 2nd to 8th. The team has chosen the picturesque European country of Romania to can the song.

Spyder is being produced jointly by Tagore Madhu and NV Prasad. The film is slated to hit the screens on September 27 as a Dasara festive treat. Harris Jayaraj is the films music composer.

Articles that might interest you:
Jul 26, 2017 | By David

Another 3D printing news summary, just in case anything has passed you by recently. The latest developments in the 3D printing world include Creaform's lab getting ISO accreditation, a major award for a 3D printed submarine, and more besides.

COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems gets NASA funding for 3D printing project

COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems LLC, based in Ipswich, UK, has been involved in the research and development of metal 3D printing technology and other advanced manufacturing techniques since 2011. The company was recently chosen to start work on the design of an electron beam system for an in-space autonomous assembly program. The work will be funded by a contract from NASAs Langley Research Center, in partnership with Orbital ATK, NASAs Glenn Research Center and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

As part of NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate, COSM will join a team of companies in what is becoming a significant public-private partnership. It intends to establish a Commercial Infrastructure for Robotic Assembly and Services (CIRAS) in space. The CIRAS program will advance key technologies for in-orbit manufacturing and assembly of large space structures that will help the agency meet its goals for robotic and human exploration of the solar system.

The assembly and fabrication of structures in space under autonomous robotic control is, of course, extremely challenging, said Richard Comunale, founder and president of COSM. Our effort focuses on development of the electron gun and optics and beam control and metrology systems for this application. We are excited and proud of the opportunity to bring our unique expertise to this project.

Creaforms 3D metrology lab gets ISO accreditation from A2LA

Leading experts in 3D measurement solutions Creaform has recently received a major accreditation for its lab facilities. The companys Canadian head office was ISO accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA).

The ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation is an internationally recognized standard for testing and calibration. Laboratories accredited as per the ISO/IEC 17025 standard have demonstrated their technical competencies related to the calibration of its technologies.

This designation means that Creaform uses the highest calibration laboratory management standards and has the technical competencies to guarantee that its 3D measurement products meet their technical specifications, said Karl Chabot, Creaforms Quality and Regulatory Affairs Manager. This certification for the HandyPROBE Next optical portable CMM product line-up serves as a recognized warranty of consistency in the delivery of high quality and traceable products.

3D printing company Post Process brings in new talent

Post Process Technologies, based in Buffalo, is the first and only company so far to have successfully automated post-printing processes for 3D printing technology. The company has announced today four senior leadership appointments which are aimed at driving expansion and scalability of Operations, Engineering, Marketing and Sales. The addition of these experienced leaders will further accelerate company growth in the booming additive manufacturing (AM) market.

These appointments follow some serious investment in the company. In April, PostProcess completed a $4 million seed round, including a $1 million investment from New York Ventures. New Vice President of Operations Bob Bosinski spent 24 years with AirSep Corporation from its start-up stage through post-acquisition, managing multiple departments with increasing levels of responsibilities. His extensive experience in designing and deploying robust processes and systems will hopefully enable rapid expansion.

Michael Frauens is the new Principal Process Development Engineer, and he joins PostProcess with decades of industrial engineering experience, including with 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys and Eastman Kodak, where he was awarded several patents. Frauens' material science background and system implementation expertise should allow the advancement of the company's FINISH3D lab. Over 500,000 parts have been benchmarked in the FINISH3D lab.

Diana Robbins takes over as Director of Marketing, and Lynda DePetris will be leading West Coast sales efforts. DePetris is bringing 25 years of demonstrated success in both small and large multinational organizations including IBM, Microsoft, and most recently with a start-up acquired by Dow Chemical Company.

"Today's announcement is another building block in PostProcess' rapid and transformational journey," said Jeff Mize, Chief Executive Officer, PostProcess Technologies. "We are excited to add this impressive bench strength to our team, with deep knowledge and skills to further accelerate our mission of unlocking scalable industrial 3D printing. The entire team is extraordinarily passionate and dedicated to delivering exceptional customer satisfaction and in turn revolutionizing the additive manufacturing market."

3D printed submarine wins award at International Submarine Races

There was a surprising success story at this years International Submarine Races, which is held in Washington, D.C. Jim Prater, his sons, and several other Mosley High School students showed up with a $350 submarine they built out of pieces they printed on a 3-D printer. They were racing against submarines assembled by high school and college teams from across the world that generally cost several thousand dollars at least to put together, but still managed to perform relatively well.

Their craft was modeled after the local boxfish species, with the scientific name lactophrys trigonus, hence the name Team Trigonus. Inside the submarine, in a space barely enough for Praters youngest son Alex to squeeze in, the driver stretches lengthwise, operating the fins and rudders with their hands and propelling the submarine forward with pedals at their feet.

Among the 15 teams with propeller-driven submarines, Team Trigonus came in ninth place, with some of the more high-profile competitors not even able to complete the race. They also picked up an honorable mention prize for innovation design, beating out schools like Texas A&M and Virginia Tech.

We were such underdogs at the event, Prater said. Its crazy how much money people spent, and when we showed up, I wasnt sure how it was going to go or how well we would be received with this thing put together with stuff from Home Depot. But they were super supportive.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

Maybe you also like:












Intergalactic wormholes may not exist (yet), but here's the next best thing.

The San Francisco Portal, which made its first appearance in Hayes Valley in 2015, is opening the door to global communication again at Crissy Field. You just have to book a reservation online (it's free of charge) to slip into the gold-painted box that's parked on the lawn; you can then have a 20-minutes live conversation with someone who lives on the other side of the world.

(Courtesy of Shared Studios via Twitter)

From the creatives at Shared Studios, the interactive art project aims to bring the global world to the micro level with grand 8-foot-tall projection screens allowing visitors to meet face-to-face, and in full life size (FaceTime, ShmaceTime), from 22 sites including Kabul, Nairobi, Berlin, Yangon, and the exotic city of Baltimore. There's little to hide and no reason to trywhen you're done firing off curious questions at your counterpart, you just exit the portal and re-enter your own world. (Unless you decide to keep in touch, in which case you've just made yourself a pen pal.)

// Through September 24, 2017; 1199 East Beach (Presidio), sharedstudios.com
Whether unemployment is a reality or a worry for you, you're not alone. A May 2020 survey by the World Economic Forum found that 40 percent of Americans are losing sleep over unemployment anxiety.

Fortunately, many experienced professionals have a buffer that can help them tame those worries: their skills and social capital. The experience you've accumulated over your career can put you in a prime position to start a business and build greater job security.

"There has literally never been a time in history where we can make so much happen, says Cathy Heller, host of the Don't Keep Your Day Job podcast and author of a book of the same name. Although the coronavirus pandemic and the recession have created challenges, Heller notes that barriers to entry for many businesses are low and that those with experience may have an edge in the marketplace.

Here are steps you should consider if you're thinking about starting your own business.

Decide on a direction

Think about what you do well, and don't let uncertainty affect your perception of your value, says business writer Elaine Pofeldt, author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business. And if your goal is to get out of your current line of work and start something new, acknowledge that, too, she suggests. The skills you've accumulated over your career can usually transfer to another line of work. Small-business owners are typically confident in their abilities. Indeed, a 2019 survey by lending platform Kabbage found that 82 percent of successful ones did not doubt they had the right qualifications and experience to run a company.

In some cases you may want to go in a completely different direction for your next act. That's what Faith McKinney, now 54, did in 2010. She was a janitor for the United States Postal Service when she decided to work on her bucket list, she says. She joined a networking organization, and after the organizer moved away, she stepped in to run it. She found a mentor who helped her improve her public speaking skills. And McKinney kept putting herself out there, ultimately meeting a cameraman for a local web magazine who needed on-air talent and gave her a shot. Because of her relentless skill building and fearlessness, she now works part-time as a television producer in Indianapolis. Kinney didn't want to give up her day job, but she has a side-hustle small business that she loves.

Look at the landscape

Once you've decided on the direction you want to go, research how your abilities can meet a need in the marketplace, Pofeldt says. So what will set your business apart? Investigate potential competitors and gather information about prices. The quickest way to figure out what to charge is to ask other people at the same professional level as you, she says.
Northern State football team concludes season Saturday hosting Duluth

As the Northern State football team wraps up its season this weekend, the Wolves men's and women's volleyball season get going with games on the road.
Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani Mukerjea battling with the violence in the jail by its custodians, narrated before a special CBI court how even the male officials of the Byculla womens prison caned women inmates and even threatened her against being a witness in the court. Life of a woman in a prison seems to be very hard and bad. A study on deaths behind bars reveals that on an average almost 1,000 prisoners die in custody every year, and 90 per cent of them are under trials. Statistics also revealed that most under trial punishment are converted into death penalty. Also, the death of a prisoner is never considered a custodial death, rather shown as a case of natural death.

The overcrowded jails are biggest threat, where high profile prisoners are given priority and different cells, while commoners have to spend their term in over crowded cells. Indrani, who has been booked for rioting in the womens prison in Mumbai along with other inmates, was hit on the hand and legs after which she could barely walk. Her crime is yet to be proven, judiciary has taken her in custody for trials. But the treatment these women are meted in jail is not justified.

A 45-year-old woman prisoner Manju Govind Shetye had died in the jail at the hands of jail officials after which the inmates protested against jail authorities. Indrani was produced in court after she moved an application alleging that jail officials roughed her up. Recalling the events on the day of the protest, she alleged that the superintendent had ordered a laticharge after turning the lights off in the jail. The special CBI court allowed Indrani Mukerjea to lodge complaint against prison officials. Narrating the incident, Indrani told the court that she was threatened and assaulted after she said that she would give a statement (in connection with the case) to a magistrate under the provisions of section 164 CRPC, which unlike a police statement is admissible in court.

Anyway this is not the plight of Mumbai or Maharashtra prisoners alone, almost everywhere in India they go through hell. A few women who served prison terms have recorded torture and inhuman treatment within the prisons across other states too. In Tamil Nadu prison female inmates were stripped naked and abused verbally and physically and not provided even basic facilities. The NHRC recorded 39 cases of rape from judicial and police custody from 2006 to 28 February 2010.

Citing the case of Maloti Kalandi, wife of Badal Kalandi who along with children was rescued from being trafficked, was handed over to the Tamulpur police station, Baksa district of Assam for safe custody. Instead of providing safety, Sub-Inspector Sahidur Rahman summoned the victim to his official quarter and raped her. Similarly two more prisoners, Munniammal who had been lodged in the Nilakottai sub-jail for robbery and M Muthulakshmi who had been arrested by the police for illicit brewing of liquor, said they were never given anything but gruel in the prison. They also said that four to eight prisoners were crammed into a cell and they were forced to use a small corner as their toilet, without even a curtain to provide them privacy.

A Tihar Jails woman prisoner, facing trial in cases of cheating and forgery, has accused the jail warden of torturing her with the help of HIV positive woman inmate for extorting money from her. She was beaten up for an hour in front of the deputy superintendent and the jail staff who remained mute spectators.

Ms. Saradha was brought to Special Prison for Women, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, as a remand prisoner having been remanded by the Judicial Magistrate. She was undressed totally and dragged nude for quite some time till they reached the entrance of her cell and was put in solitary confinement and she was never given back her clothes and no official in the prison bothered about her. She was awarded 50,000/- as compensation by the court. But no one ever bothered about her mental state or what happened to her after that. Her dignity was paid in rupees as recompense.

Soni Sori, a 38-year-old schedule tribe schoolteacher, warden and mother, was subjected to sexual violence while in custody in the Dantewada police station in Chhattisgarh under directions of the Superintendent of Police. She was repeatedly given electric shocks, her clothes were taken off. She was made to stand naked. SP was watching her sitting on his chair. While looking at her body, he abused her in filthy language and humiliated the lady.

The horror wont stop here, in Nagpur prison six napkins were given every month; but this quantity was not sufficient. Earlier, the staff asked inmates to strip to show if they were menstruating. This practice was stopped after complaints. Sometimes the jailers used to put fingers in inmates private parts to make sure they are menstruating. Criminal justice system has failed to protect the rights of women, who are often victims of violence and discrimination.

Some 1,000 women jailed in a space meant for 150, each making do with one bar of soap to bathe and to wash clothes for a whole month. Their children grow up knowing little about the outside world, unable to recognize even cats and dogs. According to the NCRB Crime Report, a total of 344 convicted women with their 382 children and 1,226 under-trial women with their 1,397 children were lodged in various prisons across India, at the end of 2012.

(This is the first part of the edit and the remaining portion will continue tomorrow)

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
An employee of state carrier Air India has been apprehended at the airport here for allegedly trying to smuggle out four gold biscuits hidden in the battery space of a mobile phone and was later sacked.

A senior official in the airport security said the incident occurred at about 10 AM when a CISF jawan intercepted Khan Mohammed Arif near the lift area in the terminal-2 of the airport.

He was frisked and four gold biscuits of 100gms each were found concealed in the battery space of his mobile phone, the official said.

The staff of AIATSL (Air India Air Transport Services Limited), a subsidiary of Air India, who is detained by the security agency in Mumbai has been terminated with immediate effect, Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.

Arif was working as a customer agent with AIs subsidiary, the security official said.

He told the CISF personnel that he got the biscuits from a passenger who had arrived from Dubai, he said.

Arif has been handed over to Customs authorities for further probe.
In this piece, Nemitz says parents are "self-centered" for believing all three branches of the US Government, and product manufactures because... and I am not kidding... when the writer was young there was a place called Polio Pond, where people were afraid of getting polio, even though no one ever contracted polio there. This in an article where he exclaims that, " Anti-vaccine movements disregard for reality poses a threat for all of us ." (Also... MEASLES! PERTUSSIS! WAKEFIELD! SCIENCE! Did you know that you don't wanna vaccinate, "Because a crusading quack made claims 20 years ago that have never, not once, been backed up by real science?" Perhaps some day a piece of science will show vaccines are associated with autism .) Mr Nemitz diversions from reality in this op ed are many. I started writing a piece to combat all the fiction and fantasy here, but I gave up at eight pages and just sent him this email. No response. Also for the record, Nemitz reports that, "Here in Maine, the first measles case in 20 years was reported last month in Farmington  a female who contracted the virus during overseas travel." The case was reported internationally as a dangerous measles outbreak, caused by "anti-vaxxers", as if the black death had come to Maine. In fact, no outbreak occurred, no transmission took place, and from what I understand, no Mainer has actually had the measles.

The Portland Press Herald has been an Offit Outlet since 2014 when their "health" writer wrote his first hit piece on vaccine injury families, then three weeks later shared the stage with Paul Offit at the National Press Club as an example of what a great vaccine writer looks like. Again, he wrote ONE ARTICLE on vaccination. Their propaganda campaign continues with a new op ed by a popular Maine writer, speaking arrogantly and from a place of profound ignorance about the vaccine program, who opens his article with, "A small but growing number of parents think inoculations carry risks, but the biggest risk for their kids  and the rest of us  is not getting vaccinated at all." For the record, it's a growing number of parents, four federal agencies, The US Congress, The US Court of Federal Claims, The Supreme Court of the United States of America, and all vaccine makers, that think vaccines carry risk... the last of which lists hundreds of those risks on the package inserts, after agreeing with all listed above that all FDA approved vaccines are, "Unavoidably Unsafe."

Maine CDC reports that there was a " travel related " case of measles that visited several places in Maine and Canada June 15th to 18th. They will not confirm anything about the case, but Maine is a small town, so it is my understanding that this was an adult female Canadian citizen who visited Maine after being infected, went back to Canada, then returned to Maine where she was diagnosed. It is also my understanding that the symptoms were very mild. It is not unusual for Canadians just north of the border to drive a few hours south to Farmington, Maine to go to the hospital, as it is actually closer than driving to the nearest facility north of them.It would have been nice if Maine CDC actually told us if the person involved was a Mainer, being influenced by Maine vaccine policy, or a Canadian, not subject to vaccine mandates, before the case was used to try to influence vaccine policy in Maine.

What we can know for sure now is that Maine CDC has confirmed that no measles transmission took place, there was no outbreak, and the time for any transmitted cases to appear expired two weeks ago. This is the second time in the past three years someone has come to Maine with measles, without a single transmission. Which means Maine's current vaccine policy, with all three vaccine exemptions, works to prevent outbreaks of measles, while respecting the rights of families to have their children attend school regardless of vaccine status.

However, I doubt that this will be the last we hear of this non-event from PPH, as they continue their fictitious fear campaign to keep all eyes off the current scandals that plague the vaccine program.

The Portland Press Herald does love its fantasy.





Subject: Your op ed on vaccination

Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2017 18:38:40 -0400

From: Ginger Taylor <ginger@mainevaxchoice.org>

To: bnemitz@mainetoday.com <bnemitz@mainetoday.com>



Mr. Nemitz,

It was difficult to read your piece from last week. It is full of misinformation, the most important of which are the "whys" of parents choices to decline one or more CDC recommended vaccines. It is understandable that you know so little about the problems in the vaccine program, as the media does not report them, rather merely repeating the false claim that a 20 year old retracted paper is to blame for vaccine rejection.

This January, the Johns Hopkins journal, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics dedicated their issue to discussions on vaccine choices, and published my piece on why we no longer participate in the National Immunization Program. I hope you will read it carefully and with fresh eyes, so you can understand that vaccine skepticism is not based on unfounded fears, and are because families ARE dealing in reality, while those espousing your views are not.

The full article is behind a pay wall, so I have attached it here, or you can read it on our web site so that you can have easy access to the links provided for the supports for the arguments.

I have made the point repeatedly to the media both in and outside of Maine, that the failure to take vaccine injury seriously, and calling vaccine injury families "anti-vaccine" merely drives down vaccine uptake, as pieces like this one only prove our assertion that the vaccine program is broken and will not address its myriad of safety and credibility problems. I hope that if you truly want a functional vaccine program, you will stop insulting families who know more than you do about the program, investigate their concerns, and join them in reality.

One of the most ironic things about your article is that you quoted Mr. Michaud fretting over falling uptake, when he is directly responsible for some of the loss in confidence in the vaccine safety because of his public testimony in the vaccine hearings in 2015. [Age of Autism readers will remember the representative of the Maine chapter of the American Medical Association for his absurd testimony, from the video we ran two years ago.] Mr. Michaud testified against LD 1076, asserting that MMA physicians should not be required to be educated on the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, then when asked by a legislator about the program, he said he didn't know anything about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Proving that the MMA must be forced to be educated on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Why exactly should parents be confident in the safety of the program when medical professionals know nothing about vaccine risk, and yet are confident that they know everything about vaccine risk?

You should also know your claim that the film "Vaxxed" has being discredited is a false one. Dr. Thompson and a colleague at CDC were deposed by the House OGR Committee earlier this year, and Thompson has been subpoenaed by the judge in Hazelhurst v. Jackson Clinic (Jackson TN) to testify to his claim that CDC hid MMR autism links later this year. It is the first vaccine injury case to be heard in civil court, before a jury, in more than 30 years in the US, as well as THE first vaccine induced autism case heard in the US. CDC is currently trying to block him from testifying.

It does not serve the vaccine program, or children, to keep a corrupt and unnecessarily risky vaccine program in place. Reform needs to take place, up to date screening needs to become the norm, vaccine industry liability needs to be restored, and the longer the fraud and injuries are denied, the greater the harm to confidence in the program and vaccine uptake will be. Because the current claim of those in your corner is the surrealistic stance that the US vaccine program is the ONLY program in government or medicine that works perfectly and has no need of reform after 30 years of completely liability protection, and that the only problem with the program is that not 100% of Americans are fully participating by receiving approximately 170 doses of vaccine over their lifetimes, sometimes 8 at once.

If you are interested in learning more about the problems in your op ed, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Ginger Taylor, MS

Director

Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice

207-200-8469
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 74F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
The deal signed between Egypt and France in mid-February 2015 worth 5.6 billion U.S. dollars included 24 Rafale jets, a FREMM frigate and MBDA missiles.



The Dassault Rafale is a French made twin-engine delta-wing multi-role jet fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Introduced in 2000, the Rafale is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations with the French Navy.



Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. The Rafale has been marketed for export to several countries, and it has been selected for purchase by the Indian Air Force, the Egyptian Air Force, and the Qatar Air Force.



The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria. Several upgrades to the weapons and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced by 2018.
Courtesy Lipska Family(NEW YORK) -- Angelika Graswald, a 37-year-old Latvian native who was accused of killing her fiance during a 2015 kayaking trip on the Hudson River in New York, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of negligent homicide Monday.



Graswald was originally charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in 2015 and had pleaded not guilty to both charges. Weeks before the case was set to go to trial, Graswald reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the lesser felony charge. She has always maintained she never intended to kill Viafore and that his death was a tragic accident.



Here is a timeline highlighting some of the key events in this mysterious case:



Aug. 15, 2000



Graswald comes to the United States from Latvia to work as a nanny. Graswald told 20/20 in a 2015 interview that she "came originally for a year. But I ended up staying. You know, they say that there is a one-way ticket to America and that was my case."



Sept. 22, 2013



Graswald and Viafore meet and begin to date. She moves in with him weeks after their meeting and five months later, they get engaged.



April 19, 2015, approximately 4:15 p.m.



Graswald told 20/20 in 2015 that at approximately 4:15 p.m., she and Viafore embarked on a kayaking trip on the Hudson River from Plum Point to Bannerman's Island. Both enjoyed kayaking, but this was the first time the two had kayaked this part of the river. Graswald told 20/20 they made it safely to Bannerman's Island when the weather turned.



Cutting their trip short because of the weather, Graswald told 20/20 that they headed back to Plum Point. Prosecutors allege that around 7:15 p.m., Viafore's kayak sunk and he fell into the 48-degree water. He was not wearing a life vest or a wet suit.



Kayaking expert Todd Wright told 20/20 in a 2015 interview that, "After that first five minutes, Vince is starting to lose gross motor control, he's starting to lose the ability to grab." Viafore's chance of survival becomes very low.



April 19, 2015, 7:40 p.m.



Graswald calls 911, alerting authorities that her fiance had fallen into the water and that they needed help. Graswald is rescued and brought to shore. Authorities were unable to rescue or even locate Viafore.



April 20, 2015



Viafore's blue kayak is found near Plum Point, where the trip began. Shortly thereafter, the search is suspended due to bad weather.



April 29, 2015, 12:35 p.m.



Graswald gives an oral statement to detectives on Bannerman's Island while paying tribute to Viafore.



April 29, 2015, 3:25 p.m.



Graswald begins an 11-hour interrogation with police at the New York State Police Montgomery Barracks. In it, she claims Viafore was controlling, always demanding sex, even pushing for threesomes, which she told police never happened. Graswald admits to wanting Viafore to die but denies throughout the interview that she killed him.



"I wanted him dead and now he's gone and I'm OK with it," Graswald tells police at one point during the interrogation.



April 30, 2015



Graswald is arrested and charged with second-degree murder.



May 23, 2015



Viafore's body is recovered from the Hudson River near West Point, approximately one mile from Plum Point.



May 26, 2015



An Orange County Grand Jury indicts Graswald for murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the second degree.



June 27, 2015



A funeral service is held for Viafore at St. Martin de Porres Church in Poughkeepsie.



Fall 2015



Graswald remains in custody at the Orange County Jail awaiting trial. A judge issued a gag order on the case, telling the prosecution and the defense they can no longer speak with the media or share any aspects of the case.



Todd Wright, a kayaking expert, tells 20/20 in a 2015 interview that he believes there was a cascade of poor decision-making that resulted in Viafore's death: Viafore was not wearing a life jacket, had improper clothing given the temperature of the water and was in the wrong type of kayak for that type of water. Neither Viafore nor Graswald were properly trained in rescue, Wright adds.



Nov. 6, 2015



Graswald sat down with ABC News' 20/20 for her first television interview, which aired on Friday, Nov. 6 at 10 p.m.. In it, she maintains her innocence. "I'm being accused of something that I'm not even capable of doing," she said.



When asked about her shocking statements to the police in her interrogation, Graswald explains she was misunderstood. In response to her comments about wanting to be free from Viafore, she told 20/20, "What I meant was I wanted to be free from the lifestyle that we had, the nightlife, the strip clubs, the threesomes. I didn't want any part of that, I wanted to be free from that. But as far as he goes, I wanted to be with him."



Graswald told 20/20 she was at her breaking point during the taped interrogation.



"They kept me asking me the same questions like a hundred times. I knew that I was innocent," Graswald said at the time. "I was at my breaking point ... I just gave them what they wanted."



At the time, she said she wanted people to know, "I'm not, I'm not a killer. I'm a good person."



June 2016



Investigators testify at Graswalds five-day pre-trial hearing, called a Huntley Hearing, to determine whether statements the police obtained from Graswald are admissible in court.



A state police investigator testified that Graswald told him she took her fiances paddle after he capsized and held it while he begged her to call 911. Another police investigator testified that Graswald told a detective during a meeting on Bannermann's Island that she had removed a plug on Viafores kayak.



The defense argued that Graswald was not read her Miranda Rights prior to the unrecorded conversation she had with detectives on Bannerman's Island, and police allege Graswald became a suspect only after that meeting.



Dec. 16, 2016



Orange County Court Judge Robert Freehill sets the start date for jury selection in Graswalds trial for Valentines Day 2017. The judge rules that prosecutors will be allowed to use most of the 11-hour police interrogation in court.



May 2017



After multiple delays, Graswalds trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 15, 2017.



July 24, 2017



Graswald reaches an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the lesser felony charge of negligent homicide. She admits she should have perceived the risks associated with being out on the water that day. She has always maintained she never intended to kill Viafore.



District Attorney David Hoovler said in a statement that the agreement was made in consultation with the Viafore family, saying, This plea ensures that the defendant will be held criminally liable for her actions."



Graswald is expected to be sentenced on Nov. 1, 2017. She could be released by late December.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
July 25, 2017

WASHINGTON  New sanctions legislation overwhelmingly passed by the House today would constrain President Donald Trumps ability to offer Russia sanctions relief for cooperation on Syria and other hotspots. But the bill is focused more on Russian actions in Ukraine and interference in the 2016 presidential election, former US government sanctions officials said, and less directly on Russian actions in Syria, where the two countries have increased cooperation in recent weeks on a cease-fire deal.

The White House said Tuesday that it was reviewing the legislation. "While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the Presidents desk," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

It is very significant, Edward Fishman, a former State Department policy-planning office staffer and sanctions expert, told Al-Monitor. The broadest thing that the bill does is that it locks in all of the existing sanctions on Russia from 2014 when Russia first invaded Crimea.

The two real issues that this bill highlights in terms of Russias behavior are Ukraine  and cyber, Fishman, now with the Atlantic Council, said. But Syria  this is not a bill to sanction Russia for its actions in Syria.

There were attempts to do that in the past, but those of us in the Russia/Europe policy community were skeptical, [because] our Syria policy is anything but straightforward.

Still, the new legislation would shape and limit the potential for US policy toward Russia to become more friendly unless Congress becomes convinced that Moscow has significantly changed its behavior.

When the United States first sanctioned Russia for its invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Russia had the eighth largest economy in the world and was the worlds leading oil producer. Russian President Vladimir Putin always thought the West didnt have the staying power on sanctions, Fishman said. Basically because Western oil companies and banks had so much money at stake in Russia, [Putin thought] if he can hold out for a few years, the sanctions will evaporate.

What this bill does is preclude that from happening, Fishman said. Without exaggerating, it is an incredibly significant piece of legislation. US policy [on] Russia is not going to be friendly so long as this is the law of the land.

Currently, sanctions on Russia are based on a number of executive orders, so if the president wanted to, he could cancel all the sanctions with the stroke of a pen, Fishman said.

The new bill would prevent him from being able to do that. It codifies all of the existing sanctions, Ukraine sanctions and sanctions [former US President Barack] Obama put in place at the end of 2016 to punish Russia for its interference in the US presidential campaign, Fishman said.

Then it sets up a mechanism [that] says, if there is any significant easing of sanctions, a congressional review period is immediately triggered, Fishman said. It really is quite strong.

While not focused on the Middle East, the new bill could interfere with the sale of some Russian defense equipment to the region, former State Department sanctions official Peter Harrell told Al-Monitor.

Right now, there are a couple of Russian defense and intelligence companies individually blacklisted by the US, said Harrell, who is now with the Center for a New American Security. With this bill, any company  whether a US or foreign company  doing business with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors [designated] major companies would face US sanctions.

As a result of some amendments added  Congress has created a little bit of flexibility so the administration can negotiate with countries like Egypt, India, the Czech Republic  that buy Russian military equipment to wind [those purchases] down, Harrell added.

The bill does have a section dealing with Syria. Section 234 of the bill says the President shall impose on a foreign person the sanctions  if the President determines that such foreign person has  knowingly exported, transferred, or otherwise provided to Syria significant financial, material, or technological support that contributes materially to the ability of the Government of Syria to (A) acquire or develop chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons or related technologies; (B) acquire or develop ballistic or cruise missile capabilities; (C) acquire or develop destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons; (D) acquire significant defense articles, defense services, or defense information.

Another section calls on the president to impose sanctions on person(s) he determines knowingly  engages in a significant transaction with a person that is part of, or operates  on behalf of, the [Russian government] defense or intelligence sectors.

The sanctions legislation language regarding Russias support for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad offers the US administration some flexibility, Harrell said.

Looking at the Middle East, I think the sanctions  on purchases of [the] Russian defense kit  will be an area of impact, Harrell said. On sanctions directed at Russian support for Assad, how that plays out depends on how aggressively the Trump administration implements them.

With this administration, he added, who knows?

Note: July 25, 2017. This article has been updated with a comment from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
July 25, 2017

Koshari, one of Egypts national dishes, is often claimed to be a vegetarian's dream. Made of rice, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, crispy fried onions and topped with tomato sauce, it has provided an affordable option for a filling meal for centuries.

Then it got a makeover.

During its opening six years ago, Shadi Srours small shop offered its customers the traditional Koshari dish. A year later, Srour wanted to beat the competition by innovating the recipe, so he added another Egyptian traditional street food: shawarma. Shawarma, known also as doner kebab, is made with meat placed on a rotating spit and its shavings are served often in pita bread.

"We added shawarma to koshari to increase its appeal to young customers who like to try new dishes," Srour, the owner of Kosharina Restaurant, told Al-Monitor. We took the recipe to another level.

For Srour, modernizing traditional recipes is necessary to stay in business, as customers are always on the lookout for new foods. If you insist on serving the same recipes year after year, without bringing any change or innovation, you will lose business even if you serve good quality food," he said. Time proved him right  he is now the proud owner of four branches of Kosharina.

The traditional bowl of koshari is still on the menu for 6 Egyptian pounds (roughly $0.35), while the dish with chicken shawarma costs 18 pounds ($1). A bowl of koshari topped with meat shawarma is sold for 20 pounds ($1.10). Srour noted that despite the price, many customers go for the shawarma koshari.

Srour is not alone in wanting to modernize the recipes of traditional Egyptian foods to attract trendy young customers or push his dishes upmarket.

Some restaurant owners add sausages to traditional dishes made of foul (fava beans) and make stuffed falafel with pastrami. New recipes of traditional hawawshi, Egyptian bread stuffed with minced meat with spices, is enriched by adding chicken, vegetables or imported foodstuff that is a novelty for Egyptian customers, such as mozzarella.

The modernized recipes are given new names, often in English. Tameya, aka falafel, a popular vegan food, becomes green burger or veggie burger," and zalabia, a fried dessert, is rebranded as "Middle Eastern or Greek doughnuts. The traditional koshari may be advertised as "Egyptian pasta. The inexpensive fruit harankash (physalis) now goes by the more glamorous name of "golden berry," both in restaurants and supermarkets.

Some oppose the renaming trend as ridiculous and downright misleading. "Koshari is koshari, it never can be called pasta. It is made of different ingredients, not only pasta. If we changed the recipe, it wouldn't be the popular dish as we know it but something different," Tarek Yousef Zaki, the manager of Abou Tarek Restaurant and son of the owner, told Al-Monitor.

Abou Tarek is one of the well-known traditional koshari restaurants in downtown Cairo, which prides itself on keeping up the tradition; Zaki is firmly against making changes to the original recipe or changing the traditional Egyptian names.

We should keep our gastronomic heritage by maintaining the original recipes and names because that is what makes us different from any other country, Zaki said.

Depending on their size, koshari bowls served at Abou Tarek cost between 10 Egyptian pounds (roughly $0.55) and 30 pounds (roughly $1.70). The restaurant, which was established in 1950, has a three-story branch downtown and a branch in Saudi Arabia.

"Koshari is an inexpensive dish and many people buy it for this reason. Christians eat it during their fast because it doesn't contain meat. If I would add meat, the price would increase and a large number of people would not be able to afford it and vegetarians would not order it," Zaki noted.

Egyptian desserts have had their share of a gastronomic makeover, too. Konafa, Ramadans favorite dessert of shredded pastry stuffed with cream and nuts, is now filled with Nutella or red velvet cake. The cake forms the center of the konafa instead of the traditional cream and nuts.

Nutella is now also added to zalabia, puffy fritters soaked in syrup. But the latest  and possibly the most controversial  trend emerged in June during Eid el-Fitr, when one of the Egyptian dessert shops announced that it offers kahk  Eid cookies made with cinnamon and sesame seeds, with red velvet cake.

Renowned chef and nutritionist Sally Fouad told Al-Monitor that she is all for innovation based on traditional recipes, as long as the new variations do not replace the original recipes.

"In my recent kahk recipe, I added more corn starch than flour, and people liked it and said it tastes better than the original," said Fouad, who hosts the popular TV food show "Helw & Hadek" on CBC Sofra, the first Egyptian cooking channel. "But as we develop the recipes, we should refer to the original and make sure that the traditional recipe can [still] be found in restaurants, she added.

However, when asked if she would agree to make kahk with red velvet cake, Fouad hesitated before saying, "Not to that extent, but who knows? Maybe.

One of the new inventions in sweets is led by a new dessert shop called Cream 'n Rice, which is making roz bel laban, a rice dessert with milk, with new flavors such as chocolate and cheesecake.

Cream 'n Rice started as a small kiosk in 2016 and now has two branches in two big malls in Giza, close to Cairo. It refers to itself as a rice pudding shop, while to the traditional Egyptian, it is simply selling roz bel laban.

"Rice puddings are served in different countries in different ways. I saw it in a restaurant in New York and I wanted to bring the idea to Egypt," Mohamed Samy, the owner of the shop, told Al-Monitor.

Many gastronomy experts believe that rice pudding traveled to the West from the East, and its origins may be either Arabic or Indian. Others say that rice pudding, known as sutlac or sutlu as ("food with milk") is of Turkish origin and came to Egypt during the Ottoman Empire with the people of the Balkans.

"Although some people like the taste, others asked me why I changed the recipe of roz bel laban. But I'm offering a new product, not the same old one," said Samy, who serves rice pudding with 11 flavors including blueberry, cheesecake and chocolate.

Changes to traditional food recipes attract many customers, but some experts consider this a passing trend and maintain that the traditional Egyptian food culture will prevail.

TV presenter and host of "El-Akeel" broadcast on CBC Sofra, Murad Makram, said that the identity of Egypt's gastronomic culture cannot be erased easily because it is hundreds of years old.

"English names and new recipes cannot threaten Egypt's gastronomic culture. Over the past hundreds of years, Egypt witnessed occupations and was under the control of foreign countries, and it did not lose its gastronomic culture. On the contrary, we taught the invaders our culture and they loved our recipes," he said.
July 26, 2017

On July 25, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a package of sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea. The sanctions specifically target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Irans ballistic missile program.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reacted to the move July 26 in a statement during a Cabinet meeting. Such sanctions do not affect the Iranian nation and neither decreases the people and the Islamic Republic of Iran's resistance, nor will [they] change our policies and path, he said.

The bill that the House of Representatives has passed will be forwarded to the Senate, and you will see that the sanctions against Iran are different from sanctions against North Korea or Russia, Rouhani noted. Iran's sanctions are in fact the repetition of past sanctions, and this indicates that the tool of sanctions has been very slow compared to previous years.

Rouhani also stated, The parliament will take its steps, and we will take any steps that we believe [are] necessary for strengthening our country without paying attention to their [US] sanctions and policies.

After remarking, The US' freedom in imposing sanctions has been restricted after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], Rouhani went on to say, Before the JCPOA, the Americans used to impose sanctions against the Iranian people under any pretext, and they were attempting to take the sanctions outside the borders [of the United States] and affect other countries and Europe.  They even tried hard to take the sanctions to the [UN] Security Council and make it a global matter.

Noting the possible violation of the nuclear deal by President Donald Trump's administration, Rouhani said, If the enemy violates its promises and commitments, we will react accordingly."

Meanwhile, parliament Speaker Ali Larijani tied the new US sanctions to regional issues. If we look at the key points and text of yesterdays sanctions of the United States against Iran and Russia, it is crystal clear that these sanctions stem from the US hatred toward the Axis of Resistance, said Larijani July 26 in a meeting in Tehran with a Lebanese parliamentary delegation.

Larijani further remarked about the House bill, [It is] contrary to the nuclear deal. He added, All these decisions and bills show that the United States has no intention of resolving the terrorist crises in the region. The United States is practically attacking the countries and fighters who are countering terrorists by passing such bills. This approach will surely backfire.

Furthermore, the Iranian committee tasked with monitoring implementation of the JCPOA, a body established on the order of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is slated to meet to discuss a response to the US sanctions. The committee for monitoring the JCPOA will definitely make new decisions in the face of US sanctions, said Ali Akbar Velayati, Khameneis foreign policy adviser, on July 26 when speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran. The Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission will also hold a special meeting on July 29 to review a bill to counter the US hostile and terrorist acts.

Meanwhile, Fereidoun Majlesi, a prominent former Iranian diplomat, has argued that Trump cannot repeal the nuclear deal. The JCPOA will never be in danger given that the United States wasnt the only [party] to this agreement.  In the UN Security Council, at least Russia and China are witnessing Iran honoring its commitments, and they will use their veto right, said Majlesi July 26 in comments to Entekhab. Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1  China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus Germany  in July 2015.

Noting a July 25 Wall Street Journal interview with Trump, Majlesi commented, Trumps remarks were very dangerous. He cant violate the JCPOA, but he is able to issue an order and take us into a war of attrition, like in Syria. They [the United States] will definitely not let their soldiers put their boots [on the ground] in the region. Therefore, they are seeking to make Iran and Saudi Arabia fight each other, while they watch and laugh [at such conflict].
July 26, 2017

For the last four days, an expanded team of elite police investigators have been sitting with Israeli businessman Miki Ganor collecting detailed testimony from him. Ganor represented German shipbuilder Thyssenkrupp in the submarine purchase deal signed with Israel. This lengthy interrogation is expected to uncover an enormous iceberg of corruption in the state's military acquisitions program over the past few years. Meanwhile, quite a few senior officials in Israel have lost sleep over this. The state witness agreement signed with Ganor on July 21 could incriminate a huge group of top-ranking officials in the security establishment and maybe even reach the political leadership.

As a representative for Thyssenkrupp, Ganor was behind the attempt to acquire three additional (and unnecessary, from the Israel Defense Forces point of view) submarines for the Israeli navy. He also tried to privatize the navy's maintenance services and shipyards and acquire two additional cruisers and four anti-submarine vessels that no one in Israel really needs.

Ganor is considered to be the driving force behind the corruption in the submarine scandal, which has been covered by Al-Monitor on numerous occasions. The very fact that the state attorney's office reached a deal with him, under which he will receive one year in prison and have to pay a steep fine, testifies to the working assumption that Ganor will bring down other people bigger and better than him. A sensitive seismograph can already feel the signs of a major earthquake rapidly approaching, which will soon wreak havoc on the highest levels of Israeli society.

But with all due respect to other senior officials, the really important question here is whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will find himself implicated in this volatile scandal, too. As of now, the state attorney's office is standing by its statement that the prime minister is not under suspicion of involvement. The thing is, given the mechanics of such investigations, that could change in the blink of an eye.

One person who is implicated in the scandal is attorney David Shimron, Netanyahu's cousin and one of the people closest to him. The relationship between Shimron and Netanyahu is reminiscent of the relationship between Jared Kushner and US President Donald Trump. In the case of Shimron, however, the relationship is much older, going back dozens of years. Shimron is Netanyahu's closest adviser, his personal attorney and the person who has handled the prime minister's most sensitive affairs, both political and economic.

Even among supporters of the Likud, it is hard to find Israelis who believe that Netanyahu didnt know that his own cousin and attorney was the intermediary (serving as Ganors legal representative) stirring the pot in this major deal, while the prime minister used his position to propel it forward in Israel's corridors of power. Even if the flames bursting out of Ganor's flamethrower fail to reach the hem of Netanyahu's robe, the public damage already caused, and that will be caused to him as a result of this scandal, is serious. For the first time, the submarine affair has the potential to crack the heavy armor that has always protected the prime minister's public image, particularly among his supporters.

The submarine scandal is not the only ticking time bomb on Netanyahu's desk. Sitting beside it is another scandal, just as big, in which some of the prime minister's closest confidants are entangled. This is the investigation into Bezeq, the Israeli telecommunications giant that controls a huge share of the internet, telephone and television market. The main suspect in this case is Shlomo Filber, the director general of the Communications Ministry. Evidence collected against him points to him being a Bezeq "spy" at the critical intersection, where key decisions are made, i.e., in the nerve center of Israel's telecommunications industry.

It should be remembered that Netanyahu himself was minister of communications until February 2016, when a court ordered him to step aside, and that he still considers matters pertaining to communications to be a major asset, featuring at the top of his agenda. Netanyahu had his coalition partners sign that they would agree to everything he did in the area of communication. He then went on to fire the ministry's director general on his first day on the job and inserted Filber in the slot to replace him. Filber had already been Netanyahu's "special operations" person for over 20 years.

The stench emanating from this scandal has affected the entire Israeli telecommunications market. While the investigation is focused on Filber's serious conflicts of interest, it is certainly possible that it will expand to encompass his boss, Netanyahu. Netanyahu's relationship with the owner of Bezeq, businessman Shaul Elovitch, was well-known even before the investigation began. Only recently, however, was it discovered that the conflict of interest agreement that Netanyahu signed when he took over the Ministry of Communications contained no mention of that relationship. What this means is that it is possible that Netanyahu could be indicted for submitting a false affidavit. While this investigation is only just beginning, the number of people arrested and interrogated because of it is already astronomical. The shockwaves could reverberate all the way up to the prime minister's office.

In addition to these two scandals are two "older" investigations, "File 1000" and "File 2000," in which Netanyahu is the prime suspect. File 1000 is the investigation into the gifts received by the prime minister. In that investigation, the police are already putting together a recommendation to indict Netanyahu. In the best case, he would be charged with fraud and the violation of trust. In the worst case, he could be charged with accepting a bribe. The police recommendation must first be approved by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who has been under intense public pressure for the past few months to stop dragging his feet and allow the police to finish their work. The main witness in this case is Hollywood tycoon Arnon Milchan. Another potential witness is Australian billionaire James Packer, but the police have not yet succeeded in conducting an overseas questioning procedure.

File 2000 is the investigation into the covert negotiations between Netanyahu and the Yedioth Ahronoth daily publisher Arnon Mozes, in which the two men tried to cobble together a crooked deal between them. The circulation of Yisrael Hayom, the free newspaper most closely identified with Netanyahu, would be diminished and its impact would be limited in exchange for more favorable coverage of Netanyahu by Yedioth Ahronoth. American tycoon Sheldon Adelson  the owner of Yisrael Hayom  has already given testimony about this case on two separate occasions. According to sources close to the investigation, Adelson's testimony did not help Netanyahu.

As it was later learned, many of the conversations between Netanyahu and Mozes were recorded by Ari Harow, Netanyahus former chief of staff, who is himself suspected of involvement in various other secondary scandals. Since then, the relationship between Netanyahu and Adelson has deteriorated. Once the red-headed billionaire realized that Netanyahu was using him like an invaluable and powerful toy to advance his own interests, Adelson's attitude toward his protege chilled considerably.

This all came to a climax July 26, with a resounding headline on the front page of Yisrael Hayom, which described the prime minister's response to the metal detector crisis as "terrified, feeble and helpless." The paper's senior commentator went on to write that Netanyahu acted against the interests of the very people who voted for him. In Israel, the headline is considered truly historic. It is the first of its kind in a newspaper that, until recently, was happy to disseminate the talking points released by the prime minister's Balfour Street official residence. The message coming from the article is clear: The house on Balfour Street is now under siege.
July 26, 2017

At a meeting of his security Cabinet on July 24, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced his ministers to support the removal of the metal detectors that had just been installed at the Temple Mount compound entrance. Once that was done, he immediately set to work minimizing the damage the decision had done to his image.

It was Netanyahu who first pushed to install the metal detectors within hours of the deadly July 14 attack on the Temple Mount that left two policemen dead. The move was ostensibly intended to increase security at the contentious site, but it was also a way of declaring Israeli sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem. He made the decision despite warnings from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet that it would lead to a fresh eruption of violence.

Even when there were signs that the metal detectors were provoking the Muslim world and that a new round of violence seemed imminent, Netanyahu refused to renege on his decision. With HaBayit HaYehudi ministers breathing down his neck and warning him not to relent, Netanyahu couldnt allow himself to blink, even when faced with riots on the Temple Mount and demonstrations throughout the Arab world.

On the night of July 21, a Palestinian attacker butchered three members of the Salomon family in the Halamish settlement. By then, it was clear that the clash over the metal detectors was starting to spiral out of control. Netanyahu went right up to the edge as he maneuvered between security considerations and politics, mainly his struggle with HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett over leadership of the right.

It took another crisis to offer Netanyahu the ladder he needed to climb off his high horse: a July 23 incident at Israel's embassy in Amman, Jordan. When Netanyahu received the initial reports that an Israeli security guard at the embassy had been stabbed and that in the course of the melee he shot and killed two Jordanian citizens, the prime minister used every possible channel to keep the fallout from spiraling out of control.

At that point, the Jordanian government was demanding that the security guard be handed over for questioning. It would not allow the embassy staff to leave the building and return to Israel. Netanyahu realized that he would be forced to fold with the whole world watching, and he would have no choice but to order the removal of the metal detectors from the Temple Mount. He knew of the impending damage to his image and the political repercussions. At the Cabinet meeting on the night of July 24, representatives of the defense establishment presented various nightmare scenarios if the metal detectors remained and pressure from the Muslim world intensified. The ministers were warned, among other things, that it could lead to the eruption of a new intifada. Here Netanyahu found the excuse he needed to justify backtracking from his argument of just a few days earlier, that the metal detectors were essential to maintaining security at the site. HaBayit HaYehudi ministers Bennett and Ayelet Shaked and Ze'ev Elkin of the Likud opposed the removal of the devices. The other ministers supported the decision.

The same night, at around 11 p.m., the embassy staff crossed the Allenby Bridge into Israeli territory. Among them was Ambassador Einat Schlein and the security guard who fired the shots. Both had been trapped in the embassy for hours. At the time, the prime minister's office was already busy organizing a highly publicized meeting between them and Netanyahu, and the story of their evacuation was sold to the public as a heroic operation orchestrated by Netanyahu to bring them home. In the fight over public opinion, Netanyahu was trying to turn the security events of the last few days into a personal victory, even though the events themselves presented him in a problematic light as the person responsible for the rash decision to install the metal detectors in the first place, only to show weakness by removing them.

On the morning of July 25, Netanyahu flew to the Golan Heights for a security briefing with the IDF's top brass. Accompanying him were Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot. Though the visit was arranged several days earlier, Netanyahu was able to use it to adroitly repair the damage to his image. Wearing a black polo shirt and surrounded by the IDF's top brass, Netanyahu was photographed listening to the briefings, bent over maps and looking out over Syria. There could be no better backdrop to send a message to the public that he is still the responsible adult and the only politician with enough security experience to deal with the threats across the Syrian border.

In a statement to the media at the end of the visit, Netanyahu praised the IDF officers serving in the region but warned, "The situation here is changing rapidly. The Islamic State is in full-scale retreat and Iran is trying to fill the vacuum. Iran and Hezbollah are trying to create a northern arc, armed with very accurate weapons. We are dealing with these new threats to the State of Israel. We are focused on the entire gamut of threats facing Israel."

Despite the prime minister's photogenic visit to the north and his dire warnings of the threats surrounding Israel, the story was sidelined by the media focus on the removal of the metal detectors at the Temple Mount compound. A poll published by Channel 2 on Tuesday evening found that 77% of the public considered the removal of the metal detectors a capitulation, while 67% of respondents said that Netanyahu acted poorly throughout the entire episode.

However, at least as far as Netanyahu is concerned, all these daunting figures really show is a temporary shift in mood. The same thing happened during the cease-fire after the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Polls taken then showed that Israelis were disappointed by Netanyahu's performance. Much has been written about how his reputation as "Mr. Security" suffered, particularly because he was so closely associated with the failures surrounding Hamas' tunnels originating in the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, Netanyahu continued to receive the highest grades in polls asking about his suitability to be prime minister, compared to all the other candidates. What this shows is that the damage to Netanyahu's image because of the Temple Mount incident can only be measured over time.

While the Channel 2 poll showed that Israelis were unhappy with the way Netanyahu reacted to the crisis, it also indicated that most Israelis  and not only the right  believed that installing the metal detectors in the first place was the right thing to do. This was good news for Netanyahu. The polls showed, for instance, that the public did not support the position of the Labor Party's new chairman Avi Gabbay, who opposed installing the metal detectors in the first place. Politics is a game of alternatives and choices, with the objective of being the lesser of two evils. As long as there is no leadership alternative to Netanyahu, the prime minister will manage to overcome the damage caused by the Temple Mount saga.
July 26, 2017

On July 13, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi appointed Yemens first ambassador to Russia since former President Ali Abdullah Salehs fall from power in 2011. After the appointment was announced, Yemens official Saba news agency reported that Hadi had urged his new ambassador to Russia, Ahmed Salem al-Wahishi, to strengthen Yemens bilateral relationship with Russia on numerous levels.

Russias decision to accept Hadis pick for ambassador to Moscow contrasts markedly with its disapproval of Hadis ambassadorial appointments in late 2016. As Russia has deepened its relationships with Hadis pro-Saudi government and pro-Iran factions in Yemen in recent months, Wahishis appointment is a compelling indicator of the transformation of Moscows Yemen strategy from passive rhetorical criticism of the ongoing conflict to the active pursuit of a cease-fire through diplomatic means. This policy shift was codified by a February 2017 Russian Foreign Ministry statement, which called for the re-establishment of dialogue between warring parties and an end to the two-year conflict in Yemen.

Russias deepened commitment to ensuring a cease-fire in Yemen can be explained by a mixture of strategic considerations and broader geopolitical aspirations. From a strategic standpoint, a cessation of hostilities could allow Russia to construct a naval base on Yemeni soil. Even though the Russian February statement on Yemen did not include a reference to the construction of a potential base, a Russian military official told ITAR-TASS in 2009 that establishing a naval base presence in Yemen was a medium-term strategic objective. A Yemeni base would have significant strategic value for Russia, as it would increase Moscows access to the Red Seas shipping lanes and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

As Yemens Houthi-aligned ex-President Saleh has publicly expressed his willingness to grant Russia military basing rights, a peace settlement in Yemen would have allowed Moscow to construct a naval base without risk of backlash from Sanaa. If Russia ultimately decides to revive its base construction, Hadis forces are also likely to acquiesce, as one of their most important allies, the United Arab Emirates, believes that Moscows base presence in the Red Sea is a valuable bulwark against Iranian influence in Yemen.

Even though the United States has historically competed with Russia for access to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Moscows strategy of diplomatically engaging with both sides of the Yemen conflict has made it appear more impartial than the United States, which has staked out an overtly pro-Saudi stance. In their basing negotiations, Russian diplomats have emphasized this impartiality to the leaders of both sides of the Yemen conflict to demonstrate that Moscow is a more reliable security partner than Washington. As Russia has garnered significant political capital from its diplomatic initiatives in Yemen, and the Houthis retain control over the vast majority of Yemens Red Sea coast, it is an opportune time for Kremlin policymakers to forcefully advocate a cease-fire in Yemen.

From a broader geopolitical perspective, Russias push for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen can be linked to its desire to be perceived by Middle East leaders as a superior arbiter to the United States. Building on Moscows support for all-inclusive diplomatic negotiations in Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, Russian policymakers have consistently argued that a resolution of the Yemen conflict can only be achieved through a political solution framework that engages all of Yemens major warring factions.

To bring Yemens disparate political factions to the bargaining table, Russia can offer a range of incentives and deterrents that no other great power can match. To gain Hadis support for a cease-fire, Russia can credibly threaten to provide military support for Salehs forces, as Saleh has offered Russian officials the opportunity to revive Soviet-era military links with Yemen and counterterrorism support. As George Mason University professor Mark Katz, a leading expert on Russia-Middle East relations, argued in January, Saudi Arabia views this scenario as such an undesirable outcome that Riyadh could be willing to compromise with Moscow on Syria to prevent it from coming to fruition.

Therefore, if Russia threatens to back Saleh, Saudi Arabia will likely convince Hadi to negotiate with the Houthis, advancing Moscows cease-fire ambitions. Similarly, if Russia makes its economic aid to the Houthis contingent on holding diplomatic talks with Hadi, Saleh could acquiesce, because he views Moscow as a critical long-term economic partner that will help dilute the Houthis dependency on Iran. Through coercive diplomacy and establishing conditions for assistance to each major faction, Russia can initiate a political settlement in Yemen that sidesteps the United States and highlights Moscows indispensability as a great power in the Middle East.

In addition to showcasing Moscows arbitration prowess, Kremlin policymakers have used their diplomatic push for a cease-fire in Yemen to improve Russias image among the Arab public and Yemeni government officials. Even though Russias diplomatic escalation in Yemen is still in its early stages, favorable responses from public opinion surveys and Yemeni politicians have given Moscows efforts positive momentum. The 2017 Arab Youth Survey revealed that Russia is viewed by 21% of young Arabs as their countrys leading ally, up from 9% in 2016, and critically above the 17% figure held by the United States.

The United States support for Saudi Arabias military intervention in Yemen was a significant contributor to the increase in anti-American sentiments among young Arabs. Moscows advancement of a political settlement to the Yemen crisis, shipments of food and medical aid to Sanaa, and vociferous opposition to Saudi Arabias air assault on the Houthi-held Hodeidah port have considerable public appeal in the Arab world. Praise from prominent Yemeni politicians, like South Yemens former President Ali Nasir Muhammad and Hadi, for Russias efforts to promote stability in Yemen have also gained widespread coverage in the Russian state media, as they showcase the effectiveness of Russian arbitration strategies to other Arab leaders.

Even though Wahishis appointment has received little international media coverage, the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Russia and Hadis government is a major step forward for Moscows aspirations of devising an inclusive political settlement to the Yemen conflict. Achieving a cease-fire in Yemen could allow Russia to establish a strategically important Red Sea naval base, bolster Moscows international reputation as a conflict arbiter and foster more favorable perceptions of Russia in the Middle East and North Africa. These prospective benefits ensure that Moscows diplomatic involvement in Yemen will likely continue expanding for the foreseeable future.
July 26, 2017

When Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed into town, Yehiya Sobieh rounded up as many people as he could to start a protest. On June 9, the people of Maarat al-Numan, a small city located in Syrias last rebel-held stronghold of Idlib, mobilized to protect local fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked group.

Many chanted Shabiha, Shabiha, leave our city now, which is a term that originally referred to state-sponsored gangs that terrorized protesters at the beginning of the Syrian revolution. That day, demonstrators held their ground until HTS retreated, signaling a clear victory for civil society.

Al-Qaeda came to our streets to try to kill and arrest our soldiers. Thats why civil activists started encouraging everyone to protest, Sobieh, an independent digital security activist from Maarat al-Numan, told Al-Monitor over the phone.

[Al-Qaeda] tried to shoot in the air and then shoot at our feet, but we didnt disperse, he said.

Tensions have mounted between armed groups and activists in Idlib since Russia, Turkey and Iran brokered a cease-fire May 4. The halt in bombardments has enabled local councils and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to tend to the needs of nearly 1 million people trapped inside the province. But while the cease-fire holds for now, activists and analysts say that armed groups are undermining the role of civil society.

Omar Abu al-Huda, an activist who volunteers with Al-Khadra, an NGO that educates and provides relief to children and women in Idlib, told Al-Monitor that HTS is the biggest threat to civil society. The extremist group, he said, routinely seizes aid convoys and disrupts service provisions. However, that is only the tip of iceberg.

[HTS] has tried to kidnap and kill activists, said Abu al-Huda via WhatsApp. We have to be careful. The group has even laid land mines to target cars and convoys.

Neither Abu al-Huda nor his colleagues at Al-Khadra have been targeted so far, but their work could be affected in other ways. On May 11, HTS stated their intention to oversee Idlibs informal money transfer offices. Activists feared that if the group took over the informal banking system, then donors would cut support to evade financing a designated terrorist group.

Yet Armenak Tokmajyan, a Turkey-based analyst for the International Crisis Group who has been researching conditions of civilian resilience in Idlib, noted that it would not be in the best interest of HTS to monopolize the entire informal banking system.

Imagine if the money stops coming [through to Idlib]. The affected population will go after HTS, Tokmajyan told Al-Monitor. Many of these offices also have alliances to armed groups. So harming their business would mean harming the interest of their allies.

Rather than fully sabotaging relief services, HTS has tried to win support by establishing its own civil department to oversee provisions. Ahrar al-Sham, a rival ultraconservative militia that wields considerable power in Idlib, has adopted the same strategy.

Local councils and civil society organizations are constantly battling HTS and, to a lesser extent, Ahrar al-Sham, over who will provide services. These groups of course have weapons to push their agenda. But the success of councils and civil society organizations depends on the popular legitimacy that they get by providing services, and the delicate balance of power among armed groups in each town, Tokmajyan said.

The balance of power is certainly delicate. HTS and Ahrar al-Sham have clashed repeatedly in recent days. On July 18, HTS attacked Ahrar al-Sham in southern Idlib after the latter raised the Syrian revolutionary flag. At least 12 people were killed by the following day.

Each alliance has attempted to brand themselves as the face of the revolution. But now HTS has the upper hand. On July 23, the group took control of Idlib province before a car bomb exploded and killed nine of its fighters. And while civilians generally favor Ahrar al-Sham, activists have maintained their distance from every armed group.

Ahrar al-Sham has tried to help carry out our services, but [activists] always reject their assistance, Sobieh said. It is important for us to be against anyone who has weapons. We want civil society to stay independent so we must never bear arms.

Despite the obstacles, civilians prefer to deal with civil society more than armed groups. That was apparent at the beginning of this year when residents in Idlib city elected their first civilian council. The Army of Conquest (Jaish al-Fatah)  a now disbanded coalition that included fighters from HTS and Ahrar al-Sham  had been supplying services until civilians persuaded them to give up responsibility over city affairs.

Yet challenges persist. Several activists told Al-Monitor that they need more support from the global community, or else civilians will turn to armed groups for basic provisions.

Sewage systems and electricity grids are in desperate need of repairs due to years of regime bombing. Health clinics and schools are also chronically under-resourced. Sobieh claims that most organizations do not have a third of the budget they need to assist civilians.

A man who goes by the name of Mohammad Bonbon, who lives in Idlib city, told Al-Monitor that the electricity cuts pose a major hassle for civilians. There are always problems, he said. The local council usually tells us how many hours of electricity we have each day. But it is never very long and the duration always changes.

The situation promises to deteriorate if the cease-fire breaks down and bombing resumes. Civilians fear that with HTS now controlling Idlib, the regime may receive international support to strike again. Activists realize that whatever happens next is out of their control. All they can do is help as many people as possible.

Maybe the regime will return to attack us, said Sobeih. But right now, civilians want help [from civil society]. They dont want to see weapons on the streets.
July 24, 2017

GAZA PORT, Gaza Strip  Hundreds of faces reflecting hope, sadness, a sense of loss or anger look back at those visiting photographer Fadi Thabets open exhibition at the Gaza Port, west of Gaza City.

The 1,000 photos are the result of Thabet's work that spans over a period of 10 years, during which he took pictures in different parts of the Gaza Strip. On July 12-13, the large exhibition, organized and funded by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture in Gaza, occupied 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) of wall space.

Thabet, 38, chose to convey the aesthetic aspect of Gaza and its people through his photographic work, focusing on hope and life rather than the destruction and human suffering that usually is portrayed to the world.

I took it upon myself to photograph moments of happiness in Gaza and convey a message of love and peace from my city, Thabet, the winner of the 2006 Arab Organization for Photography Award, the 2017 Hamdan Award and the 2016 Abdulrazzaq Badran Photography Award, told Al-Monitor.

For 10 years, Thabet roamed Gazas marginalized areas in the north and east as well as some of the slums in the south, most notably the neighborhoods of Beit Lahia and the Nahr al-Bared camp in Khan Yunis.

Thabet would travel many months at a time to document the daily lives of the marginalized, especially children, women and the elderly. He decided to organize an exhibition when his collection of photographs became substantial.

Thabets photos that were posted on social media over the last few years caught the attention of humanitarian groups and human rights activists, who contacted Thabet to provide financial and medical assistance to the areas he portrayed. After seeing his photographs, doctors came to the various areas and Thabet introduced them to the families he had met.

Fadi Thabet's photos, taken over 10 years, were placed in an area of 1,000 meters wall space in Gaza Port, July 12, 2017 (Mohammad al-Hajjar)

Many Palestinian photographers also came to Gaza to take photos after they saw my pictures and the suffering of the people here, he said.

Thabet hopes that the exhibition  titled A thousand pictures from a besieged city  will be acknowledged by the Guinness World Records as the first exhibition in the world to include 1,000 human photographs of aesthetic value. Thabet told Al-Monitor that he had decided against postponing the exhibition, scheduled for mid-July, for more than two months so that the Guinness World Records committee could travel to Gaza to see it firsthand.

No photographer in the world has ever included 1,000 pictures in one exhibition. I have sought to prove this through international photographers and agencies. I wanted to break a record with the number of pictures captured, he said.

With his photos of the children of Gaza, Thabet seeks to focus on Palestinian children's rights as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and their right to safe and happy living conditions. He noted that Palestinian children in Gaza, despite the beauty of their innocent appearance, are deprived of playing and having fun and living in a safe environment.

Thabet is in the process of contacting international exhibition organizers to exhibit his photos abroad. He said he hopes that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which remains closed, will be reopened.

Young men of Gaza pose among Fadi Thabet's photos that describe the last 10 years of their daily life, July 12, 2017 (Mohammad al-Hajjar)

One of the most prominent photos of the exhibition that gained international fame and was photographed with a fixed lens is the "Mona Lisa of Gaza." The photo, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, shows a girl with pale skin and red hair in a similar pose as the woman in the painting.

Thousands of Gazans visited the exhibition at the Gaza Port. Painter Lina Shaheen came to see the diverse scenes and to learn from Thabets experience and use it in her paintings, which feature young children and the elderly.

It is nice to have this exhibition here. It is very important for me and my colleagues to take advantage of these photos, which are similar to paintings. We receive many invitations to visit art galleries in France and Italy, but due to the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza we have not been able to leave. But this beautiful exhibition makes it up for me, she told Al-Monitor.

Visitor Ahmad al-Jayyar was surprised by the large number of photographs in the exhibition, and he and his family took pictures standing next to the photos.

When we talk to foreigners on social networking sites, the images they recall seeing from Gaza are of violence, he told Al-Monitor. Unfortunately this is how everyone pictures the Gaza Strip. But I made sure to take pictures of all the exhibited photos to show my friends abroad the amazing pictures that portray life in Gaza  even if these include suffering.
July 25, 2017

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party July 25 that his country had signed an agreement with Russia to buy an S-400 missile defense battery system, apparently overriding objections from the United States and fellow NATO partners. Steps have been taken concerning the S-400s, he reported, declaring, "God willing, well see them in our country soon.

Erdogan was probably referring to a preliminary agreement to pay $2.5 billion to acquire Russias most advanced missile defense system, a deal that cannot be considered final until some money changes hands. Indeed, it remains unclear what sort of financing package is being envisioned.

Erdogans remarks came a day after Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued that Turkey could not proceed with the purchase. It would be a concern, were they to do that, but they have not done that, he told a security forum in Aspen, Colorado.

However, Turkeys deputy prime minister, Fikri Isik, who was the defense minister until last weeks Cabinet reshuffle, signaled Turkeys determination to go ahead with the deal, saying, All technical work is completed.

Erdogan appeared to dismiss the notion that acquiring the Russian system would undermine Turkeys security arrangements with NATO. Why will it cause tension? A country should seek the ideal path to its own security, he said.

Analysts tend to concur with Dunford that Turkish talk about acquiring the S-400 is just that and likely fueled in particular by Turkeys anger over the ongoing partnership between the United States and the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). The purpose of brandishing the threat of deepening military ties with Russia may well be intended to force the United States to reconsider carrying out further operations against the Islamic State with the YPG once the jihadis' so-called capital, Raqqa, is freed.

Turkey insists that the YPG poses a pressing threat to its national security because of the groups intimate ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK resumed its fight against Turkish security forces for Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey after 2 years of cease-fire collapsed in July 2015 amid mutual recriminations. US officials privately acknowledge that the PKK, which is on the US State Departments list of terrorist organizations, and the YPG, which isnt, are closely intertwined. Yet in public they maintain the fiction that the PKK and the YPG are distinct because of the latters prowess against IS. This twist drives Turkey crazy even though the Syrian Kurds have repeatedly conveyed their desire to cooperate with Ankara including against IS.

But even as Turkey carps on about the dangers posed by the YPG, a different threat is looming ever larger over the western side of the Syrian border with the July 23 fall of Idlib to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the latest iteration of al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra. The Turkish-backed Islamist militia Ahrar al-Sham, which had been clashing for over a week with HTS, has fully withdrawn from Idlib, leaving the rival militants free to wreak havoc.

Ahrar al-Sham's attacks against its former allies are believed to have been encouraged if not planned by Turkey, all part of a rumored arrangement with Russia. Syrian Kurdish officials claimed in earlier interviews with Al-Monitor that in exchange for pressuring the YPG to cede positions in and around Afrin to Syrian forces, Russia is asking Turkey to take action against HTS, which remains the biggest threat to the Syrian regime.

With Ahrar al-Shams failure the only other option left for Turkey is to attack HTS itself, which it is loath to do. If Turkey was hoping that Ahrar al-Sham could be the spearhead of a proxy intervention in Idlib to weaken HTS and establish a northwestern sphere of influence, obviously that option is no longer available, observed Aris Roussinos, an analyst who closely monitors the Syrian conflict and has spent considerable time in the field. He told Al-Monitor, Ahrar al-Sham was considered the strongest of Turkeys rebel proxy forces, but the ease and rapidity with which HTS crushed them highlights where the real power lies in Idlib  Ahrar al-Sham have been humiliated and may accept HTS control.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum and an expert on jihadi groups, agrees. He told Al-Monitor, Even if Ahrar al-Sham doesnt come to an end, its power has been significantly reduced in Idlib.

What can Turkey do? There is far more at stake than any quid pro quo with Russia over the YPG. HTS leaders, unlike their IS peers, have long refrained from targeting Erdogan in public. Indeed, Turkey and its top regional ally Qatar have been accused of supporting Jabhat al-Nusra precisely because it's been so effective against the Syrian regime even though Turkey formally classifies the group as a terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda militants have struck inside Turkey before, most notably when it mounted twin suicide bomb attacks against Jewish and British targets in Istanbul in 2003. Three of the four suicide bombers were local recruits. And should Turkey strike the group inside Syria, it could happen again.

Indeed, the recent spike in Erdogans anti-Israeli rhetoric over Israels installment of now dismantled metal detectors at the entrance of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem may be calculated in part to re-establish his own Islamist street cred among his pious base, some of whom openly sympathize with al-Qaeda and HTS. Thus, any overt military action against the latter will be something of a hard sell, unless Erdogan can hold up big and tangible gains against the YPG as a result.

Tamimi warned, A jihadist safe haven as has developed in Idlib risks becoming a ground from which jihadists can plot attacks abroad. The possibility is a concern for the United States as well, but with no reliable force like the YPG to partner with in Idlib, there is little it can do. He added, The only immediate solution I can think of is a direct military intervention, although I doubt it will happen. Moreover, Roussinos noted, Any military intervention that would be opposed by [HTS] would be beyond the [Turkish Armed Forces'] current capacity to easily achieve.

He explained, Based on its weak performance in al-Bab, where the terrain of rolling plains and gentle relief was far more favorable to Turkish armor than Idlibs wooded plains would be. Roussinos was referring to Turkeys difficult and costly campaign to drive out IS from the town of al-Bab. As for Turkish airstrikes, Roussinos contended they "won't really achieve anything without ground troops actually seizing territory from them."

Moreover, he added, the ensuing civilian casualties "would be exploited by both HTS and sympathetic civilian activists, really exposing the technical and political limitations of Turkish policy in Syria."

Meanwhile, the HTS takeover of Idlib is putting at risk hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians in the Atmeh camp, which was run by Ahrar al-Sham until its defeat. Osman Atalay, a spokesman for the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, Turkeys biggest nongovernmental relief organization that has been aiding Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict, said access to Atmeh may become trickier because HTS is now in control.

In a related development, the Bab al-Hawa border crossing near the Turkish city of Antakya, a key supply route for the refugees, remained sealed for a fifth day, disrupting the flow of aid. Taxes levied at the border gate on an average 300 trucks passing through each day make up a lucrative source of revenue for the forces controlling it on the Syrian side.
July 26, 2017

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey  On the morning of July 25, Diyarbakir, the central city of Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast, was visibly gripped by commotion. The police had erected barriers around a park in the city and blocked all streets leading to the place. The reason for the extraordinary measures was the parliamentary group meeting that the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), Turkeys main Kurdish political movement, was planning to hold in the park.

The parties parliamentary group meetings are normally held in parliament, but the HDP this time opted for outdoors following a decision to take to the streets against the clampdown the party has faced since its landmark electoral success in June 2015. Ankaras suppression campaign has intensified under the state of emergency since last years coup attempt, extending to all oppositional quarters. Hundreds of HDP members, including lawmakers and party leader Selahattin Demirtas, have landed behind bars, while dozens of Kurdish-run local administrations have been handed over to government-appointed trustees.

Under the state of emergency, the authorities had denied permission to almost all HDP applications to hold public demonstrations. This time permission was granted  or so the party believed until the participants began to gather for the event, which was to be followed by a weeklong sit-in called a democracy watch. Only the lawmakers were allowed to enter the park; all other party activists were barred from the venue despite all protests and arguments. The lawmakers, however, were up for further frustration. When they stepped into the park, they discovered that all green spaces had been cordoned off as well, with only the cement ground in the middle made available to them.

This meant the sit-in was supposed to proceed under a scorching sun, with summer temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Diyarbakir. Exasperated, HDP spokesman Osman Baydemir likened the scene to the Battle of Karbala, a milestone episode in Islamic history in which Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was left without water in the desert and then killed in fighting by the men of Umayyad caliph Yazid.

Speaking at the event, which Al-Monitor attended, Baydemir said, Why are we here in this Karbala heat? They want to [kill] people. They want to suppress a people, to rule it through tyranny, oppression and isolation. So, we are here  to say 'no' to tyranny and call once again for equality, freedom and an honorable peace.

He added, In the past two years, all democratic values have been trampled on in our region. In the past two years, the governments policies have besieged democracy. In the past two years, the will of the people we represent has been under aggression. That is why we are here to appeal to the Turkish and international public.  We are here for a movement of conscience and justice, for an effort to defend justice with a conscientious resistance. We are here to say 'no' to attacks on human values.

A former mayor of Diyarbakir and a leading figure in the Kurdish movement, Baydemir said the blockade of the park illustrated the state of affairs in Turkey today. This park was built during my tenure in Diyarbakir. The trees here grew with the labor of the people. But today, a party that has won 70% of the vote in this city cannot even hold a gathering here, and even the officials of our provincial and district branches are being barred from the park, he said.

Stressing that they had been denied even the shade of the trees, he added, Its almost as if a Karbala is being imposed on the HDP. But if you insist on being Yazids, we swear we are ready to be Husayns.

Baydemir then sang a part from Iraqi Kurdistans national anthem  Ey Reqib  a tune popular among all Kurds. In a symbolic protest, he and his fellow lawmakers paced back and forth at the venue, imitating prison conditions.

HDP lawmaker Nimetullah Erdogmus told Al-Monitor that the partys protest aimed to contribute to efforts to overcome the political crisis gripping the country. There is clearly a political crisis. The country is in a bottleneck  in a stalemate. The reason the HDP is here today is to initiate a debate [on how] to overcome this crisis, he said. And the reason why we are starting off from Diyarbakir is to have a debate on our own policies first as we look for a way out in terms of Turkish politics in general.

HDP lawmaker Huda Kaya described the campaign against the HDP as a string of detentions, arrests, character assassination campaigns, tens of thousands of human rights violations, disrespect to labor and human life, and millions of sufferings. In further remarks to Al-Monitor, she said, We are faced with a mentality that denies us even the shade of a tree. This is really bringing to mind Karbala. But we are going to keep up the struggle against this mentality.

For the democracy watch that began after the speeches, the HDP group took refuge in a tiny corner of about 1 square meter (roughly 11 square feet) graced with shade at that time of day. The sit-in was scheduled to continue in various cities until the end of July.

The protest may bring to mind the 25-day Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul that the main opposition Republican Peoples Party completed earlier in July, but there is one important difference: The HDP has not received support from any other oppositional quarter, and even its own activists are barred from taking part in the protest. The party is making an effort to raise its voice, but the authorities are taking all measures to muffle it.
July 26, 2017

Good news is hard to come by in Turkey these days. From further arrests of journalists to endless diplomatic spats, things seem to be going from bad to worse. But that's not to say there isnt any. An attentive reader can unearth some happy stories. Take todays news, for instance:

The pro-government daily Yeni Akit reported that a pair of creative surgeons at a state-run hospital in the central Anatolian city of Nevsehir treated burn injuries on a four-year-old boys foot by grafting foreskin from a circumcised penis onto the affected area. The patient has been discharged and is recovering.

Another pro-government title, Daily Sabah, ran heartwarming news about how Turkish authorities are helping to evacuate stranded zoo animals from war-ravaged Aleppo. Turkeys Forestry and Water Affairs Ministry teamed up with Austrian charity Four Paws to rescue three lions, two tigers, two bears and two hyenas from the Magic World zoo. The starving creatures were brought to a shelter in Bursa, western Turkey, where they will be treated for trauma and injuries they sustained during the violence. Two more lions and a pair of wild dogs will be brought in later this month. Forestry Minister Veysel Eroglu called the animals a shared heritage of the international community.

The mass-circulation Hurriyet shared an announcement from the Istanbul Metro Authority about tackling the global commuter plague of "manspreading." Following the example of Madrid, Istanbul will take action to deter tube passengers from sprawling their legs. Measures to deter such violations of other passengers' personal space will include signage depicting offenders with a big red X.

The state-run news agency Anadolu, which provoked the ire of the United States last week by leaking the whereabouts of US special operations forces in northern Syria, reported on an unexpected bonus from last weeks earthquake in the Aegean resort of Bodrum.

The 6.5 magnitude trembler, which killed a Turk and a Swede in the nearby Greek island of Kos and injured more than 360 people, also triggered what Anadolu called a miracle of nature. A dry stream in Bodrums Derekoy neighborhood began flowing again. Bodrum resident Ferah Sevran marveled, This is a mystery delivered to us by Allah. Thanks to the water from this stream, the wells have filled up. We are astonished and happy.

Definitely good news: A court in the Black Sea province of Giresun sentenced a Quran instructor to a tidy 217 years, four months and six days for sexually abusing students ages 9-13 enrolled at his seminary.

An administrative court ruled in favor of an Alevi house of worship known as a cemevi in Istanbuls Esenyurt suburb. Citing previous rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, the presiding judges said Turkeys state-run Religious Affairs Directorate, or Diyanet, should pay its electricity bill. The Alevis and other non-Muslim minority groups have long complained of discrimination at the hands of Diyanet. The body covers utility bills for Sunni mosques but refuses to do so for cemevis and the smattering of churches and synagogues that survive in the country.

And finally, the Turkish Economy Ministry announced that Turkey had drawn in a total $4.8 billion in foreign direct investment between January and May. This figure represents an increase of 11.2% compared to the same period in 2016, with much of the funding coming from European Union member states.
July 25, 2017

US President Donald Trumps recent decision to terminate a covert CIA program to train and equip Syrian opposition militants is generating multiple potential scenarios of the beginning of the end for Ankaras plans in northern Syria, which included expanding the area Turkey controls as far as Idlib.

Though the United States had been paying more attention to the southern Syria front and to US relations with Kurdish allies, CIA-run operations with allied intelligence services from their Turkish base were also important in many respects. That program gave the CIA a strong voice in training and equipping selected opposition fighters and also in distributing weapons and equipment procured with money from Gulf states.

The United States announced the decision last week, but according to undisclosed US officials cited by The Washington Post, Trump made the decision to terminate the CIA program after discussing it with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster before meeting July 7 with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg.

The United States and Russia concluded their negotiations for a deconfliction zone in southern Syria near Jordan, and the agreement went into effect after the Hamburg summit, indicating that the CIA and the Pentagon had cast aside their Jordan-based operations against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Antakya and Gaziantep joint operations centers in Turkey, which are duplicates of the Jordan centers, played roles in many developments in northern Syria, especially Idlib's capture in March 2015. These operations rooms have enabled the CIA to coordinate operations in Syria.

Terminating the CIA program could lead to a new process.

Salafist, Islamist and moderate groups trying to take on al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which now controls most of Idlib, could lose even more ground.

US, Turkish and Saudi intelligence officials in the joint operations centers had taken some steps to improve the field situation after al-Qaeda fighters gained strength in Idlib. In September, the allies consolidated three groups  al-Firqat al-Shimali, Liwa Shukur al-Jabel (Mountain Hawks Brigade) and Firka 13 (Division 13), which they already supplied with TOW anti-tank guided missiles  under the banner of the Free Idlib Army. But this new "army" could not take on the stronger Islamist organization. In February, US, Saudi and Turkish intelligence services called in leaders of local groups and told them that unless they could form a workable joint front, the joint operations center would cut off assistance, which included fighters' salaries, light weapons, ammunition and anti-tank missiles. Faced with this ultimatum, 17 organizations declared they had united under the Northern Front Operations Room.

In parallel efforts, Turkey conducted a series of meetings in Ankara with Syrian militia leaders to set up armies called Jaish al-Watan and Jaish al-Tahrir to extend Operation Euphrates Shield to Idlib, but the effort failed. Cutting off assistance to these groups will make them even less relevant.

Western- and Gulf-supported groups may come under more pressure to join the peace talks at Astana, Kazakhstan. Currently on the Idlib front, HTS is consolidating its hold over the area. Clashes started between Ahrar al-Sham and HTS on July 18. On July 19, HTS captured three towns from Ahrar al-Sham, then four the next day, though angry citizens in one of the towns, Saraqib, forced HTS to withdraw. After only three days, HTS had captured most of Idlib.

Now Turkey has had to send 150 fighters it had "borrowed" from Ahrar al-Sham back to Idlib to help out.

Turkeys support to groups active in the north depended mostly on financing from the Gulf countries, which might be affected by the CIAs exit. There will definitely be implications of the Gulf-Qatar crisis on the northern Syria front. Saudi Arabia, upset with Turkey for its support of Qatar, is not expected to cooperate more with Turkey in northern Syria. We have to remember that the conquests of Aleppo and Idlib in 2015 were made possible mostly by generous support from the Saudis.

Qatar, which is being squeezed by sanctions imposed by its Gulf neighbors, naturally is not expected to maintain its support of Syrian groups in the north.

Those criticizing Trumps decision say that, in the absence of the CIA, Turkey and the Gulf countries might begin supplying the radical groups with advanced anti-aircraft weapons, especially MANPADS (shoulder-fired missiles). With the CIA's presence, countries supporting groups on the ground were acquiring some level of immunity. Now with the CIA leaving, these countries will have to think twice before continuing with their assistance to nongovernment armed groups.

The CIAs withdrawal might also affect Ankara's operational plans regarding Idlib. Ankara was relying on Ahrar al-Sham to end the HTS domination there, but Turkeys hopes were misplaced.

All these developments may well drag Turkey into a direct confrontation with HTS instead of using proxies, which would mean fresh upheaval and violence in northern Syria.
Gov. Kay Ivey today lauded retail giant Walmart for releasing a policy statement aimed at addressing what it says are impediments to U.S. manufacturing.

Walmart's "Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing" proposes a series of initiatives that the company says would recapture about $300 billion in consumer goods currently being imported, and create an estimated 1.5 million American jobs.

Ivey, who was quoted in a Walmart news release regarding the plan, said it goes hand-in-hand with her commitment to bring jobs to Alabamians.

"To do so requires business investment in our state," she said. "I appreciate companies like Walmart understanding the importance of investment right here in Alabama and in our people. We want businesses in Alabama not just to survive but to thrive, because when employers thrive so does our state; I look forward to seeing a thriving manufacturing sector return to Alabama."

Alabama his home to a future $135 million, 2.5-million-square-foot distribution center in Mobile County. The facility, which will add 550 new jobs, will serve as a logistical hub serving 800 of Walmart's 4,600 U.S. stores when it opens in the spring 2018

According to the plan, the four biggest obstacles to manufacturing growth in the U.S. are:

Lack of an available, qualified workforce.

Lack of coordination and financing among suppliers.

Complex local, state and federal regulations detering investments and create higher costs.

The U.S. tax system and trade agreements need to be modernized.

The plan calls for coordinated action among lawmakers, corporations, manufacturers and retailers.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company plans to pursue policy proposals to make a more favorable business climate.

"We are also committed to participating as a leader in the country when it comes to policy," he said, in a statement. "We believe that we should be one of the voices at the table and we want to help renew U.S. manufacturing and drive the creation of manufacturing jobs across the United States."
Vic's Local Kitchen has closed, but a familiar food truck serving fresh steamed lobster is taking its place on busy Airport Road in Huntsville.

Vonda Patterson, owner of Rollin Lobstah, said she will bring her food truck concept to the former home of Vic's Local Kitchen on 964 Airport Rd S.W. in the next couple of weeks. It will be Patterson's first time operating a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

"I have always wanted to open a restaurant but I started with a food truck first to get my feet wet," she said. "I had so many followers and so many people were asking if I had a restaurant so I decided to jump on that bandwagon and go."

The food truck will continue to operate in spite of the move. Patterson also plans to reopen her food truck park on 1354 Old Monrovia Road in September when the weather cools off.

Rollin Lobstah will offer a similar menu with a few new items, including The Poor Man's Lobstah Roll inspired by Patterson's father who recently died. She said the pricing may vary slightly to compensate for increased overhead at the new facility.

The restaurant accommodates about 70 people and offers a front patio with 15-20 seats. Rollin Lobstah will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Patterson said she's feeling a combination of excitement and nervousness as the grand opening date nears.

"As food truck people know, it is hard work," she said. "I'm hoping to share some of my responsibilities with my other employees."

Rollin Lobstah is still hiring. Interested applicants can email Patterson at vondap93@msn.com.

Vicki Berry, who owned Vic's Local Kitchen with her husband Doug, announced the closure of her restaurant Monday on Facebook. The couple previously owned Victoria's Cafe and Follow Me Food Truck.

"The last two years have been wonderful," Berry said. "We look forward to serving you in our new roles as Licensed Realtors with Keller Williams-Huntsville."

Two other notable food trucks are expanding in Madison County.

Fire & Spice owners Thomas and LeAndra Poux are opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant called Fire & Spice Tex-Mex Smokehouse in the former Bandito Southside facility on 11220 Memorial Parkway S.W.

Earth and Stone is in the process of opening its second sit-down restaurant on 107 Brookridge Drive in Madison. The business has another location inside Yellowhammer Brewing at Campus No. 805 in west Huntsville.
A 26-year-old Birmingham man was shot to death Tuesday night during an altercation with his nephew.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office and Birmingham police have identified the victim as Edward Lamar Davis. The shooting happened at 9:46 pm. In the 4200 block of 10th Avenue in Wylam.

Birmingham's West Precinct officers were dispatched to the neighborhood on a report of a person shot. When they arrived, they found Davis lying in the middle of the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds to his body, said Lt. Sean Edwards.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded and attempted to save Davis, but he was pronounced dead on the scene at 9:50 p.m.

Edwards on Wednesday said that Davis and his nephew were in the middle of the roadway and were standing chest to chest as if they were about to fight. The incident escalated into a physical altercation between the two and the nephew then pulled a gun and opened fire on his uncle.

After the shooting, the nephew fled the location on foot before officers arrived. He remains at large.

"A disagreement between an uncle and a nephew should have never ended this way," Edwards said.

Davis' slaying marks Birmingham's 60th homicide this year. Of those, at least five have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren't deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 91 homicides including the 60 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
Update: An 84-year-old Chilton County man reported missing on Tuesday has been found, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The man was located on Thursday.

No other details were immediately released.

--

Police are asking for help locating a missing 84-year-old Maplesville man with dementia.

William "Bill" Moody Spencer was last known to be driving a White 2000 Ford F-150 truck with Alabama tag 14BF212 on Tuesday, according to an alert released by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency on Wednesday afternoon.

Spencer is described as being a white man with brown eyes and gray or partially gray hair. He is 6-foot 1 inches tall and weighs about 195 pounds. He takes medication for a heart condition.

Anyone with information on Spencer's whereabouts is asked to call the Maplesville Police Department at 334-366-4211 or call 911.
A committee formed to investigate how education officials handled an anonymous complaint against a finalist for state school superintendent last year will turn over its findings to the State Bar Association.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, said the committee held its last meeting today concerning the handling of the complaint against Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Craig Pouncey. Dial said the committee adopted a resolution to turn its findings over to the State Bar and ask for an investigation into whether any lawyers involved in responding to the Pouncey complaint violated rules of professional conduct.

"There's not much else we can do," Dial said.

Dial said the fact that the committee lacks subpoena power and other powers limited its investigative reach.

The attorneys involved in responding to the Pouncey complaint have said they were just doing their jobs and following the law.

Dial said he might propose a new legislative rule that would allow lawmakers, by resolution, to set up committees that would have subpoena power, the power to hire outside attorneys and the power to compel testimony under oath.

Dial and Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, sponsored the resolution setting up the committee to study the handling of the Pouncey complaint.

Dial said he believes publicity about the anonymous complaint against Pouncey last year cost Pouncey the job of state superintendent.

Pouncey was one of six finalists for the job when an unsigned letter surfaced accusing him of using his office for personal gain back in 2009, when he was a top official at the state Department of Education.

The state Board of Education hired Michael Sentance, a former education official from Massachusetts, over Pouncey. Sentance got five votes and Pouncey four.

Dial said he asked former Gov. Robert Bentley to testify before the committee today. Dial said Bentley told him he was willing to do so but that his lawyer advised against it. Dial said Bentley said he was willing to answer questions submitted in writing.

Bentley, as governor, was president of the state board last year and voted in favor of hiring Sentance.

While Dial's committee has largely wrapped up its work, there is still a lawsuit pending about the way the complaint was handled.

In February, Pouncey sued state board member Mary Scott Hunter, former interim superintendent Philip Cleveland and Department of Education lawyers Juliana Dean, Susan Crowther and James Ward, alleging they conspired to malign him to undermine his chances of becoming state superintendent.

The five defendants have denied that and asked for the case to be dismissed.

Last month, the state Board of Education adopted a report on an internal investigation by Department of Education attorney Michael Meyer accusing the same five people of conspiring against Pouncey.

Meyer did not accuse them of writing or distributing the anonymous letter. But he said they concealed information that absolved Pouncey.

Hunter, Dean, Crowther, and Ward have sharply disputed Meyer's findings.
Beirut-based professor has launched campaign to challenge misperceptions in the online discussion about Syrian refugees.

Since the outbreak of Syrias war in 2011, professor Nasser Yassin has been working to understand the ensuing refugee crisis.

As Lebanons refugee influx intensified, Yassin began exploring how civil society and informal networks could influence government policy and humanitarian programmes. With more than one million officially registered Syrian refugees, Lebanon hosts the largest refugee population per capita in the world  but Yassin soon observed that much of the rhetoric on the issue was based on emotion, rather than facts.





There was a need to inform decision-makers and the wider public about the refugee crisis with facts to show the reality in a balanced, scientific way, said Yassin, who leads the American University of Beiruts Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.

Six months ago, he kicked off a Fact of the Day Twitter campaign to counter inflammatory rhetoric about Syrian refugees in Lebanon with a fact-based narrative. To this day, he continues to provide daily bites of information under the hashtag #AUB4Refugees.

Among the facts Yassin has dug up are demographic data from the United Nations refugee agency, showing that more than 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are women and children. That would mean the refugee population includes only around 200,000 men, indicating that Syrian refugees are a lesser burden on the labour market  associated with an inflow of working-age male job seekers  than is commonly believed.

Another major misconception among Lebanese citizens is that the refugee influx has weakened the countrys economy, Yassin said, when in reality it is the Syrian war itself that has negatively impacted trade and tourism.

INTERACTIVE: Life on hold  The struggle of Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Tourism, banking and real estate, some of Lebanons main economic drivers, have been badly hit by the Syria crisis, not by the refugee population, noted Wissam Harake, an economist at the World Bank Groups Beirut office, citing a recent report on the effects of Syrias war on the Lebanese economy between 2011 and 2013.

In contrast to the common perception that refugees are purely a financial burden, consumption and investment within the refugee community have helped to alleviate some of the costs associated with the influx, Yassin added. Syrian refugees pay more than $1m in daily rent across Lebanon, he said, citing his research. They also spend more than $22m every month on food, according to the World Food Programme.

Before the Syrian war, Syrians used to work, save up and send money home. Now they stay, spend and consume in Lebanon, Yassin told Al Jazeera.

He believes that claims that refugees have taken jobs from Lebanese workers and raised unemployment levels across the country are exaggerated, although he acknowledges the inevitable competition over unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, given the influx of a large new labour force.





Around three-quarters of Syrian refugees work in the same sectors they had dominated in Lebanon before the Syrian crisis began: construction, agriculture, environment and cleaning services, according to Yassin.

George Ghali, the programmes manager with the Lebanese human rights watchdog ALEF, pointed out that Lebanese businessmen have also exploited the precarious situation of Syrian refugees to obtain cheap labour, pushing refugees to work under the table, without contracts or benefits.

Business owners employing Syrians are able to both maintain some cost control and make good profits with less costly labour as refugees accept lower incomes for longer working hours, Ghali told Al Jazeera.

Syrians bolster Lebanons economy by working in local businesses, providing income for rental property owners and feeding the real estate market in the countrys peripheral areas, he added.

READ MORE: Should Lebanon get more funds for hosting refugees?

The refugee crisis has generated job creation, with openings in international NGOs recruiting Lebanese staff in the regions outside the capital, he said, citing the Bekaa Valley, which hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Although many say that the refugee influx has placed an enormous burden on Lebanons basic urban infrastructure and public services, Yassins Twitter campaign has highlighted the fact that at least 87 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are concentrated in the peripheral, historically poor and deprived areas.

Yassin has also aimed to debunk inflated figures on new refugee births in 2017, claimed by some to be as high as 300,000. The actual figure is 117,000 in the last five years, his research shows; the 300,000 figure accounts for all children born to Syrian refugee parents in exile globally since the conflict began.

Through his online campaign, Yassin said he hopes to change the narrative from refugees as a burden torefugees as assets, revealing the positive contribution that Syrian refugees are making in Lebanon.

With facts, we state the reality and take the debate where it should go, he said.
Washington  Lobbyists working for Egypts controversial General Intelligence Service (GIS) have years of experience on Capitol Hill, working for politicians with the power to enact policies on Egypt, documents show.

Earlier this month, Weber Shandwick cut ties with Egypt after an article in The Atlantic explored how a campaign by the DC public relations firm could help the GIS, which is accused of torture, hobbling Egypts parliament and stifling dissent.

Cassidy & Associates, a firm whose lobbyists have deep connections with members of the US Congress, was a subsidiary of Weber Shandwick until last month, when it announced it would buy itself from their parent company Intergroup. It will continue to lobby for GIS.

Justice Department filings show that as of January, there were three Cassidy & Associates lobbyists working for GIS: Russell Thomasson, Kai Anderson and Terry Paul. There have been no new filings suggesting a change in lobbyists. The contract between the lobbying firm and Egypt was signed by General Nasser al-Fahmy for his superior, Major General Khaled Fawzy, the GIS director.

READ MORE: Why is Egypts new NGO law controversial?

All three of the Cassidy & Associates lobbyists are examples of the revolving door between Congress and lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Jock Friedly, the founder of the government transparency site LegiStorm, told Al Jazeera that there are two types of lobbyists on Capitol Hill: those who are generally effective and those who know the right people. Higher pay for revolving-door lobbyists suggests it is very valuable to have connections with powerful members of Congress, he said.

The Cassidy & Associates lobbyists appear to know the right people. For six years, Anderson was the deputy chief of staff for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who lost a re-election bid in 2004 and went on to become a lobbyist.

Paul was a Marine Corps liaison to the Senate for 10 years before moving on to the Pentagon in 1998, and Thomasson was the chief of staff for Republican Senator John Cornyn until 2015, when he left to join Cassidy & Associates.

All three have connections to the US intelligence establishment. Pauls experience helped him win big defence contracts for clients foreign and domestic. Daschle investigated the September 11 attacks as a former member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Cornyn was appointed to the same committee in 2017.





According to Timothy LaPira, an associate professor of political science at James Madison University and co-author of Revolving Door Lobbying, the importance of such lobbyists extends beyond the senators for whom they worked.

Its not just that [Thomasson] can call Cornyn  he can, for sure  but he sat through dozens of late-night meetings with other congressmen and chiefs of staff throughout his career, LaPira told Al Jazeera, noting that this makes Thomasson worth his weight in gold.

Even though much time has passed since Paul and Anderson worked with policymakers directly, lobbyists continually renew relationships on Capitol Hill, experts note.

And these relationships could aid Egypts goals. The contract between Egypt and Cassidy & Associates, signed by both parties in January, says the firm will showcase key attributes of [Egypts] civil society, among other image-rehabilitating acts. The firm will receive $50,000 a month, plus fees and expenses.

At the same time, a researcher with Amnesty International  who spoke on condition of anonymity owing to the risks associated with criticising the GIS  told Al Jazeera that Egypt has signed a death warrant for NGOs and human rights defenders.

A law initiated by deposed President Hosni Mubarak to crack down on civil society during the Arab Spring is still being used by the Sisi government today to muzzle freedom of expression, association and assembly in orchestrated efforts to dismantle the countrys human rights movement and crush the slightest signs of dissent, according to a statement from Amnesty.

OPINION: Sisis visit to the US  The hopes and the reality

The GIS has investigated numerous civil society groups, giving ammunition to the Egyptian states campaign against them, and many rights defenders have had their assets frozen or been imprisoned, the researcher said. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has also signed Law 70, or the NGO law, which places further limits on civil society groups.

In addition, the GIS has been accused of working with the CIAs extraordinary rendition programme, under which suspected extremists were abducted and rendered to a state where they had criminal charges pending. Interrogations did not take place while they were in CIA custody, but that changed after September 11, 2001, when suspects were interrogated in US custody before being transferred to another country for potential torture.

An article about the programme by Louis Fisher, a renowned US Constitution expert, said that victims sent to Egypt by the US were stripped, hanged from a ceiling or doorframe and beaten with fists, whips, metal rods, or other objects; subjected to electrical shocks; and doused with cold water. The GIS also reportedly threatened their families.

By the time of publication, Cassidy & Associates had not responded to Al Jazeeras request for comment on the matter. In a statement earlier this month, the firm said: Egypt is a long-standing ally of the United States and plays a key role in the fight against terrorism. Cassidy & Associates looks forward to continuing to represent the government of Egypt and highlight this important relationship with policy makers on Capitol Hill and in the administration.
Two-day strike to begin Wednesday marks second large protest against Maduro, who is accused of power-grabbing moves.

Four days before the national vote to elect a Constituent Assembly, Venezuelas opposition has called on citizens to join a civic strike for 48 hours.

Starting on Wednesday, the strike will carry on through Thursday, and a mass march has also been called for on Friday.

Businessmen, do not open [your businesses], workers do not attend work, and all people go out and [shut down] the streets, said Jose Manuel Olivares, consituent assembly deputy and opposition member.

The strikes and march are intended to voice disapproval with President Nicolas Maduros plan to rewrite the constitution and move forward with the Constituent Assembly elections.

Maduro, whose term ends next year, says the initiative is the way to empower the people and bring peace to a country that has endured months of protests and clashes.

I loathe all these strikes, and the acts of violence that are taking place in my country. I'm sure that a country is not built by violence, by strikes, and by immobilising the population by Rossana Melendez

I loathe all these strikes, and all the acts of violence that are taking place in my country. Im sure that a country is not built by violence, by strikes, and by immobilising the population, Rossana Melendez, an environmental manager who supports the government, told Al Jazeera.

Yet critics say the assembly is intended to institutionalise what they view as a corrupt regime that does not want to leave power.

It is time to give it all. Each citizen should ask what role will they play in the rescue of Venezuela, and ask if what they have done is enough and even question whether they can give more, said Freddy Guevara, a member of the opposition coalition, which is known as the MUD.

International pressure has also increased with warnings of sanctions by US President Donald Trump and a call during the last Mercosur summit to restore institutional order.

In response, Maduro said: It is not possible to pretend that Donald Trump, or Juan Manuel Santos, or Mauricio Macri, will give orders to the government of Venezuela.

Maduro has said he will continue with the plans, despite the international pressure and the results of the unofficial referendum that took place last week, when more than six million Venezuelans voted against the constitutional reform.

Tension is really high. There is more violence in the country. The opposition is threatening the population to vote against the Assembly, Leon, a Venezuelan doctor, told Al Jazeera.

We probably won't stop the government, but this shows that a majority is against the Constituent Assembly, and that we are trying to exhaust all the possible peaceful ways to make this government leave by Amaranta Sofia

Over the weekend, Maduro said his government was ready for any scenario.

The government plans to deploy more than 230,000 soldiers to maintain stability on Sunday.

Con el fin de garantizar Paz y Seguridad, #FANB inicia despliegue para Operacion Republica Elecciones Asamblea Nacional Constituyente 2017 pic.twitter.com/MG4Tpd504q

Con el fin de garantizar Paz y Seguridad, #FANB inicia despliegue para Operacion Republica "Elecciones Asamblea Nacional Constituyente 2017" pic.twitter.com/MG4Tpd504q  Prensa FANB (@PrensaFANB) July 21, 2017

Translation: In order to ensure peace and security, we start the deployment for operation Republic National Constituent Assembly 2017 election  The Ministry of Defense.

But many citizens are willing to press on with the strike.

I participate in the strike as a protest at the governments initiative, and as a protest against the very poor conditions of life that the majority is experimenting, opposition supporter Amaranta Sofia told Al Jazeera.

We probably wont stop them, but this shows that a majority is against the initiative, and that we are trying to exhaust all the possible peaceful ways to make this government leave, she added.

Simon Calzadilla, second vice-president of the National Assembly, urged people to prepare and stock up on food in the face of the protest and strike announced for the next three days.

The National Federation of Transport also announced its participation in the strike.

READ MORE  Venezuela has reached the zero hour: Whats next?

Maduro called for dialogue.

I am ready to reach a peace agreement, of national coexistence and a cycle of dialogue and talks, he said on Monday, during his weekly show.

Maduro has also urged citizens to come out on Thursday to the closing of the election campaign of the National Constituent Assembly in Caracas, saying: Under rain, thunder or lighten we will continue with the election of the candidates for deputies to the Constituent Assembly.

Government supporter Rossana Melendez said that more than 100 days of chaos has exposed the opposition protesters demands as empty speech.

She argued that the demonstrators do not [work] toward the reconciliation of the country; they do not work for Venezuela.
Qatar today faces a crisis, but it is also an opportunity to become a regional leader on human rights.

This is the text of Kenneth Roths speech delivered on July 24 in Doha at the Freedom of Expression conference organised by Qatars National Human Rights Committee.

Political freedom and especially free expression are at the heart of the current Gulf crisis. That is why so many human rights and journalistic freedom organisations have rallied to Qatars defence. But that also highlights the importance of Qatar maintaining the moral high ground by using this crisis as an opportunity to reform itself.

We are all aware of the terrorism allegations that are said to be the foremost concern. I cant speak to the claims of secret financing. But I am aware that long-term, open Saudi financing of Wahhabi and Salafist preachers and schools has promoted an extreme form of Islam that lies behind many terrorist groups today.

And while we tend to limit the terrorist label to non-governmental groups, the Saudi-led coalition has been causing a humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Indiscriminate bombing has repeatedly killed many civilians. An embargo has led to widespread malnutrition and even starvation. A weakened population now faces the worlds largest cholera outbreak, surpassing Haitis by a wide margin.





Were here to discuss free expression and broader political freedoms. Its telling that the leading demands against Qatar by its neighbours seem to involve these rights.

Most obvious was the demand to close or control Al Jazeera. In a region known for stultifying official media, Al Jazeera was a breath of fresh air. It wasnt always perfect. Certain issues, particularly in the Gulf, including Qatar, were taboo. And in giving a forum to neglected voices, it sometimes crossed the line from featuring legitimate dissenters to giving a podium to those who advocated violence.

But Al Jazeera was a key forum for those who wanted to challenge the autocratic rule that remains the norm in the Middle East and North Africa. It reached its heyday during the Tahrir Square revolution in Egypt. It gave people throughout the region a means to be heard when challenging autocratic, unresponsive, often corrupt rulers. It was, and continues to be, a dictators nightmare.

The second key demand was that Qatar stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood means different things in its different manifestations. Some involve violent attacks on civilians and intolerance of dissent  such as Hamas in Gaza.

READ MORE: What is the Qatar-GCC showdown really about?

But the essence of what the Gulf monarchs found dangerous about the Muslim Brotherhood is that it represents a vision of Islamic governance based on the ballot box, rather than hereditary (or, in the case of Egypt, military) rule. Like Al Jazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood saw a role for the general public in political discourse and governance. That is a scary proposition for the Gulf royal families and Egypts military rulers.

At its heart, the current tensions between Qatar and its neighbours is about free expression and political freedom. by

It is noteworthy that Qatar was willing to support the Muslim Brotherhood since this country is no more a democracy than the other Gulf monarchies. I hope that signals an opening.

But for those other monarchies, the Muslim Brotherhood was anathema. Indeed, beyond pressuring Qatar to stop supporting Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini and Egyptian governments have rounded up their own Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Bahrain and UAE have even threatened to punish anyone expressing sympathy for Qatar.

So at its heart, the current tensions between Qatar and its neighbours is about free expression and political freedom. Yet I would be remiss, speaking here in Qatar, if I left the impression that Qatar were beyond reproach with respect to free expression.

In 2014, Qatar adopted a cybercrime decree which criminalises the spreading of false news on the internet and provides for a maximum of three years in prison for anyone who posts online content that violates social values or principles or insults or slanders others  very broad and vague standards.

In 2015, Qatar authorities used that law to detain a journalist from the countrys only independent news website, Doha News, after he wrote an article naming a man convicted of a serious criminal offence.

READ MORE: UN: Demand to shut Al Jazeera a threat to media freedom

In November 2016, Qatari authorities ordered internet service providers to block the Doha News site, which has been running since 2010, making it inaccessible to internet users in Qatar.

Needless to say, these are not the acts of a government that should be trying to maintain the moral higher ground in a dispute about free expression. Qatar should repeal the provisions of the 2014 Cybercrime Law that limit free expression. And unblock the Doha News website.





There are things that Qatar could do to uphold freedom of expression in its foreign relations as well. This week the Qatari emir will meet with Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I realise Turkey is a close ally, but it is also in the midst of one of the worlds most severe crackdowns on journalists. The same principles the uphold the freedom of Al Jazeera to speak the truth, even when inconvenient, should apply to Turkish journalists as well. I hope the emir will remind President Erdogan of those principles.

There are also important things that Qatar could do to ease the burden of the dispute with its neighbours on the Al Jazeera journalists who are here as well as other long-term residents. Human Rights Watch released a report last week on the plight of families who are facing separation because they are of different nationalities. The problem is compounded because Qatar, like its neighbours, allows nationality to be passed only by men, not women, in violation of article nine of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to which Qatar is a state party.

If a Qatari woman is married to a non-Qatari, her children have no citizenship rights in this country, leaving them vulnerable to pressure from Qatars Gulf neighbours. Those neighbours have already ordered their nationals to leave Qatar, which could include children of Qatari women married to a man from one of those states, even though they have spent their entire lives living in Qatar. Now would be a good time for Qatar to end gender discrimination in the right to confer nationality to ones children.

READ MORE: How will Qatar-Gulf crisis shape the regions economy?

Here I want to make special mention of the plight of Al Jazeera workers. Human Rights Watch interviewed 14 Al Jazeera employees, including seven Egyptians, six Saudis, and one Bahraini who said that they cannot renew their passports and thus are worried about losing their Qatari residency permits. Many of the Egyptian employees moved to Qatar after authorities in Egypt threatened, intimidated, beat, or arrested them. One journalist said he applied to renew his Egyptian passport in January 2017, but that Egyptian embassy officials told him in April that they would not renew it. His passport will expire in August.

These AJ employees are classic refugees who need protection. Qatars constitution bans the extradition of political refugees and specifies that the granting of asylum shall be regulated by law. But Qatar has never promulgated a law on asylum or signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, despite having ratified the Arab Charter on Human Rights which requires Qatar to respect the right of everyone to seek asylum. Nor does the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have an office in Qatar where it could review refugee claims. And Qatar has no other procedures in place that would allow those who fear persecution in their home countries to seek protection in Qatar or challenge their deportation.

Qatar could become a leader in the Gulf, and reaffirm its commitment to protect people like the Al Jazeera employees, by ratifying the Refugee Convention and Protocol, establishing refugee and asylum laws consistent with those standards, and inviting UNHCR to open an office here.

So to conclude, there are important things that Qatar can do to maintain the moral high ground from which it has so greatly benefited in its dispute with its neighbours. As the old adage goes, every crisis is also an opportunity. Yes, Qatar today faces a crisis, but it is also an opportunity to become a regional leader on human rights. I hope Qatar will seize that opportunity.

Kenneth Roth is Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has directed police to shoot suspected drug dealers, citing the need to be firm in the face of a national narcotics emergency.

Widodos statement, echoing earlier remarks from National Police chief Tito Karnavian, has elicited criticism from human rights groups, and drawn parallels to the stance of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose brutal anti-drug crackdown has resulted in more than 7,000 deaths. Dutertes campaign of extra-judicial and vigilante executions has been strongly condemned by the United Nations.

This is not the first time Widodo, also known as Jokowi, has invoked the use of force in efforts to tackle Indonesias drug problem. In 2015, just two months after being sworn in, he declared a state of emergency on drugs and ordered the execution of 14 people for drug-related offences. The revival of the death penalty and refusal to grant clemency were touted as necessary measures to deter drug traffickers, reduce drug demand, and prevent drug-related deaths in the archipelago nation.





The executions were followed by an injection of approximately $100m into Indonesias national anti-drug agency, aimed at facilitating a far-reaching campaign to coerce drug users into mandatory treatment or prison.

More harm than good

Executions and crackdowns have not yielded long-term benefits for Indonesians. In fact, more harm has been caused by Indonesias severe drug policies than the drugs themselves.

Far from having a deterrent effect, the number of drug-related crimes in Indonesia increased in the months after the executions were carried out in January and April 2015. During the subsequent crackdown, researchers and advocates also documented an increase in the use of coercive measures, prison overcrowding, including raids by law enforcement, forced drug testing, and compulsory detention. There was widespread extortion and breaches of confidentiality whereby health facilities were compelled to disclose personal details and medical records of suspected drug users to the authorities, pushing drug users away from health services. It also increased the price of heroin, driving users to unwittingly take tainted drugs which increase the risk of overdose.

READ MORE: Joko Widodo  Police should shoot suspected drug dealers

There is no evidence that Indonesias costly drug offensive in 2015 had any effect on drug use, trafficking, or production. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, general population prevalence rates of most illegal and illicit drugs in Indonesia largely remained stable since the early 2000s. Far from constituting an outlier, Indonesias annual rates of drug consumption are similar to rates in other South-East Asian countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar, and much lower than rates in the United States and much of Europe.

This implies that Indonesias increasingly harsh and expensive drug policies have done little to shift existing drug trends in a favourable direction. Experience from countries with punitive approaches shows that crackdowns and criminalisation of people who use drugs, which cost states an estimated $100bn annually, not only fail to reduce the prevalence of drug use, but increase drug-related criminality, drive people away from health and support services, and fuel the HIV and hepatitis C epidemics. As a case in point, the explosive HIV epidemic among injecting drug users on the island of Cebu in the Philippines, which shot up from less than 1 percent in 2007 to 54 percent in 2010, has been solely attributed to that countrys draconian drug policies.

Political motivations

In 2015, Widodos appeal to punitive measures was aimed at recovering his plummeting popularity among voters after a series of policy blunders. It was also intended to re-cast Widodo as a strongman who fights for the interests of ordinary citizens, rather than acting as a puppet of Indonesias long-ruling political elite.

The hardline approach, conveniently peddled as a show of national sovereignty and rejection of imported Western human rights concepts, may now be gaining traction for similar reasons.

Widodo's encouragement of unlawful violence to tackle the country's drug woes is not a sign of strength, but of weakness. by

In recent weeks, Indonesias political narrative has shifted toward the forthcoming presidential elections in 2019. The defeat of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a close Widodo ally, in Jakartas gubernatorial elections last April, and his subsequent imprisonment on blasphemy charges, have cast doubt on Widodos own prospects for re-election. Purnama lost to Anies Baswedan, who was backed by Widodos former political contender Prabowo Subianto, a disgraced general who had campaigned against Widodo with a promise to rule with an iron fist.

Since drug use remains complex, taboo, and highly stigmatised by society at large, magic pill solutions tend to yield results with voters  even if they are ineffective in addressing the real problem. Calling for increased repression and violence against a common enemy (drug traffickers) may be seen by Widodo and his advisers as a strategy to score political points and reassert his credibility with voters.

The way forward

If Widodo was truly interested in championing the interests of ordinary Indonesians, he would immediately decriminalise drug possession for personal use, which would keep non-violent drug users out of the countrys congested prisons, preserve family unity, save the state money, and offer people a second chance at a productive life. Instead of following in the footsteps of the Philippines  an example of failed drug policy by all measures  Widodo should look to Portugal. Portugal, which removed criminal penalties for drug use and reallocated a greater share of resources from drug-related law enforcement to healthcare in 2001, has seen dramatic decreases in drug use rates, crime, HIV infections, and drug-related deaths. Although decriminalisation approaches have been slow to take root in Asia, the topic has been the subject of much debate in Thailand recently.

Next, Widodo should scale up harm reduction programmes recommended by the United Nations and proven to cut problematic drug use and related harms. These include expanding access to life-saving naloxone for people at risk of overdose, providing clean needles to prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses such as HIV, offering less dangerous drugs such as methadone to allow drug-dependent persons to stabilise their lives, and increasing access to voluntary, community-based drug treatment.

OPINION: Islam and politics  Indonesias identity crisis

Investing in these interventions would make a lot more sense than shooting drug pushers. Modelling projections show that the redirection of just 7.5 percent of current global drug control spending by 2020 would achieve a 94 percent cut in new HIV infections among drug users and a 93 percent drop in HIV-related deaths.

Indonesias harm reduction programme  underfunded, but surviving alongside its harsh drug control regime  is chiefly credited with reducing HIV rates among injectors from 53 percent in 2007 to 36 percent in 2011. Indonesia is also home to some of Asias most successful voluntary, community-based treatment programmes. More draconian measures could finally tip the balance and undo these gains.

Widodos encouragement of unlawful violence to tackle the countrys drug woes is not a sign of strength, but of weakness. Unfortunately, unless the Indonesian public rejects the defining strongman politics of the elites, arguments that appeal to popular opinion will remain stronger than those that appeal to evidence or humanity.

Claudia Stoicescu is a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholar and doctoral researcher at the University of Oxfords Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention. She has also been an independent research and policy consultant to non-for-profit organisations, UN agencies, and governments in Asia, Europe, and North America. Her current research focuses on HIV risk among women who inject drugs in Indonesia.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
This is the first time the United Nations has directly suggested that government forces dug the mass graves.

The United Nations accused elements of the Congolese army on Tuesday of digging most of the mass graves it has identified in the insurrection-ravaged Kasai region of central Democratic Republic of Congo.

The report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in Congo (UNJHRO) is the first time the UN has directly suggested that government forces dug the graves.

Congos human rights minister was not immediately available for comment, but the government has repeatedly denied its troops were responsible for dozens of mass graves discovered since the Kamuina Nsapu group launched an insurrection last August and called for the departure of government forces from the area.

The Atlantic to Kinshasa: A journey on the River Congo

As of June 30, 2017, UNJHRO had identified a total of 42 mass graves in these three provinces (of Kasai), most of which would have been dug by (Congolese army) elements following clashes with presumed militia members, the report said.

Earlier this month, the UNJHRO said it had identified 38 more probable mass graves in the western part of Kasai, bringing the total number to 80.





More than 3,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million displaced in the violence, part of growing unrest in the country since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down when his mandate expired in December.

The violence has triggered fears of a wider conflict in the large central African country, a tinderbox of ethnic rivalry and competing claims over mineral resources. Millions died in civil wars between 1996 and 2003, mostly from hunger and disease.

The government has blamed the Kamuina Nsapu group for the mass graves and also claimed that some of the sites identified by UN investigators have turned out not to contain bodies.

It also denies UN allegations that its troops have systematically used excessive force, although a court convicted seven soldiers this month for murdering suspected rebel fighters in a massacre that was caught on video.

Last month, the UN Human Rights Council approved an international inquiry into the violence in Kasai. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is expected soon to name a team of experts to lead the probe.

Over 2,800 human rights violations in 2017 so far

Meanwhile, there have been more than 2,800 human rights violations recorded in Congo since the beginning of the year, the UN said on Tuesday.

Most of these violations took place in Kasai province, the UN High Commission for Human Rights said.

More than 170 people have been detained for political activity, the UN said.

The countrys armed forces have been responsible for most of the killings in the country, with 491 deaths in the Kasai province alone, including 140 children. Many of these were during clashes with rebel fighters.

The international rights organisation also recorded violations in the capital, Kinshasa, where protests have taken place.
At least 18 civilians killed and 50 wounded by air attacks and shelling on ISILs encircled stronghold, say activists.

International coalition air attacks and shelling by US-backed forces have killed at least 18 civilians in Syrias Raqqa, said a local activist group.

Writing on Twitter on Tuesday night, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the attacks wounded another 50 civilians, adding that the US-led international coalition had carried out at least 41 air attacks in the 48 hours prior.





The activist group said that air attacks and shelling continued overnight in and around Raqqa, the city previously known as the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, has been working to encircle Raqqa since November in an offensive backed by the US-led coalition, which is also fighting ISIL in neighbouring Iraq.

The US-led coalition has said that 3,000 to 4,000 ISIL fighters are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city, where they have erected defences against the anticipated assault.

On Tuesday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that ISIL only controls less than 10 percent of the Raqqa province, which it used to control in its entirety.

The SDF controls more than two-thirds of the province, while the Syrian government and its allies have taken back some 22 percent of the territory from ISIL.

Elsewhere, Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an anti-government armed group formerly linked to al-Qaeda, took control of Idlib city on Sunday, strengthening its grip on the Idlib province.

READ MORE: In Syrias Jobar death is a central part of their daily lives

Syrias conflict started in March 2011 with largely unarmed protests, but it quickly morphed into a full-scale civil war that has left hundreds of thousands dead and created millions of refugees.

The United States, Russia and Jordan reached a ceasefire and de-escalation agreement for parts of Syria this month, which has reduced violence.

Numerous attempts at a lasting ceasefire in western Syria, where rebels have lost ground to government forces and their allies over the last year, have collapsed with both sides trading the blame.
Rights groups urge kingdom to halt executions of 14 men, reporting that at least 66 have been beheaded so far this year.

Amnesty International has urged Saudi Arabia to abandon what it termed a bloody execution spree, after reports that 14 more men are set to be executed.

The kingdom has already beheaded at least 66 people this year, the rights group said on Monday, as it decried the Saudi Arabian supreme courts decision to uphold death sentences against the group convicted of crimes related to their involvement in protests.

Amnesty also said it learned on Sunday that the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh upheld the death sentences for 15 other men accused of spying for Iran.

In June 2016, the SCC sentenced to death the 14 men charged with crimes relating to protesting in what Amnesty says was a grossly unfair mass trial.

They were convicted of a wide array of crimes that include bomb making, theft, robbery, participation in riots and shooting at security vehicles, among others.

Court documents showed that the men claimed they had been tortured until they confessed to the allegations.

By confirming these sentences, Saudi Arabias authorities have displayed their ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent and neutralise political opponents, Samah Hadid, Director of campaigns for the Middle East at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

King Salmans signature is now all that stands between them and their execution. He must immediately quash these death sentences which are a result of sham court proceedings that brazenly flout international fair trial standards.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia executes Shia men for violent attacks

Amnesty added that Saudi authorities had executed at least 26 people over the past three and a half weeks  an average of more than one execution a day.

Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, the UK-based rights group Reprieve had obtained more than 32,000 signatures on a petition to cancel the executions.

Utterly shocking

Earlier this month, Reprieve lambasted Saudi Arabia for upholding a death sentence for 23-year-old Munir Adam, a partially deaf and blind man who was allegedly tortured into a confession.

Police are accused of torturing Adam, who was arrested during protests in 2012, until he lost all hearing in one ear, despite medical records proving his disabilities.

The group called on US President Donald Trump, who visited Saudi Arabia in May, to intervene on Adams behalf.

Munirs case is utterly shocking  the White House should be appalled that our Saudi allies tortured a disabled protester until he lost his hearing then sentenced him to death on the basis of a forced confession, Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, said in a statement at the time.

Foa went on to accuse Trump of having emboldened the kingdom to continue the torture and execution of protesters.

On July 11, Saudi authorities executed four Shia Muslim men convicted on charges of terrorism for alleged attacks against police and participating in protest-related violence against security forces.

OPINION: On ISIL, Arab TV and post-ideological politics

On January 2, 2016, the kingdom executed 47 prisoners convicted of various offences, among them prominent Shia religious leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had led protests against the government and its Sunni religious leaders.

Nimrs execution prompted demonstrations in Saudi Arabias Eastern Province and other countries of the Middle East.

In Iran, protests turned violent with demonstrators storming the Saudi embassy, prompting Riyadh to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Saudi Arabia has one of the worlds highest rates of execution.

Minority Shia Muslims have long complained of marginalisation and discrimination in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, and demand political and economic reforms.
Cardinal George Pell expected to plead not guilty as he attends first hearing in Australia on historical charges.

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell made his first appearance in an Australian court on historical sex abuse charges on Wednesday, facing a massive media scrum before the primarily administrative hearing.

The 76-year-old, a top adviser to Pope Francis, returned from Rome earlier this month to face multiple charges in Melbourne relating to offences allegedly committed decades ago when he was a senior cleric in Australia.

Details of the charges have not been made public although police said they involved multiple complainants. The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has always maintained his innocence.

Pell has not yet entered a plea. On Wednesday, his lawyer Robert Richter told the court Pell planned to plead not guilty at a future court date.

READ MORE: Shocking scale of Catholic Church sex crimes revealed

Pell, looking sombre and frail, made no comment as he was escorted by a group of police officers through a crush of cameras, reporters and photographers outside the Melbourne Magistrates Court, which hears hundreds of cases a week for alleged crimes ranging from theft to murder.





He was not required to attend the brief hearing, which allows lawyers to discuss when the prosecution brief can be handed over and set out the next dates in what is expected to be a lengthy court process.

But Australias most powerful Catholic opted to appear, having previously vowed to defend himself and clear his name after a two-year investigation led to him being charged on June 29.

I am innocent of these charges; they are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me, he said in Rome last month.

Pell supporter Trevor Atkinson and several other members of his church burst into applause to support Pell as he walked into the court.

Were coming here open-minded  wed like to hear the facts, Atkinson told The Associated Press. Its really a matter of giving him a fair go.

Outside the court, demonstrator Julie Cameron of Melbourne held up a painting of Mary cradling an infant Jesus. The image, she said, was symbolic of the duty the church has to protect children.

This is where the actual Catholic Church has to go through renewal  it has to acknowledge the crimes that were committed on children, Cameron said.

READ MORE: Australias Anglican Church ashamed about child abuse

Al Jazeeras Yaara Bou Melhem, reporting from Melbourne, said this was an unprecedented case.

No cardinal in the modern era, in a free society, has ever had criminal offences levelled against him, she said.

And this is not just any cardinal; this is the Vatican number three, this is a career priest, at the climax of his career, who has been hand-picked by Pope Francis to go to the Vatican to clean up and bring order and transparency to the Medieval structure of the Vatican finances.

The Vaticans number three

Despite being unofficially considered the number three in the Vatican hierarchy, no special arrangements were in place at the court. He entered the building through the front door and was screened by security.

The pre-eminent cleric has been granted a leave of absence by the Pope, who has made clear the cardinal would not be forced to resign his post as head of the Vaticans powerful economic ministry.





In testimony to an Australian government-backed inquiry into child abuse last year, Pell said the Catholic Church had made catastrophic choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish, and relying too heavily on the counsel of priests to solve the problem.

But for years, Pell had faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he served as archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney.

Pell appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice via videolink from Rome. In one hearing, he admitted that he mucked up in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.

More recently, Pell became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation, with Victoria detectives flying to the Vatican to interview him last year.

Pell is free in the run-up to his court hearing, during which he may formally apply for bail.

There are questions over whether Pope Francis can leave [Pells] important position open for so long if this case in Australia goes on for years, said Al Jazeeras Yaara Bou Melhem.

So it does seem that his career at the Vatican would be over.
Ruling comes after lower European court said Palestinian group should be removed from terror list in December 2014.

The European Unions Court of Justice (ECJ) is set to rule on whether Hamas, the Palestinian political organisation, should be removed from the blocs terror list, a measure that would likely anger Israel and the United States.





Wednesdays ruling comes amid increased tensions between the EU and Israel over the formers criticism of settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In December 2014, a lower European court said Hamas should be removed from the list because the EUs decision to place it on the terror sanctions list was based on information from the media and internet, and not the result of an independent investigation.

The European Council, in turn, appealed that finding, believing the General Court was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain.

The EUs top court now has the final say on the matter.

In September, ECJ Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston said Hamas should be dropped from the terror list.

The EU could not rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing, she said.

Given that some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing, the General Court would be correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their being listed.

Accordingly, the ECJ should annul the measures  on procedural grounds, Sharpston said.

READ MORE: Will Mohammed Dahlan return to lead Gaza?

Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view before it makes a final ruling. The court often, but not always, follows them.

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.

Sanctions after 9/11

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, alluding to its democratic mandate and arguing that it has the right to conduct military operations against the Israeli occupation.

Hamas beat out the ruling Fatah party by a landslide during the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied Palestinian territory.

After fighting broke out between the two factions in June 2007, Hamas eventually removed Fatah from the besieged Gaza Strip.

For the last decade, Hamas has been the de facto government of Gaza, while the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has controlled the West Bank.

OPINION: Why is Hamas refusing to lay down arms?

In June, Hamas presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of Israel, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one.

While Hamas 1988 founding charter called for the takeover of all of mandate Palestine, including present-day Israel, the new document says it will accept the 1967 borders as the basis for a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their homes.

The 1967 borders refer to those that existed before the war in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Ruling comes after lower court said in 2014 that Palestinian group should be removed over lack of legal arguments.

The European Unions Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that Hamas, the Palestinian political organisation, should remain in the blocs terror list, referring the case back to lower court.

ECJ judges on Wednesday overruled the General Courts view of 2014 that the 28-nation bloc had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.

That lower court found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than solid legal arguments.

However, the ECJ said that a decision by a competent authority was only required for an initial listing, with no such condition for subsequent retention.





In December 2014, the General Court said Hamas should be removed from the list because the EUs decision to place it on the terror sanctions list was not the result of an independent investigation.

The European Council, in turn, appealed that finding, believing the General Court was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain.

ECJ Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston in September joined those demanding Hamas be dropped from the terror list.

The EU could not rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing, she said.

Given that some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing, the General Court would be correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their being listed.

Accordingly, the ECJ should annul the measures  on procedural grounds, Sharpston said.

READ MORE: Will Mohammed Dahlan return to lead Gaza?

Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view before it makes a final ruling. The court often, but not always, follows them.

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.

Sanctions after 9/11

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, alluding to its democratic mandate and arguing that it has the right to conduct military operations against the Israeli occupation.

Hamas beat out the ruling Fatah party by a landslide during the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied Palestinian territory.

After fighting broke out between the two factions in June 2007, Hamas eventually removed Fatah from the besieged Gaza Strip.

For the last decade, Hamas has been the de facto government of Gaza, while the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has controlled the West Bank.

OPINION: Why is Hamas refusing to lay down arms?

In June, Hamas presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of Israel, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one.

While Hamas 1988 founding charter called for the takeover of all of mandate Palestine, including present-day Israel, the new document says it will accept the 1967 borders as the basis for a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their homes.

The 1967 borders refer to those that existed before the war in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
EU commission to debate action against Poland after President Andrzej Duda vetoes two of three contentious court bills.

European Union officials are set to discuss whether to act on the blocs threat to sanction the Polish government over its bid to exert control over national courts.

The EU last week warned the nationalist government in Warsaw against enacting new bills that would further undermine the judiciarys independence.

Polish President Andrzej Duda surprised many on Monday when he decided to veto two of the controversial bills, one of which would have reinforced political control over the Supreme Court.

Duda later signed into law a measure that allows the justice minister to hire and fire senior judges who head the common courts.

READ MORE: Poland is turning authoritarian

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has vowed to press on with reforms, insisting the measures were necessary to make the judiciary more accountable.

With only one of the reforms adopted, it was not clear which steps, if any, EU First Vice President Frans Timmermans will announce on Wednesday.

Legal action

The commission, the 28-nation EU executive, last week urged Poland to put the reforms on hold and warned it would swiftly prepare infringement procedures for breach of EU law against Warsaw.

Under these procedures, which will be debated on Wednesday, EU states can be hauled before the blocs highest court and eventually be handed fines for the breaches.





On top of possible infringement proceedings, the commission said it was very close to triggering Article 7, the blocs never-before used nuclear option that can halt a countrys right to vote in EU decision-making.

Ultimately, officials admit that Brussels is not fully prepared for events like those in Poland.

When the EU brought in Article 7 it was more as a backstop that had little chance of being used.

For Poland to be stripped of its voting rights in the EU, it would require unanimity from the 27 states.

But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban  whose own country has faced several legal threats from Brussels  vowed he would instantly veto any such move.

On Wednesday, the commission is likely to empower its president to launch legal cases against Poland should judges be sacked or presidential vetoes overturned.

In infringement proceedings, it does not need the backing of member states to sue an EU government at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

If the ECJ were then to rule against Poland, Warsaw could face hefty daily financial penalties for not complying.

In 2012, the commission won a similar case against Hungary, whose government was trying to force out judges through early retirement.

Vera Jourova, EU justice commissioner, said the Polish crisis had caused a very high level of nervosity about whether it would affect the whole EU system of mutual recognition of court decisions.

For example, a country that is usually required to act on arrest warrants from another EU capital may now refuse to do so if it suspects the request is politically motivated, a senior EU official told the AFP news agency.

The PiS won elections in 2015 and its plans for judicial reforms triggered mass protests across Poland.
European Court of Justice adviser defends resettlement scheme and says case by Slovakia and Hungary should be dismissed.

An adviser of the European Unions top court has urged it to dismiss a case brought by Slovakia and Hungary challenging the obligatory relocation of asylum seekers across the bloc.





The two Eastern European states  backed by neighbour Poland  had argued that the EUs 2015 scheme to have each member state host a certain number of refugees was unlawful.

The programme was designed to help ease pressure on asylum systems in Greece and Italy after mass arrivals across the Mediterranean.

But Yves Bot, the European Court of Justices Advocate General, rejected most of the procedural arguments presented by Bratislava and Budapest, saying the resettlement scheme was appropriate for attaining the objective which it pursues.

Europe has been grappling with the worst migration crisis since the end of World War II with an influx of people fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq while others from Africa are seeking an escape from poverty or political persecution.

Also on Wednesday, the European Commission said it had stepped up its legal case against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over their efforts to block the relocation programme from going into effect.

Despite repeated calls for action  these three countries remain in breach of their legal obligations and have shown disregard for their commitments to Greece, Italy and other member states, the EU executive said.

In so-called reasoned opinions, the Commission has now sent a formal request to these countries to apply EU rules, to which they have one month to respond.

Should the Commission not find the answers satisfactory, it can take the countries to court.

READ MORE: Why some refugees in Greece are being driven to suicide

In 2015, more than a million refugees and migrants reached Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

Although arrivals by boat have decreased drastically since the European Union and Turkey reached a deal to stem the flow of refugees and migrants in March 2016, arrivals have not stopped.

The UNHCR says more than 112,000 people have reached Europe by Mediterranean so far this year, while at least 2,365 people died en route or are still missing at sea.
Protesters call for ICRC intervention in securing freedom for those held in UAE-run prison network and Houthi-run jails.

Family members of people believed to be held in jails run by Shia Houthi fighters and a secret prison network operated by the United Arab Emirates and its local allies have staged two separate demonstrations in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, demanding the release of their loved ones.

Both groups of protesters on Wednesday called for the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose head is currently leading a delegation to Yemen to secure family access to the prisoners.





An AP news agency investigation revealed in June that hundreds of men captured in the hunt for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters had disappeared into clandestine lockups in southern Yemen.

Some Houthi-allied organisations have documented dozens of cases of Yemenis being held by UAE soldiers as prisoners of war. And some of the people originally held in the UAE-run prisons are said to have been moved out of Yemen.

Abuse in the prisons is routine and torture extreme  including the grill, in which the victim is tied to a spit, like a roast, and spun in a circle of fire, the AP investigation found.

After the report was published, senior US defence officials acknowledged that American forces had been involved in interrogations of detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in or knowledge of human-rights abuses.

Interrogating detainees who have been abused could violate international law, which prohibits complicity in torture.

The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Tuesday allowed the ICRC delegation, led by Peter Maurer, to visit Houthi detainees in the south-western Taiz province.

A promising step: today we were allowed to visit detainees in Taiz for the first time, Maurer said on Twitter.

Now we need all parties to agree to regular visits.





The visit was the first since Yemen descended into civil war in 2014 when the Houthi fighters overran much of the country, including Sanaa.

Yemeni armys Colonel Abdo Hamouda al-Saghir said the delegation visited detained Houthi fighters and allied forces of the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The visit aimed to inspect conditions of the Houthi prisoners and their allies in the city, Saghir told Turkeys Anadolu Agency.

On Sunday, the ICRC delegation visited the southern city of Aden, the current seat of Hadis government, for talks with Ahmad bin Dagher, the prime minister, on the humanitarian situation in the country.

According to the families of imprisoned soldiers, Hadis government has recently sent an offer of a prisoner swap to the Houthi leadership through ICRC mediation.

More than 8,000 people have been killed and a further 44,500 wounded in Yemen since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the conflict in March 2015.

According to UN officials, up to 11 percent of the Yemeni population has been displaced as a direct result of the conflict.
Russian deputy foreign minister warns of worsening ties as Iran decries clear hostile act in face of new measures.

The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia and to compel President Donald Trump to obtain politicians permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow.

The sanctions bill comes as politicians investigate possible meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Republican Trumps campaign.

New sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism; and North Korea, for its missile tests, are also included in the bill backed by house members.

Russia and Iran were quick to respond to the vote.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency the move left no room to improve ties between Moscow and Washington in the near future and took the relationship into uncharted waters.

This is already having an extremely negative impact on the process of normalising our relations, Ryabkov told Interfax.

A prominent member of the upper house of Russias parliament, Konstantin Kosachyov, said that Moscow should prepare a painful response to new US sanctions.

Judging by the unanimous vote in the US House of Representatives on the sanctions package against Russia, Iran and North Korea, there will be no breakthrough [in U.S.-Russian relations]  In fact, further degradation of bilateral cooperation is becoming inevitable, Kosachyov said on his Facebook page.

According to Iranian state media, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi decried the bill as a completely clear hostile act that will be met with a definitive response, though he did not specify what the actions would be.

Threatening vital US interests

The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support.

The House of Representatives added the North Korea measures after becoming frustrated with the Senates failure to advance a bill it passed in May.

READ MORE: Mr Trump, meet Bond, James Bond  From Russia with love

Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the three countries are threatening vital US interests and destabilising their neighbours. It is well past time that we forcefully respond.

It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto.

The bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the US healthcare system as politicians try to clear the decks to leave Washington, DC, for their summer recess.

Bill likely to pass

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro reporting from Washington, DC, said the bill is likely to pass in the Senate and be on the presidents desk for final approval by the end of the month.

This was a rare show of bipartisan solidarity in a near unanimous vote and reflects the widespread concern about Trumps perceived overfriendly relationship with Moscow, she said.

If Trump signs the bill, giving it approval, he will acknowledge that Russia did meddle in 2016 US presidential elections.

But if he does not sign the bill, he faces a political firestorm given that his campaign, his close family members and closest advisers are under investigations in Capitol Hill for their alleged roles of colluding with the Russian government in getting Trump to the White House.

READ MORE: Why is Russia so happy with Trump?

The intense focus on Russia, involving several congressional probes and a separate investigation by a Justice Department-appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller, has overshadowed Trumps agenda.

The scrutiny has angered and frustrated the president, who calls the investigations a politically motivated witch-hunt fuelled by Democrats who cannot accept his upset win in last Novembers election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state.

On Tuesday, Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent three hours with the House of Representatives intelligence panel, his second straight day on Capitol Hill answering questions about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.

Kushner had a very productive session with the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said after the meeting.

Kushner, who is now a top aide in Trumps White House, told reporters on Monday he had no part in any Kremlin plot.

US House Republicans on Tuesday rejected a legislative effort by Democrats to obtain Treasury Department documents that could show any ties between the finances of Trump, his inner circle and the Russian government.
Human Rights Watch says police often use excessive force on migrants in Calais, including on those who pose no threat.

French police routinely abuse refugees and migrants in the port town of Calais, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report, accusing authorities of turning a blind eye to police misconduct.

Wednesdays report  titled Like Living in Hell  accuses police and riot squads of regularly using pepper spray on asylum seekers, including children, who do not pose a threat, such as while they are sleeping.





Officers have also confiscated or pepper sprayed asylum seekers food, water, sleeping bags, blankets and clothes, the report added, saying that the conduct violates international standards of policing.

It is reprehensible for police to use pepper spray on children and adults who are asleep or peacefully going about their day, said Benedicte Jeannerod, HRWs France director.

When police destroy or take migrants blankets, shoes, or food, they demean their profession as well as harm people whose rights theyve sworn to uphold.

French authorities have denied the accusations in the report, which relied on interviews with 61 people.

Fabien Sudry, prefect for the Pas-de-Calais region, said he categorically denied the false and defamatory allegations in the report, which he claimed, have no evidential basis.

Police, of course, operate in Calais respecting the rules of law, with the sole objective of ensuring public order and security, Sudry added.

They kick us

For more than a decade Frances northern coast has been a magnet for refugees and migrants trying to reach Britain.

READ MORE: One day in Calais  The refugees hiding in the forest

In October last year, authorities dismantled the Jungle, Calais decrepit makeshift camp where thousands lived in the hope of climbing aboard trucks or trains to get across the English Channel.

But HRW said hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants, mostly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Afghans, are still living on the streets and in wooded areas in and around the port city.

Every day, the police chase us. They use spray. They kick us. This is our life every day, said Waysira L, a 16-year-old boy from the Oromo community, an ethnic group in East Africa.

Earlier this month, French police evicted some 2,000 refugees and migrants who had been sleeping in the streets of Paris.

The newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron has said he intends to overhaul the countrys asylum system and install a more human, and fairer process.
Palestinians criticise Oren Hazan who said on Facebook that family of a West Bank attacker should be executed.

Palestinians have criticised an Israeli legislator who said he would execute a Palestinian assailants family as revenge for an operation that killed three Israelis in an occupied West Bank settlement.

In a video posted (Hebrew) over the weekend on his official Facebook account, which has more than 82,000 likes, Israeli Knesset Member MK Oren Hazan said he would demolish the home of Palestinian assailant Omar al-Abed and execute his family.





Mustafa Barghouti, the former Palestinian information minister and general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, said Hazans comments expose how deeply ingrained racism has become in Israel through its system of apartheid and occupation.

Its very dangerous, he told Al Jazeera by telephone, and these types of comments are overlooked by many parties in the international community.

Hazan said in the video: I want to be honest without sounding too extreme, god forbid, but if it was up to me I wouldve gone to the terrorists house yesterday, grabbed him and his whole family and executed them all together.

He went on to say that an execution is the lightest sentence that Abed could receive.

Abed, 20, hopped over the fence of Halamish, a Jewish-only settlement in the central West Bank, and stabbed three Israelis to death last week as tensions soared over Israels crackdown on entry to the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Hazan complained that Abed, who Israeli forces shot, has been hospitalised in an Israeli facility, adding: Let him [Abed] die, let him wallow in his own blood. They dont have a right to live, they dont have the right to even exist, and I hope that everyone will say that with me.

READ MORE: Jerusalem cameras more dangerous than metal detectors

He is a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army arrested Ibtisam al-Abed, the assailants mother, for saying she was proud of her son in a video shared widely on social media outlets.

She had also told the Israeli daily Haaretz that she did not support the attack.

In the Facebook video, Hazan also blamed Hanin Zoabi and Ahmed Tibi, Palestinian legislators in the Israeli Knesset, for supposedly inciting Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

At the time of publication, Hazan had not replied to Al Jazeeras request for a comment.

Reprimanded

Barghouti said: This shows the level of incitement on the Israeli side, while they accuse Palestinians of incitement. Its not the first time: Were talking about racism in every political speech and every television broadcast.

Hazan has been reprimanded in the past for violent rhetoric, including a recent threat to Palestinian MK Aida Touma-Sliman and other similar comments. We will erase your smile from your face  We will erase your ugly smile from your face, he reportedly told her recently at a Knesset function.

On Tuesday, the Knessets Ethics Committee voted to reprimand Hazan for those comments. It is unclear what that punishment will entail.

The far-right legislator also sparked controversy when he pledged his support for Frances populist politician Marine Le Pen earlier this year, prompting criticism from Israelis and French Jewish legislators.

READ MORE: Is Israel changing the status quo around al-Aqsa?

[US President Donald] Trump said the United States belongs to the Americans, and so Le Pen also says that France belongs to the French, Hazan said on an Israeli radio show at the time.

This is the way to stop radical Islam, and to stop France from becoming a Palestinian state in Europe, and that is why I support it.

Amjad Iraqi, international advocacy coordinator at the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center, said that there is no accountability for Israeli public officials who engage in incitement against Palestinians.

The statements by Hazan and others are part of this context and double standard about whats interpreted as incitement and what constitutes free speech, he said, referring to Israels frequent arrests of Palestinian activists for social media posts.

It essentially legitimises racist attitudes towards Palestinians, he said. It goes hand in hand with state policies to repress Palestinian efforts to achieve their human rights.

New Nakba

On Saturday, Israels regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, warned Palestinians of a new Nakba, referring to the 1948 establishment of Israel and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland, as reported by the 972 blog at the time.





Youve already paid that crazy price twice for your leaders, he wrote on Facebook, alluding to the 1948 and 1967 Middle East wars. Dont try us again because the result wont be any different.

Back in March 2015, Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli defence minister and leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, said Palestinian citizens of Israel who oppose the country should be beheaded for their disloyalty.

In July 2014, at the outset of Israels 51-day military offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked approvingly republished on Facebook an article by Israeli speech writer and Netanyahu confidant Uri Elitzur labelling the entire Palestinian people as the enemy.

Shaked later became Israels justice minister, a post she holds until today.

The article called for Palestinian mothers to be killed because they give birth to little snakes.

This is an article by the late Uri Elitzur, which was written 12 years ago, but remained unpublished. It is as relevant today as it was at the time, Shaked wrote in the Facebook post, which she later deleted.

OPINION: The al-Aqsa metal detectors arent a security measure

Nadia Hijab, executive director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, described what she called an uptick in incitement as pretty typical, arguing that the collective punishment proposed by Hazan and others violates the Geneva Convention.

In retaliation to attacks, the homes of family members are demolished and entire families made homeless, villages are put under curfew and blockaded, and [their] family members are arrested, she told Al Jazeera.

Hazan is taking collective punishment to the next level.

Tipping point

On Monday, Israel decided to remove metal detectors it had placed at the entrance of Jerusalems Old City to restrict entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque as protests intensified in the city.

Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian legislator in the Israeli Knesset, accused Israel of an unprecedented level of incitement and attempting to divert the blame to Palestinians who have demonstrated against the measures.

They lit the fires, and now they want to say that were responsible for it, he told Al Jazeera by telephone. But it will never be quiet as long as the occupation continues.

READ MORE: Amnesty says Palestinian writer is prisoner of conscience

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the UN, accused the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of promoting violence on Monday.

The [Security] Council must demand real action by [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas, make him stop his tacit support for terror, force him to end this unbearable wave of violence and make him do so immediately before the lives of more innocent victims are lost, he said.

Palestinians have been protesting Israeli measures to limit entry to the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Israel, amid a sharp uptick in violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Wednesday, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, urged the Security Council to take action to protect Palestinians and their holy sites from Israels reckless and destructive agenda.

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_








Visiting Washington, DC, PM Saad Hariri says dialogue is the best way for improving Saudi-Qatari relationship.

Saad Hariri, Lebanons prime minister, has called on the United States to help solve the dispute between Qatar and the four Arab states that have imposed a blockade on Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Qatar rejects the allegations as baseless.

We believe that dialogue is the best way [for] improving the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Hariri said during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.





I believe that maybe the United States also could help in solving this issue in the Gulf.

Hariri said that he believes the Kuwaitis, who are mediating in the crisis, have made some progress.

The US and UK have urged the Saudi-led groups to end the blockade.

Separately on Tuesday, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, Qatar defence minister, said the blockade imposed on his country must be lifted before Qatar could engage in dialogue.

READ MORE: Get all the latest updates on the Qatar-Gulf crisis

On Friday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said his country is ready for dialogue to resolve the crisis, but stressed that any solution must respect Qatars sovereignty.

We are open to dialogue to resolve the outstanding problems [so long as Qatars] sovereignty is respected, Al Thani said in his first televised address on since the four Arab states cut ties with Qatar.

Hariri and Trump also discussed Lebanons efforts to protect its borders against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) fighters and other armed groups.

Trump called the Lebanese Shia armed group, Hezbollah, a threat to the entire Middle East.

He added that he was not a fan of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and pledged to prevent his government from carrying out any more chemical attacks.
Survey finds Muslims feel out of place in society, displeased with their president, and are targets of discrimination.

The early days of Donald Trumps presidency caused anxiety among Muslim Americans, with many reporting concern about their place in US society, a new survey has found.

Half of the 1,001 respondents said it has become harder to be Muslim, with 48 percent saying they had experienced at least one incident of discrimination in the past year.

The Pew Research Center said in its report on Wednesday that Muslims in the US perceive a lot of discrimination against their religious group, are leery of Trump and think their fellow Americans do not see Islam as part of mainstream US society.

READ MORE: Can Muslim politicians survive in todays US?

The organisation estimates that there are 3.35 million Muslims of all ages living in the US  up from about 2.75 million in 2011 and 2.35 million in 2007.

Nearly two-thirds of Muslim Americans surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the direction in which the US was heading, and 74 percent said Trump was unfriendly towards Americans.

When asked: Does Donald Trump make you feel worried?, 68 percent said yes.

The reports findings mark a stark reversal since 2011, when Democrat Barack Obama was president. Then, most Muslims thought the country was heading in the right direction and viewed the president as friendly toward them.

Proud Americans

About a third of those surveyed reported being treated with suspicion, while nearly one in five said they had been called offensive names or singled out by airport security.

Some 6 percent reported being physically threatened or attacked, Pew said.

One Muslim woman respondent, who used to wear the niqab, the veil that covers the face, told Pew she had been called a terrorist on a public bus.





No one came to my defence, she said. If you cover your face, people assume you are dangerous. I dont wear the niqab any more.

Nearly one in five reported seeing anti-Muslim graffiti in their neighbourhood in the past year.

The US media covered Islam unfairly, more than half of the respondents said.

Pews survey follows a report published last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group, saying Islamophobic abuse rose by 91 percent in the first half of 2017, as compared to the same period last year.

Still, there was some optimism within Pews findings.

Nine in ten surveyed said they were both proud to be American and proud to be Muslim.

And the number of US Muslims who said they received expressions of support in the past year has grown, with 49 percent saying someone had expressed support for them because of their religion compared with 37 percent in 2007.

Six in ten US Muslims also said they had a lot in common with most Americans.

READ MORE: Texas Muslims threatened amid increasing Islamophobia

The survey also showed that Muslims shared the general publics concerns about religious extremism, with 80 percent saying they were very concerned or somewhat concerned.

Indeed, if anything, Muslims may be more concerned than non-Muslims about extremism in the name of Islam, Pew said.

Yet most Muslims say there is little support for extremism in the US Muslim community, and few say they think violence against civilians can be justified in pursuit of religious, political or social causes, it added.
Suspects face death penalty or life in prison for allegedly ordering rape victims brother to rape suspects sister.

Islamabad, Pakistan  Pakistani police have arrested 20 people in Punjab province accused of organising a village council that ordered a man to rape a 16-year-old girl in revenge for the earlier rape of his sister, according to officials.

The suspects were arrested from near the central city of Multan on Wednesday, and a hunt for seven more suspects was under way, Malik Rashid, the local police official heading the investigation, told Al Jazeera.

It was not a formal village council, like has happened in the past, he said. It was just a gathering of uncles and aunts [of the first victim] from that village, in the same area.

Cases had been registered regarding the two rapes, he confirmed.

The maximum punishment for rape under Pakistani law is the death penalty. Alternately, convicts may face imprisonment of up to 25 years.

On July 16, a 12-year-old girl was raped while working in the family fields just south of Multan, according to one of the police reports.

My daughter [] was cutting grass in the fields on July 16, 2017, at around 2pm when  she was covered in a cloth [by her attackers] and forcibly raped, her mother told police.

Following that attack, members of the victims family gathered together and resolved to rape a member of the alleged attackers family in revenge, said Rashid.

On the night of July 18, 2017 at about 2am I was sleeping with my children in my house when [] my 16-year-old daughter was taken away [by three men], said the second victims mother in a police report.

The second victim is the sister of the alleged attacker in the first rape, said Rashid.

We implored the culprits to leave my daughter alone, but [they] threatened us that if anyone came forward they would be killed, said the second victims mother.

New provincial law

The rapes were reported at a government-run Violence Against Women Centre in Multan, the first such centre set up under a new provincial law designed to enhance protection for women that was passed last year.

According to a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2011, Pakistan is the worlds third most dangerous country for women, with domestic abuse, sexual harassment, acid attacks and economic discrimination common.

It ranks 130th on the United Nations Gender Inequality Index, and 143rd out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Index.

Last year, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented at least 2,446 cases of violence against women in the country, including 958 rapes and 158 cases of attacks where victims were either set on fire or attacked with acid.

READ MORE: Mukhtar Mai revisits ordeal through Thumbprint

The new law in Punjab, Pakistans largest province, criminalised all forms of violence against women, including domestic, psychological and sexual violence, and established a toll-free hotline for reporting abuse.

It also mandated the establishment of shelters such as the one where the rapes in Multan were reported.

Village councils, typically consisting of local elders, are a traditional means of dispute resolution in rural Pakistan, where the formal legal system is not always accessible. Such councils do not, however, hold any legal standing.

Their shameful act is now before the entire world, said local police official Rashid, who was en route to a conduct a raid in the hope of capturing the remaining suspects.

Follow Asad Hashim on Twitter @AsadHashim
Move by Saudi-led group boycotting Qatar to add names to terrorist list is baseless, communications director says.

Qatar has described a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies as a disappointing surprise, saying it was doing all it could to fight extremism.

Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, Qatars communications director, said the decision by the four Arab states to add 18 groups and individuals allegedly linked to Qatar to their terrorist list had no basis in fact.

It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar, he said in a statement to Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

The move by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain on Tuesday came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

OPINION: Will the GCC crisis be resolved soon?

The new names include nine entities in Yemen and Libya, and add to a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups issued by the four states last month.

Sheikh Saif said: This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.

All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries.

He said Qatar constantly reviews its anti-terror laws to remain on the front foot in the fight against extremism and terror financing.

Gargashs opinion

For his part, Anwar Gargash, UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, said via Twitter on Wednesday that it is important to look beyond crisis and to think of it as a new set of relations in [the] Gulf replacing old ones.

He said the current state was set to continue and that we have to go on without Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the regions worst diplomatic crisis in years.

Accusing Qatar of financing terrorism, they sealed the emirates only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.





They want Qatar to cut back ties with Iran, close down a Turkish military base in Qatar and shut the Al Jazeera TV channel, which they view as critical of their governments.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis. He has voiced satisfaction with Qatars efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

On the other hand, after talks with Federica Mogherini, the EU diplomatic chief, on Tuesday, Sameh Shoukry, Egypts foreign Mmnister, gave warning that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.

We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations, he said.

In Tuesdays statement, the four countries accused Qatari, Kuwaiti and Yemeni nationals of helping to raise funds for al-Qaeda fighters.

Their blacklist now include three Yemeni charities, three Libyan media outlets, two armed groups and a religious foundation, some of which are already subject to US sanctions.
UN investigators point finger at coalition helicopters for raid on Somali refugee vessel in March that killed 42 people.

UN investigators are reported to have accused a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition of carrying out a deadly March attack on a Somali refugee boat off Yemen, saying the alliance had become a cover for some states to avoid individual blame.

The attack killed 42 people and injured 34 of the 140-plus people on board, the investigators wrote to the UN Security Council on Monday in a 185-page report seen by Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

This civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a 7.62mm calibre weapon from an armed utility helicopter, the report said.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces are the only parties to the conflict that have the capability to operate armed utility helicopters in the area.

The document said the helicopter was likely to have been operating from a naval vessel.

The coalition battling the Houthi fighters in Yemen has denied striking the boat in the Red Sea near the port of Hodeidah.

Saudi Arabia and its allies, including Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Jordan, intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Other attacks

The UN report said the attack violated international humanitarian law and threatened the peace, security and stability of Yemen.

It said two other alleged attacks on fishing vessels by helicopter or naval vessels in the Red Sea in March had killed 11 more people and injured eight.





It said the Saudi-led coalition, the governments of the UAE and Egypt and the Combined Maritime Forces had not responded to the investigators requests for information.

The coalition receives US arms and logistical support.

Some individual member states of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition seek to hide behind the entity of the coalition to shield themselves from state responsibility for violations committed by their forces, the investigators said.

They did not identify the states by name.

Attempts to divert responsibility in this manner from individual states to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition may contribute to further violations continuing with impunity, they wrote.

Akshaya Kumar, deputy United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that HRW were calling on countries to stop selling the Saudi-led coalition weapons that were being used in violation of the rules of war, and that the UN should set up an independent mechanism to investigate these abuses.

The [UN] security council has its own duy to act  its received this information now, said Kumar.

The panel of experts were unequivocal about their view of responsibility here, and so well have to see: will the council continue on its path of inaction or will they engage and publicly push the Saudi coalition to reform its practices and to hold those reponsible for this particular attack to account?

Top UN officials this month accused the rival parties in Yemen and their international allies of exacerbating a deadly cholera outbreak, driving millions closer to famine and hindering humanitarian aid access.

UN-led peace talks have stalled. At the suggestion of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador, the Security Council is considering sending letters to the rival parties reminding them of their humanitarian obligations.

The letter has to be agreed by consensus and Egypt has objected to the draft, according to a senior Security Council diplomat.
Vice President Mike Pence forced to cast the tie-breaking vote on moving forward with the senate healthcare debate.

US Senate Republicans narrowly agreed on Tuesday to open debate on a bill to end Obamacare, but the partys seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obamas signature healthcare law still faces significant hurdles.

The senate deadlocked 50-50 on moving forward with the healthcare debate, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Senator John McCain, who was diagnosed this month with brain cancer and has been recovering from surgery at home in Arizona, made a dramatic return to the US Capitol to cast a crucial vote in favour of proceeding.

READ MORE: The Obamacare debate is not just about healthcare

The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the partys campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Minutes after the vote, Trump called it a big step.

But the narrow victory on a simple procedural matter raised questions about whether Republicans can muster the votes necessary to pass any of various approaches to repeal. Moderates are worried repeal will cost low-income Americans their insurance and conservatives are angry the proposed bills do not go far enough to gut Obamacare.





Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said that Trumps celebrations were a premature victory lap.

[It was very difficult] just to get the passage of that vote just to begin the debate  requiring a senator who has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer pivotal in getting that passed and even having the vice president being called in to break the tie, said Halkett.

In no way is there any certainty that [Trump] will be able to deliver legislatively on his key campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

John McCain said he voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered.

I will not vote for the bill as it is today, he said. Its a shell of a bill right now.

We have a duty to act

Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were the only Republicans to oppose the measure, and with Republicans controlling the Senate by a 52-48 majority, those were the only votes the party leadership could afford to lose. Democrats were united in opposition to the motion to proceed.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who cast the last and deciding vote to open debate, engaged in a heated discussion with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before casting his vote and ending the suspense.

A loss on Tuesday could have been a death blow to Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, as well as casting doubt on Trumps prospects to achieve any of his other top legislative agenda items, including tax reform.

READ MORE: Can Muslim politicians survive in todays US?

We have a duty to act, McConnell told senators before the vote, reminding Republicans they had promised to repeal Obamacare in four straight elections. We cant let this moment slip by.

As the vote opened, more than two dozen protesters in the senate chamber chanted kill the bill before they were removed.





The senate will now launch what McConnell has promised will be a robust debate on healthcare that could include a variety of amendments.

Senators said several approaches have been discussed, including a straight repeal of Obamacare with no replacement plan, or repealing and replacing the law while also overhauling Medicaid, the federal health insurance programme for the poor and disabled.

Senate Republicans also could consider a shortened version of repeal, called a skinny repeal, which would end the mandates in Obamacare on individuals and employers to obtain or provide health insurance, and a medical device tax, a senate aide and a lobbyist said.

Ultimately they voted on opening debate on an amendment process  that really leaves it wide open in terms of what could look like, said Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett.

Halkett said there are only 40 hours of debate scheduled  including 20 hours each for the Republicans and the Democrats.

Its very hard to see how anything constructive can be accomplished, the prospects for its success are very bleak. At the same time Democrats are digging in deep, intensifying their efforts to see that it fails, she said.
Attack on military base in Kandahar also injures 13 troops, defence ministry says, as armed group extends offensive.

At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in Kandahar province, according to the defence ministry, in the latest blow to struggling security forces.

The attack happened late on Tuesday in the Karzali area of Khakrez district.

At least 21 other people went missing and seven were kidnapped, General Dawlat Waziri, Afghan defence ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

Afghan soldiers resisted the attack and the fight is now over, they [Taliban fighters] were unable to take over the base, he said.





He said more than 80 fighters were killed in the counterattack.

However, the Taliban claimed to have killed at least 70 soldiers and to have seized a number of army vehicles, equipment, machinery and weapons.

Al Jazeeras Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul on Wednesday, said the attack in Khakrez lasted four hours.

This is just the latest assault in a concerted offensive by the Taliban all over the country, she said.

Earlier this week they attacked in Faryab province in the north, in Ghor and Badghis in central Afghanistan, and today [on Wednesday] they launched another offensive in the east in Nuristan province.

It seems like a concerted strategy by the Taliban to try and keep Afghan security forces stretched thin and on their back foot.

The Taliban has carried out increasingly complex attacks against security forces so far in 2017.

In April, more than 140 soldiers were believed to have been killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the deadliest ever Taliban attacks on a military installation.

Taliban advances

A month earlier, armed men disguised as doctors stormed Kabuls Sardar Daud Khan hospital  the countrys largest military hospital  and killed dozens.

According to US watchdog SIGAR, casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed.

Over the weekend, the Taliban overran two district centres  Taywara and Kohistan  in northern and central Afghanistan.

There has been a surge in fighting in several northern and southern Afghan provinces in recent days, including in Helmand in the south.

There, amid the fighting, a US air raid on Friday killed at least 16 Afghan police officers in friendly fire.

READ MORE: Afghanistan  A pawn in major power rivalry?

Afghan troops and police are battling largely alone on the ground against anti-government forces, after US-led foreign forces withdrew from most combat operations in December 2014.

The US is actively considering sending more troops to Afghanistan and US commanders there have requested thousands of extra soldiers on the ground.

The US contingent now numbers about 8,400, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago. They mainly serve as trainers and advisers.
Gunmen ambushed an oil exploration team that was carrying out research near Maiduguri in Borno State, northeast Nigeria.

At least 10 military personnel have been killed after gunmen who are believed to be part of the Boko Haram armed group ambushed an oil exploration convoy in northeast Nigeria, officials said.

At least 10 members of the research team were also kidnapped in the attack on Wednesday.

One local official said all ten kidnapped people have been rescued, and local media reported that five oil workers were taken to the Borno State Specialist Hospital.

The military personel were protecting the convoy, which was conducting research near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeast Nigeria.

READ MORE: Families offer refuge to IDPs fleeing Boko Haram

A humanitarian worker in the area said there were about 30 people on the exploration team, which was partially made up of staff members from the University of Maiduguri.

Al Jazeeras Ahmed Idris, reporting from Abuja, said an operation is under way by the Nigerian military to rescue those who survived the attack.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has been surveying for more than a year for what it says could be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin.

Nigeria relies on oil for two-thirds of its revenue. The NNPC is trying to reduce its reliance on crude oil from the southern Niger Delta, where attacks by armed groups cut production by more than a third in 2016, deepening the recession in Africas biggest economy.

INTERACTIVE: Boko Haram attacks mapped

In May, the NNPC said it would resume oil exploration in the northeast on the heels of [the] improved security situation.

At least 62 people have been killed in Maiduguri and the surrounding area since early June. Seventeen people were killed in the city in one week this month.

Last week, Nigerias top army commander gave his soldiers 40 days to capture Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram.

Boko Harams eight-year armed campaign in the region has killed more than 20,000 people and forced up to 2.7 million to flee their homes.
Presidents statements via Twitter signal reversal of Obama-era decision to let trans people openly serve in military.

US President Donald Trump has said transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the military in any capacity.

The announcement could mean the reversal of a decision by Trumps predecessor Barack Obama to allow trans people to openly serve in the armed forces.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Trump said after consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military.

He said the US military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

READ MORE: Race in the US  Americas most persecuted?

Last year, the Obama administration lifted a ban on transgender service members, giving the Pentagon one year to determine how to implement parts of the policy.

Earlier this month, James Mattis, US defence secretary, announced a six-month delay in the recruitment of transgender people.

At the time, Mattis said that the delay in no way presupposes an outcome, but he had determined that more time was needed to make a decision based on conversations with generals and other senior defence officials.

Egregious attack

Ash Carter, who served as the US defence secretary under Obama, strongly criticised Trumps decision, saying it was a social policy that has no place in [the US] military.

He added that there are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honourably.

The National Centre for Transgender Equality called Trumps announcement an egregious attack on the the 15,000 transgender people currently serving in the US military.

This is worse than dont ask dont tell, this is dont serve, dont serve, Mara Keisling, director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality, said in a statement.

This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science. It is indefensible and cannot stand.

Others online, including Chelsea Manning, a transgender army private who was jailed for one of the largest leaks of classified documents in US history, were quick to criticise Trumps announcement, calling it evil and horrid.

militaries, esp. U.S., have always been a social experiment just as much as a fighting force  its how it got so bloated  #WeGotThis  https://t.co/HtNa54AeSP  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) July 26, 2017

Astonishing @realDonaldTrump ever claimed to be "friend" to LGBT people. #transgender soldiers deserve thanks, not arbitrary expulsion  LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus (@LGBTEqCaucus) July 26, 2017

OUR STATEMENT BELOW DENOUNCING @POTUS for his evil reinstatement of the ban on #transgender Americans in the military. We are sickened. pic.twitter.com/OaBWRyn58n  Anne Frank Center USA (@AnneFrankCenter) July 26, 2017

https://twitter.com/d8braves/status/890201144030617600
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General: The Secretary-General strongly condemns the suicide attacks on 24 July in the two camps for internally displaced persons near Maiduguri, Borno State, in Nigeria. These terrorist acts are targeting people who had already fled their homes as a result of Boko Haram violence. The Secretary-General extends his condolences []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Every few years, the media gets low on ammo and decides theyre going to make a collective push to talk about bringing a single-payer healthcare system to the United States. And every few years, people who understand economics and business have to point out to them that it wont work. This is one of those times.

What is Single-Payer Healthcare, Anyway?

When a term gets used so frequently for so long, its easy for there to be some misunderstanding. While the idea of single-payer healthcare gets thrown around a lot, would you be surprised that many people dont even understand what it is? This results in confusion, misguided statements, and clouded judgment. So lets clear this little issue up before systematically pulverizing the idea into a million pieces.

Single-payer national healthcare -- or Medicare for all, as Senator Bernie Sanders calls it -- is a system in which a single public organization or government entity finances healthcare for the entire population of a country, while the delivery of the care remains in private hands.

Quickly pause for a second and just think about that. Under a single-payer system, the government -- a convoluted, bureaucratic, slow-as-molasses, doesnt-understand-how-to-spend-money organization of bickering career-politicians -- is tasked with financing healthcare for all. Okay moving on.

Under a single-payer system, every American would have all medically necessary services and costs covered. This would include doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency room visits, preventative care, cancer treatment, dental, vision, and prescription drugs.

The money to support medical expenses of American citizens would be funded by implementing what proponents call a modest tax on the public. There would be no deductibles or premiums and almost every household would save money.

Proponents are also quick to point out that patients would be able to retain their doctors and choose which medical facilities to use. (If youre scratching your head and thinking you remember a former president telling you the same thing, you arent crazy.)

Single-payer healthcare is not the same as Obamacare, which many on the left seem to be confused about. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded coverage by requiring people to buy private insurance policies that were partially subsidized by government payments and an expansion of Medicaid. However, there are still millions of uninsured people, tens of millions of underinsured people, and millions more paying steep premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket expenses.

If you thought ObamaCare was a radical move, a single-payer model would flip the entire healthcare system on its head and change everything.

Heres Why a Single-Payer System Could Never Work

The left tries to play emotional politics when it comes to healthcare. They tell you that youre hateful if you dont believe in the morality of a single-payer system where everyones health problems are covered. But what they wont admit is that we live in a world of constraints, where things like money and resources are very tangible and finite.

Would it be great if everyones healthcare needs were automatically fulfilled without a penny ever changing hands? Absolutely! It would also be nice if money grew on trees and Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory was a place you could take the kids on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Heres why a single-payer system will never work.

1. Enormous Tax Burden

Lets start by debunking the idea that a single-payer system could be funded by a modest tax on the one percent. According to Urban Institute, a nonpartisan group that looked at Senator Sanders proposed health plan, a single-payer system would raise government spending by $32 trillion over a decade. As the Washington Post recently pointed out, this number was so massive that even a socialist like Sanders couldnt reasonably begin to talk about the plan with concrete numbers.

Even for California, where a single-payer initiative recently passed the State Senate, the cost would be $400 billion annually. It doesnt matter how you slice it, a modest tax wouldnt begin to make a dent into the total cost.

2. Lack of Motivation in Medical profession

Motivation is what keeps businesses growing. Its why innovation is a natural byproduct of capitalism. When the sky is the limit and your earning potential is unlimited, youre much more likely to work hard. The issue with a single-payer system is that it would destroy motivation in the medical profession. This is something weve already had a taste of thanks to ObamaCare.

As a frame of reference, for every dollar that a private plan would pay, Medicare typically pays 80 cents and an ACA plan will pay 60 cents, Boost Health Insurance notes. To add fuel to the fire, many patients with a new plan through the marketplace tend to be sicker and they take up more time from the physician. Not only are they making less money on the new patient population, but they are spending more time with them during the consult.

As a result, the ACA has caused many doctors to turn patients away and only accept those who allow them to keep the lights on. Can you imagine what a radical single-payer system would do? Every ounce of energy and motivation that remains in the industry would be zapped up.

3. Long Wait Times

Proponents like to point to Canada when discussing why a single-payer system would work here in the U.S. And while, yes, the system technically functions, its a total mess. The biggest problem is the wait time.

According to a survey by the Fraser Institute, the median wait time for medically necessary treatments and procedures was 20 weeks in 2016. Thats five months! In New Brunswick, the wait time is just shy of 39 weeks. Can you imagine? No wonder so many Canadians come across the border for healthcare.

While medical services arent exactly on-demand in the U.S. right now, theyre certainly much faster than a single-payer system.

4. Government Control

Finally, the biggest strike against a single-payer system is that it would give the government full and total control. While the claim from the left is that doctors would still retain autonomy, thats not entirely true. The government would have a say over whats considered a medically necessary service, meaning they could choose to fund or not fund certain types of procedures, medication, etc. And thats an incredibly sobering thought.

Stop Fantasizing and Be Realistic

The problem with politics these days is that its all sensational. Politicians like Bernie Sanders throw out these whacky ideas, get millions of people to rally around them, and then fail to mention that theyre impractical. A single-payer system may sound great when blasted from a stage with music playing in the background, but its nothing more than interesting banter. (For the record, President Trump and politicians on the right are equally guilty of grandstanding and playing to the emotions of the crowd.)

Its time to stop fantasizing about some sort of single-payer healthcare system. Could it technically be implemented? Sure, anything is possible. But when you look at the negatives and drawbacks, its crystal clear that a single-payer system would fundamentally destroy this country in more ways than one.

Can we finally stop with this talk of a single-payer system?
It might concentrate the minds of reluctant Republicans wonderfully, and perhaps some Democrats as well, if they were subject to the rules of regulations of the rotting dead fish known as Obamacare. Then they might see the pitfalls and hardships of their constituents who lost their doctors, lost their plans, have premiums larger than mortgage payments, and deductibles so high their insurance coverage is worthless.

As Heather R. Higgins, CEO of Independent Womens Voice and head of the Repeal and Reform coalition, notes:

If President Trump is serious about repealing ObamaCare -- about delivering a better policy with more choice and lower costs -- theres a simple move he could make that wouldnt require congressional approval. It would align the interests of lawmakers and their staffers with the interests of voters. Congress is essentially unaffected by the high costs of the ObamaCare exchanges because of a special exemption crafted under the Obama administration. The Affordable Care Act required members of Congress and their employees to participate in the health-insurance exchanges it established. They should have lost the generous coverage they had in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program and instead bought one of the government-mandated options offered on the ACA exchanges. In late 2012, staffers and members figured out what was about to happen and begged the Obama administration for relief. Just as Congress was going into its August recess in 2013, the Office of Personnel Management ratified the fiction that the House and Senate each have fewer than 50 employees, and thus qualify as small businesses. That enabled OPM to establish a system of special subsidies and exemptions, sparing Congress the embarrassment of a self-serving vote. Many staffers are exempted and allowed to remain on their old insurance plans. Members of Congress and their designated official office staff are insured through the District of Columbias small business exchange -- but they receive a one-of-a-kind subsidy from their employer (taxpayers) of up to $12,000, or about 70% of their premiums.

Do as I say not as I do, says one of the largest collection of millionaires on the planet, including Republicans who voted repeatedly to repeal Obamacare when they knew anything that did pass would be vetoed. Now these profiles in porridge have wimped out panicked at the prospect of actually keeping the promise they made that won successive elections to gain control of the House, the Senate, and the White House where President Trump waits with pen in hand.

It didnt occur to Republicans to just pass 2015s HR 3762, the Restoring Americans Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act. Introduced by then-Rep. Tom Price, now HHS Secretary, the bill passed the House on October 23, 2015 by a vote of 240-189. The Senate, after making changes to make it more robust, passed their version on December 3 by a 52-47 vote. A vote to override President Obamas veto failed on February 2, but the onus was on him and the Democrats. Voters, knowing that a Republican President would have signed the bill, elected one, Donald J. Trump. So whats wrong with reintroducing a bill that passed both the House and the Senate?

Granted, it was not a full repeal and replace, but it was a better starting point than the Rube Goldberg legislation that just died in childbirth, doing many of the things everyone, including the Freedom Caucus, said they wanted:

The House version of H.R. 3762 included repealing the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the medical device excise tax, and the "Cadillac tax"" on expensive employee health insurance premiums. It also included a measure to eliminate federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood for one year. But it called for increasing funding for community health centers by $235 million/year for two years (a 6.5 percent increase over the currently scheduled funding).

The House bill also allowed people to use their Health Savings Accounts to buy over-the-counter drugs. Outspoken AHCA opponent Rand Paul voted for the Senate version. Freedom Caucus members Rep. Mark Meadows and Rep. David Brat voted for the House version.

The latest version which has passed the House is not a perfect repeal and replace, but it does have the Cruz amendment offering expanded Health Savings Accounts that could now be used to pay insurance premiums. It would allow insurance companies to sell plans tailored to consumer needs as long as they sold Obamacares one-size-fits-all mandate laden policies. That would give consumers health care choices they can actually use. And if Sen. Rand Paul still thinks it is not the full repeal he seeks, then he can offer his repeal as an amendment on the Senate floor, cant he?

But to focus their minds, subject these pompous bloviators to the rules and regulations of Obamacare. As the Club for Growth urged in a letter to President Trump:

On behalf of millions of taxpayers who are members and supporters of our organizations, we urge you to direct the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to rescind the Obamaera rule (78 Fed. Reg. 60653-01) that allows Congress to masquerade as a small business in order to force taxpayers to pay for their health insurance. This ongoing fraud improperly allows Congress and its staff to avoid the pain the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is inflicting on millions of other Americans. When Congress was debating Obamacare, the American people demanded that Congress subject themselves and their staff to the new system they were imposing on their fellow Americans. Those demands worked, and before Obamacare passed the Senate in 2009, Section 1312(d)(3)(D) was included. That section requires members of Congress and their staff to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, and unlike an earlier proposed version does not authorize an employer contribution toward their premiums. The provision was set to take effect in 2014, causing panic on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress and their staff were desperate to keep their taxpayer-funded, gold-plated health care rather than go into Obamacare and pay their own way, as the law required. After a meeting with Senate Democrats in March 2013, then-president Barack Obama personally committed to illegally exempt Congress from this provision of Obamacare. And he did. Obama directed OPM to issue a rule purporting that Congress, which has thousands of employees, is a small business and therefore: the DC Health Link Small Business Market administered by the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority, is the appropriate SHOP from which Members of Congress and designated congressional staff will purchase health insurance in order to receive a Government contribution.

Congress is not a small business and should not be exempt from Obamacare. But Obamacare is a plague on real small businesses, and large ones, on their customers, their employees, and the American people. If you dont want to repeal and replace Obamacare, Congress, why dont you try living under it?

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
With the Democrats stalling the approval of the Presidents political appointees, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson faces a huge problem in cleaning his house of Clinton-Obama holdovers embedded in the State Department. One crucial position is that of Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. As the Secretary is surely aware, the U.S. takes in more than twice as many refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined.

In recent years, up to 95% of the refugees coming to the U.S. were referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or were the relatives of UN-selected refugees. Thus, the UN effectively dictates much of U.S. immigration policy.

Under the previous administration, the program gradually shifted towards the resettlement of refugees from Muslim countries. This has resulted in a bias against those of other religious persuasions, even those suffering severe religious persecution. By law, Congress must consent to the annual refugee quota, but has refused to take this responsibility seriously. In fact, Congress can name as a special interest any group it wants to admit as refugees or asylum seekers.

In a meeting on Sept. 14, 2016, UNHCR Director Daisy Dell told the author that, It is not UNHCR policy to make referrals without first being notified of a countrys willingness to accept them. During a trip in February 2007, Ellen Sauerbrey, then Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, told the press in Hanoi and later in Phnom Penh that Christian Montagnards in Vietnam were not suffering persecution nor human rights abuses, and that those who fled to Cambodia were economic refugees and should be sent back to Vietnam. Sauerbrey added that she found that these returned Montagnards have not suffered any persecution. The Assistant Secretarys findings were based almost entirely on what the communists had told her, despite numerous independent human rights and religious freedom organizations reports and testimony before congressional hearings that belied their claims. To the brutal communist regimes that rule both countries, this established an unwritten U.S. policy favoring economic relations over human rights abuses, and demonstrated the willingness of the U.S. State Department to ignore such abuses. The situation continues to exist today.

To make matters worse, UNHCR has adopted a refugee policy that favors the Vietnamese and Cambodian communists. In the Sept. 14 meeting, Director Dell stated that it was a mistake for UNHCR-Phnom Penh to approve sending 13 Christian Montagnards to the Philippines in July 2016, as doing so was an embarrassment to the communist Vietnamese regime. Since the mid-2000s, UNHCR has ceded its mandate to determine who qualifies as a refugee to the Cambodian dictatorship  the very epitome of the fox guarding the henhouse.

The regime of Prime Minister Hun Sen  a former Khmer Rouge commander  was installed by, and is beholden to, the Vietnamese communists. Cambodia must allow Vietnamese advisors to monitor every level of the Phnom Penh government, including the Ministry of Interior, which oversees refugee policy. These advisors are present during and often lead interviews with refugees, creating a hostile and intimidating environment. Interrogations are conducted in Vietnamese, a language in which most Montagnards are not fluent. Their failure to understand the implications of the questions makes it easy to deny them refugee status. Of more than 400 recent Christian Montagnard refugees who sought refuge in Cambodia, nearly all have been sent back to Vietnam to be imprisoned in its brutal prison system  often a death sentence. The January 2014 report Vietnam: Torture and Abuse of Political and Religious Prisoners, Campaign to Abolish Torture in Vietnam should be required reading for everyone in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Some time ago, human rights groups received a list of names of 350 Montagnard Christians  church activists, pastors of house-churches, Bible teachers, and congregants  who were being held in harsh conditions in Vietnamese prisons. Most had been imprisoned for worshiping in house churches or refusing to recant their Christian beliefs. In recent meetings with U.S. Senators and the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, a list was presented of 100 Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Cao Dai, and other religious leaders who were likewise imprisoned.

Of course, persecution is not unique to Christian Montagnards. It is pervasive throughout the Vietnamese society, affecting other minorities, people of other religious persuasions, and anyone who dares to speak out and advocate for democracy, freedom of speech and the press, internet freedom, equal justice under the law, or against government misdeeds and corruption. The persecution extends beyond the principals to their extended families as well.

The Montagnards, who were among Americas most loyal allies during the Vietnam War, lost over one-half of their adult male population fighting alongside our Special Forces. Without their sacrifice, there would be many more names on that black granite wall at the Vietnam Memorial.

There are fewer than a hundred Christian Montagnards left in Cambodia; most of those who sought refuge there were sent back to Vietnam a few fled to Thailand. Several thousand Montagnards, Hmong, Vietnamese, and others remain in Thailand, seeking asylum after fleeing persecution in Vietnam, or having lost their homes and lands as punishment or through illegal seizure. Many of these refugees can provide documentation of prior association with Americans, such as Special Forces, copies of arrest warrants for practicing their religion, or kinship with relatives in the U.S. In the meantime, they languish in poverty, with the constant threat of being deported back to Vietnam and prison. UNHCR-Thailand is chronically understaffed and lacks personnel with adequate language skills to accurately identify, classify, and process asylum seekers in a timely manner. Nor has the U.S. agreed to accept them as refugees.

One might hope that fixing this broken UNHCR refugee policy will be a priority of Secretary Tillerson among the myriad other problems in the State Department.

Michael Benge spent 11 years in Vietnam as a Foreign Service officer and is a student of Southeast Asian politics. He is very active in advocating for human rights, religious freedom, and democracy for the peoples of the region, and has written extensively on these subjects.
Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was given another opportunity to spew his anti-Trump innuendo, obfuscation, and disinformation in another solo appearance on the CBS News program Face the Nation, July 23.

Among his insinuations, Schiff said "[T]he Russians may have laundered money through the Trump Organization. That is really something, in my opinion, that [special counsel Robert Mueller] needs to look at because what concerns me the most is, anything that could be held over the president's head that could influence U.S. policy, that would be among the most powerful form of compromise." Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson did not ask Schiff to explain himself, apparently content to let viewers absorb this expression of invidious innuendo for the purpose of political destruction.

Schiff went on to assert that "the Russians use their financial leverage over people to influence policy. That's what they do in Europe. It's part of why they like business leaders as heads of state, because they can enter into business transactions before or during that then can be used as a way of influencing their decision-making. And of course, that would be detrimental to U.S. interest."

Moderator Dickerson did not ask Schiff to identify the current European heads of state influenced by their business dealing with Russia. Nor did Dickerson ask Schiff to comment on the practice of Hillary Clinton charging groups hundreds of thousands of dollars for a speaking appearance, or raising vast sums of money from foreign countries for the Clinton Foundation.

Face the Nation and its counterpart on ABC News, This Week, have taken to putting Schiff on these broadcasts without his Republican counterpart.

Could it be significant, after all, that the president of CBS News, David Rhodes, is a brother of Ben Rhodes, who was a top Obama aide? Meanwhile, at This Week, there is the Stephanopoulos link to the Clintons.

Let's have full disclosure from these programs: how many times during the Obama years did a Republican member of a congressional committee appear without a Democrat counterpart?
The co-founder of a company with close ties to the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party that created a scurrilous dossier on Donald Trump has agree to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Glenn Simpson will speak to the committee behind closed doors about the dossier, which was created by a former British intelligence agent, Richard Steele, that made sensational and salacious charges about Trump and Russia.

It is expected that Simpson will be asked about his company's close ties to Democrats as well as Fusion's work for individuals tied to the Russian government.

In exchange for his testimony, the committee will drop the subpoena it issued last week.

The Hill:

"However, since that time, Mr. Simpson, through his attorney, has agreed to provide a transcribed interview and requested that the subpoena compelling his attendance at Wednesdays hearing be waived," committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "Weve reached an agreement on this request and have withdrawn the subpoena," they added. Fusion GPS came to the committee's attention after a dossier it had commissioned from a former British spy during the campaign was published. The dossier contains salacious allegations about Trump that haven't been verified.

Simpson had previously indicated he would take the Fifth rather than testify in an open hearing.

Chairman Grassley accused Fusion GPS of being an unregistered foreign agent for Russia. Simpson denies that, but he had several meetings with Russians closely tied to the government, including the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Donald Trump, Jr. last June. It is believed that Fusion tried to smear Bill Browder, a client of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died while in a Russian prison. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, which forbids several high-level Russians from coming to the U.S. or using our banking system. It is this act that so many Russians have been lobbying to repeal over the last few years.

Fusion tried to dig up dirt on Browder in order to discredit him. But Browder fought back, giving an affidavit to the Justice Department accusing Fusion of acting in the interests of Russia without registering as a foreign lobbying company.

The fake dossier on Trump won't figure as prominently in the hearing as Fusion's Russian ties, as well as its cooperation with and open support for the Clinton campaign and other Democrats.
Finally, cowardly university officials who allow leftists racists to intimidate their opposition may face accountability in court, thanks to a lawsuit being prepared to be filed in the State of Washington. Evergreen State College there has become the national symbol of violent political correctness suppressing free speech with institutional support.

When the school sponsored its annual "Day of Absence & Day of Presence," in order "to explore race in ways that support our students, staff, and faculty of color," radical students demanded that all white people leave campus. Prof. Bret Weinstein, a biologist and self-proclaimed progressive, refused and taught his scheduled classes, resulting in a mob confrontation (video here).

Now, according to an exclusive report by Campusreform.org, preparations are underway for a lawsuit seeking financial accountability for the alleged violation of Professor Weinstein's rights in the incident and its aftermath.

The factual narrative submitted alongside the tort claim argues that Evergreen State "has permitted, cultivated, and perpetuated a racially hostile and retaliatory work environment," asserting that "Through a series of decisions made at the highest levels, including to officially support a day of racial segregation, the College has refused to protect its employees from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence." Weinstein's attorney also maintains that the college has "failed to set and enforce necessary boundaries in the workplace on campus, selectively has chosen not to enforce its student Code of Conduct, and sent the unmistakable message that the school will tolerate (and even endorse) egregious violations (and even crimes) purportedly to advance racial social goals, diminishing the collegiate experience for all, and fostering a racially hostile work and retaliatory environment for faculty and staff." The sum of ,money demanded is "a total claimed on behalf of both professors collectively 'for the hostile work environment that has been fostered at the college over the past year or so,'" according to the Weinsteins' attorney.

Weinstein discussed his experience with Tucker Carlson on May 25:

Weinstein and his wife, Heather Heying, have filed a standard Tort Claim form against Evergreen State for a sum of $3,850,000. The legal document was signed by the couple's attorney and received by Washington's Department of Enterprise Services Office of Risk Management on July 5. The official claim follows a litigation hold request sent out in early June, asking the school's employees to retain and preserve all evidence that relates to the 2017 "Day of Absence;" the student-led protests on campus that took place during the last school year; and any records that relate to Weinstein, his wife, activist professor Naima Lowe, and administrator Rashida Love. "Please be on notice that this demand covers not only those records covered by any public records acts but those which are or were communicated by private means of any type including but not limited to email and photography. This demand should be immediately distributed campus-wide to all faculty and staff," Weinstein and Heying wrote on June 4. "Take note that the destruction or alteration of evidence is a felony," the document added. "This demand is made in contemplation of litigation. Please promptly acknowledge receipt of this communication and confirm that you will comply."

This notice had to send chills among the faculty and administration at Evergreen, for the vast legal apparatus created to protect racial minorities and women from a "hostile work environment" is available to other groups. No lawsuit has yet been filed, and the choice of venue will be an important consideration. While the Western coastal strip around Puget Sound and southward is dominated by blue coastal leftists and populous enough to dominate state politics, other parts of the state to the east are far more conservative. The United States District Court, Eastern District of the State of Washington in Spokane might be a more favorable locale for a suit than Seattle, if a rationale can be found for a claim there. Cowboys, lumberjacks, and farmers might be less sympathetic to a demand that white people leave campus than the high tech crowd in Seattle.

The document production so far has yielded some dramatic evidence that has been shared with Campusreform.org:

Campus Reform also obtained hundreds of pages of documents, including emails and social media posts, that relate to the requested litigation hold in June and the tort claim in July. Email exchanges reviewed by Campus Reform feature harsh criticisms of Weinstein's political views and calls for his termination, including one email sent by a faculty emerita that blasts Weinstein's appearance on Fox News and his public comments about the racial tensions in Evergreen. "Bret, I don't know what you were thinking. By describing yourself to Tucker [Carlson] as a 'deeply progressive person' you provided him ammunition for the claim that 'the crazies are even going after progressives!!!,'" part of the email reads. "I hope that you won't deepen your relation with Fox or pass on more raw material for Tucker's 'campus craziness' show," the missive continues. "I have no doubt that you and your family are suffering due to recent missives and events; but so are many others on campus." Other communications include "A Letter to the campus and Bret Weinstein from some Jews bent on the destruction of White Supremacy," that calls for the termination of Weinstein's employment. "We want to talk about the ways that Weinstein is positioning himself as a Jew to invalidate the claims of racism being raised against him," the letter begins. "Bret Weinstein is wrong, he has put you in danger, and we will not allow him to hide behind our histories in order to dodge responsibility for his abhorrent and reprehensible words and actions," it concludes. "NO COPS ON CAMPUS!!! FIRE BRET WEINSTEIN!!! BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!"

A substantial judgment against Evergreen would force the school to cut other expenses to pay it, or else go the state legislature, hat in hand, and ask for reimbursement. Legislation has already been introduced in Washington to cut state funding and privatize the institution. I would love to see the university president and deans testifying before a legislative committee justifying the expenditure of taxpayer money to atone for their misconduct.

The only way the campus mobs can be tamed is for administrators to start fearing public wrath and withdrawal of funding more than they fear the campus mobs. Privatizing Evergreen and cutting off public support would be a great start. Even better would be outright closure of the school, firing of its faculty and administration, and sale of its campus to some other institution.

The death penalty for universities that surrender to the mob would definitely focus the rest of higher education on its responsibilities to protect free speech and inquiry.

I hope that a jury eventually is so outraged that it awards a substantially higher amount than requested as punitive damages. Force Evergreen to sell assets, close departments, and really experience pain for its flagrant abuses.
President Trump is exactly right about this Russian probe. It's one-sided, with too many Democrats in the Mueller team. It's silly, since no one has found one darned bit of evidence of collusion between the Trump team and Russia. Finally, I agree that A.G. Sessions should not have recused himself, having done nothing wrong.

At the same time, what is the point of comments and now a tweet saying A.G. Sessions is weak?

Add to this the predictable story based on unnamed sources that the president is talking about firing A.G. Sessions.

Sorry, but I don't like it!

A.G. Sessions comes across as a Southern gentleman, and maybe President Trump wants an "in your face" New Yorker. However, A.G. Sessions is quietly going after sanctuary cities and promoting the president's agenda.

Like some of you, I did not get on the Trump bandwagon until after the nomination. I had my doubts about his temperament and commitment to conservative positions.

Nevertheless, I give President Trump high marks on foreign policy.

He is correct in holding the GOP accountable on Obamacare.

He has a connection to blue-collar Americans in the Rust Belt not seen since President Reagan.

President Trump has great potential, as Andrew Klavan wrote:

In fact, it seems to me  a reluctant Trump voter  President The Donald has done a pretty darn good job so far. Rough-hewn, inexperienced and sometimes too much of a loudmouth for his own and the country's good, he has nonetheless managed to increase American freedom and productivity while dragging us back from the brink of the Moribund European Socialist Please-Kill-Us-Mohammed anti-Western vision of the last guy who held the office. There's the great Supreme Court pick, of course. Plus he's eliminated sixteen old federal regulations for every new one put in place. He's made American foreign policy sane again by re-aligning us with Israel and pulling out of the nonsense Paris climate accord. You can talk about the non-wall all you like, but the drop in illegal border crossings under this president is, according to the head of the National Border Patrol union, "nothing short of miraculous." Stock market's up. Unemployment's down. Housing sales are up. ISIS is down. Oh, and Trump's brutal thrashing of our utterly corrupt and dishonest news media has been a joy to behold.

I agree that President Trump should be furious that the media do not talk about this but are "Russia consumed." However, President Trump does not have to tweet everything he is thinking or scold his staff in public.

It would be a huge mistake to fire A.G. Sessions. It would take an eternity to approve a successor, and the Democrats will turn the hearings into a circus. It also sends the wrong message about loyalty, the one thing you really need when your enemies are united to bring you down.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Blog Archive Nov 2022 (26) Oct 2022 (64) Sep 2022 (60) Aug 2022 (61) Jul 2022 (55) Jun 2022 (60) May 2022 (73) Apr 2022 (60) Mar 2022 (58) Feb 2022 (65) Jan 2022 (69) Dec 2021 (106) Nov 2021 (84) Oct 2021 (58) Sep 2021 (67) Aug 2021 (62) Jul 2021 (54) Jun 2021 (50) May 2021 (58) Apr 2021 (44) Mar 2021 (57) Feb 2021 (64) Jan 2021 (93) Dec 2020 (82) Nov 2020 (62) Oct 2020 (50) Sep 2020 (45) Aug 2020 (51) Jul 2020 (56) Jun 2020 (53) May 2020 (70) Apr 2020 (66) Mar 2020 (169) Feb 2020 (211) Jan 2020 (184) Dec 2019 (54) Nov 2019 (56) Oct 2019 (55) Sep 2019 (63) Aug 2019 (54) Jul 2019 (69) Jun 2019 (56) May 2019 (65) Apr 2019 (68) Mar 2019 (72) Feb 2019 (76) Jan 2019 (62) Dec 2018 (55) Nov 2018 (69) Oct 2018 (90) Sep 2018 (82) Aug 2018 (58) Jul 2018 (36) Jun 2018 (47) May 2018 (44) Apr 2018 (64) Mar 2018 (63) Feb 2018 (68) Jan 2018 (92) Dec 2017 (85) Nov 2017 (64) Oct 2017 (82) Sep 2017 (54) Aug 2017 (89) Jul 2017 (60) Jun 2017 (86) May 2017 (84) Apr 2017 (62) Mar 2017 (86) Feb 2017 (91) Jan 2017 (113) Dec 2016 (109) Nov 2016 (100) Oct 2016 (82) Sep 2016 (95) Aug 2016 (84) Jul 2016 (84) Jun 2016 (99) May 2016 (93) Apr 2016 (106) Mar 2016 (145) Feb 2016 (125) Jan 2016 (103) Dec 2015 (83) Nov 2015 (80) Oct 2015 (100) Sep 2015 (111) Aug 2015 (94) Jul 2015 (98) Jun 2015 (151) May 2015 (125) Apr 2015 (109) Mar 2015 (122) Feb 2015 (113) Jan 2015 (135) Dec 2014 (131) Nov 2014 (115) Oct 2014 (146) Sep 2014 (112) Aug 2014 (128) Jul 2014 (94) Jun 2014 (104) May 2014 (140) Apr 2014 (132) Mar 2014 (81) Feb 2014 (89) Jan 2014 (141) Dec 2013 (100) Nov 2013 (96) Oct 2013 (99) Sep 2013 (94) Aug 2013 (95) Jul 2013 (95) Jun 2013 (91) May 2013 (139) Apr 2013 (179) Mar 2013 (73) Feb 2013 (76) Jan 2013 (85) Dec 2012 (59) Nov 2012 (71) Oct 2012 (85) Sep 2012 (70) Aug 2012 (71) Jul 2012 (53) Jun 2012 (51) May 2012 (52) Apr 2012 (52) Mar 2012 (69) Feb 2012 (76) Jan 2012 (70) Dec 2011 (60) Nov 2011 (54) Oct 2011 (57) Sep 2011 (75) Aug 2011 (72) Jul 2011 (64) Jun 2011 (76) May 2011 (56) Apr 2011 (73) Mar 2011 (114) Feb 2011 (71) Jan 2011 (80) Dec 2010 (92) Nov 2010 (82) Oct 2010 (73) Sep 2010 (95) Aug 2010 (86) Jul 2010 (81) Jun 2010 (76) May 2010 (71) Apr 2010 (74) Mar 2010 (74) Feb 2010 (82) Jan 2010 (101) Dec 2009 (108) Nov 2009 (182) Oct 2009 (136) Sep 2009 (102) Aug 2009 (120) Jul 2009 (151) Jun 2009 (136) May 2009 (180) Apr 2009 (145) Mar 2009 (113) Feb 2009 (113) Jan 2009 (124) Dec 2008 (108) Nov 2008 (69) Oct 2008 (89) Sep 2008 (76) Aug 2008 (75) Jul 2008 (87) Jun 2008 (80) May 2008 (99) Apr 2008 (93) Mar 2008 (115) Feb 2008 (147) Jan 2008 (162) Dec 2007 (124) Nov 2007 (95) Oct 2007 (67) Sep 2007 (42) Aug 2007 (78) Jul 2007 (75) Jun 2007 (123) May 2007 (110) Apr 2007 (108) Mar 2007 (92) Feb 2007 (136) Jan 2007 (119) Dec 2006 (41) Nov 2006 (34) Oct 2006 (12) Sep 2006 (13) Aug 2006 (13) Jul 2006 (16) Jun 2006 (12) May 2006 (21) Apr 2006 (38) Mar 2006 (27) Feb 2006 (25) Jan 2006 (18)
(ANSA) - Rome, July 26 - Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday that Italy was considering a request from Libyan for its Navy to be used against human traffickers in the Mediterranean after meeting Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj in Rome. "Sarraj sent me a letter a few days ago in which the Italian government is asked for technical support with naval units to the fight against the trafficking of human beings," Gentiloni told a press conference. "The request is being examined by our defence ministry".

Gentiloni said that Italy had Germany's backing for its initiatives to stop human trafficking in the Mediterranean. "We are working together with the Libyan local and central authorities against trafficking," Gentiloni said.

"A few hours ago I spoke to (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel (on the telephone) and she confirmed Germany's commitment to support Italian initiatives to combat human trafficking and Italian-Libyan cooperation". A German government spokesperson said that, during the call, Merkel stressed the need for solidarity in the distribution of migrants throughout the European Union.

Rome has appealed for help with the Mediterranean asylum-seeker crisis, saying its ability to cope is at the limit, after over 93,000 arrived via sea so far this year.

The premier added that he hopes Tuesday meeting in Paris between rival Libyan leaders produces lasting results. At the meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army controls parts of the east of the country, agreed on a ceasefire and new elections. "Today's meeting is particularly important because it comes after the one in Paris, which Italy hopes will produce important results in the coming weeks and months," Gentiloni said.


ROME - The ANSA news agency on Wednesday is presenting infomigrants.net, a new European website in English, Arabic and French with the aim of informing in a thorough, balanced and innovative way migrants and refugees. The website will be presented at ANSA's headquarters in Via della Dataria in Rome. The service is aimed at both those who are thinking about leaving their country of origin or transit and those who have already reached Europe.

ANSA, through its multi-language service for the Mediterranean ANSAmed, is the partner of France Media Monde and Deutsche Welle in this project promoted by the European Commission, which reports in an innovative way on the phenomenon of migration, the most significant challenge of the past few years for the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Each day, from Monday to Friday, the website offers stories, news, investigative reports, photo galleries, videos, as well as useful information designed to help migrants. The information includes rules on how to obtain residency permits, school assistance for minors and families, access to healthcare and every aspect worthy of interest for those who, for a variety of reasons, migrate to Europe. The website shows the problems and dangers, as well as reporting in three different languages stories of integration and entrepreneurial success.
PARIS- Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said French police in Calais routinely abuse asylum seekers and migrants.



In a 40-page report - ''Like living in hell: Police abuses against child and adult migrants in Calais'' - the human rights group said police forces in Calais, particularly the French riot police, routinely use pepper spray on child and adult migrants while they are sleeping or in other circumstances in which they pose no threat. Police also regularly spray or confiscate sleeping bags, blankets, and clothes, and have sometimes used pepper spray on migrants' food and water, according to the report.



Human Rights Watch said its report was based on interviews with some 60 asylum seekers and migrants in the area of Calais and Dunkerque, including 31 unaccompanied children, in June and July 2017..
BRUSSELS - In June, the relocation rate of migrants to elsewhere in the EU reached a record high with 1,000 transferred out of Italy and over 2,000 from Greece, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Wednesday.



So far, 24,676 migrants have been transferred as part of the EU-wide relocation program: 16,803 from Greece and 7,873 from Italy. Avramopoulos called for greater, uninterrupted commitment from member states concerning the 4,800 current candidates awaiting transfer from Greece and the constant arrival of eligible candidates in Italy, noting that even if the program ends at the end of September, ''this is not the case for the legal obligations of member states'' as regards migrants that arrive by the end of September. The European Commission has said that Italy must urgently complete the registration of eligible people who arrived in 2016 and in the first six months of 2017. Most of them are Eritreans - 25,000 of whom have arrived in Italy since the beginning of 2016 - but only 10,000 have been registered for relocation. As indicated by the Commission in an action plan to support Italy, Italian authorities have been called upon quickly register all the Eritreans currently in the country and centralize relocation procedures at specific centers.



The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is helping the country with an online awareness-raising campaign to identify all potential requesters. Several member states have almost absolved their obligations: Malta, Latvia and Norway - an associate country to the Schengen area that is voluntarily taking part in the program - have relocated their assigned quotas from Greece, while Sweden (which only began in June) has relocated almost 60% of its share.



Spain and Germany have announced that they will speed up relocation.
ROME - Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday that Italy was considering a request from Libyan for its Navy to be used against human traffickers in the Mediterranean after meeting Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj in Rome. "Sarraj sent me a letter a few days ago in which the Italian government is asked for technical support with naval units to the fight against the trafficking of human beings," Gentiloni told a press conference. "The request is being examined by our defence ministry".



Gentiloni said that Italy had Germany's backing for its initiatives to stop human trafficking in the Mediterranean. "We are working together with the Libyan local and central authorities against trafficking," Gentiloni said.



"A few hours ago I spoke to (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel (on the telephone) and she confirmed Germany's commitment to support Italian initiatives to combat human trafficking and Italian-Libyan cooperation". A German government spokesperson said that, during the call, Merkel stressed the need for solidarity in the distribution of migrants throughout the European Union.



Rome has appealed for help with the Mediterranean asylum-seeker crisis, saying its ability to cope is at the limit, after over 93,000 arrived via sea so far this year.



The premier added that he hopes Tuesday meeting in Paris between rival Libyan leaders produces lasting results. At the meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army controls parts of the east of the country, agreed on a ceasefire and new elections. "Today's meeting is particularly important because it comes after the one in Paris, which Italy hopes will produce important results in the coming weeks and months," Gentiloni said.



Part of the problem for Italy is the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates the asylum procedures must be handled by the first country an asylum seeker comes to, not the country where they want to make the request.



The European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that this principle still applies even given the scale of the current crisis.


Italy 'follows UN on Libya', FM tells French counterpart After Macron initiative

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 26 - Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano on Wednesday stressed to his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian the importance of making continual reference to the UN on the issue of Libya.



It is essential, he said, that ''every future initiative on Libya be in reference to actions by the UN and its special envoy in order to facilitate national reconciliation''. According to a statement released by the Italian foreign ministry, Alfano spoke in the morning with Le Drian the day after a meeting near Paris between French president Emmanuel Macron, Libyan PM Fayez al-Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar.



''During the telephone call, agreed upon during the bilateral meeting between the two ministers in Rome on Monday, Le Drian discussed the results of Macron's initiative,'' the statement continued. ''The French foreign ministry,'' it added, ''has called the Paris agreement a 'text of a good level', the implementation of which has yet to be verified. It pointed especially to the fact that it recognizes the Shkirat accords and pledges to give full support to the actions of new UN Special Envoy Ghassan Salame in the stabilization process in Libya''. Le Drian ''noted that President Macron publicly called for the meeting on the eve between Le Drian and Alfano and underscored the agreement of views with Italy on the need for the political process to now be conducted within the framework of actions led by the new UN Special Envoy Salame.'' In referring to the day's visit in Rome by President Sarraj and the Libyan foreign minister, the statement ended by saying that ''the foreign ministers of France and Italy agreed to speak again soon and to continue to work closely on the evolution of the Libyan dossier and joint action at the UN.'' (ANSAmed).




'Relocation appeals to be rejected', EU attorney general In Slovakia-Hungary case

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JULY 26 - The EU court of justice must ''reject appeals from Slovakia and Hungary'' against a temporary mandatory relocation scheme for asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, according to attorney general Yves Bot.



Both said the emergency mechanism contributes to ensure that Greece and Italy are able to deal with the 2015 migrant crisis.



In the majority of cases, the court's rulings follow the attorney general's opinion.



As a response to the migrant crisis in Europe in the summer of 2015, the EU Council decided in favor of reallocations to help Italy and Greece confront the emergency.



Slovakia and Hungary, which along with the Czech Republic and Romania voted against the measure, are asking the court to annul the decision, citing erroneous procedures or inappropriate legal grounds. They said the council's decision did not respond to the migrant crisis nor was it necessary to that end.



Poland backed Slovakia and Hungary in the legal proceeding while Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Commission backed the EU Council.



In his conclusions today, which are not binding, attorney general Bot suggested to the court to reject the cases presented by Slovakia and Hungary. (ANSAmed).




Tension between Turkey and Israel after Erdogan criticism 'Arrogant' statements, says Ankara

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 26 - A war of words continued Wednesday between Turkey and Israel.



On Tuesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Israeli security measures at the al-Aqsa mosque complex, then the Israeli foreign minister called his words ''bizarre, baseless and distorted'', adding that the ''days of the Ottoman Empire are over''. In a statement released on Wednesday morning, the Turkish foreign ministry called the comments on Erdogan's words ''arrogant'' and called for Israel to ''use common sense and restore the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque complex, removing obstacles to prayer''. ''Seeking to hide the fact that East Jerusalem is under occupation will not help regional peace and stability of foster a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,'' it continued.



Erdogan on Wednesday praised the decision to remove the metal detectors at the holy site but said that Turkey expected more.



(ANSAmed).




If youre considering a subscription to the Disney Plus streaming service, you may be wondering how much it costs. The service is available on both
The Italian Agency for Nuclear Physics is the main supervisor of the scholarship, which will focus on the study of the basic components of matter and its laws. Nearly 5,000 award-winning scientists from all over the world, whose work has already received global recognition, are involved in the initiative.

Al Salhia received the scholarship to work on the project having been recommended by the European Space Agency. Her work will focus on the fields of particle physics, cosmo physics, nuclear physics and theoretical physics, as well as technological research. Al Salhia represents the Sultanate at the Space Generation Advisory Council to support the United Nations program on Space Application and is a member of Women in Aerospace Europe.

Dr. Khalid bin Abdulwahab Al Balushi, Senior Manager of Government Affairs at Oman Air, said: "We are proud to engage with prestigious scientific research and delighted to support such a gifted Omani student. It is vital for the future of the Omani economy that we encourage the countrys youth to be technological and scientific innovators."

Zainab Al Salhia, who is currently a civil engineering student at Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman, said: I wasnt expecting this opportunity to come about at this point, at this time, but I have a great interest in the Sultanate's participation in such international schemes and its collaboration with major European institutions focused on scientific research and development."

Al Salhia expressed her sincere thanks and gratitude to Oman Air and the Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman for their financial and moral support. She also commented: "This opportunity highlights the importance of nuclear physics in society, which focuses on the structure of our physical world, including stellar nuclear reactions, the generation of energy and the chemical elements.
Disenchantment, of which Netflix has ordered an initial 20 episodes, is described as an adult fantasy about a crumbling medieval kingdom known as Dreamland. The central character is a hard-drinking princess, Bean, [with] her elf companion Elfo and her personal demon Luci. The first 10 episodes are targeted to premiere next year.
Order part of railway's 'zero tolerance' policy towards poor quality and overcharging of food.

New Delhi: The railway ministry on Wednesday cancelled a caterer's contract after a passenger found a dead lizard in his vegetable biryani served on a Delhi-bound train from Howrah, a ministry spokesperson said.

The passenger had ordered and eaten the dish without noticing the lizard but felt unwell later, a co-passenger, Meghna Sinha, said in a series of Tweets yesterday.

"In view of the Railway's zero tolerance policy towards poor quality and overcharging of food, the railway administration has terminated the contract of the catering contractor, R K Associates, for the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express," Railway Ministry spokesperson A K Saxena told PTI.

Sinha had shot a photograph of the biryani packet, uploaded it on Twitter and tagged the Indian Railways. In another Tweet, she tagged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. The ministry tweeted today that the catering contract on Poorva Express was given to R K Associates on May 15, 2014, for five years.

The caterer was fined Rs 10 lakh last year and Rs 7.5 lakh, it said in another Tweet. The passenger, who had asked for the biryani when the train was near Jhajha, Bihar, also uploaded a complaint on Twitter.

Responding to the complaint, the minister's office asked the traveller for travel details. "Kindly share your PNR number," it tweeted and tagged the concerned catering department. The passenger underwent a health check-up in Patna, Buxar and then again at Mughalsarai in UP, where senior rail officers were also present, officials said.

The spokesperson said in the last six months, the administration had terminated the contracts of eight catering units. "It is unprecedented the number of contracts that we have terminated in the past six months. In the last year, 16 such contractors were also blacklisted. We have also financially penalised the offenders," Saxena said.

The incident comes days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed the railways for bad quality food, saying it was "unfit for human consumption".

Prabhu has also directed the administration to conduct special catering drives across the entire railway network starting today. Officials have been instructed to inspect pantries and base kitchens and take corrective measures wherever necessary.

R K Associates on its website said it had been catering for the Railways "for the past two decade".
Karnataka industries minister R.V. Deshpande said, Scoot will help people from middle class and upper middle class to fly at affordable fares.

The company, which had merged with Tigerair nine months ago, has completed the Scoot-Tigerair integration process and has come under a common holding company.

Bengaluru: Scoot, the low-cost, medium-to-long haul arm of the Singapore Airlines on Tuesday announced that it will be operating as a single brand, integrating with its partner, Tigerair Singapore.

The company, which had merged with Tigerair nine months ago, has completed the Scoot-Tigerair integration process and has come under a common holding company.

Speaking at the event in Bengaluru, Karnataka industries minister R.V. Deshpande said, Scoot will help people from middle class and upper middle class to fly at affordable fares.

He said that there is a huge potential for tourism in Karnataka, which has not been fully tapped yet. The state has long way to go in terms of connectivity. The minister also suggested Scoot to start operating at the regional airports in Mangaluru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi and Hubballi.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company announced special one-way promotional fares form Bengaluru, which starts from Rs 5,599 to Singapore, Rs 9, 799 to Bali, Rs 10,499 to Hong Kong, Rs 12,499 to Melbourne or Sydney. Additional 10 per cent discounts are also available through promotional codes for a booking period from 25 July to 6 Aug 2017, the company said.
The tour that started on March 9 in Seattle had brought the pop star to Mumbai for his maiden concert in India.

Justin Bieber has cancelled the final leg of his Purpose World Tour, pulling a plug on 14 shows that were to take place within USA and abroad. While the reason why the star cancelled the dates is unclear, a source from the source told TMZ.com that Justin is just over it.

The tour that started on March 9 in Seattle had brought the pop star to Mumbai for his maiden concert in India.

Later on, Justins team released a statement saying the cancellation is because of unforeseen circumstances, adding that fans tickets will be refunded.
Twenty five bodies were fished out on Wednesday by the police and locals after the flood water receded in the district.

Ahmedabad: At least 25 persons, including 14 of a family, were found dead on Wednesday in two villages of Banaskantha district due to floods following torrential rains in Gujarat, the police said.

According to the State Emergency Operation Centre, the death toll due to heavy rains and floods across the state in the current monsoon season stood at 94 till Tuesday. Of the 25 found dead in Banaskantha, 17 persons, including 14 of a family, drowned in the flood waters in Kharia village under the Kankrej taluka, said an official.

Twenty five bodies were fished out on Wednesday by the police and locals after the flood water receded in the district.

"Seventeen bodies were recovered from Kharia village of Banaskantha and seven more were fished out at the neighbouring Sihori village. Another body was found in the interiors, taking the total number of bodies recovered from the district today to 25," said Assistant Superintendent of Police Akshayrajsinh Makwana.

A D Parmar, Inspector, Thara Police Station, under which the Kharia village falls, said they feared that more bodies might be found after the water receded at over a dozen

villages located along the banks of the Banas river.

Kharia and Sihori, situated along the banks of the Banas, were among the worst-hit villages in the district after water was released from the Dantiwada dam two days back.

Around 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released from the dam following heavy rains in neighbouring Rajasthan, which resulted in inundation of several villages along the banks of the river in Banaskantha.

"Kharia is one of around 14 villages in the taluka which are badly affected due to the flood. As the water level of the Banas river rose suddenly, those living in these villages did not get a chance to relocate to a safe place in time," said Parmar.

State Emergency Operation Centre officials said as per the latest figures available with them -- excluding the 25 deaths reported on Wednesday -- eight people had died in Banaskantha and Patan districts in the last two days due to the floods.

The toll due to heavy rains and floods across the state in the current monsoon season stood at 94 (barring the 25 deaths reported from Banaskantha today), they added.

Banaskantha and Patan are among the worst-hit districts due to heavy rains and flooding of the Banas and Sipu rivers.

The huge quantum of water released from the Dantiwada and Sipu dams due to heavy rains in Rajasthan compounded the situation, said officials.
Nadda also said a 3-member panel has been formed in Bihar to talk to BJP MLAs and report to the leadership to help it take a final call.

At a meeting of the state BJP, it was decided that Sushil Modi and some other leaders will apprise the central party leadership of the developments. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi/Patna: The BJP on Wednesday said it is against mid-term polls in Bihar where Nitish Kumar resigned as chief minister citing differences with ally RJD over corruption.

Emerging from the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior party leader J P Nadda said the board is against mid-term polls in the state.

He also said a three-member panel has been formed in Bihar to talk to BJP MLAs and report to the leadership to help it take a final call.

Senior party leader Sushil Modi also said that BJP does not favour mid-term polls in Bihar and wants all legislators to complete their term.

"We are happy that Nitish Kumar did not compromise on the issue of corruption and did not bow down before the RJD. The BJP is not in favour of mid-term polls and wants that all MLAs complete their term," he told reporters in Patna.

At a meeting of the state BJP, it was decided that Sushil Modi and some other leaders will apprise the central party leadership of the developments.
The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians.

Denying the claims of Harjit Masih (the Indian who returned home from Iraq) that the Indian nationals have been killed, the minister said that six sources have confirmed of the Indians being alive. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: There is no concrete evidence that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq have been killed and "I will not commit the sin" of declaring them dead without any evidence, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday.

Making a forceful statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj said the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead.

"This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence," Swaraj said, two days after holding talks with Iraqi foreign minister on the issue.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians.

"I have never misled. I want to ask the Opposition, what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government get by misleading the people on the issue," she said.

The Iraq Embassy had on Sunday informed India that search operations are underway to locate the 39 missing Indians who were taken as prisoners by ISIS in 2014, further assuring there is a high level coordination between Iraqi and Indian concerned authorities to locate them.

The Government of India has already sent two high-level senior delegations to Iraq to follow up on this matter.

Read: Search underway for 39 Indians missing in Mosul, Govt not lying: Amit Shah

However, Iraqi Ambassador to India Fakhri H Al-Issa had said that the Embassy has no information about the missing 39 Indians citizens.

"I don't want to say anything. I have no information. Sometimes no news is good news. They might be in Badush prison," Issa said.

Sushma Swaraj, along with Minister of State (MoS) for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) M.J. Akbar and MoS MEA Gen. (Retd.) VK Singh, met families of 39 Indians who are missing in Iraq since 2014 on July 16.
Says granting time will be an economic disaster.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Sahara chief Subrata Roy to deposit Rs 1,500 crore by September 7, including Rs 305 crore, the outstanding amount as per the earlier direction.

In April, Mr Roy was asked to make an initial payment of Rs 1,500 crore to SEBI towards repayment of principal amount and Rs 552 crore by July 25.

During the resumed hearing before a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A.K. Sikri, senior counsel Kapil Sibal appearing for the Sahara chief told the court that `305 crore was outstanding. He said that two hotels in New York had been sold and proceeds were expected within a fortnight. He wanted time till August 12 to deposit Rs 305 crore and another 18 months to clear the balance amount towards the principal.

Counsel Pratap Venugopal for SEBI told the court that out of the principal amount of Rs 24,000 crore due to the depositors, there was still an outstanding amount of Rs 9,179 crore and despite giving repeated time, the contemnor was not depositing the amount.
Lalu Yadav has rubbished the repeated barbs of a breakup, asserting that all is well with Nitish Kumar.

Backing his tainted son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, the former chief minister said, the latter won't resign from his post. (Photo: PTI/File)

Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday took a jibe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying he was aware of his long time friend's growing bonhomie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Talking to the media in Patna, Yadav said, "I am aware of the growing bonhomie between Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I know BJP is desperate to ally with Janata Dal (United) (JD(U))."

Yadav further dared Nitish saying the alliance was forged because of him, and the RJD made him Chief Minister.

However, Yadav has rubbished the repeated barbs of a breakup, asserting that all is well with Nitish Kumar.

"Mahagathbandhan is intact and Nitish never asked for resignation from Tejaswi" he said while addressing a press conference in Patna.

Backing his tainted son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, the former chief minister said, the latter won't resign from his post.

Recently, the tension between the 'Grand Alliance' of Congress and RJD had grown as Nitish Kumar was facing increasing pressure to oust Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav from the cabinet after charges of corruption were proved against him.

The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejaswi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The RJD supremo, however, has refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP is mounting pressure on Nitish Kumar to oust Tejashwi Yadav from the party.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, "Nitish Kumar has no defence so he must immediately suspend Tejaswi Yadav. JD (U) is asking for a response since there has been enough delay in the matter. There is a strong case against Lalu Yadav's son. He has to clarify on the anonymous assets."

Modi also warned that they will not let the House function if an adequate response did not come from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo.
In 2013, the ICJ had taken up the matter of impeachment of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake with the Sri Lankan government.

New Delhi: The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) has urged Chief Justice of India (CJI) J.S. Khehar to set up a committee to probe into the allegations of irregularities against a senior sitting apex court Judge.

In a petition submitted to the CJI, ICJ president Dr Adish C. Aggarwala said normally, the council never looked into matters relating to the working, appointment and removal of judges, and only involved itself in the rarest of rare cases.

In 2013, the ICJ had taken up the matter of impeachment of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake with the Sri Lankan government.

The ICJ prodded the CJI to appoint an in-house committee consisting of Judges of the Supreme Court to look into the allegations against the senior Judge and ensure transparency in the judiciary.

The ICJ pointed out that an in-house enquiry committee, headed by Punjab and Haryana high court Chief Justice S.J. Vazifdar, and comprising Tripura high court Chief Justice T. Vaiphei and Allahabad high courts senior Justice Arun Tandon, which was probing allegations against two Orissa high court judges, had abruptly ended its probe after the name of one sitting apex court Judge cropped up during its enquiry.

The committtee had informed the CJI that it could not continue an enquiry that involved a sitting Supreme Court Judge. In this context, the ICJ is seeking your Lordships intervention, the ICJ said. It urged the CJI to set up a committee to look into the matter to protect and safeguard the image of the judiciary.
Indian Medical Association President K K Aggarwal says Krishna, in the true sense, was the first and perhaps the most celebrated counsellor

He says the Vedic approach to mental health focuses on controlling the mind, intellect and ego. (Photo: kkaggarwal.com)

New Delhi: The epic Mahabharata is full of pointers to issues of psychiatric dimensions and offers many answers, says national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) K K Aggarwal who considers Lord Krishna as the most celebrated counsellor.

He says Krishna, in the true sense, was the first and perhaps the most celebrated counsellor, whose "sessions with his patient Arjuna not only led to his spectacular recovery but also constituted" one of the most revered ancient texts -- the 700-verse Bhagavad Gita.

"The history of psychiatry in India begins with Lord Krishna's successful counselling of Arjuna before the 18-day battle of the Mahabharata," Aggarwal writes in The Equator Line magazines latest issue 'Cobwebs Inside Us', which deals with mental health.

At a time when there were no psych drugs or mental-health professionals, the Sanskrit epic seem to have offered a few answers to ancient Indians, he says in his write-up titled "Psychotherapy in the time of the Vedas".

Aggarwal says the Vedic Indian did not know about anti-depressants but it was a time when the "bucolic environment -- woods running along the river banks, deer prancing around, peacocks strutting close to the courtyard -- had its own way of healing the bruised mind".

Today, he says, there is an assortment of drugs that nourish the mental health of an individual and the prescription differs from person to person.

He says the Vedic approach to mental health focuses on controlling the mind, intellect and ego.

"Lord Shiva presents a very Vedic way of anger management. Whenever you are filled with resentment, store the negative thoughts in your throat. After some time, think about the issue at hand with a cool mind," he writes.

In the article Of the mind and its maladies, AIIMS psychiatrists Dr Rajesh Sagar and Dr Ananya Mahapatra write: "The future demands scaling up of a wide variety of interventions, ranging from public awareness, early identification, treatment of acute illness, family education, long-term care, rehabilitation, reintegration into society, ensuring of human rights of the ill persons, and efforts to reduce the prevalent stigma and discrimination against these patients."

Bhaskar Roy writes in the editorial: "This is the new killer stalking each one of us. The good thing is mental illness is no longer a subject pushed behind the screen.

Everybody is talking about it, Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone openly talked about her depression and her struggle to come out of it. Now, she is a campaigner for mental health and an inspiring story herself."

Among other contributors to the edition are psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chugh, former G B Pant Hospital CMO Dr Reshma Hingorani, psychologist Pallav Bonerjee and Bollywood scriptwriter Sumeet Panigrahi.
Lalu further accused Nitish to have been hand-in-glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The RJD chief further called for appointment of a new chief minister. (Photo: PTI/File)

Patna (Bihar): After Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, his grand alliance partner and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said the former stepped down fearing his exposure in murder case slapped against him, while also questioning his intent behind the decision.

"I talked with Nitish ji last night and asked him to clear all the misunderstandings. We talked for 40 minutes and he did not mention about his resignation for once. He also advised me to clarify the corruption charges through media. Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused in a murder and an Arms Act case under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. He also declared this in elections affidavit. Nitish knew that if he would ask Tejashwi to resign then his crime will be exposed," Lalu told media.

"This is zero tolerance of my younger brother. This is why he stepped down. When a reporter asked Nitish if he would take the BJP's support to form a government, then he did not deny. I am sad that he resigned. I asked him to not resign," he added.

The RJD chief further called for appointment of a new chief minister.

"This is a grand alliance and the Chief Minister has resigned. Though we have a claim, but a meeting of the RJD, the JD(U) and the Congress MLAs should be called to elect a new chief minister," he said.

Lalu further accused Nitish to have been hand-in-glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) all this while.

"Nitish is hand-in-glove with the BJP, and the RSS. What a setting! Minutes after he resigned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to congratulate him," he said.

Bihar saw a major turn of events on Wednesday evening when Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, instead of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, as was being speculated and expected.

Nitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and confirmed it to the media even as he emerged after meeting him.

"The Governor has accepted my resignation. I did everything a chief of a party in alliance should do. I myself have given away the post. Now, you will have to wait and see what happens next," he said.

Following this, Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to "congratulate" Nitish.

"Huge congratulations to Nitish Kumar that he quit in the name of going against corruption. The 125 crore people of India support him," he posted.

While the Congress is disappointed at Nitish's decision, the BJP has welcomed the move.
The Supreme Court set up a nine-judge bench last week to decide whether right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right.

AG K.K. Venugopal told SC that right to privacy is a fundamental right but it is a wholly qualified right. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: Centre on Wednesday said in Supreme Court that right to privacy may be considered a fundamental right, but all aspects of privacy cannot be put under the fundamental rights category.

AG K.K. Venugopal told SC that right to privacy is a fundamental right but it is a wholly qualified right.

"Every aspect of it does not qualify as a fundamental right, as privacy also includes the subtext of liberty," said the centre's lawyer KK Venugopal.

The Supreme Court set up a nine-judge bench last week to decide whether right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.

SC said that right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the state may have some power to put reasonable restriction, while examining the issue whether it can be declared as a fundamental right under the Constitution.

A nine-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, also asked the Centre and others to assist it about the "contours" and ambit of test on which the width and scope of right to privacy and its infringement, if any, by the State would be tested.

The Supreme Court left it to its Constitution Bench to deal with the apprehension of a large section of the population that sharing of biometric data under the Aadhaar scheme invades upon human dignity and the right to privacy.
Nitish wants Tejashwi to resign before July 28 and give a rebuttal to the charges he faces.

New Delhi: The proverbial guillotine hanging over Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs head seems to have been stayed for the time being.

Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, while insisting that his deputy resigns before the state Assembly session begins on July 28 so that his government is not caught in an embarrassing position in the House, has offered the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) a middle path. He would like Yadav junior to put in his papers after giving a point-by-point rebuttal of the charges against him, but his resignation will not be accepted, thus giving a symbolic boost to the CMs incorruptible image while keeping the Mahagathbandan intact.

Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, is named in an alleged case of land-for-hotels scandal.

Sources said that Tejashwi Yadav met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday evening and was seeking legal opinion on his possible line of defence.

His meeting with the Congress president came just two days after Mr Kumar, who was in Delhi to attend the farewell dinner for former President Pranab Mukherjee, had an hour-long discussion with senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who has been in favour of continuing with the JD(U)-RJD-Congress Mahagathbandhan in the state.

It was at this meeting that the plan was thrashed out and put before RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. It is learnt that Sharad Yadav also spoke with Lalu Prasad after this.

Before this compromise formula was discussed, both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav were in a belligerent mood. While the Bihar chief minister was adamant that Tejashwi Yadav put in his papers, the RJD chief was in no mood to oblige.

A senior JD(U) leader said the Bihar CM was immensely concerned about his image getting tarnished, and even the Congress was on the same page as it was his clean image which was a major factor towards the Grand Alliance winning in Bihar.

However, the Congress is not taking a stand on this as the RJD chief has conveyed that the party should first ensure the resignation of its scam-tainted Himachal Pradesh chief minister Veerbhadra Singh before asking for his sons resignation.

Mr Kumar has been sending mixed signals to the ruling NDA and the Opposition. While he supported NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, for vice-presidential elections he backed the Opposition candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
Scindia has also asked the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to give him time to clear his name.

New Delhi: Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday came down heavily on the BJP MPs in Lok Sabha for accusing him of being anti-dalit. He challenged some BJP MPs to either prove their contention or quit.

The BJP MPs had alleged that, a hospital building was washed with Gangajal or holy water from the Ganga river before Mr Scindia visited it to inaugurate a new trauma centre, because a dalit BJP leader had visited it the previous day. The allegation was stoutly denied by Mr Scindia, he even sent a legal notice to BJPs Madhya Pradesh chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan over the allegations.

On Tuesday the Congress Chief Whip moved a privilege motion against the BJP MPs, Virender Kumar and Manohar Utwal, for what he has alleged are defamatory statements and has challenged them to prove their claims. The BJP MPs based their allegations on the statement of the Congress leader Amit Tawre who has been expelled by the Congress.

In a letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, Mr Scindia said, I have nothing to do with the statement of the Congress worker nor did the purported washing of the site with Gangajal ever happen. The BJPs rhetoric is a heinous attempt to malign my reputation and dignity in the House as well as with millions of people who watch Lok Sabha on television.

He added, They are trying to destroy my reputation built over 15 years with hard work for every community. I will resign from this house if they can prove that I have said or done anything. But if they cannot prove their allegations, then they must resign from Parliament.

Mr. Scindia has also asked the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to give him time to clear his name. Also, he has demanded action against the BJP MPs.
General V.K. Singh (Retd) said the government had maintained constant communication with Bhutan.

New Delhi: As national security adviser Ajit Doval is set for a two-day visit to Beijing, starting on Thursday, for the Brics NSAs meet there, the Indian government told Parliament it was committed to finding an amicable resolution of the stand-off between the Chinese and Indian troops in Doklam (Bhutanese territory) which would be acceptable to all countries.

In a written reply, minister of state for external affairs General V.K. Singh (Retd) said the government had maintained constant communication with Bhutan. Mr Singh said it had also been conveyed to the Chinese side that its actions in the Doklam area amounted to a significant change in the status quo and not in consonance with the bilateral understanding between the two countries, under the framework of special representatives on the boundary issue.

India is also engaged with the Chinese government through diplomatic channels to maintain peace and tranquillity, the Union minister said.
A runner exchange programme in the city is encouraging atheletes to travel to each others cities to discover inspiring running routes.

Running enthusiasts in the city are discovering alternative routes to keep their feet going. While practice trails are important, a runners exchange programme in the city is also building social and cultural connections with their fellow running buffs. As a part of the initiative, the runners have travelled to each others cities and experienced the joy of sprinting on different routes. Aside from the celebrated run routes, they also discovered local hotspots.

Running is taking another leap in India, feels Ayesha Billimoria, the captain of Adidas Mumbai runners. We aim to excite, inspire and empower the running community to get out, explore and create their own routes. We have covered five cities so far  Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Banglore and Pune, she shares.

The team rediscovered routes and were delighted to find a common passion for running, Different people have different fitness goals, from losing weight to increasing stamina. Reasons might differ but the ultimate goal is the same  getting healthy and staying fit. A programme like this becomes very important as it makes you dedicated and disciplined towards achieving your goal. It challenges you and gives an opportunity to see how far you can push yourself. And, in the end, helps you in your overall well-being and holistic development, feels TV anchor Freishia Bomanbehram, who was also a part of the initiative.

Mumbais Sanjay Gandhi National Park is their favourite pick of the lot. This route was different as it gave the girls an opportunity to run on different terrains, shares Ayesha. This has been the magical run Ive done. We also explored the Kanheri caves and the monsoons added a magical touch. It is an experience to remember, says Frieshia.

The beaches and the hills en route spurred Pooja Gors appetite for running, I had a lovely opportunity to go to Alibaug and do a beach run and a lovely hill trek there. In the city, the Marine Drive promenade is the best stretch, says the television actress, adding, The outcome of the practice was quite positive. Mentally because it made me believe that I can. That was my biggest challenge. I dont get tired too fast and easily anymore. I can push through my initial limit, which was barely a few metres when I started. And when you meet people who are more experienced than you are, you always end up learning something new.
BJP president Manoj Tiwari termed the directive as veiled threats to pressurise administrative officials to submit to its dictates.

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta on Tuesday said that the order of the AAP government directing its bureaucrats not to take any decision without the approval of the minister concerned or the chief minister clearly establishes the governments complete lack of faith in the head of the government i.e. lieutenant-governor. He said: It also proves its failure to control, motivate and manage the IAS and DANICS lobby. In fact, this is culmination of the two and a- half year journey of distrust between the Arvind Kejriwal government and its officers.

According to Mr Gupta, the government took the stringent step of taming officers through the Petition Committee of the Assembly because of its lack of confidence and their inability to win their goodwill and faith. He said the government has now found itself in the soup.The earlier governments had never given such a directive, added Mr Gupta.

Condemning the decision, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari termed the directive as veiled threats to pressurize the administrative officials to submit to its dictates. It is shameful that the Kejriwal government is trying to raise controversy over administrative work by officials despite the fact that both the Delhi high court and the central government have sternly told it to work by constitutional provisions wherein the lieutenant-governor of Delhi is the administrative authority in most matters, said Mr Tiwari.

Mr Tiwari has asked the Kejriwal government to stop creating a ruckus over administrative provisions and threatening government officials. He asked Mr Kejriwal to concentrate on public welfare works. Mr Gupta, claimed that the directive from the government will throttle the bureaucracy and make them dysfunctional.
The complainant, a cost accountant, had entrusted the gold, his ancestral property, to the accused, Prakash Gupta, in 2016 for selling.

New Delhi: The Delhi high court refused to grant anticipatory bail to a gold merchant for allegedly misappropriating 33 gold bars weighing six kg. The complainant, a cost accountant, had entrusted the gold, his ancestral property, to the accused, Prakash Gupta, in 2016 for selling. First, the accused told the complainant that he would make payment of Rs 1.88 crore, through cheque as per the desire of the seller. Later, he said that the buyer had made the payment in cash, and he was on the way with it. Finally, the accused told him that he had been robbed of the cash.

On inquiry the complainant found that the accused had concocted the story of being robbed, and filed a complaint in the lower court.``The petitioner has committed criminal breach of trust by misappropriating the valuable property of the complainant. The custodial interrogation is required to unearth the conspiracy and to recover the gold bars or the sale proceeds thereof and to find out to whom the gold bars were sold to, the court ordered.
The Americans deemed themselves to be combating communism in Indochina, but what they came up against was to a large extent Vietnamese nationalism.

Rabindranath Tagore may have been surprised that the curse of febrile nationalism he so eloquently decried would still be a factor in international relations more than a century hence, not least in post-colonial Europe.

Europe has lost faith in humanity, and has become distrustful and sickly There are habits that are not merely passive but aggressively arrogant. They are not like mere walls, but are like hedges of stinging nettles.

Europe has been cultivating these hedges of habits for long years, till they have grown around her dense and strong and high. The pride of her traditions has sent its roots deep into her heart But pride in every form breeds blindness at the end.

These words could have been said yesterday. They were actually written more than 100 years ago by an Indian polymath who, in a poem composed on the last day of the 19th century, also observed: The naked passion of the self-love of nations, in its drunken delirium of greed, is dancing to the clash of steel and the howling verses of vengeance.

Rabindranath Tagore may have been surprised that the curse of febrile nationalism he so eloquently decried would still be a factor in international relations more than a century hence, not least in post-colonial Europe.

Not long after I acquired the Tagore text from which these quotations come some 35 years ago while at university in England, I was faced with a query on the pros and cons of nationalism during a tutorial on Marxism. What, in the context of communist orthodoxy, separated justifiable nationalism from the deplorable variety? The answer was simple: it depends on whether the trend arises in response to colonialism, or stands in opposition to internationalism.

In retrospect, that delineation broadly holds true. The kind of nationalism that fed liberation struggles  from pretty much the whole of Africa and Latin America to much of Asia, including not just India but also Bangladesh  is readily defensible in most respects. The Americans deemed themselves to be combating communism in Indochina, but what they came up against was to a large extent Vietnamese nationalism.

It could also be argued that the Second World War was in fact a product of nationalism, of the German, Japanese and to some extent the Italian variety. It had a natural ally in Spain, whose caudillo, Francisco Franco, had been ensconced in power courtesy of assistance from Berlin and Rome. But Franco technically stayed out of the war  and remained in power until he died in the mid-1970s, hailed by the US, alongside numerous Third World potentates, as a bulwark against communism.

Is there any excuse, though, for nationalism in the 21st century? Theres plenty of evidence of it. In countries such as Poland  where Donald Trump did his bit to exacerbate it with his stupid speech recently about protecting Western civilisation  and Hungary, both of which, ironically on the face of it, were until the 1990s part of the sphere of influence superstructure that emerged after 1945.

They are by no means the only culprits, though. French voters propelled Marie Le Pen into the second round of this years presidential election in large part on account of her appeal to nationalism. A similar mindset was no doubt key to determining the result of Britains Brexit referendum: there may well be good reasons for exiting the EU, but the existing immigration rules are not among them.

There can perhaps be little doubt that the Islamist jihadism that has emerged since the 9/11 attacks has exacerbated nationalist impulses in countries subjected to outbreaks of extremist violence. But is this a sensible response, or does it merely reinforce the false consciousness of those who go out of their way to perpetrate such atrocities?

From the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, Egypts Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Indias Narendra Modi and Israels Benjamin Netanyahu, almost every despot around the globe relies on nationalism to sustain himself in power and to enforce his agenda. Trump would love to do the same, but has been held back slightly by checks and balances built into the American system of governance, and in part by somewhat sharper brains within his administration. His appeal was built to a large extent on nationalist ideals that clearly militate against Americas necessarily multicultural ethos.

A mind as great as Tagores long ago designated nationalism as an infantile disease the measles of mankind. As in so many other respects, Albert Einstein was on the ball. Long afterwards, a Western cultural emblem declared: Imagine theres no countries/ It isnt hard to do/ Nothing to kill or die for/ And no religion too

The goal articulated in a lyric that a BBC poll designated the outstanding song of the 20th century may still seem out of reach, but many believe it remains worth striving for.

By arrangement with Dawn
ROME  Italy has the most bike-sharing services in Europe, according to the latest available numbers from the environment ministry.

The number will soon increase with the addition of a new player - China's leading bike-sharing company Mobike, which announced Tuesday it had entered the Italian market after talks with local authorities.

Currently in Italy, visitors and locals alike can hop on one of a fleet of 13,770 shared bikes operated by seven different companies across 200 cities, towns and villages in the Mediterranean country, according to a November 2016 report by the ministry's National Observatory on Sharing Mobility.

This compares to two players in Germany - Call a Bike, run by a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG railway company, and nextbike GmbH - four in Belgium, one nationwide and three local - and Velib', a large-scale public bike-sharing scheme in Paris that is soon to be operated by French-Spanish consortium Smoovengo.

In Italy, bike sharing kicked off in earnest in 2003 when a company called Bicincitta (Italian for Bikesinthecity) launched the first bike sharing program as we know it today - a system in which, for a fee, users pick up a bicycle locked into a rack or electronic docking station, ride it, then return it to any station within the system.

Based in the northern city of Turin, Bicincitta operates a fleet of 6,241 bikes across 1,418 stations in 115 municipalities. Users sign up online, paying a membership fee of up to 49 euros ($57) a year. Bicincitta also operates in Switzerland and Spain, according to its website.

In Milan and Verona, Clear Channel has 4,900 bikes and 289 stations. Also operating in Italy are Centro in bici (31 cities, 2,498 bikes, 230 stations), By Bike (272 bicycles, 32 stations), Ecospazio (24 municipalities, 217 bikes, 30 stations).

A relatively recent arrival is TMR srl, which launched in the southern city of Palermo with 191 bikes, and E-Move (three urban locations, 22 bikes, three stations).

In Italy, the lion's share of the bike sharing business is located in the wealthier, more industrialized North (64 percent), followed by 22 percent in the South and 14 percent in the central regions, according to the environment ministry.

The Mediterranean country is the fourth overseas market for China's Mobike, following Singapore, Britain and Japan.

Mobike is scheduled to deploy hundreds of bikes to Florence for a trial run this week, with 30 minutes on a bike costing 0.3 euros. In August, 4,000 bicycles will be officially launched in Florence and Milan. Users can locate a Mobike using a cell phone app and unlock it by scanning a QR code on the bicycle.
Patralekha Chatterjee focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies. She can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com

Professor Pal had devoted his entire life to science, had won accolades within the country and beyond its borders.

Professor Yash Pal, Indias grand old man of science, died this week. Fond tributes are pouring in for the scientist, educationalist and institution builder.

What resonates with me today is something he said on his 80th birthday. The year was 2006. The renowned scientist, whose interests ranged from the weight of school bags to cosmic rays, was to receive a special felicitation from the then President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, at a conference organised by the Indian National Science Academy. The countrys top scientists were there. So were many journalists.

Prof. Pal had devoted his entire life to science, had won accolades within the country and beyond its borders. But he was unhappy. The reason? While science and technology is flourishing, the scientific temper is going down. Thats why all kinds of stupid things like astrology are becoming popular, he told a reporter.

The good professor is no more. But his message is hugely relevant today. Can we promote scientific temper while wilfully overlooking everything that mitigates against it?

Take the case of the brouhaha over astrology OPDs in Madhya Pradesh.

The state hit the headlines some days ago when media carried reports about the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led governments proposal to foist astrologers in outpatient departments in hospitals. The national media ran with the story. Soon the BJP-ruled states health minister Rustam Singh had stepped in to inform journalists that his government had made no such decision.

The original controversy had been triggered by a statement of an official working for the government-run Maharishi Patanjali Sanskrit Sansthan. The gentleman had reportedly said astrologers and soothsayers would consult with patients suffering from various diseases in hospital OPDs or outpatient department.

The state government trashed the media reports as baseless and said that the proposed scheme was limited to astrology consultations at a yoga centre in Bhopal where people could consult astrologers and vaastu experts. The consultations may not be related to health but to issues such as marriage, education, jobs and so on.

As controversies go, this one had a short shelf life. And it is good to know that the Madhya Pradesh government does not have any plans to wheel in astrologers into health facilities to advise patients.

But a niggling question remains. Should the government be in the business of promoting astrology at all? The Sansthan comes under the states department of education. One media report said the Sansthan, which has been administering teaching of Sanskrit in over 140 government schools in the state, has plans to offer a diploma course in astrology from later this year. How will this official push  for stargazing impact  scientific temper among young people?

Madhya Pradesh is by no means the only state where the government promotes astrology education.

In New Delhi, there is the Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, a deemed university, under the ministry of human resources development. It offers a variety of courses on astrology, including medical astrology besides its regular fare. There are others.

Nor did the phenomenon start with the Narendra Modi government. In a 2009 magazine article, Meera Nanda, author of The God Market: How Globalisation is Making India More Hindu, pointed out how teaching of astrology got its real push with the University Grants Commissions (UGC) infamous decision in 2001 to introduce jyotir vigyan (vedic astrology) and karma kanda into post-secondary education.

With this, says Ms Nanda, the previous BJP-led NDA government created a new network of deemed universities, which continue to provide direct and indirect support for training Hindu ritualists. The Union human resource development ministry, headed by Murli Manohar Joshi at that time, first proposed the idea. It was eagerly picked up by the UGC.

UGCs decision triggered a rumpus among many of Indias senior academics, particularly in the sciences. More than 100 scientists and 300 political and social scientists wrote a protest letter to the government, to no avail. That was the start.

A 2008 newspaper report also refers to a study funded by the UGC that comes up with this breath-taking claim  planetary positions do affect your health. The UGC-funded study was done by the medical astrology department of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth. The UGC, as everyone knows, is a statutory body set up by the Indian government and is tasked with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.

No one has any quarrel with promotion of yoga or Sanskrit. But astrology is a different cup of tea.

As Ms Nanda points out in a 2009 magazine article, while it is true that Sanskrit education is deeply intertwined with the ritualistic aspects of Hinduism and the two are often hard to tease apart, learning to perform a yagna or puja is only the practical, hands-on aspect of mastering Yajurveda for a degree in Sanskrit. But rather than try to draw lines between teaching the religious literature written in Sanskrit and teaching rituals, the Indian educational establishment has gone the other way: it is using the cover of teaching Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy to use public money and resources to promote Hindu rituals.

Many argue that since most Indians, including quite a few scientists, believe in astrology, there is nothing wrong in promoting it. Many people I know also believe in ghosts. Children believe in wizards and the tooth fairy. So, should we institutionalise the study of ghosts, wizards and tooth fairy?

Astrology and palmistry are not unique to India. Many institutions around the world offer courses in such subjects. But few of those bodies abroad enjoy state support.

In a country where most government schools dont have laboratories and basic equipment, should the government be spending scarce resources promoting astrology? In a country with an abysmal public healthcare system and widespread superstition and quackery, can we afford to officially promote stargazing?

As we mourn the passing away of Prof. Pal, these are questions to think about.
The camera module possesses two 13-megapixel cameras with f/2.0 aperture which is capable of shooting 360-degree 4K videos at 24 fps.

One of the major features of the camera mod is that it is capable of capturing 150-degrees of video when using only one lens.

Motorola had launched the Moto 360 camera last month. With Motorola officially launching the Moto Z2 Force, Motorola has also taken the wraps off its Moto 360 camera. Looking like a proper 360-degree camera, Motorolas camera is integrated into a plate which can be attached to any Moto Z smartphone.

The camera module possesses two 13-megapixel cameras with f/2.0 aperture which is capable of shooting 360-degree 4K videos at 24 fps. Motorola has stated that the camera module also features what the company calls immersive 3D audio, which allows the audio to follow the direction you are viewing.

One of the major features of the camera mod is that it is capable of capturing 150-degrees of video when using only one lens which means selfies are a breeze with everyone fitted into it no matter where they are standing.

Another additional feature that Motorola has worked upon is Google Photos integration. Working closely with Google, Motorola has ensured that all photos and videos can be uploaded can be uploaded to Google Photos seamlessly. This means with the modular pins and Google Photos practically unlimited storage, you are free to snap away, and everything will be present, synced to your Google Account.

The Moto 360 Camera is looking now to resurrect the Moto 360 brand. With increasing popularity of 360-degree content and demand for livestreaming, the Moto 360 will now have another shot at survival this time. Pricing and availability details are only for the US markets as of now. Priced at $299.99 in the US, we are waiting meanwhile for it to launch on the Indian market.
Trump said the US has made tremendous strides against the Islamic State terror group in Syria, Iraq and other locations.

In the red line warning of 2013, Obama responded to reports that Assad had used chemical weapons by saying he would meet further chemical weapons use with force. (Photo: File)

Washington: President Donald Trump said he will not let Bashar al-Assad get away with using chemical weapons on his people in Syria, as he slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for not taking enough action on horrible acts against humanity in the war-ravaged country.

Had President Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I dont believe youd have Russia and I dont believe youd have Iran to anywhere near the extent, and maybe not at all, in Syria today, Trump told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday.

I am not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what hes done to that country (Syria) and to humanity is horrible. I have been saying that for a long time. I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do, he said.

In the red line warning of 2013, Obama responded to reports that Assad had used chemical weapons by saying he would meet further chemical weapons use with force. Later, Assad again used chemical weapons, and Obama opted to have Russia step in to remove them.

He (Assad) did it a number of times when President Obama drew the red line in the sand, and then he should have crossed that red line, because some horrible acts against humanity took place, including gas and the killing through gases. That was a bad day for this country, Trump said. He said the US is having extraordinary success against the ISIS.

One of the things that we have made tremendous strides at is getting rid of ISIS. We have generals that dont like to talk, they like to do, he said. Trump said the US has made tremendous strides against the Islamic State terror group in Syria, Iraq and other locations. Our military is an incredible fighting force. And as you know, I let the commanders on the ground do what they had to do, he said.

The US president added that before he took charge, The commanders had to call the White House and speak to people that didnt know what was happening, where they were, what locations, practically, probably never heard of the countries they were talking about or the towns.

Responding to another question, Trump said he would be making his position clear on the Hezbollah clear in the next 24 hours.

Ill be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours. Were going to see what is exactly taking place. I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others. So Ill be making that decision very shortly, he said.
The legislation is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Brussels: The European Union on Wednesday said it held deep reservations over a vote by the US House of Representatives to impose tough new sanctions on Russia that may affect energy flows to Europe.

European commissioners, the EU executive's top officials, "expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill's possible impact on EU energy independence," the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on the matter.

The commission added that it remained "ready to act to protect European interests" if the concerns were not addressed by US lawmakers, repeating a threat made in May by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

The sanctions package, which also targets North Korea and Iran, passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday in Washington and now heads for expected passage by the Senate.

The legislation is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels worries the fresh wave of measures could end up penalising European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector.

While the bill "demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account", it nevertheless foresees "sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernisation or repair of energy export pipelines" of Russia, the EU said.

"Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe," including those transiting through Ukraine, the statement said.

The EU also raised worry over the law's impact on a major natural gas project out of the Baltic states.

Brussels further decried the sanctions bill as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupted previous close cooperation on measures against Russia.

To date, sanctions against Moscow have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic to maintain a united front.

The EU and US imposed the sanctions in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 as the Ukraine crisis deepened with the ouster of a pro-Moscow government.

In addition to the Crimea measures, the EU imposed damaging economic sanctions against Russia after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, blamed by the EU on the rebels.
Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 % in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

The resurgent Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against beleaguered government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in the war-torn country. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Kandahar: At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in southern Kandahar province, the defence ministry said Wednesday, the latest blow to the countrys struggling security forces.

The militants attacked an army camp in Karzali area of Khakrez district of Kandahar last night, MoD spokesperson General Dawlat Waziri said. Afghan soldiers bravely resisted, he added, killing more than 80 insurgents.

Residents in the area described an hours-long attack launched by a 30-strong convoy carrying hundreds of Taliban who assaulted the base from multiple directions.

Air support was called in, several residents said, though that was not immediately confirmed by officials. The insurgents claimed the attack via their Twitter account.

The resurgent Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against beleaguered government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in the war-torn country during the summer fighting season when the warmer weather tends to spur an increase in militant attacks.

Afghan security forces beset by a high death toll, desertions and non-existent ghost soldiers on the payroll have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

The insurgents have carried out more complex attacks against security forces in 2017, with SIGAR describing troop casualties in the early part of the year as shockingly high.

In April at least 135 soldiers are believed to have been killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the deadliest ever Taliban attacks on a military installation. Some sources put the toll as high as 200.

While in early March gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital the countrys largest military hospital in Kabul, killing dozens.

The Taliban have a heavy presence in poppy-growing Kandahar province and have launched repeated attacks on security forces there, including multiple assaults on military bases in May which killed dozens of soldiers.

A recent UN report showed Kandahar, which lies on the border with Pakistan, was also one of the most dangerous places in the country for civilians.

More than 70 villagers were kidnapped by the Taliban over the weekend, officials said. Seven were found dead and some 30 returned, while Afghan police have launched a search and rescue operation for the remainder of the missing.

Afghan forces now control 59.7% of the country, up from 57.2% the previous quarter, according to SIGAR.

The Taliban and other insurgent groups meanwhile saw their areas of control or influence increase slightly from about 10% to 11.1%.
The move by Arab states came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Doha: Qatar said on Wednesday that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a "disappointing surprise" in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.

The four Arab governments named 18 organisations and individuals on Tuesday that they accused of links with Islamist extremism and Qatar.

The move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Qatari government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani official said the blacklist had no basis in fact and was aimed at stripping the emirate of its sovereignty.

"It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," he said in a statement.

"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.

"All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries."

The four governments issued a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups last month. Sheikh Saif said it had been "widely rejected by the international community".

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate's only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a "terror group" by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar's efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

But after talks with European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.

"We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations," Shoukry told a press conference.
European firms working with the Russian energy sector, however, fear that the bill could end up hitting them.

Tehran: President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran would respond in kind to any breach by the United States of the 2015 nuclear deal after the House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same too," Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting aired by state broadcaster IRIB.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

"We must always develop our defence capability and we will strengthen our defensive weapons regardless of the opinion of others," Rouhani said.

The US House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields".

Araghchi led the negotiating team that reached the deal with world powers in 2015 known as the JCPOA, under which Iran agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

The new sanctions bill "can influence the successful implementation of the JCPOA and reduce Iran's benefits under the JCPOA," Araghchi said.

"That's why it is incompatible with various sections of the JCPOA which the US has committed to implement with good intention and in a constructive atmosphere," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The UN and other signatories to the nuclear deal have agreed that Iran has stuck to its commitments, which has been reluctantly accepted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

"The new US administration has been forced to confirm Iran's loyalty to the deal twice within the past six months and it has had no other option as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in various reports has clearly expressed Iran's compliance with its commitments," Araghchi said.

Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday also raised the prospect of retaliation after an overwhelming vote by the US House of Representative to impose new sanctions left President Donald Trump facing a tough call.

The sanctions package, which also targets Iran and North Korea, "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," House Speaker Paul Ryan said after it passed Tuesday by 419 votes to three.

It now heads to the Senate before Trump faces the tricky choice of whether to veto the bill, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.

There is broad support in the Senate for the tougher measures, but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

The legislation is the result of a congressional compromise reached last weekend and is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and intervening in Ukraine.

European firms working with the Russian energy sector, however, fear that the bill could end up hitting them.

"Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has invaded its neighbour Ukraine, seizing its territory and destabilising its government," House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said, applauding the bill's passage. "Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression."
The article said that apart from India and China, some other countries like the US and Australia were trying to step in.

The article also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishops call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India." (Photo: Representational/File)

Beijing: A Chinese daily on Wednesday accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the Sino-India standoff to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits.

"More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia.

The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing.

Read: Sikkim row: India-China talks during NSA Doval's Beijing visit uncertain

It also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishops call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India."

The article said "so far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain".

"The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes? Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference," it said.

Read: Sikkim standoff: China warns India to 'correct mistakes'

The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems.

"There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said.

Read: India: A hurdle for Chinas ambitions

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea. The article also blamed the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war.

"It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said. The article said "neither China nor India wants a war.
Sharif was referring to the postponement of the 19th SAARC Summit that was scheduled to take place in Islamabad on Nov 15 and 16, 2016.

Addressing a joint news conference along with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in Male, he said Pakistan is ready to extend all possible cooperation to The Maldives for welfare and development of its people. (Photo: AP)

Male: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has blamed India for harming the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and undermining the spirit of the regional forum.

Sharif currently on a three-day official visit to the Maldives, was referring to the postponement of the 19th SAARC Summit that was scheduled to take place in Islamabad on November 15 and 16, last year, but did not see light of day after India boycotted the conference.

Sharif said Islamabad and Male share similar views to make SAARC a vibrant organisation for regional development.

Addressing a joint news conference along with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in Male, he said Pakistan is ready to extend all possible cooperation to The Maldives for welfare and development of its people.

The Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying that both countries have agreed to enhance cooperation in diverse areas, including trade, education, defence, tourism, and people to people contacts, and several Memoranda of Understanding were signed for the purpose.

According to reports, four joint working committees have been set up to oversee implementation of the MoUs.

Earlier on his arrival, Sharif was given a Guard of Honour smartly turned out contingent of the armed forces of Maldives at presidents office, where Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom greeted him.

Sharif will be the Chief Guest at the celebrations of 52nd Independence Day of Maldives on Wednesday.
China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Doval is expected to visit Beijing on July 26 to attend the meeting of the NSAs. (Photo: PTI/File)

Beijing: Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

Officials confirmed that Doval, who will be taking part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing, will be also meeting President Xi.

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Chinas State Councilor Yang Jiechi to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

China on Tuesday had reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Dokalam area and said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijings position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, on Tuesday, claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and have made our position clear. I dont have anything to explain," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying that the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops withdrawal.

"I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into Chinas territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said.

The Dokalam issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - on July 27-28.

China hopes that this meeting will help safeguard the common interests of the BRICS countries, move forward political and security cooperation and strengthen the solidarity and influence of the group, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said on Monday.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Dokalam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops.

But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.
Today, the trial began with an administrative hearing. Although he was not required to be present, the Cardinal came to court.

Melbourne (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Card. George Pell has reaffirmed his complete innocence of all allegations of sexual abuse against him. He did so through his lawyer at an "administrative" hearing that opens the trail against him today. " Cardinal Pell will plead not guilty to all charges, and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," his barrister Robert Richter, QC, told the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

The cardinal, prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, and Pope Francis's close collaborator in reforming the curia and Vatican bank, has for years been at the center of a media campaign accusing him of having covered up the abuse of minors by some Australian priests and of having made inappropriate advances of a sexual nature in the 1970s, when he was a priest. Such accusations appeared only a few years ago.

The encounter lasted less than 10 minutes. Although he was not required to attend the session the cardinal wanted to attend to be present. The cardinal returned to Australia, having been granted "leave" by Pope Francis last month. At a press conference he held on June 29, he said he was awaiting the judicial trial to give him "clear my name and return to my job in Rome."

During the press conference he said: "I am innocent of these allegations, they are false. The very idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me."

The cardinal came to the court together with his lawyer and escorted by a group of policemen and a host of photographers and cameramen. There were also groups of protest asking for "the truth" and groups of supporters for the cardinals. Card. Pell did not make any statements.

Many Australian Catholic leaders have publicly defended the cardinal, describing it as "a thoroughly decent man."
The archbishop of Rouen led the Mass in the church where the priest was murdered. Emmanuel Macron thanks the Church of France for her "power of forgiveness". Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray has become a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims.

Paris (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Thousands of people, Christians and Muslims, gathered in Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray to remember the martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old priest killed by two young jihadists last year (picture 1).

The tribute to the murdered priest began at 9 am with a Mass celebrated by Mgr Dominique Lebrun, archbishop of Rouen, in the church where the martyrdom occurred. French President Emmanuel Macron was also present as were representatives of various religions.

The service was followed by the unveiling of a tribute to Fr Hamels memory and some speeches by a number of dignitaries.

In his homily, Mgr Lebrun pointed out that Fr Hamel "spoke the language of love. However, in this church, he was silenced . . . Yet his life and death speak far beyond what he had imagined . . . they speak to each of us."

After the Mass, there was a "republican" moment of peace and fraternity, with the unveiling of a metal disc as a memorial tribute on which are inscribed passages from the Declaration of Human Rights and stylised profiles, including Fr Hamels.

Bishop Lebrun noted that a "succession of lights and shadows" marked France in the past year. Still, Christians have a "huge responsibility. For them, brotherhood is not an option." Indeed, the prelate called on everyone to "abandon the shadow of hate" and "move together towards the light of love".

In his address, President Macron stressed the power of coexistence that is stronger than hate. "At the foot of his altar the two terrorists surely believed they were sowing a thirst for vengeance and reprisals among the Catholics of France," Macron said. "They failed."

My first word, he added, is to thank the Church of France for finding the power of forgiveness. I thank you for giving France the same example . . . In these troubled times, you remain like tireless craftsmen of peace."

Since Fr Hamels murder, the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church has become a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims. This year people came from as far away as Canada, Egypt, and Great Britain . . .

In the town where unemployment stands at 21 per cent, relations and mutual help between Christian and Muslim communities have also improved.

"In our city, the will to live well and together is real, said Mayor Joachim Moyse. Healing will take time, but the spilled blood has strengthened us in the desire to live brotherhood better."

In the church where Fr Hamel was killed, there is a painting depicting him whilst praying. It is a gift from Moubine, "a Muslim believer" (picture 2).
by Santosh Digal

In 1966, the Focolare Movement set foot in Asia, starting in the Philippines. From there, it spread to Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, and India. It is currently involved in banking, businesses, and associations to bridge the gap between haves and have-nots through profit sharing.

Manila (AsiaNews)  For the past 34 years, the Focolare Movement has been committed to bridge the social and economic gap and reduce inequality in the Philippines.

Bukas Palad literally means "open hands" and is the name of the first Focolare social centre, which sprang up in 1983 in Pasay City, Manila, to educate, empower and support the poor, addressing problems of social and economic development.

To date, four Bukas Palad centres have been established in the Philippines catering to needs of thousands of underprivileged families, said Jose Aranas, a Focolare member.

Bukas Palad's basic philosophy is to create a "culture of sharing". Every society has social problems; the same is true for the Philippines. Thousands of slums coexist along with skyscrapers in many cities.

Against this backdrop, the Focolare Movement believes businesses can create a sharing economy with those in great difficulty.

It is crucial to have profit-making companies to have something to share. But it is equally important that entrepreneurs not only be profit-oriented but also benefit the poor by promoting the sharing economy.

At a time when the global economy is growing, so is the gap between rich and poor, Aranas noted. Bukas Palad is one of Focolare's initiatives to foster an economic system in which firms, employees, suppliers and even competitors can work together in a spirit of mutual assistance and reciprocity for the sake of the poor, bridging the gap that keeps them away from social and economic well-being.

Always inspired by Bukas Palad, the Focolare Movement set up another social centre, Pag-asa (Hope), and a housing project called Sulyap ng Pag-asa (Glimmer of hope). The latter has played a crucial role in helping hundreds of victims affected by typhoon Ketsana in 2009, this in an archipelago that receives more than 20 typhoons a year.

Pag-asa is a social expression of the Focolare Movement in the Philippines. It is especially designed to help young people and their families build a future.

It is a duly registered NGO recognised by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Social Welfare Development.

It works with more than 500 youth ranging in age from 2 to 21 years from 300 indigent families living in many villages in Tagaytay City (Manila) providing them with education and vocational training.

This initiative is funded by friends and members of the Focolare Movement around the world. Pag-asa staff includes regular workers and volunteers, local as well as foreign.

The volunteers at the Sinag Hospital are another social expression of the Focolare movement. In government hospitals, staff and equipment are often in short supply compared to the number of patients, due to lack of funding.

In 1986, some Focolare members found a way to love their neighbour in this setting. Since then, they visit hospitals to bring the warmth of God's love, comfort, and consolation to the sick and dying.

To help boys, the Focolare movement also set up a Focolare Carpentry Shop in Cainta, near Manila, in 1968. It is managed by Floro Flores, a married Focolarino.

"The spirit of love and unity motivated us to begin the Focolare Carpentry Shop, Flores said. It is a way to help some young people who did not have the means to study and earn a living.

It began with small work shed with two carpenters in Makati (Manila), he explained. We have now more than 80 full-time workers in a spacious and modern furniture factory located on a 3,000-square-metre lot in Cainta. We ensure that our products are of outstanding quality and maintain excellent relationship with our clients, designers and carpenters.

Another significant Focolare initiative is a rural bank, the Bangko Kabayan, a peoples bank set up in 1991, led by a Catholic couple, Francis and Tess.

It now has more than 20 branches across the country, providing jobs to about 340 employees with some 11,000 micro-finance customers.

This bank is as part of alternative economy, where businesses place themselves at the service of others, sharing part of their profits to provide assistance to those in need and promote a new culture of sharing.

"It was for us the chance we had waited for so long  to be part of something that could change society, so that society could become more just and humane," Francis said.

The banks special feature is to offer loans to simple micro-entrepreneurs like marginal farmers, fishermen, labourers and other small and medium business people in rural villages. This promotes rural development and theeconomy, often in a spirit of sharing and caring.

There are other social projects started by Focolare members in the Philippines in the environmental field and in prison outreach.

The Focolare Movement is a lay international organisation of the Catholic Church, founded by Chiara Lubich in Italy. It promotes the charism of unity and communion, based on evangelical values, among many faiths, beliefs and religions in different communities.

In 1966, the Focolare Movement set foot in Asia for the first time, starting in the Philippines. From there, it spread to Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, and India.
Israel has removed metal detectors, but has announced new security measures. Mahmoud Abbas wants a return to the status quo ante before things can get back to normal and talks resume. Israels Supreme Court rules in favour of a human rights NGO that called for the return of the bodies of the 14 July attackers.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says he will maintain a freeze on contact with Israel, despite the removal of metal detectors installed at the al-Aqsa mosque compound on 14 July after an attack in which two Israeli policemen died.

The Palestinian leader said this was necessary "so things can go back to normal in Jerusalem and we can resume our work regarding bilateral relations".

Muslims believers and leaders also decided to continue the boycott, choosing to pray in the streets adjacent to the al-Aqsa mosque.

The boycott began after Israel installed metal detectors to monitor people going in and out of the religious site.

Yesterday, Israeli authorities removed the metal detectors that had triggered Palestinian protests. In their stead, security inspections will be based on advanced technologies and other means," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

The new measures will be implemented over the next six months, and will include greater police presence.

For Palestinians, this represents an attempt by Israel to control al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. For Jews, who call the area Temple Mount, the site is where their ancient temples stood during biblical times.

Under the status quo, which Israel has to respect, Muslims are the only ones allowed to pray in the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Bezalel Smotrich, a Knesset member for the Jewish Home Party, said yesterday that Palestinians should pay a "steep price" for their actions, adding that he "would close the Temple Mount to Arab prayer and establish a Synagogue for Jews. And if the terrorism continues I would close the mount to Arabs and there will be only Jews there."

The Waqf, the Muslim endowment that administers the compound, backs the protest. This movement is a movement of the street, said Sheikh Raed Dana of the Waqf. We as the Waqf listen to the street. The street says yes and we say yes; if the street says no to the measures, we will say no.

Palestinian Christians, along with Church leaders, have expressed their support to Muslims for the status quo.

Meanwhile, in a precedent-setting case, Israels Supreme Court has ruled to accept an appeal submitted by human rights organisation Adalah that called for the return of the bodies of those responsible for the deadly shooting attack on 14 July. The court ordered that the bodies of the three young men must be released in 30 hours.

Israel has a policy of withholding Palestinian bodies to prevent funerals from provide grounds for incitement against the Israeli state. The practice has been widely condemned by rights groups as an act of collective punishment and deemed ineffective by Israeli security officials.
19-year-old Tenzin Choeying set himself on fire in Varanasi. He died after a week later from 90% burns. He was cremated to at Dharamsala.

Dharamsala (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The parents of a 19-year-old Tibetan who set himself on fire in Varanasi on July 14, are begging Tibetans not to resort to self-immolation, but to fight for their cause through education and Nonviolence.

Ngawang Khedup and Tashi Yangzom, father and mother of Tenzin Choeying, spoke to the media, receiving the body of their dead son yesterday. Today, Tenzin's body was cremated after prayers at Lhagyal-Ri, Dharamsala, the capital of the Tibetan government in exile and official headquarters of the Dalai Lama.

The father of the deceased said: "Tibetans old or young, we all have a collective responsibility. For future generations, I insist on continuing to fight for the Tibetan cause with full education because it is a shame to lose even one Tibetan life. "

Tashi Yangzom, his mother, asked young people not to take their own lives, stressing the importance of preserving the legacy of Tibetan culture and language.

19-year-old Tenzin Choeying of Dhondenling (Kollegal) self-immolated on July 14 during a meeting with other young people at a conference held by Sikyong Lobsang Sangay. He was immediately admitted to the hospital in Varanasi, but then transferred to New Delhi. His condition became very critical because of 90% burns to the body. The young man died on 22 July.

Yesterday, all Dhondenling's Tibetan shops remained closed in respect. According to his cousin, the last words of Tenzin were "Bod, Bod (Tibet, Tibet)".

Since the beginning of the self-immolations in 2009, the Dalai Lama has urged young people who contemplate this desperate gesture not to do so because in losing their lives, they lose the opportunity to contribute positively to the rebirth of Tibet. He claims that these desperate gestures are the result of the "cultural genocide" that China is imposing on the Tibetan people. In all these years, more than 150 people have taken their lived by self-immolation.
The bill passed almost unanimously in the Lower House. It is now awaiting the Senate debate. It limits Trump's powers and strengthens relations with Russia. There is a stop for companies that work on gas pipelines from Russia. Clamp down on business deals with North Korea and Iran.

Washington (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The US House of Representatives yesterday approved a package of sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. But in particular the bill wants to prevent President Donald Trump from imposing sanctions unilaterally in his role as president of the United States. The text demands that it is prerogative of the US administration to intervene with sanctions, including in relation to the alleged interference by Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the US presidential elections of 2016. Senior Administration Officials - and not Trump - would be charged with establishing the sanctions for alleged Russian interference.

Trump opposes this bill that has yet to pass the Senate's scrutiny before being sent to the president for signing or vetoing. He insists he did not receive any help from Moscow to win the presidential race. Indeed, he also emphasizes the importance of bilateral cooperation on issues such as terrorism and the war in Syria.

The package also includes new sanctions against funding for North Korean missile and nuclear programs. In particular, it prohibits "all vessels owned by the Government of North Korea owned or operated by any country that fails to comply with UN Security Council resolutions to operate in US waters or land at any US port". It also prohibits the entry into the US of goods produced in whole or in part by North Korean forced labor. The law authorizes sanctions on those who supply crude oil and derivatives to North Korea and asks the US administration to determine whether North Korea foments international terrorism.

The bill finally calls for sanctions for Iranian citizens or entities linked to missile programs in the country.

The bill passed the House of Representatives with 419 in favor and 3 against. Speaker Paul Ryan described it as a package of sanctions that " It tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe."

The United States already has a series of sanctions against individuals and Russian companies in the Crimea. But the new rules increase restrictions on those who do business with Russian companies, particularly in the energy sector. A measure addressed to European countries supporting Russian pipeline projects. They will bring new restrictions on oil and gas projects, affecting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany.

From a legislative point of view, the most delicate aspect concerns the White House for the measure that limits the President's traditional right to impose sanctions: Trump would first be forced to consult Congress. The president could veto the bill, but in this way would fuel the suspicion that he is somehow bound to the Kremlin. In addition, any presidential veto may be ignored if two thirds of the House and Senate vote to overcome the president's judgment.

The project has provoked rage in Moscow, but also in Europe because it risks penalizing European companies. From Paris to Berlin via Brussels, the US Congress initiative is not liked because it is unilateral. So far, the sanctions regime against Russia has been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic. The Member States of the European Union will meet today in Brussels to address the issue. Several European countries, including Germany, are against it because the law would give the United States the ability to block companies working on gas pipelines from Russia by precluding them from American markets
The attack by Islamic State group-affiliated militants on a Philippine city has galvanized its Southeast Asian supporters and spells trouble for the region, a top terrorism researcher said Friday as the occupation of Marawi nears two months despite a sustained military offensive.

In a new report, Sidney Jones, an expert on militant networks in Southeast Asia at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said there now may be a higher risk of attacks in other Philippine cities and cooperation between militants across regional borders could expand. Militants in Indonesia and Malaysia will want to redouble efforts to attack police and may also lift their sights to targeting foreigners, she said.

"The initial photographs from Marawi released over social media as the ISIS assault began  smiling fighters hold guns aloft on trucks  seemed to have the same impact as the iconic ISIS victory photos from Mosul in 2014," Jones said, using another acronym for IS and referring to its past occupation of Iraq's second-largest city. "They generated a shared sense of triumph and strengthened the desire of ISIS supporters in the region to join the battle."

Waving IS-style black flags, the heavily armed fighters stormed into Marawi, a center of Islamic faith in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, on May 23, occupying buildings, houses and mosques and taking hostages. Foreign fighters, including 20 Indonesians, joined the insurrection, which officials and researchers say received funding locally and from IS in Syria that was coordinated by a Malaysian known as Mahmud bin Ahmad.

At least 565 people, including 421 militants and 99 soldiers and police, have been killed in the worst urban uprising by Muslim militants in the volatile southern Philippines in decades. Nearly half a million residents have been displaced in Marawi and outlying towns by the fighting.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the Marawi crisis should be over soon, but that he has asked troops not to launch an all-out assault that might prompt the militants to kill their hostages.

"We'll just have to wait it out. I told them, 'do not attack,'" Duterte said in a speech at a business conference in the southern Philippine city of Davao. "If we have to wait there for one year, let us wait for one year."

Military officials have said 300 civilians may be held by the militants or trapped in their homes by the fighting.

Jones said Indonesians and Malaysians who joined the fight in Marawi could return to their countries, and with their high prestige provide new leadership, uniting factionalized pro-IS cells.

But a Marawi-style attack in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is unlikely because unlike the southern Philippines, it does not have the multiple insurgencies that extremists can draw on for fighters and weapons, she said.

The report was based on research in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, interviews with Indonesian militants, credible news reports including from The Associated Press and monitoring of pro-IS groups on the Telegram instant messaging app.

When the militants holding out in Marawi are defeated, the rebuilding of the city, which has pounded by airstrikes, will be crucial for the Philippines and Southeast Asia, according to Jones.

Officials need to give those displaced a voice in the rebuilding of Marawi and prevent extremist teachings from finding fertile ground, she said.

"Recruiters (for militant groups) were able to build on the narrative of state brutality long before the battle for Marawi began, but the military's reliance on airstrikes ... enabled the fighters to blame the government for the city's destruction," she said.

A NYT report said the central command of the Islamic State in Syria has funneled tens of thousands of dollars to militants in the Philippines over the last year.

The report describes how Mahmud Ahmad, a high-level Islamic State figure from Malaysia, who is based near Marawi, worked through the groups chain of command to Syria to get money and international recruits to help local militants seize territory in the Philippines for the caliphate.

After the militants seized Marawi in late May, they raised the Islamic State flag and declared the establishment of a new province of the organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Some senior politicians in the Philippines have dismissed the Maute Group, the major Islamist militant group behind the seizure of Marawi, as ISIS wannabes, characterizing it as a drug mafia with little in common with the ideologically driven Islamic State fighters.

But the report suggests that Islamic State commanders in Syria took the Maute Groups strategic ambitions seriously.

The Islamic States ability to financially support its Philippine offshoots appears limited mainly to periodic Western Union transfers of tens of thousands of dollars, the report found, suggesting that direct support from Syria was a relatively minor factor in the Maute Groups ability to seize Marawi.

The report argues that local recruiting and fund-raising among pious Muslims who resented the Philippines central government have probably played a more significant role in the insurgents successes.

Intercepted chats show that the Islamic State has a sophisticated command structure in Southeast Asia, allowing for complex coordination among its supporters across the region, the report said.

The report calls for Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to improve their security services coordination and intelligence sharing, so that the names of key suspects are passed along.

Still, the first step is ousting the Islamic State from Marawi, the report concluded.
By Phil Gurski

New Canadian Media

If there is one searing image of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe it is that of the orphanages of Romania. The regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu outlawed both contraception and abortion. As a consequence, thousands of women left babies that were either unwanted or those that they could not care for at state institutions. These institutions were understaffed and underfunded.

When the wall fell (Ceausescu and his wife were executed on Christmas Day 1989) the world got a look at these orphanages and what it saw was beyond shocking. Children were often tied to cribs, rocking back and forth in repetitive ways that spoke of a lack of human contact. Food was insufficient and the care devoted to lifes most vulnerable was largely absent. A global effort to help these kids ensued and while some undoubtedly ended up okay, thanks probably to the amazing resilience of the human body and mind, many did not and never recovered from their tragic start in life.

We are now faced with a similar situation in Iraq and Syria now that the parody of a state that called itself one  Islamic State  is sinking fast. Thousands of fighters have died at the hands of airstrikes, in battle and in the flames of suicide attacks. Tens of thousands of civilians in cities like Mosul, taken by IS and ruled with an iron fist, have also died. And then there are the children.

One of the most striking aspects of the social Frankenstein that was IS was their effort to create an actual self-sustaining society. Unlike other jihads (Somalia, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya), IS went out of its way to create an image of a normal, functioning state. Men were encouraged to leave their homes in the West and elsewhere to take up arms to defend Islam. Women were encouraged to come and marry those men and help create future generations of IS Islamic Utopia. Out of that arrangement came children, naturally, including young boys IS called the lion cubs of the Caliphate (the men were the lions).

Some of these children were urged (coerced?) to take part in truly heinous acts of violence such as executions and many more were present at public beheadings. There was even one case of an Australian jihadi who posted a picture of his son, who appears to be between 8 - 10, holding a severed head. Truly disturbing.

To me all of this is a no-brainer. These children deserve our help.

Now that IS is all but defeated as a functioning group, what do we do with these children? We know that war is hell in all cases and that children suffer disproportionately when exposed to death and brutality. In some cases kids in Iraq were kidnapped by IS and either raped or forced to do terrible things.

There is already one case of a Yazidi mom in Winnipeg who has learned that her 12-year old son is still alive: she wants him back with her.

To me all of this is a no-brainer. These children deserve our help. Professionals with seasoned experience in dealing with the trauma of war need to be found and persuaded to assist in this regard. It wont be easy: just as in the case of Romania, some children will be scarred for life.

We can both hate the barbarity that is IS and feel for the children that are its product. These young people are not at fault and we should do whatever we can to provide them with the best chances to achieve a normal life. If anything positive can come out of the enormous tragedy that was Islamic State maybe this is it.

Phil Gurski worked in the Canadian intelligence community for more than 30 years. His latest book, The Lesser Jihads, will be published on September 15.

This piece was originally appeared in New Canadian Media.

See http://blog.newcanadianmedia.ca/component/k2/41934-suffer-the-children-of-islamic-state
ACCC crackdowns on free range eggs



Image provide by ACCC

Snowdale, one of Western Australias largest egg producers has been penalised AUD $750, 000 for making false or misleading representations that its eggs were free range.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner, Mick Keogh, said it is the highest penalty a court has ordered in relation to misleading free range egg claims.

It reflects the seriousness of Snowdales conduct and the importance of egg producers being truthful about marketing claims they make, Keogh said.

Snowdale supplied eggs labelled free range in Western Australia under brands including Eggs by Ellah, Swan Valley Freee Range and Wanneroo Free Range.

In May 2016, the Federal Court found that Snowdales labelling of its eggs as free range between April 2011 and December 2013 was misleading or deceptive, and amounted to false or misleading representations.

The Court found that most of the hens from Snowdales sheds did not go outside as the farming conditions significantly inhibited them from doing so. These conditions included the number of pop holes, the number of birds per metre of pop hole, the flock size inside the shed and the shed size.

On top of the $750, 000 penalty, Snowdale was ordered to implement a consumer law compliance program and pay a contribution towards the ACCCs court costs involved in taking Snowdale to court.

Consumers pay a higher price for free range eggs, so when a free range claim is made, its important that consumers are purchasing eggs laid by chickens in free range conditions, Keogh said.

Farmers who have invested in changes to their farming practices so they can make valid credence claims such as free range also need protection from others making false credence claims.

In April 2016, the Commonwealth, State and Territory Consumer Affairs Ministers determined that in order for eggs to be labelled free range the eggs must come from farms with no more than 10, 000 birds per hectare. The birds must also have meaningful access to outdoor space.

This is not the first time the ACCC has cracked down free-range claims. In 2014, it took action against Derodi Pty Ltd and Holland Farms in regards to their Ecoeggs.

In 2012, action was taken against Rosies Free Range Eggs and in September 2014 action was taken against Federal Court orders $300,000 penalty after finding free range egg claims to be misleading.

Related articles
RFG to answer demand for coffee in Middle East





Retail Food Group (RFG) will be expanding further into the Middle East, just having entered into joint ventures with United Arab Emirates businesses; the Al Hathboor Group and the HKO Group.

The joint ventures will focus on establishing a new coffee enterprise in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa.

It is the second international expansion announcement made by RFG this week. On Monday, RFG announced that it had sold master franchise rights to its Donut King business for Scandinavia.

RFG Managing Director, Andre Nell, said the joint ventures represented important breakthrough in RFGs long-term global expansion.

We are positive RFGs Brand Systems will appeal to consumers in the region, and consider that the joint ventures represent an exciting opportunity to build upon the strong regional footprint already created by RFG, whilst also tapping into the ever growing demand for high quality coffee products, he said.

Al Hathboor groups Mohammed Abdulla said that Al Hathboor will leverage its existing bakery and distribution operations to help build the coffee venture.

Within the Middle East, there is an increasing demand for quality in terms of products and service, he said.

I am confident that Retail Food Groups brands, product offering, systems, and expertise will be received very positively in the Middle East marketplace, and we are excited by the opportunity these ventures present.

RFG said Trade Investment Queensland supported RFG in connecting and facilitating the joint ventures.

RFG describes itself as Australias largest multi-brand retail food franchise owner. It has a network of over 2, 500 outlets against 12 different brands. Its brands include Gloria Jeans, Crust Pizza, DiBella Coffee and Michels Patisserie.

Related articles
Woolies Mount Franklin decision represents distinct shift in supermarket strategy





Woolworths decision to decrease the amount of Coca-Cola Amatils Mount Franklin water it stocks signals a distinct shift in supermarket strategy away from big brands to private-label products says IBISWorld.

Analysing Woolworths decision to stock less Mount Franklin options, IBISWorld Senior Industry Analyst, Nathan Cloutman, said this type of move is seen as a way for supermarkets to boost the performance of its private-label products.

Private-label products account for approximately 25 per cent of total sales in the supermarkets and grocery stores industry, said Cloutman.

Woolworths is increasingly looking to expand its private-label product range, including phantom brands. This trend follows a strategy that has been strongly pursued by ALDI, to drive consumers in store through low private-label prices.

Following UK private label trend

Cloutman said Australias move towards more private-labels follows what is happening in the United Kingdom where private-labels are expected to account for 40 per cent of total sales in the 2017-18 financial year.

It is expected that Woolworths and Coles will increasingly expand their private-label ranges, to boost their competitiveness against Aldi, Cloutman said.

Brands, such as Coca-Cola Amatil, are likely to increasingly innovate to keep their products on supermarket shelves. Areas of innovation include expanding the range of premium products and offering healthier alternatives.

Taking on Australias booming bottle water market

The bottled water market is a booming one in Australia, and other international markets, with Roy Morgan Research reporting that in 2015, 5.3 million adult Australians drank bottled water at least once a week, a jump on the 4.9 million consuming bottled water in 2014.

The same study found that between January and December 2015, Mount Franklin was by-far Australias leading bottled water choice, having an approximate 40 per cent market share.

Coles came in second with its private label water taking 14 per cent of the market. At the time, Woolworths private label water did not make it into the top 10 of purchases.

Bottled water consumption in Australia: our 10 most popular brands

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), JanuaryDecember 2015 (n=3,662).

Food retailing researcher, Associate Professor Gary Mortimer from Queensland University of Technology says Woolworths decision to cut down on Mount Franklin was likely the supermarket trying to gain share of the bottled water market.

It is a smart move, Associate Professor Mortimer told Australian Food News.

If you have 10 brands you are sharing the profit among them all, if you cut down on brands, those left get more money, which hopefully includes your own private label, he said.

Woolworths said about its decision to stock less Mount Franklin that 

Our customers are purchasing a wide variety of water options  both branded and non-branded  and as the category continues to increase in popularity we will respond to meet our customers demands in this space.

CCA says Woolies decision was not a targeted one

With Woolworths choosing to stock less Mount Franklin coming recently after it decided to no longer stock the new Coke No Sugar, CCA has said the decision was not targeted at CCA.

It reflects Woolworths decision to reduce the availability of multiple brands across several manufacturers, and simultaneously expand the ranging of their private label water, CCA said.

CCA further stated that the decision will have minimal impact on its business.

Our water strategy isnt about just one brand, it is about a full portfolio including Mount Franklin, Pump, Neverfail and others with a strong focus on immediate consumption channels, CCA said.

Grocery water sales are important to us, but are only one part of the strategy.

Related articles
By Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas, Director - Melbourne Networked Society Institute, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engi

Shutterstock/garagestock/Screenshot from http://speedof.me

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has pledged to get tough on any Internet Service Providers that mislead consumers about National Broadband Network speeds.

But how do you know if youre getting a good deal when you connect to the NBN? How do you know if youll be getting the high-speed connection you were promised?

NBN Co is building the infrastructure, with 5.7 million premises now able to connect to the network via fibre, hybrid cable, wireless or satellite. To make that connection though, you have to deal with one of almost 150 listed ISPs.

Customers are confused

The ACCCs chairman Rod Sims says we should expect a healthy and competitive sector. But he also says many consumers are confused about broadband speed advertising and the industry has been inconsistent in making clear, accurate information available.

So it is crucial for the ACCC to ensure that companies do not mislead consumers about the speeds offered by their ISP.

The Australian market is different to that in the United Kingdom, where the regulator Ofcom actively provides accurate information to consumers to enable a comparison of services.

Australia takes a different approach, relying on protections available via consumer law, and encouraging industry self-regulation to provide the right information to the consumer.

The experience you get really depends on a range of factors relating to transmission quality, reflected as speed of connectivity and latency (delays) in exchanging information across the internet. Key factors include:

how you connect to the internet router in your house (such as by Wi-Fi or ethernet)

the transmission quality from home to the Point of Interconnect (where the ISPs network connects to the NBN)

transmission quality within the ISP network

transmission quality of the content delivery network.

Measuring the speed of your internet connection

A basic speed test of any internet connection is a measure of the time it takes to transfer a fixed file from a server. The result is usually given in Mbps (Megabits per second).

Many ISPs, such as Telstra, Optus and iiNet, currently provide internet speed tests for their customers.

But speeds measured this way tend to reflect the connectivity from the ISP to the consumer. The speeds you experience in general use can be significantly lower than the peak speed advertised by the service provider.

To get a better idea of the real speed of your internet connection you should use another speed testing service, in addition to the one recommended by your ISP.

You should also repeat this measurement at various times of the day and keep detailed notes of any results. Some typical speed tests are:









Currently most ISPs offer a higher speed for downloading and lower speed for uploading. As many users often download the same content, the network can be optimised to take advantage of this and offer higher speeds.

But users also upload unique content, such as photos to social media accounts or files to cloud storage. This does not have the advantage of scale and thus speed of access could be lower.

As cloud-based storage and content-delivery networks  such as Netflix, Foxtel and others  become more highly trafficked, our requirements are changing. Many users now prioritise more symmetrical internet connectivity, with similar download and upload speeds.

How fast should the internet be in Australia?

In Australia, premises with fibre connections to the NBN can theoretically get a peak rate of 100Mbps. In fact, in Australia there are 5 tiers of NBN connections, varying between Tier 1 (12Mbps download/1Mbps upload) to Tier 5 (100Mbps download/40Mbps upload).

But the measured speeds can often be slower than promised by your provider.

There are various reasons for this. It could be that there is a problem between the premises and the NBN network, or there could be delays or oversubscription within the ISP network.

There can be congestion and delays in national and international networks due to inadequate investment by various stakeholders to keep the capacity of the network in scale with the increasing number of customers.

Your experience can also vary across the day and from one service to another. As the number of users varies quite markedly over 24 hours, the state of the network (NBN, ISP network, Content Delivery Network) can change with various levels of congestion.

This leads to different speeds of connectivity at different times when accessing different types of services. For example, web access might be slower given the location of a server, compared with an internet video streaming service that might be optimised to deliver the most popular content within the region.

While many internet service providers advertise a typical speed, in Australia there is no expectation that they should indicate the variability (the range of minimum and maximum speeds).

When so slow is too slow

If you think your NBN connection is too slow and not what you were promised, you should raise the problem with your ISP. If they fail to resolve the issue you should report it to the ACCC.

To improve information about broadband speeds, the ACCC is currently running a A$7 million trial of NBN speed monitoring and it wants consumers to be part of it.

Australia could have anticipated these speed issues and established a broadband performance reporting framework as part of access to the NBN infrastructure by providers.

The Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) has been crying out for a scheme to monitor the performance of ISPs.

But this hasnt happened yet. So for now its left to you as a consumer to monitor your NBN connection speeds, and report any ongoing problems to the ACCC which hopes to start publishing speed and performance data later this year.

Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Nokia Bell Labs, Google and the Victorian government and leads an interdisciplinary institute  Melbourne Networked Society Institute  that has received funding from both state and federal governments as well as a range of industry partners.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Photo via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia.

The U.S. Department of Transportation may revise automotive fuel economy standards starting with the 2021 model year and could lower standards through 2025, reports Reuters.

The agency is reviewing the Obama administration's emissions rules a year earlier than initially proposed. In March, President Donald Trump ordered the review, which had been closed in the waning days of the Obama presidency.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents major automakers, said in a statement that the review "must happen regardless of what future standards are."

The 2022 to 2025 model year rules must be finalized by April of 2018 under a 2011 deal.
Auto Rental Summit will take place Nov. 6-7 at Miami Hilton Downtown. Photo courtesy of Miami Hilton Downtown.

Auto Rental Summit  the conference dedicated to people, process, and profits  moves to Miami for the first time with a roster of new speakers and an inaugural add-on event dedicated to smart mobility solutions for fleets.

Auto Rental Summit will take place Nov. 6-7 at Miami Hilton Downtown.

Mike Pitcher, the former CEO of LeasePlan USA and a C-suite executive at Dell and Pitney Bowes, will deliver this years keynote address: The Seven eLements of Leadership for a New Breed of Leader.

This years agenda also features industry consultant and analyst Neil Abrams, who will discuss the moving parts of todays car rental market and the impacts of new transportation modes on the traditional car rental model.

Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive, will review the macroeconomic factors affecting the automotive and car rental industries, while Jonathan Banks, vice president of vehicle analysis and analytics at J.D. Power, will discuss vehicle values by segment and relate them to supply, volume, and penetration statistics.

Trey Russell, former director of franchise operations for both Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. and The Hertz Corp., will reveal a blueprint for growth and profits through a refocus on long-term company objectives.

Two seminars are directed to Latin American attendees: Daniel Nunes Romero, CEO of Manheim Brazil, will outline the current state of remarketing in Latin America, while another session will give Latin American operators new tools to price against their competitors.

Auto Rental Summit will celebrate its sixth anniversary this year, though you could call it a brand-new event, says Chris Brown, executive editor of Auto Rental News. More than two-thirds of this years speakers are new to Auto Rental Summit, and yet they collectively bring decades of experience in car rental to their presentations.

New Conference Addresses Smart Mobility

Collocated with Auto Rental Summit, a new event, Fleet Forward Conference, convenes on Nov. 8.

Fleet Forward will outline how intelligent transportation systems, shared and connected vehicles, and changing public policies are converging on the path to autonomous vehicles. The conference is designed to facilitate the active inclusion of fleet stakeholders in the smart mobility revolution through curated networking and high-level education.

Fleet Forwards programming includes car rental, but it also incorporates solutions for commercial, corporate, government, and municipal fleets.

Seminars with a specific focus for car rental operators include Reimagining Airport Car Rental and Implementing Self-Service Car Rental  Without Reinventing the Wheel.

All Auto Rental Summit attendees are encouraged to stay an extra day to attend Fleet Forward Conference, says Brown. The conference will commence with a cocktail networking reception on Nov. 7 and follow with a full day of programming on Nov. 8. Attendance is free for Auto Rental Summit registrants.
Illustration of LAX's Automated People Mover and consolidated rental car facility. Design courtesy of Los Angeles World Airports.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners (BOAC) has authorized Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Automated People Mover (APM) train at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The RFP for the APM is one component of the larger $5.5 billion Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP), which is designed to reduce traffic at the airport by adding a train into the Central Terminal Area (CTA) that connects to Los Angeles Metros light rail system, a consolidated rental car (ConRAC) facility, and additional parking structures with new areas for picking up and dropping off passengers.

We are excited to move forward with this essential component of the LAMP project, said Sean Burton, president of BOAC. One reason Los Angeles World Airports chose a P3  Public Private Partnership  for this project is to expedite the delivery of this critical improvement that will create a better experience for passengers at LAX.

The LAMP project consists of five major components: the APM, the ConRAC, two Intermodal Transportation Facilities (ITF East and West), and roadway improvements throughout the LAX area.

- The APM will be a be an elevated electric powered train with six stations along the 2.25 mile alignment, connecting travelers and employees to light rail, regional buses, parking, and terminals. APM stations within the CTA will connect to the terminals via pedestrian bridges with moving walkways.

- The ConRAC will eliminate the need for rental car shuttles/buses to enter the CTA. This will decrease traffic congestion and free up curb space by bringing 23 rental car companies, currently scattered across the airport area, in one facility. Passengers will be dropped off at the ConRAC.

- Both the East and West ITFs will serve airport users with two locations outside the CTA. The ITFs will provide parking and curb space to pick-up and drop-off passengers and will connect passengers to the CTA via the APM.

The APM is a critical project for the future modernization of LAX and is the solution to providing reliable, time-certain access to airline terminals for passengers, employees, and other users, said Deborah Flint, CEO of LAWA. Todays authorization of the RFP is an important step towards delivering on that promise. The RFP scoring process is designed to give us a qualified team that will deliver a high quality, reliable and beautifully designed system.
A Bay area World War II veteran is taking part in a historic project, one that will add memories of his service to the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Robert May,100, served as tail gunner in WWII

Veterans History Project recording interviews for archives

Total of 8 veterans shared stories

In the 10-men crew I was the oldest and the smallest, and the one still left, though, says veteran Robert May.



With a sense of humor, May, 100, remembers his time during the war in Italy, where he served as a tail gunner.



Our job was to knock out Germanys probabilities to make war, May said.



Life was worth about a nickel," May said. "You either come back that morning when you go out, or you dont.



This Tuesday, his recollections are being recorded to be part of the Veterans History Project.



Many of these stories, they dont get put into history books," said Melissa More, volunteer coordinator for Suncoast Hospice. "Its really that oral history that we pass from generation to generation and its so important.



Once the interviews are done, the tapes will be sent to the Library of Congress, where they will become part of the National Archives.



Its something that can be used not only to be archive, but it can also be used by historians that might be writing books or writing a movie script, explains More.



It's history that May recalls like it was yesterday.



I never saw a female for probably 18 months, except Red Cross girls once in a while, said May.



While proud of his duty, May told us his time fighting changed him for the rest of his life.



The combat battle gives you a different mindset," he explained. "I dont think anyone could go through that and see things the same.



A total of 8 veterans told their stories at the Veterans Art Center Tuesday. All of them will get digital copies for their families to keep.
Current St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and former Mayor Rick Baker take the stage at the Palladium Theater in downtown St. Petersburg on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 to debate their visions for the future of the Sunshine City.

Presented by Bay News 9 and the Tampa Bay Times, the debate is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in front of an invitation-only audience.

Follow the debate LIVE:


The Clearwater man charged in the deaths of 10 migrants who died in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer at a San Antonio Walmart had had his Florida commercial driver's license revoked in April, the Associated Press reports.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles confirmed to the AP on Tuesday that James Bradley Jr.'s commercial driving privileges had been disqualified because he didn't submit an updated medical card, a federal requirement.

The spokeswoman also said it would have been illegal for Bradley to have a second commercial license from another state.

Bradley was issued a commercial driver's license in Florida in 2004, AP said. He's been ticketed multiple times in the past, some for driving too long without rest.

Bradley is charged with illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain resulting in death. He could face the death penalty. He's said he didn't know people were inside the trailer.
The state's highest appeals court denied a petition to review the dismissal of indictments against two Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies, upholding two lower courts' decisions to drop the charges.

Sgt. Chad Kolander and Chief Deputy Timothy Smith were indicted in May 2016 for allegedly making and using a false probable cause affidavit for a search warrant in June 2013 after an incident involving a process server who tried to serve Judge Layne Walker with a lawsuit while he was presiding in court.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Beijing, on July 26, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Premier Li Keqiang vowed to support trade liberalization and facilitate investment, when he met former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Wednesday in Beijing.

Under the current complicated international political and economic settings, the premier said that China would like to strengthen cooperation with EU countries, including Greece, to tackle uncertainties and push for a more balanced economic globalization that benefits the world.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Greece, and the two countries have maintained a good relationship, the premier said.

Li highly appreciated Samaras' efforts in his term as prime minister to promote cooperation between Greece and China, and to support the Piraeus Port project which has become an important element of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Premier Li said that China hopes achieve more in cooperation with Greece by promoting mutual trust, expanding cooperation in key areas, and improving people-to-people exchanges.

Samaras said it has been a consensus for all circles in Greece to develop friendship and cooperation with China. He said he hopes the two sides will continue to deepen cooperation in all fields and achieve more mutually beneficial outcomes.
LUFKIN The federal trial against a former executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments and his wife and daughter began Tuesday in Lufkin's Eastern District Court.

After a lengthy jury selection Monday, opening statements were made in the case against Walter Diggles, who is charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, two counts of theft from a program that receives federal funding and three counts of money laundering.

Rosie Diggles, his wife, is charged with 10 counts, including nine counts of wire fraud. Their daughter, Anita Diggles, faces on conspiracy charge.

Each of the Diggles faces up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Tom Gibson said in opening remarks that the Diggles family had "unrestricted control of federal monies" meant for hurricane relief.

Prosecutors said the Diggles family schemed to illegally divert more than $1.3 million in federal grant money intended for hurricane assistance.

Walter Diggles was the DETCOG director from 1990 until his resignation in January of 2016. Diggles also ran the Deep East Texas Foundation, a non-profit created in 2005. The DETF was run out of the Lighthouse Church in Jasper, where Diggles was a pastor and Anita and Rosie Diggles ran a youth services program.

According to a 2015 indictment, Walter Diggles took a part of $4.4 million that the Deep East Texas Foundation received in Social Service Block Grant funding from 2007 to 2012 and funneled the money to Lighthouse Church for his family's own personal use.

In the same time period, the majority of the Lighthouse Church's funds came from SSBG funds that flowed from the federal treasury to DETCOG, then the foundation and eventually to the church.

Walter Diggles' attorney, Ryan Gertz, called the charges "a serious indictment against a serious man" and argued that the money the family used from the government was properly allocated and benefited the community.

Catina Boykin, the controller for DETCOG, spent nearly six hours on the stand testifying Tuesday.

The prosecution questioned her on financial procedures at DETCOG and how money could not be allocated without the approval of Walter Diggles.

His signature was shown on numerous DETCOG financial documents. Diggles was required to approve any funding over $300, Boykin testified.

DETCOG, though not a government agency, operates on behalf of an association of city and county governments. It received federal, state and local grant funds to finance and administer programs throughout a 12-county region.

Nearly $700,000 was given to the Deep East Texas Foundation after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Boykin said the Deep East Texas Foundation and DETCOG had a contract to oversee the funds.

Bobby Mims, Rosie Diggles' attorney, argued that the Deep East Texas Foundation was "the most experienced disaster provider" in the area and that it took the Jasper area nearly 14 months to receive federal aid.

Gertz said after the 2005 hurricanes, residents from Louisiana flocked to the Jasper area, and Walter Diggles and the Deep East Texas Foundation offered necessary services to evacuees.

"People benefited from the services the Diggles provided," Gertz said.

While Boykin was on the stand, Gibson asked how she received grant money that was not hurricane related.

In 2011, Boykin said that Diggles advised her to ask for money from the Deep East Texas Foundation to help her pay for her step-daughter's tuition at Lamar Institute of Technology. Boykin received $2,148.60 from the foundation, she testified.

Walter Diggles had single-signature authority over the foundation's bank account at First National Bank in Jasper, where he also received monthly payments for his service on the bank's board.

"The lights had been back on and the water running for a long time since then," Gibson said of the 2011 request. "This had nothing to do with a hurricane."

Gibson presented several financial documents to the court, including a $15,000 check from DETCOG to the Deep East Texas Foundation for education and transportation. He included a $2,000 check for four days of child transportation in 2011. He said the Diggles' exaggerated those expenses.

Danielle Sells, the criminal justice planner for DETCOG, testified that she received $7,500 for funeral expenses after the death of her step-son - who lived in the Dallas area - in September of 2009.

In 2012, she received $10,000 from the foundation to help with her husband's truck company.

Gertz argued that the Diggles got "no personal benefit" from helping Sells and that it fell under the allowable services they could provide for those "in a target area."

Sells said the foundation "made my life better."

The prosecution called two former employees at the 21st Century Learning Center, which got its funding from the Deep East Texas Foundation, was located in the Lighthouse Church and was run by Anita and Rosie Diggles.

Their employees were listed as volunteers but were paid for their time through the Social Service Block Grant.

"We got paid most of the time," said Antonio Barnett, who worked at the learning center in 2008 along with his wife. "But sometimes funds were not available"

Barnett said they were paid $10 an hour.

Gibson claims the Diggles inflated the hourly rates of tutors, providing evidence Tuesday in the form of a payroll document. According to the document, the Diggles billed DETCOG at a $44 hourly rate.

The trial will continue today with the testimony of Larry Alaniz, DETCOG's system administrator.

DThompson@BeaumontEnterprise.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

On a recruiting trip to India last year, Dean Srinivas Palanki noticed an extra hesitance in students.

In the midst of the 2016 election season, the head of Lamar's College of Engineering said students were concerned by American political rhetoric, making some wonder whether they should apply to study in the United States.

At the time, "it wasn't clear who was going to win, and there was this thought that 'if (Donald) Trump is elected, does that mean we won't get visas?'" he said.

The 2016 presidential election is one of a few reasons Palanki believes that international applications at the university for the fall semester dropped by 42 percent

from last year.

International applications to a number of American universities, including Lamar, have declined. Some students and professors say this was due to perceptions about the political climate and job market, while others say there are now better options for international students closer to home.

Losses across Texas, nation

Lamar's international applicants dropped suddenly this year after steadily increasing for several years.

International enrollment peaked at just over 1,200 in 2014, according to university data. More than 80 percent of those are graduate students, and more than half attend the College of Engineering.

International students are sought after by American colleges both to increase campus diversity and for the financial benefit. Most pay full out-of-state tuition to attend.

Across Texas, international applications have declined at at least two-thirds of the state's public colleges, The Houston Chronicle recently reported.

Nationally, 39 percent of colleges reported a drop this year, according to a survey by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, while another third reported an increase.

Over the last year, "international student recruitment professionals report a great deal of concern from students and families all over the globe," the survey said, including concerns about visa denials, travel and employment restrictions, and a perceived hostility towards people from other countries.

Other nations draw students

Sakshi Yadav, 27, hasn't regretted her choice to come to Lamar from India, though she said other potential students are scared off. She's in the third year of a Ph.D. program in chemical engineering and said she chose the school for its research opportunities and professors.

She plans to continue working in research, and hopes to stay in the U.S. after completing her doctorate.

While she's felt welcomed to Southeast Texas, praising the Southern hospitality and community's support for its students, she said others are scared by the political climate.

"Because of the recent political change, a lot of immigrants are freaking out, so now my friends are opting for Australia, New Zealand, and Europe," she said. Palanki said that's due in part to the shrinking gap between American and international universities, which has happened gradually.

When he applied to graduate school at the University of Michigan more than 30 years ago, American engineering programs were considered the best, he said. Since then, international programs have improved.

"In the 1980s, the only place you would think of was the U.S.," said Palanki, who is from India. "Now, you could say, I'll go to Great Britain, I'll go to Australia, I'll go to Singapore, China, or I'll stay in India. There are options."

Yadav said American and Canadian universities are still seen as the most welcoming, where it's easiest for students to access research and job opportunities and where costs are lower.

Economic concerns

Tuition and living costs at Lamar were two main draws for Srikar Venneti, 23, when he chose a program for his master's in electrical engineering.

"I've always wanted to come to the U.S.," he said. Venneti chose Lamar for its faculty and support for research. He knew students already attending Lamar, which helped his decision to apply, he said.

International fears about American politics are more intense abroad because of Trump's rhetoric and portrayal in international media, he said.

"I understand his rules, he's the president of his own country and he's trying to protect his citizens," Venneti said of Trump. "The way he speaks kind of scares people."

He said concerns about finding jobs in the U.S. also weigh heavily in the decision for international students because of the financial investment it takes to attend.

"People obviously want to get a job, and get their money back" he said.

Palanki said that in addition to worries about visas and being able to stay after graduation, potential students are also turned off by economic changes.

Lamar's engineering program is attractive because of its proximity to the oil industry, he said.

"In the past two years, the price of oil fell drastically," he said. "So what that means is that a certain sector of the economy used to employ a lot of people, now they're not."

"If there aren't jobs here, then why go to school here? The vast majority of students, especially from Asia, who come to the U.S. are coming not only for a great education but also for eventual employment," Palanki said.

"We take on huge student loans and debt to come here," Yadav said. "We have to be able to pay that back."

The outlook at Lamar

Facing national and global changes that are beyond his control, Palanki said he's working on changes within the program to help stabilize the number of international applicants and students.

He's worked to make the application process more structured, and made it easier for international students to find answers to common questions as they apply.

For all engineering students, both American and international, he wants to improve the support system in the program to keep them from changing majors or leaving, he said, which is common among rigorous engineering programs.

Students often "need a lot of mentoring and advising" to get through the difficult introductory classes, he said, "so we're starting to put more of those processes in place."

He said rather than trying to return international applications to their peak level, he hopes it evens out, instead of fluctuating so greatly.

For students who choose to apply to American universities, Lamar remains attractive, Palanki said.

In addition to the emphasis on research, "the world knows where Texas is," he said, and the climate is a bonus for students come from countries like India.

Yadav said she still advises international students to apply to U.S. universities, and not be turned off by unknown possibilities.

"If something is going to happen, it's going to happen. If things change, what can you do? Don't worry about what you can't control," she said.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitz
The Port Arthur Police Department has issued a warrant for a man in connection a burglary at a Mid-County pharmacy.

Anyone with information on Jovon Hopkins is asked to call the department at (409) 983-8680.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

In less than a month, Bridge City students will fill their backpacks, sharpen their pencils and head back to school. And they'll do it a week and a half earlier than the state allows schools to start.

The state set the first day of class for public schools to begin on Aug. 28. Bridge City kids go back to school on Aug. 16. Seven other Southeast Texas districts will start the school year on Aug. 21.

Eleven districts in the Texas Education Agency's Region 5 have declared themselves Districts of Innovation, claiming an exemption from a rule that prevents school from starting before the fourth Monday in August. The state rule was supported by the tourism industry.

Innovation status allows districts to opt out of other requirements, including rules related to teacher contracts and professional development requirements.

Almost 600 of Texas' 1,247 districts have declared themselves Innovation Districts statewide, according to the TEA. Hardin-Jefferson ISD was the first in Region 5 to complete the process, approving the plan on Nov. 16 amid debate over whether parents were notified properly.

Bridge City's new calendar includes at least one three-day weekend for students each month for holidays and staff development days. School will end on May 25 in the district. The district released two calendar options, and ran a survey for parents and teachers to vote.

While some parents said they were glad the shift will get students out of school before June, others said the extra days off in the middle of the school year make it harder for working parents who will have to find childcare for the extra Fridays and Mondays off.

"Starting earlier doesn't bother me, it's the Mondays off," said Kelsey Perritt, who has two children in the district and a third in preschool. "I have to work on certain days, so I'm having to find childcare" for the days off, she said

School start dates
Medical group Derby (Kan.) MedCenter sold its ASC operations to Southlake, Texas-based Candor Healthcare, according to Derby Informer.

Here are four things to know:

1. Candor Healthcare is performing outpatient surgery there under the name, Rock Surgery Center.

2. The parties did not disclose the transaction price.

3. Keith Biggers, president of Candor, said the deal aims to meet growing medical demand from local residents.

4. Rock Surgery Center offers orthopedics, pain management and colonoscopies.
Washington state jurors ordered Olympus Corp. to pay Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center $6.6 million after a patient contracted an infection because of an improperly cleaned Olympus duodenoscope, Kaiser Health News reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. Although ordering monetary compensation, state jurors rejected claims that Olympus' duodenoscope was "unsafe as designed."

2. A Virginia Mason Medical Center patient contracted an infection in 2013 after the Olympus scope was improperly reprocessed. The patient died because of said infection. The victim's family filed the suit and was later joined by the hospital. The jury did claim the hospital was partially at fault for the death, and ordered the hospital to pay the patient's family $1 million.

3. Despite finding the scopes safe, jurors did found, "Olympus failed to provide adequate warnings about the scope or instructions for it use after it was manufactured," which directly affected Virginia Mason.

4. Several patients and families have filed similar suits against Olympus. The government is investigating Olympus and two other manufacturers over the patient infections.

5. Thirty-nine infections were linked to Olympus' scopes and Virginia Mason, in what is one of the largest superbug infections to date. There were other related cases at centers across the U.S.

6. An Olympus official issued a statement to Kaiser Health News praising the jury's decision over the scopes safety, and offering the patient's family condolences.
Medical Facilities Corp. appointed Robert Horrar COO, according to Markets Insider.

Here are four points:

1. With more than 25 years of health plan and hospital operations experience, Mr. Horrar comes to MFC after serving in various executive roles at Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Heath Systems.

2. Joining Community Health Systems in 1998, Mr. Horrar served as vice president of business development and then later division president. As division president, Mr. Horrar oversaw hospital operations in Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia.

3. He was with Humana for more than a decade, taking on positions such as executive director of Nevada opertions.

4. MFC controls and operates one California ASC as well as five specialty surgical hospitals.

"MFC has some of the best healthcare facilities in the country and I look forward to working with our local leadership teams to optimize performance and increase market presence as well as forging close ties with our payer stakeholders," said Mr. Horrar.
The Senate voted Tuesday to proceed to debate a bill to repeal major portions of the ACA. The vote was 50-50, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote.

Here are seven reactions from the healthcare industry, provided via emailed statements.

Association of American Medical Colleges President and CEO Darrell Kirch, MD, expressed disappointment with the vote.

"We urge Senators to vote 'no' on reform legislation presented thus far, and to only pass a bill that would at least maintain current coverage levels.

"Reform proposals currently under consideration would leave tens of millions of Americans without comprehensive, affordable health coverage  and potentially weaken insurance for millions of others. These are our patients, many of whom have pre-existing conditions or are currently on Medicaid. We know that when they do not have stable health coverage, they delay care, making manageable conditions more complicated and costly to treat.

"As Congress has discussed repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals have held steadfast that any replacement bill should at least maintain current levels of health coverage, not weaken Medicaid, and be the result of a deliberate and transparent process. We encourage the Senate to develop a legislative proposal that adheres to these important principles.

"We understand that there are aspects of the current system that can be improved, and the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals stand ready to work with Congress and other stakeholders to shape a healthcare reform solution that improves the health of all."

America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, said his organization remains concerned about millions of Americans potentially losing healthcare.

"The Senate agreed today to open debate on alternatives to the Affordable Care Act, but all their plans to date would have the same terrible result: at least 22 million more uninsured people, devastating cuts to Medicaid and higher costs for patients and taxpayers.

"The Senate's best attempts to soften this blow have barely moved the needle on coverage losses, and no option yet would ease the massive Medicaid cuts in the original House and Senate plans. Those cuts would destroy access to care in communities across the country, put public health at risk and jeopardize the health and financial security of millions of working people and families.

"We strongly oppose all plans so far to replace the Affordable Care Act and have no confidence lawmakers can overcome the flaws in these proposals. We urge senators to halt further consideration of repeal legislation and work in a bipartisan way with hospitals and other stakeholders on reform."

American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack said his organization is now "more determined than ever to help advance solutions aimed at protecting coverage."

"As the Senate prepares to undergo its amendment process, it is our hope that the critical task of repairing our health care system can be achieved on a bipartisan basis. Put simply: Our challenges are too great and our opportunities too promising to let political partisanship dictate the path forward for America's patients. Those of us on the front lines of healthcare know all too well the consequences repealing the ACA would have on patients.



"Ultimately, however, any legislative efforts that entail devastating cuts to the Medicaid program or coverage losses will be opposed with the same vigor that was responsible for the Senate's inability to debate the AHCA until now. Amid all of the uncertainty surrounding the healthcare reform debate, this fact remains unmistakably clear: We will always fight tirelessly for the patients and communities we serve."

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Majority Leader Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and President Donald Trump.

"The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which represents thousands of physicians and millions of their patients nationwide, agrees that Congress should take a vote on simply repealing ObamaCare. Republicans should be forced to go on the record to show how they keep  or renege on  their campaign promises.

"Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans should be working on a series of 'restore' bills to debate, one issue at a time, immediately after repeal. Members would have a chance to advocate for any parts of ObamaCare that they favor. However, the actual effects of the provisions should be named, instead of the purported good intentions. It is time to look at the nuts and bolts, not CBO [Congressional Budget Office] guesstimates of enrollee counts."

Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association President and CEO Lynn Nicholas said MHA and member organizations "are extremely distressed" after Tuesday's Senate vote "to advance GOP healthcare amendments that contain shockingly few details other than an ill-considered effort to tear down the advances of the Affordable Care Act and leave millions of Americans without health insurance."

"We thank both Massachusetts senators for opposing the repeal efforts. We are fortunate in Massachusetts to have our entire congressional delegation working to defeat this short-sighted repeal effort, and a governor working in concert with them to minimize the harm posed to our state. We can only hope that during the required debate ahead, cooler and more compassionate heads like theirs prevail and the misguided effort to dismantle the ACA will be defeated. There is a lot at stake. Despite being a national leader in healthcare, the commonwealth and its people have much to lose."

The Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose, which includes various healthcare groups, also expressed disappointment with the Senate vote to debate plans "that will result in reductions in coverage, particularly for individuals with substance use disorders and mental illness."

"In the face of the opioid overdose and suicide epidemics, equitable access to a full continuum of mental health and substance use disorder treatment services must be an essential component of healthcare coverage.

"These decisions will affect millions of Americans suffering from substance use disorders and mental illness who may lose their health care coverage entirely or see reductions in benefits that impede access to needed treatment. 465 organizations sent a letter to Congress outlining why they couldn't support any of the previous versions of the bill. The Coalition urges Senators to vote 'no' on any amendments or final bill that would result in any American losing the access to life-saving substance use disorder and mental health treatment that they have today."

Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania President and CEO Andy Carter said policy under consideration in the Senate "will lead to the loss of coverage for thousands of Pennsylvanians  if not hundreds of thousands  and could also remove key consumer protections and strip vital funds from the Medicaid program."

"This is simply unacceptable. We urge senators to remember that this is more than just a procedural vote: The lives of real people will be impacted.

"The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but we cannot deny that it helped more than 1.1 million Pennsylvanians gain access to healthcare coverage and improve the health of citizens across the commonwealth. We cannot threaten these coverage gains and put families at risk of being one health care crisis away from bankruptcy.

"We urge the Senate to turn to a repair strategy that stabilizes the individual market. It is time for lawmakers to start fresh and work in a bipartisan fashion to fix the Affordable Care Act's flaws and work to strengthen access to affordable, reliable healthcare coverage for the families who depend on it."
The Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department released an audio recording of a police officer questioning Carmen Puliafito, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based Keck School of Medicine of USC, about an overdose incident at a hotel in March 2016, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Here are 10 things to know about the incident and the recording.

1. A Pasadena-based Hotel Constance employee allegedly called 911 to report an overdose incident March 4, 2016. Dr. Puliafito, now 66, spoke to the 911 dispatcher and identified himself as a physician. He also claimed the woman who overdosed was his girlfriend and she "had a bunch of drinks and she's sleeping," according to the report. Paramedics arrived and transported the woman  Sarah Warren, now 22,  to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena for treatment.

2. The police officers who responded to the call recorded a witness statement from Dr. Puliafito at the hospital. The Los Angeles Times filed a California Public Records Act and obtained a copy of the recording from police July 25.

3. On an unidentified police officer's audio recording, Dr. Puliafito identified himself as a friend of Ms. Warren's father and denied any involvement in a romantic relationship with Ms. Warren, the report states.

4. Dr. Puliafito told the police officer he "thought [Ms. Warren] was sleeping, and she was breathing and you know, and hadn't thrown up or anything." When asked if he noticed anything about Ms. Warren's behavior that may have alarmed him, Dr. Puliafito responded saying he was an ophthalmologist, not an emergency medicine physician, and hadn't medically evaluated her.

"I mean, I basically looked at her respirations," Dr. Puliafito allegedly said on the recording. "When I saw her at the beginning, she was responding to me."

5. Later on, a social worker from the hospital is heard asking the unidentified police officer what he thought of Dr. Puliafito's account of the incident. The two individuals speculated about Dr. Puliafito's relationship with the woman and discussed the drugs and "provocative clothing" also found at the scene, according to the report.

6. A required report on the incident was not filed until three months after the overdose incident occurred, according to the report. Police did not arrest anyone in connection with the incident, The Los Angeles Times reports.

7. Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez defended the department's handling of the case in a statement July 25, stating it lacked evidence to arrest Dr. Puliafito in connection with the drugs obtained at the hotel room registered in his name, according to the report.

8. It is unclear if police continued to investigate the hotel incident after questioning Dr. Puliafito at the hospital. Ms. Warren told The Los Angeles Times police never interviewed her about the incident.

9. Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell sent a memo to city council members last week stating the publication's investigation into the incident and its findings "reflect poorly on the city and the Pasadena police department.  There should have been [a police report issued] and that was a failure on the part of our responding officer. Once this came to light, [police] undertook an appropriate investigation and ultimately the involved officer was the subject of disciplinary action." It is unclear whether the police officer was disciplined for the incident.

10. The university allegedly received "extremely troubling" information about Dr. Puliafito's drug misuse that required officials to take "serious action" July 21. USC officials initiated the process to terminate Dr. Puliafito from his faculty position at the medical school Friday.

To view the report, click here.
Hospitals and health systems are constantly forming partnerships and aligning with other organizations to optimize care and reduce costs.

Here, 13 hospital and health system executives discuss some of their most successful partnerships.

Lee Domanico. CEO of Marin General Hospital (Greenbrae, Calif.): "A little over a year ago, we set out to transform the Marin community patient experience by expanding local access to lifesaving medical care. To do this, we needed a partner that matched our enthusiasm for driving digital health innovation. Working with Philips to help manage health IT implementation costs and complexities, we are now equipped with the resources to deploy pioneering medical technologies for imaging, patient monitoring, telehealth and clinical informatics. Today, we are already beginning to see the impact of this partnership on the Marin community with the opening of a state-of-the-art Breast Health Center, which provides the women of Marin with the most advanced breast imaging technologies. This partnership is only just getting started and we are excited to be at the forefront of the healthcare industry's transformation alongside a technology leader like Philips."

Curtis Dudley. Vice President of Performance Solution at Mercy Technology Services (St. Louis): "At Mercy, we're constantly innovating to bring better care to our patients. Sometimes that means partnering with other innovators that bring to light new possibilities. SAP Healthcare has been a partner that brings us new ways of doing things, works side-by-side with us to put pieces in place and then sees to it that we're getting the right results."

Matt Gerlach. COO of Children's Hospital of Orange (Calif.) County: "Innovation is a big part of our values here in the organization. Therefore, we were immediately attracted to becoming a partner with The Innovation Institute, especially because of their unique business model. They have a Lab where they can incubate ideas generated by our staff. They also have service companies we can tap into to save money such as biomed services, which have saved us millions of dollars. We're both a customer and an owner partner that capitalizes on revenues we can use to fund our innovation activities."

Luisa Gutman. COO of Holy Cross Hospital (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.): "Our relationship with the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center has been very successful as we collaborate on new ways to provide leading-edge oncology care to our mutual patients. This unique arrangement provides additional access to advanced care for cancer patients living in south Florida, including access to new clinical treatments and a network of nationally and internationally recognized specialists, as well as a continuity of care for Mass. Gen. patients as they travel to our community."

John Finan Jr. President and CEO of Franciscan Ministries of Our Lady Health System (Baton Rouge): "Improving performance and transforming care are foundational strategies of our healthcare organization and we know that most often the best ideas are generated by our physicians and team members. Therefore, we partnered with The Innovation Institute as a commitment to maximize the potential of those ideas and ultimately share them more broadly with our Institute partners and others. Experience tells us the more we learn and share, the greater our positive impact on the patients and communities we serve."

Richard Katz, MD. CMO at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital (Baltimore): "We are an affiliate of University of Maryland Medical System and Johns Hopkins Medicine. This puts us in a fantastic position, as their co-ownership provides us with effective patient collaboration, additional medical expertise, consistent administrative support and much more. Obviously, Johns Hopkins is a world-renowned institution with top clinicians and constant research efforts. Additionally, we are very fortunate to be one of the 13 system hospitals of UMMS, connecting us to a wealth of information and resources across the state."

Stephen Klasko, MD. President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health (Philadelphia): "We're committed to learning how to re-envision America's unequal and costly healthcare system through a milestone partnership with GE Healthcare, their biggest, and one of the largest ever partnerships in terms of longevity and risk sharing, to save $500 million to $1 billion. GE Healthcare teams will be embedded at Jefferson for eight years. It has been a partnership of shared values, and one value in particular  the passion for change."

Peggy Sanborn. Vice President of Strategic Growth, Mergers and Acquisitions for Dignity Health System (San Francisco): "We turned to Emerus, the nation's first and largest operator of microhospitals, when we decided to open four neighborhood hospitals in the Las Vegas area. These neighborhood hospitals are designed specifically to increase access to high-quality emergency care in underserved metropolitan areas.

Emerus' highly efficient model that provides inpatient bed capacity, if needed, for convenient care and health system integration  allowing for care coordination, consultation and seamless transition across the care continuum  addresses important needs in our market. They are a nationally recognized innovator in the delivery of efficient medical care, and their model also creates shorter wait times in their fully functioning emergency departments, while decompressing the burden of current ERs. Their turnkey operations have positioned us for success, and we look forward to continuing the collaborative partnership that will greatly benefit our patients in the Las Vegas region."

Fred Slunecka. COO of Avera Health System (Sioux Falls, S.D.): "We believed that if innovation at Avera was to take off like it should, we needed a drastically different model to facilitate it. So, with The Innovation Institute, we now have an enhanced process to better nurture innovation and provide procedures for vetting, patenting, prototyping and selling innovative medical devices and healthcare-related discoveries invented by Avera employees and physicians. The idea is to create the most innovative, efficient and optimal solutions for specific, real-world challenges faced by healthcare providers and patients. The Innovation Institute gives our employees and physicians the expertise they need to develop bright ideas into real market products."

Richard Statuto. President and CEO of Bon Secours Health System (Marriottsville, Md.): "The Innovation Institute is an exciting venture that we are pleased to be a part of. When we reviewed the business model, it became clear that our health system could benefit immensely from the valuable resources The Institute offers. As a member owner partner, our healthcare system and our patients benefit from shared research and development of new products and services."

Scott Steiner. CEO of DMC Detroit Receiving, DMC Harper University and DMC Hutzel Women's Hospital: In 2016, two Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Hospitals, DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital and DMC Harper-Hutzel Hospital, part of Dallas-based Tenet Health System, entered into a co-management agreement with more than 50 physicians. The sole purpose of this agreement is to improve care delivery and quality outcomes for patients.



"The rationale for this agreement was to create and standardize best practices, processes and procedures with an intense focus on patient care. To date, this approach is yielding favorable results. We have accomplished a 30 percent improvement in our quality outcomes and a 4 percent increase in patient happiness scores. This collaborative focus on clinical outcomes is vital for the hospital, physicians and most importantly, our patients."

Richard Towbin, MD. Division Chief of Pediatric Radiology at Phoenix Children's: "About 10 years ago, Phoenix Children's Hospital entered into a long-term relationship with Philips Healthcare that expanded in early 2017 to become a true strategic partnership. This 15-year agreement is a first-of-its-kind partnership for Philips with a stand-alone children's hospital system. Through the partnership, Phoenix Children's has early access to Philips' advanced medical technologies in diagnostic imaging and beyond, including CT, MRI, angiography, patient monitoring, clinical informatics and a comprehensive range of clinical and business consulting services.

This partnership gives a competitive edge to Phoenix Children's, especially as a newer children's hospital, and allows us to be the best we possibly can, supporting us in our ability to provide the highest quality patient care, and to be leaders on the cutting edge of pediatric medicine. Together, Phoenix Children's and Philips have the ability to create integrated solutions tailored to the pediatric patient population, including research and technologies such as dose reduction using iterative CT reconstructions, spectral multienergy CT, and pediatric CT and MRI protocols that are now factory standards worldwide."

Andrew Watson, MD. Medical Director of UPMC Telemedicine: "Hospitals must reinvent their care delivery platforms in this new era of consumer wearables, telehealth and other digital health technologies. In short, the hospital must be present wherever the healthcare consumer is.

That's why UPMC  the second largest healthcare provider/payer in the country  has invested in and is partnering with Vivify Health. In essence, our partnership with Vivify is one of our strategic entries into this new era of care.

Vivify's remote patient monitoring technology is toppling the very walls of the hospital itself, or at least bringing it ever closer to the point where it will be used primarily for emergency purposes. Even seniors 90 years and older with chronic and advanced illnesses successfully participate in our remote monitoring program and stay out of the hospital."

Erin Denholm. President and CEO of Trinity Health At Home (Livonia, Mich.): "Trinity Health At Home partnered with Vivify to create HomeCare Connect, a virtual care program that uses advanced and intuitive technologies to help patients connect with their physicians' offices from the comfort of their homes. We are still early in the program's rollout, but results from two of our largest home care agencies are very promising. If we can attribute the reductions in ER visits and readmissions to the partnership, we can declare that the partnership has been profoundly impactful for the people we serve."
Fulton (Mo.) Medical Center is slated to close by Sept. 22, but officials hope to keep the facility open by securing a buyer, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Fulton Medical Center's owner, Leawood, Kan.-based NueHealth, revealed plans Monday to close the hospital. Following the announcement, local officials met with healthcare consulting firm Newpoint Health Advisors to discuss their options for saving Fulton Medical Center.

"Our hope is that we can somehow convince a major player in the healthcare industry that we definitely have a value," Callaway County Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann told the Columbia Daily Tribune after the meeting.

Mr. Jungermann said he hopes local officials and NueHealth can work together to secure a buyer for Fulton Medical Center that can turn around the hospital's finances.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Bon Secours operating income dips 28%, but investment gains offset decline

Wyoming hospital at risk of losing Medicare, Medicaid funding

Financial concerns prompt Johns Hopkins-owned hospital to eliminate staff through buyouts
A female patient and two nursing staff members were injured Tuesday afternoon when a fire sparked at 203-bed Williamsport (Pa.) Regional Medical Center, part of Williamsport-based UPMC Susquehanna.

Nursing staff activated fire alarms around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday after they saw smoke coming from a patient's room on the sixth floor of the hospital, city fire officials told the Sun-Gazette.

When staff entered the room, the patient's gown and a chair she was sitting in were on fire. "Two staff members first attempted to put the fire out with sheets, and then grabbed a portable extinguisher, which was used to successfully put out the fire," Mark Killian, assistant fire chief, told the Sun-Gazette.

The patient suffered serious burns over most of her body, and two members of the nursing staff suffered minor injuries.

The patient was flown to the burn unit at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa., for treatment.

On Wednesday, a fire official said a cigarette lighter caused the fire, according to PennLive.

More articles on healthcare news:

Senate votes against ACA repeal and replace amendment

HCA sees Q2 earnings lag, stays ready for more acquisitions

7 hospital closures so far in 2017
Saint Paul, Minn.-based St. Joseph's Hospital will shutter its maternity ward Sept. 10, according to the Pioneer Press.

The hospital attributed the decision to a decreasing volume of mothers giving birth at the downtown location.

"We routinely evaluate volumes and market projections to ensure our services are aligned with the needs of our communities," John Kvasnicka, MD, vice president of medical affairs at HealthEast, Saint Joseph's parent company, said in a statement to the Pioneer Press. "Those projections show that more moms-to-be will be delivering their babies at our St. John's Hospital in Maplewood and Woodwinds Health Campus in Woodbury while we see a steady decline of maternity patients at St. Joseph's with no projected improvement in the future."

Maternity patients will still receive care at St. Joseph's through Sept. 7.

Maternity ward staff were informed of the closure on Tuesday. A Minnesota Nurses Association spokesman told the Pioneer Press that hospital officials said MNA members would remain employed after the maternity ward closes.

Saint Paul-based HealthEast merged with Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services earlier this year.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday Newark-based Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey must disclose documents detailing how it selected hospitals for its discount tier health plans, NJ.com reports.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie approved Horizon BCBS of New Jersey's Omnia tiered network health plans in September 2015. To control spending, the plans offered members reduced prices for using preferred, or Tier 1, medical providers.

A group of seven hospitals considered Tier 2 facilities filed a lawsuit to overturn the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance's approval in December 2015, arguing the network plans force consumers to pay more to use Tier 2 facilities.

While the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision does not determine the merit of the lawsuits, it mandates Horizon to hand over a report done by consultant McKinsey & Company and other related documents. This includes written agreements with Tier 1 hospitals, the report states.



Horizon's documents will not be publicly released, State Superior Court Judge Frank Ciuffani said. Horizon argued the information is proprietary and confidential, NJ.com reports.



For the full article, click here.
Domino's reported first-half sales of 546.5m which, while a 10.5% increase on last year, represented a slowdown on the 17% growth seen in the same period in 2016.

Domino's Pizza has signed an agreement with Amazon Echo allowing voice ordering for customers as it looks to boost slowing sales growth.

The delivery chain, which has around 20 stores in Northern Ireland, launched what it called an "industry first" beginning yesterday, as well as introducing GPS tracking for pizza deliveries.

The group reported first-half sales of 546.5m which, while a 10.5% increase on last year, represented a slowdown on the 17% growth seen in the same period in 2016.

Like-for-like sales, meanwhile, grew 2.4%, a marked decline on last year's 13% growth as the firm flagged a "softer consumer environment and a slowdown in the overall delivery market".

Pre-tax profits rose 9% from 44.6m, with the firm to shortly open its 1,000th British outlet.

The performance of Domino's Pizza has been hit by the surge in popularity of Deliveroo, a food delivery app that uses delivery people on two wheels to deliver foods from a range of restaurants and takeaways.

Deliveroo uses the services of around 100 riders in Belfast, and has around 70 restaurants and takeaways in the city on its books.

Uber Eats - the food delivery arm of the taxi app - has also eaten into the market share of firms like Domino's, though Uber Eats is yet to start operating in Belfast.

Domino's chief executive David Wild said: "The first half of 2017 has been another period of good progress for Domino's Pizza Group, despite a more uncertain UK economic environment. The core business delivered strong year-on-year system sales, continuing to take pizza market share, with good like-for-like performance. We have had a record six months in the UK, opening 40 new stores, and have consequently raised our expectations from 80 to 90 this year.

"I'm delighted that we'll shortly be opening our 1,000th British unit, and we are well on track to achieve our goal of 1,600."

"Domino's continues to lead the pizza market, with innovations such as the popular Lotta-Chocca pizza and our launch of Amazon Echo voice ordering.

"Following a successful trial, we'll be rolling out GPS, which will enable customers to track their delivery and help franchisees with labour management."

The company said that the introduction of GPS tracking would provide "significant labour savings" for the franchisee, while also enhancing the overall online consumer experience.
Britain's Got Talent dancer Julia Carlile has undergone surgery in America after Simon Cowell paid for her treatment.

The music mogul funded the 175,000 procedure after the teenager told the BGT judge about her battle with scoliosis.

Appearing in the 2017 series of the popular talent show, Julia explained how an operation to tackle her severe back pain on the NHS would likely result in her not being able to dance again.

After performing in the final as part of the Mersey Girls dance troupe, Simon told the contestant he would pay for her private treatment in America.

The operation in the US takes just six weeks to recover from as opposed to six months, and there is a greater chance Julia will be able to dance again once she is back on her feet.

On Tuesday, the Mersey Girls Twitter account posted a picture of Julia recovering on her hospital bed, with the caption: "Julia has done it! First op done, we are so proud of her and missing her so much want to give her a MASSIVE HUG, our girl is a fighter."

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

Julia's mum Kate previously told the Liverpool Echo newspaper: "We are in a very privileged position because of Simon.

"We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted for girls and Simon and everyone who has supported them. The wave of support has been unbelievable."

Julia sent Simon a T-shirt which read, "I paid for Julia Carlile's Scoliosis treatment", and a letter thanking him for his gesture.
The Gobbins Cliff Path in Islandmagee, Co Antrim is set to be one of Northern Ireland's top tourist attractions this summer with a record number of visitors arriving to walk the trail.

The coastal walk reopened to the public in 2015, taking visitors through caves and tunnels, along winding stairways, over tubular bridges and below sea level.

Tours during the months of July and August are almost fully booked, according to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, with tourists flocking from as far and wide as America, Australia, Germany, France and Spain.

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Paul Reid, said the positive response to the reopening of the Islandmagee attraction has "cemented its billing as one of Northern Irelands must-see tourist locations."

Expand Close The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee. Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee. Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons

He added: The buzz around The Gobbins is simply phenomenal and Council is delighted with the feedback received.

I have personally greeted visitors who travelled thousands of miles to enjoy the stunning walk and we are so fortunate to have it in our Borough. There is no other attraction like it in the world and the level of interest is testament to just how special The Gobbins is.

Alister Bell, Operations and Development Manager at The Gobbins, said he and his team are excited to welcome more visitors to the flagship attraction in the coming weeks.

Expand Close The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee.

He said: We are very pleased with the level of interest in the cliff path and visitor centre.

We have sold out most of the tours which start at 10.00am daily and go on throughout the day until late evening, seven days a week, and it is very clear that the message is getting out well beyond our shores because more than half of our visitors are from abroad.

The Gobbins has attracted almost 1,500 foreign and regional visitors this month alone and looks set to be even busier in August.

Expand Close The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee. Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Gobbins Cliff Path, Islandmagee. Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons

Mr Bell added: The visitors this summer who have had the chance to do the walk have all been taken aback by the variety of fascinating features, including the spectacular views, birds and sea life.

It provides one of the most exciting experiences any outdoor lover will remember for the rest of their lives and we know that it has now popped up on a number of peoples bucket list requests!

The Gobbins reopened in June and remains in operation seven days a week until September. After this time, engineers will complete necessary works on the final section of the pathway.
A Northern Ireland pub chain has warned it will take legal action over a trademark row with a Sunderland bar if it does not change its name.

The Granny Annies group runs three bars here - in Limavady, Londonderry and Belfast - as well as five other pubs under other names. In total the company employs around 500 people in the province.

Known for its chic style, the chain created by Limavady brothers Willis and Ryan McLaughlin made headlines when it took over five JD Wetherspoon pubs last November as part of a major expansion.

But the bar's English namesake - Grannie Annie's - has raised eyebrows using a variation of the trademarked name and appearing to mimic several of the Northern Ireland pubs' features.

The Sunderland firm opened last Friday after six months of renovation.

Like all three of the Northern Ireland Granny Annies pubs, it also features old furniture attached upside down to the ceiling.

Its branding also includes a side profile of an elderly woman drawn in brown on a white background with her hair in a bun similar to the Northern Ireland firm's registered logo.

Previously known as 'The Smugglers', the pub based just metres from the beach in Sunderland was taken over by its new owners last December and rebranded by current owner Stephen Ski.

The Northern Ireland firm's trademark was registered on February 20 last year.

Stephen Ski was unavailable for comment.

However, Mr Ski has said that he named the bar after his mother Anne Karczewski from Hebburn in north-east England.

Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill said it was likely that the Granny Annies brand would eventually look at ways to make it across to Great Britain.

He said: "Their rate of expansion has been phenomenal.

"I would think that they would want to protect the brand they have worked so hard to build up in case they want that to become an option."
The PSNI have released a man arrested after a bomb was placed under an officer's car

A man arrested by detectives investigating a bomb bid on a police officer's car in Northern Ireland has been released.

The improvised explosive was planted under the vehicle in Eglinton on June 18 2015.

The 30-year-old man was taken to Musgrave police station in Belfast for questioning. He was released without condition on Wednesday.

The device was found under the officer's car outside his home near Derry City Airport.

Police are on high alert in Northern Ireland for attacks launched by dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.
The scene at Glenrandel in Eglinton village outside Londonderry where a bomb was discovered outside the home of a serving police officer

A 30-year-old man has been released unconditionally by detectives investigating an attempted bomb attack on a serving police officer.

The under vehicle improvised explosive device was placed under the car of a police officer in Eglinton near Londonderry on June 18, 2015.

Detective Chief John Caldwell said earlier that the man had been taken to Musgrave PSNI station where he was assisting police with their inquiries.
Andrew Jones during a visit to the G4S Cash Solutions Facility in Newtownabbey near Belfast

The new pound coin has stumped the counterfeiters, with no evidence the 12-sided design can be faked, a Government minister has said.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Jones hailed the latest quid as the most secure form of currency in the world as he marked a significant milestone in the coin's introduction.

There are now more new pound coins in circulation than their round predecessor - a coin that had become an easy target for counterfeiters.

Mr Jones was at a high-security coin storage facility in Belfast to celebrate what he called a "tipping point" in the replacement process.

The new coins were first introduced on March 28, with the old coins ceasing to be legal tender on October 15, even though they can still be banked after that date.

Mr Jones noted that 3% of all the old coins were counterfeit.

"That basically adds up to almost 50 million of fake coinage in circulation in our country and that is very bad for our economy," he said.

The minister said there had been no evidence of counterfeiting with the new coin.

"There have been no problems identified at all so far," he said.

"Obviously that is something the Royal Mint monitors very carefully but we have had no incidents at all of counterfeiting thus far.

"This is a very, very secure coin. The Royal Mint estimate that this is the most secure coin in the world at the moment and they have their own individual and rather secret method of security which is new in this coin.

"You have to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters but that's exactly where we are right now."

Mr Jones urged people to bank, spend or donate their old pounds before the October deadline.

"To have more new coins in circulation than old at this point is great news," he said.

"However, with less than 100 days to go, the clock is ticking."

Chief executive and deputy master of the Royal Mint Adam Lawrence said: "The Royal Mint is very proud to have delivered the new 12-sided 1 coin and ensuring a smooth transition is now our top priority.

"We hope our announcement about the changeover point in July will encourage those businesses who have not yet upgraded their equipment to do so ahead of the October 15 deadline."

Mr Jones was visiting a storage centre operated by G4S Cash Solutions.

The UK operations director for G4S Cash Solutions, John Lennox, said: "Since the launch of the new 1 coin in March, we have worked with the Royal Mint, banks and retailers to roll out the new 1 while at the same time removing hundreds of millions of old coins from circulation, as they pass through our national network of cash branches and coin centres to be returned to the Royal Mint."
One of Northern Ireland's largest trade unions Unite has warned that the liberalisation of trade rules post-Brexit "has the potential to threaten thousands of jobs" in the agri-food sector.

This comes as part of a backlash to comments made in the United States on Monday by the UK's International Trade Secretary Liam Fox who appeared to downplay the potential risk of allowing chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK.

Asked about a potential future trade deal between the United States and Britain, Dr Fox said that there was "no health issue" with the product and that it was "too early" to comment on specifics of a future trade agreement.

The Cabinet position of International Trade Secretary was created in the wake of the 2016 Brexit vote, with a focus on carving out Britain's post-Brexit trading relationships with its international partners.

Reflecting on the comments, Unite's regional officer with responsibility for agri-food Sean McKeever said that the move could put the jobs of workers at poultry meat producer Moy Park at risk, with the majority of the company's Northern Irish staff being represented by Unite.

Around half of Moy Park's 12,000-strong UK workforce are based in Northern Ireland.

Mr McKeever said that the agri-food sector in the region is "disproportionately exposed" to the impacts of Brexit, with fears that cross-border trade could be threatened with "delays, red-tape and even tariffs" if free trade with the EU is lost, and that in this context businesses in the sector should be trying to make the most of import-substitution opportunities.

"The comments made by Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, in the United States cast a dark shadow over such opportunities," said Mr McKeever.

"He has gone as far as suggesting that a post-Brexit trade deal might allow for the import of chlorinated chicken from the US; a move which would mark a sharp liberalisation of trade from the situation where, as part of the EU, such imports are banned due to concerns for human health.

"There are broader concerns that any Tory-negotiated trade deal with the US could open the door to foodstuffs produced with hormones and insecticides casually used by US-based agri-food multinationals but which are restricted at present in the UK."

Mr McKeever added that Northern Irish produce is known for its quality-assurance, and a deviation from this "has the potential to threaten thousands of jobs both in processing, distribution and the supply sectors, across the rural economy".

Earlier this week Mr Fox responded to the controversy by saying that the media were "obsessed" with the issue of chlorine-washed chickens, and according to the Guardian, Theresa May's official spokesperson declined to comment on any hypothetical trade deals.

However, when questioned earlier on BBC Radio Four's Today Programme, Environment Secretary Michael Gove definitively ruled out chlorinated chickens being sold in the United Kingdom, saying: "This is something on which all members of the government are agreed, that we are not going to dilute our high animal welfare standards or our high environmental standards in pursuit of any trade deal."
Sinn Fein MP Mickey Brady is to travel to South America to oversee the Venezuelan elections.

The Newry and Armagh representative will be in the country as an international observer for the July 30 Constitutional Assembly elections.

Before leaving this week, Brady said it was important the election was conducted in the correct manner in the current Venezuelan political climate.

There has been a wave of anti-government protests and dozens of people have been killed in protest-related violence since April

"I am eager to ensure there remains international confidence in what is a crucial election for the Venezuelan people," said Brady.

"The electorate has an opportunity to decide who sits in their Constitutional Assembly in a free and fair election.

"As observers our role is to ensure that only the people of Venezuela determine the future direction of their country.
Ciaran Maxwell pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August last year (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A Royal Marine with links to dissident republicanism made 14 pipe bombs  four of which were deployed in Northern Ireland, a court heard.

Ciaran Maxwell, 31, compiled a library of terrorism documents, bought chemicals and components and went on to manufacture explosives and devices, which he stashed in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.

The 31-year-old, of Exminster in Devon, also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack  as well as images of an adapted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pass card and a PSNI uniform.

Expand Close The sentencing hearing of Ciaran Maxwell is expected to last three days (Dominic Lipinski/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The sentencing hearing of Ciaran Maxwell is expected to last three days (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The serviceman, who is originally from Larne in Co Antrim, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August last year, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to supply, in February.

At the beginning of a three-day sentencing hearing at the same court, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC, said: Across 14 of the locations involved in the investigation, Mr Maxwell had in his possession, or had constructed, 14 pipe bombs.

He added: Of those 14 pipe bombs constructed by Mr Maxwell, four have been deployed in Northern Ireland.

The court heard dissident republicans have carried out more than 160 terrorist attacks since 2010, involving tactics including the deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as pipe bombs.

Expand Close Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said four of the 14 pipe bombs constructed by Ciaran Maxwell had been deployed in Northern Ireland (PA Archive) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said four of the 14 pipe bombs constructed by Ciaran Maxwell had been deployed in Northern Ireland (PA Archive)

Mr Whittam said: Whilst attacks are mainly directed at members of the police, military and prison service, the nature of the attacks leaves members of the public at risk.

All of the groups remain persistent in their intention to kill and seriously injure.

The court heard Maxwell was a serving Royal Marine Commando at the time of the offences, having enlisted on September 27 2010.

He joined 40 Commando at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton the following year as a rifleman, undertaking some duties in the United States.

Maxwell, who has been discharged from the Marines, was also deployed in the UK  but never in Northern Ireland, said Mr Whittam.

Expand Close Ciaran Maxwell joined 40 Commando at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton in 2011 (Barry Batchelor/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Ciaran Maxwell joined 40 Commando at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton in 2011 (Barry Batchelor/PA)

Between 1 January 2011 and 24 August 2016, Mr Maxwell researched the manufacture and construction of explosives, acquired the items he needed to make explosive devices and constructed the devices, he said.

He stored the items he needed to make the devices, the devices themselves, ammunition, weapons, tools and resources in hides across England and Northern Ireland.

He engaged in research to create of a library of maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack.

Along with the 14 pipe bombs, Maxwell also stashed two anti-personnel directional mines, two explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), 29 complete firing systems, 33 initiators  including two military initiators, 13 military Igniter Safety Fuze Electric initiators, three fully constructed improvised detonators and other components parts for IEDs.

The court heard he had hoarded more materials and chemicals to make explosives, as well as a replica handgun and ammunition.

The court heard it has been commonplace for Northern Ireland-based terrorist groups to conceal bomb-making equipment and other terrorist material in purpose-built hides.

Expand Close A walker stumbled on one of Ciaran Maxwell's purpose built hides at Carnfunnock Country Park (PA Archive) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A walker stumbled on one of Ciaran Maxwell's purpose built hides at Carnfunnock Country Park (PA Archive)

But Mr Whittam said: In recent history and certainly over the last five years, the number of hides in this case, their geographical dispersal, their attribution to a single person constructing and managing them and the amount of material stored within them, would be highly unusual.

The prosecutor described how a walker stumbled on one of Maxwells in Carnfunnock Country Park, near Larne, in March last year.

Another was found in Capanagh Forest in Co Antrim in May by someone searching for a suitable place to camp, the court heard.

The court heard that ammunition used by the British Armed Forces was found along with bomb-making materials and IEDs.

Mr Whittam said: It is our case that some of the items inevitably must have been taken from the UK to Northern Ireland by this defendant and it may be that, when travelling between England and the UK, bearing in mind the identity cards he would have had and his position, his passage would have been easier than others to take items with him.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would continue "to breathe down the neck of agents who run around freely" in Turkey (AP)

Germany and Sweden have made a joint protest to Turkey about the jailing of two human rights activists, demanding that the men be told exactly what they are accused of.

Peter Steudtner of Germany and Ali Gharavi of Sweden were arrested on July 5 during a raid on a hotel where they were attending a digital security workshop.

They were among six activists, also including Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser, who were then jailed last week for allegedly aiding an unspecified armed terror group.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters in Berlin that Germany and Sweden complained to Turkey, saying that the two governments do not understand why the men were jailed.

They also said they do not understand the circumstances of the men's arrests, and "expect that they at least now be told in substantiated terms what they are accused of".

Mr Schaefer noted that Mr Steudtner neither speaks Turkish nor had been to Turkey before, and is an information technology specialist. "What is the terror organisation that Peter Steudtner allegedly belongs to?" he asked.

Mr Schaefer also sharply criticised Turkish media for publishing extracts from the questioning of Mr Steudtner.

Mr Steudtner's jailing has sent already strained German-Turkish ties to a new low. The German government last week told citizens to exercise caution when travelling to Turkey and threatened to withhold backing for investments there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would continue "to breathe down the neck of agents who run around freely" in Turkey.

"We find it hard to tolerate the Steudtner case again being prejudged on the Turkish government's side in a way that is completely contradictory," Mr Schaefer said.

"Formally, he is accused of membership in a terrorist organisation. Now we hear from the Turkish president that he was at the same time a spy for Germany and wanted to divide the country."

AP
An aerial view shows plumes of smoke rising in the air from burning wildfires on the outskirts of Bormes-les-Mimosas, French Riviera (Nadine Achoui-Lesage/AP)

More than 1,000 firefighters have battled wildfires that billowed smoke into the sky over France's southern Cote d'Azur coast and forced the evacuation of 12,000 people.

Large swathes of Mediterranean forest have been left bare and blackened after three days of fires.

About 250 mobile homes, a hangar, an atelier and several vehicles were burned in the blazes but no-one so far has been injured, according to the prefect of the Var region.

The residents and tourists were evacuated early on Wednesday after a ferocious fire whipped by strong Mistral winds spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas.

About 60 people were evacuated by boat from nearby Cap Benat.

Dozens spent Tuesday night on the nearby La Lavandou beach.

Further south of the French mainland, flames ate through 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Fires were also blazing across parts of bone-dry Portugal and Italy.

As thick black smoke billowed above the crests of hills, Colonel Eric Martin, of the Var firefighting unit, told BFM-TV that French crews were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres) around Bormes.

Four planes and a firefighting aircraft dropped water and retardants on the blazes.

The airport in Toulon, a city 30 kilometres (18 miles) from La Londe, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as was the Fort de Bregancon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

The wildfires began raging along France's Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations as flames reached a corner of Saint-Tropez.

Since noon on Tuesday, French firefighters had conducted about 100 operations.

Further east, another 400 firefighters were battling a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of forest.

In addition, a fire that was contained on Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer after burning two homes and leaving one firefighter seriously injured restarted on Wednesday, the Var prefecture said.

Firefighters said they were exhausted and needed more manpower and equipment.

Hundreds of reinforcements were sent in from around France but the president of the Provence-Alpes-Cotes d'Azur area, Renaud Muselier, said on BFM-TV that "we don't have enough means".

France asked the European Union for more firefighting planes and Italy provided one on Tuesday.

Still, a pilot of a Canadair firefighting aircraft said there were not enough planes in the sky.

Marion Manent, whose husband's mobile homes were burned, was suspicious about the origins of the fire around La Londe.

"Someone is certainly responsible ... for me, he is a killer," she told BFM-TV.

France's Mediterranean coast is particularly vulnerable to fires, with its massive back-country forests, often dry in the summer, and hot Mistral winds blowing across the sea to fan the flames.

In central Portugal on Wednesday, billowing smoke was making visibility too poor to use water-dropping aircraft on the region's flaming dense pine and eucalyptus forests.

More than 2,300 firefighters with over 700 vehicles were battling 13 blazes, with flames driven by powerful winds.

The worst-hit areas are 200 kilometres (125 miles) north-east of Lisbon, where the fires briefly forced the evacuation of some hamlets and the closure of a section of highway.

Portugal's peak fire season, which usually occurs after July 1, began early this year amid a severe drought.

Last month, 64 people died trying to flee a forest fire in Portugal.

In Italy, where wildfires have raged for weeks, firefighters responded to 26 requests for water and fire retardant air drops on Tuesday throughout central and southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.

The Coldiretti agriculture lobby said 50 billion bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Coldiretti said another 20% of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented by all the smoke and died as a result.

AP
I needed a fresh perspective on Paris. A different outlook on the city of love and light. The French capitals stunning sights still delight and amaze me, but in recent times there was a predictability about my visits.

I wanted freed from the regular tourist traps of the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, river cruises, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral and Sacre Coeur to savour the sophistication of such a chic city.

The ultra cool and trendy W Hotel, in the heart of the Opera district, offers such an alternative.

Read More

A concierge can put forward ideas and make reservations, but Lea Fabrizio, as the hotels full time W Insider, and with a vast knowledge of every aspect of the city, is there to make things happen  bringing a unique Paris experience for a guest.

From intimate wine tasting at Les Grandes Caves, just a 10-minute walk east of the Arc de Triomphe, to a relaxing walk and picnic in the grounds of Parc des Buttes Chaumont or an off-beat museum, Lea has welcoming suggestions and can put forward itineraries for each individual guest, depending on preference.

Restaurant reservations suddenly become available with Lea and her handy hints and tips can really improve and make a long weekend so much more enjoyable. For instance, when my wife and I met Lea in the DJ playing cocktail bar of the W Hotel after flying in from Belfast, it was early evening. We wanted a restaurant close by and within minutes Lea had written down her favourite Italian (Paparazzi), Spanish (La Demesure) and French (Maria Magdalena and LAbsythe) eateries  all within a stroll of the hotel.

Paparazzi proved to be a popular and pleasant Italian with excellent food and service to match.

Similarly, steak house Volver in St Germain, a 20-minute taxi ride away, for the following evenings dinner, which Lea recommended, was a great choice, even though first impressions did not look overly positive with scaffolding nearly camouflaging the restaurant on the street and inside it was a tight squeeze. But Argentinian steak houses are renowned throughout the world for serving incredible beef dishes and Volver was no exception, washed down with the restaurants native beer and wine.

While Leas suggestions were most welcome, I also did my own research beforehand and managed to secure a table on a Saturday night at the Peninsula Hotels famed LiLi (19 Avenue Kleber).

For a special occasion, this is the ideal restaurant. In an incredible and luxurious setting, with only the finest waiting staff, each Cantonese dish, under the direction of Chef Ma, is a culinary delight.

Dim Sum, the two services of roast Peking duck and monkfish were absolutely delicious  so much flavour and enjoyment in each bite.

For late evening drinks, I found Experimental hidden on rue Saint Sauveur  an unpretentious cocktail bar with live music, where the staff provide quick and quality service, and with the cosy surroundings, there is a really good vibe to the place.

If Experimental is all about class, then Harrys Bar (far right), on rue Daunou, especially at the weekend, is a good loud and proud pub  a haunt for locals and celebrities alike. Indeed, when we were there we literally bumped into Holywood actor and heartthrob, Jamie Dornan  out for a drink with his pals  and enjoying the buzz of the popular nightspot.

A final drink in Harrys Bar brought to an end a day which unlike the rest of the long weekend wasnt at all planned but was equally gratifying. With the sun shining on our backs we started to walk along the Seine at Notre Dame Cathedral, a delightful stroll that took us past street performers, Parisians enduring their morning outdoor work-outs and small sporting events on man-made beaches and pitches.

It was a hive of activity along with the stalls and markets. Before we knew it we were at the bridge for the Place de la Concorde and the start of the world famous avenue, Champs Elysees.

And just off the Champs Elysees we found Wine by One  a quirky little wine bar that serves over 100 different wines, from all over the world, by the glass in optic format. Simply put some Euro on a wine card and enjoy as many tastings as you desire. And if you really like a certain wine, there are bottles to buy and take home with you.

While Wine by One was a novelty experience, we soon returned to our district in Opera and much preferred the character bars such as Bistro De La Banque, great for beer and also the most mouth-watering beef bourguignon.

However, the abiding memory of this short city break is the ultra stylish W Hotel, overlooking the architecturally stunning Palais Garnier Opera House and close to the famous shopping mall  Galleries Lafayettes, the Macys of Paris.

Just walking through the doors, seeing the quills on the pens at reception, the expensive artwork displayed all over the walls with the theme of the six famous characters and the elegance combined with a modern twist make this hotel an incredible cool and chic place to stay.

New York influences combined with Parisian flair are evident.

The rooms and suites, of which there are 91 in total, are referred to by superlatives such as Wonderful and Spectacular. And indeed their names are correct with the rooms masterfully decorated in French chic, luxurious beds, rain showers, free-standing baths and the latest widescreen plasma televisions. If you upgrade to a Suite, especially the Extreme Wow, youll find the TV as a free standing mirror.

The bathrooms in each room are large and that has been planned for people to get ready together. According to the W Insider the ethos of the hotel is to relax, detox and chill during the day and then party all night long.

But in the Extreme Wow suite there really is no need to head for the comfort of the bar when you have your own personal bar space in the living area of the suite, along with neon lights, open fire and great views of the city with the huge high raised windows.

It is the dream living quarters for a short break and allied with the facilities on offer including Coquette restaurant and cocktail bar and unique W Insider, W Hotel really offers the WOW factor.

A completely new and favourable perspective on Paris for me.

How to get there:

Fly from Belfast International to Charles de Gaulle in Paris with easyJet. For flight information and fares log on to www.easyjet.com

Taxi from Charles de Gaulle to central Paris is 50 euro set fee.

Where to stay: the majestic W Hotel, 4 rue Meyerbeer, Paris. For offers, hotel

information and availability -

www.wparisopera.com or phone (0033) 177489494
Disney character Mickey poses in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland park as part of the 20th birthday celebrations of the park, in Chessy, near Marne-la-Vallee, outside Paris, on March 31, 2012. AFP PHOTO / THOMAS SAMSON

The excitement, thrill and anticipation returned just seconds after going through the gates of Disneyland Paris.

It may have been over two decades since I was last at the famous park, but I found Disneyland Paris, this year celebrating a 25th anniversary, hasnt lost its appeal, charm or draw to a variety of different ages.

Just a few steps onto Main Street, USA is enough to bring out the inner child.

Read More

Then its a case of deciding which roller coaster ride to try first and making sure to use the fast pass system wisely. Old favourites Indiana Jones and the Temple of Pearl along with Big Thunder Mountain, two high octane outdoor rides, remain extremely popular on the west side of Disneyland Park and they have been joined by a new Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

In Discoveryland, the old Space Mountain, a thrilling and explosive indoor roller coaster ride, is now called Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain but still does the same corkscrew turns.

Space Mountain was always the signature ride for me, but over in Walt Studios, Rock n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith may be even faster, more exciting and with more indoor loop to loops.

Next time I would actually start in Walt Disney Studios first, with most people heading to Disneyland Park in the morning, and this would allow you to avoid the long queues for RC Racer and Crushs Coaster, which do not have FastPass access.

Then there is also the terrifying The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, basically an elevator drop, looking out over the Studios.

While Disney is primarily for children with the colourful parades, lifesize characters and incredible Sleeping Beauty Castle, adults, even without kids, are well catered for.

A direct train from Opera to Marne la Vallee takes just 45 minutes and is only 8. It leaves you two minutes away from the Disney gates  two minutes from a magical kingdom.

For further information log on to www.disneylandparis.com
A woman carries her baby in Papua province, where dozens of people in several villages have died from diarrhea and other illnesses during the past few months, March 20, 2017.

About 50 residents of several villages in Papua  mostly children younger than 5  have died from diarrhea and other illnesses since April, church and other officials said, in a case reflecting a stark lack of health services in Indonesias easternmost province.

Maria Duwitau, a member of Papuas parliament, cast blame on poor health services provided by the provincial government.

If they already know that diarrhea comes every year, they should have prevention efforts, instead of blaming the community for not having hygienic habits, she told BenarNews. The health department should promote a hygienic and healthy way of life to the community.

Diarrhea-related deaths occur every year in Papua, a deeply impoverished province, officials said. But the rash of cases reported in a handful of villages in Tigi, a district of Deiyai regency, and elsewhere in the province has been more frequent than usual, they said. It has been caused by people drinking from unclean water sources.

Apart from at least 50 deadly cases, hundreds of people in affected villages have been stricken with diarrhea over the past three months, officials said.

People can die of dehydration brought about by diarrhea, which drains the body of vital fluids and salts. It is a common killer of children age 5 and younger worldwide, contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of boys and girls annually in Indonesia, according to UNICEF and NGOs working in public health.

Laurens Kadepa, another local parliamentarian, said four public health centers have been established across the western part of the district  where some of the deadly cases of diarrhea have occurred lately  but none are staffed with doctors. This, in turn, has discouraged residents of local villages from seeking medical services at those sites, he said.

Since two years ago, there has been an attitude of public apathy toward the importance of health services, Laurens told BenarNews.

Visits by doctors, church officials

Cultural practices have also been a factor, officials pointed out. Instead of proceeding to health centers, villagers often stay at home, praying for recovery while using traditional herbs, which, they believe, have healing powers.

According to the chief of the provincial health office, Aloysius Giyai, a medical team of doctors and nurses visited five villages in Deiyai  Ayatei, Digikotu, Piyakedimi, Yinudoba and Epanai  where the rash of diarrheal cases was reported.

The team formed by the Papua Provinces Health Development Acceleration Unit, has been there since a few days ago to handle the case, Aloysius told BenarNews last week.

Church officials visited several villages in Tigi district, after receiving reports from local officials that 30 infants had died in the area over the past three months, said Santon Tekege, a representative of the Catholic Church who is based here.

After we checked the area, there were 50 deaths, including adults, Santon told BenarNews.

The victims, who died within four days after the onset of symptoms, had experienced high fever, diarrhea, sore mouth and red eyes, he said, quoting data gathered by church representatives.

According to medical officers, local residents showed symptoms of having acute respiratory infections, measles, diarrhea and dysentery, Santon added.

Since June, dozens of residents have been admitted to hospitals and clinics in Merauke, another regency in Papua, after complaining of diarrhea, officials said. About 200 children younger than 5 and several adults were believed to be afflicted, they said.

The teams from Puskesmas [community health clinics] have served some of the villages we could reach, while areas in difficult locations have not been reached yet, said Adolf Bolang, chief of Meraukes Health Service. He said 461 people have so far complained of diarrhea in three villages. Four toddlers died after suffering from dehydration, he told BenarNews.

Drinking dirty water and the non-existence of toilets could have precipitated the cases, he said.

In previous diarrhea reports in Papuan villages, Indonesian health officials identified consumption of dirty water as the cause. They said villagers traditionally used natural water ponds as their sources of drinking water, but these had been contaminated by human and animal feces.

Lagging behind

Aloysius Giyai, Papuas health chief, acknowledged services in Deiyai had often performed poorly on the provinces annual health assessment.

Papuas overall health status is the lowest in Indonesia, officials said.

Papua, which is bordered by the nation of Papua New Guinea to the east, and by West Papua province to the west, is one of the Indonesias poorest regions and was absorbed by the country in 1963.

The sparsely populated Papua and West Papua have 5.9 million residents, a majority of whom are Christians. The mineral-rich region  home to the worlds largest copper and gold mines  is also where a low-level armed separatist movement has simmered for decades.

Papuas adult literacy rate is the lowest among all of Indonesias provinces, standing at 74 percent, according to the website GlobalSecurity.org.

The region also has a disproportionately high number of HIV/AIDS cases compared with the rest of Indonesia and high rates of infant and maternal mortality, the website reported.
ein Google-Unternehmen

Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben

Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen

Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern.

neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern

Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen

personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen

personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen

Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke.

Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten.

Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen.
Joseph ChaoA new professorship in software engineering made possible by prominent BGSU alumni has been awarded to an accomplished member of the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Joseph Chao, associate professor and chair of the department, has been named the inaugural Shantanu and Reni Narayen Endowed Professor for a three-year term beginning fall 2017.

Under Chaos leadership, the department developed a software engineering (S.E.) specialization in 2015 and will offer a new bachelor of science degree for students majoring in the discipline beginning this fall. His plan under the Narayen professorship is to focus on student recruitment, program expansion and strategic planning for the future.

The next logical step for the computer science department is to grow the software engineering program and become a leader in S.E. education, Chao said. This is a natural evolution of our program, and it will provide students with additional credentials for employment in a rapidly growing field.

BGSUs is currently only the second software engineering bachelors program among public universities in Ohio.

Before joining Bowling Green State University in 2001, Chaos industry background included roles as systems analyst, software engineer and director of software development. His research focus at the University has been on software engineering, with special interests in agile software development, database systems, web and mobile technologies, and object-oriented analysis and design. In 2008, Chao founded Agile Software Factory, an in-house development service that employs student programmers for community projects.

In addition to the creation of the software engineering major, his leadership as chair since 2014 has seen a successful bid for Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation for the University, and the establishment of a computer science advisory board. He was co-collaborator on the development of a new interdisciplinary master's degree in analytics with the departments of mathematics and statistics and management information systems.

Established in 2015, the professorship is named for Shantanu and Reni Narayen. Shantanu Narayen is president and CEO of Adobe Systems Inc., one of the worlds largest software brands. There, the BGSU alumnus has spearheaded multibillion dollar acquisitions and has taken a company known primarily for creative software to a world leader in the science of big data. Before joining the software giant in 1998, Narayen held senior management positions at Apple Computer Inc. and Silicon Graphics Inc. He holds five patents.

Narayen received his masters degree in computer science from BGSU in 1986 and an honorary doctor of applied science degree in 2011. That same year he was appointed with nine other corporate leaders to President Barack Obamas Management Advisory Board, created to help streamline government operations. In 2010 during the BGSU centennial anniversary, he was named as one of 100 of the Universitys most prominent alumni.

Reni Narayen earned a masters degree in human development and family studies at BGSU in 1986. She also holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and advocates for the transformative power of education. She serves on the board of the Maitri organization in San Francisco, which helps families facing domestic violence.

After a national recruitment period, Chao was selected for the Narayen Professorship based on his combination of knowledge, service and enterprising ethos.

Dr. Chao has demonstrated the teaching and research excellence that this position calls for, said Dr. Raymond Craig, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He has championed a strong and growing software engineering program, and his appointment to this role will further BGSUs standing as a leader in computer science education.
For Immediate Release, July 26, 2017 Contact: William Snape, (202) 536-9351, bsnape@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Seeks Public Records on Trump Administration's Collusion With Coal Industry WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity today sued the Trump administration for failing to provide public records about closed-door meetings between the U.S. Department of the Interior and fossil-fuel industry executives over the reversal of the Obama administration's pause on coal extraction on federal public lands. The Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke revoked an order issued by former Secretary Sally Jewell that halted most new coal-leasing activities pending the first comprehensive review of the program in almost 40 years. Neither the Interior Department nor the Bureau of Land Management have complied with the request for public records. If Trump and Zinke had nothing to hide, they'd comply with our simple request to release meeting records, said Bill Snape, senior counsel with the Center. Instead the Trump administration continues to plot with fossil fuel executives in secret, making decisions that hurt public health and affect the future of all Americans. Despite the coal program's drain on the federal treasury and its significant contribution to climate change, Zinke ended review of the leasing program on March 27 and directed the Interior Department and the BLM to process coal lease applications and modifications expeditiously. His order followed numerous accounts of clandestine meetings between top Trump administration officials and coal industry lobbyists. The Center's FOIA request seeks all communications between top Interior officials and the coal industry. The BLM has completely ignored the request and is now months overdue with a response as required by federal law. The Interior Department said it had received the complex request, but is now months late with a lawful response. Ryan Zinke has turned the Department of the Interior into the Department of Special Interests, said Snape. The public has every right to know who Zinke and his staff are meeting with, especially when it comes to policies that will have disastrous consequences for our public lands and climate. But time after time, Zinke appears to be putting the American people last.
For Immediate Release, July 25, 2017 Contact: Blake Kopcho, Center for Biological Diversity, (805) 708-3435, bkopcho@biologicaldiversity.org

Alena Simon, Food & Water Watch, (323) 843-8456, asimon@fwwatch.org Santa Barbara First California City to Pass Resolution Against Offshore Drilling, Fracking Trump Order to Expand Offshore Leasing Meets Resistance SANTA BARBARA, Calif. The Santa Barbara City Council today approved a resolution opposing new drilling off the California coast and fracking in existing offshore oil and gas wells. The resolution is the first in a new statewide campaign to rally local governments against proposals to expand offshore fossil fuel extraction in federal waters. The vote  which makes Santa Barbara the first California city to oppose both fracking and new offshore drilling  follows President Trump's April 28 executive order urging federal agencies to expand oil and gas leasing in federal waters. The order could expose the Pacific Ocean to new oil leasing for the first time in more than 30 years. I'm thrilled to be part of this community effort to protect natural resources, the water supply and community health, said Santa Barbara City Council member Jason Dominguez, who sponsored the resolution. At the same time, we can improve our economy, develop green markets, and bring quality jobs and living wages to the area. Today's resolution, cosponsored by Dominguez and Santa Barbara City Council member Harwood Bendy White, is supported by more than 20 local businesses, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation and several environmental organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity and Food & Water Watch. The groups are working with other California cities to pass similar resolutions. The last thing Californians want is more drilling and fracking off our coast, said Blake Kopcho, an organizer with the Center's oceans program. Santa Barbara took a stand because the city has seen the horrific damage offshore drilling can cause. Trump is delusional if he thinks we'll stand idly by and let him recklessly endanger wildlife and our communities with oil spills and toxic fracking chemicals. The Santa Barbara Channel has some of richest biological diversity on the planet, along with significant fossil fuel deposits and dozens of oil and gas wells. A massive offshore oil spill in 1969 helped create the modern environmental movement and led California to ban new offshore leasing in state waters. In 2015 the Plains All American oil spill covered Santa Barbara area beaches and killed hundreds of seabirds and marine mammals. Santa Barbara residents know firsthand the devastation that can come from offshore drilling, said Alena Simon of Food & Water Watch. This City Council resolution is the first step in shutting down all drilling and fracking off our coast and another step in transitioning to a 100 percent renewable energy economy. The Santa Barbara resolution calls for: A ban on new drilling and fracking in the Pacific Ocean.

A phaseout of existing oil and gas extraction.

Creation of a framework for responsible renewable energy development. The last offshore lease in federal waters off California was granted in 1984, but Trump's order seeks to renew the leasing program. There are more than 30 offshore drilling platforms and hundreds of miles of underwater oil and gas pipelines off California's coast. Operators want permits to frack offshore wells using chemicals that are toxic to wildlife. Separate lawsuits filed by the state of California and the Center challenging the federal government's approval of offshore fracking are pending in federal district court.
For Immediate Release, July 26, 2017 Contact: Jamie Pang, (858) 688-5143, jpang@biologicaldiversity.org Senate Advances Legislation Gutting Federal Protections for Wolves Senators Cardin, Carper Vote to Undermine Endangered Species Act WASHINGTON The Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee voted today to advance a bill that would strip protection from thousands of endangered wolves in the Great Lakes region and Wyoming. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) voted with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in what was otherwise a party-line vote to approve the Hunting Heritage and Environmental Legacy Preservation for Wildlife Act, or HELP Wildlife Act. The bill weakens the Endangered Species Act by blocking any further judicial review of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2011 decision to end federal protections for wolves. The legislation also prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from addressing lead pollution's impacts on fish and other wildlife due to lead-based fishing gear. This bill would be devastating for wolves and a direct blow to the Endangered Species Act, said Jamie Pang, endangered species policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. Senators Cardin and Carper just joined forces with some of the most anti-environmental members of Congress to do serious injury to America's most successful conservation law. The legislation would reauthorize several programs and laws, including the Chesapeake Bay Initiative Act and North America Wetlands Conservation Act. But reauthorization is a largely procedural and symbolic action that does not affect actual yearly funding levels for those efforts. Congress has fully funded the Chesapeake Bay program every year since 2005. According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 260 major laws funding over half of the entire federal government's activity continue to operate under expired authorizations. Democrats need to solidify their conservation legacies  not help Donald Trump and the Republican Party destroy the environment, Pang said. There's no excuse for selling out our environmental protections and teaming up with right-wing lawmakers to declare open season on wolves. Since they were driven to near-extinction by hunters and trappers in the early 20th century, gray wolves still occupy only 15 percent of their historical range in the contiguous United States. And between 2011, when their protection was removed, and 2014, when a federal court restored that protection, more than 1,500 animals were killed.


Opinion | 04 November 2022 | Interviews

India needs to connect OPD with the cashless insurance network to bring them into the digital economy

After having raised $1.2 million from Entrepreneur First and GrowX Ventures in 2021, how do you see the perfor...Read more
The highlight for this years tour was the launch of two new products - SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer and AmpliSeq On-Demand Panels.

As part of the Genetics Solutions World Tour, Thermo Fisher India recently organized seminars in Delhi & Bengaluru to showcase their market leadership and establish new opportunities for Sanger sequencing, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Microarray.

Every year, the Genetic Solutions Tour is well attended by several Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) across the industry and this year also had active participation from 150 research scientists and decision makers from more than 50 esteemed institutes and industrial accounts.

The highlight for this years tour was the launch of two new products - SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer, a low throughput capillary electrophoresis platform for both Sanger sequencing and DNA fragment analysis and AmpliSeq On-Demand Panels, a semi-custom panel solution for inherited disease research.

In an effort to update a decades-old technology without making changes to the underlying tried-and-tested chemistry, Thermo Fisher Scientific has launched the Applied Biosystems SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer, a low-throughput capillary electrophoresis platform for both Sanger sequencing and DNA fragment analysis.

"Sanger sequencing using CE, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is the gold standard of sequencing technology. Use of the technology helped researchers discover novel biological findings such as the first breast cancer gene (BRCA1), and was used to complete the Human Genome Project in 2003," said Kapil Sood, Business Head - Life Sciences Solutions Group, South Asia "The SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer is a smart, state-of-the-art system that provides researchers with a truly plug and play system."

Ravi Gupta, Product Management Leader - Capillary Electrophoresis Instrument at Thermo Fisher Scientific stated The SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer has a small footprint, with an on-board computer and integrated touchscreen that makes run setup quick, intuitive and flexible. The system allows sequencing and fragment analysis runs on the same plate without the need to change any consumables. This opens new opportunities for streamlining analyses  for example, combining a locus screening test with a copy number variability test on the same CE plate.

It is the first smart connected instrument for sanger sequencing in the industry. With cloud-enabled system integrated with Thermo Fisher Connect customers can set up run, check its progress, and access data on the go, all without the need to stay in the lab. Cloud-based Applied Biosystems Sanger Analysis modules are available for secondary analysis.

The platform will start shipping to early-access customers this month and will be broadly available in September. For several months, it has been in the hands of six beta testers across the world who have tested it for different applications. Among them is MRC Holland, a provider of MLPA (multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification) kits for DNA copy number quantification. I am very proud to say that we have also started selling the SeqStudio to customers in India. It's been 10 years or more since we've launched a new system for capillary electrophoresis and much like a car, at some point, you want to upgrade to a more current model, said Sanjiv Karandikar, Director - GSD Sales, Services & Support, South Asia.

The team also launched an HIV -1 genotyping kit for CE portfolio and Ion ReproSeq PGS Kits for Ion S5 Systems with more innovative products such as Ion Torrent Oncomine BRCA Research Assay which are in launch phase.

Tom Bittick, Sr. Product Manager, at Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the new Ion AmpliSeq On-Demand targeted sequencing panels for inherited disease research. Briefing the audience he stated, The new sequencing panels provide easy and practical design customization capabilities to lower upfront costs regardless of project size and will simplify the way userscustomize their content coming in smaller pack size. Clinical researchers can focus on targets of interest that will drive greater discovery without the high upfront cost and risk of waste. Compared to the time-consuming and costly whole exome or whole genome sequencing, targeted NGS has become an especially beneficial approach in clinical research settings where a more practical, efficient and economical way to re-sequence tens-to-hundreds of specific gene targets is often required.

Michael Richardson, Sr. Technical Applications Scientist, GSD Commercial presented on the Reproductive Health Solutions from Thermo Fisher.
The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) says its board has proposed a revised salary offer to unions.

 Rabia Elif Aksoy  123RF.com

The institution on Wednesday, 26 July 2017, said it has failed to reach a compromise position, despite its best attempts to address the demands of unions during the 2017/8 salary negotiations.

The NHLS said this is despite compromises approved by its board, which pose a significant financial risk to the NHLS, should it not receive payments due to it, and servicing of debt totalling more than R5 billion owed by a select few provincial Departments of Health.

The initial demand by the unions was an annual increase of 13% across the board for employees in the A-D1 bands, while the NHLS could only offer an increase of 3%.

Following subsequent negotiations and interventions by the Director-General in the National Department of Health, the board of the NHLS proposed a revised offer to unions at a meeting, which was held on 24 July 2017, said the NHLS.

The proposal includes:

A 7.3% salary increase for staff in the A-D1 bands, with effect from 1 April 2017, implemented effective from the calendar month in which an agreement is signed;

The implementation of the Proficiency Assessment for the key health professional roles, subject to the finalisation of the evaluation-scoring tool with the relevant disciplines; and the implementation thereof within the 2017/8 financial year. The salary adjustments of the successful applicants will be backdated to 1 October 2016;

The Implementation of Progression Placement for the A-D1 within the General and Management pay scale, as agreed upon in 2016/; and

Implementation of insourcing and the phasing in thereof with effect from 1 April 2018, subject to finalising an agreed modality for its implementation, which will include holistic costing by the insourcing task team.

However, the NHLS said the revised offer has not yet been accepted by the unions, which demanded immediate implementation of Proficiency Assessment Promotion and insourcing of current security, cleaning and maintenance personnel that are contracted to external service providers.

The NHLS board is unable to accede to these timelines, since the tools and the full costing to enable proficiency assessment promotion and insourcing are yet to be finalised and approved by the NHLS board.

Additional union demands include an increase from the current 74.6% medical aid subsidy and living allowance adjustments, the institution said.

The board has noted that the biggest challenge facing the organisation was non-payment by provincial Departments of Health for laboratory services rendered by the NHLS.

It said the biggest defaulters were Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Health Departments, although they have been paying for their current consumption since the 2016/17 financial year.

This outstanding debt has negatively affected the cash flow of the NHLS. It is critical that the current efforts supported by the National Department of Health to recover money owed to the NHLS be urgently addressed to ensure the financial viability of the NHLS and enable it to continue carrying out its mandate of providing quality laboratory services to the Public Health Sector.

The institution said all NHLS provincial area managers will be working with their counterparts in the provincial Health Departments to address challenges that are specific to their provinces.

NHLS management and board have committed to continuing their engagement with unions to seek a solution and safeguard the health of those dependent on the Public Health Sector, and one which does not compromise the financial viability of the organisation.
TOKYO - A Japanese woman has died from a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world's first animal-to-human transmission of the disease.

The woman in her 50s died some 10 days after being bitten by the cat last year after she took the animal to a veterinary hospital.

Authorities have since confirmed that she developed SFTS, a disease transmitted by bites from a certain group of virus-carrying ticks.

Human-to-human infections of the tick virus through blood contact have been reported, but ministry officials believe the Japanese woman's death could be the first case of a human dying from the bite of an infected animal.

"No reports on animal-to-human transmission cases have been made so far," a health ministry official told AFP.

"It's still not confirmed the virus came from the cat, but it's possible that it's the (world's) first case," she said.

Another official said there were no signs the woman had been bitten by a tick.

SFTS, or severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, triggers symptoms including severe fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

In Japan some 60 people contract the disease every year from tick bites with a fatality rate of some 20 percent, according to the Japanese ministry.

No preventive medicines or vaccines are available for the disease.

"There are only symptomatic therapies, such as dealing with fever or diarrhoea," the ministry official said.
People are deserting retail stores' butchery aisles, cutting out the middleman and turning to buying meat in bulk. Seemingly, it is proving to be a great saving.

Image credit: Alon Skuy via Times Live

"If I were to buy the same amount of meat at retail stores, I'd need a loan the following day, meat is so expensive," says Bongani Qansane, of Germiston, who spends R1500 a month on meat.

"Once a month I make the trip to Heidelberg. There's an Eskort butchery where I get my pork cheaper than at retail shops, and I go to a Karan Beef butchery in the same area for beef and mutton. It's great value for money."

Sipho Dube teams up with a friend to buy wholesale. "I spend R400 a month and an additional R40 for fuel so I'm saving big time."

A mother of two says she travels close to an hour with her friends every two months to Eskort. "We buy and freeze," she said, estimating that she spent 40% less than she would pay in retail shops. Not only is the meat cheap, it's fresh. I'm glad I made this decision."

Pieter Prinsloo, of the Red Meat Producers' Organisation, said last year's drought contributed significantly to the increase in meat prices. He said meat was more expensive at retail shops because "it's convenience shopping".

"If you take lamb, for example, you can buy it wholesale for around R70 a kilogramme. The cheapest at a retailer would be about R99 a kilogramme. You can buy beef wholesale from a farmer for R48 a kilogramme. That will give you a 30% saving," he said.

Zeyn Adrian Jenkins, of Durban, said he paid around R350 for 10kg of chicken quarters in Durban. "It's R200 in Pietermaritzburg and Port Shepstone."

For six Soweto women, bulk buying allows them to keep meat on their tables for longer. Thoko Nkosi explained that they put away R150 a month for 11 months. Come the festive season, they can afford to stock up on meat.

"Last year, we were able to buy a beast for about R6,000 and we told the butcher how we wanted it cut. We all walked away with different cuts of meat - from @ rump steak to T-bone steak," Nkosi said.

"If I hadn't joined the group and I walked into a [retailer] with R1,600, I would only get enough meat to last me about two months."

The Times found stewing beef at a City Deep wholesaler in Johannesburg was priced at R65.95 a kilogramme. Pick n Pay sold it for R79.99. It went for the same price at Spar and Checkers sold it for R10 more. A kilogramme of brisket was sold for R65.95 at the wholesalers, for R87.99 at Pick n Pay, R92.99 at Checkers and R98.99 at Spar.

An Alberton butcher said it was important to note that it was not only the price of meat that could differ from one place to another but also the cut and grade.
Recently a leading media personality in South Africa made a statement in response to complaints about the ravages of "fake news" flooding the country, saying "if it is fake news, it is not news."

Would that this were so. Unfortunately, for many people in this country and the rest of the world, news is news is news since they are unable to discriminate between real news and "news that is not news."

As if that were not bad enough, South Africa is now infested with fake public relations laced with a dollop of unadulterated racism. This has been framed around so-called "white monopoly capital". In a country that is still reeling from the legacy of institutionalised racism in the form of apartheid, this is a monster that has yet to be tamed.

Bell Pottinger, with its ill-advised public relations project for the Guptas' Oakbay company, could not have happened to this country at a worse time.

In the world of public relations, perception is reality. It is for this reason that the devastating public relations blunder by Bell Pottinger may have delivered a mortal blow to public relations agencies and millions of upstanding PR practitioners and professionals around the world.

The London-based spin company has since apologised in an attempt to ameliorate the situation. "Not good enough!" many in South Africa are screaming at the company.

Among these is the Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party in the South African parliament. The party has reported the PR firm to the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) in London for violating the association's Professional Charter and Code of Conduct for allegedly sowing racial division in South Africa. The party is calling for reparations from Bell Pottinger. I concur.

The party's international wing, DA Abroad, staged a picket at the Bell Pottinger offices in London in protest, and handed over a memorandum with several demands to the company. The party is calling for reparations to the people of South Africa from Bell Pottinger.

The DA has called on the PR firm to publish all communication and contracts to do with the work done for the Guptas; to declare all funds received for services rendered to the Guptas and the African National Congress; and to invest the funds in building schools or making donations to NGOs.

The Bell Pottinger saga has given the noble practice of public relations a very bad name. For most PR practitioners, high ethical standards and unquestionable professionalism were drummed into our heads. In one devastating blow, Bell Pottinger has damaged the image of PR and it will probably take decades for public relations to recover from the damage and to restore its image of trustworthiness, respectability and professionalism.

PRISA, the PRCA and other professional associations around the world, have their work cut out for them to do restoration.

I believe it is incumbent upon the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the international organisation for PR bodies around the world, to join the PRCA in its efforts to get Bell Pottinger to "do the right thing" by the people of South Africa and the PR profession.

As a former president of PRISA and past chairman of the Global Alliance, it is my passionate plea that these respected PR bodies will not let up until Bell Pottinger has atoned appropriately for its grossly irresponsible ways. In his apology to the world, James Henderson, the chief executive of Bell Pottinger, had this to say: "We wish to make a full, unequivocal and absolute apology to anyone impacted. These activities should never have been undertaken. We are deeply sorry that it happened."

Indeed, we in South Africa are also deeply sorry that "it happened". More than 50 million South Africans have been negatively "impacted" by the actions of this company.

A mere apology can never be good enough since an apology cannot put things right. Ironically, we have been told that Bell Pottinger has cut its ties with the Guptas' Oakbay company because they were "the target of a politically driven smear campaign in South Africa over the last few months, with a number of totally false and damaging accusations levelled at it."

All I can retort is, "Look who's talking!" Politically driven smear campaign? What was "white monopoly capital" all about? Clearly, a politically driven, monied, fake PR campaign to bedevil race relations in South Africa. Unforgivable!

The DA is right: "For an international PR agency to sow racial divisions in a country still grappling with a very painful past, for the sole benefit of a corrupt few, is simply unethical." Such behaviour may also be characterised as criminally irresponsible, in the South African context.




The terms of reference of the inquiry into Eskom that will be undertaken by Parliament's public enterprises committee have been broadened to cover state capture as it affects the Department of Public Enterprises and state-owned enterprises, particularly Transnet and Denel.

Committee chairwoman Zukiswa Rantho also gave the assurance that the three Gupta brothers as well as President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane Zuma would be called as witnesses to the inquiry, which will get under way in mid-August. She stressed that the committee would "leave no stone unturned" to get to the bottom of allegations of corruption at Eskom.

MPs were unanimous that the inquiry should have an experienced legal practitioner as an evidence leader, as was the case in the SABC inquiry.

The broader terms of reference include the original version adopted by the committee in June but which were narrowed down in a document presented to MPs on Tuesday. The original terms of reference as adopted by the committee were that the inquiry would look into the circumstances surrounding the reappointment of Brian Molefe as group CEO of Eskom, the processes followed in determining his retirement package and allegations of state of capture affecting the Department of Public Enterprises and stateowned companies.

The revised terms of reference include the reappointment of Molefe; Eskom's role in the purchase by Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources of Optimum Coal Holdings; the awarding of about R11.7bn worth of coal supply contracts at inflated prices to Tegeta; the R43m contract with the Guptas' media company TNA; payments of over R400m to Trillian Capital Partners for management consulting and advisory services; and allegations of impropriety against former acting CEO Matshela Koko.

Witnesses have been identified on all these issues, including Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, Molefe, Koko, Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh and other Eskom and Treasury officials.

EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu and African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart urged that the National Prosecuting Authority and the South African Police Service be called to report back on progress with investigations, while DA finance spokesman David Maynier wanted the inquiry to focus on Eskom's controversial diesel contracts.

He also wants Gupta associate Ashu Chawla and director-general of the public enterprises department Richard Seleke to be called as witnesses.
A more than 365-year history of colonialism and apartheid have indelibly affected land, heritage and human rights in South Africa.

Land reform remains a divisive subject 23 years after democracy in South Africa. Filckr

Among the vast array of discriminatory laws was the Land Act of 1913 that spatially segregated people through land dispossession. It amplified the vast canyon of inequality, further shattered the social fabric of communities and radically compromised economic development of the black majority.

It was only after the 1994 democratic elections that the vast majority of citizens could hope for constitutional restitution of their land.

Significant socio-economic advances have been made since 1994, but several challenges need to be overcome as indicated by recent trends. Much more needs to be done. This is particularly true when it comes to land distribution and restitution.

The 2013 state land audit report illustrates why. By 1994 about 87% of the land was owned by whites and only 13% by black people. By 2012 only 7.95 million hectares had been transferred to black owners through land reform. This represented only 7.5% of formerly white-owned land.

Land reform was discussed with understandable intensity during the recent National Policy Conference of the governing African National Congress. Debates centred on whether land should be expropriated without compensation.

Its within this context that a National Forum was established for dialogues on land reform. The National Forum is made up of a network of organisations that includes three universities, the South African Human Rights Commission and Foundation for Human Rights.

The National Forum focused on whether it was possible to achieve effective land reform through Section 25 of the South African Constitution, which deals with property rights. The National Forum also examined the bureaucratic, legal and constitutional constraints that slow down land redistribution and restitution. It also explored the policy and legislative options necessary to address the complex challenges.

The National Forum concluded that South Africas constitution doesnt stand in the way of land reform. However, its clear that political negligence has fuelled undue bureaucracy, mismanagement and corruption, which have severely hampered meaningful land reform. It reached consensus on a 10-point plan for constitutionally accelerated land reform. The hope is that it can help break the long-standing impasse over land, and move the country toward radically inclusive socio-economic growth.

Accelerating land reform

Aspects of the 10-point plan include:

A human rights approach to land redistribution, grounded in the effective implementation of Section 25 of the Constitution. This could still guarantee a life of dignity, equality and freedom for all citizens.

Existing land reform legislation is not effectively implemented. The Land Claims Commission and Land Claims Court, which were created through the Restitution of Land Rights Act (1994), have not been effective. Unnecessary bureaucratic bungling, significant corruption and limited expert skills have been exacerbated by cadre deployment. This is the practice of appointing party political loyalists to government positions irrespective of ability. In addition, these institutions have yet to be made more accessible and more representative.

The possibility of adopting further laws to accelerate land reform is not being used. This is the case even though Section 25(8) of the Constitution specifically indicates that it can be done.

The possibility of repealing existing legislation thats inconsistent with or hampering land reform is not being pursued. This should be rectified.

There is a need for national legislation on expropriation. A bill is before Parliament  the Expropriation Bill  but its been introduced late and processed without urgency. The possibility of effecting appropriate amendments to the 1975 Expropriation Act should also be considered.

There should be improved communication and coordination between various government departments. Currently, the location of relevant land reform mandates and competencies are spread across several departments. These should be aligned to accelerate the pace of the process.

A draft bill on cultural and spiritual access to land must be developed to enable citizens access to cemeteries and related holy sites where their family members are buried.

The courts should pronounce on the meaning of just and equitable compensation in Section 25 of the Constitution, to provide for better definition and interpretation of this provision within the context of land reform.

Communal Property Associations, community and traditional leader tensions must be resolved through meaningful engagement. Communication channels must be open, all role-players included and all relevant information made available to every stakeholder. Furthermore, all affected parties must be able to influence the decisions taken. In addition, skills training for officials dealing with land restitution is necessary, whilst an updated land audit is required.

There is need for a Land and Economy Convention, similar to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). This was held to negotiate the countrys peaceful transition to democracy. A role for the new convention would be to address poverty, inequality and unemployment. The aim would be to restore citizens dignity, strengthen the economy and advance democracy.



The National Forum envisions the 10-point plan being effected within the context of the countrys National Development Plans Vision 2030. The plan was drawn up to provide a roadmap for the country to 2030. Its central aims are to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality.

If land reform is realised, South Africa could present a more humane, just, peaceful, prosperous and democratic face to the world.

Key dialogue leaders at the National Forum were:

Retired Justice Albie Sachs, Professor Bongani Majola, Professor Mathole Motshekga, Advocate Leks Makua, Retired Justice Johan van der Westhuizen, Professor Frans Viljoen, Victor Mavhidula, Makgatho Motshekga, Koogan Pillay, Elson Kgaga and Advocate Hanif Vally.
A team, led by Monash South Africa (MSA) employee and student Bronwyn Dugtig, has won $25,000 in funding and mentorship in the McGuire Business Plan Competition - Laureate International Universities' entrepreneurship competition that identifies and supports innovative entrepreneurial ventures.

A team, led by Monash South Africa (MSA) employee and student Bronwyn Dugtig, has won $25,000 in funding and mentorship in the McGuire Business Plan Competition - Laureate International Universities entrepreneurship competition that identifies and supports innovative entrepreneurial ventures.

The award is open to students across the global Laureate network and attracted more than 150 business plans from 34 network institutions across the globe.

Dugtig who is head of community engagement at MSA, mentors approximately 50 students per annum, reaching approximately 500 students each year. Her winning business idea, My Voice, aims to give South African learners the skills required to engage, speak and lead within a democratic society. Its extensively researched curriculum focuses on human rights, democratic institutions and their functions, policy development, and voter rights and responsibilities. Its content is defined and guided by the South African Constitution.

Dugtig says, Globally, there is a trend towards people participating less in the democratic process. They become disillusioned when they do not get the outcomes they want nor make progress because they do not know the channels to go through. We aim to teach people how to participate actively in a democracy, taking collective charge of all our futures.

The business goals will be fast-tracked, thanks to winning the McGuire Business Plan Competition. Dugtig notes how this support will drive the success of her teams fledgling business. Winning the award has given us so much more confidence in our product and legitimised our ideas. The entire pitch process is invaluable, as it allowed us to form a strong business plan and recalibrate our approach. Being supported by Monash South Africa and Laureate gives our team the credibility required, as we share our concept with schools across the country.

Startup able to expand to more schools

The prize money and one year mentorship that is part of the prize presents opportunities that are not usually available to a startup. For example, My Voice can build a professional brand and world-class curriculum. As an apartisan organisation, My Voice will also need to conduct pilots in selected schools. It will follow a hybrid model, offering its services to both underprivileged and wealthy schools. This decision follows the insight that South African learners of all backgrounds require a greater understanding of the importance and role of participating in a democratic society. Ultimately, the team aims to produce a blended curriculum of both online and in-person tuition that can be replicated and scaled.

The research phase yielded great response. Teachers identified a widespread need for critical thinking, while learners asked for leadership development and voter education. This presents a powerful opportunity for the team to gather data and study the political discourse taking place among the youth of South Africa. This will result in knowledge that all South Africans and policy makers will benefit from.

Through my work and research for this business plan, I have come to the conclusion that young people are hungry for change and engagement. Sometimes young people are not taken as seriously as they should be, but we need to help prepare them to engage in civil society and step up into the economy. Through finding their voices, young people can create a future they want to see, concludes Dugtig.

President and academic president of MSA, Prof Alwyn Louw added, Our goal is to be aligned with the national agenda and nurture talent that can lead South Africa and other neighbouring countries to new levels of growth. Over the years, the institution has produced nine Mandela Rhodes Scholars, while another MSA student Lebo Sekhotla won the Laureate Here for Good Award two years ago. The entire education journey is intended to be life-changing, for our students and their families, employers and local communities.

Monash South Africa (MSA) joined the Laureate International Universities network in 2013. For more information, go to www.msa.ac.za.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) plans to review the number portability regulations to make it easier for consumers to switch networks.

Number portability, which was introduced in 2006, allows cellphone and fixed-line subscribers to switch network operators without losing their phone numbers. Referred to as porting, it was meant to spur competition at a time when voice prices were high. The rationale was that if users could switch networks without losing their numbers, operators were likely to cut prices and improve services to win customers.

However, the regulations had not yet realised their full potential, Icasa said in its report on number portability. It said the local market had changed in many respects since the launch of the regulations and new challenges needed to be tackled.

Discounts on calls between users of the same network and other rewards offered by the large operators have a stifling effect on porting,

From implementation in November 2006 until June 2017, almost 7.2-million mobile numbers switched networks. On average, 54,460 numbers are switched per month. From April 2010 to the end of June 2017, almost 1-million fixed-line numbers moved between operators.

Analysts from research firm BMI-TechKnowledge said number portability only succeeded if customers had confidence in the process and they experienced a simple, cheap operation with minimal delay or friction.

The analysts said the fact that fewer people were porting in SA than in comparable markets underscored "our belief that South Africans are experiencing delays and frustrations with the process, often having valid porting requests rejected for no proper reason".

According to Icasa's findings, the time it takes to switch networks could be reduced as real-time porting is becoming a standard feature in countries such as the US, Australia and Canada. In SA it takes one day to move a cellphone number to another operator and about 10 days to switch fixed-line numbers.

The process is handled by the Number Portability Company, which is owned by Cell C, MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, and Neotel. The company determines the prices for porting. It does not publicly disclose the breakdown of which cellular network operator or fixed-line companies are making net gains in customers from number portability. This limits Icasa's ability to monitor portability and tackles potential issues in its implementation.

Icasa said it should have the right to access information through the joint company and to audit the prices.

Some respondents to the inquiry on number portability complained that it was uneconomical to port a block of numbers because the Number Portability Company charged a fee per number, rather than a single charge in respect of the block.

Another finding was that the non-geographic numbers prefixes - 080, 086 and 087 - should be included for porting. The 080 and 086 numbers are mainly used in call centres while 087 is now extensively used by small companies for voice over internet protocol calls.

BMI-TechKnowledge said allowing porting of fixed nongeographic numbers would be an "important breakthrough in increasing competition".

It said Icasa's review of the regulations was long overdue in a dynamic and rapidly changing market where security was fast becoming an issue.

"We support the general findings, although at times they pander to inadequate operator systems rather than customer needs," it said.

Source: Business Day
The Seychelles Roadshow took place at the Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town on 20 July 2017. The first leg of the Roadshow included a MICE speed networking session, which was presented by 18 Seychelles tourist offices that served as information links between the Seychelles, potential visitors, tour operators, travel agents and the media. These offices included Air Seychelles, Seychelles Hospitality & Tourism Association, Vision Voyages, Alphonse Island, Berjaya Hotel, Constance Hotels, Eden Bleu Hotel, Hilton Seychelles, Six Senses, Sunsail and the Moorings, SeyUnique, The Holiday Factory, Thompsons Holidays and Variety Cruises.

Each office had six to eight minutes to highlight the features of their respective establishments and how it could benefit groups visiting the island, for either business or leisure. Throughout these sessions, I was personally reminded of how I had initially fallen in love with the Seychelles as a holiday destination during the 2017 World Travel Market Africa and vowed then and there to make my way to this beautiful, unscathed, holiday utopia.

We caught up with David Germain, the director for Africa and America's Seychelles Tourism Board and Amanda Lang, marketing manager for Alphonse Island, to find out more about MICE services and its positioning within the Seychelles.

David Germain, Director: Africa and America's Seychelles Tourism Board and Amanda Lang, marketing manager, Alphonse Island.

How has the MICE industry changed in the Seychelles  have you seen any changes?

Germain: Very much so, this is the reason why we are actually promoting Seychelles as a MICE destination, because we didnt have the various facilities and services, maybe establishments as well, in Seychelles that can properly service the MICE industry. I think I use the word properly because it takes into consideration equipment and professional staff as well  so the real professional package to service MICE in the Seychelles. This is why, today, we are positioning Seychelles as a MICE destination, specifically for a certain group of people, because as a small island nation, we also have our limitations.

How successful has the Seychelles been in terms of its MICE offering?

Germain: So far, I think that its been very successful, more specifically from the European market, which is our traditional market. As I said, its new to the African continent, but it has been quite successful in various ways, particularly the work and play kind of programmes and conferences. Remember, Seychelles has a lot of islands and each island has its own unique attractions  this gives delegates and business travellers a lot of opportunities to discover the unique attractions of the Seychelles. Travellers can come down with their children during school holidays and join up with them. Our hotel services provide a variety of programmes for MICE and conferences to be able to visit all of the islands like Alfonse.

What has the international response been to hosting conferences and events in the Seychelles?

Germain: Seychelles continues to host quite a lot of big events. Conferences on the government side - SADC conferencing, RETSO, African Union - are frequently being hosted by Seychelles and it's been good in the past four to five years. They keep coming to Seychelles for two reasons. First of all, it allows them to discover the uniqueness of the Seychelles and its natural beauty. Secondly, there are a lot of aspects attached to it as well, such as safety, no diseases, no vaccinations and the friendliness of the people. Its a combination of positive factors which continue to grow and boost the success of the Seychelles.

Lang: Because we have such a wide variety of star rating hotels, visitors can look at cost conscious or cost effective hotels as well as the larger ones like Berjaya, for instance, where one can fit up to 200 people. Then there are the high-end hotels like Ephelia where conference facilities can be housed. As Germain mentioned, most hotels are work-and-play compatible, especially that of Eden Bleu which has the capacity to host conferences as they have before with SADC, African Union, etc.

Eden Bleu Hotel Twitter

How has marketing for MICE come along?

Lang: At my property, for instance, we had fly fishing, where the likes of Columbia and Yeti came through for two weeks, enjoying both work and play aspects. However, I think with other products, we did target a lot of African countries, like Ethiopia and Angola.

Germain: I think it's been more individual in the past with each property doing their sales calls, exhibitions all over the world, depending on the nature of the hotel and the promotion of their offering. Now the Tourism Board has taken it as part of our marketing activity to include MICE because weve made an assessment and can see that Seychelles can properly promote MICE. We also have to take into consideration the standard required to properly service clients. We have to be able to match the international level. There was a time when we thought that we could host MICE, but found that we were unprepared. Now we can rightly say that we are capable of hosting events.

We do need to be careful that we don't overestimate our capacity - invite 400 to 500 people to come and then have a disaster if we cannot manage it.

Lang: We've also seen an increase in airlines coming through, so seat allocation has become a lot easier.

Germain: Taking everything into consideration - man power, equipment, buses, airport, and arrival, etc. - we like to do things properly. I think this is the reason why Seychelles Tourism continues to grow - because we take it seriously. People need to know exactly what it is that we offer.

Connect with the Seychelles Islands Tourism Board on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
NEW YORK, US: Airlines will need 637,000 new pilots over the next 20 years to keep pace with the growth of global air traffic, Boeing reported in an annual report on the subject.

Its latest estimate of the pilot requirements is up 3.6% from last year's report.

Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region alone will need 253,000 new pilots, a third of the total, according to the report, which was prepared by Boeing's Global Services Division. It put North America's requirement at 117,000 new pilots and Europe's at 106,000 for the period from 2017 to 2036.

Aircraft maintenance technicians

The report also projects a need for 648,000 new aircraft maintenance technicians, a 4.6% dip from last year's estimate due mainly to a reduction in maintenance hours required by the Boeing 737 MAX.

As for flight crews, it said 839,000 flight attendants will need to be recruited through 2036, including 308,000 in the Asia-Pacific region, 173,000 in Europe, 154,000 in North America, and 96,000 in the Middle East.

A study published last month by CAE, a company that specialises in civil aviation training, found that airlines will need 255,000 more pilots over the next 10 years.

Many experts have warned that airlines face a looming pilot shortage.

Source: AFP
The cross-cultural one-day festival, Berlin eKapa will be taking place in Paarden Eiland on Saturday, 5 August 2017, showcasing the best South African art, fashion, music and culture, with a twist - a taste of Germany.

Coinciding with Womens Month, festival goers will be entertained by some of the hottest female acts in SA, including Moozlie; Rouge; and DJ Doowap, supported by DJ Capital; and Beatsampras.

DJ Doowap

The festival will also have photo exhibitions from international talent such as Andre Alexander from Bavaria, Berlingraphie (Berlin) and Polaroidville (Berlin). Local audiences will experience the edgy works of Zimbabwean born, Thandi Gula and emerging talents Geraldzinyo, and Mr High Art.

Entrepreneurial opportunities for artists

Muma Khumalo, the festival organiser, highlights the importance of the festival - to promote artistic and entrepreneurial opportunities for young South Africans in hopes to continue to inspire change as well as access to international work exchanges.

We have partnered with J&B on this exciting venture to promote the arts in South Africa. We have the support of the South African Embassy in Berlin which strengthens international ties and opportunities. Many of our artists struggle exhibiting at major galleries due to various reasons such as not being palatable enough or a lack of financing. Through this cultural festival, we are creating an inclusive space for artists and entrepreneurs to exhibit their works and make money too, explains Khumalo.

Rouge Moozlie

We don't compromise on quality; all of our exhibitors are exceptional. Berlin eKapa Festival is a way to bridge the gap between SA artists and the rest of the world. The festival would resonate with fans of the First Thursdays concept - inspired by the modern European cultural landscape, continues Khumalo.

Festival eats and treats

Brand stalls will include Hunnid Pin, Favelo International, and Mobile Cutz. Food and beverages available on the day will include a J&B and Smirnoff Bar, The Woodstock Gin Company as well as various food vendors catering to many preferences.

Red Bulls culture sound system will provide cutting edge Funktion One sound technology to provide the best sonic experience. Rockwell All Suite Hotel & Apartments will host the festival's press and media conference on Saturday, 5 August 2017.

Event info:

Date: Saturday 5 August 2017

Time: 6pm until 2am

Address: The Shred, 68 Auckland Street, Paarden Eiland, Cape Town

Tickets will be sold at R100 each for general tickets, while VIP access will cost R300 each (This includes a VIP bar and German gourmet platter), and can be purchased via Quicket.

www.facebook.com/Berlinekapa
What's your next? As an entrepreneurial, ambitious woman, the best place to answer that question is at the must-attend event this Women's Month: the 2017 Standard Bank Top Women Conference.

World-renowned South African HIV/Aids research pioneer Doctor Glenda Gray and Deputy Minister in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams, will be amongst the high-profile speakers engaging with, and inspiring, delegates at this years conference.

The annual conference draws together respected business leaders who are passionate about embodying and driving gender empowerment in Africa. The programme showcases some of the most successful stories and strategies being implemented around the advancement of leadership roles for women and networks decision makers who are serious about economy-wide progress: empowerment experts, academics, government representatives and CEOs.

Whats all the buzz on digital disruption?

Aside from the quest for 50/50 gender parity, the dawn of a golden era for Africas entrepreneurial women and a focus on mentorship between the icons and the up-and-comers of business and industry, one of the key hot buttons being pushed at this years conference is the notion that digital prowess is no longer the domain of men.

In tune with the global trend, more and more South African women are upskilling and powering ahead to take up senior data management, I.T. systems and programming roles, or utilising new tech tools to shake up their market sectors. Technology-based qualifications are enabling women to accelerate their success far beyond the confines of the (in this context) almost-irrelevant traditional glass ceiling - which has been replaced by a digital stratosphere (nowhere is this more evident than in India, where the ratio of women studying digital qualifications is 40% higher when compared to men).

Through the course of the two-day conference, delegates will gain insight from admired women leaders in business and government through entrepreneurial networking, mentorship exchanges, interactive panel discussions and the sharing of award-winning case studies on real-world success stories.



Click here to download the programme or click here to book your seat.

For more information contact Asanda Munyu on

*Top Women is an inclusive platform. Men are also warmly welcomed.




Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, speaks during the YouthConnekt Africa Summit in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on July 21, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

KIGALI - Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma on Friday announced four projects to support African entrepreneurs, African young people and efforts of conservation in Africa.

"I will work with UNCTAD to support 200 African entrepreneurs in the next five years," said Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Ma, also special advisor of UNCTAD also announced that he will work with universities and governments to develop training program for African young people on e-commerce and cloud computing.

The third project is to set up a conservation award for conservation rangers. Every year, the award will be used to recognize 50 African wildlife conservation rangers who has been guarding natural heritages, said Ma.

"We plan to have the program lasting for 10 years to initiate a closer link in the conservation world between China and Africa," he said.

According to him, the award will be contributed by Alibaba Foundation and Paradise Foundation, a China-based conservation organization.

"I'm going to personally donate $10 million to establish a young entrepreneurs development fund, to support young people like you! To support hope today, and it becomes prosperity for tomorrow," he said.

Ma made the announcement at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit being held in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. The three-day summit is organized by the government of Rwanda, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and UNDP. The summit from July 19 to 21 is dubbed: "Realizing Africa's Youth Potential."
By Amy Ryan

Garda Darran Conlon has a mission in Ballyhaunis, a small town in County Mayo.

He is teaching young immigrants how to play GAA, not only to help welcome them but also to ensure that the local club can actually field a team.

This town is unique in an Irish context. With a population of 3,000 people, the town has certainly changed, although their traditions have opened the doors to the immigrants and refugees in the town.

The Guardian's video shows locals attending an action packed county final, and revelling in the "local drama."

"I love to see the kids down here today. The Polish kids, Lithuanian kids, Pakistani, Syrian and African kids," says Darran Conlon, Ballyhaunis GAA trainer.

"I'd love to see all of their faces here today," he says.

Ger McGarry, Ballyhaunis GAA president, commented about the emigration of young Irish people affecting the town in many ways, including the local clubs.

"The reason we need to integrate people is that we're losing our own," says Ger McGarry, Ballyhaunis GAA president.

"Oh, we've suffered. Especially in the last 10 years, we've lost a great number of young people."

Following the recession, Ballyhaunis began to see waves of inward migration from Pakistan, eastern European and African communities.

The town's former convent now houses 300 asylum seekers.

The majority of local children speak neither English nor Irish at home.

Two thirds of the children in the local primary school do not speak English as their native language.

Hannan Iqbal, a immigrant to this small rural town, tells his story about growing a love for GAA since starting to play at age 11.

By the time he was 14, he was the goalkeeper for the Mayo hurling team.

"First, when they see you, they wouldn't know how to react. Then once I start talking, they say 'Jesus, where did you get that accent!'," he says.

The video also highlights the limitations of direct provision in Ireland, especially the restrictions on employment.

It says that the average waiting time for a decision was four years and 80% of applications are rejected.

Francisca Yobouet is a mother of one of the children who has joined the local club. She tells her story about being in direct provision in Ireland.

She was waiting for a decision for six years. During this time, she received 19.10 per week, while she received 9.50 on behalf of her son.

"I was not allowed to work, that was the problem," she said.

She speaks about how she and her son have found home in the little village.

"I love Ballyhaunis, it's like my village now."
Three cheeky rabbits escaped floods by hitching a ride.with a flock of sheep.

New Zealand farmer Ferg Horne, 64, said he had never seen anything quite like it.

He was trudging through pelting rain to rescue a neighbour's sheep from the floodwaters at their South Island farm near Dunedin on Saturday, when he spotted some dark shapes from a distance.

He was puzzled because he knew his neighbour, who in Russia attending a nephew's wedding, did not have any black-faced sheep.

Mr Horne got closer, he thought it might be debris from the storm, which had drenched the area, forcing the farmer to evacuate his home.

Then he saw the bedraggled rabbits hitching a ride - two on one sheep and a third on another.

"I couldn't believe it for a start," he said.

Nobody else would believe him either without proof, he thought, so he pulled out his phone to take a photo, an image he thought his grandchildren would enjoy.

But in fact, Mr Horne inadvertently shot a short video.

"It's a Samsung or a smartphone or whatever you call it. I swear at it every day," he said. "I'm absolutely useless with technology."

Mr Horne said the sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about three inches of water.

He said the rabbits looked like they had got wet but seemed quite comfortable and relaxed atop their mounts.

Rabbits are usually considered a pest to farmers in New Zealand, and Mr Horne said when he sees one, he usually shoots it.

"But they'd showed so much initiative, I thought they deserved to live, those rabbits," he said.

Mr Horne herded the sheep to a patch of dry ground on the farm about 50 metres away, but the sheep did not like it.

"As they jumped through the water, the rabbits had a jolly good try at staying on," Mr Horne said.

He said the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws. As they approached the higher ground, they fell off but managed to climb a hedge to safety.

Mr Horne sent his video to his son, who sent images to the local paper and posted them on Facebook.

"From then on it's just gone crazy," he said.

AP
Cabinet colleagues are defending Eoghan Murphy's handling of the water crisis in the North East.

Minister Murphy is briefing colleagues on the water failures in Louth and Meath at this week's cabinet meeting.

Last night, the Minister was challenged by locals over the failure to protect the water supply for Drogheda and nearby areas.

But Independent Alliance minister Finian McGrath has said the failure in the water network is not the Minister's fault.

" I don't think it is acceptable and I think there are major problems within the system," he said

"What I do find acceptable is Minister Eoghan Murphy is doing a great job against the odds of this particular situation and I've great confodence in him and Irish Water that they will have this issue resolved within a matter of days."
Clifden RNLI launched their Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat and Mersey class all weather lifeboat last night to reports of a pleasure boat in difficulty east of Davillaun Island with eight people onboard.

The weather conditions worsened and the group were cold and exhausted. All were brought safely to shore with one person being taken to hospital for further treatment.

Clifden RNLIs volunteer lifeboat crew was requested to launch by Malin Head Coast Guard at 6.58pm to assist the broken down pleasure craft.

The eight people onboard had been to Inishboffin island for the day and were returning home when the weather turned, becoming wet and foggy.

As the inshore lifeboat arrived on scene the Helm came alongside the pleasure craft and the group appeared to be cold and exhausted. A volunteer crewmember boarded the boat to assist the casualties and to secure a tow line. Four of the casualties were then transferred onto the lifeboat where they received casualty care while the remaining four people stayed onboard the broken down vessel with the lifeboat crewmember. The lifeboat then took the vessel under tow towards Aughris pier, over an hour away.

When the All-Weather lifeboat arrived on scene all eight casualties were put on board and taken inside to warm up. There they were given some hot soup and further assessed. Meanwhile the lifeboat crew on the Atlantic 85 continued to tow the casualty vessel.

On the return journey to Aughris pier the all-weather lifeboat crew requested, via Malin Head Coast Guard radio, for a HSE ambulance to meet them at the pier as one of the group required medical attention.

The casualty was assessed by paramedics and transferred to hospital for further treatment. The remaining seven people disembarked the lifeboat at the pier.

"This callout shows how conditions can change quite quickly at sea. Visibility became poor as the weather deteriorated. Thankfully we have a fast responding Atlantic 85 lifeboat and a well-trained crew. Having the all-weather lifeboat provide cover was invaluable, providing warmth and comfort for the casualties," said Clifden RNLI lifeboat helm Daniel Whelan.

"Safety at sea is so important. Wear plenty of layers. Tell someone your plan and bring a suitable form of communication. The group in trouble did all of this which made it much easier to locate them."

Clifden RNLI Coxswain David Barry also commented: "This was a very successful callout with both lifeboat crew working well together to bring the casualties to safety. It was a beautiful day but the weather turned as the evening approached. We wish the patient a speedy recovery."
The widow of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane has been granted permission to take her bid for a public inquiry into his death to the UK's highest court.

The Belfast lawyer, 39, was shot dead at his house in North Belfast in 1989 by loyalists in an attack found to involve collusion with the state.

Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron decided not to hold a public inquiry but instead ordered an investigation by a senior lawyer, a decision which will be at the heart of the Supreme Court hearing.

The review by Desmond de Silva QC, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, concluded there was "no overarching state conspiracy" in his death, but found "shocking" levels of state collusion involving the army, police and MI5.

Peter Madden of Madden & Finucane Solicitors said: "This afternoon we have been notified that a committee of Supreme Court justices have granted Geraldine Finucane permission to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal that David Cameron was justified in reneging on a commitment given to Pat's family, and to the Irish government, that it would hold a public inquiry into the circumstances of Pat's murder."

The Finucane family has fought a lengthy battle for a public inquiry through the courts. Mrs Finucane has described the De Silva report as a "whitewash".

Her lawyer added: "The only way that the full truth about Pat's murder can be firmly established, and the extent to which a policy of extra-judicial assassination of which Pat was a victim was authorised by government is by a full transparent public inquiry where witnesses and documents are subject to intense scrutiny.

"We will seek to persuade the Supreme Court at the hearing of this appeal that David Cameron acted unlawfully in refusing a public inquiry and that the Court should quash his decision."
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties says it will be stressing the importance of inspections and reporting when it addresses the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva today.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick says it is a decade since Ireland pledged to develop sufficient safeguards for the vulnerable.
Update 8.48pm: A man has been taken into Garda custody following an incident at a Church in Crumlin in Dublin earlier this evening.

Emergency services and a Garda negotiator attended the scene but no further details have been released for operational reasons.

The incident happened at St. Agnes Church at around 6.30pm.

The scene was sealed off to the public but has since reopened.

Earlier: Garda and ambulance teams have rushed to a church in Crumlin in Dublin, where an incident is unfolding this evening.

A cordon has been set up around St Agnes' Church which has been sealed off to the public.

Two fire engines are in attendance and a number of emergency vehicles are also standing by.

Garda sources say the incident is 'ongoing' but details are not being released for operational reasons.

However it is understood that a Garda negotiator is on site.

Dublin Fire Brigade on standby as the guards deal with an ongoing incident inside St Agnes Church in Crumlin, Dublin pic.twitter.com/lfCximhlvN  Today FM (@TodayFM) July 26, 2017

More as we get it ...
Update 4pm: Fully replacing a mains pipe that burst triggering the water supply crisis in Louth and Meath could cost 3m and take 18 months, Irish Water has said.

A temporary repair has now been carried out on the damaged section of the pipe serving Staleen water treatment plant in Meath.

Engineers are testing to see it the patch holds.

While work on a more permanent repair will start next month, Irish Water has said the incident has highlighted a need to replace a 2.2km section of the main.

Irish Water managing director Jerry Grant said: "It's clear from the significant level of disruption and hardship endured by so many customers as a result of the burst on this high pressure main that its replacement must be a priority for Irish Water.

"A detailed programme for complete replacement will take a number of weeks to finalise and we will need to undertake detailed planning and design work before we can be confident around the exact time frame for this to happen.

"However, a preliminary view suggests a time frame of 18 months and a budget of 2-3 million euro will be needed to complete the work."

Up to 60,000 households and businesses have been affected by water shortages since the rupture on Friday.

Louth and Meath county councils continue to coordinate efforts to provide people with supplies.

Temporary water stations have been set up across both counties.

Water tankers and containers have also been mobilised across the country to replenish water supplies.

The Defence Forces, the Civil Defence, Louth and Meath fire services, Northern Ireland Water and a number of private sector companies have been involved in the distribution operation.

Community and voluntary groups, including the scouts, have also helped.

Update 11.04am: Irish Water says limited water supply is now available in Meath.

Works to repair a burst main in the North East got underway this morning and the utility says main urban centres in east and south east Meath will have some services during daylight hours today.

Update 9.58am: A specialist in public health has warned that the current water crisis is a significant risk to public health.

The warning comes as thousands of residents in the North East remain without safe water today.

Dr Peter Finnegan, a HSE specialist at the Department of Public Health in Navan, said: "People don't realise that we use about 50 gallons on average each day for various purposes - washing, cleaning, drinking etc. - so when our water supply is cut off, it's a big shock to the system," he said.

"When we haven't got clean, safe water it's quite a risk to public health."

Irish Water said that given the delicate nature of the pipe, engineers will have to work extremely slowly.

Sean Laffey of Irish Water says this particular watermain is unique in Ireland.

"The presure in the pipe is running at 18bar... that's essentially 18 times atmospheric pressure," he said.

"It is the highest pressure raw water main that we have in the country.

"I think the pipe was probably there longer than the engineers would have designed it for."

Earlier:

Irish Water is due to begin a fourth attempt to repair works to a burst water main in the North East today.

A specially engineered section of pipe has been manufactured in Belfast - however residents are being warned that it could be the weekend before supply is fully restored to 50,000 homes in Louth and Meath.

The utility is also warning that the pipe may rupture again once the water is turned back on.

There is growing concern that similar burst may happen across the country due to ageing infrastructure.

"The problem might just be past three metres down and the pipe might explode again," said Louth Councillor Kevin Callan.

"So I've said to them again today: 'You've no contingency plan' Over 200,000 people affected now in the entire North East region, and you've no resources to deal with this'."

Yesterday, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said that he is "quite confident" that the water outages in the North East will be fixed soon.

The Defence Forces have been deployed to help man the 43 tanks and 100 temporary water stations across Louth and Meath.

Minister Murphy has apologised to the tens of thousands of people affected by the crisis.

"I'm very sorry for all the people who have experienced these severe water shortages," he said.

"We've had them all over the country over the last number of years, we've had them in Dublin in my own constituency as well.

"We have the tankers out on the streets, people coming to get water so they can given their kids baths, people without water for more than a week, so I know how difficult it is for people when they face this situation."
A man has been stabbed in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Investigating gardai are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which happened in the Templecarraig area at around 9.30pm last night.

A man in his 20s was taken to St Vincent's Hospital with stab wounds and the scene is currently being preserved for examination.

No arrests have yet been made.

Gardai are appealing for anyone with information to contact them at Greystones Garda Station on (01) 666 5800.
The High Court has ordered the extradition of a 77-year-old retired teacher to the UK to face a single charge of indecently assaulting a student forty years ago, reports Alison ORiordan.

The UK citizen, with an address in Co Donegal but who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is alleged to have indecently assaulted a ten-year-old student on one occasion when they were alone in a school staff room in the UK in June or July 1978. The offence carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Authorities in the UK issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in respect of the man which was subsequently endorsed by the High Court in Ireland.

His barrister, Mr John Berry BL, opposed his surrender on grounds concerning confusion about the date of the alleged offence on the EAW, the reversal of the decisions not to prosecute him, the delay since the alleged offence and the impact this has had on him.

Ordering his surrender in the High Court today, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said this offence was alleged to have occurred forty years ago and she rejected the respondents points of objection in this case.

The court heard the respondent was questioned by the police in the days following the alleged offence and again in 2014 when he attended a police station in Northern Ireland voluntarily. After each of those

periods of questioning, the respondent was informed that no prosecution would be taken against him.

However, on a review following a complaint from the alleged victim in 2013, the Crown Prosecution Service made a decision to prosecute the respondent.

In her judgment, Ms Justice Donnelly said there was no evidence at all to suggest that remedies as regards the delay in this case, the prejudice that the respondent may have suffered, or the lack of opportunity to have an input into the decision to recharge him, could not be dealt with in the UK.

The judge did not accept that there has been any culpable delay on the part of the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK, however she said the overall length of the delay was a factor to be taken into account in the assessment of the overall public interest in surrender.

Ms Justice Donnelly said the respondents strongest point was the fact he had been told on two occasions that he would not be prosecuted. There can be many reasons for not prosecuting at a particular moment in time and correspondingly many positions why th position may change, she said.

Despite the respondent having suffered stress from the situation, in particular where he had been twice told there would be no prosecution, the judge said she did not find it would be prejudicial or harmful

to surrender him.

Ms Justice Donnelly then made an order directing that the respondent be surrendered to the UK.

His bail was extended with more restrictive conditions imposed on the basis that he would present himself for surrender at the appropriate time.
Wildfires raging through the French Riviera have forced holidaymakers to flee as parts of the region including campsites were evacuated.

Thousands caught up in the safety operation as local authorities said flames had engulfed some 4,000 hectares (9,880 acres) of land in southern France.

La Londe-les-Maures, nearby Bormes-les-Mimosas and La Lavandou in the Var area of Provence saw some 10,000 people evacuated, including 3,000 campers, a statement from the prefecture said.

Four tracker planes and a firefighting aircraft had formed part of the emergency response after fires became ferocious at around 11pm last night.

10,000 people leave campsites and houses in south of France to escape wildfires #Francefires pic.twitter.com/gbdqeyFdBR  Sky News (@SkyNews) July 26, 2017

Hundreds of firefighters are battling to bring several blazes under control since they broke out on Monday, including the one which has scorched 800 hectares in Var and another in northern Corsica.

The picturesque corner of southern France has long been a popular holiday destination and is at the start of the summer season.

Planes were seen contributing to the emergency response, after French authorities asked the European Union for help.

Lisa Minot, a British journalist who had been visiting a campsite at Bormes-les-Mimosas in Var, claimed thousands of people were asked to leave in the middle of the night.

She told BBC News this morning: "The fires have been going all night, our campsite has its own beach and at two o'clock this morning they evacuated everybody.

"There are about 1,000 pitches in the campsite, they evacuated everyone down to the beach and we have been here ever since.

"There are very strong winds ... and this is what is hampering the efforts to fight the fire, because they really cannot predict where the flames are going to go next."

She said around 3,000 people had been moved to the beach and asked not to move by authorities, adding: "The sun has come up and it is going to be 31 degrees today, but because of the pool smoke that is over the entire sky, the sun is not as hot as it probably could be."
A man who helped a US organisation search for American servicemen missing from the Second World War has died after scuba diving in the English Channel, authorities in Britain said.

Dr Bruce Hottum, 63, of Glenford, New York, died last week, Kent coroner's office confirmed.
Security barriers are to be erected at Scotland's biggest arts festival in the wake of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.

The measures will be introduced during the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe to prevent vehicles being driven into pedestrians.

Police Scotland's Edinburgh police division made the announcement on its Facebook page and says the barriers will be introduced over three weeks in August.

A police spokesman said: "Following recent attacks in London and Manchester, Police Scotland have been reviewing security arrangements for this year's events with our partners, including the City of Edinburgh Council, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Edinburgh International Festival/Fringe.

"Following this review, Police Scotland, in collaboration with the City of Edinburgh Council, submitted a request for the deployment of the national barrier asset (NBA) at certain city-centre locations for the duration of the festival and fringe.

"The NBA is a temporary deployed system including high security gates, portals and barriers which are designed to prevent hostile vehicle attacks on key or busy crowded place locations."

The Edinburgh division said there was "no specific intelligence" to suggest this year's events are at risk from a terrorist attack.

It added the threat to the UK from terrorism remains at "severe", which means an attack is "highly likely".

Security measures including high-security gates, portals and barriers will be put in place after a review of visitor numbers in the city.

The security barriers have been used at other major events in the UK including Wimbledon and the European Cup Final in Cardiff.

Their use in Edinburgh has been approved and will be funded by the UK Government.

Police Scotland added: "The NBA forms part of Police Scotland's holistic security plan for this year's event.

"It will help to keep people safe whilst attending events at Edinburgh Castle and the High Street in the event of vehicle as a weapon attacks, such as those seen at Westminster Bridge and Borough Market in London."

A spokeswoman for City of Edinburgh Council said: "We are helping the police to install a range of anti-terrorism measures in Edinburgh similar to those deployed in other major cities.

"There is no intelligence to suggest a threat but it is appropriate we put safety first and protect large crowds of people at key times during the year."
Rolling Stone magazine has put Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the cover of its latest issue, accompanied by a headline asking: "Why can't he be our president?"

Perhaps recognising that only American-born US citizens can become president, the magazine takes a different tack on its website, where its headline for the article is: "Justin Trudeau: Is the Canadian prime minister the free world's best hope?"
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has told the country's National Court he did not know anything about the ruling Popular Party's accounting practices when a corrupt scheme allegedly helped fund it.

Wednesday's highly-anticipated hearing was the first time that a prime minister has appeared in court while holding office since Spain transitioned to democracy four decades ago.

Mr Rajoy himself is not accused of wrongdoing, but the court called him to provide evidence as the party's vice secretary general until 2003, and its secretary general until 2004, when the illegal funding scheme was allegedly still operating.

Timg]MarianoRajoyDec15_large.jpg[/timg]

"I never took care of the economic issues in the party. I was devoted to political activity," Mr Rajoy told the three magistrates during the proceeding.

Businesspeople, elected officials and other Popular Party members, including two former treasurers, are among the 37 accused of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion in the "Gurtel case", named after the German translation for belt.

The Spanish word for belt is also the last name of Francisco Correa, a businessman arrested in 2009 who is the key defendant in the case, considered one of the largest corruption scandals in the country's modern history.

Correa faces a 125-year prison sentence if found guilty of controlling the network of aides and companies that arranged free events for the party in exchange for public contracts.

Mr Rajoy arrived in a convoy at the tightly secured National Court compound in San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid.

Close by but out of Mr Rajoy's sight, around 100 protesters held banners accusing the conservative party of covering up corruption. Some signs read "Mafia out, democracy in".

In an apparent attempt to underscore that he is a witness and not a defendant, Mr Rajoy gave evidence seated at a table on the stage at the same level as the three magistrates - not standing in front of them as is customary.

Mr Rajoy repeated what he had said earlier: that he never met Correa and he was the one, as party president in 2004, who ordered a halt to contracting with Correa's companies upon learning that they were misusing the conservative party's name.

The trial is part of a wider probe into illegal party funding reflected in hidden accounting kept by Luis Barcenas, the party treasurer for almost three decades.

In the most damaging allegations to date, Barcenas has said there was always a scheme of illegal contributions to the Popular Party and that top officials were aware. The party and Mr Rajoy have denied his claims.

Mr Rajoy called allegations that high-ranking party officials received illegal bonuses "absolutely false". He explained that some received additional payments from the Popular Party to their salaries as legislators - money he said was taxed. He said those payments were halted as soon as any of the politicians took a position in the government.

As prime minister, Mr Rajoy has made economic growth and job creation his chief goals since the party returned to power in 2011. In June, he won a no-confidence debate called against him by Podemos, a left-wing opposition party, because of the myriad of corruption scandals involving the Popular Party.
A student has admitted carrying out a string of high-profile cyber attacks on the websites of several multi-national firms.

Jack Chappell, 19, of Stockport, committed Distributed Denial of Software (DDoS) attacks on NatWest bank, the National Crime Agency, Vodafone, the BBC, BT, 02 and Amazon.

DDoS attacks involve crashing websites by flooding them with huge volumes of data.

Other firms targeted were T-Mobile, EE, Sprint, the University of California San Diego (UCSD), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Verizon.

Chappell appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday where he entered a guilty plea to doing unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or being reckless as to impairing, the operation of computers between May 1 2015 and April 30 2016.

Between the same dates he also admitted three others charges including encouraging or assisting an offence in which he acted as an administrator of the website vDos - which offered a subscription service through which the subscriber could launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Chappell pleaded guilty to a count of conspiring with Yarden Bidani to do unauthorised acts with intent to impair the operation of computers, namely DDoS attacks on targets including NatWest Online Banking, Pornhub, Netflix, the National Crime Agency, Virgin Media and the BBC.

The teenager also admitted a fourth count of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement in which he monitored credit card payments to VDos knowing or suspecting that this arrangement would facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by Yarden Bidani, Itay Huri , Jesse Wu, or by other persons unknown.

Chappell pleaded guilty last year to a separate case of doing unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of or prevent/hinder access to a computer between December 3 2015 and April 14 2016.

All matters will be dealt with at his sentencing hearing on September 13.

Judge John Potter ordered a pre-sentence report and warned Chappell that all options, including an immediate custodial term, remain open.

Bail for the defendant was extended until the sentencing date.

Previously, West Midlands Police said the the teenager was charged following an investigation led by the force's Regional Cyber Crime Unit, assisted by Israeli Police, the FBI and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre.

They said he allegedly ran a web business supplying malware that was used in the worldwide attacks and that he also ran an online help desk for hackers as part of the operation.

The force added that none of the DDoS attacks involved led to the theft or loss of any customer data.

Israeli nationals Mr Bidani and Mr Huri were arrested in their home country last September on suspicion of operating vDOS - where subscribers are said to pay for DDoS attacks - before they were later released pending investigation.
The relationship began over Facebook, where the teenagers shared their troubles at school. It progressed to meeting the woman's family, then to talking about sex. In July 2015, the pair had unprotected sex.

But the Canberra woman was just over 18, and the boy about 15-and-a-half. Nearly a year later police charged her with having underage sex with the boy, who was by law unable to consent.

The woman pleaded guilty to one count of sex with a young person under 16 and on Wednesday appeared in the ACT Supreme Court for sentence.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of 14 years jail.

The woman's defence lawyer, Jess Vogel, set out the circumstances behind the woman's offending, and provided to the court a series of Facebook and text messages including between the pair.
The Islamic School of Canberra will likely last the school year after its funding was extended to tide it through an ongoing government review of its finances.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham confirmed on Wednesday that the school received a funding extension until December but said that did not mean the school was considered compliant with the Education Act.

Year 2 pupils at the Islamic School of Canberra. Credit:Karleen Minney

"Whilst continued assessment of their compliance issues is undertaken, the Department of Education is determined to give them certainty in terms of ongoing funding while those assessment processes are concluded," he said.

The Weston school's funding was cut off on June 30 after repeated investigations into its finances, governance and independence.
Light rail vehicles could be running on the Mitchell to Gungahlin line from January, when the commissioning and testing phase of Canberra Metro's $710 million project gets under way.

Transport minister Meegan Fitzharris toured the site of the Mitchell depot on Wednesday, where stabling yards, maintenance sheds and an administration office for light rail are under construction.

ACT transport minister Meegan Fitzharris at the Maintenance Building at the light rail's Mitchell depot on Wednesday. Ms Fitzharris said light rail construction is progressing well. Credit:Jamila Toderas

An announcement on the route for stage two is coming within weeks, the first tracks will be laid soon and the light rail stops have been given the tick of approval by the National Capital Authority.

"There's no turning back from here," Ms Fitzharris said.
The future of the Royal Canberra Show is uncertain after its organiser entered talks with the ACT government for financial help.

The Royal National Agricultural Society, the organisers of the show, have approached the ACT government for financial help as the iconic family event's future becomes uncertain.

The Royal Canberra Show in 2010. Credit:Marina Neil

In a letter sent to members, RNCAS president Michael Kennedy said this year's annual general meeting would be delayed to allow further time for the audit process.

The ACT government is cautious about intervening, with a government spokesperson saying there were a few complicating factors, including the society's ongoing fraud investigation.
Some things in life just don't add up. Dave Horsfall, of North Gosford, reports: "A certain supermarket chain (starting with a C) is offering a tin of spaghetti and meatballs for $2.64, or two for $6." Maybe they should make staff pasta maths test.

George Manojlovic threw down the gauntlet yesterday with Game of Tones (C8), and Greg Oehm, of Robertson, rises to the challenge with: "Why Woy Woy, Delilah? Sent from the green, green grass of Oehm!" Richard Stewart, of Pearl Beach, chimes in with: "If I was a Richmond, doodle oodle doodle oodle oodle oodle doodle eh, and The Moe I know you, the Moe I love you."

David Gordon, of Emu Plains, advises Ellie Deery, of Gundy, to avoid Sydney trains if she's looking for positive public messages (C8). "'Don't be a tosser'; 'Don't put your feet on the seats' etc. Newer signs (barging onto the train, occupying more than one seat, coughing on others, etc) are also couched in the negative. Haven't CityRail's slogan-makers heard of a positive?"

More on the wonders of Australia Post. Penne Mattes, of Ultimo, submitted a complaint about her tax return, which had been posted to her but not delivered. "I received a letter back from Australia Post, thanking me for contacting them about the delivery of my wedding invitations and telling me what a great service they provide." That's just taxing her patience.

When her husband's grandmother died 20 years ago, Gillian Kendrigan, of Soldiers Point, inherited the still sealed small tin of traditional wedding cake she'd sent her decades earlier. "Now 47 years old, if we open it, will it be edible?" When it comes to long-lasting Vegemite (C8), Carole Dawes, of Randwick, wants to know: "When will they bring back the Vegemite glass? I only have one treasured glass remaining."
Skewed priorities Thank you for the concise summary of the issues around coal exploration and mining ("Shenhua coal 'buyout' must prompt mining reform", July 26). There needs to be a re-balancing of priorities in this state. I never imagined a scenario where I would be in agreement with Alan Jones but here I am. How is it still possible that some of the best farming land in the world, in the Liverpool Plains and the Bylong Valley, would even be considered an appropriate place to build an open cut mine in an era of falling coal demand and climate change? It is easy to live in our metropolitan, coastal bubble and forget where our bread, meat, milk, wine and beer come from. Without the land and the people who work it, there won't be any one day  and then what? Jennifer Dunn Winston Hills Beyond the Liverpool Plains, precious farmland and water resources remain threatened by coal mines. Prime among them is the Bylong Valley, where the proposed Bylong mine will deplete aquifers, permanently affecting groundwater connectivity. When will Gladys Berejiklian forge a different path and protect the Bylong Valley from the threat of coal mining? Anne O'Brien Parramatta

The NSW government's decision to pay Shenhua $262 million in compensation for cancelling the Watermark coal mine reeks of kow-towing to the Chinese government. No compensation is necessary and the government needs to refocus its attention on cancelling the Korean company KEPCO's proposed Bylong coal mine. This mine has the potential to cut open more essential agricultural land than the Shenhua Watermark mine. Not only will it cause more than 10 metres of drawdown of an aquifer used by irrigators and cattle farmers, but it will also cause the loss of 319 hectares of strategic agricultural land and nearly 700 hectares of land that is mapped as part of the equine critical industry cluster. KEPCO controls nearly half the available water in the Bylong River water source and intends to redirect this water from irrigated agriculture to open cut mining. KEPCO has bought tens of thousands of hectares of strategic farmland, floodplains, thoroughbred properties, historic properties, homes and facilities in the Bylong region and caused substantial social and economic dislocation. Such lands should be permanently and securely made off-limits to mining activity. Suraya Coorey Woy Woy While sitting in an emergency bed in Mt Druitt Hospital for a second day, waiting for an available bed in Blacktown Hospital, I read the editorial about the Watermark mining lease buyback. It is clear the Mining Act needs immediate reform so monies are spent on essential services for the people of NSW and not given to international mining companies for approvals that never should have been given. Please get your government priorities right. (FYI  I have now had my transfer to Blacktown Hospital). Antony Lewis Mount Druitt Gittins' call on terrorism as a 'scam' draws long bow

In seeking to downplay the threats society faces from terrorism, Ross Gittins left out deaths from bathroom drownings and ladder falls ("The biggest scam and why we fall for it", July 26). Not to mention all the menacing fauna in our island nation. These and the examples by Ross are pernicious nonsense. There is no comparison between deaths by accident, misadventure or disease with those from terrorists. In Britain, terrorists intended to kill and maim young teenage girls. We need our government and security forces to be vigilant to ensure the deaths of Manchester, Paris and Belgium do not happen here. Such protections are hardly a scam. Tony Nicod Collaroy Congratulations to Ross Gittins for applying some overdue common sense and realistic perspective to the home security debate. For decades, conservative governments have used security issues to justify major and expensive cuts to more worthy causes like health and education. This has been happening since Bob Menzies scared the country with his tales of the "yellow peril" threat descending from Asia, and will remain the LNP policy while ever the media sensationalises even the most minor security threat. Max Redmayne Russell Lea Ross Gittins is one of my favourite journalists, but he draws a long bow when he simply compares numbers of deaths from natural and unnatural events. Terrorist deaths in the US were also relatively minimal before 9/11. Then the whole world changed. Any suggestion of complacency towards terrorism, which is characterised by indiscriminate attacks on humankind, and Australia's wonderful lifestyle will be shred to its foundations.

Frank Carroll Moorooka, Qld New line of argument on dual citizenship I am only 14 years old, but I watch the news. I want to say politicians should be able to have a dual citizenship ("Minister quits over citizenship", July 26). The head of state of Australia is a British citizen and she was born, and lives in, the United Kingdom. I do not see the point that members of the House of Representatives and the Senate cannot be a citizen of another country and serve this country as a politician at the same time. The politicians should be at least able to have citizenship in a Commonwealth country. Nicholas Hodgkinson Paddington Type the words "Italian Citizenship Law" into Google and the first link states: "Italian citizenship is granted by birth through the paternal line, with no limit on the number of generations, or through the maternal line for individuals born after 1 January 1948. An Italian citizen may be born in a country whose citizenship is acquired at birth by all persons born there." If this is correct, and there are many other sources which confirm it, he did not acquire Italian citizenship as a result of the actions of his mother but has been one since birth. The powerbrokers in all the parties should know this.

Paul Fergus Manly Both my parents immigrated to Australia from Italy and were Italian citizens prior to converting to Australian citizenship. Now although both my parents had been Italian citizens and I was born in Australia, I did not automatically qualify for Italian citizenship. I would have had to actually apply for Italian citizenship if I had wanted to become an Italian citizen. Renato Sburlati Sans Souci Senator Matt Canavan's claim that the he was unaware until last week of his Italian citizenship is implausible. Surely his mum told him in 2007. Also Italian citizenship is only transmitted via the father so this casts more doubt on his claim. Tony Simons Balmain

As a fellow dual citizen (Australian/Italian), I find it curious that Matt Canavan didn't know he was similarly placed given that he would have received, via the Brisbane Consulate, offers to vote in Italian elections/referendums/local government as I have during the past few years. I choose not to vote as I was born here over 80 years ago and only applied for Italian citizenship to help my grandchildren if they decide to go to Europe to work. Perhaps with the best of motives, Senator Canavan's mother did the same. Doug Cadioli Victoria Point Qld Why can't the parliament vote for a temporary suspension of this citizenship law, reinstate these hard-working politicians and allow three months for all members of parliament to check their citizenship and if an oversight is evident, give them a chance to renounce any foreign citizenship of which they were not aware? Leo Sorbello Leichhardt Australia is surely grateful that the dual citizenship epidemic appears quarantined in the Australian Senate and has not spread to the lower House of Representatives. An errant passport on either side of the House would have catastrophic repercussions for either party, indeed the whole parliament. Are we to truly believe this issue is restricted to the Senate. What are they all hiding?

Santo Calabrese Cherrybrook Shouldn't Canavan resign and his mother be charged with falsifying documents if he did not give consent? Damien Moore Newtown "Mum gave it to me". Matt Canavan invoking what should be known henceforth as the Shane Warne defence. Gabrielle Foster Wentworth Falls

The Sirius is a gem It is most gratifying to see the Sirius Building get the reprieve it deserves ("Sirius uprising", July 26). Brutalist it might be, but an architectural gem it certainly is. Meanwhile what about that monstrosity at the other end of the Bridge, the completely misnamed Greenway block? A relic of "Early Ugly" functionalism more befitting an East European communist satellite than the shores of Sydney Harbour. Peter Clark Killarney Heights Faith schools choice As an SRE teacher in Punchbowl Public the 30 minutes is not wasted time (Letters, July 25). I have a good relationship with the Buddhist, Islamic and Catholic SRE teachers. Our students come from families that value their religious beliefs and have chosen not to send their children to a religious school. They can understand more deeply the faith teaching that parents have chosen to send them to.

Michelle Lim Menai Transfixing musician Australians would be devastated to hear of the too-soon passing of the accomplished Indigenous and blind musician, Dr G Yunupingu ("Voice with the power to transfix", smh.com.au July 26). As was affirmed back in 2008 about his sublime singing, his songs changed the way you breathe. In an industry often dripping with self-absorption, monotonous music and ephemeral performers, Yunupingu's tranquil voice crossed generations and stilled many troubled souls across the nation. Peter Waterhouse Craigieburn VIC Our right of passage

Julie Bishop says that the Chinese spy ship is entitled to be off the Australian coast ("Chinese spy ship", July 26). Australian naval vessels are also entitled to exercise the right of free passage through the South China Sea. How about it, minister? Ross Langford-Brown Randwick Irrigation scandal is our own watergate MurrayDarlingBasinAuthoritygate  no. Irrigatorgate  no. Barwonrivergate  no. Oh bugger, Watergate! Steve Sherwood Clovelly

Between big irrigators, big developers and big casino, it seems that the Berejiklian government is owned by big business. Someone throw Gladys a life-preserver, she is drowning not waving. Tony Walbran Dee Why The National Party went to the election as the party for graziers and farmers. How and why have they become the champions of foreign coal and gas at the expense of our food security? Maria Bradley Coogee Deposit scheme

While Gladys is enacting legislation to ban plastic bags (Letters, July 26) she should bring back the deposit collection system for bottles that we once had in NSW, and extend it to cans. Responsible governments in South Australia and the Northern Territory have maintained these schemes; inexplicably we did not. Mark Sexton Oakhampton Job for developers So the state government is going to charge a $20,000-per-dwelling levy to fund the infrastructure needed in areas where development has boomed ("70,000 homes hit by levy", July 26). Perhaps a better idea would have been to get the developers, who have made countless millions, to put the infrastructure there in the first place. Debra Miniutti Ashbury
With The Bachelor returning to screens tonight, this time with lovable rogue Matty Johnson as the protagonist, it gets fans wondering about the ones who have gone before.

There's no missing season one's Tim Robards and his fiance Anna Heinrich with their Insta-boasting.

Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, who starred on season three, arguably the nation's favourite The Bachelor pairing, are also engaged and due to welcome a baby girl in September.

There has been a question mark hanging over the relationship status of season four's Richie Strahan and his chosen one, Alex Nation, for the last few months.
The former chief financial officer of a southern Sydney council and a number of colleagues acted corruptly after the CFO was involved in raising more than $5 million in bogus invoices and charging more than $600,000 in personal expenditure on a council credit card, the state corruption watchdog found.

Former Botany Bay CFO Gary Goodman and a host of other council employees party to the rampant spending were found to have acted corruptly, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found in its report into Botany Bay Council on Wednesday, following a public inquiry last year.

Former Botany Bay Council CFO Gary Goodman leaves an ICAC hearing in March last year. Credit:James Alcock

A total of 12 other people, mostly other council employees, and a construction businessman had corrupt findings made against them; 10 of whom the ICAC will recommend the Director of Public Prosecutions consider laying charges against.

Mr Goodman's corruption extended over nearly two decades until 2015, when he was fired following the ICAC investigation.
Different standards for Sydney's inner west light rail line and a new $2.1 billion line from the central city to the south east mean trams carrying passengers won't be able to switch between the two.

The standards differ on a range of measures including gaps between platforms and carriages, height and width of the actual track, clearances between the track corridor and its surrounds, and distance between the back wheels of the trams.

The lack of "interoperability" between the two lines will limit the ability to introduce new routes across a broader network, such as one from Randwick to Pyrmont.

Trams running on the 12.8-kilometre inner west line, for example, will not be able to carry passengers the entire way from Dulwich Hill to Moore Park for large sporting events. Instead, passengers will have to switch to trams on the new line at Central Station.
The Liberal National Party flew the flag for the Queensland flag at estimates on Wednesday, asking why Indigenous flags were provided for ambulance stations but not the official state flag, describing it as an "aberration".

Opposition Health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek questioned why Indigenous flags were available for ambulance stations but Queensland flags were not.

The Queensland Ambulance Service has found itself at the centre of a flag controversy. Credit:Jorge Branco

"Does the Queensland Ambulance Service supply Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to stations but not Queensland flags?" Mr Langbroek asked during estimates on Wednesday.

Queensland Ambulance Commissioner Russell Bowles said he did not think a Queensland flag had ever been "refused".
"Maybe it's a suburb near Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney but it certainly doesn't exist in Brisbane, so I was very curious as to why it appeared on the Infrastructure Australia map of the project," she said. "I was also curious about why the CBD had moved to East Brisbane. "I think Infrastructure Australia need to get some of those basic facts right." Ms Trad said over the next 20 years, the population in south-east Queensland would grow by 1.5 million people. Ms Trad said the Merivale Bridge currently had capacity for 24 trains, with 21 trains crossing during peak hour.

She said IA provided the Queensland government with its analysis two days ago, after having the Cross River Rail business case for 13 months. "We have been backwards and forwards with Infrastructure Australia since they've had the business case and supplied additional information at their request," she said. "None of that information has been included in their analysis of the business case. This is incredibly disappointing." Ms Trad said IA's analysis was based on mistakes and assumptions that were "clearly false". "What they are telling Queenslanders is Cross River Rail shouldn't be built until we reach a crisis on our network, until we see patronage figures increase to 150 per cent," she said.

Ms Trad accused IA of providing analysis, summaries and commentary that was consistent with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's position not to invest in Cross River Rail. "We don't have faith in the process that Infrastructure Australia has undertaken," she said. IA said the patronage figures in the Cross River Rail business case were "unprecedented". "That is untrue, Melbourne experienced them only recently and here in the south-east Queensland network, as soon as we built the Merivale Bridge and electrified the train network we saw similar growth, 6.7 per cent in public transport," Ms Trad said. In a briefing note, Cross River Rail Delivery Authority head Graeme Newton said IA's summary contained "inherently flawed advice, with 23 instances of unsubstantiated opinions, assertions or errors".

After a scathing review of the wrong assumptions in IA's report, Mr Newton recommended potentially withdrawing the CRR business case from the IA review process. "Given the obvious lack of support from IA for the CRR Project's obvious benefits, it now seems that IA's ongoing involvement in the project serves no benefit other than to provide it an illegitimate role that it may use to undermine the CRR in the public domain," Mr Newton wrote. The Queensland government has committed to fund the project without federal government assistance if necessary. Ms Trad confirmed the Queensland government would still go ahead with funding Cross River Rail alone, but the IA assessment provided a "level of false analysis" around the state's number one infrastructure project. "We do have other projects that have been submitted to Infrastructure Australia and I am hoping that they treat those projects in terms of their analysis with much more independence and impartiality," she said.

RACQ spokesman Paul Turner said it was disappointing IA said south-east Queensland needed to reach "crisis point" before Cross River Rail was funded. But Deputy Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the LNP agreed with IA's assessment the business case used "dud figures" and the costs of Cross River Rail was likely to exceed its benefits. "The LNP supports another heavy rail crossing across the Brisbane River, but we need to get the infrastructure solution right," Ms Frecklington said. An IA spokesman said it had completed an independent evaluation of the business case, following a "rigorous assessment process". He said IA sent a draft evaluation summary to the Queensland government on Monday asking for a fact and commercial-in-confidence check.
A man accused of defrauding Australians of $1.6 million has been released on bail despite allegations he once gave the order to have someone thrown off a balcony.

Robert Gordon Stewart, 74, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with perjury, money laundering and fraudulently obtaining the funds through an alleged cold-call syndicate with links to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang.

Robert Gordon Stewart allegedly obtained funds through a cold-call syndicate linked to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang.

The court heard he had a lengthy history, but defence solicitor Darren Mahony said the most recent offence dated back to 2001.

Police objected to Mr Stewart's release on bail, alleging he may reoffend, interfere with witnesses or flee.
A Queensland-led study that analysed the tweets of industry and world leaders to understand their online personality profiles found US President Donald Trump is an "emotionally unstable innovator".

Using machine learning and other computer science, a Queensland University of Technology-led team analysed more than 200,000 words used on the Twitter accounts of more than 100 entrepreneurs and CEOs, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Mr Trump to analyse their characteristic language styles, contents and patterns.

President Donald Trump's tweets are well known and frequent. Credit:Gregorio Borgia

The team used Forbes 400 and Fortune 500 to pinpoint targets for the research, which showed CEOs were more conscientious, more power driven and less insecure than the entrepreneurs analysed who showed higher levels of openness to new experiences and independence.

Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Associate Professor Martin Obschonka said the paper then discussed whether those traits in political leaders like President Trump were beneficial.
Perth socialites Rayne Embley and Amy Zempilas have managed to establish thriving businesses for themselves, but being an Instagram influencer is more than just an overused buzzword.

In a nutshell, an Instagram influencer is generally someone who has a large following who can persuade others. The keywords being "persuade others".

Amy Zempilas has build a thriving business on Instagram. Credit:Instagram, Amy Zempilas

If I was to look at buying a new car, whose advice would I trust more? My friend who has children the same age as mine and who I've known for over 20 years who recently bought a Toyota Kluger, or the person I follow on Instagram who has 30,000 followers and was paid to drive a SUV for the weekend? I can tell you it's not the latter.

West Australian brands are clamouring to use the services of Instagram influencers, but a lot of brands and businesses are still unsure how to capitalise of this new-age way of marketing and are unwittingly using people who have a large portion of fake followers or a low engagement rate, effectively giving their brand zero return on investment.
The man charged with the murder of Perth mum of three Rebecca Jane Gascoigne and a string of armed robberies across Perth has made a brief court appearance.

Police captured Shawn Adam Newton on Monday afternoon after more than a week on the run.

Shawn Newton and Rebecca Jane Gascoigne. Credit:WA Police

Mr Newton had been wanted in relation to the death of the 35-year-old mother-of-three, whose body was found in a car on the Mitchell Freeway on July 15.

The 42-year-old was arrested shortly after 2pm on Monday at a business near Whitfords Shopping Centre on Marmion Avenue.
Accused drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury has reached a plea bargain deal to avoid a long jail sentence in Colombia, according to media reports.

Prosecutors said lawyers for the the 22-year-old South Australian had secured an agreement which would substantially cut down the time she would serve if found guilty.

Ms Sainsbury was arrested at El Dorado International Airport on April 12, allegedly with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside 18 headphone boxes in her suitcase.

A spokesman for the prosecutor told The Australian that "a deal between Fiscalia [the prosecution] and the prisoner which will be made public tomorrow".
Washington: US President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, Brian Benczkowski, said on Tuesday that he helped Russia's Alfa Bank investigate whether its computer servers contacted the Trump Organisation.

Mr Benczkowski had told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he represented Alfa Bank, which is one of Russia's largest financial institutions and whose owners have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US President Donald Trump in Vienna, Ohio, on Tuesday. Credit:AP

On Tuesday, as Mr Benczkowski came before the panel for his confirmation hearing, he acknowledged that his work for Alfa Bank directly touched on suspicions related to the bank in connection with the Trump-Russia affair.

Mr Benczkowski said he had agreed to help his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represent Alfa Bank amid the intense scrutiny of the Trump-Russia investigation, knowing that he was likely to be nominated for a job in the Trump administration, a disclosure that prompted incredulity from several Democrats.
Police in Minneapolis must now activate their body cameras during every call for service or any self-initiated work, officials said on Wednesday, a change that comes amid a lingering controversy over an officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman there earlier this month.

An officer fatally shot Justine Damond, a 40-year-old woman who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home, on July 15. For reasons that still remain unknown, one of the two police officers responding to Damond's call shot and killed her, and neither officer present activated their body cameras.

Since her death, which sparked international outrage and prompted the ouster of the city's veteran police chief, more questions than answers have surrounded the shooting. Authorities have questioned why Officer Mohamed Noor drew and fired his gun, and have been critical of the lack of video footage.

Every patrol officer in Minneapolis is equipped with a body camera, and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called it "unacceptable" that no footage existed of the shooting. A day after making these remarks, Hodges forced out Janee Harteau, the Minneapolis police chief, saying she had "lost confidence in the chief's ability to lead us further."
London: Scrambling to combat a growing air pollution crisis, Britain announced on Wednesday that sales of new diesel and gas cars would reach the end of the road by 2040, the latest step in Europe's battle against the damaging environmental impact of the internal combustion engine.

Britain's plans match a similar pledge made this month by France, and are part of a growing global push to curb emissions and fight climate change by promoting electric cars. Carmakers are also adjusting, with Volvo notably saying recently that it would phase out the internal combustion engine in coming years and BMW deciding to build an electric version of its popular Mini car in Britain.

To control air pollution, new diesel and petrol cars and vans could be banned in the UK from 2040. Credit:AP

But the shift to electric vehicles will be a gradual one, and the target set by Britain is less ambitious than efforts elsewhere. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord has also dented optimism.

Britain's new clean air strategy, published Wednesday, calls for sales of new gas and diesel cars and vans to end by 2040. The government will also make more than 200 million pounds, or $330 million, available for local governments to take short-term action, such as retrofitting buses, to reduce air pollution.
SOAS event inspires as students explore the future trends, changes and debates likely to shape the African continent.

Last week, the Law Schools Dr Foluke Adebisi and ten law students attended the first SOAS Africa Conference, 'Imagining Africas Future: Language, Culture, Governance, Development,' an event that illustrated the many areas of law that will play a role in shaping Africas future.

The students saw presentations by Rama Salla Dieng and Detlef Muller-Mahn on land tenure and land use in Senegal and rural Africa generally. A number of speakers, like Camille Jacob, Lutz Marten, Amidu Sanni, Kenneth Muzata, Chege Githora and John Simpson examined language in education policies that touched on human rights issues like the right to education, culture and language.

Robtel Paileys presentation about Rootedness & Rootlessness and citizenship claims in Liberia, raised issues to those examined in British Immigration, Nationality, and Citizenship Law. Whilst Mari Dumbaughs presentation on reproductive rights in Africa, provided insight into how North-South family planning interventions can be made more just.

The keynote address by HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, CON, The Emir of Kano, also a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. His speech, entitled Africa between the Past & Future, saw the Emir dressed in full ceremonial robes eloquently examine the socio-political state of Northern Nigeria and the impact that it has had on the people, especially women and girls.

The Emir highlighted that Nigeria imports what it already has and exports what it needs. He pointed out that externally imposed norms may be difficult to adapt internally, and that you have to be able to argue from within the culture, suggesting that legal norms had to organically develop within a culture and will fail if externally imposed.

Dr Adebisi, commented

The Emir drew a link between law and culture to explain the efficacy of the law to aiding development. Our students were inspired by the event, but particularly by this speech. We were honoured to have the opportunity to speak with him after the event.

The following are some comments from some of the students who attended:

The most interesting part of the experience for me was learning about various cultural and political challenges that I was not aware existed in Africa, perhaps due to previous educational experience emphasising the perspective from a "Western" viewpoint. I have learnt that the issues confronted during the conference are very much global problems and responsibility should be shared.

Emily Herbertson, 2nd year law student

I found the SOAS Africa Conference very interesting, particularly the lecture from Andre Thomas from Hunton & Williams about how law contributes to development in AfricaFurthermore, as a LLB graduate, I was able to appreciate the importance the rule of law plays in Africa and emerging economies

Ruth Kwabea-Amankwaah, LLM International Law and International Relations

It was an exciting opportunity to learn about the intersectionality of law with economics, culture and language and gain particular insight into the evolution of the 'African genre'. Without a doubt, the highlight of the conference was meeting His Excellency the Emir of Kano and learning who he was wearing (Christian Louboutin!).

Antony Thegeya, 3rd Year Law student

The conference was great, as it offered an insight into an array of topics from Afro-futurism in literature, to the impact of Colonialism in language policies in African countries. Mostly, I enjoyed learning about the specific political, economic and cultural circumstances within Northern Nigeria by the Emir of Kano.

Kelly Emelle, 3rd Year Law Student

I gained a very interesting perspective on how nationals from African countries view their own nations and their respective development. The narrative on African development is very often told to us through a Western lens and it was refreshing to hear it from an African viewpoint; such as the effect that publication of academic works in English has on the local languages in a country; and the identity politics of language.

Eleanor Zhao, 2nd year law student

The conference was very useful and beneficial. I gained a lot of knowledge and has opened my eyes to grasp what's is happening in different countries in Africa and how that informs my current courseI'm extremely grateful for Bristol University for offering us this invaluable opportunity to attend the conference It was also amazing to network with other participants in the conference who came from different parts of the world mainly from Africa.

Zahra Kosar, LLM International Law and International Relations
A majority of property investors prefer to purchase older dwellings rather than new builds or off the plan properties new data has revealed. Mortgage Choice s annual Investor Survey found 76.9% of Australians intend to buy or have bought an existing dwelling, compared to 23.1% who bought a new build.Our data shows an increasing proportion of investors are choosing to purchase an established dwelling rather than a new build, Mortgage Choice chief executive officer John Flavell said.In 2015, 75.8% of investors said they intended to buy an existing property. In 2016, that number had risen to 76.7%, and now we know that almost 77% of investors would prefer an established dwelling.While only a small rise each year, this is a trend that I expect to see continue over the coming years. I believe we will continue to see an increasing proportion of investors choosing established dwellings over new builds, and there are a couple of reasons for that.Firstly, established dwellings are ready to buy and move tenants into straight away. Meanwhile, investors who purchase an off-the-plan property for example, may have to wait several years before they can access the property and, in turn, generate income from potential tenants.Secondly, depending on the location and the condition of the home, existing properties can sometimes be more affordable and provide property investors with more room to negotiate on price.Thirdly, investors can renovate an older property, adding to the value of the dwelling over the longer term.Lastly, we have seen a few examples where the valuation for an off-the-plan property has come back short, leaving borrowers scrambling to make up the difference. Investors are acutely aware of this and, as such, are looking at all their property options before heading down this path.And while our data clearly shows that property investors are more inclined to buy an existing property rather than a new build, the level of building approvals continues to rise year on year.According to Australian Bureau of Statistics Building Approvals data, 452,088 new dwellings were approved between June 2015 and May 2017, up 7.9% from the 419,130 dwellings approved between June 2013 and May 2015.Regardless of whether investors ultimately choose to purchase an existing dwelling or a new build, Mr Flavell said it was important for borrowers to do their due diligence and research before making any final decisions.When it comes to choosing a particular property type, there is no right or wrong answer. Whether you choose to buy an existing property or a new build, it comes down to personal preference.You should buy a property that meets your current needs and budget, as well as the needs of your future tenants.Furthermore, the investment lending space has become increasingly complicated in recent months, with many lenders adjusting their policy and pricing. As such, it is critical that you speak with a mortgage professional who can find you the right home loan for your needs.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

76th Precinct

Carroll Gardens-Cobble HillRed Hook

To the point

Cops cuffed a guy on July 15 who they say stole thousands of dollars worth of cosmetics from a store on Smith Street and threatened someone in the store with a needle after saying he had HIV on July 12.

The 30-year-old suspect stuffed his pockets with $2,257 worth of cosmetics, and when someone in the store between Warren and Baltic streets tried to stop him, the two got into a fight and the suspect displayed the needle, according to authorities.

But the guy left without hurting anyone and police arrested him three days later, officials said.

Up in smoke

Police arrested a man who they say had untaxed cigarettes from Virginia in his car on First Place on July 15.

Officers pulled over the 21-year-old suspect for disobeying a traffic light near Court Street at about 4:30 am and discovered he had $166,200 worth of butts in his car, according to authorities.

 Julianne Cuba
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

78th Precinct

Park Slope

Car pirates

A pair of looters beat two men after they were caught ransacking the mens car on President Street on July 11.

The victims told police they were between Seventh and Eighth avenues at 2:40 pm when they spotted the delinquent duo looting the car.

The two men moved in to prevent the crooks from making off with their stuff, but the thieves made a run for it.

As they fled, one of the crooks hurled a rock that struck one of the victims square in the noggin, while the other man managed to catch up to the thieves, but was beaten off with a few knuckle sandwiches to the jaw, cops said.

Third Avenue slasher

Cops busted a man for allegedly slashing the tires on a mans car parked on Third Avenue on July 13.

The victim told police he left his car between Fifth and Sixth avenues at 4:50 pm, and returned about 20 minutes later to find the tires on the drivers side of his car gushing air.

Police picked up their suspect, a 20-year-old man, later that day after the found him in possession of a knife, cops said.

Cracked

Some wacko busted the headlights and rear windshield of a womans 2017 Range Rover she parked on Ninth Street on July 8.

The victim told police she was parked in front of a drugstore between Fifth and Sixth avenues at 9 pm, and returned four hours later to discover some jerk had smashed up her car to the tune of $1,000 in damages.

Bike rage

A belligerent thief nabbed a mans bike following an argument on Flatbush Avenue on July 8.

The cyclist told police hed gotten into a shouting match with a motorist near Grand Army Plaza at 6:30 pm, but that the two parted ways and he parked his bike nearby.

When he returned about 15 minutes later, however, he discovered his Ralie-brand bike was gone, cops said.

 Colin Mixson
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
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
latest news

October 31, 2022

Buddy TV

In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options...
With more women's sports on TV, more fans are tuning in
Amazon said half its investments in India have been used to set up warehouses and sorting and data centre
In another setback to Vishal Sikkas digital transformation journey at Infosys, Yusuf Bashir, the companys global head of the $500 million innovation fund, has resigned. This is the third big exit from Sikkas core team in the last couple of months after Ritika Suri and Sandeep Dadlani.
Once the 'crown jewel' of Jasper InfoTech's (parent company of Snapdeal) portfolio, Freecharge, which until last year was the second largest mobile wallet player, has been sold to Axis Bank at almost one-tenth of the price.
The Asian Paints stock shed 1.4 per cent on lower than estimated June quarter results. Weighed down by a fall in volumes and higher raw material costs, the company disappointed the Street on all counts.
The Delhi bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admits insolvency petition against Bhushan Steel and Bhushan Power and Steel. While State Bank of India filed a petition against Bhushan Steel, Punjab National Bank filed a petition against Bhushan Power and Steel.
Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.

Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.

Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.

Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.

26 years of website archives.
The National Company Law Tribunal reserved its order for initiating insolvency proceedings against Essar Steel, after hearing the arguments of the two petitioners- State Bank of India (SBI) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).



The tribunal will be announcing the date of pronouncement later this week.
Mid-sized information technology (IT) products and services firm plans to expand its presence in Europe, as part of its de-risking strategy to grow outside its main market United States (US).

Last week, the company acquired Australia-based PRM Cloud Solutions, a firm that provides Salesforce solutions to customers. Recently, it acquired Zurich-based Salesforce partner PARX to strengthen foothold in European markets.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday informed that (RIL) has defaulted on payment of fine and additional surcharge of Rs 1,369.9 crore over the delay in construction of a convention-cum-exhibition centre in Mumbai.
The death toll in Mumbai's Ghatkopar building collapse on Wednesday has risen to 14.

As many as 30 others have been injured.

Yesterday, a four-storeyed residential building collapsed at L.B.S. Marg, near Shreyas cinema, Damodar Park, Ghatkopar.

Earlier, 19 people had been extracted out, among whom, nine had been declared dead, including seven women and two children.

The residents of the four-storeyed building had alleged that the mishap took place because of the renovation work being carried out at the first floor.

The renovation work was undertaken on the ground floor nursing home, reportedly owned by the Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap.

The Shiv Sena leader has been booked for culpable homicide.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti confirmed ANI that Shitap has been detained by the Mumbai Police and is being questioned.

"Prima facie, it is revealed that the accused was carrying out illegal renovation in the building. At this juncture, it will not be appropriate to give other details as investigation is underway and available information needs verification," he said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the site of building collapse yesterday evening and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file a report on the incident within 15 days.

"The offence has been registered. Police is investigating the matter. I have directed the BMC Commissioner to investigate and submit a report within 15 days," Fadnavis told the media.

The Chief Minister further said that the Government will take a stringent action against the culprits.

(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.)
Indias richest municipal corporation has denied nonprofit Praja Foundations assessmentmade from the corporations own datathat 18 people die of tuberculosis every day, even as Praja Foundation claims the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has no way of knowing if the assessment is wrong because it cannot access its own death-related data ever since it moved to a new software.
Fifty per cent of the population in the city feels unsafe due to rise in cases of sexual offences against women, a Delhi court has observed while refusing to set aside jail term of a convict in a sexual harassment case.
Two persons who were sent to jail last month for 30 days for throwing pamphlets and raising slogans in the on Tuesday in the Delhi High Court named 10 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators for beating them up.

The two, Jagdeep Rana and Rajan Kumar Madan, said in an affidavit that AAP lawmakers Amanatullah Khan, Jarnail Singh, Somnath Bharti, Mohinder Goyal, Rajesh Gupta, Rituraj, Sanjeev Jha, Nitin Tyagi, Prakash, and Praveen Kumar had beatn them up for throwing pamphlets and sloganeering in the House.

"These MLAs attacked the petitioners in the corridor of Delhi Legislative Assembly. All the above-said legislators with common intention hit the petitioners with fist and leg blows. The petitioners suffered several injuries in the said attack and their lives could only be saved due to timely intervention by the marshals of the house as well as some media persons," stated the affidavit filed through advocate Pradeep Rana.

The High Court had earlier asked them to file an affidavit giving an elaborate account of the facts and also suggested to their lawyer to array as respondents the MLAs who had allegedly beaten up the two.

The court has been hearing their plea seeking their release from jail.

On June 28, the witnessed drama after the two men hurled pamphlets and raised slogans, demanding the resignation of Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj then moved a motion against the duo. Consequently, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel sentenced the two to one month of rigorous imprisonment for breach of privilege of the House.

Challenging the Speaker's June 28 decision, the duo alleged that the order was "illegal" as it was issued without affording them an opportunity of being heard.

The plea challenged the validity of the rule which permits punishing a person accused of breach of privilege of the House without hearing him.

The Delhi government has claimed that the incident of pamphlet throwing and sloganeering took place in full view of the House and therefore, there was no need to hear the two.

Rana, who claims to be the vice president of AAP's Delhi Unit, and Madan, who says he is part of the AAP units in Punjab and Chhattisgarh, have contended that no reason has been recorded for awarding them such a severe punishment.

The two had initially moved a habeas corpus against their imprisonment. A habeas corpus plea is a petition which is filed to ensure a person under arrest is brought before a court which will determine whether the detention is legal.

Seeking their release, the duo said they had no intention to breach the privilege of the legislative assembly or to commit contempt of the same. They had no intention to cause any damage to person or property inside the assembly on that day, they had claimed.

"The intention of the petitioners was only to draw the attention of the government and the party to the glaring issues, which were being exploited by the opposition in defaming the party," they contended.
A signboard is seen from the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: Reuters
Punjab just got its bike taxis and a 52-year-old grandmother from Mohalis Phase 11 is among the 100 riders to offer such services as part of the Punjab governments Apni Gaddi, Apna Rozgar programme.
Scientists are sucking carbon dioxide from the air with giant fans and preparing to release chemicals from a balloon to dim the suns rays as part of a climate engineering push to cool the planet.
A signboard is seen from the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: Reuters

Continuing their tirade against India, the state owned Chinese media has said the upcoming visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing is only meant for BRICS meet and not for solving the current border standoff between the two sides.

In an editorial titled "Doval visit won't sway China over border standoff", the Global Times said, "The BRICS National Security Advisers' meeting is a routine conference held in preparation for the BRICS Summit, and is not a platform to address Sino-Indian border skirmishes."

The Chinese daily said that the Indian media is pinning high hopes on Doval's upcoming trip to settle the ongoing dispute.

The editorial comes at a time when Doval, will be travelling to Beijing to attend a BRICS meeting on 27 and 28 July.

The daily reiterated Beijing's firm stand that India's withdrawal along the disputed border is must for any meaningful dialogue between the two sides to solve the issue.

"The Chinese side will not talk with India on the issue before the Indian troops' unconditional withdrawal from Chinese territory. New Delhi should give up its illusions, and Doval's Beijing visit is most certainly not an opportunity to settle the standoff in accordance with India's will," it said.

The daily further said that Doval will inevitably be disappointed if he attempts to bargain with Beijing over the border disputes.

"India's unconditional withdrawal is China's bottom line. The Chinese government's strong determination requesting Indian troop's withdrawal is backed by all Chinese people who are firm that we can't lose one inch of Chinese territory," the editorial read.

"Indian media outlets are exploring "dignified" ways to pull back its troops. We believe that if India complies with international laws, then the withdrawal will display dignity. Beijing has no obligation to coordinate with New Delhi to withdraw its troops or suspend its road construction," it added.

The editorial warned that People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces are being deployed to the border area, and will take effective countermeasures if India refuses to pull back voluntarily.

It said that the PLA is capable enough to take actions that neither Indian troops nor the government can afford.

"We don't believe India is willing and determined to have an all-out military showdown with China. If it chooses this path, Beijing will fight to the end to safeguard its territory and resist being deterred or hijacked by any force. New Delhi will have to pay a heavy price," it said.

Indian and Chinese troops continue to be locked in a standoff in Doklam and both sides have moved additional troops, ammunition and military equipment to the area.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has beefed up its defence in a region south of the Kunlun Mountains under the pretext of conducting a military exercise near Tibet.

Hardware has been moved simultaneously by road and rail by China's western theatre command, which oversees the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet,and handles, among others, border issues with India, media reports have said.

This show of strength is being projected by Beijing as a warning to India by China to back off from its objection to China constructing a road at the Doklam tri-junction.

Earlier,the External Affairs Ministry of India (MEA) reiterated that differences between India and China should not and would not be allowed to become disputes, and added that communication between the two governments have never ceased, nor have been broken.

The stand-off emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Armyfrom construction roads in the Doklam border.

India claims Sikkim border as part of its territory, while China has said that the area falls on their side as per the 1890 treaty signed between British and China.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

It also alleged that the Indian troops had crossed the Sikkim sector of the Indo-China border. Beijing has accused New Delhi of violating a convention signed in 1890 between Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet.

(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.)
Revenue collection from telecom services in form of licence fee and spectrum usage charges may be adversely impacted in the current financial year if sales revenue of operators continues to decline, Union minister Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday.
Kicking off the process of stake sale in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) has started the process for selecting two consultants and a law firm.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal that will give all employees the right to a minimum wage. The Code on Wages Bill, which will ensure universal minimum wage for all industries and workers, has already been approved by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley-led inter-ministerial panel on labour.
A Chinese daily today accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the Sino-India standoff to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits.

"More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia.

The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing.

It also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India."



The article said "so far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain".

"The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes? Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference," it said.

The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems.

"There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea.

The article also blamed the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war.

"It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said.

The article said "neither China nor India wants a war".

(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.)
If industry experts are to be believed, the recently implemented goods and services tax (GST) regime might have inadvertently opened a channel for gold importers to launder money out of the country. Many bullion importers, it is learnt, have been exploiting the zero-duty facility under India's free trade agreements (FTAs) with several countries for this purpose.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped printing the Rs 2,000 currency notes and will not be bringing new notes of that denomination in the current financial year, according to a Livemint report on Tuesday.
Banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds will now chip in to create a common strategy to further the governments agenda in a targeted manner and based on a customers need.
Torrential rain and flooding, especially in north and Saurashtra, have resulted in at least 25 per cent loss in kharif sowing across crops such as cotton, groundnut, castor, pulses, guar and cereals.
How the World's Oldest Assyrian Monastery Came Under Threat

Outside St Gabriel's Monastery, a fortress-like complex in rural southeast Turkey, monks and nuns scurry between prayer and farm work. Barley, olive trees and orchards all need tending to and minds are focused on the surrounding fields. Inside, guides offer tours in Turkish, but not English, or even Arabic -- the common parlance of many monastery residents and local Christians alike. Founded by two monks in 397, the monastery was once a major centre of Christian faith and learning in upper Mesopotamia. By the 6th century, more than 1,000 monks prayed here, worked the land and learned the Aramaic alphabet, the language spoken by Jesus Christ.

But it is the question of land that now sees St Gabriel's, the world's oldest Assyrian monastery, at the centre of discord with local villages and government bureaucrats that some say threaten its very existence. In 2014, the Turkish authorities returned to the monastery 14 parcels of land amounting to 61 acres, as part of the government's so-called "democratisation package". The process was the first step of its plan to fall in line with Ankara's EU accession requirements by handing back property taken decades ago from religious minorities across Turkey. At the time, the monastery welcomed that restitution as a "partial solution". However, ownership of a further 80 acres is today bitterly disputed. The state's forestry administration and three Kurdish villages ringing the isolated monastery say the land is theirs, and have fired off other serious accusations at St Gabriel's. The case is before the European Court of Human Rights. "Today the court process continues [and that means] the Kurdish farmers are not using the land," said an official at the monastery who asked not to be named because of the ongoing dispute. The Tur Abdin plateau on which St Gabriel's Monastery sits is home to dozens of churches and Christian sites in varying stages of decay and repair that, more than 1,000 years ago, made it the heartbeat of Assyrian Orthodoxy for the region. At its centre was St Gabriel's; once of such standing that it was feted with treasures by emperors in Rome. Today, the monastery holds within its walls three churches and a crypt where thousands of martyrs and saints are said to be buried. Over the centuries, it has been no stranger to turmoil. Its entire community was beheaded by invading Mongolian armies in the late 14th century. A century ago, during the massacres of about 1.5 million Armenian, Assyrian and other minorities by the Young Turk government, local Kurdish villagers occupied St Gabriel's and massacred anyone they found. That horror still undermines relations in the area today. More recently, with local Kurdish villages' demands for farmland intensifying, animosity has escalated between them and the 60 residents of St Gabriel's. At a court hearing over land ownership in 2009, one village leader claimed the monastery was involved in attempting to convert local children to Christianity. "So the state has begun to investigate these irrational assertions seriously and a court process has been launched with a whole bunch of such false claims," said the monastery official. This spring, the archbishop of Tur Abdin and monastery resident, Samuel Aktas, toured several local Assyrian villages to plead with locals to maintain peace with their Muslim neighbours. "The [court] process makes everyone worried, not only us Assyrians. But, of course, as a minority we are facing more problems," said a high-ranking cleric at St Gabriel's who believes its future is at risk. Some commentators have suggested the land dispute is being ignored by Ankara in retaliation for a campaign by international Assyrian groups for recognition of the 1915 massacre as genocide. The ongoing conflict between Turkey and rebel Kurds has also placed the monastery close to the geographic centre of longstanding political violence. Five people were killed in a suspected separatist bomb attack on a police station in Midyat, 22km northwest of St Gabriel's, last June. Military checkpoints around the monastery are a common sight. Several years ago, the monastery was closed to visitors because of the Kurdish unrest and though it has since reopened, come 4.30pm each day, its black, cast iron doors are bolted shut for the night. The Turkish authorities say the painstaking process of returning property to Christian and other minorities shows it has embraced a new chapter of inclusivity. Under the AK Party government, more than 1,000 religious sites and land plots that a century ago belonged to Jewish, Greek, Assyrian and Armenian communities have been returned to their respective foundations, and some are once again being used for worship. Questions regarding the St Gabriel's land dispute posed via phone and email to the directorate general for foundations, the state body responsible for returning property, went unanswered. Across the flat plains surrounding St Gabriel's as a soft breeze blows, the most conspicuous sight is of the fortified stone walls erected around the monastery's property. They are an uncommon though telling barrier in a part of Turkey where disputes over land look set to colour relations for years to come.
Anuj Puri, the former chairman of property consultant JLL India who recently bought the fund management business of his former employer, is looking forward to launch a real estate-focused non-banking company (NBFC) and invest Rs 300 crore through their second fund.
Cabinet gives ex-post facto approval for amendment of the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order, 1954 .

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval for amendment of the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order, 1954 by way of the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Amendment Order, 2017. .

.

The approval paves the way for applicability of Goods and Services Tax regime in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. .

.

The Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Amendment Order, 2017 has already been notified in Gazette of India on 6th July, 2017 after the assent of the President. .

.
In a major recognition of Indias efforts to benchmark global spices trade, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme, paving the way for universal agreement on identifying quality spices in various countries.

The member-countries of CAC, the international food standards-setting body which met in Geneva for its 40th session during July 17-22, unanimously approved the adoption of Codex standards for the three spices, which would facilitate evolving a common standardization process for their global trade and availability.

The Codex standards were adopted in the wake of India conducting three sessions of Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) at Kochi (2014), Goa (2015) and Chennai (2017). The Chennai session succeeded in achieving this consensus. Subsequently, these drafts were placed before the CAC, and it was adopted by consensus with an overwhelming support from the member-countries.

With the adoption of the Codex standards on pepper, cumin and thyme, spices have been included for the first time as commodities that will have such universal standards.

Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said the adoption of the Codex standards would imply that there are now reference points and benchmarks for the member-countries to align their national standards for spices with Codex.

Smt. Sitharaman said It will bring harmony to the global spice trade and ensure availability of high quality, clean and safe spices to the world. She said It will also benefit the trade from universal agreement to identify good quality spices.

.The Minister said It may be a small beginning considering the number of commodities waiting in the ranks for the standardization process. But what is really heartening is that spices have made a definitive entry into the league of commodities having Codex standards, and India played a key role in achieving this objective.

This triumph of CCSCH is the harbinger of a lot of hard work ahead. The number of spices and culinary herbs is very large  although only 109 spices are notified in the ISO list, their actual number, as used in various countries, would be much higher.

It was in 2013 that the need for Codex standards for spices and herbs became a matter of concern, owing to the increased level of issues in spice trade. At that time, there was no Codex committee exclusively for spices and culinary herbs. Thus, the first step in development of Codex standards was the establishment of a dedicated Codex committee for spices and herbs.

With the approval of the Central government, Spices Board India submitted to CAC a proposal for such an exclusive committee for spices and culinary herbs. After completing the background work, it sent delegates to a series of Codex committee meetings all over the world, making a forceful plea for the need for a committee on spices and herbs.

The 36th session of CAC, which met in Rome from July 1-5, 2013, deliberated on this proposal from India, and later approved it with unanimous support of the member-countries. It heralded the creation of CSCH, with India as the host country and Spices Board as the Secretariat. This was the first new Codex commodity committee to be approved in the past 25 years.

Historically, the developed countries, being the major importers of spices, have always insisted on unreasonably strict standards, which have had adverse effects on spice trade. This is an issue that the Codex, jointly formed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and

Agriculture Organisation (FAO), seeks to address.

Spices Board India, the flagship organization of the Central Government for export and promotion of spices from the country, has always been concerned about this aspect, and hence has taken keen interest in harmonizing the disparate standards for spices which exist all over the world.
Conference of State Minorities Commissions is held annually by National Commission for Minorities (NCM), besides interaction by the Members of the NCM with representatives of minority communities during their visits to the States. The last Annual Conference of State Minorities Commissions was held on 17.01.2017 at New Delhi. .

.

A meeting of National Monitoring Committee for Notified Minorities (NMCM) comprising of 72 members with representation from all the six notified minority communities, namely, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, constituted to advise, review and monitor the schemes/programmes implemented by Ministry of Minority Affairs, was held on 26.02.2014. The major outcome of the meeting was that Sub-Committees for different minority communities and also a Standing Committee of NMCM were constituted. .

.

A conference of All India Chairpersons and CEOs, State Waqf Boards/UT Waqf Boards was arranged by NAWADCO and Central Waqf Council (CWC) on 07.01.2017 to discuss issues related to development of Waqf Properties and Strengthening of State Waqf Boards to increase income of State Waqf Boards which could empower them for educational and economical upliftment of minorities. .

.

This information was given by Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Minister of State (IC) for Minority Affairs, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today. .

.
The establishment of an Air Freight Corridor between India and Afghanistan was discussed during the visits of President Ghani of Afghanistan to India in September and December 2016. .

.

The first cargo flight from Kabul to Delhi, establishing air freight corridor, was received on 19 June 2017 by the External Affairs Minister in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister and Minister of State for External Affairs and the Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India. Subsequently, cargo flight from Kandahar to Delhi arrived on June 24, 2017. .

.

The connectivity established through the Air Freight Corridor will promote bilateral trade; provide Afghanistan, a landlocked country, direct access to India; allow Afghan businessmen to leverage Indias economic growth and trade networks for its benefit; and enable Afghan farmers quick and direct access to the Indian markets for their perishable produce. .

.

This information was given by Shri Gen. (Dr.) V.K. Singh (Retd), the Minister of State for External Affairs, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today. .

.

YSK
As per the existing frame work, the concerned State Government is required to undertake necessary relief measures in case of natural disasters through the funds readily available in the corpus of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) as per norms. In case of a disaster of severe nature, additional assistance is extended from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) after following the laid down procedure. .

.

As reported by State Government an amount of Rs. 71.01 crore is available in SDRF account as on 1st April 2017 for management of relief necessitated by notified natural disasters in the affected areas during 2017-18. In addition, the Government of India has released 1st instalment of central share amounting to Rs. 9.45 crore from SDRF to the State on 21st July 2017. .

.

In the instant case, upon receipt of the memorandum from the State Government of Manipur, an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visited the affected areas of the State from 13th to 16th July 2017 for an on-the-spot assessment of damages caused by the flood/ landslides of 2017. Keeping in view the intensity & magnitude of floods of 2017 in Manipur, it has been adjudged a calamity of a severe nature for all practical purposes. .

.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to question by Shri K. Bhabananda Singh in the Rajya Sabha today. .

.
Government has taken several steps to promote science and scientific research in the country. Many new and innovative schemes have been initiated recently to catalyze research in areas like healthcare, information and communication, sustainable habitat, nanoscience and technology, water resources and river systems etc. Emphasis has been given to interdisciplinary areas of priority such as energy, water, health, security, nutrition, advanced materials and manufacturing, cyber physical systems etc. to meaningfully connect the research and development (R&D) undertaken in our academic and national laboratories to the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the Government. Some other measures taken by the Government to promote science and scientific research include successive increase in plan allocations for Scientific Departments, offering attractive research fellowships, strengthening infrastructure for R&D etc. .

.

The fund allocated to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) / Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for agriculture research and education during XI and XII Plan were Rs 10325.76 crore and Rs 13786.58 crore respectively. The Government, with the aim of developing and promoting scientific technology to increase agricultural production of the country, has established National Agricultural Research System (NARS)" in various states including Uttar Pradesh. The names of State/UT where the ICAR Research Institutes/ All India Coordinated/Network Research Projects have been set up including Uttar Pradesh, are given below: .

.

1. Andaman & Nicobar.

.

2. Andhra Pradesh.

.

3. Arunachal Pradesh.

.

4. Assam .

.

5. Bihar .

.

6. Chhattisgarh .

.

7. Delhi .

.

8. Goa .

.

9. Gujarat .

.

10. Haryana .

.

11. Himachal Pradesh .

.

12. Jammu & Kashmir .

.

13. Jharkhand .

.

14. Karnataka .

.

15. Kerala .

.

16. Madhya Pradesh .

.

17. Maharashtra .

.

18. Meghalaya .

.

19. Nagaland .

.

20. Odisha .

.

21. Punjab .

.

22. Rajasthan .

.

23. Sikkim .

.

24. Tamilnadu .

.

25. Telangana .

.

26. Uttar Pradesh .

.

27. Uttarakhand .

.

28. West Bengal .

.

This information was given by Minister of State for Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences Shri Y.S.Chowdary in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. .

.
The vacant posts in Government Ministries/Departments are required to be filled as per the Recruitment Rules for the post. Information related to recruitment of staff by Government of India is not centrally maintained. .

.

Recruitment to various posts in Government of India is made through various recruitment agencies constituted for the purpose such as Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission etc. Recruitment agencies conduct examinations based on indents received from various Ministries/Departments/offices of Government of India. Ministries/Departments and the recruitment agencies have been sensitized to take all the required steps for filling up of the posts. .

.

The Government is always committed to appoint best available talent subject to provisions of rules. NITI Aayog in the Three Year Action Agenda for 2017-2020 has recommended for inducting specialists into the system through lateral entry in policy making areas on fixed term contract. This recommendation alongwith suggestions received from other quarters are under consideration. .

.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State for Prime Ministers Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Dr. K. Gopal and Shri Sisir Kumar Adhikari in the Lok Sabha today. .

.
The Department of Science & Technology has launched a new programme National Initiative for Developing & Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) last year which covers the entire value chain of innovations starting from idea to commercialization. .

.

To promote innovation focused start-ups some of the key initiatives taken by the government are: .

.

1. National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog is implementing Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) for promoting Incubators and Tinkering Labs. .

.

2. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) have joined hands to promote Research Parks in the country. .

.

3. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in association with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up a Rs.10,000 crore Fund to invest in Venture Capital Funds to promote innovations and start-ups. .

.

4. Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Industries has a programme to setup incubators in the Agriculture sector, under the ASPIRE (A Scheme For Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship) programme. .

.

5. Department of Bio-Technology has a programme to promote incubators in the Bio-tech sector under the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) programme. .

.

6. MHRD has also launched a Smart India Hackathon for involving Engineering students to provide solutions to problems faced by Government Departments. .

.

In short there is a concerted effort by the government to promote innovation for addressing the problems and challenges faced by the country. .

.

This information was given by Minister of State for Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences Shri Y.S.Chowdary in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. .

.
Government of India had approved raising of 5 India Reserve Battalions for J & K Police on 10.02.2016. Subsequently, State Government raised a demand to create a Women Police Battalion for J & K Police to address the issues relating to gender based violence faced by Women. .

.

Keeping in view the need raised by the State Government for creation of a Women Police Battalion for J & K Police, the State Government of J & K was asked to raise one or two Women Battalions out of the 5 India Reserve Battalions sanctioned for J & K. It was also mentioned that MHA policy is to reserve 33% seats for women; therefore, MHA would encourage J & K Government to raise 2 women battalions. However, citing that the process of recruitment of 5 India Reserve Battalions has already been set in motion, the State Government has reiterated its proposal for creation of one new exclusive Battalion for women..

.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to question by Shri Ripun Bora in the Rajya Sabha today..

.
Indo-Nepal border is open, porous and thickly populated. The movement of Indian and Nepalese citizens across the Indo-Nepal border is governed by Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950, which provides for free movement of citizens of both the countries across the border. To prevent misuse of border by anti-social elements including terrorists/criminals, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has been deployed at Indo-Nepal Border as a Border Guarding Force. SSB regularly carries out various operational activities like patrolling and laying of nakas along the border. Checking of persons crossing the border is also being carried out both randomly as well as on the basis of specific inputs received from SSBs own sources/sister agencies. .

.

Besides, State Police concerned is also keeping vigil. Issues of security concerns are also addressed through institutional interactions with Nepal on a regular basis. These mechanisms include Home Secretary Level talks, Joint Working Group on Border Management, Director General (Customs) level talks and bilateral consultative group on security issues. .

.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to question by Shri Prabhat Jha in the Rajya Sabha today..

.
Ministry of Tourism has undertaken various measures/initiatives to provide facilitation and make tourist places accessible to the differently abled and to provide safety and security to tourists as per following details: .

.

I. 24x7 Toll Free Multi-Lingual Tourist Info-Helpline in 12 Languages to provide support service in terms of information and guidance to tourists. .

.

II. All the infrastructure developed under the Schemes of Swadesh Darshan and National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) are designed barrier free to provide easy accessibility to differently abled tourists. All State Governments/Union Territory Administrations are required to submit an undertaking along with the proposal before sanctioning of project certifying that barrier free environment for differently abled tourists has been incorporated in the design of the built-up areas of the project. .

.

III. Ministry of Tourism, under its voluntary scheme guidelines for classification/re-classification of operational hotels, has made it mandatory for hotels to earmark at least one room with suitable furniture and customized washroom facilities, ramp with anti-slip floors, wheel chair to be available on a complimentary basis in hotels of all categories, designated parking places etc. for the differently abled. .

.

IV. Transport Operators Association has been advised to provide adequate facility in the tourist cars/buses for differently-abled tourists. .

.

V. Handing over Welcome Cards to foreign tourists on arrival to provide useful tips. .

.

VI. Some State Governments/Union Territory Administrations have deployed Tourist Police, in one form or the other. .

.

VII. Launching of Code of Conduct for adoption by the Indian Travel and Tourism Industry for Safe and Honourable Tourism with the objective to encourage undertaking of tourism activities with respect to basic rights like dignity, safety and freedom from exploitation of both tourists and local residents, in particular women and children. .

.

VIII. Advisories are issued from time to time to various State Governments and UT Administrations to ensure safety and security of the tourist. .

.

Providing facilities at Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, Ganesh Tekdi in Nagpur falls under jurisdiction of the State Government. Various tourist amenities are provided by Archeological Survey of India and State Archeology at the forts falling under their jurisdiction. In respect of Maharashtra, Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned an amount of Rs.82.17 Crore for the development of Sindhudurg Coastal Circuit under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme during the year 2015-16. .

.

This information was given by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture (Independent Charge) in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. .

.
As per information available as on 24th July, 2017, 18 States and 7 Union Territories have discontinued the practice of interview in recruitment for lower level posts. .

.

The objective of discontinuation of interview in selection process at lower level posts is to curb corruption, more objective selection in transparent manner and substantially easing the problems of poor aspirants. Union Territory Administration of Daman & Diu has informed that it has benefitted them economically by way of savings on account of non-application of Travelling Allowance/ Daily Allowance and other expenditure involved in calling candidates for interview. Further, Union Territory Administration of Lakshadweep has informed that local aspirants have economically benefitted from this initiative of the Government. .

.

The States of Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Mizoram, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are yet to decide about discontinuation of interview in the recruitment of lower level posts. The States of Sikkim and Meghalaya have not adopted the process of discontinuation of interviews in recruitment to lower level posts. However, information regarding the State of Nagaland is not available. Further, it has been informed by the State of Odisha that steps have already been taken to implement scrapping of interview system concerning junior level posts (Group B & C) of all Departments. .

.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State for Prime Ministers Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Naranbhai Kachhadiya in the Lok Sabha today. .

.
Shri Rajnath Singh chairs a review meeting of NDRF

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired a review meeting of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) here today.

During the meeting, Shri Sanjay Kumar, DG, NDRF gave a presentation on the role and responsibilities of NDRF, along with its major achievements. He said that NDRF has conducted 553 operations and rescued 78,625 human lives from January, 2016 to till date. NDRF has saved 947 livestock during the same period, he added. Apart from rescue operations, Shri Kumar said that NDRF has been conducting mock exercises and capacity development programmes of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, civilians and school children.

He said that NDRF has so far provided community awareness programme to 53.65 lakh volunteers. Shri Kumar also briefed on the special equipments being used by the NDRF in search & rescue operations and on the creation of infrastructure in NDRF at different places of the country. He also informed the progress on the ongoing infrastructure development at the approved cost of Rs 882 crore at 10 Battalions and 10 team locations.

Shri Rajnath Singh said that the efforts of NDRF have been appreciated not only in India but also in countries like Nepal and Japan where NDRF personnel had contributed in search and rescue operations. He expressed concern in respect of twelve States/UTs where the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has not been raised so far and said that these States should be asked to set up SDRF at the earliest. He assured NDRF that the key issues highlighted during the meeting will be looked into and necessary steps will be taken in due course.

Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, Union Home Secretary appreciated NDRF for undertaking activities like mock drill, community training and school safety programme, apart from search and rescue operations.

OSD/ Secretary designate MHA Shri Rajiv Gauba, and senior officers of MHA and NDRF were also present during the present.
More than 30 malaria vaccine candidates are at various stages of development. The RTS,S vaccine is at the most advanced stage.

The World Health Organisation has recommended the introduction of the vaccine in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi as a pilot programme to assess its suitability in expanded immunisation programmes.
Of all the demands that activist hedge funds make, one has emerged as a clear favourite over the past year: Asking the management of a company they target to put up the for sale sign.
Last Wednesday, July 19, was something of a busy news day. There was word North Korea was making preparations for yet another provocative missile test. The Supreme Court, in its latest ruling in the controversial travel ban case, said that people from the six largely Muslim countries covered by the immigration enforcement action could enter the U.S. if they had a grandparent here, refusing to overturn a ruling that grandparents qualified as "bona fide relatives." And then, late in the day, President Donald Trump gave a remarkable interview to The New York Times, one that, among other things, laid into Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In Pakistan, theres no topic hotter than the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion dollar bilateral development project that will, officials promised in 2015, usher in an era of unprecedented progress and prosperity.
Given how President Donald Trump has taken aim at the Environmental Protection Agency with regulatory rollbacks and deep proposed budget cuts, it may come as no surprise that the Office of Environmental Justice is on the chopping block.
ISIS occupation of Mosul, once Iraqs second largest city, has virtually come to an end. Though small-scale fighting continues, and U.S. military strikes continued through at least July 17, ISIS control over the city has largely collapsed. Many among the ISIS forces were killed, many fled and many have probably melted back into local communities. U.S., Iraqi, and some other governments and media are celebrating the defeat of ISIS as the liberation of the city.
The ongoing effort of the United States to eradicate the Islamic State by aggressively launching airstrikes against targets that include non-combatants is causing significant harm to civilians in Iraq and Syria.
US retailer Michael Kors has agreed to buy luxury shoemaker Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion, snapping up a British brand launched in the East End of London and made famous by celebrity fans including Princess Diana.
After surviving the perilous journey to Europe, migrants are met with two seemingly opposite responses. Increasingly, European governments are criminalising migration, militarising borders and expanding detention centres. Meanwhile, non-government organisations (NGOs) are reaching out to migrants offering food, clothes and temporary accommodation.

These very different approaches can, in fact, have similar effects. Talking of a refugee crisis and a state of emergency  whether its to drum up support for government policies, or encourage wealthy Europeans to donate to the cause  ultimately creates a climate of urgency, where migration is portrayed as a problem that needs to be solved using emergency measures.
In the middle of his wandering speech before the Boy Scouts of America on Monday night, President Trump asked with a smirk if Barack Obama had ever visited them at a jamboree.
The Trump administration has outlined its plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It says the US will seek a much better agreement that reduces the trade deficit between the US and its partners, Canada and Mexico. In response, the two countries released brief statements welcoming the proposal. They say they consider a possible renegotiation as a step towards modernising to address the new realities and challenges of the 21st century.
Britain will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 in an attempt to reduce air pollution that could herald the end of over a century of popular use of the fossil fuel-guzzling internal combustion engine.
The benchmark Nifty on Tuesday breached the 10,000-mark for the first time, but a wave of profit booking dragged the gauge down to close at 9,964.55.
The Chinese veterans, who fought the war on the Sino-Indian border 55 years ago, have vowed to send their children to the battle field if another war breaks out.

"If needed, we are willing to send our sons and grandsons to the frontline," pledged the 73-year-old man in Xi'an, who was an anti-aircraft gun soldier during the war.

"India's intrusion and denial to withdraw has set off a wave of anger among us. When we heard that the army unit where we used to serve has been recently dispatched to Tibet, we felt excited," Global Times quoted Chen Qungeng, director of the 1962 border war veterans association in Shaanxi Province as saying.

The war began on 20 October 1962, continued for about a month.

According to Chen, the veterans are planning activities to mark the 55th anniversary of the war as, according to him, they maintained a low profile keeping India's feelings in view. But this year, they want to be different.

He further said that they regret China's initiative to retreat.

The editorial also stated that Indian politicians failed to recognize the Chinese goodwill and still take the cease-fire as a "humiliation."

In early June, India's Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said that India was ready for a two-and-a-half front war (against Pakistan, China and domestic extremists).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court will on Wednesday hear the matter of administrating the lie detector test to witness Abhishek Verma and accused Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

On July 6, Witness Abhishek Verma in the anti-Sikh Riots case submitted before a Delhi court that he is ready for polygraph test on the condition that he is provided security cover.

Verma appeared before the court personally and agreed to undergo polygraph test. However, he said that he has threat perception from the accused in the case, Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and therefore, wants security cover.

Verma has asked for two Protective Service Officers (PSOs), and guards outside his home round the clock.

The court directed him to file in writing the request for security protection.

On June 2, the Delhi Court pronounced its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea, seeking permission to conduct a lie-detector test on Tytler.

Earlier, the court had asked arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who is a witness in the case, to explain the conditions for undergoing the polygraph test.

On May 22, Tytler refused to undergo lie-detector test before the court.

Tytler and arms dealer Abhishek Verma were earlier asked by the court to appear in person or file an affidavit stating if they wanted to undergo lie-detector test or not.

Verma's counsel informed the Karkardooma Court that the former was not well and hence, sought more time to appear. The court then fixed June 2 for his personal appearance.

On May 9, the court gave two weeks time to Tytler and Verma to file their contentions and appear before the court about their consent on conduction of lie-detector test and provision of security.

Earlier in April also, Tytler refused to undergo a lie-detector test in connection with the case.

In February, the CBI had sought the court's permission for lie-detector tests on Tytler and Verma.

Tytler is accused of leading a mob in the 1984 Pul Bangash case in which three Sikhs were killed.

The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in the case but re-opened the investigation following the December 4, 2015, order in the wake of Verma's allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cornering Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his 'Indonesia-Ramleela' statement, Babri Masjid Action Committee convenor Zafaryab Jilani on Wednesday said the former is not the Chief Minister of only Ram Bhakts.

"The Chief Minister is not only the Chief Minister of those who are Ram Bhakts. Muslims do not believe in Ram as they believe in oneness of God. He is the leader of the majority party and has taken oath to be equal towards everyone. This shows he is not abiding by his oath," Jilani told ANI.

The Chief Minister on Wednesday said that even as Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, 'Ramleela' is their festival.

"Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world and 'Ramleela' is their festival," Adityanath said, while addressing a rally in Ayodhya.

Adityanath's statement came in the backdrop of the Ram Mandir issue, which he said could only be resolved through peaceful talks.

"All the stakeholders must follow the Supreme Court's decision on the issue and find a friendly and peaceful manner for resolving the matter," he added.

The Chief Minister further said that Ramleela is well-known in India and the entire country watches it every year with great devotion adding that every religion has respect for Lord Ram.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After the arrest of separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah by Investigation Agency (NIA), the Congress party on Wednesday said that the unrest in Kashmir Valley cannot be solved without a political solution.

"You can arrest, kill and take action to threaten people to suppress them. However, if you don't take out political solution, then it cannot be solved," Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar told ANI.

"They have promised in the agenda for alliance of their coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir that they will talk to all sects of the community to come out with a solution. They should fulfill their own promises," he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, another Congress leader Ambika Sonia said that mere arrest are not enough, and that the charges against the Separatists have to be proved in a lawful manner.

"They have to prove the charges leveled against them. In the meeting with the government and the opposition, we categorically said that we are going to be supportive with the steps taken for the security and integrity of the country," Soni said.

Meanwhile, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir has assured that the Separatists have been arrested only after thorough probe.

"The investigation which is being done by the NIA is on the right track. If anybody is being arrested then it has happened after proper probe. This routine will not stop now. It is our responsibility to keep our nation safe. This investigation is happening in the favour of the nation," said Ahir.

Separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Shah was arrested from his residence, where he was under house detention for a very long time, in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar.

As per sources, police arrested Shah late yesterday evening.

The reason for his arrest is yet unknown as he was already under house arrest since many months.

On Monday, the Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven Separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - have been sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Six of them were arrested from Srinagar, while Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday took a jibe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying he was aware of his longtime friend's growing bonhomie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Talking to the media here, Yadav said, "I am aware of the growing bonhomie between Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I know BJP is desperate to ally with Janata Dal (United) (JD(U))."

Yadav further dared Nitish saying the alliance was forged because of him, and that the RJD made him Chief Minister.

However, Yadav has rubbished the repeated barbs of a breakup, asserting that all is well with Nitish Kumar.

"Mahagathbandhan is intact and Nitish never asked for resignation from Tejashwi" he said while addressing a press conference in Patna.

Backing his tainted son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the former chief minister said, the latter won't resign from his post.

Recently, the tension between the 'Grand Alliance' of Congress and RJD had grown as Nitish Kumar was facing increasing pressure to oust Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav from the cabinet after charges of corruption were proved against him.

The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The RJD supremo, however, has refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP is mounting pressure on Nitish Kumar to oust Tejashwi Yadav from the party.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, "Nitish Kumar has no defence so he must immediately suspend Tejaswi Yadav. JD (U) is asking for a response since there has been enough delay in the matter. There is a strong case against Lalu Yadav's son. He has to clarify on the anonymous assets."

Modi also warned that they will not let the House function if an adequate response did not come from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after a four-storey building collapsed in suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai killing 17, the Congress on Wednesday blamed the Mumbai's civic body for the mishap and said that both the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, who run the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, must be held accountable for the accident.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said that Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap, who owns at least three flats on the ground floor of the building, should be booked for culpable homicide for the collapse.

"The CM is saying that they are going to take action, this is absolutely rubbish. The officers who are responsible for all this, they should be arrested. Case should be registered for non unintentional murder. All these things are happening due to the misgovernance of BJP and Shiv Sena in BMC. A mere announcement for investigation is not going to do anything. There is corruption everywhere in BMC and no one cares for the people of Mumbai," he added.

He further said that the BJP and the Shiv Sena should apologize to the people of Mumbai for this.

"Municipal corporation's responsible is to take care of the building which are in bad condition and that no construction takes place on those buildings. This building was 40 years old and could fall down anytime. Even after the protest of the local residents, a leader of Shiv Sena leader started constructing illars for the construction of the hospital," he added.

Meanwhile, cutting across party lines, several political leaders endorsed the arrest of Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap for not taking measures to save a building that he owned in the Ghatkopar area of Mumbai from collapsing.

A majority of them said that people responsible for the mishap should be held accountable.

A number of allegations pointed towards Sunil Shitap, a local strongman linked to the Shiv Sena and accused him of doing extensive repairing in the maternity home on the ground floor of the building without taking appropriate precautions

Rajya Sabha member Rajni Patil told ANI that a person and his political affiliations shouldn't intervene with any arrest or investigation as a lot of lives are at stake.

Hussain Dalwai, a Rajya Sabha member representing Maharashtra, said, "Only his arrest won't work. Everyone, including people who gave him permission and the ones who were negligent should be held as well."

He added that there are a number of encroachment cases in Mumbai and that the collectors and commissioners aren't doing their jobs properly.

On Tuesday, 17 people died after the building collapsed. Over thirty people were feared trapped under the rubble of the four-storeyed residential building.

Eight fire engines were rushed to the spot. A rescue van along with 108 Ambulance was also rushed to the spot.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has said that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that 39 Indians missing in Mosul, Iraq, have died. "And declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin that I won't commit," she said.

Sushma was giving her statement on the 39 missing Indians after a morning of uproar in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Sushma Swaraj asserted that Iraq never claimed that the missing nationals are "dead".

"Why should I believe Harjit Masih's claims that the 39 Indians are dead? It is a crime to do this without proper proof", she said.

Swaraj further said that it would be easy for her to say that Indians have died, as no one including their families would question her after that.

"Their case would not be closed, until, a proof for them being dead is found. I didn't say they are in Badush" the minister added.

Lok Sabha witnessed uproar as the Minister started speaking on the missing Indians, leading to her refusing from giving statements on the issue.

"I am ready to speak as the matter is serious but I can't give a statement in such uproar. They must not storm the well", she stated.

Earlier on Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said that he was not sure about the fate of 39 missing Indians, who were held captive by Islamic State in Mosul.

He said there is no report about them whether they are dead or alive and added that the Iraqi government is doing its best to locate them.

"We're not 100 percent sure whether they're alive or not, we don't know. We are going to do our best, but till now we cannot say anything about their fate," al-Jaafari said.

"We will do our best in order to find those 39," he added.

The Iraq Embassy in India had also informed that search operations are underway to locate the 39 missing Indians, and assured there is a high level coordination between concerned Iraqi and Indian authorities to locate them.

The Government of India has already sent two high-level senior delegations to Iraq to follow up on this matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China has lauded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's active foreign policy, saying that he has reformed the country's foreign investment policy and encouraged domestic enterprises to go into the international market.

In an analytical news report titled 'China-India cooperation helps promote open global trade, counter protectionism,' Chinese state-owned Xinhua news agency said, "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has implemented an active foreign policy, has reformed foreign investment policy and has encouraged domestic enterprises to go on the international market."

The report said that strengthening of the trade cooperation and the advocacy of open trade policy between the world's two biggest markets China and India will definitely contribute to promoting open global trade and containing protectionism.

Praising India's open foreign economic policy as an important force for the current where protectionism is on the rise, Xinhua said that New Delhi has adopted a positive and open foreign economic policy and has been an important supporter for the open foreign trade policy.

The report highlighted that a favourable investment climate has been created in India by actively attracting foreign investment, while noting that the country has been the largest destination for foreign direct investment in the for the past two years.

"India's current reform and opening policies are very attractive, which puts forward a 'made in India' strategic planning, proposes the road of 'eastward strategy' and so on," the report quoted Luo Zhaohui, Chinese Ambassador to India, as saying.

The country has also "put forward a lot of inter-connectivity initiatives, and vigourously promotes multi-sector technical and economic cooperation agreements of the Bay of Bengal rim. In terms of inter-connectivity and the Belt and Road Initiative, we two big neighboring countries should be natural partners," he added.

The report further said that China-India cooperation can effectively improve openness of the economy, and counter trade protectionism, which is now largely led by the United States under the Donald Trump administration.

Asserting that the two developing countries share common views and stands on many international affairs, Xinhua cited an example saying India has cleared its commitment to developing green economy and is a champion of the Paris Climate Agreement.

"After the United States formally withdrew from the agreement, the Indian Prime Minister has made clear his commitment to developing green energy, and promised that India's efforts of tackling climate change will not be limited to the Paris Climate Agreement," it said.

The report also quoted Prasoon Sharma, a researcher at a global think tank in India, as saying that China and India would drive economic growth of the world, promote trade balance across the globe and bring peace and happiness to the people of the world, if the two sides join hands as they are the largest markets and manufacturing sectors of the world.

The report drew attention to the fact that two countries have great potential in finance, which is regarded as the original intention and cooperation content of the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This appreciation by the Chinese media comes at a time when Indian and Chinese troops continue to be locked in a stand-off in Doklam and have moved additional troops, ammunition and military equipment to the area.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has beefed up its defence in a region south of the Kunlun Mountains under the pretext of conducting a military exercise near Tibet.

Hardware has been moved simultaneously by road and rail by China's western theatre command, which oversees the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and handles, among others, border issues with India, media reports have said.

This show of strength is being projected by Beijing as a warning to India by China to back off from its objection to China constructing a road at the Doklam tri-junction.

The stand-off emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from constructing roads at the Doklam border.

India claims Sikkim border as part of its territory, while China has said that the area falls on their side as per the 1890 treaty signed between British and China.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

It also alleged that the Indian troops had crossed the Sikkim Sector of the Indo-China border. Beijing has accused New Delhi of violating a convention signed in 1890 between Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China is selectively and unilaterally using irrelevant treaties against India on the Doklam issue focusing on those aspects of the legacy treaties which India does not recognise according to an opinion article published in The Korea Times.

In the opinion report highlighted by The Korea Times, Hong Kong-based journalist Frank Ching has said he finds it very interesting to see Beijing placing so much emphasis on a 1890 treaty that it signed with Britain to stake its territorial claim over a contested area in the Doklam Plateau.

Admitting that the military face-off between China, India and Bhutan in Doklam has again brought the Sino-Indian border dispute into focus, King says, "China is picking carefully - and unilaterally - which treaties it considers relevant. Actually, the 1890 treaty is by no means clear. While the treaty says that the line between Sikkim and Tibet commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier,' it also says that the boundary 'shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters' that flow southward into Sikkim and northward into Tibet. Unfortunately for China, Mount Gipmochi is not at 'the crest of the mountain range separating the waters.' That location, it turns out, is Batang La."

He adds, "So, if Gimpochi is the starting point, Doklam is in China, but if Batang La is the real starting point, then Doklam is in Bhutan and China has no right to build a road there."

King says that a careful study of the 1890 treaty between Great Britain and China reveals that Sikkim was a British protectorate and India was a British colony.

"Today, Sikkim is part of an independent India. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge and yet China pins its claim on this relatively ancient treaty (of 1890)," he says.

Providing an example of China's doublespeak The Korea Times says - What is more interesting is the fact of China referring to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong as being a historical document that no longer has any realistic meaning, but a treaty signed in 1890 in which India had no role is relevant !.

King says that this Joint Declaration spells out policies regarding Hong Kong for 50 years beyond 1997. The most significant part is that, "The Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the People's Republic of China agree to implement the preceding declarations and the Annexes to this Joint Declaration."

The Korea Times says that it is ironical that , "On (the) one hand, a treaty that is meant to run at least until 2047 is already irrelevant, while (the) one signed in 1890, when the was very different, is still binding (according to China)."

In the article, the paper says that India has claimed that it reached an agreement with China in 2012 that "the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalized in consultation with the concerned countries."

China, the Korean Newspaper adds, is silent on this agreement, proving again how selective it is to ensure its claims over what is essentially a territory under dispute.

The latest conflict began after a construction party of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) entered the Doklam area and attempted to upgrade or extend a dirt road.

India maintains that a Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade the Chinese from undertaking this unilateral activity, and when the latter refused to back down, the intervention of Indian troops was necessitated, and this triggered off a stand-off between Chinese and Indian troops.

In the Korea Times opinion piece, author Ching quotes Chinese border expert M. Taylor Fravel, as saying that as per the 1890 treaty, the border begins at Mount Gimpochi, roughly three kilometers south of the Chinese road and the western point of the Jampheri Ridge, and also that the boundary will follow the watershed.

Fravel says Mount Gimpochi is not the start of the watershed, and the convention does not explain how to square this circle.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Wednesday warned Botswana over Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's visit next month, asking the African nation to respect Beijing's 'core interests' and make a wise decision.

"We have noted relevant reports and China has stated clearly its position on the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to relevant countries. I want to stress that Tibet related issues concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, we require relevant countries to earnestly respect China's core interests and make wise decisions on relevant issues," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesperson Lu Kang said during a press briefing.

"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs and we will not accept other countries to do things that harm the core interests of China," he added.

Dalai Lama will be visiting Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19. The officials had confirmed that the Tibetan spiritual leader would be given "a foreign dignitary" status and the trip would be a "purely private visit".

China is one the leading investors in Africa and major state-owned companies were awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese media has exposed the Sino-Pak nexus as it warned New Delhi that it can enter Kashmir on Pakistan's invitation.

India has always been saying that Pakistan is fomenting trouble in Jammu and Kashmir under the Chinese patronisation.

Continuing their tirade against India, the state owned Chinese media has warned New Delhi that China can enter Kashmir on Pakistan's invitation.

An opinionated piece by John Gong titled "Time for a second lesson for forgetful India" published in the Global Times said, "No matter what vassalage relationship India maintains with Bhutan, it baffles this author that India has the courage to transgress another country on its behalf. And in this case, Indian troops even entered into Doklam from the China-Sikkim border. Well, if this kind of logic holds, a third country can certainly enter into Kashmir, including India-controlled Kashmir, upon Pakistan's invitation."

The op-ed accused India of transgressing China's borders and trying Chinese people's patience in the on-going standoff, adding that no government in the can stand still doing nothing while its borders are being violated.

The opinion piece said that it is time that India is taught a second lesson as it continues down this intransigent path.

"Their troops in Doklam could either withdraw voluntarily, be captured or may be killed when border disputes escalate, Liu Youfa, China's former consul general in Mumbai, made the above comments in an appearance on CGTN," it read.

Describing India's logic of reasoning on the border standoff as feeble as its troops on the ground, the opinion piece said that New Delhi's claims Doklam to be a territory in dispute between China and Bhutan, and it has been invited there by Bhutan, its protectorate state.

It said India also argues that China's road construction in Doklam poses a strategic threat to the "chicken's neck," referring to the 27-kilometer-wide Siliguri Corridor to the south of Doklam that connects the north-eastern part of India with the rest of the country.

"Chicken's neck or giraffe's neck, who cares? Why would a peaceful China care about the road condition in another country when its only purpose is to improve its own road conditions? This road in Doklam has been there for at least a decade under firm Chinese administration, and this time China is merely trying to do some asphalt patching work in order to facilitate better logistics support to its border posts. That a public infrastructure project in one country can be viewed as a strategic threat to another and worse yet be used as an excuse warranting an invasion, is unprecedented in recent human history," it read.

The op-ed alleged that India has a history of harbouring the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala as a strategic counter-China ploy.

"Underneath the Dalai Lama's facade of peace, there lies a trace of violence at least half a century old. Immediately after he fled to India in 1959, the Dalai Lama became the CIA's henchman in engaging in a terrorist guerrilla war on China," it said adding that "in more recent years, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the armed wing of the Dalai Lama's regime, instigated several violent riots and is responsible for several terrorist bombings in China. In a way, India is actively harboring terrorism against the Chinese."

The opinion piece warned saying that; China should reciprocate in a language that India can understand.

"China is embarking on a historic mission to be a peaceful, prosperous and powerful nation as it has been in history. It can't afford to be constantly distracted by border skirmishes with India," it said.

The opinion piece comes as Indian and Chinese troops continue to be locked in a standoff in Doklam and both sides have moved additional troops, ammunition and military equipment to the area.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has beefed up its defence in a region south of the Kunlun Mountains under the pretext of conducting a military exercise near Tibet.

Hardware has been moved simultaneously by road and rail by China's western theatre command, which oversees the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and handles, among others, border issues with India, media reports have said.

This show of strength is being projected by Beijing as a warning to India by China to back off from its objection to China constructing a road at the Doklam tri-junction.

Earlier, the External Affairs Ministry of India (MEA) reiterated that differences between India and China should not and would not be allowed to become disputes, and added that communication between the two governments have never ceased, nor have been broken.

The stand-off emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from constructing roads at the Doklam border.

India claims Sikkim border as part of its territory, while China has said that the area falls on their side as per the 1890 treaty signed between British and China.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

It also alleged that the Indian troops had crossed the Sikkim Sector of the Indo-China border. Beijing has accused New Delhi of violating a convention signed in 1890 between Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Google India on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to digitally empower India's small and medium businesses as part of its Digital Unlocked campaign, wherein it announced the national winners of SMB Heroes 2017, an initiative aimed at recognising businesses that have embraced to power their growth.

The three businesses that emerged as national winners under each of the categories are: Farida Gupta for Business Impact Through Digital, Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for Impacting Change Through Digital and Arpita Ganesh for Woman Business Leader. These businesses have excelled in innovative use of and have leveraged it to address challenges and grow their businesses.

Earlier this year, Google and KPMG had conducted a joint study, "Impact of internet and digitization on SMBs in India". As per the report, SMBs cited a lack of understanding of the benefits of digital technologies and technical skills as the essential reasons for being offline.

Recognizing the need to address these gaps, Google unveiled its Digital Unlocked program earlier this year. As part of this program, Google is providing online, offline and mobile trainings to empower thousands of Indian SMBs with essential digital skills. The offline training is being conducted in partnership with FICCI and in the last six months, over 500,000 individuals have engaged with the skilling platform and 20,000 businesses have been trained.

In addition, Google launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. In the last few months, Primer has been downloaded over two million times.

Google also launched 'Websites with Google My Business', a free tool for SMBs to create free, mobile optimised websites, easily and instantly. Through this new feature, businesses get access to template, editable websites using their already existing data on Google My Business.

With Websites with Google My Business SMBs can automatically build websites in 10 languages - Tamil, English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, and Malayalam. 160,000 Indian businesses are already using Websites with Google My Business and finding newer ways to connect with consumers.

Addressing an audience of over hundred small and medium business owners, Rajan Anandan, Vice President - India and South-East Asia, Google said, "India's incredible story of internet adoption continues to have a transformational impact on how people are consuming information, finding new businesses and connecting with one another. However, India's 51 million strong small and medium business community is not yet where they should be. At Google, we are committed to removing the barriers to adoption and providing small business with the training and tools they need to accelerate their growth."

As esteemed jury panel comprising Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; Dr. A. Didar Singh, author and Secretary General, FICCI; Sairee Chahal, Founder and CEO, www.sheroes.in; Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice-Chairman, Info Edge, India and Kevin O'Kane, Managing Director - Google Marketing Solutions, Google Asia Pacific selected the national winners from 14 regional finalists, who had been recognised earlier this year. This year, SMB Heroes witnessed unprecedented interest, with entries from over 142 cities across India including Hoshiarpur, Rajkot, Rajamundhry, Jamshedpur, Coimbatore, Hisar, Bhimavaram and many more.

Addressing an audience of local SMBs and highlighting the importance of digital, Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information said, "The small business sector is the backbone of the Indian economy, driving 37 per cent of the country's GDP and employing 120 million people. It is encouraging to see initiatives like Google's SMB Heroes program, which can help fuel economic growth by making the Internet a key facilitator in India's SMB growth story.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Golden Katar Division of the Indian Army on Wednesday released two additional columns; fully equipped with specialized equipment to bolster the ongoing operations in the flood hit districts in the state of Gujarat, in response to an increased requirement for aerial rescue and relief effort projected by the state government.

There are now a total of five Indian Army Columns engaged in rescuing people in the flood ravaged villages of Gujarat.

Three of these columns have been drawn from Dhrangadhara Military Station while two others each has been sent from Gandhinagar based Parbat Ali Brigade and Bhuj based Bald Eagle Brigade.

The Indian Army Contingents at work are accompanied by eleven Engineer Task Forces and three medical teams.

Major General Anil Puri SM, VSM General Officer Commanding Golden Katar Division is scheduled to visit the worst effected Khara Village in Kankrej Tehsil of Banaskantha today to oversee the rescue and relief work.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Air Force (IAF) released sixteen helicopters which are being used for winching and airlifting of people dangerously stranded in the midst of flood waters.

These helicopters are also used for dropping and supply of relief material (food, water and medicines) to villages inaccessible by road to the rescue teams operating on ground.

These helicopters are being flown by the IAF aircrew braving extremely challenging weather conditions prevailing in the area marked by low clouds, poor visibility and rains.

The IAF aircrafts have been operating from bases established at Deesa, Mehsana, Patan and Ahmedabad, keeping into focus the inundated villages in Banaskantha and Patan districts, with an aim to provide timely succor to the people in distress and save as many lives as possible.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A notice has been issued by the Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the Railways and the Haryana Government in connection with the Junaid Khan mob lynching incident, on Wednesday.

Addressing the media, petitioner Shehzad Poonawalla, who had filed a PIL with the NHRC, said that he had written a letter to the NHRC on Junaid's mob lynching case as "the State police and Government Railway Police (GRP) were not investigating the matter seriously. He also said that the PIL also mentioned the cow vigilantes or "gau rakshaks."

Following this, a notice has been issued to the Chairman of Railway Board, the Chief Secretary Government of Haryana and the Director General of police (DGP) Haryana.

"The petitioner has alleged killing of a minority community youth travelling in a train and inaction by State authorities. Let a Notice be issued to the Chariman, Railway Board, Government of India, Rail Bhavan, New Delhi, Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana and DGP, Haryana, calling for report within four weeks," the notice read.

Speaking to ANI, Poonawalla said that his main demand is that each involved in the mob be arrested, as only seven to eight have been arrested so far.

"The CCTV footage should have been with the Railways, which they have not received, which is why the investigation is going so slowly," he said.

He further added that the police members should have been present at the time of the incident and it is due to their "negligence" that Junaid was killed.

"There should be a lawful investigation into this as well," he added.

He said that one of his demands is that the poor family of Junaid be given Rs. 1 crore as compensation.

The letter written by Poonawalla had four demands, one of which was, "The NHRC must seek report from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) against rising attacks against the Muslims, the Dalits and the minorities which reflect a trend of Islamophobia since 2014 and must direct the MHA and all state police chiefs to take appropriate steps against rise of such hate crimes against the Muslims."

"I hope that these increasing cases of mob lynching slow down and the authorities take necessary actions. I hope that the Central Government also takes action, especially towards these increasing cases of Islamophobia in the country and the culprits are booked immediately," he added.

The letter was written regarding the increasing cases of mob lynching in India, especially after the death of fiteen-year-old Junaid Khan's, where a mob had attacked him and his brothers in a moving train, resulting in Junaid's death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the nation remembers its brave heroes on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the great sacrifices made by the Armed Forces.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter and wrote, "Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War."

He further added that Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess and the great sacrifices made by the armed forces while steadfastly keeping India safe.

The country is celebrating the 18th Anniversary of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' today.

On the occasion, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and three Chiefs of Services laid floral tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate.

At Drass War memorial, in Jammu and Kashmir the celebrations began on Monday.

Last Sunday, the Kargil Prakram Rally was organized at the India Gate to recall the valor of the brave soldiers and their sacrifices which got country back the Kargil heights.

Kargil Vijay Diwas, celebrated on July 26, commemorates India's emphatic victory against Pakistan and honours the war heroes.

On this day in 1999, the Indian Army successfully took control of posts at a treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, after fighting for 60 days.

More than 500 soldiers from Indian Armed Forces sacrificed their lives during the war. Four Param Vir Chakras, nine Maha Vir Chakras, 53 Vir Chakras and other medals had been awarded to felicitate the Kargil War heroes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kia Motors is hosting a series of road shows around India to meet prospective dealer partners throughout August and September. The Korean car manufacturer is due to commence local retail sales during the second half of 2019.

The Kia Dealer Roadshow gives prospective dealer partners the opportunity to meet executives from Kia Motors India and learn more about the cars due on sale in India from 2019. Dealers attending each event in the roadshow calendar will also learn about Kia's strategy and the company's plans for establishing its new Indian dealer network.

The Kia Dealer Roadshow will visit four of India's largest cities: Delhi (JW Marriott Aerocity, 8-9 August), Mumbai (ITC Maratha, 16-17 August), Bangalore (Hotel Taj West End, 23-24 August) and Kolkata (Taj Bengal, 1 September). Most importantly, Kia Motors India has officially launched its website www.kia.com on July 26th, 2017. For partnering with Kia Motors India, dealers can register for the roadshow at www.kiaroadshowindia.com.

Mr. Yong S. Kim, Head of Sales & Marketing, Kia Motors India, comments: "India ranks very high in our list of priorities and Kia Motors India is looking for dealers who want to be leaders - passionate and talented businesses who want to grow and succeed in partnership with the brand. India is a unique market and it's important to Kia that we learn from those who have a deep understanding of local buyers and their needs. Like other regions where Kia already has a presence, we will offer Indian customers the highest levels of satisfaction. Our dealer partners hold the key to achieving this aim."

"There is no clearer sign of our commitment to the Indian market than the establishment of our new manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. This new facility will be able to produce up to 300,000 new cars each year, with a range of vehicles built exclusively for the Indian market. Worldwide demand for Kia cars is growing, and combined with the start of sales in India, the new facility marks our latest step in becoming a leading global car manufacturer."

Manufacturing in the fastest-growing major new car market

In April, Kia signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, India to build a new manufacturing facility in Anantapur District. Kia's first production facility in the country represents a US$1.1 billion investment in India and construction is due to commence during Q4 2017. When series production commences in the second half of 2019, Kia plans to produce a strategic compact sedan and compact SUV especially for the Indian market.

The site occupies 23 million square feet (2.16 km2 / 536 acres) and will incorporate facilities for stamping, welding, painting and assembly. It will also be home to numerous supplier companies' facilities.

Construction of a new manufacturing facility in India will enable Kia to maintain its position as one of the world's fastest-growing automobile brands. The new facility in Anantapur will enable the company to start selling its models in India, and benefit from further sustainable sales growth, locally and internationally. Furthermore, the region's fast-developing supply chain network and skilled labor force were other key reasons for the new investment by Kia Motors.

India is the fastest growing major new car market and the fifth largest in the world, with more than 3.3 million new cars sold in 2016. Forecasts suggest the country will become the third-largest car market by the end of 2020.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express, the Indian Railways on Wednesday assured it has instantly responded to the matter and action has also been taken.

Speaking to ANI, Railway Spokesperson Anil Saxena said "This incident took place yesterday in12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express. The passenger, who ordered a vegetarian biryani found the reptile after consuming a few bites from the parcel. Right after that, he and his co-passenger tweeted on the Railway's twitter handle explaining about the issue. Our team instantly responded and asked for details and also assured that his medical treatment will be looked into. He had also thanked us through a tweet. We will take action to improve as per the observations in CAG report".

Hailing Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's initiation towards zero tolerance, Saxena stated that measures on bad quality of food and over charging have always been looked into.

"Currently, we have cancelled the license of the catering 'contractor' and will enquire about the matter. After Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, issued a zero tolerance towards bad quality of food and over charging; these kinds of issues has been under control. Earlier we have also cancelled many more licenses of the contractors being involved- till date we have done for eight of them," Saxena said.

Further assuring to initiate a third party audit, Saxena added that the Railways will improve its monitoring system in all categories.

"After this issue, we will improve our monitoring system and assure to make revised measures. We are planning to initiate third party audit so that the quality of food improves and timing," Saxena added.

Earlier in the day, a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express.

The DRM and other officials took cognizance of the issue, inquired about the health of the passenger and provided him with medicines.

The passenger then filed a complaint with the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through Twitter. The passenger told the media that he was provided the medication really late.

The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Danapur division Kishor Kumar condemned the incident and assured a detailed enquiry in the matter.

Kumar further said that the department's main concern was the health of the passengers.

Kumar said that the incident would be taken as a feedback of the railway system to improve the passenger services.

Last week, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that unpurified water was being used to make beverages, rats and cockroaches were found in the pantry and food was being left out in the open among a number of other things.

Following which, the Ministry of Railways took to Twitter to establish the fact that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out the unbundling by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution.

The New Catering policy, which was issued on 27 February, also states that IRCTC is responsible for all issues pertaining to setting up and operation of kitchen units and quality of food.

The ministry said as per the new catering policy of 2017, the IRCTC will manage the services on all mobile units and pantry car contracts will be reassigned to the railways' catering arm.

In addition to it, the policy also stated that all the food has to be picked up from IRCTC kitchen units only.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lok Sabha passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday.

The Bill amends the Act of 2014 to declare the Indian Institute of Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kurnool as an institution of importance and adds it to the Schedule of the Act.

During the debate, members raised several issues related to higher education such as measures to increase rate of enrollment, creation of curriculum for information technology, steps to encourage entrepreneurship in the institutes, among other things.

Other scheduled business for the day in the Lower House could not be taken up due to disruptions.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed.

The Bill seeks to extend its jurisdiction Jammu and Kashmir for the collection of statistics pertaining to subjects under the Union or the Concurrent list of the Constitution as applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.

The 2008 Act provides that the information collected under it can only be used for statistical purposes.

The Bill removes this provision. It allows the central government to determine the manner in which such information collected will be used, for statistical purpose. Members participating in the debate raised concerns about the implications of the Bill on Article 370 [special status of Jammu and Kashmir], privacy, data security, among other things.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh replied to the debate that concluded yesterday in Upper House on 'the discussion raised on the farmers' distress leading to rise in the incidents of their suicide'.

Singh informed the members that a Commission has been constituted to study suicides and report from 13 states suggest that the volatility of monsoons is a huge reason for farmer distress.

He added that his ministry is looking to encourage farmers to become a collective and apply for loans for allied agricultural activities - Rs. 30000 crore given as loans in three years.

He also added that consultation with states' agricultural markets are underway to reform mandis.

Rajya Sabha also took up discussion on the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Rajya Sabha was sitting at the time of sending this report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the Madras High Court making singing of Vande- Matarm compulsory in schools across Tamil Nadu, the Congress on Wednesday said that the Judiciary should not involve itself in non-adjudicatory issues.

Congress leader K.T.S Tusli asserted that the judiciary should not get involved in such issues.

"I don't think Judiciary should get in to all this. This is not judicially manageable issue. What will they do if there is violence if there are clashes if there is loss of life? Why should the judiciary take these decisions. This is not a judicatory matter," Tulsi said.

Yesterday, earlier, the Madras High Court ruled that 'Vande Mataram' must be sung in schools, educational institutes and government offices.

Justice M. V. Muralidharan said that schools must be made to follow it at least once a week either on Monday or Friday, whereas, the Song must be sang in offices once a month.

"Vande Mataram is of Sanskrit origin, and written in Bengali which is ought to be sung in every school and college," Muralidharan added.

Muralidharan said that in the event, if any person or organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the song, he or she shall not be compelled or forced to sing it, provided there are valid reasons for not doing so.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court is also hearing a petition asking the Centre to make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in schools.

While the apex court had in April given the Centre four weeks to reply, the next date of hearing is scheduled for August 25.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bollywood actor Mallika Sherawat recently met US President Donald Trump's first wife Ivana Trump and described the experience as 'lovely'.

The 40-year-old shared the moment on her Instagram account and wrote alongside, "Lovely talking to #ivanatrump , she's quite a personality :)!"

Lovely talking to #ivanatrump , she's quite a personality :)! A post shared by Mallikasherawat (@mallikasherawat) on Jul 25, 2017 at 2:05am PDT

The first wife of Donald Trump- from 1977 until 1922- Ivana is a Czech-American businesswoman and former fashion model.

On the work front, Mallika was last seen on screen in 2015 film 'Dirty Politics'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump's move of reversing former President Barack Obama's policy of allowing transgenders to serve in the US armed forces drew swift condemnation from Senator John McCain and rights groups.

John McCain, Republican senator from Arizona, was joined by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who pushed back against Trump's decision to reinstate the ban barring transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the US armed forces.

"The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today.Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," CNN quoted the Arizona Republican statement.

"There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military regardless of their gender identity. We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so and should be treated as the patriots they are," he added.

Trump, in a series of tweets, said that he arrived at this decision after holding consultations with military Generals and experts.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," he said.

Thousands of transgender people, serving in the US military, face an uncertain future after Donald Trump's announcement in a series of tweets, which offered no details on how they would be implemented.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Launching another attack on Mehbooba Mufti, Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday accused the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister of being hand-in-glove with the Hurriyat.

Abdullah told the media here that Mehbooba Mufti was always secretly backed Kashmiri separatists.

""She (Mehbooba) is hand-in-glove with Hurriyat. Even you know that she always secretly backed the Kashmiri separatists. She used to consider Geelani her father," he said.

"There is no doubt that Hurriyat is hand-in-glove with the PDP. The 27 seats that they got from South Kashmir, who do you think they have got those from?" he added.

The Investigating Agency (NIA) arrested seven Hurriyat leaders on July 24.

They were then brought to the headquarters of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi.

A Delhi court yesterday sent all seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - to a 10 day- Investigation Agency (NIA) custody over money laundering charges to fund terror in the Kashmir Valley.

Yesterday, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested another separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah in connection with the alleged terror financing case on the instruction of the Enforcement Directorate.

Meanwhile, the NIA is likely to summon top Kashmiri separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik for questioning in connection with alleged terror funding case.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hours after Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said that it was not in favour of any mid-term elections even as it continued to keep mum on extending support to the Janata Dal (United) leader.

"The Parliamentary board is of the opinion that the BJP does not favour midterm elections in Bihar. The BJP welcomes the battle against corruption in the state. The BJP is committed to the politics of development and stability," BJP leader and Union Minister J.P. Nadda said.

Nadda further said that a three member committee, comprising of state BJP leaders Sushil Modi, Nityanand Rai and Prem Kumar, has been constituted to report its view to the central leadership of the party.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushil Modi, while welcoming Nitish's decision, said, "The JD(U) has been consistent in its stand against corruption and the BJP has also expressed its support to Nitish on the same. We are happy that the Bihar Chief Minister didn't compromise on issue of corruption and did not kneel down before the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress."

Modi further said that the committee, based on views of state leadership, will decide its future course of action accordingly.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Nitish for his decision saying, "Huge congratulations to Nitish Kumar that he quit in the name of going against corruption. The 125 crore people of India support him."

Nitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and confirmed it to the media even as he emerged after meeting him.

"The Governor has accepted my resignation. I did everything a chief of a party in alliance should do. I myself have given away the post. Now, you will have to wait and see what happens next," he said.

"Lalu had told me to run the government that's in this distress. I never asked for anybody's resignation. I asked Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav to prove false the allegations slapped against them."

"It had become difficult for me to work in this enviroment. When I sided by demonetisation, they alleged me of having an ulterior motive. People had started believing falsely-reported things," he added.

Nitish also said that he met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi too before taking this decision.

"Before resigning, I had informed Laluji and Congress Bihar in-charge C.P. Joshi," he said.

"I am not blaming anyone. Those who want to blame me are free to do so," he added.

Nitish also took a dig at Lalu Yadav and said, "Gandhiji always said needs can be met on the earth, but greed can never be fulfilled.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has traditionally been a defensive military force designed to protect Chinese airspace and territory.

However, under its current offshore defense doctrine strategy, the PLA has moved its horizon far beyond China's national borders and it is beginning to embrace a more global outlook.

Andreas Rupprecht, an aviation expert who focuses on China, wrote in a recent report for The Jamestown Foundation, "China has strengthened its air and naval power projection capabilities dramatically in the past ten years but, in general, the PLAAF has still a defensive composition. A majority of its aircraft are fighters and only a very small percentage are offensive or multirole-capable types."

Rupprecht continued, "Specifically, compared to the other services, the PLAAF still lacks a real ability to project power far from its borders - its strategic airlift, aerial refueling and modern strategic bombers all lag behind in development."

The PLAAF has been very busy inducting growing numbers of indigenously built fourth-and fifth-generation aircraft such as the J-10B/C, J-15, J-16, J-20 and Y-20. However, President Xi Jinping is not satisfied with this level of progress.

Last year Xi ordered the air force to transform into a "powerful people's air force with integrated air and space and offensive and defensive capabilities". This change towards greater offensive capabilities is illustrated by the current pursuit of a new strategic bomber for the PLAAF with long-range strike and a nuclear deterrence capability.

Indeed, according to Kanwa Asian Defence Monthly, Xi has been a major force pushing the PLAAF to acquire a modern strategic bomber.

The annual Pentagon report on the PLA explicitly addressed this in the 2017 issue: "The PLAAF continues developing long-range strategic bombers. In September 2016, General Ma Xiaotian announced that China was developing a new generation of long-range bomber, which observers expected to debut sometime around 2025. These new Chinese bombers will have additional capabilities with full-spectrum upgrades over the current bomber fleet, and will employ many fifth-generation technologies in their design."

As stated above, General Ma, commander of the PLAAF, revealed development of this "next-generation, long-range strike bomber" during an interview on 1 September last year.

Additionally, this year's worldwide threat assessment from the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the USA asserted that China is pursuing "two new air-launched ballistic missiles, one of which may include a nuclear payload".Unsurprisingly, the Pentagon's report stated China "is developing a strategic bomber that officials expect to have a nuclear mission".

The burden of nuclear deterrence has traditionally fallen on the shoulders of the PLA Rocket Force, and more recently it has been shared by the PLA Navy (PLAN) via its nuclear-capable submarine fleet. The arrival of a new strategic bomber capable of launching nuclear warheads would complete China's credible nuclear triad for the first time.

This is thus a very significant development, turning the air force into a full strategic member of the PLA. A new strategic bomber plays an important role in the PLAAF's attempt to move from quantity to quality.

As the Rocket Force develops new long-range ballistic missiles and the PLAN eyes an even newer generation of nuclear-powered submarines armed with JL-2 ballistic missiles, the air force does not want to be left behind by the other services. As with every other country, individual services must fight for their share of the defense budget.

Michael S. Chase, a RAND senior political scientist andadjunct professor at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, also recently wrote for The Jamestown Foundation. He discussed the bomber, ".[The PLAAF] now appears to have strong incentives to pursue a revitalized nuclear deterrence and strike mission and the associated nuclear capabilities as it modernizes its bomber force.These actions would improve the survivability of China's nuclear force if the bombers were operated in a survivable manner to assure survivability from a short-warning attack by potentially both increasing the number of targets for a potential adversary and allowing the bombers to escape an attack by launching for survival."

Chase added, "They would also offer new strategic signaling options and an additional layer of nuclear strike options in the region beyond what is currently available with China's land- and sea-based strategic missile force."

Many believe the new bomber will carry the nomenclature of H-20, although for now we refer to it as the H-X. Integral technologies so far mentioned in Chinese media include stealth performance, higher payload, longer range, high-capacity data fusion/transmission and enhanced electronic combat capability compared to existing Chinese platforms.

A China Daily report dating from July 2015 said the new bomber carrying a 10-ton bomb payload should be able to strike targets beyond the second island chain (an imaginary line snaking south from Japan and incorporating the Mariana Islands) without any need for aerial refueling.

Indeed, an expected range of around 10,000km would enable it to reach to all of Australia and Hawaii. The ability to carry at least six KD-20 air-launched cruise missiles in an internal bomb bay is likely.

The H-X project likely kicked off in the early 2000s, and China's experience with the J-20, Y-20 and FC-31 will doubtlessly prove invaluable in its development. It is known that the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation (XAC) is responsible for designing and building the new bomber.

Its wing geometry, S-shaped dorsal engine intakes and exhausts likely benefit from research done on the SharpSword unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). AVIC reported a digital 3-D mock-up for a "major project" in December 2015, likely an oblique reference to the H-X, and to a detailed design/engineering phase. Rupprecht suggested that individual parts for a prototype started construction last year.

Rupprecht asserted, ".Several scaled-down models were built and test-flown so that by 2011 a four-engined flying wing design similar in configuration to the US B-2 or even B-21 was chosen. Concerning other technical details, one can only speculate but the engines are most likely modifiedafterburner-less WS-10A as an interim solution to the WS-15-derivative later."

The expert on Chinese aviation added, "Academic concept papers published after November 2015 indicate that the H-X most likely features engines buried deep within the main wing's structure to further reduce the radar cross signature (how stealthy it is) and twin dorsal S-shaped engine intakes with saw-tooth lips similar to those of the B-2." In November 2015, a Chinese aviation website claimed that the "China Aircraft R&D Center has surmounted the technical problem of the big S-curved intake".

An aerial refueling capability is a must, and it will also have an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with conformal antennas. Furthermore, it will be able to serve as a command-and-control node for other platforms such as UAVs and airborne early warning aircraft.

Will the H-X be supersonic or subsonic? If the former, the bomber will have a large payload capacity with the focus on speed rather than stealth, as per the American B-1B Lancer. If the latter, it will be more like the B-2 Spirit that seeks invisibility to penetrate enemy air defenses. The B-2's flight range is 11,000km without air-to-air refueling, giving it a global reach. China will want something of similar range.

Kanwa pondered, "So, how to reconcile between supersonic speed and stealth capability is the biggest conundrum for Russia and China in the development of next-generation strategic bombers."

The technical challenges are not to be minimized, and Kanwa noted that "engines are the biggest barrier of all," especially because China will need a domestically designed turbojet.Kanwa named the WS-18 engine as a candidate, this based on the D30-KP-2 from Russia, and which first flew on a testbed in late 2014. However, Kanwa predicted it will take 5-10 years for the engine to reach the production phase.

That being so, the bomber prototype will probably use Russian D-30-KP-2 engines without afterburner thrust in the interim. This choice will prevent supersonic speeds. Furthermore, Moscow is highly unlikely to sell afterburner turbojet engines because it does not want to supply overtly strategic weapons to China.

The next question is when the new bomber will enter service. More frequent mentions of the bomber in Chinese media may indicate that some kind of formal unveiling will occur in the near future, according to Rupprecht. He also reported that Chinese commentators are expecting a maiden flight within two years. Based on the development period of the XAC Y-20transport aircraft, he predicted the first prototype could fly in early 2020.

Kanwa assessed last year that it would take at least 15 years before the new bomber enters PLAAF service, perhaps around 2030, although it could be slightly earlier. "From a technological perspective, Kanwa concludes that the total take-off weight and flight speed of China's new strategic bomber currently under development are lower than those of the Tu-160/B-1B. It is likely a medium-size bomber slightly larger than the Tu-22M3," the latter a successful Soviet design from the 1970s.

As quoted earlier, the Pentagon report speculated the H-X could debut in about 2025. No matter when it enters service, the H-X will represent a huge step up for the PLAAF.

The air force's most advanced bomber is currently the H-6K. The Pentagon assessed, "China also continues to upgrade its older H-6 bomber fleet to increase operational effectiveness by integrating standoff weapons. The H-6K is a redesign of an older model with turbofan engines to extend range and the capability to carry six [KD-20] land-attack cruise missiles, giving the PLA a long-range standoff precision strike capability that can reach Guam."

Although there is some debate over whether the PLAAF can already deliver nuclear weapons, the Pentagon's annual report said the force "does not currently have a nuclear mission".

Lumbering H-6 bombers, a Chinese copy of the Soviet-era Tu-16 from the 1950s, are not an ideal delivery platform for nuclear weapons since they would find it very difficult to penetrate enemy air defenses. Nevertheless, the H-6K's range of about 5,000km is sufficient to cover the South China Sea, the second island chain, Guam, Japan and northern Australia.

The H-6K has regularly flown over the East and South China seas. Kanwa noted, "If loaded with cruise missiles, it can launch attacks from within China upon more than half of Japan, India, Siberia and targets in central Asia. However, the H-6K can hardly fly beyond the Chinese border to attack more remote targets, which is the task of new-type strategic bombers."

There are currently three bomber divisions (8th, 10th and 36th) containing six regiments in the PLAAF. Rupprecht believes older H-6 bombers need urgent replacement, and even the newer H-6Ks will likely need to be replaced within "5-8 years".

Chase listed downsides if the PLAAF moves into the nuclear delivery game. "One of these could be the risk of embarrassment or other more severe consequences resulting from any potential error related to nuclear weapons storage, handling, transportation or security, areas in which it would need to develop and refine capabilities it presumably has not maintained for many years. Also, the costs of assuring the physical security and operational reliability of the nuclear weapons could be considerable."

As well as impacting US military dominance in the Asia-Pacific region, a nuclear-capable PLAAF has implications for regional powers like Russia, India and Japan. The prospect of stealthy H-20 bombers carrying nuclear-tipped missiles flying near their national airspace is a very big deal, and it could begin to call into question China's long-held "no first use"nuclear posture.

Rupprecht concurred, "When the aircraft is completed, and is able to enter service in the mid-to-late 2020s, the PLAAF will indeed reach its goal of becoming a true "strategic force", and be able to accomplish China's strategic ambitions by acting as nuclear deterrent, being part of the triad, and to provide more effective strike options in order to challenge the dominance of the US forces within the disputed South China Sea and in the Pacific region."

The future H-X is thus a critical element in the PLAAF's mission of becoming a more strategic service possessing theability to project power, indeed even nuclear weapons, far from China's shores. It will be a game-changer for the PLAAF.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The rigmarole of Bihar politics ceases to come to a stop as Nitish Kumar, who just hours back stepped down as the Chief Minister, is all set to take oath as the CM tomorrow at 5 p.m.

With this, Nitish has come back to the Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold.

This will be the sixth time, when Nitish will take the oath as the Bihar Chief Minister. Earlier, the maximum number was held by Pawan Chamling, who became Sikkim Chief Minister for a fifth time in a row.

The Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs had earlier met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to stake claim to form the government in the state.

14 ministers each from the BJP and the JD(U) will be reportedly sworn-in tomorrow.

The BJP earlier had declared 'unconditional support' for Nitish.

"Nityanand Rai ji and I called Nitish ji. The BJP has decided to support him. We will support the government formed under him. We will inform the governor also," BJP leader Sushil Modi told ANI.

The BJP leader, however, had maintained silence over the kind of support or place that would be given to Nitish, and said further decisions will be taken later.

"We have accepted him as a BJP leader, and further decisions will be taken later," he said.

Bihar saw a major turn of events on Wednesday evening when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, instead of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, as was being speculated and expected.

Nitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and confirmed it to the media even as he emerged after meeting him.

"The Governor has accepted my resignation. I did everything a chief of a party in alliance should do. I myself have given away the post. Now, you will have to wait and see what happens next," he said.

"Lalu had told me to run the government that's in this distress. I never asked for anybody's resignation. I asked Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav to prove false the allegations slapped against them."

"It had become difficult for me to work in this enviroment. When I sided by demonetisation, they alleged me of having an ulterior motive. People had started believing falsely-reported things," he added.

The development came hours after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav earlier in the day took a jibe at Nitish Kumar, saying he was aware of his longtime friend's party's - Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) - growing bonhomie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Lalu also gave a pointed reminder that his party has the most number of seats in the legislature.

Addressing a press conference, he also said, "I made him the Chief Minister," however, asserting that all was well with him.

The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The RJD supremo, however, had refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

Since then, the BJP had been mounting pressure on Nitish to oust Tejashwi Yadav from the party.

Various internal meetings in the JD(U) and the RJD has also been taking place, every now and then, fuelling the reports and rumours that Tejashwi would soon quit the Cabinet.

The RJD, including Tejashwi himself and Lalu Yadav, had been asserting that Tejashwi would not resign, come what may.

Meanwhile, following Nitish's resignation, Governor Tripathi was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, due to a nose infection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nitish Kumar and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi will take oath as Bihar Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Thursday at 10 a.m.

The confirmation of the timing came from Sushil Modi, who said that they have submitted a letter, with support of 132 MLAs,

He also said that they have given 10 am as the time for swearing in, which initially was 5 pm.

"We have submitted a letter with support of 132 MLAs. We have been given the time of 10 a.m., today, for swearing in," he told ANI.

The news of Sushil Modi swearing in as the Deputy Chief Minister came from BJP Bihar president Nityanand Rai.

"The Governor invited us for oath ceremony at 10 a.m. today. Two people are to take oath- Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister and Sushil Modi as the Deputy Chief Minister," Rai told ANI.

Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter to express his rage over the present developments.

He intimated that they are going to the Governor house to stage dharna, if not called for being the single largest party.

He confirmed the same in another tweet:

Questioning Nitish's rush to stake claim, Tejashwi said the time for swearing-in changed from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m. as soon as the information of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) meeting the Governor at 11 a.m. came out.

Bihar is witnessing upheaval soon after Nitish Kumar's resignation came in yesterday evening.

Nitish also dubbed his alliance with the RJD as unnatural.

However, RJD is claiming that it has support of more than half of the JD(U) MLAs and they have every right to stake claim to form government, as their party is the single largest party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korea on Tuesday threatened a nuclear strike on the United States if it attempts to remove country leader Kim Jong Un.

According to a report by the CNN, Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that a spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, "The DPRK legally stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the DPRK is threatened, it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones."

"Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time," the spokesman added.

The threat was in response to comments from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo, who said last week that the Trump administration needed to find a way to separate Kim from his growing nuclear stockpile.

Recently, the US intelligence also assessed that North Korea has accelerated its intercontinental range ballistic missile program.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Clarifying his stand to procure an Army tank on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, varsity Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Wednesday said the idea is to have kind of "symbol" on the campus which signifies a link between JNU and the cadets who passed out from these institutes.

"The alumni passing out from these Defence Institutes said why not have a symbol on the campus. So, in that context I mentioned that why not. If the alumni want to donate a tank we can have it on campus. So, it could be a tank, an aeroplane, a ship or another kind of thing which signifies the link between JNU and the cadets who passed out from these institutes. Only because of this I have mentioned it," Kumar told ANI.

He also said that JNU has a very strong and long standing association with major defence academic institutes and these alumni wanted to have "more collaboration", "more contact" with JNU.

"The cadre who pass out from there, whether Air Force, Army or Navy, their academic programs are approved by the academic counsel of the JNU and their degrees are given by JNU. So therefore the students, the cadre who pass out from these institutes are our own elements. So, whenever I visit these institutes or when the alumni visits JNU, they wanted to have "more collaboration", "more contact" with JNU," he added.

Earlier the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) strongly criticised his demand.

SP leader Naresh Agarwal said that it was strange to have people of such mentality.

Agarwal told ANI, "It's strange to have people of such mentality. How would Army's tank be an inspiration?"

CPI (M) leader D Raja said that the JNU VC should be instead demanding the instillation of the renowned mathematician Aryabhatta, as it would convey some message.

"I don't know what he thinks of JNU. It is the country's number one institution. It is not the army's station. He should demand the installation the renowned mathematician Aryabhatta's statue. It would at least convey some message," he said.

Jagdish Kumar on Sunday said, that the presence of an Army tank in the varsity will remind the students of sacrifices and valor of the defence forces.

Kumar called on Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh to help the University procure a tank.

"Would like to request VK Singh ji to help us procure an Army tank so that we can put it on display in the university. Presence of an Army tank will constantly remind students of great sacrifice and valor of Indian Army and defence forces," said Kumar.

Earlier, Kumar said that the presence of an Army tank in the varsity will remind the students of sacrifices and valor of the defence forces.

Kumar called on Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh to help the University procure a tank.

"Would like to request VK Singh ji to help us procure an Army tank so that we can put it on display in the university. Presence of an Army tank will constantly remind students of great sacrifice and valor of Indian Army and defence forces," said Kumar.

On the occasion of 18th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas, the JNU organised a programme to commemorate India's glorious victory and to pay homage to the Indian Army and the Kargil martyrs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Social media has opened a new world for sellers across India. It has become a modern sales tool for many companies because users are growing day by day on social media platforms.

With their large following, there are many sites working hard to keep users engaged on their platform by constantly offering new and improved features and functions. Thanks to social media, 45 percent of businesses are benefitted on marketing costs.

Keeping in mind the demands of the market, e-commerce platforms are now providing the small sellers with a tool to sell in their social media platforms, equipping them with necessary marketing tools to boost their business and reach the potential buyers.

Here are some apps which can help one to sell their products, establish credibility, and win customers over social media:

 Kraftly: A C2C e-commerce platform that helps the small sellers and home entrepreneurs to set up a shop online. They also offer the sellers with an option to do the social selling. The seller profile on Kraftly is provided with a tool to share their product detail on various social media platforms from which their buyers can buy the product.

 Meesho: This app is the largest online market place for resellers in India. It offers tools to Home entrepreneurs to help them start their own businesses through WhatsApp and Facebook connectivity.

 Limeroad: Create your online store with the LimeRoad App in just a minute. It helps you to sell your products to millions of customers across India. Upload your products/catalog, customize your store, share with your customers (via Facebook, WhatsApp, E-mail, SMS, Pinterest, Instagram and more) and manage your orders - all from your mobile phone. Zero investment. Your own store.

 Roposo: A fashion social networking app that helps small boutiques and SMBs to scale up their business. Roposo is the ultimate destination for fashion connoisseurs to socialize, discover trends, inspire, get inspired and exhibit their products online.

It vouches for small scale manufacturers and sellers / SMEs / Home entrepreneurs by helping them reach masses in a unique way. For the same reason it introduced a Chat-to-buy feature. This feature eases the communication between sellers and buyers. Most importantly, the chat-to-buy feature completes the loop of leads, transactions, and engagement by enabling purchases through the platform itself with just a few clicks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Congress leader and India's former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari has said that Pakistan is suffering from difficulties of its own creation and can only become stable if it dismantles terror networks operating from its soil.

"Pakistan is in a difficulty and the difficulty is of their own creation. The fact is actually that they have sponsored infrastructure of non-state actors and those non-state actors have now come to bite them, coupled with the political instability which we are seeing," Tewari said while participating in a public conversation programme on the theme "Media Diplomacy: Challenging the Indo-Pak Narrative" organized by the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. on Monday.

The conversation focused on the influence of media on public perception in both countries.

Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain also participated in the discussion.

"There is need for Pakistani people, those who believe that a strong and prosperous Pakistan is in the interest of South Asia at large and to recognize that these policies have not paid off, and eventually, the stabilization of Pakistan would come when these terror networks or this whole infrastructure of non-state instrumentalists is dismantled by them, that would be the starting point of Pakistan's stabilization," he added.

Asserting that there is a very strain relationship between India and Pakistan since 1947, Tewari said the two sides carry the baggage of partition and have fought four wars since independence.

Dismissing the role of media behind the estranged relations between the two Asian neighbours, Tewari said it is imbecile and childish to say that media has played a corrosive role and is responsible for the state of play between India and Pakistan.

Citing the Shimla agreement which was was signed between India and Pakistan on July 2, 1972, Tewari said the dispute between the two sides is circumscribed this agreement and envisages that whatever outstanding disputes are there would be revolved bilaterally.

"India has maintained irrespective of whichever party has been in office that there is no role for any third party intervention be it United States Of America , be it China or any other country," he said.

Explaining the importance of Track Two diplomacy, he said that when there are moments of tension between the two countries, there is a situation where they are not talking to each other , Track One and half , track two and track three are good way of keeping the conversation going.

Tewari added that the most important thing the Track Two does is that the ideas which cannot be incubated in Track One because people are bound to the positions which their respective governments have taken out, this can be debated can be incubated in Track One and Two and filtered into Track One and that's where the importance of Track Two comes.

He emphasized that media diplomacy or an effort by the media on both side to need to try and build a counter narrative of convergence, a counter narrative which takes into account the realities of India and Pakistan which would help in moderating the relationship between both sides.

Tewari said India should take eventually incremental steps forward in order to improve the relationship between the two countries.

"If we are looking for a great bargain between India and Pakistan that's not going to happen. The fact is there are different perceptions on huge bunch of issues and those different perception remain but not withstanding that incremental steps like ample day visas between Amritsar and Lahore ,allowing journalists to be there in both the countries , co produce content on digital and broadcast platform which actually will be a starting point," he added.

Earlier, stressing on improving ties with India, Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain said New Delhi and Islamabad should have a strategic stake in each other's economic development backed by their political leaderships.

"We as nations should have a strategic stake in each other's economic development backed by the political leaderships," Hussain said

He also stressed on the importance of unity between media of both nations and said there should be a free movement of books, publications and news between the two countries.

The remarks by the Pakistani senator comes at a time when tensions are running high between the two South Asian neighbours amid a spree of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration from Pakistan side.

Relations between India and Pakistan worsened after several terror attacks, including one on an Indian military base in Uri and also on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.

The situation between both nations further deteriorated after a Pakistan military court announced a death sentence to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Relations between the two nations have been particularly worsened after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists claimed the lives of 166 people and maimed over 300 others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed major turbulence, with Opposition leader Anand Sharma tearing into President Ram Nath Kovind inaugural address, where he compared Mahatma Gandhi with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

Sharma said, "Gandhi ji has done a lot for the nation and his equation with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was a big disrespect. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi's names were not even taken."

Supporting his colleague in this point, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted that the Centre has been constantly disrespecting the Nehru family.

The chairperson, however, did not allow a discussion on the argument calling it "irrelevant".

Hitting back, Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Congress raised the point for the sake of television cameras.

"The Chair should be guided that the zero hour can't run only for the benefit of the television channels," said Jaitley.

Earlier on Tuesday, Azad came down heavily upon Kovind for not mentioning Nehru's name in his speech and said he should 'rise above the party politics.'

Reacting to the criticism by Congress, Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress party is seeking to impact upon the great stature of Nehru, by insisting that his name should be taken in every speech.

"Kovind ji talked about the philosophy of Ambedkar ji. He talked about the extraordinary contribution of Sardar Patel. The Congress is seeking to impact upon the great stature of Nehru ji, by insisting that his name should be taken always. I would only urge that everything should not be politicised," Prasad said.

Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India on Tuesday, remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters.

"Our Independence was the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of human dignity and of the republican ethic," he added

"We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji," the President said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asserting that the saffron party and the Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS) want to break the 'mahagathbandhan', adding that people can see through their conspiracy.

Speaking to ANI, Tejashwi said, "My concern is more towards the development of the state rather than who is doing what and how to get noticed. We believe in work and working together, but the BJP and his alliance only look into all the unwanted issues and make them breaking news on media. That's the reason why we don't take any of these allegations seriously. It's the RSS and the BJP that want to break the grand alliance and people can see through their conspiracy."

Lashing out at BJP president Amit Shah, Tejashwi further stated that the former is trying all means to break us and it will not happen.

"According to the political vendetta, it's not just the State Government, but also the people here who know the truth. Be it political, state or social affairs, the people in Bihar know it very well. They also know whom to support and abide too. Amit Shah had clearly said that he wants to see the BJP in power in every state, so that is the reason why he is trying all means to break us. But I would like to tell him that it will not happen," Tejashwi said.

Earlier in the day, branding BJP leader Sushil Modi 'anti-Bihari', Tejashwi Yadav said he is an outsider who would never care about the state's development.

Tejashwi said, "Sushil Modi is not even a Bihari, he is an outsider - total 'Anti-Bihari'. Why would these people even care about Bihar's development or its peoples' concern? We have been here since ages and we know the state better and its people."

Yesterday, the BJP continued to put pressure on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) case against Tejashwi Yadav and warned that they will not let the House function if an adequate response did not come from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo.

Talking to the media in Patna, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, "Nitish Kumar has no defence so he must immediately suspend Tejashwi Yadav. Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) is asking for a response since there has been enough delay in the matter. There is a strong case against Lalu Yadav's son. He has to clarify on the anonymous assets."

The RJD and the JD(U) then rubbished the rumours and reports of a crack in the alliance, asserting that the Bihar 'grand alliance' is 'unbreakable'.

The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The RJD supremo, however, refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An FIR has been registered against Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Wednesday for his controversial comments against Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.

The FIR has been lodged in Hussainganj police station in Lucknow.

Earlier, Diskhit sparked controversy asserting that General Rawat shouldn't make statements like a 'sadak ka gunda'

He said, "It feels our Army chief speaks like a 'sadak ka gunda' (roadside thug). While this is expected from Pakistan who are like the mafia, why does our own chief make such ronouncements?"

Dikshit's remark drew flak from all corners.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the comment made by party leader Army Chief were wrong, insisting that politicians should refrain from making such statements against the Army Chief.

Gandhi further said that the Indian Army serves the nation and, therefore, no political statements should be made against them.

Echoing similar views, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "It shocks us. It did not come from somebody from Congress, but from a very eminent Congress leader."

Later, Dikshit tendered an apology for the same and said he shouldn't have used "uncivilised" words to convey his message.

"It was a statement given to you (ANI) only and it was in the context of the constant statements that the Army Chief has made with regard to the army's preparation and Pakistan. I thought Indian Army chiefs normally don't make these statements and they have a different manner in which they approach," Dikshit told ANI.

In an interaction with ANI, General Rawat had earlier said that the Indian Army is well prepared to face external as well as internal threats of the country.

"Indian Army is fully ready for a two and a half front war," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Troubles for former deputy inspector general of police (DIG) (Prisons) Roopa do not cease to end as now a legal notice has been served to her by the lawyer of Director General (Prisons) G. Sathyanarayan Rao.

Roopa grabbed headlines when she, in a report, said that All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader V.K. Sasikala availed VIP treatment in the Parappana Agrahara Central prison by bribing jail officials.

Roopa has been given three days of time to reply an unconditional apology.

The notice said that DIG Roopa tried to "damage the integrity and reputation of Sathyanarayan Rao," which according to law comes under defamation.

The notice also said that Rao will also be approaching the concerned Income Tax Department to find out the source from where the "alleged Rs. 2 crore were mobilised."

The notice further said that Roopa also alleged that Sasikala had set up a private kitchen, where special food could be made for her, but as she failed to take snaps of the place, it only shows that the place was "non-existent" although she (Roopa) claims that the evidence was erased.

The notice said that Roopa has tried to defame the "whole system" of this country, including the President of the nation.

The six page notice extensively talked about various issues concerning the case.

DIG Roopa has confirmed that she has received the notice.

Roopa, in a report to the Director General (Prisons), had said there are speculations that Sasikala paid bribe to prison officials to get special facilities for herself with rumours also of the DG being a beneficiary himself.

The report by the DIG (Prisons) had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by AIADMK chief VK Sasikala for, including the DG (Prisons), in order to avail special facilities in Parappana Agrahara central prison.

She was transferred to the traffic department as the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, after the statement.

Earlier on July 14, Roopa had also said she is being unnecessarily targetted and singled out for exposing irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central prison.

The DG (Prisons) categorically denied all the charges, where Roopa, maintained her stand, saying that she has no issue with an inquiry taking place into it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tata Motors on Wednesday announced the launch of its commercial vehicles range in Philippines to further penetrate the market through a distribution agreement with local partners Pilipinas Taj Autogroup, Inc., a conglomerate engaged in the local distribution of motor vehicles.

Through this partnership, Tata Motors will begin the supply of its commercial vehicle brands - the Tata Prima range of tractor trailers and tippers, the LPT range of light, medium and heavy trucks, SFC 407, and the mini trucks range of Ace and Super Ace.

"We are proud to partner with Tata Motors to offer customers with sturdy and reliable vehicles. We will closely work with Tata Motors to ensure customers here get the finest vehicles and services, that not only match their requirements but also their needs," said junior president of Pilipinas Taj Autogroup, Jon Fernandez.

"With years of experience in the commercial vehicle business, we at Tata Motors have analyzed and understood our customers well and are dedicated to providing them with best-in-class products and services. We are confident that through our trusted partnership with Pilipinas Taj Autogroup, Inc., we will be successful in establishing a long-term relationship with our customers," said head (International Business) commercial vehicles Tata Motors, Rudrarup Maitra.

Besides Philippines, Tata Motors commercial vehicles are also present across various South-East Asian markets including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand with manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United States Congressman Ted Poe has described Pakistan as a "backstabbing nation" and hailed the decision of Defense Secretary James Mattis to withhold the release of USD 350 million from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) to that country till it is certified that Islamabad has ended its support to terror networks operating from its soil.

"I am pleased to see the administration bring our misguided policy on Pakistan into review and am encouraged by this step revoking funding to our Benedict Arnold Ally." Poe said in a statement which he posted on his twitter handle.

Recently, the United States has withheld the disbursement of USD 350 million aid to Pakistan after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis informed the Congress that Islamabad has not taken sufficient measures to counter the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network, a top U.S. official said on Friday.

According to reports, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis informed the congressional defense committees that he was not able to certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani Network as per the requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act to permit full reimbursement of Coalition Support Funds.

Pakistan was allotted USD 900 million aid through the special fund by the United States.

Pakistan has already received USD 550 million funds out of the allotted USD 900 million aid.

Mattis's latest decision will now lead to USD 50 million aid to Pakistan being withheld as the Congress last year had rescinded the remaining USD300 million funds.

However, Mattis also said that Pakistan still has time to influence the secretary's certification decision in FY17 by taking action against the Haqqani network.

This comes as the Donald Trump administration retained Pakistan's name in its list of nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists.

In its annual 'Country Report on Terrorism', as mandated by the Congress, the State Department said that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) continue to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Islamabad and Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan.

"Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process," the State Department said.

"Pakistan did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan," the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an armed Iranian patrol boat on Tuesday, in the northern end of the Persian Gulf after the latter came within 150 yards of the vessel.

Citing two US defense officials, the CNN reported that the Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The officials said the Iranian boat approached and came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, a US Navy patrol ship.

The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by the USS Vella Gulf, which is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and two other US Coast guard vessels at the time.

According to the report, the Iranians did not respond to any warnings from the US ship, including radio calls, firing of flares and five short blasts from the US Navy ship's whistle. Following this the Navy ship then fired warning shots into the water over concerns about the possibility of a collision.

Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard is claiming that it "foiled the US warship's provocative move against an Iranian Navy patrol boat in the Persian Gulf," according to a statement published by Iran's official news agency IRNA.

The statement alleged that the US warship aimed to instigate and frighten the Iranian boat by firing two warning shots.

This isn't the first time two sides have had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf.

In June, the US military labeled the actions of an Iranian vessel "unsafe and unprofessional" after it trained a laser on a US helicopter that was accompanying a formation of American ships transiting the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis previously told reporters that there had been 35 incidents of unsafe or unprofessional behavior by Iranian vessels in 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela on Wednesday slammed Congress leader Ashok Gehlot over the Congress in-charge for election-bound Gujarat calling the former's decision to quit the party a "blunder," and said he wants him to withdraw his words.

Gehlot had blamed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pressurising Vaghela into quitting the Congress. He said there were reports that the ED and the CBI had searched his premises and under that pressure, he tried to damage the Congress.

Vaghela, however, said, "I want Ashok Gehlot to withdraw his words in public domain."

Vaghela announced his exit from the Congress last week but left everyone guessing on his next political move.

The leader thanked his former colleagues from the RSS to Jan Sangh and Congress, and specially mentioned the names of Ahmed Patel and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

While he resigned from the position of Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Vaghela said he would resign as MLA after the Rajya Sabha polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Despite Israel removing metal detectors from holy Temple Mount compound, Muslim worshippers on Tuesday evening refused to enter, thus continuing their boycott.

The worshippers prayed at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound without entering, in keeping with the Waqf religious trust's instructions earlier in the day, reports the Haaretz.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas supported the Waqf's position and expressed his unwavering support for Palestinians in Jerusalem.

The Israeli decision to remove metal detectors came after a week of violent protests and international pressure. Instead of metal detectors, Israel plans to install unspecified advanced technologies and "smart inspection."

The detectors were installed following the deadly attack at the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The compound houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Palestinians protested the move as a change to the longstanding status quo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In Chennai

SSPDL has signed a Joint Development Agreement for the development of premium residential apartments in Prithvi Avenue, Chennai. The total area of the development is about 14,500 sq. ft with 25% being SSPDL share. The approximate sale value of the apartments is Rs 32 crore and SSPDL's share is Rs 8 crore. The project is expected to be completed in about 18 months from date of necessary approvals.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yes Bank jumped 6.3% to Rs 1,715.90 at 15:27 IST on BSE after net profit rose 31.93% to Rs 965.52 crore on 21.48% growth in total income to Rs 5785.96 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016.

The result was announced during market hours today, 26 July 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 157.57 points or 0.49% at 32,385.84

On the BSE, 7.96 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 2.37 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 1,722.80 in intraday trade so far, which is 52-week high for the counter. The stock hit a low of Rs 1,606.30 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,091.25 on 26 December 2016.

The large-cap bank has equity capital of Rs 457.64 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Yes Bank bank's board at its meeting held today, 26 July 2017 approved a 5-for-1 stock split of equity shares.

Yes Bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 1364.38 crore as on 30 June 2017 as against Rs 2018.56 crore as on 31 March 2017 and Rs 844.56 crore as on 30 June 2016.

The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 0.97% as on 30 June 2017 as against 1.52% as on 31 March 2017 and 0.79% as on 30 June 2016. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 0.39% as on 30 June 2017 as against 0.81% as on 31 March 2017 and 0.29% as on 30 June 2016.

The bank's Net Interest Income (NII) grew by 44% to Rs 1808.90 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016. Net interest margin expanded to 3.7% in Q1 June 2017 from 3.6% in Q1 June 2016.

Commenting on the results and financial performance, Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, Yes Bank said that the bank continues to garner market share in its various corporate and MSME businesses while maintaining superior asset quality parameters.

Yes Bank is one of the leading private sector banks in India. The bank's branch network stood at 1,020 branches and ATM network stood at 1,796 as on 30 June 2017.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here on Wednesday directed Delhi Police to provide round-the- -clock security to arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who is a witness in the 1984 anti-Sikh protests and has to undergo a lie detector test.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shivali Sharma's order came after Verma told her that he is ready for the polygraph test if he is provided adequate security.

Directing police to provide 24-hour security to Verma till the his polygraph test is conducted, the court said it will consider further security cover to him after his test.

The court also recorded the statement of Verma separately for his consent on polygraph test.

Asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit the list of hospitals in the national capital where the lie detector test can be done, the court listed the matter for August 1 for further hearing.

Verma had told court that he apprehended a serious threat to his life as well as that of his wife and mother.

Advocate Kamna Vohra, who represented riot victims, has also told the court that Verma must be given security round-the-clock till his lie detection test is conducted.

The court was hearing the CBI plea for permission for conducting lie detector tests on Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and Verma in connection with the case in which the Congress leader is accused of leading a mob in Pul Bangash area in 1984 that led to the killing of three Sikhs.

Tytler has refused to undergo a lie-detection test.

The agency's move came after Verma's accusation that Tytler influenced witness Surender Singh through money and by promising to send his son Narender Singh to Canada.

The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in the case but reopened the investigation following a December 4, 2015 court order in the wake of Verma's allegation.

The court had also directed the agency to find out whether Verma's statement was authentic.

In September 2016, the agency filed its investigation report in the case, which would also be heard on the next date of hearing.

--IANS

akk/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.

The attack took place in Khakriz district on late Tuesday and continued for several hours, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. It said 26 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in the attack.

"During the hours long clashes, over 80 Taliban fighters were also killed and injured," the Ministry was cited as saying by Efe news.

Tolo News quoted a source as saying that there were 82 soldiers at the base at the time of the attack.

A Xinhua news agency report said the fight between Taliban militants and soldiers continued till early Wednesday morning. The attackers seized a handful of weapons and ammunition from the post, some 450 km south of Kabul.

The clash came as the war-weary Afghans had been witnessing a surge in attacks by Taliban fighters and Islamic State (IS) affiliates across the country.

The Taliban had been on the rampage since April when they launched an annual "rebel offensive" in different places in Afghanistan including capital Kabul, killing and injuring hundreds.

--IANS

soni/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Canadian-French pop music artiste Abbas Hasan, who is based here, is out with a new single "Akhiyaan teri". The song is a mixture of English, Hindi-Urdu, with a bit of Punjabi in it.

The song marks Hasan's first collaboration with the One Touch Productions team, including composer Abhi D, instrumentalist Sahil Syndicate, and music producer GK. Naamlessis, read a statement.

Hasan says that with the song, he wanted to capture "that mellow summer love essence so (that) my fans can journey to the golden beaches with me".

"It's about that playful love that you just can't stop thinking about. The music and instrumentation is a blend of acoustic guitars and pianos along with eastern instrumental accents to bring that feeling to life," he added.

The single was released on Zee Music India on Tuesday.

Hasan was launched his career with his debut single with Rishi Rich named "Sona" and has tracks like "Habibi" and "Away" to his credit.

Anurag Bedi, the head of ZEE Music Company, said: "Abbas Hasan's French, Spanish and other multi-lingual flavours along with his musical talent and looks make him a very unique artist and we look forward to everything that is to come."

"Abbas Hasan's European-Mediterranean guitar influences are evident as he performs his first song combining Punjabi with English/Hindi-Urdu. The video was shot in Los Angeles and captures the mellow summer love vibes of the song," Bedi added.

--IANS

ks/rb/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here on Wednesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to quiz the director of a Dubai-based company till July 29 in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case.

Shivani Saxena, wife of Rajeev Shamsher Bahadur Saxena, a resident of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, appeared before Special Judge Arvind Kumar after the expiry of her five-day ED custody.

The court extended the custody by another three days. She was arrested on July 17.

While seeking extension of custody, Public Prosecutor Navin Matta told the court that her custody was required to unearth the money trail.

Prosecutor Matta further told the court that the accused was also required to be confronted with certain documents.

Defence counsel opposed the plea on the grounds of her deteriorated medical condition.

"Shivani and her husband Rajeev are partners and directors in Dubai-based companies UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings Ltd, through which proceeds of crime were routed and used in buying the immovable properties and shares," the ED said.

The two Dubai-based companies received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts from a Mauritius-based company, Interstellar Technologies Ltd, the agency had said in a statement.

Evidence collected by the ED has revealed that the UK-based AgustaWestland International Ltd paid 58 million euro as kickbacks through Tunisia-based Gordian Services Sarl and IDS Sarl.

These companies siphoned off the money in the name of consultancy contracts to Interstellar Technologies Ltd and others, and these funds were further transferred to UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings Ltd and others, the statement said.

An ED official said Saxena and her husband remitted a huge amount of money through their companies in Dubai to various other accounts.

This is the second arrest made by the Directorate in the case. In 2014, the agency had arrested lawyer Gautam Khaitan for his alleged role in routing the kickbacks in the purchase of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters.

The ED is probing the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The case is based on the investigation being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had also arrested former Air Chief S.P. Tyagi and two others in connection with the case in 2016.

--IANS

akk/nir/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Wednesday here filed his nomination for the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections, with the party exuding confidence of his victory.

Flanked by state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and party national General Secretary in-charge of Gujarat affairs Ashok Gehlot, Patel submitted his papers at the state Assembly in the presence of a majority of the 57 Congress MLAs and one each of the Nationalist Congress Party and Janata Dal-United.

The 67-year-old Congress leader, who hails from Bharuch in south Gujarat, first became a member of the Upper House in 1993. If he wins, this will be his fifth term.

There were apprehensions in the party about Patel being able to get the required 46 first preference votes, given the cross-voting during the July 17 presidential poll when as many as 11 legislators cast their votes for NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

On July 21, Leader of Opposition and veteran party leader Shankersinh Vaghela resigned. He is believed to have the backing of at least a dozen MLAs. Significantly, though Vaghela quit as Leader of Opposition, he announced he will resign as MLA only after the Rajya Sabha polls.

Ashok Gehlot and Bharatsinh Solanki allayed any fears of Patel losing, and claimed the party has the support of two legislators of the NCP and one of JD-U.

Solanki added that a whip has been issued to all the MLAs to vote for the official nominee Ahmed Patel, and if any of them fails to do so, he or she could invite disqualification for six years for defying it.

Three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat have fallen vacant.

The term of two others, Union Minister Smriti Irani and Dilip Pandya of BJP, also ends on August 18 along with that of Patel.

However, they are yet to file nominations. A decision regarding the BJP members is expected on Wednesday evening during the party's Election Committee meeting.

The last date for submitting papers for the elections is July 28.

--IANS

desai/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was on Wednesday apprised of the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) between Department of Science & Technology (DST) and the Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany on Indo German-Centre for Sustainability (IGCS).

An official release said that JDI was concluded on May 30 in Berlin during the fourth Inter-Governmental Consultations between India and Germany between Prime Minister Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to to promote cooperation between German and Indian scientists on fundamental and applied scientific research.

It includes areas such as policy support, teaching, training and dissemination of information in the area of sustainable development and climate change through inter-disciplinary/trans-disciplinary research.

The Indian Institution of Technology-Madras will act as host institution for the proposed Sustainability Centre.

The Centre further aims to nurture future collaboration by widening the network with other universities, institutes and industries in both countries.

The DST will provide grant-in-aid support to IGCS for undertaking research in the areas of climate change for sustainable development. DST and BMBF will jointly support the IGCS for a period of five years starting from January 2018.

--IANS

ps-vn/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The opposition Congress in Goa on Wednesday protested against a state Minister for referring to an AICC official of south Indian origin for wearing a "lungi" in the morning and jeans in the evening.

Speaking during a discussion on a motion to congratulate newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar, Goa's Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai admonished Congress legislators present in the House, while also taking potshots at All India Congress Committee secretary in-charge of Goa A. Chellakumar. While Sardesai did not name the Congress official, he dropped broad hints.

"One ex-PCC president had said that Congress observers wear a lungi in the morning, and in the evening they wear jeans and go to a disco. This is the problem with your party. These observers issue big statements, that when Manohar Parrikar was in the US I was trying to overthrow the government. Those who come from outside do not understand what to say. They say anything," Sardesai told the assembly.

Chellakumar, a former legislator from Tamil Nadu, has been associated with AICC's Goa desk for the last three years and is known for his penchant for wearing the traditional lungi.

Chellakumar had also been quoted in the local media on Wednesday as saying that Sardesai had been in touch with the Congress when Parrikar was in the US on a personal visit with the objective of overthrowing the BJP-led coalition government.

Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar objected against Sardesai's comments.

"He has no right to criticise the Congress high command during a congratulatory motion," Kavlekar told the Speaker, who intervened and requested the Minister to take his seat.

--IANS

maya/rn/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Wednesday sought replies from NDA's Vice Presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu on the exemption given to his daughter's NGO from paying various developmental charges amounting to Rs 2.46 crore to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.

Other questions pertain to the supply of vehicles by Harsha Toyota (owned by Naidu's son Harshvardhan Naidu) to the Telangana government without any tender and that the former Union minister had allegedly secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the poor and the destitute.

The party, questioning probity in public life as accountability and transparency, asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to come forward and reply in the context of the "repeated rhetoric of zero tolerance for corruption and wrongdoing".

"At least 48 hours have passed without any reply from either of them. As always, the Prime Minister and BJP President have chosen to keep mum," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.

"Replies given by the BJP's Vice Presidential nominee as also in his defence by the TRS government of Telangana have left more questions than answers," he added.

Asking a few questions of Naidu, the Congress said: "The Telangana government and Naidu have admitted that the 'Swarna Bharat Trust' of his daughter Deepa Venkat was given exemption from paying developmental charges amounting to Rs 2,46,00,000 to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority."

"Naidu has sought to justify this unilateral waiver by saying that 16 more trusts were given exemption," the party said.

"What the Telangana government and Naidu did not tell, as to why similar exemption was not granted to hundreds of other NGOs by the government? What was the criteria for grant of exemption in payment of government charges of Rs 2.46 crore to her NGO in absence of any policy or rationale?" Surjewala asked in a statement.

"Is it not a fact that the 'Swarna Bharat Trust' has been issued a notice under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Is it fair to grant exemption in payment of 'public charges' to a trust that is facing FCRA proceedings?," he added.

Surjewala said: "As regards supply of vehicles by Harsha Toyota to Telangana government without any tender, the state government has accepted that 350 Toyota vehicles were purchased directly from Harsha Toyota."

"Interestingly, as per the government, the 350 vehicles purchased from Harsha Toyota were supposedly purchased under DGS&D rates, while the next lot of 350 vehicles were purchased through tender in which another dealer i.e. 'Radha Krishna Motors' became a successful tenderer."

"Why were both the lots of vehicles not purchased through tender in the first instance? Was the conditionality of tender violated in the purchase of first lot of vehicles from 'Harsha Toyota'? What is the price at which the two lots of vehicles i.e. the first lot supplied by 'Harsha Toyota' and second lot supplied by 'Radha Krishna Motors' were purchased?

"Was the price of vehicles purchased from 'Harsha Toyota' higher than the vehicles purchased through tender from 'Radha Krishna Motors'?" he added.

The party also said: "Naidu has admitted that he was the National BJP President and consequently the chairman of 'Kushabhau Thakre Memorial Trust', which was allocated 20 acres of land in Bhopal valued at a few hundred crores.

"Is it not a fact that the Supreme Court quashed the allocation of land," it asked.

"Naidu has not denied that he had secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the poor and the destitute. Is it not a fact that he was forced to return the land as the same was illegally allocated to him? Does it absolve him of his culpability?" asked Surjewala.

--IANS

sid/py/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress party in Kerala on Wednesday demanded a judicial probe by a Supreme Court judge into what they claim is a Rs 1,000 crore medical scam allegedly involving national leaders of the BJP.

Addressing reporters here, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said national leaders of the BJP, besides officials of the Medical Council of India, granted or gave additional seats to 70 medical colleges in the country.

Chennithala said the corruption is to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.

Last week, it was alleged that a private medical college owner in Kerala paid Rs 5.60 crore to a local BJP leader. An internal party committee probe of the BJP pointed to Cooperative Cell Convenor R.S. Vinod as the one involved. Vinod was ousted from the party.

"Since this is a national scam in which national leaders of the BJP are involved, a probe by a central agency won't suffice. It has to be a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge.

"Several colleges which paid the bribe got approval and those that did not pay the bribe, did not get approvals. I will discuss this issue with my national party leaders and take it forward. We will also seek legal opinion to fight it legally," said Chennithala.

--IANS

sg/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said it will mobilise people in September to demand a central ban on cow vigilantes and "RSS-sponsored moral policing".

The party has demanded that there should be a central ban on "all such private armies particularly gau rakshak samitis".

In a statement issued after its central committee meeting here, the CPI-M said that it strongly protests against the growing attacks on Dalits and Muslims.

"The party at all levels must mobilize the people during the month of September demanding a central law banning gau rakshak samitis and RSS-sponsored private armies in the name of moral policing," CPI-M said in a statement.

The party further criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel and said that the India is being reduced to a junior strategic ally of the US.

"The Prime Minister's recent visit to Israel and the BJP government's desire to have a global US-Israel-India axis must be highlighted as being against the interests of India and our people," a party statement said.

It called upon all the party units to observe world peace and anti-imperialist day on September 1 and highlight "the surrender of the Modi government to US imperialism".

It also said that education and research bodies and institutions like the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are "being penetrated with RSS personnel in order to sharpen communal polarization and to rewrite history".

"There are cries from the RSS calling for sanitising NCERT textbooks, removing references to Tagore, Ghalib, Dinkar, Avtar Singh Pash, Urdu words, praise of Mughal Empire etc. The Censor Board has refused permission for screening a documentary film on Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen demanding deletion of words like cow, Gujarat, Hindutva etc," the party pointed out.

--IANS

kd/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CRPF, one of the main central forces battling militancy and street protests in Jammu and Kashmir, said on Wednesday that there were fewer stone-pelting incidents in the Valley in comparison to last year. But figures belie the claim.

Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, the head of the 3.5 lakh-strong force, told reporters that the number of stone-pelting incidents in the state has come down to "less than half" this year as compared to 2016.

"So far in 2017, only 424 stone-pelting incidents have been reported in comparison with 1,590 incidents last year," Bhatnagar said.

However, the CRPF chief's comparison method appeared flawed. He compared the first seven months of 2017 with the entire 2016 when large-scale protests erupted in the valley after the July 8 death of militant commander Burhan Wani.

Most of the 1,590 stone pelting incidents occurred in the five months after Wani's death in a shootout with security forces.

According to CRPF's own figures, only 71 stone-pelting protests had been reported until June 30 last year.

"The stone-pelting incidents picked up only after Wani's killing. Some 1,519 incidents were reported from July to December 31, 2016," a senior CRPF official told IANS while giving the break-up of the protests last year.

Bhatnagar, addressing a function to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), maintained that the situation in Kashmir Valley was better than the previous year.

He gave credit to the security forces, police and central agencies for their "combined efforts" that "made this possible".

Bhatnagar said there were several other factors that played a role in improving the situation in Kashmir Valley.

Among those, he counted new standard operating procedures (SoPs), new strategy to deal with mobs and action taken by other agencies like NIA against the organisers of such incidents and joint operation by forces.

"In terms of stone pelting, we have got our drills together with Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army and adopted new SoPs. We are now using a lot less lethal ammunition in controlling the violent crowds."

"At our training centres in Srinagar we are able to train our troops to be able to react properly with the close coordination of Jammu and Kashmir Police to control the stone pelting with minimum collateral damage and also in an effective manner," he said.

"Because of the efforts of the central agencies, the CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir Police the stone pelting has been effectively blocked," he claimed.

He also said the number of violent incidents by terrorists has also come down in the valley in the last one year.

Bhatnagar also said that the CRPF killed 75 militants, including top commanders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed outfits, and apprehended 252 others in Jammu and Kashmir between January and July 26 this year. The force also made a recovery of 118 arms belonging to militants in the valley.

The slain militants included top commanders of the Hizbul Lashkar and Jaish -- Sabzar Ahmed Bhat and Gulzar Ahmed Lone of Hizbul, Jahangir Ahmed, Shabaz Wani, Bashir Lashkari and Junaid Mattoo of Lashkar, Aquib Ahmed alias Abu Hamza of Jaish.

On Left-wing extremism, the CRPF chief said the area controlled by Maoists has "shrunk" in the last two and half years. He, however, admitted that south Bastar remained a problem.

There have been coordinated operations with Chhattisgarh Police, he said, adding that the Maoists' ability to strike has been hit hard.

The DG said the CRPF will deploy more troops in south Bastar soon to carry out more anti-Maoist operations.

He said the force neutralised 51 Maoists and nabbed 1,111, while 834 have surrendered this year so far.

"Some 562 arms have been recovered and 1,180 Improvised Explosive Devices seized."

He said the CRPF was also in the process of recruiting one Bastariya Battalion of local tribals who would help the force with their local knowledge and language in its operations against Maoists and also bring tribals into the mainstream.

"The battalion would be available for service by the end of this year."

The CRPF chief said the process of raising five new battalions of RAF, a specialised law and order force, was on.

He said the CRPF is deployed in all major theatres in India, with 60 battalions deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, 80 in Left-wing Extremist areas and 36 in the northeast.

--IANS

rak/sar/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed repeated disruptions as the Opposition raised a number of issues, including suspension of their MPs and a debate on lynching.

They kept raising slogans near the Speaker's podium amid the Question Hour.

Opposition MPs were stationed near the Chair throughout the Question Hour, and refused to go back even when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj wanted to speak on the missing Indians in Iraq.

Later, however, the opposition members agreed to return to their seats and allowed the statement. Though soon afterwards, they resumed their protests.

They wanted a debate on atrocities against the Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes.

They also demanded withdrawal of the suspension of six Congress MPs, who were barred from attending the Lok Sabha for five consecutive days after tearing up and throwing papers in the House.

While the Question Hour proceeded amid the sloganeering, when Zero Hour started, the government wanted to make a statement on the Indians missing in Iraq since 2014.

Sushma Swaraj said it was a serious issue and refused to make a statement amid the din.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan addressed a complaint by Congress MPs on BJP MP Anurag Thakur making a video during the Lok Sabha proceedings.

The Speaker, however, let him off with a warning, which led to loud protests from the opposition MPs. The House was then briefly adjourned for 15 minutes.

When the House reassembled, the opposition members agreed to go back to their seats to allow Sushma Swaraj to make a statement.

However, soon after the statement was completed, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge once again questioned the Chair for letting off Thakur with "just a warning".

Kharge said besides suspending Congress MPs on Monday over their "unbecoming" action, in the past too, AAP MP Bhagwant Mann was suspended for making a video in the Parliament complex and posting it online.

The Speaker then adjourned the House till 2.15 p.m.

--IANS

ao/in/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Wednesday fumed over the Dalai Lama's planned visit to Botswana, warning the African country not to "harm" Beijing's "core interest".

Beijing opposes countries keeping contact or hosting the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it calls "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and accuses him of secessionist activities in Tibet.

"China has stated its position clearly on the Dalai Lama's visit to the relevant countries," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

"We require relevant countries to earnestly respect China's core interests.

"China will not interfere in other countries internal affairs. We will not accept other countries to do things that will harm the core interests of China."

The Dalai Lama will attend a three-day human rights conference at Gaborone in Botswana from August 17.

China is Africa's largest trade partner. China's state-run companies have the contract of building key infrastructure projects in Botswana.

In 1959, after a failed uprising in Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to India and has lived in self-imposed exile since then.

China uses various tactics to settle scores if any country invites him.

In the case of neighbouring Mongolia, it imposed a kind of economic blockade, crippling the economy of the poor country.

Following his April visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own, Beijing had retaliated by changing the name of six cities in the northeastern Indian state.

--IANS

gsh/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Wednesday again urged other countries not to host the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

"We urge countries concerned to respect China's core interests and make the right decisions,"

Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang as saying.

The spokesman reaffirmed Beijing's position on the Dalai Lama's visits to foreign countries.

The spiritual leader will attend a three-day human rights conference at Gaborone in Botswana from August 17. Botswana has said it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country.

Lu said China never intervened in the internal affairs of other countries, nor will it allow other countries to harm its core interests.

China calls the Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and accuses him of secessionist activities in Tibet.

In 1959, after a failed uprising in Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to India and has lived in self-imposed exile since then.

--IANS

py/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There has been much mud-slinging after news of a senior army officer's wife humiliating a junior officer's wife in public appeared in a national daily. Like it's the trend these days, this piece of "news" has been dissected to the minutest detail on social media platforms by just about anyone.

Within closed doors of WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media groups only for defence officers' spouses, the response has been mixed. But what has made most of us cringe is the manner in which this isolated incident, by virtue of being thrown in the public arena, has somehow given everyone the right to paint the defence forces in such poor light.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Equating incidents of intolerance or violence in two different places doesn't justify either. So although I can mention countless incidents of subjugation of a junior officer's spouse by the spouse of a senior in the corporate sector and in the private sector, I will not. Simply because two wrongs don't make a right.

Having said that, and coming back to the fauji circle, what affected me and many others like me was the way in which one incident was used as a paintbrush to sweep over the entire community in a negative shade. By community, I specifically mean spouse of defence officers.

Six years back, when I stepped into this world as a newly-wed, I had a stereotypical notion of a fauji wife. One who wears pearl necklaces and chiffon saris and attends parties. A friend even nicknamed me kitty party -- denoting the ladies get-togethers that fauji wives frequently organise.

To put it mildly, it added to my burdening apprehension. I was giving up my life as a full-time journalist in Delhi to be with my husband in a tier-2 city with fewer opportunities. Would I be able to connect with anyone; have a conversation on subjects that fire up my mind and my intellect?

Of course, I did. It was a galaxy of smart, well-qualified women -- there were doctors, engineers, management gurus, architects, psychologists, educationists, you name it. Every lady I met was a powerhouse of talent. With more and more IT companies and others offering work-from-home options, a number of women now continue to nurse their career even after giving up a full-time job; some find jobs to suit their qualification and interest in the place they are posted in, while others opt to teach in nearby schools. There are many who are happy to don the cap of a homemaker.

But my real introduction to the bond that these women shared -- and of which I was now a part -- happened when my husband was away on his call-of-duty. It was frequent and would be sudden; we would plan a movie in the evening and I would get a text message late in the afternoon saying that he would be back in a few days. Far from the nationalism debates on the TV and in the social media, we, ladies, would check on each other as our husbands go about doing their job without a word, sometimes in treacherous situations.

But even as we sit on the edge of our seats, everyday life has to go on -- children have to go to school, supplies have to be bought, the car has to be re-fuelled, the dog has to be walked. I still remember the time when my one-year-old daughter and I fell ill at the same time. My husband was away, and I was in no position to even drive to the doctor. I was on the verge of breaking down when two junior officers rang the bell, picked up my baby and took us to the hospital. Later, my husband's Commanding Officer's wife dropped by with a gift for my baby and to see if I needed any supplies. Other ladies kept visiting me on rotation for the rest of the time to ensure I was looked after till my husband returned.

This is what fauji life is.

I wonder if anyone wonders who looks after our soldiers' homes when they are out protecting the rest of the country? The "privileges" come with a price. But we don't complain. In fact, most of the welfare meetings focus on how to make the women more aware and independent -- learn driving, how to apply for online courses, how to take care of one's health.

It's a support system that supports the soldiers to do their job single-mindedly. And isolated incidents can, in no way, taint it in one clean sweep.

(The writer, whose husband is in the defence forces, has requested anonymity)

--IANS

anon/vm/tb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a major breakthrough in the Hyderabad drug racket case, Telangana Excise authorities have arrested a Dutch national, an official said on Wednesday.

Prohibition and Excise Department's Director - Enforcement Akun Sabharwal said that Mike Kamminga was arrested late on Tuesday night and psychotropic substances were recovered from the 33-year-old.

Sabharwal, who is heading the probe, described it as an "important arrest" and that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was recovering key information from the accused.

The Dutch national would be produced in court, he added.

Kamminga is the 20th accused to be arrested in the case, which caused quite a sensation as some Telugu film industry personalities allegedly have links with the accused.

Actress Charmme Kaur was on Wednesday questioned by SIT officials for her alleged links with Calvin Mascarenhas, believed to be the kingpin of racket. She was the seventh Tollywood celebrity to be questioned in the case.

Kamminga, who was on his fourth visit to India, is being considered as a key link in the supply of drugs from European countries to the accused already arrested in the case.

Those already arrested include US citizen Dundu Anish -- an aerospace engineer who had earlier worked with NASA, and seven B.Tech graduates, most of whom were working for multi-national companies.

The investigators have found that the peddlers sold drugs to students of several colleges and schools in Hyderabad, some Tollywood celebrities and even techies.

The Dutch national was reportedly working for a software company in Hyderabad. His arrest came even as Information Technology Department officials alerted some IT firms whose employees were using narcotics.

Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary-IT, told reporters on Wednesday that some companies were advised to take the necessary precautionary measures. He, however, did not reveal the names of the firms. The official said only the authorities concerned had the names of the techies using drugs.

The IT Secretary said it should not be seen as a major problem as only 10 to 20 employees out of the four lakh employees in the IT sector in Hyderabad were found to be indulging in illegal activity.

The authorities have recovered 3,000 units of LSD, 105 grams of MDMA, 45 grams of cocaine and other narcotic and psychotropic substances from the accused arrested so far.

The SIT has summoned 12 Tollywood celebrities for questioning in the case as their contact details were found in the call data of Calvin.

The key accused was allegedly getting drugs from some European countries through courier companies and even the Postal Department of India.

The SIT has already summoned officials of three leading courier firms for questioning and sought cooperation from the Postal Department in the investigations.

The investigating team also questioned owners of pubs and bars in the city, some businessmen and others linked with the case.

--IANS

ms/nir/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cairo, July 26 (IANS/AKI) The Egyptian government has welcomed the ceasefire and other steps towards a political solution in war-torn Libya agreed by its rival governments at a meeting in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting between Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, a powerful military strongman based in the east, was "an additional step towards reaching a comprehensive solution in Libya", Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Egypt "also lauded" the two rival Libyan leaders' "commitment to preserving Libya's unity and territorial integrity and to counter-terrorism", the ministry stated.

"Egypt, in cooperation with friendly countries, will continue its efforts in support of the political solution in Libya... to fulfil the aspiration of the Libyan people in restoring stability and starting the reconstruction phase," the statement concluded.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and most of French military back Haftar, who has shown little commitment to power sharing and his forces of been accused of human rights violations.

Besides the truce, Sarraj and Haftar agreed on Tuesday to hold elections next year on an unspecified date and to refrain from any use of armed force other than for counter-terrorism. They also committed to "building the rule of law" in the chaos-wracked country where a myriad of armed groups have tried to fill a vacuum left by the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Tuesday's joint statement and the call for fresh elections signals that Sarraj's Government of National Accord has failed to unify the country since it was established in 2015 and appears to offer more to Haftar than Serraj, who has been unable to impose his authority in Libya, according to observers.

The talks, convened by Macron and chaired by the new UN envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, have caused some consternation in Italy, which has previously seen oil-rich Libya -- a former Italian colony -- as its diplomatic preserve.

It was the second time in three months that Sarraj and Haftar met after they held talks in Abu Dhabi in May but failed to agree on a joint statement.

--IANS/AKI

ahm/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A number of retired officers of armed forces on Wednesday celebrated Vijay Diwas at Rezang LA war memorial here and protested against the desecration of memorial by unknown people.

Members of the Martyrs' Family Welfare Foundation, ex-servicemen and civilians gathered at the war memorial in Palam Vihar and paid tributes to the brave martyrs.

Ex-servicemen were in for a rude shock on Tuesday when they reached the Rezang LA war memorial for the preparation to observe the Kargil War anniversary.

Foundation members found bulbs, floodlights, stone benches and electrical wires and other things damaged by miscreants at the war memorial.

"The incident has hurt the sentiments of the family of the martyrs who gave away their lives, as well as supporters of the armed forces," said Major S.N. Yadav (retired), General Secretary of the Foundation.

Police have registered an FIR against unknown people at Palam Vihar Police Station under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act and Section 427 (mischief causing damage to property) of the Indian Penal Code.

"Police are investigating the crime from every angle," police officer Ravinder Kumar said.

An eight-member committee of the Rezangla Shahidi Samaroh Samiti on Wednesday met Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh over the issue.

"The district administration will get the damaged portions repaired at the war memorial. Police have already registered criminal case against unknown. We are taking it seriously," Deputy Commissioner Singh told IANS.

"As per the wish of the committee, a liquor shop near the war memorial will be shifted if it comes under less than 150 meter from a nearby primary school," Singh said.

Veterans said that the memorial turned into a picnic spot for drunken men and miscreants every night.

They alleged that several men, who bought alcohol from the nearby wine shop, drank at the memorial.

T.C. Rao, Convener of the Rezangla Shahidi Samaroh Samiti, said that it was "an insult to the war veterans".

He informed the 7,000-sq.ft memorial was inaugurated on December 29, 2012, to honour 114 martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the historic battle of Rezang La pass in 1962 with China.

--IANS

pradeep/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Wildfires in southern France have forced the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight, officials said on Wednesday.

Firefighters were deployed on Tuesday to battle the blaze near Bormes-les-Mimoses, in the country's Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, the BBC reported.

France earlier asked its European Union neighbours for more help fighting the fires.

About 3,000 hectares of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

--IANS

py/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As a part of its Digital Unlocked campaign that is aimed to digitally empower small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country, Google India on Wednesday announced the winners of SMB Heroes 2017.

SMB Heroes, an initiative launched earlier this year, is aimed at recognising businesses that have embraced technology to power their growth.

Farida Gupta was recognised under 'Business Impact Through Digital', Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for 'Impacting Change Through Digital', and Arpita Ganesh for the 'Woman Business Leader' categories respectively.

"India's story of internet adoption continues to have a transformational impact on how people are consuming information and connecting with others," Rajan Anandan, Vice President, India and South-East Asia, Google, told reporters here.

"However, India's 51 million strong SMB community is not where they should be. We are committed to removing the barriers to adoption and providing them with training and tools to accelerate their growth," he added.

According to a study conducted by Google and KPMG earlier this year, SMBs lack the understanding regarding benefits of digital technologies and skills.

Recognising these gaps, Google launched 'Digital Unlocked' programme to provide training to these SMBs with essential digital skills.

The tech giant had also launched Primer mobile app to teach digital marketing skills in an easy and interactive way.

The app has been downloaded over two million times.

Google had also launched 'Websites with Google My Business' -- a free tool for SMBs to create mobile optimised websites in 10 different Indian languages.

--IANS

sku/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HCL Infosystems Ltd on Wednesday reported Rs 685 crore revenue for the first quarter (Q1) of the 2017-18 fiscal, registering 17 per cent sequential decline from Rs 823 crore a quarter ago.

"Though our enterprise business revenue grew to Rs 582 crore in Q1 from Rs 566 crore quarter ago in Q4 of fiscal 2016-17, consumer business revenue sequentially declined 58 per cent to Rs 69 crore due to transition to multi-brand business from single brand," said the Noida-based company in a statement here.

Loss before interest, tax and exceptional items was sequentially flat at Rs 22.9 crore from Rs 22 crore a quarter ago.

Loss before tax and after exceptional items, however, reduced sequentially to Rs 66.5 crore from Rs 131.9 crore a quarter ago.

"Our enterprise business has been maintaining its growth, while in the consumer business we are steadfast in transition to a multi-brand business model from single-brand," HCL Infosystems Managing Director Premkumar said in the statement.

--IANS

fb/ahm/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Wildlife officials from India and Bangladesh will be meeting here in on Thursday to discuss on trans-boundary conservation of elephants, an official said.

"The issue of migration of elephants between India and Bangladesh will be discussed in details as migration between both countries have been noticed from 30 corridors of South West Garo Hills and South Garo Hills in Meghalaya and Sherpur district of Bangladesh out of which 12 corridors are frequently used," Indian wildlife official F.S. Wahlang told journalists.

Noting that the migratory nature of elephant brings it in close proximity of human settlements, especially the settlements located in and around its regular migratory paths or corridors, and also when food in its natural habitat is scarce, he said that the problem of human-elephant conflict is old and is common to all elephant-bearing states.

Wahlang said the meeting will also deliberate on poaching of wild animals including of elephants and smuggling of wildlife products along the India-Bangladesh border.

India's northeastern and eastern states bordering Bangladesh are important habitats of Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus). Elephant Range States in these regions include Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, West Bengal and Tripura which are home to more than 9,000 wild elephants. Estimated population of wild elephants in Bangladesh is about 200.

--IANS

rrk/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bid to utilise the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty to the full, India is planning speedy construction of eight hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir. They will have a total installed capacity of 6,352 MW at a projected cost of Rs 56,700 crore (about $9 billion).

These projects are Sawalkote (1,856 MW), Kirthai I (390 MW), Kirthai II (930 MW), Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Kwar (540 MW), Kiru (624 MW), Bursar (800 MW) in the Chenab basin and the multi-purpose Ujh project (212 MW) in the Ravi basin.

Most of the new projects are in detailed project report (DPR) stage. That is the stage after the initial studies but before any major construction.

"There is no doubt that the speed with which these projects are being studied now is unprecedented. For example, the central power ministry was literally after our lives while seeking the submission of NoCs [No Objection Certificates] for Sawalkote and Kirthai projects," an official in the Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

He added that technical and economic clearance (TEC) for these projects was done within weeks in 2016 following the dithering of over 50 years from when the projects were first identified in the 1960s.

He said that the Centre has already issued grants to cover the entire financing to Jammu and Kashmir for completing three projects with a total capacity of 2,164 MW (Pakal Dul, Kwar and Kiru) by 2022-23 and has assured it will fund the rest of the projects within the next decade provided the state commits to joint ventures with central public sector companies like the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam or others.

Shah Faesal, the managing director of JKSPDC, refused to comment on whether the urgency being shown for power development was because of political reasons.

"I can't comment on that. But, yes, we are keen about the speedy development of power projects in our state. Being an important organisation for the state, JKSPDC is trying to contribute to the development of the resources of the state," Faesal said.

Shakil Romshoo, the head of the Earth Sciences Department at Kashmir University, believes that Pakistan will object once these projects are finalised and the plans put in public domain. "Given the political history shared by the two countries and the recent developments over water-sharing between India and Pakistan, of course, Pakistan will raise objections," Romshoo said.

Romshoo's colleague, Mohammad Sultan Bhat, who heads the university's Geography Department, said that Pakistan will react sharply to projects like Bursar and Sawalkote notwithstanding the fact that India says they are going to be constructed as per the provisions of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the two countries. The Chenab and Ravi rivers are parts of the larger Indus basin.

Under the treaty, the waters of the three western rivers in the basin -- Indus, Jhelum and Chenab -- are allocated to Pakistan, while the waters of the three eastern rivers -- Ravi, Beas and Sutlej -- are allocated to India. However, India, upstream of Pakistan, has the right to "non-consumptive" uses of the waters of the western rivers as well.

In the Chenab basin, some of the new projects are being planned to produce hydropower through the "run-of-the-river" technique, in which a river's water is not held back in a reservoir, but diverted through a tunnel, after which it turns turbines to generate electricity before flowing back into the river.

"We have seen in recent times that Pakistan has raised strong objections to power projects like Baglihar and Kishanganga. They are going to do the same, especially at a time when India has openly said that it is going to use water as a strategic tool to put pressure on Pakistan," Bhat said.

Even in India, there is controversy over two of the projects. The first is the 1,856 MW Sawalkote project in Ramban and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir -- a run-of-the-river project. But green groups contend that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report about the project is "misleading". In January 2016, a group of eminent people wrote of their concerns regarding the "deeply flawed" EIA report for the Sawalkote project.

There are questions over the Bursar hydroelectric project as well. In this project, a storage dam with a reservoir is being planned on the Chenab basin in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with Ujh, this has been declared a national project. According to an NHPC document, this project has been designed to utilise the provisions of the IWT as mentioned in Annexure-E of the 1960 treaty.

Through this project, the NHPC document says, the flow of water can be regulated not only for the benefit of this project but all downstream projects such as Pakal Dul, Dul Hasti, Ratle, Baglihar, Sawalkote and Salal hydroelectric projects, thereby enhancing the potential of all downstream schemes. The dam site is located near village Pakal on the Marusudar river, the biggest tributary of the Chenab. The storage provided, says the NHPC document, is intended to be used for additional power generation during lean flow months and releasing regulated flow downstream.

Environmentalists have again raised concerns. "This is the first dam which is going to be built in our mountainous state. So, there are concerns about local environment and ecology, environmental flows, seismic concerns, etc.," said one of the members of a team in Kashmir University that has prepared a report on the Bursar project and submitted it to NHPC last week.

Other projects on the Chenab basin which are being investigated for speedy development include Pakal Dul, Kiru, Kwar, Kirthai I and Kirthai II -- all in Kishtwar district.

The developers of most of these projects have already applied for clearances from the central Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change as well as the Jammu and Kashmir forest department.

(In arrangement with thethirdpole.net. Views expressed are those of the web site. Feedback at information@thethirdpole.net)

--IANS

ttp/sac/hs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said it was for Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, who resigned as the Bihar Chief Minister, to decide whether he wanted to ally with the BJP to form the new government in the state.

"The break-up was bound to happen. There is no place for honesty and moral values in Lalu Prasad's . There was no coordination... convenience was the only reason for the alliance (between JD-U and Rashtriya Janata Dal). Such alliance does not work long," the Union Minister for Law and Justice said here after Nitish Kumar's resignation.

On the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party extending support to Nitish Kumar to form the new government, he said: "It is for Nitish Kumar to decide his future course. Nitish Kumar remained a minister in Atalji's government (at the Centre). He governed Bihar with the help of the BJP for eight years. We did not leave him, but he left us in 2013."

The Minister said Lalu Prasad had made it clear that his son Tejashwi Yadav would not resign from the state Cabinet after allegations of graft.

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said he quit as the Chief Minister in the state's interest after failing to resolve the crisis plaguing the ruling Grand Alliance.

--IANS

mak-am/sar/tsb/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Jharkhand government on Wednesday rubbished West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that Jharkhand was releasing water without information, resulting in flooding in her state.

"We are releasing water as per the inter-state agreement and considering the safety of the dams," Water Resources Minister Chandra Prakash Chaudhary told IANS.

"Take the example of Tenughat dam. Above 40 feet, we have to release the water to Bengal as per the agreement. At present Tenughat dam has 854 feet water. This is an exceptional situation," he added.

The minister said it was not monsoon rain but cyclonic rainfall taking place due to low pressure formed over the Bay of Bengal. "We are getting water from Bengal from the sky and sending it back to Bengal through ground," he said in a lighter vein.

The West Bengal Irrigation Department on Tuesday also protested against the Damodar Valley Corp's (DVC) decision to release water from Panchet Dam, which it claimed has further worsened the inundation in the state's low-lying areas.

Chaudhary said: "We have no control over dams falling under the DVC."

Since the dams of Jharkhand have crossed the danger mark, it was releasing water from Tenughat, Patratu, Chandil and other dams.

An official of the Water Resources Department said: "The Bengal part is irrigated and it also gets power generated from DVC. The catchment areas falls in Jharkhand and benefit goes to Bengal."

--IANS

ns/him/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has launched its free version of antivirus software 'Kaspersky Free' to "secure the whole world", a media report said.

"We believe that everyone has the right to be free of cybersecurity fears," Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky lab said on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Xinhua news agency reported.

In announcing the release via a blog post, the company founder said they have been working on it for a good year and a half, and the software would roll out globally across the next few months.

Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the US, Canada and several Asia Pacific countries on the heels of being piloted in 2016 in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China and also in the Nordic countries.

The company said this free software would "positively affect the quality of protection of all users," since an increase of installations would bring more numbers to big-data bases for better machine learning.

According to the company's website, over 400 million users are protected by its technologies and they help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them.

--IANS

in/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday paid tributes to the martyrs to mark the Kargil Vijay Diwas.

"On #KargilVijayDivas, our salute to the brave soldiers who fought, and many of whom gave their lives, for our motherland," she tweeted.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on July 26 across the country to commemorate India's victory in the Kargil war against Pakistan and to honour the war heroes.

On this day in 1999, the Indian Army after fighting for 60 days successfully took control of posts in extremely difficult and treacherous high altitudes and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

--IANS

sgh/amit/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The overnight death toll in the building crash here shot up to 17 even as rescue operations continued on Wednesday morning, an official said.

Five more bodies were recovered from the debris of the Sai Darshan building at Damodar Park area in Ghatkopar which collapsed like a pack of cards on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday night, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the spot and reviewed the situation.

"It is a very sad and unfortunate incident," he said, adding that a probe has been ordered and the report would be submitted in a fortnight's time.

After meeting the victims and residents, Fadnavis assured strict action against those responsible.

The owner of the ground floor of the building, Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, who allegedly took renovation to convert his hospital to a guest house, was detained by the police.

Teams of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai Fire Brigade and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were continuing with the search operation.

So far they have rescued 28 persons but a few more were still feared trapped under the rubble.

--IANS

qn/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday has come as a big setback for the opposition which was seeking to join hands against the Narendra Modi government on a range of issues ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish Kumar had worked to stitch up a Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress in Bihar in 2015 that delivered a crushing blow to the BJP in the Assembly polls.

Following the outcome in Bihar, a similar alliance where opposition parties join hands in a multi-cornered contest, was seen as a model that could be replicated in other states to defeat the BJP.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP scored a resounding victory in the Assembly polls earlier this year, there was talk in political circles that the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress should have joined hands to form a Bihar-like alliance.

Earlier this month, 18 opposition parties, including the JD-U, had met to pick Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their vice-presidential candidate and had discussed the alleged victimisation of political opponents by the BJP-led central government and suicides by farmers.

The 18 parties, that also included the Samajwadi Party and BSP, had also agreed on greater coordination inside and outside Parliament. They had agreed to meet once a month to coordinate their strategy against the Modi government.

Nitish Kumar was also seen as a possible face to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had severed ties with the BJP and resigned after it announced Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar had earlier also displayed his streak to take decisions independent of views of his Bihar allies. He had broken ranks with them to support the demonetisation move of the Modi government and had also supported NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar Governor, in the presidential election.

Nitish Kumar's coming out of the Grand Alliance has significant consequences for the Congress. The party suffered a string of electoral reverses after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and being part of winning alliance in Bihar had brought it cheer.

Since the Bihar outcome, Punjab is the only major state won by the Congress.

--IANS

ps/vsc/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a surprise move, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar quit on Wednesday claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.

"I have been doing my best to provide good governance... But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the Governor and gave my resignation," he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan bringing to an end the 20-month-old coalition of the JD-U, RJD and Congress that defeated the BJP in 2015.

Asked whether he would take support of the Bharatiya Janata Party to run the government, the Janata Dal-United leader avoided a direct answer but threw enough hints that this cannot be ruled out.

"What has to happen has happened. What will happen now you keep watching. We will definitely keep Bihar's interest in mind and do what is good for Bihar and its people," he said.

The fact that Nitish Kumar has not recommended the dissolution of the assembly shows he has kept the options open for a possible future tie-up with the BJP, which can provide outside support if not directly participate in the government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to welcome the development.

"Many many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 125 crore citizens of the country welcome and support this honest move," he tweeted.

"It is the need of the hour to rise above political differences for the bright future of Bihar and unite in the fight against corruption," he added.

Ever since the CBI filed cases of corruption against Tejashwi, his father Lalu Prasad and his sister Misa Yadav, pressure has been mounting on the Chief Minister to sack Tejashwi Yadav.

But any action against the Deputy Chief Minister could have evoked the wrath of the RJD on whose support was vital for the government.

In the 243-member assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the JD-U 71 and Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs and its allies LJP 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1. There are four independents and four MLAs belong to the CPI-ML.

The JD-U and BJP together make up for 124 seats and with BJP allies the total could go to 129, clearly crossing the half-way mark.

Nitish Kumar had run a coalition government with BJP. But he resigned and severed ties with the party after it announced Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

Giving reasons for his decision to quit, Nitish Kumar said that with a slew of corruption charges, he expected Tejashwi Yadav to give an explanation that could have formed the basis for his continuing in office if found justified.

"I waited so that we could have found a way out but nothing of the sort happened. The charges were against a member of the government. I was not in a position tto do anything. There was no basis for the government to function. People everywhere were discussing it.

"In such a situation, it was not possible for the government to function. I heeded to the call of my conscience and decided to resign," he said.

He said he told Lalu Prasad, Congress General Secretary C.P. Joshi, who is in-charge of Bihar, and the JD-U Legislature Party before he met the Governor to resign.

He said he had to face a lot of criticism for his decision to support demonetisation, which had caught the people's imagination, and support Ram Nath Kovind -- "who had done a good job as Governor of Bihar and whose becoming the President was a matter of pride for the state".

--IANS

bns-ps/vsc/mr .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Enjoy the first large-scale museum exhibition dedicated to tramp art since 1975. More than 150 examples of tramp art, concentrating on works from the United States, with additional international examples.

For Immediate Release: October 24, 2016 (Santa Fe, NM) The Museum of International Folk Art presents No Idle Hands: The Myths & Meanings of Tramp Art, the first large-scale museum exhibition dedicated to tramp art since 1975. The exhibition will present more than 150 examples of tramp art, concentrating on works from the United States, with additional examples from France, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Canada, Mexico and Brazil to demonstrate the far reach this art form has had. Additionally, the show will analyze and dismantle the myths and misperceptions about tramp art, particularly as they relate to assumptions related to class, quality, and the anonymity of the makers.

Tramp art describes a particular type of chip-carved woodwork that was practiced in Europe and the United States between the 1870s and 1940s, making use of discarded cigar boxes or crates that were then notch-carved along the edges and layered. Objects made were primarily boxes and frames, but other household objects such as small private altars, crosses, medicine cabinets, wall pockets, clock cases, plant stands, and even furniture can be found.

"Tramp art's place in art history has been troublesome. It has had detractorspeople who regard it as 'the ugly duckling' of folk artbut also numerous champions," said Laura Addison, Curator of North American & European Folk Art at the Museum of International Folk Art, and the show's curator. "This exhibition will erase any doubts about the quality and craftsmanship of the work and situate tramp art as a practice at the crossroads of cultural transformation at the turn of the 20th century," she said. Addison also pointed out that by juxtaposing historic pieces with those by contemporary artists working in the tramp art style, the exhibition frames this art form as an ongoing tradition that continues to capture the public's imaginationmyths and all.

"The ingenious objects in the Tramp Art exhibition use recycled or repurposed wood, and highlight a moment in time a century ago when artisans, many of them immigrants to the US, created a new variety of folk art," said Khristaan D. Villela, Director of the Museum of International Folk Art. "They are a testament to the ability of untrained artists to produce objects of immense beauty and complexity," he said.

For many years, tramp art was believed to have been made by itinerants and hobos, thus its name. It has been demonstrated, however, that this belief, first put in print by Frances Lichten in a 1959 Pennsylvania Folklife article, is erroneous. Nonetheless, the name "tramp art" has remained the only terminology used for this practice, and the paucity of scholarly studies to dispel the mistaken notions about tramp art have allowed the myths to persist.

Whittling objects such as wood chains and ball-in-cage whimsies was a common pastime, including among railriding "hobos," and some examples of tramp art were likely by the hand of itinerant laborers or artisans. However, this style of carving was more commonly the practice of family men and blue-collar factory workers making functional domestic objects or gifts for the women in their lives. Efforts have been made in recent years to identify makers by name and unearth their biographies; these personal narratives illustrate a very different story of the makers of tramp art. As these makers and their stories come to light, it has become obvious that home and family are central to an understanding of the practice of tramp art.

No Idle Hands will present tramp art objects according to four primary areas: Introduction/historical context, home & nation, frames & boxes and devotional objects. Works in the exhibition will come from the Museum of International Folk Art permanent collection as well as loans from a number of private and museum collections across the country. An exhibition publication will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Laura Addison, Curator of North American & European Folk Art, Museum of International Folk Art; Leslie Umberger, a curator in the area of folk art and self-taught art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Eric Zafran, a retired curator of European art, most recently at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

The Museum of International Folk Art Museum Shop is located in the museum at 706 Camino Lejo (Museum Hill just off Old Santa Fe Trail). 505-982-5186.

MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART

The Museum of International Folk Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Museum of International Folk Art's mission is "to enrich the human spirit by connecting people with the arts, traditions and cultures of the world." Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the museum holds the world's largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations.

The museum's collections represent a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure. The museum's historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

Over 90,000 national and international visitors visit the Museum International Folk Art every year. Through folk art, the museum encourages all to find a common ground upon which to craft better lives for all.

Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its Director's Leadership Fund, Exhibitions Development Fund, and Fund for Museum Education, as well as by the International Folk Art Foundation, also established by museum founder Florence Dibell Bartlett.
On the eve of Indian NSA Ajit Doval's China visit to attend the BRICS security summit, Beijing on Wednesday made clear that India's pullback from Doklam on the border remained the "precondition" for any dialogue on the issue.

The Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks, who on Tuesday blamed India for triggering the border row and asked it to withdraw its troops, were "authoritative".

"The solution as the Foreign Minister put it is that Indian border troops pull out unconditionally and this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between both countries," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

Doval will attend the two-day BRICS National Security Advisers meet in Beijing beginning on Thursday.

The meet, where the five-nation bloc traditionally discusses counterterrorism and security issues, assumes significance in the view of festering border row between India and China.

It is not known if Doval will meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi separately on the sidelines of the summit.

On Monday, an editorial said India should not pin hopes on Doval's visit to resolve the border stand-off.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own. New Delhi says troops from both sides should withdraw as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, has also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops in Doklam.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance to all three.

In June, the Indian Army stopped road construction by Chinese troops, leading to the stand-off that is now in its second month.

--IANS

gsh/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The entire Opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday amid Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh's reply on the discussion on the agrarian crisis and farmers' suicide in the country, saying they were not satisfied.

The Opposition accused the Minister of just giving out statistics that were already in the public domain and skirting the main issue.

The Rajya Sabha was discussing the agrarian crisis and farmer distress in the country since Tuesday.

Even Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked Radha Mohan Singh several times during his long reply -- that went on for over an hour -- to conclude as the upper house had to take up other listed business.

However, the Minister did not pay heed to the Chair's repeated reminders and warning bells and continued with his reply.

"How much more time (do) you want to take? ...please conclude," Kurien repeatedly told the Minister.

The Opposition walked out in protest even as the Minister continued with his reply.

At the end of the Minister's reply, Congress member Digvijaya Singh, who had initiated the short discussion on the agrarian crisis, dared Radha Mohan Singh to go and give the same speech in front of the farmers protesting at Jantar Mantar here.

--IANS

mak/tsb/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two Pakistani diplomats who were abducted in Afghanistan were recovered in an operation conducted by security forces, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told Pakistani officials in Kabul on Wednesday.

The two officials of the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad were kidnapped last month when they were travelling from Jalalabad to Torkham.

Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal had assured the Pakistani government that Afghanistan's security institutions and intelligence agencies were looking for the abducted officials.

President Ghani personally phoned Pakistan's Charge d'Affaires in Kabul to inform the mission that Afghan security forces had recovered the officials, a Foreign Office statement here said.

Subsequently, the two officials were handed over to the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were expected to return to Pakistan soon.

--IANS

ahm/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to flood-hit Gujarat and announcement of Rs 500-crore package for the state has drawn flak from various sections in Assam, who have alleged neglect of their state by the central government.

While Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a prominent farmers' organisation in Assam, has condemned the attitude of the Prime Minister, Congress spokesman and former state minister Pradyut Bordoloi lambasted the Prime Minister and the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for Assam's neglect.

They alleged that the central government was neglecting the issue of devastating floods in Assam that has led to 76 persons' death and affected over 25 lakh.

"We do not have any objection to the Prime Minister announcing Rs 500 crore for the state of Gujarat. But the people of Assam are also suffering due to devastating floods... What stopped him from announcing a package for Assam to tide over the situation?" said KMSS President Akhil Gogoi.

"The Prime Minister often delivers emotional dialogues regarding Assam and the Northeast. But he should have considered the case of Assam when the state was witnessing one of the worst floods. The central government has sent a team now when the water has started receding. What will they see and assess now," asked Gogoi.

Congress spokesman Bordoloi said the people of Assam and Northeast had been suffering from a sense of neglect.

"Earlier, Prime Ministers at least made attempts to reach out to the people here in times of crisis. But Prime Minister Modi visits Assam only during election or to inaugurate a bridge which was constructed by the Congress," Bordoloi said.

"He is a good actor and he has shown his true colour after his visit to Gujarat, which is even economically stronger than Assam. He did not even have time to visit Assam, so he sent a junior minister to take stock of the situation here," said Bordoloi, adding that this showed the seriousness of the government.

BJP leader and Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, said that the people of Assam were not a showpiece that people needed to come here to see them.

"We have the power to withstand our sorrows. We'll call the Prime Minister to the state whenever we achieve something," said Sarma, rebutting the criticism of Modi.

--IANS

ah/nir/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There was a time when Urdu couplets written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Ghalib were read from books or heard at 'mushairas' (poetry recitations). But now a Delhi-based artist is giving a pop-culture twist to Urdu literature by taking it to t-shirts, coffee mugs and posters.

Meet Shiraz Husain, who is attempting to revive the Urdu language. When pages failed to get enough attention from readers, especially from the youth, Husain adopted the path of the visual arts to reach out to larger audiences.

"There are artists like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Manto, Amrita Pritam, Jaun Eliya, Parveen Shakir, Mukti Bodh who are less celebrated. My attempt is to draw much deserved attention towards Urdu and try to revive its fading glamour," Husain told IANS.

The 30-year-old artist's life shuffles between his day-time job at Jamia Milia Islamia where he is an assistant professor -- of applied art, what else -- and turns into an artist by night. All the illustrations available, be it on mug or t-shirt, are done by him.

He said, "I often see youngsters wearing t-shirts of Che Guevara or Bob Marley. I thought why not bring in Urdu poets and writers on tees and coffee mugs. These artists are never celebrated much; why not make them more popular?"

Husain has been selling his products through a community page on social media platform Facebook titled "Khwaab Tanha Collections".

His project is not just about recollecting the quotes by poets and writers but he also adds illustrations to his work, giving people the face behind those lines.

"Many people don't even know how poets like Majaz Lakhnawi and Ramadhir Singh 'Dinkar' look like. So my focus was not just on the lines of poetry, but I also want readers to know the artists by face," he said.

Husain feels that the mushaira culture is now fading away and hard to find, and old languages are struggling to exist as readers are fast disappearing or are they often identified with a particular community.

"The depth of emotion and richness of Urdu literature is incomparable. Urdu is a language which can be enjoyed by all. I want to convey the beauty and the power that Urdu possesses and want people to start reading the works of these writers once again," the artist said.

Though he was never inclined towards shayari during his youth, his upbringing nevertheless planted in him the seeds of love for poetry. He was brought up in an environment where reading Urdu and listening to ghazals was always encouraged.

"My father writes poetry, teaches Urdu at the Anglo-Arabic school and even writes for Urdu newspapers, while my sister is an avid listener of ghazals. I used to hear my parents praising Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and others, started reading books by them at home out of curiosity, and eventually fell in love with their writing," he said.

Husain also remembered how his school too shaped his interest in Urdu poetry.

"During my school days, teachers used to encourage us to play 'antakshari' not with Bollywood songs but with poetry. So, automatically, I ended up learning many couplets," he further added.

The Jashn-e-Rekhta in 2015 turned into a good platform for him and gave his initiative much-deserved limelight. However, Husain said that popularity or success doesn't bother him much; it's appreciation of his efforts that makes him happy.

"A family member of Jaun Eliya once visited my place and praised my work; that brings happiness to me. That's something I would call as my achievement, not financial profit," he noted.

When asked about his plans for the future, Husain said that he is working to highlighting the works of regional writers as well.

"Apart from Rabindranath Tagore, I am working on Bengali poets Kazi Nazrul Islam, Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer," he said.

(Somrita Ghosh can be contacted at somrita.g@ians.in)

--IANS

som/vm/tb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rajya Sabha saw repeated adjournments during Zero Hour and Question Hour on Wednesday over Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's remarks that the opposition was making Zero Hour a TV opportunity.

The opposition members, irrespective of party affiliations, vociferously objected to the remarks of Leader of the house in the Rajya Sabha and demanded that these be expunged.

Several opposition members raised a Point of Order and gave notice under Rule 267 after questioning Jaitley on the government's reported decision to stop printing Rs 2,000 currency notes and rumoured plans to introduce Rs 1,000 notes again besides other big denomination coins.

Jaitley refused to answer the queries, while the Point of Order and the notice under Rule 267 were rejected by the Chair.

"The Chair must be guided by the principle that you cannot have Zero Hour run for the benefit of television cameras," the Minister said.

Jaitley demanded that Congress member Anand Sharma's speech in the house should be expunged as it referred to high constitutional authorities.

Speaking just before Jaitley, Sharma had said that the Narendra Modi government has been trying to belittle national icons such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

"Every nation and every society remembers with respect those who have made sacrifice for the nation. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi -- there has been an attempt by this government to belittle them," Sharma said.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), Mahatma Gandhi was compared to (Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader) Deendayal Upadhyaya," he added while referring to President Ram Nath Kovind's speech after assuming office.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the centenary of such persons was being celebrated who have made "no contribution in India's freedom struggle".

In response, Jaitley said the Congress is "enacting this scene because they don't want a particular reference (about Samjhauta Express blasts probe) to be made during Zero Hour for which some members have given notice".

The Congress members trooped near the podium and started shouting slogans, after which Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien adjourned the House till noon.

However, as soon as the House met again at noon, Azad demanded that Jaitley's remarks be expunged from the record of proceedings.

Other opposition leaders also joined him in the demand, after which the Chair adjourned the house twice for 10 minutes.

When the House reconvened at 12.32 p.m., Chairman Hamid Ansari told the house that the Chair would go through the records and any objectionable remarks would be expunged.

--IANS

mak/tsb/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the right to privacy was a fundamental right but not all its facets will be covered under it.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told a nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar "There is a fundamental right to privacy, but it is a wholly qualified right since the right to privacy consists of various aspects and is a sub-species of the right to liberty, every aspect of it will not qualify as a fundamental right".

Venugopal said this as arguments commenced on Wednesday in the course of the hearing by the nine-judge bench on the question whether right to privacy is a fundamental right.
The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the right to privacy was a fundamental right but not all its facets can be elevated to the status of fundamental rights.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told a nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar "There is a fundamental right to privacy, but it is a wholly qualified right since the right to privacy consists of various aspects and is a sub-species of the right to liberty, every aspect of it will not qualify as a fundamental right."

When the Attorney General insisted that the right to privacy as a fundamental right could not be without restrictions, Chief Justice Khehar said, "This is an undefined right, restrictions are going to be there, when these restrictions are there on defined fundamental rights."

The daylong hearing saw Attorney General Venugopal taking contrary positions on the status of right to privacy - and at one stage telling the bench that a "vague and amorphous right can't be held to be a fundamental right".

"Each one of them (the petitioners) have said that it (right to privacy) was not an absolute right and it can be examined from case to case," Chief Justice told the AG, recalling the arguments advanced by different counsels since the beginning of the hearing, including by senior counsel Kapil Sibal earlier in the day.

Besides Chief Justice Khehar, other judges on the bench are Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, R.K. Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D.Y. Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S. Abdul Nazeer.

Telling the bench that the right to privacy was not an absolute right, senior counsel Sibal - appearing for West Bengal, Karnataka, Punjab and Puducherry - said that "right to privacy is not absolute, but the infringement of privacy by the State too is limited".

Describing the right to privacy as "an inalienable natural right", Sibal said, "All I want is that there is a right to privacy which is protected by the Constitution and the rest can be decided later."

Referring to different countries where right to privacy was not there in the Constitution, Sibal told the bench that Pakistan has a right to privacy which is a joke. He urged the court "So if you give us a right, it should not become a joke."

The bench was not impressed when Venugopal described the right to privacy as an "elitist" argument which can't be at the expense of social welfare schemes for giving food, shelter and clothing to 270 million people living below the poverty line.

Not accepting the argument that right to privacy was elitist, both Justice Nariman and Justice Chandrachud emphasised that the right to privacy was as much sacrosanct to the poor as it was to the elite. Justice Chandrachud referred to the forced sterilisation of the poor in 1935 in Europe and during the 1975 Emergency in India.

He termed the compulsory sterilisation of 1935 as the "worst social experiment on poor in the world".

Justice Chandrachud said the State can undertake the direct transfer of cash, but the fundamental rights of the people can't be taken away. He said that personal data collected by the State could be used for legitimate purposes only.

"Your argument that the right to privacy applies to the elite alone is wrong, it applies to the poor people as well," the bench told the Attorney General as he emphasised that right to privacy was an elitist chorus.

"Please don't forget the little man's right to privacy and don't make it Aadhaar-centric. Right to privacy is a much wider right," Justice Nariman told the Attorney General as he said that even the World Bank has said that other developing countries should replicate the Aadhaar scheme.

The nine-judge bench is examining the nature of privacy as a right and also the correctness of two judgments of 1954 and in 1962 which had held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

The matter is being heard by the constitution bench in the wake of challenge to the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds of its being violative of the right to privacy.

Petitioners include former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, first Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Magsaysay award recipient Shanta Sinha, feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon and others who have challenged the validity of the Aadhaar scheme on grounds of it being violative of the right to privacy.

--IANS

pk/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Wednesday slammed the US move to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow, calling it "destruction of prospects for normalising relations between the two countries".

Ryabkov's comments came after the US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a package of further punitive measures for Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US elections and its 2014 annexation of the Crimea.

"What is happening is beyond common sense," Ryabkov told Russia's official TASS news agency. "The authors and sponsors of this bill are making a very serious step towards destruction of prospects for normalising relations with Russia."

He said the approval of the law "would be the work of the enemies of Russia and the US".

Ryabkov also said that Washington's move had complicated negotiations between the two countries about the reutrn of seized Russian diplomatic property in the US.

"The US executive authority's capabilities to make the only correct decision to return to us the diplomatic property without any conditions are significantly narrowed... Therefore, of course our dialogue on this topic becomes even more difficult," Sputnik news agency quoted Ryabkov as telling RIA Novosti.

The bill awaits a final vote in the Senate before it can be presented to US President Donald Trump, who has the power to veto the measure. Ryabkov called the result of the vote "predicted" and said that the sanctions bill would soon be approved by the US Senate.

The bill also includes extended punitive measures against North Korea and Iran and would limit Trump's capacity to ease sanctions on Russia in the future without seeking the approval of lawmakers.

Since taking over at the White House in January, Trump had been fighting off accusations that members of his election campaign team colluded with Russia in order to gather damaging information against his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton.
Russia on Wednesday denied a report that it supplied arms to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, and called the allegation "groundless".

"Russia does not support the Taliban, and maintains contacts with it exclusively to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Afghanistan and to encourage it to join the process of national reconciliation," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

CNN on Tuesday showed a video in which militants demonstrated sniper rifles, Kalashnikov variants and machine guns, claiming that the weapons were originally supplied by Russian government sources.

Although the video does not provide incontrovertible proof of the trade, it offers "some of the first battlefield evidence of a flow of weapons that have the Afghan and American governments deeply concerned about Moscow's intentions here," the CNN report said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the allegations were "groundless", pointing out that it was impossible to determine the origin of the shown weapons in the video, as they were stripped of any means of identification.

"They are not stamped by the manufacturer" and the serial numbers are unclear, the ministry noted.

Such weapons were produced in some Eastern European countries, and some Americans massively sold them to Afghanistan in the early 2000s, it added.

No evidence has been provided that could confirm the accusations against Russia, according to the ministry.

--IANS

ahm/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the upcoming total solar eclipse, a team of NASA-funded scientists are planning to observe the solar corona using stabilised telescopes aboard two of the space agencys research aircraft.

Scientists, led by Amir Caspi from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, will use two of NASA's retrofitted WB-57F research jets to follow the shadow of the moon across America on August 21.

This will enable them to view the eclipse for over seven minutes, while it will last for only two and a half minutes for other viewers.

Taking observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes, the scientists will capture the clearest images of the sun's outer atmosphere - the corona - to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet's surface.

"These could well turn out to be the best ever observations of high frequency phenomena in the corona," said Dan Seaton, co-investigator of the project and researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US.

"Extending the observing time and going to very high altitude might allow us to see a few events or track waves that would be essentially invisible in just two minutes of observations from the ground," Seaton added.

The two planes to be launched from Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will observe the total eclipse for about three and a half minutes each as they fly over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee.

Images of the Sun will primarily be captured at visible light wavelengths, specifically the green light given off by highly ionized iron, superheated by the corona.

This light is best for showing the fine structures in the sun's outer atmosphere.

Observations of Mercury will also be taken half an hour before and after totality, when the sky is still relatively dark. These images, taken in the infrared, will be the first attempt to map the variation of temperature across the surface of the planet.

NASA is funding 11 science projects across America for scientists to take advantage of the unique astronomical event to learn more about the sun and its effects on earth's upper atmosphere.

--IANS

rt/amit/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here on Wednesday sent Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, arrested on charges of money laundering, to seven days custody with the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the agency to quiz Shah for a week. Shah, arrested on Tuesday by the ED in the Kashmir Valley, was then flown to New Delhi on Wednesday.

Police sources said ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court.

Shah was shifted from his uptown Sant Nagar residence in Srinagar to a police station in Badgam district on Tuesday evening after his arrest.

"The arrest followed disclosures by hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani, who admitted having passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah," an informed source said.

Seven other separatist leaders, arrested on Monday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), were produced before the designated NIA court in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The court remanded them in NIA custody for 10 days for interrogation over allegations that they got funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

akk/mr/rak

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Shabir Shah -- one of the founders of Kashmiri separatism -- as part of the government's crack-down on separatists for allegedly receiving money from Pakistan to finance terror activities in the Kashmir Valley.

Shah, who was taken into custody on money laundering charges on Tuesday evening from his residence in upscale Sanat Nagar neighbourhood in Srinagar, was brought on Wednesday afternoon to Delhi where a court allowed the Enforcement Directorate to question him for seven days in its custody.

Police sources in Srinagar said ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court.

The arrest followed disclosures by hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani that he had passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah, officials said.

Shah, 64, the founding chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), was earlier associated with the Jammu and Kashmir People's League -- a political outfit that seeks Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

He broke ranks with the League in the late 1990s to form the Democratic Freedom Party that fights for right to self-determination.

Shah's DFP is also part of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Shabir Shah is considered one of the masterminds of anti-India Kashmir separatist war and has spent much of his life behind the bars even before militancy erupted in the state in the late 1980s.

He went underground in 1988 and 1989 and was accused of giving directions to the Kashmir secessionist movement before he was arrested in August 1989. He was also accused of stoking the 2008 Amarnath land agitation and the 2010 Kashmir unrest.

Over the past 29 years of separatist campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah has often been accused of accumulating huge wealth through various sources, including the hawala channels.

The freshh allegations relate to an August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested Wani, an alleged hawala dealer.

Wani has admitted that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against both.

The arrest is part of the wider crackdown against Kashmiri separatists.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also arrested seven other leaders. They have been remanded in NIA custody for 10 days for interrogation over allegations that they got funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

akk-sar/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Shabir Shah -- one of the founders of Kashmiri separatism -- as part of the government's crack-down on separatists for allegedly receiving money from Pakistan to finance terror activities in the Kashmir Valley.

Shah, who was taken into custody from Srinagar on Tuesday evening on money laundering charges in a case dating back to 2005, was brought on Wednesday afternoon to Delhi where a court allowed the Enforcement Directorate to question him for seven days in its custody.

Police sources in Srinagar said ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court.

Shah's arrest relates to an August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani.

Wani has confessed that he had passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against both.

Shah denied the charges.

Public Prosecutor Rajeev Awasthi told the court that his custody would help the probe agency to unearth the entire modus operandi as the case is of "serious nature".

"Shah has channelised the illegal money to fund the terror activities in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," the probe agency said in its remand application.

The application said Shah's custody was required to unearth the connections of persons arranging money to fund subversive activities in the valley.

"Since large amount of cash was used and banking channels were apparently avoided, this gives rise to reasonable belief that funds were illegally generated and perhaps may be for criminal activity."

It said Shah's accounts in Jammu and Kashmir Bank and HDFC Bank and properties owned by him were to be confronted and his sustained interrogation under the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering Act was imperative.

Shah, 64, the founding chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), was earlier associated with the Jammu and Kashmir People's League -- a political outfit that seeks Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

He broke ranks with the League in the late 1990s to form the Democratic Freedom Party that fights for the right to self-determination.

Shah's DFP is also part of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Shah is considered one of the masterminds of the anti-India Kashmir separatist conflict and has spent much of his life behind bars even before militancy erupted in the state in the late 1980s.

He went underground in 1988 and 1989 and was accused of giving directions to the Kashmir secessionist movement before he was arrested in August 1989. He was also accused of stoking the 2008 Amarnath land agitation and the 2010 Kashmir unrest.

Over the past 29 years of separatist campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah has often been accused of accumulating huge wealth through various sources, including the hawala channels.

Shah's arrest is part of the wider crackdown against Kashmiri separatists.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also arrested seven other leaders. They have been remanded in NIA custody for 10 days for interrogation over allegations that they got funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

akk-sar/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday paid tributes to the soldiers who died in the Kargil war and said the nation is extremely proud of them and recognises the pain of their family members.

Saluting the courage and valour of the martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas, Sonia Gandhi said: "The Nation is extremely proud of the brave soldiers who made the supreme sacrifices.

"As we remember our martyrs, the sacrifices of their family members cannot be overlooked," she said in a statement.

She said that entire Nation recognises the innumerable challenges and pain of the family members, who dedicated their lives while safeguarding the sovereignty and integrity of India.

Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter: "They laid down their lives, so we may live with our heads held high. On Kargil Vijay Diwas we salute the courage and sacrifice of our bravehearts."

--IANS

sid/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A US Senate Committee has dropped the subpoena against Paul Manafort, former head of the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, who was to testify on Wednesday as part of the investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Manafort's lawyers were negotiating a closed-door meeting between the two parties and exchanges of information with the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Efe news reported.

Manafort, in fact, had already met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday which was also looking into the Russian plot. The Senate Judiciary Committee wanted both Manafort and Trump's eldest son to appear at a public hearing Wednesday.

While Trump Jr's attorneys agreed with the committee to meet behind closed doors, Manafort's refusal to collaborate led to him being subpoenaed, which was finally dropped.

The committee is interested in the testimony of Manafort and Trump Jr since the two met a Russian lawyer in June 2016 hoping to receive compromising information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

That meeting is the most tangible public proof of a possible collusion between the Kremlin and the tycoon's presidential campaign in the White House elections, said the report.

--IANS

soni/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The declining sales revenue of the telecom players will have an adverse impact on government revenue collection in the form of spectrum usage charges and licence fee in the current financial year, parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"Telecom Industry including state-owned telecom PSUs and major banks have apprised the government about the financial stress in the telecom industry. The telecom sector witnessed a sharp decline in revenues in second half of financial year 2016-17," Communications Minister Manoj Sinha informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"The revenue decline in the second half of financial year 2016-17 was mainly concentrated in the last quarter of the year. The declining tariff in the sector led to an adverse impact on revenue," he added.

Sinha also said: "If this trend continues, the License Fee and the Spectrum Usage Charges are likely to be impacted adversely during the current financial year."

Sinha said in the financial year 2016-17, at the end of the April-June quarter, the government collected licence fee of Rs 3,975.66 crore, Rs 3,584.04 in the July-September quarter, Rs 3,452.13 crore in October-December and Rs 2,663.29 crore in the January-March quarter.

An Inter-Ministerial Group has been set up by the government with representatives from the Department of Telecommunications, Department of Financial Services, Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Revenue to examine systemic issues affecting viability and repayment capacity in the telecom sector and make recommendations for resolution of stressed assets, he said.

--IANS

ag/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
She is one film old in the industry and is excitedly waiting for her next release "Mubarakan" in which she will don a girl-next-door image once again. Actress Athiya Shetty, however, feels that her work demands versatility and that she is too young to stick to a particular genre.

Athiya is in the capital to be the showstopper for designers Shyamal and Bhumika's maiden show at India Couture Week (ICW) 2017, here on Wednesday night.

Asked if she will ever do non-glamorous roles as off screen, she is considered as one of the fashionable stars of B-Town, Athiya told IANS: "Definitely. My work is my passion and it demands versatility. I would love to do roles which get out a different set of skills in me. Presently, I am too young in the industry to decide and stick to a particular genre."

Daughter of veteran actor Suniel Shetty, she made her debut in the 2015 romantic action film "Hero", directed by Nikkhil Advani. The film, a remake of veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai's eponymous 1983 directorial, saw her share screen space with Sooraj Pancholi.

Now in Anees Bazmee's "Mubarakan", she shares the frame with veteran actor Anil Kapoor and actors Arjun Kapoor and Ileana D'Cruz. The film is slated to hit the screens on Friday.

As much as she is excited about the audience's reaction to the movie, Athiya is also upbeat about being on the fashion runway.

"It's a great experience to walk the fashion runway. I have never felt any anxiety or nervousness as such. I have always been myself and associated with designers whose sensibilities and craft I can associate with. This makes it easy and comfortable for everyone involved," she said, while appreciating Shyamal and Bhumika's collection.

Talking about her personal style statement, the 24-year-old says, "Like most girls, I have always been fond of dressing up."

But she has a condition.

"I make sure I only wear things which suit my body type. It is important to be up to date with style but it is more important to be comfortable and be able to carry. Whenever you are able to carry something with the right attitude, the fashion police is on your side," she said.

Asked how she has changed as a person over the years, Athiya said: "I have always been a woman of determination and take things in my stride."

So does that mean she is not affected with bad phases in her life?

"It is as good and as bad as it is for anyone. We do have our lows and highs, but like everyone, we do make through it. Work is never to be compromised on and it is my passion and profession to deliver the best on the silver screen," she said.

(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)

--IANS

nv/rb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's financial chief, appeared in person for a brief hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Pell will plead not guilty to all accusations of sexual assault against him, his lawyer has told the court, BBC reported.

The 76-year-old Vatican treasurer was accused of historical assaults involving "multiple complainants", police said last month. The senior Catholic Church figure has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The Police and his defence team escorted the cardinal to the court room, while victims who have accused him of alleged sexual abuse committed between 1986 and 2001 in the state of Victoria were also present, Efe news reported.

Pell was not required to enter a plea on Wednesday. "Cardinal Pell will plead not guilty to all charges, and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," Robert Richter, QC, told the court.

The filing hearing lasted about five minutes, according to media reports.

The next hearing will be on October 6.

Pell made no comment as he entered the magistrates' court. The case has drawn huge media attention.

--IANS

in/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump said he was "disappointed" with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his recusal in FBI inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and called the healthcare procedural vote a 'big step'.

"I am disappointed in the Attorney General. He should not have recused himself," Trump said during a joint news conference with the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday, hours after firing off his latest missive targeting Sessions.

"If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and I would have quite simply picked someone else," CNN quoted the President as saying.

Pressed further on whether he wants Sessions to resign, Trump simply added once more that he is "very disappointed" in Sessions.

Trump said he also hopes Sessions will crack down on what "leaks" from various intelligence agencies.

"I want the Attorney General to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies," Trump said. "These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen."

On healthcare, Trump thanked Senator John McCain and all the Republicans, noting that "we passed it without one Democratic vote", CBS News reported. He also congratulated the American people, saying: "We're going to give you great health care."

"Now we move forward towards truly great health care for the American people," he said. "We look forward to that. This was a big step."

Trump and Hariri also discussed terrorism issues relating to the IS of and Hezbollah, Lebanon's autonomous Shiite militia which the US identifies as a terrorist organisation. Hezbollah has allied with Iran in mutual support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's action against Sunni Islamist rebels.

The White House issued a statement on Friday taking a harder stance on hostages detained by Iran saying that "President Trump is prepared to impose new and serious consequences on Iran unless all unjustly imprisoned American citizens are released and returned."

This marks Trump's 14th news conference, 13 of which were also joint sessions with foreign leaders.

--IANS

vgu/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Treasury Department on Wednesday slapped sanctions on 13 current and former senior officials of the Venezuelan government amid political turmoil in the South American country.

The Venezuelan officials were blacklisted for their association with the election of the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC) and their government's "rampant violence against opposition protesters and its corruption," Xinhua quoted the US Treasury Department, as saying.

All assets of these individuals subject to US jurisdiction are frozen and US persons are prohibited from dealing with them.

The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30 election of the ANC that the US Treasury Department said "will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions."

"As our sanctions demonstrate, the US is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was quoted as saying.

"Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential US sanctions," he added.

Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against Venezuela's government if Venezuela goes ahead to pursue the creation of the ANC.

--IANS

sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, media reports said.

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans -- Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie -- voting against the bill.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto, Xinhua news agency reported.

The measure aims at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the North Korea in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital US interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbours," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said on Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" US foreign policy in connection with Russia.

The White House on Sunday signaled that President Donald Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

--IANS

vgu/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Senate voted to begin debate on how to repeal and, eventually, replace the healthcare reform implemented by former President Barack Obama, although it is still not known what the final form of the bill might be.

Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, presiding over the Upper House, had to use his tiebreaking authority to overcome the impasse between Republicans and Democrats, given that conservative Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against the motion to begin debate on the bill, Efe news reported.

Senate Republicans are not in agreement on how to overturn ObamaCare, but President Donald Trump has been relentlessly pressuring the GOP to push forward with some kind of healthcare reform and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell convened the vote to begin debate without a concrete text for the bill in hand.

So far, the three bills presented to attempt to overturn ObamaCare have not managed to garner Republican consensus, and thus Trump and the party -- although it holds a majority in the Senate -- have been unable to fulfill one of their key campaign promises.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his recent diagnosis of brain cancer, returned to Washington exclusively for Tuesday's session so that he could vote on the motion to begin debate on the health care matter.

McCain reportedly voted to begin debate, despite the fact that various analyses have estimated that some 24 million people would lose their health care coverage over the next decade if Republicans manage to push through some kind of bill to overturn ObamaCare.

All Senate Democrats, along with Collins and Murkowski, voted against the motion to begin debate.

However, about half a dozen Republican lawmakers kept their cards close to the vest until the last moment on how they would vote, having expressed serious doubts about the legislative alternatives to ObamaCare presented to date.

In the meantime, the mini-victory does not guarantee that Republicans will be able to find consensus within their ranks for some kind of bill to repeal ObamaCare.

--IANS

vgu/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that selection of the chairman and other members of Uttar Pradesh RERA would be made soon.

He said that selection of the chairman and other members of the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) was under process as the search committee was scrutinizing the applications that have been received.

This process, Adityanath assured, would be completed at the earliest.

He earlier launched the website of the UP Real Estate Regulatory Authority at an event at his official residence here.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said the state government was committed to protecting the interests of home buyers and to expeditiously solve the problems faced by them.

This website, he added, would be instrumental in this direction.

The Chief Minister said that a trust deficit had developed in the past few years between the builders and consumers due to delays and incompletion of many projects.

The Narendra Modi government had for this reason come up with RERA, which would remove the problems of the real estate sector, he added.

Adityanath stressed the need for trust between the builders and home buyers and assured all assistance from the state government.

He also said that builders should utilize the funds they get from the buyers for completion of the project so that timely hand-over could be ensured.

The problems faced by the builders would also be looked into and sorted out, he added.

Adityanath also advised the consumers to give the builders their funds in time so that projects are completed in time and there is no trust deficit.

--IANS

md/amit/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Wednesday said that NDA's Vice Presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu's response to its allegations against him on issues of probity had "left more questions" and demanded he and his BJP answer them.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah had "chosen to be mum" on the allegations despite the "repeated rhetoric of zero tolerance for corruption and wrongdoing"

"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. People of India demand answers," he said.

The Congress had first made the four charges on Monday but Naidu, had rejected the allegations as "entirely false and motivated" and termed them clear evidence of the opposition party's "sense of hopelessness" and "political bankruptcy". He had also made a point rebuttal.

Making a fresh allegation on Wednesday, Surjewala said that 'Swarna Bharat Trust', in which Naidu's daughter is a managing trustee, has been issued a notice under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.

Noting Venkaiah Naidu and Telangana government had accepted that the trust was given exemption from paying various developmental charges amounting to Rs.2.46 crore to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, Surjewala said Naidu has sought to justify the "unilateral waiver" as 16 more trusts were given such exemption.

"Why similar exemption was not granted to hundreds of other NGOs? What was the criteria for granting exemption in absence of any policy. Is it fair to grant exemption in payment of public charges to a trust that is facing FCRA proceedings?" he asked.

Surjewala said that Telangana government had accepted that 350 Toyota vehicles were purchased directly from Harsha Toyota, owned by Naidu's son - reportedly at Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal rates - but the next lot of 350 vehicles were purchased through a tender, won by Radha Krishna Motors.

"Why were both lots of vehicles not purchased through tender? Was the conditionality of tender violated in the purchase of first lot of vehicles? What is the price at which the two lots of vehicles were purchased? Was the price of vehicles purchased from Harsha Toyota higher?"

The Congress leader said Naidu had stated that he was then BJP chief and consequently chairman of Kushabhau Thakre Memorial Trust which was allocated 20 acres in Bhopal valued at "over Rs 500 crore" but the the Supreme Court had quashed the allocation and passed "stinging strictures."

He said if Naidu was not responsible for allocation of land, Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah "should answer about the strictures".

Surjewala said Naidu has "not denied that he had secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the poor and the destitute" and asked that if his being forced to return the land as it was illegally allocated to him, absolved him of his culpability.

Naidu had said in his statement said the issue of return of land was raised by the local Congressmen as early as 2002 and but courts had dismissed the charges of land-grabbing.

--IANS

ps/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RJ Malishka's "Sonu song", a viral video which mocks Mumbai's municipal authority over poor pot-holed roads, has now inspired a newbie political outfit in Goa.

The Goa Suraksha Manch, which is backed by state Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Subhash Velingkar, has now used a similar sing-song routine to question Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar over his purported support to the casino lobby and failure of governance.

The video "Mannu Aamka Tuzyawar Bharosa Nai Hai", which has gone viral, features workers of the Manch questioning "Mannu" -- referring to Manohar Parrikar - over his backing of the casino industry.

"Mannu we do not trust you, Mannu is your humanity no more, You are a protector of casinos, You are a destroyer of Goa," go the lyrics of the song coined by the workers of the Manch, which has been critical of Parrikar's functioning and policies in the past.

The song was coined to protest the arrival of a new casino-housing vessel, promoted by Haryana politician Gopal Kanda, which beached at the Miramar beach off Panaji some days back. It has been a subject of controversy, especially in the Goa legislative assembly, during the ongoing monsoon session.

Parrikar, who as opposition leader had led a seven-year campaign against the casino industry, is now accused by the Congress of going back on his words to ban casinos from Goa's rivers.

"We had thought that he would move casinos from the Mandovi. Goa's educated society does not want casinos at all. He does not bother or love Goan culture. This song should remind people about all failed promises and political treachery by Parrikar," Goa Suraksha Manch spokersperson Anand Shirodkar told the media here on Wednesday.

--IANS

maya/rb/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saying neither China nor India want a war, a Chinese daily has alleged that the West was instigating a military clash between the two Asian neighbours.

"The US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems," a commentary in the Global Times said late Tuesday.

"Yet partiality is likely to lead to war. There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said.

The commentary noted that fighting a war with China would only cost India's opportunities for economic development and its beneficial external environment.

"In fact, neither China nor India wants a war. China has addressed most of its boundary issues with its neighbours through negotiations."

The commentary said more than five weeks into the standoff between China and India on their border at Doklam, "some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in.

"An article by the Washington Examiner on Monday unsurprisingly hyped the China threat and extolled the US-Indian relationship. It suggested the US provide support for India's efforts to deter and counter China and rally the world against China."

The commentary also accused Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop of displaying disguised support for India.

It said: "It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union. New Delhi has to draw a lesson from the lingering hurt...

"The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes?

"Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-Indian confrontation."

--IANS

mr/soni

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Hawaii woman who was forced to hold her child on lap during her flight has decided to sue United Airlines, the media reported on Wednesday.

Shirley Yamauchi, who is working in Kapolei Middle School of Hawaii, on Tuesday hoped her lawsuit would help protect other passengers from this type of treatment, Xinhua news agency reported.

"United said they would change and I want to see that happen. I don't want anymore passengers possibly in danger," Yamauchi said.

Yamauchi had to hold her two-year-old son on her lap in an over three-hour flight, the final leg of an 18-hour flight from Hawaii to Boston, despite paying nearly $1,000 for the baby's seat.

When they boarded the flight after five hours layover in Houston on June 29, another passenger showed up, claiming the seat of the toddler as his.

Yamauchi complained to a flight attendant that she bought the seat three months ago, but the latter only shrugged and said the flight was full, then walked away.

United Airlines issued an apology five days later. Yamauchi said the airline gave her free upgrades and perks on her return trip back to Hawaii from Boston, but she felt the gestures were not genuine.

United Airlines has been in hot water several times in recent months.

In April, the airline came under fire after a doctor was violently dragged off a flight to make room for airline employees.

--IANS

py/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will meet next Wednesday to review the central banks policy stance. The RBI has chosen largely to be cautious over the past months; it has not cut the policy rate since the first meeting presided over by Governor Urjit Patel last October. However, the minutes of the MPCs last meeting suggest that the committees members are, in fact, more flexible than a straightforward reading of their actions since October would suggest. Certainly, the reasons why a rate cut might be possible  and, indeed, should be undertaken  have only strengthened since the MPCs June meeting. Considering the benign inflation data and the continuing growth weakness afflicting the Indian economy, the MPC would do well to cut the headline policy rate at its forthcoming meeting.
The in Uttar Pradesh is all set for a modern makeover with the Yogi Adityanath-led state government making efforts to build an exclusive brand for the made-in-UP Khadi products.
The Grand Alliance in Bihar ended on Wednesday when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar first dumped the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and then, by late evening, looked set to lead a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the alliance partner of the Janata Dal (United) that he leads.
At least 10,000 people were evacuated overnight after a new wild fire broke out in southern France, which was already battling massive blazes that have consumed swathes of forest, authorities said today.

The new fire came a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south, including near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

"The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire. It's an area that doubles or triples its population in summer," said a fire service official of the blaze near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast.

The number of people on France's Cote d'Azur bulges in July and August as holidaymakers head to the beach, though the area is experiencing an exceptionally hot, dry summer that has made it especially vulnerable to fires.

On Tuesday over 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish the flames, which have left swathes of charred earth in their wake.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.

The blazes on Tuesday had devoured around 4,000 hectares of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European Union partners to send two extra fire-fighting planes -- a request immediately fulfilled by Italy, according to the EU.

But one union official denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts preventing all the aircraft required from being put into action.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Tuesday that France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet during a visit to Corsica.

A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained, local fire chief Philippe Gambe de Vergnes said Tuesday.

But the blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmer's deputy mayor Rene Carandante described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

"It's a disaster area. There's nothing left," he said.

Francois Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, told AFP that local wildlife, such as the Hermann's tortoises, would be victims of the fires. "We are going to find burnt shells.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamists have kidnapped 10 members of an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, colleagues and the state-run oil firm said today.

"About 10 staff from the survey and geological department of the University of Maiduguri were abducted on Tuesday," said Ndu Ughamadu of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Ughamadu said the NNPC had contracted the team to carry out research work on oil exploration activities taking place in the Lake Chad basin.

"They were kidnapped around Jibi village in Borno state after a gun duel between the security agents accompanying them and suspected Boko Haram fighters," he told AFP.

Efforts were under way to track down the captors before a possible rescue operation. Jibi village is in the Magumeri area of Borno, northwest of the state capital, Maiduguri.

University of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the abduction and said the institution was awaiting further details from security operatives.

"There is no denying the fact that this incident happened, involving our staff, NNPC workers and security escorts from the military and the (civilian militia)," he added.

"Our staff who were recruited as consultants were on the team that was ambushed."



The oil prospecting team had been working in the Magumeri area of Borno state for the last month, according to another member of staff, who asked not to be identified.

"It was clear Boko Haram studied their movements before attacking them," he said.

Oil production has been concentrated in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta region since it was first found in commercial quantities in 1956.

But repeated attacks by militants wanting a fairer share of profits for local people has forced the government to look elsewhere.

Exploration has been started in inland basins ranging from central Benue state to Boko Haram's heartland in northeast.

But insecurity caused by the jihadists' insurgency over the last eight years has disrupted work, with the latest kidnapping underlining the continued threat.

Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war in the conflict. Thousands of women and girls have been seized while men and boys have been made to fight in the Islamist ranks.

Recent kidnappings of more high-profile targets appear to have a financial motivation, possibly to raise ransom money for the cash-strapped group.

On June 20, armed gunmen abducted 10 women after an attack on a convoy of vehicles travelling towards the town of Damboa from Maiduguri.

In May, Britain and the United States updated security advice for their nationals in northeast Nigeria, warning that Boko Haram was "actively planning" to kidnap foreign workers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A seven-foot-long Indian rock python was rescued by the Wildlife SOS Rapid Response Unit from the Air Force Station in Tughlakabad here today.

The snake is currently under observation and will be released back into its natural habitat, once deemed fit, the NGO said.

An emergency call on the Wildlife SOS 24-hrs helpline number (9917109666) by Air Force officials alerted the organisation's Rapid Response Unit to the presence of a python outside the mess building.

A rescue team comprising two snake handlers from the NGO promptly arrived at the location and successfully carried out the rescue operation.

Growing habitat destruction and encroachment is rapidly blurring the lines between cities and forests.

Consequently, the wildlife living in proximity to such expanding areas have no choice but to forage or seek shelter in urban habitats.

Most snakes are burrowing reptiles and they spend most of their time underground but during monsoons their homes get destroyed due to flooding and they are forced to venture into human habitations, in search of prey like rodents and lizards, Wildlife SOS said in a statement.

A member of the Wildlife SOS Rapid Response team said, "We get maximum calls for reptile rescues in the monsoon season. In the past month we have responded to nearly 100 distress calls pertaining to snakes and monitor lizards in Delhi NCR".

Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder, Wildlife SOS, said, "We are very glad that people have become so aware that they consider calling experts instead of trying to deal with the matter themselves, or worse, resorting to killing the snakes.

"In case people come across any reptiles or wild animals around their vicinity, we request them to immediately call our 24 hour rescue helpline (9871963535) for assistance," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two persons arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a terror related case were sent by a court here to judicial custody till August 24.

The NIA had yesterday arrested the duo for allegedly planning terrorist activities and the two were produced in the court of District Judge RK Upadhyay.

The arrested persons are Asif Iqbal (26) and Mohammad Atif (27), residents of Kanpur, the NIA said.

According to the NIA, the accused were allegedly linked with an "ISIS-related" module from Kanpur. Iqbal is the cousin of Saifullah, the alleged self-radicalised terror operative, who was shot dead in Lucknow on March 8 in an encounter, the NIA said.

Accused Atif supplied arms and ammunition to the persons in the module, it claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Terming the budget presented by the Yogi Adityanath government as "anti-development, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav today claimed that the ruling dispensation had tried to appropriate many works initiated during the previous regime.

The former UP chief minister also accused the government of failing on all fronts.

"The 2017-18 budget presented by BJP government is anti- development. The government has appropriated the work of the previous SP government and given it, its own colour. The booklet on 100 days mentions all the work of the SP regime," Yadav said during a discussion on budget in the state Legislative Council.

He alleged that on the basis of casteism, the BJP came to power but it did not know how to run the government. The government is a failure on all the fronts, he claimed. It takes a big heart to run a government, Yadav added.

He said that in the budget the emphasis was on arranging Rs 36 thousand crore for farm loan waivers and alleged that the government had "betrayed farmers" in the name of the waiver.

Referring to the recommendation for a CBI investigation into a river front project initiated in his regime, Yadav said, the probe had been recommended as Gomti river bank had become more beautiful than Sabarmati.

"You are threatening us with CBI. I am a member of the CBI club and have faced it," he said.

Yadav said that he would see what the present government, which he claimed did not like the word Samajwadi, do for eastern UP.

"They had problems with Saifai (Yadav's native place). I will wait for next five years to see start of metro in Gorakhpur. Our government had given costly land for AIIMS in Gorakhpur, we want them to make more medical colleges than us," he said.

Yadav also challenged the government to distribute more laptops.

He also sought a CBI probe into the Sitapur and Varanasi murders.

He said the BJP used to call samajwadis as 'gunda' but the situation is worse now. They cannot speak on law and order, he said.

"Our government was giving jobs to the youth but BJP has ordered CBI probe into UPPSC recruitments from 2012," he said continuing his attack.

He also attacked the government on incidents of cow vigilantism.

"This is the worst thing going on. It is unfortunate that a human is killed for an animal. Such things do not happen anywhere in the world...Interestingly, at the same time the export of beef is increasing," he said advising BJP to shun "politics of hatred".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Army today paid glowing tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1999 Kargil conflict in poignant ceremonies across Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chief of the Army's Northern Command, Lt Gen Devraj Anbu, laid a wreath at the war memorial in Drass sector on the occasion of the Kargil Vijay Diwas, an official said.

Gallantry award winners of the Kargil conflict, next of kin of fallen soldiers, senior Army officers and civil dignitaries also paid their tribute.

Many in attendance were moved to tears when buglers played the poignant 'The Last Post' tune.

The Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, which was at the forefront in conducting the operations, also marked the occasion at the war memorial in the Badami Bagh Cantonment.

The ceremony included a brief narration of the conflict highlighting the saga of courage and valour of the martyrs, prayers by religious leaders and laying of wreath in remembrance of the valiant heroes who participated in the operations, an official said.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on this day every year, marking successful conclusion of the war with Pakistan in the Kargil-Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.

The Indian soldiers successfully gained back the high altitude outposts occupied by Pakistani intruders culminating in Operation Vijay on the day.

Over 500 Indian armed forces personnel laid down their lives during the 60-day long war.

Functions were also held at 16 Corps headquarters and the 168 Infantry Brigade military station in Samba.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Vikram Chatterjee, arrested on charges of unintentionally causing death of co-passenger and model Sonika Chauhan in a road mishap while driving under the influence of alcohol, was given bail by a court today.

Chatterjee was granted bail by Additional District Judge Sujay Sengupta of Alipore court this afternoon, 18 days after he was arrested by Kolkata Police in the case.

The court enlarged him on bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of the same amount, while also asking him to submit his passport to the court and be present before it on all hearings of the case.

The court also stipulated that he would not leave the city without prior permission of Tollygunje police station, where the case against him was lodged.

Chatterjee was arrested on July 6 midnight on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other penal offences.

Cruising at a high speed on early hours April 29, the actor's car had hit the pavement on Rashbehari Avenue, killing Sonika.

The Kolkata police, which probed the case, filed chargesheet in the case on July 19, indicting the actor of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and causing grievous hurt and mischief.

The chargesheet cited around 40 witnesses, eight of whom had recorded their statements before a judicial magistrate.

Besides Vikram and Sonika's friends, other witnesses include a KMC conservancy worker and a taxi driver.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BCCI today adopted Lodha panel recommended reforms, barring the five contentious ones, at its Special General Meeting here.

"The BCCI has adopted Lodha panel reforms except five," said BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary after the meeting.

The reforms that have not been implemented are one state one vote, the size of the national selection panel, the size of the apex council while the last one covers age cap and tenure of office-bearers.

It has been more than a year since the Supreme Court ordered the BCCI to implement the reforms recommended by the Justice R M Lodha-led panel.

Earlier in the week, the Supreme Court barred former BCCI officials N Srinivasan and Niranjah Sham from attending any board meeting.

They both are above 70 years of age and stand disqualified to be BCCI office-bearers as per Lodha reforms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP tonight handed over to Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi the letter extending support to Nitish Kumar for forming the next government.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai and senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan late this evening and handed over the letter.

Modi later told reporters that BJP legislators were meeting at 1, Anne Marg residence of Kumar where lawmakers of the JD(U) were present to discuss their next move. Kumar is hosting a dinner for the legislators of the new coalition.

Leaders of the JD(U) and NDA constituents in the state are likely to meet the governor again tonight when Kumar will stake claim to form the government.

Their meeting with the governor might get delayed as Tripathi has gone to IGIMS Hospital for a check-up for some ailment, Raj Bhavan sources said.

Modi said BJP would be a part of the new government.

When asked if he would return as the deputy chief minister, Modi laughed and said the BJP's central leadership would decide the issue.

JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MLAs in the 243- member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Juvenile Justice Board today sent a 20-year-old man, booked in the Yug Chandak murder case, to probation of two years.

The man, who was 17-years old when the crime took place in 2014, was held guilty of kidnapping for ransom (S. 364 A of the IPC) and hatching conspiracy (S. 120 B of the IPC) by the Juvenile Justice Board, which heard the case, on July 20.

Board member Surekha Borkute told PTI that the child in conflict with law has been placed under the supervision of District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Mushtaq Pathan.

The board has directed the 20-year-old to participate in individual and group counselling sessionsand also render community service.

It also said that the child in conflict with law shall not leave Nagpur jurisdiction without the permission of the Juvenile Justice Board.

Vikas Karhade, who represented the juvenile in conflict with law, told PTI that they welcome the conditions imposed by the board, but will challenge the order wherein he was held guilty.

Eight-year-old, Yug, son of doctor Mukesh Chandak, was kidnapped from near his residence in central avenue in Nagpur on September 1, 2014 and was subsequently murdered for ransom by two persons.

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court had awarded death penalty to the other two accused in the case -- Rajesh Daware and Arvind Singh.

Daware was employed as a receptionist in the clinic of Chandak.

The juvenile was later booked for helping in the plan.

Meanwhile, Gajendra Daga, lawyer of complainant Dr Mukesh Chandak the victim's father, told PTI that the child in conflict with law who was convicted today should have been sent to a special home for a period of three years.

"We would be challenging today's judgement before the higher forum with a prayer that the delinquent should be sent to special home for a period of three years," said Daga.

The case was heard by the Juvenile Justice Board consisting of Principal Magistrate NN Bedarkar, Surekha Borkute (member) and KT Mele.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, which left 17 people dead, figured in the Maharashtra Assembly today with the Congress and the NCP demanding stringent action against those responsible.

The opposition stuck to its demand for an immediate discussion on the incident and forced the House to be adjourned thrice after rejecting the government's proposal to take up the matter later in the day.

The opposition targeted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the incident alleging that the Shiv Sena-ruled civic body had turned a blind eye to the complaints of the residents about the unauthorised works being carried out on the ground floor of the building.

They repeatedly referred to the arrest of Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap in connection with the building collapse.

Leader of the Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, charged that the BMC has become 'a private limited company' which protects the interest of a handful of people.

"The BMC should become a public service body that will protect the interest of the common man," he said.

In a dig at the Shiv Sena, which rules the civic body, he said, "There are some people in the power who are responsible for this tragic accident."



He wanted the government to take stern action against everybody involved in it and asked the ruling BJP not to try to protect its ally (Shiv Sena) in the matter.

Ajit Pawar of the NCP wanted those responsible for the building collapse to be charged with culpable homicide.

"Sunil Shitap (arrested in connection with the building collapse) is said to have links with the Shiv Sena and he has misused his clout to make changes in the building," Pawar said.

NCP member Jitendra Avhad said, "It is the negligence and carelessness of the BMC staff that has led to the building collapse."



BJP MLA Raj Purohit said the residents of the collapsed building had earlier met the civic officials to complain about the renovation going on there but they were allegedly threatened by Shitap.

At the outset, the opposition demanded an immediate discussion and a statement from the government on the incident.

The government, however, proposed to hold the discussion later in the afternoon.

Vikhe Patil sought to know what was the reason behind the delay in making a statement on the floor of the House over the incident.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said, "The government is willing to make a statement followed by discussion on the issue at 4 pm. If the opposition accepts the proposal, we can do so."



However, opposition parties refused to accept the suggestion and stuck to the demand for an immediate discussion over the incident.

Amid the din, the chair adjourned the House twice for 10 minutes each and then for another 15 minutes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today demanded that the Centre immediately "reform" DVC, which released water from its differet barrages leading to the flood-like situation in the rain-battered state.

"DVC barrages are quite old. They are not cleaned or dredged from time to time which has resulted in sedimentation ... If dredging had been done then another two lakh cusec of water could have been stored there.

"So whenever it is raining in Jharkhand, it is West Bengal which is suffering every year. So just like I do not want others to suffer, we should also not suffer. I think the Centre must carry out an immediate reform at the DVC," Banerjee said at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on her return from New Delhi.

The problem that West Bengal faces is that the water released by the DVC barrages every year when it rains heavily in Jharkhand create a flood-like situation in the state, she said.

"Since 2012 we have raised the issue of water release by DVC. But no action has been taken. Even today it (DVC) has released an additional one lakh cusec of water. Because of that three districts - Howrah, Hooghly and West Midnapore (in West Bengal) are facing flood-like situation," the chief minister said.

"If dredging was done at Farakka then Bihar would not have faced any problem. No dredging is done in Ganga, Kolkata Port," she added.

Banerjee said that the Bengal government has been monitoring the situation in the districts round the clock.

According to a senior official of the state Irrigation department, nearly 106 blocks in the southern part of West Bengal have been inundated and around 50 relief camps have been opened in Hooghly, Howrah, Bankura, Birbhum and North and South 24 Parganas districts.

"We are alert all the time. Our officials including the district magistrates, block development officers and other senior officials are monitoring the situation throughout the day," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Adhering strictly to the Supreme Court diktat of letting in only office-bearers, the BCCI today did not allow its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rahul Johri to attend the Special General Meeting (SGM) here.

Along with Johri, the representatives Odisha and Punjab were debarred from the meeting as the representatives were not office-bearers.

As per the SC order, the ones eligible are president, vice president, secretary, joint/assistant Secretary and treasurer.

It was learnt that Johri was told by Amitabh Choudhary that he along with all other BCCI employees should leave the meeting premises as SC order of July 24 states that only office-bearers should be attending the meeting.

While it is not a rule but a convention, a team of BCCI employees are always available for secretarial help during these meetings but a wary BCCI went straight by the book.

"Johri is not an office bearer but a salaried employee of BCCI. While he attended all previous SGMs, we can't take a chance this time as we have to honour SC order in letter and spirit. All employees were told by acting secretary that they have to leave the room," a state unit representative, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

It was learnt that Choudhary personally checked all the letters of authorisation brought by representatives so that there is no violation of apex court's order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China today slammed Botswana for going ahead with the Dalai Lama's visit despite its strong objection, saying it will not accept foreign countries' interference in China's internal affairs and harming Beijing's interests.

"We noted relevant reports. China has stated clearly its position on the Dalai Lama's visits to relevant countries. I want to stress that Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) related issues concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will require relevant countries earnestly respect China's core interests and make correct decisions on relevant issues" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

"China will not interfere in other countries affairs, we will not accept other countries to do things that harm the interest of China", he said.

On July 14, Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had firmly opposed to Botswana for permitting the Dalai Lama visit and asked it to "accommodate China's core interests".

The 82-year-old Tibetan leader is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19.

Earlier, reports from Botswana said President Ian Khama will be meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Botswana confirmed yesterday that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country next month as "a foreign dignitary" and that the trip was a "purely private visit".

On China's objections, Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told lawmakers that "the principle of non- interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of China's foreign policy".

"We therefore expect... China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter," the Minister said and expressed hope that the visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader will not affect the strong bonds of friendship between the two countries.

China is a big investor in Africa and has built coal- fired power plants besides road networks and bridges in Botswana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Srinagar-based Chinar Corps of the Army today paid rich tributes to the martyrs of 'Operation Vijay', which was launched in 1999 to evict Pakistani Army from Kargil heights.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

Chinar Corps, which was at the forefront in conducting the operations, joined the proud nation in remembering the martyrs, gallant serving soldiers and veterans to celebrate the 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas, an army official said.

He said Chinar Corps commander Lt Gen J S Sandhu and all ranks of Chinar Corps paid homage to the Kargil heroes in a solemn ceremony held at the war memorial in Badami Bagh Cantonment here.

The ceremony included brief narration of the Kargil War highlighting the saga of courage and valour of the martyrs, prayers by religious teachers and laying of wreath in proud remembrance of the valiant heroes who participated in the operations, the official said.

On this day in 1999, the Indian Army triumphed over Pakistan Army and chased them out completely from heights of Dras, Mushkoh, Kaksar and Batalik.

Intruders from Northern Light Infantry of Pakistan had treacherously occupied these heights in an attempt to endanger the vital Srinagar-Leh National Highway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress today expressed disappointment over the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister and said it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the 'grand alliance'.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'grand alliance' was given a mandate for five years and the Congress will strive to respect that.

"We are deeply disappointed by the of resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. We, in the Congress party, particularly Congress president and party vice president have great respect and affection for Nitish Kumar," he said.

The Congress leader said the 'Mahagathbandhan' was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on the policies, principles and cumulative leadership that was presented.

It was also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narender Modi, who challenged the honour of Bihar, he said.

"Responsibility lies up on each one of us to respect this mandate. The Congress party will do everything within its means (to see to it) that this mandate is honoured," he said.

"Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion," he said.

Nitish Kumar threw a political bombshell by announcing his resignation, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan in Patna after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hailing the prowess and sacrifices made by Indian armed forces in Kargil war, BJP's floor leader in Telangana Legislative Assembly G Kishan Reddy today said the country, with NDA in power, can defend itself against any threat from Pakistan and China.

"The country is proud of this day (Kargil Vijay Diwas). Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was Prime Minister then, wanted friendly relations with neighbours and undertook a 'bus yatra' from Delhi to Lahore.

"He extended a hand of friendship. Pakistan tried to backstab even as it gave a hand of friendship," he said.

Reddy was speaking at a programme held in the state BJP office to pay tributes to the Kargil martyrs.

The Indian armed forces taught a lesson to Pakistan in the Kargil war though they faced inhospitable conditions, he said.

India is forced to celebrate various events, including important days, under the shadow of guns because of the neighbouring country, he said, adding that Pakistan should not invite trouble by testing India's patience.

"We did surgical strikes on terror camps. If necessary, if Pakistan's mind does not change, I say don't invite a situation of surgical strike being performed on Lahore.

"We did a 'bus yatra', a 'yatra' for peace. But, I warn that, if necessary, a 'yatra' of bombs will have to be done on Pakistan. No fear. Pakistan needs to remember that, in the event of a war, our brave Indian soldiers have the power to eliminate Pakistan from world map," Reddy said.

Talking about China, he said Beijing is not able to digest the rising profile of India under the NDA government.

China is showing imperialistic and a dominating mindset, the BJP leader said.

Asserting that India has the ability to defend itself, he said the countrymen would have to stand by its soldiers in the event of "any situation".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Desilting of a lake at Kongapuram town by farmers,reportedly owing allegiance to ruling AIADMK,a day ahead of DMK leader M K Stalin's proposed visit to oversee the work by his party cadres, led to protests by the latter in the district today.

Over 800 DMK workers were arrested from various parts of the district for staging road rokos, protesting against the action of the farmers.

The DMK leader also condemned the arrests.

Police have not yet granted permission to Stalin to visit the area.

Workers of rival parties had clashed over the issue yesterday, forcing the district administration to stop the desilting work for the day.

DMK workers they had desilted part of the lake and strengthened its bunds together with some farmers.

They alleged that farmers owing allegiance to ruling AIADMK removed the silt by using earth movers, resulting in damage to the bunds.

DMK workers reportedly found these farmers again removing the silt this morning despite an assurance from officials that it would not be done, resulting in the protests.

Police said that over 100 DMK cadres, led by it's Salem West District secretary S R Sivalingam, blocked the Salem-Coimbatore national highway near Magudanchavadi and were taken into custody, for causing traffic disruptions.

Similar protests were held in front of Collector's office and 11 other places including Kolathur, Mettur, Athur, Kengavalli and Vazhapadi areas in the district, leading to arrest of over 800 persons, police said.

Stalin is scheduled to reach Salem via Coimbatore tomorrow to review the desilting work and also participate in the human chain protest, seeking exemption to Tamil Nadu from NEET.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Governing Board of Central Institute of Classical Tamil here today opposed the reported move by the Centre to bring it under a central university and said it should not lose its autonomous status.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the meeting of the board, chaired by Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

Citing recent reports in a section of media that CICT will come under the ambit of Tiruvarur-based Central University of Tamil Nadu, it said: "The institute should not lose its autonomous status due to any reason."



Reports had claimed that CICT, set up by the Centre in 2008, would lose its autonomy if it came under the administrative control of the central varsity.

Functioning under the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, the CICT is focused on Classical Tamil research till circa 600 AD.

CICT must not be moved out of Chennai, the resolution passed at the fifth Governing Board meeting said.

Also, the Union HRD Ministry should allot funds to strengthen research on Tamil literature and to new schemes for Tamil development, the resolution added.

An official release said the meeting discussed the CICT's work plan and its academic activities among others.

Palaniswami is the chairperson of CICT, while P Prakasam is the Vice-Chairperson. Senior government officials participated in the meet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A special court has reserved its order on the bail plea of an alleged middleman, who was arrested in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader TTV Dhinakaran.

Sukesh Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16 and chargesheeted by the Delhi Police on July 14, has sought bail on the ground that his custody was not required as the investigation was complete.

His counsel argued that the other accused, including Dhinakaran, were already out on bail.

The prosecutor, however, opposed the bail plea saying that the investigation in the case was still going on.

Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry, after hearing arguments, reserved the order yesterday on the bail plea for July 29.

Chandrashekar was denied bail twice by a sessions court and then by the Delhi High Court.

Meanwhile, the court fixed August three for consideration on the issue of taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed in the case.

The Delhi Police Crime Branch has chargesheeted Chandrashekar for alleged offences under the IPC including forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using forged document as genuine and possessing a forged document, intending to use it as genuine and criminal conspiracy.

He was also charged with alleged offence of taking gratification by illegal means to influence public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

If convicted, the offences carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The police have alleged in the charge sheet that Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar had conspired to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get the 'two leaves' symbol for their party.

They have told the court that a supplementary final report would be filed later against accused Dhinakaran, his close aide T P Mallikarjuna, suspected hawala operators Nathu Singh and Lalit Kumar, who were out on bail, after completing the probe against them.

The police have claimed that money allegedly recovered from Chandrashekar was sent by Dhinakaran through unaccounted channels with the help of other accused persons.

Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe ECI officials to get the AIADMK's 'two leaves' symbol for the Sasikala faction.

According to the police, Rs 1.3 crore in cash was allegedly recovered from him at the time of the raid at a hotel in Chanakyapuri area of south Delhi.

Dhinakaran was arrested here on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe ECI officials for the symbol. Mallikarjuna was also arrested the same day.

His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for the bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu which was later cancelled by the ECI after the alleged irregularities surfaced, according to the police.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa who represented the constituency.

The ECI had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after the two factions of the party -- one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam -- staked a claim to it.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating a Rs 50 crore deal between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar.

Dhinakaran has been accused of arranging the money from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The European Union's top court today upheld the bloc's decision to put Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its terrorism blacklist.

The European Court of Justice overturned a 2014 ruling by the bloc's second highest court, saying it "should not have annulled Hamas' retention on the European list of terrorist organisations".

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, denounced the decision, which it said "has no bearing on politics".

"We will keep up our legal battle to have Hamas removed from the list of terrorist organisations," a statement from the Islamists said.

The lower EU court sparked outrage in Israel and Washington when it said Hamas should be dropped from the list because the bloc had made the decision based on information from the media and internet.

But the Luxembourg-based ECJ said that in doing so, the General Court had "made an error in law" and it would now have to examine the case again.

However in a related ruling, the ECJ said today that the General Court's 2014 finding that Sri Lankan rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should not be on the terror list was correct.

The Hamas ruling came as a surprise since one of the ECJ's senior lawyers had said in an opinion last September that Hamas should not have been included on the terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the EU decision.

The court rarely rules against the advice of its top lawyers and there had been concerns that if the ECJ agreed with the General Court, then already tense EU-Israel relations would have been hit again.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) said it welcomed the outcome as "an important political message in the fight against international terror."



Israel regularly berates the European Union for being soft on terrorism and bluntly rejects EU criticism of its Jewish settlements policy.

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, arguing that as a legally elected government it has the right to conduct military operations against Israel.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and fought three wars with Israel, the last in 2014, which caused massive destruction and left more than 2,000 people dead.

The original 2014 ruling by the General Court annulled the EU sanctions listing on procedural grounds.

It said that rather than establishing independently that Hamas was a terrorist organisation, the European Council of EU member states had instead relied on publicly available information.

The EU member states then appealed that decision, believing the lower court "was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain".

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The EU warned Poland today it would suspend its voting rights in the bloc if it pushes ahead with controversial judicial reforms, sparking accusations of "blackmail" from a furious Warsaw.

Brussels said President Andrzej Duda's unexpected vetoing of two controversial reforms, including one targeting the supreme court, had not ended the risk to the independence of Polish judges.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the Polish crisis posed a threat to democratic standards not just in that country but across the 28-nation bloc.

"In this past week some things have changed in Poland -- and some things have not," Timmermans told a conference in Brussels after a fresh high-level meeting on the crisis.

The Dutchman said the laws "would have a very significant negative impact on the independence of the Polish judiciary and would increase the systemic threat to the rule of law".

With Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party vowing to push ahead with the reforms, Timmermans warned in particular against the mass sacking of supreme court judges.

"If such a measure is taken the commission is ready to immediately trigger the Article 7 procedure," Timmermans said.

Article 7 is a never-before-used EU process designed to uphold the rule of law, a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers.

The legal reforms have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears for the rule of law in one of the EU's leading eastern former communist states.

Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads over the legal changes ever since the PiS took power in 2015 and announced reforms to Poland's constitutional court.

The latest threats infuriated Warsaw.

"We won't accept blackmail on the part of EU officials, especially blackmail that is not based on facts. All the laws prepared by the Polish parliament are in compliance with the constitution and democratic rules," Polish government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told the PAP agency.

"We regret that Timmermans, who is unfamiliar with the draft laws and Poland's legal regulations, has formulated unfair criticism against Poland."



This month the Polish government pushed through a bill that would have reinforced political control over the Supreme Court and another allowing parliament to choose members of a body designed to protect the independence of the courts.

Duda vetoed those two while signing into law another measure that allows the justice minister to unilaterally replace the chief justices of the common courts.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has insisted that PiS will press ahead with the others.

The European Commission said it will launch separate legal action against Poland over the reform targeting the common courts. That could lead to Poland being hauled before the bloc's highest court and eventually given a fine.

EU President Donald Tusk -- a former Polish prime minister whose reappointment earlier this year sparked another big row between Warsaw and Brussels -- has warned that the Polish measures risk taking the country "backwards and eastwards."



The Poland crisis threatens to deepen an east-west split in the EU, with fears that authoritarian governments in eastern states are undermining the 28-nation bloc's fundamental democratic principles.

While the EU's announcement today marks a further raising of the stakes in its confrontation with Poland, the chances are slim that its voting rights could actually be suspended.

Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed he would instantly veto any such move by the EU.

Hungary itself faces EU legal action over laws targeting education and foreign civil society groups, while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also face action for ignoring the bloc's migrant relocation quotas.

The EU brought in Article 7 in response to fears about the rule of law in the wave of eastern states like Poland joining after 2004, although it was mainly intended as a backstop or threat that had little chance of being used.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The EU warned today of swift retaliation after the US House of Representatives voted to impose tougher sanctions on Russia in a move Brussels says could punish energy firms and divide the West.

The Kremlin responded coolly to the sanctions vote, saying that President Vladimir Putin would wait for the approval by the US Senate, the final step necessary before the law goes for signature by US President Donald Trump.

The sanctions were approved in a landslide yesterday by the US lower house despite the initial opposition of Trump who came to office on a pledge to mend ties with the Kremlin.

In an unusual twist, the strongest reaction came from the European Union, where the 28 member states have struggled to stay united on their own sanctions on Russia that were first adopted after Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

"If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last," European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said.

"The US bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests," added Juncker, saying that there should be unity among western allies on sanctions.

To date, anti-Russia sanctions have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic in a common Western front reminiscent of the Cold War.

The row comes just a day after Trump blasted the "very protectionist" EU's trade policies, saying Washington was working on a deal with Britain after Brexit.

The latest US sanctions package is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The EU is worried the sweeping measures would still unfairly penalise European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector, and its diplomats have heavily lobbied Washington to water down the measures.

In a small concession to Europe, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

However France said the US bill was "illegal" in terms of international law, in its current form, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Germany believed that "European businesses must not be targeted by the US sanctions", government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said.

But Berlin -- which led efforts against the bill amid fears it would hit a controversial pipeline project between Russia and Germany known as Nord Stream 2 -- also insisted the legislation had been modified to require that Washington confer with EU allies if the sanctions should involve the European energy supply.

The project, which is opposed by eastern EU member states, aims to carry Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States.

But other projects are at risk, with major energy companies such as Italy's ENI, Shell and BP all crying out for a halt to the sanctions.

"It seems that we energy companies are nothing but ping pong balls... In a political game," Mario Mehren, CEO of German firm Wintershall told Russian agency RIA Novosti.

The EU and US imposed sanctions in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, overcoming division on how far to go in punishing Moscow.

In addition, the EU broadened sanctions against Russia after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, blamed by the EU on the rebels.

The Kremlin initially slammed the vote as a "serious step" towards wrecking chances of improving US-Russia ties just weeks after Putin and Trump held their first face to face meeting in Germany.

But it later took a softer tone.

"For now we are still only talking about a bill so we won't give any substantive evaluations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Let's wait for this legislation to become law."



With Trump caught up in a deep scandal about alleged links to Russia, the tycoon appears to have few options but to sign the law in the face of near-total consensus in Congress. A Senate vote is likely due by mid-August.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House was still "reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk".

But even if Trump were to veto the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two- thirds majority in both the House and the Senate.

The new US sanctions also target Iran and North Korea, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promising to respond in kind to any breach to the 2015 nuclear deal, under which the country agreed to wind down its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of Western sanctions.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories of the northern region at 1730 hrs:



DES6 RSQ-COMMUNAL



New Delhi: Altogether 450 incidents of communal violence took place in Uttar Pradesh in the last three years, 162 of which were reported in 2016, the Rajya Sabha is told today.

DES7 JK-AMARNATH



Jammu: A batch of 473 pilgrims leaves Jammu for the 3,888 metre-high Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, amid tight security.

LGD8 UP-COURT AYUSH



Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court quashes the UP government's decision to admit students to AYUSH undergraduate courses in different colleges of the state through a merit list prepared on the basis of NEET exam for admissions to medical courses.

DES17 DL-KEJRIWAL-CORRUPTION



New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims the level of corruption in various Delhi government departments has reduced by around 70 per cent after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power.

DES10 LSQ-INTERVIEWS



New Delhi: BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are among about 10 states which are yet to discontinue the process of interview for recruitment on lower-level posts in government departments, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

NRG3 KASHMIR-CHHARI



Srinagar: 'Chhari Sthapana', an important ritual of the ongoing Amarnath yatra in Kashmir, is carried out by a group of sadhus at Shri Amareshwar Temple in Srinagar.

NRG12 UP-ASSEMBLY-LIQUOR



Lucknow: Forty-one people have died after consuming illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh between January last year and June 2017, the state government tells the assembly.

NRG13 HP-RAPE-ACCUSED-CREMATED



Shimla: The accused in the Kotkhai rape and murder case, who was killed in police custody last week, is cremated after the CBI releases his body.

NRG11 UP-COUNCIL-EMPLOYMENT



Lucknow: After the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, over 12,000 youths got employed through job fairs organised in the state, the state Legislative Council is informed.

DES1 DL-ACCIDENT



New Delhi: Five persons die and four others are injured after their car is hit by a dumper in east Delhi's Kalyanpuri.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories of the northern region at 1900 hrs:



LGD23 HC-LD KEJRIWAL-FINE



New Delhi: The Delhi High Court imposes a cost of Rs 10,000 on Arvind Kejriwal after he fails to file his response to a fresh Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed by Union minister Arun Jaitley over use of an objectionable word allegedly by the CM's lawyer.

DES27 NHRC-LYNCHING-JUNAID



New Delhi: The NHRC has issues notices to the Railways, the Haryana government and its police chief over the killing of a Muslim youth on a train in Faridabad last month.

DES6 RSQ-COMMUNAL



New Delhi: Altogether 450 incidents of communal violence took place in Uttar Pradesh in the last three years, 162 of which were reported in 2016, the Rajya Sabha is told today.

DES34 JK LD-KARGIL-ARMY TRIBUTE



Srinagar/Jammu: The Army pays glowing tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1999 Kargil conflict in poignant ceremonies across Jammu and Kashmir.

DES7 JK-AMARNATH



Jammu: A batch of 473 pilgrims leaves Jammu for the 3,888 metre-high Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, amid tight security.

LGD8 UP-COURT AYUSH



Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court quashes the UP government's decision to admit students to AYUSH undergraduate courses in different colleges of the state through a merit list prepared on the basis of NEET exam for admissions to medical courses.

DES17 DL-KEJRIWAL-CORRUPTION



New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims the level of corruption in various Delhi government departments has reduced by around 70 per cent after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power.

DES10 LSQ-INTERVIEWS



New Delhi: BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are among about 10 states which are yet to discontinue the process of interview for recruitment on lower-level posts in government departments, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

NRG3 KASHMIR-CHHARI



Srinagar: 'Chhari Sthapana', an important ritual of the ongoing Amarnath yatra in Kashmir, is carried out by a group of sadhus at Shri Amareshwar Temple in Srinagar.

NRG12 UP-ASSEMBLY-LIQUOR



Lucknow: Forty-one people have died after consuming illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh between January last year and June 2017, the state government tells the assembly.

NRG13 HP-RAPE-ACCUSED-CREMATED



Shimla: The accused in the Kotkhai rape and murder case, who was killed in police custody last week, is cremated after the CBI releases his body.

NRG11 UP-COUNCIL-EMPLOYMENT



Lucknow: After the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, over 12,000 youths got employed through job fairs organised in the state, the state Legislative Council is informed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories of the northern region at 2100 hrs:



DES33 RJ-RAIN-LD RELIEF



Jaipur: The Army rescues 27 people from southwestern and southeastern Rajasthan as the situation gradually improves in these areas which faced floods over the last two days due to heavy downpour.

DEL74 PB-IRAQ-INDIANS-FAMILIES



Chandigarh: The families of the 39 Indians abducted in Iraq in 2014 accuse the government of keeping them in the dark for three years, saying the Centre did not have any concrete information about their missing kin.

DES46 PB-WOMEN-THRASHING



Abohar (Pb): Seven people, including an Akali leader, booked for allegedly beating up five Dalit women.

DES39 RJ-DALIT RAPE



Sikar: A 17-year-old Dalit girl is allegedly abducted, raped by four people in Rajasthan's Churu district when she went to relieve herself in a field last night.

DES27 NHRC-LYNCHING-JUNAID



New Delhi: The NHRC issues notices to the Railways, the Haryana government and its police chief over the killing of a Muslim youth on a train in Faridabad last month.

DES6 RSQ-COMMUNAL



New Delhi: Altogether 450 incidents of communal violence took place in Uttar Pradesh in the last three years, 162 of which were reported in 2016, the Rajya Sabha is told today.

DES34 JK LD-KARGIL-ARMY TRIBUTE



Srinagar/Jammu: The Army pays glowing tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1999 Kargil conflict in poignant ceremonies across Jammu and Kashmir.

DES7 JK-AMARNATH



Jammu: A batch of 473 pilgrims leaves Jammu for the 3,888 metre-high Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, amid tight security.

LGD8 UP-COURT AYUSH



Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court quashes the UP government's decision to admit students to AYUSH undergraduate courses in different colleges of the state through a merit list prepared on the basis of NEET exam for admissions to medical courses.

DES17 DL-KEJRIWAL-CORRUPTION



New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims the level of corruption in various Delhi government departments has reduced by around 70 per cent after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power.

DES10 LSQ-INTERVIEWS



New Delhi: BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are among about 10 states which are yet to discontinue the process of interview for recruitment on lower-level posts in government departments, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

DES47 DL-LD-ACCIDENT



New Delhi: Five members of a family are killed and four others injured after their car is hit, allegedly by an East Delhi Municipal Corporation dumper in Kalyanpuri.

NRG12 UP-ASSEMBLY-LIQUOR



Lucknow: Forty-one people have died after consuming illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh between January last year and June 2017, the state government tells the assembly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four suspected drug traffickers were arrested and 8 kgs of opium was seized from them near Lower Tank Bund here today, the police said.

On credible information, the Commissioner's Task Force (Central Zone Team) nabbed DVV Satyanarayana, Netala Rabbi, Y Srihari Krishana, and A Ravi Prakash.

The sleuths seized opium from their possession when they were allegedly planning to sell it to customers, a release from the Hyderabad Police said.

They were handed over to Gandhi Nagar police station. Further probe is on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 16-year-old girl was raped by a man in front of her family on the orders of the village council as a punishment after her brother was accused of raping the man's sister in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said today.

Police have arrested 20 people after the incident that took place on July 18 in Rajpur village in Muzaffarabad in the province, Multan division police chief Ahsan Younis said.

"We have arrested 20 people including the head of the village council for ordering rape of the sister of Umer Wadda of Rajpur village," Younis told PTI.

He said Wadda was accused of raping the teenage sister of Ashfaq of his locality on July 16.

"The matter was brought to the village council that unanimouslyordered the rape of Wadda's sister by Ashfaq. The Wadda's family protested over the decision but it was told that justice could only be done if the same act was repeated with the accused's sister," he said.

Younis said the police sprang into action when the victim's family reported the matter to it two days ago.

"The victim family did not report the matter until last Monday. We have registered separate FIRs against Ashfaq and over 30 village council members, and Wadda," he said, adding that the police was investigating all aspects of the case.

"We are also investigating whether the sister of Wadda was raped in front of her parents and the brother (which is the claim of the Wadda family)," he said.

He added that the station house officer of Muzafarabad police has become a complainant in the case so that both parties cannot reach a compromise and withdraw the FIRs against each other.

It is the same district where in early 2000 Mukhtaran Mai was raped on the order of the village council, triggering an international outrage.

Rights activist and former Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jehangir said a number of such cases are not reported.

"It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances," she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Budget carrier GoAir has appointed Anand Sahai, the former Vodafone business head for East India, as its chief commercial officer (CCO) ahead of its plans to launch international operations later this year.

Sahai, whose appointment to the newly-created post is effective from July 24, will report to the airline's chief executive officer (CEO), GoAir said in a statement.

Prior to joining the Wadia Group-promoted carrier, Sahai was spearheading the launch of a multinational energy drink major as its country manager.

Following the appointment of Sahai to the post, the heads of the sales and marketing and revenue management will report to him, the statement said, adding that the deputy general manager for service quality and customer relations will also be working under him.

He carries with him significant expertise in sales, product development, retail merchandising, pricing strategy and opening new business opportunities.

In the past, Sahai has served as Vodafone business head for East India as well as vice president for operations at Pepsico India, among others.

Launched in November 2005, GoAir currently operates across 23 destinations with over 1,225 weekly flights, with a fleet of 24 Airbus A320 family aircraft, including the latest A320 Neo planes.

The airline flies to Ahmedabad, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Leh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Ranchi, Srinagar and Hyderabad.

GoAir CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer had last month said the airline plans to hit the international skies by the winter schedule.

The winter schedule of airlines in India starts from the last Saturday of October and goes up to the March end every year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 29 people, including 14 of a family, have died in the floods in Banaskantha district following torrential rains in Gujarat, officials said here today.

The death toll in the current monsoon season in the state stood at 123, they added.

Prior to these deaths, reported from Kankrej and Dhanera talukas of Banaskantha today, 94 people had lost their lives in various rain-related reasons in the state till yesterday, said Principal Secretary, Revenue, Pankaj Kumar.

The toll now stood at 123, he added.

"The bodies of 17 people, including 14 of a family, were found at Kharia and a nearby village of the Kankrej taluka today. At Dhanera, the authorities found seven bodies in the early hours from Sihori village, while two more bodies were found later," Kumar told a press conference.

Besides, two persons lost their lives in Palanpur town of Banaskantha due to a wall collapse, while one more person died in a similar incident at a nearby village, he added.

The police found 25 bodies, while another body was found by the locals later.

"Seventeen bodies were found from Kharia village in the Kankrej tehsil and seven bodies were fished out from the neighbouring Sihori village. One more body was found from the interiors," said Assistant Superintendent of Police Akshayrajsinh Makwana.

"More bodies are likely to be found as the water recedes in over a dozen villages located along the banks of the Banas river," said A D Parmar, Inspector, Thara Police Station, under which Kharia falls.

Kharia and Sihori, both situated along the banks of the Banas, were severely inundated after water from the Dantiwada dam on the river was released the day before yesterday.

These two are among the worst-hit villages in the district.

Around 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released from the dam after heavy rains in neighbouring Rajasthan, which resulted in inundation of several villages situated along the banks of the river in the district.

"Kharia is one of around 14 villages in the taluka which are badly affected due to the flood. Due to a sudden surge of water in the Banas river, those living in these villages did not get a chance to relocate to a safe place," said Parmar.

Banaskantha and Patan are among the worst-hit districts in the state due to heavy rains and flooding of the Banas and Sipu rivers.

Revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the state had already received 555.02 mm of rain, which is around 68.52 per cent of the expected annual rainfall of Gujarat.

Over the last 24 hours, 12 talukas, mostly in north Gujarat, received more than 100 mm of rainfall each, while 21 talukas across the state received between 51 mm and 100 mm of rains each, said a release from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).

The talukas which received such a high rainfall included Himmatnagar of Sabarkantha (219 mm), Amirgadh of Banaskantha (150 mm), Dhanera of Banaskantha (139 mm), Deesa of Banaskantha (119 mm), Modasa of Aravalli (113 mm), Prantij of Sabarkantha (111 mm) and Satlasana of Mehsana (110 mm).

"In the last two days, as many as 1,930 people have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Air Force, Army, BSF and our own administration in north Gujarat. Over the last one week, as many as 53,004 people were also shifted to safer locations," said Chudasama.

He added that over three lakh food packets had been distributed in Banaskantha, while 18,000 were distributed in Patan.

"Rescue operations are going on, despite a rough weather. We have deployed 18 teams of NDRF, 11 companies of SDRF and three columns of the Army. We are also taking the help of the Air Force, which has already deployed 10 helicopters for evacuation," said Chudasama.

Due to the incessant rain and resultant flood, five national highways, 153 state highways and 674 internal roads across the state were still closed, he added.

Stepping up the efforts to airlift people from the inundated villages and distribute food packets among them, the Air Force today said it had pressed 16 helicopters into service in Banaskantha and Patan districts.

Similarly, the Army also stepped up its rescue-and-relief operations by sending two additional columns in the affected region today, taking the total strength to five columns, said a statement by the Defence PRO.

The Gujarat government today announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of the deceased, in addition to the Rs 2 lakh compensation announced by the Centre yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sri Lankan batsman Asela Gunaratne was today ruled out of the ongoing three-Test series against India after fracturing his left thumb during the opening day of the first match here.

Gunaratne sustained the injury in the 14th over while fielding at second slip. He hurt his thumb while attempting a catch of India opener Shikhar Dhawan off the bowling of Lahiru Kumara.

Dhawan was batting on 31 when Gunaratne dived to his left to hold on to an edge off the Indian's bat, only for the ball to hit him on the end of the thumb.

Gunaratne left the ground clutching his wrist and he was immediately rushed to Colombo for an operation. He will take no further part in the series.

Getting a reprieve, the India opener later went on to score a career-best innings of 190.

Gunaratne's injury means Sri Lanka will bat with only 10 players in both their innings.

It is a huge blow to Sri Lanka which is already missing the services of batting mainstay Dinesh Chandimal, who was ruled out with pneumonia.

The 31-year-old Gunaratne has played just five Tests in his career, scoring 455 runs, including a century and three fifties, at an average of 56.8.

Recently, Gunaratne scored an unbeaten 80 against Zimbabwe in the one-off Test and his 121-run stand for the sixth wicket with Niroshan Dickwella helped Sri Lanka register the highest-ever run chase on home soil.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Venezuela hurtled toward a high- stakes political confrontation with the opposition calling a general strike today in a bid to stop embattled President Nicolas Maduro from going ahead with a controversial plan to rewrite the country's constitution.

Even before the two-day strike began, a prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, made a direct appeal to the military early Wednesday to withdraw its support from the plan he called a "constitutional fraud" aimed at eliminating democratic rule.

The military, along with the courts, has proved to be a key pillar of support for Maduro through months of deadly street protests and an economic collapse that has led to widespread shortages and public anger.

On Sunday, things between the two sides are expected to come to a head.

That's when Maduro is to hold a controversial election to choose 545 members for a body, called the Constituent Assembly, tasked with rewriting the constitution drafted under his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

The vote has been strongly criticised inside Venezuela and internationally, particularly among heavyweight Latin American states such as Brazil and Mexico.

US President Donald Trump has threatened unspecified economic sanctions if it goes ahead.

Lopez, who is under house arrest after spending nearly three and a half years in a military prison, urged the military to withdraw its support for Sunday's elections.

"I invite you to not be accomplices to the annihilation of the republic, to a constitutional fraud, to repression," Lopez said in a video posted on Twitter.

The opposition-controlled National Assembly, meanwhile, has challenged the government by appointing 33 supreme court judges to rival ones loyal to Maduro.

Maduro, though, has shown no sign of backing down.

Yesterday, Venezuelan intelligence officials arrested two of the opposition-appointed judges, bringing to three the number being detained.

Maduro has vowed that the opposition's judges would be arrested "one by one" and their assets frozen.

The opposition, which organized an unofficial referendum against the constitutional revision in which a third of the electorate rejected Maduro's plan, has called for a boycott of Sunday's vote.

The president's attorney general, Luisa Ortega, has also broken ranks with him over the Constituent Assembly and become a vociferous opponent.

Meanwhile, street protests against Maduro continue. In four months, more than 100 people have died during the demonstrations.

The Venezuelan government is also being squeezed by the economic crisis in the country, where food and medicine have become scarce.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Palestine today sought "greater role" by India for its cause but asserted that it was not worried over the growing Indo-Israel ties.

During an interaction with reporters here, Palestinian envoy Adnan Abu Alhaijaa said his President during a visit here was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India's unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

"India has been an old friend of Palestine and supported our cause and people for long. We are not worried about the growing ties between India and Israel as long its (New Delhi's) attitude towards Palestine remains unchanged," he said, when asked what does Palestine expects from India in context of the crisis.

However, he added, India is a great country and it could play a "greater role" towards supporting the Palestinian cause.

Asked, if Palestine wanted India to play a role of an interlocutor to resolve its conflict with Israel, Alhaijaa did not give a direct answer and only said it expects India to continue to play a "positive role", without elaborating on it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Indian in the US has been jailed for 30 months for illegally selling silencers, used to reduce the sound of guns, and planning to smuggle more, an American attorney said today.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, a resident of Pitampura in New Delhi, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said.

The sentencing came after he pleaded guilty before US District Judge Elizabeth Foote in Louisiana to one count of dealing firearms without a license.

According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers.

Chauhan discussed by email and phone calls manufacturing silencers for the potential client and importing more silencers and parts by labelling them as "auto parts" to evade US Customs.

After they set up a meeting, he arrived in Shreveport on December 1 last year to meet the buyer and brought silencer parts with him.

He travelled to a restaurant in Louisiana's Bossier City to discuss the sale details with the buyer. Agents recorded the meeting.

Chauhan did not have a license to deal or conduct a business involving silencers and parts as required by law, and the silencers and parts had travelled in foreign commerce, according to a statement by the department.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian wrestlers won a gold and two bronze medals in the ongoing 23rd Summer Deaflympics at Samsun in Turkey.

Virender Singh clinched the gold in 74kg freestyle event as he beat Chakvetadze S (Georgia) by 18-9 points in the final bout.

Ajay Kumar beat Babayan A (Armenia) by 10-0 points in 65kg freestyle to earn a bronze medal.

Sumit Dahiya bagged the other bronze by beating Ghamar Pour (Ireland) by 10-0 points in 97kg freestyle.

Lauding the performance of these sportspersons, 2010 Delhi Commonwealth discus throw gold winner Krishna Poonia said that the government should support them.

"The government should support these deaf athletes. They should be looked after properly. They also brought laurels to the country. They should be given facilities and incentives on par with the para athletes," Poonia said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Telangana Health and Medical Department today said it has ordered an inquiry into conducting of 'puja and homam (holy fire)' in the state-run Gandhi Hospital here.

A senior doctor and some of the hospital staff, two days ago, held puja seeking divine blessings for expecting mothers and new born babies.

Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical Education, Telangana said an inquiry has been ordered.

"The superintendent of the hospital has been asked to conduct the inquiry. We are very clear that any such activity should not happen anywhere near the patient care facilities including wards.

"If it is conducted outside the hospital premises, then it is fine. But if it is done (as per media reports) near gynaecology department in the hospital or near patients and caused disturbance to them, then it is a problem," Reddy told PTI.

Gandhi Hospital deputy superintendent N Narasimha Rao said they would never encourage such practices in the hospital and a committee has been appointed to look into the issue.

He said there was no permission to conduct such activities in the hospital and action will be taken based on the report.

The woman doctor who participated in the puja justified it saying they did not use government money for it.

"The puja is for the welfare of the patients and new born babies. We have not used government's money for the puja," the doctor said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL), which is executing projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore, will build Indore-Manmad rail corridor for shipments of containers to JNPT, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

IPRCL is a first-of-its-kind Joint Venture Company (JVC), between the Major Ports under the Ministry of Shipping, and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).

"From Indore and Dewas 47,000 containers go to JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust). They go via Ahmedabad and Delhi. It takes eight days for containers to reach JNPT. We (IPRCL) are constructing a railway line between Indore and Manmad which can carry shipments in just 24 hours," Shipping, Road Trnasport and Highways Minsiter Gadkari told reporters on the sidelines of India PPP Summit organised by FICCI.

He said the detailed project report for about 339 km-long project is ready.

The project is aimed at cutting down Indore-Mumbai distance by 200 km and would offer a corridor for despatching export containers from Indore region directly to JNPT.

The minister said that 50 per cent of the about Rs 4,000 crore project would be funded by the Railways while the remaing will be offered by JNPT.

"Earlier, Railway Minister has said that 50 per cent of the cost will be contributed by the states and the rest 50 per cent by the Railways. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had expressed their inability to do so. I said JNPT will provide 50 per cent and the rest 50 per cent will be provided by the Railways," Gadkari said.

The discussions on the project are on and the land will be provided free of cost by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments, which will be converted into equity.

State governments have also agreed to exempt taxes, he said.

Likewise, the minister said that a Rs 1,000 crore rail line is bieng built to carry coal from Talcher to Paradip where Coal India plans to augment its output from the present 60 MT to 300 MT.

"Coal can easily be transported to Kandla and Mumbai from Paradip after the project," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today welcomed Israel's removal of metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site but said it was "not enough".

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen.

But after protests and intensive international diplomacy to prevent further unrest, the government removed the detectors from the site.

"Israel took the right step to remove the metal detectors to help lower tension," Erdogan said.

"But is it enough according to our wishes? No, it is not," he said at a meeting on further education in the Islamic world in Ankara.

Erdogan said Turkey "cannot tolerate" constraints placed on Muslims visiting the site during Friday prayers.

Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site, which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Clashes broke out during protests, leaving five Palestinians dead.

"The Israeli government want to destroy the Islamic character of Jerusalem with a new practice every day," Erdogan said.

There were tit-for-tat statements from both sides after Erdogan criticised Israel on Tuesday and accused it of "attempting to take the (Al-Aqsa) mosque from Muslim hands".

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement that his comments were "mind-blowing, false and distorted".

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu today condemned Israel's "arrogant" remarks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"The Company Men" helmer John Wells is returning to direction after seven years with Vietnam war drama "Khe Sanh".

The script is being written by Jason Horwitch, whose credits include "Luke Cage" and "Southland", reported Deadline.

The film tells the story of the last great, unsung battle of the 20th century, the Siege of Khe Sanh. Five thousand young Marines were surrounded and attacked by 20,000 battle- hardened North Vietnamese Army veterans for 77 nonstop days of rocket and mortar fire, as the world watched on TV.

Wells and John Wells Productions president of features Claire Rudnick Polstein will produce the project with Andrew Levitas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A juvenile Afghan national has been apprehended for allegedly demanding Rs 70 lakh from another Afghan after threatening to upload an obscene video of the latter's grand-daughter, police said today.

The incident came to light on July 22 when the Afghan approached the police with a complaint against the juvenile.

A case has been registered at Lajpat Nagar police station, police said.

The complainant alleged that the juvenile had befriended the former's grand-daughter when she visited India two years ago, they said.

The juvenile apparently made an obscene video of the girl, they said.

The juvenile was later traced and it was found that his elder brother, also privy to the crime, had been arrested in another case recently. Police will be seeking his custody.

The juvenile along with his siblings works as a translator, police said, adding that his sister is on the run.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today met Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and discussed developmental activities related to the Vizhinjam Port and expansion of highways in the state.

In the brief meeting at the Transport Bhawan here, Gadkari assured the Kerala chief minister that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will soon announce tenders to expand the highways in the state into six-lanes, a release said.

The union minister also assured the chief minister that the highways would be concretised to prevent damage caused by rain.

Vijayan also discussed construction of roads leading to the Vizhinjam Port which is being built at a cost of Rs 7,525 crore.

On a visit to the national capital to attend the CPI(M) central committee meeting, the CM also met Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and reiterated the state's demand for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar was invited to lay the foundation stone for the proposed Palakkad IIT, which is presently functioning out of a temporary campus.

A demand to to set up a School of Planning and Architecture and construction of two hostels for the Central University of Kerala in Kasargod was also made during the meeting with Javdekar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kotkhai Gudiya rape and murder case accused, who was killed in police custody last week, was cremated here today after the CBI released the body.

The CBI had re-examined the body lying in the mortuary at IGMC here and allowed it to be cremated and district administration handed over the body to his widow Mamta, who has been kept in Narinikaten under heavy security after the mysterious death of her husband on the night of July 18.

Mamta along with her two kids was present at the Sanjauli crematorium and her three-and-a-half-year-old son lit the pyre.

The district administration provided Mangal Sutra, Sindoor and other items as required by Mamta while the Nepali community arranged for the funeral.

Initially the Nepali's were not ready to perform the cremation and insisted that Suraj's parents and brother have not been informed about his death and in case he was cremated they would blame Mamta for it and also not spare us.

However, the SDM told them that the body was lying in the mortuary for past one week and started decomposing and it is not possible to delay the cremation following which the Nepalese agreed to cremate the body.

As per the police another accused Rajender has killed Suraj in the police custody but people were not convinced with the version of the police and violence erupted in Kotkhai and other places after the custodial death.

The state government has already referred the case to the CBI which has formed an SIT and investigations are in progress.

It was alleged that the minor girl had gone to school on July 5, but did not return home. Her body was found in the morning of July 6 from a nearby forest.

On a complaint lodged by her father with Kotkhai police station, an FIR was registered against unknown persons.

The local police then arrested six suspects.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin will wait for new US sanctions against Moscow to become law before deciding whether to respond, the Kremlin said today, after the House of Representatives backed the measures.

"For now we are still only talking about a bill so we won't give any substantive evaluations," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding "let's wait for this legislation to become law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today pulled up the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) for "lack of clarity" on environmental impact of pollution from firecrackers.

The apex court also expressed concern over air pollution in Delhi-NCR, especially from crackers during the festive season of Diwali and Dussehra, and said that authorities have to take steps to regulate firecracker industries.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur sought presence of senior officers of both CPCB and PESO's Fireworks Research and Development Centre (FRDC) at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu before it on July 31 so that they can assist on the issues related to environmental impact of pollution from firecrackers.

"We are concerned with air pollution. Dussehra and Diwali are coming. Somebody has to regulate these industries. PESO is saying they have some standards. Firecrackers industries have to adhere to it," the bench, also comprising justices P C Pant and Deepak Gupta, said.

The apex court said it wanted to know from these bodies as to what would be the impact on environment from pollution caused by firecrackers, how it could change the quality of air and also about the safety standards.

"There appears to be some lack of clarity on environmental impact of pollution from firecrackers," the bench observed.

It also pulled up the CPCB saying it cannot "shift its burden" to somebody else and its air pollution standards must cover aspects of safety and pollution from firecrackers as well as entire air pollution issue.

"You (CPCB) have to do it. You cannot shift the burden. You are supposed to do it and you cannot say that we will not do it," the bench said.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P S Patwalia told the bench that firecracker industries were now "highly regulated" and the Centre was complying with the directions passed by the apex court earlier in the matter.

He said continuous monitoring was going on and samples of firecrackers were being tested by the PESO and Controller of Explosives by picking them up from market or from factories where they were being manufactured.

Meanwhile, the firecrackers manufacturers from Sivakasi told the bench that PESO should inform them as to when and where they would test their samples.

The apex court had earlier refused to modify its order banning the sale and stockpiling of firecrackers in Delhi and the national capital region.

It had refused to revoke the suspension of licences of traders dealing in such explosive material.

The apex court had directed CPCB to prepare an inventory of existing firecrackers with the traders and suggest measures for their disposal.

CPCB had earlier told the court that chemical composition of firecrackers which are commonly used exceeded some of the prescribed parameters which may have harmful effects.

The board, in its report, had said that most of the firecrackers carried large amount of sulphur which is one of the major causes of air pollution.

The apex court had on November 11 last year directed the Centre to suspend all such licences as permit sale of fireworks, wholesale and retail within the territory of NCR and said that the suspension shall remain in force till further orders of the court.

It had also directed that no such licences shall be granted or renewed till further orders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The two main rivals in conflict- ridden Libya made a joint commitment today to calling a ceasefire and holding elections that French President Emmanuel Macron said would take place in spring 2018.

Macron said Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al- Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the remote east of the vast country, had shown "historic courage" in talks outside Paris.

Sarraj and Haftar "struck an agreement to hold elections next spring", Macron said after hosting the meeting.

A 10-point statement backed by the two leaders said: "We commit to a ceasefire and to refrain from any use of armed force for any purpose that does not strictly constitute counter-terrorism."



It also says the two sides are committed to "building the rule of law" in a country where dozens of armed groups have proliferated in the power vacuum created by the toppling of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The railway ministry today cancelled a caterer's contract after a passenger found a dead lizard in his vegetable biryani served on a Delhi-bound train from Howrah, a ministry spokesperson said.

The passenger had ordered and eaten the dish without noticing the lizard but felt unwell later, a co-passenger, Meghna Sinha, said in a series of Tweets yesterday.

"In view of the Railway's zero tolerance policy towards poor quality and overcharging of food, the railway administration has terminated the contract of the catering contractor, R K Associates, for the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express," Railway Ministry spokesperson A K Saxena told PTI.

Sinha had shot a photograph of the biryani packet, uploaded it on Twitter and tagged the Indian Railways. In another Tweet, she tagged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The ministry tweeted today that the catering contract on Poorva Express was given to R K Associates on May 15, 2014, for five years.

The caterer was fined Rs 10 lakh last year and Rs 7.5 lakh, it said in another Tweet.

The passenger, who had asked for the biryani when the train was near Jhajha, Bihar, also uploaded a complaint on Twitter.

Responding to the complaint, the minister's office asked the traveller for travel details.

"Kindly share your PNR number," it tweeted and tagged the concerned catering department.

The passenger underwent a health check-up in Patna, Buxar and then again at Mughalsarai in UP, where senior rail officers were also present, officials said.

The spokesperson said in the last six months, the administration had terminated the contracts of eight catering units.

"It is unprecedented the number of contracts that we have terminated in the past six months. In the last year, 16 such contractors were also blacklisted. We have also financially penalised the offenders," Saxena said.

The incident comes days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed the railways for bad quality food, saying it was "unfit for human consumption".

Prabhu has also directed the administration to conduct special catering drives across the entire railway network starting today. Officials have been instructed to inspect pantries and base kitchens and take corrective measures wherever necessary.

R K Associates on its website said it had been catering for the Railways "for the past two decade".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted today by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.

The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day at around 3.45 PM.

For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like "Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)", "tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship)", "jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)" and "Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai.

On the suspension of six Congress MPs, the members, including K C Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted "Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice). At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamool Congress.

Amidst the day-long slogan-shouting by Congress and other opposition members with many of them in the Well, the House took up the Question Hour, proceeded partially with the Zero Hour and then debated and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the day's agenda. This bill has been listed for discussion since last week.

As the the din continued, Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government has several times requested the Congress members to sit and participate in the discussions but they are not ready to listen.

"We are ready to debate any issue but they are not ready," he said, adding that during the discussion on agrarian crisis, the Congress members had walked out.

"Why is Congress doing a walk in, walk out...They will be walked out (sic) from all over," Kumar said while criticising the Congress members for throwing papers towards the Chair.

"It is highly condemnable. They should have apologised. This is against democracy...This is anti-tradition and anti- democracy," he added.

Earlier in the day, Congress members raised slogans, also accusing the government of adopting a "dictatorial" attitude. But the proceedings continued amid disturbances.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism. But Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said he would not be allowed to raise any issue during the Question Hour.

After the Question Hour, the Congress members continued to protest and sought to raise various issues ranging from lynchings in the name of protecting cows to the agrarian crisis and the farmers' plight.

As external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rose to make a statement on the Indians missing in Mosul city of Iraq, Congress members were unrelenting and Kharge was heard saying that they wanted to raise issues relating to mob lynching and farmers.

However, the Speaker adjourned the House first till noon and then till 12.45 PM as noisy scenes prevailed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption.

Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, Modi tweeted: "Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption."



"1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," he said in a series of tweets.

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," Modi said.

Kumar today resigned as chief minister, citing differences with ally RJD over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump must not let their economic differences hinder the larger India-US ties and limit the growth of the bilateral strategic partnership, a top expert on India has said.

Marshall Bouton, a senior fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), said he hopes the two leaders have "the imagination" to see beyond the current differences and try and build a different kind of economic relationship.

He was primarily referring to bilateral trade issues and whether Trump's "America First" policy could impact economic ties with India since both Trump and Modi were elected on a pledge to revive the economic growth of their countries.

He, however, said an America First vision does not necessarily excludes India. "But the trade issues are going to be problematic in this relationship depending on how avidly they are pursued by the Trump administration," he said.

Speaking at a recent global business forum in New York, Bouton said "over time those economic differences will tend to limit the capacity of the strategic partnership to grow further."



On India, he said the Modi government should begin the process of creating jobs for the new labour force entrants.

"If he is unable to begin the process of creating the jobs that will absorb those 1.3 million new labour force entrants a month, he has got a problem. He is strong politically but he will have a problem in 2019 and that is why the economic issues are central," Bouton said.

He predicted that if Modi should "unfortunately" choose to pursue a "cultural or religious" line in the run up to the next general election, he will find his majority in the Lok Sabha reduced "because that kind of a political appeal may work in certain parts of the country but it wont work overall in the increasingly large and influential urban middle class."



Bouton, the president emeritus of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, also made a strong case for India's membership to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, saying it would be a "win-win" proposition for India and the members of the bloc.

"Why should India be interested in APEC? Because India has found it very hard to bring itself to enter the global trading system in a meaningful fashion. India lags other economies, even at these levels of growth, in terms of its participation in global trade," he said.

Bouton said projects like "Make in India" will not eventually succeed unless India has access to the global value chains that now define the global trade.

"APEC is an opportunity for India to learn about those global value chains, to be socialised into them," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pubic sector Central Bank of India (CBI) today said a downgrade rating by Moody's Investor Service on the lender has been "unsolicited" as the former didn't approach for any such rating.

Earlier this week on Monday, the global rating agency Moody's had downgraded ratings on Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) to Ba3 from Ba1, while affirming ratings on nine peer banks including Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank, at Baa3/Prime-3.

Central Bank said there is no diminution in government support to the bank post the ratings downgrade.

"We would like to inform that the bank also came to know the from releases/media reports. We inform that the captioned rating was unsolicited and Central Bank of India has not approached Moody's Investor Service for any such rating," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The stock exchanges had sought clarity from the bank and few of its peers yesterday on the said item.

"We do not see any diminution in government support as apprehended in the rating report, on account on which the rating has been downgraded," it said further.

Central Bank of India said it has been fully complying with applicable provisions of the Regulation 30 of Sebi on listing and disclosure requirements in its true letter and spirit.

"All events, information, developments which have bearing on the performance/operations of the bank as well as price sensitive information are submitted forthwith to stock exchanges, " it said in the filing.

Stock of the bank closed 0.16 per cent up at Rs 91.65 on BSE.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba today began an eight-day-long two-nation tour of Mozambique and Tanzania with an aim of exploring new avenues of bilateral defence cooperation.

Admiral Lanba, who also heads the powerful Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), will be in Mozambique till July 25.

There, he will hold extensive talks with national defence minister Atan?sio Salvador M'tumuke, Chief of General Staff General Gra?a Tom?s Chongo besides chiefs of the army, navy and air force of the African nation.

"The visit aims to consolidate bilateral defence relations with Mozambique and Tanzania, as also to explore new avenues for defence cooperation," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Admiral Lanba will begin his five-day-long visit to Tanzania on July 26.

He is scheduled to meet President of Tanzania John Magufuli, Defence Minister Hussein Mwinyi, Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga and Chief of Defence Forces General Venance S Mabeyo among others, the defence ministry said.

Indian Armed Forces cooperate with the armed forces of Mozambique and Tanzanian on many fronts, which include training and hydrography, besides participating in each other's defence events.

India and Mozambique have a Joint Defence Working Group (JDWG) for defence and security cooperation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

"The Al-Jazeera channel continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount," Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post yesterday, referring to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

"I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem. If this is not possible because of legal interpretation, I am going to seek to have the necessary legislation adopted to expel Al- Jazeera from Israel."



Israel has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since the new security measures were installed at the holy site.

A tense standoff was still underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the Jerusalem holy site despite the removal of metal detectors there, with concerns the situation could deteriorate into major unrest.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures at the compound.

The Israeli measures followed an attack that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the security move as Israel asserting further control over the site, which houses the revered Al- Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Netanyahu's remarks come as Gulf states seek Al-Jazeera's closure.

Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeera's closure.

Netanyahu has sought to improve ties with countries in the region, where it is heavily criticised over its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

Egypt and Jordan are currently the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The NIA today registered a case into the recovery of explosives in the Uttar Pradesh assembly earlier this month, an official said.

The central probe agency filed an FIR at its branch office in Lucknow and the probe would begin immediately, the official said.

The home ministry earlier today had ordered the National Investigation Agency to take up the case.

The ministry's decision came after it received a report and recommendation from the Uttar Pradesh government on the recovery of PETN at the assembly premises on July 12.

About 150 grams of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition, Ram Govind Choudhary, in the assembly on July 12.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had described it as a "dangerous terror conspiracy" and recommended a probe into the incident by the NIA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The home ministry today ordered an NIA probe into the recovery of explosives in the Uttar Pradesh assembly earlier this month, an official said.

The decision came after the ministry received a report and recommendation from the Uttar Pradesh government on the recovery of PETN at the assembly premises on July 12.

The ministry has decided to hand over the probe into the recovery of explosives to the National Investigation Agency, the official said.

About 150 grams of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition, Ram Govind Choudhary, in the assembly on July 12.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had described it as a "dangerous terror conspiracy" and recommended a probe into the incident by the NIA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On a day of dramatic developments, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned today, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and looked set to join hands with the BJP to form a new government.

Citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejashwi, son of Lalu Prasad, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supremo rejected outright the demand for his son's ouster.

Kumar's resignation capped days of stand-off between his party JD(U) and the RJD with the former insisting that Tejashwi defend himself against the allegations.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

He did not rule out taking BJP's support for forming a new government after walking out of the 3-party grand alliance which also included the Congress.

As suspense mounted over Kumar's next step, BJP quickly seized upon the opportunity to reunite with its old ally, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption", saying the entire nation supports his honesty.

The move was seen as an effort to reach out to JD(U), which had ended its 17-year association with BJP in 2013 after Modi was nominated the saffron party's campaign committee chief for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was Kumar's deputy when the two parties ran a coalition government, said his party has decided to back the JD(U) leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

Legislators of NDA constituents and JD(U) will meet to elect Nitish as their leader, Modi said, without elaborating on when it would happen. He said the governor will be apprised of the decision soon.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53. The two parties together have 124 MLAs, marginally ahead of the half-way mark. Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP (02) and RLSP (02).

"Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption."



"1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," Modi said in a series of tweets after Kumar announced his resignation.

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," Modi said.

Kumar responded with a quick tweet saying," I thank the prime minister from the core of my heart for praising my decision (of quitting)."



Earlier, Kumar, when asked about the chances of his forming a government with BJP's support, said,"Whatever will be in the interest of Bihar will be done. Wait for the future to unfold. Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next."



Kumar said his resignation was accepted by the governor who asked him to continue as CM till an alternative arrangement has been made.

"I tried to work it out....I did not ask for anybody's resignation...I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

After the CM made the announcement, Lalu broached the idea of forming an alternative government without Kumar or Tejashwi heading it. He said since the people's mandate to the grand alliance was for a five-year term, it should be respected.

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the CBI registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Lalu gave a new twist to Kumar's resignation, saying a pending case against him and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejashwi was at the root the the JD(U) leader's "resignation drama".

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a man named Sitaram Singh was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish Kumar is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

He claimed a court in Barh had taken cognizance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna High Court.

"Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejashwi issue a ruse to exit before that happens," the RJD boss claimed.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejashwi over graft charges against him, saying "We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?"



"There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this. Nitish has slapped the people of Bihar and now people like Sushil Modi (a top state BJP leader and former deputy chief minister) are eager to form government with JD(U)," he said.

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the grand alliance government for "love of his son".

"We were the largest party in the grand alliance. Tejashwi got the post of the deputy chief minister. We had the mandate of the people," he said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister J P Nadda and BJP general secretary Anil Jain were being rushed to Patna as observers for a meeting of the party legislators.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Naga Students Federation, the apex students' body in Nagaland, would support an early logical solution to the vexed Naga political problem.

The new team of NSF, which took over charge last month under the presidentship of Kesosul Christopher Ltu, told a press conference here today that it was for a "logical solution" of the Naga political issue, which is honourable and acceptable in line with the political aspirations and rights of the Nagas.

Ltu said that during their interaction with the Interlocutor for Naga Peace Talks, R N Ravi, recently in Kohima NSF had stressed on inclusiveness of all Naga groups in the talks for a final solution.

Expressing concern that it is almost 20 years since the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement and almost two years of signing of the Framework Agreement between the Centre and NSCN(IM), NSF urged both sides to expedite the peace talks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress members in the Lok Sabha today raised anti-government slogans on various issues, accusing it of adopting a "dictatorial" attitude but the proceedings continued amid disturbances.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism. But Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said he would not be allowed to raise any issue during the Question Hour.

Soon, Congress members trooped into the Well and raised slogans such as "Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)", "tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship)", "jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)".

Soon members from the Trinamool Congress also entered the Well, but did not join the Congress members in raising slogans.

After the Question Hour, the Congress members continued to protest and sought to raise various issues ranging from lynchings in the name of protecting cows and the farmers' plight.

As external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rose to make a statement on the Indians missing in Mosul city of Iraq, Congress members were unrelenting and Kharge was heard saying that they wanted to raise issues related to mob lynching and farmers.

With the din continuing, the Speaker adjourned the House till 1245 hours.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said today he will maintain a freeze on coordination with Israel, despite the removal of controversial metal detectors at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

"Unless all measures go back to what they were before July 14, there will not be any changes," Abbas said in a speech ahead of a meeting with the Palestinian leadership of the date Israel temporarily closed the site after an attack that killed two policemen.

Two days later Israel reopened the site with new security measures, including metal detectors at the entrances, sparking an ongoing boycott of the compound by Palestinians and deadly unrest.

The Palestinian government froze coordination with Israel, including on security matters, in protest against the moves at the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

It includes the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The metal detectors were removed by Israel early today, but there are plans to install "security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Abbas said "all the new Israeli measures on the ground from that date to the present are supposed to disappear".

"Then things will return to normal in Jerusalem and we will continue our work after that in relation to bilateral relations between us and them."



The site is the third holiest in Islam and the most sacred for Jews.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lokayukta Police today caught a staffer of Panchayat department red-handed while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 12,000 from a villager.

Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Amit Singh said Ramniwas, rojgar sahayak (employment assistant) posted at Panchayat department, was nabbed red-handed while he was taking Rs 12,000 as bribe from Santosh Rawat, a resident of Gora village in Datia district.

The accused had demanded the bribe money for issuing an instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to the complainant, the official said.

Singh said an amount of Rs 1.50 lakh was sanctioned for Rawat under the scheme.

Ramniwas had demanded Rs 15,000 from Rawat to release an instalment of Rs 30,000 from the sanctioned amount for the construction of toilet.

However, the deal was sealed at Rs 12,000.

The accused has been arrested and a case was lodged against him under Prevention of Corruption Act, Singh added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korea's top diplomat will attend an annual Asian security conference next week in Manila, where concern over the North's nuclear weapons programme is expected to be high on the agenda, Philippine officials said.

A North Korean delegation led by its vice foreign minister flew to Manila yesterday to discuss with their Filipino counterparts the participation of Pyongyang's top diplomat, Ri Su-yong, in the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Ri's attendance at the meeting is definite, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told a conference.

The 27-member ARF's annual meetings are also attended by the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, countries involved in the so-called six-party talks aimed at taming the North's nuclear ambition.

The talks were last held in April 2009, when the North pulled out to protest international condemnations over its long-range rocket launch.

In May, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed Southeast Asian foreign ministers in a meeting at the State Department to ensure "leak-proof" enforcement of sanctions against North Korea and to prevent the pariah nation's diplomats from conducting business that could benefit its weapons programs.

The foreign ministers were from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which is spearheading next week's meeting.

The Trump administration has been pushing to get the international community to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it can pose a direct threat to the American mainland.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Poland's ruling conservatives today slammed as "blackmail" threats by the EU to halt the country's voting rights in the bloc if it pushed through controversial court reforms.

"We won't accept blackmail on the part of EU officials, especially blackmail that is not based on facts. All the laws prepared by the Polish parliament are in compliance with the constitution and democratic rules," government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told the Polish agency PAP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi paid rich tributes to the martyrs of 'Operation Vijay' at the war memorial here today on the occasion of 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas.

She placed wreath on the memorial and stood in silence for a few minutes remembering the gallant fight and sacrifices of the jawans in the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999.

PWD Minister A Namassivayam, Agriculture Minister R Kamalakannan, Industries Minister M O H F Shah Jahan, Deputy Speaker V P Sivakolundhu, Secretary to Finance V Candavelou, officials of various departments and Director General of Police S K Gautam were among those who paid homage at the War memorial here.

Later, talking to reporters, the Lt Governor said she had asked the DGP to ensure that a wreath was placed every day at the memorial by the Police Headquarters.

'Operation Vijay' was launched in 1999 to evict Pakistani Army from Kargil heights.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ganga Devi never ever imagined that she would hog media limelight and attention of the locals only because she is related to President Ram Nath Kovind.

"People have been visiting our place after coming to know that he is related to us. I don't mind it," said the 52-year-old woman.

Sitting in her one room house at Burrabazar locality of Burdwan town, Ganga Devi told PTI that her husband Om Prakash Kohli, Kovind's brother-in-law, would have been very happy and proud had he been alive.

Ganga Devi remembered that Ram Nath Kovind had visited Burdwan way back in 1982.

"That was his first visit to Burdwan. He had come to pay us a visit then," she said.

"The next time he visited us was in 1996 when my husband died and his third visit to our place was in 2002 when he had come to Kolkata to attend a meeting. He had stayed over for a night also," she said.

An awestruck Ganga Devi, who is yet to fathom that her relative is now the 14th President of the country said, "He is a very nice and simple man. I had visited him two months ago.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Romania's Supreme Court has upheld a decision to release from custody a Turkish woman whom Turkey wants to extradite because of alleged links to Kurdish militants.

The court today upheld an earlier ruling by a court in the western city of Timisoara to release Nalan Oral, who has political refugee status in Belgium.

Oral is a Brussels-based activist with the Socialist Women's Union. Turkey's Ambassador to Romania, Osman Koray Ertas, said Oral is wanted on alleged links to "a left-wing terrorist group."



She was arrested at the Romanian border on July 8 because her name appeared on an Interpol list. It has since been removed.

Lawyer Bogdan Burdea told The Associated Press Tuesday's ruling was "a wise, correct decision.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An overwhelming vote by the US House of Representatives to slap tough new sanctions on Moscow is a "serious step" towards wrecking chances of improving ties, Russia's deputy foreign minister said today.

"What has happened goes beyond the realms of common sense," Sergei Ryabkov told state-run TASS agency.

"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities for normalising relations with Russia."



The sanctions package -- which also contains measures aimed at Iran and North Korea -- passed 419 to three on Tuesday after weeks of negotiations.

It now heads to the Senate before President Donald Trump will face the tricky choice of whether to veto the legislation, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.

If Trump does sign off on the bill then Russia looks likely to retaliate, with Ryabkov insisting Moscow has warned Washington "dozens of times" that any new sanctions would "not go unanswered."



But for now Moscow appears to be keeping its powder dry as it waits to see how Trump reacts.

"We are not giving in to emotions," Ryabkov said.

"We will work to look for ways to move ahead, persistently and consistently searching for ways to compromise of issues important to Russia and the US."



Ties between Russia and the US plummeted to their lowest point since the Cold War after the Kremlin's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 saw Washington impose sanctions on Moscow.

Trump repeatedly pledged during his campaign to try to boost relations with Russia, but allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the vote to get him to the White House have made any signs of going soft on Moscow politically toxic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The director and principal of a school were awarded a two-month jail term today by a Delhi court which convicted them for causing mental trauma to a seven-year-old student by sending her out of her classroom.

The court said a child could not be thrown out of a class on the "whims and fancies" of the school authorities as the trauma of not being allowed to sit in a classroom was "immense".

The court also directed OPG World School's director Kavita Chandra and principal Rajwant Kaur to pay Rs 2.5 lakh compensation each to the child, who was asked to leave her class following differences between her parents and the school authorities over an issue.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ankur Jain held them guilty of wilfully neglecting the child who was in Class 3 at the time of the incident in 2012 and causing her mental suffering under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act.

It, however, allowed the plea of the convicts to suspend their sentence for a month and granted them bail to enable them to file an appeal against the judgement before a superior court. The offence entails a maximum of six months in jail under the old law which, after amendment, has been increased to three years.

The court refused to accept the version of the school authorities that the child's parents had asked for a transfer certificate (TC) and instead of collecting it, had sent the girl to school.

"The child cannot be thrown out at the whims and fancies of the school authorities. The theory of the child being not well also cannot be believed as the attendant/nurse from the infirmary was never examined to prove the factum of the child not being well," the court said.

Advocate Chandra Suman, who was representing the child, expressed satisfaction over the judgement and said it was the first of its kind.

"We are happy. The verdict is the first of its kind. It is the first judgement under the JJ Act where action has been taken against school authorities for mentally harassing a child," he said.

An FIR was lodged in 2012 on a complaint filed by the father and an NGO alleging that the child had been ill treated and confined by the school management through school hours on April 4, 2012, to pressure the parents to withdraw her from the institution.

The father had claimed the school acted against the child after he questioned it over an increase in school fees and accessory charges.

The complaint alleged the child was kept away from her classmates and was wrongly confined to other places in the school where there were neither any children, nor was there any activity.

The school director and principal, however, had claimed that the child was admitted to Nursery in 2008 and on the request of the parents, a TC was issued on April 23, 2012.

They claimed instead of collecting the certificate, the child was sent to school. As she was not feeling "comfortable", and knowing her past history of asthma, she was sent to an infirmary to rest.

The court, however, said the act of not allowing the child to sit in the classroom amounted to wilful neglect which caused unnecessary mental suffering to her.

"... The trauma ...Is immense, once the child goes to school and is not allowed to sit in the classroom. Whatever may be the differences with the parents, the school authorities could not have allowed the child to be neglected," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 16-year-old girl died of dengue in a private hospital here, police said today.

Hemavarthini, a plus one student from Puliyakulam was admitted to a private hospital here two days ago with complaints of fever and tested positive for dengue, they said.

However, she died last night without responding to treatment, they added.

DMK MLA N Karthick of singanallur constituency here had recently blamed the state government for "failure" to control dengue.

After his visit to the government hospital here, the MLA alleged that the government was not giving exact number of people affected by the disease.

A woman and her 2-day-old had died of dengue in the district on July 9.

According to government hospital sources, 20 dengue cases and 143 viral fever cases have been reported in the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Markets regulator Sebi will auction as many as 11 properties owned by Sunshine Infrabuild Corporation in September to recover funds that it illegally raised from people.

The properties to go under the hammer include land parcels and shops in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a public notice.

As part of the recovery proceedings, Sebi will auction the properties in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat on September 7, while assets in Chhattisgarh will go under the hammer on September 8.

The regulator has engaged SBI Capital Markets Ltd for assistance in sale of the 11 properties.

The move comes after Sunshine Infrabuild failed to refund the money that it illegally raised from people.

The regulator has already attached the company's various bank accounts and mutual funds.

Sebi found that Sunshine Infrabuild allotted various types of debentures to over 8,000 investors and raised more than Rs 26 crore during 2010-11 to 2012-13. These funds were garnered in violation of the public issue norms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Sikh man in Australia was asked to take off his kirpan and "get out" of a bus when a passenger called police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said today.

Police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland yesterday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.

"We looked out the window and we could see and the police car behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand and said to the guy, 'Get your hands up so we can see them and get out of the bus'," New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.

The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved "sword-like" kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed, said the witness.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan.

She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed.

"Police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh."



"He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in New Zealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken," the report said



The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated.

A baptised Sikh has five articles of faith and the kirpan is one of them. The other four articles of faith are - kesh (uncut long hair), kanga (a comb), kara (an iron bracelet) and kachehra (under shorts).

Sikhism is a small but growing minority religion in Australia that can trace its origins in the nation to the 1830s.

Australia is home to more than 72,000 Sikh, a population that is expected to rise in this year's census.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said today he was hopeful of working in "closer cooperation" with newly-elected Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and further strengthen the bilateral relationship.

Sirisena said all communities in India would benefit from 71-year old Kovind's vast experience and wisdom in achieving co-existence, progress and development.

"I hope to be able to work in closer cooperation with the new Indian President to further our historically close bilateral relationship," Sirisena said in a statement.

He said he hoped that relations between Sri Lanka and India would further strengthen during Kovind's tenure in office.

Kovind, a lawyer-turned-politician, was sworn in as India's 14th president in a grand ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament yesterday.

In his first address as president after taking oath, Kovind said the key to India's success was its diversity and asked people to build a country that is "an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today paid rich tributes to the Kargil War heroes and expressed deep gratitude and respect to their family members.

Saluting the courage and valour of the soldiers on the Kargil Vijay Diwas today, she said the nation is extremely proud of the armed forces personnel who made the supreme sacrifices.

"As we remember our martyrs, the sacrifices of their family members cannot be overlooked," Gandhi added.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on this day every year, marking successful conclusion of the war with Pakistan in the Kargil-Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.

The Indian soldiers successfully gained back the high altitude outposts occupied by Pakistani intruders culminating in Operation Vijay on the day.

Over 500 Indian armed forces personnel laid down their lives during the 60-day long war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today stressed on motivating students to become patriotic citizens, on the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' here.

"Along with education, students should also be provided information that is motivating and about patriotism ...This strengthens the feeling of patriotism in the new generation," the chief minister said while participating in a programme to mark the occasion.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil war against Pakistan.

Adityanath also announced that the Uttar Pradesh Sainik School here will be named after Kargil martyr and Paramvir Chakra awardee Captain Manoj Pandey.

"The state government will extend every help possible to the families of those who sacrificed their lives for the country," he said.

Governor Ram Naik, who was also present, paid floral tributes to the Kargil martyrs.

The families of martyred soldiers, and those of the freedom fighters involved in the 1925 Kakori conspiracy case, were also felicitated on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The count of tigers in Uttarakhand has gone up to 242 with an increase of 63 big cats this year, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said today.

Also 11 cubs were found in the two tiger reserves, he said releasing the latest figures for the year 2016-17.

Uttarakhand has two tiger reserves - the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the Rajaji Tiger Reserve.

Chief minister Rawat congratulated the forest department for the great work being done for the conservation of tigers and added that in terms of area and tiger population ratio, Uttarakhand is the number one state behind Karnataka which has 400 big cats.

According to the data, at least 208 tigers have been identified in Corbett Tiger Reserve, up from last year's 163. Also six cubs were identified there.

At least 34 tigers have been identified in Rajaji Tiger Reserve in 2016-17, up from previous year's 16, he said, adding five cubs were also found there.

Around 535 cameras were installed in Corbett Tiger Reserve, while 562 cameras were put at strategic locations in core areas of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve in collaboration with the Indian Wildlife Institute and World Nature Fund (WWF).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A trader was allegedly abducted and robbed off cash and valuables last night in the Surajpur area, the police said today.

According to Surajpur police station incharge Manish Saxena, an FIR has been registered on the complaint of a man, Naushad, who has alleged that he was kidnapped by some men in a car near Delta 2 crossing.

They allegedly took away Rs one lakh cash and a bag containing important documents and valuables, Saxena said.

In another incident, miscreants fled with a bike after snatching it from its owner in sector 35 here last night, a police official said.

An FIR has been lodged at sector 24 police station in this regard, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump has said that he is not planning to sack Attorney General Jeff Sessions, even as he reiterated his "disappointed" over the latter's position on the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential polls.

"Well, I don't think I am doing that. But I am disappointed in the attorney general," Trump told reporters yesterday when asked whether he would be firing Sessions after he went against him on twitter.

Trump was addressing a conference at the White House with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Earlier in the day, Trump accused Sessions of being "very weak" in the investigation into former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" he said in a tweet, expressing anger against the man who was the first US senator to endorse his candidacy.

Over the last few days, Trump had gone public in expressing dissatisfaction over Sessions' position on investigations related to Russian interference in the American presidential elections last year.

Sessions has recused himself from the government's probe of Russian meddling in the US election.

"He (Sessions) should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. If he was going to recuse himself, he should've told me prior to taking office and I would've, quite simply, picked somebody else," the president told the conference.

The president called it a a bad thing not for the president, but for the presidency.

"I think it's unfair to the presidency. And that's the way I feel," he said.

The attorney general has said that he would stay in the position as long as it is appropriate.

Responding to another question, Trump said he wants Sessions to be much tougher when it comes to leaks of classified material.

"I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen," he said.

"You know many of my views in addition to that, but I think that's one of the very important things that they have to get on with. I told you before I'm very disappointed with the attorney general. But we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell," Trump said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two persons have been arrested after contraband worth Rs 50 lakh was allegedly recovered from their possession along the Indo-Nepal border, police said.

A joint team of the local police and SSB nabbed Lila Kumari Thapa, resident of Surkhat district of Nepal with 2.750 gm of charas near the main gate of Sonauli border here yesterday.

The woman told police that she was on her way to deliver the contraband worth Rs 33 lakh at the bus station and was to get Rs 5000 for it.

During checking, the team arrested Dil Bahadur, resident of Rupandehi district of Nepal at the bus stand with 83 gm heroin worth Rs. 17 lakhs, police said.

A case has been registered in both the cases and further action is being initiated, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A German attack helicopter deployed with the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali crashed in the north of the country today but the fate of the two crew members remained unknown, UN diplomats said.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the helicopter was monitoring clashes on the ground when it crashed near Tabankort.

The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has dispatched a team to the site to verify possible casualties and the circumstances of the incident, said Haq.

"We can confirm that an attack helicopter of the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, with a crew of two personnel crashed earlier this morning south of Tabankort, in Gao region," said Haq.

"The helicopter was monitoring confrontations on the ground and so the crash site has had to be secured before the team can get access," he added.

UN diplomats separately confirmed that the attack helicopter and the crew had been supplied by Germany to MINUSMA.

A UN official in Gao earlier said the crash was apparently an accident.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent fighting between armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

In 2012, Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on civilians, the Malian army as well as on UN and French forces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A woman in the UK called in experts to catch a tarantula the "size of her hand" in a cupboard at her home only to discover it was a plastic toy.

An inspector of Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was called out to deal with the tarantula in Hampshire in southern England.

The woman had reported seeing a spider "the size of her hand" hiding in a downstairs cupboard, the BBC reported.

Inspector Nikki Denham was prepared with gloves and nets to trap the spider, but after shining a torch in the cupboard saw it was plastic.

The RSPCA said the woman was "obviously embarrassed".

Denham said the householder in Alresford had closed all doors to prevent the spider's escape before she arrived.

"It was dark under the stairs, but I could see legs behind a vacuum cleaner that certainly were tarantula size. However, as I shone light in I could see that it was in fact a toy plastic tarantula," she said.

Denham said the toy was shown to the woman's young son who confirmed it was his "with an angelic innocent face".

A RSPCA spokeswoman said the organisation was called on to rescue 275 genuine tarantulas in 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A US-backed alliance has ousted Islamic State group jihadists from half of their Syrian bastion Raqa, a monitor has said, as the escalating fighting drove up the civilian death toll to 29.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting for several months to capture the northern city, which has become infamous as the Syrian heart of IS's so-called "caliphate."



The SDF "are now in control of 50 percent of Raqa city despite the fierce resistance mounted by IS", Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP yesterday.

The SDF assault has been backed by air strikes, special forces advisers, equipment and weapons from the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Yesterday, a barrage of US-led air strikes across the city left at least 29 civilians dead, the British-based Observatory said.

"At least eight children are among the dead," Abdel Rahman said.

The SDF's Arab and Kurdish fighters first entered Raqa on June 6, seven months after launching their flagship offensive for the city -- called Operation Wrath of the Euphrates.

They have since steadily advanced in a pincer-like motion, closing in on the city centre.

But IS has fought back using a slew of car bombs, suicide attacks, weaponised drones and with improvised explosive devices scattered across the city.

The spokeswoman for the SDF's Raqa operation told AFP that just under half the city was under SDF control.

"Forty-five percent of Raqa has been liberated. Our forces are advancing on all sides," Jihan Sheikh Ahmed said late yesterday.

"The tighter the noose grows around Daesh (IS), the more strongly it reacts and the tougher it fights," Ahmed said.

IS first seized Raqa in early 2014, and the city has since become synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities.

The jihadists carried out public beheadings there and is also thought to have used Raqa as a hub for planning attacks overseas.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the escalating violence in recent months, but the United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 people remain trapped inside the city.

Those who have managed to escape have told harrowing tales of dodging sniper fire and mines or paying smugglers to lead them out.

Once IS is ousted from Raqa, a body called the Raqa Civil Council is expected to run the city's administrative affairs.

But much of Raqa's infrastructure has been devastated by years under jihadist rule and bombing by various parties in Syria, including the coalition.

With yesterday's deadly raids, at least 325 civilians, including 51 children, have died in the city since the SDF penetrated Raqa less than two months ago, according to the Observatory.

Another 467 IS jihadists and 219 SDF have also been killed in the fighting.

A deputy commander of the international coalition said Sunday it would have "a great deal more" to do in Syria even after Raqa is captured.

"Daesh is not defeated with the liberation of Raqa. The defeat of Daesh was not completed with the liberation of Mosul" in Iraq, British Major General Rupert Jones told reporters, using an Arab acronym for Islamic State.

More than 330,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's conflict broke out in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

The widespread popular demonstrations have since evolved into a complex war drawing in world powers on all sides.

Yesterday, at least 14 civilians were killed when unidentified warplanes bombed territory east of the IS-held town of Mayadeen, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Five children were among the dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Muslims say they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, but also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society, a new survey finds.

Nearly three-quarters of US Muslims view Trump as unfriendly to them, according to a Pew Research Center report released yesterday.

Sixty-two per cent say Americans do not view Islam as part of the mainstream after a presidential election that saw a surge in hostility toward Muslims and immigrants.

At the same time, nearly half of Muslims said they had received expressions of encouragement from non-Muslims in the past year, an increase over past polls. And Muslims remain optimistic about their future. Seventy per cent believe hard work can bring success in America, a figure largely unchanged for a decade.

"There's a sense among the American Muslim population that others are beginning to understand them and beginning to sympathise with them,'" said Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist and adviser to Pew researchers.

Prejudice against Muslims has "pushed the average American to say, 'This is really not fair. I'm going to knock on my neighbour's door to see if they're all right," Jamal said.

The Pew survey is its third on American Muslims since 2007, and its first since Trump took office January 20. He promised to fight terrorism through "extreme vetting" of refugees and had a plan to temporarily ban travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The latest poll of 1,001 adults was conducted by phone, both landline and cellphones, between January 23 and May 2, in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.

The last several months have seen an uptick in reports of anti-Muslim harassment, including arson and vandalism at mosques and bullying at schools.

In the Pew survey, nearly half of US Muslims say they have faced some discrimination in the last year, such as being treated with distrust, threatened or called an offensive name. That percentage is only a slight increase over previous surveys.

However, the figure is much higher for respondents who said they were more visibly identified as Muslim, for example by a head covering, or hijab, for women. Sixty-four per cent of those with a more distinct Muslim identity said they had recently faced some type of discrimination.

Still, the survey found evidence of a growing sense of Muslim belonging in the United States. Eighty-nine per cent said they were proud be both Muslim and American and nearly two-thirds said there was no conflict between Islam and democracy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A former Republican senator has suggested that the US strengthen the Indian Navy by outfitting it with nuclear weapons to send a "devastating" message to China and force it to back down from its "antagonistic stance" in the Asia-Pacific region.

Larry Pressler , who represented South Dakota in the Senate from 1979-96, recommended building the Indian Navy's nuclear capability in his new book: 'Neighbours in Arms: An American Senator's Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent'.

Pressler served two tours of combat duty in Vietnam and was the first Vietnam veteran elected to the Senate.

In the book, he writes the Chinese navy are posturing aggressively against the US navy in the Philippines and the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea near Vietnam.

The archipelago lies in the middle of important air and sea navigation routes. And China's been locked in territorial disputes in the region with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Pressler says free access to the strategic South China Sea lanes is critical for international trade and travel.

"In addition, there are oil and gas reserves there. We really do not want a naval war with China. It would be costly to defend a place like the Spratly Islands," he writes.

"But we can send China a devastating message by strengthening the Indian Navy. An Indian Navy that has the capability of delivering nuclear weapons would cause China great concern. In fact, if we actually outfitted the Indian Navy with nuclear weapons, China might back down from its antagonistic stance in the region," Pressler says in the book.

Of late the US has been helping India build its navy, but in addition to that, Pressler advocates, America should also develop an "intense soft power" relationship with India.

"That is to say, we should work on promoting more non- military relationships like those fostered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent and somewhat entrepreneurial US government agencythat invests in developing countries around the world fighting poverty."



The book runs into more than 250 pages. It hit the stores this week.

According to Pressler, he learnt in recent discussions with senior US Navy officials that the US was on the verge of a massive effort to help build the Indian Navy's capability.

"The Indian Navy's ship inventory is being significantly modernised. Most notable was the secret commissioning in August 2016 of its first nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the INS Arihant, and the January 2017 test of a long-range nuclear capable submarine-launched ballistic missile from an underwater pontoon," he writes.

Pressler says US defence officials view China as their biggest potential threat in the world today. "At least one of the historical motivations for continuing aid to Pakistan was to prevent it from becoming a client state of China."



"The Obama administration quietly started executing its 'Pacific Pivot' strategy, which has been turning our diplomats' and our navy's focus to Asia, and more specifically, to China," Pressler writes in the book.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Oil prices rose to near eight-week highs on Wednesday, as a fall in US inventories bolstered expectations that the long-oversupplied market was moving toward balance.

Brent crude futures rose 40 cents to $50.60 a barrel by 1213 GMT, after rallying more than 3 percent on Tuesday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 50 cents to $48.39 a barrel.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell sharply last week as refineries boosted output, while gasoline inventories increased and distillate stocks decreased, the industry group the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday.

Crude inventories fell 10.2 million barrels in the week ending July 21 to 487 million, more than the expected decrease of 2.6 million barrels. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday could provide more support, with forecasts of a drop for a fourth week in a row.

Tuesday's stock draw added to hopes the long-awaited oil market rebalancing was underway. Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would limit oil exports to 6.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, down nearly 1 million bpd from a year earlier.

"The market has been tightening and the refinery margins are strong," said PetroMatrix managing director Olivier Jakob, saying the U.S. stock draw offered a boost to prices. "You add geopolitical risk premium for Venezuela, and you've got a strong market."

Venezuela, an OPEC member producing about 2 million bpd of oil, faces deepening economic woes and protests.

President Nicolas Maduro's adversaries plan strikes to push him to abandon a weekend election. The United States is considering financial sanctions to halt dollar payments for the Venezuelan oil.

Nigerian output slipped this week as leaks forced Shell to shut a pipeline exporting some 180,000 bpd of oil. Nigeria, which has been exempted from OPEC-led production curbs, has agreed to cap or cut output when it stabilised at 1.8 million bpd.

But analysts said the current oil price rally could encourage more production, particularly from the United States.

"Relieved bulls should be careful what they wish for. Any price rebound will only embolden U.S. shale producers at a time when rumours have started to emerge that the U.S. shale boom is slowing," PVM oil analyst Stephen Brennock said in a note.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday it would cut its 2017 capital budget by $300 million because of depressed oil prices, the first major U.S. oil producer to do so, after posting a larger-than-expected quarterly loss.
Part of this article first appeared on Business Standard on July 18

HMD Global, the Finnish company manufacturing Nokia-branded smartphones, is expected to launch its flagship on August 16. According to online news portal The Verge, HMD has already started sending out media invites to an event in London.
Online food ordering service has denied allegations that it is experiencing employee churn or has cheated its investors and restaurant partners, after a blog post by a few current and former employees went viral across social network platforms accusing the company of wrongdoing.
In another top-level exit, the head of Infosys' $500 million corporate venture arm, Yosuf Bashir has resigned.

Bashir had worked closely with Vishal Sikka as vice-president of new products and business development at German giant SAP SE before joining Infosys in March 2015.

Bashir's resignation from India's second largest software service provider comes close on the heels of another top-level exit after former head of mergers and acquisitions Ritika Suri quit Bengaluru-headquartered company.

Based out of Palo Alto, California, Bashir put in his papers earlier this month, according to a Livemint report.

Bashir was one of at least 16 executives who were hired from SAP at the rank of associate vice-president and above since Vishal Sikka took over as chief executive officer in August 2014. Since March last year, at least nine of these executives have quit, the report said.

Ritika Suri, who led the acquisition of Israeli automation technology firm Panaya for Infosys, was also based out of the US.

A former executive at SAP, Suri was also brought into Infosys by CEO Vishal Sikka in September 2014. She was later elevated as the EVP (Corporate Development and Ventures).

IT firm Infosys reported a 1.4 per cent rise in Q1 net profit on Friday, posting Rs 3,483 crore in net profit compared with Rs 3,436 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.


Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned from his post after RJD legislative party decided that Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, against whom corruption charges have been slapped by the CBI, would not be resigning from this post. Nitish tendered his resignation to Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi after RJD top brass established that Tejashwi will not be leaving his post as Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister.



Shortly after Nitish's resignation, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Nitish's ally in the Grand Alliance, held a press conference where he made his party's stand clear that it is Janata Dal (United) that must walk away. Lalu had earlier stated that it is him who made Nitish the Chief Minister of Bihar under the Maha-gathbandhan of RJD and JD (U).



Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed Nitish Kumar's move to quit as chief minister. In a tweet, the prime minister, on his personal Twitter handle, congratulated Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption.

Later in the night, BJP agreed to extend its support to JD(U) to form government in BIhar with Nitish at the helm. MLAs from both parties are going to meet the Governor to stake claim to form government in the state.



After resigning from his post, Kumar said, "I tried my best to save the alliance. I did not ask for anybody's resignation. Tejashwi met me. I only asked for an explanation on the charges against him. It became impossible to work in this environment. This is the call of my soul. I spoke to Rahul (Gandhi) ji. I wanted to save the alliance. There are questions about someone inside the government. I could not answer for him. There was no point in running this government. This is against my nature and the way I work."

"When I supported demonetisation, I insisted that the Central government must act on benami properties. So how could I continue with charges of benami properties against my own colleague? I have always been against financial impropriety," Kumar added.

-

- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Later, PM Modi arrived for the meeting of BJP parlimentary board, which gave rise to speculations that the BJP-led Natioonal Democratic Alliance (NDA) might consider extending support to JD(U) and reinstate Kumar as Bihar CM. JD(U) holds 71 seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly, wherease BJP holds 53. An alliance between the two will result in 124 seats in an Assembly with 243 seats in total and 122 seats being the majority mark.

Other allies of BJP - Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awami Parti - with five more seats between them will make it even easier, if JD(U) decides to side with NDA.



Here are the LIVE updates:



9:36 pm: JD(U) and NDA (BJP, LJSP, RLSP and HAM) coming together will get a tally of 129 seats, which crosses the majority mark of 123 seats in Bihar Assembly.



9:31 pm: Nitish to be elected CM, says Sushil Modi



9:27 pm: Nitish Kumar likely to return as Bihar CM as NDA and JD(U) MLAs set to go to meet Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to stake claim tonight.



9:24 pm: BJP and JD(U) going to meet BIhar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, reports say.



9:21 pm: BJP will extend support to JD(U) to form government in Bihar, says Sushil Modi.



9:05 pm: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav comes up with a solution of his own, suggesting a CM from each of the three constituent parties of the Grand Alliance to be allowed to lead the Cabinet. Says Nitish Kumar left the fight against RSS out of fear, not looking to assume the office of CM.



8:49 pm: BJP tight-lipped on his stance in the Bihar scenario. Union Minister of Health and BJP Leader JP Nadda refuses to make a comment on party's plans regarding Nitish Kumar and Bihar politics while briefing media personnel after BJP parliamentary board meeting a short while ago.



8:29 pm: Grand Alliance stands, CM has resigned, the three parties (RJD, JD(U) and Congress) should agree on a new leader, says Lalu



7:57 pm: Nitish Kumar didn't ask for any resignation, says RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav during his press conference after Nitish's resignation.



Nitish Kumar didn't ask for any resignation: Lalu Prasad Yadav, RJD pic.twitter.com/zdyvv6BDkb - ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

7:45 pm: We are happy that Bihar CM didn't compromise on issue of corruption and did not kneel down before RJD: Sushil Modi, BJP



7:44 pm: 3 member committee has been constituted for making the future plan of action: Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP



7:43 pm: We are not in favour of mid-term elections in Bihar: Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP after Nitish Kumar's resignation



7:41 pm: Before resigning, I had informed Laluji and Congress Bihar incharge CP Joshi: Nitish Kumar



7:40 pm: Gandhiji always said needs can be met on the earth, but greed can never be fulfilled: Nitish Kumar



7:30 pm: To rise above political differences & fight against corruption in country and& in Bihar in particular, for development is need of the hour: PM Narendra Modi



7:25 pm: Nitish-Lalu alliance was a mismatch. This had to happen: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Nitish Kumar's resignation



7:15 pm: "I was criticised because I supported Ram Nath Kovind as Presidential candidate. Nitish Kumar after his resignation said, "I'm not blaming anyone, those who want to hold me responsible, are free to do so."



7:10 pm: When asked about if JDU will form an alliance with BJP, Kumar said, "All options that are good for Bihar are open."

6:55 pm: Kumar reached Raj Bhavan to and submitted his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. The chief minister before going to the Governor had convened the meeting with its party leaders.

6:45 pm: Speaking exclusively to India Today, Rabri Devi, mother of Tejashwi said that there was no question of her son tendering his resignation over corruption charges which she said was false and baseless.

6:30 pm: "There is no allegation on my son. All charges are baseless. Nitish Kumar has not sought his resignation. I have spoken to Bihar CM in this regard", said Rabri Devi, former Chief Minister and mother of Tejashwi.
Those who are still in a daze from the government's demonetisation and consequent remonetisation drives better take note: a Rs 200 bill will soon join the string of banknotes in circulation. Top sources from the North Block have confirmed to India Today TV that the Reserve Bank of India will release the new note as soon as next month.



Also read: RBI to issue new batch of Rs 20 currency notes

"We have already started printing the first batch of 200-rupee notes in June. It takes 21 days for the printing process to complete. So we are on track to meet the deadline to introduce 200-rupee notes by next month," said a source, who is part of the government's investment and currency department.

The new notes will help narrow the demand and supply gap for smaller-denomination bills, say analysts.



Also read: RBI to identify fake notes to reach real figure of demonetised currency



Latest RBI data suggests that of currency worth Rs 15 lakh crore taken off circulation through the government's note ban move, almost 14.5 lakh crore was back in circulation by June this year.

However, according to an SBI report, cash with banks has declined to 5.4% of the currency in circulation from 23.19% pre-demonetisation. With Rs 200 notes pumped into the system, the cash reservoir will be boosted.

"We are operating at full capacity for 500-rupee note production. When the 200-rupee note will be introduced, it will ease currency availability," said a top official from the finance ministry. The Centre's decision last November to abolish Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes disrupted the daily lives of hundreds of millions of citizens as banks struggled to swiftly expand the circulation of new bills.

PM Modi had said the demonetisation action was needed to fight corruption and fraud, and cut off financing for attacks by terrorists who target India.

The finance ministry took a decision in March to print the 200-rupee notes. Two Reserve Bank of India printing presses under Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited - an RBI subsidiary that prints banknotes - from Mysore and Salboni are producing them.

The central bank has decided to add additional security layers to the notes in a bid to beat counterfeiters. Already, quality checks have been carried out on the new bills.

In association with Mail Today


Railways has ordered an investigation after a passenger found a lizard in food served onboard Poorva Express. The incident occurred today morning.

Authorities took note of the incident soon after the passenger complained about it to the Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Twitter.

He added that he was given medicine late. The incident took place near Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh.

Reacting to the complaint, DRM Kanpur division assured to take action.

The incident happened after Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said in its audit report that food served by Indian Railways to its passengers is unfit for consumption.

Earlier this week, CAG had pointed out various loopholes in the catering services in the railways.

The report said that the articles that are being provided at railway stations and in trains were unfit for human consumption.

ALSO READ: WhatsApp users share 55 billion texts, 4.5 billion photos, 1 billion videos daily

ALSO READ: Rs 1000 coin coming? Opposition wants govt to clarify

Also watch:








Rs 2.5 lakh crore

This is the amount banks may have to forgo as dues from 50 large stressed companies, says a report by CRISIL

"That's a major milestone where an Indian automotive company is opening up manufacturing in a resurgent Detroit. I think that's a wonderful twist of history."





M&M Chairman Anand Mahindra on the companys decision to open a facility in Detroit

210 government sites display Aadhaar data

About 210 websites of central and state government departments were found to be displaying personal details and Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, P.P. Chaudhary, said in the Lok Sabha. "The Unique Identification Authority of India has taken note and is regularly monitoring the status to get the Aadhaar data removed from the said websites," he said.

Demonetisation Yields Pittance as Fake Currency

The value of fake currency detected after demonetisation is Rs 11.23 crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has told the Rajya Sabha. This is a very small number compared with the Rs 15 lakh crore-plus currency that the government had banned on November 8 last year.

ITC Loses Rs 49,731 crore value in a day





Shares of ITC fell 13 per cent on July 18 after the government increased the cess on cigarettes under the goods and services tax. The loss in market capitalisation came to Rs 49,731 crore. The move is expected to yield the government an annual revenue of Rs 5,000 crore.

Paytm Mall delists 85,000 sellers





Paytm Mall has delisted about 85,000 sellers for failing to meet quality standards. It said the move was part of a revamp of the seller onboarding process for better customer service. Now, those wanting to sell their products through Paytm Mall will have to furnish brand authorisation letters and run strict quality and service audits.
Uttar Pradesh Budget is pulling in two opposite directions - populism and austerity. On the one hand, there is the farm loan waiver, announced within days of the BJP government taking charge in March this year but whose precise cost to the exchequer - Rs 36,359 crore - has been made clear only with the announcement of the government's first Budget on July 11. But on the other hand, spending on a number of infrastructure and irrigation projects, some education schemes as well as schemes like the beautification of the Gomti riverside in Lucknow - a pet project of the previous government - has been slashed. There is no allocation even for continuing the much-publicised free laptop distribution scheme of the previous government, though the BJP had promised, in its manifesto, to continue with it.

Stopping the laptop scheme, along with other freebie schemes - such as the stainless steel thalis and tumblers the previous government gave schoolchildren on the last dhanteras day - will save the state Rs 15,000 crore. "The first thing governments do in a fund crunch is to cut down on social sector spending," says Pinaki Chakraborty, Economic Advisor to the 14th Finance Commission. "This will obviously impact the human development index, which in any case is not high in UP." Yet religious tourism has been given a Rs 1,240 crore boost, with further development of Ramayana, Krishna and Buddhist circuits, providing, in particular, better infrastructure in the pilgrimage towns of Ayodhya, Mathura and Sarnath, respectively.

Already, 26 per cent of expenditure goes into paying salaries and another 9 per cent into pensions. This outlay will be even higher once the Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations are implemented; these will cost the exchequer an additional Rs 24,000 crore. The Budget makes no mention of this, nor does it reveal any provision for interest payments and debt repayments inherent in the state having joined the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), which requires it to underwrite its power utilities' debts. With these cuts and omissions, however, UP Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal has been able to keep the fiscal deficit down to 2.97 per cent - below the limit set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. Whether he will be able to stick to it is another matter.

Similarly, the Budget is highly optimistic about tax collection, estimating an inflow of Rs 111,502 crore, 24 per cent higher than in the previous year. In its last year in office, the previous government, too, had budgeted for Rs 101,257 crore in taxes, but could realise only Rs 90,219 crore. The new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will help since UP, with hardly any industry, has been classified as a "consumption state" - GST is expected to add Rs 8,000-9,000 crore to its commercial tax receipts kitty. Overall, the Budget projects revenues of Rs 3.84 lakh crore in the current year, a rise of 10.4 per cent over the previous financial year.

Centre as Big Brother

UP is the largest state by population, sending 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, but also one of the most backward. Its per capita income is a measly Rs 48,520 per annum, as against the national average of Rs 94,178. It carries a crushing debt burden - Rs 3,75,049.45 crore in March 2017 - from Rs 2,25,123.59 crore in 2012/13, which in all likelihood will rise if development programmes are to continue. "There are only two ways a state can raise money - get more grants from the Centre or take on debt," says D.K. Srivastava, Chief Policy Adviser, EY. "UP will have to do both." UP's economic health will be crucial to the BJP's performance in the 2019 elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised "electricity for all" by 2019, and making good on the promise in UP will be vital, along with improving roads and transportation, bolstering agriculture and overhauling industrial policy.

No doubt, Central support - given that the same party is in power at the State and Centre for first time in 15 years - is guaranteed. Central grants for UP, for instance, have been increased by 39 per cent to Rs 68,052 crore for 2017/18, while the increase for most other states is around 5 per cent. NITI Aayog has prepared an "Action Plan for Uttar Pradesh", while leading public sector units such as Powergrid Corporation, NTPC, NHAI, REC, PFC, and FCI are all chipping in and supporting projects in the state. Some of the biggest projects in the state are Centre-funded: the Clean Ganga initiative; the planned airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, along with four smaller ones at Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly and Kanpur; upgrade of the 13 urban centres included in the list of smart cities.

Two of the most backward areas of this backward state are its southern and eastern regions - Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal - and both are receiving special Central attention. Bundelkhand has been battling intermittent drought for the last 15 years. A key project in this region hanging fire since 2005, due to various environmental concerns, was the interlinking of the Ken and Betwa rivers, whose irrigation benefits are expected to be substantial. But with the state and the Centre working in consonance and the prime minister taking personal interest, the project is under way, with the last three months having seen the National Board of Wildlife, the Expert Appraisal Committee and the Forest Advisory Committee - both under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change - give their consent to it, albeit with some conditions. Work is expected to be completed in six years.

NITI Aayog has also set deadlines for two other largely Centrally-funded river projects in Bundelkhand: the Bansagar Dam over the Sone River in adjoining Madhya Pradesh, which has to be completed by March 2018, and the Arjun Sahayak project - a network of canals - by December 2019. Two more Centre-backed river projects that will benefit both central UP and Poorvanchal - the Madhya Ganga Canal Phase II and the Sarayu Nahar project - on both of which work had virtually stalled, have been given fresh funds and have to be completed by December 2019. Meanwhile, the state government has been directed to attend to the smaller irrigation works in these areas, focusing on completing existing projects, rather than starting new ones. "Canal irrigation contributes less than 20 per cent to total irrigation in UP, because so many projects have failed," says Subhash Sharma, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Central handholding is also clearly being seen in UP's road sector. The two expressways linking Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal to Delhi are both being built by NHAI - not the state government - under its new hybrid annuity model, where NHAI puts in 40 per cent investment and a private road developer the rest. The previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments had made the Lucknow-Agra Expressway and the Yamuna Expressway, respectively, the showpiece achievement of their governments. NHAI officials further revealed that they are in the process of taking over the maintenance of 72 state highways, along with three more expressways. NHAI is also building ring roads in 10 major UP cities, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Meerut, and Moradabad. This has enabled UP to reduce allocation for roads; it has earmarked only Rs 3,972 crore for upkeep of state highways and another Rs 71 crore for widening roads connecting district headquarters.

"Central spending in UP is understandable and critical to the country's economy in the long run as long as the funds are utilised well," says Srivastava of EY. But B.K. Chaturvedi, former Union cabinet secretary, fears it could lead to financial indiscipline. "Other states will start queuing up with similar requests," he says.

Pressures of Power

In the power sector, UP is close to floating a joint venture with Powergrid Corporation, with equal participation by both, to maintain and augment transmission lines. "Talks are in their final stages," says I.S. Jha, CMD, Powergrid. "We have formed similar joint ventures with Bihar and Odisha's state transmission companies. Such tie-ups enable the state to tap into cheaper debt from agencies such as the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank." Again, this is in contrast to the previous government, which brought private players into transmission through a bidding process, but ran into problems later over financial closures and slow implementation. The SP government had earmarked Rs 23,000 crore for changing old transmission lines, while the latest UP Budget does not allocate even one paisa. UP's power sector is also likely to obtain substantial support from two schemes the Centre has launched - the Integrated Power Development Scheme for better transmission in urban areas and its counterpart for rural areas, the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana.

UP's power demand has been estimated at 27,832 MW in 2018/19 by the 19th Electricity Survey of India, which is 10,000 MW more than its current generation capacity. The modest allocation for power in the Budget, as well as cancellations of bids won last year to set up an additional 3,800 MW in the state, suggests that Adityanath would prefer to draw power from the Central pool and ensure smoother coal supplies to existing thermal plants, ensuring they run at full capacity, rather than set up new ones. "UP's generation capacity is nothing to worry about since there are many thermal plants in the country running below capacity from which it can buy power," says Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power Projects. "What it needs to do is to make electricity affordable and more easily available by reducing transmission losses and power thefts."

The power legacy Adityanath has inherited is dismal. The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), the holding company of the state's five discoms, has estimated that there are 8.5 million illegal connections in the state and another 6.5 unmetered ones in rural areas. UPPCL itself is burdened by a debt of Rs 53,200 crore - which the state has now underwritten thanks to the UDAY scheme - and four of its five utilities - barring Kanpur's - have been ranked the worst performers in the country. "We're setting up 75 police stations dedicated to checking power thefts," says Shrikant Sharma, UP's Power Minister.

Even after restructuring following the introduction of the UDAY scheme, the UP discoms' operational losses have continued to increase, rising from Rs 7,791 crore in 2015/16 to Rs 7,932 crore in 2016/17. Thanks to losses in transit, the gap between the cost of generating and transmitting power and the tariff at which it is sold in UP was once as high as Rs 2.80 per unit. It has since been brought down to around Rs 1, which is still unacceptable. The task of achieving electricity for all by 2019 seems a tall order.

Agriculture Conundrum

The farm loan waiver - which the state government prefers to call "redemption" of loans - will help 21.5 million small and marginal farmers but will do nothing to solve the problems of agriculture in the state. "It will at best provide the farmer temporary relief, giving the government time to work out a proper plan," says Tajamul Haque, former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.

Among long-term reforms, the government wants to orient more farmers towards cash crops rather than the subsistence ones for which the state provides a minimum support price. "We want to make cash crops more viable," says Surya Pratap Shahi, UP Agriculture Minister. Prominent among them is oilseeds. UP intends to soon join the National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP). In April this year, NMOOP guidelines were liberalised to allow 100 per cent corporate investment, including FDI, in oilseed farms. "This will help since we have industrial units in Kanpur with the capacity to process large quantities of oilseeds," says a senior UP official.

A major problem for farmers in Western UP, where sugarcane is the main crop, is late payment by mills. In its manifesto, BJP had promised to ensure payments within 14 days of delivery of the sugarcane at the factory gates, and soon after taking charge, Adityanath gave mill owners a month's window to settle farmers' dues, or else face penal action. Though the crushing season ended in April, dues of around Rs 2,500 crore from 32 mills still remain outstanding. The mills have their own problems of viability which restricts their options. "We're working on a sustainable policy to make the payment schedule more regular," says a senior UP government official. The Budget allocates Rs 273 crore for the promotion of the sugar industry.

Prime Minister Modi has stated that he wants to see farmers' incomes double. To achieve this, the UP government will have to take steps to modernise the state's agriculture. It has announced its intention to set up 20 Krishi Vigyan Kendras, but given that their budget allocation is just Rs 10 crore each, they are unlikely to achieve much. Experts maintain that public investment in agriculture is needed to increase crop yield and expand diversification. The various constraints on UP's Budget - such as the large outlay on interest payments amounting to 18 per cent of total expenditure in the latest budget, or the outgo on employees' salaries - have ensured that the share of expenditure on agriculture and rural development is significantly lower than the national average. Nor is the situation likely to change in coming years. ~

@anileshmahajan


SMITHFIELD Jeff Barnes will be retiring next year, but dont count on him using his new free time to rest. He wants to devote it to service as the citys mayor. His name will be on the ballot alongside current mayor Darrell Simmons during this Novembers election.

Barnes said Smithfield is growing, and with that comes a lot of challenges  challenges involving services for new homes and businesses. He believes he has enough experience that makes him a good fit for Smithfields mayor, and having spent the last five years on the City Council is just part of it. The 30-year resident of Smithfield said he has spent the last 41 years working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service  a government job where he said he was able to serve the people. He also spent 23 years as part of the Army National Guard as a counter-intelligence agent.

Barnes said that service is something he loves, and if elected mayor, he plans on doing it full time.

I want to devote my time to the city, he said. As a mayor I want to be spending every day or half a day at the city office or out and about the city. I want to be familiar with what is going on in the city and I want to take that time and be the best mayor I possibly can.

Barnes has a list of things he wants to do if elected. It includes things like establishing a weekly farmers market and putting up new Welcome to Smithfield signs at the Main Street entrances to town  signs that are a little more eye-catching than the current ones.

He has bigger plans, too. Those include a plan involving the future of the Historic Smithfield Tabernacle, a plan for the citys water usage and a plan to honor military veterans.

Barnes said the Historic Tabernacle is a gem to the city. He said a lot of money has been put into improving the pioneer-built structure during his five years on the City Council, but he believes there is a better way. He said that if Smithfield becomes recognized as a Certified Local Government (CLG) by the State Historic Preservation Office, that matching grants can be secured and put toward the Tabernacle.

According to the Utah Division of State History, in order to become a CLG, a local government must pass an approved historic preservation ordinance and appoint a historic preservation commission.

Once weve done that and were accepted then the city can apply for funds, Barnes said. Like 20 cities earlier this applied for $10,000 apiece and got it. These are funds available for the historic preservation of your city.

As for the citys water usage, Barnes believes too much money is spent by watering the cemetery with culinary water. He wants to pipe in secondary water, much like what was done with Forrester Acres Park.

We have 100 shares in the canal, he said. Thats a lot of water and we could be applying those shares on the cemetery instead of using culinary.

Barnes said he would like to the city to look at creating a memorial where the city offices used to be. He said money was set aside for something to be installed years back, but nothing was ever done with it. He said it could be something that would recognize the old fort that used to straddle Summit Creek and that the city could possibly add some military memorials as well.

There were recent budget cuts for certain city programs like the Youth Council, the library and the Historical Society. Barnes said he would like to get back to funding more of those, especially the senior citizens program. He would also like to better manage wastewater by using the citys canals.

Barnes considers his biggest accomplishments on the City Council to be the addition to the Smithfield Carnegie Library and the construction of the new splash pad in town, but he is also pleased with the work he did to help put historical markers on city buildings. He said he enjoyed the work he did as a member the citys Tree Board, where he was able to help register the citys trees into a database and help create and improve parks.

If Barnes is elected mayor, he said he is looking forward to getting involved in the areas and departments he hasnt been a part of yet.

Ive been thinking about it for five years, and Im running for mayor because I can, he said. We leave in a society where we can serve people and make decisions on running for elected office. I want to be a good mayor. I know I can be, so Im running.
A bill that seeks to bolster volunteer fire departments, especially in rural parts of New York, has been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The legislation sponsored by state Sen. Pam Helming received near-unanimous approval. The Assembly passed the bill by a 141-1 vote. The Senate approved it by a 61-0 margin.

The measure allows out-of-state firefighters to join a volunteer fire company in New York.

According to the bill's justification, the goal is to encourage firefighters who are visiting from other states or residing in New York for an extended period of time to join a volunteer fire department.

Supporters say the bill would increase volunteer firefighter membership and provide departments with much-needed assistance.

Cuomo's approval marks the end of a years-long effort to allow out-of-state firefighters to join New York volunteer departments. The legislation received support in the Senate, but didn't pass in the Assembly.

Last year, the state Legislature passed the bill and sent it to Cuomo's desk, but he vetoed it. While he supported the intent of the measure, he said it "raises significant concerns."

Cuomo's concerns included allowing firefighters from other states to volunteer without being subject to background checks that are required in New York. The bill required firefighters to be in good standing, but the previous version of the legislation didn't require the out-of-state first responders to submit to a background check.

He also said that the bill would increase insurance premiums for local volunteer fire departments because the agencies' carriers would be liable if an out-of-state firefighter is injured.

The new bill sponsored by Helming, R-Canandaigua, addressed at least one of Cuomo's concerns. Any out-of-state firefighter that volunteers for a New York department must be in good standing and submit to background check.

The firefighters who join volunteer agencies are eligible for some benefits, but not presumptive health coverage and service award programs.
President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military has been panned by New York's junior senator.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand slammed Trump for the announcement he made in a series of tweets Wednesday morning.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump tweeted. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Trump's decision appeared to surprise those even within his own administration. National media outlets reported that the Pentagon referred questions about the president's statement to the White House.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., called it a "discriminatory decision."

"This morning transgender service members put on their uniform and showed up for their military duties to be told by their commander-in-chief via Twitter that he doesn't want them in 'any capacity,'" she said. "These service members are willing to die for their country, and this is an insult to their brave and honorable service. This new directive is harmful, misguided and weakens  not strengthens  our military."

Gillibrand, who led an effort to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that banned openly gay people from serving in the military, said she will introduce a bill to overturn Trump's decision.

The RAND Corporation released a study last year that estimated there are 1,320 to 6,630 active duty transgender service members in the military.
| BY Ricki Green |

Tom Lawrence (left) has been awarded Top Student at the 2017 NSW AWARD School graduation ceremony, which took place at The Rawson Room (Bar 100) in Sydney on last night. Lawrence was tutored by agency groups: Jerome Gaslain, Oskar Westerdal and Rene Schultz from BWM Dentsu; and Karen Ferry and Sarah Parris from Leo Burnett.

Lawrence is now in the running for Top Student at the National AWARD School Competition, with the chance to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet David Droga in NYC. The national winner will be announced on Monday 7 August in Sydney.

Commenting on Lawrences work, NSW AWARD School judge and AWARD chair Mike Spirkovski of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, said: Creating engaging, effective ideas in a simple scamp is difficult for even the most experienced creative as there is nowhere to hide in a scamp. No fancy director, photography, animation or sound effects, just an idea. Kudos to this creative for stripping it all back to what I believe is the reason we are all here in this business; to make great ideas.

Second place was awarded to Pierce Thomson, who was tutored by: Hugh Gurney, Chelsea Parks and Alex Schieder from The Monkeys; and Matt Geersen, Dan Saunders, Sean Vrabel and John Gault from VML.

Third place went to Matt Corcoran, who also took out the Best in Show award for his Odds for Equality idea, which was unanimously praised by judges for its creativity and simplicity.

Top 10 Students:

1st place  Tom Lawrence

2nd place  Pierce Thomson

3rd place  Matt Corcoran

The final seven graduates to make the NSW top 10, in no particular order, are:

Cindy Erlina

Madeline Hoskin

Grace Lemech

Jennifer Mackie

Kate Ross

Masato Sano

Leanne Serra

Before a crowd of industry professionals and supporters, NSW AWARD School heads Niccola Phillips (left) of M&C Saatchi Sydney and Brendan Willenberg (right)of Clemenger BBDO Sydney congratulated the class of 100 graduates on completing the 12 week intensive course.

Says Phillips: Once again, we were impressed by the calibre of the final folios submitted this year. Many of the ideas were fresh, surprising, entertaining and occasionally induced bouts of intense envy. It was also wonderful to see that once again we had such a strong representation of female creatives in the top ten.

Phillips and Willenberg also took the opportunity to thank this years lecturers, tutors and judges for their time and support over the 12 week course.

Click here to view the list of 2017 AWARD School NSW tutors.

This years five state winners from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane will have their books reviewed in the National Competition by a Super Jury, comprising leading creatives from around the world.

The National Competition coincides with the 30th anniversary of a teenage David Droga, founder and creative chairman of renowned agency Droga5, winning Top Student at AWARD School in 1987.

To mark the occasion, AWARD School will fly the national winner to NYC to meet David Droga and to compare their winning portfolios from 1987 and 2017.

Dates for all graduation ceremonies are as follows:

QLD  Wednesday 19 July

NSW  Tuesday 25 July

VIC  Wednesday 26 July

SA  Thursday 27 July

WA  Friday 28 July

National Announcement (in Sydney)  Monday 7 August
| BY Lynchy |

Nick Handel is Chief Executive Officer at MRM//McCann Singapore and will lead the Digital Jury at this years Singapore student Crowbar Awards.

In line with the Fairy Tales Do Come True theme of Crowbar 2017, Handel has his own fable to tell.

A Long, long time ago Handel was a medieval history student pursuing a career in the field of journalism. I was a graduate trainee who slept on my brothers bedroom floor, Handel remembers wistfully. I simply couldnt find a job I saw myself doing for the rest of my life. I even tried pursuing the law industry. That didnt work out. I couldnt find the right fit anywhere. My schoolmates seemed to be having better luck than me and that made me even more anxious. Handel grew increasingly troubled with each passing day of him lying on that cold hard floor.

He knew he wanted to be a part of something big; he longed for a career that could one day change the way the world worked. He was relentless in his hunt. Until he received an invitation into a field he never thought could fulfil his ambitions.

Thankfully, everything changed when I was bestowed with an internship in a London advertising agency. Ive been in the creative industry for 20 years ever since. In that time, Ive witnessed the ascent of Direct Marketing and was part of the Digital revolution that gave rise to media platforms people consume in their daily lives today. This, I realised, was the big global shift I was chasing. And to be a part of it made everything Ive been through worthwhile.

As it turns out, a young Handel had been searching for a dream career in a world that had not yet been created.

Handel now leads a team of over 100 staff at McCann Singapore and MRM//McCann, a 3-time winner of Digital Agency of the Year.

Joining Handel at the Crowbar Awards jury table are his co-judges for the Digital discipline: Tanner Nagib (Hakuhodo Singapore, Client Service Director & Digital Director), Andrew Hook (HAVAS, Chief Creative Officer, Singapore), Dante Abelarde (MRM//McCann Creative Director), David Haddad (IPG Mediabrands Singapore, Managing Director), Cedric Dias (OCBC Singapore, Head, Digital and Social Media Marketing, Consumer Financial Services), Jac Min (Semicolon Asia, Founder) and Renato Quaroni (Media Monks, Creative Director).

James Keng Lim, Crowbar Chairman 2017 adds, Ive always admired Nick and the work he has done. In this ever-changing digital age, he sees beyond the aesthetics of things and is able to put value behind every piece of work. We have no doubt that the panel of judges Nick has purposefully chosen will lend the same acumen to the Digital discipline this year.

From its commencement in 2001, the Crowbar Awards has since become a leading award show for budding creatives to showcase their best ideas. The show now attracts over 1000 entries from local, regional and international tertiary institutions. This includes entries from the US, UK, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. This year, Crowbar has opened up to attract a wider range of categories entries, spanning across disciplines such as Advertising, Branding, Design, Digital, Film, Innovation and Technology, and will be judged by leading industry creatives, clients, and specialists.

The Crowbar Awards is organised by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Singapore (4As).
It was no-nonsense and no-fuss, just like the man himself. But he could never have stopped hundreds of people turning out on Wednesday to honour his decades of service to the village, bushfire management and rural heritage, Megan Doherty writes.
"Grants such as this really do make a difference to community organisations such as ourselves, who otherwise would find it much more difficult to achieve the outcomes that we do."
A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik that would allow spouses to establish the same state of residency as military service members was approved by the House of Representatives Monday.

The measure passed by voice vote. The House action followed the Veterans' Affairs committee's passage of the bill last week.

Stefanik, R-Willsboro, touted her bill as a way to help military families, especially spouses, during relocation when a service member receives a new assignment.

Active duty service members may maintain one state of legal residence for tax and voting purposes. For example, if you're originally from New York and you serve in the military, you may keep New York as your legal residence even if you're relocated elsewhere in the U.S. or overseas.

That same benefit does not extend to military spouses.

"Essentially, this loophole requires spouses to establish residency every time the service member receives a new assignment  adding undue stress and anxiety to military families already under the pressure of managing their relocation," Stefanik said in a House floor speech Monday.

Stefanik's bill would allow military spouses to maintain a state of legal residence when they relocate with a service member.

She said the bill would no longer require military spouses to document multiple tax jurisdictions and it could help reduce military spousal unemployment.

"Traveling across the North Country of New York, I have listened to the sacrifices our military families make to keep our nation safe," she said. "We have a duty to reduce these burdens they face."

Stefanik's legislation received bipartisan support in the House. Her effort was lauded by U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

"Our military families make tremendous sacrifices, and we must do everything we can to support them," Roe, R-Tennessee, said. "I thank Rep. Stefanik for her leadership on this important that would ease the burden placed on military spouses when their family is relocated."

Stefanik represents the 21st Congressional District, which is home to Fort Drum, a large Army base, and the Naval Nuclear Laboratory in Saratoga County.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
At his latest subcommittee hearing in Washington, U.S. Rep. John Katko didn't challenge witnesses on transportation security issues of the day. Instead, he requested feedback on how Congress can help improve air cargo security.

The air cargo industry is vital. Katko, R-Camillus, said in his opening statement that 35 percent of the world's trade value is transported by air. Air cargo traffic is expected to increase 4.2 percent per year over the next two decades.

But like passenger airlines, there are air cargo security concerns. A terror plot was foiled in 2010 when a tip from Saudi Arabian intelligence led to the discovery of two explosive devices on board a cargo plane bound for the U.S.

A terrorist attack on a cargo plane would have a significant impact. Katko said it could lead to more regulations for the industry and result in slower supply chain operations. And it may have a major financial toll.

"Air cargo is crucial to the global economic engine," he said.

Katko asked industry experts if there is new technology that could improve security and sought their opinions on third party screenings. The House recently passed a Department of Homeland Security reauthorization bill that included the establishment of an air cargo advance screening program and allow for the use of third party canine teams that can detect explosives.

Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association, said one action Congress could take to help the industry is establishing a five-year term for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration.

Since the TSA was created in November 2001, there have been six administrators and six acting administrators.

"That does not lead to much stability within the agency," Alterman said.

He supports a fixed five-year term for the TSA administrator. This would be identical to the term for the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

There are other changes stakeholders would like to see. Michael Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America, discussed the need for better information sharing. He referred to the 2010 plot and reiterated that a terrorist attack was foiled because Saudi intelligence shared the information that led to the bombs being found.

Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, said TSA's known shippers program should be streamlined. Known shippers are companies that have been vetted by TSA.

Fried said the known shipper program changes are needed because of the rise of e-commerce.

"We want to be able to get as many shippers as possible onto these planes," he said. "If the known shipper management system can't equally accommodate these transactions, that's where we have some issues."

The hearing was the latest chaired by Katko. He leads the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Protective Security. The panel oversees the Secret Service and TSA.

He has chaired the subcommittee since 2015.
Cayuga Community College is adding a new associate vice president and dean of the Fulton campus.

Dr. Keiko Kimura's responsibilities will include overseeing the college's Office of Assessment, Institutional Research, and Center for Academic Success, in addition to other offices.

Kimura's most recent position was as the dean of language arts at San Jose City College in California.

Before that, she was the associate dean at William Rainey Harper College in Illinois, and later became that college's dean of academic enrichment and language studies.

Kimura possesses a doctor of education in adult and higher education from Northern Illinois University and master of arts degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages from Teacher's College at Columbia University, in addition to other degrees.

"I am thrilled and honored at the opportunity to be a part of the Cayuga community. During the interview process, I met so many talented and motivated staff, faculty, administrators and board members, not to mention some very impressive Cayuga Community College students," Kimura said in a news release. "I look forward to making positive contributions to support the college's ongoing commitment to student success."

We are excited to have someone with Dr. Kimuras experience oversee the Fulton campus and serve as our lead representative in Oswego County," Dr. Brian Durant, the college's president, said in a news release.
UniCredit SpA, Italys No. 1 bank, said hackers took biographical and loan data from 400,000 client accounts in one of the biggest breaches of European banking security this year.

The attack occurred in September and October of 2016 and June and July of this year, according to an emailed statement from the bank on Wednesday. UniCredit only discovered the breaches this week, two people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a possible criminal matter.

Cyberattacks on corporations and banks are accelerating. In May and June, two ransomware assaults swept the globe, freezing databases and knocking out operations at entities ranging from Britains National Health Service to Russian oil giant Rosneft OAO. Dozens of Ukrainian lenders were also affected by the so-called Petya outbreak last month.

This is the first attack targeting an Italian bank and confirms that IT systems, particularly in Italy, need massive investment to avoid a loss of confidence, said Francesco Confuorti, chief executive officer of Advantage Financial SA, a Milan-based investment firm. I expect that this case will lead to Italian banks reviewing their IT systems.

Todays hack also comes after the Italian financial system had stabilized, with the nations taxpayers funding the wind-down of two troubled banks earlier this year.

In Europe, lenders such as Barclays Plc, Banco Santander SA and Deutsche Bank AG have joined forces with law-enforcement personnel to mount a unified defense against cyber-criminals by sharing expertise and information. Industry chiefs are hiring former intelligence personnel and tapping startups for technology to safeguard their databases.

Vast Complexity

Given the vast complexity of banking computer systems, it can be hard to root out hackers who burrow deep into networks and can operate for months undetected, said Thomas Lemon, a London-based managing director for technology consulting at Protiviti Ltd.

You have a complicated IT landscape with huge amounts of data to sift through to see if a breach is occurring, Lemon said. The bad guys are creative, and the history of past attacks doesnt tell you the right indicators to look for, so youre trying to find a needle in a haystack.

At UniCredit, the intruders gained unauthorized access to customer data through an outside company employed by the bank. The banks IT department discovered anomalies while conducting checks, finding that some users from the external commercial partner were accessing client data, said Daniele Tonella, CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, the IT unit of the bank, in a phone interview. UniCredit immediately blocked the hackers, closed the breaches and upgraded the system, he said.

UniCredit said international bank account numbers, also known as IBANs, and other personal information may have been taken. A spokesman declined to identify the third party involved.

There arent material damages for the bank and its clients from these attacks, Tonella said. No data, such as passwords allowing access to customer accounts or allowing for unauthorized transactions, has been affected.

UniCredit, which is investing 2.3 billion euros in upgrading and strengthening its IT systems, has started an audit and will file a report with the Milan prosecutor, it said. The bank is working to strengthen its core systems and update its digital infrastructure, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

The countrys central bank and the Association of Italian Banks are monitoring the situation with a computer emergency response team created last year to strengthen financial cybersecurity, a Bank of Italy spokeswoman said in Rome.

Cybersecurity experts are bracing for a wave of ever-more-ambitious hacks to hit in months to come, while their ability to catch perpetrators is often limited. Banking leaders are worried about more than the theft of customers data or money: cyber-criminals might also damage account databases and render them unusable, said Becky Pinkard, vice president of service delivery and intelligence at Digital Shadows Ltd., a London-based cyber-defense firm.

Banks are justified in their fear of corrupted data, Pinkard said. Attackers could harm the bank by adding or subtracting a zero to every balance, or even deleting entire accounts.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
AUBURN  Cayuga County Legislator Tucker Whitman called Gov. Andrew Cuomo's latest act to help flooding victims affected by storms from April 1 to July 1 "a classic state riding in on their horse to save the day at the expense of local municipalities."

Whitman, who represents the towns of Sterling and Victory in District 1 where a great deal of flooding from Lake Ontario has occurred, was critical of the "Lake Ontario and Connected Waterways Assessment Relief Act" that would allow residents to have their properties reassessed following the damage that has devastated the area. Cayuga County Attorney Fred Westphal said it's something the county, municipalities and school districts would have to opt into, and it would have to be done soon.

Westphal gave an overview of what he understood the act to entail at the Cayuga County Legislature meeting Tuesday night. He said one part involves a grant program for small businesses, farms, homeowners associations and the like, who suffered storm damage. Another part involves income tax breaks for property owners.

The part affecting the county, he said, is the potential for property reassessment, which "may generate some refunds for the property owners." A local law opting in to that part of the act would need to be passed. Westphal said the county, municipalities and school districts have to agree to opt in, otherwise there's a different analysis involved.

Legislator Terry Baxter and Andy Dennison asked whether the act extended to the southern end of the county, which has also seen a tremendous amount of damage following a July 1 and many subsequent rainstorms. Legislature Chairman Keith Batman said he'd talked to a state representative on Tuesday, and it was not clear if damage from the July 1 storm in the Moravia area would count. Batman appeared skeptical, however, referring to the multiple storms following July 1 that would not be covered under the act.

Baxter said even if the southern end of the county was included in the act, he would be against it.

"The other taxpayers just pick up the burden of these reductions, and if the people that are damaged, if they do not repair their property then they can ask for a reassessment," he said. "If they do repair it, they don't need a reassessment."

When Whitman had asked whether local governments could expect reimbursement from the state for the loss in revenue, Westphal said there was language about school districts, but there was no language about the municipalities.

Legislator Ryan Foley said he thought at least kicking the idea around was worth it.

"It is beneficial to society to help out a group of people," he said. "I think it is important."

The body decided to have Westphal draft a local law around the act, and schedule a public hearing with a date to be determined. Adopting a local law would have to be done before Aug. 24.

Following the meeting, Cayuga County Deputy Director of Emergency Services Niel Rivenburgh said a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) request had been sent for the northern end of the county, but the federal government has yet to take any action.

"We wait," he said.

In other news:

 In a contested 6-8 vote, county legislators voted not to fund a study to examine a potential new county office building. The $4,600 property study by C&S Companies came as a surprise to some legislators this month. Dennison said he would rather have more than one company to choose from to do the study, and he'd also like the county to explore renovating the existing building at the same time.

Foley added that he did not feel it was an emergency resolution and was hoping it would go back through the committee process for another month. Legislator Paul Pinckney said he wanted more details on what the county could expect from its $4,600 investment.

In the end, the resolution was defeated, with Legislators Whitman, Dennison, Pinckney, Baxter, Foley, Grant Kyle, Joe Bennett and Tim Lattimore opposed. Legislator Michael Didio was absent.

 Legislators passed two local laws Tuesday night. One amended the local law establishing the county administrator's position and one created a tax on prepaid wireless cell phones. Funds from that tax go to supporting Cayuga County 911.

 Without going into specifics, Batman said he would not be submitting a shared services plan to the state until 2018. The plan is a new state mandate meant to save taxpayers money by creating cost savings between municipalities. The state has agreed to a one-time match of those savings realized, and Batman and others have said in past meetings that there's little time to come up with anything of substance.

This year's deadline to submit a plan to the state is Sept. 15, and Batman said he plans to submit a formal report for pushing that back a year by Aug. 1.
The 1971 Mercedes 280SE 3.5 Coupe comes from an era where the German company became famous for its tank-like build quality and its unparalleled luxury.



Combine this with the timeless design language and what youre left with is a line of gorgeous classic models which can be used as daily drivers even today.

The 280SE 3.5 Coupe was the period flagship model and everything about it just screams quality and elegance. All the brightwork still has that deep shine to it while everything in the interior is of the highest caliber, from the real chunks of wood to the leather upholstery.

This was the model Mercedes made to rival the Rolls Royce Corniche and many people, including Jay Leno, would argue that the 280SE 3.5 Coupe is clearly the better car of the two, despite its lower price tag at the period.

To top it off, this big Merc hides a real performer under its classy lines, too, as it can travel up to speeds of 130mph (210 km/h), making it one of the most comfortable cruisers in the classic market.

You can watch Leno giving us a tour of his beautiful 1971 280SE 3.5 Coupe in the video linked below.

VIDEO
Robert Kubica is one step closer to fulfilling his dream of returning to Formula One after being given a testing opportunity in Hungary this weekend.



The Polish racing driver completed a test with a Renault 2012 F1 car at the Valencia circuit in Spain in June in what was his first stint in an F1 car since 2011. He also successfully completed a test at Frances Paul Ricard Circuit recently and in a few days, will experience a 2017-spec Renault Formula One car for the very first time.

In a statement, managing director of the Renault F1 team, Cyril Abiteboul said the test will allow the racing outfit to see if Kubica has what it takes to return to the sport.

The first two days were very rich with lessons for Robert but also for us. This session on the Budapest circuit with the RS17 will allow us, as well as us, to have more precise information with a current car and in representative conditions. At the end of these tests we will analyze the data with precision to determine how far it would be possible for Robert to return to competition in the years to come, Abiteboul said.

Earlier this month, Kubica said theres an 80-90 per cent chance of him returning to Formula One after his career was cut short in early 2011 following a near-fatal rally crash.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: bipolarnews.org

Lithium use in youth with bipolar disorder

In the past few years there has been a growing recognition that bipolar disorder does not always present for the first time in adulthood.

More than half of all cases of bipolar disorder begin before age 25 and for many with this condition, symptoms begin much earlier in childhood or adolescence.

Bipolar disorder is a serious psychiatric condition characterized by extreme shifts in mood between mania and depression.

When it begins in childhood, the condition is called early-onset bipolar disorder and it seems to be more severe than forms that first appear in older teens and adults.

Often, youth with bipolar disorder have more frequent mood shifts and have more mixed episodes (when they exhibit simultaneous symptoms of mania and depression). People with early onset bipolar disorder also seem to be at greater risk of suicide than those whose symptoms begin in adulthood.

Treatment for bipolar disorder differs from treating unipolar depression. Using antidepressant medications for a bipolar patient is risky and can cause the person to shift from depression to mania.

Mood stabilizing medication such as lithium is typically used to help bring a bipolar individual to a normal mood state.

Lithium is considered a gold standard in treating bipolar disorder in adults, but research is lacking when it comes to its use in youth with the condition.

One study examined the use of lithium on children aged 7-17 with bipolar disorder. It found those taking lithium experienced a greater reduction in manic symptoms than those on placebo.

The medication was also generally well tolerated and not associated with negative side effects such as weight gain.

Sometimes, people balk at the idea of using any medication at all in children exhibiting mental health conditions. However, growing evidence suggests it is best to begin treatment as soon as possible for best results.

As with many psychiatric conditions, bipolar disorder is chronic and progressive in nature. The earlier effective treatment can begin, the less lasting damage is done and the sooner the individual can get back to enjoying life.

More research is needed to monitor the long-term effects of lithium use beginning in youth as well as to compare it with other medications used in treatment of this condition, but these early results are promising.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed Kalingas to hold international celebration in Vernon this weekend.

More than 200 Kalinga people from around the world will be in Vernon for the International Festival of Kalinga Arts and Culture this weekend.

The public is invited to a free performance of music and dance at Kin Beach on Sunday.

Kalingas from around North America are holding an 'amung' or grand gathering in Vernon, July 28-30.

The Kalinga people are an indigenous tribe from Northern Luzon, Philippines, who are known for their colourful and lively spirit, innovative farming and fierce defence of territory.

Participants have pre-registered for a weekend of events that begins at the Halina Centre with a Friday evening reception that includes a tatachok (the beating of the gongs), Kalinga food and a Miss KaNA pageant. Saturday includes interactive music, dance and costume workshops as well as a gala dinner featuring Kalinga dance performances. The weekend wraps up with a picnic on Sunday at Kin Beach.

The public can see the beating of the gongs, dances, songs at Kin Beach at 2 p.m.

For more information, contact organizer Cheryl Bannoya by email or telephone 250-306-5625.
Photo: Google Street View

Police say a woman has been arrested after the alleged theft of thousands of dollars from the parent advisory council at an elementary school in Surrey.

RCMP say staff from KB Woodward Elementary School contacted them last September to report that the group had been defrauded of more than $35,000.

Officers with the force's economic crime unit investigated and identified a suspect.

Police say a 31-year-old woman from Surrey turned herself in on Monday.

Tuyet Ngo has now been charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and using forged bank statements.

Cpl. Scotty Schumann says businesses, individuals and the school community came together to raise funds to cover the losses.
Photo: Contributed

Armstrong/Spallumcheen Fire Rescue have been called to three burning complaints recently.

Fire Chief Ian Cummings said there was no malicious intent by those who started the campfires, however, there is a fire ban on the entire region, so fines of $200 were issued.

People don't realize how quickly a fire can get away, he said. They don't realize how dangerous it can be. Even if you have a water source, you could turn your back for a second and it could get away.

And a $200 could be the least of their worries.

If the fire were to get away they could be facing fines and bills of thousands of dollars.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The country's top airlines say resource-rich Canada has the potential to become a biofuel superpower by transforming forest residue and agricultural crops into energy that can help the industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Canada actually has an opportunity like no other country where it can displace large amounts of fuel and reduce large amounts of carbon," Mena Salib, Air Canada's manager of aircraft noise and emissions, said Tuesday after speaking to a global biotech conference.

Salib said the industry wants to procure biofuels from local sources instead of transporting it far to meet demand.

"The prize would be technology from Canada, the feedstock is from Canada and it is used by Canadians."

The country's largest airline has been part of several flight tests to study biofuels and is ready to add the lower carbon energy blends when they are readily available.

The aviation industry is looking for ways to cut its environmental footprint and achieve the global goal of becoming carbon neutral after 2020 and to halve net emissions by 2050 compared to 2005.

While Air Canada and WestJet don't have a preference for using farm crops, forest residue or consumer waste, the airlines say the inputs must be sustainable and not displace food or land.

Costs would also have to come down by using government incentives to encourage companies to boost supply.

Geoffrey Tauvette, WestJet's director of fuel and environment, says while the airline has invested heavily to improve the efficiency of its aircraft, biofuels are the only way to reduce emissions enough to meet global targets.

"We think that Canada has the right ingredients to be that superpower. We just need to get the right sort of instruments in place to be able to make that happen," he said from Calgary.
A knife attack on Tuesday in Flagstaff's Southside neighborhood has led to a man being rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.

The attack occurred at 1 p.m. in the 200 block of South Agassiz Street during a fight between two men, according to Flagstaff police.

Police have arrested a suspect and the victim is currently at Flagstaff Medical Center; however, his status is currently unknown.

Police are currently interviewing witnesses and say there is no further danger to the public.

The identity of neither the suspect nor the victim have not been released by police.
Photo: Toronto Zoo

The Toronto Zoo says one of three snow leopard cubs born at the facility in May has died of pneumonia.

The zoo said Tuesday in a release that the cub was found dead in the snow leopard den on June 15.

It says a veterinary team determined the cubs had been exposed to a bacterium (Bordetella bronchiseptica) which produces persistent coughing similar to whooping cough, that was carried by their father.

The zoo says the other cubs  a male and a female  were beginning to show signs of infection but have been treated and are "recovering nicely."

The Toronto Zoo is participating in a snow leopard conservation breeding program through the Species Survival Plan program.

The snow leopard is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The zoo says the other cubs have started eating solid foods and their mother is beginning to wean them.

The mother and cubs will remain off exhibit for the next several weeks as they continue to bond and "get through the most delicate stages of their early development."
Photo: Contributed Premier Christy Clark cut the ribbon when the hall was reopened in February 2015.

The City of West Kelowna will officially receive the keys to the Westbank Lions Hall this weekend.

The ceremony, featuring a town crier, piper, municipal, provincial and federal dignitaries, will take place Saturday at 11 a.m.

The city and Lions Club of Westbank reached an agreement earlier this spring to turn hall ownership over.

The city is taking over management of the facility under the condition it will continue to serve the West Kelowna community as it has since first established in 1928.

The contract indicates the land will always be used for the purpose of operating a community hall for the benefit of residents of West Kelowna and that the land may not be transferred, conveyed, encumbered, mortgaged, redeveloped or otherwise disposed of.

The Lions offered the hall to the city because of a rapidly declining membership.

"The people who are left are just not capable of doing the hard work that is needed. Looking after the hall, repairing it and cleaning it," Lions president David Knowles said at the time.
Photo: Twitter

Premier John Horgan has placed British Columbia First Nations issues near the top of his government's priority list, committing his cabinet to transform the stalled treaty talks and negotiate revenue-sharing agreements.

Horgan issued letters to each his 22 cabinet ministers reminding them of his government's promise to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the recommendations of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

First Nations leaders say they eagerly anticipate working with Horgan's New Democrats after years of road blocks under the former Liberal government.

First Nations Summit spokeswoman Cheryl Casimer says the Liberals consistently rejected calls to share provincial gaming revenues even though most other provinces in Canada have such agreements.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says he expects a huge change in relations now with a government committed to move on economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural fronts.

Horgan has told Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser to start negotiations with First Nations to expand opportunities for a share of B.C.s gaming industry.
Photo: Twitter

British Columbia's attorney general says the NDP government will not artificially delay permits for the Trans Mountain pipeline, despite the premier's vow to use every available tool to stop the project.

David Eby says he's been tasked by Premier John Horgan to identify options to halt Kinder Morgan Canada's $7.4-billion expansion of its Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline, which has already been approved by the federal government and the recently defeated B.C. government.

Eby says the province cannot deliberately stall on permits without risking a very costly lawsuit, but it can make the permits require construction to be done in a way that minimizes spills and protects the environment.

Trans Mountain declined to comment on Eby's remarks but says it's involved in an ongoing process of seeking and receiving permits from the necessary agencies.

Energy law expert James Coleman says because the NDP has been so explicit about wanting to stop the pipeline, it now has to be very careful to avoid appearing as though it's deliberately delaying the project or acting in bad faith.

Horgan said in Ottawa today that he hasn't yet been briefed by Eby but has met with several First Nations who have filed lawsuits against the project.
Photo: Darren Handschuh HM Krause Jewellers were broken into about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Vernon RCMP are on the look out for a jewelry thief.

HM Krause Jewellers was broken into about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said the suspect gained entry to the 30th Avenue store via a door and made off with items in a display case.

Moskaluk did not say how much the stolen items are worth.

Police are continuing the investigation.
Photo: David Ogilvie Flood barriers holding back Okanagan Lake.

The very last evacuation alert for Central Okanagan properties affected by floods has been rescinded, meaning everyone has been able to return home.

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations said Tuesday the following properties are allowed to return:

 1302 to 1454 Green Bay Road

 3660 to 3697 Green Bay Landing

 3575 to 3636 Wiig Road

Removal of sandbags is ongoing, and anyone wanting more information should visit this link.
Photo: Darren Handschuh IPE extends deadlines for those caught up in B.C.'s wildfires.

For those who've been caught up in this year's wildfires, the Interior Provincial Exhibition is extending the deadline for entries with no penalty.

Western Canada's largest agricultural fair takes place Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 in Armstrong, with barns filled with livestock, cows, sheep, goats, swine and horses.

We're concerned with the wildfires and the timing, said Yvonne Paulson, IPE general manager. We've extended deadlines for anybody caught up in the wildfires who had planned to enter (the competitions).

Paulson said a family from 108 Mile House pulled out of the light horse division last week.

However the fires have not stopped others, according to Ted Fitchett, IPE president.

It looks like a lot of our regulars are planning to attend the fair however, if there are more fires, they may not feel comfortable leaving their property, Fitchett said.

The IPE has also opened the barn doors for evacuees who have fled the Cariboo fires with livestock, signing on with the BC Wildfire Service.

People must register for help first and, so far, no one has used the barns for that purpose.

We had one family from the Williams Lake area in here, said Paulson. They have 30 horses and were able to get ten out. They're staying with a friend in the area who has a ranch.

Fitchett said such is the concern that members of his family headed to the Cariboo with trailers when the fires were at their height in order to help move livestock.

Although he added: They can't move 1,000 head of cattle. They have to get them into protected areas.

The British Columbia Cattlemen's Association has already stated that the wildfires in the Cariboo and Chilcotin regions will cost beef producers hundreds of millions of dollars.

On a happier note, Paulson said that although B.C.'s agriculture industry is going through a terrible time,"the fair will go on."
Photo: Critter Care Wildlife Society

Three beaver kits were rescued after being found alone in a ditch near Langley.

The animals were covered in motor oil that had been illegally dumped, according to Critter Care Wildlife Society.

When the beavers arrived at the wildlife society, they were very thin.

Today, they were able to enjoy their first swim!, posted Critter Care Wildlife Society on Tuesday.

Dish soap and antibiotics were used to clean off the little ones, and they are recovering well.
Photo: Provincial Gov't

The City of Richmond is calling on the province to halt work on a Massey Tunnel replacement bridge.

Instead of the $3.5-billion bridge, city council believes a second tunnel would have less impact on local agriculture and traffic.

Council recognizes the urgent need to address traffic congestion around the Massey Tunnel But the bridge project, as currently proposed, is not the best way to achieve these objectives, Mayor Malcolm Brodie said Tuesday.

Across the Fraser River, Delta Mayor Lois Jackson supports the 10-lane toll bridge, however.

Richmond suggests twinning the 58-year-old tunnel between the communities.

One option would see a four-lane tunnel with two lanes designated as carpool lanes. A second would utilize a two-lane, bus-only tunnel.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett speaks as AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde looks on.

Plans are underway to get a Saskatchewan First Nation clean water after more than five years under a drinking water advisory, and to meet a pledge to end such advisories on all reserves.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett announced $9.2 million to replace the water treatment system on the White Bear First Nation, southeast of Regina.

"I think everyone here will acknowledge it's been a long time coming and for far too long people in your community have not had access to potable water on reserve," Bennett said Tuesday in Regina, where the Assembly of First Nations was holding its annual meeting.

"You should still have the same right as those of us in downtown Toronto to be able to turn on the tap and drink the water and bathe your babies safely  things that most Canadians take totally for granted."

More than 800 residents on the reserve southeast of Regina haven't been able to drink their water since 2011.

The project is expected to be complete by December 2018.

Health Canada says that as of May 31, there were 97 drinking water advisories that had been in place for more than a year. However, Health Canada counts all on-reserve drinking water advisories regardless of who owns, operates and funds the system.
Photo: File photo The motorcycle Dan Descheneau and his wife were riding ended up in the ditch after hitting a police car.

The Independent Investigations Office of BC has found an RCMP officer may have been at fault in an accident that sent two people to hospital last year.

The IIO was called in to investigate the accident that happened in Vernon in August, 2016 on Highway 6 several kilometres from Vernon.

A report on the investigation said The IIOs Chief Civilian Director (CCD) completed a review of this file and submitted a report to Crown Counsel for consideration of charges.

The IIO investigates when civilians are seriously injured or killed in officer-involved incident.

Pursuant to the Police Act, the CCD must refer a file to Crown Counsel for consideration of charges if the CCD identifies that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment. The IIOs referral standard is much lower than any other law enforcement agency in B.C., the report says.

The investigation stems from an incident where Dan Descheneau and his wife were hit by the police car while operating a motorcycle.
Photo: File photo An evacuation order has been issued for several properties in Northeast Clinton due to wildfires.

UPDATE: 6:45 a.m.

For the first time in days, a new evacuation order has been issued for homes near one of the scores of wildfires raging in British Columbia.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District issued the order late Tuesday night for residents on a handful of properties northeast of Clinton, about 350 kilometres north of Vancouver.

A 615-square kilometre wildfire has been threatening the region for nearly three weeks and has already destroyed dozens of homes from Ashcroft north to Loon Lake, east of Clinton.

The B.C. Wildfire Service says the blaze is only 30-per-cent contained and fire activity has ramped up this week along the flank nearest to Loon Lake.

Residents affected by the latest order are asked to register at an evacuation centre in Kamloops.

Fires have charred about 3,770 square kilometres of timber, bush and grassland in B.C., since April 1, and about 19,000 people remain out of their homes as crews try to bring more than 150 wildfires under control.

 The Canadian Press

ORIGINAL: 10:50 p.m.

An evacuation order has been issued for several properties in Northeast Clinton due to wildfires.

Because of the potential danger to life and health, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District has ordered everyone to evacuate the following properties immediately:
Photo: The Canadian Press

Celgene Corp. has agreed to pay $280 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the pharmaceutical company committed fraud promoting a drug with a notorious history that was re-purposed to treat leprosy and another therapy for unapproved cancer treatments, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The agreement settled a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court by a former Celgene saleswoman who said the New Jersey-based company submitted false claims to Medicare and health care programs in 28 states and Washington, D.C., which were all parties to the settlement.

"Patients deserve to know their doctors are prescribing drugs that are likely to provide effective treatment, rather than drugs marketed aggressively by pharmaceutical companies," said Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Brown.

The lawsuit filed by Beverly Brown was brought on behalf of the U.S. government under a federal whistleblower law. She could receive as much as $84 million as her share of the settlement.

Celgene denied wrongdoing and settled to avoid uncertainty, distraction and expensive litigation, the company said in a statement.

Brown was an "immunology specialist" trained by Celgene to promote Thalomid and Revlimid drugs for cancer treatments that had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the lawsuit said.

Thalomid, another name for thalidomide, a drug prescribed for morning sickness in the 1950s and 1960s that caused severe birth defects, was approved by the agency in 1998 for treating leprosy.

Because Thalomid would only be useful to a fraction of the few hundred leprosy cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year, the company developed a plan to promote the drug for cancer, the lawsuit said.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Ford Motor Co. had a better-than-expected second quarter despite lower sales and upheaval in its executive ranks.

Net income rose 4 per cent to $2 billion, thanks in part to a change in the company's tax rate and a strong performance from its credit arm.

Adjusted profits of 56 cents per share easily surpassed Wall Street expectations of 43 cents, according to analysts polled by FactSet. One-time items included a $248 million charge as the company shifted production of the Ford Focus from Mexico to China.

Ford's automotive revenue of $37 billion was in line with Wall Street's expectations. Total revenue rose 1 per cent to $39.85 billion.

The elevated performance in the second quarter was due mostly to a lowering of the company's corporate tax rate, from 30 per cent down to 10 per cent, Shanks acknowledged. Ford has put some overseas losses back on its books in anticipation of changes in the U.S. corporate tax code, Shanks said. The company expects to have a 15 per cent rate this year, but that will return to 30 per cent next year.
Photo: Twitter

UPDATE: 11:20 a.m.

Critically ill baby Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice to die Thursday unless his parents and a hospital agree on an end-of-life plan that could potentially keep the child alive for a bit longer, a British judge has ruled.

High Court judge Nicholas Francis gave 11-month-old Charlie's parents and the hospital that has been treating him until noon Thursday to come to terms on a care plan for the infant's final hours or days.

The baby suffers from a rare genetic disease, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to breathe unaided. Recent tests found Charlie has irreversible muscular damage.

"It is in Charlie's best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only," the judge said as a medical and legal battle that has drawn international attention nears a wrenching conclusion.

The parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for experimental treatment. They gave up their fight on Monday, acknowledging that the window of opportunity to help him had closed.

On Tuesday, they said they hoped to bring their son, whose 1st birthday is next week, home to die. Francis said Charlie's mother and father now accept that the only options for their son "are the hospital or the hospice."

ORIGINAL: 6:20 a.m.

A British judge is set to rule on where Charlie Gard, a baby with a rare genetic disease, will spend the last days of his life.

A High Court judge will decide at a hearing Wednesday whether his parents' wish to take him home to die will be granted.

After months of court proceedings on whether the 11-month-old baby could travel to the United States to access experimental treatment, his parents withdrew their bid on Monday.

The case caught the attention of US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis and the cause garnered widespread grassroots support.

The judge is also considering placing Charlie in a hospice for his final days.
Photo: The Canadian Press

No knot-tying demonstrations. No wood-carving advice. President Donald Trump went straight to starting a fire in a speech at a national Boy Scout gathering.

Parents, former Scouts and others were furious after Trump railed against his enemies, promoted his political agenda and underlined his insistence on loyalty before an audience of tens of thousands of school-age Scouts in West Virginia on Monday night.

"Is nothing safe?" Jon Wolfsthal, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter, saying Trump turned the event into a "Nazi Youth rally."

Trump, the eighth president to address the National Scout Jamboree, was cheered by the crowd, but his comments put an organization that has tried in recent years to avoid political conflict and become more inclusive in an awkward position.

The Boy Scouts' official Facebook page was barraged with comments condemning the speech. Several people posted links to the Scouts' policy on participation in political events  which sharply limits what Scouts should do. Boy Scouts are typically 10 to 18 years old.

One woman wrote in disbelief that the Scouts started booing when Trump mentioned Obama.

The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement after the speech that it does not promote any one political candidate or philosophy.
Photo: The Canadian Press

French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote d'Azur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday.

A raging wildfire began late Tuesday in the dry Mediterranean forests around La Londe-Les-Maures before being pushed by the southern Mistral winds to Bormes, a tourist magnet with houses clustered on a hill surrounded by dense forests of scrub and trees.

The local Var Matin newspaper reported that 12,000 people were forced to take refuge in gymnasiums and other places, including thousands of campers. It said some people sought safety on local beaches.

Col. Eric Martin of the Var firefighting unit said Wednesday on BFM-TV that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares.

The airport in Toulon was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well the Fort de Bregancon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

The wildfires began raging along France's Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations with flames reaching a corner of Saint-Tropez.

Further east, reinforcements were sent in to battle a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares of forest.

Another fire was contained Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer after burning two villas, seriously injuring one firefighter and devouring about 500 hectares.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Watching Kristine Barry and husband Christopher Havill cuddle their two-month-old son Sebastian, it's hard to believe their little guy has been through more major medical procedures in his short life  and even before being born  than many people experience in a lifetime.

Weeks before his birth in May, Toronto doctors discovered through imaging scans that Sebastian had not one, but two congenital heart defects  and they knew they had to do something fairly radical to bring him into the world and give him a chance at a full and healthy life.

That something was an in-utero procedure to poke a hole in the wall between the upper chambers of his tiny heart, which had developed with no opening, followed by an operation after birth to repair his major cardiac arteries, which weren't in the proper locations.

Scans of Sebastian while in his mother's womb showed his aorta, the vessel that takes oxygen-rich blood to the brain and body, and his pulmonary artery, which channels blood to the lungs to be oxygenated, were switched  a condition known as transposition of the great arteries, or TGA.

Doctors also discovered there were no openings in the walls between either the two upper chambers (the atria) of his heart or the bottom two chambers (the ventricles), which would have prevented his blood from circulating properly after birth. While in the womb, fetal blood is oxygenated through the placenta.

"It's pretty intense hearing something like that, that they're going to do it while he's still inside of her," Havill, 27, said Tuesday after he and his wife travelled to Sick Kids from their home in Barrie, Ont., north of Toronto.

"It's something you would think would only happen on a TV medical show, not in real life," agreed Barry, 25. "Doing the in-utero procedure actually sounded like the best possible thing. In my gut, we knew this was what we wanted to happen, what we needed to do."

Now weighing 10 pounds and meeting all his developmental milestones, Sebastian is like any other healthy two-month-old, his parents say.
Photo: The Canadian Press

President Donald Trump says he will bar transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the U.S. armed forces.

Trump said on Twitter Wednesday that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," that the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

Trump added that "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defence Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban.

Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting. But transgender troops are already serving openly in the military.
Photo: Google Maps

A body discovered on Mitchell Island in Metro Vancouver has been identified as that of a man reported missing on June 1.

The body of twenty-nine-year-old Joel Arkinson of Vancouver was found Tuesday afternoon on the mostly industrial island in the Fraser River.

The death is not considered suspicious, says Vancouver Police Sgt. Jason Robillard.

The case has been handed over to the BC Coroners Service.
Madison Erhardt

UPDATE: 10 a.m.

RCMP have confirmed a man has died after he was found floating in the waters of Okanagan Lake in front of property on Casa Loma Road.

RCMP and emergency personnel were sent to the scene shortly before 8:30 Wednesday morning.

The investigation into the man's death is in the early stages as RCMP await the arrival of a coroner.

A witness on scene said his neighbour went out to the lakeside after seeing a lone cellphone on the dock. As the woman approached the dock she saw a man lying motionless in the lake.

As such, the deceased has not yet been positively identified, says Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey.

The support of the local fire department and a trained dive team will likely be required for the safe recovery of the mans body.

ORIGINAL STORY: 9:35 a.m.

Emergency crews are on the scene of what has been described as a possible drowning in West Kelowna.

Crews were called to the beach in front of a home on Casa Loma Road just before 8:30 this morning.

Castanet has a reporter on the scene.

More details to come.
Photo: The Canadian Press

At Jef Boeke's lab, you can whiff an odour that seems out of place, as if they were baking bread here.

But he and his colleagues are creating something else altogether: life.

Scientists have long been able to make specific changes in the DNA code. Now, they're taking the more radical step of starting over, and building redesigned life forms from scratch. Boeke, a researcher at New York University, directs an international team of 11 labs on four continents working to "rewrite" the yeast genome, following a detailed plan they published in March.

Their work is part of a bold and controversial pursuit aimed at creating custom-made DNA codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide a treatment for diseases. It could also someday help give scientists the profound and unsettling ability to create entirely new organisms.

The genome is the entire genetic code of a living thing. Learning how to make one from scratch, Boeke said, means "you really can construct something that's completely new."

On the horizon is redesigning human DNA. That's not to make genetically altered people, scientists stress. Instead, the synthetic DNA would be put into cells, to make them better at pumping out pharmaceutical proteins, for example, or perhaps to engineer stem cells as a safer source of lab-grown tissue and organs for transplanting into patients.

Some have found the idea of remaking human DNA disconcerting, and scientists plan to get guidance from ethicists and the public before they try it.
Photo: The Canadian Press New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo

New York state is set to study the use of a device known as the "textalyzer" that would allow police to determine whether a motorist involved in a serious crash was texting while driving.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that he would direct the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee to examine the technology, as well as the privacy and constitutional questions it could raise.

"Despite laws to ban cellphone use while driving, some motorists still continue to insist on texting behind the wheel  placing themselves and others at substantial risk," Cuomo said in a statement provided exclusively to The Associated Press. "This review will examine the effectiveness of using this new emerging technology to crack down on this reckless behaviour and thoroughly evaluate its implications to ensure we protect the safety and privacy of New Yorkers."

The device is called the "textalyzer" because of its similarity to the Breathalyzer, which is used to identify drunk drivers. It would allow police to see if a motorist had been texting, emailing or otherwise using his or her cellphone before a serious crash.

The "textalyzer" is still some months away from being ready, according to Cellebrite, the Israel-based tech company developing the device.
Photo: Contributed

Chase RCMP are looking for a driver who was lucky to get away unscathed from a crash.

On July 24, at 8 p.m., police received a report of a hit and run collision.

Cpl. Scott Linklater said a small red pickup towing a white enclosed trailer entered the westbound Trans-Canada Highway from Shuswap Avenue. The pickup failed to yield to a westbound tractor-trailer.

The driver of the semi-trailer unit attempted to brake and pulled to the left to avoid a collision. The semi unit hit the concrete median with the drivers side wheels. The red pickup struck the passenger side of the semi unit. The pickup then fled without stopping, said Linklater.

Anyone with any information regarding this investigation, or any other crime, is asked to contact the Chase detachment at 250-679-3221 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Photo: Police photo

Ohio put a child killer to death Wednesday, carrying out the state's first execution after a 3 1/2-year delay and signalling the possible resumption of capital punishment in the state.

Ronald Phillips was executed by lethal injection without any of the complications that marred the state's last execution and caused the governor to pause scheduled executions.

Phillips was sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and killing of Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter.

His chin and chest moved slightly and he breathed heavily while the lethal drugs were administered. Prison officials gave Phillips' time of death as 10:43 a.m., about 10 minutes after he gave his final statement, saying, "Sheila Marie didn't deserve what I did to her."

He apologized to the girl's family, telling them: "I'm sorry you had to live so long with my actions."

The girl's half sister said it was the first apology they had heard from Phillips.

Sheila Marie's aunt, Donna Hudson, said: "Finally, after 24 1/2 years, she can rest in peace."

Phillips, 43, seemed resigned at the end, looking up the ceiling and closing his eyes at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

The execution was delayed for a few minutes so that Phillips could meet with his brother. Earlier, he had spent much of the morning praying, kneeling and reading the Bible. He became emotional with his spiritual adviser and a visiting friend, said JoEllen Smith, a prisons department spokeswoman.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Video: Five Wild, Weird Sunny Weather Sights on N. Oregon Coast

Published 07/25/2017 at 6:23 AM PDT - Updated 07/25/2017 at 6:33 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  In that always engaging section of shoreline between Seaside and Rockaway Beach, there is more than meets the eye. There are astounding, even bizarre sights you can catch on these beaches if you're here at the right time.

In fact, sometimes what you see is downright rare. And it all depends on the weather.

Here's five amazing instances of wild weather moments on this part of the north coast  and no, it has nothing to do with storms.

Ethereal and Eerie, Fiery Glow on the Horizon. While filming a large amount of video clips around the north coast, one day this past June became rather fiery. This was a somewhat cloudy day, but most of the clouds were hovering just offshore for the majority of the time. That kept things at least partly sunny, until near the end of the day when the sun started dipping behind those cloud layers.

Luckily, there were some breaks on the horizon, which really light up when the sun gets to those low angles, causing it to erupt in all sorts of pink, reds and oranges. In this case, the colors hovered around purple, orange and red, and they got progressively wilder as the sun lowered itself.

You can see from the video, starting out in Cannon Beach it was a fuzzy purple.Then you can see it change to a glow that's increasingly intense as you move to Silver Point and then down to Arch Cape.

Zipping down the road another ten minutes to Manzanita, much of the light has faded, but the diagonal band of color remains intense. In the final clip of the video you can see fishing boats way offshore, to the left.





The Giant Electrified Haboob Offshore. One event that made quite a splash recently on the Oregon coast was video of what looked a giant wall of clouds off Depoe Bay. The Weather Channel even did a piece on it. It was a kind of low-lying stratus cloud that just happened to have a sharp edge.

Back in the summer of 2011, however, a much more striking example was lurking off Manzanita's shores. This massive marine layer was encroaching on the otherwise sunny beaches of that particular day, but it had an unusual puffy look to it, like a sand haboob (which are massive sand storms). Here, however, as the sun dipped ever lower, it lit up the layer's edges and fired up some otherworldly, perhaps even electric colors.









The Double Sun Mirage of the Novaya Zemlya Effect. It's apparently pretty rare throughout most of the world, but it doesn't seem to be that rare on the Oregon coast. It's called the Novaya Zemlya Effect, and it's a wild, weird sight if you pay attention.

Here, Oregon Coast Beach Connection cameras found it in June of 2016 at Arcadia State Park near Cannon Beach.

The Novaya Zemlya (named after a string of Russian islands) shows up as a kind of double-headed sunset  or even more than two. You can see the orb of the sun descending, but somehow, above it, there's another version of it sitting on top.

In the simplest terms, it's a kind of polar image mirage. The Novaya Zemlya essentially comes from the light being bent through a few inversion layers way offshore. It often shows up in slats: as if the sun is coming through slots of some sort. In fact, that's exactly what's happening, but in this case it's being bent in and through atmospheric thermoclines  which are the transition layers between warmer and cooler air.

An even stranger thing: the Novaya can often be accompanied by the famed Green Flash at Sunset, even though normally the correct conditions for that to occur are a clear sky between you and the horizon.

Shafts of Light and Neahkanie Mountain's Own Weather. Another recent video and photo sojourn to the northern coast resulted in those famous and stunning shafts of light streaming down from clouds. Except in this video taken at Manzanita, you can witness what a headland like Neahkahnie Mountain can do to weather.

These rays are called crepuscular rays, meaning pertaining to twilight. They mostly happen around sunset or sunrise.

What's happening is the breaks in the clouds are allowing the sun to illuminate haze or particles in the atmosphere. This creates the shafts, but the angles are determined by the angle of the sun. When you see those rays shooting outward from the sky, that's essentially the same idea as when you're looking at a railroad track: they increase in angle as they get closer to you.

Here's the kicker: crepuscular rays are actually straight and parallel. Like railroad tracks, they appear to diverge because of perspective.

In the video, you see two different looks to them.

However, you also see the impressive way Neahkahnie Mountain can affect weather. Note in the first scene how the clouds are actually moving in a semi-circle around the headland.

The Strange Triangular Sunset of Seaside. It's October 15, 2004. Oregon Coast Beach Connection didn't exist then. Those involved with it now caught this incredible sight in Seaside on that day. Essentially, this was another instance of crepuscular rays, except the sun is so low it causes a shaft of dusk's light to shoot upwards, and this is then reflected in the ocean. Oregon Coast Lodgings for this event - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....





Coastal Spotlight



LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles

Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net

All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted
Previous Next

Tennessee American Water invites area residents to experience the world of water at its upcoming Water Fest on Thursday, Aug. 3. The open house is free and includes plant tours, educational demonstrations, childrens activities, face painting and refreshments. In addition several community partners will be on-hand to show how water is connected to almost everything we do.This marks our 130th year serving the Chattanooga area as the water provider, said Valoria Armstrong, president of Tennessee American Water.Water Fest will give residents the opportunity to learn some history about Tennessee American Water and offer water-related fun for all ages.Some examples of activities include fixing a broken pipe, sitting in the drivers seat of machinery used in the water industry, running through the Tennessee American Water mister to cool off, and playing a water facts game. Community partners include:Happinest Wildlife Rehabilitation and RescueChattanooga Fire DepartmentHamilton County Water Quality DepartmentCreative Discovery MuseumStowers MachineryChattanooga Girls Leadership Academy Aquaponics ClubCoca-Cola Sampling TeamBASFWater Fest takes place on Thursday, Aug. 3 from 6-8 p.m. at the Chattanooga water plant. Parking will be in the back parking lot of the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, 865 East Third St. Shuttles will take attendees to and from the water plant. More information is available at the Tennessee American Water Facebook page and on Twitter @tnamwater.Sponsors and volunteers for Water Fest include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Allied Underground, Eslinger Contractors, and Thompson Engineering.
Marine veteran, Chris Terry, has joined Legacy Senior Living, a Cleveland-based senior living management company, as regional vice president of operations.

Mr. Terry served in the United States Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Reserve for seven years, with military occupational specialties in infantry, administration and combat water survival.

Prior to his service, Mr. Terry completed his undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.

Mr. Terry brings over 15 years experience in senior care management to Legacy Senior Living, including three years as a regional director of operations.

In this new position, Mr. Terry will oversee operations for Legacy Senior Living facilities serving Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.

I am thrilled to have Chris join the Legacy team," said Bryan Cook, chief operating officer of Legacy Senior Living. "Having worked with Chris in the past, I am confident his leadership and operations skills will make a significant impact in our facilities. He is a servant leader who will motivate our care teams to serve with compassion and excellence."

I started working in this industry as a cook and have worked through many different positions in the senior care field," said Mr. Terry. "I am dedicated to serving this generation and am very excited about the opportunity to serve in this position."
Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse joined with all but two of their Republican colleagues on Tuesday in voting to launch a Senate debate on health care legislation that could lead to repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act.

"The status quo is simply unacceptable and I believe we need to act," Fischer said.

"Under ObamaCare, health insurance has become increasingly unaffordable for Nebraskans," she said.

Premiums in Nebraska increased by 153 percent from 2013 to 2017, Fischer said. The state has only one insurer offering individual plans through the health care exchange, she said.

Sasse described the vote as "step one in what's going to be a long process" of debating health care reform.

"I expect the Senate to immediately start the back-and-forth amendment process," he said.

"If a bill ultimately passes, it will not be the House bill, but rather something that goes to a conference debate process with the House of Representatives."

The House passed its own health care bill in May.

The 51-50 GOP Senate victory, secured by the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence, may lead to action that "could force tens of thousands of Nebraskans to lose their health coverage," Nebraska Appleseed declared in expressing disappointment with the vote of Nebraska's senators.

"We are extremely disappointed that both Sen. Fischer and Sen. Sasse went along with this process and voted to place in jeopardy the health care of so many of their constituents," Appleseed deputy health care director Molly McCleery said.

"This vote is a sharp departure from the deliberative process that yielded the Affordable Care Act and opens the door to a variety of unscreened proposals, none of which will have gone through a transparent process, a committee hearing, congressional study or received the input of health care stakeholders and experts," she said.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 12: Ross Barkley of Everton shakes hands with Ronald Koeman, Manager of Everton as he is subbed off during the Premier League match between Everton and Watford at Goodison Park on May 12, 2017 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) (Alex Livesey / Getty Images)

Midfielder Ross Barkley has no future at Everton after rejecting the Premier League club's contract offer, manager Ronald Koeman said on Wednesday.

Barkley, 23, scored five goals and provided eight assists in the league last season as Everton finished seventh, but has refused to extend his stay at the club after entering the final year of his contract.

Advertisement

Koeman told Barkley in May that he would be sold if he did not accept the contract on offer. He said on Wednesday that Everton had not received any bids for the player, who is currently recovering after groin surgery.

"His situation is not too difficult, we made a good offer of a contract, he declined and told me that he is looking for a new challenge," Koeman told reporters before Everton's Europa League qualifier first leg against Slovakia's Ruzomberok on Thursday.

Advertisement

"It is really clear. I am looking to other players  that is my priority and not Ross, with all respect, because it is his decision. Everybody knows what the situation is. He told me at the end of last season," he said.

"He has one more year on his contract and we work with respectful people. And after his surgery, if he is back for training, he will be part of the first team sessions. There have been no changes - he has been the same."

Everton have signed eight players ahead of the new season, but Koeman wants three more as he aims to replace long-term absentee Ramirez Funes Mori (knee) and striker Romelu Lukaku, who has joined Manchester United.

"We lost Funes Mori to injury, we are looking to replace him," he added. "We lost Lukaku, so we try to get another in and maybe one more."

The manager also confirmed the Everton's pursuit of Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, but said he did not know if the club would table another bid.

"Of course we have interest in the player," Koeman added.

British media reported that Everton have had bids of 40 million pounds ($52.2 million) and 45 million pounds for the Iceland international rejected by Swansea.
At the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Romeoville, items are picked off the shelves, packed into boxes and shipped to customers. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella)

Amazon announced it will conduct job fairs Aug. 2 at its warehouses in Romeoville and Kenosha, Wis., as part of a national hiring day aimed at filling 50,000 jobs across the country.

"Amazon Jobs Day," will be held from 8 a.m. to noon at each center and will include tours and information sessions. Amazon said it expects to make "thousands" of job offers at the events.

Advertisement

The company said it will hire full-time employees who will pick, pack and ship customer orders at warehouses. It also is seeking more than 10,000 part-time workers for its sorting centers.

Earlier this month, Amazon said it will open a sorting center in Crest Hill by mid-October that is expected to employ several hundred full- and part-time workers.

Advertisement

The company, which announced its first Illinois warehouse in 2015, has said it expects to employ more than 8,000 people in Illinois by the end of next year. Five distribution centers already have opened in Illinois, and four others have been announced  one each in Monee and Waukegan, and two in Aurora.

Amazon also is conducting the job fairs in Baltimore; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Etna, Ohio; Fall River, Mass.; Hebron, Ky.; Kent, Wash.; Robbinsville, N.J.; and Whitestown, Ind.

crshropshire@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @corilyns
Franciscan St. James Health is seen Feb. 8, 2016, in Chicago Heights. The hospital, now called Franciscan Health Chicago Heights, has reached a $15 million settlement with family of a 6 -year-old Sauk Village girl who allegedly suffered brain damage during her delivery. ( Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune )

A south suburban hospital has reached a $15 million settlement with the family of a 6-year-old Sauk Village girl who allegedly suffered brain damage during her delivery.

Nyelle Brown suffered severe brain damage during her January 2011 delivery at Franciscan St. James Health in Chicago Heights, according to the family's 2013 medical malpractice lawsuit. The suit alleged the hospital failed to act quickly enough, including not delivering Nyelle earlier, when she showed signs of distress.

Advertisement

She now has cerebral palsy, the lawsuit said.

Cook County Circuit Judge Kathy Flanagan approved the settlement July 17 and dismissed the case Monday, court records show.

Advertisement

Franciscan Health agreed to the settlement without admitting liability.

The lawsuit also alleged that the hospital, now called Franciscan Health Chicago Heights, erred by not stopping the use of labor-inducing drug Pitocin.

As a result of the hospital "overdosing Nyelle's mother with Pitocin during labor, there were too many contractions that were too strong and that occurred too closely together," an attorney representing Nyelle, Matthew Patterson, said in a statement.

The "excessive" contractions "stopped oxygen delivery and blood flow to Nyelle's brain," resulting in severe brain injury, he said.

"Despite warnings that Nyelle was in distress during labor from the excessive contractions, the health care providers failed to perform a timely (cesarean section)," Patterson said.

She can't walk, talk or care for herself in any meaningful way, and as a result of her severe brain damage, "will require extensive future medical care and therapies," he said.

Also representing Nyelle and her family was Geoffrey Fieger, a personal injury lawyer in suburban Detroit.

Last year, Fieger and Patterson's firm, Beam & Raymond of Chicago, represented a Hickory Hills boy who suffered brain damage in a medical malpractice case against the University of Chicago Medical Center. In that case, which is under appeal, a Cook County jury awarded more than $50 million to Isaiah Ewing.

Advertisement

First Midwest Bank was appointed guardian in both cases so that a professional can manage the money in the children's estates after a verdict or settlement to ensure their needs are taken care of and the money is used only for their benefit, Patterson said.

Of the $15 million in Nyelle's case, the lawyers will receive about $5 million in fees. More than $9.5 million goes to her estate, court records show.

Franciscan Health had no immediate comment.

byerak@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @beckyyerak
The creation of the iconic 747 involved 50,000 engineers, mechanics, construction workers and administrators working over a period of less than 16 months during the late 1960s. Today the jumbo jet carries people and cargo, though it's nearing the end of its life cycle. (Chicago Tribune Graphics/Chicago Tribune)

United Airlines is giving Chicagoans nostalgic for the heyday of the Boeing 747 another chance to take a flight on the aircraft before it makes its final United flight later this year.

Chicago-based United still has 14 747s in operation that typically only fly from San Francisco to a handful of cities in Asia and Europe.

Advertisement

But United will have one of its 747s fly from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to San Francisco on Friday, the airline said. Tickets for the flight  UA2704, departing Chicago at 6:30 p.m.  went on sale Tuesday, said United spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 15 The fuselage of a Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental is put together in the manufacturing step known as final body join at Boeing's Everett, Wash., plant. For the second time this year, Boeing this month curtailed production of the new 747-8, citing weak demand. Though Boeing spokesmen insist there are no plans to retire the 747, experts point to growing signs that the fuel-guzzling plane is finished. (Timothy Stake / Boeing)

As of Wednesday morning, airfares for the 747 flight were no more expensive than flights on other aircraft the same day, though passengers can't fly basic economy. All seats on the plane's upper deck  which gives the iconic jumbo jet its distinctive hump were listed as unavailable on United's website.

Advertisement

United hasn't set an official retirement date for the 747, but the aircraft, once dubbed the "Queen of the Skies," is expected to make its final flight in the last three months of the year.

Most airlines are moving away from the 747 for passenger travel. Since United began using the 747 in 1970, jet manufacturers have come out with aircraft that are more efficient, reliable and provide an "updated inflight experience" on long-haul flights, United President Scott Kirby said earlier this year, when United announced it was bumping up the 747's retirement date.

United hasn't ruled out additional one-off 747 flights in Chicago, but none are currently scheduled.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
I get the sense that most people like cava, the sparkling wine from Spain, because it is accessible, fun, easy to drink and affordable. There are other reasons to like it, but as far as I am concerned, those are enough.

Cava is made in the traditional method of Champagne, via secondary fermentation in the bottle (metodo tradicional in Spanish), and while most cava will never offer the bracing acidity and layers of complexity that good Champagne does, cava has exquisite charms all its own.

Advertisement

Cava is great as an aperitif, and while it is best with seafood and lighter fare, it is also versatile with other more substantial foods, as many sparkling wines are. Expect varying notes of fresh lemon, lime and other citrus, a nuttiness or earthiness, a hint of stone fruits here and there, green apple, pear, anise, mushroom, honey, maybe some tropical fruit suggestions, little whiffs of strawberry or cherry and perhaps some yeasty-biscuity notes or balancing bitterness.

Cava is not so much a place as it is a winemaking style practiced in seven places scattered throughout Spain  like a collection of islands on land, each one a recognized cava production zone. There are other types of sparkling wine in Spain  made using different methods  but only winemakers using the traditional method in permitted cava locations, and of course following the other cava laws, can carry the official cava designation on their labels.

Advertisement

The overwhelming majority of cava  about 95 percent of it  is made not far from the unofficial capital of cava, the town of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia near Barcelona. This cava hub lies within the Penedes region in the larger, autonomous community of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Other cava-recognized areas are within Aragon, Basque Country, Extremadura, Navarra, Rioja and Valencia.

While the cava winemaking process mirrors that of Champagne, Spain has its own grape varieties. The French varieties chardonnay and pinot noir are allowed in cava (just like in Champagne), but cava relies most heavily on three native grapes: macabeo, parellada and xarel-lo. (Yep, that's how it's spelled.) The other two permitted but less-used grape varieties are subirat and trepat.

Sparkling wine made in the traditional method has existed in Spain since the late 19th century. As the story goes, Jose Raventos, who ran Codorniu winery at the time, visited France and came back with the idea of making Champagne-style sparkling wine in Spain. That happened for the first time in 1872. Spaniards started calling this wine style "champan," and that didn't sit well with the folks in France, so eventually the Spanish name for this style of bubbly was changed to cava  for "cellar"  the place where the wine is aged before it is released. It was a simple fix, it is easy to say and today the word cava is synonymous with fizzy wine from Spain that is fun, approachable and affordable  even if some of it is more serious and rare.

The Cava D.O. (Denominacion de Origen) was established in 1986; in 2016, in an attempt to distinguish higher-quality, single-vineyard cava from the more mass-produced bottles, a new designation was established within the D.O: Cava de Paraje Calificado. To date, 12 vineyards qualify for this designation. (Seek out those bottles if your cava journey is well underway, or try the bottles below for a good introduction to the wine style.)

The best thing about cava is you don't need a reason to open a bottle. It certainly adds to celebrations, but because it can often be found at much lower price points than some other traditional method sparkling wines, one never has to think twice about opening a bottle at any time. It's uniquely Spanish, reliable and often delivers more than its price asks. Three more reasons to love cava.

Recommended

Below are notes from a recent tasting of cavas. They are listed in ascending order, according to price.

Ramon Raventos Brut Cava. Made of 70 percent xarel-lo, this wine was crisp, fresh and creamy, with notes of lime, apple, stone fruit and a long, nutty finish. $14

Anna de Codorniu Blanc de Blancs Brut Reserva Cava. This one is made of 70 percent chardonnay and offered notes of lemony citrus, lime, melon, anise and a pleasant softness. $15

Advertisement

Barcino Belle Epoch Brut Cava. With stone fruits, a touch of sweetness, bready notes, citrus and a lingering peach finish, this wine is made of macabeo, xarel-lo and parellada. $15

2013 El Xamfra Clos La Soleya Brut Cava. Starting with dried herbs, earthiness and vegetal notes, this wine moved into stone fruits and a bready finish with 11.5 percent alcohol. $15

Mercat Brut Cava. Stone and tropical fruits mingled in a creaminess that was also very clean and cleansing, and led to a fresh and lingering nutty finish. $15

Vilarnau Brut Reserva Cava. Made of 50 percent macabeo, 35 percent parellada and 15 percent xarel-lo, this crisp and clean wine offered lemon, green apple, lime and a creamy mousse. $15

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

2013 Juve & Camps Essential Xarel-lo Reserva Brut Cava. Subtle notes of cherry and strawberry intermingled with dried herbs, anise and a balancing bitterness and nuttiness in this 100 percent xarel-lo wine. $16

Totus Tuus Reserva Brut Cava. Citrus, stone fruits, herbs and a hint of butterscotch and nuts characterized this mouth-filling wine made mostly of chardonnay with xarel-lo, macabeo, parellada and pinot noir. $17

Advertisement

Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Heredad Cava. Toasty, smoky and full of apple, floral and honey notes with lemon and nuts on the finish, this wine was very fresh and clean. $20

2013 Naveran Dama Brut Cava. Tropical fruits and crisp apple took center stage in this layered and lip-smacking wine made of 85 percent chardonnay and 15 percent parellada. $26

Michael Austin is a freelance writer.

food@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @pour_man
Thousands of Japanese-Americans were detained in the United States during World War II. Then They Came For Me, the new photography exhibit at Alphawood Gallery, will be up through Nov. 19. (Clem Albers )

It's an overcast April day outside of Los Angeles, where three members of the military police stand with a machine gun and a set of rifles outside of the Santa Anita Racetrack, their small wooden watchtower slapped together as hastily as a set of Lincoln Logs.

The background doesn't resemble the hand-painted beach sets the nearby film studios will use for their California scenes  this landscape was probably lush a while ago, but it's beginning to show patches of desert after years of misuse. To the right of the soldiers stands the track where Seabiscuit became a national hero. Tire tracks have replaced hoofprints.

Advertisement

To the left of their post are stables where a thousand thoroughbreds had lived months ago. But at its highest population, these stables will house about 18,000 people, making it the largest temporary detention center of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Japanese-American incarceration.

Clem Albers, a photographer for the War Relocation Authority, captures the scene, but the picture is quickly impounded  no documentation of barbed wire allowed. They only have that kind of stuff in Nazi Germany.

Advertisement

But it's Albers' image that ushers viewers into "Then They Came For Me," the new photography exhibition at Alphawood Gallery that chronicles the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Marking the 75th anniversary of this executive order, Alphawood's two-story exhibition relies on the lenses of Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and a slew of other government-contracted photographers such as Albers to display the sordid realities of this moment and connect it to contemporary politics.

While most history textbooks might point to Pearl Harbor as justification behind this imprisonment, the event was ultimately used to act upon enduring racism that long preceded the war. The order did not explicitly target Japanese- Americans, but it allowed the military to target specific zones and cherry-pick neighborhoods for evacuation. As a result, more than 109,000 Japanese-Americans were sent to concentration camps scattered throughout the country.

"The real reason we put this together is because the story is all too painfully relevant in the current political context," Alphawood curator Tony Hirschel says. "There's this idea that people who look like the enemy need to be locked up or have their movements restricted."

The show first unpacks the history of Japanese immigration to the United States. While many of the images and curatorial notes expand on anti-Chinese ideologies that made Japanese labor appealing to U.S. businesses, family photos and portraits also demonstrate the myriad ways Japanese immigrants negotiated their heritage with their new home. Japanese community members were innovators in agriculture and business, among other trades.

Black and white portraits throughout the gallery show a cultural divide between "issei," first-generation Japanese immigrants who were denied citizenship, and "nisei," second-generation children born in the U.S. While assimilation is more apparent in the images of younger people, the Roosevelt administration targeted and incarcerated both groups. This resulted in a financial opportunity for white circles who took advantage of the evacuation and offered a pittance for the property of Japanese-American families as they prepared to leave. One photograph of a defeated farmer bargaining with his white neighbors over a tractor symbolizes the imbalance. Another photo that shows the absurdity of the moment is of a small boy dressed in an U.S. Army costume as his family is evicted to a facility much like the one in Santa Anita.

"The initial camps were often built at racing tracks because it minimized the need for new construction," Hirschel says. "They would just put plywood down over the manure and kept people in primitive conditions once they were evacuated."

Communities implemented schooling, toy libraries and artmaking as a way of retaining the humanity and creating a quiet form of resistance. A much louder version came about with the "No-No Boys," a collective of incarcerated Japanese-American men who evaded the draft when called upon to fight in WW II. In their rejection of the military, the No-No Boys embraced their Japanese heritage and used it to create a confrontational visual language.

Hirschel hopes that the exhibition will inspire the audience to fight against the bigotry they witness in their day-to-day lives.

Advertisement

"The government chooses words to smooth things over," he says. "It's a 'travel ban,' 'We're not singling anyone out. We're being appropriately cautious.'"

Hirschel encourages peoples who are in support of policies such as the anti-Muslim executive order to visit the show with the Constitution and its protections in mind.

"If we give up the fundamental, basic tenets of what makes America great, then there's nothing left to defend."

Until Nov. 19, Alphawood Gallery, 2401 N. Halsted St, Chicago; 773-687-7676, www.alphawoodgallery.org

khawbaker@tronc.com

Twitter @roaringgilmore

Advertisement

RELATED STORIES:

Almost forgotten St. Valentine's Day massacre photographer now remembered as poet

Exhibit on Japanese-American internment coming to new Lincoln Park gallery







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
City life keeps us running, so much so that we often don't notice something new  like a 30-foot-sculpture that wasn't there the day before.

Though it may be hard to believe, public art fairies are just a myth  with all of the public art in Chicago, such as the recently installed Real Fake piece in front of Trump Tower, there had to be a step in between giant crane and the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Advertisement

"It's not just one question and answer, actually," says Nathan Mason, Curator of Exhibits and Public Art for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. "There's the city, there's the park district, there's schools. There are different agencies that control different aspects of art in public and private property in Chicago."

Mason said the process of placing and designing art can be daunting, and is different for each placement. Chicago was always creating art through different organizations including the Cultural Center, which originally stemmed from the Chicago Public Library.

Thanks to the multitudes of organizations who place art around Chicago, here's a brief look into how many well-known sculptures were assembled while we hardly noticed.

Advertisement

Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Located in Millennium Park, (Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive) Cloud Gate, or the Bean, was British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor piece in the United States. Sculpted to look like liquid mercury to reflect Chicago's skyline, the bean measures 33 feet by 66 feet by 42 feet long and weighs 110 tons. Cloud Gate started its assembly in 2004 when contractors had to create the skeleton interior using 304 stainless steel rings. Stainless steel plates (160) came in after to form the exterior  each piece weighing a 1,000 pounds. Pedestrians may not have seen Cloud Gate come to life since it was protected by a tent to keep out sunlight that could melt and morph the structure. The grand opening took place May 15, 2006.

The Picasso

Celebrating its 50-year anniversary in Chicago, Pablo Picasso's 50 foot high art form is over 160 tons and was first assembled by the American Bridge Company division of the United States Steel Corporation in Gary. Once completed it was disassembled and trucked to Chicago. It was unveiled Aug. 15, 1967, and has remained The Picasso since the artist himself never gave it a title. If you want to see the abstract sculpture, it's in front of the Daley Plaza at 50 W. Washington St. You can't miss it.

Monument with Standing Beast

If you come across this sculpture and feel lost, you're not alone. Located on 100 W. Randolph St. Standing Beast incorporates four elements including a standing animal, a tree, a portal and an architectural form. Artist Jean Dubuffet created an abstract monument that viewers can fully embrace that reflects his street style graffiti aesthetic. Unveiled in 1984, this beast is 29 feet tall and weighs 10 tons.

Flamingo

American artist Alexander Calder unveiled his 53-foot-tall flaming red piece of artwork in 1974. Flamingo can be seen by the Federal Plaza. It was put together joining three quarter-inch-thick steel plates reinforced with ribs and gussets that sit on five points, making it seem almost weightless. One can walk around or through the 50-ton piece of art that makes its black and white surroundings look dull in comparison.

Advertisement

Crown Fountain

Spanish artist Jaume Plensa created this piece that became a game changer for public city art. Work on the fountain at 201 E. Randolph St. (between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive) was started in January 2002 and completed in July 2004 by Krueck and Sexton Architects. Two 50-foot tall black granite and crystal water-white glass block towers were placed apart from one another facing a shallow pool. The towers project video images on LED screens of Chicago residents and visitors whose mouths open for water to spout out. Many pieces were constructed outside Illinois and sent from Florida and Pennsylvania. The fountain designed in Toronto uses 11,000 gallons of water per hour, 97 percent of which is recycled back through the creation. Running through the pools on a hot summer day is a popular pastime.

Return Home

This sculpture features Abraham Lincoln standing with what symbolizes the modern man discussing the Gettysburg Address. The duration of the installation was fast, only taking two days and one night to assemble due to traffic restrictions. Two trucks were used for transportation while three art installers were present to ensure this 37,000-pound sculpture was installed properly. John Seward Johnson II's 25-foot towering work of art was installed in November 2016 (on Michigan Avenue between Hubbard and Illinois streets).

Agora

Agora was assembled in 2006 and took approximately 10 weeks to build with a team of almost 20. The unique artwork displays 106 9-foot cast iron headless torsos. It was created by the late Magdalena Abakanowicz, who was known for her sculpting skills and use of fibers in her artwork. You can't miss this haunting work located in Grant Park.

Advertisement

Real Fake

At the corner of Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue, Scott Reeder's golden Real Fake can be seen with the Trump Tower directly across the river. The political art is the most recent installation in Chicago. Built in one night and unveiled June 27, 2017, Reeder's 6-foot sculpture weighs 350 pounds and will stay grounded in position until October.

ebenmoche@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ebenmoche

RELATED STORIES:

Public art appears  and disappears  in year celebrating its impact on city

Advertisement

$1M Chicago initiative to create public art in all 50 wards

Deer sculpture installed along Chicago Riverwalk







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
James McMurtrys fans range from John Mellencamp, who co-produced his first record, to author Stephen King who said McMurtry may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation.

McMurtry also has plenty of Montana fans, one who even brought him a horse to ride after his set at Red Ants Pants Festival. McMurtry is returning to White Sulphur Springs to perform at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 30.

He plays four shows in Montana, starting on July 28 at the Big Sky PBR Rodeo at Town Center Park. The other performances are in Bozeman and Whitefish.

Famously political and the son of literary royalty (Pulitzer-prize winner Larry McMurtry), he got his first guitar at age 7 and his mother taught him how to play it. His songs are gritty and character driven, kind of like his dad's most famous work, Lonesome Dove. McMurtry performed as one of the Randy brothers in the mini-series based on the book.

"I worked as a non-descript cowboy moving steers back and forth. I knew how to make cows go."

McMurtry said he follows John Lennons lead on songwriting: You put words together and see if they mean anything.

His cell phone becomes his lyric notebook when he's traveling and McMurtry said he is inspired by his "fear of not having a job."

Sometimes his notes make sense later and sometimes they don't. Either way, they might turn into a song.

The songs have a seed. The seed can be a couple of lines in a melody. Maybe it can be a character. If I push to flush the character out, maybe Ill get a story. Most of my songs are fiction, sometimes its a play on words or playing opposites, or playing with melody and groove.

McMurtry and his band, Westbound and Down, are touring the country in support of his latest LP, Complicated Game, which takes listeners on a dusty road trip. The new songs are about relationships and the big old world verses the poor little farmer or fisherman, McMurtry said.

Its a theme the crowd at Red Ants Pants can undoubtedly relate to.
The '80s are back, baby  the fashions, the tunes, the Russian spies. The Cold War is so hot right now, and action thriller "Atomic Blonde" is here to capitalize on that moment. Charlize Theron stars as the titular blonde in this violently stylish spy flick, doing her own version of "John Wick" as a taciturn secret agent with a very impressive set of skills. Directed by former stunt man and "Wick" co-director David Leitch, "Atomic Blonde" is a cool bit of eye candy with incredible stunts and a killer soundtrack, even though it falters on the story itself.

"Atomic Blonde," adapted by Kurt Johnstad from the graphic novel "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston, is a harmonious marriage of material and star. Theron is perfect for the role as the frigid, butt-kicking MI-6 agent Lorraine Broughton, dispatched to Berlin for a dangerous mission in the shadow of the falling Berlin Wall in November 1989. Though the film claims it's not the story of the Berlin Wall, it couldn't be the story that it is without it. It offers a frenzied political backdrop, a ticking clock, and a robust sense of energy and urgency to "Atomic Blonde."

Advertisement

Lorraine has been sent to Berlin to retrieve a microfilm with a list of foreign agents working in the region. It was taken from the body of a dead British agent by the KGB operative who murdered him, and could now be for sale to the highest bidder. Lorraine is to connect with British agent Percival (James McAvoy), who has "gone native" in the underground club culture of East Berlin, and secure the list at all costs. Along the way, there are complications that take the form of tricky Russian agents, compromised identities, sexy French spies (Sofia Boutella) and a colleague gone rogue.

"Atomic Blonde" is a film about the power to be found in crafting images and telling stories. It's self-consciously a movie about the movies. Take, for instance, a scene where Lorraine makes mince meat of a Russian henchman's face behind the screen of a movie theater playing Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker." Eventually, she bursts right through the screen, in the ultimate fourth wall break.

Advertisement

Leitch pays tribute to Tarkovsky's signature long takes with a brutal, insane fight scene, filmed in one, long, unbroken shot extending over at least 10 minutes. It goes up and down stairwells, in and out of apartments, into cars crashing and reversing down streets. It's a remarkable feat of fight choreography, performance by Theron, and physical endurance on the part of the camera operator. It's also the one fight not soundtracked to an '80s pop hit, just heavy breathing and crunching bones.

Unfortunately, "Atomic Blonde" fumbles its own tale. After a brisk, efficient, uber-cool first hour, all New Wave tunes and sexy neon lighting, the second hour drags into dullness. The narrative momentum is squandered and lost, and none of the coldly delivered speeches pack any dramatic punch. A plot twist is telegraphed too early, bungled and then over-explained, while another goes by without any context whatsoever.

It's a shame, because "Atomic Blonde" is a visual cinematic delight. It's not that it's all style, no substance. But it doesn't seem to know what to do with its substance, and ultimately, "Atomic Blonde" becomes a film that's all dressed up with just nowhere to go.

"Atomic Blonde"  2.5 stars

MPAA rating: R (for sequences of strong violence, language throughout and some sexuality/nudity)

Running time: 1:55

Opens: Friday

RELATED STORIES:



'Detroit' review: Kathryn Bigelow shoots the '67 war at home

Advertisement

'Dunkirk' review: By land, by sea and  especially  by air

'City of Ghosts' review: Heroic journalism amid carnage in Middle East







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
"An American in Paris," which arrives in Chicago this week for a three-week stand of its national tour, was a critical (and a modest financial) success on Broadway in 2015. But the much-anticipated arrival of Christopher Wheeldon's production at Chicago's Oriental Theatre is coming on the heels of a truly boffo reception in London.

Its Chicago-based producer, Stuart Oken, is fully entitled to crow a little.

Advertisement

"We had 28 five-star reviews," Oken said in a recent phone interview from the United Kingdom, where a separate production of the show opened in London's West End in March. "It really has been hard in London this year  what with politics, terror and fire  and the show just seems to tap into what people want to see."

"An American in Paris" is, of course, an adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1951 film. It has a new book by Craig Lucas and uses a variety of songs by George and Ira Gershwin.

Advertisement

The success in England is another accolade for Wheeldon, the British-born director best known in Chicago for his work on the new production of "The Nutcracker" from the Joffrey Ballet.

"We hired him because of his theatricality and that Jerome Robbins quality that we all see in him," Oken said. "Chris is a crossover artist with a balletic skill set in the telling of stories. He understands the world of theater and storytelling."

Oken says his main worry with his U.S. tour, which opened last fall in Boston, is ensuring that all of his actors are able to stay healthy and take the regular classes that dancers need to stay in shape.

The star of the road company is Sara Esty, who was an alternate on Broadway and is a former soloist with the Miami City Ballet. McGee Maddox, a newcomer to the cast, now plays Jerry Mulligan, with Etai Benson playing the character role of Adam Hochberg.

Should Esty be indisposed, her understudy comes with an unusual advantage: Her name is Leigh-Ann Esty, and she is Sara's twin sister.

"An American in Paris" opens Wednesday at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago.

RELATED STORIES:

Chicago Dance Crash tries on 'Oz' for its 15th birthday

Advertisement

Jimmy Buffett and his Parrot Heads take over the Playhouse

Montego Glover and Gregory Treco to join Chicago 'Hamilton' cast
One night in April 2015, Keisha Carney tried to go to bed in spite of a bad toothache, which turned into an even worse headache - the kind that doesn't let you sleep. "I couldn't stand still. I was up walking around," she says. She woke her husband, who called her dentist's emergency line and then drove to a 24-hour pharmacy for pain medication.

The next morning, Keisha had an emergency appointment with the dentist, who looked in her mouth and shook her head. "She was like, 'What happened?' " Keisha recalls. Her wisdom tooth was so infected it needed to be extracted. It was the first of five teeth she'd lose.

Advertisement

Carney, 35 at the time, had never had bad teeth; in fact, she was known for her huge pearly smile. Despite juggling work and a large family, including 8-month-old twins, the Dumfries, Virginia, resident was in good shape all around. "For some perspective, my wife is a unicorn," says her husband, RW Carney, 37. "She's one of those women who wore heels her entire pregnancy, no issues, no nothing."

But suddenly lots of "little things" were going haywire with Keisha's body, the couple recounts for me as we sit in their neat, airy suburban townhouse about 30 miles south of Washington. Her hair was falling out in clumps, she was having unusually heavy periods and severe cramps at odd times in her cycle, she was gaining weight and battling brain fog and severe fatigue - even when she'd slept.

Advertisement

Then, another problem cropped up: Keisha missed a period. This was strange, because seven weeks after her twins were born, Keisha's obstetrician-gynecologist had inserted a "permanent contraceptive" device called Essure, made by Bayer. Keisha and RW had eight children between them at that point. "God has blessed us abundantly," says Keisha. "We knew we were done."

Keisha had originally asked to have her "tubes tied," the common term for surgical sterilization. But she says her OB/GYN suggested Essure, a permanent contraceptive that had been developed in part to avoid the risk associated with the incisions and anesthesia used in tubal ligation. The brochure Keisha was given touted Essure as "the most effective method of permanent birth control available" - 99.74 percent. It described the device as two "soft, flexible inserts" that, in a "gentle, non-surgical" procedure, are passed through the vagina and cervix into the fallopian tubes. There, the inserts, which do not contain or release hormones, help generate scar tissue that blocks the tubes. "It sounded more natural," says RW.

Though Keisha thought she had forever taken care of birth control, the feeling that she might be pregnant kept nagging at her. (She had used an alternative form of birth control for three months after she received Essure, as her doctor had told her to do. But because of a lapse in insurance coverage, she had not returned at that time for the medical procedure necessary to confirm her tubes had been completely blocked by the device.) So, she picked up a drugstore test to set her mind at ease. When it was positive, "I was devastated," she says. "My husband had to literally pick me up off the floor."

After the shock wore off, Keisha went online and found a Facebook group called Essure Problems. She began reading post after post from its roughly 16,000 members (today the number is almost twice that). There were women who wrote about the kind of bleeding, fatigue, hair loss and tooth decay that Keisha was experiencing, which they attributed to allergic or autoimmune reactions to materials, especially nickel, in the device. There were women who reported that their devices had migrated out of their fallopian tubes and embedded in the uterus or punctured other organs. There were women who had decided to have the coils removed via surgery and reported winding up with complications from the operations, and often hysterectomies. There was even a subgroup of women who posted pictures of their "E-babies."

Reading through the posts, Keisha began to think that all the strange "little things" happening in her body might be explained by a reaction to the device she had chosen for birth control. To begin with, she is so sensitive to nickel that she can't wear her white gold wedding ring for more than a couple of days because it contains the metal. (She says her doctor didn't ask if she was allergic to nickel; the doctor declined to discuss Keisha's case for publication, citing privacy laws.)

Now she was devastated, scared and angry. Why had her doctor recommended this? And why hadn't she done more homework before agreeing to it? "I blame myself for this part, that I never really thought about something foreign being in my body for the rest of my life," she says.

Keisha Carney with son Malik. (Katherine Frey / The Washington Post)

Nobody can say exactly how many women have had Essure implanted since the device went on the market in 2002. Bayer, which is headquartered in Germany, says that more than 750,000 devices have been sold worldwide and that sales "continue to grow." (According to data from Essure clinical trials, device insertion fails anywhere from 4 to 12 percent of the time, making actual usage unclear.) In a telephone interview, Patricia Carney, director of U.S. medical affairs for Bayer Women's Healthcare, pointed to the total sales number as evidence that "hundreds of thousands of women who've received Essure ... successfully achieved permanent contraception without having to go through an invasive surgical procedure."

In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration has received more than 16,000 adverse-event reports about Essure. These are official reports about symptoms, hospitalizations or diagnoses that patients, doctors, hospitals or a device manufacturer believe are associated with a device. They can prompt the agency to order a change in labeling, the addition of warnings or, in rare cases, the removal of a device from the market. Among the reports are nearly 9,000 surgical removals of Essure, mostly by hysterectomy. "That's a lot of surgeries for a device that's considered minimally invasive," says Madris Tomes, a former FDA analyst. Although she and other experts in FDA law and regulation emphasize that there is no magic number of reports that will trigger an investigation, complaints can serve as an important signal to the FDA that it should take another look at a drug or device. (The FDA declined an interview for this article but responded to questions in writing.)

Advertisement

Activism can make a difference as well. In 2012, a group representing the women who had coalesced on the Essure Problems Facebook page began contacting the FDA, asking for meetings. In 2015, the FDA held a hearing on the device, which, Tomes says, was probably a direct result of the women's persistence. "There has to be a pretty big outcry for there to be a public meeting," she says. In 2016, that hearing resulted in a "boxed warning" about possible side effects, including persistent pain and allergic reactions. Black box warnings, as they're commonly called, are among the strongest action the FDA takes to warn the public about potential dangers of a drug or device, and they are exceedingly rare for devices, according to Suzan Onel, a lawyer with Kleinfeld, Kaplan & Becker who has 27 years of experience in FDA device law. The FDA added the warning, it said at the time, because it believed "that some women are not receiving or understanding information regarding the risks and benefits of permanent, hysteroscopically-placed tubal implants that are intended for sterilization."

The warning - coming 14 years after Essure went on the market and two years after Keisha had it implanted - was a major victory for anti-Essure activists. But it also left a number of unresolved questions: How did this device come to market? What made it so popular? And should women continue to use it? To find out, I interviewed 14 women who have or used to have Essure, doctors who both implant and remove it, medical device engineers and consultants, researchers, women's health advocates, and FDA and industry representatives, including for Bayer. I also reviewed the company's data, transcripts of FDA hearings, court documents, heavily redacted FDA filings obtained by Freedom of Information Act request, medical research, hundreds of Facebook posts and data from adverse-event reports.

"It seems every two or three years we have another controversy in women's health," says Steve Xu, a health-policy researcher and Northwestern University dermatology resident who co-wrote a paper that found "significant weaknesses" in FDA approval of high-risk gynecological devices. "We have pelvic mesh, we have concerns with morcellators" - devices used during hysterectomies that can spread undiagnosed cancer. "And then with Essure, it's like, here we go again."







At a radiology conference in 1987, a doctor from Portland, Oregon, named Amy Thurmond presented data on a technique she had pioneered to treat infertility: unblocking fallopian tubes using a tiny catheter guided by an imaging technique called fluoroscopy. After the presentation, Julian Nikolchev, a medical entrepreneur, approached her with a question: Couldn't the technology be turned on its head for the opposite purpose? "He had the idea that there could be placement of a device or chemical in the fallopian tubes nonsurgically to prevent conception," recalls Thurmond.

In 1988, Thurmond and Nikolchev began testing the idea in rabbits, whose fallopian tubes have a similar structure to those found in humans. Nikolchev worked with Silicon Valley engineers, patents show, and raised $35 million of venture capital, according to news reports at the time. In the early 1990s, he founded a company called Conceptus to develop and market what it would call a "non-incisional permanent contraception" device. (Nikolchev did not respond to interview requests.)

The prototype of Essure had a ribbonlike steel outer coil soldered to a tightly wound steel inner coil that was wrapped in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers. The goal wasn't for the device itself to block the tubes, but rather for it to stimulate what's called foreign body response: The fibers would irritate or inflame the tissue, which would signal the immune system to surround the foreign body with cells that form scar tissue. This would encase the device and occlude the tubes, as researchers described in a 2001 study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Advertisement

Initial testing on 37 rabbits found that the device was highly effective in preventing conception when it was correctly placed and didn't move. But that happened only about 60 percent of the time, Thurmond and Nikolchev reported in a 2004 paper in the Journal of Women's Imaging.

For its first FDA-authorized human trial, which began in 1998, Conceptus kept the basic design but altered the metal coilsto prevent them from moving, the 2004 paper explains. For its outer, ribbonlike coil, it chose a relatively new material in the medical device arena called Nitinol, which had been developed at the now-closed Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland (coincidentally, the current location of the FDA). Nitinol, a flexible nickel-titanium "shape memory" alloy, as it is known, can be set to take a shape at a certain temperature, relax at a lower temperature and bounce back once warmed up again. For Essure, shape memory meant that the coils could be packed tightly in a slim delivery catheter. Once they hit body temperature, they would expand, allowing the PET fibers in the device to incite the "acute inflammation followed by chronic inflammation" that would generate the scar tissue and block the tubes, according to the 2004 paper.

While Nitinol had been used in medical devices since the 1980s, there were already published reports of failures with cardiovascular stents made of the material and of patients developing reactions to metal implants in general. According to Peter Schalock, a Boston-area dermatologist who has published extensively on metal hypersensitivity, reactions to implanted devices can include rashes or eczema, chronic inflammation and chronic pain, all of which are among the adverse events reported by Essure women.

Schalock and several experts in immunology or toxicology expressed concern at the 2015 FDA hearing that the nickel in Essure could be triggering allergic or autoimmune reactions, in which the immune system overreacts and attacks healthy cells. In addition to the issue of nickel, he and other physicians have raised concerns about the PET fibers used to incite the inflammatory response: "Maybe the inflammatory state goes a little wild," Schalock told me. "The question is what's driving it. Is it the Essure, or is the Essure waking up some sort of predisposition to autoimmune disease?"

I raised these questions with Bayer, which purchased Conceptus in 2013 for $1.1 billion. The company acknowledged in an email from its communications office that "a small amount of nickel is released from Essure" and said it would continue to analyze complaints about nickel sensitivity. Patricia Carney of Bayer says that tests for leaching in Phase I trials concluded that "the amount of nickel that comes out of the Essure inserts is actually far less than what comes out of most of the nickel-containing devices that are on the market." In response to the possibility that the device could be causing autoimmune reactions, Carney points out that autoimmune disease is already common in women. "What we then have to tease out is why are women having these symptoms," she says. "Because they're happening in women both with Essure and without Essure."

---

Advertisement

Before selling Essure to the public, Conceptus had to submit the device to scientific and regulatory review by the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The Center, which was established in 1976 in the wake of the crisis over the Dalkon Shield - an intrauterine device that caused several deaths and generated thousands of lawsuits because of its design, materials and lack of testing - has different requirements for approval of medical devices than the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which reviews drugs. "The legal standard for approving a drug explicitly requires adequate and well-controlled clinical investigations," says Patricia Zettler, former associate chief counsel for the FDA, who now teaches food and drug law at Georgia State University. In contrast, for devices, the standard is "reasonable assurance" of safety and effectiveness, she says, which is subject to interpretation.

Conceptus applied for approval of Essure in the category of Class III medical devices, which, according to the FDA, "are generally the highest risk devices and are therefore subject to the highest level of regulatory control." This class goes through the most rigorous application process for devices, known as premarket approval. But it is also the only class of device shielded from most lawsuits, thanks to a 2008 Supreme Court decision that makesit difficult for patients to sue in state court for devices that have received premarket approval. In addition, the FDA granted Essure expedited review, a legacy of AIDS activism intended to speed access to potentially lifesaving therapies, in which the FDA puts a treatment at the beginning of a review queue and provides advice on clinical trial design. The FDA fast-tracked Essure, it said, "because this device offers significant advantages over existing approved alternatives."

Although Class III devices are protected from most lawsuits and undergo the most rigorous approval process, they are not required to undergo randomized controlled trials - in which one randomly assigned group of patients gets the treatment, another group gets a different treatment, and the outcomes are compared. The FDA said in a written statement to me that it did not believe a control group was necessary for Essure because, at the time, "effectiveness and safety outcomes for laparoscopic tubal ligation were well known from years of clinical use" and could be used for comparison. Sanket Dhruva, a Yale University cardiologist and researcher of high-risk medical devices, strongly disagrees. "We all know the most rigorous data in clinical medicine is through randomization," control groups and follow-through, he says. Ideally, he explains, the researchers would have given 1,000 women Essure and another 1,000 women laparoscopic sterilization and followed them for five years to compare rates of pregnancy, complications, hysterectomy and repeat surgeries. Without a real-time comparison, he says, "we just didn't have the data."

For its third, "pivotal" trial, the most important for achieving approval, Conceptus reported on 439 women. None of the women became pregnant, for an effectiveness rate of 100 percent - though Conceptus noted that "no method of contraception is 100% effective, and pregnancies are expected to occur in the commercial setting." The company compared this to a long-term study of 10,000 women who elected tubal ligations, which found a rate of pregnancy of 5.5 per 1,000 for the first year. A "serious adverse event" - in which the Essure device perforated the fallopian tube, was expelled or wasn't placed correctly - occurred in 4.6 percent of participants. After one year of use, according to the data, 9 percent of women reported back pain, 3.8 percent reported abdominal pain and cramps, and 3.6 percent reported painful sexual intercourse.

When asked if this was an acceptable number of adverse events, the FDA said in its response to me that Conceptus demonstrated "reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective for its intended use." It went on to explain: "In determining safety and effectiveness, the FDA weighs any probable benefit to health from the use of the device against any potential risk of injury or illness from such use." One important benefit, according to the FDA, as well as many doctors and researchers, was that women seeking permanent sterilization could avoid surgery by opting for Essure. (It has been estimated that there are about four deaths per 100,000 surgical sterilizations, and a complication rate - involving bleeding, infection, organ damage or anesthesia reaction - of 1.6 percent.)

The fact that Conceptus had only followed the women for one year - the company itself noted that "the risks of long-term implantation (of Essure) are unknown" - also troubled Dhruva. A short-term study "might be okay if it's a medication that you take for a week," he says. "But we're talking about a device that's going to be implanted in a million people for the rest of their lives."

Advertisement

---

In order to monitor any potential long-term effects of the device, one of the FDA's conditions in approving Essure under expedited review was that the company would continue to follow the women from the pivotal study for at least five years. That data, which was submitted in 2008 but not posted by the FDA until 2014, reported that 92 percent of the 384 participants said overall comfort was "excellent" and 97 percent said they were "very satisfied." But the company noted that 30 percent of the original study group could not be followed for the full five years. This was yet another weakness of the studies, says Dhruva, because if those women had a complication or got pregnant, the outcomes wouldn't be reflected in the results.

Looking back on Essure's clinical trials, Dhruva and two other Yale-based physician researchers took the FDA to task in a 2015 opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine, citing the "large numbers" of adverse events reported since the device went on the market, such as incomplete procedures, tubal perforations, pain and bleeding leading to hysterectomies, possible device-related deaths and likely a highernumber of unintended pregnancies than previously disclosed. "We believe that these safety concerns, along with problems with the device's effectiveness, might have been detected sooner or avoided altogether if there had been higher-quality premarketing and postmarketing evaluations and more timely and transparent dissemination of study results," wrote Dhruva, Joseph S. Ross and Aileen M. Gariepy. When asked, the FDA declined to respond to the article. A Bayer representative said, "We disagree with many of the assertions in this article and remain confident that the benefits of Essure outweigh its risks."

Dhruva, who has been researching high-risk devices for nearly a decade, says the Essure case is just one example of "substandard data" used for device approval. "And unfortunately," he says, "I think a lot of women have suffered from consequences."

After its approval, Essure was welcomed with open arms by the women's health community, which had been seeking an alternative to surgical tubal ligation - at that time the most common form of contraception for women over the age of 40. In 2002, "the availability of an easier, faster, safer sterilization technique" was a big advance, says Cindy Pearson, executive director of the National Women's Health Network. This enthusiasm extended to physicians as well, and many became early adopters of Essure. "I saw it as a game-changer with respect to female sterilization," says James Robinson, a gynecologic surgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He estimates that he implanted hundreds of the devices in the decade he served as an OB/GYN with George Washington University Medical Center and says he never had patients return with complaints.

Other factors might also have influenced doctors' enthusiasm for Essure. For one thing, it takes less time to implant the device than to perform tubal ligation surgery in a hospital. Then there are the reimbursement rates. In 2011 documents created by Conceptus for its sales team, the company estimated that a doctor who inserted 60 Essure devices a year would net $66,747.78, or slightly more than $1,100 per device. By contrast, a physician is reimbursed about $510 by private insurance for surgical sterilization in a hospital, according to Amino, a company that uses U.S. insurance claims data to help consumers estimate health-care costs.

Advertisement

Barbara Levy, vice president of health policy at the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a former consultant to Conceptus, says the higher reimbursement rate is meant to cover office overhead and the equipment necessary to insert Essure, not to serve as an incentive for doctors to recommend Essure over tubal ligation. But Robinson argues that the rate does present an incentive, "and it's supposed to." He believes that the idea behind the Essure reimbursement rate is to steer doctors away from the more costly hospital-based procedure.

The problem with a procedure that reimburses well, Robinson contends, "is that everybody jumps onboard: 'Oh, I'm going to do Essures and I'm going to pay my kids' college tuition.' " But Essure isn't appropriate for every woman, he says, and should be inserted only by doctors who understand and can manage the risks.

---

Like many of the women I spoke to, Angie Firmalino, 45, says that her doctor recommended Essure. Shortly after her 2009 procedure, which she says was excruciating, the Tannersville, New York, woman began having constant bleeding and pain. She developed joint problems that she attributes to an autoimmune response and had to have surgery to remove the coils. The operation left fragments behind and resulted in a hysterectomy. She's still dealing with chronic pain, muscle weakness and blood circulation problems, which she also thinks are autoimmune related.

In 2011, Firmalino decided to start a group on Facebook to share her experiences with female friends. Then, strangers started requesting to join and "telling their horror stories, some worse than mine," she says. Soon the Essure Problems group had hundreds, then thousands of women. They wrote graphic descriptions of their pain and blood loss, fatigue and weight gain; they posted pictures of their thinning hair and bloated bellies that could be mistaken for marking the weeks of pregnancy. And they shared the stranger symptoms: joint pain, sudden muscle weakness, skin rashes. "That's when the talk started about what is this device made out of?" Firmalino says. "Then we discovered there's nickel in the device. None of us knew."

The handful of women administering the group began researching the device and submitting requests for federal records. One of the details that disturbed them was that the Conceptusvice president who presented the application to the Center for Devices' OB/GYN devices advisory panel, Cindy Domecus, had been an industry representative on that same panel from 1995 to 2001. In 2002, when Domecus appeared before the panel on behalf of Essure, four of the panel's nine voting members, including the chairman, were people she had served with. (Domecus declined to comment for this article.) When I asked the FDA about Domecus's tenure on the panel, it noted that industry representatives cannot vote. However, Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, which scrutinizes industry influence in health care, believes sitting on the panel gives industry members advantages by allowing them to build relationships and gain "a better understanding of how to influence the vote."

Advertisement

Another concern for the women involved the nickel. The 2002 package label listed nickel allergy as a "contraindication" (meaning the device should not be used for patients with that condition) and included a directive that physicians screen patients for the allergy. The women learned, however, that in 2011 the FDA granted a Conceptus request that the contraindication be downgraded to a "warning," which doesn't require physicians to screen patients. (The current labeling includes a nickel warning. The FDA told me it used a warning rather than a contraindication because it "concluded that the data did not meet the threshold of known hazard.")

Yet another issue the Essure Problems administrators believe got short shrift was removal of the device. A Conceptus representative testified at the 2002 hearing that taking it out would require cornual resection - removing the area where the fallopian tubes meet the uterus. But doctors have since found that's "not easy," says Myron Luthringer, a Syracuse, N.Y., OB/GYN who says he has removed hundreds of the devices. He explains that the coils are fragile and break apart, that the tissue in that area is difficult to repair and that PET fibers have often embedded in the surrounding tissue. For those reasons, he says, he tends to perform a hysterectomy, removing the uterus and cervix, as well as the fallopian tubes. Other physicians do as well. "We really advocate that the right procedure is hysterectomy," says Paul MacKoul, an OB/GYN at the Center for Innovative Gyn Care in Rockville, Maryland. But hysterectomy - and cornual resection, for that matter - require the very element many women who chose Essure were trying to avoid: surgery with anesthesia. "Anything that's designed to be permanent is very difficult to take out," notes MacKoul's partner and fellow OB/GYN, Natalya Danilyants.

In 2012, the Essure Problems administrators began contacting the FDA, asking for meetings; first, they got a conference call, then a sit-down. A few months later, environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a campaign against Essure, which led to media attention. In 2015, the FDA scheduled the public hearing before the Center for Devices' OB/GYN devices advisory panel - the same one that had approved the device in 2002 (only one of the 2002 members remained). Such meetings are infrequent, though they are standard protocol when the FDA investigates complaints regarding a medical device.

At the Sept. 24, 2015, hearing on the FDA's Silver Spring campus, 22 women testified about their symptoms and the impact they said Essure was having on their relationships, their sex lives, their ability to take care of their kids and their ability to work. The women also recounted how their concerns had been dismissed by physicians who told them there was no way the device could be causing their problems. One woman, Gabriella Avina, had participated in the clinical trials and spent years as a paid spokeswoman for Conceptus. "As I became the face of Essure women, my health was in a grave tailspin," she said.

Amy Reed, an immunologist who was fighting a separate, personal battle against morcellators, told the panel, "Women are presenting just like you would see in a rheumatologist's office - hair loss, rashes, joint pain, tired." She called these "classic symptoms" of an immune system gone haywire. Her husband, Hooman Noorchashm, a surgeon also trained in immunology, pointed out that "this device is not designed to cure an incurable disease. ... It's a medical device that's completely avoidable. And what I want to know from this panel is what percent harm are you going to accept: 0.1 percent, 1 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent? And how are you going to justify that?"

The panel members themselves had some tough comments for the FDA and Bayer, especially on the issue of nickel sensitivity. "How do we not have data on nickel allergy when we have a device that's 55 percent nickel and 20 percent of women - approximate numbers - are known to be nickel allergic?" asked Schalock, the Boston-area dermatologist and expert in metal hypersensitivity, who served on the panel in 2015.

Advertisement

Fourteen months after the hearing, the FDA announced the black box warning, which alerts patients to reported device migration, perforation, persistent pain and "suspected allergic or hypersensitivity reactions." The warning and a patient-doctor discussion checklist appear in the 27-pagepatient information booklet that all women considering Essure are supposed to receive, to be signed by both doctor and patient. (The checklist includes statements such as, "I understand that should my doctor and I decide that Essure should be removed after placement, an additional surgical procedure may be required. In complicated cases, my doctor may recommend a hysterectomy.") The FDA also ordered Bayer to conduct another clinical trial, this time with a control group: 1,400 women will get Essure, 1,400 will have a surgical tubal ligation, and they'll be followed for three years. The results are due in 2023.

---

The 16,373 adverse events related to Essure that were reported as of May 31 include accounts of devices that broke apart, migrated out of the fallopian tubes or punctured other organs; there are also reports of systemic autoimmune reactions, pregnancies (about 1,100), miscarriages and stillbirths. There are four reports of adult death, though the FDA notes that "confirming whether a device actually caused a specific event can be difficult based solely on information provided in a given report."

These numbers are not easily found on the FDA's website, or even by doing a search of its public database for adverse events, known as MAUDE. They came from Madris Tomes, the former FDA analyst, who left to launch her own search software, which she says is better at analyzing the agency's raw data. The FDA does not dispute her numbers (it counts 14,919 medical device reports related to Essure through December 2016). Tomes is helping the Essure women pro bono.

In early May, Tomes and several women from the Essure Problems group met on Capitol Hill to rally support for the 2017 Medical Device Safety Act, which would eliminate the protection from state-court lawsuits that the 2008 Supreme Court ruling gave to Class III medical devices. (Despite the ruling, more than 5,200 women have petitioned to sue Bayer over Essure in five separate state courts, some of which have ruled that the suits can initially go forward, according to Holly Ennis, a personal injury lawyer at Ennis & Ennis who represents hundreds of women who say they were injured by the device. Many of these women are hoping the suits will lead to a recall. Bayer, however, notes that "to date, 23 cases in the Essure litigation have been dismissed in their entirety or significantly narrowed.") But the Medical Device Safety Act isn't likely to get traction. Last year, President Barack Obama signed legislation that expedited the approval process for drugs and devices. President Donald Trump has promised to make that process even smoother, and the House recently approved a bill that would ease reporting requirements for medical device manufacturers.

Much of the U.S. medical community continues to endorse Essure. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the black box warning, citing a lack of "good, solid data," as Levy puts it. Planned Parenthood, which spoke in favor of the device remaining an option at the 2015 hearing, still offers Essure at 18 affiliates. And many physicians and researchers, as well as the Center for Devices' OB/GYN panel and Bayer, say Essure should stay on the market while further studies about its effects are conducted, because of the risks posed by the surgical alternative. Health-care watchdogs counter that there are other options available, such as IUDs, as well as vasectomy, which does not pose the same surgical risks as tubal ligation. For its part, the FDA told me that it "continues to believe Essure is safe and effective for many women - but also that some women experience very serious and sometimes debilitating problems."

Advertisement

Sales, meanwhile, seem to be falling domestically: According to Athenahealth, a medical billing management company, sales of Essure among the 1,938 U.S. medical providers in its database who implant it have dropped by 70 percent since 2010. A Bayer representative said in an email that the company "will discontinue distribution for commercial reasons in most of the countries in Europe, Latin America and Canada and in the few markets in Asia Pacific where the product is commercialized." The company attributes this to low sales, "nothing related to safety."

Robinson, the MedStar doctor, still admires the technology and thinks Essure has been effective for most of the women who have it. But, he says, doctors should have taken the potential risks more seriously: "The last thing you should be doing is saying, 'This is in your head, don't worry about it.' That's the kind of crap that sends people over the deep end, and for good reason. We need to take responsibility for the things that we do."

---

Twin pregnancies are notoriously difficult, but for Keisha Carney, her final singleton pregnancy was worse. She was constantly in pain - sometimes she'd be doubled over until the stabbing feeling subsided. She also had an ache in her lower back that would sometimes paralyze her for several minutes at a time. Little could be done to ameliorate her pain without potential danger to the baby.

There were more sleepless nights and continued hair loss - which she dealt with by wearing a wig or extensions, something she'd done for years anyway. She had root canals and enamel caps to try to save the teeth she still had. The changes in her mouth affected her connection with the outside world. "I stopped wanting to go out," she says. "People think of you a certain way when you're missing teeth."

Throughout the pregnancy, Keisha managed to continue working from home as an IT consultant, though she was depressed and in pain. All she could do was wait until the scheduled Caesarean section, when, following the birth, her OB/GYN would remove the coils and her fallopian tubes. But after the baby - a small but healthy boy named Mekhi - was delivered, her doctor informed Keisha a "tiny fragment" of coil had been left behind. That meant Keisha, who had toddler twins, a newborn and surgery to recover from, had to undergo a hysterectomy. Her new surgeon found the fragment, as well as a larger piece of coil that had migrated outside of her uterus, near her colon.

Advertisement

Keisha immediately noticed changes after her hysterectomy. She says the stabbing pain stopped, her hair started to grow back and she has had no cause to visit the dentist. Still, her memory isn't what it used to be, she has ongoing arthritis in her knee and ankle, and the ache in her lower back remains. "I worry it's kind of like a thing that never ends," she says.

Things are looking up in other ways. Mekhi quickly caught up in size to his older brothers - today they're often mistaken for triplets - and the family is making things work. Yet the couple remain angry. "I really feel betrayed," says Keisha. "I was only 36 and I'm having to have a hysterectomy?" She also thinks the FDA should be held accountable. "Whoever said, 'Yes, we can put this on the market,' sometimes I wish they would have to endure what we've gone through."

Block is a freelance journalist based in New York.
Laura Bates is the author of "Girl Up," a field guide to feminism aimed at young women. It tackles everything from social media pressure to body image to rape culture. (Claude Schneider )

Laura Bates has taken everything you sort of wish you learned in college (or sooner) and crammed it into "Girl Up," a feminist field guide for young women.

A best-seller in the United Kingdom, "Girl Up" (Touchstone) was just released in the United States this month. It tackles everything from social media pressures to body image to rape culture to the secret, shaming language of magazines aimed at women.

Advertisement

It's not for the faint of heart. It contains frank talk and swear words and color-by-numbers genitalia. But it feels essential.

Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an online catalog of stories of gender inequality from around the world. She was inspired to write "Girl Up" after collecting depressing account after depressing account from young women.

Advertisement

"Girl Up" by Laura Bates is a feminist field guide for young women. (Simon & Schuster Ltd.)

"Mostly they were twisting themselves into pretzel-shaped knots trying to cope with the world giving them approximately 452 gazillion instructions on how to be the perfect girl, to turn into the perfect woman, to have the perfect skin and the perfect grades and the perfect relationship and the perfect body and the perfect sex and the perfect career and the perfect bikini for their body shape and it all just seemed perfectly exhausting," Bates writes. "And, on top of it all, your crappy global stereotypes about girls being generally garbage at everything."

With humor and authority, she offers solid advice on navigating it all.

She compares the sexting pressure put on young women to Odysseus' tortured choice between losing a few sailors or an entire ship in Homer's "The Odyssey."

"If Homer had lived in the 21st century, the story would basically have featured a female heroine who has to choose between sending a nude pic, risking the slut-shaming whirlpool of the whole school calling her a whore, or refusing and being called an uptight prude by her Cyclops boyfriend."

(She encourages readers to turn down requests for nude pics, citing state laws for those who are under 18 and the giant risk, at any age, of your photos being stolen or shared widely.)

She talks about consent and how to know when you're ready to give it. ("Are you feeling relaxed, safe, excited? Are you absolutely sure your partner is as comfortable and enthusiastic as you are? Do you feel like you and your partner really care about each other? Have you talked about contraception and sexual health and made a decision about how to take care of these things together?  Do you feel anxious, worried, upset or at all pressured? Do you go back and forth about whether you want to do it or not? Do you think you might regret it or feel bad afterward? Do you feel like you're doing it because your partner wants to, not you?")

All good questions. The book is full of them, on every topic from why we're endlessly counting calories  "Worrying about our bodies is a trap," she writes. "It's a great big, ugly trick that keeps girls quiet and underconfident"  to what sort of language we choose. (Why so many "sorrys"?)

Speaking of language, one of my favorite parts of the book is Bates' glossary of terms for women's magazines and tabloids:

Advertisement

"Flaunts: has body part

Shows off: has body part

Curvaceous: has body part

Outshines: stands next to

Steals the show: stands next to

Goes makeup-free: is human

Advertisement

Steps out: leaves house"

And so on.

Bates weaves a few common themes throughout each chapter: Refuse to tear each other down, examine the standards you're trying to adhere to and remember that your body is yours and yours alone.

Beautiful, powerful messages for women to learn early and often. And awfully good ones to be reminded of at any age.

hstevens@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @heidistevens13

[ Related: How to package feminism for teens? With humor, hope and Mindy Kaling  ]

[ Dear Abby column says 'breakdown in communication' led to girl's rape  ]

[ Press pause on your outrage over Teen Vogue's anal sex tutorial  ]






Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash arrives for the start of his trial at the courts of justice in Vienna, Austria on Feb. 21, 2017. Firtash was arrested in Vienna in March 2014 on an American warrant charging him with bribery and other offenses. (Ronald Zak / AP)

Ukrainian oligarch Dimitry Firtash's all-star legal team fired back Wednesday at Chicago prosecutors' allegations that he has ties to Russian organized crime.

Firtash  fighting extradition from Austria to answer racketeering charges in Chicago  is being smeared with "innuendo" by federal prosecutors, one of his attorneys, former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis, told Chicago Inc.

And former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, also representing Firtash, says that if prosecutors want to accuse him of connections to the Russian underworld or of bribing people in the U.S., they should charge him with those crimes.

Advertisement

Firtash was arrested in 2014 in Austria and accused of masterminding an international titanium racket involving Chicago-based Boeing. He is free on bail in Austria after posting a $174 million bond and says his prosecution was politically motivated by the Obama administration as it sought to punish his ally, Russian president Vladimir Putin, for annexing Crimea. The case has taken on an added layer of intrigue with the revelation that President Donald Trump 's former campaign manager Paul Manafort discussed a possible New York real estate deal with Firtash in 2008.

The government this week filed court papers that accuse Firtash of being an "upper-echelon associate" of Russian organized crime  an allegation Webb said prosecutors had no evidence of and was "not even included in the government's own indictment."

Advertisement

The allegation, though, is echoed in a 2008 diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks, which detailed a meeting between the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Firtash.

According to the cable, when Firtash was asked to address his alleged ties to Russian organized crime bosses including Semyon Mogilevich, Firtash's "bottom line was that he did not deny having links to those associated with organized crime. Instead, he argued that he was forced into dealing with organized crime members including Mogilevich or he would never have been able to build a business."

Webb, though, says he wants the case tossed before Firtash can be brought to the U.S. because "the allegations in the indictment involve conduct outside of the United States, and (have) no effects on the United States."

kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, on July 25, 2017. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

Just when you thought he'd forgotten us, President Donald Trump on Tuesday had another pop at Chicago.

"This month in Chicago, there have been more than two homicide victims per day  what the hell is going on in Chicago?" Trump asked a crowd at an event in Youngstown, Ohio. "Better tell that mayor to get tough because it's not working what they're doing."

Advertisement

Trump's disses of Chicago had been a weekly occurrence but it has been nearly a month since the president took a swing at Mayor Rahm Emanuel about what he in June called an "epidemic" of murder in the city, which saw 323 homicides in the first half of the year.

Speaking after Wednesday's City Council meeting, Emanuel said, "It's not about being tough; it's about being smart and strategic."

Advertisement

The mayor added that investment in communities and jobs and cracking down on access to guns were also important.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Simply being "tough is not the response," he said.

Trump also boasted Tuesday about his planned crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago, making a ghoulish and inflammatory reference to illegal immigrants as "animals."

"They'll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15 and others and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die, and these are the animals that we've been protecting for so long," Trump said.

Six months into his presidency, Trump has yet to identify the "top police officer" whom he claimed on the campaign trail in August could solve Chicago's crime problem "within one week."

Asked again Wednesday who the officer was and if the president remains in contact with him, the White House did not immediately respond.

kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews
Protesters gather in Times Square near a military recruitment center to show their anger at President Donald Trump's decision to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military on July 26, 2017, in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Sometimes we forget how intolerant America can be. But every now and then, something happens to remind us that liberty, equality and justice  the cornerstones of our democracy  don't apply to everyone. They're only for the chosen ones.

Donald Trump gave us a wake-up call Wednesday when he banned transgender people from serving in the military. In a series of tweets announcing the ban, he referred to transgender Americans as a burden.

Advertisement

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he tweeted.

It sounds as though Trump thinks that being transgender is a personal choice; that people aren't sometimes born into the wrong bodies and that they have no right to become the people they truly are.

Advertisement

So to these patriots who love America so much that they would be willing to fight  even die  for its values, the commander in chief says, "No thanks."

The president might as well have told these Americans that they are not wanted here. But many of them already know that.

Regardless of how the rest of us feel about same-sex marriage, whether citizens should be able to choose "X" as the gender marker on their driver's licenses, or if there should be a national monument commemorating the Stonewall uprising, no American should be comfortable with forbidding a particular group of citizens from serving in the armed forces.

For the president of the United States to single out certain Americans for obvious discrimination is an affront to our democratic values. No one should feel secure that, for some similar ridiculous reason, they won't be targeted next.

But unfortunately, this is the reality of the country we live in. While many Americans are outraged over the ban, many others are like the cashier I encountered a few weeks ago while visiting Ohio. They are the ones the president is trying to appease.

As I completed my purchase at a suburban Dayton department store, I asked the cashier if she could direct me to a Target store nearby. She informed me that she wouldn't know because she doesn't shop at Target anymore.

I was just going to leave it at that, but she insisted on explaining her reason.

"They let men go into the women's restrooms there," she said.

Advertisement

"Huh?" I responded.

"Yeah, and I would be real upset if a man pulled down his pants in front of my young granddaughter," she said.

Still not grasping what she was talking about, I asked, "Don't they have doors on the toilet stalls? Why would anyone have to pull down their pants in front of someone?"

"Well, you know, they have stalls in the women's restroom that men can use."

Then it struck me. "Do you mean transgender people?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said, "Men who want to be women. All the women at my church got together and said we would never shop at Target again."

Advertisement

The cashier was referring to Target's announcement last spring that transgender employees and customers would be allowed to use any restroom or fitting room that corresponded with their gender identity.

The retailer announced the policy saying, "Everyone deserves to feel like they belong." The cashier apparently was among the many who disagreed.

The American Family Association, a conservative Christian activist group, immediately announced a boycott of Target stores and collected more than 1.4 million signatures online. In response, Target altered the policy and decided instead to spend $20 million to add a third, single-toilet bathroom at all of its stores. That restroom can be used by anyone.

I assume the cashier hadn't heard about the change. Or maybe adding a restroom wasn't good enough either. I didn't bother to ask.

"I don't have a problem with transgender bathrooms," I told her. "America is made up of a lot of different kinds of people. That's what makes our country so great. I think we should all try to be a little more tolerant."

Realizing that I wasn't the kindred spirit she thought I was, she began to back down.

Advertisement

"You're right," she said. "I try to be a good Christian, but God is still working on me. I have a lot to learn."

I considered complaining to her manager about what I considered to be inappropriate conversation at a checkout counter. But instead, I looked up at her and smiled. "We're all learning," I said.

I doubt that I changed her mind about transgender bathrooms, but at least I succeeded in pointing out that she and others like her don't have a lock on American values. This country belongs to all of us.

There's probably nothing anyone can say to make Trump realize that banning transgender people from the military is un-American. But maybe the courts will someday force him to accept that it's unconstitutional.

dglanton@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @dahleeng
A piping plover flies July 24, 2017, at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary in Chicago. Larry Skillethead Krutulis said the bird hatched June 4 in Manistee, Mich., as a member of the first wild brood of the season for the plovers monitored by the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation Team. (Larry Skillethead Krutulis)

Robert Kramer got up early Tuesday and turned on the TV just long enough to decide that the news was old and the arguing was tiresome.

He shut it off, packed up his camera and set off on a quest for the elusive piping plover.

Advertisement

Many Chicago birders have been on the quest in the past few days, which was why I headed to Montrose Beach that morning in search of a seeker.

"Are you looking for the piping plover?" I called from the concrete pier to the lone man on a spit of beach below.

Advertisement

Of course he was. Why else was a guy dressed in camouflage prowling the sand with a camera that looked as big as a rifle?

Kramer, who lives in West Rogers Park, said he'd walked up and down the beach several times since his arrival at 6:30 a.m. He figured that's 4 or 5 miles, a lot for a 64-year-old with bad knees who was carrying 50 pounds of stuff, which included photo lenses, water bottles, pop bottles, a tripod and lunch. He was prepared to stay however long it took to see this bird.

Why?

"Why do people want to see the Empire State Building?" he said. "It's something I've never seen before."

Once upon a time, there were hundreds of pairs of piping plovers nesting along the Great Lakes. By the mid-1980s, however, there were only a dozen or so pairs, all of them in Michigan, and the stout, little sandy-colored shorebird was declared endangered in the region.

Since then, thanks to conservation efforts, the population has grown slightly and the birds have ventured farther. In 2009, a pair nested along Lake Michigan in Lake County, the first known nest in Illinois in 30 years.

But even today, according to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort, there are only about 75 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes region.

So a piping plover on a Chicago beach comes with the excitement of an eclipse.

Advertisement

"In some ways, it's like hunting," Kramer said, as we headed north along the beach, back to where the plover had been spotted that morning before someone spooked it.

He had heard the reports of other birders who had braved the fluddles  pools of water that form after flooding  to capture a glimpse of the bird.

One of the lucky seekers was Larry Krutulis, a 42-year-old chef known to his birding buddies as "Skillethead." He scored a sighting Monday.

"I walked in knee-high water," he recalled, "and as I walked around the pier area, I froze. The bird was 60 or 75 feet from where I was standing."

He snapped a few photos and sneaked off without scaring the bird away, grateful that he'd had been that close to a bird  "a rare little thing"  that not so long ago seemed close to extinction.

But such an ecstatic encounter continued to elude Kramer as we continued up the beach Tuesday, past a red cigarette lighter, empty chip bags and fish carcasses apparently washed to shore in the recent storms.

Advertisement

Pausing in the shade of a tree to check his phone, he found important plover news, relayed just a few minutes earlier:

The plover was wearing ID bands, discernible in some photos, and a birder had reported the numbers to a piping plover research and recovery team, which had identified it.

The elusive plover, Kramer learned, was an offspring of "Packer Boy," a beloved plover who has been nesting at Manistee, Mich., for a decade. Hatched on June 4, he was only 7 weeks old.

"He's off in search of adventure," Kramer said, tucking his phone back in his pocket. "He's newly hatched, so he's probably out there sowing his oats."

There had also been a sighting of the young plover in the Indiana Dunes, but Kramer planned to stay on Montrose Beach a few hours more. Birding is an exercise in patience.

"It's persistence," he said. "Ninety percent of the time I find what I'm looking for."

Advertisement

And sometimes, he said, you find things even better than what you were looking for. He glanced around. Listen to the water, he said, to the wind.

"This is a place to find peace," he said. "Even if I don't find the piping plover, I still find peace."

And that's one moral of this story. There's peace to be found in stepping away from the TV screen and out into the sun.

mschmich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarySchmich
Thousands of the Red Ants Pants Festival faithful and many newcomers will gather in White Sulphur Springs this weekend to hear music, cheer for their favorite beards or try their hand at yoga or the crosscut saw.

Now in its seventh year, the festival kicks off Thursday with a street dance in downtown White Sulphur Springs. The music starts at the festival grounds on Friday with Tom Chacon performing at 3:30 p.m. and Turnpike Troubadours closing down the night with their set starting at 10 p.m. Three-day passes are $150 at the gate and single-day tickets are $60 at the gate.

Lucinda Williams finishes the show on the main stage on Saturday at 10 p.m. and the Bellamy Brothers wrap up the festival with a 4:30 p.m. performance on Sunday.

Known for combining world-class music with down-home fun, the Red Ants Pants Festival relies on 220 volunteers and 85 staff members to put it on each year.

Community groups raise money pitching in to do things like fill gopher holes with rocks and pick up trash after it's over.

Founder Sarah Calhoun has many memorable moments from the festival. One of them was watching musician James McMurtry ride into the sunset after his performance when a friend surprised him with horses on the grounds. Those special memories remind Calhoun why she keeps putting on the festival.

The first year someone snapped a picture of two guys standing up front of the stage having a beer with their backs to the camera. One guys shirt said Save the planet and the other guys shirt said Pave the Planet. Thats the magic of this event. That experience is happening 100 times every year.

The festival has become a major fundraiser for many groups in White Sulphur Springs and Meagher County. This year, the White Sulphur Springs Senior Class will raise money by washing cars for folks leaving the festival, eager to clear off three days of dust. The library will host its annual book sale and the White Sulphur Springs Historical Association will host a craft sale.

I like hosting and bringing people together, small or large scale. There is a collective power in that, Calhoun said. What I am finding is that people are wanting to be part of something worthwhile.

Calhoun has said that she came to White Sulphur Springs, drawn by the late Ivan Doigs iconic Montana memoir, This House of Sky. She grew up on a farm in Connecticut and earned a degree in environmental studies before moving to Bozeman in 2004. Calhoun moved to White Sulphur Springs in 2005 and in 2006 she started her business Red Ants Pants, specializing in making work pants that fit women.

Proceeds from the festival go to the Red Ants Pants Foundation in support of womens leadership, rural communities and working Montana family ranches.

The local businesses have seen an uptick since the festival began in 2010. Bryan Stidham, assistant manager of the Exxon Convenience Store in White Sulphur Springs, said hes noticed more tourists coming to town, not just in July for the festival, but throughout the year.

Weve been discovered, Stidham said.

The population of White Sulphur Springs grows from 900 to 10,000 when the festival takes place, Stidham said.

Its pretty crazy, he said. Ive met people from as far away as New York and Texas, and a lot of people come down from Canada. Theyve all been pretty nice.

Michelle Walker, who runs the town's Branding Iron Cafe with her husband J.D., said she attends the festival every year.

I like all sorts of music. Its always fun to see musicians you dont really know. Sarah has done a really good job picking bands, Walker said.

Her best advice is for folks to come relax and enjoy the scene.

"It's something everyone should do at least once; it truly is a unique experience," Walker said.
Michael LaPorta survived a gunshot to the back of his head in January 2010 while at the home of a friend, Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly. Seven years later, he and his mother, Patricia, discuss his recovery and daily rehab. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

A Chicago police officer with a troubled record has been taken off the street amid two investigations into his on- and off-duty conduct, the Chicago Police Department confirmed this week.

Officer Patrick Kelly was placed on administrative duty after the Tribune in April published a story about his turbulent career and a mysterious shooting inside Kelly's home more than seven years ago. He still retains his police powers to carry a gun and make arrests.

Advertisement

The city publicly acknowledged Kelly's reassignment just this week, as it asked the City Council to approve a $500,000 settlement in a separate police brutality claim against the veteran patrol officer. The settlement was approved by a council vote Wednesday.

Asked about Kelly's status, Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the officer is performing administrative and clerical duties in the South Side Deering District, where he is assigned. The move was made on the recommendation of the Independent Police Review Authority, which looks into allegations of officer misconduct, Guglielmi said. Though Guglielmi did not provide the date of the action, police work logs reviewed by the Tribune in April showed that Kelly was still on patrol duty at that time.

Advertisement

Kelly, 36, has been found mentally unfit for duty twice, arrested two times and accused of beating a girlfriend. In one incident, he repeatedly used a Taser on a pregnant woman, who days later lost her baby and whose subsequent lawsuit was settled this week.

He has been sued a total of six times and has been the subject of more than two dozen investigations into his on- and off-duty conduct, including one in which he was found to have assaulted a female sergeant.

The darkest moment in Kelly's career, however, is arguably Jan. 12, 2010, when his childhood friend crumpled to the officer's dining-room floor with a gunshot wound toward the back of his head. Chicago police classified the shooting an attempted suicide based largely on the account of Kelly, the only other person in the house at the time.

His friend, Michael LaPorta, couldn't speak for months after the shooting. LaPorta's family, however, pushed back against the suicide classification from the beginning to no avail. LaPorta's fingerprints weren't found on the gun, and many others  including several Chicago police officers LaPorta had been drinking with that night  said he appeared to be in good spirits in the hours before the shooting.

Investigators nonetheless took the word of Kelly, whose service weapon fired the bullet that splintered and ricocheted inside LaPorta's head.

An arrest report for Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly from 2006, when he was charged with simple battery. The charge was later dropped. (Chicago Police Department)

The Police Department and IPRA have reopened their investigations into LaPorta's shooting, though it's unclear how aggressive they intend to be with their renewed examinations. Neither agency, for example, has interviewed LaPorta.

The Police Department formally reopened the case in February 2016, records show, and it was assigned to Area North detectives to avoid potential conflicts with Kelly and his South Side district assignment.

Within a month, however, the investigation hit a roadblock, according to court records. As part of their investigation, the detectives had read statements Kelly made to IPRA and had mentioned them to a Cook County prosecutor.

Advertisement

The courts have long held that public employees cannot be prosecuted based on answers that they are compelled to give as part of an internal investigation, a precedent known as the "Garrity Rule." Because Kelly had been required to speak with IPRA, the prosecutor told the detectives that they had "Garrity bombed" the case and should not proceed.

Still, the detectives scheduled an interview with LaPorta in May 2016, then abruptly canceled it a few weeks later without explanation. Chicago police detectives working in Area South did not attempt to reschedule the interview until last week, more than 14 months later. No date for the meeting has been set, LaPorta family attorney Antonio Romanucci said.

Authorities did not inform the family of Kelly's new assignment when they contacted them with the interview request, Romanucci said.

"Not only is the LaPorta family pleased, but I am pleased that the Chicago Police Department took a patrol officer with dangerous propensities off the streets and made the city safer," Romanucci said.

IPRA concluded in 2012 that Kelly did not shoot his friend. However, Kelly was given a 60-day suspension for failing to secure his weapon, off-duty drunkenness, conduct unbecoming an officer and assaulting an sergeant who responded to the scene.

In July 2016, IPRA sent police Superintendent Eddie Johnson a request to reopen the case and re-examine the shooting. Johnson gave his permission in January, according to IPRA officials.

Advertisement

Records show that IPRA did not formally reopen the case or assign an investigator until March 23  two days after the Tribune inquired about its status and asked why the agency had not yet interviewed LaPorta. As of late July, the agency still had not spoken with LaPorta, according to his attorney.

IPRA also reopened its investigation into the incident in which Kelly repeatedly used a Taser on a pregnant woman, who later suffered a miscarriage. The City Council approved the $500,000 settlement with the woman, Elaina Turner, and her fiance, Ulysses Green, who had filed a federal lawsuit accusing Kelly of excessive force and the Police Department of ignoring brutality in its ranks.

Ulysses Green and Elaina Turner recount the 2013 confrontation on their former Back of the Yards block that led to Turner being stunned with a Taser by Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

The payout brings the total for Kelly-related lawsuits to nearly $1.2 million so far in settlements and jury awards, including a $100,000 payout in a case in which a man accused Kelly of making a false arrest and holding a gun to his head. Two cases, including a lawsuit filed by LaPorta's family, are pending.

Jeffrey Granich, the lawyer who represented Turner and Green, said he had not been notified of Kelly's new assignment before settling the case.

"I'm pleased to hear that but I need to know more," he said. "If he's been assigned to the academy that doesn't make me feel very good. If he's been assigned to some important administrative role, that also doesn't make me feel very good. What does someone have to do to be fired as a Chicago police officer?"

sstclair@chicagotribune.com

Advertisement

jcoen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @StacyStClair

Twitter @jeffcoen
The CTA is suing a local man, alleging he replaced the locks on an agency-owned storage container and won't turn over its contents. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago Transit Authority is suing a local man, alleging he replaced the locks on an agency-owned storage container and won't turn over its contents: nearly $600,000 in CTA tools and other safety equipment.

The CTA alleges Fernando Frometa "wrongfully detained" the "custom made safety equipment and power tools" housed in an agency-owned storage container on the West Side, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court; the container had been there for more than a decade, according to court documents.

Advertisement

As a result of not having access to the equipment, the CTA "had to shut down regular safety upgrades" causing "unnecessary expenses," according to the lawsuit.

Cook County property records show that a man identified as Fernando Frometa purchased the lot in the 200 block of North Harding Avenue where the storage container is located on July 13 for $3,500. An attempt to reach Frometa for comment was unsuccessful.

Advertisement

In addition to replacing the locks on the container, Frometa, described in the lawsuit as a resident of Cook County, also is accused of "blocking off all access to the container" and "placing a security guard on the property 24/7 to keep the CTA from accessing its personal property," according to the lawsuit.

The CTA has asked Frometa to return the property or allow the agency to remove the container, but he has "refused."

So now the CTA is asking a judge to order Frometa to hand over the tools and equipment, or its cash value, and pay for damages and court costs.

The CTA did not return a call for comment.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MidNoirCowboy
The July 25, 2017, hearing regarding the death of 17-month-old Semaj Crosby. Beverly Walker, new head of the DCFS, gets an earful from state Rep. Mary Flowers about the breakdown in follow-up and action with Semaj's family. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Department of Children and Family Services officials on Tuesday pledged to make changes and address agency shortcomings in the wake of the death of Semaj Crosby, the Joliet-area toddler whose body was found in her home hours after a caseworker visit.

DCFS officials fielded questions from state lawmakers during a joint House and Senate committee meeting in Chicago about the agency's handling of the girl's case.

Advertisement

Semaj was reported missing April 25 from her home near Joliet. Family members told police they were preparing to go get ice cream when they noticed the 17-month-old girl was missing. The toddler's body was found under a couch in her squalid home after a 30-hour search. Her death has been classified as "suspicious" and remains under investigation by the Will County sheriff's office.

DCFS began providing services to the family in September 2016. During the ensuing months, seven caseworkers made 15 visits to the family home on Louis Road, officials said, including a final visit just hours before Semaj was reported missing.

Advertisement

Since her death, DCFS has come under fire for how it handled the case. Director George Sheldon resigned in May amid an ethics probe and questions about multiple recent child deaths, including Semaj's.

"There are thousands of Semajs out there, and for too long DCFS has been failing the children of this state," Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, said Tuesday.

During the hearing, new DCFS Director Beverly Walker said changes are already being put in place in response to shortcomings outlined in a 22-page DCFS report released in May that detailed the agency's handling of the case.

The report noted allegations of drug-dealing and violence in the home and previous accusations of abuse and neglect against several people in the home.

"I was angry," said LaToya Robinson, a Joliet woman who identified herself as Semaj's godmother and testified at Tuesday's hearing. "I read the DCFS report, and it opened my eyes to what went on in that house."

She told lawmakers she worried about what may happen to Semaj's three brothers. The three boys were taken from their mother and have been placed with other guardians through DCFS.

DCFS officials said they have already initiated some changes to help address shortcomings identified in the report. An outside review of Semaj's case, conducted by Casey Family Programs, also has been completed, Walker said. The report was not immediately available Tuesday, but Walker said some of the changes she is making were prompted by that report.

Among the changes, caseworkers will be notified of any other open investigations of abuse or neglect involving the same family, Walker said. Previously, caseworkers involved with intact families did not have access to that information.

Advertisement

"I know you're asking how can this be," Walker told lawmakers. "I can only say that from this day forward, we will know more about what this risk looks like, and we will be able to both manage our work and communicate that information to providers so they can manage better as well."

She also said a controversial program that rewarded caseworkers for closing out cases quickly has ended.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

A change in the case management system also is being developed to assist the agency's most vulnerable families, which Walker identified as families with children younger than 3, with a parent who has a mental or behavioral health disability or where children are living in an "extreme toxic environmental condition" or where multiple unrelated adults are going in and out of the home. Walker noted that Semaj's case involved some of those factors.

She pointed to Crosby's mother, Sheri Gordon, and her struggles in the months leading up to her daughter's death. Gordon told caseworkers she had a disability, though she did not know the name of it, and allowed several people to move into her home, which was later declared uninhabitable.

"This was the perfect storm of poverty, a struggling child, a mother's impaired abilities and an intrusion of people who suddenly made the burdens of day-to-day life insurmountable," Walker said.

Walker also suggested that a change in state law may be needed to hold parents more accountable for cooperating with DCFS. Walker noted that parents receiving intact family services are not required to comply and that participation is voluntary.

Advertisement

Despite the changes, Flowers suggested some problems would be addressed if the agency simply followed existing policies. She also suggested that DCFS develop a mobile app to help caseworkers manage their caseload.

Attorneys for Semaj's family declined comment Tuesday.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter.
Minutes before he was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison, former Melrose Park police Detective Gregory Salvi stood in a federal courtroom struggling to explain what led him down a path of corruption.

"I am ... I don't really know what happened," Salvi stammered at the outset of remarks to U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve. "I don't know how I lost my way. ... I tried to be something that I wasn't. It's not who I was."

Advertisement

What Salvi became, according to federal prosecutors, was a cop moonlighting as a drug dealer. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a host of brazen schemes, including selling narcotics he'd stolen from an evidence room and transporting what he thought was a 5-kilogram load of drugs for local dealers in his unmarked squad car.

In handing down the lengthy prison term, St. Eve told Salvi his "egregious conduct" has ripple effects that go far beyond his own community.

Advertisement

"It undermines the public's confidence in not only the Melrose Park Police Department but in law enforcement in general, and all driven by your greed," the judge said.

Dressed in a dark gray suit and striped tie, Salvi, 44, showed no reaction as the sentence was announced. In the back row of the courtroom gallery, his family, including his wife and teenage son and daughter, wiped tears from their eyes.

After the hourlong hearing, prosecutors asked that Salvi be taken into custody. He has been free on bond working as a car salesman while the case was pending.

But St. Eve allowed him to remain free until Aug. 16 so he can see his children off to college. Both his 19-year-old daughter, Taylor, and son, Joseph, 17, gave emotional statements to the court earlier in the proceedings.

"If I could right now, I would trade places with him so he didn't have to go through this," Taylor Salvi said, pausing to stifle sobs as her father put an arm around her waist. "I just love him so much. I don't want to lose him."

Salvi faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in April to one count each of possession of drugs with intent to deliver and using a gun in a drug trafficking crime.

In asking for a 14-year sentence, prosecutors said the veteran police officer's corrupt acts weren't a one-time mistake but a repeated pattern motivated by his desire to "get that big payday" and set himself up financially before his pending retirement.

In his remarks to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Otlewski said that as a father and police officer, Salvi knew the damage that drugs do to families  particularly children  yet he "didn't bat an eye" when it came to selling narcotics.

Advertisement

Otlewski also noted that even Salvi's own sister's lengthy battle with drug addiction didn't give him pause.

"To think he's going to turn around and put that same poison back on the street for people's families  that is reprehensible," Otlewski said.

Salvi was arrested two years ago after he was caught in an FBI sting agreeing to transport a load of narcotics in his unmarked squad car in addition to plotting to steal drugs from the state lab.

The 18-year police veteran also talked on undercover recordings about stealing confiscated guns from the west suburban police station and helping to file off the serial numbers so they couldn't be traced, according to a criminal complaint filed in 2015.

According to the charges, Salvi had a recorded phone call with an undercover FBI informant in December 2014 about getting to narcotics at the police station without arousing the suspicion of the officer who was guarding the evidence room.

"I gotta feel it out with that guy in the room," Salvi was quoted in the complaint as saying. "I gotta make sure everything's kosher before I just run in there, you know what I mean?"

Advertisement

The next day, Salvi told the informant in another recorded call that he'd managed to take a few packages that contained 1- to 2-ounce plastic bags of narcotics.

"I got the white, but ... I can only grab like two bundles that were close 'cause the guy was in the other room so I had to do it quick," Salvi was quoted as saying.

The next month, FBI agents had Salvi under surveillance when he met with a reputed felon at a suburban Dunkin' Donuts to discuss a scheme to steal a load of narcotics from a state police lab by swapping it with fake drugs.

"Won't it get (expletive) thrown out of court then?" the drug dealer, who was actually a paid undercover FBI informant, asked Salvi during the meeting, according to the charges.

"No," Salvi allegedly replied. "Once state tested it at the lab, it's done. So that's why as long as I have 2 (fake kilos) to put back in, anything that looks white like that, they're never gonna check it again."

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Three months after that exchange, Salvi was arrested at a storage facility in Hanover Park after he had gone to pick up a load that he thought he was delivering for a dealer who turned out to be another federal informant.

Advertisement

Salvi's attorney, Mark Sutter, agreed Wednesday that his client had "stepped egregiously over the line" and needed to be punished but said the 10-year minimum sentence was more than enough to send a message.

"He has accepted what he's done and he's taken it like a man," Sutter said. "He wants to do right by his family."

Otlewski, however, invoked the name of another corrupt cop who went to prison for federal crimes  former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts  in arguing the damage of police misconduct is enormous.

"All it takes is one bad apple  one Ron Watts, one Greg Salvi  to poison the well and make it harder for other police officers to do their job," Otlewski said.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jmetr22b
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said she was "stunned" to learn how few gun cases that go to trial result in convictions. July 25, 2017 (Nereida Moreno / Chicago Tribune)

Touching on an issue often raised by police when discussing Chicago's ongoing problem with gun violence, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said Tuesday that she was "stunned" to learn how few gun cases that go to trial result in convictions.

Foxx, in an interview with the Tribune's editorial board eight months into her job, said her office is working with law enforcement officials to collect better intelligence and build stronger cases against gun offenders.

Advertisement

Foxx also pledged to be more transparent than her predecessors in leveraging community involvement and data-driven approaches to help reduce crime. She said officials from her office will meet with Chicago police on a monthly basis to share the data on cases and strategize how to build stronger cases.

"What we realized is there's a big disconnect  police finish, they clear their case, they drop it off and they move on to the next. We have our cases, we either win or lose and we move on to the next," Foxx said.

Advertisement

"There's a lot of conversation about what happens in policing, what's happening in communities, but we needed to be self-reflective," she said.

Foxx defeated two-term incumbent State's Attorney Anita Alvarez in a three-way primary in the spring of 2016, capitalizing on public outrage over the release of a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times. She handily defeated her Republican opponent in November and was sworn into office the following month.

Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx said her office is working with law enforcement officials to collect better intelligence and build stronger cases against gun offenders. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune 2016)

The need to get people charged with gun crimes off the streets is frequently mentioned by police leaders including current Superintendent Eddie Johnson in discussions on how to address violence in the city.

According to Foxx, about 80 percent of those charged with gun crimes in 2016 pleaded guilty, with the remainder of the cases going to trial. Only about 30 percent of the defendants whose cases were decided by a judge in a bench trial were convicted, while juries convicted about 42 percent of the gun crime suspects whose cases were brought before them, Foxx told the editorial board.

"It's an embarrassing number," Foxx said.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

"I was shocked and appalled," she said. "So we went about the business of asking why  are we charging the right cases? Do we have sufficient evidence on these cases?"

She said Johnson's "jaw hit the table" when he learned the statistics.

"We have to work collaboratively," Foxx said. "We can't have data to ourselves about what's happening as it relates to their cases and not share that with CPD."

Advertisement

Eric Sussman, the first assistant state's attorney, said officials are working to establish "prosecution guidelines" to help educate law enforcement officers on the information and evidence needed to successfully prosecute gun cases.

"We're trying to weed it out with the understanding that for every one of those bad cases that we wind up going to trial on, we have limited resources so that is one fewer investigation or good case that we can be spending our time on," he said.

nmoreno@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @nereidamorenos
Two men who police said had illegal drugs and half a dozen automatic weapons were arrested Wednesday in Riverdale, police said.

David Taylor, 24, and Jeffron Allen, 21, were taken into custody Wednesday after police executed a search warrant in the 13800 block of South Halsted Street in Riverdale, at Taylor's home, police said.

Advertisement

There, Area South gun team officers found six weapons and narcotics including paraphernalia, police said.

Taylor and Allen were charged with unlawful use of a machine gun or automatic weapon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon without a FOID card, unlawful use of a rifle or shotgun with a barrel that is less than 16-18 inches in length, possession of cannabis, possession of ecstasy and possession of a controlled substance, all of which are felonies, police said.

Advertisement

They were also charged with several misdemeanors including possession of ammunition without a FOID, possession of drug paraphernalia and four counts of having a firearm without a valid FOID card, police said.

Taylor and Allen, of the 9900 block of South Parnell Avenue in Chicago, were scheduled to appear for a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Warning: Graphic content, strong language. A man was fatally shot by a Chicago police sergeant after a road-rage incident and fight involving an off-duty firefighter and another police officer in the 11100 block of South Troy Street on Nov. 5, 2016, in Mount Greenwood. (Submitted by Britnie Nelson) (Chicago Tribune)

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of Joshua Beal, the Indiana man shot and killed by Chicago police on the far Southwest Side last fall in a case that touched off racial and political protests.

The Nov. 5 shooting happened after a road rage incident between Beal and other motorists, including several off-duty Chicago police officers, turned violent. Before it was over, Beal had been shot fatally by police several times.

Advertisement

The killing sparked demonstrations  by those who decried the shooting and others who supported the officers  and capped a year of upheaval that followed the release of video of white Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting African-American teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times.

Police reports publicly identified the officers who fired at Beal, who died of multiple gunshot wounds. Sgt. Thomas Derouin, a 14-year veteran, reported firing his 9 mm pistol seven times, while Joseph Treacy, a 10-year veteran, reported shooting his 9 mm handgun 11 times.

Advertisement

The lawsuit, which claims that the officers used excessive force and their actions were "severe and outrageous," named the city of Chicago, Treacy and an unnamed second officer as defendants. The lawsuit seeks in excess of $50,000.

The suit was filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, on behalf of Beal's children and their mother, Beal's fiancee, who was there when he was fatally shot.

"The actions of Officer Treacy and unknown officer created a chain of events which gave rise to an excessive and unreasonable use of force and ultimate battery upon Joshua Beal," according to the suit.

City of Chicago Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said that since his office has not yet seen the lawsuit, he had no comment.

The shooting happened about 3 p.m. Nov. 5 at 111th and Troy streets in the city's Mount Greenwood neighborhood.

The confrontation began when people who had been in a funeral procession got into an argument with off-duty police officers and others.

Beal and several family members were driving down 111th Street after a funeral for a relative who had been killed in Indianapolis, where Beal, 25, resided; Beal was a pallbearer at the service, according to family. According to police, their cars had been weaving in and out of traffic before stopping in a fire lane, leading an off-duty police officer to tell the mourners to move.

An argument ensued and quickly escalated as an officer was assaulted, authorities said. Beal went to a black Dodge Charger, grabbed a gun and pointed it at one of the officers, according to police. Beal pulled the trigger, but the gun didn't go off, authorities said, and the officers shot him.

Advertisement

In the records and recordings released later, the off-duty officer who made the 911 call gave an account slightly different from the one officials have given. He told the dispatcher that the group cut him off, and then one car pulled up next to him while another car was behind him.

"And now they are running up on another person," he said. "I'm telling you, you better get the police here now."

According to the lawsuit, Beal and his fiancee had attended a funeral and were on their way to a hospital to visit a relative who was ill when the shooting happened.

While traveling, Officer Treacy exited his vehicle and "aggressively" drew a weapon, and "pointed it at many African America individuals (who) were unarmed," the suit said.

When Officer Treacy pointed the gun, he was "not in reasonable in fear of his life," the suit said.

As the officer was yelling and screaming obscenities, Beal pulled out his gun because he feared for his life, the suit said.

Advertisement

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 33 Ameena Matthews, center, and other protesters rally on Nov. 20, 2016, in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side following a police-involved shooting earlier in the month. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

A short time later, Beal apparently changed his mind and put the weapon away, but Treacy and another officer fatally shot him, according to the suit. Police have said Beal didn't put the gun down.

The suit contends that Beal did not know Treacy was an officer, because he was not in uniform and did not show a badge, and because Beal did not hear him when he identified himself as an officer.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Paramedics took Beal to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died that day.

According to a police report, Beal suffered eight gunshot wounds  to the abdomen, right shoulder, upper right chest, right groin, back of his left thigh and the lower back, along with graze wounds to the right forearm and the top of his head.

One of Beal's relatives was arrested and charged in the aftermath of the shooting. Prosecutors allege Michael Beal tackled an off-duty officer, put him in a headlock and threatened to kill him seconds after his brother, Joshua, was shot.

"You killed my brother. I'm going to kill you," Michael Beal allegedly told the officer at the scene.

Advertisement

The fatal shooting of Joshua Beal, who was black, happened in Mount Greenwood, a largely white enclave heavily populated by police and firefighters on the mostly black and Hispanic South Side. Dueling protests followed, and the groups traded racial slurs and insults; supporters of the police, largely white, made clear those protesting the shooting, mostly black, were not welcome in the neighborhood.

rsobol@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RosemarySobol1
Rick Garcia, who was instrumental in getting public comment at City Council meetings, is the last to testify on July 26, 2017. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Chicagoans started lining up early Wednesday morning outside City Council chambers, all for a chance to grab a maximum of three minutes to vent about jobs for African-Americans, red light camera corruption, the need for better city services and whatever else was on their minds.

As they pleaded their cases, aldermen strolled in and out of the room, chatted with one another, sipped coffee and signed documents. On the dais, Mayor Rahm Emanuel carried on quiet meetings, huddling with City Clerk Anna Valencia and Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel as the clock ticked toward zero before sounding a squawking beep to let each speaker know time's up.

Advertisement

Normally, when the noise on the council floor reaches reaches that volume during a debate, the mayor pounds his gavel and calls for quiet. No such admonishment was forthcoming while the public spoke Wednesday, however.

The upshot: You may now be able to speak at a Chicago City Council meeting, but that doesn't mean you'll be heard.

Advertisement

And so it was in the Year 2017 that the council joined in on what's long been a staple at just about every village board, school board, library board and park district meeting around the country.

In Chicago, elected officials had to be dragged into it by a lawsuit, agreeing to a half hour of public testimony at the start of monthly meetings only after a judge ruled late last year that not allowing it violated the state Open Meetings Act.

That might not be enough for the activists who sued. They say more time is needed.

Rick Garcia, a plaintiff in the suit, noted during his public testimony Wednesday that the council often spends more time each meeting on resolutions naming local community groups and individuals.

"The council, by order of the court, finally allows comments from the general public. This is a very good step in the right direction," Garcia said. "But it certainly isn't enough, especially given the hours of time you take in honoring parishes, boy scout troops, heroes, retirees, sports teams, the elderly and the dead. If you can spend that amount of time issuing proclamations, you certainly can spend adequate time hearing from Chicagoans."

Activist Andy Thayer, the other plaintiff in the suit, reiterated Wednesday that he was not satisfied.

"We are definitely continuing with our litigation versus the City Council," Thayer said in an interview. "Our position is that the 30-minute time limit that the city has set for all public comments is wholly inadequate, especially for a city the size of 2.7 million people."

During a post-meeting news conference, Emanuel said he's open to reviewing how the public testimony is conducted, though he made no promise to support adding more time.

Advertisement

"There will be another City Council meeting and we can get back and set up a process," he said. "I'm sure we can look at it, if you didn't get it this time, you can be in the front of the queue the next time there's a City Council. It's not the last City Council we're going to have."

And the mayor said he was paying attention to the members of the public. "Let me say it this way, I was looking right at the speakers," he said. "There were other aldermen that wanted to come up (to the dais), I said go ahead and come up. But I actually purposely wanted to watch."

The first person to take advantage of the chance to speak was gadfly George Blakemore, a fixture at council committee meetings where Chicagoans have long had an opportunity to testify.

"This is historic. Citizens, you are now allowed to speak at City Council," Blakemore said to a smattering of applause from the gallery. "Why did it take so long?"

Blakemore went on to call for more city contracts and jobs in Chicago's black neighborhoods, and decried Emanuel's support of sanctuary city status for Chicago to protect people who are in the country illegally.

The next speaker, David Shapiro, blasted the city for diverting special property tax money from the McCormick Place area to fund projects at tourist trap Navy Pier, as reported by Crain's and the Better Government Association.

Advertisement

The new era of official testimony did not signal a halt to the long City Council tradition of more boisterous, outlaw displays. At different points during the meeting, half a dozen groups of protesters leapt to their feet in the gallery to chant slogans criticizing Emanuel's use of property tax funds and calling for more school funding.

While many aldermen have supported the change, some resent the public participation. They contend Chicagoans have ample opportunity to talk at committee meetings where most of the actual debate on pending ordinances takes place, and wonder why an additional 30 minutes has to be tacked on to already lengthy council meetings.

One comment that did draw aldermen's attention Wednesday came from Far Southwest Side resident Ursula Phoenix, who called 19th Ward Ald. Matt O'Shea "one of the most responsive aldermen in our City Council."

After some whooping and laughter on the council floor, an alderman whispered "I'm going to do that next time, bring a constituent."

Following the meeting, city Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey issued a statement defending the new standards for adding "to the already robust public comment process available during committee meetings."

"This 30-minute period, with speakers given 3 minutes each, aligns with best practices and complies with Illinois State Law, and was added after a review of other legislative and administrative bodies in Illinois," McCaffrey said.

Advertisement

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

hdardick@chicagotribune.com
Dan Aliotta, 24, and his sister Willow, 15, wander Grant Park looking for cell service at the Pokemon Go Fest on July 22, 2017. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to crack down on the type of cellphone theft that befell his teenage son a few years ago by making it tougher to resell stolen phones in Chicago.

Under an ordinance Emanuel will introduce Wednesday to the City Council, sellers of used phones would be required to check a database of stolen ones before making the sales.

Advertisement

A news release from Emanuel's office said the measure also would include "increased transparency and notification requirements and additional public education," though it's so far unclear what that would entail. A copy of the proposed ordinance was not made available Wednesday morning.

Emanuel's son Zach's cellphone was stolen from him as he talked on the phone near the family's North Side home in December 2014, according to police.

Advertisement

Zach Emanuel's teeth were injured when a teen punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

In March 2015, a teen pleaded guilty in the case to aggravated battery in a public way and theft in person.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_johnbyrne
President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Saad Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, in the Oval Office at the White House on July 25, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Also pictured are Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner. (Astrid Riecken / Getty Images)

House Intelligence Committee member Mike Quigley said President Donald Trump 's son-in-law, Jared Kushner , was cooperative when he appeared Tuesday before the panel.

The Chicago Democrat said he worries, though, that the president is "directly and indirectly" trying to "cool" ongoing probes by lawmakers and Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by Trump associates.

Trump has called the Russian investigation a "witch hunt" and recently has been critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Quigley said after Kushner's long, closed-door meeting with lawmakers that additional documents are being sought from the White House senior adviser. Those could trigger more questions. He said his House committee may take a year to complete its work, and he expected the probe by Mueller, who is trying to ascertain if crimes were committed, will take even longer.

WASHINGTON  "You get the impression  I don't know anything in specific  but you get the impression that (Trump) is stomping around the White House fuming about this and he is going to have a hard time waiting this out this long," Quigley said.

Kushner on Monday spoke in private to the Senate Intelligence Committee and issued a long, public statement saying he did not collude with Russians. He may be asked to appear again before the House panel, similarly in closed session, Quigley said.

Advertisement

A public report eventually will be released by the panel to shed light on what happened and prevent future interference, said Quigley, the only lawmaker from Illinois on one of the two congressional intelligence panels.

"This would go a whole lot faster," Quigley said, "if President Trump said, 'Listen up everybody associated with the Trump campaign and my current administration, you go out there and tell everybody exactly what happened. You tell them the truth and I am not going to say another word about how the investigation is going forward.'"

Advertisement

Quigley said he was concerned about the prospect of Trump firing Sessions and taking steps to halt Mueller's work.

"It's a big concern. I think right now, the country is on the edge of what could be a constitutional crisis," the congressman said.

He said it's wrong to believe the Russia probes only matter if the result is an indictment or the president's impeachment. "It's too soon for anybody to prejudge," he said. But he said for people to say there is no fire here, only smoke, "that's just as wrong."

A former criminal defense attorney, Quigley observed: "We're setting the bar really low if people only care about whether a law was broken."

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @KatherineSkiba
A former Montana optometrist accused of making excessive insurance claims denied charges on Monday.

Gary Alfred White pleaded not guilty to charges of Medicaid fraud, false claim to a public agency and theft by insurance fraud, all felonies. The hearing was held in Yellowstone County District Court.

White practiced in the Laurel Walmart from 2012 to 2014 before opening up an office in Plentywood, court documents state. State investigators say that White submitted excessive claims for dozens of patients and got some reimbursement.

The claims went to Medicaid and to Blue Cross Blue Shield, charges state.

White doesn't live in Montana, and District Judge Michael Moses allowed him to be released as long as he shows up for future court hearings.
Then-U.S. Sen.-elect. Tammy Duckworth greets commuters outside the Millennium Park Metra Station in Chicago on Nov. 9, 2016, the day after she defeated Republican Mark Kirk. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

WASHINGTON  Chicago-area Democrats in Congress blasted President Donald Trump's surprise tweet Wednesday saying he would not accept or allow transgender troops in the military, with Democrats assailing the move as "stupid" and "bigoted."

Most Chicago-area Republicans declined Tribune requests for comment. An exception was GOP Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, who took issue with Trump's decree, saying in a statement: "In settling these sorts of matters, we are better served by a thoughtful review like the Department of Defense has undertaken." He declined to say specifically whether he supports or opposes Trump's bid to bar transgender troops.

Advertisement

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis decided June 30 to give top military bosses an additional six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender people to enlist would affect the "readiness or lethality" of the force. That affected potential new recruits but not transgender personnel already in the ranks.

Democrats had more fighting words for Trump. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson issued a statement saying his decision to "tweet out a major military personnel decision shows his complete and utter disdain for those who wear the uniform."

Advertisement

Decisions affecting Americans who put their lives on the line "deserve more than 140 characters in his consistent tweet stream of hate and ignorance," Kelly said.

.@POTUS rescind this discriminatory ban. It's an insult to thousands of transgender patriots serving our nation & antithetical to our values  Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) July 26, 2017

Trump's declaration Wednesday could be seen as a nod to his conservative base  and to change the subject from ongoing Russian probes  and it gave Democrats an opportunity to embrace a key constituency and to express their strident opposition to the president.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who lost her legs in the Iraq War in 2004, said in a statement when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, "I didn't care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else."

Both Duckworth and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin noted that Trump's decision fell on the anniversary of Democratic President Harry S. Truman's 1948 executive order to end racial segregation in the U.S. armed forces. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sounded the same note after Wednesday's City Council meeting.

Durbin responded to Trump with a tweet, telling the president to "rescind this discriminatory ban."

"It's an insult to thousands of transgender patriots serving our nation & antithetical to our values," Durbin said.

Democratic Reps. Bill Foster of Naperville, Mike Quigley of Chicago and Brad Schneider of Deerfield also put out statements critical of Trump's move.

There are an estimated 6,000 or more transgender active-duty troops and reservists, according to Quigley, who called Trump's decision "cruel and unnecessary." He is vice chair of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.

Advertisement

While Chicago-area Republican Reps. Randy Hultgren of Plano and Adam Kinzinger of Channahon didn't respond Wednesday, they voted for an amendment in the House earlier this month that would have banned the military from paying for gender transition surgery or related hormone therapy for troops.

One Illinois Republican, Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, did not vote on the amendment. All Democrats voted for it.

Davis said he favored the amendment, but missed the vote because of a family medical matter.

In a statement Wednesday, Davis also said that the military "should not be used by either side to set social policy" and that taxpayers should not pay for elective surgeries that may diminish military readiness.

But he left open the door to transgender troops serving, saying: "If you currently meet the readiness standards set by the military and want to serve our country, I believe you should have the opportunity to do so. A patriot is a patriot."

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Advertisement

Twitter @KatherineSkiba
On a squeaker of a vote, the Senate began an extraordinary debate Tuesday over profound philosophical and practical changes to the nation's health care system - without knowing what the legislation would be.

Lawmakers started with a bill that the House passed this spring to dismantle much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is a measure that many Senate Republicans have never liked and was brought up Tuesday solely to kick things off.

Advertisement

The action then immediately pivoted to another bill that also has no realistic chance of success: A reprise of a plan to kill off big parts of the ACA without any replacements. It was adopted two years ago by both chambers of Congress and was vetoed by President Barack Obama.

By nighttime, the Senate had taken its first vote, rejecting one permutation of its main anti-ACA legislation and moving on to another amendment.

Advertisement

And so began a legislative kaleidoscope scheduled to last for 20 hours of debate in coming days, followed by yet more amendments and votes. Even as it started turning, a new last resort already was in sight - a skimpy plan being dubbed "skinny repeal" that could stand mainly as a way to keep the health care issue alive at least through the summer.

After seven years of GOP promises to tear down the ACA, this is the unpredictable course on which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., now finds himself. Despite his reputation as a master tactician, McConnell has been unable in recent weeks to wrangle his fractious caucus into a cohesive health care voting bloc.

Based on what senators were saying on Tuesday, here are some of the plans and amendment likely to come up for debate or a vote - potentially in different combinations - in coming days.

Better Care Reconciliation Act

This is the main legislation that the Senate's Republican leaders have devised to get rid of much of the ACA and substitute a more conservative set of health policies. Originally introduced June 26, it is now in its third version and is almost certain to be altered further.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would eliminate central features of the current law, which a Democratic Congress pushed through in 2010. It would end federal penalties for people who violate the current law's requirement that most Americans carry health insurance and for employers with 50 or more workers who do not offer health benefits. It also would cut the subsidies that help more than 8 in 10 consumers afford the monthly premiums of health plans they buy through the ACA's insurance marketplaces.

The plan would substitute a different form of tax credits, smaller for many people because they would be tied to skimpier health plans. Unlike the ACA subsidies, however, the proposed credits would be available to people below the federal poverty line.

After two years, the bill also would abolish a different ACA subsidy that now helps about 7 million lower-income consumers afford their coverage deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.

Medicaid, the joint state-federal program of health insurance for the poor, would be transformed in two ways. The expansion of the program undertaken by 31 states under the ACA would be phased out in a few years. More fundamentally, its half-century tradition as an entitlement - with the government paying a certain share of the costs in each state, no matter how high - would be replaced by per-person caps or block-grant funding. Either is predicted to squeeze the federal payments as time goes on.

Advertisement

Late last week, the Senate's parliamentarian threw a wrinkle into Senate Republican leaders' plans, concluding that certain aspects of the legislation could not be considered through a budget process that would allow it to pass by a simple majority of votes. These include features, popular among conservatives, that would deny funding for Planned Parenthood and health plans that allow coverage for abortions. Senate aides say the provisions are likely to be rewritten to meet the parliamentary rules. It is not yet clear how.

Cruz amendment

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has been touting a change to the Better Care Reconciliation Act that would enable insurers largely to ignore ACA rules requiring health plans sold to individuals and small businesses to cover specific benefits. Insurers could jettison maternity care, mental-health treatment and other benefits as long as they sell as least one health plan that includes them.

Cruz has said that this change would lead to lower insurance rates for healthy people, and analysts suggest that it would do so. However, analysts also expect that people who need more medical care would face significantly higher prices, because health plans' "risk pools" would be splintered between healthier and sicker groups.

This amendment has been unpopular with GOP centrists in the Senate.

Portman amendment

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, comes from a state that expanded Medicaid and has been outspoken in predicting that the BCRA eventually would starve the program and leave more people uninsured.

He now has come up with a variation of an idea that the Trump administration's top health officials have been heavily lobbying expansion states to embrace: Tax credits that people on Medicaid would receive to buy private health plans. Many of the governors targeted have said no to the administration's offer, predicting that such low-income residents still could not afford the private coverage.

Advertisement

Portman's amendment would provide $100 billion to help those people cover their deductibles and other expenses if they switched out of Medicaid, and it would let states set up such arrangements without needing special federal approval.

Repeal-only

The only repeal bill ever to pass Congress would have left intact some popular ACA insurance rules, such as letting young adults stay on their parents' health plans to age 26. But the 2015 measure would have ended the law's coverage mandates, its subsidies for most people buying health plans through the ACA marketplaces and the law's Medicaid expansion.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has championed this kind of repeal without substitutes, viewing it as a purer version of ACA repeal and thus more acceptable. He provided a crucial vote to start the health care debate Tuesday after being promised that the chamber would vote on this measure. Other Republicans, however, abandoned the idea of a repeal-only bill months ago, believing it would upend coverage for millions of people and devastate insurance markets.

A 'skinny repeal'

Adding a new phrase to the crowded lexicon of health care policy, "skinny repeal" would abolish just three parts of the ACA: The individual and employer insurance requirements, plus a tax on medical-device manufacturers.

A close variant of this surfaced two years ago in the House, and congressional budget analysts estimated at the time that 15 million fewer Americans would have insurance coverage "most years" as a result.

The idea is now as much tactics as policy. A slimmed-down repeal plan probably would surface on the Senate floor as an amendment if the chamber is unable to pass a fuller demolition of the law. It would buy the Senate's GOP leaders more time, because its passage would lead to a conference committee with the House.

Advertisement

Negotiations between lawmakers of the two chambers could then continue past Congress's August recess, preserving the ability of McConnell and other GOP leaders to keep searching for a health-policy formulation that could garner the support of enough members of their caucus.
Trump's public criticism of Sessions has mounted in recent days, starting with a tweet Saturday morning asking why Sessions and Mueller have not investigated alleged "crimes" by former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and by former FBI Director James Comey, and culminating in a tweet early Tuesday accusing Sessions of taking "a VERY weak position" on investigating Clinton and leakers of intelligence secrets.

The attack Tuesday prompted an outpouring of support for Sessions among his former colleagues in the Senate, where he served for 20 years before resigning to become attorney general, and left scores of other Republicans aghast at Trump's willingness to attack one of his most loyal campaign supporters.

"I don't think it helps to throw your own people under the bus," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. "If you think you need to make a change, call him in, have the discussion, make the change. But I don't think these sorts of public floggings are very helpful."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., marveled on the Senate floor Tuesday at Trump's willingness to attack Sessions.

"This is the first person who stuck his neck out for Donald Trump, who was with him through thick and thin," he said. "And now, even if the president has disagreements with him  which I think are ill-founded, self-centered and wrong  you don't ridicule him in public. Someone who is your close friend? That speaks to character."

Schumer raised openly what many Republicans fear privately  that Sessions's dismissal would be a first step toward Mueller's firing. Sessions has recused himself from Russia-related matters because of the meetings he had taken with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and cannot dismiss Mueller, but his successor would not be so constrained.

"Many Americans must be wondering if the president is trying to pry open the office of attorney general to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire special counsel Mueller and shut down the Russia investigation," Schumer said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declined Tuesday to make a definitive statement regarding Sessions, telling reporters, "It's up to the president to decide what his personnel decision is and any possible fallout that comes from that."

And he avoided making a direct statement on Mueller's future a day after defending the special counsel in a Wisconsin radio interview. Asked on WISN-AM about an investigation that is "becoming an obvious witch hunt," Ryan moved to rebut that Trump-inspired line of attack.

"Remember, Bob Mueller is a Republican who was appointed by a Republican, who served in a Republican administration, and crossed over and stayed on until his term ended," he said. "I don't think many people are saying Bob Mueller is a person who is a biased and partisan. He's sort of really anything but."

Most GOP lawmakers kept their focus Tuesday on Sessions. Those standing up for him included some of Trump's most loyal supporters on the political right who fear the loss of a trusted ally on immigration and law-and-order issues.

"Jeff Sessions is far and away the best possible person to be our attorney general in the United States of America," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an outspoken Trump supporter. "There is no one who could replace him who would follow through and finish out the Trump agenda."

Were Sessions to be cashiered, King said, "this would be an amputation of his own immigration and rule-of-law agenda that would be a massive disappointment to the conservatives of America."

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and a lawmaker with a direct line into Trump's inner circle, said the president's criticism of Sessions "shows the growing frustration of this whole Russia thing."

"The president knows he's innocent and doesn't have people defending him," he said, adding, "I do think the attorney general has been very loyal."

Numerous senators issued statements Tuesday testifying to Sessions's personal qualities.

"Jeff Sessions is a man of integrity, loyalty, and extraordinary character," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "I join the people of Alabama in giving Jeff Sessions my deep respect and unwavering support."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters that Sessions "is doing a fine job" and that he "made the right decision to recuse himself" from the Russia probe.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, called Sessions "a man of deep conviction and principle who believes in the rule of law" and "always has the best interests of our country at heart," while Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., called him "a rock-solid conservative" and called Trump's tweets "highly inappropriate."

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who is seeking the Senate seat Sessions once held and has sought to closely align himself with Trump, called the president's attacks "most distressing."

"I'm in a difficult position," he said. "On one hand, I'm very supportive of President Trump's policy agenda. On the other hand, I've been good friends with [Sessions] for more than two decades and I just hate to see this kind of conflict between the two of them."

Brooks declined to speculate on how he or his Republican colleagues might respond if Trump takes aim at Mueller. But other lawmakers were willing to explore the scenario.

Some warned that a move against Mueller could represent a turning point for rank-and-file Republicans who have endured various Trump controversies in hopes of passing a conservative legislative agenda.

"The special counsel's different," said Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. "Not letting that investigation go forward after we all said, 'Let's let the investigation go forward,' would probably be problematic - I guess that would be the best way to say it."

Cole said firing Mueller "would be a huge mistake" and offered some unsolicited advice: "Don't throw a hand grenade down here on Capitol Hill and think you're not going to get some splinters yourself."

"These investigations are going to happen," he added. "They're in motion in the Senate, they're in motion in the House, and they're in motion by the special counsel. And if you think you're going to avoid them, you're making a mistake, in my view. You would be creating a new issue, and you would be confirming the worst suspicions of your enemies and raise doubt among your friends."

The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.
Barbara Boutte, who was active for many years with the Womens Auxiliary of Provident Hospital and other civic groups, died on July 17, 2017, at the age of 86. (Family photo)

Barbara Boutte helped her husband start a chain of Chicago drugstores and later a bank and was a energetic supporter of Chicago community and cultural organizations.

"Barbara was involved in a lot of things," said Gwendolyn Johnson, a friend for about 60 years. "She worked long and hard with Provident Hospital and she was with the United Negro College Fund and the March of Dimes."

Advertisement

She also taught music and art, becoming a Chicago Public Schools teacher in her late 40s and teaching for about a dozen years in schools that included Montefiore school.

Boutte, 86, who was known as "BeBe," died on July 17 of multiple myeloma in her Markham home, according to her daughter, Janice Boutte. She moved to Markham about a year ago, after living for years in Hazel Crest.

Advertisement

Boutte was born Barbara Gonzaque in Alexandria, La. After grade school in New Orleans and high school in the town of Opelousas, she returned to New Orleans to attend Xavier University. With the love of music she got from her parents, she sang in operas and toured with the university choir as she earned a degree in music education.

While at Xavier, she met Alvin Boutte, a pharmacy major and aspiring entrepreneur. The two married in their senior year.

Her husband joined the Army after graduation. At the end of his service and by then with two daughters, the family moved to Chicago. Working together, the couple established what became a chain called Independent Drug Stores Inc. Boutte continued to help and support her husband as he moved from the pharmacy business to help found Independence Bank, later absorbed by ShoreBank before that bank closed in 2010. Alvin Boutte died in 2012.

Barbara Boutte taught music and art for many years and was also the accompanist for her church choir.

"She played piano at St. Clotilde's (Catholic Church) for years," said Johnson. "She loved music."

She was active for many years with the Women's Auxiliary of Provident Hospital. A Cook County spokesperson said the contributions of the Auxiliary were recognized with a community resource room in the hospital, dedicated to the Women's Auxiliary for its many contributions.

Boutte was also a dedicated supporter of Lyric Opera of Chicago through a group called the Bravo Chapter, a group of African-American women who provided financial support. The group has since blended with supporters in Hyde Park and Kenwood.

"With the Bravo Chapter, she and my mother raised money to support the arts," said funeral director Norman Williams, whose mother and sister were friends of Boutte's. "It was philanthropy, but it was also an enjoyable experience to be together and enjoy the classical arts."

Advertisement

Janice Boutte said her mother never missed an annual March of Dimes "can day," although it always came on another daughter's birthday in January deep in Chicago's winter.

With her husband and later, Boutte was a strong supporter of the civil rights movement and of the United Negro College Fund and its Chicago office.

Survivors include another daughter, Jeanette Simpson; sons Gregory and Alvin Jr.; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday in St. Clotilde's Catholic Church, 8430 S. Calumet Ave., Chicago, followed by Mass at noon.

Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
Members of the U.S. Supreme Court listen to U.S. President Barack Obama speak to both houses of Congress during his first State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 27, 2010, in Washington, DC. Pictured are: (L-R, Front) Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer; (L-R, Back) Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Barack Obama had his share of poor decisions and outright failures. One of his worst moments came during his 2010 State of the Union address. With six justices seated in front of him, he upbraided the Supreme Court for a decision on campaign finance regulation.

"With all due deference to separation of powers," he said, "last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." It was a rude breach of protocol, inducing Justice Samuel Alito to shake his head and mouth, "Not true."

Advertisement

Obama's first sin was being disrespectful to justices who were there out of respect to his office. His second was a bad prediction. The legendary First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams has found that of the $2.76 billion raised in the 2016 presidential election, corporations and other businesses provided only $67 million  2.4 percent. Finally, Obama failed to recognize the sound principles underlying the decision.

The Citizens United decision has been portrayed by liberal critics as proof that under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court has become a captive of business interests and right-wing ideologues. But Brooklyn Law School professor Joel Gora, who has served the American Civil Liberties Union as a staff attorney and longtime member of its board of directors, says they are mistaken.

Advertisement

That ruling, he writes, is part of a commendable but unsung pattern. Over the past decade, Gora argues, "the Roberts Supreme Court may well have been the most speech-protective court in a generation, if not in our history."

He's not alone in this conclusion. Abrams told me the Roberts court has gotten some decisions wrong, but "taken as a whole, it has rendered First Amendment-protective decisions in an extraordinarily broad range of cases, and it deserves great credit for doing so."

Geoffrey Stone, a First Amendment scholar at the University of Chicago Law School who has fiercely criticized the campaign finance ruling, says, "The Roberts court has given more protection to free speech across a larger range of areas than any of its predecessors have  although sometimes unwisely."

Citizens United, argues Gora, has been unfairly maligned. "Here you had a law which made it a crime to put out a movie criticizing a major candidate for the presidency of the United States," he says. The First Amendment, wrote Anthony Kennedy, "prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."

Critics say the conservative justices saw it that way because corporate spending tends to favor conservative causes (see: Koch brothers). Some other free speech rulings, says Stone, could also be ascribed to a rightward bias  such as invalidating rules restricting protests at abortion clinics and overturning a law allowing doctors to keep private the medicines they prescribe.

But as Gora notes, many of the court's First Amendment decisions haven't followed that track. It struck down a federal law making it a crime to falsely claim to have won military medals and a California law barring the sale of violent video games to minors.

A court awarded $5 million to the parents of a Marine whose funeral drew demonstrators with signs bearing such offensive messages as "Thank God for dead soldiers." The Supreme Court said the verdict violated the protesters' freedom of speech.

It also ruled against a George W. Bush administration policy requiring overseas groups getting AIDS prevention funds to adopt "a policy explicitly opposing prostitution." None of those decisions fit the policy preferences of conservatives.

Advertisement

The court has sometimes gone wrong on free speech. It upheld a public high school's suspension of a student who brandished a sign saying "Bong hits 4 Jesus," which it took to be a pro-drug sentiment, at a school-supervised event. The court said public employee whistleblowers have no First Amendment protection for anything they say "pursuant to their official duties."

For the most part, though, the court has been a force for freedom of expression. Gora thinks that will be reinforced by the arrival of Neil Gorsuch, who shares the general approach of the court's conservative wing. The new justice indicated in his confirmation hearings that unlike Donald Trump, he has no desire to make it easier for public figures to win libel suits.

Liberals and others will often find fault with the court, as well as Trump. But thanks to the justices, they will have a wide berth to complain.

Download "Recalculating: Steve Chapman on a New Century" in the free Printers Row app at www.printersrowapp.com.

schapman@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveChapman13
Let's review a few recent developments.



Last week, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned. This was part of a "White House shakeup" to get the Trump administration back on track. The new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, would fix the White House's "messaging problem."



Within 24 hours of Scaramucci's appointment, the president returned to Twitter and unloaded another torrent of political bombshells, including talking about his power to pardon, even as his attorneys were denying that Donald Trump was thinking about pardoning anyone.



Speaking of lawyers, earlier last week, the president's legal team underwent another "shakeup." That shakeup had similar results: no change.



Over the weekend, Trump returned to Twitter to vent his ire at his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The former senator was the first major politician to endorse Trump, and more than any other figure Sessions lent conservative credibility and legitimacy to Trump's campaign.



The president insisted on Twitter that the "beleaguered" attorney general was taking a "weak position" on the need to prosecute Hillary Clinton for various alleged crimes.



This is an odd claim. The president himself announced after he was elected that Hillary had suffered enough and that all the "Lock her up!" stuff was campaign bluster.



When I say it is "odd," I'm being generous, because the claim is almost certainly a politically expedient lie. How do we know this? Because just days earlier, Trump sat down for an Oval Office interview with what he calls the "failing" and "fake" New York Times and said as much.



The president whined that Sessions had been "unfair" to him when the attorney general recused himself from the investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Never mind that the recusal was a political necessity at the time (whether it was a legal or ethical necessity is debated). Trump told the Times that if he had known Sessions was going to behave so ethically, he would never have appointed him.



In political terms, this was the equivalent of saying something to The New York Times that you would normally whisper to your closest advisor, if anybody at all.



The president has an elaborate theory that if Sessions hadn't recused himself, special counsel Robert Mueller wouldn't have been appointed.



It's a strange theory. Trump admitted he was taking the Russia investigation into consideration when he fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump tweeted about the possible existence of "tapes" of his conversations with Comey. Trump hired the man who appointed Mueller. On the campaign trail, Trump had openly called on Russia to continue its cyber war on the Clinton campaign.



In short, at every turn, the president has acted as if he has something to hide. Whether he actually does is an open question, but his obsession with the unfairness of the Russia story  and his refusal to credit claims that the Russians meddled in the election, or to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin  is a perpetual smoke machine causing people to think there's got to be a fire somewhere.



So what's my point? Simply: The author of Donald Trump's problems is first and foremost Donald Trump. It's fine to point out the excesses of the Democrats and the media. There's certainly ample reason to criticize his staff. It's understandable that Trump supporters think the "establishment," the "swamp" or the "Deep State" have undermined him  because they have.



But Trump is not a victim. He is the hamster spinning the wheel in the massive Rube Goldberg machine that is the spectacle of presidential dysfunction.



Every few weeks, the debate about his tweeting starts again. It's like the gun control debate. Guns are to blame! No, criminals are to blame! Guns don't kill people, people do.



It's all nonsense. Twitter is a tool. Barack Obama had a Twitter account, too. Trump puts the bullets in the social media gun, and Trump pulls the trigger, aiming at his own foot with unerring accuracy.



After every good speech, the clock restarts and the Trump train is "back on track." Then, Trump acts like Trump again and the clock gets reset to zero. Spicer's departure changed nothing. Firing Jeff Sessions will change nothing. Shakeups change nothing. Shake the White House snow globe all you like. The scene doesn't change much, and when things settle down, there Trump remains, being Trump. It won't change, because he can't change. Character is destiny, now and forever.

Tribune Content Agency



Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.

Advertisement

goldbergcolumn@gmail.com

Twitter @JonahNRO

Advertisement

Related articles:

Trump's psychological abuse of Jeff Sessions could backfire

President Trump is lobotomizing America

No, it's not too early to discuss grounds for impeaching Trump

Is Jared Kushner really this clueless?
There were at least eight people in the room on June 9, 2016, when two Trump family members and Donald Trump's campaign manager met with a Russian lawyer and her extended team in Trump Tower. Focus your attention just briefly on one of them: Ike Kaveladze. Of course it will be important to learn, in due course, what he was really doing there. But in the meantime, we should spend a few minutes thinking about the peculiar financial culture  American as well as Russian  that he represents.

Though not exactly a celebrity, Kaveladze's notoriety in certain circles stretches back more than two decades. Starting in the 1990s, his company, Euro-American Corporate Services Inc., set up more than 2,000 Delaware corporations on behalf of unknown, mostly Russian clients and used those companies to open bank accounts. According to a Government Accountability Office report on "Suspicious Banking Activities," published in 2000, those bank accounts were then used to receive and send large amounts of money. The GAO found that two banks "facilitated the transfer of approximately $1 billion from Eastern Europe, through U.S. banks, and back to Eastern Europe by corporations formed for Russian brokers"; more than $800 million in total was deposited in 136 accounts that Euro-American Corporate Services and another Kaveladze company created at Citibank alone. Kaveladze has protested that what he had done was legal  and he was right. Delaware law really was so lax that it allowed unnamed Russians to send money in and out of the United States without much question.

Why did this matter? Because that kind of activity was a part of the business model that brought Vladimir Putin to power. As numerous books have documented  the best is "Putin's Kleptocracy" by Karen Dawisha  Putin was one of a group of public officials, many affiliated with the old KGB, who systematically pillaged the Russian state. They drew money out of the state, often using commodities arbitrage or other methods, moved the money out of the country through shell companies, then brought it back to Russia and used it to buy companies and property. They became rich  many of them fabulously so. They then used that wealth to gain power.

Soviet-born businessmen such as Kaveladze, based in the United States and Europe, played significant roles in this system. But so did a range of U.S. and European bankers, accountants and lawyers. For two decades, Western real estate markets  New York, Miami, London  have also provided multiple safe places for Russian oligarchs (and many others) to spend money with complete anonymity. Last year, a Treasury Department investigation into shell companies that purchased luxury homes for cash in several U.S. metropolitan areas found that more than a quarter of such transactions in Manhattan and Miami actually involved someone engaged in "suspicious activity."

The arrangement suited everybody: American real estate magnates, suddenly rich Russian oligarchs, the construction industry and many others. But underneath this boom there was a grim truth: An important chunk of the money that pumped up the New York luxury real estate market over the past two decades was money originally siphoned off from the Russian state. That was money that should have been used to build hospitals, schools and roads, but instead enriched officials such as Putin and the billionaires who surround him. In due course, Russian money also enriched Trump and his family: As Donald Trump Jr. said in 2008, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."

In that sense the rise of Trump and the rise of Putin are connected. No wonder Trump feels such an affinity for the Russian president; no wonder he seeks him out at international meetings. And no wonder special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation has reportedly decided to look closely at past Trump family real estate transactions.

I'm sure there will eventually be a lot more to say about the details of the Trump-Russia financial relationship. But this story should make us ponder some larger themes, too. After all, the double rise of Trump and Putin might have been halted if only Western governments and financial institutions had acted, over the past two decades, as if they truly believed that these kinds of dealings are wrong. Laws were not enforced  or did not exist. Blind eyes were turned.

Even now, we could be doing much, much more. We could stop the registration of all anonymous companies in states such as Wyoming, Delaware and Nevada. We could make all property owners put their real names on public registers. We could listen to Global Witness and other activist groups that constantly point out the links between financial deals in New York and human rights abuse and poverty in faraway countries. Some of these changes are happening in Britain and Europe. But in the United States, where the political consequences of this ugly international system are now so dramatic, we have scarcely begun.
Presidents are rarely afforded the luxury of choosing their foreign-policy priorities. Instead, their international agendas are shaped by events  George H.W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's by the collapse of the Soviet Union, George W. Bush's by the Sept. 11 attacks, and Barack Obama's by the Arab uprisings and rise of the Islamic State. President Donald Trump faces the same challenge  but this time it is Russia usurping the agenda.

But for all the attention on contacts between his presidential campaign and Moscow  issues which call for a serious response from the White House, to be sure  Trump's real Russia problem lies elsewhere: Moscow is increasingly bold in challenging the West, and the risk of great-power conflict is at its highest point since the end of the Cold War. The United States urgently needs a clear strategy for dealing with this challenge.

Advertisement

Trump's attitude toward Russia during the campaign was relatively benign. He resisted criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed his openness toward better U.S.-Russia relations. Yet this approach largely reflected the view of the U.S. public: A Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey in early 2016 found that 56 percent of Americans favored cooperating with Moscow over working to limit its influence, and Pew reported that only 23 percent identified Russia as an "adversary."

What a difference a year makes. In the wake of brazen Russian efforts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election (among others), 31 percent of Americans now identify Russia as the country representing the "greatest danger" to the United States. By contrast, only 22 percent name North Korea, and just 9 percent name Iran. While it is tempting to put this down to domestic politics  and indeed, the shift is most pronounced among Democrats  the trend is strongly bipartisan.

Advertisement

For Trump, this is an understandable conundrum  not only because the political ground has shifted rapidly beneath his feet, but also because he was the winner of an election in which Moscow is accused of meddling, and thus perceives criticism of Russia as proxy for an attack on the legitimacy of his victory.

To the administration's credit, however, its approach to Russia has not been a soft one: It has thus far maintained U.S. sanctions on Russia, gone ahead with U.S. deployments to Eastern Europe, and conducted strikes in Syria against Russian allies, in defiance of Moscow's bluster. Yet the Russian specter overshadows Trump's presidency, along with America's transatlantic alliances, and will continue to do so without firm action. Three steps are needed.

First, the Trump administration must arrive at a clear assessment of Russian motives, objectives, and strategy, to inform U.S. policymaking. Putin's Russia is a revisionist power, not content with the world as it is, but looking to reshape the international order to its own advantage. This means restoring Russian power to its previous heights, while exacting revenge along the way for slights real or imagined. It also means  because Putin appears to harbor a zero-sum view of the world  reducing the American role in the international order.

Yet for all of this ambition, Russia is frail economically and diplomatically, and thus must search for opportunities to seize and weaknesses to exploit  for example, Western neglect of Syria, or the decay and corruption of states like Ukraine.

Second, with this assessment settled, Trump must set a clear and firm direction for U.S. policy toward Russia. There is nothing wrong with engaging Moscow diplomatically, or even with looking for areas of cooperation. But the United States should do so with eyes open. The United States should know what it wants from engagement, and take care to build leverage beforehand. As with other adversaries, Russia's overarching strategy requires opposition to the United States for opposition's sake. Thus, whatever tactical convergences the two countries have, they will remain, at least for the time being, strategically at odds.

The U.S. strategy toward Russia should counter, not mirror, Moscow's strategy toward the United States. We need not focus on reducing Russian influence  which is minimal in most regions  for its own sake, nor should we adopt Putin's zero-sum mindset. Instead, we should deter Moscow by denying it any more easy opportunities for meddling, especially in Europe, and ensuring that its existing forays into Ukraine and Syria not only are unrewarded, but incur a steep strategic cost.

It will be harder, but is just as urgent, to deter Russia in cyberspace, to prevent a repetition of its meddling in the U.S. election. A firm position on this last question is particularly important for Trump. He may fear that it will become a weapon against him, but in fact ordering a review of Russian interference and strengthening American defenses against such attempts at subversion would be a sign of strength and confidence.

Finally, the United States should rally allies to support U.S. policy toward Russia. During his May trip to Brussels, Trump both called on allies to honor their defense spending commitments as NATO members  an entirely reasonable demand also conveyed by his predecessors. Yet our partners would be justified in responding, "To what purpose?" NATO's original mission was to deter and defend against the Soviet Union, a purpose that faded after the USSR's collapse.

Advertisement

Some, including Trump, have suggested that NATO shift its focus to issues such as terrorism and migration. However, while those matters are urgent, they call for a different set of capabilities, and perhaps partners, than great-power deterrence does. If Washington wishes to re-energize the alliance and motivate allies to ramp up defense spending, it should make clear the U.S. commitment to deterrence  a mission that once again is highly relevant. If instead we signal ambivalence, we should expect allies in turn to hedge their bets with Moscow or focus on EU-centric defense partnerships.

For any administration, dealing with Russia and other emboldened, great-power adversaries would be a tough problem. For the Trump administration, getting ahead of this challenge is particularly important if it hopes to regain control of its foreign policy agenda.

Foreign Policy

Michael Singh is a senior fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council.
Seemingly out of the blue on Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that he would not allow "Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." The rationale? The military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The question of costs  presumably referring to procedures like gender reassignment surgery  was addressed in a Rand report that estimated a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in military health-care expenditures should transgender people be allowed to serve. Trump has proposed a 10 percent bump in overall military spending, which could certainly absorb that increase.

Advertisement

That latter point, though, the "disruption" that integration of transgender troops would spur? That is an argument we've heard before. When gay Americans sought the right to serve in the military, that was a central argument against the change. When women sought combat roles, a central argument. When blacks were integrated into the military? Warnings about disruption.

In 1948, President Harry Truman moved toward fully integrating black Americans into the military. At the time, members of his own party spoke out against the plan. The Washington Post reported on the objections in June of that year.

Advertisement

Former Tennessee U.S. Sen. Tom Stewart proposed "allowing men in the services to choose whether or not they would serve in mixed units" to avoid offending the sensibilities of those determined to maintain segregation. U.S. Sen. Lister Hill of Alabama argued that integration would "seriously impair the morale of the Army at a time when our armed forces should be at their strongest and most efficient." He called Truman's move "unfortunate."

When the Democrats adopted an end-military-segregation platform, a contingent of Southern Democrats splintered off into a pro-segregation party known as the Dixiecrats. Strom Thurmond, running as a States Rights Democratic Party candidate while still nominally a Democrat, carried four Southern states in that year's presidential election.

Gen. Omar Bradley, the Army chief of staff in 1948, argued that the Army should follow the American people on rejecting segregation, not lead it. For that, he was praised, including by New York Times columnist Hanson Baldwin.

"Most important of all," Baldwin wrote of Bradley's comments, "is the efficiency of the Army, of which morale is a part. This is General Bradley's particular responsibility. He knows, as nearly every Army officer knows, after long experience with the problem, that a hard, flat and inflexible rule that white and Negro manpower be completely intermingled immediately in all tactical units would be one of the surest ways to break down the morale of the Army and to destroy its efficiency."

It wasn't.

For what it's worth, there were about 62,000 black soldiers in the Army in 1948, about a tenth of the total. Rand estimates that there are between 1,000 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty today, of 1.3 million in total. (A transgender organization puts the number at 15,000.)

In the 1990s, the argument shifted to the role of women in the military. That year, Lou Marano wrote a piece for this paper arguing against allowing women to serve in combat roles.

"It is also said that sexual distraction in military life is an issue only for relics like me, and that today's more enlightened generation of young men develop nothing but brotherly affection for their female 'buddies,'" he wrote. "Not only does this go against all experience and common sense, but I found it to be false when reporting on U.S. forces deployed to the mountains of Honduras in 1988 ... Human nature doesn't change, and we are asking for trouble by pretending it has."

Advertisement

The physiology of female soldiers also played a prominent role in the debate. Newt Gingrich, splitting time between serving as Speaker of the House and teaching a history course at Reinhardt College in 1995, told his students that women wouldn't be able to handle certain combat realities.

"Females," he said, "have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don't have upper body strength." Men, on the other hand, like to roll around in filth, he said.

A 1997 bill aimed at segregating men and women in basic training was championed by members of Congress like Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.

"During the brief period of time when they're being socialized into the ethos of the military, it's counterproductive to have men and women train together," he told the Times that year. "The attraction and distraction of sexuality is detracting from the effectiveness of basic training." Others pointed out that teaching men and women how to serve together at the outset would alleviate problems later on.

This point comes up over and over, even today: Men will simply be too distracted by women for them to serve alongside one another. A Google search for "women in military distraction" yields 857,000 results.

"26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?"

Advertisement

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2013

The 1997 bill barring boot-camp integration prompted an unusual flip side to the argument from Col. Vincent J. Inghilterra, a chaplain at Fort Leonard Wood.

"Because of the rigors of [basic training] and the physiological limitations of female recruits to meet the fitness demands," he wrote in a letter to lawmakers, "some may be tempted to use their sexuality to garner special favors."

The boot-camp bill also had the support of then-U. S. senator Daniel Coats, now serving as Trump's director of national intelligence. When Coats was put forward as a possible nominee to serve as George W. Bush's defense secretary, that history of opposition to integrating women more fully into the armed forces was raised by activists opposing his nomination. (The job eventually went to Donald H. Rumsfeld.)

Coats' nomination was similarly opposed by those advocating for an expanded role of gays in the military, also a subject that was debated in the 1990s. Again, a similar argument emerged.

"The problem of having homosexuals serve openly," a retired Army colonel said during a hearing on the issue in 1993, "is the extent to which it becomes a divisive cleavage point in small units."

Advertisement

Another expert testified that the "introduction of sexual attraction," in the words of Coats, "destroys" military cohesion. "I think we have seen this happen on a heterosexual basis in units in which erotic love between a leader and a soldier has been introduced," said David Marlowe, the chief of military psychology at Walter Reed.

"Strange to remember that in 1999, Trump was at forefront arguing gay Americans should be allowed to serve. What he told The Advocate"

- andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) July 26, 2017

As recently as 2010, when don't-ask-don't-tell was being repealed, Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, echoed a variation of the same line: Gay soldiers could lead to combat deaths.

"When your life hangs on the line," he said, "you don't want anything distracting. ... Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines' lives."

When the bill was passed, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., lamented the decision, echoing Amos. "Today's a very sad day," he said. "The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don't want anything distracting. ... I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen and I'll tell you why. You go up to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Marines are up there with no legs, none. You've got Marines at Walter Reed with no limbs."

Advertisement

Despite all of these warnings, President Trump himself has regularly weighed in on how the military has emerged from these integrations: the best. "Having the best technology and equipment is only one part of the American military dominance," he said this weekend in Norfolk.

He continued. "Our true strength is our people. Our greatest weapon is all of you. Our nation endures because we have citizens who love America and who are willing to fight for America."

On Wednesday  the 69th anniversary of Truman's executive order on integrating the military  Trump took a distinctly different position.

Washington Post

Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Post based in New York City.
Early this month, when they hit taxpayers with a 32 percent jump in the individual income tax rate, many legislators broke a promise they had made: No more tax hikes without major reforms to help Illinois' moribund economy. Don't worry, said Democrats who pushed the tax hike. We'll get to those reforms soon enough.

But not soon enough, we now see, to keep electronics giant Foxconn from bypassing Illinois to make a jobs-rich investment in southeast Wisconsin. This is a huge win for Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin whom Illinois Democrats loathe. Just as this is an embarrassment for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.

Advertisement

Once again, the people of Illinois see how Madigan and Cullerton, with their combined 86 years in Springfield, have left Illinois ill-prepared to compete for 21st-century jobs. Their agenda is about raising taxes, not about delivering those reforms. As we wrote a few days ago, every other state on Foxconn's short list looked better than Illinois by the basic measures of financial stability and pro-growth economies.

No wonder, then, that Illinois is starved for jobs. We expect to learn more in coming days about Foxconn's thinking. We don't know details of whatever federal, state and local government incentives lured the company Beyond the Cheddar Curtain. And we can't be certain how many billions of dollars in investment, and how many thousands of jobs, Wisconsin will gain.

Advertisement

But we do know this: Wisconsin boasts a freshly burnished global image. One of the planet's largest tech firms, with a million workers worldwide, says its search led it to bet a fraction of its future on Wisconsin. Assuming that happens, expect robust economic growth from suppliers, subcontractors, construction companies and other businesses that will serve Foxconn and its workforce.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks in the East Room accompanied by House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., Foxconn CEO and founder Terry Gou, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)

Cranky Springfield apologists for Madigan and Cullerton will say we're overreaching, that Gov. Bruce Rauner is somehow to blame for losing Foxconn to Wisconsin. Except Rauner has been pushing exactly the kinds of employer-friendly reforms that Madigan and Cullerton have resisted, often to please their allies who lead labor unions.

It's Madigan and Cullerton who've set up Illinois to fail in these contests for jobs. Madigan and Cullerton who haven't sent Rauner a no-gimmicks property tax freeze to even slightly offset the extra $5 billion their income tax hike will gouge from companies and workers. Madigan and Cullerton who won't make major fixes to a workers' compensation system that drives away employers. Madigan and Cullerton who can't deliver significant pension reforms to Rauner's desk. Madigan and Cullerton who can't bring themselves to slash that costly roster of 7,000 local governments.

Early this month we urged Madigan and Cullerton to run for re-election from their districts if they wish, but to step down from their leadership posts. We asked them to emulate former Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno, who in recently announcing her retirement said, "I've really tried hard. It's time for someone else to take the reins."

Exactly. You'll find our full editorial at chicagotribune.com/quit. Of Madigan and Cullerton we wrote:

This isn't personal. But too often, the people of Illinois are caught up in the two Chicagoans' dramas. They deliver action in increments. What they do not deliver are sweeping solutions to the long-term crises of Illinois' tax-hobbled economy and high-overhead governance. ... Year upon year, Illinois' crises endure. Year upon year, these majority leaders haven't delivered those sweeping solutions to the people of Illinois  citizens sufficiently exasperated that they fired one governor and hired another to disrupt Madigan and Cullerton's statehouse. On their watch, Illinois has become a national embarrassment, a failed job creator whose young people are leaving by the tens of thousands.

When we wrote those words, we didn't know that yet another of their dramas would yield this summer's school-funding fiasco: Cullerton holding back a bill to gain leverage against Rauner, Madigan posturing as if Illinois' financial debacle began the day the governor took office.

[What to read next: 'Cullerton's School Crisis' 2017]

Advertisement

Enough of their games. Foxconn's choice of Wisconsin offers a fresh opportunity to act on what's wrong with Illinois:

We await the reforms legislators promised, so that Illinois doesn't keep driving employers to other states.

Just as we hope Michael Madigan and John Cullerton realize they've delivered more for the governor of Wisconsin than for the people of Illinois.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.

Become a subscriber today to support editorial writing like this. Start getting full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks.
Firefighters across the state made progress containing several wildfires Wednesday, in part because of a respite from blazing temperatures.

Officials also determined that a 7,000 acre blaze near White Sulphur Springs was human caused, though it's still under investigation.

The Chinn fire, 12 miles south of White Sulphur Springs, is now 100 percent contained and has been transferred back to county management for mop-up.

The information website for the fire also has a specific reminder about how trailer chains dragging along pavement can throw off sparks that ignite dry grass along roads.

Containment improved at the Lodgepole Complex, the largest fire in the nation, in part thanks to back-burn operations. Some fire crews fighting the blaze in Garfield and Petroleum counties have been designated to attack any new fires that start in the area as isolated thunderstorms are forecast for much of Montana this week.

As of 5 p.m. the fire was mapped at 270,200 acres and 62 percent contained. The fire's perimeter is 196 miles. Gusty winds are expected Thursday and Friday, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group website InciWeb.

At the Buffalo fire, a new 3,100 acre blaze in Powder River County, firefighters were able to work directly on firelines and reach 80 percent containment. Containment on a nearby fire in Wyoming, the 1,100 acre Stallions fire, improved to 90 percent. The fires have threatened more than a dozen structures, but none have been lost.

The June fire, a 1,600 acre fire west of Cody, is now 70 percent contained. The fire caused some trail and campground closures in the Shoshone National Forest. The fire's size was initially estimated at 2,000 acres but was decreased with better mapping.

Containment on the 7,900 acre Crying fire, west of the Lodgepole Complex, is up to 90 percent.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama speaks, emphasizing that women must celebrate their strength, during a live conversation with The Women's Foundation of Colorado President and CEO Lauren Y. Casteel at Pepsi Center on July 25, 2017, in Denver, Colo. (Jason Bahr / Getty Images for The Women's Fou)

Remember how some people used to talk about President Barack Obama's rise as "post-racial?" With bracing candor, Michelle Obama has begun to open up about how post-racial her White House life wasn't.

In a Tuesday night appearance at the Women's Foundation of Colorado in Denver, the former first lady, who memorably advised Democrats "when they go low, we go high," offered a painful glimpse of how low the insults could go  and how it felt to be on the receiving end.

Advertisement

As The Denver Post reported, foundation President and CEO Lauren Casteel asked her which of the "falling glass shards" from the glass ceiling that she broke as the first black first lady cut the deepest. "The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut," she said, according to the Post. "Knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won't see me for what I am because of my skin color."

Sad, but true. Along with the privileges of the presidency comes a breathtaking burden on presidential families. But so far, only one first family has had the added burden of being African-American and facing the prejudices and cheap shots that come with it.

Advertisement

The fact that she also is a woman makes Michelle Obama an even more inviting target for the most boneheaded bullying.

As recently as last November, for example, she was called an "ape in heels" in a Facebook post by Pamela Ramsey Taylor, director of Clay County Development Corp., in West Virginia, who later swore she was not racist. Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling replied approvingly ("Just made my day Pam," according to NBC affiliate WSAZ.)

Whaling later resigned and Taylor lost her position, according to The Washington Post.

A similar fate befell Patrick Rushing, mayor of Airway Heights, Wash., who reportedly admitted that he called President Barack Obama "monkey man" and first lady Michelle Obama "gorilla face" last July. He stepped down a month later after the City Council called for his resignation, according to The Spokesman-Review of Spokane.

Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign led to attacks against her physique and alleged uppityness. Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, of all people, said she had "no business being involved" in what people eat.

Even meaner was the cartoon in conservative Breitbart's Big Government site of a chubby Michelle gobbling a burger and fries and telling her skinny husband to "shut up and pass the bacon!"

And when the real world is not nearly enough for some people, there's a fog of urban legends and conspiracy theories, relayed over chain emails. The prize for the most bizarre may well go to radio and Internet conspiracy loony Alex Jones of InfoWars, who claimed last year that Michelle Obama was secretly a transgender man and Joan Rivers was murdered in the cover-up.

Gimme a break, right? It's not so hard to go high when others go that low  and keep digging.

Advertisement

Yet, despite the many outrages against her and her family, the former first lady remained resolutely upbeat about this nation as a land of opportunity.

"Women, we endure those cuts in so many ways that we don't even notice we're cut," she said. "We are living with small tiny cuts, and we are bleeding every single day. And we're still getting up."

"The people in this country are universally good and kind and honest and decent," she said. "Don't be afraid of the country you live in. The folks here are good."

Indeed, most of us are, even if some of us still need to learn a few things  like better manners.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Advertisement

Twitter @cptime
Temperatures look to top out in the lower 90s as southwest winds steer very warm, humid air back into the Chicago area Wednesday ahead of a cold front approaching from the west. Strong to severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, large hail and flood-producing downpours are forecast to develop along and ahead of the cold front, reaching the Interstate 80 corridor in the late afternoon and early evening and then spreading east over the remainder of our area Wednesday night.

Some locations could see 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, which could increase and lengthen flooding along segments of already-swollen rivers.

Advertisement

The cold front should move off to the east Thursday, with showers and thunderstorms ending from the west and cooler, less humid high pressure flowing into northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. With high pressure centered just to our north, cooling easterly winds will then dominate through the coming weekend.
A judge granted an Aurora man's request to serve as his own attorney against an attempted murder charge stemming from a 2015 Aurora shooting, according to Kane County court records.

Anibal Ramos, 21, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder during a July 13 hearing at which Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson agreed to let Ramos represent himself and discharged a court-appointed attorney who been involved in the case.

Advertisement

Abrahamson did not order standby counsel to assist Ramos, court documents show.

Prosecutors allege Ramos opened fire with a 9mm handgun on a vehicle driving in the area of LaSalle and Bluff streets in Aurora on March 1, 2015. He was indicted two years later, about a month before being paroled in April by the Illinois Department of Corrections on an unrelated gun possession conviction.

Advertisement

He remains in Kane County Jail on $500,000 bail in the attempted murder case. Ramos faces a minimum of 26 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder.

According to authorities and records, Ramos was arrested five days after the 2015 shooting when police found him with two guns and ammunition under a seat during a traffic stop. He eventually was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in that case. Ramos also has a pending case from 2016 which accuses him of illegal possession and delivery of a .25-caliber gun.

A court filing by prosecutors last year indicated Ramos has four juvenile convictions since 2010 for weapons, gang and battery charges.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Kane County prosecutors plan to file an emergency motion seeking a Friday hearing in a last-ditch attempt to keep former Aurora priest Alfredo Pedraza Arias, who is accused of sexual abuse, from being deported.

Arias, 50, had been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials since May until Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson, who raised his bail by $100,000 earlier in the month, on July 21 agreed to remand the one-time Aurora priest to the Kane County Jail. Prosecutors sought the move because federal authorities issued a June 14 deportation order for Arias.

Advertisement

Court records show someone posted the additional $10,000 on Monday to allow Arias to be released, however ICE records indicate Arias was taken back into their custody not long after. He is again being held in a Kenosha, Wisconsin, facility, according to immigration officials.

Arias has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving two girls who were under the age of 6 at the time of the alleged incidents, which occurred between 2012 and 2014 while he was at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora.

Advertisement

Charged in February 2016, Arias had been out the ministry since October 2014 while police and the Rockford Diocese investigated allegations against him. Arias also worked in Aurora at Our Lady of Good Counsel and with DeKalb's Hispanic Ministry, according to the diocese.

Prosecutors want Arias to remain in the country to face trial on the charges, and are uncertain whether they could try the case without him present if he is sent back to his native Colombia. Arias' attorney said last week he was unsure if the deportation order stemmed from the criminal charges or an issue with his visa.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Hundreds of mourners turned out Monday morning at Holy Angels Church for the funeral of longtime Aurora police officer and popular restaurant owner John Saltijeral. (Denise Crosby / Beacon-News )

If the size of the crowd at a funeral  or for that matter, the number of priests who officiated at it  is any reflection of a person's journey through life, then John "Salti" Saltijeral, who died last week after a two-year battle with cancer, can rest in peace knowing he truly made an impact in this community.

Hundreds of mourners filled the pews of Holy Angels Church on a gorgeous Monday morning to pay their final respects to the 30-year-Aurora Police Department veteran and beloved owner of Pancho's Family Restaurant.

Advertisement

Family, police and food were the cornerstones of the 64-year-old man's life, the Rev. Jerome Leake declared in the eulogy during the service attended by people of all ages, including police, fire and state officials.

And Leake would know. In his 47 years as a chaplain with the Aurora Police Department, the pastor of St. Joseph Church spent two decades working with Saltijeral. And he saw up close  as in, riding in the front seat with him at times, even during late night emergency calls  what sort of a cop Salti was.

Advertisement

A good police officer, Leake told the crowd, is as much a minister as anyone wearing a clerical collar. And to Salti, he said, "it was so important in his life to be a minister to the people of Aurora."

Saltijeral "cared so much about those he served," Leake told me later. "He was always so concerned about how he treated them."

That turned out to be a recurring theme when I spoke with people who knew the popular police officer and businessman known for his booming voice and a thick mustache that made one wonder, noted Leake, if Pancho Villa "came back as Salti."

Leake, who taught Saltijeral's wife Mary Jane in high school, also saw first-hand the importance of family, administering spiritually to the ailing officer during his final days, bringing him Communion, he said, when the "body and blood of Christ' was the only food the dying man was able to eat during that last month.

John Saltijeral (Saltijeral family)

And yes, Leake was also a frequent patron of Salti's restaurant, first at Pancho Tacos, which he opened in 1988, then later when he expanded it to Pancho's Family Restaurant in 2003.

The food was just that good, the priest insisted, especially the chili rellenos that his friend took credit for but Leake found out later was really made by Saltijeral's wife at home in her kitchen.

The applause and laughter that erupted across those rows of pews when Leake delivered that line revealed not just how well known that so-called secret was but also how well-loved Saltijeral was to the people in that church.

The man's distinctive voice, mustache and sense of humor added to his larger-than-life persona, but more than anything, it was the way he interacted with people that set him apart, say those who knew him. It was not unusual, noted his partner, recently retired Aurora Police Officer Mark Johnson, even for the punks and gang-bangers he'd arrest in their youth to become loyal customers as they grew into more responsible adults.

Advertisement

"The bangers all knew him and respected him," Johnson said. And later in life, after having survived that chapter in their lives, "they would come in to his restaurant, they would see each other and start up conversations" about those bygone days.

"For a longtime cop, he did not have that typical tough guy mentality," noted Aurora Township Supervisor and former Beacon-News police reporter Bill Catching, who frequented Pancho's for the exceptional food, especially the guisado. "He was always so jovial and would find a way to help you if he could."

Juventino Cano, founder of Cano Container Corp. on the far East Side of Aurora, has been stopping by Pancho's two or there times a week for the past decade on his way home from work. And while the food was a drawing card, he said, it was the way the always-smiling Saltijeral treated every customer who walked through those doors that made this place so popular.

"He paid so much attention to his clientele, you just felt comfortable going in there," Cano said.

Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman, who rode with Saltijeral back in 1991 when she was just a cadet, recalls him always being good for a smile and a kind word.

The Aurora Police Department paid tribute to one of its own on Monday at Holy Angels Church on Monday when 30-year Aurora Police Department veteran John Saltijeral was remembered for his kindness and service, not only as an officer but also a popular restaurant owner. ( Denise Crosby/Beacon-News )

"Community policing was the buzz phrase back then, but now that I look back, I see that Salti mastered that concept before it was popular," she said. "He spent much of the day I rode with him pulling over and having conversations with citizens and business owners. I remember wondering how he knew so many people but I soon realized he didn't.

Advertisement

"He just liked to interact with our citizens," she said.

Johnson agreed. The one thing he'll never forget Saltijeral telling him when Johnson was being trained is that it "is better to be well-liked by the people than well-liked by the police department."

And in the end, Johnson added, that's why "Salti was well-liked and respected by all."

DCrosby@tribpub.com

Twitter @dencrosby
Native American entrepreneurs are invited to attend a free course in small-business development.

The Billings-based Native American Development Corp. is hosting the Native American Entrepreneurial Empowerment Workshop, a two-day entrepreneurial workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Aug. 9-10, in the downstairs conference room at Rocky Mountain Bank, located at 2929 Third Ave. N.

The interactive, hands-on training will provide comprehensive information on topics including business models, planning, access to capital, marketing, basic bookkeeping, break-even analyses and problem solving.

The free workshop includes lunch, morning and afternoon snacks, and a workbook that provides components required for a professional business plan.

The workshop, one of 15 nationwide, is presented by RedWind, a Native American-operated consulting firm, and supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Native American Affairs.

To register, go to nativesmallbusiness.org/billings. For more information, contact Mary Walks Over Ice by calling 294-7994, or emailing mwalksoverice@nadc-nabn.org.

More information is available at nadc-nabn.org.
This photo shows the condition of a foreclosed home in Hobart, Ind. A new federal complaint alleges disparities in the maintenance of foreclosures between predominantly white and largely minority communities. (Photo courtesy of South Suburban Housing Center) - Original Credit: Handout (Nolan, Michael/HANDOUT )

New allegations of disparities in maintenance of foreclosed homes in metro areas around the country, including Chicago's south suburbs and northwest Indiana, were raised by fair housing organizations in a federal complaint filed Wednesday.

The filing with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development amends a complaint first filed in February 2014 accusing Deutsche Bank of housing discrimination by doing a better job maintaining foreclosed properties located in predominately white communities than in communities with significant black and Latino populations.

Advertisement

The amended complaint adds Ocwen Financial and Altisource Portfolio Solutions as respondents in the HUD matter.

The filing was made by the National Fair Housing Alliance as well as regional fair housing groups, including the Homewood-based South Suburban Housing Center, HOPE Fair Housing in Wheaton and Open Communities in Winnetka.

Advertisement

This photo shows the condition of a foreclosed home in Worth. A new federal complaint alleges disparities in the maintenance of foreclosures between predominantly white and largely minority communities. (Photo courtesy of South Suburban Housing Center) - Original Credit: Handout (Nolan, Michael/HANDOUT )

The Chicago-area organizations evaluated 127 properties in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana, and in findings filed with the complaint cited numerous instances of foreclosed homes in predominantly minority communities often having unkempt lawns, trash and other debris in yards and boarded-up or unsecured doors.

By contrast, properties in largely white communities were better maintained, the groups said.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank said the bank had no comment. Ocwen and Altisource were added to the HUD complaint because the companies are responsible for maintenance and marketing of the properties.

Ocwen, in a statement, said it had not yet had a chance to review the complaint, but denied the allegations and insisting they have no merit.

"The company will vigorously defend itself against these allegations. Ocwen cares about communities, and is committed to equal maintenance and marketing of bank-owned homes no matter where they are located in the U.S.," the company said.

Altisource, in a statement, said the allegations have no merit and are based on research by the National Fair Housing Alliance in a different matter that was discounted by HUD.

Altisource, a Boston-based property preservation company, said the alliance's assertions "misrepresent both Altisource's conduct and our role as a property preservation vendor."

This photo shows the condition of a foreclosed home in Harvey. A new federal complaint alleges disparities in the maintenance of foreclosures between predominantly white and largely minority communities. (Photo courtesy of South Suburban Housing Center) - Original Credit: Handout (Nolan, Michael/HANDOUT )

Morgan Williams, general counsel for the alliance, said the "evidence forming the basis of the amended complaint" against Altisource and Ocwen is different than the data Altisource cited as having previously been discredited by HUD. That investigation involved a mortgage lender rather than property maintenance firm, he said.

Advertisement

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

In its statement, Altisource said it "is committed to the principles of fair housing and neighborhood stabilization," and that its services are carried out "without regard to the racial composition of a neighborhood."

The South Suburban Housing Center, HOPE and Open Communities sent investigators out to inspect the conditions of foreclosures throughout the Chicago area. The examination of homes in northwest Indiana was done over a three-year period ending in 2015, while the investigation in Chicago and its suburbs was over a five-year period ending in 2016.

Their reports noted that along with the disparities in upkeep, poorly maintained properties hurt the ability of neighbors to refinance or sell their own homes because the appearance of adjacent foreclosures depressed surrounding property values.

The South Suburban Housing Center looked at properties in communities in the Southland such as Harvey and Worth, contrasting the appearance, or curb appeal to prospective buyer, of each. In northwest Indiana, the group examined 22 properties in Gary and nearby communities, such as Hobart.

The allegations made by the fair housing groups are similar to those raised in a federal lawsuit they filed last year against mortgage lending giant Fannie Mae, alleging a double standard in maintaining foreclosures. That case is still proceeding and is in the discovery phase.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Advertisement

Twitter @mnolan_J
A rendering showing The Reserve apartment development that had been planned in Tinley Park. A federal lawsuit against the village stemming from the project will proceed, a judge has ruled.

Tinley Park will have to answer a federal lawsuit alleging it violated the Fair Housing Act in not approving plans for apartments targeting low-income renters after a judge dismissed the village's request to throw out the complaint.

The village has to file its response to the Justice Department lawsuit by Aug. 18, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis said in her recent ruling.

Advertisement

The government brought the complaint last November regarding the village's handling of The Reserve, a proposed apartment building at 183rd Street and Oak Park Avenue that an Ohio nonprofit, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, wanted to build.

Buckeye filed its own federal complaint against Tinley Park, and the village and developer recently settled out of court.

Advertisement

In the Justice Department case, Tinley Park alleged the government lacked standing to file the complaint, but Ellis, in her July 17 ruling, disagreed.

Separately, Ellis ruled that Tinley Park's lawsuit against its former planning director, Amy Connolly, would be heard by her. It was previously before U.S. District Court Judge Elaine Bucklo, but Connolly had asked that the complaint be heard by the same judge hearing the Justice Department lawsuit.

Connolly has a motion pending asking that the village's lawsuit against her be dismissed.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Twitter @mnolan_J
Here we go again.

Another day, another display of political brinkmanship by state legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Advertisement

This time, the high-noon showdown threatens to delay the start of the academic year at some elementary and high schools in the south suburbs and throughout Illinois.

"The Democrats in the majority are playing political games with our children's education," Rauner told reporters in Chicago Monday, the Associated Press reported. "They seem to be intent on holding up school funding until August when schools need to open."

Advertisement

Start dates vary among local districts. Classes are set to resume during the third or fourth week of August at many Southland schools.

The state's first general aid payments to schools are due Aug. 10 but would be delayed if lawmakers and the governor are unable to reach agreement.

"While the end result may be the same, the issue now is the lack of a school funding formula rather than the lack of a budget," the Illinois Association of School Administrators said in a Budget Crisis Toolkit made available to members and published on its website.

If no agreement is reached within the next two weeks, the question of whether to begin the school year is left to local school boards and superintendents. A key consideration is the financial situation in individual districts, particularly the amount of cash reserves a district has on hand.

The Illinois State Board of Education recommends districts keep a minimum of 90 days of reserves to meet payrolls and other essential operational expenses.

"Our plan is to open the schools on time" on Aug. 23, said D.J. Skogsberg, superintendent of Orland School District 135 in Orland Park. "We ended the (last) school year with about 150 days cash on hand. That would take us through the end of this calendar year."

Public schools remained open during the two-year budget impasse that ended with the July 6 House override of Rauner's veto. K-12 schools continued to receive the bulk of their state funding through appropriations that were approved separate from the stalemate over the budget.

But more than $1 billion in funding was held up for "categoricals," such as transportation and special education. That left many districts squeezed for cash flow.

Advertisement

"We're still waiting for about $1.4 million in transportation funding and $1.1 million in special ed funding" reimbursements from the state, Skogsberg said.

The Orland district serves about 5,000 students, and the $8.7 million in state funding it receives represents about 10 percent of its total revenue, Skogsberg said.

"Most of what we bring in is from property taxes," he said.

The new budget mandates school funding use an evidence-based formula, requiring approval of separate legislation before state money is released to local districts.

Rauner has called legislators back into special session beginning Wednesday to address school funding. Many school superintendents across the state have expressed support for SB1, which would ensure all districts receive at least as much funding as last year.

The bill attempts to address some of the inequality that sees per-pupil spending range from about $8,000 in poor areas to about $30,000 in wealthy ones. The bill allocates additional spending above last year's levels to help needier districts.

Advertisement

"The state can no longer afford to have the quality of a student's education determined by ZIP code," Advance Illinois co-chairs John Edwardson and Marin Gjaja said in a July 7 statement urging Rauner to sign the bill.

Rauner, however, has said he plans to use an amendatory veto to remove what he describes as a "bailout" of Chicago Public Schools. The bill would require the state pick up an annual $215 million employer portion of Chicago teachers' pensions.

The Senate is using a parliamentary procedure to hold onto the bill, and Rauner has called for legislators to send him the measure.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, of Westchester, said Democrats are holding the measure to build pressure, the AP reported.

"The Democrats want to create and manufacture a school-funding crisis," said Durkin, who appeared with Rauner in Chicago. "I want all schools funded fairly. I want all schools opening on time."

The dispute shows how the political brinkmanship is once again affecting Illinois residents. The unwillingness to send along the legislation suggests Democrats lack enough Republican votes to override the governor's amendatory veto.

Advertisement

I don't think Rauner's call for a special session will pressure Senate Democrats into immediately sending him the bill, either.

Rather, I expect an impasse similar to the budget stalemate to play out for at least several weeks and possibly months.

Some schools may not open on time. But many have sufficient cash on hand to operate for several months.

Cook County's Dolton School District 148, for example, has enough money to operate until mid-December even if state dollars don't materialize, Superintendent Kevin J. Nohelty told the Chicago Tribune in a July 13 story.

On this issue, I think it's wrong for Democratic Senate President John Cullerton to withhold SB1 from Rauner. The Senate should send the bill to the governor, and if Rauner uses his amendatory veto powers, then so be it.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

The dispute seems to center on the larger issue of pension reform. Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has faced criticism for blocking reform efforts to reduce pension costs moving forward.

Advertisement

I understand those who think it is unfair for taxpayers throughout the state to "bail out" Chicago's chronically underfunded teacher pensions. Chicago is the only place in Illinois where teacher pensions are funded locally and not by the state.

But I think it's also unfair that Chicago taxpayers subsidize outrageous $300,000-a-year pensions for some retired superintendents of wealthy suburban districts. Their school boards lack discipline to limit benefits because they know taxpayers statewide will be stuck with the tab.

I think meaningful pension reform is essential to reduce costs and restore fairness. But I see that issue as separate from equality in school funding.

The state needs a school-funding bill. I think it's unfair to delay funding to schools throughout the state while a dispute plays out over how much state taxpayers should subsidize Chicago teacher pensions.

tslowik@tronc.com

Twitter @tedslowik
Traffic is shown along Interstate 80 from the Francis Road overpass in New Lenox, near where westbound lanes are reduced to two lanes from three. Opinions vary on whether drivers should "zipper merge," or use a lane until it ends. (Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown)

A recent column about "zipper merging" prompted reactions from readers who shared strong opinions about the topic.

I wrote about the zipper merge, a concept that addresses how some transportation officials say drivers should behave when the number of highway lanes is reduced. This could be due to construction or, in the case of westbound I-80 in New Lenox, where an interstate narrows to two lanes from three.

Advertisement

Zipper merge advocates recommend motorists use open lanes until they end, then take turns falling into line.

"The practice encourages drivers, through the use of signs, to merge at a designated merge point near the work zone lane closure taper," Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said in response to my inquiry on the topic.

Advertisement

In the column, I wrote that when there's a choice between an open lane where traffic is moving and one where traffic is stopped, I choose the open lane.

"Like a good zipper merger I also use a lane until it ends," I wrote. "I don't mind the dirty looks from other drivers who think they're obeying the law by getting into a slower-moving lane sooner than they have to."

My position on the topic struck a nerve with some readers.

"You are cutting the line and being discourteous," a woman named Sandy wrote in an email. "It's very rude. I am one of those people who will block you and not let you in if I can. You need to learn to wait your turn like the rest of us."

"Selfishness is what is wrong with society these days," a woman named Alyce said via email. "Those like you who zipper to the front actually slow thing(s) down. Applauding and excusing discourteous behavior could only come from someone who is poorly raised."

I shared the article on Facebook and ignited a spirited debate on the issue. Some agreed with Sandy's and Alyce's view that zipper mergers act like privileged royalty who sneer at the hapless commoners in the slow lanes as they zip past them.

"It seems kind of anti-social," a friend named Chris commented. "I do my best not to let those people in because they're basically cutting in line."

"I personally think zipper merging is just one more homage to a me-first culture that is dragging us all down," a friend named Ted wrote.

Advertisement

I have some thoughts about driving courtesy and "road rage" that I'll share in a bit, but first some more about zipper merging. Some responses were positive.

"People who don't zipper merge are acting in an ignorant fashion," a friend named Dan wrote on Facebook. "Meaning they are lacking the knowledge to understand how the engineers design these things in order for them to function properly."

"I am a total zipper merger," Jeanne said on Facebook. "I've always been one but I never knew that was what it was called."

"Why would 'they' go through the effort of paving that open lane if you weren't meant to drive on it?" John asked in a Facebook comment.

Good question, John. In the column, I cited an Associated Press report that Missouri, Kansas and Washington are among states where transportation officials promote zipper merging. I cited the Minnesota Department of Transportation website that said zipper merging improves traffic efficiency and reduces travel times.

"Zipper merging, however, benefits individual drivers as well as the public at large," the MDOT website says. "Research shows that these dangers decrease when motorists use both lanes until reaching the defined merge area and then alternate in 'zipper' fashion into the open lane."

Advertisement

Reader Tom from Posen asked why I cited Minnesota's position on the topic and not the Illinois Department of Transportation's. I could find no information about zipper merging on IDOT's website. I contacted the department and Urgo responded in an email.

"The zipper merge has been monitored and evaluated by IDOT for the last several years, but has not been applied," she wrote. "This type of system may be beneficial in very limited applications in which traffic volumes are relatively constant and where interchanges are in close proximity.

"Very few work zones across Illinois have the optimal characteristics for implementation. We will continue to monitor and evaluate their effectiveness."

I think Urgo is hinting at something more than just physical configurations of highways being different in Illinois than in other states. I think people here drive more, um, assertively than elsewhere.

Maybe it has to do with the Chicago-area's notoriously bad traffic. At least one study says Chicago motorists endure the nation's longest commutes. The AP story cited an expert who addressed the differences in attitudes and behaviors among drivers in various regions.

"Dwight Hennessy, a psychology professor at Buffalo State College in New York who specializes in traffic psychology, said Midwesterners tend to be polite and follow the rules  even unwritten ones  and get upset when others don't," the AP story said.

Advertisement

"When a rule is being violated by someone else, it frustrates us, it irritates us, it makes us angry," Hennessy was quoted as saying. "We expect everyone else to follow the rules, and when they don't and we know they're getting an advantage, it ticks us off."

Maybe drivers from Minnesota, Iowa and other places are more courteous because most other drivers there are polite as well. Here in the Chicago area, it seems like there are always going to be people who drive more aggressively.

My friend D.J. hit on this point in a Facebook comment.

"While 'zipper merging' looks like a good concept on paper, it's not going to work," he wrote. "'Courteously take turns falling into line?' People singing, 'We Are The World' while doing it? I don't think so."

I think there are right ways to zipper merge and wrong ways to do it, and I see plenty examples of both kinds of behavior on a daily basis along I-80 in New Lenox. Allow me to clarify.

If there's an open lane, I say it's fair to use it. But drive safely. If traffic is stopped in adjacent lanes, I reduce my speed and prepare for the possibility someone might pull out from the stopped traffic.

Advertisement

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

There are typically gaps near the merge points. They may be in front of semi tractor-trailer trucks, or in front of drivers distracted by their mobile devices. Let's admit that a lot of people stopped in traffic reach for their phones. I don't condone the practice.

I'll look for a gap near the merge point and pull into line. I avoid sudden moves and make sure truck drivers can see me.

I agree that some zipper-mergers drive like jerks. You can tell who they are. They speed along and after you pull into line they'll fly by and grab that extra car length or two.

They're rude, I agree. But that's not what I do. A younger me might have been annoyed or angered by jerks like that, but now I just shrug it off.

Aggressively cutting to the front of the line doesn't make you a "winner." Courtesy is not a weakness, and not all zipper mergers are jerks.

tslowik@tronc.com

Advertisement

Twitter @tedslowik
At the dining room table, Elgin resident Reggie Kee, left, talks to son, Josiah, 9, and daughter Maiyah, 6, about writing projects. (Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News / Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News)

In Elgin's Providence subdivision, the Kee family sometimes gathers at the dining room table, not for a meal, but for a literary feast involving pens, pencils, crayons and laptop computers.

All four members of the household have taken to writing, with dad, Reggie, and son, Josiah, 9, self-published authors. Daughter, Maiyah, 6, created her own single-issue collections and mom, Quiana, is a blogger.

Advertisement

Reggie Kee, who has been at it the longest, said he took to writing in 1997 while in college in Delaware.

"I'm a math person, but a poem came to me one day," Reggie Kee said.

Advertisement

Maiyah, from left, Josiah and Reggie Kee work on their writing projects at the dining room table of the familys Elgin home Friday morning. (Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News / Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News)

Flash forward to 2010 when, under his pen name, Reggie Legend, Kee self-published his first book, "Steel Waters, Volume I: DUPLicate AuthentICITY," a volume of poetry he bills as reflecting his duality: "concern and disregard, strengths and weaknesses, spirit and flesh, scriptures and rap lyrics, light and dark."

Reggie Kee said the book ponders finding a balance between between Biblical scriptures and the lyricism of hip-hop. Kee is a motivational speaker and a minister with the Kingdom of God and its Advancement Center in Elgin.

"Being immersed in the cultures of hip-hop and church and the conflict it induces within me, as a person of both spirit and flesh, continues to drive much of what I write," Reggie Kee said.

He said the intention of the book was to start a conversation with others of his generation going through the same struggle.

His most recent work, "Defacing the Music: What Slips into the Grooves Once God Gets Removed," mines the same territory.

"My new book delves into what exactly happens when we are influenced, both good and bad, by what we listen to specifically as it relates to hip-hop music," Reggie Kee said.

"Both books took a span of three months to write, edit and publish," Reggie Kee said. "The poetry book had been a snippet of a season of writing that I'd cataloged between 1997-2010."

Reggie Kee said he feels hip-hop, like other types of music, has been led astray by worldly gains and themes.

Advertisement

"It can be restored, though. It's not a lost cause," Reggie Kee said.

Josiah Kee, 9, recently self-published his first book, on the left, while his dad, Reggie, under the pen name Reggie Legend released his second self-published work. (Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News / Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News)

Sending out positive messages in their music are such performers as Talib Kweli, Da' TRUTH, Nick Baldwin, Bizzle and FLO. Elgin and Chicago area acts include Nehemiah, Lightning SOT, Eric "Called By God" Jamaal, Jaooo, Chozen, Gemstones and The Vessel.

In addition to being a charter and founding member, teacher, minister and vice-chairman of the board of directors at the Kingdom Advancement Center, Reggie Kee said he leads the Knight Writers ministry for local artists.

While dad's been busy with his books and ministry, son Josiah, 9, put together a book of his own, recently self-publishing his first effort, "Chronicles of an Uncommon Kid."

Josiah said his inspiration was reading all the books in "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. He said he wanted to give writing a try.

"I think those books are funny and really good. I couldn't stop reading them," Josiah said.

Advertisement

The father and son bill Josiah's book as a "step into the mind of a young boy who sees the world from a different lens and does his best to have positive impact on others around him with the power of his words and actions."

The published work started out as a several shorter pieces that Josiah created on notebook paper and then shared with his classmates at Country Trails Elementary School.

"He came up with it under my nose," Reggie Kee said. "He wrote up what he thought his classmates would find funny and wrote four little manuscripts to circulate around his classroom, which took off on its own. By the time I caught wind of it, I merely asked him to type it, email it to me and allow me to be a good editor and publishing director. The book is 98 percent him and 2 percent me."

Josiah said he's even written a fifth adventure, which he read to his class before last school year ended.

"Josiah understands that my ability as a wordsmith is a likely inheritance in him, so he drew from it," Reggie Kee said. "Seeing the work I do around my books, he decided to write mini-books that he and his friends at school would enjoy. Our family businesses and church environment are breeding grounds for understanding your Godly purpose and waking it out. All that brought about his accomplishment."

While not selling her writing yet, Maiyah said she read one of her stories to her class last school year, too. It was a piece about daytime. In addition to the times of day, Maiyah's crayon-designed writings also include a story about fidget spinners. She also can make the fad toy out of paper and a toothpick.

Advertisement

Reggie Kee noted that his wife Quiana, an engineer and public speaker, has taken to blogging.

From the family writing as well as from motivational speaking at District U-46 schools, Reggie Kee said he's been inspired to start a publishing company with the tagline. "Promoting Youth from Readership to Authorship One Page at a Time."

Building on the Genius is Common movement started by Bruce George, co-founder of the Def Poetry Jam, Reggie Kee said his Water2Wine Press Publishing would "help turn what's common into community."

"As a motivational speaker, I talk to many youth about what their genius is and just how common genius ought to be, not some far-off distant thing reserved for the Albert Einstein's of the world, " Reggie Kee said. "My goal is to help people unleash their genius into the world to impact it for the better."

mdanahey@tribpub.com
The intersection of Route 72 at Galvin Road - shown here from the exit off Galvin from Dundee Middle School onto Route 72 - is set to have traffic signals by the beginning of December. (Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News / Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News)

The Elgin City Council is set to vote Wednesday night on a contract for almost $370,000 to have traffic signals installed at the intersection of Galvin Drive and Route 72.

"This has been in the works for quite a few years. Finally, all the stars have aligned," Elgin interim Public Services Director Kyla Jacobsen said Tuesday.

Advertisement

Galvin Drive is the primary access point to the Interstate Partners' industrial and business park to the south and also provides access on the north to Dundee Middle School in West Dundee. The intersection is busy enough, especially when school is in session, that West Dundee police frequently direct afternoon rush hour traffic there.

According to supporting material for the Wednesday City Council meeting, Elgin made getting traffic signals at the intersection a priority about six years ago. That led to the Kane County Highway Department contacting the Illinois Department of Transportation in 2011 to determine the feasibility of installing the signals. A year or so later IDOT let Elgin and the Highway Department know that it had conducted a traffic study that determined the intersection qualified for having signals.

Advertisement

According to information provided by the city, "because Galvin Drive is neither a state route nor an arterial road for the city, the installation of the traffic signal is deemed a private business benefit for which the Illinois Department of Transportation will not provide funding."

Elgin intends to use money from its share of Grand Victoria Casino taxes to fund the work. And in late 2015, School District 300 approved an agreement with the city to contribute $50,000 at the conclusion of the project. Tuesday, District 300 Director of Public Relations and Communication Services Anthony McGinn said the district had no comment at this time about the project.

Jacobsen said fabrication of a signal mast arm will take several months. The work also will involve putting in a left turn lane for northbound Galvin Drive traffic turning west onto Route 72. Crews also will "flare" Galvin Drive at the end of the industrial part at Route 72 to provide more room for trucks to make left and right turns.

If the contract with Curran Contracting of Crystal Lake is approved, work is expected to start is a few weeks and be done by the beginning of December, Jacobsen said.

"This should help traffic better flow from the industrial park and the school," Jacobsen said.

"This enhances the business park there," Council member Terry Gavin said.

The road is named in honor of the Galvin family, members of which founded what would become Motorola, Inc. In 2016, Motorola Solutions opened a 300,000 square-foot training and manufacturing facility in a building that had been built on spec at 2580 Galvin Drive.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
Members of Evanstons Administration and Public Works Committee discuss proposed parking ticket fees during the July 24, 2017 meeting at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. Pictured, from left, are: city Clerk Devon Reid; aldermen Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward; Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward; Ann Rainey, 8th Ward; and Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward. (Genevieve Bookwalter / Pioneer Press)

Evanston's fine for an expired parking meter violation will stay $10 for now  with a $15 late payment penalty  and the city will have to find another way to get deficit-reducing revenue, aldermen said as they balked at a proposal to double the fines.

City administrators on Monday proposed increasing expired meter parking penalties from $10 to $20 per violation.

Advertisement

But aldermen who make up the Administration and Public Works Committee, which reviewed the proposal, said Evanston should instead concentrate on collecting the $2 million to $5 million currently owed in outstanding tickets to help make up a growing $200,000 budget shortfall.

Back-filling the deficit "isn't going to be at the expense of our residents and nickel and diming," 2nd Ward Ald. Peter Braithwaite, 2nd, said in the committee meeting.

Advertisement

The measure died in committee Monday and also was not voted on by the full City Council.

The committee, made up of aldermen Braithwaite; Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward; Ann Rainey, 8th Ward; Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward; and Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, met immediately before the City Council convened.

City officials pointed out that Evanston has charged the same fee for expired meter violations since 1976, a cost that is one of the lowest in the Chicago area.

And City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said that, without the fine increase, Evanston might be forced to lay off workers to make up the loss in anticipated revenue as the city stares down the increasing deficit this year.

"Those are the lion's share of our revenues," said Bobkiewicz, about parking ticket fines. By not increasing them, "it will likely require layoffs of our employees."

Evanston does not report past-due tickets to credit bureaus, aldermen and staff said, a strategy that might be worth looking into.

An agenda report estimated the current ticket collection rate at 86 percent.

"Shame on us," said Rainey. "Let's talk about something to get people to pay."

Advertisement

She suggested an amnesty or other program to encourage those with delinquent parking tickets to pay up.

Evanston's fines for expired parking meter violations were set at $10 per infraction over 40 years ago. The fee has not increased since, according to a report city staff presented to aldermen.

By comparison, expired parking meter fines in Oak Park are $30 per violation; $35 in Skokie; $38 in Wilmette; $50 in Chicago residential areas; and $65 in Chicago business districts, according to information presented to aldermen. .

The committee also declined to vote on a proposal to increase street sweeping fines from $35 to $50 per violation, as well as a proposal to immobilize cars whose owners have three outstanding parking tickets, as opposed to the current threshold of five.

The discussion continued at the into the City Council meeting, where Bobkiewicz said sending unpaid tickets to collections might be the solution, especially for out-of-state drivers who often leave town and never resolve their violations.

"That tool would take care of two-thirds of what we are seeing there," Bobkiewicz said. Without that ability, "people understand we have limited ways to go after them" for overdue parking fines.

Advertisement

The City Council did not vote on the fine increase either.

Later in the meeting the City Council approved spending nearly $90,000 on a lighted sculpture by an Australian artist for the intersection of Green Bay Road, Emerson Street and Ridge Avenue on a 6-2 vote, with Suffredin and 1st Ward Ald. Judy Fiske voting against it.

"It's a challenge to explain to people these types of things," said Ald. Don Wilson, 3rd Ward, before the vote to spend money on the sculpture.

But Evanston has a commitment to public art and funding marked for the purpose, Wilson said.

"It's not an option, it's a requirement," Wilson said. "I do think it's something that makes the community a more entertaining and pleasant place to be. These places need to get attention."

gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com

Advertisement

Twitter @GenevieveBook
The most diverse offering of the arts in Billings might come during two packed days in mid-August.

Richard Dreyfest has been curing in Billings for years as a buffet of regional music acts. Now in its fifth year, the event is taking on a wider array of disciplines.

Dreyfest V, a name with oblique ties to actor Richard Dreyfuss, will bring poetry, visual art and comedy along for the ride this year in addition to music. More than 60 acts are scheduled.

"That was a big thing for me this year," said event organizer Phillip Griffin, 24. "Branching out and trying to open it up to more than just the underground music scene."

About 33 bands and musicians are on the bill, as well as eight poets, 10 comedians and 10 visual artists.

Griffin took the reins of Dreyfest this year from founders Austin Finn and Dan Redinger. Finn relocated to New York City with his band, Idaho Green, which will return to Billings for the fest this year. Redinger lives in Missoula.

A local musician and writer, Griffin played in previous Dreyfests. He took stages in Billings garages and bars in his formative years, and when Dreyfest hit the scene, he said it was an extension of that do-it-yourself effort.

"I would definitely say that Dreyfest has its roots in those garage shows," he said.

Traveling bands are paid little more than gas money. The scheduling is heavily networked through people who know one another from past Dreyfests. It's a small production that hopes to produce a big bang.

Still, Griffin said that some community donations helped him reach out to other artists.

The event brings together some of Griffin's other projects. A local arts collective, Waste Division, has served as a platform to promote both Dreyfest and the artists who contribute to it.

Dreyfest will also benefit from the organizing effort of the Beatnik City Council, which formed earlier this year and quickly organized an art show in a downtown parking garage. That event featured, among others, Montana Poet Laureate Michael Earl Craig.

The Fest's lineup is theme-averse. Musical acts of folk, power pop, punk, experimental and various flavors of metal fill the audio spectrum. A collection of mostly local comics will perform on the Fest's second night. Visual artists will present their work throughout the eight venues.

Poets will give readings, some of which will have music accompaniments. And it's open to everyone.

"It has been all-ages," Griffin said. "To me that's a real important aspect to get kids interested in it and maybe start their own bands."

Dreyfest has, for the most part, included an all-ages element in the past. It joins other Montana events that are moving alternative music beyond a strictly bar-going crowd.

Missoula's Camp Daze, which also crams dozens of bands into a few days, is also billed as an all-ages event.

The venues for Dreyfest, which include the Arthouse Cinema, Yellowstone Valley Brewing Company and the NOVA Center, reflect some of the all-age offerings in Billings.

Smiling Dog Records signed onto Dreyfest this year as a new venue. Owner Michael Ludlam said that he ran an all-ages venue in the '90s called Electric Avenue. He saw older teens, who can't go see music at a bar, looking for something to do.

Ludlam has been hosting shows in Smiling Dog's side room, and he said it's the same story.

"I look at my crowds at these shows and its the kids who went to Electric Avenue," he said. "Its the same story. Theyve got nowhere to go.

Richard Dreyfest V is August 11 and 12. Tickets can be bought at each venue or for the entire event. More information and artist interviews can be found at waste-division.org/richarddreyfest/v/home.
Actress Suzanne C. Johnson (from left), director Damon Shalit and actress Sarab Kamoo work on a scene. (Deborah Gilels)

Becoming an actor is a second career for La Grange resident Suzanne C. Johnson, a retired registered nurse.

She's also cast herself in the role of producer of the movie "The World Without You," which is being filmed in and around La Grange.

Advertisement

Johnson had never considered acting until her husband, Bill, won a modeling shoot for her at a silent auction at a fundraiser. While doing the shoot, a talent agent, who was a friend of the photographer, suggested she'd be good at acting.

Johnson took some acting classes and got hooked.

Advertisement

"I pursued that hard core," said Johnson. "I did lots and lots of classes. I wanted to do something bigger."

Following the path of big name actors in Hollywood who produce films, Johnson decided she needed to create her own opportunities.

"You can't wait for agents to make it happen for you," said Johnson, who found the material she wanted to turn into a film when she read the book "The World Without You" by Joshua Henkin.

The story follows the journey of the Frankel family as they cope with the death of son, Leo, a freelance journalist who was killed on assignment in Iraq. Johnson plays the role of Leo's mother, Marilyn.

"It (the story) really resonated with me. The mother is kind of me. It's a powerful story without being maudlin," Johnson said.

Johnson hired a screenwriter, Dan Pulik, whose credits include "Quantico," on ABC, to adapt the book. The director is a Chicago actor and director Damon Shalit who is making his debut as a film director.

The cast includes Rahda Mitchell, (of "Finding Neverland" and other films), Chris Mulkey ("Captain Phillips"), Perrey Reeves ("Famous in Love," "Entourage"), James Tupper ("Big Little Lies," "Men in Trees"), P.J. Byrne ("Wolf of Wall Street," "Horrible Bosses"), Annika Marks ("Anguish"), Lyndie Greenwood ("Sleepy Hollow"), and Lynn Cohen ("Hunger Games," "Munich").

Seeing how other actors work is a enlightening experience for Johnson.

Advertisement

"I am learning about process and technique and about how to be present and how to let go," she said.

Johnson's large Victorian-era house in La Grange serves as film central. Assistants work at computers on the dining room table and scenes are being filmed in other rooms of the house as well as on location in such places as Irish Times, a pub in Brookfield.

The book is set in the Berkshires, and some of the film will be shot there, but much of it is being done in La Grange.

"La Grange looks like it could be anywhere, but it particularly looks like it could be there," Johnson said.

Linda Wyatt, a Chicago resident who is doing production design for the film, is glad it's being shot in La Grange.

"Chicago isn't a big film city, but it's coming up," she said. "It's pretty cool to have a film of this scale and reputable cast shot here."

Advertisement

Johnson said balancing the role of producer and actor in the film has been a challenge.

"I have to really compartmentalize my day," she said.

Johnson self-financed the film, and hopes to get it seen at film festivals and in other venues. Deborah Gilels, who is doing public relations for the film, said it will be her job to get it seen by the people who choose what films are screened at festivals.

"With this cast, it's going to rise to the top," Gilels said.

As an actor, Johnson realized she had to be proactive about creating opportunities for herself and thinks "The World Without You" is the perfect vehicle.

"I'm an older actor getting into the business in Chicago," she said. "I had to figure out some way to make this happen sooner rather than later."

Advertisement

Johnson said she is excited to bring to screen a story that is relevant in today's world and which she predicts will touch audiences.

"This is (about) the carnage that's left a year after his (Leo's death)" she said. "It goes beyond his death. His death was the fracture in this tightly wound family."

amannion@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @triblocalam
An Antioch man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to selling drugs near a school in the village, and faces a potential extended sentence due to prior incidents including a previous charge of the same offense.

Jason Stackhouse, 36, pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver within 1,000 feet of a school, manufacturing and delivery of cocaine, and unlawful possession of a controlled sentence.

Advertisement

According to Lake County Sheriff's reports, Stackhouse was arrested in June after allegedly dealing crack cocaine, with one undercover purchase by police allegedly occurring within 300 feet of Antioch High School.

He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Advertisement

Assistant State's Attorney Lauren Callinan said the charges against Stackhouse are enhanced due to allegedly selling drugs near a school and because of prior charges and convictions.

According to sheriff's officials, Stackhouse's latest arrest followed several instances in which he allegedly sold crack cocaine to undercover detectives.

Defense attorney Robert Ritacca is challenging the facts of the case as well as the legality of the arrest, and said after the arraignment that he will be filing a motion to dismiss the charges against Stackhouse.

Ritacca said all of the alleged undercover "buys" in the current case against Stackhouse occurred inside of a large commercial business 2,500 feet from the high school, and none occurred within either 1,000 feet or 300 feet of the school.

He also said Stackhouse was arrested in Wisconsin without a proper warrant from Illinois.

In 2012, Stackhouse was also arrested for allegedly selling cocaine near a school, and charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. He pleaded guilty to the battery charge and the charges related to selling a controlled substance near a school were dropped, according to Lake County Circuit Court records.

A status date of Aug. 2 was scheduled for Stackhouse, and an initial trial date of Sept. 25 has been set.

Stackhouse is being held in Lake County Jail with bail set at $100,000.

Advertisement

jrnewton@tribpub.com

Twitter @jimnewton5
A former Lake Bluff teacher pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of public indecency, allegedly involving former students from the 1980s.

Charles Ritz III, who authorities said returned from California to Illinois in May following an investigation initiated by the claims of former students, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of public indecency/lewd exposure.

Advertisement

A status date of Aug. 30 was set for Ritz Wednesday morning, and a trial date of Oct. 30 has been scheduled.

At the time of his arrest, authorities said the allegations against Ritz date back to the 1980s, and the charges brought against him resulted from an investigation that began nearly a year ago when former students of Ritz reported to authorities that he had inappropriate sexual contact with them.

Advertisement

Ritz taught at Lake Bluff Junior High from 1975 to 1985, and records released by Lake Bluff School District 65 show that he resigned amid an investigation into claims that he engaged in "unacceptable behavior" involving two male students that occurred in a home in Waukegan.

A former student had spoken to the school board earlier this year, outlining his claims that Ritz sexually abused him in the 1970s.

Jim Moss said he and another former student who also claims Ritz abused him as a child went to authorities last year after discovering that Ritz went on to have a long teaching career in California after leaving District 65.

After leaving Lake Bluff, Ritz was hired by Fullerton Joint Union High School District in Orange County, Calif., and spent 30 years teaching there before he retired in 2016. That district has also launched its own investigation into Ritz, according to published reports.

In May, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim confirmed that the complaints of former students prompted the investigation.

"In those complaints, the students provided information regarding a number of incidents, dating from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, that occurred in the presence of Mr. Ritz," Nerheim said.

The release said that investigators interviewed about 50 people, from California to Florida, and "uncovered extensive records spanning back nearly 30 years."

District 65 posted a statement on its website in May stating that, "With the charge filed today by the Lake County State's Attorney's office, we are hopeful that Charles Ritz will be swiftly brought to justice and held accountable for his actions."

Advertisement

Though statutes of limitations often prohibit the prosecution of alleged crimes from decades ago, Nerheim said in the news release that his office was able to proceed with the case because Ritz, "left the State of Illinois shortly after the commission of these criminal acts."

The initial investigation was launched by the Lake Bluff Police Department.

jrnewton@tribpub.com

Twitter @jimnewton5
This is wonderful that they are opening more businesses here, toasts Long Grove resident Judy Schultes and her son Kenny Reugger, as they attend the grand opening of the Buffalo Creek Brewing Company. ( Donald Liebenson/News-Sun )

Something is brewing in Long Grove.

On July 15, Buffalo Creek Brewing Company opened its taps to dispense artisan beer produced on the premises, the former site of Studio of Long Grove, which had been vacant for almost a decade.

Advertisement

Long Grove put out the welcome mat, said owner Michael Marr, who named the brewery after the creek that flows beneath the more than a century-old single lane Buffalo Creek Bridge, a symbol of Long Grove's small town charm.

"I looked at a couple of other towns," he said. "I spoke with the mayor of a town just north of here and explained what I wanted to do. He said he was a part-time mayor and it would take at least six months to get back to me. When I came to Long Grove (for a tour of the building), some of the trustees came in and said, 'Mike, we heard about your idea; how do we make this happen?' I bought the building last October, started construction in March, and we finished a couple of weeks ago."

Advertisement

"We're happy to have it," offered Long Grove Village President Bill Jacob in a separate interview. "It's a great addition and represents what is going on with our revitalization and the expansion of downtown."

Long Grove resident Judy Schultes agreed. "It's really going to help," she said. "This is wonderful that they are opening more businesses here, because people do love to come to Long Grove. It's a beautiful town."

Buffalo Creek Brewing Company joins other recent additions to the downtown business community, including the Chatter Box of Long Grove cafe and the Fred Astaire Dance Studio. "I'm here for the long run," Marr stated. "I'm part of the solution, but I'm not the solution. It takes a village to accomplish that. I'm here to do my part."

About the owner: Marr, a Vernon Hills resident, has been a home brewer for 15 years. He sold his financial technology company two years ago. "I was looking for something else to do. (Brewing beer) has been one of my passions and I like turning my passions into businesses," he said. His a-ha moment to make his dream brewery into a reality was a successful reception at the 2012 Great Lakes Brew Fest in Racine. "We had 100-200 people in line to get beer," he said. "I thought, 'Maybe there is something in this and I should do it professionally."

The layout: The renovated two-story building, located adjacent to the Stempel municipal parking lot and across from the Chatter Box, is about 17,000 square feet, including the basement, which is the room where it happens, brewing-wise. The interior is wood and stone and the taproom on the main floor basks in ample light from windows that look out onto the wooded backyard and patio area. Seating includes seven communal tables. The upstairs accommodates private functions. Marr has plans to add live music.

Philosophy: "To work hard and make the best beer to our ability that our customers love," Marr said. "We take a lot of pride in what we make."

On tap: Buffalo Creek Brewing currently has five beers on tap. Marrvelous, a Kolsch-style beer, Farmer's ILlegit Daughter, a saison, and Mamet, an American Pale Ale named after David Mamet, who wrote the play "American Buffalo." Each is $6 a pint. Beau Fleu, a Double IPA whose name translates from the French to "beautiful creek," is $7 a pint, and 42K, a Belgian Strong Ale, is $7 for a 12 oz. pour. Soft drinks and water are also available.

On the menu: There is no kitchen, but patrons can either bring in their own food or order from nearby restaurants, some of which may deliver.

Advertisement

Logistics: Buffalo Creek Brewing is located at 360 Historical Lane, Long Grove. Hours: 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, and 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Call 847-821-6140 or go to facebook.com/buffalocreekbrewing/.

Donald Liebenson is a freelance writer for the News-Sun.
The ferry to Blarney Island will be open at the Port of Blarney at 27843 W. Grass Lake Road, Antioch, starting Thursday because it is a commercial licensed boat, which is allowed on the waterway system even when it is closed to boat traffic. (Frank Abderholden / Lake County News-Sun)

The Fox River and Chain O' Lakes, still swollen with flood waters, will not reach a level low enough to open the waterways to boating traffic this weekend, even at a no-wake level, authorities said.

"You want to be careful after an event like this," said Joseph Keller, executive director of the Fox Waterway Agency (FWA), which is in charge of the 7,100 acres of water that spans from Wisconsin to Algonquin.

Advertisement

Keller said that after the 2013 flood, it took 15 days from the time of the crest to when it was again open to boat traffic. Even opening boat traffic at a no-wake level can be a problem for residents in the area, because shorelines have yet to dry up, and a strong wind can raise water levels in certain areas.

"At this point, it looks like it will take 10 days before the system opens (to open boating)," he said, adding that the difference between open boating and no-wake is not much.

Advertisement

Many neighborhoods along Grass Lake Road were quiet with people leaving their sandbags in place as another storm system is forecast for the end of this week. This house is near Petite Lake. (Frank Abderholden / Lake County News-Sun)

"At the current rate, the waterway is dropping ... we're looking at six to seven days to get to no-wake status," he said.

"That's barring no additional moisture," he added, noting a storm system is expected later this week.

"It could jump quickly from one to another," Keller said, adding that it will be a topic of discussion Wednesday at the regularly scheduled FWA board meeting at 7 p.m. at the Fox Lake Library.

"But, it's not going to happen (this weekend)," he continued. "I got a call from someone who said they had rented a boat for Sunday, and I told him it was not going to happen."

Keller said officials have opened a small area of the sandbag wall at their offices in Fox Lake so trucks can now enter the property, but they have no intention of taking all the sandbag walls down just yet. He agreed there seemed to be a lot of people waiting for this week's storm system to pass through Wednesday night before removing their sandbags.

"After all the work that went into building the sandbag wall, I think it would be prudent to wait," he said.

He said on Tuesday, FWA crews were able to break up a log jam at the Route 12 bridge, and there are floating bogs that need to be retrieved and re-staked close to where they were before.

"We have major bogs in certain areas we want to address, but there are some bridges that we still can't get under," he said.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, some businesses have been able to open. Over at the Port of Blarney on Grass Lake Road, the restaurant and bar has re-opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week. Other businesses like Captain Quarters and Blarney Island are also open.

Port of Blarney opened completely last weekend and the ferry shuttle to Blarney Island will begin Thursday. The bar and restaurant had been surrounded by sandbag walls with several pumps going to keep the water out. (Frank Abderholden / Lake County News-Sun)

"There are some businesses that have been able to open. Some were dry, but were cut off because roads were flooded," he said.

J. Fernando Garcia, a partner at Port of Blarney and the executive chef, said people there were able to take down the Port's sandbag wall, and there is enough of the parking lot open that they can resume business, including resuming the shuttle on Thursday to Blarney Island.

"We opened Friday night, and had lunch on Saturday and the full menu on Sunday," he said. "We had a lot of people show up to help sandbag. They supported us and we support them."

According to Garcia, it took 7,000 sandbags to protect the building, and Port of Blarney donated another 2,200 to the community.

"We've all struggled through this," he said.

Advertisement

For Blarney Island owner Rob Hardman, the demise of his business on Grass Lake during the 2017 flood has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, Blarney Island will be open on Thursday.

"I was arguing with a troll on social media who was cursing me and saying the island was completely underwater. But I told him, 'I am here at the island now,'" he said.

Port of Blarney in Antioch used some 7,000 sandbags to save their building, and officials there gave out more than 2,000 sandbags to the community during the flood. (Port of Blarney / News-Sun)

Hardman said the flood of 2013 was the final straw, and he rebuilt the island bar up another 52 inches. "I have over two feet to spare," he said.

"We could be out of the woods this weekend. A lot of people have been affected around here," he said. "We are definitely trying to be optimistic and hopeful for people.

"Let's hope the Flood of 2017 is over with."

fabderholden@tribpub.com

Advertisement

Twitter @abderholden
For many Lake County motorists, the two-year construction phase of the Rollins Road Gateway Project in Round Lake Beach was a headache with a solution to a problem that had plagued residents for decades.

In fall 2015, what turned out to be the largest road-improvement project in Lake County history provided a Canadian National Railway overpass at Rollins Road, along with additional lanes and a modified intersections at Rollins and Route 83, which eased flow to an estimated 41,500 vehicles per day.

Aliza Guren, owner of the Round Lake Beach Commons shopping center partly used during construction, saw her troubles with the project end only recently. On June 29, after four years of litigation with the county, she was awarded $7.1 million for damage to her property.

Advertisement

The two-week trial found Lake County and the Illinois Department of Transportation liable for the damage.

The Rollins Gateway project at Rollins Road and Route 83, seen here following its completion in October 2015, was the largest construction project in the Lake County Division of Transportations history. ( Michael Schmidt/Lake County News-Sun )

Lake County Administrator Barry Burton said Tuesday the county will foot the entire bill as part of the project's $68 million budget.

The original offer Guren received was substantially lower, at $2.7 million, said her attorney Robert O'Donnell. That was after Lake County and IDOT officials used quick-take authority, meaning the needed piece of property was used immediately, while its fair-market value was determined and negotiated to expedite the construction.

Advertisement

"We could've been trying to figure that out for years, and motorists would've sat in traffic for longer," Burton said of the decision to not halt construction while negotiations with Guren were ongoing.

Guren rejected the $2.7 million, finding it an inadequate amount of compensation, O'Donnell said, because of a number of issues that included concessions she had to make on leases with new and established tenants in the shopping center's 17 spaces.

According to a statement from Guren's legal team, IDOT requested the condemnation of Round Lake Commons' property in April 2013. The statement added that within three months, the quick-take proceeding led to Lake County acquiring outright less than a quarter-acre at the southeast corner of Route 83 and Rollins Road.

The county also was awarded a temporary construction easement over a portion of the shopping center parking lot.

"There was loss of visibility, accessibility and extensive physical damage that needed to be repaired," O'Donnell said. "Not an ordeal that everyone has time, effort and means to fight  not without expense and risk."

O'Donnell said Guren is happy with the awarded judgment.

Yadira Sanchez Olson is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
A $50,000 reward is now being offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who killed Matthew D. Lange, a 37-year-old college professor who was shot Jan. 27 in the parking lot of a Naperville school. (Naperville Police Department)

An anonymous benefactor has added $45,000 to the $5,000 reward money being offered for information leading to an arrest in the murder of a college professor found shot to death in a Naperville school parking lot, Naperville police said.

Matthew D. Lange, 37, of Oswego, was killed the night of Jan. 27 as he waited in his car at Scullen Middle School, 2815 Mistflower Lane, while his son was attending a Polish heritage class.

Advertisement

Naperville Crime Stoppers offered a $5,000 reward shortly after the shooting. The person who added to the reward money asked not to be named, police Cmdr. Lou Cammiso said.

Cammiso said investigators have been pursuing leads but would not discuss details of the case or speculate on motivation.

Advertisement

"I would say that investigators are not frustrated, but we continue to follow up on available leads," Cammiso said. Police are hopeful the increased reward "will elicit a response from citizens who may have information, (and prompt them) to come forward."

Lange was an assistant professor of psychology at Lewis University in Romeoville, and had recently earned his doctorate from Northern Illinois University.

He was a graduate of West Aurora High School, where he played trombone in the band and participated in numerous student theatrical productions. He earned degrees from Aurora University and Benedictine University in Lisle prior to completing his doctorate.

Lange also was a stagehand who worked nearly 20 years at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora and the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet.

Police said Lange had been waiting for his son, Alex, to finish a class at Helena Modjeska Polish School, which uses the Scullen Middle School facilities.

His ex-wife, Julita Soliszko, would usually drop the boy off at the school and Lange would pick him up after class. The couple divorced in 2015.

Cammiso said police hope someone might recognize Lange's 2013 silver Hyundai Elantra, either having seen it that night at the school or elsewhere in the days preceding his death.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at 630-305-5453 or 630-420-6006.

Advertisement

wbird@tribpub.com
Dion A. Knight is charged in the Nov. 24 shooting of a 22-year-old West Chicago man at the Addison of Naperville Apartments. (Naperville Police Department)

An ex-convict from Aurora has been charged in the Thanksgiving Day shooting of a man at an apartment complex on Naperville's far northwest side, authorities announced Tuesday.

Dion A. Knight, 30, of the 800 block of North Commonwealth Avenue in Aurora, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated battery by discharging a firearm, unlawful use or possession of weapons or ammunition by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm by a street gang member, according to DuPage County Circuit Court records.

Advertisement

The aggravated battery charge is a Class X felony, and carries a mandatory sentence of six to 30 years in prison upon conviction. The other two charges also are felonies.

Knight is charged in the Nov. 24 shooting of a 22-year-old West Chicago man in a parking lot of the Addison of Naperville Apartments at 1437 Fairway Drive. Knight just before 2 a.m. allegedly shot and wounded the man in the upper right chest with a .38-caliber handgun, court records showed.

Advertisement

The West Chicago man and five of his friends were returning from a late-evening outing, and got into a "verbal dispute" with a man who was driving through the complex, a police spokesman said last year. The man, later identified as Knight, fired at least five bullets from his gun, with one of them striking the West Chicago man, authorities said.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin, in a written statement, said Tuesday the charges against Knight "are extremely serious and will not be tolerated."

Naperville Police Chief Robert W. Marshall called the shooting "an extremely dangerous act that could have had far worse ramifications. I'm proud of the investigation conducted by our detectives, which led to the securing of charges" against Knight, he said.

In a subsequent incident, Knight was stopped by Naperville police at 12:30 a.m. Feb. 3 near Maple Avenue and Route 53 in Lisle for a traffic violation. Detectives said he had a 9-mm Smith & Wesson handgun, as well as between one and 15 grams of cocaine; between one and 200 grams of illegal mushrooms; an unspecified amount of amphetamine salts; and between 10 and 30 grams of marijuana.

Knight, in that case, was charged with 13 counts that included armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a firearm by a street gang member, possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana. All of the charges are felonies except for the misdemeanor marijuana count.

Since 2004, Knight has been arrested and charged with a total of 16 felony and misdemeanor crimes in DuPage County, according to court records.

He was sentenced in February 2006 to a year in prison on a charge of mob action, after he and two associates attacked a man in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 700 block of Royal St. George Drive in Naperville, court records showed.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 100 Charge: drug induced homicide; Read more (DuPage County State's Attorney: Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted.)

He then was sentenced to two years in prison in August 2009 on a charge of aggravated battery, for hitting a man in the face with a brick during a fight in West Chicago, records said.

Advertisement

Knight is in custody in DuPage County jail on a combined bail of $800,000.

wbird@tribpub.com
The city of Valparaiso will be looking for a new police chief after a Porter County official announced Tuesday that Chief Michael Brickner has agreed to head up the county's new Communications and Office of Emergency Management, a streamlining of central communications and the Emergency Management Agency.

Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, made the announcement during a County Council meeting as he requested that the pay for the director's post be boosted from $68,500 to $90,000 because of its increased responsibilities and to bring it more in line with what's offered on a national scale. The council approved the measure.

Advertisement

Brickner, who's been with the Valparaiso Police Department for 31 years, was appointed as chief by Mayor Jon Costas more than 13 years ago.

"I've had the opportunity to do this job with some great people," he said, adding he wasn't looking for a new job but serves on the county's 911 advisory board and was aware of the challenges within central communications and had some insight into what needed to happen.

Advertisement

He expects to bring leadership and accountability to his new post, and plans on having central communications receive accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, as he did for the police department in 2010.

"It doesn't mean we're perfect but we hold ourselves accountable," Brickner said, adding that accountability includes national standards.

Commissioners decided earlier this year they wanted to take a closer look at central communications and reorganize the department, Biggs said, and formed a committee, as well as hiring the consulting firm P4 Global, to do so.

Biggs has said that some of the problems with central communications started popping up 10 years ago when the county began to consolidate to central dispatch and were never addressed.

P4 Global assisted in a nationwide search for the new post, including a salary recommendation, as well as helping whittle down a field of 13 applicants. Brickner came away as a top candidate, Biggs said.

"As luck would have it, the strongest candidate was in our own back yard," Biggs said.

According to Gateway, the online government access portal run by the state, Brickner made $86,983.32 last year as Valparaiso's police chief.

CJ Wittmer, the current director of central communications, has tendered his resignation and his last day with the county is Aug. 13, Biggs said. Brickner will start in his new post Aug. 21.

Advertisement

Russell Shirley remains head of the EMA for the time being, though his title and job duties will change under the combined department, Biggs said.

Costas called Brickner "the consummate police chief" and said the city's police department is on the cutting edge of accreditation and training, rivaling small departments anywhere in the country.

Several officers within the police department could take over as chief.

"We have many strong leaders within the department looking for an opportunity to step up. I have no doubt we will find a selection from within," Costas said.

He expects the three-part process -- including those who are interested in the position stepping forward, officer input on who the next chief will be, and interviews  to take place in the coming weeks so a new chief is in place by the time Brickner leaves.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Workers rip up old sidewalk on July 26, 2017, along Court Street in Crown Point next to the Lake County Fairgrounds. The sidewalk is being replaced in time for the Aug. 4 start of the county fair. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune)

Time is running out on as crews hustle to complete roughly $74,000 in emergency repairs to the sidewalks along the east side of the Lake County Fairgrounds before the Aug. 4 start of the annual Lake County Fair.

Lake County Commissioners approved the repairs July 19 and awarded a contract for the work to Sneed Construction, which submitted a low bid of $74,534. Boyd Construction Co. Inc. of Hobart also submitted a bid. Three other contractors contacted for a quote did not provide a price, Councilman Jerry Tippy, R-Schererville, said.

Advertisement

"The east side of the fairgrounds is in really bad shape," Tippy said, adding when he went to see the condition he found the sidewalk uneven and in some places, large chunks of the concrete are missing.

Tippy said the influx of people could pose a potential liability to the county of someone were to accidentally get injured.

Advertisement

Marc Malczewski, highway superintendent, said five companies were contacted for a quote and two of those responded. The company has been contacted about the timeline.

"They are confident they can perform the work before the start of the fair," he said.

Officials also took bids for the restoration of the historic Milroy Covered Bridge at the fairgrounds under advisement after quotes came in significantly higher than estimated.

"I remember the engineer's estimate was $260,000," Tippy said. The fairgrounds obtained a $100,000 grant for the work with the county's original estimated portion $160,000. "This is well beyond that."

Malczewski said the department would have to review the quotes to see why the figures diverged so widely from estimates.

"We thought it would be $260,000," he said.

Commissioner President Michael Repay, D-Hammond, said he shared Tippy's concerns but there may not be anything that can be done.

"The cost is the cost, unfortunately, sometimes," Repay said.

Advertisement

Malczewski said the department contacted nine companies about bidding the project. Three companies responded. Commissioners can choose to reject the bids and try again. Work on the bridge must be complete by June 30, 2018, to comply with the grant.

The department has the bids submitted by Ellas Construction Co. Inc. of Gary for $325,404; Gariup Construction Co. Inc. of Gary for $417,500 and Precision Builders Inc. of Merrillville for $532,751 under advisement.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
The Merrillville Planned Parenthood Health Center has temporarily halted abortions after a backup physician with state-required admitting privileges left the clinic, state officials said.

State law requires abortion clinics to operate with at least two physicians with admitting privileges to a local hospital.

Advertisement

Earlier this month, the Indiana State Department of Health notified the Planned Parenthood location that it no longer met the state requirement.

"We immediately stopped providing abortion services and directed patients to other facilities," Christine Gillespie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, said in a statement.

Advertisement

She said the clinic still was providing family planning and prelaboratory services.

"Our organization complies with state law and does not comment on personnel issues," Gillespie said. "We have every confidence that we will be providing abortion care for our patients at our Merrillville health center soon."

According to the Indiana Department of Public Health, the state has nine licensed abortion providers, including two in Lake County.
Emiliano Perez., East Chicago's newly elected at large councilman, took his seat for his first city council meeting Monday serving East Chicago residents in a different capacity than he did last week.

Perez, who was elected July 18 after the death of former Councilman Ronald London, said the years he spent serving East Chicago residents in different capacities made his transition to the city council an easy process.

Advertisement

"I wasn't nervous at all," Perez said. "My job is to just come here and do the right thing."

Perez, who is the former fire chief and Mayor Anthony Copeland's chief of staff, appeared comfortable and to fit in seamlessly with the council.

Advertisement

Councilwoman Gilda Orange, D-6th, who said she was scared during her first council meeting nine years ago, said Perez's previous experience helps him transition.

Perez, who as fire chief served on the board of public works, said he's accustomed to preparing for meetings.

"I'm a guy that reads my packet," Perez said referring to the heap of papers each council member is given before every council meeting.

During the meeting, Perez often lifted his glasses on his forehead to review some of the information in front of him before voting on an ordinance.

Perez often voiced his opinion and even provided clarity on an ordinance that was believed to increase the salary for police officers and firefighters, but the ordinance applied only to police personnel.

jaanderson@tribpub.com

Twitter @JavonteA
An 82-year-old woman was killed after being struck by a Metra train Wednesday morning in Wilmette, officials said.

The woman was identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office as Zenobia W. Ciesielska of Wilmette.

Advertisement

An autopsy Thursday determined Ciesielska died of multiple injuries and her death was ruled an accident, according to the medical examiner's office.

The incident happened just before 8 a.m. at a crossing at Central Avenue and Green Bay Road, according to Wilmette police.

Advertisement

A preliminary investigation indicated the woman walked around train gates that were "deployed and functioning properly," police said. While "attempting to make it across the tracks," she was struck by a southbound express train on the Union Pacific North line, police said.

The Wilmette Police Department is working with Metra and Union Pacific officials on the investigation. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said it likely will conduct an examination Thursday.

All inbound and outbound service on the Union Pacific North line in the area came to a halt after the incident. Most trains resumed operations later in the morning, but with delays, Metra said.

The woman was struck by Metra train 320, which had left Kenosha, Wis., and was due to arrive at Chicago's Ogilvie Transportation Center at 8:26 a.m., officials said.

Train 320 was eventually allowed to continue onto Chicago, but was running more than 90 minutes late.
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?
After revenues came in $75 million lower than projected, the state Tuesday announced severe cuts that will deeply affect the way government serves Montanans, including lost jobs and reduced or terminated programs.

About 20 people will lose their full or part-time jobs and many unfilled posts will remain that way. Other cuts include pulling about half the money in the state fire fund out to beef up reserves and ending a contract with the insurance company that administers Medicaid expansion. The Montana State Historical Society and the state library also saw their budgets gutted, which will result in a vast drop in services.

Dan Villa, Gov. Steve Bullocks budget director, met with reporters to discuss the cuts, which are required under a law passed during the this years Legislative session.

The governor has long insisted on an unofficial rainy-day fund to tap in case of emergency. Lawmakers established such a reserve fund this year, but it was designed to build up during years with faster-than-expected growth. With no money yet in the fund, budget shortfalls can only be managed with cuts.

In case that happened, legislators and the governors office negotiated pulling money away from state programs whose funding could be redirected to patch holes in the broader budget.

State agencies were told to prepare for severe cuts and were asked to send the governor's office the measures they would take to comply.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, said Villa briefed her about the cuts and generally thought they matched legislative intent. She described the third tier of cuts, in particular, as non-essential services.

The library, Historical Society, promotions for tourism, agricultural marketing. Those to me are much different than funding schools or funding Medicaid," she said.

Villa said the deep cuts could have been avoided if Republicans were willing to pass revenue measures like increasing the tobacco tax and closing tax loopholes for corporations.

It means theyve made the decision to implement cuts, Villa said.

Now its unclear how the state could see revenue growth if Republicans maintain a majority in the 2019 Legislature and again reject a budget from the governors office that will likely include tax increases.

We left $300 million in the bank. We called on the Legislature to implement the best financial practices, Villa said. Really at this point the voters need to speak.

Outside organizations echoed Villa in pointing a finger at the Legislature.

"This latest round of cuts come on top of already deep budgetary cuts that will devastate the services that many Montana families rely upon and, in many instances, put more pressure on communities and local property taxpayers to pick up the tab," said Heather OLoughlin, co-director of the Montana Budget and Policy Center. "The Legislature had a choice. Instead of asking the super wealthy and multinational corporations to pay their fair share, a majority of legislators chose to cut life-saving services for older Montanans and people with disabilities and to ask middle-class families to pay more for college."

If all the taxes proposed by the governors office at the start of the session -- such as increasing the tobacco tax, upping taxes on the most wealthy Montanans, altering the capital gains credit, eliminating the so-called Waters Edge corporate tax loophole, bumping up a tax on alcohol and changing taxes on wealthy estates -- an estimated $204 million in revenues could have been generated.

Ballance defended the hard line against tax increases held by most Republicans.

From my perspective, tax increases that go on forever for something that looks like a short-term problem is not the right answer, she said. I would always take the spending cuts first.

Senate Majority Leader Fred Thomas, R-Stevensville, reframed the governor's tax increases as hitting poor Montanans hardest rather than the wealthy, pointing to a hard-fought legislative battle over an increase to the cigarette tax.

"The fact is their No. 1 priority was to raise taxes on the poor in the state," he said. "They got that cigarette tax out of the Senate and into the House. That was their main priority. It would have raised taxes on the poor that smoke to the same level of our state income tax of 6.9 percent."

Thomas also zeroed in on cuts within the Department of Public Health and Human Services, including Medicaid provider rate reductions, as proof of the Democratic governor's priorities. It also reflects a conservative view within the GOP that state government is too big.

"The bureaucracy will decide not to reduce its costs and will take it out on the public who's getting less services," Thomas said. "The governor can focus these cuts where he wants to."

Senate Finance Chairman Llew Jones, R-Conrad, was less critical of the governor's cut choices than Thomas, saying painful reductions are unavoidable.

"They're working hard to make it fit within a difficult situation. I'm certain that I would have made different choices but I would have gotten the same pushback," he said, noting he shares Thomas' concerns about cuts to health and social services that could affect clients. "Government spends in three major areas and a bunch of minor ones: health and human services, education and corrections. That's 80 percent of our state fund spending. To think we cannot impact those areas somewhat when our revenues decline to this level is unrealistic."

Ballance and Jones suggested the triggered cuts might not have been necessary at all if it weren't for ongoing federal discussions of tax reform. They said states around the country have seen collections decline from personal income and corporate gains taxes as financial advisers recommend that their clients delay reporting a year to see if President Donald Trump will make good on a promise to reduce those federal tax rates.

"We should see a bump in calendar year 2018 when that is reported," Jones said.

Whatever the cause, some state programs will be hit harder than others by the cuts.

An expected $30 million will be taken from the state fire fund, out of roughly $65 million in the reserve, even as Bullock over the weekend issued an executive order declaring a fire emergency.

John Tubbs, director of the state Department of Natural Resources, said last week there could still be enough left in the fund to pay for this summers blazes. But a dry spring and hot summer have made for an active fire year, including one complex the size of New York City burning and barely contained in eastern Montana.

The fire fund was established after an especially bad fire year hit state finances hard and forced legislators to return in a special session. That year, 2013, the cost of fighting fires exceeded $71 million. Other years, like 2015, have been more mild, with costs at $7.4 million. An average year runs about $22 million.

DNRC has spent $18.8 million on firefighting so far this year, Tubbs said Tuesday.

General fund reductions will most readily impact DNRCs water resources and forestry divisions, Tubbs said.

For example, a drought task force cut means a position will not be filled, and an update to the states drought response plan goes on the back burner.

More than $500,000 in general fund reduction and pay raises amount to about a 7 percent vacancy savings, with duties spread to other employees, Tubbs said.

We will provide the requirements of statute but we will not do the level of work with the public as we otherwise would, he said, adding that the agency is trying to minimize the impact to the public.

Montana State Library will reduce services for vision-impaired people who use the Talking Book Library to read books and access important documents.

A 5 percent reduction at each state agency and 6 percent vacancy savings already requires the library to make $309,178 in cuts each year of the biennium. On top of that, this year the library will be forced to make $681,000 in reductions.

The library approved a plan to close a reading room to save $100,000 in rent per year. The agency will lose 12 of 44 positions, including elimination of the Talking Book Librarys director and one of the reading advisers. The advisers build relationships with patrons, make recommendations for people who cant traditionally browse aisles of book, and help choose the 7,000 books sent out each week.

In terms of our ability to provide that level of contact, that will be impacted, Jennie Stapp, the state librarian, said.

The Montana Historical Society released a plan in mid-July to reduce its budget by 16 percent. The $600,000 per year in cuts triggered by a shortage of revenue is in addition to cuts already established by the Legislature for $400,000.

The plan released by executive director Bruce Whittenberg would go into effect on Aug. 18. A total of 24 staff members would be asked to retire, reduce hours or see a change in responsibilities. The plan eliminates eight full or part-time positions.

Program offerings will also be scaled back, including no guided tours of the Capitol building, no public programming on Thursdays, shorter hours and fee increases for certain services.

Each state agency will be responsible for making a 0.5 percent reduction out of its general budget. While legislators originally set aside $22 million to provide state employees with a 1 percent pay raise in February 2018 and a second one a year later, the fourth level of cuts requires agencies to absorb the first year of pay raises within existing resources for a total of $7.6 million.

Public schools will see their funding reduced by $19 million over the biennium. All of the $3.1 million appropriated for data achievement payments, which go toward any operational costs, will be eliminated completely. A new appropriation of $500,000 for secondary vocational education will also be cut.

Schools will lose a state payment of $2.8 million in combined fund block grants, but schools could strategically shift money and levy their local tax bases to make up the difference.

A memo sent to schools by the Office of Public Instruction regarding SB261 says everyone should be aware that similar reductions will occur in fiscal year 2019 regardless of what happens with revenues.

The memo also says a $5.8 million Natural Resource Development K-12 Facilities payment will be canceled in fiscal year 2019. A new law taking effect in 2019 will allow districts to levy up to 10 mills and get some matching state funding, if available, from the facilities payment.

The Department of Public Health and Human Services, the largest agency in the state, could lose about $14 million this year from its two-year budget of just over $1 billion.

It will have to terminate its agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana to administer Medicaid expansion, as well as end a program that would have created 200 more nursing home openings to help reduce a waiting list of more than 500.

Programs that help manage the cases of adults and children with severe health issues will see a $1 million drop in funding, and the state watchdog group that monitors institutions like the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs will lose one of its three employees.

In a cut providers are calling unexpected and unfair, the health department also proposes to pass on some of the burden to Medicaid service providers in the form of a 3.47 percent decrease in the rate they are reimbursed. A hearing on this proposal set for Thursday is expected to be contentious.

Decisions about what to cut have been simple at some of the states smallest agencies.

We have a really tight budget. There are not a lot of choices, Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan said.

The office tasked with ensuring political campaigns follow disclosure laws and investigating ethics complaints about executive branch employees will leave its only investigator position unfilled for several months and cut contracting spending on maintenance for its databases that make information available to the public.

One position will be cut from the Department of Agriculture, which also will cut its general fund spending on marketing by half.

The Department of Corrections will cut nearly $3 million from its budget over two years. It will do that through 0.5 percent reductions in its contracts with pre-release and treatment centers, as well as the prison in Shelby.

The Department of Commerce will cut money for the Native Language Preservation program by $250,000, as well as reduce support for grants it administers.

The Department of Military Affairs will delay hiring, maintenance and updating equipment. The VA program will reduce its outreach and travel.

The Department of Labor and Industry anticipates having to leave positions open in the Human Rights Bureau.

The Department of Justice avoids significant cuts because most of its programs are paid for by special revenues, such as vehicle registration fees. Most its reductions will focus on non-essential costs, like sending investigators or prosecutors to conferences or non-critical training.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will not be impacted by the latest cuts as nearly all of its funding comes from license sales and federal excise taxes on firearms and fishing equipment.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality does not expect unmanageable cuts from Tuesdays general fund cut  less than $100,000 over the biennium  but faces other revenue challenges.

Director Tom Livers said about 8 percent of DEQs budget is general fund, which may mean keeping some positions open longer. His main concern centers on the cumulative effects with other potential cuts in revenue from extractive industries and uncertainty about federal funding from EPA and the Department of the Interior.

This story will be updated. Watch reporters @eeloranger, @hollykmichels and @JaymeKFraser on Twitter for updates.
Its hard to find nature when youre surrounded by concrete and steel.

The 16 teenagers from Houston gathered in the shade of the Cyclone Lookout on the Flathead National Forest last week would tell you thats a fact.

For many of them, the concrete, steel and busy bustle of Houstons city life has been the only thing theyd ever known until good fortune shined on them when their paths crossed with The Woods Project.

Started in 2006, the program has offered an opportunity for hundreds of teenagers from low-income families to broaden their horizons through year-round outdoor programming that includes a 14-day adventure into the wild.

On this morning, even with the thin pale of smoke hiding the furthest peaks from view, that horizon seems endless for this group of young people.

Ralph Manning is a school administrator in Houston and serves as a leader for the outdoor treks in Montana, California and Wisconsin.

Hes seen first-hand the impact that wild lands can have on a child.

For a lot of them, it expands on what they thought was possible, Manning said. Many had never even been on an airplane or even been outside of Houston. And now they are doing things that their minds had never even considered before.

Jennifer Cantu understands that.

If someone would have asked me if I wanted to go hiking for 20 or 30 miles with a 40-pound backpack, I would have looked at them like they were crazy, Cantu said. This has changed my life. Its opened me to possibilities that I never would have thought possible before.

This was the second year that Cantu made the two-week journey. After going to Donner Pass last year, she and her younger brother, Chris, eagerly accepted spots that came open late for the Montana trip this summer.

She wasnt ready for the trip to end.

I miss my family, but if they were here with me, I would never want to leave, she said. I love this place.

For many, The Woods Project is the first organization that they had ever joined.

Ive seen what it can do, Manning said. Ive seen shy kids shine. Ive seen them come home with new confidence in themselves and join other clubs and organizations because they know now whats possible for them.

Getting away

The journey to The Glacier Institutes Big Creek Outdoor Recreation Center and the backwoods of the Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park starts months before in after-school meetings where teens learn about The Woods Project.

For most, nature was just a word that didnt carry any weight in a world where human-made noise was a constant and skyscrapers were on the horizon from every patch of green inside the city.

Manning volunteered to help teach the kids in his school that there was something more to discover if you were willing to take that first step.

In those after-school meetings, the students learned about the skills they would need to venture into the woods. They discovered the magic of a compass and the challenges of cooking a meal on a tiny camp stove.

When they were ready, Manning and other volunteers took them outside the city for overnight camping trips in nearby state parks.

Their world and its endless possibilities was beginning to blossom. The program serves about 600 inner-city and under-served teenagers in Houston. About 175 take part in the four two-week adventures in wild areas of Montana, California and Wisconsin.

The total cost to send a student on the two-week adventure nears $3,000. Schools and students typically pay about $650 of that, with the program picking up the rest of the cost.

For many, its the first time that they have ventured away from their families for an extended period of time.

In many of their cultures, its not customary for teens to go off on their own for two weeks at a time, Manning said. It takes a lot of talking with families to assure them that their kids are in good hands.

Most of the students who attend the two-week summer trips are on a college track. The confidence they learn while experiencing the challenges of living in the wild and seeing a landscape unlike anything they have ever experienced helps them meet those upcoming challenges theyll need to overcome to be successful in their lives.

The trip includes a week-long backpack trip that puts most of the young people far from the place where they feel comfortable.

For this group, it began with a grizzly bear sighting before they even got out of the bus at the trailhead.

That made it very, very real for all of us, Manning said.

But it didnt stop anyone from shouldering their pack and heading up the trail.

They learned to work together as a team, said The Woods Project volunteer Kelsey Bechelli. In the wilderness, they discovered that everyone had to pull their own weight and help each other.

Thats not something that always happens in the big city, where its easy to walk by someone else in need.

It evens the playing field for all the kids, said Katherine Olger, a teacher from Sharpstown International School in Houston. They all have an opportunity to be way more successful than they could even imagine before coming here.

They learn that everything that they have out here is really all they need, Olger said. Food. Water. Shelter. Everything that they have back home is just an upgrade on that.

Hiking up the trail to Cyclone Lookout with a stuffed wolf perched on his head, Thy Nguyen said this experience has already changed him from the inside out.

It has exceeded all my expectations, Nguyen said. Hiking with a backpack made me feel like I was dying from the inside, but I saw the others carrying their own backpacks and I used that as my own motivation.

The scenery of this place is amazing and almost overwhelming to me, he said later as he sat in the shade of the lookout tower. Ive never seen anything like this in my life. Im so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and see this.

Sitting nearby, his new friends agreed.

You never see anything like this in Houston, Daniel Flores Jr. said. We have big parks in Houston, but everywhere you look, you can still see a skyscraper.

As they ate their lunch after braving the long staircase leading to the tiny glass-encased lookout, the young men and women all agreed this experience is one they will never forget.

Weve become friends in a way thats different at home, Dariana Flores said. Were like a family.

Thats right, Adriana Badena said. Were connected in a different way than what was possible before. Were connected through nature. A lot of people here have had to go way out of their comfort zones. Its brought us all closer to each other.

I know that Im going to everyones graduation, Badena said.

Wilderness therapy

Manning has seen the differences in what a walk in the woods can make for kids who may have never had that opportunity.

They get to see things that they never would have seen if this program wasnt available to them, he said. They get to see things that many adults have never seen. From there, they grow.

Ive seen them when they get back to school, Manning said. Theyve changed. Academically, they do better, and especially it helps them socially. Ive seen shy kids come back and join other organizations and they just blossom.

Ninety percent of success is dependent on the exposures that we have in our lives, he said. If you dont know whats out there, you will never know whats possible.

Its never too late for anyones life to change.

Manning said The Woods Project has changed his.

It certainly opened my eyes to whats possible, he said. I knew nothing about camping when I first volunteered to help. Ive learned about the outdoors and what it can mean to a kid who has never experienced seeing the stars or playing in the snow.

Its changed me as a person, Manning said. Ive had the opportunity to work with kids that I would have never had the opportunity to work with. Theyve taught me, too.

Theyve taught me the importance of never forgetting to let yourself be a kid sometimes, he said. We can all get caught up in paying the bills and living our lives through the eyes of an adult. We forget what its like to see the world through a childs eyes.

At Polebridge, Steven Ruiz had just finished a delicious huckleberry bearpaw pastry and was enjoying the warmth of some mountain sunshine.

This would feel like winter back home, the 17-year-old said.

Houston feels far away on this day.

Ruiz lives on the Southside. Its a place thats not bad, but its mostly a city. Theres no woods. No nothing like that. Its just pure buildings everywhere you look.

Back home, I cant really go outside all that much, Ruiz said. Other than school, the gym and work, I pretty much stay inside. I dont have that many friends.

Thats changed these past two weeks.

Thats my favorite part of all of this, he said. Connecting with all of these other people has made me realize that talking with other people can be a good thing. I believe this trip has helped me build character and become a better person.

Beyond those new friendships, Ruiz said hell never forget his first encounter with snow.

I laid down on it, he said. It was like an ice bath. It was the first time ever that I helped build a snowman. I really enjoyed playing in the snow.

Ruiz said hell never forget Ts advice.

Thats the name the group had given to Manning.

He told us that when we grow up to never forget youre still a child, Ruiz said. He said if you ever stop being a child, you just stop living.
BILLINGS  A Montana man turned every parent's nightmare into reality when he chased down a 4-year-old girl at night in a park, snatched her while a friend watched helplessly, then raped the girl and left her for dead on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, according to prosecutors seeking a life sentence.

John William Lieba II was expected to be sentenced Wednesday in federal court after jury convicted him of kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and assault resulting in serious injury.

Lieba was suspected immediately after the girl's Feb. 26 disappearance and arrested a day later, according to court records.

But the girl was not found for two days, when a sheriff's deputy noticed her shoeless footprints in a patch of mud behind a fertilizer plant and discovered the girl  dehydrated and cold  on a makeshift bed in the cab of an old pickup truck.

Bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck indicated Lieba had tried to strangle the girl, according to law enforcement officers and doctors who examined her.

The sexual assault injured the girl and infected her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease, said Dr. Cynthia Burrows of the Billings Clinic who examined the girl and testified at Lieba's April trial.

"The child will forever be reminded of this trauma," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Weldon wrote in a sentencing memo to U.S. District Judge Brian Morris. "The United States without hesitation recommends life in prison. Lieba, through his actions, forced every parent in Montana to confront their worst nightmare."

During Lieba's trial, a 12-year-old neighbor of the victim testified that she also had been chased by Lieba at a playground in the town of Wolf Point the night the younger girl disappeared, but she managed to get away.

The defendant's attorneys said he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events.

Defense attorneys requested 30 years in prison, noting that Lieba would be approaching middle age by the time of his release.

"The most effective protection for the public will be for Mr. Leiba to address his substance abuse and mental health issues," Assistant Federal Defender R. Henry Branom wrote in documents.

The Fort Peck Reservation is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and has a population of about 10,000. The kidnapping and assault of the girl was followed weeks later by the killing of a 1-year-old girl by a caregiver who put the victim's body in a trash can.

Tribal officials have blamed both crimes on the rising use of methamphetamine on the reservation, but it's uncertain what involvement Lieba had with the drug.
Graduates participate in a job fair at a vocational college in the Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture in Guizhou province in June. [Photo/China Daily]

Today's college graduates, giving top priority to a sense of happiness as an alternative to the traditional approach of applying for residential permits in China's megacities, such as, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, are now heading to second-tier cities in seeking job opportunities.

According to the Ministry of Education, the number of college graduates this year is expected to reach 7.95 million, a year-on-year increase of 300,000.

Skyrocketing housing prices in first-tier cities are the root cause for the departure of graduates who might otherwise live under constant strain of substantial bank loans for owning a small/medium-sized apartment.

According to the Workers' Daily, the average housing price in Beijing by June, this year, had reached 66,000 yuan (about US$9,959) per square meter, while the level fluctuated around 50,000 yuan in Shanghai and the two southern metropolises of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Wang Mengyao, an undergraduate majoring in journalism, said, "There are few of my classmates who have been able to get a job [in Beijing] with a salary above 10,000 yuan. In such cases, how can they afford to buy an apartment there?"

Compared to the lavish housing prices in megacities, the second-tier cities are welcoming graduates with several preferential policies, such as lowering thresholds for residential permits or issuing housing subsidies, to help them settle down.

According to the government in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, postgraduates or above, who are non-local residents but have chosen to work there, can buy houses without showing their social insurance records.

At the same time, Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, has issued subsidies of 15,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan or 6,000 yuan each year respectively to those who have chosen to work in the city while holding a doctoral, master or bachelor degree. The subsidies last for two consecutive years from graduation.

Besides, postgraduates or above who manage to purchase their first house in Changsha, can respectively enjoy subsidies totaling to 30,000 or 60,000 yuan.

A graduate, who came from Anhui Province and studied at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology who wishes to remain anonymous, said: "Previously, our teacher often encouraged us to settle down in Beijing. However, in the past few years, the headstrong attitude among students to stay in Beijing has started to wane."

Some entrepreneurs from the middle part of China welcome the influx of graduates, saying that, by taking into consideration the college graduates' daily life issues, such as, housing, marriage and baby nursing costs, usually completed in the first three to four years after graduation, the companies can benefit much from the growing talent pool, essential to alleviate the shortage of human resources previously impeding their development.

Among many college graduates, the idea of owning property in top-tier cities has lost its appeal, and now they are expecting to lead more diversified lives rather than laboring for nothing but paying off a mortgage.

Chen Leilei, a college graduate majoring in industrial design who is heading to Zhuhai where she has been offered a job, said that, of her 32 classmates, only nine were guaranteed to stay in top-tier cities, while the rest are leaving for second-tier ones. The massive exodus indicates a change in attitudes about the purpose of life.

According to Lu Meng, a college graduate majoring in accounting, in addition to the affordable housing prices, the second-tier cities offer young people an opportunity to develop some hobbies, such as, photography, which is otherwise very costly.

The mindset of having to secure a job in top-tier cities is losing ground amid a growing demand to satisfy people's sense of happiness, Zhaopin.com, one of China's recruitment websites, concluded in a recent survey.
Michael J. Enright, known as "one of the world's reigning strategy gurus" by the Academy of International Business, introduces the Chinese version of his book in Beijing on July 25. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

China's approach to foreign investment has been extremely successful and the country has been able to benefit from FDI probably more than any other country in the last 35 years, said a senior analyst in Beijing on July 25.

Michael J. Enright, professor at the school of Business at the University of Hong Kong, spoke highly of China's foreign investment at the launch of the Chinese version of his new book, "Developing China: the Remarkable Impact of Foreign Direct Investment."

After almost two years of research on China's inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) and foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in China's economy, Enright lauded China's step-by-step, sector-by-sector and location-by-location foreign investment strategy, and claimed that "it [China] has not lost sovereignty or influence significantly to the foreign companies."

During China's massive economic transformation, it was thought that a gradual incremental opening up would be better rather than to open up rapidly, and risk a collapse as experienced in other countries, he declared.

In his book, Enright analyzed how the huge FDI inflows, which averaged at US$120 billion per year, had impacted China's economy and brought additional effects including modernizing industries and companies, developing suppliers and distributors, boosting R&D and tech development, as well as improving business practices and standards.

Chinese leaders on multiple occasions expressed a strong willingness for opening up further. In March this year, President Xi Jinping said that "China's opening door will not close", vowing that the country will continue to open up on all fronts.

Premier Li Keqiang, in his government work report this year, also reiterated China's commitment to creating a level playing field for both domestic and foreign companies to ensure that they will be treated equally when it comes to license applications, standard settings, government procurement and will enjoy the same preferential policies under the "Made in China 2025" initiative.

On each stage of China's "revolution" to expand foreign investment, it has been a mutual learning situation in which China has learned about foreign companies and what they could potentially bring to china, and foreign companies have learned that inconducting their business in China, they have to follow all the rules and regulations, said Enright.

While recognizing all the advantages of FDI inflows, Xu Qiyuan, deputy head of the global macro economy division at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), pointed out the undesirable effects brought by foreign investment and foreign-invested enterprises, like technology hold-ups and fierce competition which stifles the growth of domestic companies.

Accordingly, he called for a more sober-minded perspective on opening up and foreign investment along with China's continuous commitment to globalization, particularly through the Belt and Road Initiative.
China's first Mars simulation base will be built in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, China News Service reported on Tuesday.

Located in Dachaidan Hongya region of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, a hinter land of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the base will be established in Qaidam Basin. The area's landform, natural landscape and climate condition resemble closely to those of Mars, said Wang Jingzhai, the prefecture's deputy Party chief.

Spread over 95,000 square kilometers of desert, the area has China's largest Yadan landform, or dry areas with wind erosion landscape. It also has other elements, such as mountain, prairie, Gobi desert, river and lake.

Adjacent to many tourist attractions along the Hexi Corridor, a part of the Silk Road in Gansu Province, the Mars simulation base will be turned into a cultural and tourist experience base that combine elements of "science, science fiction, nature, ecology and culture", said Liu Xiaoqun, director of lunar and deep space exploration general department, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The base will comprise two functional areas - "Mars community" and "Mars campsite" - which will be connected by road but invisible to each other, Liu said.

As the only one of its kind in China, the base has filled the gap in science practice education base that combines the fields of space, astronomy, geology, meteorology and new energy, Liu said.
 Flash

The 11th ASEAN - China Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction opened Tuesday in Siem Reap, Cambodia to share successful experiences and best practices on poverty reduction.

Hong Tianyun, vice minister of China's State Council LGOP, speaks at the opening ceremony. [Photo/China.org.cn]

The two-day forum is co-hosted by China's State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP) and Cambodia's Ministry of Rural Development. Over 120 government officials, experts, scholars, China-invested companies' representatives, NGO representatives and international organizations' officers from China and ASEAN countries attended the forum.

The forum focuses on such issues as China and ASEAN countries' innovation and best practice on ideas and policies for poverty reduction, how to push forward cooperation on reducing poverty between China and ASEAN, and how China and ASEAN countries can achieve the goal set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the forum, Hong Tianyun, vice minister of China's State Council LGOP, pointed out that poverty reduction was a common goal for human development and a common challenge for China and ASEAN countries as well.

"Being the world's largest developing country, China has always been an active advocate and powerful enabler of the world's poverty reduction cause," he said.

Meanwhile, Hong shared the Chinese formula in its achieving large-scale poverty reduction along with rapid economic growth.

He said firstly the prerequisite of China's successful practice is upholding reform and opening-up so as to maintain a continuous growth of economy.

Secondly, the guarantee is giving full play to the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s leadership and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Thirdly, governments provide guidance which combines long-term poverty reduction planning with annual poverty reduction objectives.

Fourthly, the strategy of targeted poverty alleviation and reduction should be adjusted and implemented according to different conditions to maintain its effects, and fifthly, the emphasis is given to the market to mobilize social involvement and synergy.

Hong said that in the future cause of poverty reduction, China will continue to carry out this formula and intensify its efforts in this regard so that more poverty-stricken regions and population can benefit from the country's development. Meanwhile, China will continue to work with the international community and contribute to the cause of global poverty reduction.

Hong also stressed that China and ASEAN are linked by rivers and mountains and bound by peoples and cultures as well, adding that this year marks the 50th anniversary of ASEAN and the 26th anniversary of establishing dialogue relationship between China and ASEAN, a milestone in the development of ASEAN.

Cambodian Rural Development Minister Ouk Rabun said in his opening speech that the forum was vital for the participants to discuss and exchange views on their efforts in reducing poverty in ASEAN member countries.

"Through the 11th ASEAN-China Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction, I believe that we will gain good qualifications, best practices, and new experiences from each other among ASEAN member countries and from China," he said.
There may be no better example of the Chinese diplomatic saying "Harmony benefits both, while confrontation hurts" than the China-Philippines relationship.

Just a year ago, when Benigno Aquino III was the Philippine leader, Beijing and Manila were locked in confrontation following the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines.

Who at that time could have anticipated the "all-round reversal" in the two countries' relationship hailed by visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila on Tuesday?

As Wang remarked, in a little more than six months, exchanges in "all fields have been restored in an all-round manner".

And the rapport is not just rhetoric. Judging from Wang's exchanges with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as well as his Philippine counterpart, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, it looks likely Beijing and Manila may start serious talks on a 1986 agreement between then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and Philippine Vice-President Salvador Laurel for the two countries to jointly exploit resources in the South China Sea.

If that step is finally taken, it will not only be the realization of the 31-year-old proposal, it will also be an inspiring example for all claimant countries of how to handle their disputes in the South China Sea.

As Wang said, shelving disputes and engaging in collaboration is a far better option than taking unilateral actions and becoming stranded in damaging confrontation.

In sharp contrast to when Aquino III was president and the tense standoff he sparked froze trade ties, Duterte's diplomatic pragmatism is laying a solid foundation for constructive ties, which will surely result in tangible rewards.

The Chinese foreign minister is now referring to Manila as "an indispensable, important partner" for building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, stating the Belt and Road will be a highlight of their next-step cooperation. The initiative's heavy input in interconnectivity may be a tremendous boost for the infrastructure-hungry Philippine economy.

Vowing China will be "the most sincere and enduring partner" of the Philippines for its national development, Wang also promised strong Chinese support for the latter in domestic and international affairs, including its crusade against drugs and terrorism.

The dramatic reversal in the China-Philippine relationship has proved Beijing's proclaimed belief that the claimants in the South China Sea disputes are fully capable of handling their disagreements on their own. Yet attempts by third parties to muddy the waters have never stopped. And it may not be realistic to expect those claimant countries to demonstrate solidarity in the face of powerful outsider intervention and say no to it.

Manila's rapport with Beijing, however, will certainly be conducive to managing the other unresolved disputes in the waters.
Workers check facilities at a project of China General Nuclear Power Corp in Fangchenggang, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo by Liang Fuying/For China Daily]

China General Nuclear Power Corp is eyeing Poland as a potential destination for nuclear exports, as part of its expansion in Europe apart from the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Polish authorities have been consulting with CGN, China's largest nuclear operator, on cooperating and building the country's first nuclear power station, according to a statement on the CGN website on Monday.

"CGN attaches substantial significance to the Polish nuclear power market and is willing to become a long-term strategic partner of the country," said Shu Guogang, vice-president of CGN.

The two parties signed a Memorandum Of Understanding on cooperation on civil nuclear energy use earlier this month, which Shu said would bring mutual benefits to both countries.

According to Poland's Energy Ministry, the visit to China earlier this month was to explore the possibility of cooperation between the Polish and Chinese nuclear sectors.

Poland in 2014 announced plans to build two nuclear power stations with a total capacity of 6 million kilowatts. The first unit is expected to be completed by the end of 2030.

The Polish delegation visited existing and newly constructed nuclear power plants, and research and development centers, to explore the potential of the Chinese nuclear industry, it said.

The Memorandum Of Understanding is yet more evidence that the drive by Chinese electric power industry to diversify abroad is gradually expanding, said Joseph Jacobelli, a senior analyst of Asian utilities and infrastructure at Bloomberg Intelligence.

"CGN's experience and financing capability and capacity means the company should be able to lock in one or more overseas deals in the next few quarters, despite the fact that whether the company can nail more deals in Eastern Europe is difficult to say at this stage because of the complex nature," said Jacobelli.

"Nuclear investments take a long time to complete as they are more complex, while projects may also create local social backlashes and have security considerations."

According to Jacobelli, CGN's cooperation with the British government is more of a springboard for the company to reach other destinations in the European continent.

CGN signed an agreement on the Hinkley Point C power plant with French utility EDF and the British government last September, which has been hailed as a gateway to promote Chinese nuclear technology.

"The UK is the perfect base from a logistics perspective. It is a perfect springboard for development," he said.
ROME  A new kind of bicycles designed by China's leading smart bike-sharing company Mobike have entered Italian city of Florence, the company announced Tuesday.

The silver-orange smart bicycles had been placed in strategic locations across city of Florence to help alleviate automobile traffic and sustainably enhance mobility.

During the initial trial operation phase, several hundred Mobikes will be launched in selected high-demand areas with a promotional rate of 30 euro cents (35 cents) per 30 minutes.

Starting from August, formal services will be provided to all residents in Florence as well as Milan, with a plan to launch around 4,000 bikes in each of the two cities, according to Mobike.

A launch ceremony was hosted by Florence Mayor Dario Nadella at the "Palazzo Vecchio", home of the Mayor's office on Monday. Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala also attended the ceremony.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice towards sustainable mobility today. We are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italy's first stationless bikeshare," Nadella said.

Sala said: "We strongly welcome the launch of Mobike in Milan. This launch shows that cities with a touristic and international profile like ours understand the strategic importance of investing in this form of sustainable mobility."

Mobikes are designed with a series of proprietary high-tech features that benefit both users and partner cities. Every Mobike is equipped with unique smart-lock technology and built-in GPS connected via the Mobike IoT network. This is an invaluable feature for cities, which no other bikesharing company provides.

Mobike's technology locates and monitors the condition of each bike, as well as location-based demands for bikes in real-time to manage supply and help solve the "last-mile" challenge.

Mobike was launched in Shanghai in April 2016. Italy is its fourth overseas market following Singapore, Britain and Japan.
China's new third-generation reactor, using technology known as Hualong One, starts its dome installation in Fuqing, Southeast China's Fujian province, May 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG] Modernized structure to help clear institutional barriers

With some exceptions, China will include all central State-owned enterprises that have not been reformed in a modern corporate system by making them legal persons by the end of this year. The exception will be those in the financial and cultural sectors. The move is expected to help clear away institutional barriers for further SOE reform.

The move, giving corporations the same rights and responsibilities as people, was announced by the State Council on Wednesday.

It is part of the implementation plan for company system reform for central SOEs, which refers to those directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the country's top SOE regulator.

It was also the latest move since the reform was mapped out at the Central Economic Work Conference in December and in the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered in March.

"By the end of 2017, all central SOEs, except financial and cultural ones, will be registered as limited liability companies or joint-equity corporations in accordance with the Company Law, which will accelerate the establishment of an effective and balanced corporate governance structure, based on their legal person status, as well as a flexible and efficient marketized management mechanism," the plan said.

The document provides supportive policies on registration, land usage and taxes. New companies can still be kept solely State-owned and the registered capital will be evaluated based on audited net assets. They can be registered as joint-equity companies with State Council permission, and registered capital is assessed via procedures like audits and asset evaluations.

By the end of 2016, more than 92 percent of subsidiaries under 101 central SOEs had been restructured into modern companies. The reform of the remaining companies is expected to involve 3,200 subsidiaries of 69 central SOEs, which have total assets of 8 trillion yuan ($1.18 trillion).

In the first half of 2017, central SOEs made $78.66 billion in net profit, an increase of 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

SOE reform aims to boost efficiency and increase State-owned assets, said Liang Jun, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. "But the reform has been obstructed by some historical problems, including hard-to-define registered capital. The plan will clear obstacles and help eligible SOEs eliminate institutional barriers. The corporate legal person status provides a legal foundation to further the campaign such as acquisitions, mergers and mixed ownership reforms," Liang said.

"Though many SOEs have set up the modern company system, there's still room for improvement," said Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, saying some companies' governing boards existed in name only.

The China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear operator, wrapped up the reform last year. Its spokesman Huang Xiaofei said the company witnessed a strengthened market consciousness and a more flexible company system after being restructured.

Huang also credited reform with the company's initiating new projects worldwide and its potential to be a major nuclear technology supplier.

Jing Shuiyu contributed to this story.
Australian Chinese Anthony Chow (left) and Singaporean Joey Cheong run a bistro in Shanghai, which offers a selection of tapas-style dishes from different cuisines around the world. [Photo by Gao Er'Qiang/China Daily]

Anthony Chow and Joey Cheong might lack culinary training, but that did not stop them from carving out a successful restaurant business in Shanghai.

They are the co-owners of Bites and Bottle-O, a cozy 20-seater eatery tucked away on Danshui Road, a quiet lane adjacent to the bustling Huaihai Middle Road.

The bistro offers a comprehensive selection of tapas-style dishes from different cuisines around the world, including foie gras, cured gravlax, roasted pork belly, black garlic hummus and even scallion oil noodles, a local favorite. Bites and Bottle-O also has a well-curated wine selection, comprising labels from Australia and Europe.

Jaded with life in the advertising sector, the self-taught chefs decided to quit their jobs in 2015 to pursue their passion for cooking. Despite their lack of experience in the food industry, they did not hesitate to wade into uncharted waters.

"It was definitely a risky move," Cheong said. "But having no professional culinary experience was actually more of a blessing than a curseit meant we had to think and work harder than the rest.

"Also, the Shanghai food industry is very internationalized and vibrant," he added. "It's full of new, exciting concepts. I felt there was room for two self-taught chefs like us to carve a niche for ourselves."

Born in Sydney, Chow traveled to Shanghai in 1993 to learn Mandarin at Fudan University.

The trip also helped him discover more about his rootshis Shanghainese father emigrated to Australia in the mid-1950s.

Chow later found a job in the city as an account executive at multinational advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

Cheong, a Singaporean, also used to be in advertising but at Ogilvy and Mather.

He first arrived in the city in 1995 on a job posting and met Chow a year later at Sally's, a now defunct bar that was popular with people from the advertising world.

The two hit it off over darts, pool and whisky, and soon discovered they shared a love for good food.

In 1999, they started whipping up meals for friends in Chow's bachelor pad in Hongqiao area. But what turned out as a hobby soon became a friendly rivalry as they constantly sought to outperform one another in the kitchen.

They then took their cooking to the next level by doing private culinary events for friends and associates before opening Bites and Bottle-O in 2015.

"We love the idea of Spanish tapas because there are so many different types of food on the table at the same time," Chow explained about the bistro's concept.

"We believe that a meal shouldn't be limited to just one or two dishes," he added. "We want people to be able to taste a combination of flavors."

The small eatery has grown in stature. The partners stressed that they have not had to invest a single cent into the business since it was launched.

Telephone reservations, they pointed out, increased by 50 percent to 6,000 a year after the restaurant opened.

Business has been brisk. On most nights, it is almost impossible to get a seat without a reservation.

The bistro's Sunday specials, which usually feature one classic hawker food from Cheong's home country Singapore, are so popular that they had to introduce two seating sessions.

This positive reception has in turn bolstered their confidence. They are now planning to open a second restaurant, called Umaami, in October.

Located in the Shanghai campus for WPP, a multinational advertising and public relations company, the new eatery is a whopping 10 times larger than their original bistro, and will serve an even wider variety of cuisines.

Despite the scale, Cheong is confident in their decision to go big, pointing out that the area Umami is located in does not yet have any notable restaurants.

"Taking into account our type of food and the location, I think this new venture is not that big a gamble to take," said Chow.

"Also, it's all down to quality. Diners in Shanghai are a sophisticated and discerning bunch," he added. "They are willing to pay for good food."
China will further open up its market for imports from other BRICS countries and pledge to spearhead an anti-protectionism campaign with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, a senior commerce official said on Tuesday.

"Investment and trade are the vital economic drive for BRICS countries as it has profound potential," Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce, said at a news conference.

"BRICS took up 23 percent of global GDP in 2016, up from 12 percent a decade ago, but only accounted for 16 percent of world trade, 16 percent of total foreign investment and 12 percent of outbound investment."

Wang said that China will further open its market to other BRICS countries and increase imports, as they are highly complementary in trade.

"For example, agricultural products from Brazil, medical products from India, energy products from Russia and wine from South Africa are welcomed in China," Wang said. "In the past six months China's imports from BRICS countries increased 33 percent year-on-year."

The ministry will host a two-day meeting of BRICS trade ministers in Shanghai on Aug 1-2 before the BRICS Leaders' Meeting to be held in Xiamen, Fujian province, in September.

Wang said while protectionists have a skeptical attitude toward multilateral trade, China hopes the BRICS nations could tackle the skeptics as a united team and build a sufficient trade mechanism. To strengthen trade links, Wang said China will host an international imports exhibition from 2018.

"The exhibition will help with trade and stimulate investment," he added. "We are expecting BRICS countries to play an active role in the exhibition, thus ensuring that more goods can enter the Chinese market."

Zhang Shaogang, director-general of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, said Chinese e-commerce platforms have been gaining popularity among companies in other BRICS countries.

"We hope to optimize the e-commerce mechanism, encourage industry interaction and set a good example in e-commerce cooperation between developing countries."

Regarding investment, Wang said BRICS countries have been making progress to facilitate multilateral investment.

"The BRICS proposed action plans to facilitate investment in 2014, and the G20 summit agreed on the guiding principles for global investment," said Wang. "And this year's meeting will make further investment more convenient."

The Chinese market will benefit its BRICS partners in many sectors, such as consumer goods from South Africa and Russia.

Neil Wang, China unit president at the global consultancy Frost& Sullivan, said that China is opening up to different sectors, for example the diamond business.

"China was the major diamond import destination and consumer for South Africa and Russia in 2016, and demand for diamonds has been growing since 2012," he said.

"These two countries are also China's important partners in the Belt and Road Initiative. The trade relationship with them will largely affect China's diamond and jewelry market."
A traditional Chinese medicine center will be built in Dubai, bringing a new treatment option to the Middle East.

The program was jointly launched by the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, the Xie He Medical Center, which is the only comprehensive Chinese hospital in Dubai, and Shenzhen-based Neptunus Group.

The new center will target Chinese as well as local people in the Middle East. The plan is that in three to five years, 30 to 50 clinics will be built around the center, according to a statement issued by the three.

The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine will provide skilled staff and technical support for the program.

The Xie He Medical Center in Dubai, as an influential Chinese hospital in the Middle East, has many departments for traditional Chinese and Western medicine diagnosis and treatment. It will serve as the medical base for the program, while the Shenzhen Neptunus Group will offer financial support.

"The new center can tap into the specific needs of patients in the Middle East, and bring about treatment and medicine that are suitable for them," said Chen Xinyu, head of the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine.

The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the National Development and Reform Commission issued a guideline in January 2017, to encourage the application of TCM in foreign countries and share related medical resources between economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

To date, there are around 300,000 Chinese people in Dubai. Facing increasing demand for TCM, the Xie He Medical Center in Dubai needs technical and financial support from China, Chen said.

"With the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, TCM has more market potential in Dubai than in the US and European countries," said Zhang Yidan, an analyst specializing in the medical industry at Beijing-based research company Analysys.
Yuan-denominated private equity and venture capital funds accounted for over three quarters of the capital raised in the mainland PE and VC markets last year.

Investors actively looked for opportunities in tech industries, according to a new report issued by international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The report said that as China resumed initial public offerings in 2014, the Chinese PE and VC market had gradually recovered with fast-growing renminbi funds becoming a dominant force in 2015 and 2016.

It said driven by expectations about the fast-growing technology sector, there was rising demand for fundraising amid heightened consolidation and accelerated expansion in the fintech and financial payment sectors.

The new report found that PE and VC investors have shown keen interest in opportunities in the technology industries, including the internet, information technology, telecommunications and biotechnology sectors.

"RMB funds are being increasingly used to finance innovative high-tech sectors to identify opportunities in a slowing economy," said Amanda Zhang, PwC's North China private equity group leader.

"In the past two years, large-scale investments occurred in the mobile internet and high-tech sectors, involving both early-stage startups and established companies that have benefited from industry consolidation," Zhang said.

She said the developed capital markets and the strong M&A sector had provided diverse channels for investors to exit, or cash out from their invested companies.

The report also said yuan-denominated private equity and venture capital funds were stepping up their pace of moving abroad. It said they were looking for overseas companies that were serving the Chinese market, or purchasing foreign assets and selling them to A-share listed companies.

"As there are not enough high-quality assets for reasonable prices at home, Chinese A-share listed companies hope to partner with private equity firms in cross-border M&A transactions, by leveraging their expertise in financial counseling and target selection," said Ni Qing, PwC China private equity group partner.

The report added that RMB funds were gradually moving from traditional financial investors to strategic investors.

It said PE and VC fund managers were now placing greater emphasis on the concentration and consolidation of the sectors the target companies operated in, aiming to secure stable returns in both the primary and secondary markets.

"Chinese regulators released several policies, which include embracing a new era of asset management, advancing State-owned enterprise mixed ownership reform, and developing multi-level capital markets," said Gao Jianbin, a partner at PwC China.

"All of these pushes forward the development of RMB funds so that fund managers are underpinning value creationthey are not satisfied with being only fund providers, but also willing to become active strategic investors."
By May Zhou and Zhang Yuan in Little Rock, Arkansas | China Daily | Updated: 2017-07-26 08:24

China's recent announcement that it would open its market to US rice exports made the governor of Arkansas happy.

"It's such an incredible benefit to our state. It will help Arkansas and our agriculture industry become more well known in China," Governor Asa Hutchinson said in his office on Friday.

According to research by the University of Arkansas, people in China consume about 180 pounds of rice a year on average, while those in the United States eat less than 33 pounds a year. China is the largest rice importer, and the US ranks third in rice exports.

Arkansas produces roughly half of the total US rice output.

"We are delighted to have that market of China open. We produce more than we consume in the US. We market all across the world. Opening the China market will help us a great deal, even if we just get a small part of the market. We expect we will be making rice sales to China very quickly," Hutchinson said.

Arkansas produces mostly long-grain rice, which is drier and fluffier and favored by US consumers. Chinese favor milled rice, which is thicker and stickier.

Hutchinson said he welcomes Chinese rice companies to visit Arkansas growers to work together to produce the right kind of rice for Chinese consumers.

"We would love to attract Chinese companies to come here to process rice also. That makes sense for our state," Hutchinson said.

"We have grown our foreign job creation by 45 percent over the last five years," Hutchinson said.

And China is a primary source for Hutchinson when it comes to attracting foreign investment. In less than two years since he took office in January 2015, Hutchinson has visited China twice and is planning a third trip to China in October.

His efforts have produced results. Four Chinese companies recently announced investment in the state: Shandong Ruyi Technology (800 new jobs in Forrest City), Sun Paper (250 new jobs in Clark County), Tianyuan Garment (400 new jobs in Little Rock) and Pet Won Pet Products (70 new jobs in Danville). The four projects have a combined investment of more than $1.4 billion.

During his upcoming trip to China, Hutchinson said he will continue to promote Arkansas' agricultural resources, manufacturing and tourism.

"Three million Chinese visitors come to the US every year. They historically go to the East and West coasts. In Arkansas, we have a broad variety of scenes and beautiful vistas," he said. "Johnny Cash's home and Clinton's Presidential Library are here. As people come here to do business, they will know it's also a good place to visit," Hutchinson said.
The New Development Bank plans to put about two-thirds of its loans into sustainable infrastructure development in the next five years, a senior NDB official said on Tuesday.

Sergio G. Suchodolski, the NDB's director-general of strategy and partnerships, noted the plans, announced recently in its General Strategy for 2017-2021, during his address to the 2017 BRICS Youth Forum in Beijing on Tuesday.

The forum is one of the preparatory events ahead of the ninth BRICS Leaders' Meeting scheduled in Xiamen, Fujian province, in September. There, officials from the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa will join Chinese leaders to discuss issues relevant to members of the association.

"Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the NDB's strategy is its focus on sustainable infrastructure development," Suchodolski said, explaining that would blend well with the "NDB's mandate", he said.

The NDB, he said, intends to approve at least $32 billion in loans, including 15 projects in 2017 and up to 50 in 2021, and the bank will concentrate on sectors such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, urban mobility, sanitation, water and waste management.

Suchodolski said the bank, founded by BRICS countries, intends to open membership to other countries, but is still waiting for approval from the NDB board of directors.

"If this is approved, emerging markets will have no less than 55 percent of the control of NDB governance, but the NDB will become a multilateral financial institution with both developing and developed countries," he said. "This will help increase the role of emerging markets in the formation of global financial rules and order, and we have a number of things to learn from the existing institutions."

Huang Yiyang, a counselor in the Department of International Economic Affairs at China's Foreign Ministry, also addressed the forum, saying that economic, trade and financial cooperation lie as cornerstones of the BRICS organization.

He said China, as the rotating BRICS chair this year, is ready to enhance coordination of macroeconomic and financial policies, which will remain as the focus of BRICS development in the coming decade. He said more support is expected to come in areas of finance, trade and innovation, working toward greater infrastructure connectivity and a wider circulation of currency and finance.
BUFFALO, Wyo.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were nowhere to be found, and the names of gunmen involved in the bloody Johnson County War were also mysteriously missing. But a valuable reference book recently donated to the Johnson County Library provided an apt and historic tie-in for Longmire Days 2017.

A large leather-bound ledger documenting every detainee who was booked into the Johnson County Jail over nearly 90 years is now part of the librarys reference collection and is available for the public to peruse.

The volume will likely be a key source of information for researchers or a point of interest for amateur historians who are curious to learn whether some long-lost relative ever had a scrape with the law.

It will also supplement the librarys extensive collection of materials pertaining to the Johnson County War, a conflict pitting wealthy cattle barons against small ranchers who were considered interlopers.

We are proud to be able to make this available to the public, said Cynthia Twing, director of the Johnson County Library. "Rightly or wrongly, this documents who was in a certain place at a certain time."

Craig Johnson, Ucross author of the Sheriff Walt Longmire mysteries, presented the newly refurbished jail roster to Twing as part of Longmire Days. The annual celebration brought more than 14,000 people to Buffalo, the Johnson County seat and a template for fictional Absaroka County, the setting of Johnsons popular crime novels surrounding the adventures of Sheriff Longmire. The Longmire novels have been adapted into a popular TV series starring actor Robert Taylor in the lead role.

Steve Kozisek, Johnson Countys real-life sheriff, said his predecessor, Larry Kirkpatrick, had given the jail roster to Johnson a few years ago to use for research. Johnson then brought the tattered volume to John Rist, owner of Americana Bookcraft, a Billings book bindery, who re-bound the book.

Rist said refurbishing the book, which measures about 24 inches tall by 16 inches wide and is nearly 2 inches thick, proved to be a challenge.

The biggest job was developing a plan for restoring the book, whose cover had been held together by thick layers of duct tape.

As part of the process, Rist stitched together the books pages, fashioned a new spine and added new end sheets. He bought a 37-by 17-inch piece of brown leather from Tandy Leather Co. and carefully wrapped the cover.

Making a cover from leather is tricky because of the way the leather stretches, Rist said.

Johnson County is home to the Hole in the Wall, a remote hideaway frequented by horse thieves, cattle rustlers and other outlaws. Among the best known were Robert LeRoy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy, and Harry Longabaugh, known as the Sundance Kid.

Cassidy served time in the Wyoming State Penitentiary for horse theft in the 1890s. Longabaugh was once jailed in Sundance, Wyo., but neither of the famous outlaws is known to have been booked into the Johnson County jail.

The book documents prisoners held in the jail from Dec. 18, 1894, to June 29, 1981. People familiar with the record say one of its most distinguishing features is whats missing. Somebody  nobody knows who or when  apparently removed pages that would have listed detainees during the years when the bloody Johnson County War raged.

The range war resulted from a dispute between the owners of large ranches and smaller operators whom the cattle barons sought to oust from the range.

In one memorable incident, Nat Champion, who ran a small herd of cattle in the Hole in the Wall area, survived an attack by assassins who were said to be employed by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. On Nov. 1, 1891, five men burst into a small cabin occupied by Champion and another man, according to an account by the Wyoming State Historical Society. In a gunfight, Champion wounded two men, one fatally, without sustaining a serious injury.

Champion testified in a preliminary hearing, and Joe Elliott, a stock detective for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, was bound over for trial.

But in March of 1892, an invasion force of 52 armed men, most of them from Texas, left Cheyenne and traveled to Johnson County. They surrounded Champion at the KC Ranch and killed him.

Later, a local posse numbering up to 400 chased and surrounded the invaders, who had holed up at the TA Ranch south of Buffalo. After a three-day siege, soldiers from nearby Fort McKinney arrived and took the invaders into custody.

The library's extensive history collection includes a wealth of material dealing with the range war. Researchers frequently peruse the collection, Twing said.
HANGZHOU  An air route between Hangzhou, Beijing and Lisbon was inaugurated Tuesday, the first direct flight connecting the capitals of China and Portugal.

An A330 aircraft took off at 7:10 pm at Xiaoshan International Airport of Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang province, marking the launch of the air service.

It was expected to arrive in Lisbon 13 hours later.

The flight is scheduled three times per week, departing from Hangzhou on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The route is operated by the Beijing-based Capital Airlines, a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines.

"I finally don't need to take any connection flights via other European countries," said Filipe Martins, a Portuguese designer working in Hangzhou.

He has decided to bring his Chinese girlfriend to celebrate Christmas with his family in Lisbon.

Xu Mingye, general manager of Hangzhou branch of Capital Airlines, said the company selected Hangzhou as the terminal city because more than half the Chinese people in Portugal are from Zhejiang province.

Zhan Liang, a Chinese media worker in Lisbon, was among the first passengers on the flight.

"Previously, I had to spend 20 hours to return home, transferring via cities like London or Hong Kong. The new route has cut the flight duration to only 13 hours, with a ticket price of only 500 euros ($580)," he said before takeoff.

Zhan said he often traveled between the two countries for business, and the morning arrival in Lisbon was convenient for him to travel on to other Portuguese-speaking countries in South America.

Trade between China and Portugal surged up 28.2 percent year-on-year to $5.58 billion in 2016.
Front line from left to right - Hu Weiwei, founder of Mobike; Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence; Mobike staff and Beppe Sala, mayor of Milan, rode Mobike bicycles in Florence, Italy.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Mobike Technology Co Ltd, a major Chinese bike-sharing company, rode into Italy on Tuesday, as it expands its overseas presence to compete with its rival, Ofo Inc, outside China.

The move marks the company's first major push into the European continent after launching services in the United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore.

Mobike said it will first launch several hundred bikes in high-demand areas as a trial operation in the Tuscan capital of Florence. Residents can experience the bike with a promotional rate of 0.3 euro per 30 minutes.

The Beijing-based company also plans to launch its service in Milan, the largest metropolitan area of Italy. Formal services will be provided to all of Florence and Milan starting in August. About 4,000 bikes will be launched in August in each of the two cities.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice towards sustainable mobility today - we are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italys first stationless bikeshare," Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence, said.

This new deployment in Italy marks Mobike's first venture into continental Europe, followed by its debut in Manchester in June and the company plans to roll out in London in late July.

According to Mobike, to date it has operated bike-sharing service in more than 150 cities globally and operates more than 6 million bikes around the world.

"We are delighted to enter the Italian market, and especially to launch Mobike's operations in both Florence and Milan, home to so many of history's greatest innovators and artists," said Hu Weiwei, Mobike's founder.

She also added that Mobike will work with their partners to preserve and enhance Florentines', Milanese's and visitors' enjoyment of both cities.
COLOMBO  Sri Lankan cabinet has approved agreement with China on Hambantota Port, describing it as "a win-win situation for both countries."

Under the agreement, China Merchants Port Holdings will own 70 percent stake of the port while Sri Lanka Ports Authority will own 30 percent, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said late Tuesday.

Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, Samarasinghe said the matter will also be discussed in parliament on Friday and all legislators will be briefed about the agreement signed between the two countries.

"This agreement will be a win-win situation for both China and Sri Lanka. We hope to strengthen the operations of the Hambantota Port which will be beneficial for Sri Lanka," Samarasinghe said.

China Merchants Port Holdings will manage the operations of the port. Sri Lanka will manage the security of the port along with the navigation and approvals.

Samarasinghe added that although negotiations with China Merchants Port Holdings took a long time, all matters regarding the agreement had been thoroughly discussed for the benefit of both China and Sri Lanka.

He further explained that after 10 years, if Sri Lanka wished to purchase an additional 20 percent stake of the port, they could do so by purchasing it, resulting in China and Sri Lanka owning an equal share of 50 percent each.
Chinese port operator China Merchants Port Holdings has announced it will acquire an 85 percent stake in Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port for $974 million.

The company has reached agreement with Sri Lanka Port Authority, the Sri Lankan Government, Hambantota International Port Group (Private) Limited (HIPG) and Hambantota International Port Services Company (Private) Limited (HIPS) to operate the port.

The 99-year agreement is expected to be signed on July 29.

Under the agreement, China Merchants Port Holdings will invest $1.12 billion in Hambantota Port and related shipping businesses. That includes $974 million to be paid directly to the Sri Lankan Port Authority to buy 85 percent of HIPG shares. HIPG will retain majority ownership of the port services company.

The remaining $146 million will be placed in reserve while China Merchants continues discussions with the Sri Lankan government. If no agreement is reached on how to spend the money, the company can withdraw any amount in the account.

Sri Lankan authorities have agreed not to develop ports or wharves that compete directly with the services and businesses of Hambantota Port in the surrounding 100 kilometers in the next 15 years.

Hambotana Port is a deep-water port located on the south coast of Sri Lanka. After the first and second phases of construction, the port has 10 berths, with a quay length of 3,487 meters, able to handle container, bulk, general, wheeled and liquid bulk cargoes from large ships.

Hambotana Port holds enormous potential in future expansion, given its proximity to South Asia and East Africa and its position as a hub port in the region, the company said.

Hong Kong-listed China Merchants Port Holdings opened lower at HK$24.05 per share on Wednesday.
CHICAGO  General Motors (GM) on Tuesday reported $2.4 billion income in the second quarter from continuing operations, down 11.3 percent from a year ago.

GM delivered 725,000 total vehicles in the United States, driven by a 24-percent increase in retail crossover sales during the period. GM added that the Q2 crossover results were the best in his history.

However, GM's US daily rental sales were down about 25,000 vehicles or 35 percent compared to Q2 2016. The daily rental sales were 6 percent of total vehicle sales in Q2, the lowest of any full-line automaker.

In China, GM's biggest market, its deliveries of 852,000 vehicles set a second-quarter record, up 1.6 percent compared to Q2 2016. Strong sales of Cadillac and Baojun vehicles led the way, up 62 percent and 66 percent respectively.

For the first half of 2017, GM sold a total of 2,342,675 vehicles globally. Its sales saw increases in South America and China, while recording declines in Europe, North America and other markets.
Matt Scott sits in his office in Shenzhen, working on his AI research and development business. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When Matt Scott arrived in Beijing to work as an engineer at Microsoft Research in 2006, he never thought he would still be in China 11 years later.

But now the 35-year-old from New York is the co-founder of an artificial intelligence startup in one of China's innovation hubs in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"Being in China is really important when it comes to AI," he said. "If you look at the numbers, such as publications on topics like deep learning, it's China that is leading the way."

Innovation is in Scott's DNA and fueled his desire to set up Malong Technologies, which specializes in AI-based visual product recognition technology.

Product AI, which was developed by his company, enables online customers to find specialized products instantly from a photograph.

"The problem we are trying to solve is to build a technology to enable a computer to see products just like a person does, and make that technology accessible for companies," Scott, who is also chief technology officer, explained.

To illustrate that, fashion designers can now order fabric patterns online quickly instead of having to describe them or search endlessly for the right product.

Uliaobao.com, a textile e-commerce platform, has Product AI embedded, allowing clients to find patterns they want just by taking a picture and uploading it to the website.

This technology has been picked up by 100 companies in a range of industries, including fashion, furniture design, cars, textile and wine with 100 million customers.

For Scott, it has been quite a journey since starting up Malong Technologies in 2014.

Before that he worked for eight years at Microsoft Research, where he met his Chinese partner Huang Dinglong.

They both believed that AI would be the next big thing, so they rolled out a business.

So far, the move has paid off as the company now employees 59 staff and finished its A-round funding a year ago, raising 62 million yuan ($9.2 million) from investors.

Financial data is scarce, but Scott stressed that the company has "excellent revenue and cash flows". Still, he did not want to report the exact numbers just yet.

"China is fast moving," he said. "It is an innovative place. And when you are making an innovative company, you want to be part of an innovative environment. It's like an ecosystem.

"In this field of AI, data is, for example, one of the key things," he added. "(In China,) you can get data quicker, (you can get) more people, more organizations and more businesses."

There are other reasons, of course for setting up in Shenzhen. This boom town for tech startups also has a great deal of traditional industries, which are ideal for artificial intelligence technology.

"We want to transform traditional industries, so they are more efficient," Scott said.

Already Malong Technologies has started working with Chinatesta Textile Testing & Certification Services to upgrade its "testing process".

AI technology will help automate the system and speed up the process.

In the near future, artificial intelligence will revolutionize industry.

Figures released by consultancy iResearch in Beijing showed that the global AI market is expected to top 119 billion yuan by 2020. This represents a 19.7 percent annual growth rate.

China's AI sector will be worth 9.1 billion yuan by 2020 and it will rise by more than 50 percent year-on-year.

As for Scott and Malong Technologies, the prospects are looking good.

He became the first expat entrepreneur to win a Shenzhen Yantian district award for his work on AI and his business is booming.

"The fact that I am in China is not a problem, but actually a benefit because of the talent here," he said. "I am focusing on the customer and the product.

"The biggest challenge I face is to build a great product," he added, as well as finding the right "product market fit".

Scott also believes artificial intelligence technology will change the world and he is determined to ride this wave of discovery. "We believe we can become an AI giant in a totally new type of sector," he said.

"AI can become a world-changing phenomenon and we want to be a leading company not just in China, but on the world stage," Scott added.

"Our vision is to transform traditional industries," he said.
XINING  Building work began Monday on an incubator for Tibetan language information technology development in northwest China's Qinghai province, part of a wider project to boost local economic and social progress.

With 77.8 million yuan ($11.5 million) in financial backing, Yongzin big data center, which is in Gonghe county, Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, will include data, product display and training departments.

"Yongzin" is the country's first Tibetan language search engine. It was launched in August last year.

The incubator aims to attract small and medium internet enterprises to provide governance, economy, culture and education in areas inhabited by Tibetans.

"Currently there is a dearth of internet enterprises in Tibetan areas, which means there is a lack of valuable, unique Tibetan brands," said Tselo, director of the Tibetan language working committee in Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture.

The incubator, which will be put into operation next year, will provide preferential policies to attract small companies.

Since 2013, Qinghai, with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has channeled 14 million yuan into several projects related to Tibetan information technology development.
A Beijing firm that will provide VR technology for a new panda attraction also makes a panda app. LIU PEIPEI / FOR CHINA DAILY

Giant panda fan Wan Yongqing will come close to fulfilling a long-held dream when the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province completes its latest attraction  a virtual reality "panda paradise".

Wan wants to touch a panda, but since that's prohibited, he'll settle for the next-best thing, a fur-covered replica panda that looks like the real thing through a VR headset.

"Thanks to the construction of a virtual reality panda-themed paradise, visitors will be able to experience something very much like feeling a real panda," said Wan, a photographer from Beijing.

Wan, a dedicated panda enthusiast, has visited Sichuan many times since 2012 to take photos of the animals.

"I have been to the Chengdu panda base and the Dujiangyan base, as well as to the three bases of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. But I have never had the privilege of feeling a panda," he said.

The Chengdu center is preparing to turn the first and second floors of its museum into the VR panda-themed attraction. It is expected to open next year.

The center will work with a high-tech firm in Beijing to provide the VR technology for the experience, according to Chen Cheng, information officer at the center.

"In the paradise there will be pictures of different pandas and bamboo forests. When visitors put on VR eyeglasses, it will all seem real. Pandas will stand up, sit down, eat bamboo or wander in the forests. People will be able to feel and hold the virtual pandas as they would in real life," she said.

The Chengdu panda center was set up in 1987 with six hungry, sick pandas rescued from different parts of Sichuan after their primary food source  bamboo  dwindled.

It used to be difficult for captive pandas to breed or for their cubs to survive. Thanks to Chinese researchers' painstaking efforts, those problems were solved.

As of the end of last year, the Chengdu base was home to 175 captive pandas, according to the latest counts.

The base has loaned pandas to zoos in Japan, Spain, France, Germany, the United States and Canada for joint research and breeding programs.

According to Chen, there are plans to build more VR panda-themed attractions at zoos in the six countries.
Chinese and Russian naval forces undergo joint training at the Baltiysk naval base in Kaliningrad, Russia, on Monday. This is the first time the Chinese Navy has participated in drills in Europe. WANG XIUJUN / CHINA NEWS SERVICE

PLA:Strong military equals strong country

The People's Liberation Army has been undergoing a historic reform guided by President Xi Jinping since late 2012, when Xi became top leader of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese military.

The reform has resulted in the biggest overhaul of the PLA in decades. The senior governing bodies of the world's largest military have been reshuffled  up to the Central Military Commission  to optimize the command chain. The regional command systems have been reorganized to boost joint combat ability. Group armies and institutions have been merged to improve efficiency, and new high-technology units set up to prepare for nontraditional fields such as cyberspace.

Changes continue in the life of almost every PLA member. Many officers, including hundreds of generals, have been moved to new positions while some returned to civilian life. Soldiers are now spending more time in combat training and live-fire exercises, and corrupt commanders have been expelled and punished.

"This is a comprehensive and revolutionary reform, which differs from all previous reforms in PLA history and all reforms of foreign militaries. There is no model to refer to. You can imagine how difficult it is," said He Renxue, deputy director of the CMC's Reform and Organizational Structure Office.

While the PLA is preparing to celebrate its 90th birthday on Tuesday, it is also ready to embrace more changes in the years to come. The changes have one goal: to make the PLA stronger, more integrated and more flexible so it will always be able to win modern wars.

New chapter

Behind the achievements, a sweeping anti-corruption campaign within the military has also contributed greatly to reshaping the PLA. More than 100 senior officers at the rank of major general or higher  including Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, two former vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission  have been criminally convicted or given internal punishment since Xi took office in 2012, military newspaper PLA Daily said.

Not long after Xi was elected top leader in November 2012, he announced his determination to revolutionize the PLA and to build it into a mighty force capable of safeguarding China's security and interests.

This was because "China is at a crucial stage in its path toward becoming a world power" and "the country is facing new situations and new challenges when it comes to its security and development", so the Chinese military must be aware of its responsibilities and problems and make comprehensive changes, the president said.

"Without a strong military and a strong national defense, we could not achieve our goal of building a strong country," said Luo Yuan, a senior expert at the PLA Academy of Military Science. "To safeguard national security and development interest, we must have a compatible military force."

In November 2013, a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee declared a formal decision to undertake massive military reform. In March 2014, the CMC established a group under Xi's leadership tasked with drawing up a road map for the reform and guiding its implementation.

In July 2015, an overall reform plan was approved by top Party and military authorities. Four months later, the plan was unveiled, with goals to be achieved before 2020. The last day of 2015 saw establishment of the PLA Ground Force Headquarters, PLA Rocket Force and PLA Strategic Support Force, which formally started the historic shake-up.

In January 2016, the four top PLA departments  staff, politics, logistics and armaments  were disbanded and their functions and duties handed to 15 new agencies under the direct control of the CMC.

Soon after, regional systems also were reshuffled into the Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern and Central theater commands. They replaced seven regional commands named after their headquarters cities: Beijing, Shenyang, Jinan, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu and Guangzhou. The CMC also established the Joint Operations Command Center and Joint Logistics Support Force.

From December 2016 to April, the PLA Ground Force reduced the number of its group armies from 18 to 13. Also, the PLA's schools were cut from 74 to 43.

"The military reform greatly cut the size of the Ground Force ... and the staff of the Ground Force has dropped below 50 percent of the entire PLA," said General Li Zuocheng, commander of the PLA Ground Force. Li added that the slimming is to turn China's traditional massive land force into a strong, modern new army.

The Navy and Rocket Force, however, were expanded. The number of noncombatant personnel shrank, with slots allotted to fighting units.

The PLA has a goal of cutting its troops by 300,000, but the number of combatants has increased, said PLA Daily.

The guidelines, measures and steps of the military reform have all been planned under direct instructions from Xi, the newspaper said, noting that the president personally reviewed key reform documents and met with senior officers who were to lead important units.

Major General Zhang Yu, deputy director of the CMC's Reform and Organizational Structure Office, said that Xi's political wisdom and determination are the most important factors advancing reform.

Combat training priority

Each time Xi inspected a fighting unit, he would always raise the significance of combat readiness and joint operations capability, urging commanders and soldiers to treat them as their top priority.

Each combatant branch of the PLA  the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force  has seen realistic training drills and exercises intensified due to Xi's attention. In 2016 alone, 15 infantry, artillery and air defense brigades from the Ground Force took part in over 100 live-fire exercises.

At the height of the exercises, there were over 400,000 troops simultaneously conducting drills on plateaus, islands, mountains and deserts.

Every year, each of the Navy's combat ships and submarines spends nearly eight months at sea on patrols, training and exercises. Every day, dozens of aircraft, over 100 ships and submarines, and thousands of Navy personnel are in operation, official documents say.

The Chinese and Russian navies are holding joint annual exercises in the Baltic Sea this week, the first time the Chinese Navy has participated in drills in Europe.

In the Air Force, freestyle fighting, live-fire land strikes and long-range sea patrols have become regular training subjects for all fighter jet and bomber units.

Each year, the Air Force Headquarters organizes four large exercises for different units and these exercises involve the use of sophisticated maneuvers, cutting-edge weapons and electronic countermeasures.

The Rocket Force has launched hundreds of missiles in about 40 live-fire exercises and engaged in more than 30 joint drills on its own and with other military branches over the past several years.

Innovation stressed

Xi has repeatedly stressed the role of science, technology and innovation in the Chinese military. He also attaches great importance to the civil-military integration.

In China, civil-military integration generally refers to the military and defense industry transferring technologies to civilian sectors and commissioning private companies to carry out research and development for the military.

In a meeting with national legislators from the armed forces in March, Xi said the military should take advantage of China's achievements in science and technology to help modernize its weapons and equipment.

The president told officers to look for, support and make full use of advanced technologies that can serve the military's modernization and to assist the transfer of defense technologies to the business sector.

At a ceremony last week marking the reorganization of three top PLA institutions, Xi said science and technology determine a military's combat capability, so the PLA must make more effort in its research and development and continue to boost innovation.

Upon Xi's request, the CPC Central Committee has established a Central Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development to foster the work.

The PLA, benefiting from strengthened efforts in research and development, has added some of the world's top weaponry, including the Type-99A main battle tank, J-20 stealth fighter jet and DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile.

It is also developing a long-range strategic bomber and building a new aircraft carrier as well as a guided-missile destroyer called by experts the world's most advanced of its kind.
Change to smaller but more capable force comes as 90th anniversary nears

President Xi Jinping urged "all-out efforts" to deepen national defense and military reform at a key meeting held ahead of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks on Monday during the 42nd group study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

During the meeting presided over by Xi, the members of the Political Bureau were briefed on the ongoing national defense and military reform.

The purpose of the group study is to learn about the reform of the military's scale, structure and power composition, learn the new outlook of the country's military system, and push forward the military reform, Xi said.

Mentioning that the 90th anniversary of the PLA's founding is Tuesday, Xi said that the national defense and military reform has achieved "historic outcomes" in the past five years.

Through the reform, the PLA has become smaller but more capable, with better structure and a more scientific composition, Xi said, adding that the country's military structure, which has relied on land forces for a long time, has been changed fundamentally.

The reform also changed the military's deployment, which previously focused on self-defense; changed the reliance on quantity of soldiers for combat; and started the change from quantity to quality and from human-intensive to scientific-intensive, Xi said. China is formulating a joint fighting system with elite fighting forces as its primary part, he added.

Streamlining the PLA's scale, structure and power composition and resolving structural contradictions that have been a bottleneck for the military's development are important parts of the ongoing military reform, Xi said. The military reform is being carried out at a level unprecedented since the founding of the People's Republic of China, he said.

The president also called for making systematic and visionary plans to help military officers and soldiers have "a sense of gain" throughout the process of reform. The local government should make greater efforts to help officers and soldiers resolve their problems, he added.
A free, childrens health and wellness event will feature Alexs Buddy Clinic. Children are encouraged to bring their favorite stuffed animal to the clinic to be evaluated by a CHI St. Alexius medical professional.

The Back to School Extravaganza, hosted by Kohl's Cares and CHI St. Alexius Health is from 1 to 6 p.m. Aug. 1 at Dykshoorn Park, Mandan.

Other activities include community educational booths, aerobics for kids, inflatables, games and races, healthy foods and prizes. Free child identification cards will be offered to all children and their parents.
The overall urban design for Beijing's subcenter in Tongzhou District has been completed, and is expected to offer jobs for 600,000 to 800,000 people, Beijing Daily reported.

The municipal government plans to gradually relocate some of its functions to Tongzhou, a move designed to develop the district as a new subcenter of Beijing and address issues like overcrowding and congestion in downtown areas.

Wei Chenglin, director of Beijing's Urban Planning and Land Resources Committee, said the overall design aimed to create a world-class livable zone that emphasizes environmental protection and cultural heritage.

Besides, authorities have created more detailed designs for the center's six core areas.

Current efforts focus on the 155-square-kilometer sub-center as well as the greater 906 square kilometer region.

The expected 600,000 to 800,000-strong working population in the zone would also live there, helping address transportation needs.

According to the plan, a comprehensive network that links with high speed roads and 10 subway lines would meet the requirements of commuting between the subcenter, downtown and new residential clusters.

A green area would cover at least 40 percent of the subcenter, which would also include 20 green zones of more than 10 hectares each.

Zhang Libing, the chief of Tongzhou District, said by 2030 the subcenter would have 38 parks, which would mean residents could access a park within 500 meters.

Zhang added the implementation of the plan would be transparent and involve full consultation with ordinary citizens.

Educational and medical resources are also gradually being relocated to the subcenter. The construction of new campuses for Renmin University of China, Capital Normal University and Jingshan School are currently being fast-tracked in Tongzhou, for example.
A warning issued on Tuesday by the National Meteorological Center marked the 19th consecutive day of hot weather alerts, during which some eastern cities have seen record high temperatures.

The center also warned of the increased risk of heatstroke due to humidity. Health risk warnings are based on a five-level scale - in addition to the familiar four-level color codes for heat warnings. Health risks are now at the highest of the five levels in 12 provinces and municipalities in eastern and northwestern China, the center said.

It means residents in places such as Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei and Hunan are at risk of heatstroke and should take precautions to keep cool - including the avoidance of extended outdoor activity.

Hot weather will continue in China's eastern and northwestern regions until the end of this month, according to the center's forecast.

The center found that heat-affected areas have expanded since July 10, and that across more than 1.38 million square kilometers - about one-eighth of the Chinese mainland - high temperatures exceeded 35 C through Sunday, and across one area of 65,000 square kilometers it exceeded 40 C.

But the ongoing heat has not beaten the records set in 2013, when China's vast eastern regions saw a run of more than 40 sweltering days in July and August.

"But it has seen an increasing number of days with high temperatures due to global warming," said Xiao Chan from the center.

He added that the number of days with high temperatures in the Yangtze River's middle and downstream areas have increased by 0.7 days every 10 years.

Shanghai, one of China's most populated cities, has experienced lingering heat for the past 15 days, topping major capital cities in the amount of days with temperatures higher than 35 C. It also set a record high of 40.9 C on Sunday, the highest in 145 years.

"It's like walking in an oven," Shanghai resident Zhang Jiawei said on Tuesday. "It makes me sad that the heat will continue for days more. I can't breathe or sleep without the air conditioner, which has worked day and night."

In addition, many cities in regions neighboring Shanghai also saw records. For example, Jiashan, Zhejiang province, hit 41.1 C, while Changzhou, Wuxi and Changshu in Jiangsu province hit 40.9 C.

The lingering subtropical high pressure area and hot winds are to blame, the center's Xiao said.

Many families shared Zhang's experience with their air conditioners - leaving them on constantly. That has caused electricity consumption to soar to record highs in many provinces, including Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Hubei.

In Hubei, electrical consumption hit a record high on Monday, of which 40 percent went to support air conditioners. Consumption is expected to increase even more in the next few days, according to the Hubei branch of State Grid Corp of China.

At the same time, the lingering heat in central and eastern regions is good for rice harvesting and drying, but could cause drought in some places. Also, the heat could harm some vegetables and fisheries, authority said on Tuesday.
Express delivery companies could face fines of up to 100,000 yuan ($14,820), or could even be shut down, for leaking customers' personal data, according to a draft regulation that aims to make the industry more secure.

Companies would also be required to store waybills and any electronic data in a suitable management system and destroy it after a set period of time.

Fines of up to 20,000 yuan would be assessed for illegal activities that challenge the security, interests or rights of the country or its citizens, or for actions such as opening or hiding people's packages.

The draft regulation, released for public feedback by the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office, states that compensation should be paid to customers for delayed, lost or damaged parcels.

The draft marks the first time the real-name registration system has been mentioned in legislation. It stipulates that customers must provide their name, address and contact details to use delivery services.

"The regulation fully protects the legitimate interests of all parties concerned, sets proper industry standards and shows our courier companies how to develop information technology," a senior employee at STO Express, a major Chinese courier, who asked not to be identified, said on Tuesday.

According to data from People's Daily, the number of cases of leaked and stolen personal data in China remains high. From March to July alone, more than 1,800 cases of infringement and hacking of residents' personal information were reported nationwide. More than 4,800 suspects were arrested and the personal information of about 5 million people was seized. Companies are said to be the main source of the leaks.

"The protection of customers' information is an essential responsibility of a courier company," the STO Express employee said. "The official destruction of waybills and personal information is under the supervision of the authorities now, though it is costly. We need more cooperation between government departments and more mature technology to reduce the cost."

The regulation has received general support from the public.

"My waybill can show a lot, like my consumption habits, home address and telephone numbers, which could be worth a fortune but very dangerous if sold to strangers," said Li Lu, a postgraduate student at University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. "The regulation is necessary for my security."

"Also," she said, "I've received many delayed and damaged parcels, due to either violent transport or just being stuck in transit centers caused by strikes, which is horrible for customers. With the new regulation, courier companies will be more responsible for all deliveries."

Cao Chen in Shanghai contributed to this story.
Two employees of an agency that arranged for surrogate pregnancies in Guangdong province were sentenced to prison after a woman was injured by an illegal egg-retrieval procedure.

The case marked the first time in the province that employees of such an agency have been held criminally liable. Surrogacy is banned in China.

Health authorities have been fighting the practice to ensure people have access to safe, regulated and effective assisted reproductive technologies, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The employees, who were identified only by their surnames - Deng and Lai - worked at Beier Qiyuan Technology Co. They were sentenced to one year and 10 months respectively by a court in Guangzhou and ordered to pay fines of 5,000 yuan ($740) and 3,000 yuan for illegally practicing medicine.

The sentences were handed down in April, but the provincial Health and Family Planning Commission only provided details of the case on Monday.

Deng was accused of arranging for a woman surnamed Liang, 18, to have her eggs retrieved at a clinic on Oct 6. Liang became acquainted with Deng and Lai in June last year through a friend and agreed to sell her eggs for 15,000 yuan, according to the commission.

For more than 10 days before the surgery, Deng and Lai accompanied Liang for physical checkups and to receive drugs that facilitate ovulation, the commission said.

Liang felt serious discomfort and fell into a state of shock on Oct 9. She was sent to Nanfang Hospital, a large public hospital in Guangzhou, for treatment. Judicial authorities certified that she had a damaged ovary and needed surgery.

Deng and Lai were detained on Oct 27 after a police investigation.

Surrogacy is usually practiced in secret, and those involved, including agents, clinics and the surrogate mothers, are located in different places in a highly organized network, according to the commission, which said that the authorities should improve their cooperation in fighting the practice.

With the adoption of the universal second-child policy, the number of women who find it difficult to conceive naturally and need assisted reproductive technologies is increasing, according to hospitals and doctors.

Wang Aiming, a professor of assisted reproductive medicine at Navy General Hospital in Beijing, said surrogacy can bring serious health risks, and even death, to surrogate mothers, and legalizing the practice may result in unethical behavior, such as surrogacy for money.

"Surrogacy is in great demand in China. For example, women made infertile from repeated abortions, and women who suffer serious heart disease, may need surrogacy," she said.

"Because it is illegal here, many couples go abroad," she said. "Even then, many don't succeed, even after spending a lot of money."

Wang suggested allowing surrogacy in a few certified medical institutes in China to meet demand while preventing risks like dangerous medical practices.
New kinds of economic crimes risk stability of financial market, it says

The Ministry of Public Security will conduct a campaign against financial crimes that raise money from the public, including pyramid schemes, in a bid to safeguard economic security and social stability.

The campaign, which was launched on Tuesday, will last until the end of this year, the ministry said.

"We should assume our responsibility to target such crimes, and improve our investigative capabilities to prevent and resolve economic risks," said Guo Shengkun, the public security minister, adding that major improvements should come before the opening of 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China later this year.

The action comes on the heels of a series of pyramid scams and other financial crimes nationwide that resulted in great financial losses and sparked demonstrations that aroused attention from the public and media at home and abroad.

One incident occurred on Monday, when Beijing police warned participants in an illegal gathering that shut down part of a major road.

Protesters complained that the government was unfairly targeting a charity. However, according to Beijing's Public Security Bureau, participants in the protest had given money to Shanxinhui - a company in Shenzhen, Guangdong province - with the expectation of making a big profit. Shanxinhui is not a real charity, and has been accused of operating a pyramid scheme, it said, adding that the gathering was illegal.

According to the statement, the police persuaded the demonstrators to leave in an orderly manner. Those who led the group and who refused to follow police orders were taken away for further investigation.

Late last week, Chinese police cracked down on Shanxinhui, accusing the company of operating a pyramid scheme and cheating people out of money in the name of raising funds to help the poor.

Zhang Tianming, a representative of the company, and other suspects have been placed under "coercive measures", which may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention or arrest.

According to the ministry, new kinds of financial crimes have increased sharply with the rapid development of the internet. They seriously risk the healthy development of the financial market, it said.

"We should remain on high alert and take effective measures to resolutely prevent the financial crimes from turning into a systemic financial risk," a statement by the ministry said.

During the campaign launched on Tuesday, police officers will pay attention to combating economic crimes that seriously disrupt financial market order. They will use technical investigative tools to detect and prevent such crimes in a timely manner, the ministry said.

Moreover, the ministry will set up a big-data platform to collect valuable information that can help spot problems and prevent systemic risks. It will also centralize police officers in different areas to target such crimes, it said.

Xinhua contributed to this story
The Air Force prepares to attend international aviation contest. The air force will organize two competitions from July 29 to August 12 as part of the Aviadarts-2017 contest and will send teams to participate in other competitions of the contest abroad. [Photo/81.cn]
Graduates participate in a job fair at a vocational college in the Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture in Guizhou province in June.[Liu Chaofu/For China Daily]

After graduating from Tsinghua University this summer, Xu Yingqiang left Beijing to work for a chemical trading company in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

"In cities like Chengdu, I can still pursue my dreams - but without all the struggling," the 24-year-old graduate said.

This year, the number of college graduates in China is expected to reach 7.95 million, an increase of 300,000 over last year, according to the Ministry of Education.

Other than swarming into megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, more students want to start their careers in second-tier cities, including provincial capitals and coastal cities, according to a recent survey.

The survey, which was conducted by Zhaopin.com, one of China's leading recruitment websites, found that 37.5 percent of new college graduates this year wanted to work in second-tier cities, while 29.9 percent preferred top-tier cities.

"A few years ago, only a couple of students graduating from universities outside Chongqing came for a job interview," said Huang Zuge, a human resources official at an internet company in Chongqing. "But this year we have a long line of people with master's and doctoral degrees from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou."

National Bureau of Statistics figures show that besides Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, eight smaller metropolises stepped into China's 1-trillion-yuan ($148 billion) GDP club in 2016. They include Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Suzhou and Hangzhou.

The rapid economic development of second-tier cities is the main factor that attracts fresh graduates, said Su Hainan, vice-president of the China Association for Labor Studies.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, a host city of the 2016 G20 Summit, set a record with double-digit GDP growth for seven consecutive quarters in 2015 and 2016.

Chengdu is home to the offices of 278 Fortune Global 500 companies, and is also a key city in China's Belt and Road Initiative. More than 7,000 new companies have registered in Chengdu during the past three months.

Favorable policies

Besides economic growth, favorable employment policies in these cities appeal to new college graduates.

Changsha, Hunan province, provides housing and living subsidies of 6,000 to 15,000 yuan per year for many graduates. Those with doctoral degrees can get 60,000 yuan in subsidies when they purchase their first residence in the city.

Liu Xuezhi, an analyst at the Bank of Communications, said adopting favorable employment policies meets the need for innovative development in second-tier cities.

High-quality human resources are becoming a strong driver of the industrial transformation and upgrading of mid-level cities, said Liu Yuanchun, an economist and vice-president of Renmin University of China.

Xinhua
China's first Mars simulation base will be built in Northwest China's Qinghai province, China News Service reported on Tuesday.

Located in Dachaidan Hongya region of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, a hinter land of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the base will be established in Qaidam Basin. The area's landform, natural landscape and climate condition resemble closely to those of Mars, said Wang Jingzhai, the prefecture's deputy Party chief.

Spread over 95,000 square kilometers of desert, the area has China's largest Yadan landform, or dry areas with wind erosion landscape. It also has other elements, such as mountain, prairie, Gobi desert, river and lake.

Adjacent to many tourist attractions along the Hexi Corridor, a part of the Silk Road in Gansu province, the Mars simulation base will be turned into a cultural and tourist experience base that combine elements of "science, science fiction, nature, ecology and culture", said Liu Xiaoqun, director of lunar and deep space exploration general department, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The base will comprise two functional areas - "Mars community" and "Mars campsite" - which will be connected by road but invisible to each other, Liu said.

As the only one of its kind in China, the base has filled the gap in science practice education base that combines the fields of space, astronomy, geology, meteorology and new energy, Liu said.
Editor's note: From the world's largest single-aperture telescope to classic Chinese mythological texts, how much do you really know about the arts and science? A diverse group of professionals gathered at the 19th Science, Education, Life and Future (SELF) forum in Beijing on July 21 to discuss how to make people feel more connected to nature.

Leng Yefu

Documentary director, China's Central Television

"Presenting existence"

Leng Yefu delivers a speech at the 19th SELF Forum in Beijing on July 21, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In his 40-year career in television, Leng Yefu has made more than 200 documentaries, many of which focus on anthropology.

"There certainly is a very warm and deep affection for anthropological documentaries. That is part of my DNA in many ways and something I really enjoy doing," Leng said.

"The value of anthropological documentaries lies in their unique video clips which can't be reduplicated. They produce the real scenarios that are totally different from the oral history or other films that try to simulate many of the factors in real-life," he said, citing an example of catching jellyfish.

In 2005, Leng accidentally captured hundreds of thousands of boats sailing out to catch jellyfish in Panjing, Northeast China's Liaoning province.

"Boats from Shandong province that shares a sea zone and others from China's neighbor South Korea also joined in. It was really spectacular but I have never seen it again despite my frequent visits," he said.

Leng urged people to produce that kind of anthropological documentary.

China has increased its financial support for documentaries from 5 million yuan to 10 million yuan (($0.7 million to $1.5 million) in 2014, according to the State Administration of Radio Film & Television.
A Mandan girl was named runner-up at the National High School Rodeo Association's queen competition.

Kelly Knoll, who is the 2017 North Dakota High School Rodeo queen, placed second of 41 girls on Saturday in Gillette, Wyo.

"I came in hoping to get in the top 10. Almost to win it like that is really exciting," she said by phone Wednesday.

The 16-year-old placed first in the speech category, wowing the crowd with her monologue about the toughness and warmheartedness of North Dakotans. She also competed on a written test, modeling and interview.

Knoll, who will be a junior at Mandan High School, said she plans to throw her cowgirl hat back in the ring next year. Horsemanship, in which she scored fourth, will be her focus in the interim.

She said that her favorite part of the 10-day event was signing autographs for young girls.

"That was me when I was little. For me to be giving out my autograph like that was really fun," she said.

The winner of the queen contest this year was Emma Cameron, of New Mexico.

Runner-up is the highest rank any North Dakota High School Rodeo queen has achieved, according to state high school pageant coordinator Tammy Backhaus and former Miss Rodeo North Dakota Ellen Huber.

"She's a true cowgirl," said Huber, who works for the city of Mandan. "We are super proud of her and appreciative of all that she does to promote everything from our community of Mandan to the state of North Dakota."

As state queen, Knoll is responsible for representing high school rodeo at all levels of rodeo events around the state.

Backhaus said she hopes Knoll's success will encourage more girls to get into rodeo pageantry, starting in the junior high competition.

Knoll is the third Mandan girl in a row to win the state competition and go to the national event.
BEIJING -- Registration of candidates for electoral councils, which will elect deputies from Hong Kong and Macao to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), concluded in the special administrative regions Tuesday.

Thirty-six deputies from Hong Kong and 12 deputies from Macao will be elected, according to a plan released by the NPC Standing Committee this April.

Registration offices were opened in Hong Kong and Macao at the beginning of July to receive applications of those who want to become members of the electoral councils.

More than 1,900 people in Hong Kong and over 480 in Macao have registered, the General Office of the NPC Standing Committee said.

The election of the 13th NPC deputies from Hong Kong and Macao should be conducted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Current deputies to the NPC, China's top legislature, will end their term in March 2018, and the election of deputies to the 13th NPC shall be completed in January 2018, according to the NPC Standing Committee.
SHIJIAZHUANG -- A court has sentenced 11 people to jail for looting a royal tomb in north China's Hebei Province.

In October 2015, a chamber of the eastern royal tombs of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in Zunhua City was found to have been robbed.

The theft drew huge public attention, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage summoned local officials and the administrative committee overseeing the tombs for talks.

According to the defendants, after studying the routine of security staff, thieves sneaked into the site at night. They used electricity from a nearby irrigation project to power an electric cutter to cut a hole into the tomb chamber. They covered the cutter with a quilt to make less noise.

"Some of us were in charge of keeping watch over security staff, some of digging, and others were responsible for transporting the relics," said a defendant. "We usually started working at around 7 p.m. and did not stop until 3 a.m."

The theft was not discovered until ten days after.

The defendants were sentenced to up to 14 years and nine months, along with fines.

Some have appealed against the sentence.

The tombs are about 125 km east of Beijing, covering an area of about 80 square km. Construction of the tombs started in 1661, and took 247 years to finish. In 1961, the tombs were listed as a key national protection unit.

The chamber in question was built for Wenxi, an concubine of the Kangxi Emperor.

Tomb raiders put Chinese history in danger. The thieves usually hope to find precious objects. The national fervor for antique collecting has also contributed to the phenomenon, according to Liang Xiao, a relics protection expert.

In 2015, the tomb of Liu Yongfu, a national hero who fought in the Sino-French War and died in 1917, was desecrated by criminals who almost emptied it. The site, in the mountains of Qinzhou, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was placed under state protection in 2001.

In 2012, three stone sculptures in the mausoleum of the Jingjiang Prince, a member of regional royalty in Guangxi during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), were spirited away. A warrior sculpture, also in the mausoleum, was beheaded two days later.
China is home to one tenth of world's plant species, according to statistics released at the ongoing 19th International Botanical Congress (IBC).

China has more than 34,000 species of higher plants, ranking third in the world. It is also top in the world with over 2,200 species of ferns.

IBC is being held in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province.

"The congress is held in China because of China's abundant resources of wild plants, rapid development of botanical technology, and economic strength," said Ge Song, secretary-general of the organizing committee of 19th International Botanical Congress.

China has been developing awareness of botanical technology and biodiversity, establishing 2,740 natural reserves, 14.8 percent of the country's land area.

About 6,000 delegates from nearly 100 countries and regions attended this year's conference.

The world's top meeting of botanists has been held every six years since 1900.
BEIJING - More proof has been given that Guo Wengui, one of China's most-wanted fugitives, has used fabricated and distorted information to mislead the public, this time attacking the reputation of a company manager.

Guo made claims via overseas media outlets and online video platforms that Yao Qing, general manger of GI Technologies (Beijing) Co.,Ltd, was the relative of a senior Chinese official and controlled more than 10 companies, opened bank accounts in different countries, and had over 160 billion U.S. dollars in cash, with a bank and an oil firm under his name.

"Guo's fabricated claims have brought negative impacts on myself, my family, friends and company," said Yao. "It's necessary to make this known to the public, and we reserve the right to use legal means to hold Guo accountable."

Guo, the "actual controlling shareholder" of Beijing Pangu Investment and Beijing Zenith Holdings, fled China under suspicion of multiple crimes in August 2014 and is currently listed under an Interpol "red notice" for wanted fugitives.

According to a statement released by GI Technologies on October 13, 2016, the day he was appointed general manager of the company, Yao was born in 1977, holds Chinese nationality and graduated from East China University of Political Science and Law.

Yao said he had lived in rural areas of Nanhui District, now known as Pudong New Area, in Shanghai until he went to university to study law in 1996. After graduation, Yao was employed by a private enterprise in Shanghai.

Yao's identity information was confirmed by Li Yan, an employee of GI Technologies, who studied in the same high school as Yao. "Yao is from Shanghai. We know his background and he has nothing to do with senior leaders, or huge amounts of assets. What Guo said about him is ridiculous," Li said.

Yao established a Shanghai-based credit risk consulting firm named Weicheng in 2004, and began working in the asset management industry in 2007.

Gao Huaixue, the actual controlling shareholder of GI Technologies, said her company started business in non-performing asset management and disposition in recent years, and then engaged Yao as a professional manager.

Guo's fabricated "relationship tree" showed that Yao had controlled shares of more than 10 companies, however, these companies actually just had business with GI Technologies.

Of the companies, one engaged in petrol engineering technology was acquired by GI Technologies in 2015 and merged with another company in 2016.

However, the new company failed to provide such resources and cooperation was ended by the end of 2016. In 2017, the new company was finally closed.

"In Guo's logic, companies that have business with me actually belong to me together with all their assets. Thus, my assets will be unlimited. Such logic is ridiculous," said Yao.

Guo claimed that "Yao turned state-owned enterprises into his own" through his work dealing with non-performing assets.

"Our company dealt with non-performing assets mainly in private enterprises and helped them gain profit through measures including acquisition and asset reconfiguration," Yao said. "There are no grounds for these claims of embezzling state assets."

"Yao has no shares in GI Technologies, a listed company. Shareholders' information is publicized online by law," Gao said.

"I am the controlling shareholder of the company, and my shares are my own, not Yao's," she said.

According to Chinese police, Guo's "relationship tree" was fabricated by Chen Xiangjun, a 43-year-old jobless man from Leizhou, Guangdong Province. Chen offered Guo fake information in exchange for money.

Chen confessed that he had created the "relationship tree", which was later falsified by Guo.

Chen said that he had received 50,000 yuan ($7,404) from Guo in payment for fake business data.

Chen also said that he later found out that Yao was an employee of the company with no shares.

"Guo's fabrication and vicious words have greatly impacted the my reputation, as well as that of the company, executives and employers, and I express my strong outrage at this," said Yao.

Gao, who is currently abroad, said that "if the company has suffered from Guo's rumors, we will not rule out taking legal measures to safeguard our legitimate rights."
President Xi Jinping addresses the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping at the UN Headquarters in New York City in September 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

World's largest military force has seen role in global governance grow substantially since its founding nine decades ago

Since 2002, the People's Liberation Army has taken part in many dangerous and arduous humanitarian and relief missions in countries such as Lebanon, Pakistan, Djibouti, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, the PLA Navy has successfully performed its duties in protecting commercial vessels from pirates for nine years.

In its attempt to play a bigger role in global governance, the PLA has been pushing forward international military cooperation to give China greater influence on the global stage, participating in a series of international duties, such as peacekeeping, anti-piracy patrols, humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Addressing the UN Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping in New York City in September 2015, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would build a standby peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops to help strengthen UN peacekeeping operations.

With Aug 1, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, approaching, China Daily has chosen a selection of photos to showcase the PLA's efforts in military diplomacy and participation in international duties over the years.
TOKYO - Japan aims to cut suicides by 30 percent over 10 years, with the government on Tuesday approving a plan that seeks to curb extreme work hours seen as contributing to one of the world's highest suicide rates.

Japan has the highest suicide rate among G7 countries and the government describes the situation as "critical" in a country where more than 20,000 people kill themselves every year.

The suicide rate - the ratio per 100,000 people - was 18.5 in 2015 and the government wants to reduce it below 13 in 2025.
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.

0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349
People attend a traditional Chinese music salon at the China Cultural Center in Sydney, July 22, 2017. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

A cultural week on China's intangible cultural heritage kicked off with a music salon at the China Cultural Center in Sydney on Saturday, offering a chance for Australians to learn more about Chinese music, instruments and culture.

Hu Jian, head of the Chime Bells Orchestra from Central China's Hubei province, presented the most common ancient Chinese musical instruments, including guzheng (a Chinese zither), erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument) and pipa (a four-stringed plucked instrument), followed by performances with these instruments.

The Chinese intangible cultural heritage week will last until August 5. A series of cultural events will also be held, such as exhibitions on ancient Chinese oracle bone scripts and creative cultural products, talks on Chinese calligraphy and Chinese medicine.
Art enthusiasts check sales booklets at the China Guardian HK 2017 Spring Auction. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Mainland auction houses operating in Hong Kong are registering strong performances in the face of tough competition from major international brands, as Chitralekha Basu reports.

Buyers from the Chinese mainland are increasingly on the radars of art dealers across the globe, and the phenomenon is probably most apparent in Hong Kong, which acts as a vital conduit between the mainland and the rest of the world.

According to Gary Yee, CEO of Art Serindia, a consultancy in Hong Kong, all auction housesincluding big international players and homegrown Chinese brandsare now competing for the attention of mainland buyers.

While collectors from Europe and the United States seem to be on the back foot, their counterparts on the Chinese mainland are buying vigorously. Last year, buyers from Asia beat more-seasoned client bases in Europe and the Americas to claim 40.5 percent of global auction house sales, and 90 percent of them were from China, according to data from The European Fine Art Foundation. Today, China is home to an ever-expanding pool of collectors at the center of the global art market.

Hong Kong is often the first port of call for buyers from the Chinese mainland and, not entirely coincidentally, also the last. They come to assess some of the world's most expensive paintings that will later go under the hammer in London or New York, and they comprise the bulk of consumers who buy from the city's major auctions and art fairs. That Hong Kong doesn't count art as a dutiable commodity and has one of the world's most advanced logistics facilities make the city a great transit home for artworks connoisseurs acquire in the city.

In recent years, a sizeable proportion of the world's art purchases has been linked to Hong Kong. What may come as a bit of a surprise, though, is that the stars of record-breaking sales have often been overshadowed by the hype surrounding the runners-up. For example, Zhang Daqian's ink and color painting Peach Blossom Spring made headlines when it sold for $34.7 million at Sotheby's spring auctions in April last year, but the sale of Cui Ruzhuo's The Grand Snowing Mountains the day beforefetching more than $39.5 million, a record price for a painting in the local marketat Poly Auction Hong Kong passed relatively unnoticed.

Poly Auction Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Beijing Poly International Auction, has been on a winning spree since it set up shop in the city in 2012. In fact, six out of 10 of the most expensive paintings purchased in Hong Kong were sold through Poly.

According to Artprice, a market survey and analysis portal, seven of the 10 most expensive pieces of art sold in Hong Kong last year were placed in the market by mainland auction houses, including Poly. Their success seems sweeter when one considers that many of the mainland auction houses currently making a splash in the Hong Kong market only arrived in the city in the past 20 years, whereas the multinational heavyweights have been around for much longerSotheby's hosted its first Hong Kong sale in 1973and have been in business elsewhere since the 18th century.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

Shanghai's State-owned West Bund Group has joined hands with the Centre Pompidou for a five-year project from 2019 and 2024.

It will feature many cultural programs, including showing the Parisian museum's collections at the West Bund Art Museum which will be completed by the end of 2018.

The project will include more than 20 exhibitions and events both in Shanghai and Paris, and will feature Centre Pompidou's collection as well as Chinese contemporary artworks.

Besides, Centre Pompidou will help with curating exhibitions, art conservation, public education and cultural exchanges between China and France.

The West Bund Art Museum, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, covers 25,000 square meters, and will be the main venue for the Centre Pompidou Shanghai project.

The project is one of West Bund Group's attempts to boost Shanghai's cultural landscape.

The group now manages an area of 9.4 square kilometers in Shanghai's Xuhui Waterfront district.

The district houses an array of well-known museums, such as the Long Museum, the Yuz Museum and Shanghai Center for Photography.

It is also the venue for the West Bund Art & Design Fair and other fine art events.

The Centre Pompidou, now marking its 40th anniversary, has 120,000 works of art dating from the early 20th century. It received an average of 5 million visitors each year.
A visitor examines a painting on display at the exhibition hall of the Shanghai Library, July 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

To mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, a new exhibition named Our Troops are Facing the Sun opened at the Shanghai Library on Tuesday, showcasing 90 pieces of artwork, including Chinese paintings, oil works and watercolors.

Also on display are 150 calligraphy works demonstrating poems created by leaders and generals that founded the People's Republic of China, such as Mao Zedong, Chen Yi and Su Yu.

The exhibition runs until August 5.
RZSS Edinburgh Zoo Photo [Photo/CGTN]

This winter, Edinburgh Zoo will be home to The Giant Lanterns of China, an installation of over 450 dazzling giant lanterns that will illuminate the zoo for 50 awe-inspiring nights.

From December 1st to February 25th, the zoo will become the only place in Scotland to host such an event  lighting up Edinburghs skyline with the glow of 34 colossal, animal-themed lantern installations.

A total of 150 Chinese craftsmen from Sichuan Province will create a trail around the zoo. It's expected that the job will take the craftsmen a staggering 25,000 hours to complete.

There will be 211 large scale animal-themed lanterns including 30 giant pandas, 12 lions, 30 native birds, 15 snails, 20 penguins and 25 flamingos alongside detailed backdrops of flowers, fauna, insects and Chinese heritage symbols such as signs of the zodiac and traditional archways.

RZSS Edinburgh Zoo Photo [Photo/CGTN]

One of the highlights will be a 19-foot high and 115-foot long Chinese dragon, majestically guarding the zoo until the event ends during the Chinese Spring Festival.

The lanterns show stems from a long standing relationship between the zoo and Sichuan Province, the birth place of Edinburgh Zoos giant pandas. It's home to the only giant pandas in the UK  Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine).

Edinburgh Zoo has very strong ties with China and Chinese culture thanks to our famous giant pandas. This winter, Edinburgh Zoo will be transformed by The Giant Lanterns of China, an awe-inspiring installation that will illuminate Edinburgh in spectacular style, said Barbara Smith, CEO of Edinburgh Zoo.

As the only place in Scotland to see these lanterns, The Giant Lanterns of China will encourage local supporters and visitors from around the world to view our animals and conservation work in a new light, she added.
Guardian angel of disabled orphans: An American's journey in China 2017-07-26 13:57:00 chinadaily.com.cn Zhan Qianhui When Brent Johnson first came to central China's Shanxi province to learn Chinese history in 1990, he didn't know it would be the start of a close bond with orphaned and disabled children.

When Brent Johnson first came to central China's Shanxi province to learn Chinese history in 1990, he didn't know it would be the start of a close bond with orphaned and disabled children.

Attracted by Chinese culture, Johnson, then junior at the University of South Carolina (USC), came to Shanxi University on a one-year student exchange program, where he met his future wife, Serena Johnson, an American who shares his affection for China. The couple's deep concern for poor people made charity organizations their common dating sites.

One year in China greatly impressed Johnson and he never forgot his time there after returning to South Carolina for further study. After receiving his medical degree at the USC, Johnson and his wife moved to China in 1998 to commence their voluntary work with orphans.

Setting their feet on a series of places in northern China ranging from Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces to Hebei province and Beijing, they met and helped numerous sick children. The Johnsons have dedicated themselves to the well-being of children and charity work.

Johnson's ties with orphans in Shanxi date back to April 2004, when he approached the dean of Taiyuan Social (Children) Welfare Institute, Geng Kaiwen, while attending a children's foundation meeting in Beijing. He offered to fund treatment for the institute's disabled children through the China Care Foundation, a charity dedicated to saving the lives of medically fragile orphaned children in China.

Though touched by Johnson's sincerity and strong will, Geng hesitated because Johnson was a foreigner. But Johnson didn't give up. He went to Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, in person and gave Geng a very thorough and convincing presentation. He also invited Geng to visit the foundation in Beijing.

The sound operation of the China Care Foundation eased Geng's concern and he was moved by Johnson's proposal to send sick kids to Beijing for medical treatment and return them to Shanxi after recovery.

"Many children didn't get timely treatment due to lack of funds and the outdated condition in our institute. Johnson's particular proposal would address our current problems and help those in need in a broader way," Geng said.

During one business trip in Taiyuan in 2005, Johnson needed to catch the evening flight back to Beijing and Geng suggested they have dinner together. Considering the tight schedule and budget, he bought Johnson a bowl of rice noodles for 3 yuan (40 cents) on their way to the airport. Touched by Geng's pragmatic and frugal behavior, Johnson decided to nail down the funding agreement with the Taiyuan institute right away. Neither expected that the final agreement would be sealed thanks to a bowl of rice noodles.

Besides addressing various issues faced by the institute, such as manpower shortage, funding and technology crunch, Johnson also established a Baby Home project in Taiyuan to provide children a cozy environment for post-treatment recovery.

Adoption is a key part of Johnson's project, whose ultimate goal is to achieve permanent placement for orphans with a family to call their own.

Dang Xiaohua, born in 1992, suffered from congenital scoliosis and was told that she wouldn't make it to her 18th birthday, as the surgery was expensive and risky to have in China. Physical and mental pain made the girl feel self-contemptuous and she wanted to isolate herself. Aware of Dang's situation, Johnson contacted the best medical institution in the US and paid for the surgery, which cost over 400,000 yuan ($59,256). He also managed to arrange for her adoption by an American family before she turned 14, the upper age limit for adoption. When Dang returned to Taiyuan one and a half years later, she had turned into an outgoing and generous teenager who always had a smile on her face.

Johnson's good deeds changed the lives of many disabled orphans like Dang. According to reports, he has helped over 1,000 orphans in Taiyuan since 2004, of which several hundred received free surgeries. He also raised an 800,000 yuan ($118,543) fund to improve the orphans' living conditions at the Taiyuan welfare institute.

The kindness not only warmed the orphans' hearts, but also touched people around him. Geng always remembers Johnson's words, "Every life needs to be treated with respect, even if he is a disabled newborn."

Johnson, 49 and a father of six, returned to the US in mid-July after nearly 20 years of charity work. It was difficult for his friends in China to say goodbye.

Lu Lu, a former colleague who witnessed Johnson's unreserved commitment to charity in China, still remembers the first time they met 11 years ago.

"Johnson told me in Chinese that it was his hobby to help people, especially disabled orphans," Lu recalled.

"He set a great example for China's charity staff members and also built up an all-Chinese charity team to continue his work. We hope to inherit his spirit and sow the seeds of love across the country," Lu said.
China will not allow its 'core interests' to be damaged, ministry says 2017-07-26 18:56:30 chinadaily.com.cn Wang Qingyun China will not tolerate behavior by other countries that hurts its "core interests", Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, commenting on reports that Botswana will allow the 14th Dalai Lama to visit next month.

China will not tolerate behavior by other countries that hurts its "core interests", Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, commenting on reports that Botswana will allow the 14th Dalai Lama to visit next month.

The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi as saying "the principle of non-interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of China's foreign policy", and that she expected "China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter".

Lu said in Beijing on Wednesday that he was aware of the report, and that China has expressed its position on the issue.

"China does not interfere in other countries' domestic affairs. But it will not tolerate other countries doing things that hurt China's core interests," Lu said.

"Tibet-related issues bear on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We request relevant countries to respect China's core interests effectively and make a correct political decision on the issue," Lu said.
Mobike expands to Italy 2017-07-26 10:08:14 chinadaily.com.cn Ma Si and Cheng Yu Mobike Technology Co Ltd, a major Chinese bike-sharing company, rode into Italy today, as it expands its overseas presence to compete with its rival, Ofo Inc, outside China.

Mobike Technology Co Ltd, a major Chinese bike-sharing company, rode into Italy on Tuesday, as it expands its overseas presence to compete with its rival, Ofo Inc, outside China.

The move marks the company's first major push into the European continent after launching services in the United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore.

Mobike said it will first launch several hundred bikes in high-demand areas as a trial operation in the Tuscan capital of Florence. Residents can experience the bike with a promotional rate of 0.3 euro per 30 minutes.

The Beijing-based company also plans to launch its service in Milan, the largest metropolitan area of Italy. Formal services will be provided to all of Florence and Milan starting in August. About 4,000 bikes will be launched in August in each of the two cities.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice towards sustainable mobility today - we are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italys first stationless bikeshare," Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence, said.

This new deployment in Italy marks Mobike's first venture into continental Europe, followed by its debut in Manchester in June and the company plans to roll out in London in late July.

According to Mobike, to date it has operated bike-sharing service in more than 150 cities globally and operates more than 6 million bikes around the world.

"We are delighted to enter the Italian market, and especially to launch Mobike's operations in both Florence and Milan, home to so many of history's greatest innovators and artists," said Hu Weiwei, Mobike's founder.

She also added that Mobike will work with their partners to preserve and enhance Florentines', Milanese's and visitors' enjoyment of both cities.
Microsoft, Baidu team up to advance autonomous driving

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2017-07-24

Microsoft Corporation and Chinese online search engine titan Baidu announced on July 18 they are teaming up to advance the application of autonomous driving.

As a member of Baidu's Apollo alliance, Microsoft will provide Azure cloud-computing service for its Apollo partners outside China.

According to global consultancy firm McKinsey, up to 15 percent of new cars sold in 2030 will be self-driving cars, which necessitates an ecosystem of partners in the automotive industry to collaborate with each other for a common goal.

Announced in April this year, Baidu's Apollo project is an open-source platform for self-driving cars that any car company can use for free. The project consists of cloud services, a software platform, and reference hardware and vehicle platforms. More than 50 entities have joined the Apollo alliance.

Baidu autonomous cars in a test run. [Photo/Microsoft.com]

Microsoft's corporate vice president Kevin Dallas expressed excitement to partner with Baidu, and believed they are to take a giant step in helping automotive manufacturers and suppliers fully realize the promise of autonomous driving. He added that by applying their global cloud AI, machine learning, and deep neural network capabilities to that data, they can accelerate the work already being done to make autonomous vehicles safer.

"We're excited to have Microsoft as part of the Apollo alliance," said Zhang Yaqin, president of Baidu. "By using Azure, our partners outside of China will have access to a trustworthy and secure public cloud, enabling them to focus on innovation instead of building their own cloud-based infrastructure", he added.

Microsoft and Baidu also plan to seek cooperation in delivering connected vehicle solutions in a bid to digitally transform the autonomous driving industry.
Intl folk dance festival kicks off in Urumqi

By Sun Hui ( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2017-07-26

The 5th China Xinjiang International Folk Dancing Festival opened in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on July 20.

The festival, scheduled from July 20 to Aug 5, has gathered more than 20,000 dancers from countries all over the world including Egypt, Pakistan, Georgia, England and Myanmar. More than 60 performances will be stage in the city.

Dancers in gorgeous ethnic costumes perform during the 5th China Xinjiang International Folk Dancing Festival in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on July 20. [Photo by Liu Xin/chinanews.com]

The Minister of Culture Luo Shugang said that this year's festival is themed "Chinese Dream, Colorful Silk Road".

"The Ministry of Culture will support cultural development in Xinjiang, a core region of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and boost the inheritance and promotion of Xinjiang's traditional folk cultures," Luo added. "The festival will enhance communications and cooperation between Xinjiang and the world."

A dancer flies on a swing during the 5th China Xinjiang International Folk Dancing Festival in Urumqi on July 20. [Photo by Liu Xin/chinanews.com]

A series of cultural exhibitions and activities will also be organized during the festival, including online dancing interaction days, a Chinese Opera Art Week, the Xinjiang Youth Oil Painting Exhibition and China Youth Printmaking Exhibition.

The China Xinjiang International Folk Dance Festival, approved by the State Council, is hosted biennially and aims to be a "gathering of art and a festival of the people".

The China Xinjiang International Folk Dancing Festival is hosted biennially in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo by Liu Xin/chinanews.com]

Edited by Zachary Dye
The People's Liberation Army Honor Guards take part in a rehearsal for the annual Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad, on March 19, 2017. [Photo by Wang Qi/For China Daily]

Yang Yannan [Photo/China Daily]

The ongoing China Central TV documentary Carrying the Reform Through to the End emphasizes the importance of a strong military to realize the Chinese Dream. China needs to synchronize its military strength with its economic and social development to better protect its national interests. And as President Xi Jinping, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, has reiterated, it is important to modernize the military along with its weapons and equipment, and the technologies it uses to better safeguard the sovereignty and integrity of China.

In the 90 years since its establishment on Aug 1, 1927, the People's Liberation Army has evolved significantly and rapidly, particularly when it comes to the defense technologies and the weapons it uses.

Heavy weapons were a luxury to the PLA, whose capability of producing ammunition and repairing sophisticated equipment was limited before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Most of the weapons the PLA used were, in fact, seized from the enemies.

But between 1950 and 1978 China managed to rid itself of the reliance on imported weapons. Major imports from the Soviet Union, including MiG-15 aircraft and T-54 tanks, allowed China to develop what were then cutting-edge weapons on its own. China's J-5 fighter jets and Type-59 battle tanks, for example, drew inspiration from the MiG-15 warplanes and T-54 tanks. By 1959, China also managed to make artillery equipment domestically. These gradual developments were in line with the economic recovery and the industrial buildup of New China.

The development of the atomic bomb and missiles was another landmark for China, especially because the Soviet Union had withdrawn its technological aid to China in 1962. In the following two decades, Beijing shifted its focus from emulating advanced weapons to developing them independently.

The first atomic bomb test at the Lop Nur nuclear test site in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 1964 made China the fifth nuclear power. The "Two Bombs, One Satellite" project, which included atomic and hydrogen bombs and artificial satellite, cost China about 10 billion yuan, 2 percent of its annual expenditure and 12 percent of its defense expenditure then.

Over the past three decades, China has expedited the development of its defense sector. On June 28, the PLA Navy launched its latest and first domestically built destroyer in Shanghai. Two months ago, it launched the first domestically built aircraft carrier, a Type 001A vessel.

Moreover, neither outer space nor cyberspace are strangers to Chinese technological innovation. By the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, the country had become capable of independently designing many state-of-the-art conventional weapons and miniature unconventional ones, and Chinese defense personnel were better trained and more combat ready.

China has also achieved success in developing equipment and strategic missiles for its navy, army and air force. Dongfeng-31 intercontinental nuclear-capable missile and the submarine-launched ballistic missile, Julang 2, have a maximum range of 8,000 kilometers, can carry more powerful warheads and have enhanced mobility on land as well as at sea.

The nuclear-powered Type-094 ballistic missile submarines, which have the highest displacement among all Chinese submarines, along with Type-093 and Type-091 nuclear-powered attack submarines, can help the PLA Navy to better execute open sea missions. And the commissioning of the ZTZ-99 tanks, the PLA's most advanced main battle tank, and the latest J-20 stealth fighter will greatly boost China's efforts to build a versatile, modern military.

The deepening structural reform, which restructured the seven theater commands into the Eastern Theater Command, Western Theater Command, Northern Theater Command, Southern Theater Command and the Central Theater Command, is in line with the need to focus on joint operations and technologies, as was the establishment of 84 new units led by major-general-level officers in April.

But the 90 years of armament development is just one aspect of the PLA's modernization. It is not meant to flex China's military muscles; instead, it reflects the determination and combat capability of an evolving military to protect the country and its people. China follows a defensive defense policy, so the modernization of its military and defense equipment is meant to only inject more vitality into the defense forces so that they can better safeguard the country, and regional and global peace.

The author is an associate researcher at the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army.




SHI YU/CHINA DAILY

Cui Jianshu [Photo/China Daily]

China's defense budget has increased in line with its rapid economic development. In accordance with that trend, China's defense budget this year has exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($151 billion) for the first time, but foreign media outlets are using it as an excuse to once again hype up the "China threat" theory, claiming its increasing defense spending is aimed at challenge the existing world order and expanding its power.

Are these media claims true? Let us analyze the People's Liberation Army's contribution to humanitarian relief work, peacekeeping missions and international efforts to thwart piracy before drawing a conclusion.

After the end of the Cold War, the possibility of a destructive war between great powers has declined significantly, but disputes among countries, domestic tensions, terrorist attacks and major natural disasters have become more frequent. Among other things, these developments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and seek asylum in other countries, leading to a humanitarian crisis.

To deal with such crises, the United Nations General Assembly established the Emergency Relief Coordinator in December 1991. The then UN secretary-general set up the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which oversees the coordination of humanitarian response, policy development and humanitarian advocacy. Accordingly, the Chinese government and military departments established a mechanism called "providing humanitarian aid of emergency relief supplies for disaster victims worldwide".

Beginning with the assistance to Afghanistan in 2002, Chinese troops have performed dozens of international humanitarian tasks worldwide, offering relief supplies worth more than $100 million in the form of tents, medicines, foods and medical equipment to those countries hit by disasters. And in 2009, the China International Search and Rescue team became the 12th qualified corps in the world, and the second in Asia, to undertake international heavy rescue operations (a special type of firefighting and providing emergency medical services).

The PLA has taken part in many dangerous and arduous humanitarian and relief missions. After the outbreak of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, in 2014, China sent a rescue team carefully chosen from the 302 PLA Hospital even as other countries kept evacuating their citizens from the affected areas. The medical aid the PLA provided for the people in those countries helped curb the spread of the Ebola virus.

As disputes among less-developed countries have risen in recent years, the UN has taken up peacekeeping missions in order to defuse regional tensions and alleviate the impact of ethnic, sectarian and civil wars. And China's contribution to the UN's efforts has been considerable. Since joining the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations in 1988, China sent military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization in 1990 and formally built a peacekeeping force to carry out the UN's tasks in Cambodia in 1992.

China has been making increasing contributions to UN peacekeeping missions to promote world peace and security. First, China has made huge contributions to UN missions in terms of manpower, materials and financial resources. Last year, it contributed $844 million to UN peacekeeping operations, which accounted for 10.2 percent of the total expenditurethe second-highest contribution among all countries.

Second, the PLA's peacekeeping capability has improved over the years. At present, 2,409 Chinese peacekeepers are engaged in peacekeeping missions abroad.

Addressing the Peacekeeping Summit at the UN Headquarters in New York in September 2015, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would build a standby peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops to help strengthen UN peacekeeping operations. Chinese troops are taking part in more and more diversified peacekeeping missions; in fact, they are now engaged in nine different areas, including engineering, transportation and medical treatment.

Third, China's peacekeeping operations have helped stabilize security in many regions. So far, Chinese peacekeeping troops have removed more than 9,000 land mines and other explosives, built or repaired 10,000 kilometers of roads and 300 bridges, transported over 1 million metric tons of materials and treated about 130,000 patients.

Until 2008, piracy was rampant in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia. After the UN Security Council allowed countries with commercial interests in the region to send their naval vessels to escort ships in the Gulf of Aden on getting clearance from Somali authorities, China dispatched the first batch of the PLA Navy's ships to those waters to protect commercial vessels from pirates.

The PLA Navy has successfully performed its escort duties for nine years. The expanding scale of the PLA Navy's convoy fleets shows it is committed to fulfilling its international responsibilities as a rising power. By April 9 this year, the Chinese navy had sent 25 fleets and accomplished 1,029 escort missions involving 6,337 ships. In actual terms, the Chinese fleets have thwarted pirate attacks on 43 ships.

Besides, the Chinese navy's ability to safeguard international maritime security has greatly increased, and it is more capable of executing long-term, long-distance and challenging tasks. For instance, the 25th fleet had successfully escorted ships for 119,768 nautical miles till July this year.

The Chinese military's commitment to humanitarian relief work, peacekeeping and fighting piracy is not only aimed at safeguarding China's national security but also to provide public goods for global security. Perhaps a Chinese sayingmeasure the stature of great men by the yardstick of small mencan help explain why some foreign media outlets hype up the "China threat" theory. Facts show that China's increasing defense budget will never pose a threat to world peace. On the contrary, China is committed to contributing more to ensure global security and stability.

The author is a professor of international studies at PLA University of International Relations.




Primary school students queue up to get on a bus in a county in Tianjin, May 17, 2016. More than 30 school buses equipped with GPS positioning system have been launched by the county for the school students. [Photo/VCG]

IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS of this month, four children attending private kindergartens in four cities in North China's Hebei province died of overheating after they were left behind and locked in their school buses. China Youth Daily comments:

The Hebei provincial education bureau issued an notice on July 14 ordering the local education authorities in the province to strengthen the management of the private kindergartens and check whether they are operating legally.

What the notice requires the local education authorities to do should be a routine practice, rather than a contingency measure that has come at the cost of four lives.

Three of the four kindergartens were unregistered, and all of the four school buses failed to meet the national school bus standards.

But these are contributing factors and should not divert public attention from the direct cause of the tragedies. None of the kids would have died if the school bus drivers and the kindergarten teachers receiving the children in the morning fulfilled his or her duty to count heads. If they had followed the proper working procedure and strictly counted the number of the children handed over, the tragedies would have been avoided.

It is an open secreteven the education authorities do not deny itthat unregistered kindergartens, or "illegal" kindergartens, as the Hebei education bureau called them this time, exist in large numbers, and many substandard school buses transport children between their homes and kindergartens on a daily basis.

These unregistered private kindergartens, which are usually cheaper than registered ones, meet the demands of many families who cannot secure a seat for their children in the registered kindergartens either because they cannot afford it or due to the limited quota.

The four tragedies in Hebei point to not only the lax supervision by the local education authorities, but also lack of affordable and quality kindergartens, especially for the kids of migrant workers and low-income residents. With the changing of the family planning policy to allow all couples to have a second child, the demand for kindergartens is only going to grow.

Registration should not be an obstacle to running a private kindergarten. And all kindergartens should be under effective supervision.
BIRTHS

CHI St. Alexius Health

Son, Derek and Brittany Beechie, Mandan, 7:46 a.m., July 25.

Daughter, Kris and Kasondra Staiger, Hebron, 9 a.m., July 25.

MARRIAGE LICENSES

Burleigh County

Nathan M.L. Bradley and Amber L. Iron Shield,

Luis A. Repollet Negron and Kella J. Aviles Lopez,

Nicholas W. Rutschke and Christa B. Fischer, and

Chad A. Paschke and Paula M. Carlson, all of Bismarck.

IMPOUNDED ANIMALS

If you are missing a pet or are interested in adopting a pet, go to: www.bismarcknd.gov/index.aspx?nid=382. For more information, call 701-223-1212 or 701-222-6734.

SEX OFFENDER LOCATION INFORMATION

For information about the locations of sex offenders in the community, visit www.sexoffender.nd.gov. The website contains databases of sex offenders and offenders against children, as well as an email notification system in which the public can be notified every time an offender in the area changes his or her information.

CRIME STOPPERS

Call Bismarck Area Crime Stoppers at 701-224-TIPS (8477) to report information about any crime in Bismarck, Mandan, Burleigh County or Morton County. Information can be given anonymously and you may be eligible for cash rewards if the information leads to an arrest.

COURT POLICY

Nubs of the news information comes from district and municipal courts in Burleigh and Morton counties. In nubs of the news, the Tribune publishes all felony sentences; and misdemeanor sentences with fines of $500 or more and/or a jail term, including suspended sentences.

COURTS

(Cases closed from May 1 to May 31)

South Central District

Felony Sentences

Burleigh County

Judge Bruce Romanick

Burglary: Bradley J. Pachl, 27, 2024 Grimsrud Drive, deferred sentence for six months with unsupervised probation, 40 hours community service, also theft of property: deferred sentence for six months.

Conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance: Jason L. Pfeifer, 40, Department of Corrections, eight years with three years suspended for three years with supervised probation, also possession of methamphetamine: three years, jail time served concurrently.

Judge John Grinsteiner

Aggravated assault-domestic violence: Esteban Avila, 28, New London, Wis., deferred sentence for two years with unsupervised probation.

Contact by bodily fluids: Hennessey Beaulieu, 33, Red Lake, Minn., one year suspended for one year with unsupervised probation, 50 hours community service.
Lin Zhi looks out over the brightly lit downtown of Beijing, from the window of his rental room, on April 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

AN ONLINE ARTICLE titled "Here in Beijing 20 million people are pretending to live a life" went viral over the weekend, largely thanks to its main argument that most Beijing residents are so busy at work that they do not have the luxury of a life outside work. Ifeng.com commented on Monday:

The lives the post depicts are hardly new to urban residents and do not mean Beijing's 20 million residents are living only to work. They are, in fact, trying to live a life that has never been lived before. Traditionally there was always a distinction between working and not working. But the cost of living is high in metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai and people are working more to pay for their lifestyles.

They have to work extra hours to pay the loans for the houses they have bought, they also have to send their children to training classes at the weekend so that their kids may not fall behind their peers. Some may have to spare some of their leisure hours for maintaining the necessary social connections.

As a result, it is only natural that some residents in these metropolises tend to discuss work during social activities. They should not be blamed for talking about work during a dinner with friends, because it is simply not possible to disconnect from work in today's digital age.

The loss of living space and the lack of time for staying with loved ones is happening and will continue. But one is never truly alone when one can chat with friends via instant messaging apps such as WeChat. This does not strip people of time in which to live; it instead serves as a new way of living, one that breaks the old boundaries separating life and work.
Sun Zhengcai [File photo]

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party of China's top anti-corruption watchdog, announced on Monday that Sun Zhengcai, the former Party chief of Chongqing, was being investigated on suspicion of serious discipline violations. This once again demonstrates the unwavering determination of the Party's Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core to promote stricter governance of the Party.

The investigation of Sun also indicates that the top leadership's fight against corruption is still ongoing and its campaign for honest and clean governance of the Party will not cease.

Strict discipline serves as an important guarantee for the whole Party to unite its will. The investigations into a series of senior Party and military officials, such as Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong and Ling Jihua, for their violations of Party rules or the nation's laws, testifies that the Party's leadership will by no means allow any individual or group to be free from the restraints of the Party's discipline. Anyone, no matter how senior, will be severely punished once they are confirmed to have violated Party discipline or the law.

Considering that violations of the Party's rules by senior officials cause great damage to the Party's image and authority, Party chief Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that senior officials should be loyal to the Party, fulfill their responsibilities in the Party's bid for stricter self-governance, maintain the bottom line of Party discipline and set an example for rank-and-file officials.

The investigation of Sun should prompt all leading officials to adopt a staunch political stance, a tempered political quality, and strengthen their self-restraint and adhere to clean governance and compliance with Party discipline and the nation's laws.

Only with strong discipline can we have strong Party officials. All Party members should be united, both ideologically and politically, with the CPC Central Committee with Xi as the core for the upcoming 19th National Congress of the CPC.

-PEOPLE'S DAILY
A worker monitors container operation at Zhoushan port in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

The most recent data have shown that the momentum of the country's economic development is getting stronger, with the economic indicators for the first half of the year beating expectations and urban employment steadily improving. There has also been further progress in growth rebalancing, with the ratio of consumption to GDP increasing and the service sector's share in the economy continuing to grow.

But despite the good momentum in the first half of this year, the country's leaders are conscious of the need to strike a balance between stabilizing growth and the defusing of major risks, as signaled by the statement released after a meeting of the country's top leadership on Monday.

Although the fundamentals remain sound, prompting the International Monetary Fund to raise its forecast of the country's growth this year from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent, it was recognized at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee presided over by General Secretary Xi Jinping, that this does not mean the economic and financial risks can be ignored.

The authorities need to remain focused so they do the right things at the right time, as Xi emphasized at a symposium on Friday.

Looking ahead, although policymakers will need to be prepared for a possible economic slowdown in the second half of this year as the cooling of the real estate market takes effect, the meeting has made it clear there will be no let up on reforms, and the continuity and consistency of policies will be maintained to push forward supply-side structural reform and guard against systemic financial risks.

This means measures will be introduced to further cut excess capacity and reduce inventory, as well as ease the corporate debt burden. And, as the statement released after Monday's meeting emphasized, the key to the success of these reforms is effectively handling "zombie enterprises", those unprofitable State-owned companies that are burdened with debt, mismanagement and/or overcapacity.

Other pressing tasks include controlling the local government debt problem, channeling more funds into the real economy and keeping a watchful eye on the financial market turbulences to ward off damaging repercussions.

Whether these tasks are successfully handled or not has significant implications for the country's economic transition and future development.

The commitment to reforms and the resolve to take a steadfast approach to economic liberalization demonstrated at the meeting should instill confidence that while maintaining stability is the priority, as Xi stressed, progress will continue to be pursued.
US House Speaker Paul Ryan (Front) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the United States, on July 25, 2017. The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). [Photo/Xinhua]

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans - Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie - voting against the bill.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto.

The measure aims at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital US interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbors," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" US foreign policy in connection with Russia.

"This strong oversight is necessary. It is appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," Royce said, according to news website The Hill.

The White House on Sunday signaled that President Donald Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
One of the Mobike bicycles takes to the streets of historic Florence, Italy. [Photo/China Daily]

Mobike, the Chinese dockless bike-sharing company, is adding to its international expansion with the launch of two schemes in Italy.

The firm said it will make 8,000 of its distinctive silver and orange smart bicycles available from next month in the Tuscan capital of Florence and the northern city of Milan.

The bikes will be placed in selected high-demand areas to "help alleviate automobile traffic and sustainably enhance mobility", the company said.

The move follows the Shanghai-based company's previous international expansions into Singapore, the UK and Japan.

It now has more than 100 million registered users, with 6 million bikes in operation globally in about 150 cities worldwide. By the end of this year, the company expects to reach at least 200 cities worldwide.

"We are delighted to enter the Italian market, and especially to launch Mobike's operations in both Florence and Milan, home to so many of history's greatest innovators and artists," Hu Weiwei, the founder of Mobike, said. "Mobike is committed to working side-by-side with our partners to preserve and enhance the enjoyment of both cities."

Mobike users download a smartphone app, register their details and pay a deposit. By using GPS navigation riders can find a bike near them and unlock it by scanning a QR code.

Users in Florence will be able to rent bikes at the price of 0.3 euros ($0.35) per half an hour during the trial period, from now to the official launch of the scheme in August.

Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence, said the scheme helps the city achieve its aim of sustainable mobility.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice toward sustainable mobility today," Nardella said. "We are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italy's first stationless bikeshare. From now it will be even easier and faster to choose two wheels to move from one part of the city to another."

Mayor of Milan Beppe-Sala welcomed the arrival of Mobike.

"This launch shows that cities with a touristic and international profile like ours understand the strategic importance of investing in this form of sustainable mobility," he said.

China-based Ofo, the main rival to Mobike, is also boosting its international expansion and tapping the European market.

After launching in Singapore last year, Ofo has started bike-sharing in the British university city of Cambridge.
Indian newly elected President Ram Nath Kovind arrives at Presidential Palace after his sworn-in ceremony in New Delhi, July 25, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

NEW DELHI - Ram Nath Kovind was sworn in as India's 14th president on Tuesday.

Kovind was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar at a grand ceremony in parliament, attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposition Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and lawmakers of both the Houses.

"I will stand by and represent all 1.25 billion fellow Indians. I understand the massive responsibility that this is," President Kovind said in his inaugural address.

President Kovind, who took over from his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee, also took to social media as he tweeted: "Honored to be sworn in as the 14th President of India; would be carrying out my responsibilities with all humility."

The former governor of the eastern state of Bihar was elected as Indian president last week as the ruling National Democratic Alliance's contender, winning the election by a huge margin against opposition nominee Meira Kumar, a former parliament speaker.

The 71-year-old became India's second Dalit President after President K.R. Narayanan, who served from 1997 to 2002.

Indian president is the ceremonial head of state, who plays decisive roles only in case of a hung parliament after general elections.
Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, arrives on Capitol Hill to meet with the House Intelligence Committee on his contacts with Russian officials during the general election, at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC on July 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

WASHINGTON  Two key members of President Donald Trump's presidential campaign met Tuesday with congressional investigators probing Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a closed-door conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.

Separately, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with bipartisan staff of the Senate intelligence committee and "answered their questions fully," his spokesman, Jason Maloni, said.

Manafort's discussion with the committee staff was confined to his recollection of a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors.

Manafort also turned over his contemporaneous notes documenting the meeting, one said. The other person said Manafort has agreed to additional interviews with the Senate intelligence committee staff on other topics. Those meetings haven't yet been scheduled.

Kushner spent about three hours Tuesday behind closed doors with the House committee.

"I found him to be straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had," said Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the panel's Russia probe. He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.

The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on "a range of issues the committee had been concerned about." "We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today," Schiff added.

AP
Staff members of the China Henan International Cooperation take a group photo with local Zambian residents at a camp about 30 kilometers away from Luwingu, a city of Northern province, Zambia, on July 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

LUSAKA - Zambian Vice-President Inonge Wina is expected to grace the "Zambia Week" which opens in China this week meant to showcase the country's investment potential, a government official said on Tuesday.

The Zambian vice-president is scheduled to grace the event, the first of its kind, meant to strengthen ties between the two countries, according to Winnie Chibesakunda, Zambia's Ambassador to China.

"The Zambia Week is a platform that will be used to expose business opportunities that China can take advantage of in partnership with Zambian entrepreneurs and upcoming Small and Medium Enterprises," she said in a statement released by the Zambian vice-president's office.

The event, which starts off on Wednesday July 26, 2017, will run until next week, and will bring several technocrats from various government ministries, a business delegation and Zambian artists, she added.

The event, she said, was expected to strengthen ties between the two countries and will further display the country's arts, culture as well as tourism destinations.

Other issues expected to be done during the week include the signing of a memorandum of understanding to mark the beginning of a twinning program between Zambia's Lusaka Province and China's Sichuan Province.

The twining program was meant to enhance the already existing government-to-government ties, site visits to major business firms, cultural programs, fashion shows, craft and art exhibitions, among other undertakings.

The Zambian envoy added that the friendship between the two countries can be enhanced with more political and social engagements to ensure a holistic approach.

The Zambia Week was born out of an exchange program dubbed "2016 Zambia-China, People-to-People, Business and Culture Road Show" held in October last year in five cities in China which was meant to market Zambia's investment destination for Chinese businesses.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it is easy to solve the standoff along the China-India border - Indian troops should withdraw from Doklam.

In a Foreign Ministry statement, Wang told reporters in Bangkok on Monday that it is very clear who is right and who is wrong in the standoff in Doklam, and that even senior Indian officials have publicly said that Chinese troops have not intruded into Indian territory.

"In other words, India admitted that it has entered Chinese territory. The solution to this issue is simple, which is that they behave themselves and withdraw," Wang said.

Wang is by far the most senior Chinese official to have commented on the Indian troops' incursion.

In June, Indian troops crossed the Sikkim section of the China-Indian boundary into Doklam, Chinese territory, to block China's road construction there.

On June 28, Hindustan Times quoted Indian Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat as saying there was no incursion into Indian territory, commenting on reports of the standoff in Doklam.

In an opinion piece published by The Indian Express, Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said border issues with China are an example of how India's foreign policy "is constricted by its misperceptions of China-India rivalry".

Ruan cited the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet in 1890, which defined the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary.

"This boundary convention was upheld by successive Indian governments. China's roadwork in its own territory is legitimate. India should respect the border agreement," Ruan said.

"The world is large enough to accommodate both China and India," Ruan said, adding that it is imperative to build trust between Beijing and New Delhi, and that both countries will lose when they don't work together.

wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn
First, the good news. North Dakotas overall crime rates remained flat in 2016. Aggravated assaults dropped 4.5 percent and there were fewer homicides.

While it would have been nice to see all crimes decrease, its good were not losing ground. In Morton County some of the figures were higher because of arrests related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Most of the arrests were related to trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

What sticks out statewide and locally is the number of drug arrests. Drug violations increased 7.8 percent from 5,648 to 6,086 from 2015 to 2016. Marijuana remains the most prevalent drug, followed by methamphetamine and then heroin, which was seized in 299 cases, as opposed to 177 cases in 2015. The drug numbers shouldnt be a surprise since drug use, especially opiates, was the focus of a law enforcement campaign during the first half of 2016. Public forums were held to draw attention to the problem that had resulted in a number of deaths, especially in the eastern part of the state.

Unfortunately, the drug fight became overshadowed by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The battle against drugs didnt stop, but it wasnt in the spotlight.

As Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem noted in an interview last week, progress has been made in the drug war. The Legislature adopted reforms in the criminal justice system this year intended to reduce drug abuse and related assaults and thefts. Stenehjem is hopeful the next legislative session will be able to provide more money for drug treatment.

More attention is being given to treatment in the states prison system and county jails. Theres also an effort to provide treatment instead of jail time for those with alcohol and drug problems. As Stenehjem noted, its not a quick fix. "We tweaked some statutes but didn't have the funding for the treatment," he said. "We have a long ways to go, and the two have to go together."

North Dakota isnt alone in dealing with drug issues. In an editorial in Tuesdays Tribune, the Billings Gazette looked at steps that Montana needs to take to deal with its growing drug problems. A number of suggestions involved treatment options.

The Bismarck-Mandan area hasnt escaped the drug issues. The drug numbers remained flat in Bismarck last year, but Mandan saw drug violations go from 106 to 166 from 2015 to 2016. In Burleigh, drug violations went from 364 to 598. Burleigh also is seeing more serious drugs than in the past with more methamphetamine when it used to be mostly marijuana.

The Tribune Editorial Board has been supportive of changes adopted in the states justice system. The reforms are intended to reduce the number of people serving time by providing treatment and creating productive citizens. The crime report tells us we have work to do. The report also indicates we can make progress in reducing overall crime. It wont happen overnight, but if we stay focused we can chip away at our drug problem.
Brent Johnson and his wife Serena Johnson in 2016. Photo provided chinadaily.com.cn

When Brent Johnson first came to central China's Shanxi province to learn Chinese history in 1990, he didn't know it would be the start of a close bond with orphaned and disabled children.

Attracted by Chinese culture, Johnson, then junior at the University of South Carolina (USC), came to Shanxi University on a one-year student exchange program, where he met his future wife, Serena Johnson, an American who shares his affection for China. The couple's deep concern for poor people made charity organizations their common dating sites.

One year in China greatly impressed Johnson and he never forgot his time there after returning to South Carolina for further study. After receiving his medical degree at the USC, Johnson and his wife moved to China in 1998 to commence their voluntary work with orphans.

Setting their feet on a series of places in northern China ranging from Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces to Hebei province and Beijing, they met and helped numerous sick children. The Johnsons have dedicated themselves to the well-being of children and charity work.

Johnson's ties with orphans in Shanxi date back to April 2004, when he approached the dean of Taiyuan Social (Children) Welfare Institute, Geng Kaiwen, while attending a children's foundation meeting in Beijing. He offered to fund treatment for the institute's disabled children through the China Care Foundation, a charity dedicated to saving the lives of medically fragile orphaned children in China.

Though touched by Johnson's sincerity and strong will, Geng hesitated because Johnson was a foreigner. But Johnson didn't give up. He went to Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, in person and gave Geng a very thorough and convincing presentation. He also invited Geng to visit the foundation in Beijing.

The sound operation of the China Care Foundation eased Geng's concern and he was moved by Johnson's proposal to send sick kids to Beijing for medical treatment and return them to Shanxi after recovery.

"Many children didn't get timely treatment due to lack of funds and the outdated condition in our institute. Johnson's particular proposal would address our current problems and help those in need in a broader way," Geng said.

During one business trip in Taiyuan in 2005, Johnson needed to catch the evening flight back to Beijing and Geng suggested they have dinner together. Considering the tight schedule and budget, he bought Johnson a bowl of rice noodles for 3 yuan (40 cents) on their way to the airport. Touched by Geng's pragmatic and frugal behavior, Johnson decided to nail down the funding agreement with the Taiyuan institute right away. Neither expected that the final agreement would be sealed thanks to a bowl of rice noodles.

Besides addressing various issues faced by the institute, such as manpower shortage, funding and technology crunch, Johnson also established a Baby Home project in Taiyuan to provide children a cozy environment for post-treatment recovery.
China will not tolerate behavior by other countries that hurts its "core interests", Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, commenting on reports that Botswana will allow the 14th Dalai Lama to visit next month.

The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi as saying "the principle of non-interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of China's foreign policy", and that she expected "China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter".

Lu said in Beijing on Wednesday that he was aware of the report, and that China has expressed its position on the issue.

"China does not interfere in other countries' domestic affairs. But it will not tolerate other countries doing things that hurt China's core interests," Lu said.

"Tibet-related issues bear on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We request relevant countries to respect China's core interests effectively and make a correct political decision on the issue," Lu said.
WILLISTON  Two men are facing charges of hindering law enforcement after police say they helped someone conceal a murder.

Damian Carrillo, 24, and Ralph Broxson Jr., 25, are both being held on $100,000 and accused of helping Jonah Hendricks cover up the killing of Lindsay White, 28.

Whites body was found July 20 in northwest McKenzie County by the McKenzie County Sheriffs Office.

Hendricks was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 18 when police tried to serve a search warrant related to a shooting in Williston earlier that day.

Carrillo was one of the people targeted during that shooting, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Northwest District Court Tuesday. Police say Hendricks shot at a car containing Carrillo and two other people because he was angry over Carrillos use of a pickup truck, over the fact Carrillo owed him money and because Carrillo had promised he could get Hendricks drugs but didnt follow through.

Carrillo was shot in the leg during the incident, which happened near the intersection of Box Elder Street and the West Bypass shortly after 4:30 a.m. on July 18. Police say he fled the scene, and was found several hours later.

During the investigation, police learned that Carrillo had gone with Hendricks to the location in McKenzie County where Hendricks had shot and killed White, according to court records. It wasnt clear from the affidavit of probable cause whether Carrillo was present when the shooting happened or went to the scene later.

Carrillo admitted to police that he had helped Hendricks move Whites body, charging documents say.

Police say that Carrillo and Hendricks went to Broxsons home, whether they dropped off clothing that had been used either during the shooting or while moving the body.

A bag of clothing and other items were found under a shed near Broxsons home, according to court records.

Police claim Broxson knew what had happened in McKenzie County and assisted in concealing or destroying evidence.

At a bond hearing Tuesday, Northwest District Judge Kristen Sjue ordered Carrillo held on $100,000 bond. She ordered that Broxson, who was charged Monday with multiple felonies, including terrorizing, aggravated assault and possession of stolen property, continue to be held on $100,00 bond.

Both men are due back in court Aug. 24 for preliminary hearings.
Sweden will deport Iranian Christian actress Aideen Strandsson back to Iran, where she could face prison time for becoming a Christian.

According to CBN News, deporting Strandsson is a violation of international law, but Swedish officials told her that becoming a Christian was her decision and now she has to face the consequences.

Swedens migration board has said it would never deport asylum seekers to a nation where they could be harmed, said Swedish Attorney Gabriel Donner, who has helped some 1,000 Christian asylum-seekers who have faced deportation.

"The migration board has on its home page information about each country. And in the information regarding Iran there are plenty of reports stating that it is standard to torture and rape in Iranian prisons," Donner said. "And the question we have been asking the migration board time and time again is why do you put this information on your homepage if you don't follow it? "

Strandsson came to Sweden in 2014 on a work visa and changed her name to a Swedish one. She had starred in Iranian films and TV series and then became a Christian when she saw a video of Muslims stoning a woman to death.

I decided at that moment I dont want to be a Muslim anymore.

I had a dream about Jesus, and I remember he was sitting near me and he took my hand, she said.

She kept her conversion a secret in Iran and then left for Sweden, where she was baptized.

Her asylum request, however, has been rejected and her case has been turned over to the border police. A Swedish migration official told her she would be in prison about six months.

Publication date: July 26, 2017
Pew updates its comprehensive survey of what US Muslims believe and do, and how their neighbors feel about them.

|

As much of American society undergoes a secular shift, most Muslims and Christians continue to attend worship, adhere to tenets of their traditions, and proudly identify with their faiths.

But despite this shared sense of religious devotion, as detailed in a new Pew Research Center report on what US Muslims believe and practice, survey data also show a huge gap in their perceptions of each other.

While Americans overall have warmed up to Muslims in recent years, white evangelicals express more concerns about US Muslims than any other religious group. Two-thirds of white evangelicals believe Islam is not part of mainstream American society and contend that it encourages violence more than other faiths, according to Pew.

Meanwhile, 72 percent of white evangelicalscompared to 44 percent of Americans overallsee a natural conflict between Islam and democracy. And 30 percent of Muslims themselves agree that the two are in conflict.

A small minority of Americans (6%) and Muslims (5%) attribute the tension to the belief that America is a Christian nation.

As CT reported in March, missions experts worry that evangelicals views of Muslims are sabotaging a long-dreamed-of moment. Previous research by Pew found that only 35 percent of white evangelicals say they have a personal connection to a Muslim, compared to about 40 percent of mainline Protestants and Catholics, 50 percent of unaffiliated Americans, and 73 percent of Jews.

This is the best chance weve had in human history to share the love of Christ with Muslims, said David Cashin, intercultural studies professor at Columbia International University and an expert in Muslim-Christian relations. Because of these attitudes, we could miss ...
home US Illinois bishop says politicians who helped legalize gay marriage should not receive communion

An Illinois bishop, who issued a decree banning funeral rites for same-sex couples last month, has doubled down on his stance by declaring that politicians who helped make same-sex marriage legal must not receive Communion.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who heads the Catholic diocese of Springfield, Illinois, recently released a video in which he explains his decree as well as basic Catholic teaching on why same-sex marriage is immoral.

He explained that Catholics who support or engage in seriously sinful behavior must not present themselves for Communion unless they go to Confession and repent. He said that this should also apply to politicians who made homosexual marriage legal as well as those who "aid and abet abortion."

"Those politicians and judges who helped to make same-sex marriage legal and who aid and abet abortion, for example, by voting for taxpayer funding for abortion, should not receive Holy Communion unless they repent, go to confession and amend their lives," he said, as reported by CNS News.

Paprocki noted that critics have been urging him to rescind his decree, but he insisted that it is just a "rather straightforward application of existing Catholic doctrine and canon law to the new situation of legal marital status being granted in civil law to same-sex couples," which he says is contrary to the Church's teachings.

The archbishop explained that his decree does not focus on LGBT individuals, but on same-sex marriage. He argued that no one has been denied sacraments or funeral rites for simply having a homosexual orientation.

"Even someone who had entered into a same-sex 'marriage' can receive the sacraments and be given ecclesiastical funeral rites if they repent and renounce their 'marriage,'" he said.

Paprocki further clarified that those who have sexual relations outside of marriage, whether heterosexual or homosexual, should not receive Holy Communion unless they repent. He explained that it also applies those who were divorced and remarried without an annulment.

However, he noted that couples who choose to live as brother and sister can receive Communion as long as there is no public scandal. He said that it also applies to two men who choose to live chastely with each other as "brother and brother," or two women, who choose to live with each other as "sister and sister."

The decree drew criticisms from some activist groups after Paprocki issued it in early June. Christopher Pett, the incoming president of DignityUSA, argued that Pope Francis himself has not issued such a decree for the Catholic Church and that he called for a more pastoral and respectful approach towards LGBTQ people.

Paprocki stated at the time that the decree was necessary "in light of changes in the law and in our culture regarding these issues."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Mel Evans Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Shannon Tompkins/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 3





U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison approved a $10.5 million settlement that will require Bass Pro Outdoor World to compensate qualified black and Hispanic job applicants it did not hire.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made the deal after suing the sporting goods retailer six years ago for allegedly rejecting qualified minority applicants and retaliating against employees who objected to the alleged practice. Bass Pro maintains that it did not engage in any unlawful activities based on race or national origin nor in any retaliatory conduct, according to the agreement.
KarmaBox Vending

KarmaBox Vending, which offers healthy snack options and personal-care products, has expanded to the Tomball and Houston markets.

KarmaBoxes, which are owned and operated by local entrepreneurs, sell items such as low-calorie beverages, coconut water, sport bars, turkey jerky, nuts and berries. They also offer products such as beeswax lip balm and sunscreens.
The biggest U.S. oil-import hub wants to grab a piece of surging North American crude exports.

Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal along the U.S. Gulf Coast able to handle a fully laden supertanker, is gauging interest from shippers in sending crude overseas on the worlds biggest ships by early next year. The port would continue to take in foreign oil, LOOP LLC said in an emailed statement Monday.

Ports are competing to fill the needs of domestic oil producers looking for outlets for their growing supply. At the same time, the boom from U.S. shale fields and Canadian oil-sands mines has reduced refiners need for imported oil. LOOPs ability to handle tankers capable of carrying 2 million barrels in their holds would reduce shipping costs for companies looking to send crude to refiners in Asia.

LOOP is the most obvious place for U.S. crude exports since as a deepwater port it makes it more manageable to load up a large ship such as a VLCC, Sandy Fielden, director of commodities and energy research at Morningstar Inc., said by phone from Austin, Texas. It makes huge sense from a logistical perspective as it will allow for more efficient cargo shipments.

Currently, shippers have to load oil onto smaller tankers in ports such as Houston or Corpus Christi, Texas, that then transfer their cargoes onto Very Large Crude Carriers sitting offshore. That adds cost and time to the shipments. While Corpus Christi received its first VLCC at the end of May, the ports channel isnt deep enough for a ship that size to load a full cargo.

Nigerian and Saudi Arabian oil will continue being unloaded from massive supertankers at LOOPs marine terminal 17 miles offshore and pumped into storage caverns one-third of a mile under its Clovelly Hub in Louisiana, as it has for over 30 years. But LOOP is turning some of its operations around as exports surge after restrictions were lifted at the end of 2015.

Today, customers are seeking the optionality to safely and efficiently load or offload, which is a natural request for a port," LOOP President Tom Shaw said in the statement. "This service offers our customers the scalability to fully load a VLCC."

LOOP will be competing with Corpus Christi, which in 2017 became the top oil-export hub for the U.S. Canadian producers are looking for more options for selling their crude to higher-priced markets around the world, lessening their dependence on U.S. refiners.

In recent years, shipping oil overseas has become more economical, thanks to low-cost drilling methods unlocking vast deposits in West Texas and other areas. U.S. production reached 9.6 million barrels a day in April 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Rising output

Daily U.S. output is hovering at more than 9 million barrels, even with futures prices stalling below $50 a barrel, and trading at $47.31 Tuesday. Much of that oil is lighter than what local refineries are configured to process. The excess is heading overseas, boosting American exports above those from OPEC members Qatar, Libya, Ecuador and Gabon.

VLCC ton-mile demand to the Far East is expected to jump 52-fold this year, shipping analysts at McQuilling Services LLC said in a note. That makes a port able to load the huge ships more attractive to traders.

The additional capacity at LOOP could add another 300,000 barrels a day of U.S. exports, according to Fielden.

"Professional exporters will be drawn to this as they will want to export more regularly."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Former Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is ready to buy into the booming Permian Basin oil fields and he's looking for investors.

Dewhurst's 36-year-old Houston energy business, Falcon Seaboard, is seeking outside investors for the the first time ever to lease or buy acreage in overlooked areas throughout West Texas. He's started the new Falcon Seaboard Permian Fund I to oversee the investments. In an interview, Dewhurst said he hopes to raise anywhere from $145 million to $300 million initially.

Rather than bid against the oil majors like Exxon Mobil or big independent exploration and production players like EOG Resources, Dewhurst said the goal is to instead focus on "contrarian niche plays" that are selected after careful research.

"That niche small play works. It has higher returns I think, and it's easier to compete than going into bidding wars against the major E&Ps," Dewhurst said.

That includes buying distressed assets from companies still hurting from the two-year oil bust. Dewhurst's Falcon Seaboard tried the more traditional route initially, but lost out in bidding wars the last couple of years, he admitted.

Dewhurst served as lieutenant governor for 12 years, but he never abandoned his energy business.

The mild-mannered Dewhurst ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2012 but lost unexpectedly to rising tea party star Ted Cruz. Then he lost his hold as lieutenant governor in a primary challenge from ideological firebrand Dan Patrick in 2014.

However, Dewhurst was an oil man long before he became a politician. A Houston native, Dewhurst worked as a CIA officer before leaving government to enter the energy sector in the 1970s. He quickly found success and became a multimillionaire. He lost a lot of it, like most, in the 1980s crash, but he regained that wealth and more in the 1990s by developing and selling co-generation power plants. His net worth eventually exceeded $200 million.

Dewhurst currently holds a large natural gas acreage position in the Piceance Basin on Colorado's Western Slope. With a lot of money tied up in Colorado, Dewhurst said he needs to reach out to external investors. He just finalized the creation of the new fund. He eventually plans to sell the Colorado assets.

"We're just now reaching out to investors," he said. "I've never accepted outside investments in the past. I wish it weren't so, but I'm not big enough to carry two major investments at the same time."

Despite the booming activity in the Permian, Dewhurst said he still sees windows for new success. There's plenty of oil there for years to come, he said. Just the Wolfcamp shale portion of the Permian Basin holds an estimated 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"What's not to like?" Dewhurst said of the Permian.

Dewhurst said he believes he already has some solid verbal commitments from investors and Falcon Seaboard is already in contract negotiations on certain acreage. In many cases, they'll drill and flip acreage for a profit. But they'll also hold and produce their own wells in some cases, he said.

The plan is to work with a separate operator to lead the oil drilling and production on Falcon Seaboard's behalf. However, Dewhurst said they haven't ruled out operating their own acreage.

"We're perfectly willing to operate again," he said.
In a lab room at Legacy High School in Bismarck, a group of about 10 teachers calculated how many calories are in a single cheese puff by lighting it on fire.

Hiral Mathur, a chemistry teacher consultant from Texas, circled the group, looking to answer any questions they might have on their (somewhat) edible assignment.

Mitch Meyer beckoned Mathur over to his desk, as he was troubleshooting his calculations. He first had to determine the equation needed to find the number of calories in one Cheeto.

Food calories are proportionate to how much heat is given off, so these educators discovered how many calories the Cheeto has by burning it and measuring the temperature change in a soda can filled with water.

Meyer, a high school sciences teacher in Minot, prefers more hands-on learning, which explains why he attended Wednesday's teacher training program offered by the National Math and Science Initiative, a Dallas-based nonprofit that aims to improve teaching of science, technology, engineering and math.

Meyer said he favors labs rather than lectures, and he hopes to be able to teach the new materials he learns during the four-day training to his students.

"It makes it a lot more enjoyable for them, and then it put things into perspective," he said.

The free training program was held this week at Legacy High School. More than 180 teachers statewide signed up for the program, and this is the third consecutive summer the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction has hosted NMSI's teacher training sessions.

The training is funded in part by a grant from ExxonMobil and state money. Throughout the day, math and science teachers went to various classes to brush up on their skills.

In one classroom, teachers classified imaginary extraterrestrial creatures into their respective genus and species. They identified certain similar characteristics and used Google Translate to give them an official Latin-sounding name.

The goal of the training is to get classroom instructors more knowledgable about the subjects they teach, said Juan Elizondo, director of communications for NMSI.

"The way to help kids  is to help teachers," Elizondo said. "You cant have engaged students if you dont have engaged teachers."

Teachers who attended the training said it helps them learn the content before they teach it.

"We teach and then we become the students in the summer, so we can kind of see what the students go through, said Tasha Martin, a high school math teacher in Kidder County-Steel.
Turning down bribes has become routine for Jessica Christopherson.

The drug-testing specialist in Odessa said an oil field worker called her cell phone on Sunday offering her $1,000 to let him retake a drug test. He knew he was going to fail. She refused to help him.

"We get offered money from oil field workers on a regular basis," said Christopherson, a regional manager at CRS Diagnostic Service, a drug-testing company in Odessa. "I tell them, 'you can't pay my salary for the next three years.'"

And as far as bribes go, the cash she was offered on Sunday seemed pretty low compared to the $5,000 she recently turned down while testing a crew at a drilling rig. It's just one of the ways oil field workers have tried to dodge drug tests as oil companies rush into the Permian Basin.

Drug-testing specialists have also seen an influx of specially made bottles with temperature gauges, which oil field workers use to simulate urine in drug tests. It's a technological breakthrough compared to the balloons, condoms and prescription bottles oil field workers use to beat urine-based tests. It's also evidence of an underground community of workers who help each other pass drug tests, specialists said.

"You see what we're fighting down here," she said. "Meth is rampant."

HoustonChronicle.com: Oil and Drugs: A Toxic Mix

Kellie Britton, president of Permian Basin Drug & Alcohol Testing, said she has to constantly remind her staff members taking a bribe isn't worth losing their job. She recalled one attempted exchange: $3,000 to let the son of a machine shop owner off the hook.

"My entire staff has been offered money," she said. "We have to be a brick wall."
A Houston man is behind bars after being accused of duct-taping a dog's head and striking the pet with a crow bar.

The man - 58-year-old Dwain Riley - was charged Monday with cruelty to non-livestock animals, which is a felony charge, according to court documents.

TRIAL: High-profile animal abuse trial scheduled to start

Riley is accused of tying a family pet, Mud, to the wheel of a van parked in a garage on Sunday.

Then, he is accused of wrapping duct tape around the eyes and mouth of the dog and beating him with the crow bar, a prosecutor said Monday.

A witness said the crow bar was covered in blood, and the dog was squalling in pain from the injuries, the prosecutor added.

"These allegations are horrific," said Jessica Milligan, head of the Animal Cruelty Unit at the District Attorney's Office.

CHARGES: Owner of starved horse charged with animal cruelty

Riley is being held in the Harris County Jail on a $50,000 bond after being arrested earlier this week, according to court records.

He does not appear to have a criminal record in Harris County.

Riley faces up to two years in state jail if convicted, according to a news release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Details were not immediately available on whether the dog survived.
A 43-year-old man is now in custody 20 years after he was originally charged with shooting another man to death at his east Houston apartment, police announced Wednesday.

Ariel Ramirez apparently fled to Mexico after a man was found shot to death on Aug. 31, 1996 in his apartment in the 7730 block of Mesa Drive, according to the Houston Police Department.
We all know the fashion industry tends to ignore plus-size women, though it's changing with women like super model Ashley Graham leading the charge.

But what about the men?
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Rice University students can now stay within the hedges for Saturday dinners, a break from a university tradition that aimed to encourage students to explore Houston.

The university will now include Saturday dinners in an on-campus meal plan, Rices student association said. Two dining halls  North College and Seibel  will serve food during that time period, according to the group. The meal plans cost will not change.

Requiring students to eat off campus once a week was inconvenient or financially straining to many students, Rices student association said in a statement.

HoustonChronicle.com: Rice, UT join effort to recruit low-income students

The sentiment echoed that of a student newspaper editorial published last September: Going off campus for Saturday night dinners is a long-standing tradition for many, with students generally being encouraged to go beyond the hedges and explore the city of Houston. However, we may sometimes forget that this is just one of many aspects of social life at Rice that requires a certain degree of economic privilege.

The hedges that line Rices campus have long been a metaphor for a bubble of campus life at the elite university, separating Rice students from the city beyond.

At President David Leebrons 2004 inauguration, sprigs of greenery were placed on many tables, symbolizing Rices desire to take down these obstacles between the university and the city.

We cannot allow our hedges to be barriers either for the engagement of our students with Houston or the engagement of Houston with Rice, he said at his inauguration.

Gray Matters: Thinning the hedges at Rice University

His administration gave students free light rail and museum passes, and a 2007 program dubbed Passport to Houston provided unlimited Houston Zoo access.

A Hedgehopper program encourages businesses around the city to give Rice students discounts on restaurants and services like dry cleaning.

But recent campus conversations at Rice and nationwide have focused on college accessibility and the unexpected costs beyond tuition  like textbooks, for example  that contribute to an increasingly costly degree.

The student assemblys post was largely cheered on social media. The Rice Thresher reported in March that Rices residential colleges would subsidize certain social life costs, encouraging students to attend Rice social events such as Beer Bike. The initiatives aim to make campus programming accessible and appealing to all students, regardless of income.

At least one administrator has acknowledged a shift in outlook at the elite private campus, which has been vocal in trying to enroll low-income students.

Saturday dinner is purposefully not there because the idea was that students would go beyond the hedges Saturday night, Rices housing and dining services director David McDonald told the Rice Thresher in September. But now we are in a different situation. Were in an age where not everybody has enough capital to be able to go beyond the hedges.

Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.
Marie D. De JesAs/Staff

Amid calls from attorneys general to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, new analysis shows that the Lone Star state stands to lose about $6 billion annually should DACA disappear.

The DACA program grants temporary legal status and a work permit to certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country at a young age. More than 787,000 immigrants had received DACA status through March, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services statistics.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The hunt for frac water in West Texas continues.

Even as Houston water well company Layne Christensen finishes its 100,000-barrel-a-day water facility and 20-mile pipeline system outside of Pecos, a new company is working on a similar project 70 miles to the west, outside of Van Horn.

Dan Hughes, Jr., one of the biggest landowners in the U.S. and owner of an eponymous oil company, has applied to the Culberson County Groundwater Conservation District to export 6,000 acre-feet of water a year, or about 130,000 barrels per day.

RELATED: Woodlands company see profit in mixing oil and water

Both aim to sell their water to satiate the growing thirst in the booming Delaware Basin for hydraulic fracturing water.

Companies are pumping more and more water down well. Few now use less than 500,000 barrels of water per frac; some are cresting 700,000 or more. And much of that water is now trucked rather than piped to the well.

Layne and Hughes both argue they can provide water more quickly, more reliably and for less money via pipeline.

If it all pans out the way were hoping it does, we think it could be a good business opportunity, said Blaine Saathoff, a petroleum engineer for Dan Hughes Co., and chief operating officer of the company Hughes formed to export his ranch water.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The Houston Food Bank has moved on from its longtime digs along Interstate 45, but its "End Hunger" message will live on as the Peli Peli restaurant group takes over the building that over the past decade became a colorful landmark for commuters just north of downtown.

The message, highly visible in green lettering, will stay on the building. Peli Peli may at some point put its stamp on the building with a some type of mural or artwork reflecting Houston's diverse culture, but does not plan on its name being a big component.

"I would like to follow the message they started, not only ending hunger, but something that would pay tribute to the diversity of Houston," said Thomas Nguyen, one of three partners in Peli Peli Restaurant Group.

"Our concept is about diversity of flavors and cultures and people. That's what Houston has become."

RELATED: 'End Hunger' building, part of the I-45 commute, is sold

Peli Peli took the keys to the 15,000-square-foot Mary Barden Keegan Center, 2445 North Freeway, this week after a year-plus search for a space to centralize food preparation for its five South African fusion restaurants in the area. The building will also house Peli Peli's growing catering operation, which was becoming difficult to manage from the kitchens inside its restaurants.

"If you have a catering job, it's hard to be able to do that and then handle the business we get at dinner and on the weekends," Nguyen said.

The meals will continue to be prepared on-site in the kitchens, which take up more than 20 percent of the space in each restaurant, Nguyen said.

Last year, Houston-based Virgata Property Co. purchased the building from the Houston Food Bank, which has since consolidated to 535 Portwall in east Houston.

Virgata cited the prominent location along the North Freeway as a selling point for potential tenants. Possible uses ranged from food-service or brew-pub operations to fitness concepts.

With the new deal, the kitchen that used to prepare 5,000 meals a day for the needy will remain intact. The leased location also will enable Peli Peli to expand production of its bottled spices and sauces, making them available for purchase in all of its restaurants, and possibly in grocery stores as it ramps up capacity. The spices and sauces are currently available at the Galleria location.

That includes piri piri pepper, also known as bird's-eye chili, which is used to flavor chicken and seafood and to rim martini glasses.

"We take it and mix it with different fruits and seasoning to kind of meet the heat so it's more of a flavorful spice than a hot spice," Nguyen said.

Peli Peli, which first opened in Vintage Park in northwest Houston in 2009, has other locations in the Galleria, LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch in Katy, the more casual Peli Peli Kitchen at 9090 Katy Freeway in Spring Branch, and Peli Deli, a pop-up in downtown's Esperson building. A location in Austin is upcoming.

The move to a central commissary will enable Peli Peli to save on both labor and food costs, and those savings could be passed on to customers, the company said. Peli Peli will get better pricing from distributor Sysco Corp. by purchasing products in larger quantities for delivery to one location.

Nguyen called the "End Hunger" message emblazoned on the new building "a very important message and a very important cause."

"We're not messing with it," he said. "If anything, we would like to enhance it later on."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

TLC's Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas says there's one simple secret to forging a successful girl group.

"You gotta stay together," Thomas says with a laugh. "No kicking this group member out and all that stuff. When people fall in love with a group, you love them collectively. Then the new album comes and you see a new face or there's a missing person, it's kinda strange for your fans."

Thomas speaks from experience. TLC, also featuring Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, released its first single "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg" in late 1991. The trio issued four albums and earned a spate of era-defining hits, including No. 1 singles "Creep," "Waterfalls" and "No Scrubs."

POP LATINO: Retro tour features '90s features Fey, Aleks Syntek, OV7, Calo

I Love the 90's: The Party Continues Tour With: TLC, Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath, Naughty by Nature, Blackstreet, Biz Markie, Montell Jordan, All 4 One, Snap! and C&C Music Factory with Freedom Williams When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday Where: NRG Arena, 1 NRG Park Tickets: $22-$106; ticketmaster.com Nostalgia factor TLC's Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas says people are still "hungry" for '90s music. "That music was just so feel-good. If you had a bad day, you could throw on a song from '90s and feel better," she says. So how do the acts on Sunday's I Love the 90's show stack up? TLC: The peak of enduring '90s greatness. Ridiculously catchy songs with enduring messages. All that and a bag of chips. Sugar Ray: They lasted a lot longer than anyone anticipated thanks to songs that defined angsty high school love. But does anyone remember them? Naughty by Nature: Hip-hop hooray! Ho! Hey! Ho! Hey ... Blackstreet: "No Diggity" was the bomb diggity. Biz Markie: "Just a Friend" and nothing else. Oh, baby, you ... Montell Jordan: "This Is How We Do It" can still make your body roll. All 4 One: Boyz II Men-lite. In the best way possible. Snap!: Two Eurodance anthems - "The Power" and "Rhythm Is a Dancer" that fill the club dance floors on '90s night. C&C Music Factory: A phrase - "Everybody dance now!" - that defined the era. Nevermind that whole lip sync drama. See More Collapse

Those songs and TLC are part of the I Love the 90's package tour Sunday at NRG Arena, which includes Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath, Naughty by Nature, Blackstreet, Biz Markie and more. It's a return home of sorts for Watkins, who had a designer kids' clothing store, Chase's Closet, in River Oaks for several years.

The genius of TLC's music was in its contrast. The songs were fun and free-spirited but carried unique, empowering messages about a variety of topics, from safe sex and self-identity to women's rights and HIV prevention. That dynamic predated a lot of future acts.

"We never, ever wanted to come across preachy to anybody. We just wanted to tell it like it is from our perspective of things," Thomas says. "I think that when you stay true to your authentic self, more people can connect with you. We all go through the same stuff. It's all relatable. It's just natural for us as women. We have that girl power thing. We're happy that we're voices for women, especially the women that don't really speak up for themselves and have that kind of confidence. There's always a better place to be in with yourself when you're confident and know who you are."

The high point was 1994's "CrazySexyCool" album, which remains the all-time best-selling record by a girl group. It sold 11 million copies in the U.S. alone, making TLC the only girl group to earn a diamond award for sales of more than 10 million of a single album.

ALL THAT: 22 ways '90s kids can still do '90s things in Houston

No one, not even Destiny's Child, reaped those numbers. And no current girl group - Fifth Harmony, Little Mix - seems to operate in even the same universe. All those groups, in fact, owe a huge debt to TLC.

But during the trio's successful run, tragedy struck. Lopes was killed in a car accident in 2002 in Honduras. Thomas and Watkins took some time off but have forged on as a duo, via collaborations with other artists and tours.

"We always had a wide range of fans, but now it's even more because of the movie that we had, 'CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,' " Thomas says. The highly rated biopic aired on VH1 in 2013 and featured Keke Palmer as Thomas and rapper Lil Mama as Lopes.

"We captured a lot of this younger generation, which has been amazing. To look out in the audience and see fans as young as 12 and all the way up past our age - it's unbelievable that these songs have touched people in such a way."

A self-titled album was released a month ago, the group's first new material in 15 years. Every track stays true to the signature TLC sound and is refreshingly free of trend-hopping. Recent single "Way Back" even features Snoop Dogg to complete the '90s throwback.

RIDE THE VENGABUS: Music of the '90s reflected a carefree generation

TLC will continue to tour but says this is the group's final album, which was funded by a Kickstarter campaign that kicked off in early 2015 and quickly raised $430,000, making it the most successful in the crowdfunding campaign in Kickstarter's history. The high-wattage list of donors included Bette Midler, who covered "Waterfalls" for a girl groups tribute album; Justin Timberlake, Donnie Wahlberg; and Katy Perry, whose $5,000 contribution earned her a to-be-scheduled TLC slumber party.

"Hey - whatever she wants. She just has to let us know," Thomas says. "Hopefully, we can just hang out for a whole day. We're trying to get scheduled a slumber party with Katy Perry. We can't wait for that. All of us have onesies. And hopefully she likes scary movies."

Lopes is only featured on the new album in a brief interlude where she talks about a rivalry with Bell Biv Devoe. A dispute with Lopes' estate kept her vocals off the album.

17 SILLY SONGS: How many of these '90s anthems do you still know by heart?

The duo nevertheless remains steadfast in their promise to always honor their late friend - and never replace her. A 2005 reality competition called "R U the Girl?" selected a winner to join Watkins and Thomas to record a single for a one-off performance. And Lil Mama took on Lopes' raps for a pair of TV performances. But no one can replace Lopes. Still, the heart and soul of TLC remains intact.

"The three of us built this thing together. I don't think that we'll ever get to a place where we're 100 percent fine as far as the pain is concerned with her not being here," Thomas says. "It's important for us to make sure that her memory lives on. We went through so much together and built so much and just worked so hard. It just wouldn't be right to do it any other way.

"I don't know why people say loved - ed - when a person has passed away. I still love her. I miss her with all of my heart and soul."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

It would not be an understatement to say that this has been a tumultuous year for the restaurant formerly known as Peska Seafood Culture in the Galleria area.

The troubles first came to light in February when chef Omar Pereney, the restaurant's wunderkind, announced his departure on Facebook. Pereney was apparently unhappy with the owners' decision to rebrand the restaurant as Peska Prime Steaks & Seafood, according to a lawsuit he filed in May to be released from his noncompete contract. (Pereney is now with A La Carte restaurant consultants.)

There were other changes, too, as Peska the seafood restaurant transitioned to Peska the steakhouse and seafood restaurant: the owner of Grazia Italian Kitchen in Pearland came on board to operate the restaurant and help its owner make changes. That brought in Grazia chef Steve Haug, who after a few months with Peska left to join Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland after former executive chef Joe Cervantez left Killen's to return to Brennan's of Houston. (Haug apparently is no longer with Killen's.)

The chef shuffle left an opening at Peska for Chris Loftis, who joined the team in June only a week after Peska tapped Bobby Boenig, formerly of Max's Wine Dive, as its new general manager.

And that's where Peska finds itself today: a new look (the entire seafood marketplace and retail area is gone and the bar has expanded); a new name as Peska Cocina Latina (Peska Prime Steaks & Seafood has been ditched, so too has any notion that it would be called PesKarne); and a new chef who vows to get Peska back on the Houston restaurant map.

Calling his short tenure at the Pearl downtown disappointing and filled with uncertainty, the 30-year-old Loftis was happy to make a new start at Peska, immediately infusing his new restaurant's menu with Mexican flavors. He traveled to Mexico to visit the restaurants owned by Peska proprietor Maite Ysita and immediately understood the allure of Peska's original intentions, Loftis said. "The simplicity was inspiring," he said. "It just made sense."

Peska Cocina Latina's menu soon began sporting lighter dishes and more Mexican ingredients while still offering a variety of fish and meat options. Loftis calls the menu "Latin inspired and Gulf Coast forward."

His recent dinner menu includes crudos and cold seafood presentations: oysters, snapper or octopus tiradito, sashimi, and a ceviche of shrimp, octopus, and grouper. For appetizers there's jumbo lump crab cakes with roasted poblano and corn; Gulf fried oysters with Valentina aioli, bacon and pepperoncini; smoked short rib empanadas with black beans and chipotle aioli; yellowfin tuna tostada; octopus a la plancha; and queso fundido with bblack beans and chorizo. The dinner selections include seared snapper with fried artichokes and romesco sauce; ancho chile blacked redfish with lobster cream; seared scallops with roasted corn and chorizo; pecan-crusted grouper with jumbo lump crab and lemon butter; coriander crusted tuna with curry corn; grilled hanger steak with Mexican gnocchi, queso fresco and cilantro salad; and filet mignon with poblano mashed potatoes.

Soon more dishes will roll out: Short rib taquitos, smoked white fish guacamole, huitlacoche tostadas, crab and nopal salad with roasted corn, Gulf grouper with pineapple puree, and fried pork cheek with corn puree.

Both Boenig and Loftis said it's important to reconnect with its Galleria neighbors and re-establish the Peska brand.

"If we continue to do what we're doing now, we're going to be fine," Loftis said. "We still have a lot of work to do."

And hopefully, he said, that work will erase the confusion that has beset Peska in recent months.

"There's been a lot of changes at Peska," he said, "but the changes we've made have been one of the best things that could happen to the restaurant."

Peska Cocina Latina, 1700 Post Oak, 713-961-9229; peska.us
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Not long after President Donald Trump's announcement of banning transgender people from the military, one former Navy SEAL is speaking out about the decision.

Kristin Beck, once a member of SEAL Team 6 and a trans woman, spoke to Business Insider and issued a challenge to the 45th president.
Members of the Katy Fire Department will take your orders and your tips on Friday, July 28, at lunch and dinner to benefit the Special Olympics Texas.

Lunch and dinner will be at Los Cucos Mexican Cafe, 5831 Highway Blvd.

Law Enforcement Torch Runners from Katy Fire Department will be at the restaurant from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. serving guests and taking donations to help support Houston/Katy area athletes.

Special Olympics Texas athletes will greet customers at the door.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics, which began in 1981, is Special Olympics' largest grassroots fundraiser and public awareness vehicle in the world, according to the group's website. Visit http://www.sotx.org/letr/ for information.

This will be the second consecutive year for the department's Tip a Firefighter.

Last year the Katy community had an incredible turnout, said Joan Jarrett, associate vice president- development, Special Olympics Texas.

"Fifteen firefighters headed by Fire Chief Rusty Wilson and Los Cucos just embraced the event," she said.

"Everyone enjoyed the great food and wonderful service from firefighters and got to support Special Olympics Texas," said Jarrett.

The greater Houston area has more than 9,900 Special Olympics athletes and one of the largest teams is the Katy Wolf Pack with more than 200 athletes, she said. Katy athletes will be at the event, which will include the sale of T-shirts.

Last year, more than $6,000 was donated, which Jarrett called "A tremendously successful first-year event."

She added that she's looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday.

At the July 24 Katy City Council meeting, councilmen Steve Pierson and Durran C. Dowdle were among those encouraging people to participate in the Friday event and support Special Olympics.

"I know a lot of kids are involved in Special Olympics," said Dowdle. "It (Tip a Firefighter) is a great way to support those kids."
The Huffman ISD school board passed a balanced budget for the 2017-18 school year during the June 29 meeting. The approximately $28.1 million budget is a $471,717 increase over last school year.

An increase in local property tax revenue accounts for the overall budget increase, according to Tim Brittain, chief financial officer for Huffman ISD.

However, a decrease in student enrollment over the 2016-17 school year is affecting the district's revenue from the state, and Huffman ISD had been projecting its downward trend of student enrollment growth to continue.

"The significant difference (between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 budgets) is that our enrollment has decreased, which has decreased our state funding," Brittain said. "So, we've had to cut some things out of this year's budget to help us with that."

Because of the decrease, which occurred last school year, the district ended the year with less funding than at the start of the school year. The overall increase in this year's budget reflects an increase from where the district ended its 2016-17 school year.

"When I calculated for 2017-18, I assumed enrollment's going to stay where we ended the year at; so, I assume state revenue's going to stay where we ended the year at," Brittain said.

The district experienced a $502,144 decrease in state revenue.

"We get our money from the state based on average daily attendance  the higher percentage of attendance we have, the better our average daily attendance is," Brittain said. "We've been climbing the last several years."

From 2013-14 to 2015-16, the district's student enrollment and average daily attendance had been steadily increasing.

In 2015-16, the district's enrollment was at 3,467. That number dropped to 3,443 for the 2016-17 school year. Meanwhile, the 2015-16 to the 2016-17 school years, the student average daily attendance dropped from 3,264 to 3,222.

Brittain said the difference in ADA alone can mean a decrease in state funding of over $300,000.

"State funding decreases due to enrollment decrease plus decrease in students, with weighted funding such as special education, career and technical education, etcetera," Brittain said.

Another factor Brittain said contributed to the state revenue decrease was an increase to the comptroller property tax values, reducing state funding.

One way in which the district compensated for the decrease in state funding this year was to put nine staff positions on hold. Those positions included four teaching positions, three prekindergarten classroom aids and two maintenance staff positions.

"The bulk of our budget, 82 percent, is salaries," Brittain said. "So, if we need savings, that's the main way we can do it. And, with our enrollment decrease, we can reduce those teachers and our class sizes are still OK. So, those are some teachers that we had added in the past because our numbers had gotten so high."

Additionally, the district normally budgets approximately $300,000 for new buses each year; however, six buses were included in the district's 2016 bond. By using bond money for buses, the district can use that savings to help cover losses from enrollment decrease.

One of the district's goals in reallocating funds was to ensure the continuation of employee incentives, including 2 percent salary increases and longevity stipends.

"You have to look at our concern regarding retention of personnel  It's a balancing act," said Benny Soileau, superintendent of Huffman ISD. "We're trying to make sure we retain good personnel and at the same time, stay fiscally conservative."

For more information about Huffman ISD, visit www.huffmanisd.net.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SAN ANTONIO - The survivors of this week's deadly immigrant smuggling incident that left 10 dead after being brought to San Antonio in a hot, airless trailer could be eligible for visas provided to crime victims, immigration experts said Tuesday.

Lawyers warned, however, that the federal government often is reluctant to offer help obtaining those visas.

Twenty-nine people survived and were taken to area hospitals after police discovered the trailer, which had driven from Laredo, early Sunday morning.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 13 still were in area hospitals. Of the 16 who had been released from the hospital, three are minors who were turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and likely will be placed with family members in the United States.

At least four are being held by the U.S. Marshals Service as witnesses against the truck's driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60.

DARK HISTORY: Deaths a reminder of human trafficking in Texas

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency is not starting deportation proceedings against the survivors "at this time."

If the survivors cannot get visas and are put into deportation proceedings, there are some forms of relief they can claim, including asylum, lawyers said.

Decisions about whether to hold the immigrants in custody once they are released from the hospital are being made by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the ICE spokesman said. Spokespersons for the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Marshals Service did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, so it was unclear how many of those released from the hospital were being detained.

Christy Andrino, the Guatemalan consul general in McAllen, said she is aware of three of that country's citizens who were in the trailer. One died, a minor whose family lives in Maryland. Another, a 17-year-old, still was in the hospital Tuesday.

The first time she met with the young man, "he was very scared," Andrino said. "The second time I visited him, he was OK. He was happy to be alive and he was enjoying a hamburger."

The other survivor identified from Guatemala, a 23-year-old man, was expected to appear in court as a material witness, Andrino said.

"We are hoping that they'll have some kind of remedy for being victims," she said.

Bradley could face up to life in prison or the death penalty on a charge of smuggling immigrants in the country illegally. Federal officials allege that as many as 100 people were packed into a tractor-trailer that lacked air conditioning and ventilation for the 150-mile drive to San Antonio on a day that temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.

Eight died in the truck and two more died at area hospitals after the trailer was discovered in a parking lot.

Victims of trafficking crimes are eligible for T-visas, and immigrants who are victims of certain other crimes and help law enforcement officials can be eligible for U-visas. Under both visas, they eventually can claim lawful permanent residency. U-visa applicants require certification from a law enforcement agency.

HAPPENED BEFORE: Remembering a deadly crossing in 2003

"It would be our position that they are victims, and they should receive visas, or at least should be allowed to go through the process of applying for those visas," said Robert Painter, director of pro bono programs and communications for the legal services provider American Gateways. "They should be entitled to basic protection as survivors of trafficking and given time to pursue the legal remedies to which they're entitled."

However, even cases that seem like they would be good candidates for visas - including similar fatal smuggling accidents - are not always approved, said Juan Gonzalez, a San Antonio immigration lawyer.

Gonzalez said he represented a witness for the federal government in the case of a smuggler who in 2013 drove an SUV loaded with immigrants into a stock pond in Poth, killing three. The driver, Javier Silva Morales, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12  years in prison and an accomplice, Jose Abram Lopez Lozano, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Despite cooperating with authorities, his client's request for a U-visa was denied, Gonzalez said.

"It's tragic," Gonzalez said. "It doesn't matter how high profile the case is."

The fact that 10 people died, and given all the media attention on the case, could bolster a visa case, Painter said.

"I can't speak to the thought process of the attorneys or ICE, but I think it's safe to assume that the high profile of the case might change the approach," he said.

Shane Folden, the special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations branch in San Antonio, said Tuesday that it is too early to know if any of the survivors are eligible for visas.

Jerry Robinette, a former ICE special agent in charge, said that the agency vets victims for things such as criminal history and past deportations before supporting their visa applications. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees legal immigration, has its own review process. Some violations that otherwise would prevent someone from getting a visa can be waived for the T-visa, Painter said.

"I can only speak to the cases that I was involved in in my office, and I know that in the past what we considered a victim and what the attorneys consider a victim are sometimes far apart," Robinette.

He said it remains unclear if the survivors are the victims of a crime.

"If nobody died and they got (arrested) at the Walmart by the police, except for the two or three material witnesses you need to make a case, they all would have been processed and deported," he said. "It's very possible because of what these people got exposed to, the extreme conditions, they could possibly be considered for a U-visa."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Bonuses for experienced teachers and funding to reduce retired teachers' health insurance costs passed Monday evening through the Texas Senate.

But a $1,000 raise for all Texas teachers didn't survive the chamber, ending one of Gov. Greg Abbott's priorities heading into the special legislative session.

Senators voted 28-3 to give bonuses of $600 to $1,000 to teachers with at least six years of experience, and to pump $212 million into a fund that provides health insurance to retired teachers. Both moves were part of Abbott's special session agenda and received positive marks from local school leaders.

HoustonChronicle.com: Retired teachers feel pinch of health plan changes

The across-the-board raises, however, weren't brought up for a vote after Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, offered an amendment withdrawing them from her bill. Local school leaders decried the raises as an unfunded mandate, while Abbott said districts should reallocate money they already have for the pay bumps. The increases would have totaled more than $350 million for Texas districts.

In the greater Houston area, teachers on average draw annual salaries of roughly $52,000 to $58,000, depending on the district. In smaller, more rural districts, average salaries range from about $40,000 to $50,000.

See how much the average teacher makes in Houston's 25 biggest districts in the gallery above.

Nelson said she wanted to provide the raises, but couldn't find funding in the current budget. Her original proposal called for raises to start in the 2019-20 school year, but she didn't want to promise money out of the next legislative budget.

"My intent was, and it continues to be, that we provide a pay raise to our teachers," Nelson said. "The budget doesn't allow for us to guarantee state funding at this time."

Legislators said they plan to prioritize teacher salaries during the next legislative cycle, which begins in 2019.

HoustonChronicle.com: Districts brace for looming spending fight with state lawmakers

Still, the bill brings some relief to current and retired teachers. Under the bonus plan, teachers with six to 11 years of experience would get a one-time payment of $600, and teachers with more than 11 years of experience would receive $1,000. The bonuses would be paid out in September 2018.

For retired teachers, the $212 million injected into the health care retirement fund would help lower out-of-pocket costs and aid those with disabled children. Retirees who buy health insurance through the fund, called TRS-Care, are still expected to see significant increases in premiums and deductibles. Those costs could reach into the thousands of dollars, particularly for retired teachers who aren't yet 65 years old and eligible for Medicare.

Q&A: Big changes coming to retired teachers' health insurance

The cost of providing health insurance to retired teachers continues to outpace the revenues brought into TRS-Care, even with a one-time supplement of $212 million. Without additional changes, the fund is projected to be insolvent by fiscal 2021.

"We have a commitment in Texas, and I have a commitment, to continue to work to preserve this very valuable, important benefit to our teachers," State Sen. Joan Huffman said. "But it comes at a significant cost, and we're making this commitment now to give this relief to our retired teachers."

The teachers bonuses and TRS-Care funding will be paid with state appropriations.

The Texas House of Representatives hasn't yet taken up the bill. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled his approval of the legislation Monday.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A Texas spa's year of headaches continues after two customers claim they found feces in the water and smeared on a wall.

Natasha Stewart and Regina Dortch were vising the women's-only area of Carrollton's Spa Castle in June when they noticed the filth.

"I just could not believe it. I was speechless. I just could not believe it," Dortch told WFAA.

JUST RELAX: Best spas in Texas for a couples getaway

Spa Castle was recently cited by code inspectors for not having enough chlorine in the pools and spas, WFAA added.

Chron.com has reached out to Spa Castle for comment, as well as Scott Hudson, director of Environmental Services for Carrollton.

Spa Castle's latest issues began in March when the Chon family, who owns the business, plead not guilty to two counts of second-degree grand larceny, eight counts of second-degree criminal tax fraud and one count of third-degree criminal tax fraud in New York City, where they have another spa location, the New York Post reported.

DIVE IN: Houston-area to get another epic pool with the first Crystal Lagoon coming to Humble

The Chon family failed to report millions of dollars in revenues collected by Spa Castle from 2010 through 2013, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a news release. The family failed to remit to New York State a total of more than $621,000 in sales taxes, $207,000 in withholding taxes, $610,000 in corporate taxes, and $131,000 in Metropolitan Transportation Authority Surcharge taxes, Schneiderman added.

In June, five women accused the business of violating their privacy. The women claim that male employees took photos of them while naked and harassed them, the Dallas News reported. About a week later, the women filed a civil suit for more than $1 million in damages. A request for comment has been made to their lawyer.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Two Houston residents landed Wednesday on the Texas Department of Public Safety's list of most wanted fugitives.

Crime Stoppers is offering $5,000 rewards for information that could lead to arresting each man.

Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez, 20, and Carlos Alberto Gonzalez-Barahona, 26, are both wanted in connection with murders and believed to be affiliated with the violent MS-13 gang, according to DPS.

MOST DANGEROUS: Texas gang threat led by Tango Blast; Aryan Circle downgraded

Story continues below...

The department classifies both men as El Salvadoran citizens living illegally in the United States.

Herrera-Hernandez is wanted in connection with two murders -- one in Missouri City in June 2016 and one that happened July 9 in Harris County.

Herrera-Hernandez has ties in Houston and in Galveston County, including Clear Lake, Webster and League City. Authorities believe he is on the run with a 19-year-old woman, also from El Salvador, and her infant child.

MAPS: Where Texas' most dangerous gangs hold sway

He also goes by Alexander Hernandez and the nickname "Terror."

Gonzalez-Barahona has two open arrest warrants -- one in Harris County for murder and one in Brazoria County for aggravated kidnapping.

Gonzalez-Barahona is suspected of shooting and killing his estranged girlfriend on June 18 at their northwest Houston apartment. He then fled the apartment in a stolen pickup truck, authorities say, and abandoned it two days later off Interstate 69 in Wharton County.

He is also accused of kidnapping the pickup truck driver at gunpoint.

MS-13: Notorious gang responsible for violence across the country

Gonzalez-Barahona has tattoos of a star near his left elbow, "Texas" on the back of his upper right arm, "Trina" on the back of his ear and other tattoos on his abdomen, back, chest and wrists, according to DPS.

Anyone with information about either Herrera-Hernandez or Gonzalez-Barahona may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477) or text "DPS" -- followed by the tip -- to CRIMES (274637) from a cell phone.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Nine people are facing prostitution charges after an undercover police sting in Waco, Texas.

Over the weekend, Waco police placed online advertisements soliciting sex-related services, Waco PD's Patrick Swanton said. They then arrested the nine people who responded to those ads.

READ ALSO: Texas undercover prostitution sting leads to 16 arrests

The ad lured quite a few suspects, including some from out of town. Police reported getting offers from Austin, Fort Hood and Dallas.

At weekend's end, police nabbed 9 people and obtained around 14 criminal charges. All were charged with Class B misdemeanor prostitution charges, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. One of the suspects reportedly had crack cocaine, and another tried to flee.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A Pasadena family is raising money for a funeral after a young father was murdered by a suspect who appears to have been a complete stranger.

Pasadena police spokesman Vance Mitchell said Steven Torrez, 29, was outside his home with his girlfriend on Sunday, July 23 at about 2:30 a.m., when the suspect rode up on a bicycle.

The suspect, Omari Chambers, allegedly confronted Torrez for no apparent reason. An altercation ensued, and Chambers allegedly stabbed Torrez in the leg, then left on his bicycle.

"It appeared that they did not know each other," Mitchell said.

Torrez' brother, Gilbert Torrez, said the victim was set to graduate this week from a pipefitter certification program at Alvin Community College.

JOSUE FLORES CASE: Murder charge dropped against homeless man accused in stabbing

Steven Torrez had planned to return to the Corpus Christi area soon, to work on a plant construction project and be near his three children, 11-year-old Alyssah, 8-year-old Michael and 2-year-old Alexa.

The children live in Refugio, Texas with their mother, Gilbert Torrez said. Steven Torrez grew up in the Manvel area, where his extended family still lives.

"He loved those children immensely," Gilbert Torrez said. "He lived for those children."

Torrez was taken to Bayshore Medical Center and underwent surgery on his leg early Sunday morning. He died later that day due to complications from his injury, Mitchell said.

After Torrez' girlfriend called 9-1-1 and provided a description of the suspect, patrol officers listening to the call on the radio were able to find Chambers quickly and arrest him, Mitchell said.

DENNY'S DEATH: Sheriff fires deputy after weeks-long investigation

A GoFundMe page set up for Torrez' funeral expenses says he leaves behind three children, Alyssah, Michael and Alexa.

"We're hoping to raise enough money for his funeral service and some mementos to place ashes in for his children," says the page owned by Gilbert Torrez. "We believe it would only be fitting if we could give them a piece of their father that they could wear forever, as his love for them was boundless."

Chambers, a Pasadena resident, is being held in the Harris County Jail with bond set at $150,000. He was previously convicted of robbery in New York State in 2001.

Pasadena Police Officer Jessica Ramirez said the case is still under investigation.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexico's spiraling violence reached new heights with 2,234 murders in June, the country's deadliest month in at least 20 years, according to government data.

Killings rose in states ranging from the tourist haven of Baja California Sur to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz and even in Mexico City, long considered a relative oasis from drug gang violence. For the first six months of 2017, authorities nationwide recorded 12,155 homicide investigations, or 31 percent more than the 9,300 during the same period last year.

Just Friday, the same day the report was released, a marine and four other people were killed when armed forces moved against the leader of the principal fuel-theft ring in the central state of Puebla.

Four of the dead were alleged members of "Los Bukanas," a violent gang that sells gasoline stolen through illegal taps in the government oil company's pipelines. It's a business that has been estimated to cost the government $1 billion annually and which has grown increasingly violent as authorities try to control it.

Also Friday, the top prosecutor in the western state of Jalisco, Eduardo Almaguer, said authorities discovered two drug cartel training camps where they believe about 40 people had been trapped and trained after being tricked by online job advertisements. An unknown number of human remains were also found.

The victims were apparently lured by job offers for private security guards or municipal police and were then forced to build their own shelters from wood and branches and train in tactics and shooting  using paintball guns  while under guard by gang members, Almaguer said. The investigation that led to the camps started with six similar reports of missing people in June.

"They are recruiting good people who look for employment," Almaguer said.

On Thursday, a neighborhood on the south side of Mexico City exploded in gunfire and eight people were killed as marines tried to capture the leader of a drug gang that controlled street-level drug sales in part of the city. The gang's semi-automatic rifles and burning vehicle barriers set up to block authorities were reminiscent of perennial hotspots like the border city of Reynosa, but almost unheard of in the capital.

Those events underscore the growing struggles between or against organized crime groups from one end of the country to the other.

Murders remain high in states that have traditionally struggled with violence like Guerrero and Mexico state. But they have also shot up in states unaccustomed to such bloodshed, like Baja California Sur  home to the Los Cabos tourist resorts  and the Pacific coast state of Colima.

The border state of Chihuahua, which had found some relief from violence that peaked in 2010, has found its murders in 2017 running about 55 percent ahead of where they were last year.
An unusual debate  over chlorinated chickens, of all things  is showing how Brexit and free markets can lead the UK and the developing world to greater flourishing.

The debate has been brewing for years. In the United States, chickens are decontaminated with chlorine. The EU banned spraying or washing poultry with chlorine in 1997, citing health concerns. Although these health concerns have since been put to rest, their lingering memory  and the quasi-immortality of government regulations  mean that there is still a ban on U.S. chicken.

This reached a head as UK trade secretary Liam Fox came to Washington, D.C., this week to begin preliminary talks about a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. President Trump is so taken with the notion of supporting the UKs decision to leave the EU that he tweeted this morning he envisions a major trade deal with the United Kingdom.

Trump, no fan of unrestricted free trade, further admonished Brussels, The E.U. is very protectionist with the U.S. STOP! And he certainly has a point. The ban on U.S. poultry has come up in previous trade deals with Europe and is certain to do so again.

In the UK, a row has begun about importing chlorinated chickens which pose a threat to European health and welfare, the Green lobby clucks.

However, the Adam Smith Institute has debunked the notion in a new study by Peter Spence.

Actually, the EUs advisors discredited the reasoning behind the ban. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in December 2005 that the processing of poultry carcasses  with trisodium phosphate, acidified sodium chlorite, chlorine dioxide, or peroxyacid solutions, under the described conditions of use, would be of no safety concern.

There is roughly as much chlorine in a whole chicken as there is in one glass of water. To pose a health hazard, someone would have to eat five percent of his body weight  about three chickens a day, everyday, for an extended period  Spence writes.

Nonetheless, a coalition of environmentalists and farmers averse to U.S. competition have agreed to stand guard, to keep Fox from bringing in more chickens. The British Poultry Council, which represents the domestic poultry industry, generously opposed any compromise on standards of imported chickens, adding, A secure post-Brexit deal must be about Britains future food security and safety.

Evidence suggests that health is one of the primary benefits of importing U.S. poultry. The chlorine decontamination process reduces salmonella in U.S. chickens to just two percent. EU chicken samples typically have 15-20% salmonella, the Adam Smith Institute states.

American Farm Bureau Federations chief economist Bob Young told British radio this morning, If somebody thinks that were in this to come up with some system to poison the UK consumer thats just hogwash, and you know thats hogwash.

The capitalist system discourages killing ones consumers, if not out of respect for their human dignity, then out of self-interest. As Ludwig von Mises wrote, the free market forces all those engaged in production to the utmost exertion in the service of the consumers.  He who best serves the consumers profits most and accumulates riches.

The British consumer will also profit from the arrangement. U.S. poultry costs 78 percent of the price of chickens sold the European Union, and 79 percent of poultry in UK grocery freezers, Spence writes.

Using extant data, a rough estimate means that imported U.S. chicken could save consumers as much as 840 million, or more than $1 billion U.S. every year. (See below.) The savings means that families in need can afford to consume more calories of a healthy, lean protein. Middle class families can spend the remaining portion of their income on other household needs or put it into savings.

But, as Fox said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, chlorinated chickens are one minor detail of the U.S.-UK free trade deal. Brexit will allow the UK to leave the EU customs union, including its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which imposes an 18 percent tariff on most agricultural goods. That gives British citizens the opportunity to enjoy a wider variety of less expensive food. Many of these will be grown in the developing world, as former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith noted during a previous speech to a U.S. think tank, helping the worlds most distressed farmers grow a sustainable industry.

To some, the 21-cent-a-dollar difference may be chicken feed, but to the worlds poorest people, it may be the difference between life and death.

Methodology: The UK consumed 1.27 billion chickens in 2013 mostly from the UK and Europe, according to the British Poultry Council. Another source reports that the average cost of a whole chicken weighing a minimum of 1.35kg from four of the leading supermarkets is 3.15.

(Photo credit: woodley wonderworks. This photo has been cropped. CC BY 2.0.)
It has become passe to accuse defenders of the free market of selfishness and atomization. Even Pope Francis recently denounced libertarian individualism. But Mihail Neamtu, in a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, argues that open markets rely on one specific virtue, best exemplified by fathers and entrepreneurs, which requires them to care for others:

Over nearly half a century, secular academia, pop culture, and the managerial welfare State have undermined an important moral quality of the West: individual responsibility, rooted in inherent human dignity. This may be expressed, in part, as affectionate fatherhood and a martial readiness to act under the moral imperative of serving others. Undermining responsibility has had a critical impact on the religious and economic culture of the modern West.

The wide-ranging essay cites such cultural authorities as Philippe Aries, Georges Duby, Harvey Mansfield, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI en route to showing how our understanding of this virtue has been changed, softened, and distorted. Along the way, Neamtu surveys the cultural landscape, from Salvador Dali to American Beauty.

The downgrading of personal responsibility, he writes, has transformed everything from our view of the Divine to how we relate to one another economically:

This outlook eroded the traditional Western attributes of having the courage to take risks (necessary for every big or small entrepreneur) and the power to exercise self-control in the face of powerful temptation (as shown by Salvador Dalis image of Anthony the Great facing his demons in the vast Egyptian desert).  High taxation has diminished the value of family inheritance and the organic solidarity between generations. Economic intervention has created high unemployment among the younger population of Europe (which affects as many as 45 percent of Greek and Spanish men), leading to their postponing marriage and family formation. Deprived of the ability to generate a regular income the European man, like his America counterpart, has slipped into negative patterns of behavior (soft drugs, alcoholism, and multiple online addictions). By making legal divorce very easy, Western governments threatened the well-being of children. Left to raise their children by themselves, millions of mothers carry the burden of child-rearing in the absence of any family structure. This creates a vicious cycle of anger and resignation.

Read his perceptive essay, and youll understand why he concludes, Economic activity is one avenue of incarnating the Divine spark lit within every human being.

You can read his full essay here.

(Photo credit: Negative Space. Public domain.)
Socialism, said Richard John Neuhaus, is the religion people get when they lose their religion. While that might have been true in Neuhauss day, many young Christians are now attempting to have their faith and socialism too.

I never got the opportunity to meet Fr. Neuhaus. He died in January 2009, two months before I started working as the web editor at the magazine he founded, First Things. I suspect, though, that the staunch advocate of democratic capitalism would be surprised and dismayed to find his publication now has editors who identify as socialist and columnists who claim capitalism is inimical to Christianity.

Id also be curious to hear what he thought of the baffling article published yesterday in his magazine in which Andrew Strain claims a truly free market is as mythical as a unicorn. I loathe to appear to be picking on Mr. Strain, but by analyzing his essay we can see a common pattern that is emerging, even in once conservative publications: writers who dont know the first thing about free markets explaining why they are inferior to socialist policies.

The theme of Strains article is that, So-called free markets are not actually free. Recognizing this, we are at liberty to evaluate economic life by other, higher criteria than market freedom. In a sense, this is not a controversial claim. Because of state intervention, many markets are indeed not free.

But this is not what Strain means. He is arguing that because the state intervenes in markets they are not free and thus we need more state intervention. Strain says,

Neoliberals often invoke a dichotomy between public and private: The private (the market) operates according to competitive self-interest, whereas the public (the state) is a coercive expression of politics. But the foundation of markets in western economies is the commercial corporation, and commercial corporations are not simply private.

While he touches on an important point by highlighting competitive self-interest and coercive expression of politics, Strains understanding of the the market is incomplete. Its also absurd to claim as he does that the foundation of markets is the commercial corporation. A better way to think about markets is through what the legendary hedge fund manager Ray Dalio calls a transactions-based approach:

An economy is simply the sum of the transactions that make it up. A transaction is a simple thing. Because there are a lot of them, the economy looks more complex than it really is. If instead of looking at it from the top down, we look at it from the transaction up, it is much easier to understand. A transaction consists of the buyer giving money (or credit) to a seller and the seller giving a good, a service or a financial asset to the buyer in exchange. A market consists of all the buyers and sellers making exchanges for the same things  e.g., the wheat market consists of different people making different transactions for different reasons over time. An economy consists of all of the transactions in all of its markets. So, while seemingly complex, an economy is really just a zillion simple things working together, which makes it look more complex than it really is.

A market consists of all the buyers and sellers making exchanges for the same things. The buyers and sellers can certainly be commercial corporations, but they can also be individuals, non-profits, partnerships, or even the government. When it comes to markets there is absolutely nothing special about corporations.

Having started off with a misunderstanding of markets, Strain then proceeds to highlight his misunderstanding of corporations:

As David Ciepley has pointed out, [corporations] are neither fish nor fowl. They rest on private initiative but depend on the state to co-create and sustain them. The distinctive features of commercial corporations are impossible to maintain without the states ensuring them. Ciepley explains: The business corporation depends on government for its contractual individuality, or personhoodits right to own property, make contracts, and sue and be sued as an individual. . . . The corporation depends on government for its governing rights: its right to establish and enforce rules within its jurisdiction. The corporation is defined by its government-created and -conserved properties: limited liability, asset shielding, and asset lock-in. The corporation as a market institution is a product of the state, and what it means to be a corporation is inseparable by its very nature from governmental power.

Strain makes an error that is all too common today: assuming that if a government recognizes or regulates an institution then the state must have created the institution. The most obvious example of this thinking is on the institution of marriage. Many intelligent people believe that since the state has the ability to regulate and redefine what it will consider to be marriage that it has the power to changes the ontological status of marriage. It does not.

Nor, for that matter, is the ontological status of corporations dependent on the state. A corporation is merely a group of people who choose to act as a single entity. They almost always seek government recognition, of course, because it makes it easier to deal with our ubiquitous legal environment. But the state does not co-create a corporation any more than the state co-creates a marriage when it issues a marriage license.

Strain is correct, of course, in implying that the corporation depends on government to recognize and enforce its rights. But that is true also for individuals. While government does not establish our natural rights as humans, we rely on the state to recognize, protect, and enforce these rights when necessary. That is one of the primary functions of the state.

Up to this point, Strain appears to be merely confused about markets and corporations. However, he next uses this confusion as the basis for a peculiar argument:

This fact has devastating implications for those who subscribe to the notion of a self-regulating market. A laissez-faire economy that has corporations is a contradiction in terms, since in corporations the private is intertwined with the public. In the age of corporations, a truly free market is as mythical as a unicorn. Once we recognize this, and discard the public/private dichotomy, we can cease to decry state intervention as such, and begin to think about the best way to manage our economy. Intervention should be judged on its meritshow well it serves the common goodrather than condemned on principle. And the common good, contrary to neoliberal tenets, is not a utilitarian aggregate of material goods, but the order of justice and peace participated in by all the members of a society. This order and its demands are the true basis for assessing government intervention.

This paragraph is such as mess that its hard to know where to start. But lets unpack it as best we can.

First, the claim that a laissez-faire economy that has corporations is a contradiction in terms is nonsensical. Laissez-faire is merely the idea that the less the government is involved in the economy, the better off business will be  and by extension, society as a whole. Even if we concede that corporations are wholly birthed by the government it would not be a contradiction to claim that businesses, once born, should have as minimal interference with their parent as possible.

Second, the claim that in the age of corporations, a truly free market is as mythical as a unicorn is easily disproven. The Market (i.e., the economy) is merely an aggregate of all markets. Some of these markets are free, others less so. For example, as a seller of his writing, Strain entered the market for online articles and engaged the buyer, First Things magazine. That market is relatively free of government interference. No one from the state told Strain or First Things how much had to be paid for the article, what the word count must be, when it could be published, etc. The fact that Strain never recognized that he was engaged in a market activitymuch less engaging in a free marketmerely reveals how constrained his thinking is on this issue of markets.

Third, he claims that since corporations rely on the government to enforce their rights then we should cease to decry state intervention as such, and begin to think about the best way to manage our economy. This is a question-begging conclusion. Those of us who advocate for free markets and decry state intervention do so precisely because we think its the best way to manage the economy.

Fourth, Strain engages in reification when he says, Intervention should be judged on its meritshow well it serves the common goodrather than condemned on principle. Before we can judge the merits we must ask who is doing the intervention? Strain would say the State. But who is the State? Is it the consensus of a democratic majority? The Congress? Unelected bureaucrats?

What Strain is saying is that some other peoplerather than those directly engaged in the market activityshould decide what is best for those involved. Unfortunately, many people tend to prefer government interventions to market-driven solutions because of this fallacious reified thinking. As Pascal Boyer says:

[H]umans may be motivated to place their trust in processes that are (or at least seem to be) driven by agents rather than impersonal factors. This may be why there is a strong correlation between being scared of markets and being in favour of state interventions in the economy. One of the most widespread political assumptions in modern industrial societies is that the government should do something about x, where x can be any social or economic problem. Why do people trust the state? The state (in peoples intuitions, not in actual fact) has all the trappings of an agent. It is supposed to have knowledge, memories, intentions, strategies, etc. Now it may be that people are vastly more comfortable trusting an agent to provide help or impose sanctions, than they would trust an impersonal, distributed and largely invisible process. That would be mostly a question of intuitive psychology (highly salient in our reasonings about social processes) versus population thinking (highly unintuitive, difficult to acquire and engage in without sustained effort).

Fifth, Strain says we should judge interventions on their merits. But what he fails to note is that once the state has intervened we often have no say in whether the intervention was good or bad. The state has spoken and we are to fall in line. That is another reason free market advocates prefer that before being implemented interventions be as minimal as possible and proven to be for the common good.

Sixth, Strain says contrary to neoliberal tenets, [the common good] is not a utilitarian aggregate of material goods, but the order of justice and peace participated in by all the members of a society. Its hard to know what to make of this slander. Ill be generous and assume the comment was made out of simple ignorance and that he isnt aware of why most free market advocates believe it serves the common good. As Rev. Robert Sirico has explained, the true goal of free markets is solidarity:

[W]e speak well of the market economy not because we embrace a soulless ideology about, or practice an idolatry of, the market. It is instead because of our respect for human liberty and our desire for social structures that affirm the dignity of all. This implies finding an economic system which, while providing outlets for human freedom in the marketplace, can also help alleviate poverty, increase general standards of living, respect private property, and minimize coercion. We seek economic growth, but not for its own sake. Our true goal is genuine human development through solidarity, a component of which is economic growth. Genuine human development through solidarity implies growth that is aimed at human betterment and the furthering of the common good of all people. Growth must be for the increased welfare of the community and the individual, and not for the isolated improvement of a select few. This means that all must have the opportunity to choose and live in accord with their vocation. All must have access to the physical capital needed to earn a living, whether producing for their own consumption on a farm or producing for exchange in an enterprise where they earn a just wage. Such a system is, nearly by definition, a just economic order. The dignity of the human person leads us to conclude that a society in which we are free (in the sense explained above) is a just social order. The free market economy then is one aspect of this just social order through which we can achieve solidarity.

After all of this bashing of the free market, you can probably guess the solution Strain proposes will involve socialism. I give Strain credit, though, for loosely concealing it in the guise of syndicalism. Strain uses Pius XIs encyclical Quadragesimo anno to advocate for State-established syndicates of workers and employers would work together, with the state acting as a judge of last resort when no agreement can be reached.

As with all advocates of socialism, Strain believes something magical happens when you take freedom and power away from individuals and give them to state-controlled collectives. Whereas people were unable to freely choose to act in a way that advanced the common good, according to Strain, the common good will suddenly and magically become maximized by the state adjudicating how workers and employers would work together.

Strain says this will be an advancement over the way the neoliberal conflation of the common good with so-called market freedom which, he says, leads to confusions. His primary example is a panel discussion at the recent Acton University conference in which Rev. Sirico, the president of the neoliberal Acton Institute criticized the creation of laws against child labor in Thailand.

Again, Ill try to give Strain the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasnt being intentionally dishonest. He does, after all, link to the video which allows us to see the full context of what Rev. Sirico said:

We think we can just fix the problem of child labor . . . my making laws in Thailand to abolish child labor that weve sent these kids off to nice schools and thats not what happens. If they cant work a factoryusually with their parents in homes that what ends up happening is theyre trafficked, and you know that if youve worked with trafficking [organizations]. So I think that these kinds of things need to be looked at with a different lens, but with a moral concern not just with the economic concern but with the effects, the consequences of good and well intended legislation.

We see that Strain has completely misrepresented Rev. Siricos position, which does not conflate the common good with so-called market freedom but does the very thing Strain implores us to do: judge state interventions based on the standard of the common good.

Again, I dont mean to pick on Mr. Strain or First Things (a publication I still admire). But this shows how easy it is for otherwise conservative outlets to promulgate the most economically ignorant claims.

A key problem is that magazines, think tanks, and non-profits are often staffed by the same type of cheap laboryoung people who all went to the same elite (or semi-elite) schools, all live in the same liberal urban environs, and who have never done any real work outside of academia or have any real experience with business or the market economy. Often, these staffers have no economic background yet think they are qualified to pontificate on the problems with markets because they read a few old encyclicals.

In Catholic circles, they tend to align with (or at least sympathetic to) the recent Tradinista! manifesto. As John Zmirak says,

To generalize, Tradinistas are mostly liberal arts grads that soaked in the political theories of pre-Christian philosophers who accepted slavery and scorned honest commerce. Tradinistas have only the crudest understanding of economics. Its a discipline they sneer at, because the truths it uncovers expose the hopelessness of utopia.

Instead, they quaff a few economically confused essays by writer and poet G.K. Chesterton, activist Dorothy Day, or theologian David Bentley Hart. They pretend that past papal reflections are infallible divine revelations. Then they act as if this dilettantes hodgepodge makes up for their willful ignorance of the science of human cooperation  economics.

If the moldy and discredited ideas of the new breed of Christian socialists were quarantined on the left, it wouldnt be so troubling. But if they can invade the former free market advocating institutions like First Things, then we are in danger of having them spread the contamination everywhere. It would be troubling enough to have these neo-socialists use the megaphones of the conservatism to miseducate their peers. But having an entire generation be deceived because they trusted the gatekeepers at formerly conservative outlets would be a travesty.

Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed, said Richard John Neuhaus. What he meant was that when beliefs about what are right and wrong are allowed to become optional, the old orthodoxy that is optional is proscribed by the new orthodoxy, which is never optional.

We may soon see a variation of Neuhauss law applied to the economic sphere. Because conservative Christians are too timid to defend the moral superiority of the free market system we may soon find that we have socialism forced upon us by those who we assumed were our allies.

Related: In October the Acton Institute will be sponsoring a conference titled, Toward a Free and Virtuous Society: Marxism a Century after the Bolshevik Revolution.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Amanda Hilow/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A Houston ISD debate program will expand to serve an additional 300 at-risk high school students from five local school districts after the Harris County Department of Education approved a new partnership with the sponsoring group.

The Houston Urban Debate League will now offer programs through HCDE's Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enrichment for Kids (CASE for Kids), which serves about 9,000 at-risk and lower-income students across greater Houston.
The Texas Department of Public Safety's latest report shows where some of the biggest criminal groups are most active in the state.

The July 2017 "Gang Threat Assessment Report" includes county maps of Texas, each tied to individual gangs in the "Tier 1" and "Tier 2" categories.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Float Fest drew a plethora of people to the San Marcos River in July 2017 - a record number, according to organizers.

But San Marcos River volunteers said it also left behind a plethora of marks on the ecosystem.

"They don't care about the river," Carina Boston Pinales, a Float Fest Active Clean-Up organizer told mySA.com.

Float Fest, the Central Texas event featuring live music, camping and tubing down the San Marcos River, drew a crowd of over 10,000 in 2017. And those people left a lot of trash.

MORE PHOTOS: Float Fest 2017 gets off to a hot start Saturday

"I'm guessing at least 5,000 cans. A few hundred plastic and glass bottles. Empty tubes, footwear, hats and shirts," Zach Halfin, host of the clean-up told mySA. "We know that from experience there is usually a pretty big mess left behind."

The Float Fest Active Clean-Up, an event created by The Eyes of the San Marcos River, a volunteer group helping to protect the river, included over 60 volunteers. It was their fourth year cleaning up after the festival.

Halfin said that Float Fest has been an event of controversy year after year for the small town of Martindale, where the festival takes places.

"They hate it. They are living out in the country and all the sudden they have a techno show going on," Halfin said. "It's high traffic. Loud noises. They feel like an invasion of privacy."

Surrounding areas and landmarks also feel the aftereffects of the party, particularly, the San Marcos River, according to the group.

"It's very damaging to the ecosystem down there," said Halfin.

RELATED: Instagram captures the wild, hot and loud weekend of Float Fest

Attendees of the festival who come from across the state are unaware of the need for receptacles when tubing, Halfin said. And he said many companies didn't provide tubers with mesh bags in which to deposit cans and other trash.

"People just don't think about it. A lot of trash is accidental, but the outfitters aren't doing them any service on telling (the tubers) what they need," Halfin said.

In order to combat the amount of trash that is left behind in the river, The Eyes' volunteers created a system in which people gather along and in the river and with long-handle fishing nets collect trash and throw it into a large bucket on a kayak.

Despite their efforts, Pinales said they expect another two to three weeks of clean up post the festival.

"It's just heartbreaking to begin that cleanup and see the river, see my feet, see straight through the waters, (and then) by the time we hit 45 minutes, it's already murky, stirred up and gross," Pinales said.

Halfin said that he feels the event's organizers did more to protect the river than in previous years, "but I still don't feel they did enough."

"When there are events like that and 10,000 people are there, your looking at 50,000-100,000 disposable cans going down the river," Halfin said. "By the end of the year, there are underwater landfills."

READ ALSO: Photos: New Central Texas company now offering guided river snorkel tours

The trash concern was noticed by a major performer of Float Fest.

MGMT responded to a comment Pinales made on Twitter when she asked the festival to address the importance of protecting the environment.

The band replied: ":( yes. this is news to me."

Pinales said this is the only performer who acknowledged the environmental concerns through social media, but the sentiment presents a silver lining.

"At least this year we had some attention from performers and audiences," she said, adding that it is her hope artists will use their platforms to educate more people of the festival's impact on the river.

For more information on The Eyes of the San Marcos River and how to get involved, visit their Facebook.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Houston City Council was briefly derailed Wednesday by a debate over whether the mayor's chief of staff should continue serving as a director of the Near Northwest Management District.

The brief but intense flap was spurred by Councilwoman Brenda Stardig's move to separate the appointment of Marvalette Hunter from the appointments of the other nine board members up for council confirmation Wednesday.

Hunter owns the Palisades of Inwood, a 127-unit complex on West Mount Houston, which Mayor Sylvester Turner said is the largest commercial property in the district. Hunter became Turner's chief of staff earlier this year, taking one of the most powerful unelected posts in Houston's strong-mayor form of government.

Stardig, whose council district overlaps with the management district's boundaries, said her motion was not personal but was driven by a desire to protect the management district's work from any "doubt," given Hunter's newly influential position.

"It's important to understand there's a great deal of work needed to be done in this district," Stardig said. "I want to make sure we're not put in a position of doubt or question."

Turner pushed back forcefully. When the absence of several council members from the horseshoe appeared to provide a path for Stardig's initial procedural motion to pass, the mayor delayed a vote until all members returned to the table, over Stardig's objections.

"She's served on the board for several years and continues to serve on the board," Turner said of Hunter. "There is absolutely no substantive reason at all for this to be an issue."

Councilman Greg Travis called the appointment "bad optics" and suggested Hunter's board colleagues might hesitate to differ with the mayor's chief of staff.

"You may end up neutering the other nine" directors, Travis said.

Councilman Dwight Boykins accused Stardig of trying to derail the mayor's efforts and embarrass Hunter, calling the motion a "personal jab."

"There's no reason to approach it this way," said Boykins. "I'm calling a spade a spade."

Ultimately, all sides cooled down. Boykins apologized to Stardig. Stardig withdrew her motion.

Turner said he appreciated Stardig's desire to ensure the Near Northwest board worked effectively, noting he had helped create the entity as a state representative.

"I live in the management district. I am keenly interested in what takes place and happens in this management district," the mayor said.

Management districts are state-created entities whose boards are partly or wholly appointed by local governments. They levy taxes on businesses within their boundaries and reinvest the funds locally.

State law allows public employees to serve on management district boards, City Attorney Ron Lewis said, but employee-directors cannot vote on assessments on or contracts related to the government for which they work.
Eric Gay/STF

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took to national television to keep up his attack accusing Democrats of promoting policies that are "killing people" like those who died in a tractor trailer in a San Antonio Walmart parking lot.

During a short interview on Fox News Channel on Tuesday morning, Patrick said Democratic mayors and President Barack Obama's policies are to blame for the deaths in San Antonio. Patrick made national headlines over the weekend when he first launched his attack via Facebook on Sunday.
AUSTIN  Brushing aside loud protests from Texas cities, the state Senate on Wednesday approved legislation that will curb local annexation authority by requiring voter approval.

Senate Bill 6 was given final approval by a vote that was generally along party lines, after more than hour of intense debate. The measure now goes to the House, where more intense opposition is expected.

The approved version increases the number of counties  and cities  that would be covered by the new rule. An amendment changed the law to cover counties with a population greater than 125,000 people, from the threshold of 500,000 that was originally included.

Amendments were defeated that would have specifically left intact existing agreements to protect San Antonio's military bases and annexation deals that the Alamo City has with Converse.

"Forced annexation is never right," said state Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican who is an author of the measure, citing the annexation of European nations years ago that triggered wars and general unpleasantness. "It wasn't cool then and it isn't cool now."

While Campbell and other supporters of the bill said it was designed to ensure a democratic process in annexations, like existing laws in other states, several senators warned that it would limit the ability of cities to protect their revenue base and pay for needed services in growing areas.

Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, was among senators who challenged the change. He said other states that mandate voter-approved annexations provide infrastructure and support funding for their local cities, while Texas does not.

He proposed an amendment to apply allow voter approval of any annexations in Texas. "If democracy is good, more democracy is be better," he said.

That amendment was voted down by the Senate's GOP majority.

Campbell accepted an amendment from Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, to increase the number of counties covered by the new policy. He said the change will cover 72 percent of the state's population, even though he supports eventually making it universal.

Residents in smaller counties can still petition to not be annexed, Campbell said.

In a legislative session where state officials are pushing to limit the powers of municipalities to regulate tree-cutting, development permitting, funding for abortion services and spending, cities across the state have decried the annexation bill as the most egregious because it will limit their ability to raise revenues and balance the needs for increasing services.

The Texas Municipal League and mayors from cities large and small across Texas have protested the annexation limit for weeks, and mayors from several cities are scheduled to meet with Abbott later this week to discuss their continuing concerns.
AUSTIN  A key House Republican who chairs the committee that will decide whether to advance Texas' controversial "bathroom bill" called the issue a distraction Wednesday.

"As the special session continues to unfold, I am disappointed that our great state is continuing to waste so much time over the 'bathroom debate,'" Rep. Byron Cook wrote on the Texas GOP Vote, a Republican website. "Especially since all the attention on this issue is smoke-screening a very serious threat facing rural Texas families, rural public schools, and even the economic survival of our state's rural communities."

Cook, a Republican from Corsicana, chairs the House State Affairs Committee which is expected to consider legislation that requires people use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on his or her birth certificate in government and school buildings, which passed the Senate Tuesday.

Critics call the legislation discriminatory and an attack on transgender people by forcing them to use the rest room of the gender they no longer identify with. Several police chiefs came out against it this week. Advocates say the legislation is important to protect women's privacy and keep men out of the women's restrooms.

While Cook said he supports limiting bathroom use to a person's birth gender, school districts should set their own policies on which bathrooms transgender students should use. Said Cook:

"As for my position on the 'bathroom' bill, I support legislation that limits admittance (based on gender at birth) to multi-stall bathrooms and locker rooms in our schools and requires local schools districts to develop single-stall bathroom policies for its transgender students. Beyond clarifying this policy for our public schools, we already have strong laws in Texas against sexual predators. Therefore, I do not condone duplicitous grandstanding on this issue and/or discriminatory legislation; nor do I support laws that will adversely affect our state's economy."

The focus on which bathrooms people can use is distracting people from a "disingenuous" effort to lower property taxes and and a school choice bill that would "cripple funding" for rural public school districts, he said.

House leaders, including San Antonio Republican Speaker Joe Straus, is no fan of the bathroom bill and has sided with business leaders who say the legislation would hurt the Texas economy, which has already lost some $66 million through convention cancellations.

The House passed its own watered down version of the bathroom bill during the regular session, instructing schools to set policies about bathroom use. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick from Houston was non-surplussed with that version, essentially saying the House's bill was weak sauce and demanding a that goes further to protect women.

Cook stopped short of saying exactly what he will do with the bill the Senate is expected to send over to the House, but hinted the Senate version isn't to his liking: "I do not condone duplicitous grandstanding on this issue and/or discriminatory legislation; nor do I support laws that will adversely affect our state's economy."

Andrea Zelinski writes about politics and education for the Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.
AUSTIN  State police arrested 15 immigration protesters Wednesday outside the state Capitol after they blocked traffic at a key intersection.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials who police the capitol complex said the demonstrators, who were protesting Attorney General Ken Paxton's opposition to a federal policy protecting children from deportation, staged a peaceful sit-in outside Paxton's office at mid-morning.

Marching afterward to the Capitol, they blocked traffic at the intersection of 15th Street and Congress Avenue, just north of the Capitol. Troopers then moved in and forcibly removed the demonstrators  several of them in handcuffs  to clear the street, DPS and bystanders said.

Authorities said they could not immediately say whether arrests would be made. No injuries were reported, officials said.

Protesters supporting Planned Parenthood and objecting to legislative attempts to further restrict abortions also were at the Capitol on Wednesday.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

While Trump may be cutting back the Environmental Protection Agency's so-called regulatory overreach, an environmental group is suing the EPA for the complete opposite: not pushing hard enough.

Watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project recently filed a lawsuit arguing that Texas environmental officials issue permits that allow Houston, Pasadena and other Texas refineries to pollute too much.

The lawsuit cited a study conducted by the group that found Texas only imposed fines on roughly 3 percent of unauthorized air pollution incidents between 2011 and 2016.

DETAILS: Environmental group sues EPA over pollution rules, cites Houston refineries

Story continues below...

The lawsuit, filed July 20, follows another major EPA-related headline. Earlier that week, Republicans in the U.S. House voted to delay Obama's 2015 air pollution standards by eight more years as well as passing other measures to weaken the Clear Air Act.

It's clear the EPA is at the center of a partisan battle, but it wasn't always that way.

It's hard to fathom, but environmentalism was once a bipartisan issue, pushed enthusiastically into law by Republican President Richard Nixon.

STUDY: Texas economy could face chilling effect from climate change

In his 1970 State of the Union Address, Nixon asked Congress, "shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land and to our water?"

Shortly after, the Environmental Protection Agency was created. To help foster support for the newly created agency, Nixon sent out 70 photographers tasked with documenting "subjects of environmental concern" throughout the United States.

Known as "The Documerica Project," the photographers captured thousands of images of rural and urban life, demonstrating the toll that runaway manufacturing and fossil fuels had on the environment.

POPULATION CHANGES: Texas cities that will lose, gain the most residents fleeing from global warming

Today, they continue to serve as a reminder of what Nixon called the "price tag" on pollution.

"Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature," Nixon said. "And now that debt is being called."

Click through to see what America looked like before the Environmental Protection Agency.
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.
We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.
Hyderabad July 26 : The Kabali girl Radhika Apte, one of the most promising actors, is once again under a controversy, this time for her scuffle with photographers.Radhika has apparently been shooting for her film Bazaar with Saif Ali Khan in a popular mall in Mumbai. After having her lunch, she got down from her caravan and started on her way to the mall. But on the way, she was clicked by the photographers, which actually didn't go quite well with her.

She got furious and shouted back at the photographers for clicking pictures without her permission and she also asked them to delete them. Without any other option, the photographers deleted the pictures.It seems like Radhika wanted to keep her looks for Bazaar under the wraps, and that is why she got annoyed when the photographers clicked.
Copiii cu nevoi speciale din Stefan Voda au conditii de reabilitare mai bune, datorita UE si Fundatiei Soros Moldova
Large shipping losses have declined by 50 percent over the past decade, mostly driven by the development of a more robust safety environment by ship owners, according to Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SEs (AGCS) fifth annual Safety & Shipping Review 2017. There were 85 total shipping losses reported in 2016, down 16 percent compared with a year earlier (101). The number of shipping incidents (casualties) declined slightly year-on-year by 4 percent with 2,611 reported, according to the review, which analyzes reported shipping losses over 100 gross tons.

Geographic Breakdown

More than a quarter of shipping losses in 2016 (23) occurred in the South China, Indochina, Indonesia and Philippines region  the top hotspot for the last decade. Loss activity there remained stable but was still almost double the East Mediterranean and Black Sea region (12), which was the next highest. Loss activity was also up in Japan, Korea and North China; the East African Coast, the South Atlantic, the East Coast of South America as well as the Canadian Arctic and Alaska maritime regions.

Cargo vessels (30) accounted for more than a third of all vessels lost. Passenger ferry losses increased slightly (8), driven by activity in the Mediterranean and South East Asia. Standards remain an issue in some parts of Asia with bad weather, poor maintenance, weak enforcement of regulations and overcrowding contributing to loss activity.

Causes of Shipping Loss

The most common cause of global shipping losses remains foundering (sinking), accounting for more than half of all losses in 2016, with bad weather often a factor. Over a third of shipping casualties were caused by machinery damage, which was also responsible for driving a 16 percent uptick in incidents in the East Mediterranean & Black Sea region (563), enough for it to replace the British Isles as the top incident location over the past decade.

Technology Drives Safety Improvements, but Over-Reliance Presents Risk Challenges

Safety-enhancing technology is already impacting shipping  from electronic navigational tools to shore-based monitoring of machinery and crew welfare. Technology has the potential to significantly reduce both the impact of human error  which AGCS analysis shows accounted for approximately 75 percent of the value of almost 15,000 marine liability insurance claims over five years, equivalent to more than $1.6 billion  as well as machinery breakdown.

Additionally, technology is instrumental in assisting with offshore crew health problems, which can often be difficult to address due to location. AGCS, together with Allianz Worldwide Care and Allianz Global Assistance, is now offering crew 24/7 access to medical advice through a dedicated app and on-board equipment. Such innovative telemedicine assistance services can help vessels make more informed decisions about a crew members health, potentially reducing the need to make costly route deviations.

Cyber Attack Threat Growing

The threat of cyber attacks continues to be significant. Most attacks to date have been aimed at breaching corporate security rather than taking control of a vessel. As no major incident resulting from a cyber attack has taken place, many in the industry are complacent. However, IT security should not be put on the backburner  if hackers were able to take control of a large container ship on a strategic route, significant economic losses would occur, added Kinsey.

Autonomous Vessels and Maritime Safety

The technology behind autonomous vessels is developing rapidly, including technology that could allow ships to be controlled remotely or operate autonomously. Advancements in technology are also expected to enable ships to monitor their own health and the environment around them.

Autonomous technology has the potential to revolutionize the movement of cargo on a scale not seen since containerization was introduced some 50 years ago, says Kinsey. Despite unknowns and regulatory issues, autonomous shipping will happen. Economic pressures on the shipping industry and the need to find efficiencies will support and speed up developments in maritime automation.

Piracy Threat Evolves with Crew Kidnapping on the Rise

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), incidents of piracy in 2016 continued their downward trend. The bureau recorded 191 incidences of piracy in 2016, down 22 percent from 2015 (246) and the lowest total recorded since 1998. The reduction reflects the success of measures to contain the threat of Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, including the introduction of armed guards on-board vessels and the presence of a multinational naval task force. There were just two recorded incidents off Somalia in 2016, compared with 160 in 2011.

Despite this positive trend, the threat of Somali pirates has not gone away. In March 2017, pirates captured the oil tanker, Aris 13 off the coast of Somalia and demanded a ransom  the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel since 2012. Then, on June 1, 2017, armed pirates attempted to board the tanker MT NAVIG8 PROVIDENCE in the Gulf of Oman.

2016 also saw the escalation of crew kidnapping, showing a threefold increase on 2015, according to the IMB. Pirates kidnapped 62 people for ransom in 15 separate incidents during the year. Just over half were captured off West Africa, while 28 were kidnapped from areas around Malaysia and Indonesia.

Economic Pressures Can Lead to Risky Cost Saving Measures

The collapse of one of the worlds largest shipping companies, Hanjin Shipping, over the past year exposed the perilous state of some parts of the sector. Bankruptcies are rising and when debt levels are high and earnings low, ship owners often seek to make cost savings from maintenance budgets, training and crewing levels, all of which can spike loss activity.

According to AGCS, negligence/poor maintenance is already one of the top causes of liability loss in the shipping sector and an increase in maintenance-related claims is observed. Implementing rigorous inspection and maintenance regimes is crucial.

Source: AGCS SE
When Jim Komsa launched his aerial photography business in 2013, using airplanes to shoot photos from the sky, he said there were only a handful of competitors in all of New Jersey. Now, there are dozens.

Komsa, the co-owner of Brick-based Shore Aerial Photography, credits one main factor in the growth of his industry: drones.

The drone industry is booming very rapidly, he told the Courier News and Home Tribune. Anybody you talk to, its cool to fly a drone, just to get your hands on the controls and fly this thing around.

Federal regulations allowing hobbyists and businesses to buy drones, led to plunging prices and explosive growth in the industry. There are now more than 1.1 million consumer drones in the skies over the U.S., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Companies are using the technology in everything from utility inspections to movie sets, agriculture, real estate, scientific research and law enforcement.

Komsa owns a fleet of four drones to snap sky-high photos of construction sites and properties on the real estate market as well as to create aerial maps.

He said his company faces one main challenge, one that experts said was common across the industry: uncertain regulations governing the use of drones.

Its changing so quick, he said. That for me is the most frustrating thing because Im abiding by the regulations now, I know exactly what I need to do now. Whats going to change next year thats going to make things different for me or anybody else thats in this field?

As drones become a fixture of the skies, experts said the federal government has been slow to figure out how to integrate them into the airspace. Meanwhile, many states and municipalities have passed their own drone laws creating a shifting patchwork of regulations that aviation experts said confuses flyers and leaves several key safety and privacy questions unanswered.

Its a fiasco lets just say that, said Sarah Nilsson, an aviation attorney and law professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Youve now got a hodgepodge of laws around the country that are sometimes in direct conflict with the FAA.

The FAA is the agency solely responsible for regulating American airspace, setting the standards for flying any aircraft including planes, helicopters and drones. The agencys current rules

The FAA previously required hobbyists to register their drone with the federal government, but that rule was struck down by a federal appeals court in May. More than 770,000 people registered drones before the rule was overturned. In New Jersey, more than 1,000 people registered in 2016 alone.

James Barnes has been flying unmanned aerial vehicles since he was around 15 years old. Hes now 52.

When I was a kid, I would build my own air frames, attach my own motors to them, and fly my own airplanes, he said.

Now, Barnes is the founder and operator of the NJ Drone Academy, a Ringoes-based school based in Hunterdon County that teaches people how to build and fly drones. He has been flying modern drones for the past six years and has been teaching people how to build them for the past three.

Since modern drones are relatively new, Barnes has seen the regulatory reaction toward them wax and wane over the years  such as how the aircrafts were first required to be registered before the rule was rescinded in 2016.

When we first started flying, when I first opened up my academy, there were basically no regulations, he said. Weve seen it from none to where it is now, so weve gotten to see the progression.

Barnes said regulation would be positive for the drone industry.

Im all for regulation, he said, so we can properly integrate them into our lives. Education is the key to safely do that.

The issue, he said, is that a lot people buy drones without knowing the rules, regulations and basics of flying. In the future, he would like to see the FAA issue a clear set of rules for commercial and recreational flyers.

There is a lot to look forward to with the growth of drones, though, as well. FPV racing, or first-person view racing, is a sport rapidly growing that involves racing drones, Barnes said. Hes currently in the midst of opening the first FPV park in the country at his academy in Ringoes, he said. For more information on the academy, go to www.njdroneacademy.com .

Around Central Jersey, drones are becoming an increasing presence in public and private enterprises.

In February, the Somerset County Sheriffs Office became the first law-enforcement agency in the country to receive new drone technology for search-and-rescue missions. The $40,000 military-grade, quad-rotor drone now being used by the sheriffs department was part of a partnership with Project Lifesaver International.

Businesses using unmanned aircraft follow the same rules as hobbyists but beginning last summer pilots must also pass an aviation knowledge test and be vetted by the Transportation Security Agency. Companies also have to obtain a waiver to fly in restricted airspace near airports and to fly at night.

In New Jersey, there are no statewide drone laws on the books, but unmanned aircraft are banned from flying over state parks.

Some municipalities have sought to set their own restrictions. In 2015, Bernards Township, amended an ordinance to include prohibiting the flying drones and unmanned aircrafts at any parks or recreation areas in the township.

Such local restrictions probably wouldnt hold up in court, aviation experts said because the FAA is the only agency with the power to regulate the airspace.

But towns might be able to pass laws about privacy and set limits on speed, noise and flying over private property, which local governments traditionally have had the power to regulate.

There are, however, federal regulations when it comes to flying drones near airports.

The FAAs website said that a drone pilot must give advance notice before flying within five miles of an airport.

The recommended guideline for people who fly drones for a hobby or as a recreation must contact the local airport if they intend to fly within five miles of that airport, said Jim Peters, the spokesman for the east region of the FAA. Thats a given. They have to do that.

If the airport has a tower, then that airports air traffic control must be informed in addition to the airport before flying a drone within five miles. Other restrictions can be found here.

He also said that a person or an organization can apply for a part 107, which is a waiver to operate a drone within five miles of an airport or the controlled airspace of a commercial service airport.

There are multiple drone enthusiast websites showing the five-mile buffer zones surrounding airports across the country.

In Hunterdon County, drone pilots must advise airport personnel of their planned flights in advance when fling within five miles of Alexandria Airport, Sky Manor Airport and Solberg Airport. Van Sant Airport in Bucks County, Pennsylvania has five-mile buffer zone extending into Hunterdon County, and so does Hackettstown Airport.

There are also five-mile buffer zones surrounding airports in Somerset County including Central Jersey Regional Airport and Somerset Airport. Princeton Airports five-mile zone extends into Somerset County. Old Bridge Airport in Middlesex County and Linden Airport in Union County also have five-mile zones.

At the shore, there are five-mile buffer zones around Ocean County Airport, Lakewood Airport and Eagles Nest Airport in Ocean County and Monmouth Executive Airport in Monmouth County.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A U.S. safety watchdog called for broader use of traffic cameras to catch speeding drivers, as it said driving too fast is an under-reported cause of traffic fatalities.

Inconsistent reporting by law enforcement causes the factor to go under-reported, according to a summary of a National Transportation Safety Board report set for release Tuesday. That masks the full scope of speedings role in deadly crashes for policy makers and police trying to combat the more than 30,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities, according to the report.

The current level of emphasis on speeding as a national traffic safety issue is lower than warranted, according to the reports summary. Speeding  either driving faster than posted limits or faster than road conditions allow  was linked to 112,580 U.S. traffic fatalities from 2005 through 2014, or 31 percent of all traffic deaths during that period, on par with drunk driving-related deaths, NTSB said.

Distracted driving was a cause in about 10 percent of roadside fatalities in 2015.

After seeing declines for a decade, U.S. traffic fatalities jumped 7 percent to 35,092 in 2015, and were on track to increase again in 2016. Speeding-related crash deaths are down from more than 13,000 in 2006 to 9,557 in 2015.

Roadside cameras that snap photos of speeders zooming by and other automated speed enforcement tools are widely acknowledged as an effective countermeasure to deter speeding and curb crashes, but theyre only used in 14 states and the District of Columbia, NTSB said.

The safety watchdog recommended that 22 states lift laws that restrict or prohibit the use of speed cameras. It also called on the remaining 28 states without such laws to authorize state and local agencies to use them to bolster speed limit enforcement.

Drunk or Distracted

Unlike with drunk or distracted driving, there are no national programs to boost public awareness about the risks of speeding, the NTSB report said. It also said federal programs that send funding to states dont do enough to ensure state efforts deter speeding.

The report also recommended that federal regulators identify metrics to be used by police officers to better document speeding in their communities and develop a method to evaluate the success of high-visibility speeding enforcement programs. It also said they should update federal guidelines for using speed cameras.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
uofa.jpg

The University of Akron Research Foundation, Kent State University and Case Western Reserve University were each nominated for a Deshpande Symposium Award in recognition of their commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship.

(Karen Farkas, cleveland.com)

AKRON, Ohio -- Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Akron Research Foundation have been nominated for Deshpande Symposium Awards, which recognize outstanding accomplishment in areas that promote innovation and entrepreneurship on college and university campuses.

The institutions will be honored at the sixth annual Deshpande Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship June 12-14 at UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center in Massachusetts.

The Ohio universities will be recognized as finalists for the following awards:

Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship -- Kent State University

The award recognizes an institution that encourages student leadership and engagement and supports the development of entrepreneurial awareness, skills and practice.

Exemplary Practice in Technology Commercialization -- Case Western Reserve University

The award recognizes an institution for comprehensive programs that accelerate innovations into commercialization.

Outstanding Contributions to Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education -- University of Akron Research Foundation

The award is presented to the individual who has demonstrated extraordinary achievements to entrepreneurship in higher education.

"These awards highlight the significant commitment that colleges and universities across North America make in support of innovation and entrepreneurship," Steven Tello, co-chairman of the conference and UMass Lowell's senior associate vice chancellor of entrepreneurship and economic development, said in a news release. "Successful businesses and entrepreneurs don't just happen, they are supported by networks of people and organizations that believe in their concept and energy and provide guidance, support and resources along the path to success."

The top three finalists in each category will have displays on their notable work in innovation and entrepreneurship education at the ceremony.

More than 300 people representing higher education institutions and businesses from across North America are expected to attend the symposium. Topics of this year's event include university research commercialization and startups, developing entrepreneurial universities, entrepreneurship in the curriculum and more.

The keynote speakers for this year's symposium include Ethernet inventor and University of Texas Austin Professor of Innovation Robert Metcalfe; Jerome Engel, Silicon Valley veteran and founding executive director emeritus of the University of California Berkeley's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship; and Worcester Polytechnic Institute President Laurie Leshin.

The Deshpande Symposium brings together professionals from academia, the public sector and business to discuss best practices in integrating entrepreneurship throughout college and university communities.

For a full conference schedule and registration information, visit www.deshpandesymposium.org.

cleveland.com is a partner of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Every dollar buys four meals for the hungry. Click here to donate.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- While there were few opportunities to consider capital murder suspect Scotty Lakeith Street's countenance during the beginning of his trial on Tuesday, when eyes met, his face was emotionless.

Frankie Fairley (file photo)

Per opening statements by Assistant District Attorney Cherie Wade, Street is on trial for the fatal stabbing of 55-year-old Hurley woman, Frankie Fairley, whom he allegedly killed on Dec. 9, 2014.

After an autopsy was performed on Frankie's body, results showed that she had been stabbed for 37 times.

If convicted, Street, 39, is facing life in prison or the death penalty.

Wade opened giving the jury an idea who Frankie was -- such as she was a recently retired educator from the Lucedale school system of 38 years, and was well-known in the Hurley community as she had been living on Polktown Road most her life.

After opening remarks from Wade, District Attorney Tony Lawrence called his first witness to the stand-- Charles Fairley Sr., husband of Frankie.

Lawrence asked Charles to recall his 13 children between he and Frankie and then asked him to recall the incident in which he last saw his wife alive.

Per Charles testimony, he was raking leaves outside of the church beside their home. Frankie had been inside of the home with a pot on the stove she was looking after.

She then left her Polktown Road home and asked her husband to watch a pot of food on the stove while she was away. He did not know that would be the last time he would see his wife.

Frankie was driving her gold 2004 Honda Odyssey en route to East Central High School when she was last seen.

Wade then called the Fairley's youngest son Micah to the stand where he explained the events surrounding the last time he saw his mother.

"She dropped me and my sister off at Mrs. Ruby's home so that we could help her decorate her home for Christmas," Micah said. "She stayed for about 20 minutes and helped and then she left."

Micah said he and his sister attempted to call his mom multiple times and she never picked up. When asked if he thought it was unlike his mother to not do something she said she would do, Micah responded, "no and it left me feeling confused."

Mrs. Ruby dropped Micah and his sister off and continued to call their mother, but to no avail.

Police were subsequently called around 7 p.m. that night to report Frankie missing. Frankie was later found in a field Wednesday morning after she was grotesquely stabbed to death.

That same evening of the killing, Frankie's van was used in a strong-armed robbery by Street in D'Iberville at a gas station. Street was subsequently taken into custody.

Officials also obtained surveillance video from a Dollar General in the Hurley community where both Frankie and Street were seen on the day she was killed. Frankie purchased a couple of items and left the store.

After D'Iberville police searched the vehicle, blood was found inside of it, most belonging to Frankie. Street's DNA was also found inside of the van.

To hide the clothing he wore the day of the killing, Street dumped some of the articles of clothing in what was believed to be an animal pin behind his home.

After his arrest, investigators searched Street's home and found the clothing aligned with that of the surveillance footage on the day Frankie was killed.

As the first day of testimony concluded, the prosecution's last witness was Mark LeVaughn, the state's chief medical examiner.

Pictures of Frankie's body were shown to the jury in an effort for Levaughn to explain how the blows affected Frankie. Street never looked at the projector when the medical examiner described each cut he allegedly delivered to Frankie's body. Instead, he simply continued to look straight ahead.

LeVaughn concluded cause of death was multiple stab wounds. The prosecution rested with closing arguments to be heard on Wednesday.
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio -- Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters announced Cuyahoga Falls Police Officer Ted Davis will be honored with the Honorary Boulevard Street Naming Award.

The public is invited to attend the street-sign hanging ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 31, at the intersection of Broad Boulevard and Third Street.

The community is also invited to an official presentation at the City Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. It will be held in the Erie Room at the Natatorium, located at 345 Fourth St.

Davis was severely injured on July 23, 2016, when a driver intentionally rammed Davis' police cruiser. The driver called the Cuyahoga Falls Dispatch Center and threatened police officers before the crash.

Davis worked to get back to his job as a police officer despite his injuries. He returned to full duty Dec. 1, 2016.

The section of Broad Boulevard at the intersection of Third Street will be named "Officer Ted Davis Boulevard" in recognition of Davis' bravery and courage.

"It is an honor to recognize Officer Davis for his steadfast drive and determination during his recovery, and we are incredibly grateful to have him back," Walters said in a news release. "My administration, the police department and Officer Davis' family are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support from the community that was shown during that time."

Davis started his career with the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department in 2005. In 2012, he was awarded The Ohio Distinguished Law Enforcement Meritorious Service Award for his life-saving actions in saving a stabbing victim and arresting her attacker.

The Honorary Boulevard Street Naming Award is an initiative used to pay homage to the people and organizations that selflessly give back to Cuyahoga Falls residents and the city. This is an honorary gesture only and does not change the official designation of Broad Boulevard for postal purposes.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
BOSTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has received nearly $1.5 million for its new visitor center through the National Park Service Centennial Challenge program.

The program matches federal money with donations from partners to make high-impact improvements in parks across the country. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is one of 42 parks to be awarded a slice of the program's $50 million.

The national park has been working closely with its nonprofit counterpart, Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, to raise money for the design and construction of the $5.9 million state-of-the-art Boston Mills Visitor Center.

"It is rewarding to know that dedicated park enthusiasts and the Department of the Interior want to see Cuyahoga Valley National Park's vision through," said Conservancy CEO Deb Yandala in a news release. "At the Conservancy, we want to connect individuals with their national park and preserve it for future generations. This specific project, the $5.7 million we have raised, and the grant that CVNP is receiving will help to do just that."

The center, which will serve as the park's front door welcoming 2 million visitors per year, will be on the corner of Riverview and Boston Mills roads in a building that once housed a store for the nearby mill and provided housing for mill workers. Two smaller buildings will provide public restrooms and office space. All the buildings will be rehabilitated to reflect the historic feel of the village of Boston Mills.

"This is a great example of how government can work effectively with nonprofit organizations to secure funding for the future of our nation's treasures," said Park Superintendent Craig Kenkel in a statement. "We are grateful for the commitment that Northeast Ohioans have shown for providing excellent services to visitors to CVNP, through donations to this project."

The money from the matching grant will go toward parking and visitor center exhibits. The park has been hosting public events and gathering input at the existing visitor center to help design exhibits that illustrate the park's primary significance, with the Cuyahoga River and the locks central to the story.

The new center, planned to open in summer 2019, is being developed by an all-Ohio design team, including Peninsula Architects of Peninsula and Environmental Design Group of Akron. Regency Construction Services of Lakewood will provide construction management and Hilferty & Associates of Athens will create the exhibits.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
LYNDHURST, Ohio -- Thousands of communities in all 50 states take part each year in National Night Out, an annual campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.

The goal of the event, held on the first Tuesday in August, is to make neighborhoods safer and more caring places to live.

In recent years, more local communities have begun taking part in the observance, which began in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 1984. South Euclid has been holding a National Night Out for 10 years at Bexley Park, while 2017 will mark the third year of observance for Mayfield Heights, the second for Richmond Heights, and the first for Lyndhurst.

"The focus is to bring the community together," said SEPD Chief Kevin Nietert. "We ask people to put on their (porch) lights as a show that, as a community, you're working together to support law enforcement."

On Aug. 1, Bexley Park, 1600 Wrenford Road, will again be the scene of South Euclid's National Night Out event, held in conjunction with the city and South Euclid Municipal Court. Residents are invited to stop by for free hot dogs, a police K-9 demonstration and to meet and speak with police, court, fire department and city personnel.

In Lyndhurst, Mayor Patrick Ward is happy to start a new tradition with National Night Out.

"Our School Resources Officer Kathy Tomaro and (LPD) Chief (Rick Porrello) came to me and suggested that it would be really great to participate in National Night Out," Ward said. "I thought it was a great idea.

"We're going to have food, music by Dennis Ford, magic by (Lyndhurst native) Rick Smith, Jr., and rides on the Euclid Beach Rocket Ship Car.

"It's going to be a centralized block party at Lyndhurst Park, and why not make it a party? We want all of our residents to come and have a good time and meet their police."

Police and fire department vehicles will be on display. Food will include hot dogs, ice cream and chips. There will be face painting for children and raffles.

The event will take place from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 1 at Lyndhurst Park, located behind Lyndhurst City Hall, 5301 Mayfield Road.

"We are looking forward to a great event, a fun evening and a positive interaction with our residents," Ward said. "We hope that the whole city shows up.

"We also hope all of our residents help us light up Lyndhurst by turning on their porch and outdoor lights."

Mayfield Heights is also planning a big evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at its city park, 1533 Chelmsford Road.

In addition to free hot dogs and an opportunity to meet with police and fire department personnel, plans call for a performance at 7 p.m. by the Chardon Polka Band. Following the concert will be a fireworks display at dusk.

Those interested can also attend a Neighborhood Watch meeting to be held at 6 p.m. at the park.

Richmond Heights Community Park, 26789 Highland Road, will be the seen of the first portion of that city's observance of National Night Out.

"Back in 2009, we had all of our layoffs and because our staffing was so low our community policing initiatives were reduced because we didn't have the staffing to do them," said Richmond Heights Police Chief Gene Rowe of the origin of National Night Out in Richmond Heights. "But then as we began to add officers back to the staff, one of the initiatives we thought of was National Night Out, a national initiative.

"We decided to make that one of our primary initiatives so people could meet our officers in circumstances other than a call for service or an emergency."

The night will get under way at 5:30 p.m. at the park gazebo, where youths and their families will be provided with fun materials to decorate their bicycles before engaging in a "Family & Friends Police Bike Ride."

Bike ride participants should complete a pre-registration form before the event, and a release on the day of attendance.

The official National Night Out festivities will take place from 6-8 p.m. at Richmond Heights City Hall, next door to the park. Included will be police and EMS vehicle demonstrations, food, giveaways, games and more.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that restrictions on traffic cameras, such as requiring a police officer to sit with the camera, are unconstitutional - giving cities a green light to resume mailing tickets to drivers caught speeding or running red lights.

The justices voted 5-2 in favor of cities' home rule, two years after Dayton challenged three provisions to the law:

Requiring a law enforcement officer be present with the traffic camera

Prohibiting a fine to a driver caught speeding by a traffic camera unless the driver was going more than 6 mph in a school zone or 10 mph in other areas

Telling a municipality to perform a safety study and conduct a public information campaign before the camera was installed and used.

The provisions "do not constitute a general law and are unconstitutional, and we strike the statute," the majority opinion says.

Akron may reinstate cameras in school zones, said city spokeswoman Ellen Lander-Nischt. During the 2016-2017 school year, only some of those speed cameras were used, and a police officer sat near the camera.

The city is "pleased" with the ruling, Lander-Nischt said.

So is Newburgh Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins, where the city is using cameras on side streets and a stretch of I-77.

"We have believed from Day 1 that there should be a set of rules that everybody follows, and we've also believed from Day 1 that the provisions overturned by the Supreme Court today were unconstitutional. This is a victory for home rule and for safety," Elkins said in an interview Wednesday. "It's a good thing that our officers can be assigned to other duties; that's the point of their duty to begin with."

The Ohio Municipal League, a nonprofit organization that represents hundreds of Ohio cities in front of the Ohio General Assembly, was also satisfied with the ruling.

"This is not the first time the Supreme Court and other Ohio courts have ruled that these preemptions from the Ohio legislature violate the local control protections the Ohio constitution grants cities and villages," league executive director Kent Scarrett said in a statement. "Our legislators should be working with our municipal leaders and not dictating to our citizens how their communities should be run."

But two Ohio legislators question whether the Supreme Court ruling affects townships and villages, or just cities whose charters explicitly give them home-rule powers.

Rep. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati, a Republican who wrote the original law, said that there's no constitutional provision that extends those rights to any non-home-rule cities.

That would mean villages, including Newburgh Heights and Linndale (notorious for its traffic tickets), would still have to meet state requirements, while cities like East Cleveland would not.

In Cleveland, voters outlawed its robust traffic camera enforcement network in 2014.

State Rep. Tom Patton, a Strongsville Republican who has long opposed red light and speed traffic cameras, and was "surprised and a bit disappointed" by Wednesday's ruling.

"I'm a strong proponent of safe driving, and I believe police officers are the best deterrent to bad driving," Patton said. "Getting a ticket 30 days later [that was issued following a traffic camera violation] doesn't improve driving that same day."

Patton has introduced legislation this session that applies to small cities that use traffic cameras "as their cash register, with no regard to safety," he said.

"There are other legislators who feel even more strongly than I do about the inappropriateness of the speed cameras," Patton said. "I wouldn't be surprised if new legislation is introduced [when session resumes]."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner issued a public health warning on Wednesday after discovering carfentanil in pills form that are disguised to look like OxyContin.

Dr. Thomas Gilson said the findings should be considered a very serious issue that carries the possibility of causing even more overdose deaths in the midst of the opioid epidemic.

People who purchase OxyContin on the street -- as opposed to obtaining it through a prescription -- should be wary of the danger that this discovery poses, Gilson said Wednesday in a news release.

Carfentanil is 5,000 times more potent than the oxycodone found in genuine OxyContin pills. It's a sedative generally used on large animals. Carfentanil played a part in 58 fatal overdose cases in Cuyahoga County in 2016, the news release says.

The Cleveland police department found the fake pills and submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office for analysis.

"This situation is alarming, as the potency of carfentail is substantially greater than the oxycodone found in OxyContin, and there is a serious risk of unintentional overdose in their use," Gilson said in the release.

Anyone seeking information on opioid addiction should contact Project DAWN at 216-778-5677.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.
CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A driver was seriously wounded Tuesday, struck by a bullet while traveling on Interstate 75 near downtown Cincinnati, reports say.

The unidentified male was taken to University of Cincinnati Hospital but is not expected to survive the wound, Fox 19 reports.

According to WLWT Channel 5, the bullet struck the car at 5:15 p.m. near an onramp to the highway, shattering the driver's-side window.

The vehicle crashed into another car, but there were no injuries.

Police Sgt. Eric Franz tells WCPO Channel 9 that there are no suspects.

"This could have been a bullet fired two miles away that struck him," he said. "We have no idea."

Police are investigating the incident as a homicide, reports say.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comment section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man who struck and killed Ohio Highway Trooper Kenneth Velez in a September crash showed "reckless disregard to every traffic law" when he swerved off the road at upwards of 75 mph to avoid a stopped car and hit the trooper, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.

Joshua Gaspar lied to obtain a driver's license months before the crash, received a dose of methadone before driving to work on Sept. 15 and drove "without heed" to those around him, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Aqueelah Jordan told jurors in opening statements of Gaspar's trial on aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges.

Jordan promised jurors that testimony at the trial, which is expected to last at least two weeks, will show Gaspar drove both recklessly and under the influence of methadone when he struck Velez, a father and veteran trooper.

But Gaspar's attorney, Jon Sinn, called the methadone dose a "red herring" by prosecutors as a way to drum up charges in a desperate effort to hold Gaspar accountable for the death of an honorable man.

The drug, which Gaspar had been prescribed for an addiction to painkillers he developed after injuring his back at work, had no affect on Gaspar's ability to drive, Sinn said.

"No matter how tragic this is, accidents happen," Sinn said. "Somebody has to have the guts to go back and say 'this was an accident, and sometimes accidents happen.'"

Jordan and Sinn promised jurors that they would see dash camera video and testimony from troopers who responded to the scene about Gaspar's behavior after the crash.

While other bystanders and witnesses had rushed to offer aid to Velez, Gaspar stopped his car and did nothing, Jordan said.

Sinn said the videos and testimony will show that Gaspar was not impaired, and that he offered to have his blood tested for illegal substances.

Velez was shooting radar on I-90 Westbound near the Alger Road overpass. He parked his patrol car on the berm and caught a speeder, and had the driver to pull over to the berm, Jordan said.

But the driver hit the brakes while still in the left most lane and came to a near stop.

Gaspar, who was on his way from a methadone clinic on East 55th Street to his job as a home improvement construction company, was switching into the left lane when he saw the car's brake lights, Sinn said.

He was faced with a "split-second decision" in busy traffic to either swerve back into traffic or off the side of the berm, and he chose the berm, not seeing the highway patrol car, Sinn said.

Velez had just walked up to the stopped car when Gaspar hit him.

Prosecutors also said they will show that Gaspar intentionally misled the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and did not mention that his license had been suspended in Alabama when he applied for an Ohio driver's license.

Sinn also questioned whether it was appropriate for the Ohio Highway Patrol to investigate the death of its own trooper.

Testimony continued Wednesday with one of the first troopers on the scene, who was off-duty, and another driver who witnessed the crash.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
LORAIN, Ohio -- A 33-year-old mother is charged with child endangering after her children were found dirty and living in squalor.

Police responded just before 8 p.m. Monday at the home on West 18th Street between Washington and Long avenues, according to a report from Lorain police.

Police arrested Quinn Washington and charged her with child endangering, Lorain police Lt. Ed Super said. She was taken to Lorain City Jail.

A maintenance worker told a neighbor that there were children inside of the home and that it was "disgusting." He also said that the children were going to the bathroom on the floor, the report says. The neighbor called police.

Police knocked on the door of the home and a 12-year-old girl answered the door. The officers said the apartment smelled like rotten milk when the door opened, the release says.

Police walked through the home and found trash bags and clothing all over the living room and kitchen. Dirty dishes sat stacked in the kitchen with moldy food.

A bag in the refrigerator was covered in mold.

A downstairs bedroom had clothes on the floor and bugs crawling on the bed sheets, police said.

She told police that she was in charge of watching the children while her mother went to work. She added her 10-year-old sister was trying to put the other children to bed.

When police got upstairs to check on the children, they found a bedroom with a mattress hanging off a box spring with no sheets or blankets. Police found cereal and other food all over the floor, according to the report.

Children could be heard in another room with the door shut telling each other to be quiet. Police opened the door and found a 4-year-old boy wearing only underwear and a 6-year-old boy under the bed, police said.

A 1-year-old girl wore only a diaper and sat in the middle of the bedroom floor. Police found the rest of the children inside the closet, the report said.

The officers found a 1-year-old boy in a closet wearing only a diaper that stretched past his knees because it was full of feces, the report says. Police found feces on the inside of his legs and on the bottom of his feet, the report says.

Cereal was stuck in a 2-year-old girl's hair and she had a dirty face, the report says. A 10-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy were also in the closet.

Police contacted Washington and told her to come home. She was told to check on her children and change her child's dirty diaper, but argued with officers when she came home and blamed the 13-year-old girl for the police being there, the report says.

Lorain County Children Services took custody of all the children, the report says.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comment section.
DAYTON, Ohio -- Police are investigating after a 2-year-old child was found outside Tuesday unconscious, possibly because of an opioid overdose, reports say.

The Dayton Daily News reports police were called to a home at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after the child was found. It's unclear who found the child and where ... the Daily News reports it was near a house or in an alley behind a house.

The child was in serious condition at Dayton Children's Hospital.

The Daily News reports police were still on the scene Tuesday evening conducting interviews. Other details were not available.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comment section.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Three provisions of a 2015 state law regulating the use of red-light and speed cameras are unconstitutional because they infringe upon municipal authority, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

In a 5-2 victory for cities' home rule, the court agreed with Dayton's constitutional challenge to parts of the law, which took effect more than two years ago.

Dayton challenged three provisions: requiring a law enforcement officer be present; prohibiting a fine to a driver caught speeding by a traffic camera unless the driver exceeded the speed limit by 6 mph or more in a school or park zone or by 10 mph in other areas; and directing a municipality to perform a safety study and conduct a public information campaign prior to using a camera.

At issue was whether camera restrictions violated the Ohio Constitution's protections of home rule power.

Dayton attorney John Musto said in January that the court's decision could set a new, lesser standard for upholding state laws that infringe on municipalities' authority to set and enforce their own laws.

Cities with camera programs say they increase safety in the wake of reduced police forces and generate revenue needed to offset state budget cuts. Critics say cities use the cameras to pad their coffers.

In the lead opinion written by Justice Patrick Fischer, the Supreme Court found the regulations were not "general laws" that apply evenly throughout the state but instead were regulations that improperly "limit legislative power of a municipal corporation" to set police, sanitary or similar regulations, according to courtnewsohio.gov.

Fischer's opinion was joined by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and Fifth District Court of Appeals Judge Craig R. Baldwin, sitting on assignment for Justice Terrence O'Donnell.

See the ruling below or click here if on a mobile device.

Justice Judith French wrote a concurring opinion, also finding the laws unconstitutional, but on different grounds than Fischer. Justice Sharon Kennedy joined French in ruling the challenged laws violate the Ohio Constitution's Home Rule Amendment because they fail to "prescribe a rule of conduct upon citizens generally."

Both Justices Fischer and French cited the Supreme Court's 2002 Canton v. State opinion, where the Court developed a four-pronged test to determine whether a law violates home rule, said courtnewsohio.gov, from the Supreme Court's public information office.

The court reinstated the trial court's permanent injunction preventing the provisions from taking effect.

In separate dissenting opinion Justice William O'Neill noted that the new law promotes the uniform application of traffic laws, similar to the requirement that all stop signs must be red.

"Here, metaphorically speaking, the city of Dayton seems to prefer blue stop signs, and it suggests that forcing a city to have red stop signs violates the Ohio Constitution," he wrote. "Regulating the use of traffic cameras throughout the state is the same as regulating traffic signage and speed limits."

Before the new state law took effect, Dayton asked the common pleas court to declare the "officer present," "speeding leeway," and "study and notice" provisions unconstitutional, and bar them from taking effect. The trial court sided with the city, finding that the law violated the third and fourth prongs of the Canton test. The state appealed to the Second District Court of Appeals, which reversed the trial court's opinion. Dayton appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The court explained a city law must yield to a state law if "(1) the ordinance is an exercise of the police power, rather than of local self-government, (2) the statute is a general law, and (3) the ordinance is in conflict with the statute."

Dayton's law is an exercise of police power, and the court noted that both the state and city agreed the local law conflicts with the state law. Fischer explained that the sole issue is whether the contested provisions qualify as general laws.

The court ruled the officer's presence at the traffic camera contradicts the purpose of the traffic camera, which is to conserve police resources, and it noted the law does not require the officer to witness the violation. That means the camera is the primary enforcement tool, not the secondary tool, the opinion stated.

The court stated the speed provision "dictates how municipalities must enforce speed limits within their territories, thus limiting their legislative power."

The safety study requirement and public information campaign, required before placing a traffic-monitoring device at a location "does not serve the purpose of ensuring that the public traveling in the area has notice," the lead opinion stated.
COLUMBUS , Ohio - State Rep. Dave Greenspan introduced a bill in the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday that would require local governments to establish credit and debit card policies, after studies by State Auditor Dave Yost's office found misuse - including $34,000 in Cuyahoga County since 2011.

Statewide, local government audits in the past six years found at least $1.2 million in public money was misspent or stolen through credit card abuse, Yost said during a press conference describing the bill and local government audits.

"We're hopeful this is a reasonable piece of good government legislation that could go forward," he said.

In April, Yost's office anonymously surveyed online about 1,640 of the state's 5,600 local governments and found one in 10 lacked a formal policy on credit cards.

That makes it easy for officials to abuse the cards, he said.

Recent conviction over theft with a card



Joe Johnson, a former Mount Sterling administrator, recently pleaded guilty recently of theft of more than $724,000 in village funds. He charged $350,000 on credit cards, including using a card for a down payment on a Ford F150 pickup, Yost said.

Cuyahoga County incidents

Yost unveiled an online map illustrating statewide card misuse discovered in audits, including four instances in Cuyahoga County local governments:

In the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Local School District, $1,409 in credit card expenses by employees in the fiscal year 2012

At New Day Academy Boarding and Day School, $619 in debit card expenses lacked supporting documents, charged when the headmaster attended a charter school conference in Chicago in 2010 and spent an extra two days in the city after the event concluded.

In Warrensville Heights City School District, there was $11,495 in charges over two audits,

At the former Elite Academy of the Arts, $20,733 in questionable charges in over three audits,

What the bill does

The bill from Greenspan, a Republican and former Cuyahoga County councilman from Westlake, is also sponsored by Canton Republican Rep. Kirk Schuring. The legislation would require all entities to enact a credit card policy identifying allowable uses, credit limits, number of cards and employees authorized to use them.

The bill would also:

Require a compliance officer who is not the treasurer to review the accounts and policies

Ban debit card use -- except for law enforcement for specific purposes, such as obtaining cash to purchase drugs undercover;

Ask the state auditor to create rules for the disclosure and audit of credit-card rewards in local governments.

There are no penalties in the bill if government officials ignore its provisions.

"I'm not real excited about having penalties for business rules, and this is really a business rule kind of thing," Yost said. "I think most of the time if you fail to adhere to a business rule, you should have a job action, you should have maybe the embarrassment of an audit."

Yost and Greenspan have been discussing credit and debit cards for years.

Greenspan said the bill will protect government employees and the taxpayers.

"It is a practical solution, one that is commonly used in the private sector," he said.
The latest news was a setback for the company, which has been in recovery mode for more than two years. Once the news broke last week, Chipotle shares tumbled and sales slowed at the chain, the company said.

Executives said the company plans to undertake a "comprehensive communication and training effort" to remind its employees of the importance of food safety and sick policy protocols.

The company confirmed on Tuesday during its earnings conference call that the norovirus outbreak was the result of lax sick policy enforcement by store managers and a sick employee.

The Mexican restaurant chain had hoped to put past food safety issues behind it, but last week a number of customers become ill with norovirus after dining at its Sterling, Virginia, restaurant. Chipotle had barely reopened that location after sanitizing it when Chipotle was back in the news. This time a video that showed rodents falling from the ceiling at Dallas-area restaurant had gone viral.

Certainly, adding the popular item to its menu could give consumers something positive to talk about following a recent spate of bad news.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is betting big on queso, hoping that this  the chain's "most requested item"  will lure back customers who ditched the brand.

Chipotle's plan to woo customers is to offer up new menu items, in-store technology and drive-thru service.

One of those items is queso, which Chipotle has been selling in its test kitchen in New York City. It will expand this test to two additional markets in August.

"Our hope is that the impact will fade over the coming weeks, and that the marketing and buzz around the queso expanded test will change the narrative and encourage our guests to return to their previous visit frequencies," John Hartung, chief financial officer, said during the call on Tuesday.



The company also is testing drive-thru service at a location in Ohio, and ordering kiosks in 25 New York restaurants.

"We know many of our lapsed customers are waiting for a reason to return to Chipotle and new menu items are an ideal way to spark the necessary interest," Mark Crumpacker, chief marketing and development officer, said during the call.

However, chips and queso may not be enough to put customers at ease.

"Restaurant customers don't necessarily want an apology or a discount, they want to know that it will never happen again," customer loyalty expert Kate Hogenson told CNBC via email. "As we saw last year with their summer rewards program 'Chiptopia' to battle their previous food incident, simply handing out free food and discounts doesn't do much to change the hearts of customers."

Seth Price, a branding expert, told CNBC via email that Chipotle needs to "attack this issue like its hair is on fire."

"The CEO and the employees of Chipotle need to be bold and proactive," he told CNBC via email. "Steve Ells has an opportunity to humanize the brand and create a vision for how they will address these challenges in the future. It could be something as bold as setting the highest standard for restaurant food safety in the world."

Activist investor Bill Ackman, who owns about 10 percent of Chipotle, attempted to quell diner's fears last week when he tweeted about eating at a Chipotle restaurant.

Bill Ackman Tweet

Branding expert Denise Lee Yohn said that Chipotle has two distinct audiences that it has to appeal to, while Ackman may be a prominent figure to investors, he's not a household name for consumers.

"How many customers really know who Bill Ackman is and really care?" Yohn told CNBC. "They would care more if a celebrity was eating it or if their best friend did."

However, Yohn said that Chipotle is on the right track and does see menu innovations as a way to bring back customers.

"Testing new products like queso and dessert, working on getting a loyalty program, promoting off-premise catering, these are important ways you win back customers and increase traffic."

Still, Yohn said that the company needs to be aware of how much business it has lost and be transparent and up-front about how it plans to deal with these issues.

The company did just that during its conference call, apologizing for the norovirus incident and taking ownership for the occurrence.

Even the tone from management showed that Chipotle's executive leadership was united in its effort to remedy these issues and bolster the brand.

"I assure you that we've taken swift action, in what's transpired there and making it clear to the entire organization that not following our procedures will have severe consequences," Scott Boatright, chief restaurant officer, said during a conference call Tuesday.

"Beyond that we're putting in stronger measures in place to uncover when our procedures break down and we have and will continue to reinforce our zero tolerance policy to our standards," he said.

Investors appeared optimistic about Chipotle's future, driving shares of the company up 3.5 percent after the closing bell on Tuesday. The stock has since retreated slightly.
watch now

After the stock of Google parent Alphabet shed some of its gains post-earnings as investors acted on concerns about the tech giant's advertising model, Jim Cramer explained the stock's temporary weakness. "It's entirely possible that the growth in their core business is slowing," the "Mad Money" host said. "But Alphabet does have $94.7 billion in cash that it can use to make acquisitions or buy back stock in order to boost the earnings per share. More important, I refuse to write off a company that has the No. 1 autonomous driving platform, as well as what can be considered a worldwide television network [with] zero production costs  YouTube  not to mention virtually a hammer-locked monopoly business called search." related investing news Pro Picks: Watch all of Friday's big stock calls on CNBC Cramer figured that while Wall Street digests what it considered to be a miss for Alphabet, its stock might become a "source of funds" for managers who sell it to buy faster growing names. "No one downgraded it. Most analysts actually praised it and raised their price targets," he added. "I say wait until the hot money comes out and then make your stand, which will, I believe, not be too far down from these levels."

Four Top-Tier, Low-Flying Buys

An employee removes a pizza from the oven at a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Rantoul, Illinois. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Earnings season can stir doubt even in some of the stock market's top performers, and Cramer had to right the record when he spotted declines in four of his favorite names. "Look, you need a healthy amount of skepticism to be a good investor, no denying that, but it's also important to know when to believe," Cramer said. "I'm talking about buying the stocks of companies that have been left for dead because of a single bad quarter when the executives have proven time and time and time again that they can navigate rougher waters and right the ship." The four bedraggled names? The stocks of 3M , Domino's , Hasbro and Alphabet, all of which Cramer said were solid, high-quality buys on weakness.

McCormick CEO: Going for Heat

Lawrence Kurzius, CEO, McCormick Scott Mlyn | CNBC

McCormick Chairman and CEO Lawrence Kurzius had an explanation prepared for critics who said his spice company's $4.2 billion acquisition of Reckitt Benckiser's food division was too costly. "You know, I wish I could've bought my house for a discount, but if I had tried to, somebody else would be living in it. And it's the same with this," the CEO told Cramer on Tuesday. "It's a quality asset, these are leading brands, they've got strong growth characteristics, they're on-trend and they're tremendously profitable. A lot of other companies saw value in this." Kurzius said the acquisition, which put top condiment brands like French's Mustard and Frank's RedHot in McCormick's portfolio, had been on the company's strategic list for over a decade.

Off the Charts: On the Offense?

A General Dynamics (Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon undergoes testing in the United States prior to delivery to the Pakistan Air Force. Source: USAF

With earnings season well underway, Cramer wanted to remind investors of a crucial piece of advice as the results pour in: do not overthink this stock market. For example, when United Technologies issued a strong earnings report, its stock still went down. Chalking it up to earnings season confusion, the "Mad Money" host said the action provided a buying opportunity rather than a genuine take on the aircraft manufacturer's quarter. To help explain this irrationality, Cramer turned to technician Tim Collins, his colleague at RealMoney.com, who said one defense stock could provide investors with a similar opportunity. "Collins thinks we could potentially be seeing something very similar from GD, General Dynamics , the big defense contractor, after it reports [Wednesday]," Cramer said. "If General Dynamics gives you a nice beat and maintains its guidance but the stock goes down, which it would, by the way, then you might just be getting a wonderful gift."

Magna International CEO: The Need for NAFTA

Donald Walker, CEO, Magna International Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Finally, Cramer sat down with Donald Walker, the CEO of Canada-based automotive company Magna International , to get his take on the welfare of the auto industry. Walker maintained that the global auto industry is doing well despite a slowdown in North America, but what the CEO considered to be more pressing was the question of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trade partnership between Canada, the United States and Mexico that President Donald Trump's administration has taken issue with. "I actually think one of the reasons our stock price is underpriced right now is because there's concern with NAFTA," Walker told Cramer on Tuesday. Walker said that being the head of a globally involved company, he was not very concerned with where his company was located, adding that Magna employs 25,000 workers in the United States. "I look at NAFTA as a trading partner," he told Cramer. "We need to make sure we keep it solid, we keep it competitive, because it's Asia, it's Europe that are really competing, and NAFTA has to be competitive. So I think fair trade is good, I think fair trade in the rest of the world is good, and from what I see, and they can tweak it, but it already works pretty efficiently. We've just got to make sure they don't do something to damage the effectiveness of all three countries working together."

Lightning Round: Better Pickings for Retail?
Earnings season can stir doubt even in some of the stock market's top performers, and Jim Cramer had to right the record when he spotted declines in four of his favorite names.

"Look, you need a healthy amount of skepticism to be a good investor, no denying that, but it's also important to know when to believe," the "Mad Money" host said. "I'm talking about buying the stocks of companies that have been left for dead because of a single bad quarter when the executives have proven time and time and time again that they can navigate rougher waters and right the ship."

Cramer started with the stock of manufacturer 3M , which plunged after reporting second-quarter earnings on Tuesday before shares settled at just under $200, down 5 percent.

With 4 percent organic growth and new products gaining traction, 3M's quarter was "good but not great" at worst, Cramer said.

"The culprit behind the sell-off? I think [CEO] Inge [Thulin] spoiled investors by giving them quarter after quarter of margin expansion, so this time, when we didn't get that and they missed the earnings by a penny, the darned thing got sent right to the slaughterhouse," he said. "Personally, I think it's nuts, especially when 3M promised some second-half improvement in the key health care division. So I suggest you use this opportunity to buy some shares in one of the highest quality companies out there."

Domino's Pizza's report had a similar effect on investors, who Cramer said were also spoiled by the technology-meets-delivery company's consistently strong quarters.

With 9 percent same-store sales growth trumping Wall Street's 7.9 percent estimate, Domino's report initially seemed strong, but weaker-than-expected international growth sent the stock tumbling.

"I think long-time CEO Patty Doyle deserves the benefit of the doubt here after everything he's done right for us over the years," Cramer said. "You really want to bet against him? Hey, be my guest  I'll gladly take the other side of the wager."

Hasbro's stock also got pounded despite the fact that its earnings report was mostly in line with analyst estimates, something that CEO Brian Goldner attributed to historically weak second quarters for the toy maker.

"I think Goldner's champing at the bit ahead of Hasbro's analyst meeting next Thursday, August 3, where he will lay out a timeline for what I expect will be an amazing holiday season. Plus, this quarter also caused the stock to get hammered last year, and you know what that happened to be: a terrific buying opportunity," the "Mad Money" host said.

Finally, Cramer turned to the stock of Google parent Alphabet , which shed its gains post-earnings as investors acted on concerns about the tech giant's advertising model.

Cramer argued that the Street was totally discounting management's involvement in the issue as well as its ability to monetize other parts of the business like YouTube, its data centers and its self-driving car initiative Waymo.

"You need to have some faith in companies' management teams that have delivered endlessly or you'll never ever be able to buy stocks at a discount. These four are giving you bargains," Cramer said. "They won't U-turn and go right back up. That doesn't happen. But I think all four are worth buying into weakness as long as you scale into them gradually on the way down, starting in tomorrow's session."
"If anything happens with Jeff Sessions, he's fired  again, another distraction, I think, further occupying this administration and making it harder to get anything done," Pethokoukis said. "It's not early in the process at this point."

"We're sitting here without a health-care bill, and, let's be clear, there is no health-care bill. We're sitting here without a tax bill," he said in an interview with " Closing Bell ."

A lot of issues have "gobbled up" people's time and delayed President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda  and firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions would just add to that, economic policy analyst Jimmy Pethokoukis told CNBC on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Trump said he was "disappointed" in Sessions. During a press conference with the Lebanese prime minister, the president said Sessions should have not recused himself from the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"If he was going to recuse himself he should have told me prior to taking office, and I would've quite simply picked somebody else," Trump said.

However, he declined to say whether he would ask Sessions to resign or if Sessions should resign on his own.

Trump also said he believes Republicans will come up with a "really, really wonderful" health-care plan. The Senate voted to move forward with its Obamacare repeal push on Tuesday, with Vice President Mike Pence delivering the tie-breaking vote.

"Republicans have decided to hold hands and take a step together into the darkness. What is in there they do not know," said Pethokoukis, a scholar with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

He said he thinks the House will approve a Senate bill that looks like the original repeal-and-replace legislation. However, he's not so sure it will pass a "skinny" repeal.

The "skinny" repeal would eliminate the individual-mandate penalty, the employer-mandate penalty and the medical-device tax from the Affordable Care Act, according to NBC.

 CNBC's Angelica LaVito and Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.
The New England Patriots signed defensive end Caleb Kidder Wednesday, adding another undrafted free agent to their roster as training camp begins.

Congrats to @ckidder_37 signing with the New England Patriots today! @UMGRIZZLIES @Patriots  Reign Sports Management (@reign_sports) July 26, 2017

Kidder, 23, is a rookie defensive end out of Montana, where he finished his career 11th on the school's all-time for tackles for loss (29 1/2). He had 55 total tackles in 2016 after finishing with 92 tackles in 2015, when he played inside at defensive tackle.

At 6-foot-4, 269 pounds, Kidder has good size for his position. He originally signed with the Minnesota Vikings out of college, but was cut from the team last week before training camp began. The Patriots have one spot still open on their 90-man roster as camp begins.
McCormick Chairman and CEO Lawrence Kurzius had an explanation prepared for critics who said his spice company's $4.2 billion acquisition of Reckitt Benckiser's food division was too costly.

"You know, I wish I could've bought my house for a discount, but if I had tried to, somebody else would be living in it. And it's the same with this," the CEO told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer on Tuesday. "It's a quality asset, these are leading brands, they've got strong growth characteristics, they're on-trend and they're tremendously profitable. A lot of other companies saw value in this."

Kurzius said the acquisition, which put top condiment brands like French's Mustard and Frank's RedHot in McCormick's portfolio, had been on the company's strategic list for over a decade.

McCormick had approached the U.K.-based Reckitt Benckiser about buying the brands more than once and had maintained a conservative balance sheet in preparation for the acquisition, Kurzius said.

"We did it when we bought the Ducros business, and today that is the centerpiece of our European business. We did it when we bought Lawry's, and today that is a great buy. And nobody asks today what those brands cost," the CEO said.

Kurzius also said the acquisition was particularly strategic for drawing millennials to McCormick's products. Not only are younger generations more prone to cooking from scratch, which often requires plenty of spices, but they also like bold flavors, he said.

"If you look age group by age group, as you get younger and younger with the consumer, they have a higher and higher desire for spicy, flavorful flavors," Kurzius told Cramer. "You know, Frank's RedHot is the real gem in the portfolio of brands that we bought. This is a brand that was launched in 1920, so it's almost 100 years old, but it's really 100 years young. Millennials use this brand on everything."

That burgeoning trend is taking the world by storm, not just the United States, the CEO added. In the past, Italian and Mexican foods were considered spicy. Now, data suggest that millennials have more adventurous tastes in cooking and dining than ever before.

"Today, consumers are challenging themselves with all kinds of spicy cuisines and the younger millennial consumer is the most adventurous of all," Kurzius said. "What we're really doubling down on is growth, and doubling down on flavor."
on Wednesday is challenging Google's cloud computing business with a trendy new kind of cloud computing service that Google specializes in -- along with a super-cheap payment model that will be perfect for cutting-edge experimental uses.

The Azure Container Instances tool will provide access to a container -- a virtual slice on a physical Microsoft server -- within seconds, Microsoft said, and the company will charge based on the number of seconds that a given container is being used, instead of by the minute or by the hour.

Containers, which have in the past few years, are considered a more efficient alternative to virtual machines.

Microsoft has embraced the container format in its Windows Server software for corporate data centers, as well as in , with services like the Azure Container Service and Azure Container Registry.

Now Microsoft is going deeper, with a focus on speed and simplicity.

"As the service directly exposes containers, there is no VM management you need to think about or higher-level cluster orchestration concepts to learn. It is simply your code, in a container, running in the cloud," Corey Sanders, head of product for Azure Compute at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

The introduction of the product can be read as a challenge to Google Cloud Platform, whose Google Container Engine is based on the Kubernetes open-source container cluster management software. Kubernetes is based on technology that Google used internally, and the company introduced it publicly in 2014 as competing container services became popular.

The service also represents Microsoft's latest shot at public cloud market leader Web Services.

Microsoft Azure revenue was up 97 percent year over year in the second quarter, .
Military vehicles carry missiles during a parade marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding father Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on April 15, 2017. Sue-Lin Wong | Reuters

When a brutal, communist dictatorship is able to attract tourists, the most obvious question is: Who? North Korea was isolated further Friday as the United States that it will ban its citizens from visiting the country. Given the worrying headlines that consistently swirl around the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, common sense suggests that you'd be hard pressed to find a vacationer willing to take a trip there. But international tourists do visit  and in the thousands. Tourists range in age from students to the retired, Simon Cockerell, Beijing-based general manager of Koryo Tours, one of the largest international operators of trips to North Korea, told CNBC via telephone. Cockerell detailed that it was "very common to have people booking alone." Lupine Travel, a British company that offers trips to North Korea, told CNBC via e-mail that roughly 75 percent of its clientele are male. For Koryo Tours, U.S. and U.K. nationals each make up 20 percent of its customer base. The rest comprises of travelers from northern and western Europe, as well as Australians, Canadians and those from Middle Eastern countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The non-Chinese tourist market is currently 4,000-4,500 per year, down from a high of 6,000 in 2012, according to Cockerell.

watch now

But Chinese ultimately make up the lion's share of North Korea's tourists  95 percent, Cockerell said. He added that most commonly, this comprises of less wealthy Chinese crossing the border for a day trip, often seeking nostalgia for China's own, pre-industrialized past. The U.S. announced Friday that it would implement a Geographical Travel Restriction on U.S. nationals traveling to the country. According to State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, in a statement seen by CNBC, this was "Due to mounting concerns over serious risk of arrest and long-term detention" of U.S. citizens. A notice will be published in the Federal Register this week, with the restriction going into place 30 days afteward. As yet, no other countries have announced similar measures. According to Reuters, North Korea is the only country in the world U.S. citizens cannot visit. "If the U.S. government says Americans cannot come to this country, we don't care a bit," senior North Korean official Han Chol-Su told Agence France-Presse Tuesday.

Why the US made the ban

Two experts who spoke to CNBC said the U.S. measure was a response to American student Otto Warmbier's recent death following a visit to North Korea. In March 2016, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labor after allegedly trying to steal a political slogan from a hotel. He was released in June this year and returned to the U.S. in a coma, dying that month. Tensions in the Korean peninsula have amped up recently, with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un continuing to test nuclear weapons  thought to be capable of reaching U.S. soil  despite United Nations sanctions. Koryo Tours said that military tension does not deter tourists, though the Otto Warmbier case had caused U.S. visitor numbers to drop off. Dylan Harris, director of Lupine Travel, added that amped up media coverage of North Korea during times of tension brings about more interest in the country, which results in extra bookings that negate any cancellations from more wary travelers.

Otto Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea from January 2016, is taken to court in the capital Pyongyang in this photo released March 16, 2016. Kyodo | Reuters
As a huge share of America's biggest companies report their results, it's looking to be an especially temperate earnings season.

This is the biggest week for earnings, with about a third of the companies in the set to report. Collectively, S&P 500 companies are expected to show year-over-year earnings growth of 7.6 percent for the second quarter, according to S&P Global. While that may sound good, it is actually the lowest expected growth for any quarter in 2016.

"Part of that is because we have negative expected growth for consumer discretionary, industrials and utilities," Erin Gibbs, portfolio manager at S&P Global, said Tuesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "But so far, so many companies are beating their estimates and beating expectations, it looks like just utilities will end up in the red."

Indeed, three-quarters of companies are beating their estimates, which is above the average rate, Gibbs pointed out.

Going forward, the key factor will be tech.

"Information technology is expecting over 16 percent earnings growth for Q2," she said. "It is supposed to be one of its best quarters of the year. We want to see those companies meet those expectations, if not beat."

Facebook is set to report after Wednesday's bell, while Amazon is due to report on Thursday afternoon.
President Donald Trump continued to put pressure on Republican senators Wednesday morning as the chamber debates possible plans to repeal Obamacare.

In a tweet, Trump targeted Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, for her Tuesday vote opposing a procedural motion to start debate on one of multiple potential plans to overhaul the American health-care system. Trump contended that she "let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday."

Trump: Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!

Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, have both pushed for a bipartisan fix for Obamacare's flaws and were the only GOP senators who voted against starting a debate on Tuesday. In a statement after the vote, Murkowski said she did so to encourage the Senate to go through the normal committee process, adding that she wants to "find solutions that benefit all Americans by increasing access and reducing the cost of care."

In comments to NBC News on Wednesday, Murkowski responded by saying that she cast her vote while trying to "do the best by Alaska." Murkowski, who was re-elected to a six-year term last year, also shrugged off any concerns about Trump's tweet being an electoral threat.

Trump's jab at Murkowski follows veiled threats to senators on Tuesday night.

"Any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare," Trump said at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio. "And I predict they'll have a lot of problems."

Trump did not specify what those "problems" would be. He has previously made a joking reference to at least one senator, Republican Dean Heller of Nevada, losing his seat if he does not support Obamacare replacement efforts.

The Senate on Tuesday voted by the narrowest margin to start debate on the House-passed Obamacare replacement plan and move toward passing its own version of repeal. That is, 50 of 52 Republican senators supported the procedural motion, and Vice President Mike Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote.

The vote came after weeks of setbacks for Republicans as party divisions stalled multiple versions of their plans to overhaul the American health-care system.

Passing the motion to proceed does not mean Republicans have a consensus on a bill they can pass. The procedural measure starts a complicated period in which senators are expected to float and vote on varying alternatives for reshaping Obamacare. That process started Tuesday night.

Reaching an agreement on a plan to simply repeal parts of the landmark health-care law or replace it still appears difficult.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he hopes to have a measure that can pass the Senate and advance to the House or a conference between the House and Senate by the "end of the week."
In legendary investor Warren Buffett's wallet, you'll find photos of his kids and grandkids, a signed $50 bill that he carries for good luck and a card that allows him to eat for free at any McDonald's in Omaha, Neb. But back in the 90s, he auctioned off a wallet loaded with something even more valuable: A stock tip from the Oracle of Omaha himself. In 1999, Buffett sold his 20-year-old wallet to the highest bidder for $210,000, with all proceeds going to Girls Inc., a charity that supports young girls in Omaha, The Wall Street Journal reports. To sweeten the deal, he included the name of a "winning" stock inside it.

Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Some of the taxes the government draws on to collect money include "a blueberry tax in Maine and a mosquito tax in Alabama," reports cost information site Howmuch.net, which used research from the Tax Foundation to break down how state and local governments raise revenue.

"While the federal tax system is the same for everybody, local and state taxes vary greatly," the site reports. "Some states rely more heavily on one particular tax category, and/or not at all on others." For instance, five states charge no sales tax, including New Hampshire and Delaware, while more than 45 percent of West Virginia's revenue comes from sales taxes.

"The differences between states can be traced to differences in the demography, geography and even the ideology of the various states," Howmuch.net reports.
On Wednesday's episode of CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage," Leno shares the story of Elliot and Ruth Handler, a couple that risked the net worth of their company to become one of the most successful toy manufacturers of all time: Mattel.

Mattel Inc. was originally a picture-frame business founded in 1945 out of the Handlers' garage in Los Angeles. When they began producing toys, their first big hits were a child-size ukulele and cap pistol called the Burp Gun.

In 1955, as G. Wayne Miller explains in his book "Toy Wars," ABC asked Mattel to sponsor Disney's "The Mickey Mouse Club," offering them 15 minutes of commercial time a week for $500,000. That was just about the value of their company at the time.

After some consideration, Elliot and Ruth accepted. Fortunately, the show was a hit, and Mattel increased its sales by 25 percent, shipping over a million Burp Guns within the year.

They used that accumulated revenue to change the world.

In 1959, Ruth invented the Barbie doll, naming it after their daughter Barbara. Ken, Barbie's partner, came out in 1961, and they named him after their son.

Despite Elliot's insistence that "no mother is ever going to buy her daughter a doll with breasts," sales topped $100 million by 1965.
A health start-up called Grail is developing one of the most ambitious technologies in Silicon Valley.

And Amazon wants a piece of it.

According to two sources familiar, Amazon invested in Grail as a very special kind of future customer for its cloud business.

Grail is hoping that its can use deep sequencing technology to detect the earliest signs of cancer in the blood, while it's still treatable. That requires a huge amount of data processing and storage.

That's potentially a huge business for Amazon Web Services.

Reuters reported that the market to store human genetic data is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2018. By 2025, an anticipated 100 million and 2 billion human genomics could be sequenced, according to a 2015 report. Biologists have long-anticipated that the computing resources to handle all that data would outweigh Twitter and YouTube.

Grail's test will not be commercialized in the U.S. for years -- it is aiming for 2019 -- but it will be dabbling in huge data-sets well before then.

It needs to run large-scale clinical studies to demonstrate to industry stakeholders that its technology is both sensitive and accurate. Hundreds of thousands of people will need to be sequenced for each of these studies. And the genomes will need to be securely stored somewhere.

Amazon's investment, initially reported earlier this year, was a little surprising. The e-commerce and cloud services leader doesn't typically bet on start-ups in the regulated life sciences sector. Moreover, Grail CEO Jeff Huber, was a long-time executive at Google , an Amazon rival. (Google also invested in an earlier fund-raising round for Grail through GV, its venture arm, now a division of Google holding company Alphabet.)

But these companies are "positioning themselves for something they think will be big," said Zamin Iqbal, who leads a computational genomics research group at the European Bioinformatics Institute.

Iqbal doesn't expect revenues to be significant yet, in part due to privacy concerns and lack of uptick for whole genome analysis from health providers.

But that could all change in the coming years. "The future of genomics is likely to involve the cloud heavily," he continued.

Another factor that drew Amazon into the deal was Grail's presence in Asia, the people said. In March, the company merged with a blood diagnostics company in China. Amazon Web Services has announced it plans to open a new data center "region" in Hong Kong in 2018.
Howard Marks, one of the most respected value investors out there, starkly warned his clients to avoid high-flying digital currencies.

"In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it," Marks wrote in the investor letter Wednesday.



Ethereum cryptocurrency is up more than 2,300 percent year to date through Wednesday, while bitcoin is up nearly 160 percent this year, according to data from industry website CoinDesk.
After a months-long struggle, Republicans have succeeded in bringing Obamacare repeal legislation, a centerpiece of their 2016 election campaigns, to a debate on the U.S. Senate floor. Now the hard part begins.

Republicans, deeply divided over the proper role of the government in helping low-income people receive health care, eked out a procedural win on Tuesday when the Senate voted 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie, to allow debate to start on legislation.

The outcome came as a huge relief to President Donald Trump, who has called Obamacare a "disaster" and pushed fellow Republicans in recent days to follow through on the party's seven-year quest to roll back the law.

But hours later, Senate Republican leadership suffered a setback when the repeal and replace plan that they had been working on since May failed to get enough votes for approval, with nine out of 52 Republicans voting against it.

Usually, bills reach the floor with a predictable outcome: Senators have received summaries of the legislation to be debated that were written in an open committee process, leaders have counted the number of supporters and opponents, amendments are debated and everybody knows the likely outcome: passage.

All that is out the window now, as the Senate on Wednesday continues a freewheeling debate that could stretch through the week on undoing major portions of former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance to about 20 million people, many of them low-income.

Republican leaders have insisted they can devise a cheaper approach this week and with less government intrusion into consumers' health-care decisions than Obamacare.

Democrats and other critics of the Republican effort said it would deprive millions of health coverage.

"We've tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them it's better than nothing, asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition," Republican Senator John McCain said on Tuesday.

"I don't think that is going to work in the end. And it probably shouldn't," he added.

The veteran Arizona lawmaker made his remarks after receiving a standing ovation from his colleagues, as he returned to the Senate just days after surgery and being diagnosed with brain cancer.

McCain appealed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to start over by having a Senate committee, in a bipartisan way, craft new health-care legislation.

His proposal was promptly ignored.
Chipotle Mexican Grill said it received a follow-up subpoena relating to the norovirus outbreak at its Sterling, Virginia, restaurant earlier this month.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed it received the subpoena on July 19, and plans to "fully cooperate in the investigation."

Several customers were sickened at the restaurant and testing last week confirmed that the illness was norovirus.

During an earnings conference call Tuesday, Chipotle executives disclosed that they attributed the outbreak to lax enforcement of the company's sick policy by store managers and a sick worker at the restaurant.

"We conducted a thorough investigation, and it revealed that our leadership there didn't strictly adhere to our company protocols," CEO Steve Ells said during the call.

Chipotle plans to embark on a training program to more stringently enforce the policies it has regarding the handling of food in its restaurants.

Ells said Tuesday that the company's procedures are "nonnegotiable and a condition of their employment."

This is the latest setback for the Mexican restaurant chain, which was just starting to show progress in winning back customers after a string of food safety illnesses, beginning in 2015, scared diners away.

In January 2016, Chipotle was served with a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation of a norovirus outbreak at a California restaurant. As part of that probe, the company was asked to supply documents and information regarding its food safety practices dating back to January 2013.

"It is not possible at this time to determine whether we will incur, or to reasonably estimate the amount of, any fines or penalties in connection with the investigation," the company said, in regard to its latest subpoena.

Chipotle shares were recently trading down 1 percent.
Citigroup investors don't need to be concerned about trade under President Donald Trump, CEO Michael Corbat told CNBC on Wednesday.

In part of a "Mad Money" interview airing in its entirety Wednesday evening, CNBC's Jim Cramer asked Corbat if he needs to worry about Trump's tough talk on trade.

Corbat responded, by saying: "Trade is not dead. Trade is secular, not cyclical."

"When we look at growth rates, sure, the whole world slowed. But the relationship between the developed and developing markets [is] very much intact. Emerging markets [are] still growing at nearly two times the pace of developed markets," Corbat said.

On Tuesday, Citigroup outlined an ambitious plan to grow profit and return at least $60 billion to shareholders. In its first major investor conference in more than nine years, management described the blueprint as a sign Citi has finally regained its footing after the 2008 financial crisis when it needed three bailouts to survive.

Earlier this month, Citigroup reported better-than-expected second-quarter results. But the bank mentioned a slowdown in stock trading results.
Citigroup's partnership with Costco may be old news, but Citi CEO Michael Corbat said he still considers the deal, which the big bank took from competitor American Express , a huge success.

In a wide-ranging interview with "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer, Corbat said the deal with Costco to issue the retailer's branded credit cards was much larger than it may have initially seemed.

"If I came in and said, 'Jim, let me tell you about a deal that we're gonna do. And that deal is going to be with a terrific partner, one of the best retailers in the world. And in that deal we're going to bring in $10, $11 billion of receivables. We're gonna bring in new cardholders. And those cardholders, in a single year, are going to spend $100 billion on that card,' think about it," Corbat said.

The 16-year-long deal between American Express and Costco expired in March 2016. Since then, the discount retail chain has partnered with Citi for its credit cards and Visa for its rewards program.

"Costco's a great partner," Corbat said. "It's a great company. And the receptivity of our cardholders and the usage of the cardholders has been great."
Comcast Corp . should buy Verizon Communications , a deal that could be worth $215 billion, an analyst from Citigroup said Wednesday.

Though many view Verizon as a likely suitor for Dish Network , the analyst said Comcast could swoop in with a deal for the wireless carrier that would help it extend internet connectivity outside the home.

The analyst estimates Comcast could pay a 20 percent premium to Verizon's share price, which was $43.98 at the close of trading Tuesday. Verizon's shares are down more than 17 percent this year, so much so that Comcast, the parent of NBCUniversal, is now bigger in terms of market value, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet wrote in a research note on Wednesday.

Verizon's market value was $179 billion as of Tuesday's close, so a 20 percent premium would put a deal value at $215 billion.

"It's a call Comcast should make ... and Verizon should take," wrote Bazinet in the note. Verizon shares were up more than 1 percent in morning trading, while Comcast shares were flat.

The research cites press reports that indicate Verizon could be open to a deal with Disney , CBS or Comcast.

A spokesman from Comcast and a spokeswoman for Verizon both declined to comment.

It is a time of rapid consolidation in the media and telecommunications industries. Companies that create content are looking for more efficient ways to distribute it at a time when many households are moving to streaming services from Netflix and Amazon.com . Comcast bought NBCUniversal in 2009 and attempted a deal with Time Warner Cable in 2014, but called it off the next year.

Telecom giant AT&T and media giant Time Warner are waiting on regulatory approval for their $80 billion combination, which would marry video content with delivery on mobile devices.

Bazinet said in his note that the regulatory climate may be more amenable under the current administration to big combinations.

A Comcast-Verizon tie-up could boost revenue at the combined company, he said. He estimates Comcast would have to sell about 16 percent of its cable operations where it overlaps with Verizon's FiOS network.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.
A potential ban on scrap metal imports in China could be a boon for imported refined copper in that country, the world's biggest consumer of the metal.

The price of copper shot up more than 2 percent in trading Wednesday, rising for the fourth straight day to the highest level in more than two years.

China is considering banning imports of scrap metal starting at the end of next year. If it follows through, demand for imported refined copper could increase. China makes up almost half of the world's copper consumption, importing about 23 million tons this year.

Mining and materials stocks reacted by gaining in midday trading Wednesday, led by U.S. giant Freeport-McMoRan , up 2 percent. Newmont Mining also rose 2 percent, Southern Copper Corp was up 0.5 percent and BHP Billiton Limited was up nearly 2 percent.

Copper is up more than 5 percent this week, as trading in the metal saw the biggest volumes since November. Copper's move past key technical levels furthered the rallying, as additional buying added on to the boost.

-- Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.
"At this juncture, both are proceeding more slowly than we thought would happen," she said. "Nevertheless, we remain confident in the direction of defense spending."

"Without the appointments, it is difficult to process contracts and get authorized and appropriated funds obligated to contracts," General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic said Wednesday on the company's second-quarter conference call.

Industry executives say the vacancies in so many key positions at the Department of Defense means it's become a drag on signing new contracts and executing existing programs. At the same time, executives say delays and the lack of some direction from the Pentagon can cost defense contractors money and result in American taxpayers paying more in the end for programs and services.

Many critical positions in the Pentagon remain unfilled seven months into the Trump administration, and the situation is causing growing frustration for defense contractors  and now boiling over in earnings conference calls.

Novakovic made those comments in her introductory remarks about the general defense environment.

At present, only 10 of the 53 top jobs at the Department of Defense have been filled with permanent political-appointee replacements. The situation is due to both the lack of nominations from the administration and a slow confirmation process in the Senate.

Also, some of the acting officials serving in the vacant posts lack the full authority to implement major changes or new policies, or are being told they can't act without prior approval from higher-ups in the administration.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

One of the vacant posts is the Pentagon's top acquisition official, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. The job was previously held by Obama appointee Frank Kendall, and only last month the White House nominated Ellen Lord as his replacement.

Lord, who had a Senate Armed Services Committee confirming hearing July 18, most recently was CEO of Textron Systems , an aerospace and defense development and manufacturing unit of the Textron conglomerate.

Similarly, two of the three service secretary positions at the Pentagon remain empty, including Army and Navy. The president's third pick for Army secretary fell through, and his choice of Richard Spencer for Navy was made only last month. Spencer, a finance executive, was Trump's second pick for the Navy post since an earlier nominee withdrew.

Trump's Air Force secretary pick, Heather Wilson, was sworn in five months into the new administration.

"The service secretaries are important positions in terms of policy, and they set the agenda and priorities as we work with them on various procurement projects," said Dan Stohr, a spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group representing more than 300 U.S. aerospace and defense companies.

Out of nearly $590 billion in the DoD's fiscal 2017 budget, just under $200 million in spending is expected to flow to defense contractors and other companies in the form of procurement or to support the Pentagon's research, development, test and evaluation efforts.

The No. 2 job at the Pentagon under Secretary James Mattis was filled only last week. Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan was nominated as deputy Defense secretary in March but only confirmed by the Senate last week  and that followed Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., earlier threatening to block the pick.

"Most of the top jobs at the Pentagon have taken way too long to fill in the new administration, and the military will need to play catch up for the next two years," said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant and chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a Arlington, Virginia-based public-policy think tank.

Thompson said the situation today at the Pentagon is troubling because there's a "drifting for lack of senior leadership" and that translates into "a drag on signing new contracts and executing programs."

Also, executives say there's a risk of program delays or lack of clarity on already awarded contracts which can be costly for taxpayers and defense companies. They say contract personnel  whether design teams, engineers or production workers  can sometimes be kept waiting for guidance from the Pentagon but still are on the payroll.

Thompson said Shanahan and Lord are "quite accomplished on the industry side." But he adds that it will still take time for them to get up to speed at the Pentagon since "you don't just walk into the building and understand how things work."

Prior to taking the Pentagon post, Shanahan was senior vice president of supply and operations at Boeing.

In the case of Lord, she also is nominated for a key acquisition position that is mandated to essentially be eliminated next year. Congress in the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act approved splitting up the job (undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics) into two positions: one on the technology wing and a second on the acquisitions wing.

Even so, the defense industry is pushing for Lord to get into the post as soon as possible so she can help make things run more smoothly  and prepare for the split. They also hope she can help reduce regulations that defense contractors often complain are burdensome.

"Leadership in setting up the department to actually perform this split between the technology wing and the acquisition wing is going to be very important," said AIA's Stohr.

Stohr said the defense industry is hoping the Trump team at the Pentagon will be able to devote more attention to "over-regulation" issues since it "imposes significant inefficiencies in the acquisition process." For example, he said the industry tends to be "audited much more often and in much greater detail than is really required."

The AIA official said there's a reason for some regulation but it needs to be done "in a smart way. Are regulations tightly focused to their explicit purpose? Do they actually achieve their purpose? And if they don't, it's time to get rid of them or adjust them in such a way that they do."
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Coca-Cola  Coke beat forecasts by two cents a share, with quarterly profit of 59 cents per share. Revenue also came in above Street forecasts and Coke raised its full-year forecast, supported by growth in its newer products among other factors.

Boeing  The jet maker earned $2.55 per share for its latest quarter, 25 cents a share above estimates. Revenue was short of consensus, but Boeing did raise its full-year forecast due to lower taxes and improved performance.

Ford Motor  The automaker reported adjusted quarterly profit of 56 cents per share, 13 cents a share above consensus. Revenue was in line with estimates.

Hershey  The chocolate maker earned an adjusted $1.09 per share for the second quarter, coming in 19 cents a share above estimates. Revenue beat forecasts, as well. Hershey was helped by stronger U.S. demand as well as cost-cutting measures.

D.R. Horton  The home builder beat estimates by a penny a share, with quarterly earnings of 76 cents per share. Revenue missed forecasts, however. The bottom line benefited from an increase in home sales, as net sales jumped 11 percent from the year before.

Hilton Worldwide  The hotel operator earned 51 cents per share for the second quarter, one cent a share above estimates. Revenue beat forecasts, as well. Hilton also raised its full-year forecast, as guests book more rooms at higher prices.

Anthem  The health insurer reported adjusted quarterly profit of $3.37 per share, 14 cents a share above estimates. Revenue was slightly below consensus forecasts. Anthem did see increased enrollment and higher premiums during the quarter.

Northrop Grumman  The defense contractor earned $3.15 per share for the second quarter, beating estimates of $2.87 a share. Revenue also came in above estimates and the company raised its profit forecast as customers purchased more manned aircraft units.

AT&T  The telecom giant reported adjusted quarterly profit of 79 cents per share, six cents a share above estimates. Revenue was also above forecasts, and the company also said it expects to close its acquisition of Time Warner by the end of the year.

Blue Apron  Co-founder Matthew Wadiak is stepping down as chief operating officer. He'll take a role as senior adviser to the meal kit company.

Amgen  Amgen reported adjusted quarterly profit of $3.27 per share, 16 cents a share better than estimates. The biotech firm also raised its full-year outlook, but the midpoint of the revised forecasts is below consensus forecasts. Amgen is, however, seeing new product sales make up for falling sales of established treatments.

Chipotle Mexican Grill  Chipotle beat estimates by 14 cents a share, with quarterly earnings of $2.32 per share. Revenue was slightly below forecasts. The restaurant chain's profits did more than double from a year earlier, as sales rose and expenses fell. The company also said it was retraining its employees on food safety following a series of lapses.

Wynn Resorts  Wynn came in two cents ahead of Street forecasts, reporting adjusted quarterly profit of $1.18 per share. The casino operator's revenue also beat estimates.

Express Scripts  The company reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.73 per share, matching estimates, while the pharmacy benefits manager's revenue was slightly short of forecasts. The company did increase its earnings outlook for the full year, and also said that if it strikes a new deal with health insurer Anthem, its largest customer, it would be on less favorable terms. Anthem has sued Express Scripts, claiming it was overcharged.

U.S. Steel  U.S. Steel more than tripled the 34 cent a share consensus estimates by reporting adjusted quarterly profit of $1.07 per share. The steel company's revenue was also above estimates. That compares to a year-ago loss.

Texas Instruments  Texas Instruments reported quarterly profit of $1.03 per share, seven cents a share above estimates. Revenue scored a beat, as well. The chipmaker saw especially strong demand in its automotive and industrial segments.

Advanced Micro Devices  AMD earned two cents per share for its latest quarter, compared to forecasts of a breakeven performance. The semiconductor company's revenue also beat forecasts, and it gave strong guidance for the current quarter and the full year on strong demand for its graphics chips.

Akamai Technologies  Akamai beat estimates by two cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 62 cents per share. Revenue also topped forecasts, however the provider of internet content delivery technology gave a weaker-than-expected current-quarter forecast. That comes on the heels of losing business from a number of large gaming companies.

IRobot  IRobot reported quarterly profit of 27 cents per share, far better than the 28-cent-a-share loss predicted by analysts. Revenue was well above estimates, and the maker of the Roomba automated vacuum cleaner also raised its full-year guidance on improved sales.

Celgene  Celgene will pay $280 million to the federal government and a number of state governments, settling a case involving accusations of improper promotion of cancer drugs and false reimbursement claims. Celgene does not admit liability in agreeing to the settlement and denies any wrongdoing in the case.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it would start legal action against Poland over a law reforming the judiciary that undermines the independence of judges and therefore breaks EU treaty rules.

The Commission also sent Poland a new recommendation under a separate rule-of-law monitoring procedure asking it to address its concerns about several issues questioned by the EU executive since the start of 2016 and gave Warsaw one month to respond.

"An independent judiciary is an essential precondition for membership in our Union," Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement. "The EU can therefore not accept a system which allows dismissing judges at will."

"If the Polish government goes ahead with undermining the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Poland, we will have no other choice than to trigger Article 7," Juncker said referring to a legal process of suspending Poland's voting rights in the 28-nation EU.
Foxconn, one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, will unveil plans Wednesday evening to build a new factory in southeastern Wisconsin, delivering a much-needed win for President Donald Trump and Gov. Scott Walker, R, according to four officials with knowledge of the announcement.

Wisconsin was among several states, including Pennsylvania, competing for the plant.

The facility will make flat-screen displays and will be located in Southeast Wisconsin within House Speaker Paul Ryan's congressional district. It is not clear how many jobs would be created.

Shortly after Trump was elected, Foxconn's chairman Terry Gou said his company would invest at least $7 billion in the United States and create between 30,000 and 50,000 jobs. If it follows through with that commitment, Foxconn would become a major employer on par with Chrysler.

The Taiwanese company, also known as Hon Hai Precision, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronics with more than 1 million workers in factories across Europe, Asia and South America. It contracts with virtually every large technology company including Apple, Amazon, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Nintendo and made nearly $140 billion in revenues in 2015.

Walker, who faces re-election in 2018, hinted at the news in a tweet Tuesday, calling it a "major jobs announcement." A Marquette Law School poll last month found that Walker has a 48 percent job-approval rating among the state's voters

Trump has also spoken of Foxconn's potential expansion.

"Foxconn is going to spend a tremendous amount of money on building a massive plant," the president said last December, "and probably more than one."

The company has been talking to at least six states about its new factory. Wisconsin officials said that the state would consider legislative sweeteners to attract the company. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Monday, "The senator has said that if a bill is necessary to help facilitate a Foxconn location in Wisconsin, he is hopeful that it will take the form of bipartisan legislation that is tackled after the budget is passed."

Ahead of the announcement, which is expected at 5 pm, Foxconn referred questions from the Washington Post to a July 12 statement that said the manufacturer has not yet settled on an American site.

"We are exploring potential investments that would represent a major expansion of our current US operations," the company said in the statement. "We are engaged in discussions with officials at various levels of government regarding our ongoing plans to significantly increase our investments in the U.S."

Foxconn is hardly a household name because it mostly works as a contract manufacturer for tech giants. And in recent years, the company has earned a reputation for splashy job announcements that have not quite panned out.

In 2013, the company earned headlines for a plan to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new high-tech factory in central Pennsylvania. The state's governor boasted about the deal. Economists wrote think pieces explaining how this was the leading edge of America's manufacturing renaissance.

But once the attention died down and the politicians moved on, Foxconn never followed through with its plans in Pennsylvania.

In 2014, the company signed a letter of intent to invest up to $1 billion in Indonesia. That investment has yet to occur. That same year, Foxconn said it planned to invest $5 billion over five years in India, creating 50,000 jobs. But three years later Foxconn's investment has amounted to only a small fraction of its original promise.

And there was Foxconn's plans for a $5 billion investment in Vietnam and $10 billion in Brazil - both projects have fallen far short of expectations.
If you have been waiting and budgeting to take a European vacation, now might be your chance to save big.

Tickets on discount airline Primera Air are available for flights from the U.S. to Europe for $99, according to Conde Nast Traveler. Travelers can embark from Newark in New Jersey (which is considered a New York-area airport) or Boston's Logan International and fly to Paris, London and Birmingham, U.K., starting in April 2018.

The $99 price tag is a substantial discount to the current $1,498.94 estimate for an average ticket price to travel from New York City to Paris.

That number is from Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC), and is based on all round trip tickets purchased via U.S. travel agencies this year for travel in June through August for a trip from any airport in New York City to any airport in Paris in the summer of 2017 (about 30,782 sales).

Since a week long vacation can often cost more than a month's rent or mortgage, saving on flights can be crucial to your budget.

However, as with other budget airlines, travelers on Primera airlines can expect to pay fees. A lot of fees.

"In 'light' economy, it will cost you $45 if you want to pick your seat (more if you decide to sit in an exit row) $40 for a standard chicken meal ($70 if you want the premium food option) and $45 one-way to check a bag," according to Conde Nast Traveler.

The flights became available after Primera Air announced new bases in the destination cities. The airline's previously established bases are in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland according to the company's website.

According to World Airline News, the company is able to offer such cheap flights thanks to using a "new generation aircraft," which is smaller and more efficient.

There could be new destinations soon, according to Primera Air  they expect to announce two more transatlantic routes by the end of the summer.

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook

Don't miss: How I saved more than $400 on my Paris vacation before even leaving for the airport
A Russian man suspected of laundering at least $4 billion of criminal funds by switching them into the digital currency bitcoin has been arrested in Greece, police said on Wednesday.

Police sources identified the individual as Alexander Vinnik, 38. After a tip-off, he was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece, on a U.S. warrant, and police said the United States would seek to extradite him.

"Since 2011 the 38-year-old has been running a criminal organisation which administers one of the most important websites of electronic crime in the world," police said in a statement, describing an alleged money laundering operation that "legalizes proceeds from illegal activities".

It was thought that 'at least' $4 billion in cash had been laundered through a bitcoin platform since 2011; the platform had 7 million bitcoins deposited, and 5.5 million bitcoins in withdrawals.

Bitcoin was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and hidden, making traditional financial regulation difficult if not impossible.

The detainee was held on four counts of running an unlicensed money-transfer operation, conspiracy, money laundering in violation of 17 acts in the U.S. criminal code, and transactions in cash acquired through illicit means.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it had no information on the case.

In a separate prominent cybercrime case, the United States is seeking to extradite another Russian, Peter Levashov, from Spain. U.S. prosecutors have charged him with hacking offences, saying he operated a network of tens of thousands of infected computers used by cyber criminals.
The Senate on Wednesday knocked down a proposal to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act without an immediate replacement amid a chaotic string of health-care votes this week.

The amendment failed by a 45-55 margin, with seven Republican senators voting against it: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rob Portman of Ohio.

The vote comes amid a frantic period of debate and votes this week in the Senate as Republicans push to approve some form of Obamacare repeal. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hopes the chamber can finish work on a bill by the end of the week.

Later Wednesday, the Senate voted down two more proposals related to health care.

The first was a motion to send the bill back to committee to strike provisions that would harm individuals with disabilities. It failed 48-51 along party lines with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson missing the vote.

Only 10 senators voted for the second measure, a symbolic proposal known as the Heller amendment. It was intended to express a commitment to elements of existing law that allowed states to expand Medicaid to cover more people.

GOP senators voted Tuesday by the narrowest margin to start debate on possible options to overhaul the American health-care system and follow through on a key campaign promise that has marked most of the last decade. Party divisions and skepticism from both the conservative and more moderate sides of the GOP stalled multiple pushes to repeal Obamacare in recent weeks.

On Tuesday night, the Senate voted down a procedural measure seen as a proxy to gauge support for an Obamacare repeal-and-replacement plan that stalled out in the Senate in recent weeks. Nine Republicans opposed the measure, meaning it fell well short of the votes needed for approval.

A separate Democratic amendment to send the health-care plan to the Senate committees with instructions to shield the Medicaid program from cuts failed by a 48-52 party-line vote.

The "clean" repeal proposal the Senate rejected would have rolled back parts of the Affordable Care Act and implemented a two-year transition period for lawmakers to find a replacement. It is based on a plan that Congress passed in 2015 knowing that it would face President Barack Obama's veto.

Collins was the only current Republican senator to oppose the 2015 bill. Every other GOP senator who voted against the provision Wednesday supported the 2015 repeal proposal.

More moderate GOP senators have said they fear repealing without an immediate replacement because it could generate even more uncertainty in the American insurance market. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated repealing without an immediate replacement would lead to 32 million more Americans uninsured by 2026 and cause average premiums to double.
Crude oil rose for the third straight session on Thursday, trading near two-month highs on the back of a reported drop in U.S. stockpiles.



Now, as this inventory data sends crude oil higher for its third straight session, some strategists see an additional bullish catalyst in rising global uncertainty.



"Everyone has been kind of thinking that oil prices are going to continue to remain low. But the reality is there are many other things that are going around the globe, specifically a lot of geopolitical risk. And what that does is create uncertainty for the future supply of crude oil," Phillip Streible, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, said Wednesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."



Specifically, Streible pointed to sanctions recently imposed on oil-rich Iran, unrest in North Korea and Russia, and a two-day strike in Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil producers.



This strike could push crude oil prices up through $50 per barrel "very soon," Streible said, and ultimately oil will rise to the $53 to $55 range. This range is about 9 to 13 percent higher than oil's settle price on Wednesday.



"Once we're up there, we'll probably start to see the rig count in the U.S. continue to build," he said, and as more rigs come online and production revs up, oil prices may begin to "level off."



Furthermore, investors should look for any kind of pullback as an opportunity to position oneself on the "long side," Streible said, and over the long run oil prices will come to a more "normalized" level.



"Anything in this mid-$40 range, I think, provides some value for crude oil," he said.



Crude oil settled 1.8 percent higher on Wednesday, at $48.75 per barrel.
watch now

With a new chief executive at the helm, Coca-Cola on Wednesday reported earnings and revenue that topped analysts' expectations. The beverage maker also issued a more upbeat earnings forecast for the full year. Increasingly, shoppers are searching for Coke's healthier options  low in sugar and free of carbonation  which fueled these results, though Coca-Cola posted another drop in profit as it's still in the midst of completing a refranchising plan. related investing news Estee Lauder's stock jumps as China loosens Covid rules, in line with Club investment case Deutsche names Walmart a top pick, sees more outperformance from the retail giant Coca-Cola shares initially jumped 1.5 percent in premarket trading before reversing course and falling modestly. Coke is divesting from its U.S. cold-fill bottling operations, with a self-imposed deadline to finish the reorganization by the end of the year. The company had warned earlier that its 2017 profit would drop as a result of these efforts. In the second quarter alone, the beverage maker incurred a charge of $653 million related to refranchising. Here's what the company reported versus what Wall Street was expecting: Earnings per share: 59 cents adjusted compared with an estimate of 57 cents adjusted, according to Thomson Reuters analysts' consensus

Revenue: $9.702 billion compared with a forecast of $9.652 billion "Our second quarter results demonstrate continued progress against the strategic priorities we have laid out to accelerate the transformation of our business into a total beverage company with balanced growth across a consumer-centric portfolio," new CEO James Quincey said in a statement. Former Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent stepped down in May and was succeeded by Quincey, who had previously been the company's chief operating officer. The second quarter marks Quincey's first earnings report as chief executive.

watch now

"Not only did we see strong performance during the quarter in rapidly expanding areas of our Company, such as our innocent juice and smoothie business in Europe, our organic revenue growth in sparkling soft drinks was led by innovation in and marketing support for our low- and no-sugar options like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which continues to roll out around the world," Quincey said. Coca-Cola's net revenue for the quarter fell 16 percent to $9.7 billion. The Atlanta-based beverage giant said sales were hurt by unfavorable foreign currency exchange. Macroeconomic challenges have been one concern for the company and many of its peers, including PepsiCo , of late. Coca-Cola's net income fell to $1.37 billion, or 32 cents per share not adjusted, in the second quarter, from $3.45 billion, or 79 cents per share, a year earlier. "Within the [macroeconomic] backdrop we're in today, I think Coke's results are actually promising," RBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. "As they refranchise, we're seeing improvement in volume because of better execution."

Ramin Talaie | Getty Images

During the second quarter, Coke said the company made progress in some of its key initiatives, which included transforming the business' beverage portfolio, getting away from sugary drinks and growing in global markets. Quincey has made it clear he wants to focus on boosting Coca-Cola's sales of smaller-sized packages and no-calorie sparkling beverages to meet the needs of consumers looking for healthier options. He told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday that Coca-Cola saw "nice results" in juice and dairy during the quarter, adding that the reorganization of the bottlers was going "almost miraculously smooth." Notably, Coke's unit case volume for juice, dairy and plant-based beverages climbed 3 percent globally. Case volume for Coca-Cola's water, enhanced water and sports drinks category was up 1 percent, while tea and coffee case volume was up 2 percent. Coca-Cola continues to see headwinds in emerging markets such as Brazil and Venezuela, Quincey added. But developed economies  Europe and North America  are delivering stronger results, he said. Coke reported on Wednesday that low- and no-calorie sparkling soft drinks grew unit case volume in the mid single digits during the quarter, as the company continues to expand its reduced-sugar offerings globally. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, for example, will hit the U.S. in August after seeing double-digit growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Prior to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Coke's popular, no-calorie beverage of choice in the U.S. was dubbed Coca-Cola Zero. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, though, will have a new design and packaging that looks more like Coca-Cola, the company said. "It is a reinvention of Coke Zero," CEO Quincey said on Wednesday's earnings conference call. "It is part of what we call the one-brand strategy." Overall, the beverage company's total unit case volume across all segments was even for the latest period. Looking at the full year ahead, Coca-Cola now expects earnings per share to be flat to a drop of 2 percent, better than a previous forecast for declines of 1 to 3 percent. The company still expects organic revenue to grow about 3 percent  Coca-Cola's full-year performance outlook remains unchanged. Earnings flat to down 2 percent would imply profit of $1.87 per share to $1.91 per share for the full year, falling in line with Thomson Reuters analysts' consensus of $1.89 per share. "Our performance gives us confidence that we will achieve our full-year financial objectives even in the face of challenging conditions, and also demonstrates further success in evolving our portfolio to meet changing consumer tastes and preferences," Quincey said in the earnings statement. In his first go at earnings as CEO, this was a "good quarter out of the gate" for Quincey, Jefferies analyst Kevin Grundy wrote in a note to clients. He added that he's interested to watch the growth in the CEO's favorite "category clusters" in coming quarters  namely the healthier beverages in Coke's portfolio. And all eyes will be on Coca-Cola Zero Sugar's August launch in the United States.



As of Tuesday's close, shares of Coca-Cola are up less than 1 percent over the past 12 months, but the stock has risen about 9 percent for the year.



KO year-to-date performance

Source: FactSet

WATCH: Soda is the new cigarette: Cowen's Vivien Azer

watch now
If you want a job at one of the world's most sought-after tech employers like Facebook, Google and Amazon, you better hit the books.

Data analysis site Paysa looked at over 8,200 job posting and over 70,000 resumes at tech "titans" (companies worth at least $100 billion with an IPO more than 10 years ago) and "tech disruptors" (companies worth at least $10 billion with an IPO within the last 10 years) to determine how long you need to stay in school in order to snag one of their coveted jobs.

Of these major tech companies, Paysa found that Snap Inc. employees are the most likely to have a master's degree  over 36 percent of jobs at the social media company require one. (For perspective, just 9.3 percent of Americans over the age of 25 have a masters degree.)

Even though Snap Inc. is the most likely to require a master's degree, they employ people with significantly less work experience than other tech companies. Paysa's research found that Airbnb, Twitter and Uber employees were most likely to have six to 10 years of experience, but Snap Inc. employees were most likely to have less than two years of experience.

Check out the infographic below to see what level of education you'll need to complete to have the best shot at working for one of these tech companies:
South Korea is in no hurry to set up an advanced missile defense system designed to protect its shores from North Korean aggression despite fears of another intercontinental ballistic missile attack from its northern neighbor. In June, South Korean President Moon Jae-in suspended further installation of the $923 million Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, pending a full review. That move was welcomed by China, who vehemently opposes the technology. And even as Kim Jong-un's regime threatens "merciless blows" to its enemies, Seoul isn't expected to shift its stance.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska during Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-18 in Kodiak, Alaska, July 11, 2017. Leah Garton/Missile Defense Agency/Handout | REUTERS

That's because the American hardware carries emotional political baggage for South Koreans, Jenna Gibson, director of communications at the Korea Economic Institute of America, wrote in a note published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "THAAD is not about China, or even the U.S.  it is about scandal-ridden former President Park Geun-hye." The fact that THAAD was initiated by Park  the country's first democratically elected leader to be ousted from office via impeachment  is South Korea's core issue with THAAD, the note explained. Park's image was greatly scarred once news broke of her role in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal last year. Backlash against her sparked months of mass street demonstrations that became known as the "Candlelight Revolution." Many believe Park hurried through the deployment of THAAD's initial two missile launchers while she was still in office to prevent her successor from reversing the decision, according to Gibson. The initial stages of THAAD deployment took place in South Korea earlier this year. The system, paid for by Washington, was tested last month when the U.S. shot down a simulated ballistic missile. However, the majority of South Koreans oppose sudden THAAD deployment, a May poll revealed.

watch now
Researchers in the U.S. are designing and looking to develop 50 megawatt (MW) wind turbines with "extreme-scale blades" 200 meters in length. To put things in perspective, if built, they will be taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

The Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR) project is being led by researchers at the University of Virginia. In 2015 the project was awarded a three year grant of more than $3.5 million by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E.

"It's incredibly challenging, because the scale is so big," the University of Virginia's Eric Loth told CNBC in a phone interview. "I don't know if I have any other project that I've been working on in the last 30 years that has been so challenging in that respect," he added.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), there is now more than 14,000 MW of installed offshore wind power capacity across 14 markets.

Ambitions for the SUMR project are big. On its website, the team says that bringing its project to full fruition will represent "a major step toward maximizing U.S. offshore wind power."

In the U.S., the offshore wind industry is still in its infancy. It was only at the end of 2016 that America's first offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Rhode Island, commenced commercial operations.

Looking at the broader picture, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has said that offshore wind resources are "abundant, stronger, and blow more consistently than land-based wind resources."

Back in Virginia, Loth told CNBC that the SUMR project was very much at the conceptual stage. He added that next summer the team hoped to test a 20 percent scale version of the turbine on a site just outside of Denver, Colorado.

"Our big push right now is for something called a summer demonstrator," he said. "We're right now designing the blades."

"They're going to be ultra-light lades, lighter than any other blade at that scale that's ever been done. And it will be proof of concept, so we're excited."
Jodi Jacobson | Getty Images

New research from JPMorgan examining historic data found that the risk of a dramatic decline in prices is low, despite current fears of a correction in the U.S. and Canada. Using data from 14 developed countries dating back to 1950, JPMorgan's research found that sharp price corrections have been relatively uncommon, even following large price increases. related investing news 10 stocks that could be ready to rip now that inflation is easing, according to JPMorgan "The data show that sustained increases in real house prices have been the norm rather than the exception in the post-World War II era, as rising populations and incomes have pushed up land prices," Jesse Edgerton, U.S. analyst from the investment bank's economic and policy research team, said in the report entitled "Quantifying housing correction risk in Canada and the U.S.," published late Tuesday. "Of course, there have been occasional large price declines over multi-year periods, as we saw starting in 2006 in the U.S. But such declines have not been common, even after periods of rising prices," he said, adding that the chance of a decline in prices was low. "Simple models based on these data put the chance of a 20 percent decline in real prices within the next five years (roughly equivalent to a 10 percent decline in nominal prices) at about 20 percent in Canada and 10 percent in the U.S."

Fears of a bubble

The research comes as fears grow over a housing bubble forming in the West, particularly in countries like the U.S., Canada and Australia. Since the beginning of the global housing boom around the year 2000, real U.S. housing prices are up 29 percent and Canadian prices up 138 percent, Edgerton noted. "Nominal house prices in the U.S. have now surpassed their 2006 peaks, while Canadian prices are up 95 percent since then," he said. "These impressive increases have stoked a long-running debate about the sustainability of Canadian house prices, and similar rumblings are beginning again in the U.S. as well. Defenders claim that price increases result from rising incomes encountering supply constraints in desirable areas, while skeptics see a bubble with significant risk of popping."

watch now

The research examined historical data on house prices to put some numbers on the probability of a sharp decline in the coming years. It also combined price data from the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) with a dataset of historical prices from a recent academic paper on global house prices between 1870 and 2012 which was published in the journal American Economic Review in 2017. Edgerton said that post-war data illustrated that even rapid price increases do not mean that a correction is inevitable but he cautioned against discounting a correction. "There have been many occasions where prices rose rapidly only to stabilize or keep going up. But we also know that sharp multi-year corrections are a possibility, as they have occurred at some point in most countries in the dataset."

watch now
Ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli leaves after his appearance at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on the first day of his securities fraud trial on June 26, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

Shkreli, however, commented, in acerbic fashion, on his case on Facebook.

Nor will they have heard from any other witnesses or evidence from the defense, which rested without putting on a case of their own.

When they do, they will do so without the benefit of having heard any testimony from Shkreli, who declined to take the witness stand.

Jurors could then begin deliberations later Friday, exactly one month after opening arguments were made in the trial.

The rejection sets the stage for a very long, full day of closing arguments in the case by prosecutors and Shkreli's lawyers Thursday, with those arguments only expected to wrap up Friday morning.

Lawyers for Martin Shkreli lost a long-shot bid on Wednesday to get criminal charges against the 'pharma bro' dismissed in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, after prosecutors and defense lawyers rested their cases.

"Have a nice day, and I'll see you at 9," Judge Kiyo Matsumoto told Shkreli as she excused him Wednesday from having to remain in court and listen to her, his lawyers and prosecutors huddle over how she will instruct jurors on the law for their deliberations after closing arguments.

Earlier, Shkreli had told Matsumoto that he was waiving his right to a separate trial by the same jury on the question of how much he should be required to forfeit in assets if he is convicted of the criminal charges.

Shkreli earlier had said he wanted jurors to decide that question in the event he is convicted. He did not explain his decision Wednesday.

Jurors were not in court Wednesday, having been given the day off.

Shkreli, 34, is accused of defrauding a group of investors in two hedge funds he ran by lying to them about his past performance managing investments, and by lying to them about how well he was doing with their money.

He also is charged with defrauding the drug company he subsequently founded, Retrophin , by using company stocks and cash to pay back the investors he allegedly ripped off at his funds.

Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to eight criminal counts, including securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and to commit wire fraud.

The charges are unrelated to Shkreli having raised the price of the anti-parasite drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent while serving as CEO of another company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, in 2015.

That action made Shkreli the subject of widespread negative media attention. A number of would-be jurors mentioned the Daraprim price increase when they were considered and then excused from serving on the jury for his trial.

On Wednesday morning, Shkreli's lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Matsumoto to dismiss the entire eight-count indictment against him.

"There's legally insufficient evidence to substantiate each of the eight charges," Agnifilo told Matsumoto.

Agnifilo argued that the decisions by investors to put their money into Shkreli's funds were not based on the allegedly false statements he told them before they invested. Those statements included claims that the MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare hedge funds had an independent auditor, were "transparent" investment vehicles and had enough liquidity to satisfy monthly redemption requests.

Matsumoto brushed aside that argument. She noted that multiple investors have testified that "they did pay attention to the monthly [financial] performance reports" that Shkreli sent them about their purported investment returns.

Those investors "in fact did rely on those reports and felt like they were making money," Matsumoto said.

Prosecutors have introduced evidence that indicates that while Shkreli was issuing glowing financial reports, he was actually losing most, if not all, of the investors' money, or using it without their knowledge to capitalize his new drug company Retrophin.

Agnifilo at one point in his argument said that the eighth criminal count, conspiracy to commit securities fraud on Retrophin, "reminded" him "of the old Wendy's commercial, 'Where's the Beef?' "

Matsumoto interjected, teasing Agnifilo that he was dating himself with the reference to that 1980s-era ad.

"It's not 'Where's the Beef? It's 'A nothing burger,' " the judge cracked, referring to the dismissive term used by some in the Trump administration when commenting on disclosures that Donald Trump Jr. had met with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign.

Another humorous moment occurred when Matsumoto mentioned an employee of a third hedge fund run by Shkreli.

"He was with MSMB Consumer, which was the strip-club hedge fund," Matsumoto said.

That was in reference to the employee having testified that at one point MSMB Consumer's funds were so low that it began focusing on a position in just a single stock, Rick's Cabaret , which operates strip clubs.

Shkreli smiled broadly at reporters when Matsumoto made the "strip club" remark.

Agnifilo also argued there was evidence that Retrophin's board of directors had known of and approved of consulting agreements that were used to pay off investors in Shkreli's hedge funds.

That evidence, the lawyer said, undercuts the prosecution's claim that Shkreli was defrauding the company.

Prosecutors have said the consulting agreements were shams and served as seemingly legitimate vehicles to siphon off Retrophin assets to pay back investors for money that Shkreli told them falsely remained in his fund.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis argued to Matsumoto that Retrophin's board was "not provided with full and complete information"' about the nature of the agreements that it was asked to approve. Kasulis also said "the money was already paid" at the time the approval was sought.

Matsumoto wasted little time rejecting Agnifilo's request to dismiss the indictment.

"Respectfully, I'm going to dismiss the motion," the judge said.
Helmut Lang Recruits Alek Wek, 'Blade' Actress Traci Lords for New Campaign

Since being appointed editor in residence of Helmut Lang in March, Dazed Editor in Chief Isabella Burley hasn't given much insight into her new role  that is, until now.

On Tuesday, Helmut Lang unveiled the first ad campaign under Burley's direction. Photographed by Ethan James Green, a former model himself, the black-and-white portraits star an eclectic cast including supermodel Alek Wek, Blade actress Traci Lords, artist Nicky Rat, model Dara, Japanese student Yoshi and Hood by Air founder Shayne Oliver, who was recruited by Helmut Lang as the first resident designer. Lords poses in a patent leather coat for her portrait, while Oliver shows off his profile wearing an oversize sequined earring and a chain necklace.

The company also introduced its capsule collections titled Helmut Lang Re-Edition and Helmut Lang Seen By: The Artist Series.

Digging into the label's archives, the Re-Edition range will offer 15 reissued pieces, including denim, outerwear, accessories and knitwear that will be available in September. Following the "volume 1" drop, additional items will be added every four months to offer "a constantly evolving investigation into the brand's archive," according to a release.

The brand's Seen By: The Artist Series will be a yearlong activation featuring 12 visual artists, including Leigh Ledare, Carolee Schneemann, Boris Mikhailov, Peter Hujar, Walter Pfeiffer, Keizo Kitajima, Adrienne Salinger, Martine Syms, Mark Morrisroe, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Andrew Miksys and Carrie Mae Weems. (How's that for crowd-disseminated fashion?)

Each month will feature three works from the artists, as they reimagine cult artworks as limited-edition posters, tees and special products. Pfeiffer kicks off the series in October. A portion of sales from the series will be donated to a nonprofit of the artist's or estate's choice.

As part of the company's design residency, Oliver will debut his collection Sept. 11 during New York Fashion Week.

The brand's popularity rose in the 1980s and '90s, thanks to Helmut Lang's innovative and minimalist street-style creations, including slim suits, denim and high-tech fabric styles. Lang established his label in Paris in 1986 before moving the business to New York in 1997. Always one to disrupt the system, Lang was the first to show his collection via a live broadcast on the Internet. He also presented his collections in New York ahead of his European counterparts, causing designers to follow suit and creating a new schedule for New York Fashion Week. Lang departed his namesake label in 2005 and pursued a career as an artist.

If there ever was a time for Helmut Lang to have a resurgence, it's now  the '90s have never been so alive.

green bridesmaid dresses | gold bridesmaid dresses
The circumstances that brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 remain one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries, but the carrier's chief executive said he believed a breakthrough can be made within the next four years.

The plane, a Boeing 777, was carrying 239 people en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur when it vanished from radar screens in March 2014. Search operations concentrated in the southern Indian Ocean, but the aircraft was not found.

Pieces of debris were found at various locations, but the search was called off in January this year.

"(Given) the advances in scientific research around the location where the aircraft may have gone down ... I personally would be very surprised if in the next three or four years, we don't get a breakthrough. I think that's the timescale we're looking at," the airline's CEO, Peter Bellew, told CNBC on Wednesday.

The 2014 double tragedy of MH370 and MH17  an Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur passenger flight that was shot down when it was flying over eastern Ukraine  aggravated Malaysia Airlines' financial woes.

The carrier, which also suffered from increased competition and the weakening ringgit, was taken private by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad in an attempt to keep operations afloat.

After the airline cut jobs and unprofitable routes, Bellew said it is expected to turn profitable by the second half of next year as its focus on growing the business-class segment is yielding results. The company is also looking to re-list on the local stock exchange the following year, he said.

The CEO's optimism also stemmed from his belief that oil prices are heading down towards $25 or $30 per barrel by the end of this decade as renewable energy and new battery technologies become increasingly common. That will lead to an "unprecedented decade of benefits for airlines," he said.

"Lots of aircrafts that don't look economic at $55 per barrel to operate suddenly, at $35 per barrel, will look like great sense, including the A380s," Bellow said.

"We're quite confident now. We've seen significant uptick in our business over the last 12 months. Our confidence is buoyed by the fact that the passenger numbers have increased very significantly ... alongside that, the brand has become much stronger."
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hinted the administration may soon take "a position" on Amazon's tax collection policy after President Donald Trump blasted the company on the topic last month.



Sen. Joe Manchin asked Treasury Secretary about his view on internet state sales taxes at a Senate hearing Wednesday.



"So this is an issue that we've been looking at very carefully within the administration and we expect to come out with a position shortly," Mnuchin said. "I am encouraged that Amazon is now charging tax, I believe, on their own sales but not the marketplace. I'm not sure I understand the consistency on that, but I respect the states' ability that there's an awful lot of money that's not being collected."



Mnuchin is referring to e-commerce giant's "third-party" marketplace, where other firms sell goods on Amazon's website. This compares to its "first-party" business where the internet company sell products directly to customers.



"Third-party" sellers represented 50 percent of Amazon's total unit sales in the first-quarter, according to JMP Securities. The internet company charges the outside parties a fee for selling on Amazon's website.



Amazon does offer a state sales tax collection feature to "third-party" sellers, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, it is unclear how many use the service.



As of April 1 this year, Amazon began collecting state sales tax nationwide for products it sells directly, so called "first-party" sales, with the exception of states that don't have a sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Oregon, Montana and New Hampshire.



Mnuchin's comments come soon after President Trump tweeted three times bashing the "Amazon Washington Post" from July 22 to July 24. He also blasted Amazon for "not paying internet taxes" in June.



Tweet Link



During a campaign rally in February 2016, Trump told the crowd: "If I become president, oh [does Amazon] have problems. They're going to have such problems." He added its CEO Jeff Bezos only bought the Washington Post to have "political influence."



 CNBC's Lauren Thomas and Darla Mercado contributed to this report.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "not a nutcase," and likely won't start a war, former Sen. Max Baucus told CNBC on Wednesday.

"People say he's a nut case. He's not. He's very calculating. He's very smart. He's playing all this very, very well. He's not going to push the button because then he's gone," the Montana Democrat said on "Squawk Box."

"There's not going to be a war. There can't be a war," he added.

Baucus was U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017.

The former senator spoke as tensions between the United States and North Korea have escalated after the latter test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4. ICBMs have a minimum range of around 5,500 kilometers, or about 3,400 miles, and are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The U.S. and China said Tuesday they are making progress on a new U.N. resolution that would impose additional sanctions against North Korea after the missile test.

On Tuesday, North Korea also vowed to "strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S.," amid a report the regime was prepping for a new missile test. South Korea is reportedly looking to increase its ballistic missile firepower to a 1-ton conventional warhead.
A once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse is providing a great business opportunity for hotels and airlines, who are looking to cash in on the event  the first of its kind since 1918.

Many hotel chains, including Marriott International , are offering packages to travelers who are heading to cities in the path of the eclipse, which will follow a southeastern route from Oregon to South Carolina on Aug. 21.

Marriott, the world's largest hotel chain by market cap, is highlighting five cities across the country for packages that include themed cocktails and complimentary viewing glasses.

The number of rooms booked in 16 locations in the path of the eclipse is up 60 percent compared to last year in those same locations, according to the company.

Hilton is another firm trying to entice customers with special offers. The company has more than 180 hotels in the portfolio in the "path of totality," according to Joe Berger, an executive vice president. At one of those locations, which is not yet sold out, rates start at $425. For the previous week, the same room is available for $199.

Cities in the path of totality will be completely dark when the eclipse hits.

Berger said they are seeing "strong double-digit demand" for hotels that are within the path or at a driving distance to it.

One Hilton branch in St. Louis is seeing demand 51.1 percent higher for Aug. 20, "eclipse Sunday," than average Sundays over the past two months. The next day tells a similar story, with an increase of 40.1 percent, according to John Surtin, a director at the location.

In Nashville, one of the largest cities directly in the eclipse's path, InterContinental Hotels Group , another large hotel chain, has three hotels in the city. Two are sold out and the general manager of the third, Mark Hayes, said his hotel is sold out for Sunday night and almost sold out for Monday. He said comparable weekends historically see occupancy of about 55 percent on Sunday night and 80 percent on Monday.

Sundays are usually the slowest nights for the industry, which should benefit eclipse seekers as they try to find accommodations.

"It's no surprise that folks are coming in from all corners to witness the solar eclipse in a city that loves any occasion to throw a party," Hayes said.

Southwest Airlines last week announced its flights that are most likely to experience the maximum effect of the eclipse. For eclipse enthusiasts, the flights will include "commemorative flare," according to a press release, which includes viewing glasses and special cocktails. The flights include one departing Seattle, another from Portland and three leaving from Denver.

One town, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, has been particularly adept at positioning itself for the boom surrounding the infrequent event. About an 80-minute drive from Nashville, Hopkinsville is in the band of totality. The domain eclipseville.com has been snatched up by city of roughly 30,000 and offers visitors a countdown clock, tips for building viewing glasses and where to stay in the city.

With such excitement, hotels in the area are raising prices accordingly. At the local La Quinta Inn & Suites, prices are $425 a night, up from a $93 average on Google for the weekend before. The hotel has had no vacancy since February and a manager there likened the hoopla to the Super Bowl. The Holiday Inn, the biggest hotel in the area, is offering flat packages at $499 and still has some rooms remaining.

Even the local school district is taking extraordinary steps. The entire district is getting August 21 and 22 off.
PayPal shares gained in after-hours trade after the company posted better-than-expected earnings and guidance on Wednesday.

Here's how the company did compared with what Wall Street expected:

EPS: 46 cents vs. 43 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters

Revenue: $3.14 billion vs. $3.09 billion expected, according to Thomson Reuters

PayPal subsidiary Venmo more than doubled its total payment volume, growing 103 percent year over year.

The stock gained more than 3 percent in extended trading after the company's announcement on Wednesday.

The company also raised its guidance for the full year. It now expects adjusted earnings per share between $1.80 and $1.84 on revenue between $12.78 billion and $12.88 billion. Analysts had previously forecast earnings of $1.78 per share on $12.72 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.

PayPal's current-quarter guidance also came in above Wall Street expectations. The company expects earnings per share between 42 cents and 44 cents on revenue between $3.14 billion and $3.19 billion. Analysts expected earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $3.13 billion, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.

PayPal announced a number of partnerships that would allow the company to extend its international reach. A deal with Baidu in China was among the agreements the company announced.

Shares of PayPal have surged more than 48 percent in 2017, far outperforming the S&P 500's 10 percent gain. The stock set a new all-time intraday high of $59.38 on July 20.

PayPal ascended to a dominant position in the online payments arena since its split with eBay in 2015. After initially resisting pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn to separate from PayPal, former eBay CEO John Donahoe acquiesced in 2014.

With Dan Schulman at its helm, PayPal eclipsed eBay both in size and rate of growth since the breakup. PayPal's market cap of $69.9 billion is now close to doubling eBay's, at $38.8 billion.

PayPal's comfortable place in the online payments market has been further buoyed by a slew of recent positive headlines.

In June, wealth management firm Robert W. Baird telegraphed its confidence in PayPal by raising price expectations and reiterating its "outperform" rating for the company. The next month, PayPal penetrated Apple 's tightly held e-commerce market by scoring a deal allowing iPhone and iPad owners to use PayPal in the iTunes App Store. And the following week, PayPal's partnership with Visa expanded to Europe.


Warren Buffett, the billionaire "Oracle of Omaha" continues to be involved in some of the biggest investment plays in the world.

Buffett is undoubtedly the most successful investor in history. His investment philosophy is no secret, and he has repeatedly shared bits and pieces of it through a lifetime of quips and memorable quotes.

His brilliance is timeless, and we find ourselves referring back to them over and over again.

We compiled a few of Buffett's best quotes from his TV appearances, newspaper op-eds, magazine interviews, and of course his annual letters.

1. Buying a stock is about more than just the price.

Coca-Cola is one of Buffett's most successful investments. "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

2. You don't have to be a genius to invest well.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ."



3. But, master the basics.

"To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of these. That, of course, is not the prevailing view at most business schools, whose finance curriculum tends to be dominated by such subjects. In our view, though, investment students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices."



4. Don't buy a stock just because everyone hates it.

"None of this means, however, that a business or stock is an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling. Unfortunately, Bertrand Russell's observation about life in general applies with unusual force in the financial world: "Most men would rather die than think. Many do."

Bad things aren't obvious when times are good.

"After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out."



5. Always be liquid.

"I have pledged  to you, the rating agencies and myself  to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrows obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a nights sleep for the chance of extra profits."

6. The best time to buy a company is when it's in trouble.

"The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble...We want to buy them when they're on the operating table."



7. Stocks have always come out of crises.

"Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497."



8. Don't be fooled by that Cinderella feeling you get from great returns.

"The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities  that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future  will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. Theres a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands."



9. Think long-term.

"Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily-understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher five, ten and twenty years from now. Over time, you will find only a few companies that meet these standards - so when you see one that qualifies, you should buy a meaningful amount of stock. You must also resist the temptation to stray from your guidelines: If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value."



10. Forever is a good holding period.

"When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever."



11. Buy businesses that can be run by idiots.

"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."



12. Be greedy when others are fearful.

"Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful."



13. You don't have to move at every opportunity.

"The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don't have to swing at everything--you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, 'Swing, you bum!'"



14. Ignore politics and macroeconomics when picking stocks.

"We will continue to ignore political and economic forecasts, which are an expensive distraction for many investors and businessmen. Thirty years ago, no one could have foreseen the huge expansion of the Vietnam War, wage and price controls, two oil shocks, the resignation of a president, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a one-day drop in the Dow of 508 points, or treasury bill yields fluctuating between 2.8% and 17.4%.

"But, surprise - none of these blockbuster events made the slightest dent in Ben Graham's investment principles. Nor did they render unsound the negotiated purchases of fine businesses at sensible prices. Imagine the cost to us, then, if we had let a fear of unknowns cause us to defer or alter the deployment of capital. Indeed, we have usually made our best purchases when apprehensions about some macro event were at a peak. Fear is the foe of the faddist, but the friend of the fundamentalist.



15. The more you trade, the more you underperform.

"Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaacs talents didnt extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men. If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases."



16. Price and value are not the same

"Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that 'Price is what you pay; value is what you get.' Whether were talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down."



17. There are no bonus points for complicated investments.

"Our investments continue to be few in number and simple in concept: The truly big investment idea can usually be explained in a short paragraph. We like a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people. When these attributes exist, and when we can make purchases at sensible prices, it is hard to go wrong (a challenge we periodically manage to overcome).

"Investors should remember that their scorecard is not computed using Olympic-diving methods: Degree-of-difficulty doesnt count. If you are right about a business whole value is largely dependent on a single key factor that is both easy to understand and enduring, the payoff is the same as if you had correctly analysed an investment alternative characterized by many constantly shifting and complex variables."



18. A good businessperson makes a good investor.

"I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor."



19. Higher taxes aren't a dealbreaker.

"SUPPOSE that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. This is a good one, he says enthusiastically. Im in it, and I think you should be, too.



20. Would your reply possibly be this?

Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain youre saying were going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent. Only in Grover Norquists imagination does such a response exist."



21. Companies that don't change can be great investments.

"Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it's the lack of change that appeals to me. I don't think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That's the kind of business I like."



22. Time will tell.

"Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre."



23. This is the most important thing.

"Rule No. 1: never lose money; rule No. 2: don't forget rule No. 1"
watch now

Any Russian response to fresh sanctions from the U.S. is unlikely to cause any major harm for American investors and could merely be a symbolic gesture, according to one political analyst. Moscow stepped up its war of words against Washington Wednesday after the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of imposing new sanctions. A prominent member of the upper house of Russia's parliament said that the country should consider a "painful" response for the U.S. "Judging by the unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the sanctions package against Russia, Iran and North Korea, there will be no breakthrough (in U.S. and Russia relations)  In fact, further degradation of bilateral cooperation is becoming inevitable," Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Russian Foreign Relations Committee and member of the ruling United Russia party, said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.



The planned sanctions on Russia were initiated to further punish the country for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged role in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine. The bill, which passed by 419 votes to three, proposes new restrictions on oil and gas projects.

'Moscow growing tired of showing restraint towards Washington'

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said Wednesday that it had repeatedly warned Washington that it was growing tired of showing restraint and would be prepared to retaliate in the event of any hostile moves towards Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported. Ryabkov argued the proposed sanctions would leave no room for ties between the two countries to improve in the near future, before adding the vote had taken the relationship into uncharted waters. Meanwhile, prominent Russian Senator, Franz Klintsevich told the RIA news agency that future cooperation between Moscow and Washington in fighting terrorism would be complicated if the drafted bill is signed by President Donald Trump.

'Worrisome chance Putin will target at least one US corporate'
Sean Gallup | Getty Images

Congress opened another rift in America's strained relationship with Europe on Tuesday when the House of Representatives moved to limit the type of business energy companies can do with Russia. Some European leaders are bristling over the potential impact on the continent's oil and gas companies, despite efforts by U.S. lawmakers to ease their concerns. Complicating matters, the Trump administration will be responsible for implementing the penalties, which are tied to legislation that strips President Donald Trump of authority over Russian sanctions. The dispute over sanctions policy between Washington and Brussels illustrates how Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election is having ripple effects across the Beltway and the energy industry. It also shows that the European Union and the United States are diverging somewhat on sanctions policy after coordinating responses to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine and its 2014 annexation of Crimea, according to risk consultancy Eurasia Group. While the EU remains focused on the Ukraine issue, Congress is now using sanctions to address Russia's attempt to disrupt elections.

watch now

"Along with Climate, NATO and trade, the sanctions issue will add to transatlantic strains that have emerged between the U.S. and EU since Trump assumed office," Eurasia Group said.

Extraordinary Times

The proposed measures targeting Russia's energy sector are part of legislation that prevents Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congressional approval. The bill now goes to the Senate. Sanctions experts say that in ordinary times the executive branch's power over these penalties should prevail to avoid hamstringing the diplomatic process with Congressional hearings and votes. But Trump has denied the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia sought to tip the election in his favor and dismissed investigations into the issue as witch hunts. "The whole point of this bill is that the Congress doesn't trust the administration to conduct policy," said David Goldwyn, chairman of the Atlantic Council's Energy Advisory Board and former envoy for international energy affairs at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. The bill prohibits U.S. companies from investing in certain new oil and gas joint ventures when a sanctioned Russian company holds a 33 percent or larger stake in the project. Europeans fear the measure could have unintended consequences for their energy firms. The bill contains a modification to the 2014 Ukraine Freedom Support Act, which Eurasia Group believes could open the door to secondary sanctions on non-U.S. companies that make "significant investments" in Russian oil projects. Analysts say the sanctions could complicate joint ventures in growth areas like Brazil's offshore fields. The law also gives Trump the option to penalize companies that invest in new pipelines to export oil and gas from Russia, though lawmakers revised this provision to require him to coordinate with U.S. allies.

watch now

If he exercises that option, it could impact plans for a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany called Nord Stream 2. Germany and the European Commission have both raised the prospect of retaliation, though analysts say that is unlikely. Goldwyn notes that some EU members oppose Nord Stream 2 because they believe it consolidates Russian dominance over Europe's energy market at their expense. "The threat of retaliation against the U.S. for legislating prospective sanctions against European pipelines is really unlikely because the Europeans are not of one mind on whether Nord Stream is a good idea," he said.

A path to a deal
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday appeared to tamp down reports that he could leave his post by year end.

"I'm not going anywhere," Tillerson said on Wednesday after being questioned about his commitment to staying in his position. Asked how long he plans to stay, he said, "As long as the president lets me."

Tillerson's friends outside Washington D.C. say he plans to stay at the State Department through the holidays so he can walk away with a year in the cabinet under his belt, CNN reported Monday. But others told the network Tillerson could leave sooner.

The former Exxon Mobil CEO has been frustrated by State Department staffing issues and policy differences with President Donald Trump, and considers Trump's public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions unprofessional, several sources told CNN.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos team have told states that they need to make bunch of changes in their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act. But in some cases, states have said thanks-but-no-thanks to the departments advice, turning in revised plans that may or may not be kosher under the new law.

That could put DeVos and company in a tough politicaland legalspot. Do they approve plans that they think dont actually pass muster? Or do they hold the line, reject the plans, and risk the wrath of states, policy wonks, and conservative lawmakers who already think theyve gone too far with the federal finger-wagging ?

Case in point: The U.S. Department of Education, which has given official feedback to nine of the 17 state plans that have been turned in, dinged Tennessee for using super-subgroups, which combine different historically overlooked groups of students (think English-language learners and students in special education) for accountability purposes.

But the Volunteer State, which revised its plan based on the departments feedback, decided to stick with its original vision. The state provided some data to explain its reasoning behind having a Black, Hispanic, and Native American subgroup, showing that more schools will actually be identified as needing help using the super-subgroup than would be otherwise.

So will the department buy that argument? Hard to say. Some folks, including the congressional staff who wrote ESSA, say super-subgroups are a no-no under the law. And civil rights groups, which argue super-subgroups mask achievement gaps, agree. But others say ESSA isnt crystal clear on this point and that there may be room for interpretation.

Complicating matters: New Mexico and other states use a form of super-subgroups, but didnt get called out in feedback like Tennessee did.

Another issue to keep your eye on: Connecticut wants to use so-called scale scores"which help capture student progressas opposed to straight up proficiency rates, which is what many folks, including the department, say ESSA requires. Connecticut is not standing down on this issue, telling the department that, Websters dictionary defines proficiency not only as a state of being proficient, but also as an advancement in knowledge or skill. Scale scores, Connecticut contends, are the most accurate measure of a students proficiency. (Great explainer for those who want to wonk out on scale scores versus proficiency rates from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute here .)

Its not clear if skirting the departments asks will lead to rejections for Tennessee, Connecticut, or any other state. The department released a frequently asked questions document making it clear that states dont have to heed its feedback. But DeVos ultimately has say over whether a state plan flies or not.

To be sure, states are taking some of the departments suggestions to heart. Louisiana and Tennessee tweaked their plans for incorporating science into their accountability systems, for example. And Connecticut made changes to how it identifies schools with low-performing groups of students, at the departments behest.

Want more? We examined revised plans for Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, and Tennessee, so you dont have to. Did we miss any big changes? Email us at aklein@epe.org and aujifusa@epe.org .

Connecticut

The department cited Connecticut for not having a separate indicator for English-language proficiency. The state provided a longer explanation of its approach.

The department expressed concern that Connecticut didnt have a clear definition of what it means for a schools subgroups to be consistently underperforming. So the state revamped that part of its application.

The state provided more information about what kind of progress schools need to make to stop getting flagged for having low subgroup performance.

Delaware

The First State was hit for not having sufficiently ambitious student achievement goals. Delaware didnt change its goals, but it came up with a rationale to explain why what it picked originally was, indeed, ambitious.

Delaware was told it couldnt use Advanced Placement scores to prove students are college ready because the tests arent available in every school. Delawares department says thats not the case. Andrew looked at all of this in way more detail here.

Louisiana

Louisiana had originally wanted to incorporate science tests into the academic achievement part of its accountability plan, which the department says is a no-go. (More on what ESSA says about science here .)

As a measurement of school quality and student success, the state had wanted to use a brand new interest and opportunity indicator that would look at whether students are getting access to things like arts and physical education classes. The department, though, worried that the indicator wouldnt be ready for prime-time by the 2017-18 school year when ESSA is supposed to be fully in place.

The state decided to keep working on its interest and opportunity measure, but will use social studies and science test scores initially to gauge student success and school quality.

It also moved student growth for high schools to another part of its accountability system.

The state clarified how English-language proficiency factors into school ratings. (The state is planning to use a complicated weighting system, which you can check out beginning on page 54 of its application).

Tennessee

Like Louisiana, Tennessee was criticized for wanting to include science in the academic achievement part of its accountability system. So the state moved science to a different part of its accountability system.

Tennessee was cited for not offering tests in a language other than English. The state continues to maintain that doing so would violate state law. But it said it will offer other resources in Spanish, the most common language spoken by its students, besides English.

Tennessee tweaked its definition for consistently low-performing subgroups. It said that basically, any school that gets a D on the accountability system meets that bar.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
For the last two years, rival factions have been vying for control of the Bitcoin virtual currency and its global network of computers and supporters.

Now, one of the main camps is preparing to break off and create a competing version of Bitcoin.

A group of investors and entrepreneurs, most of them based in Asia, have announced a plan to create what they are calling Bitcoin Cash, starting next week.

More from New York Times:

To punish Putin, economic sanctions are unlikely to do the trick

Google's new parental control app has a flaw: puberty

The luxury arms race: Michael Kors and Coach target takeovers



The plan would seal a divorce between opponents in a long-simmering feud over what Bitcoin should be  and lead to two competing virtual currencies going by the name of Bitcoin.

"I actually think it would be a good thing if there is a split," said Roger Ver, a Tokyo-based investor who voiced his preliminary support for Bitcoin Cash on Tuesday.

He said the differences among the different camps had quite likely grown too stark for them to move forward together.

Bitcoin Cash could easily dissolve into irrelevance  the level of support for it is still unclear  but the concrete plans to move forward have underscored, once again, how hard it is to govern a decentralized, open-source technology like Bitcoin with no single set of leaders or ownership.

"In the long run it will be forced to develop some real political structure to take these kinds of decisions, but it just isn't there yet, so the result has been chaos," said Joseph Bonneau, who has studied Bitcoin and is a fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which describes itself as a nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech and innovation.

The Bitcoin divide is part of a wider splintering of the world that has sprung up around virtual currencies.

Many people who initially got excited about the unique technology behind Bitcoin have taken advantage of the public, open-source nature of the technology and created their own new virtual currencies, like Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin. These other systems run according to different rules than Bitcoin, with some emphasizing more speed and complexity, and some more focused on anonymity and security.

The divisions have, if anything, increased the excitement and the value of all the virtual currencies in the world  and banks and governments have announced their own projects to harness the technology.

The price of Bitcoin has recently been at record highs, near $3,000, and several other coins have grown to be worth billions of dollars on their own. A whole class of companies have raised money in recent months by creating and selling their own new digital tokens.

Until now, though, Bitcoin has remained the most valuable digital token of them all, and it has kept its followers united by a single set of rules, despite all the warring behind the scenes.

The divisions, though, appear to have grown too stark to keep everyone on the same blockchain, as the ledger of all Bitcoin transactions is known.

Mr. Ver has been one of the leaders of a contingent that has long wanted to change the rules governing the Bitcoin network so that it can handle more transactions and compete with the likes of PayPal and Visa.

Bitcoin Cash is set to increase the limit on the number of transactions that can be processed by the Bitcoin network every 10 minutes. Currently, the network can process only blocks of transactions that are smaller than one megabyte, which allows for roughly five transactions in a second.

The move to increase the size of the so-called blocks, though, has run up against intense opposition from the programmers who maintain the Bitcoin software.

These programmers, known as the core developers, have said that increasing the amount of data included in each block of transactions would make it harder for individual users to process the blocks and easier for a small number of companies to take control of the Bitcoin network.

"It destroys the Bitcoin ethos, which is open and permissionless, where nobody is telling you what to do," said Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, a company that employs some of the most prominent core developers.

The core developers have come up with their own solution to increase the number of transactions flowing through the system with software known as Segregated Witness, or SegWit. Mr. Ver and others, though, have said SegWit does not expand Bitcoin fast enough to keep up with its recent growth in popularity.

The arguments have given way to vicious mudslinging and hacking attacks against the leaders on both sides, leading some prominent developers to leave the project.

Proponents of increasing the block size, like Mr. Ver, have put forward proposals in the past that have failed to garner majority support in the community, in part because of concerns about the sophistication of the programmers working on the projects.

But the big block camp has not, until now, announced a definite plan to split off from the rest of Bitcoin.

While Bitcoin Cash will not exist until next week, a small number of exchanges have begun trading futures contracts, tied to the expected price of Bitcoin Cash. On Tuesday, it was trading around $450, or a fraction of the $2,600 value of an ordinary Bitcoin.

As recently as last week, it appeared that the major Bitcoin players had found a compromise that would avert a split in the network, or a fork as it is known in Bitcoin world.

Many of the largest Bitcoin companies agreed in May that they would install the SegWit software the core developers created, while also moving toward a doubling of the size of each block of transactions, to two megabytes, in November.

The largest Bitcoin processors had signaled last week that they intended to begin running the new software on Aug. 1. But the developers have suggested that they do not intend to move forward with any increase in the size of the blocks in the coming months.

One of Mr. Ver's many investment holdings, Bitcoin.com, announced on Tuesday that it would put all of its resources behind Bitcoin Cash if the block size has not been doubled by November.

To gain traction more broadly, Bitcoin Cash will have to win backing from the broader community of so-called Bitcoin miners.

Bitcoin miners are best known for using specialized computers to unlock, or mine, new Bitcoins. But miners also process Bitcoin transactions and have voting power over any changes to the Bitcoin network in direct proportion to the amount of computing power they dedicate to the network.

Most of the largest mining operations are now in China, thanks to the availability of cheap hardware and electricity.

One significant Chinese mining operation, ViaBTC, has been an outspoken supporter of Bitcoin Cash and has said it will begin backing the system next week.

The largest Bitcoin mining operator in the world, a company known as Bitmain, is a primary investor in ViaBTC. That has led many in the Bitcoin world to expect that Bitmain will also provide backing to Bitcoin Cash. But Bitmain has so far said only that it does not "rule out" supporting Bitcoin Cash.

When Bitcoin Cash comes into existence, every current holder of Bitcoins will have access to an equivalent amount of Bitcoin Cash, but from that point forward the two systems will diverge.

In the coming weeks, Bitcoin enthusiasts on all sides of the debate will be watching closely to see which big Bitcoin companies offer support for people who want to hold, trade and mine Bitcoin Cash.
Once upon a time (1999 and the years that followed), there was a company named OpenTable that told San Francisco restaurants a story. Customers wanted, they said, to search for a restaurant on the wondrous world of the Internet, then click a button to make a reservation. Sure, a restaurant could just build its own website or keep managing reservations the old-fashioned waywith a book or spreadsheet offlinebut OpenTable could do it all for them for a low set-up price, a monthly fee, and a dollar per diner.

By 2009, when OpenTable went public, it had a $1.5 billion valuation, and was bought for $2.6 billion soon thereafter. At the time, it controlled 90 percent of the country's online booking market share, meaning that the service it had provided to restaurants became something like a mandatory fee. Restaurants without the service argued that they lost bookings to those that did.

Those who signed up wondered why they had to give up all their customer data to this third-party company. Competitors arose, but the industry had already changed forever: Online reservations are just a cost of being in the restaurant business these days. It's not clear, though, that more people go out to eat just because they can book online. It's a surcharge and a near monopoly, and cuts into the profit margins of the folks actually selling us food.

More from Pacific Standard:

The contentious fight to protect Indonesian palm oil

How one California city is sending a message of environmental resistance to Trump

Look up, see a masterpiece

Bruce Schneiera well-known technologist and security expert, a cybersecurity professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and one of my closest friendstells me about the controversy surrounding OpenTable as we wander through the Tech Pavilion of the 2017 National Restaurant Association. Every company here would be thrilled to become the next OpenTable.

None of them are focused on reservations, or at least not only reservations, but are instead trying to find other gaps where they can insert some kind of online service. Some of the sales pitches are compelling: Companies offer to harvest customer data so the restaurant can better track its clientele's needs.

They offer to manage every aspect of a restaurant's labor force. They offer to turn every piece of kitchen equipment into an "Internet of Things" device, a phrase now used casually in marketing, as if we all agree on its definition. Turn your restaurant into a panopticon! Schneier isn't surprised, as he's seen this sort of thing before in other industries. "Much of the 'Internet of Restaurants,'" as we agree to call it, "is extractive and disempowering while pretending to be about giving control to employees and owners," he says.

As Pacific Standard reported a year ago, the National Restaurant Association is the industry's massive annual gathering in Chicago's conference center, McCormick Place. It fills three huge halls (four, if you count the alcohol specific spin-off conference, BAR) with every kind of product you might need at your your restaurant: food, drink, furniture, lots of shoes, shirts, branded belt buckles, toilet cleaners, kitchen machinery (ovens, pasta makers, a sushi-making robot), pots and pans, and much more.

The giant producers and distributors (Coke, Sysco) hobnob with start-ups (Silk Road Catering, a family company making spice blends in Missoula, Montana; Nduja Artisans, a Chicago father and son making spicy spreadable Calabrian salami).

States send agricultural delegations (Louisiana seafood, Minnesota wild rice, Wisconsin cheese). A Quebecois delegation served smoked meats and presumably ran out of poutine. A large contingent of Italians poured prosecco and served buratta. Celebrity chefs did demos, taught classes, and hawked their wares from large stages.

But in the back third of one of the halls, there is nary a snack to be found. Instead, the "tech pavilion" provides a space for over a hundred companies looking to sell a wide variety of technological tools to restaurants.

These vary from touch-screen ordering (a rapidly accelerating market) to employee management, marketing, customer tracking, and a wide variety of ways to connect the machinery and processes of the food business to the Internet. "Point of Sale" is the big buzzword, as everyone is offering new ways to have your customers pay in an easy, electronic, and trackable way.

The gateway to the pavilion is run by Microsoft. The company has a large booth with a variety of "totems"their wordeach of which advertised various Microsoft or partner products on a big screen. For the partners, mostly small companies, this is their chance to make the big time.

Some of the products are useful. "Cortana," from Microsoft, adds a tool to Bing (or to a restaurant's website) that automatically answers most questions about a menu, and learns answers to new ones, such as whether gluten-free options might be available.

Sprinklr manages social media by tracking everything said about your brand online, organizing responses, andin theoryallowing for better engagement. It feels kind of creepy, though, knowing that, if I tweet about my meal, there's a team aggregating my information and preparing a response in real time.

Inventory that tracks itself, systems that reduce food waste, and the ability for employees to swap shifts over an app all feel like useful innovations. Nextep Systems has made accessibility for deaf consumers one of their main selling points, while telling me they also had accessible keyboards attached for blind consumers. Tech, done well, can be liberating for disabled individuals.

But there's also a fundamentally creepy aspect to much of this. One of the prime ways to increase value for your brand is to use the Internet to practice surveillance of both your customers and employees. The customer side feels less invasive: Loyalty apps are pretty nice, if in fact you generally go to the same place, as is the ability to place orders electronically or make reservations with a click.

The question, Schneier asks, is "who owns the data?" There's value to collecting data on spending habits, as we've seen across e-commerce. Are restaurants fully aware of what they are giving away? Schneier, a critic of data mining, points out that it becomes especially invasive through "secondary uses," when the "data is correlated with other data and sold to third parties." For example, perhaps you've entered your name, gender, and age into a taco loyalty app (12th taco free!).

Later, the vendors of that app sell your data to other merchants who know where and when you eat, whether you are a vegetarian, and lots of other data that you have accidentally shed. Is that what customers really want?

Perhaps more concerning than privacy, though, is the clear use of tech to further dehumanize workers in food service and restaurants. Swapping shifts over the phone is useful, but multiple "labor management" programs also allow for intense oversight of workers. Mesh Systems, one of the partners at the Microsoft booth, explained how their employee management software can track every second of a worker's day. For them, and likely the attendees at the conference, surveillance of workers was a selling point.

Then there's the formal "Internet of Things," where the results are mixed. Mesh Systems works with equipment manufacturers to hook up equipment to the Internet. At the show, they had a high-end espresso machine that could track inventory and monitor maintenance needs.

Both are likely to be useful, but the sales pitch included a suggestion the company could track your sales and "let you know whether it's the right size for the store." Maybe, the spokesperson suggested, they could track data from the sales to convince a store owner that they needed two machines, or at least a bigger (and more expensive one).

"This is a classic example of how the 'Internet of Things' benefits the companies that control the data," Schneier says. "You get the device, and the manufacturer gets both a maintenance contract and the opportunity to constantly market and upsell." Some of it might be genuinely useful. Regular maintenance of machinery, all the cool point of sale tricks, good marketing strategies, and efficient labor management are likely all useful to restaurant enterprises, at least once they reach a certain size.

"But the tech industry," Schneier says, "often is all about the skim. The tech industry is often about grabbing value you didn't know you had," such as consumer data, "and then either selling to you or to others." He makes an analogy to John Deere tractors. They now have tires that track soil data, but that data belongs to the tractor company, even if the farmer is driving the vehicle over his or her own land. That model is rapidly infiltrating the food service industry.

Then there are more direct risks. In March of 2016, Cici's Pizza got hacked, surrendering credit card information from more than 135 different locations. The breach was made through their online point of sale systems, allowing criminals to steal credit card data in real time. That doesn't happen with an old-fashioned cash register.

More important, I didn't see a single discussion of cybersecurity anywhere in the tech pavilion. Over email, a Microsoft spokesperson did offer me assurances: "We believe customers own the data that they put into the Microsoft Cloud. We invest heavily in our technology, people, and processes to help ensure that their data is private and protected." Still, Microsoft didn't have anyone at the show to talk about risks, just rewards. For risks, I had to find an AT&T booth tucked away against a wall.

The technicians there weren't authorized to talk to the press, but they offered a world-weary smile when I asked them whether restaurants were setting themselves up to be hacked. An AT&T spokesperson told me over email that all businesses, including restaurants, do need to have a digital presence, but that restaurants should "measure all digital and connectivity efforts from a risk view."

Each new app or connected device introduces risk. "Restaurants need to re-evaluate their cybersecurity plans regularly, and think of security as you build up your technology plans, rather than as an afterthought," the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, days after this year's NRA, news broke that nearly every Chipotle had been hacked.

"What I saw [at the NRA]," Schneier tells me later, "is the economics of the Internet invading the restaurant business. The economics of the Internet are inherently monopolistic. The big get bigger because they leverage enormous network effects." The Internet of Restaurants sells itself as helpful and slowly adds a little bit of extortion. Nice restaurant you have there, wouldn't want it to go out of business because you didn't hook your espresso machine up to the Internet.
Journalist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell did not always know exactly what he wanted to do with his life.

"I wanted to go into advertising and I couldn't get a job, so I'm an accidental journalist," he told CNBC at OZY Fest. "I only got this job because I couldn't get in anywhere else, so I'm a good example of keeping your options open."

In fact, Gladwell was fired from his first job after just two months because he would sleep in until 11 a.m. If he could go back in time to give his younger self one piece of tough-love advice it would be this: Get out of your comfort zone.

"I would have told my 21-year-old self to leave North America," he says.
President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to block transgender people from serving in the U.S. military came after a GOP fight over gender reassignment surgery threatened funding for the president's border wall, Politico reported Wednesday.

House Republicans are pushing to pass a defense spending bill that includes funding for Trump's proposed barrier on the U.S. border with Mexico. Some GOP members of Congress were worried that bill could get hung up on demands from some members to ban government funding of gender reassignment surgery, according to Politico.

After some House Republicans appealed to Trump, he took the request a step further, tweeting that his administration will not "accept or allow" transgender people to serve in the military "in any capacity."

Trump's tweets appeared to catch congressional leaders off guard. Following Trump's announcement, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized it as "yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request to comment on the Politico report.

Read the full Politico report here.
Apple -supplier Foxconn will announce a plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday evening, accompanied by President Donald Trump and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a source with knowledge of the announcement told CNBC.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will also be present at the announcement in Washington, a source said. No exact location for the plant has been chosen  but the area of southeast Wisconsin between Milwaukee and Chicago is under consideration, according to a source.

A source said that seven states were considered for the expansion, but Wisconsin appears to be a preliminary winner, and Ohio is a contender. About 10,000 jobs could be created.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Foxconn may be eyeing a new U.S. plant for display panels.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his administration will block transgender people from serving in the American military.

Trump's pronouncement reverses an Obama administration policy announced last year.

In Wednesday morning tweets, Trump said that the U.S. military "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." He contended that the military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Trump: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

Trump: ....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....

Trump: ....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

In a statement responding to Trump, the American Civil Liberties Union said that "thousands of transgender service members serving on the front lines for this country deserve better than a commander-in-chief who rejects their basic humanity. "

LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD called the move "a direct attack on transgender Americans" and contended that "Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldn't make that any more clear."

Obama administration Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban on transgender people serving in the military last year, allowing them to serve openly. His Defense Department set out guidelines for transgender individuals enlisting, but the Trump administration had delayed implementing them.

In a statement, the Pentagon directed questions to the White House and said it will "work closely with the White House to address the new guidance" given by Trump.



It is unclear how Trump's policy will affect current transgender service members. Rand Corp., one of the outside groups that Obama's Defense Department consulted on the policy, estimates that 1,320 to 6,630 transgender people are in active military service.

Following Trump's announcement, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized it as "yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

"The statement was unclear," McCain said. " The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the militaryregardless of their gender identity."

McCain added that he believes no "new policy decision is appropriate" until the Pentagon completes a study on the effects of the Obama policy on medical costs and relevant officials have the opportunity to review it.

Trump partly cited costs in his tweets explaining his decision Wednesday. That same Rand report estimated that health-care costs for transgender personnel would increase by between $2.4 million to $8.4 million annually, "representing a 0.04- to 0.13 percent increase in active-component" health-care costs.

Trump requested a $639.1 billion Defense budget for fiscal 2018.
Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods does not violate antitrust laws, two congressmen suggested on CNBC's "Power Lunch" Wednesday.

Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, dismissed the idea that Democrats want to hold hearings on the deal, because as the minority party they don't control that decision.

"Of course I think both Democrats and Republicans believe in antitrust, and they also believe with the development of new technologies we should update what antitrust means in a digital era," Polis said.

Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, echoed Polis. He said antitrust laws are in place to ensure there aren't barriers to entry, and that Amazon is "still a relatively small player" in the grocery market. Plus, other companies still have an opportunity to launch home-delivery efforts, he said.

Polis and Issa are helping lead this year's Start-Up Day Across America.

"By really nurturing and helping capital formation and issues around startup companies, we're encouraging the creation of tomorrow's great success stories," Polis said.
In the latest hearing in the Uber vs. Waymo lawsuit on Wednesday, San Francisco district judge William Alsup addressed Uber's complaint that Google co-founder Sergey Brin is trying to avoid deposition.

Alsup said, "you go back and tell that guy he better show up," after voicing frustration at Alphabet executives claiming they are "too busy." Brin is currently the president of Alphabet , the holding company that includes both Google and Waymo, the self-driving car unit that was spun out of Google.

Alsup also said Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of the dispute, could be called to testify in court even though he has previously pleaded the fifth. Alsup also said that all questions by Uber and Waymo would be reviewed in advance and must have evidence backing them.

Levandowski worked for Google's self-driving car unit before leaving to found his own company, Otto, which was later acquired by Uber. Waymo alleges that Levandowski stole over 14,000 documents from Alphabet when he left the company and took these trade secrets to Uber.

Alsup said Waymo has a strong case that Levandowski stole documents, but not that Uber used these to create its driverless-car technology. He told Waymo to come up with concrete evidence that Uber used its trade secrets in creating their technology by August 24.
Liam Fox, U.K. international trade secretary, speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, July 24, 2017. Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The U.K.'s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is to visit Mexico Wednesday to launch discussions for a post-Brexit deal as part of the Britain's ongoing efforts to secure its trading future outside of the EU. Fox is to meet with Mexico's Minister of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal to discuss continuing trade cooperation between the two countries once Britain leaves the EU, and discuss the potential for a future trade deal. Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is also in Sydney Wednesday to discuss tightening ties with Australia and neighboring commonwealth countries. The meetings follow largely positive two-day talks in Washington between U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in which representatives set about laying the "ground work" for a post-Brexit deal. EU rules stipulate that member states cannot negotiate independent trade deals while part of the union. However, the U.K. is allowed to hold preliminary discussions ahead of its departure in March 2019.

Why does Mexico matter?

Mexico is an emerging economy but also the 15th largest in the world. It shares 3.6 billion ($4.6 billion) worth of trade with the U.K. every year, most notably in the food, chemicals, financial services and construction industries. "Some of the UK's main exports to Mexico include industrial products, including engine parts. And whisky accounts for almost 8 percent of the U.K.'s exports to Mexico," Paul Hollingsworth, U.K. Economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC via email Wednesday. "I imagine it's going to be more on the services side of things where the U.K. sees bigger opportunities for trade though, for example in insurance activities."

Minister of Economy of Federal Government Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal attends the inauguration of the second stage of the Center for Advanced Engineering on July 11, 2014 in Queretaro, Mexico. Carlos Tischler | Getty Images

Mexico is also currently investing heavily in its infrastructure, including building a new airport in Mexico City to boost international traffic to the capital. The development is the biggest infrastructure project to emerge from Latin America and will initially accommodate 68 million passengers per year, later rising to 125 million. Several British businesses already hold construction contracts in the project worth a total of 40 million ($52 million), and their number can be expected to rise as "further significant opportunities" arise, a spokesperson for Britain's Department for International Trade told CNBC. However, a deal with Mexico could also threaten to undercut U.K. businesses, including the agriculture industry. This was an issue of huge contention during President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, in which he accused U.S. businesses of outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Mexico to reduce costs, thereby damaging U.S. industry.

What does this mean for international relations?

The clashes between the U.S. and Mexico rumble on following Trump's continued talk last week of a building a wall to divide the two nations. But the president also tweeted Tuesday, ahead of Fox's visit to Mexico, of his excitement over a "very big and exciting" deal with the U.K. Meanwhile, the EU is currently pursuing a new free trade deal with Mexico to update its existing agreement, signed two decades ago. The EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said in May that the union hopes to secure a deal "by the end of the year".

Donald Trump Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images
Viacom has informed Scripps Networks Interactive it is willing to pay all cash to acquire the U.S. TV network operator, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The move by Viacom, which had $12.17 billion in debt as of March 31, could potentially mean that the $14.3 billion media company would lose its investment-grade status to buy the $10.6 billion Scripps. Last year Moody's downgraded Viacom's debt to the lowest level of investment grade  a status they would likely lose as a result of the deal.

Viacom is bidding for Scripps, which owns channels such as HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel, against Discovery Communications , which is not expected to make an all-cash bid, according to the sources, all of whom wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media.

A Viacom spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Discovery spokesman.

It is not clear what the bids were valued at or whether Viacom or Discovery has won the bidding for Scripps, but a decision was expected within the next few days, according to the sources.

It is also possible that a deal may not happen.

Making an all-cash bid would mark an aggressive move for Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who has pledged to turn around the struggling media company, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures.

A deal with Scripps would create a $24.9 billion cable network that brings together non-scripted programming and scripted programming, including children's shows and a movie studio.

Bakish was named to his role late last year after discussions between CBS Corp and Viacom about a possible recombination ended. Viacom has spent the past months focusing resources on six of its brands, including the soon-to-be-launched Paramount Network.

New York-based Viacom also has been selling assets, including its stake in premium channel Epix to MGM Holdings , in order to reduce debt.

By acquiring Scripps, Viacom can gain cost savings and scale. Larger programmers are thought to have more leverage in negotiations with cable and satellite providers to carry their shows.

There also is increasing competition for viewers from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon .

Viacom has been talking to cable and satellite companies about launching a so-called skinny bundle of non-sports networks for less than $20 per month. By acquiring Scripps programming, Viacom has more to offer its pay TV partners for such a bundle.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., plans to introduce an amendment to the Senate Republicans health care bill that would shield Medicaid services for schools from cuts.

Hassan, who was elected last year and is on the Senate education committee, said Tuesday she wants to spare school districts from decimating reductions to Medicaid-backed programs in the GOP legislation.



By dollar amount, about $4 billion annually, Medicaid is the third-largest federal program that provides funding to public schools. A bill to overhaul health care that House lawmakers passed in May would change the funding structure of Medicaid . The change was supported by those who think states should have more flexbility over Medicaid money, but it alarmed school funding advocates. Similar concerns exist with Senate proposals for Medicaid that may be included in finalized legislation.

In addition to providing health care coverage to thousands of young Granite Staters, Medicaid helps school districts cover costs for special education services and equipment for students who experience disabilities, said Ricki Eshman, Hassans spokeswoman, in a statement.

A draft version of the amendment would require that no provision in the bill would reduce or eliminate the amount, duration, or scope of Medicaid services available in schools under current law. A final Senate vote on its health care legislation is expected some time this week.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Now that the Senate has fallen well short of being able to to pass its more comprehensive Obamacare repeal and replacement bill, the Republican leadership's hopes are increasingly pinned to a plan B some are calling the "skinny bill."

Those hopes are about to be dashed too.

The "skinny bill" is a measure that would keep Obamacare's Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies in place but would eliminate the mandate requiring everyone to get insurance coverage or face a penalty. It would also kill the Obamacare medical device tax. Some people are calling it a "half a loaf" bill that at least moves the ball in the right direction for those who want to see all of Obamacare eventually abolished.

In theory, they're right. Politics is about compromise, and ending the onerous insurance requirement for individuals and businesses would be a big victory for the repeal forces and those who favor less government intrusion.

The problem is, it's not going to happen.

The reason is simple. Even with the mandate currently in place, there haven't been enough younger and healthier people signing up for coverage. The Congressional Budget Office and lots of other supposed experts were way off the mark when they estimated how many people would sign up for insurance to avoid the penalties for not doing so. Without a robust stream of premium revenues from younger people who are less likely to need expensive care, many insurers have exited the least profitable ACA exchanges. This is what some call the "Obamacare death spiral."

The skinny bill would accelerate this scenario in a big way. If the penalties and requirements for health insurance coverage haven't coerced the expected number of people to buy insurance, just imagine how quickly those coverage levels will drop without them. More and more insurers would bolt the exchanges in that scenario as they wouldn't want to wait around to lose money when enrollment numbers fall. And those who think there are 50 or more GOP senators who will allow that to happen are kidding themselves.

Because a closer look at the map of states where the Obamacare exchanges are already without multiple insurer options is decidedly Republican-dominated. It's filled with red states like Alaska, South Carolina, Wyoming, Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma. Not all the GOP senators in those states will resist ending the mandate, but Arizona's Senator John McCain said Tuesday he wasn't ready to vote for any replacement bill and his state's dwindling insurance options could be why. Without McCain alone, the "skinny bill" is doomed, and don't be surprised if a few other Republicans like Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski vote against it too.

But this isn't just about protecting constituents from losing all their insurance coverage choices. From the beginning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has put insurance company priorities at the top of his list in this Obamacare replacement process. The one thing he's fought to keep in every bill is some form of subsidies to help Americans buy insurance plans, which is an indirect taxpayer money hand off to the insurance industry.

Even the "skinny bill" keeps those subsidies in place. But that won't be enough for the insurance companies if the mandate is killed and fewer people are buying insurance. The Obamacare insurance mandate is a clear example of a government-imposed rule meant to boost a private industry; its powerful lobbyists aren't letting go of it easily.

Throw in the very powerful argument that private health insurance exchanges in several states across the country could disappear in a hurry if the "skinny bill" is passed, and you can see why this measure is already dead on arrival.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
watch now

watch now

According to his own words, splayed out on Twitter for all to see, Trump really wants his Justice Department to more aggressively investigate his political opponents: Hillary Clinton and Democrats. He has made it very clear that this is what he wants, and he would presumably make it a top consideration in selecting a replacement for Sessions. @realDonaldTrump: So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations? If Trump can actually manage to make this happen  by installing cronies at the Justice Department who will shut down investigations he doesn't like and start up ones he wants  it would mean a remarkable slide into illiberalism, and it would violate decades' worth of norms in American government and about the rule of law. And potentially the scariest thing of all is that he might just be able to get away with it  unless Republicans in Congress stand up to him.

Jeff Sessions is a true believer in Trump's policy agenda. But he hasn't been a lawless crony.

Back in February 2016, Jeff Sessions took a major risk by becoming the first United States senator to endorse Donald Trump's presidential campaign. It made a great deal of sense  Sessions had devoted much of his political career to, essentially, the agenda Trump was campaigning on. He was the Senate's leading critic of both legal and illegal immigration, he'd blasted trade deals he thought were unfair, and he wanted to empower law enforcement to be "tougher" on crime. And when Trump won, it appeared the risk had paid off. Sessions was rewarded with the attorney general appointment, and once confirmed, he set about implementing the policy agenda that he by all accounts deeply believes the country needs. As Dara Lind writes, he's instructed US attorneys to more aggressively charge drug and immigration offenses, expanded police powers to take property from people who haven't yet been convicted of crimes, and killed Justice Department initiatives to oversee local police departments accused of racial discrimination. As sweeping as Sessions's changes have been, though, it's important to keep in mind that they've been policy changes. At one point, it seemed worryingly possible that a Trump administration Justice Department could be very different  that it could be essentially remade to serve the personal whims and persecute the political opponents of Donald Trump. Past presidents have long used Justice Department appointments to steer policy in the general direction they prefer, by prioritizing resources for certain issues, using general prosecutorial guidelines, and so on. But the idea of a president specifically telling the Justice Department which particular people and matters they should investigate  especially if political rivals are involved  seemed beyond the pale of American politics. Yet on the campaign trail, Trump used a great deal of illiberal rhetoric that raised alarm bells about potential authoritarianism. He repeatedly, for instance, called for his main rival Hillary Clinton to be locked up and promised that he'd ask the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to look into her activities. And though Trump changed his tune on this after the election, his appointment of a close campaign ally as attorney general raised questions about how independent the Justice Department would be. But Sessions put minds at ease by choosing Rod Rosenstein, a longtime US attorney with a good reputation in Washington's legal community, as his deputy. And his Justice Department so far seems to have ignored Trump's tweeted rants about whom and what they should be investigating. Most crucially of all, once in office, Sessions did in fact choose to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia investigation and all investigations related to the campaign back in March (though only after news stories about undisclosed contacts he had with the Russian ambassador gave him a bit of a push).

Sessions's recusal from the Russia investigation infuriated Trump  and led to a remarkable public tongue-lashing from the president

But this isn't just about Sessions. It's about whether Trump can turn the Justice Department away from his allies and against his opponents.

Yet lurking behind all this is one crucial fact: If Sessions is fired or quits, Trump would be able to appoint a new attorney general who would not be recused from the Russia investigation. This would mean, essentially, a Trump ally seizing control of the investigation back from Rosenstein, whom the president doesn't know well or trust. Theoretically, a new and un-recused attorney general could let Mueller's investigation proceed without interference until the final decision of whether to file charges is made. But many Trump allies view pushing out Sessions as part of a larger strategy to shut down Mueller's investigation completely, according to the Washington Post's Sari Horwitz, Matt Zapotosky, and Robert Costa. It would, of course, be outrageous if the president of the United States fired enough people that an investigation into himself and his associates could be shut down. It would mean a political crisis that we haven't seen since Watergate, and even one that's potentially worse than Watergate (since President Nixon did allow a new special prosecutor to be appointed after he fired the first one, after all). And then there's the not-at-all-small matter of the president of the United States tweeting, again and again in recent months, that he wants leading Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to be investigated for supposed crimes: @realDonaldTrump: I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election! @realDonaldTrump: So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations? Actors throughout the political system tend to roll their eyes at Trump's tweets on these topics and not take them too seriously. And arguably, that's been the right approach so far  six months in, President Trump has not been able to bend the federal government to his will on these matters. nd yet we are only six months in. A purge of the Justice Department's top leadership could certainly change things. It's tough to imagine a modern United States federal government that goes about deliberately trying to lock up the president's political opponents. But according to Trump's own words, that is what he is imagining and actively wants to happen. The president has made it crystal clear that he has little respect for the rule of law and for democratic norms, and it's time to take this danger seriously.

What happens if Sessions is out?
A new silver bullion coin celebrates a ruler in a galaxy far, far away..., in the Galactic Empire of Star Wars fame. The 1-ounce .999 fine silver $2 coin struck by the New Zealand Mint for Niue celebrates the movie villain Darth Vader.

A new silver bullion coin celebrates a ruler in a galaxy far, far away..., in the Galactic Empire of Star Wars fame.

The 1-ounce .999 fine silver $2 coin struck by the New Zealand Mint for Niue celebrates the movie villain Darth Vader.

The reverse of the coin features an officially licensed close-up image of Vader in a polished finish. He is set against a satin matte background featuring the Imperial logo.

Connect with Coin World:

Sign up for our free eNewsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

The obverse displays the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II along with the year and face value.

Connecting coins, the arts, and American monuments: Another column in the August 7 monthly issue of Coin World continues with the art theme, as the artists whove designed our most gorgeous pieces of paper currency are profiled.

Once a heroic Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker was seduced by the dark side of the Force, becoming the Sith Lord known as Darth Vader and leading the Empires eradication of the Jedi Order. He remained in service of the emperor, the evil Darth Sidious, for decades, enforcing his masters will and seeking to crush the fledgling Rebel Alliance that was led by Luke and Leia (his children, whose existence had been kept from him). But there was still good in him, as shown in Episode VI, The Return of the Jedi.

The coin is offered in several packaging options: individually in a protective plastic flip, in 25-coin rolls, and in 500-coin monster boxes containing 20 rolls of 25 coins each.

There is a mintage limit of 250,000 pieces for the coin.

Major bullion distributors offer the coin at various premiums depending on quantity purchased and payment method.
Two of the 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 gold double eagles in U.S. Mint custody will be exhibited Aug. 1 to 5 in Denver.

The lone known example of a 1974-D Lincoln cent in aluminum was returned to the U.S. Mint in March 2016.

The U.S. Mint display Aug. 1 to 5 in Denver during the American Numismatic Association Worlds Fair of Money will include the 1974-D aluminum cent that was presented to a former Denver Mint management official upon his retirement in 1980.

An aluminum 1974-D Lincoln cent once held by a former Denver Mint assistant superintendent and two of 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagles in U.S. Mint custody will be displayed by the Mint Aug. 1 to 5 in Denver at the American Numismatic Association Worlds Fair of Money at the Colorado Convention Center.

Also on exhibit will be the four-piece 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary silver medal set featuring 1-ounce .999 fine silver medals struck at the Mint's four production facilities and each executed with a different finish.

Connect with Coin World:

Sign up for our free eNewsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

The Mint also plans to unveil the adopted designs for the 2018 America the Beautiful quarter dollars and participate in the World Mints Passport Program, in which collectors obtain coins from each of the world mints in attendance. The U.S. Mint will be distributing the 2017-D Ozark National Scenic Riverways quarter dollar.

Controversial rarities

The 1974-D aluminum cent was reportedly given by Denver Mint staff to Harry Lawrence, assistant superintendent of the Denver Mint, upon his retirement in 1980. The strike passed to Lawrence's son, Randall, upon the elder Lawrences death later that year.

Soon after moving to the San Diego area in 2014, Randall Lawrence sold the 1974-D aluminum cent to LaJolla, California, dealer Michael McConnell. The coin was put up for auction in April 2015 through Heritage Auctions, but withdrawn after the Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Mint, filed suit seeking return of the aluminum cent as government property.

U.S. Mint officials argued that the 1974-D aluminum cent was struck without authorization of U.S. Mint officials in Washington. The Philadelphia Mint had produced aluminum cents during research into composition alternatives for the cent.

After a year of legal wrangling, the 1974-D aluminum cent was delivered to U.S. Mint officials on March 17, 2016. The piece is the only example extant from among a purported dozen or so pieces struck.

Connecting coins, the arts, and American monuments: Another column in the August 7 monthly issue of Coin World continues with the art theme, as the artists whove designed our most gorgeous pieces of paper currency are profiled.

The two 1933 double eagles to be on display in Denver are among 10 that have been secured at the Fort Knox Gold Bullion Depository in Kentucky for more than a decade. All 10 gold pieces were exhibited together at the ANA Worlds Fair of Money in Denver in 2006.

The 2006 exhibit came a year after U.S. Mint officials seized the gold pieces under claims the pieces were stolen government property, and two years after the gold pieces surfaced in a safety-deposit box in Pennsylvania controlled by Joan Switt Langbord. The Langbord family voluntarily turned over the gold pieces to the U.S. Mint through the Secret Service for authentication purposes.

The gold pieces were the subject of protracted litigation in federal court that ended in the spring of 2017 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of lower court rulings granting ownership to the federal government.

Although the Mint's press release now refers to the pieces to as double eagles and gold coins, the 10 gold pieces were claimed to be chattel, not coins, in the words of government attorneys. The government has taken the position that the double eagles are not coins since they were not officially monetized for circulation distribution, a position that numismatists reject based on historical practices by the Mint in 1933.

A coin alleged to be the King Farouk 1933 double eagle resurfaced in 1996, 42 years after withdrawn from auction at the behest of the U.S. State Department, and was seized by U.S. authorities. A legal battle ended in 2001 when the government and British dealer Stephen Fenton (who claimed ownership of the coin) reached an agreement that permitted the coin to be sold at auction with the two parties splitting the proceeds. The coin sold for $7.59 million in a July 2002 auction by Sothebys in conjunction with Stacks. An additional $20 was applied to the purchase price to allow the coin to be monetized, and it is the only 1933 double eagle declared legal to own. The coin is on exhibit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Four-medal set

The designs for the medals in the 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary silver medal set are adapted from the 2017-W American Liberty 225th Anniversary gold $100 coin, but without the coin inscriptions. The silver medals also are struck in lower relief that the gold coin, which is produced at the West Point Mint in high relief.

The set is to be offered at a date that is yet to be announced, as are details on pricing and mintages.

The four-medal set will comprise medals struck at the Denver (Uncirculated), Philadelphia (Reverse Proof), West Point (Enhanced Uncirculated) and San Francisco Mints (standard Proof). Each medal will bear the Mint mark of the respective facility where it is struck.

A standard Proof medal struck at the Philadelphia Mint, offered individually, has been available from the Mint since June 14, priced at $59.95 each, with no mintage or household ordering limits.

A standard Proof version is struck from specially prepared dies and polished planchets and displays frosted devices against mirrored fields. A Reverse Proof finish displays mirrored devices against frosted fields.

Uncirculated pieces are struck on planchets that are burnished by being tumbled with steel media in a cleaning and brightening solution and then dried before striking. For the Enhanced Uncirculated version, the burnished planchets are struck with dies having specific design elements subjected to varying intensities of laser frosting and polishing techniques.

The silver medals are struck on the same type of 40.61-millimeter planchets as are used to strike American Eagles.

2018 America the Beautiful quarter dollar designs

The approved America the Beautiful quarter dollar designs for 2018 depict reverse images reflective of Pictured Rocks National Seashroe in Michigan; Apostle Islands National Seashore in Wisconsin; Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota; Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia; and Block Island National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island.
President Donald Trump, who is seeking to cut the U.S. Department of Educations budget by $9 billion, plans to donate his $100,000 salary for this quarter to the agency, to help pay for a camp focused on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, announced the donation Wednesday.

Trump has already moved to get rid of existing federal programs that school districts can and do use for STEM in his first-ever budget request, released earlier this yea r. For instance, he wants to totally scrap the $1.1 billion 21st Century Community Learning Center program, which finances after-school and summer programs, including many with a STEM focus.

The White House has also sought to zero out the brand-new Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, one of the few federal programs that school districts can use for science and technology. Lawmakers in the House who oversee education spending ignored Trumps asks and approved funding for both programs anyway .

Trumps education secretary, Betsy DeVos, did not address those proposed budget cuts in short remarks at the White House budget briefing Wednesday.



Instead, she thanked Trump for his generous gift and talked about having hosted a summer reading event Tuesday with the presidents daughter, Ivanka, at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, at a STEM-focused exhibit.

It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment, DeVos said of the kids attending the event. Todays and tomorrows economy requires engaged students, boys and girls, are prepared for STEM careers. ... We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, right, hands Education Secretary Betsy DeVos a check signed by President Donald Trump in the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House on July 26. President Trump donated his second quarter salary to the Education Department.

--Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
For-profit companies should be banned from running charter schools, and school districts should be the only entities allowed to grant and revoke charters. Those are the two primary recommendations concerning charter schools put forth in a wide-ranging report released Wednesday by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People .

The report is the result of a nationwide listening tour conducted by the NAACP between December and April. The tour was organized in the wake of strong blowback the organization faced last year after calling for a moratorium on all new charter schools during its national convention.

The task force created by the NAACP to study charters went to seven citiesNew York, New Haven, Conn., Orlando, Fla., Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans, Detroit, and Los Angelesmany of which are flashpoints in the larger debate over how charters have upset the education ecosystem.

In its report, the task force meticulously details the feedback it received from parents, teachers, researchers, union members, local officials, and district and charter school leaders. As it lays out its myriad findings, the report can read a bit like the greatest hits of the charter debate: Some say charters cherry pick the best students, others say they dont. Some claim charters force out students with disabilities, others report the opposite. Charter schools exacerbate racial segregation; no they dont. And so on.

From that tangle of contradictory testimony, the NAACP task force extrapolated a series of recommendations.

The group lays out a formula for improving charters that includes:



Only allowing school districts to decide which charter schools open and which are shut down;

Creating systems to monitor student suspensions and expulsions in charter schools; and

Requiring all teachers be certified.

(Those first and third items are popular policy proposals with teachers unions, and, predictably, unpopular with most charter school advocates.)

But when it comes to charters run by for-profit companies, the report is unsparing. There is no possible reform for such schools, in particular for-profit virtual charters. The report points to Tennessee as a model for banning for-profit and virtual charter schools.

However, its worth noting that in Tennessee school districts are still allowed to contract with for-profit virtual education providers and do. K12 Inc., which runs the most virtual charter schools in the country and has come under fire for the poor performance of many of its schools, also manages an online school through a Tennessee district that is nearly identical the to the virtual charters it oversees in other states.

In addition to its charter-specific recommendations, the report also calls for overhauling school finance systems and increasing investment in low-performing schools.

Insomuch as the report coalesces around any one theme, its perhaps this: that the rapid expansion of charter schools can create chaos for parents as they try to navigate an increasingly complicated education landscape.

The report says the task forces conclusion is best summed up by Chris Ungar, former president of the California School Boards Association, who spoke during their Los Angeles stop:

Can charter schools be part of the solution? Absolutely. But that solution must be intentional, well-planned growth that takes into account the health and sustainability of the entire public education system, including the so-called traditional public schools that educate 90 percent of our countrys students.

Notably, thats a far more conciliatory tone than the NAACPs call last year for a moratorium on all new charter schools.

Related stories:

Photo credit: Students at Freedom Preparatory Academy in Memphis, Tenn. --Randy Tankersley for Education Week
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
The next time you're issued a new company computer, you may well get an iPad Pro and detachable keyboard. Or a new Surface Pro 4. Or one of any number of hybrid 2-in-1s from the likes of Dell, HP or Lenovo.

That's because more and more companies are rushing to embrace laptop/tablet combos for their workers, according to new research from both Forrester and IDC.

Just what's going on here? As Computerworld Senior Writer Lucas Mearian explains to Executive Editor Ken Mingis, companies are bucking the recent sales trends for tablets, which have lost some of their luster in recent years.

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]

Sure, Apple's pushing its latest iPad Pro and iOS 11 as a perfect laptop replacement -- and, not coincidentally, pushing more Apple hardware into the enterprise. Microsoft, already a workplace mainstay, has been doing the same thing ever since the Surface line arrived in 2012. (And the arrival of Windows 10 in 2015 accelerated corporate adoption.)

So even as sales of consumer tablets over the next few years are expected to slow, the business-owned tablet market is expected to grow -- by 6.9% annually through 2022. That's largely because the hardware is now fast enough for most users and cheap enough for companies, there's a multitude of business-centric apps and users are finding 2-in-1s can deliver as much productivity as laptops, said Mearian.

For an audio podcast only, click play (or catch up on all episodes) below. Or you can find us on iTunes, where you can download each episode and listen at your leisure.

Happy listening, and please, send feedback or suggestions for future topics to us. We'd love to hear from you.
The fourth Tuesday of the month has come and gone, and it now looks reasonably safe to patch Windows and Office. I was expecting two big releases yesterdayone to fix numerous bugs in Win10 Creators Update, version 1703; the other to plug the bugs introduced by Junes Office security patchesbut neither trove appeared. Given Microsofts past patterns, its unlikely that well see any more serious patches until next months Patch Tuesday, on Aug. 8.

Theres also a bit of additional impetus right now. On July 17, security researcher Haifei published a proof of concept for running malware scripts directly in Office apps. I havent seen any exploits in the wild as yet, but it would be a good idea to install KB 3213640 (Office 2007), KB 3213624 (Office 2010), KB 3213555 (Office 2013) and/or KB 3213545 (Office 2016) in the short term. (Thx to @LeaningTowardsLinux.) Note that none of these patches, as best as I can tell, correct the Office bugs introduced in June.

July was a particularly problematic month for Windows and Office patches. At this moment, I see the following outstanding problems  none of which are overwhelming, but all of which may prove to be a pain to you, depending on your configuration and expectations:

The June bugs introduced by faulty Office security patches still arent fixed. Those of you using Outlook to open attachments or run custom macros may encounter problems. The easiest solution, of course, is to avoid Outlook. Ive seen no confirmation that running July patches will affect the June patches, which have appeared and disappeared in an unpredictable pattern.

The July patches reset Internet Explorer so it can print inside iFrames, but in so doing they reintroduce the CVE-2017-8529 security vulnerability. Thats a big deal if your company relies on IE to print customized pages, but the easiest solution is to just avoid IE. If you use Chrome or Firefox and couldnt care less about IEs problems, you might want to wade through the considerable mess documented here and avoid installing patches that fix IE but leave you exposed.

KB 4025331 for Server 2012 and KB 4025336 for Server 2012 R2 break client connections in WSUS and SCCM. Both need a manual registry key change to enable a fix for CVE-2017-8563.

On the brighter side, the Surface Pro 4/Surface Book firmware/driver update difficulties I talked about two days ago didn't turn into major problems. Microsoft has provided the documentation, at last, and it looks like the driver update is good to go.

As always, I strongly recommend that you avoid installing the Preview Rollups on offer, such as KB 4025335. Thats easyyou have to check the right box to install the Preview, and you shouldnt be checking any boxes!

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]

Here are my recommendations:

Windows 7 and 8.1

If youre very concerned about Microsofts snooping on you, and only want to install security patches, realize that the paths getting more difficult. The old Group Bsecurity patches onlyisnt dead, but its no longer within the grasp of typical Windows customers. If you insist on installing security patches only, follow the instructions in @PKCanos AKB 2000003.

Microsoft is still blocking updates to Win 7 and 8.1 on recent computers. If you are running Windows 7 or 8.1 on a PC thats a year old, or newer, follow the instructions in AKB 2000004 or @MrBrians summary of @radosuafs method to make sure you can use Windows Update to get updates applied.

If you want to minimize Microsofts snooping but still install all of the offered patches, turn off the Customer Experience Improvement Program (Step 1 of AKB 2000007: Turning off the worst Windows 7 and 8.1 snooping) before you install any patches. (Thx @MrBrian).

For most Windows 7 and 8.1 users, I recommend following AKB 2000004: How to apply the Win7 and 8.1 Monthly Rollups. Watch out for driver updates  youre far better off getting them from the manufacturers website.

After youve installed the latest Monthly Rollup, if youre intent on minimizing Microsofts snooping, run through the steps in AKB 2000007: Turning off the worst Win7 and 8.1 snooping. Realize that we dont know what information Microsoft collects on Win7 and 8.1 machines.

Windows 10

Its still too early to jump to Win10 Creators Update, version 1703. Wait for it to be designated Current Branch for Business or, using the new bafflegab, Semi-annual Channel (Broad) ready. You can block the upgrade with a few simple steps, detailed in this Computerworld post. If youre presented with an option to review your privacy settings (screenshot), click "Remind me later" and forget about it.

Woody Leonhard/IDG

To get Win10 patched, run the steps in AKB 2000005: How to update Windows 10  safely. You may want to use wushowhide to hide any driver updates. All of the other updates should be OK, including Servicing stack updates, Office, MSRT or .Net updates (go ahead and use the Monthly Rollup if its offered).

As is always the case, DONT CHECK ANYTHING THATS UNCHECKED.

Time to get patched. Tell your friends, but make sure they understand whats happening. And for heavens sake, as soon as youre patched, turn off automatic updating! If you can follow these instructions, you don't have to serve as Microsoft patch cannon fodder.

I just changed the MS-DEFCON level on the AskWoody Lounge. Join us.
After just five months on the job, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos can probably stake her claim as the most controversial education secretary in history.

Teachers unions have branded her as a public enemy. Her advocacy for school vouchers has drawn condemnation, her stance on civil rights has stirred up controversy, and critics have come out in droves during her public appearances.

That made us wonder: Will a public school ever be named in DeVos honor?

Three former national education secretariesTerrel Bell , Lauro Cavazos , and Rod Paige have K-12 schools named for them.

Its probably too early to tell if any of the recent officeholders will join the club. But while reporting a story about schools named for Barack and Michelle Obama , we found that school-naming committees usually embrace names unburdened by politics.

That would seem to put a divisive figure like DeVos at a disadvantage. The former education secretaries who have been honored have apparent ties to the schools or districts: the honorees lived, worked, or oversaw institutions in the cities where the schools are located.

Heres the roster of former education secretaries:

Shirley Hufstedler (served under President Jimmy Carter)

No. Hufstedler, the nations first education secretary , had a distinguished legal career before President Jimmy Carter appointed her in 1979.

Terrel H. Bell (served under President Ronald Reagan)

Yes. TH Bell Junior High in Ogden, Utah, carries his name. He served as superintendent from 1958 to 1962. He served as state superintendent when the school was dedicated in 1963.

William J. Bennett (served under Reagan)

No. Bennett, a political pundit and chairman of Conservative Leaders for Education , courted controversy during his tenure. Much like DeVos, he was a frequent target for those who objected to his criticisms of public education in the United States.

Lauro F. Cavazos (served under presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush)

Yes. Cavazos has two schools named for him, both in his native Texas. Cavazos Middle is in Lubbock, where the ex-education secretary served as president of Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Cavazos Elementary is in Odessa, the site of one of the health sciences center campuses.

Lamar Alexander (served under Bush)

No. But if a schools are named for Alexander in the future, it would likely happen in his home state of Tennessee. As a former governor and university president there, and current chairman of the Senate education committee , he has been deeply engaged on education issues for decades.

Richard Riley (served under President Bill Clinton)

Sort of. Two universities, Walden and Winthrop , have named their colleges of education for Riley, and an institute at Furman University bears his name. But so far, no K-12 schools have bestowed similar honors on the former South Carolina governor.

Roderick Paige (served under President George W. Bush)

Paige has two schools that bear his name. One, Rod Paige Middle , is in his hometown of Monticello, Miss. The other, Roderick Paige Elementary , is in Houston, where Paige served as a school board member in the early 1990s, and then superintendent from 1994 to 2001.

Margaret Spellings (served under Bush)

No for Spellings, who is the president of the University of North Carolina system . If she is ever honored, a school in Texas would be the best bet. She graduated from a high school in the Houston school district and her early education advocacy work happened in the Lone Star State.

Arne Duncan (served under President Barack Obama)

No, for Duncan, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. But there may be hope, even if it is slight. The school districts first superintendent, John Dore, has an elementary school in the city named in his honor. However, the same cant be said for many, if any, of his successors.

John B. King Jr. (served under Obama)

No, for King, the president and CEO of The Education Trust . A former teacher, principal, charter school leader, and state schools chief in New York, King spent about a year on the job as education secretary.

Betsy DeVos (serving under President Donald Trump)

No, but DeVos and her husband founded the West Michigan Aviation Academy , a charter high school in Grand Rapids. If any school is to take on DeVoss name, the most likely prospect would be in the charter sector, and in particular, the online charter school sector, which she has championed. Its also conceivable that a future private school voucher program could be named for her.

Photo Credit: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and President Donald Trump tour St. Andrew Catholic School on March 3, in Orlando, Fla.

--Alex Brandon/AP

Related Stories

19 Schools Are Named for the Obamas. Most of Them Are Segregated

How Many Education Secretaries Have Been K-12 Classroom Teachers?

DeVos Would Be First Ed. Sec. Who Hasnt Been a Public School Student or Parent

At a Glance: U.S. Secretaries of Education
For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser
The Texas Senate approved a so-called bathroom bill Tuesday that would restrict access to restrooms and locker rooms in buildings operated by local governmentsincluding public schoolsbased on the sex listed on a persons birth certificate or state-issued ID. The bill would also restrict local anti-discrimination ordinances.

It passed in a 21-10 vote over the strong objections of law enforcement, groups of superintendents, business officials, and transgender advocates who said the bill discriminates against transgender people and that taking a statewide stand on such a divisive issue may drive tourism dollars from the state.

Supporters of the bill, SB3, said the bill would help protect the privacy and safety of women and children. Some parents told a Senate committee last week that their schools had passed policies that permitted transgender students to use restrooms that match their gender identity with very little public input.

If the House approves SB3, Texas will become just the second state to enact restrictions on transgender restroom access in public schools. The first, North Carolina, faced a lawsuit from the Obama administrations Justice Department. It has since amended its law, but transgender advocacy groups say the changes dont resolve their concerns .

The Texas Senate must give the bill one more OK before it moves to the House. Its vote comes in a special session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott after legislators failed to pass such a measure during their regular session.

It also comes at a time when transgender advocates, conservative groups, states, and school districts have sometimes sparred over how federal law applies to transgender students.

The Obama administration previously asserted that Title IX, the federal gender non-discrimination law, guarantees the rights of transgender students to access bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, even if it differs from their sex at birth. But the administration of Donald Trump lifted that guidance shortly after he took office, bringing an end to a multi-state lawsuit led by Texas that said the federal guidance threatened the privacy rights of students .

Absent that guidance, states and schools are on their own to interpret federal law in this area. Transgender advocacy groups and groups like the ACLU have said they will continue to assert their interpretation of Title IX in court.

Photo: Protesters gather on the steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin last week while State lawmakers began a special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. LGBT activists bitterly oppose bathroom bill proposals. --Eric Gay/AP

Further reading about transgender students:

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
Clark County School District in Nevada recently hired more than 80 special education teachers from the Philippines.

The Las Vegas district isnt alone in turning to the island nation to fill openings, particularly in shortage areas like special education. School districts from Los Angeles to New York City have for decades recruited Filipino teachers. (Check out this Education Week Post on the factors that pushed Arizona to hire teachers from the Philippines.) But some critics say this is the wrong way to go for solving the teacher shortage crisis.

District leaders from Clark County, Las Vegas flew to the Philippines in April to interview 250 candidates, according to Principal Joseph Uy, who took the trip. Uy says a district from Texas had been recruiting there the week before Clark Countys arrival, and that the week after their departure a California district arrived. (The Sacramento Bee recently reported that Sacramento City Unified School District hired 12 special education teachers from the Philippines last school year, and seven more this year.)

Clark County ended up hiring 81 special education teachers who arrived in the U.S. earlier this month on J-1 visas, non-immigrant visas issued so foreign nationals can study or work in the U.S.

Each year, more than 300,000 people from 200 different countries come to the U.S. on J-1 visas to work as au pairs, professors, or teachers, or to attend school. The teachers can stay for two years, then apply for a two-year extension.

The upsides for districts are many: Filipinos often can speak English and Spanish, and their education is similar to what we experience in the U.S. (The Philippines school system was set up by American colonizers.) All together, these factors pave a fairly smooth path for Filipino teachers seeking credentials in the U.S.

Uy said he interviewed eight teachers for an opening at his school, Ferron Elementary, and wanted to hire every single one. I would prefer the Filipino teachers years of experience to hiring substitutes with no teaching background and no bag of tricks in their back pocket, he said. Just because you were born and raised here doesnt mean you are qualified to teach.

There is some skepticism about the lasting viability of this approach. Recruiting accomplished teachers from other countries is a short-term fix, Linda Darling-Hammond, president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and education professor at Stanford University, said in an email. Longer-term approaches are needed that will attract highly qualified teachers who are committed to staying in districts for more than a few years.

Darling-Hammond suggested a range of strategies , including partnerships with nearby universities to create teacher residencies or grow-your-own pathways into teaching that help young people and paraprofessionals who live in the community to become teachers. (In this Education Week article , Sarah D. Sparks takes on the question of whether the teacher shortage can actually be solved by residencies. She reports that they are more likely to produce teachers who remain in the profession longer than four years.)

Other approaches that help with recruitment and retention, according to Darling-Hammond, include raising pay, offering housing, improving working conditions, and mentoring new teachers.

Uy admits that hiring teachers from the Philippines is a temporary fix. But he argues that the competition for a dwindling pool of U.S. teachers appears insurmountable in the short term. Clark County now has about 400 teacher vacancies for the 2017-18 year, including about 150 openings in special education.

Even with partnering with local universities, even with alternative routes to licensure, even with Teach for America, and all the job fairs we go to in all the states across the country, we still cant find enough teachers, Uy said. Everywhere we go, we are competing with recruiters from other states. Hawaii was here last week recruiting our teachers at a big conference at a hotel on the Strip. The state of Hawaii. Not a district, the entire state was here to recruit in Las Vegas. I said to my boss, What are we going to do about this?

Uy would like the state to pursue raising pay and promoting the teaching profession among elementary and high school students. The first would be up to state leaders. But the second Uy plans to take up directly with the human resources department at Clark County. High school kids could volunteer to help out in classrooms and even earn credit for tutoring kids in math and reading. Uy would volunteer his schools and his services.

Once young people experience what its like to help others and to feel needed, he says, theyll sign up to become teachers. (You can read about how school districts are working to entice high school students into the teaching profession here and here .)

While Uy considers the hiring of teachers from the Philippines a good strategy in the short term, hes convinced long-term success lies in finding a way to persuade local young people on the merits of teaching.

Vegas is my home now, said Uy, who came to the U.S. from the Philippines when he was 17. I want my Las Vegas, my Nevada, to keep our own kids, its a family thing. I want my kids, and by that I mean all kidsAfrican American, Chinese, Filipino, Hispanic, whiteto stay home, stay here, this is a good place. I dont want them going to California. Not that theres anything wrong with that state, but I want them to stay here and give back. If they were born and raised here, they will have more at stake in helping the community. Their lives as teachers will be so much more rewarding if they can say, The kid Im teaching used to be me. How cool is that?

See also:
Sometimes watching a sequel is like eating a delicious meal and then being told, "Oh, by the way, we put cat turds in that." Meaning they can retroactively ruin their predecessors by introducing plot elements that turn them into nonsense. For example ...

5 Rogue One Turns Leia's First Meeting With Darth Vader Into An Awkward Comedy Scene

Rogue One (or Star Wars: Episode III.V) is basically a feature-length attempt to explain why the Death Star was so easy to blow up now that "a Wookie slave got the shits" is no longer the canon explanation. While the film manages to provide a solid enough reason for why an entire moon-sized space station could be brought down by two tiny-ass rockets, it inadvertently turns the beginning of the first Star Wars into a comedy.

See, Rogue One concludes with a massive battle over the planet Scarif, as the Rebels attempt to steal the Death Star plans in order to blow that shit up in another movie. They succeed, and the plans are transferred to Princess Leia's ship using ancient space WiFi.

Lucasfilm Imagine how ridiculously long it takes to load up two titties.

Polar Express Leia and her blockade runner manage to escape the chaos and jump into hyperspace right before Darth Vader murders the hell out of every living thing. It's an undeniably nerdgasmic ending, but ... let's back up a second here. So this new movie retroactively says Leia was physically present at the battle where the Death Star plans were stolen. So was Darth Vader. He saw Leia's exact ship escape with his own (presumably frowny) eyes.
That was a problem, because in such an under-the-table economy, it was a lot easier for people to avoid paying income tax. Specifically, 99 percent of the population. It also means that counterfeiting was a much bigger deal than in Western countries, where most purchases involve standing around dumbly until the chip reader screams at you. So Prime Minister Narenda Modi did the sensible thing: He got on TV and declared that the government would be issuing new, more secure bills. They would also be collecting the old ones, which would become worthless in, oh, about four hours. Not only that, but the announcement was made at 8 p.m.

Bharatiya Janata Party

"It's November 8, 2016. I heard today's the day we do crazy shit."

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

It was absolutely necessary to do it this way, Modi explained, because otherwise the ne'er-do-wells would have had time to prepare. You gotta take ne'er-do-wells by surprise! Everybody knows that. Besides, even though citizens could no longer use their money, they would have 50 days to exchange it at the bank. See? Plenty of time! As long as you caught the broadcast, which was kind of hard for the 200 million Indians who do not own a TV, phone, or radio.
Channel programs News

Accenture Buys 150-Person Mobile Design Firm To Bolster Digital Training, Engineering Expertise

Michael Novinson

Share this

Accenture has purchased a mobile design and development firm to gain new studio capabilities and tap into its highly-regarded digital training program.

The Dublin, Ireland-based company, No. 2 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of Boston-based Intrepid would accelerate Accenture's investment in leading-edge development tools like Unity and React, according to Ankur Mathur, managing director of Accenture Digital. Intrepid has a great base of data development skills, Mathur said and had been growing its web development capabilities.

Intrepid has grown from just two employees in 2010 to 150 today and was interested in reaching more clients and becoming part of larger projects, according to Mark Kasdorf, Intrepid's CEO. The company had a handful of suitors, Kasdorf told CRN, but none of the other potential buyers provided Accenture's level of alignment and synergies.

[Related: Accenture CEO: We've Moved Half Our Business To Digital, Cloud and Security In Just Four Years]

"Everything we do, they were very excited about," Kasdorf said. "Everything we don't do, they already have."

Terms of the deal, which closed Tuesday, weren't disclosed. Intrepid will become part of the Interactive division of Accenture Digital  which is focused on customer experience, Mathur said, with the future of the Intrepid brand still undecided.

Bringing Intrepid on board will support Accenture's unique ability to have clients come in and work in a studio development environment, Mathur said. Most of Accenture's existing North American studios focus primarily on design and services, which Mathur said is critical for early-stage digital transformation projects.

But Accenture didn't really have engineering horsepower in its studio environments, Mathur said. That will change with the Intrepid deal, as new and existing Accenture clients will be able to leverage Intrepid's development engineering expertise to co-create and be part of the buildout process, Mathur said.

Intrepid does most of its work today in product development, Kasdorf said, and works closely with the client's vice president of products or chief digital officer rather than the chief marketing officer. Most of Intrepid's customers today are having mobile and digital impact their core business functions, according to Kasdorf.

Intrepid additionally has programs in place that nurture skills in areas like Unity and React, Mathur said. Accenture is now seeing clients ask for more and more of those skills, and Mathur said bringing Accenture on board should help the company keep up with the demand.

Nearly half of Intrepid's workforce has come through the company's training program, which Kasdorf said covers everything from iOS and Android to augmented reality and machine learning. It's pretty much impossible for Intrepid to land employees with experience in those areas given the amount of competition posed by Google, Apple and HubSpot, according to Kasdorf.

"It's pretty much impossible to grow when your product is people," said Kasdorf, who will become a managing director at Accenture and will continue running the Intrepid business.

Kasdorf said Intrepid's paid training program had provided a quality workaround, with the company's 50 new hires in 2016 all going through the program. Intrepid currently runs its training program three times per year, Kasdorf said, with each session including two weeks of classroom learning, five weeks of technical training, and five weeks in the field at a client site.

Intrepid has been told its training program is as good as or better than "boot camp" programs that attendees have to pay to participate in, Kasdorf said. The company has ultimately hired about 70 percent of people that completed the training for permanent positions at Intrepid, according to Kasdorf.

"We've routinely had people applying for the program who are turning down a job at Google," Kasdorf said.

Accenture plans to use the training structure put in place by Intrepid and expand it to cover additional topics, Mathur said. And for training graduates that don't ultimately end up in the Intrepid business, Mathur said they can now work in a different division of Accenture.
Cloud News

Partners: New Azure Service Proves That Microsoft 'Gets It' On Containers

Kyle Alspach

Share this

Microsoft on Wednesday announced the general availability of a new containers tool for its Azure cloud platform that partners say should help accelerate the deployment of container technologies with customers.

With the new Azure Container Instances service, containers can now be metered to the second, and only incur cost up to their storage and compute needs, said Reed Wiedower, CTO of Washington, D.C.-based New Signature.

[Related: The Top 10 Partner Takeaways From Microsoft Inspire]

"With a container-based approach, we can start to sell a discrete service that includes the cost of acquisition and monetizes it so that the more money a customer makes, the more money a partner makes," Wiedower told CRN. "It's truly transformative."

Microsoft said that Azure Container Instances does not require management of any virtual machine infrastructure, and said the service starts up within seconds.

By comparison, platform-as-a-service options typically take several minutes to respond, said Brian Blanchard, vice president of cloud solutions at Chicago-based 10th Magnitude.

The new service  which 10th Magnitude has been using as a trial for the past four months  means that users can "just focus on code," and don't have to deal with any of the constraints of PaaS mechanisms, Blanchard said. The tool is a huge help in development cycles for spinning up an instance of an app for a short burst of time, in order to perform actions such as testing, he said.

"It's another tool in the arsenal that gives us even greater flexibility," Blanchard said.

Wiedower said that Azure Container Instances "re-affirms that Microsoft 'gets it' when it comes to containers." And the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, he said, "isnt content to merely be at parity with other providers."

"With ACI Microsoft has built functionality that any developer can use to achieve real-time usage of containers  further transforming applications into true, utility-like services that are metered and expensed, back to the customer," Wiedower said. "When we talk to customers around their digital transformation efforts, this ability is key because it can help us create positive outcomes through the services themselves."

For example, if New Signature were going to do a $120,000 project for a customer to improve their Dynamics 365 instance, a customer would typically have to pay up front "for a presumed benefit," he said.

The announcement comes as container technology is already seeing fast-growing adoption, as evidenced by the amount of interest in containers that solution providers such as 10th Magnitude are seeing.

"We're seeing container adoption just shoot through the roof," Blanchard said. "Three to four months ago, containers were a part of roughly 1 of 20 or 30 of our conversations. Today it's in like one of five. We're seeing that adoption and interest rapidly spike. It's almost becoming table stakes in the cloud market."
Teresa Danks raised $32 on a highway overpass last weekbut her sign begging for school supplies has since raised thousands of dollars.

Danks, a 3rd grade teacher in the Tulsa, Okla., district, was frustrated with the seemingly never-ending stream of budget cuts imposed by the state legislature. Were trying to figure out what are they going to cut next, and what else is there to cut? she said in an interview.

The cuts to education funding have meant that teachers are asked to fill in the gaps and pay for their school supplies out-of-pocket. A Scholastic survey last fall found that on average, teachers spend $530 of their own money on classroom items. Teachers in high-poverty schools spend an average of $672.

Danks husband jokingly suggested she turn to panhandling to raise money for her school suppliesbut Danks realized the idea could actually work.

I thought that would be an awesome photograph for Facebook to try to send a message and try to get a buzz and promote some donations for classroom supplies, she said.

Danks made a sign that said, Teacher needs money for school supplies! Anything helps. Thank you, and added a smiley face and a heart. Her husband dropped her off on the corner of a highway exit. Danks was there for less than 10 minutes, but received many messages of support and thank yous, along with the small donations.

I left that corner with $32, but feeling like, wow, the thought of it seemed to hit home, she said.

After she posted the picture of the sign on Facebook, a local news station asked her if she would re-enact the pandhandling for a segment . Danks was there for another 10 minutes and received more small donations and thank yous.

I could really just tell that the community was behind us, even though the legislators dont seem to be, she said.

Now, her sign and its message has spread across the country. She was on Good Morning America . And a GoFundMe request that she set up has reached over $25,000 in donations.

Danks plans to set up a foundation to get school supplies in the hands of Tulsa teacherswith hopes of expanding into the rest of the state, and maybe, the nation.

She also wants to keep pushing state legislators to restore education funding, and work to enact a pay raise. Oklahoma ranks last in the nation in terms of teacher pay . The issue has caused Shawn Sheehan, the states 2016 teacher of the year, to publicly announce plans to leave Oklahoma for a better-paying teaching position in Texas. Danks said she has been in contact with a few state legislators since her story has gone viral, and she hopes to have meetings in the next few weeks.

Im trying to be a voice for other teachers, she said.

But first, Danks will buy supplies for her own classroom. She said she mainly needs craft supplies for her 3rd graderspipe cleaners, cardboard tubes, googly eyes, paintbecause the art classes in her school were cut. She tries to bring art in her classroom as much as possible, she said.

She also wants to buy alternative seating to make the classroom environment more relaxed and fun.

And then, its on to the rest of the district classrooms.

Image by Jonathan Roark, courtesy of Danks
Data center News

Lenovo CEO's 'Lighthearted' Vow To Quit If Goals Aren't Met Belies Daunting Datacenter, PC Challenges

Matt Brown

Share this

Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing made a "lighthearted comment" when he said he'd step down if the company failed to hit sales targets, but the Beijing, China-based firm's competitive position is no laughing matter.

Known to Lenovo employees as YY, Yang this week reportedly told Chinese media in Shanghai at the company's annual Tech World conference that he'd leave his position if the company doesn't hit the aggressive $12 billion annual online PC revenue goal he's set within three years.

"It was a lighthearted comment that showed YY's faith in [China PC business chief] Liu Jun's strategy for the China business," a Lenovo spokesperson told CRN in an email. "He followed it up in the same sentence by saying, 'But I believe I won't need to do that.'"

[Related: Conversation Starters: 5 Keys To Lenovo's AI Future]

Lighthearted as Yang's comment may have been, his online PC sales goal represents nearly half of the company's current PC revenue, and it'll have to reach for that goal while facing significant market headwinds.

MichaeI Goldstein, CEO of LAN Infotech, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., solution provider that works with Lenovo, said Lenovo has products that compete strongly in the IT market, but those products are up against stiff competition and tend to be expensive.

"I do see good momentum, and we just got reassigned a new rep, and from the past, the reps have been pretty aggressive in what we need to sell the product, and they have a great set of products," Goldstein said. "I have Microsoft, Dell and Lenovo, and on mobile, I think Lenovo is ahead of the others. The majority of our mobile customers love the X1 line. If you're a road warrior, the X1 is amazing, but it's not the least expensive solution. The Tiny Workstation is great, too. You can slap it on the back of a monitor, or tuck it under a desk. On the other side of it, it's a very competitive space. Those things distinguish them, but everything in between becomes about whether you like vanilla or chocolate."

Worldwide PC and data center hardware markets are in decline. Lenovo, which became the largest PC manufacturer in the world under Yang's leadership, registered revenue declines in all of its major businesses during its 2017 fiscal year ended March 31.

Lenovo PC sales dipped 2.3 percent year-over-year, while sales in its mobile and data center businesses fell 5.4 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. In the second quarter of the calendar year, Lenovo's PC shipments fell nearly 6 percent year-over-year as it ceded the worldwide lead to Hewlett-Packard Inc., according to research firm IDC. In the first quarter  the most recent period available from IDC  Lenovo's server sales saw a year-over-year decline of 16.5 percent while shipments fell more than 27 percent.

In addition to online PC sales, Lenovo is making a shift toward the burgeoning market for artificial intelligence [AI] technology. AI is the focus of a $1 billion investment effort by Lenovo, and last week, the company introduced several AI concept products, including a virtual assistant; a VR headset; a "SmartVest" for monitoring heart function; an AI-based services platform and a smart speaker.

Yang, in addition to making Lenovo the world's largest PC manufacturer through the acquisition of IBM's PC business, also kicked open the door of the data center market with the $2.3 billion acquisition of IBM's x86 server business about two years ago, but the company has had trouble formulating an effective strategy for that business. In June, the company also introduced a new data center line, including several new server, storage and networking products, aimed at turning that business around.


The U.S. has announced that it will give a further $140 million to aid Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

The U.S. State Department made the announcement after Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited the White House.

The extra $140 for Syrian refugees means that the U.S. has now given Lebanon more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid over the last five years, according to The Christian Post.

Syrian refugees now make up about a quarter of Lebanons population. Many have fled to the country in an attempt to escape the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It is estimated that 1.5 million Syrian refugees reside in Lebanon.

The money donated by the U.S. will be used for food, shelter, medical assistance, clean water, and other basic necessities and infrastructure projects for the refugees.

President Trump met with President Hariri during his visit to the U.S. Trump said the U.S. will also continue to support the Lebanese army in its efforts to defeat the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

"We encourage other donors to join us in providing additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by the crisis in Syria, including fulfilling not yet funded previously made pledges," the State Department said.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/Eliane29

Publication date: July 26, 2017
Something went wrong, please try again later.

Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later.

The second tallest building in Britain could be built in Croydon town centre after plans to build a 68-storey skyscraper were submitted to the council.

Proposals to demolish buildings at 1-5 Lansdowne Road and Voyager House at 30-32 Wellesley Road and replace them with 68 and 41-storey towers, which would be connected by an 11-storey bock, have been sent to Croydon Council on behalf of the applicant One Lansdowne Road Ltd.

If approved the 68-storey block would tower over the 50-storey Canary Wharf, standing at 236m tall, and only the Shard, which stands at 95 floors and 310m, would be taller in the whole of Britain.

The skyscraper would also easily overtake the 43-storey Saffron Square as the tallest building in Croydon.

Details for the proposed scheme show the developer wants to provide 794 homes, office space, a health club with a swimming pool, retail shops, cafe and restaurant space on the ground floor, a bar and restaurant with a viewing gallery on the 64th to 66th floors, plus 76 car parking spaces, 72 disabled bays, 85 motorcycle spaces and about 1,500 secure bicycle spaces.

Plans to build an even taller 69-storey tower were put forward for the site in January 2016 by developers Guildhouse and Rosepride but the council's planning committee rejected the proposal due to concerns about the application, including what was seen as insufficient provision of affordable housing.

The developers instead planned on moving ahead with a 55-storey development on the site which they received permission for in 2011 . Work was due to start on the development of the shorter option in February , but the site remains untouched and it appears the developers instead went back to the drawing board.

The planning statement, which was submitted earlier this month, states: "This proposal is truly iconic, with an inspirational design formulated by a world-leading architect, Piers Gough CBE of CZWG Architects.

'The design will therefore put Croydon 'on the map' for all the right reasons'

"It will be a key identifier for Croydon since not only will the proposal accommodate a large number of new homes and quality office accommodation but will also create a positive 'talking point' for Croydon."

The statement continues: "It is understood that, when completed, the main tower will be the tallest residential tower in the UK and could host the highest bar in Europe.

"The design will therefore put Croydon 'on the map' for all the right reasons, both nationally and internationally."

The statement added the location is "fully suited to making it an exemplar".

"Its location, in the heart of an established tall buildings area, with nearby schemes including Saffron Square, Ruskin Square and the residential towers of the Whitgift redevelopment, create the opportunity and, in fact, encourages any scheme for this site to be the epitome of such tall buildings in this locality," the statement continued.

"One Lansdowne Road represents an important unique opportunity for a landmark high density development, to deliver a large number of much-needed homes, modern offices with street level active uses at a key location in Croydon's metropolitan centre."

The developer has been contacted for comment.
Crash Victim Sues Three Bars for Over-Serving Michigan Prosecutor

Former Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Josh Kuiper was sued earlier this year after an alleged DUI crash injured another individual. In addition to the civil suit, he was charged criminally, and Kuiper resigned from his position.

However, the civil suit against Kuiper has gotten a whole lot more interesting since the plaintiff has now added three new defendants under a dram shop theory of liability. Kuiper allegedly stopped at three different local downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan establishments, drank at each, then drove away. What's more is that the former prosecutor was allegedly drinking to celebrate the retirement of a fellow prosecutor with other colleagues.

Kuiper's Case

While a DUI may not necessarily be the end of a legal career, Kuiper allegedly drove his pick-up the wrong way down a one way, and crashed into the plaintiff's parked car. Even though Kuiper wasn't actually charged with a DUI, the serious injury related to reckless driving is a serious enough charge that attorney discipline is likely to at least be considered.

Although plaintiff's car was parked, he was there, trying to get something from the back seat at the time of impact. He was sent over 50 feet away by the crash and injured all over. Surprisingly, at the scene, police failed to administer a breathalyzer test to Kuiper.

Attorney DUIs and Discipline

A regular, first DUI for an attorney will usually be a misdemeanor, and thus an attorney may be able to skate by without being disciplined by their state bar. But, if an injury results, many states elevate those DUI charges to felonies, and felony convictions don't usually escape some form of bar censure.

In Kupier's case, in Michigan, it doesn't even need to be a DUI to be charged as a felony. Simply reckless driving causing serious injury can be charged as a felony.

If you're facing DUI charges, you wouldn't recommend a client represent themselves, so why should you? You know experience matters. You can use our FindLaw lawyer directory to find a local, experienced DUI practitioner if you don't know one. And if you're facing an ethics violation, we have an Ethics and PR directory to help you, just in case.

Related Resources:
Todays digital economy is driving a technology revolution. Networks are elastic and borderless. They include on-demand infrastructure, cloud-based services, software defined perimeters, and the growth of smart devices and IoT. Networks and infrastructures are also increasingly hyperconnected.

Data no longer just sits inside the network. It's pretty much everywhere, so securing the entire infrastructure is starting to become very important. We need to protect data whether it's in the cloud, on a mobile or IoT device, or inside the network. In addition, security also needs to look at a variety of behavioral analytics to determine the intent of an attacker. Anticipating the behavior of a user, device, or applications allows us to shorten the detection and response cycle. It then needs to coordinate the resources of security tools deployed across the infrastructure to counter that malicious intent. Next-Generation Firewall devices and platforms were simply never designed to do this.

Addressing these new security challenges will require a new, third generation of security that is intent-based and automated. Security tools need to be integrated deep into the network across a variety of environments, from IoT to the cloud. They then need a framework that allows them to be woven together into a single, integrated fabric so they can collect, share, and correlate threat intelligence between security and network devices, centrally manage and orchestrate policies, automatically synchronize resources to enforce policies, and coordinate a response to threats detected anywhere across the extended network.

This is really the only way to effectively defend todays complex networks from the sophisticated threats being aimed at them. To accomplish this, third-generation security tools need to address all five elements of security development.

1. Detection. Finding bad actors, devices, and applications is the critical first step for any security solution. About 97 percent of companies are competing at this first level. But, detection isn't enough. You also need to get to stage two.

2. Prevention. Detection doesn't have to be in-line, but in order to stop bad traffic while making sure good applications can get through, prevention does. Even today, only about 5 to 10 percent of security companies are not only able to see a threat, but then do something more than simply send out an alert.

3. Integration. Devices deployed across the distributed network need to share and correlate intelligence and work together to coordinate threat response. Only a handful of companies, with development capabilities in house, are able to operate at this stage. Solutions need to be built around Open APIs and standards in order to create truly open and distributed security.

4. Performance. This seems self explanatory, but it really isnt. Todays security needs to look deep inside content, including unstructured data and encrypted traffic, to look for malware and other threats. It also needs to correlate that information with other data to uncover sophisticated attacks or determine things like intent and then apply real-time analytics to uncover intent and anticipate threats. And it needs to do it that in an environment with escalating data and device demands without compromising digital business requirements.

5. Value. Value is the fifth stage of development, and covers such things as quality, effectiveness, ease of management, and cost  not only for the solution itself, but also for the ongoing cost of ownership. Achieving the first four stages of security requires massive amounts of processing power and sophisticated software. Which is why most security solutions are so expensive. But high costs prevent a lot of organizations from deploying the security they need where they need it. Developments like chip-based security processors, which we began developing over 15 years ago, and now leading organizations like Google are also developing, ensure that security tools can combine high performance and sophisticated security processing at the lowest cost possible.

Are you ready to protect your future?

We at Fortinet are developing intuitive solutions designed to support predictive security for things like Intent-Based Networking. There are many things that need to go into creating predictive security. You need to see every device and system across the distributed network, know what those systems are normally used for, understand what those systems have historically done and what they are doing now, and know when the system changes. This cant be accomplished with isolated security devices or platforms. It will require a security fabric.

We are also developing new IoT security strategies to segment and inspect large volumes of IoT traffic in order to compensate for the flaws and vulnerabilities inherent in many IoT devices. We are making advances in the areas of AI and machine learning. Advanced behavioral analytics allow us to see and correlate more threat intelligence and inspect CPU-intensive things like encrypted traffic and unstructured data.

This also allows us to expand the scope and sophistication of automation so security decision-making as quickly andfp as close to a detected threat event as possible. Sharing threat intelligence also plays an important role in this third generation of security. Which is we are expanding shared threat intelligence and technology cooperation through strategic partnerships such as the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) and the Fabric-Ready Partner program, as it can provide expanded protection for increasingly hyperconnected risk-based environments, like critical infrastructures and smart cities.

This third generation of security is required to secure todays highly elastic networks, from endpoint and IoT devices to the cloud. Fortinet is prepared because our entire culture is built on a foundation of continuous innovation tied to a clear vision of the future. As we all move further into the new digital age, we are committed to providing the integrated tools and comprehensive strategies everyone will need to protect the increasingly connected world we are all building together.

Fortinet was recently named a Leader in the Gartner Enterprise Firewall Magic Quadrant. Read the full report here.
Ginni Rometty, IBMs chairman, president and CEO, had the following to say at a 2015 IBM Security Summit in New York City when she addressed CISOs, CIOs and CEOs from 123 companies in 24 industries:

We believe that data is the phenomenon of our time. It is the worlds new natural resource. It is the new basis of competitive advantage, and it is transforming every profession and industry. If all of this is trueeven inevitablethen cybercrime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world."

That prophetic commentary was shared in a Forbes post, when some vendor and media forecasts put the cybercrime figure as high as $500 billion annually. Last year, the Microsoft Secure Blog reported that The World Economic Forum estimated the economic cost of cybercrime to be $3 trillion worldwide. That was a six-fold jump in cybercrime damage estimates in just one year.

Cybercrime damage costs are now predicted to reach $6 trillion annually by 2021, according to the latest research conducted by Cybersecurity Venturesa data point that has been corroborated by major media outlets, leading technology vendors, information security associations, universities offering cybersecurity degree programs, industry experts, and IT analysts.

Cyber threats have evolved from targeting and harming computers, networks, and smartphones to affecting people, cars, railways, planes, power grids and anything with a heartbeat or an electronic pulse. IBM's CEO saw it coming, and she gave us a big-picture view on how it was going to affect businesses globally.

A recent Twitter poll asked the cybersecurity community if they agreed (or disagreed) with Rometty's assertion that cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world. The poll has received more than 800 votes, with 56 percent agreeing, 28 percent disagreeing, and 16 percent not sure. (Votes are still coming in, and the final numbers will post later this week.)

Cybercrime affects businesses of all sizes

Cybercrime has no favorites when it comes to company size. Fortune 500 and Global 2000 corporations, mid-sized organizations, and small businesses are hacker and cybercriminal group targets.

There is no effective law enforcement for financial cybercrime today, says Herjavec Group founder and CEO Robert Herjavec, who agrees that cybercrime poses the greatest threat to companies globally.

Organizations need to increase their defenses and become more resilient because there is no end state in sight for this growing cybercrime epidemic. So long as there is a way for cybercriminals to get paid, with limited risk, attacks will continue. The challenge remains that large enterprises arent nearly as agile as their attackers, he said.

The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) states, Cybercriminals hijack devices, steal personal information, send spam, run phishing scams and target bank accounts. Its a global problem, and no one organization can solve the issue of cybercrime on its own.

This is especially true of small businesses that do not employ full-time cybersecurity personnel.

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking to the Retired American Warriors PAC in Herndon, Virginia, last year (prior to being elected), said, "Cyber theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States by far. [Cyber] attacks like these are happening on a regular basis both in the United States and around the world, and the costs in terms of privacy, our security and our financial sector are truly extraordinary."

Last year billionaire businessman Warren Buffett warned no company could be prepared for a major cyber attack.

"I don't know that much about cyber, but I do think that's the number one problem with mankind," Buffett was quoted as saying in a Business Insider story.

Do companies create cybercrime fear?

However, Gabriel Shonzeit, founder and CEO at IDsecurityonline.com, LLC, disagrees and offered a dissenting view in a LinkedIn post responding to the Twitter poll.

"Companies creating and propagating fear causing individuals and companies to focus on 'threats' instead of fostering trust is the greatest threat," he said. "Breaches come from within, and the current approach is defensive sold based on fear."

Interestingly, Shonzeit had this to say in a press release promoting his firm's ID card printers and photo ID systems to schools: Nobody should have to live in fear and not be in a secure environment each and every day.

In reality, it's the cybercriminals who are generating the fears and hacks. Vendors, including Shonzeit, will inevitably draw attention to this sad truth.

Is cybercrime the greatest threat to every company in the world? Tell us what you think. The CSO Cybersecurity Business Report will post a follow-up story on this topic.

Visit SteveOnCyber.com to read all of my blogs and articles covering cybersecurity.

Follow me on Twitter @CybersecuritySF, or connect with me on LinkedIn. Send story tips, feedback and suggestions to me here.
Unilever has quietly vacated a big building at its Trumbull campus that is a global center for its personal care and beauty brands, moving an undisclosed number of employees to Shelton.

The Unilever building at 75 Merritt Blvd. totals about 100,000 square feet of space on two levels. The commercial brokerage firm Colliers International reported the companys exit from the office building.

In response to a Hearst Connecticut Media query, Unilever did not immediately provide details on its current employee count and facilities in southwestern Connecticut. In Shelton, Unilever has existing offices at 3 Corporate Drive.

In the first half of 2017, Unilever spent $371 million on corporate restructuring actions, without specifying immediately any impact on jobs in the United States or globally. The company reported a 22 percent increase in profits to $3.8 billion in the first six months of the year, with its personal care lines contributing $12.2 billion to overall corporate sales of $32.3 billion for the period.

In a conference call last week with investment analysts, CEO Paul Polman said the moves are necessary to rejuvenate profits after years of plowing cash into initiatives to accelerate growth.

If you look back over the last five or 10 years, the reality is weve grown at twice the market rate  weve outgrown our competitors significantly, especially in home and personal care, Polman said. And weve been accused at times of perhaps putting more into growing, and moderating that a little bit more with growth in the bottom line. So there is always a fine balance how you trade off these two things.

Only in 2014, Unilever had moved research and development employees to 75 Merritt Blvd. from the adjacent 55 Merritt Blvd., which it has been trying to sell for $7.8 million without any takers to date.

The combined Trumbull-Stratford office market had a 35 percent vacancy rate in the second quarter, as calculated by the Stamford office of commercial brokerage firm JLL, though just 11 percent in the smaller subset of the best, class A buildings where average rents are the lowest in southwestern Connecticut at $14.50 a square foot.

As of June, Unilever had 1,100 employees in Trumbull, according to the towns annual report, at the time making it the largest single employer there with its campus the second-largest employment site in Trumbulls private sector, after the Westfield Trumbull mall.

Unilever acquired the Trumbull campus in 1986 after acquiring Chesebrough-Ponds, then expanded it two decades later by moving R&D staff there from New Jersey and Illinois, as well as corporate executives from Greenwich. The company has its main corporate office today in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

In June, Unilever acquired the Hourglass cosmetics line sold in upscale retailers and spas like Nordstrom, Blue Mercury and Sephora. In Trumbull, R&D and marketing work centers on established household brands like Dove, Lux, Axe, Caress, Degree, Q-Tips and Vaseline.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; www.twitter.com/casoulman
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT  In an era where people carry a camera in their pocket and police shootings spark national controversy there is a new niche industry: hiding bodies from view.

On Wednesday, Bridgeport Police detectives assembled in the departments parking lot for a sales pitch from Stop Rubbernecking (SRN), a company that sells a $4,000 barrier protection systema series of screens designed to shield victims from the public and the press.

Once assembled, the thick black nylon wall stretches about 6.5 ft. high. Departments can also purchase add-ons, like floodlights and a canopy.

The canopy will ... protect you from either prying eyes in the high-rises or in the news helicopters, said Allison Guerreiero, Northeast Sales Director for the Florida-based company. It could also keep you cool.

The Bridgeport Police Department became interested in the SRN screens after one of its officers fatally shot Jayson Negron, 15, an unarmed boy who was stopped driving in a stolen car on Fairfield Avenue near downtown. The case remains under investigation by the state police and the Chief States Attorney.

Shocked and angered over Negrons death, the boys family members and community activists were further enraged that his body was left, uncovered, in the middle of the street for several hours.

Someone had flown a drone over the scene, and captured a photo of the boy after he had died, with a trickle of blood flowing toward a storm drain.

Bridgeport Police Chief Armando Perez at the time apologized for how Negrons corpse was treated and swore it would never happen again.

We listen to the community ... Were trying to provide a higher level of dignity for crime victims, Detective Bureau Capt. Roderick Porter, whose staff researched the shields and brought Stop Rubbernecking in for the demonstration, said Wednesday. (The screens) will allow us to provide a level of comfort and dignity to crime victims while ... securing all of our evidence.

Though criticized as callous, the length of time Negron lay lifeless for all to see also added to the unanswered questions about how police handled the situation. One witness captured cell phone video that appeared to show Negron struggling on the asphalt in handcuffs after being shot.

Negrons sister Jazmarie Melendez had mixed feelings about the departments proposal for the screens when contacted Wednesday.

Id rather that they spend (that) money on deescalation classes, she said.

Melendez and representatives from Congregations Organized for a new Connecticut (CONECT), a group of 25 churches, synagogues and mosques, earlier this month met privately with Perez to reiterate their calls for better training for officers and for the department to purchase uniform or dashboard cameras.

But Melendez also welcomed the idea that another individual will not have to see their loved one (like that).

She said that covering the body was a concrete, albeit minor way that the police department could address her familys grievances.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which, along with Melendez and CONECT has been pushing for more transparency over the Negron investigation, recently praised the screens.

Executive Director David McGuire in an interview said, It makes perfect sense to not have the body of someone recently killed just sit out there for hours. That was an issue that really upset the community. ... Its a really promising sign that theyre considering that purchase.
BRIDGEPORT - An alleged child rapist was arrested as police said he was preparing to flee to his native Haiti.

Robert Toussaint, 61, was charged with second-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault, first-degree unlawful restraint and risk of injury to a child.
Researchers asked 179 Canadian college students to answer the following three math questions:

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? ____cents 2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _____minutes 3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? _____days

From Relatively Interesting:

After completing the quiz, the students were asked about their innate religiosity, religious beliefs, and beliefs in supernatural entities (like God, angels, and Satan). The results? The more religious the students were, the less likely they were to have demonstrated effective analytical reasoning on the three questions. Conversely, the better the students did on the questions, the less likely they were to have strong beliefs.

Religious people tended to give the intuitive answers to the questions, and non-religious people gave the analytic answers.

Most of the theists I know would be able to correctly answer these questions. Math puzzle inventor Martin Gardner was a theist and would have been able to answer these questions in an instant.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT-Less than 24 hours after he was denied bail as a risk of flight Dr. Bharat Patel of Milford was indicted with his partner on federal health care fraud, money laundering and narcotics distributions charges.

The indictments come as part of nationwide probe into the over-presciption of narcotic pain-killer and health care fraud.

Patel, 70, of Devine Place, Milford and Dr. Ramil Mansourov, 47, of Tokeneke Road, Darien, operated out of Family Health Urgent Care, 235 Main Street, Norwalk. The pair was among 115 doctors, nurses and medical professionals charged in the nationwide crackdown which claimed $1.3 billion in false billings.

The five-count indictment charges Patel and Mansourov with conspiring to distribute oxycodone and hydrocodone, which carries a 20-year maximum prison term and health care fraud, which carries a 10-year maximum term. The indictment also charges Mansourov with two counts and Patel with one count of money laundering, which carries a 20-year maximum prison term.

Additionally, the government seeks forfeiture of both doctors homes, $16,521.25 seized from Patels safe deposit box and money judgments equal to the pairs alleged illegal profits.

Patel had owned the Norwalk clinic until 2012 when he sold it to Mansourov but continued to work there. Addicts allegedly described the clinic to federal agents as The Candy Shop, court documents charge.

Patel was arrested and his home and office searched on July 12 by federal agents. Mansourov allegedly fled to Montreal where he was apprehended the following day by Canada Border Services agents on an immigration charge. He is being detained there while the U.S. seeks to extradite him.

On Tuesday U.S. Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkel determined Patel to be a flight risk and continued his detention without bond. The judge made that decision following two days of hearings in which Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale presented evidence that Patel owns at least three residences, has a bank account and spends almost six months a year in India even though he is a U.S. citizen.

Kale also played a 12-minute black and white video which shows a cooperating witness sliding three $100 bills to Patel this past March after telling the doctor to write him several prescriptions for narcotics with specific dates.

Daniel Wenner, Patels lawyer, proposed a $1.2 million bond secured by real estate, including a Torrington motel, all owned by the doctors family. He also informed the magistrate judge that the government has the doctors passport.

But the proposal did not convince Garfinkel to release Patel.

U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly said the two doctors have been participating providers with Medicare and the Connecticut Medicaid Program. Beginning in approximately 2013, the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration received information that the pair may be writing prescriptions for controlled substances outside the scope of legitimate medical practice.

The prosecution accuses Patel of providing prescriptions for narcotics, to patients he knew were addicted or had been arrested for distributing or possessing controlled substances. One was a known Norwalk drug dealer who was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2014. Following his release the dealer obtained over 1,000 oxycodone pills prescribed by Patel from March 11, 2016 to Dec. 24, 2016,

On numerous occasions Patel provided prescriptions to patients, even non-patients for cash, according to investigators. They charged that when Patel was unavailable Mansourov wrote the prescriptions. In 2014 Patel is accused of depositing more than $50,000 in cash into his or his wifes bank accounts.

Some of the patients used state Medicaid benefits to pay for their prescriptions and then sold the drugs on the street.

The five-count indictment claims that between November 2013 and December 2016, Mansourov defrauded the states Medicaid program of more than $4 million by billing for home, office and nursing home visits that never ocurred sometimes on days where investigators claim he was out of state or even out of the country.

They believe Mansourov maintained a Swiss bank account.

This investigation is being conducted by the DEAs New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad and the Norwalk Police Department, with assistance from the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General. The DEA Tactical Diversion Squad includes officers from the Bristol, Greenwich, Hamden, Milford, New Haven, Shelton, Vernon and Wilton Police Departments.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WESTPORT  A threatening statement led to criminal charges for a New York couple in Westport, police said.

Cristin Towle, 35, of Bronx, New York, was charged with first-degree trespassing and threatening, police said.

Seneca Abreu, 40, of Bronx, New York, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Westport police responded to the area of Riverside and Treadwell avenues around 11:30 p.m. on July 20 after police received a call of a person trespassing on Jonathan Lane and threatening a resident.

Police said two individuals that matched the description by the victim were found on the property of a residence in the 400 block of Riverside Avenue. Towle told police she and her boyfriend, Abreu, were talking a walk.

The victim on Jonathan Lane told police Towle knocked on the door and attempted to enter the residence, police said. When the victim attempted to close the door, police said Towle continued to try to get into the residence.

Eventually another resident of the home approached the door and, police said, Towle walked away and met up with Abreu near the road.

Police said the victim overheard Towle tell Abreu, Were coming back and were gonna shoot him.

There was no clear reason why Towle and Abreu were on the property to begin with, police said.

When the two were detained, police said they found 11 bundles of heroin, a syringe, a tourniquet and a small metal candle holder on Abreu.

Both were held on $5,000 bonds and have court dates in Norwalk on August 3.
WESTPORT  Police said a New Yorker was charged with a series of identity theft-related charges in Westport.

Steven Digsby, 55, of North Babylon, New York, was charged with third-degree identity theft, forth-degree criminal attempt at larceny, criminal impersonation, cred card theft and unlawful reproduction of a credit card, police said.

Police responded to a call at the Bank of America on Post Road East in Westport for a report that a man attempted to cash a fraudulent check around 1:30 p.m. on July 19.

The bank teller that called police about the incident told police that Digsby arrived at the bank around 11:45 a.m. and attempted to cash a check made out to someone else. Digsby presented a Pennsylvania license with the victims name, but his photo, the teller told police.

The teller said while processing the transaction, they pulled up the account profile for the name Digsby provided and noticed a different date of birth from the one on the license Digsby presented. Police said there was also a fraud alert on the account.

Police said the teller refused to process the transaction and Digsby left. Shortly after, another bank customer turned in a wallet found inside the bank.

The wallet, police said, belonged to Digsby and contained a New York drivers license. Digsby returned to the bank about an hour after he left and asked the teller if the wallet had been located, police said.

The teller told him it had not been found and another bank employee called police. The suspect left the bank prior to police arrival, employees told police.

But police were informed the suspect was last seen driving a Volvo with New York plates westbound on Post Road East. The car was located by police in the area of Post Road East and Morningside Drive.

Police said Digsby was detained while the situation was investigated further.

The officers found an illegally manufactured credit card in Digsbys wallet. And police said they determined that he assumed a legitimate Bank of America account holders identity in order to cash the fraudulent check.

Digsby was released from custody on a $10,000 bond, police said, and he was given a court date for July 28.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Chris Murphy wont be giving out merit badges anytime soon to Donald Trump.

The Connecticut senator set off a Twitter avalanche late Monday night with his scathing review of the presidents speech at the national Boy Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia.

The politically charged appearance by Trump in front of 40,000 youngsters and adult Scout leaders broke with the presidential tradition of non-partisan speeches at the event, with Trump unplugged on the Washington, D.C., cesspool and how the fake media underestimated his inaugural crowd.

As a Scout leader, my stomach is in knots about what Trump did today. If you haven't watched it yet, don't. It's downright icky, Murphy tweeted.

Murphys dig at the president got more than 30,000 likes and was retweeted nearly 10,000 times, the latest buzz for the frequent Trump detractor and increasingly trendy pick as a 2020 Democratic White House contender.

The White House on Tuesday stood by Trumps message to the Scouts when asked for comment by Hearst Connecticut Media.

The essence of President Trump's message to the Boy Scouts at the Scout Jamboree in West Virginia is best found in his own words to them: Remember your duty, honor your history, take care of the people God put into your life, and love and cherish your great country,  said Helen Ferre, a White House spokeswoman.

A top Scout leader in the state said Trump deserves credit for making time for the Scout gathering, unlike Barack Obama, who sent video remarks for the 2010 event.

I think what Trump did is an amazing thing, and Im pleased he did it, said Jim Bain, chairman of the Northwest Hills District of the Connecticut Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts.

Since he did not attend the jamboree himself, the New Milford resident declined to comment on the nature of Trumps speech.

The Northwest Hills District, which covers Litchfield County and was well-represented at the jamboree, issued a statement noting that seven of 11 sitting presidents have participated in the event. The group said the invitation to Trump to speak does not constitute an endorsement.

No, this not a political statement, the group said. The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not favor the interests of one political candidate over another. We do not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy. The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies.

Requests for comment were also left Tuesday for the Milford-based Connecticut Yankee Council and the Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

A majority of respondents to Murphys Tweet echoed his criticism of the partisan tone of Trumps speech.

Next he'll find a kindergarten class to "rally" in front of... tweeted Lori Pelletier, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

Twitter user Joseph Olivas further raised objections to Trumps message.

Trump just ended a (sic) 100 years of Boy Scouts in 2hrs I won't let my kid be part of that org after that display and many others will do the same, Olivas Tweeted.

Republican Bill Evans, a political operative from Wolcott, was dismissive of Murphy.

As a taxpayer, my stomach is in knots about what political chameleon @ChrisMurphyCT does EVERY day. It's dangerous and self serving. @CTGOP  Evans tweeted.

http://twitter.com/gettinviggy ; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  Connecticuts top Democratic officials all condemned President Donald Trumps tweeted announcement Wednesday that transgender people would no longer be able to serve in the military.

On top of calling the announcement ignorant and profoundly troubling, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed an executive order Wednesday reinforcing Connecticuts nondiscrimination policies within the Connecticut Military Department, which is primarily comprises the states Army National Guard, Air National Guard and militia.

The reality is that a persons gender identity or expression has nothing to do with their willingness or ability to defend our nation, Malloy said in a statement. The presidents announcement sends a frightening signal to the public that our government condones discrimination.

Malloy also said the state would explore its options for what can be done to stop the policy.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman issued a similar statement, saying that Connecticut supports its LGBTQ community. Wyman urged Trump to do the same.

Excluding citizens from public service is not a strong or decent foundation for policy-making of any kind, she said. This policy is reckless and dangerous  and it impugns the integrity of transgender men and women who are already honorably serving in our nations military.

Trump announced the policy change in a series of tweets Wednesday morning, citing the tremendous medical costs and disruption that would be needed to accommodate transgender individuals. The new policy reverses the 2016 Obama administration decision to allow transgender people to join the armed forces.

The policy was set to go into place in June after a yearlong review process allowing the Pentagon to assess how it would accept transgender recruits. Defense Secretary James Mattis delayed enactment of the policy the day before it was supposed to go into effect.

The abrupt reversal Wednesday reportedly caught Pentagon planners off guard.

Trump did not say whether the policy change would take current transgender service personnel out of the military. Roughly 2,450 transgender people currently serve in the active duty military, and 1,510 are in reserve duty, according to a 2016 RAND Corporation study.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a statement that he would work with his peers to rescind the policy.

There are thousands of members of the transgender community who are currently bravely and ably serving our country today, he said.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the president should be thanking transgender military personnel and veterans, not excluding them.

Service members should be accepted on the basis of their ability to fight, train and deploy without discrimination, Blumenthal said in a statement.

Cayla.harris@hearstdc.com
BBC News

July 26, 2017



We are to gird up our loins and fulfill this, just as we would any other duty said Brigham Young, who led the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormons, back in the mid-19th Century. It was a sweltering summers day in Provo City, Utah and as he spoke, high winds swirled dust around him.



The holy task Young was speaking of was, of course, polygamy, where one man takes many wives. He was a passionate believer in the practice, which he announced as the official line of the church a few years earlier. Now he was set to work reassuring his flock that marrying multiple women was the right thing to do.



He liked to lead by example. Though Young began his adult life as a devoted spouse to a single wife, by the time he died his family had swelled to 55 wives and 59 children.



Fast-forward to 1990, a century after

polygamy

was abandoned, and the upshot was only just beginning to emerge. In an office several hundred miles from where Young gave his speech, a 10-year-old boy was presented to Theodore Tarby, a doctor specializing in rare childhood diseases.The boy had unusual facial features, including a prominent forehead, low-set ears, widely spaced eyes and a small jaw. He was also severely physically and mentally disabled.After performing all the usual tests, Tarby was stumped. He had never seen a case like it. Eventually he sent a urine sample to a lab that specializes in detecting rare diseases. They diagnosed fumarase deficiency, an inherited disorder of the metabolism. With just 13 cases known to medical science (translating into odds of one in 400 million), it was rare indeed. It looked like a case of plain bad luck.But there was a twist. It turned out his sister, whom the couple believed was suffering from cerebral palsy, had it too. In fact, together with colleagues from the Barrow Neurological Institute, soon Tarby had diagnosed a total of eight new cases, in children ranging from 20 months to 12 years old.In every case, the child had the same distinctive facial features, the same delayed development  most couldnt sit up, let alone walk  and, crucially, they were from the same region on the Arizona-Utah border, known as Short Creek.Even more intriguingly, this region is polygynous. In this small, isolated community of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the likelihood of being born with fumarase deficiency is over a million times above the global average.When I moved to Arizona thats when I realized that my colleagues here were probably the most familiar Id ever met with this disease, says Vinodh Narayanan, a neurologist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Arizona, who has treated several patients with fumarase deficiency.Whats going on?The disease is caused by a hiccup in the process that provides energy to our cells. In particular, its caused by low levels of an enzyme  fumarase  that helps to drive it. Since it was perfected billions of years ago, the enzyme has become a staple of every living thing on the planet. Its so important, today the instructions for making it are remarkably similar across all species, from owls to orchids.For those who inherit a faulty version, the consequences are tragic. Though our brains account for just 2% of the bodys total weight, they are ravenously hungry  using up around 20% of its energy supply. Consequently, metabolic disorders such a fumarase deficiency are particularly devastating to the organ. It results in structural abnormalities and a syndrome including seizures and delayed development, says Narayanan.Faith Bistline has five cousins with the disease, who she used to look after until she left the FLDS in 2011. They are completely physically and mentally disabled, she says. The oldest started learning to walk when he was two years old, but stopped after a long bout of seizures. Now that cousin is in his 30s and not even able to crawl.In fact, only one of her cousins can walk. She can also make some vocalisations and sometimes you can understand a little bit of what shes saying, but I wouldnt call it speaking, she says. They all have feeding tubes and need care 24 hours a day.Fumarase deficiency is rare because its recessive  it only develops if a person inherits two faulty copies of the gene, one from each parent. To get to grips with why its plaguing Short Creek, first we need to back to the mid-19th Century.Brigham Young was a busy man. In addition to leading the Mormon church, he also founded a city  Salt Lake City, Utah  which flourished from a sparsely populated desert valley into a full-blown polygynous utopia in the space of a few short decades.Alas, it didnt last. By the 1930s, the practice had been abandoned by the church and banned by the state of Utah, making it punishable by imprisonment and a hefty fine (equivalent to around $10,000 (7,675) in todays money). Followers needed somewhere to go.They settled on the remote ranching town of Short Creek, which formed part of the Arizona Strip. This was an area larger than Belgium (14,000 sq miles, or 36,000 sq km) with only a handful of inhabitants  the perfect place to hide from the prying eyes of federal marshals.Today its home to the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City  either side of the Utah-Arizona border  and some 7,700 people. Its the headquarters of the FLDS, which is famous for its conservative way of life and polygyny. Most families include at least three wives, because thats the number you need to enter heaven, says Bistline, who has three mothers and 27 siblings.In the end, the link to fumarase deficiency is a numbers game. Take Brigham Young. In all, his children begat 204 grandchildren, who, in turn, begat 745 great-grandchildren. By 1982, it was reported that he had at least 5,000 direct descendants.This sudden explosion is down to exponential growth. Even with just one wife and three children, if every subsequent generation follows suit a man can have 243 descendants after just five generations. In polygynous families this is supercharged. If every generation includes three wives and 30 children, a man can  theoretically  flood a community with over 24 million of his descendants in the space of five generations, or little over 100 years. Of course this isnt what actually happens. Instead, lineages begin to fold in on themselves as distant (and in the FLDS, not so distant) cousins marry. In polygynous societies, it doesnt take long before everyone is related.This is thought to be how one-in-200 men (one in 12.5 in Asia) are descended directly from super-fertile Mongol warrior Genghis Khan , who died nearly eight centuries ago. As Brigham Young said himself: It is obvious that I could not have been blessed with such a family, if I had been restricted to one wifeIn Short Creek, just two surnames dominate the local records  Jessop and Barlow. According to local historian Benjamin Bistline, who spoke to news agency Reuters back in 2007, 75 to 80% of people in Short Creek are blood relatives of the communitys founding patriarchs, Joseph Jessop and John Barlow.This is all very well, but we now know that most people are walking around with at least one lethal recessive mutation (one that would kill us before we reach reproductive age) in their genome, around the same number as in fruit flies. Humans havent gone extinct because, being recessive, theyre only unmasked if we have children with someone who also just so happens to carry a copy of that exact same mutation too.This is where the system starts to become unstuck. With polygyny youre decreasing the overall genetic diversity because a few men are having a disproportionate impact on the next generation, says Mark Stoneking, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany. Random genetic mutations become more important.In isolated communities, the problem is compounded by basic arithmetic: if some men take multiple wives, others cant have any. In the FLDS, a large proportion of men must be kicked out as teenagers, shrinking the gene pool even further.They are driven to the highway by their mothers in the middle of the night and dumped by the side of the road, says Amos Guiora, a legal expert at the University of Utah who has written a book about religious extremism. Some estimate that there may be up to a thousand so-called lost boys. Often they spend years trying to repent, hoping to get back into the religion, says Bistline, who has three brothers who were discarded.Conservationists have known for years that a populations mating system  the fancy word for sexual behaviour  can have a profound impact on its genetics. In wild deer and sage grouse, as in Mormon cults, polygyny is associated with high levels of inbreeding, because it shrinks the number of males contributing to the gene pool and increases the relatedness of the entire community.The fumarase deficiency gene has been traced to Joseph Jessop and his first wife, Martha Yeates (14 children). One of their daughters went on to marry co-founder John Barlow  and the rest is history. Today the number of people carrying the fumarase gene in Short Creek is thought to be in the thousands.The FLDS are not alone. Today polygyny is more widespread in Africa than any other continent. In March 2014, Kenya's Parliament passed a bill allowing men to marry multiple wives , while in many West African countries its been practised for thousands of years.Intriguingly, its associated with rare disease here, too. In Cameroon, scientists recently reported a polygamous community with abnormally high levels of stuttering . By comparing local genomes with those from sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and North African populations, the researchers identified exceptionally rare gene variants among this community, which appear to be responsible  though the authors do not speculate about whether this is a consequence of polygyny.Which brings us to the good news. Since inbreeding tends to uncover recessive mutations that would normally remain in hiding, studying these communities has helped scientists to identify many disease-causing genes. Thats because genetic information is useless on its own. To be meaningful to medical research, it must be linked to information about disease. In fact, more human disease genes have been discovered in Utah  with its Mormon history  than any other place in the world Its not the legacy Brigham Young expected, but in the end, its possible that the controversial practice might have some unintended positives.
Great Allegheny Passage improvements coming

The bids were opened Nov. 1 and Adam Eidemiller's was the lower of two bids received. The project will take two weeks starting within the next week.
Bridget Mary's Books: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Bridget-Mary-Meehan/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ABrid A Promise of Presence

Affirmations from the Heart of God

Exploring the Feminine Face of God

God Delights in You- A Four Week Journal

Heart Talks with Mother God

Inclusive Worship Aids

Living Gospel Equality Now-

Praying with a Passionate Heart

Praying with Celtic Holy Women

Praying with Visionary Women h

Praying with Women of the Bible

The Healing Power of Prayer-New Edition Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP


Head lice are one of the most unfortunate consequences of putting young children in a room together and letting them play.

And one mother has described how she took drastic action when, within just weeks of starting nursery school, five-year-old Lennon returned home with the creatures crawling around in his hair - and she panicked.

Instead of heading to the chemist for a bottle of strong chemicals, Sarah Rowland, from Arbroath, Scotland, told MailOnline how she shrieked and grabbed the nearest pair of hair cutters.

The 32-year-old then proceeded to shave off her son's blonde locks, but, to her dismay, having no hair to hide in did not deter the lice and they stayed put.

Before and after: To Sarah's dismay, shearing off her son's blonde locks did not get rid of the lice - and an expert says her tale is more common than you think

The mother puts her unusual actions down to sheer panic.

She told MailOnline: 'Lennon came home full of those horrid little pests. It was the first time that I had to deal with head lice, it made me upset as I didn't know how to get rid of them.

'So I grabbed the hair cutters and gave him a grade two, poor wee man!'

But to her horror, the lice did not fall off with the strands of hair and instead continued to roam around Lennon's scalp.

Ms Rowland explained: 'After I had cut his hair I could still see the lice literally crawling on his head.

'It made me feel so sick. I had no idea that cutting his hair wouldn't make any difference or help to remove the lice.'

Instead of heading to the chemist for a bottle of strong chemicals, Sarah Rowland (pictured) told MailOnline how she shrieked and grabbed the nearest pair of hair cutters

It was only then that she took her son to the nearest pharmacy.

After trying a lice-removing gel, and combing Lennon's hair through with a nit comb, Ms Rowland said the bugs were 'just sliding off'.

And to her great relief, eight months later they have seen 'not a single sign of the little pests'.

While her actions might sound drastic Ms Rowland is just one of many parents who do not realise shaving their child's hair off will not get rid of lice nor stop them from catching them at school.

Head lice expert Ian Burgess told MailOnline the key things to remember about tackling head lice - and insisted that there are many myths that need to be busted.

Lennon's mother Sarah said: 'Lennon came home full of those horrid little pests. It was the first time that I had to deal with head lice, it made me upset as I didn't know how to get rid of them'

Lennon before having his head shaved; Sarah is just one of many parents who do not realise shaving their child's hair off will not get rid of lice nor stop them from catching them at school

He said: 'Sarah is not the first parent who has shaved their child's head to kill lice or minimise the chances of getting them.

'Head lice are able to survive on very short hair and it is also untrue that they only like certain types of hair. Head lice like all hair  clean, dirty, short, long  they're not fussy.

'Lice do not have a preference and if a parent doesn't treat the lice with an effective product they can spread further.'

The expert added: 'Over the years, I've heard parents recommend all kinds of worrying and unproven remedies such as mayonnaise, raw eggs and even fly spray.

'People often search online and find incorrect advice or follow unproven remedies which are talked about in the school playground.'

After trying a lice-removing gel, and combing Lennon's hair through with a nit comb, Ms Rowland said the bugs were 'just sliding off' - but it will take a while for his hair to grow back

Mr Burgess wanted to reassure parents, however, saying: 'Lice are a normal part of childhood and not something that parents should feel stressed or embarrassed about.

'The fact children are so tactile during play means that they're much more likely than adults to catch lice as they spread via head-to-head contact.

'Head lice do not have to be a nightmare to deal with as long as you use a clinically proven product rather than relying on old wives tales.'

The NHS website explicity advises against head shaving and other fabled remedies, including electric head lice combs tree and plant oil treatments such as tea tree and lavendar oils.
One of the country's top businesswomen has revealed how she was once stalked down the street by a man who disagreed with her having an Indian boyfriend.

Chief Executive of Virgin Money, Jayne-Anne Gadhia, told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme that the early years of her relationship with husband Ashok were marred by racist incidents.

She revealed that Ashok's family had anticipated an arranged marriage for their son, and the young couple were forced to keep their blossoming love affair a secret - with drama ensuing when their relationship was finally exposed.

Scroll down for video

Jayne-Anne Gadhia appeared on Desert Island Discs on Sunday and revealed that the early years of her relationship with her husband Ashok saw the couple suffer abuse over their mixed-race relationship

Gadhia told Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Young that she was once regularly chased down the street by a man who shouted abuse at her because he'd found out she was dating an Indian man

Speaking to the show's presenter, Kirsty Young, Gadhia revealed how she endured abuse by people unhappy that she was dating a man of Indian origin.

Gadhia says: 'I remember I was just finishing my degree and I'd gone home to study for my finals.

'I used to study in Norfolk County Library and there would be a man that would wait for me afterwards and chase me down the street and he'd shout after me because he knew that my boyfriend was Indian.'

On another occasion, a 'particularly racist' colleague at Ernst and Whinney (now EY, formerly Ernst and Young) refused to sign Gadhia's wedding card because he disagreed with her mixed-race marriage.

She explains that the incident upset her but 'I don't recall saying to him what I would certainly say to him today.'

The couple, who met 37 years ago at a bar during freshers' week at Royal Holloway University and have a 15-year-old daughter together, Amy, kept their relationship a secret from Ashok's family and he would be forced to go and meet 'potential wives'.

She explains: 'I was kept a big secret for quite a long time.

'I never stopped him from going to see these potential new wives. I think I was always confident that nothing would come of it.'

Gadhia has risen through the ranks and has been Virgin's CEO since 2007 (pictured with Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson) but told Desert Island Discs listeners that a colleague at Ernst and Whinney (now EY, formerly Ernst and Young) refused to sign her wedding card because she wasn't marrying a white man

The 55-year-old mother-of-one opened up earlier this year about her battle with post-natal depression following the birth of her daughter, Amy, now fifteen

Eventually, their relationship was exposed when a burglary finally blew their cover - and the fact that he was living in her family home.

She says: 'The truth came out and his mum first said to him "I don't think I ever want to see you again", and an hour later [she] rang back and said "Of course I do, bring her down tomorrow."

She reveals that she assumed her presence the next day at a family gathering in Southhall, west London, had gone well until Ashok's young cousins enlightened her.

'I remember saying to them "everyone seems quite happy about the fact that I'm here.

His mum first said to him "I don't think I ever want to see you again", and an hour later [she] rang back and said "Of course I do, bring her down tomorrow." Jayne-Anne Gadhia

'They said "You don't really understand the language. You don't know what they're saying and I said "Grandad seems quite happy" and one of the boys said: "Grandad's blind, he doesn't know you're white."

The high-flying mother-of-one has been candid about her personal and profession life, and has previously discussed her battle with depression and her fertility struggles.

When the woman many regard as Britain's most successful banker gave birth to her Amy, now 14, she says a doctor recognised that she was suffering from post natal depression, a situation that became so grave, she convinced herself that her baby had died.

She explains that intervention by medical staff was crucial: 'It was knowing what I was dealing with that helped me to deal with it.

'I think if I'd have just gone on and not realised that I had a clinical problem and that depression wasn't something that you can just sort of push through, it would have been very different.'

The businesswoman told the BBC that sexist remarks do still happen in the City although progress has been made

HOW A GIRL FROM THE WEST MIDLANDS ROSE TO THE TOP OF SIR RICHARD'S EMPIRE... At 14, Jayne-Anne Gadhia was sent by her ambitious parents to a private boys school in Norfolk, one of just a few girls among several hundred boys. Gadhia, now 55, met her accountant husband Ashok on the first day as a student at Royal Holloway University. Success story: Virgin Money continues to thrive under Gadhia's control, recently reporting a 33 per cent surge in profits The couple, married for more than 35 years, struggled to conceive daughter Amy, now 14, and underwent six rounds of IVF before falling pregnant. While Gadhia began her career as an accountant at Ernst and Young, she quickly rose up the ranks via management roles at Norwich Union and eventually found herself running Royal Bank of Scotland's 65billion mortgage business. An orchestrated meeting through a friend with Richard Branson saw her jump ship to Virgin Money, where she's carved out a reputation as one of the most powerful female bankers in the country. Virgin Money, under her control, is in rude health, recently reporting a 33 per cent surge in profits to 213million. Advertisement

Life in the City has seen the mother-of-one flourish but she revealed that sexist remarks were still something women battled with, revealing that one colleague had asked her if she 'was going through the menopause' while another baulked at employing a woman 'in case she got pregnant'.

Gadhia also said that the highly stressful flotation of Virgin Money in 2007 had left her feeling at times like a failure in the pre-listing period and she contemplated 'an easier way out' if the deal wasn't a success.

She told the BBC: 'I always assumed that depression was something that was a bit weak-minded and when it hit me, I realised nothing could be further from the truth.'
RULE ONE - ACCEPT REALITY

The key to executing this strategy is knowing and accepting that you are the victim of a psychopath. Every time you try to interpret their behaviour using rules which would apply to you or any other empath, you will be confused, dismayed and potentially targeted. Do not under any circumstances suffer under the misapprehension that you have changed, or can change, anything about the way the psychopath behaves.

RULE TWO - REMEMBER THIS TEMPORARY

No one can work for a psychopath long term and survive. This strategy is a temporary survival strategy. It is designed to give you time to look for a better (or just different) job.

RULE THREE - BE POLITE

The psychopath does not, and never will, respect you. You are a possession who is only worth keeping around as long as you deliver value. One of the values that all psychopaths prize is the adoration of those beneath them (to them, this means everybody). A psychopath will value you more if you defer to them in every way. In their mind, you are a mindless, stupid beast ruled by your feelings. You cannot change that, but they are much happier to have you around and less likely to attack you if you acknowledge them as your superior on a continual basis. An easy way to do this without going over the top and coming off as a flattering fool (although you will be surprised how obvious you can be and still have them believe you) is to follow the rules of polite conversation.

To implement this, adhere to the rules in The Politeness Maxims and, in general, regard yourself as being in a conversation with a harsh and arbitrary old-school headmaster who will tolerate no aberrant behaviour from unruly students such as you. Never talk back! And never become sarcastic or rude. Play a completely straight bat.

Before you open your mouth in the presence of the psycho- path, always ask yourself 'Am I being polite and professional?'. Do your best to avoid unnecessary contact. This does not mean give them the cold shoulder. It just means you don't drop by their office for a chat. Whenever you speak to them, do it within the confines of your role and for an explicit purpose.

RULE FOUR - MAINTAIN PRIVACY

A psychopath will pump you for information they can use against you and others. You can defend against this by not disclosing anything to your psychopathic boss and making sure you under- stand the privacy settings on your social media. Do not discuss anything that is not entirely business related. But even when you do this, they may find something they can use. Beware of entrapment. This can, and often will, come from pawns rather than the psychopath themselves. If the psychopath suspects you are not wholly in their control, they will send a pawn in to good cop, bad cop you. Do not disclose anything to anyone at work, no matter how friendly they seem.

RULE FIVE - BE HONEST

Always be honest even when it is against your interests. The psychopath will offer you an opportunity to fudge a bit. They might allow you to claim more expenses than you are otherwise entitled to. They may ignore you pilfering from the firm. They may allow you to take credit for something you did not do. No matter how much the psychopath makes it seem like you're all in this together, make no mistake, they are gathering dirt on you and they will use both that dirt and the weakness you displayed to manipulate you in the future. Learn to say no  and mean it  when anything slightly dodgy is being proposed. Otherwise they will use your weaknesses of character against you.

Your best defence against this kind of manipulation is to simply apply the front-page-of-the-paper test. If what you are about to do (or not do  remember you can lie by omission too) would look terrible on the front page of the paper, don't do it. This also means avoiding backstabbing and gossip. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything. Anything you say can and will be used against you.

RULE SIX - FACT-CHECK EVERYTHING THEY SAY

You can't stop a psychopath lying to you. But you can stop believing them. Adopt the credo of the investigative journalist. Do not accept anything you are told until you have heard it from at least two independent sources. When your psychopathic boss tells you that your workmate has been seen interviewing at a competitor's firm, he is probably trying to get you to tell him what you know. Don't fall for it, don't disclose any information and don't believe the statement until you hear it from the person concerned. Your safest strategy is to assume that every factual statement the psychopath makes is a lie designed to manipulate you in some way. Your best defence is to play a dead bat and knock the ball into the pitch. Answer only the question that is asked and if no question is directly asked, say nothing. Under no circumstances should you respond by divulging any information or by acting on the basis of the lie. When you are alone write down exactly what they said. It will come in handy.

RULE SEVEN - BE COMPLIANT

The psychopath will micromanage you. They regard you as a fool who needs constant direction. They will be irrational and will ask you to do things which are the business equivalent of moving dirt from Pile A to Pile B and back again. You cannot afford to be offended by this. The psychopath will notice your reaction and will use it against you. Your response to any new imposition must always be emotionless compliance. This will be hard and frustrating. We are wired to consider the good of our community (or organisation) in our decision-making.

We will calculate that if we spend half of every day filling out a pointless report then the organisation will suffer direct harm (because we do less actual work) or we will suffer direct harm (because we work later to get stuff done). We will resist that and rebel against it or, at the very least, silently fume. To survive, you must step back from your automatic reaction. If your psycho- pathic boss wants a daily report completed in triplicate, then that is exactly what you should provide. Doing exactly as the psychopath demands and documenting those demands is one of the most powerful weapons you have against them (but more on that shortly).

The psychopath will constantly change processes (they think they are improving them) and will constantly increase the levels of reporting while centralising all decision-making. It is lethal for the organisation but it will be terminal for your job prospects if you attempt to resist the psychopath's form over substance demands. This does not mean you need to work like a dog. The psychopath does not know how good or bad your work is.

While it is certainly bad for your organisation for you to be phoning it in, for as long as your organisation does nothing about your psychopathic manager you have little choice. You can either comply with the micromanagement and spend the rest of a normal day doing your job poorly or you can comply with the micro- management and sacrifice the rest of your life doing your job to the level it should be done. Neither option hurts the psychopath, one hurts you and one hurts your organisation. Unfortunately, there is no win-win.

RULE EIGHT - BE EMOTIONLESS

Do not let their display of emotion (positive or negative) influence your assessment of them or what they are doing or saying. If they appear angry with you it is because they wish to provoke an emotional response. If an empath boss were unhappy with you then this would be good reason to worry about your work relation- ship. A psychopath does not have a work relationship with you any more than they have one with their office pot-plant or their stapler.

An emotional display is aimed at eliciting an empathetic response. If the psychopath appears sad, they want to divert your attention and critical gaze because they know you will be distracted and, even if you are not, less likely to pursue an attack on them. If they appear happy with you, it is because they want you to do or say something which benefits them. They will use your emotions as a weapon against you. So, a critical component of all that follows is minimising emotional display. What they can't see, they can't use. It is not easy to do, but you must filter out all displays of emotion from the psychopath and pay attention only to what they actually say or do. If they don't need you at that moment, they will ignore you (and you may well feel you have just wasted your time on whatever task you have completed for them). Ignoring people is also a powerful tool to the psychopath. They know that most empaths interpret being ignored as criticism and the average empath will work even harder to gain approval.

Do not react to a psychopathic display of emotion. It is being done to get a response. If no response is forthcoming the display will stop as suddenly as it starts. Remain completely calm. Do not attempt to understand the reasons for any display of emotion. Do not let the display of emotion (including being ignored) affect your assessment of your capabilities or performance. To the psychopath these are disconnected concepts and they should be to you too.

A psychopath will do their absolute best to provoke you. They know that if they can make you 'lose your rag' you will look like the one with the problem. You must resist any reaction, no matter what you are being accused of or what other buttons are being pressed. Slow your breathing. Listen carefully. Speak slowly and deliberately and say as little as you can. Any response you give should be calm, factual and devoid of any emotion at all. Try to channel Dr Spock from Star Trek or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Both of those characters do not respond to emotion. They respond to what is said not how it is said or what was implied. After it is over and while it is fresh in your mind, carefully document exactly what was said. Do not try to interpret the incident, simply record it. It will come in handy later.

Equally, do not let a display of remorse influence your assessment of the psychopath. They are not sorry they hurt you. They just want you to move on and drop any thoughts of retaliation or punishment.

RULE NINE - WORK HARD ON YOUR SUPPORT NETWORK

You will have no support at work. There will be no one you can trust. Unless you plan to become a monk, it is a good idea to invest heavily in your non-work social life. It will provide a refuge and support. Often when you describe the isolated daily actions of a psychopath, they sound like no big deal. 'He asked Mary to finish my report' just doesn't sound like a life-altering event to your friends and, if they are not up to speed, you will come off sounding like a nutbag. Make sure your friends and family know what you are dealing with. It will give them valuable context and enable them to give you crucial support and comfort.

It's also helpful to find a hobby you can be passionate about. Work will become a passionless robotic experience. Find some- thing to do outside work that gives you a reason to keep getting up each day. Perhaps write a book?

RULE TEN - BE PREPARED

Document every verbal request the psychopath makes and seek clarity on every instruction. Often a minion will be delivering the instructions as it increases plausible deniability for the psycho- path. If you are asked verbally to do something immediately follow up the request with a confirmation by email directly to the psychopath. Retain a copy of the email in printed form. If you are not sure exactly what you are required to do, seek written clarification. If you don't get it, send a follow-up email saying you didn't get it, and how you interpret the task. Voluntarily provide regular written updates on your progress. In other words, behave as a competent but compliant slave that documents everything publicly.

At some point the psychopath may decide you need to be eliminated from the workplace. You could choose to just go, but if the timing doesn't suit you, you will need documentation to defend yourself. Get in the habit of documenting every abusive comment, every pointless task you are asked to do, every change in direction, every wasteful meeting and every micromanaged change in process. Do not do this at work or using work equipment. Preferably use a bound diary and fill the pages in sequentially. If you want to do it electronically, the best method is to send yourself emails; the date and time stamps provide excellent evidence of sequence.

This is an extract from Taming Toxic People: The Science Of Identifying And Dealing With Psychopaths At Work by David Gillespie.
When it comes to the world of interior design it's easy to get lost in a myriad of ideas as various trends come and go.

But according to Australian design expert Shaynna Blaze - who regularly showcases her skills on the Lifestyle Channel's Selling Houses Australia - there are some simple rules to abide by if you want to make the right colour choices for your dream home.

'One of the most important things to remember about colour is that warm colours advance (they feel like they are coming towards you) and cool colours recede (they move way from you),' Shaynna told Lifestyle Home.

'One of the most important things to remember about colour is that warm colours advance and cool colours recede,' interior design expert Shaynna Blaze said

'Remember this and you can easily change your interior without doing massive renovations.'

With this in mind, Shaynna explained that a cool colour scheme will help walls disappear and 'make the space feel larger' - which means cool colours work well for small rooms.

'Of all the colours, white reflects the most light, so mix that in with your cool colours to give the smallest room in the house the biggest chance of appearing larger,' she said.

The flipside is that warm colours therefore make large spaces appear more intimate and cosy.

'Use warm (and darker) colours if you want to make a space feel more intimate, such as the lounge room, and then keep the kitchen and dining space cooler or lighter to help distinguish this separate area,' Shaynna told the publication.

The expert said warm colours (pictured) should be used if you want a space to feel more intimate and cosy

Shaynna (centre) is a regular on the Lifestyle Channel's popular show Selling Houses Australia - she is pictured with co-stars Charlie Albone and Andrew Winter

'Blues and greens are famous for their calming qualities so the perfect choice for rooms that need a calming influence,' Shaynna said

For those looking for a serene feel - for a bedroom for example - Shaynna recommended two possible colour options.

'Blues and greens are famous for their calming qualities so the perfect choice for rooms that need a calming influence,' she said.

'Theyre great for a home office or for the bedroom or anywhere you want to relax.'

But if you're not keen on embracing too much colour on your walls, Shaynna said there were other options.

'Rather than go all out crazy with paint colour on the walls, you can keep your walls neutral and experiment more safely with colour when you focus on smaller items in a room such as accessories, cushions, side tables or lamps,' she said.

But if you don't want to go all-out with colour, Shaynna said adding pops of colour to a neutral room (pictured) can really work

Getting the colour scheme in a home just right has been found to drastically increase its value.

In June, research from estate agent, Zillow revealed homes that use different shades of the same colour sell for far more than those with pristine white walls.

The US-based agents analysed more than 32,000 photos from houses that had sold to see how 'certain paint colours impacted their sale price on average, when compared to similar homes with white walls'.

Homes with blue bathrooms, in powder blue or light periwinkle for example, sold for US$5,440 more than expected, the highest sales premium of all colours analysed.

Research out of the US previously found that homes with blue bathrooms, in powder blue or light periwinkle for example, sold for US$5,440 more than expected

Walls painted in other cool, natural tones like pale gray or oatmeal were also present in top-performing listings.

A home's exterior was also found to have an impact on sale price.

Homes painted in 'greige', a mix of light gray and beige, sold for US$3,496 more than similar homes painted in a medium brown or with tan stucco.

Homes with darker, more style-specific walls like terracotta dining rooms sold for US$2,031 less than expected.
Entertainment / Celebrity

by Staff reporter

SOCIAL media comedian, Felistas "Mai Titi" Murata, yesterday hauled another woman to court accusing her of attacking her over an undisclosed misunderstanding.The 'For the Why' comedian dragged Sarah Dhapi, 35, to court on allegations of assault.Dhapi was not asked to plead to the charge when she appeared before Harare magistrate Joy Chikodzero who remanded the matter to August 1 after she requested for legal representation.Dhapi was released on free bail and advised to seek legal representation of her own choice.Allegations are that Dhapi while in the company of two unidentified ladies on June 17 this year at corner Innez Terrace and Speke Avenu at KFC, approached Mai Titi and started shouting at her.It is alleged Mai Titi apologised and asked Dhapi to stop shouting at her but she refused.It is said before Mai Titi could do anything; Dhapi pushed her to the ground before she grabbed her hand and twisted it.Dhapi is alleged to have damaged the complainant's mobile phone, injuring her on her left arm in the process.Mai Titi is alleged to have lodged a complainant with the police leading to the arrest of Dhapi.Shambadzeni Fungura appeared for the State.
They say the best business ideas are often the most obvious.

And obvious is exactly what it seemed to Kristy Withers when she spotted a gap in the market in 2010 for children's beds and furniture and couldn't find anything in Australia.

'I had this really clear picture in my head of a dark, wrought iron bed for my son, Oscar - a big boy bed,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

And so, after 'going on about it' for a few months, Ms Withers, from Orange, NSW, followed the advice of her husband and 'just did it' herself.

The result - the Incy Interiors empire of beautifully-designed children's furniture - now turns over AUD $7 million a year.

Kristy Withers, 37, from NSW, founded her children's bed empire in 2010, after she spotted a gap in the market for beautifully-designed children's furniture (pictured with Samantha Hobbelen and the Incy Interiors x Hobbes Rocking Chair & Ellie Cot)

She spoke to FEMAIL about how she turned AUD $80,000 of savings into $7 million turnover annually (pictured with her two children)

According to Ms Withers, she was working for eBay Australia around the time she started dreaming of a bed for her son.

'I'd been travelling between the US, Europe and Sydney a lot for my job, where I saw lots of what I was looking for,' the 37-year-old told FEMAIL.

'But after looking into the cost of shipping, or getting my own version handmade here in Australia, I balked at the price.'

Something else needed to be done.

Ms Withers came up with the idea for a 'dark, wrought iron bed' when her son was getting old enough to go into one (pictured: one of her designs)

She said she had this really clear idea of what she wanted in her head, but couldn't find anything in Australia - her husband said she should do it herself

When she went on holiday with her husband and was still 'harping on about the bed', Ms Withers said he asked her: 'Why don't you just do it yourself?'.

And so she did. After spending 'four months trawling the Internet to find manufacturers' she was happy with, Ms Withers produced her first bed in 2011, upon which point she approached 'parenting blogs and sites' to feature Incy.

'I negotiated a 12-month contract with them for advertising,' she said. 'Marketing was my background in eBay so I knew this would be useful.'

The 37-year-old was right, insofar as when she advertised, it helped her to make the first stores approach her to retail her wholesale beds - on the first day of sales.

'It was a risk, but the timing was right,' she said.

'I started the business with $80,000 in savings, and sold my eBay shares to help me along the way.'

After spending 'four months trawling the Internet to find manufacturers' she was happy with, Ms Withers produced her first bed in 2011 (pictured: two Incy Interiors designs)

Before she knew it, Ms Withers's (pictured) business of wholesale beds, cots, change tables, desks, chairs and more was making money

Before she knew it, Ms Withers's business of wholesale beds, cots, change tables, desks, chairs and more was making money.

These days, Incy products fill some 200 stores in 11 countries around the world. Ms Withers also has a dedicated team of twelve staff.

'I was very naive when I started Incy, I've learned a lot in the past seven years,' she admitted.

'When I first set it up, I thought it was going to just be a website and I'd sell a few beds to my friends. But the growth has been phenomenal - particularly in the first two years, when we were the only people doing something in this market.

'We were growing too quickly for me to keep up!'.

These days, Incy products fill some 200 stores in 11 countries around the world. Ms Withers also has a dedicated team of twelve staff

Sharing her tips for others with ideas, Ms Withers said: 'Get the fundamentals right.

'I knew that right back from my eBay days, but it's easy to get caught up in the day to day things and forget how important this is.

'Customer service is key, too - it pays to remember that.'

Ms Withers said she has learned to 'work on the business rather than in the business'.

'Again, if you get too bogged down in day to day things, you're not running things. Personally, I've learned I'm a lot tougher and braver than I thought I was.'

Ms Withers is a fan of being her own boss, too, because she said it's great to 'surround yourself with people you love and do something you love'.

'Instead of being stressed out all of the time about whether I'm going to make something, I can go to school performances and things - while getting my work done.

'We've also re-located from Sydney to Orange, which has helped to calm me down and be around more family.'

Sharing her tips for others with ideas, Ms Withers said: 'Get the fundamentals right' and prioritise customer service (pictured: an Incy Interiors design)

On the negative side of things, Ms Withers said as a businesswoman and CEO, you have to be prepared for your business to 'impact on other areas of your life'.

'This can be a good thing and a bad thing,' she clarified, however.

'Four days after I gave birth to my daughter, I was back on emails and working.

But I know you have to work your guts out to succeed - and I've always loved doing that.'

For more information about Incy Interiors - which now stocks nationally in 170 stores, and internationally in New Zealand, Hong Kong Singapore and the US, click here.

You can also follow them on Instagram here.
A 21-year-old Disney enthusiast has spent a staggering 15,000 on Disney memorabilia in the space of just three years.

Emily Simpson first fell in love with Disney as a toddler, spent her childhood watching the films, and has been do Disneyland Paris three times.

Now, Emily's bedroom at her parent's home in Camberley, Surrey, is packed with over 5,000 items branded with her favourite Disney characters.

Her enormous collection includes clothing, handbags, bedding, crockery, stationary, jewellery and 1,000 cuddly toys - as well as Disney tattoos.

'Nothing makes me happier': Disney addict Emily Simposn, from Surrey, has spent three years and 15,000 on memorabilia including cuddly toys, clothes, tattoos and jewellery

Lifelong obsession: Emily's first trip to Disneyworld took place when she was just 10 months old (pictured with her mother Anita) and she spent much of her childhood watching the films

The children's play centre supervisor said: 'My friends think I'm crazy for my Disney obsession but I can't help it. I love everything about it.

'Nothing makes me happier than coming home every day and admiring my Disney-filled room.'

Despite always having a passion for Disney, Emily only began collecting items in 2014 when she turned 18.

She explained: 'I've always loved everything Disney but the merchandise used to be quite difficult to find in the shops.

'That all started to change a few years ago and now, I find Disney themed clothes and accessories everywhere I go.

'Some high street shops like Primark even have their own Disney section. It's great!'

Cost of Emily's Disney 'addiction' Disney Trips: 5,000 Jewellery: 1,000 Cuddly Toys: 5,100 Clothes and accessories: 2,000 Mugs: 250 Tattoos: 800 Ornaments and figures: 700 Disney Pins: 350 Advertisement

Emily with her prized Lilo and Stitch cuddly toy. She said: 'My friends think I'm crazy for my Disney obsession but I can't help it. I love everything about it'

Emily's bedroom at her parent's home in Camberley, Surrey, is packed with over 5,000 items branded with her favourite Disney characters including Minnie and Mickey Mouse

Fan for life: Emily's enormous collection includes clothing, handbags, bedding, crockery, stationary, jewellery and 1,000 cuddly toys - as well as Disney tattoos

Beauty and the Beast memorabilia line the shelves of Emily's room. Despite always having a passion for Disney, she only began collecting items in 2014 when she turned 18

Emily's impressive collection boasts a Disney-themed Pandora bracelet worth 1,000 and a 200 Disney Polaroid camera.

'I've worked full time since I finished school and I'm very good at saving for my Disney items,' she said. 'I'd say they're worth every penny!'

Along with high street stores, Emily also searches the internet for specific Disney pieces and receives Disney merchandise from family every Christmas and birthdays.

She says: 'I'm very easy to buy for on special occasions. If I receive anything Disney themed I'm thrilled.

Emily shows off one of her many tattoos during a recent trip to Disneyland Paris. She said: 'I'd love to get Marie the cat from Aristocats next. Tattoos are a way of expressing yourself and I couldn't think of anything more perfect to suit me'

This year Emily has visited Disneyland in Paris three times with her boyfriend, Jak Banks, 23, an assistant manager (pictured). She says he loves going to the theme park with her

'For Christmas in 2015 my parents gave me a pug called Lilo named after a character in my favourite Disney film, Lilo & Stitch.

'I love dressing Lilo up in little Stitch costumes, she looks so cute.'

The Disney devotee also has large Disney themed tattoos covering her arm including a Beauty and the Beast rose and an image of the Disney castle costing 300.

Emily added: 'I love my Disney tattoos and I can't wait to get some more.

'I'd love to get Marie the cat from Aristocats next. Tattoos are a way of expressing yourself and I couldn't think of anything more perfect to suit me.'

Emily proudly poses with her enormous collection of Disney merchandise. She said: 'I've always loved everything Disney but the merchandise used to be quite difficult to find in the shops'

Speaking about her hobby, 'Emily said: I find Disney themed clothes and accessories everywhere I go. Some high street shops like Primark even have their own Disney section'

Emily's impressive collection boasts this Disney-themed Pandora bracelet worth 1,000, covered in Mickey Mouse charms, and a 200 Disney Polaroid camera

The Disney devotee has a range of large, Disney-themed tattoos covering her arm including a Beauty and the Beast rose (pictured) and an image of the Disney castle costing 300

This year Emily has visited Disneyland in Paris three times with her boyfriend, Jak Banks, 23, an assistant manager of a coffee shop.

She said: 'Jak isn't bothered by my Disney addiction at all. He really enjoys coming to Disney Land with me.

'Every time I go, I always come back with more merchandise to add to my collection.

'The last time I went in June, I came back with a 70 Cogsworth clock from Beauty and the Beast and a giant Stitch plushy worth 70.

'I can't wait to go back again in October for the Halloween celebrations and again at Christmas.'

Emily has paid for her enormous collection on her own, saying: 'I've worked full time since I finished school and I'm very good at saving for my Disney items. I'd say they're worth every penny!'

A line-up of Cogsworth models. Along with high street stores, proud owner Emily also searches the internet for specific Disney pieces and receives Disney merchandise from family every Christmas and birthdays

Emily's Lilo and Stitch collection. The supervisor says: 'I'm very easy to buy for on special occasions. If I receive anything Disney themed I'm thrilled'

For Christmas in 2015 Emily's parents gave her a pug called Lilo named after a character in her favourite Disney film, Lilo & Stitch (pictured). She says: 'I love dressing Lilo up in little Stitch costumes, she looks so cute'

The 21-year-old with her Disney Polaroid camera. Emily hopes that she can extend her collection when she has a house of her own in the future

Just the beginning: Emily currently lives with her parents but says, 'I can't wait to fill my own house with Disney items. I always see cute Disney crockery and homeware in the shops and it gets me really excited'

Emily stands by her decision to spend thousands on Disney merchandise, saying: 'I know some people will think I'm crazy, but it makes me so happy and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I'm a big kid at heart'

Emily hopes that she can extend her collection when she has a house of her own in the future.

She says: 'I can't wait to fill my own house with Disney items. I always see cute Disney crockery and homeware in the shops and it gets me really excited.'

Emily hopes that her passion for Disney will land her a dream job at Disneyland.

She said: 'I'd absolutely love to work at Disney as a photographer.I couldn't think of anything more amazing than being able to capture people enjoying the magic of Disney.

'I know some people will think I'm crazy, but it makes me so happy and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I'm a big kid at heart.

'Who wouldn't want to be a part of that magical world?'
All eyes have been on Prince George during his royal tour of Poland and Germany and eagle-eyed fans noticed one thing about the youngster.

The four-year-old consistently wore shorts during his trip, with royal aficionados noting he's never in long trousers (and there's a very regal reason behind it).

Etiquette expert and MailOnline columnist, William Hanson, claims that shorts on young boys are, in fact, a silent British class marker and trousers are deemed 'suburban', which no self-respecting royal would want to be regarded as.

He notes that it could well hark back to the historical sixteenth century tradition of 'breeching', whereby newborn boys would don a dress for the first few years of their lives for potty training reasons, before being 'breeched' - or switching to shorts.

Royal fans have noted that Prince George, who turned four this month, consistently dons shorts and there's a very specific reason behind it

He explains: 'Not only does The Duchess of Cambridge have to worry about what she is wearing in public but she has to dress her own children and find a balance between royal tradition and heritage and more proletariat customs, such as the "suburban" habit of making young boys wear trousers.

'Although I don't really think that the sartorial rule of shorts for young boys would be a new one for Catherine. I would suspect that her own mother and mother's friends knew this - as more well-heeled middle class mothers do - and dressed their own boys accordingly.'

The four-year-old consistently wore shorts during his trip of Poland and Germany, left, as well as during his tour of Canada, centre and right, with royal aficionados noting he's never not in shorts. Etiquette expert William Hanson says his choice to wear shorts is a silent British class marker

Princes William and Harry, pictured during a holiday to Balmoral Castle in August 1986, also adhered to the tradition by regularly donning shorts

He went on to explain that the little tot would no doubt be following traditions from a bygone era, which most aristocratic families - and public schools - obey.

THE BREECHING TRADITION The bygone tradition of breeching saw little boys donning dresses before being 'breeched' into breeches, trousers or pantaloons. This was deemed a significant event in the life and when the boy reached the age of eight, he would make the move into trousers, which would often be celebrated with a party. Advertisement

'Shorts on young boys is one of those silent British class markers that deliberately harks back to a bygone age.

'British upper classes - and particularly royals - are especially keen to hold on to tradition so this sartorial one will silently mark them out from "the rest".'

The bygone tradition of breeching saw little boys donning dresses before being 'breeched', so put into breeches, trousers or pantaloons.

This was deemed a significant event in the life and when the boy reached the age of eight, he would make the move into trousers, which would often be celebrated with a party.
She marked her 21st birthday earlier this month with a lavish 'revolution' party in the Cotswolds attended by celebrities, fashion designers and fellow royals.

But Princess Maria Olympia of Greece isn't one to turn down the opportunity for a celebration, and is currently soaking up the sun in Mykonos where she celebrated her milestone birthday yesterday.

The New York University student shared a snap to Instagram, captioned 'in my birthday suit', as she posed in a red retro-style bikini alongside silver 21 balloons.

Her father Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece also took the opportunity to pay tribute to his eldest child, sharing an image of her from their joint party - which marked his 50th - earlier this month.

'Happy Birthday my darling beautiful Olympia,' he wrote. 'The world is your oyster and I am the proudest father ever.'

Princess Maria Olympia of Greece is enjoying a sun-soaked break to Mykonos to celebrate her 21st birthday

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, pictured enjoying beers with his daughter in Hanover, declared himself the 'proudest father ever' on her 21st

The Crown Prince of Greece, turned 50 on May 20 and the father-daughter duo decided to meet in the middle and throw a giant party to celebrate their milestone ages.

Held earlier this month in the Cotswolds, the '5021 revolution' was a star-studded affair, where royalty, socialites, and fashion greats came together for an incredibly elegant soiree.

According to India Hicks  the granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and one of Princess Diana's bridesmaids  guests were asked to 'revolutionize' their black tie ensembles for the party.

This meant attendees like Paris Hilton, her sister Nicky Rothschild, Poppy Delevingne, and a who's who of other heiresses turned up in beautiful designer gowns but accessorized with some very unexpected pieces.

Crown Prince Pavlos shared this image of his daughter from their birthday party, declaring that the world is her oyster

Happy day: Princess Olympia of Greece celebrated her birthday with an extravagant party in the Cotswolds

Double party: Her whole family (including her mother, fourth from right) was in attendance, since it was a joint celebration with her dad Pavlos, who turned 50

Getting in the spirit: The party, in the the Cotswolds, had a '5021 revolution' theme in honor of both of their ages

Interesting look: Guests were asked to 'revolutionize' black tie, and Olympia set the tone in a glamorous dress and bold Gucci platform sneakers

The heiresses come together! Paris Hilton joined the festivities but didn't seem to take to the theme

Olympia herself wore a head-turning Steven Khalil dress for the occasion.

The uber-beaded long-sleeve top contrasted against a swishy tulle skirt, and she 'revolutioned' her look with a metallic fascinator and Gucci platform sneakers, which she showed off throughout the night with a variety of poses.

Her cousin and frequent travel companion Talita von Furstenberg (Diane von Furstenberg's granddaughter) wore a sweeping polka dot number with a feathered fascinator.

Besties: Olympia's cousin, Talita von Furstenberg (Diane's granddaughter) was there

Pretty: Poppy took some pictures while frolicking in the field in her Marchesa dress

Jewels on jewels: Paris turned up with her sister Nicky, who embraced the theme a bit more

Snazzy: Designer Valantino Garavani (center) was one of the men to embrace the theme, throwing a purple tux jacket over an embroidered vest (pictured with Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (left)

Pavlos also delivered a speech in honor of his daughter, which drew laughs from the crowd

Also in attendance were plenty of royals and the royalty-adjacent, including Carina Axelsson (author and partner of Gustav, Hereditary Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg) and Eleonore Habsburg of the Austrian House of Hapsburg.

Pavlos also delivered a speech in honor of his daughter, which drew laughs from the crowd.

'In your life, you have done a lot of things that impressed, depressed, and driven us crazy,' he said. 'Let me tell you a few things about life with Olympia. First of all, you're beautiful, you're full of energy - energy that comes from your mother. '
A single woman believes she is the unluckiest dater in Britain after claiming to have spent 30,000 over four years on her search for love.

Jeanette Baker, from Ramsgate, is determined to find Mr Right despite spending thousands on clothes, travel and dating apps during her quest for the one.

After two failed marriages and several dead-end relationships, Jeannette has made an appeal on ITV's This Morning for a suitable man to get in touch, claiming she can offer 'spontaneous fun'.

A confident Jeanette said: 'Youve got to put yourself out there. Sorry for the phrase but you have to be in it to win it.'

Still sure that she will bag herself a man despite the increasing costs, Jeanette told presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford why she believed she had so far been unlucky in love.

'I think its where I live. In Ramsgate, by the sea, which I think is lovely. A lot of people think its too far to travel.'

Jeanette Baker believes she is the unluckiest dater in Britain after spending 30,000 over the past four years while looking for love

Jeanette added that she was able to remain confident because she knew it wasn't her fault as she had asked other people their opinions.

She also believes that the changing attitudes of dating hasn't helped either, especially with the ease of which someone can find a potential suitor.

'Generally its the physical side that men would want.

'But with me I tend to go with my gut instinct and you read into that very quickly and step back from that.'

WHAT HAS JEANETTE SPENT 30,000 ON? New clothes for her dates

Travelling to and from her home in Ramsgate

Monthly subscription dating apps and in-app add-ons to boost her profile Advertisement

Jeanette said: 'I've mulled this over in my head many times. I've asked friends, and even some guys on dating sites.

'Ive given them a short spiel on dating sites and they say nothing is wrong with you.

'There are just people on the dating sites who are broken, theyve had problems, youre not going to be the same after a divorce. Youre going to have a certain amount of baggage.'

Some viewers watching at home disagreed with the singleton, as they shared their own honest thoughts about why she was yet to find someone.

'It's the fringe darling, so 70s,' said one person on Twitter.

'She's a bit boring, maybe that's where she is going wrong,' suggested another.

Jeanette appeared on This Morning to talk about her failed attempts at dating. She thinks it has something to do with living in Ramsgate

Some viewers watching at home shared their honest opinions on why they thought Jeanette hadn't found someone and encouraged her to 'buy a puppy' instead

'You're a lovely looking woman, please stop trying so hard and enjoy being you,' offered another.

Jeanette recalled going on many failed dates, including some where the person had lied about how they looked.

'I have had dates turn up where they have turned up and the photo has been taken about ten years ago.'

A hopeful Jeanette made an appeal for someone who is dependable and who 'doesn't have to be rich' but on an 'equal level'.

This Morning presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes encouraged Jeanette to keep looking and asked her to make an appeal for Mr Right

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10.30am
A woman who has been 'nagging' her partner of a decade to marry her was fobbed off by the eternal bachelor for years.

But now Amanda Barr, 27, from Blackpool, has finally got the proposal she's been waiting for - with a little help from 22,000 strangers on Facebook.

Amanda's long-term partner Stuart Gunn, 30, had finally told his girlfriend that if she were to get 500 Facebook likes he would pop the question.

Not only did Amanda smash his target within an hour when she shared their story online, she went on to rack up more than 22,000 likes - including endorsements from as far afield as Australia and Poland.

Amanda Barr, 27, has been with her boyfriend Stuart Gunn, 30, since she was 14 years old

The mum-of-three's Facebook post that asked for just 500 likes from friends and family

It all started while the couple were staying with Stuart's parents, who were keen for the pair to tie the knot.

Mum-of-three Amanda said: 'I see posts where people have posted on Facebook saying their husband will let them have a dog if they get so many likes, well I told him I was going to do that with getting married.

'He asked his mum and dad for help but they said that they thought he ought to. He said I wouldn't dare - and I asked him how many likes would it take to make him marry me.

'I think he said 500 thinking he was picking a high number. I can't believe it has gone like it has. I've had messages from Australia, Poland and America. It is unbelievable.'

The childhood sweethearts first got together when Amanda was 14 and Stuart 17.

They now have three children together, Jodie, 10, Tommy, 9, and Scarlett, 4.

Amanda's post read: 'So as many of you already know me and Stuart have been together now for 13 years we have 3 amazing beautiful children, a lovely home, we are happy and content.

'The only problem is my last name!! I've been nagging him for the past 10 years now to get married but no luck such as yet!!

'So enough is enough now I'm not getting any younger I would love to be married by next year. So Stuart has said if I get 500 likes and 50 shares by the end of this month he will propose this year and set a date for next year so I need all mine and Stuart's family and friends to share and like the hell out of this post. LET'S GET ME DOWN THE AISLE GUYS.'

Just days later, Amanda's post has racked up 22,00 likes and has finally convinced Stuart

It took just 55 minutes to get the required amount of likes and shares.

Three days later it has been liked and shared a staggering number of times.

Amanda said: 'We're all getting excited now because we know a wedding is on the cards.

'If he doesn't get it sorted this time he's going to come home one day to a registrar stood in our front room.

'It's funny with Stuart because I know he loves me and I know he wants to be with me always but he's not romantic, and I do love him that way, but that is why we've never got married. We had our children young so that has always got in the way.

'Getting married costs money and having kids costs money, and we don't have an awful lot. 'Stuart always said that if money was no object he'd marry me tomorrow.'

Self-employed electrician Stuart said he realised he had to finally make an honest woman of his partner.

He said: 'If 22,000 people reckon I should marry Amanda then I should get on with it. It's about time.'
Jenna Bush Hager and her eldest child Mila proved the age old phrase 'like mother, like daughter' on Wednesday morning, when the Today show host shared an image of the little girl, in which she looks like the spitting image of her parent.

In the adorable picture, Mila, four, can be seen sitting alongside her baby sister Poppy Louise, who will turn two in August. Both girls are staring up at the camera, happily smiling at their mother.

'Last night family date with my babes,' Jenna, 35, captioned the picture, before adding: 'Sisters are so sweet!'

Scroll down for video

'Sweet sisters!' Jenna Bush Hager shares this adorable image of her two daughters, Poppy (left) and Mila, revealing the older daughter's remarkable resemblance to her mom

Like mother, like daughter! Four-year-old Mila looks just like her mother did when she was a toddler (pictured)

Same, same... Mila has the same dirty blonde hair and big round eyes as her mother

Both little girls look picture-perfect in the candid portrait - however it is Mila who steals the show with her uncanny resemblance to her mom.

The adorable toddler, who is pictured in a black dress, complete with a gold trim around the hem, has the exact same dark blonde hair and big eyes as her mom, which she happily puts on full show, flashing a sweet smile as the picture is taken.

Meanwhile, her younger sister, whose hair is tied back from her face with a cute ribbon, is grinning with glee, having clearly just enjoyed a delicious dinner, judging by the food stains around her mouth.

Modeling something a little bit brighter than her big sister, Poppy is dressed in a colorful floral dress, and a pair of silver sandals - the perfect ensemble for a summer evening on the town.

Jenna's sweet date night with her beloved daughters, which her husband Henry Hager does not appear to have been involved in, came after she enjoyed an entertaining morning on air trying - and failing spectacularly - to prank call her mother, former first lady Laura Bush.

In on it: Jenna's date night with her daughters came after she spent a morning on the Today show trying to prank call her mom, former first lady Laura Bush

Caught out: The mother-of-two enlisted the help of Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones to ring up the 70-year-old while she was out for her morning walk

Having a laugh: Al put on a fake Southern accent for the prank, asking Jenna's mom if her 'refrigerator is running right now'

Snapped: Although Jenna tried to keep the prank going, her mom said her name and told her to 'stop being so silly'

On Tuesday morning's Today show, the former first daughter convinced her colleagues Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones to help her with the prank - which got a little bit too silly for her mother's liking.

A clip of the moment captures Laura, 70, answering the phone and Al putting on a thick Southern accent to say: 'Yes, hi. We are doing a random survey right now, checking on whether your refrigerator is running right now.'

Listening to Al pull the stereotypical phone prank on her mom immediately has Jenna in stitches.

'Is your refrigerator running right now?' says Al, before Jenna and Sheinelle can't contain themselves any longer and burst out in laughter.

Next, Jenna takes the phone and tries to continue on with the prank, but her mother rumbles her right away, saying: 'Jenna, will you quit being so silly?'

'She made me do that Mrs Bush!' yells Al when he realizes the jig is up. 'She made me do that!'

Moving on: The 35-year-old mother-of-two, pictured in a family snap in December, remains incredibly close with her twin sister and her beloved parents

Sheinelle then takes the opportunity to introduce herself to Jenna's mom, saying 'I've always wanted to meet you!'

After showing the clip of the prank, Al tells viewers: 'I've never prank-called a first lady before!'

'It was fun to go back to seventh grade for a moment,' remarks Jenna.

Earlier this month, Jenna paid tribute to another member of her family: her father George W. Bush, after the former president turned 71.

Jenna shared a sweet throwback image of the former president and his wife Laura cradling their twin daughters as newborns in celebration of the day.

Posting the image on her Instagram account in honor of the celebratory day, the 35-year-old mother-of-two added a sweet caption praising her father for always supporting her.

'Happy Birthday Popsicle. Thanks for lifting me up since birth,' she wrote alongside the picture, which shows her and her sister Barbara as tiny babies being held by their adoring parents, George and Laura.
Interview magazine and fashion photographer Billy Kidd are being accused of racism over a recent fashion editorial that was published in the magazine.

Called 'Coco Served Hot', the editorial was shot in New York City's Chinatown and pictures Chinese models portrayed as selling stolen and counterfeit designer goods, like purses and jewelry.

Several critics  including designer Phillip Lim  have taken issue with the shoot, prompting Kidd to defend it and deny any racist intent.

Issue: Interview magazine has come under fire for a fashion editorial (pictured) that critics are calling racist

Stereotypes: The photos, taken by Billy Kidd, depict Asian women in NYC's Chinatown apparently hawking counterfeit goods

The editorial features a female model in Chinatown, walking down the street with several Chanel bags wrapped in plastic and hanging from a stick resting on her shoulder.

She is wearing a Chanel-branded Asian rice hat, and despite her otherwise fashion-forward outfit  glitzy gloves, designer sandals  the model is clearly meant to look like the Chinese immigrants who sell knock-offs in Chinatown.

The illegal goods theme is further driven home by the editorial's tiyle, 'Coco Served Hot', which references both Coco Chanel and 'hot' or stolen goods.

Unsurprisingly, this had led some critics to call out both the photographer and the magazine for promoting racist stereotypes.

No offense meant: Kidd has defended the editorial and insisted he had no racist inent

'As a first generation Asian American, these were the stereotypes I've had to deal with my whole life,' wrote another photographer named Mark Gong.

'My culture and heritage is more than hawkers and rice hats, but that's immediately what the uneducated would think of when you ask them about Eastern Asia.'

Kidd paid attention to the replies, and quickly commented back that he didn't understand what people found offensive  citing his second-generation Chinese-American wife as back him up. However, he added, he was open to hearing explanations of what was offensive from people who found it so.

'Nothing about the image gives me a sense of paying tribute or honoring their hard work,' explained Gong. 'Quite the opposite, it boils down their struggle into a caricature for the sake selling clothing.'

Kidd responded, '[My team] and I were inspired by mainland Chinese workers. We researched and used modern day influences to create our character. My intent was never to offend or tease but to uplift and honor what I find beautiful.'

Issue: Critics like designer Phillip Lim, who is of Cambodian and Chinese descent, have taken time to explain just what about the shoot is insensitive

Not representative: Lim noted that the images promote unflattering stereotypes

Like this: He compared the shoot to 'casting Hispanics in field dresses'

Designer Phillip Lim, who has Cambodian and Chinese heritage, in particular was quite vocal, taking to the comments on Kidd's Instagram posts to explain his point of view.

'The plight of the Chinese workers is a real struggle  one that they live with everyday. This comes across as insensitive and promoting a stereotype,' he wrote.

Explaining himself further, he added, 'These images reinforce several stereotypes that Asian immigrants/communities work so hard to break from.'

First, he says, it pushes the stereotype that Asian immigrants 'hawk counterfeit goods'. Second, 'it mocks the actual everyday struggle of immigrants trying to do what they can to survive in a country foreign to them'.

And third, it shows an ignorance for how Mainland Chinese workers actually live. 'It's the equivalent of casting Hispanics in field dresses in Dior,' he said.

Inspiration: Several storefronts in Chinatown have cheap accessories out on display in the front and designer knock-offs hidden in the back

Kidd, for his part, took the criticism into consideration, but still insisted that he sees it differently than the people it aims to represent do.

'My intentions for this shoot are definitely not to perpetuate a negative view of Asians but intended to be an homage to the working class Chinese which was what inspired me,' he said. 'Obviously it did not translate that way for you and others, my apologies for any offense. However, I love this image and still see it as an homage.'

He went on, 'I don't like our current political climate and the dismantling of social norms ... [but] we end up getting into is a slippery slope of what is acceptable and not.

'If [we] aren't allowed to see the beauty in even the ugliest of places, then does that mean we can only be inspired by the rich, lavish lifestyle?' he asked. 'Does that mean we can't use factory workers, construction workers, ranch hands, farmers, ditch diggers, fast food workers, etc. as inspiration?

Back and forth: Lim articulately summed up criticism also voiced by others, and Kidd invited a larger discussion off Instagram

'All that said, I like to think if we can find the beauty in grueling, desperate situations it helps the world grow,' he said.

Lim responded once again, conceding that he didn't believe Kidd's intention was to be racist  and he appreciates Kidd's 'desire to show beauty in the "ugly"  but said he still believes the picture is insensitive and makes for a teaching moment.

'You are are very talented and have such a powerful platform in what you do, and unfortunately a image like this continues to reinforce a stereotype in our communities,' Lim wrote. 'When you wish, i would love for you to hear stories from Asian [and] Asian American kids that experience ridicule and are constantly bullied because of these types of depictions.'

The back-and-forth ended on an open, positive note, with Kidd writing: 'Let's discuss more in the near future how we can integrate Asian inspiration in fashion photography without offending. '
A young special effects artist is blowing people away by turning himself into incredible - and often terrifying - cosplay versions of popular characters.

Jose Davalos, 22, of Guadalajara, is the man behind the Instagram account Jo Skellington, where he has racked up more than 70,000 followers for his over-the-top prosthetic and make-up creations, particularly for his ingenious renditions of favorite Disney baddies.

His latest post, featuring him dressed as a horrifyingly realistic version of The Little Mermaid villain Ursula, has been watched more than 500,000 times in just two days - and it's easy to see why.

Quite a version: Special effects artist Jo Skellington, 22, has gone viral with this incredible transformation into The Little Mermaid's Ursula

Putting on a show: As well as the impressive - and terrifying - prosthetics, Jo displays a flair for impersonation as he sings a snippet of Poor Unfortunate Souls

The clip shows Jo covered head to toe in dappled purple 'skin' including a fantastic mask that moves seamlessly with his expressions.

He shows off a set of long red fingernails as he looks into the camera with white contact-lensed eyes and launches into a snippet of Poor Unfortunate Souls, the character's signature song from The Little Mermaid.

As if the look wasn't already mind-boggling, Jo also does an incredible impression of the tentacled villainess and her singing voice, topped off with a ominous evil cackle.

The incredible costume won him three prizes at the San Diego Comic Con's Masquerade Ball, Most Innovative Costume and Audience Favorite.

'Since I was very very young I loved arts, like drawing, painting and sculpting,' Jose tells Daily Mail Online.

The before: The young man has gained more than 70,000 followers on Instagram for his work

Face off: He uses prosthetic additions to his his, cheeks, brow ridge and even his nose to complete the incredible looks

On fire: Jo is pictured appearing at the San Diego Comic Con dressed as Hades from Hercules

Just a little bite: Jo is pictured looking like the perfect real-life version of Snow White's Old Hag

Be our guest! His impressive costumes aren't limited to villains, such as with this turn as Lumiere from Beauty & the Beast

On the hunt: Jo includes videos on social media seeing him doing convincing impersonations of his chosen characters

'I started doing my first prosthetics out of paper pulp, and I always loved transforming myself into characters from movies.'

He began his self-education in special effects with books about art, anatomy, make-up and sculpture, and flexed his creative muscles by taking product instructions and improvising his own ideas. He also found inspiration in behind-the-scenes documentaries from films.

For others thinking about getting into the craft, Jose says: 'I still practice everyday, so I would say that practicing and experimenting would be the way to go!

'And also getting out of your comfort zone, challenging yourself everyday and trying to be better person and an artist.'

As for his newfound viral fame thanks to his Ursula video, Jose says, 'I feel blessed with what is going on right now!'

'A lot of people have been really nice to me, and they want to know about me and my life as well as my art career. So, that makes me feel happy, because I never really thought that this would happen.'

Looking up: Jo uses the help of make-up and white contact lenses to add to the villainesque appearance

Up for grabs: Yzma from the Emperor's New Groove is made real by the talented artist

Run for their money: Jo's version of Jim Carrey's Grinch is nearly indistinguishable from the actor's move make-up

But his Ursula transformation is just the latest in a long line of Disney-themed impressive turns the young artist has pulled off.

Other Disney villains he has tackled with his skills include Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Hades from Hercules and Scar from The Lion King.

And doesn't limit himself to the baddies exclusively, having also morphed himself into startlingly realistic versions of the Beast and Lumiere from Beauty & the Beast as well as Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka.

For many of his creations, Jo includes videos on social media that document the process through which he transforms himself, including protruding prosthetic chins, sharp false cheekbones and eyebrow arches only a villain could love.

Like with Ursula, he also displays a flair for impersonation in voice as well as in appearance, putting on a quite convincing French accent for a turn as Lumiere and a perfect imitation of Cruella De Vil's scheming voice and laughter.

Jose hasn't revealed just what character he might take on next, but the 22-year-old is already preparing to teach a master class in Brazil and will soon be taking part in 'some cosplay-inspired photo shoots.'
Advertisement

So many little girls dream of growing up to be Disney princesses  and six adorable ones got the chance before they were even old enough to watch the movies.

Maternity photographer Karen Marie of Belly Beautiful Portraits in Roseville, California had the sweet idea for a princess-themed photoshoot, and her magical pictures have sent women swooning across the internet.

For her adorable shoot, six newborns were dressed as individual Disney princesses, posed together in color-coded swaddles (blue for Cinderella, yellow for Belle).

The magical world of Disney: Maternity photographer Karen Marie of Belly Beautiful Portraits staged an adorable baby photoshoot

No apples for this little one! She dressed each of the babies up as Disney princesses

She lost a bootie! The baby models got tiny princess dresses to wear for the shoot

'Disney has always been a big thing in my life,' she told KCR3. 'I've always loved Disney and princesses. I have two little girls myself, but they're getting older. They're practically teenagers.'

Recently, she was inspired to incorporate Disney princesses into her newborn photography, enlisting a designer named Valerie at Best of Sew Trendy Accessories to make the outfits.

In one group photo, the babies are all laid out side-by-side, swaddled in fabric  yet even without princess gowns, it's clear who they are.

Little Ariel wears a fin-colored green swaddle with a Flounder plush toy placed on top, Snow White is in red with a plush Apple, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is in pink with a rose, and Cinderella is in sky blue with a little mouse.

There's also Belle, in yellow with a Beast toy, and Jasmine in light green with a magic lamp. And though this shoot stopped at six, Karen hopes to do more.

She also wants to do twin girls as Elsa and Anna, a character from the Lion King, Tiana from Princess and the Frog, Pocahontas, and Moana.

Bonjour! They also had corresponding props, like baby Belle (pictures) with her rose

Conked out: The most appropriate baby was the one dressed as Sleeping Beauty

Under the sea: This little girl playing Ariel got to hold a hairbrush  uh, fork

Sweet: 'I feel so lucky that I was able to create a career out of my passion for babies and my love for photography,' the California-based photographer said

'I feel so lucky that I was able to create a career out of my passion for babies and my love for photography,' she told Huffington Post.

She also did more elaborate shoots with each of the babies on their own. Baby Cinderella is pictured in a blue tutu, sleeping soundly on top of a decorative silver pumpkin.

Baby Belle snoozes in a frilly yellow dress, a glass-cased rose, pot, and teacup scattered around her.

Show White has the perfect little red, blue, and yellow dress to wear as she sleeps surrounded by some furry friends, flowers, and gems mined by the dwarfs.

Ariel sleeps by seashells, a fork in her hand, while Sleeping Beauty does what she does best  catches some Z's  in a bed. Jasmine is seen resting on a colorful tasseled carpet.
Lifestyle / Travel and Tourism

by Agencies

Facts:

Fewer than 30,000 African lionsand possibly as few as 20,000are estimated to remain today. Lions exist in 8 percent of their former range and are suffering from loss of habitat and prey in addition to poorly regulated trophy hunting.

A report conducted by Economists at Large and commissioned by HSI found that trophy hunting is not economically important in African countries, with the total economic contribution of trophy hunters at most estimated at 0.03 percent of gross domestic product in the countries studied.

In a letter to The Honorable Oppah Muchinguri MP, the Minister of Environment, Water and Climate of Zimbabwe, Humane Society International is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to investigate the irregularities surrounding the killing of Xanda the lion last week. In particular, HSI requests that Zimbabwe officials fully investigate the hunt, bring legal action against the trophy hunters if warranted, prevent the export of the trophy and establish a five-kilometer no-hunting zone around Hwange National Park.According to a document posted on the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority website, male lions of any age known to be heading prides or known to be part of a coalition heading prides with dependent cubs (18 months old or less) should not be hunted. At the time of the hunt, researchers with the University of Oxford were tracking Xanda, the 6-year-old son of Cecil the lion. They have confirmed that Xanda was a male in a pride with three females and at least seven dependent cubs of between 12 and 18 months old who are too young to survive on their own and will be vulnerable to infanticide by any male lion who takes over Xanda's pride. The researchers informed the professional hunter, whose client killed Xanda, of these facts and that killing Xanda would harm the lion population. The advice was ignored.Audrey Delsink, executive director of Humane Society International/Africa, said: "With so many irregularities shrouding the killing of Xanda, we urge the Government of Zimbabwe to hold the people involved in his death accountable, if they are found to have acted in an illegal manner. Sadly, Xanda's killers have also left his cubs vulnerable to infanticide, which means this careless hunt could lead to further unnecessary loss of animals already threatened with extinction. It just further highlights the destructive nature of the trophy hunting industry. At minimum, Zimbabwe must conduct a full investigation and not allow Xanda's remains to leave the country as a trophy."Although the hunting group representing the hunters who killed Xanda claim he did not hold tenure of a pride, the scientists at the Hwange National Park where the hunt took place confirmed the collar returned to them by the hunter was Xanda's. The hunter's nationality and identity remains unknown.In the letter, HSI urges the Government of Zimbabwe to:Investigate the killing of Xanda to evaluate whether the relevant regulations and policies were followed and make the findings publicly known;Not issue an export permit for the trophy of Xanda if any irregularities are found;Prosecute any people involved in illegal acts with regard to the killing of Xanda if evidence of such is found; andEstablish a 5 km no hunting zone around Hwange National Park to prevent further killings of research animals, as urged by lion scientists at the University of Oxford.Read the letter here
Who hasnt had that chilling nightmare, the one where you are naked or wearing just your underwear in a room full of strangers?

The strangers point, they laugh, whisper and judge. The relief you feel when you wake up and realise it was all a silly dream is palpable.

But there is another nightmare, one most women have experienced. Where youre in your undies, in a confined space, pulling on clothes as fast as you can. Youre in such a blind panic that you put things on back to front. Your palms are sweating, your heart is racing and you hear footsteps approach. Suddenly, the curtain is pulled back, as an intimidating stranger demands: How are you getting on?

Its the all too real nightmare of the shop changing room.

Who hasnt had that chilling nightmare, the one where you are naked or wearing just your underwear in a room full of strangers?

A survey by plus size retailer Evans found customers loathe changing rooms so much many buy in store, try in the comfort of their own home, then return the clothes if necessary.

Or, they purchase online and return unsuitable items. In the early days of internet shopping sending back clothes was a pain, but (unlike shops) they listened to customers and worked to simplify the process. Free posting, courier collections and pre-printed returns labels all make it now relatively hassle-free to send things back.

Amazon is trialling (in the U.S.) a service called Prime Wardrobe, where customers try before they buy clothes which will be sent by courier and they have seven days to decide if she wishes to keep or return them before her credit card is charged.

It all spells the death knell for the changing room  a demise few women will mourn.

The downside of buying new clothes on the High Street has always been the ordeal of trying them on. Its improved little since I started paying for my own clothes more than 30 years ago.

Back in the Eighties, when I was a teen, the trend was for communal changing rooms.

Dozens of young women all piled into one hot, sweaty, space. The changing room mean girls would hog the best spots and nab any mirrors.

On the odd occasion there would even be men in the female changing room as some girls would take their boyfriends in with them past uninterested store staff.

Dozens of young women all piled into one hot, sweaty, space. The changing room mean girls would hog the best spots and nab any mirrors

Youd have thought phasing out communal changing rooms over the next decade would have made trying on clothes in-store a little less stressful. It didnt. Instead arrogant retailers continue to treat customers with growing indifference.

Many shops now offer cubicles no bigger than the average phone box.

And they are often fitted with doors and curtains that do nothing to preserve modesty.

Half-length doors that leave a gap at the top and bottom look fine until you drop your bra, absent-mindedly bend to retrieve it and expose yourself to everyone queueing outside.

Or there are curtains never quite big enough to meet in the middle. And to top it all theres the final horror  of the mirrors and the lighting.

I know Im no Victorias Secret model, but there have been times when Ive looked in a changing room mirror and wanted to weep.

Its thanks to Marks & Spencers wretched three angle mirror that I first discovered I had back fat. Another time, another shop, the lighting was so unflattering, my body looked like it was made of cottage cheese.

I know Im no Victorias Secret model, but there have been times when Ive looked in a changing room mirror and wanted to weep

Then there are the ridiculously flattering mirrors that make you look a dress size smaller than you really are.

The feeling of euphoria as you twirl and pose is wonderful . . . until you get home, try the dress on again  and see all the lumps and bumps the magic mirrors had erased.

Some clothes shops employ the dirty trick of not having a mirror in the changing room.

A sneaky sales ploy so you have to step outside to have a look at yourself, whereby the staff, often working on commission, will pounce. Even if you look like a sack of spuds, they will tell you that you look wonderful. You end up leaving with half a dozen items you despise and later return.

For security reasons, most stores will not let you take more than five items into a changing room at one time.

So, if you have, say, seven items you have to leave two of them with the assistant. She will swap them with you when you pass her some items youve tried on already.

The system never works. The assistant always vanishes. I get fully dressed, go to the rail for my two items, only to find theyve been put back out by another staff member.

When I was 25 and size 10 I didnt mind being seen in my underwear. Now Im 51 and not a size 10, I dont want to be looked up and down, and told what suits me by someone half my age and size

Not all changing rooms are hell holes. Ive tried on clothes in some that were bigger than my flat. One had thick-pile carpet, scented candles, squashy velvet sofas and complimentary soft drinks.

But the more luxurious the changing room the more likely it is that the assistant will feel she has the right to walk in and ask how you are getting on.

When I was 25 and size 10 I didnt mind being seen in my underwear. Now Im 51 and not a size 10, I dont want to be looked up and down, and told what suits me by someone half my age and size.

These days I rarely try anything on in store. The changing room is one of lifes little miseries that Ill no longer tolerate.

Some brands like Evans, and Gap are experimenting with virtual changing rooms on their websites.

Online shoppers enter their height and measurements and see how clothes would look on someone their size.

Best of all, theres no frosty busybody popping up to ask how youre getting on.
While your wardrobe says a lot about you, stars are taking self-expression one step further with graphic clothing.

Kourtney Kardahian, 38, just stepped out in a red tee that read 'love being bad', while Alessandra Ambrosio, 36, displayed her love for the Golden State in a 'California Honey' yellow t-shirt.

Don't have a way with words? FEMAIL rounds up some tees that could [literally] say exactly how you feel.

Trouble maker: Kourtney Kardashian loves to be bad. How do we know that? Yesterday she stepped out in Sherman Oaks, California wearing a red t-shirt that had the lower case message 'being bad' with a heart graphic stamped across the front

Kourtney Kardashian loves to be bad. How do we know that?

Yesterday she stepped out in Sherman Oaks, California wearing a red t-shirt that had the lower case message 'being bad' with a heart graphic stamped across the front.

The mom of three paired her sexy tee with ripped jeans and a mini Louis Vuitton backpack.

Left: T-shirt with Printed Design by H&M, now $9.99; hm.com. Right: 'Je Taime' Slogan Crop T-Shirt by Topshop, $30; topshop.com

Left: Pink 'fearless' print T-shirt by River Island, now $20; riverisland.com. Right: No Hugs Don't Touch Me Introvert Personal Space PSA T-Shirt by House Of HaHa Funny Graphic T-Shirts, $16.99; amazon.com

Left: Green 'bonheur' cropped knot front T-shirt by River Island, $36; riverisland.com. Right: Thanks for the Good Vibes Tee by Electric & Rose, $84; goop.com

Home Sweet Home: howing pride for the state she currently resides in, Alessandra, 36, headed to lunch at Nobu in Malibu, California wearing a 'California honey' tee

Showing pride for the state she currently resides in, Alessandra, 36, headed to lunch at Nobu in Malibu, California wearing a 'California honey' tee.

The Brazilian supermodel teamed the Forever 21 top with Re/done cut-off jean shorts and dainty jewelry, while carrying a Chloe handbag.

Fortunately you don't even have to get off your couch to celebrate a locale tkktktkpurchase that step foot in the locale to scoop up a shirt celebrating the destination.

Left: Texas Home Chalkboard Watercolor Flowers State T-Shirt by Texas Tee Vision, $24.99; amazon.com. Right: Graphic T-shirt by AEO, $24.95; ae.com

Left: Hawaiian Tee Shirt Vintage Hawaii T-Shirt by Satisfied Apparel, $19.99; amazon.com. Right: T-shirt with Printed Design by H&M, $5.99; hm.com

Getting political: Just before International Womens Day, Emily Ratajkowski made a powerful statement on the streets of Paris, France. The actress stepped out wearing a Jonathan Simkhai tee emblazoned with the phrase 'Feminist AF'

Just before International Womens Day, Emily Ratajkowski made a powerful statement on the streets of Paris, France.

The actress stepped out wearing a Jonathan Simkhai tee emblazoned with the phrase 'Feminist AF'. She wore it under an army green silk robe by Cinque, while carrying a Tory Burch beaded handbag.

Benefiting Planned Parenthood, the controversial tee became a summer favorite and started the feminist logo tee trend.

On Monday, Sofia Richie, 18, stepped out in NYC wearing a long black duster coat with the word 'conflict' printed across the back. Here are some other conversation starter garments.

Left: Daisy Future Is Female Slogan Tee by Boohoo, $6; booho.com. Right: Statement Graphic Tee by Abercrombie & Fitch, now $16.80; abercrombie.com

Left: Cosmic Reality Tee by Topshop, $45; topshop.com. Right: White 'live love' mesh sleeve T-shirt by River Island, $40; riverisland.com.




Plus-size superstar Ashley Graham proudly put her curves on show in a mini-skirt and cropped T-shirt on Wednesday while promoting her new reality series in New York City.

The 29-year-old curvy model and body positivity advocate was all smiles as she showed off her legs in the black and white striped design, which featured a bright orange waistband, happily waving at the cameras as she made her way into AOL Studios.

To accentuate her hourglass shape, Ashley had her N:Philanthropy white T-shirt tied in a knot at her waist, exposing a sliver of her stomach, while discussing her new Go90 show, The Ashley Graham Project, for the company's BUILD Speaker Series.

Scroll down for video

Strutting her stuff: Ashley Graham showed off her legs in a striped mini-skirt on Wednesday

Looking good: The curvy model accentuated her hourglass figure by tying a knot in her N:Philanthropy T-shirt to show off a sliver of her stomach

Happy as can be: Ashley flashed a bright smile as she made her way into the AOL building for the company's BUILD Speaker Series

The brunette beauty wore her hair in loose beach waves, and she topped off her outfit with a pair of sky-high Schutz stilettos that tied around her ankles.

Ashley sported smokey eye make-up and a nude lip, and she couldn't resist flashing a megawatt smile as she walked into the building.

The star has plenty of reasons to grin, and on Wednesday she took to Instagram to proudly share a trailer from her reality series.

'Im so excited to finally share what Ive been working on these past few months. The Ashley Graham Project has been a dream of mine since the beginning, and I cant wait for everyone to take this journey with me,' she said.

Latest accomplishment: The model is promoting her new Go90 reality series, The Ashley Graham Project

Added touch: Ashley topped off her outfit with a pair of sky-high Schutz stilettos that tied around her ankles

The series gives fans a behind-the-scenes look of Ashley's fast-paced life, including the time she spent filming America's Next Top Model and getting ready to attend the exclusive Met Gala last May.

In addition to being a model and an author, Ashley has her own clothing collections, and earlier this month she debuted her 14th plus-size lingerie line with Montreal-based brand Addition Elle.

As a part of the promotion for the line, she starred in a sultry video ad for the campaign, displaying her boundary breaking curves while wearing items from her Purple Rain By Ashley Graham line.

Dream come true: Ashley took to Instagram on Wednesday to share the trailer for her show

Winning: 'The Ashley Graham Project has been a dream of mine since the beginning,' she wrote on Instagram

The clip sees Ashley sporting the skimpy outfits in what appears to be a high-rise penthouse apartment overlooking Montreal.

She runs her hands over the cups of her bra in several shots and shakes her hips seductively for the camera.

The recent collection consists of eight designs available in sizes X-3X and 36DD-42G/H and prices range from $30.00-$95.00.

'Im excited to continue the evolution of my lingerie offering with the Addition Elle team. We have worked together for many seasons now to create desirable lingerie for women of all sizes,' Ashley said.

A sexy stare: Ashley stars in a sultry video for her latest Addition Elle lingerie line

Sexy is a state of mind: The model released her 14th plus-size lingerie line with the Montreal-based brand earlier this month

So sexy: Following the success of Ashleys previous 13 collections (Dark Beauty, Seductive, Rebel Beauty and more) Purple Rain continues to be daring with a provocative tone

'We remain committed to being the global trendsetter for sexy and supportive lingerie with the new, seductive Purple Rain collection.'

Following the success of Ashleys previous 13 collections (Dark Beauty, Seductive, Rebel Beauty and more) Purple Rain continues to be daring with a provocative tone.

Styles are delicately adorned with a new web lace finish, rich, purple microfibers draped with black fishnet and lace spun to reflect a spider web.

Delicate and fine yet strong and powerful, the pieces are detail heavy, featuring bows, hardware, and dramatic black straps lined with deep purple picot.

'We are excited for our latest lingerie collection with style starlet Ashley Graham. She personifies the confidence of the Addition Elle woman and exudes an inimitable sense of feminism and poise, coupled with fearless and impactful energy,' said Roslyn Griner, Vice President of Marketing and Visual Presentation for Addition Elle.
A baby who was born by the side of the road has celebrated her first birthday by having an adorable tea party with the sheriff's deputy who delivered her.

Evelyn Hall of Granbury, Texas, was born on July 18 after her mother Destiny Hall went to labor on the way to the hospital with Evelyn's father Caleb.

Officer Mark Diebold of the Tarrant County police had flagged down the couple and offered to escort them to the hospital.

Happy day: Evelyn Hall of Granbury, Texas,(left) celebrated her first birthday with the sheriff's deputy who delivered her in a gas station parking lot one year earlier

Bright eyes: The little girl was born on July 18, 2016, after her mother Destiny Hall went to labor on the way to the hospital

But, on the drive over, Destiny realized that her little girl simply couldn't wait to be born.

'[Destiny] said, "Pull over, I'm having the baby," and I said, "No!"' Caleb explained to ABC News last year.

'When she told me that it was happening, we were behind Officer Diebold and he had his lights and sirens going. I kind of had a small glimpse of hope that maybe we would make it.'

The group turned into a gas station, where the officer helped the parents bring Evelyn Joy Deborah Hall into the world, weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces.

All smiles: When it became clear that Destiny Hall couldn't wait to get to the hospital, Officer Mark Diebold of the Tarrant County police (pictured), stepped up

Leaning in: One year on, Evelyn enjoyed a sweet little tea party with officer Diebold

Cheers! Destiny said that her daughter 'loved clinking her little tea cup with him'

Ever since then, the officer has continued to be an important part of little Evelyn's life, with her parents even honoring Diebold with a photoshoot featuring Evelyn leaning next to his badge.

Then, almost exactly one year since they first met, Deputy Constable Diebold joined the little girl for a tea party to celebrate her birthday.

Photos taken of the sweet moment, taken by Cyndi Williams, see the police officer in his uniform sitting at the tiny table with Evelyn, and even lifting one of the itsy bitsy teacups to his lips.

Paying tribute: Evelyn's parents honored the police officer's role in the big day by staging a photo shoot with the baby and his badge

Days ahead: The officer has become a close family friend, with Destiny's children even calling him 'Uncle Mark'

'She loved clinking her little tea cup with him. They had a bonding moment there for sure,' Destiny told ABC News.

'Mark Diebold, without a doubt, is one of the most genuine, loving, thoughtful and caring [people] we have ever met. He is quick to think of others and we are so blessed to call him friend and family.'

The parents have since become good friends with Diebold, and little Evelyn's siblings all call him 'Uncle Mark.'
It's famous now for its tinned rice pudding and custard - but Ambrosia made its names by originally producing dried milk for babies and soldiers during World War One.

The fascinating history of the 100 million Devon-based brand has been revealed in a new exhibition to mark the company's 100th anniversary this week as photos show just how much Ambrosia tins have changed over the years.

Ambrosia's first product, powdered milk, was revolutionary at the time and helped fuel Tommies in the trenches in the First World War as well as feed children during the rationing of the Second World War.

Alfred Morris was the founder of Ambrosia, and he set up the company in 1917 to make dried milk powder. He immediately started producing the powdered milk for troops in World War One

Ambrosia began making creamed rice in 1936 and cans of it were included in Red Cross parcels to British Prisoners of War.

But it took another 32 years before canned custard was produced by the firm.

The two products helped the company grow from its humble beginnings in 1917 when it had less than a dozen employees handling 50 gallons of milk delivered by local farmers by horse and cart.

Still on the same site in the village of Lifton, on the Devon and Cornwall border, its headquarters are now a high-tech 20m facility which employs 320 people and churns through 67 million litres of milk a year - enough to fill 21 Olympic sized swimming pools.

The company started producing dried milk for the troops in the trenches in 1917 and it was also sent out to troops during the Second World War (left). The company started making tinned rice pudding in 1936 (right)

With its slogan 'Devon knows how they make it so creamy,' it is a household name with more than 130 million Ambrosia desserts now sold in the UK alone each year.

The company started from a chance meeting businessman Alfred Morris had in 1915 with an American called James Hatmaker, who had a patent for a milk drying machine which was already being used in France.

Mr Morris decided he could set these machines up in England to make dried milk for infants as at the time families had to rely on wet nurses if a mother died in childbirth.

Mr Morris went to see David Lloyd George, the secretary of state for war, with a sample of the dried milk and asked whether it would be of interest to the Government in its food policy for the war effort.

Lloyd George told him it would and if he could set up a plant producing full cream milk he could be assured of Government contracts.

An advert for Ambrosia 'Creamed Rice' in 1936 (left) when it was first released. There was no ready-to-eat option before Ambrosia's tinned option. Labels reveal what the tins would have looked like (right)

Ambrosia labels for its Creamed Rice Milk Pudding from the 1950s. By this stage, the tins were advertising offers where customers could buy a stainless steel tableware set for less

Lifton was ideal as it was close to a railway line and in the heart of a county rich with dairy farmers.

Mr Morris opened his factory in 1917 with a second-hand boiler and two roller-drying machines. He had one vehicle for milk collection, a Model T Ford, with the rest coming by horse and cart.

He named the business Ambrosia, which means 'food of the gods' at a time when the standard of living was low and infant nutrition was of prime importance.

A sample was sent to the War Office and after testing they gave Ambrosia an order for 300 tons - equivalent to 3m litres of liquid milk.

His son Oscar Morris joined him after the war and ran the Ambrosia factory for his father.

In 1932 he introduced tinned cream, which no one else was producing at the time, and four years later they started making their famous rice pudding.

A tin of Ambrosia Devon Custard tin from 1968 (left), and how a tin looks today (right)

Although people already ate rice pudding, no manufacturer had managed to produce pleasant tasting rice pudding in a ready to eat format.

Ambrosia made a real breakthrough when they sealed uncooked clean rice and warm milk into can before heating so the rice pudding cooked in the can. This locked in the flavour and preserved the product until customers opened and reheated it.

Alfred Morris died in 1936, aged 76, and passed the business on to his son.

By the Second World War Ambrosia was a much bigger production but Government controls were introduced.

All of its dried milk production was diverted to the war effort called National Dried Milk and supplied to families to feed children during rationing, when many mothers were working in factories.

Its creamed rice was limited to War Office contracts only and included in Red Cross parcels for prisoners of war. The company received hundreds of letters from POWs after the war saying they 'owed their lives' to the product.

Nowadays, you can buy Ambrosia's Rice Pudding in tins (left) or in fresh ready-to-eat pots that don't contain any preservatives (right)

In 1951 the restrictions were lifted and production of tinned cream and creamed rice resumed.

In the 1960s Ambrosia launched its canned Devon custard before producing cartons and a low fat rice pudding in the 1980s.

They stopped making milk powder in about 1977.

The company changed hands several times after the Morris' sold it and has been owned by Premier Foods since 2003.

Although machinery and ingredients have been updated, Ambrosia's rice pudding is still made using the same method as in 1937.

The Lifton creamery uses 67 million litres of milk every year and makes 250 million desserts, 127 million of which are cans.

More than 600,000 portions of Ambrosia custard and rice pudding are eaten in the UK each day, which works out as seven per second.

Marion Kneebone, from the Lifton Local History Group, said: 'It's a strong brand that has managed to keep going for a century through turbulent times - through two world wars is quite an achievement.'
A two-year-old girl with a rare kidney disease was saved when she received a transplant from her 62-year-old grandmother.

Wryn Graydon, who lives in Moody, Alabama, was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome, a rare kidney disease, when she was two months old.

The condition caused her kidneys to work improperly, flushing out not only the toxins in her body, but all of the nutrients she needed to survive.

Doctors told Wryn's parents Michael and Haley the only course of action would be a kidney transplant when she was old and strong enough, and that their best bet would be a living donor.

Family members lined up to get tested, and doctors eventually found that Wryn's grandmother Carol was a perfect match, despite the 60-year age difference.

After a double nephrectomy to remove the problematic kidneys and 20 months on dialysis, Wryn finally received her new kidney on July 13.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Carol Graydon, pictured far left, was able to save her two-year-old granddaughter Wryn (pictured left just after the transplant, and right a few months before it) when she found out she would be able to donate a kidney to her

SHOCK DIAGNOSIS: WRYN TOLD SHE HAS A RARE KIDNEY DISEASE AND NEEDS A TRANSPLANT AFTER BECOMING SEVERELY DEHYDRATED

Wryn was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome when, at two months old, she got inexplicably sick.

Initially doctors assumed she had a cold, gave her medicine, and sent her on her way. But her parents said something still seemed off.

'We thought maybe she had an ear infection. We weren't sure because there were no major symptoms but something just didn't feel right,' Michael Graydon told Daily Mail Online.

She was taken back to the pediatrician and doctors quickly realized how dehydrated she was.

Wryn was sent straight to the emergency room where doctors ordered blood tests and examined her vitals, which her father explained were 'very bad.' She was then admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Wryn was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome when at two months old she got inexplicably sick. She is pictured in the hospital at that age when she was given the diagnosis

Wryn and her parents, Michael and Haley, are pictured in the hospital. She was there for three months after diagnosis before her parents were finally able to take her home again (pictured)

'There was a moment when I picked her up, and about 30 seconds later she stopped breathing in my arms. It was the scariest moment of my life, I really can't explain that feeling,' Michael explained.

Doctors were able to resuscitate the infant, and after more than four days of testing she was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome.

Congential nephrotic syndrome is a rare genetic condition that affects the kidneys' functioning. It begins early in development, and starts showing signs within the first three months of life.

The condition is characterized by low protein levels, high cholesterol and swelling, and eventually progresses to the point where kidney function shuts down entirely.

'Kidneys are supposed to flush toxins out of the body,' Michael explained. 'Instead, they were flushing out anything good, so she wasn't holding onto any nutrients or water.'

It is genetic, but because it's so rare it's very likely someone would not know they were a carrier. In Wryn's case, both of her parents were carriers of the recessive gene, but neither knew.

Currently, transplants are the only available long-term treatment for the condition beyond dialysis.

Wryn is pictured in the hospital with her parents just days after receiving her new kidney. Congential nephrotic syndrome is a rare genetic condition that affects the kidney's functioning, meaning she would need a new one

Everyone in the family wanted to be the person who could give a kidney to their sick little girl, but doctors could only test three people at a time. Eventually it came back that Wryn's grandma Carol was a donor match. Wryn is pictured in the hospital after the successful transplant

SEARCH FOR A LIVING DONOR: WRYN'S GRANDMOTHER IS FOUND TO BE A PERFECT MATCH - DESPITE 60-YEAR AGE DIFFERENCE

WHAT IS NEPRHROTIC SYNDROME? The kidneys of people with nephrotic syndrome do not work properly, causing large amounts of protein to leak into their urine. It can affect people of any age, but it is often first detected in children aged between two and five years old. The loss of protein can cause a range of problems, including swelling of body tissues and increase a person's chance of catching infections. Symptoms can be controlled by medication. A small number of children have congenital nephrotic syndrome, which means it is inherited, and shows up at a much younger age, normally between gestation and three months of age. These children tend not to do as well, and normally need a transplant, as in Wryn's case. Congenital nephrotic syndrome is caused by an inherited faulty gene. For the condition to be passed on, both parents must have a healthy copy of the gene and a faulty one. They then have a one in four chance that any children will develop the condition. Nephrotic syndrome can affect people of any age, but it is commonly seen in young children. It affects more boys than girls. Only about one in every 50,000 children are diagnosed with the condition each year. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

Within two months of Wryn's diagnosis, she had a double nephrectomy to remove both of the troublesome kidneys.

Then, at four months old, she was placed on dialysis.

'She had a catheter that we could change, so luckily, after three months in the hospital, we were able to take her home. But she has been on on 11 hours of dialysis a day for the last 20 or so months,' Michael explained.

Constant dialysis, though keeping her healthy, meant Wryn wasn't able to run around like a normal girl her age because she had lower energy levels. She also had a catheter, which had to be changed every day, and was hooked up to a machine for nearly half the day.

While her case was not yet critical, her parents said it was agony watching her slowly suffer more and more - and they started desperately searching for a donor.

When she turned one, she could be put on the donor list, though she still wasn't old or strong enough to receive a new kidney.

'The list is long, and it made more sense to try to do it within the family, so we all had to decide who would get tested first,' he said.

Normally children in need of a transplant are best suited to receive a child-sized kidney.

But this would be a problematic solution for many reasons.

First, nobody can donate an organ until they reach 18. That means Wryn's sister could not be tested to see if she was a match.

Instead, if they wanted a child-sized kidney, it would have to be taken from a donor who is brain dead - meaning the kidney would likely be in a worse condition and may not last as long.

That would also mean waiting to get a kidney from the national donor list, which can typically take anywhere between five and ten years. Thirteen people die each day while waiting for a donor to turn up.

An organ that comes from a living donor - either a family member or a stranger who is a match - is considered to be preferable because it will last longer than one from a deceased donor, and could short-cut the waiting list.

As a result, although Wryn's only family option would be an adult-sized kidney, her parents and doctors decided this was the best route to take.

Everyone in the family wanted to be the person who could give a kidney to their sick little girl, but doctors could only test three people at a time.

'My wife and I couldn't do it, I've had kidney stones and she's the primary caregiver, so the first three to be tested were my parents and one of my brothers,' Michael said.

Doctors did extensive blood tests and tissue sampling, and it came back that Wryn's 62-year-old grandmother Carol, who she calls Gigi, was a perfect match.

The ideal age for a living donor is considered to be between 18 and 65, which did make Carol in the late age range for an organ donation.

But doctors considered the 62-year-old to be completely healthy, and said she had the 'kidneys of a 20-year-old,' which outweighed any potential risks that might have come with age.

'I can't explain the moment she told me. She surprised me with the news at work, and there were so many different emotions,' Michael said.

BATTLING THROUGH THE TRANSPLANT TOGETHER: HOW WRYN AND 'GIGI' COMFORTED EACH OTHER THROUGH SURGERY, GIVING THEM AN 'UNBREAKABLE BOND'

Carol's excellent health, strong kidneys, and that she was a living donor made it so the transplant could be scheduled for as soon as Wryn was strong enough.

Because Wryn was receiving an adult-sized organ, her parents and doctors decided to wait until she was big enough for the organ to fit and for the arteries to attach successfully.

'We decided to wait a few months, until after Wryn turned two, because the longer we waited and the bigger she was the more successful the transplant would be,' Michael explained.

The transplant was scheduled for one week after Wryn's second birthday, which was on July 6.

Carol and Wryn underwent their transplant surgeries at neighboring hospitals in Birmingham on the morning of July 13.

While Michael waited at his daughter's bedside, his dad was texting him updates from his mom's surgery.

'The kidney was just walked from where she was at UAB (University of Alabama-Birmingham) to the children's hospital next door,' Michael recalled. 'The transplants went perfectly, basically as smoothly as they could go.'

Two days after the surgery, Carol was able to come next door to see her granddaughter.

One week after Wryn's second birthday on July 6, the transplant was scheduled for July 13. They took place at neighboring hospitals in Birmingham, Alabama

'Just after the surgery Wryn was tired and not really herself,' Michael said, describing the emotional reunion.

'But just a few minutes after her Gigi came into the room you could see she perked right up and was back to her normal energetic self.'

'She was too young to understand exactly what was happening, but she knew Gigi had given her something special. It's hard to explain all the different emotions, but there was a whole lot of love in that room,' Michael said.

Both Wryn and Carol had minor complications following the procedures, but they were considered to be successful overall.

'Wryn had a bit of diarrhea at first, and my mom had a really sore neck and was having trouble sleeping, but now they're both doing really well,' Michael said.

He said his mom's energy levels have been low because her body had to get used to functioning with just one kidney.

Additionally, because of her age, it is likely taking her longer to recovery after a surgery and for her body to get used to having one less kidney. Overall, though, Michael said his mom is doing well and recovering at home.

And Wryn, who her father said was already a 'wild child' has gotten more energetic as each day passes. She was finally able to be taken home on Tuesday, July 25.
A mother-of-three claims she has been forced to spend 70,000 every three weeks on cancer treatment in Germany to stay alive - because she was told she 'doesn't have enough cancer' for therapy in the UK.

Louise Gleadell, 38, from Leicester, was first diagnosed with grade 2b cervical cancer in February 2016 and was told it was incurable in January.

Desperate to spend more time with her children, Ms Gleadell attempted to participate in an immunotherapy trial available through the NHS, but claims she was denied access to the treatment because she didn't have 'enough' cancer, despite her no longer been eligible for chemotherapy.

Ms Gleadell has even considered selling her home to fund her frequent medical trips abroad.

Breaking down the cost of her treatment, she revealed: 'The first time that I went to Germany, I had to be there for eight days, and that alone cost 70,000. My second time, just three weeks later, cost 66,000 and now every three weeks I have two days' worth and that's 32,000.

'So we've had to use all of our savings so that I can get treatment in Germany.'

Ms Gleadell said she is also relying on fundraising from her family and friends.

A spokesperson from University College London Hospitals, who are conducting the trial, said: '[Ms Gleadell] was considered for an immunotherapy trial but it was not clear, from a CT scan she provided, if she met the criteria.'

Louise Gleadell, 38, was told she 'didn't have enough cancer' for a treatment trial in the UK

This is despite her cervical cancer being incurable and her being ineligible for chemotherapy

(pictured with her children Mateo (11), Jude (2) and Joe (13), and partner Matt Rawson (40))

HOW IS THE MONEY BEING SPENT? Ms Gleadell has used all of her savings and is relying on fundraising from friends and family to pay for the treatment. The first course of therapy cost 70,000. Three weeks later, Ms Gleadell had to pay 66,000. The treatment now costs 32,000 every three weeks. Advertisement

'It has cost me everything we have'

Ms Gleadell is receiving treatment at the Hallwang Clinic in Germany.

Ms Gleadell, a former holiday business owner, said: 'Although it has cost me everything we have, except the roof over our head, it is worth it to be able to spend some time with my children.

'The next step would be to sell our house, but it's not that simple, the kids are just young.

'It's their home and I've got to think about their future - if I do go, what will they have left?

'I'm paying an absolute fortune, when I should be able to get the treatment in the UK, but it's worth it to spend time with my family.'

Ms Gleadell has considered selling the house to help fund her treatment (pictured with Jude)

Yet, she worries about the impact selling the house may have on her family if she passes away

WHAT IS GRADE 2B CERVICAL CANCER? Grade 2b cervical cancer occurs when the tumours have spread outside of the cervix and into the surrounding tissue. The cancer has not gone into the muscles or ligaments that line the pelvis, or the lower part of the vagina. Stage 2b cervical cancer is usually treated with chemo and radiotherapy. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement

'I didn't have enough cancer'

Ms Gleadell, who never missed a smear test, said: 'I initially tried to join an immunotherapy trial in the UK, but I was told that I couldn't because I didn't have enough cancer.

'So we've had to use all of our savings so that I can get treatment in Germany.

'The first time that I went to Germany, I had to be there for eight days, and that alone cost 70,000.

'My second time, just three weeks later, cost 66,000 and now every three weeks I have two days' worth and that's 32,000.

'And I have to keep having these treatments every three weeks or my tumours will continue growing and I will die.'

Ms Gleadell first went to Germany in mid-April.

She has fundraised 119,000 for her treatment and has also spent 80,000 from her savings and donations from family and friends.

Ms Gleadell discovered her cancer was incurable after she developed a lump on her neck.

She said: 'As soon as I heard this, I just knew that my options weren't up - I wasn't just going to let this cancer kill me.

'I started looking at immunotherapy and I applied for trials in the UK.

'Once I was denied, I didn't dwell on it - I knew that I had to try and get on a trial somewhere, I didn't feel like it was my time to go, but I knew my body wasn't coping.'

Her first tip to Germany cost 70,000 for eight days of therapy (pictured with her medical bill)

Ms Gleadell refused to give up on treatment, even after being denied therapy in the UK

She has relied on help from others to pay for her treatment in Germany (pictured fundraising)

Doctors dismissed her symptoms as being due to tiredness and breastfeeding pain

WHAT IS IMMUNOTHERAPY? Immunotherapy boosts the body's natural defences to help fight cancer. It involves stopping or slowing cancer's growth, preventing it from spreading and helping the immune system to fight it. Substances used in immunotherapy can either be made in the body or the laboratory. Different types of immunotherapy include immune cells that attach to tumours, using genetically modified viruses to kill cancer cells or cancer vaccines. Source: cancer.net Advertisement

Symptoms blamed on tiredness and breastfeeding

Ms Gleadell first became suspicious something was wrong while pregnant with her now two-year-old son Jude, The Sun reported earlier this year.

She complained of an aching pelvis and dizziness, and even thought her waters had broken at 36 weeks when fluid gushed out of her.

Yet, doctors questioned whether the fluid expulsion - a sign of cervical cancer - even happened.

When Ms Gleadell's dizzy symptoms did not go away after Jude's birth, doctors said she was just tired and suffering pain from breastfeeding.

After having blood tests, doctors said the only problem was slightly low calcium levels and advised her to stop thinking about being dizzy, as this was likely making the symptom worse.

Ms Gleadell even had her cervix examined on several occasions, yet doctors still failed to notice her tumours.

After a private scan, Ms Gleadell was diagnosed with grade 2b cervical cancer.

After enduring months of gruelling treatment, doctors thought they had cured her cancer in July 2016.

Ms Gleadell said: 'It was weird, after 12 weeks of chemotherapy I slowly began to feel normal again, and I was going to the gym and getting back into a normal routine.

'I thought that everything was fine and that my cancer was minimising - if not, completely gone!'

Yet, while waiting for the results of her treatment, Ms Gleadell discovered a lump on her neck.

Scans and blood tests revealed the cancer had spread and was incurable.

Ms Gleadell said: 'One morning when I woke up I realised that my neck was really stiff and I felt a little lump on my neck.

'I then found out that this was a tumour in my neck, and this was when I was told that my cancer was incurable.'

Ms Gleadell was denied chemotherapy after suffering a life-threatening bleed, as the treatment increases a patient's risk of hemorrhaging.

A spokesperson from University College London Hospitals, who are conducting the trial, said: 'We are sorry to hear that [Ms Gleadell] has been less than happy with her experience. [Ms Gleadell] was considered for an immunotherapy trial but it was not clear, from a CT scan she provided, if she met the criteria.

'We called her a week after her consultation to offer her a further MRI and CT scan, but she did not pursue this with us. We are making contact with [Ms Gleadell] to discuss the issues she has raised and respond to her concerns.'

Donate towards Ms Gleadell's treatment here.
A 'neglected' father was found writhing in pain and has been stuck in the foetal position for two years after 'falling through NHS cracks'.

Billy Barclay, 60, from East Kilbride, was 'left to rot' when social workers couldn't find the MS sufferer a care home.

His estranged daughter, Barbara Gallacher, 36, discovered the former soldier curled up in a ball because of muscle wastage causing his legs to retract.

It was the first time she had seen her father, who was living alone, since she was a child, after losing contact with him when her parents divorced.

She has now released a harrowing picture of her father looking 'like an animal', as he remains in the foetal position, in a desperate plea for help.

No explanation has been given as to how Mr Barclay survived, or even moved around, for two years - but he is now receiving care in hospital as his legs remain compressed against his body.

Billy Barclay, 60, from East Kilbride, was 'left to rot' when social workers couldn't find the MS sufferer a care home

Ms Gallacher told the Daily Record: 'I had never seen anything like it before. It was like something you would see on the streets of India, not Scotland.

'In some ways, he resembled an animal and he was screaming out so much in pain because his legs would go into painful spasms.

'He was totally away with the fairies. He had really bad bedsores. You could smell them. Because there was no one to fight his corner, he was left to rot.

'If this is the situation people end up in under care in the community, it is clearly not working.'

Mr Barclay became confined to his home when his MS became unmanageable and his mental health deteriorated.

He is now stuck in hospital because there is no appropriate nursing home to cope with his medical needs.

Mr Barclay became confined to his home when his MS became unmanageable and his mental health deteriorated

Staff refused to accept he had a mental illness

Ms Gallacher was told by South Lanarkshire's social work department that her father refused to go for hospital appointments.

I had never seen anything like it before. It was like something you would see on the streets of India, not Scotland Barbara Gallacher, 36

Staff told her that he had the mental capacity to make his own decisions about getting help when she questioned them.

Desperate to prove them wrong, she even forked out thousands of pounds for a mental health assessment of her father to.

Carers' reports of Mr Barclay, from before he was re-united with his daughter, had already showed signs of his mental illness.

She told the newspaper that 'it was clear' her father needed help - but 'they did nothing' and 'allowed him to deteriorate'.

WHAT IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS? Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord. It occurs when the body mistakenly attacks the nervous system. MS is a serious condition that can cause significant disability and reduce life expectancy. Yet, some cases are mild. Symptoms include fatigue, difficulty walking, blurred vision and muscle stiffness or numbness. There is no cure. Treatment focuses on reducing relapses and speeding up recovery time between episodes. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The timeline of events

When Ms Gallacher found her father, he was taken into Hairmyres Hospital with bedsores before being discharged to Flemington Care Home in Cambuslang.

But staff were unable to cope with his condition, as his mental health worsened. He was re-admitted to the same hospital with an infection earlier this year.

Mr Barclay was then transferred to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow - where he has spent the last five months.

Despite being fit for discharge, Ms Gallacher is reluctant to send him back to the care home knowing what happened last time.

She is now desperate to find a more specialist facility that has the resources available to care for him - but places are scarce because is under 65.

'Please find my dad somewhere to go'

Ms Gallacher has since issued an appeal to South Lanarkshire Council: 'Please find my dad somewhere to go. You neglected him but now I am begging for your help.

'If he hadn't been neglected in the first place he wouldn't have needed the care he does now.'

The council's head of adult and older people services, Brenda Hutchinson, said: 'The social work service has been working alongside Mr Barclay and the family to assess his needs and is now actively seeking to identify an appropriate facility for him.'

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said they 'deeply regret anyone having to wait longer than necessary to receive their care package'.
Antidepressants have been associated with 28 murders in the UK, according to a new BBC investigation.

This was the number referred to the UK medicines regulator in the last three decades, Panorama has revealed.

Using Freedom of Information laws, programme makers also discovered murderous thoughts have been linked to anti-depressants on 32 occasions.

Airing tonight, 'A Prescription For Murder?' explores psychosis, violence and in extreme cases, murder.

The documentary looks at the case of James Holmes, who murdered 12 people in a mass shooting in a Colorado cinema in 2012.

'A Prescription For Murder?' explores a potential link between violence and SSRIs (file picture)

He was taking selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants at the time and had no history of violence.

It also features a father, 59-year-old David Carmichael, who strangled his 11-year-old son Ian during a psychotic episode and blames the antidepressants he was taking.

Dangerous mood swings

More than 60 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written in the UK in 2015.

SSRIs is a type of anti-depressant that boosts levels of the chemical seratonin in the brain.

For the vast majority of people, the drugs are safe to take but experts warn in rare circumstances, the pills can trigger dangerous mood swings, agitation, hallucinations and paranoid delusions.

Professor Peter Tyrer, psychiatrist at Imperial College London, said: 'You can never be quite certain with a rare side-effect whether it's linked to a drug or not because it could be related to other things.

'But it's happened just too frequently with this class of drug to make it random. It's obviously related to the drug but we don't know exactly why.'

He has urged judges presiding over cases where people taking SSRIs have committed violent crimes to take into account the possible effects.

Clearly very few people on these medications become suicidal or homicidal, but an experts says as many as one in 1,000 people taking the medication is severely affected.

'There are probably up to an extra 2,500 suicides in Europe triggered by an SSRI antidepressant,' claims Professor Healy, a professor of psychiatry at Bangor University and a leading critic of SSRIs.

He has founded rxisk.org, a website that helps identify potential drug risks.

Alarmingly, he believes the figures are similar for episodes of violence, including mass killings.

Fears people will come off medications

But mental health charities fear the documentary could stop people taking their medication.

Mind said in a statement: 'We welcome investigations into prescription medication for mental health problems and their side effects but we are concerned that the programme may cause people taking SSRI antidepressants to worry unnecessarily.'

Drugs manufacturer Pfizer who developed an SSRI called sertraline said a causal link between the drug and murderous behaviour had not been proved.
A Pakistani man with hundreds of bubble-like tumours has been forced to live as a recluse as people fear he would infect them.

Habib Ullah Khan, 56, from Karachi, has had his body ravaged by the small lumps - believed to be a form of neurofibromatosis.

Since sprouting on his chest when he was just 10, the benign lumps have spread to his legs, arms, neck and even his face.

However, it is not the pain of the bubble mass that is forcing the single man to live an isolated life - it's the public mockery.

Habib Ullah Khan, 56, from Karachi, has had his body ravaged by the small lumps - believed to be a form of neurofibromatosis

Since sprouting on his chest when he was just 10, the benign lumps have spread to his legs, arms, neck and even his face

'People think I will infect everything'

He said: 'People have ridiculed me throughout my life. No one likes looking at me or being near to me. People think I will infect everything.

'Many landlords don't want me living in their property or ask me to leave when people complaint about my condition. I've had to move many times.

'I go out only once or twice in a week and remain cautious that people in the neighbourhood do not know about my medical condition.'

Forced to beg for income

After the death of his parents two decades ago, Mr Khan left his family house and began living on his own.

With no support, he earns his living by begging on the streets. He lives in a single rented room and spends most of his time indoors.

He added: 'It was very painful when my own brothers would ask their children to stay away from me. Then, one day I decided to leave the house and live on my own.

However, it is not the pain of the bubble mass that is forcing the single man to live an isolated life - it's the public mockery

NEUROFIBROMATOSIS: THE FACTS Neurofibromatosis the name for a number of genetic conditions that cause swellings or lumps and affects just one in 3,000 births. There are two main types - the most common being Type 1 or NF1. This affects around one person in 2,500. There is no known cure. NF1 is a condition someone is born with, although some symptoms develop gradually over many years. The severity of the condition can vary considerably from person to person, but sufferers are more likely to suffer from behavioural problems, vision difficulties and high blood pressure. Despite the alarming appearance, the growths and swellings - called neurofibromas and caused by a growth of cells - are not cancerous or contagious. The condition has long been associated with the 'Elephant Man', the name given to Joseph Carey Merrick, who was severely disfigured. Advertisement

'I thought it is better to beg on the streets rather to face this daily humiliation from my own family members.

'Luckily, I don't have too many tumours on my face which allows me to hide this condition from people.

Forced to quit school

Born to a large family, Mr Khan had big dreams but was forced to quit studies at a young age because of the incurable condition.

His parents took him to several doctors, but they were told there was no treatment available for neurofibromatosis.

He added: 'I was only 10 when small lumps started growing on my abdomen. When I turned 12, the tumours started spreading to my arms, neck, face and legs.

'Even though I was a bright student, I couldn't continue my studies after class 5th as no one in the school was talking to me or sharing desk with me.'

A severe case of neurofibromatosis

Dr Iqbal Nabi Soomro, director at the Institute of Skin Disease, Karachi, believes he has neurofibromatosis.

He told local reporters: 'It looks pretty obvious to me that he has a severe case of Neurofibromatosis.

'There is no cure for this condition in the medical world. We can remove his tumours but as this disease is genetic there are chances the tumours will appear again.'
News / Africa

by Staff reporter

South Africa's Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has revealed that nearly 12,000 foreign nationals are in SA prisons for criminal offences ranging from murder, rape and crimes against the safety of the state.Masutha disclosed the figures in response to parliamentary questions by Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald. Groenewald asked for the total number of foreign nationals in prison but also requested figures on jailed Zimbabweans and Mozambicans.Masutha said the annual cost of taking care of each prisoner in the country is R133,805 a year, which amounts to R1.6-billion annually for the 11842 foreign nationals behind bars.He said 918 foreign nationals were in jail for murder while another 359 were awaiting trial while 454 have been imprisoned for rape and 254 are awaiting trial.According to Masutha, 448 Zimbabweans are either currently imprisoned or awaiting trial for murder while 311 Mozambicans were behind bars for the same crime.For rape, there are 186 Zimbabweans and 213 Mozambicans imprisoned.Yesterday, department spokesman Logan Maistry said as of July 4 there were a total number of 158 111 prisoners, including the foreigners, in the 243 jails across the country. Out of that 40 823 were awaiting trial prisoners.However, Zimbabwe Exiles Forum chairman Gabriel Shumba said asking such questions and releasing figures in the volatile environment foreigners faced was unhelpful."The moment you want to give crime a nation or race is stoking xenophobic flames."There is no basis to question what nationality is imprisoned, which prison and for what crime," said Shumba.He added that the challenges confronting South Africa were dealing with regularisation of people within its borders and ensuring that everyone was documented. According to Shumba, poverty and socio-economic deprivation must be dealt with and that crime cannot be fought by stigmatising an already vulnerable group.He said foreign nationals made up a "hugely small" percentage of prisoners in South African jails.The African Diaspora Forum said it needed time to study the numbers provided by Masutha and compare them with theirs. It said some South African citizens were counted as foreigners. Masutha also revealed that nearly 200 inmates were awaiting trial for "crimes against the safety of the state".
A ground-breaking 2 million trial is underway to test whether a common blood pressure drug could halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

British researchers believe losartan  which has been available for more than two decades  could reduce the rate of brain shrinkage that normally occurs with the incurable condition.

It may improve blood flow and stop the chain reactions that cause brain cell damage and memory problems, past previous research suggests.

There are 140 participants already taking part, but scientists need another 90 volunteers.

The study, known as RADAR, is being led by the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Queen's University Belfast and University College, London.

Almost half a million people in the UK have Alzheimer's, which is the most common form of dementia.

Researchers are urging volunteers to come forward to take part in the trial (file photo)

Pat Kehoe, professor of translational dementia research at the University of Bristol, said: 'With an ageing population, and as we are still in search of longer acting and effective treatments.

'We are delighted with the confidence our funders have placed on us.

'The scientific case is there but we now really need people with Alzheimer's disease to come forward and offer to take part as their involvement is essential to helping scientists find out if losartan could be a future treatment.'

HOW THE RESEARCH WILL BE CARRIED OUT The RADAR study will instruct participants to take a pill once a day for 12 months. It is a double-blinded randomised trial, which means some participants will randomly be given losartan or an identical looking pill with no active medicine (a placebo). Nobody, including the doctors or nurses involved, will be aware who receives which. A team of experts will then use brain scans to measure whether losartan slashes the rate of brain shrinkage. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires on their memory and quality of life. People interested in taking part can find out more information here. Advertisement

Past research

The Universities of Bristol carried out the first study to investigate the effects of blood pressure drugs on Alzheimer's in 2011.

Its scientists analysed data from 40,000 patients aged over 60 who were being treated for hypertension, or high blood pressure.

They discovered taking drugs known as ARBs and ACE inhibitors  which includes losartan  cuts the risk of the disease by up to 50 per cent.

They also found patients on these newer drugs are also less likely to develop vascular dementia  a condition caused by problems in blood supply to the brain  than those on older medication.

People with high blood pressure are more at risk of developing Alzheimer's and similar diseases, but some are protected by the drugs they take, their study shows.

These medications targets a biochemical pathway called the renin angiotensin system, thought to affect the onset of Alzheimer's.

No new drugs for over a decade

The Alzheimer's Society welcomed the trial and said losartan is known to be safe.

Head of research Dr James Pickett said: 'No new drug for Alzheimers has been approved in the past 14 years.

'Testing drugs like this one, which we already know is safe, is a great approach, as it significantly reduces the time it could take to reach patients if it were effective.

'We're already using this approach by funding studies into arthritis and diabetes drugs.'
A HIV patient had the killer virus kept under control for 10 months after he was given an experimental injection.

The findings offer yet more hope for potential treatments in future, amid an array of other trials published this week with similar results.

Scientists tested the effects of 'broadly neutralising antibodies' on a small study of 18 people - including the unidentified man.

None of the other participants saw such profound effects, only having their virus halted for around two weeks.

US military researchers presented the results at the ninth annual meeting of the International Aids Society in Paris.

It comes after the groundbreaking case of a nine-year-old boy virtually cured of HIV, and the 'new revolution' of injections, were also revealed at the conference.

The findings offer yet more hope for potential HIV treatments in future, amid an array of other trials with similar results

All of the volunteers in the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) study had already been controlling their virus with standard drugs.

Treatment was then stopped completely in some of the patients. Others were given a blood infusion of the VRC01 antibody.

What did they find?

Those who scrapped taking their antiretroviral drugs, currently used to control the virus, saw their virus return in around two weeks.

But the trial, conducted in Thailand, noted that those who received the antibody had around 26 clear days before it came back.

Those who received the antibody infusion were given it every three weeks for six months, the researchers said.

The treatment has some 'impact'

Dr Jintanat Ananworanich, one of the researchers, said that more research is needed to test the antibody's potential - but it has some 'impact'.

She told BBC News: '[The patient] has been off treatment for around 10 months and has so far controlled the virus to very low levels.'

'It suggests there's some impact from the antibody, but how the antibody actually impacts the virus and the immune system - that's an on-going investigation.

THE BOY WITH HIV WHO WAS CURED A nine-year-old child has been virtually cured of HIV, scientists claimed earlier this week. The youngster got the infection from their mother and began a years treatment at nine weeks old. But for the last eight and a half years the child, now nearly ten, has been drug-free. The child - whose name and gender was not identified  was born in South Africa and given a short burst of drugs immediately afterwards. They have since been off treatment for eight and a half years without showing any symptoms or signs of the active virus. Scientists hope the case will help improve their understanding of HIV and pave the way for new drugs or vaccines which can cure the infection. Advertisement

'I do think antibody therapy has potential because the antibody, in the future, could perhaps be given just two or three times a year.'

Dr Michael Brady, medical director of Terrence Higgins Trust, told MailOnline: 'We've known for a long time that effective - or "neutralising" - antibodies are key to the body being able to control, or even eradicate, HIV.

'The challenge has been to learn how to stimulate them effectively for use as HIV treatment or prevention.

'This case is interesting and will add to our knowledge about the interaction between HIV and the immune system.'

How the antibody works

VRC01, which has previously been shown to stop up to 90 per cent of HIV strains from infecting human cells, was discovered in 2010.

It works by blocking the virus from binding to a part of the virus called the CD4 binding site - stopping it from attaching to immune cells.

Researchers deemed it to be the biggest leap in the field of HIV research at the time - until the promising discovery of another antibody, called N6, in November.

More than 200 broadly neutralising antibodies, which humans are inefficient in making, have been documented in the quest for HIV treatment.

Previous animals studies have hinted they could work better than antiretroviral drugs which are taken daily to stop the virus from weakening their immune system.

HIV: The facts

An estimated 36.7 million adults and children worldwide have HIV, including at least 88,800 in the UK and reportedly 1.2 million in the US.

The virus progressively damages the cells in the immune system weakening the body's ability to fight infections.

Without treatment, this leads to AIDs  the collective name for a series of life-threatening infections which the weakened immune system cannot withstand.
If your parents had bipolar disorder, you may age faster.

Cells shrink and break quicker in those with a family history of the mental illness, new research suggests.

Healthy relatives of those suffering from bipolar disorder had shorter telomeres, a study found.

These 'shoelace caps' at the end of chromosomes are widely known to determine how well or badly someone will age.

Telomeres, which differ in length by a tiny fraction of a millimetre, can predict someone's risk of cancer and Alzheimer's.

They shorten each time a cell divides until they are so short they are totally degraded and cells are no longer able to replicate.

Healthy relatives of those suffering from bipolar disorder have shorter telomeres - which show how well or badly someone will age, new research suggests (stock)

King's College London researchers led the study, with help from a team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The first evidence

Lead author Dr Timothy Powell said: 'Our study provides the first evidence that familial risk for bipolar disorder is associated with shorter telomeres.'

He added that this 'may explain why bipolar disorder patients are also at a greater risk for ageing-related diseases'.

However, Dr Powell warned more research is needed to be done to determine why those with a family history of the mental illness age quicker.

He said: 'Do those at risk for bipolar disorder carry genes predisposing them to faster biological ageing, or are they more likely to partake in environmental factors which promote ageing?'

But the remedy may have also been found...

The findings also showed promise for the main drug used to treat the illness in slowing down biological ageing.

Bipolar patients treated with lithium were discovered to have longer telomeres compared to those on other drugs.

This suggests the drug may mask the ageing effects associated with bipolar disorder, or even help to reverse it.

Dr Gerome Breen, co-senior author at Icahn School, said: 'Up to now it has been unclear whether or not bipolar disorder patients are at risk of accelerated ageing.

WHAT ARE TELOMERES? Telomeres sit on the end of our chromosomes and act like caps, protecting the strands of DNA stored inside each of our cells as we age. They shorten each time a cell divides until they are so short that they are totally degraded and cells are no longer able to replicate. Telomere length therefore acts as a marker of biological age, with shortened telomeres representing older cells, and commonly older individuals. The rate at which telomeres shorten across our lifespan can vary, based on a range of environmental and genetic factors. This means that two unrelated people of the same chronological age may not be the same age biologically. Advertisement

'This study shows that they are at greater risk of faster ageing and drugs commonly used to treat the disorder may actually mask or reverse this effect.'

How was the study carried out?

To measure biological ageing, the researchers studied telomeres length in 63 patients with bipolar disorder.

They were compared against 74 first-degree relatives and 80 unrelated people, according to the study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

MRI scans were also conducted to explore the relationship between telomeres length and brain structure, particularly in the hippocampus - an area which helps regulates mood.

They discovered that shorter telomeres were associated with having a smaller hippocampus - potentially down to the reduced ability of new brain cells to grow.

As a result, this can reduce the size of the hippocampus and consequently increase risk for mood disorders such as bipolar disorder.

What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder affects around two per cent of the UK's population, figures suggest, but many are not receiving treatment.

The mental health condition causes patients to experience episodes of feeling very high and very low.

Previous research has revealed such conditions may affect heart rhythms, increase blood pressure and alter clotting.

All of these put patients at risk of heart disease - which is already known to be more common in patients with bipolar.

Bipolar disorder may also increase a persons stress hormone levels, which hinders the bodys ability to repair damaged heart tissue.
Weight loss surgery is best before people have become too large, a study found.

Obese patients are more likely to slim to a healthy level following a gastric band operation than those who wait to get to a morbidly obese level before undergoing the procedure.

In the US and the UK, surgery is seen as a last-resort option, not normally considered before patients become morbidly obese  with a BMI (body mass index) of 40 or more.

But research by the University of Michigan has suggested surgery might be more effective in patients who have the procedure while their BMI is 39 or less.

Research by the University of Michigan has suggested surgery might be more effective in patients who have the procedure while their BMI is 39 or less

A study of 27,320 bariatric surgery patients found nearly three quarters of patients with a BMI of less than 40 before surgery were able to lower it below 30  classed as no longer obese  within a year of the procedure.

This compared to fewer than one in ten patients who started with a BMI over 50 and around four in ten patients with a BMI of 40 to 49.

Patients who lowered their BMI below 30 were much more likely to stop needing medication for high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

They were also more likely to stop suffering from sleep apnea  a condition where breathing is blocked by the airways relaxing too much in sleep  than those whose BMI remained above 30 despite the procedure.

Authors of the study, published in the journal JAMA Surgery, said: 'Our results suggest that patients should be targeted for surgery when their BMI is still less than 40, as these patients are more likely to achieve a target BMI that results in substantial reduction in weight-related [conditions].

'Patients should be counselled appropriately with respect to weight loss expectations after bariatric surgery.

'Furthermore, policies and practice patterns that delay or incentivize patients to pursue bariatric surgery only once the BMI is highly elevated can result in inferior outcomes.'

But researchers warned the results did not mean patients with higher BMIs should be excluded from having weight-loss operations.

'Surgery continues to offer substantial benefits in terms of weight loss, reduction [of other conditions], and quality of life for these patients when compared with medical management alone,' they added.

More than one in four adults in England is obese and a further third are overweight.

Obesity is linked to serious and life-threatening health conditions, including a higher risk of heart disease, strokes and cancer.

The three most common weight loss surgeries are lap band, gastric sleeve and gastric bypass operations.

A lap band procedure is an inflatable band placed around the top of the stomach, restricting food intake.

The average cost is $14,500 and patients lose around 10 percent of their original body weight.

The gastric sleeve is a non-reversible procedure and involves removing 80 percent of the stomach.

It stabilize gut hormones which are off-balance in obese people, driving them to crave food when they don't need it.

The average cost is $15,000 and patents lose around 17 percent of body weight.

Gastric bypasses divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger pouch.

The surgeon rearranges the small intestine to connect to the small pouches.

The average cost is $23,000 and patients lose around 27 percent of body weight.
Farmers, women and indigenous groups are set to be hurt by a regional free trade deal being negotiated in India this week, campaigners have warned.

Rights groups also claimed on Tuesday that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) would increase conflicts over land as businesses get easier access.

The agreement, for which talks began in 2012, would create a free trade area of more than 3.5 billion people, bringing together China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as well as Southeast Asian nations.

Campaigners say female farmers in India will be the worst affected by the trade deal (photo for representation only)

It is currently the only mega free-trade agreement being negotiated globally. The 16 nations aim to conclude negotiations by the end of the year.

Campaigners who met in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, which is hosting the RCEP negotiations, are protesting against the deal, calling it 'anti-farmer, anti-women and anti-poor', and are asking governments to protect their rights.

'Women farmers are going to be the worst affected by this agreement, which will encourage more land grabbing for corporate use and impact on their livelihoods and food sovereignty,' said Burnad Fatima of the Federation of Women Farmers' Rights.

Groups fear it will wipe out traditional livelihoods and are asking the government to protect peoples' rights (photo for representation only)

'It will take away the traditional livelihood of farmers and indigenous people and force them to seek other jobs,' she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Hyderabad, where women's groups held a protest against the RCEP on Monday.

Burnad said the takeover of land for industrial use had a disproportionate impact on women farm workers as men could more easily migrate to find alternative jobs, leaving women to provide for their children and aged parents.

Analysts are increasingly questioning the benefits of free trade deals, which some say have led to job losses, stagnating incomes, growing inequality and a decline of the public sector, with falling investments in healthcare and education.

Campaigners also warned that indigenous tribal people would be affected by the deal, which creates a free trade area of more than 3.5 billion people (photo for representation only)

'The RCEP and other trade agreements put businesses first, and give multinational corporations the right to govern at the expense of women's livelihoods and the environment,' said Kate Lappin of advocacy group Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.

Standoffs between the state and farmers have risen in India as demand for land increases, affecting millions of people.

About 65 million farmers and villagers were displaced in India by highways, mines, power plants and airports between 1950 and 2005, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

But Government officials say trade deals are key to boosting economic growth and exports (photo for representation only)

Three-fifths of India's population depend on land for their livelihoods, with an increasing share of women working on the land as falling farm incomes drive men to migrate to find jobs.

The McKinsey Global Institute said employment in Indian agriculture shrank by 26 million jobs between 2011 and 2015.

Government officials say trade deals are key to boosting economic growth and exports.

India's Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia called for greater inclusiveness to inform the negotiations.

The RCEP's 'real success will be measured by its ability to bring prosperity, economic growth, decent living standards, new jobs and greater business opportunities for people of our region in an equitable manner,' she said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar resigned from the top post

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had a blink-and-you-miss-it moment out of power on Wednesday.

He resigned from the top post over differences with ally RJD, but reports emerged minutes later that he would be sworn-in again as the CM on Thursday with the BJP's support.

The JD(U) leader ended the so-called mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress that was formed three years ago to keep the BJP out of power in Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav (left) and Nitish Kumar (right)

Nitish Kumar, who handed his resignation to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, said he cannot work in the 'current circumstances' following corruption allegations against deputy chief minister and Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav.

'I have been doing my best to provide good governance. But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the governor and gave my resignation,' he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan.

Leaders of the JD (U) and BJP-led NDA constituents met the governor late at night as they staked claim to form the government.

While the Congress was quick to lament Nitish's resignation, the RJD accused him of cheating the people of Bihar.

Lalu slammed the CM for seeking an explanation from Tejashwi over the graft charges against him.

'We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it?' he said. 'Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?

'There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this.'

As suspense mounted over Nitish's next step, the BJP quickly seized upon the opportunity to reunite with its old ally. Prime Minister Modi praised him on Twitter.

'Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty,' Modi said in a series of tweets.

Nitish responded with a quick tweet saying, 'I thank the prime minister from the core of my heart for praising my decision (of quitting).'

Before the late-night meeting, the BJP handed over to the governor a letter extending support to Nitish for forming the next government. 'Nityanand Rai ji and I called Nitish ji.

BJP has decided to support him and the government formed under him. We will inform the governor too,' said Sushil Modi, the senior-most BJP leader in Bihar and former deputy CM under Nitish.

The JD (U) has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53 in the 243-member state assembly.

The two parties together have 124 legislators, marginally ahead of the half-way mark.

Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP and RLSP with two MLAs each. Fissures emerged between alliance partners JD (U) and RJD when the CBI registered a case against Lalu, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (left), Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) party, Lalu Prasad Yadav (right) of Rashtriya Janata Dal party pose for photographers

Substantial evidence shows RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav will certainly face a tough time defending himself and his family in the forthcoming CBI case

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Nitish also abandoned his allies and other opposition parties at the Centre to side with the BJP in the election for President of India this month.

The Bihar grand alliance was stitched together after former rivals Nitish and Lalu put aside their differences in 2015 and cosigned with the Congress to ensure the BJP's defeat in the state election, one of a few for the party riding high on PM Modi's popularity.

'He's lost the plot': Congress disappointed with Nitish news

by Sweta Dutta

Even as the Congress, the conduit between JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, made desperate last ditch attempts to get the two warring parties to the talking table, senior leaders of the party slammed Nitish for having 'lost the plot.'

As threats of some JD(U) MLAs walking off loomed large on the former Bihar CM if he joined hands with BJP, Congress leaders asked why he had not been 'bothered with Lalu's tainted past' at the beginning.

'When Nitish agreed to the mahagathbandhan with Lalu, the latter was already convicted in the fodder scam. If he was so concerned about the corruption issue he should have never agreed to the alliance.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala

'At that time he was fighting for secularism and now suddenly he was woken up to corruption? This flip-flop is being seen by everyone. Nitish seems to have lost the plot,' said a senior Congress leader refusing to be named.

'He could have turned out to be a strong opposition leader. Also possibly the face of a grand alliance in the 2019 general polls.

'If he joins hands with BJP, it will be his biggest mistake and he will only further lose credibility.'

Another senior party functionary, privy to the developments in the state over the past few days, said, 'Nitish did speak to Rahul Gandhi but what could the Congress party do? We have a very limited role in such a coalition. We did anticipate that the BJP will indulge in political opportunism if the mahagathbandhan crumbles and that is exactly what is happening.'

Lalu and his family enjoying better times

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, said, 'We are deeply disappointed by the news of the resignation of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

'We particularly Congress president and vice president have great respect for Nitish Kumar as a political leader.'

'The mahagathbandhan was given a five-year mandate by the people of Bihar based on its policies, principles and the cumulative leadership that we presented.

'It was also a mandate against BJP and leadership of PM Modi who tried to weigh the respect of Biharis in the manner he chose to do by way of public auction and distribution of moneyand challenged the honour of Bihar.'
With the monsoon at its peak, the apocalyptic-like sight of snakes and other slithery reptiles having a field day in the city has been widely reported by concerned residents.

Wildlife SOS, Delhi's only rescue helpline of its kind, has received over 100 distress calls since this month after panicky residents spotted the creatures in their homes, parks, offices and even warm car engines.

On Wednesday, the NGO rescued a seven-foot-long Indian rock python  one of the largest witnessed in the city  at the Air Force Station in south Delhi's Tughlakabad area.

A 7-ft python was rescued from Tughlakabad AIr Force Station on Wednesday

The creature was resting in the grass outside the mess building when it was spotted by Air Force officials.

It was safely extricated and put under observation, and will soon be released in the wild, said members of the NGO.

There is no need to be alarmed, say snake catchers, as most of the serpents were non-venomous wolf snake, red sand boa, rat snake, kukri, royal snake.

A few cobras were found in some instances. Most sightings have come from green south Delhi areas such as Sainik Farms, Chhatarpur, Vasant Kunj and Panchsheel Vihar.

You dirty rat snake: The rat snake was rescued by Wildlife SOS from a house in Model Town

A few were also found nesting in other parts of Delhi like Model Town in the northwest of the city, which boasts of a lake.

According to ecologists, not just snakes but even monitor lizards have been found roaming parts of the Capital because the rain that floods their burrow also provides an more readily available food, like rats.

Professor Sanjay K Das, a herpetologist with the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Dwarka said, 'Delhi was a part of the Aravalli hill range and it is rich in herpeto fauna, which includes amphibians and reptiles.

'Particularly the lizards and snakes found in Delhi resemble Rajasthan's topography.

'More than 11-12 species of it are found in our campus itself.' Environmentalists say sightings of snakes will decrease after the onset of the hibernation period.

It's not just the slithering serpents that may spring a surprise on you, but big lizards as well.

A five-foot cobra from an office in Vasant Kunj and another five-foot cobra from a residence in Noida, among others

'I have seen Delhi's local monitor lizard (Varanus bengalensis) on big roads, slipping in and out of the storm water drains along the pavements,' Das said.

'That is their favourite nesting place in urban settings like this, I believe.' Kartick Satyanarayan, cofounder of Wildlife SOS, pointed out that snakes are middle-level predators and essential for any ecosystem as they help get rid of pests and rodents.

'Without them, rats will spoil food grains and other essential items.'

But growing habitat destruction and encroachment is rapidly blurring the lines between cities and forests.

Consequently, the wildlife living in proximity to such expanding areas has no choice but to forage or seek shelter in urban habitats, he added.

There is no need to be alarmed, say snake catchers, as most of the serpents were non-venomous wolf snake, red sand boa (pictured) rat snake, kukri, royal snake

His NGO has most recently received calls for a five-foot-long rat snake from a Model Town house, another rat snake from a house in Talkatora, a 3.5-foot-long young python coiled up next to a religious idol at a Sainik Farms residence, a five-foot cobra from an office in Vasant Kunj and another five-foot cobra from a residence in Noida, among others.

A common sand boa was also found at an office in Panchsheel Vihar. 'Our task is to make people understand that their apprehensions about reptiles are ill founded and promote compassion and kindness towards the plight of these misunderstood beings,' said Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS.

Kartick expressed cheer at the fact that people have become aware enough to consider calling experts instead of trying to deal with the matter themselves, or resorting to killing the snakes.

'Our team has professionals who are trained to handle such situations efficiently,' he said. 'In case people come across reptiles or wild animals in their vicinity, we request them to call our 24-hour rescue helpline for assistance.'
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is in Beijing today for the BRICS security conference beginning July 27, will have to mix toughness with tact.

The standoff near the Doklam plateau at the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China is now in its second month.

Doval has no illusions about China. It jails dissidents. It has no press freedom. It props up international pariah North Korea. It protects Pakistan-sponsored terrorist Masood Azhar.

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is in Beijing today (file pic)

China's state-controlled media called India's External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj a liar

Malevolent

China's state-controlled media is malevolent. By calling External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj a liar, Global Times, the Chinese government's English-language mouthpiece, has crossed the red line into yellow journalism.

But make no mistake: Global Times and newspapers like The People's Daily as well as the Chinese news agency Xinhua reflect Beijing's official policy.

Swaraj was right to call China's bluff in her statement to Parliament last week. Till then the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) had used timid bureaucrat-ese in the face of war-mongering rhetoric by China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.

Sushma Swaraj has been called a liar by China's state-controlled media, Global Times

Global Times was cruder: 'India's invasion of Chinese territory is a plain fact.

'New Delhi's impetuous action stuns the international community. No other country will support India's aggression.

'Second, India's military strength is far behind that of China.

'If the conflict between China and India escalates to the intensity where their row has to be resolved through military means, India will surely lose.'

In sharp contrast, India's timorous MEA establishment, citing the sensitivity of the Doklam standoff, spoke as if treading on eggshells.

It took Swaraj - who is no pushover as her strong riposte to Sartaj Aziz, the de facto foreign minister of Pakistan, on PoK showed - to put the Chinese in their place.

Used to dealing with the supine Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi government, Beijing expected India to stay silent after its troops occupied Bhutanese territory at the key tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China.

The tri-junction overlooks Chicken's Neck, the narrow Siliguri corridor in West Bengal that connects India with its northeastern states.

The standoff near the Doklam plateau at the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China is now in its second month (file pic)

Doklam is, therefore, critical to India's security interests. China's foreign ministry has lied about three pieces of 'evidence' that Beijing says it produced before the international community.

Doval will need to counter these untruths while keeping open the door for negotiations.

The first evidence presented is the 1890 treaty between the British colonial government and China on Sikkim and Tibet. Bhutan is not a signatory to this Sino-British agreement.

China's defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian speaks during a news conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing. China is warning India not to underestimate its determination to safeguard what it considers sovereign territor

Its validity in the current dispute over Doklam is questionable, a fact Beijing hid in its presentation to diplomats of over 20 countries in the Chinese capital.

The second piece of evidence Beijing proffered to stake its claim on Doklam was the exchange of letters between then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1959.

Again China did not disclose that Nehru had in that correspondence expressed reservations over the 1890 Sino-British treaty on Sikkim and Tibet, saying the matter was far from settled.

Treaty

Nehru, in fact, wrote that the 1890 treaty 'defined only the northern part of the Sikkim border and not the tri-junction area' encompassing Bhutan.

If a state harbours terrorists, as Pakistan does, it needs to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. If another state is complicit with a state sponsor of terrorism - as China now clearly is with Pakistan - it too must fall within the same definition.

This is what Nehru wrote in his two letters to Zhou: 'Rectification of errors in Chinese maps regarding the boundary of Bhutan with Tibet is therefore a matter which has to be discussed along with the boundary of India with the Tibet region of China in the same sector.'

The third sleight of hand by the Chinese while placing its evidence over the Doklam standoff in public was ignoring the 2012 agreement between India and China to not unilaterally change tri-junction points at borders with third countries without full consultation with all parties concerned.

By moving troops near the Doklam plateau in disputed Bhutanese-Chinese territory to build roads and infrastructure which tanks and artillery could later use, China has violated the 2012 agreement.

Despite being on the right side of history, India's MEA has not been able to make its case on Doklam with the same force as China - an old MEA failing disguised as 'sensitive diplomacy'.

It is nothing of the sort. It is pusillanimous diplomacy that has long been India's bane.

Does the Global Times reflect Beijing's official policy?

Terror

By openly threatening to 'interfere' in PoK, China is now additionally complicit in Pakistan's policy of using terror as state policy.

If a state harbours terrorists, as Pakistan does, it needs to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

If another state is complicit with a state sponsor of terrorism - as China now clearly is with Pakistan - it too must fall within the same definition.

Abetting terrorism is as serious a crime as terrorism. China's complicity will carry a heavy cost.

Will China attack India militarily over Doklam? No. Indian troops have the mountain heights, the equipment and the numbers.

Besides, the Chinese don't want to get sucked into a war which could end in a bloody nose of the kind tiny Vietnam gave it in 1979 when Beijing attacked its southern neighbour.

Chinese and Indian troops pictured at the Nathu La border crossing between the two countries

Recognising reality, Xinhua put out this conciliatory release on the eve of Doval's visit to Beijing: 'India and China need to enhance communication and nurture trust between them.'

India's diplomacy with China must now be both robust and rational.

India must focus on building its economic strength and conventional military capability. It has already established a nuclear triad - air, sea and land.

The Chinese may not understand English, but they certainly understand military and economic strength.
Shares soared at Games Workshop as bosses said profits were likely to beat expectations.

They rose more than 10 per cent or 137p to 1469p as the miniature wargaming manufacturer said trading over the latest quarter had been way ahead of the same period last year.

The company is based in Nottingham and sells about 75 per cent outside of the UK.

Frodo lives: The Hobbit series of miniatures have proved strong sellers at Games Workshop

It is behind the popular table-top miniature game Warhammer 40,000 as well as The Hobbit series of miniatures.

Yesterday it also announced the retirement of its chairman and former chief executive Tom Kirby, 67, who joined in 1986 as general manager and led a management buy out in December 1991.

Games Workshop made 38.4million profit during the year to May 28, on sales of 158million.

It paid 23.8million in dividends. During the year it opened 31 stores generating 2.4million of sales.
Dulux owner Akzo Nobel is set to lose both men who protected it against a 23billion takeover by foreign predators  raising fears it could become a target once again.

Chairman Antony Burgmans, 70, said yesterday he would resign next year after the departure of chief executive Ton Buchner, 52, on Friday due to ill health.

They fought off US rival PPG's takeover bid in May but there are fears it could be revived in December when a cooling off period ends and amid pressure from shareholders including the aggressive hedge fund Elliott.

Target: Dulux owner Akzo Nobel fought off US rival PPG's 23bn takeover campaign in May but there are fears it could be revived in December

Akzo bosses are promising angry shareholders the chance to discuss the deal in September  and have coaxed City broker David Mayhew out of retirement to try and smooth relations.

Elliott and supporters wanted the company to look at the deal but there are fears for jobs in Holland and the UK, where Akzo employs about 3,000, in the North-East, Glasgow, Suffolk, the Midlands and Slough.

Eamon O'Hearn, the GMB union's national officer, said they were looking for 'all parties to confirm their commitment to UK manufacturing workers'.

Joost van Beek, analyst at Theodoor Gilissen, said: 'The PPG story is not completely over. They will wait and see if new chances arise.'

Akzo looked even more vulnerable yesterday as it posted profits for the second quarter of 412million, missing expectations by around 7 per cent. Revenue of around 3.3billion also fell short.

Yesterday Elliott, which has increased its stake in the paint maker to 9.5 per cent, accused Akzo of flouting shareholder rights by preventing them changing the agenda of a special meeting called for September.

It wants a vote on forcing Burgmans out sooner.

Bernstein Research analyst Jeremy Redenius said: 'I speak to a lot of shareholders  I have struggled to find really one who is in support of the company's actions at this point.'
News / Africa

by Staff reporter

South Africa's Police minister Fikile Mbalula has accused undocumented Zimbabwe nationals of wreaking havoc and perpetrating crime in the neighbouring country."They kill, they do everything, we get into those buildings, they are stinking, they are dirty and they are high-jacked. We went there with the police, we raided those places. I told one person coming from Zimbabwe, we are coming with the police; you know what is going to happen? We are going to arrest you for not having papers.' He said to me, minister I know, but I will try my best to come back'."Mbalula said xenophobia was being used to silence him."One time I said the people who robbed that OR Tambo (Airport) in terms of the heist, five of them arrested come from Zimbabwe. They are trained soldiers. South Africa was bombing on me that I was being xenophobic, I was not, I was just exposing the nationality, and I said let me leave this thing."
The City raised a glass to the UK's thriving pub and bar scene yesterday following strong results from Fuller Smith & Turner and Revolution Bars.

Revolution, which runs 68 cocktail and rum bars, said the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester had failed to put off punters, with year-on-year sales over the period to July 1 jumping 9.2 per cent to 130.4million.

Although Revolution said business was impacted in the immediate aftermath of the two attacks, its like-for-like sales growth has since strengthened, up 2.7 per cent over the past six weeks.

The firm also said the six Revolucion de Cuba rum bars and two Revolution bars it has opened over the period are trading ahead of expectations, with plans to open six sites in the new year.

Revolution, which runs 68 cocktail and rum bars, said the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester had failed to put off punters

The results are a stark change of tone from the firm, which in mid-May guided forecasts lower due to rising costs, with shares subsequently falling to factor in the potential for future profit warnings.

As a result of yesterday's strong results, analysts at Peel Hunt raised the firm to 'buy' from 'add'. Shares rose 11.7 per cent, or 13.5p, to 129p  a two-month high.

Meanwhile, London brewer and pub owner Fuller Smith & Turner boasted of a strong start to the year, with 'perfect summer weather' boosting beer and cider sale volumes by 5 per cent as people go to the pub more often.

The firm saw total sales in its managed pubs and hotels rise 6.6 per cent over the 16 weeks to July 22, helping to offset headwinds such as increased business rates, a higher national living wage and the apprenticeship levy.

STOCK WATCH - RHYTHM ONE Advertising trading platform RhythmOne announced that it will be one of the first to take part in Googles new publicity programme DoubleClick Exchange Bidding yesterday. The firm, formerly known as Blinkx, acts as a trading platform for advertisers, linking them with media publishers such as Bloomberg, NBC and Vogue owner Conde Nast. Through the partnership, RhythmOne can make real-time bids to publishers to get coverage for its clients. Shares fell 0.7 per cent, or 0.25p, to 37.2p.

Boss Simon Emeny took the opportunity to urge the Government to consider the importance of the pub and bar industry when approaching Brexit negotiations.

'One-in-ten jobs created is in a pub, bar or restaurant and non-UK workers are an essential element in delivering the one billion meals that are served in pubs alone every year,' he said.

Shares rose yesterday 5.8 per cent, or 60p, to 1903p.

The FTSE 100 enjoyed a stellar day, buffeted by a 3.4 per cent leap in the price of copper to its highest level since mid-February as a result of unexpected strength in China's economy and a weak dollar.

It rose 0.8 per cent, or 57.09 points, to 7434.82.

The biggest winners were Antofagasta, up 7.5 per cent, or 66p, to 951p, Anglo American, which rose 6.1 per cent, or 67p, to 1171.5p, and Glencore, which advanced 5.8 per cent, or 18p, to 330.65p.

Away from the mining sector, Victrex reported a 26 per cent jump in revenues to 76.3million over the three months to June, with strength in its automobile arm offsetting weaker demand in consumer electronics.

The firm makes a type of plastic which is sold globally and used in products as wide-ranging as dentures, aircraft, mobile phones and oil rigs. Shares rose 4.5 per cent, or 86p, to 1990p.

After trading closed, challenger bank Metro announced that it will place 8m shares in the market at 3465p each  roughly 9.9 per cent of its total capital  which will raise around 278million.

The money will be used to support growth at the firm and increase liquidity following its acquisition of a portfolio of UK mortgages in June for 596.7million.

Alongside the placing, the bank announced pre-tax profit of 6million in the first half of the year, spurred on by a 67 per cent surge in lending to 7.8billion after acquiring the UK mortgage loan book.

Metro, which also saw deposits grow 49 per cent to 9.8billionn, wants to increase loan growth as competition grows from other lenders.

Shares fell 0.3 per cent, or 10p, to 3465p.
Holland is selling her 5-bedroom, 7-bath Mediterranean style home in a move to get a starring role on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Sumner Redstone's wealthy ex-girlfriend Sydney Holland is quietly maneuvering her way on to Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills by putting her Mulholland Estates home up for sale in a 'pocket listing' for $8 million.

Holland's previous bid to get on the show for season seven was thwarted by the Mulholland Estates Homeowners Association that forbids any type of filming, an insider tells DailyMail.com.

A pocket listing keeps the home off traditional advertising and enables the broker to weed out 'looky loos' especially with high-end properties and famous homeowners wanting privacy.

'Sydney was a top pick to join the cast last year until the HOA ruined the deal. She didn't want to pick up and move temporarily to some house just for filming, she wants to keep it real for the viewers and show who she really is,' says the source.

'Bravo execs are still hot to get her on board.'

Her neighbor Charlie Sheen was given a hefty fine by the HOA for violating the 'no filming' rule when he allowed Dr Oz to interview him behind the gates of Mulholland Estates in 2016.

Holland purchased the 7,200 square foot 5-bedroom, 7-bath Mediterranean style home in 2014 for $6.75 million, and quickly began renovating it for her growing family.

'She redid the pool and dealt with some exterior issues, but it's the inside of the home that is the real show stopper,' the insider told DailyMail.com.

An insider source said Sydney Holland is willing to sell her gorgeous home in a 'pocket listing' for $8 million so she can be on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Holland wasn't allowed to be part of the case for season seven because camera crews would not be allowed to film in the house because of the Mulholland Estates Homeowners Association

Plenty of space: The 7,200 square foot mansion would have been a perfect place to film the Real Housewives of Beverly Homes, but the HOA forbids it and even fined neighbor Charlie Sheen for allowing crews to film on his property

Holland is a modern art fanatic and patron. Her home is decorated with works from acclaimed artists such as Andy Warhol, Wes Lang and Jeff Koons

Indeed, the Spring 2017 issue of C Home magazine hailed the place, a 'Modern Art Mecca' when they profiled the single mother of three with her children Alexandra, 4, and 18-month old twins Liam and Harrison.

Holland, a modern art fanatic and patron, has acquired a collection that would make even the wealthiest Beverly Hills Housewife jealous.

Her museum-worthy collection includes works by Andy Warhol, Wes Lang, Jeff Koons, Chris Levine, Ruscha, Richard Avedon, Yoshitomo Nara, and John Baldessari, among others.

Turkish and Moroccan vintage rugs decorate the wood and marble floors, and a Jean De Merry signature chandelier hangs in her large walk-in closet.

Holland, 45, sold her previous Beverly Hills home to actress Jennifer Lawrence for a profit of almost $1.8 million, and she's hoping to do the same with this Mulholland Estates beauty.

Million Dollar Matchmaker Patti Stanger set Holland and Redstone up in 2010 and the pair were together for five years

The reality-star hopeful bought the home for $6.75 million in 2014 and upgraded the pool. The interior of her home was featured in C Home magazine, a California luxury lifestyle publication

'Sydney would love to move to the Brentwood section of Los Angeles,' says our source, 'But this time she's going to find a place that is filming friendly.'

The real question remains, why would a rich, successful woman want to go on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?

'She's been dragged through the mud in the press as a gold digger and social climber. Now it's her turn to show the world the real Sydney, the businesswoman [owns Rich Hippie Production company, jewelry and clothing lines, flips real estate for profit], the philanthropist and the mother.

'Viewers would also see her razor sharp wit and sense of humor, she would be like the west coast version of Bethenny Frankel!'

Back in 2010, Million Dollar Matchmaker Patti Stanger arranged a date for media mogul Sumner Redstone, now 94, and Holland who is five decades younger.

Sydney and Sumner had a five year relationship which ended in 2015 that resulted in numerous lawsuits and counter suits over an estimated $75 million pay out she received.

The mansion has plenty of closet space for a billionaire's girlfriend's clothes. When Holland's five year relationship with Sumner Redstone ended in 2015, she took home an estimated $75 million pay out

Redstone's attorneys have accused Holland of draining the retired Viacom chairman's bank accounts. Because of this publicity, she wants to star on the Real Housewives to show she was not after his money

A source close to Holland revealed, 'They had a real connection and genuine affection for each other, it's something that gets lost in all this lawsuit drama.'

In October of 2016, billionaire Sumner Redstone's attorneys filed a lawsuit against Holland and another ex-girlfriend Manuela Herzer for $150 million. He alleged elder abuse and said the two had drained the ailing media mogul financially after isolating him from his family.

Sydney's attorney fired back at the time saying, 'This lawsuit is revisionist history. The fact is, Mr. Redstone's attorneys and doctors vetted and approved all payments to Ms. Holland.'

Months later, Holland filed a lawsuit against Shari Redstone, 63, (Sumner's daughter from his first marriage to Phyllis Redstone) alleging she had spied on her through a network of staff spies in an effort to break up the couple so Shari could take control of her father's $40 billion media empire.

She also filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Sumner Redstone, asking him to honor his previous commitment to give her half interest in his Beverly Park estate (about $20 million) as well as other promises to provide for her financially.

All of that legal drama as well as her staff of nannies, and quirky 'rich hippie' lifestyle would be a ratings bonanza for the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, predicts an insider.

'Sydney is no shrinking violet. Her joining the cast would definitely shake things up, and might even knock current queen Lisa Vanderpump off her throne!'
An elementary school teacher has taken to panhandling for money to buy school supplies for her third-grade classroom.

Teresa Danks, 50, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been a teacher for 21 years, but after slumping state revenue led to reduced funding for education in recent years, she decided to ask for donations.

Danks says she can spend $2,000 to $3,000 of her $35,000 salary on supplies for her students.

Teresa Danks, an elementary school teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has taken to panhandling to raise money to buy school supplies for her third-grade classroom

Danks has been a teacher for 21 years, but after slumping state revenue led to reduced funding for education in recent years, she decided to ask for donations

'It all adds up week after week, and month after month,' she told Fox 23. 'So its a huge need.'

Danks stood at an intersection near Interstate 44 in Tulsa for two days last week with a sign asking for donations.

'Teacher needs school supplies! Anything helps. Thank you', the sign read.

She raised $55 in six minutes and her story went viral soon after.

Danks appeared on several local television stations and people across the country became interested in her efforts. She even appeared on Good Morning America.

She eventually created a GoFundMe page, raising more than $25,000 by the end of the day Tuesday.

With so many responses and donations, she said she wants to start a foundation to help other teachers pay for classroom supplies, ABC 7 reported.

Danks says she also wants people to realize how budget cuts affect education.

Although education received an increase in the current state budget, some of the funding plans are being challenged as unconstitutional.

Danks stood at an intersection near Interstate 44 in Tulsa for two days last week with a sign asking for donations. She raised $55 in six minutes and her story quickly went viral
A brave wife has told how she 'stared down the face of a gun' as she valiantly confronted armed robbers who shot her husband and grabbed her Rolex watch on their doorstep.

Nyrome Hinds, 32, and accomplice David Sterling, 34, ambushed victim Andrew Campbell and his wife Rebecca as they returned to their home in Leyton, east London, around 9pm on November 23, 2016.

The raiders have both now been jailed for more than 43 years following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Wearing hi-vis jackets the robbers ran up behind the couple and attacked them as they reached their front door.

Mrs Campbell is seen on the dramatic CCTV footage bravely squaring up to the robbers to try and protect her 36-year-old husband.

Hinds fired the gun at Mr Campbell as they grabbed at his wife's watch and shot him again as he lay on the street. He appeared to fire a third time before fleeing the scene.

Dramatic footage showed Mrs Campbell shielding her husband from the two robbers

Mrs Campbell fought off the raiders who tried to grab her Rolex watch on her doorstep

Mr Campbell suffered gunshot wounds to his stomach and leg.

He has since been discharged from hospital but has been left with leg wounds and remains physically and psychologically scarred by the attack.

His wife's watch was stolen but she was not injured.

Nyrome Hinds, 32, (left) and accomplice David Sterling, 34, (right) ambushed victim Andrew Campbell and his wife Rebecca as they returned to their home in Leyton

Recalling the terrifying ordeal she said: 'I saw the boy with the gun and my attention was directly on him.

'I tried to create a barrier between the gunmen and my husband, so effectively I was staring down the face of a gun.

'I really felt at that moment in time I either put up a fight or we're both going to be leaving here in body bags.

'The intention was to rob my husband and I of our jewellery.

'He ripped my Rolex watch off my wrist, the next thing I heard was a gunshot and in what was probably seconds to me, felt like a lifetime.'

Sterling was arrested the day after the shooting. Hinds was arrested at his home address on December 5.

Hinds, from Walthamstow, in east London, was convicted of attempted murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and robbery following a trial.

Yesterday at the Old Bailey, he was jailed for 32 years after the court heard he got 14 years in 2005 after being caught with a sub-machine gun and a pistol.

Mrs Campbell bravely fought off the robbers who shot her husband, Andrew, on their doorstep

Judge Paul Dodgson said: 'On the 23 November 2016 you were not only carrying a gun, but you discharged it twice into a man's body, as the jury found, intending to kill him.

'You are clearly prepared to use weapons and I think it very likely at this point that you would do it again.

'You not only took a loaded firearm onto the streets in London, but you then went on to fire it twice into a man's body with the intention to kill him.'

Sterling, from Clapham, was cleared of attempted murder after he claimed he did not know the gun was a live firearm.

He was convicted of possession of a prohibited firearm and robbery and jailed for 11-and-a-half years yesterday.

Sterling is a crack cocaine addict who robbed people to fund his 700-a-day habit. Judge Dodgson said he was released because the parole board 'placed over reliance on your good behaviour in prison'.

Detective Sergeant Nick Hamer, from the Trident & Area Crime Command, said: 'This shooting had a clear element of planning, and the primary motive was to rob the victims of their watches.

'The victim was very lucky to survive with the injuries he received. I would like to give special acknowledgement to the victim's wife who courageously fought off the attackers and attempted to get between them and her husband.

'If it had not been for her actions, it is highly likely that more shots would have been fired at her husband, and the outcome could have been worse.'
Dr HH Holmes, pictured, skinned and dissected his victims

A new series is set to investigate the link between Britain's most notorious murderer and America's first serial killer.

In the late 1800s Dr Henry Howard Holmes built the labyrinthine World's Fair Hotel, in Chicago.

The 60-room boarding house was a murder trap  having been constructed to allow the proprietor easy access to his victims who he skinned and dissected before dissolving their body parts in acid.

He was an intelligent, articulate man and a qualified chemist who graduated with a medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1884.

Four years later Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim in Whitechapel, London.

The identity of Jack the Ripper, the killer who disemboweled five prostitutes in 1888, has always been a mystery.

His murderous crime spree lasted only four-month before he vanished without trace.

Holmes on the other hand is believed to have committed his first murder in America in 1891 and was caught and hanged in 1895.

The identity of Jack the Ripper, the killer who disemboweled five prostitutes in 1888, has always been a mystery. Pictured: Extract from the "Penny Illustrated News" 13th October 1888

The pharmacist admitted to 27 murders but some believe he could have killed as many as 200 people.

Holmes' great-great-great-grandson, Jeff Mudgett, has for years been trying to convince sceptics that his relative was the real Jack the Ripper.

The corpse of Elizabeth Stride, murdered by Jack the Ripper in Derner Street

Now his claims that Scotland Yard detectives visited America in search of the serial killer who terrorised the streets of Whitechapel will air in a new History channel documentary.

Mr Mudgett even gave up his job as a lawyer to prove his distant relative's murderous past.

He told the Mirror: 'After the murders in London Scotland Yard came across the Atlantic to investigate, they thought there could be an American link.

'I think London law enforcement, and Scotland Yard, they had it right. There were many rumours at the time that Jack the Ripper was an American doctor.

'I don't know why Scotland Yard aborted this search then. I think they knew it was an American doctor.

'I think he committed his crimes, booked a trip home and they followed him back here. I don't know why they stopped, it could have been money.'

Mr Mudgett has submitted handwriting samples from both Holmes and Jack the Ripper for review and experts have confirmed the likelihood they could be the same people.

There have numerous theories about the true identity of Jack the Ripper, who remains one of the world's most famous serial killers more than a century after his murderous spree

He also believes that the way the killers butchered their victims, and Ripper's renowned medical knowledge, shows a similarity between the two.

Conman Holmes, who changed his name from Herman Webster Mudgett to HH Holmes when he moved to Chicago in 1886, was caught after killing friend Benjamin Pitezel and his three children as part of an insurance scam.

Holmes' great-great-great-grandson, Jeff Mudgett, pictured, has for years been trying to convince skeptics that his relative was the real Jack the Ripper

During his confession he said: 'I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.

'I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.'

The handwritten confession and Holmes' diaries show the two killers had very similar handwriting, claims Mr Mudgett.

He added: 'The handwriting was so similar, that's one of the most amazing pieces of evidence. It's one of the key things that makes me think London law enforcement had it right.'

The killer's also both chose similar victims and both targetted women.

While the Ripper hunted prostitutes in the East End suburb, Holmes, a polygamist who married three lovers, searched for women arriving in the unfamiliar city for the famous Chicago fair.

Mr Mudgett learned of his terrifying heritage when his grandmother decided to investigate their lineage as part of a growing tend among families wishing to find out more about their family tree.

While the Ripper hunted prostitutes in the East End suburb, Holmes, a polygamist who married three lovers, searched for women arriving in the unfamiliar city for the famous Chicago fair

He has written a book and helped produce the new series, where he works with former CIA operative, Amaryllis Fox, to forensically examine evidence.

But, his claims have attracted criticism, with some pointing to difference methodical murders of Holmes and the savage butchery of the Ripper.

There have numerous theories about the true identity of Jack the Ripper, who remains one of the world's most famous serial killers more than a century after his spree.

Historian Mike Covell has claimed that the Ripper was actually Fred Deeming, a criminal who emigrated to Australia.

While have said the Ripper could have been poet Francis Thompson .

The American Ripper in London starts on August 8 at 9pm on HISTORY.
A veteran fishing boat captain jumped into cold, rough waters to save one of his crew members after their vessel capsized off the Alaska coast.

US Coast Guard video of one of the rescues shows Captain Christian Trosvig in an orange life vest swimming to a man struggling to stay afloat and pulling him to an awaiting boat.

The Coast Guard says the captain of the Grayling leapt into 47-degree water during Monday's terrifying ordeal.

Captain's in charge: Alaska fishing boat Captain Christian Trosvig is seen in an orange life jacket on Monday, trying to pull one of his crew members to safety after a capsizing

In this still image from video taken on Monday by the Coast Guard, the captain, left, rescues the unconscious crewman in the Kupreanof Strait near Raspberry Island, Alaska

Trosvig had to swim 50 yard in 47-degree water to reach the unfortunate fisherman

Saving a life: The 47-year-old skipper then preformed CPR on the man for five minutes to revive him

Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough says the fishing boat skipper administered CPR to one of the crew, who was evacuated for medical treatment. A fourth crew member was rescued by another boat.

It's not yet known why the boat capsized. There were 17 mph winds and 5-foot seas at the time of the incident, which occurred in the Kupreanof Strait near Alaska's remote Raspberry Island late Monday afternoon.

Trosvig, 47, who is married and has been fishing for salmon and cod in the Alaska waters since 1998, addressed the dramatic rescue in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

'After losing my twin brother to the sea. It was not going to happen again. To God be the glory for giving the courage and strength to get my man out of the water and bring him back to life,' his status update read.

Fish tales: Trosvig, 47, has been fishing for salmon and cod in the Alaska waters since 1998

Never again: Trosvig (left and right) lost his twin other, Matt, to the sea in a fishing accident in 2005. He wrote on Facebook 'it was not going to happen again'

Coast Guard got a call at 3.25pm on Monday from the crew of another vessel, Captain Dale Pruitt's Calista Marie, reporting that they responded to the capsized Grayling and helped save one crewman from the water.

The Grayling's skiff driver rescued the skipper and pulled him onto the capsized vessels skiff, but when Trosvig realized that one of his men was still missing, he jumped back into the water to look for him, reported Alaska Native News.

Trosvig said the crew member found himself trapped in an air pocket inside the overturned vessel. He managed to climb out a window but passed out and was not breathing by the time the captain spotted his head bobbing in the water.

The man was not wearing a life jacket at the time.

Trosvig, who was wearing a orange life jacket, swam about 50 yards to reach his unconscious crew member, whom he then pulled out of the water and revived by performing CPR on him for about five minutes, according to the captain of the Calista Marie speaking to Alaska Dispatch News.

There were 17 mph winds and 5-foot seas at the time the Grayling capsized

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter that was diverted from a training flight and responded to the scene of the accident recorded the moment Captain Trosvig saved his crew member.

The Coast Guard aircraft then picked up both men and transported them to Kodak Municipal Airport, where an ambulance was awaiting to take the rescued crewman to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center to be treated for hypothermia and exposure to diesel fuel.

'That fisherman didn't hesitate. It was incredible to see him jump into 47-degree water to save his crew,' said Lt. Kevin Riley, an Air Station Kodiak Jayhawk pilot, in a statement. 'It is a testament to how tough those fishermen are and how far they will go to help their fellow Alaskans.'

Trosvig's twin brother, Matthew Trosvig, fell overboard and was lost from the Grayling near Akutan, Alaska, in August 2005. He was 35 years old.
Typically, babies are only able to stand on their own when they are at least nine months old.

But a swimming instructor in Iceland is making waves around the world after claiming that he can teach babies to stand at just three-and-a-half months.

Remarkable footage shows so-called 'baby whisperer' Snorri Magnusson helping four-month-old Eva to stand by herself - simply by holding her in the palm of his hand.

First Magnusson does some exercises with Eva in the water using two small hoops, before hoisting her into the air

In the video, which was filmed at a swimming pool in the south-western town of Mosfellsbr, Magnusson gets the baby to perform exercises using two small hoops, before hoisting her into the air for about 10 seconds.

'The parents are always very surprised, really surprised by what their babies are able to do,' Magnusson told Newshub.

'But it always starts with the [straightening] training. Because when there is strength in the spine and the upper body you can do whatever.'

By the end of a 12-week course of two one-hour classes a week, most babies are able to stand on their own for around 15 seconds.

At the end of his last course, 11 out of 12 of the babies were able to stand for 15 seconds, with one able to stand for eight seconds.

In the video, which was filmed at a swimming pool in the south-western town of Mosfellsbr, she is able to stand for about 10 seconds

According to his website, Mr Magnusson developed his teaching methods after working with his own twin daughters, who were born in 1990.

He was the first baby swimming instructor in the Nordic country and is currently chairman of BUSLI, the Icelandic Baby Swimming Association.
Fact-checking website Snopes is on the verge of financial collapse after its owner was accused of embezzling company funds to pay for his contentious divorce battle and lavish overseas trips with his new wife, a former Las Vegas escort and porn actress.

The company's financial woes have gotten so bad that Snopes' owner David Mikkelson started a crowd-funding website pleading for donations this week, which raised over $500,000 from generous readers in its first day.

But DailyMail.com can disclose significant facts which are entirely missing from the fact-checking website's version of events - including the fraud allegations against Mikkeslon.

Snopes.com was started by David Mikkelson and his ex-wife Barbara in the mid-1990s as a website that debunked myths and urban legends.

Fraud claims: In legal papers, Snopes founder David Mikkelson is accused of fraud against the company by its co-owners, who say he put his honeymoon with second wife Elyssa Young on expenses and that he had previously paid her for escort services

Fundraising effort: The 'fact checking' website is using GoFundMe to solicit donations but its statement on it misses out many of the facts behind its financial difficulties - principally that Mikkeslon is being accused of fraud

'Lavish salary': Court papers show that Mikkeslon is at the center of the legal dispute over claims that he tried to commit fraud to obtain his salary, put escorts expenses, used company funds to pay legal fees for his divorce and honeymooned with his new wife Elyssa Young on expenses

In recent years, it has started to delve into the area of politics and 'fact-checking' so-called 'fake news' stories.

After the presidential election, Snopes was chosen by Facebook to sit on a panel of arbiters who would determine whether news stories posted to the social media site were 'fake news.'

But at the same time, DailyMail.com revealed in December, the two co-founders were involved in a bitter divorce battle in which he was accused of embezzling nearly $100,000 in company funds to spend on personal expenses and prostitutes.

Barbara asked a court at the time to restrict Mikkelson's bank access, claiming his wild spending was going to deplete the company's accounts.

Now an advertising and internet services company called Proper Media is making similar accusations against Mikkelson in a lawsuit filed in May in California which is scheduled for a court hearing next month.

Proper Media's owners last year purchased 50 percent of Bardav Inc., the company founded by both Mikkelsons that owns Snopes, taking Barbara's 50 per cent share.

Proper Media claims that over the past year Mikkelson 'engaged in a lengthy scheme of concealment and subterfuge to gain control of the company and to drain its profits.'

Mikkelson counters that Proper Media  which Snopes also contracts for advertising work  has been holding the website 'hostage' by 'withholding advertising revenue.'

In a plea for donations this week, the Snopes founder said the website 'is in danger of closing its doors' due to Proper Media allegedly refusing to turn over ad income or relinquish its control of advertising on the website.

'Our legal team is fighting hard for us, but, having been cut off from all revenue, we are facing the prospect of having no financial means to continue operating the site and paying our staff (not to mention covering our legal fees) in the meanwhile,' said Mikkelson.

Courtestan: Eryn O'Bryn is the stage name for Elyssa Young, who continues to have a website offering her services as a 'courtesan' in which she has shared pictures from her past. Court papers allege that her honeymoon with David Mikkleson, who is also her boss, went on expenses

Damaging allegations: These are the claims against Mikkelson which are at the heart of the dispute which he claims could lead to Snopes.com being closed. They are not mentioned on his SaveSnopes.com website or in a GoFundMe set up for Snopes.

But Proper Media insists that Mikkelson's personal spending and mismanagement is to blame for Snopes's money woes.

In legal papers filed in San Diego Superior Court, they say: 'But while Snopes is built entirely around the concepts of transparency and truth, its founder, Defendant David Mikkelson ('Mikkelson') has engaged in a lengthy scheme of concealment and subterfuge to gain control of the company and to drain its profits.'

The company says Mikkelson unilaterally broke the advertising contract earlier this year and has bristled at shareholder efforts to rein in his spending.

They note that even as Mikkelson claimed to be under financial duress in court filings in June, he signed the documents while on a trip to Orleans, France.

'If Mikkelson is permitted to continue unabated as a director of Bardav, he will irreversibly drain the company of important financial resources through personal and unnecessary expenditures,' said Proper Media in the lawsuit.

The company also claims Mikkelson carried out 'pervasive fraud' at Snopes and used the accounts to pay for lavish trips and personal items while refusing requests from shareholders to examine his expenditures.

According to the lawsuit, Mikkelson spent 'tens of thousands of dollars' from the company on legal fees for his acrimonious divorce from Barbara last year, a drawn-out battle that included disputes over Mikkelson's salary and alleged spending on prostitutes.

Court documents from their divorce and its aftermath revealed that he wanted to be paid $720,000 a year.

He is also accused of spending 'tens of thousands of dollars' on personal trips, including a honeymoon with his new wife to Tokyo Disneyland.

The lawsuit claims Mikkelson spent money on Young, who he married last year.

Young was an escort in Las Vegas up until at least 2015 and charged $500 per hour, according to her website.

She has also starred in adult films under the name 'Erin O'Bryn,' and ran unsuccessfully for congress in Hawaii as a Libertarian in 2004.

Financial stake: Barbara Mikkleson sold her 50 per cent stake in the company which owns Snopes.com's, BarDav, to the five equity owners of Proper Media, including Drew Schoentrup

Fall-out: Proper Media, including Christopher Richmond (left) are suing Snopes.com. Their former co-worker Vincent Green (right) now works for Snopes and they say he is part of the fraud

Bitter divorce: Claims of prostitute use have been made already, by Barbara Mikkelson. David Mikkelson has not mentioned them at all on his Snopes.com website or addressed whether they are factually true.

Her site, which is still online, describes her as 'an elite courtesan who provides discreet companionship for those who appreciate the finer things in life.'

'I have an adult woman's build and and the soul of an indomitable force of nature burning within it,' she wrote.

Young now works as an administrative assistant at Snopes.

Mikkelson claimed in legal filings that Bardav Inc. spends $165,000 per month running Snopes.com  a cost that is larger than the advertising revenue Proper Media says the website brings in.

'Bardav's claims of financial distress are gravely concerning,' said Proper Media. 'Mikkelson, by his own admission, is operating Bardav at a monthly deficit and cannot be trusted with the Bardav purse strings.'

'[N]otably, while he argues that Bardav is on the brink of collapse, [Mikkelson] signed his declaration in Orleans, France,' continued Proper Media.

The lawsuit also claims Mikkelson conspired with a former Proper Media employee named Vincent Green in an attempt to seize majority control of Bardav Inc. this spring.

Green, a Marine veteran who was vice president of operations at Proper Media, allegedly became close with Mikkelson while working on the Snopes.com website as part of his responsibilities at the advertising company.

'Throughout his employment, Green worked extensively on the Snopes website, and, as a result, came to personally know and befriend Mikkelson,' said the lawsuit.

'I have an adult woman's build and and the soul of an indomitable force of nature burning within it How David Mikkleson's new wife describes herself on her website

In late February, Proper Media claims that Green removed the company's access to the Snopes content-management system, fired three Proper Media employees, and seized thousands of dollars of computer equipment from Proper Media's offices.

'On information and belief, Green did so in conspiracy with and at the direction of Mikkelson,' claimed the lawsuit.

In March, Green allegedly listed himself on Snopes.com's staff webpage as a business development employee. That month, he is also accused of removing 'Snopes-related data from Proper Media's communication and project-management tools, including Slack and Asana.'

That same day, Mikkelson allegedly terminated a business agreement with Proper Media to run the Snopes.com advertising, effective 60 days later. On April 1, Mikkelson removed Proper Media's access to the company bank account, the lawsuit claims.

But it wasn't until April 3 that Green officially submitted his resignation, according to the lawsuit. Proper Media claims that he violated his fiduciary duties to the company.

Proper Media is asking for punitive and exemplary damages, and is also asking a judge to remove Mikkelson as a Bardav Inc. director.

It even suggests the site could be closed completely.

The case, with its claims of misconduct, fraud and use of prostitutes, is not mentioned at all on the SaveSnopes.com website or its linked GoFundMe.

The GoFundMe remains open despite having exceeded its $500,000 goal within 25 hours of being set up.

Proper Media, Mikkelson and Facebook did not respond to request for comment.

However on Tuesday Mikkelson told another journalism website, Poynter.org, that the 'money we raised will be used to meet our basic operating expenses, the overwhelming bulk of which is the salaries of our staff'.

Poynter is one of the other sites Facebook said it would be turning to for arbitration on what stories on its feed are 'fake news'.
Otis the pug (pictured) was allegedly left with a 15cm gash across his neck and a 'life threatening infection' after he was left with a carer his owner found online

A Sydney man has shared graphic pictures of injuries he claims his pug Otis sustained while in the care of a minder.

Jackson Millan left his dog with a man he found online for six weeks, and says he had the pug returned with a life-threatening infection and a 15cm gash across his neck.

After asking repeatedly for photographs of his pet while he was away in Brazil, the carer sent a picture showing Otis wearing his harness, which Mr Millan said 'had gross stains around it as if it had never been taken off'.

When the dog was taken to the vet, Mr Millan claims they found a '15cm gash across my dog's neck from the friction of his harness for being left on for over three weeks, and a severe infection that could take his life'.

Happier times: Otis the pug and Dobby the boxer were left with a carer while their owner, Jackson Millan, spent six weeks in Brazil

After the carer took Otis to the vet, Mr Millan was sent pictures of the large gash (pictured). Mr Millan says he was told by the vet the infection was life threatening

In a furious Facebook post, Mr Millan claimed he was told by the vet Otis' infection 'could be smelled from metres away'.

The vet told him they 'could not even comprehend how something like this could be allowed to happen'.

'Imagine the pain he has experienced from WEEKS of rubbing to make a wound this horrible,' Mr Millan wrote.

'I was more capable from 13,000 kilometres away to see my dog was not right - this monster was oblivious to the point that my dog could still die from infection.'

Mr Millan (pictured) said he was disgusted that he was able to see there was something wrong with his dog from the other side of the world, while the carer was oblivious

Pictured: The image sent to Mr Millan by the carer of Otis. A red mark is visible above Otis' front leg, which alerted the man to his dogs health woes

Mr Millan told Daily Mail Australia Otis is still in critical care at the vet, and his wound is unable to be closed due to the severity of the infection.

'It is so hard to comprehend a harness causing this injury, it looks like a knife attack,' he said.

Otis and Dobby, a boxer, remain in care at the vet in Sydney, where Mr Millan's mother is keeping close watch over them.

'The welfare of our clients pets is paramount and we are taking this issue very seriously,' Alexis Soulopoulos, the CEO of Mad Paws told Daily Mail Australia.

'Mad Paws is currently investigating these claims.'

Mr Millan says he has reported the incident to Mad Paws, the police and the RSPCA.
A concerned family is desperately searching for two young children and their mother who were last seen more than a month ago.

Queensland Police are seeking public assistance after the trio were reported missing from Rasmussen in Townsville, a coastal city in northeastern Queensland.

The eight-year-old girl, her 11-year-old brother and their mother, 30, were last seen at an address in Rasmussen on June 4.

The eight-year-old girl (pictured), her 11-year-old brother and their mother, 30, were last seen at an address in Rasmussen, Queensland on June 4

The mother made a telephone call to family on June 21 but has not been seen or heard from since.

The Police and the family hold grave concerns for woman and her two young children as they say their disappearance was out of character.

The 11-year-old boy also suffers from a medical condition.

The woman has been described as Caucasion, of medium build with blonde hair.

Relatives hold grave concerns for the family because the 11-year-old boy (pictured) suffers from a medical condition

Family are concerned because they say the 30-year-old woman (pictured) and her children's disappearance is out of character

The boy was described as being of a slim build with ginger hair and the girl also of a slim build with light brown hair.

The police described them both as Caucasion.

The police said the family could be in the North Ward or Aitkenvale areas of Townsville.

Queensland police urged anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the mother and her young children to phone the police.
News / International

by London Editors

Zimbabwe's new entrant in the 2018 presidential election - Dr Nkosana Moyo says Zimbabwe needs a new kind of politics that will stop the ongoing suffering that has left the country with 90 per cent unemployment.In a wide ranging speech delivered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs or Chatham House in London, and attended by the U.S and Canadian embassies, Moyo said it is time for a 50-50 cabinet allocation between men and women as well as giving a chance to the youth to participate in politics.Moyo said politicians have over the years connived to divide Zimbabweans into tribes, political parties and classes.Moyo said Zimbabwe is where it is today because democracy has been eroded with state institutions like the army, the police, the judiciary and the CIO having been captured by a political party."The immediate consequence is that these institutions are no longer protecting the citizens but to protect ZANU," Moyo said.He said ZANU members are treated as first class citizens and have access to opportunities while opposition supporters are treated like second class citizens.On the economy, Moyo said there is a continuing lack of clarity on the role of government. He said the government should not be both a referee and a player. He said the confusion and conflict of interest must be removed.Moyo also said he will look at the size of the civil service wage bill and eliminate any ghost workers. He said in Zimbabwe, the current government 'has no clue" on how to grow the economy.He said under his leadership, the country will "put across policies that attract investment."Moyo said leaders must walk the talk and his plan is to reduce the size of the government. "Zimbabwe cannot justify a government of more than thirty ministers," he said.He said his cabinet will have a maximum of 20 members and will not have any deputy ministers. He however wants to introduce junior ministers made up of the youth ( under 35 years old.) This, he said, will be an apprenticeship for future leaders. He added that innovation and technological advancement will depend on how much space is created for the younger generation.Moyo said political conflict is taking the country back: "We want Zimbabweans to understand that competition should not be a war." He said he disagreed with President Robert Mugabe and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai but "that doesn't mean they are enemies."On the rural vote, Moyo said all citizens must be given the benefit of the doubt and be respected. He said his parents could not read but that does not mean they could not understand issues. He said there is no evidence that any section of the Zimbabwean society needs to be 'educated' to know solutions to their problems.On foreign policy, Moyo said his government would be guided by the needs of Zimbabwe and those in the Diaspora will be treated as essential contributors to the economy. He said Zimbabwe does not need the number of embassies it currently has because it cannot afford all of them.Moyo said it is unlikely that ZANU will allow the diaspora vote but those living abroad should try and influence their relatives back home to bring about political change. He paid tribute to the role played by the Zimbabweans living away from home asserting that they have kept Zimbabwe economically afloat through remittances.Moyo bemoaned the failure by Africans to have a voice. He said that is because most leaders are not competent in what they do. He said he would be different and wants to convince Zimbabweans during the campaign that his vision is a better vision than that of his rivals.On the subject of his business links, Moyo said he has resigned from the various global corporate boards that he was part of in order to avoid conflict of interest. He said he is in the process of handing over the leadership of the Mandela Institute of Development that he founded.On funding the election campaign, Moyo said he will only rely on resources from Zimbabweans. He said it was wrong for an election to be seen as a money making project and it is part of the culture that needs to change. He said he had demonstrated that he could live within his means by refusing to fly business class when he was a minister in Zimbabwe. He said he also refused to be treated as a VIP when travelling in Zimbabwe when he was industry and trade chief.When he was challenged on his chances, Moyo said he has faith in Zimbabweans and believes there is enough time to campaign. He gave an example of the recent election in Britain where opinion polls and results changed in a short time.He said he saw his candidacy as the beginning of a process that will be continued by other Zimbabweans who will take over from him.
One of Stephen Lawrence's racist killers has been handed taxpayer-funded legal aid - a privilege that Charlie Gard's parents were denied - after he was beaten up in jail.

David Norris, who was part of a gang who killed the teenager in Eltham, south east London, in 1993, is seeking 10,000 compensation after being left with a broken nose and ribs, two black eyes and needing 18 stitches to his face.

He has been granted public funding which could total 70,000, once court and defence costs are considered.

The decision to pour money into the 40-year-old's legal fight has sparked outrage, particularly considering Chris Gard and Connie Yates were recently rejected in a similar bid as they desperately battled to keep their terminally-ill son alive.

David Norris (left) was part of a gang who brutally killed Stephen Lawrence (right) in 1993, but was not brought to justice for nearly 20 years

To add insult to injury, the Lawrence family were denied legal aid in 1994 when they tried to bring Norris and two other men who were heavily suspected of Stephen's murder to justice.

Their local MP, Seema Maholtra, told the Mirror: 'It's clear it needs overhauling.

'The heartbreaking case of Charlie Gard highlights why it's wrong for parents facing this situation to not have access to legal support or for there to be so much uncertainty.'

The Ministry of Justice has appealed against Norris' legal aid, saying he brought about beating inside HMP Belmarsh by himself.

Norris was among five suspects charged with his murder who were pelted with eggs following a public inquiry into the police handling of the case in June 1998

David Norris arrives at Chelmsford Magistrates Court where he was fined over the theft of beer with Gary Dobson

The judge who presided over baby Charlie's case has already been highly critical of the legal aid process.

Mr Justice Francis said on Monday: 'It does seem to me that when Parliament changed the law in relation to legal aid, it cannot have intended that parents in the position that these parents have been in should have no access to legal advice or representation.'

He said to 'most like-minded people', the NHS was as much an arm of the state as is a local authority, adding: 'I can think of few more profound cases than ones where a trust is applying to the court for a declaration that a life-support machine should be switched off in respect of a child.'

He thanked Charlie's lawyers for working pro bono but said: 'I am aware that there are many parents around the country in similar positions where their cases have been less public and where they have had to struggle to represent themselves.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates (pictured yesterday) were denied legal aid and are still in dispute with Great Ormond Street Hospital over their 'final wish' to put their son to bed in his own cot and let him 'slip away'

In October, Charlie was transferred to Great Ormond Street where tests found he was suffering from an incredibly rare mitochondrial depletion syndrome which affects just 16 people

'I cannot imagine that anyone ever intended parents to be in this position.'

By law, a couple cannot receive legal aid if they have more than 30,804 pre-tax income, 8,796 disposable income and 8,000 savings and assets.

Bob Neill, chairman of the Commons justice committee, said that it was 'extraordinary' the family might not have qualified.

He called for the rules to be made more flexible and said: 'To apply an ungenerous means test in effect without any regard to the nature of the case and evidence required isn't fair. The way [legal aid] has been pared back in recent years has gone beyond what is reasonable and it only leads to injustice.'
A man has been arrested over the suspected murder of a woman found dead days after having her throat slashed with a blade.

The 75-year-old was taken into custody by police in the early hours of Wednesday after the alleged victim's body was found at her home in Richmond, in Melbourne's inner-city.

Her boyfriend found the 49-year-old on the kitchen floor on Tuesday afternoon in a blood-soaked scene neighbours described as 'confronting'.

Scroll down for video

Police (pictured) arrested a 75-year-old man over the suspected stabbing murder of a woman

The 49-year-old woman's body was found just before 4pm on Tuesday and police (pictured) cordoned off the street

The woman - who lived alone - is thought to have been slashed across the neck, Seven News reported.

A neighbour who lives directly across the road suspects the alleged victim had been dead for days.

He said he had seen her on an almost daily basis for 20 years until just a few days ago, The Age reported.

'She was a good neighbour, she always said "hello" or waved. She would park her car out the front of my house... But I haven't seen her car move in days,' he said.

Police (pictured) and homicide detectives are investigating after the suspected stabbing murder that may have happened days before the alleged victim's body was discovered

The woman was found on the kitchen floor of her Richmond home (pictured) in a scene a neighbour described as 'confronting'

The person who found the woman's body visited the home after she did not show up at work.

After they called for help about 4pm neighbours arrived and saw the woman lying in large amounts of blood on the floor of the kitchen.

Police then cordoned off the street as homicide squad detectives arrived on the scene.

It is believed that the woman was cut across the neck with a blade but police (pictured) are yet to determine the exact circumstances

The 49-year-old alleged murder victim lived along in this brick house (pictured) in Richmond, Melbourne

After the woman did not show up at work a family member arrived at her home and found her body, and police (pictured) were called

A Victoria Police spokesman said police are treating the death as suspicious, but the exact circumstances of the suspected murder are yet to be confirmed.

A local resident said the street felt 'eerie' in the aftermath of the woman's death.

'I didn't know the woman but it's usually a very safe street, lots of families ... I've never heard of anything like this happening before, it's a bit scary to be honest', he said.

A neighbour who lives in the same street (pictured) believes the woman may have been dead for days
A woman has been sexually and physically assaulted by a young man during a home invasion in Perth.

The 50-year-old woman was taken to hospital by ambulance after police were called to the Hilton property about 11.30pm on Monday night.

The offender is described as aged between 18 and 25, short and slim, with a heavy stubbled jaw. He was wearing black trousers and a dark grey hoodie.

Police are hunting a violent rapist who was last seen on Monday night wearing a grey hoodie

Anyone with information about a man meeting this description is urged to call CrimeStoppers.

Police told Perth Now that the man broke into the woman's Hilton home, where he bashed and raped her.

The woman, who live alone, told the authorities that her attacker fled the scene after the 'sickening attack'.

Police will not be releasing the name of the victim in order to protect her privacy.

The victim's neighbour said that he didn't hear anything, and that he was 'shocked that such a terrible thing could happen to a women who is so lovely and gentle'.

The victim spent Monday night recovering in hospital as police continue to work on identifying the woman's attacker.

Forensic teams have scoured the Hilton home for any trace of the rapist, who is now said to be on the run.

Scroll down for video

Forensics teams examined East Perth property while the victim recovered in hospital

Officers remain on standby at Crime Stoppers to hear from anyone who has any information that may lead to his capture.

Anyone with information on the man, or who saw suspicious people or vehicles in the Hilton area between 8pm and 2am, is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

A report can also be made online via the CrimeStoppers website.
One of former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz's aides has been arrested and charged with banking fraud.

Imran Awan, 37, was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Monday as he attempted to fly to Qatar then Pakistan.

Authorities had been watching him for months as part of an investigation into information and equipment theft.

His wife, Hina Alvi, and two other relatives, Jamal and Abid Awan, were fired as a result of the probe in March but Imran was kept on by Wasserman Schultz.

On Monday, he was arrested on suspicion of banking fraud for allegedly taking out a $165,000 loan with his wife on a house that they did not live in and sending the money back to Pakistan.

Imran Arwan (above with Bill Clinton) was arrested trying to board a flight to Qatar at Virginia's Dulles Airport on Tuesday

He denies the charge and was granted bail on the condition that he surrender his passports and wear an electronic ankle bracelet until his next court date in August.

His lawyer told Politico later on Tuesday: 'This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.

'A quick glance at what the government filed in court today confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client.'

Arwan's arrest is the culmination of months of investigation by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. As a result of it, several of the man's relatives were fired.

Arwan has worked on Capitol Hill for more than a decade and has served as a staffer to numerous Democrats.

Authorities launched an investigation earlier this year on the suspicion that he and his family were involved in the procurement of theft.

In March, Arwan's wife was fired from her job working for Rep. Gregory Meeks. She fled the country shortly afterwards with the couple's two daughters, a haul of luggage and $12,000 in cash but was never arrested.

Authorities say they do not believe she intended to return to the US. Her husband had a return flight booked for January next year.

Arwan was fired from Rep. Marcia Fudge's staff but he was kept on by Wasserman Schultz despite having his access to the House network denied.

She said nothing of the investigation into him and instead protested that a laptop which was seized as part of the probe had not been returned to her promptly.

Arwan was a staffer for former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In May, she was filmed telling US Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa (above) to 'expect consequences' if he did not promptly return a laptop that was part of the investigation

In May, she was filmed scolding the chief of the US Capitol Police at a budget meeting, telling him to 'expect consequences' if the computer wasn't swiftly returned.

On Tuesday, Wasserman Schultz announced that Awan had been fired after his arrest was announced.

'Mr. Awan previously served as a part-time employee but his services have been terminated.

'No charges, evidence or findings from the investigation have been formally shared with our office, so we cannot comment on them,' a spokesman for her said.

Five staffers were being looked in to in total. They included Abid and Jamal Arwan who are believed to be Imran's brothers.

On Tuesday, there was no indication of either man had been arrested or if either was still in the country.

Awan, 37, was arrested trying to board a flight at Virginia's Dulles Airport (pictured). He was on his way to Qatar and then Pakistan

In April, Imran and Abid's stepmother filed a lawsuit against them claiming they had threatening her to try to force her to signing over power of attorney for assets in Pakistan.

According to The New York Post, which obtained her lawsuit, she said they had tapped her phones and threatened to kidnap relatives in Pakistan so that she would sign their father's $50,000 life insurance policy over to them.

Wasserman Schultz stepped down as DNC chair last year after the Committee's email systems were hacked

Mohammad Ashref Shah, their father and her husband, died in January.

Wasserman Schultz was the chair of the Democratic National Committee when its computer systems were hacked in the summer of 2016.

The cyber attack has been traced back to Russian officials and was categorized by the Obama administration as an attempt to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump.

The security breach led to the harvesting of thousands of emails written by Clinton's campaign team.

They were sent to WikiLeaks and dumped in mass and by drip-feed in to the public sphere before the 2016 presidential election. The hack prompted Wasserman Schultz's resignation.

There is no suggestion Arwan's arrest or the investigation in to the alleged fraud is linked to the hack.
Plans to end the scandal of toxic property leaseholds were in disarray last night.

Campaigners said ministers were ignoring the plight of more than a million buyers locked into rip-off deals.

They cited figures showing that more than 100,000 homes are effectively unsellable because of unfair contracts. Some owners face their ground rent doubling every year.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, left, yesterday unveiled an eight-week consultation on plans to crack down on leasehold abuse, including plans to ban the sale of lease hold houses

Sajid Javid yesterday unveiled an eight-week consultation on plans to crackdown on leasehold abuse, including plans to ban the sale of leasehold houses.

The Communities Secretary said the form of ownership would be restricted to properties with shared services, such as flats which charge ground rent to cover maintenance.

However, there was little on offer for those already burdened with a leasehold contract on newly-built houses. Leaseholders have a legal right to occupy and use a property for a set period, typically from 99 to 999 years.

But on many housing estates, developers have sold on the freehold to overseas investors, who have then ramped up ground rents. In one example in Bolton, the charges on a 200,000 property are due to hit 10,000 a year by 2050.

Taylor Wimpey set aside 130million this year to buy customers out of leasehold contracts in which the ground rent doubles every decade. The firm apologised after it emerged that some new-build properties were nearly worthless.

Mr Javid said a number of house-builders had set up compensation schemes and he was also looking at ways buyers could seek redress from solicitors who did not spot the clause on leaseholds in their contracts.

But campaigners said the existing plans did not go far enough.

Campaigners complain that there are now 100,000 properties in England and Wales which were unsellable because of the leasehold terms associated with the homes

Sir Peter Bottomley, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on leasehold reform, said: The Government has gone further than any other government has and this is welcome, but they dont go far enough.

What plans do they have to help people who currently have toxic terms in their leases? They should be helping people who have suffered gross exploitation.

They have totally disregarded interests of people unable to sell their houses. The terms can be regarded as so unfair that they should be unenforceable. There has been a gross exploitation of leaseholders, an unfairness and wrongdoing in the sector.

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a charity that campaigns for reform, said that there were now 100,000 properties in England and Wales that were unsellable because of their leasehold terms.

The Mail announced yesterday victory in the campaign over the unfair ground rents

Sebastian OKelly, the groups director, said: The consultation doesnt go far enough. The main question is whats going to happen to people living in leasehold properties? Most lenders wont touch these deals.

Katie Kendrick, who set up the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group, said: Its not clear what they are going to do to help those who are already stuck in this situation.

We will campaign relentlessly for the thousands of people who are already affected by this.

Houses should not be sold as leasehold. And if the Government is saying this shouldnt happen in the future, then it shouldnt have happened historically.

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey, also a member of the parliamentary leasehold group, said the Government was doing nothing to help affected leaseholders.

He added: Action is urgently needed to help those whose dream of home ownership has turned into a costly nightmare.

John Healey, Labours housing spokesman, said: The Government has known about and ignored the ground rents scandal for a long time, allowing hard-working families to be ripped off under costly leasehold agreements. On Monday, Mr Javid unveiled his plan to end the feudal practice of selling new homes with a leasehold.

He praised the Mail for exposing the unfair practices, saying developers had been given a chance but had failed to mend their ways.

Under the plans, builders will be banned from selling new leasehold houses, a practice that was not widespread until recently.

There are an estimated 1.2million leasehold houses in England.

In 1996, just 22 per cent of new builds were leasehold. But by 2015, this had risen to 43 per cent.

Ministers hope the plans, which are subject to consultation, will be in force by early next year.

However, there are also concerns that no property lawyers have been disciplined over the scandal.

Some first-time buyers have claimed they were not given proper advice when buying leaseholds.

Solicitors who work in the property industry can be disciplined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, while the Council for Licensed Conveyancers investigates other legal professionals.

An SRA spokesman said it had received just a handful of complaints about bad practice in relation to leasehold, while the CLC said it had received none.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said last night: All our customers received independent professional legal advice from regulated legal firms when purchasing their property and signing their leases, the terms of which were outlined simply and clearly.

We would expect all solicitors to explain the ownership structure of a property and any rent reviews to their clients.

Similar to all major housebuilders... Taylor Wimpey has typically sold its underlying freehold interests. This is because the administrative structures needed to manage a portfolio of freehold is very different to a housebuilders core business.

'It's the next mis-selling scandal'

When Jo Darbyshire found it would cost 50,000 to buy the freehold on her Taylor Wimpey house  ten times the price five years earlier, she was horrified.

The cost of owning the freehold soared after it was sold to a management company, Adriatic Land. A hidden clause in her contract lets the ground rent double every decade, hitting 9,440 a year by 2067.

The 47-year-old, above, accuses Taylor Wimpey of systematic abuse. She bought her house in Bolton for nearly 400,000 in 2010 on a 250-year lease. Her ground rent is 295 a year till 2020, when it doubles.

Jo Darbyshire discovered she would have to pay 50,000 to buy the freehold on her Taylor Wimpey House - ten times the price from five years earlier

Mrs Darbyshire, a commercial director, said: Ive worked in financial services for years. You would never hide such critical information from a customer. It is a lack of transparency.

Referring to the PPI and pensions mis-selling scandals, she said: This is the next one.

Cost of my freehold tripled in months

John Hazeldine was told he could buy his freehold for 5,000 - but now the price has jumped up to 15,000

John Hazeldine saved for ten years to be able to move out of his parents home.

But within months of paying 160,000 for his three-bedroom house he was told the price of buying the freehold had tripled after builder Taylor Wimpey sold it to an investment firm.

The 31-year-old company director said: It was my first property, it was all new to me. I went into the Taylor Wimpey sales office, we went through everything and they hardly mentioned the leasehold.

I asked, Could I buy the freehold?, and they said I could within three years for 5,000.

Then 12 months into living here, I got a letter out of the blue informing me they had sold the freehold to a company called Mainstay.

When I inquired to Mainstay, they said, We want 15,000 now. Within a year, they just did it from underneath my feet.

There was no prior warning. They didnt bother to consult the people living in the properties. I was shocked.

Mr Hazeldine, right, said the freehold was now unaffordable. It runs to 100 years and the owner is Mainstay Group. At the moment, the ground rent for his home in St Helens, Merseyside is 295 a year.

He said he had been excited about owning his first home, but was now disillusioned, adding: I couldnt wait to get the keys.

Twelve months later Im just disheartened. If I knew they would put it up to 15,000 I wouldnt have bothered, I would have walked away.

I wouldnt want to sell the property but if it came to it I would have a problem because nobody would want it.

Locked in to rip-off deal

Clair Scott, pictured, feared she would miscarry due to the stress caused by the rising ground rent in her home, pictured

Unable to sell her Taylor Wimpey home thanks to a clause that doubles the ground rent every ten years, Clair Scott has been left saddled with debt.

The 31-year-old analyst feared she would miscarry over the stress of her sale falling through after she had already completed on another home.

She bought the newbuild home in June 2011 for 200,000 with a 250-year lease.

But until last year, she was not fully aware of a clause in her contract that stated the ground rent would double every ten years, reaching almost 10,000 a year by 2067. Her buyers were just hours from taking ownership of her property when they spotted the clause, which would significantly add to their costs.

Mrs Scott, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, says she feels trapped in a home she may never able be able to sell. She has been so distressed by the ordeal that she feels physically sick when she visits her house, which is now rented out.

After working hard and being comfortable financially, she is now concerned about how she and her husband will fund her daughters future.

She said: Try selling a three-bedroom townhouse to someone and say to them the ground rent is 2,000 a year or 5,000 a year or 10,000.

Im really scared. I have no financial certainly at all. There is no way of winning unless the government gets involved further or all this pressure forces the homebuilders to do more stuff.

Weve never had to worry about money before. To go from that to being in eye watering levels of debt.
He was once the Solo Man, an Australian soft drink advertising star from the 1980s famous for man-of-action feats like canoeing off cliff faces.

Now Mark Robert Coutelas has be charged in Cambodia with using and selling the drug ice, just years after being jailed in Thailand for drug offences.

Coutelas was arrested at a guesthouse by military police in the coastal city Sihanoukville on Monday, provincial deputy military police commander Keo Sophal said.

Scroll down for video

Mark Robert Coutelas (pictured) has be charged in Cambodia with using and selling the drug ice, just years after being jailed in Thailand for drug offences

The 57-year-old appeared at Preah Sihanouk provincial court on Tuesday and was charged with the unlawful keeping, transporting or trafficking of narcotics.

Court spokesman Lim Bunheng said Coutelas had 'admitted' to previously being sentenced to two years imprisonment in Thailand for 'drug trafficking'.

Coutelas is being held at Preah Sihanouk provincial prison and will face court at a later date.

According to Thai reports, in 2014 he was arrested at an apartment on the resort island of Phuket in possession of a hand gun, ammunition and a small amount of crystal methamphetamine. He was later jailed.

Coutelas was once the Solo Man, an Australian soft drink advertising star from the 1980s

Coutelas is pictured drinking Solo in the 1980s Australian soft drink advertisement

The 57-year-old appeared at Preah Sihanouk provincial court on Tuesday and was charged with the unlawful keeping, transporting or trafficking of narcotics

Coutelas was charged with the unlawful keeping, transporting or trafficking of narcotics

Coutelas pictured with a group of women in a photo posted to his public Facebook page

Coutelas is being held at Preah Sihanouk provincial prison (pictured) and will face court at a later date

In a May 25 post on his Facebook page, Coutelas tells a friend: 'Living in Sihanoukville Cambodia at this minute in Phnom Pehn. I LOVE CHANG CLUB!!! I miss you buddy. Me blacklist (sic) for (sic) Thailand 110 years (sic).'

Earlier this year, he also posted he had begun a new business, Back Pain Solutions Sihanoukvill, following on from his experience as a chiropractor in Australia.

He also describes himself as 'Living a simple happy life in the present moment without causing anyone or anything any pain'.

The Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said it 'stands ready to offer consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter, to Australians who are arrested or detained overseas'.

Australian man Mark Coutelas (pictured) is serving time behind bars in Thailand for possessing guns and crystal meth

In the 1980s Coutelas was famous for man-of-action feats like canoeing off cliff faces

Coutelas pictured while he was living in Thailand, before he was imprisoned on drugs charges
Female writers of the past such as George Eliot and the Bronte sisters had little choice but to use male pseudonyms if they wanted their work published.

But modern male authors are now turning to gender neutral names in an attempt to appeal to female readers.

SK Tremayne went straight to the top of the bestsellers list with The Ice Twins, a thriller written from a mothers perspective about the death of a daughter.

But in fact it had been written by the author Sean Thomas, who had previously produced a succession of thrillers which were aimed at men.

Modern male authors are now turning to gender neutral names in an attempt to appeal to female readers

The writer, who lives in London, told The Times: We didnt want readers to think, Im not buying a book about a woman written by a man. He wont be able to do it.

Speaking on the Radio 4 Today show yesterday, author Allison Pearson said it is a small moment of triumph that men now have to pretend to be female to sell more, and added that in the great library in the sky Charlotte Bronte and Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) were perhaps exchanging a wry glance of satisfaction.

She added: I remember as a university student thinking that Middlemarch, arguably the greatest novel in the language, the idea that she felt she had to take a mans name to be taken seriously stuck in the craw. So now were seeing a marvellous role reversal.

Tony Strong, who wrote the bestseller The Girl Before under the pseudonym JP Delaney, said fans often accused him of being an imposter when they met him. He added: Someone had to Google me to prove that I really was the author.

A survey of 40,000 men and women by the website Goodreads in 2014 found that 46 of the 50 most-read books among women were by women.
An elite all-ages school is offering its students vegan chocolate mousse, dumplings and even smashed avocado on toast at its canteen.

Northern Beaches Christian School, in Sydney's far north, has been open to change in recent years, with teachers calling themselves everything from 'learning activists' to 'pedagogical wizards'.

And now the $15,000-a-year private school has also bid goodbye the days of writing lunch orders on a brown paper bag, with the school's canteen better resembling a beachside cafe with its variety of gourmet options.

Northern Beaches Christian School (pictured), in Sydney's far north, offers its students vegan chocolate mousse, dumplings and even smashed avocado on toast at its school canteen

The $15,000-a-year private school has bid goodbye the writing lunch orders on a brown paper bag, with the canteen better resembling a beachside cafe with its variety of options (pictured)

Founded in the early 1980s, Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS) became an independent and not-for-profit organisation in 2004.

Today it has more than 1,300 students, with its practices seeing it 'highly regarded by educators across the world'.

And part of the school's efforts to 'empower' its students from primary school to Year 12, has been the inclusion of its independently-owned canteen - 'Grounded'.

While many parents' memories of school canteens involve brown paper bags, meat pies or devon and tomato sauce sandwiches, times have definitely changed.

Despite millennials being warned to steer clear of 'smashed avo on toast' (pictured), it seems the brunch favourite is still available to school students.

It is joined on the canteen's winter menu by artisian fruit loaf, tapioca pudding, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, 'Nonnas meatballs', deli sandwiches on sourdough, as well as turmeric and chai lattes.

The canteen's winter menu includes artisian fruit loaf, tapioca pudding, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, 'Nonnas meatballs', deli sandwiches on sourdough, as well as turmeric and chai lattes

Despite millennials being warned to steer clear of 'smashed avo on toast' (pictured), it seems the brunch favourite is still available to school students at Northern Beaches Christian School

Promoting the canteen on its website, the school spruiks its 'great food and coffee' while also encouraging parents to pay a visit when on campus

Promoting the canteen on its website, the school spruiks its 'great food and coffee' while also encouraging parents to pay a visit.

'The cafe aligns with our core value of being a learning community built on strong, meaningful relationships  food is a great catalyst for shared community,' the website reads.

'Grounded is an independent business, with a vision is to provide healthy, delicious food, prepared daily on the premises.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Northern Beaches Christian School for comment.
Julia Carlile pictured on her hospital bed after the operation

A teenage dancer who wowed audiences on Britain's Got Talent despite suffering from scoliosis has been pictured smiling from bed after undergoing the life-changing operation paid for by Simon Cowell.

The music mogul and BGT judge funded the 175,000 procedure to remove Julia Carlile's severe back pain after she performed on the show with her troupe, MerseyGirls.

And the group shared the picture of the youngster on Twitter, with the caption: 'First op done, we are so proud of her and missing her so much want to give her a MASSIVE HUG, our girl is a fighter.'

After arriving in New York with her family on Sunday, she travelled to New Jersey wito receive the surgery that has restored her hope in being able to dance again.

The procedure, called vertebral body tethering, involves screws being fixed along a cord inside the back.

It takes just 6 weeks to recover compared to 6 months and is reversible if it doesn't work.

Julia revealed that Cowell approached her backstage during her stint on Britain's Got Talent and told her he would pay the 175,000 required for her surgery

Julia pictured on This Morning in May spoke about how Britian's Got Talent could allow her to keep dancing - and she was right

The current NHS procedure for scoliosis would run the risk of Julia never dancing again.

Julia admitted earlier this month that Cowell, 57, was paying for the operation himself.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, she confessed: 'Simon came and spoke to us backstage. Just walking off stage and he said he was paying for it and I couldn't believe it.

The MerseyGirls celebrate after Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon pressed her golden buzzer for them

The group perform a balletic routine during their time on the ITV talent show this year

'Annie came up to me and said Simon wants to speak to us. He said we did a really good performance.'

She also wowed crowds as she delivered a routine alongside the rest of her MerseyGirls troupe at Formby Festival in Liverpool.

Unsurprisingly, emotions were running high as the dance group - who are made up of Julia's friends, as well as her older sister Alice, 17 - weeped after performing together for the last time before the operation.

Opening up about her tear-jerking final performance, Julia confessed: 'It was quite sad. I'm not going to see any of the girls now before my surgery. We were all crying and saying bye to each other, hugging and crying. we are really, really close friends.'
A luxury mansion custom-made by luxury yacht builders is set to smash Queensland real estate records.

The unique $30million home - located in the Gold Coast's exclusive Sovereign Island's neighbourhood - has only ever been used as a holiday house.

Known as Chateau de Reves, the palatial waterfront property features a $500,000 door imported from Spain, an onyx staircase, and even a Turkish day spa.

Scroll down for video

A luxury waterfront home (pictured) in a Gold Coast gated community is set to sell for $30million

The huge three-storey 4000 square meter property features an imported onyx staircase (pictured)

The door to the property (pictured) was imported from Spain and cost an estimated half-a-million dollars

The palatial mansion also features indoor and outdoor swimming pools (pictured) with 24 carat gold tiles

Neighbours include multi-millionaire businessman and former politician Clive Palmer, who owns a gated mansion nearby, Nine News reported.

The sale has attracted interest from around the world, with potential buyers from the Middle East, London, and Hong Kong jostling to view the three-storey home.

The owners built the 4000 square meter mansion in 2001 and it features seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms spread over three levels.

The waterfront property (pictured) is expected to break Queensland records by selling for $30million

The home's custom-made swimming pools are lined with extravagant 24 carat gold tiles (pictured)

Spread over three levels, the mansion (pictured) has seven bedroom, eight bathrooms, and two kitchens

The home was custom built by the owners and decorated withBotticino marble floors (pictured)

The property (pictured) is in a neighbourhood home to businessman and former politician Clive Palmer

They have only ever used it as a holiday home, however, and feel they no longer need it.

Realtor Paul Arthur said: 'The family's all grown up, they live in all parts of the world and the property has now really become surplus to their needs.'

The mansion is fully sustainable, has two kitchens - one with a teppanyaki table - and a swimming pool with 24 carat gold tiles.

The onyx staircase (pictured) was designed and manufactured in Italy and brought to Australia in one piece

The Sovereign Islands home even includes a Turkish day spa (pictured), steam room, and massage room

The interiors of the home are decorated with finishings made from Venetian Murano glass (pictured)

The home (pictured) has direct waterfront access in addition to the swimming pools (pictured)

The onyx staircase was designed and made in Italy before being shipped to Australia in one piece, RealEstate.com.au reported.

Chateau De Reves is finished with Botticino marble floors, Venetian Murano glass, and white Thassos marble benchtops.

The huge home also includes a garage large enough to fit 14 luxury vehicles and features lifts and a private pontoon.

The designers opted for an open-plan layout that lets light in from the huge windows (pictured)

The property features two kitchens (pictured) one of which has a teppanyaki table (pictured)

The owners of the home chose the luxury decorations (pictured) themselves but only ever used it as a holiday house

The Sovereign Islands neighbourhood is an affluent gated community full of opulent waterfront homes with deepwater moorings.

Many homes in the area have sold for more than $20million making the suburb one of the most expensive in Australia.

Sovereign Islands (pictured) on Queensland's Gold Coast is an affluent gated community

One of the home's two kitchens contains a teppanyaki table (pictured) and the other has commercial-grade fittings

The living room (pictured) benefits from the open-plan layout and is airy and full of natural light
News / National

by Staff reporter

The sheriff has been asked to engage the commissioner-general of police, Augustine Chihuri and director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Happyton Bonyongwe, to facilitate in the arrest of Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo (pictured) for contempt of court.This comes after security officials blocked the sheriff from arresting Chombo at the Zanu-PF politburo meeting last week.This followed a directive for his incarceration for failing to comply with a High Court order to facilitate the release of funds seized by police from Mutare-based businessman, Tendai Blessing Mangwiro.Mangwiro's lawyers have instructed the sheriff to seek the assistance of Chihuri and Bonyongwe because Chombo enjoys VIP protection, which might make it difficult to arrest him.The move to arrest Chombo comes after he was last year slapped with a 90-day prison term by High Court judge Amy Tsanga after he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to comply with an order directing him to facilitate the release of a further $78 900 confiscated from Mangwiro. The Home Affairs minister had appealed against the contempt of court conviction, before he withdrew the application, which prompted Mangwiro to take the current route.Mangwiro has been in a prolonged legal battle with the police to recover his money, which also resulted in him seeking an order for the court to strike off the State Liabilities Act from the country's statutes.The striking off of this Act will allow owed litigants to attach government property.High Court judge Edith Mushore has since ruled that the Act is unconstitutional but had erroneously referred the matter to the Constitutional Court for confirmation of the order, resulting in the matter being struck off by the highest court in the land on procedural basis.Mangwiro is seeking to recover a total of over $1,5 million confiscated by the police in 2008, following his wrongful arrest on theft charges. He was acquitted in 2012.In a report addressed to Mangwiro, the sheriff said that the first attempt to execute the arrest order failed last Wednesday."... failed to arrest the respondent (Chombo) who was said to be engaged at the politburo at the Zanu-PF headquarters and was barred by security personnel to physically check his office and corroborate such fact," the Sheriff said.Following this first attempt, the Attorney General (AG)'s office wrote a letter to Mangwiro's lawyers Mahuni, Mutatu Attorneys, accusing them of acting in bad faith.The AG's office said that the lawyers had renounced agency and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) was now handling the matter.However, the lawyers responded stating that they were the lawyers of choice for Mangwiro in the contempt of court case against Chombo and that the ZLHR was representing their client in a different matter.
Guns, drugs, and cash have been seized in police raids on the homes of Rebels and Lone Wolf bikies after violent clashes between the warring gangs.

Gang and riot squad officers hit two homes in northern NSW - each belonging to two different members of the rival groups - as police tried to simmer escalating tensions.

A rifle scope, marijuana and more than $6,000 were seized at the home of a Rebels bikie gang associate at Commissioners Creek, near Byron Bay, on Monday.

Police handcuffed the Rebels bikie member after they dramatically stormed the house in Commissioners Creek, near Byron Bay

Two alleged bikies were held outside while officers searched the house for contraband

Footage from the raid showed heavily armed officers detaining two men at the house and dragging them outside while they searched it.

Officers also found an axe-like implement with the in a yard crowded with dirt bikes, numerous jerry cans, and a quad bike.

The next day a Lone Wolf member's home in Terranora, near Tweed Heads, was searched and a 39-year-old man was issued a warning for consorting.

Both bikies were subject to Firearm Prohibition Orders, giving police the right to search for guns and ammunition.

The raids came after a brawl between members of the two gangs in the carpark of the Tweed Heads Seagulls rugby league club on June 21.

Two bikies, aged 37 and 39, were later charged with affray over the fight.

Police found a bag of marijuana in the property which was seized as eveidence

The search also turned up $6,000 in $50 and $100 notes that was also bagged up and taken away

The bikies had a rifle scope despite being subject to a Firearm Prohibition Order

Officers also found an axe-like implement with the in the yard

Detective Inspector Brendon Cullen said the targeted operations were in response to a violent flare up between the two outlaw motorcycle gangs.

'These operations are a direct consequence of the disregard that OMCG members have had for the community and we will continue to bring their behaviour in line with community expectations,' he said.

'We're determined not to have public acts of violence and any member of an OMCG that thinks they can get away with it should realise there will be consequences.

'This will be an ongoing operation in conjunction with the Queensland Police Service to keep our community safe.'

Detective Inspector Brendon Cullen said the targeted operations were in response to a violent flare up between the two outlaw motorcycle gangs
A Kings Cross identity has said being stabbed is 'far worse' than being shot in a chilling radio interview about his colourful life.

John Ibrahim, who has owned about 40 venues over more than 30 years told Kyle and Jackie O he was stabbed in Sydney's Kings Cross at the age of 17.

Ibrahim also bemoaned the death of Sydney's nightlife, ruined by 'ridiculous' laws and lock-out laws.

The 46-year-old, who has also been shot at several times, frankly told the program he has only been hit once, where one bullet scraped his body and another lodged between his ribs.

But it was the stabbing, which scarred him straight down the middle of his chest, which left him feeling he was going to die.

Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim (centre) shared chilling details of his brushes with death with radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O

He said it had been worse when he was stabbed as a teenager (scars pictured) than when he was shot at

'There's a lot more damage [with stabbing]', he told the radio hosts.

'I lost a lot of blood. By the time I got to hospital, I had lost so much blood - the amount of transfusions that occurred - it was very touch and go.

'The bullet scraping was more or less one scraping, and one lodged between my ribs.

'The stabbing was very serious. I had my shirt tucked in, and my stomach had actually poured out and I could actually see it pulsating through my shirt.

'It was a weird feeling.'

Ibrahim said he could 'see his stomach pulsating under his shirt' after being stabbed. He claims his insides 'poured' out of the wound

John Ibrahim was described as 'the new lifeblood of the drugs trade in Kings Cross' in 1995 during the Wood Royal Commission, despite vehemently denying any involvement in illegal drugs.

The Sydney man was stabbed as a teenager with a kitchen knife after jumping in to defend another man who was being attacked, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

While much of the scarring on his chest is from the attack itself, one part is reportedly from where a tube was inserted to re-inflate his lung following the stabbing.

Ibrahim also lashed out at the lockout laws, telling the radio hosts it was no longer possible to make money in the nightlife industry.

'There's so many hurdles you have to cross, so many laws, just ridiculous, pointless,' he said.

The Sydney man was stabbed as a teenager with a kitchen knife after jumping in to defend another man who was being attacked (Ibrahim left, pictured with unrelated friend)

The 46-year-old had a tube inserted into his lung to re-inflate it after he was viciously stabbed

'I was around in the hey day, there weren't so many restrictions. You couldn't survive now.

'The stuff we got away with  back in the DCM [nightclub] days.

'You'd open at 11 at night and keep pumping until 11 the next day. You can never do that again.'

He admitted that while he believed the lockout laws were a 'knee-jerk reaction', it had been a good way to step back from the life he'd been living.

'I appreciated that [way out], but it's ruined our Sydney nightlife,' he said.

'It's made it slightly safer, not that much. The statistics, they can play around with them, it's bulls**t, don't fall for that crap.

'It was a moron relocation program, that diluted the problem throughout the city. It doesn't mean it's gone away, it's been diluted throughout Sydney.'
Two women have been identified by police with help from social media after they crashed through a Mexican restaurant while they were attempting to get their car out of a locked parking lot in Missouri.

The Kansas City Police have not yet named the suspects, but they were able to identify the duo after they posted shots from a surveillance video asking the public for help.

The grainy surveillance video shows the women smashing the wall at the Ponak's Mexican restaurant causing extensive damage. The battered wall will cost at least $200,000 to repair.

The surveillance footage originally posted by police from the Ponak's Mexican restaurant was grainy making a positive identification of the women more difficult

People in the community were able to match the women in the surveillance video to this image from an event the same night. The sharper image would lead to their identification by police

The damage to the wall was extensive from the women crashing through it, bricks (pictured) were knocked off the wall in the crash

People in the community searched through social media photos from a nearby event and cross referenced them with the women in the grainy footage from Ponak's.

Cops were able to make a positive identification after seeing photos of women that matched sent to them by vigilantes in the community.

The police then used the sharp event photos on their Kansas City Police Twitter and they were tipped to the women's identities.

The women were wearing the same outfits in the surveillance video as in the snaps from the event they attended before trying to retrieve their vehicle

The scene of the crime. Ponak's Mexican Restaurant in Kansas City where the women crashed their car, thankfully no one was injured

According to WDAF, the women returned to their car in the parking lot of the restaurant after the event they attended on July 1, but found the car locked in.

Their plan was to back over railroad tracks behind the restaurant but the driver hit the wall of the establishment instead.

'The damage is more extensive than we imagined,' Ponak's General Manager John Greer told WDAF.

'We thought it would be $30,000 to $40,000 and it's turned out being a high estimate of up to $200,000 to $220,000 to fix this wall.'

Kansas City Police used Twitter to ask the public to properly identify the women who were out at an event before they smashed into the restaurant wall

Once the search was over police thanked the Twitter community for their help

'I'm glad that I have a pretty loyal following and people that do care,' Greer said.

Police confirmed they had identified the women on Tuesday, tweeting out: 'Thanks, Twitter! We've got these ladies ID'd!' police tweeted.

It was not immediately clear if they were in custody yet.
Peak-hour traffic has come to a standstill in Melbourne after a shipping container became stuck under a bridge.

A truck carrying a container smashed into the notorious Napier Street Bridge underpass in Footscray at about 7am on Wednesday morning.

The four-metre bridge has been hit almost 70 times since 2005, StarWeekly reported.

A truck carrying a container smashed into the notorious Napier Street Bridge underpass in Footscray at about 7am on Wednesday morning

Pictures taken of the scene show the truck wedged under the bridge as workers figure out how to fix the problem

All eastbound lanes were closed when the container smashed into a barrier. It crumpled as it fell onto the road and adjacent footpath.

Pictures taken of the scene show the truck wedged under the bridge as workers figure out how to fix the problem.

All eastbound lanes on Napier Street were cleared by about 10am.

A similar accident occurred at the bridge in March, when a shipping container fell of the back of a truck.

Three men suffered minor injuries in the accident.

In May the state government announced in it will spend $1.1 million on a safety upgrade to the bridge.

Peak-hour traffic has come to a standstill in Melbourne after a shipping container became stuck under a bridge (traffic conditions in Melbourne on Wednesday pictured)
An Alaska man says his boat was attacked by an orca during a fishing excursion with his 14-year-old son and two other people.

Victor Littlefield of Sitka says he was out on the water Sunday when the killer whale approached and repeatedly rammed the boat, yanking the anchor line and slapping the bow with its tail in the terrifying ordeal.

'My boat was attacked by a killer whale today off Little Biorka. Maybe it was playing with me I'm not sure,' Sitka posted to Facebook.

A close encounter with the killer kind. The killer whale, which rarely attacks boats, rammed Victor Littlefield's vessel repeatedly near Sitka, Alaska on Sunday

Littlefield holds up a cellphone video of the orca whale pulling a line off his boat near Sitka, Alaska on a fishing expedition with his 14-year-old son and two others, this past Sunday

'It would grab my anchor line and yank the boat so hard I thought it would swamp us.'

The whole encounter with the large marine mammal lasted only minutes.

'It was repeated and lasted several minutes. I considered shooting it. After we got the anchor line detached from the boat it stopped.'

He said the 33-foot aluminum boat initially lurched to one side while it was anchored.

The experienced fisherman, Littlefield (pictured) lived to tell about his dangerous encounter with an orca after the whale yanked his boat around and rammed it repeatedly

Killer whales rarely attack vessels according to Albert Duncan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Littlefield, an experienced fisherman, said he thought it was a shark at first since he's never seen an orca behave this way. Plus, he had recently watched the movie 'Jaws.'

Albert Duncan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Littlefield notified the agency and provided video of the encounter.

Duncan said such attacks are rare.
A Sydney man was caught driving while disqualified during a random breath test  then police discovered he cannot drive until the year 3001.

Leonard Davie, 62, was stopped by police in Campbelltown, in Sydney's south-west, earlier in July, 9News reported.

His breath test came back fine but he was not able to hand over a license.

Scroll down for video

Leonard Davie was stopped by police in Campbelltown, in Sydney's south-west earlier in July

Officers found he once held a West Australian driver's licence but it expired in 1983.

A further check led to the discovery his licence was cancelled in 1988 until December 3001.

This meant he would be 1,046-years-old when he was allowed to drive again.

When asked how he lost his license, Mr Davie told 9News it was due to an 'accumulation of points'.

Officers found he once held a West Australian driver's licence but it expired in 1983 and a further check revealed he was disqualified until 3001

Mr Davie's random breath test came back fine, but he wasn't able to hand over a license

He claims he has only driven once since 1988 and is 'very unlucky' to have been caught.

Mr Davie is banned for the unusually long term after three drink driving offences, but he insists he has never had an accident.

He is due to face court next month for driving while disqualified.
Hidden camera footage alleged to be from inside a pig farm reveals the horrific treatment of animals including a sow being violently hit in the head with a pipe and small piglets being tossed into containers.

Farrowing crates, which are small in size to limit movement, are used to stop sows from rolling onto their piglets once they have given birth.

The video reportedly shot in Waikato, New Zealand was jointly released by animal rights groups SAFE and Farmwatch, who have called for an 'immediate ban' on farrowing crates, according to NZ Farmer.

Scroll down for video

SAFE has launched a petition calling for the government to stop sows being confined to cages

Independent research has shown that when used correctly, farrowing crates result in less piglet deaths.

However, the footage obtained by SAFE and Farmwatch shows that the mother pigs trapped in the crates are unable to turn around and even struggle to lie down.

'Their boredom causes them to repeatedly bite at the bars and one sow is shown desperately trying to escape the cage,' SAFE said in a statement.

The footage, which was allegedly shot on handheld and hidden cameras, reportedly depicts activity in the pig farm in May and June of 2017.

In one part of the clip, a worker can be seen repeatedly hitting and jabbing a sow in the head with a feeding pipe.

Another section of the video shows sows crying out as their piglets are taken away and thrown roughly into crates on top of each other.

The video shows worked taking piglets from their mothers and tossing them into containers

A petition has been launched by SAFE, calling on the New Zealand government to stop the confinement of pigs to small cages.

'Suffering of animals on New Zealand pig farms is sadly commonplace,' said SAFE campaigns director Mandy Carter in a statement.

'Despite continual public outcries over the years, sows are still confined in metal cages little wider than themselves, living a life of misery.'

Pigs are 'living a life of misery' in farrowing crates, according to SAFE campaigns director

Further footage has been obtained by SAFE that shows a 360 degree view of the farrowing crate.

'Virtual reality will allow the public to experience what NZ Pork would rather they did not,' Ms Carter said.

'Now, with the 360-degree footage, people can see for themselves and understand the desperation and boredom these animals experience every day.'

Farrowing crates currently breach the Animal Welfare Act because they prevent pigs from expressing their normal behaviour, which is a requirement of the act.

NAWAC agrees that farrowing crates do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act, yet, as announced last week, it is about to introduce a new regulation that only requires the cage to be barely bigger than the sow inside it.

The crate 'subject sows to the same mental deprivation and emotional stress' as sow stalls, which were banned on cruelty grounds in 2010 after a SAFE petition.

360 degree video helps people 'understand the desperation and boredom' the pigs endure

In 2015, the use of farrowing crates was reviewed by the NAWAC - the government animal welfare committee - at the request of the Minister of Primary Industries.

The review included a assessments on international and domestic research, practice, codes and standards.

'NAWAC does not consider that there is any practical alternative system that provides comparable levels of piglet welfare while better meeting the welfare needs of sows,' concluded the welfare committee review.

Some of the farrowing crates at the Waikato pig farm allow no room for the sows to move

A study into farrowing crates by Massey University PhD student Kirsty Chidget found that farrowing pens could be a viable alternative to farrowing crates.

Farrowing pens 'give the sow more room, and there is the option of letting the sow out...when the piglets are three days old'.

However, Ms Chidget said that research showed the highest piglet survival rate was when the sow was confined in a crate, despite the fact that it compromised the needs of the sow.

Pics are confined to farrowing crates at pig farms in New Zealand, despite welfare concerns

'Piglet mortality is about 4 per cent higher in larger pens, which allow the sow to have more contact with her piglets, and in outside systems about another 10 per cent are lost [over farrowing crate mortality],' Ms Chidget said.

She concluded that an outdoor system is better for the sow, but more piglets died.

'It is always a trade off between the needs of the sow and piglet survival.'
The EU is vowing to block Brexit talks unless Theresa May drops plans for criminal checks on European citizens hoping to stay in Britain.

Senior MEPs attacked the requirement as a mass invasion of privacy and called for a list of demands to be met by the UK.

British ministers have insisted that the 3.2million people hoping to claim settled status after the split with Brussels must undergo the checks in an attempt to root out criminals.

But the powerful cohort of EU politicians, who will wield a veto over the final Brexit agreement, yesterday said talks cannot proceed unless the safeguard is off the table.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliaments Brexit coordinator, yesterday said he would not accept criminal checks

The move will rankle with UK negotiators who are resisting the EUs attempts to shape Britains immigration policy even after it leaves the bloc.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said the checks do not affect civil liberties and are a reasonable method to help kick out those deemed a serious threat to society.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliaments Brexit coordinator, yesterday said he would not accept criminal checks.

He added: We seek to avoid an administrative burden for citizens and want proposals which are intrusive to peoples privacy off the table, e.g. proposed systematic criminal checks.

It came after talks between Brussels and the UK ended in a stalemate last week and British officials said that there were significant gaps in the EUs approach.

While French former EU commissioner Michel Barnier is leading negotiations for the bloc, insiders increasingly fear that Mr Verhofstadt and his allies could hold up talks.

MEPs will be given several months to scrutinise the final deal and then vote on whether it should be passed in 2019.

After being updated on talks by Mr Barnier yesterday, former Belgian prime minister Mr Verhofstadt accused the UK of using citizens as bargaining chips and issued a list of demands.

These included asking Britain to present an initial framework for settling the controversial divorce bill  the money Brussels claims it is owed by the UK. This is despite British officials accusing the EU of failing to explain its demands.

Mr Verhofstadt said: If we want negotiations to succeed within the limited time we have, progress on more detailed content will have to be made sooner rather than later. The influential MEP also said EU citizens remaining in the UK should be given a wide range of benefits, including the right to be joined by family members for decades to come.

Brexit Secretary David Davis, pictured, has said the checks do not affect civil liberties

The European Parliament will remain vigilant regarding citizens rights and will continue to push for full rights for EU citizens in the UK as well as UK citizens in the EU, he said in a statement signed by five other MEPs.

It is a core mission of the European project to protect, not to diminish, the fundamental rights of all citizens.

When British officials raised the criminal checks during negotiations last week, EU officials said the move would represent a breach of rights. Instead, they said that checks should be carried out only where there is suspicion of a criminal history.

UK negotiators maintain the checks would be fair, saying they revolve around a test based in EU law that many Brexiteers have previously criticised as soft.

After searching UK databases for criminal convictions and jail sentences, Home Office officials must determine whether offenders pose a sufficiently serious threat to society before deportation.

British law, currently applied to those seeking citizenship from outside the EU, states that anyone who has served a minimum 12-month sentence in the UK should be rejected.
The man who was allegedly caught on camera attacking a teenage gym worker in a parking lot did so to get revenge against one of her relatives.

Jordan Lamonde, 22, allegedly punched 18-year-old Erin McCarthy 39 times before tossing her to the ground outside of a Planet Fitness in Rochester, New Hampshire, about 10pm on June 12.

The shocking assault was captured on camera, and police had been working to identify the attacker since last month.

It has now been reported the 22-year-old allegedly attacked McCarthy outside the gym because he believes a man named Joe Bunch stole his safe, which had $30,000 in cash inside, the Boston Globe reports.

Scroll down for video

Jordan Lamonde (pictured), 22, allegedly punched 18-year-old Erin McCarthy 39 times before tossing her to the ground outside of a Planet Fitness in Rochester, New Hampshire

McCarthy is reportedly dating Bunch's brother, Steven, according to reports cited by the newspaper.

Lamonde pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault charges in Strafford Superior Court, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Defense attorney John Durkin said his client is being supported by his family after the alleged incident, and stressed the 22-year-old has no priors.

He also spoke about the plan going forward, and if or how the charges will be contested.

'The state has the burden of proof,' Durkin said, the Globe reports.

Security footage showed the man in sunglasses, believed to be Lamonde, at his car outside the gym

The man, allegedly Lamonde, then followed McCarthy around to her car before the attack

Footage then showed the man reach back and punch the young woman viciously in the head

'We will assess the matter once we see all the evidence. If Jordan wants to go to trial, we will go to trial.'

Police said, according to the Globe, evidence gathered includes the security footage, which allegedly shows Lamonde waiting outside the gym for eight hours.

An officer's report states: 'It was later determined through conversation with (Steven) Bunch that he was the one Jordan accused of stealing his safe that contained thousands of dollars.

'Steven told detectives that (he and Lamonde) had been good friends until that accusation. They had not spoken to each other or had contact since.'

A Rochester police spokesman said the investigation is over after the arrest of Lamonde, as they are not looking for any other suspects.

'We are confident Lamonde is the only person involved in this crime,' Captain Jason Thomas told the Globe on Tuesday.

18-year-old Erin McCarthy was attacked as she left the gym where she worked

Despite allegedly being punched more than three dozen times, McCarthy was lucky enough to escape with just some cuts and bruises

'From our point of view, the case is closed.'

It comes after McCarthy spoke about the attack she endured last month.

'He just kind of came up and hit me in the back of the head and wouldn't stop,' she said.

'He didn't say a word and he didn't have a reason behind it. I asked "Why? Who are you?"'

Incredibly, McCarthy did not suffer any major injuries despite receiving a number of blows.

'I mean, he threw me around like a rag doll, so I kind of just let it happen,' she said.
Sunny weather and perfect driving conditions have been blamed for a spate of violent road rage attacks.

Police spoke in response to two shocking assaults on New South Wales roads over the last two days.

In an incident on Tuesday a man was filmed allegedly punching a woman in the face after a dispute near Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney.

On Wednesday morning a wild brawl between four men broke out in front of peak hour traffic in Merrylands, Sydney.

Scroll down for video

Police said a spate of recent road rage attacks, including one where a man allegedly punched a woman in the face (pictured) may be caused in part by good weather

Perfect driving conditions may be partly to blame for the peak-hour brawl (pictured) that broke out in Merrylands on Wednesday morning

NSW Police Chief Inspector Phil Brooks suspects weather conditions are a major factor in the incidents, ABC reported.

He said there were other factors involved, but road rage attacks usually occur when driving conditions are perfect.

'People are wanting to get to their destination quickly. They're very upset with a vehicle in front or alongside for whatever reason, and it's them trying to bully other drivers in the hope that they can get ahead of the traffic queue,' he said.

'Bright, sunny weather means more people on our roads ... and quite obviously they're taking these driving conditions for granted.'

Shocked commuters saw a brawl between the passengers of two cars (pictured) on a suburban Sydney road on Wednesday morning

A man (pictured) was filmed allegedly punching a woman in the head in a shocking incident near Lake Macquarie on the New South Wales Central Coast

Police say people who witness road rage attacks or film them with dashboard cameras should hand the footage in to police.

Chief Inspector Brooks urged members of the public to turn in phone or dashcam footage to a police station and make a statement.

'People are generally reluctant to [hand in footage], however we need them to commit to help us drive down the road toll on NSW roads,' he said.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The continued involvement of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) in the running of the country's elections is likely to work against the fight for free, fair and credible polls, Zapu president, Dumiso Dabengwa, warned this week.The former Zipra intelligence supremo is adamant that Joc has been in charge of the country's elections since 2008 when Zanu-PF lost its majority in Parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.In that election, MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the first round of the presidential poll but could not be declared the winner after his votes fell short of the required threshold.That election had to be decided through a run-off that saw Tsvangirai pulling out of the race after his supporters and officials became targets of widespread violence.Over 200 MDC supporters and officials were killed in cold blood.Dabengwa told Southern News this week that the securocrats should have no role in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and that an independent administrative body must run the elections."It (Joc) should be dismantled. This country is run by a Joc system where the security makes decisions and makes sure its decisions are implemented," Dabengwa said."The staffing in Zec comprises people who are and have been in security, people who take orders to do those (vote) manipulations."We also recommend that their influence and participation in elections should be done away with such that we have proper elections that are run by an independent administration," he added.Joc is the supreme organ for the coordination of State security in Zimbabwe.It was established by the Rhodesian Security Forces to supervise its counter-insurgency campaign in the Rhodesian Bush War as well as external incursions into neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Mozambique.It retained its role in the post-independence Zimbabwe.It comprises heads of the intelligence, police and army.Dabengwa's statement comes after he recently called for the postponement of the 2018 elections, saying events on the ground indicated that Zec was not yet ready to conduct a credible election.Dabengwa also cited the involvement of Joc as one of the reasons why the elections should be postponed."It is obvious that Joc is in control of the country. Nothing can be done without reference to that security system that was created since 2008."After the results of the 2008 election were cleared, it was Joc which said they were not to be announced over a period of time until they were able to manipulate everything and come up with a result that would keep Zanu-PF government in power," he said."They (Joc) are physically there. They are deployed each time there are elections. Army commissars go around to influence voting in each constituency."Besides that, it is the army, police and other security personnel that actually administer the process of voting."
A couple in their 70s have won nearly a million dollars in the lottery - but their first purchase showed not much would be changing for the self-described 'battlers'.

The wife told Perth Now the pair had indulged in two $8 bottles of champagne to celebrate their win of $985,000.

'Some things will never change, we'll always be battlers,' she said.

'We wouldn't know the difference between fancy champagne and the $8 bottle anyway.'

An elderly couple have won nearly one million dollars in the lottery after buying the ticket at their local shopping centre (pictured)

The Perth couple, who live in Padbury, say they have had a far from easy life, but would be spending their winnings on a trip around the world.

They say the trip would help them do the things they'd always wanted to, but there was not much else they wanted.

'When you've battled your whole life you don't expect something like this to happen,' the husband told the paper.

The elderly couple took more than a week to check their winning ticket.

The winning numbers were: 25, 44, 41, 1, 11, 22 and the supplementary numbers: 9, 23.
Hundreds of Qantas passengers were left stranded in Dubai for close to two days after their flight from London to Sydney was delayed twice.

Almost 500 passengers left from London on flight QF2 on Monday without a hitch, but landed in Dubai after the A380's air conditioning system malfunctioned.

Furious travellers took to social media to complain they were left on the plane, with temperatures above 40 degrees, for several hours before being taken off.

Qantas paid for stranded customers to stay in hotels in Dubai overnight, but an engineering problem on the new flight meant further delays on Tuesday.

Qantas has come under fire after close to 500 passengers were left stranded in Dubai overnight following two separate delays

Furious passengers took to social media, complaining they were left in the dark for 40 hours

Passengers took to social media to complain that they were left in the dark for 40 hours, with no reassurance or directives on how they would get home.

'Hi Qantas, what's happening with your QF002 flight from Dubai, which was cancelled twice?,' wrote Nikolaos Souliwtis

'I've been delayed for nearly 48 hours in Dubai airport and spent 7 hours inside an airplane with no (air conditioning) and +40 degrees temperature. A hotel and food vouchers aren't going to solve the lack of communication and help.'

'This has been a horrific ordeal, sitting in an overheated aircraft, standing in lines for hours, waiting and waiting with very little information. I hope Qantas is planning to adequately compensate passengers for this mess,' wrote Katie Hargreaves.

'Any interest in replying Qantas. You have got a major problem here in Dubai. 450 passengers or more stranded for 2 days,' wrote another woman.

Other passengers were more forgiving, thanking the airline for its customer service

While many of the cries for help on social media went unanswered, Qantas linked up with partner airline Emirates to arrange an A380 to fly the disgruntled passengers back to Australia.

Other passengers were more forgiving, applauding the airline for its customer service and for arranging a replacement plane.

Qantas apologised for the delay but said safety came before schedule.

'We appreciate this has been an extremely frustrating time for passengers and apologise sincerely,' they said in a statement.

'Delays like this are very unusual, and very regrettable, but we will always put safety before schedule.'
A mother-of-three has been fined $650 for grabbing a McDonald's employee's arm and telling her to 'go get a real job.'

Sarah Robinson, 34, became agitated while placing her order at the drive-thru of a Cairns McDonald's on May 27, according to the Cairns Post.

Robinson's children were in the car when she began arguing with a female employee over a drink order.

Cairns mother-of-three Sarah Robinson was fined $650 on Tuesday for grabbing a McDonald's employee's arm and telling her to 'go get a real job' (stock image)

Robinson told the employee 'don't give me attitude' and 'go get a real job' before reaching through the drive-thru window and grabbing the worker's arm, the Cairns Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday.

A 'violent struggle' began and the employee hit her head on the window, the Cairns Post reported.

The 34-year-old dropped her money on the ground while other staff members scrambled to call the police.

Robinson was arrested on May 28 at her home.

Her defence lawyer Ken Cuthbertson said Robinson regrets her behaviour over 'a particularly petty argument.'

Mr Cuthbertson blamed Robinson's actions on the combination of alcohol and her medication.
US officials are concerned that a North Korean missile test launch will take place today.

Government sources in South Korea told the Yonhap News Agency that transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province have been moved by North Korea.

Speaking anonymously, a US defense official said if a test was to go ahead it would be of either an intermediate-range missile or North Korea's ICBM - known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14, and would take place 'probably' today as North Korea celebrates Victory Day - the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

Scroll down for video

Government sources in South Korea told the Yonhap News Agency that transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province have been moved by North Korea

State-run news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korea has threatened a 'merciless' nuclear strike 'at the heart of the US' if Kim Jong-Un's regime is threatened by America. Kim is pictured on July 4 after the test-launched of the Hwasong-14 ICBM

The threat was reported Tuesday in response to comments made by CIA Director Mike Pompeo (pictured) last week. He said Trump's administration needs to find a way to separate the country's Supreme Leader from their nuclear weapons

Experts assessed it could have put Alaska in range, bringing Pyongyang's long-held dream of a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States within reach.

A South Korean government source told Yonhap: 'Movements by transporter erector launchers carrying intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch tubes have been continuously observed in North Pyongan.

'There is a high possibility that the North may carry out (the test launch) around the July 27 armistice day.'

A second US defense official confirmed the fears, adding: 'They're setting up for something.'

If the launch goes ahead, it would be the second time Pyongyang has tested an ICBM after its July 4 rocket launch.

State-run news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported a threat to strike the US on Tuesday in response to comments CIA Director Mike Pompeo made last week.

He said Trump's administration needs to find a way to separate the country's Supreme Leader from their nuclear weapons, CNN reported.

Pompeo said: 'As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system.

'The North Korean people I'm sure are lovely people and would love to see him go.'

Though he did not say that the administration was actually working on that, KCNA said the comments are 'over the line'.

A new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report says North Korea could produce nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as soon as 2018 - not the 2020 previously expected North Korea's Hwasong-14 ICBM launch is pictured from July 4

'It has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump Administration... is the regime change,' the agency added.

According to KCNA, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: 'The DPRK legally stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the DPRK is threatened, it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones.

'Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time.'

The report comes as US officials are saying North Korea could be capable of launching a nuclear attack on other continents within just one year.

North Korea's Hwasong-14 could theoretically reach the US - however to do so it would need a nuclear warhead that is too small to cause a serious threat, experts have said

Independent experts said today that the missile that was launched by Kim on July 4 isn't capable of carrying a nuclear payload across the Pacific - but that may not hold for long, officials told The Washington Post.

The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) says that North Korea is on track to build a nuclear-equipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) within the next year, shaving two years off the previous projections.

Both the DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declined to respond to the Washington Post about the classified assessments.

However, the ODNI's national intelligende manager for East Asia, Scott Bray, did say that the July 4 launch was 'one of the milestones that we have expected would help refine our timeline and judgments.'

'This test, and its impact on our assessments, highlight the threat that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose to the United States, to our allies in the region, and to the whole world,' he added.

'The intelligence community is closely monitoring the expanding threat from North Korea.'
Investigators searched Justine Damond's house for bodily fluids, weapons and drugs after the bride-to-be was shot and killed by a U.S. police officer.

According to court records released on Wednesday, investigators asked for two search warrants, one for the alley behind Justine's house where she reported a potential rape, and another for her house itself.

Criminal expert Joseph Daly claimed there was no apparent reason for detectives to search the 40-year-old Australian woman's home.

Scroll down for video

Detectives reportedly found nothing of interest in the search of Justine Damond's (pictured) home after she was fatally shot by a police officer behind her Minneapolis home on July 15

'When I read that I really cannot find probably cause to search her home,' Mr Daly told 5 Eyewitness News.

Detectives reportedly found nothing of interest in the search of Justine's home after she was fatally shot by a police officer behind her Minneapolis home on July 15.

Investigators searched the house for 'bodily fluids, controlled substances, and writings', court documents revealed.

'I think the Australians are going to go berserk if they think that the focus is on this woman as a suspect,' Mr Daly said.

US based group Communities United Against Police Brutality Michelle Gross said she was 'very concerned' to hear Justine's home was searched.

'What was the purpose of that?' she told Fox 9.

According to court records released on Wednesday, investigators asked for two search warrants, one for the alley behind Justine's house where she reported a potential rape, and another for her house itself (pictured)

Australian woman Justine Damond pictured with her fiance Don Damond before she was fatally shot on July 15

'This is always an effort by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to try to criminalise a person who was killed or their close family members.

'I think that's really inappropriate and wrong.'

Court documents also claimed the police car was 'slapped' by a woman moments before the fatal shooting.

The documents did not specify whether Justine was the woman who reportedly slapped the car.

Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor fatally shot Justine Damond on July 15 after she called the police to report a potential rape behind her house

Investigators searched Justine Damond's house for 'bodily fluids, controlled substances, and writings', court documents revealed

Don Damond, the fiance of Justine Damond, is comforted outside his home as demonstrators march by during the Peace and Justice March for Justine Thursday, July 20

As court documents surface, news comes of a GoFundMe page created in the name of the Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Justine on July 15.

Officer Mohammad Noor has reportedly asked for an unauthorised GoFundMe page to be taken down after it was created in his name to raise money.

Mr Noor claimed the fundraising page was falsely created in his name.

His attorney Thomas Plunkett asked for the page to be removed and asked for any money raised by the page to be returned to the donors, ABC reports.

'(He) did not authorise this, he did not provide the photograph which appears in the fundraiser and he is not the recipient of the funds,' Mr Plunkett said.

Sydney woman Justine Damond moved to Minneapolis to be with her fiance Don before she was shot

Emergency services are pictured on July 15 after Justine Damond was shot outside her home

Police car is pictured outside the Minneapois home of Justine Damond after she was shot

Betsy Custis, right, and others attend a march in honor of Justine Damond at Beard's Plaissance Park, Thursday, July 20

The page was removed on Tuesday, along with two similar pages.

Mr Noor remains on paid leave while authorities investigate the fatal shooting.

Meanwhile, Justine Damond's family have arranged for her ashes to be brought back to Australia.

A memorial will be held in Minneapolis next month before her ashes are returned to Sydney, where her father John Ruszczyk lives.

Her fiance has reportedly given his blessing for her ashes to be returned.

Justine's father John Ruszczyk pictured hugging his wife Maryan at her vigil which was held in Sydney's north
A California man has been arrested for smuggling killer snakes in potato chip cans through the mail.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles on a charge of illegally importing merchandise. The merchandise being three killer king cobras, crammed into tiny potato chip cans.

The snakes each measured about two feet long when they were discovered in March after Customs and Border Protection officers inspect the package

The king cobras were hidden in a potato chip can (pictured) found in the mail in Los Angeles

Like the snake in the can gag, but deadly. The Customs and Boarder Protection Agents got a surprise when they opened these potato chip cans to find the king cobras inside

Also in the shipment that traveled via snail mail from Hong Kong to Los Angeles were three albino soft-shelled turtles.

Federal agents removed the cobras but delivered the turtles to Franco's home in Monterey Park.

The agents later served a search warrant there and found tanks with a live baby Morelet's crocodile, alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle, and five diamond back terrapins.

Prosecutors say all of the reptiles are protected under US law.

Franco admitted to an agent from the US Fish and Wildlife Service that he had previously received 20 king cobras in two other shipments, but he said they all died in transit, according to court documents.

Three albino soft shelled turtles were also tucked away in the shipment with the cobras (file photo)

Federal agents also searched Franco's phone and found that he exchanged messages with an individual in Asia about shipping turtles and snakes between Hong Kong and the US, prosecutors said.

Franco said in those messages that he had previously received live cobras and planned to give five of the snakes to a relative of the contact in Virginia, court papers said.

If convicted, Franco faces up to 20 years in prison.
Ivanka Trump showed off her maternal side on Tuesday as she spent time with a group of children during a museum visit in Washington DC.

The businesswoman and mother-of-three was joined by Betsy DeVos at the Smithsonian for a special event aimed at getting early school age girls interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

Ivanka, 35, was in high spirits for the occasion. She gave an animated reading of the children's book Rosie Revere, Engineer for the group before posing for selfies with the kids.

The first daughter then spent her evening speaking at a fundraiser for Vice President Mike Pence.

Ivanka Trump reads Rosie Revere, Engineer, to a group of school girls at the Smithsonian in Washington DC on Tuesday

During her speech, Ivanka said the vice president had been an ally to her father and that Republicans ought to start preparing for the 2018 elections.

The room was full of Republican donors.

For her trip to the museum, Ivanka wore the same blue lace dress and heels that she was spotted leaving her home in earlier in the day.

She paired the $895 Jonathan Simkhai dress with some nude suede pumps and added an elegant set of drop earrings to complete her look.

DeVos opted for a bold, blue pantsuit which she wore with a white t-shirt underneath and a pair of blindingly bright white pumps.

Ivanka and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were at the museum to promote STEM education among girls

The pair both read from the book, which tells the story of a young engineer, to the group of girls gathered beneath

Ivanka was in high spirits for the visit and spent her time laughing and joking with the kids

She posed for a selfie with the children after they had finished their book

Ivanka, a mother-of-three, joined in as the girls played games and tried out experiments at the museum

The 35-year-old seemed to be enjoying the light break from more serious affairs on the Hill

Ivanka wore the same $895 dress she'd been spotted leaving her house in earlier in the day

The visit to the museum brought a no-doubt-needed injection of levity to the first daughter's Washington agenda.

While Ivanka has spent her time focusing on the role of women in the workforce and how best the government can support them, her husband Jared Kushner has been dogged by scrutiny over his contact with Russian officials.

Later in the evening, Ivanka spoke at a fundraiser for Vice President Mike Pence

Both have joined her father and the first lady on two official overseas trips since he took office and they each hold positions on his staff.

Kushner's has became precarious since it was revealed that he was present at a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Kremlin-linked lawyer.

The purpose of the meeting was for the lawyer to provide their camp with 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. Its nature was revealed by Donald Jr. earlier this year who posted the incriminating email chain which led up to it on Twitter in a bid to beat The New York Times to sharing it.

Kushner faced hours of questioning on Monday and was back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for more interviews.

He released an 11-page statement beforehand in which he described being the Trump campaign point of contact for foreign governments before the election.

He admitted being present for some of the ill-fated June meeting with Donald Jr. and the Russian lawyer but says he heard no talk of anything other than Russia's ban on US adoptions when he was there.
A 16-year-old girl has reportedly taken out an intervention order against a senior constable she has accused of raping her in a park.

The order  preventing the officer from contacting or approaching her - was issued after the girl made multiple sexual assault allegations against him, according to The Age.

The incident in a park in Mildura is the latest allegation of serious predatory behaviour being investigated by an internal taskforce.

A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed the investigation with Daily Mail Australia.

A 16-year-old girl has reportedly taken out an intervention order against a senior constable she has accused of raping her in a park. File photo

Detectives from Taskforce Salus arrested the policeman on January 25 and he was suspended with pay, she said.

'The male senior constable from Western Region was interviewed in relation to sexual offences and misconduct in public office,' the spokeswoman said.

She added the alleged offences date back to December last year, but declined to comment on whether they are said to have occurred while the officer was on duty.

'The victim has been referred to appropriate support agencies,' she added.

Last year, chief commissioner Graham Ashton (left) said Victoria Police was facing its 'biggest journey of cultural change' to overcome the predatory behaviour ingrained in the force

'As the investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to make further comment at this time.'

According to The Age, it took two months after the complaint was made for detectives to interview the girl.

It is also not clear whether she is the only alleged victim in the case.

Taskforce Salus was set up in November 2014 by then chief commissioner Ken Lay to crack down on sexual predators inside the force.

It is responsible for handling internal complaints as well as those made by civilians.

The taskforce's detectives have charged a number of officers with rape and child sex offences.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that 144 claims of sexual abuse or harassment have been made against serving officers in the year since the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission gave its reports after reviewing sexual discrimination within Victoria Police in December 2015.

Last year, chief commissioner Graham Ashton said Victoria Police was facing its 'biggest journey of cultural change' to overcome the sexism and predatory behaviour ingrained in the force.
Cassie Sainsbury could serve as little as three-and-a-half years in jail after closing a deal with Colombian prosecutors to plead guilty to drug trafficking.

The Adelaide woman has spent more than three months in El Buen Pastor prison after she was allegedly caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport.

The 22-year-old will front court on Thursday where Senior Judge Sergio Leon will decide whether to accept the plea agreement.

Cassie Sainsbury could serve as little as 3.5 years in jail after closing a deal with Colombian prosecutors to plead guilty to drug trafficking

The Adelaide woman was caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport on April 12

'There is a deal between Fiscalia (prosecution) and the prisoner which will be made public tomorrow,' prosecutors told The Australian.

If the plea deal is accepted, Sainsbury will avoid the more than 20 years behind bars she faced if she was found guilty at trial.

Sainsbury would receive a seven-year sentence that could be cut in half for good behaviour and if she studies and worked in jail.

Her court appearance will reveal the details of the agreement and whether the former personal trainer will inform on whoever hired her to smuggle the drugs.

Sainsbury allegedly worked as a prostitute in Western Sydney in the months before she travelled around the world, eventually landing in Colombia

The 22-year-old (pcitured with boyfriend Scott Broadbridge) will front court on Thursday where Senior Judge Sergio Leon will decide whether to accept the plea agreement

Police will also detail her arrest and their investigations that began with a tip off from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Colombian authorities demanded she reveal the names of the mystery men who gave her the 18 packages of cocaine disguised as headphones.

Any plea deal appeared to be contingent on her cooperation, but it was not clear if she ended up agreeing to spill details of the unknown group.

Sainsbury and her family maintained her innocence ever since her arrest on April 12, providing various different stories to explain her being caught with the drugs.

Colombian authorities are desperate to know how and why the drugs came to be in her possession and will not budge on a plea bargain without the information.

Her court appearance will reveal the details of the agreement and whether the former personal trainer will inform on whoever hired her to smuggle the drugs

The 22-year-old Australian woman has been holed-up in Bogota's El Buen Pastor women's prison since her arrest in April at Bogota airport as she prepared to fly back to Australia

They are also keen to find out just who was the mystery person who purchased a plane ticket on Sainsbury's behalf from China to Colombia.

However, her legal team resisted demands for her to become an informant because it could put her in life danger from the cartel that hired her.

Senior Colombian narcotics police believed Sainsbury was too far down the food chain to be at significant risk.

But corruption and violence are rife within El Buen Pastor and the blonde alleged former prostitute has already been moved several times for her safety.

She is now housed in a separate wing reserved for foreign prisoners and those awaiting extradition.
A man was found dead in a parked caravan in Sydney's south on Wednesday, and police are calling his death suspicious.

NSW Police were called to a car park in Kingsgrove just after 10.15 on Wednesday morning, where the man was found in a blue and white campervan with 'a number of injuries'.

A crime scene was established, and police are still uncertain of the circumstances surrounding the man's death, though local workers told the Daily Telegraph there had been a 'huge pool of blood' at the scene this morning.

A man's body has been found in a campervan parked in Kingsgrove, in Sydney's south

A forensic detective is seen covering themselves before entering the van where the man was found dead. A substance appearing to be blood is seen on the stairs

Pictures show the front seat of the van open while a curtain is pulled to cover up the back of the vehicle

A team of forensic detectives attended the scene on Wednesday morning as police work to establish the circumstances behind the man's death

A Spokeswoman from NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday morning the man's death was 'leaning more towards looking suspicious', but officers ruled it was suspicious about 4pm.

The man, who was found in a car park on Garema Circuit in Kingsgrove - an industrial area - is still yet to be formally identified, and it is believed he had been living in the van.

One woman told the Telegraph the area was often visited by police, and was frequently used by people looking to take drugs.

Pictures show firemen tying a thick sheet between two trees, and policemen using tape to cordon off the area.

Forensic detectives and a police helicopter have since been called in to inspect the crime scene.

Detectives are asking anyone who has been in the area over the past 24 hours to contact them through Crime Stoppers.

Police are seen speaking in front of the van where a man's body was found on Wednesday morning

Officers gathered around the campervan as they began trying to establish the man's cause of death

Firemen held up a thick dark sheet to block the view at the crime scene in Kingsgrove's industrial area

Four men, three of who appeared to be tradesmen, and one believed to be a police officer, were seen speaking nearby the campervan
News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) says it is looking into the country's churches with the view of establishing clearer taxing boundaries, amid indications most pastors are failing to remit all their dues to the taxman.Zimra board chairperson Willia Bonyongwe yesterday told the country's legislators that while the authority did not tax church offerings and tithes, other church business ventures were supposed to render to Caesar, which has not been happening.The Zimra boss said most pastors had failed to separate their personal business interests and income from church offerings and tithes, a situation she said was short-changing the national tax collecting agency." But I think you are right to note that we now have that blurred situation where the men of God and the church money and their businesses are one and we are actually looking into that. There has to be a separation, and declaration of whatever is due to Zimra"If you go to America, people like Creflo Dollar and Joyce Meyer have dealings with the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), so only offerings and tithes are exempt from tax," Bonyongwe said at a Zimra parliamentary workshop in the capital.Zimbabwe started taxing churches last year. At the moment, receipts and accruals of church or religious organisations are exempt from Income Tax as well as donations, tithes, offerings or other contributions by its members.Bonyongwe pointed out that in the event that the churches had other business ventures, these needed to be registered, amid indications Zimra is also investigating separate businesses being run by churches and their pastors."As a policy we don't tax the offerings and tithes but I go to a church where my pastor pays PAYE (Employees' Tax) so they are taxed."And if you have a business, and the church is involved in a business it has to be registered. If it is a trust, it must be registered as a trust. If it is a normal business it is taxed as a normal business," said Bonyongwe.Presently, churches pay income tax on business profits, which is payable on business profits, that is income derived from, or deemed to be from a source within Zimbabwe.A church may qualify as an employer if it pays any type of remuneration such as salary, wage, allowance, among others, to its employees. A Capital Gains Tax is also expected from religious organisations from the sale of specified assets (immovable property, shares and other securities).If a church undertakes various trading activities and their annual turnover exceeds $60 000 per annum, they also qualify to register for Vat, with church organisations not exempt from the payment of Vat when they purchase goods or services which are subject to Vat.There are also a number of Withholding Taxes chargeable to churches in terms of the Income Tax Act like Non-Residents Tax on Fees, Non-Residents Tax on Royalties, Non-Residents Tax on Remittances and Withholding amounts payable under contracts.Zimra - which surpassed its $1,6 billion revenue target for the first half of 2017 by 2,72 percent after net collections totalled $1,7 billion - has been carrying out several revenue enhancing methods which include lifestyle audits to help Treasury plug its budget deficit which has become an annual feature.
Three inmates have escaped from a prison in regional Victoria.

Geoffrey Pennell, 34, Billy Sperling, 25, and Thomas Smith, 27, escaped overnight from Beechworth Correctional Centre in the state's northeast, police said on Wednesday.

The trio were in prison for a range of property, traffic, burglary and drug offences and are considered low-risk offenders.

Geoffrey Pennell (left), Billy Sperling (middle) and Thomas Smith (right) escaped overnight

'It's very early in the investigation but it looks like they escaped from a window at this stage,' Senior Sergeant Garry Barton told reporters in Wodonga on Wednesday.

'If anyone, particularly in the Beechworth area, saw three people who could be prisoners or noticed anything missing from their house, contact triple-zero.'

Many of Beechworth's inmates are nearing the end of their sentence and preparing to transition into the community, a Corrections Victoria spokesman said.

Pennell, who was incarcerated for burglary, theft, drug, traffic and damage-related offences, has been described as Caucasian with blue-grey eyes, a thin build and approximately 178cm tall.

In 2013, he pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court to 20 charges including theft, using false documents, burglary, criminal damage, obtaining property by deception and failing to appear in court.

He was allegedly shot in the hand in October of 2012, a month after using forged prescriptions to obtain OxyContin and later breaking into the Cobden Pharmacy.

Police are searching for three men who escaped from Beechworth Correctional Centre

Sperling is described as Caucasian with brown eyes, a medium build and 178cm tall who was serving time for property, traffic, assault and drug-related offences.

Smith, a Caucasian with green eyes and medium build who is about 187cm tall, was incarcerated for traffic, property, drug and damage-related offences.

Corrections Victoria said their absence was noticed early on Wednesday morning and staff are working with police to locate the men; police believe the trio fled some time between 10.30pm on Tuesday and 12.30am on Wednesday.

The police are working with Corrections Victoria to locate the three escaped prisoners

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says news of more prisoners escaping reinforces 'that the Andrews government has lost its authority'.

'Victorians will, yet again, be asking themselves what kind of government do we have where this occurrence every few months of people escaping from our justice system,' Mr Guy said.

A government spokesman said the breach of security was unacceptable and the circumstances would be investigated.

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said the breach of security was 'unacceptable'

Corrections Victoria is working with the Fugitive Crime Taskforce and helping authorities to find the escapees 'as quickly as possible'.

The prison is about 270 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and houses low-risk offenders.

Police urge anyone who spot the men not to approach them, and to call triple zero immediately.
A man who was filmed punching a young mother in the face during a horrifying road rage attack has been charged with assault.

Bianca Lee Sams, 21, said she launched nails and a chisel at the attacker's car before he got out of his ute at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, and struck her at midday on Monday.

A 41-year-old man from Windermere Park handed himself in to Wyong Police Station on Wednesday morning after the dash cam footage went viral.

Police said the man was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and granted conditional bail. He is due to appear in Wyong Local Court on August 30.

Police have charged a 41-year-old man with assault after viral dash cam footage showed a man in a yellow shirt punching a young mother in the face

Bianca Lee Sams, 22, who was punched in the face by a man in a horrific road rage attack north of Sydney, claimed she had 'been through worse' and warned she 'don't back down to no one'

Ms Sams, who boasted about 'taking the hit better than a man', claimed she had 'been through worse' and warned she 'don't back down to no one'.

'I don't back down to no one. I never have, never will... I've been through worse, so it is what it is,' she told Channel Nine's A Current Affair program.

'I had to do what I had to do to protect me and my mate and her son... He's a b**** in my eyes if he can hit a female.'

Ms Sams admitted to throwing objects at the man's car, but said she did so because he tried to run the car off the road with a five-month-old baby inside.

'I just grabbed a set of nails from a nail gun, I started breaking them up and throwing them at his car, hoping he'd leave us alone. But he didn't, he just kept coming.'

Ms Sams said she launched nails and a chisel at the attacker's car before he got out of his ute at Lake Macquarie. Pictured, she displays a bruised lip

'I wasn't going to do nothing to him. People think it's an aggressive manner. I always cross me arms, I always have, anyone that knows me knows what I'm like,' she said

The 21-year-old mother is seen in the shocking video getting out of the passenger seat and crossing her arms as a man in a yellow shirt approaches.

'I wasn't going to do nothing to him. People think it's an aggressive manner. I always cross me arms, I always have, anyone that knows me knows what I'm like,' she said.

'I just get out and I'm just like ''what's your problem, mate? You're driving like a d***head'' and that was it.

'He then just smacks me in the jaw. It still hurts. It's hard to talk sometimes, hard to eat.

'But it is what it is, I've got to deal with it... I threw a few nails at your car, whoopee mate. You tried running us off the road with a baby in the car.'

Police said the man (pictured) was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and granted conditional bail

'I smashed his window he should of hit me harder (sic),' Ms Sams wrote on Facebook

She admitted to threwing nails at the man's car before the incident was caught on a dash cam

'I had to do what I had to do to protect me and my mate and her son... He's a b**** in my eyes if he can hit a female,' Ms Sams said

On Tuesday, Ms Sams took to social media and shared a series of posts in response to the incident.

'Take a hit like that and then see if you're still standing I doubt it... I smashed his window he should of hit me harder,' she wrote.

'I don't give a f*** he hit me, don't put a babies (sic) life at risk.

'He tried running us off the road with a 5 month old baby in the car we tried getting away from (him but) he kept going so I got out and asked what his problem was.'

The driver of the car, Ms Sams' good friend, also took to Facebook to tell her side of the story.

'I tried letting him around me but no he wanted to tail gate me being an a*****e, so my friend decided to throw things at him to get him off my tail,' she wrote.

Ms Sams uploaded two images showing a bruised and bloody upper lip, and said she would be taking the matter to court.
An initial Republican proposal to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's health care law was voted down in the Senate late Tuesday night.

Just hours after Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to begin debate, senators voted 57-43 on an amended version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, falling far short of the necessary 60 votes to pass.

The vote, which included nine defecting Republicans, underscored problems the divided GOP will face despite President Donald Trump's victory lap earlier Tuesday night.

Speaking to a raucous crowd in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump declared the Senate was 'one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care for the American people.'

A Republican proposal to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's health care law was voted down in the Senate late Tuesday night (pictured, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday)

McCain made a dramatic entrance since his brain cancer diagnosis to cast a vote to debate a repeal bill earlier Tuesday. Just hours after Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie in what was deemed a victory for the GOP, a bill repeal and replace Obamacare was voted down

The first vote considered the Better Care Reconciliation Act combined with a measure to provide $100 billion to help states ease costs for people on Medicaid sought by Midwestern moderates.

It also included a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), to let insurers sell cut-rate policies with skimpy coverage.

The amended BCRA required 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, because it had not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office.

The GOP will vote Wednesday on a version of the Obamacare repeal bill that passed both the Senate and the House in 2015 before it was vetoed by Obama.

If that fails, Republicans will attempt to vote on amendments that will eliminate elements of Obamacare that are more likely to receive 50 votes - a strategy that involves a partial repeal with no replacement.

Hours earlier, President Donald Trump pumped his fist in the air during his speech in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday night

Trump took a victory lap and said: 'Were now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care to the American people.'

The Republicans' initial defeat came just hours after President Donald Trump praised the Senate for moving forward.

The Senate moved to debate a repeal bill by a vote of 50 to 50  with Vice President breaking the tie.

Protesters seized a key moment by standing and pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't kill us, kill the bill.'

But the Senate clerk ticked through the votes with just two Republicans - Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - breaking the ranks.

As the vote stood at 48 to 2, McCain made a dramatic entrance to the chamber since his brain cancer diagnosis, while his colleagues burst into applause.

Immediately after delivering a critical 'yes' vote to advance the key priority of Republicans and President Trump, McCain blasted the process that the GOP deployed to advance the legislation.

He criticized 'coming up with a proposal behind closed doors,' 'springing it on skeptical members,' and arguing that 'it's better than nothing.'

McCain added: 'If this process ends in failure, which seems likely, then let's return to regular order.'

At a rally in Ohio, Trump took a victory lap and said: 'Were now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care to the American people.'

'You think that's easy? That's not easy,' the president said.
Lara Trump has thrust herself well and truly onto the political stage, speaking to thousands of her father-in-law's die-hard fans in Ohio.

The 34-year-old, who is due to give birth to a baby boy in September, bashed the media, mocked protesters, and talked up the president at an arena in Youngstown on Tuesday night.

Lara attempted to dismiss the Russia investigation into her family, telling the audience they had to 'keep something in mind' when they hear the country's name in the press.

'The same people touting this crazy Russia story are the ones who gave us the fake polls throughout the election, remember those?' she said.

Lara Trump shows off her baby bump while on stage with her husband, Eric, in Youngstown, Ohio

'The same people who said there was no path to victory for Donald Trump. They're the ones pushing that narrative.

'And they are very scared in Washington DC right now, that's why you hear all about that. Because they know what we all know about Donald Trump, he is cleaning up Washington DC.'

She continued: 'Donald Trump loves this country. Donald Trump loves the people of this country, he loves our military, he loves our law enforcement and ladies and gentlemen, they can work as hard as they want against him but I have never seen anyone out-work my father-in-law.

'They better buckle up because they have seven more years.

Lara, who is due to give birth to a baby boy in September, bashed the media, mocked protesters, and talked up the president at the Ohio arena with her husband, Eric

Lara attempted to dismiss the Russia investigation into her family, telling the audience: 'The same people touting this crazy Russia story are the ones who gave us the fake polls throughout the election, remember those?'

'And here's something else: you know, I knew we were going to win this election, right? I tell you how I knew, because everywhere I went, all across our country, I heard the same thing.

'I heard people coming up to me every single day saying 'We're praying for you, we're praying for your family, we are praying for Donald Trump'. God was in this election ladies and gentlemen.

'I knew we would win. So I just want to say thank you to all of you, because as you heard, I am going to be a mother in about a month and a half. And it is so incredible I get to welcome a son into this world where Donald Trump is our president.'

Lara Trump also seemingly suggested God wanted Trump to win the election, telling the audience: 'God was in this election ladies and gentlemen'

Omarosa Manigault, Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump and his wife Lara Trump and first lady Melania Trump sit to the side of the stage as Donald Trump speaks at the rally

Eric Trump took the stage Tuesday night and gloated about his wife, before asking her to 'spin around' to show the audience her baby bump

Shortly after the rally, the president's son revealed he and his wife will be on Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning

And after being interrupted by a heckler in the crowd, she said: 'I must be special to have a protester already!'

Shortly afterwards, Eric Trump took the stage and gloated about his wife, before asking her to 'spin around' to show the audience her baby bump.

'Is she gonna make a good mother or what? Turn sideways, honey,' the president's son said.

After the rally wrapped up, Eric announced he and his wife will be interviewed on Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning.
A Montana man who chased down a young girl at night in a park, raping and strangling her and then leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup truck in February 2016 has been sentenced to 42-years behind bars.

John William Lieba II, will spend the next four decades behind bars for the shocking attack on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation last year.

Wednesday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Great Falls came in a case that prosecutors had described as every parent's nightmare.

A jury convicted him on counts of kidnapping a minor, aggravated sexual abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury on a minor.

Judge Brian Morris sentenced Lieba to 500 months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently.

The sickening attack on the child left her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

Awaiting sentencing: John William Lieba II (left), 21, is set to be sentenced Wednesday for the kidnapping and rape of a four-year-old girl (right) in Montana whom he infected with an STD

Lieba II of Wolf Point was accused of chasing down the young girl at night in a park, and then dumping her last year.

But the toddler was not found for two days, when a sheriff's deputy noticed her shoeless footprints in a patch of mud behind a fertilizer plant and discovered the girl - dehydrated and cold - on a makeshift bed in the cab of an old pickup truck.

Bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck indicated Lieba had tried to strangle the girl, according to law enforcement officers and doctors who examined her.

The sexual assault injured the girl and infected her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease, said Dr. Cynthia Burrows of the Billings Clinic who examined the girl and testified at Lieba's April trial.

'The child will forever be reminded of this trauma,' Assistant US Attorney Ryan Weldon wrote in a sentencing memo to U.S. District Judge Brian Morris. 'The United States without hesitation recommends life in prison. Lieba, through his actions, forced every parent in Montana to confront their worst nightmare.'

Crime scene: Lieba was arrested in Wolf Point, Montana, in Montana in late February. The victim was found alive a day later

During Lieba's three-day trial, a 12-year-old neighbor of the victim testified that she also had been chased by Lieba at a playground in the town of Wolf Point at around 9.30pm on the night the toddler went missing, but she managed to escape.

The defendant's attorneys said he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events of that night.

When he was initially questioned by police after his arrest, Lieba said he had no idea where the victim was, and when asked if she was dead, he replied, 'probably,' reported the station KRTV in April. He also told the detectives to 'go get the body.'

Defense attorneys requested 30 years in prison, noting that Lieba would be approaching middle age by the time of his release.

Guilty: Defense attorneys requested 30 years in prison, saying Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication before attack. The toddler suffered injuries and contracted an incurable STD

'The most effective protection for the public will be for Mr. Leiba to address his substance abuse and mental health issues,' Assistant Federal Defender R. Henry Branom wrote in documents.

Both Lieba and the victim are American Indians. The Fort Peck Reservation is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and has a population of about 10,000.

The kidnapping and assault of the girl was followed weeks later by the killing of a 1-year-old girl by a caregiver who dumped the victim's body in a trash can.

Tribal officials have blamed both crimes on the rising use of methamphetamine on the reservation, but it's uncertain what involvement Lieba had with the drug.
One of three men accused of raping an unconscious teenager with a bottle at an Australia Day party says he was 'over-exaggerating' when he described footage of the alleged assault as the 'funniest thing I've ever seen'.

Bailey Hayes-Gordon, Jacob Watson and Nicholas Jackson have pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to one count each of rape in relation to the alleged assault of a 19-year-old in 2015.

Taking to the witness box on Wednesday, Hayes-Gordon denied prosecution allegations he penetrated the complainant with a bottle and only changed his story after being charged with the offence.

Bailey Hayes-Gordon (pictured leaving court on Monday) is accused of inserting a bottle into a 19-year-old male who had passed out at an Australia Day party

It comes after the jury heard footage of the alleged assault was later shared in Facebook conversations, with Hayes-Gordon accused of posting the video and screenshots.

He then allegedly wrote: '(The complainant) passed out so we stuck a bottle up his arse and he just took it ... Funniest thing I've ever seen, legit.'

'Did you over-exaggerate when you included yourself as part of the group that 'stuck a bottle up his arse'?' crown prosecutor Caroline Marco asked the 21-year-old.

'I did over-exaggerate it, yes,' he said.

Watson (pictured on Wednesday) covered his face with round sunglasses as he arrived at court to plead not guilty

Jacob Watson is also accused of being involved in the alleged rape. The prosecution claims he filmed the assault on his phone

Jackson (Watson, centre, leaves court on Wednesday) also pleaded not guilty to one count of rape in court on Monday

'And it's an over-exaggeration that I said 'funniest thing I've ever seen''.

'Initially I thought it was funny, but after seeing how serious this incident was ... he's my mate, I shouldn't have done that.'

He said he believed the bottle did not actually penetrate the complainant's anus and said there was 'no uproar' afterwards to suggest he had been injured.

Earlier, Hayes-Gordon described the dynamic amongst his friends as 'prankish' and said they often teased each other.

Hayes-Gordon appeared concerned as he left the Brisbane District Court on Monday after pleading not guilty

Nicholas Jackson (pictured) is accused of holding the victim down

Asked by Ms Marco if his social media messages were the true account and he'd changed his story after being charged, he said: 'That's completely not true'.

The prosecution alleges Jackson rolled the teenager over and restrained him by his feet, Watson took video footage on his phone and Hayes-Gordon - as the principal offender - inserted the bottle.

Watson and Jackson elected not to give evidence in the trial, which will hear submissions from the prosecution and defence later on Wednesday.
A father-of-two who lay in a shed filled with carbon monoxide for 12 hours after the noxious gas knocked him out has had his legs amputated in order to save his life.

Jason Reynoldson left a generator charging in a closed shed where he was restoring an old caravan while he went fishing near his home in Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast on July 6.

When the 38-year-old went back to work, the fumes had built up so much that he was knocked out in seconds, his father-in-law Mohambry Appavoo told Nine News.

He wasn't found until the next day because his wife Tanaya and two children were staying in Brisbane.

Father-of-two Jason Reynoldson, who lay in a shed filled with carbon monoxide for 12 hours after the noxious gas knocked him out, has had his legs amputated in order to save his life

Mr Reynoldson, who is known as Jacko, had called his kids  Jasmine, 11, and eight-year-old Taj before they went to bed and then gone to work in the shed.

It was only when he failed to turn up for work the following morning that his stepmother came to check on him.

'He works for this dad as a builder and he is normally on time but didn't show up for work at 7.30am like he was supposed to,' Mr Appavoo told Nine.

He was taken to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and spent eight days in a coma, but is not in a stable condition and talking.

Mr Reynoldson wasn't found until the next day because his wife Tanaya and two children, Jasmine, 11, and eight-year-old Taj, were staying in Brisbane

But he was only recently told that doctors had amputated both of his legs in order to save his life.

'We thought we were going to lose him, the carbon monoxide had penetrated through his breathing mechanisms right down to his legs,' Mr Appavoo added.

'If they did not remove his legs, he would have died.'

But Mr Reynoldson will have to spend at least another month in hospital before adjusting to life without his legs.

Mr Appavoo, who describes his son-in-law as a generous and kind man, is fundraising to help the family in their time of need  with the help of Mr Reynoldson's cousin Kirk Reynoldson, a former NRL forward who has played for the Newcastle Knights and Melbourne Storm.

He set up a GoFundMe page to help the family, which has already raised more than $46,000 to cover Mr Reynoldson's medical bills and the family's living costs.

In a post on the page, Mr Appavoo describes him as 'a man whose smiles up a world.'

His father-in-law Mohambry Appavoo said: 'We thought we were going to lose him, the carbon monoxide had penetrated through his breathing mechanisms right down to his legs'

'He has a heart of gold, a hunger for life, a contagious spirit and as so many people have mentioned, the ability to make you feel good about yourself,' he adds.

'Jacko doesn't dwell or complain, he thrives on challenges, he seeks adventure, he loves nature, music, beer, friends but most of all he loves his beautiful best friend and wife Tanaya and two gorgeous children Jazzy and Taj.'

He added: 'Jacko will always be the first to stop and help anyone (just try being bogged in front of or behind him).

'Now it's time WE stop for Jacko, it's time we have a convoy of 4WDs, a convoy of mates, it's time we support out mate Jacko.'
A woman shopping in Minnesota was stopped and accused of shoplifting by Walmart loss prevention as she was exiting the store. The problem; she didn't steal anything.

Gina Lescarbeau, 45, pulled out her phone and decided to Facebook Live the exchange with the employees at the Burnsville Walmart location.

Lescarbeau is about to head to her car on July 21, when loss prevention workers Kenny Swanson-Peck and Thomas Ewalt approach her and tell her she didn't pay for one of several items in her cart.

Kenny Swanson-Peck stops shopper Gina Lescarbeau as she is about to exit the store and tells her the plush toy in her cart isn't on her receipt on Friday, July 21

In Lescarbeau's cart are several other items that are not in question

Swanson-Peck motions to Lescarbeau to go to his office to discuss what he believes is a discrepancy in her receipt

'You know the lion isn't on the receipt' Swanson-Peck says. Then he makes the mistake of goading the now angry shopper: 'You could record me all you want.'

The heated and expletive laden exchange continues when Swanson-Peck says he needs her to come to his office. 'I'm going, and don't you think I'm a fucking criminal cause I'm not,' Lescarbeau says.

A now fuming Lescarbeau follows to the office where you can hear her on the video taking various items out of her purse to prove there's nothing hidden.

Swanson-Peck starts scanning the item and begins to get flustered as he slowly realizes he's made a mistake which he will not admit to

Swanson-Peck and second loss prevention specialist Thomas Ewalt examine the receipt

As Swanson-Peck realizes he's made an error he begins to get flustered, but as they say the damage is done

Swanson-Peck sees there's nothing left to contest, besides the stuffed Simba toy from the Lion King by Disney.

'The lion isn't on the receipt' Swanson-Peck says. 'I don't see anything on there for 15 dollars.'

'Really whats the price on it? Its seven dollars right?'

Lescarbeau points out the bright orange price tag that says the toy is seven bucks.

Then adds 'According to your website its seven dollars.'

The loss prevention specialist now is urging Lescarbeau to just leave the store, after realizing the mistake he has made

Swanson-Peck faces a barrage of curses from the angry, wrongfully accused Lescarbeau before she finally exits the store

Swanson-Peck finally scans the bar code and realizes his error though he doesn't back down and says 'I don't feel like dealing with this.'

Youre going to make me look f***ing criminal?! before adding 'Yeah you're face a little red you're gonna make me look f***ing dumb.'

Lescarbeau throws some final curses his way and he says 'Keep cursing at me' before she gets a final jab in 'What are you going to throw me in cussing jail?'
A Melbourne cafe has found a way to combine two breakfast staples.

Just when you thought the coffee craze could not get any more ridiculous, The Hardware Societe in Melbourne's city centre has invented the 'free range latte'.

A video of a barista pouring coffee into an egg shell was uploaded to Instagram by the cafe on Wednesday.

Scroll down for video

A video of a barista pouring coffee into an egg shell was uploaded to Instagram by the cafe on Wednesday

'We call this one the free range latte,' the cafe wrote.

The video shows a barista carefully pouring frothed milk into half an empty egg shell.

They even manage to perfect some detailed coffee art to top the drink off.

But unfortunately for customers, the invention will not be on the menu.

General Manager of the cafe Aaron Taylor said staff were experimenting with new ways to serve coffee during the breakfast shift.

'It was a cold Melbourne morning, and we were just looking for something to do,' he said.

The video shows a barista carefully pouring frothed milk into half an empty egg shell

But unfortunately for customers, the invention will not be on the menu (The Hardware Societe pictured)

Just when you thought the coffee craze couldn't get any more ridiculous, The Hardware Societe in Melbourne's city centre has invented the 'free range latte' (cafe pictured)

Although viewers couldn't be blamed for believing the 'free range latte' would actually be served.

In May Truman Cafe in Albert Park posted a short video of an 'avolatte' to their Instagram account of a coffee being poured into a previously used avocado skin.

'Combining two of Melbourne's obsessions - lattes and avo,' the post read.

As pioneering as the pairing of the coffee and avocado cup may be, Truman Cafe barista Jaydin Nathan gave the assurance that just like the 'free range latte' it was only a bit of fun.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has taken a selfie with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop ahead of high-level talks on trade, security, defence and foreign policy.

It came after Mr Johnson donned a hard hat and hi-vis jacket as he and Premier Gladys Berejiklian were shown ongoing upgrades to the Sydney Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre on Wednesday.

The foreign secretary, who is in Sydney for the annual UK and Australian foreign and defence ministers (AUKMIN) talks, described Sydney as 'an unbelievable, mind-blowingly beautiful city'.

'It's not over until the fat lady sings,' Mr Johnson joked when asking how long the Opera House upgrades would take.

Scroll down for video

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has a selfie taken with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (C) poses for a photo with (L to R) New South Wales state premier, Gladys Berejiklian, managing director of Laing O'Rourke Australia, Cathal O'Rourke, Ben Nicol from Laing O'Rourke and CEO of the Sydney Opera House Louise Herron

Standing in the bowels of the building, surrounded by scaffolding and construction material, the former London mayor also asked if anyone had been hit on the head by falling objects.

Meanwhile, Aussies hoping to continue the long tradition of heading to the UK for work will be hoping Ms Bishop can convince her British counterpart to make their path a bit easier.

Visas are expected to be high on the list of discussion topics during the pair's bilateral talks.

They come just two months after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to slash the country's annual immigration levels to below 100,000.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tours construction work underway at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday

Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of Britain and Australian foreign and defence ministers

Britain has traditionally been a popular destination for Aussies wanting to work abroad, but its immigration crackdown following the Brexit vote has sparked concerns it could become much tougher to get a visa.

While Mr Johnson has long been a fan of Australians and New Zealanders working in Britain, his Conservative government wants to make it more expensive for companies to hire migrants like the estimated 120,000 Aussies working there currently.

Dr Andrew Carr, a senior lecturer at ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, says the issue of UK visas for Aussie workers once Britain formally leaves the European Union is a big concern of the federal government.

Mr Johnson was shown ongoing upgrades to the Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre

'It's a perennial issue and it's probably the one that is closest to the hearts of a lot of Australians in terms of how they would see the relationship with the UK at the moment,' he told AAP Tuesday.

'These are things the Australian government is going to be pushing and wanting to encourage.'

TIES BETWEEN THE UK AND AUSTRALIA * About one million Aussies visit Britain each year * An estimated 125,000 Australians reside in Britain * More than 712,000 Brits visit Australia annually * Britain is Australia's fifth largest two-way trading partner and seventh largest export market * Two-way trade was worth $27b in 2015/16, with Aussie exports worth $12.1b * Gold and alcohol are Australia's main exports to Britain * One in five imported bottles of wine consumed in Britain are from Australia (Source: DFAT) Advertisement

Dr Carr said relaxing visa rules for Aussie workers could be an easy way for Britain to show it was still open to trade and migration post Brexit.

'But it is still difficult because it goes to the nature of how the British control their borders and population levels which are very much factors behind the Brexit campaign,' he said.

In New Zealand on Tuesday, Mr Johnson reassured Kiwis wanting to work and travel in Britain that they had nothing to fear once the UK splits from the EU.

'We will want to maintain a regime that is at least as attractive as the current regime, and we want to maintain a policy of openness and engagement,' said Mr Johnson, who is on a nine-day international tour.

Ms Bishop said Brexit and future trade deals would be among the long list of topics she would discuss with Mr Johnson.

'Our focus will be very much on what we can do together and our collective approach to some of the challenges facing our region and globally,' she told reporters.

Mr Johnson will be joined by Britain's Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon for the AUKMIN talks with Ms Bishop and Defence Minister Marise Payne in Sydney on Thursday.

Issues including counter-terrorism, the future of Europe, North Korea's missile program, and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will be on the agenda.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Priscilla Chigumba, a High Court Judge, on Tuesday describing Morgan Tsvangirai's party headquarters as a hub of violence.According to NewZimbabwe.com, Chigumba said this when she reserved the ruling on the bail application by three MDC-T activists facing charges of murdering a police officer.Darlington Madzonga, Edmore Musvubhi and Barnabas Mwanaka were arrested a fortnight ago after an officer from the Police Reaction Group died of injuries sustained from battles with vendors near Harvest House.Justice Chigumba on Tuesday said Harvest House was now notorious for violence and giving bail to the accused persons who are alleged to have committed the crime at the same place was going to reduce citizen's confidence in the country's justice delivery system.Whenever there are protests in central Harare, the police raid the opposition party's head office. ZRP officers have in the past camped at the MDC-T HQ situated between 1st street and Angwa Street, literally blocking the road.
A man in his mid-thirties sobbed in a Melbourne courtroom as he admitted to marrying a 14-year-old girl in an illegal Muslim ceremony.

Mohammad Shakir was charged with going through a ceremony of marriage with a person not of marriageable age.

Proceedings in the County Court of Victoria were delayed on Wednesday as Shakir, who was 34 at the time of the wedding in September 2016, deliberated on his plea.

Mohammad Shakir, 34, admitted to marrying a 14-year-old girl in Melbourne last year (stock image)

The man in his mid-thirties sobbed when he pleaded guilty to going through with a marriage ceremony with a 14-year-old girl at the Noble Park Mosque in Melbourne's east

'If I plead guilty, is that good or not good?' Shakir said via a Rohingya interpreter.

Judge Lisa Hannan stood the matter down while Shakir discussed the matter with his lawyer.

Prosecutor Krista Breckweg told the court earlier this month that Shakir, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2016, should be sent to prison for the offence.

She said immigration and school sources had confirm the girl was 14 at the time of the wedding.

However, the child's mother maintained the girl was 17.

Former Muslim cleric Ibrahim Omerdic, who conducted the wedding ceremony between the two at Noble Park in Melbourne's east, was found guilty in June of unlawfully solemnising the marriage.

The illegal wedding was officiated by Ibrahim Omerdic, who was sentenced last year (stock image)

The former imam of the Bosnian Islamic Society and Noble Park Mosque was sentenced to two months' prison but immediately placed on a two-year recognisance release order.

Omerdic didn't serve jail time.

Shakir, who already pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrate' Court in April, was remanded in custody to reappear for a plea hearing on September 20.
The girlfriend of the 14-year-old girl killed in a deadly car crash in California that was live streamed on Instagram says she doesn't blame the driver - and blames social media instead.

Obdulia Sanchez, from Stockton, was allegedly driving under the influence when she veered off the road, and over corrected, flipping the car and killing her sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, who was not wearing a seat belt, authorities said.

Jacqueline's girlfriend Manuela Seja, who was also in the car and suffered a serious leg injury in the crash, says she has found forgiveness and wasn't 'mad' at the driver.

'Honestly, I'm not mad at anybody and I don't blame anybody, Seja told KSEE. 'It's all affected by social media. That's what life is now. And it's going to advance more and more. That what it's going to be about.'

Jacqueline's (right) girlfriend Manuela Seja, (left) who was also in the car, says she isn't 'mad' at the driver

Obdulia Sanchez, from Stockton, (right) was allegedly driving under the influence when she veered off the road, flipped the car and killed her sister, Jacqueline Sanchez (left)

The car rolled over a barbed wire fence and onto a field in Los Banos, about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco, on Friday

Seja, who lives in Fresno - 140 miles away from her girlfriend in Stockton - says the distance hadn't stopped their relationship and Jacqueline would pick her up every weekend.

That's why Obdulia had been driving on Friday, with her sister and Manuela in the back, when she crashed.

Manuela declined to talk about the accident or charges Obdulia faces, but told ABC News how much she would miss her girlfriend of seven months.

Seja (pictured) who says she was dating Jacqueline for seven months, was also in the car and suffered a serious leg injury in the crash

The heartbroken teen said they had started off as friends but romance had blossomed around seven months ago (Manuela and Jacqueline are pictured together)

The heartbroken teen said they had started off as friends but romance had blossomed around seven months ago.

'She wasn't like everyone else,' she said. 'She was just funny, she didn't have to try, she would just make you smile. She wanted to travel the world and do amazing things.'

Now, all she has to remember Jacqueline is a keepsafe of mementoes and love letters they sent to each other.

Younger sister Evelyn Sanchez, 12, also told Sacramento television station KTLX that a tire blew out and there was nothing her 18-year-old sister could do.

The California Highway Patrol couldn't confirm if a blown tire caused the crash and said investigators will examine the car later this week. Investigators are also working on a warrant to get all cellphones that were inside the car at the time of the crash.

Evelyn said the family spoke to Obdulia and that the teenager told them she wishes she had been the one who died.

She said that her older sister 'has done a lot of stuff' but didn't elaborate.

Obdulia was live streaming on Instagram while driving, and talking to the camera as she drove. The camera captured the moment the car then rolled over a barbed wire fence and onto a field.

The driver filmed herself singing and gesturing to the camera before the deadly crash

'I killed my sister.' Obdulia speaks directly to the camera before the crash, with a passenger visible in the background, left, and, right, keeps filming after the crash

Gory visuals from the scene show Jacqueline's body strewn on the floor, the other girl in the car waving for help and Obdulia talking to the camera.

During the live recording Obdulia said: 'Jacqueline, please wake up. I f****** killed my sister, OK? I know I'm going to jail for life. I love my sister this is the last thing I thought was going to happen to us.'

'I killed my sister, but I don't care. I killed my sister. I know I'm going to prison, but I don't care. I'm sorry baby. I'm a hold it down.'

The disturbing clip ends with her kneeling next to her dead sister and saying: 'Wake up baby, I'm f**king sorry baby, I did not mean to kill you sweetie.'

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said Jacqueline was not wearing a seatbelt when the car crashed and rolled on Henry Miller Road at about 6.45pm on Friday.

The 14-year-old was thrown through the back window of the car, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol said Obdulia was driving the car when it veered onto the right shoulder of a road about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco.

She over-corrected, causing the vehicle to swerve across lanes, crash through a wire fence and overturn into a field.

Obdulia was wearing a seatbelt and suffered minor injuries.

She is now in the Merced County Jail on charges of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence and DUI.

Authorities say she was detained at the scene after allegedly becoming combative with officers after the crash. She was screaming that her sister was dead as officers tried to calm her down and lead her into an ambulance, the Fresno Bee reports.

Obdulia complained of pains in her chest and knee after the crash.

Police told ABC 30: 'Sanchez was under the influence when she rolled her car over, into a barbed wire fence and then a field.'

Authorities say they were made aware of the shocking crash scene video circulating on social media and were working to determine if it was authentic.

Family members have confirmed the video was shot by Obdulia.

Authorities say Obdulia was detained at the scene after allegedly becoming combative with officers after the crash. She was screaming that her sister was dead as officers tried to calm her down and lead her into an ambulance (above)

They say Jacqueline was supposed to celebrate her Quinceanera (15th birthday) on Sunday.

Mary Hernandez, of Stockton, who viewed the live stream, decided to record it while unsure if the shocking footage was real.

'At first we didn't even want to believe it was real,' she said.

'I recorded it and posted it mainly because as someone who uses Snapchat I see a lot of people driving with their Snapchats doing what she was doing, so to me it was like an eye opener.'

The footage received at least 700,000 views.

Her father, Nicandro Sanchez, told Fresno television station KFSN he has seen the video.

Obdulia has more than 7,400 followers on Facebook and Instagram. It is not clear if her Instagram profile photo (right) shows her injuries from the recent deadly crash

'It's an accident,' he said. 'It happened that way. Who knows why?'

He said Obdulia had a difficult childhood and graduated from high school last year. She was in the custody of Child Protective Services the past two years, he added.

Family members have started a GoFundMe Page for Jacqueline's funeral expenses.

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of failing to remove graphic and unsuitable content. In April it announced it was hiring 3,000 more staff to monitor posts.

Rob Carroll, a chief deputy in the Merced County District Attorney's Office, said he expects the video will be a key piece of evidence.

'Drinking, driving and driving erratically - obviously those are poor choices,' Carroll said.

Neither Obdulia Sanchez nor an attorney representing her could be reached for comment.
A woman who was almost five times over the legal limit drunk drove her car through a row of trees and flattened bike racks, police allege.

The 22-year-old was driving along the median strip on Gouger Street, Adelaide, just before 3am on Wednesday.

Officers spotted the battered white Mazda sedan driving over a number of bike racks and uprooting trees and pulled the woman over.

A woman who was almost five times over the legal limit drunk drove her car through a row of trees and flattened bike racks, police allege

She was stopped outside Police Headquarters on Angas Street, close to the entrance of a shopping centre carpark, and breath tested.

The 22-year-old from Marleston returned an alleged blood alcohol reading of 0.233 - almost five times the legal limit.

She was reported for drink driving, driving without due care and property damage and will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.

Her car was towed and impounded and she was issued with an immediate 12 month loss of license.
A principal has claimed he was tricked into hiring out his school's hall for a screening of a controversial anti-vaccination documentary.

Campaigners booked Gold Coast public school Miami State High on Tuesday night under the guise of a seminar about organic vegetables, it was claimed.

However, it actually showed Vaxxed, which claims to expose a 'link' between vaccinations and autism, although it claims it isn't anti-vaccinations.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was enraged by the 'misrepresentation' given to the school, as her government strongly supports vaccinations.

A principal has claimed he was tricked into hiring out his school's hall for a screening of a controversial anti-vaccination documentary

Vaxxed screening organiser said they sent the school the required paperwork 'weeks ago' and it didn't ask for the name of the film that was to be screened

'They conveyed to the principal that it was to be conveying information about organic produce,' she said.

'I don't think they were very clear in their purpose and I don't think they should have been allowed to present in such a manner.'

Ms Palaszczuk vowed to get to the bottom of it said she would be would be discussing the incident with Education Minister Kate Jones on Wednesday.

Vaxxed screening organiser Meryl Dorey denied the group misled the school, saying: 'I don't know where that came from.'

She said they sent the school the required paperwork 'weeks ago' and it didn't ask for the name of the film that was to be screened.

Ms Dorey said the public liability insurance sent along with the forms clearly stated the organisation's name, the Australian Vaccination Network.

Campaigners booked Gold Coast public school Miami State High on Tuesday night under the guise of a seminar about organic vegetables, it was claimed

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was enraged by the 'misrepresentation' given to the school

'If they had any concerns they could have contacted up before the screening,' she said.

'I don't know how anyone could see through that film and think it's an anti-vax film - it's about government corruption and [U.S. Centre for Disease Control] lies... and the families who've been harmed because they lied.'

Film organisers have gone to extreme lengths to keep the location of screenings a secret in an effort to keep them from being shut down.

The Gold Coast screening was part of a national tour for the film, which was not shown in cinemas, that moves on to Newcastle on Friday then to Sydney.

Screening locations are not revealed until two hours before they start, with those who buy tickets receiving a text message or email.

Vaxxed screening organiser Meryl Dorey denied the group misled the school, saying: 'I don't know where that came from'

The Gold Coast screening was part of a national tour for the film, which was not shown in cinemas

Vaxxed is strongly opposed by Australian health professionals who fear it will discourage parents from vaccinating their children.

It was created by disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, who lost his medical licence after his 1998 study connecting the MMR vaccine to autism was disproven.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said he was 'concerned' the film had been shown at a school, and denounced its content.

'Anyone who knows the history of vaccination, anyone who saw what happened in the '50s with polio would realise the huge public health benefits that widespread vaccination has delivered,' Mr Nicholls said.

'I simply urge everyone to ignore this quackery and pseudoscience.'
Monica Lewinsky has been spotted out and about in New York City just a few days after praising Jay-Z for confronting infidelity on his new album.

The former White House intern was out in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday wearing a black dress and carrying a pink bucket bag.

The social activist, who celebrated her 44th birthday over the weekend, was using her phone and appeared agitated when she first spotted a photographer.

But in photos taken a few clicks later she was smiling as she put her head down and crossed the street.

Scroll down for video

Monica Lewinsky is pictured out in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning

Her Big Apple appearance came after Lewinsky, who understands better than anyone the public cost paid for a high-profile affair, spoke about the iconic rapper's transgressions in an essay published by Vanity Fair.

In the piece, titled 'Jay-Z, Prince Harry, Brad Pitt, and the New Frontiers of Male Vulnerability,' the 44-year-old praised Hov for not ignoring the allegations hurled at him by Beyonce on her 2016 album, Lemonade.

'Jay-Z had a choice,' Lewinsky wrote. 'Having been called out publicly by his wife in her fierce 2016 album and video... (he) knew that his fans wouldnt have blinked if his next album skimmed past the allegations.

Lewinsky reacts in this picture after spotting a photographer getting a shot of her on Tuesday

Lewinsky celebrated her 44th birthday over the weekend, and was out celebrating in New York on Tuesday

The former White House intern was wearing a black dress and carrying a pink bag on Tuesday

'Thats not uncommon for men to do. And its not as if we hadnt seen Beyonce and Jay-Z out in the world together since then - not to mention, welcoming their twins to planet Earth.

'Jay-Z could have ignored it all. But, instead, he chose a path of candor that will... move the conversation forward and help others.'

She continued: 'It is a refreshing and bracing antidote to see male icons convey vulnerability in an age when Washingtons new power elite and our coarsening culture are busy projecting an outmoded caricature of manhood, 24/7.

Lewinsky is seen in New York after she spotted the photographer taking her picture in midtown on Tuesday

Monica Lewinsky has praised Jay-Z for speaking openly about cheating on his wife, Beyonce, on his latest album

Jay-Z directly addressed allegations of cheating made against him in songs on his latest album, and also in a video he released on Tidal with it. Jay-Z is pictured on July 13

'As we wrestle with gender roles and relationships between the sexes - and see issues of sexism running rampant from the tech world to politics - its heartening to see a crack in the implicit contract among men, their emotions, and society at large.'

Jay-Z references infidelity a number of times on his 4:44, including two lyrics that seem directly in response to facets of the scandal that played out publicly in recent years.

In a nod to his infamous fight with Beyonce's sister, Solange, in an elevator, he raps in 'Kill Jay-Z': 'You egged Solange on, Knowin' all along, all you had to say you was wrong.'

'Having been called out publicly by his wife in her fierce 2016 album and video... (he) knew that his fans wouldnt have blinked if his next album skimmed past the allegations,' Lewinsky wrote in her piece. Jay-Z and Beyonce are pictured together during the NBA Playoffs on April 30

Lewinsky wrote about Jay-Z's admissions: 'Jay-Z could have ignored it all. But, instead, he chose a path of candor that will... move the conversation forward and help others'

Then on the track Family Feud, he addressed Beyonce's 'Becky with the good hair' line from her hit, Sorry, by writing: 'I'll f*** up a good thing if you let me, Let me alone, Becky.'

We had to get to a point of "OK, tear this down and let's start from the beginning"... It's the hardest thing I've ever done,' Jay-Z on 4:44, speaking about rebuilding his marriage after cheating

However, the hip hop mogul discussed his affairs in the most detail during a video released with the album, titled 'Footnotes for 4:44'.

In it, he said: 'This is my real life... I just ran into this place and we built this big, beautiful mansion of a relationship that wasnt totally built on the 100 per cent truth and it starts cracking.

'Things start happening that the public can see.

Monica and President Bill Clinton outside the Oval Office in 1995

'Then we had to get to a point of "OK, tear this down and let's start from the beginning"... It's the hardest thing I've ever done.'

Jay-Z spoke about his infidelity in songs on his new album, 4:44, as well as in a video interview he released with it

In her essay, Lewinsky also heaped praise on Prince Harry for being part of a movement 'modernizing the British monarchy... for the greater good of the people', repeating a quote from the Prince himself.

'Prince Harry has not just been issuing sound bites,' she continued.

'He has been putting his words into action with his dedication to helping empower those who are often marginalized and stigmatized: from military veterans and people with disabilities in the armed services, to those suffering from mental health issues, to victims of public shaming.'

Monica Lewinsky is pictured in this photograph looking at Bill Clinton while the former President addressed a crowd of supporters

Speaking about Pitt, she said the actor is 'still gorgeous, but now evolved' - referring to comments he made during a recent GQ interview.

Monica Lewinsky pictured during the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 26, 2017

In the magazine, Pitt spoke about how he has coped with his divorce from Angelina Jolie, saying: 'For me this period has really been about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my side of the street.

'I am those mistakes. For me every misstep has been a step toward epiphany, understanding, some kind of joy.

'Ive got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think thats part of the human challenge: you either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.'

Lewinsky wrote about criticism the actor copped for his open self-analysis, including some who told him he needed to 'man up'.

'What (Pitt's critics) failed to acknowledge was the sea change that has occurred over the past generation: to "man up" and to be a "real man," among young males of courage and conviction, now go hand-in-hand with expressing raw emotion, acknowledging flaws, opening up, facing consequences.'
A gunman who shot and killed two women and wounded a third person before setting his rental property ablaze may have died in the fire.

Police have cordoned off the area and are warning local residents to stay in their homes in rural Whangarei in New Zealand's north island.

The third person was also shot remains in hospital in a stable condition as the massive police operation continues in rugged bushland.

Police (pictured) have cordoned off an area where a gunman shot and killed two people and wounded a third in Wangarei on New Zealand's north island

The violence erupted during a routine home inspection when a man opened fire and also fired on police (pictured) before setting his rental property ablaze

The violence is believed to have started during a home inspection, and at least one bullet hole could be seen in the windscreen of the victims' vehicle, a red Suzuki.

Detective Inspector Dene Begbie confirmed the deaths in a police video posted to Faebook.

'Three people have been shot ... tragically at the moment we believe two of those people are deceased,' he said.

It is unknown whether the fugitive - whose identity is known to police - is still alive, and police say it is 'unlikely' he survived the fire at his rental home, Stuff reported.

The man shot at police before setting the property alight and police returned fire.

Tear gas was also used by police during the confrontation.

The three victims were travelling to the home to do a routine property inspection when the gunman opened fire.

A local resident saw the fire break out from her her nearby home and heard gunshots.

'There was a whole lot of gunfire. My partner's a hunter so recognised the gunfire. It was definite, rapid gunfire,' she said.
A man in his mid-twenties has become the eighth person in the past month to die in New Zealand from taking synthetic cannabis.

The latest victim died in Auckland overnight on Tuesday after being treated in Middlemore Hospital.

The death comes only a week after police confirmed that seven people had died in July alone after ingesting synthetic cannabis.

An eighth person has died in New Zealand during the past from taking synthetic cannabis (stock image)

Andrew Slater, the chief executive of the government-run Homecare Medical service, told the New Zealand Herald there had been a 100 per cent increase in calls relating to synthetic cannabis between April and June this year, compared to the same period in 2016.

Toxic chemicals, including weed killer and fly spray are sometimes used in homemade synthetic cannabis, which causes life-threatening reactions, the newspaper said.

Acting Inspector Marcia Murray, from the the inner-city Avondale police command in Auckland, said many synthetic cannabis users were ignorant of the 'toxic chemical cocktail' they were smoking.

'That's the troubling thing, it is an illegal drug, and it is extremely dangerous, because we just don't know what's going into this product,' she said.

Fly spray and weed killer is being mixed with synthetic cannabis, a life-threatening cocktail

'Any drugs that we seize, we get them tested. What comes back are the technical aspects, which show things like fly spray and weed killer.'

New Zealand's Alcohol Drug Helpline has been flooded with calls about the drug within the last few months, and number of people have been admitted to hospital in a serious condition after taking it.

In the capital Wellington, Hutt Valley Hospital emergency specialist Dr Paul Quigley said smoking synthetic cannabis was the equivalent of smoking 15 regular marijuana joints.

'Synthetic cannabis is one of the more dangerous products around and is responsible for some immediate health harms,' he said.

Synthetic cannabis has the equivalent effect of 15 regular marijuana joints (stock image)

'Because synthetic cannabis is so much more potent than natural cannabis we were also seeing the effects related to substance abuse and addiction developing rapidly.'

Conditions such as epileptic seizures, heart palpitations, kidney problems, significant anxiety, insomnia, worsening mental health conditions and even psychosis as side effects.

In Auckland, Middlemore Hospital toxicology expert Dr Chip Gresham said people were 'getting very sick from whatever new synthetic cannabis is out there' and are putting their lives at risk.

The deaths have prompted the Chief Coroner and police to issue a public warning about synthetic cannabis.
A Melbourne man has been the victim of a bizarre road rage attack which saw another man hurl a cup of hot coffee into his car.

Steven Delia told 3AW he had been driving along the Hume Highway in Campbellfield on Monday afternoon when he encountered another man, who he claims was with a woman and child, on a mission.

'He was driving erratically, quite dangerously to be honest - cutting in front of everybody, tailgating me, cutting in front,' he said.

'You see that thing all the time but this one seemed to be a bit above the normal situation.'

A Melbourne man has been the victim of a bizarre road rage attack which saw another man hurl a cup of hot coffee into his car

Not impressed, Mr Delia reportedly made a crazy sign at the man with his hand, which only exacerbated the situation.

'He just absolutely lost it,' Mr Delia exclaimed.

'He tried to force me off the road, he tried to swerve into my car and I had to break really quickly,' he said.

'He went in front of me and slammed his brakes off, and he started circling my car, up and down and around... I started to get really panicky.'

Still wanting to communicate his displeasure with the erratic driver, Mr Delia continued following him until he was able to pull up next to him.

'I didn't even get a chance to talk because he grabbed a boiling hot coffee and he threw it through my window,' he said.

Mr Delia was able to later get the 2008 Holden Captiva's registration from local CCTV (stock image)

'It landed on the dash and on my face and all over my clothes - it was everywhere. I could not believe it!'

Trying to get a photo of the man's licence plate proved to be equally as dangerous - as Mr Delia pulled up his phone to take a picture, he claims the man reversed back at him to try and hit his car.

Mr Delia was able to later get the 2008 Holden Captiva's registration from local CCTV, and is now looking for witnesses to his stressful ordeal.

The incident is the last in a long string of recent road rage attacks in both Victoria and NSW.

Steven Delia said he had been driving along the Hume Highway in Campbellfield on Monday afternoon

NSW Police Chief Inspector Phil Brooks told the ABC he believes weather conditions are a major factor in the incidents.

He said while there were other factors involved, road rage attacks most often occurred when driving conditions were perfect.

'People are wanting to get to their destination quickly,' he said.

'They're very upset with a vehicle in front or alongside for whatever reason, and it's them trying to bully other drivers in the hope that they can get ahead of the traffic queue.

'Bright, sunny weather means more people on our roads... and quite obviously they're taking these driving conditions for granted.'
Australian National University student James Connolly has talked about a traumatising incident when he claims he was sexually assaulted last year

Australian National University student James Connolly has talked about a traumatising incident when he claims he was sexually assaulted last year.

Mr Connolly recalled when he invited a man back to his room, but after not giving consent, he claimed he was held down during the sexual assault.

'I had invited him back to my room at college. He had whispered in my ear asking for consent. I had said no,' told the ABC.

'Minutes later he was asking again. He was pleading while he had me pinned down against my bed. I had said no again and again. He had whispered 'shhh'.

'He was holding me down harder. He was stronger than me, larger than me. I was unable to move. All the while he continued to whisper. Still whispering, he had proceeded. He had silenced me.'

The brave student, who is now president of the Australian National University Students' Association, has made a stand and spoken out about the horrible incident for the first time.

Mr Connolly said while he had experience working in pastoral care he still felt trapped when it came to talking about the assault.

The brave student, who is now president of the Australian National University Students' Association, has made a stand and spoken out about the horrible incident for the first time (stock image)

The student was open about the pressures faced by gay males in a 'toxic masculinity' culture and wasn't afraid to address them.

Mr Connolly said there were problems with dominance associated with masculinity and submission, which had to be addressed in society.

The Students' Association president said a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault across universities and society was essential to stamp out misconduct.

'Universities already have the tools to take a zero-tolerance approach - they already have misconduct policies, they already have the capacity to demonstrate to students and staff that this will be treated with zero tolerance and that you will be disciplined if you are a perpetrator,' he said.
Advertisement

The Luxembourg royal family are among at least 12,000 people to have been evacuated overnight after new wildfires ripped through tourist hot spots in southern France.

More than 1,000 firefighters battled infernos which billowed smoke into the sky over France's southern Cote d'Azur coast.

Locals and tourists were evacuated after a ferocious fire spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas, where as many as 3,000 campers were staying.

Terrifying photos from Bormes-Les-Mimosas showed flames rising just hundreds of yards away from a campsite where tourists had been sleeping on the sand, having been evacuated in the early hours of the morning.

Further south of the French mainland, flames tore through 4,950 acres of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Meanwhile massive blazes have destroyed thousands of acres of woodland, crops and vineyards across Southern Europe.

Hundreds of firefighters - backed by water bombing planes - have been battling the fires which have ravaged Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Albania and Turkey in recent days.

Scroll down for video

The Luxembourg royal family are among at least 10,000 people to have been evacuated overnight after new wild fires ripped through tourist hot spots in southern France, including Bormes-les-Mimosas (pictured)

Terrifying photos from Bormes-Les-Mimosas showed flames rising just hundreds of yards away from a campsite where tourists had been sleeping on the sand

Locals and tourists were evacuated after a ferocious fire spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas

While many tourists evacuated the Cap Benat campsite (pictured being shadowed by smoke), near Bornes-Les-Mimosas, some seemed happy to hunker down and continue enjoying their holiday

Ruins: The charred remains of burnt caravans at a warehouse in La Londe-les-Maures after fire swept through the area overnight

At least 10,000 people have been evacuated overnight with many forced to camp out on beaches to escape new wild fires ripping through the tourist hot spot of Bormes-les-Mimosas in southern France

People walk through the streets of Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France, as smoke rises from a fire burning a forest near the seaside town

Holidaymakers fled to beaches near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast (left) while wildfires burned across southern Europe, including Portugal (right)

On the move: Sunbathers were evacuated after heading to the beach this morning in Le Lavandou. They were seen carrying their beach chairs away as black smoke rose up from a fire on a nearby hill

'Apocalyptic' wildfires across southern Europe, sparked by a series of heatwaves across the region, come as many Britons prepare to set off on their summer holidays this week

Hundreds of firefighters - backed by water bombing planes - have been battling the fires which have ravaged Portugal (pictured), Italy, Croatia, Albania and Turkey

Fires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir (pictured)

Today, British author Robert Harris said he had been among thousands evacuated and posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near the seaside town of Bormes-les-Mimosas.

To the east, the deputy mayor of La Croix-Valmer, Rene Carandante, described a landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines.

'It's a disaster area. There's nothing left,' he said of an area where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

The new blaze came a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south, including near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

'Apocalyptic' wildfires across southern Europe, sparked by a series of heatwaves across the continent, come as many Britons prepare to set off on their summer holidays this week.

On Tuesday more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish flames in southern France, which have left swathes of charred earth in their wake.

Beachgoers walked off the beach after being told to leave as a fire raged behind them in Bormes-les-Mimosas

About 3,000 of those evacuated from the picturesque coastal village of Bormes-les-Mimosas (pictured) were tourists staying in campgrounds

British author Robert Harris posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near Bormes-les-Mimosas. The Luxembourg royal family - Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg (right) - were also in Southeastern France and were evacuated from their property

Devastation: A woman hugs a firefighter near charred remains of vehicles and buildings destroyed by fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas

Flames and smoke fill the sky above a burning hillside as tourists swim on the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas, in the Var department, France, July 26, 2017

People play cards at the beach as a fire burns a forest behind them in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France

Tourists evacuate the beach as smoke fills the sky above a burning hillside in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var district

Firefighters stepped up their battle against flames lapping at Mediterranean forests in the picturesque French hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas

Eric Martin, of the firefighting unit in the Var region of the Cote d'Azur, said on Wednesday that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares of Bormes

More than 1,000 firefighters battled infernos which billowed smoke into the sky over France's southern Cote d'Azur coast

The Bormes blaze was morphing into the largest in the area as firefighters also fought a fire in nearby La Londes-Les-Maures. Pictured: Volunteers distribute food to people evacuated due to wild fires in Bormes-les-Mimosas

To the east of Bornes-Les-Mimosas (pictured), the deputy mayor of La Croix-Valmer, Rene Carandante, described a landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines

The new blaze came a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south

A man tries to extinguish a fire burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas wherethousands of people including holidaymakers were evacuated

'Apocalyptic' wildfires across southern Europe, including southern France (pictured), were sparked by a series of heatwaves across the continent

A palace spokesperson in Luxembourg told Hello Magazine the Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa are stuck in France after being evacuated.

Also with them in their property in Cabasson were Henri's father Jean and other members of the family including children.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.

About 3,000 of those evacuated from the picturesque coastal village of Bormes-les-Mimosas were tourists staying in campgrounds, some of whom ended up spending the night in sleeping bags on the beach.

Village mayor Francois Arizzi said between 10,000 and 12,000 people had been moved to public shelters but that some had preferred to sleep in their cars.

Tuesday night's blaze, which started in a caravan storage depot, was the work of arsonists, authorities believe. Other fires have been blamed on discarded cigarettes.

Tourists sheltered from the sun under trees after being evacuated from villas, hotels and campsites in fire-hit Bormes-les-Mimosas

An aerial view shows plumes of smoke rising in the air from burning wildfires in the outskirts of Bormes-les-Mimosas

Dramatic pictures show flames and massive clouds of smoke from an inferno ripping through woodland near the upmarket French resort of Saint-Tropez. This was the scene in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer near the glamorous town

A woman hots her head in her hands as she reacts to the sight of burnt out houses and vehicles following a fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas

A man inspects the damage following a fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France as he walks through the wreckage

Camping and caravaning guard company owners try to extinguish a fire still burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France

People look at the devastated land surrounding their house following a fire in Biguglia on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica

Holidaymakers at the Camp du Domaine campsite in Bormes-les-Mimosas told of having to flee at 2am as fire approached.

Some 1,000 camping plots were abandoned with one British tourist, Lisa Minot, saying there was 'utter chaos' as people flocked to the site's private beach.

Dramatic footage also showed fires raging further inland, near Peyrolles-en-Provence. British actress Dame Joan Collins has revealed she was among those who fled from her villas in the French Riviera.

And this morning, British author Robert Harris posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near Bormes-les-Mimosas.

The author wrote: '2.50 am. Just evacuated from Cap Benat. Forest fire in southern France near Le Lavandou & Bormes-les-Mimosas. Adds a certain drama to a holiday...'

In a later tweet he said firefighters were 'battling to save Cap & Gaou Benat'.

A firefighting plane drops fire retardant over a forest near La Londe-les-Maures on the French Riviera this morning

Wasteland: A burned out vehicle lies abandoned on a forest road in Carros, southern France - one of the worst-hit areas

Holidaymakers fled to beaches near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast as a huge blaze swept through the area

Up to 10,000 people have been evacuated from the region as fires continue to sweep through woodland and forest. Residents are pictured trying to extinguish a fire burning in their buildings in Bormes-les-Mimosa

People try to extinguish a fire burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas. At least 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated overnight after a new wildfire broke out in southern France

Mr Harris posted pictures showing fires burning in the woodland overlooking his holiday destination

People gather in a gymnasium in Bormes-les-Mimosas after being evacuated as over 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated from campsites and homes in southern France as firefighters battled the latest in a string of huge blazes along the Mediterranean coast

A woman and her daughter look at a plume of smoke from burning fires that fills the sky in the popular resort in the South of France

'Brave pompiers of Bormes-les-Mimosas worked all night to save hundreds of homes. 10,000 people evacuated,' he told his Twitter followers.

The blazes on Tuesday had devoured around 4,000 hectares (15 square miles) of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European Union partners to send two extra fire-fighting planes - a request immediately fulfilled by Italy, according to the EU.

But one union official denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts preventing all the aircraft required from being put into action.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Tuesday that France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet during a visit to Corsica.

A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained, local fire chief Philippe Gambe de Vergnes said Tuesday.

As tourists continued to sunbathe on the beaches, hundreds of firefighters tackled a blaze spanning 200 hectares at Giagaro, close to the glamorous holiday destination

The scarred remains of land burnt to a crisp by a forest fire in Ramatuelle, southern France, as an inferno raged out of control

A firefighter stands in the middle of a road near flames blazing near the village of Sanguinheira, in Macao, central Portugal

Vast stretches of scorched earth creeps up to the fences of homes in Biguglia, Corsica, as firefighters desperately battle to save buildings from wildfires in the region

Evacuated people found refuge on the beach and look at a fire burning the forest in Bormes-les-Mimosas, at sunrise on July 26, 2017

Tourists do their best to enjoy their holidays in the French Riviera while huge fires continue to rage in La Croix-Valmer, near Saint-Tropez

A firefighting helicopter drops water over a forest fire in Carros near Nice, southern France, as blazes broke out across the French Riviera

A firefighter works overtime to put out a forest fire near the small village of Carvoeiro, near Castelo Branco in Portugal

But the blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmer's deputy mayor Rene Carandante described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

'It's a disaster area. There's nothing left,' he said.

Francois Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, told AFP that local wildlife, such as the Hermann's tortoises, would be victims of the fires. 'We are going to find burnt shells.'

Around 50 miles inland, 300 hectares of pines and oaks went up in smoke near the village of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.

A local official accused the authorities of failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making the forest a fire hazard.

The French island of Corsica, situated midway between France and Italy, was also assessing the damage.

The 'apocalyptic' wildfires, sparked by a series of heatwaves across the region, come as many Britons prepare to set off on their summer holidays this week

Emergency services last night continued to work around the clock to battle the infernos, which are being fanned by high winds and have consumed nearly 10,000 acres of vegetation

French authorities said eight firemen and 15 police officers have been hurt, although no fatalities have yet been reported

In Portugal firefighters were yesterday continuing the country's summertime battle against wildfires, which last month claimed the lives of 64 people

A resident, whose house had at one point been in danger, spoke of 'apocalyptic' scenes.

In the end, disaster was averted after the wind died down, but the blaze engulfed 1,800 hectares of forest and burned several vehicles.

Further east, in Carros, north of Nice, a house, three vehicles and a warehouse went up in flames, according to regional authorities.

Speaking to France Info radio, Mayor Charles Scibetta described waking up to a 'lunar landscape' and said the inhabitants had a lucky escape.

'All of France is mobilised,' the head of the fire service in southeast France, Colonel Gregory Allione told France Info, adding that extra firefighters had been drafted in from the north.

Thomas Curt, a director at the Irsea institute for research into the environment and agriculture, said a fall-off in farming in southeast France since the 1970s had made it more prone to fires.

More than 100 forest fires erupted on Sunday, with 5,000 firefighters deployed across central and northern Portugal

Almost 5,000 firefighters supported by water-dropping aircraft are deployed across central and northern areas of Portugal as the country continues its daily summertime battle against wildfires

A villager battles in dangerous conditions to put out a forest fire in the village of Brejo Grande, near Castelo Branco, Portugal

'Farmland is contracting and the forest is naturally expanding, making the area bushier,' he said.

A proliferation in the numbers of homes, roads and power lines near forests also increased the fire hazard, he added.

In mid-July, a blaze believed to have been ignited by a cigarette butt tossed out of a car ripped through 800 hectares of land near Aix-en-Provence.

The resorts of Frejus, Sainte-Maxime and Toulon were graded as being at an 'exceptional' risk, with experts warning that continued strong winds this week would see more areas affected.

One fire that erupted late on Monday near the La Croix-Valmer resort and yacht-filled marinas of Saint-Tropez sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky above the packed beaches.

Flames burned across some 2,000 acres in the region, with two villas destroyed in the hills where Dynasty star Dame Joan Collins was staying just a few miles west of St Tropez.

The 84-year-old and ten others at her multi-million-pound holiday home, where the actress spends four months of the year, were evacuated late on Monday.

An aerial photograph shows the fire devastated landscape in Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica

A raging fire is sweeping through woodland in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer near Saint Tropez

Holidaymakers watch on as the smoke fills the sky following a forest fire near Seillons, in the Var department in France

Fires ravage the Corsican maquis in Biguglia, in the region of Bastia. More than 2,000 hectares have burned despite the best efforts of firefighters

Too close for comfort: Dramatic video showed forest fires raging close to houses in the Saint-Tropez region overnight

A house and three vehicles went up in flames in Carros, north of Nice yesterday as firefighters battled to contain the inferno

Photos show the wreckage of a burnt down car following a forest fire in Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez in southern France

On the island of Corsica, one fire, made worse by strong winds, has spread across 900 hectares of forest and is reportedly threatening to engulf homes

Actress Joan Collins (left, in 2014 and, right, in 2016) has been forced to evacuate her villa in the south of France as a huge fire continues to rip through woodland near Saint-Tropez

Tweeting a picture of the blazing hills yesterday, Dame Joan wrote: 'Luckily we were able to evacuate last night, not easy with 11 people in the house!'

In a statement, she said: 'All 11 family and friends are safe after abandoning our villa due to the fierce forest fires threatening our home.'

She later claimed the fire had been started by a barbecue, adding: 'All seems ok although fire still burning started by BarBQ.'

Local authorities said more than 100 people were evacuated and thousands of acres destroyed in and around St Tropez.

Michel Bernier, of France's civil defence forces, added: 'It's a very dangerous day.'

Another fire that scorched at least 2,000 acres in Luberon was believed to be under control yesterday morning, local firefighters said.

But one of the largest blazes was last night still ripping through swathes of hillside on the island of Corsica off the French coast.

A French firefighter sitting in a vehicle looks at a tree blocking the path in Ramatuelle, southern France following a forest fire

Pictures show the interior of a vehicle that was destroyed when fire ripped through a forest in Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez

Fires have been raging for days in southern France. An aircraft is pictured swooping low over Castagniers near Nice

Tourists seemed unconcerned and continued to enjoy the beaches near Saint-Tropez as forest fires swept through nearby woodland

Emergency: Dramatic pictures showed huge forest fires near the exclusive L'Escalet area of Saint Tropez in southern France

The fires across southern France have been made worse by strong winds. This was the scene as firefighters tackled a blaze in in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer

Tourists and residents walk down a road near Saint Tropez as a huge forest fire rages over the ridge of a nearby hill yesterday

More than 5,000 acres of forest were engulfed after the fire erupted on Monday night, with residents evacuated from their homes at the edge of the town of Biguglia.

One of the blazes along the French Riviera was thought to have been started by a bolt of lightning. However carelessly discarded cigarettes are often blamed for setting the tinderbox area alight.

Fires have erupted across much of southern Europe in recent weeks amid extremely high temperatures and dry weather during the peak holiday season.

More than 2,000 firefighters are battling nine major wildfires in Portugal, where drought conditions, high temperatures and strong winds are fueling the flames.

Almost 1,000 other firefighters are conducting mopping-up operations at 37 other Portuguese woodland blazes on Wednesday.

Ash floated in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 125 miles northeast of Lisbon. The Civil Protection Agency said 24 water-dropping aircraft were in action.

Serta is close to Pedrogao Grande, where 64 people died in a wildfire last month. No injuries have been reported in recent days as the blazes raced through thick eucalyptus and pine forests.

More than 2,000 firefighters are battling nine major wildfires in Portugal. Pictured: Firemen fight a forest fire at Castelo in Macao, central Portugal

Some 1,126 firemen, 358 land vehicles and ten airplanes and helicopters are working to contain the forest fire in Castelo

Ash filled in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 125 miles northeast of Lisbon. Pictured: A water bombing plane fighting the blaze in Castelo

The Civil Protection Agency said 24 water-dropping aircraft were in action in Portugal. Pictured: A firefighter at the scene of a forest fire at Castelo

One of the worst affected areas is Serta, around 200km north of Lisbon, where hamlets have been evacuated and the A23 shut. Pictured: Santo village in Macao, central Portugal

Emergency services in Portugal are getting no respite from wildfires that are charring wide areas of forest

The huge billowing clouds of smoke they are generating are making visibility too poor to use water-dropping aircraft

Aerial assault: Planes loaded with water were sent into the skies in a bid to damped the flames from above near Carros, southern France

Fire fighting aircraft drop water over a fire near Carros, southeastern France on Monday. A number of fires have been causing chaos across the region

People watch smoke rising above a forest as a wildfire burns near La Londe-les-Maures on the French Riviera this morning

Large wildfires are a common occurrence in summer in Portugal, where thousands of firefighters are on duty in the summer months.

Albania's interior ministry says that some 130 firefighters are battling 18 fire spots around the country.

Spokesman Ardian Bita says fires are blazing in five western and central districts, damaging 15 hectares (37 acres) of pastures, vineyards and dozens of olive trees.

Firefighters, military personnel and local authorities have been fighting about a dozen wildfires every day in Albania since the end of June. No injuries have yet been reported. Authorities have arrested several people accused of starting fires.

Meanwhile fires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir.

'Compared to a year ago we have increased public awareness and have also had better communication with the communities and local authorities,' said Bita.

Wildfires are also burning across swaths of central and southern Italy, aided by the region's drought and high temperatures, but authorities say most have been caused by arson.

Civil protection authorities said they responded Tuesday to 26 requests for water and fire retardant airdrops throughout central and southern Italy, including in Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.

Wildfires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir (pictured)

Smoke rises at the site of a forest fire in the Lutuflar district of Izmir, Turkey, where around 250 acres of forestland has been destroyed by the fire

Fire fighting helicopters, amphibian airplanes and water trucks tried to extinguish the fire in the Lutuflar district of Izmir, Turkey

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities. This was the scene in Bormes-les-Mimosas

Pictures show a huge fire raging a few hundred yards away from yachts in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var region in southern France

There were no reports of imminent threats to population areas on Wednesday. The fires have been raging for weeks, causing periodic evacuations and devastating large areas of forest and pasture.

The Coldiretti agriculture lobby says 50 billion bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Coldiretti said another 20 percent of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented from the smoke of the fires and died as a result.

On Sunday a forest fire in Croatia triggered 34 explosions thought to be mines left over from the war in the 1990s. An earlier blaze had spread to southern Croatia from Montenegro.

Southeast France is experiencing an exceptionally hot, dry summer that have made it especially vulnerable to fires.
Opinion / Columnist

Throughout history every discussion that have to do with removal of a certain race from a country was and is still believed to be racism, inhumanity and in worst cases as criminal. That makes the whole thesis of my work more unpalatable to comprehend. First and foremost the subject is delicate l admit, but convincing any reader is beyond my quest, however my quest is to speak from my heart and to speak to someone's heart as well.To begin with, lets look closely how the Xi Chinese policy of eradicating poverty in China through creating so-called relations with Africa have worked in the best interests of China but dichotomously contrary to Africa. Indeed the Chinese products have flooded the local markets, cheaper and everywhere. It is very true that the Chinese goods that range from everything to all are cheaper the same way it is true that none of them is manufactured locally. What then is for Zimbabwe if none is manufactured local, yes! Zimbabwe becomes a flea market where goods abroad are displayed in order to harness profits from the unfortunate people who do not know how to produce or at least buy from where cheaper items are found. The Chinese are not cultural people, they are nomads and their way of life is directly anti-poled to ours. We have nothing in common and nothing to admire from each other. However they have managed to fit in so well amongst us. With the seal of the politicians in government, the Chinese seems untouchable.Some people wonder why the government is so fond about the Chinese as our good all weather friend, an ally or a "God" of fortune. Without building any business empire in Zimbabwe, without creating any world class or meaningful project, the Chinese is regarded as a blood brother by the government of Zanupf. Someone must wonder how come?? Its simple, China have corrupted the political bodies in most African countries and Zimbabwe is not an exception. They are only responsible for the long stay in power of zanupf. They fund this party, they campaign for it and they serve its interests. It is China that vetoed against the UN resolution for a military intervention to stop killings in Zimbabwe in 2008. It is China which vindicated and sealed the legitimacy of the sham and null bloody one man election of 2009. It is China which supported a national dialogue even after Zanupf had lost the election in 2008.Come 2013, the painful news broke out. Zanupf had won the elections that were contested without reforms. Some international observers were banished to oversee the election except the Chinese. One speaker after the other of the Chinese nationality spoke on national television vindicating the victory of zanupf. Confirming and confessing the transparency of the disputed election. This people have no humor and morals not mentioning shame. They insisted that there was peace in Zimbabwe when blood was running down our streets, possibly because they were not affected by the losses Zimbabweans faced. Some were widowed, some orphaned, some crippled in the process yet the Chinese was a stumbling block to any global process to take the matter to the international table of nations. He said there is peace in Zimbabwe when the Zimbabweans were forced to sleep at the base, he said there was peace in Zimbabwe when the people were being terrorized by the zanupf militia and by the military, that is not a secret. Is it?He bear false witness at the global level when Zimbabwe was supposed to get its redemption. He blocked our redemption and that makes him our enemy not a friend. Even if he gives us rice, even if he builds our military academy where election terrorists are brooded, whether he gives us any aid. We will view it as a cost of doing his business. What was happening at his home when we were in terror by our own government?, his children were safe and comfortable in Beijing and Chinghai while they awaits more money to bleed from Zimbabweans. That comes as profit from doing business.The Chinese will oversee our elections in 2018, l wonder. Is such a thing possible?? No.. The goddess of distress have once again sealed the fate of our future in the hands of Zanupf. The Chinese are the ones supplying our government with rice to feed and buy elections in rural areas. The Chinese are funding Zanupf campaigns and they are running our elections. God forbid!! No and again No. The Gods must be crazy. Who will quarantine this race from our midst.? Who will stop the looting and all cash crimes they are committing. This race is responsible for the cash crisis we are into. Their shops have no facilities for plastic money transactions, its strictly cash. They do not bank their money even their Robert Mugabe expressed concern over this issue.If Zimbabwe is to be free, then the gospel of anti-chinese must be preached without seizing. Their activities in mining, must be stopped forth with. They squandered and looted Chiyadzwa, they changed our labor laws to suit their nomadic lifestyle in order to render labor a worthless or if possible a curse that aught to be exploited to death. What did it lead to?, tens of thousands lost their jobs, thousands are on silly chinese jobs that provide no cover at all.Chinese policy of looting and profiteering is unacceptable and criminal. They desire dictatorship as a welcome means to bolster business. They have found greedy political hyenas', power hungry thieves and partnered them in order to foster an unbreakable alliance that produces hunger, joblessness and distress. The victory of zanupf will be the victory of the Chinese business. To those who do not perceive the Chinese foreign policy, ln short it is a plot to quench poverty at home (China) by creating it abroad ( Zimbabwe).My fellow cdes, these are not good friends. They do not have a soil they have grown up in Africa. They don't have friends or relatives here. Truth be said, they are international elements. They trot Africa in order to milk its people, its money and its resources. Today they are in Nairobi, tomorrow they are in Kampala, a day after that they are in Harare and next week they are in Maputo. The day real matters of the people are realized in Zimbabwe. First and foremost, this race must be removed completely from our midst.
Four men quizzed over the death of hen party reveller Kirsty Maxwell walked free from a Spanish court today after a failed bid by her family's lawyer to have them jailed on a manslaughter charge.

The four men hurried from a Benidorm courtroom shielding their faces and refusing to answer any questions from the media.

They had spent more than three hours being questioned by a judge and lawyers about the death of Mrs Maxwell in April.

They were the last to see the 27 year old alive before she plunged to her death from the 10th floor apartment in Benidorm after a night of heavy drinking.

The four men  Ricky Gammon, 31, Anthony Holehouse, 34, Callum Northridge, 27, and Daniel Bailey, 32, all from Nottinghamshire - answered questions from the judge and their own lawyer - but refused to reply to questions asked by the Maxwell family lawyer.

Facing a Spanish judge: Four British men arrived at a Benidorm court today over the mystery death of a newly wed who plunged 100ft from their hotel balcony on April 29 this year

Court appearance: One of the four British men in Spain to face questions over the mysterious death of newlywed Kirsty Maxwell is pictured arriving at court today

Death mystery: The four men were today summoned back to Benidorm to be quizzed at a private hearing in front of judge Ana Isable Garcai-Galbis at Benidorm's Palace of Justice. A fifth man Joseph Graham, from Nottingham, right, was not asked to attend today's behind closed doors hearing as he had already made a detailed statement to police and the judge

Tragedy: Kirsty, 27, pictured with her husband Adam, died instantly in the fall from the men's tenth floor room at a budget apartment block having spent the night spent drinking with a group of friends on a hen party

They were told they were free to return home after the hearing at Benidorm's Palace of Justice.

It will now be for judge Isabel Garcia-Galbis to decide if there should be any prosecution or if the case closed.

The four powerfully built men had shielded their faces with hoodies and baseball caps when they arrived for the behind closed doors hearing on the fourth floor of the modern court building.

The lawyer for the Maxwell family had asked the judge to jail the men on suspicion of manslaughter.

All four have protested their innocence and previously told their lawyer they had no idea why Maxwell, who was five times over the Spanish drink drive limit, entered their flat at a 60 a night apartment block in the centre of Benidorm.

A fifth man who was in the flat, 32 year old Joseph Graham, from Nottingham, was not asked to attend today's behind closed doors hearing as he had already made a detailed statement to police and the judge.

Maxwell's grieving husband Adam, and her family, believe her death on April 29 was not accidental.

Although drunk, they insist Kirsty was not suicidal and had not been taking any drugs.

A toxicology report released earlier this month found no traces of any illegal drugs.

Adam Maxwell has said 'something dark' took place on the 10th floor apartment which is close to the popular 'Little England' area of the holiday resort favoured by tourists.

He has vowed to continue his fight for the truth of what happened to his wife.

Mr Maxwell, from Livingston, West Lothian, was not at Wednesday's court hearing where the men were questioned individually.

Hotel plunge: Kirsty, who married Adam only last September, fell 100ft to her death from the hotel Balcony in Benidorm, Spain. Pictured: The balcony in the room where she was staying

Fell to her death: It is unknown how Kirsty fell to her death from the tenth floor of the budget hotel room. She was on the tenth floor. Pictured: Balcony below where newlywed fell from

Tragic fall: Kirsty, from Livingston, West Lothian, died instantly after plunging from a tenth-floor flat in the Costa Blanca resort. Pictured: The swimming pool below where she fell

The four men were summoned back to Benidorm to be questioned by Judge Garcia-Galbis after a plea by the Maxwell family lawyer to the court.

Luis Miguel Zumaquero, the lawyer representing Kirsty's grieving husband and parents, told MailOnline he believes Mrs Maxwell could have jumped after becoming scared and trying to flee from the men.

Miguel and Roberto Sanchez, the lawyer representing the four men were present in court, but media and the public were not allowed.

None of the men  known as the 'Benidorm Five' - have not been formally accused of a crime as is usual in Spain. Charges are only filed shortly before any trial.

Police are said to believe Mrs Maxwell fell accidentally and believe the large amount of alcohol played a part in her fall.

Toxicology tests on Mrs Maxwell showed that she had a blood alcohol level of 2.79 grams per litre  about five times the Spanish and Scottish drink-drive limit.

She had been drinking with 20 friends on a hen party in the raucous resort and returned to her bedroom on the 9th floor of the Apartmentos Payma around 4am on the morning of April 29th.

A friend photographed her lying full clothed on her bed, but around 8am she woke up and walked up a flight of stairs to the apartment directly above.

Happily married: Kirsty, pictured with husband Adam, had been drinking with 20 friends on a hen party in the raucous resort and returned to her bedroom on the 9th floor of the Apartmentos Payma around 4am on April 29

Mystery: A friend photographed Kirsty, pictured with Adam, lying full clothed on her bed, but around 8am she woke up and walked up a flight of stairs to the apartment directly above

Hen party: It is thought Kirsty, pictured with a friend, was trying to go to a friend's room who was staying on the 10th floor but may have been disorientated and knocked on the wrong door

It is thought she was trying to go to the room of a friend who was staying on the 10th floor but she became disorientated and may have knocked on the wrong door.

Graham told police he thought Maxwell was 'mad, drunk or drugged' and said she walked past him into the flat without speaking.

In his police statement Graham, from Nottingham, claims Maxwell tried to climb out of a bathroom window before walking though the apartment to a sliding door leading out to Juliette balcony.

He said he saw her plunge over the side and screamed out as she fell. The other men rushed to the window and called police and emergency services.

Maxwell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Graham said he thought she might have been trying to jump into the swimming pool below  and denied any of the men in the room had been involved in her fall.

A hotel CCTV camera captured Maxwell hitting the concrete floor near the pool, but so far no witnesses have come forward to shed any light on her death.

Various theories were put forward as an explanation for her death. It is up to the judge to decide if she jumped or something caused her to fall.

One theory from family lawyer Mr Zumaquero is that the men may have somehow intimidated Mrs Maxwell after mistakenly entering their apartment.

He has said she might have jumped over the balcony while 'gripped by fear.'

Graham has insisted that he had asked Maxwell to leave and has protested his innocence.

He spent two days in custody after being held by police in the resort and released after agreeing he would return to Spain if required.

Mr Maxwell returned to Benidorm last month and launched a social media campaign to try and find witnesses to his wife's mysterious death.

He has dismissed suggestions she was suicidal and says there is no logical explanation for her death.

'Something dark happened in that room  and I won't rest until I know the truth. Kirsty was happy healthy and had everything to live for. It is crazy to suggest she killed herself.'

Hiding their identities: Two of the men who staying in the room where Kirsty fell from arrived at court today and covered their faces with their clothing, caps and sunglasses

All four have protested their innocence and previously told their lawyer they had no idea why Maxwell, who was five times over the Spanish drink drive limit, entered their flat at a 60 a night apartment block in the centre of Benidorm.

The four men  Ricky Gammon, 31, Anthony Holehouse, 34, right, Callum Northridge, 27, and Daniel Bailey, 32, all from Nottinghamshire  were today summoned back to Benidorm to be quizzed at a private hearing in front of a judge at Benidorm's Palace of Justice

He appealed for people to come forward with any information by distributing posters and flyers in the resort but it is not thought this produced any significant new evidence or witnesses.

A preliminary police investigation found no evidence of foul play and Maxwell's death was ruled as accidental.

It is only at the insistence of the Maxwell family lawyer that the men were summoned back to Spain.

They had the right to appeal against the summons but chose to return.

Gammon, from Hucknall, Notts. He is a married father of one and lives with his wife Faye and baby.

Nothridge, is also a married father of one from Hucknall, Notts and works as a heating engineer.

Bailey lives in Papplewick, Notts and Holehouse lives in Mansfield, Notts. He was jailed in 2007 for fraud.
Michio Hirano (pictured) said his experimental drugs might help Charlie Gard, and he offered to treat him in the US

The American neurologist criticised by Great Ormond Street has today admitted a body scan done when he flew to London extinguished all hope for Charlie Gard.

Michio Hirano also denied claims he has cash invested in the drug he offered to Charlie.

The professor said his experimental nucleoside treatment had a chance of helping the sick child and he offered to treat him in the US.

But he was accused of giving Charlie's family false hope and lawyers for Great Ormond Street said they were concerned to learn the doctor had a financial interest in some of the drugs he proposed to use.

The children's hospital also said it was disappointed he had been so optimistic when he had not examined Charlie himself, or read his latest medical records or seen his brain scans.

Hitting back today Dr Hirano, who works at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, claims that he now has no investment in the drug Charlie's parents wanted him to have.

Speaking for the first time he said: 'As I disclosed in court on July 13, I have relinquished and have no financial interest in the treatment being developed for Charlie's condition'.

The court case over Charlie's treatment was reopened after Dr Hirano and six other experts said they had new evidence that could affect the judge's earlier decision that the boy would not benefit from further treatment and should be allowed to die.

The US neurologist flew to London to examine the little boy along with a doctor from the Pope's children's hospital in Rome.

Dr Hirano said today: 'I became involved in Charlie's case when I was contacted by his parents, and I subsequently agreed to speak with his doctors to discuss whether an experimental therapy being developed in my lab could provide meaningful clinical improvement in Charlie's condition.

'Unfortunately, a MRI scan of Charlie's muscle tissue conducted in the past week has revealed that it is very unlikely that he would benefit from this treatment'.

Charlie Gard's mother Connie Yates and her lawyer arrive at the High Court for a hearing on her son's end of life care because his family want him to come home to die

Charlie Gard's parents Connie (pictured with her son) and Chris want to bring him home and spend a few days together before life support is withdrawn on Monday

Chris Gard and Connie Yates in court on Monday had previously stated their desire to take their son Charlie home to give him a bath and place him in his cot he has never slept in

It came as Charlie's parents will return to the High Court today in their battle to take him home to die.

Pope's hospital insists Charlie should have had the chance to try experimental drugs - but now it's 'too late' A Vatican pediatric hospital says experimental therapy 'could have been an opportunity' to help Charlie Gard, but it was too late to start care for the critically ill baby. Bambino Gesu Hospital had offered to treat the 11-month-old boy while his parents were trying to persuade UK courts to tell Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to release the boy for treatment in the United States. Hospital chiefs said in a statement that they are not in a position to know what might have happened six months ago and cannot know if Charlie would have responded to the experimental therapy. Hospital director Mariella Enoc (pictured) told reporters that they carried out a clinical evaluation and offered medical assistance free of charge. Advertisement

Great Ormond Street believe he should go to a hospice - or stay with them - because his ventilator won't fit through the front door and doctors fear he could suffer pain or a 'distressing or disordered death'

Before his defence Great Ormond Street's lawyer, Katie Gollop QC, said there were no grounds for such optimism and she questioned why Charlie's parents were led to believe Dr Hirano's nucleoside bypass therapy could help.

In a statement to the High Court, she said: 'When the hospital was informed that the professor had new laboratory findings causing him to believe NBT would be more beneficial to Charlie than he had previously opined, GOSH's hope for Charlie and his parents was that that optimism would be confirmed.

'It was, therefore, with increasing surprise and disappointment that the hospital listened to the professor's fresh evidence to the court.

'On 13 July he stated that not only had he not visited the hospital to examine Charlie but in addition, he had not read Charlie's contemporaneous medical records or viewed Charlie's brain imaging or read all of the second opinions about Charlie's condition  obtained from experts all of whom had taken the opportunity to examine him and consider his records  or even read the judge's decision made on April 11.

'Further, GOSH was concerned to hear the professor state, for the first time, while in the witness box, that he retains a financial interest in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie. Devastatingly, the information obtained since 13 July gives no cause for optimism.

Dr Hirano, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist, told the High Court along with Charlie's parents Connie Yates (left) and Chris Gard (right, holding his son) that new drugs had a 'small but significant' chance of helping Charlie's rare condition and it was 'worth trying'

Chris Gard announced they must now 'do the hardest thing that we'll ever have to do which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go'

Radical American pastor Patrick Mahoney (centre, outside the Royal Courts of Justice) loudly called on God to change the judge's mind. He has been arrested  and jailed  in the US for repeated direct action against judges and medics he perceives as being pro-abortion

'Rather, it confirms that while NBT may well assist others in the future, it cannot and could not have assisted Charlie.'

Dr Hirano, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist, told the High Court that new drugs had a 'small but significant' chance of helping Charlie's rare condition and it was 'worth trying'.

Great Ormond Street has been praised by judges for its care of Charlie, but has faced condemnation by some pro-life campaigners.

It has emerged that hospital staff have received death threats and abuse and that police were called after 'unacceptable behaviour' was recorded in the hospital.

Great Ormond Street has been praised by judges for its care of Charlie (pictured), but has faced condemnation by some pro-life campaigners. Hospital staff have received death threats and abuse and police were called after 'unacceptable behaviour' was recorded in the hospital

The case took on the air of a circus when Donald Trump and Pope Francis made high-profile interventions at the start of July. They were swiftly followed by a radical American pastor loudly calling on God to change the judge's mind. The pastor  Patrick Mahoney  arrived on July 9 bringing his 'power of prayer'. He has been arrested  and jailed  in the US for repeated direct action against judges and medics he perceives as being pro-abortion.

Next up was American attorney Catherine Glenn Foster, part of Rev Mahoney's pro-life lobby. She planted a tender kiss on Charlie's head and then tweeted it to her followers and made it her Facebook profile photo.

She has apparently been offering legal tips to the family. Alasdair Seton-Marsden, a UKIP candidate in the general election, was also involved in the case.

Supporters of Charlie Gard's parents outside the High Court for a hearing on the baby's future

He initially made statesman-like pronouncements on behalf of the family outside court. But then he started appearing on American television accusing the NHS of holding Charlie 'as a captive'. He then fell out with Charlie's parents over the media strategy.

Last Saturday, hospital chief Mary MacLeod called in police and issued a statement revealing 'a shocking and disgraceful tide of hostility and disturbance'. In response, Miss Yates and Mr Gard said they were 'extremely upset by the backlash we have received after Great Ormond Street Hospital put out their statement'. They added: 'We too have suffered from the most hurtful comments from the public and GOSH is aware of this.'

Dr Hirano specialises in mitochondrial depletion syndrome.
Labour could still u-turn on Brexit if it senses public opposition hardening, the party's campaign chief has admitted.

Andrew Gwynne claimed Labour could still be 'flexible' on its Brexit position amid a growing battle inside the party over Jeremy Corbyn's policy.

The Labour leader is backing the Government on taking Britain out of the EU single market and has a confused position on the customs union.

Andrew Gwynne (pictured on the campaign trail in May) claimed Labour could still be 'flexible' on its Brexit position amid a growing battle inside the party over Jeremy Corbyn's policy

Theresa May insists leaving both EU groupings is crucial to deliver Brexit because they open the door to cutting migration and striking new trade deals.

But Mr Corbyn is under growing pressure to soften his line, including from the powerful trade unions which have propped up his leadership and bankrolled Labour's general election campaign.

Mr Gwynne's confession came at a public event in London where he claimed Mr Corbyn's stance could become a 'political problem' for Labour.

In comments revealed by the Mirror, he said: 'We recognise that the country voted to leave. Whether public opinion shifts in the course of the next couple of years will be interesting to see.

'And I think once the reality of what Brexit is going to look like becomes more apparent, it may well be that the political situation changes sufficiently that the Labour Party's nuanced position might also have more flexibility.'

Mr Gwynne, who backed Remain but represents a Leave-backing constituency, added: 'As we speak I think we've got to tread that very fine cautious line on Brexit that got us through the election.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on the BBC on Sunday) is backing the Government on taking Britain out of the EU single market and has a confused position on the customs union

'I think it is our challenge to keep treading that fine line.

'Because yes, this could become a political problem for the Labour Party - but right now it's one hell of a political problem for the Tories.'

Mr Corbyn stood by his position in a a high profile TV interview on Sunday to mark the end of the political term.

He was defended by International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner, who insisted it would be a a 'disaster' to stay inside the customs union.

But it caused outrage among some in his party.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a prominent Remain campaigner, said there should be 'clear red water' between his party, the Tories and Ukip over Brexit.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna (pictured campaigning against Brexit in May) said there should be 'clear red water' between his party, the Tories and Ukip over Brexit as he leads the rebellion against Jeremy Corbyn

He said: 'Taking single market and customs union membership off the table in the Brexit talks is the Tory position, it should not be Labour's.'

Responding to Mr Gardiner's comments, fellow Labour MP Wes Streeting said: 'Where has this come from? We were told customs union is still on the table. Even the Tories are keeping this option open.'

The TUC is urging a deal that keeps Britain inside the EU single market, insisting it is the 'best way to protect jobs and workers' rights into the future, but all possibilities should be considered'.

Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, wrote in the New Statesman: 'Labour says it wants access to the single market but an end to freedom of movement.

'But Brussels says there is no pick and mix  free movement is the price of access to the single market.

'Labour must now be bold enough to steer away from the [left-wing exit] and Brexit propagandists who would have us seek the unachievable.'
Holidaymakers are suing First Choice after falling ill with stomach bugs at a five-star Egyptian beach resort amid claims of 'faeces in the pool'.

The twenty six tourists are launching legal action after claiming that their getaways were ruined by bouts of gastroenteritis and sickness, while staying at the Jaz Aquaviva hotel in Hurghada, Egypt.

Brits say excrement was spotted in the luxury hotel's swimming pool and chefs handled raw and cooked meat together using the same gloves.

The twenty six tourists are launching legal action after claiming that their getaways were ruined by bouts of gastroenteritis at the Jaz Aquaviva hotel in Hurghada, Egypt (pictured)

Jessica Whittington, 35, was left battling diarrhoea and suffering stomach cramps when she fell ill during a stay at the hotel with her husband Andrew, 39, and two children.

Mrs Whittington was put on an IV drip following her sickness, while her husband and 12-year-old son also fell ill and are still recovering - a month later.

She told the Sun: 'This was meant to be our honeymoon. We saved up for two years but it ended up being a nightmare we still haven't recovered from.

Nichola Blackburn, from firm Irwin Mitchell, who are representing the tourists, said: 'Clients are giving us similar descriptions of problems, including faeces in the pool.'

First Choice spokesperson has apologised to the customers' for the unpleasantness during their stay.

Brits say excrement was spotted in the luxury hotel's swimming pool and chefs handled raw and cooked meat together using the same gloves (pictured, the hotel's buffet area)

A spokeswoman said: 'We're sorry to hear about these customers' experience during their holidays earlier this year.

'As we understand this is now subject to legal proceedings we are unable to comment further at this time.

'We closely audit all resorts to which we operate to ensure that health, hygiene and comfort levels are maintained in line with industry standards.'
A suspected paedophile was attacked by a member of the public during a botched vigilante sting as a crowd cheered him on.

A lone 'paedophile hunter' tried to keep an angry mob under control during a citizen's arrest of a suspect in Sheffield City Centre on Saturday.

The hunter, identified online as 'Rob' claimed the man, who has not been charged, tried to groom young girls online, and sent at least one a picture of his penis.

The suspect was cornered by a paedophile hunter, who tells him not to delete 'evidence' on his phone as he performs a citizen's arrest

As the hunter tries to keep the suspect around for the police, a crowd gathers, and the 'suspect' is punched in the face by a member of the public

The married father was taunted, spat at and hit in the face in the middle of the day as the hunter cornered him around Angel Street and Haymarket, and waited for police to arrive.

Vigilantes from 'Creep Catchers UK' had lured the man into chats with two girls, pretending to be aged 13 and 14, and then arranging to meet the much older man.

The anonymous vigilante couldn't restrain the suspect and started shouting at people in the street: 'Call the police. He's a paedophile.'

As a crowd of bystanders gathered to detain him, a man appeared to approach him from behind and punched him in the face, knocking his sunglasses off.

One furious onlooker called for him to be 'hung, drawn and quartered', while another raged: 'He wants f****** slaughtering.'

The outnumbered paedophile hunter pleaded with them in vain to stay calm, saying: 'My case is f***** now'.

Dramatic footage shows the vigilante trying to grab the suspect's phone to stop him using it.

The police later said they had arrested one man, aged 57, on suspicion of child grooming, and another man, aged 42, on suspicion of assault. Both were released pending investigation

The man denies trying to groom children and says: 'You're gonna ruin my life.'

The hunter chases him down the street and grabs hold of him, saying: 'You're under a citizen's arrest.'

A member of the public intervenes to try and free the suspect but the vigilante tells him: 'He's a paedophile, mate.'

The crowd descends and starts hurling abuse at the suspect, then someone appears to push him.

The citizen's arrest turns into a botched attempt as the hunter is unable to control the crown that has gathered

He warns: 'Do that again and I'll f****** deck ya.'

A man then appears to lunge in from behind and strikes him as the crowd cheer and shout 'dirty b******'.

The shaken suspect says: 'I hope you got that on f****** video' and the vigilante retorts: 'You're getting arrested as well, mate. Don't let him go anywhere.'

One man says: 'If his case is f***** we might as well all do him in.'

The suspect claims somebody has spat at him and wipes the back of his head.

A member of the crowd shouts 'hit him' and another says they should all 'stamp his head in'.

The vigilante says: 'No, because then my case is even more f***** and then I get charges.'

He manages to shield the suspect from further attack until police eventually arrive and restore order.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'On Saturday 22 July, officers responded to a report of an altercation between two men on Angel Street, Sheffield.

'A 42 year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and a 57-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of child grooming. Both men have since been released under investigation.'
Georgia detectives say they are close to solving a 34-year-old murder case.

Timothy Coggins, 23, was found dead on a power line in rural Spalding County, Georgia, in October of 1983.

Investigators at the time gathered evidence and interviewed potential witnesses, but were unable to make any arrests over the killing.

But after a decades-long campaign of witness intimidation, officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation say they are close to arresting those responsible.

Timothy Coggins, 23, was found dead on a power line in Spalding County, Georgia, back in 1983. Detectives reopened his case in June after receiving new evidence, and say they are now close to making arrests

A statement from the Spalding County Sheriffs Office said the investigation was reopened in June thanks to information forwarded on to the investigative bureau through 'various sources'.

As well as pouring over old evidence and re-interviewing those who spoke to cops at the time, detectives discovered new witnesses and were able to gather further clues.

Officers have 'literally being going door-to-door to solve this crime', the statement said, and now believe 'they are close to making arrests for Coggins murder.'

Sheriff Darrell Dix said: 'We have been in contact with a representative from Coggins family and they have been briefed on where we are at in the investigation.

'Unfortunately, both of his parents are deceased, and we wish we would have been able to give them closure before they passed away.

'The GBI, Spalding County Sheriffs Office, and District Attorney Ben Cokers Office will do all we can to ensure that Timothy Coggins and the remainder of the Coggins family receive justice.

Coggins' body was found somewhere along this road. Investigators say there has been a campaign of intimidation against witnesses in the past, and are encouraging anyone who may have information to come forward

'It does not matter who he was, or where he was from, this man died a horrible death and those responsible for his murder need to be held accountable.

'I can say without a doubt that if Mr. Coggins was murdered today, in 2017, it would absolutely be classified as a hate crime.

'Thirty four years have passed since this horrible crime was committed and those who killed him have believed that they would remain untouched until literally just a few days ago.

'We understand that over the years those suspected of being involved in the murder of Timothy Coggins have threatened and intimidated potential witnesses.

'We believe that there are people with pertinent information regarding this case that are still out there and we are asking them to come forward.

'Any detail, no matter how small you may think it is, could be valuable in bringing Coggins killers to justice.'

Anyone who may have information, especially the hours leading up to the discovery of Coggins body, should contact the Spalding County Sheriffs Office at (770)-467-4282 and ask to speak to Lt. Mike Morris or GBI Agent Jared Coleman.
A power surge caused the London Heathrow Terminal 5 baggage system to go down again this morning.

Staff had to manually check in traveller's bags as the system stopped working at about 9am.

Passenger Diane Duncan said: 'Terminal 5 Heathrow British Airways bagdrop complete standstill, conveyor belts stopped, nothing moving and no information. Massive queues.'

Home Affairs Correspondent for BBC News Daniel Sandford wrote on Twitter: 'Heathrow Terminal 5 is broken again. Baggage system down. All bags being done manually.'

Holidaymakers complained of queues at Heathrow as the Terminal Five baggage system briefly broke down

Paul Simmonds wrote on Twitter: 'British Airways in chaos again as baggage system breaks down, queues building.'

But after a short delay the system began operating as normal.

A spokesman for London Heathrow insisted there had been no delays to flights or passengers as a result.

Passengers complained of disruption this morning when the baggage system failed at T5

They added: 'A power surge in the National Grid outside of the airport caused the baggage system in Terminal 5 to be suspended for a few minutes. The system is now operating normally and there will be no delays to our flights or passengers as a result.'

The last incident comes a month after hundreds of passengers had to fly out of Heathrow without their luggage when the airport's baggage system failed.

That problem affected British Airways, Iberia, and American Airlines flights in Terminal 3 and Terminal 5.

And that came just three weeks after a global computer meltdown caused travel chaos for thousands of British Airways passengers.
Mr Justice Baker from London's High Court's Family Division

A brain-damaged baby has died after a High Court judge gave doctors permission to switch off his life-support in a case similar to Charlie Gard's.

Mr Justice Baker ruled early this month that medics should provide only palliative care to the three-month-old boy.

Doctors said continued treatment was futile but the boy's African family disagreed, saying 'God should decide'.

Mr Justice Baker visited the little boy in the hospital for before reaching his decision.

The judge heard the baby had been taken to hospital in May where doctors found brain damage which they thought was caused by his mother shaking him.

He said he had taken account of the wishes and feelings of the baby's parents, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

But the judge said medical evidence showed that the little boy was suffering and that 'tragically' he was going to die 'very soon' in any event.

'There is absolutely no quality of life for this little boy,' said Mr Justice Baker. It is not life as anyone would recognise it. He has no prospect of recovery.'

The boy's parents had not wanted their son to be identified in media reports.

The baby's mother had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and released on police bail pending further inquiries, the judge heard.
Crocked former EastEnders star Paul Nicholls broke down in tears as he recounted the moment he was rescued after falling down a waterfall in Thailand - and revealed he did not have insurance.

The 38-year-old actor said his stepfather has borne the brunt of his medical costs, and stated that he opted to be moved to a cheaper facility because he didn't want to spend his travelling money on hospital bills.

In a video taken today, ahead of his return to the UK, Nicholls said he was told treatment at a private hospital would cost around 300 a night.

The former EastEnders actor gives a thumbs up at the government-run Koh Samui hospital, where he has been recovering since the horror fall

Staff at the hospital gave the former soap actor a hamper as he recovers from two broken legs in Thailand

He asked to be taken to the government-run Koh Samui hospital instead.

Nicholls said: 'They gave me a quote for 12,000 baht everything included and it would take seven to ten days or maybe ten to 12 days.

'Then someone told me about this hospital and how how much it would cost. The money that Id saved was travelling money, because i always wanted to travel.

'When I found Koh Samui I rented an apartment and stayed here for two months. So its travelling money and I didnt really want to spend it on [hospital] and I wasnt insured as well.

Staff delivered a hamper to the seriously-injured British actor, who hopes to return to the UK in coming days

Lucky escape: A video of the rescue shows Paul crying out in pain before emergency services stretcher him to safety (above)

'So my stepfather is bearing the brunt of the bill but Ill probably tell him when I get home that Ive got some money and we should go halves.'

Nicholls plunged down a treacherous waterfall while clambering across wet rocks on holiday island Koh Samui, Thailand, on July 10.

He was rescued three days later having survived by drinking stream water, battling soaring heat and avoiding deadly wildlife.

Nicholls had smashed his knee cap and suffered injured ribs in the fall at the remote Khun Si waterfall.

Recalling his rescue, the actor said: 'Id like to thank the police officers and the rescue services. There was three police officers and two or three rescue guys and as soon as I saw them I burst into tears because I knew that I was safe.

'And then because it was such a steep climb more people had to come down. There must have been about 20 people up there just for me.

'I was a bit overwhelmed by it all. I really want to say thank you to the rescue team, the police officers and the lady who owns the bike I rented.

Actor Paul Nicholls (pictured) spent three days trapped at the bottom of a waterfall in Thailand after falling while 'taking a selfie'

Medical director Dulyakit Wittayajanyapong said Nicholls' kneecap was broken and 'about to rot' after being submerged in the water for two and a half days

'She got on the phone and said he wasn't the kind of guy to do something wrong and not come back.

'It worked out as it should. The people that carried me up that hill, I want to thank them.'

This morning he was presented with a hamper by a local authority boss.

Local authority boss Sitthip Poosongsook, President of the Association of Samui, visited him today to show he was being well cared for - and presented the actor with a hamper of medical goods including vitamin supplements.

He said: 'Paul thanked the people of Thailand, the three patrol officers of the police station and the rescue association of Koh Samui.

'He thanked the rescuers who found him at the waterfall and brought him up through the mountains.

'If the authorities did not reach him he would surely have died. Paul has been impressed with the police and he will leave the hospital soon and go to England.'

The costs of the early medical care at the Thai International Samui Hospital before he was transferred, were around 46,000 baht

The actor's medical costs at a private facility were initially reported to have been 13,000 a night and 90,000 for an operation.

But medics said the actual figure was 13,000 Thai baht - which works out at 300 per night, and 90,000 Thai baht (2,063) for the operation to the knee.

The costs of the early medical care at the Thai International Samui Hospital before he was transferred, were around 46,000 baht.

Medics were reported to have seized Nicholls' passport until the bill was paid.

The actor was rescued from the bottom of a waterfall, where he had been injured three days earlier

Agonising wait: He was not discovered until 72 hours later (above), when a local villager alerted police and called a search party, after finding the actor's abandoned motorbike

Medical director Dulyakit Wittayajanyapong said Nicholls' kneecap was broken and 'about to rot' after being submerged in the water for two and a half days.

'We then informed him that the estimated cost of an operation would be around 500,000 baht,' he added.

After being told of the cost, the hospital boss said Paul requested to be transferred to a state run facility where costs would be lower.

Local authority boss Sitthip Poosongsook visited him today but did not reveal how much Nicholls would be paying at the state run hospital.

Sitthip added: 'Paul is happy with the treatment he has received and will return again to the island in the future.'

Nicholls, currently starring in the Channel 4 series Ackerly Bridge, had travelled alone on a motorbike to a remote jungle waterfall on the island. He is thought to have fallen while taking a 'selfie' at the beauty spot.

Emergency crews found the actor on Monday after a three-day search of the wilderness when the alarm was raised after he failed to return a rented bike.

He was only discovered after a local villager saw his abandoned motorbike.

When he was found, the star was semi-conscious and suffering from hypothermia as well as a tropical infection picked up from his untreated wounds and a broken leg.

Speaking of the near-death experience to from hospital, Nicholls told The Sun that he had not been lost, but his phone had stopped working after it plunged into the water - making him unable to tell anyone of his whereabouts.

He admitted: 'I am lucky to be alive. It took such a long time to find me. It's an understatement to say it wasn't a great situation.'

Detailing more of his injuries, which left him in unbearable pain, he explained: 'I've got a broken leg and I'm missing a kneecap. It needs complete reconstruction.'

The actor had jetted to Thailand last week, to enjoy some respite between various filming commitments.
A businessman who stormed off Dragons' Den after they snubbed him has now been offered a huge 90million for his healthy ready meal company.

Marco Hajikypri was furious when the entrepreneurs rejected his health food business on the BBC2 show and said today: 'I didn't want their money anyway'.

He told Peter Jones that he would regret his decision - and now he claims he was right and they are the fools.

The Dragons said he had overvalued his company at 2million, but Marco says he has just turned down an offer of 90million for Professional Gains from Coventry-born multi-millionaire Jojar Singh Dhinsa.

Marco, from Great Barr, Birmingham, hopes it will soon be a 1billion business.

Scroll down for video

Marco Hajikypri was furious when the entrepreneurs snubbed his health food business - but claims he has now been offered a 90m investment

He had a rough ride on the show, rowing with the Dragons especially Deborah Meaden, who declared: 'This is like arguing with cotton wool' and put her head in her hands (pictured)

He said: 'It's not worth that yet, but the potential investor - Coventry multi-millionaire Jojar Singh Dhinsa - has the vision to see what I could be making in a few years time. Unlike the Dragons.'

Marco went on Dragons' Den last year asking for 125,000 for five per cent of the business but they sent him away without a penny

He had a rough ride on the show, rowing with the Dragons, especially Deborah Meaden, who declared: 'This is like arguing with cotton wool' and put her head in her hands.

He set up the business two years ago in a unit in West Bromwich, employing 20 people and preparing 7,000 healthy meals a week which are delivered to customers' doors.

It has now expanded to three units and employees 33 people.

He went on Dragons' Den last year asking for 125,000 for five per cent of the business but they sent him away without a penny.

Marco, 28, says: 'The business is now valued at around 16 million, when the Dragons didn't even think it was worth 2 million.

'I've certainly proved them wrong. I am glad they turned me down now, as I have done very well without their help, I didn't want their money anyway I just wanted their contacts, but I've worked hard to achieve success on my own.

'I have turned down the offer to buy the business, even at that huge figure, because I want to build it up myself. I think it's going to be worth a billion pounds.

'That's because of my multi-level marketing system which gives people the opportunity to earn money and eat for free.'

Marco Hajikypri stormed off the BBC show (pictured) after being given a hard time by its millionaire investors

Customers can just go to the website and order tailor-made fresh meals, with balanced protein, carbs, fat and vegetables like Italian chicken and sweet potato, salmon and brown rice or beef stew and kale.

They cost an average of 4.90.

Or they can subscribe to the Pro Gains app and also get paid a 65 bonus for every time they introduce someone else to the service.

Marco said: 'All you have to do is share the app with four people, who each get four people on board and so on.

'Within three months you will be eating for free and by month seven you should be earning a minimum of 5,277 a month.

'There's no contract so you can cancel at any time and you don't have to get other people involved if you don't want to.'

As well as being an entrepreneur, he also has a website in his name claiming he is a model and actor. It is not known if it is genuine.

Next to his picture the biography says: 'wel im ambicious in life wanna achive at everythink i do. im great at catch ppls attention ive been doin sales for a number of year so i think my method of sales works in all i do in my life i enjoy playin football goin gym keepin fitt.I just want 2 become the next big star'.
Everything You Need To Know About Cheating In A Relationship

Can Relationships Survive Affairs? Here's Everything You Need To Know

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Unless you're in an open, polyamorous relationship, engaging sexually with someone who isn't your partner is almost always considered cheating. And as far as the topic of cheating goes, the general consensus is that it's wrong. No ifs, ands or buts.

But the reasons behind why people cheat, what actually constitutes cheating in a relationship, and the whole issue of whether or not a couple can ever come back from one partner being unfaithful, well, that's not so black and white.

If you've ever been cheated on, you know that it feels pretty awful. It's a blow to your ego and your self-esteem. It makes you question your judgement in terms of choosing a partner. You start to blame yourself, wondering if you could have done anything to keep them more interested so that they didn't feel like they had to look elsewhere. Your trust is shot, and if you do decide to start over with someone new, the process for building it back up again becomes harder than ever.

RELATED: Here's How to Cheat-Proof Your Relationship

But the flip side of cheating is no walk in the park either. The anxiety that comes with sneaking around, the guilt you feel after committing the crime and having to see your partner who is none the wiser about what you've done, and, if you decide to, breaking the news is incredibly unpleasant.

So then, why do people do it? And if it does happen, what should you do about it? Here's everything you need to know about cheating, straight from the experts (and a few real women who have been there).

1. Why Do People Cheat?

The reasons for cheating can run the gamut. According to Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D., one main driver (that can be especially harmful) is the compulsion to feel good at any given moment regardless of relationship status. "Certain types of people are focused on instant gratification," she explains.

"They cheat as a matter of course, and don't consider that they should be faithful. People who feel entitled to sex any way they can get it, will always rationalize cheating, and just keep doing it. They don't want to work on marital issues, or learn to keep intimacy alive with the same person. They get their jollies from illicit sex."

If you've had a conversation about infidelity with any group of people, there's usually someone who throws out the idea that happy people don't cheat. Dr. Tessina says that there is some merit to that, albeit, not always the case. "Research shows that women cheat because they feel emotionally deprived, and men because they feel sexually deprived," she says. "With illicit affairs quite easily available online or at the office, it's often easier for a spouse who is dissatisfied with the relationship to transfer affection to someone else than to take the emotional risk of talking to a partner about dissatisfaction."

Relationships take work, and when one or both parties aren't willing to put the effort in, it can feel easier to find what's lacking elsewhere. "While most marital dissatisfaction is not that hard to fix, and cheating is usually emotionally devastating for everyone, the cheater has an 'instant gratification' mentality, and is just doing what feels good, and feeling unable to control it," says Dr. Tessina. "He or she is not thinking of future problems (at least, when connecting with the other person) and is just masking emotional pain."

You may have heard the idea (or even joked with your partner) about the idea of a "pass" list  essentially, 2-3 celebrity crushes you have that, if ever the opportunity presented itself, your significant other would be OK with you sleeping with as a one time thing. Granted, these types of conversations are all in fun  because there's no way you're likely ever going to have the chance to nail that supermodel. But author Kevin Darne says that this concept is actually not that farfetched in terms of one type of cheater who can't say no to an unbelievable opportunity. "This person is not proactively looking to cheat," he explains.

"They may have a secret crush on a coworker or even a stranger they cross paths with at Starbucks or wherever. One day this person flirts or hits on them! There's an opportunity to turn a fantasy into reality and be with this hot person. Maybe the married person's spouse is out of town or the would be cheater is away on business and the chance of getting caught is extremely remote. Essentially, this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to be with him or her. On occasion, this type of cheater may give into peer pressure. They may be hanging out with their friends in hotel lounge bar who are egging them on to go for it. Cheaters like this are guilty of caving in to temptation."

RELATED: Why Do Women Cheat? We Got 5 To Reveal Their Motivations

What Real Women Say: "Cheating for me was a total escape from day-to-day life," says Simone, 34. "It was exciting. But I'm not sure if it means you shouldn't be together. I think that depends on the reason why you cheated. In my case, it was like therapy to get through what I was unhappy with in my life. I think it is different for everyone, but I will say if you're only in a relationship a short time and you or your partner is cheating, then you probably shouldn't be together."

2. Can Your Relationship Recover From Cheating?

You've seen it whenever a new extramarital affair scandal breaks with someone in the public eye  the spouse stands by throughout the turmoil. If a couple that's facing infidelity so publicly can reconcile, we should be able to do it too, right? Yes, and no.

Sexologist Dr. Megan Stubbs says that having your relationship make a full recovery can be a very long road  one that, if you ever do reach the destination, would require a lot from both parties in order to rectify. "Cheating is one of the most devastating things that can happen in a relationship," says Dr. Stubbs. "Cheating is a violation of trust, and that is one of the key foundations in any kind of relationship. Once you (or the cheater) come clean, there needs to be a plan put in place. It takes energy from both sides to rebuild the trust and intimacy in the relationship."

And this process can come with new parameters being enforced  ones that may be hard for both sides to acclimate to. "Sometimes the adoption of new rules like open social media or cell phone access will be requested from the other partner," she says. "Whatever rules or agreements you put in place in your relationship are personal. There is no list of must-haves on the healing-from-cheating plan. Know that the healing process takes time. It is up to you and your partner to determine how long you need to heal and when trust is reestablished. This isn't a two-week fix."

Dr. Tessina agrees, and says that if both parties are willing and focused on mending the relationship after one person cheated, it can be done. "As a therapist who works with couples every day, I know that it is possible to repair the marriage after infidelity," she says. "Not only is it possible, but when children are involved, it's desirable." However, in order to do so, the person who was cheated on needs to not continue to use this fact to start or win arguments.

"Often both partners have contributed to the problem, and if the other spouse continues to blame and vilify the one who made the mistake, then both will suffer for a long time, and so will their families and children. If there is a sincere change in behavior, and if the problems that led to the infidelity are addressed and corrected, and both parties approach the problem with a sincere wish to discover what went wrong and fix it, then forgiveness is an important part of the healing process, whether the couple stay married or not."

But sex educator and columnist Gigi Engle advises to approach the optimism of being able to continue a relationship after cheating with caution. "Most experts will say that they believe a relationship can recover from infidelity if both partners want to fix the relationship badly enough," she says.

"I am not of this persuasion. I truly think that if you cheat on someone, the relationship is over. You're essentially ending it by betraying your partner. Some people can forgive their cheating partner and try to move on, but how can you really let that go? It will always be something that is between you. If you are in a relationship that you really want to save, you won't do something that is disrespectful like this. Think about it: Cheating is not something you just accidentally do. You have to kiss someone, go somewhere private with them, take all their clothes off, and then physically have sex with them. The factors to consider here are why you [or your partner] did this. At the heart of that question nearly every time is a lack of respect for your partner, your relationship, and yourself. People cheat because they want their relationship to end, but don't know how to or don't have the nerve to break up with their partner."

What Real Women Say: "When I was in my teens it was because of boredom and power," says Kate, 38. "It felt exciting to be wanted by anyone at any time. Once I was in college and in a long-term relationship, it was because there were things I wasn't getting from the relationship, but I had no idea how to communicate that to my partner. I was afraid. So I just cheated. Emotionally and physically. Sometimes with different people for different things I needed. It was also fun. (Yep, I said it. It was fun.) I also didn't believe I would find the right guy, anyway. This was back in the '90s when us ladies were way less woke on our self-worth and ability to tell a guy to take a hike. This lasted into my first marriage, who I cheated on as well because he was abusive and neglectful. Eventually I moved out and initiated a divorce, and got lots of therapy to figure out where this behavior was coming from. Now I'm remarried and have been happy for 10 years. Cheat free. Although it's like alcoholism  the trigger and the desire is always there  I know how to control it now, and more importantly, where it actually comes from."

3. What To Do If You've Cheated

First things first, after you've committed the crime, you need to take a hard look at whether or not you want the relationship to continue. Was the motivation behind your actions due to the fact that you want out of your current romantic situation? Or was it truly a one time mistake that you wish you could take back if you could? If it's the latter, Dr. Stubbs says step one is to tell your partner  no matter how unpleasant it may be to do. "Ultimately if you want this relationship to work and be long-term, you need to come clean," says Dr. Stubbs.

"If you cheated, this isn't necessarily a sign that you shouldn't be in this relationship. Communication with your partner is key. Ask yourself why you did what you did and then see if you can tease out an underlying reason of why. And chances are, if you've been feeling that something is off in your relationship and this is what led you to act the way you did, your partner is likely feeling the same change. Ultimately cheating comes down to a violation of trust. Whether this is a one-night stand or an affair, you are keeping these intimate secrets from your partner and that isn't OK."

Dr. Tessina aggress. "If you're serious about fixing the problems in your relationship, it's crucial that you both begin to face each other honestly and openly," she says. "Most of the time, affairs occur because the communication and intimacy in the relationship have broken down. It's time to take an honest look at what went wrong. You may need professional help from a counselor or therapist to open up your communication, but it's the only way to repair the damage done." Once you've talked with your partner, it's time to begin the process of identifying the problems in your current relationship. "Be willing to make the changes that will fix them," says Dr. Tessina.

"Doing things the same way you always have will give you the same results. Again, it may take the objectivity of a counselor to help you figure out what changes are needed." The final component that's often time the hardest is forgiveness on the ends of both parties. "As long as you're stuck in blaming each other and defending yourself, you won't be able to move forward," Dr. Tessina says. "Forgiving each other doesn't mean condoning what happened, or that it would be OK if it happened again. What it does mean, is that you're willing to close that chapter and move on. Your therapist can help you understand and create mutual forgiveness."

If, during this reflection period, you realize you truly do want out, Engle encourages using this as a learning experience to inform your future relationship endeavors. "Once a cheater does not necessarily mean always a cheater," she says.

"You need to find a relationship that is fulfilling enough to not lead you to cheat  you need to be with someone you respect enough to communicate your unhappiness to before you go and sleep with someone else. It's really about being mature enough to have a relationship that you don't try to sabotage. We've all done it. It's a part of becoming an adult. The best thing you can do is take some time to be single and truly explore what you want out of life and out of a partner. Set realistic expectations. Don't enter into a relationship until you're ready to commit and stick to your word."

What Real Women Say: "If you cheated don't beat yourself up about it," says Michelle, 27. "Take a hard look at why you did it and why. If it's a one time thing just brush it off and look forward but if it's reoccurring then maybe it's time to move on from your current relationship."

4. Different Types Of Cheating

The term "cheating" isn't necessarily limited to sexual contact or connecting physically. The truth is, there are different types and levels of infidelity. In today's digital age, with so many opportunities to connect both with people who we know in real life and others who we get to know only virtually, there are plenty of opportunities to stray simply using our words and emotions.

"Emotional cheating is when there is a level of intimacy without necessarily being physical," explains Dr. Stubbs. "This can be something like a relationship you build with a coworker, but you never (or haven't) engaged in physical acts."

Drinks with a coworker may seem innocent enough, but to get to the bottom of whether or not what you're doing constitutes emotional unfaithfulness, take a look at the context of the things you're sharing. Are you finding yourself confiding more and more in your coworker, to the point that you're not sharing as much with your partner or spouse? Are you opting for multiple nights out per week at happy hour over spending time at home with the person you're in a relationship in? If those lines start to blur, it could fall under this category.

Then there's the type of cheating that falls under the category of a one-night stand. "One-night stand is an isolated incident when you engage in sexual acts with someone," Dr. Stubbs explains. "The key for this type of cheating is that it happened once and may or may not have strong emotional attachment." This one-off type of infidelity means you don't have a lasting vested interest in the person you cheated with, but it's still beneficial to take a look at why you felt compelled to go through with it in the first place when the opportunity presented itself.

Once you're in affair territory, you're cheating on your partner with the same person. "Short term affairs are when you have sex with the same woman a few times (or maybe over the course of a few weeks or months) and then end it to go back to your primary relationship," Engle says. "A long-term affair means you're have sex with same woman regularly for a prolonged period of time  years even."

In the case of chronic infidelity, being unfaithful is considered the norm for the cheater  and can be an indicator of a deeper issue. "If cheating is a way of life, even though it's destroying your life, then it's sex addiction," says Dr. Tessina. "This also may be a learned pattern from a father who was unfaithful."

What Real Women Say: "Every relationship is different," says Lynn, 27. "Every cheat. Every motivation behind cheating. They are all different. I really believe there are times when it's not worth it [to tell your partner]. Like a kiss at an office Christmas party. Or a hook up when one of you has been traveling for work for many months. Or the guy who's visiting his corporate office in Thailand and goes to get a 'massage.' These are all places I don't believe it is necessary to say anything because they are one-offs and don't necessarily reflect the state of the relationship itself. However, if you have lasting feelings for someone, or are repeatedly drawn to unfaithfulness, then it's time to look at the relationship and be honest with your partner. But chances are, if you are drawn to cheating often or in a compulsive way, you need to take a harder look at yourself and the real reasons behind it."

5. Further Reading On Cheating

There have been plenty of books penned on the topic of affairs and infidelity to help those who have been affected cope with the situation  and to help cheaters understand the motivations behind why they did what they did. Here are a few titles to consider for further reading about cheating:

Stronger Than Broken, by Stacey Greene

If you've been cheated on by a spouse, it can be enormously helpful to hear from someone who has been through it themselves. Author Stacey Greene details her journey toward mending her relationship with her husband in Stronger Than Broken, providing a first hand look at the work involved. "For most of us, kicking the cheater to the curb is the norm," says Greene. "I guess I am not normal. We chose to resurrect the marriage and make it even stronger."

$10.99 at Amazon.com

When Good People Have Affairs, by Mira Kirshenbaum

Celebrated therapist Mira Kirshenbaum tackles the conundrum of why "good" people get themselves involved in affairs, leveraging her real life experience of treating thousands of patients who have had to face and overcome the emotional impact of being cheated on. Kirshenbaum lays out easy to understand steps to achieving clarity on cheating, and identifies seventeen different types of affairs to shed some light on this heavy topic.

$11.66 at Amazon.com

Not Just Friends, by Shirley P. Glass, Ph.D.

The thing about being cheated on that can be the toughest to swallow is that more often than not, we get the sense that something is going on before we catch our partner in the act. Shirley P. Glass delivers the much needed validation that readers are right to be suspicious of the dismissive, "We're just friends" response when questioning their spouse about someone they've been spending a lot of their time with. The book also provides guidance on how to prevent these situations from happening, and puts readers on the path to healing.

$11.58 at Amazon.com

Living and Loving After Betrayal, by Stephen Stosny, Ph.D.

Being cheated on greatly impacts the success of your future relationships. The process of getting back out there is hard enough after a break up, but coming off of one where the partner you trusted turned out to be dishonest can end up setting you up for failure when you to meet a new potential love interest. Stephen Stosny, PhD, helps readers see the light at the end of the tunnel, offering effective tools for getting past the shadow of betrayal and learning to trust again.

$12.83 at Amazon.com

You Might Also Dig:

AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use.
A drink driver who mowed down an old woman and then left her for dead in the street is to serve just 18 months in jail - sparking condemnation from her family.

Christopher Raczkiewicz, 39, left 76-year-old Winnifred Upton with life changing injuries after he jumped two red lights at up to 50mph and ran her down as she walked her dog over a pedestrian crossing.

As Mrs Upton lay in the road, Raczkiewicz ran off from his overturned vehicle and was only caught after a passer-by and police community support officer tracked him in down in nearby woodland.

Winnifred Upton, pictured with her husband Kenneth, was mowed down by a drink driver on a level crossing. Kenneth said: 'It had been a nightmare'

The business contractor got drunk after a row with his Russian wife about money and had been seen staggering round a supermarket store minutes before the crash.

Mrs Upton, from Middleton, Greater Manchester miraculously survived the impact but suffered multiple fractures to her skull, ribs, pelvis, spine, shoulder, jaw, right eye socket and left leg.

She spent up to four months in hospital, now walks with the aid of a zimmer frame and doctors fear she at risk of complications with her recovery.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester Raczkiewicz, from Blackley, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving but escaped with three years jail meaning he will be released after serving half his sentence.

He will banned from driving for three years following his release. The maximum sentence for the offence is five years jail.

After the case, Mrs Upton's husband Kenneth, 77, said: 'It's been a nightmare, she was broken all over and has only just been able to come home.

'She has to be lifted up over the door of the house to be able to get in.

'We've had to go back and forth to the hospital and she relies on a zimmer frame now.

Raczkiewicz, 39, left 76-year-old Mrs Upton with life changing injuries after he jumped two red lights at up to 50mph

'What he got is not enough after what he did but there isn't a lot we can do about it now. She doesn't like to talk about it and it has really changed her.

'She was looking after me after I suffered some strokes and now I'm looking after her.

'We had two holidays booked this year and normally go away three times a year but that's the end of that now. It has changed a lot for us.'

Raczkiewicz had been seen by shoppers stumbling around his local Tesco store at 9.30pm on March 31 before he got into his Toyota Hilux car.

They flagged down by a police patrol car but Raczkiewicz ignored a PCSO who gestured at him to stop.

Prosecuting Mark Kellet said: 'He drove towards a junction and carried on into traffic, ignoring a red light signal and almost colliding with an oncoming vehicle.

'Witnesses described seeing someone who appeared to be drunk and the defendant came to a second junction and continued despite there being another red light and was described as going between 40-50mph.

'He then collided with the middle of a pedestrian crossing travelled to the other side of the road and collided with Winnifred Upton.

'The vehicle landed on its roof and the defendant made off.

Raczkiewicz, who suffered minor injuries, later claimed he had just one pint but he aggressively refused to give a blood test for an alcohol reading. Pictured: Near the crash scene

'He made off and a member of the public and a PCSO followed him and chased the defendant into a wooded area where he was arrested.

'He was clearly intoxicated and unstable and had been drinking.'

Raczkiewicz, who suffered minor injuries, later claimed he had just one pint but he aggressively refused to give a blood test for an alcohol reading.

He said he didn't see the officer gesturing at him and claimed he was driving at less than 40mph.

In mitigation defence lawyer Nicola Hall said: 'He is a hardworking man who works as a contractor.

'He works for two agencies and due to an issue he had been told that he would not be paid for the work he had done.

'He argued with his wife and was very stressed so he left the house to see his friend.

Mrs Upton spent up to four months in hospital, now walks with the aid of a zimmer frame and doctors fear she at risk of complications with her recovery

'He then accepts that he consumes a quantity of alcohol and went to Tesco on his way back to pick up groceries for the family.

'He has very little recollection of what happened.

'This is a man who has genuine remorse for his actions on that day. His plea for mercy is not for him but for his family.

'He is willing to do whatever he can to pay recompense for what he has done.'

Sentencing, Judge John Potter told Raczkiewicz: 'The consequences of you driving your motor vehicle in drink were to be totally catastrophic.

'You were excessively speeding from 40 to 50 mph on a road that was limited to 30mph.

'You also went through not one but two red traffic lights. To the other road users who had seen your driving it was clear to them that you must have been drinking.

'You hit the pedestrian island and this caused you to lose control of your vehicle and cause it to carry on down the side of the road where your vehicle collided with a pedestrian.

'Mrs Upton sustained terrible injuries - your vehicle pushed her into a fence and continued into the middle of the road.

'Yet you got out of your vehicle and ran off. You were clearly intoxicated, unstable on your feet and smelling strongly of alcohol.

'The injuries you caused Mrs Upton changed her and her family's lives forever. Their lives have been torn apart because of your actions on that day.

'She had been married to her husband Kenneth for 55 years, and they have four children and are a close family.

'Kenneth Upton is in his retirement and has had health difficulties which have caused his wife to be his main carer.

'He now finds it difficult to cope, his wife previously took on the role of organising their married lives.

'Without Mrs Upton he now relies on his sons for his total support. His son's lives and their families lives have been affected accordingly.

'By far the greatest harm suffered was by Winnifred Upton herself. It is clear she is a good, caring, strong and determined woman.

'Offences of drink driving are often described as selfish, as they risk the wellbeing and lives of others who are entirely innocent.

'Your decision to drive that vehicle drunk was an appalling and selfish act which has had life changing consequences for an entirely innocent woman and her family.

'It was fortunate for you that fatality did not occur as a result of what you did.'

Raczkiewicz will have to take an extended driving test when he is freed from jail.
A husband appeared in court on Monday charged with the murder of his wife on what would have been their first wedding anniversary.

Walter Lowe, 51, is accused of shooting 46-year-old Erica Powell in the head in the master bedroom of their home in Medlock Park, Georgia, last Thursday.

Ms Powell's body was found by her 12-year-old son leading police to launch a manhunt before Lowe handed himself over on Sunday.

Erica Powell, 46 (right), was found dead in her Georgia home by her 12-year-old son on Thursday last week. She had been shot in the head

Lowe's lawyer Torris Butterfield told the court that 'my client did not intentionally cause the loss of his wife', 11 Alive reports.

'I spent an entire day with Mr. Lowe, we did a surrender here, he's very distraught about this entire situation,' Mr Butterfield added.

Walter Lowe, 51, Ms Powell's husband, has been charged with her murder. He appeared in court on their first wedding anniversary

Ms Powell was at home with Lowe on the night she died the court heard, and her son was in and out of the house from around 5pm until 9pm.

As the boy returned home at 9pm he said he saw his stepfather leaving, the court heard, but did not notice anything suspicious.

He then spent the next three hours in the house without realizing his mother's corpse was laying just feet away.

Police were called to the home at midnight after the boy went to check on his mother and found her body.

Officers began searching for Lowe who eventually handed himself in on Sunday and was charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

It is not clear what felony Lowe was convicted of, but he was arrested for beating and threatening to kill Powell back in 2015.

He was eventually released after Powell called investigators and said she wanted the charges against him dropped.

Lowe was arrested in 2015 for beating and threatening to kill Ms Powell (right) but was released after she asked detectives to drop the charges

Keaundra Jackson, one of Powell's six children, told the Gwinnett Daily Post that the district attorney's office had failed her mother in the past.

She said: 'I called you all for help and no one listened when I was saying he was going to kill my mother if no one helped her.

'My family is hoping you all will be willing to give justice in death since you didnt give her justice when she was alive.'

Lowe remains in custody and will appear next in court on August 1.
Advertisement

What was once a theme park filled with thrill flashing lights and screams of delight from excitable thrill-seekers has been left abandoned, suspended in time for more than ten years.

The Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans, Louisiana, shut down after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region in 2005.

The 140-acre site was submerged under seven feet of floodwater for more than a month after the hurricane battered America's southern coast - and has been closed ever since.

The carousel has not turned in 12 years, the still ferris wheel creaks in the wind and the roller coasters are slowly reclaimed by nature as ivy snakes its way up the eroding supports.

The Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans, Louisiana, shut down after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region in 2005, and the theme park has been closed ever since, making it a huge attraction for urban explorers

The 140-acre site was submerged under seven feet of floodwater for more than a month after the hurricane battered America's southern coast. The park was declared a total loss following the storm and has been closed since August 2005

The rides in the abandoned park have sat unused for the 12 years since Hurricane Katrina. The park is regularly patrolled as vandals often try to break in to graffiti the area

The park opened for the last time on August 21, 2005. It is no longer owned by Six Flags. Many companies have unsuccessfully tried to redevelop the park since 2007

Six Flags had bought the park from original owners Jazzland in the late 1990s, though the new owners were only able to operate for three seasons before Katrina. The organization terminated its lease in 2009, four years after the storm

In an image from 2004, the Six Flags theme park's main gate can be seen while the park was still open to the public. It was only open for a few years before Hurricane Katrina hit

It opened for the last time on August 21, 2005. It is no longer owned by Six Flags. Many companies have unsuccessfully tried to redevelop the park since 2007.

The space, 15 miles east of New Orleans, has since become an attraction for 'urban explorers'.

The city of New Orleans terminated the lease of Six Flags in 2009 and has been looking for a way to develop the 150-acre site.

Six Flags had bought the park from original owners Jazzland in the late 1990s, though the new owners were only able to operate for three seasons before Katrina.

The most action it has seen in recent years has been as a film set location for movies such as Jurassic World, Deepwater Horizon and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

In 2009 Six Flags planned to work with Nickelodeon to create the company's biggest-ever theme park, which would create 600 jobs, but the $165million project failed to materialize.

The most action the park has seen in recent years has been as a film set location for movies such as Jurassic World, Deepwater Horizon and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

In 2009 Six Flags planned to work with Nickelodeon to create the company's biggest-ever theme park, which would create 600 jobs, but the $165million project failed to materialize

The abandoned theme park is still a drain on the city's resources, with the Industrial Development Board having to pay a private security firm $500 a day for round-the-clock security because of persistent vandalism and trespassing

Photographer Matthew Christopher recently visited the site to shoot from upon rotting roller coasters; capture bumper cars and merry-go-rounds; and highlight the eerie dilapidation of what was once a bundle of noise

As such it has stood as a haunting memorial to the devastation caused by Katrina.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina left 1,800 people dead and was the costliest storm in US history with damage estimated at $108billion. It was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall over Louisiana.

The abandoned theme park is still a drain on the city's resources, with the Industrial Development Board having to pay a private security firm $500 a day for round-the-clock security because of persistent vandalism and trespassing.

Photographer Matthew Christopher recently visited the site to shoot from upon rotting roller coasters; capture bumper cars and merry-go-rounds; and highlight the eerie dilapidation of what was once a bundle of noise.

Christopher, from Philadelphia, said: 'There really is nothing like this place in the world right now; certainly there are other parks, but this is really a unique phenomenon and may not be around for much longer.

'Finding cheerfully colored rides being swallowed by weeds is a jarring juxtaposition and I think says a lot about the times we live in.

The 39-year-old photographer, whose Abandoned America series has proven extremely popular in recent years, said that he had to obtain permission to visit the park, which is patrolled to deter trespassers

Christopher was able to get up-close and personal with many aspects of the park and take photos of how the area has dilapidated over the years

Many of the attractions are rusting over and decaying, while trespassers have taken anything of worth from the abandoned area

Despite much of the park falling apart, some rides still remain in tact, with bumper cars still on tracks surrounded by rubble

Those rides without overhead covering have been rusted over and destroyed by nature, with overgrown trees and shrubbery taking over

'It also is a very dangerous location; alligators, water moccasins, and wild boards all roam the property and are very much a threat to people onsite.'

The 39-year-old photographer, whose Abandoned America series has proven extremely popular in recent years, said that he had to obtain permission to visit the park, which is patrolled to deter trespassers.

Christopher plans to shoot more abandoned theme parks in the future, he said, adding to his collections of 'Abandoned America: Dismantling the Dream' and 'Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences,' where he has chronicled his travels.

He said: 'The roller coasters were pretty spectacular, and I loved the art style of the rides - many of them had a music theme which is from the park's original days as Jazzland and which is a tribute to the history of New Orleans.

'It also is jarring, seeing something as fun and familiar as an amusement park changed by nature.'

Buildings in the area have been covered with graffiti by trespassers, while windows and doors have been completely destroyed over the years

The 39-year-old photographer who took the photos said: 'The roller coasters were pretty spectacular, and I loved the art style of the rides - many of them had a music theme which is from the park's original days as Jazzland and which is a tribute to the history of New Orleans'

Christopher said of the park: 'It also is jarring, seeing something as fun and familiar as an amusement park changed by nature'

Despite being closed for more than a decade, the theme park's entrance sign still stands outside, though it is faded and broken
Will Riches quit as vice chairman of the Police Federation after he was investigated by the IPCC

A police union boss said to have a love for 'fine wine' could face fraud charges over a 1million payment made to a charity.

Will Riches quit his job as vice chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales in March last year, as detectives were brought in to investigate claims of financial impropriety.

Now prosecutors will consider whether he should face fraud charges over a 1million payment to a charitable organisation after a 16-month investigation by the IPCC was handed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Metropolitan Police officer was arrested by Surrey Police alongside three others, including another from Scotland Yard, one from South Wales and one from Greater Manchester Police, over the transfer of police funds to a charitable organisation.

The IPCC has investigated for the last 16 months, and has now concluded that the MPS officer has a case to answer for gross misconduct, and two officers and a retired officer have no case to answer.

IPCC deputy chairman Sarah Green said: 'This has been a complex financial investigation and I have now decided to make a referral to the CPS as our investigation has found that there is an indication that one officer may have committed a criminal offence.

After a 16-month investigation, a file has been passed to the CPS who will decide whether to bring charges

'I am now satisfied we have gathered all the available evidence and it is now for the Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to commence criminal proceedings.'

The CPS will now decide whether or not to bring charge against the former boss, who was living in a 'grace and favour' flat in Leatherhead, Surrey, where the federation's headquarters are based.

He left the apartment soon after he quit.

While vice chairman, Riches was living in a 'grace and favour' apartment in Leatherhead, Surrey

The 42-year-old is reported to have a fondness for 'fine wine and expensive restaurants'.

He joined the Met as a constable in 1995 and became the federation vice chairman in 2014, after losing out to Steven White on a coin toss.
Aspiring model Resham Khan, 21, suffered life-changing injuries in the acid attack

The aspiring model left with horrific face and neck injuries in an acid attack has said she is too scared to go out - but 'thankful' that her face is 'mainly intact'.

Resham Khan, 21, who was injured with her cousin Jameel Muhktar in Beckton, East London, said she feels like she had the 'luckiest acid attack in the world' after being doused with corrosive liquid.

The victim said she has been 'blessed with help, support, prayers, positivity, friends, family, media and even campaigns' after the attack on June 21.

Miss Khan added that she has suffered breakdowns and is scared to go to the shops, but is grateful that she has had no 'melting' of features or facial surgery.

She wrote on her blog: 'When comparing my injuries to other survivors, I reflected and was suddenly so thankful. I feel like I have had the luckiest acid attack in the world. Reading up on other survivors.

'Not victims, but survivors, gave me so much determination and strength. These women took on the world and its fate, and tackle each day like any other.

Despite her injuries Miss Khan said she feels like she's 'had the luckiest acid attack in the world'

'My respect for these woman fuelled anger and disgust. I don't understand why attackers use acid, but what I do know is that it deserves the harshest punishment.'

Earlier in her blog post on Monday, she said: 'I understand being upset is normal, so I won't punish myself for my low moods and rollercoaster of emotions recently.

'But I'm sat here depressed about my face: Wondering if my eye will ever get back to normal. If my eyelids ever close again. What my skin colour will be.

'Where my scars will show. If my face will remain slanted. If I'll ever manage a full smile. What to expect and when to face the public.'

Miss Khan continued: 'Today I was too petrified to walk to my local shop. Too scared to face the world. Too scared of the looks I might get.

'Too scared to tackle the question 'how are you'. Just too scared. That's all I've been. Terrified and reluctant. My life on pause, frozen with fear.'

Miss Khan's cousin Jameel Muhktar also suffered life-changing burns in the attack on June 21

But she felt much better after searching online for 'acid attack survivors' and 'acid attack survivor photos' - adding: 'What I saw changed my outlook completely.

She said: 'First of all, I was reading about women all around the world, finding out about their stories, and how common sick people can carry out such cruel acts, even twice in some cases.

'I saw the photos, I saw the physical damage, and I shared the psychological damage.

'But after seeing these women overcome the pain, seeing them smile, be confident and move on with their lives made me so happy for them. I knew what real courage was.'

It comes as a campaign to change the law to make corrosive substances much harder to buy gained momentum as it hit more than 465,000 signatures online.

Last Thursday, Miss Khan revealed how she was called a 'b****' by a cruel Instagram troll for not replying to his message.

Miss Khan (right) and Jameel Muhktar (left, together) are pictured before the horrific attack

It followed a harrowing open letter published earlier this month, in which she said she was 'patiently waiting for the return of my face', and told of her 'unbearable pain'.

Now Miss Khan has said she wants to ensure 'no one ever goes through the living nightmare I have endured' after being left with horrific injuries after the incident.

John Tomlin has been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent

She said that the number of incidents involving corrosive substances in London has risen from 186 in 2014/2015 to 397 in 2016/2017.

She has provided a five-point plan, including asking police to take a tougher approach on corrosive substances and retailers to consider regulation changes.

She also wants harsher punishments for acid attack perpetrators and the possession of corrosive substances without good reason to be punishable.

Finally, Miss Khan wants the Government to impose licensing regulations for the buying of corrosive substances, depending on the concentration levels.

John Tomlin appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on July 11 charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent over the alleged attack.

It came after the 25-year-old from Canning Town handed himself in to police. He was remanded in custody and told to appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on August 8.
A elephant is thought to have impaled his handler on the stick he used to control the animal as a safari boss warned it may have harboured a grudge.

Enock Kufandada, 50, was charged, trampled and torn apart by a bull elephant called Mbanje in Zimbabwe before colleagues could come to his aid. They shot the animal dead.

Graphic pictures of his dismembered body seen by MailOnline show an open stab wound in his chest which may have been caused by the stick he was carrying, according to those at the scene.

Clement Mukwasi of the Employers Association of Tourism and Safari Operators hinted elephants can 'keep grudges' for many years against a handler if it has ever been mistreated during the process of training it for tourist rides.

Happier times: Enock Kafandada, centre, was killed by Mbanje the elephant, left, at Victoria Falls

He added: 'The profession of elephant handling is a high risk one and deaths happen.

'We can confirm this sad incident which is the third in the last 10 years.'

The elephant, who gave rides at Victoria Falls, was shot dead after trampling his handler to death just minutes before taking tourists out beside the famous Zambezi River.

Horrified officials ensured tourists from the UK and USA waiting for rides were kept well away from the shocking scene and called in park rangers.

Mbanje  which means 'cannabis'  was still in a rage and was deemed a danger to humans so it was brought down and killed with several high velocity bullets.

Workers said Mr Kufandada had been attacked twice before by the same elephant but survived.

The elephant called Mbanje, which translates to Cannabis, was shot dead after it was deemed he was still in a state of rage and was a danger to the public

The dismembered body of handler Enock Kufandada, 50, on the ground near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

Mr Kufandada's blood-soaked body was covered with sack cloth until the local police force had been called to the scene and then it was removed from the tourist area at Victoria Falls.

Witnesses told local media that they heard screams and found the dead body torn apart and the 30-year-old bull elephant nearby clearly still enraged and in a bad temper.

The World Animal Protection action group said in a statement that the incident was 'another sad reminder that elephants are wild animals and should not be ridden.'

Mr Kufandada was preparing to take the bull elephant which he had worked with for many years out of its pen for a tourist ride when it attacked and killed him.

Victoria Falls District Chief Superintendent of police Jairos Chiwona said: 'I confirm we received a report of a man who was attacked and killed by a domesticated elephant'.

The rogue elephant Mbanje was grazing with a female jumbo called Nkanyiso after a ride and was about to go out for another after a group of tourists arrived for a ride.

The victims' son Shepherd said: 'We were told my father was rounding up the elephant when he was attacked. I don't know what we will do as he was the breadwinner.

'I went with my fathers workmates to help pick up the scattered body parts'.

The married father-of-two will be buried at his rural home village of Mutare.

Adventure Zone boss Mr Brent Wlliamson said: 'I am in complete shock about the whole incident. This was one of our guides who had been working for us since 2005.

'It's with deep regret that we advise that at 2.30pm on Saturday our domesticated elephant bull charged one of our staff that resulted in him losing his life.

'Clement was an extremely competent member of staff who will be sorely missed' he said.

Two years ago a curio-seller was trampled to death by an elephant which had strayed into a shopping centre in Victoria Falls which is on the border with Zambia.

Glynnis Vaughan, chief inspector of the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claims African elephants can never be 'domesticated'.

She said: 'Captured elephants which are used by several tourist companies have killed quite a few people in recent years. We should not be surprised when there are tragedies.

'Elephants are captured in the wild when they are young and taken from their families and teaching a young elephant to kneel so a tourist an mount it is vicious and it is cruel'.

Several large companies in Victoria Falls still provide rides for tourists on their elephants, most of which were captured and taken from their families.

There are a number of companies at Victoria Falls - one of Africa's most spectacular places to visit - which cater for tourist rides on African elephants.

Just last week game rangers shot and killed two other elephants which had roamed into the provincial capital of Mutare, East Zimbabwe, and killed a policeman.

Bankrupt Zimbabwe has been exporting dozens of young elephants to China in recent years for wildlife safari parks that have since been condemned by inspectors.

Tour operators at the Falls desperate to protect their livelihoods said the killing of the professional elephant handler was 'a freak accident - one in a million'.

Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers shot and killed the elephant which was used by the tour operator Adventure Zone.
The Supreme Court today ruled that employment tribunal fees are unlawful - leaving ministers facing a bill of up to 32million as they scramble to refund those hit by the charges.

In a humiliating defeat for the government, the UK's highest court found that the fees of up to 1,200 discriminated against women and other groups.

The 'landmark' ruling means that workers will be able to sue their bosses for free once again.

But in a major blow to ministers who are trying to balance the books, the government has to find the cash to refund an estimated 32m to people who have been charged for the tribunals since fees were introduced in July 2013.

The Ministry of Justice said it accepted the Supreme Court judgement and will immediately take steps to scrap the charges.

Unison today won their four-year battle to force the government to scrap the controversial employment tribunal fees

It comes after the public sector union Unison fought a four-year battle against the controversial fees, introduced by Chris Grayling when he was Lord Chancellor in David Cameron's government.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: 'The Government is not above the law, but when ministers introduced fees they were disregarding laws many centuries old, and showing little concern for employees seeking justice following illegal treatment at work.

'The Government has been acting unlawfully, and has been proved wrong - not just on simple economics, but on constitutional law and basic fairness too.

Why are employment tribunal fees discriminatory? Lawyers representing the trade union Unison had argued that employment tribunal fees are discriminatory because they unfairly affect women and low-paid workers. Unison said that after the charges were introduced, tribunal cases from women accusing their bosses of sex discrimination or maternity discrimination fell off a cliff. While the number of employees bringing so-called low value claims - where the remedy would not be very lucrative - also nosedived. Lawyers said this is because the cost of bringing the claim - which ranges from 390 to 1,200 - is deemed too expensive compared to the relatively small pay-out successful cases expect to get. The union argued that workers on a low wage were deciding not to lodge the tribunal claim because they could not afford the upfront cost. Unison said this had stopped thousands of workers getting justice. Advertisement

'It's a major victory for employees everywhere. Unison took the case on behalf of anyone who's ever been wronged at work, or who might be in future. Unscrupulous employers no longer have the upper hand.

'These unfair fees have let law-breaking bosses off the hook these past four years, and left badly treated staff with no choice but to put up or shut up.

'We'll never know how many people missed out because they couldn't afford the expense of fees, but at last this tax on justice has been lifted.'

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favour of the union, which had argued that the fees discriminated against women and other groups of workers.

Lawyers acting for the trade union had argued the number of tribunal claims from women accusing their bosses of sex discrimination or maternity discrimination had fallen off a cliff after the charges were introduced.

They also said that low paid workers were not bringing forward claims because they could not afford the upfront costs, which are up to 1,200.

The fees were effectively creating a bar for justice for thousands of workers, the trade union had argued.

Justice Minister Dominic Raab said: 'In setting employment tribunal fees, the Government has to consider access to justice, the costs of litigation, and how we fund the tribunals.

'The Supreme Court recognised the important role fees can play, but ruled that we have not struck the right balance in this case.

'We will take immediate steps to stop charging fees in employment tribunals and put in place arrangements to refund those who have paid. We will also further consider the detail of the judgment.'

Chris Grayling introduced the fees in 2013 when he was Lord Chancellor, but in a major defeat for the government the Supreme Court today ruled that the charges are unfair and must be scrapped. The Government must also refund the employees who have been hit by the fees

David Isaac, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: 'Thousands may have been denied of this right and priced out of getting justice. The judgment of the Supreme Court is a damning verdict on the current regime.'

A review of the impact of the fees earlier this year showed there had been a 70 per cent drop in the number of cases since they were introduced in 2013.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'This is a massive win for working people.

'Too many low-paid workers couldn't afford to uphold their rights at work, even when they've faced harassment or have been sacked unfairly.

'Tribunal fees have been a bonanza for bad bosses, giving them free rein to mistreat staff.

'Any fees paid so far should be refunded as soon as possible.'
Taxpayers are forking out cash to pay for diplomats to commute by plane to their postings every week in the latest freebie dished out to Foreign Office staff.

Officials say the pilot scheme will help entice the best and brightest to the postings without having to disrupt their home life in Britain.

But it is likely to spark anger as taxpayers are footing the bill for well-paid Foreign Office staff to jet back home, despite the continued public sector spending squeeze.

A small group of diplomats - believed to be fewer than ten - have so far taken up the offer of the free flights.

The Foreign Office already splashes out 14million a year for the private school fees for the children of its staff, even though many are based in Britain.

Foreign Office staff are getting treated to weekly free flights in and out of their postings abroad in the latest taxpayer-funded freebie for the profession (stock photo)

And when posted abroad, many are put up in grace and favour homes in the most exclusive areas of the towns they are posted in.

But the Foreign Office insists that this latest freebie will not cost any extra money as the department will make savings by not having to foot the bill of moving the diplomat's family abroad.

They also say the scheme will mean they get better diplomats as those who may currently turn down a posting because they cannot commit to living abroad full time will now be able to take it up.

Britain's man in Brussels commutes in and out of Belgium Sir Tim Barrow reportedly commutes in and out of Brussels as he prefers to spend his weekends at home with his family in London Britain's ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, prefers to commute in and out of the Belgian capital. He reportedly still has not moved permanently to Brussels six months after taking the top job. Instead he travels in and out of the city, where he is helping to lead the Brexit talks. Sir Tim prefers to come back to London at the weekends so he can spend time with his family. He is married to his wife, Alison Barrow, and the couple have two sons and two daughters. Advertisement

The diplomats are expected to be provided with a more modest standard of accommodation to try to keep costs down.

For practical reasons, it is expected that only diplomats and Foreign Office staff based in Europe will take up the offer.

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Because Foreign Office officials work in an environment where they may have to pack their bags and relocate at a moments notice you can understand why flights may be offered over a short adjustment period.

'But many of these civil servants already receive generous deals around pensions, pay and other perks and any additional privileges at taxpayers' expense are difficult to justify.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'This is a cost-neutral way of ensuring that where appropriate we aren't held back from deploying our best diplomats because of personal commitments.

'In a tight resource environment, it demonstrates that the FCO is thinking innovatively about how best to advance our interests around the world at no additional cost to the taxpayer.'

The changes were introduced after a review last year recommended more provisions for flexible working.

The Foreign Office has been criticised in the past for traditionally being 'a space for eccentric males'.

But there have been moves recently to try to allow more flexible working among diplomats.

Carolyn Davidson and her husband Thomas Carter shared the role of British High Commission to Zambia in a rare ambassadorial job share

The British high commission to Zambia was headed jointly by married couple Carolyn Davidson and her husband Thomas Carter, between 2008 and 2012.

Sir Tim Barrow, Britain's ambassador to the EU, reportedly prefers to commute in and out of the Belgian capital so that he can spend his weekends at home with his family in London.

It was reported earlier this month that he has still not moved permanently to the Brussels, despite taking up the top job six months ago.

Instead he travels there frequently to help lead the Brexit negotiations.

However, it is not believed that he is part of the group of officials on the pilot scheme.
A bear hunt is underway in the Italian Alps after a 69-year-old was brutally mauled - and said the huge animal wanted to kill him.

Angelo Metlicovec only survived after the bear was briefly distracted by his pet dog, allowing him to leap into a gully.

Authorities have ordered that the animal - who is believed to be behind a similar attack two years ago - is killed, but animal rights activists have voiced their outrage at the decision.

Angelo Metlicovec only survived after the bear was briefly distracted by his pet dog, allowing him to leap into a gully

The region's president, Ugo Rossi, has ordered that the animal which carried out the attack is killed (Stock picture)

Plumber Mr Metlicovec suffered deep wounds, and told Italy's La Stampa newspaper: 'The bear wanted to kill me.'

And he told Corriere Della Sera that a spate of bear sightings means many no longer feel safe walking in the mountainous region of Trento, where Saturday's mauling took place.

Mr Metlicovec said: 'In recent times, several residents have stopped walking around the area.'

The attack happened in Lago di Lamar in the Italian Alps on Saturday, prompting warnings about the repopulated number of bears in the region

Recounting the horror attack he said: '(The bear) attacked me and was trying to bite my head, so I used my arm to protect me.'

He said the bear had ripped a chunk from his arm and attempted to tear his throat, and is lucky to be alive.

He believes he only survived because his pet Cira, a cross between a Belgian Shepherd and a Bernese mountain dog, began barking at the animal.

Recounting the horror attack Mr Metlicovec said: '(The bear) attacked me and was trying to bite my head, so I used my arm to protect me'

With the bear distracted, he jumped down a cliff face to safety.

Reports in Italy state that the bear, who authorities have named KJ2, is believed to have attacked a man in the same region in June 2015.

Current estimates state that there are between 49 and 66 bears in the province of Trento.

The region's president, Ugo Rossi, has ordered that the animal is killed.

Italian animal rights group La Lav has demanded that the bear is not 'sacrificed on the altar of politics'.

Bears were nearly extinct in the region until 1999, when authorities opted to introduce 10 from Slovenia into the wild, leading a breeding programme which has been hailed a success.

A spokesman from La Lav said, The Times reports: 'Bears didn't choose to come back, but were brought back by the province. Real bears are not teddy bears or targets.'
A mighty killer whale was snapped tossing a seal high into mid-air with a flick of its huge tail fin as it toyed with its prey off the Scottish coastline.

The incredible photograph shows the hapless seal suspended in the sky after being flung out of the water by the hungry orca's magnificent tail, which is still arched and protruding from the water.

Billy Arthur caught the perfectly-timed pic of the 'poor seal' near Levenwick, Shetland Islands.

The keen amateur snapper says the moment lasted for a split second before the seal descended back into the water to meet its end.

Billy, from Dunrossness, Shetland Islands, said: 'It's a huge animal making its way through the water with such grace.

The mighty killer whale was snapped tossing a seal high into mid-air with a flick of its huge tail fin near the in Levenwick, near the Scottish coastline

'I think you do think a bit like, 'poor seal', but it's a part of nature. Seals are beautiful animals to watch too, I love watching them under the water.

'You see that happening on nature programmes, but it's just great seeing that for yourself. It's one of those things you hope you might see.

'They came right in, and they weren't really batting the seal around. They usually make the kill underwater.

Predator: The deadly whale swims as it looks for its prey, its magnificent tail gliding through the ocean

'But they were getting more exciting, you knew they were pulling in a general direction. We were watching them pretty closely.

'Then there was just a big smash when it threw it right up into the air. The seal just went up the once. It's hard to describe.

'It's just a matter of one split second and pressing the shutter down. It really is just the right place at the right time.

'There was a gasp from the crowd watching, about 20 people, and there were children there too so they were excited.

'I couldn't get to sleep that night I was so excited about witnessing it.'

Caught: The whale enjoys its catch as it swims through the sea in the rare sighting

Billy, who works for Scottish Sea Farms, says he had been itching to see the impressive whales all day while at work after spotting a message on social media announcing the animals were hugging the coastline.

And he says when he finally reached the spot he was far from disappointed.

Billy said: 'There was a local social media group that shared the message that the orcas were there. People in the area are quite good for spreading the word when they're there.

'Sometimes you don't see them for a few weeks. They started on the north east side, and they hug the coast.

Keen amateur snapper Billy Arthur, says the moment lasted for a split second before the seal descended back into the water to meet its end

'The spot I saw them at was near Levenwick. There are quite few seals at the bay there. It's a healthy place for wildlife.

'I was in work during the day so I was champing at the bit to get going. I probably got there just before 6pm, and stayed until just after 9pm.

'The message had got round about them being there so there were a lot of people there following them around the coast.

'When this was going on there was also a second pod further down too. 'It's quite astounding.

And Billy, who is a keen underwater photographer, claims seeing the whales in real life is an unforgettable experience for anyone.

Billy said: 'It was definitely a highlight of what I've seen so far doing wildlife photography. And it's a great advert for the Shetland Islands too.

'I saw them last year in the same spot. That was the first time I saw them.

'It's a pretty magical experience. Once you're up that close, it's addictive.'
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

.

..JNS.org..24 July '17..The pressure has begun.The State Departments evenhanded statement regarding the Temple Mount. The U.S.-backed Middle East Quartets call for restraint. President Donald Trump sending his international negotiations representative to the region to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It all adds up to one thing: American pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.The July 14 terror attack that killed two Israeli policemen is a clear-cut case of Palestinian aggression if ever there was one, and the Trump administration should have been clearly on Israels side from the beginning.Instead, following Palestinian riots and terror attacks as well as the U.S. pressure, Israel decided Monday to discard the metal detectors in favor of security measures based on advanced technologies.
Nigel Farage today accused the Government of overseeing the 'great Brexit betrayal' and 'selling out' the strongest supporters of quitting the EU.

The ex Ukip leader slammed the failure to pursue an immediate cut in immigration amid debate over a transition deal that could see the borders left open for years.

Mr Farage said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had a 'tougher line' on EU migrants.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said on Sunday that it was 'not a huge deal' if transitional arrangements when Britain quits the EU last up until 2022.

There are fears such a deal would leave free movement laws in place for a full five years after the triggering of Article 50 in March.

Nigel Farage today accused the Government of overseeing the 'great Brexit betrayal' and 'selling out' the strongest supporters of quitting the EU (file picture)

But Mr Farage, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said arguments about the need for a transitional period were a 're-run of an argument advanced by the Remain side last year, which was dramatically rejected by the electorate'.

He said Brexit supporters were 'not in denial over immigration' and wrote: 'For a nation to rise up against the establishment and secure a historic victory, only to have its hopes thwarted by an out-of-touch elite, is a recipe for dangerous division.

'It is strange to think that Jeremy Corbyn is now offering a tougher line than the Government when he says he would ban the wholesale importation of low-skilled EU workers.

'Is this a ploy to damage Theresa May, much as the late Labour leader John Smith cynically opposed the Maastricht treaty in 1992?'

Mr Farage said the message on migration from Cabinet ministers had changed since the referendum.

'Although the modern Tory party has a dreadful track record when it comes to immigration, last summer things looked brighter.

The ex Ukip leader slammed the failure of Theresa May (pictured yesterday on holiday in Italy) to pursue an immediate cut in immigration amid debate over a transition deal that could see the borders left open for years

'Boris Johnson and Michael Gove even advocated an Australian-style points system. That message undoubtedly helped to secure Brexit.

'Things have now changed.'

He added: 'The old alliance of big business and a Tory government is booming again.

'Meanwhile Tory supporters, who have voted loyally in successive elections for manifestos that promise to drastically cut numbers, have been sold out.'

Mr Farage added: 'My hopes that this government had learnt the lessons of the referendum, and understood that open-door immigration and its effects matter more to voters than any other issue, have for now evaporated.

'The 'new consensus' must be broken.'
A former pub chef who raped and murdered a teenage model has admitted offences against two other women including committing a rape when he was just 16 years old.

Mark Dixie, 46, repeatedly stabbed 18-year-old Sally Anne Bowman before raping her as she lay dying near her home in Croydon, south London, in 2005.

The warped killer was jailed for 34 years in 2008 for the horrific attack, but has now admitted to raping another woman after ambushing her in a car park in 1987 and battering another victim with a knife sharpener in 2002.

Mark Dixie (left) is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of Sally Anne Bowman (right)

Through his trial and for years afterwards, Dixie always denied the attack on Sally Anne, but in 2015 contacted police from his jail cell and revealed he wanted to confess to that crime and also others he had previously not been linked to.

And today, Dixie appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London via videolink from HMP Frankland and admitted rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and indecent assault.

The first attack involved the rape of a woman in an isolated car park in Croydon, south London, in 1987.

He pounced on his victim before bundling the woman into her own car.

After Dixie raped her he left her tied to one of the car doors before setting light to the front seat and items in the car.

Fortunately, the woman managed to break free and raise the alarm.

Dixie was jailed for 34 years in 2008, but has now admitted to raping another woman

Dixie also admitted a second attack in Croydon town centre in 2002, when he fractured a woman's skull by repeatedly smashing her over the head with a chef's knife sharpening tool.

He struck her on the head with the weapon, described as a small crowbar, before dragging her up some stairs and threatening 'I am going to kill you'.

He then indecently assaulted her. The attack was interrupted by a member of the public.

Dixie, who appeared wearing a sports top and glasses, will be sentenced on 22 September.

Rob Davis, from the CPS, said: 'These were serious crimes which followed the pattern of Mark Dixie's offending both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

'These offences took place many years ago and we thank both victims for supporting this prosecution.'

Dixie attacked Sally Anne Bowman soon after he returned to the UK from living in Spain.

Her partially nude body was left in a pool of blood just yards from her home.

Dixie was arrested the following year by chance after a fight in a pub, and was linked to the gruesome killing through his DNA.

Left, Warped killer Dixie and right, Sally Anne Bowman on her 18th birthday in Kos with boyfriend Lewis Sprotson

He was jailed for life - and told he must serve a minimum of 34 years - in February 2008 after a trial at the Old Bailey.

The killer had refused to admit to his crimes, forcing Sally Anne's mother Linda, father Paul and sisters Danielle, Nicole and Michelle, to endure the ordeal of the trial.

However, he finally confessed to police in January 2015, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told the court today.

Mr Aylett said: 'He wrote to to police indicating he wanted to tell them the truth of what had happened to Sally Anne, because at the trial he said that he was not responsible for her murder.

'He also admitted two other serious attacks on women that had taken place some time before.'
Robert Salisbury, 40, pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of sickening child abuse images, and sharing more than 2,000 other vile movies and photographs of children on the dark web

A carpet fitter who used his customers' broadband to download extreme images of animals and children has been jailed for more than three years.

Robert Salisbury, 40, pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of sickening child abuse images, and sharing more than 2,000 other vile movies and photographs of children on the dark web.

His actions led to one innocent man being arrested and interviewed on suspicion of the offences.

The court heard how he even used the broadband connection of his former mother-in-law to view the disgusting material.

Salisbury also admitted taking indecent photos of a child and voyeurism against a woman.

Salisbury, who owned a carpet and flooring business than turned over 100,000-a-year, was jailed for 40 months.

Sentencing him, Recorder Steven Evans said: 'You used the broadband connections of a number of your neighbours and friends.

'You also used the broadband connection of a couple who fitted a carpet for to access indecent images of children and as a result, the gentleman concerned was arrested, put in a cell and interviewed.

'He has had to suffer the embarrassment and humiliation of that. He is a victim of your offending.

'You have used the dark web deliberately to access and distribute these images covertly, you used friends, family and neighbours' (internet connections) to protect yourself from being discovered.'

Recorder Evans added: 'There are some people who think that in viewing indecent images of children, it is somehow harmless. The children in the images were abused by other people for your gratification. Young children were sexually abused and exploited - it is impossible to measure the harm that was done to them.

'If there was no market for it, those children would not by abused. Sadly, there are thousands of children out there being abused so that people like you can look at them. You told police that you have no sexual preference for children, but that is blatantly untrue.'

Salisbury admitted possessing 175 extreme pornographic images of animals, as well as dozens of images of children ranging from category A, the most serious, to category C.

Nottingham crown court heard how Salisbury had filed the content according to the child's age which were as young as 10.

Victoria Rose, prosecuting, said: 'Police officers were alerted to the fact that indecent images had been accessed at the home address of the defendant. Other addresses believed to have been involved were later linked to the defendant.'

Miss Rose added: 'Three folders which had been shared were found to contain 2,030 images. When his computer was analysed, officers found evidence that the defendant was aware of the encryption of computers and being able to hide his activities online.

'Clearly the defendant was very familiar with what to install to hide his activities.'

Roger Wilson, defending, said: 'He is a son and a father - his mother, father and best friend are here again in court for him today. They are very supportive of him. They don't condone what he has done, but they love him and they are here for him.

'He was a professional businessman, he had a good company that was turning over 100,000 a year, he was a well-respected member of a small community on the outside, but on the inside he was struggling from around the time of his marriage break down.

'He describes his actions as an addiction, he couldn't stop himself. He even said he was relieved when he was arrested.

'Whilst in custody he has been a model prisoner, and he is determined to do his prison sentence and follow the courses to get him the help he needs.

'He has lost the respect of the village and brought shame on his family. He has huge bridges to build, but he knows he has no one to blame but himself.'
Cassie Sainsbury's sister has revealed her family fears for their safety if her sibling confesses to smuggling 5.6 kilograms of cocaine.

The Adelaide woman could serve as little as three-and-a-half years behind bars after striking a plea deal with Colombian prosecutors.

But her sister, Khala, is worried for the family should Cassie reveal the identities of those behind the drug syndicate.

Cassie Sainsbury's sister, Khala, has revealed her family fears for their safety if she confesses to smuggling 5.6 kilograms of cocaine

Asked if she was worried from her home on Wednesday, Khala told 7News her sister may turn on the drug network.

'Of course I am. 'I'm not so much [concerned for my safety] but my kids, I've got four of them.'

She said her sister has been under 'pressure' to unmask the cocaine-syndicate since she was locked up.

She also lamented her sister's work prospects when she does return to home soil.

'I don't think there's much she can do when she comes back home, it's going to be hard for her to get a job,' Khala said.

'It's going to be hard for her to do anything 'cause she's always going to be labelled as Cocaine Cassie.'

Despite her concerns, Khala said the deal was the best outcome Sainsbury could have hoped for.

Cassie Sainsbury could serve as little as 3.5 years in jail after closing a deal with Colombian prosecutors to plead guilty to drug trafficking

The Adelaide woman was caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport on April 12

The Adelaide woman has spent more than three months in El Buen Pastor prison after she was allegedly caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport.

The 22-year-old will front court on Thursday where Senior Judge Sergio Leon will decide whether to accept the plea agreement.

'There is a deal between Fiscalia (prosecution) and the prisoner which will be made public tomorrow,' prosecutors told The Australian.

If the plea deal is accepted, Sainsbury will avoid the more than 20 years behind bars she faced if she was found guilty at trial.

Sainsbury would receive a seven-year sentence that could be cut in half for good behaviour and if she studies and worked in jail.

Her court appearance will reveal the details of the agreement and whether the former personal trainer will inform on whoever hired her to smuggle the drugs.

The 22-year-old (pcitured with boyfriend Scott Broadbridge) will front court on Thursday where Senior Judge Sergio Leon will decide whether to accept the plea agreement

Police will also detail her arrest and their investigations that began with a tip off from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Colombian authorities demanded she reveal the names of the mystery men who gave her the 18 packages of cocaine disguised as headphones.

Any plea deal appeared to be contingent on her cooperation, but it was not clear if she ended up agreeing to spill details of the unknown group.

Sainsbury and her family maintained her innocence ever since her arrest on April 12, providing various different stories to explain her being caught with the drugs.

Colombian authorities are desperate to know how and why the drugs came to be in her possession and will not budge on a plea bargain without the information.

Her court appearance will reveal the details of the agreement and whether the former personal trainer will inform on whoever hired her to smuggle the drugs
A baby girl in China was found abandoned in a rubbish bin by a sanitation worker.

The woman made the discovery on July 23 after she heard a noise that she thought was a kitten.

The newborn was still attached to its umbilical cord and was lying in a plastic bag crying.

The child was taken to hospital where it is currently recovering

The woman was working cleaning the streets of Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province.

Upon hearing the cries coming from the bin, she opened it and found the newborn girl lying in a plastic bag.

The cleaner told reporters that the baby was not wearing clothes and must have been freezing.

Shocking: The street cleaner was working in Shenzhen when she made the discovery

The baby girl was covered in blood and still had its umbilical cord

The baby girl was covered in blood and still had its umbilical cord.

According to reports, the baby was sent to hospital for medical examination.

Police said the baby girl is an unmarried mother and will leave the crime on file.
Princess Diana's brother has today said he was 'lied to' about Prince William and Harry wanting to walk behind their mother's coffin at her funeral.

Earl Spencer said he raised objections with royal officials before being told her sons wanted to do it, adding he later realised this was not the case.

He also described the feeling of walking behind his sister's coffin as the 'most horrifying half hour of my life'.

The 53-year-old also said there have been four break-in attempts at the grave where the Princess of Wales is buried.

Prince Philip, Prince WIlliam, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles walked next to each other at Princess Diana's funeral

Earl Spencer (left) said that the funeral must have 'been worse' for William and Harry (pictured next to their father, Prince Charles, right)

Princess Diana is buried on a island which is known as the Round Oval on an ornamental lake near the family home in Northamptonshire (pictured)

He said he was 'very glad' each attempt was unsuccessful on the island known as the Round Oval, which is close to her family home of Althorp House, Northamptonshire.

Diana, who died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997, was buried on the island which is on an ornamental lake.

Her brother believes his sister's body is safest at the family's home which is just yards from where she is buried.

The Earl also acknowledged he is still suffering with nightmares after the 'harrowing' event from 20 years ago.

But the Earl said he believed the experience was a 'million times worse' for Diana's sons.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: 'It seemed natural to want to bury her here and I wanted to keep her safe actually.

'There was such a sort of whipped-up feeling of emotion everywhere that I was very worried about where we could safely bury her.

'We've had four attempted break-ins towards her body in the last 20 years, and I'm very glad we've seen all of them off.

'There are some odd people out there and keeping her right here is the safest place.'

William, now the Duke of Cambridge, was 15 and Harry 12 when their mother was killed.

The Earl added: 'The feeling, the sort of absolute crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing and I still have nightmares about it now.

'So there was the inner turmoil of thinking, 'My God this is ghastly' but then the point of thinking these two boys are doing this and it must be a million times worse for them.

'It was truly horrifying, actually.'

Earl Spencer (right) has said that he is 'very glad' each attempt to break into where his sister (left) is buried proved to be unsuccessful

A temple was built dedicated to the memory of the Princess of Wales after she died in Paris in 1997

He also said there are aspects of royal life which still do not make sense, noting it was a 'very bizarre and cruel thing' for Diana's two sons to be asked to walk behind her body.

Earl Spencer said his sister would not have wanted it and told officials of his objection, adding: 'Eventually I was lied to and told they wanted to do it, which of course they didn't but I didn't realise that.'

He added: 'We would walk a 100 yards and hear people sobbing and then walk round a corner and somebody wailing and shouting out messages of love to Diana or William and Harry, and it was a very, very tricky time.'

Earl Spencer said the emotion of the crowd was 'pulsing' through them as they followed the coffin.

He said: 'In her final years in particular, Diana was really brought low by elements of the paparazzi and the tabloids.

'I remember she told me about one man who promised to hound her until the day she died and he would urinate on her grave.

'So she was dealing with a very dark side of the media and even at her funeral I thought it was appropriate to touch on that.'

Earl Spencer said he had re-read the eulogy speech for the first time in 20 years ahead of the BBC interview, reflecting he believed it to be 'very balanced'.

Asked if the Queen or anyone else said anything to him about the speech, Earl Spencer replied: 'Somebody I know very well said to her 'What do you think?' and she said 'He had every right to say whatever he felt, it was his sister's funeral'. So that's all.'
Michael Gove (picured in Woking this week) today vowed to block the import of chlorine-washed chicken to Britain under any US trade deal in an incendiary escalation of a Cabinet row with Liam Fox

A cabinet row over the details of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US burst into the open yesterday when Michael Gove vowed to block the import of cheap chlorine-washed chicken.

The Environment Secretary appeared to veto plans to lift the ban on controversial US farm produce as part of a wider trade deal.

Mr Gove said the Government wanted the UK to remain a 'leader in environmental standards' after leaving the EU and warned against any 'compromise' on animal welfare.

His comments came hours after Dr Liam Fox said there was 'no health issue' with the US practice of washing chicken carcasses in heavily chlorinated water to reduce the risk of bacteria.

The International Trade Secretary is supported by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who believes a comprehensive free trade deal with the US could cut food prices for consumers and open up new markets for British farmers.

But Mr Gove is backed by Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, who preceded him as environment secretary, and who believes allowing in cheap imports would be unpopular with consumers and would undercut farmers in this country.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (right) is meet trade representative Robert Lighthizer (left) for two days of talks (pictured at their first meeting yesterday)

Last night government sources said no decision had been reached on whether to allow cheap American food  such as chlorine-washed chickens, hormone-fed beef and genetically modified ingredients  into the UK as part of a trade deal.

But Mr Gove made it clear that he would oppose any watering down of existing food and animal welfare standards.

Asked if chlorinated chickens would be allowed, he said: 'No. I have made it perfectly clear, and indeed this is something on which all members of the Government are agreed, that we are not going to dilute our high animal welfare standards, or our high environmental standards, in pursuit of any trade deal.'

Pressed on whether Britain would say no to a US free trade deal if America insisted on access for its farmers, he added: 'Yes, critically, we need to ensure that we do not compromise those standards.'

The US has made it clear that it expects agriculture to be included in any trade talks.

Dr Fox has been challenged to eat a chicken washed in chlorine live on TV to ease concerns in Britain about the prospect of the food being imported after a deal

Dr Fox, who is pushing for an early and comprehensive trade deal with the US, has made it clear he is open to lifting restrictions on US food imports which are currently governed by EU regulations.

Many US supermarkets sell chicken that is washed in chlorine to kill bacteria. It is much cheaper than British food (file image) but fails current food safety standards

The International Trade Secretary, who has been in Washington this week for trade talks, rounded on the 'obsession' of some media critics with the issue of chlorinated chickens, dismissing it as a 'detail'.

Asked about the practice, he said: 'There is no health issue with that  the European Union has said that is perfectly safe.

'The issue lies around some of the secondary issues of animal welfare and it's perfectly reasonable for people to raise that but it will come much further down the road.

'We will want to ensure that the scientific advice that we have ensures proper protection for British consumers because dropping our standards is not the way for Britain.'

Brexit gives ministers the chance to shape new farming policies which have previously been set by Brussels.

In a tweet on his official account (pictured), the US President said the talks were the start of a 'new chapter for stronger trade'.

President Trump said his administration was working on a 'major trade deal' that would be 'big and exciting'

Hormone-fed beef is banned because the European Food Safety Authority says there is insufficient data to assess potential risks to human health.

Washing butchered chickens in chlorinated water is banned by the EU.

The sale of GM food, which is standard in the US, is not illegal in Europe. But it has to be clearly marked, so little GM food is currently sold in the UK.

Should we worry if this meat ends up in our supermarkets?

Who would have thought that the most public Cabinet row of the new parliament would be be about whether, and how, to wash chickens?

Has the silly season struck early? No, it IS a serious issue with possibly wider implications for our future trade, food safety, animal welfare and health.

Here, environmental expert Geoffrey Lean analyses the pros and cons.

The chlorinated chicken feud is a serious issue with possibly wider implications for our future trade, food safety, animal welfare and health

How is American chicken chlorinated?

After the birds are slaughtered, and their guts removed, the carcasses are immersed in water treated with less than 50 parts per million of chlorine (more than ten times as much as commonly used to treat drinking water), which is then rinsed off.

This kills pathogens and cuts the risk of food poisoning and other illnesses: the influential think-tank the Adam Smith Institute says that the process cuts the risk of salmonella poisoning from 14 to 2 per cent.

Why don't we have chlorine-washed chicken?

In 1997 the EU banned the practice, and importing birds treated with it, for health and safety reasons. EU processors are only allowed to use cold air and water to decontaminate poultry carcasses.

The US says that the ban is not based on scientific evidence and is a protectionist measure designed to protect European producers from more competitive imports. Indeed, the European Food Safety Authority has agreed that four types of chemical rinse, including chlorine dioxide used in treating American chicken 'would be of no safety concern'. The dispute continues to be a major issue in EU-US trade relations.

What are the health fears?

Chlorine is a toxic chemical; that's why it's used for decontamination. Inhaling or drinking high concentrations of it, as in household bleach, can cause vomiting, coma and even death. When it comes to chlorinated chicken we are talking about very diluted amounts.

However, critics says that even at these low levels, the chlorine can react with organic matter to produce compounds known as 'chlorine disinfectant by-products' (DBPs)  trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids  which have been linked with cancer.

After the birds are slaughtered, and their guts removed, the carcasses are immersed in water treated with less than 50 parts per million of chlorine (file photo of US chicken factory)

Aren't we exposed to chlorine anyway?

Yes. Chlorine has been used to purify drinking water since the late 19th century, which has prevented waterborne diseases such as cholera, and saved countless lives. But there are studies that show people who drink water containing DBPs over a long period are more likely to develop bladder cancer. (In some places, the drinking water may contain traces of organic matter such as peat or leaf debris that can react with the chlorine used to treat it to form DBPs.)

There are also studies that suggest a possibly increased cancer risk from chlorinated water in swimming pools, and even from taking frequent baths.

Could the chicken be a cancer risk?

In theory yes; meat is, of course, an organic substance, so DBPs could be formed when it is exposed to chlorine. But it is unlikely to be a big risk. According to European Commission data, a person would have to consume nearly three whole chickens a day to reach the safety limit (though experts assume there is never a safe level for cancer-causing substances).

Chlorinated drinking water poses a far greater risk, accounting for 99 per cent of the DBP exposure in a typical daily diet.

Are there any other safety concerns?

Yes  and this is really the EU's biggest objection to the chlorination. They say that washing chickens with chlorinated water at the end of processing is a 'catch-all' used to cover up unhygenic and dangerous practices at earlier stages. Some have called it 'an easy fix for dirty meat'.

In addition, critics claim that chlorine washing only kills bacteria on the surface of the birds, not in the flesh. In contrast, European regulations demand that any poultry its citizens consume must be subject to strict hygiene controls at every stage of the production process.

In 1997 the EU banned the practice of chlorinating chicken, and importing birds treated with it, for health and safety reasons

Who ensures food safety in the US?

The Food and Drug Administration has responsibility. Critics say that while it is extremely stringent on the pharmaceutical industry, it is more lax when it comes to food safety, possibly because of the lobbying power of the big producers.

Does this affect prices in the shops?

The stricter European controls clearly cost more to enforce, thus increasing prices. According to the Adam Smith Institute, the average price of a kilo of fresh whole chicken is more than a fifth cheaper in the US than in Britain (2015 figures).

Of course, many other factors may be involved, such as economies of scale, but the cheaper decontamination system presumably plays a part.

Isn't cheaper chicken a good thing?

For the wallet and people on tight budgets, yes, provided of course that it is safe.

But there are wider worries  recently expressed by a House of Lords committee, among others  that falling prices due to cheap US imports after a trade deal could hurt British farmers, forcing reductions in the quality of the food they produce, and harming animal welfare.

Would a US deal be bad for food safety?

American farmers are big users of hormones and antibiotics in their livestock, while GM crops are widely used in food production.

This has raised concerns that a post-Brexit trade deal will diminish British safety standards, while animal welfare may suffer as domestic producers cut costs to compete on price.

If ministers are vigilant this should not be a problem. A recent House of Lords committee report said there was 'no reason why Brexit should diminish animal welfare' so long as the Government acts to ensure standards are maintained  something that Michael Gove seems determined to ensure.

Does this chicken taste different?

That is, as they say, a matter of taste. Many food experts insist that the fewer the chemicals, the better the natural flavour of any food. But the treated birds don't smell, or taste, of chlorine.

Experiments by the University of Georgia found that chlorinated white (but not dark) chicken meat tasted less fresh after four days in the fridge than non-chlorine washed chicken.
An Iranian television host has been accused of hypocrisy after being filmed drinking beer without a headscarf after telling a newspaper 'thank God I wear the veil'.

Presenter Azadeh Namdari can be seen drinking and not wearing her hijab while on holiday in Switzerland.

The images emerged despite her once having promoted the Islamic dress code by wearing a full hijab in a photo that appeared in a conservative Iranian newspaper.

Iranian television host Azadeh Namdari (centre) has been accused of hypocrisy after being filmed drinking beer without a headscarf after telling a newspaper 'thank God I wear the veil'

The images emerged despite her once having promoted the Islamic dress code by wearing a full hijab in a photo that appeared in a conservative Iranian newspaper (above). The picture was published along with the headline 'Thank God, I wear the veil'

The picture was published along with the headline 'Thank God, I wear the veil'.

Alcohol is banned in Islam and in Iran where women are required by law to the wear the headscarf.

Namdari has already responded to the claims by publishing a video in which she explained she had been sitting with family members and close relatives among whom a woman does not need to wear a hijab.

She said the footage was captured by an unknown individual - and that her scarf had fallen from her head moments before the clip started.

However, she did not offer an explanation as to why she was drinking alcohol.

Last week Namdari posted a picture of herself outside the United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland

The emergence of the holiday pictures have sparked anger online and accusations of 'hypocrisy'

But despite her response, the state television star was accused of 'hypocrisy' and 'dual-behaviour'.

According to the BBC, the Facebook page Iran Without Clerics said that while they did not have a problem with her not wearing hijab or drinking beer 'oiur problem is that you... take the Iranian people for a fool.'

Some were more forgiving and suggested she should be able to wear what she wants.

Facebook user Safiye Safiye said: 'It is her life. It is none of our business.'
A controversial Facebook page purporting to show half-dressed British tourists doing a 'walk of shame' after nights out in the Spanish resort of Magaluf has come under fire.

Holiday reps claim the page, titled The Maga Walk of Shame, is 'a laugh'.

But outraged online commenters have blasted those behind the collection of images for shaming people who are at to enjoy themselves.

People taking the pictures have been accused of shaming tourists at the Spanish resort

Holiday reps claim the page, titled The Maga Walk of Shame, is 'a laugh' and have said most people were happy to feature

One uncomfortable clip, which has been viewed more than 250,000 times, shows a distressed woman trying to open a door while being filmed by a man, believed to be another tourist.

Furious comments underneath the video brand the man taking the footage an 'idiot' and 'pathetic', accusing him of harassment.

Many of those shown in photos and videos are young women trying to cover their faces and bodies.

Pictures and video on the page have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, but critics claim it is an invasion of privacy

The page has been heavily criticised, but one rep said: 'If you're going to go to Magaluf, expect to be on it'

Others are tourists collapsed in the street after seemingly having overindulged on alcohol.

The term 'walk of shame' is often used to describe the walk home the morning after a sexual encounter.

One holiday rep told the Daily Star Online: 'If you're going to go to Magaluf, expect to be on it.

'It is just a bit of banter and a bit of a joke. None of the girls seem to mind and mostly just have a laugh along with it.'

Many of those shown in photos and videos are young women trying to cover their faces and bodies

The images have been posted on the controversial Maga Walk of Shame Facebook page, which has attracted thousands of views
Charlie Gard's bereft mother Connie Yates leaving court yesterday

A High Court judge has given Charlie Gard's parents until midday today to reach an agreement with Great Ormond Street Hospital on arrangements for the end of his life.

Mr Justice Francis said the 11-month-old will be transferred to a hospice where his ventilation tube will be removed if doctors and his parents fail to reach a compromise about how he should be cared for in his final moments.

Charlie's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard had said it was their final wish to take him home to 'slip away' in his cot before his first birthday.

Both his parents and doctors have now conceded that he should move to a hospice - but continue to disagree over the detail of care plans.

Miss Yates and Mr Gard wanted to spend a week at a hospice with Charlie before he died.

But Great Ormond Street bosses said they were not satisfied that a properly-qualified specialist would be in control under the parents' plan, and said life-support treatment should end shortly after Charlie arrived at a hospice.

A family friend said the pair, 'will be devastated they have not been granted their final wishes as parents.'

Charlie is only expected to spend a few hours in a hospice because they are not licensed to be able to look after him for more than a few hours once the ventilator is taken off.

Miss Yates was in court wearing a heart-shaped pendant engraved with 'Charlie' while Mr Gard continued the vigil at their son's bedside.

Before the judge returned to court, Miss Yates sobbed and said: I dont want to be in the same room as him.

Apparently referring to the lawyers for the hospital, she added: I hope you are happy with yourself. How can you do that? What if it was your child? before running out of court crying.

Charlie Gard's parents Connie (pictured with her son) and Chris had wanted to bring him home and spend a few days together before life support is withdrawn on Monday, the court heard

Charlie Gard's mother Connie Yates (pictured yesterday) has been begging a judge to let them take their son home to die

Miss Yates always wears a heart shaped pendant in honour of her 'warrior' son as well as a blue flower in her hair and blue wrist bands

On Monday, Miss Yates, 31, and Mr Gard, 33, reduced the High Court to tears by making the agonising decision to let Charlie die after an eight-month legal battle.

They accepted their 11-month-old, who has mitochondrial disease, was now beyond hope of any cure  which they blamed on 'a lot of wasted time' by medics  and would not live to see his first birthday on Friday next week.

Connie Yates (pictured yesterday) had said it was their final wish to let their son 'slip away' peacefully at home in his cot

But their plan to take Charlie home, give him baths and let him sleep in his cot before saying their final goodbyes on Monday next week were dashed by the hospital.

Great Ormond Street said he should go to a hospice - or stay with them - because his ventilator won't fit through the front door and doctors fear he could suffer pain or a 'distressing or disordered death'.

A family friend said: 'The hospital have set the bar so high that in terms of clinical team for Charlie's end of life nothing seemed good enough for gosh.

'The reality is Charlie is very stable, not in pain and rarely needs a doctor. It is therefore difficult to understand why Charlie could not die at home.

'All he needs is a ventilator which pumps room air into his lungs. It is extraordinarily sad that there's been so much fuss about him dying at home.

'Connie and Chris have conceded a hospice but it was not their first choice.

'They will be devastated they have not been granted their final wishes as parents.'

Chris Gard and Connie Yates in court yesterday had previously stated their desire to take their son Charlie home

The judge said life-support treatment would end shortly after Charlie arrived at the hospice.

Grant Armstrong, who led Charlie's parents' legal team, said the couple wanted to privately fund care at a hospice where Charlie could continue to receive life-support treatment for days before being allowed to die.

He said a doctor was ready to help and several Great Ormond Street nurses had volunteered their services.

Great Ormond Street bosses said they were not satisfied that a properly-qualified specialist would be in control under Charlie's parents' plan.

A lawyer in the couple's legal team said discussions about mounting an appeal against Mr Justice Francis's decision not to allow more time were taking place.

Mr Armstrong said a firm had offered to 'provide any type of ventilator that is required.'

Two nurses would be needed for each shift lasting eight to 12 hours and GOSH staff have volunteered to work on their days off or between shifts at the hospital.

Mr Armstrong, referring to a list of requirements set out by GOSH for Charlie's care outside the hospital, said: 'We believe we will be able to deal with that and have the appropriate nursing staff available.'

He said moving Charlie was unproblematic, as shown by 'that rather charming photograph' taken on the rooftop of the hospital earlier in the summer, when staff helped the parents take him for a picnic.

'In itself, transfer should not be a difficult issue,' said Mr Armstrong, saying Charlie remained in a stable condition.

If Charlie's breathing tube became displaced, it could easily be adjusted back, and it was 'highly unlikely' it would fall out completely, he told the court.

He said it was not necessary to have doctors there all the time but that a pair of medics would be provided on a '24/7 backup' basis.

Victoria Butler-Cole, representing Charlie's court-appointed guardian, said she understood the family's proposed doctor was 'not a paediatric intensive care consultant'.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates (pictured on Monday) have long been in dispute with Great Ormond Street Hospital over their final wishes for their little boy

Charlie, pictured on July 14, will require a medical team and mobile ventilator

Judge slams 'pure nonsense' in 'ill-informed' social media posts about Charlie Mr Justice Francis (pictured) issued another attack on ill-informed social media users. He said 'pure nonsense' was doing the rounds about the 'state' versus the parents. He said: 'If I was to deal with everything on social media, we would be here for weeks. 'What is happening is that I have to make a decision on what is Charlie's best interests. 'The parents desire to take him home or to a hospice and I am making every effort possible to meet that desire. 'But the notion the state is involved, just because we have a nationalised health service, is pure nonsense.' Earlier this week, Mr Justice Francis said 'people who know almost nothing' about the case should refrain from giving opinions based on their feelings rather than facts. Advertisement

Charlie's mother Connie Yates had issued a desperate last-minute appeal to 'any paediatric intensive care doctor to come forward' to help them.

Miss Yates said last night: 'We promised Charlie every day we would take him home. It seems really upsetting, after everything we've been through, to deny us this.'

But the family believe they would be able to satisfy demands for Charlie to be well looked after in a hospice by medics in his final days.

Charlie's father Chris Gard was again at his son's bedside.

Yesterday they accused hospital chiefs of placing 'obstacle after obstacle' in the way of their final wish to take him home to die.

They went back to the High Court to beg to be allowed to spend four days of 'tranquillity' with their son before withdrawing his life support.

But Great Ormond Street Hospital said his ventilator 'does not fit through the front door' of the family's flat in Bedfont, south-west London  and suggested a team of six specialist nurses and three doctors would need to accompany him to ensure his 'dignity'.

After a bad-tempered court hearing, the couple's lawyer snarled 'Give them some peace!' at the hospital's QC Katie Gollop.

Farewell: Charlie's grandparents give what they thought were their final kisses to him earlier this year before interventions from the White House and the Vatican saw the legal case to save him reignited

Barrister Grant Armstrong, who is representing the family for free, told the court: 'The parents' last wish is to take Charlie home for a few days of tranquillity outside the hospital. Provided appropriate medical care is provided to Charlie, Great Ormond Street has no legal right to detain him in hospital.'

Pope's hospital insists Charlie should have had the chance to try experimental drugs - but now it's 'too late' A Vatican paediatric hospital says experimental therapy 'could have been an opportunity' to help Charlie Gard, but it was too late to start care for the critically ill baby. Bambino Gesu Hospital had offered to treat the 11-month-old boy while his parents were trying to persuade UK courts to tell Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to release the boy for treatment in the United States. Hospital chiefs said in a statement that they are not in a position to know what might have happened six months ago and cannot know if Charlie would have responded to the experimental therapy. Hospital director Mariella Enoc (pictured) told reporters that they carried out a clinical evaluation and offered medical assistance free of charge. Advertisement

But he said: 'They have put obstacle after obstacle in the parents' way.'

Mr Armstrong said the hospital had previously agreed there was 'no issue' with Charlie being allowed home to die, but for unknown reasons was now blocking it. He said: 'We can't see what the problem is. On one hand they are saying they are not standing in the parents' way, and on the other are putting obstacles in the way which can be surmounted.'

The court heard the hospital was insisting a 'full team' of paediatric intensive care doctors and nurses would be needed, along with a 'health and safety assessment', a special bed and 'security personnel and a police escort' to take Charlie home.

But the 'key obstacle which the hospital cannot see a way around', said Great Ormond Street's QC Katie Gollop, was Charlie's need for a ventilator to help him breathe  which she claimed would not fit though the front door of the parents' flat.

Miss Gollop said it was outrageous to say the hospital was putting up obstacles. 'Nothing could be further from the truth,' she said. 'The hospital has moved heaven and earth to make [the parents' wish] possible.' She claimed Great Ormond Street chiefs had scoured the 'length and breadth' of the UK for a paediatric intensive care doctor willing to look after Charlie at home but had come away empty handed.

Mr Armstrong said an agency would supply 24-hour nursing and there was no need for a team of doctors as Charlie was stable and the couple just wanted to say their goodbyes in private at home.

Mr Justice Francis said the parents 'should be entitled to choose how the next days are spent and where'. But he added it was best for Charlie if his final days were 'shorter rather than longer'.

He expressed fears about Charlie suffering if something went awry with his breathing tube at home. And he pledged to do all he could to meet the parents' wishes, but warned: 'If I can't, I can't.' He said if it was really true Charlie required a round-the-clock team of intensive care medics, 'then that is going to be conclusive'.

He had granted Charlie's parents until lunchtime today to come up with evidence they could provide an appropriate setting for his death, but added: 'It looks like the chances are small.'

A hospice has agreed to help but Miss Gollop said British hospices were not 'licensed or insured' to take someone with Charlie's needs overnight, so he would need to die the same day he arrived  in defiance of the parents' wishes to spend 'a few precious days' with him.

Chris Gard announced they must now 'do the hardest thing that we'll ever have to do which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go'

Charlie Gard, pictured moments after he was born on August 4, 2016 weighing 8lb 3oz, appeared to be a perfectly healthy baby, but two weeks later he started losing weight

US doctor who offered experimental drug to incurably ill baby Charlie Gard admits MRI scan showed 'no hope' for the child

Michio Hirano (pictured) said his experimental drugs might help Charlie Gard, and he offered to treat him in the US

The American neurologist criticised by Great Ormond Street has admitted a body scan done when he flew to London extinguished all hope for Charlie Gard.

Michio Hirano also denied claims he has cash invested in the drug he offered to Charlie.

The professor said his experimental nucleoside treatment had a chance of helping the sick child and he offered to treat him in the US.

But he was accused of giving Charlie's family false hope and lawyers for Great Ormond Street said they were concerned to learn the doctor had a financial interest in some of the drugs he proposed to use.

The children's hospital also said it was disappointed he had been so optimistic when he had not examined Charlie himself, or read his latest medical records or seen his brain scans.

Hitting back Dr Hirano, who works at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, claims that he now has no investment in the drug Charlie's parents wanted him to have.

Speaking for the first time he said: 'As I disclosed in court on July 13, I have relinquished and have no financial interest in the treatment being developed for Charlie's condition'.

The court case over Charlie's treatment was reopened after Dr Hirano and six other experts said they had new evidence that could affect the judge's earlier decision that the boy would not benefit from further treatment and should be allowed to die.

The US neurologist flew to London to examine the little boy along with a doctor from the Pope's children's hospital in Rome.

Radical American pastor Patrick Mahoney (centre, outside the Royal Courts of Justice) loudly called on God to change the judge's mind. He has been arrested  and jailed  in the US for repeated direct action against judges and medics he perceives as being pro-abortion

Dr Hirano said: 'I became involved in Charlie's case when I was contacted by his parents, and I subsequently agreed to speak with his doctors to discuss whether an experimental therapy being developed in my lab could provide meaningful clinical improvement in Charlie's condition.

'Unfortunately, a MRI scan of Charlie's muscle tissue conducted in the past week has revealed that it is very unlikely that he would benefit from this treatment'.

Before his defence Great Ormond Street's lawyer, Katie Gollop QC, said there were no grounds for such optimism and she questioned why Charlie's parents were led to believe Dr Hirano's nucleoside bypass therapy could help.

In a statement to the High Court, she said: 'When the hospital was informed that the professor had new laboratory findings causing him to believe NBT would be more beneficial to Charlie than he had previously opined, GOSH's hope for Charlie and his parents was that that optimism would be confirmed.

'It was, therefore, with increasing surprise and disappointment that the hospital listened to the professor's fresh evidence to the court.

'On 13 July he stated that not only had he not visited the hospital to examine Charlie but in addition, he had not read Charlie's contemporaneous medical records or viewed Charlie's brain imaging or read all of the second opinions about Charlie's condition  obtained from experts all of whom had taken the opportunity to examine him and consider his records  or even read the judge's decision made on April 11.

'Further, GOSH was concerned to hear the professor state, for the first time, while in the witness box, that he retains a financial interest in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie. Devastatingly, the information obtained since 13 July gives no cause for optimism.

'Rather, it confirms that while NBT may well assist others in the future, it cannot and could not have assisted Charlie.'

Supporters of Charlie Gard's parents outside the High Court react as news that his life will end came through

Dr Hirano, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist, told the High Court that new drugs had a 'small but significant' chance of helping Charlie's rare condition and it was 'worth trying'.

Great Ormond Street has been praised by judges for its care of Charlie, but has faced condemnation by some pro-life campaigners.

It has emerged that hospital staff have received death threats and abuse and that police were called after 'unacceptable behaviour' was recorded in the hospital.

The case took on the air of a circus when Donald Trump and Pope Francis made high-profile interventions at the start of July. They were swiftly followed by a radical American pastor loudly calling on God to change the judge's mind. The pastor  Patrick Mahoney  arrived on July 9 bringing his 'power of prayer'. He has been arrested  and jailed  in the US for repeated direct action against judges and medics he perceives as being pro-abortion.

Next up was American attorney Catherine Glenn Foster, part of Rev Mahoney's pro-life lobby. She planted a tender kiss on Charlie's head and then tweeted it to her followers and made it her Facebook profile photo.

She has apparently been offering legal tips to the family. Alasdair Seton-Marsden, a UKIP candidate in the general election, was also involved in the case.

He initially made statesman-like pronouncements on behalf of the family outside court. But then he started appearing on American television accusing the NHS of holding Charlie 'as a captive'. He then fell out with Charlie's parents over the media strategy.

Last Saturday, hospital chief Mary MacLeod called in police and issued a statement revealing 'a shocking and disgraceful tide of hostility and disturbance'. In response, Miss Yates and Mr Gard said they were 'extremely upset by the backlash we have received after Great Ormond Street Hospital put out their statement'. They added: 'We too have suffered from the most hurtful comments from the public and GOSH is aware of this.'

Dr Hirano specialises in mitochondrial depletion syndrome.

LITTLE BOY'S YEAR OF TORMENT In October, he was transferred to Great Ormond Street where tests found he was suffering from an incredibly rare mitochondrial depletion syndrome which affects just 16 people August 4, 2016 Charlie born 8lb 3oz to Connie Yates and Chris Gard. October 2016 Tests reveal mitochondrial depletion syndrome. Believed to be only 16th sufferer in the world of rare strain. Autumn 2016 Miss Yates finds specialist in US testing nucleoside therapy, but it has never been tried on Charlie's rare type. January Gosh doctors say drug would be futile because of irreversible brain damage. Parents contact US doctor. March Gosh asks High Court to let Charlie die. Mr Justice Francis gives parents a month to make case for treatment. Daily Mail readers help raise 197,000 in days to help fly Charlie to US. April Doctors say he is likely to be in pain. Judge rules Gosh should let him die. May Court of Appeal upholds ruling. Parents appeal to Supreme Court. June Supreme Court rejects appeal. On June 27, European judges back decision. Gosh gives parents more time with Charlie. Pope Francis intervenes, followed by Donald Trump on July 3. July 7 Seven scientists hand Gosh fresh evidence showing higher survival chances. July 10 Mr Justice Francis gives parents 48 hours to produce new evidence in case. July 13 US specialist Dr Michio Hirano invited to London by High Court July 17 Dr Hirano examines Charlie. July 21 Court told scan results 'very sad'. Monday High Court due to rule on the case, ten days before Charlie's birthday - but his parents end their legal battle. Yesterday Charlie's parents return to the High Court to get him out of hospital - but no deal is struck Advertisement

Will his equipment fit through the front door?

Great Ormond Street Hospital fiercely denied putting up obstacles to stop Charlie's parents taking him home  yet insisted their flat would need transforming into an intensive care unit.

A full paediatric intensive care team of up to three doctors and six nurses working in shifts around the clock would be required, they said.

On top of that, specialist equipment including a ventilator which 'does not fit through the front door' would need to be taken to his home, and 'there are then stairs to negotiate and corners to turn'. Then there is a 'gas supply which requires a health and safety assessment', the court heard.

Physical access for a special bed was also needed.

Victoria Butler-Cole, a barrister representing Charlie's guardian, said Great Ormond Street had also told her: 'Lastly and fundamentally, the provision of intensive care in a home setting needs to be licensed.' The judge said it was difficult to argue with all this. But speaking for the family, barrister Grant Armstrong poured scorn on the need for such a big operation. He said Charlie was stable, there was no evidence that he was in pain, and patients were 'routinely' allowed to be ventilated at home.

A portable ventilator was no larger than an electric heater, he suggested, and there were no stairs to the parents' ground-floor flat  which he said Great Ormond Street had never visited.

He said Connie Yates had found agencies willing to supply nurses round the clock and a doctor would only need to be on call.

Last night an NHS source told the Daily Mail the most common ventilators in paediatric intensive care units were Maquet Servo Us which 'are about the size of a PC computer, and they wheel them round hospitals, so they easily fit through doorways', adding: 'The portable ones are even smaller, about the size of a foot heater, which they use to transfer patients around the world.'
Former Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort will not testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

The committee withdrew a subpoena ordering Manafort to appear late on Tuesday after he agreed to turn over documents and continue negotiating about a future interview with the panel.

The senators also removed Donald Trump Jr. from the list of witnesses scheduled for Wednesday's public hearing.

Paul Manafort will not be questioned in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday after the panel withdrew a subpoena ordering him to appear late on Tuesday

Manafort was due to speak about the meeting between Donald Trump Jr and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower last year, for which he was present

Manafort was due to speak about the 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr after she promised to deliver compromising information on the Clinton campaign.

He was also expected to discuss his foreign political work in Ukraine.

An Associated Press report earlier this year claimed he made millions of dollars in 'off the books' payments from a pro-Russia political party for which he consulted.

On Tuesday Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff, providing his recollection of the Veselnitskaya meeting and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview.

Manafort 'answered their questions fully,' said his spokesman, Jason Maloni.

Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who also attended the Veselnitskaya meeting, was also on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a second day of private meetings.

This time he had talks with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.

Both Manafort and Kushner have been cooperating with the committees which, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was flatly described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump's presidential campaign.

Manafort's discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview who spoke to the Associated Press.

Manafort had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee. He has now provided the committee with notes he took at the time, one of the people said.

Trump Jr was also removed from a list of names due to speak to the committee on Wednesday

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, spent Monday answering questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee and on Tuesday was back to speak with the House Intelligence Committee about the meeting

Manafort has also said he will participate in additional interviews with the Senate Intelligence Committee staff on other topics if necessary, the second person said. Those meetings haven't been scheduled.

Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors Tuesday with the House intelligence panel.

Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the committee's Russia probe, said he found Kushner to be 'straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had.'

He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.

The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on 'a range of issues the committee had been concerned about.'

'We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today,' Schiff added.

On Monday, Kushner answered questions from staff on the Senate's Intelligence Committee, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Trump's victorious White House bid and insisting he had 'nothing to hide.'

Emails released this month show that Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, accepted a June 2016 meeting with Veselnitskaya with the understanding that he would receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

But, in his statement for the two intelligence committees, Kushner said he hadn't read those emails until being recently shown them by his lawyers.

Kushner's statement was the first detailed defense from a campaign insider responding to the controversy that has all but consumed the first six months of Trump's presidency.

Kushner called the meeting with Veselnitskaya such a 'waste of time' that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.

'No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign; there was no follow-up to the meeting that I am aware of; I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,' he said.

Kushner on Monday confirmed earlier media reports that he had suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities to set up secure communications between Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who would become national security adviser, and Russian officials. But he disputed that it was an effort to establish a 'secret back channel.'

His statement describes a December meeting with Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which Kushner and Kislyak discussed establishing a secure line for the Trump transition team and Moscow to communicate about policy in Syria.
Three teenagers have been charged with murder in the death of a 17-year-old boy who was shot inside a car in Maryland earlier this month.

Kalik Johnson, 18, of Laurel, Maryland, Kylah Nettleton, 18, of Severn, and Darius Tarik Johnson, 17, of Upper Marlboro, were arrested and charged on Tuesday in the death of Dustin Khoury.

Khoury found in a vehicle near Lauren on July 18 just before 8.30pm suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died at a hospital.

Kalik Johnson (left), 18, of Laurel, Maryland, Kylah Nettleton (center), 18, of Severn, and Darius Tarik Johnson (right), 17, of Upper Marlboro, were arrested and charged on Tuesday in the death of Dustin Khoury

Police said the teens were in the middle of an illegal transaction when the shooting occurred, but would not elaborate on the details.

All three suspects were charged with first- and second- degree murder as well as robbery and weapons offenses.

Khoury was found in a vehicle near Lauren on July 18 just before 8.30pm suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died at a hospital.

They are all being charged as adults in the case.

In a statement to police, Nettleton said that she saw Kalik and Darius Johnson enter Khoury's vehicle with handguns.

She told police that she heard gunshots before watching the two men exit the vehicle still holding the guns.

They then got into her vehicle and she drove them away, according to charging documents seen by the Capital Gazette.

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Khoury's father, Michael Khoury, said that his son was a 'dependable' and 'special kid' who would 'help anybody'.

His family was together when they learned of the arrests on Tuesday.

'I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for their families, who have to endure a lot of pain, like we did,' he told NBC 4.

The three arrested teens remain in custody at the Department of Corrections without bond.

Khoury is the 14th homicide victim in Prince George's County this July.

Video courtesy of WJLA
A former member of an IRA splinter group admitted installing a mortar launcher which was used in an attack on a British Army base in Germany 21 years ago.

The Belfast-born man, 48, identified by Irish media as James Corry, was arrested in December at Frankfurt Airport after his extradition by Irish authorities.

Today in court, he admitted his part in carrying out the attack in 1996 for which he was placed on the international wanted list in 2004 by the German authorities.

In spite of this, it has taken 13 years for Corry to finally be put on trial, drawing widespread criticism for the delay.

Corry said the attack was not meant to kill anyone, but was aimed at intimidating British troops both in the UK and stationed overseas.

The defendant (sitting, centre) sits next to his defender Thomas Klein (Bottom R) at the court in Osnabrueck, central Germany, on July 26, 2017

The handcuffed defendant arrives at the court in Osnabrueck, central Germany, on July 26, 2017

Having eventually been brought to the dock, a total of 15 hearings have been scheduled for the trial for attempted murder, said the court in the city of Osnabrueck in northwestern Germany, which did not name the suspect.

In a statement read out by his lawyer in court today, Corry said he helped to install the mortar launcher.

He said the aim was not to kill as many British soldiers as possible, but simply to show that they were not safe even outside the UK.

The suspect also said he is no longer involved in the militant group, but refused to name his accomplices.

He is an alleged former member of the active service unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

A transit platform truck can be seen on which two launching fixtures are positioned - it was used in a terrorist attack against the Quebec Barracks on June 28 1996 in Osnabrueck, Germany

Two Bundeswehr specialists examining the crater in the asphalt after a mortar attack on 28 June 1996, in the grounds of the British Army's Quebec Barracks in Osnabrueck, Germany

He and four co-conspirators on June 28, 1996, allegedly parked a small truck outside the city's Quebec Barracks and fired three mortar shells from an improvised rocket launcher.

Two of them failed to go off and the third hit the driveway of a nearby petrol station.

No one was injured, which the court said was 'only due to sheer luck'.

Another of the militants was sentenced to six and a half years in jail in 2003 by a court in the city of Celle.

The aftermath of the 1984 bombing of The Grand hotel in Brighton at the hands of the IRA

Back in November, The High Court ordered Corry be extradited to Germany to face the charges.

The 48-year-old was arrested in Killorglin, County Kerry in October 2015, according to the Irish Times, before being sent to Germany.

Ms Justice Donnelly pointed to the 'significant culpable delay' in the case and said the Northern Irishman could be sentenced to life in prison.

In October, Corry's lawyer Remy Farrell SC said federal authorities had been 'culpably negligent' for waiting 10 years to pursue his client's arrest warrant.

He accused Germans of 'finger-pointing' at the Irish police and said they had still not explained the delay despite being handed the information to arrest Corry in 2005.

Mr Farrell told the Irish Times at the time: 'This is a delay of truly exceptional proportions.

'It is unconscionable that a party to such proceedings would refuse to give an explanation for a 10-year delay.'

The IRA (Irish Republican Army) ran a three-decade campaign of bombings and shootings during the Troubles between Catholics and Protestants as it strove for Northern Ireland to break away from British rule and become part of Ireland.

The landmark 1998 Good Friday peace agreement ended most violence and the organisation later abandoned its armed struggle as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Among the high-profile acts of terror was the bombing of The Grand hotel in Brighton in 1984.
President Trump again went after a member of his own party, calling out Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Wednesday morning for not voting with her fellow Republicans to start debating an Obamacare repeal.

'Senator @LisaMurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!' Trump wrote.

Yesterday, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined the ranks of the Democrats by voting nay on a motion to proceed, forcing Republicans to have to trot out Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaker vote for the measure to eventually pass.

Scroll down for video

President Trump went after a member of his own party, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for voting no on a motion that opened up debate of an Obamacare repeal

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (right) is the latest Republican to receive a nasty-gram on Twitter from President Donald Trump

President Trump had tried to court the two GOP moderates, sitting between Collins (left) and Murkowski (right) at a White House meeting last month

Sen Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is photographed en route to the Senate floor where she joined with Democrats to vote no on debating an Obamacare repeal

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is followed by a gaggle of reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill as she arrives to cast her no vote

The other defector: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted alongside Democrats yesterday, saying nay to a motion to start debate

During a press conference at the White House shortly thereafter, as President Trump welcomed the Lebanese prime minister, he also chided the Democrats for their no votes.

'We passed it without one Democrat vote. And that's a shame, but that's the way it is, and it's very unfortunate,' the president added.

But Wednesday morning, President Trump was back to wagging a finger at a member of his own party again.

Trump had already rankled GOP senators this week for lashing out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former senator himself.

The president also threatened to 'fire' his Health and Human Services secretary, Dr. Tom Price, a former House member, if an Obamacare repeal didn't pass.

He made the statement during a speech at a Boy Scout Jamboree Monday night.

The president had also dashed off a warning to members of his own party on Sunday, expecting them to tow the line and defend him against the various Russia-related probes.

'It's very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President,' the president wrote, suggesting that Republicans on the Hill were voted into office on the coattails of his 2016 White House win.

Trump, who took a health care victory lap last night in Ohio, may soon have more Republicans to be mad at.

Even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who returned to the Senate chamber Tuesday like a conquering hero said he wouldn't vote in favor of the Senate bill as it stands.

'I will not vote for this bill as it is today,' he said. 'It's a shell of a bill right now, we all know that.'

Just hours after the Senate started its debate of health care, nine GOP senators defected during a vote to approve a plan that would combine the Better Care Reconciliation Act, a repeal-and-replace plan Republicans devised, together with $100 billion in extra money for Medicaid, a sweetener for moderate senators, along with a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, which would entice conservatives to vote for the bill, as it allows for the sale of bare-bones insurance plans.

Murkowski and Collins again voted no.

They were joined by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Texas, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Dean Heller, R-Nev., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Mike Lee, R-Utah and Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

On Wednesday, the Senate is expected to vote on a repeal-only bill.
A widower who sent out 2,000 romantic messages to sea in glass bottles was subjected to 'abuse' and 'hatred' by angry locals who accused him of littering.

Craig Sullivan, 49, started sending out his love messages after losing his wife to cancer 18 months ago.

He set off from his London home and travelled around to various British beaches to release them into the water.

But his romantic quest has been slammed by environmentalists after they found 30 bottles washed up on the picturesque Rhossili Bay in Swansea, Wales.

Scroll down for video

Romantic: Craig Sullivan (left) sent out 2,000 love letters (right) to sea after losing his wife to cancer 18 months ago

Walker Helen Gill, 36, picked the bottles from the sand before getting in touch with Mr Sullivan.

She said: 'I went for a beach walk and we came across about 30 glass bottles with lids.

'They had lots of messages inside about finding love and at first, I thought it was some sort of dating thing but then I looked on his website and I got the idea.

'It's very romantic. But my friends are members of the Marine Conservation Society and they, and I, were very concerned about what it is doing to the environment.

'He said he didn't expect that many to wash up at once, and that he expected the rest to get lost along the way.

'But they could have smashed and left broken glass on beaches, or animals in the water could get hurt.

Litter lout: Mr Sullivan's romantic quest has been slammed by environmentalists after 30 of his glass bottles were washed up on Rhossili Bay in Swansea, Wales

'Everyone has been quite upset about the fact that it is littering.'

Ms Gill said she even stopped Mr Sullivan going to Scotland to drop more bottles into rivers as he continued search for love.

She said: 'I was concerned because there's a lot of wild salmon. But, he's called that off now because I think people have gotten in touch with him to ask him to stop.'

Now Scottish-born Craig, who lives in Blackheath, south London, has scrapped the idea.

Backlash: Mr Sullivan (left) said he had suffered 'abuse' and 'hatred' for sending out the glass bottles (right)

Company manager Craig said: 'There has been a rather unpleasant backlash to my intentions, which were always not to achieve this sort of reaction.

'Whilst I always welcome rational argument and debate, this has become too personal and nasty, so it's over.

'It has brought out a kind of irrational hatred and abuse out of proportion to the scale or the original intent of my project.

'It's been quite saddening to read all these but it won't affect my optimism or plans - to find someone new.'
Susan Kettell (pictured in mugshot) allegedly took off her top and ran at an off-duty cop in a drunken road rage after he called 911 to report her erratic driving on Saturday

A topless woman weilding a knife charged at an off-duty cop in Massachusetts after a road-rage incident early Saturday afternoon, local police claim.

Susan Kettell was spotted driving her SUV erratically by the cop who then called 911, the Sandwich Police Department said.

Tings allegedly escalated from there, culminating in Kettell, 39, grabbing a dagger as she commenced her half-nude assault.

Kettell had been spotted by the cop driving her blue Ford Explorer at around 12:20pm on Saturday in Sandwich, near Cape Cod, the SPD claimed.

After the cop made the call, she then allegedly tried to smash into his car twice before pulling up next to him at a red light and flicking a cigarette at him.

'The female operator began waving a double-edged dagger knife out of the window,' police said.

'She exited the Explorer, removed her clothing, and ran bare-chested towards the victim, flailing the dagger.'

The cop, understandably, then drove away from Kettell.

When they tracked her down, they also found a local man unconscious in the car along with opened bottles of Guinness, the Cape Cod Times reported.

The man was placed in protective custody. The dagger was found in her bag, police said, and she failed an alcohol test.

Kettell was scheduled to be arraigned Monday on 10 counts related to the incident.

They include three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; carrying a dangerous weapon; lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct; operating under the influence of liquor, second offense; and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

The other counts are littering trash from a motor vehicle; possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle; and improper operation of a motor vehicle.

The incident occurred in the sleepy community of Sandwich, Massachusetts. Kettell had a dagger in her hand when she ran at the cop, and open beer bottles in her car, police said

This isn't the first time that Kettell - who was known locally for running the My Tin Man Diner in Falmouth, around 20 miles away, with her mother - has been in trouble with the law.

In April, she was arrested for throwing a rock through the door of a Sandwich supermarket in a quest for pie, according to the Cape Cod Times.

On April 26, police responded to an alarm at Lamberts Farm Market to find a door smashed open and a pie on the ground.

They then spotted Kettell crawling out of a dog house at the Happy Tails dog wash, clutching bags of chips and other food, according to a police report.

Cops said that Kettell smelled strongly of alcohol, and admitted to smashing her way into the store to steal food because she was hungry.

She was also reportedly taken to hospital complaining that she had swallowed glass in the pie she had taken, although medics later said that was not the case.
Advertisement

The widow of Steve Jobs and her boyfriend have been pictured on holiday in Croatia with the $100million yacht the late Apple founder built but never got to use.

Laurene Powell Jobs was seen enjoying a day of sightseeing in Dubrovnik with Adrian Fenty, the ex-mayor of Washington D.C, and with her 19-year-old daughter Eve, who had an iPhone tucked into her waistband.

The 53-year-old's 256ft-long luxury yacht Venus was moored off the coast as they spent time in the historic city.

Steve Jobs commissioned the ship in 2008, a few years after his first cancer diagnosis, but he never got to walk on board, since the tech genius died a year before it was completed in 2012.

Laurene Powell Jobs (lef), the widow of Steve Jobs, and her boyfriend Adrian Fenty (centre) have been pictured on holiday in Croatia. They were joined by Powell's daughter Eve, 19 (right)

Eve had an iPhone tucked in to her waistband as she walked with the couple through Dubrovnik yesterday

Powell (left)was seen enjoying a day of sightseeing in Dubrovnik with Adrian Fenty (wearing a green shirt), the ex-mayor of Washington D.C

The 53-year-old's 256ft-long luxury yacht Venus was moored off the coast as they spent time in the historic city. Steve Jobs commissioned the vessel in 2008 but did not get to use it before he died

Laurene Powell Jobs (centre) is pictured with her daughter Eve (left) and boyfriend Adrian Fenty (right) in Dubrovnik

He enlisted the expertise of designer Phillippe Starck to create his one-of-a-kind sailing paradise and hired the chief designer of the Apple Stores to make structural glass for the yacht.

It has been reported that a row of 27-inch iMacs are used by the ship's captain to navigate in the wheelhouse.

Several summers spent relaxing on friend and fellow businessman Larry Ellison's yacht convinced Jobs he wanted a boat of his own.

Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs is believed to maintain ownership of the ship.

Powell was left widowed after Apple founder Steve Jobs passed away, aged 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011. They had three children together and Powell is also step-mother to Jobs' daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.

Powell (left) and Fenty (right) are believed to have met at a Houston education conference in 2011 and bonded over school reform. Both donned Apple watches, with Powell sporting a gold version believed to be a $17,000 Edition version of the smartwatch.

Powell (right, next to daughter Eve) was left widowed after Apple founder Steve Jobs passed away, aged 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011

Fenty, who has gone with a white Apple watch, also donned an anchor necklace highlighted by his undone shirt

Powell and her boyfriend were seen taking a ride in a smaller vessel in Dubrovnik's harbor. Her vast superyacht - commissioned by Steve Jobs in 2008 - was moored off the coast

Jobs and Powell had three children, son Reed and two daughters, Eve and Erin. Eve, 19, is pictured in Dubrovnik with an iPhone tucked in her waistband

Fenty, mayor of Washington D.C. between 2007 and 2011, formally announced his separation from his wife of 15 years, Michelle, in January 2013. They also have three children together.

Sources told the Washington Post that summer that Fenty and Powell started seeing each other around the same time, but there is no suggestion that Powell had anything to do with the separation.

It is believed the two met at a Houston education conference in 2011 and bonded over school reform; Powell is the founder of Emerson Collective, which advocates for education reform.

The following year, Fenty joined the board of College Track, a non-profit program for underserved students wanting to go to college that was co-founded by Powell.

Powell had married Jobs two years after meeting him when he gave a talk to Stanford Business School while she was a student there.

Powell and Jobs married in March 1991 at a hotel in Yosemite Valley, and the ceremony was led by a Zen Buddhist monk, Kobun Chino Otogawa, in keeping with Jobs' religious beliefs. The couple are pictured, right, in 2007

Powell (right) was left widowed after Apple founder Steve Jobs passed away, aged 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011

The tour group arrived on a smaller vessel ahead of a sightseeing trip around the historic Croatian city yesterday

Laurene Powell Jobs was married to the late Apple founder for 20 years and after his death, she inherited an estate of about $10 billion

Laurene Powell Jobs (centre) and her boyfriend Adrian Fenty (right) walk along the waterfront during a sightseeing trip to Dubrovnik

Eve (back right) swept back her hair as she walked with her mother (centre) and Adrian Fenty (left) through the streets of Dubrovnik

The trio took in a sightseeing tour of the area. Powell and Fenty were later seen boarding a small motor boat in the harbor

Venus (pictured off the coast of Dubrovnik) was completed in 2012, about a year after Jobs died of pancreatic cancer

Despite being one of the richest women in the U.S. Powell (centre) has kept a low profile as she continues with her charitable work

Their wedding took place in March 1991 at a hotel in Yosemite Valley, and the ceremony was led by a Zen Buddhist monk, Kobun Chino Otogawa, in keeping with Jobs' religious beliefs.

Their eldest child, a son named Reed, was born six months later, and the couple had two daughters, Erin and Eve, in the years following.

While she was on the boards of several companies and charities during his lifetime, it was only after he died that she began to speak publicly to draw attention to the causes that mattered to her.

They were married for 20 years and after his death, she inherited an estate of about $10 billion.

Despite being one of the richest women in the U.S. she has kept a low profile as she continues with her charitable work.

Since Fenty left the mayor's office, he has focused on acting as a consultant to education tech companies and working as a special adviser at Andreessen Horowitz.

When Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011, most of his assets passed on to his wife, making her one of the 50 richest people in the world

Since Fenty (wearing green) left the mayor's office, he has focused on acting as a consultant to education tech companies and working as a special adviser at Andreessen Horowitz

Powell owns, among other things, two private jets, four real estate properties and shares of the Walt Disney Company and Apple, Business Insider reported last year

Fenty is pictured on board a vessel in the harbor as his girlfriend, the widow of Steve Jobs, waits on the quayside

The couple were seen on a boat in Dubrovnik's marina. Powell's $100million superyacht was moored off the coast

On tour: The couple were seen walking around the ancient streets of Dubrovnik as they took part in a sightseeing excursion

Powell (centre) points her finger as she talks to others during a sightseeing tour of the historic city of Dubrovnik yesterday

All aboard: Fenty and Powell enjoyed a trip on a smaller boat as they visited Dubrovnik in Croatia

Powell looked relaxed as she enjoyed her summer holiday trip to the Croatian city with boyfriend Adrian Fenty, a former Mayor of Washington DC

When Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011, most of his assets passed on to his wife, making her one of the 50 richest people in the world.

She owns, among other things, two private jets, four real estate properties and shares of the Walt Disney Company and Apple, Business Insider reported last year.

The report said Powell Jobs was now the sixth richest woman in the world based on Forbes' ranking, behind French L'Oreal shareholder Liliane Bettencourt, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, Mars heiress Jacqueline Mars, Italian Michele Ferrero's widow Maria Franca Fissolo and German BMW heiress Susanne Klatten.
A cloud which looked like a giant panda appeared above a Chinese city yesterday.

The cloud was seen above Chengdu in Sichuan Province, the homeland of the adorable black-and-white bears.

Yang Zhongming, a newspaper photographer, captured the eye-catching scene in the Huayang town of Chengdu yesterday afternoon.

A cloud in the shape of a giant panda appeared above Chengdu, China, yesterday

Mr Yang told MailOnline that he thought the cloud looked 'very special', so he took some pictures.

He said he didn't think it looked like a panda at the time.

But when Mr Yang checked through the pictures at home, he was 'extremely excited' to find the 'striking resemblance' between the cloud and a giant panda.

The man said it was incredible to see such a bear-like cloud, especially in the hometown of pandas.

'It's the magical combination of a nature and culture,' Mr Yang said.

The cloud was captured by photographer Yang Zhongming who was excited to realise the resemblance between the cloud and a panda. Mr Yang described the experience as 'incredible'

Wild pandas live in the bamboo forest on high altitudes in the mountainous areas of Sichuan

Giant panda is considered by China as its symbol and national treasure.

The animal's official name is ailuropoda melanoleuca.

It's one of the oldest animal species in China and their ancestors could date back to eight million years ago, according to People's Daily.

Records show ancient pandas lived in the rain forest across southern part of modern China.

Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base is the world's largest artificial breeding population of captive pandas. Pictured, a veterinarian holds the two twin cubs at the base on June 30

Most of the giant pandas today come from Sichuan Province.

Wild pandas live in the bamboo forest on high altitudes in the mountainous areas of Sichuan.

The fluffy bears can also be seen in Shaanxi Province, where the world's only living brown panda, Qizai, lives.

Pandas can live through tough winters and don't hibernate. Their life span is about 15 years in the wild.

A view of the two male giant panda twin cubs which were the first twins born in the year 2017 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China

Giant panda was shifted off the endangered species list last year after years of intensive conservation efforts.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report last September that the animal was classified as a 'vulnerable' instead of 'endangered' species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China.

The report also said the wild panda population jumped to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004, the result of work by Chinese agencies to enforce poaching bans and expand forest reserves.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base, situated outside of downtown Chengdu, is the world's largest artificial breeding population of captive pandas.

According to its website, the base has 113 giant pandas.
A man was fatally stabbed after he raised his middle finger at the victims of a car accident on Tuesday night, police have said.

The 25-year-old, who has not been named, was stabbed in the shoulder after getting into an altercation with a group of other men in the Bronx, New York.

His friends attempted to drive him to hospital, but he bled to death after they stopped a mile from the crime scene to wait for an ambulance.

A 25-year-old man was fatally stabbed on this street in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday night after he flipped off the victims of an earlier car crash, police say

The victim, who has not been named, had been riding in a Honda Accord through the Eastchester neighborhood when he saw a group standing beside a crashed car, police told ABC7.

As he passed he raised his middle finger at the group, who became furious and jumped into a second vehicle, a Toyota Camry, and gave chase.

The two groups confronted each-other a block away, officers said, where those involved in the crash began interrogating the other group about who gave the finger.

The victim admitted it was him and was stabbed in the shoulder with a serrated knife, investigators say.

The men involved in the crash had followed the victim before knifing him in the shoulder. His friends attempted to take him to hospital, but he bled to death (scene pictured)

His friends put him back into the Camry and attempted to drive him to hospital, but stopped outside a Lenny's Bagels store around a mile away to wait for an ambulance.

By the time medics arrived the victim had bled to death. A pile of bloodied clothes was visible in the parking lot where the men had stopped.

The identity of the victim is not being released until his family can be informed, and police have not made any arrests.
Media commentator and Islam critic Mark Latham has come to the defence of Muslim Miss World Australia Esma Voloder.

The former Labor leader says Voloder, 25, should be praised as a good role model for other Islamic women, as she is panned on social media for defending her faith.

'In the case of Esma Voloder, isn't it good to see a Muslim woman there not living her life according to the fundamentalist teachings of the Koran,' he said on Mark Latham's Outsiders.

Scroll down for video

Miss World Australia 2017 Esma Voloder has been praised as a role model for Muslim women

Mark Latham says Esma Voloder is a Muslim role model for shunning the hijab and the burqa

Mark Latham is glad Esma Voloder isn't a 'radical leftist' Muslim like Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Latham also praised the Miss World Australia 2017 for not being a 'radical leftist' Muslim like controversial former ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who wears a hijab and declares Islam to be the 'most feminist religion'.

'She's actually providing a real good role model for other Islamic women in Australia,' he said.

'Throw away the burqa, throw away the hijab, dress in a modern, Australian way and she's a worthy Miss World Australia for that reason alone in sending that powerful message to other Islamic women to be part of our culture, to integrate as much as possible.'

Media commentator Mark Latham says Esma Voloder shows how Muslims can integrate

Esma Voloder (left) is an example of a Muslim woman who doesn't see the need to wear a hijab

He added that while he would continue to campaign against Sharia law and gender segregation at a public pool in Sydney's west, he would champion secular Muslims.

'We don't want fundamentalism at the other end of Australian politics where people assume every single thing a Muslim does is wrong,' he said.
The family of Celine Dookhran have paid tribute to their 'amazingly talented and loving daughter' as the men accused of her kidnap, rape and murder appeared in court today.

The body of Miss Dookhran, 19, who was an Indian Muslim, was discovered last week in a 1.5million property just miles from her home in South West London.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, and Vincent Tappu, 28, will face trial at the Old Bailey in connection with the murder, rape and kidnap of Miss Dookhran, and the kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a second woman.

Vincent Tappu is said to have helped Mujahid Arshid (right) kidnap the two women on July 19

A statement, issued by the Metropolitan Police on behalf of Ms Dookhran's family, said: 'Celine Dookhran was an amazingly talented and loving daughter who brought happiness, joy and laughter to her family and friends.

'We are proud of Celine for everything she had achieved and were looking forward to seeing a loving, caring and innocent young girl fulfil her potential in life and carry on making us proud.'

The family, who thanked those who have offered support and asked for their privacy to be respected, added: 'We have sincere belief and full confidence that the perpetrators will face the full force of the law.

'We would like to reiterate our thanks to all that have offered their support and ask everyone to pray for both victims and their immediate families, and that the vile individuals involved face the full weight of justice upon them.'

Arshid, 33, allegedly slit her throat after she had been tasered, bound and gagged and taken to the empty house in Kingston-on-Thames.

Arshid, also known as Hussain, is also accused of raping a second woman, 21, and slashing her throat, but she survived and managed to flee the property.

Tappu, 28, is said to have helped Arshid kidnap the two women on Wednesday July 19.

Celine Dookhran, 19, was found dead inside a 1.5million home in south west London, after she was kidnapped, raped and murdered

The suspects are accused of grabbing Miss Dookhran as she showered and binding her up with duct tape and rope.

Miss Dookhran was taken with the second woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to a six-bedroom house five miles away where both were raped, the court heard.

The court was told Miss Dookhran had been in a relationship with an Arab Muslim and her family members did not approve because they were Indian Muslims.

The survivor claimed she heard her friend scream as she was dragged from the shower in a house near Wimbledon by the men wearing balaclavas and stunned with a Taser before she herself was taken.

The victims had socks shoved into their mouths before being rolled up into dust sheets and thrown into a vehicle, it is claimed.

They were driven five miles to a house under renovation before Miss Dookhran was raped and murdered  but the second woman fled.

Binita Roscoe, prosecuting, said the teenager died after her throat was slit. The second woman was stabbed a number of times but managed to flee and alerted police officers from hospital.

The surviving victim remains in a serious condition.

A post-mortem examination carried out on Miss Dookhran last Friday gave cause of death as an incised wound to the neck.

Miss Dookhran, left and right, had been in a relationship with an Arab Muslim and her family members did not approve because they were Indian Muslims

Miss Dookhran was the eldest of three children and born in Wandsworth in 1996.

Her passion was make-up and her Twitter account was filled with advice on using cosmetics - she also did the make-up for an A-Level film made at sixth form.

On the eve of her murder she also 'liked' a joke about finishing work.

She also posted messages when she passed her driving test in 2015 and also tweeted about her faith.

During Ramadan she wrote: 'Please tell me why I'm casually sitting in Costa during my lunch break whilst fasting.'

Miss Dookhran's family are being supported by a family liaison officer.

Arshid, from Mitcham and Tappu, from Acton, are due to appear at the Old Bailey on October 11.

A provisional trial date has been set for January 17 next year.

They are yet to enter pleas.

A 29-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in relation to this case was released under investigation on Thursday July 20.
A missing climber who fell 60ft down a mountain while hunting a famous hidden cave was rescued by people using a locator phone app.

On Tuesday morning the young man visited the Lake District to search of the famous hillside cave the, Priest's Hole, which featured last year in BBC's Secret Britain.

But after failing to find it and Dove Crag descending in a thick cloud of fog, he lost his footing, plunged 60ft and suffered a serious head injury.

He was able to dial 999 but when Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) spoke to him they were unable to work out exactly where he was.

Today Patterdale MRT leader Mike Blakey said they were alerted at 9am on Monday after a man fell 60ft looking for the Priest's Hole

So instead the clever rescuers used Apple App 'Find My Friends', which uses GPS to pinpoint the location of a mobile.

Today Lake District rescuers praised the usefulness of the App and described the unprepared climber as a 'very lucky boy'.

Patterdale MRT leader Mike Blakey said they were alerted at 9am on Monday after the man fell 60ft looking for the Priest's Hole.

Mr Blakey said they were given a location for him by Cumbria Police but it was wrong - and they were struggling to find him.

He said: 'He had no idea where he was. He had spent the night on the mountain having failed to locate the Priest Hole cave where he had planned to stay on Sunday evening.

'He had set off in the forecast heavy rain and cloud. Having spent the night in thick cloud he began to descend the wrong way in the morning and the fell into the top of a steep gully well above the cave..'

Luckily he had a mobile data signal and Mr Blakey could see his location on the Apple App, which uses AirDrop and Wi-Fi to send satellite images.

Mr Blakey alerted his colleagues to the man's correct grid reference while reassuring the injured climber that help was on the way.

The climber then started posting his unfolding rescue on Facebook - prompting his battery to go dead and meaning the team lost contact with him.

Mr Blakey added: 'This was unhelpful and a distraction for all concerned during what was a complex rescue.'

Clever rescuers used Apple App 'Find My Friends', which uses GPS to pinpoint the location of a mobile

Once he was finally found the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter winched the casualty to safety and transferred him to hospital. He was released later that day having only suffered bruising.

Deputy Patterdale MRT leader Mike Rippon said: 'The man tumbled down the gully for 60ft, stopping short of falling on and over the front of the crags. He was one heck of a lucky lad.'

Mountain rescuers have often been forced to save ill-prepared climbers desperate to find the now famous Priest's Hole cave.

In March last year it featured in BBC show 'Secret Britain as presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star Chris Hollins made the ascent to the hidden cave.

Since then mountain rescuers been besieged with a rising tide of hapless tourists getting lost or injured trying to reach it.

Last October, climber Kevin Ryan, 50, fell 500ft to his death from near the cave, while with a group planning to spend the night there.

Luckily the man had a mobile data signal and rescuers could see his location on the Apple App, which uses AirDrop and Wi-Fi to send satellite images

A team spokesperson reminded climbers at the time: 'While the Priest's Hole is marked on the map, the access route is not and it's very difficult to find.

'The Priest's Hole is surrounded by dangerous ground and should only be tackled by competent people.'

Earlier in June, Patterdale MRT was also called out to the Priest's Hole after a couple suffered hypothermia while looking for it.

Mr Blakey said growing numbers of unprepared tourists were trying to reach the cave ever since the BBC documentary aired.

He said: 'The Priest's Hole has seen an increase in visitor numbers since the BBC covered its location in a documentary.

'As a team we are seeing more and more people who are attempting to locate the Priest's Hole in the dark and without the right equipment.'

The BBC have previously declined to comment on their show about the Priest's Hole, but sources said the show made it very clear how dangerous the climb was.
Schapelle Corby has either delivered one of the greatest pieces of tongue-in-cheek humour social media has ever seen or she has a lack of self awareness the likes of which we may never witness again.

On Wednesday afternoon the convicted drug smuggler shared a GIF to her Instagram page holding a body board and plugging the Drag Board Co body boarding brand.

'Thanks to the guys at Drag Board Co for thinking of me & seeing me as a fellow body boarder. Hooking me up with the Sam Bennett pro model.

'Looking forward to getting back in the water when this leg of mine is restored. #appreciate #drag #bodyboard #salt #happyplace #onceyoustartyoucantstop', she captioned the image.

Schapelle Corby shared a GIF to her Instagram page holding a body board and plugging the Drag Board Co body boarding brand

Corby was arrested in 2005 after Balinese customs officials discovered 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her body board bag

She was convicted of importing the drug and jailed for 20 years, but released on parole in 2014

Corby was arrested in 2005 after Balinese customs officials discovered 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her body board bag. She was convicted of importing the drug and jailed for 20 years, but released on parole in 2014.

She returned to Australia on May 27th of this year.

Schapelle's GIF has been viewed over 70,000 times with more than 500 comments. She has amassed 200,000+ followers since joining Instagram in late May.

Wearing a 'Dragging Kills' t-shirt and large reflective aviator sunglasses, Schapelle holds the board aloft while standing on a picturesque white sand beach.

She references her broken leg, the cause of which is unknown, and identifies how keen she is to get back into the surf.

Strict crime laws imposed mean Corby cannot make money off her drug conviction. It is not known whether the brand, which sells its range through Stoke Factory in Wollongong, paid her for the promotion.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Stoke Factory for comment.

Strict crime laws imposed mean Corby cannot make money off her drug conviction

Schapelle returned to Australia on May 27th this year, the first time since she was arrested in 2005

People reacted with amusement at the allusion, intentional or not, praising Schapelle's sense of humour.

'I honestly think Schapelle has a great sense of humour and think it's great she can have a laugh at herself,' one person commented.

'What's in that boogie board,' another asked.

Corby was last seen publicly making a visit to JB Hifi a few days after her 40th birthday.

In the footage, Ms Corby is seen wearing a long red dress, a knitted Angry Birds beanie and appears to have a dark-coloured sock on her injured foot.

She is heard singing 'Shopping at JB Hi-Fi, JB Hi-Fi' while she hands a $50 note to the cashier, before turning to the camera, posing and flashing a peace sign.

Ms Corby then accepts her purchase and is heard thanking the cashier.

She later posted photograph of herself leaving the shop on crutches while a male companion walked behind her carrying her JB Hi-Fi bag.

In the caption she wrote: 'Woohoo. My first time out shopping. In my go-to dress while I'm a hop a long #australia #gopro #brokenleg #getoutthere.'
A drone carrying contraband including cell phones and marijuana crashed into a Georgia prison yard, officials say.

The drone crashed to the ground at the Washington State Prison located in Davisboro on Monday around 10.45pm, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Joan Heath told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Heath revealed that it was also carrying tobacco, but she did not say how many cell phones or how much tobacco and marijuana was recovered.

A drone carrying contraband including cell phones and marijuana crashed into a Georgia prison yard, officials say (file photo above)

The drone crashed to the ground at the Washington State Prison (file above) located in Davisboro on Monday around 10.45pm

She added that no one inside or outside of the prison has been connected to the drone.

Tobacco is not allowed in Georgia prisons so it is a valuable item that inmates try to sell to one another for a steep price.

Officials say that drones have now become one of the more popular ways that contraband is smuggled into prisons.

It was also carrying tobacco, but officials did not say how many cell phones (file above) or how much tobacco and marijuana was recovered

More than 22,326 cell phones were seized from inmates and visitors at all 67 Georgia correctional facilities, including secure and lower-level prisons last year.

Officials say that the most common way inmates obtain banned items is by paying correctional officers to illegally bring them in.

Some inmates also have their family members or friends throw packages over perimeter fences at prisons.
Border cops in El Paso made a major haul on Saturday when they found 310 pounds of marijuana hidden in a pickup truck travelling from Mexico.

The drug packs - with an estimated street value of $248,000 - were found hidden underneath, and in the walls and doors of the pickup.

'This smuggler used almost every square inch of space he could in an attempt to transport a large drug load into the country,' Beverly Good, CBP El Paso port director told News West 9.

Big haul: The walls of this truck - and be underside of the bed and one of the doors - were found to contain 310 pounds of weed after it tried to cross into America through El Paso on Saturday

Street value: The packages had an estimated street value of $248,000, and were being brought into the country by a 41-year-old Mexican citizen who is now in custody

The truck was stopped trying to enter the country at Paso Del Norte international bridge crossing around noon.

An officer on the job saw something unusual about the back wall of the 2000 GMC Sierra and sent it on for a second check by a drug dog.

When the dog sniffed out some of the suspicious packages, the truck was sent for an X-ray.

At that point the rest was found along the rear walls, in one door of the truck and underneath the pickup's bed.

Ruben Jauregui, a border protection officer in El Paso, told Fox News that he and other officers are trained to spot unusual trucks.

'They're pretty knowledgeable on what the normal comparmtents of vehicles are, so when there is a modification they can see it,' he said.

'In this case there was a modification in the rear wall leading into the bed of the truck, so that brought some suspicion.'

He said officers seize anything from a few ounces of drugs to several pounds of controlled substances 'several times a day'.

The 41-year-old driver, who is a Mexican citizen, was handed over to ICE agents and will be charged in connection with the haul.

'The thorough inspections CBP officers perform prevented this load from reaching its final destination,' Good said.
A four-year-old boy died the night after being put on life support after a car crash killed his pregnant mother and younger brother - and put his older brother in a coma.

Weston Schmidt was pronounced deceased at 5.55pm at Comer Childrens Hospital in Chicago, according to the Will County Sheriffs Office as his six-year-old brother continues to fight for his life.

His mother, Lindsey, 29, was driving the three boys at about 8.30am on Monday to a vacation Bible camp in Beecher, Illinois, when a truck ran a stop sign, police say.

The 2002 Chevy S10 pickup truck crashed into the 2014 Subaru Outback with an impact so severe that Schmidt's car was sent barreling into a cornfield.

Schmidt, who was four months pregnant, and her 21-month-old son, Kaleb, were pronounced dead at the scene while her four- and six-year-old sons were rushed to the hospital.

Lindsey Schmidt, 29, from Beecher, Illinois, (left) and her 21-month-old son, Kaleb, (top right) were killed in a car accident after a pick-up truck ran a stop sign. Her two sons, aged four and six were taken to hospital and put on life support after the horror smash. On Tuesday night, four-year-old Weston (front left) died

Schmidt (left) and Kaleb (not pictured) were pronounced dead at the scene while. The six-year-old boy was placed in a medically-induced coma

Schmidt was driving her three sons at about 8.30am on Monday to a vacation Bible camp when the 2002 Chevy S10 pickup truck ran a stop sign and crashed into the 2014 Subaru Outback with an impact so severe that Schmidt's car was sent barreling into a cornfield (above)

The two boys were initially taken to St Margaret Hospital in Indiana before being airlifted to Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.

According to the Will County Sheriff's Office, the six-year-old is in a medically-induced coma.

The driver of the pickup truck, a 25-year-old man, survived and was first taken to St James Hospital before being transferred to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

He is in stable condition after undergoing minor reconstructive surgery for a large laceration to his arm, authorities say.

Investigators are working to determine if the unnamed driver should face charges and will examine his cellphone to determine if he was texting when the crash occurred, said Will County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer.

Schmidt and Kaleb were pronounced dead at the scene (pictured) while the two older boys were taken to the hospital. The six-year-old is in a medically-induced coma, according to the Will County Sheriff's Office

The 25-year-old driver of the truck (pictured, after crash) is in stable condition after undergoing minor reconstructive surgery for a large laceration to his arm, authorities say. He told police he had his cruise control set to 55mph , which is the speed limit

Police say the truck driver is cooperating with the investigation. He told police he had his cruise control set to 55mph, which is the speed limit, reported CLTV.

No charges have been filed as of yet.

A family member told NBC 5 over Facebook: '[Lindsey] was a wonderful woman. We are heartbroken.'

The Schmidt family had built their house in Beecher where neighbors described them as 'the perfect family'.
The president's incoming White House communications director confirmed Wednesday that the Department of Justice is initiating a government-wide crackdown on leaking.

Anthony Scaramucci told CNN that he's working with Attorney General Jeff Sessions to craft an inter-agency plan to 'uproot some of these leakers.'

A Washington Post report on Tuesday evening said Justice's investigation will look at the leaking of sensitive intelligence.

Scaramucci's not officially on the job yet, but he's already taken his first casualty in his war on leaks within the White House. A mid-level press aide resigned on Tuesday after Scaramucci told a reporter the staffer would soon be fired.

In an interview with Chris Cuomo this morning on CNN Scaramucci apologized for the miscommunication and revealed that his marching orders came directly from the president.

The president's incoming White House communications director confirmed Wednesday that the Department of Justice is initiating a government-wide crackdown on leaking

Anthony Scaramucci told CNN that he's working with Attorney General Jeff Sessions to craft an inter-agency plan to 'uproot some of these leakers'

Scaramucci has already taken his first casualty in his war on leaks within the White House. A mid-level press aide resigned on Tuesday after Scaramucci told a reporter the staffer would soon be fired. In an interview with Chris Cuomo this morning on CNN Scaramucci apologized for the miscommunication

Playing a little bit coy, Scaramucci said someone above him wanted the press assistant gone.

'I also report to somebody, if he asks me to do something I'm gonna go do it,' Scaramucci said.

A press release announcing the former hedge funder's hiring says Scaramucci 'will report directly to the President.'

That leaves but one person with the power to direct Scaramucci to fire anyone.

Scaramucci didn't want to say that President Donald Trump asked him to fire the press aide, Michael Short, who had reportedly left the campaign on bad terms only to be hired at the White House along with fellow Republican National Committee press staff.

'I didn't answer the question, Chris. You see, i'm getting so subtle and surgical,' Scaramucci said when pressed.

Cuomo pushed him to be straight, like he promised he'd be, and Scaramucci replied, 'Im being straight - I'm straightly, straightly not answering your question. '

The CNN host wouldn't let up. Scaramucci finally told him, 'I've already answered it. You're just not really a derivative thinker. I said somebody above my rank. Go read the press release.'

Scaramucci is supposed to begin his post on August 15, but he has already become a fixture at the White House. He's been operating out of a corner office in the West Wing since news broke that he'd been hired, and he's been joining the president on out-of-state trips.

His first order of business has been to aggressively attack the leaking that has paralyzed this presidency.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci spoke to members of the media at the White House on Tuesday, telling them he's willing to fire the entire communications staff

Asked how he planned to stop a tsunami of leaks that have plagued the new administration in its first six months, Scaramucci told reporters Tuesday at the White House: 'I'm going to fire everybody! Thats how Im going to do it!'

'You're either going to stop leaking or you're going to get fired.'

It was Scaramucci himself, however, who had told Politico he was letting Short go.

Wearing shiny blue fashion sunglasses in the morning hours on the White House's north driveway, Scaramucci pointed to the guard shack that separates 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from tourists.

'If they don't stop leaking, I'm going to put them out on Pennsylvania Avenue  it's a very clear thing,' he said. '

'You want to sell postcards to the tourists outside the gate? Or [do] you want to work in the West Wing? What do you want to do? If you want to work in the West Wing, you've got to stop leaking.'

Scaramucci told Politico that more heads could soon roll, even if it means there's no one left standing other than Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new White House press secretary, and himself.

'I'm committed to taking the comms shop down to Sarah and me, if I can't get the leaks to stop,' he said.

Still, Scaramucci told the smallish gaggle of journalists outside the White House that he was upset to see Short's name discussed publicly before he had a chance to let him know his job was at risk.

'This is actually a terrible thing,' he said. 'Let's say I'm firing Michael Short today. The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic. You got that?'

'So I should have the opportunity if I have to let somebody go to let the person go in a very humane, dignified way, and then the next thing is help the person get a job somewhere, ok? Because he probably has a family, right?'

An administration official told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Scaramucci 'seems laser-focused' on a leak clampdown.

'He's not just taking meetings,' the aide said. 'He's making lists.'

Scaramucci said Wednesday on Fox that he's at least being up front about what he's doing and why.

'What I dont like about Washington is people do not let you know how they feel. Theyre very nice to your face and then they take a shiv or a machete and they stab it in your back,' he said. 'I dont like it. Im a Wall Street guy and Im more of a front-stabbing person and Id rather tell people directly how I feel about them than this sort of nonsense.'

Michael Short, an assistant press secretary, was the first of the communications department firings at the White House

Scaramucci has vowed to clamp down on leaks coming from within the West Wing, although many reporters looking for secret sources shop for dirt elsewhere in the administration.

He said Wednesday that he convened a group of 40 people at the White House and told them to cut it out.

'Im not naive. I know that we're never going to end all the leaking. I didn't suggest that but I want to put a culture in place where people trust each other,' Scaramucci said on CNN's New Day program.

Anyone who can't get with the program will be dismissed, Scaramucci said.

'We serve one person and his agenda, and that's the President of the United States. You are not serving the president's agenda if you're nefariously leaking on people. Youre not being loyal to him,' Scaramucci says he told White House communications staff.

'Nefarious leaking is disloyal to the president, is disloyal to the institution of presidency and its bad for America,' he added.

Scaramucci acknowledged that the leaks are coming from other areas of the White House that are beyond his reach, and he delivered the same message to his colleagues in senior positions serving the president on air that he gave to his soon-to-be-staff in their closed-door meeting.

'I would tell my colleagues to stop doing that. It doesnt help the president. It's embarrassing to the institution of the presidency and it makes you look very small when you're leaking on your colleagues. That's not good team sports,' he said on CNN.
Energy secretary Rick Perry was fooled into a 20 minute phone call with two Russian pranksters during which they pressed him to talk about pig manure.

Perry had thought he was speaking to Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman earlier this month, but he was actually on the line with Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov.

The 22-minute conversation on July 19, which appeared to be aided by a translator, covered a range of issues including the Paris Climate Accord and the sanctions against Russia.

But it also touched on the possibility of using pig manure as a power source.

Scroll down for video

Energy secretary Rick Perry thought he was speaking to Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman earlier this month but he was actually on the line with two Russian pranksters

Russian media say Perry appeared to respond positively to the idea after being told about the fuel created from a mix of home-brewed alcohol and manure.

The entire phone call by the pranksters - sometimes called the 'Jerky Boys of Russia' - was posted online by Russian news site Vesti.

The majority of the call was based on issues relevant to US energy policy and Perry maintained a business-like tone for the duration of the conversation.

Perry said the Trump administration opposes Nord Stream 2, a Russian project to bring natural gas to Europe across the Baltic and that U.S. technology could help Ukraine develop gas.

'Giving Ukraine more options with some of our technology is, I think, in everyone's best interest with the exception of the Russians, but that's OK,' he said.

Perry also discussed the Paris climate accord and defended President Donald Trump's to pull out of the international agreement.

'Our position is that it's our record that should be looked at, not whether or not we have signed onto some international accord,' Perry said.

Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov fooled Perry into speaking with them for 20-minutes about pig manure on July 18

Perry thought he was discussing energy policy and the sanctions against Russia with Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman (above) during the lengthy phone call

'We see our record of progress relative to the global environment to be substantially defensible.'

Perry repeatedly referenced a future in person meeting with Groysman, which is scheduled for August.

The call happened about a month after Perry met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his delegation at the Energy Department.

Trump said last month that Washington plans to offer Ukraine more coal exports from the US because the eastern European nation's industrial sector has difficulty securing coal from separatist-held regions.

It is unclear how the US would bring more coal to Ukraine but Perry hinted on the call that the Commerce Department was working on it.

'The coal conversation at this particular point in time is with (Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross) and I full well suspect it will go forward,' Perry said on the call.

The majority of the call was based on issues relevant to US energy policy and Perry (pictured with Trump on Monday) maintained a business-like tone for the duration of the conversation

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the authenticity of the call to The Washington Post.

'Secretary Perry is the latest target of two Russian pranksters,' she said.

'These individuals are known for pranking high level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine.'

Other victims of past pranks by the pair known as Vovan and Lexus include Republican Maxine Waters and Republican Senator John McCain.

In 2015, Elton John was the target when the comedians posed as Russian president Vladamir Putin.

News of the call came the same day the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impose new sanctions on Russia.


Diane Abbott today claimed Grenfell fire survivors were being pursued by 'ambulance chasing' lawyers.

The shadow home secretary said intimidation tactics were being used by firms touting for business from the devastating blaze.

Many of those touched by the tragedy are in the process of preparing legal teams for the forthcoming public inquiry into the deadly fire.

In an email sent to legal associations Ms Abbott accused some legal representatives of deliberately misleading survivors.

Diane Abbott today claimed Grenfell fire survivors were being pursued by 'ambulance chasing' lawyers (file image)

She said: 'It has been expressed to me that survivors and affected local residents are feeling that they have been 'pressured' to consult with and/or or sign with particular legal practitioners or firms.

'Others also report that they have been intimidated in the same manner on the premise that success depends on them all (a group of survivors) instructing one legal professional and/or firm.

She went on: 'I am sure that we all agree that this type of behaviour 'ambulance chasing' is disgraceful and should not be tolerated in any circumstance.'

Ms Abbott wrote in the email, addressed primarily to the Law Society and Bar Council, that it was unclear exactly for what issues the individuals had been told they needed representation and which firms were responsible.

'It is entirely for those affected by this tragedy to instruct the legal professional of their choice without being coerced into instructing firms who are clearly misleading people whilst they are extremely vulnerable,' she said.

Survivors of the Grenfell Tower (pictured at a Kensington and Chelsea Council meeting last week) have been demanding a better response to their needs as they draw up their input to the public inquiry

Earlier this month, law firm Leigh Day suspended two paralegals after a poster was put up offering legal support to those affected, with an email address different from their work contact details.

Ms Abbott urged those who had experienced persuasion methods to come forward, while calling for survivors to be explained their legal rights, the available complaints procedures and what to do if they are concerned about a document they have signed.

Her wish for those affected by the disaster to be better informed was echoed by grassroots organisation Grenfell Legal Support.

The voluntary organisation was set up by two lawyers, including one whose family friend died in the blaze, to advise families about legal concerns.

The shadow home secretary said intimidation tactics were being used by firms touting for business from the devastating blaze (file image of the burnt out tower)

A spokeswoman said it had been 'spreading information on the ground to empower affected people to make their own informed choice on who they want to instruct'.

She added their advice was based on three 'Cs', telling survivors to consider the credibility of the law firm in dealing with cases similar to the disaster, their capacity to take it on in the long term and their levels of compassion.

Meanwhile, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid announced that a new taskforce had been appointed to support Kensington and Chelsea Council as it looked towards a long-term response to the disaster.

With members including Javed Khan, chief executive of the charity Barnardo's, and Jane Scott, the leader of Wiltshire Council, it will aim to also listen to 'the views of the local community'.

Mr Javid said: 'I am determined that everything possible is done to support the local community following the disaster.

'This includes ensuring an effective recovery plan is developed that takes into account the views of the local community. The new Taskforce has extensive experience in this area and will provide the Council with the expertise needed to deliver this important work.'
Wisconsin has won the fight to build the first U.S. assembly plant for electronics giant Foxconn in a project that's expected to result in billions of dollars in investment in the state and create thousands of jobs in the congressional district of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, thanks to a nudge from President Trump.

The Taiwan-based company that produces the i-Phone said Wednesday that it has chosen Wisconsin for the project.

'To make such an incredible investment, Chairman Gou put his faith and confidence in the future of the American economy,' Trump said from the White House's East Room. 'In other words, if I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion.'

Trump grinned at his friend, Foxconn founder Terry Gou, and pulled him in for a handhold as Trump gave himself credit for the giant investment.

Wisconsin has won the fight to build the first U.S. assembly plant for electronics giant Foxconn in a project that's expected to result in billions of dollars in investment in the state and create thousands of jobs in the congressional district of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, thanks to a nudge from President Trump

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who is from Ryan's congressional district in southeast Wisconsin, told WTMJ-TV on Tuesday that Trump, when flying over the area in Kenosha County during a visit to Wisconsin in April, noticed vacant land where a former Chrysler Motors plant used to be.

'He said, "That land should be used,'' ' Priebus said. 'So when Foxconn came into the White House, into the Oval Office, the president said, "I know a good spot that you should go to, that place in Kenosha.'' '

That part of the state is an attractive location for a large plant because of the area's proximity to Lake Michigan and its abundant water supply. To make flat-panel displays, the company will need access to great quantities of water to keep work spaces dust-free, among other things.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had given the secret away earlier when he tweeted that Trump planned to make a 'major jobs announcement for Wisconsin.'

Ryan and Walker were both stage Wednesday when Gou announced his company's investment.

Walker said it was the single largest economic investment in the history of Wisconsin and would lead to the indirect creation of 22,000 jobs.

'In other words, if I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion,' she said

President Donald Trump, embraces Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on stage in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC

Walker said it was the single largest economic investment in the history of Wisconsin and would lead to the direct and indirect creation of 22,000 jobs

Construction of the facility that will be three times the size of the Pentagon and 11 times larger than the Packers' Lambeau Field will require 10,000 sets of hands, Walker said.

Trump was more modest in his assessment of the jobs the deal, that had not yet been inked as of Wednesday, would spawn.

The facility under negotiation 'will be about the biggest there is anywhere,' he said, and the 'initial investment of more than $10 billion will create 3,000 jobs at a minimum with a potential of up to 13,000 jobs in the very near future.'

'Chairman Gou, I thank you for your investment in the American worker, they appreciate it, they will not let you down,' Trump told Foxconn's founder. 'They never let us down. There is nobody like the American worker.'

Construction of the facility that will be three times the size of the Pentagon and 11 times larger than the Packers' Lambeau Field will require 10,000 sets of hands, Walker said.

Wisconsin is among seven states that have been vying to land a Foxconn liquid crystal display panel plant.

Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Senate have said Walker has been negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn - best known as the assembler of the iPhone - to build such a factory in southeast Wisconsin.

Other states vying for the plant were Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Landing the multi-state competition has been cast as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Foxconn is the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other devices for Apple and other brands.

It had been eyeing building the plant in a part of Wisconsin represented by Ryan, who said he had met with company officials at the request of Walker, a fellow Republican.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is best known as the assembler of the iPhone. Wisconsin is among seven states, mostly in the Midwest, the company had named as possible locations to build the its first liquid-crystal display factory that promises to create 22,000

Critics have cautioned that Foxconn has made promises before to invest in the U.S. and not followed through. Foxconn promised in 2013, for example, to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new high-tech factory in Pennsylvania, but it was never built.

Still, landing Foxconn is a victory both for Trump, as he touts his build America agenda, and for Walker, who is up for re-election next year.

'The panels will be made in America, proudly in the state of Wisconsin,' Walker said in the East Room on Wednesday.

Wisconsin could be on the hook for billions of dollars in incentives as part of the deal, though few details of the state's proposal have been released.

State Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Wisconsin Legislature's budget committee, said any deal would be examined with a 'fine-toothed comb' and need to win approval by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Landing the multi-state competition has been cast as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Foxconn is the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other devices for Apple and other brands

StiLanding Foxconn is a victory both for Trump, as he touts his build America agenda, and for Walker, who is up for re-election next year

The news sent a jolt of excitement across Wisconsin, even among longtime Democratic critics of Walker.

'It's an exciting opportunity,' said Democratic state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca. He also met with Foxconn executives and said Walker's administration told him the deal could lead to 10,000 or more jobs.

Barca, like many Democrats, voiced concern about how much taxpayers may have to contribute in tax breaks and other incentives.

'We want to make sure it's a fair deal for everybody,' he said. 'We want a win-win-win.'
Customer services officer Issachar Stainrod-Holness, 23, assisted married couple Robert(pic)and Judith Mabro when they attended his Bayswater branch on December 12 2014

An HSBC worker who raided 157,000 from the account of a renowned oil academic with dementia and took his girlfriend on luxury holidays has been jailed for 18 months.

Customer services officer Issachar Stainrod-Holness, 23, assisted married couple Robert and Judith Mabro when they attended his Bayswater branch on December 12 2014.

Mr Mabro CBE founded the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in 1982 and served as Director of the Institute until April 2003.

He also became a trusted advisor to some of the most powerful figures in the industry and helped broker a deal between OPEC and its rivals to cut production and stabilise oil prices in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

Following their visit to the bank, Stainrod-Holness hijacked the couple's account details to set up an initial transfer of 3,200 to his personal Halifax account the very next day.

Stainrod-Holness went on to set up a telephone banking account in the customers' names but using his own contact details as the verification number, Southwark Crown Court heard.

This allowed him to make a further 45 payments of between 3,500 and 9,000 from the customers' account into his own.

Prosecutor Gregor McKinlay said the fraud went undiscovered for so long because Mr Mabro CBE, who had sole custody of the account, had been battling dementia since 2011.

It was not until he passed away last August aged 81 that his 78-year-old wife began looking into the statements and discovered the spate of illegal transactions totalling 156,700.

Stainrod-Holness went on to set up a telephone banking account in the customers' names but using his own contact details as the verification number, Southwark Crown Court heard

'The fraudulent activity in this case only stopped when the defendant was arrested,' said Mr McKinlay. It is clearly a breach of trust as a bank employee.

'The Crown would also argue it is sophisticated in nature, setting up the telephone banking arrangement rather than simply processing one-off payments..'

Judge Joanna Korner, QC, interrupted, saying: 'Set against the fact he used his own bank account in his own name and his own telephone number.'

Stainrod-Holness admitted fraud by abuse of position.

Mrs Mabro spoke of her heartbreak at discovering the fraud in a statement read to the court.

Robert Mabro CBE: Adviser to giants of the oil industry Mr Mabro founded the world leading Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in 1982. Served as Director of the Institute until April 2003. He was a specialist in oil companies and the dynamics within OPEC, the oil producers' cartel. In the 1990s, he brokered a historic production cut between OPEC and its rivals following a slump in oil prices. On his death, Oxford said: 'He will be dearly missed and we are privileged to carry on his legacy.' Advertisement

'The money that had been stolen would have been intended for my family when I died,' she said.

'I have been provided the money back from the bank but if I had not been reimbursed I do not know the emotional impact this would have had.'

Stainrod-Holness first pilfered the cash to find himself and his partner a place to live.

But he confessed to probation staff the funds were soon withdrawn to bankroll expensive holidays across the globe for the pair as well as other luxury items.

Judge Korner told him: 'It is clear from the report that you understand just how despicable your behaviour was.

'I do not need to go into, as it were, all the details.

'But there can be no doubt at all that to take advantage of, even if you didn't know that Mr Mabro was suffering from dementia, it was clear when they came to your counter in December of 2014 that they were an elderly couple.

'And you took advantage of their vulnerability.

'It is clear to me that after the first removal of money, when this was not picked up, you just went on removing money.

'As the prosecution have said, I have no doubt that were it not for the fact that you were finally caught out by Mrs Mabro you would have gone on removing the money - particularly as the last withdrawal is the day before your arrest.

'This kind of abuse of trust is taken extremely seriously by the courts because people have to have confidence that employees, particularly of banks where they keep their life's savings quite often, will behave honestly in relation to those savings and as I have already said, you took advantage of them.'

Stainrod-Holness, of Balham, southwest London, was jailed for 18 months.
The former housemate of triple killer Joanna Dennehy has spoken about how she managed to put men 'under her spell'.

Dennehy murdered Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, her landlord and lover Kevin Lee, 48, and her housemate John Chapman, 56, before dumping their bodies in ditches near Peterborough in March 2013.

She is serving a whole life sentence in prison.

Toni-Ann Roberts, who knew the victims of the murderer, has spoken in a new documentary as she went back to the house they shared in Peterborough.

Joanna Dennehy is serving a whole life sentence after killing three men and dumping their bodies in a ditch in Peterborough in March 2013

Dennehy's former houseman Toni-Ann Roberts goes back to the house they shared in a revealing new documentary

In a revealing tell-all, to be shown on Thursday night on Channel 5, Ms Roberts said the killer had a 'way' about her, and put men under a 'spell'.

She said: 'I don't know how and I can't understand how men... were under her spell but she had her way and it worked.'

She even speaks frankly about the victims, including Navyman John Chapman, who served in the Falklands War.

Ms Roberts said: 'John mentioned on a few occasions that he was scared and he had to lock his door... and hide from Joanna, obviously and be quiet because he... he'd turn the TV off because he didn't want her to know that he was there.'

She confesses that thinking of Mr Chapman being dumped in the same ditch as her first victim, Lukasz Slaboszewski gives her 'the chills'.

She adds: 'She corrupted so many people's lives, it wasn't just one person, that one person had a family She took three people. They all had families, friends, people that cared about them. We've, we've all been left to deal with this.'

The documentary makers also spoke with James Budd, her prison pen pal, a 50-year-old builder who admits he has a fascination with serial killers.

The pair even got engaged in September 2014 when they were exchanging letters, but are said not to be in touch any longer.

She broke down as she spoke publicly for the first time since the killings of the three men at the hands of Dennehy

She said: 'I don't know how and I can't understand how men... were under her spell but she had her way and it worked'

Speaking about their relationship, he said: 'I'm not talking to Joanne Dennehy the killer, I'm talking to Joanne Dennehy my friend.

'I've seen another side to her and I wouldn't say she's sweet and cuddly but she doesn't seem to me to be the nasty person that she's portrayed as.'

The pair exchanged more than 20 letters before they stopped writing to one another.

He added: 'I knew she was in jail for the rest of her life and at thirty that could be the next fifty years. So, and bearing in mind I'd done a lot of prison meself, so I felt you know, if I was stuck away I would like someone else there to give me a hand if I needed it.

'Once we started talking about things you know I'd like to think that she looked forward to it, to getting my letters. I hope I made her smile a couple of times'

Joanna Dennehy was only the third woman to ever be handed the whole life sentence, and showed no remorse for the killings

The former couple were said to be planning to marry at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey and she was going to walk down the aisle to Jailhouse Rock.

Dennehy became only the third woman in British legal history to be handed a whole life sentence after she confessed to triple killing, with the judge branding her 'cruel, calculating and manipulative'.

Dennehy tried to kill two more men in a random act of violence following her three murders.

She later pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

After she was arrested, Dennehy told a psychiatrist she had started killing to 'see how it would feel, to see if I was as cold as I thought I was...then it just got more-ish.'

In CCTV, she's heard saying: 'Attempted murder and murder, thats nothing. Thats like going down for Sunday roast. Easy'

Later, she said: 'Attempted murder and murder, could be worse. I could be big, fat, black and ugly.'

Dennehy, was handed the 'life means life' sentence at the Old Bailey in February 2014.

Joanna Dennehy: Killing for Kicks, is on Channel 5 on Thursday, July 27, at 9pm.
A driver had a miraculous escape after suffering only minor injuries when her car was almost completely crushed under a lorry.

The female motorist in her 30s had to be cut out of a Renault Scenic after the vehicle careered into the side of a lorry in an early-morning pile up.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash on the A14 in Histon, Cambridgeshire, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A driver has made a miraculous escape after her car was almost completely crushed under a lorry

Firefighters later released pictures of the wreckage, and said: 'Cottenham and Cambridge crews attended this road traffic collision in Histon early this morning.

'Driver was released with no major injuries.'

The driver was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital to be treated but suffered only minor injuries.

A police spokesman told MailOnline: 'Officers were called to the scene at 4am this morning after the vehicle crashed into a stationary lorry.

The female motorist in her 30s had to be cut out of a Renault Scenic after careering into the side of a lorry in an early-morning pile up

'The A14 was closed while the recovery took place.'

Police said that no-one has yet been arrested over the incident.

An East of England ambulance spokesman confirmed the driver's injuries 'were not life-threatening'.
Two police officers have been charged with assault in the death of a mentally ill man who was shocked with a stun gun a dozen times and punched in the face even as he was lying on the ground.

Shocking police cruiser video released on Wednesday shows 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels being confronted by the two officers outside a convenience store in Omaha, Nebraska last month.

The video shows officer Scotty Payne shocking Bearheels a dozen times and also shows Ryan McClarty repeatedly punching the victim in the face, even after he appeared to be unconscious.

Scroll down for video

Omaha police officers Scotty Payne (left) and Ryan McClarty (right) were charged on Wednesday with assault in the death of mentally ill Zachary Bearheels last month

Bearheels, a Native American from Oklahoma, later died in hospital. Officials say he died after being shocked 12 times with the taser, punched and dragged by his hair by the officers.

Payne and McClarty were both fired from the Omaha Police Department this month.

They were charged with assault on Wednesday.

Zachary Bearheels, 29, died in hospital after he was stunned by a taser 12 times and repeatedly punched in the face outside a convenience store in Omaha on June 5

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he didn't charge the two officers with murder or manslaughter because there was no evidence they intentionally killed Bearheels.

He also said that the coroner could not say for certain that the punching or shocks from the stun gun caused Bearheels' death.

Payne was charged with second-degree assault, which carries a 20 year prison sentence. McClarty was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.

Two other officers on the scene - Jennifer Strudl and Makyla Mead - were placed on administrative leave following the death. They have not been charged.

Police said they were responding to a call at a convenience store on the night of June 5 for a disturbance involving a person who was refusing to leave the store.

According to his family, Bearheels had mental illnesses and was lost in Omaha after being kicked off an interstate bus going from South Dakota to Oklahoma.

Relatives believe Bearheels had stopped taking his medicine.

Shocking police cruiser video released on Wednesday Payne shocking Bearheels a dozen times and McClarty repeatedly punching the victim in the face

Officials say Bearheels died after being shocked 12 times with the taser, punched and dragged by his hair by the officers

His mother has told police and media in Omaha that her son was bipolar and schizophrenic.

Police say Bearheels was acting erratically and fought officers' efforts to take him into custody outside the convenience store.

After being shocked with a stun gun, Bearheels was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Matthew Burns, an attorney for Payne, says his client 'feels awful' about the fatal encounter.

Burns said Payne is 'not a bad person. He didn't set out that day to go to work with the intent to hurt anyone.

An attorney for McClarty did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment.
Guilty: Podiatrist Anuradha Megpara

An infatuated female foot doctor who bombarded a married surgeon with love letters and messages about their supposed marriage, her wedding dress and their future home has been struck off.

Podiatrist Anuradha Megpara, 54, became fixated with former colleague Dr Darryll Baker and hand-delivered more than 400 messages before accusing him of harassment.

She even sent him her passport and told the astonished Dr Baker they were moving in together.

Dr Baker, a surgeon at the private Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, northwest London, tried to ignore Megpara's advances.

He finally decided to go to police after Megpara tried to take out a non-molestation order against him in early 2015 as she delved further into the 'alternate reality' she had built in her mind.

She admitted harassment at City of London Magistrates' Court in April 2016 and was handed a suspended jail sentence.

Megpara was absent from her disciplinary hearing at the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service on account of her ill health, despite telling the regulator via phone call she would be present.

Kathryn Sheridan, for the HCPTS, said: 'There is no evidence to suggest that she is unfit to attend the hearing. She has not requested an adjournment.

'On the 5 April (2016) she was convicted at the City of London Magistrates' court for harassment without violence.

'She sent a number of unwarranted greetings cards confessing her love for Mr Baker.

'The panel will see that she originally pleaded not guilty before the subsequent change of heart on the first day of trial.

'She was sentenced at the magistrates' court to a period of six weeks' imprisonment that was suspended.

'The bench also saw fit to issue a restraining order not to contact Mr Baker directly or indirectly.

'On 25 April the registrant appealed against her sentence.

'The judge saw it as an aggravating feature that Miss Megpara issued a non-molestation order against Mr Baker. It could have had significant repercussions for his career.

'The matter was first reported in 2015 whereby Mr Baker received more than 400 letters over a number of years.

Megpara, 54, became fixated with former colleague Dr Darryll Baker (pictured) and hand-delivered more than 400 messages to him

'Mr Baker was prompted to contact the police after she tried to take out the non-molestation order.

'Fearing the vexatious repercussions, Mr Baker reported the matter and she was given an official harassment warning.

'However, on the 9 September the police again were contacted after she had continued to send correspondence just four weeks later.

'There were reports that Miss Megpara had also attended his place of work.

'Although Miss Megpara has shown some insight by virtue of her guilty plea, that plea was only changed at the outset of the trial. And she did not accept that by virtue of her appeal.

'This was a campaign of harassment and, although the indictable period was for a few months it continued over a period of a few years.

'She continued sending letters in complete disregard to the order that she was issued.'

Prosecutor Felicity Lineham earlier described the obsessive letters and harassment which caused Dr Baker to fear for his career, adding: 'She discussed her daily activities, she often referred to the victim, Mr Baker, as being Jewish which puzzled him somewhat as he is not Jewish.

'One of the letters which caused the most concern was one which made negative reference to his mother.

'Miss Megpara blamed his mother for her "dominance" of him, calling her a "Jewish mother".'

Dr Baker wrote a victim impact statement explaining that some of the cards referred to their supposed relationship and her wedding dress.

He said: 'I started to get more concerned when I started getting household records sent through because we were apparently moving in together.

'She sent her passport and I forwarded it to the passport office.'

Chris Stevens, defending, had told Megpara's court hearing that she was depressed following the death of her father and claimed she built an 'alternate reality' as a coping mechanism.

I started to get more concerned when I started getting household records sent through

He previously told the court: 'She accepts that she developed a fixation that developed to love with Mr Baker to fill a void within her life that escalated, and effectively she has created for herself an alternative reality.'

Megpara, of Havercourt, Havestock Hill, Camden, admitted harassment without violence.

Kicking Megpara out of the profession, HCPTS panel chair Sarah Baalham said: 'The registrant sent an obsessive amount of of letters, all of which were unwarranted.

'She pleaded guilty and received a custodial sentence and she was also made subject of a restraining order, costs and a victim surcharge.

'The registrant appealed her sentence at the Central Criminal Court and it was rejected.

'Miss Sheridan submitted that a finding of impairment must be found.'

Miss Baalham added: 'It is important to note that any sanction is not intended to punish the registrant but to protect the public.

'The panel noted that there are no issues with the competence of the registrant as she has an unblemished record as a podiatrist but the panel could not be satisfied that there would be no risk of repetition.

'The panel considered that a caution order would not be appropriate considering the gravity of the offending.

'The fact that there are no concerns with the registrants competence makes a conditions of practise order inappropriate.

'This is a serious criminal offence and there is a risk of repetition and the evidence suggests that she may be unable to resolve or remedy her failings.

'The panel took into account her chronic medical conditions but the gravity of the situation was that only a striking off order was the only appropriate sanction to declare, maintain and uphold the standards of the profession and the HCPC as a regulator.

'The panel is satisfied that only a striking off order with immediate effect is the only option'.
The investigator into the case of a prostitute who overdosed in the hotel room of a disgraced USC med school dean has revealed he was skeptical of his story.

Dr Carmen Puliafito, 66, was interviewed by police after Sarah Warren, 21, overdosed in his hotel room in March 2016, and was rushed to hospital. She survived.

Puliafito, the former dean of the University of Southern California's medicine school, claimed at the time he was a family friend of the prostitute and was at the Pasadena hotel room to help Warren.

But a recording of the conversation between the investigating officer and a social worker, at the hospital, reveals the cop was skeptical of the dean's account.

Dr Carmen Puliafito, the former dean of the University of Southern California's medicine school, has a history of partying and allegedly taking meth and ecstasy with criminals

'You buy it?' asked the social worker in the recording, recently released by Pasadena police released in response to a California Public Records Act request by The LA Times.

'No,' the officer, who has not been named, replied.

The social worker then laughs and says mockingly: 'A friend of the father. Excuse me?

'That's funny.'

The pair then discussed the meth found at the scene, Warren's provocative clothing' and speculated about their relationship.

Warren, now 22, told The Times police never interviewed her.

She says that six hours after she overdosed, Puliafito picked her up and they returned to the hotel where they carried on taking drugs.

Despite the officer's suspicions, no arrests were made. It was several months before a police report was even filed.

The woman, named as Sarah Warren, was rushed to hospital after the overdose in March 2016 and was able to recover. Police found meth in the hotel room but no one was ever arrested

Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez said on Tuesday that his officers lacked evidence to arrest Puliafito - despite finding meth in his hotel room.

Puliafito, nor USC, would not comment on the allegations.

Warren said she met Puliafito while working as a prostitute in 2015. They saw each other regularly and she claims they would often spend the night together in hotel rooms he paid for.

When she overdosed, Puliafito told the 911 operator he was a doctor.

'My girlfriend here had a bunch of drinks and she's sleeping,' he told the dispatcher. When asked if the woman had taken anything else, he replied: 'I think just the alcohol.'

Paramedics rushed Warren to hospital, where the cop met Puliafito to interview him about the overdose.

The disgraced dean is heard on the recording, claiming that he was a friend of Warren's father.

He denied they had a 'romantic relationship'.

When asked about the overdose, Puliafito said he thought Warren was sleeping.

'You as a doctor, did you notice anything that would have alarmed you?' the officer asked.

The 66-year-old abruptly quit his job as dean of Keck School of Medicine in March last year soon after a 21-year-old woman overdosed in his Pasadena hotel room

The ex-dean replied he was an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon.

'So not an emergency medicine physician. I mean, I basically looked at her respirations, you know,' he said. 'When I saw her at the beginning, she was responding to me.' Later, he said, Warren 'didn't seem to be waking up.'

He resigned as dean of Keck School of Medicine three weeks later after a witness to the overdose informed police and USC of Puliafito's behavior.

The university has since started the process of terminating Puliafito from the faculty and stripping him of tenure on Friday.

'This was the first time we saw such information first-hand,' Quick wrote. 'It is extremely troubling and we need to take serious action.'

'We certainly understand that substance abuse is a tragic and devastating disease. But we are also bound to our responsibilities as a university to take the necessary actions concerning Dr Puliafito's status.'

The announcement came the same day that USC said it had hired a former judge and federal prosecutor to head an investigation into allegations, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, that Puliafito was seen on video apparently smoking meth and consorting with addicts and criminals.

Debra Wong Yang, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, Superior Court judge and federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, will present her findings to a committee of the USC board of trustees.

'We are outraged and disgusted by this individual's behavior,' USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a letter announcing the investigation and urging colleagues to cooperate fully.

Puliafito (right) is pictured standing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger at the opening a USC clinic in 2010

Puliafito, 66, is a renowned eye surgeon.

He led the Keck School of Medicine for nearly a decade before resigning his $1.1 million-a-year post in 2016. However, he remained on the Keck faculty and continued to represent the university at public events as recently as last weekend.

His successor Dr. Rohit Varma initially claimed there was no record of the call, but yesterday a crisis management specialist revealed the school received the anonymous call but it never reached USC's top execs.

Puliafito's secret life was chronicled in photos and video shot between 2015 and 2016 by his drug-related friends.

The footage, reviewed by the Times, allegedly shows him taking pills and smoking from glass meth pipes.

It showed Puliafito - a renowned eye surgeon - partying with others in hotel rooms, cars and even the dean's office at USC.

He was filmed once showing an orange pill on his tongue before he swallowed it and said: 'Thought I'd take an ecstasy before the ball.'

The surgeon was also filmed heating a glass meth pipe, inhaling and blowing out white smoke.

Several men, most with criminal convictions, said Warren had introduced them to Puliafito. They claimed he had given them drugs like meth while they partied.

Puliafito heavily involved in fundraising and attended star-studded USC galas where he would pose behind celebrities, including Jay Leno. They are pictured above in 2014

Puliafito, who is married with three children, oversaw hundreds of medical students, professors research grants as dean of USC's med school.

He was also heavily involved in fundraising and attended star-studded USC galas where he would pose behind celebrities, including Jay Leno, Gwyneth Paltrow and Pierce Brosnan.

When he resigned from his $1.1 million job, the Harvard graduate said it was to explore outside opportunities.

Puliafito helped invent a laser technology to help diagnose and treat eye disease.

He also worked as director of the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Insitute from 2001 to 2007 before taking up his post at USC.

He was once hit with a lawsuit by an optometrist while working at the Miami university accusing him of assault and battery in 2006. Puliafito denied wrongdoing and him and the university reached a settlement with the optometrist the following year.

He is still on faculty at USC and his website says he still sees new patients at campus eye clinics.

Puliafito does not have a criminal record.
A Queensland senator embroiled in a dual citizenship controversy has produced papers showing his mother signed forms making him an Italian without his knowledge.

Matt Canavan showed the documents to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's office and Attorney-General George Brandis, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The Nationals senator resigned from cabinet on Tuesday after discovering his mother Maria had applied to make him an Italian citizen in 2006, when he was 25.

Scroll down for video

Maria Canavan applied to make her son Matt an Italian citizen in 2006 when he was 25

Matt Canavan has produced papers showing his mother signed papers to make him an Italian

She contacted her son after Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters had resigned as Greens senators for having dual New Zealand and Canadian citizenship, respectively.

An Italian consulate official told the newspaper Maria Canavan and her husband Bryan lodged the application for their son's Italian citizenship.

This was processed in January 2007 making the senator, now 36, eligible to vote in Italian referendums and elections.

Maria Canavan had signed the forms at Brisbane's Italian consulate which weren't forwarded to Matt Canavan, News Corp Australia said.

Her Gold Coast-born son, who quit as resources minister on Tuesday, is putting together a legal defence before the High Court in a bid to remain a senator.

Senator Canavan announced he was resigning as the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia on Tuesday while flanked by Attorney-General George Brandis (left)

Sentor Canavan (pictured) said it was his mother who had last week alerted him to his dual-citizenship

Senator Canavan said he had no idea he was a dual Italian citizen until this week.

'I was not born in Italy, I have never been to Italy and to my knowledge never set foot in an Italian consulate or embassy,' he told reporters on Tuesday.

'Until last week I had no suspicions I could possibly be an Italian citizen.'

The Nationals politician said his mother last week alerted him to his possible dual-citizenship but he had not received any word from Italian authorities about his citizenship status.

'Following the reporting of Senator Ludlam and Senator Waters, my mother raised with me the possibility I was an Italian citizen last week,' he said.

'The Italian authorities have confirmed that the application for Italian citizenship was not signed by me.

'To my knowledge I have not received any correspondence from Italian authorities about my citizenship status and they have not been able to provide any such records.'

Senator Canavan (pictured) was first elected to federal parliament in 2013

Senator Canavan said: 'I was not born in Italy, I have never been to Italy and to my knowledge never set foot in an Italian consulate or embassy'

Larissa Waters tearfully quit the Senate after discovering she was a dual Canadian citizen
Daniel Franklin Seymour, 43, was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly brandishing a samurai sword and threatening to kill two fellow drivers during a road rage incident

A Florida man allegedly pulled out a samurai sword and threatened to kill two people driving behind him on in an 'unprovoked' road rage incident.

Daniel Franklin Seymour, 43, of Brooksville, Florida was arrested on Tuesday afternoon after Adrian Rivera, 20, and Julian Rivera, 21, claimed that they were driving behind him when he started flashing obscene hand gestures at them from his window, slowing down and speeding up and 'brake checking' them  all without provocation.

Brake checking is the commonly used term for the act of trying to shake tailgating drivers by unexpectedly hitting the brakes on a vehicle in an attempt to force the car behind to back off.

Authorities said that Seymour continued to engage in this behavior until the road was wide enough for the Riveras to drive around Seymour, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

However, once they did so, the Riveras claimed that Seymour purposely sped up and hit their right rear fender with his left front fender. He then rammed into the back of their car when they tried to pull over.

When the Riveras successfully pulled over and exited from their car, police say that Seymour leapt from his own car to confront the Riveras in 'an aggressive manner.'

Seymour allegedly pulled this 25-inch samurai sword from the back seat of his car after ramming into the car driven by Adrian and Julian Rivera

When one of the Riveras told him to step back, Seymour allegedly withdrew a 25-inch samurai sword from the back seat of his car and said that he was going to 'kill them both,' according to Bay 9 News.

Seymour was arrested and booked into Hernando County Jail at about 2pm.

He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and reckless driving.

He is being held on $24,500 bail.
The world's largest active submarine was cheered by crowds as it arrived at a Russian naval base, with military bosses set to hold a huge show of force at the weekend.

The Dmitry Donskoy, one of the most feared vessels of the Cold War era, arrived today at Kronstadt Navy base, close to St Petersburg, ahead of the Naval Military Parade on Sunday.

The massive Typhoon-class sub, which can reach speeds of around 16.5 knots, has previously been equipped with more that 200 deadly weapons, including 20 nuclear missiles.

Crowds gathered at the Krondstadt Navy base, near St Petersburg, today, as the huge Dmitry Donskoy submarine arrived ahead of the weekend's Naval Military Parade

The submarine (centre) was pictured in Danish waters earlier this week as it made its way to the naval base for the parade

The 574-foot vessel serves as a chilling reminder to the rest of the world about Russia's nuclear prowess

The massive Typhoon-class sub, which can reach speeds of around 16.5 knots, has previously been equipped with more that 200 deadly weapons, including 20 nuclear missiles

The 574-foot vessel serves as a chilling reminder to the rest of the world about Russia's nuclear prowess.

It is named after the Prince of Moscow who reigned from 1359 to 1389, and can stay submerged for periods of up to 120 days. The submarine is fitted with six torpedo tubes.

Four Russian Navy fleets are set to mark the country's Navy Day on Sunday, with 100 ships set to be involved in the showcase parade.

Also arriving today ahead of the event was battlecruiser the Pyotr Velikiy, and Russia's only serving aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kyznetsov, is set to be integral to the weekend's event.

The submarine is named after the Prince of Moscow who reigned from 1359 to 1389, and can stay submerged for periods of up to 120 days

Four Russian Navy fleets are set to mark the country's Navy Day on Sunday, with 100 ships set to be involved in the showcase parade

Typhoon-class submarines feature multiple pressure hulls that simplify internal design while making the vessel much wider than a normal submarine.

In the main body of the sub, two long pressure hulls lie parallel with a third, smaller pressure hull above them which protrudes just below the sail, and two other pressure hulls for torpedoes and steering gear.

This design greatly increases their chances of survival  even if one pressure hull is breached, the crew members in the other are safe and there is less potential for flooding.

Four Russian Navy fleets are set to mark the country's Navy Day on Sunday, with 100 ships set to be involved in the showcase parade
A man charged with killing a Google employee from New York who went missing while out for a run near her mother's Massachusetts home has pleaded not guilty.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz was held without bail after entering his plea to a murder charge Wednesday in the death last summer of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte.

During his court appearance, he was allowed to remain out of sight at the request of his lawyer, who cited an 'identification issue.'

He also wore headphones during the proceeding so that a translator could inform the 31-year-old was was being said inside the courtroom.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz (right in headphones) pleaded not guilty to the murder of Vanessa Marcotte, 27, who was found dead near her parents home after going for a jog last August

Colon-Ortiz, 31, was arrested in April after prosecutors say his DNA matched samples from Marcotte's body (Marcotte above)

Marcotte was visiting her mother in Princeton, about 40 miles west of Boston, last August when she failed to return from a run.

Her body was found hours later in a nearby wooded area.

Colon-Ortiz was arrested in April after prosecutors say his DNA matched samples from Marcotte's body.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr commended Marcotte's bravery at that time.

'It was through her determined fight and efforts that we obtained the DNA of her killer,' he said at the time.

That allowed investigators then put together a DNA profile of Marcotte's killer.

They used that profile - and a report of a dark SUV spotted near the scene of the August 7, 2016 killing - to identify the suspect.

In a written statement released soon after Colon-Ortiz's arrest, Marcotte's parents said: 'After eight long months, we're able to take the first step toward justice for Vanessa.

'She was a beautiful, intelligent, and generous young woman whose passion for giving back to the community will always be remembered.

'As we move forward, her spirit will live on through The Vanessa T Marcotte Foundation that strives to empower women to live boldly and fearlessly.'

According to its website, the foundation's goal is to to help women 'live free from the fear of violence.'

It aims to to that by 'partnering with organizations that deliver educational programs to promote female empowerment, challenge and undermine gender stereotypes, and provide mentorship opportunities [for women].'
A Texas woman who discovered she was pregnant after being paralyzed for life by a gunman who shot her in the back during a Christmas Eve robbery is demanding justice as no arrests have been made.

Paxton Webb is paralyzed from the chest down after a bullet severed her spine during the horrific robbery at Katz Boutique in Houston last year.

The two armed black male suspects who stormed into the store and stole $6,000, before shooting the 23-year-old have not been arrested and Webb says they need to be held responsible for what they did.

'I live with that night every single day,' Webb, who is expecting a baby girl with her husband in a few weeks, told KHOU.

Scroll down for video

Paxton Webb discovered she was pregnant after being paralyzed for life by a gunman who shot her in the back during a Christmas Eve robbery. Roughly seven months later, she is demanding justice as no arrests have been made

Webb is paralyzed from the chest down after a bullet severed her spine during the horrific robbery at Katz Boutique in Houston, Texas. She and her husband, Brian (pictured right together) had been trying to conceive a baby for years prior to the robbery

Police are still searching for the two armed black male suspects who were caught on surveillance cameras (above) demanding $6,000 cash before shooting and leaving Webb for dead. She says they need to be held responsible for what they did

'It's not fair that I'm here and I'm having to basically re-learn how to live and both of those people are walking around like nothing ever happened.'

Webb hopes that someone will come forward with a lead that helps authorities apprehend the two suspects.

In the meantime, she and her husband are over the moon about welcoming their baby girl in the next few weeks.

She said prior to the shooting, they struggled to conceive for years.

Webb said: 'I live with that night every single day. It's not fair that I'm here and I'm having to basically re-learn how to live and both of those people are walking around like nothing ever happened'

Webb hopes that someone will come forward with a lead that helps authorities apprehend the two suspects. In the meantime, she and her husband (together above) are over the moon about welcoming their baby girl in the next few weeks

'She's the reason I'm here. I think God did that for a reason. He gave me her for a reason because there's no reason she should've survived,' Webb said.

She had only found out that she was four weeks pregnant when she was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the back, a moment that she will never forget.

'All of a sudden I get this ringing in my ears, and I'm falling backwards. And I see him step over,' Webb recalled of the shooting.

'I see those eyes every night before I go to sleep,' Webb said of the man who shot her.

Of the baby girl, Webb said: 'She's the reason I'm here. I think God did that for a reason. He gave me her for a reason because there's no reason she should've survived'

She had only found out that she was four weeks pregnant when she was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the back. Webb is expected to deliver her baby naturally. Pictured above is a sonogram image of her baby girl

'I complied with everything, gave them everything they wanted and they still shot me... I won't be able to get on the floor and play with my child or dance around the kitchen at midnight with my husband. ... I didn't deserve this. No one does.'

Surveillance footage from the store where she was working showed the masked robbers, armed with guns, bursting into the store at about 2am on Christmas Eve.

They demanded cash and went behind the counter where Webb helped them retrieve it. Before fleeing, they forced her to turn around and then shot her in the back.

Her family set up a You Caring crowdfunding page to help cover medical costs and is sharing updates on the Prayers for Paxi Facebook page.

Webb is expected to deliver her baby naturally.
A man who broadcast live on Facebook as he sped down a Florida beach while swigging whiskey from a bottle says he had intended to commit suicide.

Ryan Stiles, 27, sent beachgoers scrambling for safety when he drove over chairs and umbrellas on Clearwater Beach on July 20 as he led police on a nine minute high speed chase.

He live-streamed the chase on Facebook as he tore down the beach in his black SUV yelling expletives about the police cars following him.

Stiles, who is currently being held at the Pinellas County jail, told the Tampa Bay Times he had been scheduled to meet his public defender about a previous arrest for drunkenly assaulting a police officer at a motel.

But Stiles said he snapped and instead set out for what he called 'one last good hurrah.'

Ryan Stiles, 27, sent beachgoers scrambling for safety when he drove over chairs and umbrellas on Clearwater Beach on July 20 as he led police on a nine minute high speed chase

'I was hoping it was going to end a lot differently. My intentions were to take my own life,' he said from prison on Tuesday.

Facing multiple new charges, including DUI and reckless driving, Stiles later said he regretted 'that crazy drive on the beach' and insists he wanted to show people his life as an arborist wasn't as perfect as it appeared on social media.

'I wanted to show the world I'm not as perfect as everybody thinks I am. I'm just a troubled man trying to keep myself together,' he said.

The Facebook video shows Stiles repeatedly screaming: 'We're goin' die tonight' as he tore down the crowded beach.

'There's about 100 of them. They're about to shoot my a**. We've got so many police behind us right now!'

He held him phone out the window at one point to film one of the police cars in pursuit.

Moments later, Stiles intentionally crashed into a number of beach chairs and umbrellas as he cheered and screamed 'Crash parade, bro'.

Stiles held his phone out the window to film the police cars in pursuit (left) and moments later crashed into beach chairs and umbrellas as he cheered (right)

Stiles broadcast live as he tore down the beach in his black SUV yelling expletives about the police cars following him

Stiles didn't stop his car until he got to the northern end of Caladesi Island where he ran into a dead end.

Once he realized there was no way out, Stiles started swigging from a bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey as he told the camera the police had blown out his tires and the transmission had gone.

Clearwater Deputy Chief Donald Hall said Stiles eventually came to a dead end where he had to make a decision - drive his black SUV into the water or surrender.

He was taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including DUI, reckless driving, hit and run, and threatening a public servant.

Hall said people started calling 911 when they saw Stiles on Facebook Live, while others called from the beach.

Stiles (left in his mugshot and right during the pursuit) was taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including DUI, reckless driving, hit and run, and threatening a public servant

Clearwater Deputy Chief Donald Hall said Stiles eventually came to a dead end where he had to make a decision - drive his black SUV into the water or surrender
Have you ever had a Skype chat with family or friends while wearing just a top to cover your modesty?

Well this political analyst took informality to another level when he appeared on a news network interview wearing a blazer, shirt and tie but no trousers.

Majid Asfour, from Jordan, was speaking on the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera news network last Thursday to discuss the very serious matter of the recent shooting at the Israeli Embassy in Amman.

Majid Asfour gives a Skype interview in just his pants

However the expert, taking advantage of his laptop's camera, sat on a sofa with the computer set up so it could only film his upper body.

In the clip the person filming pans to the man live on the television screen then to Majid on the sofa speaking towards his laptop and an Al Jazeera journalist.

As the camera completes the pan it is clear that the interviewee is smartly attired on his top half but is sitting on the couch in just a pair of pants.

The Abu Dhabi Network channel posted the footage on Wednesday, to swathes of responses.

One amused person simply wrote: 'I can't.'

Another commented: 'Pants in the laundry.'

In the interview, Asfour was commenting on last Monday's shooting at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, when an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanians.
An acrobat has been taken to hospital after suffering 'horrific' injuries during a performance at Legoland Windsor.

The man hurt himself while taking part in the Pirates of Skeleton Bay performance at the Berkshire theme park, it is believed.

Concerned visitors reported seeing medics rush to the scene as well as an air ambulance arrive.

An acrobat has been taken to hospital after suffering 'horrific' injuries during a performance at Legoland Windsor

Legoland has confirmed that their employee has been taken to hospital for treatment.

A spokesman for the park tweeted: 'Our first responders attended immediately & the individual concerned has been taken to hospital. The show is closed until further notice.'

Park guests have taken to Twitter to voice their concern for the worker.

Paul Kelly wrote: 'We just witnessed an actor at Legoland Windsor having an accident during an acrobatic stunt. Hope he's ok.'

While another tweeter said: 'Thinking of the Legoland pirate following a horrific accident. Get well soon buddy!'

Legoland Windsor guests have taken to Twitter to voice their concern for the acrobat

Marianne Paris tweeted: 'Hope he makes a full recovery, was awful to see :-( thoughts with him and everyone else affected.'

Neil Perkins posted: '#legoland any news on the pirate hope he is ok but TBH never looked good. I thought the first aid should of acted quicker.'

The Pirates of Skeleton Bay act is described by the park as a 'pirate-themed live action show featuring acrobatics and swashbuckling swordplay'.

It features trained acrobats jumping from a light house tower with platforms overlooking a lake.
The Queensland government are moving to ban Christian references from school events and playgrounds in sweeping changes to education practices.

The Department of Education have conducted a review into the system and educating students about religion.

Officials are concerned non-religious children are being exposed to and forced to immerse themselves in Christianity, with even references to Jesus to be banned from the schoolyard, The Australian reported.

The Queensland government are moving to ban Christian references from school events and playgrounds in sweeping changes to education practices

The Department of Education's report stated the responsibility of the school 'to take appropriate action if aware that students participating in Religious Instruction are evangelising to students who do not.'

'This could adversely affect the school's ability to provide a safe, supportive and inclusive environment,' the report earlier this year stated.

Examples of evangelising, as explained in the report, including sharing Christmas cards themed with Jesus' birth and life, making bracelets to share 'the good news about Jesus' and making ornaments to give to each other.

Education Minister Kate Jones (pictured) promised to clampdown on religious practices, and Christian groups are becoming increasingly concerned at the government's agenda to remove their influence from schools

Education Minister Kate Jones promised to clampdown on religious practices, and Christian groups are becoming increasingly concerned at the government's agenda to remove their influence from schools.

Neil Foster, a religion and law professor, told The Australian the government's changes are 'deeply concerning' and 'possibly illegal'.

Independent Studies research fellow Peter Kurti said it was a 'massive assault on freedom of speech and freedom of religion' and believes the government's fears are a total overreaction.

'I don't think that children have the maturity to comprehend let alone evangelise.'
Tragic: Caitlain Wright overdosed while at her boyfriend's house

The mother of a 17-year-old girl who died after accidentally overdosing on gout tablets yesterday warned parents: 'Please keep your tablets locked away. It might just save a life.'

Caitlain Wright overdosed while at her boyfriend's house in July last year in what her mother described as 'a cry for help'.

The teenager called an ambulance herself and was conscious and even talking when she arrived at hospital.

But the student, from Whitley Bay, Northumberland, later died due to the damage the pills had done to her body.

An inquest heard she had been with her boyfriend Jordan Ellis at his home in Longbenton on July 22 last year.

They had been drinking alcohol and Jordan put her to bed before going to the pub later that night.

When he returned, he found Caitlain sitting on the top of the stairs and packets of tablets scattered on the kitchen floor. She said she had taken the tablets but did not give an explanation as to why.

Caitlain became severely ill and was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle by paramedics.

Her mother Pauline Wright recalled: 'The hospital rang us and just told us to get there quick.

'I just thought "why is a doctor ringing me at 8am?" I knew it was serious and I just raced up there.

Plea: Pauline Wright (pictured with her son Patrick) warned parents: 'Please keep your tablets locked away. It might just save a life.'

Desperate: Ms Wright held Caitlain's hand as medics tried to revive her after her heart stopped

'When I arrived they came out and said "we're working on her".'

Ms Wright held Caitlain's hand as medics desperately tried to revive her after her heart stopped, and she begged her daughter in vain to pull through.

Tuesday's inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre heard prescription drugs led to her death.

Now, Ms Wright has vowed to help other youngsters who may be having problems or mental health issues.

And she is asking families to make sure they keep their prescription drugs well away from any children.

The 45-year-old said: 'I feel relieved after the inquest. I have known from day one that my daughter would never have purposefully taken her own life.

'I have since spoken to a lot of other teenagers and found that many youngsters have found themselves in similar situations but have been lucky enough to come out the other side.

Accidental death: Caitlain Wright

'If someone has been drinking and socialising, and is maybe not feeling 100 per cent, they might reach for some tablets.

'But I want to raise awareness of this and help youngsters to think about the consequences of their actions and not to put themselves at risk but seek help for any problems they have.

'Teenagers have a lot of problems - for example, leaving school is such a big change in their lives. They have a lot of pressure on them, they might not know what to do and their friends might all be going in different directions.

'But the most important message I want to give out to parents is - if you have any children in the house, please keep all your tablets locked away. I feel very strongly about this. Put your medication under lock and key. It might just save a life.'

The family are planning to start the Caitlain Wright Foundation in the hope of helping youngsters who may have mental health problems or need other help.

Ms Wright, who also has a 10-year-old son Patrick, said: 'Everyone loved Caitlain.

'She was the life and soul of the party. If she walked into a room, she lit the room up.

'She would always be there for friends who needed help and she always felt very strong.

'Our focus now is on trying to set up this foundation so we can help others.'

Consultant pathologist Dr Holly Buist told the inquest that a number of prescription drugs were found in her system, including the tablets, which is used to treat gout.

Ms Wright said: 'I want to raise awareness of this and help youngsters to think about the consequences of their actions'

She concluded that the medical cause of death was due to the toxic effects of the gout treating medication.

Jordan, 19, Caitlain's boyfriend of two years, told the hearing she had never talked of harming herself or of being depressed.

Describing events on the night she fell ill, he added: 'Caitlain was on the stairs, she appeared to be under the influence of something, more than alcohol.

'She was constantly being sick. I remember going downstairs and finding the tablets.

'They were my dad's tablets and were usually kept in the cupboard above the sink.

'I was constantly asking her why she had taken them but she said she didn't know.'

He also said Caitlain had been her 'usual happy and bubbly self' that evening.

Coroner Karen Dilks said the youngster had no previous history of self-harming and there was no evidence to suggest she intended to take her own life.

She recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
A former youth pastor accused of killing and dismembering a teenage boy 23 years ago in Florida has been accused of sexually abusing more victims, according to court documents.

Ronnie Leon Hyde, 60, of Jacksonville Beach was arrested in March in connection to the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Fred Laster.

Hyde, a licensed mental health counselor, was charged with 12 counts of child porn and second-degree murder when he was arrested.

New court documents state that Hyde was sexually abusing Laster and two other boys around the time that the teenager went missing.

Ronnie Leon Hyde (left), 60, of Jacksonville Beach was arrested in March in connection to the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Fred Laster (right). New court documents state that Hyde was sexually abusing Laster and two other boys around the time that the teenager went missing

In June of 1994, an unidentified, dismembered male body was found behind a dumpster at a Lake City gas station. In 2015, the torso was identified as Laster's, which eventually led to Hyde's arrest

A search warrant from the day before Hydes arrest in March shows that police spoke to a victim who said he was abused by Hyde.

The victim said that Hyde had recorded the sexual abuse with a video camcorder, First Coast News reported.

A second victim, only described as Joey was also named by police, though officials have been unable to identify him.

Hyde had met Laster and Joey while serving as a youth pastor for Strength for Living Baptist Church, according to court documents.

Documents say that Hyde would perform sexual acts with the boys and spend long periods of time at his house with them.

The search warrant also details the child porn that Hyde had purchased between 2008 and 2010 for $745.

Laster's sister told police her brother was last seen with Hyde - a youth pastor and family friend.

In June of 1994, an unidentified, dismembered male body was found behind a dumpster at a Lake City gas station, an arrest affidavit obtained by News 4 Jax said.

A search warrant from the day before Hydes arrest in March shows that police spoke to a victim who said he was abused by the man. Pictured above, police search Hyde's residence in March

Video courtesy WJTX

The affidavit said that two bloody knives, a flannel shirt, and bath appliques were found at the scene.

In 2015, DNA tests concluded that the torso belonged to Laster.

The victim's sister in April 2016, the affidavit said, was asked by police if she knew of anyone possibly involved in her brother's disappearance, and she said 'Ron Hyde'.

It said: 'She stated that when they first met Hyde they attended the Strength for Living church in Jacksonville, and Hyde worked there as a youth pastor'.

Laster's sister told police the last day her brother was seen that he 'asked her to leave with him and she told him no and tried to calm him down,' according to the document.

Laster would go on to call his sister that night and tell her he was with Hyde, News 4 Jax reported.

The affidavit said that his sister said he 'sounded distant, emotional, and she asked him if he was ok'.

uthorities think Hyde wore his elderly father's flannel shirt as he killed the teen at his Jacksonville Beach home (police pictured at the home above), and dismembered the boy's body with kitchen knives

According to the TV station, authorities think Hyde wore his father's flannel shirt as he killed the teen at his Jacksonville Beach home, and dismembered the boy's body with kitchen knives.

Police think Hyde used his father's Chevrolet Camaro to dispose of the dismembered body, the TV station reported.

The affidavit said authorities pulled trash from Hyde's Jacksonville Beach home in April 2016, and that a DNA profile from the trash matched the DNA found on the flannel shirt.

The document also said that regarding the bath appliques, Laster's 'family members recalled seeing these types of mats, treads, or appliques in Hyde's residence' in Jacksonville Beach.

News 4 Jax reported that one of Laster's brothers was living at Hyde's Jacksonville Beach home in 2002.

Regarding Hyde, Laster's cousin Samuel Laster told the TV station: 'We thought all along he was the person. Through the siblings, talking to them and information we found out, it all matches.

Hyde, a licensed mental health counselor, was charged with 12 counts of child porn and second-degree murder when he was arrested. A search warrant details the child porn that Hyde had purchased between 2008 and 2010 for $745

'The state attorney, I think they got all they need to prove the case. It seems like he preyed on these kids.

'It was easy bait because my aunt had passed, my uncle wasn't around and Ron preyed on their grandmother.

'And I think he took advantage of her by seeing an opportunity to manipulate these children through a church event or whatever it was.'

Hyde said on social media that he works at Crosswater Community Church, News 4 Jax reported. According to the TV station, Pastor Jack Millwood said the church is cooperating with the investigation.

Millwood was quoted as saying: 'I am personally not aware of any victims of Ron Hyde that involve anyone associated with Crosswater.'

Hyde, a mental health counselor, was a contractor for a Department of Corrections health services provider, the station reported.

The state DOC told News 4 Jax that the department is cooperating with the FBI.

State Attorney Melissa Nelson told local media on Tuesday: 'This is a reminder that justice has no expiration date, and my office intends to continue the hard work of our law enforcement partners to deliver long-delayed justice.'
At just eight months old, little Sun Menghan has undergone six operations and is now fighting for life.

The baby, from China, has congenital biliary atresia, a condition where the bile ducts become inflamed and blocked, which can cause the liver to fail.

Menghan parents abandoned the child when the doctors told them that medical treatment for the baby could be expensive; but her grandparents are doing whatever they could to save the girl.

Sun Menghan, from China, has been under intensive care after her live transplant failed

The eight-month-old girl has congenital biliary atresia, a condition where the bile ducts become inflamed and blocked, which can cause the liver to fail

Menghan's grandfather breaks down in tears after hearing the girl's condition was critical

Menghan's parents told the doctors to stop treating the girl in January, when the girl was three months old.

Before disappearing, her mother apparently told the doctors that she would rather try for another child than spend a lot of money treating Menghan without a guarantee that she would recover.

The girl was then sent to her grandparents to be looked after in the far-flung Xinjiang Province in western China.

Six months after Menghan was left in her cold hospital ward by her parents, the baby's grandfather, Sun Sitao, spoke to MailOnline about the child's battle for life.

Mr Sun, a farmer, said Menghan was born last November.

His family originally come from Anhui Province, eastern China, and the elderly couple moved to Xinjiang for work.

At three months old, Sun Menghan was abandoned by her parents who didn't want to pay for her medical bills. She is pictured before (right) and after (left) the liver transplant operations

Menghan's grandparents have been looking after the baby after her parents walked out on her

Mr Sun said after Menghan's parents deserted the child, he and his wife were doing their best to provide the girl with medical and emotional support.

At first, they took the girl to hospitals in Xinjiang.

But in June, they left Xinjiang for Tianjin - after one of the hospitals in Tianjin told them they had found a matching donor.

Menghan, who is eight months old now, has undergone six operations so far.

Mr Sun said Menghan's first liver transplant failed on July 4 because the baby's body rejected the new organ.

Two more operations were carried out in a bid to save the girl, one on July 12 and one on July 16.

The heart-broken grandfather said Menghan has been under intensive care after her last operation, which lasted 11 hours.

The baby's grandmother is looking after her in a hospital ward before the operations

Sun Sitao and her wife wait outside the operating theatre as Menghan undergoes surgery

Mr Sun said he was disappointed by his son and his daughter-in-law, who stopped caring for the child 'once for all'.

The man added that the couple hadn't given any love to Menghan and left the girl for him and his wife to look after without checking on her.

It was under Mr Sun's repeated requests that Menghan's father showed up in the hospital to sign a consent form for Menghan's surgery as her guardian.

The grandfather said Menghan's parents hadn't spent any money on her treatment 'because they don't have money'.

Menghan's father works in a factory in Anhui and earns 2,000 yuan (226) while her mother is a full-time housewife and suffers from depression.

However, Mr Sun also said after Menghan's story was featured by Chinese media, her mother started showing remorse.

Menghan's mother is currently looking after Menghan's elder brother at their home in Anhui, according to Mr Sun.

A doctor explains Menghan's condition to her grandfather outside the operating theatre

Apparently, Menghan's grandparents have spent all their savings trying to save the girl. Volunteers from a charity group have set up a donation page for Menghan and the public have donated more than 500,000 yuan (57,000) to her.

Mr Sun said the six operations had cost most of the 500,000 yuan, but doctors and volunteers promised him and his wife that they would try everything within their power to save Menghan.

The grandfather said he hoped Menghan's condition could stabilise soon and she could recover from the operations.
A Lufthansa passenger jet has been forced to divert to Manchester Airport after a woman gave birth during the flight.

The flight crew was quick to handle the mid-air drama and, luckily, three doctors were on board to help with the delivery.

The plane, which was travelling from Colombia to Frankfurt, landed safely at the airport this afternoon after the special delivery.

A Lufthansa passenger jet (pictured) has been forced to divert to Manchester Airport after a woman gave birth during the flight

The mother and her newborn son were then taken to a local hospital for further care, an airline spokeswoman said.

The mother gave birth over the Atlantic around an hour and forty-five minutes from Manchester.

A spokeswoman for the airline said: 'Lufthansa can confirm that a passenger gave birth to a baby on board during the flight LH543 from Bogota on the way to Frankfurt.

The flight crew was quick to handle the mid-air drama and, luckily, three doctors were on board to help with the delivery. A Lufthansa spokesman said: 'It's a boy!'

'Three doctors were on board and supported the crew during the delivery.

'In order to give the best medical care and assistance to the mother and baby the crew decided to divert the flight to Manchester, where it landed at 1.09pm local time.'

She added: 'The mother and the newborn were safely de-boarded from the aircraft by an ambulance and taken to a local hospital where they are being cared for.

The mother gave birth over the Atlantic around an hour and forty-five minutes from Manchester (pictured)

What nationality will the baby be? Laws around this question are unclear in part because in-flight births are so rare. According to one expert, the nationality of the baby depends on the nationality of the plane. Alastair Bonnett said: 'If your plane is registered in Norway, even when you are in mid-Pacific, flying between Fiji and Tahiti, you are still in Norway and have to abide by Norwegian law,' according to NPR. A Lufthansa spokesman added: 'The place of birth depends on the sovereign territory the plane was flying over at the moment of the child's birth.' Advertisement

'The flight was operated with an Airbus A340-300 with 191 passengers on board.

'It is currently being refueled at Manchester Airport and will soon continue onwards to its final destination - Frankfurt.'

A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport confirmed the news, saying: 'The plane landed at Manchester Airport at about 1.10pm, after the woman gave birth on board.'

The plane was diverted so the woman and her newborn could be cared for and it's understood the plane was due to depart at 2.30pm to complete the rest of the journey.

Many airlines don't allow women to travel on board during the third trimester of their pregnancy, but policies vary across airlines.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. THE NEW MEXICO OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLE ALLIANCE, Petitioner - Appellant, v. UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture; THOMAS TIDWELL, in his official capacity as Chief of the United States Forest Service; JAMES MELONAS, in his official capacity as Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor; CAL JOYNER, in his official capacity as Regional Forester, Southwestern Region, United States Department of Agriculture; SONNY PERDUE, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Respondents - Appellees.* No. 17-2004 Decided: July 24, 2017

Before MATHESON, McKAY, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT **

This appeal concerns a second action brought by Petitioner-Appellant New Mexico Off-Highway Alliance (Alliance) against the United States Forest Service and others regarding the Forest Service's Record of Decision for Travel Management on the Santa Fe National Forest (ROD) and related Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). In 2016 we resolved the Alliance's first petition seeking to challenge these Forest Service actions by finding that the organization had failed to establish Article III standing to challenge them and that we and the district court therefore lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the suit. In this second action, the Alliance again seeks to challenge the ROD and FEIS, but has now presented additional facts, which were available to it in its first action, that it contends remedy the standing deficiencies we previously found. The district court dismissed this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding that issue preclusion prevented the Alliance from relitigating the previously decided standing issue. The Alliance appeals, arguing that issue preclusion only bars relitigation of jurisdictional issues if the previously adjudicated jurisdictional defect has not or cannot be cured. The district court properly found that this is not the law in this circuit. We exercise appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291 and affirm.

BACKGROUND

The Alliance filed its first petition challenging the ROD and FEIS in December 2012 [hereinafter 2012 action]. Aplt. App. at 130; see N.M. Off-Highway Vehicle All. v. U.S. Forest Serv., No. 1:12-cv-1272 WJ-GBW, 2014 WL 6663755 (D.N.M. July 25, 2014) (NMOHVA I), vacated, 645 F. App'x 795 (10th Cir. 2016). To establish Article III standing before the district court in the 2012 action, the Alliance submitted a sworn declaration by Mark R. Werkmeister, one of its board members, in which he asserted the ROD and FEIS adversely affected him and other Alliance members by constraining their present and future use of the Santa Fe National Forest. Aplt. App. at 6-8; see N.M. Off-Highway Vehicle All. v. U.S. Forest Serv., 645 F. App'x 795, 801 (10th Cir. 2016) (NMOHVA II). The district court found this declaration was too vague to establish a concrete and particularized injury that was actual or imminent as required, but nonetheless found the Alliance had demonstrated standing by the slimmest of margins based on the administrative record and representations made at a hearing. NMOHVA I, 2014 WL 6663755, at *3-4. The district court then proceeded to consider the Alliance's claims, and denied them on the merits. Id. at *14.

The Alliance appealed the district court's decision. After a thorough examination of the record, we determined that we and the district court lacked jurisdiction to decide the merits of the case because the Alliance had not, in fact, carried its burden to establish Article III standing. NMOHVA II, 645 F. App'x at 800, 806. We therefore remanded the case to the district court with instructions to vacate its judgment and dismiss the 2012 action without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Id. at 807.

After the district court complied with our direction, the Alliance filed this second action seeking to challenge the ROD and FEIS, this time providing an expanded standing declaration by Mr. Werkmeister and a new standing declaration by another Alliance member. Aplt. App. at 31-47. The Alliance argued to the district court that these declarations remedied the standing deficiencies identified in NMOHVA II and thus demonstrated its standing and the court's subject matter jurisdiction over the suit. The district court dismissed the Alliance's second petition upon finding that the additional information provided in the declarations had been available to the Alliance in its previous action, and that the doctrine of issue preclusion prevented the organization from relitigating the standing issue based on previously available facts. Aplt. App. at 129-34. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Where there are no disputed facts, as is the case here, the preclusive effect of a prior judgment or determination is a pure question of law we review de novo. Lenox MacLaren Surgical Corp. v. Medtronic, Inc., 847 F.3d 1221, 1230 (10th Cir. 2017); Valley View Angus Ranch, Inc. v. Duke Energy Field Servs., Inc., 497 F.3d 1096, 1100 (10th Cir. 2007).

The law relevant to the issues on appeal is well settled in this and other courts. Under Article III of the Constitution, standing is a prerequisite to federal court jurisdiction to hear and decide a case. See Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498 (1975); Coll v. First Am. Title Ins. Co., 642 F.3d 876, 892 (10th Cir. 2011). Standing and other such threshold jurisdictional issues are subject to the doctrine of issue preclusion. Park Lake Res. Ltd. Liab. Co. v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., 378 F.3d 1132, 1136 (10th Cir. 2004); Nat'l Ass'n of Home Builders v. EPA, 786 F.3d 34, 41 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (Home Builders II). [I]ssue preclusion bars a party from relitigating an issue once it has suffered an adverse determination on the issue, even if the issue arises when the party is pursuing or defending against a different claim. Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1136; see Taylor v. Sturgell, 553 U.S. 880, 892 (2008). This bar is part of the res judicata doctrine and as such protects against the expense and vexation attending multiple lawsuits, conserves judicial resources, and fosters reliance on judicial action by minimizing the possibility of inconsistent decisions.  Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1135 (quoting Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 153-54 (1979)).

Issue preclusion ordinarily applies when:

(1) the issue previously decided is identical with the one presented in the action in question, (2) the prior action has been finally adjudicated on the merits, (3) the party against whom the doctrine is invoked was a party, or in privity with a party, to the prior adjudication, and (4) the party against whom the doctrine is raised had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior action.

Id. at 1136 (quoting Dodge v. Cotter Corp., 203 F.3d 1190, 1198 (10th Cir. 2000)). The second element, final adjudication on the merits, is not a prerequisite to preclusion of issues determined in ruling on a jurisdictional question, however. Id.

The Alliance does not dispute that it had a full and fair opportunity to litigate Article III standing in the 2012 action and that it was a party to that action. It asserts that issue preclusion nonetheless does not apply here because the standing issue decided in the 2012 action is not identical to the issue as presented in this action. Specifically, the Alliance contends that the additional information it provided in its new and expanded standing declarations has cured the standing deficiencies identified in the 2012 action and that this distinguishes the standing issue presented here from that decided in its 2012 action.

This argument is grounded in the curable-defect exception to jurisdictional issue preclusion, in which we and other courts have recognized that in some circumstances  suit may be brought again where a jurisdictional defect has been cured or loses its controlling force.  Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1137 (quoting Eaton v. Weaver Mfg. Co., 582 F.2d 1250, 1256 (10th Cir. 1978)). As we stated in our decision in Park Lake, however, the change in circumstances that cures the jurisdictional defect must occur subsequent to the prior litigation. Id. (emphasis added); see Home Builders II, 786 F.3d at 41 (curable-defect exception is sharply limited because it applies only if a material change following dismissal cured the original jurisdictional deficiency). This limit on the curable-defect exception follows from the rule that issue preclusion generally is appropriate if both the first and second action involve application of the same principles of law to a historic fact setting that was complete by the time of the first adjudication. 18 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure  4425 at 696 (3d ed. 2016) (statement quoted with approval in Jarvis v. Nobel/Sysco Food Servs. Co., 985 F.2d 1419, 1425 (10th Cir. 1993)).

The district court found, and the Alliance does not dispute, that all of the additional facts included in its new and expanded standing declarations were available to the Alliance prior to dismissal of the 2012 action. Aplt. App. at 133-34. Presenting these previously available facts in new sworn declarations does not constitute a change in circumstances that will avoid the preclusive effect of a jurisdictional determination in an earlier action. Perry v. Sheahan, 222 F.3d 309, 318 (7th Cir. 2000); see Home Builders II, 786 F.3d at 43. As a result, the standing issue before us is substantively the same as that raised and decided in the 2012 action and cannot be relitigated. See Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1137-38; Perry, 222 F.3d at 318.

We are not persuaded by the Alliance's argument that the limit Park Lake placed on the right to cure a jurisdictional defect applies only when the previous action was dismissed for lack of ripeness. While it is true that ripeness was the jurisdictional defect at issue in Park Lake, our discussion of the curable-defect exception in Park Lake speaks to jurisdictional defects generally and is supported by citations to authority that applied the limited exception to prior jurisdictional determinations that did not involve ripeness. See Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1137-38 (citing with approval Dozier v. Ford Motor Co., 702 F.2d 1189, 1192 & n.4 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (Scalia, J.) (curable-defect exception does not allow reliance on preexisting facts to avoid preclusive effect of determination that diversity jurisdiction was lacking) and Magnus Elecs., Inc. v. La Republica Argentina, 830 F.2d 1396, 1401 (7th Cir. 1987) (same with respect to prior determination that subject matter jurisdiction was lacking under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act)). Contrary to the Alliance's assertion, this limited reading of the curable-defect exception was material to our holding in Park Lake. See, e.g., id. at 1137 (rejecting new ripeness theory because it was not based on any facts postdating the prior litigation). Other authorities have also affirmed the preclusive effect of prior lack-of-standing determinations when the plaintiff only offers facts that were available before dismissal of the first action. See, e.g., Home Builders II, 786 F.3d at 41-43; Perry, 222 F.3d at 318; In re V&M Mgmt., Inc., 321 F.3d 6, 9 (1st Cir. 2003). Finally, we note that this rule, that prior standing and other jurisdictional determinations cannot be overcome absent presentation of material post-litigation facts, is consistent with the principles underlying issue preclusion, because it avoids the expense, vexation and inefficiency of  allow[ing] a plaintiff to begin the same suit over and over again in the same court, each time alleging additional facts that the plaintiff was aware of from the beginning of the suit, until it finally satisfies the jurisdictional requirements.  Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1138 (quoting Magnus Elecs., 830 F.2d at 1401).

The Alliance also argues the district court erred in finding that our standing determination in NMOHVA II barred it from demonstrating standing in the present action because we directed there that dismissal of the 2012 action be without prejudice. 645 F. App'x at 807. This direction, however, refers to the plaintiff's ability to assert its substantive causes of action in a court of competent jurisdiction and does not limit the preclusive effect of prior jurisdictional determinations. See Dozier, 702 F.2d at 1194 (usual meaning of without prejudice is without prejudice as to the substantive cause of action but with prejudice on issues litigated in prior action) (quoting In re Kauffman Mut. Fund Actions, 479 F.2d 257, 267 (1st Cir. 1973)). Dismissals for lack of jurisdiction should be without prejudice because the court, having determined that it lacks jurisdiction over the action, is incapable of reaching a disposition on the merits of the underlying claims. Brereton v. Bountiful City Corp., 434 F.3d 1213, 1218 (10th Cir. 2006) (emphasis in original). Dismissal on standing or other jurisdictional grounds, even though without prejudice as to the merits of the plaintiff's claims, will have a preclusive effect on these same jurisdictional issues if they arise in a future action. Id. at 1218-19. There is no inconsistency, therefore, in our direction in NMOHVA II that the Alliance's 2012 action be dismissed without prejudice and the district court's and our determination here that this prior dismissal for lack of standing precludes the Alliance from relitigating standing in the present action.

We have considered the Alliance's other arguments challenging dismissal of this action and find them to be meritless. Most of the case law cited in support of these arguments pre-dates our refinement of the curable-defect exception in Park Lake or is distinguishable because it concerns claim preclusion rather than issue preclusion. See Park Lake, 378 F.3d at 1135-36 (distinguishing between claim and issue preclusion).

CONCLUSION

For the reasons stated above, the district court's dismissal of this action is AFFIRMED.

Entered for the Court

FOOTNOTES

. After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to honor the parties' request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

Monroe G. McKay Circuit Judge
A controversial female Imam, who received death threats after opening a liberal mosque for all Muslims, says the UK's Sharia courts breed Islamic extremism and called for them to be shut.

Seyran Ates, who preaches at the Berlin mosque for women, men, Sunni, Shiite, straight and gay Muslims, said the secretive Islamic courts in the UK are a mistake  and linked them to recent terror attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline Ms Ates, 54, said hardline Sharia courts support fundamentalists and are alienating moderate Muslims, adding: 'Britain has a multi-cultural society and London, especially, is a melting pot.

'But you have made mistakes in the case of Islam. There have been a number of attacks in a very short time. More than any other country, you need to talk about extremism in Islam. You need a more open debate about secularism.

'I don't accept that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam,' she said. 'It has to have something to do with Islam because these people are shouting 'Allahu Akbar'.

Controversial: Seyran Ates is the world's first lesbian Imam, who opened a liberal, burqa free mosque for all Muslims whether gay, straight, Sunni, Shiite, men or women in Germany

Liberal: Ms Ates, opened the 'liberal' Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, where the only rule is that the burka or niqab is banned. She arrived in the UK to find a venue to open another liberal mosque

Outspoken: The 54-year-old female Imam, pictured leading a worship in Berlin, has been subjected to death threats and is being protected by bodyguards while she is in the UK

'Britain's big mistake was to install sharia courts. They have to be forbidden. They are fighting against women. You won't find an objective judge in a sharia court.'

Strict Sharia courts, of which there are around 85 operating in the UK, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles.

But they treat women as second-class citizens, a damning report in 2015 claimed.

The parallel justice system runs against the law of the land and is condemning British Muslim women to 'marital captivity' while failing to protect them from domestic violence, said the independent study written by Dutch academic Machteld Zee.

Calling on them to be banned in the UK, Ates added: 'Women there will never have the same rights as men.'

The Imam, a single lesbian, is in London to find a venue where men and women of all Muslim sects and sexuality and can pray side by side.

'I am proud to be a Muslim, a lesbian, a lawyer and an author,' she said.

Ates is in the UK with a team of bodyguards, needed because she has received death threats from around the world over her liberal approach to Islam.

Her courage was yesterday applauded by three members of the House of Lords, who are all backing her initiative.

Lord Patel, a Labour peer in Bradford, which has a sizeable Muslim community, said: 'I stand behind Seyran Ates' push for inclusivity and the freedom of choice in worship.'

Lord Carlile, QC, who was the first member of parliament to campaign for the rights of transsexuals, added: 'I support her efforts, and applaud her courageous initiatives.'

While the human rights barrister and crossbencher Baron Pannick, said: 'Seyran Ates certainly has my support, and should have the support of all who believe in freedom of religion. It is sad that those who take advantage of freedom of religion for themselves are so reluctant to grant it to others.'

The daughter of Turkish immigrants, Ates has lived in Germany since the age of six. A family lawyer, she has dedicated her adult life to human rights, risking her life for the cause.

When she was just 21 years old, and working for an advice centre for Turkish women, she narrowly survived a shooting  she almost died of her wounds.

Since then, she has faced a series of death threats, being forced to close her legal office in 2006 while she was fighting arranged marriage.

'The husband of a client tried to kick me and beat me,' she explained. 'I got so many death threats that I decided to close my office and give up my licence as a lawyer.

But Ms Ates did not retire. She just transferred her skills to writing, publishing three years later, her controversial book, Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution. This time the threats led her to retire from the public eye.

Ms Ates, pictured visiting Regents Park mosque today, said: 'I don't accept that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. It has to because these people are shouting 'Allahu Akbar'.

Security: The daughter of Turkish immigrants, Ms Ates has lived in Germany since she was six. Her liberal views have led to number of death threats and she is under 24-hour protection

However, in June this year, she came out of retirement to open the 'liberal' Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, which is named after the medieval Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd and German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe and housed inside a Protestant church in Berlin.

Inside a congregation of about 30 Sunni, Shia, Alevi, Sufi Muslim men and women and members of the LGBTQ community pray together side by side in the face of adversity. They estimate they have 100 supporters, who attend either Friday prayers or Sunday brunch.

Not only has the institution been issued with a fatwa from Egypt but it has been attacked by religious authorities in Turkey who have suggested the movement is connected to US cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom they blame for last year's attempted coup.

However, Ms Ates has refused to be deterred, despite being under 24-hour armed protection since receiving a death-threat days after the mosque opened.

She has now launched a European citizens' petition to persuade the EU to 'draft a bill to prevent and reduce the negative consequences of extremism'. She needs a million signatures from seven member states for the initiative to be debated.

'People ask me: 'How can you be so brave?',' she said. 'But I feel much more free than brave because I'm brave enough to have fear. Fear is normal. It is human. The fight for freedom should not be brave.

Ates leads the prayer in the Ibn-Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin says introducing Sharia courts in the UK was a mistake because they breed to extremism and called for them to be banned

Ms Ates added: 'Britain's big mistake was to install sharia courts. They have to be forbidden. They are fighting against women. You won't find an objective judge in a sharia court.'

'I'm sad that more people are not brave enough to use their brain and use their freedom, the freedom we have in democracy. We are living in the luxury of freedom and so many people closer to us are not.

'I'm not alone anymore as a single lawyer, single author. I'm in a wave, in a movement. I get more than 300 emails every day, 95 per cent of which are supportive, and there are millions of people behind us. I still get messages on social media, sending me pictures of a gun with the word 'soon'. But I will never give up my work.'

To sign the petition, go to www.stopextremism.eu
Advertisement

Dozens of protesters bearing placards and flags have descended on one of Melbournes busiest streets to rally for opposing sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The first rally was staged on Federation Square in support of Palestine, following bloody clashes triggered by new Israeli security measures at Jerusalem's holiest site.

A phalanx of police separated them from a counter-protest just meters away on the steps of Flinders Street Station, where protesters waved Israeli flags under heavy downpour.

Fears were raised the rallies could turn violent, but a heavy police presence kept the event peaceful and the groups engaged in dialogue.

A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia there were no incidents.

Last Friday, six people were killed in the bloodiest spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years, prompted by new security at the Temple Mount.

Three Israelis were stabbed to death in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, hours after three Palestinians were slain in violent attacks.

Counter-protesters wave Israeli flags under heavy downpour at on Melbourne's Federation Square on Wednesday night

Protesters hold pro-Palestine signs at Federation Square, where opposing sides of the conflict faced off just metres apart

A protester speaks into a megaphone as part of the peaceful event, which police confirmed passed without incident

The event came after bloody clashes triggered by new Israeli security measures at Jerusalem's holiest site

Pro-Israeli-protesters braved the downpour bearing flags

A phalanx of police separated the two groups and ensured the event remained peaceful

Pro-Palestine protesters bore placards reading 'end the occupation' and 'Free Palestine'

Last Friday, six people were killed in the bloodiest spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years
In her latest public appearance since her husband left office, former first lady Michelle Obama told a gathering in Denver on Tuesday she was hurt by racist comments made about her during her time in the White House.

Obama alluded to insults including those that referred to her as an ape as well as derogatory remarks about her body parts, according to The Denver Post.

When she was asked about breaking the glass ceiling as the first black first lady, Obama spoke about 'the falling glass shards that cut the deepest.'

'The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut,' she said.

'Knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won't see me for what I am because of my skin color.'

In her latest public appearance since her husband stepped down, former first lady Michelle Obama told a gathering in Denver on Tuesday she was hurt by racist comments made about her during her time in the White House

Obama said she was particularly offended by insults including those that referred to her as an ape as well as derogatory remarks about her body parts

Obama spoke Tuesday before a crowd of 8,500 people at the Pepsi Center that had gathered to hear her thoughts on women's empowerment.

The event was staged by the Women's Foundation of Colorado.

Even though she's been largely out of the public eye for months now, Obama remains a popular figure.

At the start of the event, attendees gave her a prolonged standing ovation, with some in the crowd chanting 'We love you.'

Obama conveyed the message that the scars she endured as first lady are no different than those endured by women, who should use those experiences to educate younger girls.

'Women, we endure those cuts in so many ways that we don't even notice we're cut,' she said.

After a leisurely three month vacation, Obama returned to public life this past April in Florida, where she addressed an architecture conference for her first public appearance

'We are living with small tiny cuts, and we are bleeding every single day. And we're still getting up.'

Obama also called on the audience not to despair in light of the recent political developments.

'The people in this country are universally good and kind and honest and decent,' she said.

'Don't be afraid of the country you live in. The folks here are good.'

This is the second time Obama has spoken extensively since the inauguration.

After a leisurely three month vacation, Obama returned to public life this past April in Florida, where she addressed an architecture conference.

Obama was the keynote speaker at the event, organized by the American Institute of Architects, where she spoke about her time as Chicago's assistant commissioner of planning and development.

After the 44th president stepped down, Michelle and Barack spent three months quietly recuperating on vacation. Last month, the Obamas were spotted enjoying family time in Bali with some white water rafting

The Obamas have mostly kept to themselves since leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on the heels of Trump's inauguration on January 20.

Michelle and Barack spent three months quietly recuperating on vacation.

Last month, the Obamas were spotted enjoying family time in Bali with some white water rafting.

Since leaving office, Barack, Michelle and Sasha have settled in a 8,200-square-foot mansion in Washington DC while their younger daughter finishes high school.

They also jetted off to Richard Branson's private Necker Island before vacationing in Italy.

They've both scored lucrative book deals, and unveiled plans to construct the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park to train and encourage the next generation of leaders.
The family of the young woman who was found floating face down and brain dead in a pool at her Mexican resort opened up about the tragedy in their first television interview on Tuesday.

The mother, stepfather and brother of Abbey Conner appeared on Good Morning America where they revealed they are now filing a lawsuit against Iberostar Hotels and Resorts over their refusal to cooperate with investigators in the case.

This resistance on the part of the hotel comes after toxicology reports showed that Abbey had a blood alcohol level of 0.25 when she was admitted to a local hospital and a number of former guests have come forward to share similar stories from their stay at the resort.

A lawyer for the family now believes that tainted alcohol caused the tragedy, a claim the resort vehemently denied earlier this month.

Scroll down for video

Tragdy: The family of Abbey Conner (above) spoke about her death on Good Morning America, revealing they are suing Iberostar Hotels and Resorts to get answers

Austin Conner (left) said the two had a few shots before they were both found unconscious, but they were each found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.25 (mother Ginny McGowan on right)

.@ABC News EXCLUSIVE: The family of teen who mysteriously died at a resort in Mexico speaks out to @GioBenitez: https://t.co/T3gtmmd6PF pic.twitter.com/Sd1PsQ3mfn  Good Morning America (@GMA) July 26, 2017

The family was on vacation at the chain's Paraiso del Mar location in Mexico when Abbey and her brother Austen somehow managed to black out in the span of less than an hour after having a shot with a group of men.

They were both found unconscious in the pool the staff would later tell the children's mother, and she arrived at the hospital to find her daughter on a ventilator and in a coma.

She was transported to a hospital in Florida when she had stabilized enough to travel, and a few days later they determined that the college student was in fact brain dead, and the decision was made to take her off of life support.

'We need the hotel to allow the police and our investigators to access the employees that were there,' explained Abbey's mother Ginny McGowan.

'They haven't responded to any of our requests.'

She later began to began to weep when she spoke about her daughter, saying: 'She was on the right path, a good path for her and she was happy.'

It was an emotional interview, especially for Austin, who was found alongside his sister in the pool and still has no recollection of what happened that evening.

When asked what he would tell his sister if he could see her now, Austin broke down in tears and said: 'I just almost want to say thank you for being there for me up to this point. I don't know what to do without her.

'Just thank you and I love you.'

He was asked to recount what he remembered about the day.

'We swam around for a little bit and decided let's celebrate with a drink,' said Austin.

'So we go up to the bar, and another group that was already there start talking...we didn't know them. The bartender pours out a line of shots, and I take one, and everyone else does.

'And the last thing I remember was like we are right now, sitting here talking, and lights went out. And I woke up in the ambulance.'

Emotional: During the interview Austin broke down as he said of Abbey: ' I don't know what to do without her'

Cause: The family now believes that Abbey and Austin were served tainted alcohol, a claim the resort has denied (a look at the resort's large pool above)

Austin was then asked if maybe the two had just consumed too much alcohol.

'I've thought about it and I mean, it is a possibility,' said Austin.

'But how if we're in a group of people do two people at the same exact time just pass out in the pool and no one sees it.'

The Iberostar previously shot down the idea that tainted alcohol was to blame, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 'we only purchase sealed bottles that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities...We are deeply saddened by this incident and reiterate our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family.'

Ginny was also asked during the interview what she would say to her daughter, a question that left the woman in tears and struggling to speak.

'I guess I would like to say I hope she didn't suffer at all and I hope she's at peace,' said Ginny.

'We miss her,' said Ginny's husband John.

'I miss her,' said Ginny.
A Pennsylvania professor known for her expertise on consumer trends has been charged with keying her neighbors' cars, resulting in thousands of dollars of damage.

Duquesne University professor Audrey Guskey, 62, was charged with criminal mischief after police said she scratched four cars with a key and caused more than $10,000 total damage in June.

Police say a neighbor, Zachary McGill, who lives on the same street as Guskey, in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, grew suspicious after several cars were damaged. He set up a camera to try to capture someone in the act of damaging the cars.

Duquesne University professor Audrey Guskey, 62, was charged with criminal mischief after police said she repeatedly scratched four cars with a key over a three month period

Police said that Guskey admitted that she keyed the cars because she didn't like it when people parked in front of her Pennsylvania home

McGill wound up getting Guskey on tape after she allegedly keyed his girlfriend's car on June 17 at about 7am. He alerted police the next day, showing them the video, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

McGill, in his complaint, told police that he was having problems with Guskey, who 'gets upset when vehicles are parked in front of her residence.'

On June 19, police were called again by McGill and another neighbor. This time, they caught Guskey on camera as she allegedly keyed a Volkswagen and Audi that were parked on her street.

Bridgeville police said Guskey admitted on June 23 that she had damaged four cars multiple times over a three month period. When questioned about why she did it, she reportedly said that she gets upset when others park their vehicles in front of her residence.

Neighbors on her street caught video footage of Guskey after she allegedly damaged the cars

Among the cars she is said to have damaged were two Volkswagons, an Audi and a GMC Sierra

Guskey is accused of having caused more than $10,000 worth of damaged to the cars

On one car alone, Guskey appears to have caused more than $5,700 worth of damage.

Guskey's attorney, Phil Dilucente, told WTAE that the incidents were merely 'a neighborhood dispute'  the kind of thing that happens to 'anyone in their city, county, anyone in the state of Pennsylvania.'

A spokesperson for Duquesne University, where Guskey is a marketing professor, told The Duquesne Duke in a statement that the school was not aware of the keying incidents, but that 'the allegations, if true, would not reflect the Universitys mission.'

Guskey is charged with three counts of criminal mischief. She was given a summons on July 18 and her preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 21.
Don't expect an apology from Michael Phelps to TV viewers who were disappointed with his race against a simulated great white shark for a Discovery Channel Shark Week special.

The decorated Olympian, who was slammed on social media over the fake shark saga, responded to the backlash in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday.

In a Q&A with followers, Phelps noted that sharks don't swim in a straight line and suggested that a side-by-side race with the predator would be impossible.

'If somebody actually wants to get in the water and race side-by-side with a great white, go ahead,' he said.

'You're not going to get the shark to swim in a straight line. And, uh, yeah, it would be interesting to see. We'll leave it at that.'

Scroll down for video

Michael Phelps addressed the backlash over his race against a simulated great white shark in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday as he fielded questions from viewers

The decorated Olympian was bested by two seconds by the shark in the highly anticipated open-water 100-meter race televised on Sunday night.

The race didn't pit Phelps against a real shark like many had assumed, but rather a computer-simulated fish based on data on the swimming speed of sharks.

'Everybody wants to pick on something or say something or complain about something, so I had fun racing a shark and seeing those animals up close and personal,' Phelps said in the Facebook video.

The 32-year-old also responded to accusations that he and the Discovery Channel network misled people about the race to boost ratings.

Phelps added that he made it clear before the show aired that he wouldn't be racing a real shark.

'You can believe whatever you want,' Phelps said.

The decorated Olympian was bested by two seconds by the simulated shark in the highly anticipated open-water 100-meter race televised on Sunday night

The race didn't pit Phelps against a real shark like many had assumed, but rather a computer-simulated fish based on data on the swimming speed of sharks

'Everything was either present on-air during multiple interviews that I did throughout Shark Week or the beginning of the show. Sorry you feel that way. For me, it was something I'd always wanted to do. I was honored to be able to do it. So, I'm sorry that you feel that way. I feel very different.'

Phelps answered questions for about an hour before he eventually grew tired of the negative questions flowing in over Facebook.

'It's truly incredible watching some of the questions that these haters have out there. I mean, it's shocking,' he said.

'There's always somebody out there who's going to take a jab or say something negative about you.'

The American swimmer was beat by two seconds in the open-water 100-meter race, filmed off Mossel Bay in South Africa, and televised on Sunday night to kick off Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week.

The Olympian was given a swimsuit made like the skin of a shark to help him cut through the water faster. He had a few practice laps in a pool (above) prior to the open water race

Scientists gathered data from actual sharks, including a Hammerhead, a reef shark and a Great White, and then used the data to create simulated sharks that Phelps swam against

The computer-simulated shark clocked in at 36.1 seconds and Phelps, wearing a special swimsuit and fin, swam the distance in 38.1 seconds.

HOW SCIENTISTS FOUND THE SPEED OF THE GREAT WHITE A team of scientists worked with Phelps to calculate the speeds of the sharks he swam against. The data was then used for the computer simulation that was superimposed for the television broadcast Sunday night. Scientists created a 'cutting-edge water vehicle prototype' that trailed bait behind it to entice the sharks. As the shark followed the bait, scientists were able to measure the speed of the sea creatures. Advertisement

Viewers took to Twitter to show their disappointment when it became clear he wasn't racing a real shark.

'Should've called it Michael Phelps vs a Computer Generated Simulation. Huge letdown @Discovery,' one Twitter user wrote.

Another tweeted: 'I wasted an hour of my life to watch Michael Phelps race a hologram'.

The television program, which was filmed in June , showed Phelps prepare for what Discovery Channel promoted as a race for the ages.

Scientists gathered data from actual sharks, including a Hammerhead and a reef shark, and then used the data to create simulated sharks that Phelps swam against.

The Olympian was given a swimsuit made like the skin of a shark to help him cut through the water faster, and a fin made similar to that of a shark.

'They swim so fast, it's almost like a bullet,' Phelps said after the race.

'I don't like taking silver medals but I'll take one against a Great White.
A model faces being jailed in Russia for posing in racy bridal underwear for a wedding magazine shoot in a dilapidated Orthodox church.

Ksenia Kalugina, 23, could be sentenced to up to three years under the country's tough hooliganism laws.

Churchmen have complained that, although the pre-revolutionary building used for the bridal shoot is in ruins, it still holds occasional services.

They argue it is a sin for a woman to be seen in the sacred building in Gari, Tatarstan without a veil or scarf let alone in a half-transparent dress and revealing lingerie.

Ksenia Kalugina, 23, sits in the flowing, see-through bridal underwear inside the battered church

The model crosses her arms across the lacy gown and stands in front of a church window baring all in her transparent dress

Religious officials have said it is a sin for a woman to be seen in the sacred building in Gari, Tatarstan (pictured) without a veil or scarf let alone in a half-transparent dress and revealing lingerie

The Russian Investigative Committee - seen as equivalent of the FBI - is probing the incident that could see Ksenia Kalugina jailed for three years for the photoshoot

The Russian Investigative Committee - seen as equivalent of the FBI - announced it has launched a probe into the shoot.

Potentially, the model, photographers and editors of the magazine - Sovet da lyubov - can be handed three year jail sentences.

A committee statement said: 'A decision on a prosecution will be made following the results of the check.'

Father Vladimir, secretary of the Kazan eparchy in Tatarstan, a mainly Muslim region, said the risque shoot was 'unacceptable regardless of the church being active or half-ruined'.

Believer Yaroslav Ivanov demanded: 'The woman should be punished, the magazine closed, and the church rebuilt.'

The magazine issued an apology to anyone who took offence over the pictures in the church, built in 1897.

Potentially, the model (pictured), photographers and editors of the magazine - Sovet da lyubov - can be handed three year jail sentences

Representatives for the magazine that commissioned the shoot featuring the model (pictured) have apologised for any offence caused

The roof of the abandoned church in which a church elder can just about be seen

The model posing with a bunch of tulips (right) and in the controversial underwear (left)

Ksenia Kalugina in a field on her wedding day kneeling in front of her bridesmaids in Russia

The battered inside of the Russian church in which religious officials argued the model should have been wearing a veil or a scarf

Ksenia Kalugina, 23, cuddles up to a soft bear in a more innocent photo shoot in Russia

In a statement, the magazine's representatives said: 'When conducting the photo session we had no intention to offend the religious feelings of believers,' read the statement.

'The building was seen as abandoned, not as an active church.

'We apologise to everyone who was offended by this.'

Others have claimed it is an outrage legal action is contemplated.

Critic Svetlana Maslova said: 'There is nothing offensive in the photographs.

'I feel sorry for all participants of this photo session and wish them luck in fighting and winning in court.'

The Russian edition of Maxim Online urged: 'We sincerely hope that common sense will prevail and that Ksenia - along with the magazine's editor, photographer and stylist - will not be burned in fire.'

It feared that being a model was becoming 'one of the most dangerous professions'.

The outside of the church in question, which can still be seen with its crosses attached to the roof

Model Ksenia Kalugina, 23, wearing slightly more on her wedding day earlier this month

The abandoned church close to Naberezhnye Chelny where photo session for wedding magazine was held

At Ksenia's own wedding earlier this month, she is seen posing in a forest rather than a church.

The Kremlin website says the aim of the law is to punish 'clear and obvious disrespect for society and intent to offend religious believers' feelings.

'The maximum penalty for such offences is imprisonment for up to one year.

'If the offence is committed in a place specifically intended for holding worship, the maximum penalty can be up to three years imprisonment.'

Should prosecutors decide to charge the model, her punishment could mirror that of pop group Pussy Riot, who were jailed in 2012 for protesting in Moscow.
A man accused of drunkenly strolling down a road in Maine wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to his amputated arm has been arrested.

Maine State Police told WCSH-TV that 31-year-old Corey Berry, of Hollis, was arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal threatening. He was released from York County Jail after posting $200 bail.

Police say Berry was first spotted in Hollis around 6pm on Tuesday, but then fled into the woods and authorities had a hard time tracking him down.

A man wearing a clown mask and carrying a machete was spotted in Hollis, Maine on Tuesday

Police arrested 31-year-old Corey Berry for terrorizing the local community

Berry told police that he donned the mask as a prank, after hearing about other recent clown sightings

The machete Berry was carrying around was duct taped to stump of his ampouted arm

He was finally taken into custody after re-emerging in Waterboro an hour later.

Police say Berry was intoxicated but cooperative. He told officers that he was copying previous clown sightings as a prank.

They also realized that the machete he was carrying was duct-taped to his arm, which was amputated.

A phone number for Berry couldn't be found Wednesday, and it wasn't known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Grieving Afghan women are seeking revenge on the Taliban and Islamic State after being trained up by British forces at 'Sandhurst in the sand'.

Hundreds of females are taking up arms in retaliation for the deaths of their husbands, sons and other relatives in the war-ravaged country.

The UK and other countries pulled out combat troops from Afghanistan in October 2014 after a 13-year war costing 453 British lives.

Britain's 'lasting legacy' to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice is a military academy based on Sandhurst, a defence minister has said.

The Daily Mail was given rare access to Afghan National Army Officer Academy (above) on the outskirts of Kabul, where grieving women are seeking revenge on the Taliban and Islamic State after being trained up by British forces

Britain's 'lasting legacy' to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice is the military academy - known as 'Sandhurst in the sand'. Hundreds of females are taking up arms in retaliation for the deaths of their husbands, sons and other relatives in the war-ravaged country

The UK and other countries pulled out combat troops from Afghanistan in October 2014 after a 13-year war costing 453 British lives. Pictured, Major Anna Kirkin of the Royal Engineers gives instructions to Golsam Saberi (left), 21, and Somaiya Haidari, 25, on the shooting range

Since Western combat troops left, soaring numbers of women have joined the military to make up the numbers as the battle still rages across the country.

Some women, even those in their 80s, have sold their livestock to pay for AK47s. Others have ditched their headscarves for combat fatigues.

Those fortunate enough have made it to the military academy, known as 'Sandhurst in the sand', where UK soldiers left in Kabul on a training mission are making female and male cadets battle ready.

The Daily Mail was given rare access to Afghan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) on the outskirts of the capital.

A total of ten women out of 352 officers graduated from the four-year-old institution on Thursday and will now head to the frontline to 'defend their country to the death'. Above, female cadets march on the parade ground at the Passing Out ceremony

Not only do the new generation of fighters plan to wipe the Taliban from the map, their mission will involve fighting barbaric IS militants being pushed out of Syria and Iraq. Above, cadets march in front of VIPs, including Minister for the Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster

There are currently some 190,000 Afghans in the military and the officers hope that with the help of the British, the number of females will make up 10% of the military by 2023. The recruitment drive comes as Afghan security forces have taken unsustainable casualties across the country

A total of ten women out of 352 officers graduated from the four-year-old institution on Thursday and will now head to the frontline to 'defend their country to the death'.

They will join another 80 women who have already had their passing out parade, and some 700 female fighters across the country.

Not only do the new generation of fighters plan to wipe the Taliban from the map, their mission will involve fighting barbaric IS militants being pushed out of Syria and Iraq.

Rahima Rahimi, 23, who was presented with the highest honour for the top female cadet, the Sandhurst cane, by Major General Charlie Herbert, said: 'My nephew was killed by the Taliban two years ago.

'I joined up because I want to get revenge for the death of my relative and it is right that men and women fight by each other's side.'

Rahima Rahimi, 23, is presented with her certificate and Silver Cane, for being the best female cadet, by Major General Charlie Herbert of the British Army. This is the first time the Cane has been awarded

Rahima's nephew was killed by the Taliban and she wants revenge. She said: It is right that men and women fight by each other's side.' At the height of the conflict, there were around 10,000 UK soldiers in Afghanistan

Another of those who graduated, Zahra Ahamadi, 21, from Bamyan province, said: 'In the past I was afraid of Daesh and the Taliban but now I am ready to fight without fear.

'I want to take revenge for what they have done and I want to go to the frontline. I'm happy the British are here.'

Nafisa Rasuli, 22, said: 'I want to help my country be safe and secure. I am ready to defend my country and I would rather die defending my county than not try.

'I hate ISIS and the Taliban, they are the enemy of this country.'

Last week the women marched across the parade ground next to a memorial wall with the names of 13 previous graduates who have died in battle across Afghanistan. Many graduated as recently as 2015.

Speaking at their graduation ceremony, Armed Forces minister Mark Lancaster, who served in Afghanistan a decade ago, said: 'You are not alone because Britain will remain by your side.

'Over the past 16 years, UK forces have fought shona-by-shona [shoulder to shoulder] with you. Many of our people have paid the ultimate price.

'This academy is a lasting part of their legacy.'

Addressing the cadets before their graduation, Major General Herbert said: 'Anyone who has chosen to join the Afghan military in doing so is choosing to fight for and protect millions of Afghan people.

The British general added: 'There's been too much killing in this country over the past 40 years but it cannot last forever. One day there will be peace for the nation.'

The UK training is based on the course at Sandhurst and the women have to pass the same tests as the men. Typically some 120 women now apply for 40 officer places at the academy

Somaiya Haidari, 25, still training at the academy, said: 'I, as an Afghan girl, always wanted to serve my country.

'I am ready to join the fight against the Taliban and Daesh. They are a real enemy and we won't let them win.'

She added: 'We are just like the boys and can do everything they can.'

There are currently some 190,000 Afghans in the military and the officers hope that with the help of the British, the number of females will make up 10 per cent of the military by 2023.

The recruitment drive comes as Afghan security forces have taken unsustainable casualties across the country.

Some 3,500 were killed last year, almost equalling Nato's entire losses during the 16-year war.

At the height of the conflict, there were around 10,000 UK soldiers in Afghanistan.

Now there are about 500 soldiers left to train up the Afghan forces, as well as provide security in the capital which has been hit by a wave of suicide bombings in recent months.

Another 85 will soon join them after a request by Nato.

The UK training is based on the course at Sandhurst and the women have to pass the same tests as the men.

Typically some 120 women now apply for 40 officer places at the academy.

Captain Danielle Burgess, a mentor of both males and females, added: 'Genuinely I find them inspiring because they are going against a lot of odds. They are so passionate and believe in the country so much, they are putting themselves at risk daily'

Major Anna Kirkin, from the Royal Engineers and head of the female mentors at the academy said: 'They really want to serve their country.

'It is really positive to see so many people trying for the places on the course.'

Captain Danielle Burgess, a mentor of both males and females, added: 'Genuinely I find them inspiring because they are going against a lot of odds.

'They are so passionate and believe in the country so much, they are putting themselves at risk daily.'

Afghan Colonel Qais Mangal, who trained at Sandhurst and served with the Special Forces, said: 'It is exactly the same (as Sandhurst), it is Sandhurst in the sand.

'Culturally and religiously it is different but all the syllabus and training is the same.'

He added: 'The British and American troops have not left us completely. The British are here shoulder to shoulder with us working to train officer cadets.'

He said women were already in the Afghan special forces.

Lieutenant Colonel Jon Gilbody added: 'In many regards we spent years campaigning in Afghanistan, this is part of what remains.

'We are now moving the country forward by supporting a generation of the next group of Afghan leaders.'
Rapist jailed: Damarlo Crawford, 19, was sentenced to 180 days in prison after pleading guilty to raping a 14-year-old Minneapolis girl with IQ of just 57

A 19-year-old man from Minnesota has been sentenced to 180 days in prison after pleading guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl suffering from mental impairment.

Damarlo Crawford was arrested in April in connection to the sex crime that occurred in September 2016 in Minneapolis.

According to a criminal complaint, Crawford assaulted the special-needs victim after he walked her home from school.

The child had an IQ of 57 at the time of the assault, which placed her in the category of mild mental disability. The average score on most standardized IQ tests is 100.

Crawford has pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced on Thursday to six months in jail, followed by five years of probation.

A judge offered the defendant credit for 82 days served in jail from the time of his arrest, reported Minneapolis Star Tribune.

As part of his sentence, the judge ordered the teenager to register as a predatory offender, enter a treatment program and have no contact with any juvenile except for his own siblings.

While on probation, Crawford will be prohibited from consuming alcohol, using illegal narcotics or handling firearms.

Court documents state that the victims family knew Crawford and that he had done some oddjobs for them prior to the incident.

One afternoon in September of last year, Crawford accompanied the victim home and then offered to wash the family's car.

While at their residence, Crawford asked the developmentally impaired girl whether she had ever been kissed before.

He then touched her in a sexual manner, took off her clothes below the waist and raped her.

A DNA sample collected from the girl during a subsequent medical examination ultimately proved that Crawford was the assailant.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman stated that the victim's family have signed off on Crawfords plea deal, saying it was 'the best resolution.'
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. SEBASTIAN C. CARTES, Plaintiff - Appellee v. LISA ELLEN PHILLIPS, Defendant - Appellant No. 17-20154 Decided: July 25, 2017

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, GRAVES, and HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction generally requires courts in the United States to order children returned to their countries of habitual residence, if the courts find that the children have been wrongfully removed to or retained in the United States. Chafin v. Chafin, 568 U.S. 165, 168 (2013). In this case, Sebastian Cartes, the father of a three-year-old girl, O.C.P., petitioned the Southern District of Texas to order Lisa Phillips, O.C.P.'s mother and Cartes's wife, to return O.C.P. to Paraguay, where she had lived with both Cartes and Phillips from October 2015 to October 2016. After a three-day bench trial, the district court determined that Paraguay was O.C.P.'s habitual residence and that Phillips had wrongfully removed her to the United States on October 24, 2016. Phillips appealed, arguing that the district court applied the wrong legal standard when assessing the parties' shared intent about O.C.P.'s habitual residence, factually erred by finding that O.C.P. habitually resided in Paraguay before October 2016, and incorrectly excluded certain evidence of Cartes's communications with real estate agents in the United States. We affirm.

I

Sebastian Cartes, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Paraguay, and Lisa Phillips, a U.S. citizen, met in California in 2012 and married there in February 2013. Their daughter, O.C.P., was born in California on September 23, 2013. Cartes and Phillips's marriage was marked by drug use (Cartes's), sickness (O.C.P.'s), and frequent travel and relocation. The record suggests that neither Cartes nor Phillips had a job; they relied almost exclusively on Cartes's mother Sarah, the sister of Paraguay's current president, to pay their expenses.

One month after O.C.P. was born, the family moved to Houston, where Phillips's parents live. The family lived there for about two years, but was rarely settled. When Cartes wasn't in rehab, the family lived together until September 2014, when Phillips and O.C.P. moved out and separately rented an apartment. The family also frequently traveled to California, Paraguay, and elsewhere. From June through September 2015, Cartes and Phillips looked for apartments to rent in California. According to Phillips, she wanted to move to California to live there long-term; according to Cartes, they wanted an apartment in California only for visiting.

Cartes testified that sometime in the spring of 2015, he moved to Paraguay without Phillips and O.C.P. to live there more permanently. Cartes hadn't moved all of his belongings, so he returned to the United States in early September to collect the rest of his things. At this time, he and Phillips talked about divorce. Cartes consulted with two divorce lawyers and sent Phillips an email telling her that he was leaving for Paraguay without her. At the district court's bench trial, Cartes admitted that at that time what was going through [his] mind [wa]s  going back to Paraguay and ending [their] marriage. He wasn't thinking at the time of  [his] wife and child -- or where they would live.

A month later, on October 18, 2015, Phillips and O.C.P. flew to Paraguay. According to Cartes, before Phillips and O.C.P. arrived in Paraguay, he and Phillips had several conversations about the possibility of going to live in Paraguay [for] employment, the financial future of [their] family, [and] the fact that [they] would have assistance with [their] daughter [from] nannies, parents and so on. According to Phillips, however, she and O.C.P. weren't moving to Paraguay. Rather, they wanted to be there when Phillips's sister-in-law gave birth to Phillips's nephew (O.C.P.'s cousin). Before leaving Houston, Phillips renewed the lease for her apartment.

While in Paraguay, Phillips and O.C.P. traveled back to the United States at least twice. O.C.P. continued to have American health insurance and saw doctors in the United States. Similarly, Phillips maintained American health insurance for herself and Cartes. She also kept a car in Houston and paid her car insurance regularly while she was in Paraguay. But Cartes testified that he and Phillips also decided to develop O.C.P.'s connection to Paraguay. For example, the two decided that O.C.P. would attend a Paraguayan preschool, and school records reflect that she regularly attended.

Cartes also testified that although he and Phillips fought frequently, they always intend[ed] to reconcile. Specifically, Cartes said he and Phillips reconciled around June, July, [and] August of 2016. Text conversations support this. For example, on August 4, Cartes told Phillips that he was focused on the long term with Phillips and didn't want to do anything  that w[ould] be detrimental or c[ould] hurt [their] chances of this working in the future. Cartes also told Phillips he wanted to be on her team and to move forward[.] Phillips agreed: That sounds like a perfect plan to me and I would love that to be a goal! I will work with you however I can to achieve that goal[.]

Cartes testified that throughout their conversations about reconciliation, he expressed [his] desire and  opinion that O.C.P. live in Paraguay because it would be most convenient for everyone. According to Cartes, [Phillips] agreed that she wouldn't be as happy anywhere else and that she would be fine and happy there and that [Paraguay] was also her home. Cartes reiterated that Phillips agreed that Paraguay would always be both her and O.C.P.'s home or base. Text messages between Cartes and Phillips illustrate that Phillips indeed described Paraguay as home. When Phillips was visiting Argentina in August 2016, she repeatedly told Cartes, who was in Paraguay, I just want to come home.

In September 2016, Phillips officially moved out of her Houston apartment. According to her parents, who moved all of Phillips's belongings, the apartment was fully furnished; it looked as if Phillips and O.C.P. still lived there. Phillips's mom said that Phillips never told any of her family in Houston that she had moved to Paraguay.

In October 2016, Phillips decided that she wanted to return to the United States with O.C.P. On October 9, Phillips and Cartes exchanged the following texts:

Phillips: I definitely overstayed my welcome in P[aragua]y and I know we need to leave.  I wouldn't go anywhere without [O.C.P.] and I tried [d]oing it there with you guys but it's just not working and I don't want any problems arising because I don't like your country or your culture.



Cartes: I don[']t know if you[']ve noticed she is very happy here  [R]emoving her from her whole life just so you can go feel better about yourself [i]s extremely selfish  [Y]ou do this all the time. You[']re unhappy and you run  You move  You relocate  But [I'm] not supportive of you taking her one bit[.]



Phillips: She was born here[.] I am from here, not P[aragua]y[.] You moved to P[aragua]y, not me[.] So, if me being where we are from with her is considered taking here th[e]n I'm sorry[.] I don't know how I am going to do it but I have to try[.] And you want to be in P[aragua]y that's fine but I don't[,] and [O.C.P.] needs to be with me[.] You shouldn't have made that decision on your own[.]

Cartes: Right [I] shouldn't have[.] Just like you shouldn[']t be the only one making the decision to take her[.]

Phillips: It's not taking her  It's being where we are from and where you met us[.] You being there with her is taking her  I am not Paraguayan [a]nd we are not from there[.]



Phillips: [I]t feels [like] you['re] not considering me in your picture  [w]hich is why you don't support something that could be so positive for [O.C.P.]  And for me obviously  That's two out of the 3 of us I see this could be good for and 3 if you want to try to do you over here like I've been doing over there[.]

On October 23, 2016, Phillips decided to leave Paraguay, and she flew back to Houston with O.C.P. the next day, October 24.

On December 1, 2016, Cartes filed a petition for O.C.P.'s return to Paraguay under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The district court held a three-day bench trial, at which it heard testimony from Cartes and Phillips, their families, and others. On March 6, 2017, the district court ruled in favor of Cartes, finding that Paraguay was O.C.P.'s habitual residence and that Phillips had wrongfully removed her to the United States. Phillips timely appealed.

II

A district court's determination of a child's habitual residence is a mixed question of law and fact[.] Delgado v. Osuna, 837 F.3d 571, 577 (5th Cir. 2016) (citing Larbie v. Larbie, 690 F.3d 295, 306 (5th Cir. 2012)). This mixed standard means we accept the district court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous, but we exercis[e] plenary review of the court's interpretation of the law and application of the law to the facts. Id. (quoting Berezowsky v. Ojeda, 765 F.3d 456, 465-66 (5th Cir. 2014)).

Where a child habitually resides is a fact-intensive determination that necessarily varies with the circumstances of each case. Id. at 578 (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310). This determination depends on the parents' shared intent or settled purpose regarding their child's residence.  giv[ing] greater weight to the parents' subjective intentions relative to the child's age. Id. (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310). When the child is too young to decide residency on the child's own, the parents' shared intent should be dispositive. Id. (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310). The threshold inquiry under our approach is whether both parents intended for the child to abandon the habitual residence left behind. Id. (alterations omitted) (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310-11). Absent the parents' shared intent, prior habitual residence should be deemed supplanted only where the objective facts point unequivocally to this conclusion. Id. (internal quotations omitted) (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 311).

We treat a district court's determination of the parents' shared intent as a factual finding reviewed for clear error. Berezowsky, 765 F.3d at 466 n.7. We will affirm the district court's determination that the parents shared an intent to make a particular country their child's habitual residence unless it is implausible in light of the record as a whole. Id. at 466. When reviewing for clear error, we will reverse only if we have a definite and firm conviction that the district court made a mistake. French v. Allstate Indem. Co., 637 F.3d 571, 577 (5th Cir. 2011). This burden is even heavier if the district court factored witness credibility into its decision. Id.

III

Phillips's primary arguments concern the district court's finding that Paraguay was O.C.P.'s habitual residence in October 2016, when Phillips and O.C.P. returned to Houston.

A

Phillips first contends that the district court applied the wrong legal standard because the district court did not point to any explicit meeting of [Cartes's and Phillips's] minds to abandon the United States as O.C.P.'s habitual residence before they traveled to Paraguay in October 2015. Phillips is correct that the threshold inquiry under our approach is whether both parents intended for the child to abandon the habitual residence left behind. Berezowsky, 765 F.3d at 578 (alterations omitted) (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310-11). We are satisfied, however, that the district court did not legally err. The district court quoted circuit authority recognizing abandonment as the threshold inquiry and analyzed the parties' positions in light of these references.

B

Next, Phillips argues that even if the district court did not legally err, it nonetheless factually erred by finding that Cartes and Phillips jointly intended to make Paraguay O.C.P.'s habitual residence before Phillips and O.C.P. returned to the United States.

The district court's habitual-residence finding that Cartes and Phillips were determined to make a home for themselves and their minor child in Paraguay is not implausible and thus not clearly erroneous. See Berezowsky, 765 F.3d at 466 & n.7. The record supports Cartes's testimony, on which the district court heavily relied, that despite discord, he and Phillips agreed Paraguay would be O.C.P.'s habitual residence. For example, Cartes said that he and Phillips jointly agreed to send O.C.P. to preschool in Paraguay, evincing their intent to make Paraguay a more permanent home for O.C.P. See id. at 472 (explaining that courts typically consider the circumstances of [a] family's move when assessing parental intent). Not only did Phillips testify that O.C.P.'s attendance was not compulsory, but O.C.P.'s preschool teacher also explained that Phillips visited the school before formally enrolling O.C.P. and occasionally dropped her off or picked her up from school, which indicates Phillips agreed to O.C.P.'s Paraguayan schooling.

Cartes also testified that during certain periods of reconciliationspecifically June, July, and August of 2016he told Phillips that he wanted O.C.P. to live in Paraguay permanently and that Phillips agreed Paraguay would always be home to both her and O.C.P. See id. at 468 ([S]hared parental intent requires  the parents [to] reach some sort of meeting of the minds regarding their child's habitual residence, so that they are making the decision together.). Text messages between Cartes and Phillips support the district court's decision to credit Cartes's version of events. During one conversation in August 2016, Phillips repeatedly referred to Paraguay as home. Texts from October 2016, when her relationship with Cartes began to break down, show Phillips describing herself as having tried to be a family in Paraguay but ultimately wanting to return to the United States. Phillips asked Cartes to move back to the United States, so that they could try being a family there, like she had been doing in Paraguay, but he refused.

Phillips contends that the district court's shared-intent finding is implausible based on the parties' history of discord and the fact that the parties never reconciled without acknowledging the evidence described above. Phillips also focuses on negating any inference of shared intent at the time she and O.C.P. first traveled to Paraguay in October 2015. But as the Ninth Circuit has explained (in an opinion this court frequently cites with favor, see, e.g., id. at 467-68), parents' shared intent about their child's habitual residence does notand need notalways coincide with the child's initial change in location. Sometimes, the family as a unit has manifested a settled purpose to change habitual residence  when both parents and the child translocate together under circumstances suggesting that they intend to make their home in the new country. Mozes v. Mozes, 239 F.3d 1067, 1076-77 (9th Cir. 2001). In other cases, a parent may have earlier consented to let the child stay abroad for some period of ambiguous duration[, but] circumstances surrounding the child's stay are such that, despite the lack of perfect consensus, the court finds the parents to have shared a settled mutual intent that the stay last indefinitely. Id. at 1077. Accordingly, we cannot say that the district court's finding of habitual residence is implausible in light of the record as a whole.

IV

Finally, Phillips argues that the district court erred by excluding evidence of emails between Cartes and various real estate agents in California. Phillips contends the emails tend to show that she and Cartes never intended to abandon the United States as O.C.P.'s habitual residence before traveling to Paraguay. The district court excluded these emails as irrelevant because Phillips never actually moved to California; in the district court's view, an unfulfilled plan was not the best evidence [of the parties'] intentions.

We review evidentiary rulings under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Aranasas Project v. Shaw, 775 F.3d 641, 655 (5th Cir. 2014) (per curiam). Evidentiary rulings are also subject to harmless error analysis. Id.

As explained in Part II, our approach to determining a child's habitual residence is a subjective test requiring district courts to ascertain parents' intent or settled purpose about their child's home. Delgado, 837 F.3d at 578 (quoting Larbie, 690 F.3d at 310). With typical Convention cases between estranged spouses, we have encouraged courts to consider not only the parties' testimony, but also, more generally, all available evidence. Berezowsky, 765 F.3d at 471 (quoting Maxwell v. Maxwell, 588 F.3d 245, 252 (4th Cir. 2009)). Because the threshold for relevance is low, Hicks-Fields v. Harris Cty., 860 F.3d 803, 809 (5th Cir. 2017), documentary evidence tending to corroborate testimony about the parties' shared intent is likely to be relevant in most Convention cases.

But any error in this case is harmless. The excluded evidence shows Cartes communicating with real estate agents in California. Cartes tells the agents that he and Phillips are interested in renting certain apartments and asks about room sizes and views from the units. In none of the emails does Cartes explain precisely why he and Phillips are looking for an apartment in California, so none of the emails addresses the critical dispute in this casewhether the parties intended for the United States or Paraguay to be O.C.P.'s habitual residence. On that point, the district court had to consider the parties' testimony in light of the other evidence in the record, and both Cartes and Phillips testified consistently with the information conveyed in the emails. Phillips said they wanted to rent an apartment in California so she could live there long-term with O.C.P. Cartes admitted to looking for apartments in California, but said any apartment was simply for the family to have a place to stay when they visited. Without any documented reason for the parties' wanting an apartment, the excluded evidence does not undermine Cartes's testimony about their plans for California, and the district court was free to credit his explanation. Accordingly, any error in excluding this evidence is harmless.

V

The district court did not legally err in assessing the parties' shared intent about their child's habitual residence. Nor is the district court's factual finding that they agreed O.C.P. would habitually reside in Paraguay clearly erroneous. And because any purported evidentiary error does not bear on the crux of this dispute and is thus harmless, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

FOOTNOTES

. Phillips also argues that the district court erred in excluding evidence of her plans to have surgery in November 2015, but the trial transcript reflects that the district court in fact admitted this evidence, but interjected when counsel sought to elicit specific details about the nature and type of surgery. We see no error in the district court's excluding as irrelevant this particular information.

STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:
Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox are among the many celebrities and politicians speaking out against President Donald Trump's ban against transgender people serving in the U.S. military 'in any capacity.'

Trump sent out a series of tweets Wednesday morning, injecting a contentious social issue into the debate on a day after the Senate GOP's health care bill suffered a bad defeat and when a Senate panel was set to hold a public hearing that would touch on Russian foreign nationals' influence efforts.

'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow.. transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,' Trump wrote.

'Thank you,' he concluded.

Jenner, a Republican who supported Trump during the 2016 election, took to Twitter and wrote: '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?'

Scroll down for video

Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox are speaking out against President Donald Trump's (above on Tuesday) ban against transgender people serving in the U.S. military 'in any capacity.'

President Donald Trump tweeted about a new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals Wednesday morning

The 67-year-old who came out as a transgender woman two years ago said earlier this month that she was working behind the scenes with members of Trump's administration on LGBTQ rights.

Not long after Trump made the shocking announcement, social media users reacted and began questioning the former Olympian's decision to support Trump during the election.

Cox, who is one of the stars on Netflix series Orange is the New Black, also took to Twitter to voice her anger against the ban.

'My fellow trans Americans despite what some may say your existence is valuable. Your lives, safety, & service matter. #TransIsBeautiful,' she wrote.

Jenner, a Republican who supported Trump during the 2016 election, took to Twitter and wrote: '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?'

The 67-year-old former Olympian, who came out as a transgender woman two years ago, said earlier this month that she was working behind the scenes with members of Trump's administration on LGBTQ rights

Cox, who is one of the stars on Netflix series Orange is the New Black, also took to Twitter to voice her anger against the ban

'To all the trans folks currently serving in the military thank you for your service. I am sorry your 'commander in chief' doesn't value it.

'Marginalized folks have often found ourselves at odds with systems which seek to subjugate & erase us. Let us love each other more & fight'.

Cox later issued a statement about Trump's new policy, as it also addressed her personal experiences meeting transgender people who are currently serving the country in the military.

'I have met many transgender Americans over the years who have served or are currently serving our country in the military,' Cox wrote.

'I have heard from them humiliating stories of being misgendered and experiencing various kinds of mistreatment when they are willing to put their lives on the line in ways many of us would never do including our current President.

'This latest reversal of another Obama administration policy continues to send the message to trans Americans that our lives, our safety and service are less valuable and unwanted in this country, the country I love and hold so dear.

Cox, an Emmy award winning producer, wrote the above tweets in response to Trump's ban

Donald Trump holds a rainbow flag given to him by supporter Max Nowak during a campaign rally at the Bank of Colorado Arena on the campus of University of Northern Colorado October 30, 2016 in Greeley, Colorado

'Let's all come together and send the message to trans Americans that despite what this president and administration proclaims that trans lives, safety and service are valuable, that they matter.'

Director Judd Apatow also blasted Trump for the announcement in a series of retweets, but he tweeted directly at Jenner saying her support of the president is 'disgusting'.

'Your support of this man is disgusting. If you don't make a change it is all people will remember about you,' Apatow tweeted.

Sandra Bernhard had a similiar message for Jenner and tweeted: '@caitlyn_jenner wake up sweetheart give Your wonderful president a call & discuss #noTransgender in military congrats on a great choice!'

Star Trek actor George Takei was among the first to react to Trump's tweets on Wednesday.

'History shall record that you are not only the stupidest, most incompetent president ever, but also the cruelest and pettiest,' he tweeted minutes after the news broke.

Trump's tweet about transgender military service drew immediate responses online from Star Trek actor George Takei

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres sent two tweets against Trump's ban on Wedensday

Chelsea Clinton sent the above tweet in response to Wednesday's shocking announcement from Trump

Director Judd Apatow also blasted Trump for the announcement in a series of retweets, but he tweeted directly at Jenner saying her support of the president is 'disgusting'

Sandra Bernhard had a similiar message for Jenner and tweeted: '@caitlyn_jenner wake up sweetheart give Your wonderful president a call & discuss #noTransgender in military congrats on a great choice!'

He added: 'Invidious discrimination against any group must be opposed by all. Straight/Cis allies: Will you stand with LGBTs?'

Bravo star and producer Andy Cohen kept his response to Trump straight to the point.

'Are you TRYING to be an a**hole?' he asked on Twitter.

In responding to a Washington Post tweet linking to a story that analyzed Trump's stance on LGBT rights, Chelsea Clinton tweeted: 'No. President Trump has consistently failed to support LGBT equal rights, dignity & safety in the U.S. & around world (e.g. Chechnya/Russia)'.

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted: 'We should be grateful to the people who wish to serve, not turn our backs on them. Banning transgender people is hurtful, baseless and wrong'.

She added: 'We're spreading hate instead of love in our country today.'

Singer Katy Perry tweeted: 'ALL those who defend our right to live freely should be able to serve freely! There are THOUSANDS currently serving! #ProtectTransTroops'

Bravo star and producer Andy Cohen kept his response to Trump straight to the point and asked 'Are you TRYING to be an asshole?'

Trump's tweet about transgender military service drew immediate responses online

Author Stephen King sent the above tweet blasting Trump and his latest announcement

Singer Katy Perry also opposed the latest announcement from Trump and sent the above message

Jesse Tyler Ferguson wrote: 'Sending a message that hate & discrimination should be tolerated if it saves us money. A shameful yet unsurprising new low #EqualityForAll'

Singer Ariana Grande simply tweeted: '#transrightsarehumanrights'

Janey Mock also took to Twitter and wrote: 'Trolling at its finest from a man who's never served and shown up the way trans service folk have and are.

'There are many ways to serve our communities/countries.

'Trans folk have done vital work, putting bodies on the line unlike Trump.'

Author Stephen King tweeted: 'In decreeing transgender people unfit to serve, Donald Trump continues to visit previously unxplored (sic) regions of the suck.'

Jesse Tyler Ferguson tweeted: 'Sending a message that hate & discrimination should be tolerated if it saves us money. A shameful yet unsurprising new low #EqualityForAll'.

Singer Demi Lovato tweeted: 'I just want to tell the transgender community that I love you and you ARE supported no matter what. #ProtectTransTroops'.

Comedian Mike Drucker also tweeted: 'Trump avoided the draft by claiming to have bone spurs, but later couldn't even remember which foot. Anyway, trans people are the problem.'

Former Vice President Joe Biden also voiced his opinion on Twitter and wrote: 'Every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve. Full stop.'

Actress Uzo Aduba agreed with Biden and simply tweeted 'correct'

Singer Sam Smith kept his message short and just repeated the hashtag '#ProtectTransTroops' in the tweet above

Transgender actress Candis Cayne also tweeted: 'As trans women and men We have never asked for anything other than to live our life as our authentic self this hate has to stop!'

Comedian Mike Drucker sent the above message on Twitter in response to Trump's ban

Actor Ike Barinholtz tweeted: 'Every single trans person is braver than Donald Trump'.

Actress Zoe Kazan expressed her gratitude on Twitter for the current LBGTQ individuals serving in the armed forces.

'Certainly every person currently serving in our armed forces exemplifies these qualities. Thank you LGBT of the military, Air Force & Navy.', she tweeted.

Transgender actress Candis Cayne also tweeted: 'As trans women and men We have never asked for anything other than to live our life as our authentic self this hate has to stop!'

Singer Sam Smith kept his message short and just repeated the hashtag '#ProtectTransTroops' in a tweet.

Actress Busy Philips tweeted: 'Oh, just a reminder that this--NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL.'

Late actor and comedian Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, took to Twitter to express her outrage at Trump in several tweets.

Seth Rogan sent the above tweet in response to a message Ivanka Trump tweeted weeks ago

Singer Demi Lovato tweeted: 'I just want to tell the transgender community that I love you and you ARE supported no matter what. #ProtectTransTroops'

Late actor and comedian Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, took to Twitter to express her outrage at Trump in several tweets

She wrote the above tweet calling on Trump to thank transgender people for their service to the country and to let them to serve

She added that she wasn't going to tweet until after her father's death anniversary, but noted that he 'loved our soldiers & veterans more than anyone I'll likely ever meet'

Actress Busy Philipps sent the above tweet and said 'none of this is normal'

She wrote: 'Don't thank us for your harmful inanity (sic) when you're actually bowing to the hall of carnival mirrors that is your brain.

'Whatever he enacts, to watch the President publicly reduce soldiers, whatever their orientation, to financial burdens... disgraceful.

'I didn't plan on coming back here til after dad's anniversary, but he loved our soldiers & veterans more than anyone I'll likely ever meet.

'Dad spent many Christmases in Iraq entertaining our troops, even when he was at risk himself. They are humans Mr. President. Not bar tabs.

'So don't thank us for reading your inane tweets, or yourself for tweeting. Thank them for their service, Mr. President, & let them serve.'

Popular drag queen Sasha Velour spoke out against the new ban and tweeted: 'He is a liar who will continue to strip our community of our rights...and literally 'threatens our freedoms and beliefs' every day.'

Singer Ariana Grande simply tweeted: '#transrightsarehumanrights'.

Actor Billy Eichner voiced his opposition to Trump's ban and tweeted: 'I hope deep down Trump voters realize the increasing amount of psychological & perhaps even physical damage they've done to fellow Americans'.

Dustin Lance Black sent the above tweet from London in response to Trump's ban

The Late Late Show host James Corden sent the above tweet asking Ivanka Trump to call her father and discuss this new ban

Actress Zoe Kazan expressed her gratitude on Twitter for the current LBGTQ individuals serving in the armed forces

Popular drag queen Sasha Velour spoke out against the new ban and called Trump 'a liar'

Actor Ike Barinholtz tweeted: 'Every single trans person is braver than Donald Trump'

Former Vice President Joe Biden also voiced his opinion on Twitter and wrote: 'Every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve. Full stop.'

Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted: 'This is discriminatory, and un-American. To the transgender servicemembers (sic) who defend our nation, I stand with you.'

In another tweet, she added: 'We should honor the courage of Americans who volunteer to sacrifice for our nation, not turn them away.'

In a statement, GLAAD slammed Trump's ban and called it a 'direct attack on transgender Americans.'

'His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government  even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation,' Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, said.

'Today further exposed President Trump's overall goal to erase LGBTQ Americans from this nation. Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldn't make that any more clear.'

Actor Billy Eichner voiced his opposition to Trump's ban and tweeted: 'I hope deep down Trump voters realize the increasing amount of psychological & perhaps even physical damage they've done to fellow Americans'

Actress Mia Farrow also took to Twitter and said Trump's ban 'must be challenged'

In another tweet, Harris added: 'We should honor the courage of Americans who volunteer to sacrifice for our nation, not turn them away.'

Trump's tweet about transgender military service drew immediate responses online from the ACLU

During the last year of the Obama administration, then Defense Secretary Ash Carter instituted a policy allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, ending a prior ban. But he also gave the military a year to come up with a way to implement the policy.

A statement from the Pentagon indicated that the agency known to plan for all military contingencies didn't see the sudden turnaround from the president coming.

'Call the White House, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

'We refer all questions about the President's statements to the White House,' Davis said in a statement.

'We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the Commander-in-Chief on transgender individuals serving the military,' Davis added in the statement.

'We will provide revised guidance to the Department in the near future.'

Former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that the military will lift its ban on transgender troops during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, June 30, 2016 after conducting a policy review. 'This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force,' Carter said

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis ordered a six month delay in a policy review on the military's transgender policy at the end of June

Since October, transgender troops have been able to get medical care to begin changing their gender identity, Military Times wrote.

There was a July deadline for branches to set up policies for transgender people trying to join.

Defense Secretary James Mattis at the end of June gave the chiefs of staff of the military branches an additional six months to determine how the policy affected the 'readiness or lethality' of U.S. forces.

Mattis wrote in his memo that the delay 'does not presuppose the outcome of the review' and that extra time would allow for 'the benefit of the views of the military leadership and of the senior civilian officials who are now arriving in the department.'

Trump's tweets left many questions unanswered, including whether they amounted to an immediate policy change, or whether the military command structure must implement in a drawn out fashion through official government channels and officially publish it before it takes effect.

It was not immediately clear how many transgender people came forward following the Obama administration's change of policy.
Senator John McCain fired away at Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from military service  and also for announcing a 180 degree turn on a complex issue via Twitter.

The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman said in a statement that the military should welcome capable people 'regardless of their gender identity.'

He made the statement hours after his own dramatic return to the Senate for an Obamacare repeal vote, after getting a brain cancer diagnosis.

Trump praised the former Vietnam POW for his action, although he went after McCain's time as a POW during the campaign.

Senator John McCain challenged President Trump's sudden new transgender policy for the military, saying in a statement that the military should welcome capable people 'regardless of their gender identity'

'Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving,' McCain said.

'There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the militaryregardless of their gender identity.'

McCain continued: 'We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do soand should be treated as the patriots they are.'

During the last year of the Obama administration, then Defense Secretary Ash Carter instituted a policy allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, ending a prior ban. But he also gave the military a year to come up with a way to implement the policy.

A statement from the Pentagon indicated that the agency known to plan for all military contingencies didn't see the sudden turnaround from the president coming.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, as the Senate was to vote on moving head on health care with the goal of erasing much of Barack Obama's law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 25: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his wife Cindy McCain walk out of the Russell Senate Office building toward their car at the US Capitol July 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. McCain was recently diagnosed with brain cancer but returned on the day the Senate is holding a key procedural vote on U.S. President Donald TrumpOs effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

'Call the White House, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

McCain griped following the Obama administration that he had not been consulted.

I will be calling up the chiefs of the services, those men and women in uniform who are the heads of the military, and ask them their views, including the cost of implementing, Im talking about the fiscal costs, of implementing some of these changes, and well be having hearings,' he told Fox News at the time, the Hill reported in 2016.

'Unlike any other administration that I have been associated with, we received no heads up, he said. I happen just to be the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and its customary in all the years Ive been on it to give members, particularly the chairman, a briefing,' McCain said then.

McCain, 80, also went after the way Trump put out the decision  even as his own Defense secretary oversaw a policy review.

President Donald Trump tweeted about a new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals Wednesday morning

President Donald Trump tweeted about a new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals Wednesday morning

President Donald Trump tweeted about a new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals Wednesday morning

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis ordered a six month delay in a policy review on the military's transgender policy at the end of June, but that apparently was cut short by Trump's announcement via Twitter

Former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that the military will lift its ban on transgender troops during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, June 30, 2016 after conducting a policy review. 'This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force,' Carter said

Donald Trump appeared with Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2000 during a video comedy sketch for the Inner Circle dinner in New York

'The Presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter,' McCain said.

Trump had praised McCain a day earlier for providing a critical vote to advance to an Obamacare repeal.

'Thank you for coming to D.C. for such a vital vote. Congrats to all Rep. We can now deliver grt healthcare to all Americans!' Trump wrote.

Trump fired off the tweets without warning, injecting a contentious social issue into the debate on a day after the Senate GOP's health care bill suffered a bad defeat and when a Senate panel was set to hold a public hearing that would touch on Russian foreign nationals' influence efforts.

'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow.. transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,' Trump wrote.

'Thank you,' he concluded.

A statement from the Pentagon indicated that the agency known to plan for all military contingencies didn't see the sudden turnaround from the president coming.

'Call the White House, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
A former substitute teacher in Oklahoma who exposed herself to students when she did a cartwheel while wearing a long skirt but no underwear has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.

Lacey Sponsler pleaded guilty Monday to assault after the charge was reduced from indecent exposure.

She was given a two year suspended sentence and can't teach for two years. She will not have to register as a sex offender.

Lacey Sponsler (above in arrest photo) pleaded guilty Monday to assault after the charge was reduced from indecent exposure. She was arrested after she exposed herself to students when she did a cartwheel while wearing a long skirt but no underwear

She was given a two year suspended sentence and can't teach for two years. She will not have to register as a sex offender.

Sponsler declined comment. Defense attorney Nathan Milner told KTUL that Sponsler believes the incident was 'blown out of proportion' and is glad the case is over.

Sponsler was charged in February after allegedly performing a cartwheel in which she exposed herself during a high school choir class January 31 in Pawhuska, about 100 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

The 34-year-old educator was wearing a long dress at the time of the incident, but she didn't have on undergarments, causing her 'to expose herself to the students in the class'.

A 17-year-old Pawhuska High School student recorded the incident on a cell phone using the Snapchat app, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Sponsler (left) was charged in February after allegedly performing a cartwheel in which she exposed herself during a high school choir class January 31 in Pawhuska. A student told police that they saw Sponsler's 'vagina open and close, as her legs were in the air'

The same student said Sponsler told the class she 'was not wearing underwear before performing the cartwheel', which also exposed her 'bare vagina'.

In the affidavit the student claimed that she saw Sponsler's 'vagina open and close, as her legs were in the air'.

The teen also told police that Sponsler 'had been talking about using drugs' and commented on how she 'thought fourteen year old boys were like men'.

At the time of her arrest, she denied doing the cartwheel in class to police.

She told authorities that she was 'just dancing with the students' and 'trying to be a cool teacher'.
A California imam is under fire after a sermon he gave calling on Allah to 'annihilate' Jews 'down to the very last one'.

Imam Ammar Shahin gave the sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis on Friday. He asked for Allah to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israel from 'the filth of the Jews', according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

He also referenced an Islamic text calling for a Judgement Day fight between Muslims and Jews.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Imam Ammar Shahin gave a sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis in California on Friday (pictured), calling on Allah to 'annihilate' Jews 'down to the very last one'

The imam (pictured, giving the sermon) claims he was just referencing Jews who prevented Muslims from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque - a holy site for both Muslims and Jews in East Jerusalem and the location of a terror attack on July 14 during which three Arab gunman killed two Israeli police officers

'Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them,' said Shahin, who spoke in both Arabic and English during his sermon.

'Oh Allah, make this happen by our hands. Let us play a part in this. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds.'

The MEMRI posted the two-and-half-minute clip from the hour long sermon on YouTube.

The Imam said he was referencing Jews who prevented Muslims from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The mosque is a holy site for both Muslims and Jews in East Jerusalem and the location of a terror attack on July 14 during which three Arab gunman killed two Israeli police officers.

It was closed for several days after the attacks with new security measures put in place. Israel claims the new measures are important for preventing future attacks but Palestine says Israel is trying to assert more control.

Because of the comments, Jewish groups have asked the Department of Homeland Security and the US Attorney's Office to launch an investigation into the imam.

'By explicitly urging Muslims to annihilate all Jews by their own hands, Shahin has crossed the line beyond protected speech,' said Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Alderstein, directors of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization in Los Angeles.

Jewish groups have called on the Department of Homeland Security and the US Attorney's Office to launch an investigation into the imam. The Islamic Center of Davis issued a statement in support of Imam Shahin

In response, the Islamic Center of Davis issued a statement on its website, standing by the imam.

'The ICD will always stand against anti-semitism similarly to how the Jewish community has always stood against Islamophobia in our close knit community. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry,' the statement read in part.

'MEMRI, an extremist agenda driven organization that supports Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, and other Islamophobic news organizations, accused Imam Shahin of anti-Semitism, quoting edited, mistranslated, passages of the sermon out of context.'

In response to the statement put out by the Islamic Center of Davis and the sermon itself, MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky released a statement.

'The sermon is very antisemitic and violent, much like many sermons in the mosques of the Middle East,' it read in part.

'It is not surprising that the imam/mosque are denying this and saying that it is incorrect or out of context...MEMRI is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization and we are nearly two decades old.'
Jack Chappell, 19, admitted Distributed Denial of Service

A teenager has admitted carrying out a string of high-profile cyber attacks on the websites of multi-national firms.

Jack Chappell, 19, of Stockport, committed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on NatWest, the National Crime Agency, Vodafone, the BBC, BT, 02 and Amazon.

DDoS attacks involve crashing websites by flooding them with huge volumes of data.

Other firms targeted were T-Mobile, EE, Sprint, the University of California San Diego (UCSD), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netflix and Verizon.

Chappell appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday where he entered a guilty plea to doing unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or being reckless as to impairing, the operation of computers between May 1, 2015 and April 30 2016.

Between the same dates he also admitted three others charges including encouraging or assisting an offence in which he acted as an administrator of the website vDos - which offered a subscription service through which the subscriber could launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Chappell admitted one count of conspiring with Yarden Bidani to do unauthorised acts with intent to impair the operation of computers, namely DDoS attacks on targets including NatWest Online Banking, Pornhub, Netflix, the National Crime Agency, Virgin Media and the BBC.

The teenager also admitted a fourth count of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement in which he monitored credit card payments to VDos knowing or suspecting that this arrangement would facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by Yarden Bidani, Itay Huri , Jesse Wu, or by other persons unknown.

Chappell appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday where he entered a guilty plea

Chappell pleaded guilty last year to a separate case of doing unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of or prevent/hinder access to a computer between December 3 2015 and April 14 2016.

All matters will be dealt with at his sentencing hearing on September 13.

Judge John Potter ordered a pre-sentence report and warned Chappell that all options, including an immediate custodial term, remain open.

Bail for the defendant was extended until the sentencing date.

Previously, West Midlands Police said the the teenager was charged following an investigation led by the force's Regional Cyber Crime Unit, assisted by Israeli Police, the FBI and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre.

The judge ordered a pre-sentence report and warned Chappell that all options, including an immediate custodial term, remain open

They said he allegedly ran a web business supplying malware that was used in the worldwide attack and that he also ran an online help desk for hackers as part of the operation.

The force added that none of the DDoS attacks involved led to the theft or loss of any customer data.

Israeli nationals Mr Bidani and Mr Huri were arrested in their home country last September on suspicion of operating vDOS - where subscribers are said to pay for DDoS attacks - before they were later released pending investigation.
Rolling Stone magazine has put liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the cover of its latest issue and asks: 'Why Can't He Be Our President?'

Perhaps recognizing that only American-born US citizens can become president, the magazine takes a different tack on its website.

There, its headline for the article posted Wednesday is: 'Justin Trudeau: Is the Canadian Prime Minister the Free World's Best Hope?'

Trudeau is pictured with his shirt sleeves rolled up and perched on the edge of a desk.

Scroll down for video

Rolling Stone magazine has put liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the cover of its latest issue and asks: 'Why Can't He Be Our President?'

In the profile, writer Stephen Rodrick outlines stark contrasts between Trudeau's liberal views on health care, marijuana legalization and environmental policies and those voiced by US President Donald Trump. The two men are seen at the White House on February 13, 2017

In the profile, writer Stephen Rodrick outlines stark contrasts between Trudeau's liberal views on health care, marijuana legalization and environmental policies and those voiced by US President Donald Trump.

Trudeau is quoted as saying he disagrees with Trump 'on a whole bunch' of issues, but he also stresses that the two leaders have 'a constructive working relationship.'

Trudeau says that seeking to insult Trump 'or overreact or jump at everything he says' on matters where they differ would not result in a constructive relationship.

The Canadian premier was also asked about the contrast in styles between the two men.

'I don't feel that I or Canada has to prove anything through big, loud, overt acts,' Trudeau told Rolling Stone.

Trump said on Wednesday he would ban transgender people from the US military, an action appealing to some in his conservative political base but sowing confusion about the fate of thousands of transgender service members.

Trump's surprise announcement, in a series of Twitter posts, drew condemnation from rights groups and some lawmakers in both parties as discrimination with purely political motives. But it was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.

Last year, Trudeau led the effort to pass legislation Canada banning discrimination against transgender people.

While the article was decidedly positive, reaction to the story was not - at least that was the indication on social media.

Canadians in particular took to Twitter and expressed unease with the laudatory coverage of their prime minister.

'I voted for him and I find this cover massively cringe-inducing,' wrote one Twitter user.

'Trudeau gave $10.5million to a guy who attacked/killed US soldiers,' wrote another Twitter user.

'Rolling Stone puts Trudeau on cover asking why can't he be president.'

The tweet is a reference to the controversial legal settlement reached between the Canadian government and a Canadian man held at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, for a decade.

The deal with Omar Khadr marks the fifth time the Canadian government has settled with citizens who were detained abroad following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

All five blamed Canadian law enforcement and security forces for being complicit in their suffering.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan after a firefight with US soldiers.

He spent a decade at the US military base on the eastern tip of Cuba, which came to be used as a prison for terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the 2001 attacks on the United States.

Khadr pleaded guilty to killing a US Army medic and became the youngest inmate held at Guantanamo Bay.

He later recanted and his lawyers said he had been grossly mistreated.
An FBI spokeswoman in Anchorage says a suspect is in custody in the death of a woman on a cruise ship in U.S. waters off of Alaska.

Staci Feger-Pellessier had no other details ahead of a scheduled Thursday news conference at which the U.S. attorney's office plans to announce charges.

Princess Cruises says a 39-year-old Utah woman died Tuesday night on the Emerald Princess following a domestic dispute.

Few details about the case were released Wednesday, as investigators went to work.

The woman's name has not been released nor has the name of the suspect.

The ship is in the midst of a weeklong trip that left Sunday from Seattle. It docked in Juneau on Wednesday morning.

Scroll down for video

A 39-year-old Utah woman died aboard the Emerald Princess cruise ship Tuesday evening, after a domestic dispute. Above, the cruise ship after it stopped in Juneau Wednesday morning so FBI investigators could board

Neither the cruise line nor the FBI would provide more details on the deadly domestic incident

The 3,400-passenger ship arrived in Alaska's capital city of Juneau on Wednesday morning. Pictured, passengers biding their time while the ship was shut down for eight hours

But passengers waited on board for more than eight hours as authorities investigated the death (pictured, passengers finally disembarking)

The ship arrived in Alaska's capital city of Juneau on Wednesday morning, just before 8am.

The 3,400 passengers waited on board in Juneau for more than eight hours as authorities investigated the death.

Before the passengers were let off the vessel late Wednesday afternoon, several people including one child were escorted by authorities off the vessel in two separate groups.

Most were wearing white and gray hooded sweat shirts. The hoods and umbrellas obscured their faces.

The groups were taken to vehicles with dark-tinted windows waiting in a restricted area of the port, and the people were whisked away.

The FBI and Coast Guard are investigating the death. The FBI is involved because the death occurred in U.S. waters.

Several people including one child were escorted by authorities off the vessel in two separate groups and whisked away in cars. Pictured, passengers finally on shore in Juneau

Princess says the Emerald Princess departed Seattle on Sunday to begin a weeklong cruise. It was scheduled to return to its home port on July 30. Above, a map of the cruise's typical stopping points

Neither the cruise line nor the FBI would provide more details.

Princess says the Emerald Princess departed Seattle on Sunday to begin a weeklong cruise. It was scheduled to return to its home port on July 30.

A scenic cruise of the Tracy Arm Fjord that was scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled.

According to the ship's schedule, the ship was supposed to be docked in Ketchikan, Alaska Tuesday night.

Had the incident not happened, the ship would have done a scenic cruise of the Tracy Arm Fjord on Wednesday, and docked in Juneau later in the day. They would have then set sail for Skagway, spending Thursday night in port there before sailing back to Seattle, spending Friday and Saturday at sea.

Princess Cruises spokeswoman Negin Kamali says conversations are underway to offer passengers some compensation for lost time, such as providing credits for shore excursions. It's unclear if the cruise ship will finish its schedule.
The New York City medical examiner has concluded that a prominent judge who drowned in the Hudson River had committed suicide.

The medical examiner's office issued the findings Wednesday in the death of 65-year-old Sheila Abdus-Salaam.

A police harbor unit recovered her body from the Hudson on April 12, the day after she was reported missing by her husband, Reverend Gregory Jacobs.

Scroll down for video

More than three months after trailblazing New York judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam's body was pulled from the Hudson River, the medical examiner's office has declared that she had committed suicide

Abdus-Salaam was reported missing by her husband, Reverend Gregory Jacobs. Her body was retrieved from the Hudson River the next day, on April 12

Abdus-Salaam was fully-clothed in exercise gear when she was pulled out of the water, several blocks from her home.

Based on water found in her lungs, suggesting that she was still alive when she hit the water, police initially thought that Abdus-Salaam had committed suicide. But, they later opened an investigation after deciding that her death seemed 'suspicious.'

Abdus-Salaam's friends and husband did not believe that she had committed suicide.

'Those of us who loved Sheila and knew her well do not believe that these unfounded conclusions have any basis in reality,' Jacobs said in a statement on April 20.

Abdus-Salaam was the first black woman on New York state's highest court. At the time of her death, her family and friends did not believe that she would commit suicide

In May, it was reported that Abdus-Salaam accidentally cut her husband, Jacobs, out of her will because she had not updated it since 2004. She married Jacobs in June 2016

The NYPD investigation was closed on May 3.

That same month, it was reported that Abdus-Salaam accidentally cut her husband out of her estate because she did not update her will prior to her death. She married Jacobs in June 2016.

Her will dated back to 2004, when she was in the middle of a difficult divorce with her previous husband, and left everything to her mother  who passed away in April 2012  and siblings.

According to reports, her largest asset was her brownstone, which court papers have valued at $2million. She also had about $50,000 worth of 'personal belongings.'

Abdus-Salaam was the first black woman to serve on New York state's highest court.

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Abdus-Salaam to the state's Court of Appeals in 2013, where she served until she died. He called her a 'trailblazing jurist' whose legacy 'will be felt for years to come.'

Abdus-Salaam graduated from Barnard College and Columbia Law School.

She started her career as a staff attorney for East Brooklyn Legal Services. She served as a judge on the Manhattan state Supreme Court for 14 years.
Elizabeth Stevens, 36, was told that she had miscarried her baby

Doctors found a couple's unborn baby alive during an operation after the parents were told they had lost their baby in a miscarriage.

Elizabeth Stevens, 36, and her partner Ian Fowler, 54, said they were told by the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, that Ms Stevens had miscarried and needed to book in for surgery to remove the foetus.

After Ms Stevens' same day appointment was postponed due to an emergency, she rang and asked the Queen's Hospital in Romford, Essex, to have her in for surgery instead.

However surgeons at Queen's found that the couple's unborn baby was still alive and had a heartbeat.

They told Ms Stevens that she had choriodecidual haematoma, which is why she was bleeding.

Now the couple, who are from Benfleet in Essex, are demanding answers from the Royal London Hospital.

Speaking to The Sun Online, Mr Fowler said: 'How can they get it so completely wrong?

'They nearly killed my unborn baby. Royal London was about to remove a perfectly healthy baby. I want an explanation.'

She was told by the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, she had lost her baby and would need surgery to remove the foetus

Ms Stevens, who is seven weeks pregnant, added: 'I was in shock. Its a lot to take in, one doctor says its not fine, and the other one says its fine.'

The couple said they are now filing a complaint against the Royal London Hospital.

A spokeswoman for Barts Health NHS Trust said: We sincerely apologise for the distress caused to Ms Stevens and her partner, and are fully looking into their concerns.

A spokeswoman for Queen's Hospital confirmed the hospital saw Ms Stevens and are continuing to treat her

'When our investigation is complete we will invite Ms Stevens and her partner to meet with the clinical team to discuss our findings, and explain how we will implement any changes needed.

A spokeswoman for Queen's Hospital confirmed the hospital saw Ms Stevens and are continuing to treat her.
A group of Iowa businessmen filed a lawsuit Wednesday against United Airlines over the death of Simon, a giant rabbit whose lifeless body was discovered in a kennel after a flight from London to Chicago.

The lawsuit comes as United struggles to repair its image after a string of events, including the videotaped forced removal of a 69-year-old doctor from a plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and the banning of two young girls from a flight because they were wearing leggings.

The businessmen filed the lawsuit more than three months after airline workers found the continental rabbit dead this past April.

Simon had been placed in a United kennel at O'Hare while awaiting a connecting flight to Kansas City, where his new owners planned to pick him up.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to cover the costs of the rabbit as well as punitive damages.

Rabbit retribution: The owners of a giant rabbit that died after riding on a United flight last month are suing the airline

Attorney Guy Cook represents the three Des Moines-area businessmen who bought Simon with the intention of showing him at the Iowa State Fair and then displaying him and selling related merchandise to raise money for the annual event.

The lawsuit said United was negligent in the care and transportation of Simon and that the airline improperly cremated the rabbit.

United spokesman Charles Hobart released a statement saying: 'We were saddened by Simon's death in April. We have received this complaint and are currently reviewing it.'

Cook said the businessmen - Mark Oman, Steve Bruere, and Duke Reichardt - never intended to profit from the rabbit and that they plan to donate any money from the lawsuit to a state fair foundation that funds upkeep at the fairgrounds in Des Moines.

'They're frustrated with how United has handled this from the start,' said Cook.

'None of them stand to benefit financially from the resolution.'

The lawsuit alleges United has a poor record of transporting animals, stating the airline accounted for one-third of all animal deaths via US air travel in the last five years.

The suit doesn't explain how the rabbit died but puts forth several possibilities, including that it was exposed to low temperatures in the cargo compartment or that dry ice might have been left in the same compartment as the animal.

When Cook threatened legal action in May, Hobart said United had reached 'a satisfactory resolution' with the rabbit's breeder, Annette Edwards, in Worcestershire in the United Kingdom.

However, the lawsuit contends the rabbit had been sold to the Iowa group, which also had arranged and paid for the animal's transport to the United States.

Before flying to the U.S., the lawsuit states that a veterinarian examined Simon and found him to be in 'good physical condition and fit to travel.'

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial in Des Moines.
Three-year-old autistic twin brothers drowned in their familys backyard pool on Long Island after slipping out of the house while their mother was asleep.

Mother Sue Aurilia woke up on Wednesday morning and saw one of her sons Nicholas Aurilia floating in the pool, Suffolk County Police Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer said.

She ran outside, administered CPR, and called 911 on a speaker phone at about 8.40am, saying the boy's twin Anthony Aurilia was missing.

Police arrived at the scene and found Anthony at the bottom of the pool before the twins were both rushed to the hospital where they died.

Sue's friend Eboni Huggins told the New York Post the twins were her 'miracle babies' since she had a string of troubled pregnancies.

Scroll down for video

Twins Nicholas and Anthony Aurillia drowned in their familys backyard pool on Long Island after slipping out of the house while their mother was asleep

Mother Sue Aurillia looked out the window when she woke up on Wednesday morning and saw one of her sons Nicholas Aurillia floating in the pool (above)

The children's father had gone to work on Wednesday morning, and when Sue woke up, she couldn't find her twins.

She asked her five-year-old son where they were before she looked out the window and saw Nicholas floating in the murky pool.

Sue started administering CPR and called 911, reporting that Anthony still missing.

When paramedics responded to the scene on Holly Court in Melville, four firefighters waded into the outdoor pool and located Anthony at the bottom, Assistant Chief David Kaplan toldNewsday.

The twins were rushed to Plainview Hospital in critical condition before they died at different times.

The twins' 5-year-old brother did not follow his siblings into the pool and was unharmed, reportedWABC.

The Aurilias had just moved into the home two months ago, and it remains unclear how the twins slipped out of the house, according to the Post.

Sue's friend Eboni Huggins said the twins were her 'miracle babies' since she had a string of troubled pregnancies. The twins also had an older brother who was unharmed

A police cruiser is pictured at the scene on Holly Court after the fatal drowning Wednesday

The twins were rushed to Plainview Hospital in critical condition but could not be saved

The four-bedroom home sold for just under $900,000, reported theNew York Post.

Police called the twins' deaths an accident, and the backyard pool passed an inspection in mid-May, according to town officials. The homeowners were also issued a new pool permit in late June.

Huggins told the Post her friend struggled with pregnancies, so the fact that Sue had three children was a a 'super blessing'.

The twins were inseparable and rambunctious, while five-year-old Christian was 'such a good older brother', Huggins said.

Sue's friend said she felt like she was going to 'throw up' upon hearing the news, adding,'Its really a sad thing I am so flabbergasted, its very shocking, they were just really loving.'
A would-be actor who played a drug dealer in Brazil's award-winning 2002 film City of God has been named as one of three suspects in the murder of a police officer.

Ivan da Silva, 34, also known as Ivan the Terrible, is said to be the leading drug lord in the Morro do Vidigal favela, south zone Rio de Janeiro, where Sergeant Hudson Silva de Araujo was killed on Sunday.

Mr da Silva, who is being sought by police, appeared as an extra in the 2002 Oscar-nominated film which tells the story of children growing up in the City of God slum, the emergence of organised crime in the violent neighbourhood and the different paths the protagonists chose.

The movie's director Fernando Meirelles has said he is 'saddened by the news'.

Pictured: An iconic photograph from the 2002 Oscar-nominated movie City of God. Ivan da Silva, 34, can be seen sixth from left

Pictured left: Ivan da Silva circled. Right: The same man, also known as 'Ivan the Terrible', pictured recently

Mr da Silva is featured in one of the most emblematic photos from the movie posing alongside other gun-toting actors portraying the life of drug traffickers.

At the time Mr da Silva came to the attention of film producers because of his involvement in social projects in Vidigal. However, while others from this period have gone on to follow a career in the arts, Mr da Silva's 15 minutes of fame was apparently short-lived.

Pictured: Sergeant Hudson Silva de Araujo, who was killed on Sunday in a confrontation with armed criminals in Morro do Vidigal

According to police, he is the current head of drug trafficking in the community and has a lengthy criminal record for drug dealing.

A police report on the incident said Sergeant Araujo was killed when armed criminals attacked the peacekeeping police unit (UPP) patrol in Morro do Vidigal around 4:30pm last Sunday.

A spokesperson said: 'The garrison came under attack in a confrontation along Rua Presidente Joao Goulart, one of the main thoroughfares in the community.

'Sergeant Araujo was hit by gunfire and taken to the Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital, in Gavea, but died from his injuries.'

The death of the 46-year-old officer, who was married with two daughters and had 15 years of service, brings the number of cops killed in Rio this year to 91.

He is the first officer to be killed in Vidigal since the installation of the UPP in January 2012.

Cidade de Deus, translated as City of God, is one of Brazil's most internationally known films. It won a BAFTA and a British Independent Film Award in 2003.
Lovily Johnson, 22 (pictured), from Wyoming, Michigan, has been charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of six-month-old Noah Edward Johnson

A mother has been charged with murder after she allegedly strapped her six-month-old son into a car seat and left him without food for two days.

Lovily Johnson, 22, from Wyoming, Michigan, was charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of six-month-old Noah Edward Johnson.

Wyoming District Court Judge Steven Timmers ordered that Johnson be held without bond pending her next court appearance.

If convicted of the felony charges, Johnson faces mandatory life in prison without parole.

On July 19, she arrived at about 2.35pm at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids with her baby, according to police. She was arrested several hours later.

Johnson admitted to authorities that she was Noahs sole caregiver in the days before he died, and that she was home several times a day during that time.

'Upon arrival, Noah was clearly deceased and had been for some time,' Wyoming Detective Robert Meredith wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

'She knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday evening [July 17].'

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

On July 19, Johnson (pictured with Noah) arrived at about 2.35pm at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids with her baby, according to police. She admitted to authorities that she was Noahs sole caregiver in the days before he died, and that she was home several times a day during that time but had not fed the child since Monday evening

Johnson (pictured) will next appear in court on August 2 for her probable cause hearing. If convicted of the felony charges, Johnson faces mandatory life in prison without parole

During this period, Noah was buckled into a car seat on the upper floor of Johnson's apartment with no air conditioning.

Johnson is also mother to a two-year-old daughter who has since been placed under the supervision of the state Department of Health and Human Services. Efforts will be made to place the child with her grandmother, according to testimony on Friday.

In an arraignment conducted via video on Wednesday, Johnson told Judge Timmers at first that she didn't understand the charges.

Timmers reviewed the charges a second time.

'Well, let me make it really clear,' he said. 'They alleged you killed a young child and that you physically abused it. Does that make sense to you?''

'Yes sir,' Johnson responded.

The probable cause hearing is set for August 2.

In addition to the murder and child abuse charges, she has an upcoming probation violation hearing for a 2016 embezzlement conviction.

Johnson was charged with embezzlement of less than $200 for an incident last August at a business on 28th Street SE.

She was placed on probation in September for eight months and ordered to stay away from Woodland Mall, according to records in Kentwood District Court.
Teacher charged: Christine Lee Funk, 31, a high school music teacher from Minnesota, has been arrested on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct

A high school music teacher from Minnesota has been charged with repeatedly having sex with her 17-year-old male student earlier this year.

Christine Lee Funk, 31, of New Hope, was arrested on Wednesday on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Funk, who is a married mother-of-two, was initially arrested in February on suspicion of possessing pornographic material involving minors on a work computer.

The allegations against Funk, who until recently had taught music at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, first surfaced that month when a school resource officer learned of inappropriate communications between the teacher and her student.

When investigators reviewed the messages, they allegedly recovered evidence suggesting that Funk and the 17-year-old boy had been involved a sexual relationship.

Police also discovered multiple partially nude selfies that the 31-year-old educator had allegedly sent to the boy.

Until earlier this year, Funk had taught music at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, Minnesota (pictured)

During an initial interview with detectives, Funk denied having an affair with the minor and claimed that the sexually explicit text messages were nothing more than a 'fantasy,' reported Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Funk ultimately admitted to sending the juvenile X-rated photos of herself after cops showed the images to her on the boy's phone.

When police interviewed the alleged victim, the 17-year-old also initially denied the tryst with Funk, but after investigators searched his phone and found additional lewd text message exchanges, the 17-year-old came clean.

The boy claimed that he and Funk had three sexual encounters in February that took place at the teacher's home, in the boy's car and at the high school.

Funk is a married mother-of-two (pictured left with her husband and older son). The 31-year-old is suspected of meeting her 17-year-old student for sex three times in February

Exposed: Funk also allegedly sent the boy partially naked selfies and lewd texts

Funk was placed on administrative leave in the wake of the pornography case and resigned from her position in March, reported Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

On Wednesday, a judge set Funk's bail at $75,000.

If convicted of the new charges against her, the 31-year-old wife and mother could get up to 45 years in prison.
Advertisement

The first few weeks of the summer holidays are set to be a washout, with rain and storms battering the country.

Britons on a staycation should make sure they pack an umbrella and the prepare for erratic weather that is here to stay throughout much of the holidays.

Scattered showers and storms are likely to be the recurrent theme for the foreseeable future throughout much of the UK.

It was a rainy day in Cambridge today where umbrellas are the order of the day and the weather is set to continue to be unsettled for the rest of the wee

Pictured: Tourists taking a rainy trip punting on the river Cam in Cambridge today

Pictured: A lifeguard braves the winds and cold weather to keep watch on the beach in Broadstairs today

Scattered showers and storms are likely to be the recurrent theme for the foreseeable future throughout much of the UK

The unpredictable weather means families planning a sunny visit to the beach or a day in the park will likely be disappointed.

Experts predict that this week will be cold, cool and windy with some sunshine and showers before thundery downpours arrive. The weekend will see long spells of rain for much of the UK and stiff winds.

Southern areas will see persistent rain, whereas the north and west will have lighter showers.

Pedestrians shelter from the rain on Westminster Bridge today, as a rainy weatherfront sweeps from the Atlantic and western coast

Experts predict that the coming week will be cold, cool and windy with some sunshine and showers before thundery downpours arrive

Three day forecast: The summer holidays are set to be a washout, with rain and storms battering the country

There may be some respite for people in the south of the country on Sunday, but the skies will remain cloudy. Showers are expected to rumble on throughout the weekend and into next week.

A Met Office spokeswoman told The Sun: 'Showers could really be quite heavy tomorrow for the south and central parts of the UK. Some of those showers could be quite heavy with some thunder in them.

'Friday starts off with sunshine and showers but then the south will see more rain coming through. It will be a wet end to the day across Wales and southern England.

'It will be worth having an umbrella to hand over the next few days generally.'

Last week Met Office forecaster Marco Petagana predicted the gloomy and erratic conditions would rumble into August.

The unpredictable weather means families planning a sunny visit to the beach or a day in the park will likely be disappointed

Showers are expected to rumble on throughout the weekend and into next week. This lady is still smiling despite the the weather in Cambridge today

Your browser does not support the <code>iframe</code> HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

Last Tuesday more than a month's worth of rain  4in (100m) fell in the space of just two hours which led to flash flooding that deluged the Cornish village of Coverack. The county's July average is 3.1in (80mm).

Fifty homes were flooded, including dozens said to be uninhabitable, and piles of rubble blocked the roads. Five people were winched to safety by helicopter, while others managed to flee with the help of friends and relatives.

The flash-flooding in Coverack was the worst to hit Cornwall during the summer since the Boscastle disaster in 2004, in which 440 million gallons of water swept through the town, causing millions of pounds worth of damage.
A teenager who killed her 14-year-old sister in a California car crash, which she live streamed on Instagram, has pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter and a DUI.

Obdulia Sanchez, 18, from Stockton, is accused of driving drunk when she flipped her car and killing her sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, who was not wearing a seat belt, authorities said.

She has now been charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, four charges related to driving under the influence, and great bodily injury allegations.

Her defense attorneys entered not guilty pleas on her behalf today.

During the live stream, which showed Jacqueline's body strewn on the floor, Obdulia was heard repeating: 'Jacqueline, please wake up. I f****** killed my sister, OK? I killed my sister, but I don't care. I know I'm going to prison, but I don't care.'

Merced County Chief Deputy District Attorney Harold Nutt said Obdulia Sanchez's behavior in the video was 'disturbing and shocking.'

Scroll down for video

Obdulia Sanchez, 18, from Stockton, made her first court appearance today (pictured) via video link as she was charged with with manslaughter and a DUI over the deadly crash that killed her sister

Obdulia Sanchez, from Stockton, (right) has been charged with manslaughter and a DUI after she crashed killing her sister, Jacqueline Sanchez (left)

The car rolled over a barbed wire fence and onto a field in Los Banos, about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco, on Friday

He did not elaborate, but the footage shows she was dancing to music while she drove and taking her hands from the steering wheel. Prosecutors say the video will be a key piece of evidence in the case.

The court heard she had a .08% blood alcohol at the time for the crash.

Prosecutors say Sanchez could spend more than 13 years in state prison if convicted of all the charges for the deadly crash, which killed her sister, and injured her sister's girlfriend Manuela Seja, 14.

Her bail was set at $560,000 and a preliminary hearing is set for August 9.

Her father, Nicandro Sanchez, has called it an unexplainable accident.

'What I think is she knows she's done something wrong,' he told Fresno television station KFSN. 'She feels bad for herself, but she killed her own sister.'

'I killed my sister.' Obdulia speaks directly to the camera before the crash, with a passenger visible in the background, left, and, right, keeps filming after the crash

The driver filmed herself singing and gesturing to the camera before the deadly crash

Jacqueline Sanchez was not wearing a safety belt when she was killed in the crash Friday

He said Obdulia had been in the custody of Child Protective Services the past two years.

Obdulia's younger sister Evelyn Sanchez, 12, told Sacramento television station KTLX that a tire blew out and there was nothing her 18-year-old sister could do.

The California Highway Patrol couldn't confirm if a blown tire caused the crash but charges reveal Obdulia was drinking at the time, according to police.

Investigators are also working on a warrant to get all cellphones that were inside the car at the time of the crash.

Evelyn said the family spoke to Obdulia and that the teenager told them she wishes she had been the one who died.

She said that her older sister 'has done a lot of stuff' but didn't elaborate.

Obdulia was live streaming on Instagram while driving, and talking to the camera as she drove. The camera captured the moment the car then rolled over a barbed wire fence and onto a field.

Gory visuals from the scene show Jacqueline's body strewn on the floor, the other girl in the car waving for help and Obdulia talking to the camera.

Jacqueline's (right) girlfriend Manuela Seja, (left) who was also in the car, says she isn't 'mad' at the driver

The heartbroken teen said they had started off as friends but romance had blossomed around seven months ago (Manuela and Jacqueline are pictured together)

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said Jacqueline was not wearing a seatbelt when the car crashed and rolled on Henry Miller Road at about 6.45pm on Friday. The 14-year-old was thrown through the back window of the car, authorities said.

Her girlfriend Seja, who was in the backseat with her, was thrown from the car.

The California Highway Patrol said Obdulia was driving the car when it veered onto the right shoulder of a road about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco.

She over-corrected, causing the vehicle to swerve across lanes, crash through a wire fence and overturn into a field. Obdulia was wearing a seatbelt and suffered minor injuries.

Authorities say she was detained at the scene after allegedly becoming combative with officers after the crash. She was screaming that her sister was dead as officers tried to calm her down and lead her into an ambulance, the Fresno Bee reports.

Obdulia complained of pains in her chest and knee after the crash.

Police told ABC 30: 'Sanchez was under the influence when she rolled her car over, into a barbed wire fence and then a field.'

She is now in the Merced County Jail.

Authorities say Obdulia was detained at the scene after allegedly becoming combative with officers after the crash. She was screaming that her sister was dead as officers tried to calm her down and lead her into an ambulance (above)

Authorities say they were made aware of the shocking crash scene video circulating on social media and were working to determine if it was authentic.

Family members have confirmed the video was shot by Obdulia.

Jacqueline's girlfriend Seja, who was also in the car and suffered a serious leg injury in the crash, says she has found forgiveness and wasn't 'mad' at the driver.

'Honestly, I'm not mad at anybody and I don't blame anybody, Seja told KSEE. 'It's all affected by social media. That's what life is now. And it's going to advance more and more. That what it's going to be about.'

Seja, who lives in Fresno - 140 miles away from her girlfriend in Stockton - says the distance hadn't stopped their relationship and Jacqueline would pick her up every weekend. That's why Obdulia had been driving on Friday, with her sister and Manuela in the back, when she crashed.

Manuela declined to talk about the accident or charges Obdulia faces, but told ABC News how much she would miss her girlfriend of seven months.

'She wasn't like everyone else,' she said. 'She was just funny, she didn't have to try, she would just make you smile. She wanted to travel the world and do amazing things.'

Family say Jacqueline was supposed to celebrate her Quinceanera (15th birthday) on Sunday.

Mary Hernandez, of Stockton, who viewed the live stream, decided to record it while unsure if the shocking footage was real.

'At first we didn't even want to believe it was real,' she said.

'I recorded it and posted it mainly because as someone who uses Snapchat I see a lot of people driving with their Snapchats doing what she was doing, so to me it was like an eye opener.'

Obdulia has more than 7,400 followers on Facebook and Instagram. It is not clear if her Instagram profile photo (right) shows her injuries from the recent deadly crash

The footage received at least 700,000 views.

Her father, Nicandro Sanchez, told Fresno television station KFSN he has seen the video.

'It's an accident,' he said. 'It happened that way. Who knows why?'

He said Obdulia had a difficult childhood and graduated from high school last year. She was in the custody of Child Protective Services the past two years, he added.

Family members have started a GoFundMe Page for Jacqueline's funeral expenses.

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of failing to remove graphic and unsuitable content. In April it announced it was hiring 3,000 more staff to monitor posts.

Rob Carroll, a chief deputy in the Merced County District Attorney's Office, said he expects the video will be a key piece of evidence.

'Drinking, driving and driving erratically - obviously those are poor choices,' Carroll said.

Neither Obdulia Sanchez nor an attorney representing her could be reached for comment.
An 82-year-old woman was forced to skip her own husband's funeral this weekend, after she was viciously beaten by two robbers.

The incident was detailed on Facebook by a granddaughter of the Central Heights, Arizona victim, a woman named Virginia.

Granddaughter Deanna King-Poeling was one of the last people to see Virginia before the attack.

An Arizona woman named Virginia was beaten by two robbers who broke into her home Friday evening

She says she came over to her grandmother's house around 9:30pm, to help her look for her car keys.

During the visit, the two, along with one of Virginia's sons, talked about what she planned to wear to her husband's funeral the next day, and the food she planned to cook.

Deanna says she and her uncle stayed until about 11pm, at which point Virginia said she was getting tired and planned to go to bed.

'I gave her the biggest hug, told her how much I loved her, and that she one of the strongest women I know,' Deanna said.

Deanna says that when she left the house, her grandmother was finishing up some dishes.

The 82-year-old grandmother played dead for three hours while the criminals ransacked her home

Virginia was so badly hurt in the attack that she was forced to skip her own husband's funeral the next day

Her grandmother said the break in happened just moments later, when she was still working on the dishes.

'This POS waited till we left, walked into her house 5 minutes after we had gone!

'She was innocently washing the dishes and he tapped her on her shoulder, when she turned around she saw a man with a white mask stocky build.

'When he went to hit her, she grabbed his arms (so he may have scratches), when she did this he grabbed a glass off the counter and broke it over the back of her head and he proceeded to keep bashing her with it and his fists,' Deanna writes.

In Deanna's account, she says there was just one robber. But the Gila County Sheriff's Office says there were two intruders. Virginia could only physically describe the one who hit her though.

The family is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible

After she was hit over the head with the glass, Deanna says her grandmother proceeded to lay in a pool of her own blood for the next three hours, while the men ransacked the home.

She says they 'trashed' the house that her husband had 'built with his own two hands' and 'stole a few of her belongings'.

When she was certain that the two men had left, she locked herself in a bathroom and called 911.

She tried to reach police twice, but no one answered the emergency line. Eventually, she gave up and called a family member.

Deanna says that her grandmother was left so badly injured that she couldn't attend the funeral the next day.

'Not only did this MONSTER beat her [unrecognizable], steal her belongings, took the security her husband built, and left her to die. This sorry excuse for a human being stripped her of being able to say her final goodbyes to the love of her life!' Deanna says.

Authorities say Virginia suffered a broken nose and other injuries. She is now recovering with her family.

'It's horrific. It's impacted the whole community,' Lt. Keith Thompson, a spokesperson for the Gila County Sheriffs Department, told 12 News.

Deanna says she decided to post about the incident in hopes that someone knows who hurt her grandmother and turns them in.

'Our family was heartbroken before with the loss of one of the most amazing men to ever walk this earth, but this, this has just devastated us.

'If this monster of a person has the stomach to do this to a helpless woman in her 80's, my fear is that he will have no problem doing this again.

'Having said that this beautiful woman still forgives the animal that did this to her.' she writes.

She adds that the family is also offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible.

Anyone with information is being asked to call Detective Keith Charles at 928-402-4211. Anonymous tipsters can also contact We-tip at 1-800-782-7463.




A Colombian judge has suspended a hearing on whether to allow Cassie Sainsbury to serve a six-year jail term under a plea deal with prosecutors.

The shock decision came after Sainsbury told the court she had agreed to smuggle 5.6 kilograms of cocaine out of the country on April 12 only because her family and fiance had been threatened by a drug cartel.

Those comments may endanger the plea deal the 22-year-old Adelaide woman had struck with prosecutors to serve just six years behind bars instead of at least 20.

'I didn't want to take a package with me. I was told my family and partner would be killed,' a stone-faced Sainsbury told the packed court room.

But Senior Judge Sergio Leon challenged her claims, saying there was 'no evidence or proof' she had been threatened - allegations that were not part of the bargain.

'I have found a very complex development with this plea bargain. It is therefore necessary to set a new sentencing date,' he explained.

Sainsbury will face court on August 9, allowing time for Judge Leon to re-evaluate the plea deal and death threat allegations.

Scroll down for video

No deal: A judge has suspended a hearing on whether to allow Cassie Sainsbury to serve a six-year jail term under a plea deal with prosecutors

The Adelaide woman had earlier negotiated the deal, agreeing to plead guilty to smuggling cocaine in exchange for information on the drug cartel she had allegedly been caught up with

Dressed in a grey jumper, the 22-year-old kept her head low as a pack of prison guards escorted her past a waiting media scrum outside of court on Thursday

Sainsbury's legal team and prosecutors had earlier negotiated a sentence of six years jail and a fine of 450 monthly wages.

As part of the plea deal, Sainsbury had agreed to turn informant and exchange the names of people involved in the drug cartel she had allegedly been caught up with.

'I have accepted the charges and agreed to take a plea agreement because the one thing I can not take away from the evidence is the drug was in my suitcase and I was carrying it,' Sainsbury told the court on Wednesday afternoon local time.

'I have to take responsibility for that.'

Her fiance Scott Broadbridge and mother Lisa Sainsbury, both who were paid huge sums of money for interviews with rival television networks, flew in for the hearing.

Ms Sainsbury reportedly broke down in tears as some of her daughter's charges were read out in court, at one point holding Scott's leg for comfort.

Prosecutors began the hearing by reading out her charges in Spanish, waiting as a translator relayed the information in English to the crowded court room.

When asked by prosecutors if she had been threatened by drug cartels to smuggle the drugs into Australia, Sainsbury replied with: 'Si'.

'I was told my family and partner would be killed,' she said.

Dressed in a grey jumper, the handcuffed 22-year-old kept her head low as a pack of prison guards escorted her past a waiting media scrum outside of court on Thursday.

Her fiance Scott Broadbridge (pictured) and mother Lisa Sainsbury, both who were paid huge sums of money for interviews with rival television networks, flew in for the hearing

Sainsbury's legal team and prosecutors negotiated a sentence of six years jail and a fine of 450 minimum monthly wages, but the introduction of new claims put that deal at risk

As part of her plea deal, Sainsbury will have to exchange information and possibly names of people involved in the drug cartel she had allegedly been caught up with

Sainsbury has spent more than three months in El Buen Pastor prison after she was caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport, hidden inside 18 separate packages of headphones.

The court heard the packages were 'covered with a strange dusty material' - later revealed to be cocaine - which weighed a collective 5.99 kilograms.

Sainsbury will likely avoid the more than 20 years behind bars she faced if she was found guilty at trial.

Her proposed six-year sentence could be cut in half for good behaviour and if she studies and worked in jail, pending the ruling from Judge Leon.

Pictured is the small Colombian courtroom where Sainsbury will soon learn her fate

The 22-year-old from Adelaide now awaits the decision of Senior Judge Sergio Leon

The Adelaide woman was caught with 5.6 kilograms of cocaine at Bogota Airport on April 12

Police also detailed her arrest and their investigations that began with a tip off from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Colombian authorities demanded she reveal the names of the mystery men who gave her the 18 packages of cocaine disguised as headphones.

Any plea deal appeared to be contingent on her cooperation, but it was not clear if she ended up agreeing to spill details of the unknown group.

Sainsbury and her family maintained her innocence ever since her arrest on April 12, providing various different stories to explain her being caught with the drugs.

Colombian authorities are desperate to know how and why the drugs came to be in her possession and will not budge on a plea bargain without the information.

Sainsbury's sister has told Channel 7 in Adelaide the plea deal was the best outcome they could have hoped for.

But Kahla Sainsbury said her sister's life would never be the same, even after just a few years in prison.

'I don't think there's be much she can do when she comes back home. It's going to be hard for her to get a job. It's going to be hard for her to do anything,' she said.

'Because she's going to be labelled as 'Cocaine Cassie'.'

Her fiance Scott Broadbridge (pictured together) and mother Lisa Sainsbury both flew into Bogota for the hearing.

Her court appearance will reveal the details of the agreement and whether the former personal trainer will inform on whoever hired her to smuggle the drugs
Ronald Phillips, 43, was executed in Ohio on Wednesday for the 1993 rape and slaying of his girlfriend's toddler daughter Sheila Marie Evans

A child killer and rapist has been executed in Ohio after apologizing to the three-year-old girl's family, praying and shedding a tear.

Ronald Phillips, 43, was condemned to die for the 1993 rape and slaying of his girlfriend's toddler daughter Sheila Marie Evans in Akron.

As he lay on the execution table at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, he apologized to the child's aunt and half-sister, who were there to watch him die for his crimes.

'I'm sorry you had to live so long with my evil actions. All those years I prayed you'd forgive me and find it in your heart to forgive and have mercy on me,' he said.

'Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. I know she is with the Lord and she suffers no more. I'm sorry to each and every one of you that you lived with this pain all those years.'

Donna Hudson, the victim's aunt, said: 'God forgave him, but, I'm sorry, I don't think I can.'

He appeared to pray and shed a tear before he died. He died about 10 minutes after giving his final statement. He showed no signs of distress. His chin dropped and his belly heaved slightly as the lethal drugs were administered.

Phillips severely beat Sheila in the head, face and abdomen, threw her against walls and dragged her by the hair. He also sexually assaulted her.

Phillips' last meal on Tuesday consisted of a large cheese pizza with bell peppers and mushrooms, a two-liter bottle of Pepsi and strawberry cheesecake, along with grape juice and a piece of unleavened bread.

Phillips severely beat Sheila in the head, face and abdomen, threw her against walls and dragged her by the hair. He also sexually assaulted her

As he lay on the execution table at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, he apologized to the child's aunt and half-sister, who were there to watch him die for his crimes

Phillips lost his final appeal on Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied his requests for more time to pursue the challenge to the new drug combination or his claim that he deserved mercy because he was only 19 at the time of the crime.

Phillips staved off lethal injection three other times, including in 2013 when he made a last-minute request to donate a kidney to his mother and possibly his heart to his sister. The request was ultimately denied. His mother has since died.

His execution on Wednesday was Ohio's first since a problem-plagued one three-and-a-half years ago triggered an uproar over the reliability of the lethal injection drugs used by the state.

His case could open the way for the full resumption of capital punishment in Ohio, which has 26 executions scheduled through 2020.

Phillips died in this room about 10 minutes after giving his final statement. He showed no signs of distress. His chin dropped and his belly heaved slightly as the drugs were administered

'I have confidence that we are going to continue to do this in a dignified, peaceful, humane way, and I'm committed to do that,' Ohio Prisons Director Gary Mohr said just before Phillips' execution.

In the 2014 incident, inmate Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted repeatedly during a procedure that took an unusually long 26 minutes and involved a never-before-tried drug combination

In the 2014 incident, inmate Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted repeatedly during a procedure that took an unusually long 26 minutes and involved a never-before-tried drug combination.

Gov. John Kasich reacted by putting all executions on hold. The delays continued when the state had trouble finding new supplies of drugs and death row inmates sued over Ohio's proposed new three-drug combination, saying it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The drugs include midazolam, a sedative used in some problematic executions in Ohio, Arkansas and Arizona. The inmates were backed up by 15 pharmacology professors who said midazolam is incapable of inducing unconsciousness or preventing serious pain.

Allen Bohnert, a public defender who worked on Phillips' case, contended his execution was not problem-free, it just looked that way. He said the executioners accelerated administration of a paralytic to mask Phillips' pain.

'Hiding the physical evidence does not change the reality that Ohio used a painful and unnecessary method of execution to kill Ron Phillips today,' Bohnert said.

It was the nation's 15th execution of the year.
Tributes have poured in for a 'lovely' girl who was found dead on a railway line after being 'electrocuted'.

The body of Taiyah Peebles, 16, was found on the railway line near Herne Bay, Kent, on Wednesday afternoon.

Paramedics and British Transport Police officers rushed to the station shortly before 7am to make the grisly discovery.

Tributes have poured in for popular Taiyah Peebles after she was found dead on a railway line earlier today

Detectives have revealed Taiyah was near the station with a group of friends shortly before 11pm on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on ITV Meridian today, her mother Hayley Peebles, 46, paid a heartfelt tribute to her daughter.

She said: 'She was beautiful. She had her whole life ahead of her. She was my baby. And now she's gone. And it was a tragic accident.'

The tearful mother, who laid flowers with other family members at the scene, added: 'It really helped to know she's god so many good people who will keep her memory alive.'

A friend, Saskia Laing, posted on Facebook: 'you will never be forgotten especially with the memories we've had i know we haven't spoken in ages or seen each other in ages but I will never forget you and the memories we had together and the things we have done together, heaven has gained another beautiful angle [sic].'

Detectives have revealed Taiyah was near the station with a group of friends shortly before 11pm on Tuesday evening

Another, Cerys Stygle, added: Rest in peace Taiyah Peebles, will be missed by everyone, gone too soon'.

Alex Lambert wrote: 'Sad to hear that Taiyah Peebles, one of my friends, has been found dead at Herne Bay train station.

'She was such a lovely girl, my thoughts be with her family and friends.'

Police are appealing for anyone with information on how she may been hurt to come forward.

Cab controller Niona Partridge from Abacus Taxis, which has an office just yards away, said teenagers were hanging around in the station late yesterday.

She told Kent Online: 'I'm not sure if it's anything to do with this, but it sounds like it could be.

'The first police turned up at about 7am and then there were more police, and more police and more police.

'Then the ambulances arrived, followed by Network Rail.

'A passenger on the other side of the platform was pointing down the tracks towards Thanet, as if he was directing officers to something.'

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Langley from British Transport Police, said: 'Our thoughts are with the family and friends of this young girl as they try to come to terms with this awful news. We have deployed specially trained officers to the family to provide them with support.

'Understandably the family are now desperate for answers and my officers are focussed on understanding how this girl came to be on the tracks.

'What we know so far is that the girl was with a group of friends near the station shortly before 11pm yesterday evening.

The teenager's body was found near Herne Bay station, in Kent (pictured)

'Sometime between then and 7am this morning she came to receive these injuries.

'Therefore, I would be looking to speak with anyone who might have been near to Herne Bay station during this period.

'If you were in the area or have any information, no matter how small, please do get in touch as soon as possible. Your information might prove vital in our enquiries.'

Formal identification had yet to be completed, but the girl's family has been informed.

A post mortem examination is due to take place on Friday.
"We make war that we may live in peace."

--Aristotle

"I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the

standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxim that

governs your own lives, and to suffer no man and no cause to escape

the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong."

--Lord Acton

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the

highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all

alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a

particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern...

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

--Lord Acton

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry,

Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from

the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the

field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life

so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,

Almighty God! I know not what course others may take;

but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

--Patrick Henry

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine

patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now,

deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we

have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

--Thomas Paine

"The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is,

to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and

in the courts of justice"

--John Adams

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will

within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I

do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often

but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights

of the individual."

--Thomas Jefferson

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of

another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain hima?the idea

is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."

--Thomas Jefferson

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his

fellow citizens."

--Thomas Jefferson

"The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require

that force should be interposed to a certain degree."

--Thomas Jefferson

"To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government

as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually

take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without

inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as

the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions on these

require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are

just friends and brave enemies."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is

committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as

his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against

every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us

by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country

during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to

that all personal and local considerations."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is an essential attribute of the jurisdiction of every country

to preserve peace, to punish acts in breach of it, and to restore property taken by force within

its limits."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression

is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another

as his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy,

and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. But the temper and folly of our enemies may

not leave this in our choice."

--Thomas Jefferson

"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,

we shall all hang separately."

--Benjamin Franklin

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people

by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent

and sudden usurpations."

--James Madison

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without

it nothing can succeed."

--Abraham Lincoln

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we

fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a

blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted)

in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a

track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?

I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot,

we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time,

or die by suicide."

--Abraham Lincoln

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the

support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

--Abraham Lincoln

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive

good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement

to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor

diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall

be safe from violence when built."

--Abraham Lincoln

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean

the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and

the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please

with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible

things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective

parties, called by two different and incompatible names -

liberty and tyranny."

--Abraham Lincoln

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage

nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."

--Abraham Lincoln

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points

out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust

and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;

who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause;

who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst,

if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with

those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,

even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy

much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that

knows not victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth

of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic

state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by

an individual, by a group."

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.

This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the

timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour,

of our choosing."

--George W. Bush

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies

than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him

that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say

what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really

a good one."

--Abraham Lincoln

"To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge

it by the standards of his time, not ours."

--Mark Twain

"It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best

reveals his character."

--Arthur Schopenhauer

"When men speak ill of thee, live

so as nobody may believe them."

--Plato

"He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center,

and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the

mid-day sun."

--John Milton

"Character consists of what you do on the third

and fourth tries."

--James A. Michener

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to

give it."

--Abraham Lincoln

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the

content of their character."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A man's character is his guardian divinity."

--Heraclitus

"Character develops itself in the stream of life."

--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"Do what you know and perception is converted into character."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so

highly prized as that of character."

--Henry Clay
The police department of Wyoming's capital city generated controversy on Sunday when it posted a notice on Facebook asking the public to stop giving money to a well-known panhandler whom they arrested and whose money they confiscated.

'Yesterday, July 22, we arrested a transient for public intoxication,' the Cheyenne Police Department wrote in a Facebook post above a photo of a cardboard sign that read 'BROKE NEED HELP GOD BLESS' as well as $234.94 in cash that the panhandler solicited.

'This is a person we frequently deal with, but we want to illustrate that there are better ways to help the transient population than to give them money for panhandling.

'This person collected $234.94 in just a few hours of asking for money.

'Rather than feeding someone's alcohol addiction, you can donate directly to local charities such as the Comea Shelter where your money will assist the homeless in a much more effective way.'

The police department of Wyoming's capital city generated controversy on Sunday when it posted a notice on Facebook asking the public to stop giving money to a well-known panhandler whom they arrested and whose money they confiscated

The post went viral, generating 23,000 likes, 38,000 shares, and over 6,500 comments.

Many of the commenters were furious at the police, accusing it of arresting a panhandler for no reason.

Others said the police were 'shaming' the transient and unlawfully confiscating the money that was donated by the public.

Some were even offended at the suggestion that the police would tell the public to whom it may donate money.

'I'm sure you guys are going to take every dollar he had, and not give it back to him,' wrote Facebook user Bryce Rash.

'The way I see it, the people GAVE it to him. That's HIS money. A bunch of thieves I tell ya.'

'Arrested him for walking while drunk?' Jason Thomas wrote. 'Would it be better if people drove drunk? Bigger fish to fry out there. This is lame.'

Judy Sabec wrote: 'He's not scaming [sic] the public. No one forces anyone to give. It's no one else's business if a person chooses to give to a panhandler. You don't like it. Don't give. Simple as that. Otherwise MYOB.'

Not all commenters were critical of the police. Some praised the officers for what they say was an act to ensure public safety.

The post went viral, generating 23,000 likes, 38,000 shares, and over 6,500 comments. Many of the commenters were furious at the police, accusing it of arresting a panhandler for no reason

'This is what the liberals have created,' Charles Blanchard wrote.

'A man breaks the law, scams people, and yet the cops are the bad guys. I wish you all could spend a day or two in the line of duty and see how you feel about the police then.'

The outcry on social media prompted the Cheyenne Police Department to post another notice on Facebook clarifying a number of commenters' concerns.

The department said that it detained the panhandler because being intoxicated in public poses a danger to themselves and others.

'The person arrested was arrested for public intoxication, having an open container of alcohol, urinating in public and refusing to obey commands,' Cheyenne Police wrote.

The outcry on social media prompted the Cheyenne Police Department to post another notice on Facebook clarifying a number of commenters' concerns

Police said that the person arrested was a repeat offender who had been detained 'multiple times over the last several years for similar offenses.'

As to accusations that police confiscated his money without any intention of giving it back, the department says this is not so.

'The person's money was inventoried along with his property when he was arrested and is held for safekeeping until he is released,' Cheyenne Police said.

'This is the same procedure for everyone who is arrested and has property on them at the time they're arrested.'

Finally, the department said that its intent with the original post was to alert the public of the unintended consequence of helping a panhandler who would then use the money to fuel alcoholism, which could lead to safety hazards.

It also said that it is handling these situations in a humane manner.

'We have been helping people get out of the cycle of addiction by intervening after the initial arrest and providing those arrested with resources for assistance,' Cheyenne PD said.

'This includes addiction counselors working with people in the jail as well as providing counseling services when that person is released.'
Advertisement

This is the terrifying moment a packed bus inched past a raging wildfire as it engulfed a roadside house on the French island of Corsica.

Tourists can be heard gasping and crying out as the coach drives slowly past the inferno at Biguglia on the island's fire-ravaged north east coast.

Footage shows huge flames sweeping through a property and sparks drifting across the road as frightened passengers film the blaze on their mobile phones.

The video emerged as families woke up having spent a second night sleeping on the beach in the French Riviera amid wildfires likened to Dante's inferno. Pictures show makeshift camp beds lined up on the sand at Bormes-les-Mimosas and people asleep under their beach towels.

French authorities said this morning that they are close to containing the fierce blaze - but fear further flareups on this afternoon due to lack of moisture and a pickup in the wind.

Last night British holidaymakers told of their terror after fleeing for their lives as wildfires threatened upmarket resorts in the region.

It comes as it emerged two suspected teenage arsonists were in custody in the south of France today after 'criminal activity' was blamed for fires that have brought terror to thousands of holidaymakers.

This is the terrifying moment a packed bus inched past a raging wildfire as it engulfed a roadside house on the French island of Corsica

Tourists can be heard gasping and crying out as the coach drives slowly past the inferno at Biguglia on the island's fire-ravaged north east coast

Vast stretches of scorched earth creeps up to the fences of homes in Biguglia, Corsica, as firefighters desperately battle to save buildings from wildfires in the region

Families are waking up after spending a second night sleeping on the beach in the French Riviera as firefighters try to tame wildfires likened to Dante's inferno. This was the scene at Bormes-les-Mimosas this morning

Pictures show makeshift camp beds lined up on the sand at Bormes-les-Mimosas and people asleep under their beach towels

Holidaymakers who were forced to flee campsites in the area set up makeshift beds on the beach and slept outside for a second night running

British holidaymakers told of their terror yesterday after fleeing for their lives as wildfires threatened upmarket resorts on the French Riviera

Hundreds of firefighters - backed by water bombing planes - have been battling the fires which have ravaged Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Albania and Turkey in recent days

The 16-year-old alleged arsonists, who have not been identified, were in police cells in Martigues, between Marseille and Montpellier, preparing for another day of questioning.

They are thought to have set fire to parched shrub land on Tuesday, causing one of the blazes that have engulfed more than 15 square miles of countryside. Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence regional council, told FranceInfo radio station that many of the fires were of criminal origin, and that the activity of arsonists had to be stopped.

More than 10,000 people  including celebrities and royalty  were forced from homes, hotels and campsites in the middle of the night yesterday.

They described pine trees 'lit up like matches' as the tinderbox forests at the back of the Riviera went up in flames.

One said the night sky of southern France was 'like Dante's Inferno'. As the fires raged for a third day, leaving normally blue skies black with smoke, one local politician said: 'It is a disaster area. There is nothing left.'

Tourists were forced to sleep on beaches in makeshift camps. Anne Davies, from Cardiff, woke at a campsite in Bormes-les-Mimosas to discover the hills were ablaze.

'We've been coming here for 34 years and I've never seen fires this big,' said Mrs Davies, 74. 'When I looked back the whole of the hillside was on fire.

'I was very frightened, particularly as I can't run that fast any more. The beach was full of people fleeing from the fire and there must have been about 50 children in buggies with worried parents.'

Retired teacher Ros Roberts (left), 64, said she could see and smell the black smoke, adding: 'An alarm began to ring out, then cars came around with sirens and a Tannoy telling everyone to move to the beach'. Pictured, right: The wildfire in the south of France

Kim Stone (left), 54, who was staying with her sister Julie Winslet (right), 46, said she came out and 'saw the hills on fire and the sky lit up'

Holidaymakers described pine trees 'lit up like matches' as the tinderbox forests at the back of the Riviera went up in flames. Pictured: Separate wildfires in Portugal

Last night she, her 76-year-old husband John and friends David Heslop, 81, and his wife Carolyn, 78, from Sheffield, were spending their second night on the beach.

Mr Heslop said: 'My biggest fear was the wind was going to change. The fire would have engulfed us. There must be 500 gas canisters and 500 petrol tanks in the campsite. It would have been carnage.'

John Grant, on holiday near Bormes-les-Mimosas, told the BBC the night sky was lit up 'like Dante's inferno'. 'It was scary,' he said. 'This was certainly larger than anything we had seen previously.'

Ollie Marriage, 44, from Newbury, Berkshire, described 'an explosion with masses of black smoke... like thousands of matches setting on fire, except the matches were trees'.

He took his wife Penny, and children Sasha, 13, and Luke, 12, to safety after the wildfire threatened their villa in Gigaro.

'Within just two minutes the fires got completely out of control and were spreading fast,' he said.

Retired teacher Ros Roberts, 64, from Ludlow, Shropshire, was with her husband Bruce in their caravan at Camp du Domaine.

Ollie Marriage, 44, from Newbury, Berkshire, described 'an explosion with masses of black smoke... like thousands of matches setting on fire, except the matches were trees'. Pictured: Holidaymakers watch the smoke rise over Les Mimosas

Diana and John Wardill, from Yorkshire, who fled in their car after a blaze neared their home in Saint-Tropez, said: 'It was shocking'. Pictured: Holidaymakers watch the smoke rise over Les Mimosas

A firefighter stands in the middle of a road near flames blazing near the village of Sanguinheira, in Macao, central Portugal

A local man is seen amid forest fire in Bayindir district of Izmir, Turkey, where at least 600 acres of woodland have been destroyed

She said: 'An alarm began to ring out, then cars came around with sirens and a Tannoy telling everyone to move to the beach. We could see and smell the black smoke.'

Kim Stone, 54, from Farnham, Surrey, was staying with her sister Julie Winslet, 46, at a beachfront pitch near Camp du Domaine.

'In the 45 years I've been coming here, I've never seen winds like it. We came out and saw the hills on fire and the sky lit up. If it wasn't for those water planes we would have been in serious trouble.'

Diana and John Wardill, from Yorkshire, fled in their car after a blaze neared their home in Saint-Tropez. 'It was shocking.

It happened so quickly,' said Mrs Wardill, 70. 'As soon as the flames touched an umbrella pine, it just crackled up. It was just like a tinderbox.'

Journalist Lisa Minot, who was at a forest campsite, said: 'They evacuated everyone down to the beach and we have been here ever since.

There are very strong winds... and this is what is hampering the efforts to fight the fire, because they really cannot predict where the flames are going to go next.'

The fires have been blamed on lightning, barbecues and discarded cigarettes, although Bormes mayor Francois Arizzi said it was arson

More than 4,000 firemen have been battling the flames, helped by aircraft including water bombers. At least 12 firemen have been injured

Locals and tourists were evacuated after a ferocious fire spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas, where as many as 3,000 campers were staying, on Wednesday

Fatherland author Robert Harris was among those evacuated. He posted a series of pictures of fires near Cap Benat on Twitter.

Dame Joan Collins, who had been forced to abandon her villa near Saint-Tropez late on Monday, said it was 'a nightmare,' while members of the Luxembourg royal family fled their summer home in Cabasson.

The fires have been blamed on lightning, barbecues and discarded cigarettes, although Bormes mayor Francois Arizzi said it was arson.

More than 4,000 firemen have been battling the flames, helped by aircraft including water bombers. At least 12 firemen have been injured.

Locals and tourists were evacuated after a ferocious fire spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas, where as many as 3,000 campers were staying, on Wednesday.

Terrifying photos from Bormes-Les-Mimosas showed flames rising just hundreds of yards away from a campsite where tourists had been sleeping on the sand, having been evacuated in the early hours of the morning.

Further south of the French mainland, flames tore through 4,950 acres of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

The Luxembourg royal family are among at least 10,000 people to have been evacuated overnight after new wild fires ripped through tourist hot spots in southern France, including Bormes-les-Mimosas (pictured)

Terrifying photos from Bormes-Les-Mimosas showed flames rising just hundreds of yards away from a campsite where tourists had been sleeping on the sand

Locals and tourists were evacuated after a ferocious fire spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas

While many tourists evacuated the Cap Benat campsite (pictured being shadowed by smoke), near Bornes-Les-Mimosas, some seemed happy to hunker down and continue enjoying their holiday

Ruins: The charred remains of burnt caravans at a warehouse in La Londe-les-Maures after fire swept through the area overnight

At least 10,000 people have been evacuated overnight with many forced to camp out on beaches to escape new wild fires ripping through the tourist hot spot of Bormes-les-Mimosas in southern France

People walk through the streets of Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France, as smoke rises from a fire burning a forest near the seaside town

Holidaymakers fled to beaches near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast (left) while wildfires burned across southern Europe, including Portugal (right)

On the move: Sunbathers were evacuated after heading to the beach this morning in Le Lavandou. They were seen carrying their beach chairs away as black smoke rose up from a fire on a nearby hill

Hundreds of firefighters - backed by water bombing planes - have been battling the fires which have ravaged Portugal (pictured), Italy, Croatia, Albania and Turkey

Fires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir (pictured)

Meanwhile massive blazes have destroyed thousands of acres of woodland, crops and vineyards across Southern Europe.

Hundreds of firefighters - backed by water bombing planes - have been battling the fires which have ravaged Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Albania and Turkey in recent days.

Today, British author Robert Harris said he had been among thousands evacuated and posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near the seaside town of Bormes-les-Mimosas.

To the east, the deputy mayor of La Croix-Valmer, Rene Carandante, described a landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines.

'It's a disaster area. There's nothing left,' he said of an area where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

The new blaze came a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south, including near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

'Apocalyptic' wildfires across southern Europe, sparked by a series of heatwaves across the continent, come as many Britons prepare to set off on their summer holidays this week.

On Tuesday more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish flames in southern France, which have left swathes of charred earth in their wake.

Beachgoers walked off the beach after being told to leave as a fire raged behind them in Bormes-les-Mimosas

About 3,000 of those evacuated from the picturesque coastal village of Bormes-les-Mimosas (pictured) were tourists staying in campgrounds

British author Robert Harris posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near Bormes-les-Mimosas. The Luxembourg royal family - Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg (right) - were also in Southeastern France and were evacuated from their property

Devastation: A woman hugs a firefighter near charred remains of vehicles and buildings destroyed by fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas

Flames and smoke fill the sky above a burning hillside as tourists swim on the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas, in the Var department, France, July 26, 2017

People play cards at the beach as a fire burns a forest behind them in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France

Tourists evacuate the beach as smoke fills the sky above a burning hillside in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var district

Firefighters stepped up their battle against flames lapping at Mediterranean forests in the picturesque French hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas

Eric Martin, of the firefighting unit in the Var region of the Cote d'Azur, said on Wednesday that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares of Bormes

More than 1,000 firefighters battled infernos which billowed smoke into the sky over France's southern Cote d'Azur coast

The Bormes blaze was morphing into the largest in the area as firefighters also fought a fire in nearby La Londes-Les-Maures. Pictured: Volunteers distribute food to people evacuated due to wild fires in Bormes-les-Mimosas

To the east of Bornes-Les-Mimosas (pictured), the deputy mayor of La Croix-Valmer, Rene Carandante, described a landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines

The new blaze came a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south

A man tries to extinguish a fire burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas wherethousands of people including holidaymakers were evacuated

'Apocalyptic' wildfires across southern Europe, including southern France (pictured), were sparked by a series of heatwaves across the continent

A palace spokesperson in Luxembourg told Hello Magazine the Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa are stuck in France after being evacuated.

Also with them in their property in Cabasson were Henri's father Jean and other members of the family including children.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.

About 3,000 of those evacuated from the picturesque coastal village of Bormes-les-Mimosas were tourists staying in campgrounds, some of whom ended up spending the night in sleeping bags on the beach.

Village mayor Francois Arizzi said between 10,000 and 12,000 people had been moved to public shelters but that some had preferred to sleep in their cars.

Tuesday night's blaze, which started in a caravan storage depot, was the work of arsonists, authorities believe. Other fires have been blamed on discarded cigarettes.

Tourists sheltered from the sun under trees after being evacuated from villas, hotels and campsites in fire-hit Bormes-les-Mimosas

An aerial view shows plumes of smoke rising in the air from burning wildfires in the outskirts of Bormes-les-Mimosas

Dramatic pictures show flames and massive clouds of smoke from an inferno ripping through woodland near the upmarket French resort of Saint-Tropez. This was the scene in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer near the glamorous town

A woman hots her head in her hands as she reacts to the sight of burnt out houses and vehicles following a fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas

A man inspects the damage following a fire in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southeastern France as he walks through the wreckage

Camping and caravaning guard company owners try to extinguish a fire still burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France

People look at the devastated land surrounding their house following a fire in Biguglia on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica

Holidaymakers at the Camp du Domaine campsite in Bormes-les-Mimosas told of having to flee at 2am as fire approached.

Some 1,000 camping plots were abandoned with one British tourist, Lisa Minot, saying there was 'utter chaos' as people flocked to the site's private beach.

Dramatic footage also showed fires raging further inland, near Peyrolles-en-Provence. British actress Dame Joan Collins has revealed she was among those who fled from her villas in the French Riviera.

And this morning, British author Robert Harris posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing fires burning through the undergrowth near Bormes-les-Mimosas.

The author wrote: '2.50 am. Just evacuated from Cap Benat. Forest fire in southern France near Le Lavandou & Bormes-les-Mimosas. Adds a certain drama to a holiday...'

In a later tweet he said firefighters were 'battling to save Cap & Gaou Benat'.

A firefighting plane drops fire retardant over a forest near La Londe-les-Maures on the French Riviera this morning

Wasteland: A burned out vehicle lies abandoned on a forest road in Carros, southern France - one of the worst-hit areas

Holidaymakers fled to beaches near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast as a huge blaze swept through the area

Up to 10,000 people have been evacuated from the region as fires continue to sweep through woodland and forest. Residents are pictured trying to extinguish a fire burning in their buildings in Bormes-les-Mimosa

People try to extinguish a fire burning in Bormes-les-Mimosas. At least 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated overnight after a new wildfire broke out in southern France

Mr Harris posted pictures showing fires burning in the woodland overlooking his holiday destination

People gather in a gymnasium in Bormes-les-Mimosas after being evacuated as over 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated from campsites and homes in southern France as firefighters battled the latest in a string of huge blazes along the Mediterranean coast

A woman and her daughter look at a plume of smoke from burning fires that fills the sky in the popular resort in the South of France

'Brave pompiers of Bormes-les-Mimosas worked all night to save hundreds of homes. 10,000 people evacuated,' he told his Twitter followers.

The blazes on Tuesday had devoured around 4,000 hectares (15 square miles) of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European Union partners to send two extra fire-fighting planes - a request immediately fulfilled by Italy, according to the EU.

But one union official denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts preventing all the aircraft required from being put into action.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Tuesday that France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet during a visit to Corsica.

A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained, local fire chief Philippe Gambe de Vergnes said Tuesday.

As tourists continued to sunbathe on the beaches, hundreds of firefighters tackled a blaze spanning 200 hectares at Giagaro, close to the glamorous holiday destination

The scarred remains of land burnt to a crisp by a forest fire in Ramatuelle, southern France, as an inferno raged out of control

A firefighter stands in the middle of a road near flames blazing near the village of Sanguinheira, in Macao, central Portugal

Evacuated people found refuge on the beach and look at a fire burning the forest in Bormes-les-Mimosas, at sunrise on July 26, 2017

Tourists do their best to enjoy their holidays in the French Riviera while huge fires continue to rage in La Croix-Valmer, near Saint-Tropez

A firefighting helicopter drops water over a forest fire in Carros near Nice, southern France, as blazes broke out across the French Riviera

A firefighter works overtime to put out a forest fire near the small village of Carvoeiro, near Castelo Branco in Portugal

But the blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmer's deputy mayor Rene Carandante described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

'It's a disaster area. There's nothing left,' he said.

Francois Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, told AFP that local wildlife, such as the Hermann's tortoises, would be victims of the fires. 'We are going to find burnt shells.'

Around 50 miles inland, 300 hectares of pines and oaks went up in smoke near the village of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.

A local official accused the authorities of failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making the forest a fire hazard.

The French island of Corsica, situated midway between France and Italy, was also assessing the damage.

The 'apocalyptic' wildfires, sparked by a series of heatwaves across the region, come as many Britons prepare to set off on their summer holidays this week

Emergency services last night continued to work around the clock to battle the infernos, which are being fanned by high winds and have consumed nearly 10,000 acres of vegetation

French authorities said eight firemen and 15 police officers have been hurt, although no fatalities have yet been reported

In Portugal firefighters were yesterday continuing the country's summertime battle against wildfires, which last month claimed the lives of 64 people

A resident, whose house had at one point been in danger, spoke of 'apocalyptic' scenes.

In the end, disaster was averted after the wind died down, but the blaze engulfed 1,800 hectares of forest and burned several vehicles.

Further east, in Carros, north of Nice, a house, three vehicles and a warehouse went up in flames, according to regional authorities.

Speaking to France Info radio, Mayor Charles Scibetta described waking up to a 'lunar landscape' and said the inhabitants had a lucky escape.

'All of France is mobilised,' the head of the fire service in southeast France, Colonel Gregory Allione told France Info, adding that extra firefighters had been drafted in from the north.

Thomas Curt, a director at the Irsea institute for research into the environment and agriculture, said a fall-off in farming in southeast France since the 1970s had made it more prone to fires.

More than 100 forest fires erupted on Sunday, with 5,000 firefighters deployed across central and northern Portugal

Almost 5,000 firefighters supported by water-dropping aircraft are deployed across central and northern areas of Portugal as the country continues its daily summertime battle against wildfires

A villager battles in dangerous conditions to put out a forest fire in the village of Brejo Grande, near Castelo Branco, Portugal

'Farmland is contracting and the forest is naturally expanding, making the area bushier,' he said.

A proliferation in the numbers of homes, roads and power lines near forests also increased the fire hazard, he added.

In mid-July, a blaze believed to have been ignited by a cigarette butt tossed out of a car ripped through 800 hectares of land near Aix-en-Provence.

The resorts of Frejus, Sainte-Maxime and Toulon were graded as being at an 'exceptional' risk, with experts warning that continued strong winds this week would see more areas affected.

One fire that erupted late on Monday near the La Croix-Valmer resort and yacht-filled marinas of Saint-Tropez sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky above the packed beaches.

Flames burned across some 2,000 acres in the region, with two villas destroyed in the hills where Dynasty star Dame Joan Collins was staying just a few miles west of St Tropez.

The 84-year-old and ten others at her multi-million-pound holiday home, where the actress spends four months of the year, were evacuated late on Monday.

An aerial photograph shows the fire devastated landscape in Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica

A raging fire is sweeping through woodland in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer near Saint Tropez

Holidaymakers watch on as the smoke fills the sky following a forest fire near Seillons, in the Var department in France

Fires ravage the Corsican maquis in Biguglia, in the region of Bastia. More than 2,000 hectares have burned despite the best efforts of firefighters

Too close for comfort: Dramatic video showed forest fires raging close to houses in the Saint-Tropez region overnight

A house and three vehicles went up in flames in Carros, north of Nice yesterday as firefighters battled to contain the inferno

Photos show the wreckage of a burnt down car following a forest fire in Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez in southern France

On the island of Corsica, one fire, made worse by strong winds, has spread across 900 hectares of forest and is reportedly threatening to engulf homes

Actress Joan Collins (left, in 2014 and, right, in 2016) has been forced to evacuate her villa in the south of France as a huge fire continues to rip through woodland near Saint-Tropez

Tweeting a picture of the blazing hills yesterday, Dame Joan wrote: 'Luckily we were able to evacuate last night, not easy with 11 people in the house!'

In a statement, she said: 'All 11 family and friends are safe after abandoning our villa due to the fierce forest fires threatening our home.'

She later claimed the fire had been started by a barbecue, adding: 'All seems ok although fire still burning started by BarBQ.'

Local authorities said more than 100 people were evacuated and thousands of acres destroyed in and around St Tropez.

Michel Bernier, of France's civil defence forces, added: 'It's a very dangerous day.'

Another fire that scorched at least 2,000 acres in Luberon was believed to be under control yesterday morning, local firefighters said.

But one of the largest blazes was last night still ripping through swathes of hillside on the island of Corsica off the French coast.

A French firefighter sitting in a vehicle looks at a tree blocking the path in Ramatuelle, southern France following a forest fire

Pictures show the interior of a vehicle that was destroyed when fire ripped through a forest in Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez

Fires have been raging for days in southern France. An aircraft is pictured swooping low over Castagniers near Nice

Tourists seemed unconcerned and continued to enjoy the beaches near Saint-Tropez as forest fires swept through nearby woodland

Emergency: Dramatic pictures showed huge forest fires near the exclusive L'Escalet area of Saint Tropez in southern France

The fires across southern France have been made worse by strong winds. This was the scene as firefighters tackled a blaze in in the hills of Gigaro in La Croix-Valmer

Tourists and residents walk down a road near Saint Tropez as a huge forest fire rages over the ridge of a nearby hill yesterday

More than 5,000 acres of forest were engulfed after the fire erupted on Monday night, with residents evacuated from their homes at the edge of the town of Biguglia.

One of the blazes along the French Riviera was thought to have been started by a bolt of lightning. However carelessly discarded cigarettes are often blamed for setting the tinderbox area alight.

Fires have erupted across much of southern Europe in recent weeks amid extremely high temperatures and dry weather during the peak holiday season.

More than 2,000 firefighters are battling nine major wildfires in Portugal, where drought conditions, high temperatures and strong winds are fueling the flames.

Almost 1,000 other firefighters are conducting mopping-up operations at 37 other Portuguese woodland blazes on Wednesday.

Ash floated in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 125 miles northeast of Lisbon. The Civil Protection Agency said 24 water-dropping aircraft were in action.

Serta is close to Pedrogao Grande, where 64 people died in a wildfire last month. No injuries have been reported in recent days as the blazes raced through thick eucalyptus and pine forests.

More than 2,000 firefighters are battling nine major wildfires in Portugal. Pictured: Firemen fight a forest fire at Castelo in Macao, central Portugal

Some 1,126 firemen, 358 land vehicles and ten airplanes and helicopters are working to contain the forest fire in Castelo

Ash filled in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 125 miles northeast of Lisbon. Pictured: A water bombing plane fighting the blaze in Castelo

The Civil Protection Agency said 24 water-dropping aircraft were in action in Portugal. Pictured: A firefighter at the scene of a forest fire at Castelo

One of the worst affected areas is Serta, around 200km north of Lisbon, where hamlets have been evacuated and the A23 shut. Pictured: Santo village in Macao, central Portugal

Emergency services in Portugal are getting no respite from wildfires that are charring wide areas of forest

The huge billowing clouds of smoke they are generating are making visibility too poor to use water-dropping aircraft

Aerial assault: Planes loaded with water were sent into the skies in a bid to damped the flames from above near Carros, southern France

Fire fighting aircraft drop water over a fire near Carros, southeastern France on Monday. A number of fires have been causing chaos across the region

People watch smoke rising above a forest as a wildfire burns near La Londe-les-Maures on the French Riviera this morning

Large wildfires are a common occurrence in summer in Portugal, where thousands of firefighters are on duty in the summer months.

Albania's interior ministry says that some 130 firefighters are battling 18 fire spots around the country.

Spokesman Ardian Bita says fires are blazing in five western and central districts, damaging 15 hectares (37 acres) of pastures, vineyards and dozens of olive trees.

Firefighters, military personnel and local authorities have been fighting about a dozen wildfires every day in Albania since the end of June. No injuries have yet been reported. Authorities have arrested several people accused of starting fires.

Meanwhile fires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir.

'Compared to a year ago we have increased public awareness and have also had better communication with the communities and local authorities,' said Bita.

Wildfires are also burning across swaths of central and southern Italy, aided by the region's drought and high temperatures, but authorities say most have been caused by arson.

Civil protection authorities said they responded Tuesday to 26 requests for water and fire retardant airdrops throughout central and southern Italy, including in Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.

Wildfires in Turkey have destroyed at least 600 acres of woodland in the Aegean province of Izmir (pictured)

Smoke rises at the site of a forest fire in the Lutuflar district of Izmir, Turkey, where around 250 acres of forestland has been destroyed by the fire

Fire fighting helicopters, amphibian airplanes and water trucks tried to extinguish the fire in the Lutuflar district of Izmir, Turkey

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities. This was the scene in Bormes-les-Mimosas

Pictures show a huge fire raging a few hundred yards away from yachts in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var region in southern France

There were no reports of imminent threats to population areas on Wednesday. The fires have been raging for weeks, causing periodic evacuations and devastating large areas of forest and pasture.

The Coldiretti agriculture lobby says 50 billion bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Coldiretti said another 20 percent of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented from the smoke of the fires and died as a result.

On Sunday a forest fire in Croatia triggered 34 explosions thought to be mines left over from the war in the 1990s. An earlier blaze had spread to southern Croatia from Montenegro.

Southeast France is experiencing an exceptionally hot, dry summer that have made it especially vulnerable to fires.
A young man who was caught on camera shockingly abusing his puppy will not serve any jail time.

Zixuan Liu pleaded no contest in a San Francisco court last week to criminal animal abuse against his 10-month-old Shiba Inu, Aniki.

The 26-year-old was filmed by an elevator security camera dragging his pooch along the ground outside the lift, before pulling Aniki back towards him and kicking him in the head.

Once inside the elevator, Liu waited for the door to close and then stomped on the 10-month-old pups head three times.

Scroll down for video

Zixuan Liu was caught on camera in an elevator kicking his 10-month-old puppy

He then picked Aniki up by his snout and carried him to the elevator door, before dropping him to the floor as the door opened.

The 26-year-old then delivered another hard kick to Aniki to get him out of the elevator, with the boot sending the poor dog flying out into the hallway.

Liu was arrested on May 13, according to San Francisco Animal Care and Control.

The group said in a statement that part of the 26-year-old's plea included provisions meaning he will not be allowed to have a pet in future, and he must complete community service work, attend counseling sessions, and cover the costs of Aniki's care at its shelter.

The 26-year-old was filmed by an elevator security camera stomping on his pooch's head and then picking him up by the snout and dropping him to the floor

He will also serve three years probation.

Vet staff at the shelter treated the pup for cuts and bruises, while also having it play with other animals as a way to improve his mental state.

San Francisco Animal Care and Control said it is pleased with the punishment handed down to Liu.

'We're pleased with the outcome of this case,' executive director Virginia Donohue said, ABC7 reports.

Aniki was treated by vet staff at San Francisco Animal Care and Control after the incident. He is pictured last week

Aniki is pictured with a veterinary staff member at San Francisco Animal Care and Control after being beaten

'Animal cruelty is horrible. Animal Care and Control strives to help the animals who are victimized and hold abusers accountable for their actions.'

District Attorney George Gascon added it was important to punish Liu - and any others who abuse animals - because it is a 'reflection' on the city.

'Anytime we can prove that animal abuse has occurred, we will hold offenders responsible in a court of law,' he said, according to ABC7.

Aniki has been sent off to an animal shelter in Nevada, which will handle the 10-month-old's adoption process.
A teenage boy has been accused of beating his mother to death with a hammer then texting photographs of her corpse.

Andrew Zaragoza, 16, is charged with murdering his mother Donna at their home in Bel Air, Maryland, on July 20.

Police say he beat the 56-year-old to death on a bed in one room then stabbed her in the neck and chest.

He then locked himself in another room in the house where he stabbed and scratched himself in an apparent attempt to take his own life.

Andrew Zaragoza, 16, is accused of with murdering his mother Donna, 56, with a hammer then texting photographs of her body

At some point during the killing, Zaragoza texted photographs of his mother's corpse to an acquaintance.

It is not clear whether they called the police or but officers arrived at the home at 6.30am and found Ms Zaragoza's body on a bed lying next to the bloody hammer.

Andrew was still inside the home at the time. Police also found a suicide note he'd written which explained his mother's murder and revealed his plans to take his own life.

Once in custody, police say he confessed to the killing, telling one officer: 'My mom was taking pills this morning, she hit me and I killed her,"' according to ABC2 News.

The teen also told them he drank bleach before they arrived.

Police found the woman's lifeless body lying on a bed next to a bloody hammer in their home in Bel Air, Maryland, on July 20

He has been charged with first and second degree murder, first and second degree assault, and use of dangerous weapon with intent to injure and he will be tried as an adult.

The teenager is being held without bail.

At his first court appearance, the teenager's lawyer said he had been the victim of mental and physical abuse for years and that he killed his mother in retaliation after she hit him.

Police had been called to the home many times in the past for incidents relating to drugs and mental health issues.

Andrew's father recently died of a drug overdose there as did his uncle. It is not clear whether his mother was a drug addict.
A 28-year-old woman died after her she was found bleeding from her head in her Brooklyn apartment after she fell from a loft bed.

Tansy Stowell, 28, was rushed to Woodhull Hospital Center, where she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday, police said.

Authorities said she and her boyfriend had been drinking the night before, according to the New York Daily News.

Tansy Stowell, 28, was found on the floor of her Brooklyn apartment bleeding from the head after she fell from her loft bed on Wednesday, police (file image) said. She was rushed to a local hospital where she died

He told police that he found his girlfriend on the floor beneath her loft bed when he woke up to use the bathroom.

Police were called to the apartment located on Driggs Avenue in Greenpoint around 8am on Tuesday.

Stowell was bleeding from the head and was rushed to the hospital, where she died a short time later.

Police told the Daily News that they believe Stowell lost her balance as she came down the stairs from the bed, hit her head on a hook in the ceiling and fell.

An autopsy has been schedule to determine how she died.

But investigators do believe that her death was accidental.
A mud sculpture of a World War One soldier has been erected in Trafalgar Square to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele.

The sculpture, which has been commissioned by VisitFlanders and is a joint venture with Westminster City Council, has been made out of sand mixed with mud from Passchendaele in Flanders Fields, Belgium and crafted by artist Damian Van Der Velden.

Over the next few days, the sculpture, located on the Portico Terrace at the National Gallery, is expected to dissolve from the rain to remind people of the treacherous conditions and thick sludge-like mud the brave soldiers had to battle in, which lead to many drowning in mud baths.

A mud and sand sculpture, crafted by artist Damian Van Der Velden, has gone on display in Trafalgar Square

The soldier has started to melt to remind people of the treacherous conditions and thick sludge-like mud the brave soldiers had to battle in

Westminster was chosen as the location for the statue as two soldiers, who were VC recipients, were born there

Information panels have been stationed nearby to offer an explanation about the sculpture's significance in the commemoration of the collective sacrifice of those who fought in this significant battle.

Westminster was chosen as the location for the statue as two soldiers, who were VC recipients, were born there.

They both lost their lives on the first day of the battle on July 31, 1917.

The soldier, which will remain on display until Friday, was unveiled yesterday by Westminster's Armed Forces Champion Councillor Rachael Robathan.

She said: 'It was an honour to unveil this sculpture in the heart of Westminster, the home of two brave VC recipients killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele.

Information panels have been stationed nearby to offer an explanation about the sculpture's significance in the commemoration of the collective sacrifice of those who fought in this significant battle

Canadian stretcher bearers carrying a wounded soldier through the mud of the Ypres Salient, Battle of Passchendaele, 1917

'We will never be able to comprehend the horrific conditions soldiers faced during that battle but this sculpture is a fitting tribute to their sacrifice.

'In four days, this striking artwork will have vanished but it will have made a lasting impression on the thousands of people who visit Trafalgar Square and beyond.'

Andrew Daines, director of VISITFLANDERS, UK and Ireland, said: 'We hope that this art installation will inspire the visiting public to think about this milestone year in the Centenary of one of the First World War's most horrific battles.

'Art can provide more powerfully, the deep emotions brought forward by war and the Mud Soldier represents those feelings in more of a thought provoking way, even stronger than words can express.'
Sean Spicer (seen at the White House on Tuesday) is being courted by Dancing With the Stars producers, it has been claimed

He tangoed with the media on a daily basis during his tenure as White House Press Secretary.

But Sean Spicer may be getting ready for a different dance altogether.

According to Page Six, Spicer is being courted by ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Producers want the hot-headed communications executive to appear on its 25th season which is due to begin in fall.

There is no indication yet of whether Spicer, 45, is interested in the offer but a source close to the show was quoted as saying: 'This has legs'.

The show will begin on September 17 on ABC.

So far none of the other contestants have been revealed.

News that Spicer may be among the cast sent viewers in to a spin of excitement. Actor Zach Braff was one of them. He tweeted: 'Can't wait to see Sean Spicer waltz on Dancing with the Stars'.

Spicer stepped down last week after President Trump named financier Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had been standing in as Spicer's deputy, now holds the Press Secretary title.

Spicer, who was the communications director for the Republican National Committee for six years before he joined team Trump, would not be the first political personality to go on the show.

Rick Perry, the energy secretary and former governor for Texas, appeared on the show last year and in 2009, the former Rep. for Texas Tom Delay took part as a contestant.

Tom Delay, the former Rep. for Texas appeared on the show in 2009 (left) and former Texas Governor Rick Perry (right) took part last year

In the UK, former shadow economic secretary Ed Balls made a bashful appearance on the British version.

Neither Spicer nor ABC responded to DailyMail.com's requests on Wednesday night.

NFL player Rashad Jennings won the last series with his partner Emma Slater

After stepping down, Spicer went on Fox's Hannity to explain his departure from the role.

'I just thought it was in the best interest of our communications department, of our press organization, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen.'

The president supported his decision and painted him as the martyr of the administration's ongoing feud with the media.

'Sean Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright!' he tweeted after the announcement was made.

Spicer's time in the briefing room was peppered with heated back-and-forths with journalists.

In his first briefing after the inauguration in January, he set a combative tone by lambasting reporters for their apparently inaccurate representation of the inauguration crowd size.

Like the president, he was not amused by Saturday Night Live's unflattering depictions of him and said during his interview with Hannity that Melissa McArthy, the comedienne who portrayed him, went 'over the line'.

'It wasn't funny,' he quipped. Spicer will remain in the White House until August.
It was a woolly ride, but three wild rabbits managed to escape rising floodwaters in New Zealand by clambering aboard sheep and surfing to safety on their backs.

Ferg Horne, a farmer from Mosgiel, New Zealand, captured an image of the sight after going to rescue a neighbour's sheep from the floodwaters.

While Mr Horne, 64, has been farming since age 15, he says he has never seen anything quite like it.

Scroll down for video

It was a woolly ride, but three wild rabbits managed to escape rising floodwaters in New Zealand by clambering aboard sheep and surfing to safety on their backs

SHEEP-SURFING RABBITS Mr Horne said the sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about eight centimeters (three inches) of water. He said the rabbits looked like they'd gotten wet but seemed quite comfortable and relaxed atop their mounts. Mr Horne herded the sheep to a patch of dry ground on the farm about 50 meters (164 feet) away. The sheep didn't like it. 'As they jumped through the water, the rabbits had a jolly good try at staying on,' Mr Horne said. He said the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws. As they approached the higher ground, the rabbits fell off but managed to climb a hedge to safety. Advertisement

Mr Horne was rescuing a neighbour's 40 sheep from the floodwaters on Saturday at their South Island farm near Dunedin when he spotted some dark shapes from a distance.

He was puzzled because he knew his neighbor didn't have any black-faced sheep.

As he got closer, he thought it might be debris from the storm, which had drenched the area and forced Mr Horne to evacuate his home.

Then he saw the bedraggled rabbits hitching a ride - two on one sheep and a third on another sheep.

'I couldn't believe it for a start,' he said.

Nobody else would believe him either without proof, he thought, so he got out his phone to take a photo, an image he figured his grandchildren would enjoy.

The sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about eight centimeters (three inches) of water.

He said the rabbits looked like they'd gotten wet but seemed quite comfortable and relaxed atop their mounts.

Rabbits are considered a pest to farmers in New Zealand, and Mr Horne said that typically when he sees one, he shoots it.

'But they'd showed so much initiative, I thought they deserved to live, those rabbits,' he said.

Ferg Horne, a farmer from Mosgiel, New Zealand, captured saw the rabbits riding on sheep on a neighbour's farm

Mr Horne herded the sheep to a patch of dry ground on the farm about 50 meters (164 feet) away.

'As they jumped through the water, the rabbits had a jolly good try at staying on,' Mr Horne said.

He said the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws.

As they approached the higher ground, the rabbits fell off but managed to climb a hedge to safety.

While the behaviour may seem bizarre, animals riding on one another is quite a nature phenomeon in the animal kingdom. In 2015, an image of a weasel riding on a woodpecker went viral, and scientists who analysed the image confirmed it was real

Mr Horne returned later that afternoon. The floodwaters were receding, the sheep were all safe and the rabbits were long gone.

While the behaviour may seem bizarre, animals riding on one another is quite a nature phenomeon in the animal kingdom.

In 2015, an image of a weasel riding on a woodpecker went viral, and scientists who analysed the image confirmed it was real.

In other cases, dolphins have been seen riding on the snouts of humpback whales - which scientists suggest is a form of play.

Speaking to National Geographic, David Mizejewski, a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation, said: 'The natural world is filled with wonders.

And we have the chance of observing them firsthand if we get outside to experience them.'
Rehabilitation camps aimed at reforming would-be cyber criminals have been launched by the National Crime Agency.

Teenagers who commit hacking offences are being offered the chance to take part in the scheme, run by the UK's national law enforcement agency.

Youngsters who have been issued cautions and cease and desist orders across the country will be eligible if the pilot proves a success.

The agency hopes that the Prevent programme will help to bolster falling numbers of security industry experts.

Scroll down for video

Rehabilitation camps aimed at reforming would-be cyber criminals have been launched by the National Crime Agency. Teenagers who commit hacking offences are being offered the chance to take part in the scheme, run by the UK's national law enforcement agency (stock image)

WHAT DO THEY DO? Rehabilitation camps aimed at reforming would-be cyber criminals have been launched by the National Crime Agency. Teenagers who commit hacking offences are being offered the chance to take part in the scheme, run by the UK's national law enforcement agency. A group of seven young men were the first to take part in the rehab workshops, held earlier this month in Bristol. They were taught security skills and options for using their skills legitimately, according to reports in The Telegraph. The group in question had all been caught by the NCA committing crimes online, including taking servers offline, either at home or from their schools. Advertisement

A group of seven young men were the first to take part in the rehab workshops, held earlier this month in Bristol.

They were taught security skills and options for using their skills legitimately, according to reports in The Telegraph.

The group in question had all been caught by the NCA committing crimes online, including taking servers offline, either at home or from their schools.

One of the members began his hacking career by accidentally knocking out a primary school's network.

He then began to experiment with his newfound skill, putting it to a variety of malicious uses.

The youngster claimed that hacking offered him an escape from bullying at school.

Speaking to The Telegraph Richard Jones, Prevent manager at the NCA, said: 'Cyber crime has become easier to commit with the proliferation of easy-to-access tools, tutorials and online forums to share ideas.

'Even the most basic forms of cyber crime can have huge impacts and the NCA and police will arrest and prosecute offenders, which can be devastating to their future.

'That means there is great value in reaching young people before they become involved in cyber crime, and even those already on the fringes of criminality - when their skills can still be a force for good.'

The scheme arose from research which found that illegal hackers have a very similar skill set and background to legitimate cyber security workers.

But intervention from authority figures like teachers and parents had steered the latter group into positions of responsibility, rather than a life of crime.

A group of seven young men were the first to take part in the rehab workshops, held earlier this month in Bristol. They were taught security skills and options for using their skills legitimately (stock image)

Previous work by the NCA has seen former young cyber criminals reform and become productive members of society.

The Prevent programme comes at a time of increasing threats from hacking groups and other lone wolf attackers.

In recent months, a number of high profile hack attacks have hit the headlines.

Perhaps most prominent was the Wanna Decryptor or 'WannaCry' Virus that hit the NHS last month.
Stories of black mega-swans in New Zealand have long existed in legends from Moriori people.

Up until now, no direct evidence of these mysterious creatures has ever been found.

Some researchers suggested the legends may refer to the Australian black swan, which can fly over the Tasman Sea.

Now, a new study says it has proven, for the first time, that the elusive black mega-swan of New Zealand existed, and was its own, unique species.

Researchers say the semi-flightless black swan died out in New Zealand after humans first arrived from Polynesia in the 13th Century.

Scroll down for video

A new study says it has proven, for the first time, that the elusive black mega-swan of New Zealand existed, and was its own, unique species. Pictured is a mounted skeleton of the creature

NEW ZEALAND'S BLACK SWAN Australian black swans first arrived in New Zealand about two million years ago, during the Pleistocene Ice Age. There, they rapidly evolved into Pouwa, weighing up to four kilograms more than Australian swans, developing elongated legs and becoming more terrestrial in habitat. Dr Rawlence said: 'One of the interesting findings comes from the highly elongated leg bones, which shows they were already on the path towards flightlessness. 'Birds seem to get these elongated legs in island ecosystems where there are no mammalian predators and the top predators are birds, like the extinct Haast's Eagle and Eyles' Harrier.' Advertisement

The discovery was made after researchers at the University of Otago compared DNA from 47 modern Australian black swans and 39 ancient swan fossils found at archaeological sites around New Zealand.

Analysis of ancient DNA and bone dimensions shows Pouwa was between 20 to 30 per cent heavier than modern Australian black swans, and weighed around 10 kilograms

The researchers also found that Pouwa were on the way to becoming flightless when they became extinct.

Dr Nic Rawlence, who led the study, said the findings are one of a 'growing number of examples of extinction and colonisation since the arrival of people in New Zealand.'

Australian black swans first arrived in New Zealand about two million years ago, during the Pleistocene Ice Age.

There, they rapidly evolved into Pouwa, weighing up to four kilograms more than Australian swans, developing elongated legs and becoming more terrestrial in habitat.

Dr Rawlence said: 'One of the interesting findings comes from the highly elongated leg bones, which shows they were already on the path towards flightlessness.

'Birds seem to get these elongated legs in island ecosystems where there are no mammalian predators and the top predators are birds, like the extinct Haast's Eagle and Eyles' Harrier.'

Until the mid-1990s, scientists believed that black swans in New Zealand when Polynesians arrived in the 13th century were the same as the swans in Australia today.

Analysis of ancient DNA and bone dimensions shows Pouwa was between 20 to 30 per cent heavier than modern Australian black swans, and weighed around 10 kilograms

But when Europeans arrived in New Zealand in the late 18th century, there were no black swans at all.

Instead, the Europeans introduced Australian black swans to New Zealand in the 1860s.

Dr Rawlence said: 'Within three or four years their population had grown and spread to the point that we suspect they must have been self-introduced as well.

While a black swan species from Australia still exists today (pictured), a team of researchers led by the University of Otago has proved that the Pouwa was a unique species

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES IN NEW ZEALAND The researchers believe that New Zealand has a huge natural advantage in these kinds of studies. Dr Rawlence said: 'As one of the last major land masses to be settled by humans, New Zealand has an excellent recent and well-preserved archaeological record, including for swans. We can separate out climate-change effects from change driven by humans. 'This research shows how the arrival of humans can rapidly change island ecosystems. 'It may also raise new questions when it comes to ecological restoration and, perhaps, even de-extinction. 'Our research shows that, in some cases, you cannot assume that closely related species are surrogates. The Pouwa's ecology might have been fundamentally different from that of the Australian black swan.' Advertisement

'They'd probably been rocking up in New Zealand the whole time, but never been able to establish here until after the arrival of Europeans.'

The researchers looked at 39 ancient fossil samples found in New Zealand, and compared them with DNA from 47 modern Australian swans.

Dr Rawlence said: 'We assessed museum and archaeological collections, and extracted ancient DNA in our laboratory, looked at bumps on bones and took bone measurements to characterise their shape.

'We have shown now that the new Australian arrivals are not exactly replacements of the Pouwa.

'So this raises the question - what does it truly mean to be native? Is the Australian black swan a pest or something to be protected?'

The researchers believe that New Zealand has a huge natural advantage in these kinds of studies.

Dr Rawlence said: 'As one of the last major land masses to be settled by humans, New Zealand has an excellent recent and well-preserved archaeological record, including for swans. We can separate out climate-change effects from change driven by humans.

'This research shows how the arrival of humans can rapidly change island ecosystems.

The researchers believe that New Zealand has a huge natural advantage in these kinds of studies, as it is one of the last major land masses to be settled by humans

'It may also raise new questions when it comes to ecological restoration and, perhaps, even de-extinction.

'Our research shows that, in some cases, you cannot assume that closely related species are surrogates.

'The Pouwa's ecology might have been fundamentally different from that of the Australian black swan.'
Georgias State Parks are gearing up for the biggest stellar show that most of us will ever see. For the first time in nearly 100 years, a total solar eclipse will make its way across nearly the entire United States. The path of totality  where day will briefly turn to night  includes northeast Georgia State Parks such as Black Rock Mountain and Tallulah Gorge. Park officials are making plans for what may be the biggest crowds since 30,000 people watched tightrope aerialist Karl Wallenda cross the gorge in 1970.

Cabins and campsites at state parks within the path have been sold out for months, and parks within two hours drive are quickly filling up.

To help amateur astronomers find places to stay, Georgias State Parks are posting the best locations and availability on www.GaStateParks.org/Eclipse20 17 . Don Carter State Park on Lake Lanier, Victoria Bryant State Park near Royston and Watson Mill Bridge State Park near Athens are just some of the parks with remaining accommodations that are within a short drive of the eclipse path.

The park systems website also includes a calendar of viewing celebrations and eclipse facts. State park gift shops are already stocking up on viewing glasses and souvenir t-shirts. Elijah Clark State Park has planned a guided trip on Clarks Hill Lake to enjoy the sudden darkness from a kayak. Vogel State Park in Blairsville will host a celebration with childrens crafts. Even sites as far as Fort King George on Georgias coast have planned events since their visitors will see a partial solar eclipse.

We are so excited to be part of this monumental occasion and are looking forward to sharing it with our visitors, said State Parks Director Becky Kelley. We know that people will be coming from all over the country to see the eclipse, and we want to make sure that everyone has a safe and memorable experience.
Google has added SOS Alerts to Maps and Search in an effort to help save lives in emergencies.

The new features provides emergency telephone numbers, news reports, maps and other useful information when an incident occurs.

The feature can also trigger mobile notifications to people who are near the catastrophe, and provide round-ups to people who are further away.

Scroll down for video

SOS Alerts provides people with emergency telephone numbers and other useful pieces of information that could help them stay alive

HOW DOES IT WORK? SOS Alerts brings key information as updates. These include information about official alerts, tweets and phrases in the local language. It will let people know which roads are closed, traffic jams and places they can find refuge. Users who are close to the affected area will get notifications. People not in the area who want information about the crisis can search for the SOS Alert which provides a timely overview of the situation. Advertisement

As part of the new feature, an alert will appear at the top of your search results when you for the incident or location.

The alert will youll also find maps, top stories and local information from authorities.

Depending on how close you are, you may also get a notification on your mobile.

If you search for certain times, such as the name of the event,an SOS Alert that provides a timely overview of the situation, as well as options to donate to help those in crisis.

On Google Maps on your phone, youll see an icon that provides real-time information about the crisis.

It will also let you know which roads are closed, traffic jams and places you can find refuge.

Google is providing SOS Alerts in 12 countries, including the US, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Columbia, India and New Zealand.

It has yet to be rolled out in the UK or other European countries.

'In times of crisis, more and more people are turning to online sources of information to find out what to do,' Omar Abou-Samra, a technical advisor at the American Red Cross, told BBC.

'Designed to be shared in tandem with public alerts, the service provides localised lifesaving information that people can immediately act on to protect themselves and their families', he said.

Previous emergency response efforts from Google, such as Person Finder and Crisis Map, meant users had to go to special sections of the site.

SOS Alerts which works inside the maps app (pictured) brings key information as updates. These include information about official alerts, tweets and phrases in the local language

SOS alerts have been developed with organisations including the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the US.

'In situations of crisis, the need for information is crucial,' Yossi Matias, Google's vice-president of engineering, said.

'People need to know what's going on - anything that may be related to their safety, or any action they should be taking.'

Google says it will turn on the alerts in other countries if there is a disaster.
The most powerful types of explosion in the universe, created by the explosive death of a massive star, has been captured in unprecedented detail.

The breakthrough provides the clearest picture yet of gamma ray bursts, which have fascinated astronomers ever since they were first discovered in the late 1960s.

The huge explosions give off as much energy in seconds as the sun in its entire 10 billion year lifetime.

It was so bright it could have been seen 'with a pair of binoculars' despite happening 10 billion light years from Earth, according to the team that recorded it.

Scroll down for video

Powerful beams of energy created by the explosive death of a massive star have been captured in unprecedented detail. It provides the clearest picture yet of gamma ray bursts (artist's impression)

GAMMA RAY BURSTS Gamma ray bursts (GRBs), energetic jets of gamma rays that come from black holes, can be created in two different ways  resulting in long or short GRBs. They are created from some of the most violent deaths in the universe. Long GRBs last about a minute, and scientist think they are produced by supernova: when the core of a massive star collapses to become a black hole. Short GRBs last a second and are produced when two neutron stars merge. Advertisement

An international team of experts recorded the short-lived event, which can last from a few milliseconds to about a minute.

A gamma ray burst (GRBs) happens when a massive star dies, collapses into a brand new black hole and explodes as a supernova.

It spews out jets of gas across the universe at the speed of light.

Thanks to a incredible stroke of luck the scientists were given a warning, in the form of a brief flash of light before the main event.

Robotic telescopes spotted the blast, dubbed GRB 160625B, in June 2016.

This allowed them to witness the massive explosion, second only to the Big Bang in size, and record new data about how they occur.

Professor Carole Mundell at the University of Bath, who was involved with the study, said: 'It was so bright you could have seen it with a pair of binoculars.

'They usually happen instantly, but this time we got a flash of light lasting a second that acted as a warning.

'Then there was a delay of about 100 seconds, giving us enough time to position the telescopes.

'That is quite unusual, and the burst lasted longer than normal, a few minutes which was fortunate.

Gamma-ray bursts longer than two seconds are caused by the detonation of a massive star at the end of its life. Jets of particles and gamma radiation are emitted in opposite directions from the stellar core as the star collapses (artist's impression)

'Although very distant, this burst was extremely bright and we were excited when we realised our super-fast robotic telescopes had captured the early time light.'

Short-lived GRBs are intense flashes of high energy light detected by space-based telescopes orbiting above the Earth's atmosphere.

But they have been hard to explain with standard explosion theories.

Professor Carole Mundell from the University of Bath (pictured) was among the experts involved in the study

The huge explosions (artist's impression) give off as much energy in seconds as the sun in its entire 10 billion year lifetime

Magnetic fields were suspected as being key but this was hard to prove since the explosions happen many millions of light years from Earth and are gone in seconds or minutes, never to repeat.

Using new, autonomous robotic telescopes the team were able to measure a special property of the light that probes magnetic fields, it's polarisation.

The group's data suggest strong magnetic fields form close to the new black hole and drive energy and material outwards in a tightly focused beam.

The study also suggests synchrotron radiation, which results when electrons are accelerated in a curved or spiral pathway, powers the initial, extremely bright phase of the burst, known as the 'prompt' phase.

HOW GAMMA RAY BURSTS COULD KILL ALL LIFE ON EARTH On Earth we are shielded from most gamma rays in space by our ozone. But gamma-ray bursts, on the other hand, are much more powerful. A gamma ray burst is the equivalent of taking all the stars within a hundred million light years and focussing it into one kind of energetic 'laser beam'. But even a more distant GRB could still end life on Earth and it wouldn't need to score a head-shot to kill us. A gamma ray burst (artist's impression) is the equivalent of taking all the stars within a hundred million light years and focussing it into one kind of energetic 'laser beam' If originating from a few thousand light years away, it would be a hundred light years wide by the time it reaches us, washing over the solar system like a tidal wave. Our ozone would not be strong enough to protect us in this case. Because gamma rays travel at the speed of light, we would have no warning of the attack until it hit us. By that point it would be too late, and most complex life on Earth would be dead. Advertisement

Until now there had been several other possible explanations but these results give a clearer picture of what physical conditions create GRBs.

Professor Mundell added: 'We have shown previously using slower autonomous robotic telescopes that magnetic fields must be important and help to guide the material outwards at high speed.

'But, until now, we were never fast enough to capture bright visible light at the same time as the high energy gamma rays produced during the explosion itself.

'There is intense debate about the nature of these high speed flows - how material can be accelerated to such high speeds, what physical mechanism produces the light that we catch with our high-energy satellites, and most of all, what, if anything, is the role and origin of magnetic fields.

The team were able to measure a special property of the light that probes magnetic fields, it's polarisation. The group's data suggest strong magnetic fields form close to the new black hole and drive energy and material outwards in a tightly focused beam

A gamma ray burst happens when a massive star dies, collapses into a brand new black hole and explodes as a supernova. It spews out jets of gas across the universe at the speed of light (artist's impression)

'Our results are important because they show that magnetic fields are present close to the central black hole, are threaded through the material that is ejected at ultra-high speeds in the explosion and ultimately focus and accelerate the material to large distances from the black hole.'

Nasa's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope first detected the gamma-ray emission from GRB160625B.

Shortly afterwards, Russia's ground-based Master-IAC telescope in the Canary Islands followed up with optical light observations while the prompt phase was still active.

One light year is almost six trillion miles.

A mass extinction on Earth 450 million years ago is believed to have been caused by a gamma ray burst in a nearby part of our galaxy.

The full findings were published in the journal Nature.

The study also suggests synchrotron radiation, which results when electrons are accelerated in a curved or spiral pathway, powers the initial, extremely bright phase of the burst, known as the 'prompt' phase
Breakthrough Starshot has successfully launched its first spacecraft, marking a major milestone for interstellar exploration and the search for life beyond our solar system.

The Sprites, which reached low-Earth Orbit on June 23, are the smallest fully functional space probes ever made, with each built on a single circuit board measuring just 1.4-by-1.4 inches (3.5-by-3.5cm).

With the launch of the prototype Sprites, the initiative has brought spacecraft miniaturization closer to reality, and, in turn, its ultimate goal of sending a fleet of tiny, light-propelled StarChips to our closest stellar neighbour, Alpha Centauri.

Scroll down for video

The Sprites, which reached low-Earth Orbit on June 23, are the smallest fully functional space probes ever made, with each built on a single circuit board measuring just 1.4-by-1.4 inches (3.5-by-3.5cm)

THE FLEET OF 'SPRITES' Breakthrough Starshot's 'Sprites' are the smallest fully functional space probes in the world. They reached low-Earth Orbit on June 23 aboard. OHB System AGs Max Valier and Venta satellites. Each craft weighs just 4 grams, and measures 1.4-by-1.4 inches (3.5-by-3.5cm). But, they're packed with solar panels, computers, sensors, and radios. The Sprites will remain attached to the satellites, and communicate with ground stations in California and New York. Advertisement

The $100 million Breakthrough Starshot project, backed by Stephen Hawking and billionaire Yuri Milner, aims to develop spacecraft that can fly at 20 percent of light speed  and, with this technology, they hope to reach the nearby star system Alpha Centauri in just 20 years.

This would allow for unprecedented images and measurements of the potentially Earth-like exoplanet Proxima b.

The spacecraft launched last month aboard OHB System AGs Max Valier and Venta satellites.

They each weigh just 4 grams, and are equipped with solar panels, computers, sensors, and radios.

The craft were developed by researchers at Cornell University following a 2011 Kickstarter campaign KickSat to raise the necessary funds.

Now that theyre in low-Earth Orbit, theyll remain attached to the satellites and communicate with ground stations in California and New York.

The spacecraft launched last month aboard OHB System AGs Max Valier (artist's impression shown left) and Venta (artist's impression shown right) satellites

ALPHA CENTAURI The Alpha Centauri star system is 25 trillion miles (4.37 light years) away. With today's fastest spacecraft, it would take about 30,000 years to get there. Breakthrough Starshot aims to establish whether a gram-scale nanocraft, on a sail pushed by a light beam, can fly over a thousand times faster. Astronomers estimate that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet existing in the 'habitable zones' of Alpha Centauri's three-star system. Advertisement

And, amateur radio enthusiasts around the world will be able to tap in as well.

So far, the team says the communications received from the tiny craft show theyre performing as designed.

Breakthrough Starshot comes as part of the larger Breakthrough Initiatives, which also includes Breakthrough Listen.

The project is backed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Stephen Hawking, and last month, the group revealed its joined forces with astronomers from the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.

The two groups hope that sharing their data will help them to answer one of the biggest unanswered questions in the universe  whether or not aliens exist.

The Jodrell Bank team will conduct its search for aliens using its 76-metre Lovell Radio Telescope at in Greater Manchester.

With the launch of the prototype Sprites, the initiative has brought spacecraft miniaturization closer to reality, and, in turn, its ultimate goal of sending a fleet of tiny, light-propelled StarChips to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. An artist's impression is pictured

BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT The project involves deploying thousands of tiny spacecraft to travel to our nearest star system and send back pictures. If successful, scientists could determine if Alpha Centauri, a star system about 25 trillion miles away, contains an Earth-like planet. The catch: It could take years to develop the project, dubbed Breakthrough Starshot, and there is no guarantee it will work. The small light-propelled vehicles will carry equipment like cameras and communication equipment. Scientists hope the vehicles, known as nanocraft, will eventually fly at 20 per cent of the speed of lightt. 'The thing would look like the chip from your cell phone with this very thin gauzy light sail,' said Nasa's Pete Worden 'It would be something like 10, 12 feet across.' He envisions sending a larger conventional spacecraft containing thousands of nanocraft into orbit, and then launching the nanocraft. If they reach the star system and succeed in taking photographs, it would take about another four years to transmit them back. Advertisement

All the while, Breakthrough Listen has been gathering data with the Green Bank Radio Telescope in West Virginia, Lick Observatory's Automated Planet Finder on Mt Hamilton in California, and the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.

Breakthrough Listen revealed the initial results from their first year of observations this past spring.

After combing through petabytes of data, the Breakthrough Listen team ranked 11 events considered to be most significant  but so far, theyve found no convincing signs of intelligent life.
It is something that many have only dreamed of, but now scientists believe they may have found a way to reverse the signs of ageing.

New research has pinpointed the cells in the hypothalamus  a pea-size component of the brain  that control the ageing process.

While studies so far have focused on mice, the researchers believe that the cells could one day be targeted in humans to create anti-ageing treatments.

Scroll down for video

It is something that many have only dreamed of, but now scientists believe they may have found a way to reverse the signs of ageing (stock image)

THE STUDY The team looked at what happened to the cells as healthy mice got older. They found that the number of hypothalamus stem cells began to diminish when the animals reached about 10 months, several months before the usual signs of ageing normally start to appear. When the stem cells in middle aged mice were selectively disrupted artificially, it led to 'greatly accelerated ageing', said Professor Kai. Next, they injected hypothalamus stem cells into the brains of mice whose own supply of the cells had been destroyed, as well as 'normal' old mice. In both groups of animals, various measurements including tissue analysis and assessments of muscle endurance, co-ordination, social behaviour and mental ability, showed that ageing was either slowed or reversed. Advertisement

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City looked at the brains of mice, and pinpointed ageing control to adult stem cells in the hypothalamus.

The cells appear to keep a tight rein on ageing, and as their numbers decline naturally with time, or if their function is disrupted, the body ages faster and death occurs earlier.

While the researchers have only looked at mice, they believe that humans are likely to respond to the influence of hypothalamus stem cells in just the same way.

Professor Dongsheng Cai, who led the study, said: 'Our research shows that the number of hypothalamic neural stem cells naturally declines over the life of the animal, and this decline accelerates ageing.

'But we also found that the effects of this loss are not irreversible. By replenishing these stem cells or the molecules they produce, it's possible to slow and even reverse various aspects of ageing throughout the body.'

The hypothalamus acts like a computer's CPU (central processing unit), regulating a wide range of biological functions in the body and linking nerves and hormones.

One of its most important jobs is to maintain homeostasis - keeping different parts of the body working in a constantly stable, balanced way.

Among the many body functions it influences are temperature control, appetite, blood pressure, heart rate, sleep cycles, sex drive, and digestion. It operates via a complex array of hormones.

The hypothalamus (orange) acts like a computer's CPU (central processing unit), regulating a wide range of biological functions in the body and linking nerves and hormones

THE HYPOTHALAMUS The hypothalamus acts like a computer's CPU (central processing unit), regulating a wide range of biological functions in the body and linking nerves and hormones. One of its most important jobs is to maintain homeostasis - keeping different parts of the body working in a constantly stable, balanced way. Among the many body functions it influences are temperature control, appetite, blood pressure, heart rate, sleep cycles, sex drive, and digestion. It operates via a complex array of hormones. The crucial hypothalamus stem cells are 'mother cells' that mature to produce new neurons. Advertisement

The crucial hypothalamus stem cells are 'mother cells' that mature to produce new neurons.

Professor Cai's team looked at what happened to the cells as healthy mice got older.

They found that the number of hypothalamus stem cells began to diminish when the animals reached about 10 months, several months before the usual signs of ageing normally start to appear.

Mice in captivity live a maximum of only about two to three years.

Professor Cai said: 'By old age - about two years of age in mice - most of those cells were gone.'

When the stem cells in middle aged mice were selectively disrupted artificially, it led to 'greatly accelerated ageing', said Professor Kai.

He added: 'Those mice with disrupted stem cells died earlier than normal.'

The next step was to inject hypothalamus stem cells into the brains of mice whose own supply of the cells had been destroyed, as well as 'normal' old mice.

In both groups of animals, various measurements including tissue analysis and assessments of muscle endurance, co-ordination, social behaviour and mental ability, showed that ageing was either slowed or reversed.

While studies so far have focused on mice (stock image) , the researchers believe that the cells could one day be targeted in humans to create anti-ageing treatments

The anti-ageing effects were traced to molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) released by the stem cells.

These small snippets of genetic material play a key role in regulating gene activity.

By pairing up with 'messenger' RNA molecules, which carry genetic code instructions to protein-building machinery in cells, they can effectively switch off certain genes.

When miRNA was extracted from hypothalamus stem cells and injected into the cerebrospinal fluid of mice, ageing was once again significantly slowed.

As a first step towards new anti-ageing treatments, the scientists are now trying to identify specific populations of anti-ageing microRNAs and possibly other secretions from hypothalamus stem cells that may play a role.
It has been dubbed 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, and can fire projectiles at six times the speed of sound.

Now, it's ready to hit the road.

The US Navy has revealed its railgun prototype will soon begin its first field demonstrations in Virginia.

Scroll down for video

US military has been working on the weapon since 2005 and say it is one of the future technologies of warfare

THE RAILGUN READY FOR WAR An electric pulse is sent to the railgun which creates an electromagnetic force which releases the projectile at Mach 6, or 4,500 mph. The immense kinetic energy generated by the hypersonic weapon is then transferred to the target on impact, obliterating it. The electromagnetic force generated can be adjusted, depending on range of the target. Advertisement

At the 2017 Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo in Washington DC, an ONR spokesman revealed that the weapon is ready for field demonstrations at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division's new railgun Rep-Rate Test Site at Terminal Range, according to New Atlas.

Initial rep-rate fires (repetition rate of fires) of multi-shot salvos already have been successfully conducted at low muzzle energy, officials say.

The next test sequence calls for safely increasing launch energy, firing rates and salvo size.

Railgun rep-rate testing will be at 20 megajoules by the end of the summer and at 32 megajoules by next year.

To put this in perspective, one megajoule is the equivalent of a one-ton vehicle moving at 160 miles per hour.

'Railguns and other directed-energy weapons are the future of maritime superiority,' said Dr. Thomas Beutner, head of ONR's Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department.

'The U.S. Navy must be the first to field this leap-ahead technology and maintain the advantage over our adversaries.'

Earlier this month the US Navy revealed the latest tests of a radical electromagnetic gun that can fire projectiles at six times the speed of sound.

Described as 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, these powerful missiles don't rely on chemical propellants and are fuelled by electricity alone.

Strong magnetic fields a 'pulse power system' is used to send propellants flying at 4,500mph, and t he technology has previously been shown to penetrate concrete at 100 miles away.

Railguns are touted as one of the future technologies of warfare, using kinetic and laser energies instead of classic controlled explosives.

'The railgun is a true warfighter game changer,' the Navy says.

'Wide-area coverage, exceptionally quick response and very deep magazines will extend the reach and lethality of ships armed with this technology.'

The latest tests show the weapon firing multi-shot salvos at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Virginia.

Researchers hope to eventually hit a 10-rounds-per-minute firing rate.

As the video shows, when it fired, the weapon throws off a cloud of smoke, as it is moving so fast it vaporizes the air around it

Because the missile is fired using kinetic energy this eliminates the risks associated with keeping explosives on a ship.

The Department of the Navy's science and technology corporate board chartered the Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) to build the EM Railgun, which uses generated by the ship, according to the Office of Naval Research.

An electric pulse is sent to the railgun which creates an electromagnetic force which releases the projectile at Mach 6, or 4,500 mph.

The railgun was tested Dahlgren naval facility's new Terminal Range in Virginia.

The Department of the Navy's science and technology corporate board chartered the Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) to build the EM Railgun

'A future weapon system at this energy level would be capable of launching a 100+ nautical mile projectile'.

The railgun was tested Dahlgren naval facility's new Terminal Range in Virginia.

The US Navy has been working on the gun with BAE Systems since 2005.

Because the missile is fired using kinetic energy, this eliminates the risks associated with keeping explosives on a ship

During phase I developers focused on developing pulsed power technology.

During phase II, which started in 2012, will further develop the pulsed power system and the launcher system.

'We've got to move away from gunpowder,' said Fox's defense analyst, Allison Barrie last year.

'The future is lasers and electromagnetic railguns', he said.

Last year, a similar device called the Blitzer railgun also released a missile at Mach 6 speeds.

The technology uses electromagnets to send its projectiles hurtling off at thousands of miles per hour. The force generated can be adjusted, depending on the range of the target

The EM Railgun relies on energy that is generated by the ship, according to the Office of Naval Research

The US Navy are testing an electromagnetic gun that can fire ammo at 4,500 mph

Relying on the same technology, this railgun was designed by San Diego-based General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS).

It also used electromagnets to send its projectiles hurtling off at thousands of miles per hour.

The electromagnetic force generated can be adjusted, depending on the range of the target.

An electric pulse is sent to the railgun which creates an electromagnetic force which releases the projectile at Mach 6, or 4,500 mph

The advanced military technology would mean that, in practice, projectiles could hit speeds equivalent to more than 4,500mph on leaving the chamber, super-heating the air in front of them and generating a sonic boom as it smashes through the sound barrier.

According to Barrie, these ultra-high speeds are 'critical for maximum effect' in destroying targets.

GA-EMS has worked steadily to develop the technology, as has its rival British firm BAE Systems, and the advanced military technology has undergone testing with the US Navy since 2012.

The main advantages over traditional explosives are stated as improved safety - due to less explosives on board - and could drastically reduce the costs

In warfare, the weapon's could be used to strike targets on land, sea or air with great precision.

The main advantages over traditional explosives are stated as improved safety - due to less explosives on board - and could drastically reduce the costs.

'This is so important in terms of maintaining naval dominance and in ensuring the United States has absolute naval, maritime superiority going forward in the future,' added Fox's Barrie.
Instagram users were unable to access the site earlier today, with some users unable to see the site for several hours.

Both the mobile app and site crashed around 2 PM EST after experiencing problems earlier around 6 AM.

Visitors to the web site were shown a server error message, while app users were unable to refresh their feed.

Users across the world were affected, with the worst hit areas being the US and Europe

The outage mostly affected the U.S. east and west coasts and part of Europe, as well as Sao Paulo in South America.

Immediately, users took to other social media platforms - like Twitter - to complain about the outage, with the #instagramdown hashtag quickly appearing across the network.

Many were also quick to post memes,ranging from angry pandas to sad looking Spiongebob Squarepants.

Instagram has not commented on the outage, or revealed what caused it.

Both the mobile app and site crashed around 2 PM EST after experiencing problems earlier around 6 AM

Instagram users rushed to Twitter to joke about the outage

Memes and gifs were the popular medium for discussing #InstagramDown

Some people were truly panicking
Its come to be known as the Hermit Kingdom, with strict rules enforced upon its citizens and tight internet restrictions  but, according to a new report, North Koreas elite leaders arent exactly disconnected.

Intelligence firm Recorded Future has found that high ranking North Korean officials engage in many of the same behaviours you might expect to see among Westerners, from checking social media to watching porn.

The experts monitored internet use in the isolated country for three months, and most often found it to be poorly protected, if at all, revealing unprecedented insight into North Korean leadership and elite interests.

Intelligence firm Recorded Future has found that high ranking North Korean officials engage in many of the same behaviours you might expect to see among Westerners, from checking social media to watching porn. A stock image is pictured

WHAT THEY'RE DOING ON THE INTERNET The North Korean users were found to spend much of their time checking social media, including Facebook and Instagram, reading the news, and browsing Amazon. They also often checked their email, and some were found to access 'adult content.' Most of their online activity was devoted to gaming and content streaming, which accounted for 65 percent of usage. This content primarily came from the Chinese video hosting service Youku, as well as iTunes, and various BitTorrent services. According to the report, World of Tanks was among their top games. Advertisement

In North Korea, most ordinary citizens do not have internet access, the report explains.

Their mobile devices include only the most basic 3G services, including voice, text messaging, and picture/video messaging, and can operate only through North Koreas domestic provider network, Koryolink.

Some, however, have access to a domestic, state-run intranet through common-use computers at universities or internet cafes, including university students, scientists, and select government officials.

And, of this group, theres an even smaller subset who have direct access to the worldwide internet.

This is North Koreas top tier, including the most senior leaders and the ruling elite, according to the report.

The data show their internet behaviour is, in many ways, much like ours.

These users were found to spend much of their time checking social media, including Facebook and Instagram, reading the news, and browsing Amazon.

Most of their online activity was devoted to gaming and content streaming, which accounted for 65 percent of usage.

This content primarily came from the Chinese video hosting service Youku, as well as iTunes, and various BitTorrent services.

According to the report, World of Tanks was among their top games.

Experts monitored internet use in the isolated country for three months, and often found it to be poorly protected, if at all, revealing unprecedented insight into North Korean leadership and elite interests. The graph shows hourly usage of Facebook, Google, and other sites

For those who did take measures to obfuscate their activity, VPN and VPS services were used, often purchased from well-known Western companies such as Sharktech, iWeb, Digital Ocean, Linode, Leaseweb USA, Telemax, and Touch VPN.

Less than one percent of internet activity was protected, the researchers say  and, for those that did take such measures, obfuscation was typically poor, revealing exactly what they were up to.

Many VPN and VPS were used to obfuscate or facilitate browsing, either from passive internet monitoring or domestic censors, according to the report.

One US VPN was used by an iPad to check a Gmail account, access Google Cloud, check Facebook and MSN accounts, and view adult content.

Other VPN and VPS were used to run Metasploit, make purchases using bitcoin, check Twitter, play video games, stream videos, post documents to Dropbox, and browse Amazon.

A small number of citzens have access to a domestic, state-run intranet through common-use computers. And, of this group, theres an even smaller subset who have direct access to the worldwide internet. Kim Jong-Un is pictured above following a recent ICBM test-fire

The report offers new insight on the behaviours of North Koreas top officials, suggesting they may have more of an internet presence than many would suspect.

While they may seem cut off from the rest of the world, experts say that isnt necessarily the case.

Its common to describe North Korea as an isolated country, Sheena Chestnut Greitens, an expert on North Korea and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Vice News.

The truth is that the North Korean regime is not that isolated. Ordinary citizens are as a result of the regimes choices.
Apple has already begun test manufacturing of the three new iPhones it will unveil in September, it has been claimed.

Previous reports have said the firm may be forced to delay its eagerly anticipated iPhone 8 until later in they year.

However, it now appears the firm is back on track, with the handset expected to be revealed in September.

Scroll down for video

According to Twitter leaker Benjamin Geskin, all three new 2017 iPhone models have begun trial production, including the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone 8.

IPHONE 8 RUMOURS Several rumors have been circulating about the iPhone 8, and suggest the next device may have: - Dual-lens 3D camera - Augmented reality capabilities - Curved glass casing - Wireless charging - 5 inch (12.7 centimeter) and 5.8 inch (14.7 centimeter) model, will have a wraparound OLED screen - Aluminum back will be replaced with two reinforced glass panes and a metal frame in the middle - Facial recognition - 128GB will cost $999 - 256GB will cost $1,099 Advertisement

According to Twitter leaker Benjamin Geskin, all three new 2017 iPhone models have begun trial production, including the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone 8.

The source from the Zhengzhou Foxconn plant, says they are currently producing about 200 units per day in test production runs, which are normal before numbers ramp up for a September launch.

Geskin claims in a second tweet that a fingerprint sensor was embedded beneath the display, claiming 'maybe' Apple have solved the reported technical issues with the system.

The most recent claim was that Apple's eagerly anticipated new iPhone will go on sale in September - but in very limited quantities, the latest forecast for the firm has claimed.

J.P. Morgan Apple analyst Rod Hall believes the new handset will be called the 'iPhone Pro', and will sell for $1100, according to 9to5Mac.

However, the report warns that supply will be extremely limited at launch and for its first few months on sale.

Multiple claims say the new OLED 5.8-inch iPhone, which is expected to have a bezel-less screen, may not be available until November.

However, Hall believes there will instead be 'a slower production start for the flagship OLED phone.'

J.P. Morgan is adjusting its forecast for the device from 9m units for September to ~2m units for September.

It notes, however, that it will also increase its Y18 unit forecasts 'by about the same amount to reflect time-shifted demand.'

The firm has also increasing its expectation for the average selling price by $100 to $1,100, noting that it believes 'production costs are slightly higher than we had originally anticipated.'

J.P. Morgan Apple analyst Rod Hall believes the new handset will be called the 'iPhone Pro', and will sell for $1100 - but will only be available in limited quantities when it is announced in September.

It also thinks the higher average selling price will be a 'critical demand control variable for a new tier of iPhone' and that 'Apple's pricing strategy is likely to be aimed at spreading this replacement cycle over two years given totally new product categories like AR are likely still a few years out.'

The most recent claims say Apple has yet to start mass production of any of the three expected models.

Economic Daily News is reporting that all three new iPhones, overhauled iPhone 8 and the '7s' iterative updates to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are yet to start mass production.

The report says that the new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch phones are expected to ramp up in August, a month behind the normal new iPhone production timelines.

It also claims the OLED 5.8-inch iPhone, which is expected to have a bezel-less screen, may not be available until November.

Economic Daily News says that Foxconn has secured the vast majority of orders for the upcoming OLED phone, which will feature almost no bezel enabling Apple to pack in a 5.8-inch screen into the same physical size as the current 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

'While there were previous reports indicating that volume production for new iPhone devices has commenced, yield rates at the two main ODMs, Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron, have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production', the report claims.

New claims suggest that Apple is working 'feverishly' to fix software problems with its wireless charging and 3D face recognition systems. Pictured is an idea of what the iPhone 8 may look like

It is believed Pegatron will assemble most of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7s devices and a small number of the 'iPhone 8s, while a third manufacturer, Wistron, will mainly focus on making the 5.5-inch 7s model.

In another warning last week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its estimates for Apple's iPhone shipments by 11 million for the year, and suggest it could be delayed by a month.

'Our conversations with the Supply Chain suggest that the iPhone 8 will ship 3-4 weeks delayed given technological issues which Apple and its suppliers are working through,' analysts Wamsi Mohan and Stefano Pascale said in a report Wednesday, citing a recent trip to Asia, according to CNBC.

The analysts said problems with finger print and 3-D sensors were to blame for the delay.

The BofAML analysts cut their expectations for September quarter shipments of iPhones by 11 million and the December quarter by 6 million.

For fiscal year 2017, the analysts expect 11 million fewer shipments for 2017, down to 208.1 million.

Recent reports say Apple is working 'feverishly' to fix software problems with its wireless charging and 3D face recognition systems.

The latest social media leak comes from the Chinese social media website Weibo, which shows a photo claiming to show the glass panel back of the iPhone 8 - with no evidence of a cutout for a Touch ID sensor on the back, as rumors in April suggested

If these issues aren't resolved, the flagship iPhone could even launch with these major features disabled, according to some sources.

A report by Fast Company explains that a 'a source with knowledge of the situation' has claimed that engineers and designers at Apple are working with a 'sense of panic in the air.'

The report states: 'The company has been working feverishly to fix software problems in its hotly anticipated 10th-anniversary iPhone that could ultimately cause production and delivery delays, the source says.

'If the software problems aren't resolved quickly, the new flagship iPhone could even launch with major features disabled.'

In particular, Apple is said to be facing problems developing its wireless charging system and the report suggests that the iPhone 8 could even ship without this feature enabled.

Apple is also having issues with its front-facing 3D facial recognition system, according to the report.

The issues in both systems are said to not be hardware related, but instead lie with the software pairing with iOS.

This suggests that the features could be added after launch via a software update.

Several reports have speculated about the iPhone 8's Touch ID system, and where this will be located.

THE TOUCH ID FINGERPRINT SENSOR Rumors have circulated in recent weeks that Apple was struggling to decide where to put the sensor - under the front screen with an 'invisible' sensor, or even on the rear. There were also rumors earlier this month that Apple plans to replace its Touch ID sensor with a facial recognition system. Now it appears a third option may be on the table - abandoning an ID senor entirely. Advertisement

The Fast Company report suggests that it is 'plausible' that Apple is still deciding where to put the Touch ID, but that 'in all likelihood' will be embedded under the OLED display.

And yesterday, MacRumors claimed that Apple is hoping to place the Touch ID sensor underneath the glass screen, but that it is struggling to do so.

Apple has until August to either place orders for chips for Touch ID sensors, abandon the sensor all together, or significantly delay the release of the iPhone 8, according to the reports.

The Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the current iPhone 7 model allows users to unlock their phone by placing their finger on the home button.

But rumours have circulated in recent weeks that Apple was struggling to decide where to put this sensor on the new iPhone 8 - under the front screen with an 'invisible' sensor, or even on the rear.

There were also rumors earlier this month that Apple plans to replace its Touch ID sensor with a facial recognition system.

Now it appears a third option may be on the table - abandoning an ID sensor entirely.

According to a report published by the investment publication Barron's, Apple has 'just a couple of weeks' to solve the matter of placing a fingerprint sensor under the glass of the next iPhone - or its earnings estimates are at risk.

The report reads: 'We believe it would typically take 12 weeks from placement of fingerprint IC orders to full volume production of iPhones.

'Consequently, if Apple is able to solve its fingerprint problems and place orders for fingerprint ICs before August, it would likely be able to reach volume production in late October or early November.
Advertisement

Elon Musk's plan to send 100 people to Mars in a gargantuan reusable rocket that looked like something out of Star Wars always seemed like science fiction to many, but it appears the SpaceX founder himself is now realizing he was a little too ambitious.

Musk will soon reveal a 'revised' plan for his Interplanetary Transport System, which was originally supposed to have a massive 12-meter diameter and host 42 Raptor engines - and he has given the first clue to how he will do it.

After a fan representing the SpaceX Reddit board begged the founder on Twitter to 'throw a bone' and give a hint as to how much smaller the rocket will be, Musk replied, 'A 9-meter-diameter vehicle fits in our existing factories...'

Scroll down for video

If Musk scales back the diameter from 12 meters to nine meters - 25 percent of the original rocket's size- he'll have to cut the number of engines in half to 21, which would reduce the cost and mass by 50 percent

MUSK ON MARS TRIPS 'Going to Mars is not for the faint of heart,' said Musk. 'It's risky, dangerous, uncomfortable, and you might die. Now, do you wont to go? For some the answer will be: Hell no. For some, it will be: Hell yes.' 'I don't think you'll get irradiated to death,' said Musk. 'With some moderate shielding we can cut down on a large percent of incremental radiation, so the marginal risk of cancer isn't something that's going to be a show stopper.' 'If safety is your top goal, I wouldn't go to Mars.' Advertisement

If he scales back the diameter by three meters - 25 percent of the original rocket's size - he'll have to cut the number of engines in half, from 42 down to 21.

A vehicle like that would reportedly have 50 percent less mass and cost significantly less, possibly alleviating a major concern that fiscally, this rocket would not be possible to develop.

Musk's original 'interplanetary transport system' to take man to Mars in 80 days and build a sustainable human colony of a million people there.

The Interplanetary Transport System would use a giant shuttle capable of carrying 100 passenger to the Red Planet at a time, and Musk hopes to take a million people to set up a sustainable city there.

It would launch from Earth on a giant version of SpaceX's reusable rocket booster, unfurling solar sails to power its journey to the red planet.

The nine-meter rocket would not also save money by being smaller, but it could be built in SpaceX's existing facilities, also cutting costs.

Musk is expected to reveal his new plan for the Interplanetary Transport System during the 2017 International Astronautical Conference in Adelaide, Australia on September 29.

The Raptor engine is supposed to be three times stronger than the engines that power the famed SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

It's still in development, so halving the number needed could be a big cost-saver.

The other key to making the Mars colonization fiscally possible is making the rocket reusable.

Previously, Musk has shared ideas for how to finance the mission, including a potential plan to use satellites to provide low-cost internet to rural customers and another business opportunity to do Earth observation for crops, climate, and natural disasters

'You could use any form of transport as an example of the difference between reusability and expendability in aircraft,' he writes.

'A car, bicycle, horse, if they were single-usealmost no one would use them; it would be too expensive.

'However, with frequent flights, you can take an aircraft that costs $90 million (71m) and buy a ticket on Southwest right now from Los Angeles to Vegas for $43, including taxes.'

'If it were single use, it would cost $500,000 (392,000) per flight.

'Right there, you can see an improvement of four orders of magnitude.'

He added that key to building an all-powerful reusable rocket is establishing a way to produce fuel on Mars.



'Producing propellant on Mars is obviously also very important.

'Again, if we did not do this, it would have at least a half order of magnitude increase in the cost of a trip,' he writes.

'It would be pretty absurd to try to build a city on Mars if your spaceships just stayed on Mars and did not go back to Earth.

'You would have a massive graveyard of ships; you have to do something with them.'

The diagram outlines the overall system. The rocket booster and the spaceship launch the spaceship to orbit. The rocket booster then drops back down within 20 minutes, according to Musk

The giant rockets will launch from Cape Canaveral, then release the capsule once in orbit, where it will 'park' while waiting for a refuel for the trip to Mars

The giant rockets will launch from Cape Canaveral, then release the capsule once in orbit, where it will 'park' while waiting for a refuel for the trip to Mars.

It will then return to Earth to pick up a fuel tank for the shuttle, saving money on the launch - and launch again to rendezvous with the shuttle again.

It will repeat this process 3-5 times to refill the fuel tanks and take cargo.

Once on Mars, the shuttle will make methane for its return journey.

The Interplanetary Transport System will use a giant shuttle capable of carrying 100 passenger to the Red Planet at a time, and Musk hopes to take a million people to set up a sustainable city there. It will launch from Earth on a giant version of SpaceX's reusable rocket booster, unfurling solar sails to power its journey to the red planet.

On the way to Mars, solar panels will deploy to create energy for the shuttle, taking it to the red planet at a speed of just over 100,000km/h.

It will glide to the red planet's surface, landing horizontally allowing for an easy relaunch once enough fuel has been made.

Musk has shared ideas for how to finance the mission, including a potential plan to use satellites to provide low-cost internet to rural customers and another business opportunity to do Earth observation for crops, climate, and natural disasters.

In June, he published a scientific paper in which he said the only way of attracting enough people to build a settlement on the red planet would be to cut the cost of a one-way ticket.

The entrepreneur aims to get the price down of the ticket down to the cost of an average house in the US - or around $200,000 (157,000).

'I want to make Mars seem possible - make it seem as though it is something that we can do in our lifetime,' Musk wrote in the freely available paper published in New Space.



In the past, the usually optimistic Musk has said the the maiden flight to colonize Mars stands a 'real good chance' of failure.

He added that the first passengers will need to be 'brave' and that 'going to Mars is not for the faint of heart.'

'If safety is your top goal, I wouldn't go to Mars,' he said.

The other key to making the Mars colonization fiscally possible is making the rocket reusable. 'You could use any form of transport as an example of the difference between reusability and expendability in aircraft,' Musk wrote in a scientific paper about the Mars colonization

He also said he wouldn't be vying to be the first man on Mars.

'The risk of death would be quite high, and I'd like to watch my kids grow up.'

He admitted he would take the trip - one day.

'I'd definitely like to go to orbit, visit the space station and ultimately go to Mars,' he said.

'I'd need to make sure if something goes wrong there's a succession plan in place - investors taking over the company would be my biggest fear.'

'This is less about who goes there first.

'The thing that really matters is making a self-sustaining civilization on Mars as fast as possible. This is different than Apollo.

'This is really about minimizing existential risk and having a tremendous sense of adventure,' he said.
Crucifixes that talk, shop assistants with the faces of Botticelli angels, cathedrals where miracles are commonplace.

You could believe anything might happen in Naples, never more than a Hail Mary away from being buried by the fractious Mount Vesuvius.

I'm in the city to buy a mandolin. This fine instrument has its origins right here in old Napoli.

Smoke on the water: Naples, infamously, sits in the metaphorical shadow of Mount Vesuvius

Mandolins have fascinated me since I bought my first many decades ago in Belfast; now it's time for the genuine article. The city's steep, narrow streets allow for just two feasible modes of transport: moped or foot.

I opt for a Vespa scooter tour - which is dangerous but exhilarating.

Antonio Mosca, of tour firm VespAround, speeds along rutted streets and alleyways. Equal measures of squalor and sheer beauty whizz by.

In the shadow of some of Christendom's most glorious art, people gesticulate dramatically, but I've no idea what they are gesticulating about.

We stop at music shops, junk shops, bakeries and ancient bars where locals bid us to join them.

This dodgy 3,000-year-old city has a well-earned reputation for organised crime, notably the notorious Camorra syndicate, a Mafia-type organisation, which has had 500 years to perfect its racketeering.

Domes and decorum: San Francesco di Paola is one of Naples's many fine churches

No wonder the stylish police officers who comb the city centre all carry Beretta handguns.

Napoli is not so much La Dolce Vita as La Gritty Vita.

Yet everyone is so friendly - as long as your scooter doesn't block their way, that is.

A roundabout, overlooked by the Sant' Agnello Maggiore church, is the scene of an encounter with a Lambretta.

A beautiful woman sits on its pillion, facing backwards, chatting on a smartphone.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend weaves through the traffic.

He avoids our scooter by inches, only to fall foul of a taxi driver. They trade operatic insults, while the pillion woman draws on a ciggie and continues her conversation. Obstruction cleared, and we are now closing in on the Spanish Quarter and the Via Sebastiano: music shops a speciality.

We settle on Miletti Strumenti Musicali, a byword among keen mandolin players. The assistant is endlessly helpful. I am allowed to play a model from the 19th century, picking out a few notes of Santa Lucia, naturally. The tremolo sounds lovely, the strings as responsive as a touch screen.

Alas, I don't have 4,000. I am shown a more modestly priced Umberto Gechinni, with a briar walnut pick-plate, inlaid with motherof-pearl. My right hand glides over the fingerboard.

It's heavenly. Antonio tells the assistant we are undecided - which is a lie. Bargaining is the Neapolitan way.

We stroll down Via Sebastiano, past traders selling the most extraordinary bling. We visit the hedonistic Spanish Quarter and the outrageously free-wheeling Spaccanapoli - the old Roman road (complete with decaying aqueduct) that bisects the city.

Both sum up Naples at its best: history, chaos, charm and excitement in abundance.

Most of the city's cathedral was built in the 13th century, but has been devastated by serial earthquakes. Meanwhile, the Duomo is the venue for the miraculous, and regular, liquefying of St Genarro's blood.

He's the city's patron saint. On high days and holidays, when brought out and held aloft, the blood miraculously liquefies, to cries from the faithful.

Mandolin matters curtail further wandering, and we return to Miletti's. A price is negotiated. It's mine for 325 - and we return to our base at the delightful Hilton Sorrento Palace, an hour's drive away.

Stay a few days in Naples and you'll soon have your own favourite square, favourite cafe and favourite waitress. The cats will be dozing in the shade, the oleanders fluttering gently.

You'll sip your Lacryma Christi (Tears of Christ) - a wine produced locally by monks. You'll look contentedly round this compelling place and, I promise, want to come back.
Artist Alan Shuptrine will be on hand for a book signing of the Artist Catalogue and a watercolor demonstration at Star Line Books, 1467 Market St Suite 106 on Thursday, Sept. 7. The event will take place from 6-8 p.m.

"The catalogue, Alan Shuptrine: Appalachian Watercolors of the Serpentine Chain, features images of Mr. Shuptrines watercolor paintings from his museum exhibition, which is on display at The Tennessee State Museum in downtown Nashville. The catalogue celebrates the connections between the people living along the Appalachian Mountains with their cultural and historical counterparts in the British Isles.

Serving as a monument to the mountain people, this art collection and Artist Catalogue will help preserve their heritage and traditions for future generations. Prose by New York Times best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb," officials said.The paintings will be on display until Oct. 1 and then it will travel in 2018 to: The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga.; The Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Al.; and The Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland, Tn.
Advertisement

Arguably the most frustrating thing about being a tourist is other tourists.

So a handy new infographic could prove invaluable to you if you want to avoid the crowds, because it reveals the cities around the world whose populations increase the most due to tourism  as well as the cities that have the most overall annual visitors.

The most dramatic population swelling takes place in Paris  home of the Eiffel Tower  with 18million visitors a year marking a 704 per cent increase on its 2.2million natives.

The most dramatic population swelling takes place in Paris  home of the Eiffel Tower  with 18million visitors a year marking a 704 per cent increase on its 2.2million natives

Not far behind is Kuala Lumpur, which sees a population increase of 595 per cent when tourists descend, followed by Dubai with an increase of 459 per cent.

In terms of the sheer numbers, Bangkok in Thailand, which has a population of 8.3million, sees the most tourists annually - 21.5million, which equates to a 159 per cent increase.

London comes in second, with a population of 8.3million and a yearly influx of 19.9million visitors.

New York, one of the world's most famed cities, welcomes 12.8million tourists a year, with popular attractions including the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. This influx expands its population by almost double.

Of the cities that feature, Shanghai, China, sees the lowest swell in numbers, with a native population of 23.7million and an average of 6.1million tourists a year.

In terms of the sheer numbers, Bangkok in Thailand, which has a population of 8.3million, sees the most tourists annually - 21.5million, which equates to a 159 per cent increase

Other destinations explored in the infographic from On The Go Tours, include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Istanbul and Milan.

And while it may have its downsides, tourism plays a key role when it comes to employment figures.

According to the World Economic Forum, for every 30 new tourists to a destination, one new job is created.
Advertisement

The breath-taking moment that an anti-ballistic missile was launched into the night sky has been caught on camera by a stunned pilot, who described it as a 'once in a lifetime event'.

Dutch Pilot Christiaan van Heijst, 34, cannot resist pulling his camera out whenever possible in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-8 Freighter.

He took these breath-taking photos during a flight from Hong Kong to Baku in Azerbaijan on Sunday on an airway heading over the Himalayas.

The breath-taking moment that an anti-ballistic missile was launched into the night sky has been caught on camera by a stunned pilot

Dutch Pilot Christiaan van Heijst, 34, cannot resist pulling his camera out whenever possible in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-8 Freighter. He took these breath-taking photos during a flight from Hong Kong to Baku in Azerbaijan on Sunday on an airway heading over the Himalayas

Van Heijst's freighter aircraft was flying at over 32,000 feet when the missile blasted past overhead

The plane was flying at 32,100ft roughly one hour after the sun had set below the horizon when an alarming bright blast erupted.

Christiaan said: 'Suddenly we noticed a very bright spot on the horizon that rapidly grew in size and altitude.

'It looked like a balloon or strange cloud at first, but a few seconds later I recognised it as the contrail of a rocket or missile that was shot up in the sky.

'I have seen it many times before on video and photos, and noticed the typical speed and characteristics of such a trail.

Christiaan said: 'Suddenly we noticed a very bright spot on the horizon that rapidly grew in size and altitude. 'It looked like a balloon or strange cloud at first, but a few seconds later I recognised it as the contrail of a rocket or missile that was shot up in the sky'

Van Heijst explained that as far as he knew, their aircraft was the only one in the vicinity at the time

The image on the left shows the second stage of the rocket igniting, with the picture on the right capturing the contrail of the high altitude missile

'Roughly one minute later I noticed the first balloon was still growing but seemed to be rounded off on the top while a second contrail started just above the first one.

'I figured this was the second stage of a rocket igniting and this confirmed my idea that we were witnessing a very powerful missile being launched.

'We knew certain parts of the Chinese airspace north and south of our route were closed but no details were given to us and we were not informed there was supposed to be missile launch so the event took us by surprise.

Van Heijst has taken hundreds of stunning images from cockpits - but this was one of the most surprising, and alarming

The missile was launched from a restricted area to the north of Van Heijst's flight path

The flight crew gaze at the missile launch on the horizon as their plane makes its way to Azerbaijan

'The airway and airspace where we flew was open and also the air traffic control gave us no prior warning.

'Later I found out that it was a Chinese test for an anti-ballistic missile system they are creating which are basically missiles to shoot other missiles out of the sky.

'Also, I learned that the restricted area north of our route was the launch site and the restricted areas south of our route were the places where the debris was expected to fall back to earth.

'The rocket basically flew right over us at very high altitude. For as far as we know, we were one of the very few - if not only - aircraft to fly there at that time. It was a once in a lifetime event.'
UK tour operators can resume selling holidays in Tunisia for the first time since the Sousse massacre after the Government changed its travel advice.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised against all but essential visits to the country for the past two years following the June 2015 beach attack in which 30 Britons were killed.

But the FCO announced on Wednesday that it has withdrawn the advice for the capital Tunis and major tourist resorts.

Tourists look at flowers at the site of a shooting attack on the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui on June 28, 2015. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on June 27 for the massacre in the seaside resort that killed nearly 40 people

The UK continues to advise against 'all travel' and 'all but essential travel' to some areas of the country, including those nearer the Libyan border.

The FCO said it has kept its assessment of the risks of British nationals travelling to Tunisia 'under constant review' since the Sousse attack.

Having 'carefully reviewed conditions' in the country - including the threat from terrorism and improvements in the Tunisian security forces - the Government decided its travel advice should change.

Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt said: 'Our travel advice aims to help people make their own informed decisions about foreign travel. Advice for Tunisia and for every country is regularly reviewed.

The FCO said it has kept its assessment of the risks of British nationals travelling to Tunisia 'under constant review' since the Sousse attack

'This update reflects our latest assessment that the risk to British nationals in Tunisia has changed.

'This is in part due to the security improvements that the Tunisian authorities and tourist industry have made since the tragic terrorist attacks in 2015, with support from the UK and international partners.

'Whilst we are changing advice against all but essential travel in most of Tunisia, there remain real risks for British nationals and I recommend people read our travel advice before planning their travel.'

Some 440,000 people from the UK visited Tunisia in 2014, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Demand was reportedly even higher during the following year, until the Sousse attack in which gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed a total of 38 tourists.

Terror group Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The Tunisian National Tourist Office in the UK warned last year that the Government's refusal to relax its travel advice was allowing the perpetrators to believe they were 'on the winning side'.

Tarek Aouadi, then-director of the organisation, told the Press Association that a third of his home country's hotels had closed due to the reduction in tourism.

He said: 'Tunisia shouldn't be penalised because very hurtful, criminal people wanted to damage its economy.'

There have been no terrorist incidents targeting foreign tourists in Tunisia since the Sousse attack, the FCO said.

The change in travel advice brings the UK into line with several other countries including the US, France, Italy and Germany.
He failed to be crowned Australia's first Ninja Warrior, but contestant Fred Dorrington did 'win' the first season.

However furious fans have taken to Twitter to accuse Nine's Today show of 'spoiling' the finale by announcing they were due to air an interview with the 27-year-old partway through Tuesday's finale.

A promotional advertisement for the breakfast program alerted viewers that Fred would be appearing on Wednesday morning's episode, and it didn't take much for audiences to put two and two together and guess the outcome.

Spoiler alert? Furious fans have taken to Twitter to accuse the Today show of 'spoiling' the finale by announcing they were due to air an interview with Fred Dorrington midway through Tuesday's finale

Angry Ninja Warrior fans were quick to jump onto social media to express their ire.

One Twitter user wrote: 'Did @Channel9 just give away who wins/ who does best in #NinjaWarriorAU?'

Another very irate fan complained: 'you b*****ds gave this away after the first RUN, u said see Fred on today in the morning, spoiler alert, what the ...'

Another complained: '@NinjaWarriorAU thanks for a massive spoiler half way through. The only contestant to be on @TheTodayShow tomorrow. Hmmm #NinjaWarriorAU'.

Revealed? Angry Ninja Warrior fans were quick to jump onto social media to express their ire

Another very irate fan complained: 'you b*****ds gave this away after the first RUN, u said see Fred on today in the morning, spoiler alert, what the ...'

One viewer complained: '@NinjaWarriorAU thanks for a massive spoiler half way through. The only contestant to be on @TheTodayShow tomorrow. Hmmm #NinjaWarriorAU'

On he goes: A promotional advertisement for the breakfast program alerted viewers that Fred would be appearing on Wednesday morning's episode

On the next day: It didn't take much for audiences to put two and two together and guess the outcome of the finale

Yet another simply stated: 'So pissed off they spoiled this!!!!!!!!!' while an irritated viewer complained: 'That's a major mistake to make '

The carpenter and boat builder may not have beat the course but he has big hopes for his future.

Plans: The carpenter and boat builder may not have beat the course but he has big hopes for his future

Fred said that after appearing on both the UK and Australian versions of the show, he wants to take on the US version.

'I was gutted when I didn't make it but I'm really keen to take on the US now,' Fred told The Daily Telegraph.

He added that he felt 'pretty exhilarated' and 'Didn't get as far as I'd have liked but I'm stoked.'
These two certainly dont appear to be fighting like cats an dogs.

Gigi Hadid shared a sweet selfie with her sleeping pet pooch on Tuesday.

Relaxing in a grey Victorias Secret Pink hoodie, the 22-year-old scratched the adorable mix-breed as he napped in the worlds most enviable spot.

Cats and dogs: Gigi Hadid shared a sweet selfie with her sleeping pet pooch on Tuesday

Unbeknownst to the snoozing canine, his mom had donned a cute pair of cat ears for the pic.

This guy is dreaming about his next trip to NYC, free #wag walks for life!!, she captioned it. Thanks to our friends at @wag for the gifts! x

The model and her boyfriend Zayn Malik adopted the beloved family member from a rescue centre one year ago.

Gigis sister Bella and BFF Hailey Baldwin all use the on-demand dog-walking app, as does Mariah Carey, Kendall Jenner, Bella Thorne, and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Family: The model and her boyfriend Zayn Malik adopted the beloved family member from a rescue centre one year ago

The app also helps out puppys who havent yet been lucky enough to be adopted by A-list parents, by providing a meal to shelter dogs for every walk booked.

Four-legged customers can be spotted by the little green bandannas they wear on every walk, and owners even receive a report card when they are done.

Gigi is back in New York after a trip to her home town of Los Angeles last week

Puppy love! Gigis sister Bella revealed last month her pet Rottweiler Oslo also uses the on-demand d-g-walking app Wag

She moved to the Big Apple in 2013 after signing with IMG models to continue her meteoric rise in the fashion world.

One of her first orders of businesses was hanging out with Bella and their older half sister Marielle.

All three girls share a dad in Mohamed Hadid; Marielles mom is his first wife Mary Butler, while Gigi and Bella are the daughters of model and Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid.

Keeping up: Kendall Jenner's Mew is also a customer

Ruff life! Mariah Carey's Jill E Beans is on the club
She's known for her fashion sense and flawless ice blonde looks.

And on Tuesday, Kate Bosworth didn't disappoint as she showed up at an event to promote her new project dressed in a stunningly pretty floral mini dress.

The actress, 34, shared on Instagram that her beautiful outfit was, in fact, a Giambattista Valli couture number.

Fashion queen: Kate Bosworth wore a stunningly beautiful mini dress as she attended an event in LA to promote her upcoming National Geographic Channel mini series

The embellished frock combined red, white, pink and green flowers and leaves and featured a ruched neck and high waist.

The clotheshorse added a pair of black and sequin heels.

Kate wore her signature long blonde hair sleekly styled with a side parting and tucked behind her ears.

She was freshly made-up with black mascara and rosy blush with dark red lip color.

Lovely: Kate wore her signature blonde hair sleekly styled with a side parting and tucked behind her ears. She was freshly made-up with black mascara, rosy blush and dark red lip color

Designer duds: The actress, 34, shared on Instagram that her pretty floral frock with ruched neck and high waist was, in fact, a Giambattista Valli couture number

Kate was in Los Angeles for the TCA Summer Press Tour and joined her fellow castmembers for the National Geographic Channel's presentation of upcoming scripted series The Long Road Home.

The eight-episode military drama is based on the true events of April 4, 2004, known in military circles as Black Sunday.

It was the day when a platoon from the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, was ambushed in Sadr City, Baghdad that left eight American soldiers dead and many others injured.

Kate plays the wife of an officer, played by Jason Ritter, who leads the rescue mission for the embattled platoon.

The mini series also stars Michael Kelly, Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto and Noel Fisher.

Perfectly styled: The embellished frock combined red, white, pink and green flowers and leaves, and Kate added a pair of black and sequin heels

Publicity duty: Kate was joined her fellow castmembers for a presentation of upcoming scripted series The Long Road Home at the TCA Summer Press Tour
She cooked her way through to the MasterChef grand finale, where she was announced as this year's winner on Monday.

And Diana Chan says she believes staying cool, calm and collected throughout the show ultimately worked in her favour and helped her beat the other 23 contestants.

Speaking to Pop Sugar this week, the 29-year-old accountant said she made it her duty not to sweat the small stuff before revealing her life won't change much despite taking home the $250,000 prize.

Cool, calm and collected: Diana Chan revealed on Tuesday that she believes staying relaxed on MasterChef Australia ultimately worked in her favour and helped her beat the other 23 contestants

'I don't get too fazed by a lot of things, my work ethic helped me through this as well  just handling pressure at work,' she said.

'I always remind myself at the end of the day to stay calm, because there really is no point panicking ... You get nothing done when you panic, so stay calm, fix it if you can, and if you can't, move on.

She added: 'Nothing's going to change, my life's still going to be the same. It's just about being cautious, because things like that can just slip away and next thing you know, you don't have any money left!'

Stress-free: 'I don't get too fazed by a lot of things, my work ethic helped me through this as well  just handling pressure at work,' she said. Pictured Diana (R) and Ben Ungermann (L) during the grand finale on Monday

The brunette beauty said that she will use some of the money for her restaurant and invest the rest wisely although she doesn't think much will change.

Earlier this week, Diana took home the trophy after beating rival Ben Ungermann by just one point.

After hearing she had won, Diana was in shock and said: 'It feels unreal!'

Diana also won a monthly column in Delicious magazine, while Ben picked up $40,000 as the runner-up.

Karlie Verkerk - who had placed third and was eliminated on Sunday's semi-final episode - also pocketed $10,000.

'I can't believe this is just happening,' Diana said of her victory.

Defeated: Ben picked up $40,000 for coming in second

So close! Ben finished on a score of 89 points, while Diana narrowly beat him with 90 points

Diana added: 'It's been an incredible journey. I'm so proud of you, Ben. I don't know anyone who has worked harder than you in this whole competition.'

'You're an incredible person.'

Ben, 32, replied to Diana graciously: 'You've been the most consistent cook in the competition.

'What you can do with a few minutes with flavour is unbelievable and I take my hat off to you.'

Diana was ruled the winner after finishing with a score of 90 points, while retail manager Ben got 89 points.

Ben and Diana had competed against each other in three culinary challenges, the first being a mystery box task.

Success! Ben and Diana had competed against each other in three culinary challenges, the first being a mystery box task

Msytery box challenge: For the first round, Ben made a lemon myrtle ice cream with a smashed macadamia shortbread

The pair had to choose from a mystery box they had cooked with earlier in the series.

Ben chose to cook Elena's mystery box, while Diana opted for Peter Gilmore's box.

They were given just an hour to make a dish and impress the judges.

Ben made a lemon myrtle ice cream and smashed macadamia shortbread, with some charred cucumbers, roasted grapes, with goat's cheese mousse.

Diana made abalone with crispy spatchcock skin, served with a green juice made from the leaves of the Chinese broccoli and nasturtium leaves.

The judges loved the look and taste of their dishes, and George Calombaris praised Ben on continuing to cook despite cutting his finger and having to stop twice.

Intricate recipe: Diana made abalone with crispy spatchcock skin, served with a green juice made from the leaves of the Chinese broccoli and nasturtium leaves

Ouch! Ben had to be attended to by on-set medic when he cut his finger, and he was concerned about stopping in the middle of his cook

Diana received full marks for her dish, with Matt Preston saying it was 'perfect'.

For round two, the rivals had the chance to cook whatever they liked, with any ingredients.

But they had to make three plates of the same dish - all in just 75 minutes.

Diana made Malaysian oatmeal prawns with vegetables in a creamy sauce, while Ben made cardamom coffee ice cream with butternut three-ways and a Dutch spice biscuit.

Tasty: Diana made Malaysian oatmeal prawns with vegetables in a creamy sauce

Fancy! Meanwhile, Ben made cardamom coffee ice cream with butternut three-ways and a Dutch spice biscuit

Matt couldn't believe what he had tasted, saying Diana's dish was 'restaurant quality'.

'So many chefs around the world have made it their thing to take classic dishes from their childhood and reinvent them,' Matt said. 'And this is another one of those classic dishes'.

Meanwhile, the judges were also impressed Ben's creative ice cream, which had become his specialty throughout the series.

Just three points were between Diana and Ben as they went into the third and final round, with Ben being on 54 points and Diana on 57.

Ahead of the final cook, the pair got a surprise visit from their families, and they wept while hugging their loved ones.

For the third round, chocolatier Kirsten Tibballs unveiled her creation for Ben and Diana to recreate - an 'apple', 'pear', and 'mandarin' made out of chocolate.

A masterpiece: For the third round, chocolatier Kirsten Tibballs (left, with judge George Calombaris) unveiled her creation for Ben and Diana to recreate

Impressive: Kirsten made a selection of three 'fruits', an apple, pear and a mandarin, all made of chocolate

'Is that seriously all edible? What the hell?' Diana said, as she and Ben were told they had six hours to make the tricky dessert.

Inside the mandarin, was hazelnut dacquoise base with roasted hazelnuts, mandarin jelly and creme, and vanilla mousse.

For the pear, inside was a hazelnut dacquoise and milk chocolate ganache, with vanilla mousse and honey-sauteed pears.

Inside the apple, was a hazelnut dacquoise base, salted caramel and a sugar-crusted liqueur, apple and vanilla mousse.

Complicated: Inside the mandarin, was hazelnut dacquoise base with roasted hazelnuts, mandarin jelly and creme, and vanilla mousse

Both Ben and Diana struggled with the final task, failing to make the sugar-crusted liquor centre for the apple, which came out like a jelly rather than a liquid.

After completing the final task, Ben said he felt 'exhilarated', while Diana confessed she was both 'emotional' and 'relieved'.

'No-one else but Ben and I know how hard that was. No-one could ask for more from either one of us today,' Diana said.

'Whoever wins MasterChef 2017 absolutely deserves it. I feel like a winner anyway,' she added.
Phil Mitchell was back in EastEnders.

He returned from his improbable seven-month stay in Italy to be with his daughter in hospital. The chance of terrorising her mother into the bargain was a bonus.

Walfords veteran, legendary, skinhead had also arrived just in time to save the show.

He's back! Phil Mitchell was back in EastEnders. He returned from his improbable seven-month stay in Italy to be with his daughter in hospital

EastEnders without Phil is like the royal family without Her Majesty. Call him the Queen of Albert Square if you like (but probably not to his face).

In his absence this year the soap has become a mess: a cross between Cockney versions of Waterloo Road and Shameless topped off with plots that (incredibly) are even madder than usual.

Steven Beale, Sex-Mad Max, and even lovely little Abi Branning are just some of the wannabe psychos currently trying to challenge Phil for the title of Walfords Biggest Nutter.

This was one of the flaws with the current storyline. Would Madison, Alexandra, and Keegan really have risked bullying Phil Mitchells daughter. And Sharons even scarier

I cant believe theyve done this to you, Phil murmured, speaking for us all.

Darling daughter: Would Madison, Alexandra, and Keegan really have risked bullying Phil Mitchells daughter?

In shock: I cant believe theyve done this to you, Phil murmured, speaking for us all.

Looking well: Youre looking well dad ! Ben cheered. This was debatable. Phil certainly didnt have much of a tan from his sojourn in Italy, where he had been since Christmas, supposedly recuperating from his life-saving liver transplant

Happily, it didnt take Phil long to get back into the swing of things and show them how its done.

Well not happily exactly

Youre looking well dad! Ben cheered. This was debatable. Phil certainly didnt have much of a tan from his sojourn in Italy, where he had been since Christmas, supposedly recuperating from his life-saving liver transplant.

Precisely where in Italy neither he nor Sharon specified, presumably because wherever it was it would be about as unlikely as the possibility that he picked up any Italian.

Bursting in: Phil burst into Louises room in Walford General just as her mother Lisa was making her peace with his son Ben

(Phil can barely speak English, communicating mostly through a series of hoarse grunts, barks, and whispers.)

Living la Dolce Vita didnt seem to have made him any calmer.

Phil burst into Louises room in Walford General just as her mother Lisa was making her peace with his son Ben.

Very touching ! Phil growled. Lisa ! Always a pleasure.

Coming from him, the phrase couldnt have sounded less pleasurable.

Surprisingly Phils arrival didnt mean that things kicked off immediately. It took at least ten seconds.

Surprise: Surprisingly Phils arrival didnt mean that things kicked off immediately. It took at least ten seconds

Reunion: What did you expect? That Id hang out the bunting? he said, like he really had any

Peacemaker: Why dont we just sit down and talk about it? Sharon suggested. Yeah, good luck with that. Youd think shed know him better by now'

Phil was not appy that no one had called to tell him that Madison and Alexandra had set fire to his daughter, or to see that after seven years away Lisa Fowler was back in the series.

What did you expect? That Id hang out the bunting? he said, like he really had any.

Why dont we just sit down and talk about it? Sharon suggested. Yeah, good luck with that. Youd think shed know him better by now.

I know what youre thinking Phil, Lisa acknowledged. That Im a useless mother.

You could say that.

Years ago shed come back especially from Portugal to abandon Louise in South East London. Since then she hadnt phoned, or texted, or visited.

Sympathy: You had to feel sorry for Louise. Being in hospital with three degree burns was bad enough. Now she was waiting to go into surgery for skin grafts with her parents arguing by her bedside

Tension: Phil had once tried to push Lisa off a cliff while she had shot him and had him sent to prison by framing him. And that was when they still quite liked each other

Lisas a paranoid mess! spat Shirley, seizing the chance to look down on someone.

Lisas hair was certainly a mess  even more of a state and less fashionable than it was originally: a kind of 90s mullet dragged through an edge backwards.

You had to feel sorry for Louise. Being in hospital with three degree burns was bad enough. Now she was waiting to go into surgery for skin grafts with her parents arguing by her bedside.

And they were Lisa Fowler and Phil Mitchell.

Phil had once tried to push Lisa off a cliff while she had shot him and had him sent to prison by framing him. And that was when they still quite liked each other

Lisa hadnt grown any more charming since wed last seen her.

No difference: Lisa hadnt grown any more charming since wed last seen her

Stranger: She didnt let the fact that shed abandoned Louise stop her from complaining that when Phil and Sharon had been in Italy theyd left her daughter being looked after by a total stranger'

She didnt let the fact that shed abandoned Louise stop her from complaining that when Phil and Sharon had been in Italy theyd left her daughter being looked after by a total stranger.

(This was Michelle Fowler who, being Mark Fowlers sister, was actually Lisa Fowlers sister-in-law but technically still a total stranger. Thats EastEnders for you.)

Lisa was not impressed by Sharons credentials as a mother generally  like the rest of us.

She was not afraid to say so to her face either  very much unlike the rest of us.

Theres not a day goes by when I dont speak to my son! Sharon bridled. Given that Denny was only 11 and LIVED WITH HER this was surely the minimum requirement from a mother.

Bury the hatchet: Lisa wanted to bury the atchet with Phil though and for once not in his shiny, bald, ead

Patching things up: We made that little girl in there, Lisa pleaded with him plaintively outside Louises room

Scared: Shes scared and we can make this work for her sake. Im sorry for walking out on Louise. Im sorry for everything in the past. But Ive changed. Im not that person anymore. I heard about your liver. You arent that person any more either'

Lisa wanted to bury the atchet with Phil though and for once not in his shiny, bald, ead.

We made that little girl in there, Lisa pleaded with him plaintively outside Louises room. Shes scared and we can make this work for her sake. Im sorry for walking out on Louise. Im sorry for everything in the past. But Ive changed. Im not that person anymore. I heard about your liver. You arent that person any more either.

It was a fantastic speech.

Unfortunately for her, Phil was still that person. When he shook her hand he crushed it, bringing her to her feels with the pain.

Do you think Im stupid ! Eh? Eh? Do ya?! he raged.

Uh oh: Unfortunately for her, Phil was still that person. When he shook her hand he crushed it, bringing her to her feels with the pain

Raging: Do you think Im stupid ! Eh? Eh? Do ya?! he raged

Taking it outside: The answer was, as it so often is with Phil: 'Having a fight in the car park'

She was hardly likely to say yes. In her room Louise asked Sharon: Wheres dad? Wheres my mum?

The answer was, as it so often is with Phil: 'Having a fight in the car park.'

Phil had dragged Lisa down the hospital corridor, out through the back door, and hurled her to the ground.

The bin men are on their way ! he snarled. You aint going to change. I should have chucked you off that cliff all those years ago!

I will wipe you out ! screamed Lisa. Youre never coming near my daughter again ! retaliated Phil.

It was just like old times.

New low: Phil had dragged Lisa down the hospital corridor, out through the back door, and hurled her to the ground

Snarling: The bin men are on their way ! he snarled. You aint going to change. I should have chucked you off that cliff all those years ago!

Giving back: I will wipe you out ! screamed Lisa

-
Kelly Ripa bloomed bright Tuesday in a floral print dress in New York City.

The 46-year-old talk show host donned a Gucci dress that featured colorful flowers and pink trim.

She completed her outfit with aqua blue and red open-toed heels.

Floral print: Ripa stepped out in a colorful floral print Gucci dress Tuesday in New York City

Kelly had her short blonde hair down and carried a cell phone as she left her apartment.

The former soap opera star accessorized with stud earrings and complemented her outfit with pink lipstick.

She was headed to a taping of Late Night With Seth Meyers in the Big Apple.

Kelly took to Instagram to give credit to her glam squad of hairstylist Ryan Trygstad and makeup artist Kristofer Buckle ahead of her appearance.

Talk show: The talk show host was headed to a taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers

Restoration process complete by these two miracle workers. @ryantrygstadhair and @kristoferbuckle @latenightseth here I come! A post shared by Kelly Ripa (@kellyripa) on Jul 25, 2017 at 4:28pm PDT

The mother of three last week announced that her Live with Kelly & Ryan co-host Ryan Seacrest, 42, will return to American Idol.

'I am happy to confirm...that Ryan Seacrest is returning of the host of American Idol,' she proudly told the audience.

Ryan hosted American Idol from 2002 to 2016 after co-hosting the first season with Brian Dunkleman.

Syndication star: Kelly has been hosting a morning talk show since 2001

American Idol was a ratings juggernaut on Fox for years but experienced a decline in viewership in recent years.

The new reboot will air on ABC.

The American Idol reboot will feature Katy Perry, 32, as a judge and auditions are scheduled to begin next month in Portland, Oregon and Orlando, Florida before continuing to other cities.
She recently revealed that her daughter Billie is already struggling with insecurities at the tender age of three.

And on Wednesday, Rebecca Judd, 34, told Today Extra she believes the cause of Billie's self-consciousness could be a fictional character - Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen.

The AFL WAG, who signed up the youngster to be the face of Mattel's Barbie campaign earlier this year, at first said she had 'no idea' why Billie has insecurities before blaming the fictional character.

Won't let it go? On Wednesday, Rebecca Judd, 34, told Today Extra she believes the cause of her three-year-old daughter Billie's self-consciousness could be a fictional character - Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen

'I have no idea ... Do you know what, it might be Elsa from Frozen,' Bec said.

'... Because [Elsa] has this long pony in a plait and Billie's got this curly hair. She's brushing it trying to make it straight like Elsa and every time she brushes it she looks in the mirror and says 'urgh when am I going to have Elsa hair?'

She continued: 'At home we talk about how important it is to be brave, strong and kind and intelligent and we don't make appearance important. It is going to be tricky moving forward, raising girls. Yeah, it is just something to be aware of.'

The cause? '... Because [Elsa] has this long pony in a plait and Billie's got this curly hair. She's brushing it trying to make it straight like Elsa and every time she brushes it she looks in the mirror and says 'urgh when am I going to have Elsa hair?' said Bec

Family matters: The AFL WAG, who signed up the youngster to be the face of of Mattel's Barbie campaign earlier this year, at first said she had 'no idea' why Billie has insecurities before mentioning the fictional character

Not holding back: 'I have no idea ... Do you know what, it might be Elsa from Frozen,' Bec said

Her comments come one day after she revealed, during her radio show, KIIS network's The 3PM Pick Up, that Billie 'screams at the mirror' because she hates her hair.

The Postcards presenter said: 'Billie all of a sudden has started caring about her appearance so much. It's actually scary, and I don't know where it's come from.

'At home I wear active wear, pretty much, sneakers, chuck my hair up, barely put on any make up'.

Barbie girl! In April, Bec announced she had signed up the youngster to be the face of Mattel's Barbie campaign

Growing up: Bec said Billie has started comparing herself to her glamorous mum

She continued: 'She's got this brush, and she stands in front of the mirror and brushes and brushes her hair. She's got this curly hair. She brushes it and it springs back up. And she screams at the mirror, she's like, "arrrrgh!" She's just furious'.

The former model went on to say that her daughter complained,'Mummy, I don't like my hair. I want straight hair like you,' to which Bec replied to her toddler, 'Babe when I go to work I tong my hair so I've got curly hair like you.'

The mum-of-four went on to explain that the issue came to a head last week when the family were heading out for dinner.

The 34-year-old said: 'Billie all of a sudden has started caring about her appearance so much. It's actually scary, and I don't know where it's come from'

Hairy issue: 'She stands in front of the mirror and brushes and brushes her hair. She's got this curly hair. She brushes it and it springs back up. And she's just furious' the mum said

She said: 'We were going out in Port Douglas, we were going out for dinner. And I had these cool studded flats on and she had little flats with a pussy cat on them.

'We were just about to walk out the door, she goes, 'Mum, I can't go out for dinner; you look far more beautiful than me.' She's three!'

The WAG's co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond mentioned that Rebecca's good looks may be the issue.

Struggle: 'We were just about to walk out the door, she goes, 'Mum, I can't go out for dinner; you look far more beautiful than me.' She's three!' Bec explained

Mum woes: The WAG's co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond mentioned that Rebecca's good looks may be the issue

'Bec, oh my god, you've got to ugly yourself down. Your looks are ruining this child!' Katie quipped.

'I know! What is going on though. She doesn't getting screen time. She's not watching shows that put any importance on appearance,' Bec replied.

'You can't not be you in the house. She's looking at her mum going, 'my mum's so beautiful',' Katie offered.

MILF? 'Bec, oh my god, you've got to ugly yourself down. Your looks are ruining this child!' her co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond quipped

Bec replied: 'I know! What is going on though. She doesn't getting screen time. She's not watching shows that put any importance on appearance'

'But I'm not when I don't have make up on, I am not beautiful,' Bec insisted.

The solution Bec and her husband, AFL player Chris Judd, decided upon is to steer her daughter's emphasis away from her own looks and onto other attributes, the TV personality said.

She concluded: 'It made Chris and I think we have to put so much emphasis on being a kind human, and being strong, and being smart'.
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 3777 Wilcox Blvd. in Chattanooga, will host The Brenda Bryant Young Servant Benefit on Sunday, Aug. 13 at 3 p.m.

"The benefit aims to continue Brendas legacy and spirit of giving by contributing to two of her favorite ministries: LifeLine Ministries, a ministry specializing in life skills development and faith-based counseling services to poor and workingclass families; and the Essie Wade Scholarship Fund, a college scholarship fund that provides financial assistance for college bound students. By continuing Brendas spirit of giving, the Brenda Bryant Young Servant Benefit will further impact the liThves of people.



"The legacy of Brenda Bryant Young will live on through the many lives she touched. Her Christian walk exemplified in a quiet and powerful way how the lives of many people can be impacted for the cause of Christ with humility and grace. It was the quiet things Brenda did throughout her life that made a difference among the many lives God allowed her to touch. Her unwavering commitment to the sick, homebound, less fortunate, and the countless visits she made to and services she provided for the disabled enriched the lives of many for the cause of Christ," officials said.



For online contributions, go to lifepoint.name, or phone 800-813-4826.
She's a timeless beauty, who never seems to age.

And Halle Berry looked as youthful as ever as she attended the premiere of her latest movie, Kidnap. on Tuesday.

The 50-year-old actress glowed as she showcased her slimline frame on the red carpet at Kerasotes Showplace in Chicago, Illinois.

Stunning! Halle Berry looked as youthful as ever as she attended the premiere of her latest movie, Kidnap, on Tuesday

The Oscar-winner looked effortlessly stunning, as ever, as she revealed her toned arms in a sleeveless black and gold dress.

The simple but stylish outfit also perfectly accentuated her slim waist and shapely legs.

She added black heels which tied around her ankle.

Classic beauty: The 50-year-old actress glowed as she showcased her slimline frame on the red carpet at Kerasotes Showplace in Chicago, Illinois

The Monster's Ball beauty wore her hair loose and tousled around her shoulders, with honey highlights framing her pretty face.

She showcased her line-free flawless complexion with soft and natural make-up, and a nude lip colour.

Chunky gold necklaces accessorized her outfit as well as a gold ring - and a Band Aid on her right index finger.

Effortlessly stunning: The Oscar-winner revealed her toned arms in a sleeveless black and gold dress

Sexy: The simple but stylish outfit also perfectly accentuated her slim waist and shapely legs

With a script by Knate Gwaltney, the suspense-thriller follows Halle's character Karla as she desperately tails her kidnapped small son in a frantic attempt to safely retrieve him.

In an interview with Despierta America, the Kingsman: The Golden Circle star revealed how her own life experiences influenced her way of acting in the film.

'It was so organic for me, being a mom. I have fought for my children before for their privacy [from] paparazzi and the press so I knew what the heart of a lioness mother was all about.

She added: 'I connected to every single moment and I think I was connecting to the universal mother. It's what every mother would do. And then a step further. It's what every father would do. And then a step further. It's what anybody would do who had a child, had a niece, a nephew, a godchild.

'It's what any adult would do for a child. That's where i finally got to at the end of the day.'

Kidnap, will hit theaters on August 4.

Halle's other upcoming films include Kings, a drama set around the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, sequel to 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Kim Kardashian can turn any old duds into a serious fashion statement.

The 36-year-old certainly turned heads while donning a slashed button-up and form-fitting sweats at Stanley's restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California on Tuesday.

The mother-of-two displayed her full chest and gym-chiseled abs in the deconstructed top paired with flowing tresses and invisible heels while lunching with sisters Khloe and Kourtney.

Cut it out! Kim Kardashian turned heads while donning a slashed button-up and formfitting sweats at Stanley's restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California on Tuesday

The wife of Kanye West smoldered at the restaurant, accentuating her already ample assets with a pair of golden necklaces hanging between her cleavage.

Kim let her raven tresses flow behind her with windswept elegance while keeping her makeup simple with fluttering eyelashes and contoured cheekbones.

Though the app mogul's grey sweats seemed almost too laid-back for her look, they expertly featured her unreal hip-to-waist ratio and generous backside.

Sister style! Sister Kourtney kept casual in a red top and ripped jeans while middle-sibling Khloe went glam in a skin-tight black dress and ornate heels

Bad mama jama! The mother-of-three - who's currently dating a man 15 years her junior - sent a sassy message with her shirt, which read 'Being Bad' with heart dotting the 'i'

Sister Kourtney, 38, cut a casual figure in a red top and ripped jeans while holding daughter Penelope's hand and carrying her favorite Louis Vuitton mini backpack.

The mother-of-three, who's still casually dating 23-year-old boxer-turned-model Younes Bendjima, sent a sassy message with her shirt, which read 'Being Bad' with heart dotting the 'i.'

Khloe, 33, matched her older sister's taste in accessories carrying a camo-print LV overnighter while donning a skin-tight black dress and ornate heels.

Peanut! Kourtney and Khloe goofed around with five-year-old Penelope during the ride over

Groovy gals! The Armenian-American beauties got down to Beyonce's Run The World (Girls) while pumping up Penelope with the anthem's girl-power message

The blonde haired beauty's clingy dress hugged her body like a glove, giving onlookers a awesome view of her bombshell curves and workout-honed figure, finishing off her look with aviator shades and a full pout.

The Armenian-American beauties goofed around with five-year-old Penelope during the ride over, with mom sharing snaps of them grooving to Beyonce's Run The World (Girls) and cheering on P with the anthem.

The eldest Kardashian also poked fun at her sister via snap, posting a picture of the Good American Jean designer glued to her phone along with the caption 'Lunch conversation is [100 emoji.]
The last thing busy mothers worry about when they take their children to lessons is their mode of dress.

But that was certainly not the case for Kourtney Kardashian as she donned an extremely revealing outfit as she took son Mason to art class in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The reality television personality left very little of her bottom half to the imagination after she wore extremely short shorts as she ran her errand in the well-heeled Woodland Hills area.

As you do: It briefly appeared like Kourtney Kardashian had neglected to put on bottoms as she took son Mason to art class in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Kourtney, 38, by way of contrast was very high-heeled after donning a racy pair of towering calf-high leather boots.

At one stage it looked like the the mother-of-three was just wearing a white pullover, such was the skimpiness of her black hotpants.

However it soon became clear as Justin Bieber's former sexual playmate swung her hips with abandon that she was indeed wearing a pair of shorts.

Health-conscious Kourtney was also carrying a bottle of Health-Ade Organic Kombucha, despite there being no evidence such potions have any benefits.

Phew: But it soon became apparent she was actually wearing incredibly skimpy hotpants

She's got bottle: The health-conscious reality television personality was carrying a potion

Hogging the limelight: Mason was left trailing in his mother's wake as she flaunted her pegs

She seems happy to be back on dry land after enjoying some thrilling watersports sessions with 23-year-old toyboy lover Younes Bendjima in St Tropez earlier this month.

Kourtney split from her most famous ex Scott Disick in in July 2015 after photos emerged of him canoodling with stylist Chloe Bartoli in Monaco.

It brought to an end a nine-year relationship that has spawned three children - seven-year-old Mason, Penelope, four, and two-year-old Reign.

However the self-proclaimed Lord, who claims he is a sex addict, has also been indulging himself with other partners, most famously canoodling with teenage actress Bella Thorne to Cannes earlier this year.

Upper thigh's the limit: The mother-of-three looked in fine form

Vroom with a few: She flashed her stunning stalks again as she clambered from her car
Kim Kardashian is facing a lawsuit over her hit KKW Beauty line.

Danish makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis is accusing the social media mogul of ripping off her cosmetics brand and their KW logo, in documents obtained by TMZ Tuesday.

The organic cosmetic creator's suit hopes to block the wife of Kanye West from using her own 'KKW' initials and also asks for Kim to fork over the line's hearty profits plus additional damages.

Copycat? Kim Kardashian is being sued by Danish makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis over her KKW Beauty line. Above Mrs. Kardashian-West is seen at KKW Beauty's launch in June

The suit claims that Kim's makeup collection has cut into Kjaer Weis's bottom line and was 'knowing, willing and deliberate' in its copying.

Kim's people claim they 'consulted several veteran trademark attorneys' before the launch and say they are 'confident' there is no infringement.

Sources close to the Calabasas native's makeup line also say they don't see strong similarities between the two makeup lines.

Her side of the story: Kjaer Weis's (seen above in 2005) suit claims that Kim's collection has cut into their bottom line and was 'knowing, willing and deliberate' in its copying

Weis going on? While both brands tout high-quality cosmetics, their likeness is limited. Kjaer Weis products (above) feature sleek metal packaging with a serif-font logo

While both brands tout high-quality cosmetics, their likenesses stop there.

Kjaer Weis products feature sleek metal packaging with a serif-font logo of the letters 'KW.'

Kim's line KKW Beauty on the other hand, is designed with pale plastic packaging focusing on streamlined shapes in a nude-pink color palate

Pale and pretty: KKW Beauty (above) is designed with pale plastic packaging focusing on streamlined shapes in a nude-pink color palate and uses a san-serif font

Make up your mind: Kim's people claim they 'consulted several veteran trademark attorneys' and say they are 'confident' there is no infringement

Kjaer Weis's suit could have a lot more to do with bottom line than lipstick, though.

The mother-of-two's makeup line sold out in minutes upon its June 21 release, reportedly raking in $14.4million before running out of stock.

And this was all while KKW Beauty boasted just one product: a Kardashian approved contour kit that retailed for $38.
She's the proud mother to son Harvey Glenn, now one, with husband Jayson Watts.

And Yummy Mummies' star Rachel Watts shared a snap to Instagram on Tuesday, of her precious offspring, moments after his birth.

A photo of the 36-year-old with her newborn and partner, seated on a hospital bed, was captioned in part: 'Words will never describe our love for you'.

'Words will never describe our love for you': Yummy Mummies' Rachel Watts, 36, shared a snap of son Harvey Glenn, now one, moments after his birth, to Instagram on Tuesday

The snap was captioned: 'Welcome to the world our baby boy HARVEY GLENN WATTS born 7th April 2016 weighing 6lb 9oz.

'Words will never describe our love for you,' the reality star continued, alongside a love heart emoji and several hash-tags including #babyboy, #love and #yummymummiesau.

The image shared with Rachel's 24,100 followers saw the brunette seated on a hospital bed, cradling her precious son, as husband Jayson Watts looked on affectionately.

Reflecting: A later image shared to Rachel's Instagram account saw the first-time mother feeding little Harvey. The reality star captioned the moment: 'Time to bring the little one home!!!! Hope you guys all enjoyed Yummy Mummies tonight! Jayson and I shed a tear!!'

The image was posted to Instagram shortly after Tuesday night's episode of Yummy Mummies aired.

The episode saw Rachel absent from co-star Lorinska Merrington's baby shower, having gone into labour the day before.

Meanwhile a later image shared to Rachel's Instagram account on Tuesday saw the first-time mother feeding little Harvey.

Family unit: Rachel and husband Jayson are proud parents to Harvey Glenn, now one

She cut a glamorous figure in a vibrant ensemble, her sleek locks styled into an up-do and pearl earrings as an accessory.

Rachel captioned the moment: 'Time to bring the little one home!!!! Hope you guys all enjoyed Yummy Mummies tonight! Jayson and I shed a tear!!'.

Rachel stars in Channel Seven's reality series, Yummy Mummies, that sees a group of expectant mothers prepare for their new additions.

Alongside Rachel is the glamorous Maria DiGeronimo, 31, from Adelaide, and blonde models Lorinska Merrington, 32, and Jane Scandizzo, 34, from Melbourne.

Reality star: Rachel stars in Channel Seven's reality series, Yummy Mummies, that sees a group of expectant mothers prepare for their new additions

The show which debuted mid July has already come under fire.

Incensed by its subject matter, viewers flooded the series' official Facebook page with comments slamming the program.

'You've found a more vulnerable target now, emotional hormonal pregnant women who are likely already feeling pretty fragile about their appearance,' one person wrote.

Another added: 'I find this quite offensive to other women.'
Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender were spotted arriving at LAX on Tuesday to catch a flight out of Los Angeles.

The A-list couple, who have been dating since late 2014, carried hand luggage as they headed into the departures terminal.

Swedish actress Alicia flaunted her bare legs in a black mini dress as she carried a large Louis Vuitton holdall.

A-list couple: Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender were spotted arriving at LAX on Tuesday to catch a flight out of Los Angeles

The 28-year-old Oscar winner beamed happily as she was dropped off kerbside.

Her short-sleeved cotton dress was cinched at the waist and embellished with small black beads.

She added white ankle boots and a pair of quirky pink-framed sunglasses.

Catching a flight: The 28-year-old Oscar winner beamed happily as she was dropped off kerbside carrying her designer luggage

Pretty summer look: Alicia, 28, wore a short-sleeved black cotton mini dress that was cinched at the waist and embellished with small black beads

Upbeat: The Swedish actress went bare-legged in white ankle boots and sported a pair of quirky pink-framed sunglasses

Her German-born Irish actor boyfriend sported a full beard and tortoiseshell-framed shades.

He wore a black t-shirt with a blue blazer and blue cotton pants.

The two-time Oscar nominee, 40, added gray lace-up soft shoes.

Dapper: The German-born Irish actor, 40, sported a full beard and tortoiseshell-framed shades. He wore a black t-shirt with a blue blazer and blue cotton pants

Alicia and Michael fell in love while making the tearjerker The Light Between Oceans that was released in 2016.

They had managed to keep their relationship secret at first but the romance became public knwoledge during the 2016 Hollywood awards season.

Alicia won an AcademyAward for best supporting actress for The Danish Girl at the Oscars that year.

Michael had also been nominated in 2016 in the best actor category for his performance as the Apple founder in Steve Jobs.

Alicia recently wrapped production as Lara Croft on the Tomb Raider reboot, while Michael is currently filming X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
It's the Channel Nine reality series that sees contestants put through their paces on an obstacle course.

And on Wednesday, Australian Ninja Warrior cemented itself as the biggest hit show of 2017, even managing to outperform the audience for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The grand finale episode on Tuesday night, attracted an impressive national average of 3.087 million.

Making records! Australian Ninja Warrior has become the biggest show of 2017, even managing to outperform the audience for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

Australian Ninja Warrior had a national average of 3.087 million viewers tune into the final stage of the competition.

The national average per episode came in at an impressive 2.454 million.

Ninja Warrior's five-city metro consolidated average of 1.727 million, has beaten the average 1.409 million, who watched the 2016 Olympics coverage in Rio de Janeiro on Network Seven.

Impressive: Australian Ninja Warrior had a national average of 3.087 million viewers tune into the final stage of the competition

Stellar run: The national average per episode came in at an impressive 2.454 million

In an official press release on Wednesday, Nine's Director of Television Michael Healy, announced the return of the program in 2018.

'Australian Ninja Warrior will return for a second series in 2018 and we are excited to see not only all of our favourite Ninja contestants from series one return but a host of new Australian Ninjas inspired by the show.

'For the second series in 2018 we will roll over the prize money not won in series one, creating a prize of $200,000 if an Australian Ninja Warrior can conquer Mount Midoriyama,' he continued.

According to Mediaweek editor James Manning, much of Ninja Warrior's success can be attributed to the high interest-rate among men.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he explained: '[Men] 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.'

Gender: According to Mediaweek editor James Manning, much of Ninja Warrior's success can be attributed to the high interest-rate among men

Reasoning: Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he explained: '[Men] 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'

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.

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.'
They are screen stars in their own right.

But married celebrities Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello crossed the line from pleasure to business as they got down to work together in Queens, New York, on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old actress and her hunky Magic Mike star husband, 40, looked more in love than ever as they shot scenes for their movie Stano.

Cute couple: Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello crossed the line from pleasure to business, as they were spotted for the first time on set together in Queens, New York, on Tuesday

Eyes for you: The 45-year-old actress and her hunky husband, 40, looked more in love than ever as they shot scenes together for their movie Stano

Even when the cameras weren't rolling, the pair only had eyes for each other.

Sofia looked stunning in an elegant navy paisley print maxi skirt teamed with heeled espadrille wedges.

Between scenes, Sofia - who is mother to 24-year-old son Manolo from her first marriage - appeared to have her script close to hand to revise her lines.

He's my guy! Even when the cameras weren't rolling, the stars only had eyes for each other

Her trademark long chestnut tresses were worn loose and straight, with her bangs framing her pretty features.

The Modern Family beauty - who is the world's highest paid television actress - had her sexy pout emphasized with red lipstick.

Joe wore a denim jacket as he towered over the 5ft,7in Colombian-American actress.

Stunning: Sofia looked as stunning as ever in an elegant navy paisley print maxi skirt, which she teamed with heeled espadrille wedges

Keeping on track: Between scenes, Sofia - who is mother to 24-year-old son Manolo from her first marriage - appeared to have her script close to hand to revise her lines

Sexy: The Modern Family beauty - who is the world's highest paid television actress - had her pout emphasised with red lipstick

All smiles: Joe - who stars in Magic Mike - wore a denim jacket as he towered over the 5ft 7in Colombian-American

Screen-mates: The beautiful couple were crossing the line to work together

Beauty: Her trademark long chestnut tresses were worn loose and straight, with her bangs framing her pretty features

He teamed cargo pants with Converse, for his character.

The handsome star - who is Vergara's second husband - takes the titular role.

Sofia and Joe married in a lavish Palm Beach ceremony in November 2015 after getting engaged on Christmas day 2014 after six months of dating.

The movie tells the story about a young rising star ball player, played by Manganiello, with the Yankees who lands himself in prison for a terrible accident.

When Stano gets out of prison after 17 years of being behind bars and trying to stay alive, he returns to society and the love of his life - naturally played by his real-life wife Vergara.

Chicken and rice: She's busy filming in NYC, and posted pictures of her dinner in the city

Sweet tooth: She also tucked into an ice-cream on her social media

Sofia also hits the big screen this month in The Emoji Movie, which unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone.

Gene, a multi-expressional emoji voiced by T.J. Miller, sets out on a journey to become a normal emoji.

Aside from Sofia, Patrick and T.J., the movie features a starry voice cast including James Cordon, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera and Sean Hayes.

It's due to open on July 28.
It was the action franchise that put adopted Australian star Mel Gibson on the map.

And now another homegrown actor is set to make his name in the TV reboot of the iconic 1980s film franchise.

The 24-year-old has been cast in a recurring role on the Fox dramas upcoming second season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The next Mel Gibson? Australian actor Andrew Creer, who looks at ease on a red carpet, will head to Hollywood to star in a Lethal Weapon TV reboot

Step to stardom: Lethal Weapon was the American buddy cop action comedy franchise that launched the Hollywood career of adopted Australian star Mel Gibson (above left)

He will play Zach Bowman, a robbery and homicide detective who partners with female character Detective Bailey, played by Michelle Mitchenor.

The Tamworth-born actor is best known for his roles in films such as Barracuda and the blockbuster Tomorrow When the War Began.

Musicals and theatre productions drew his interest from an early age and he headed off to study his craft at the age of 18.

New heights! Andrew Creer will play Zach Bowman in Lethal Weapon, a robbery and homicide detective who partners with female character Detective Bailey, played by Michelle Mitchenor

After completing the three year Acting program at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Andrew began a stage career.

His role in the science fiction film Tomorrow When the War Began opened doors for the young star.

As well as his casting in the Fox TV series, Zach will also appear in the upcoming films Rip Tide and Hurt.

Local boy: Tamworth-born actor Andrew grew up on a cattle farm in rural New South Wales. He is best known for his roles in movies Barracuda and Tomorrow When the War Began

The TV version of the Lethal Weapon franchise is only loosely based on the popular 1980s and 1990s films starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

The show begins airing on the Fox network in the USA in September.

Channel Nine will air the program in Australia later this year.
It may be called Amnesia - but a night there looks pretty unforgettable.

Paris Hilton continued her Ibiza residency on Sunday night with another epic Foam and Diamonds Party.

The heiress has been a summer resident of the club for five years now and shows no signs of slowing.

Suds! Paris Hilton continued her Ibiza residency on Sunday night with another epic Foam and Diamonds Party

This year the heiress has a very special muse with her in the form of boyfriend Chris Zylka, as the two were spotted locking lips even during her set.

The stunner was joined by special guest performers Chanel West Coast and Nicky Romero.

According to club owner Martin Ferrer, Paris is 'the highest paid female DJ in the world.'

Smack! This year the heiress has a very special muse with her in the form of boyfriend Chris Zylka, as the two were spotted locking lips even during her set

Queen: The heiress has been a summer resident of the club for five years now and shows no signs of slowing

Blondes have more fun: The stunner was joined by special guest performers Chanel West Coast

Snap that: The duo snapped plenty of selfies, obviously

'Paris has the number one most attended and successful parties on the island,' one club insider told DailyMail.com.

'Everyone on the island loves her. Nobody knows how to throw a party like Paris!'

'The music and the vibe are amazing and everyone has the most incredible time every Sunday at her show.'

Earning it: According to Amnesia club owner Martin Ferrer, Paris is 'the highest paid female DJ in the world.'

Love her: 'Paris has the number one most attended and successful parties on the island,' one club insider told DailyMail.com

Ain't no part like a Paris party: 'Everyone on the island loves her, nobody knows how to throw a party like Paris!

Weekly: 'The music and the vibe are amazing and everyone has the most incredible time every Sunday at her show' the insider said

Memorable: The club may may be called Amnesia - but a night there looks pretty unforgettable

Inseparable: Chris even moved to the Spanish party isle to be with her for the two months she holds residency

Biggest fan: The Leftovers star Chris - who recently got a giant Paris tattoo in Disney font on his arm - has scarcely been pictured without the blonde beauty since they struck up their whirlwind romance around Valentine's weekend

The Leftovers star Chris - who recently got a giant Paris tattoo in Disney font on his arm - has scarcely been pictured without the blonde beauty since they struck up their whirlwind romance around Valentine's weekend.

He even moved to the Spanish party isle to be with her for the two months she holds residency.

'Chris is absolutely crazy about Paris,' a source close to the couple said. 'He thinks she is the most beautiful, intelligent, fun and interesting person he's ever met in his life.

Gushing: 'Chris is absolutely crazy about Paris,' a source close to the couple said. 'He thinks she is the most beautiful, intelligent, fun and interesting person he's ever met in his life

Royalty: 'They are so in love, they haven't spent a single night apart. Everyone on the island is calling them the queen and king of Ibiza!'

Squad: Paris maintains an army of swimsuit clad beauties for her show

Even dolphins! They take the swimming theme very seriously

'They are so in love, they haven't spent a single night apart. Everyone on the island is calling them the queen and king of Ibiza!'

'All Paris' friends are so happy for her... everyone can see what an incredible man he is to her. So loyal, sweet and loving with her.

'She tells everyone she's finally met her perfect match, and that he is even more beautiful on the inside than he is on the out,' the insider added. 'This is true love.'
Jeremy Callahan has joined Keller Williams Realty in downtown Chattanooga as its newest real estate agent.

Mr. Callahan is a native Chattanoogan and graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he majored in communication and marketing. "With eight years of experience in the industry, he has consistently been a multi-million-dollar producing agent who now leads a growing team," officials said.

Mr. Callahan said he attributes his success in the industry to an extensive marketing strategy that utilizes the latest real estate technology, and also what he calls a return to good old-fashioned customer service.



Nathan Brown, CEO of Keller Williams Realty in Downtown Chattanooga said, Jeremy has a firm grip on what it takes to succeed in this industry, and were excited to have him join us and work together to further his success.



Mr. Callahan notes that it was the excellent business systems, models for training agents, and improving customer service that ultimately prompted him to join Keller Williams Realty.

Im so thankful for the many families that have trusted us over the years, and Im excited for the incredible opportunity to have an even greater impact and offer higher levels of service to the clients were privileged to serve in the Chattanooga area. Keller Williams is a company committed to excellence through leadership training and business development, and Im proud to be on board.



Mr. Callahan may be reached at 423-800-2180. Keller Williams Realty is located at 202 Manufacturers Road in downtown Chattanooga.
She recently flaunted her sexy side when she stripped down to a racy red swimsuit for LOVE magazine.

And Nicole Kidman, 50, is certain to turn heads once again when she walks the red carpet for premiere of the Foxtel BBC drama Top Of The Lake: China Girl in Sydney on Wednesday.

Joining the superstar will be cast and crew including Jane Campion, Gerard Lee, Christiaan Van Vuuren and Alice Englert.

Homecoming: Nicole Kidman is back in Australia for the premiere of Top of the Lake: China Girl in which she looks almost unrecognisable

The actress stars in the local production as Julia, a mother whose story intersects with Detective Robin Griffin's (played by Elisabeth Moss) search for the identity of 'China Girl'.

Scenes within the trailer see Nicole cutting a much older figure for her character, sporting a grey curly wig.

Her complexion is also slightly weathered with significant freckling and her attire is rather subdued and conservative.

Local drama: The actress stars in the local production as Julia, a mother whose story intersects with Detective Robin Griffin's (played by Elisabeth Moss, pictured) search for the identity of 'China Girl'

Back home: The last time Nicole was in Australia for a local production was back in 1989 for the three-part miniseries Bangkok Hilton

The last time Nicole was in Australia for a local production was back in 1989 for the three-part miniseries Bangkok Hilton.

She was seen filming scenes for the drama in Sydney's Centennial Park last year.

No doubt Nicole will wow on the red carpet just as she did in the most recent issue of LOVE magazine.

Different look: Scenes within the trailer see Nicole cutting a much older figure for her character, sporting a grey curly wig

Attention-grabbing: The mother of four starred in a provocative shoot for the fashion magazine, posing in a raunchy red swimsuit

The mother of four starred in a provocative shoot for the fashion magazine, posing in a raunchy red swimsuit.

The revealing one-piece had criss-cross lacing going up the front and she teamed it with a cowboy hat.

While many were impressed by Nicole's age-defying figure, the star was reportdly 'mortified' by the revealing shot, with an insider telling New Idea: 'Nicole was devastated when she saw the pics and pretty embarrassed.'
Former Doctor Who Peter Davison has quit Twitter after his criticism of the BBC shows first female Time Lord prompted a barrage of abuse.

The veteran actor, 66, formally announced his decision to walk away from the popular micro-blogging site on Sunday following a backlash from fans over comments made ahead of an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con three days previously.

Davison said new Doctor Jodie Whittaker, 35, was a 'terrific actress' but expressed concerns about the lead role going to a female.

Scroll down for video

Walking away: Former Doctor Who Peter Davison has ceased using Twitter after his criticism of the BBC shows first female Time Lord prompted a barrage of abuse

He said: 'If I feel any doubts, it's the loss of a role model for boys who I think Doctor Who is vitally important for.

'So I feel a bit sad about that, but I understand the argument that you need to open it up.'

Davison added that he liked the idea of the Doctor 'as a boy' but added, 'maybe I'm an old-fashioned dinosaur, who knows?'.

Clarifying his position over Whittakers appointment in a series of tweets, he wrote: For the record I didnt say I had doubts about Jodie. I said shes a terrific actress and will do a wonderful job and we need to open it up.

That's enough: The veteran actor, 66, formally announced his decision to walk away from the popular micro-blogging site on Sunday following a backlash from fans over comments made ahead of an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con three days previously

Former Time Lord: Veteran star Davison played the fifth Doctor from 1981 to 1984

'I also urged uncertain fans to be supportive about change. It was a caveat about role models in an otherwise positive answer.

He added: All this toxicity about a sci-fi show has been sobering, so Im calling it a day. @PeterDavison5 used to be fun. Now its not. Must Dash. xx

Davison was the fifth person to take on the role in the 1981-1984 series of the popular BBC sci-fi show.

Difference of opinion: Davison's comments on the casting of a female Doctor have been roundly criticized by Colin Baker (pictured far right with Davison and Sophie Aldred at the San Diego Comic-Con) who took over as the sixth Time Lord from 1984 to 1986

His daughter Georgina Moffett, 32, starred on show as the on-screen child of David Tennant, 46, one of the programme's most loved Time Lords.

In a twist, she went onto marry Tennant and the couple now have four children together and live in Chiswick, West London.

Davison's comments on the casting of a female Doctor have been roundly criticized by Colin Baker, who took over as the sixth Time Lord from 1984 to 1986.

Keep it in the family: Davison's daughter Georgina Moffett starred on show as the on-screen child of David Tennant, 46, one of the programme's most loved Time Lords. In a twist, she went onto marry Tennant and the couple now have four children

'They've had 50 years of having a role model. So sorry Peter, you're talking rubbish there - absolute rubbish,' he said.

Baker also said that he hopes to see a non-white Doctor in the future and that the series should look to America where he feels casting is less dependant on colour.

'They see a future world where that is irrelevant and it's perhaps time Doctor Who and its fans did too,' he added.

Controversial choice: Jodie Whittaker was announced as the thirteenth Doctor Who following the Wimbledon Men's Singles final in July

Elsewhere Jodie, who was announced as the thirteenth Doctor following the Wimbledon Men's Singles final in July, is looking ahead to an altogether different role as hardworking nurse Cath Hardacre in forthcoming BBC drama Trust Me.

Directed by Ben Sefton, the new series finds Cath stealing an emigrating friend's identity and starting a new life after being sacked for questioning the dipping standards at her hospital.

Reflecting on latest role, Jodie admits she was drawn to the show's realism.

Coming soon: Elsewhere Jodie is looking ahead to an altogether different role as hardworking nurse Cath Hardacre in forthcoming drama Trust Me

'I was sent the script for the first episode and it fascinated me because it went in a completely different direction to how I thought it was going to,' she said.

'Particularly at the beginning when shes suspended for whistle blowing and loses her job. It could have gone so many ways, and the fact that she takes on this new identity isnt the way that I thought it would go.

'I love the fact that her choices are quite morally dubious and they certainly arent black and white. She makes decisions that are quite challenging to justify, even though we know her reasons. Ive never acted in anything medical before, so it felt completely new.'

Gripping: Directed by Ben Sefton, the new series finds Cath stealing an emigrating friend's identity and starting a new life after being sacked for questioning the dipping standards at her hospital

Jodie admits she benefitted from writer-director Dan's experience as a medical consultant, as well as the ineternet while researching her role as Cath.

She said: 'He brought in the CPR dummy and showed us how to do a cannula and he, very bravely, let me put a cannula in his vein. I did it right, thank God!'

'Also, YouTube is amazing. The genius of the internet is that you can basically sit at home and Google medical procedures, and TV shows such as 24 hours in A&E, which I watched hours of.'

Trust Me premieres in August on BBC One.
She's the Sydney law student who became 'internet famous' thanks to her enviable Instagram holiday snaps.

And on Wednesday, Harvard-educated Sarah Kohan set pulses racing during a bikini photoshoot in Miami Beach, Florida.

The 22-year-old flaunted her slim figure in the strapless two-piece by Kopper & Zink which offered a cheeky glimpse of underboob.

Brains and beauty! On Wednesday, Harvard-educated Instagram model Sarah Kohan (pictured) set pulses racing during a bikini photoshoot in Miami Beach, Florida

Sarah happily soaked up the sun as she posed for the photographer following the annual Miami Swim Week.

Her cheeky tie-side bikini bottoms highlighted her slender thighs and pert derriere.

Sarah, who styled her blonde hair in loose waves, later added a wide-brimmed straw hat to her outfit.

She's flawless! The 22-year-old flaunted her slim figure in the strapless two-piece by Kopper & Zink which offered a cheeky glimpse of underboob

The self-styled adventurer was joined by a group of friends at the beach, who appeared to be enjoying themselves.

Sarah rose to fame thanks to her Instagram account 'Moonstrucktraveller', which features bikini-clad photos from her travels.

Some of her exotic holiday destinations include the Cook Islands, Bora Bora, Hawaii, the Bahamas, Europe and South America.

Internet famous: Sarah rose to fame thanks to her Instagram account 'Moonstrucktraveller', which features bikini-clad photos from her travels

The blonde is not all beauty and no brains however, as she has completed exchange courses at Harvard University and Columbia University.

Set to graduate from Notre Dame in June, she hopes to then intern with the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
He's adjusting to life as a free man, having served a prison sentence for insider trading.

And on Wednesday, Oliver Curtis spent some quality time with his children, daughter Pixie, five, and Hunter, two.

The trio posed up for a sweet snap that was shared to Pixie's Instagram account, with it being captioned: 'Daddy day care!'

Scroll down for video

'Daddy day care!' Oliver Curtis dotes on daughter Pixie, five, and son Hunter, two, after his release from prison

'Daddy Day Care - thank heavens !!!!!,' the full caption read, with Oliver's wife Roxy Jacenko controlling their children's accounts.

In the snap, Oliver beams in delight as Hunter and Pixie pose up beside him.

A week ago, a shot shared to Pixie's account showed her and Oliver holding hands after he dropped her off at school.

Sweet: A week ago, a shot shared to Pixie's account showed her and Oliver holding hands after he dropped her off at school

Going strong: Before Oliver's release from prison in June 23, it was rumoured that he and wife Roxy decided to quietly end their marriage

The caption joked that Pixie was embarrassed by her dad calling out her name at school.

'I've told him he need not walk me in. Drop me and keep going - and then he calls out my name in front of everyone. Killing my image Dad! Clearly a little over excited for his first day dropping me to school,' the caption humorously read.

Oliver was released from Cooma Correctional Centre on June 23, after serving a year behind bars.

'Marry me again?' But early this month, Roxy revealed announced her 'second engagement' to Oliver, after he popped the question again

Before Oliver's release, it was rumoured that he and wife Roxy decided to quietly end their marriage- a whisper that was bolstered by images of Roxy kissing her ex Nabil Gazal in April.

But early this month, Roxy revealed announced her 'second engagement' to Oliver, after he popped the question again at the Four Seasons hotel in Sydney.

'Marry me again?,' gold balloons in the luxurious suite read.
He has spent the last few weeks gallivanting in New York with a slew of fellow supermodels.

But it was back to reality for Jordan Barrett, 20, who touched down in his native Australia this Tuesday.

Wearing what appeared to be his pajamas, the genetically-blessed hunk was greeted by friend Cheyenne Tozzi, 27, shortly after his arrival.

Two peas in a pod! Jordan Barrett (right) was spotted sashaying through Sydney Airport with fellow model Cheyenne Tozzi (left) this Tuesday

After greeting each other with a hug, the pair proceeded to strut through the busy terminal.

Jordan looked decidedly cosy in his travel-friendly ensemble, which included a pair of striped cotton trousers, an NYPD-branded hoodie and pair of white moccasins.

Meanwhile, Australia's Next Top Model judge Cheyenne donned a leopard-print onesie, a black coat and a pair of fur-lined slipper sandals.

It's called fashion, look it up! Wearing what appeared to be his pajamas, the genetically-blessed hunk, 20, was greeted by friend Cheyenne Tozzi, 27, shortly after his arrival

Bring it in! After greeting each other, the duo proceeded to strut through the busy terminal

Cosy! Fair-haired Jordan looked decidedly cosy in his travel-friendly ensemble, which included a pair of striped cotton trousers and an NYPD-branded hoodie

Bling: Jordan completed his look with a pair of white moccasins and chunky gold rings

Before his flight on Monday, Jordan had announced his return Down Under by captioning an Instagram snap with: 'NY, NY I need to leave - home is waiting.'

Jordan, the son of convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrett, was first discovered at age 13 while shoplifting at a convenience store in 2010.

He was trying to steal matches when he was approached by a model scout working for international agency IMG, which he eventually signed to in 2015.

Specs appeal! Jordan also wore a pair of gold spectacles and a necklace

Quirky: Meanwhile, Australia's Next Top Model judge Cheyenne donned a leopard-print onesie, a black coat and a pair of fur-lined slipper sandals

Chilly: The duo cuddled up from the Sydney chill as they exited the terminal

Designer luggage: Jordan carried his belongings in a large Givenchy bag

After booking his first overseas modelling gig at 17 in Tokyo, Jordan went on to take the international modelling scene by storm.

Jordan, who boasts over half a million Instagram followers, has been linked to some of the world's biggest stars including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton and Hailey Baldwin.

As his social status continues to rise, his career is also thriving - with the former Sydneysider having featured in various high-fashion campaigns.

Rise to fame: Jordan, the son of convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrett, was first discovered at age 13 while shoplifting at a convenience store in 2010

Global appeal: After booking his first overseas modelling gig at 17 in Tokyo, Jordan went on to take the international modelling scene by storm

Heart-breaker! Jordan, who boasts over half a million Instagram followers, has been linked to supermodels Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton and Hailey Baldwin
They became firm friends after appearing on The Bachelorette last year.

And Jake Ellis has thrown his support behind Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson, wishing him luck ahead of his debut on The Bachelor.

Sharing a photo to Instagram on Wednesday, Jake gushed: 'Can't wait to watch you on TV falling in love.'

'Can't wait to watch you on TV falling in love!' Jake Ellis took to Instagram on Wednesday to wish Matty Johnson good luck ahead of stint on The Bachelor

Jake and Matty both competed unsuccessfully last year for Georgia Love's affections on The Bachelorette.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Jake shared a throwback photo of the pair enjoying a meal at a restaurant.

'Good luck tonight brother @matthewdavidjohnson! Can't wait to watch you on TV falling in love as @thebachelorau being all mushy and stuff,' Jake captioned the photo.

Making his debut: Matty started his season stint as The Bachelor on Wednesday night

Former rivals: Jake and Matty both competed unsuccessfully last year for Georgia Love's affections on The Bachelorette

The former reality TV star also added the hashtags 'mattyjyouresodreamy' and 'theman'.

Meanwhile contestants on last year's Bachelor also took to social media to wish Matty luck in finding love.

Sharing a video of her first meeting with Richie Strahan, Rachael Gouvignon reminisced about her own experience and how nerve-wracking it had been.

Sending good vibes: Meanwhile contestants on last year's Bachelor also took to social media to wish Matty luck in finding love

'I can only image what all the girls of Season 5 will be feeling right now and I wish @matthewdavidjohnson all the best in the next chapter of his life,' Rachael wrote.

Sasha Zhuravlyova also wished Matty luck on Instagram, sharing a photo from last year's season.

'I wish all the best to @matthewdavidjohnson tonight in his quest to find love this experience is not only about love, it's about friendship and endless fun, which we definitely had in the mansion!' She captioned the photo.
He raised eyebrows with his extremely glamorous cover shoot for Stellar magazine over the weekend.

And Karl Stefanovic, 42, has poked fun at his modelling skills by comparing himself to the fictional character Derek Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Today host posted a side-by-side image of his Stellar cover and a picture of Zoolander's famous 'Blue Steel' expression.

'I tried': Karl Stefanovic, 42, has poked fun at his modelling skills in his recent Stellar cover shoot by comparing himself to the fictional character of Derek Zoolander

'I tried', the father-of-three joked in the caption.

The black-and-white photo pictured the TV journalist lying on his back while staring up at the camera seductively.

It's unclear as to whether Karl's model girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough had given him any pointers ahead of the glossy shoot.

Blue Steel! Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Today host posted a side-by-side image of his Stellar cover and a picture of Zoolander's famous 'Blue Steel' expression (pictured)

In his interview with Stellar, Karl spoke candidly about his high-profile relationship with Jasmine, admitting he was taking the romance slowly.

'I met her on a boat in Sydney. We have a really lovely relationship but it's got to be slow for a number of reasons,' he explained.

In September last year, it emerged Karl had split from his wife Cassandra Thorburn after 21 years of marriage.

Word from the wise? It's unclear as to whether Karl's model girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough (right) had given him any pointers ahead of the glossy shoot

Karl admitted he took a hit with female viewers after the split and conceded that some women were angered by his decision.

'I know maybe there are some women out there who are angry with me, but I've never tried to be anything other than myself,' he said.

Karl continued: 'I have to hope that the audience, and particularly females if that is true, that one day they're OK and they come back and say 'I'm giving him another go''.'

Split: Last year, Karl split from his wife Cassandra Thorburn (left) after 21 years of marriage
She's been promoting her latest flick which portrays a woman's battle with anorexia.

And Lily Collins took time out of her busy schedule to enjoy a day out in New York on Tuesday.

The British-American actress, 28, cut a stylish figure as she attended to her errands in a chic ensemble.

Scroll down for video

Making the sidewalk her catwalk: Lily Collins took time out of her busy schedule to enjoy a day out in New York on Tuesday

Putting on a very leggy display, Lily slipped into a thigh-skimming leather mini-skirt, adorned with pretty butterfly appliques and metal studs.

Accentuating her stature further, she teamed it with a pair of skyscraper platform Louboutin heels, accessorising with a heart-embellished clutch bag.

Continuing her chic display, the daughter of British star Phil Collins teamed it with a striped top, pulling together the look with a butterfly badge.

Opting for minimal make-up to accentuate her youthful beauty, she appeared in relaxed spirits as she enjoyed a day out.

Turning heads: The British-American actress, 28, cut a stylish figure as she attended to her errands in a chic ensemble

Lily's most recent role saw her portraying a woman battling anorexia.

And the model turned actress, who has herself battled an eating disorder, opened up about Netflix film To The Bone in a bid to raise awareness of the devastating effects of the disease.

Speaking about the business to The Hollywood Reporter, the brunette beauty said: 'I think the BMI conversation was really important.

'But then you do watch fashion shows and you do see extremely small girls walking down the runway, and a lot of them are really young and havent become women yet. 'Its like their body shape hasnt changed.

'Some girls look like theyre about to pass out. I think theres still a conversation to be had there about runway sizes.'

Lily, who was revealed she was criticised for her rapid weight loss for the role, recently gave an interview about the film and her own off-screen struggle with eating disorders to the Daily Mail.

The starlet named her famous father Phil Collins' 17million divorce as the trigger for her anorexia and bulimia.

My periods stopped for two years,' she bravely confessed. 'And my life was out of control. I was terrified I had ruined my chances of ever having kids.'
She has been happily dating the former Made In Chelsea star since meeting on Channel 4 reality show The Jump in February.

And now Vogue Williams, 31, revealed the secret to her relationship with Spencer Matthews, 27, is speaking to each other 20 times a day.

The Irish presenter discussed her reality star boyfriend's upcoming appearance on Channel 4's Hunted with pal Jamie Laing - which sees them attempt to completely go off-grid, trying to evade capture from a team of expert surveillance hunters.

Scroll down for video

Secret to success: Vogue Williams, 31, revealed the secret to her relationship with Spencer Matthews, 27, is speaking to each other 20 times a day

Speaking to Goss.ie, the Howth native - who acted as his next of kin during filming - recalled her love's time shooting the series, explaining that her phone and house were hacked by the show's hunters, even showing up to her flat unannounced.

She began: 'To be honest, it was a bit of an inconvenience for me. The hunters were actually hacking me, hacking my phone, they left a bug in my house.

'They turned up uninvited at 10 o'clock at night to try and see if I had seen Spencer. I had no make-up on and was wearing ice cream pyjamas so I'm going to look pretty violent on that show.'

And while Vogue admitted that Spencer 'absolutely loved' his experience - which saw him hitchhiking, staying in fields and even asking people for food - she confessed that not being able to talk to him was difficult as they communicate so much.

Candid: Vogue revealed the truth behind her love of form-fitting dresses wasn't quite so glamorous as she shared a snap of herself in her Spanx on Instagram on Wednesday

Love: And while Vogue admitted that Spencer 'absolutely loved' his experience - which saw him hitchhiking, staying in fields and even asking people for food - she confessed that not being able to talk to him was difficult as they communicate so much

'Yeah, you know what, we weren't able to talk,' she said. 'We went eight days without talking or seeing each other and that was really, really difficult because we speak to each other about 20 times a day so that was definitely the toughest part of it.'

Her confession comes after Vogue - who launched the Just Eat Retreat at Electric Picnic - revealed the truth behind her love of form-fitting dresses wasn't quite so glamorous as she shared a snap of herself in her Spanx on Instagram on Wednesday.

Despite her lithe frame being lust after by many, the model-turned-DJ admitted to having a little help in the waist department.

Spanx a lot! Despite her lithe frame being lust after by many, the model-turned-DJ admitted to having a little help in the waist department

Candid: Her confession come as she flaunted her pins at the launch of Just Eat Retreat - who are bringing the flavours of Thailand to the festival with a Full Moon Party - at Electric Picnic at Urban Plant Life in Dublin

Kicking things off: The beauty - who is currently filming her next documentary series - posed in a white folk dress as she helped kick-off excitement ahead of Ireland's biggest music festival that takes place in Stradbally in Loais

Posing in nothing but a strapless black bra and her shaping briefs, the model wrote: 'The reality of wearing really tight dresses.'

But while the shot was seemingly intended to be a candid insight into Vogue's dressing secrets, the image still left the beauty inundated with compliments from fans .

The statuesque stunner elongated her 5' 8" figure with barely-there black stilettos and upped the allure by tying her blonde tresses into an elegant tousled ponytail.

Keeping it real: The frank shot comes shortly after Vogue opened up about her fertility fears to Sunday World

The frank shot comes shortly after Vogue opened up about her fertility fears to Sunday World.

Revealing that she is waiting on the results of a recent fertility test, she confessed: 'I have been hearing the tick-tock of my biological clock and I decided it was time to do something about it.

'Recently I have heard so many stories from couples unable to conceive, friends not being able to have children at all and other people turning to IVF for help.'

If you've got it... Vogue frequently hits the town in a skintight ensemble

She added: 'Having children wont be something I will miss out on. Its too important to me. Its just that I dont feel Im ready yet. I feel like I have so much more to achieve professionally, but when will it be too late?'

Vogue is currently in a relationship with former Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, with a source recently telling MailOnline that the pair are considering moving in together in the near future.

'Vogue and Spencer aren't currently living together, but it is something they are seriously considering for the future,' they claimed.
She's one of 22 beautiful contenders competing for Bachelor Matty 'J' Johnson's heart The Bachelor.

But Tara was left embarrassed after her 'no-filter' first encounter with the marketing manager on Wednesday's season premiere.

She expressed regret afterwards, saying: 'Sleepless nights thinking about what I'm gonna say to this poor bloke and I've just gone..."Bleh!"'

'I just went "Bleh!"' Nanny Tara Pavlovic cringed about her awkward encounter with Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson on The Bachelor's season premiere on Wednesday night

The 27-year-old nanny let her nerves get the better of her as she walked up the mansion driveway towards Matty.

The exchange which followed included Tara showing him her tattoos and potentially 'friend-zoning' him by calling him 'mate'.

In the first few moments, Tara blurted out that the meeting was 'such a nice surprise' despite going through a months-long casting process.

The comment took Matty by surprise and he asked: 'What do you mean?'

Tara then appeared to say just about everything that came into her mind without taking a breath, including: 'Give me a hug. You're so nice!'

What did I say THAT for? Tara was left embarrassed after her 'no-filter' first encounter

'Give me a hug. You're so nice': Tara appeared to say everything that came into her head

Nervous: Tara blurted out that the meeting was 'such a nice surprise' despite having just gone through a months-long casting process

'This is so exciting! This is just like a really hectic situation. It doesn't even feel real. Is this house even real?' she said, thrilled.

Tara could not hide her excitement about the grand The Bachelor mansion, which led Matty to ask if she was more interested in the property than him.

Clearly panicked, Tara reassured him: 'I like you. I like you. I like you. I really like you!'

Whoops! Tara was so impressed with The Bachelor mansion, Matty asked if she was more interested in the property than finding love

Revealing: The blonde nanny, 27, hen showed her two tattoos to Matty

Tattooed lady: Tara has the word 'Love' inked on her finger and a happy face behind her ear

The blonde then showed her two tattoos to Matty - the word 'love' on her finger and a happy face behind her ear.

Exchanging a hug, the pair then said goodbye - and Tara bizarrely called him 'mate'.

She quickly backpedalled: 'I wasn't meant to say "mate". I can't believe I said that! So embarrassing. See ya, mate!'

But the Sydneysider l took it in good spirits and responded: 'See ya, buddy!'

Friend zone? The pair then said goodbye with a hug - and Tara accidentally called Matty 'mate'

Matty later said: 'Tara seems like she is a lot of fun. She just didn't really have any filter. I feel like at the moment Tara thought of something it just came straight out.'

Early indicators suggest Tara could be a good match for Matty.

Her introduction video revealed she wants to have children of her own, a quality the Bachelor has said he is looking for in a partner.
Melanie King, a development professional from Atlanta, has joined the Tennessee Aquariums team as senior development officer. Ms. King was in charge of individual leadership giving at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association for the past 10 years. She also was responsible for sponsorships and maintaining corporate relations for fundraising events. Previously Ms. King worked with both National Wildlife Federation and the Georgia Conservancy.



In her new role, Ms. King will be focused on advancing the mission of the Tennessee Aquarium through individual donor relationships. Special emphasis will be placed on major gifts and planned giving for the Aquariums Fund for Excellence.

"This support helps ensure Chattanoogas success too," officials said. "Each year the annual economic impact of the Aquarium on Chattanooga and Hamilton County is $115 million and supports nearly 1,300 jobs in the area. The Fund for Excellence is used to pay for new exhibits, expand conservation research and restoration programs throughout the Southeast, and deliver science education programs that connect people with nature, empowering them to make informed decisions about water and wildlife."



I believe Melanie has the perfect combination of experience and passion for our mission, said Keith Sanford, the Aquariums president and CEO. Im excited for everyone in the community to get to know her as she builds community awareness and support for the Aquariums next 25 years.


Her hit show Pretty Little Liars came to an end last month.

But Lucy Hale seemed keen to keep her alter ego Aria Montgomery's style alive as she stepped out on a coffee run in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The actress, 28, looked every bit as chic as her Rosewood counterpart as she showed off her slim pins in white denim dungarees.

Scroll down for video

Pretty little outfit! Lucy Hale seemed keen to keep her Pretty Little Liars alter ego Aria Montgomery's style alive as she stepped out on a coffee run in Los Angeles on Tuesday

The TV star was enjoying an iced beverage on her outing as she tried to beat the heat of the warm summer day.

Lucy completed her laid-back ensemble with a dark three-quarter sleeve top and matching slip-on shoes.

A chalk Radley London leather satchel, stylish reflective shades and plenty of silver jewellery formed the perfect accessories.

The star opted for a natural look, wearing her raven locks down and adding a touch of colour with a rosy lip colour.

Leggy lady: The actress, 28, looked every bit as chic as her Rosewood counterpart as she showed off her slim pins in white denim dungarees

Caffeine fix: The TV star was enjoying an iced beverage on her outing as she tried to beat the heat of the warm summer day

Lucy has never been afraid to profess her love for a caffeine fix, even confessing 'I drink too much coffee' in her Twitter bio.

Since wrapping work on Pretty Little Liars after seven thrilling seasons, the Tennessee-born actress has been busy filling her slate with new projects.

Among those include sci-fi film Miles, horror flick Truth or Dare and teen comedy Dude, about a group of friends who have to come to terms with life after high school.

Additionally, she is set to return to TV screens in Life Sentence, where she plays the lead character Stella.

Style queen: Lucy completed her laid-back ensemble with a dark three-quarter sleeve top and matching slip-on shoes

Chic: A cream-coloured shoulder bag, stylish reflective shades and plenty of silver jewellery formed the perfect accessories

The series follows the young woman as she is forced to readdress her life choices after discovering she is not dying from terminal cancer.

Lucy previously appeared in 160 episodes of Pretty Little Liars, with talk that she could join the cast of Netflix's Riverdale for its second season.

The rumours kicked off after cast member Madelaine Petsch posted a photo from the set showing Camila Mendes, Lili Reinhart, Ashleigh Murray and her in their cheerleader outfits.

Lucy commented that she wanted to 'super impose myself into this,' with Madelaine then replying 'we shall recreate when ur here'.

Pretty as a picture: The star opted for a natural look, wearing her raven locks down and adding a touch of colour with a rosy lip colour
John Barrowman has been rushed to hospital after suffering appendicitis.

The Doctor Who star underwent emergency surgery at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday after collapsing in 'agony'.

The 50-year-old actor had fallen ill at his home earlier this week and was later told by doctors that he would need to have his appendix removed immediately.

Scroll down for video

In recovery: John Barrowman was forced to undergo emergency surgery after the Doctor Who star collapsed at his home with appendicitis

Keeping fans up-to-date on his condition, John later shared a video of himself on Instagram, which detailed his 6am wake up call ahead of surgery.

'I am out of surgery. Feel like I have been hit by a bus. Jb,' he captioned the clip.

In the short video, the TV presenter divulged: 'I feel a bit like I've been hit by a car and I'm just sore all over.

'My throat is sore because of the tube. I'm just sore all over.'

In agony: The 50-year-old actor had fallen ill at his home earlier this week and was later told by doctors that he would need to have his appendix removed immediately

The Torchwood star also shared a picture of himself reclined on his hospital bed, his feet donning a pair of TARDIS socks.

'Got my fan made #TARDIS socks on keeping my feet warm in the hospital,' he captioned the snap.

Of course, fans of the star will know that the novelty socks do not mark the first bit of TARDIS clothing the actor has sported recently.

Update: John shared a video of himself on Instagram, which detailed his 6am wake up call ahead of surgery

Entertaining the audiences at the San Diego Comic Con last week, John performed a rendition of Copacabana in a sparkly TARDIS dress.

Reading the lyrics of the Barry Manilow hit from his phone, the actor danced around the stage without a care in the world.

The performance even saw John show off his improvisation skills after the actor awkwardly forgot the words.

Proving the show must go on, he belted: 'His name was Rico, he wore a diamond. I have lost my place in the words, just roll with me on this here.'

Last year, the actor dressed up as Futurama's Zapp Brannigan at the event, though he put his own spin on the look by pairing it with a tutu and high heels.
Advertisement

She's ditched alcohol in a bid to maintain her impressive three-stone weight loss.

Nevertheless, Kerry Katona seemed to be having the time of her life this week - and her body is certainly displaying benefits.

Seen displaying a newly-honed set of rippling abs, the mum-of-five looked better than ever in Marbella, Spain this week as she frolicked in the pool with her children, in a teeny bikini.

Scroll down for video

In shape: Kerry Katona showed off the results of her new weight loss regime on Tuesday, as she frolicked by the pool in Marbella, Spain

Her stomach was completely flat and displaying the early signs of a six-pack, thanks to her dedicated 2017 health kick.

She certainly had plenty of energy and was pictured giving her children piggyback rides through the water and jumping into the pool with reckless abandon.

In high spirits, Kerry even found it hilarious when her bikini top almost slipped off, revealing her ample bosom.

She threw her head back in laughter and she grappled with the halterneck to make sure she didn't overexpose herself.

Oops moment: So caught up in the fun, she almost popped out of her bikini top but luckily saw the funny side

Hilarious: Kerry found the whole scenario extremely humorous and laughed off the gaffe

Near nipple slip: Kerry tugged at her bikini top, trying to contain her sizable assets

The television personality was letting her troubles simply wash over her, after a turbulent few months within the family.

Just last week, she was threatened with a 240 fine for pulling her children out of school during term-time to take a holiday.

The 36-year-old is now on holiday with 10-year-old daughter Heidi and Dylan-Jorge, 2, but also seems to be surrounded by friends.

Time of their lives: Kerry carried cute Heidi on her shoulders while her daughter Dylan-Jorge sat at the edge of the water

Body beautiful: After dropping three-stone in weight, Kerry was looking simply fantastic

Kerry is currently spending time at the home of Kent businessman Mon Basra who was jailed in April 2013 for the harrassment of two women.

Mon, whose partner is also on the trip, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after admitting blackmail, breaching a non-molestation order and two harassment offences.

He was branded a 'dangerous individual' by the investigating officer in the case.

The mum-of-five is currently bouncing back from her latest split from third husband George Kay, which he blamed on playing 'nanny' to her kids.

Kerry's spokesperson told MailOnline: 'They have split. Going forward her focus is going to be on her children.'

Mum's instincts: After taking her children out of school for a term-time holiday, Kerry seemed to be lapping up the quality time

Holidaying with friends: Kerry is currently holidaying at the home of Kent businessman Mon Basra

On the accusation that Kerry had been leaving her children with George more than he wanted, a source added to MailOnline: 'She had to go out to earn because she's the breadwinner. She ended the relationship, not him.'

Kerry previously split with George in October 2015 after thirteen months together and a month later appeared in court accusing him of beating her up at their home, after allegedly arming himself with a Taser-style device and a knife.

However he was later acquitted after prosecutors revealed that they didn't have enough evidence to secure a conviction.

'Dangerous?': Mon was reportedly sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for blackmail in the past

Playful: Kerry was in a playful mood and was pictured being pushed into the pool by Mon

Things seemed to have been going swimmingly for the pair in 2017 when she revealed that they were trying for baby number six in April.

Kerry is also mum to Molly, 15, and Lilly-Sue, 14, from her previous marriage to Brian McFadden and she has Heidi, 10, and Maxwell, nine, with second husband Mark Croft.

Dylan-Jorge is the only child that Kerry and George currently share, but they tried to expand the family earlier this year.

Hilarious: Kerry seemed to laugh as she plunged feet first into the water, next to her daughter

Making a splash: Kerry has been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime

'Yes, we are [trying], Kerry told Now magazine. We havent been careful, put it that way! Ill be more than happy to find Im pregnant.

With the help of George, Kerry successfully overhauled her body image in the last 12 months, shedding three stone in total.

Her transformation was facilitated by a tummy tuck and liposuction treatment in October 2016, after which she ditched alcohol for good.

'When I have a drink, it tastes horrible,' she told OK magazine. 'I think I'm being such a health freak at the moment, it feels like I'm poisoning my body when I have a drink!'

Quality time: Kerry was splashing about with her children, after saying that they were her main focus now

Quality time: Kerry is single again after splitting with third husband George Kay
They got married in December but delayed their honeymoon due to health complications.

And Janice Dickinson and Robert 'Rocky' Gerner, certainly looked to be making the most of their long-awaited honeymoon as they were pictured on their boat on the French Riviera.

The former model, 62, and the doctor, 70, appeared in the throes of love as they continued their three-week-long honeymoon hopping from Cannes, Frejus, St Tropez and Monaco on their luxury 53ft yacht.

Scroll down for video

Making a splash! Janice Dickinson and Robert 'Rocky' Gerner, certainly looked to be making the most of their long-awaited honeymoon on Wednesday

Making the most of her expertise in throwing poses, Janice got into full modelling mode as she pranced around on the boat.

Squeezing her enhanced assets into a small olive bikini, she teamed it with a pair of high-cut bottoms making the most of her long lean legs.

And toasting her husband against the picturesque backdrop of the Mediterranean, the duo put on a loved up display.

Loved up: The former model, 62, and the doctor, 70, appeared in the throes of love as they continued their three-week-long honeymoon hopping from Cannes, Frejus, St Tropez and Monaco on their luxury 53ft yacht

Making waves: Making the most of her expertise in throwing poses, Janice got into full modelling mode as she pranced around on the boat

Three times married Janice recently opened up to DailyMail.com about their trip, admitting that she's 'never felt better', adding that her and Rocky have had the 'best time'.

The couple sailed to St Tropez for three days before having a week off the boat at Aix-en-Provence to end their three week honeymoon.

Janice said: 'It's been the trip of a lifetime, we've had the most amazing time and seen some beautiful places, but most importantly I've got to spend some quality time with my husband. We've been blown away by the beauty of this whole region.'

The former America's Next Top Model judge and Rocky jetted off to Europe last week.

Cutting shapes! Squeezing her enhanced assets into a small olive bikini, she teamed it with a pair of high-cut bottoms making the most of her long lean legs

Besotted: Toasting her husband against the picturesque backdrop of the Mediterranean, the duo put on a loved up display

Glowing: Three times married Janice recently opened up to DailyMail.com about their trip, admitting that she's 'never felt better', adding that her and Rocky have had the 'best time'

They arrived in Barcelona, Spain where they soaked up the sights before driving up to the south of France to hop on their yacht.

They are currently sailing to Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez before heading to Monaco on a trip of a lifetime.

Janice, who married Rocky in December last year, said their honeymoon was delayed while she recovered from breast cancer and her husband recovered from a collapsed lung after a fall from the roof of their home.

In an exclusive interview along the way Janice told DailyMail.com that the vacation has been 'wonderful'.

'We're having the time of our lives, it's been wonderful, we arrived in Barcelona on Monday and have been taking in the sights, it's a beautiful city.

Life of luxury: They arrived in Barcelona, Spain where they soaked up the sights before driving up to the south of France to hop on their yacht

'We're having the time of our lives, it's been wonderful, we arrived in Barcelona on Monday and have been taking in the sights, it's a beautiful city' she admitted

'We're driving down to the south of France where we're taking a yacht and stopping at Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez and on to Monaco.' the model added

'We're driving down to the south of France where we're taking a yacht and stopping at Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez and on to Monaco.'

Janice said she's enjoying some 'quality, alone time' with new husband Rocky.

She said: 'Last year was tough for us, I beat breast cancer and Rocky suffered a collapsed lung after falling off the roof so we only just managed to make it down the aisle, but we did and we had the most amazing wedding day.

The good life: They are currently sailing to Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez before heading to Monaco on a trip of a lifetime

'Last year was tough for us, I beat breast cancer and Rocky suffered a collapsed lung after falling off the roof so we only just managed to make it down the aisle, but we did and we had the most amazing wedding day.'

'I was so delighted, ecstatic, over the moon, to marry Rocky.

'He's the brightest, funniest and most exciting man I've ever met in my life.'

Psychiatrist Rocky proposed to Janice in 2012 after meeting the former supermodel and reality star on a blind date his son had set up earlier that year, but they put their plans on hold when she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in March, 2016.

Thankfully, after undergoing two lumpectomies and completing a course of radiation therapy, Janice was declared cancer-free late last year.

Despite this they continued on planning a wedding and finally married in an intimate ceremony at the Beverly Hills home of Janice's friend, Suzan Hughes on December 10.

Psychiatrist Rocky proposed to Janice in 2012 after meeting the former supermodel and reality star on a blind date his son had set up earlier that year

'I was so delighted, ecstatic, over the moon, to marry Rocky,' Janice admitted
They rubbed the mum-in-laws up the wrong way about a possible move to Surrey.

So Gaynor and Suzanne might have something to say after it was revealed that Sam Faiers and Paul Knightley have purchased the perfect family home in Hertfordshire.

MailOnline has learned that the happy couple, who are expecting their second child, have moved just north of London into a 2.9million dream house.

Scroll down for video

Moving on: Sam Faiers and her family are moving to Hertfordshire after purchasing a 2.9million home

A source explained: 'Samantha and Paul have been looking for the perfect property for some time and theyve now found a property they believe is perfect to bring up their family.'

The source went on to say: 'The property is located in a privately gated road and boasts its own swimming pool along with several acres of land.'

It was previously reported that Sam and Paul were renting the home of One Direction star Niall Horan on a temporary basis while they house hunted.

New family home: Sam and partner Paul Knightly (left) have spent the summer looking for the perfect spot

Expanding the family: Sam has baby son Paul with partner Paul but they're now expecting their second child and need somewhere bigger to live

The move from native Essex was reportedly prompted by her desire to ditch the TOWIE [The Only Way Is Essex] association.

In the last series of The Mummy Diaries, a series which follows Sam and her family through early family life, fans saw Sam and Paul exploring the idea of life in Los Angeles.

But properties in Venice Beach were not quite up to Samantha's standards, like they were in Beverly Hills.

One on the way: The couple announced their happy baby news three weeks ago and Sam is almost five months gone

Room to grow: The house is said to have land and a pool of its own, which will prove popular with baby Paul

The former TOWIE star viewed a stunning detached property, which was on the market for $2.3 million, but decided that the 'quirky' area was not right.

The fitness entrepreneur even enquired about the California version of Brentwood, stating that she is from the UK version - but was again disappointed that her and Paul would not get 'more bang for their buck' in the equally prestigious location.

'For that price tag, you'd expect a gate, a swimming pool, two or three floors... this had none of that,' she said, disappointed.

Searching abroad: Previously, the couple had been looking at homes in Los Angeles

Not ideal: Their hunt for a California home featured on reality TV show The Mummy Diaries, which had just been renewed for three more series

The Mummy Diaries has recently been acquired for three more series, which will see the show continue to air until at least 2019.

Forthcoming shows have already been boosted by the news that Sam is almost five months pregnant with her second child.

Announcing the news three weeks ago, she wrote on Twitter: Words can't describe how excited we are to meet you baby. We love you so much already'
Lisa Vanderpump says she's 'disappointed' that a dog rescuer she tried to help is now accusing her and husband Ken Todd of stiffing her out of a $32,000 deal.

The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star tells DailyMail.com that she and Ken had given Lizzie Scherer money last year to help cover rent and bills after her Saving Spot rescue in LA had got into financial difficulties.

'We gave her $40,000 out of the goodness of our hearts. We were going to merge with her,' Lisa explained.

Speaking out: Lisa Vanderpump tells DailyMail.com she and husband Ken Todd, pictured Wednesday in Beverly hIlls, gave Saving Spot rescue in LA $40,000 after claims the celebrity couple reneged on deal with the shelter

She confirmed that there was a memo of understanding between them but after doing due diligence, it became clear that they were not going to be able to do business together.

'When we found out she didnt have her 501 (c) 93) any more and hadnt filed tax returns, we didnt pursue,' Lisa, a high profile animal welfare activist, told DailyMail.com Wednesday.

Were disappointed shes making these false allegations. Weve put it in our lawyers hands.

Failed business deal: Dog rescuer Lizzie Scherer has claimed Lisa and Ken, right, stiffed her for $32,000 after walking away from an agreement to pay the rent and bills for her shelter

Not above board: In May 2016, Lisa says she helped out the rescue as she considered establishing a shelter but walked away from the deal after discovering Saving Spot had lost its 501 (c) (3) status and had not filed tax returns

Doing her own thing: The British reality star went on to establish, with husband Ken, The Vanderpump Dog Foundation which has, to date, adopted out 135 dogs

After the idea of merging with Saving Spot fell apart, Lisa and Ken established their own charitable rescue organization, The Vanderpump Dog Foundation. The nonprofit has to date adopted out 135 dogs.

Executive director of the foundation, John Sessa, told DailyMail.com that the allegations being made by Scherer are upsetting.

'Its been a very unpleasant experience for Ken and Lisa who were just trying to help her,' he said.

PageSix.com first reported Scherer's claims that the celebrity couple 'actively came after my rescue, and ruined me.'

'Unpleasant experience': Lisa and Ken have placed the matter of Scherer's 'false allegations' in their lawyer's hands and say Scherer has breached a confidentiality agreement she signed

Support system: The British couple, who've been married since 1982, showed their affection for each other in the midst of adversity

Scherer alleged to the New York Post's gossip site: '[Ken] was looking for a space to lease. We signed a [memo] saying that he would pay my rent for the next three years...and offer me an employment contract as part of that deal. He then didn't pay rent and said he'd pay one month's rent as long as I signed [a nondisclosure agreement] and let them out [of deal],' Scherer alleged.

An investigation by local LA TV news channel CBS2 in April revealed that Saving Spots tax-exempt status from the IRS was revoked in 2015 for failing to file tax returns. The state attorney generals office also suspended its nonprofit status for failing to file paperwork making it illegal for it to transact business in California.

Saving Spot charity head Ira DeWitt told PageSix.com that mistakes had been made and that the organization's nonprofit status has now been reinstated.

However, the rescue is still expected to close due to lack of finances, the report said.

Celebrity support: Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi hosted a fundraiser for Saving Spot in 2013; the following year Scherer was forced to apologize to the couple after falsely claiming they'd failed to show up to the 2014 fundraiser due to 'a big fight'

Back in 2013, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi headlined an annual fundraiser for Saving Spot and were among its celebrity supporters that also included Octavia Spencer, Aaron Sorkin and Allison Janney, as THR.com reported at the time.

However, Scherer was forced to issue an apology to the couple the following year after claiming they had failed to show up to the 2014 fundraiser, leaving attendees disappointed, because 'they'd had a big fight.'

As E! News reported, Scherer issued a statement saying she regretted making false statements, adding: 'Ellen and Portia have been very supportive of Saving Spot in the past. They never agreed to attend this year's benefit, and they were not absent due to an argument on their way to the event. The entire scenario was fabricated. There was no such fight, and Ellen and Portia never planned to attend the benefit.'

Meanwhile, The Vanderpump Dog Foundation offers adoptions, groomers, a cafe with doggy biscuits, and their own line of pooch products at their store-front shelter in West Hollywood.
She was married to actor Doug Hutchison, 57, for six years before they split earlier this year.

And Courtney Stodden, 22, looked to be getting straight back into the swing of the dating game as she was pictured on a date in London on Wednesday.

Filming further scenes for E4 matchmaking show Celebs Go Dating, Courtney- who married her estranged husband 34 years her senior aged just 16, was seen on a date with an older mystery man.

Scroll down for video

Single ready to mingle: Courtney Stodden, 22, looked to be getting straight back into the swing of the dating game as she was pictured on a date in London on Wednesday

Dressed in a low-slung pair of glitzy tracksuit bottoms glammed up with a pair of platform killer heels, she put on a daring display despite the dreary weather.

Making the most of her washboard stomach and enhanced assets, she teamed it with a low slung white cropped vest, completing the ensemble with a coordinating blazer.

And wearing her peroxide hair in its trademark blow-dry, she certainly cut a glamorous figure on the dreary streets of London.

Looking for love: Filming further scenes for E4 matchmaking show Celebs Go Dating, Courtney- who married her estranged husband 34 years her senior aged just 16, was seen on a date with an older mystery man

Abs-tastic: Dressed in a low-slung pair of glitzy tracksuit bottoms glammed up with a pair of platform killer heels, she put on a daring display despite the dreary weather

She was joined by her date, who cut a professional figure in a suit and blazer.

And perhaps not content with her date, she was soon spotted slipping into an outfit change and going on another date.

Dressed in a peach coloured plunging bralet and matching skirt slashed high on her thigh, Courtney appeared more enamoured with her new suitor.

Her dapper date looked thrilled to be holding hands with the American model, as they made their way into the restaurant.

Glam! Perhaps not content with her date, she was soon spotted slipping into an outfit change and going on another date

Lucky number two? Dressed in a peach coloured plunging bralet and matching skirt slashed high on her thigh, Courtney appeared more enamoured with her new suitor

In April she admitted to US Weekly: 'A split is really hard. Doug and I are on really good terms but it's just hard, you know, because we're trying to hang on to our friendship because we are best friends and we don't want to part in a disastrous Hollywood way'.

And the blonde admitted that marrying the-then 50-year-old actor when she was only 16 didn't make things any easier for the pair.

'I want us to remain in each other's lives as friends and business partners and I just don't want to lose him altogether,' she admitted.

Former flames: She was married to actor Doug Hutchison, 57, aged jut 16, for six years before they split earlier this year (pictured together in 2015)

'We're talking a lot about business throughout the day. It's sensitive to talk about our own issues right now, so I think we're kind of just talking mostly about business and then when we do talk about what we're going through, it's just really hard on both of us.'

And she admitted that her age- he was 50 while she was just 16, also played a part in making the split tougher.

'I got married when I was 16 and he was kind of more than just a husband to me, he was a lot. He was there for me when most of my family wasn't and was just a rock in my life.'

Toned: A very slimmed down Arg was also spotted arriving hand-in-hand with his blonde date

Slender: The TOWIE star, who spent the beginning of the year in a Thai rehabilitation clinic to work on his fitness, looked utterly transformed as he chatted happily with his lady

Despite the unfortunate relationship outcome, Courtney is optimistic about remaining amicable.

'I want us to remain in each other's lives as friends and business partners and I just don't want to lose him altogether,' she admitted.

'We're talking a lot about business throughout the day. It's sensitive to talk about our own issues right now, so I think we're kind of just talking mostly about business and then when we do talk about what we're going through, it's just really hard on both of us.'

Suave: He was closely followed by Lothario Callum Best, who cut a suave figure in a three-piece velvet paisley suit

Sizzling: Arriving arm-in-arm with a pretty brunette, dressed in a pale pink dress cut daringly to the thigh, the former Big Brother star appeared well matched

She also seems ready to tackle life solo for awhile, saying 'Ive changed into a completely different person, I need that time now, more than ever, to find myself.'

This year's series also features Charlotte Dawson, James 'Arg' Argent, Calum Best, Sarah-Jane Crawford, Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo and Frankie Cocozza, and they were spotted arriving at the venue.

And a very slimmed down Arg was also spotted arriving hand-in-hand with his blonde date.

The TOWIE star, who spent the beginning of the year in a Thai rehabilitation clinic to work on his fitness, looked utterly transformed as he chatted happily with his lady.

Turning heads: Joining the influx of reality stars was Made In Chelsea's Toff, who cut a glamorous figure in a pale Bardot dress and towering heels

Mancandy: Accessorising with an enviable designer box clutch, the accessory was not the only thing to play her armcandy

He was closely followed by Lothario Callum Best, who cut a suave figure in a three-piece velvet paisley suit.

Arriving arm-in-arm with a pretty brunette, dressed in a pale pink dress cut daringly to the thigh, the former Big Brother star appeared well matched.

And joining the influx of reality stars was Made In Chelsea's Toff, who cut a glamorous figure in a pale Bardot dress and towering heels.

Accessorising with an enviable designer box clutch, the accessory was not the only thing to play her armcandy.

Beaming, she arrived hand-in-hand with a handsome suitor, no doubt of Chelsea stock.

Golden girl: Upping the glamour was former Xtra Factor presenter Sarah Jane Crawford, who pulled out all the stops in a plunging golden Kimono dress which skimmed her thighs

Hot match: Elongating her legs with a pair of golden sandals, the pretty presenter was flanked by a dapper suitor, dressed in checked trousers and hold-ups

And upping the glamour was former Xtra Factor presenter Sarah Jane Crawford, who pulled out all the stops in a plunging golden Kimono dress which skimmed her thighs.

Elongating her legs with a pair of golden sandals, the pretty presenter was flanked by a dapper suitor, dressed in checked trousers and hold-ups.

Arriving solo was former X Factor star Frankie Cocozza, who showed off his quirky style in a patterned blazer.

And he wasn't the only one arriving without a date, with former Ex On The Beach star Charlotte Dawson arriving in what appeared to be a wedding dress.

The daughter of comedian Les Dawson put on a lively display in a bridal dress slashed to the thigh as she posed for snaps.

And last but not least former TOWIE star Bobby Norris arrived hand-in-hand with an enamoured-looking suitor.

Season three of Celebs Go Dating returns to E4 this summer.

Rock chic: Arriving solo was former X Factor star Frankie Cocozza, who showed off his quirky style in a patterned blazer

Optimistic? He wasn't the only one arriving without a date, with former Ex On The Beach star Charlotte Dawson arriving in what appeared to be a wedding dress
Coronation Street star Kate Ford was left fuming after buying first class tickets for a train journey with South West Trains and being told there would be no buffet for the duration of her 2.5 hour trip.

Kate, 40, angrily tweeted the train company demanding answers to the fact there would be 'no water even' because of a 'staff shortage'.

She penned: 'Paid for first class tickets @SW_Trains for me and son...told No Buffett due to staff shortage. No water even. 2.5 hour journey'

Scroll down for video

Fuming: Coronation Street star Kate Ford was left fuming after buying first class tickets for a train journey with South West Trains and being told there would be no buffet for the duration of her 2.5 hour trip

Last week, the Coronation Street set was thrown into chaos following an emergency evacuation on Friday.

According to The Mirror, Soap stars were reportedly escorted from the premises when the evacuation took place at the show's Manchester studios in Media City at around 1.30pm.

It's claimed cast members were forced to regroup in the car park while the area was inspected.

Angry: She penned: 'Paid for first class tickets @SW_Trains for me and son...told No Buffett due to staff shortage. No water even. 2.5 hour journey'

It's believed nobody was informed on why they were being asked to vacate the famous set at the time of the incident, though light was later shed.

It was confirmed the film crew were evacuated after a smoke alarm was triggered.

A representative told MailOnline: 'This was simply a fire alarm we all went into the car park and returned to the offices a few minutes later.'

Shock: The Coronation Street set was put into lock down after an emergency evacuation at the studios in Media City, Trafford on Friday

Removed: It's claimed cast members were forced to regroup in the car park while the area was inspected

Meanwhile, a source added: 'A lot of people were on lunch break at the time so filming was not really affected.

'It was a false alarm.'

The soap stars have been filming at the Media City site since 2013.

Revealed: Soap stars were reportedly on location filming upcoming scenes for the ITV show at the Manchester-based studios

The new set - which is the fifth Coronation Street location - is based at Salford Quays close to the BBC's headquarters.

Coronation Street is the longest running British soap to grace our televisions since its debut in 1960.

The twisted grooming storyline of schoolgirl Bethany Platt (played by Lucy Fallon) has had the nation gripped in recent months.
After spending a staggering 20,000 on breast augmentations, it's no surprise she makes near every outing an opportunity to flash her generous assets.

And Chloe Khan proved her love of skimpy dressing even extends to airport runs as she flashed the flesh when arriving at Manchester Airport on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old star left little to the imagination as she squeezed her 32HH bust into a grey marl bralet and matching leggings ahead of a flight to Dubai.

Scroll down for video

Dare to bare: Chloe Khan proved her love of skimpy dressing even extends to airport runs as she flashed the flesh when arriving at Manchester Airport on Wednesday

The scanty garment, by online retailer Pretty Little Thing, also allowed the former Celebrity Big Brother star to put her toned abs on display.

But it seemed Chloe opted for a more a conservative top once she boarded her flight, as she shared a snap of herself in a form-fitting T-shirt emblazoned with the word 'Fleek'.

Sitting comfortably in first class and sipping on a flute of champagne, she captioned the shot: 'On tha flight and on tha fleek Thankyou please (sic).'

Flashing the flesh: The 26-year-old star left little to the imagination as she squeezed her bust into a grey marl bralet and matching leggings ahead of a flight to Dubai

Ab fab: The scanty garment, by online retailer Pretty Little Thing, also allowed the former Celebrity Big Brother star to put her toned abs on display

Bling bling: The TV personality also revealed her elaborate belly button piercing in the crop top

Quick change: Chloe appeared to don a more conservative T-shirt when she finally boarded the plane

Meanwhile, Chloe's leggings allowed the star to showcase the results of the Brazilian bum lift she underwent earlier this year.

Reinforcing her love of activewear, Chloe - who got her first taste of fame as a contestant on The X Factor in 2010 - paired her skintight ensemble with Ivy Park sliders, though injected a touch of glamour with a myriad of silver bangles.

Her choice of suitcase was equally loud, with the reality star wheeling a suitcase that looked to be the work of designer Louis Vuitton.

She's come a long way! Chloe got her first taste of fame as a contestant on The X Factor in 2010

Surgery fiend: Chloe's leggings allowed the star to showcase the results of the Brazilian bum lift she underwent earlier this year

Finishing touches: The reality star paired her skintight ensemble with Ivy Park sliders, though injected a touch of glamour with a myriad of silver bangles

Wheely nice! Chloe's choice of suitcase was equally loud, with the reality star wheeling a suitcase that looked to be the work of designer Louis Vuitton

Upping the glamour, the Playboy cover girl styled her long, raven tresses in a pin-straight style around her face.

Chloe, who hails from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, appeared to have made her Manchester sojourn to celebrate a friend's wedding over the weekend.

Sharing a snap from the nuptials on Instagram, she wrote: 'Congratulations to the beautiful bride yesterday @zaras_academy.

'You looked like a actual queen MA enjoy married life beautiful . See you really soon.'

Sleek: Upping the glamour, the Playboy cover girl styled her long, raven tresses in a pin-straight style around her face

Her favourite accessory: Chloe clutched at her mobile phone as she made her way into the terminal

Something on your mind? Chloe looked pensive as she sauntered into the airport
She bravely opened up about suffering from parental separation anxiety, meaning she's only ever spent more than six minutes away from her child.

So it was no surprise to see Tamara Ecclestone arriving for an evening at the theatre with her daughter Sophia glued to her side.

The 33-year-old heiress walked into London's Lyceum Theatre to see musical The Lion King on Wednesday while holding her adorable three-year-old to her hip.

Scroll down for video

Theatre time: Tamara Ecclestone, 33, and daughter Sophia, three, went to see musical The Lion King out in London Wednesday... just a day after the socialite revealed she is suffering from parental separation anxiety

Tamara wore a navy knee length dress coupled with a distressed denim jacket and sensible silver trainers.

Her mini-me, her only child with husband of five years Jay Rutland, wore a white jumper with blue stripes with matching blue shorts and shoes.

The star's long brown tresses looked glamorously blow-dried as they flowed free.

Mum and her cub: Tamara said: 'Ive had more anxiety since I became a mum, and its something I need to work on and deal with. I was never an anxious person before I had Sophia, but now I have serious anxiety about anything happening to my daughter'

Attached: Tamara revealed she suffers from Parental Anxiety Disorder on Tuesday

On Tuesday Tamara spoke openly about her attachment to her child in an interview with Happiful.

Talking about her mental health revelation, which refers to excessive fear or anxiety about separation from a child - began when she became a mother and is becoming a daily struggle while she worries that her daughter is in constant danger.

Tamara told the publication: 'Ive had more anxiety since I became a mum, and its something I need to work on and deal with. I was never an anxious person before I had Sophia, but now I have serious anxiety about anything happening to my daughter.

'Ive just got to get my head around the fact that Im not going to be there to pick her up every time she falls over, and thats the brutal reality.'

Discussing her daughter's first day at nursery in January, the socialite revealed that she was left crying in her car for three hours after she left her for fear something might have happened to her.

'I sat outside in the car for three hours, crying my eyes out and Jay was telling me that I was a lunatic.

'I was watching my phone, thinking: The nursery staff are going to need me to come back."

Proud parent: Tamara and Sophia posed for this cute family snap for Happiful magazine

'But they didnt. I feel like Im always worried. Is she going to fall over? Have I forgotten something? Is her smock clean for school? Everyone has a certain level of anxiety. Nobodys life is perfect.

Continuing: 'Ive just got to get my head around the fact that Im not going to be there to pick her up every time she falls over, and thats the brutal reality.'

While she added that the thought of Sophia experiencing any pain or 'bullying' is 'heartbreaking.'

Never apart: Tamara, on the cover of Happiful with daughter Sophia, also suffers from anxiety, claustrophobia and ornithophobia

Discussing the impact her anxiety, claustrophobia and ornithophobia - an irrational fear of birds - has on her marriage to her Essex-born property developer, she admitted that they haven't spent a single night in bed alone in the past two-and-a-half years.

Her candid admission comes after Tamara hit back at critics who said she should no longer be breastfeeding Sophia.

With the likes of model Jodie Kidd recently weighing in on the debate, Tamara said she believes only a mother knows what is best for her children.

Speaking on This Morning in June, she revealed: 'Everything comes with its critics. As a mum we want to do whats best for your kids.

'People are focused about breastfeeding  yet no one worries when people are going to take dummies or comforters away from kids. My intention was not to breastfeed till past three but I know one day shell be done.'

The star also revealed that she lets Sophia decide when she is 'ready' for big life changes, vowing to apply the same rule to breastfeeding.

She said: 'I potty trained until when I thought she was ready. She only went to nursery when she showed signs she was ready. That day I sat in the car for three hours with Jay. I was part happy and proud and part sad.

'I feel like shes never craved for attention so she knows Im always going be there.'
After a successful first session last fall, the Dalton Police Department will host a second class of the Citizens Police Academy in Spanish later this summer. Applications are now being accepted for the program which will be held on six nights in August and September.

The DPD has held a Citizens Police Academy for nearly two decades in English, and last fall held a condensed version of the course for Spanish speakers. The program gives participants a behind the scenes look at every aspect of the police departments operation. The pilot course was met with an enthusiastic response, so this summer the department will be hosting a six-week course. Classes will be led by Spanish-speaking officers and staff. The program is part of the police departments strategic plan to improve communication and cooperation with the community.

One of the fundamentals of successful policing and crime prevention is the ability of the police to receive cooperation and information during criminal investigations, said Chief Jason Parker before the programs first class. Without that trust and support, we are much less effective.

Reaching every segment of our community helps everyone as a whole, Chief Parker continued. The fact that we have a sizeable group of people who are non-English speakers creates a barrier of communication with police and all emergency services. Statistics and research show that people generally only report about 40 percent of crime they know about, and that number is even lower in minority communities where they may not be aware of the opportunity to work with the police department to solve and prevent crime. Criminals are aware of that presence and intentionally target these people as victims of robbery, assault, and fraud. Even more concerning to the police department is that the potential exists for organized crime, such as human trafficking, to get a foot-hold. As a community, we should all be concerned about that.

The class will meet at the Rock Bridge building at 114 South Hamilton Street on Aug. 22, 29, Sept. 5, 12, 19, and 26 from 6-9 p.m. People interested in participating can apply online at daltonpd.com/cpa_espanol.
They walked away with the coveted 50,000 prize money on Monday night's live ITV2 finale after being crowned the winners of Love Island 2017.

And Amber Davies, 20, and Kem Cetinay, 21, appeared to be enjoying the perks of home after their seven-week stint in Mallorca, Spain as they visited his work place, Boy About Town Male Grooming in Hornchurch, Essex on Wednesday.

The loved-up reality stars - who have been busy on the media trail since touching down in the UK - were welcomed to his salon with a number of star-shaped balloons with the word 'congrats' emblazoned across them.

Scroll down for video

Mane attraction: Amber Davies, 20, and Kem Cetinay, 21, appeared to be enjoying the perks of home after their seven-week stint in Mallorca, Spain as they visited his work place, Boy About Town Male Grooming in Hornchurch, Essex on Wednesday

Looking in jovial spirits, the dynamic duo couldn't contain their loving mood as Kem playfully rubbed his hands through her brunette tresses.

Attempting to contain her laughter, Amber sported a casual grey marl tee which she paired with a thigh-skimming denim skirt that showcased her toned pins to perfection.

Her daring jean mini-skirt featured an eye-catching cutout detail across her slender thighs as the frayed hemline drew attention even further to her petite frame.

Complementing his other half, the happy-go-lucky star donned a simple grey tee while he wrapped a beige denim jacket around his muscular frame.

Combing attraction: Looking in jovial spirits, the dynamic duo couldn't contain their loving mood as Kem playfully rubbed his hands through her brunette tresses

Million-hairs: Looking in jovial spirits, the dynamic duo couldn't contain their loving mood as Kem playfully rubbed his hands through her brunette tresses

Pincredible: Attempting to contain her laughter, Amber sported a casual grey marl tee which she paired with a thigh-skimming denim skirt that showcased her toned pins to perfection

Clearing the hairways: Complementing his other half, the happy-go-lucky star wrapped a beige denim jacket around his muscular frame

Keeping to a denim theme, he slipped on a pair of grey denim skinny jeans while he kept his focus firmly on his stunning other half as he styled her mane.

Unable to contain her laughter, Amber put her hand to her mouth as she attempted to stop giggling as her love worked his fingers through her glossy locks.

The pair appeared inseparable as they chatted away to his co-workers, family and friends after he styled her long tresses for a TV segment.

Tee-time! Keeping to a denim theme, he slipped on a pair of grey denim skinny jeans while he kept his focus firmly on his stunning other half as he styled her mane

Having a laugh: Unable to contain her laughter, Amber put her hand to her mouth as she attempted to stop giggling as her love worked his fingers through her glossy locks

Hair today, gone tomorrow! Kem completed his look with a pair of crisp white trainers with a studded toe-cap

She's not dreading it: The Essex hairdresser really got into the swing of things as he worked her locks through his hands

Mane-taining composure? Amber placed her hand to her mouth as she tried not to laugh at Kem's appearance

Emotional: Kem appeared to be overcome with emotion as he read out a congratulations card from his workplace

Admiration: Kem looked at his co-workers with complete admiration after reading the heartfelt card

Touched: The pair couldn't contain their happiness at the salon

Fun-filled: Kem concentrated as he placed his hands on her head

Look of love: Amber looked lovingly at her man as they visited the salon

Mkaing a statement: Amber showcased her gold leaf earrings for the occasion

Taking a break: Kem held his clippers in his hand in between working Amber's glossy tresses

Relaxing: Amber looked in heaven as Kem massaged her head

Their cosy appearance comes after their sombre display in Palma de Mallorca Airport in Spain.

Detailing scenes which were witnessed at the airport as the contestants prepared to head home to the UK on Tuesday, a source told MailOnline: 'Kem and Amber were the only ones who werent lovey dovey at the airport. The rest couldnt keep their hands off each other.

This comes after they beat Camilla and Jamie to the 50,000 prize money on Monday night's final of the ITV2 show.

Chilled: Amber was pictured relaxing in the salon's chair while her sunnies were placed in the midst of her bust

Work it! Kem rubbed his hands together with product before placing it on her hair

Smitten: The couple looked in pure bliss as they spent time in his salon

Adore: Amber looked adoringly towards her other half - who she met on the ITV2 show

Beaming: Amber couldn't help but smile as she spent time with her boyfriend

In sync: The couple matched as they donned a grey T-shirts for the homecoming

Walk this way: Amber teamed her casual ensemble with a pair of calf-high boots

Cheery! Kem looked in his element as he held onto his clippers

Take a peek: Amber peered over her shoulder while Kem chatted to his pals

The 21-year-old hairdresser and the Welsh dancer, 20, were tipped as winners with odds coming in high ahead of the show - despite Amber previously being voted least popular housemate.

Marcel Somerville and Gabby Allen were the first couple to be evicted followed shortly by Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood in third place.

After first hitting screens on 5 June, this year's show has been a widespread hit with record viewing figures far surpassing the previous two seasons, which were won by Jess Hayes and Max Morely and Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey respectively, and leading to the programme being recommissioned for 2018.

Kem and Amber spoke to the show's host Caroline Flack, before the big reveal with Amber saying of their union: 'When you get to know someone it's so different. Type is nothing now. Paper means nothing.'

Style savvy: Kem looked happy and healthy back in his hometown

Thrilled: Their cosy appearance comes after their sombre display in Palma de Mallorca Airport in Spain

Lovey dovey: Detailing scenes which were witnessed at the airport as the contestants prepared to head home to the UK on Tuesday, a source told MailOnline: 'Kem and Amber were the only ones who werent lovey dovey at the airport. The rest couldnt keep their hands off each other

The Essex boy went on: 'We were rocky at that point and we weren't really together. I was pushing everything away', before Amber said: 'I was so happy to see him.'

Despite the show being met with widespread shock and being deemed tawdry and crass, Kem proved it was a gallant note to end on as he said of his new girlfriend: 'I've found my future wife.'

Kem and Amber's time in the house was admittedly tumultuous, as they split up on various occasions due to Kem's trust issues which he told Caroline was causing the couple to 'push each other away'.

While their rows were prolific, they also became well known for their raunchy behaviour after former castmate Sam Gowland revealed they had sex all over the house, in scenes producers deemed too raunchy to air after they became the second couple to romp just two weeks into the show.

Winners: This comes after they beat Camilla and Jamie to the 50,000 prize money on Monday night's final of the ITV2 show

'Sweet talk': Amber's T-shirt featured a telling message 'Sweet Talk'

Overcome: The 21-year-old hairdresser and the Welsh dancer, 20, were tipped as winners with odds coming in high ahead of the show - despite Amber previously being voted least popular housemate

'Rocky': The Essex boy went on: 'We were rocky at that point and we weren't really together. I was pushing everything away', before Amber said: 'I was so happy to see him'

The oil rig worker told The Sun: 'Kem and Amber have definitely had the most sex out of everyone. Theyve done it everywhere. It is like being on a lads holiday and your mates are bringing girls back to the hotel.'

One scene to particularly stun viewers saw the couple contemplate another romp in the middle of the day as Kem approached the stunner to tell her her: 'Look, Im literally getting a little bit excitable.'

'They then searched the villa for a location to get hot and heavy including the dressing room, the balcony, the shower and the toilet.'

The two also hilariously revealed that they couldn't contain their lust for one another after they got hot and heavy under an inflatable turtle during fellow love hopeful Camilla's birthday.

'Wife': Despite the show being met with widespread shock and being deemed tawdry and crass, Kem proved it was a gallant note to end on as he said of his new girlfriend: 'I've found my future wife'

Issues: Kem and Amber's time in the house was admittedly tumultuous, as they split up on various occasions due to Kem's trust issues which he told Caroline was causing the couple to 'push each other away'

Doing the deed: While their rows were prolific, they also became well known for their raunchy behaviour after former castmate Sam Gowland revealed they had sex all over the house

It has been reported that the pair have more fortune in store after scooping the 50,000 prize because insiders have told MailOnline that the winners are expected to make a million in the next 12 months.

Endorsements, TV appearances and modelling work are expected to significantly boost their immediate earning power with upwards of 50k per job, if 'they're clever' - shortly before it was claimed he has already raked in 250,000.

Jonathan Shalit OBE, Chairman of Roar, told MailOnline: 'If you come in the top three on Love Island and get through to the final you can certainly earn a seven figure sum over the next year.

What a chuckle: The two also hilariously revealed that they couldn't contain their lust for one another after they got hot and heavy under an inflatable turtle during fellow love hopeful Camilla's birthday

Successful: It has been reported that the pair have more fortune in store after scooping the 50,000 prize because insiders have told MailOnline that the winners are expected to make a million in the next 12 months

'The reality is, some of them could be doing massive appearances, so they could be commanding anywhere from five grand to fifty grand and if theyre clever they could be doing it over a long weekend and do upwards of ten a week.

'Generally speaking I would say its the top three who earn the most money  not always, but generally. If that isn't the case I would question in a years time what actually happened.

'My experience is that in a years time when you look back itll be the top three that make the most money.'
She's best known for being a globally-adored pop star.

But Rihanna was pictured greeting France's First Lady, Brigitte Macron at the top of the steps of the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French presidents in Paris, before talks with the President.

Shunning her usual controversial attire, the 29-year-old wore a grey suit with an oversized black blazer over the top.

Scroll down for video

Making things happen: Rihanna greeted France's First Lady Brigitte Macron at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday, after appealing to the President to contribute to education in developing countries

Doing something good: French President Emmanuel Macron later met Rihanna after she appealed to him on Twitter to contribute to her fund for education in developing countries

French President Emmanuel Macron later met Rihanna after she appealed to him on Twitter to contribute to her fund for education in developing countries.

The First Lady was meeting Rihanna in her role as head and founder of the Clara Lionel charity foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds education and health programs for impoverished communities across the globe.

Last month, Rihanna, who has dozens of millions of Twitter followers, tweeted the newly elected French president:

Important work: The First Lady was meeting Rihanna in her role as head and founder of the Clara Lionel charity foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds education and health programs for impoverished communities across the globe

She had written: 'Bonjour (at)EmmanuelMacron, will France commit to (hash)FundEducation?'

Power couple: France's President Emmanuel Macron, right, and his wife Brigitte Macron - stock photo

'Bonjour (at)EmmanuelMacron, will France commit to (hash)FundEducation?'

In February, the Observer reported that Harvard named Rihanna the Humanitarian of the Year.

And in May, she was honoured at the 69th Annual Parsons Benefit for her contributions to music, fashion and philanthropy.

All-rounder: Rihanna is best known for being a globally famous pop star but her charity work has also earned her major recognition

They wrote that the Clara Lionel charity is named after Rihannas grandmother and grandfather.

It has found partnerships with Global Partnership for Education, Global Citizen Project and Christian Dior.

In a nod to the fashion brand, Rihanna wore a Dior bag to meet Macron, after the fashion house lent it's support to her cause.

Special mention: The Clara Lionel charity is non-profit and is named after Rihannas grandmother and grandfather It has found partnerships with Global Partnership for Education, Global Citizen Project and Christian Dior. In a nod to the fashion brand, Rihanna wore a Dior bag to meet Macron, after the fashion house lent it's support to her cause
They sparked up a steamy relationship in the Hidden Hills villa while on ITV2's dating reality series Love Island.

Now back on home soil after seven-weeks in Mallorca, fan favourite Camilla Thurlow, 28, has brought her new beau Jamie Jewitt, 27, home to Dumfries, Scotland to meet her nearest and dearest, hours after the live finale.

The Scottish beauty and her hunky Calvin Klein love sent social media into a frenzy after they shared a couple of candid photos from the tarmac on their respective social media feeds, as they prepared for the exciting trip to her hometown.

Scroll down for video

Homeward bound! Camilla Thurlow, 28, has brought her new beau Jamie Jewitt, 27, home to Dumfries, Scotland to meet her nearest and dearest, hours after the live finale

Cute: Camilla shared this sweet picture of herself asleep on Jamie, writing: 'Fingers crossed we don't miss our stop'

The couple first hit things off after the Essex native entered the villa four weeks into the series alongside runner Theo Campbell and the pair have been inseparable ever since.

Proving their critics wrong, Jamie posted a sweet photo of them together on the plane ahead of take off, writing alongside it: 'Travelling with this little tinker #bringonthehaggis'.

Echoing Jamie's post, Camilla shared a similar sweet photo of them together, waiting to take off as she thanked her followers for their support throughout the series.

She began: 'Homeward bound! Thank you all so much for the incredible support, I will never be able to put into words what it means to me and how grateful I am.

Going round! Making her journey back home extra special, the beauty was surprised by her friends and family with a game of rounders during her first date with Jamie, after confessing that it would be her ideal date during their last meal together on the island

Jetting off: Echoing Jamie's post, Camilla shared a similar sweet photo of them together, waiting to take off as she thanked her followers for their support throughout the series

'From the bottom of my heart thank you - you have all given me the best experience ever and the summer of my life.'

Garnering over 172,000 likes, the loved-up pair sent their loyal followers into a frenzy as they commented in their droves about how 'gorgeous' a couple they are, assuming that Jamie was set to meet her parents once again.

One user wrote: 'Two ridiculously photogenic people. Please get your own show.'

'You guys looks amazing together,' another shared. 'How have you two not met before just perfect'. While a follower simple wrote: 'Welcome to Scotland and welcome back Cam'.

Support: Garnering over 172,000 likes, the loved-up pair sent their loyal followers into a frenzy as they commented in their droves about how 'gorgeous' a couple they are, assuming that Jamie was set to meet her parents once again

Making her journey back home extra special, the beauty was surprised by her friends and family with a game of rounders during her first date with Jamie, after confessing that it would be her ideal date during their last meal together on the island.

Blown away by the gesture, she shared a snap of them together, writing: 'The most amazing first date surprise ever! #rounders' alongside a cry-face emoji.

It comes as it has been reported by The Sun that Camilla is set to become the next 'Ross Kemp' as she hopes to travel to warzones and use her celebrity status to draw attention to causes close to her heart.

She said: 'I would literally love to do that. Very interestingly, Jamie mentioned that on our second date as something we should do. While Jamie added: 'It would be a dream job.'

Meanwhile, Camilla has admitted she's happy that her fleeting romance with Prince Harry, 32, didn't work out after meeting Jamie on the ITV2 series.

What a welcome: Camilla's friends welcomed her home to Scotland with a sweet banner

Speaking to The Sun, the bomb disposal expert admitted that she didn't want her previous high-profile relationship from 2015 before she entered the show to get in the way of finding her true prince charming.

She told the publication: 'I didnt want my past relationships in the spotlight to upset having a future with someone. I am very happy with Jamie right now.

'It is nice that something that has happened in the past is in the past  Ive had an opportunity to show people the person I am.'

It comes after Camilla revealed that she is planning to move in with her Island BFF Gabby Allen.

Happy out: Meanwhile, Camilla has admitted she's happy that her fleeting romance with Prince Harry, 32, didn't work out after meeting Jamie on the ITV2 series

In the past: Camilla previously enjoyed a brief fling with Prince Harry in 2015

The pair and their respective partners lost out to Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies in Monday night's final but grew close during their seven week stay.

As the reserved beauty is currently based in Scotland, she revealed that she was planning to move down to London to be nearer to new her partner.

She revealed: 'It's not necessarily that I live in that part of Scotland, it was my base because when I was travelling away and I needed somewhere that I could come back to. I think, and I'm hoping, that it is still the plan to have a base with Gabby here in London.'

When asked if they could get their own spin-off series, the beauty admitted: 'That would be such a fun idea, I love Gabs she was my absolute rock in there, I just think we will be best friends for life now.'
As two glamorous reality starlets, Lucy Mecklenburgh and Nicola Hughes are used to standing out on the red carpet.

But maybe they sensed their would be competition at the Spectrum x Mean Girls: Burn The Book party in London on Wednesday night as they seemed to be trying to outdo each other by both opting for their brightest and most eye-catching looks.

Ex TOWIE babe Lucy, 25, stunned in a ruby red mini dress while former Made In Chelsea's Nicola, 27, shone in a purple playsuit and, of course, her neon pink locks.

Scroll down for video

Colour clash: Reality stars Lucy Mecklenburgh, 25, (left) and Nicola Hughes, 27, (right) both rocked bright looks at a London party on Wednesday night

Lucy accessorised her floaty, off shoulder dress with silver shoes, hooped earrings and a quirky zebra lunchbox-style handbag.

While Ashley had a pair of suede tan boots on and really made her colourful attire pop with a splash of pink nail varnish.

Her look especially was very fitting for the Mean Girl inspired event, which saw the launch of a makeup brush range encased in a Burn Book, just like the one seen in the 2004 classic high-school comedy.

Cute look: Ex TOWIE babe Lucy looked chic in a floaty mini-dress

And they were clearly keen to go home with some freebies, with both posting gushing social media posts about the event and the new product.

Lucy attended the bash solo despite recently confirming she is dating ex Corrie star Ryan Thomas.

The new couple holidayed in Ibiza recently and clearly, judging from her sunkissed tan, Lucy has only just arrived back in Britain.

Fashion stripes: She opted for a quirky zebra print lunchbox style handbag

Strut your stuff: Lucy showed off her tan from her recent holiday in Ibiza as she strutted into the London bash

Nicola Hughes, who dated Lottie Moss' ex Alex Mytton on Made In Chelsea, seemed to be having a whale of a time at the bash.

She was snapped pulling a number of funny faces as she prepared herself before posing in front of the branded billboard.

The Irish star debuted her rosey hair at the start of the month and is showing no signs of returning to her natural blonde look.

On Wednesdays we wear pink: Nicola's hair perfectly suited the Mean Girls themed shin-dig

Funny faces: Nicola appeared to have some trouble with her handbag and jumper, pulling these faces as she arrived

Also at the bash were Love Island couple Jess Shears and Dom Lever.

The pair, who were both dumped from the island long before the ITV2 show's grand finale on Sunday, looked like they were still enjoying the early days of their romance.

And Jess stuck to the colourful dress theme by wearing a pink satin shirt, jeans and matching shoes.

Loved up: Dom Lever and Jess Shears are still doing the rounds on the party circuit following Love Island's finale on Sunday

Her boyfriend kept things simple in a white T-shirt and black ripped jeans.

Another Made In Chelsea ex-alumni hit the red carpet with her own take on the colour pop vibe.

Lucy Watson rocked a cute pink slogan t-shirt with HER written across it, white shorts and shoes and a bright orange jacket.
Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez enjoyed a bike ride in New York City on Wednesday, two days after her birthday and a day before his.

J-Lo, who's just turned 48, and 41-year-old A-Rod were also spotted wandering among the alfresco tables at the famous Greenwich Village restaurant Bar Pitti.

Her sleeveless white crop top was slightly sheer over her sky blue bra, offering up a generous view of her cleavage and betraying only a slight trace of midriff.

Scroll down for video

On the town: Jennifer Lopez, who's just gone 48, was spotted with her 41-year-old beau Alex Rodriguez at the famous Greenwich Village restaurant Bar Pitti on Wednesday

The outfit she'd worn that day included purple aviator sunglasses and an intricately patterned pair of multicolored leggings that played up her taut dancer's legs.

Bronx-born J-Lo had slicked her hair tightly back and wound it into an updo as she ambled along beside her beau, who'd worn a bright blue high-necked tracksuit.

The bike-riding photo Jennifer's posted to Instagram captured them from behind, in basically the same outfits, except that J-Lo had got a full-sleeved beige top on.

Hinting: Her sleeveless white crop top was slightly sheer over her sky blue bra, offering up a generous view of her cleavage and betraying only a slight trace of midriff

Emphasis: The outfit she'd worn that day included purple aviator sunglasses and an intricately patterned pair of multicolored leggings that played up her taut dancer's legs

'There's no place like home...,' she wrote in the caption, adding emojis of the sun and a heart before chucking in the hashtags: '#NYC #bikerides #summertimevibes'.

J-Rod have been dating since at least March, and they've been seen getting cozy in locales including France, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Miami.

He'd been married from 2002 until 2008 to Cynthia Scurtis, whilst she's previously tried matrimony to three men: Ojani Noa, Cris Judd and Marc Anthony.

'#summertimevibes': The couple also took a bike ride in New York City that day, as J-Lo's noted on Instagram Wednesday, two days after her birthday and the day before his

J-Lo and Marc have got nine-year-old twins called Maximilian and Emme, whereas Cynthia and A-Rod have two daughters: 12-year-old Natasha and nine-year-old Ella.

A-Rod's social media's recently played host to a photo of the musclebound athlete hauling a massive three-tiered beige and gold birthday cake for his girlfriend.

Nathasha and Ella were seen giving him a hand as he carried the lavish dessert - topped with a heap of gold frosting roses - through a vast grassy backyard.

Festive: A-Rod's social media's recently played host to a photo of the musclebound athlete hauling a massive three-tiered beige and gold birthday cake for his girlfriend
They've been pictured rarely apart ever since Vito Schnabel was pictured kissing a mystery woman in London last month.

And continuing their united front, Heidi Klum, 44, pulled out all the style stops with her 30-year-old toyboy in tow as they arrived at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala in St Tropez, France in Wednesday.

The German supermodel accentuated her statuesque frame in a striking black gown with crushed velvet panels throughout as she sauntered her way to the port side venue.

Scroll down for video

Dressed to impress: Heidi Klum, 44, pulled out all the style stops with her 30-year-old toyboy in tow as they arrived at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala in St Tropez, France in Wednesday

Getting chic done: The German supermodel accentuated her statuesque frame in a striking black gown with crushed velvet panels throughout as she sauntered her way to the port side venue

The mother-of-four's black-tie attire skimmed the curves of her svelte body before falling into a fit and flare skirt which was tousled in the wind, hinting her sky-high platforms.

Equipped with a plunging neckline, Heidi's decolletage was on full-display as the gown highlighted her narrow waist with it's eye-catching pattern alongside designer Zac Posen.

The European beauty accessorised her stunning look with lace covered clutch, statement gold ring and jade earrings which offset her golden tresses that cascaded down her back in a natural style.

Glam gal: The mother-of-four's black-tie attire skimmed the curves of her svelte body before falling into a fit and flare skirt which was tousled in the wind, hinting her sky-high platforms

Style savvy: Equipped with a plunging neckline, Heidi's decolletage was on full-display

Following his glamorous other half's lead, Vito donned a navy blue suit for the occasion that he worked with a white shirt and matching blue tie.

The couple didn't appear to have been rocked by the reports of a kiss, particularly after Vito stressed that there was nothing untoward taking place.

The art dealer shared a statement to People at the time saying: 'The claims that have been made are a misinterpretation of an entirely innocent situation.

'There is nothing more to this than I was simply saying goodnight to a family friend and we went on our separate ways.'

Making a statement: The European beauty accessorised her stunning look with lace covered clutch, statement gold ring and jade earrings which offset her golden tresses that cascaded down her back in a natural style

Matching mates: Heidi's designer pal Zac Posen complemented her in a dapper black tux for the evening

Also joining the America's Got Talent judge at the exclusive bash was Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, 56 - who displayed his personal style in an all black look as he arrived to the party in a luxurious boat.

Arriving with a mysterious blonde companion, the American star boasted a healthy golden glow for the outing.

Last year, $45 million was raised to support The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Annual Gala To Fund Climate And Biodiversity Projects.

The black-tie fundraiser held in a French vineyard was attended by do-gooder Bono, famous receiver of dodgy diamonds Naomi Campbell, and a smattering of other party-hard pals.

Doing his bit: Leonardo DiCaprio works hard on his charitable causes - stock photo

Star-studded: Actor Sean Penn, 56, arrived to the party with a mystery blonde companion by boat

Dapper: The American star displayed his personal style in an all black look as he arrived to the party

Walk this way: Sean donned a pair of eye-catching black leather boots for the evening's festivities

In a speech that heralded the start of the lavish affair, he told the star-studded crowd: 'While we are the first generation that has the technology, the scientific knowledge and the global will to build a truly sustainable economic future for all of humanitywe are the last generation that has a chance to stop climate change before it is too late.'

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's annual auction has donated more than $59 million to 112 projects across 48 countries since 2008.

In 2016, the Hollywood star convinced his A-lister pals to donate their valuables to the charity auction on behalf of his humanitarian foundation, which was created in 1998 and 'is dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth's inhabitants'.

Suit you: The renowned actor teamed his tailored suit with a simple round neck jumper

Chilled: Sean - who was previously linked to Aussie beauty Leila George, 25 - appeared subdued leaving his impressive boat

Last year's lucky winners of the auction were in for a treat that money usually couldn't buy.

The prize included an invite to the Annual Night Before Academy Awards party hosted by Jeffrey Katzenberg, followed by two tickets to sit at Harvey's table at the Weinstein Company Nominees Dinner, where the lady attending will receive a 'one-of-a-kind couture Marchesa dress'.

After LA, the winner will go to Cannes for the film festival, where they will have exclusive access to the stars and again sit at Harvey's table.

Party people: Sean was joined by his pals for the star-studded evening
They were seen ringing in the New Year together by eagle-eyed fans.

And now British-born actor Gregg Sulkin and former Disney actress Danielle Campbell have stepped out together in public, just over a week after he was seen hanging out with his ex Bella Thorne.

Campbell, who used to date One Direction's Louis Tomlinson, joined Sulkin, 25, as he took his dog for a walk in Los Angeles.

New romance?: Danielle Campbell and Gregg Sulkin were spotted on a walk in Los Angeles

The 22-year old actress wore a button-front blouse with denim cutoff shorts with flats for their outing in the California heat.

The pair sipped on smoothies together in their first sighting since New Years Day when they were seen holding hands.

That sighting began the speculation that Campbell and Tomlinson had called things off after not being spotted together for some time.

Gleeful: The pair looked happy as they walked his dog, they were first spied together on New Years Eve

On July 14, Gregg was seen with his ex Bella Thorne, 19, who he dated for a year before they split in 2016.

It was not the first time they were seen together, as they were spotted hanging out on June 5, causing rumors to ignite that they were back together.

The friendly exes are certainly not exclusive if they have begun dating, as Bella has been spotted out on the town with Scott Disick in addition to Sulkin's Wednesday walk with Campbell.

Reunited: Gregg was seen hanging out with his ex Bella, here on June 5, and again on July 14

Earlier this month, a source told People that the 34-year-old father-of-three is 'still hanging out with Bella, but hooking up with other girls as well.'

The insider claimed neither party is expecting anything serious to come of it, 'like before, he and Bella have an understanding.'

'Theyre just hanging out, hooking up and having fun. Bella loves to party and is soaking it up. She left a party over the weekend in a rush to go and hang out with him.'

This appears to contradict Bella's stated position in an interview she gave to Complex, he first since high-tailing it from France after discovering she was the first in a nine-course buffet of women Scott intended helping himself to.

'I dont drink, and he really drinks a lot. And it just ended up ...I just wasnt down,' she said at the time.

'I love to go out and have fun, I love to f****** dance, but I just dont party hardcore like that and it was way too much for me. I was like, "Woah, this is not the way I live my life, bruh".'

Famous ex: Campbell, 22, used to date One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson in 2016

This appears to contradict Bella's stated position in an interview she gave to Complex, he first since high-tailing it from France after discovering she was the first in a nine-course buffet of women Scott intended helping himself to.

'I dont drink, and he really drinks a lot. And it just ended up ...I just wasnt down,' she said at the time.

'I love to go out and have fun, I love to f****** dance, but I just dont party hardcore like that and it was way too much for me. I was like, "Woah, this is not the way I live my life, bruh".'
Their friendship captured the hearts of viewers in the inaugural season of Made In Chelsea.

And Caggie Dunlop proved her relationship with Millie Mackintosh was still just as strong as she shared a sweet collage of snaps on Instagram on Wednesday.

Marking her best friend's 28th birthday, the reality star uploaded snaps of the duo marking some of their moments together in recent times and from their teenage years.

Scroll down for video

Throwback: Caggie Dunlop proved her relationship with Millie Mackintosh was still just as strong as she shared a sweet collage of snaps on Instagram on Wednesday

In the sweet post, Caggie wrote: 'My darling Milla, Happy birthday so many memories spent with you, through our rebellious teens to travelling the word, we have embarked on some amazing journeys together and I look forward to all adventures yet to come.

'Wishing you all the love and happiness on your birthday today. #sillyandbillyforever.'

With thousands of fans taking the time to comment on the post, Millie was also clearly touched by the thoughtful gesture, responding by liking the social media post.

BFFs: Marking her best friend's 28th birthday, the reality star uploaded snaps of the duo marking some of their moments together in recent times and from their teenage years

Flashback: In the sweet post, Caggie wrote: 'My darling Milla, Happy birthday so many memories spent with you, through our rebellious teens to travelling the word...'

She continued: 'we have embarked on some amazing journeys together and I look forward to all adventures yet to come...'

Millie and Caggie were not together on her birthday, as the star had been treated to a romantic escape to Greece by boyfriend Hugo Taylor, celebrating her 28th in style.

The fashionista took to social media on Wednesday to flaunt her long and lean physique in a cream bikini, sending her followers wild with envy.

'Beachy birthday #21again', she captioned the snapshot of herself posing in the sand.

Caggie concluded: 'Wishing you all the love and happiness on your birthday today. #sillyandbillyforever'

Best pals: With thousands of fans taking the time to comment on the post, Millie was also clearly touched by the thoughtful gesture, responding by liking the social media post

As seen on screen: The duo appeared together in the first series of Made In Chelsea

The star accessorised with a Tada & Toy 'Falling Star' bodychain, adding a glamorous touch to her beach ensemble.

Hugo shared a sweet picture of Millie in bed, looking the picture of excitement as she celebrated her special day.

There was a crown added to her snap - and Hugo has certainly been treating her like a princess.

Beach babe: Millie was treated to a romantic escape to Greece by boyfriend Hugo Taylor, celebrating her 28th birthday in style with her former MIC co-star

Birthday kisses: Hugo showered his girlfriend with affection as she marked her special day

Princess for the day: She also shared a sweet picture of herself in bed, looking the picture of excitement as she celebrated her special day

The fitness fan was seen cuddling up to her man as he gave her some 'birthday kisses' in another loved-up pictures.

The pair, who recently moved in together, are going from strength-to-strength and seem to be happier than ever.

After recently attending a London based perfume launch together, Hugo shared a sweet tribute to Millie on his Instagram account.

Cute couple: The pair, who recently moved in together, are going from strength-to-strength and seem to be happier than ever

He wrote: 'London sunset and @milliemackintoshofficial both looking stunning. @armanibeauty #strongerwithyou #becauseitsyou'.

The pair's blissful break comes after Hugo revealed his shock bid to become the future Mayor of London.

He told The Sun: 'I keep thinking one day Ill run for Mayor of London.

'Ive always been interested in politics. Like it or not, I went to Harrow and there its drilled into your head and its a possibility.

'Im very passionate about helping people and I care deeply about London and I also care deeply about Chelsea.'
Indian police escort a bus carrying arrested All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders at a New Delhi court

An Indian court ordered Tuesday that seven Kashmiri separatists be held in police custody for allegedly funding militant groups and stoking unrest in the disputed Himalayan region.

Federal agents swooped on the members of the "Hurriyat" (freedom) movement in raids across New Delhi and Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Monday.

The National Investigation Agency alleges the accused received money from Pakistan and funnelled it to militant groups agitating against Indian rule in the tense region.

The Kashmir valley has been reeling from street violence since the killing of a popular rebel leader by Indian forces last July.

"We require time to question them for their role in violence," Alok Mittal, a spokesman for the federal agency, told AFP.

A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded them in police custody for ten days, the Press Trust of India reported.

Police allege the separatists used the cash to "wage war against India" by organising street rebellions against troops, burning schools and damaging public property.

Those arrested include the son-in-law of top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.

The Hurriyat -- an amalgam of political and religious parties fighting for Kashmir's independence -- said the arrests were "revengeful, arbitrary and illegal" and called for mass strikes Tuesday.

Geelani, as well as another top Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were put under house arrest in Srinagar and other parts of the city were under curfew.

More than 100 protesters, mostly young men, have been killed since last year in clashes between troops and police and Kashmiris demanding independence from India.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Rebel groups have since 1989 been fighting hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers deployed in the region, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Armed violence had largely waned in the troubled region but over the years the conflict has increasingly drawn in civilians, with almost daily clashes between government forces and protesters.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the nearly three decades of unrest.
The Senate Judiciary Committee said Paul Manafort, shown in this file photo, might be excused from testifying Wednesday if he agrees to produce documents and a transcribed interview

A Senate committee investigating Russian election interference withdrew Tuesday its subpoena compelling President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort to testify, saying he has begun cooperating.

Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner are at the center of probes about a closely scrutinized meeting they and other campaign officials had with a Russian lawyer last year.

Manafort had been served a subpoena to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but plans changed and the subpoena was retracted when he agreed to meet with committee investigators behind closed doors, Politico reported.

The panel said Manafort had "committed to negotiating in good faith" a time when he would be interviewed by the committee.

The former Trump aide had tried to avoid a hearing in favor of a private transcribed interview submitted to one of the multiple congressional investigations into the alleged Russian interference.

"It's important that he and other witnesses continue to work with this committee as it fulfills its oversight responsibility," Republican committee chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democratic member Dianne Feinstein said in a joint statement.

"As we've said before, we intend to get the answers that we need, one way or the other. Cooperation from witnesses is always the preferred route, but this agreement does not prejudice the committee's right to compel his testimony in the future."

Manafort spoke to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Politico reported.

During last year's election campaign, Manafort attended a meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who had promised the president's son Donald Trump Jr compromising material on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate running against Trump.

Kushner, who is now a top aide to the president, also attended the June 2016 meeting and was interviewed Monday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

In a statement read out after the hearing, Kushner insisted he had not colluded with Russia to tip the election in his father-in-law's favor.

Kushner appeared again Tuesday before the House Intelligence Committee, one of a slew of bodies investigating the Russian meddling claims.
In support of her critically acclaimed new album Real, Lydia Loveless will be performing in Chattanooga, opening for Iron & Wine on Monday, Aug. 27, at the Tivoli Theatre.

Review for Lydia Loveless and her album, Real:

Real was recorded at Sonic Lounge Studios in her home state of Ohio and was engineered and produced by Joe Viers (Dr. John, Twenty One Pilots). Of Real, Lydia said, There was a lot to say this time around and I wanted to return to that sort of playground and (sometimes literally) throw things at the wall. Whereas our previous records could be described as blunt or raw, this one I wanted to be known as honest, as true, as real (rimshot).

She adds, Because I feel like I spent my formative years flopping around like a fish, masking pain with substance abuse and somewhat ashamed of who I wasa hayseed, a phony, I feltit was absolutely necessary for me to become a stronger, more confident human, or I was going to die. Real is my sort of love letter to that realization, that my existence was just as valid as any other.

Loveless is joined on the album by Todd May (vocals, guitars, keys), Ben Lamb (bass), Jay Gasper (guitars, pedal steel, keys), George Hondroulis (drums, percussion, keys), Andy Harrison (guitar, keys) and Viers (percussion, guitar).

In 2011, Loveless released her second full-length album, Indestructible Machine. Two years after the critical success of her breakout second record, Loveless released Somewhere Else. On Somewhere Else Loveless is less concerned with chasing approvalshe scrapped an entire albums worth of materialand more focused on fighting personal battles of longing, heartbreak and the aesthetic that comes along with them.






The US State Department is denying reports that top diplomat Rex Tillerson is planning to step down

Top US diplomat Rex Tillerson does not plan to step down, the State Department said Tuesday, quashing reports citing differences with the White House.

Since taking the helm of the State Department in February, the former ExxonMobil chair has come under fire for his ultra-low profile, and his plan to slash by 30 percent the budget of an agency that employs more than 70,000 people in Washington and around the world.

CNN reported that Tillerson planned to leave by year's end, which spokeswoman Heather Nauert flatly denied.

"That is false. We have spoken with the secretary. The secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at the State Department," she told reporters.

"We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us. He recognizes that. He's deeply engaged in that work."

Pressed about Tillerson's light schedule in recent days, Nauert said the secretary was "just taking a little time off."

"He's had a lot of work. He just came back from that mega trip overseas, as you all well know," the spokeswoman added, referring to a trip that took Tillerson to the G20 summit in Germany, as well as to Turkey, Ukraine and Gulf countries.

"So, he's entitled to take a few days himself."

Many US ambassadorial and management posts have not been filled, with diplomats and experts fretting they could be next on the budget chopping block.

CNN said that among Tillerson's growing differences with the White House were fresh debates over Iran policy and personnel, as well as President Donald Trump's chaotic and confusing foreign policy approach.
Actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are auctioning off a private dinner in their exclusive company for charity

Ever yearned to swap tales of the sea with "Titanic" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet?

Well strap on your life jacket, because the pair are auctioning off a private dinner in their exclusive company for charity, a spokesman for the actor told AFP on Tuesday.

The glamorous date -- planned for a restaurant of the winner's choice in New York City in the fall -- is among several lots being offered at the star-studded Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala in the French resort of Saint-Tropez on Thursday.

The environmentally-minded charity raised $45 million during its auction last year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Oscar winners DiCaprio, 42, and Winslet, 41, played star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose in James Cameron's 1998 retelling of the sinking of the Titanic, and were reunited in 2009 as a warring couple in "Revolutionary Road."

While saving the planet has been DiCaprio's preoccupation for years, Winslet is involved with charities helping autistic children, as well as organizations for the homeless and disadvantaged people with cancer.

The lot is the latest example of a burgeoning celebrity trend of offering dinner dates or other face-to-face meetings to raise cash for charity.

British actor Idris Elba agreed to share Valentine's Day this year with the highest bidder in aid of the "W.E. Can Lead" initiative, which provides education for African youngsters.

"It is one of the easiest ways for celebrities to contribute," a public relations specialist told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that it generates huge amounts of cash.
American Gregory Marshall's collection includes this 1910 steam locomotive

Visitors to a quirky rail museum in France's Burgundy region, the brainchild of US entrepreneur Gregory Marshall, will have a new opportunity to spend a night on the legendary Orient Express.

Two carriages and a locomotive from the line created in 1883 to carry the well-heeled from Paris to Constantinople, as Istanbul was then called, are the jewel of Marshall's growing collection of steam trains for a hotel-cum-museum he hopes to open next year.

The Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul in 1977 when the service was shortened and the fabled train made its last journey in December 2009.

Dating from 1948, Marshall's Orient Express carriages include a luxurious restaurant car -- which features a cylinder phonograph among its period highlights -- where guests will dine.

Marshall's "dream train" project is centred on a disused railway station nestled among century-old oaks and aspens in the village of Dracy-Saint-Loup, population 600.

Once he brings the long-deserted station, built in 1882, back to life, "it'll be great for kids," said the white-haired Marshall, who looks far younger than his 71 years.

"I've loved trains since I was a child," said Marshall, a former US Marine who remembers the first toy train set his father gave him when he was five or six years old.

"Almost everybody of my age, older, or a little bit younger, has memories of steam locomotives," Marshall said.

"But in regular museums there's no participation, people can't get on (the trains), and really enjoy them, have an adventure."

The last locomotive to arrive at the site was a Cockerill from Belgium, taking its place beside a huge steam engine dating from 1916.

Marshall's French manager, Gregory Godessart, says guests cannot expect to enjoy all the modern comforts, but just "to have fun spending the night in the Orient Express."

So far one of the wagons is practically ready to take paying guests, with Marshall aiming for a spring 2018 opening.

For his own sleeping comfort, Marshall plans a "double-decker" carriage that will be his main residence at the Dracy-Saint-Loup station, which lies on a now defunct line that meanders through Burgundy's Morvan highlands and has not seen a passenger since 2011.

Marshall, who made a fortune from some telecommunications patents, bought the dilapidated building from the French state railway company SNCF in September 2016.

He knows his "dream train" project is going to bust the 200,000 euro ($230,000) budget he set.

But he doesn't mind.

- Heritage -

Formerly active with American heritage groups, Marshall hopes his station and its historic rolling stock will earn a historic classification in France.

Marshall is not only about steam trains.

Marshall has transformed his French made Citroen 2 CV car to look like a American WWII army vehicle

An avid pilot, he owns a Piper Lance six-seater, which is parked at the airport in the nearby Burgundy capital Dijon.

Before moving to France in 2003, he lived in Boston and Hawaii, as well as California where he was in the celebrated California Highway Patrol.

"Very interesting, very fun, when you're young, you chase bad guys and arrest them, it's an adventure," said Marshall, who was divorced, remarried and is now a widower.

"I'm not happy if I do the same thing for too long," he said.

Marshall has a collection of Citroen's emblematic Deux Chevaux (2CV) cars, including one that he has adapted to look like a World War II-era US army vehicle.

One day he hopes to ship over to France the last home of the pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, who in 1927 flew nonstop from New York to Paris, which he dismantled several years ago in order to preserve it.

Dracy-Saint-Loup residents are enthused by Marshall's project.

Godessart said "a little old lady, 95 years old, who used to take the train with her grandmother" visited the site.

While the "dream train" project slowly takes shape, weeds continue to consume the old tracks and the rickety station platform sags in places.

"There's still a lot of work to do," Marshall said.
Cardinal Pell due to front Melbourne court on charges

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell, a top advisor to Pope Francis, denied all charges of historical sexual abuse Wednesday at his first appearance in an Australian court over the allegations.

The 76-year-old, the number-three figure in the Vatican, returned from Rome earlier this month to face the charges in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Details of the charges have not been made public although police said they involved "multiple complainants". The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has always maintained his innocence.

Looking sombre and frail, he attended the hearing with his lawyer, top criminal barrister Robert Richter, who told the court his client was not guilty -- even though a formal plea was not required at this stage.

"For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," Richter told the court, national broadcaster ABC reported.

A protestor holds a placard before Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell arrives for a hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates Court

Pell, dressed in black and wearing his clerical collar, remained silent throughout with magistrate Duncan Reynolds ruling that evidence needs to be handed to his legal team by September 8, with the next court date set for October 6.

The cleric made no comment as he was escorted by a group of police through a crush of cameras, reporters and photographers into the court, which hears hundreds of cases a week for alleged crimes ranging from theft to murder.

Several photographers were knocked over in the melee.

Similar scenes greeted his departure after the brief hearing as he was ushered around 100 metres (yards) down the road to his lawyer's offices surrounded by security, with a handful of supporters shouting "this is a show trial" and "innocent" as he walked past.

Protesters were also on hand, with one, Brian Cherrie, telling the Melbourne Herald Sun: "We need the truth."

- Rocked the church -

Pell was not required to attend the hearing, but Australia's most powerful Catholic opted to appear, having previously vowed to defend himself and clear his name after a two-year investigation led to him being charged on June 29.

"I am innocent of these charges, they are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me," he said in Rome last month, claiming he had been the victim of a campaign of "relentless character assassination".

Pell was not required to attend the hearing, but Australia's most powerful Catholic opted to appear, having previously vowed to defend himself and clear his name after a two-year investigation led to him being charged

Australia's Catholic leaders have spoken out in support, describing Pell as a "thoroughly decent man".

The Archdiocese of Sydney is providing accommodation for him while he fights the charges, but it has said it will not foot his legal bills, which could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Supporters have set up a fund to help him pay the costs, according to the Institute of Public Affairs, a high-profile conservative Australian think tank.

Despite being unofficially considered the third most powerful cleric in the Vatican, no special arrangements were in place at the court. Pell entered the building through the front door and was screened by security.

He has been granted a leave of absence by the Pope, who has made clear the cardinal would not be forced to resign his post as head of the Vatican's powerful economic ministry.

But the scandal has rocked the church. He is the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with criminal offences linked to its long-running sexual abuse scandal.

The allegations against Pell coincide with the final stages of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional paedophilia.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.

Pell appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome.
Barbara Sinatra, the last wife of Frank Sinatra, has died

Former model Barbara Sinatra, a humanitarian activist who was Frank Sinatra's last wife, died Tuesday in California, her foundation said. She was 90.

A family spokesman said Sinatra -- born Barbara Blakely -- died of natural causes surrounded by family and friends at her home in Rancho Mirage.

She wed Sinatra in Rancho Mirage in July 1976. She was 49 and he was 60.

They were married 22 years, the fourth and longest marriage for the American crooner. He died of a heart attack in 1998.

In 1985, she raised money with her husband's support, to open the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center for the youngest victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

"Barbara Sinatra was not a woman who just lent her name to a cause or event," her foundation said.

"Barbara was an avid and tireless fundraiser and child advocate... In her many travels, she served as keynote speaker and appeared before groups and organizations of all sizes on behalf of abused children in England, Australia, Canada, Italy and throughout the United States."

Trough her efforts, more than 20,000 children have received therapy to cope with abuse-related trauma at the center, it said.

Sinatra was previously married to actor Zeppo Marx, of the Marx Brothers films.

Sinatra is survived by her son Robert Oliver Marx, his wife Hillary Roberts and her granddaughter Carina Blakeley Marx.
Police remove a protester as US President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally

Fresh from a rare legislative victory, Donald Trump tried to shore up ebbing popular support Tuesday at a raucous rally in Youngstown, Ohio, that was marred by a string of protests.

Recapturing his full campaign bombast, Trump held forth for almost an hour: heralding a Congressional step toward upending his predecessor's health care reforms, while trashing the media and promising to drain the "Washington swamp."

Trump traveled to the key electoral state hours after his Republican-controlled Senate agreed to begin deliberations on Trump's health care plans, a technical step but a major victory for a president desperate for legislative wins.

"We are now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare," he said to deafening cheers.

Die-hard supporters stood on chairs and lapped up the hardline message, chanting "CNN sucks" and "drain the swamp."

But there was a snapshot of the polarization Trump has fueled in the country, with at least four sets of protesters being forcibly removed by police.

One man held up a "Trump/Pence must go" flag as he was dragged out by police and berated and roughed up by the crowd.

"Where the hell did he come from?" Trump asked mockingly.

The president traveled to Ohio with some of the lowest approval ratings of any modern president at the beginning of his first term.

Scandals have mushroomed over his campaign contacts with Russia, which have seen aides questioned by Congress and his son admit to holding a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.

In the face of these political headwinds, Trump doubled down on some of the shrillest rhetoric of the campaign, hitting out at Islamists, Latino gangs and immigrants.

He boasted about "liberating our cities" by carrying out raids against "transnational gangs."

"We are dismantling and destroying the bloodthirsty criminal gangs and well, I will just tell you this, we are not doing it in a politically correct fashion."

Trump rejected calls that he treat the office with more decorum.

"It's so easy to act presidential, but that's not going to get it done," he said.

Time and again, Trump lashed out at the media.

"I'd ask whether or not you think I will some day be on Mount Rushmore, but here is the problem, if I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say 'he believed he should be on Mount Rushmore,'" Trump said to loud boos.

"What a group, what a dishonest group of people."
Ayamar Bagon (C), 20, is among scores of women who say they were sexually abused by security forces during a months-long campaign in the north of Rakhine State so brutal the UN fears it may amount to crimes against humanity

Rohingya Muslim Ayamar Bagon has lived on handouts since her husband left her after she told him she was gang-raped by Myanmar soldiers in the final month of her pregnancy.

She is among scores of women who accuse security forces of sexual abuses during a months-long military 'clearance operation' so brutal the UN fears it may amount to crimes against humanity.

AFP visited the remote region in the north of Rakhine State on a government-run trip this month, the first time foreign media have been officially allowed into the area since the military began hunting militants in October.

On the edge of Kyar Gaung Taung village, away from the government minders, a group of Rohingya women described how their lives were shattered the day soldiers came to their homes late last year.

"I was raped close to my due date, in my ninth month of pregnancy. They knew I was pregnant but didn't care," Ayamar Bagon told AFP through a UN translator, clutching her baby daughter to her chest.

Mother-of-two Hasinnar Baygon (R) said her husband has also threatened to leave after she was raped by three troops in December

"My husband blamed me for letting it happen. Because of this, he married another woman and now lives in another village," the 20-year-old added, explaining that she survives on food donations from her neighbours.

Mother-of-two Hasinnar Baygon, 20, said her husband has also threatened to leave after she was raped by three troops in December.

They took turns to violate her while two others stood watch outside her hut, she alleges, adding that she knew they were soldiers because of their uniforms and guns.

All the Rohingya men had already fled the village out of fear they would be beaten up by troops, leaving only the women, children and elderly behind.

"My husband told me he is going to leave me. He blamed me for not running away," Baygon said.

The government denies the allegations and AFP has not been able to verify their stories or claims from two other women who said they were raped by soldiers.

But they echo scores of accounts collected by UN investigators and rights groups from some of the 74,000 Rohingya who have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

- 'What can we do?' -

Myanmar's Rohingya

The UN believes hundreds may have died in what could be the bloodiest chapter of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's years-long persecution of the 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims who live in Rakhine.

Kyar Gaung Taung village was caught up in one of the most brutal episodes in November, when witnesses and state media said dozens of Rohingya were killed as troops swept through the villages.

Myanmar's government has denied almost all claims of abuses and barred a UN fact-finding mission from the area.

Instead they say probes by the military and police, as well as a state-appointed team, are sufficient.

"Cases have been filed regarding killings after the investigation. They also looked into allegations of rape," said Brigadier General San Lwin, the head of the border guard police in Rakhine state, adding the investigations were ongoing.

Rohingya from Kyar Gaung Taung said they had lodged three rape cases out of 15 alleged assaults in the village, but nothing has been done.

Other women were too scared to report what happened to them, fearing retribution from authorities or being ostracised by their community and husbands.

"Some women didn't want to complain for the sake of their pride," said one Rohingya villager, who asked not to be named.

Rights groups have long accused Myanmar's military of using rape as a weapon of war in several ethnic conflicts simmering in the country's borderlands.

Fears of Muslim men violating Buddhist women have also long been used to stir sectarian hatred.

Allegations Muslims raped Buddhists sparked clashes in 2012 that drove more than 120,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, and deadly riots two years later near Mandalay.

Victims of the latest crisis say they hold little hope for justice.

"I didn't know them. How can I report them?" said Ayamar Bagon of her rapists. "What can we do?"
The European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, attacks

The EU's top court rules Wednesday on whether Islamist movement Hamas should be taken off the bloc's terror black list, a move that would likely spark anger in Israel and the United States.

Washington and Israel were outraged in December 2014 when a lower European court said Hamas should be dropped because the EU had made the decision based on information from the media and internet.

Brussels subsequently appealed that decision and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the top judicial authority in the 28-nation European Union, will now have the final say on the matter.

A senior lawyer to the ECJ has already said in an official legal opinion delivered last September that Hamas should not have been included on the list because procedural mistakes invalidated the EU decision.

The court will also rule Wednesday on a similar case involving Sri Lankan rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

If Hamas is dropped, already tense EU-Israel relations are like to be tested again. Israel regularly berates the European Union for being soft on terrorism and bluntly rejects EU criticism of its Jewish settlements policy.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the EU's political demands on Israel as "absolutely crazy."

The European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, arguing that it is a legally elected government and therefore has the right to conduct military operations against Israel.

- 'Annul the measures' -

The original 2014 ruling by the EU's General Court annulled the EU sanctions listing on procedural grounds.

It said that rather than establishing independently that Hamas was a terrorist organisation, the European Council of EU member states had instead relied on publicly available information.

The European Council in turn appealed that finding, believing the General Court "was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain".

ECJ Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston said in September that the EU could not "rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing".

Given that "some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing," the General Court was correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their being listed.

Accordingly, the ECJ "should annul the measures... on procedural grounds," Sharpston said.

She said in her September opinion that the EU decision to sanction the LTTE was similarly flawed and should be annulled.

Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view before it makes a final ruling. The court often but not always follows them.

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.
Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has pitched to build Australia's next fleet of warships ahead of annual Australia-Britain defence and foreign minister talks in Sydney this week

Britain's defence secretary Wednesday made a strong push to build Australia's next fleet of warships, saying the frigates he proposes are best placed to hunt "Russian and Chinese submarines" amid regional tensions.

Australia earlier this year detailed a massive Aus$89 billion (US$70.4 billion) shipbuilding strategy, including constructing new submarines and frigates, in the nation's largest peacetime naval investment.

The big increase in defence spending comes as Beijing flexes its muscle in the region through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea, and as tensions remain high on the Korean peninsula.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made the pitch to build the nine frigates as part of a Aus$35 billion project ahead of annual Australia-Britain defence and foreign minister talks in Sydney this week.

Three designers are vying for the massive contract -- Britain's BAE Systems, Italy's Fincantieri and Spain's Navantia -- which is described by Canberra as currently the world's largest frigate shipbuilding programme of its kind.

"You need in a region that is now as unstable and tense as it is, as you've decided, some anti-submarine hunting capability and the very latest capability," Fallon told The Sydney Morning Herald.

He said the Type 26 Frigate -- a class currently being constructed for the British navy -- would be better than their Italian and Spanish rivals in hunting "Russian and Chinese submarines" in waters around Australia and the Pacific.

"The quietness of the ship, and the sophistication of the technology on it, puts it way ahead of any European offer you might be considering," said Fallon.

A key element of the contract is that there must be a high-level of local construction, in a bid by Canberra to boost domestic jobs in the shipbuilding industry.

Fallon said the use of local manufacturing was "perfectly reasonable", and added that Britain would be open to buying Australian-made military equipment.

The programme will replace Australia's current ANZAC class frigates with the winning designer due to be announced next year and the first warship expected in service by the late 2020s.

French naval contractor DCNS was last year selected to design and build 12 new Australian submarines at a cost of Aus$50 billion at an Adelaide yard, beating off competition from Japan and Germany.
Mumbai has been hit by several deadly building collapses in recent years, often caused by shoddy construction, poor quality materials or ageing buildings

Indian police arrested the owner of a property in a building that collapsed in Mumbai on culpable homicide charges Wednesday as the death toll from the disaster rose to 17.

The arrest came as civic activists in India's financial capital decried the latest deadly housing collapse, which shone a spotlight on poor construction standards in the Asian country.

"We have arrested Sunil Shitap and are questioning him regarding the alterations that led to the building collapse," Deven Bharti, a joint commissioner of Mumbai police, told AFP.

Seventeen people, including a three-month-old baby, were crushed under a pile of rubble when the four-storey building in the northern suburb of Ghatkopar gave way on Tuesday morning.

Police suspect that renovation work being carried out by Shitap to a private hospital on the ground floor caused the building, which housed several families in small apartments, to collapse.

Bharti said Shitap had been booked under three offences, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing grievous hurt by an act endangering the life or personal safety of others.

The death toll jumped to 17 on Wednesday after rescuers, using diggers to sift through the debris found several bodies during the night.

"Seventeen are dead and we have rescued 29 victims, eight of which have been admitted to hospital," Sudhir Naik, a deputy commissioner for Mumbai's civic administrative body, told AFP.

Rescue operations were winding down on Wednesday afternoon as officials started to give up hope of finding any more survivors.

Building collapses are common in India, especially during the monsoon season from late June to September.

Mumbai is particularly vulnerable with millions forced to live in cramped, ramshackle properties because of rising real estate prices and a lack of housing for the poor.

The city has been hit by several deadly building collapses in recent years, often caused by shoddy construction, poor quality materials or ageing buildings.

Activists say housing societies, private owners and builders often cut corners to save on costs. They also claim that corruption plays a part with officials sometimes knowingly certifying dilapidated buildings in return for money.

"It is a combination of factors. Mumbai has so many horrible building collapses waiting to happen," Krishnaraj Rao, a decades-long campaigner for residents rights, told AFP.

In 2013, 60 people were killed when a residential block came crashing down in one of Mumbai's worst housing disasters.

A dilapidated building left 12 people dead when it collapsed near the city in August 2015. Nine people died the same month when another old three-storey building collapsed in monsoon rain in the Mumbai suburb of Thakurli.
If you are not familiar with the videos of Dr. Jordan Peterson, you should acquaint yourself with them, and him, forthwith.

This one is a good introduction to the style and substance of the man.

Peterson starts talking about 18 minutes in, after a lengthy and rambling introduction which you should skip.

If two hours is too much here are shorter snippets:

The consequence of trying to build imaginary utopias out of real human beings.

Stop saying things that make you weak.

Proven differences between men and women.

Go out and make something of yourself.

The temptation of victim identity.

Clean your room.

Peterson on starting an online humanities university.

The twelve principles from the video are as follows:

1. The fundamental assumptions of Western civilization are valid.

2. Peaceful social being is preferable to isolation and to war. In consequence, it justly and rightly demands some sacrifice of individual impulse and idiosyncrasy.

3. Hierarchies of competence are desirable and should be promoted.

4. Borders are reasonable. Likewise, limits on immigration are reasonable. Furthermore, it should not be assumed that citizens of societies that have not evolved functional individual-rights predicated polities will hold values in keeping with such polities.

5. People should be paid so that they are able and willing to perform socially useful and desirable duties.

6. Citizens have the inalienable right to benefit from the result of their own honest labor.

7. It is more noble to teach young people about responsibilities than about rights.

8. It is better to do what everyone has always done, unless you have some extraordinarily valid reason to do otherwise.

9. Radical change should be viewed with suspicion, particularly in a time of radical change.

10. The government, local and distal, should leave people to their own devices as much as possible.

11. Intact heterosexual two-parent families constitute the necessary bedrock for a stable polity.

12. We should judge our political system in comparison to other actual political systems and not to hypothetical utopias.
The indefinite strike by workers of Sri Lanka's state oil company has triggered fears of a fuel crisis, with long queues building up outside petrol stations across the country

Sri Lanka arrested dozens of striking oil workers Wednesday as the military moved in to restore supplies and end fuel shortages, officials said.

Police said they arrested 20 workers of the state Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) who defied an order by President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday banning strikes in the energy sector.

The military said it deployed armed troops to guard two wholesale oil distribution depots and ensure gasoline and diesel were distributed.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that a tanker train carrying aviation fuel was also despatched to the airport despite attempts by strikers to block it.

Hundreds of workers have been on strike since Tuesday night, protesting government plans to sell off stakes in state-owned oil storage depots to India and China.

The indefinite walkout by CPC workers was instigated by former president Mahinda Rajapakse, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters in Colombo.

"It is the Rajapakse faction that is behind the strike," said Senaratne. "They think they can bring the government down through this action, but we will not allow that."

"The army has assisted the police in providing security to two oil distribution centres," military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne told AFP. "We also provide security to those who have reported for work to restore supplies."

The strike triggered fears of a fuel crisis on the island, with long queues of cars and trucks building up outside petrol stations across the country during the night.

CPC trade unions said they will not return to work until the government abandons plans to sell stakes in oil storage tank facilities in the northeast and south of the island.

Sri Lankan authorities want to form a partnership with a Chinese company to develop the loss-making Hambantota port

The government has said it wants to develop a disused World War II-era oil depot in the northeastern port of Trincomalee with an Indian state-owned company.

Authorities also want to form a partnership with a Chinese company to develop the loss-making Hambantota port, including its oil storage tanks, in the island's south.

The government finalised a $1.12 billion deal to sell off a majority stake in the strategically sited port to Beijing's state-owned China Merchants Port Holdings on Tuesday. The deal is to be signed on Saturday.
Iranian and US flags fly side by side at nuclear talks in Vienna on July 14, 2015 at which a historic deal was clinched

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday that new sanctions approved by the US House of Representatives were "a hostile measure" that breached Washington's commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.

"The ongoing action in the US Congress... is very clearly a hostile measure against the Islamic republic of Iran," deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to the ISNA news agency.

Araghchi led the negotiating team that agreed the deal with world powers in 2015 known as the JCPOA, by which Iran agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

The new sanctions bill passed by the House on Tuesday, was merely "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields," Araghchi said.

"Still, it can influence the successful implementation of the JCPOA and reduce Iran's benefits under the JCPOA. That's why it is incompatible with various sections of the JCPOA which the US has committed to implement with good intention and in a constructive atmosphere," he added.

"These are America's commitments. What the Congress is doing is against these commitments and for sure will be met with a reaction from Iran."

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The UN and other signatories to the nuclear deal have agreed that Iran has stuck to its commitments, which has been reluctantly accepted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

"The new US administration has been forced to confirm Iran's loyalty to the deal twice within the past six months and it has had no other option as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in various reports has clearly expressed Iran's compliance with its commitments," Araghchi said.
The European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001

The European Union's top court on Wednesday upheld the bloc's decision to put Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its terrorism blacklist.

The European Court of Justice overturned a 2014 ruling by the bloc's second highest court, saying it "should not have annulled Hamas' retention on the European list of terrorist organisations".

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, denounced the decision, which it said "has no bearing on politics".

"We will keep up our legal battle to have Hamas removed from the list of terrorist organisations," a statement from the Islamists said.

The lower EU court sparked outrage in Israel and Washington when it said Hamas should be dropped from the list because the bloc had made the decision based on information from the media and internet.

But the Luxembourg-based ECJ said that in doing so, the General Court had "made an error in law" and it would now have to examine the case again.

However in a related ruling, the ECJ said Wednesday that the General Court's 2014 finding that Sri Lankan rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should not be on the terror list was correct.

The Hamas ruling came as a surprise since one of the ECJ's senior lawyers had said in an opinion last September that Hamas should not have been included on the terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the EU decision.

- EU-Israel tensions -

The court rarely rules against the advice of its top lawyers and there had been concerns that if the ECJ agreed with the General Court, then already tense EU-Israel relations would have been hit again.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) said it welcomed the outcome as "an important political message in the fight against international terror."

There had been concerns that if the European Court of Justice had not upheld the terror listing for Hamas, already tense EU-Israel relations would have been hit again

Israel regularly berates the European Union for being soft on terrorism and bluntly rejects EU criticism of its Jewish settlements policy.

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, arguing that as a legally elected government it has the right to conduct military operations against Israel.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and fought three wars with Israel, the last in 2014, which caused massive destruction and left more than 2,000 people dead.

The original 2014 ruling by the General Court annulled the EU sanctions listing on procedural grounds.

It said that rather than establishing independently that Hamas was a terrorist organisation, the European Council of EU member states had instead relied on publicly available information.

The EU member states then appealed that decision, believing the lower court "was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain".

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.
A Syrian girl, who fled the countryside surrounding the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, sits in the shade of a tent at a temporary camp in the village of Ain Issa on July 11, 2017

Civilians fleeing the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion of Raqa are paying smugglers to lead them out of the city safely, only to find themselves caught up in harrowing attacks.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Raqa and the surrounding province since the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an offensive to capture the jihadist stronghold last year.

But the journey is perilous, with IS preventing civilians from abandoning its shrinking territory and enforcing its ban with deadly violence.

In the Ain Issa camp, where thousands of people displaced from Raqa have sought refuge, many civilians say they were promised safe passage by smugglers who ended up leading them into deadly situations.

Ali, 25, asked around in his village of Qahtaniya, about six kilometres (nearly four miles) northwest of Raqa, to find a smuggler.

"The smugglers don't reveal their real names, they use false ones. Ours called himself 'Al-Hout' (The Whale)," he told AFP.

"I agreed with The Whale on the details and I paid him 222,000 Syrian pounds ($418)," he said, an amount that covered him and eight family members, the youngest of them a five-year-old child.

On the night of their escape, they left the village in Ali's car at 2:00 am and headed for a rendezvous point where the smuggler and other fleeing civilians were waiting.

Syrians, who fled the Islamic State group stronghold of Raqa, arrive in an area near the village of Balaban, south of Jarablus, on June 7, 2017

The smuggler moved ahead of the group and then brought them to a halt.

"We arrived at a place that he told us was safe, and then we came under a barrage of Daesh gunfire," Ali said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

He gunned his car engine and managed to reach a nearby SDF checkpoint safely, but a woman who had joined them at the meeting point was wounded in the attack.

"We don't know what happened to her, but the blood of those (who have died fleeing) is on the hands of the smugglers," he said.

- Captured by IS -

The Kurdish and Arab fighters of the SDF entered Raqa in June and have since captured more than 40 percent of the city from IS.

But the UN estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside in dire conditions.

The UN says civilians are paying between 75,000 and 150,000 Syrian pounds ($150-$300) per person to smugglers to organise their escape.

When Ahmed al-Hussein, 35, decided to flee Raqa, he agreed to pay a smuggler 70,000 Syrian pounds and hand over his motorbike, worth another 30,000 Syrian pounds, when he reached safety.

A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces removes an Islamic State group flag in the town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa, on April 30, 2017

"We were a group of 250 people. We were moving for 15 hours until we reached an SDF checkpoint in the Al-Mazeila area, 23 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Raqa, at the break of dawn," he told AFP.

"As soon as we arrived, the jihadists launched an attack on the area, and we were caught in the crossfire. The smugglers disappeared completely."

IS captured him and other civilians and took them to the village of Al-Salihiya, where they beat them and stole their money and identity papers.

They also interrogated the civilians, trying to learn who had smuggled them out.

"It was impossible because we really had no idea. The smugglers could have been Daesh themselves," he said.

- Intercepted by smugglers -

Hussein was eventually released, and moved to another IS-held village, remaining there until it was captured by the SDF several months ago.

Throughout the ordeal he managed to hang onto his motorbike, which sat next to him in his tent.

All of those interviewed by AFP about their experiences fleeing Raqa with smugglers declined to be interviewed on camera, citing fears not only of the smugglers but also of IS.

Elsewhere in the camp, 38-year-old Abu Ahmed was repairing tyres and motorbike parts to bring in a little cash to supplement the meagre supplies available to the displaced.

He fled the Daraiya neighbourhood of Raqa three months ago, but opted to make his own way without resorting to a smuggler.

Damaged buildings are seen in Raqa on July 12, 2017, during an offensive by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to take the city from the Islamic State group

"I left Raqa with my family before the SDF arrived. We stayed on a nearby farm for about a month until Daesh fighters came and burned our tents," he said, his shirt stained with oil.

The family managed to escape and headed through the desert, searching for the nearest SDF checkpoint.

"Before we reached the checkpoint, we were intercepted by smugglers who asked us to pay them 50,000 Syrian pounds to help us, saying the road ahead was long and unsafe," Abu Ahmed said.

But as he was talking with the smugglers, a shepherd approached him.

"Don't give them your money," the shepherd told him.

"The checkpoint is no more than 500 metres (yards) from here, and the road is safe."
A Syrian walks past a mosque and destroyed buildings in the rebel-held town of Arbin, east of Damascus, on July 25, 2017, following an air strike the previous night

Clashes erupted overnight in a rebel-held enclave outside Damascus, which was also hit by government air strikes despite a truce deal, a monitor said on Wednesday.

An internationally brokered ceasefire zone covering parts of Eastern Ghouta went into effect on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overnight fighting was the first in the enclave since the truce began.

Government troops clashed with fighters of the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group in the Ain Tarma district, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

The fighting subsided by Wednesday morning but government warplanes then carried out strikes in the area.

Faylaq al-Rahman is allied with former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front and the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday that it was excluded from the truce.

Government air strikes also hit the Utaya district of Eastern Ghouta, killing a girl and wounding seven other civilians, as well as the town of Zamalka, the Observatory said.

The new strikes came after two days of government air raids on the town of Arbeen in Eastern Ghouta, which killed 12 civilians, among them children.

The so-called "de-escalation" zone deal, hammered out by government allies Russia and Iran and rebel backer Turkey in May, covers only part of Eastern Ghouta, a large region that is key opposition territory.

A map displayed at a Russian defence ministry briefing appeared to show that the areas hit late on Tuesday and on Wednesday were inside the ceasefire zone.

"The air strikes and the clashes are a violation of the truce," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

On Tuesday, a Russian military official denied that any air strikes had hit inside the ceasefire zone, which is being monitored in part by Russian police.

The Russian defence ministry map appears to show at least part of Arbin may be excluded from the truce zone.

Eastern Ghouta is the second of four proposed ceasefire zones to be implemented, after parts of the southern provinces of Daraa, Sweida and Quneitra.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
A Yemeni child, suspected of being infected with cholera, receives treatment at a hospital in Sanaa on May 15, 2017

A vicious combination of war, cholera and hunger has left 80 percent of Yemeni children in desperate need of aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"Nearly 80 percent of Yemen's children need immediate humanitarian assistance," the executive directors of three UN agencies said in a joint statement released at the end of a two-day visit.

"Nearly two million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished. Malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera. Disease creates more malnutrition.

"A vicious combination."

More than two years of fighting between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels allied with Iran have destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and left millions at risk of famine.

The country also faces "the world's worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world's largest humanitarian crisis", with the number of cases expected to reach 600,000 by the end of the year, the agency directors said.

The directors of the World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund and the World Food Programme toured both government- and rebel-held areas during their visit.

They said they saw "children who can barely gather the strength to breathe" and vital infrastructure damaged or destroyed.

International donors pledged $2.1 billion in aid at a conference earlier this year but only a third of it has been disbursed, the United Nations said earlier this month.

A Yemeni child suspected of being infected with cholera is checked by a doctor at a makeshift hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in the Abs district of Hajjah province on July 16, 2017

The shortfall has forced aid agencies to redirect their limited resources towards fighting cholera, leaving communities at greater risk of malnutrition.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 8,000 people and wounded 44,500 since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the conflict in March 2015.

The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a sea and air blockade of rebel-held territory, allowing in only limited UN-supervised deliveries of basic goods.

The cholera outbreak has already claimed 1,900 lives since April with 400,000 suspected cases across the country, according to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The agency chiefs said prognoses had improved as "more than 99 percent of people who are sick with suspected cholera and who can access health services are now surviving".
Israeli security forces stand by as Palestinian worshippers gather to pray in the old city of Jerusalem on July 26, 2017

Israel has removed more security installations from the entrance to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after protests and deadly unrest in recent days, prompting Palestinian celebrations early Thursday.

A tense standoff has been underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site despite the removal of metal detectors on Tuesday, with concerns of major unrest later this week if no resolution is found.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted have now also been removed from at least one main entrance to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, an AFP journalist saw early Thursday.

It was unclear whether Muslim authorities would now grant approval for worshippers to re-enter the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Palestinians began to gather at the entrance to celebrate in the early hours of Thursday, with whistling and constant horns from cars.

Young men set of firecrackers as Israeli forces watched closely.

Firas Abasi said he felt like crying over the "victory".

"For 12 days no one has slept, no one has done anything except the Al-Aqsa mosque," he said.

Israel installed the new security measures after an attack nearby that killed two policemen on July 14.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures there.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the site.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since the measures were installed, with clashes breaking out around the compound in Jerusalem's Old City and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.

There have been concerns that Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa -- will lead to serious clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Following intensive international diplomacy and warnings of the potential of wider unrest, Israel removed the metal detectors early on Tuesday.

Cameras installed after the attack on the police were also removed.

But Israeli officials said they were to be replaced with "advanced technologies" -- widely believed to be smart cameras with facial recognition technology.

The remaining installations and suspicions over what new measures Israel is planning led Palestinian and Muslim leaders to continue to call for a boycott of the site, and worshippers have so far heeded their call.

Separately late Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel because it "continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount."

Al-Jazeera had not immediately commented.

- Clock ticking -

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who announced a freeze on contacts with Israel last week over the dispute, said Tuesday the suspension would continue until the site was returned to the way it was before the crisis began.

Israel's decision to remove the metal detectors came after Netanyahu held talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II, who had demanded their removal.

In a telephone call Wednesday, Abdullah and Abbas "stressed the importance of continuing coordination to bring the situation back to what it was before the outbreak of the crisis and ensure the historical and legal status of the Holy Mosque is respected", Jordan's Petra news agency reported.

A top aide to US President Donald Trump earlier this week held talks in Jerusalem on the crisis.

The clock has been ticking, with last week's Friday prayers having brought the situation to a boil.

Concerned with the potential for unrest, Israel barred men under 50 from entering Jerusalem's Old City for prayers last Friday.

Protests and clashes erupted later in the day. The deadly stabbings of three Israelis came the same day.

- Deal with Jordan -

A diplomatic standoff between Israel and Jordan may have helped negotiations on the metal detectors.

On Sunday night in Amman, an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver, Israeli officials said.

A second Jordanian was also killed, apparently by accident.

Israel insisted the guard had diplomatic immunity and rejected Jordanian demands to question him.

The guard and other diplomats arrived home Monday after a deal that a Jordanian government source said also involved the mosque compound.

Jordan is the official custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

The compound is in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

The third-holiest site for Muslims and the most sacred for Jews, it is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.

In 2000, then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit there helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Egyptian Shoukran Rashwan, 75, sits on the rubble of her demolished house on Cairo's Warraq island on July 20, 2017

Hala Gamal looks at a pile of rubble on Cairo's Warraq island -- all that's left of her house after a police operation to evict residents accused of squatting on state land.

Gamal, 31, said she had left the Nile island in the capital's north on July 16 to buy breakfast. She returned to find her home destroyed and her children on the street.

As part of a government campaign to reclaim hundreds of thousands of hectares of state-owned land, police stormed the island and demolished several homes, sparking clashes that left one resident dead.

The government says about 90,000 people live on the 420 hectare (1,000 acre) island.

In a cabinet report, it promised that "those who have contracts and official papers proving land ownership" would not be affected by demolitions.

But Gamal said that was not true in the case of her house, where she lived with her husband, his mother and their four children.

"I have all the government papers and stamps that confirm that my husband owns the house," Gamal said. "So why this aggression by the government against simple people like us?"

Egyptians run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces on Warraq island during deadly clashes that erupted after police began demolishing houses there on July 16, 2017

Ferry owner Nasser Ahmed, 47, said the orders were signed just a day before the demolitions were carried out.

"They rushed to implement them the following day without sending a single notice (to residents). They demolished two inhabited houses," he said.

-Nature reserve-

Squatters began settling on the island more than 15 years ago, turning what had been agricultural land "into a slum", according to a cabinet report.

In May, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered a campaign to recover state-owned land which had been encroached upon.

The authorities said in June that over 800,000 hectares of agricultural and building land had been illegally appropriated, but that the government had retaken control of more than 386,150 hectares.

Authorities have carried out similar measures before.

In 2012, the military ordered people on Al-Qursaya island, south of Warraq, to leave their homes as they were in a military zone.

A ferry transports locals across the Nile near Cairo's Warraq island on on July 20, 2017. Some 90,000 people live on the island, according to the government

According to the cabinet, the authorities made several failed attempts to implement demolition orders on Warraq since 2007.

But residents say little has been done to protect their rights.

"The government promised not to approach inhabited buildings, but they did," Yehia al-Maghrabi, who was head of the island's municipality for 16 years to 2011, told AFP.

"Did the state forget its land for 10 whole years?"

The state owns up to 25 hectares on the island, mostly agricultural land belonging to the religious endowments ministry and the Agricultural Development Authority, Maghrabi said.

Farmers living on the agricultural land are there legally and pay rent to the authorities, he added.

The remaining state-owned land is home to some 2,500 people, who pay rent to the ADA, he said.

Some of their homes have been there for more than 60 years.

In 1998, the Egyptian government issued a decree to classify the island as a nature reserve, a decision Maghrabi derided.

"Is it conceivable that there would be a nature reserve with schools, a hospital, a youth centre, a police station, and a municipality?" he asked.

An Egyptian child plays next to the rubble of a demolished house on Cairo's Warraq island on July 20, 2017

Rumours have circulated on social media that the demolitions are meant to make space for a building project.

Users published pictures showing designs from 2013 to develop Warraq for commercial purposes.

The designs, which had appeared on the website of Emirati-Singaporean company RSB, were removed from the site after the July 16 demolitions.

No details were available about who paid for the designs.

The government denied the evictions were intended to clear the way for new development.
Residents wade through floodwaters near the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad in Gujarat

The bodies of 25 people, including 17 members of a single family, were pulled from the mud Wednesday as the death toll from major flooding in India climbed towards 120, an official said.

Authorities found the bodies in two villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district, Gujarat, as floodwaters receded, said assistant superintendent of police Aksharaj Makwana.

"In all 25 bodies were fished out from two villages on the bank of Banas river," he told AFP.

Local police said earlier 17 of the dead found in Kharia village were from one family.

A senior Gujarati government official, Pankaj Kumar, said 2655 stranded villagers had been rescued from Banaskantha district, with at least 260 airlifted to safey by India's Air Force.

Gujarat's state emergency authority said Wednesday at least 12 other bodies were found overnight as rescue crews sifted through communities devastated by heavy monsoon flooding.

The official death toll from the floods in India's westernmost state stands at 119, with more than 36,000 people evacuated to safe areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies Tuesday, urging people across his home state to remain resilient.

Apart from Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In Assam at least 75 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.
China's officially atheist ruling Communist party views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous "separatist" campaigning for Tibetan independence and consistently condemns foreign governments who welcome him

Beijing issued a warning to Botswana Wednesday over its plans to host the Dalai Lama next month, asking the African nation to respect China's "core interests".

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, which begins August 17.

China's officially atheist ruling Communist party views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous "separatist" campaigning for Tibetan independence and consistently condemns foreign governments who welcome him.

The Dalai Lama, in turn, says he is seeking more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang called for Botswana to "earnestly respect" China's core interests of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and "make the right decision" on Tibet-related issues.

"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and we will not accept that other countries do things that would harm the core interests of China," he told a regular press briefing.

It is not yet confirmed whether Botswana's President Ian Khama will meet with the Dalai Lama, but the leader will "extend basic courtesies" for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk and treat him as "a foreign dignitary" during his visit, the country's foreign minister said.

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.
Remembering Albert Cashier, Illinois' Civil War Hero & Transgender Trailblazer

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 26, 2017 6:50PM



Albert Cashier / 'We've Been Around'

LGBTQ organizations and Democratic lawmakers from Illinois were quick with rebukes after President Donald Trump announced this morning that the military under his administration would bar transgender people from serving.

As Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs while serving in the Iraq war, said in a statement, "If you are willing to risk your life for our country and you can do the job, you should be able to serveno matter your gender identity, sexual orientation or race. Anything else is discriminatory and counterproductive to our national security."

Gender-nonconforming people from our state have in fact been serving in the military to help preserve that national security for a very long time. One of the most remarkable cases is that of Albert Cashier, a transgender man who fought in the Civil War with the 95th Illinois Regiment.

Cashier was born in Ireland in 1843, as Jennie Hodgers, before making the trip across the Atlantic at the age of 17, eventually settling in Illinois andin 1862joining the Union army. As the New York Times noted in 2014, there are hundreds of accounts of women passing as men in order to serve, but fewer stories like Cashier, who "had been passing long before the fighting started" and would live most of his life as a transgender man thereafteruntil others exposed him and forced otherwise shortly before his death.

Cashier's story was documented last year in the We've Been Around short-doc series, which spotlighted under-told stories of historic trans people. Cashier was involved in over 40 engagements military engagements as a soldier and once climbed a tree, while dodging bullets, to raise a U.S. flag, according to the film.

"As a young private, Cashier had fought at the siege of Vicksburg, where he and his comrades broke the spine of the Confederacy, and his name was inscribed on the Illinois victory monument there," wrote the New York Times.

After the war, Cashier suffered a broken leg when he was struck be a car while working as a handyman for a lawmaker, in downstate Saunemin, Illinois. His boss arranged to have him convalesce at a soldiers' home in order to help preserve his identity. But he was soon discovered after being transferred to a state mental facility, when Cashier showed symptoms of dementia.

There, Cashier was forced to wear skirts "for the first time in over 50 years," according to the Times. In the cruelest irony, Cashier"unused to walking in the long, cumbersome [dress] garments" fell and broke a hip. He never recovered from the injury and died on Oct. 11, 1915.

"His comrades from the 95th gathered once more to make sure their brother in arms was buried as the man they knew him to be He was laid to rest in his Union blues," says the narrator in the film.

You can donate to Trans Lifeline here. If you're active-duty transgender service member, the American Civil Liberties asks you to contact the organization here.
Rafiqul Islam plays with his conjoined twin baby girls Rabia and Rukia in hospital in Dhaka

Bangladeshi twins born conjoined at the skull will undergo a difficult and potentially dangerous operation to separate them, surgeons said Wednesday as they appealed for help from global medical experts.

Doctors are trying to establish whether the one-year-old girls, born otherwise healthy in northwest Bangladesh, share the same brain, something that would vastly complicate the surgery.

"It would be a very delicate and sensitive surgery," said Ruhul Amin, chief paediatric surgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital Dhaka.

"We're evaluating their condition and trying to contact experts across the world for opinions and help."

Their parents, both schoolteachers, came to Dhaka shortly after Rabia and Rukia were born, to seek medical help.

Amin said the girls were healthy and playful but he wanted more time to study their condition to minimise the risks of surgery as much as possible.

The parents did not even know they were having twins before the birth, with scans not revealing any abnormalities or indications of two children, said their father Rafiqul Islam.

"The doctor only said it was a baby with a bigger head," he told AFP.

The parents wanted to ensure "a better life" for their daughters -- despite the potentially fatal ramifications of the surgery.

"Most people come to visit my daughters -- either with sympathy or joke in their eyes -- which is intolerable to watch as a father," he said.

"I want to keep my faith in Allah and the surgeons so that my daughters will have a successful surgery and eventually lead a normal life."

In rare cases, identical twins can be born with skin and internal organs fused together. About half are stillborn, and the survival rate is between five and 25 per cent.

In 2008 a baby born in Bangladesh with two heads died.
Pakistani rape survivor Mukhtar Mai at the home of the Los Angeles Opera in June for the West Coast premiere of "Thumbprint", an opera based on her story

Fourteen members of a Pakistani village council have been arrested for ordering the rape of a teenage girl as punishment for a rape committed by her brother, police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred earlier this month in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan, investigators told AFP.

"A jirga (village council) had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her brother had raped a 12-year-old," said Allah Baksh, a local police official.

He said the village council was approached by a man who complained that his 12-year-old sister had been raped by their cousin.

The council then ordered the complainant to rape the sister of the accused in return, Baksh said -- an order which was duly carried out.

The allegations were confirmed by Rashid Taheem, the police officer heading the investigation.

"Both the parties had filed cases of rape against each other at the local police station after the incident that happened last week," he told AFP.

"We have arrested 14 people of the village council so far," he said, adding that the "main accused" -- the man who raped the 12-year-old -- was still at large.

Jirgas, or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.

But such councils are illegal and have been under fire for their controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

A jirga was involved in one of South Asia's most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. Her attackers walked free but she went on to become a high-profile women's rights activist.

Her story inspired an opera, "Thumbprint", which opened in New York in 2014 and premiered in Los Angeles last month.
French President Emmanuel Macron saluted his countrymen for not rising to conflict after priest Jacques Hamel's killing

Two teenagers who murdered an elderly French priest a year ago after pledging loyalty to the Islamic State group failed to sow religious division, President Emmanuel Macron told a memorial service Wednesday.

Jacques Hamel, 85, was conducting mass in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, when the attackers burst in and slit his throat in front of five worshippers.

The gruesome attack caused widespread horror, coming two weeks after a radical used a truck to crush 86 people to death in the southern city of Nice.

In a video, the teenagers had sworn allegiance to IS.

At Wednesday's memorial in Hamel's small 16th-century church Macron hailed the solidarity shown by French Muslims after the attack -- and the failure of Catholics to be provoked.

"The two terrorists thought they would sow a desire among French Catholics for revenge. They failed," he said.

While assuring that the French state was "not out to combat any religion", Macron added that every religion "has its part to play to ensure that hatred... never wins.

"It is a long battle, waged every day," he added. "Here, you won it."

Three nuns and an elderly couple witnessed Hamel's murder by Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean on a quiet midweek morning in July.

The 19-year-old killers, who had been on a terror watch list, were shot dead by police outside the church.

This file photo taken on June 11, 2016 shows late priest Jacques Hamel celebrating a mass in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy

Hundreds of people, including relatives of Hamel, two government ministers and representatives of the French Council for the Muslim Faith were packed in at Wednesday's mass.

Outside, where Macron unveiled a large stainless steel disk inscribed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an overflow crowd followed the proceedings on a giant screen.

Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, who led the ceremony, thanked the Muslim community for asking to be included in the commemorations.

Later Wednesday, after evening prayers, dozens of people went to pay their respects to the priest at his grave in a nearby cemetery, including representatives from the local Muslim community.

Two people have been charged over their suspected links to the attackers.

One is a cousin of Petitjean's, whom investigators suspect knew of the plot to kill the priest.

Hamel, meanwhile, is on track to be beatified by the Vatican as a martyr -- a first step towards sainthood.
Prices for new homes retreated from the record set in May, but sales continued to rise in June as demand has shown no signs of waning

Sales of new US homes rose slightly in June, hitting their highest level in three months, as demand for housing remained stiff, according to government data released Wednesday.

But prices retreated from an all-time high and supplies rose, suggesting new construction could be offering some relief to what has been an exceedingly tight market, according to the Commerce Department report.

Sales of new homes rose 0.8 percent for the month to an annual rate of 610,000, seasonally adjusted, marking the second straight increase and matching analyst expectations.

That put home sales last month 9.1 percent higher than June of last year.

The median price retreated from May's all-time record, falling 4.2 percent to $310,800. The sales pace put the supply of available homes at 5.4 months, up slight from 5.3 months in May.

The stock of homes for sale rose to its highest level in eight years at an estimated 272,000, the report said.

Sales jumped in the western and mid-western United States, with sales of single-family homes in those regions rising by 10 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively. But activity was flat in the Northeast and fell more than six percent in the South.

Despite the consecutive increases, the data for June showed some signs of weakness, with net revisions bringing total sales since the start of the year down by 27,000.

"The results were good but not great," economist Joel Naroff said in a client note.

"We need the housing market to be strong if the economy is to accelerate. The sector has been adding to growth, but not by much."

In contrast to this report, industry numbers released this week showed sales of existing homes fell last month, and realtors blamed a shortage of available homes and the tight market, which is pushing prices higher.

Seven years of uninterrupted job creation and steady economic recovery, with a new generation of millennials ready to enter the housing market, has created strong demand, potentially pricing some would-be homeowners out of the market.

In addition, analysts say a tight labor market, local regulations and other barriers have held down construction, making the shortage more acute.
Nestle currently offers around 30 Kit Kat flavours in Japan

Wasabi and Okinawan sweet potato may not be everyone's preferred type of Kit Kat but booming demand for exotic flavours in Japan has prompted bar-maker Nestle to open a new factory.

The Switzerland-based food giant announced Wednesday that it will on August 1 open its first new Japanese Kit Kat production site in 26 years, located in the western city of Himeji.

The move was made to "respond to (the) popularity of Made in Japan" Kit Kat bars, Nestle said in a statement.

In Japan, where Kit Kat was introduced in 1973, the bar is not a typical four-fingered chocolate treat.

Aside from Wasabi, a notoriously hot condiment served with sushi and sashimi, Nestle currently offers around 30 Kit Kat flavours in Japan -- raging from green tea to ginger, to Yokohama cheese cake and Kobe pudding.

Nestle said the bars made at the new Himeji site will be sold at boutique shops -- a popular destination Kit Kat aficionados with unorthodox tastes -- and online.

But these speciality flavours are often far more expensive than the standard version.

A special edition gold-coated Kit Kat bar introduced in 2015 sold for a jaw-dropping $16 (13.75 euros) when it first hit shelves, while an average high-end flavour currently sells for about $13.
A Palestinian Muslim prays in front of a gate to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on July 26, 2017, as a tense standoff simmers over the holy site

They come every day, spreading out prayer mats in a Jerusalem street under the watchful eyes of Israeli police and refusing to enter one of the world's most sensitive holy sites.

Nearly two weeks into a standoff over Israeli security measures at the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the days have developed a rhythm.

Daytime prayers are small -- usually a few hundred worshippers gather at the Lions' Gate entrance to the walled Old City.

Supporters distribute food and drinks to the protestors.

Dozens of heavily armed Israeli police look on in silence, some smoking or fiddling with their phones.

As nightfall approaches, the tension grows.

Palestinians have refused to enter the site, which includes the Al-Asqa Mosque compound and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock, over new security measures imposed after three Israeli Arabs shot dead two policemen nearby on July 14.

Israeli security forces watch as Palestinian Muslim worshippers gather to pray in Jerusalem's Old City on July 26, 2017

Israel introduced metal detectors at the gates, triggering outrage from Palestinians and their religious leaders who see the move as an Israeli attempt to assert more control over the site.

Protestors have been holding prayers nearby ever since. The metal detectors were removed on Tuesday, but Palestinians want all the new measures cancelled and have continued their boycott.

A group of around 50 women travel more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) each day to Jerusalem from Nazareth in northern Israel, leaving at 6:00 am and returning in the evening.

"As we are a people living under occupation they must give us freedom of religion, freedom to enter to holy places, but not in humiliation," said Umm Zuhair, who was part of a women's protest outside.

Around 7:30 pm the crowd of worshippers starts to grow.

By the time of the final prayer -- around 9:00 pm -- there are several thousand Palestinians on the street near the Lions' Gate.

Most simply pray but some of the younger men taunt security forces in riot gear.

Young Palestinians throw firecrackers, prompting police to charge at the crowd and fire sound grenades.

On Tuesday night police fired a series of the grenades to disperse the crowd, and a Palestinian journalist was arrested.

- Separate conversations -

As is usually the case, Israelis and Palestinians are having separate conversations.

A Palestinian distributes food donated to support demonstrators who have kept a vigil for over a week outside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, on July 26, 2017

For Israel, the new measures are about security. It says the July 14 attackers smuggled weapons into the site and emerged from it to attack officers.

For Palestinians, the dispute centres on sovereignty.

Israeli officials point out security checks are standard in many other places, including the Western Wall -- the holiest site where Jews can pray.

"The ability of Muslims, next to Jews, next to tourists that are coming from all over the world to this holy place is dependent on the security that Israel is supplying," Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told the BBC.

The compound is the third holiest site in Islam, believed to be where the Prophet Mohammed made his night journey to heaven.

It is also the most sacred in Judaism as the location of the first and second Jewish temples, destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans.

Under a decades-old agreement, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the inside the compound, though anyone can visit, including Jews.

Palestinians fear Israel is seeking to change the status quo, pointing out that Israel controls predominantly Palestinian east Jerusalem, seized in 1967 and including Al Aqsa.

Israel later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community. But it says it has no intention of changing the status quo of the city's holy sites.

Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray outside Jerusalem's Old City on July 25, 2017 after Muslim officials said worshippers should continue to boycott the Al-Aqsa mosque compound

Such is the unique nature of the Old City, roughly one square kilometre, that the Lions' Gate is only metres from where Christians believe Jesus carried his cross en route to crucifixion.

In the rest of the Old City the atmosphere is subdued.

"Things were improving in recent months but with what happened at Al-Aqsa of course we have seen a drop" in tourist numbers, said Hovsep, who works in a shop selling Christian and Jewish trinkets.

Last Friday after the main weekly Muslim prayers, three Palestinians were killed during major protests in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Later that night, a Palestinian sneaked into a West Bank settlement and stabbed three Israelis to death.

With another round of Friday prayers approaching, fears are growing of another round of bloodshed.
Anti-President Kabila protestors shout slogans and wave placards as they demonstrate near the entrance to a presidential guest house in Pretoria on June 24, 2017, where the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila and South African president Jacob Zuma were meeting during an official state visit by Kabila.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday warned that the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region could face further turmoil unless a political deal reached six months ago to pave the way to elections is implemented.

Under the agreement reached on New Year's Eve, elections are to be held this year in the large mineral-rich African country that would be the DR Congo's first democratic transition.

Concerns are growing however that the deal is unraveling after the head of the electoral commission said this month that the vote will likely not be held this year.

In a unanimous statement drafted by France, the council warned that "unless political actors demonstrate renewed good faith and political will to deliver on the promises they made to their people on New Year's Eve 2016, the DRC and the wider region are set to face an increased risk of insecurity and instability."

The Congolese opposition is planning a nationwide strike on August 8 and rallies on August 20 to push President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, to step aside and allow elections to take place.

Opposition leaders said at the weekend that Kabila must agree by the end of September to an election date or else they will no longer recognize him as president as of October 1.

In the statement, the council stressed the "urgency of swift implementation" in order to organize "peaceful, credible inclusive and timely elections, no later than December 2017" and achieve a peaceful transfer of power.

Council members also said they were ready to "act accordingly regarding all Congolese actors whose actions and statements impede the implementation of the agreement and the organization of elections."

At a council meeting earlier this month, the United States demanded that the electoral commission immediately publish an electoral calendar and specifically a date for the presidential vote.

Washington threatened unilateral sanctions and said the Security Council should consider imposing measures to pile pressure on all sides over the elections delay.

The council also condemned violence in the Kasai region, where UN officials say they have uncovered dozens of mass graves and two UN experts were killed while investigating the killings.
(FILES) This picture taken and released on July 25, 2017 by Turkey's presidential press service shows President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an address before the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in Ankara

A fallout between Turkey and Israel deepened on Wednesday as the Jewish state hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's criticism of its constraints on Muslims visiting a sensitive holy site in annexed east Jerusalem.

Erdogan welcomed Israel's removal of metal detectors from the site but said it was "not enough".

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen.

But after protests and intensive international diplomacy to prevent further unrest, the Israeli government removed the detectors from the site.

"Israel took the right step to remove the metal detectors to help lower tension," Erdogan said. "But is it enough according to our wishes? No, it is not."

Erdogan said Turkey "cannot tolerate" constraints placed by its nominal ally Israel on Muslims visiting the site during the weekly Friday prayers.

Israel's foreign ministry responded on Wednesday with a forthright statement.

"It's absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region," it said in a statement.

"The days of the Ottoman Empire have passed."

Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site, which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Clashes broke out during protests, leaving five Palestinians dead.

"The Israeli government want to destroy the Islamic character of Jerusalem with a new practice every day," Erdogan said.

There were already tit-for-tat statements from both sides on Tuesday after Erdogan criticised Israel and accused it of "attempting to take the (Al-Aqsa) mosque from Muslim hands".

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that his comments were "mind-blowing, false and distorted".

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu on Wednesday condemned Israel's "arrogant" remarks.
Earlier this year, Germany reinforced its presence with the UN force in Mali

Two German UN peacekeepers were killed Wednesday when their helicopter crashed as they were monitoring clashes in northern Mali, German and UN officials said.

UN diplomats confirmed that the attack helicopter and the crew had been supplied by Germany to MINUSMA, the UN mission in Mali.

"Sadly we now know that two Bundeswehr (German army) soldiers have given their lives for our country," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in Berlin late Wednesday.

According to German army Vice Admiral Joachim Georg Ruehle, standing beside her, the helicopter crew did not issue any distress calls and there were no firm indications as to the cause of the crash which happened at around 1220 GMT, 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of the city of Gao.

The army believes the helicopter was the victim of "a massive technical failure," the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.

MINUSMA in a statement confirmed the two UN peacekeepers had been killed and that the crash was thought to have been the result of a mechanical failure.

A UN source in Gao said earlier that nothing at this stage would suggest the aircraft was hit or shot at as it monitored fighting in the area.

The United Nations operation, launched in 2013, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission, with dozens of its staff killed over the last four years.

- Helicopter operations suspended -

Germany has reinforced its presence in Mali this year, deploying several Tiger combat helicopters and raising the number of Germans serving in MINUSMA to 639 as of June, the army's largest presence overseas.

France has expressed hope its European neighbour will do more in the poor and insecure Sahel region.

Following Wednesday's crash all helicopter operations have been suspended, Von der Leyen said.

The crash comes two years after two Dutch UN peacekeepers died when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

Fighting between the Gatia pro-government group and the CMA former rebel alliance close to the city of Kidal claimed numerous victims on Wednesday, a military source within the UN mission said, separate to the clashes near Gao.

A local official accused the rebels of using "jihadist back-up" to gain an advantage over the pro-government fighters.

The groups' disputes threaten the future of a peace deal they signed in 2015 aimed at curbing northern uprisings and keeping the jihadists in check, according to the UN.

- 'Supreme sacrifice' -

MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said Wednesday his staff were "devastated by the crash".

"All MINUSMA personnel and myself salute the supreme sacrifice made by peacekeepers," he said in a statement posted on the mission's Facebook page.

In 2012, key cities in Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Germany has supplied both NH90 Caiman transport and Tiger attack helicopters to the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA

Former rebels still control the northern city of Kidal, and fighting between groups previously loyal to the Tuareg rebellion and pro-government militia is common, in violation of a ceasefire.

The United Nations has condemned such violations by the combatants, but the state is absent from much of Mali's northern territory and its terrain is very difficult to traverse.
A picture taken on July 26, 2017 during a tour guided by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement shows a fighter from the group placing a flag of the movement and another Lebanese national flag in a mountainous area around the Lebanese town of Arsal

Surveying the rocky no-man's land on Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, Hezbollah fighters recalled the "difficult" battle they fought to recapture much of the terrain from militants.

The Lebanese Shiite movement has waged a five-day offensive across the scraggy landscape known as Jurud Arsal to oust what it says are ex-Al-Qaeda Syrian jihadists.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah brought journalists to its positions overlooking the last pocket of enemy territory.

Despite plumes of black smoke in the distance, fighters appeared relaxed after several days of clashes, grinning in the blistering heat.

"Jurud Arsal's topography is tough and the battle against Al-Nusra Front here was difficult," said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Al-Nusra was entrenched in its hilltops and valleys, turning these areas into combat facilities that even airplanes couldn't reach."

Al-Nusra was Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch before it broke off ties and rebranded as Fateh al-Sham Front last year.

Hezbollah has fought the group in Syria since intervening in support of the Damascus government in 2013.

Jurud Arsal -- a mountainous area around the Lebanese border town of Arsal -- is mostly barren, save for some orchards of cherry and apricot trees that ripened long ago without being picked.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in and around the town, some in camps.

But security has long been a concern, with Lebanese security forces battling jihadists there in 2014.

A picture taken on July 26, 2017 during a tour guided by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement shows Syrian soldiers riding on a tank near Hezbollah fighters in a mountainous area around the Lebanese town of Arsal along the border with Syria

On Wednesday, Lebanon's flag had been planted next to the yellow and green flag of Hezbollah in Jurud Arsal.

Around 200 fighters were in a pocket "that does not exceed nine square kilometres," or about three and a half square miles, the Hezbollah commander said.

- Air strikes -

Syrian warplanes have backed the push with regular air strikes from their side of the frontier.

A Syrian army colonel accompanied by Hezbollah fighters could be seen atop a tank Wednesday in the porous border area.

Lebanon's army has not officially declared its participation in the operation but has shelled "terrorists" in the area.

Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday said they had helped protect "the Lebanese army's back".

"We're shouldering the danger for Lebanon -- the danger of explosions and terrorist cells," the commander said.

Hezbollah's involvement in Syria has intensified pre-existing divides among Lebanese political parties, but the assault in Jurud Arsal has appeared less controversial.

Despite Hezbollah's announcement Monday that the operation was nearly over, the field commander said there was still work to do.

"The battle in Jurud (Arsal) is not over yet," he told journalists.

"Nusra has an ideology and its fighters are tough. But we too are strong and have an ideology, even if it's a different one."

A picture taken on July 26, 2017 during a tour guided by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement shows Syrian soldiers riding on a tank near Hezbollah fighters in a mountainous area around the Lebanese town of Arsal along the border with Syria

Extreme Sunni militant groups such as Al-Qaeda consider Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority of Hezbollah's members and supporters, as apostates.

Since its offensive began, Hezbollah has buried around 20 of its fighters and says around 120 enemy combatants were killed.

Its head Hassan Nasrallah will give a televised address Wednesday, with fighters expecting him to announce the conclusion of the battle's "first phase".

"Tonight, he will define the course of the fight against Daesh," the commander said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

IS controls swathes of territory in Jurud Arsal and around two neighbouring border towns, the commander said.

"It won't be a difficult task. Its fighters are only a few hundred and spread out in this vast territory."
Mainland auction houses operating in Hong Kong are registering strong performances in the face of tough competition from major international brands.

Art enthusiasts check sales booklets at the China Guardian HK 2017 Spring Auction. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Buyers from the Chinese mainland are increasingly on the radars of art dealers across the globe, and the phenomenon is probably most apparent in Hong Kong, which acts as a vital conduit between the mainland and the rest of the world.

According to Gary Yee, CEO of Art Serindia, a consultancy in Hong Kong, all auction housesincluding big international players and homegrown Chinese brandsare now competing for the attention of mainland buyers.

While collectors from Europe and the United States seem to be on the back foot, their counterparts on the Chinese mainland are buying vigorously. Last year, buyers from Asia beat more-seasoned client bases in Europe and the Americas to claim 40.5 percent of global auction house sales, and 90 percent of them were from China, according to data from The European Fine Art Foundation. Today, China is home to an ever-expanding pool of collectors at the center of the global art market.

Hong Kong is often the first port of call for buyers from the Chinese mainland and, not entirely coincidentally, also the last. They come to assess some of the world's most expensive paintings that will later go under the hammer in London or New York, and they comprise the bulk of consumers who buy from the city's major auctions and art fairs. That Hong Kong doesn't count art as a dutiable commodity and has one of the world's most advanced logistics facilities make the city a great transit home for artworks connoisseurs acquire in the city.

In recent years, a sizeable proportion of the world's art purchases has been linked to Hong Kong. What may come as a bit of a surprise, though, is that the stars of record-breaking sales have often been overshadowed by the hype surrounding the runners-up. For example, Zhang Daqian's ink and color painting Peach Blossom Spring made headlines when it sold for $34.7 million at Sotheby's spring auctions in April last year, but the sale of Cui Ruzhuo's The Grand Snowing Mountains the day beforefetching more than $39.5 million, a record price for a painting in the local marketat Poly Auction Hong Kong passed relatively unnoticed.

Poly Auction Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Beijing Poly International Auction, has been on a winning spree since it set up shop in the city in 2012. In fact, six out of 10 of the most expensive paintings purchased in Hong Kong were sold through Poly.

According to Artprice, a market survey and analysis portal, seven of the 10 most expensive pieces of art sold in Hong Kong last year were placed in the market by mainland auction houses, including Poly. Their success seems sweeter when one considers that many of the mainland auction houses currently making a splash in the Hong Kong market only arrived in the city in the past 20 years, whereas the multinational heavyweights have been around for much longerSotheby's hosted its first Hong Kong sale in 1973and have been in business elsewhere since the 18th century.
Rupert Jones (C), deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), arrives for a meeting with the Raqa Civil Council on July 23, 2017, in the northern Syrian village of Ain Issa

A US-backed alliance has ousted Islamic State group jihadists from half of their Syrian bastion Raqa, a monitor said Wednesday, as the escalating fighting drove up the civilian death toll.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting for several months to capture the northern city, which has become infamous as the Syrian heart of IS's so-called "caliphate."

The SDF "are now in control of 50 percent of Raqa city despite the fierce resistance mounted by IS", Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

The SDF assault has been backed by air strikes, special forces advisers, equipment and weapons from the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

On Wednesday, a barrage of US-led air strikes across the city left at least 29 civilians dead, the British-based Observatory said.

"At least eight children are among the dead," Abdel Rahman said.

The SDF's Arab and Kurdish fighters first entered Raqa on June 6, seven months after launching their flagship offensive for the city -- called Operation Wrath of the Euphrates.

They have since steadily advanced in a pincer-like motion, closing in on the city centre.

But IS has fought back using a slew of car bombs, suicide attacks, weaponised drones and with improvised explosive devices scattered across the city.

- Tightening noose -

The spokeswoman for the SDF's Raqa operation told AFP that just under half the city was under SDF control.

"Forty-five percent of Raqa has been liberated. Our forces are advancing on all sides," Jihan Sheikh Ahmed said late Wednesday.

"The tighter the noose grows around Daesh (IS), the more strongly it reacts and the tougher it fights," Ahmed said.

IS first seized Raqa in early 2014, and the city has since become synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities.

The jihadists carried out public beheadings there and is also thought to have used Raqa as a hub for planning attacks overseas.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the escalating violence in recent months, but the United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 people remain trapped inside the city.

Those who have managed to escape have told harrowing tales of dodging sniper fire and mines or paying smugglers to lead them out.

Once IS is ousted from Raqa, a body called the Raqa Civil Council is expected to run the city's administrative affairs.

But much of Raqa's infrastructure has been devastated by years under jihadist rule and bombing by various parties in Syria, including the coalition.

- Rising civilian toll -

With Wednesday's deadly raids, at least 325 civilians, including 51 children, have died in the city since the SDF penetrated Raqa less than two months ago, according to the Observatory.

Another 467 IS jihadists and 219 SDF have also been killed in the fighting.

A deputy commander of the international coalition said Sunday it would have "a great deal more" to do in Syria even after Raqa is captured.

"Daesh is not defeated with the liberation of Raqa. The defeat of Daesh was not completed with the liberation of Mosul" in Iraq, British Major General Rupert Jones told reporters, using an Arab acronym for Islamic State.

More than 330,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's conflict broke out in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

The widespread popular demonstrations have since evolved into a complex war drawing in world powers on all sides.

On Wednesday, at least 14 civilians were killed when unidentified warplanes bombed territory east of the IS-held town of Mayadeen, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Five children were among the dead.
No caption

US Secretary of State on Wednesday Rex Tillerson denied suggestions that he plans to resign because of disagreement with the White House.

"I'm not going anywhere," Tillerson told reporters said as received Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

Tillerson described his relationship with President Donald Trump as "good" and he would remain in his job "as long as the president lets me."

Tillerson's job status has been the subject of much speculation this week in Washington following a report from CNN.

CNN said that among Tillerson's growing differences with the White House were fresh debate over Iran policy and the process of naming White House personnel, as well as Trump's chaotic and confusing foreign policy approach.

The network quoted anonymous sources as saying Tillerson told people close to him that he would leave his job by the end of the year.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied Tuesday that Tillerson planned to resign.

She said he is taking a few days off after tour of Gulf nations in July to try to end a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its allies.

Since taking the helm of the State Department in February, the former ExxonMobil chair has come under fire for his ultra-low profile, and his plan to slash by 30 percent the budget of an agency that employs more than 70,000 people in Washington and around the world.

When he returned from the Gulf on July 13, Tillerson, a 65-year-old Texan, said he was tired.

He also said his life was easier when he ran ExxonMobil from 2006 to 2016 because was "the ultimate decision-maker" in a process that was disciplined and structured at the oil giant.

"Those are not the characteristics of the United States government. And I don't say that as a criticism. It's just an observation of fact. It's largely not a highly disciplined organization, decision-making is fragmented and sometimes people don't want to take decisions," Tillerson said.
LONDON (AP) - The parents of Charlie Gard, whose battle to get their critically ill baby experimental treatment stirred international sympathy and controversy, dropped their legal effort Monday, saying tearfully that it was time to let their son die.

At an emotional court hearing, a lawyer for the baby's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, said the couple was withdrawing a bid to have Charlie sent to the United States, where a doctor had offered to try to treat his rare genetic condition. The decision came after new medical tests showed the 11-month-old, who has brain damage and cannot breathe unaided, had irreversible muscular damage.

Both parents wept in the packed courtroom at the High Court in London as lawyer Grant Armstrong made the announcement, his voice breaking.

Chris Gard, the father of critically ill baby Charlie Gard finishes reading out a statement next to mother Connie Yates, right, at the end of their case at the High Court in London, Monday, July 24, 2017. The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard dropped their legal bid Monday to send him to the United States for an experimental treatment after new medical tests showed that the window of opportunity to help him had closed. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

"This case is now about time," Armstrong said. "Sadly, time has run out."

Outside court, Chris Gard said that Charlie "won't make his first birthday in just under two weeks' time."

"We are about to do the hardest thing that we will ever have to do, which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go," he said.

Gard and Yates, who are in their 30s and from London, have fought ferociously for their son, who was born in August 2016 with mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease.

The baby has been treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, one of the world's leading children's hospitals. Doctors there say Charlie is in pain and further treatment would only increase his suffering. They have sought permission from the courts to switch off his life support and allow him to die peacefully. His parents have resisted, arguing that an experimental treatment could extend and improve Charlie's life.

The case gained international attention after Charlie's parents received support from Pope Francis, U.S. President Donald Trump and some members of the U.S. Congress.

On Monday, the Vatican said Pope Francis was praying for Charlie and his parents, and urged the faithful to join him in prayer so that the baby's parents "may find God's consolation and love.

As the legal battle dragged on, U.S.-based pro-life activists had flown to London to support Charlie's parents, and the case became a flashpoint for opposing views on health-care funding, medical intervention, the role of the state and the rights of the child.

Passions have often run high, with activists demanding "justice for Charlie" rallying outside the High Court and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Over the weekend, the hospital said it had contacted police after staff received abuse and threats.

Charlie's parents condemned the abuse, and on Monday thanked the hospital for the care it had given their child.

Some commentators portrayed the case as a clash between family and the state, and U.S. conservatives used it to criticize Britain's government-funded health care system - even though the case was never about money.

Judge Nicholas Francis criticized those "who know almost nothing about this case but who feel entitled to express opinions."

At its heart, the case pitted the right of parents to decide what's best for their children against the authorities' responsibility to uphold the rights of people who can't speak for themselves.

Under British law, children have rights independent of their parents, and it is usual for courts to intervene when parents and doctors disagree on the treatment of a child - such as cases where a parent's religious beliefs prohibit blood transfusions.

British courts and the European Court of Human Rights all ruled against Charlie's parents and in favor of Great Ormond Street. The case returned to court this month when the hospital asked the judge to reassess the possible benefits of a treatment pioneered by Dr. Michio Hirano, a neurology expert from Columbia Medical Center in New York.

At a hearing earlier this month, Hirano said there was a 10 percent chance of a significant improvement in Charlie's muscle use with the treatment, known as nucleoside therapy. But he conceded it had never been tried on a human with Charlie's exact condition and no tests had ever been done on mice to see whether it would work on a patient like Charlie.

Hirano came to London last week to examine Charlie along with other experts. After seeing the results of new tests, the baby's parents agreed to drop their case, meaning Charlie's life support can now be removed.

But they still believe Charlie could have been saved had months not been spent in legal wrangling about whether he should get treatment.

"Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy," Yates told the court.

"Our son has an extremely rare disease for which there is no accepted cure, but that does not mean that this treatment would not have worked, and it certainly does not mean that this shouldn't have been tried."

The hospital disagreed. Its lawyer, Katie Gollop, said Charlie had suffered "irreversible neurological damage" and the treatment would have been "futile." She said the hospital stood by its belief that Charlie was in pain.

"At the first hearing in Charlie's case in March, (Great Ormond Street Hospital's) position was that every day that passed was a day that was not in his best interests," Gollop said in a written statement. "That remains its view of his welfare."

The hospital also criticized Hirano, saying that he had given evidence to court without having read previous judgments or Charlie's medical records. And it noted that Hirano had told the court that he "retains a financial interest in some of the ... compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie."

Ending a case he called tragic for all involved, the judge paid tribute to Charlie's parents, saying it was impossible to comprehend the agony they faced.

"No parent could have done more for their child," he said.

Yates cried as she told the court she and Charlie's father had only wanted the best for their son.

"We are so sorry that we couldn't save you," she said.

The parents Charlie Gard the critically ill infant Chris Gard and Connie Yates arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of the latest High Court hearing in London Monday July 24, 2017 . They returned to the court for the latest stage in their effort to seek permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. Britain's High Court is considering new evidence in the case of Charlie Gard. The 11-month-old has a rare genetic condition, and his parents want to take him to America to receive an experimental treatment.(Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, arrive at the High Court in London, Monday, July 24, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, are returning to court for the latest stage in their effort to seek permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Supporters of critically ill baby Charlie Gard shout and hold placards before his parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrived at the High Court in London, Monday, July 24, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, are returning to court for the latest stage in their effort to seek permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Chris Gard,the father of critically ill baby Charlie Gard reads out a statement next t mother Connie Yates, right, at the end of their case at the High Court in London, Monday, July 24, 2017. The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard dropped their legal bid Monday to send him to the United States for an experimental treatment after new medical tests showed that the window of opportunity to help him had closed. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

This is an undated photo of sick baby Charlie Gard provided by his family, taken at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The parents of a critically ill infant Monday July 24, 2017 withdrew their court fight seeking permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. Chris Gard and Connie Yates wept as their attorney revealed the results of brain scans. The 11-month-old has a rare genetic condition, and his parents fought hard to receive an experimental treatment. Doctors said it wouldn't help and contended Charlie should be allowed to die peacefully. (Family of Charlie Gard via AP)
LA CELLE SAINT-CLOUD, France (AP) - Two rival Libyan leaders committed themselves on Tuesday to a cease-fire, working toward presidential and parliamentary elections and finding a roadmap to secure lawless Libya against terrorism and trafficking of all kinds, according to a document released by the French presidency.

The meetings at a chateau in La Celle Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, brought together Fayez Serraj, prime minister of the U.N.-backed unity government, and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya's self-styled national army. Macron met separately with each ahead of an encounter between the two Libyans in the presence of U.N.'s newly appointed special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame.

"There is political legitimacy is in the hands of Mr. Serraj. There is military legitimacy is in the hands of Mr. Hifter. They have decided to work together," Macron said.

France's President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

The 10-point joint declaration that capped the encounter was the first of its kind since Libya spiraled into chaos after the 2011 toppling and killing of leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Among the points agreed upon was a commitment to a cease-fire with armed force reserved "strictly" for use in counter-terrorism operations.

The rivals also "solemnly commit to work towards the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible."

The French president said later that the goal is for balloting in the spring. Serraj had said in May that elections would be held in spring.

"The stakes of this reconciliation are enormous. Enormous for the Libyan people, who have been suffering, living with instability and terrorist threats these past years, and it is considerable for the whole region," Macron said after the talks. "Because if Libya fails, the whole region fails with it, especially directly neighboring countries. And it is process that is essential for all of Europe because if we don't succeed, the consequences affect our countries directly because of the terrorist risk and migration consequences."

Macron's bid to work toward laying the groundwork for a state with a functioning government and institutions is a priority of his presidency.

Talks were centered on creating a propitious climate for elections next year - which the Libyan prime minister announced plans for in May - security and military issues, respect for human rights and economic development of the oil-rich nation where residents struggle despite the resources, French officials said.

Macron, Salame and Serraj, along with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, walked into the chateau to begin the first set of talks after shaking hands before Republican Guards in their ornate gear. Hifter arrived later.

The encounter was never expected to resolve the knotty problems of Libya, politically fractured and awash in militias and human traffickers preying on migrants who use the Libyan coast as a jumping off point to Europe, mainly Italy. But it was seen as a way to lay the basis for the U.N. envoy to come up with proposals in the weeks and months ahead.

Serraj and Hifter met in early May in Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates said later there had been a "significant breakthrough." Libya TV said the men agreed on holding presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

Paris has made clear that the French initiative is not meant to brush aside numerous initiatives by others, including the European Union, the African Union and individual countries, like Morocco.

France "wants to facilitate a political entente" and "mark its support for efforts to build a political compromise, under the auspices of the United Nations," that includes all actors in the country, a statement Monday by the president's office said earlier. The challenge, it added, is to "build a state capable of responding to the fundamental needs of Libyans" with one regular army "under the authority of civilian power," considered necessary for the control of borders and stability within Libya.

___

Ganley reported from Paris.

France's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, right, and France's President Emmanuel Macron, center, welcomes Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government, left, and France's President Emmanuel Macron meet at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool Photo via AP)

France's President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government, left, President Emmanuel Macron, center, and General Khalifa Hifter of the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya's self-styled national army walk to a media conference at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool Photo via AP)

From left to right, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government, President Emmanuel Macron and General Khalifa Hifter of the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya's self-styled national army walk to a media conference at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool Photo via AP)

From left to right, Libya's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the U.N.-backed government, Foreign Minister France's Jean-Yves Le Drian President Emmanuel Macron, General Khalifa Hifter of the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya's self-styled national army hug each other after a media conference at the Chateau of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, trying to play peacemaker in a country where the stakes are high for both Europe and Africa. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
BEIJING (AP) - China on Tuesday denied its fighter jet pilots operated dangerously during an encounter with a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace in which the American pilot took evasive action to avoid a possible collision.

Spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement on the defense ministry's microblog that the performance of the pilots of the two J-10 fighters was "legal, necessary and professional."

Ren criticized frequent close-in surveillance runs by U.S. planes as raising the chance of accidents, saying such missions "threatened China's national security, harmed China-U.S. sea-air military safety, endangered the safety of pilots from the two sides and were the root cause of China-U.S. sea-air unexpected incidents."

In this Sept. 3, 2015, file photo, two Chinese J-10 fighter jets fly in formation during a parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender during World War II in Beijing. China on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, denied that two of its J-10 fighter jet pilots operated dangerously during an encounter with a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace in which the American pilot took evasive action to avoid a possible collision. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

The U.S. should stop such "unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly military activities," Ren said, in a repetition of China's standard policy toward U.S. surveillance missions intended at collecting Chinese computer and voice data in hopes of gaining insight into the workings of the People's Liberation Army.

Asked about the incident at a daily briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing objected to such missions but remained "committed to building military mutual trust with other countries."

U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the Chinese fighters intercepted the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane Sunday in international airspace between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, in an area he described as west of the Korean Peninsula.

Davis said one of the Chinese planes approached at a high rate of speed from beneath the American plane, then slowed and pulled up, prompting the EP-3 pilot to take evasive action. He called the Chinese pilot's move unsafe.

China in 2013 declared an air defense identification zone over a partly contested portion of the East China Sea, demanding foreign aircraft declare their presence and follow Chinese orders. The U.S. and others swiftly dismissed the zone as invalid and have largely ignored it. It wasn't clear if Sunday's encounter took place inside the zone.

Such incidents continue to occur despite an agreement between the two sides to prevent them from sparking an international crisis, as happened in April 2001 when a Chinese jet fighter collided with a U.S. EP-3. That led to the death of the Chinese pilot and China's detention of the U.S. air crew for 10 days after their crippled plane landed at a PLA Navy air base on the island province of Hainan.

While China has long chafed at U.S. surveillance operations targeting its military, the PLA itself has been conducting such missions further and further from its home ports.

Earlier this month, China sailed a spy ship through the narrow Tsugaru Strait separating the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, while another was spotted last week within Australia's exclusive economic zone where allies Australia and U.S. were conducting major war games.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's government approved a long-delayed agreement to sell a 70 percent stake in a $1.2 billion Chinese-built port to China on Tuesday, months after signing an initial framework agreement which drew public criticism and protests.

Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe said the Cabinet approved the agreement, which is to be signed by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the state-run China Merchants Port Holding Co. over the weekend.

He said the Chinese company will invest $1.12 billion in the port, which is close to busy east-west shipping lanes. Under the original framework agreement, an 80 percent stake would have been sold to China.

According to the agreement, two local companies whose shares will be split between the Chinese enterprise and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority will be set up to handle the port's operation, security and services. The Chinese company will be responsible for commercial operations while the Sri Lanka Ports Authority will handle security. The lease period is 99 years.

In January, hundreds of farmers and opposition supporters protested the government's plan to lease the port, saying the proposed partnership was akin to a sellout of the country. The port, built with a Chinese loan during the administration of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is seen as a white elephant because it has failed to become financially viable since it began operations in 2011.

Sri Lanka's government criticized the project before being elected in 2015 but later sought help from China to make it viable.

The port is seen as a part of Beijing's so-called string-of-pearls plan for a line of ports stretching from its waters to the Persian Gulf.

Rajapaksa relied heavily on China for infrastructure projects. During his administration, China provided loans for an airport, sea port, highways and power plants, and became the largest investor in Sri Lanka.

China's influence in Sri Lanka makes neighboring India anxious because it considers the Indian Ocean region to be its strategic backyard.

The current government led by President Maithripala Sirisena has been trying to balance both Asian giants since coming to power.
CLEVELAND (AP) - An Ohio appeals court ruling has cleared the way for a Cleveland man to seek financial compensation for his time behind bars after the court found he was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years.

Cleveland.com reports (http://bit.ly/2tuK5gM) that a three-judge panel of Ohio's 8th District Court of Appeals found that prosecutors withheld key evidence in the trial of Anthony Lemons, who was convicted of murder in the 1994 slaying of Eric B. Sims.

The July 20 appeals court ruling said authorities violated Lemons' rights by not telling the defense that police identified Lemons as a suspect using shoes not publicly available when the slaying occurred.

Lemons, who has always maintained his innocence, requested a new trial in 2008 and learned through a public records request that an eyewitness identification of him hinged on the pair of white and Carolina blue Nike Air Jordan sneakers he wore in a physical line up.

The witness had passed over Lemons in a photo lineup but told police she identified Lemons in the physical lineup because he was wearing the same sneakers as the man she saw the night of the shooting. Her ID was the only piece of evidence linking Lemons to the crime.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Lemons in 2014, but stopped short of saying he was innocent.

The appeals court said Lemons did not prove he was innocent of the crime, a claim that carries a higher burden of proof and would likely result in a larger payout. But for a civil claim for compensation, a person convicted of a crime would need a judge to declare them either wrongfully imprisoned or not guilty.

Prosecutors can ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling.

___

Information from: cleveland.com, http://www.cleveland.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - Oh, that dreaded open microphone!

Republican Sen. Susan Collins got caught Tuesday at the end of a hearing with a microphone that was still hot - and captured her ripping President Donald Trump and making fun of a fellow lawmaker who had been critical of her on health care.

Collins, a moderate from Maine, can be overheard complaining about Trump and his proposed 2018 budget, which slashes spending with deep cuts to domestic agencies, food stamps, Medicaid, highway funding and medical research.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine is surrounded by reporters as she arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, before a test vote on the Republican health care bill. The bill has faced opposition and challenges within the Republican ranks, including by Collins. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"Whenever there was a grant, they just X-ed it out, with no metric, no thinking about it, no nothing," she tells Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. "It's just incredibly irresponsible."

"I think he's crazy," Reed says. And Collins adds, "I'm worried."

Collins was also snagged making unflattering remarks about Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, a day after he blamed "some female senators from the Northeast" for blocking health care legislation. He said he wished he could challenge them to a duel "Aaron Burr-style."

"Did you see the one who challenged me to a duel?" Collins asks.

"I know," Reed replies. "Trust me. Do you know why he challenged you to a duel? 'Cause you could beat the s--- out of him."

Collins continues, "I don't mean to be unkind but he's so unattractive it's unbelievable."

Collins then mentions a widely circulated picture of Farenthold wearing baby blue pajamas with yellow ducks on them as he poses in the photo with a big grin next to a scantily clad young woman.

The audio followed a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Collins is the chairman of the committee and Reed is the ranking Democrat on the panel.

In a statement, Reed's office said he was just "letting Sen. Collins know he's in her corner."

He has said it publicly and privately, Reed's spokesman, Chip Unruh, said: "the Trump administration is behaving erratically and irresponsibly. For the good of the country, the president needs to start focusing on the budget."

Farenthold's office declined to comment. A request to Collins' office was not immediately answered.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - A jury has acquitted Dallas Cowboy rookie cornerback Jourdan Lewis of domestic assault.

The panel deliberated for slightly more than an hour Tuesday before finding the former Michigan star not guilty.

Lewis said he was "elated" with the verdict.

Dallas Cowboys rookie and former Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis appears in court on misdemeanor domestic violence charges in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (Melanie Maxwell/The Ann Arbor News via AP)

The 21-year-old Lewis was accused of assaulting his former girlfriend at his Ann Arbor apartment in March. Lewis didn't testify, but the jury saw a video recording of a police interview in which he said he was asleep when the woman woke him to complain about finances, and he hit her with a pillow.

The woman testified he struck her in the face so hard she was forced into a wall.

Two Ann Arbor police officers said they didn't see any injuries on the woman and she refused medical attention.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Human rights groups asked the Philippine president Wednesday to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime."

Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Women's Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country's south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.

In this Monday, July 24, 2017, photo, young Indigenous People known as Lumads form the words "Save Lumad schools" as they join a march of thousands of protesters to coincide with the state of the nation address of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked Duterte Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a road gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.

In a televised news conference he called late Monday shortly after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said that the insurgents were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under rebel control without government permits.

"Get out of there, I'm telling the Lumads now. I'll have those bombed, including your structures," Duterte said. "I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. I'll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government."

Carlos Conde of the Human Rights Watch said that Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, "is directing the military to commit war crimes."

Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits government to support the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.

Duterte ascended to the presidency last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown, and his continuing popularity and the ineffective opposition have apparently emboldened him.

On Monday night, Duterte also called for abolishing the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman - an anti-graft prosecutor - route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations.

Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, "then do not investigate my army and police."

Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. that runs indigenous schools in the south, said that Duterte's threats have heightened fear among the Lumad people already feeling the brunt of attacks by the military and security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining. The military has denied involvement.

"The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools," said Magbanua.

Magbanua is among 300 teachers, students and parents who have traveled to Manila days before Duterte's speech in Congress to protest and file complaints before the Commission on Human Rights for alleged shootings and military encampments in indigenous schools.

She said there are around 200 Lumad schools in the southern Philippines, with around 4,000 students and 88 teachers. One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she added.

Magbanua said the indigenous schools follow government's curriculum, but have added a subject called ancestral land to teach students to value their home region. She denied they teach students to become communist rebels.

"We only hold chalk, ballpen and paper," she said. "If (Duterte) wants to find out, he should come to our school and observe."

Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating children's right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since July last year.

In this July 24, 2017, file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses thousands of protesters following his state of the nation address in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked the Philippine president to withdraw his threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

In this Monday, July 24, 2017, photo, indigenous people known as Lumads, right, form the words "Save Lumad schools" as they join a march of thousands of protesters to coincide with the state of the nation address of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked Duterte Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

In this Monday, July 24, 2017, photo, young Indigenous People known as Lumads display a banner as they join a march of thousands of protesters to coincide with the state of the nation address of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked Duterte Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

In this Monday, July 24, 2017, photo, young Indigenous People known as Lumads carry banners as they join a march of thousands of protesters to coincide with the state of the nation address of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked Duterte Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

In this Monday, July 24, 2017, photo, an Indigenous People known as Lumad displays a placard as he joins a march of thousands of protesters to coincide with the state of the nation address of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Human rights groups asked Duterte Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
You are here: Home

A cargo train left Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province Tuesday, testing a new rail-sea cargo route to Southeast Asia.

The train, loaded with titanium dioxide and industrial ammonium phosphate, left Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Station at 10 a.m. It will arrive at Beibuwan Station in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 60 hours later; from there the goods will be transported to Malaysia via sea.

The whole journey will take about 20 days. Previously, goods from Chengdu were transported via road and sea to Southeast Asia, which took more than 40 days.

Condiments, auto parts, industrial materials and furniture made in Chengdu are very popular in Southeast Asian countries, while fruit and seafood from that region sells well in Chengdu, according to sources from Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Station.

The rail-sea link was launched to open a new transportation means and boost bilateral trade, the sources said.

In the future, products from Southeast Asian countries can be transported to Europe via China on the rail-sea link which follows the ancient silk road route, according to the sources.

Chengdu is scheduled to open more cross-border cargo transportation routes leading to other Southeast Asian countries.
Cheers for McCain, then a speech like impassioned prophet

WASHINGTON (AP) - The maverick stood with his party on Tuesday, casting a crucial vote in the Republican drive to repeal "Obamacare." But then, like an angry prophet, Sen. John McCain condemned the tribal politics besetting the nation.

Confronting an aggressive brain cancer, the 80-year-old Arizonan served notice he would not vote for the GOP legislation as it stands now. McCain's impassioned speech held the rapt attention of his colleagues in the Senate chamber.

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the internet," he intoned. "To hell with them! They don't want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood."

A few minutes earlier, McCain dramatically entered the chamber for the pivotal vote, his first since surgery and his cancer diagnosis in Arizona. Unified for once, Republicans and Democrats applauded and whooped for the six-term lawmaker. "Aye," he said, thumbs up with both hands, for the GOP vote to move ahead on debate.

After he voted, McCain stood at his seat and accepted hugs and handshakes from all senators in both parties, drawing laughter from the spectators' gallery when he and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders exchanged an awkward embrace.

___

Senate opens 'Obamacare' debate at last but outcome in doubt

WASHINGTON (AP) - Prodded by President Donald Trump, a bitterly divided Senate voted, at last, Tuesday to move forward with the Republicans' long-promised legislation to repeal and replace "Obamacare." There was high drama as Sen. John McCain returned to the Capitol for the first time after being diagnosed with brain cancer to cast a decisive "yes" vote.

The final tally was 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie after two Republicans joined all 48 Democrats in voting "no."

With all senators in their seats and protesters agitating outside and briefly inside the chamber, the vote was held open at length before McCain, 80, entered the chamber. Greeted by cheers, he smiled and dispensed hugs - but with the scars from recent surgery starkly visible on the left side of his face.

Despite voting "yes," he took a lecturing tone afterward and hardly saw success assured for the legislation after weeks of misfires, even after Tuesday's victory for Trump and Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

"If this process ends in failure, which seems likely, then let's return to regular order," McCain said as he chided Republican leaders for devising the legislation in secret along with the administration and "springing it on skeptical members."

___

10 Things to Know for Wednesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

1. GOP HEALTH CARE BILL ADVANCES

A bitterly divided Senate votes at long last to move forward with the Republicans' long-promised legislation to repeal and replace "Obamacare."

2. WHO GOT WARM WELCOME ON CAPITOL HILL

Applause greets Sen. John McCain as he returns from a hospital stay to the Senate to vote for moving ahead on legislation to dismantle the Obama health law.

___

Top Vatican official faces Australian court on sex charges

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis made his first court appearance in Australia on Wednesday in a scandal that has stunned the Holy See and threatened to tarnish the pope's image as a crusader against abusive clergy.

Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis' top financial adviser, has maintained his innocence since he was charged last month with sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as "historical" sexual assault offenses - meaning crimes that occurred years ago.

Pell entered the small courtroom dressed in a black suit, face devoid of expression as he took a seat behind his legal team. He said nothing during the brief hearing, which dealt largely with administrative matters. Though he has not yet entered a plea, his lawyer, Robert Richter, told the court that Pell planned to formally plead not guilty at a future court date.

"For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," Richter told the court.

The hearing lasted just minutes and was remarkably routine. Yet the image of one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church standing before a cramped courtroom overflowing with journalists and spectators was anything but.

___

Trump taking victory lap in Ohio

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - Straight off a slim but symbolic health care win in Washington, President Donald Trump took a victory lap in Ohio Tuesday night with the voters who helped put him in office.

"We're now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care for the American people," Trump told a crowd of several thousand in Youngstown, Ohio, hours after the Senate took one small step toward Republicans' years-long promise to repeal and replace former President Obama's health care law.

"You think that's easy? That's not easy," he declared.

Tuesday's trip to Youngstown, a staunchly working-class, union-heavy enclave that has long helped anchor Democrats in Ohio, served as a welcome distraction from Washington for a president who loves to relive his once-unlikely Election Day win.

In a room filled with supporters, Trump talked up his first six months in office, claiming that no other president had done "anywhere near" what he'd done in his first six months.

___

Trump ex-campaign chair talks with Senate investigators

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman met with Senate investigators Tuesday, providing his recollection of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview.

The appearance by Paul Manafort came the same morning that Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with lawmakers on the House intelligence committee.

Both Manafort and Kushner have been cooperating with the committees which, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump's presidential campaign.

On Tuesday, Manafort met with bipartisan staff of the Senate intelligence committee and "answered their questions fully," his spokesman, Jason Maloni, said.

___

Justice Dept. rules intensify crackdown on sanctuary cities

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department escalated its promised crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities Tuesday, saying it will no longer award coveted grant money to cities unless they give federal immigration authorities access to jails and provide advance notice when someone in the country illegally is about to be released.

Under old rules, cities seeking grant money needed only to show they were not preventing local law enforcement from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people they have detained.

The announcement came as questions swirled about Attorney General Jeff Sessions' future as the nation's top law enforcement officer following days of blistering criticism from President Donald over his performance. Sessions and Trump had bonded during the campaign, largely over their hardline views on illegal immigration. And Trump's campaign promises included slashing federal grants for cities that refuse to comply with federal efforts to detain and deport those living in the country illegally.

"So-called 'sanctuary' policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes," Sessions said in a statement. "These policies also encourage illegal immigration and even human trafficking by perpetuating the lie that in certain cities, illegal aliens can live outside the law. ... We must encourage these 'sanctuary' jurisdictions to change their policies and partner with federal law enforcement to remove criminals."

The conditions apply to one of the Justice Department's most popular grant programs, which provides police departments money to buy everything from bulletproof vests to body cameras. The requirements will apply to cities seeking grants starting in September.

___

Artist uses Iraq refugees, war veterans in radio project

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - In 2016, an Iraqi-American artist sat down with Bahjat Abdulwahed - the so-called "Walter Cronkite of Baghdad" - with the idea of launching a radio project that would be part documentary, part radio play and part variety show.

Abdulwahed was the voice of Iraqi radio from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, but came to Philadelphia as a refugee in 2009 after receiving death threats from insurgents.

"He represented authority and respectability in relationship to the news through many different political changes," said Elizabeth Thomas, curator of "Radio Silence," a public art piece that resulted from the meeting with Abdulwahed.

Thomas had invited artist Michael Rakowitz to Philadelphia to create a project for Mural Arts Philadelphia, which has been expanding its public art reach from murals into new and innovative spaces.

After nearly five years of research, Rakowitz distilled his project into a radio broadcast that would involve putting the vivacious and caramel-voiced Abdulwahed back on the air, and using Philadelphia-area Iraqi refugees and local Iraq war veterans as his field reporters. It would feature Iraqi music, remembrances of the country and vintage weather reports from a happier time in Iraq.

___

US Navy fires warning shots near Iran ship in Persian Gulf

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf, the first such incident to happen under President Donald Trump. Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the situation.

The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, is the latest confrontation between Iranian vessels and American warships. It comes as Trump already has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and after his administration previously put Iran "on notice" over its ballistic missile tests.

The Thunderbolt was taking part in an exercise with American and other coalition vessels in international waters when the Iranian patrol boat approached it, 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Ian McConnaughey said. The Iranian ship did not respond to radio calls, flares and horn blasts as it came within 150 yards (137 meters) of the Thunderbolt, forcing the U.S. sailors aboard to fire the warning shots, McConnaughey said.

"After the warning shots were fired, the Iranian vessel halted its unsafe approach," the lieutenant said in a statement, adding that the Iranian vessel created "a risk for collision." Large ships can't stop immediately on the water, meaning getting close to each other risks a collision.

Video released by the Navy included a sailor giving a position off the eastern coast of Kuwait as the Iranian vessel sat directly in front of an American warship's bow. Another video included images of the Iranian ship off the Thunderbolt as its horn blared. The sound of machine gun fire followed.

___

Thousands join Muslim prayer protests over Jerusalem shrine

JERUSALEM (AP) - Thousands of Palestinian Muslims prayed in the streets near Jerusalem's most contested holy site Tuesday, heeding a call by clergy to not enter the shrine despite Israel's seeming capitulation when it removed metal detectors it installed there a week earlier.

Muslim leaders said they would only call off the protests once they made sure Israel had restored the situation to what it was before the latest crisis.

Some Muslim officials alleged that Israel used the absence of Muslim clerics from the walled compound in the past week of protests to install new security cameras.

The continued standoff highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the shrine - the third-holiest in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The 37-acre esplanade, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a lightning rod for rival religious and national narratives of the two sides. It has triggered major confrontations in the past.
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on a fatal car accident in California that was livestreamed on Instagram (all times local):

9:45 p.m.

The younger sister of a teenager driver who lost control of a car while she was livestreaming on Instagram says she doesn't blame her for the crash that killed their middle sister.

This July 22, 2017 photo provided by the Merced County Sheriff, shows Obdulia Sanchez in Merced, Calif. Sanchez has been arrested in California on suspicion of causing a deadly crash that she recorded live on Instagram. She was booked into the Merced County Jail on suspicion of DUI and vehicular manslaughter after Friday's crash that killed her 14-year-old sister and badly injured another 14-year-old girl. (Merced County Sheriff via AP)

Twelve-year-old Evelyn Sanchez tells Sacramento television station KTLX (http://bit.ly/2vZdXTb) a tire blew out and there was nothing her 18-year-old sister, Obdulia Sanchez, could have done to prevent the fatal crash.

Their 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, was ejected from the car and killed.

The California Highway Patrol says investigators will examine the car later this week.

Evelyn says the family spoke to Obdulia and that the teenager told them she wishes she had been the one who died.

She said in the interview Tuesday that her sister "has done a lot of stuff" but didn't elaborate.

___

10:15 a.m.

The 14-year-old survivor of a deadly car crash that was livestreamed on Instagram says she isn't mad at anyone and doesn't blame the driver for the wreck.

Rather, KSEE (http://bit.ly/2v2bYRB ) reports that Manuela Seja says she blames social media, which has taken over people's lives.

The teen says everything is affected by social media and it's only going to become more prevalent.

Police say 18-year-old Obdulia Sanchez was driving the car Friday when it veered onto the shoulder of a road about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) northwest of Fresno.

In the backseat were Seja and Sanchez's 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, who was ejected from the car and killed in the crash.

Seja suffered a leg injury. The driver was livestreaming on Instagram and recorded part of the crash.

The California Highway Patrol says the driver was wearing a seatbelt but not the others.

___

10:40 p.m.

A teenage driver lost control of her car while she was livestreaming on Instagram and recorded part of the crash that authorities say killed her younger sister in California.

After a gap in the livestream, the driver is seen leaning over the body of the girl, trying to shake her awake and saying she was sorry. She said she expected to spend the rest of her life in prison but doesn't care.

Authorities say Obdulia Sanchez, 18, was driving the car Friday when it veered onto the shoulder of a road about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) northwest of Fresno.

Police say she overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn into a field, ejecting her sister.

Jacqueline Sanchez, 14, of Stockton died in the crash. Another girl, also 14, was in the backseat and survived with a leg injury.
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - The National Urban League president helped christen a new job training and education center in Ferguson on Wednesday, calling the site a "powerful first step" in helping the St. Louis suburb that's still mending from unrest over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown nearly three years ago.

On the same day the Urban League kicked off its national conference in St. Louis, Marc Morial said much work remains even with the arrival of the $3 million center, built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer killed the 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed, in August 2014.

Oklahoma-based QuikTrip demolished the building and donated the property to the Urban League, which announced plans for the center in July 2015. Several companies and organizations donated money to build it, including the Salvation Army, which contributed $1.4 million. Morial said the center is already paid for.

Martin L. Mathews, co-founder of St. Louis' Mathews-Dickey Boys' & Girls' Club, pauses to read a plaque in memory of Michael Brown during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

The centerpiece of the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center is the Urban League's Save Our Sons job training and placement service. It also will house offices for the Salvation Army, Lutheran Hope Center and the University of Missouri Extension Service.

At Wednesday's opening ceremony, Ferguson City Councilman Wesley Bell said building it at the former QuikTrip site was symbolic of how Ferguson is rising.

"This building has to mean something," said Bell, a black man elected after Brown's death. "It has to represent something."

The store was torched the night after Brown's death, as a peaceful candlelight vigil was occurring at the shooting site less than a mile away.

Brown had gotten into a scuffle with then-officer Darren Wilson after Wilson told Brown and a friend to get out of the street where they were walking. Wilson said that when he shot Brown, the 18-year-old was moving menacingly toward him. Some witnesses had said Brown was surrendering.

The initial unrest erupted after Brown's body lay in the street for hours in the summer heat. More protests gripped the Missouri town after a St. Louis County grand jury in November 2014 declined to charge Wilson, who resigned a short time later. The U.S. Justice Department also cleared him, but an investigation by that agency uncovered patterns of racial bias and profiling in Ferguson's police and courts.

Ferguson reached a settlement with the Justice Department that calls for revised police practices, court changes and other modifications.

The Community Empowerment Center includes a bench and plaque in memory of Brown. His parents, Michael Brown Sr. and Lezley McSpadden, were among several hundred people who attended the center ceremony.

About 20,000 people are expected to attend the Urban League conference that will also include a "State of Black America" town hall meeting, a gathering of urban mayors to discuss economic needs, a career fair, and a volunteer day in which backpacks will be donated to 10,000 children.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the National Urban League president's first name is Marc, not Michael.

Michael Brown Sr. stands as an honor guard enters during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Michael P. McMillan, President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, prepares to cut the ribbon during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, speaks during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Michael Brown Sr., listens during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

People gather in the lobby of a new community empowerment center following a dedication ceremony for the building Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

A standing room crowd gathers inside a tent set up in the parking lot of a new community empowerment center during a dedication ceremony for the building Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Michael P. McMillan, President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, cuts the ribbon during the dedication of a new community empowerment center Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Ferguson, Mo. The $3-million Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was built on the property where a QuikTrip convenience store was burned during rioting after a white officer fatally shot Michael Brown nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - No knot-tying demonstrations. No wood-carving advice. President Donald Trump went straight to starting a fire in a speech at a national Boy Scout gathering.

Parents, former Scouts and others were furious after Trump railed against his enemies, promoted his political agenda and underlined his insistence on loyalty before an audience of tens of thousands of school-age Scouts in West Virginia on Monday night.

"Is nothing safe?" Jon Wolfsthal, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter, saying Trump turned the event into a "Nazi Youth rally."

President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd after speaking at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Trump, the eighth president to address the National Scout Jamboree, was cheered by the crowd, but his comments put an organization that has tried in recent years to avoid political conflict and become more inclusive in an awkward position.

The knot-tying was left to Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who said on Twitter that his stomach was in knots over the president's over-the-top delivery.

"If you haven't watched it yet, don't," Murphy said. "It's downright icky."

The Boy Scouts' official Facebook page was barraged with comments condemning the speech. Several people posted links to the Scouts' policy on participation in political events - which sharply limits what Scouts should do. Boy Scouts are typically 10 to 18 years old.

One woman wrote in disbelief that the Scouts started booing when Trump mentioned Obama.

Trump noted from the podium that Obama did not personally attend either of the two national jamborees during his tenure. (Obama did address the 2010 gathering by video to mark the Scouts' 100th anniversary. The jamboree is typically held every four years.)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former president of the Boy Scouts, invited Trump to the gathering, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

"When all is said and done, those Boy Scouts, what they will remember from the jamboree in West Virginia is that the president showed up," Nauert said. "And that's a pretty incredible thing."

The pushback from Americans over the speech included members from both parties.

"I just don't think it was appropriate," said Rob Romalewski, a Republican and retired information-technology expert from suburban New Orleans who attained the rank of Eagle Scout as a teenager and has worked with the Boy Scouts all his adult life.

"It just doesn't seem like he was talking to the boys," Romalewski said. "He was more or less just using it as an excuse to babble on."

Nancy Smith, a Democrat and elementary school teacher from Shelby Township, Michigan, said she won't encourage any of her six grandchildren to enter Scouting. Smith is asking for an apology from the national group.

The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement after the speech that it does not promote any one political candidate or philosophy.

On Tuesday, after questions about the blowback, the organization said that it "reflects a number of cultures and beliefs."

"We will continue to be respectful of the wide variety of viewpoints in this country."

Trump kicked off his speech by saying, to cheers from the boys, "Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?" Yet much of what he had to say next was steeped in politics.

Trump began to recite the Scout law, a 12-point oath that starts with a Scout being trustworthy and loyal.

"We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that," said the man who is alleged to have asked fired FBI Director James Comey for a pledge of loyalty.

In his speech, Trump also jokingly threatened to fire Health Secretary Tom Price - an Eagle Scout who joined him on stage - if lawmakers do not repeal and replace Obama's health care law. He called Washington a "swamp," a "cesspool" and a "sewer." He repeatedly trashed the media, directing the crowd's attention to the reporters in attendance.

In one aside, he told the boys they could begin saying "Merry Christmas" again under his watch. In another, he talked about a billionaire friend - real estate developer William Levitt - who sold his company, bought a yacht and led "a very interesting life."

"I won't go any more than that, because you're Boy Scouts, so I'm not going to tell you what he did," Trump teased. Then he said he had run into the man at a cocktail party. The moral of Trump's tale was that Levitt "lost momentum," something he said they should never do.

Levitt is often considered the father of postwar American suburbia, founding communities such as Levittown on New York's Long Island, but was criticized for refusing to sell to blacks.

In the past few years, the Boy Scouts have retreated from the culture wars, dropping their ban on gay Scouts and Scout leaders, and have tried harder to recruit minorities.

Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout and co-founder of Scouts for Equality, a nonprofit group that has pushed to end discrimination against gay and transgender people in Scouting, said Trump's remarks "really harmed the Boy Scouts' ability to do that work, which is all about serving America."

"The wrong speech at the wrong place at the wrong time," Wahls said.

___

McGill reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Julie Bykowicz and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

President DonaldTrump, front left, gestures as former boys scouts, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, watch at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean,W. Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump speaks at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump waves as he addresses the scouts at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean, W.Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

FILE- In this Monday, July 24, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va. Trump is scheduled to visit Ohio on Tuesday as the U.S. Senate could vote on beginning debate on a Republican health care bill. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Scouts and their leaders listen to President Donald Trump at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean, W.Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump waves to the crowd of scouts at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean ,W.Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
SYDNEY (AP) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson assured concerned Australian tech entrepreneurs on Wednesday that they will be welcome to continue working in his country after it leaves the European Union.

Johnson was quizzed by technology bosses when he visited the Tyro Fintech Hub shared space for startups in Sydney.

PayDock founder and chief executive Rob Lincolne asked if there will be ministerial support for Australian staff to get visas, while Seatfrog boss Iain Griffin raised concerns about the supply of highly skilled workers in Britain after it exits the EU.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, speaks with Head of Tyro Fintech Hub, Andrew Corbett-Jones during a visit to the Tyro Fintech technology Hub in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. On Thursday, Johnson will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and their Australian counterparts for annual talks. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Johnson, who had advocated for Britain's EU departure, seemed surprised by Griffin's concerns, asking him, "Are you really worried?"

"Every business has difficulty finding people," Griffin replied.

Seatfrog is expanding into the Britain and its chief executive is worried Brexit could reduce the country's talent pool.

Johnson said his government wanted to ensure that "people who have energy and talent of ideas can still come to the U.K."

"Of course there will be pressures to try to constrain the overall immigration numbers because they are very, very high at the moment," Johnson said. "But that does not mean we want to see a reduction in the number of tech people who come to London."

Earlier on Wednesday, Johnson toured the Sydney Opera House ahead a bilateral meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

On Thursday, Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Maris Payne for annual talks.

Australian officials said Thursday's meeting would focus on counterterrorism, Europe's future and the threat posed by North Korea, as well as British and Australian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Johnson arrived in Sydney on Tuesday after visits to Japan and New Zealand.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, has a selfie photo taken with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop ahead of their bilateral meeting in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. On Thursday, Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Maris Payne for annual talks. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, Pool)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, second right, speaks with Neu Capital Director Edward Jones, left, Head of Tyro Fintech Hub Andrew Corbett-Jones, second left, and British Consul General Michael Ward during a visit to the Tyro Fintech technology Hub in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. On Thursday, Johnson will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and their Australian counterparts for annual talks. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, right, speaks with Iain Griffin, CEO of SeatFrog during a visit to the Tyro Fintech technology Hub in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. On Thursday, Johnson will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and their Australian counterparts for annual talks. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tours construction work underway at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of the countries' foreign and defense ministers. (Dan Himbrechts/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson poses for a photograph at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Secretary Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of UK and Australian Foreign and Defense Ministers. (Dan Himbrechts/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, right, and New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian pose for a photograph at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Secretary Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of UK and Australian Foreign and Defense Ministers. (Dan Himbrechts/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tours construction work underway at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of the countries' foreign and defense ministers. (Dan Himbrechts/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, center, poses for a photograph at the Sydney Opera House with New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian, left, Managing Director of construction company Laing O'Rourke Australia, Cathal O'Rourke, second left, Ben Nicol from Laing O'Rourke and CEO of the Sydney Opera House Louise Herron, right, in Sydney, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Johnson is in Sydney to attend AUKMIN, the annual meeting of UK and Australian Foreign and Defense Ministers. (Dan Himbrechts/Pool Photo via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Criminal prosecutions are rare for people who fail to register as foreign agents, according to a top Justice Department official who testified Wednesday about an obscure law receiving new attention amid investigations into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general, told Senate lawmakers that the Foreign Agents Registration Act - a law aimed at ensuring transparency about lobbying efforts done in the U.S. at the direction of foreign governments or principals - contains multiple exemptions for registration and requires proof that someone intended to break the law by failing to disclose their work.

He said lawyers in a specialized Justice Department unit often prod someone to voluntarily register instead of seeking to charge them.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined at left by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, leads a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, on attempts to influence American elections, with a focus on Russian meddling in the last presidential race. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"The high burden of proving willfulness, difficulties in proving direction or control by a foreign principal and exemptions available under the statute make criminal prosecution for FARA violations challenging," Hickey said.

Nonetheless, he said, the Justice Department will not refuse to bring a case if there is evidence of intentional wrongdoing. It has brought four criminal prosecutions under the statute since 2007, all of which he said have resulted in convictions.

The law has been broadly discussed in the last year because of Justice Department investigations into Trump campaign associates and because of a watchdog report last year that said the statute had been weakly enforced for decades. That report, from the Justice Department's inspector general, found that the number of FARA registrations had declined in the last two decades and that prosecutions and civil enforcement actions were rare. The report made several recommendations for improvement.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort belatedly registered in June with the Justice Department for political consulting work he did for a Ukrainian political party before joining the Republican candidate's presidential bid. He acknowledged that he coached party members on how to interact with U.S. government officials.

Besides Manafort, Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and his consulting firm registered in the weeks after his ouster from the administration for lobbying work that could have benefited the Turkish government.

Manafort had been invited to testify at Wednesday's hearing but he did not appear. Instead, he agreed Tuesday night to turn over documents and to continue negotiating about setting up an interview with the panel.

The committee also removed Donald Trump Jr. from the list of witnesses scheduled for Wednesday's public hearing.

The panel has sought to talk with Manafort about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in New York with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, among other issues including his foreign political work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

On Tuesday Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff, providing his recollection of the Veselnitskaya meeting and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview. Manafort "answered their questions fully," said his spokesman, Jason Maloni.

Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was also on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.

Both Manafort and Kushner have been cooperating with the committees which, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was flatly described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump's presidential campaign.

Manafort's discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors. Manafort had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee. He has now provided the committee with notes he took at the time, one of the people said.

The other person said Manafort has also said he will participate in additional interviews with the Senate Intelligence Committee staff on other topics if necessary. Those meetings haven't yet been scheduled.

Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors Tuesday with the House intelligence panel. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the committee's Russia probe, said he found Kushner to be "straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had." He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.

The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on "a range of issues the committee had been concerned about."

"We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today," Schiff added.

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Adam Hickey, deputy assistant attorney general of the National Security Division at the Justice Department, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on attempts to influence American elections, with a focus on Russian meddling in the last presidential race. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Judiciary Committee members, from left, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, take their seats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, prior to the start of the committee's hearing on attempts to influence American elections, with a focus on Russian meddling in the last presidential race. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Judiciary Committee member, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, during the committee's hearing on attempts to influence American elections, with a focus on Russian meddling in the last presidential race. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
ISLAMABAD (AP) - A strike by oil tanker operators has created a shortage of petroleum products in Pakistan, causing panic among people who are lining up at gas stations to make bulk purchases of petrol and diesel.

Operators say the protest is a response to tougher measures imposed by transportation police following last month's incident in which 215 people were killed in an oil tanker accident. The tanker involved was not properly maintained and the driver's license was invalid.

Since then, authorities have imposed fines on tankers they claim are not fit to transport oil.

Motorcyclists and vehicles stand in long queue for fuel, which is short due to an oil tankers strike at a fuel station in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. A strike by oil tanker operators has created a shortage of petroleum products in Pakistan, causing panic among people who are lining up at gas stations to make bulk purchases of petrol and diesel. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Oil tanker owners say police and other officials are exploiting the June 25 accident to obtain bribes from their drivers.

An out of order tag display on a board at a fuel station following fuel shortage due to oil tankers strike, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. A strike by oil tanker operators has created a shortage of petroleum products in Pakistan, causing panic among people who are lining up at gas stations to make bulk purchases of petrol and diesel. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Motorcyclists and vehicles stand in long queue for fuel, which is short due to an oil tankers strike at a fuel station in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. A strike by oil tanker operators has created a shortage of petroleum products in Pakistan, causing panic among people who are lining up at gas stations to make bulk purchases of petrol and diesel. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - North Korea's top diplomat will attend an annual Asian security conference in Manila, where concern over the North's nuclear weapons program is expected to be high on the agenda, Philippine officials said.

A North Korean delegation led by its vice foreign minister flew to Manila on Wednesday to discuss the participation of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Ri's attendance at the meeting is definite, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told a news conference. The meeting is scheduled on Aug. 7, the department said.

The 27-member ARF's annual meetings are also attended by the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, countries involved in earlier six-nation talks aimed at taming North Korea's nuclear ambition. The talks were last held in April 2009, when North Korea pulled out to protest international condemnations over a long-range rocket launch.

In May, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed Southeast Asian foreign ministers in a meeting at the State Department to ensure "leak-proof" enforcement of sanctions against North Korea and prevent the nation's diplomats from conducting business that could benefit its weapons programs.

The foreign ministers were from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which is hosting next month's meeting.

The Trump administration has been pushing to get the international community to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it can pose a direct threat to the American mainland.
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) - A grand jury can decide whether to indict a Mississippi man charged with killing a deputy, his mother-in-law and six others who were his relatives or acquaintances, a judge said Wednesday.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 35, remains jailed without bond as he has been since his arrest May 28, shortly after the fatal shootings that started after witnesses say Godbolt was arguing with his estranged wife.

The killings May 27 and 28 occurred at three homes in and around the south Mississippi city of Brookhaven, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Jackson. A deputy responded to a disturbance call at Godbolt's in-laws' home, and the shootings started there.

FILE - This May 28, 2017 file photo provided by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation shows suspect Willie Cory Godbolt, in Lincoln County, Miss. Godbolt, charged with killing eight people, is set to make a court appearance on Wednesday, July 26. Godbolt has been jailed without bond since his arrest May 28, shortly after the fatal shootings of a sheriff's deputy and seven others who were Godbolt's relatives or acquaintances.(Mississippi Bureau of Investigation via AP, File)

Deputy William Durr, Godbolt's mother-in-law Barbara Mitchell and two others were killed at the first home. Two cousins, an 11-year-old and an 18-year-old, were killed at the second home. A husband and wife were slain at the third home.

Judge Bryan Harbour heard testimony Wednesday from a state law enforcement officer who helped investigate at two of the three houses. Jason Leggett, the officer from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the Highway Patrol, identified Godbolt as the suspect in all of the killings.

"I find that the state has successfully convinced me that eight crimes were committed and that Mr. Godbolt committed those crimes," the judge said, though he noted the probable cause hearing was not a trial.

There was a heavy police presence at the hearing and about 50 friends and relatives of the victims packed the courtroom. One teenage girl started crying when a shackled Godbolt walked in wearing a yellow golf shirt and khaki pants. Most of the audience sat quietly. Godbolt showed no emotion.

He is charged with one count of capital murder, which could carry the death penalty, in the deputy's killing. He's also charged with seven counts of murder, which could carry life without parole.

"This was just a preliminary hearing. We have a long, long way to go," one of Godbolt's defense attorneys, Paul Luckett, said after court.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing Wednesday, Shon Blackwell said he and his family have been seeking comfort in God since his son, 18-year-old Jordan Blackwell, was killed at the second home.

"We just keep praying. That's what's been carrying us," said Shon Blackwell, an assistant pastor at a Missionary Baptist church attended by many of the victims.

Moments after he was arrested May 28, a handcuffed Godbolt told a reporter from The Clarion-Ledger, on video, that someone in the first house called law enforcement while he was talking to his wife and in-laws about his wish to take his children home.

"My pain wasn't designed for him. He was just there," Godbolt said of the deputy.

Godbolt also said in the video: "My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain't fit to live, not after what I done."

___

This story has been corrected to show a total of eight people were killed.

___

Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus .
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan official says 26 soldiers have been killed in a blistering Taliban assault on an Afghan National Security base in southern Kandahar province.

Mohammad Radmanish, defense ministry's deputy spokesman, said Wednesday the Taliban assault overnight in Khakrez district left another 13 soldiers wounded.

Kandahar is considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban.

In previous reports the U.S. Special Inspector General for Reconstruction (SIGAR) has called the casualty rate among Afghanistan's National Security Forces "shockingly high." Last year more than 6,800 were killed and another 12,000 wounded according to a SIGAR report earlier this year.

The Afghan military and security forces number 195,000 soldiers and more than 150,000 policemen. They have struggled to contain the insurgency, which has stepped up attacks across the country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for all-out efforts to push forward military reform with the support of the entire nation and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks Monday afternoon at a group study attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The group study focused on reform of the military in size, structure, and formation.

Carried out in a bold and resolute way, national defense and military reform has taken historic steps and achieved historic breakthroughs and achievements in major fields, pumping great power into building a strong army, Xi said.

The reform mainly includes optimizing the country's military size, structure, and formation, and solving structural contradictions that hinder the development of national defense and the armed forces, he said.

As the reform deepens, China will have a smaller army with better combat capability and optimized structure, the president said.

"Quantity should be reduced and quality improved to build a capable and efficient army, and labor intensity should become S&T-oriented," Xi said, adding that China is developing a joint operation force system with an elite force at its core.

He reiterated that reform on national defense and armed forces is an overall and revolutionary change, with unprecedented strength, depth and breadth.

"We should be resolute, confident, brave and vigorous to achieve victory in such reform," he said, calling for close following of decisions made by the CPC Central Committee and the CMC.

Xi said that the reform should take the correct direction, inspections should be strengthened, and various reform measures should be put into practice.

He said that the adjustment and reform of policies and systems will directly influence the vital interests of officers and soldiers, the army's morale, the military's vitality as well as the reform's overall performance.

Military authorities should intensify relevant research, map out systematic and proactive reform plans, and enhance the "sense of gain" among officers and soldiers, Xi said.

Xi also stressed consolidation and spread of theoretical, practical and institutional achievements acquired through the national defense and military reform.
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - Burundi-born Eric Ndayisenga and his friends in exile religiously listen to a radio station that urges liberation from the deadly political violence back home. One day the report brought grief instead.

His sister Zainabu and a friend had been found dead, stabbed and their throats slit, in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura.

Ndayisenga believes his sister's fate would have been unknown if not reported by the station linked to the Forebu rebel group, supported by exiles who press the international community to act on Burundi's crisis.

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015 file photo, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza is sworn in for a third term at a ceremony in the parliament in Bujumbura, Burundi. Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled the small East African nation in the two years since President Pierre Nkurunziza set off protests by declaring he would seek another term. (AP Photo/Gildas Ngingo, File)

Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled the small East African nation in the two years since President Pierre Nkurunziza set off protests by declaring he would seek another term. After the armed forces put down an attempted coup, he won election amid alleged revenge killings and the unrest has continued.

The country returned to the spotlight this month when six Burundian teenagers disappeared after an international robotics competition in Washington. It remains unclear why they acted, but the director of a school that sent two of the teens said it's likely because life is hard at home.

Other Burundian exiles are trying to build opposition to Nkurunziza, highlighting crimes they say are committed by the security forces and armed groups loyal to the government. In the rebel-backed radio known as MbohozaGihugu, which means "liberate the country," some exiles say they have found a voice.

In Kigali, the capital of neighboring Rwanda where the exiles feel safe, scores of Burundians set up a bar in whose dark corners they meet regularly to follow broadcasts. Though it appears that a once-serious threat to oust Nkurunziza has fizzled, they hope to isolate the president by rallying international opinion.

"Every struggle has its risks and this is the right time to pay that price and chase away Nkurunziza," Ndayisenga said.

The online activist group iBurundi, with over 18,000 followers on Twitter, says the focus is on "showing government abuses." Though the shootings and bomb blasts that once characterized life in Bujumbura are fewer now, "repression continues in a stealth way," the group told The Associated Press.

Many non-governmental organizations that once monitored government activities have been suspended or have seen leadership flee into exile, said Yolande Bouka, an independent analyst now based in the United States.

The international community recently expressed alarm about videos showing pro-government youth militia members singing about impregnating the regime's opponents and comparing the opposition to lice.

Burundi's government vehemently denies allegations it tortures and kills its critics, and says it is the victim of propaganda by its opponents in exile.

Nkurunziza rose to power in 2005 following the signing of the Arusha accords ending a 13-year civil war that killed about 300,000 people, then was re-elected unopposed in 2010 after the opposition boycotted the vote. He said he was eligible for a third term in 2015 because lawmakers, not the general population, had chosen him for his first term, while critics called the move unconstitutional.

His decision to run again plunged Burundi, a poor country that exports mostly coffee and depends heavily on foreign aid, into fresh turmoil.

The European Union and former colonizer Belgium have since cut some aid. But there is a sense that the international community has accepted Nkurunziza's extended stay in power, Bouka said.

The president has largely retreated from public view in the capital and spends many days touring rural provinces. A visit to Tanzania this week was his first trip outside Burundi since the failed coup attempt of May 2015.

The country's unrest has come with warnings of a return to the government-backed ethnic violence that once led to civil war.

Many Burundians abroad believe Nkrurunziza, an ethnic Hutu, is purging some army officers, mostly ethnic Tutsis, allegations repeated in a report this month by the International Federation for Human Rights. The Paris-based group collaborated with local groups to report alleged detentions, killings and disappearances of hundreds of Tutsi army officers.

Tutsis make up 14 percent of Burundi's 11 million people; most of the rest are Hutus. According to the Arusha accords, Tutsis should hold 40 percent of posts in the government and the national assembly, as well as 50 percent of all seats in the Senate and the military. Observers say that is not the case.

"Soldiers are being tortured or killed because many are against the violation of the Arusha (accords),"said Maj. Lambert Nyongera, a former army officer who says he disobeyed an order in 2015 to shoot into a crowd of protesters.

Nyongera, an ethnic Tutsi now exiled in Congo, joined the Forebu rebel group and is one of the architects of MbohozaGihugu, which says it receives information from sympathizers still serving in Nkurunziza's government.

Its broadcasts -distributed via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp - include teachings on the Arusha accords, seen as a blueprint for sharing power between Tutsis and Hutus.

On the streets of Bujumbura many people remain anxious, with some noting more police patrols and others describing a climate of fear.

"We cannot say there is security in our country while people disappear or are kidnapped," said resident Diomede Bukuru. "Two months ago a relative of mine was taken by unknown persons. We've searched in police and intelligence custody but we did not find him. Our relative Augustin till now is missing. So for me there is no security."

___

Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda. Associated Press writer Eloge Willy Kaneza in Bujumbura, Burundi, contributed.

FILE - In this Thursday, May 7, 2015 file photo, Jean Claude Niyonzima, a suspected member of the ruling party's Imbonerakure youth militia, pleads with soldiers to protect him from a mob of demonstrators after he came out of a sewer in the Cibitoke district of Bujumbura, Burundi. Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled the small East African nation in the two years since President Pierre Nkurunziza set off protests by declaring he would seek another term. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 21, 2015 file photo, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza walks to a polling station to cast his vote for the presidential election, in his hometown of Ngozi, Burundi. Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled the small East African nation in the two years since President Pierre Nkurunziza set off protests by declaring he would seek another term. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)
Trump's order: Bar all transgender troops from US military

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

"Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," the commander in chief tweeted.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

___

'Fired by tweet:' Troops, veterans react to transgender ban

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A former U.S. naval combat-tested officer said she feels angry that President Donald Trump is saying transgender veterans like her should be considered unfit to serve.

Another transgender service member said he will not be kicked out without a fight.

Transgender veterans and active-duty troops spoke Wednesday about Trump's Twitter pronouncement banning transgender people from military service.

Here are their stories:

_____

___

10 Things to Know for Thursday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:

1. WHAT'S ENDING WITH A WHIMPER

After seven years promising to repeal "Obamacare," now that it counts it's unlikely Senate Republicans have the wherewithal to do it.

2. ANNOUNCEMENT SHOCKS LGBT COMMUNITY

Trump says on Twitter that he wants to ban all transgender people from serving in the military.

___

AP Exclusive: Boy Scouts chief expected fiery Trump speech

NEW YORK (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America says it anticipated President Donald Trump would spark controversy with a politically tinged speech at its national jamboree in West Virginia but felt obliged to invite him out of respect for his office.

Boy Scouts president Randall Stephenson tells The Associated Press in his first public comments on the furor over Trump's speech he'd be "disingenuous" if he suggested he was surprised by the Republican president's comments. Stephenson also is chief executive officer of Dallas-based AT&T and spoke to the AP by phone on Wednesday.

Other U.S. presidents have addressed Boy Scouts jamborees with speeches steering clear of partisan politics.

Trump promoted his political agenda and assailed his enemies in his speech on Monday. He induced some scouts to boo at the mention of Barack Obama, his Democratic predecessor.

___

GOP senators blink on a big chance to repeal 'Obamacare'

WASHINGTON (AP) - After seven years of emphatic campaign promises, Senate Republicans demonstrated they didn't have the stomach to repeal "Obamacare" on Wednesday when it actually counted. The Senate voted 55-45 to reject legislation to throw out major portions of Barack Obama's law without replacing it.

Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting a measure by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky that would have repealed most of former President Obama's health care law, with a two-year delay but no replacement. Congress passed nearly identical legislation in 2015 and sent it to Obama, who unsurprisingly vetoed it.

Yet this time, with Republican President Donald Trump in the White House itching to sign the bill, the measure failed on the Senate floor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing "Obamacare" without replacing it would cost more than 30 million Americans their insurance coverage, and that was a key factor in driving away more Republican senators than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose in the closely divided Senate.

The result frustrated other GOP senators, some of whom expressed disbelief that their colleagues would flip-flop on legislation they had voted for only two years ago and long promised to voters. Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed the 2015 repeal bill.

"Make no mistake: Today's vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal," said Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. "We still have a long, long way to go - both in health policy and in honesty."

___

Mexican government reuniting smuggling victims with families

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Mexican government officials said Wednesday they were working to reunite families with some of the survivors of a failed human smuggling operation and had been assured by U.S. immigration officials that they would not question relatives about their legal status in the United States.

Ten immigrants, including seven from Mexico, died after a sweltering ride from the Texas border city of Laredo in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning on Sunday. Another of the dead was identified as being from Guatemala; two others were not publicly identified.

At least 29 immigrants survived, according to U.S. officials. Twelve remained hospitalized Wednesday in San Antonio.

The driver of the big rig, James Matthew Bradley Jr., waived a detention hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday and remained in federal custody, charged with illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. Federal court records indicated a new hearing was set for Aug. 23, when Bradley was expected to a give video deposition. The 60-year-old Florida trucker could face the death penalty, if convicted.

Latin American diplomats worked, meanwhile, to confirm names of the dead and injured, most of who were not publicly identified.

___

Trump announces $10 billion Foxconn plant in Wisconsin

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Wednesday that electronics giant Foxconn will build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that's expected to initially create 3,000 jobs, the largest economic development project in state history.

The announcement comes at a critical juncture for a Trump administration that pledged to generate manufacturing jobs but has struggled to deliver results as quickly as the president promised. Trump's plans for health care and tax cuts face a murky future in Congress, while his administration is bogged down by an investigation into Russia's possible ties with his presidential campaign.

In a White House speech, Trump said the financial commitment by Foxconn CEO Terry Gou was a direct result of his electoral win.

"If I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion," Trump said. "We are going to have some very, very magnificent decades."

But the decision to build the plant in Wisconsin also stemmed from $3 billion in state economic incentives over 15 years if Foxconn invests $10 billion in the state and ultimately adds 13,000 jobs. The incentives would only be awarded if Foxconn creates the jobs and pays an average salary of nearly $54,000.

___

US, Brazil investigate sect accused of abuse, trafficking

Ten former members of the Word of Faith Fellowship church say they have been contacted by U.S. federal and state authorities investigating allegations of abuse, forced labor and visa fraud after a series of Associated Press stories about the North Carolina-based evangelical sect, which has branches in Brazil and Ghana and affiliations in other countries.

In Brazil, the federal police told AP the justice department has asked for a 2012 inquiry to be reopened into complaints that Word of Faith Fellowship's two churches in the country were illegally sending minors to the United States. The country's foreign ministry said it was contacting the U.S. consulates in Brazil and U.S. law enforcement agencies for more information, and added that its embassy in Washington, D.C., was trying to reach Brazilians who came to the U.S. via the church.

In February, the AP published its initial story about Word of Faith Fellowship in which 43 former members said congregants were regularly punched and choked in an effort to "purify" sinners by beating out devils. This week, AP revealed how Word of Faith Fellowship took over two congregations in Brazil and created a pipeline of young laborers who say they were brought to the U.S. and forced to work for little or no pay.

Neither church founder Jane Whaley nor the pastors at the Word of Faith Fellowship branches in the Brazilian cities of Sao Joaquim de Bicas and Franco da Rocha responded to repeated requests for comment.

The latest AP stories quoted 16 Brazilians who said they were brought to the U.S. on tourist and student visas and forced to work at the church's rural compound in Spindale, North Carolina, or at businesses owned by senior church leaders - a violation of the visas' stipulations.

___

Law drawing focus in Russia probe rarely ends in prosecution

WASHINGTON (AP) - Criminal prosecutions are rare for people who fail to register as foreign agents, according to a top Justice Department official who testified Wednesday about an obscure law receiving new attention amid investigations into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general, told Senate lawmakers that the Foreign Agents Registration Act - a law aimed at ensuring transparency about lobbying efforts done in the U.S. at the direction of foreign governments or principals - contains multiple exemptions for registration and requires proof that someone intended to break the law by failing to disclose their work.

He said lawyers in a specialized Justice Department unit often prod someone to voluntarily register instead of seeking to charge them.

"The high burden of proving willfulness, difficulties in proving direction or control by a foreign principal and exemptions available under the statute make criminal prosecution for FARA violations challenging," Hickey said.

Nonetheless, he said, the Justice Department will not refuse to bring a case if there is evidence intentional wrongdoing and has brought four criminal prosecutions under the statute since 2007, all of which he said have resulted in convictions.

___

Jury: Michael Jackson estate owes Quincy Jones $9.4 million

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A jury on Wednesday found that Michael Jackson's estate owes Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties and production fees from "Billie Jean," ''Thriller" and more of the superstar's biggest hits.

The award from a Los Angeles Superior Court jury fell short of the $30 million the legendary producer sought in the lawsuit filed nearly four years ago. The Jackson estate had put the figure at about $392,000.

The jury of 10 women and two men had been deliberating since Monday.

"This lawsuit was never about Michael, it was about protecting the integrity of the work we all did in the recording studio and the legacy of what we created," Jones wrote in a statement. "Although this (judgment) is not the full amount that I was seeking, I am very grateful that the jury decided in our favor in this matter. I view it not only as a victory for myself personally, but for artists' rights overall."

Jones claimed in the lawsuit that Jackson's estate and Sony Music Entertainment owed him for music he had produced that was used in the concert film "This Is It" and two Cirque du Soleil shows that used Jackson's songs.
NEW YORK (AP) - A New York City woman suffering from dementia has been found dead on the roof of a building near her home.

Police say 88-year-old Mary Joyce Bonsignore, of Brooklyn, wandered off and had been missing since July 17. Her body was found Tuesday.

Family members say she suffered from dementia and had wandered off before. When she disappeared last week, they coordinated a search with members of the Catholic church where she worshipped.

Police say they found no signs of injury or assault on her and don't believe her death is suspicious.

A medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) - Seven people have been shot and wounded in North Carolina following a memorial service for a gunshot victim.

High Point Police Lt. Curtis Cheeks III said the shootings happened as people were still gathered after the memorial service Tuesday night for Alphonso Macer, Jr., who was shot to death in a car Monday afternoon.

Cheeks said officers were called about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday and found two people with gunshot wounds.

Investigators were seeking to determine a motive and how many people fired guns.

Officers were called to High Point Regional Hospital about 1 a.m. and found four patients with gunshot wounds. Another victim was at a Greensboro hospital.

One of the victims had serious injuries. The injuries to the other six victims are not considered to be life threatening.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - The Latest on asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe (all times local):

5:20 p.m.

Authorities have detained several dozen people outside Milan's main train station as the city is seeing a new wave of arriving migrants.

Sub saharan migrants sit on the deck of the vessel of Proactiva Open Arms after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, about 15 miles north of Sabratha, Libya on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. More than 120 migrants were rescued Tuesday from the Mediterranean Sea while 13 more -including pregnant women and children- died in a crammed rubber raft, according to a Spanish rescue group. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

Police said Wednesday that they detained 36 people in an action aimed at combatting crime around the busy station that is a common gathering point for migrants.

The roundup came a week after a Guinean immigrant stabbed a police officer in front of the station and weeks after a 20-year-old Italian-Tunisian man pulled a knife on two soldiers and a police officer inside.

Italian cities are facing renewed pressure over migrants amid persistent arrivals from countries to the south and tighter border controls in nations to the north.

___

1 p.m.

The European Commission says that relocation of migrants from Greece and Italy to other European Union nations reached a record level in June. But it added it is pressing forward with infringement cases against the Czech republic, Hungary and Poland for failing to meet their obligations for accepting migrants under a deal agreed at the height of the migrant crisis in September 2015.

The commission said in a statement Wednesday that over 2,000 migrants were relocated from Greece and nearly 1,000 from Italy in June to other EU nations.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos says "relocation works if the political will is there." He is calling on EU member states to step up efforts to re-house migrants in Italy, which is now the main point of arrival for migrants making the risky boat crossing to Europe from north Africa, mostly Libya.

He says, "Italy still needs our support."

___

Noon

An adviser to the European Court of Justice says the court should dismiss lawsuits filed by Hungary and Slovakia challenging a European Council decision that the countries have to mandatorily take in hundreds of asylum-seekers.

Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania had voted against the 2015 decision establishing a temporary plan to relocate 120,000 migrants. Under the plan, Hungary would have to temporarily take in 1,294 asylum-seekers and Slovakia, 902.

Advocate General Yves Bot rejected arguments from Slovakia and Hungary regarding the legality of the relocation plan, saying it "helps relieve the considerable pressure on the asylum systems of Italy and Greece." The relocation effort has had only limited success so far.

Bot's proposal issued Wednesday in Luxembourg is non-binding. The court has started deliberating on the case.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Authorities say a police officer is in serious condition after a fatal gunfight outside an apartment complex in San Antonio.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus says officers responded early Wednesday to a disturbance call at the complex where investigators believed a home invasion may have occurred.

McManus says one officer confronted three suspects in a car and began struggling with the driver. He says a back-seat passenger got out of the car and began firing, striking the officer at least once.

McManus says it appears the wounded officer and at least one other officer returned fire, killing the alleged gunman.

The chief says the injured officer, a four-year department veteran, underwent surgery for a stomach wound.

The car's driver and the second passenger were taken into custody.
BERLIN (AP) - Germany says it will examine a new package of U.S. sanctions against Russia approved by the House of Representatives amid concerns that the measures could affect European businesses.

Germany and Austria in recent weeks have criticized the planned penalties, saying they could affect European businesses involved in piping Russian natural gas.

German spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said Wednesday that Germany opposes in principle "sanctions with extraterritorial effects." She added it's important for the European Union and the U.S. to continue closely coordinating sanctions against Russia and "in this light, we will examine in detail the bill that has now been approved."

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said the U.S. isn't entitled to tell European companies how to do business with a third country, but the legislation has improved from the original proposal.
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - Congo military "elements" are responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces after clashes with alleged militia members in recent months, the United Nations said as experts were appointed Wednesday to look into a growing crisis that has killed hundreds and displaced more than a million people.

Human rights have deteriorated alarmingly due to the "brutal and disproportionate repression against the Kamwina Nsapu militia by the Congolese defense forces," the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office in Congo said in a new report.

Congolese soldiers have killed more than 428 people, including women and 140 children, in the once-calm Kasai provinces as of June, the office said. The militia has killed at least 37 people during that time, it said.

The U.N. said it regrets the "lack of efforts" to ensure independent investigations into violations that have included sexual violence and the use of child soldiers. The U.N. human rights chief appointed a three-member panel to investigate.

In a separate statement, the U.N. Security Council said such abuses "might constitute war crimes under international law." The council also urged Congo's government not to use excessive force.

The Catholic church has estimated that more than 3,300 people have died in the fighting in the Kasai provinces since the military killed the militia's traditional chief in August.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said Congo was surprised at the U.N. report's conclusions, especially before a team was deployed for joint investigations with Congo. He said the report came too early and called its credibility into question.

The government has blamed the Kamwina Nsapu militia for the mass graves, which the U.N. says number at least 80.

The new report also says allegations have come forth since April that a self-defense group, the Bana Mura, may be supported by Congo's military and that it reportedly has executed a number of civilians associated with the militia.

___

Associated Press writer Fiston Mahamba in Goma, Congo contributed.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro at home and abroad tried again Wednesday to pressure the socialist leader into halting his plans to rewrite Venezuela's constitution though there was no public sign their efforts were working.

The Trump administration announced sanctions on 13 current and former members of Maduro's administration, freezing their U.S. assets and barring Americans from doing business with them. The U.S. also joined with a dozen other regional governments in urging Maduro to suspend Sunday's election of a national assembly for rewriting the charter.

Far from derail Maduro, the Venezuelan leader appeared emboldened by the sanctions, praising those accused by the U.S. government of undermining the nation's democracy and abusing human rights.

A demonstrator wearing a mask adorned with rosaries stands near a barricade during a 48-hour general strike beginning Wednesday in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

"We don't recognize any sanction," he said. "For us, it's a recognition of morality, loyalty to the nation, and civic honesty."

Those moves came as a coalition of Venezuelan opposition groups organized a second national strike in a week. Highways were mostly empty and businesses shuttered across the country as millions of people observed the 48-hour strike and activists threw up roadblocks in many neighborhoods to keep others from getting to work.

By late afternoon, clashes between police and protesters erupted at some roadblocks in Caracas, and the chief prosecutor's office reported at least one person killed. That increased the official count of dead in nearly four months of demonstrations to at least 98.

Venezuela was less than four days from a vote that would start the process of rewriting its constitution by electing members of a special assembly to reshape the charter. The opposition is boycotting the vote, saying election rules were rigged to guarantee Maduro a majority in the constitutional assembly.

Maduro did not address the nation Wednesday but state-run television was filled with scenes of his backers exhorting the public to go to the polls Sunday.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez called on Venezuelans to support the strike in his first direct public message since being moved from prison to house arrest this month. The 46-year-old former Caracas-area mayor, who was sentenced to 14 years in 2015 after being convicted of inciting violence during a previous spate of protests, also appealed to the military not to deploy for Sunday's election.

"We are on the brink of their trying to annihilate the republic that you swore to defend," Lopez said in a 15-minute video message. "I ask you not to be accomplices in the annihilation of the republic."

Three days of protests are planned leading up to Sunday's vote, starting with the strike and culminating Friday with a demonstration billed as a "takeover of Caracas."

"We have to do everything possible to halt the constitutional assembly," said Maria Medina, an office administrator who was waiting in line at a state-run bank that opened. "The only solution is a change of government."

Among those hit by the U.S. sanctions were Tibisay Lucena Ramirez, the president of the National Electoral Council and president of Venezuela's National Board of Elections; Elias Jose Jaua Milano, minister of education and head of the Presidential Commission for the National Constituent Assembly; Tarek William Saab Halabi, president of Venezuela's Republican Moral Council; and Maria Iris Varela Rangel, a member of Venezuela's Presidential Commission for the Constituent Assembly.

In addition, penalties will apply to several members of Venezuela's national guard, police and other security services, including Interior Minister Nestor Luis Reverol Torres, who was indicted last year by the U.S. Justice Department for his alleged role in an international cocaine distribution conspiracy.

The Trump administration has said it is considering further sanctions, including restrictions on Venezuelan oil imports, a potentially devastating blow to Venezuela's economy.

The U.S. also said it had determined that Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, hit with U.S. sanctions in February, had "hundreds of millions of dollars" in assets that have been frozen due to the sanctions. The U.S. has accused El Aissami of playing a major role in global drug trafficking, a charge he denies. El Aissami is the most senior Venezuelan official ever targeted by the U.S.

The flagship airline in neighboring Colombia said it was suspending all flights to Venezuela, citing security concerns. Avianca joined a long list of air carriers that have suspended service to Venezuela as the country sinks further into economic and political chaos. June saw the last United Airlines departure from Caracas.

A top Cuban official said his country had no intention of trying to mediate a solution to Venezuela's crisis, rejecting the idea of what he called "foreign meddling" and voicing full support for Maduro, a key ideological and economic ally of the island's government.

"Those who from the outside try to give lessons on democracy and human rights while encouraging coup-mongering violence and terrorism should take their hands off that nation," Cuban Communist Party Second Secretary Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said at a ceremony marking the anniversary of a failed barracks uprising that is considered the beginning of Fidel Castro's revolution.

___

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana and Joshua Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

An anti-government demonstrator holds a fellow protester who was injured during clashes with Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in the Bello Campo neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Anti-government protesters run from advancing Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard officers on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Anti-government demonstrator eye Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard officers on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in the Bello Campo neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard soldiers break through a barricade set up by anti-government protesters on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in the Bello Campo neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A sign with a message that reads in Spanish: "No more dictatorship" is attached to a rope formig part of a barricade made by demonstrators during a 48-hour general strike beginning Wednesday in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Streets were quiet Wednesday morning in much of the capital, Caracas, as many residents stayed home in observance of the strike. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Pedestrians walk through a barricade set up by demonstrators during a 48-hour general strike beginning Wednesday in protest of President Nicolas Maduro's plans to rewrite the constitution, at the Petare neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. The United States and 12 other regional nations are urging Venezuela's president to suspend the election of a national assembly to rewrite the country's constitution amid political unrest. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2013 file photo, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Elias Jaua holds a press conference in Mexico City. The Trump administration hit Venezuela with new sanctions, Wednesday, July 13, 2017, targeting 13 current or former top officials in President Nicolas Maduro's government that include Jaua, currently the Minister of Education and head of the Presidential Commission for the National Constituent Assembly. The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals have in the United States and bar Americans from doing business with them. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

FILE - In this April 3, 2017 file photo, Tarek William Saab, the president of Venezuela's Republican Moral Council, speaks during a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela. The Trump administration hit Venezuela with new sanctions, Wednesday, July 13, 2017, targeting 13 current or former top officials in President Nicolas Maduro's government that include Saab. The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals have in the United States and bar Americans from doing business with them. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Wuilly Arteaga plays his violin during clashes against Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard officers on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in the Bello Campo neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Anti-government demonstrators face off with Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard officers on the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in the Bello Campo neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela's political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
NEW YORK (AP) - Toni Morrison moderating a discussion about writing in the Soviet Union. Joan Didion defending Salman Rushdie against an Iranian death decree. Pablo Neruda explaining the role of the Latin America author.

PEN America, the literary and human rights organization, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it had assembled more than 1,500 hours of audio and visual material for a digital archive featuring many of the world's leading writers and public thinkers of the past half-century. The website, https://archive.pen.org/, is the culmination of a 5 1/2 year project drawing upon materials stored at Princeton University.

"Over nearly 100 years, PEN America has convened America's leading literary and intellectual lights in debates and dialogues that have framed the most pressing social, cultural and political issues of the time," Suzanne Nossel, the organization's executive director, said in a statement. "With the release of the PEN America Digital Archive, these essential voices have been brought back to life, brimming with personality, passion, opinion and sometimes bombast. Hearing directly from these greats will offer information and inspiration to writers, scholars and free-expression advocates for generations to come."

FILE - In this May 29, 2012, file photo, author Toni Morrison receives her Medal of Freedom award during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. PEN America, the literary and human rights organization, has assembled more than 1,500 hours of audio and visual material for a digital archive featuring Morrison and other leading writers and public thinkers of the past half-century. The literary and human rights organization told The Associated Press on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, that the archive has been in the works since 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

The archive covers subjects ranging from the hostage crisis in Iran to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to such ongoing issues as racism, censorship and the author's place in society. They also document the evolution of literary culture from a more formal time, when many writers were born without a television in their home, to the rise of the internet. During a 1966 panel, the Scottish politician and intellectual Douglas Young sounded like an old schoolmaster as he moderated a discussion about writers "in the electronic age," or what he called life under "electronic circuitry."

"The modern mass media make the general physiognomy of a writer known to the public," he said. "They may be surprised that, in most respects, we are quite ordinary guys."

PEN's mission of support for besieged writers and of building a literary community was especially urgent in February 1989, when Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for Rushdie's death for the alleged blasphemy of the novel "The Satanic Verses." A week after the decree, or "fatwa," PEN staged a reading in New York of Rushdie's work that was attended by Doctorow, Don DeLillo and many others.

"Today we are all Salman Rushdie," announced one reader, author Robert Stone.

One of PEN's most star-studded - and controversial - assemblies, the 1986 International Congress, is documented extensively. Norman Mailer was the chief organizer and he enraged many attendees when he invited President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, George P. Schulz, as a keynote speaker. Mailer was also criticized for including few women besides Susan Sontag on panel discussions and replied that "there are not that many women, like Susan Sontag, who are intellectuals first, poets and novelists second."

But the 1986 gathering also illustrated PEN's history of attracting the cultural elite and addressing the intersection of literature and politics. An opening-day press conference with Schulz included a call from PEN for the abolishment of the Cold War era McCarren-Walter act, which had prevented those suspected of communist sympathies from entering the United States. (The act was repealed in 1990.) Morrison, Rushdie, Sontag and Derek Walcott were among those addressing a forum on "Alienation and the State."

At the press conference with Schulz, PEN International President Per Wastberg promised the next few days would offer "dinners, parties, gossip, gossipy chats, glitter," along with discussions about censorship and imprisoned writers.

"I see no real dichotomy," he said, "in that by fighting for the freedom of those friends and colleagues prevented from speaking their mind, we express our wish to see them seated around our tables, by candlelight, in deep conversation, or joking at the absurdity of life. PEN, after all, is about meeting other writers, across any kind of frontier."

___

Corrects website address.

___

Online:

https://archive.pen.org/
A Beijing firm that will provide VR technology for a new panda attraction also makes a panda app. [Photo/China Daily]

Giant panda fan Wan Yongqing will come close to fulfilling a long-held dream when the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province completes its latest attraction  a virtual reality "panda paradise".

Wan wants to touch a panda, but since that's prohibited, he'll settle for the next-best thing, a fur-covered replica panda that looks like the real thing through a VR headset.

"Thanks to the construction of a virtual reality panda-themed paradise, visitors will be able to experience something very much like feeling a real panda," said Wan, a photographer from Beijing.

Wan, a dedicated panda enthusiast, has visited Sichuan many times since 2012 to take photos of the animals.

"I have been to the Chengdu panda base and the Dujiangyan base, as well as to the three bases of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. But I have never had the privilege of feeling a panda," he said.

The Chengdu center is preparing to turn the first and second floors of its museum into the VR panda-themed attraction. It is expected to open next year.

The center will work with a high-tech firm in Beijing to provide the VR technology for the experience, according to Chen Cheng, information officer at the center.

"In the paradise there will be pictures of different pandas and bamboo forests. When visitors put on VR eyeglasses, it will all seem real. Pandas will stand up, sit down, eat bamboo or wander in the forests. People will be able to feel and hold the virtual pandas as they would in real life," she said.

The Chengdu panda center was set up in 1987 with six hungry, sick pandas rescued from different parts of Sichuan after their primary food source  bamboo  dwindled.

It used to be difficult for captive pandas to breed or for their cubs to survive. Thanks to Chinese researchers' painstaking efforts, those problems were solved.

As of the end of last year, the Chengdu base was home to 175 captive pandas, according to the latest counts.

The base has loaned pandas to zoos in Japan, Spain, France, Germany, the United States and Canada for joint research and breeding programs.

According to Chen, there are plans to build more VR panda-themed attractions at zoos in the six countries.
HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) - Hershey, the maker of Milk Duds and Reese's peanut butter cups, said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit soared 40 percent thanks to higher demand for its Easter-related chocolate and candy.

But the company also warned that people are making fewer shopping trips, making it less likely that they'll pick up its gum, mints or chocolate bars at the checkout aisle. As a result, Hershey now expects revenue for the year to grow less than expected.

Shares of Hershey Co. rose 22 cents to $107.70 before the stock market opened Wednesday.

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017, file photo, Hershey's Kisses are displayed, in New York. The Hershey Co. reports earnings, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Hershey has been rolling out new snacks to help boost sales, including Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch, a chocolate bar stuffed with cookies. It plans to spend more on advertising ahead of Halloween and the holiday season.

Overall, the company posted net income of $203.5 million, or 95 cents per share, in the three months that ended July 2. In the same period a year ago, it reported net income of $146 million, or 68 cents per share.

Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $1.09 per share in the second quarter, beating the 91 cents per share that Wall Street analysts expected, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue rose 1.5 percent to $1.66 billion in the period, which topped Street forecasts of $1.65 billion.

The Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company said it still expects full-year earnings between $4.72 per share and $4.81 per share. It now expects revenue for the year to grow 1 percent from the year before, down from its previous forecast of growth between 2 percent and 3 percent.

Hershey also announced Wednesday that it will boost its dividend 6 percent for holders of its common and Class B shares. Holders of its common stock will receive 65.6 cents in September for each share held, while Class B stock holders will get 59.6 cents for each share.

_____

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HSY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HSY

_____

Keywords: Hershey, Earnings Report
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Puerto Rico authorities say more than 20 people have been injured, three of them seriously, in a boat crash off the island's southwest coast.

The collision took place Tuesday night near the tourist town of La Parguera, a popular weekend boating destination.

A police statement Wednesday says a private vessel crashed into a commercial boat that carries both locals and tourists to visit cays and go snorkeling. Two people on the first boat and 20 on the second were hurt.

Further details were not immediately available. A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken at an emotionally-charged mass to mark one year since the killing of a local French priest by two 19-year-old Islamic extremists.

Wednesday's ceremony took place outside the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church, where the men slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, as he celebrated morning Mass.

Calling him a "martyr" in an impassioned speech, Macron said "Hamel's smile has become a reminder of resistance in the face of bigotry."

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Macron said the two jihadis "have failed" in sowing a thirst for vengeance among French Catholics.

Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun led the service, saying that "though he is dead, Father Jacques Hamel is still alive ... hate has not triumphed, and it will never triumph."

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a mass marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. The 84-year-old Jacques Hamel died on July 26, 2016 after his throat was slit by two attackers who stormed the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church during a morning mass, taking the five people inside hostage, including the priest. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

France's President Emmanuel Macron, centre, shakes hand with people after a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

France's President Emmanuel Macron waves to people after a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

People attend a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the killing of French Catholic priest Jacques Hamel by two jihadists at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The conviction of a Pennsylvania priest accused of sexually abusing orphans during missionary trips to Honduras has been upheld by a federal appeals court.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday also denied Joseph Maurizio's request for a new trial. The suspended priest has maintained his innocence.

The 71-year-old Maurizio was convicted last year of sexually abusing two street children and using diocesan funds to facilitate abuse. He was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison and ordered to pay $70,000 in fines and restitution. His lawyers say he has made the payment.

U.S. Bureau of Prison records show Maurizio is incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Ohio with a projected release date of April 2029.

His attorney and the prosecution declined to comment on the ruling.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's defense minister says four battalions of Russian military police are currently deployed in safe zones in Syria.

Russia and Iran, both supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which backs rebels fighting Syrian government forces, agreed on a plan in May to establish four "de-escalation" zones in Syria, pressing Assad's air force to halt flights over designated areas across the war-torn country.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian news agencies on Wednesday that the four battalions are now operating in the safe zones. The chief of the Russian General Staff last week mentioned military police in just one zone and did not give any numbers.

Russia has supported Assad's offensive against Islamic State militants since 2015, and sent the first battalion of military police to Syria in December.
DELAND, Fla. (AP) - Florida deputies shot and injured a man who they say carjacked one vehicle, stole a second and was attempting to carjack a third.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal quotes Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood as saying that the 28-year-old suspect from Daytona Beach was expected to survive after being shot four times in the neck, shoulder, arm and leg on Tuesday.

Chitwood said the suspect first took his boyfriend's car during a fight, crashed that vehicle, and stole the vehicle of a good Samaritan who stopped to help.

He says the suspect then forced a pickup truck to stop on Interstate 4. Chitwood said two deputies fired when he drove the truck toward them.

The deputies are on customary leave with pay while the shooting is investigated. Police haven't yet announced any charges against the suspect.

___

Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - Turkish Cypriot authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus said Wednesday they have lifted restrictions on Maronite Christians reclaiming homes and property in villages that have been under Turkish military control for over four decades.

The announcement by the office of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci came three weeks after the collapse of high-level talks in Switzerland that aimed to reunify the island nation as a federation.

Akinci's office did not specify when Maronite residents will be allowed to return, but said a timetable would be prepared shortly.

However, Cyprus' government denounced the move, claiming it would entrench the island's division and foment discord with other Cypriots who lost homes and property in the north but are prevented from reclaiming it.

Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides dismissed the offer as "communication tricks." He urged Turkish Cypriots and Turkey to abandon "extreme and anachronistic positions" and instead work toward a comprehensive reunification deal.

Akinci and Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades have been negotiating a deal that anticipates 65,000-90,000 Greek Cypriots and others reclaiming lost homes and property on territory that would come under Greek Cypriot administration in a two-zone federation.

Christodoulides said the announcement was a product of the Turkish side's position not to return the Maronite villages to Greek Cypriot administration - a policy which he said contributed to the failure of the recent peace talks.

Cyprus' split came in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece.

Maronites, descendants of Christians from Syria and Lebanon who came to Cyprus centuries ago, fled four villages during the invasion.

Cyprus' 7,000-strong Maronite community now resides mainly in the island's internationally recognized south along with tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots displaced by the war.

Some Maronites returned to the largest village their families abandoned in the north - Kormakitis - and hundreds more have rebuilt homes for weekend stays. But two other villages - Ayia Marina and Asomatos - remained in the hands of Turkey's army and deteriorated. Restoring water, electricity and other infrastructure would be needed to make them habitable again.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a 107-year-old battleship returned Wednesday to its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum.

A naval band played, surrounding ships and boats sounded their horns and a naval helicopter flew overhead as the Georgios Averof, a relic from the era of dreadnoughts, was nudged in to its mooring spot.

Three tugs towed the 10,000-ton former Greek navy flagship from a shipyard in Skaramangas - where the repairs were carried out with private funding - through the straits of Salamis to Trocadero in Athens.

Tugs pull the 107-year-old battleship" Georgios Averof" to Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Named after the Greek businessman who partly financed the huge cost of the ship's purchase, the armored cruiser was built in an Italian shipyard in 1910 and was at the time the most feared warship in the Aegean Sea.

It served in the Greek navy during the Balkan wars in 1912-1913, playing a leading role in victorious encounters with the Ottoman Turkish navy, helping free a string of Greek islands in the northeastern Aegean and securing Greek naval dominance in the archipelago.

It also saw active service during World War II, when it was based in Alexandria, Egypt, after the fall of Greece to German forces. After the end of the war, it carried the Greek government-in-exile back to Athens.

The Georgios Averof remained in service until 1952, and spent the next quarter-century moored on the island of Poros, until the navy decided to restore and use it as a museum in the mid-1980s.

The 460-foot (140-meter) ship will open again to visitors in September, following further refurbishment at its berth. About 60,000 people visit it every year.

Tugs pull the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" to Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Media cover the arrival of the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Members of a naval band leave the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" after its arrival at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The Officers' Mess inside the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" after it's arrival at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The bridge of the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" at it's berth at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The manufacturers "plate' of the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" now berthed at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A mannequin dressed in period uniform is located inside the Officers' Mess inside the 107-year-old battleship "Georgios Averof" at Trocadero marina in southern Athens on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. After three months of extensive maintenance and conservation work, a relic of the era of dreadnoughts is back in its berth in Athens, where it serves as a floating museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Guest speakers from five BRICS countries join a discussion at the 2017 BRICS Youth Forum in Beijing on July 25. [Photo by Zhang Jiaqi/China.org.cn]

The innovativeness and entrepreneurship of the youth stand out as the two main focal points at a panel discussion of young delegates at the 2017 BRICS Youth Forum in Beijing on July 25.

The BRICS countries have similarities in their development course, and exchanging experiences in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship among the BRICS youth is conducive to coordinated cooperation among the BRICS countries.

Marco Vinholi, an official from the Legislative Assembly of the State of San Paulo of Brazil, introduced the concept of active entrepreneurship and the obstacles faced by start-ups in Brazil.

"The mark of our generation is innovation and entrepreneurship," he said. "The basic obstacles to youth entrepreneurship are the lack of qualifications, international cooperation and funding for young entrepreneurs, as well as the bureaucracy. The BRICS countries should improve people-to-people exchanges, increase cooperation on innovation and provide more funds."

Svetlana Skorikova, project manager of the Center for International Cooperation of the Russian Union of Youth (RUY), called for setting up a BRICS youth business incubator.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are among the interesting areas of cooperation for young people, said Skorikova, further specifying that the main purpose of the incubator is to generate and encourage more business cooperation among BRICS countries.

Gitika Lakhotia, risk consultant of Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler, a professional service company and one of the Big Four auditors, outlined the measures the Indian government introduced to promote youth entrepreneurship since 2014.

The Start-up India and Stand-up India initiatives facilitated business registration by providing a one-stop service. Besides, India also established a new bank to help the re-financing of SMEs and provided professional training to SME entrepreneurs and women.

Xu Zewei, CEO of 91jinrong.com, an e-finance platform in China, shared his experience of operating a start-up company in China.

"You will not succeed unless you try," He encouraged the youth to start new companies under the favorable policies towards youth entrepreneurs.

He also called for further decreasing the cost of starting new companies, and encouraged mutual help among investors and entrepreneurs.

South African representative Abel Motsoge, chairman of JHB head office, pointed out the major difficulties for start-ups in South Africa.

He said many new companies failed to operate for more than two years due to the high bidding cost and bureaucracy. He called for more government support and increasing BRICS cooperation in communications, finance, infrastructure, logistics and renewable energy.
HOUSTON (AP) - An employee at the Mexican Consulate in Houston is accused in a lawsuit of offering U.S. work permits for sale.

The Houston Chronicle reports the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Harris County accuses a consulate employee, Fidencio Navarrete Peralta, of accepting $10,000 for two work permits but never delivering them. Navarrete's boss at the consulate, Consul General Oscar Rodriguez Cabrera, also is named as a defendant.

Xochitl Leticia Aguilar seeks return of the $10,000 and other compensation of $200,000. She says her American citizen daughter was hoping to obtain a work permit for her Mexican husband and a friend but that they received only a single consul ID card.

A consulate spokesman had no comment for the newspaper about the lawsuit and could not be reached Wednesday.

___

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com
ATLANTA (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit filed by current and former black employees of Time Warner, owner of Turner networks including CNN, TNT and TBS.

U.S. District Court Judge William Duffey of the Northern District of Georgia wrote in Tuesday's dismissal order that the two employees named in the suit failed to show that intentional discrimination based on their race occurred.

The lawsuit filed in December claimed a pattern of discrimination against black employees, particularly men, in evaluations, pay and promotions.

The suit relied heavily on an internal company report on diversity at Turner and CNN, but Duffey said the statistics in the report could be explained by "non-discriminatory factors" and didn't support the claims of intentional and widespread discrimination. Duffey also criticized the original complaint as "fraught with conclusory claims, unsupported by factual allegations sufficient to support the inferences" of discrimination.

An attorney who represented the networks referred The Associated Press to a company spokeswoman on Wednesday. That person didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The judge also refused a request that the plaintiffs be allowed to file an amended complaint. He said the changes were "only cosmetic amendments" and didn't fix the larger issues with the claim.

Daniel Meachum, an attorney for the employees, called Duffey's decision disappointing. Meachum said 190 current and former employees are participating in the class-action suit and he plans to refile the case with different employees named as lead plaintiffs.

"Black people are still being discriminated at CNN and Turner and Time Warner and this order does not put an end to that discrimination," Meachum said in a statement. "So we will endeavor to get our clients their day in court. Our heads may be bloodied but unbowed."
MILAN (AP) - Italian police detained several dozen people Wednesday outside Milan's main train station as the city deals with a new wave of migrants.

Police said Wednesday they detained 36 people in a move aimed at combating increasing criminality around the heavily used station.

The blitz comes a week after a Guinean immigrant stabbed a police officer in front of the station and weeks after a 20-year-old Italian-Tunisian man who had been previously arrested on drug charges pulled a knife on two soldiers and a police officer inside the station. The Guinean was later expelled.

A man reacts during an Italian Police blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italian cities are under renewed pressure with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in the south and ever-tighter border controls in the north. Milan's Central Station has continued to be a gathering spot, despite efforts to move migrants to shelters and other locations in the city.

Milan's official for security, Carmela Rozza, said officials are committed to ensuring safety for commuters and tourists passing through the station and to transform the piazza outside the station into a place where people can gather for events.

"Everything that we have done so far has not been sufficient. We will continue until it is clear to the delinquents that the Central Station is not a place to loiter," Rozza told reporters following the police action.

A plain clothes policeman, right, chases a man during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italian Police check people during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Ukraine's president has rescinded the citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia who moved to Ukraine to become leader of one of its most corruption-plagued regions and later resigned, the country's migration service announced Wednesday.

The move by President Petro Poroshenko came after Ukraine received unspecified documents from Georgia, the service said.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in 2015 after being appointed as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. Georgia is seeking the ex-leader's extradition to face charges connected to the violent dispersal of protests and a raid on a private television station.

FILE - A Tuesday, May 30, 2017 file photo of former Georgian president and former governor of the Ukrainian Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili surrounded by his supporters at a rally near the Justice Ministry in Kiev, Ukraine. Ukraine's president has rescinded the citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, who moved to Ukraine to become leader of one of its most corruption-plagued regions and later resigned. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, File)

Saakashvili, a reformist who came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution protests, was appointed Odessa governor by Poroshenko. He resigned the post last year, complaining of official obstruction of anti-corruption efforts.

Saakashvili currently is in the United States, Sergei Leshchenko, a member of Poroshenko's bloc in Parliament, said.

"Saakashvili will be forced to seek refuge in America and forget about American politics," Leshchenko said.

Political analyst Vladimir Fesenko said the move showed Poroshenko was under pressure both from Georgia and from powerful political forces within Ukraine.

"On the field of the battle against corruption, Saakashvili made too many enemies among the ruling Ukrainian elite," Fesenko said.

Saakashvili notably clashed with Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, whom he accused of funding a private militia through corrupt means. The accusation prompted Avakov to throw a glass of water on him.

FILE - A Saturday, May 30, 2015 file photo of citizens greeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, and Mikhail Saakashvili, second left, former Georgian President and a newly appointed governor of Odessa region, in Odessa, Ukraine. Ukraine's president has rescinded the citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, who moved to Ukraine to become leader of one of its most corruption-plagued regions and later resigned. (AP Photo/Mykola Lazarenko/Pool Photo via AP, file)
CAIRO (AP) - Three U.N agencies say nearly 80 percent of Yemeni children need immediate humanitarian assistance amid the collapse of the country's health system in the face of the two-year-long civil war.

The heads of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Food Program said in a joint statement on Wednesday that 2 million Yemeni children are malnourished, making them vulnerable to cholera.

Yemen is facing the world's worst cholera outbreak in years.

FILE - In this Saturday, July 1, 2017, file photo, a man is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Since April, a cholera epidemic has ravaged the country with around 400,000 suspected cases and over 1,800 deaths. The rainy season underway threatens to worsen the situation and the number of cholera cases is expected to double by the end of the year, according to ICRC. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

The agencies called on the international community to intensify its support for the Yemenis.

A two-year Saudi-led campaign against Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels has damaged infrastructure and caused medicine shortages in the Arab world's poorest country. The war has killed more than 10,000 civilians, displaced 3 million people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
BEIRUT (AP) - President Donald Trump is not up to speed on who's fighting whom in the Middle East.

The president wrongly credited the Lebanese government with fighting Hezbollah when he heaped praise on its prime minister at the White House on Tuesday. Hezbollah, an Islamist political party with a militant faction, actually is a partner in Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government.

"Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah," Trump said in a news conference with Hariri. "The Lebanese people, of all faiths, are working together to keep - and you know this, and we've been discussing this at great length - their country safe and prosperous."

President Donald Trump and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri walk to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, for their joint news conference. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Lebanese government is indeed fighting against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. But so is Hezbollah. Fighters from the powerful Iranian-backed group are leading a military offensive to wipe out Sunni extremists from ISIS and al-Qaida from areas along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

And the Lebanese government is not confronting Hezbollah militarily, as Trump said, but rather reliant on it to stay in power.

It holds two seats in his cabinet, as it has in previous governments. While Hariri is opposed to Hezbollah's policies, particularly its decision to send fighters to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria, he has a power-sharing relationship with the group, without whose approval he would not be able to govern. Hezbollah also holds considerable influence in the country's parliament.

___

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A nearly life-sized statue missing for decades from an Italian church is being returned by an American couple who finally solved the mystery of their family's odd relic.

Ed Nader told NewsWorks (http://bit.ly/2tDlxC4 ) the statue of St. Pantaleon, considered the patron saint of physicians, spent years in his great-grandmother's closet.

He recently discovered that it actually belonged to the church in Montauro, Italy, so Nader agreed to return it.

In this June 14, 2017, photo provided by WHYY, Ed and Kathleen Nader sit in their living room in Exton, Pa, with a statue of St. Pantaleon that has been in Ed's family for four generations. The nearly life-sized statue missing for decades from an Italian church is being returned by the American couple, who finally solved the mystery of their family's odd relic. (Emma Lee/WHYY via AP)

The statue of the saint bound to a tree came to the U.S. in 1946 when a group of Montauro parishioners brought it to Boston for a feast day parade, Nader said. For some reason, they left it with his great-grandmother in Philadelphia and never returned to retrieve it.

She kept it a walk-in closet on the third story of her rowhome and lit candles at its base.

"As kids, every time we went to the third floor to go to the bathroom, we'd run past that room," Nader said. "We were so frightened of that statue. My mother, me, my aunt, her children, my children."

When Nader's great-grandmother died, the statue moved with him to Exton, where his wife kept it hidden under a sheet in the den.

"He's not something you want to look at every day," she said. "If he had more of a majestic pose, maybe I would keep him in the living room."

Nader recently traveled to Montauro, his great-grandmother's birthplace, and mentioned his family's statue to the small town's mayor.

The mayor instantly became excited, Nader said, and told them through an interpreter that it belonged to the church, where its place had been sitting empty for years.

The Naders paid to have it sent back in time for the saint's feast day on Thursday. The Naders said they planned to be in Montauro for the celebration.
WASHINGTON (AP) - While the president was in Ohio for a political rally late Tuesday, his daughter was in Washington helping Vice President Mike Pence raise money for his own political effort.

Pence collected about $1 million from donors for his new leadership committee, which can, in turn, dole out checks to political candidates.

Ivanka Trump, a senior adviser to the president, introduced Pence at the rooftop terrace event near the Capitol.

Ivanka Trump, center, and her husband, White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, right, sit in the front row during a joint news conference of President Donald Trump and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

A former Indiana congressman, Pence serves as the White House's chief liaison to lawmakers. His fundraiser capped a day that showcased that role: Earlier he had cast the deciding vote in the Senate's effort to begin debating how to end and perhaps replace President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Dozens of lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined Pence at his fundraiser. Ivanka Trump spoke glowingly of Pence and said his political committee would be helpful to Republicans facing 2018 congressional races.

Two people in attendance described it afterward to The Associated Press. They demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about details from the private event.

Pence formalized his political effort in May. Called the Great America Committee, it can accept checks of up to $5,000 from individual donors.

The move prompted speculation about Pence's political ambitions apart from President Donald Trump. Pence's advisers said they needed to form a federal political committee to warehouse donor and supporter lists he had amassed as governor of Indiana, where he had a state-level political committee.

Marty Obst, the leader of Great America Committee, said the group won't pay any of the legal fees that Pence is incurring as a result of ongoing probes into whether the Trump campaign had any ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

As that fundraiser was going on, Trump was in Youngstown, Ohio for a political rally paid for by his re-election committee. His son Eric Trump attended that event, the sixth such rally since taking office in January.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that hard-won gains toward lasting peace in Central African Republic are threatened by fighting in the country's southeast and heightened inter-ethnic tensions.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq says Guterres called on all parties Wednesday to stop the violence and "take action to avoid a further deterioration of the fragile security situation in the country."

The secretary-general and the U.N. Security Council, in separate statements, condemned the killing of two U.N. peacekeepers from Morocco in the southeastern town of Bangassou on Tuesday. Another Moroccan peacekeeper was killed there Sunday.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Central African Republic and roughly 100,000 displaced in the past two months. Renewed sectarian violence, which began in 2013, prompted warnings of a national conflict roaring back to life.
DALLAS (AP) - In a story July 26 about a protest by American Airlines employees, The Associated Press misspelled the name of a union official. The president of the Transport Workers Union is John Samuelsen, not Samuelson.

A corrected version of the story is below:

American Airlines workers protest over pay, outsourcing

Workers who maintain American Airlines planes are demonstrating for higher pay and an end to outsourcing

By DAVID KOENIG

AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS (AP) - Several hundred workers who maintain American Airlines planes picketed Wednesday at the carrier's home airport, calling for higher pay and an end to shifting maintenance work overseas.

The demonstration underscored conflict between the airlines, which struggled for years but are now earning huge profits, and their union work forces.

Helped by a bankruptcy restructuring, less competition, lower fuel prices and new leadership, American Airlines Group Inc. earned $2.7 billion last year.

"They are not going to hoard it all to themselves," said John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union. "The TWU work force is going to get their fair share in this contract negotiation."

Samuelsen's union organized the midday rally at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which airport police estimated at 600 people. Another protest was planned for later in the day.

The transport union and another union have been negotiating with American for a new contract since late 2015. The transport union says workers need higher wages to make up for concessionary contracts that were approved when American was in financial distress in 2003 and 2012.

They also say that American is raising profits by moving some maintenance work from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to foreign shops where labor costs are lower. American has announced plans to build what the union says will be a $100 million maintenance facility in Brazil - American puts the cost at $50 million.

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the airline gave the union a contract proposal last week that would protect current jobs even as it builds a two-airplane hangar in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Miller said the facility will only service large planes that need maintenance work between flights to and from the U.S. The work is already being done in Sao Paulo without a hangar by workers who are employed by American but are not members of the transport union, he said.

On the wage issue, Miller said that last year American gave pay raises outside of the normal bargaining process to its union employees, including increases of between 15 percent and 36 percent for many maintenance workers.

Samuelsen, the union president, said that even with last year's raises, ground workers at American will soon fall behind in wages because of recent contracts at other major airlines, and they already have inferior health and pension benefits.

___

David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter
The United States is playing a dangerous game by selling arms to Taiwan in violation of commitments made in establishing relations with China. [China Daily]

On June 29, the Trump administration notified Congress that it had approved sales of US$1.42 billion-worth of advanced weaponry to Taiwan, despite the Chinese government's persistent opposition.

There's no doubt this will have an adverse impact on the prospects for cross-Straits peace, as well as the Sino-U.S. ties.

American sales of weapons to Taiwan is not only dangerous but also an idiotic move on the part of President Donald Trump for its corrosive effect on the Sino-U.S. relationship, for it sends "a wrong signal" to those promoting separatist activities favoring "Taiwan independence," and will do great harm to cross-Straits peace and stability.

The U.S. move runs counter to Chinese President Xi Jinping's trust in Trump, built up during their first diplomatic encounter in Palm Beach, Florida on April 6-7, 2017. During the meeting, Trump promised efforts to build "a very, very great relationship" between the two countries.

If President Trump wantonly sells weapons to Taiwan, violating the sacrosanct "One-China" principle, China would have little encouragement to partner with the U.S. government on international issues considered of vital importance in Washington.

Besides the arms sales, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2017-18, which contains controversial provisions about re-establishing regular port calls by the U.S. Navy at Kaohsiung or any other suitable port in Taiwan and permitting the U.S. Pacific Command to receive reciprocal visits by Taiwan.

This provoked a strong protest from China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that China had always opposed any official and military exchanges between the United States and Taiwan, and the latest moves would cause serious harm.

The 37 years of continuing American arms sales to Taiwan have caused considerable trouble to Sino-U.S. relations, once again raising the question of how sincerely the U.S. treats the One-China policy, and how much it respects China's core interests.

On the one hand, the U.S. government says it honors the one-China policy, while continuing to use the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979 to justifying "defensive" arms sales. That act, signed by President Jimmy Carter, is now completely out of date.

Historically, the island of Taiwan is just as much an inalienable part of China as Long Island has been to New York and the United States. The government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government of China, a fact recognized by the United Nations and over 160 countries including United States of America.

On January 1, 1979, the United States officially established diplomatic relations with China, confirming it would sever its "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan, withdraw its military forces there, and terminate the Mutual Defense Treaty.

For the past 37 years, the U.S. has violated the basic principles enshrined in the three joint communiques covering relations with China. The Bush and Obama administrations each sold over $12 billion worth of military equipment to Taiwan. It is high time for such violations to come to an end, to the benefit of both China and the United States.

The secessionists in Taiwan should recognize it is a delusion that the U.S. will spill blood coming to the defense of Taiwan. The Trump administration is using Taiwan as "bargaining chip" to get other things from China. Ultimately, the Taiwanese authorities may well regret being a pawn of Trump and his radical policies.

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and her deluded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) followers had better wake up, acknowledge their mistakes, and face the reality of the 1992 Consensus on cross-Straits relations. There is no other alternative.

The U.S. administration has been talking about a strategic "rebalancing" in regard to Asia; however, the most urgent rebalancing act is to stop selling weapons to Taiwan and to stop overt and covert official contacts with Taiwan as in interests of Asia-Pacific peace and even that of the world at large.

Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - On an October morning in 2012, the system administrator of a tiny Vermont defense contractor arrived at work to find the business' computers had been hacked and a sophisticated software program stolen. Prosecutors later concluded the thieves were a group of Iranians who sold the software to organizations within the Iranian government.

The hack, revealed in an indictment unsealed last week, shows that mercenary hackers who sell stolen data to friendly governments are a growing threat to defense contractors, experts say.

"They are essentially nonsanctioned espionage groups," said Brian Wallace, the lead security data scientist for the Irvine, California-based company computer security company Cylance Inc. "The government doesn't create them, they don't own them. They operate and get almost of their income from the government."

This image released by the FBI shows a poster containing a photo of Mohammad Reza Rezakhah, who the agency is seeking to apprehend on charges of conspiring with others to hack into a Vermont defense contractor and to steal sophisticated software, outlined in an indictment unsealed Monday, July 14, 2017. (FBI via AP)

The South Burlington company, Arrow Tech Associates, makes software used to monitor projectiles in flight.

Arrow Tech President Charles Hillman said the firm was able to track the hackers' every keystroke, which helped the FBI trace the intrusion to three Iranians.

"We were very impressed with what they got done in just a few hours," he added.

Iranian officials in Washington referred an emailed question on the issue from The Associated Press to "the pertinent department." There was no further reply.

The eight-count indictment released last week alleged that from at least 2007 through May 2013 the three men broke into computers in "Vermont and elsewhere." It said the group also stole software from an unidentified Western aerospace company in July 2012.

Arrest warrants were issued for two of the men: Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, 39, and Mohammed Saeed Ajily, 35. They were indicted in April 2016, and FBI wanted posters say the two men are believed to be in Iran.

The third man, Nima Golestaneh, had been indicted in 2013, but the case was sealed until February 2015, when he was brought to the U.S. from Turkey.

Golestaneh pleaded guilty in Vermont in December 2015. The next month, he was pardoned by then-President Barack Obama as part of a prisoner swap with Iran that included the release of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati.

Such hacks are a growing threat for defense contractors, said Phil Sussman, the president of Norwich University Applied Research Institutes, which works on cyber security issues at the private Vermont military college.

"In the last five or six years anyways, it has been common knowledge that these kinds of services are readily available on the dark web and could be purchased," Sussman said.

Wallace said such arrangements are not exclusive to Iran.

"We can see a lot of similar activities coming out of Russia where you had independent hacking groups that don't work directly for the Russian government, but they do have very strong ties to the Russian government," he said.

Arrow Tech, which employs fewer than 10 people, sells software that measures the performance of projectiles. "Anything that comes out of a gun tube is in our wheelhouse," Hillman said.

It's unclear if the stolen ballistics software, used to analyze and design bullets and GPS-guided artillery shells, ever worked for the hackers. Hillman said he doubts the hackers could have even unlocked the software, because it requires a physical key, called a dongle, to operate.

Hillman said Arrow Tech has had to assure some of its 600 licensed customers in more than two dozen countries that their information is safe.

"Their information is not stored on these servers that are accessible from the outside," Hillman said. "I can't even access our servers from outside the building."
MIAMI (AP) - Having just closed the case on a police shooting that occurred more than eight years ago, Miami's top prosecutor said her office takes "far too long" to investigate shootings involving police officers.

In a statement Wednesday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said her office will post regular status updates on its website about shooting investigations involving law enforcement officers, the Miami Herald reported .

The State Attorney's Office said it has 48 open cases involving police shootings. Rundle said "the important consideration of timeliness has suffered" amid efforts to complete thorough and transparent investigations into whether the shootings were justified or if officers should face criminal charges.

"Historically police-involved shooting investigations have taken my prosecutors far too long to resolve," Rundle said.

The announcement came as prosecutors said they had cleared two Miami Beach officers and a police public service aide in the 2009 death of 29-year-old Lawrence McCoy. McCoy was shot after carjacking a taxicab. Investigators said he didn't have a gun, although the taxi driver told a 911 dispatcher that McCoy was armed.

Under Miami-Dade's policy, prosecutors say they want to finish their legal analysis within 90 days after the evidence and reports are collected. But such reports are almost never finished that quickly. Unlike most Florida counties, Miami-Dade produces exhaustive written reports on each police-involved shooting.

The new website status updates will not include details of the ongoing investigations, but will outline what documents are still needed from police, Rundle said. The page will be updated every three months.

In addition, every three months a committee of senior prosecutors will summon individual prosecutors assigned to each shooting case to gauge progress of the investigations.

"Good intentions and hard work alone are not enough to bring knowledge and closure to the families of the deceased and to the members of our community," Rundle said in her statement. "It is my commitment to continue to improve our communications and transparency."
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's decision to bar transgender people from serving in the military (all times local):

5:40 p.m.

Al Gore says President Donald Trump's decision to bar transgender people from serving in the military is wrong and a distraction from more important issues.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pauses as she prepares to answer questions during the press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The former vice president spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday while promoting his film, "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power."

Gore said he didn't think that Trump consulted with military leaders before making his announcement on Twitter. He says he thinks Trump is big on distractions and that is leading to the president not getting any important work done.

Gore says Trump should be focused on solving climate change, the topic Gore has been vocal and passionate about for more than a decade.

"An Inconvenient Sequel" is a follow up to 2006's Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

___

4:10 p.m.

The American Medical Association says there is no "medically valid reason" to bar transgender individuals from military service.

The national organization that represents physicians and medical students says financial cost is a rounding error in the U.S. defense budget and shouldn't be used to deny anyone the opportunity to serve.

President Donald Trump cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" as the basis for the ban he announced Wednesday morning on Twitter.

The association says it supports public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria.

It adds that transgender individuals currently serving the country should be allowed to continue doing so.

___

3:05 p.m.

A White House spokeswoman is not saying what will happen to transgender troops currently serving in the military after President Donald Trump said transgender people should be barred from the armed services.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the Department of Defense and the White House will work together to implement Trump's plans. She did not provide a timeline for the process.

Sanders described the move as a "military decision" and said Trump was concerned the current policy "erodes military readiness and military cohesion." She said the secretary of defense was notified yesterday after Trump made the decision.

Trump said on Twitter Wednesday that he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity."

__

11:30 a.m.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, is slamming President Donald Trump's ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.

Duckworth said in a statement Wednesday that when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, she didn't care "if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else. All that mattered was they didn't leave me behind."

The Illinois senator said anyone willing to risk their lives for their country should be able to serve no matter gender or sexual orientation or race.

She said, "Anything else is discriminatory and counterproductive to our national security."

__

11:30 a.m.

A national LGBTQ advocacy group says President Donald Trump's decision to bar transgender people from military service is an "all-out assault" on these individuals.

Stephen Peters, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, tells The Associated Press that Trump's decision was "alarming" because it comes after a decade of progress toward inclusion in the military. Peters says the decision is "morally reprehensible," ''patently unpatriotic" and dangerous because it "puts a target on the backs of thousands of service members."

Trump announced on Twitter that he is barring transgender people from service in the military "in any capacity." He cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Peters says the decision doesn't appear to have factored in the effect on military morale and readiness.

__

11:10 a.m.

Ash Carter, who as secretary of defense last year ended the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, is criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to ban their service.

Carter issued a statement Wednesday saying that the important thing for choosing who is allowed to serve is whether they are best qualified.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualification," he said, "is social policy and has no place in our military."

Carter added that transgender individuals already are serving capably and honorably in the military.

__

11:10 a.m.

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee is calling President Donald Trump's newly announced ban on transgender military service "an unwarranted and disgraceful attack."

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington says preventing transgender people from joining the military and pushing out "those who have devoted their lives to this country would be ugly and discriminatory in the extreme."

Smith also is challenging the estimates cited by conservative lawmakers that show the Pentagon end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade to pay for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies.

He says those figures "have no basis in fact" and likely were "cooked up by right-wing advocacy organizations whose real interest is not to support military readiness but to further discrimination."

__

11 a.m.

The Pentagon, which appeared to be caught off-guard by Trump's tweets barring transgender people from the military, is referring all questions about them to the White House.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a brief written statement that the Pentagon is working with the White House to "address" what he calls "the new guidance" from the president on transgender individuals serving in the military.

Davis said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials "in the near future."

__

10:47 a.m.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is slamming President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military as "vile and hateful."

In a statement, Pelosi pointed out Trump's decision came on the same day in 1948 that President Harry S. Truman signed the executive order desegregating the military.

The California Democrat called Trump's action "a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who stepped forward to serve our country."

She said a study commissioned by the department found the cost of providing medically necessary transition-related care would be $2 million to $8 million a year, a small amount from what the Pentagon spends on military care.

She said the "disgusting ban" will weaken the military and the nation it defends. She said Trump's conduct is not driven by "honor, decency or national security, but by raw prejudice."

__

10:30 a.m.

The Pentagon seems to have been unaware that President Donald Trump has decided to bar transgender people from the military.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, refused to answer questions about what Trump's tweeted announcement means for the current policy, including whether transgender people already serving in the military will be kicked out.

"Call the White House," he said.

The White House press office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

__

9:34 a.m.

President Donald Trump is barring transgender people from serving in the military "in any capacity." He's citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Trump's announcement Wednesday morning on Twitter did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

The president tweeted that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

A Rand Corp. study estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban.

President Donald Trump speaks about healthcare, Monday, July 24, 2017, in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's refusal to throw out a lawsuit questioning a Ferguson police officer's use of force involving the man who was with Michael Brown when that officer shot Brown to death three years ago.

Tuesday's 2-1 ruling by an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sided with Dorian Johnson in concluding that former officer Darren Wilson and ex-chief Thomas Jackson are not immune from such litigation. The court also found that Johnson sufficiently alleged that Wilson violated his rights.

Johnson says that as he walked with Brown on a street on Aug. 9, 2014, Wilson illegally detained him by using his police vehicle to block their path. Moments later, Wilson shot and killed Brown during a struggle. Johnson fled and was not wounded.

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2014, file photo, Dorian Johnson leaves church at the end of the funeral service for his friend, Michael Brown, in St. Louis. A federal appeals court on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, upheld a judge's refusal to throw out a lawsuit against Ferguson by the Johnson who was with Brown when a police officer shot Brown to death three years ago, calling the officer's use of force unreasonable. Johnson argues that as he walked with Brown on a Ferguson street, Darren Wilson illegally detained him by using his police vehicle to block their path. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Johnson insists in his lawsuit that Wilson "acted with deliberate indifference or reckless disregard" for Johnson's rights, used excessive force and essentially detained him unlawfully by using his police vehicle to impede his movement.

The 8th Circuit on Tuesday agreed, with Judge Michael Melloy writing for the panel's majority that based on Johnson's version "the law was sufficiently clear" that "a reasonable officer in Officer Wilson's position would not have shot his gun."

The 8th Circuit's Roger Wollman countered that Johnson's movements were not illegally restrained by Wilson and that the lawsuit should be thrown out, likening Johnson's flight to that "of a moonshine-carrying" defendant.

Brown's death launched months of protests and led to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found racial bias in Ferguson's police and court system. But a St. Louis County grand jury and the Justice Department cleared Wilson, who resigned in November 2014.

Ferguson reached a settlement with the Justice Department that calls for revised police practices, court changes and other modifications.

In June, a federal judge in St. Louis approved a $1.5 million settlement to Brown's parents in their 2015 wrongful-death lawsuit against Ferguson, Wilson and Jackson, who each denied wrongdoing.

Johnson's lawsuit alleges Ferguson and Jackson condoned unconstitutional police policies that breached his civil rights, including failing to properly train and supervise officers. Johnson also claims Wilson's actions caused him emotional distress.

Melloy wrote in Tuesday's ruling that "just as a passenger would understand that no one in the car is free to leave during a traffic stop, one of two pedestrians stopped by a single police roadblock would understand that he was not free to leave, even if the officer only directly engaged with the other pedestrian."

"Officer Wilson's show of authority did not single out Brown as he walked alongside Johnson," Melloy added.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Authorities have identified a Virginia man who police killed after officials say the shirtless, kilt-wearing man attacked an officer with a small ax.

Richmond police identified the man Wednesday as 23-year-old Alexander J. Schoessel of Chester.

Police and witnesses say that before he was shot on Tuesday, Schoessel had been walking around downtown with an ax and a long knife, wearing nothing but a kilt and combat-style boots.

In this Tuesday, July 25, 2017 image provided by Kevin Barber, a man dressed in a kilt carries an ax and a long knife in downtown Richmond, Va. Officers fatally shot the man making threats as he walked around the state capital, police and witnesses said. Police did not immediately identify the man. (Kevin Barber via AP)

Police say officers tried to get the man to drop his weapons, but he wouldn't comply and instead attacked police, prompting Officers Nicholas Pechstein and Joshua Sanborn to fire their weapons.

Authorities say Officer John Rotondi was caught in the line of fire, as a bullet hit his protective vest. Rotondi has been released from the hospital.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The mayor of Allentown and the former mayor of Reading have been indicted on federal corruption charges.

Indictments made public Wednesday accuse Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski and former Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer of shaking down businesses and individuals for campaign contributions in alleged pay-to-play schemes.

The charges against them include bribery and fraud.

Pawlowski said Tuesday he has no plan to resign while fighting the charges.

The federal investigation of the two city governments began in 2013 and previously led to charges against a slew of lower-ranking city officials and contractors.

It became public in 2015 when FBI agents raided both city halls as well as the homes of Pawlowski and Spencer, both Democrats.

No attorney was listed in court documents for Spencer.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

___

July 20

The Arizona Republic on Sen. John McCain's legacy:

In a life in which there is nothing left to prove, came one more catastrophic challenge Wednesday night.

"McCain has brain cancer," roared the CNN home page.

On every news front in America, the same words told you the gravity of the moment: One of the world's most powerful men is severely ill.

That brought all the other powerful people bearing tributes:

"Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John."

- Former President Barack Obama

"Senator John McCain has always been a fighter."

- President Donald Trump

"John McCain is as tough as they come."

- Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton

"Cancer picked on the wrong guy."

- Vice President Mike Pence

Then Meghan McCain stepped in

But it was shortly after 5 p.m. Arizona time that another tribute emerged on social media in words both moving and elegant from a daughter, who said:

"It won't surprise you to learn that in all this, the one who is most confident and calm is my father," wrote Meghan McCain.

No, Meghan. We're not surprised.

Fifty years ago, John Sidney McCain III faced perhaps the most impossible odds of his life: That he, a 31-year-old Navy aviator, would ever measure up to the McCains who came before him.

Both his father and his grandfather were four-star admirals in the United States Navy.

And things were not starting out well for John.

None of this ever broke McCain

In July of that year, 1967, John McCain barely escaped with his life when an electrical malfunction discharged a rocket and set ablaze the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. One-hundred-thirty-four Americans would die that day.

In October 1967, McCain flew his A-4E Skyhawk in a bombing mission over Hanoi and was struck by a North Vietnamese missile. He ejected from his aircraft, breaking both arms and a leg. He then nearly drowned parachuting into Truc Bach Lake.

The Vietnamese who found him stabbed him with a bayonet and crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt.

He would be taken to the Hanoi Hilton, where his captors continued the beatings and refused him treatment. It was the beginning of six years of imprisonment, in which he was routinely tortured and paraded about as an object of propaganda.

As the son of a high-ranking admiral, he was given the opportunity to skip the line and go home early. But he refused. He would not benefit from some other American's misfortune.

He would survive the war, return home and become one of the most influential leaders of our time.

'It will not make him surrender'

He has been through the political gantlet time and again, including a grueling run for president in 2008. And still he managed to stay vital and win a sixth term in the United States Senate at age 80.

So you understand why Sen. McCain is calm.

"He is the toughest person I know," wrote his daughter. "The cruelest enemy could not break him. ... Cancer may afflict him in many ways. But it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has.

"My love for my father is boundless, and like any daughter I cannot and do not wish to be in a world without him. I have faith that those days remain far away.

"Yet even in this moment my fears for him are overwhelmed by one thing above all: Gratitude for our years together and the years still to come. He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest Americans of our age, and the worthy heir to his father's and grandfather's name."

The McCain legacy is in good hands

What father could read those words and not be moved to tears.

No one knows how this remarkable story ends. Our prayers and undying admiration are with John McCain today.

But a new McCain has emerged with poise and eloquence and, yes, her father's guts. No matter what happens now, John McCain must know his legacy stretches well beyond his years.

And a daughter faces the same daunting challenge her father confronted half a century ago - living up to a name that is splashed in grandeur.

John McCain is calm today. But he is also, no doubt, warmed by the knowledge that his name and his legacy are in good stead.

Online: http://www.azcentral.com/

___

July 23

The Philadelphia Inquirer on what could fix the Affordable Care Act:

The biggest problem with the failed Republican effort to kill the Affordable Care Act is it was based on a lie. Even now, its detractors insist Obamacare is collapsing, despite evidence that with some structural fixes it could be as effective as Medicare in providing health insurance to millions of Americans.

The medicine needed to cure the ACA became clear soon after the rocky rollout of its exchanges in 2013. But instead of addressing its flaws, Republicans used the wave of public displeasure with Obamacare to solidify their hold on both houses of Congress and win the presidency. Failing to deliver on their promise to repeal Obamacare, though, is likely to cost them in future elections.

The Republicans should salve the wounds to their pride and collaborate with Democrats on legislation that would improve the ACA. For that to happen, Republicans must get over their fear of crossing the GOP's tea-party wing, which has been calling the Republican senators who refused to support the repeal effort traitors.

President Trump has been playing to that crowd ever since his election campaign. He's not about to abandon it now that his dwindling poll numbers suggest tea-party support is crucial to ensure the faithfulness of Republican lawmakers who don't feel the same love for him.

Outside Washington, Americans can only hope Democrats and Republicans will one day put the needs of the public above partisanship and fix Obamacare. For months, observers with ties to the health care and insurance industries have spelled out what needs to be done. But their recommendations have been ignored by Republican leaders who want to kill the patient, not save it.

Trump likes to boast about his success as a businessman. Anyone who has ever run a business knows you must build a customer base to be successful - and that there might be some lean times until you do. Same thing goes for Obamacare, which was built on a hybrid business model to garner the support of insurance companies worried about the potential for drooping profits.

A private business uses discounts and other incentives to build its customer base. But as a government program, Obamacare could use a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot: subsidies to cover the higher premiums some consumers would pay. The stick: tax penalties on individuals who could afford but didn't buy health insurance, and on larger companies who didn't offer coverage to employees.

Congress could make more people eligible for subsidies, increase the size of subsidies to get more people to buy insurance, or make the penalties larger so fewer people would opt to pay them instead of buying insurance. Or it could do a combination of all three. Increase the number of customers buying insurance and premiums should go down.

Obamacare needs other fixes, but it's not in a "death spiral." In fact, New York had a 28 percent increase in enrollments this year, with 17 insurance carriers offering plans on the ACA exchange. Other states aren't doing as well. But they might be if it weren't for the partisan politics that for too long has been played with America's health care.

Online: http://www.philly.com/

___

July 26

The Dallas Morning News on President Donald Trump's needling of Attorney General Jeff Sessions:

Just six months ago, Jeff Sessions promised the American people that if his fellow senators allowed him to serve as Attorney General he'd be bound by the rule of law, not by his loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Few foresaw just how quickly that pledge would be put to the test by the president, who has spent the last two weeks publicly needling Sessions as a weak and disappointing AG.

Trump has made the source of his displeasure clear. Had he known that Sessions would remove himself from oversight of the widening investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, he says he never would have nominated Sessions.

This attack, which has so far been met with steely resolve by the Cabinet member, does great damage to America. Had any other president in recent memory - from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Barack Obama - expressed so naked a political view of the Department of Justice, voters on the right and left would have reacted with anger.

We need that courage now, from all sides. Trump has recast the debate over Sessions' decision to recuse himself in purely personal terms, as is his tiresome wont. It's "very unfair" to him and to any president, Trump contends, for his attorney general to step aside from an investigation like this.

In Trump's world, then, a president names an attorney general primarily to ensure that Justice does not interfere with the president, rather than to ensure that justice itself runs its course.

As he has continued his attacks this week, Trump called Sessions "very weak" in not re-launching the criminal case against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the opponent Trump beat last November but can't stop talking about.

Trump's presidency is forever pushing boundaries. But the line that has kept the DOJ insulated from the rawest of political agendas in the White House at least since Richard Nixon blew up his presidency by ordering the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973 is one that should not bend.

A more recent lesson should have given Trump pause. Surely Trump understands how disastrously his firing of FBI Director James Comey has backfired?

But so far the only thing that seems to have kept Sessions in his job is the fact that so many of Trump's own base see the former senator as a representative of the early true-believers that helped elect Trump.

We do not share that fondness for the politics or priorities of Sessions, whom we believed was a poor choice for Attorney General. But Trump's assault on Sessions is a dagger stabbed straight at the heart of the department's integrity; it's a thrust that must be repelled.

Online: https://www.dallasnews.com/

___

July 25

Los Angeles Times on Congressional Republicans helping President Donald Trump's campaign promise to "get rid of" a law prohibiting churches and other nonprofits from endorsing candidates:

As part of his all-too-successful courtship of religious conservatives, Donald Trump promised during his presidential campaign to "get rid of" the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that prohibits churches and other tax-exempt nonprofit organizations from endorsing candidates for public office.

In May, the president issued a largely symbolic executive order that purported to fulfill that campaign promise. Now Republicans in Congress are engaging in stealth tactics to give it real force.

With little fanfare, the House Appropriations Committee recently added language to a Treasury Department spending bill that would make it harder for the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the Johnson Amendment's prohibition of political endorsements by nonprofits - but only in connection with political activity by "a church, or a convention or association of churches."

Under that provision, no determination that a church has engaged in improper politicking could take effect without the consent of the head of the IRS, notification of two congressional committees and the expiration of a 90-day waiting period.

Though these provisions fall short of an outright repeal of the Johnson Amendment, they are clearly designed to make such determinations exceedingly rare. Moreover, because the new restrictions wouldn't apply to investigations of political endorsements by secular tax-exempt organizations, they would almost certainly violate the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment.

Finally, even if one believes that the Johnson Amendment should be repealed or revised - and we don't - the change shouldn't be accomplished by erecting procedural roadblocks through the back door of the appropriations process. When the full House takes up the Treasury spending bill, it should remove the language about the Johnson Amendment from the legislation, as Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Fla) had proposed in the Appropriations Committee.

The best reason to do so, however, is that the current, limited prohibition makes sense. With characteristic disregard for the facts, Trump claimed during last year's campaign that, as a result of the Johnson Amendment, "religion's voice has been taken away." In fact, the law doesn't prevent religious organizations from speaking out about an array of political issues - including homelessness policy, as we note above - and members of the clergy are free in their personal capacities to endorse candidates.

Rather, the Johnson Amendment says to churches and other nonprofits that if they desire the considerable financial benefits of tax-exempt status, they must refrain from a small subset of political speech. The overarching principle is that taxpayers shouldn't be asked to subsidize political endorsements with which they disagree. The experience of the last 63 years shows that that principle can coexist with vigorous political advocacy and activism by churches and other religious organizations.

Online: http://www.latimes.com/

___

July 25

The New York Times on terrorism trials in federal courts and comparing reactions to them during Barack Obama and Donald Trump's presidencies:

Republicans raged over what they called the White House's weak and dangerous decision last week to prosecute in federal court a man suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, rather than shipping him off to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sorry, wrong year. That happened back in 2009, when President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder Jr., tried to put Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, on trial in New York City.

Senior Republicans claimed to be aghast. John Boehner, then the House minority leader, said Mr. Obama was "treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue and hoping for the best." Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, said the attempt to move Mr. Mohammed to federal court showed "fighting global terrorism is not the priority it once was."

Republicans complained about more than Mr. Mohammed, whose civil trial was called off in early 2010; throughout Mr. Obama's presidency, they fumed often at the prospect that terrorism suspects would enjoy the constitutional protections of civilian trials.

Yet there was no similar outcry last week at the news that Mr. Sessions, now the attorney general, has agreed to try Ali Charaf Damache in a federal court in Philadelphia. Mr. Damache is believed to be a recruiter for Al Qaeda and is charged with providing material support to the organization. He was extradited from Spain, where he was arrested in 2015, and made his initial appearance before a federal judge on Friday.

The extradition effort began under Mr. Obama and continued under President Trump, who promised during the campaign to keep Guantanamo open and to send more "bad dudes" there. But before anyone starts thinking that Mr. Trump and his allies have come to see the value of federal trials for terrorism suspects, there is a simpler explanation: The administration most likely had no choice. Spain, like many other countries, sees Guantanamo as the moral catastrophe and legal black hole that it is, and would have refused to hand Mr. Damache over without a guarantee that he would not be sent there to face a military commission.

Whatever factors combined to bring Mr. Damache to the federal court system, it was the right move. Forget the overheated rhetoric and look at the record: Federal prosecutors have won about 200 "jihadist related" terrorism and national security cases since Sept. 11, as a federal judge noted in 2015. Meanwhile, not a single Sept. 11 defendant has been convicted under the Guantanamo military commissions. That system, plagued from the start with delays and legal challenges, has led to just eight convictions over all, three of which have been overturned - a record the commissions' former chief prosecutor called a "litany of failure."

Little of this has sunk in with Mr. Trump. Perhaps Mr. Damache's trial will show him that the federal court system is far better equipped to handle such prosecutions than military commissions at Guantanamo Bay will ever be.

Online: https://www.nytimes.com/

___

July 27

The Australian on President Donald Trump's Twitter habits:

Donald Trump clearly is frustrated by the way allegations of Russian collusion in last year's presidential election are engulfing members of his family. But that does not justify the unedifying, over-the-top Twitter rampage he has launched to demean, denigrate and, presumably, force the resignation of Attorney-General Jeff Sessions. Nor does it provide grounds for his apparent determination, in viciously targeting Mr Sessions, to relaunch the "lock her up" theme of his 2016 campaign by ominously recalling that the embattled Attorney-General "has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes". Nothing, however, appears sacrosanct. Even the President's youngest son, Barron, has been drawn in rhetorically to help make Mr. Trump's argument against the Russian probe. "Jared Kushner," he tweeted of his son-in-law, "did very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians. Witch Hunt. Next up, 11-year-old Barron Trump!"

Mr. Trump, as the President of the most powerful nation on earth and leader of the free world, should be above such crassness. He is, as The Wall Street Journal has noted, "harming himself, alienating allies and crossing dangerous legal and political lines". His implied suggestion that his Attorney-General should prosecute his defeated opponent "is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan's Turkey or Duterte's Philippines".

Mr. Sessions, America's top law officer, was a veteran US senator who campaigned tirelessly for Mr. Trump. He has provoked the President's ire because he recused himself from supervising the Russian collusion investigation - which he was right to do. What Mr. Trump needs to consider is that it is his tweeting, rather than Mr. Sessions, that is creating a mess around his administration. If the President's new communications director, the smooth-talking financier Anthony Scaramucci, does nothing else he must persuade his boss to be much more presidential and discerning about his tweets. If he fails, the administration could come off the rails completely and Mr. Trump's busy fingers end up destroying his own presidency.

Online: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
People who used e-cigarettes were more likely to kick the habit than those who didn't, a new study found.

Nicotine patches, gums and medications are known to aid smoking cessation, but there's no consensus on whether vaping devices can help anti-smoking efforts. The U.S. research is the largest look yet at electronic cigarette users and it found e-cigarettes played a role in helping people quit.

"It's absolutely clear that e-cigarettes help smokers replace cigarettes," said Peter Hajek, director of the health and lifestyle research unit at Queen Mary University in London, who wasn't part of the study.

FILE - In this April 23, 2014 file photo, E-cigarettes appear on display at Vape store in Chicago. Smokers who used e-cigarettes were more likely to kick the habit than those who didn't, according to a new study that suggests a liberal approach to the electronic devices could help curb smoking rates. The American study was based on the biggest sample of e-cigarette users to date and attempted to clarify if e-cigarettes help smokers quit. The research was published online Wednesday, July 26, 2017 in the journal, BMJ. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Smoking rates have been generally declining for decades. Health experts have credited taxes on tobacco products and anti-smoking ads for the drop.

E-cigarettes have been sold in the U.S. since 2007. Most devices heat a liquid nicotine solution into vapor and were promoted to smokers as a less dangerous alternative since they don't contain all the chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes.

Researchers analyzed and compared data collected by the U.S. Census from 2001 to 2015, including the number of adult e-cigarette users from the most recent survey.

About two-thirds of e-cigarette users tried to quit smoking compared to 40 percent of non-users, the study found. E-cigarette users were more likely to succeed in quitting for at least three months than non-users - 8 percent versus 5 percent.

The research was published online Wednesday in the journal, BMJ. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The rate of people quitting smoking in the U.S. has remained steady at about 4.5 percent for years. It jumped to 5.6 percent in 2014-2015, representing about 350,000 fewer smokers. It was the first recorded rise in the smoking cessation rate in 15 years.

While national anti-smoking campaigns likely helped, the results show e-cigarette use also played an important role, said lead author Shu-Hong Zhu of the University of California, San Diego.

Hajek, who wasn't part of the research, said vaping devices shouldn't be strictly regulated, but instead be allowed to compete directly with cigarettes. "That way, smokers can get what they want without killing themselves," he said.

Earlier this month, a House panel renewed its efforts to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from requiring retroactive safety reviews of e-cigarettes already on the market.

Others warned that the long-term side effects of e-cigarettes are unknown.

"We just don't know if moving to e-cigarettes is good enough to reduce the harm," said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the American Heart Association's Tobacco Research and Addiction Center.

Chris Bullen, who authored an accompanying editorial , said although the long-term safety of e-cigarettes is unclear, any ill effects are "likely to be rare compared with the harms of continuing to smoke."

The latest results strongly suggest that more lenient control of e-cigarettes could improve population health, said Bullen, a professor of public health at the University of Auckland.

"If every smoker was to change over to e-cigarettes completely, there would be a dramatic and almost immediate public health benefit," he said in an email.

___

AP Health Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - The Latest on the sentencing of a Montana man convicted of kidnapping and raping a four-year-old girl (all times local):

4:00 p.m.

A federal judge has sentenced a 22-year-old Montana man to almost 42 years in prison for kidnapping and violently raping a 4-year-old girl on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Wednesday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Great Falls came in a case that prosecutors had described as every parent's nightmare.

John William Lieba II of Wolf Point was accused of chasing down the young girl at night in a park, raping and strangling her and then leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup truck in February 2016.

A jury convicted him on counts of kidnapping a minor, aggravated sexual abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury on a minor.

Judge Brian Morris sentenced Lieba to 500 months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently.

__

12 a.m.

Prosecutors say a Montana man turned every parent's nightmare into reality when he chased down a 4-year-old girl at night in a park, snatched her while a friend watched helplessly, then raped and left her for dead on an American Indian reservation.

The U.S. Attorney's Office wants 22-year-old John William Lieba II sent to prison for life when he is sentenced Wednesday before a federal judge.

A jury convicted him of kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and assault resulting in serious injury in the February 2016 crime on the Fort Peck Indian reservation.

Defense attorneys say Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events. They requested a 30-year prison sentence.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is donating three months of his salary to the Department of Education.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump chose to give the department $100,000. His first quarter salary donation went to the Department of Interior.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the donation is being used to pay for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics camp sponsored by the department.

President Donald Trump call out to people gathered in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, after speaking during an American Legion Boys Nation and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation event. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

As a candidate, Trump had promised not to take a salary. By law he must be paid, so he is donating the money. Taxpayers can write off such donations, potentially lowering their income taxes.

DeVos says she is grateful for the donation.

The Trump administration proposed a 13 percent cut to the Education Department's budget
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A housekeeper and mother of four who received sanctuary in a Connecticut church has been granted an emergency stay of a deportation order that would have sent her back to her native Guatemala.

Nury Chavarria, who entered the U.S. 24 years ago without legal status, was ordered in June to leave the country by July 20. The 43-year-old Norwalk resident instead took refuge inside the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal church in New Haven.

"I'm here to raise my voice to tell we are not criminals," she told The Associated Press during an interview inside the church on Monday. "We are people, hardworking, who came to this country to get a better life."

Nury Chavarria, 43, poses with her 9-year-old daughter, Hayley inside Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal church in New Haven, Conn., on Monday, July 24, 2017. Chavarria has sought sanctuary from deportation because she needs to be with her four children, and understands she has become a symbol in the larger fight over immigration reform. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed on Wednesday to take another look at Chavarria's case, and a federal judge issued the order protecting her from deportation, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office said.

"There was never a rational justification for Nury Chavarria to have been threatened with deportation and separated from her children, and I applaud this decision by ICE and the court to allow her to continue living and working in the United States with her family," Malloy said.

Chavarria said she needed to stay in the U.S. to be with her children, who are U.S. citizens and range in age from 9 to 21. Her oldest child has cerebral palsy.

Chavarria had been denied asylum but had been granted yearly stays and work permits since 2009. She said that changed in June when she was fitted with an ankle bracelet and was told to buy a one-way ticket to Guatemala.

She had been living inside the church since last Thursday, with her 9-year-old daughter, Hayley.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who had asked ICE to reconsider its deportation decision, said justice and reason prevailed.

"Nury will be allowed to temporarily return to her home in Norwalk as we continue to fight for long-term relief," he said. "The facts in this case are clear and compelling, and I am hopeful that once granted her day in court Nury will be awarded the legal status she deserves."

An ICE spokesman said this week the agency considered Chavarria a fugitive but has a policy to avoid conducting enforcement activities inside sensitive locations, such as churches.

President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance against illegal immigration, saying he needs to keep the country safe.

Chavarria said she would tell the Republican president she's not a criminal.

"I want to tell him (to have) compassion for us," she said.
Chelsea have sent defender Kenedy home from their pre-season tour following the outrage caused in China by his social media posts, Press Association Sport understands.

The Brazilian will play no further part in the tour of Asia as the Premier League champions bid to ease the tension the incident has caused.

The Blues had previously issued an apology after admitting Instagram posts by Kenedy had caused great offence and hurt the feelings of the people of China.

Chelsea Football Club apology to Chinese people for players offensive social media posts https://t.co/lGanPiaJ6o  Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 23, 2017

The 21-year-old Brazilian posted the messages ahead of the friendly against Arsenal at the Birds Nest in Beijing on Saturday and was jeered during Chelseas 3-0 win.

He put two videos on Instagram, one with a caption which translated as F*** you China and another of a security guard asleep which was tagged: Wake up China. You idiot.

Chinese fans accused Kenedy of xenophobia and racism, leading to an apology from the player who quickly deleted the posts.

I would like to apologise to the people of China for the offence I have caused. It was never my intention to insult or offend anyone at all and I now realise that my comments were totally inappropriate, he wrote.

Asked about Kenedy, Conte says the player understands it was a mistake and for sure he is sorry what happened. #CFCTour  Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 24, 2017

I wish to state that I have tremendous respect and admiration for the Chinese people and their country.

I would also like to apologise to my club Chelsea and all my companions who I have let down by my posts. I fully understand the responsibility of representing my club and it was never my intention to cause this embarrassment nor disrespect.

The incident could also leave Kenedys future at Stamford Bridge in jeopardy.

Kenedy in action during his loan spell at Watford last season

The full-back was sent on a season-long loan to Watford last term but made just one substitute appearance before the spell was cut short.

He then went on to make two appearances for Chelsea, one as a substitute and one start against the Hornets after they had wrapped up the title.

Chelsea have now moved on to Singapore, where they face Bayern Munich in a friendly on Tuesday and Inter Milan on Saturday.
A meeting between Donald Trumps son-in-law and the chairman of a Russian bank did not occur on Kremlin orders, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin said.

The meeting in December between Jared Kushner, who is a senior adviser to the US president, and Vneshekonombank head Sergei Gorkov, was included in a statement by Mr Kushner to US Congress as part of the probe into Mr Trumps possible connections with Russia.

Mr Kushner said he had been asked to meet Mr Gorkov by Sergei Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador. Vneshekonombank is a state-owned development bank.

Mr Kushner spoke to reporters, but did not answer questions (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The Russian presidents spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: These contacts do not require any authorisation from the Kremlin and they were not carried out on behalf of the Kremlin.

Mr Kushner, a senior White House adviser, declared on Monday he has nothing to hide.

Behind closed doors, Mr Kushner spoke to staff members of the intelligence committee for nearly three hours at the Capitol, then made a brief public statement back at the White House.

Let me be very clear, he said. I did not collude with Russia nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so.

Mr Kushner left without taking questions. In an 11-page statement, released hours before the Capitol session, he detailed four contacts with Russians during Mr Trumps campaign and transition.

It aimed to explain inconsistencies and omissions in a security clearance form that have invited public scrutiny.

In the statement, Mr Kushner said that none of his contacts, which included meetings at Trump Tower with the Russian ambassador and a Russian lawyer, was improper.
Donald Trumps former campaign chairman has met Senate investigators, giving his recollection of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, sources said.

The appearance by Paul Manafort came as the US presidents son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with the House of Representatives intelligence committee.

Both Mr Manafort and Mr Kushner have been co-operating with the committees which, along with special counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russias interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was described in emails to Mr Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr, as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Mr Trumps presidential campaign.

Mr Manafort met Senate intelligence committee staff and answered their questions fully, his spokesman Jason Maloni said.

Mr Manaforts discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview. He had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee and has now provided notes he took at the time, one source said.

The other person said Mr Manafort also said he would take part in additional interviews with the intelligence committee staff on other topics if necessary.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner

Mr Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors with the House committee on Tuesday.

Republican congressman Mike Conaway of Texas, leading the panels Russia probe, said he found Mr Kushner to be straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had.

The committees top Democrat, Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on a range of issues the committee had been concerned about.

We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today, Mr Schiff added.

Can see why @POTUS is torn:



On one hand, it's the consensus of US Intel agencies & NatSec advisors. On other hand, Putin denied it TWICE. https://t.co/hAU1D1WABZ  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 23, 2017

On Monday, Mr Kushner answered questions from staff on the Senates intelligence panel, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Mr Trumps victorious White House bid and insisting he had nothing to hide.

In an 11-page statement, he acknowledged his Russian contacts during the campaign and immediately after the election, in which he served as a liaison between the transition and foreign governments. He described the contacts as either insignificant or routine and said they had been omitted from his security clearance form because of an aides error.

Let me be very clear, Mr Kushner said later, in a rare public statement at the White House. I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia sought to tip the 2016 campaign in Mr Trumps favour.
Gerard Pique admits he does not know for sure whether Neymar will stay at Barcelona amid interest from Paris St Germain.

Neymar has been the subject of speculation this summer, with reports that PSG had agreed to activate his release clause of almost 200million.

Barca defender Pique posted a message on social media on Sunday which appeared to suggest the Brazil forward had committed his future to the Nou Camp.

Pique posted a picture of himself with Neymar, along with the simple message se queda, which translates as he stays.

However, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday night, Pique acknowledged his opinion was not definitive.

The 30-year-old said: My Instagram post was a gut thing. I want Neymar to stay. Its my intuition.

Neymar in action against Juventus during their US tour

It was nothing official, it doesnt depend on me. Only Neymar can say what will happen, but I hope he stays.

I try to explain to Neymar, as a team-mate and a friend, the situation hes in. I would say dont go to a league which, with all due respect, is not as good.

Barcelona are currently in the United States on a pre-season tour and Neymar is expected to face Manchester United in the early hours of Thursday morning.
British holidaymakers and celebrities are among thousands caught up in chaos after wildfires tore through the French Riviera.

Dame Joan Collins was one of many forced to flee as the blaze grew ferocious on Tuesday night, tweeting it had been a nightmare.

Being in the middle of this was a bit of a nightmare pic.twitter.com/PfFfeuvP8P  Joan Collins (@Joancollinsdbe) July 25, 2017

French authorities said swathes of the Var area of Provence had been evacuated, involving the displacement of some 10,000 people  including 3,000 campers.

Tourists were seen camped out on beaches overnight  while the glare of the morning sun was darkened by rising smoke, images posted to social media showed.

Best-selling novelist Robert Harris was also forced to leave where he was staying near Bormes-les-Mimosas and posted updates of the evacuation, which began at around 2am on Wednesday.

Adds a certain drama to a holiday... pic.twitter.com/1MYlQsqldr  Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) July 26, 2017

Brave pompiers of Bormes-les-Mimosas worked all night to save hundreds of homes. 10,000 people evacuated pic.twitter.com/5EvB92lFN2  Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) July 26, 2017

Local emergency services said flames had engulfed some 4,000 hectares (9,880 acres) of land in southern France, where the population swells during summer because of popular tourist resorts.

This included a separate fire in northern Corsica.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling to bring several blazes under control since they broke out on Monday, including the one which has scorched 800 hectares in Var.

An officer views the charred remains of burnt caravans and camper vans in La Londe-les-Maures (Claude Paris/AP)

The Suns travel editor, Lisa Minot, was at the scene and said relief efforts were being affected by very strong winds, and that there had been no news from authorities.

Tourist Anna Tomlinson posted online that visitors had been so,so, lucky the fires did not overwhelm the campsite and local houses, adding the pompiers were heroes.

Firefighters are battling to bring several blazes under control in the region (Claude Paris/AP)

Four tracker planes and a firefighting aircraft had formed part of the emergency response after the intensity of the fire grew at around 11pm on Tuesday, a statement from the Var prefecture said.

French authorities were forced to turn to the European Union to request help as the fires continued.
A Royal Marine with links to dissident republicanism made 14 pipe bombs  four of which were deployed in Northern Ireland, a court heard.

Ciaran Maxwell, 31, compiled a library of terrorism documents, bought chemicals and components and went on to manufacture explosives and devices, which he stashed in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.

The 31-year-old, of Exminster in Devon, also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack  as well as images of an adapted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pass card and a PSNI uniform.

The sentencing hearing of Ciaran Maxwell is expected to last three days

The serviceman, who is originally from Larne in Co Antrim, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August last year, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to supply, in February.

At the beginning of a three-day sentencing hearing at the same court, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC, said: Across 14 of the locations involved in the investigation, Mr Maxwell had in his possession, or had constructed, 14 pipe bombs.

He added: Of those 14 pipe bombs constructed by Mr Maxwell, four have been deployed in Northern Ireland.

The court heard dissident republicans have carried out more than 160 terrorist attacks since 2010, involving tactics including the deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as pipe bombs.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said four of the 14 pipe bombs constructed by Ciaran Maxwell had been deployed in Northern Ireland

Mr Whittam said: Whilst attacks are mainly directed at members of the police, military and prison service, the nature of the attacks leaves members of the public at risk.

All of the groups remain persistent in their intention to kill and seriously injure.

The court heard Maxwell was a serving Royal Marine Commando at the time of the offences, having enlisted on September 27 2010.

He joined 40 Commando at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton the following year as a rifleman, undertaking some duties in the United States.

Maxwell, who has been discharged from the Marines, was also deployed in the UK  but never in Northern Ireland, said Mr Whittam.

Ciaran Maxwell joined 40 Commando at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton in 2011

Between 1 January 2011 and 24 August 2016, Mr Maxwell researched the manufacture and construction of explosives, acquired the items he needed to make explosive devices and constructed the devices, he said.

He stored the items he needed to make the devices, the devices themselves, ammunition, weapons, tools and resources in hides across England and Northern Ireland.

He engaged in research to create of a library of maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack.

Along with the 14 pipe bombs, Maxwell also stashed two anti-personnel directional mines, two explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), 29 complete firing systems, 33 initiators  including two military initiators, 13 military Igniter Safety Fuze Electric initiators, three fully constructed improvised detonators and other components parts for IEDs.

The court heard he had hoarded more materials and chemicals to make explosives, as well as a replica handgun and ammunition.

The court heard it has been commonplace for Northern Ireland-based terrorist groups to conceal bomb-making equipment and other terrorist material in purpose-built hides.

A walker stumbled on one of Ciaran Maxwell's purpose built hides at Carnfunnock Country Park

But Mr Whittam said: In recent history and certainly over the last five years, the number of hides in this case, their geographical dispersal, their attribution to a single person constructing and managing them and the amount of material stored within them, would be highly unusual.

The prosecutor described how a walker stumbled on one of Maxwells in Carnfunnock Country Park, near Larne, in March last year.

Another was found in Capanagh Forest in Co Antrim in May by someone searching for a suitable place to camp, the court heard.

The court heard that ammunition used by the British Armed Forces was found along with bomb-making materials and IEDs.

Mr Whittam said: It is our case that some of the items inevitably must have been taken from the UK to Northern Ireland by this defendant and it may be that, when travelling between England and the UK, bearing in mind the identity cards he would have had and his position, his passage would have been easier than others to take items with him.
The new pound coin has stumped the counterfeiters, with no evidence the 12-sided design can be faked, a Government minister has said.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Jones hailed the latest quid as the most secure form of currency in the world as he marked a significant milestone in the coins introduction.

There are now more new pound coins in circulation than their round predecessor  a coin that had become an easy target for counterfeiters.

Treasury secretary Andrew Jones at secure coin store in Belfast marking fact that more new 1 coins now in circulation than old ones. @PA pic.twitter.com/pxkJV4VvYc  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) July 26, 2017

Mr Jones was at a high-security coin storage facility in Belfast to celebrate what he called a tipping point in the replacement process.

The new coins were first introduced on March 28, with the old coins ceasing to be legal tender on October 15, even though they can still be banked after that date.

Mr Jones noted that 3% of all the old coins were counterfeit.

That basically adds up to almost 50 million of fake coinage in circulation in our country and that is very bad for our economy, he said.

Andrew Jones holds new one pound coins during a visit to the G4S Cash Solutions Facility in Newtownabbey (Liam McBurney/PA)

The minister said there had been no evidence of counterfeiting with the new coin.

There have been no problems identified at all so far, he said.

Obviously that is something the Royal Mint monitors very carefully but we have had no incidents at all of counterfeiting thus far.

This is a very, very secure coin. The Royal Mint estimate that this is the most secure coin in the world at the moment and they have their own individual and rather secret method of security which is new in this coin.

(Victoria Jones/PA)

You have to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters but thats exactly where we are right now.

Mr Jones urged people to bank, spend or donate their old pounds before the October deadline.

To have more new coins in circulation than old at this point is great news, he said. However, with less than 100 days to go, the clock is ticking.

Chief executive and deputy master of the Royal Mint Adam Lawrence said: The Royal Mint is very proud to have delivered the new 12-sided 1 coin and ensuring a smooth transition is now our top priority.

We hope our announcement about the changeover point in July will encourage those businesses who have not yet upgraded their equipment to do so ahead of the October 15 deadline.
Lazar Markovic has been left out of Liverpools squad for friendlies in Germany after holding talks with Fiorentina.

The Serbia forward is surplus to requirements at Anfield and has spent the last two seasons out on loan, first at Fenerbahce and then Sporting Lisbon.

Markovic was recalled from his stint in Portugal to join Hull in January where he enjoyed some success.

Hull City's Lazar Markovic celebrates scoring against Middlesbrough last season

He played 45 minutes in Liverpools first friendly of the summer at Tranmere but has not featured since and was left behind for the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong.

Press Association Sport understands the 23-year-old has met Fiorentina to discuss a move but Liverpool are holding out for 16million, having paid Benfica 20m for his services back in 2014.

Watford are also interested in Markovic but are not prepared to pay the Reds asking price, which makes any deal unlikely.

Winger Sheyi Ojo has also not travelled to Germany for friendlies against Hertha Berlin, Bayern Munich and either Atletico Madrid or Napoli as he weighs up his options with a number of clubs  including Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Aston Villa  interested in taking him on loan.

A 30-man squad flew out from Liverpool this morning and included the fit-again Sadio Mane and Danny Ings, both of whom had last season cut short by knee injuries.

James Milner was also among the party having returning from Hong Kong with a minor thigh problem, while new signing Andrew Robertson is set for his first outing since joining from Hull for 8m last week.

Midfielder Emre Can, who only returned to Melwood at the weekend after an extended break due to his involvement in Germanys Confederations Cup win, was also on the plane to his homeland.
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has voiced his concern about the way clubs are spending 30million, 40million, 50million in such an easy way.

The 54-year-old has splashed the cash since replacing Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford in May 2016, highlighted by the 89million and 75million captures of Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku respectively.

But what Mourinho does not like is the excessive transfer fees that are currently being paid for players that do not fall into the world-class category

Jose Mourinho is concerned over 'dangerous' transfer market

I always thought the problem is not what you pay for these kind of (top) players, I dont think the problem is what you pay for Pogba, I dont think the problem is going to pay crazy for Neymar, the Portuguese told several national newspapers.

I think the problem is with the other group which is a big group because players like Pogba, there is one or two (big) transfers (like that) per transfer window. The other ones are where you have 100 transfers and for me that is the dangerous area of the market.

Some clubs are paying or they dont buy because they dont accept the numbers that are now ruling the market, or to do it they have to go the same levels and for me thats what worries me a little bit because now we speak about 30million, 40million, 50million in such an easy way.

While the likes of United, Manchester City, Everton and Chelsea have all spent big money this summer, Tottenham have yet to dip into the market.

They lost Kyle Walker to City in a 50million deal but have so far managed to keep their other best players at the club, even thwarting Mourinhos reported pursuit of England international Eric Dier.

Everybody speaks about the dimension of the investment at Man City, but there is another team that I feel the dimension of their investment is also phenomenal - Tottenham, Mourinho said.

I think until now they spent zero pounds, right? For me the dimension of their investment is amazing. They keep everybody they want to keep. They keep Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld, they keep Eric Dier, they keep everyone they want to keep.

Mourinho is still on the hunt for two new signings and is confident executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has the situation under control.

Only Lukaku and Victor Lindelof have arrived in a window that has seen United make slow progress on further targets.

Woodward joined up with Uniteds American pre-season tour having stayed back to work on deals that the United manager is confident the executive vice-chairman has a grip on.

I dont know," he said when asked if any progress had been made on transfers.

"Honestly, I dont know. Ed is in control. He did Lindelof and Lukaku, he knows that I would like two more players, but he also knows that I have balance.

I understand the situation, I understand the market and if my club is not able to do two players and do just one, I will accept that as a consequence of the market now.

Our relation is good and I just wait for good news  and he knows that for me good news is to have the players, or in this case maybe just the player as soon as possible because to work together with the team is really, really important.

But Im calm. I like my players, I like my squad, I trust them, so Im calm and thats important.
John Lewis has topped a UK ranking of consumers perception of quality and reputation, followed by BBC iPlayer and Sony.

The BBC features heavily in the top 10 of the YouGov BrandIndex list of brand health, with BBC One taking sixth place and BBC Two in ninth position.

YouGov said it should be noted that all of the data for the list was compiled before the BBC published its pay figures.

John Lewis takes the top spot in the UK itself, followed by BBC iPlayer and Sony https://t.co/p0tc3WoCNL pic.twitter.com/RZMBTJ3Qe5  YouGov (@YouGov) July 26, 2017

Marks & Spencer took fourth position, followed by Amazon in fifth place, Samsung at seven, Heinz at eight and Boots at 10 on the list, which takes into account perceptions of a brands quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether consumers would recommend the brand to others.

In parallel to the UK list, Google has beaten sister company YouTube and Facebook to top the global ranking.

Technology firms feature heavily on the global list, with Samsung coming fourth, messaging service WhatsApp in fifth place and Apples iPhone in sixth spot, according to the YouGov BrandIndex data.

BBC Broadcasting House in London

Online retail giant Amazon is seventh, and the top 10 is completed by Toyota, Adidas and Colgate.

Ted Marzilli, chief executive of YouGov Data Products, said: Tech brands dominate this global list and with good reason.

By their very nature the likes of Google, YouTube and Facebook are open and accessible in most places on earth to anyone with online access. The presence of Samsung and Apple iPhone are a sign that our mobile devices have become the remote controls for our lives.

All of the brands in the ranking are mainstream with broad utility at their core, and this is as true of the likes of Toyota and Colgate as it is for WhatsApp and Samsung.

A Tesco sign

Amelia Brophy, YouGovs UK head of Data Products, said: While the global rankings are dominated by brands born in the past 20 years, the UK list is predominantly made up of ones that have been around a good while longer.

What is striking is that brands such as John Lewis and the BBC have successfully moved with the times, providing services in online settings while continuing to make a virtue of their brand heritage.

The collapse of some big high street brands in recent years shows that this is no easy task, but as the UK faces an uncertain economic environment, having brand health steeped in history could help.

Tesco topped a related list ranking most improved brand health over the last year, followed by Netflix and WhatsApp.
DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday Washington should move its bases and avoid "miscalculations" over new sanctions against Tehran, Iranian agencies reported.

The Trump administration imposed the new sanctions on Tuesday over Iran's ballistic missile programme and said Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East undercut any positive contributions coming from the 2015 nuclear accord.

Iran says its programme to develop ballistic missiles is defensive and does not violate the nuclear accord.

"If the United States wants to pursue sanctions against Iran's defences and the Guards, then it has to move its regional bases to a distance of about 1,000 km (620 miles) around Iran and be aware that it would pay a high price for any miscalculations," Tasnim and other news agencies quoted Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying.

The Pentagon said it was not planning on its moving bases.

"We have no intention of adjusting our posture as a result of these statements," Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

The United States has bases in Qatar and Kuwait across the Gulf from Iran and the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain.

Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has repeatedly test-fired ballistic missiles, which Washington sees as a challenge to a U.N. resolution and the nuclear deal.

"Iran's missile capability in the air, sea and land is growing rapidly, and this is an absolute principle for us," Jafari was quoted as saying.

In February, Washington said it was putting Tehran on notice over its "destabilising activity" after Iran test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile that a U.S. official said had exploded after travelling 1,010 km.

In June, Iran fired missiles into eastern Syria, targeting bases of Islamic State which had claimed responsibility for attacks in Tehran that killed 18 people.

President Hassan Rouhani said earlier on Wednesday the new sanctions contravened the nuclear accord with world powers and vowed Tehran would "resist" them.

"Some of the actions of the Americans are against the spirit and even the letter of the (nuclear accord). We shall resist these," Iranian state television quoted Rouhani as saying.

"One of the plots of the Americans is to act in such a way that would make Iran say that it is not following its commitments ... I think the Americans will fail as we will always respect our international commitments," Rouhani said.

Rouhani said Iran would have an "appropriate response" to the sanctions, but he did not elaborate.

Iran's parliament agreed on Tuesday to discuss measures, including increased funding for the missile programme, as retaliation for the new U.S. sanctions, state media reported.

The U.S. measures signal that the administration of President Donald Trump is seeking to put more pressure on Iran while keeping in place the agreement under which Iran must curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international oil and financial sanctions. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom. Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Alison Williams)
BEIJING, July 24 (Reuters) - China's coal imports from Mongolia and Russia rose in June as utilities and steel mills sought out less expensive raw materials even as the government tried to curb purchases of foreign fuel.

Coal-fired power demand rose last month during a prolonged heat wave in northern China at the start of the peak consumption period.

Since mid-February the two nations have helped fill a supply gap caused by China's ban on coal from North Korea. In the first half of the year, imports from Mongolia were up 79.5 percent from last year's 10.4 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday.

The data came after figures earlier this month showed total imports of coal fell year-on-year for the first time since August 2016.

Beijing asked utilities in May to reduce their purchases of overseas coal by between 5 percent to 10 percent this year in an effort to restrict low-quality imports.

Consumption has remained firm though, as hot temperatures stifled the north and low rainfall last month reduced hydropower output, increasing the reliance on coal to generate power.

Torrential rains earlier this month have helped to replenish river and reservoir levels, which is likely to help boost hydropower this month.

Mongolian coal exports to China last month rose 58.9 percent from a year ago to 3.71 million tonnes, the customs data showed. Russian exports increased 41.7 percent to 2.57 million tonnes.

Supplies from Australia, China's largest coal supplier, rose 6.8 percent from a year ago to 6.35 million tonnes in June, the data showed.

Coal shipments from Indonesia in June fell 19.4 percent from a year ago to 2.33 million tonnes, according to the data.

Anthracite supplies from Russia in June more than tripled to 738,324 tonnes, the data showed. Anthracite is a hard coal that can be used as coking coal to fire furnaces for the steel industry.

China did not import coal from North Korea in May or June.

For tables with the data, please see: (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
BUCHAREST, July 25 (Reuters) - Romania's Social Democrat-led government scrapped a plan to introduce a so-called solidarity tax for top earners, after an assessment had shown it would not bring in much money, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said on Tuesday.

It was the second tax plan to be scrapped in a matter of days.

Last week, Tudose said his coalition government had dropped a plan to tax companies' turnover, due to sharply negative market reaction and criticism from centrist President Klaus Iohannis as well as local and foreign investors.

In late June, the ruling coalition had announced changes to major taxes due in 2018, including replacing a corporate flat tax of 16 percent on profit with a progressive tax on turnover.

The tax plans -- and a quickly ditched idea to end a mandatory, multi-billion private pension scheme for those under 35 -- beat down stocks and the leu currency.

"Today's conclusion is that we can treat this planned (solidarity) tax as 'discussed and forgotten'," Tudose told reporters.

"We won't enforce any measures that could be a burden to the population's budget. In this specific case, the disturbance was too great (to worth being enforced)."

Other tax measures the government was considering in June included a cut in income tax to 10 percent, and a move to cut social security contributions by 4.25 percentage points to 35 percent and have only workers, not their employers pay them.

It was unclear when or how these changes would come in.

Tudose reiterated the government's commitment to keep the 2017 budget gap at or under EU's ceiling of 3 percent of GDP.

Loose fiscal plans have worried the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund over missing budget targets. The Commission expects Romania to run the European Union's largest deficits this year and next at around 3.9 percent. (Reporting by Radu Marinas Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, July 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Peruvian authorities have launched a major crackdown on modern slavery after a warehouse fire in Lima last month killed four workers, including two who were trapped inside a padlocked container on the roof.

Officials said they had shut down six furniture factories in the capital on Monday in an operation to root out forced labour and exploitation, following raids by prosecutors, police and labour inspectors.

Last month's toxic blaze which tore through several warehouses in the city centre highlighted labour exploitation in the capital and prompted calls for better protection of workers' rights and more labour inspections.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said the victims were "practically slave workers" when he visited the site following the June 22 blaze.

Peru's attorney general said on Monday there would be more raids on factories and warehouses to prevent further "tragic accidents".

Another eight operations are planned this year in the wider Lima region and the north of the country where forced labour has been linked to the fishing industry.

Prosecutors said the furniture factories targeted in Monday's raids were operating without a licence, health and safety was "inadequate" and fire exits had been blocked, putting workers at risk.

An estimated 200,500 people are trapped in modern day slavery in Peru, according to rights group The Walk Free Foundation, the third highest number in Latin America after Mexico and Colombia.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), which estimates there are 21 million people in forced labour worldwide, welcomed the new labour inspections in Peru.

"The tragic fire was shocking. People were outraged," said Teresa Torres, coordinator of ILO's programme against forced labour in Peru.

"Having this kind of task force carrying out inspections is progress and an important response from the government," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Public prosecutors have launched an investigation into possible human trafficking following the fire.

"What's important in this case is that there's justice, and as such those people responsible are punished," Torres said, adding those found guilty could face up to 25 years in prison.

Across Peru, forced labour is more commonly linked to the illegal logging industry and illegal gold mines in the Amazon jungle. Girls are also trafficked to these areas for sex work.

Torres said the warehouse blaze showed forced labour is more widespread than many Peruvians believe.

"This is more evidence to show that forced labour doesn't just happen in ... remote areas of the Amazon, but it could be happening right in the centre of the capital too," Torres said.

"We have information that forced labour is also happening in the north of Peru, in other sectors such as the shrimp fishing industry."

She said victims of forced labour were often hidden from view, working on fishing vessels, in small clandestine workshops, commercial agriculture or private homes. (Reporting by Anastasia Moloney @anastasiabogota, Editing by Emma Batha.; 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)
By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Britain's pharmaceutical industry needs at least two years' transition to cope with the impact of the country leaving the European Union, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday.

Emma Walmsley, who leads Britain's largest drugmaker and employs 17,000 UK staff, said she was "encouraged by the more pragmatic approach" from ministers, but warned the industry needed time to adjust to the coming disruption.

"Our main focus is to make sure that we are given a sufficiently long transition period, that is really the thing that matters in our sector," she told reporters after quarterly results. "The absolute minimum for us - minimum - is two years."

Britain is scheduled to exit the EU in March 2019.

Although the impact of Brexit on GSK's overall business is likely to be limited as Britain accounts for only 4 percent of sales, the UK pharma trade association has warned being outside the EU could undermine future investment, research and jobs.

Drugmakers, which account for a quarter of all UK business research spending, are particularly affected by Brexit because of the highly regulated nature of their business and the fact that drugs are currently overseen centrally by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Companies want to remain within the European regulatory system as far as possible, even as the London-based EMA prepares to relocate to another city inside the EU as a result of Brexit.

"We would like it to be as much mutual recognition as possible to minimise any duplication," Walmsley said.

Earlier this month, health minister Jeremy Hunt and business minister Greg Clark offered some comfort to pharmaceutical companies by stating they wanted to continue to work closely with the EMA after Brexit.

Whether that is a practical proposition remains to be seen.

EMA Executive Director Guido Rasi told Reuters in April that while a working relationship between Britain and the EMA was theoretically possible, it would be up to EU governments to decide whether to offer such a deal.

Being isolated from the EU system could put British patients at the back of the queue for new drugs if companies decide to prioritise Europe, a market of hundreds of millions of people, over Britain, where the commercial opportunity is far smaller. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Adrian Croft)
GALLE, Sri Lanka, July 26 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan middle-order batsman Asela Gunaratne has been ruled out of their three-test series against India after suffering a "pretty serious" fractured thumb on the opening day of the first match.

The all-rounder was rushed from Galle to Colombo to see a specialist after suffering the injury playing at second slip, attempting to catch out Shikhar Dhawan.

"He will miss a minimum of four weeks, but I think it will be more. We will know in the next 48 hours what the exact time frame is," said team manager Asanka Gurusinha at the close of play.

"Just below his thumb there are about three pieces of bone. It is pretty serious.

"As soon as we saw the X-ray, we realised it was serious, so we sent him to Colombo. We got a call... to say that the surgeons have seen him and they are operating on him tonight (Wednesday)."

Having won the toss and chosen to bat, India ended the day on 399 for 3, with Dhawan smashing a career-best 190 and Cheteshwar Pujara reaching 144 not out at the close.

The second match of the three-Test series starts in Colombo on August 3, with the final scheduled for Pallekele, beginning on August 12. (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; edited by Julian Shea)
By Babak Dehghanpisheh

BEIRUT, July 26 (Reuters) - The two opposition leaders who disputed the results of Iran's 2009 presidential election, triggering mass protests, are in poor health and one has been hospitalised after a heart attack, news outlets cited family members saying.

Mirhossein Mousavi and fellow reformist Mehdi Karroubi became figureheads for Iranians who took to the streets after the vote they believed was rigged to bring back hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown that followed, according to human rights groups.

The pair have been under house arrest since 2011, along with Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard, after they called for demonstrations in Iran in solidarity with the pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East in that year.

Their continued detention is a highly divisive issue in Iran. One of President Hassan Rouhanis top campaign promises before he was re-elected in May was to work for their release, infuriating hardliners who view them as traitors.

The news that the pair are in poor health is likely to raise pressure on Rouhani from his supporters to push harder for their release. It could unleash more protests if they were to die under house arrest.

Mousavi, 75, is suffering from irregular blood pressure and dizziness and can not walk without assistance, the opposition Kaleme site reported on Wednesday, citing information provided by Mousavis daughters.

Mousavi told his daughters not to make any public statement about his health, the site reported.

Karroubi, 79, was admitted to hospital on Monday after suffering a heart attack, his son Mohammad Hossein told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) on Monday.

Irans judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani addressed Rouhani's campaign promise in late May by saying: "Who are you to break the house arrests?", without directly naming him, according to the judiciary news site Mizan.

Larijani said the Supreme National Security Council, which includes the heads of the three branches of government as well as the head of the Revolutionary Guards and other ministers, must take any initial decision to end the house arrests and then the judiciary would step in.

Any attempt to resolve this issue outside this legal procedure would be seen as an attempt to stoke up unrest similar to 2009, he said at the time, according to Mizan. (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Gwenaelle Barzic

PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) - French telecoms regulator Arcep plans to improve mobile broadband coverage in the country's less densely populated areas by bringing forward a review of obligations on frequency licence holders, its chairman told Reuters on Wednesday.

Orange, SFR Group, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad rely on the permits to transport voice and data services that are essential to build new, faster networks and maintain market share.

The authority is weighing the possibility of adding new regulatory constraints on operators, bringing forward a planned review for three types of licence - 900 megahertz, 1.8 gigahertz and 2.1 gigahertz.

That review was originally scheduled to start in 2021, when some of the licences expire. Instead it will take place much sooner, and the new conditions will be applied with immediate effect in exchange for early renewal.

"The dialogue we are opening with the government and which we will also open with the operators as well, will be to have a review right now... We can strengthen the obligations on these frequencies in exchange for renewal (of the licences), and this with immediate effect," Arcep chairman Sebastien Soriano said.

While recognising that heavy investments have already been made to provide nationwide coverage of the fourth generation of mobile internet, or 4G, Soriano insists that more still needs to be done in more sparsely inhabited rural areas.

"This is the reason why we have opened a discussion on a very significant increase in operators' obligations in rural areas," Soriano said in an interview, referring to contacts made with the administration of new President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron has made improved connectivity for rural communities a government priority.

Auctions for such frequencies raise billions of euros for the French state.

Rural, less densely populated areas represent 63 percent of French national territory and 18 percent of the population.

SFR covers 74 percent of the population living in these areas with 4G technology, followed by Bouygues Telecom (70 percent), Orange (69 percent) and Iliad (47 percent) in July, according to Arcep. (Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Andrew Callus, Adrian Croft, Ingrid Melander)
BERLIN, July 26 (Reuters) - Munich prosecutors have no right for the time being to evaluate materials seized during a raid in March on U.S. law firm Jones Day, Germany's highest court ruled on Wednesday.

Prosecutors searched the Munich-based offices of Jones Day, the law firm hired by Volkswagen to investigate its emissions scandal, and the headquarters of VW's Audi brand on March 15.

VW filed a complaint with a Munich court to prevent prosecutors from using the material but had its attempt rebuffed in court in April. It welcomed the decision by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday.

"We welcome the decision and the issuance of a preliminary order by the Federal Constitutional Court," a spokesman at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters said by email.

Jones Day found wrongdoing by certain high-level VW employees but exonerated members of the management board and Volkswagen used the findings to negotiate a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities.

VW has never published the findings of the Jones Day investigation, although a summary was compiled in the form of a "Statement of facts" for the U.S. Department of Justice.

The carmaker has maintained that its executive board did not learn of the illegal emissions cheating devices installed in VW cars until late August 2015 and formally reported the cheating to U.S. authorities in early September that year. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Tom Sims and Susan Fenton)
Our sister newspaper Sunday Lankadeepa met with the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senarathna two days after the government acquired the Malabe Neville Fernando Hospital. At the time Sunday Lankadeepa sat down to interview the minister, there was a protest being staged against SAITM in front of his ministry. Following are excerpts of the interview done with Dr. Senaratne.

I believe the GMOA is suffering from a headache

This country is in this state because of low politics

Its the union members who destroy their own unions

Its not important to me what vociferous people have to say about dengue or the constitution

The doctors who were in the GMOA those days were leaders

Do you think that the SAITM problem is over?

I cant say that we have sorted out this problem to the very end.

The reason?

The problem regarding the Neville Fernando hospital has been sorted out to a large extent. Right now we are working on appointing a board to aid the functions of the hospital. This hospital should start functioning as a government teaching hospital from 1st August. All the necessary arrangements are being made for that. In the mean time a chairperson has to be appointed to the Medical Board. I expect to finalize these matters with SAITM. We hope to fulfill the promises we have made in connection with sorting out the SAITM issue.

What is the reply to the question regarding the standards SAITM has to maintain?

The minimum standard that SAITM must maintain has been sent to the Attorney Generals Department. I will gazette the particulars immediately when they send me back the translation. Once these issues are sorted out SAITM can function as an institute that offers a standardized education. But there is another question connected to the SAITM issue.

What is that?

At present two batches of medical students graduated from SAITM. We are expecting to give them a special training in government hospitals.

Why will they be given a special training?

These two batches didnt receive enough clinic training due to the lack of sufficient patients. We expect to give them a six month training and subject them to an interview. Its only then that we will register them in the Medical Council.



People are saying that the Neville Fernando Hospital wasnt acquired.

Then, What has been acquired?

People say that the Neville Fernando Hospital been leased out for 10 years.

Mad? Where is such a thing stated?

The problem regarding the Neville Fernando hospital has been sorted out to a large extent. Right now we are working on appointing a board to aid the functions of the hospital.

The GMOA says so?

I believe the GMOA is suffering from a headache. We are functioning in the manner of a working government. This institute is not a GMOA. There is a system in which a government works. How can someone talk about a lease when an institute has been taken over by the government? These people cant make statements the way they want. When the Indo-Lanka peace accord was signed, it was said that people from one province will need visas to enter another province. When a Provincial Council was formed there were views that it would be a separate country. People said things like this. This country is in this state because of low politics. So called intellectuals who promote low quality politics are not viewing things through a professional eye. They are viewing things through the eyes of politics. They engage in baseless talk.

Their main slogan is to nationalize SAITM

Whose is that slogan?

It belongs to the force thats opposing SAITM

There are two parts to this. There is no need to have discussions with the President, Prime Minister and us if their motive is to nationalize SAITM.

Does that mean that the government has no expectation to nationalize SAITM ?

The answer very clearly is no. Our idea at present is not to privatize anything. The government is sticking to its stance that it wont bring any private institution under state ownership.

But those who protest against SAITM reverberate that this institute should be privatized. This is their slogan.

That slogan belongs to students. The Peratugami Party and JVPers support these slogans. It is difficult to function a government with these parties. If their slogans are worth anything they should have won. Has the JVP won a seat so far at any election?. Were they able to obtain even a second place?

I believe the GMOA is suffering from a headache. We are functioning in the manner of a working government. This institute is not a GMOA. There is a system in which a government works

JVP won 10 seats by contesting in the election alone. In second election they won 16 seats. That was possible due to the election system introduced by President J.R. Jayewardene. What else can be said about them? The Peratugami Party will face this problem even in the future. Theres no need of a government, if we govern the country considering the wishes of parties which obtains less than 1% or 2% of the votes.

You are trying to conveniently forget the history associated with you where you tried to safeguard a private medical college because you were the leading person behind the struggle to nationalize the Colombo North Medical College.

On that day.... You must study the content in my speeches on that day. Recently they posted my speeches on their web site. One thing that I have stated in these speeches is about the qualifications of the students recruited to this college. The next one is that the degree offered at the Colombo Campus should be offered to students at the Colombo North Medical College. That was the clear standpoint of GMOA and the Government Dentist Association. JVP and the Inter University Students Union supported the slogan to nationalize the Colombo North Medical College. I didnt have a great need even during that period to nationalize institutions.

The GMOA alleges that you are making attempts weaken the GMOA.

The GMOA is already weakened. About a thousand specialist doctors have left the GMOA. A Union of Specialist Medical Officers has been already established. There are other Medical Unions in addition to the GMOA. There is a Medical Officers Union in the JVP too.They also attend meetings. They are working well with them. Then there is another Medical Officers Union which bears some other name. They all were there.

But You played a game here.

No. I was invited to attend their meetings. So I used to attend every meeting of the unions. I attended the meeting of the Nursing Union organised by Muruththettuwe Ananda Thera. I also participate in the Nursing Union meeting organised by Saman Rathnapriya. I participate in the meetings of every Labour Union. I participate in all Union Meetings when I am invited. That is the duty of the Minister of Health. I dont care about factions. They must solve these issues by themselves. They must know how to keep their unions altogether. On that day,they tried to weaken my union. That was the UNP Government. I defeated it. I did it by doing things independently and professionally. I carried on a sole union.That union is still going strong, alone. You should know how to administrate your union properly. No minister can destroy a union. Its the union members who destroy their own unions.

You as Health Minister have failed to avert the dengue tragedy from turning onto a menace.

Okay, then please tell me the name of a minister who has succeeded in his battle against this dengue menace. Going on these lines, the health Ministers of America, Singapore and Malaysia have also failed in addressing the dengue issue. The position of dengue in these countries is worse than here. Look at countries like Vietnam and Laos. These are nations which administer a communist regime. If so, ministers of these countries must also fail.

Are you saying that your have succeeded?

If the ministers can control dengue, then there is no need to do anything. Then I can control dengue from here and stop all other duties. A person must have some brains to ask this question.

I have referred this question to the Minister of Health in this country.

What is the programme initiated to control dengue? Does that programme come under the Ministry of Health? Every where plans are carried out to clear waste and this is done under a national programme. We dont have to do all these things. We can control it like in Malaysia. We can control Malaria like that.

Q So doesnt the Health Ministry have any connection with dengue? Where is larva? Where is bacteria? You promised to bring these.

Everything has already been brought. The relevant minister is coming. He will discuss matters with us. Am I right? We are going to hold discussions with the Australian Minister during the Presidential Election. These programmes cant be implemented immediately. But we must seek long term solutions to this problem. What are the long term solutions and how can we keep a check on this problem on a day to day basis. Bacteria has offered the only solution. It has been produced in Australia. We must study it. Next we must probe our mosquito. The research done regarding our mosquito is still in the labs. We must present this information processed in our laboratories to the public. These scientists wont conduct research if we laugh at them.

You are keen on establishing a new constitution, but that same keenness is not shown in the attempts to alleviate dengue.

Its not important to me what vociferous people have to say about dengue or the constitution. I have been commended for controlling this menace. The World Health Organization (WHO) has commended me that I have done my part properly while serving the Ministry of Health.

What other certificate matters to me? WHO is the only institute through which a Minister of Health can reach the world. Nobody else can do this. There are specialists in every section serving the WHO. These specialists have come here and declared that the minimum dengue death toll is reported here. I can alleviate the mosquito. But I cant stop the breeding of mosquitoes. I can alleviate the grown mosquito. I can take preventive measures regarding patients. Comparatively to the dengue patients, the death toll is lesser than 3 point. According to WHO this figure indicates that our work is good.

I dont care about factions. They must solve these issues by themselves. They must know how to keep their unions altogether. On that day,they tried to weaken my union. That was the UNP Government.

The GMOA says that the Ministry of Health has presented false reports, concealing the number of dengue patients and the number of deaths.

We cant conceal them (Reports). Things will be exposed. Every census is done. That is why the office of WHO is in Colombo. These doctors working in the field of health are still in the primary level. The doctors who were in the GMOA those days were leaders. They had a sound knowledge about these things. Today there are leaders who know little and speak a lot. They dont know that the WHO has spent millions to establish an office here and are working here. We are making reports by following their system and tallying with their data. That is why the WHO makes available all statistical reports regarding health to the world. Am I right? Why dont they give permission to publish this in North Korea? Thats because there is no permission to probe whats published.

Allegations are made against the government that war heroes who did yeoman service to the nation during the war are to be send to prison to satisfy the Tamil Diaspora?

Who are these war heroes?

The nearest example I can give about them is Commodore D.K.P. Dassanayaka of Navy.

In the investigations carried out, it has been proven whether these arrested people are war heroes or murderers. I obtained all the reports from the CID and read them. It will be proved further in the near future.

Its stated in the month of September, 18-20 ministers will leave the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

I dont think that such a number will leave the party. We will wait for that time and see what we should do. But the government is running the show. When the murderers and plunderers are punished, then those who quit the government will return.

Is there a plan by the government to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa and also deprive the civic rights of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa?

Civic rights will not be deprived by the courts. Punishments are given by the courts. Those punishments will be meted out.
Submitting a special application Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda today requested the commission to direct Arjun Mahendran, former Governor of CBSL, to hand over all communication devices he used since January 1, 2015 to date for the investigation.

The ASG made the application under section 6 of the Presidential Commission on Bonds Issue (PCoI) Act based on available material obtained during the investigation which was sufficient to make such a request. The Commission said it will consider the request.

Drawing the attention of the commission to the witness losing his mobile device on a previous occasion, the ASG also said the devices handed over recently by Arjun Aloysius was only six months old.

On a previous occasion, it was revealed that Aloysius had allegedly destroyed the mobile phone he was using at the time in Singapore while interdicted EPF dealer Saman Kumaras mobile device had broken for no apparent reason. (Shehan Chamika Silva)
Villagers have had common paddy tracts in the lowlands and consumed their own paddy

Reading the article Glyphosate Weed killer now destroys health in the plantations! in the Features Section of the Daily Mirror of July 18, 2017 by Kalani Kumarasinghe reminds us of the proverbial elephant and the blind men, each superficially touching the subject of glyphosate and making various assumptions and prognostications.

The sentimental assertions of representatives of three NGOs, Peoples Planning National forum, Movement of Land and Agriculture Reforms and the Peoples Movement of Plantation Lands Right with little or no factual substance on the matter of the ban are ridiculous. There were also the comments of a few others including those of a professor holding extremist views on the matter. He once wrote an article referring to glyphosate as a cobra! This cobra is living funnily freely in every country other than our motherland of foolish politicians and the like. It may of course be poisonous if mishandled!

The hypothesis, that hard water, metal ions and glyphosate was probably the cause of CKDu was propounded by a few scientists in the Rajarata University

All substances are poisons said the founder of the science of pharmacology over 600 years ago. What matters is the quantity and how it is used. It applies not only to agrochemicals, but pharmaceuticals too. If you swallow 50 pills of aspirin you may drop dead. Statins, for example, the cholesterol lowering drug now taken by nearly a quarter of the elderly population of the world, and once thought to be absolutely safe, is now known to cause diabetes!

There are various alleged etiolating agents such as heavy metals(arsenic, cadmium), hard water, fluoride and ionicity ( dissolved salts) just to name a few. What is hitherto known, however, with a degree of certainty in that people who drank water from dug wells in the affected areas of the North Central Province and some neighbouring areas contacted the disease, but not the people who drank river, reservoir, or spring water. This fact has been elegantly established by a study of two adjoining villages, Sarabumi and Badulupura in Girandurukotte. People in the highlands of Badulapura drink water from dug wells, whereas those in Sarabumi from the river or reservoirs. Villagers from both areas had common paddy tracts in the lowlands, and consumed their own paddy. In fact it is reported that one person in the Sarabumi area who was diagnosed with the disease had previously lived for a long period in Badulupura before moving to Sarabumi. The disease wasnt there before people were settled in the Mahaweli Scheme. The increasing population and settlements thereafter necessitated digging of wells for drinking water in homesteads. There are supposedly some 172, 000 such wells in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts alone, and the governments urgent task should be to give potable water to the people of all affected areas. Is it happening?

The hypothesis, that hard water, metal ions and glyphosate was probably the cause of CKDu was propounded by a few scientists in the Rajarata University. In fact on top of that publication, which appeared in a fee-levying, open access journal in 2014, the word Hypothesis was written in bold letters! Several reputed chemists have been very critical of the hypothesis and no other scientific journal had any publication supportive of it. It has been argued that if such metal complexes formed in hard water, they should precipitate making the metals unavailable in solution.

There were two comprehensive WHO studies on CKDu in Sri Lanka, one was in 2013 and the other 2016, the latter being an International Expert Consultation of 54 participants, including local experts. None of those studies implicated glyphosate in CKDu. In fact the first study among other things reported that 3.5% of the CKDu patients had glyphosate above reference limits. However, for some unknown reason the percentage of control patients with urine glyphosate values exceeding the reference level wasnt reported. On re-analysis of the raw data again in 2016, it was revealed that double (7.0%) the non-CKDu subjects had urine glyphosate levels exceeding reference limits! In fact the percentage of non-CKDu subjects with pesticide residue levels above reference limits was significantly higher than that of the CKDu subjects.

The association of the disease with farming communities naturally tempts one to think of an involvement of agrochemicals in the disease. But the fact is that the great majority of people living in these areas are farmers, and the clue that it is probably associated with drinking water is what must be pursued in the pursuit for identification of the aetiology.

It is unfortunate that we live in a country that scientific decisions are made by politicians. We need an organisation of professionals

The glyphosate levels reported by a study of the Registrar of Pesticides in 2016 are very low, being less than 1 part per billion in samples of soil, water and vegetables analysed. The maximum allowable limit in drinking water in the European Union is as much as 700 parts per billion! So there is no question of glyphosate pollution of our food, water or soil.

Ganeshalingam of the Peoples Movement for Plantation Land Rights speaking at this press meeting has even claimed that he has information of victims of CKDu in all estates. This is the first time we are hearing of the disease in the hill country! Has he brought this to the attention of the health authorities in the country? So far, the evidence is that the disease is confined only to the Dry Zone.

It is unimaginable that all these representatives of organisations that have made various utterances, havent been mindful of the key issue of the tea plantations, and that is the grave scarcity of labour. Its impossible to use labour for weeding because of the shortage. Moreover, although a learned professor speaks of alternative weeding technologies, can he demonstrate them in tea lands? The only alternative other than chemical weeding is physical weeding with implements such as the mammoty and the sorandiya which, prior to the 1960s, caused serious soil erosion which led even to abandonment of vast tracts tea of land especially from the mid-country. It has been estimated that losses due to crop-weed competition and weed interference in field operations such as plucking and manuring has cost over Rs six billion in 2015 alone.

Its true that rice can be cultivated without glyphosate, but weed control prior to land preparation needs substantial water use for impounding. It is estimated that some 20% of the water has to be used for weed control in rice, and water has a cost.

There is clear evidence that the acreage under field crops has declined after the ban of glyphosate.

In particular ploughing and harrowing cannot control the noxious weed Cyperus which must be killed with a contact herbicide, and glyphosate is ideal for this purpose. The corn farmers complain that their pre-plant weed control has shot up from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 10,000 after the glyphosate ban, especially because of the need to uproot mana grass by mamoty. Eight labour units are required each costing Rs. 1,250. Many of the dry zone farmers have been hoodwinked by the anti-glyphosate lobby that it causes CKDu. When explained to them that there is no evidence to associate glyphosate with the disease, they were aghast!

It is unfortunate that we live in a country that scientific decisions are made by politicians. We need an organisation of professionals that make evidence-based decisions. India has an excellent one, the National Technology Commission which would have been the organisation making the decision on a matter such as the glyphosate issue were it necessary.

The writer, has 45 years of experience in research and development in the Agri and crop development sector, currently, the Chairman of the review committee of the Rubber Research Institute, Dr Waidyanada has held several key positions in Department of Agriculture, Coconut Research Board and was Director General of the National Agri-Business Council. Some of the other key positions he has held are - Consultant to World Bank/ IICA Project on Rubber Development in Brazil, Consultant to FAO on Rubber Development in Bolivia, Consultant to ADB on Perennial Crop Development in Sri Lanka, among a host of significant other positions.
Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomraswamy

Pic by: Damith Wickremesinghe

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

As Sri Lanka stands at crossroads, thirsty for improved economic progress and prosperity, the countrys Central Bank chief yesterday requested the private sector to take the lead in moving forward the island nations debt-ridden economy.



Speaking to a fully-packed audience at the latest Sri Lanka Economic Summit edition of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, CBSL Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy urged the private sector to look through the prevailing negativities, at the bigger picture and keep its investments within the country.

Stressing the need for change in focus with regard to the growth model, he pointed out Sri Lanka has no choice but to be led by the private sector as the earlier frameworks utilized over the years will not work anymore.



In the next 12 months it is the domestic private sector that has the strength to move the economy forward. I ask all of you to not look at negativities around. Instead ask yourselves if the macroeconomic fundamentals are in place.



If we are going in the right direction I would rather ask you to put your money here rather than in Bangladesh, Fiji, or Ethiopia, he said.



Given the instability inconsistency that has been witnessed across all levels in the operational environment in the recent years, local and foreign investors were observed to have taken a wait-and-see approach in making their investments.

Foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka hit a dismal low of less than US $ 500 million last year.

The Governor said that prior to making decisions with regard to expansions and new initiatives, it is imperative that the private sector ask itself questions such as: If the macroeconomic policies being established in a stable manner?: Is the investment climate improving?: And if the cross border transaction in terms of trading coming down?.



Just ask these rational questions, he reiterated.



While admitting that Sri Lankas political system is one that is noisy and untidy, he stated that it is this dysfunctional system that has given us freedom. We need to see through that and see where the system is going.



The time is right, asserted Dr. Coomaraswamy. He went on to say that the private sector has substantial influence in the way economies are developed and shaped. While these influences span across issues such as the type of goods and services the economy produced, he stressed it has been established that faster growing economies are associated with higher private sector investments.



According to the World Bank data, the private sector has provided 90 percent of the jobs in developed countries, has invested funds over 60 percent in European countries, and in some countries even has contributed 80 percent of governments revenue. Given the global developments, our private sector needs play a much bigger role in all these areas, he said.
The Colombo Chief Magistrates Court today released 15 elephants taken into custody by the Wildlife Department on a bond of Rs. 10 million each under a temporary license for the Dalada Perehera.

Close to 40 elephants reared without valid licenses were taken into custody by the Wildlife Department over the years. A recent motion filed by several owners, requested that 21 elephants be released to be used in Perehera processions in the future.

However, when the motion was taken up before Colombo Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara today, the Court allowed only 15 to be released for the Dalada Perehera as it was a special cultural event held in the country.

The Court ordered the Director of the Wildlife Department to issue temporary licenses which will only be valid from July 27 to August 15. The Magistrate also allowed the Director to set out the conditions of the licenses.

However, the court did not release elephants belonging to suspects Thilana Gamage, Ajith Gallage and Samarappulige Niraj Roshan as there were cases pending against them in Court. Prosecutors pointed out that investigations had revealed that suspect Samarappulige Niraj Roshan alias Ali Roshan was directly involved in selling elephants and elephant calvesfor over 15 years. (Yoshitha Perera)
The indefinite strike launched by the Ceylon Petroleum Cooperation's (CPC) TU Collective was called off last evening to be resumed next Tuesday (1).

An official of the TU Collective said the decision was taken after a discussion held with President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidents official residence.

We received a positive response from the President during the meeting. He requested us to stop the Trade Union action and to come for another discussion next Tuesday. We agreed to call it off temporarily and give the government time till next Tuesday (1). We have requested our members to return to work, he said.

The work stoppage launched by the CPC employees took a new turn yesterday when the army took over operations at the Kolonnawa and Muthurajawela refineries to restore fuel distribution.

However, within 24-hours, the Army withdrew the additional soldiers deployed after a majority of employees returned to work last evening.

Army Spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said the decision was taken after the employees agreed to carry out their duties without a hitch.

The special teams deployed for the control of the petroleum distribution have been recalled, he said.

The government was quick to issue a warning to the striking trade union employees urging them to return to work immediately. It said any employee who failed to return to work would be considered as having resigned his or her post.

With the army taking over operations, 15 fuel bowsers and a train transporting jet fuel was released from the refineries amid obstruction by striking employees, Brigadier Seneviratne said.

He said the Army had to take overthe fuel distribution last morning after the issuance of the Special Gazette notification which made the supply and distribution of fuel - including Petroleum Products and Gas - an essential service.

The Army entered the Kolonnawa and Muthurajawela refinery premises together with the Police and discussed with the management to obtaining technical support from petroleum officials, Brig. Seneviratne said.

During the strike the protesters had blocked the main entrance to the Kolonnawa refinery with five bowsers with their tyres deflated.

He said those returning to work were prevented from doing so by those on strike.

Meanwhile, Welikada Police said they arrested 16 trade union leaders including CPC Trade Union Collective Media Spokesman Bandula Saman Kumara on charges of obstructing the distribution of fuel and the release of bowsers from the Kolonnawa refinery.

However, the suspects were later released on police bail.

Meanwhile, TU Collective Convener D. J. Rajakaruna said the Army forcibly entered the Kolonnawa and Muthurajawela refinery premises on Tuesday night and took over the distribution of fuel. The Army assaulted the employees and chased them out of the gates, but we have not decided to call off our TU action, he said (Chaturanga Pradeep)

Video by Buddhi
Following the Cabinet approval granted to lease out the Hambantota Port to China Merchant Company, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Trade Union Collective (CPC TU) today vowed to continue their strike launched Monday night,

The CPC TU Collective Convener D. J. Rajakaruna said issuing fuel and operating of fuel bowsers had come to a standstill and the strike was successful.

The fuel remaining at fuel stations will only be sufficient for today, due to the excessive amount of fuel issued.

The Government decided to deploy Army personnel this morning to refineries to streamline the fuel distribution process. However, we did not allow them to enter the premises, he said.

We will not the Government to deploy Armed forces to issue fuel from the refineries, he said.

The Government is responsible for the inconvenience caused to the public, as it is the Government who had pushed us into this strike.

We are awaiting response from the Government, otherwise we would continue this protest until the country goes into total darkness, he said.

Even if the Government wants to negotiate, we will not stop the strike. But will do so while continuing the strike, he said.

The TU Collective said that fuel was running out at the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) power plant at Kerawalapitiya, while issuance for of fuel to planes was also coming to a standstill. (Chaturanga Pradeep)
An year ago, the well-known economist Dr. W.A. Wijewardena had analysed the losses of the top 12 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to the opportunity cost (cost forgone) of some of the better known expenditure heads of the government.



This analysis can be seen as the flip side of the same coin, which Mirror Business carried on Tuesday, July 18, under the title, SOE debt accounts for 14 percent of economy. This is a shocking statement, though the analysis is not. For example:

One-third of the income tax collection in 2013 was wiped off by the aggregate losses of the 12 SOEs in that year.

The losses of the 12 SOEs are close to 25 percent of the budgets of nine of Sri Lankas most vital socio-economic ministries.

In 2013, the government spent an impressive Rs.24.3 billion in programmes to transform education towards the needs of a knowledge economy. The losses of the 12 SOEs could have funded a near threefold increase in these programmes.

The projected losses of the two state-owned airlines (SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka) in the following three years will be 10 times what Sri Lanka spends each year on education-related welfare like text books, uniforms and school meals.

The SOEs in a range of sectors made profits in 2013, totalling Rs.76.4 billion. But 83 percent of those profits were wiped out by the losses of just five SOEs.

The losses of Mihin Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd (then) were equivalent to almost one-fourth of our annual education budget.

The above situation has only escalated and not become manageable. Time and time again the senior politicians have deplored the status of SOEs and complained about the burden these institutions place on the people of Sri Lanka but have failed to implement concrete actions to privatise them or at least to introduce public/private partnerships (PPPs). Some time back, a respected senior minister spoke of a number of monsters that undermine Sri Lankas development prospects.



These monsters are the SOEs, which incur large losses that eventually have to be borne by the people of this country through higher direct or indirect taxes. The losses of SOEs, such as the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and SriLankan Airlines/Mihin Lanka are due to many reasons and include mismanagement, corruption, political interference, non-cost-reflective pricing policies and utter disregard for pubic assets and money (see more detailed analysis in Table 1).



Overview of SOEs

Though it is identified that there are over 200 SOEs, the published accounts available in the public domain are those of 55. Based on the finalised accounts of these SOEs, for the eight-month results ending August 31, 2016 (Finance Ministry Fiscal Report March 2017), 19 SOEs are presently making losses (see Table 1). The losses accumulate to Rs.35.3 billion for this period.



Table 1 also reveals an estimated turnaround of another 10 SOEs. These figures are based on the forecasted revenue on the business plans and in most cases are not realised at the end of the fiscal year. A good example is Mihin Lanka (which is now amalgamated with the burgeoning losses of SriLankan Airlines as at date).



Although some SOEs are profitable and performing well, collectively they represent a risk to public finance (either directly or through the state banks, which fund the largest SOEs). CPC and the CEB, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Finance Ministry, have incurred financial losses in fulfilling non-commercial obligations because of the implicit energy subsidiesretail fuel and electricity prices have been set below cost-recovery levels.

According to the same memorandum, SriLankan Airlines has been poorly managed and continues to incur significant losses on a monthly basis. The government now recognizes the need to decisively address the issue of SOE performance and minimize fiscal risk.



The strategies the IMF supports in this direction are:

A resolution strategy for SriLankan Airlines, which will be completed and approved by the cabinet to effectively remove this company from the governments accounts (structural benchmark).

To enhance the oversight and financial discipline of the six largest SOEs (CPC, SriLankan Airlines, Airport and Aviation Services Limited, the CEB, National Water Supply and Drainage Board and Sri Lanka Ports Authority), which will agree with the Finance Ministry and the relevant line ministry and publish a statement of corporate intent (SCI), which encompasses the SOEs mission, high-level objectives and multiyear corporate plan, capital expenditure and financing plans, which will include explicit financial and non-financial targets and description of non-commercial obligations.

Reform of energy and other utility subsidies. This would entail the implementation of a formula-based automatic pricing mechanism for petroleum products, so as to reduce the possibility of future financial losses by CPC and avoid large adjustments in retail prices.

The legislative reforms to ensure that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) will have the sole authority to set electricity tariffs in a cost-reflective manner. The automatic fuel and electricity pricing mechanisms that ensure the retail prices above the cost-recovery levels and a financial position of CPC and the CEB capable of covering the debt service will be introduced. This strategy will be extended to water tariff settings too, when the PUCSL starts regulating the water sector.

The risk arising from this leakage of the government budget is much broader as one researcher (Dananath Fernando, DM, May 19, 2016) had pointed out (during the previous year).

The cumulative losses of the top five SOEs (2006-2015) amount to Rs.605 billion, while the total loss of 55 SOEs (accounts of which are published) is Rs.636 billion. This reiterates the blaring truth that (1) CPC (2) the CEB (3) the SLTB (4) SriLankan Airlines and (5) Mihin Lanka account for 95 percent of the losses. Now it is confirmed the aggregate losses amount to 14 percent gross domestic product (GDP).



A detailed report of an independent authority overseeing the SOEs in 2016 revealed that (1) policy incoherence, confusion and lack of a strong set of metrics among the regulatory and monitoring agencies account for this confusion (2) lack of domain expertise within these enterprises with bloated structures and (3) the desire on the part of these inefficient officials (includes the SOE senior staff and the politically-appointed board members to the SriLankan board is a case in point) to maintain a culture of inefficiency, advantageous to them or their political backers.



Little surprise that when the prime minister called for plans along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) *through his designated officer (director general of the Project Management and Monitoring Department of the National Policy and Economic Affairs Ministry) in January 2016 hardly any had done so even by April 2016. Developing and aligning the strategy and setting the KPIs require in-depth knowledge and competencies, which can hardly be acquired over four months.

The MoU of the IMF and Finance Ministry (sighted above) speaks of the SCI but does not identify a measurement framework, replete with the KPIs.



What ails SOEs

What then ails these SOEs? Some serious reasons for this erosion of competitiveness are:

Ineffective boards governing these enterprises: Either most of those directors are yes people, who will not challenge the wrong doings/poor decisions of the board or they are altogether incompetent.

Lack of domain knowledge: Both in board appointments and/or senior management positions such as chairman, CEO or managing director or key management positions (possible reason for this is giving precedence to political loyalty than competency in these appointments. It also highlights the unwillingness/or lack of faith in controls and oversight mechanisms of the executive).

Lack of competencies in senior officers in these enterprises for implementation of their mandated goals and/projects (both local and foreign funded).

SOE profitability is a question of responsible/competent boards and astute management. Public Enterprise Development Deputy Minister Eran Wickremaratne in March last year observed that the public service at present is evaluated and funded on the basis of how much is spent rather than on the actual outcomes on performance. A system that links pay to KPIs is essential to promote efficiency and bind accountability in the public sector. He also said that the public enterprises must focus on empowering people (within the organisation) to ensure better performance.



Interestingly, Prof. Razeen Sally (Centre for Public Policy, National University of Singapore) in a feature also observed that (1) there is no point in setting up a state holding company (the public wealth trust*) and calling it something, if you are not going to change the current operating system. (2) He recommends that we differentiate those SOEs that need to operate commercially and others like the CEB and SLTB, which have social ends to meet. Recommends only those in the former to be bundled into the holding company (3) need to introduce independent directors to the board, rather than appoint some lawyer (possibly a political activist) without prior commercial experience to a commercial SOE. This yardstick also applies to the appointment of CEOs. (DM, May 12, 2016, Solving the SOE problem in Sri Lanka)



The Pathfinder Foundation too had observed in many of its perspectives on the SOEs in the past that not only the impact of the inefficiencies and poor management that should be examined but also the underlying factors which compromised the performance of the SOE.



We need to recognize the fact that we cannot litigate success of a failing enterprise nor for that matter can you litigate performance? Concluding my thoughts on arresting this trend of mismanaging the SOEs, I shall site the competency framework (Table 2) developed by the Government of Mauritius in 2014 for appointment of independent directors of SOEs.



A guide to the competencies required of directors (does not mean minimum qualifications and senior managerial experience) attributes and skills which will enable them to fulfil the oversight function expected of them:



The subject minister/ministry secretary will do well to remember the above guideline when selecting nominees for the board of directors of SOEs, particularly where the mandate requires turning around of these enterprises.



(Rauff Reffai is Institutional Specialist, International Development Agency, World Bank. He can be reached at knfexpo@gmail.com)
The European Union's top court on Wednesday removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels LTTE and kept Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist, Reuters reported today.

It said the Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overruled the General Court's view of 2014 that the Council of the European Union, the 28-nation grouping, had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.

The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than decisions by a "competent authority". But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing.

"The Council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing," the ECJ said. The EU needed to rely on more recent material than used in its initial decision, it said.

It said the General Court should now examine the facts and arguments it did not consider in its 2014 ruling.

In a parallel case, the top court did rule that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU's terrorism list.

The court said that EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009.

"The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of the continued freezing of the LTTE's funds," it said.

The EU terrorism list, created after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and last updated in January, includes 13 individuals and 22 organizations.

Hamas has been listed since 2003, its military wing since 2001. LTTE was added to the list in 2006.
There had been talk for some time that an 18-member dissident group was getting set to quit the Government together. But initially perhaps none outside this group may have known for sure who these 18 dissidents were. It was guesswork for everyone.



However, a swarthy and the stocky deputy from the Puttalam District put an end to the guessing game when he suddenly made public the full list of 18 dissidents.



Livid over leaking out the list, at least two of the 18 -member group has now got second thoughts about quitting the Yahapalanaya.



One of them is a politico hailing from the capital of the South. The other one, one-time top office bearer in his political party is a politico at top team level hailing from Wayamba.



Meanwhile, those loyal to the Compassionate One are busy prevailing on the duo to sever their ties with the dissidents completely, they say.
In handling a camera I feel that I have no peer. But what De Sica can do, I cant do. I ran his Shoeshine again recently and the camera disappeared, the screen disappeared; it was just life...

(Orson Welles)

One Friday night, not too long ago, I switched on the TV for no reason whatsoever. I went on pressing the remote until I came across a channel which telecast Sinhala movies every week. This time around, they were screening something that had been shown 15 years ago, which they (wrongly) thought was being shown for the first time on local television. I was 10 when I saw it last, but even at that age it left such an impression on me that I could remember almost every shot and how it would end.

They started screening it at 10.30. At about 11.30 I read a message from a young man inviting me to watch and review an event organised by a society at his school the following week at the Lionel Wendt. I was more interested in what was being screened, so I texted him excitedly, Tune into XYZ TV, theres a lovely Sinhala film on. Feeling rather perturbed at my own haste (because who sends messages like that to young people anymore?), however, I added, Count me in for next weeks show! By then the story had entered its second half, emotionally the most difficult to wade through. I laid aside the phone for about five minutes, and then took it back.

This young man had messaged me. Expressing delight at the fact that I would come to and write on his Societys event, he replied to my earlier missive: I am not into Sinhala films. Dont get them. Numbed, I asked, What about Sinhala novels? He fired back: Not really. Im not that fluent in Sinhalese.

The reply, and the conversation that preceded it, almost deadened me.

I watched the remainder of the story, well past midnight, remembering what was to come and how it was to end. I had wept at it before. I wept at it again.

As the credits rolled and Amaradevas music soared so high, my spirits couldnt keep up, I remembered that young man and his casual dismissal of our movies, and I wept harder. It seemed as though sorrow had kissed me that night: I cried all the way to my dreams, tears streaming on to my pillow, and woke up the following morning, still sobbing.

When people say they dont get Sinhala movies, they arent thinking of how fluent or inarticulate they are in their mother tongue. Rather, they are thinking about their incapacity to digest a particular type of film in narrative terms. The young have given up on our cinema, because the best in our cinema escape them. They see the worst and think that the best are no different to the worst.

No. Theyre put off because they cant digest the possibility that our cinema can breed good stories, the same kind of stories they get from Lucas, Spielberg, and Bay.

Our movie industry was birthed by a set of people who didnt know how to make movies. They were storytellers and mythmakers at best, who had earlier lived off the theatre. From the theatrical thrust of the Jayamanne brothers to the idealism of Lester James Peries to the anti-idealism of Dharmasena Pathiraja to the independent cinema of Prasanna Vithanage, Asoka Handagama, and Vimukthi Jayasundera, consequently, the divide between what was arty and what was commercial remained. So much so that today, the likes of that young man only get to see the latter. Not the former. And even if they do see the former, they will see what they dislike there too.

The truth then is that our mainstream directors dont know how to tell a story anymore. Even the kitschiest moviemakers from the past  Robin Tampoe, K. A. W. Perera, Neil Rupasinghe, Daya Wimalaweera, and Yasapalitha Nanayakkara knew how to transform the unreality of the experience in their work to the emotions and gestures they got from their audiences. At one level this was class bound; the same middle class that cried at Janaka saha Manju when it was first released laugh at it now, while the lower classes continue to weep over its contrived plot.



A well read neighbour of mine shocked me the other day by swearing (as though it were the gospel truth) that Janaka saha Manju was the saddest love story hed ever seen.

That other young man, by contrast, was involved with his schools English Literary Society, debates in English, and comes from a conservative upper middle class background. If we are to extract a metaphor from this, the prince disparages even the best of ours, while the pauper fawns on whats taken by the prince as the worst.



I have unfortunately been writing about the best and the worst and the pedestrian without assigning any value to them. For me, and I daresay for most discerning youngsters today, the best movies are those that dont compel analysis, that seem so well oiled that no interpretation is necessary. The middle-class youngsters of today, for instance, know that Michael Bay is not great, just as they know that Wes Anderson is greater in aesthetic terms. But they are pulled more by narrative power than by aesthetics, which explains that at times inexplicable box-office dividends reaped by Armageddon, Pearl Harbour, and the Transformers franchise.

The best works of Lester James Peries  Gamperaliya, Golu Hadawatha, and Akkara Paha  told a story aimed at enthralling a common denominator. These were movies that breathed naturally, without the aid of technique. Lesters most intellectual work Delovak Athara, on the other hand, was made for academic study, while Nidhanaya occupied a twilight world between Edgar Allan Poe and Freuds couch (as I implied in last weeks article). By contrast, Golu Hadawatha and Akkara Paha  the first and second in a trilogy that Lester made for Ceylon Theatres  are so vividly realised that all they do is fascinate us. Like what De Sicas Shoeshine was to Orson Welles, in them the camera and the screen disappear; what comes out is life itself.

That movie I watched after 15 years, which got me to understand the existential dread felt by our young men towards our cinema, ranks alongside the best on that count. Sagara Jalaya Madi Handuva Oba Sanda remains the true masterpiece of Lesters wife, Sumitra.

When people say they dont get Sinhala movies, they arent thinking of how fluent or inarticulate they are in their mother tongue

It also remains an almost perfectly conceived movie, a point which escaped that young man because he equated every movie made here with the comedies of Roy de Silva (which even I dont get).

Sumitras movie suggests the beauty and poignancy of living, in a world far removed from ours (its set in the North Central Province, near the Wanni). It points out that a work of art, allowed to breathe naturally, can become timeless. How can one not get it?

The young men of this country arent put off by Sinhala movies because they arent conversant in Sinhala. If that were the case, I wouldnt be writing this, because my fluency in the mother tongue is pedestrian at best, definitely more pedestrian than that of the young man I talked with. No. Theyre put off because they cant digest the possibility that our cinema can breed good stories, the same kind of stories they get from Lucas, Spielberg, and Bay. And because they cant digest, they refuse to watch.

I dont think they are to blame, frankly. The fact is that we were once moved by stories. Stories in the cinema. When our movies lost their narrative touch, when directors began to hanker after awards and agencies and everything else paraded in the name of Art, they lost touch with you and me, the common cinemagoer. When that happens, inevitably, we lose our interest in our industry. And when we, the common cinemagoers, lose interest, the best our industry can do is to survive on those same awards and agencies and High Artiness that we repudiated. In effect, getting into Sinhala movies has become hard, difficult, at times even impossible.
A firm talking State Finance Minister yesterday asserted that the controversial Hambantota port deal would go through regardless of the protests against it.



Highlighting there are lots of opinions and silver bullets sprayed over the topic, State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne said the government was confident and certain in its decision and would go ahead as planned. We are making decisions. We are going to sign the Hambantota port deal.

We will go ahead with it. We have negotiated and we have negotiated far, said Wickramaratne while addressing the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2017 in Colombo, yesterday. While pointing out that he does not agree with the investments made in Hambantota by the previous regime, the minister stressed what has been pumped in cannot go to waste.

I think they were big mistakes. But the real question is what you make of a mistake that has already been made, said Wickramaratne.



Now the question is once those investments have been made, we need to make sure we are able to get the maximum from those investments. We will move on with it, he reiterated. Reflecting similar sentiments, CBSL Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy in his address stated that the deal on Hambantota is one that was highly misunderstood.



The inking of the controversial deal, he said would catalyze the much required growth prospects for the region. It is shameful that since independence how little we have done for the people of that area.



This investment will give the potential to transformation, he opined. However, Dr. Coomeraswamy stressed the government must negotiate rigorously to protect public assets. Meanwhile, the cabinet yesterday gave the go by approving the proposal to lease out the Hambantota Port to China Merchants Company. (SAA)
Foreign Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake said today he would give proper answers to the allegations made against him when he attend the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on August 2.

He said that there was a conspiracy to tarnish his character.

He told journalists at an event held to mark the National Youth Flag Day, that nothing has happened to the members of the previous regime who destroyed this country.

"But there is a hue and cry when a minister of this Government was summoned by an Independent Commission. This government carries out its work in a transparent manner. Don't they know I am a Cabinet minister when summoning me to be present on Tuesday? I was summoned on the day I had to attend the Cabinet meeting. Therefore I informed the Commission through my lawyers to allocate another day, the minister said.

These things were mentioned in parliament seven or eight months ago. There is nothing to hide. Two or three media houses are attempting to assassinate my character for no reason,he said.

He said he would answer any question asked from him and expose the truth for the entire country.


Dr. Yojana Bhagat, a leading Indian scholar of Pali, in an interview with the Daily Mirror spoke about the importance of this language and its literature as an interdisciplinary subject to research into different areas of study. Dr. Bhagat, the Coordinator and Assistant Professor attached to the Department of Pali at Mumbai University, was in Sri Lanka recently. The following are excerpts of the interview.

Pali is now an international language

It offers research components in many disciplines

Buddha Dhamma has answers to all questions

Not only monks, but also lay students should be encouraged to learn it

Pali literature has ancient medicine, architecture, management, economics etc

Pali is studied in the western world

Pali words shouldnt be translated into other languages

It has words with varying meanings depending on contexts

Pali gave birth to many languages including Sinhala

Its not just the language of Buddhism

Its not necessary that you speak the language

How do you view the importance of the Pali language as its no longer a spoken language?

Pali is not a dead language. It is very much live. People dont speak it in daily life. But, its very much an international language. Its studied all over the world. A lot of research is being carried out regarding the language. Its not just the language of Buddhism. It contains the teachings of the Buddha. If you learn the Tripitaka, it has answers to all the questions one has. There is an answer to any question you ask. It has answers to the questions why; you are born, dead, angry, sad etc. Another feature is that it has many things that provide for interdisciplinary research. In Pali literature, you have ancient medicine, architecture and the best of psychology. Modern psychology isnt up to the mark compared to what the Buddha taught. You have all the practices in meditation. You have management skills, law and administration. All these are there. Its not that the Buddha taught these things in specific terms. But, you can extract from his teachings to know all about these. You have to study the original form of the languae. That is why Pali literature is so important. You have to study the original language, not translated versions. Its because the Pali words have different connotations in varying contexts. If you take the word Dhamma it refers to the Buddhas teaching in one context. If you say Dhammanussati, it is thought. When you talk about Dhamma, it changes meanings depending on the context. If you know the exact meaning and exact reference, then only you get the right meaning. The word doctrine is not the English equivalent of Dhamma all the time. Earlier, people used to use the words lord for Buddha, congregation for Sangha. That is not true. Now these words are not translated. The Buddha is the Buddha, Dhamma is Dhamma. We cannot find equivalents in other languages for these words.



But the cultural aspect of Buddhism is important. Its found in Sri Lanka. That is the purpose of our visit. We dont know how to conduct Bodhi Pooja or to offer alms

How is it possible to make it a more live language and make people communicate with it?

In my opinion, what is there in that language is more important than speaking with it. Its not necessary that you speak the language. If you start speaking the language, you have to use daily words like car, telephone. These words are not there in Pali. Then, you have to coin some new words for these. In Pali, it doesnt make any sense. It has the teachings that have to be kept pure.





How do you analyze the importance of Pali for Sri Lanka because it contributed to the birth and development of the Sinhala Language?

It is very important. It is the Mother to many languages, not only to Sinhala. Even in India, all the languages originated from Prakrit. Prakrit is the original language. One of its spoken forms was Pali. It was a spoken language. In India, there were Prakrit and Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a formed, designed language spoken by the elite people like Brahmins at that time. Pali was the spoken language of all the people. The Buddha spoke in that language. In all Indian languages like Gujarati, Marati and Bengali, you have Pali. If you learn Pali in reference to your regional language, it will be very easy.

According to your observations, how keen are students on learning this language in India and the rest of the word?

In India, we are developing. At the University of Bombay, we are inspiring students to learn Pali and do interdisciplinary researches. That is to obtain new knowledge. If a doctor wants to research into ancient medicinal practices taught by the Buddha, then, he can undertake it by learning Pali and develop something new in the field. I have management students studying Pali. They study Jataka stories related to the Buddhas teaching to extract management aspects. One can study architecture in Pali. Then, one can understand why Stupas were built. We can know why it was called Cetiya. We can know what a Pirivena is, how a monk should stay in a room and how big the room should be. The Buddha taught all these things. The Buddha is very clear about even how your room should be.



How are you going to cooperate with the Sri Lankan Universities towards the development

of this discipline?

In India, we dont have a Buddhist culture as such. Students are learning Pali as an interdisciplinary subject. But the cultural aspect of Buddhism is important. Its found in Sri Lanka. That is the purpose of our visit. We dont know how to conduct Bodhi Pooja or to offer alms. We are trying to revise that in India, especially at the University of Mumbai.

How do you view the musical sounds of the Pali language?

Now, we talk about recitations. When we chant, its about how to memorize things. The Buddha has taught in such a manner that these can be memorized very easily. It was an oral tradition. When Arahat Mahinda Thera came from India, he brought it in oral form. To remember the oral things, the Buddha has given stanzas in such a beautiful way. The Buddha was a great teacher. He taught in such a way that people sitting in front not only remember things, but also understand. While teaching only, he got others to repeat things twice or thrice. Then, he would ask questions. Persons sitting in front were also involved in the learning process. He was a great teacher. Recitations were always like it. The Buddha possessed the greatest techniques of teaching.

Here, I am told that students dont like to learn Pali because they dont find jobs. I think it shouldnt be the problem. There is a lot of scope for research in Pali. People shouldnt look to India or Sri Lanka only. We have scope outside our countries for Pali. People in other parts of the world look at the Pali literature. The person who knows Pali becomes the authority. I went to Oxford because I knew Pali. They invited me to learn more from them. In Oxford, they have Pali. All the scholars of Pali are westerners.

I have management students studying Pali. They study Jataka stories related to the Buddhas teaching to extract management aspects





In Germany, they have Pali. The western countries learn Pali. In Sri Lanka, you find German scholars who have written such beautiful books. We are using these books. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Narada Thera are among them. They have done great jobs here.

What is the kind of cooperation you have from other Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia towards the development of Pali?

I have students from Myanmar reading for their doctorates. They dont know English. But, they communicate with me in Pali. Its an international language. They communicate, among other things, how they intend to do research. I think research must to be encouraged here. Then, students can benefit and move to the world outside. For that, a little of English is important. There are so many Sinhala books not translated into English. Mostly monks resort to study Pali, not other students. They have to be encouraged. An example is architects having to study Pali. Doctors have to learn this language. Management students should do so. You have a Buddhist economy. I have economics students doing Buddhist economy. There are lawyers studying Buddhism. All these interdisciplinary aspects are very important. Its also important for your personal growth through meditation.
Science, Technology and Research Minister A.D. Susil Premajayantha and Ceylon Institute of Builders President Dr. Rohan Karunaratne (Right Corner) handing over the Gold Award to Insee Cement Sustainable Development and Communications Director Farzana Khan. Also in the picture (Left to Right) are Insee Cement Marketing Head Dinuk Peiris, Insee Cement Brands and Communications Marketing Manager Gayani Perera, Insee Cement Technical Support and Business Development Manager Sampath Wijesekera and Insee Cement Systems Compliance Manager Supun N. Jayasinghe at the presentation of the Green Mark Certifications held recently at Hotel Ramada

Insee Cement, Sri Lankas premier cement manufacturer won the Gold Award from the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) at the presentation of the Green Mark Certifications held recently at Hotel Ramada.



The awards ceremony was part of the prestigious World Construction Symposium held for the sixth consecutive year. The event was graced by Sri Lanka Science, Technology and Research Minister Susil Premajayantha, the chief guest of the event, the CIOB officials, corporate entities and environmental enthusiasts.



The Green Mark Certifications were presented by CIOB, to participants in the construction industry to encourage and motivate energy efficiency. The recognition promotes water and resource efficiency, health and pollution control and quality systems for managing environmental performance. Technical performance and product innovation were also recognized at the event.



Commenting on the award recognition, Insee Cement CEO Nandana Ekanayake said, We are honoured to have received the Gold Award, recognising our environmental initiatives and best practices. We are truly committed in preserving the bio diversity, particularly in areas where we do business such as Puttalam and Galle. Furthermore, we endorse and encourage the nation towards green building and sustainable construction for the well-being of all our people.



The recognition, endorsed by the Construction and Housing Ministry and Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, is intended to drive the industry towards constructing more eco-friendly buildings and raise awareness among developers, designers and builders of the vital need to conserve the environment from start to finish when conceptualizing a building project. Insee Cement won the gold award for adopting environmental best practices across a range of products such as, Insee Extra, Insee Mahaweli Marine Plus and Insee Rapid Flow Plus.



Further, Insee Cements flagship brand Sanstha Cement, was the first cement product in the country to receive the green labeling certification from the Green Building Council, Sri Lanka. The product is produced with 7 kilograms less CO2 emissions per bag, demonstrating Insee Cements commitment towards minimizing the environmental impact from the building industry.
By Bharatha Mallawarachi | AP Washington Post, July 24, 2017

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  Maldivian security forces locked down parliament on orders from the president Monday, leading to clashes after opposition lawmakers stormed the compound in an attempt to vote on whether to impeach the parliamentary speaker.



President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has been accused of rolling back democratic gains the Maldives has made since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008.



A no-confidence motion against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed was scheduled to have been taken up Monday, according to the opposition. It said the motion had support from 45 lawmakers in the 85-member house, which if it had succeeded would have challenged the presidents power.

The government, however, said no voting had been scheduled for Monday.



Members of the armed forces padlocked the gates of parliament on orders from Yameen, and lawmakers were forcibly prevented from entering the parliamentary compound, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party said.



Some opposition lawmakers broke through the barrier, but they were forcibly thrown out by military and police who even pepper-sprayed them, said party spokesman Hamid

Abdul Ghafoor.



In a statement, the opposition party called Yameens action desperate, illegal and unconstitutional.

The presidents office said all the members have been informed that the next parliament sittings will be on July 31.



The parliament secretariat asked Maldives forces to strengthen security in the parliament building premises due to security concerns as certain parties were calling for protests near parliament, the office said in a statement.



Maldives police said the government restricted access to the parliament building as the session was cancelled and that police were asked to intervene by Maldives National Defense Force in clearing out individuals who forcefully entered the parliament building.



In a statement, police also said they are investigating the obstruction of police duty by the lawmakers who broke into the restricted area.



The support for the no-confidence motion was uncertain after the election commission announced last week that four members who supported the motion had lost their seats because they left the ruling party.



Yameens control over parliament is threatened by a new understanding between the Maldives former strongman and its first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed. The Maldivian Democratic Party routed Yameens party in local council elections earlier this year.



A similar opposition bid to oust the speaker was defeated in March with no dissenting votes after opposition lawmakers were either evicted or walked out from the vote following a dispute over problems with the electronic voting system.



The opposition coalitions plan to wrest the parliamentary majority was aimed at reforming the judiciary, elections commission and other bodies perceived as being partial

toward Yameen.



In March, Nasheed and former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and two other parties signed an agreement to form an

opposition alliance.
Theres a singular vacancy in this country, according to some. Ranil Amirtthiah of the popular local band Black, whenever he speaks and in whatever forum he chooses to do so, is often poetic but sometimes he flushes subtlety down the tube. He says it straight from the heart, always. This is clearly evident in a vacancy ad he posted a few hours ago.

Post: Sri Lankan ZORRO. Area of work: Colombo and suburbs. Job description: to terrorize those selfish Essential Service blackmailers, whip them and show them the righteous path of service to the nation. Salary: the entire nations gratitude.

For those who may not be familiar with the name and legend, heres a wiki-intro:

Zorro (Spanish for fox) is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley. He is a Californian nobleman living in Los Angeles during the era of Mexican rule (between 1821 and 1846),[1] although some movie adaptations of Zorros story have placed him during the earlier Spanish rule. The character has undergone changes through the years, but the typical image of him is a dashing black-clad masked outlaw who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains. Not only is he too cunning and fox-like for the bumbling authorities to catch, but he also delights in publicly humiliating them.

Ranil was of course referring to the current strike by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation workers which is inconveniencing a lot of people, especially those who own vehicles. Throw them out, is a call that has gathered momentum with respect to striking workers. It is a call that has found some currency in certain circles with respect to striking doctors as well.

Not all the objectors to strikes are regime-defenders, let us acknowledge this first up. It is about inconvenience and it is about outrage; anger about services considered to be essential. Let us also remember that many of those who are today saluting the Government for sending in the Army were chest-beating moral-high-horse objectors when the previous regime opted for such strategies. One might bet that should the petroleum workers resist and resistance was met with force leading to two or three or more being killed, the very same people who cried with horror over the Rathupaswala killings would say the hooligans deserved it! Yes, it is a story about political loyalties and the moralizing doesnt quite hide the fact. The more honest among the advocates of force have demonstrated some nostalgia for the preferred opposition-quelling methods of the previous regime (sans white vans, the advocates hastily add). That tells a story.

Now one could argue that this Zorro-Option need not be unleashed only on striking workers but on all those who err including politicians and everyone benefiting from or supporting a system that is flawed

Lets ignore the political colour of all this. Let us focus on the scenario sans loyalty. It boils down to hope or versions of the same hope: a (benevolent) dictator. Not too many people are stopping in their tracks to ask themselves, wait a minute, wasnt yahapalanaya (good governance) about better systems and not about personalities?

Ranil has not spelled out dictator. He has instead called for a hero who will dash in, whip the pants off the rascals, offer infinite relief to long-suffering citizens and dash out. Just like that!

Now one could argue that this Zorro-Option need not be unleashed only on striking workers but on all those who err including politicians and everyone benefiting from or supporting a system that is flawed, makes for the making of dictators and containing all kinds of loopholes for theft and the escape of thieves. The problem is that is focuses on individuals and not systems. If our hero, as he rides into the proverbial sunset, deigns to look back, he will no doubt find a flawed system more or less intact.

Heres another FB post that gives perspective: 1) No petrol in the sheds; 2) Doctors on strike; 3) When they are not on strike there is still a dearth of medicines; 4) People are dying daily from Dengue; 5) There is no proper solid waste disposal system; 6) The forests are being cut down but the President proudly says the Environmental Ministry is under him; 7) There is cocaine instead of regular retail goods in SATHOSA containers; 8) When a politician is found guilty of wrongdoing he is fined Rs.2,000; 9) The failed Uma Oya Project is rendering people homeless and 10) The Parliament approves leasing of Hambantota Harbour to China. So much more can be added to this. For example, the logic of lumping lotteries with foreign affairs and of course the hilarious case of the continued pampering of those implicated in the Central Bank bond scam. The question is, can one Zorro clean it all up? How many Zorros would we need, to put it another way?

A better leader or better leadership would go a long way in curing the country of at least some of these ills, one could argue. This is why there are some who call not for a Zorro but for a Gota (thats Gotabaya Rajapaksa). Yes, the term benevolent dictator is often used when this option is discussed. Its a hope, obviously and as is typical not a hope that can be obtained from track-record. However, we have to recognize the fact that one individual is not a front. One Zorro might make for cheers and some relief, but adventurers, Robin Hoods, brigands and troubadours, romantic as they obviously are, have seldom changed systems or altered the course of history. At best they offer or make a name or a political moment respectively to a process of system-change already in motion. In the terms of the political scientist, they give a name to a moment when objective preconditions mature to the point of significant social upheaval.

This is why we need to debate individual heroes versus collective effort. Bertold Brecht in Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo) elaborated on this Zorror Wish. Andrea Sarti tells the would-be Zorro, i.e. Galileo Galilei, Unhappy is the land that has no hero. And Galileo Zorro, if you will, responds, No, Andrea; unhappy is the land that needs a hero.

Of course we can call for Zorro. We might even get Zorro. We will cheer when Zorro dashes in, but the Zorros in real life dont ride off into the sunset, they transform into quite un-Zorro-like entities. No cheering then. As for those who doubt, I invite them to reflect on the Zorros of the past: e.g. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sarath Fonseka, Velupillai Prabhakaran, SWRD Bandaranaike, JR Jayewardena, Maithripala Sirisena, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Rohana Wijeweera, Ranil Wickremesinghe and (how could we forget?) Yahapalanaya!
The Washington Post

LAHORE, Pakistan  Pakistan is burying the last victims from a Taliban suicide bombing the previous day that killed 26 people in the eastern city of Lahore.



Hundreds of mourners have attended the funerals on Tuesday of two brothers and fellow police officers who were among the casualties.



Malik Mohammad Ahmed, a spokesman for the Punjab government, says the slain brothers were on duty guarding a demolition site when a militant riding on a motorcycle targeted the officers.

Funerals of most of the victims were held overnight.



The bombing was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

Lahore has witnessed scores of terror attacks in recent years. A suicide bombing earlier this year killed 16 policemen while another attack killed over 70 people during Easter last year.
Appearing on behalf of Minister Ravi Karunanayake, President's counsel Rienzie Arseculeratne today informed the Presidential Commission investigating the Bond issue that his client is unable to appear before the Commission because the minister had to attend the Security Council meeting summoned by the President.

He also said the minister will be ready to give evidence next Wednesday (August 2).

On questioned by the Commission, PC Arseculeratne said the minister had Parliament sessions on the next two days and will be leaving to Maldives on Monday, thereby according to his instructions he will be ready to give evidence next Wednesday.

Considering the time constrains, the Commission asked the Counsel about the possibility of calling the minister on a weekend day. PC Arseculeratne said he was not instructed on that. (Shehan Chamika Silva)
President Maithripala Sirisena has turned down three Cabinet papers submitted by Foreign Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake including the one seeking Visumpaya (Acland House) Union Place, Colombo to be designated as his official residence, sources said.

Visumpaya, which is an official residence of the government, has been used as residence for visiting heads of state and local government ministers.

In the other two papers, he sought the transfer of authority of the Sri Lanka Pilgrims rest in New Delhi from the mission in that country to Sri Lanka Branch of Mahabodhi Society. In the other, he sought permission to appoint a Chief of Staff for him.

The President had rejected all three proposals. (Kelum Bandara)
For decades, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has been increasing in many countries in Asia and the Pacific. However, inequality has also risen and extreme climate events that can compromise economic growth are becoming more frequent.



So, are we on the right path? Does GDP alone tell us everything we should know about growth and development?



A short answer is, maybe not. GDP only measures the economic dimension of growth and ignores social and environmental welfare.



To move beyond GDP, first we need to realize its limitations. We must understand the rationale behind the indicator and why it does not accurately measure the quality of growth.



GDP calculates the market values of final goods and services in one country during a specific period. Even from this definition, we can clearly tell that there is something missing from the equation.

What about other elements of growth, such as peoples livelihoods, that dont belong to the market? What about environmental impacts that traverse country borders and affect our childrens future?

Unfortunately, none of these are included in GDP computation. So, a country can still enjoy GDP growth regardless of the welfare of its population or even if animals and plants are becoming extinct.

GDP measures the quantity of growth  but not its quality.



Focus on inclusive, green growth

But things are changing. As it has become more obvious that simply expanding production is not the most sustainable development strategy, the development community has refocused on inclusive growth and green growth as alternatives.



Global development trends are now moving toward building social progress for a better quality of growth, as reflected in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.



We find a good example in the Republic of Korea, which has moved beyond a pure focus on economic outputs to more inclusive and green growth like reforestation.



Development organisations have been trying to build more comprehensive indices to replace GDP. For instance, 2010 saw the launch of the Inclusive Growth Index (IGI) by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set more inclusive and environmentally friendly benchmarks for a countrys development.

However, the available indices either overlook some pillars of growth or have less comprehensive indicators in each pillar. Neither the IGI nor the Inclusive Growth and Development Index developed by the World Economic Forum in 2017, fully cover social equity and environmental sustainability dimensions such as gender equality and water management.



What we need is a fully comprehensive index that gives weight to all economic, social and environmental pillars of growth.



In addition to GDP per capita, labour productivity in a country and its exposure to external economic shocks should be included. Social equity should not be limited to income inequality but also account for gender balance and accessibility of all to basic needs.



The environmental elements should also go beyond climate change to cover biodiversity, waste, water and land management. The more comprehensive and reliable the index, the better institutions will be able to identify sustainable development gaps and address them to help deliver a higher quality of growth.



Promoting high-quality growth for sustainability

These and other related issues need to be addressed by measuring a countrys performance in all economic, equity and environmental dimensions.



For instance, the World Happiness Report supports the argument that countries must go beyond economics growth. Country rankings change when they refocus away from GDP per capita and toward high-quality growth.



Though economic growth will significantly contribute to development initially, attention should then shift toward promoting a better quality of life to sustain development.



For example, Malaysia outperforms Thailand in traditional GDP per capita. However, Thailand performs better on happiness thanks to its higher ranking on social equity and generosity (see figure).

Its one thing to develop a new comprehensive index. But its quite another for it to replace GDP per capita as the new measure for a countrys stage of development. GDP has been the dominant evaluation tool for over two decades and it will not be easy to supplant.



National and international development organisationsincluding multilateral development banks like ADBcan play a crucial role in this transition.



The former should change their policymaking processes and development targets from only boosting economic growth to also promoting social progress. As for the latter, their support should go beyond financing the construction of traditional infrastructure to ensure it is inclusive and green.

The goal should be to not only increase GDP per capita, but also enhance the wellbeing of its citizens today and tomorrow.



(Radtasiri Wachirapunyanont is a graduate student, National University of Singapore)
By Shaiq Hussain and Max Bearak

The Washington Post

ISLAMABAD, July 24 2017 -

Pakistan  At least 26 people were killed and dozens injured in a suicide attack Monday in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials said.



The blast occurred near a vegetable market and a software technology park on the citys busy Ferozepur Road, close to the residence of Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and chief minister of Punjab state, of which Lahore is

the capital.



Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan , the countrys main branch of the Taliban, asserted responsibility for the attack in an email, saying that one of its soldiers had used an explosives-laden motorcycle.

A senior police official in Lahore, Haider Ashraf, confirmed the claim and told journalists that a suicide bomber appeared to target police personnel taking part in a drive to clear street vendors from the market area.



Earlier, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told journalists in Islamabad, the capital, that the nature of the attack was not yet clear and that an investigation was being launched.



Most of the casualties and those injured are police personnel, he said. Punjabs health minister, Khawaja Salman Rafique, said that about 50 people were injured in the blast.



Suicide attacks have long been common in Pakistan, but in recent months Lahore and other major urban centers have experienced a period of relative peace. Before Mondays explosion, the last such attack in Lahore was a suicide bombing targeting an army census team in April in which six were killed.



Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and a splinter group, Jamaat ul-Ahrar, are the most active anti-government militant groups in the country. Both are known colloquially as the Pakistani Taliban.
an unending cascade from one generation to another

The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the utmost ends of the earth.

- Joseph Conrad

At the very outset, allow me to draw your attention to an oversight in my previous column on Who represents the real SLFP. In the 8th paragraph I write thus: The passage of the 19th Amendment... It should read as the 18th Amendment. Please forgive me for this error. Now to my current column:

The mighty Mahaweli River begins its history-laden journey from the zenith of Sri Paada, the pinnacle of Buddhist belief that Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha laid his footprint, long before Devanampiyatissa ruled Lanka. With this belief held in earnest, many Buddhists - men and women of all walks of life - of all ages, some with hardly any breath left in their lungs but a monumental expanse of faith in their hearts, year in and year out go on pilgrimage to pay homage to the Great Teacher. All main rivers in Sri Lanka; Mahaweli, Kelani, Kalu and Walawe which originate their respective passages from Sri Paada, command the gratitude of an immensely grateful people. Among these rivers Mahaweli is foremost. Its storied expedition through the picturesque hill country into the vast plains of Mahiyangana and Bintenna, carving the ground of an arid and thirsty zone all the way up to the North Central valley and eventually exhausting itself into a resplendent Indian Ocean at Trincomalee, has enriched not only the daily lives of a population but also has ornamented the culture and tradition of an ancient people in Ceylon. With its melodious cascading of water, is brought forth a whisper of arrival of good times.

In ancient times, this great river was first diverted, to send its waters to the North Central province. According to the official records of the Irrigation Department: Minipe Yoda Ela: the Trans basin canal from Minipe diversion carried water from Mahaweli Ganga to Amban Ganga. King Dasankeliya (459 AD) constructed this and it had irrigated in the left bank of Mahaweli. This gigantic work, which excites the wonder of the modern engineers, consists of a scheme, which turns the river at a bend where a large body of water enters the narrow canal formed by an island contiguous to the bank, partially closed by two rocks, which intercept the water on its return to the main stream. These rocks, when united by the masonry, became a dam raising the waters in the natural channel to great height. Sir Henry Ward in his observations on legend, describes this canal could have been used for irrigation as well as navigation. The length of this canal is 50 miles and it merged with Amban Ganga below Angemedilla anicut. It is important to note that this canal had followed a trace, which has minimized deep cutting.

The mighty Mahaweli River begins its history-laden journey from the zenith of Sri Paada, the pinnacle of Buddhist belief that Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha laid his footprint, long before Devanampiyatissa ruled Lanka

Historys homage apart, the Mahaweli River, despite the various decrees issued by the governors during the British colonial rule to destroy the irrigation structures that had sustained a Sinhala-Buddhist culture for two and half millennia, continued to flow in her usual haste, stirring many a thick foliage and many a hump of sand. Her montage of varied profiles, in times of crisis, has enabled the people of the land to turn to her as a last refuge; whether to water the thirsty land they possessed to cultivate the ever-in-demand rice or for a refreshing bath at the end of the day. They turned to her treasure ever so gratefully.

Ever since the ancient Kings of Lanka, the Mahawelis tireless stretch to enrich the land took a brand new turn in the seventh decade of the 20th century. In 1977, the JR Jayewardene govt took a momentous decision.

Without a cent in their coffers to finance the undertaking of diverting the Mahaweli River at more than five locations, constructing six large reservoirs with the capacity to produce hydropower of more than 700 MW and irrigate the water-starved land and settle more than 150,000 families in the downstream zones. Such a transmigration of humanity from one area to another region that was from thick jungle to mild-forests was, under any circumstances, no stress-free task. Galvanizing a bureaucracy from a passive govt service to a vibrant, proactive and forward-thinking force needs foresight, determination, meticulous planning and above all unbending leadership at all levels, from a junior engineer to senior management to Minister and President of the country. During those days, that much of dedication and commitment was forthcoming. A Golden Era of the 20th century had dawned. And it spread its lustre to all corners of the developing regions.

No labour was imported from the countries that donated money for the projects. Meals, basic rice and curry, that were prepared and sold to those local labour forces were the responsibility of the locals.

All subcontractors were locals; those who were engaged in planning, designing, constructing and monitoring, barring some handful of senior staff that belonged to the companies that won the main contracts from the donating countries, were all local. The story of Mahaweli was one hundred percent local. Amazing!

In 1977, the JR govt took a momentous decision. Without a cent in their coffers to finance the undertaking of diverting the Mahaweli River at more than five locations, constructing six large reservoirs with the capacity to produce hydropower of more than 700 MW

From the time JR decided to launch an accelerated programme to develop and complete a 30-year programme in merely six years, the tensions were many and even disagreements much more among a dedicated and determined work force from Chairman to junior engineers, yet the grit and single-mindedness of Gamini Dissanayake, the young (35-year young?) Minister of Mahaweli Development and Lands and Land Development, pursued the programme to successful completion.

A disturbing pattern of incoherent thinking that was the order of the day during the previous regime of 70 to77 was transformed into a logical and balanced pursuit of realistic engineering targets and community-progressive goals. The resurgence of a rustic culture and reawakening of rural inhabitants in the remote corners in the land was visible to any visitor, more to the locals in Colombo and urban habitats than to those who came from beyond our shores. The pulse of a 1000 plus-year of history was being accentuated to a different harmony and it was felt all over the program whose vast implications were at times unfathomable even to a discriminating intellect.

Without the hydropower of the Mahaweli Programme, our country would have crossed the threshold of the twenty first century in darkness. Countermanding a treacherous weather and gracing the soil that cultivates the staple grain that feeds millions of the population with her magnificent presence, the Mahaweli is cascading through an unkind terrain and unforgiving landscape. Order was brought to her unruly surge. Man-made dams and anicuts were constructed in order to store up the abundance of her gush in mighty tanks and reservoirs and served to release the waters. Along her joyous journey emerged new townships and settlement villages with the attendant social infrastructure such as schools, banks, hospitals, post offices and community centres. A novelty of these habitats may have been outlived by the neglect of the present-day bureaucracy. Townships such as Galnewa, Bulnewa, Thambuttegama, Nochchiyagama. Dehiattakandiya, Welikanda and Girandurukotte were not heard of before the Mahaweli Programme was inaugurated. Now they are bustling commercial centres, serving a community whose day-to-day living is made easier by the flow of the Mahaweli. Bursting asunder of traditional irregularities, burying of conventional hostilities and embracing new realities of abundance and plenty, the Mahaweli will glide along, revealing concealed treasures and bringing forth joy and smile to many a profile. Many a damsel silhouetted on the banks of the Mahaweli, with the setting of the sun and with the initiation of twilight will ponder her future; she will be sinking into the joyous dream of her amour. Before her eyes is the eternal flow of the river that has been rendering service to a nation that is more often ungrateful than otherwise. But it shall glide along for the waters not only are the saga of how a nation could be fed and nourished. It is a beautiful story of a civilization.

Townships such as Galnewa, Bulnewa, Thambuttegama, Nochchiyagama. Dehiattakandiya, Welikanda and Girandurukotte were not heard of before the Mahaweli Programme was inaugurated

The river has served the soil of the land. She lies at the roots of a proud nation whose granaries fed not only the locals but, according to the Great Chronicle, the Mahawansa, enabled rice to be exported to neighbouring countries in the glory days. A flow of nourishing water, in addition to helping an already-progressing population towards greater heights, also sprinkled a land with a misty environ in the parched zones, making a sleeping vegetation wake up and blossoming and nourishing a civilization. A stupendous gallery of architectural wonders emerged whose profound magnificence is still bewildering modern scholars. Along its course were erected historic structures, depicting a graceful life of a civilization. Mahaweli represents not only a giant irrigation scheme; its not a mere human settlement endeavour; it is not a long and winding stream. It is indeed a civilization.

Sorrow and joy, shall this river endure, and glide its way to eternity!

The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
By David Cole and Faiz Shakir

The Washington Post

The right to boycott has a long history in the United States, from the American Revolution to Martin Luther King Jr.s Montgomery bus boycott to the campaign for divestment from businesses serving apartheid South Africa. Nowadays we celebrate those efforts. But precisely because boycotts are such a powerful form of expression, governments have long sought to interfere with them  from King George III to the police in Alabama, and now to the U.S. Congress.



The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, legislation introduced in the Senate by Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and in the House by Peter J. Roskam (R-Ill.), would make it a crime to support or even furnish information about a boycott directed at Israel or its businesses called by the United Nations, the European Union or any other international governmental organization. Violations would be punishable by civil and criminal penalties of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison. The American Civil Liberties Union, where we both work, takes no position for or against campaigns to boycott Israel or any other foreign country. But since our organizations founding in 1920, the ACLU has defended the right to collective action. This bill threatens that right.



The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is designed to stifle efforts to protest Israels settlement policies by boycotting businesses in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The bills particular target is the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, a global campaign that seeks to apply economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with international law.



Whether one approves or disapproves of the BDS movement itself, people should have a right to make up their own minds about it. Americans engage in boycotts every day when they decide not to buy from companies whose practices they oppose. Students have boycotted companies that sold clothing manufactured in sweatshops abroad. Environmentalists have boycotted Nestle for its deforestation practices. By using their power in the marketplace, consumers can act collectively to express their political points of view. There is nothing illegal about such collective action; indeed, it is constitutionally protected.



In NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., the Supreme Court in 1982 upheld the right of NAACP activists to hold a mass economic boycott of segregated businesses in Mississippi. The court stated that the boycotters exercise of their rights to speech, assembly, and petition . . . to change a social order that had consistently treated them as second-class citizens rested on the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values.



This is not to say that all boycotters are automatically free speech heroes; indeed, BDS advocates have themselves at times shut down Israeli academics or speakers to the detriment of academic freedom. Thus, its understandable that free speech advocates might not immediately identify BDS supporters as victims of censorship. But when government takes sides on a particular boycott and criminalizes those who engage in a boycott, it crosses a constitutional line.



Cardin and other supporters argue that the Israel Anti-Boycott Act targets only commercial activity. In fact, the bill threatens severe penalties against any business or individual who does not purchase goods from Israeli companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and who makes it clear  say by posting on Twitter or Facebook  that their reason for doing so is to support a U.N.- or E.U.-called boycott. That kind of penalty does not target commercial trade; it targets free speech and political beliefs. Indeed, the bill would prohibit even the act of giving information to a U.N. body about boycott activity directed at Israel.



The bills chilling effect would be dramatic  and that is no doubt its very purpose. But individuals, not the government, should have the right to decide whether to support boycotts against practices they oppose. Neither individuals nor businesses should have to fear million-dollar penalties, years in prison and felony convictions for expressing their opinions through collective action. As an organization, we take no sides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But regardless of the politics, we have and always will take a strong stand when government threatens our freedoms of speech and association. The First Amendment demands no less.
The arrest of Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Naeem Khan, Altaf Fantoosh and four other separatist and Hurriyat leaders on charges of raising, receiving and collecting funds for terror, stone-pelting, burning down schools, damaging public property and waging war against India - is an important first step towards dismantling the terror support base in the Kashmir valley.

The National Investigative Agency (NIA) claims there is a direct link between stone-pelting and funds received from across the Line of Control (LoC), through border trade and hawala networks. India Todays sting operation has completely exposed Pakistans proxies  caught on camera boasting about receiving funds from Pakistan to fuel unrest in the valley and burning schools.

The fact that the bandh called by the Hurriyat against the arrests got a lukewarm response indicates that the people in Kashmir have seen through the duplicity of the Hurriyat.

It remains to be seen if the NIA will call in the top Hurriyat leadership, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The NIA had registered the instant case on May 30, 2017 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including the members, cadre of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants (terrorists) of proscribed terrorist organisations [such as] Hizbul-Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist organisations/associations and gangs for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various means, including hawala [networks] for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K and for causing disruption in Kashmir valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, says the NIA statement.

The NIA had also conducted search operations on suspects in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana and had recovered incriminating documents (including LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen letterheads), cash and other valuables worth crores. The arrested separatists have a lot of explaining to do.

But this is only the first step. It remains to be seen if the NIA will call in the top Hurriyat leadership, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, for questioning. For far too long have the separatists parroted Pakistans line on Kashmir. The Mirwaiz, according to police sources, may have some explaining to do around the circumstances of the lynching to death of DySP Mohammed Ayub Pandith during Ramzan outside the Jamia mosque in Srinagar.

In the past, Hurriyat leaders and Dukhtaran-e-Millats Asiya Andarabi have addressed Lashkar-e-Taiba rallies in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on telephone. They have routinely spewed venom against India. Why is the government soft on them? The impression has been that the government, under pressure, cracks down on the Hurriyat only to contain them.

The moment they fall in line, the government steps back. Hurriyat leaders also claim they are used by the government to control any situation from going out of hand. Pakistan considers the Hurriyat to be representatives of the people of Kashmir. This is because the leaders further Pakistans agenda.

India Today has exposed how Hurriyat leaders have been arranging funds and safe mobile phones for LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. There are reports under investigation that the separatists have also arranged safe houses for the terrorists.

The fact that Kashmir was peaceful even after the arrest of the Hurriyat leaders is an indication that to the common man and woman on the streets, these separatists do not matter. Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid confirmed the impact of the Hurriyat bandh was near negligible. It was business almost as usual across Kashmir.

When the writ of the government prevails, separatists and terrorists retreat. The government has to ensure there is no vacuum in governance. Pakistans proxies move in only when the state fails to deliver. This time the state and the central agencies must probe the role of Hurriyat leaders in fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley in the right earnest.

The guilty must be brought to book, without fear or favour. The effort must be not just to contain the situation but to work towards a new beginning  in a terror-free environment.
In a political earthquake with Patna as its epicenter, Nitish Kumar has tendered his resignation as the Bihar chief minister, after a tumultuous deadlock over corruption allegations against deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who also happens to be RJD chief Lalu Yadavs son. Nitish met Bihars acting governor Keshari Nath Tripathi a little while back and put in his papers, saying that the environment wasnt conducive for him to carry on as Bihar CM.

The resignation came barely hours after chinks in the Grand Alliance widened to a gulf, and RJD chief Lalu Yadav clearly ruled out sidelining deputy CM Tejashwi, against whom the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI have lodged criminal cases.

Citing his pricked conscience, Nitish Kumar decided to step down, but it must be noted that one of the first prominent politicians to laud his bold step has been none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

 ,                    ,        Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

@narendramodi congratulates @NitishKumar on taking a stand on corruption. Dost Bane Dushman bane dost! #NitishKumar  Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) July 26, 2017

Nitish met lawmakers in his party and others in the Mahagathbandhan. He told the media later: "I did not ask for anyone's resignation but I told Tejashwi and Lalu that they must explain the charges publicly. The atmosphere had become such that it was impossible to work. My conscience told me to quit."

Evidently, Nitishs resignation comes after days of political turmoil under the shadow of corruption charges against several members of Lalu Yadavs family, particularly deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. But there might a number of other factors, including the new electoral math leading up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which might be at the root of Nitishs big step.

Corruption charges against Yadavs

On July 7, the CBI named RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son, Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, in a corruption case involving illegal properties in Patna and Delhi NCR. Even Misa Yadav, Lalu Yadavs daughter, wasnt spared as her properties too were searched. Nitish Kumar had then said that he had a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. Of course, Nitish is known to be Mr Clean and takes allegations of corruption very seriously.

Nitish was also upset by the open flaunting of dynasty politics by the Yadavs, while Lalu wanted to ensure that his proxy in the government matched Nitishs sway on Bihars governance. But Nitish had tried his best to persuade Lalu to relent and make Tejashwi backtrack  the meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi were done keeping that in mind.

But Lalu considered clipping Tejashwis wings a moral defeat, and clearly, Congress high command has been in agreement with the RJD chief. The compromise became too suffocating for Nitish, who eventually decided to step down and keep his image clean.

Cracks in Mahagathbandhan

To his credit, Nitish Kumar could see how corruption was becoming endemic to politics, but he didnt have a way of containing it. But his choice between power and principles had become more complicated given the staunchly secular nature of RJDs politics, when compared with the opposition in BJP, under the regional leadership of Sushil Modi.

But Nitish also knew that the Mahagathbandhan owed its existence strictly to Lalus appeal across the rank and file of Bihars poor, Yadavs and Muslims. Even his conviction in the fodder scam had failed to eclipse Lalus support base. Little wonder then that the RJD had bagged 80 Assembly seats in the 2015 Bihar polls, the highest of all, followed by JDU, which received 71 seats.

Photo: DailyO

However, Nitishs claustrophobia within the Grand Alliance was becoming increasingly evident as Lalu Yadavs stronghold on the liaison became greater every day. By resigning as chief minister, Nitish effectively pulled the rug out of the Mhagathbandhans feet.

Reviving old ties with BJP?

It must not be forgotten that Nitish Kumars JDU has been an old NDA ally and had formed the Bihar government in 2005 and 2010 with the help of BJP. Nitish had openly sided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during controversial decisions pegged on the PMs so-called anti-corruption drive  be it demonetisation, GST, or the anti black money narrative. Nitishs enforcement of state-wide prohibition in Bihar was about taking a leaf out of Gujarat model.

However, its not just the past but also the future. The BJP national president Amit Shah had not taken the Bihar defeat well and since then has been seeking inroads back into Bihar politics, as well as take the sting out of the Lalu-led secular front and the Mahagathbandhan. Shah has been seeking to exploit the Lalu-Nitish rivalry to the hilt.

Other than that, courting of Nitish Kumar has been going on in the BJP circles, with PM Modi himself complimenting Nitish on the alcohol ban in the state. Increasingly, it was becoming evident that Nitish was inching back to his NDA mainstay BJP while Lalu-led RJD and Congress cemented their secular ties.

Source-based reports by political journalists had indicated that Nitish was miffed at the Congress tilting towards Lalu, even as the BJP-led NDA was seeking to clip Lalus wings and thereby defang a possible Third Front by taking Nitish Kumar out of the equation.

Its obvious that for 2019, withdrawal of a pan-India face like Nitish Kumars from a secular, anti-BJP front would mean a heavy blow to the anti-communal forces. Clearly, the road to 2019 is paved with more such orchestrated and apparent anti-corruption moves in favour of the Modi-Shah-led BJP.

Electoral math

In Bihar as of now, the electoral math looks as follows.

As #NitishKumar quits as Bihar CM, you might want to know these numbers. Bihar Assembly has a total of 243 seats pic.twitter.com/n6zqURtmnT  Ashish Rukhaiyar (@ashishrukhaiyar) July 26, 2017

With Nitish and Lalu parting ways, there are three possible outcomes:

1) Nitish joins hands with the BJP, which has 53 seats in the Bihar Assembly, and forms the new government, swearing in as the chief minister for the fifth time. Together, JDU and BJP would have 124 seats in the Assembly, and when the seats of smaller parties like RLSP (2), LJP (2), and HAM (Secular) are taken into account, it goes up to 129, clearly above the halfway mark of 122.

Things wouldnt work out so easily for an RJD-Congress combine, which only comes to 80 plus 27, which is only 107. Even if we add the three seats of CPIM-ML, it only adds up to 110, woefully short of the halfway mark.

2) Nitish forms a minority government with outside support from the BJP.
The Sikkim standoff continues between India and China even as diplomats try to find ways to end it. It is likely that a peaceful solution will be found even though neither side is likely to back down.

The strategic costs for backing down for India will be high. Even if the resolution to the standoff is peaceful, the so far troubled but stable relations between India and China won't be the same again.

In its effort to hammer India into submission to Chinese demands to pull back its troops from Doklam, statements from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China and editorials in Chinese media give away what the Chinese rulers are thinking.

The Chinese media is tightly controlled by the Communist Party of China (CCP). Post-Tiananmen Square massacre it has been controlled even more tightly and young Chinese don't even know if such an event ever occurred. Social media channels such as Twitter are banned in China, which has its own social media platform called Weibo that is tightly regulated for any comments made with moderators deleting any post that is anti-party.

What has been written in Chinese media is backed by the Communist Party of China.

What has been written in Chinese media is backed by the CCP. There is no independent think tank or media which can give views contrary to the party line. It is surprising that China has discarded Sun Tzus diktat of deception and opened several cards via the CCP mouthpieces, Peoples Daily and Global Times, which will be taken into account by Indian policy-makers.

Since India boycotted Chinas mega-event of Belt and Road Initiative in May, the editorials have been scathing giving a sense of both anger and frustration in China at India for not accepting Chinese superiority and the country as the dominant power in the region.

Soon after the Indian troops entered Bhutan to stop Chinese road construction, a PLA spokesperson said India should remember the debacle of 1962 war between the two countries. This was immediately countered by Indias defence minister, Arun Jaitley, who said India of 2017 is not the same as the one in 1962. The Chinese foreign ministry responded by saying China too was different now.

A Global Times editorial said, "This time, we must teach New Delhi a bitter lesson."

China upped the ante using its media to put pressure on India. The Global Times came out with an editorial saying China should back independence of Indian state of Sikkim. This goes back on Chinas recognition of Sikkim in return for India recognising Tibet as part of China during then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees visit to Beijing in 2003, following which trade was opened up through Nathu La, the site of a skirmish between India and China in 1967 in which India won.

Incidentally, it's near the current area of standoff.

China going back on its agreements is part of the pattern of it not recognising bilateral or multilateral agreements when it doesnt suit its strategic objectives.

Last year, the United Nations Convention on Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) ruled in the favour of the Philippines over the legality of China's claims over waters of South China Sea and invalidated China's nine-dash line.

China, which is party to the UNCLOS, refused to recognise the verdict. Even in the current standoff, China has violated its 1998 agreement with Bhutan to maintain status quo. China's credibility as a responsible power following rules based international order comes under question.

China going back on its recognition of Sikkim as part of India will bring into focus China's role in fomenting insurgencies in India's Northeast.

In 2015, it backed the creation of an umbrella group of several insurgent groups in the Northeast. It was followed by a series of attacks on Indian soldiers, the worst of which was the attack on Dogra regiment in Manipur in which 20 soldiers were killed. In response, India conducted a surgical strike in Myanmar to take out terrorists located there.

The editorial on Sikkim was followed by one on Kashmir. A Global Times editorial said, if the Pakistani government requests, a third countrys Army can enter the area disputed by India and Pakistan, including India-controlled Kashmir, which means China would send troops to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and if required, into India.

This was followed by another editorial in which China said Ladakh is disputed between India, Pakistan and China.

These statements by China comes in the backdrop of it repeatedly blocking UN sanctions on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, the mastermind of 2001 Parliament attack.

Recently, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said China is interfering in Kashmir. Interestingly, China did not condemn the attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba on Amarnath pilgrims in which eight pilgrims were killed.

China opening its cards on Kashmir has to be viewed in the context of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China offered to extend CPEC, which passes through PoK, to Jammu and Kashmir.

India has rightly refused this as violation of its sovereignty. China plans to spend $50 billion on North Indus River Cascade to generate 40,000MW of hydroelectricity in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan. India will have to watch out for Chinese movements on Jammu and Kashmir in light of these developments.

A few years ago China started issuing stapled visas to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir. The presence of Chinese troops and missiles in Pakistan- Occupied Kashmir has been repeatedly reported over the years.

Chinas repeated warning over the use of military force in the current standoff and the various editorials in its media appears to be a bluff and an attempt to wage psychological warfare to get India to back down.

It recently leaked a video of a military exercise in Tibet which was reportedly held two months ago.

Another Global Times editorial said that the standoff will not be over till winter sets in. Reports in Indian media state that the Indian Army is already prepared for a long haul and made logistical arrangements for it. It is possible China will look at other areas in the long border to occupy as a pressure and negotiating tactic.

China has boxed itself into a tight corner with all its statements leaving very little room for manoeuvre. India too cannot compromise as the strategic costs will be immense.

It will take a lot of diplomatic work to get out of this standoff peacefully.

But if all fails and China does enforce a war, India should be prepared to fight one as former Northern Army commander lieutenant general HS Panag wrote in his column, Depending upon the situation, if need be, we must mobilise to call Chinas bluff and be prepared for border skirmishes or even a limited war.

Even if the the crisis ends peacefully, the statements from China have damaged relations with India. It reinforces Indias distrust of China which has been ingrained in the minds of the people at large and policy makers in particular, since the 1962 war.
The United States, along with its ally China, is reportedly making progress with its discussion with North Korea in imposing new United Nations sanctions due to its missile test, but the engagement of Russia will be true test as stated by United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.

US gave China a draft resolution weeks ago to impose greater sanctions on North Korea for its July 4 missile launch. Senior diplomats said that the US Ambassador to the UN had been aiming for a vote by the Security Council.

"We're constantly in touch with China ... Things are moving but it's still too early to tell how far they'll move," Haley said on Tuesday. She added that she was satisfied with Beijing's initial response to the proposal because it showed "seriousness."

"We know that China's been sharing and negotiating with Russia, so as long as they are doing that, we're going to continue to watch this closely to make sure it is a strong resolution," she told reporters.

"The true test will be what (the Chinese) have worked out with Russia (and whether) Russia comes and tries to pull out of that," Haley said. "Everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges that it's an ICBM. Whether they are willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question."

Meanwhile, China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi also told reporters that Beijing is making progress about the talks but they need more time and that they are working very hard.

"All sides need to maintain pressure, and also work hard to ease the tense situation on the peninsula as soon as possible, creating a beneficial environment and atmosphere for resuming contacts and talks," Lu said.
Eau Claire Police on Thursday morning identified the man killed after shooting at police officers on the citys northwest side Saturday.

Police said the man who died was Michael Caponigro, 59. The officer involved in the shooting was Sgt. Jesse Henning, an eight-year veteran of the department who was promoted to sergeant in January 2016.

According to police:

Someone knowing Caponigro called police, saying Caponigro was make homicial and suicidal statements. Police went to Caponigros residence at 4527 Woodford Court in Eau Claire with two officers arriving at 8:45 p.m.

Caponigro was standing outside, armed with a handgun. He then threatened the officer. He refused to cooperate with police and went into his residence.

The Crisis Negotiations Team and the Tactical Response Team were then assembled and responded to the scene. The negotiations team tried to telephone Caponigro, but he continually refused to cooperate and made numerous threats to shoot officers.

The man was seen several times during negotiations holding different guns while standing at the windows of his residence.

Caponigro fired a shotgun toward officers. Henning, who came to the scene as part of the departments Tactical Response Team, then shot at Caponigro, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following state law and police department policy, the shooting is being investigated by an outside agency. In this case, its the La Crosse Police Department.

An internal administrative review is being done by Eau Claire Police. Henning is on administrative leave pending a review of the investigation, which will be disclosed to the public.

Helping Eau Claire Police during the incident were the La Crosse Police Department, the Eau Claire County Sheriffs Office, the Eau Claire Fire Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol.
On the evening of August 8 on a stage at McDonell Central Catholic High School, the Tamburitzans  a musical act often billed as one of the longest-running stage productions in the U.S.  will sing, dance and bring memories of local European heritage to the Chippewa Falls community.

The group would not be slated to perform in Chippewa Falls this year, however, without the help of a local veteran whose history has been entwined with the Tamburitzans since the 1940s.

95-year-old Gene Krhin lives in the Wisconsin Veterans Home of Chippewa Falls, and his path to the city has been a colorful one. Raised in the Minnesota mining town of Chisholm, while in high school he interviewed to join the Tamburitzans song-and-dance group.

Krhin did not encounter the Tamburitzans again for several years until he became a student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He joined the musical group, met his future wife, and sang and danced for three years until being drafted into the military during World War II.

After returning to college from a three-year military tour in Germany, Krhin graduated with a masters degree and made the journey to Chippewa Falls to serve as a guidance counselor for McDonell High School in 1948. My wife, one baby and a crib. That was all that came with me when we went to Chippewa Falls, and the rest is pretty much history, Krhin remembers.

Almost 70 years later, Krhin has retired, but his dedication to the Tamburitzans has not faded. Tom LeCleir, another former Tamburitzan as well as McDonell graduate, accompanied Krhin to the musical groups 80th anniversary celebration in Pittsburgh this April.

I told (Tom), were going to fly. I got the tickets, hotel room reservations, and all you have to do is be at the Eau Claire airport at 5:30 a.m., Krhin said. We had a great four days.

Thats what got the former McDonell counselor enthused about a Tamburitzans performance at Chippewa Falls. The group has performed in the area before, but did not make a stop in 2016 because of low attendance, according to Krhin.

They needed the proper recognition, Krhin said. We let people know theyre going to be here. We have posters out in the whole Chippewa Valley, all the way up to Stanley. Because of that, were hopeful for a full house.

The performance is doubling as a fundraiser for the Wisconsin Veterans Home in Chippewa Falls, where Krhin lives. The concert is sponsored by the non-profit Chippewa Veterans Home Recreation Committee. A portion of each ticket admission will be contributed to the veterans home.

The Tamburitzans August 8 performance will be at McDonell High School, 1316 Bel Air Boulevard in Chippewa Falls, at 7:30 p.m.

General admission tickets can be purchased online for $20 or at the door for $25. To buy the tickets online, go to: https://talentshadows.events/event/tamburitzans-back-in-chippewa-falls-wisconsin?src=upcoming
Krissy cant forgive those who dont tip. Amy cant forgive those who text while driving. Donna cant forgive grated cheese on clam sauce.

Forgiveness can be boundless, and yet for many of us its a scarce commodity. This is what I discovered when I asked about forgiveness on social media. Why are so many things, great and small, difficult to forgive?

Julie, a university administrator, instantly skips over any bother about forgiveness and heads straight into rage: Unforgivable? The people who dont get the concept of when reply all is appropriate. If there are 40 people on an email that says Congratulations to Mark for his new book on tiny dinosaurs in literature! those 40 people can and should privately write to Mark and congratulate him, invite him out to have a beer, give him a tiny dinosaur, etc. BUT, for the love of all that is holy, please do not fill up my inbox with 40 emails saying, Congrats Mark! Way to go! Good job, man! Nice dinosaur! Just. Stop. Doing. That.

Frank cant forgive the screenplay written by his hero, Stephen King, when King adapted The Shining for television (Kubrick got it right. King didnt). Bette cant forgive Virginia Woolf for committing suicide; it makes Bette furious even though (or perhaps because) she struggles with depression herself.

Dianne cant forgive the dry cleaner who shrunk her favorite pants. When she brought this to his attention, he gave her the once-over and shrugged, Maybe you need a little more exercise.

I cant forgive the saleslady who insisted I looked fabulous in a pricey knitted ivory suit, which, I discovered as I saw myself in my home mirror, makes me look less like a European sophisticate and more like something in its larval stage. It was a final sale. Of course.

I cant forgive the boy who, when we were 16, not only stood me up but went to the party without me and bragged to everybody there that hed stood me up, inspiring one of the more popular girls to call me at home because I feel bad for you, just waiting there, when hes already broken up with you.

I cant forgive the colleague who, right after my first book started doing well, announced to other members of our department that I was a hack and would do anything for a buck. I was 31  she was 55. Id thought she was my friend; Id respected her.

The calumny by an older woman Id admired is the one that still rankles.

Its tough to relinquish the grudges we develop when were faced with betrayal. Precisely because a stable and shared sense of balanced reality keeps us sane, were stunned when lies and unacceptable actions become normal.

Natasha cant forgive, The 23-Years-Older-Than-I Husband Who Had an Affair When We Were Living Abroad with the Married Daughter of Our Landlord Who Evicted Me at 4:30am With This News. I liked her use of capitalization, providing, as it does, the heft of a parable.

Why cant I forgive the co-worker who went behind my back 36 years ago and deliberately revealed something said in strictest confidence? Barbara asks. For the same reasons I cant forgive the current occupant of the White House. That former co-worker and this current president are constructed from the same basic kit, right down to their beady little eyes.

Barbara is not the only one forging connections between betrayals on a personal level and betrayals on a broader  bigger, wider and universally momentous  scale.

Kim finds unforgivable, People who believe that calling something by a different name will change its essence.

Words can either clarify or obscure. Unless you are God (and merely believing youre God doesnt work), words do not alter truth.

I suspect that the phrases alternative facts and fake news are the political equivalent of I love her but Im not in love with her, and I havent touched my mate in years even though we live together.

Nobody should believe these words. Ever.

If the person to whom youre addressing your duplicitous remarks is vulnerable, guileless or a wildly uneducated voter, youre responsible for the connivance, the cruelty and the consequences.

History doesnt forget, nor should it. And yes, some things should remain tough to forgive. Dont forget to tip.
MADISON  As speculation swirls around whether Foxconn Technology Group will plant a flag in Wisconsin, a recurring question is: Can the state produce the 10,000 workers the company will need over time?

The answer is a qualified yes, even at a time when Wisconsin is dealing with a predicted shortage of workers.

The first reason for workforce optimism is the size and scope of the states higher education system, which produces about 75,200 graduates and certificate holders per year. That total includes about 36,000 University of Wisconsin System graduates, 25,400 Wisconsin Technical College System graduates or certificate holders, and 13,800 graduates of Wisconsins two-dozen private colleges and universities.

While other employers statewide are competing for that young talent and more, a significant number of graduates dont always find the jobs they want and wind up looking outside Wisconsins borders. The prospect of well-compensated jobs at home may entice many more to stay put upon graduation.

Moreover, the bulk of Wisconsins higher education system is clustered in the states southern and southeast regions. Those are regions where electronics giant Foxconn may build a plant, assuming Wisconsin remains on the companys short list of prospective U.S. sites. The Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha region alone is home to four UW System campuses, with UW-Whitewater just outside those three counties. The region is also served by four tech college districts with nine campuses and a dozen private colleges and universities.

Proximity is an advantage for Wisconsin in the Foxconn competition, as so many of our institutions  public and private  are in the southeast part of the state, said Ray Cross, president of the UW System. The key will be to build a close relationship with our (campuses)  so opportunities for employment and internships are identified before students graduate.

While the states unemployment rate is hovering near a 17-year low of just over 3 percent, there are a significant number of workers who are under-employed, based on several measures produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Three of the most relevant are the bureaus U-4, U-5 and U-6 rates, which are generally described as discouraged workers. These include people who are not in the labor force but who want and are available for work. They are not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the past four weeks, believing no jobs were available for them. Wisconsins U-4 and U-5 rates are 3.9 and 4.3 percent, respectively, based on a period that included the first quarter of 2017.

The U-6 category also includes what the bureau describes as involuntary part-time workers, or people who would work full-time if they could get the hours. That expands the pool to 7.7 percent of the Wisconsin workforce.

Other sources of talent include the thousands of Wisconsin natives or Wisconsin-educated people who no longer live here but who would actively consider moving back for the right job. Surveys over time have confirmed that people who leave Wisconsin for opportunities elsewhere would return  and stay  if they could land a job that paid competitively.

Existing employers in Wisconsin might get nervous at the prospect of paying more to keep workers they already have, but a Foxconn presence in the state would likely lead to wage and salary competition. Thats something most workers wouldnt mind, however.

Finally, theres the reality that many of the workers to be hired by Foxconn over time are not people who have any previous ties to Wisconsin. If the plant winds up in southeast Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Chicagoland will be a source of talent. Because Foxconn is one of the worlds largest companies with about 1 million employees, expect an influx of people from outside the United States. Wisconsins legal immigration rate is about one-third the national average.

Wisconsin can supply or attract the 10,000 workers Foxconn would need over time. Higher education systems will need to double down on producing well-trained graduates in a timely manner. The state must welcome in-migration, not only from other states but other nations. The under-employed will get a chance to move up the career ladder. An unofficial come home to Wisconsin message will find its way into the snail mail, e-mail and social networks of working-age people who once lived here.

If Foxconn comes to Wisconsin, skilled workers here and elsewhere will find their way to its doors.

Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is the former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal.
Four of the six individuals responsible for a crime spree in Greene and Albemarle counties last summer that included a series of armed robberies, kidnappings, an armed home invasion, and a carjacking were sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Charlottesville.

Terence Tyree, Kentavia Jones, Jaquarius Johnson and Isaiah Wilson were sentenced to federal prison time for their various roles in the conspiracy in separate hearings in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Tyree, 19, of Ruckersville, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Jones, 19, of Earlysville, was sentenced to 18 years, nine months in federal prison. Johnson, 19, of Charlottesville, was sentenced to 10  years in federal prison. Wilson, 24, of Charlottesville, was sentenced to 5 years, eight months months in federal

prison.

Tyree, Jones and Johnson were also ordered to pay $4,079 restitution joint and severally to the victims of these crimes.

Demetrius Steppe will be sentenced on Friday, July 28.

The four men were responsible for the armed robbery of five commercial establishments throughout June and July 2016. The targets were comprised of convenience stores and pizza restaurants in Albemarle and Greene Counties.

In each armed robbery, the defendants  wearing masks, gloves, and dark clothing  entered local businesses and threatened the employees at gunpoint. They stole cash and cell phones from the employees and fled the store.

This violent crime spree culminated with a home invasion, carjacking, kidnapping, and armed robbery, all of which took place on the evening of July 18, 2016. That night, Tyree, Jones and Johnson broke into an Albemarle County residence by throwing a propane tank through a sliding glass door.

The homeowner was inside, alone, and heard the loud explosion. When he went downstairs, he saw three men  later identified as Tyree, Jones, and Johnson  in his living room and armed with a firearm. They forced the victim against the wall and struck him, and then ransacked the house.

Afterwards, Tyree, Jones and Johnson commanded the victim to enter his own vehicle in his garage, and they then drove him away from home -- at gunpoint -- to a nearby ATM located at the Wells Fargo bank at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Airport

Road in northern Albemarle County.

At that location, the men spotted another victim, who was a passerby walking through the parking lot, having just come from the nearby airport with his luggage still in hand. The defendants abducted that man, forcing him into the car at gunpoint. When the first victim was unsuccessful at getting money from the ATM machine, the defendants again forced him back into the car.

With the two kidnapping victims in the car, the defendants drove to a nearby 7-11 convenience store and robbed the employees at gunpoint.

Soon thereafter, in a nearby neighborhood, the defendants stopped the car and told both victims to get out. The defendants later abandoned the vehicle, which was later recovered by law enforcement.

This prosecution is an example of the application of Attorney General Sessions March 8, 2017 Memorandum announcing the Department of Justices Commitment to Targeting Violent Crime, Mountcastle said. The Albemarle County Police Department, the Greene County Sheriffs Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked together to identify and quickly apprehend these violent criminals before they could do more violence to our citizens.

The Albemarle and Greene County offices of the Commonwealths Attorney worked together with our office to decide to bring this case in Federal court and our Assistant United States Attorneys ensured that these defendants received appropriate sentences under federal law so that they no longer present a danger to our citizens, he said. The

Departments violent crime strategy targets violent criminals such as these in a common-sense way to make our communities safer for law-abiding citizens.

The crimes were especially egregious, said Adam S. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Richmond Division. These violent criminals  who terrorized our central Virginia

communities with handguns, sawed-off shotguns and even an assault rifle  thankfully, no longer pose a threat, he said. The FBI is committed to the Department of Justices renewed emphasis on removing violent criminals like these from our streets.

I want to thank our colleagues at the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia for their expert prosecution of this case and I want to thank our outstanding partners at the Albemarle County Police Department and the Greene County Sheriffs Office for their collaboration, Lee said. Ive said this in similar

FBI cases over the past year; Virginia is not a safe place for criminals to operate and victimize our citizens.

We are mobilized against you and we will put you in prison for a long, long time.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Albemarle County Police Department and the Greene County Sheriffs Office, with assistance from the Albemarle County and Greene County Commonwealth Attorneys Offices.

Assistant United States Attorneys Ronald M. Huber and Christopher Kavanaugh prosecuted the case for the United States.
Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy
Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.

Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy
In whats being called the largest economic development project in state history, Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn plans to build a $10 billion plant in Wisconsin that would create liquid-crystal display panels and employ as many as 13,000 people.

The planned Wisconsin plant is expected to open in 2020 and be part of a 20 million-square-foot campus on at least 1,000 acres  a location Gov. Scott Walker has dubbed Wisconn Valley.

The state would offer $3 billion in economic incentives, Walker said.

The plant  announced Wednesday at a White House ceremony by President Donald Trump, Walker and others  could be the first of several facilities the company wants to build in the United States.

It starts today with this investment in Wisconsin, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said at the White House.

The Wisconsin facility is expected to employ 3,000 people initially and add up to 10,000 more workers in future years.

In addition to Gou, Trump and Walker, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and Vice President Mike Pence attended the announcement. Other members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, and state lawmakers, were there.

Today were announcing the single largest economic development project in the history of Wisconsin, Walker said, noting the plant would be 11 times the size of Lambeau Field. These panels will be made in America, proudly in the state of Wisconsin.

Ryan said the planned project is an absolute game-changer for southeastern Wisconsin, where his district lies.

Trump, in turn, said his election helped make the deal possible. He said Foxconn is coming to a state thats very close to my heart  Wisconsin.

If I didnt get elected, (Gou) definitely would not be spending $10 billion on the project, Trump said.

There are indications Foxconn was considering a major U.S. investment long before Trump took office, though the companys plans may only have solidified this year. Foxconn told CNN in 2012 that, as part of its long-term plans, Foxconn is exploring the opportunity to expand its existing manufacturing operations in the U.S.

Estimated 22,000 additional jobs

The plant is intended to be one of the largest manufacturing campuses in the world, according to Walkers office, and could draw 10,000 construction jobs over the next four years while the plant is built.

Walkers office projected the project would create at least 22,000 indirect and induced jobs throughout Wisconsin and will generate an estimated $181 million in state and local tax revenues annually, including $60 million in local property taxes.

Earlier Wednesday, a White House official told reporters the deal signals the country will not only see a return of those manufacturing sectors but will be positioned to be globally dominant within skilled and advanced manufacturing.

The liquid-crystal display panels could have entertainment, health care, automotive and other uses.

The location of the campus is still being determined, according to Walkers office, but will likely be in southeastern Wisconsin.

The deal with Foxconn is a culmination of many months of discussion between a team of Republicans from the White House, Wisconsin and Foxconn officials, the White House official said.

The negotiations included Trump, his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief of staff Reince Priebus, Ryan and Walker, he said.

This has the opportunity to be one of the largest job creators in U.S. manufacturing, the official said. These are excellent-wage jobs and has the ability to create tremendous spinoff benefits as the supply side gets built up around these large manufacturing plants.

Walker said the Foxconn jobs will have an average annual salary of more than $53,000 plus benefits.

Ryans office said in a statement that since June, Ryan has worked with Foxconn officials and governmental officials, including Trump and Priebus, to bring Foxconn to his district.

Foxconn had potential sites across the country, but the speaker persistently and effectively made the case for Wisconsin and its workers, the statement said.

UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank also said Wednesday she met with Foxconn officials recently to promote the State of Wisconsin as a possible destination and illustrate the advantages of having an internationally ranked research partner like the University of Wisconsin-Madison nearby.

Todays decision by Foxconn Technology Group, a top international manufacturer, to locate a plant in Wisconsin is a major leap forward for our states economy, Blank said in a statement. It also illustrates the importance of a culture of innovation, along with a strong public research university, to regional economic development.

$3 billion in incentives

Walker and state officials have been building an incentive package for weeks to lure Foxconn, a contract manufacturer of electronic products known for making iPhones and iPads. A number of other states also sought the plant.

The White House official said there will be no new federal programs to provide new incentives for Foxconn to build in Wisconsin, but also said the company could be eligible for existing incentives offered by the federal government.

State lawmakers will need to approve the state incentive package for Foxconn as part of the deal. A special legislative session will be called to pass the package, Walkers office said, which will total $3 billion over 15 years.

The incentives include $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for job creation, up to $1.35 billion in state income tax credits for capital investment and up to $150 million for the sales and use tax exemption.

A contract between the state and Foxconn will include clawback provisions requiring the company to pay back the tax credits if jobs and investment are not kept in Wisconsin, according to Walkers office.

The $3 billion figure does not include local government incentives. Walkers office said tax incremental financing is another incentive expected to be part of the project.

Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said Wednesday that lawmakers next month could take up a bill that would provide state incentives for Foxconn.

Some skepticism

Economic experts have said such a facility or facilities, even if located in southeast Wisconsin, could create myriad economic opportunities in Dane County.

But some Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism about Foxconns reported plans.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, called the announcement a promising opportunity but added Governor Walker must get this right and make sure this deal works for taxpayers.

Any and all taxpayer subsidies must be tied to Foxconn keeping the commitments they have made, Baldwin said in a statement.

The bottom line is this company has a concerning track record of big announcements with little follow through, Sen. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said, referring to the companys 2013 announced plans to build in Pennsylvania that never materialized. Given the lack of details, Im skeptical about this announcement and we will have to see if there is a legislative appetite for a $1 (billion) to $3 billion corporate welfare package.

State Rep. Jimmy Anderson, D-Fitchburg, blasted the deal as a multibillion-dollar handout and said taxpayers should not be subsidizing private corporations at the expense of our children, schools and roads.

Democratic lawmakers from the region where Foxconn is expected to locate were more receptive to the news.

Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, called the announcement a great thing for southeastern Wisconsin. Barca hailed it as an exciting opportunity.

Foxconns plans would fulfill a promise Trump made in June during a visit to Waukesha County, when he said he and Walker were negotiating to bring a major, incredible manufacturer to the state.

During a panel discussion with Walker, Cabinet secretaries, students and CEOs, Trump mentioned that he and Walker were negotiating with the manufacturer behind the scenes.

We have a lot of companies moving into the United States and we are negotiating with a lot of companies, Trump said then. I think theyre going to give the governor a very happy surprise very soon.
Why the Selection of the Next Metropolitan of Chicago Matters Contact: George E. Matsoukas, Executive Director, Orthodox Christian Laity, 561-585-0245, 561-808-3494



CHICAGO, July 26, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) supports the decision of Archbishop Demetrios and the Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to elevate Bishop Sevastianos to lead the Metropolis of Chicago as its new Metropolitan. As Elaine Jaharis pointed out in her recent Open Letter published in The National Herald, the stakes for the Metropolis of Chicago, the Archdiocese and the Ecumenical Patriarchate could not be higher.



The Orthodox Christian Laity has supported the efforts of the Ecumenical Patriarchate where it believes that those efforts have merit: (a) The convening of pre-conciliar meetings over the years; (b) the decisions of all of the Mother Churches at Chambesy; (c) the convening of the Assembly of Bishops in America; (d) the convening of the Holy and Great Council held in Crete last year.



Much ink is being spilled in The National Herald both editorially and in commentaries by its Religion Writer, criticizing Archbishop Demetrios and seven of the eight members of the Eparchial Synod for their selection of Bishop Sevastianos to replace the late Metropolitan Iakovos. A fair reading of The National Heralds coverage is difficult, because it seems to be "all over the place." After all the "ad hominem" attacks against Church leaders, "including the Patriarch," the position of The National Herald comes down to this: Those entrusted with leading the Church in America who followed all of the required procedures, including receiving in-put from the clergy and laity should not be allowed to explain their choice to the Patriarch. By asking for a meeting, they are guilty of "entangling the situation against the Greek-American community." Suddenly, the request for a meeting is a "direct disobedience" of the Patriarch!



The path forward according to The National Herald is to remove the Archbishop and "clean house" in the Eparchial Synod, presumably because the Patriarch has the ultimate power to do whatever he chooses, and because he knows the needs of the Church in America better than those who have been selected and entrusted to lead this "vineyard that the Lord himself has planted here in America."



We strongly disagree with the analysis and the "cure" prescribed by The National Herald. OCL has taken issue with many of the decisions the Patriarchate has made with respect to the Church in America. We do not agree that the Patriarchate knows the needs of the Church in America better than those of us who live out our faith here, including the Archbishop and members of the Eparchial Synod. Evidence of Patriarchate's inability to recognize the needs of the Church in America include the following: The Patriarchate was wrong in forcing the resignation of Archbishop Iakovos; the Patriarchate was wrong in dismantling the Archdiocese and creating "Metropolises" with Metropolitans reporting to Istanbul rather than the Archbishop of this Archdiocese; the Patriarchate was wrong in assigning Archbishop Spyridon to America; the Patriarchate was wrong in imposing a Charter against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the delegates at the Los Angeles Clergy-Laity Congress; the Patriarchate is wrong to complain about the performance of Archbishop Demetrios, after diminishing his authority over the Archdiocese.



The National Herald's attempt to cast the current impasse over the selection of the next Metropolitan of Chicago as a matter of "disobedience" and an "affront" to the Patriarchate is without merit. It is a "crisis" created by the Patriarchate and hyped by The National Herald for its own agenda, whatever that happens to be: sell more newspapers? ...open more Greek Schools in NY? replace Archbishop Demetrios and most, if not all of the Eparchial Synod? ...and replace them with whom?



OCL supports the selection of Bishop Sevastianos to lead the Metropolis of Chicago. OCL supports the process followed by Archbishop Demetrios and The Eparchial Synod. OCL supports the request of the Archbishop and Synod for a meeting with the Patriarch to explain their choice and seek an explanation from the Patriarch of his objections to that choice.



For thirty years, OCL has championed transparency and accountability in Church governance. Without an honest and open dialogue between the Church in America and the Patriarchate, any decision coming from Istanbul will appear to be arbitrary and capricious. That will benefit neither the Church in America, nor the Patriarchate, which in the end, has more to lose.



George D. Karcazes, President

Orthodox Christian Laity

Share Tweet
Anti-Christian Bernie Sanders Mocked with Godbusters Squad Street Theater Wednesday Contact: Public Advocate,

703-845-1808, email,

twitter: @eugenedelgaudio



WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Senate debate on the repeal of Obamacare begins and Public Advocate's "Bernie Sanders Godbusters Squad" arrives Wednesday at 12 noon, July 26th, 2017 to sing a mock "Bernie Sanders Godbusters" ballad to the tune of the Ghostbusters Movie theme song.



Photo: Patches that will be on the uniforms being worn



At noon Wednesday the group Public Advocate will host a six member singing troupe staring "Senator Bernie Sanders" in front of the U.S. Supreme Court at 1 First Street, Northeast, Washington D.C. opposite the front entrance on the public sidewalk. The group has a song and will walk over to the Dirksen Senate Office Building (First and Constitution Avenue NE) to "bust" or "catch" Christians wearing inflated balloon "proton packs" around the building as the Obama Healthcare Repeal debate in the Senate begins.



Participants will wear costumes, black oval shaped patches with Senator Sanders photo as "Godbuster" and other patches with a round shaped brown colored Christian Cross with an international bright red cross out and a participant with a Brooklyn borough style "New Yawk" (New York) accent will "hunt" Christians.



"Real compassion means not allowing Senator Bernie Sanders attacks on Christians in public hearings to go unchallenged. He recklessly attacks those who believe in God, and dare to hold public or government office. We are mocking this abusive act with our Bernie Sanders Godbusters Squad and will sing until he changes his tune or apologizes," says Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate.



The songs tune is from the popular Ghostbusters movie with the following words.



GODBUSTERS song lyrics (Sung to Ghostbusters movie theme song) If there's someone prayin' / In your neighborhood,

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



If they share the Word / About bad and good,

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!

I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!/ I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!



Are religious things / Making you see red?

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



And a sinful past / Makes you spiritually dead?

Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!

I ain't afraid of no (Holy) Ghost!



Who you gonna call? Godbusters!



If you're all annoyed / By that spiritual void,

Give Bernie a call at Godbusters! Song also posted here

publicadvocateusa.org/media_library/videos.php

Share Tweet
The net income for the Sunil Mittal company stood at Rs 1,462 crore in the first quarter of 2016-17.

New Delhi: Shares of Bharti Airtel fell by over 1 per cent on July 26 after the company reported its smallest profit in 18 quarters as the price war triggered by newcomer Reliance Jio led to a massive 75 per cent fall in its April- June earnings.

Even after a positive opening, shares of the company failed to hold on to the gains and later dipped 1.39 per cent to Rs 421.65 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company fell by 1.41 per cent to Rs 421.75.

The net profit for June quarter of 2017-18 at Rs 367 crore was 74.9 per cent lower than the year-ago period, and the company blamed the disruptive pricing of the new entrant for continued "turbulence" and stress in the market.

The net income for the Sunil Mittal company stood at Rs 1,462 crore in the first quarter of 2016-17. The June quarter net profit is the lowest since December 2012 for Bharti Airtel which along with other established telecom firms has been engaged in a fierce tariff war with Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio.
The move comes after Sunshine Infrabuild failed to refund the money that it illegally raised from people.

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi will auction as many as 11 properties owned by Sunshine Infrabuild Corporation in September to recover funds that it illegally raised from people.

The properties to go under the hammer include land parcels and shops in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a public notice.

As part of the recovery proceedings, Sebi will auction the properties in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat on September 7, while assets in Chhattisgarh will go under the hammer on September 8.

The regulator has engaged SBI Capital Markets Ltd for assistance in sale of the 11 properties. The move comes after Sunshine Infrabuild failed to refund the money that it illegally raised from people.

The regulator has already attached the company's various bank accounts and mutual funds. Sebi found that Sunshine Infrabuild allotted various types of debentures to over 8,000 investors and raised more than Rs 26 crore during 2010-11 to 2012-13. These funds were garnered in violation of the public issue norms.
Mumbai: Days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the rollout of Rs 200 notes, media reports suggest that the central bank has stopped the printing of Rs 2,000 notes that were introduced post demonetisation in 2016.

RBI had recently announced the introduction of Rs 200 notes in an effort to ease the shortage of smaller denomination notes. According to a report in Livemint, RBI officials have sped up the process of printing Rs 200 notes, which are expected to hit the banking system next month. "About 3.7 billion Rs 2,000 notes, amounting to Rs 7.4 lakh crore, have been printed; that more than compensates for the 6.3 billion Rs 1,000 notes that were withdrawn after demonetization on 8 November 2016," said an RBI official.

A report in the Economic Times had suggested that eight months after demonetisation, there was a drop in the circulation of Rs 2,000 notes. Moreover, it said that the supply of Rs 2,000 notes from the RBI had also been declining.

State Bank of India (SBI), had in a recent report stated, that the amount of cash lying with banks currently is 5.4 per cent of the currency in circulation as compared to the 3.8 per cent before demonetisation. It had further suggested that there is excess cash lying in ATMs or in bank branches, mostly in the form of Rs 2,000 notes. The larger denomination notes were not finding takers.

The research report by SBI had also implied that although there was a demand for smaller denomination currencies, there was discrepancy in the banking system due to the presence of Rs 2,000 notes straight after Rs 500 notes. SBI had said the introduction of Rs 200 notes would fill in as the missing middle.
This domain was recently registered at Namecheap.com. Please check back later!
SAIL has supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes of rails to the Indian Railways in 2016-17. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes of rails to the Indian Railways in 2016-17, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"Initially for 2016-17, Railway Board placed a bulk indent on SAIL for supply of 6,24,516 tonnes of rails, which was met by SAIL and it supplied 6,20,049 tonnes of rails during 2016-17 to Indian Railways," Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

"However, the enhanced requirement of Railways i.e; supply of 8.2 lakh tonnes of rails during the year could not be met due to capacity constraints," the minister informed.

But, with the ramping up of the new 1.2 million tonne, SAIL supplies 6.2 lakh tonne rails to Indian Railways in FY17 Universal Rail Mill at Bhilai Steel Plant, SAIL has now capacity to meet additional demand of Indian Railways, he added.

Sai further said: "The cumulative expenditure incurred by SAIL towards modernisation and expansion, mines and related sustenance schemes, till June 2017 is Rs 65,822 crore."

In a separate reply, the minister said, "SAIL has carried out modernisation and expansion programme at all the five major plants viz Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela (Odisha), Durgapur and Burnpur (West Bengal) and special steel plant at Salem (Tamil Nadu)".

However, the Salem Steel Plant in Tamil Nadu, despite investment of Rs 1,902 crore has been incurring losses, he added.
Hyderabad: Giving credence to speculation about the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday remained silent on this issue despite Opposition MPs demand for a clarification.

Raising a point of order during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agrawal said: The government has taken a decision to scrap Rs 2,000 note. The RBI has been given order not to print the Rs 2,000 notes. ... If any policy decision been taken during the Parliament session, the tradition is to announce it in the House.

And now it has stopped printing... RBI cannot bully. One note ban has been done, the second one is being planned. Let the finance minister say..., he said.

Mr Jaitley who was present in the House, did not respond to the question.

While the RBI has printed 3.2 lakh crore pieces of `2,000 notes, speculation is rife that the government has asked the central bank to stop printing the high value Rs 2,000 notes and focus on printing Rs 500 notes, which are in high demand.

Some bankers have suggested that RBI has stopped supplying new `2,000 notes. According to some reports, SBI has started recalibrating its `2,000 note cassettes in its some of its ATMs to dispense Rs 500 notes.

Meanwhile, the government is also reportedly planning to introduce Rs 200 to improve the supply to lower denomination notes. The printing is already in advanced stages at RBIs Mysuru press.

While an SBI Ecowrap report said that `200 notes would be introduced in the coming months, a media report claimed that the new denomination could be introduced next month.

While these developments could hint at something in store, analysts suggest that these decision might have been taken for pump in `500 notes, which are easy to change compared to `2,000.

Answering to a question on rumours about demonetisation of `2,000 notes in April, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju had asked people not go by such rumours.

However, Mr Jaitleys silence on the issue in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday could strengthen the rumours further.

There is also speculation about the timing. While some suggest that demonetisation, if the government decides so, could happen either two months before the festival season or thereafter, others feel that the timing could be in sync with Assembly elections  Gujarat would go to polls in between December 2017 and January 2018, and Karnataka in April 2018.
Hyderabad: Integrated solar solutions provider Premier Solar on Wednesday announced its plans to foray into the electric vehicles segment which would be launched on Saturday.

The company, which formally inaugurated its 200 MW automated solar module manufacturing facility in Sanga Reddy district of Telangana, announced its plans to use its expertise in solar power to launch solar-powered hybrids such as solar e-Rickshaws later this week.

Speaking on the future plans for the company, chairman Surender Pal Singh said,This round of expansion will give a major impetus to our growth and we see Premier Solar manifesting into a key player in this sunrise industry,
Shares of Axis Bank today fell by nearly 3 per cent after the company reported 16 per cent decline in net profit for Q1.

New Delhi: Shares of Axis Bank today fell by nearly 3 per cent after the company reported 16 per cent decline in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30.

The scrip went down by 2.46 per cent to Rs 531.20 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company slipped 2.66 per cent to Rs 530.40.

Private sector lender Axis Bank on Tuesday reported 16.06 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 1,306 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, as bad loans almost doubled during the period.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 1,556 crore in June quarter of 2016-17.

Revenues of the bank, however, rose to Rs 14,052.30 crore during the said quarter compared to Rs 13,852.18 crore in the year-ago period, Axis Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The lender's asset quality worsened as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) almost doubled to 5.03 per cent as on June 30 this year, from 2.54 per cent on June 30, 2016.

Likewise, net NPAs or bad loans increased to 2.30 per cent of net advances furnished by June-end from 1.08 per cent a year earlier.
Dileep's custody has been extended by two weeks. The actor will be behind the bars till August 8.

Mumbai: After the highly publicized arrest of Malayalam superstar Dileep on July 10, based on the evidence Aluva police got against the actor that allegedly proves his involvement in the kidnapping and abduction of a popular Telegu and Malayalam actress, comes another shocking revelation from the prosecution who claim that the evidence they have in hand are damning.

As per reports, the prosecution has requested the Angamaly court to grant permission for in-camera proceedings of the victim in this case and also not to hand over the recordings to the defendants team.

Although the court is yet to take a call on this, the prosecution has reportedly said that the evidence they have against the actor is damning and more shocking than one of the most brutal rape cases to have happened in Indian historythe Nirbhaya gang rape case.

The evidence in the case are more shocking than that of the infamous Nirbhaya gang-rape case, the prosecution told the Angamaly court, as per media reports.

Dileeps custody has also been extended for further questioning and the actor is currently in Aluva sub-jail. The Kerela High Court has also rejected the bail plea of the actor. All the proceedings of the case will reportedly be happening over video conference.

The actors wife, Kavya Madhavan, has also been questioned by the police on Tuesday in Kochi, details of that interrogation has not been revealed yet.

On February 17, the actress was abducted and molested by unidentified men when she was returning home from a shoot in Ernakulam district in Kerala.

The incident took place when the men stopped and hijacked her car near Athani in Angamaly. The actress was molested in a moving car till they reached Palarivattom, which is roughly 25 kms away. The accused men got down at Palarivattom and fled in another car.

The gang also took video and photos of the actress while threatening her of dire consequences inside the running car.
The ninth ADJ of Alipore took the decision in today's session.

Alipore: The Alipore sessions court granted bail to actor Vikram Chatterjee in model Sonika Chauhan death case on Wednesday.

The ninth ADJ of Alipore took the decision in today's session.

Earlier on July 7, Vikarm was sent to police custody till July 10 by the Alipore Court. He was arrested from his Kasba residence late night the previous day.

Sonika passed away in a car crash on April 29.

Chatterjee has been carrying charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on his head.

The charges against Chatterjee come under non-bailable offence of the IPC. He was also charged with dangerous driving.

Chatterjee was found inebriated while driving a car that led to the death of Sonika.

However, Chatterjee said he was deeply sorry for Sonika's family's loss, adding that he was not driving in an inebriated state.
Kochi: Malayalam director Jean Paul Lal, actor Sreenath Bhasi and technicians Anirudh and Anoop have been booked for allegedly making lewd remarks against an actress, who worked with them in their film Honey Bee 2.

The actress alleged that she was not paid the promised amount for the work and that vulgar remarks were made against her, when she asked for her remuneration.

According to Indian Express, the actress met the director and actor at Pannakad Hotel to enquire about her payment.

Reportedly, she has also given a statement to the police.

However, a news report in Manorama says, the actor-filmmaker Lal has slammed the actress for making false allegations against his son Jean. Lal said she was roped in by the filmmakers for a minor role but were unsatisfied with her contribution and her crabbiness at the shooting area.

He further quoted the daily saying, Last month, we were served a notice following a police complaint filed by her. We were considering giving her Rs 50,000 instead of the promised remuneration of Rs 25,000. But then she stepped up her demands and asked for a public apology on the television and Rs 10 lakh as compensation. At that juncture, I was the one who said there was no need for such settlements.

Lal also enquired that why did the actress keep quiet till now, since Honey Bee 2 released in March, 2017.

He suggested that there were genuine cases of women who faced attacks in the industry, but the case against them is untrue.

By genuine cases, Lal was referring to the sensational assault case of a popular actress on February 17.

It should be noted that the attack on the Malayalam actress on February 17, she sought shelter in Lals house, who helped her file the police complaint against this attack on her.

Reportedly, Jean is expected to be questioned today.
Kochi: The Special Investigation Team probing the actor assault case is likely to quiz Kavya Madhavan again as her replies to many queries, including that of the land deals of actor Dileep and benami transactions, were not satisfactory.

The probe team will also seek the details of her secret meeting with another actor, residing in Kakkanad, after the arrest of Dileep on conspiracy charges. The cops will examine the bank account details of the actor close to Dileep and Kavya and collect her statements to ascertain if she had transacted money to the account of the accused through the benami route.

The SIT had questioned Kavya for six hours on Tuesday before recording the statement of her mother Shyamala. This was on the basis of the finding that Pulsar Suni, the main accused in the case, had visited an online apparel store owned by them at Kakkanad. Suni had earlier told the police that he had handed over the memory card containing the assault of an actress to the store. Both Kavya and her mother had denied knowing Suni.

Meanwhile, Dileep sought legal advice on the future course of action. The counsel advised him not to move the Supreme Court for bail in a hurry and that further action should be taken only on the basis of assessing the inquiry progress.
Allu Arjun enjoys immense popularity up North. In fact, before Baahubali, he was probably one of the few actors from South to enjoy a level of familiarity in North India. So, its no wonder then that as he landed in Mumbai recently to shoot for an advertisement, the team of upcoming film, Golmaal Again, invited him to the sets of their film. The actor spent considerable time on Monday evening socialising with the films unit  Rohit Shetty, Tusshar Kapoor and Kunal Khemu amongst several others.
New Delhi: A 45 year old patient undergoes successful liver transplant after receiving liver from a donor after his cardiac death in what is called as 'Donation After Cardiac Death' or DCD.

As per the available data, there are reported cases of DCD of kidney in India but none for liver. The degree of complexities involved in this case as against kidney transplant, makes it more challenging and special. The success of this case also demonstrates the growing capabilities and expertise of our Indian surgeons.

While Western countries have used DCD for a long time, somehow India has lagged behind due to reluctance of families to donate organs. This case, feel doctors, could pave way for a new trend and can go a long way in addressing donor gaps in the country."

Dr Sanjay Singh Negi, Sr. Consultant and Director, Department of HPB Surgery & Liver Transplant, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, said, "Usually organ transplants in the country are done from brain dead donors where the blood circulation is intact, cells are normally perfused and organs are still functioning at the cellular level.

In case of DCD, blood supply to organ is briefly absent, causing the tissues to become starved of oxygen, a condition known as ischemia. Unlike kidneys which have long warm ischemia time of about 2 hours, the challenge in liver transplant is shorter ischemia time of 30 minutes requiring the graft to be re-perfused very fast. We are glad at having achieved this feat, which is certainly a rare one, and opens up avenues for many needy patients."

What went in favour of patient Atul Saluja was the deceased family's readiness to donate.

"Since time is of critical significance in a DCD transplant, we swiftly operated post death determination, as the heart was no longer pumping blood to organs" said Dr Amit Singhal, Associate Director, Liver Transplantation and HPB Anaesthesia at BLK Super Speciality Hospital, who played a pivotal role during the intra-operative and post-operative period.

DCD can help bridge the wide gap between demand and supply of organs. In India, less than 5,000 kidney transplants are carried out annually against an estimated requirement of over 175,000.

Similarly, only 1,000 liver transplants are performed every year in a country where over 50,000 die due to end stage liver disease, mostly related to preventable causes like hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

The annual requirement of hearts is estimated to be around 50,000 and lungs about 20,000. But the rate of organ donation is as low as 0.3 per million population (PMP).
Sarah has trichotillomania, a disorder which saw her pluck out all her strawberry blond hair, eyebrows and eyelashes after she developed the condition seven years ago (Photo: Facebook)

An 18-year-old teenager who was left bald after pulling out all her hair while battling anxiety is now a beauty queen.

Sarah Pennington, 18, from Pottstown in Philadelphia shaved her head after developing embarrassing bald spots while battling anxiety and depression.

It turns out that Sarah has trichotillomania, a disorder which saw her pluck out all her strawberry blond hair, eyebrows and eyelashes after she developed the condition seven years ago.

Sarah covers her hair, which is shorter than an inch, beneath hats and wigs, describing it as an 'irresistible urge' to pull her hair out.

But two-years-ago, after receiving psychiatric help she started to embrace her condition and stopped hiding her baldness in public.

The young girl then decided that she wanted to raise further awareness about the condition by entering beauty pageants.

Sarah's been entering beauty pageants for two years now, winning first place and runner-up positions and using her platform to talk about trichotillomania.
The accused was arrested on Tuesday. (Representational Image)

Thiruvananthapuram: A senior television journalist of a Malayalam news channel has been arrested in Thiruvananthapuram on the charge of sexually exploiting a woman colleague, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, a senior news editor and anchor with the channel, was arrested on Tuesday night after the woman journalist filed a complaint with the city police, they said.

In her complaint, the woman has alleged that the anchor had sexually exploited her on the pretext of marriage.

He was booked under IPC sections dealing with rape, cheating and intimidation, police said.

When contacted, the channel authorities said the accused has been suspended from service in the wake of his arrest.
BENGALURU: The Madikeri police have busted a fake campus selection racket by apprehending a person from Bengaluru, who claimed to be an HR manager in a reputed MNC and hired 45 girls from two-degree colleges in Madikeri.

The accused, identified as Ganesh, along with another accused Impana conducted a campus selection drive at Field Marshal Cariappa College and another prestigious college in Madikeri. The accused managed to convince the college placement officers that they were authorised to conduct placement drives in colleges and produced letters from the company.

They reportedly interviewed more than 100 students of both the colleges and hired 45 girls and even issued offer letters bearing the letterhead of the company, after receiving Rs 10,000 each from them.

It is learnt that 32 students from Cariappa College and 13 students from Somwarpet College were selected and he had provided job selection certificate too.

The candidates were asked to join the company as soon as they finish their final exams and thus, the candidates reached Bengaluru on June 23 and stayed at different PGs, awaiting joining date from the company, which had hired them. But, even after a month they did not got a call from the company.

Meanwhile, Impana had sent a mail to all the candidates informing them to undergo various medical tests which she said was mandatory before joining the company.

Sensing something amiss, one of the candidates called up the company for confirmation. But the company denied issuing any offer letters and campus recruitment drives.

The candidate then informed her parents, who lodged a complaint at the Madikeri police station. A trap was laid and Madikeri police arrested Ganesh from a hotel where he was staying.

During interrogation, Ganesh confessed that he was working for Impana, who posed as the Human Resource personnel of an IT firm. The accused are being brought to the city for investigation. We will also summon the placement officers of both the colleges for the inquiry. We suspect there might be a hidden motive behind the campus drive which will come out during the interrogation, Kodagu SP Rajendra Prasad told Deccan Chronicle. Meanwhile, officials of both the colleges were not available for comments.

Smooth operators
Hyderabad: TRS MPs will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the monsoon session of Parliament that starts Monday and try to exert pressure on him to take a favourable political decision on the long pending issues of delimitation of Assembly constituencies in both TS and AP and bifurcation of the High Court.

Leader of TRS Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha and Mahbubnagar MP A.P. Jitender Reddy told DC that only a political decision is pending with the Prime Minister regarding increasing the number of Assembly seats in the two states as per AP Reorganisation Act. We have information that the entire paperwork like preparing the draft Bill has been completed, Mr Reddy said.

He added: Only a political decision is needed now which is pending. We will meet the Prime Minister some day during the session and remind him of his earlier promise in the matter.

The TRS Parliamentary Party meeting will be held on Sunday night at Mr Reddys New Delhi residence where TRS leaders, after the mock polling for the Presidential election, will discuss the partys strategy for the monsoon session.

Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar said, Much depends on how Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and TD MPs pursue the matter with the PM during the session.

During the TD Parliamentary Party meeting held recently in Amaravati, the TD president had asked the party MPs to exert pressure on the Centre to see that the delimitation Bill is introduced and passed in the monsoon session, besides raising other issues concerning AP.
Bhutan said the road China has been building would run from the town of Dokola to the Bhutanese army camp at Zompelri. (Photo: Representational/File)

New Delhi: It was the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan that sounded the alarm: Chinese soldiers had arrived with bulldozers and excavators, and were building a high-mountain road near India's border - in an area the two nuclear-armed Asian giants have disputed for decades.

India responded to the call by sending troops last month to evict the Chinese army construction party from the Doklam Plateau. Within a few days, Indian media were running leaked video footage of soldiers from both sides shoving one another atop a grassy flatland.

The tense standoff has only escalated since then, raising concerns in both capitals of an all-out military conflict. Both sides have made threats while simultaneously calling for negotiations. The US State Department has urged the two sides to work together toward a peaceful resolution.

India told China last week that it was ready to hold talks if both sides pulled their forces back from the disputed border area. But China countered on Monday by insisting the road was being built on its sovereign territory, and warned India not to "push your luck."

India, taken aback by the escalation, has said the two governments reached an agreement in 2012 that the status of the Doklam area - which falls between China and India on a Bhutanese plateau - would be finalised only through joint consultations involving all parties.

A look at the key background of the dispute:

India and China have faced off frequently since fighting a bloody 1962 war that ended with China seizing control of some territory. Troops from both sides still regularly patrol other unmarked territories, though neither side has fired any shots in decades. Negotiations since 1985 to settle the boundary dispute have seen little success.

The land they're currently arguing over spans 269 square kilometres (104 square miles) on a sparsely populated plateau in western Bhutan, which has no diplomatic ties with China and coordinates its relations with Beijing through New Delhi.

But India and China have rival claims to other Himalayan areas as well, including 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) in what India considers its state of Arunachal Pradesh and China refers to as "Southern Tibet," as well as 38,000 square kilometres (15,000 square miles) of another plateau called Aksai Chin.

Bhutan said the road China has been building would run from the town of Dokola to the Bhutanese army camp at Zompelri.

Bhutan's foreign ministry called it a "direct violation" of agreements reached in 1988 and 1998 to maintain peace and refrain from unilateral action in the area pending a final border settlement. "Bhutan hopes that the status quo in the Doklam area will be maintained," it said in a June 29 statement.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said last week that India's border guards, in responding to Bhutan's call for help, had "illegally trespassed the boundary into Chinese territory" when they confronted the Chinese army construction team.

For India, securing the Doklam Plateau is seen as essential to maintaining its control over a land corridor that connects India's mainland with its remote northeastern states.

India has said the Chinese road project threatens its access to the corridor, while China has questioned why India should even have a say in a matter that concerns only Beijing and Bhutan.

India's army chief warned earlier this month that India's army was capable of fighting "2 1/2 wars" if needed to secure its borders.

Indian analysts said China appeared to be trying to pre-empt settlement negotiations by establishing a Chinese presence in Doklam.

"China has been trying for a long time to gain a tactical advantage in this sector," having already established dominance along the Indian borders at Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, said security expert Uday Bhakar, a retired Indian navy officer. "The Chinese did not expect this resolute Indian response, and that's why the standoff has continued."

The dispute was discussed briefly without resolution by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit earlier this month in Hamburg, Germany. It is expected to be taken up again when Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visits Beijing for another security forum on Thursday and Friday.

The Doklam standoff is just the latest of many irritants dogging relations between the world's two most populous nations.

For years, India has watched uneasily as China vigorously wooed Bhutan and other, smaller countries in India's traditional sphere of influence, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

"This is not the first time that we have a standoff with China," said foreign affairs analyst and retired Indian diplomat G. Parthasarthy, predicting there would likely be a period of stalemate followed by a political compromise if the current tensions follow past patterns.

"China is in an ultra-nationalist mood of establishing a hegemony power in Asia," he said. "The best thing for China is to sit down and talk."

China, meanwhile, has been frustrated with India's refusal to sign onto a massive effort to build railways, ports and roads reaching from Asia to Europe and the Middle East. The project includes a China-Pakistan economic development program aimed at absorbing as much as $46 billion in investment, most of it from Chinese banks.

China also has complained bitterly for decades over India's accepting the Dalai Lama as a refugee in 1959. The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader has kept his headquarters in northern India since fleeing Chinese-ruled Tibet.

Despite their disagreements, India and China entered a trade agreement in 1985 and have stepped up cooperation in agriculture, science and cultural exchange. But a $46.6 billion trade deficit favouring China has irked Indian members of parliament, who call regularly for more balance.
The family, friends and many admirers of Dr Kalam gathered at the memorial for special prayers during the day.

Rameswaram: About 50 million students from across the country will sing the Kalam anthem when Prime Minister Narendra Modi cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the grand memorial of late President APJ Abdul Kalam at his tomb here on Thursday marking the second anniversary of the great patriots demise.

The three-minute Kalam Salam anthem in Tamil was released by renowned agriculture scientist Dr M.S.Swaminathan a couple of days ago at Chennai. It was penned by famous lyricist Vairamuthu, sung by Sid Sriram to music composed by Ghibran and the video was directed by Vasanth Sai. The Telugu version has been rendered by S.P.Balasubramaniam and the Hindi version by Prasoon Joshi.

Kalam sir had met five crore students during his several trips crisscrossing the country and they will all sing this special anthem at the same time when our PM cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the memorial at Rameswaram. While the students in Tamil Nadu will sing the Tamil anthem, those in Andhra and Telengana will sing the Telugu version and those in the rest of India will sing the Hindi anthem. Soon we will have the anthem in all the other languages, said Abdul Ghani of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation. He said the anthem would be rendered between 1100 and 1103 hours on Thursday.

Prime Minister Modi will also flag off the Sandesh Vahini Vision-2020 rath that will take off from the memorial at Rameswaram and reach the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 15, the 86th birth anniversary of Dr Kalam, carrying pictures, videos and speeches elucidating his Vision-2020 across 17 states, specially targeting the student community that had adored the eternal teacher during his numerous visits to their campuses.

The long bus arrived at the House of Kalam for the final preparations on Tuesday. The family, friends and many admirers of Dr Kalam gathered at the memorial for special prayers during the day. Centurion elder brother of Kalam, Mohammed Muth u Lebbai Maraikayar, led the prayers.
Manisha Pokharkar, Wasima Shaikh, Shital Shegokar, Surekha Gulve, Aarti Shingne and Bindu Naikade were arrested last month for assaulting Shette and causing her death. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A day after the police informed the Bombay High Court that Byculla jail inmate Manju Shette died after falling in the toilet, six jail officials arrested on charge of her murder, on Tuesday, moved bail application in the sessions court.

In the bail application filed through their lawyer Pankaj Bafna, the arrested officials contended that they need bail as they have small children to look after.

They have also said that contrary to the claim that rod was inserted in Shette's private parts the investigation found nothing of that sort.

Bafna said the complainant and other inmates are continuously changing statement.

"The police on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it was a case of accident and not murder on this ground we have sought bail," said Bafna.

Manisha Pokharkar, Wasima Shaikh, Shital Shegokar, Surekha Gulve, Aarti Shingne and Bindu Naikade were arrested last month for assaulting Shette and causing her death.

The court is likely to hear the plea on August 4. Shette (45), serving life sentence, died in the hospital on June 23 after she was allegedly beaten up by the jail staff.

On June 24, women inmates, including Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, resorted to violent protest in the prison.

The plea further stated that Indrani and others "masterminded" the false case to gain advantage out of a personal grudge against public servants.

The applicants said on the day of the incident they noticed Indrani was standing in front of the main gate and giving physical indications as well as hints to other inmates, and when she was asked what she was doing she didn't reply and later started screaming.

Later, around 200 inmates surrounded the jail officials and started pushing and assaulting them.

"Indrani instigated and planned the entire riot and influenced all other inmates into rebelling and assaulting the jail authorities by making them believe that they (jail staff) had killed the woman inmate (Shette) and that it's time to take revenge for her death," the application said.

Indrani and many other inmates charged towards the jail staff carrying plates, bowls, clothes and other articles they could lay their hands on and started throwing them.

While the six jail officials and other station house officers tried to pacify and control the inmates by requesting them to return to their barracks, Indrani did not stop and on her instructions all the inmates started hitting the jail authorities including the accused, the application said.

Some inmates entered the record room of the prison and destroyed many government documents, computers, and tables by setting them on fire with the help of a matchbox, it said.

They also manhandled the jail authorities by tearing their uniforms. Indrani then surrounded the six accused and started hitting them with chappals and bottles, the application said.

Indrani then ran towards the main gate and instructed other inmates to break open the main gate and run away from the prison, it said, adding that she was constantly yelling and telling the inmates to hit whichever jail authority comes in front of them.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday granted partial relief to actress Charmme, directing the Special Investigation Team of the excise enforcement department to follow the law while questioning her in the presence of women officers in the drugs case.

Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy, while disposing of the actress petition, told SIT to ensure that the petitioner would not be compelled to give her blood, hair and nail samples. The judge said the presence of her lawyer is not required as she is not an accused in the case. The examination shall be completed by 5 pm on July 26, the judge said.

Following this, an official later said that the actress would appear before the SIT at 10.30 am on Wednesday.

Charmme petition is a stunt, says TS counsel

The actress had urged the court to direct the SIT not to compel her to give testimony and collect samples by way of coercion.

Counsel Vishnuvarhan Reddy appearing for the actress said she apprehended that the SIT wold compel her to give testimony which could be self-incriminating.

Pointing out that the petitioner was unmarried, counsel said Articles 20(3) and 22(1) of the Constitution mandated the presence of a lawyer at the time of examination of the accused by the police to prevent the accused from giving involuntary self-incriminating ans-wers.

Stating that SIT had been examining witnesses for hours together, he urged the court to direct the SIT to complete the examination of the petitioner by 5 pm.

Government counsel Sharath Kumar said no witness was being compelled to give testimony. He said doctors had collected samples from director Puri Jagannadh and others with their consent. Actor Navadeep had refused to give the samples and the SIT had not compelled him.

He said that the SIT has woman officers and the actress would be questioned in their presence. He said the SIT had given her the option to choose the venue for questioning  her home or the SIT office. She had volunteered to visit the SIT office, he said.

Terming the petition as a publicity stunt, government counsel said that the drug bust had damaged the image of the city and some unscrupulous elements were supplying drugs to school children and government is firm in eradicating this social evil. He said the SIT was examining film personalities based on the statement of the prime accused

The judge said the guidelines of the SC in Nandini Satpathy v P.L. Dani were applicable for those accused in a case and not for witnesses, the judge disposed of the case by asking SIT to follow law while examining the actress.
The court was hearing an application moved by the Union minister to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed Arvind Kejriwal not to put "scandalous" questions to Union Minister Arun Jaitley during his cross-examination in a defamation suit filed against the chief minister and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.

Justice Manmohan further said the chief minister should conduct cross-examination of the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in a dignified manner and in accordance with law.

It said dignity has to be maintained as no person can be subjected to scandalous and abusive language in the garb of cross-examination.

The court, however, refrained from passing any order against Kejriwal after noting his earlier submission that he had not instructed senior advocate Ram Jethmalani to use any objectionable remarks against Jaitley.

The court was hearing an application moved by the Union minister to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner.

In the defamation case, besides Kejriwal, the five other accused are AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.

They had accused the BJP leader of corruption as the President of the DDCA, a post he had held from 2000 to 2013.

Jaitley, who had denied all the allegations levelled by the AAP leaders in December 2015, had claimed that they had made "false and defamatory" statements in the case involving DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.
Hyderabad: Girls seeking admission to the Intermediate course at the Government Junior College for Girls, Maisaram, which is located near Chandrayangutta, are being turned away by the college management because of the lack of space.

Mumtaz, the parent of a girl who recently completed her schooling, says, I have been making the rounds of the college for the past 15 days, but the principal says that admissions cant be given as there is no space in the classrooms. I work in the field of construction, and I can only afford a government college.

The Government Junior College for Girls, Maisaram, was started in 2008, within a school building. Four classrooms have been allotted to the college authorities, within which they manage to run a single CEC course. Sadiqa Begum, the college principal, says, The classes are already packed; we cannot accommodate more students. I am asking those seeking admission to wait until alternative arrangements are made.

The college has been granted permission to start BPC, MPC and vocational courses, but it has not done so for the past eight years for the want of space. Talha Kaseri, a social activist, said, How can the higher officials be so irresponsible? The responsibility should be assigned to someone, and action should be initiated.

Every year, girls from Shaheennagar, Bandlaguda, Ghousenagar, Errakunta, Pahadishareef, and Chandrayangutta, approach the college seeking admission. As of now, we are only admitting CEC students. Those who prefer other subjects are asked to go to Falaknuma College, says Ms Sadiqa.

The situation at the Government Girls Junior College, Falaknuma, is no different. Though the college has 1,200 students, it is handicapped in terms of infrastructure. The Government Girls Junior College, Hussainialam, has also failed to meet needs of its 1,300 students.
Oil tins stacked at an illegal oil producing unit, which was shut after GHMC raided it at Ramakrishnapuram.

Hyderabad: A man who was arrested for allegedly selling oil extracted from the bones of pigs has reportedly confessed that top Chinese hotels, especially in Secunderabad, and vendors were his clients.

Mithilesh Kumar, 37, told the Rachakonda police that hotels use the oil mostly while preparing vegetarian dishes. The police is investigating the list of clients. Following the raid against Mithilesh Kumars unit, the Rachakonda commissionerate has written to the regional magistrate for closing it under Section 133 of the CrPC for removal of public nuisance.

On Tuesday, following a tip-off that a raid was imminent, some 300 pigs that are illegally reared in households were transported from RK Puram to the other side of the railway tracks between Ramakrishnapuram and Ammuguda railway stations and set free. The pigs are reared illegally for their oil which is supplied to eateries.

The GHMC North Zone veterinary wing raided the secret units at Ramakrishnapuram and issued closure notices to four units; owners of another two units had fled.

Veterinary officer Govardhan Reddy said that during the raid, we found extraction of oil from fats, illegal rearing of pigs in residential area and throwing of dairy dung and fodder waste into drainage areas and the lake.

Besides serving the closure notices, the corporation has suggested ways of rearing the pigs hygienically and warned the owners that there will be consequences if they dont comply with the rules.

Mithilesh Kumar, who had to pay a fine, told the officers that around 40 migrant families breed pigs, and sell the oil to Chinese fast food centres and some well known hotels.

The Telangana State Pollution Control Board has also held a meeting with the residents in an attempt to find a solution.

Alert residents tip-off on units

It was the Residents Welfare Association and not the police that detected the oil adulteration units in Neredmet. The RWA secretly collected evidence and submitted it to the Rachakonda police.

RWA members allege that it is because of the relations between owners of the oil units and the local police that the units flourish and that it needed the intervention of the police commissioner for the police to raid the units. Residents have identified six more such secret factories.

Suresh (name changed), a resident of Ramakrishnapuram, said, These secret pig oil manufacturing factories are operating below the RK Puram flyover. Tonnes of oil and ghee is produced and supplied to a chain of Chinese fast food vendors, while the remains such as intestines are sold to pork shops in the twin cities. The waste is dumped in the lake or disposed of at the Neredmet dumping yard.

About 30 families, mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh, have made this a family business, since it requires little investment. The pigs are slaughtered and burnt in the houses and the oil extracted from the fat. Residents in the locality have been threatened not to reveal what is going on.

Suresh says RK Puram Lake has turned toxic and unhygienic, and repeated complaints to the Pollution Control Board and GHMC have been ignored. That is why residents personally captured photo and video evidence and submitted the same to the Rachakonda police commissioner. Despite the issue being serious, only one unit has been seized so far, he said.
Kargil Vijay Diwas, celebrated on July 26, commemorates India's emphatic victory against Pakistan and honours the war heroes. (Photo:

New Delhi: As the nation remembers its brave heroes on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the great sacrifices made by the Armed Forces.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter and wrote, "Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War."

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

He further added that Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess and the great sacrifices made by the armed forces while steadfastly keeping India safe.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

The country is celebrating the 18th Anniversary of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' today.

On the occasion, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and three Chiefs of Services laid floral tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate.

At Drass War memorial, in Jammu and Kashmir the celebrations began on Monday.

Last Sunday, the Kargil Prakram Rally was organized at the India Gate to recall the valor of the brave soldiers and their sacrifices which got country back the Kargil heights.

Kargil Vijay Diwas, celebrated on July 26, commemorates India's emphatic victory against Pakistan and honours the war heroes.

On this day in 1999, the Indian Army successfully took control of posts at a treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, after fighting for 60 days.

More than 500 soldiers from Indian Armed Forces sacrificed their lives during the war.

Four Param Vir Chakras, nine Maha Vir Chakras, 53 Vir Chakras and other medals had been awarded to felicitate the Kargil War heroes.
New Delhi: The central committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M), its highest decision-making body, on Tuesday decided against nominating party general secretary Sitaram Yechury for a third consecutive Rajya Sabha term, a top leader said.

A deeply divided central committee took the decision after a vote by raising of hands, capping deliberations on the contentious issue that lasted nearly four hours.

"The decision was taken keeping in mind the party norm that no CPI(M) leader can represent the party in the Upper House for more than two terms. Plus, the Kerala unit of the party was against taking help of Congress to get the party general secretary re-elected," the leader said.

In fact, a majority of central committee members from other southern states, including Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, too, opposed the proposal which had the backing of the West Bengal and Tripura units.

The proposal for a third term for Yechury was moved by the West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) in June after the Congress' central leadership reportedly offered its support to help get Yechury re-elected.

The party's politburo had already rejected the proposal before it came up for discussion by the central committee on Tuesday.

The CPI(M) leadership is also learnt to have spoken to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about his interview to a leading English daily in which he said Yechury cannot be sent to the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Congress, an old rival in the southern state.

"Vijayan was asked about the interview which appeared right before the central committee was to decide the fate of Yechury's third term. The chief minister said he had given the interview sometime ago and not today. He also said it was wrong to speak on the issue," the leader said.

The second term of Yechury, a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, ends next month.

The election for six West Bengal Rajya Sabha seats, including the one represented by Yechury, will be held on August 8. Nomination for the poll is to be filed before July 28.
The commercialisation of residential areas has been opposed for almost a decade. The fight has gained new vigour with the governments new draft on Common Zoning Regulations.

In 2016, nearly 10,000 people came out onto the streets to protest against the governments proposed steel flyover from Chalukya Circle to Hebbal. Their resounding victory has helped the citizen army gather steam, with a battery of well-intentioned residents stepping in to protect the city from the vested interests of self-serving politicians and babus. What drives our citzen activists, ask Chandrashekar G. and Aknisree Karthik

Ask not what your country can do for youask what you can do for your country." This oft-used and even more oft-misused quote from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address has never rung truer than here in Bengaluru. Falling apart at the hands of corrupt politicians and inept administrators, it is the army of citizen activists that have stepped boldly into the fray, snatching their city back from the brink of chaos.

Whether it was the relentless protest that brought the government to its knees, forcing it to scrap the controversial steel flyover in 2016, or pressure placed on authorities to take the much-needed steps towards the neglected suburban rail project, which has been in cold storage for a year: the people of Bengaluru seem to have found a sure fire way of standing up for their city. These groups of well-meaning citizens have also taken a united stand against the pollution of lakes and are determined to fight the new draft on Common Zoning Regulations, which will increase commercialisation in residential areas. On Sunday, the threat of another steel flyover drew people to the streets in droves, to protest against the proposed Shivananda Steel Bridge. What does it take to draw people out onto the streets? Why are citizen activists different?

Namma Bengaluru Foundation CEO, Sridhar Pabbisetty said "Apart from our fundamental rights, there are many fundamental duties which we as citizens are supposed to do. According to me, Bengaluru represents the epicentre of changing India and has already set an example in citizenship that is worth emulating across other cities, too.

When is a citizen-driven protest of this scale necessary? The issue is examined according to three major criteria, Pabbisetty explains. The first is to check on citizen participation in drafting the policy concerned. Second, it looks at whether or not the policy is multi-year and has a vision. Third, is the project going to be carried forth in a transparent manner?

Rajashekar D.S., president of Citizen's Action Forum says that citizen activists are regular people, for the most part. They have their own work and family, taking time out of their schedules to devote time to a cause. And citizen activism, he says, doesnt stop at just organising protests, holding placards and shouting slogans.

"There are times when our protests make no difference and the babus refuse to budge. Then, we are left with no option but to take the matter to court and that isnt easy," he explained. For instance, if the matter has to be taken to the Supreme Court, bringing in lawyers, even on a pro bono basis for the documentation process can cost around Rs 3 lakh.

He added that citizens, RWAs and various foundations all pool in the money and fight cases for the betterment of society.

Civic participation a must

Taking on the government has proved an arduous, often fruitless process. However, proactive, well-intentioned citizens, spurred on by social media which has worked wonders towards rallying the masses, have risen to the challenge with aplomb. Together, theyre ready to take on any challenge if it means protecting the interests of their city. Authorities can scarcely afford to do anything but toe the line; a proposal that even hints at controversy, will, in all likelihood, have the citizen army up in arms.

N. S. Mukunda, founding president of Citizens Action Forum (CAF) and a key petitioner before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding the pollution of Bellandur lake says that a true democracy will not have room (or reason) for protest. Any project which is over Rs. 5 crore should only be taken up in consultation with the citizens.

The reasons behind the rejecting an objection voice by the citizens should be updated on the website to assure total transparency and to make the information available in a public domain for future reference. Some projects merely involve shifting the problem from one place to another, at a whopping expense. Holis tic thinking is the need of the hour, Mukunda emphasises. A cost-intensive steel flyover which requires periodical maintenance is not the solution to connectivity to and from Kempegowda Inter national Airport  the Metro and the development of three alternative roads had already been proposed. Why was a steel bridge necessary? he demanded.

Projects of this nature, he feels, should be long-term and must solve problems on a macro level, rather than providing a cost-intensive micro approach.

As far as lakes are concerned, changing the mindset of public representatives and bureaucrats is key. Developing jogging and walking tracks is insignificant. The eco-system and water security are far more important. However, citizens needed to wage war to make the government understand and acknowledge the importance of water and our water bodies, he said.

Some of the major protests led by citizens

Protest against the proposed steel flyover between Chalukya Circle and Hebbal

Protest against cutting down of 112 trees to widen Jayamahal Road

The demand for the implementation of suburban rail in tandem with Namma Metro

A citizens watch committee named 'United Bengaluru' was formed to reclaim the citys lakes.

Citizens thronged to join BBMP ward committees. When their names did not figure in the list, they filed RTIs and are contem plating moving the court to ensure that the selection for ward committees is made transparent, with more importance given to citizens.

Citizens allege that the rules for RERA have been framed to favour builders rather than consumers.

The commercialisation of residential areas has been opposed for almost a decade. The fight has gained new vigour with the governments new draft on Common Zoning Regulations.

The opposition for the construction of a steel bridge at Shivananda Circle.

If lakes have chance of survival, its because of citizen activists: Vijayan Menon, member of Citizens Actions Forum

At the outset, I would like to say that I owe the citys administration, its netas and babus so much. I must thank them for bringing new meaning to my life, for providing me with a new career. Their continuous inefficiency, unaccountability and the absence of any real city planning expertise has spawned a whole new generation of unabashed civic activists.

A role once reserved for people past their expiry date, or those stepped in radical philosophies, urban civic activists in Bengaluru seem to have come of age. They are now from a large pool that spans backgrounds, age, gender and profession. They are fortunate enough to remain unencumbered by any ideology aside from their love for their city. And with their collective, vastly varied expertise, they seem to have a nose for ferreting out the senseless, wasteful, non-scientific, non-sustainable and sometimes Machiavellian designs. Their successes, Im sure, are the cause of sleepless nights in the corridors of power!

The most recent, perhaps one of the most noteworthy events to take place in Bengaluru was the agitation against the steel flyover. The obnoxious Akrama Sakrama bill is gathering dust in the Supreme Court and we hope that it will be consigned to dustbins from there! Every improvement in the solid waste management process owes its success to citizen intervention on ground and in the courts. The very anti-residential neighbourhood provisions of the Masterplan 2015 were reversed through a Public Interest Litigation. A curious attempt to pass another senseless zoning law is now being resisted. The audacious attempt to try and develop a 100-acre monstrosity on the wetlands of Bellandur Lake was also put to an end by citizens who approached the National Green Tribunal.

If lakes have any chance at survival today, it is due to the efforts of citizen watchdogs. Commuter rail is on the planning table now, after having been shelved for a year, thanks to continuous citizen advocacy. The adherence to the 74th Constitutional Amendment, which involved the setting up of the Municipal Planning Authority was because of citizen activism. Even a matter as basic as forming Ward Committees required citizen groups to approach the government with an offer the latter couldnt refuse! There have been countless more wins at a ward and neighbourhood level.

One must not blame the politician. Nobody told him, after all, that his primary aim of being re-elected is best served by him actually doing something good for the people! And the bureaucracy: lets celebrate the handful of ardent reformers, provided we can find them!

However, I must say, in all humility and with the greatest respect and admiration towards the many urban activists I continue to learn from  Bengaluru is in good hands. May your tribe increase and hopefully, we reach a day where these efforts are no longer required.
Congress MP Anand Sharma said, "Gandhi ji has done a lot for the nation and his equation with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was a big disrespect. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi's names were not even taken." (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed major turbulence, with Opposition leader Anand Sharma tearing into President Ram Nath Kovind's inaugural address, where he compared Mahatma Gandhi with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

Sharma said, "Gandhi ji has done a lot for the nation and his equation with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was a big disrespect. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi's names were not even taken."

Supporting his colleague in this point, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted that the Centre has been constantly disrespecting the Nehru family.

The chairperson, however, did not allow a discussion on the argument calling it "irrelevant".

Hitting back, Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said the Congress raised the point for the sake of television cameras.

"The Chair should be guided that the zero hour can't run only for the benefit of the television channels," said Jaitley.

Earlier on Tuesday, Azad came down heavily upon Kovind for not mentioning Nehru's name in his speech and said he should 'rise above the party politics.'

Reacting to the criticism by Congress, Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress party is seeking to impact upon the great stature of Nehru, by insisting that his name should be taken in every speech.

"Kovind ji talked about the philosophy of Ambedkar ji. He talked about the extraordinary contribution of Sardar Patel. The Congress is seeking to impact upon the great stature of Nehru ji, by insisting that his name should be taken always. I would only urge that everything should not be politicised," Prasad said.

Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India on Tuesday, remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters.

"Our Independence was the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of human dignity and of the republican ethic," he added

"We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji," the President said.
Swaraj also said that Iraq never reported on the death of the missing Indians. (Photo: Lok Sabha TV)

New Delhi: There is no concrete evidence that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq have been killed and "I will not commit the sin" of declaring them dead without any evidence, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday.

Making a forceful statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj said the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead.

"This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence," Swaraj said, two days after holding talks with Iraqi foreign minister on the issue.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians.

"I have never misled. I want to ask the Opposition, what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government get by misleading the people on the issue," she said.

The Iraq Embassy had on Sunday informed India that search operations are underway to locate the 39 missing Indians who were taken as prisoners by ISIS in 2014, further assuring there is a high level coordination between Iraqi and Indian concerned authorities to locate them.

The Government of India has already sent two high-level senior delegations to Iraq to follow up on this matter.

However, Iraqi Ambassador to India Fakhri H Al-Issa had said that the Embassy has no information about the missing 39 Indians citizens.

"I don't want to say anything. I have no information. Sometimes no news is good news. They might be in Badush prison," Issa said.

Sushma Swaraj, along with Minister of State (MoS) for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) MJ Akbar and MoS MEA Gen. (Retd.) VK Singh, met families of 39 Indians who are missing in Iraq since 2014 on July 16.
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam-led Andhra Pradesh government has withdrawn 23 criminal cases against politicians belonging to the ruling party since it came to power. They include ministers, MLAs and MLCs.

While the withdrawal of prosecution for Samaiky-andhra cases may be justified, government orders withdrawing serious cases pertaining to election offences and other serious offences are controversial.

A case of molestation and hurt against minister K. Atchannaidu and a case of attempt to murder against minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao have been withdrawn by the state government.

Deputy Chief Ministers K.E. Krishnamurthy and N. Chinarajappa, Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, ministers Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Kollu Ravindra, and Nakka Anand Babu, apart from the two named above, were all facing charges that were withdrawn by the home department.

Retired judges to fight withdrawal of cases

A group of eminent persons is now questioning this action of the state government. Retired high court judges, P. Lakshmana Reddy and Chandra Kumar, and former RTI Commissioner P. Vijaya Babu have decided to expose the withdrawal of prosecutions against politicians in the State of AP. Justice P Lakshmana Reddy said, In around 23 cases in the state of AP, criminal cases have been withdrawn against politicians, ministers, MLAs by the AP government.

Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao from Anakapalli Assembly Constituency was booked in 2009 under Cr.No.15/2009 for attempt to murder (307 IPC), voluntarily causing hurt to the public (332), causing grievous hurt and criminal trespass and for unlawful assembly.

A case booked under section 130 of the Representation of People's Act (offence during polling day) and section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (violating orders of public servant) on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrates Court, Dhone, has been withdrawn against Deputy Chief Minister K E Krishna Murthy. A public nuisance case has been withdrawn recently against Kollu Ravindra that was booked in 2014.

Likewise, the government has issued orders for withdrawal of prosecution against Minister Nakka Ananda Babu who represents Vemuru Assembly constituency, Guntur district, and four others involved in a 2013 case.

They were booked under section 353 for assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty.

The AP home department has withdrawn prosecution against the accused Kinjarapu Atchannaidu, Minister for Labour & Employment, Factories, Youth & Sports, in a 2008 case. He was booked under sections 354 (molestation), 323 (hurt), 506(1) & (2) read with 34 (criminal intimidation), of the Indian Penal Code. This case has been withdrawn on the recommendation of the Director General of Police.

Interestingly, the case booked against Telugu Desam MLAs and MLCs in 2007, when they protested against former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and his mining activities in D Hirehal police station in Anantapuram police station, have also been withdrawn. It is a case of unlawful assembly and restraining public servant from discharging his duties.

Cases against former MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy, TS MLA Y. Dayakar Rao, the then MLA Ranganayakulu, former MLA B.C. Govindappa, fomer MLC Mettu Govinda Reddy, Minister Devineni Maheswara Rao, former MLAs V Narendra Reddy, Hareeshwar Reddy, Babu Ramesh, Padala Aruna, and Lalitha Kumari, Deputy CM Chinnarajappa, and former legislators Narayana Rao, Y Rajendra Prasad, Masala Padmaja, Amarnatha Reddy and Minister Atchannaidu, were also withdrawn.

Two other cases have been withdrawn, one against Minister Kollu Ravindra pertaining to 2014 and 14 others, in Krishna district and one against ex Minister N Narasimha Rao.

Cases have been withdrawn against TD leader Batchula Arjunudu and Minister Kollu Ravindra. A 2012 case against MLA Ananda Rao of Amalapuram in Godavari district has also been withdrawn.

Cases against YSRC leaders who defected to the TD were also withdrawn.

A case against Giddalur MLA M Ashok Reddy who joined TD in June 2016 has been withdrawn. The case against ex MLA M Shajahan Basha of Chittoor district, has been withdrawn, as has a case against MLC Reddy Subrahmanyam and MLA Gollapalli Surya Rao of Razole.

Let off easily
No mercy: Magamma, 85, with the help of her neighbour Waralakshmi and daughter Satamma is forced to walk up the ramp to the outpatient wing at Gandhi Hospital with her IV fluid in hand.

Hyderabad: Two videos have been circulating highlighting the deplorable state of affairs outside the emergency wing of Gandhi General Hospital. In a video, 85-year-old Magamma is denied a stretcher and forced to carry her IV fluid in her hand as she proceeds to the outpatient wing.

The woman in the video had been was administered the IV in the emergency wing because she had reached the hospital late at night. She was then asked to proceed to the outpatient wing to rest. She had to go up a ramp which was at a considerable incline. Two of her relatives helped her up the ramp while she held her own IV fluid bag. There were no stretchers available, nor were there any wheelchairs outside the emergency and the outpatient wings.

Its a dogs world: A drunk security guard of the hospital lies on the floor outside Sri Sai Medical store. He is seen holding a bottle of alcohol and caressing a dog.

In the other video, a security guard is seen lying outside Sri Sai Medical, a medical store located near the hospitals emergency wing, holding a bottle of alcohol and caressing a dog.

The guard is seen wearing a blue shirt with red tags, which indicates that he is part of the hospitals security force, and he appears to be over 50 years of age. The hospital administration denied that the security guard was one of theirs, despite the fact that he was seen wearing a uniform. By the time the administrative staff and other security guards arrived, there was no one there.

The pharmacist working at the medical store said that the night-duty staff had mentioned that there had been a drunkard outside the store, but no one had intervened and no formal complaint was filed. Dr Shravan Kumar, the superintendent of the hospital, said, I am not aware of these videos, the night-duty resident medical officer might know about them.

Junior doctors in the emergency wing, on condition of anonymity, said that there was insufficient paramedical staff for the night shift, which is why wheelchairs were unavailable. They added that the stretchers were all occupied by patients who were waiting for beds.
BENGALURU: Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George has filed a criminal defamation case against Arnab Goswami and Times Now, accusing him and the channel he was working with as an editor-in-chief until November last year of making defamatory statements against Mr George and accusing him of having a hand in the death of IAS officer DK Ravi in March 2015.

Mr Georges lawyer Ajeesh Kumar Shankar confirmed that the criminal defamation suit was filed before the 10th Additional District Magistrate Court on Wednesday. He said that a civil defamation case demands compensation for the damages his client incurred due to the false and malicious campaign on the news channel without any evidence.

A day after the death of Mr Ravi on March 16, 2015, Goswami ran a false and malicious campaign between March 17 and 23 on his Prime Time Show on Times Now, making defamatory allegation against Mr George, accusing him of having a hand in death of Ravi, destroying evidence and also accusing him of supporting some business groups who he said might benefit from Ravis death. All this without proper investigation and just sitting at the comfort of his chair in Mumbai he went all out to make false accusations without any evidence to substantiate them. This has hurt my clients reputation, who is a respected politician, he said.

Kumar said that the complaint quotes 46 statements aired on Times Now between March 17 and 23, 2015. He said that his client waited for the inquiry conducted by both CID and CBI to conclude before filing the suit. The court has asked Mr George to submit his sworn statement on August 19.
New Delhi: Palestine on Wednesday said the Modi Government can play a positive role in taking up the grievances of Palestinians with the Israeli Government over the situation in the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. Palestine said it is not worried about the growing ties between India and Israel as long its (New Delhi's) attitude towards Palestine remains unchanged.

Palestine also accused Israel of imposing additional physical hindrances at the Al-Aqsa compound including electronic gates, metal detectors, cameras and barriers, adding that Israel has been making it impossible for the Palestinians to go to the Mosque and offer prayers.

Palestinian Ambassador in New Delhi Adnan Abu Alhaijaa accused Israel of crafting a plan of Judaisation of East Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa Mosque in particular.

The Palestinian envoy also said Palestine is still in the hearts of the Indian people and that a majority of Indian people support the Palestinian cause.

To a question, the Palestinian Ambassador said, We are expecting the Government of India to continue its positive attitude (to the Palestinian cause).
Hyderabad: In a setback to the ruling parties in TS and AP, the Centre has indicated that it was not in favour of introducing a fresh delimitation Bill to increase the number of Assembly seats in the two states.

This was disclosed by TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday after his 20-minute one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament House.

Mr Rao told newsmen after the meeting: Delimitation Bill was not on top of the agenda for me. I made a mention at the end of the meeting, but the BJP is not in favour of hiking the number of Assembly seats. The PM told me it is not happening. If they hike the number of Assembly seats I will be happy, if they dont, nothing will happen to me. I am only interested in the developmental issues concerning the state.

He added, In case AP exerts pressure and gets the seat hike, we will also get it, but I am not particular about the issue.

Mr Rao said that the PM has agreed to attend the Global Investors Summit to be held in November in Hyderabad. The scheduled is yet to be finalised.

We are expecting the participation of Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President in the summit. Its going to be a major event. The major initiative will be from the US, he said.

Mr Rao said both the PM and finance minister Arun Jaitley have agreed to transfer defence lands to the TS government soon for construction of flyovers under the Strategic Road Development Programme.

When asked on the transfer of Bison Polo Ground land to the TS government for constructing of the proposed Secretariat building complex, Mr Rao said more than the Secretariat he want defence lands for the SRDP works as traffic jams have become the order of the day in Secunderabad.

Modi assured me that he will personally take up the issue and ensure transfer of defence lands is done immediately, Mr Rao said.

In his meeting with Union finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley, the CM requested him to issue orders enhancing the borrowing limit of TS from 3 per cent under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act to 3.5 per cent.

He brought to the notice of the finance minister that the Centre has already announced the enhancement but related orders were not released yet.

Mr Rao also requested him to release the pending Rs 450 crore dues to the state under the Backward Areas Development Fund.
KT Rama Rao on Tuesday refuted the charges made by Congress that the TRS government had shown "undue favours" to an NGO run by Naidu's family. (Photo: PTI/FIle)

Hyderabad: Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday refuted the Congress charges that the TRS government had shown "undue favours" to an NGO run by the family of NDA vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu and asked the opposition party to provide evidence to back its claims.

There was no abnormality in giving exemption to the Swarna Bharat Trust, the NGO run by Naidu's daughter, on some of the developmental charges, he said, rejecting charges of showing "undue favours" to the organisation.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had on Monday alleged that on June 20, 2017, the Telangana government issued a "secret order" exempting the NGO from paying development charges of more than Rs 2 crore to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.

The industries and IT minister also rejected Ramesh's claim that the TRS government purchased Toyota Innova vehicles worth over Rs 270 crore from dealerships owned by himself and Naidu's son.

"The Telangana government did not place orders directly to the dealers for purchasing vehicles. The orders were placed with the company after following the due process. The rates of the vehicles were finalised as per the guidelines set by the Centre," he said.

"It is quite common for NGOs, religious trusts, educational institutions, hospitals and private institutions to get property tax exemption. It was practiced during your (the Congress) rule also. There is nothing extraordinary in giving exemption to the Swarna Bharat Trust," he said.

"Mr Jairam Ramesh, if you have any common sense, provide proof and then talk or else withdraw your remarks. Do not resort to mudslinging," said the son of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

The Congress leader had on Monday alleged that in July 2014, the Telangana government placed an order of Rs 271 crore without inviting tenders for purchase of vehicles for the police from two car dealers - Harsha Toyota, owned by Naidu's son, and Himanshu Motors, owned by Rama Rao.

To another question, Rao said the TRS government has brought transparency in sand sales and this has boosted revenue by 30 to 40 times.
According to government hospital sources, 20 dengue cases and 143 viral fever cases have been reported in the hospital. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Coimbatore: A 16-year-old girl died of dengue in a private hospital in Coimbatore, police said on Wednesday.

Hemavarthini, a plus one student from Puliyakulam was admitted to a private hospital in Coimbatore two days ago with complaints of fever and tested positive for dengue, they said.

However, she died last night without responding to treatment, they added.

DMK MLA N Karthick of singanallur constituency in Coimbatore had recently blamed the state government for "failure" to control dengue.

After his visit to the government hospital in Coimbatore, the MLA alleged that the government was not giving exact number of people affected by the disease.

A woman and her 2-day-old had died of dengue in the district on July 9.

According to government hospital sources, 20 dengue cases and 143 viral fever cases have been reported in the hospital.
Bengaluru: All is not well in the ruling Congress party over the proposal to accord separate religion status to the Veerashaiva community.

Several Congress legislators contended that the move was unwarranted when Assembly polls are due to be held in 9-10 months, with Lingayats likely to suspect that it was a plot to divide their community.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced his support for the proposal saying he would recommend religion status to the Centre.

Several legislators with whom Deccan Chronicle interacted, expressed their ire against Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi, holding him responsible for creating a fresh controversy and feared it may have a bearing on the partys poll prospects. The legislators are planning to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a day or two to impress on him the need to give the controversy a decent burial just like the much-publicised caste survey, being done at a whopping cost of Rs 180 crore.

The legislators questioned the timing of the controversy when the Congress is riddled with problems like the unrest in coastal Karnataka, the Parappana Agrahara central jail expose, transfer of honest and upright bureaucrats (DIG D Roopa) and introduction of the anti-superstition bill. Instead of completing pro-people welfare programmes, the government is mired in an unnecessary row, they asserted.

Lingayat voters are in a majority in Gadag, Bagalkote, Vijayapura, Dharwad, Haveri, Koppal, Bidar and other districts and can make or mar the prospects of candidates. The government's decision is likely to be seen as a sinister design by the CM to divide the community and break into the vote bank of the BJP. It would be like giving ammunition to the saffron party to make a fresh attack on the Congress which is trying to hold on to Lingayat-dominated constituencies it won in 2013, said the legislators.

They wondered why Mr Siddaramaiah was giving importance to Mr Rayaraddi for his misadventure to divide the Lingayat community which has remained united all these years. The Chief Minister is reportedly being influenced by a few ministers who feel the Lingayats can be divided by assuring them a separate religion identity. However, barring a few, the majority of Lingayat pontiffs are against this decision as they feel it amounts to government interference in community affairs.

How will the government react if a similar proposal comes from the Vokkaligas and Kurubas? wondered a Congress source.

A minister on the condition of anonymity said it would be suicidal for the Congress if it tries to divide the Lingayats with an eye on the Assembly polls. None in the past had dared to do this and it would be better for the Chief Minister to keep away from this controversy, he felt.

Some Congress leaders fear that State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa will give a political twist to the episode to paint the Congress as anti-Lingayat for trying to create a divide in the community.

Sending five ministers across the state to collect opinions about the separate religion status is not at a good idea at a time when the majority of districts are reeling under drought due to failure of the monsoon, they added.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar speaks to the media after meeting Governor KN Tripathi, in Patna on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, snapping an uneasy coalition cobbled together in the aftermath of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll debacle.

Kumar's resignation capped days of stand-off between his party JD(U), which was insisting on Tejashwi defending himself against the allegations, and the RJD, whose chief Lalu Prasad rejected the demand outright.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

He did not rule out taking BJP's support for forming a new government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption" saying the entire nation supports his honesty, a move seen as an effort to reach out to the BJP's former ally. JD(U) had ended its 17-year association with BJP after Modi was nominated the saffron party's campaign committee chief for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption."

"1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," he said in a series of tweets.

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," Modi said.

Kumar, when asked about the chances of his forming a government with BJP's support, said,"Whatever will be in the interest of Bihar will be done. Wait for the future to unfold. Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next."

Kumar said his resignation was accepted by the governor who asked him to continue as CM till an alternative arrangement has been made.

"I tried to work it out....I did not ask for anybody's resignation...I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

The sudden development has thrown the politics of Bihar into turmoil with no party having a majority in the 243-member Assembly. Kumar's JD(U) has 71 seats, while RJD headed by Tejashwi Yadav's father Lalu Prasad, has 80.

The BJP has 53. If JD(U) and BJP come together, the coalition would have a majority in the Assembly. State BJP president Nityanand Rai had recently spoken about the possibility of his party extending outside support to JD(U) but clarified the decision would be taken by its central leadership.

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the CBI registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Reacting to the development, Lalu gave a new twist to it, saying a pending case against Kumar and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejashwi was at the root the the JD(U) leader's "resignation drama".

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a woman was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish Kumar is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

He claimed a court in Barh had taken cognizance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna High Court.

"Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejashwi issue a ruse to exit before that happens," the RJD boss claimed.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejashwi over graft charges against him, saying "We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?"

"There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this. Nitish has slapped the people of Bihar and now people like Sushil Modi (a top state BJP leader and former deputy chief minister) are eager to form government with JD(U)," he said.

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the grand alliance government for "love of his son".

"We were the largest party in the grand alliance. Tejashwi got the post of the deputy chief minister. We had the mandate of the people," he said.

On his part Nitish Kumar said,"I ran the coalition government for 20 months, which is one-third the term of the grand alliance, despite facing great difficulties...but it was not possible for me to run the coalition any longer in such an environment."

Kumar said he had informed Lalu and Congress in-charge of Bihar C P Joshi before heading to the Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation.

"While supporting demonetisation, I had suggested that it could yield good results only if there is a simultaneous attack on benami property (a property which is not registered in the name of its real owner). How can I back out of it," he said.

Several members of Lalu's family, including his MP daughter Misa Bharti and son-in-law Shailesh Kumar have been accused of acquiring benami properties with tainted money.

Kumar said he had met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi seeking his intervention to resolve the issue. "I met Rahul Gandhi who had torn an ordinance that sought to enable people sentenced to more than two years in jail to contest elections (a move that was seen as an attempt to help

Lalu). But except for some superficial talk nothing happened," he said.

"I heard the voice of my conscience and decided to pull myself out of this coalition," he said.

He said he "knocked every door" to salvage the alliance, but in vain.

"They wanted me to save them in their time of crisis. Given my nature and style of work that could not have happened," Kumar said.

He said had Tejashwi resigned of his own volition, he would have grown in stature. "But everybody chooses his own path. I don't want to blame anybody."
New Delhi/Patna: Curtains fell on the Grand Alliance on Wednesday with Nitish Kumar resigning as Bihar Chief Minister and dumping his allies  the RJD and the Congress. The ghar wapsi of the Bihar Chief Minister, a former NDA ally, was complete as the BJP immediately swung into action and announced its support.

Mr Kumar is scheduled to be sworn-in on Thursday, probably with some new Cabinet colleagues. In Bihar Assembly, with 243 seats, the magic number is 122. While the JD(U) has 71 MLAs, the BJP has 53, taking their total to 124. Add to that NDA allies (the LJP, RLSP and HAM) five MLAs.

Mr Kumars home coming (he was part of the NDA till Narendra Modi became its PM candidate in 2014) is a major victory for the saffron brigade and a severe blow to the Opposition and its plan for a united secular alliance in 2019. That Mr Kumars surprise move to step down was a part of a well thought out script became somewhat evident as the PM Narendra Modi reacted instantly after the CM stepped down. Mr Modi tweeted, Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption."

Superior saffron plan outfoxes grand alliance

The Grand Alliance, led by RJD, Congress and other secular parties, was yet again outfoxed by a superior saffron game plan. With the RJDs 81 MLAs, Congress 27 and allies three legislators, the Grand Alliance is nowhere near the simple majority.

Infographic

The drama began to unfold at around 7.30 pm when Mr Kumar reached the Governors residence and put in his papers. The decision to quit was apparently over probity in office, as Mr Kumar wanted the deputy Chief Minister, Tejaswi Yadav, to step down following corruption charges.

The deputy Chief Minister, his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had made it clear that Tejaswi will not step down. Mr Kumar had also met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi last week to work out a solution. The Nitish camp claimed that the meeting between Mr Kumar and Mr Gandhi had failed to evoke any result and that the Chief Minister was disillusioned.

I met Bihar Governor and submitted my resignation. I have resigned because it was getting tough for me to work as the Chief Minister, the Bihar Chief Minister said. He said that while he had not asked anyone, including Tejaswi Yadav, to resign, he said, I told Lalu Yadav and Tejaswi that they must explain the charges publicly which they kept dodging.

As Mr Kumar resigned, the BJP in the national capital swung into action and messages were sent to the state unit to rush to the Governor before the Opposition could do so.

Sushil Modi met state legislators and party functionaries and declared the BJPs support for Mr Kumar. Mr Kumars decision to return to NDA fold is being viewed a move to back and be with the winning side.

With the Opposition in a complete disarray and indications that NDA-led by Mr Modi is all set to the return to power in 2019 general elections, Mr Kumar was in no mood to stick to the losing side, a JD(U) leader said.

Mr Kumar's decision to ally with the saffronites is expected to have minor tremors within the JD(U) as senior leader Sharad Yadav had made it clear that he would quit the party if the chief minister crossed over to the BJP.

While Mr Kumars switch could be a win-win situation for the BJP, the JD(U) could be in a fix during the 2019 general elections if Muslims and Yadavs remain loyal to RJD chief Lalu Yadav.
Europe has lost faith in humanity, and has become distrustful and sickly There are habits that are not merely passive but aggressively arrogant. They are not like mere walls, but are like hedges of stinging nettles.

Europe has been cultivating these hedges of habits for long years, till they have grown around her dense and strong and high. The pride of her traditions has sent its roots deep into her heart But pride in every form breeds blindness at the end.

These words could have been said yesterday. They were actually written more than 100 years ago by an Indian polymath who, in a poem composed on the last day of the 19th century, also observed: The naked passion of the self-love of nations, in its drunken delirium of greed, is dancing to the clash of steel and the howling verses of vengeance.

Rabindranath Tagore may have been surprised that the curse of febrile nationalism he so eloquently decried would still be a factor in international relations more than a century hence, not least in post-colonial Europe.

Not long after I acquired the Tagore text from which these quotations come some 35 years ago while at university in England, I was faced with a query on the pros and cons of nationalism during a tutorial on Marxism. What, in the context of communist orthodoxy, separated justifiable nationalism from the deplorable variety? The answer was simple: it depends on whether the trend arises in response to colonialism, or stands in opposition to internationalism.

In retrospect, that delineation broadly holds true. The kind of nationalism that fed liberation struggles  from pretty much the whole of Africa and Latin America to much of Asia, including not just India but also Bangladesh  is readily defensible in most respects. The Americans deemed themselves to be combating communism in Indochina, but what they came up against was to a large extent Vietnamese nationalism.

Is there any excuse, though, for nationalism in the 21st century? Theres plenty of evidence of it. In countries such as Poland  where Donald Trump did his bit to exacerbate it with his stupid speech recently about protecting Western civilisation  and Hungary, both of which, ironically on the face of it, were until the 1990s part of the sphere of influence superstructure after 1945.

They are by no means the only culprits, though. French voters propelled Marie Le Pen into the second round of this years presidential election in large part on account of her appeal to nationalism. A similar mindset was no doubt key to determining the result of Britains Brexit referendum: there may well be good reasons for exiting the EU, but the existing immigration rules are not among them.

From the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, Egypts Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Indias Narendra Modi and Israels Benjamin Netanyahu, almost every despot around the globe relies on nationalism to sustain himself in power and to enforce his agenda.

A mind as great as Tagores long ago designated nationalism as an infantile disease the measles of mankind. As in so many other respects, Albert Einstein was on the ball. Long afterwards, a Western cultural emblem declared: Imagine theres no countries/ It isnt hard to do/ Nothing to kill or die for/ And no religion too

The goal articulated in a lyric that a BBC poll designated the outstanding song of the 20th century may still seem out of reach, but many believe it remains worth striving for.

By arrangement with Dawn
The little guy is always going to have a sling-shot and some-one is going to pay for it  Vietnam and Afghanistan characterise this bloody guerrilla war  where the heavy hitters were roiled brutally. Using the topography to his advantage, the little guy has always managed to reprise the David bests Goliath story. In all such guerrilla wars, there is always an inflection point where the little guy stops running and starts hunting. The more powerful adversary is fatigued and in the woof and bark of gunfire ultimately gets burnt out and subjugated. The Soviets, Americans and Sri Lankans have seen the phenomenon of rising number of body bags and public opinion deflating cries of patriotism and jingoism. In Vietnam and Afghanistan, the US and Soviet Union were occupying forces and one can argue that they rightly received a bloody nose. Of course, the debate on one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist remains open ended.

India is peculiarly placed in this regard and while national and internal security should be one of the strongest suits of any right-wing government, the blatant mismanagement is by itself revelatory. From Islamic militancy to ethno-centric battles in Northeast to Maoists rejecting the notion of India, we have our own worries. In this game of moral hazard, the BJPs lust for power in Jammu and Kashmir has allowed Kashmir Valley to degenerate into a war zone. Not willing to alter the balance in state polity where the BJP is a junior coalition partner and clings on to power to rule the Jammu division, while the Hurriyat has virtually taken control of south Kashmir as legitimate soft separatism practicing PDP has vacated space leaving the Valley in complete ferment. By refusing to recall Governor N.N. Vohra, persisting with Ram Madhav as the interlocutor, the sore has reopened and is now festering. Incidents of militancy and terror have risen in the Northeast, while the spectre of Naxalism refuses to die down in Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand area, in the main Sukma-Jagdalpur forests where their writ runs large.

Has Indias deep state failed to deal with these internal security challenges? Is there a national and internal security doctrine in place? Do we have a one size fits all approach or are we approaching each adversity with a different stratagem? Now as we stand in perpetual eyeball to eyeball not just on the western front, but equally in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh pitted against a bellicose Chinese, a doctrine is imperative. More than that we need to combat insurgent and militant forces which subvert and threaten the idea of India. Agreed that these are a combination of terror proxies and local militia, but they have to be stamped out ruthlessly.

The narrative has changed alarmingly in Kashmir from the time the BJP-PDP coalition took power. The very first decision of the Mufti helmed government to release the dreaded Masrat Alam, ideological heir to Syed Ali Shah Geelani should have raised Cain, but the BJP at the Centre chose to ignore the first danger signal. And they have ignored several more since at their own peril. In March 2015 when the PDP decided to release him days after being sworn in, the BJP was blindsided and therein lies the continuing tale of woe. Barely an hour after taking oath on March 1, the chief minister credited separatists and Pakistan for the smooth conduct of Assembly polls in the Valley. Days later, eight PDP legislators described the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as a travesty of justice and demanded the return of his mortal remains. It was a carefully calibrated agenda. Finally, the PDP, which came under pressure from the BJP and the Centre government, rearrested Alam on April 17 for sedition and waging war against the state under the Public Safety Act. Alam had raised pro-Pakistan slogans in a separatist rally on April 15 where Pakistani flags were also hoisted.

Upping the ante was part of the mainstreaming of militancy programme undertaken by PDP. Push came to shove with self-styled commander Burhan Wanis killing by security forces last year. And since then, there has been mayhem. That the stone-pelters have been funded by Pakistan is a puerile admission of a stated fact. To continue saying that Pakistan is behind the chaos after nearly 30 years of bloodletting is like making mockery of the severe losses that the security forces have taken. Of course, all this is now known and in public domain, the discourse has to go beyond this, it has to bring closure to the running sore. That the rabid Hurriyat was on the verge of declaring parts of south Kashmir as a liberated zone is worrisome. That we dont have the political will to deal with Kashmir is a sorry and established fact. The government has the majority and it needs to push the envelope on a material transformation in Kashmir. Abrogate Article 370 and allow mobility and integration and resolve the issue once and for all. Take a meaningful decision and save lives of security forces. Kashmir has gone way beyond rhetoric like choosing between terrorism and tourism. Wahabi Salafism has polluted the Valley rapidly to create a new anti-India sentiment. To keep harping that a handful of districts and a handful of people in the Valley are running a pro-Pakistan agenda and holding the state to ransom is to continue deluding ourselves of the systemic risk to the idiom of India that exists on the ground in the Valley. Political Islam is a spanking new ideology that is riven with hate and anger.

A recent report confirms the spreading malaise and how we have been unable to cauterise these lacerations, which are much more than flesh wounds. The data, analysed by a national consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, contracted with the US state department, reveals that India is third after Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of terror attacks. Pakistan had held the position earlier. Out of 11,072 terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, India bore the brunt of 927, 16 per cent more than 2015 (798). The number of deaths in India also rose 17 per cent from 289 in 2015 to 337 last year while the number of injured increased from 500 in 2015 to 636 last year. On the other hand, the number of terror attacks in Pakistan reduced by 27 per cent to 734 in 2016 from 1,010 in 2015. The US analysis has labelled Naxals the third most deadly terror organisation in the world after ISIS and Taliban, even ahead of Boko Haram. The CPI (Maoist) was behind 336 terror attacks last year in which 174 people were killed and 141 were injured. More than half of the terror attacks in 2016 took place in four states  J&K, Chhattisgarh, Manipur and Jharkhand. What is worse is the alienation of Muslim Kashmir and the ever-widening trust deficit with Hindu India.

Waging war against the state can end only one way  a bullet-ridden body  there is no other recourse. At the same time, some sort of dialogue has to be initiated with the separatists for they control the minds and hearts of the angry youth.

Further, in spite of all the reaching out to the seven sisters in the Northeast, insurgency continues unabated particularly in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. India has to bring its national security doctrine up to speed to deal with these combat theatres. It has to be an effective combination of iron fist and velvet glove. We seem to be out of touch with both for the security forces and military installations are in the line of fire everywhere.
The three businesses that emerged as national winners under each of the categories are: Farida Gupta for Business Impact Through Digital, Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for Impacting Change Through Digital and Arpita Ganesh for Woman Business Leader. These businesses have excelled in innovative use of technology and have leveraged it to address challenges and grow their businesses.

Google India has reaffirmed its commitment to digitally empower Indias small and medium businesses. As part of its Digital Unlocked campaign, Google announced the national winners of SMB Heroes 2017, an initiative aimed at recognising businesses that have embraced technology to power their growth.

The three businesses that emerged as national winners under each of the categories are: Farida Gupta for Business Impact Through Digital, Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for Impacting Change Through Digital and Arpita Ganesh for Woman Business Leader. These businesses have excelled in innovative use of technology and have leveraged it to address challenges and grow their businesses.

Earlier this year, Google and KPMG had conducted a joint study, "Impact of internet and digitization on SMBs in India". As per the report, SMBs cited a lack of understanding of the benefits of digital technologies and technical skills as the essential reasons for being offline.

Recognizing the need to address these gaps, Google unveiled its Digital Unlocked program earlier this year. As part of this program, Google is providing online, offline and mobile trainings to empower thousands of Indian SMBs with essential digital skills. The offline training is being conducted in partnership with FICCI and in the last six months, over 500,000 individuals have engaged with the skilling platform and 20,000 businesses have been trained.

In addition, Google launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. In the last few months, Primer has been downloaded over two million times.

Google also launched 'Websites with Google My Business', a free tool for SMBs to create free, mobile optimised websites, easily and instantly. Through this new feature, businesses get access to templated, editable websites using their already existing data on Google My Business. With Websites with Google My Business SMBs can automatically build websites in 10 languages - Tamil, English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, and Malayalam. 160,000 Indian businesses are already using Websites with Google My Business and finding newer ways to connect with consumers.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
A new website will help journalists brand their creations with their own logos, help them credit their work and embed it on their own website. (Representational image)

Theres already a huge amount of innovation in virtual reality and immersive storytellingwith many newsrooms experimenting and succeeding in the fieldbut for some, the ability to create 360 content can still be limited.

Perhaps predicting the rise of 360 technology, in 2014 Australian creative agency Grumpy Sailor worked with Googles Creative Lab in Sydney on an experiment called Story Spheres, which stitches together photos and audio. It allows journalists, documentary makers and educators to tell powerful stories if they dont have access to video.

Working with the same team behind the first prototype, the Google News Lab is now supporting the next iteration of the project. Today new features will help publishersfrom individual journalists to large newsroomscreate and brand their immersive audio experiences. A new website will help journalists brand their creations with their own logos, help them credit their work and embed it on their own website. Its now even simpler to upload a 360 image, edit the imagery, add an audio layer and navigate from one experience to another.

In the UK, Trinity Mirror has already experimented with the new tool: The Liverpool Echo took their readers through the famous dockyards of the city, and the Manchester Evening News provided a snapshot of the flowers and balloons placed in St Anns Square as a tribute for the Manchester terrorist attacks. In Norway, Nettavisen has been experimenting with the tool by giving their readers a glimpse at the best podcasts for their readers this summer.

Emily McCartney, a coder and techxplorer at Grumpy Sailor, says the improved tool will help users, too: "There's so much news to consume, and people want to be able to jump between stories without losing any time, and Story Spheres help you do that."

Discover the tool for yourself, made by Grumpy Sailor with the support of Creative Lab in Sydney and the Google News Lab.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
The debate underscored the rift in the tech community on whether new technologies capable of creating intelligent machines like robots and self-driving cars would be a blessing or a curse for humanity.

Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg were trading jabs on social media over artificial intelligence this week in a debate that has turned personal between the two technology luminaries.

Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures, today claimed Zuckerberg's knowledge of artificial intelligence was "limited," two days after the Facebook founder described "naysayers" as "irresponsible."

The debate underscored the rift in the tech community on whether new technologies capable of creating intelligent machines like robots and self-driving cars would be a blessing or a curse for humanity.

Musk has long warned of the potential for machines to get so smart that humans become tantamount to pets, while Zuckerberg has touted the potential for artificial intelligence to improve lives. Facebook is among the Silicon Valley's largest investors in artificial intelligence.

While live streaming on the leading social network from his yard on Sunday, Zuckerberg touched on the topic while answering questions from viewers.

"With AI especially, I am really optimistic," Zuckerberg said.

"And I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios -- I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible."

When asked about Zuckerberg's comment early today during an exchange on Twitter, Musk wrote that he has discussed the topic with Zuckerberg and that "his understanding of the subject is limited."

Musk more than a year ago took part in creating a nonprofit research company devoted to developing artificial intelligence that will help people and not hurt them.

"If we create some digital super-intelligence that exceeds us in every way by a lot, it is very important that it be benign," Musk said a while back at a conference in

California.

He reasoned that even a benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI would put people so far beneath the machine they would be "like a house cat."

"I don't love the idea of being a house cat," Musk said, envisioning the creation of neural lacing that magnifies people's brain power by linking them directly to computing capabilities.

At a gathering of US governors this month, Musk contended that artificial intelligence is a terrifying problem and a threat to human civilization. He argued for the technology to be regulated sooner rather than later for risk of safeguards being put in place too late.

Smart machines could start wars or kill people in streets, Musk has warned. Musk is also behind a startup devoted to neural lace that would enable brains to interface directly with computers. Such a "Neuralink" would have the potential to level the playing field a bit by enabling people to directly access processing power and perhaps even download memories for storage.

Zuckerberg last year created his own personal "butler" imbued with artificial intelligence, named Jarvis, which plays with his family.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Trump accused Iran and Hezbollah, which the United States considers a "foreign terrorist organization," of fueling the humanitarian disaster in Syria. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump accused Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday of committing "horrible" crimes against humanity and vowed to prevent his regime from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

Speaking at a White House press conference with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Trump also called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East.

Trump pledged continued US military aid to Lebanon following his Oval Office meeting with Hariri.

"I'm not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible," Trump said.

Recalling that he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons, Trump said: "I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do."

Trump also claimed Syria today had his predecessor Barack Obama taken action against Assad after drawing a "red line in the sand."

"Had president Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I don't believe you'd have Russia, and I don't believe you'd have Iran, anywhere near the extent and maybe not at all, in Syria today," he said.

Trump accused Iran and Hezbollah, which the United States considers a "foreign terrorist organization," of fueling the humanitarian disaster in Syria.

"Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region," he said.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel," Trump said. "With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."

Hezbollah's "true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran," he added.

Trump demurred when asked to comment on possible additional sanctions against Hezbollah.

"I'll be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours," he said. "I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others, so I'll be making that decision very shortly."

Trump praised the Lebanese army for "fighting continually to guard Lebanon's border and prevent ISIS (the Islamic State group) and other terrorists... from gaining a foothold inside their country.

"The United States military has been proud to help in that fight and will continue to do so," he said. "America's assistance can help ensure that the Lebanese army is the only defender Lebanon needs."

The current draft State Department budget calls for cuts in US military assistance and analysts say Lebanon could be among the countries affected.
In the red line warning of 2013, Obama responded to reports that Assad had used chemical weapons by saying he would meet further chemical weapons use with force. (Photo: File)

Washington: President Donald Trump said he will not let Bashar al-Assad get away with using chemical weapons on his people in Syria, as he slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for not taking enough action on horrible acts against humanity in the war-ravaged country.

Had President Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I dont believe youd have Russia and I dont believe youd have Iran to anywhere near the extent, and maybe not at all, in Syria today, Trump told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday.

I am not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what hes done to that country (Syria) and to humanity is horrible. I have been saying that for a long time. I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do, he said.

In the red line warning of 2013, Obama responded to reports that Assad had used chemical weapons by saying he would meet further chemical weapons use with force. Later, Assad again used chemical weapons, and Obama opted to have Russia step in to remove them.

He (Assad) did it a number of times when President Obama drew the red line in the sand, and then he should have crossed that red line, because some horrible acts against humanity took place, including gas and the killing through gases. That was a bad day for this country, Trump said. He said the US is having extraordinary success against the ISIS.

One of the things that we have made tremendous strides at is getting rid of ISIS. We have generals that dont like to talk, they like to do, he said. Trump said the US has made tremendous strides against the Islamic State terror group in Syria, Iraq and other locations. Our military is an incredible fighting force. And as you know, I let the commanders on the ground do what they had to do, he said.

The US president added that before he took charge, The commanders had to call the White House and speak to people that didnt know what was happening, where they were, what locations, practically, probably never heard of the countries they were talking about or the towns.

Responding to another question, Trump said he would be making his position clear on the Hezbollah clear in the next 24 hours.

Ill be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours. Were going to see what is exactly taking place. I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others. So Ill be making that decision very shortly, he said.
Protesters take cover from fire thrown by riot police during a march towards the Ombudsman's Office in protest of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. (Photo: AP)

Villa Del Rosario: The flow of Venezuelans crossing the border into Colombia to escape unrest and penury at home has become a torrent because of fears of violence surrounding a weekend election organized by the government.

Thousands of them, many hauling overloaded suitcases, can be seen passing in both directions: some to seek refuge in the neighboring country, others returning after filling up on food and basic supplies missing in Venezuela.

Under the shade of a tree, Maria de los Angeles Pichardo, 29, was resting after crossing over at the Villa del Rosario frontier post with her husband and their four-year-old son.

"We had to move our trip forward because of the elections on Sunday. Honestly, we don't know what's going to happen, so to be safe we prefer to leave," she said, adding that their ultimate destination was in Peru.

The anxiety was triggered by an election called by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to choose members of a Constituent Assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

That plan, though, has been met with strikes and mass protests in Venezuela, opposition resistance and international alarm.

There are fears that deadly violence from four months of anti-Maduro protests and police repression, which have seen more than 100 killed, could surge.

There are also concerns that the US could make good on its threat to impose economic sanctions if the vote happens -- a devastating step for a country already in economic crisis and, some say, on the brink of civil war.

"There's no food, no security, and we don't know what will happen after Sunday" - Venezuelans cross the border into Colombia ahead of vote pic.twitter.com/8zIxVJOHj8  AFP news agency (@AFP) July 26, 2017

- Plan ready for exodus -

The head of Colombia's migration service, Christian Krueger, said that his country's authorities had a "contingency plan" ready for various possible scenarios, including a massive exodus of Venezuelans.

Definitive emigration, Pichardo said, was the only solution for her family. "There's no food to be found, you can't go to work with all the strikes, and there is no security," she said.

The outflow is already evident in the Colombian border town of Cucuta, where more and more spots have opened up selling Venezuelan food and hundreds of workers looking for under-the-table jobs mill in the squares.

While many Venezuelans see their neighbor as a stepping stone to other countries, Krueger said an estimated 300,000-350,000 already live in Colombia, most without proper residency papers.

William Galvis, a 45-year-old vendor who was born in Colombia but spent the past 23 years living in Venezuela, most recently with his Venezuelan wife and their eight-year-old daughter, said he saw no option but to bring them back to his birth country.

The inability to find medicine needed by his wife was the trigger for them to pack what they could in four suitcases and cross the border.

"Given that Maduro doesn't want to budge, unfortunately all we can do is come back here," he said.

"Most of the Venezuelans who came over with us are going on to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Colombia because they can no longer take the situation," he said.

- 'Critical' situation -

According to Colombia's migration officials, this week has seen a spike in the number of Venezuelans crossing over to buy food, especially as Monday was a holiday in Venezuela.

But a new nationwide strike the opposition has called for Wednesday and Thursday also spurred the flow of people.

The officials said around 25,000 Venezuelans enter Colombia each day, with around the same number leaving.

Many are doing round trips to pick up essential supplies unavailable in Venezuela, like rice, sugar, pasta and personal hygiene products. Some come looking for work.

One of those finding a job was Hengember Castillo, who was selling bus tickets.

"The situation we're living under in Venezuela is critical," the 40-year-old said.

"It's not easy to support a family. People look for a solution in coming and going to buy food here and take it back to their families."

In his case, he was desperate to find full-time employment in Colombia, despite its high unemployment rate, to take his wife and daughter to Bogota, where his mother and sister were already living.

Colombia's authorities say the Venezuelan crisis is a regional problem needing a regional solution. It has held meetings on the issue with various countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

"Clearly this is a situation that is not only up to Colombia, but for the region," Krueger said.
The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved 'sword-like' kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

Melbourne: A Sikh man in Australia was asked to take off his kirpan and "get out" of a bus when a passenger called police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said on Wednesday.

Police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland on Tuesday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.

"We looked out the window and we could see and the police car behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand and said to the guy, 'Get your hands up so we can see them and get out of the bus'," New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.

The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved "sword-like" kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed, said the witness.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan. She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed.

"Police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh." "He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in New Zealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken," the report said

The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated. A baptised Sikh has five articles of faith and the kirpan is one of them. The other four articles of faith are  kesh (uncut long hair), kanga (a comb), kara (an iron bracelet) and kachehra (under shorts).

Sikhism is a small but growing minority religion in Australia that can trace its origins in the nation to the 1830s. Australia is home to more than 72,000 Sikh, a population that is expected to rise in this year's census.
The plight of 11-month-old Charlie, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital. (Photo: AP)

London: The parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard on Tuesday accused the London hospital treating him of placing obstacles in the way of their son dying at home, but the hospital said it would like to fulfil their wish if practical.

The plight of 11-month-old Charlie, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The tragic case has elicited sympathy from far and wide, with US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis among those who have weighed in with views.

Charlies parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, on Monday abandoned their legal battle to prolong the life of their son, whom they had wanted to take to the United States to undergo an experimental treatment never before tried on anyone with his condition.

But doctors at Great Ormond Street believed the treatment had no realistic chance of helping Charlie and would only prolong his suffering.

Both parties were back at the London High Court on Tuesday, this time for a hearing on arrangements for Charlies life support to be switched off.

The parents lawyer, Grant Armstrong, said the hospital was placing obstacles in the way of their final wish to take their son home.

We struggle with the difficulties the hospital is placing in the way of the parents having a ... short period of time before the final act in Charlies short life, Armstrong told the court.

Minutes later, the lawyer representing the hospital said the couple had rejected an offer of mediation.

Katie Gollop also said Great Ormond Street would like to fulfil the wish of Charlies parents if practical.

The care plan must be safe, it must spare Charlie all pain and it must protect his dignity. At the same time, the plan must honour his parents wishes about two matters in particular namely the time and place of his passing, the hospitals lawyers wrote in a document presented to the court.

The document said that the invasive ventilation Charlie required was only provided in a hospital setting. Among other practical problems, it said, the ventilator would not fit through the front door of Charlies home.

Charlie is a child who requires highly specialised treatment. His care cannot be simplified. It must be provided in a specialist setting by specialists, the document said.
Brussels: The European Union on Wednesday said it held deep reservations over a vote by the US House of Representatives to impose tough new sanctions on Russia that may affect energy flows to Europe.

European commissioners, the EU executive's top officials, "expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill's possible impact on EU energy independence," the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on the matter.

The commission added that it remained "ready to act to protect European interests" if the concerns were not addressed by US lawmakers, repeating a threat made in May by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

The sanctions package, which also targets North Korea and Iran, passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday in Washington and now heads for expected passage by the Senate.

The legislation is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels worries the fresh wave of measures could end up penalising European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector.

While the bill "demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account", it nevertheless foresees "sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernisation or repair of energy export pipelines" of Russia, the EU said.

"Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe," including those transiting through Ukraine, the statement said.

The EU also raised worry over the law's impact on a major natural gas project out of the Baltic states.

Brussels further decried the sanctions bill as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupted previous close cooperation on measures against Russia.

To date, sanctions against Moscow have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic to maintain a united front.

The EU and US imposed the sanctions in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 as the Ukraine crisis deepened with the ouster of a pro-Moscow government.

In addition to the Crimea measures, the EU imposed damaging economic sanctions against Russia after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, blamed by the EU on the rebels.
Tehran: President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran would respond in kind to any breach by the United States of the 2015 nuclear deal after the House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same too," Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting aired by state broadcaster IRIB.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

"We must always develop our defence capability and we will strengthen our defensive weapons regardless of the opinion of others," Rouhani said.

The US House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields".

Araghchi led the negotiating team that reached the deal with world powers in 2015 known as the JCPOA, under which Iran agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

The new sanctions bill "can influence the successful implementation of the JCPOA and reduce Iran's benefits under the JCPOA," Araghchi said.

"That's why it is incompatible with various sections of the JCPOA which the US has committed to implement with good intention and in a constructive atmosphere," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The UN and other signatories to the nuclear deal have agreed that Iran has stuck to its commitments, which has been reluctantly accepted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

"The new US administration has been forced to confirm Iran's loyalty to the deal twice within the past six months and it has had no other option as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in various reports has clearly expressed Iran's compliance with its commitments," Araghchi said.

Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday also raised the prospect of retaliation after an overwhelming vote by the US House of Representative to impose new sanctions left President Donald Trump facing a tough call.

The sanctions package, which also targets Iran and North Korea, "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," House Speaker Paul Ryan said after it passed Tuesday by 419 votes to three.

It now heads to the Senate before Trump faces the tricky choice of whether to veto the bill, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.

There is broad support in the Senate for the tougher measures, but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

The legislation is the result of a congressional compromise reached last weekend and is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and intervening in Ukraine.

European firms working with the Russian energy sector, however, fear that the bill could end up hitting them.

"Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has invaded its neighbour Ukraine, seizing its territory and destabilising its government," House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said, applauding the bill's passage. "Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression."
Doha: Qatar said on Wednesday that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a "disappointing surprise" in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.

The four Arab governments named 18 organisations and individuals on Tuesday that they accused of links with Islamist extremism and Qatar.

The move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Qatari government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani official said the blacklist had no basis in fact and was aimed at stripping the emirate of its sovereignty.

"It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," he said in a statement.

"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.

"All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries."

The four governments issued a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups last month. Sheikh Saif said it had been "widely rejected by the international community".

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate's only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a "terror group" by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar's efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

But after talks with European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.

"We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations," Shoukry told a press conference.
India will use a BRICS meeting to be hosted by China this week to seek greater counter-terrorism cooperation, with focus on denying terrorists access to finance and weapons.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, will call for expanding counter terrorism cooperation within the BRICS nations, when he will attend a meeting with his counterparts from other nations in the bloc, which comprises Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa. Yang Jiechi, the State Councillor of China, will host the meeting of BRICS High Representatives responsible for National Security in Beijing on Thursday and Friday.



Notwithstanding the current face-off between Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army in western Bhutan, both New Delhi and Beijing are keen to ensure that their cooperation with Brazil, Russia and South Africa within the multilateral framework of the BRICS remains unaffected by strains in India-China bilateral relations.



Even as the face-off continued in Doklam Plateau along disputed China-Bhutan border, an informal meeting of the BRICS leaders at Hamburg in Germany earlier this month saw Chinese President Xi Jinping lauding the momentum the bloc received during chairmanship of India, before it was passed on to his country following the summit at Goa in October 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said at the same meeting that India would extend full copperation to China in holding the next summit at Xiamen in southeastern coast of China from September 3 to 5 this year.



Yang and Doval are also Special Representatives of China and India for negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute. Yang is likely to hold a bilateral meet with Doval on the sideline of the BRICS security meeting this week, as it is customary for the host of such multilateral conclaves to have separate meeting with each of his guests leading the delegations of the respective countries. Sources, however, told the DH in New Delhi that Yang-Doval meeting might not immediately end the face-off between India and China.



Doval will call upon his counterparts from the BRICS nations to strive to expand counterterrorism cooperation within the bloc to include measures for denying terrorists access to finance and terror-hardware, such as equipment, arms and ammunition. He is also likely to underscore the need for a global legal regime to deal with the menace of international terrorism.



He will also stress the need to combat terrorism in all its manifestation, without making a distinction between good terrorists and bad terrorists.



Beijing's persistent policy of blocking New Delhi's bid to bring anti-India terrorists based in China's all-weather friend Pakistan under United Nations sanctions has been one of the several irritants between the two nations over the past couple of years.



Yang, Doval and their counterparts from the other BRICS nations will discuss ways to strengthen joint efforts on enhancing cyber security by sharing of information and best practices, combating cyber-crimes, improving cooperation between technical and law enforcement agencies including joint cyber security research and development and capacity building, sources said in New Delhi.



The situation in Afghanistan-Pakistan region and West Asia will also figure in the meeting of BRICS High Representative responsible for High Security.
A Sikh man in Australia was asked to take off his kirpan and "get out" of a bus when a passenger called police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said today.



Police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland yesterday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.



"We looked out the window and we could see and the police car behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand and said to the guy, 'Get your hands up so we can see them and get out of the bus'," New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.



The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved "sword-like" kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed, said the witness.



A police spokeswoman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan.



She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed.

"Police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh."



"He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in New Zealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken," the report said



The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated.



A baptised Sikh has five articles of faith and the kirpan is one of them. The other four articles of faith are - kesh (uncut long hair), kanga (a comb), kara (an iron bracelet) and kachehra (under shorts).



Sikhism is a small but growing minority religion in Australia that can trace its origins in the nation to the 1830s.



Australia is home to more than 72,000 Sikh, a population that is expected to rise in this year's census.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the annual UN General Assembly session here in September and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the high-level session, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN.



According to the first provisional list of speakers for the General Debate of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, Swaraj will address the high-level session on the morning of September 23. She had addressed the General Debate last year as well.



The General Debate will open on September 19 and run through September 25. All eyes will be on US President Donald Trump, who will deliver his first address to global leaders from the General Assembly hall's iconic green podium on September 19. The US is traditionally the second speaker on the opening day of the General Debate, after Brazil.



According to the list of speakers, Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address global leaders on September 21.



Modi had visited Washington late last month for his first bilateral meeting with Trump.

Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014.



In 2015, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when the world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.



He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation. The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.




A city-bound flight from Dubai suffered a technical snag after landing at the airport here but all 184 passengers and crew onboard got down safely, officials said today.



Pilots of the private carrier noticed 'minor black smoke' from an engine after the flight landed, senior airport officials said.



Security and airport officials were put on standby but all 177 passengers exited the aircraft safely, they said.



A technical crew later attended to the snag and the carrier resumed its return flight to Dubai, they added.


An overwhelming vote by the US House of Representatives to slap tough new sanctions on Moscow is a "serious step" towards wrecking chances of improving ties, Russia's deputy foreign minister said today.





"What has happened goes beyond the realms of common sense," Sergei Ryabkov told state-run TASS news agency.



"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities for normalising relations with Russia."



The sanctions package -- which also contains measures aimed at Iran and North Korea -- passed 419 to three on Tuesday after weeks of negotiations.



It now heads to the Senate before President Donald Trump will face the tricky choice of whether to veto the legislation, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.



If Trump does sign off on the bill then Russia looks likely to retaliate, with Ryabkov insisting Moscow has warned Washington "dozens of times" that any new sanctions would "not go unanswered."



But for now Moscow appears to be keeping its powder dry as it waits to see how Trump reacts.



"We are not giving in to emotions," Ryabkov said.



"We will work to look for ways to move ahead, persistently and consistently searching for ways to compromise of issues important to Russia and the US."



Ties between Russia and the US plummeted to their lowest point since the Cold War after the Kremlin's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 saw Washington impose sanctions on Moscow.



Trump repeatedly pledged during his campaign to try to boost relations with Russia, but allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the vote to get him to the White House have made any signs of going soft on Moscow politically toxic.
At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in Kandahar province, the defence ministry said today, the latest blow to struggling security forces.





The militants "attacked an army camp in Karzali area of Khakrez district of Kandahar last night," MoD spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said.



Afghan soldiers "bravely resisted", he said, killing more than 80 insurgents.



Residents in the area described an hours-long attack launched by a 30-strong convoy carrying "hundreds" of Taliban who assaulted the base from multiple directions.



Air support was called in, several residents told AFP, though that was not immediately confirmed by officials. The insurgents claimed the attack via their Twitter account.



The resurgent Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against beleaguered government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in the war-torn country throughout the warmer weather fighting season.



Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and non-existent "ghost soldiers" on the payroll, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.



According to US watchdog SIGAR, casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed.



The insurgents have carried out more complex attacks against security forces in 2017.



In April more than 140 soldiers are believed to have been killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the deadliest ever Taliban attacks on a military installation.



While in early March gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital -- the country's largest military hospital -- in Kabul, killing dozens.
The government needs to exit infrastructure projects and even look at handing over jails, schools and colleges to the private sector as happens to be the case in countries like Canada and Australia, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said today.



At the same time, he was highly critical of India's private sector, terming it as "most irrational" and "insensitive".



Kant said it messed up projects by aggressive bidding and creating current crisis in the public private partnership (PPP) model.



"The government has done a lot of big projects but the government is not good at operation and maintenance. Therefore, the government must start the process of reverse BOT (build, operate and transfer), must sell out projects and let the private sector handle it," he said addressing India PPP Summit 2017, organised here by industry body Ficci.



Citing the example of dirty bathrooms at airports, which fall under the Airport Authority of India, he said: "We must bring in the private sector. That is, the fastest way to bring in private sector and bring private sector money back in infrastructure. These projects are fully de-risked."



He added: "The country needs to move into new areas of PPP. There is no need where jails, schools, colleges should be run in government sector. At least experience of many countries like Canada and Australia shows that private sector is capable of doing very good work in creation of quality infrastructure over a long period of time in social sector."



Kant also said that there were huge opportunities for the private sector in India like station re-development projects, Port construction and Sagarmala projects.



There is no shortage of money in the market and India can use the opportunity by de listing its projects, he said.



"Need of the hour is to market these projects well," he said, adding that even the freight corridor being built should be privatised.



"The dedicated freight corridor build by railways can reduce journey of 14 days to 14 hours which is a paradigm shift that India is looking for," Kant said.



Blaming the private sector for the current crisis in PPP investment in India, he said there are hundreds of examples where private sector has gone for aggressive bidding and didnt bother to do due-diligence as a result of which the PPP mode has got a setback.



"Private sector has performed very badly... Private sector in India is most irrational, insensitive I have seen, Kant said citing the example of aggressive bidding in highways and coal sectors.



He said it is high time that the private sector understood that in the long run it causes pain to itself and it causes pain to Indian economy and that the bidding should be made at a rational basis.



Citing the example of Delhi-Jaipur expressway he said it is time that the private sector should do rational bidding and execute projects in a time bound manner.



Kant also stressed the need of restructuring the model concession agreement (MCA) so that the private sector gets more incentives and is encouraged for investments.


The Union Government has agreed to release a commemorative coin to mark the birth centenary celebrations of AIADMK Founder and late Chief Minister M G Ramachandran, popularly called as 'MGR'.



Conveying the information, AIADMK rebel leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam said based on his request to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Union Finance Ministry had promised to issue a commemorative coin.



Panneerselvam in his recent letter to Modi, said it would be a fitting tribute to a great leader, who was eternally embedded in the hearts of the people of the State, to issue a commemorative coin and a special postal stamp.




Qatar said today that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a "disappointing surprise" in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.



The four Arab governments named 18 organisations and individuals on Tuesday that they accused of links with Islamist extremism and Qatar.





The move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.



Qatari government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani official said the blacklist had no basis in fact and was aimed at stripping the emirate of its sovereignty.



"It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," he said in a statement.



"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.



"All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries."



The four governments issued a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups last month. Sheikh Saif said it had been "widely rejected by the international community".



Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.



They sealed the emirate's only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.



They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a "terror group" by the four governments although not by the international community.



They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al- Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.



Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.



US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar's efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.



But after talks with European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.



"We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations," Shoukry told a press conference.
Later, Tejashwi argued that he wont clarify on his resignation every day. The people of Bihar has given a mandate to Grand Alliance till 2020. And the alliance will remain intact despite the BJP making unsuccessful bid to derail Nitish regime, said the Deputy CM.



Amid growing clamour from the BJP-led Opposition, gunning for Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadavs scalp, the RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday made it clear that his son wont resign from the Nitish Cabinet.Hours before he left for Ranchi where he has to appear before court in fodder scam cases, Lalu said, The question of Tejashwis resignation does not arise precisely because Nitish, as the Chief Minister of Bihar, has never asked for it.Lalu was speaking to media after the meeting of RJD Legislature Party (RJDLP), which was convened two days before the onset of Monsoon session of Bihar Assembly, was over.Lalus assertion comes on a day when his Man Friday and former MP Shivanand Tiwary lambasted Nitish for stretching the strained ties too far. Nitish khud doodh ke dhule hain kya? (Is Nitish himself a dry honest man?). I know Nitish for the last 40 years. If Tejashwi is forced to resign, then someone else may stumble out Nitishs old cases too. In that case, it will be difficult for Nitish to respond, said Tiwary.The former Rajya Sabha member, who has worked with the RJD as well as the JD (U), said, Nitish should stop pretending to be showing zero tolerance towards corruption. When he was willing to unite Janata Parivar and join hands with Chautalas, was he not aware that Chautala (former Haryana CM) was jailed on corruption charges.Mincing no words in slamming Nitish, Tiwary said, The entire political crisis could have been resolved if Nitish had held a one to one talks with Lalu. But Nitish has shown no such magnanimity. What kind of leadership is this? If he cant run a coalition of three parties in Bihar, how can he dream of running or heading a coalition of 18-19 parties at the Centre in 2019?
The 15-crore memorial of former President of India's Dr A P J Abdul Kalam in Tamil Nadu will be dedicated to the nation on Thursday.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be arriving to Peykarambu in Rameswaram to inaugurate Kalam's memorial, which was constructed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).



The memorial has been built near the tomb where Dr Kalam was laid to rest exactly two years ago on that date.



While a model of Agni-II missile which weighs four-tonne and is 45-feet in height has been set up in Kalams memorial, a life-size seven-foot tall bronze statue of Kalam has been installed behind the memorial building.



Modi will also flag off Kalam 2020 Science Vehicle, a digital-based mobile museum, which was made by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam International Foundation.



The vehicle will showcase Kalams scientific achievements during his school days and while at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and DRDO.



Rare photos of Agni Missile and Pokhran-II nuclear bomb test will also be displayed in the vehicle.



Sources from Kalam's foundation said the vehicle will travel across the country and will reach the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi on 15 October, the birthday of Kalam.



According to officials, the model of Agni-II missile which weighs four-tonne and is 45-feet in height has been set up in Kalams memorial.


It was cheers and tears all around when Rajesh Doshi was rescued after 15 hours from the rubble of the Siddhi Sai apartments at the Damodar Park area of Ghatkopar that caved in on Tuesday.



The 57-year-old Doshi, who has been staying in one of the flats at the ill-fated building was rescued around 2.45 AM in the wee hours of Wednesday.



As he was brought out and being escorted in a stretcher to the ambulance  it was a matter or cheers and tears. Several eyes welled and several hands clapped when they saw Doshi raising folded handed hands and thanking everyone. The Thank You gesture touched all and the 'bambawalas', as the firemen are referred to in Gujarati.



Rescuing him had not been an easy task and it also involved some efforts of Rajesh also.



His wife, Reeta Doshi (53) and son Darshan (25), was lucky as they were outside the house  and perhaps the prayers of the family was answered. Minutes before the four-storeyed structure came down between 1030 and 1045 AM on Tuesday, Darshan took out his bike to leave his mother to the temple.



I have got a second life, said Doshi Sr, adding that his cellphone helped him. I was in the bed relaxing and the roof came down with a bang, he said, adding that he was motionless for several hours. In fact, he had recently underwent an operation and his left leg had a plaster.



But I managed to get hold of my cell, narrated Doshi, adding that he could manage to dial his sons number  around 5.10 PM. My father told me that he was safe, said Darshan. Thereafter, he spoke to his wife, Reeta, who had been camping at the site since the morning, sobbing and praying.



"He repeatedly said that "I am safe'...and 'I can hear you'," he said. The firemen could reach towards him 9 PM.



In fact, I was on my bed.my leg was trapped and I had no strength to move, he said, adding: "I believe in my karma and dharma.....the aatma is the paramatma."



But for the teams of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), it was not an easy task. We had not take all precautions that we do not disturb the site, said a MFB official, adding that slowly and slowly they removed the rubble. Some water bottles was sent through a rope. Thereafter, we cut the slabs one by one and kept on removing debris and ensured that it does not fall down, the officials said.



Rajesh, a former municipal contractor and advertising agent, was rushed to the Shantiniketan Hospital, where is condition was described as stable.




Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accused India of "undermining" the spirit of the SAARC by "casting shadows" of bilateral issues on the multilateral forum for regional cooperation.



In a joint press conference with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen here, Sharif yesterday said that the last Islamabad SAARC summit was not the first time that India caused harm to the SAARC by seeking its postponement.





"It had done so on four occasions," he claimed.



After holding talks with Yameen, Sharif said Pakistan and the Maldives have agreed to work together to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a vibrant organisation and a vehicle to realise their shared dreams for a peaceful and prosperous region.



"India undermined and violated the spirit of SAARC Charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).



"We, however, remain grateful for President Yameen's support regarding the SAARC summit in Islamabad," he added.



Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue.



India pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad last year citing increased "cross-border" attacks after heightened tension with Pakistan over Uri terror attack.



Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.



Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) slammed President Yameen for his "deafening silence" while Sharif attacked India during the press conference.



"President Yameen said nothing" when Sharif accused India of harming SAARC and claimed that both Maldives and Pakistan share similar views on SAARC, the opposition party, headed by ousted president Mohamed Nasheed, said in a statement.



"We are extremely concerned about Yameen's refusal to clarify the Maldives' position on the SAARC," it said.



It said that by failing to correct Sharif at the press conference, Yameen had "effectively sided with the Pakistani version of events."



"The SAARC summit in Islamabad had to be postponed because of continued instability in the region. Terror attacks in India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, as well as in Pakistan, made the timing and location unconducive to a high-level meeting," the party said.



The party reminded President Yameen that it was India which came to the Maldives' assistance and protected its sovereignty during the November 3, 1988 attempted coup.



Nasheed became the Maldives' first democratically-elected president in 2008, but he was narrowly defeated by Yameen five years later in a controversial run-off election.



In 2015, Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. He lives in exile in Britain after being granted leave to go there for medical treatment.



Sharif, who is here on a three-day official visit on an invitation of President Yameen, attended the island nation's 52nd Independence Day celebrations as the chief guest.



During the meeting between Sharif and Yameen, the two countries agreed to further enhance their bilateral ties in various fields, overcome common challenges and work jointly to make SAARC a vibrant organisation.



Sharif also briefed Yameen on Pakistan's efforts to fight the scourge of terrorism.

"We have launched successful operations against terrorists and have won important victories," he said.



The two countries signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, trade, education, capacity building of civil servants and training for diplomats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out the first signal by congratulating Nitish Kumar for taking a stand against corruption.



In a series of tweets, Modi said, Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption... 125 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty. Interestingly, Nitish thanked Modi for his tweet.



Modi also insisted: For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption.



Tactful move

Modis quick response was interpreted as an attempt to make it tough for Nitish to form the grand alliance again if Tejashwi Yadav offers to stay away.



The BJP parliamentary board, which met on Wednesday evening to decide on candidates to fill 10 vacancies in the Rajya Sabha, took note of Nitishs move.



Briefing the media after the meeting, senior BJP leader J P Nadda said the partys central leadership was not in favour of a midterm election.



This was seen as an open overture to the JD(U) that the NDA was willing to offer support to form a new coalition.



Nitish had parted ways with the NDA in 2013 over Narendra Modis elevation as the NDAs poll mascot ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.



Nadda said a three-member panel has been formed in Bihar to talk to BJP MLAs and report to the leadership for taking a call on the crisis.



Simultaneously, in Patna, too, BJP leader Sushil Modi held a press conference to announce that his party was against seeking a fresh mandate.



The former deputy chief minister has been egging Nitish to review ties with the RJD-Congress coalition after he levelled serious corruption charges against Lalu's family.



Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is from Bihar, said, Nitish-Lalu alliance was a mismatch and this was bound to happen.
The Enforcement Directorate today got three more days from a Delhi court to interrogate a woman director of two Dubai-based firms, in connection with its probe in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper money laundering case.



Special judge Arvind Kumar extended the custody of Shivani Saxena, a director of Ms UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, both located in Dubai, after she was produced from her earlier ED custody.



The ED had sought her custody for five days, alleging that she was required to be confronted with various incriminating documents to ascertain the proceeds of the crime and the money trail.



It also told the court that due to her poor health, the probe during her custody period moved at a slow pace. Her advocate, however, opposed the plea citing her health condition.



The court will also hear arguments on Saxena's bail plea on July 29, the next day of hearing.



The ED had arrested Saxena on July 17 from Chennai in Tamil Nadu.



The agency had said she was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).



Saxena and her husband Rajiv are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).



The ED alleged that the two Dubai-based firms Saxena was involved with are those "through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others" in this case.



The agency had said that its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.



"These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to Ms UHY Saxena and Ms Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," it had said.



The ED had also claimed that Saxena's husband Rajiv is the "beneficial owner of Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius".



It alleged that both the Dubai companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm.



The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan last year and he is out on bail at present.



The probe in the deal had gathered pace after a Milan (Italy) court sometime back sentenced Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica's former chief Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini on corruption charges in the sale of these helicopters to India.



The Milan court order also mentions the name of former IAF chief S P Tyagi at several points.



Post this, the ED and the CBI began a fresh round of questioning of the accused in this case and collection of further evidences.



The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and had named 21 people, including Tyagi, in its money laundering FIR.



On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary Agusta-Westland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal.
Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived here today to attend BRICS top security officials meeting during which he is expected to hold talks with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.



Doval arrived here to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing which is due to take place on July 27-28. His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in Sikkim sector.



As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries. The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.



The BRICS NSAs meeting is being hosted by Yang. Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.



China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.



Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Yang to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.



Though China continued to maintain that there wont be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.



Both sides acknowledged talks through diplomatic channels to ease tensions.



Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area. China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.



Ahead of Doval's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area. He also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue.



Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.



"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Lu told a media briefing. Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.



He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops' withdrawal. "I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into Chinas territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said.



External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border stand.
On a day of fast-changing political developments, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar was elected the leader of the NDA Legislature Party hours after he resigned as the chief minister of Bihar.



Nitish quit after ally and RJD chief Lalu Prasad ruled out his son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadavs resignation, drawing the curtains on the fortnight-long political uncertainty in Bihar, and with it the end of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress Grand Alliance.



Nitish was apparently peeved over Tejashwi not quitting despite the CBI lodging an FIR against him in a corruption case.



Nitishs election as the NDA leader took place at a meeting of the JD(U) and BJP legislators at the chief ministers official residence  1, Aney Marg.



He is likely to be sworn in as chief minister on Thursday evening, while senior BJP leader Sushil Modi is tipped to be his deputy  a post he held until June 2013 before Nitish snapped ties with the BJP.



The BJP hurriedly extended its support to Nitish to thwart any move by Lalu whose RJD is the single-largest party in the Assembly. The BJP with 53 MLAs and the JD(U)s 71 legislators together can easily cross the halfway mark of 122 in the 243-member Assembly.



Besides, other BJP allies  LJP (2), RLSP (2) and Jitan Ram Manjhis HAM (1)  are likely to join the government. The BJPs letter of unconditional support to Nitish has been submitted to the governor by Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai, said Sushil Modi.



The developments took place as Lalu left for Ranchi to appear before a trial court for three consecutive days in connection with the fodder scam cases.



Tried to save alliance

Earlier in the day, Nitish said, I have tendered my resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi as it was not possible for me to continue as Bihar CM under the present circumstances. By doing this, I have listened to my conscience, he said soon after coming out of Raj Bhavan.



Reiterating that he would never compromise on his assiduously-cultivated image of a clean politician, Nitish said, I, on my part, tried my level best that Tejashwi should come clean on the charges made by the CBI and other investigating agencies. I spoke to Congress leaders too. But no amount of persuasion and mediation could make RJD leaders change their decision. We, the Socialists, have been told by our mentors that the focus should be on governance, not greed.... Still, I dont want to blame anyone. I was not comfortable working in this environment, so I have put in my papers.



The resignation came after a meeting of JD(U) MLAs at Nitishs residence.



In a related development, Governor Tripathi was admitted to Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science when he complained of a nose infection late on Wednesday evening.
In the wake of enormous illegalities, Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has cancelled the licence of 17 massage parlours in the city.



Measures have also been taken to check skill game centres that have been primarily found flouting rules in a blatant manner.



MCC Health Officer Manjaiah Shetty told media on Monday that the licences of massage parlours were cancelled as they had obtained trade licence as Ayurvedic therapy centres. Prior to that, notices were issued seeking explanation from the owners, he added.



In the case of skill game centres, meanwhile, the health inspectors of the particular wards have been told to identify and submit reports within a week. According to a recent court order, indoor games like rummy, poker, carom and chess only can be allowed at skill game centres, he specified.



Earlier, Mayor Kavita Sanil told the media that, following the recent raid on a skill game centre in the city, illegal activities came to fore. The very action seems to have gone down well with the public too, who have been sharing their agony, with most of their wards falling prey to such game centres, she said.



Quoting a woman who had called only to share her agony, the mayor said, the womans college-going son had bunked classes for one year and had been a regular at such centres.



The mayor, who appeared unfazed with the recent court case filed by the owner of a skill game centre against her along with the health officer and local police inspector, said she has been emboldened by the overwhelming support from the public.



During the third monthly phone-in held by the mayor, a woman caller also congratulated Sanil for showing chutzpah in raiding a skill game centre.



Lighthouse Hill Road

Dr Arun Rao complained to the mayor about the lack of adequate footpath facility on a stretch of the Lighthouse Hill Road, while the youth riding two-wheelers on the space meant for pedestrians have been adding to the woes of senior citizens.



Another senior citizen Chandrashekar Acharya wanted the mayor to create a WhatsApp group to enable people to air their grievances in a jiffy. He also brought to her notice, the stopping of road widening work from Indira Hospital Junction to Kankanady, which has been causing inconvenience to senior citizens cropping up safety issues.



Naveen from Pumpwell complained about the potholes filled stretch of road from Pumpwell towards Karavali Circle and also Father Muller Hospital Junction (bypass road).
A huge protest rally was organized by the District Building and Other Construction Workers Association against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the district administration in solving the sand problem that exists in the district near Clock Tower on Wednesday.



A huge protest procession was held to lay siege to the MLAs (district in-charge ministers) office, however, police stopped the agitators near Diana Circle. The protest continued with the agitators shouting slogans against the state government, district administration and the peoples representatives of all the five Assembly constituencies, especially against District In-charge Minister Pramod Madhwaraj.



Raising the issue, the State Building and Other Construction Workers Association state secretary Suresh Kallagar alleged that the district administration has utterly failed to tackle the sand crisis in the district, which has resulted in thousands of labourers and their families struggling for livelihood. Sand has become priority of the privileged and illegal transaction has increased rampantly. The district administration is mum towards the illegal activities, he complained.



Govt least bothered

Kallagar also alleged that the labourers are suffering but the state government is least bothered. He purported that the government is snatching away the rights of the labourers. The government has always had a step-motherly attitude towards construction workers.



He questioned why the labourers should tolerate the government and ministers who do not have humanity and sympathy. Insufficient staff in the Labour Department has resulted in the delay in the disposal of files, he alleged.



CITU district secretary Balakrishna Shetty alleged that the state government has assured to waive the loans of farmers, however, it is using the welfare funds of the labourers to waive the loans of the farmers. There is Rs 5,670 crore in Labour Welfare Board. The state government has transferred the amount to Apex Bank from the nationalised banks. The measure is taken in order to ensure that the amount of the loan of the farmers would be transferred to cooperative societies. It is total injustice meted out to the poor labourers who have been struggling to meet their both ends.



In the past 11 years, the government has only given Rs 177 crore for the children of the labourers from the Labour Welfare Board. The government is assuring to offer smart phones to labourers, which is hilarious. The poor labourers are unable to earn two square meals per day, how can they manage the currency for the smart phones, he asked.



The government should think matured over the basic necessities when compared to the all lavish materials which makes no sense, he censured and added that Kerala government has earmarked Rs 900 crore every year for the welfare of the poor labourers although it is a small state.



The Karnataka government had assured PF and houses for the labourers in the present fiscal budget, but in vain. The assurances has remained mere a lip service, he added. A state-level protest will be held on September 4 in Bengaluru demanding for the minimum wages of Rs 18,000, Shetty said.
Demanding to accelerate the process of distribution of various benefits from the government to construction workers, the labourers under the aegis of Building and Other Construction Workers Association staged a protest in front of the deputy commissioners office on Wednesday.



The protesters took out a procession from Gandhi Maidan to the deputy commissioners office and shouted slogans against the officials from Labour department.



Addressing the protesters, associations general secretary A C Sabu accused the officials of delaying the distribution of benefits citing the reason of shortage of staff.



By delaying distribution of financial assistance for marriage, pension and other aid, the officials are doing injustice to the labourers family.



The protesters urged to sanction the facilities within one month of submitting application. Even the migrant labourers should be provided with identity card from Labourers Welfare Board. The protesters said, The government should sanction housing scheme for building workers. The federation of construction workers under the aegis of CITU should be given representation in the welfare board.



Speaking after accepting the memorandum, district labour officer Ramakrishna said, All the works that can be taken up at district level will be completed within 15 days. The problems faced by the construction workers will also be brought to the notice of higher authorities as well.
Block Congress workers staged a protest at Hanumantappa Circle in Chikkamagaluru on Wednesday and urged the district administration to reinstall the Vivekananda statue at Dantaramakki Kere Dibba.



The protestors said that the idol installed at Dantaramakki Kere Dibba does not resemble Swamy Vivekananda at all. This is an insult made to the national icon. Stern actions should be initiated against those who are responsible for the flaw.



The morphed image should be removed and a flawless statue should be installed at the spot, they said and shouted slogans against the BJP.



KPCC general secretary M L Murthy, District Congress Committee president Dr D L Vijayakumar, Block Congress president H P Manjegowda, Youth Congress district Committee president K V Shivakumar and former MLC Gayatri Shantegowda were present on the occasion.
Deputy Commissioner Dr K G Jagadeesha said that the district administration is considering the proposal to set up a special agriculture zone (SAZ) on the model of special economic zone (SEZ) in Dakshina Kannada.



He was speaking at a meeting of farmer leaders at his office on Wednesday.



The farmers said that locally cultivated vegetables and fruits have high demand abroad. Hence, a special agriculture zone should be set up in the district.



The deputy commissioner said that a committee with officials, agriculture experts and farmer leaders will be constituted to look into the proposal on SAZ.



The committee will submit its report within two months. The district administration to ready to hand over the required land to set up SAZ.



Complaints received

He said that he has received complaints on hospitals charging exorbitant fees from patients who are availing of treatment under the Yashaswini scheme. A meeting of representatives of the hospitals that are registered under the Yashaswini scheme will be convened. The representatives will be issued a direction, said the officer.



Dr Jagadeesha said that a district-level workshop will be organised to furnish details to farmers on the horticultural crop processing unit. A workshop to create awareness on yellow leaf disease in crops will be organised in Sullia. If there is any case related to delay in lending money to farmers by banks, then it should be brought to the notice of Lead Bank manager, he directed.



The deputy commissioner also said that he will direct the concerned officers to organise farmers meetings at taluk-level in future.



The officials said that a proposal to construct 53 vented dams at a cost of Rs 69 crore has been submitted to the state government for approval.



The vented dams would be utilised to provide irrigation facilities for agricultural activities in the district. About 1,000 small vented dams would be constructed in gram panchayats utilising the funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).



Agriculture department joint director Kempe Gowda said that there is good response from farmers for custom-hiring centres to rent out farm machinery. Land to construct Raitha Samparka Kendra at Moodbidri has been handed over to the Agriculture department and the centre will come up within one year.
Veteran economist professor M B Kumaraswami said import from China should be completely banned in order to stop economic bankruptcy of India.



Delivering a special talk on China and its attack on the Indian economy organised by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, the economist said that the country is moving towards a dangerous situation. China is attacking the Indian economy with well-planned military strategy.



Economic turmoil

It is also planning to ensure a turmoil in the Indian economy, which calls for a serious caution by India. Urging for an immediate ban on Chinese products, the professor said that the country is under the threat of conspiracy by China which has strategies planning to make India weak. The economic attack by China should be stopped, if not, the country is under grave threat, he reiterated.



Calling China a silent killer, the professor said that China is a very dangerous country. It has already occupied 38,000 square kilometres of Indian land. Adding to the woes, Pakistan has donated 5,183 square kilometres of Indian land to China. Although India opposed Chinas attempts to construct a road on the Doklam plateau, China is all set to execute its plans to capture Doklam.



China can militarily threaten the strategically vulnerable and narrow Siliguri Corridor just about 50 km away in West Bengal. China already has a couple of roads coming up to a certain point in the Chumbi Valley. If one of them is extended till the trijunction, through what we consider is the Bhutanese territory, it will help the Pakistan Liberation Army in military logistics and manoeuvrability, like

rapidly moving artillery and other equipment, in the case of a conflict with India, prof Kumaraswami said.



The country shares 3,500 kilometres of border with China and in 1988, the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi tried holding bilateral talks with China, which was not successful.



Lions share in market

The economist added that China has the lions share in the countrys marketing transactions. It has the highest share of 65% in electronic goods market, while 63% of leather products in India is made in China and 75% of cotton cloth materials is from China.



The bilateral trade between the two countries began in 1990 and it was one billion-dollar transaction and at present is has crossed 72 billion dollars. In 2015-16, the country has imported 15.8%, while

China has imported merely 3.6%. In 2001-02, the trade deficiency of the country was one hundred crore, while in 2015-16 it is 53 hundred crore, he added.



He said that increasing unemployment is also threatening India owing to the import of Chinese products. Small scale industries are experiencing 90% unemployment. Youths applying for jobs are increasing.



For instance, recently, SBI had called for 11,000 clerical and 1,500 officers posts and 34 lakh and 15 lakh youths applied for the vacancies respectively. Nearly 2.26 engineers and 255 PhD holders had applied for 368 security guard posts in North India recently, the economist added.
The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has joined the chorus against the controversial steel flyover at Sivananda Circle even as the government said the work on the project will start in September. KFCC is situated close to Hare Krishna Road, along which the flyover will be built.



The flyover was the centre of discussion at the monthly meeting of the chamber on Wednesday. The agenda of this months meeting was the construction of the steel flyover. I have spoken to Bengaluru Development Minister K J George and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah telling them that the construction of the flyover is a wasteful exercise. We (chamber) will give a representation to them soon. If the flyover is constructed, there will be huge jams at the start and end of the flyover. The scene at the Cauvery junction magic box will be replicated here. Instead, the government should acquire land near the railway bridge and widen the road. That is more than sufficient, KFCC president Sa Ra Govindu said.



Some members of the film chamber pointed out that the government was taking up this project to please a small section of society because of the upcoming elections. The Cabinet cleared the 326-metre flyover costing Rs 19-crore. They agreed that the cost of construction will escalate to Rs 40 crore because of land acquisition. Instead, half of this amount can be used for land acquisition and road widening, added the film chamber member.



Notwithstanding growing protests, the state government has decided to go ahead with the project.



Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials have decided to start the project from September once soil testing is over. So far, we have completed soil testing at six spots and work on five more is under way by M Venkatarao Infrastructure Company, which has bagged the tender. After soil testing, the designs will be submitted and work orders will be issued. Construction will start in September first week, said Ramesh, superintending engineer, BBMP.



Meanwhile, the BBMP is also identifying land to be acquired for the flyover, he added.



A property owner said on condition of anonymity: We will not go to the government and offer our land, but the government should use its common sense and come to us instead.



Meanwhile, local corporators have decided to stage a protest and submit a memorandum to the state government against the steel flyover.


To stall the zoning regulations proposed by the state government, Citizens for Bengaluru (CFB) launched a campaign of calling MLAs to convey their resentment.



The government recently brought out draft regulations which do away with the residential main and residential mixed category. There will be one category of residential. The government has allowed neighbourhood utilities (small shops) even in a plot on a 30 feet wide road, which hitherto was not allowed even on 40 feet wide roads in residential areas.



CFB floated a WhatsApp group CFB-CallMLA#OoruMaaraBedi inviting citizens to unite and protest against the draft zoning regulations that would destroy their neighbourhoods.



The message said, We all know that there are a lot of illegal commercial activities in residential streets already. These new regulations will make them legal and even more commercial entities will come up everywhere leading to increased density and worsening of civic infrastructure.



The group has asked citizens to file their objections before July 31 as an individual or on behalf of RWAs and associations. The group has accused the government of violating the 74th amendment of the Constitution because planning should be done by the local government and not the government. The rule violated the high court order pertaining to violation of zoning regulations.
Energised by the Karnataka High Court intervention in reactivating the 119-acre NGEF land at Baiyappanahalli, a collective momentum in now building up to push for a creative makeover of the heritage plot. A green public park is what most citizens want in the open space, but what about the over 10 lakh sqft of built-up area?



One big idea is to retrofit and repurpose the buildings as exhibition spaces. Urban planners and heritage experts want the government to emulate what other big cities within and outside have done with their retrieved spaces.



The India Habitat Centre in Delhi is one such, points out heritage/travel writer-curator, Aliyeh Rizvi. Salvage whatever is left to create a gallery of memories, about Bengaluru's rich industrial heritage. It would help revisit the past in a positive way.



Visualising the industrial sheds as a constantly evolving public exhibition space on science, technology, engineering ecology and sociology, Environment Support Group coordinator Leo Saldanha has a model to follow: The transformation of Old Montreals old dockyards. It is a big hit amongst the local population and tourists, he says in a Facebook post, sparking a debate.



The space, so transformed, can be a tribute to lakhs of artisans, engineers, planners, ecologists, sociologists, medicine and scientists who built Bengaluru, turning the city into a aeronautical, manufacturing and IT hub.



This platform for free exchange of knowledge will require a mega partnership of public sector undertakings such as HAL, BEL, ITI and NAL, academic institutions such as IISc and ISEC, and the private sector.



Saldanha is convinced that if done well, it can rival the best of such social/ecological/science parks in the world. Imagine the excitement of millions of students and the wide public when they walk through such installations, interactions and introspections.



An industrial complex, repurposed as a dynamic, thriving transport museum of repute in Budapest is civic evangelist, V Ravichander's model to emulate. Visited by thousands of tourists, the museum today features a fascinating collection of large-scale models of historic locomotives, vintage bikes and horse buggies besides a railway station from the 1900s.



How about a Bengaluru Art Biennale at the refurbished space, something on the lines of what Kochi achieved with its fantastic convergence of installation artists from all over the world? This is another, eminently workable visualisation by lawyer Raghu Tenkayala.


A school playground at Binnypet and a chapel at Lakshman Rau Nagar in Neelasandra ward seem to be the latest victims of the governments flagship project Indira Canteens, offering subsidised food to economically weaker sections.



Hundreds of children from eight different schools come to play at Government Kannada and English Model Primary School at Magadi Road 2nd cross in Binnypet, where the canteen is coming up. The Palike has felled an old tree and demolished a compound wall to build the canteen. Jayanthi, headmistress of the school, has refused to comment on the matter.



A nearby shopkeeper said, The construction of the canteen all of a sudden was a surprise. Hundreds of children come here every day. B Srinivas, vice-president, Gandhinagar ward unit of the BJP, said they were planning a protest on July 21 near the school, but the police refused permission to them. Srinivas said there was another place available for the canteen just two roads away, but the civic body chose the school playground to build the canteen.



The civic body could have chosen the available space in Magadi Road market on the main road or near the horse carriage stand, which is lying unused for many years, said Srinivas. He said he had complained to BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad in this regard on Wednesday.



The commissioner denied that the place identified in Binnypet was a playground. I have personally visited the place. It is not part of the school playground. People used to dump garbage and urinate here, said Prasad.



Meanwhile, the canteen project has come as a shocker to the Christian community of LR Nagar. Rumours were agog that a small chapel would make way for the Indira canteen.



P S Ambrose, managing trustee of St Marys Prayer Association Charitable Trust, who is also associated with BJPs minority morcha, has written to the Opposition BJP leader in the BBMP Council Padmanabha Reddy, seeking his intervention to stop the demolition of the church.



The letter said nearly 450 Roman Catholic families pray at the chapel spread over 1,400 sq ft. He said there are talks that the chapel will either be demolished completely or would be acquired partially for the project. Another resident Raju said recently the Palike officials visited the place and talked about acquiring the church land. Neelasandra corporator G Balakrishnan rubbished the charges.



These are baseless charges. We are not touching the church. These are rumours created by our adversaries to sabotage the welfare project. We are using a land next to the bridge in LR Nagar, said Balakrishnan. BBMP officers too refuted the charge that the chapel land would be acquired for the project.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Union government on Tamil Nadus plea for setting up the Cauvery Management Board.



A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Dipak Misra directed for the presence of Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar before the court on Thursday, to clarify the stand of the Centre on the issue.



Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, submitted that Karnataka had received bountiful rain this year and the Union government must be directed to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.



The court, which wanted the presence of Attorney General K K Venugopal to explain the Centres stand, preferred to seek the assistance of Solicitor General after being told that Venugopal had earlier appeared for Kerala in the dispute relating to sharing of Cauvery river water.



Tamil Nadus plea for the formation of the Board was made before the court, which is hearing civil appeals challenging the 2007 Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunals decision on sharing of water among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.



Karnatakas counsels --- senior advocates F S Nariman and Shyam Divan --- have concluded their arguments on behalf of the state. Keralas counsel Jaydeep Gupta is to start his arguments on Thursday.


The Congress efforts to forge a grand opposition alliance suffered a major setback as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation accusing the grand old party of failing to rein in its ally, the RJD.



The Congress was guarded in its response to the developments in Bihar, saying it was disappointed and hoped that the differences of opinion could be sorted out amicably.



We are deeply disappointed by the news of the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.



Privately, Congress leaders admitted that they were caught unawares by the decision. A section viewed the move as a breach of the faith Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had in him while forging the grand alliance.



A senior leader pointed out that Nitish had made no mention of his plans to quit during a meeting he had with Rahul on Saturday.



Nitish, who enjoys direct access to Rahul, on Wednesday chose to convey his decision to quit through a conduit  AICC general secretary C P Joshi  when he had almost reached the gates of the Raj Bhavan in Patna. Senior Congress leaders are scheduled to meet on Thursday to take stock of the situation in Bihar.
In a significant move, Upalokayukta has recommended to the Department of Health and Family Welfare to compensate 2,478 women who had undergone unwanted hysterectomy operations at government hospital in Malavalli in Mandya district.



Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi has also recommended a departmental enquiry against a general surgeon for conducting these unwanted operations in five years without following the line of treatment.



Dr N Basavaraj, who worked as a general surgeon at Malavalli hospital, had conducted these operations between 2005-06 and 2011-12. Based on complaints, Department of Health and Family Welfare had requested Upalokayukta to hold an investigation into the allegations against Dr Basavaraj.



In the wake of several reports in the media about such incidents in other parts of the state too, Justice Adi visited the Malavalli hospital to get information about the same till 2015, the year Basavaraj was transferred to some other hospital.



The Upalokayukta report stated that during such operations, the surgeon had removed uterus, an important organ. In all the cases uterus was removed... thereby made them suffer and as a consequence of that they would not be in a position to have child. It appears that in many cases the women were not having children.



Hasty decisions



It is unfortunate that the doctor has taken hasty decisions and made the lives of thousands of women miserable, the report stated.



During the enquiry, Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare Department stated that Dr Basavaraj had not taken precautions such as scanning, biopsy and other tests which were necessary before going for a surgery.



Dr Basavaraj had not taken opinion from gynaecologists who were available in the very hospital. Further, the department had recorded statements from three women, who underwent surgeries, who claimed the doctor had taken money ranging from Rs 10,000 to

Rs 20,000 per surgery, the report stated. The enquiry officer has also taken the opinion from professor and HOD of Vani Vilas Hospital, who stated that when a gynaecologist was available, hysterectomy should be performed by a gynaecologist only.



Dr Basavaraj has failed to explain why he did not take the opinion of gynaecologists and why did he not refer the patients to gynaecologists. Three gynaecologists were posted and working at the Malavalli General Hospital during the period. On careful examination, it is very clear that Dr Basavaraj, with a oblique motive to have wrongful gain from the innocent and illiterate patients conducted 2,478 hysterectomy operations,' the report stated.



The report concluded that Dr Basavaraj guilty of dereliction of duty and misconduct as per rule 3 (1) of KCS (Conduct) Rules, 1966.



In other districts too

Unwanted hysterectomy surgeries were reported from government hospitals at Ranebennur in Haveri district, Chikkamagaluru, Kalaburagi and Hassan districts.



The reports stated that thousands of women were asked to undergo hysterectomy.



In January this year, Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali, a non-government organisation, scrutinised the medical records of hundreds of women who had undergone hysterectomy and found that it was performed without adequate clinical evidence about its necessity.


Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation has opened up many possible scenarios while plunging the state into a political crisis.



The first scenario is, Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi will ask political parties to stake their claim to form the next government.



In that event, Nitish would have to decide what he wishes to do before any realignment of parties can take place to avoid fresh elections, as the Assembly has three more years of its term left.



RJD chief Lalu Prasad has already set the ball rolling by calling for a Grand Alliance of his party, the Congress and the JD(U) to choose another leader. He has said the mahagatbandhan of 2015 was to keep the BJP out of power.



Congress hopes

This would mean the JD(U)-RJD alliance continues under a new chief minister. This is something that the Congress still hopes is possible. But after what Nitish and Lalu have said against each other, things may not be that easy.



Another scenario is, the JD(U) can align with the BJP and the two can form a working coalition government. The numbers, too, support this plan. The RJD has 80 seats, JD(U) 71, BJP 53, Congress 27, LJP 2, RLSP 2, HAM 1, CPI(ML) Liberation 3 and Independents 4 seats.



The JD(U) and the BJP have a combined strength of 124 MLAs, more than the halfway mark for the 243-member Assembly.



If the BJP asks for the chief ministers post in exchange for the JD(U) staying in power, Nitish may not find it palatable.


Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani has quit as lawyer of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the civil and criminal defamation cases filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.



Jethmalani also sought Rs 2 crore as his fee for representing Kejriwal in the Delhi High Court.



Jethmalanis move follows Kejriwal denying during a hearing last Tuesday that he had authorised Jethmalani to use an objectionable word in court against Jaitley. The Delhi chief ministers counsel told the court that he had not instructed Jethmalani to use the objectionable word against Jaitley on May 17 and it was inconceivable that he would have said such a thing about Jaitley to Jethmalani.



During the May 17 hearing, Jethmalani had used the objectionable word against Jaitley and even asked the court to note that he was authorised to do so by his client, Kejriwal.



In response, Jaitley filed another defamation case of Rs 10 crore against Kejriwal after he asked Jethmalani if the word was spoken on his clients instruction. Jethmalani replied in the affirmative.



Upset by Kerjiwals denial before the high court, Jethmalani wrote a letter to Kejriwal, accusing him of using even more offensive language against Jaitley during private discussions on the case.



The Delhi chief ministers office, however, refused to comment on Jethmalanis letter.



Kejriwal has written a letter to me. I have replied to that. I am not going to divulge the details of either of the letters. You ask Kejriwal to make public both the letters. I have promised him not to make them public. Jethmalani told reporters.



In February this year, the Delhi government had cleared a payment of Rs 3.5 crore to Jethmalani, which included Rs 1 crore as retainer and Rs 22 lakh as fee for each appearance in court.



Jaitley had filed an application for expediting the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner in the first Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for making allegations of corruption against him by them.
Senior ministers across communities in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet on Wednesday backed the demand for declaring Veerashaiva-Lingayat as a separate religion.



At the state Cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday, many of the ministers are understood to have told Siddaramaiah that the state government should support the demand for a separate religion for the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.



A team of five Lingayat ministers led by Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy has already announced embarking on a state-wide tour next month to campaign for the cause.



Speaking to reporters, Energy Minister and prominent Vokkaliga leader D K Shivakumar criticised the BJP for opposing the demand. He said BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa was accusing the Congress of trying to split the Lingayat community. It was Yeddyurappa who tried to split the community by including a sub-sect of Lingayats under 2A Category so as to provide them higher quota of reservation, he said.



Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya, a Dalit, said it is the duty of the government to respond to a demand by a community. Lingayat community has submitted a memorandum to the government and it will look into it, he added.



Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, who belongs to the Lingayat community, said neither the government nor the Congress has shown interest in according religion status to Lingayat. The community leaders are demanding it. Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha has requested the chief minister to recommend to the Centre to accord the religion status, he added.



Earlier in the day, Siddaramaiah said he is yet to receive an official memorandum from those seeking separate religion tag. Let them submit a memorandum... We will examine it, he told reporters who sought to know whether he had sent a recommendation to the Centre in this regard.



CM dividing Lingayats: Shettar

Senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar on Wednesday charged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with conspiring to divide the Lingayat community by raking up the issue of separate religion status to Veerashaiva-Lingayat. The chief minister has formed a team of Cabinet ministers to campaign for separate religion status to Veerashaiva-Lingayat. None of the ministers had time to tour the drought-affected places. Now, they want to tour the state for dividing the community...It proves that the government is indulging in politics, and I am sure it will backfire in the coming days, he told reporters in Bengaluru. On seeking to know his stand on the issue, he said views of any particular individual is not important.



Govt initiates process

The state government has initiated the process recommending the Centre to accord separate religion status to Veerashiva-Lingayat. The Chief Ministers Office (CMO) has in a letter dated July 19 directed the Backward Classes Welfare department to look into a memorandum submitted by Lingayat Mahasabha to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and take appropriate action.
With India-China military face-off in western Bhutan continuing on its 39th day, New Delhi said that it was committed to finding an amicable resolution acceptable to all the three countries.



V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that India was engaged with China through diplomatic channels to maintain peace and tranquillity in accordance with various bilateral agreements, Memorandums of Understanding, protocols and joint statements of 1993, 1996, 2003, 2005, 2012 and 2013.



His comment came even as Beijing indicated that India must withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau in Bhutan, if it wanted to have a meaningful dialogue with China.



Doval in Beijing

Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to attend BRICS top security officials meeting during which he is expected to hold talks with Chinas State Councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.



Meanwhile, Chinas state-run Global Times on Wednesday accused the US and Australia of trying to escalate the Sino-India standoff to replicate the South China Sea trick and seek strategic benefits.
Nearly 300 passengers of GoAir had a tough time after the airline cancelled two flights due to a technical snag on Wednesday morning.



Following this, the passengers created a ruckus at the airport here, a source said.



GoAir confirmed the cancellation of its Bengaluru and Kochi flights from Mumbai due to a snag in the aircraft, but added that while some passengers were accommodated on other flights, others were given various options, including travel on later flights.



Approximately, 15 to 18 passengers from each flight had to wait for a long time to get confirmation for the next GoAir flight and/or other airline flights, resulting in a ruckus near the check-in counters, a source said.



On the morning of July 26, one aircraft developed a technical snag, leading to the cancellations of two GoAir flights  G8 317 from Mumbai to Bengaluru and G8 347 from Mumbai to Kochi, a GoAir statement read.


A policeman was shot dead by unidentified militants in Yaripora area of south Kashmirs Kulgam district on Wednesday.



A police officer said unidentified militants opened fire at constable Gowhar Ahmad Tantary near Kanjikulla bridge in Kulgam, 70 km from here, when he was riding a motorcycle. Tantary was rushed to hospital, but died on the way. He was posted with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and was currently on leave, he said.



So far, no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the killing.



This is the second incident of a policeman being killed by militants in the district. On June 15, another policeman posted with the SOG was shot dead by militants in Kulgam.



On June 16, six policemen, including Station House Officer Feroz Dar, were killed after a group of heavily armed militants ambushed the vehicle they were travelling in at Achabal area of neighbouring Anantnag district.



The killings come in the wake of warnings by militants to policemen to quit and return home forthwith or otherwise be prepared to die.



On June 14, Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Abu Ukasha in a video message had warned the state police to join them for the Kashmiri cause.



Why do you want to win applause from (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi for killing your own brothers? You have to live and die with us only, Ukasha said on June 14.



In March this year, after militants threatened the families of several officers, especially in south Kashmir, state police chief Shesh Paul Vaid had warned militants that they too have families.



Militants should realise they too have families. Let them (militants) take this as a warning, Vaid had said.



This is between the police and the terrorists, and families should not be brought into this conflict. If the police start doing this (threatening), what will happen to their (militants) families? the state police chief had stressed.
The Telangana prisons department has come up with a novel idea of renting out its jails to other states to house their inmates from the next year.



Notably, they are following an example set by Norway, which has one of the most humane jails in the world.



The prisons department proposes to charge a monthly rent of Rs 10,000 per person, which includes food, accommodation, security, mulakhat (meeting family members) and skill development training.



Presently, the Telangana prisons is capable of housing 800 inmates from other states. However, the facility will be available for convicts in the non-grievous and non-serious offences, and not for undertrials and hardcore criminals.



The prisons department, which is awaiting the state government nod, hopes there will be heavy demand from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which are facing acute shortage of space in jails.



Telangana jails have a good number of vacancies because of special initiatives taken up by the department. Mahaparivarthan, Vidyadaan and Unnati are some such initiatives that have helped in changing the mindset of those convicted for small offences, said state prisons department chief, Inspector General V K Singh.



Attributing the excess space to a steep drop in repeat offenders returning to jail, Singh said, Once they are released, they are giving up their criminal minds and are joining the mainstream because of our initiatives.



Telangana has a sanctioned capacity to lodge 6,848 prisoners in all its jails. However, currently there are 6,063 prisoners. The jail chief hopes the number will further come down to 5,000.



If the scheme gets the governments nod, the jails department would earn revenue of Rs 25 crore per year, which would help contribute to making the prisons self-reliant.



The department has launched novel schemes like Be a Prisoner for Rs 500 at the Sangareddy jail museum. It also imparts skill training to the convicts and helps in engaging them in earning activities.



Currently, convicts are running 14 petrol bunks in Hyderabad and other places. The department is keen on opening up 50 more pumps by the end of the year.
The southwest monsoon is set to enter into a break phase from Thursday onwards in most parts of the country, except the foothills in north India, the India Meteorological Department has forecast.



The break period in which rainfall would be substantially less is likely to continue for about a week, M Rajeevan, secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, told DH.



In the week between July 27 and August 2, the rainfall activity is likely to decrease compared to the previous week. Overall, rainfall activity is likely to be below normal over India, IMD said.



The foothills in north India, the National Capital Region and parts of Rajasthan may get some rain, but not the rest of the country. The break period comes at a time when Gujarat and Rajasthan are witnessing flood because of excess rainfall.
This summer over 200 standout high schools students were selected to participate in the Bank of America Student Leaders program. The program offers high school students who are engaged community citizens the opportunity to build their workforce and leadership skills through a paid summer internship at a local nonprofit, as well as attend a national leadership summit in Washington, D.C.

Five students from San Diego were selected, including Alexander Zhang, a recent graduate of Canyon Crest Academy who will attend Columbia University in the fall.

Alexander Zhang

Through Student Leaders, were building pathways to success for young adults in the region and giving voice to the next generation, who will help develop a more diverse and inclusive society, said Rick Bregman, San Diego market president of Bank of America. By engaging young people in meaningful and relevant work experiences that helps build resumes and manage paychecks, we can help advancing economic mobility.

Zhang and the rest of the students from San Diego were given a paid internship at 2-1-1 San Diego, a resource and information hub that connects people with community, health and disaster services.

We are thrilled to partner with Bank of America in the Student Leaders program, said John Ohanian, 2-1-1 San Diego president and COO. These extraordinary high school students bring their passion for leadership to 2-1-1, helping us increase our impact while leveraging their distinct skills.

Zhang was one of 200 San Diego students to apply for the Student Leaders program.

I was looking for something to do this summer as last summer I worked in a lab and I wanted to keep my options open, said Zhang.

He was drawn to the Bank of America program for its community service aspect, as in his sophomore year, Zhang founded the Music Outreach Club, bringing classical music performances to nursing homes, hospitals and community events.

In addition to his talents on the bassoon and piano, Zhang is also very science-minded and is proud of two research projects he has been involved with while at Canyon Crest Academy.

Two years ago after his grandmother became ill with a blood disease, possibly myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), he wanted to learn more about the disease and contacted Dr. John Che, a local bioinformatics professor at UC San Diego.

Since then, we've developed a classification system using MDS patient data that could be used for personalized treatment, possibly improving the diagnostic rate from the current 50 percent to 80 percent, or even higher, said Zhang, who was able to present the study as first author at the American Association of Clinical Chemistrys international scientific conference in Philadelphia last August.

Last summer, Zhang was selected as a full-time intern at The Scripps Research Institute, sponsored by the Life Sciences Summer Institute. He spent seven weeks focused on developing a vaccine for Dengue fever. He was invited to present his findings at several regional conferences.

After visiting family in China this summer, Zhang has been at the 2-1-1 internship for the last two weeks. The interns project for the summer is to create a youth ambassador program, targeting youth in the community to make them more aware of the services 2-1-1 provides as well as create volunteer activities for students.

We hope to target the special needs of students at each school and emphasize how 2-1-1 can help alleviate some of those problems, Zhang said.

At 2-1-1, he has seen how a nonprofit runs from top to bottom, which he says will help him at Columbia University where he hopes to continue his community service efforts with Music Outreach.

On July 9-14, Zhang traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Bank of Americas Student Leadership Summit along with the leaders from across the country. They were able to attend multiple seminars with a variety of speakers, including Barbara Bush, the co-founder of the Global Health Corps. The seminars focused on issues of politics, social work and nonprofits, and the leaders also had the opportunity to visit local representatives on Capitol Hill. The San Diego group was able to speak with Congresswoman Susan Davis from the 53rd congressional district.

I really enjoyed Congresswoman Davis. She asked a lot of questions about college and higher education for students, Zhang said. She really took the time to listen to us and what we thought.

Zhang said it was very meaningful to meet his fellow student leaders, all from very different backgrounds but all sharing a similar mindset of being passionate about helping their communities.

Being in San Diego, I feel sheltered from a lot of the problems others face and like Im living in a bubble, Zhang said. I found that people from other states have a lot of different problems in their communities that I am not familiar with, things Ive heard about but never known. To talk to someone who was familiar with those kinds of problems, that was really eye-opening.

For Zhang, one of the most powerful messages he got from the summit was from guest speaker Omerina Cabrera.

Cabrera grew up in Bronx, New York, with a single parent, experiencing homelessness three times. She and her twin brother struggled to stay in school and she was on track to drop out until she found a counselor and mentor that changed her life. The mentor cared and encouraged Omerina to pursue a better future, helping her get placed in an elite New England private school. She is now going to George Washington University. Unfortunately, her twin brother did not have the same support  he is now incarcerated, showing how much of a difference it made for someone to encourage and guide her.

It was very inspiring to me because education is something Ive taken for granted, Zhang said. Its powerful to see she has succeeded.

While Zhang did not apply for a specific major at Columbia, he is interested in chemistry and would like to be on the pre-med track and plans to attend medical school after he graduates.

The experience in Washington, D.C. helped him learn a lot more about healthcare and global health in general. When he gets to medical school he is interested in pursuing the field of public health or traveling to third world countries to participate in global health service projects.

Im interested in using the idea of science and its knowledge to positively change the world, Zhang said.
Reconnaissance Balloons (WS-119L / WS-461L)

Project Skyhook

In 1947, the U.S. Navy began Project Skyhook, which used very large unmanned plastic (polyethylene) balloons to loft research payloads of various kinds (e.g. cosmic ray research) to altitudes of up to 30 km (100000 ft). The initial prime contractor for the Navy's Skyhook balloons was the Aeronautical Division of General Mills, Inc. Skyhook eventually became a very successful program, and its balloon technology was also used by the Air Force. In fact, the name Skyhook became a synonym for large high-altitude plastic balloons, even if they were launched by other agencies under different programs.

Photo: Office of Naval Research Skyhook balloon

At low level immediately after launch, the lifting gas (hydrogen or helium) in Skyhook balloons formed a small bubble at the top of the envelope, giving the whole balloon a rather "limp" look. At the lower air pressure at higher altitudes, the gas expanded and eventually filled the whole envelope, which could reach diameters of more than 30 m (100 ft) in some balloon models. High-flying Skyhook balloons provided an excellent stimulus for UFO/"Flying Saucer" sightings, and several balloons, which were lost by the military's visual and radar tracking systems, were "tracked" by following local UFO reports across the continent.

Project Gopher

When the Cold War began soon after the Second World War, U.S. military planners had the problem that they had virtually no information about what was going on in vast areas of the Soviet territory. Photo reconnaissance aircraft were used to obtain coverage of areas near the borders, and there were even very few overflights of the Soviet interior in the early 1950s. But these missions were extremely risky, and couldn't provide enough information for a good assessment of Soviet military strength. Satellites were still too far in the future, and therefore reconnaissance balloons were proposed as a solution for the problem.

In July 1950, Charles B. Moore of General Mills had conducted four test flights of Skyhook-type balloons with a camera payload. To the U.S. Air Force he presented the concept of camera-equipped balloons, which could float across the Soviet Union using strong winds (the "jet stream") at very high altitude, above the reach of Soviet air defences. In November 1950, the USAF officially began the development of a balloon reconnaissance system under secret project MX-1594 Gopher.

Design goal for Project Gopher was a balloon, which could carry a 225 kg (500 lb) payload gondola to 21000 m (70000 ft), and remain there at constant altitude for at least 16 days. Originally it had been hoped that Gopher could conduct the first operational missions by the end of 1951, but this proved to be far too optimistic. A series of test flights in 1952 was only partially successful, mainly because of continuing problems during balloon launch and with payload reliability. Because the USAF was dissatisfied with General Mills' progress, the balloon production contract was terminated in August 1952, and further balloons were ordered from Winzen Research. Project Gopher was a top secret project, but the balloon test flights could obviously not be hidden from the public. Therefore all test flights were officially part of Project Moby Dick (MX-1498), the USAF's unclassified research balloon project. Moby Dick had been started around the same time as Gopher, and used Skyhook balloons to measure global high-altitude wind patterns. Gopher's camera gondolas, which could parachute to earth anywhere after a test flight, were accordingly labeled as Air Force property (together with a fire hazard warning to discourage potential souvenir hunters).

Drawing: USAF Typical Gopher balloon layout

Skyhook balloons could be filled with either hydrogen or helium, depending on the desired flight altitude and duration, but for operational Gopher missions, hydrogen would be used. The balloons held a constant altitude using barometric switches, which would release ballast whenever the balloon dropped below a certain mimimum altitude. Maximum altitude was limited by the fact that the envelopes were open at the lowest point. At peak altitude, the lifting gas expanded so far that it started venting out at the bottom of the balloon, preventing further rising. This feature also prevented bursting due to internal over-pressure (unless the balloon rose too fast, as e.g. after payload release). Generally, the balloons reached maximum altitude during day time, when the sun heated the lifting gas, and descended during the night when the gas cooled again. Two types of balloon envelope were produced for Gopher, the 128TT and the 66CT. At high altitude, the 128TT inflated to a height of about 54 m (176 ft) and a diameter of about 39 m (128 ft). The 66CT was a cylindrical shape of about 20 m (66 ft) maximum diameter. The larger 128TT could reach higher altitudes than the 66CT, but early production 128TTs were too unreliable. They ruptured very easily during launch, which led to an unacceptably high failure rate. Even though later 128TTs were somewhat improved, about half the balloons prepared for Project Gopher were 66CTs to ensure an acceptable launch success rate.

Gopher's AN/DMQ-1 payload consisted of a gondola with the reconnaissance camera system. The main camera had two angled lenses at the bottom of the gondola, and took pictures at fixed intervals (6.25 minutes in the 66CT, 12.5 minutes in the 128TT). A second camera took wide-angle panoramic photos to determine the general geographical location of the balloon. A small photoelectric cell at the bottom of the gondola automatically shut down the cameras when it became too dark for useful photos. To recover the gondola, it was cut loose either automatically after a predefined time, or by radio command when a suitable recovery area had been reached. The gondola package then descended under a parachute. In balloon and camera test flights, the gondola would land on the ground, but in operational reconnaissance missions, it would be caught and hauled in in mid-air by specially converted C-119F cargo aircraft. There was also an ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) payload package, designated AN/DMQ-2, but its development was not completed in time, and it would therefore never be used operationally.

Photo: R.W. Koch AN/DMQ-1 gondola

WS-119L

In July 1953, the USAF finally decided to develop Gopher into the WS-119L operational balloon reconnaissance system, codenamed Grandson. In spring 1955, WS-119L was finally ready for operational training, and the program's code name was changed again, to Grayback. Between May and October that year, more than a hundred WS-119L balloons were launched under operation "Moby Dick Hi" (as usual, the Moby Dick name was used as cover). Although only 11 successful mid-air recoveries were made in 33 attempts, WS-119L was considered ready for use at the end of 1955. President Eisenhower gave approval to begin the overflights in January 1956, but had the flight altitude of the balloons limited to 16800 m (55000 ft). This was reportedly done, because the higher-flying Lockheed U-2 aircraft was under development at that time, and the Soviets should get no unnecessary motivation to develop new very high-altitude interceptor aircraft and missiles before the U-2 had begun its overflight program.

The USAF had set up WS-119L launch sites at five locations in Scotland, Norway, Germany (2) and Turkey. An official statement was issued, saying that scientific Moby Dick balloons would be launched on extended flights in the northern hemisphere. To support this cover story, a total of 30 research balloons were launched from January to July 1956 from Hawaii, Okinawa and Alaska under operation White Cloud. The code name for the WS-119L reconnaissance flights was Genetrix. Operational WS-119L payloads had a tracking beacon, which was activated at a preset time several days after launch. This time was calculated to occur after the balloon had exited Soviet or Chinese air space, but before it sank too low because of loss of gas and ballast depletion (the gondola was automatically cut free if the balloon descended below 30000 ft). The tracking beacons were needed by the recovery teams to locate the balloons.

Photo: Robert Burch Launch of WS-119L balloon

Between 10 January and 6 February, a total of 448 balloons were launched, and resulted in 44 successful camera gondola recoveries. Of the about 380 balloons, which actually reached Soviet airspace, more than 300 were either shot down or came down prematurely because of malfunctions or ballast depletion. The balance of the unsuccessful balloons reached the recovery zones, but couldn't be retrieved for various reasons. The end of the Genetrix flights was caused by the relatively low rate of success as well as the increasing political problems caused by the overflights. The Soviets eventually displayed captured gondolas to the public, explaining that they contained reconnaissance cameras and no meteorological equipment.

The Genetrix photos covered only a small part (8%) of the Soviet and Chinese land mass. Because of the balloons' drift pattern, particularly interesting areas in high latitudes were not covered at all. Nevertheless, Genetrix was not considered a complete failure. The high-altitude camera system made photos of excellent quality, and the WS-119L mid-air-retrieval principle would be used several years later for the retrieval of film capsules from the United States' first photo-reconnaissance satellites.

Designation notes:

The 119L label was reused for the C/KC-135 transport/tanker system only a few years after the end of Genetrix . While it is not unusual that numbers of terminated Weapon Systems were reused, the reassignment of 119L was particularly quick. It's possible that this was done as a security measure (any requests for files about System 119L could be diverted to the C-135 program). The balloon reconnaissance program itself remained classified until the mid-1980s.

. While it is not unusual that numbers of terminated Weapon Systems were reused, the reassignment of 119L was particularly quick. It's possible that this was done as a security measure (any requests for files about System 119L could be diverted to the C-135 program). The balloon reconnaissance program itself remained classified until the mid-1980s. The AN/DMQ designations of the WS-119L payload packages may have been a kind of cover designation. The "M" in "DMQ" designates meteorological equipment, which the packages were officially but not in reality.

WS-461L

In January 1957, the USAF's ARDC (Air Research and Development Command) began a new balloon reconnaissance program, designated WS-461L. The new system would use an improved balloon, which could float for almost a month at 30 km (100000 ft), beyond the reach of Soviet air defenses. To make high-resolution photographs from this altitude, Itek Corp. developed the new HYAC-1 panaramic camera system with a 12-inch (30.5 cm) focal length F/5 lens. Using a pivoting lens, the HYAC-1 could create hi-res photos with a 120 field-of-view.

While WS-119L balloons used the winter jetstream to cross the Soviet Union from west to east, WS-461L used the higher summer jetstream, which flows in the opposite direction. At WS-461L's operating altitude, the thermal properties of the balloon envelope, its volume, and the amount of hydrogen gas can be balanced in such a way that the balloon never descends below a critical altitude with minimal use of ballast. This effectively allows round-the-world trips of the balloons. As on the WS-119L balloons used for the Genetrix overflights, the payload gondola of a WS-461L balloon was to be cut down by a radio command. Because this system had sometimes failed on WS-119L, the newer balloons had an optional backup, which would cut down the gondola after a fixed amount of time.

Photo: Leroy C. Stables Launch of WS-461L balloon

WS-461L was ready for operational use in spring 1958, but after the less than encouraging results of WS-119L, President Eisenhower was very reluctant to approve overflights of the USSR. But the high quality of the HYAC-1's photos and the pressing need for intelligence on the Soviet ICBM program eventually led to a go-ahead decision in late June 1958. The overflight operation, named "Melting Pot", launched its balloons from the deck of the U.S. Navy ship USS Windham Bay (TCVU-92), a World War II escort carrier converted to an aircraft ferry. As usual, the operation was announced as a series of scientific balloon launches. To back up this cover story, seven WS-461L balloons (serialled S-423 through S-429) without camera systems were launched from various locations in the Pacific Ocean between 3 and 11 July. On the next three days, the three operational WS-461L balloons, S-430 to S-432, were launched, followed by three more "cover launches" afterwards. The reconnaissance balloons worked as designed, and apparently crossed the Soviet Union unharmed. However, the cut-down timer had been set - erroneously, and against the President's orders - to 400 hours. This would have been easily enough to reach NATO airspace during the prime time of the summer jetstream in June, but not in July, when the stream was already getting weaker. This fact was known to the Air Force, but nobody thought to either deactivate the timer or extend its lifetime after the delayed approval for the whole operation. In the end, the balloons almost made it, but the timers ran out when the balloons were still over Poland.

Eisenhower was furious over this operational, intelligence (state-of-the-art camera systems fell into Soviet hands) and diplomatic fiasco, and this meant the immediate end for the USAF's balloon reconnaissance program. Program WS-461L was formally terminated in 1961, but remained highly classified for many years later. In hindsight, the most useful results of the program was the development of the HYAC-1 high-resolution high-altitude camera system, which formed the technology base of the camera systems in the first U.S. photo reconnaissance satellites.

Specifications

Note: Data given by several sources show slight variations. Figures given below may therefore be inaccurate!

Data for WS-119L (128TT, 66CT) and WS-461L balloons:

WS-119L (128TT) WS-119L (66CT) WS-461L Diameter (fully inflated) 39 m (128 ft) 20 m (66 ft) ? Max. Altitude 26 km (85000 ft) 18 km (60000 ft) 30 km (100000 ft) Max. Flight Time 8 days 7 days ~ 30 days

Main Sources

[1] Curtis Peebles: "The Moby Dick Project", Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991

[2] Charles Stephenson: "The Genetrix Balloons", Osprey Publishing, 2004

[3] B.D. Gildenberg, "The Cold War's Classified Skyhook Program", article in Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2004

Back to Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4

Last Updated: 21 March 2006
CART meeting at Dusters

COLUMBUS -- The public is invited to the Columbus Area Recreational Trails (CART) meeting at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday at Dusters in the upstairs conference room.

Doug Moore will talk about an application with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for a trail connecting 33rd Avenue to Wilderness Park.

For more information, call Judy Trautwein at 402-564-5287.

Forklift training at Central CC

COLUMBUS -- A forklift certification training course will be offered 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 8 in the West Education Center, Room 179, at Central Community College-Columbus.

The class meets OSHA for powered industrial trucks. It will cover prestart inspections, safety procedures, handling and transporting hazardous materials and federal regulations. Participants also will gain driving experience by using the colleges forklift and taking a driving test. Preregistration is required by Tuesday. The cost is $70. Students must be at least 18 years old and have a valid drivers license.

For more information or to preregister, contact Susan Baer at 402-562-1425; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1425; or email sbaer@cccneb.edu.

City installing water mixers

COLUMBUS -- The city will be installing new tank mixers in two of the water storage facilities to continue to provide quality water for residents.

These active mixing systems will promote consistent water quality and reduce operational costs. The first mixer will be installed at the north water storage tank, located near 33rd Avenue and 66th Street, on Thursday morning. The second mixer will be installed at the south water storage tank, located near East Pawnee Park, on Saturday morning.

Properties within these areas may experience some temporary odor issues and discoloration in the water for a short period of time as the mixers adjust. This odor and discoloration is a result of the remixing of nutrients, which are naturally occurring and not hazardous within the water source. Residents and businesses are asked to run their water for approximately five minutes before normal use, and the discoloration and odors should cease.

City staff will be monitoring the water supply as the mixers are being installed. The city anticipates no loss in water pressure during these tank mixer installations.

School supplies drive planned

COLUMBUS -- A school supplies drive for Center for Survivors will be held 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 12 at Hy-Vee.

Shoppers can pick up a flyer with a list of needed items from a Boy Scout stationed at one of the entrances and drop off the purchased supplies on their way out.

Center for Survivors served 271 children in 2016.
COLUMBUS  While Loup Public Power District received some relief from the water temperature requirement in its updated hydroelectric license, if water levels remain low, the utility may again be forced to limit diversion into its Loup Power Canal.

A July 13 letter from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission states that the district must comply with the license order's water flow requirements, meaning diversion into the canal would need to be reduced or stopped if water flow in the Loup River falls below 275 cubic feet per second at the head gate near Genoa.

LPPD President and CEO Neal Suess said the district previously believed it would not be required to comply with this restriction until an implementation plan is filed in November. The FERC letter states that LPPD must comply immediately.

The technical challenge, according to Suess, is the head gate was not designed to regulate water flow with that level of precision.

When water levels in the Loup River are low, the district doesn't want to divert too much and risk dropping below the flow requirement.

At the same time, Suess said district management is concerned about safety issues for people who ride all-terrain vehicles along the Loup River should the water level get too high.

LPPD caught a break when FERC issued a temporary waiver on a rule that required water diversion into the canal to halt when the Platte River temperature reaches 93 degrees at the Louisville gauge.

The waiver was issued July 17, two days after LPPD was forced to cease diversion, leading to a large fish kill in the canal.

In the July 13 letter, FERC noted that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended suspending the water temperature requirement until a joint implementation plan could be developed with LPPD.

The letter asked the district to request the suspension, which delayed its implementation until July 17.

The number of fish killed along the canal varied from around 2,000 reported by LPPD to "tens of thousands" estimated by a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission official. The consensus is that far more would have died had the temporary waiver not been granted.

If we hadnt received that waiver, we still wouldnt be able to divert, Walter Williams, the district's vice president of administrative services, told the LPPD board during Tuesday's meeting.

Under the rule, the Platte River water temperature must drop below 93 degrees for 72 consecutive hours before diversion into the canal can resume.

As a silver lining, Suess speculated the fish kill may have been what prompted FERC to act.

Its a blip in the overall (fish) population, but it looks bad, said Suess.

The district is currently working on an implementation plan to send to the Fish and Wildlife Service and Game and Parks Commission for input before it's submitted to FERC.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is concerned about the effects the water diversion has on protected species such as the piping plover, pallid sturgeon and least tern.

LPPD has also requested a rehearing on the updated hydroelectric license order. A decision on whether that's granted will be made by FERC once there are enough commissioners in place to constitute a quorum and a backlog of cases are addressed.

There is currently only one commissioner, two short of a quorum, but President Donald Trump has submitted three nominees for Senate confirmation.
Scientists behind a prototype vaccine to prevent children from getting type 1 diabetes are looking to test it on humans next year, it has been announced.

For 20 years, a team of researchers from Finlands University of Tampere have been working on a drug which aims to protect the body against a virus which triggers type 1 diabetes.

Now, following successful tests on mice, they are planning to start clinical trials in 2018, although no results of significance are expected for eight years.

The treatment would not cure type 1 diabetes, but potentially stop it from developing in children who get a certain virus.

Researchers from across the world have so far failed to understand why insulin-producing beta cells are firstly identified and then destroyed, which characterises the development of the condition.

However, genetics could hold the key in creating different types of ID tags known as human leukocyte markers, which flag up the beta cells.

Professor Heikki Hyoty, from the universitys School of Medicine, has developed a theory behind one of the ways this process is started, involving an infection by a type of enterovirus. This group of viruses can also cause polio, hepatitis and meningitis as well as hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Finnish team has already established a link between a strand of enterovirus known as coxsackievirus B1 and the reaction that sparks the body into attacking beta cells. In 2014, Professor Hyoty found that six strands of the B group of coxsackieviruses were linked to type 1 diabetes in children.

Also, data from American suggests that, in 2007, a quarter of the 444 known enterovirus infections across the country were caused by coxsackievirus B1.

Professor Hyotys 2014 study concluded: One can estimate from the generated data that less than five per cent of CVB1-infected children go on to develop type 1 diabetes.

This represents potentially hundreds of youngsters globally going on to get type 1 diabetes every year because of this virus and the number could be higher if other members of the virus group also damage the beta cells.

Professor Hyoty added: Already now it is known that the vaccine is effective and safe on mice. The developing process has now taken a significant leap forward as the next phase is to study the vaccine in humans.

Additionally, the vaccine would protect from infections caused by enteroviruses such as the common cold, myocarditis, meningitis and ear infections.
A blog post claiming to be from ex and current Swiggy employees, paints a really dark picture for how Swiggy operates.

If a blog post could bring Ubers top management down to their knees, Indian food delivery startup Swiggy may have something to worry about. A blog post on Tumblr, apparently made by four (ex and current) employees of Swiggy, makes some grave allegations against the company. These include allegations of fudging numbers to investors, duping restaurant partners and anti-competitive behaviour by the company.

A rather grave allegations made in the post is that Swiggy promoted its own restaurant, called Bowl Company over other restaurants on the service. The post says Bowl Company is the top search result in Koramangala, in Bangalore now. While its not entirely clear here, the authour seems to allege that Swiggy is showing Bowl Company ahead of other restaurants when users search for relevant information. A picture in the post then tells us that Bowl Company is a multi-cuisine restaurant, meaning it should qualify for most search criteria.

If true, Swiggy is indeed involved in anti-competitive behaviour. The post doesn't explain it very well, but the practice seems similar to what Google was recently fined for by the EU. Since restaurants have to list on Swiggy's platform, the company is hence tweaking the code in that platform the favour certain businesses, it's own business (Bowl Company) in this case.

The post states that instead of uplifting its restaurant partners Swiggy is actually killing them. The company apparently plans to take 30% commissions from restaurants by March 2022, up from 19% which it takes right now, according to a slide in the Tumblr post. The authours, claiming to be from Swiggys sales team, say that big name restaurants will never pay more than 20%, which means this 30% commission will have to be born by the smaller players only, thereby eating into their profit margins.

Further, the post also states that Swiggy gave its investors inflated numbers in order to swindle money from them. The company also made false claims to the media, saying it did 4 million orders a day, when real order volumes were below 3 million at the time. Interestingly, the employee(s) claim that Swiggy took away access to sales volumes data before a story appeared in The Economic Times, stating it made over 4 million orders per month.

Lastly, the post states that Swiggys management simple wants to sell the company and make a quick buck. The company lies to investors, employees and restaurant partners to reach this goal, the post claims.

On the other hand, Swiggy says the post is intended to malign the company and the claims are inaccurate. Heres Swiggys statement:

We requested Swiggy to provide the real and accurate numbers as well, but the company hasnt responded to that request yet.

You can read the employees' blog post here.

Update: Swiggy explained its stand, providing numbers it claims are the real ones, via a blog post. You can read that here.
Apple has been accused by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for infringing its 1998 patent describing predictor circuit to improve the overall efficiency of the processor. A US judge has now ruled that Apple continues to infringe the patent and owes to

Apple has been ordered by a US judge to pay $506 million in damages for infringing patents owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent licensing arm. Reuters reports that the US judge more than doubled the damages initially imposed by case's jury on Apple.

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation had sued Apple in 2014 alleging the latter to infringing its 1998 patent for improving chip efficiency. WARF had alleged that Apple's custom processors infringed its patent that describes the function of predictor circuit. Apple's A7, A8 and A8X chips found in the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and various iPads use predictor circuit to improve the overall efficiency of the processor.

In October 2015, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation won the patent lawsuit and the jury declared that Apple owed $234 million in damage. However, US District Judge William Conley has added $272 million to the initial $234 million jury verdict as additional damages plus interest. Conley said WARF is owed $506 million because Apple continued to infringe the patent until it expired in December 2016.

Apple plans to appeal against Conley's ruling but it is yet to officially comment on the judgement. Apple had denied any infringement during the 2015 jury trial and called the patent to be invalid. The patent was obtained by University of Wisconsin computer science professor Gurindar Sohi and three of his students in 1998.

The judgement should come as a setback for Apple, which urged US Patent and Trademark Office to review the validity of WARF's patent. The company is also engaged in a similar battle with Qualcomm and the trial is expected to begin by the end of this year.
The company is called Three Square Market (32M) and the chip will allow them to make purchases in the breakroom micro market, open doors, login to computers, use copy machines and more

A US based company, Three Square Market (32M), is giving its employees the option of implanting an RFID chip in their body. This chip would allow them to make purchases in the breakroom micro market, open doors, login to computers, use copy machines and more. The option will be available to employees on August 1, 2017, and will be offered to all its employees. In order to do so, 32M has partnered with Swedish company, BioHax International.

The chip implant uses Near-Field Communication technology (NFC), which is the same technology used by contactless credit cards and mobile payments. The chip will be implanted under the skin between the thumb and the forefinger and the company says that the process will complete within seconds.

We foresee the use of RFID technology to drive everything from making purchases in our office break room market, opening doors, use of copy machines, logging into our office computers, unlocking phones, sharing business cards, storing medical/health information, and used as payment at other RFID terminals. Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc, stated 32M CEO, Todd Westby.

The employee's will be chipped at the inaugural chip party hosted at its headquarters on August 1. 32M expects at least 50 staff members to be voluntarily chipped at the event. The company states that that chip only contains information the employees choose and does not contain any tracking abilities. Those employees who are interested in the technology, but not the implant, they can get the same embedded in a wristband or a smart ring.

The proper term for implanting a chip into a human body is biohacking. The chip in question is usually about the size of a grain of rice and can store information you would otherwise carry with you physically, such as business cards. However, since it can be read by others, the information stores in these chips cannot be confidential.
Nokia 2 is rumoured to be HMD GLobal's entry level Android smartphone. The smartphone has leaked in the form of renders and could debut at company's August 16 event.

Nokia 2, the rumoured entry-level Android smartphone from HMD Global has now appeared on GeekBench benchmarking platform. The GeekBench listing arrives just days after the handset was leaked in the form of renders.

The Nokia 2 is expected to be placed below Nokia 3 in the price spectrum and rumours suggest it will be powered by either Snapdragon 210 or Snapdragon 212 chipset. The GeekBench listing hints at use of Snapdragon 210 chipset but the newer Snapdragon 212 is more likely to make the cut. The listing also reveals that Nokia 2 comes with just 1GB of RAM and runs latest Android 7.1 Nougat. The listing doesn't reveal the internal memory but Nokia 2 scored 422 in single-core test and 1146 in multi-core test.

Nokia 2 had leaked in the form of renders alongside a rough sketch of Nokia 3 few days back. The render showed the handset would sport a 5-inch display similar to Nokia 3 and sport a design similar to Lumia 620 with rounded edges. The Nokia 2 is also said to adopt on-screen Android navigation buttons as opposed to normal Android buttons found on company's other handsets.

HMD Global started sending media invites for an event in London on August 16, where it is expected to announce the flagship Nokia 8 smartphone. The handset is expected to sport a 5.3-inch Quad HD display, Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The smartphone is also expected to offer dual rear camera setup with Carl Zeiss optics.

With Nokia 2 having hit benchmark platform, there is a possibility that the handset could be announced at August 16 event. HMD Global is currently selling Nokia 3 smartphone in India and is expected to commence sales of Nokia 5 from next month. Amazon India has begun registrations for Nokia 6, the premium mid-range smartphone and it will go on sale starting August 23.
COLUMBUS  Signs prohibiting engine braking have been in place in parts of Platte County for a few years, but law enforcement technically hasn't been able to enforce the ban.

The signs were installed after the Platte County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in November 2013 following complaints from residents about noisy engine braking from trucks.

Resolutions, though, do not create a local law. That's what supervisors learned during Tuesday's morning.

To enforce an engine braking ban, an ordinance must be approved.

Platte County Deputy County Attorney Elizabeth Lay and Sheriff Ed Wemhoff told the board they found out about the issue from the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (NIRMA).

Wemhoff said there was a brief period of a few weeks when his deputies were issuing tickets to drivers for engine braking.

We backed off when we found out we couldnt, Wemhoff said.

The sheriffs office didnt immediately start issuing tickets because it took time after the resolution was passed to install the five signs and determine the fine amount. Wemhoff said about 10 tickets were issued for the offense.

Those tickets are still valid because Wemhoff said his office was operating in good faith.

An ordinance for engine braking will be developed and sent to the county board for approval following a public hearing.

That isnt the only ordinance the board is expected to see.

Solicitation sales in the county were also discussed Tuesday.

Wemhoff said he would like an ordinance in place that requires solicitors to go to the sheriffs office for approval before they begin selling items.

Sometimes, Wemhoff said, those going door to door selling products can be forceful with people. An ordinance that requires a sales person to report information about their vehicle and where they will be selling would allow the sheriff's office to better track solicitors.

Lay said there would likely be exemptions in the ordinance for nonprofit groups such as the Girl Scouts, who sell cookies door-to-door. A public hearing will be held before a vote occurs on the solicitation ordinance.

Also during the meeting, the board agreed to look into the cost of increased security at the District 5 Probation Office.

The office has operated from the former East Central District Health Department building at 2282 E. 32nd Ave. since June 2015. About a year ago, additional security was requested for the building. Originally, 20 security cameras, glass enclosures for clerical staff and other additions were requested.

That proposal has since been trimmed down after the sheriff looked at the building.

Carrie Rodriguez, chief deputy probation officer, told the board the office would like 11 security cameras with buzzer-access added to the east and west entrance doors. Also, she asked that a wall be removed so clerical staff can see all the clients waiting to be served.

There is no estimated cost for the project, which may have to go out for bids. The project would be paid for by raising the rent the county charges to the probation office.

In other action, the board voted to allow the sheriffs office to purchase two in-car cameras for $7,990. Grant money from the Nebraska Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office will cover $5,992 of that cost.
Save my User ID and Password

Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site.

Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site.
Subscriber content preview

SEATTLE  Members of Teamsters Local 174 who work in the sand and gravel industry have voted to authorize a strike against their employers.

The group's current contract expires on July 31. They could strike the next day, according to a news release from the union.





. . .
Tata Motors strengthens presence in Philippines with the launch commercial vehicles

Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has launched a range of commercial vehicles in the Philippines. The Indian company had entered the Philippines market in 2014 with cars and small commercial vehicles.

The company has also entered into distribution agreement with local partner Pilipinas Taj Autogroup, a business conglomerate engaged in the local distribution of motor vehicles. Through this partnership, Tata Motors will commence the supply of its commercial vehicle brands - such as the Tata Prima Range of tractor trailers and tippers, the LPT range of light, medium and heavy trucks, SFC 407, and the mini trucks range of Ace and Super Ace.

''The Philippines is one of our key markets in South-East Asia and we are delighted to be a part of one of the fastest growing ASEAN nations. With years of experience in the commercial vehicle business, we at Tata Motors have analysed and understood our customers well and are dedicated to providing them with best-in-class products and services,'' said Rudrarup Maitra, Head (International Business), Commercial Vehicles at Tata Motors.

Besides the Philippines, Tata Motors' commercial vehicles are present across several South-East Asian markets including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand with manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

''We are looking forward to this new opportunity and are committed to catering to the commercial vehicle market with India's largest and most trusted automobile brand here in the Philippines. We will closely work with Tata Motors to ensure customers here get the finest vehicles and services, that not only match their requirements but also their business needs," Jon Fernandez, Jr., President of Pilipinas Taj Autogroup, Inc., said,
Page Content

Oviedo, the capital of the Spanish region of Asturias, hosted the 20 th anniversary of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies ( CALRE ) on 24 and 25 July. The President of the European Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, offered his support to CALRE's declaration calling for EU regions to play a central role within the European integration project.

'Europe's future lies in its regions and the Oviedo Declaration, which 20 years ago called for the greater involvement of regions in the European integration, is more pertinent today than ever before.'Karl-Heinz Lambertz, the newly appointed President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), said to the representatives of 18 regional parliaments from across the EU.

The President of CALRE and President of the Parliament of Andalusia Juan Pablo Duran recalled the commitment of CALRE 'to continue working in a coordinated manner with the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Council and the European Committee of the Regions to consolidate key elements such as the principle of subsidiarity and inter-parliamentary cooperation'. President Duran stressed that "the co-participation of regional legislative powers increases the operationality and diligence of European directives and allows for a more effective implementation of European legislation.'

The 20th Anniversary declaration of CALRE was read by the President of the General Assembly of Asturias Pedro Sanjurjo. The declaration stresses the need for Europe to 'go beyond an economic union and include a social dimension' and positions itself as a 'direct bridge between the citizens and the EU institutions' as 'territories must be at the centre of European politics'.

During the seminar on the 'Role for the Regions in a Europe in Transition', President Lambertz also reiterated the commitment of the CoR to contribute to the on-going reflection on the future of Europe as 'the position of regional parliaments is crucial, and I call on every one of you could join the process by holding debates in your Parliament, contributing to our report to be submitted to the European Council next year'.

In a clear sign of reinforced cooperation between CALRE and the European Committee of the Regions, President Lambertz, will also attend CALRE's plenary assembly in Sevilla next November.
Riccarda Mandrini: Every edition of LagosPhoto centres on a theme that engages complex cultural, political and economic issues able to define the new Africa. This year, the festivals title is Regimes of Truth and it examines the search for and presentation of truth in contemporary society by drawing inspiration from the works of 19th- and 20th-century thinkers, writers and philosophers. But what is this truth?

Azu Nwagbogu: You know, theres a duality about photography. We often associate images with the fact of something that is true, but the facts are not always the truth. The facts are the structures or props on which we establish truths. And we also assume that when you see an image its telling you something accurate and factual. So we want to explore all the various dynamics and tensions between the truth and the images that we see, what they aim to represent as true, what is real, what is not real, and how all these considerations can better illuminate and inform us about contemporary society. When words fail us we look at body language for the truth. We want to investigate all of these things, especially at a time when anybody can create images, and almost everyone has access to tools of communication. Its a challenging time for the medium of photography in terms of showing, sharing and distributing images.
Home Two wheelers Mercedes-AMG Sells MV Agusta To ComSar Invest oi-Rajkamal

German carmaker Mercedes AMG owned 25 percent stake in MV Agusta, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer. Now, the German brand has sold its 25 percent stake to ComSar Invest, which is a part of the Black Ocean group.

With this move comes the end to a sales and marketing partnership between the two companies that was signed back in 2014. The President and owner of MV Agusta, Giovanni Castiglioni, said that the company had improved its financial situation after a recent restructuring.

An official statement from MV Agusta stated: "The new shareholding structure of MV Agusta Holding, which will control 100 per cent of MV Agusta Motor S.p.A., will see ComSar Invest as a strong minority shareholder and GC Holding, the investment company of Giovanni Castiglioni, owning the controlling stake."

Recommended Video

Tata Nexon: Tata's New SUV (Nexon) For India | First Look - DriveSpark

The value of the sale is undisclosed, but as per reports, MV Agusta's capital would see an increase, along with the focus to make high-end performance motorcycles.

DriveSpark Thinks!

Mercedes had bought a stake in MV Agusta in 2014 for 30 million Euros. The recent sale of the same stake would have had a larger value. More capital investment means that the motorcycle manufacturer can develop or improve the current motorcycle lineup to cater to a larger group of customers.
Irish Water have asked that people in the areas of south Louth affected by the ongoing water supply crisis check on vulnerable neighbours.

"(We) continue to urge people to check in on neighbours and family while the disruption continues, particularly the elderly and is encouraging farmers to reactivate their own wells where possible to conserve available water supplies.

"We have been proactively contacting our registered vulnerable customer and urge any customer with an urgent medical need who has not been contacted already to call our contact centre on 1850 278 278."

Irish Water also stated that a long term replacement of infrastructure will be needed.

"It's clear from the significant level of disruption and hardship endured by so many customers as a result of the burst on this high pressure main that its replacement must be a priority for Irish Water.

"A detailed programme for complete replacement will take a number of weeks to finalise and we will need to undertake detailed planning and design work before we can be confident around the exact timeframe for this to happen. However a preliminary view suggests a timeframe of 18 months and a budget of 2-3m will be needed to complete the work."
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.

If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .

Support our mission and join our community now.
A new radio documentary on The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland, who are based in Dundalk, is to be broadcast on LMFM on August bank holiday Monday, 7 August at 12 pm.

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee, this one hour radio documentary charts the 21 year history of The Cross Border Orchestra Ireland, whilst following them through their Peace Proms 2017 concerts in Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast & Limerick.

Founded in 1995 as a peace initiative, the Orchestra has graced some of the most well-known stages across the world.

The documentary features interviews with Sharon Treacy-Dunne, Founder of the CBOI, and Greg Beardsell, Musical Director, along with soloists Patricia Treacy, Eoin Hynes, Zena Donnelly, Lauren Murphy and Cormac Keegan.

We also hear from members of the orchestra from North and South, including the Colmcille Pipe Band, Harris Piping, the Michelle Johnston School of Highland Dance and the Rooney O'Malley Maguire School of Irish Dancing.

Teachers and pupils involved in the Peace Proms from all across Ireland & from Liverpool are also featured, talking about how taking part in the Peace Proms has been a major event for them over the last number of years.

The documentary highlights the important role the Orchestra has played not only in building and nurturing vital cross-border and cross-community relations, but in offering young Irish musicians the chance to perform on stage to audiences of thousands across the globe.

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland: 21 Years On has been produced by Sarah McCann of Little Road Productions Ltd. for LMFM Radio and funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.
A finalist in this years Telstra Queensland Business Awards, KNOBBY is a subscription business out of the Sunshine Coast whose products are worn by tens of thousands of members globally. You might struggle to spot one on the street, of course, because KNOBBY is an underwear club. If you were to ask founder Rob Rand, hed probably tell you to look out for a confident gait.

Rand told Dynamic Business that he began working on the idea for KNOBBY in 2012, after relocating to the remote town of Chillagoe in Far North Queensland, where his wife had been sent to perform her country service as a teacher.

A visit to the closest shops meant committing to a six-hour round trip, he said. So, when wed go shopping, buying underwear was a low priority, and from my research, I discovered this was common amongst men  many were wearing old, worn-out undies thatd lived in their drawer for years. When you put on daggy duds, lets face it, you feel drab. That said, its hard enough to get a bloke to pop to the shops for anything, let alone underwear.

My mission with KNOBBY was to provide people with fresh, funky and comfy undies that give them a hidden confidence, so that they feel like a million dollars even if theyre just wearing a basic t-shirt and jeans. We deliver a new, unseen design to our members every month. We originally launched as a mens underwear brand, but we recently expanded to include a womens range too. Our underwear features printed designs, which are really bold and unique, have been created by designers in-house and through collaborating with artists around the world. KNOBBYs range is available exclusively online through our website.

Rand said that while KNOBBY has enjoyed consistent growth since launching in 2014, the rollout of the brands womens line, late last year, amplified growth  in the first week alone, our overall member base increased by 25%. He said KNOBBY now has tens of thousands of members across fifteen countries including Canada, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, and is shipping a quarter of a million pairs of underwear each year.

Numerous factors have contributed to our success, he said. For one, we were the first to introduce the subscription model for underwear featuring unique monthly designs. Plus, our brand personality is witty, cheeky and colloquial Aussie  and this fun, light-hearted approach has really resonated with our market. Further, our bright, bold designs have been popular because theyre unlike anything else on the market  they really are works of art, not just a cheesy stock photo.

In light of KNOBBYs massive, diverse, and very engaged audience, Rand said it was important to him and his team to use their position to support amazing organisations, including charities, that are making a difference in peoples lives.

Were a proud partner of Orange Sky Laundry, the worlds first free mobile laundry service for the homeless, he explained. We provide them with underwear for homeless people and were currently producing special edition Orange Sky branded underwear, which well release to our members to later this year. For every pair sold, well donate an extra pair to Orange Sky as well as a donation to provide people with hot showers and clean clothes.

This year, KNOBBY was a finalist in the New Business category of the 2017 Telstra Queensland Business Awards. Although they were eventually beat out by Family Doctors Plus, Rand said the overall experience was invaluable.

It gave us the opportunity to bench mark our business with other start-ups and learn what has and hasnt worked in their companies, he explained. It was a fantastic opportunity to make new connections and look at the KNOBBY business model critically, so that we could then pin point how to do what we do more efficiently. The actual submission was huge. Numerous questions were very in-depth, which made us look at our systems and processes from a new perspective. We have grown KNOBBY from nothing but an idea and to now see it alongside other amazing businesses in such a short time was a massive achievement to everyone in our corner.

In terms of whats next for KNOBBY, Rand said the startup will be introducing some really cool new styles to their product line and that new athletes and brand ambassadors will be jumping on the Knobby wagon. Plus, there will be a few surprises along the way, he added. We have some exciting announcements to make in the coming months.
Page Content

Karl-Heinz Lambertz, a Belgian socialist, today took office as President of the European Committee of the Regions, the voice of regional and local authorities across the European Union. He will lead the political EU assembly for the next two and half years.

President Lambertz , a long-time leader of the German-speaking Community in Belgium and representing the Community in the Belgian senate, was elected by members of the European Committee of the Regions on 12 July and succeeds Markku Markkula (FI/EPP). Mr Markkula, chairman of Espoo city council, now becomes the First Vice-President of the CoR.

Outlining his political objectives , President Lambertz said: "Europe will only emerge from the crisis it if we prove that we can achieve results led by a common vision. I am convinced that if we are to bring Brussels closer to the communities it serves, if Europe is to rebuild trust it has lost over the years, it must start by taking action in its regions and cities. This is why I'm determined to increase the standing of our Committee in the European Union and ensure it becomes the place where all regions and cities can come to share their voice"

President Lambertz, a member of the CoR since 2001 and former President of the Party of European Socialists group in the CoR, highlighted the importance of maintaining and modernising the EU's regional-development policy  its cohesion policy  as well as the importance of strengthening solidarity. "We need to build a social Europe that is united across its regions and cities. Under my Presidency, and with the tough EU budget negotiations about to start, I will continue to argue for a strong and more visible EU cohesion policy. Scaling it back, diluting it, making it conditional, makes really no sense. A Union without cohesion policy is not the Europe we can accept", he remarked.

President Lambertz began his career as an academic in the Law department of the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve (UCL) in the mid-1970s, but left for a career in politics in 1981, when he became a member of the parliament of Belgium's German-speaking Community. He became Minister-President of the Community in 1999, a post that he held until May 2014 when he became President of its Parliament.

He is also Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, of which he has been a member since 2000. The Congress is the local and regional government wing of Europe's guardian of fundamental rights and brings together representatives of regions and cities from 47 countries, including Russia and Turkey.
JavaScript is disabled on your browser.

CORDIS website requires JavaScript enabled in order to work properly. Please enable JavaScript.
Bank President holds constructive meetings

The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Sir Suma Chakrabarti, gained strong backing for the EBRD's work in the green economy during a visit to the Republic of Korea. The President held meetings with the Korean government and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which is based in Korea.

President Chakrabarti held talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Kim Dong Yeon. The Deputy Prime Minister underlined Korea's support for the Bank's activities in mitigating the impact of climate change. During the meeting, the EBRD President praised the strength of the partnership between the Bank and Korea. So far, the joint value of EBRD-Korea projects in the Banks countries of operations stands at close to 1.5 billion. An increasing number of projects are in the field of green economy transition. The Bank wants 40 per cent of its projects to be in this area by 2020 and, so far, the EBRD seems to be on target. In the first six months of 2017, green projects accounted for 47 per cent of the Bank's activity.

The President emphasised this operational success in a meeting with the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Howard Bamsey. He said that the relationship between the two organisations had become even closer since they signed an agreement on greater cooperation earlier this year. So far, the Green Climate Fund has approved projects worth more than US$ 600 million with the EBRD, which is the largest single recipient of GCF resources.

Concluding his visit to Korea, President Chakrabarti said: Korea is at the forefront of green technology and that gives us a strong touchstone as we work together on creating greener economies in our countries of operations.
Sabine Lautenschlager: 100 years of womens suffrage  gender equality, freedom and democracy

Speech by Sabine Lautenschlager, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at an event marking the run-up to the centenary of womens suffrage in Berlin, 26 July 2017

What we dont want and what were not aiming for, never, not even centuries from now, is political emancipation and equality for women.

Of course, these arent my words. They were written in 1866 by Adolf Lette, a politician. They are very revealing as Lette was the founder of an association with a very specific objective  to promote the employment of women. To a certain extent therefore, Lette was an advocate of gender equality  for that day and age.

His general opposition to gender equality, however, was unsuccessful: next year we are celebrating 100 years of womens suffrage. Giving women the vote was a crucial step towards greater gender equality. For if you cannot vote, you have no political voice and, without that, your concerns cannot be addressed.

But the right to vote was only the first step. It was the first step on a journey which then took place at a rather leisurely pace.

It took until 1949 and Germanys Basic Law, which explicitly stated that women and men were equal. And until 1977 for the legal concept of stay-at-home wives to be dropped. Only since then have women been able to go to work without their husbands permission.

Do you find that as shocking as I do? Just think: we are not talking about something back in the mists of time; this is only 40 years ago!

Its a good thing that we are shocked. Because it shows how self-evident gender equality has become for us, especially for young people.

But is it really so self-evident?

Theres no doubt that access to education and training no longer depends on gender. In terms of school-leaving qualifications and university degrees, women are even slightly ahead.

Its not until later that things get difficult.

Only after they embark on a career do young women notice that equality does not extend as far as they thought. Although they started out on the same conditions as their male colleagues, they have to overcome higher barriers on their career path.

Often they earn less than their male colleagues even if they are just as qualified. They bump into the famous glass ceiling when they want to forge a career. And, above all, it is they who have to combine family and career  not the men. Usually its the women who take parental leave, and usually its the women who take part-time work afterwards and who dont progress so far career-wise as their husbands and colleagues.

My impression is that many women see these matters as personal problems. They are that, of course, but they are more than that. They concern all women and the whole of society. And the situation will only change when we all expand our personal horizons and push for wholesale gender equality.

So my appeal to all young women is: dont take gender equality for granted! Be pro-active! Stand up for your rights and the rights of others! The issue of equality is far from resolved.

And by the way, equality is of course not only a matter for women themselves. Why should it only be an issue for women to combine children and a career? Where are the men, where are the fathers?

I sometimes have the feeling that, despite all the progress, certain traditional roles are entrenched in peoples heads. And this applies not only to men but also to us women. We too are receptive to stereotypes. Studies show that women, just like men, unconsciously discriminate according to sex  also in the workplace.

What we need is a change of culture. And the starting point for that is to call into question not only the behaviour of others, but also our own. This is an important step which is often neglected.

So its up to all of us to ensure greater gender equality. But politicians can help too. For example, they can improve the conditions under which women  or men  combine career and family.

And then there are employment practices. Employers should not only use equality as a recruitment tool; they must also make equality possible in practice. That could be done, for example, with more flexible working hours; employees should have greater freedom to allocate their time. Why not pick up the children from school in the afternoon and then go back to your desk again in the evening? Consider Sweden. There its good form not to organise meetings after 4 p.m. So we can learn something if we only look around a little.

Gender equality has many facets, and I have touched upon several. Generally speaking, there are three things which, for me, are inseparably linked to this issue:

First, equality doesnt only mean rights. For every right there is an obligation. Therefore, having the same rights means having the same obligations. Its not just about cherry-picking, if I can put it like that. Women who demand complete gender equality must also be ready to take on responsibility.

Second, gender equality doesnt only concern a career-minded elite. It concerns everyone. So its not just about female quotas for supervisory boards and executive boards. Its not just about gender-neutral phrasing in legal texts. All that is of relatively little benefit to most women. For the majority it must mean more flexible working hours, respectful treatment, appropriate pay, better child care  just to mention a few things.

Third, equality ultimately concerns one thing: freedom. Every individual should live exactly how she or he wants to.

That also means we have to be tolerant of different lifestyles. We have to be tolerant of women (and men) who see being at home with the family as a calling; we have to be tolerant of women who see a career as a calling; and we have to be tolerant of women who claim both for themselves: family and career.

And tolerance isnt the whole story: women with different lifestyles should display solidarity. They should never let themselves make comments like shes only a housewife or she neglected her children for her career.

Despite all this, theres one point we should put on record: basically its a good sign for us in Germany that, when it comes to gender equality, the discussion is usually, though not always, about careers. It means that in other areas we have evidently come a long way.

To realise that, its enough just to look at other countries  in Africa, for instance. There are areas where women live in terrible conditions  Adolf Lette would still be a progressive reformer there today. We must therefore not only look beyond our personal horizons but also beyond our national horizons. From a global perspective, the issue of gender equality has quite a different meaning.

Nevertheless, gender equality is also making progress at a global level. For instance, the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Report covers the whole world. It measures the gaps in a number of areas, including the economy, education and politics. It reports that, if current trends continue, the global gender gap could be closed in 83 years. Girls born now would be on an equal footing at the end of their lives.

There are, of course, enormous regional differences. The World Economic Forum estimates that in eastern Europe and central Asia it will take almost 150 years to achieve full gender equality; in the Middle East and north Africa almost 130 years. At least by comparison, western Europe is doing quite well: only 61 years. In my view, however, thats not praise  far from it  but rather a reminder to progress more quickly.

We are celebrating 100 years of womens suffrage in Germany next year. Its about equality, but its also about democracy. For if half the population is economically dependent and not allowed to vote, then there is no democracy. Its all the more alarming if parts of the political spectrum are still  or perhaps again  apparently propagating an image of women that is outdated. Whoever does that is also trying to undermine democracy.

To put it another way, if you fight for equality, you also fight for democracy. Alas, today that seems to be becoming ever more necessary.

Thank you for your attention.
After happily signing countless tax breaks for corporations into law in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder finally found one to veto. Its one that would benefit actual Michiganders and not for-profit corporations:

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed on Tuesday a tax cut recently approved by the Michigan Legislature, saying the measure would put too much strain on the states budget. Snyder vetoed legislation that would have accelerated a tax cut approved in 2013 for those trading in a vehicle when purchasing a new or used vehicle. [] The bills would accelerate a gradual and agreed upon phase in of the sales and use tax relief to a degree that I believe is not fiscally prudent, Snyder said in a news release. [] The Senate Fiscal Agency estimated they would reduce sales tax revenue by an additional $21.2 million by 2021.

In Michigan, if you trade-in a used vehicle when you buy a new one, youre able to subtract the value of the used vehicle from the purchase price and pay taxes only on the difference, up to $3,500. Legislation passed in 2013 started the cap at $2,000 and would gradually raise it over the course of time. Legislators wanted to accelerate that increase in order to put more cash in the pockets of the citizens of our state and boost the economy.

That, however, was a bridge too far for Gov. Snyder. Hes fine with busting the budget  and causing cuts to education and other important elements in our state budget  with massive, billion dollar tax giveaways to corporations. But a tax break that takes a paltry $21.2 million from our budget but helps average Michiganders and boosts sales of our automakers is just too much for him.

But, ya know, thats just how he rolls.

UPDATE: An hour after I posted this, Gov. Snyder signed into a law a series of bills that will give tax breaks to corporations that will result in up to $200 million less in tax revenues every year.

[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]
Facebook last week confirmed its plan to launch a paywall for content providers, a move that could ease longstanding tensions with traditional publishers who objected to giving away their print stories for free.

Campbell Brown, former CNN and NBC News journalist and current head of Facebooks news partnerships unit, announced the plan at a New York digital media forum, outlining the companys strategy for monetizing the news content that drives so much of the user engagement on the site.

Consumers increasingly are getting their first read of daily news on Facebook.

We are in early talks with several news publishers about how we might better support subscription business models on Facebook, Brown said. As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, we are taking the time to work closely with our partners and understand their needs.

Test Run

Facebook will test its paywall model later this year with a small group of publishers. Readers will be given access to 10 free articles per month but then will have to subscribe to view additional articles. A more robust version is planned for 2018, according to a source familiar with the project.

Brown and fellow Facebook executive Fidji Simo briefed several publishers about the plan during one-on-one meetings last week in New York and Paris, according to the source, and the company has been working closely with numerous publishers in recent months to get a better handle on the issue.

The plan is for the subscription to operate through Facebooks Instant Articles platform. There will be so-called freemium options, and publishers will have full control over locked and unlocked articles. Publishers also will have full control over their subscriber data, and the program will be able to authenticate existing subscribers.

Collective Bargaining Move

The Facebook announcement came about a week after the News Media Alliance, which represents 2,000 news organizations in the U.S. and Canada, asked Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to engage in collective bargaining with Facebook and Google.

Those two companies dominate most of online consumption of news content and control almost 70 percent of digital advertising revenue, according to the alliance.

Google and Facebook basically have forced publishers to give up their rights and play by their rules, said Paul Boyle, News Media Alliance SVP of public policy.

Their dominance has forced publishers to try and exercise more control, he maintained.

Basically, what youve seen is a commoditization of the news, where many people cant tell the difference between real news and fake news reports, Boyle told the E-Commerce Times.

Gradual Evolution

Facebook is responding, gradually and with a variety of initiatives, to help publishing partners, said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at Poynter.

This is a constructive step, but not necessarily transformative, he told the E-Commerce Times. It fits the current trend of publishers asking digital readers to pay a bigger share of their costs  a bit ironically, in that Facebook and Google are sucking up nearly all the digital ad growth.

It would be mildly surprising if Google, or especially Twitter, should follow suit, Edmonds said.

Facebooks move is part of a natural progression, as the company finally is taking ownership of the fact that it operates as a publisher and is a major information source for many readers, said Zack Fuller, an analyst at Midia Research.

The argument that Facebook is simply a platform for news content no longer washes, he told the E-Commerce Times, when we consider the scale of its user base and the fact that its increasingly becoming many peoples core news source away from TV and print.
Zoho has launched Zoho One, an all-in-one business suite comprised of more than 35 integrated Web applications and an equal number of mobile apps.

The suite offers single sign-on with centralized administration and provisioning. Each user has one secure account and access to the entire suite. An admin panel enables and controls access, which simplifies provisioning, access and audit.

Companies can define policies company-wide; control can be enforced centrally or delegated through service admins for individual departments and groups.

Zoho One costs US$1 a day per employee.

Zoho Ones Features

Zoho One offers the following:

Sales, marketing and support apps;

Finance, recruiting and related HR apps;

An office suite;

Mail; and

Personal productivity and collaboration apps.

Users can build custom apps for unique business needs and include them in Zoho One.

Zoho One has integration points across its applications that connect sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, HR and other activities, and enable communication and collaboration among colleagues, customers and vendors.

It has contextual integrations that bring in relevant information from other apps to improve an apps effectiveness. Zoho One applications integrate with hundreds of leading third-party software applications.

Theres no other vendor who puts together all the software needed to run a business, said Vijay Sundaram, Zohos chief strategy officer.

Zoho One eliminates the need to purchase multiple technologies to run a business from front-office to back-office  all for one affordable price, noted Cindy Zhou, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

The pricing can be five times lower than some competitors cost for one application, she told CRM Buyer.

Zoho Ones other benefits include integrated admin capabilities and business process workflows, and a reduced learning curve, Zhou said.

Playing Well With Others

Zohos office suite interoperates well with Microsoft Office, Zohos Sundaram told CRM Buyer, but customers arent compelled to use [it]. They could use Microsoft Office and still work with Zoho One for everything else.

Another option for customers would be to use a CRM application from another company, such as Salesforce, and use Zoho One for areas such as finance, human resources, recruiting or marketing, he said. The choice is the customers to make.

Zoho Ones pricing is still attractive if customers only use a few of its applications, Constellations Zhou pointed out.

Zohos Target Market

Zoho One targets small and mid-sized businesses worldwide with annual revenues of up to $1 billion, Sundaram said. It works across industries and segments and fits almost any type of business.

Zoho itself runs on Zoho One, so we know it scales to large and complex organizations, he pointed out. Zoho has 4,500 employees located in several countries and serves customers in more than 200 countries.

Zoho One may make sense for smaller businesses, or large ones that have a large population of mobile-only workers who only need limited desktop application functionality, suggested Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research.

Part of Zohos pitch is the mobile or tablet as primary or only device, she told CRM Buyer. There is a sweet spot for Zoho here, but also a need to educate the market beyond just providing a very cost-effective solution.

Push for Partners

Innovations in Zoho One include simple procurement, a single point of administration, and pricing simplicity with absolutely no hidden costs or gotchas, Sundaram said. The suite comes with two-factor and multifactor authentication built in, and its passwords are encrypted using some of the latest algorithms.

Zoho One will draw comparisons to what Microsofts doing with Office 365, especially given Microsofts recent focus on SMBs, observed Alan Lepofsky, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

However, Zoho currently lacks the partner system of Microsoft Office 365 and Google GSuite, he told CRM Buyer. In order to grow awareness and their customer base, Zoho now needs to focus on customer success stories and enticing partners.
Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)
ECSU Hosts 4th Annual Jr. Police Academy

When Crime Scene Investigator Brandon Knowles invites the estimated 30 high school students to the table to learn how finger printing works, they quickly gather for a demonstration. Fifteen-year-old Kenedi Rios takes her place at the table, pulling her hair back, anticipating the next event in a series of weeklong activities at the Junior Police Academy, held on the campus of Elizabeth City State University.

I wanted to know about the operations behind the police, Rios said of her decision to join the Junior Police Academy. A lot of people misjudge them.

This is the fourth annual academy, the brain child of Elizabeth City Police Chief Eddie Buffaloe. The weeklong event is held in the Ridley Student Center. Kids ranging from 9th grade on up spend the week learning about a variety of law enforcement issues, as well as procedures and policies relating to police operations.

This gives them exposure to what we do on a day-to-day basis, says program facilitator, and community policing officer, Trevon Franks. We expose them to different facets of police work.

The Junior Police Academy is just one of a number of summer camps held on the ECSU campus. From STEM education and NASA-related camps, to Girls Empowerment camps, middle and high school students from across the Northeast North Carolina region have an opportunity to broaden their experience while being exposed to a college campus, sometimes for the first time in their lives.

Rising 9th grader Christopher Revell says the Junior Police Academy is giving him an opportunity to know firsthand how law enforcement works, how hard they work, and how difficult it is to do police work. Its that knowledge, he said, that has him thinking about a future in law enforcement.

When Officer Knowles calls the students to the table, they gather around individual finger printing stations. Each student is given an official finger printing document, and a strip of ink.

They watch as Officer Knowles demonstrates the procedure, and then each one of them gives it a try, finding the ink and the printing somewhat awkward, but having fun with the process.

Officer Franks says the students are taken through a number of other activities throughout the week, such as drills, a K-9 demonstration, and even classes on writing police reports.

Christopher Revell says there are so many activities, that its difficult to pick one that stands out for him.

Theres a lot going on and Im having so much fun, its hard to pick one thing, he said.

The week will end with a ceremony and reception for the academy students on Friday, July 28, at 3 p.m.
A Melbourne family has launched legal action against a private school that banned their child from wearing a Sikh patka, a turban worn by children.

Five-year-old Sidhak Singh Arora had been due to start prep at Melton Christian College, located in Melbourne's north-west, this year.

However, the school said the patka did not comply with its uniform policy, which prohibits any type of religious head covering.

The school's principal, David Gleeson, told the tribunal that by wearing the patka, Sidhak was identifying himself as something other than the identity of the college.

That creates a difference, that takes away the level playing field for himself and other students in the school, Gleeson said.

Gleeson added that racial and religious differences between students have no relevance to the classroom, in the playground, at school events, and that's because differences are invisible.

I see our students in the playground and I see them totally oblivious to one another's racial or religious background, he said.

They play foursquare together, and if I picture that, I have to call to mind that some of them are African and some of them are Indian and some of them are white Aussies ... as a school we tend to be oblivious to that and I think that is a strength ... that comes from ... [the] neutrality of the uniform.

However, the parents are taking the matter up with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), accusing the school of breaching the Equal Opportunity Act by discriminating against their son on religious grounds.

I was very surprised in an advanced country like Australia, they are still not allowing us to wear patka in the school. On the basis of that they are not giving enrolment in the school, the boys father said.

The VCAT hearing was told the college had an open enrolment policy which allowed children of all faiths to enrol.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission said the case could set an important precedent for exceptions to unlawful discrimination in schools.

This is the first time that these exceptions from discrimination, including allowing educational authorities to set reasonable standards of dress, have been considered in Victorian courts or tribunals Commissioner, Kristen Hilton, said.

The impact of VCAT's decision would be wide-ranging.

The hearing will continue today.
In a recent spirited Commentary, Chester E. Finn Jr. took aim at the faux psychology undergirding the social-emotional-learning movement. Education Week received a host of letters in response to Finns June 21 essay, The Dirt-Encrusted Roots of Social-Emotional Learning. While most readers jumped to the defense of teaching students about emotions, relationships, and problem-solving, others encouraged a more cautious approach to the trend.

SEL Alone Is Not a Panacea

As the person who developed the conceptual framework for what is now one of the most popular social-emotional-learning curricula in the world (Second Step), I made the decision 32 years ago not to include self-esteem training in that research-grounded program. Heres why: Theres no evidence its directly teachable. If it were, every 4-year-old who ever watched Mr. Rogers would be brimming over with it. Social-emotional learning is not self-esteem rebranded, nor is it a hoax, as Chester E. Finn Jr. suggests. It is only a partial truth. Anything that is partial but presented as the whole is, by its very nature, false.

To the degree that social-emotional learning has been peddled as the entire solution to school failure, or even to all behavioral problems at school, its false. To the degree that SEL is promoted as one part of a much larger effort in the school and life success for all students, it is as deeply true, evidence-based, and essential as phonics is to reading.

I share Finns concern that SEL sometimes seems awash in the self. I happen to agree that the somewhat myopic focus needs to be rebalanced. SEL, when it is taught right, is enhanced with character education and explicit teaching of the values of democracy: fairness, honesty, integrity, appreciation for differences, and equity. It is also enhanced when it is specifically linked both to the understanding of personal trauma and to the justice issues that underlie so much of our social conflicts and inequities.

Alice Ray is the co-founder and CEO of Ripple Effects in Alameda, Calif.

Research: Happy Students Thrive

As most would agree, when students develop social-emotional skills and attend schools that are safe, engaging, and participatory, they do better academically and lead healthier and happier lives. Contrary to what Chester E. Finn Jr. writes, there is a strong scientific foundation documenting the benefits of social-emotional-learning approaches that strive to foster these outcomes.

Penn State psychologist Mark T. Greenberg and his colleagues summarized several research reviews of school-based prevention and youth-development programs. Their benefits include improved interpersonal skills, peer and adult relationships, and academic achievement. Problem behaviors, such as misbehavior at school, truancy and dropout, alcohol and drug use, and high-risk sexual behavior, also saw a reduction.

A large-scale meta-analysis of more than 200 school-based SEL programs showed positive outcomes in all six areas reviewedenhanced social-emotional skills and attitudes, positive social behavior, improved academic performance, and lower levels of conduct problems and emotional distress.

Several subsequent meta-analyses have found similar, positive results for social-emotional-learning programs. These new research syntheses have been conducted by independent research groups across the United States and Europe. They examined hundreds of experimental-control-group studies involving tens of thousands of students. All of them included a control group, and many involved randomized-controlled trials.

Bottom line: This SEL research spans several decades, involves many social-emotional-learning programs around the world, goes far beyond the qualitative and anecdotal research Finn criticizes, and considers a broad array of positive and negative indicators of well-being. Across hundreds of thousands of children, a consistent finding is that well-implemented SEL interventions promote competence and positive functioning, improve academic performance, and reduce problem behaviors in the short and long term.

Roger P. Weissberg is the chief knowledge officer of CASEL and a professor of psychology and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago.

An Ill-Informed Conclusion

Chester E. Finn Jr.s scathing essay comparing social-emotional learning to the self-esteem movement dismisses social-emotional learning as faux psychology. Given the history of education fads, I understand his critical perspective on social-emotional learnings popularity, though I find his conclusions ill-informed.

The No Child Left Behind Act dismissed the idea of the holistic learner, forcing educators to focus on students testable cognitive skills. Ultimately, NCLB was an experiment far more costly than any self-esteem movement. In an effort to mend the system, educators are ushering in a new era of engaged, personalized, and emotionally meaningful learning. We should view the recognition of the whole child as a welcome development and support it with accountability and evidence-based practices.

Finn argues that social-emotional learning and character are not identical; on that, he is correct. Character brings in a strong moral dimension, something social-emotional learning does not typically include. While character may have a place in education, we must be wary of indoctrinating students rather than allowing for exploration and choice. SEL focuses on skills associated with 21st-century learning and employment. Many of those are not moral in nature, but some have character elements, such as empathy, self-management, and perseverance.

The evidence for social-emotional learning does exist. While CASEL has done great work, todays paradigm shift is beyond one organization. It is a culmination of research from a range of topics, including neuroscience, trauma, resiliency, and life skills. Together, these well-researched fields represent a strong foundation for social-emotional learning. For this reason, I call it social-emotional development; it involves not only learning, but also growth and well-being.

Understanding this groundwork, it is hard to imagine that social-emotional development will be a fad similar to the past self-esteem movement. Being provocative can promote thinking, but being polemical is not going to help us seize this moment of innovation.

Gil G. Noam is the founder and director of The PEAR Institute: Partnerships in Education and Resilience at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.

Focus on Character

Bravo to the esteemed Chester E. Finn Jr. for revealing that present social-emotional-learning programs are rooted in the self-esteem movement and dont build character. This is understandable, because the movement is basically seeking to make a competitive and objective educational system more student-sensitivean admirable effort, but not one that develops character.

Picture the caterpillar struggling in the cocoon to develop wings strong enough to fly as a butterfly. Similarly, children need to struggle to develop character and gain the ability and confidence to tackle life on their own. Social-emotional learning is an integral part of that character. But the focus should be on character, not the present system.

Joseph Gauld is the founder of The Hyde Schools.

SEL Develops Workforce Skills

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has a history of ignoring evidenced-based programs that we know help our children learn, while supporting programs that have zero evidence of their effectiveness and only serve to funnel money away from students. She spent millions peddling vouchers and supporting for-profit colleges and brain-performance psychotherapy without any proof that they help educate our kids. Recently, her pseudoscience has spread to other members of her party.

Last month in the pages of Education Week, former U.S. Department of Education official Chester E. Finn Jr. decided to go beyond supporting lackluster programs and attacked social-emotional-learning initiatives that have been linked to positive outcomes inside and outside the classroom.

A meta-analysis of over 200 studies with almost 300,000 students showed that students who participated in social-emotional-learning programs had an 11 percent gain in academic achievement. More importantly, a bipartisan working group found that social-emotional-learning competencies are needed for students to be successful once they enter the workforce. This is one of the reasons why I have gotten bipartisan support for the Chronic Absenteeism Act and the Teacher Health and Wellness Act, both of which advocate for increased social-emotional learning in American classrooms. SEL does not just make sense for students, it also makes sense for our pocketbooks. Studies show that it has been proven to yield a return of $11 for every $1 spent.

Social-emotional learning is a new framework for tried and true ideas. We know the best teachers are not great because they get all their students to pass a test. They are great because they inspire and teach their students to become more socially and self-aware. This awareness of the opportunities that exist across the world and within themselves is an integral part of SEL.

Finn falsely described social-emotional learning as being equivalent to self-esteem. SEL is about focusing on the whole child and teaching our students how to make responsible decisions. Its about looking at character in addition to content so that the next generation develops skills that can transfer across disciplines. Teachers value social-emotional learning because it allows them to teach students the positive social skills needed to build partnerships. Employers value social-emotional learning because it allows them to hire dynamic problem-solvers and effective communicators needed in todays fast-paced economy.

There is no doubt that we should be careful not to oversell education research, but we certainly dont want to deprive our students of resources that could help students realize their full potential.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, serves in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

Author Lacks Understanding

Im not sure Chester E. Finn Jr. understands exactly what social-emotional learning is, based on his Commentary. To tie it only to self-esteem or to say it does not seem intended to build character in any traditional sense shows a lack of understanding of the many dimensions of social-emotional learning and its proven ties to academic achievement. Schoolwide positive-behavior interventions and supports, or PBIS, have tons of data from schools all over the world showing that when you improve student behavior, academic achievement also improves.

Finn seems to think teaching ethics and morality are the cornerstones of emotional competence, which ignores critical community-building characteristics, such as respect and responsibility. I would hope Education Week would publish something more accurate concerning social-emotional learning.

Deb Childs is a schoolwide positive behavior support consultant at Education Plus in St. Charles, Mo.

Emotional Health Opens Doors

If we lived in a perfect world, all childrens basic needs would be met in safe and secure homes, with outstanding examples of responsible decisionmaking, behavior management, and self-awareness as the norm. High-quality after-school programs would be an affordable option in all neighborhoods, and could ensure kids get the social and emotional skills they need to develop into hardworking, courageous, and patriotic citizens. But we dont. For many children and families, that world is a hoax.

In the real world, more than half of all public school students in the United States come from low-income neighborhoods. The educators my organization serves work with these students every day. These are students whose top stressors include homelessness, incarcerated family members, and domestic violence. To equate social and emotional learning solely with self-esteem is shortsighted.

Our research shows that when students from low-income communities engaged even peripherally in SEL activities, they were more engaged and confident academically. Lack of social and emotional skills is an impediment to learning, and SEL-specific resources can help. Without those skills, the barriers to learning loom large. And the very real world that affects more than half of all kids in public schools is not a hoax.

Kyle Zimmer is the president and CEO of First Book in Washington, D.C.

What the Brain Science Says

Chester E. Finn Jr. questions the research connecting social, emotional, and academic learning without acknowledging the recent revolution in the science of learning and brain development.

Its now irrefutable that people learn better when they are interested, invested, and engaged. Science also validates that feeling safe, welcomed, and valued is key to brain and cognitive development.

This scientific consensus has tremendous implications for schools. Learning and youth development depend on the interplay of knowledge, skills, self-regulation, self-awareness, and the belief that academic work is both doable and meaningful. If schools target just one piece, they will make little headway. Students are most likely to learn and retain difficult academic content when the social, emotional, and academic conditions work together. Students are people first, after all. Its true that some students excel academically when educators only pay attention to academics, but thats because their social needs and motivational systems are already aligned with academic success. Most children go through school with decreasing interest and investment, leaving K-12 schooling with mediocre knowledge, skills, and qualifications.

We know that attending to students social and emotional development pays significant dividends. Solid research supports the connection between students social development and academic gains. And eight in 10 employers say that, while social and emotional skills are the most important ingredients to success, theyre the hardest to find in prospective employees.

Scienceand kidstell us that the best way to make a difference in the lives of students is by building on how children naturally learn, by capitalizing on the innate connection between cognition, social belonging, and emotion. This is the only way to align schooling with what we know about learning and youths neurobiological and cognitive development.

Camille A. Farrington is the managing director for the Consortium on School Research at the University of Chicago. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is an associate professor at the University of Southern Californias Rossier School of Education in Los Angeles. Both authors serve on the Aspen Institutes National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Developments Council of Distinguished Scientists.

SEL Needs a Concrete Definition

In his recent Commentary, Chester E. Finn Jr. perpetuates a misconception that is all too common: the belief that social-emotional learning is devoid of substance. Unlike self-esteem, SEL comprises specific skills needed to set goals, manage behavior, build relationships, and process and remember information. Our studies and others show these skills are essential for educators to teach and students to learn academic content.

But Finn has raised an issue that researchers like us need to tackle head on: No one can quite agree on what SEL is. The current lack of precision can cause confusion, lead to inefficient use of instructional time and resources, and breed the kind of skepticism evident in Finns Commentary. We need to set the record straight that SEL is measurable, relevant, and beneficial, but we also must be concrete and transparent about what it is.

Our research, including randomized controlled trials of interventions across ages and contexts, concludes that there are about a dozen specific SEL skills that are clearly linked to school and life success. Adults and students both need these skills. They include: (1) executive functions, such as attention and impulse control, cognitive flexibility, and planning; (2) the ability to cope with frustration, understand other perspectives, and manage emotions; and (3) the social competence to collaborate and resolve interpersonal conflicts.

From our work in schools, we know that SEL interventions can have multiple goals, from facilitating classroom management, to building students ability to cope in the face of both normative and toxic stress, to helping teachers avoid burnout. Different SEL skills may be more relevant or necessary in some contexts than others and at different developmental periods. Research is becoming ever more precise about which strategies work best and when.

At the front lines of teaching and learning, educators know that students need fundamental cognitive, emotional, and social skills so that they can succeedand they see how much everyone struggles when those skills are missing. They need researchers like us to be clear about where they should be focusing their efforts in order to support academic learning rather than distracting from it. The science of SELand there is onecan and should guide us.

Suzanne Bouffard is a developmental psychologist in Cambridge, Mass. Stephanie M. Jones is a professor of education and the director of the Ecological Approaches to Social-Emotional Learning (EASEL) Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass. Rebecca Bailey is a research manager at the EASEL Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass.
Dow to divest part of corn hybrid seed business in Brazil to CITIC Agri Fund





The Dow Chemical Company has announced that it has entered into an agreement with CITIC Agri Fund to divest a select portion of Dow AgroSciences' corn seed business in Brazil for the purchase price of US$1.1 billion.

The scope of the divestiture includes seed processing plants and seed research centres, a copy of Dow AgroSciences' Brazilian corn germplasm bank, the Morgan seed brand and a license for the use of the Dow Sementes brand for a certain period. The assets being divested generated revenues of around $287 million last year.

The US-based chemical company said the divestiture is intended to satisfy its commitments to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) in connection with its conditional regulatory clearance of the proposed merger with DuPont. The divestiture will be conditioned on Dow and DuPont closing their merger transaction, in addition to other customary closing conditions, including approval of the divestiture transaction by CADE.

According to Andrew Liveris, Dow's chairman and chief executive officer, the agreement "further advances the regulatory approval process, and maintains the strategic logic and value creation potential of our merger with DuPont and the three independent companies we intend to create".

"We believe this agreement serves the best interests of all stakeholders including our shareholders, customers and employees. The combination of our portfolios, even with this divestiture, will create a much stronger agriculture company with greater choice and innovation for growers around the world", he added.

In a press release, Dow said the established assets involved in this local remedy are incremental to the previously announced divestment of certain parts of DuPont's global crop protection portfolio and R&D pipeline and organisation and Dow's global Ethylene Acrylic Acid copolymers and ionomers business, consistent with commitments already made to the European Commission (EC) and regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions.

EC conditional approval

On March 27, the EC approved with condition the proposed merger of the two chemical companies, particularly on the divestiture of major parts of DuPont's global pesticide business, including its global R&D organisation.

Both companies, Dow said, are working together for a seamless transition for all stakeholders.

"Dow and DuPont continue to work constructively with regulators in the remaining jurisdictions to obtain clearance for the merger and are making progress in fulfilling the requirements of the conditional approvals that have already been received", it said.

The merger transaction is still expected to generate cost synergies of around $3 billion and growth synergies of $1 billion. Both companies have reaffirmed their expectation to close the merger next month, with the intended spin-offs to occur within 18 months of closing.

CITIC Agri Fund was founded last year by CITIC Agriculture, a division of state-backed CITIC Ltd, along with Chinese seed firm Yuan Longping High-Tech Co Ltd and two other listed agricultural companies.

CITIC Ltd is China's largest conglomerate, which made its first foray into the seed business in 2014.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
A growing body of research on the use of ancestral protein resurrection has been published in recent years to address a variety of issues on protein evolution and protein engineering. In a study published in Nature Communications, an International team of scientists has demonstrated the high potential of this evolutionary approach to endow new activities into ancient enzymes.

Specifically, the study suggests a mechanism for the emergence of primordial enzymes and shows that resurrected ancestral enzymes make much better scaffolds for engineering of novel enzyme functions.

Enzyme activity is determined by the structure of a particular region of the protein called the active site. The generation of completely new active sites capable of enzyme catalysis is, arguably, one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in molecular biology.

Rational and modern design approaches to this problem have been developed, using complex computational methods but without conclusive results. Indeed, protein engineering studies often suggest that the emergence of completely new enzyme active sites is highly improbable.

Many years ago, Roy Jensen (currently at the University of Kansas Medical Center) proposed that primordial enzymes were capable of catalyzing a diversity of reactions. Based on this work, a team of scientists from the University of Granada (Spain), the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the Instituto de Quimica Fisica Rocasolano (Madrid, Spain), the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) and with data collected at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, located in Grenoble (France), explored and tested these notions using resurrected Precambrian -lactamases as scaffolds for the engineering of completely new active sites. Precambrian -lactamases are proteins approximately 3 billion years old. If we simplify, the scientists did for these proteins what the scientists in Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs: bring ancient forms back to life, so that they can be studied to better understand how complexity in species comes about.

How is it possible to resurrect ancestral protein? Proteins are made from various combinations of amino acid building blocks, with a nearly endless variety of complexity and function. Researchers have compiled large databases full of the proteins sequences. By comparing today's sequences to each other within an evolutionary framework, scientists can reasonably infer the sequence of an ancestral protein from which the modern versions descended using models of sequence evolution.

 The properties of these ancestral proteins (Precambrian -lactamases) confer high structural stability and promiscuous enzymatic activity, meaning that they are capable of reacting with a variety of substances. These properties support the biotechnological potential of Precambrian protein resurrection because both high stability and enhanced promiscuity are desirable features in protein scaffolds for laboratory directed evolution and molecular design. explains Valeria A. Risso, first author of the paper, from the University of Granada.

Using these resurrected Precambrian proteins, the team demonstrated that a new active site can be generated through a single hydrophobic-to-ionizable amino acid replacement that generates a partially buried group with perturbed physico-chemical properties. We have found that a minimalist design to introduce a de novo activity (catalysis of the Kemp elimination, a common benchmark in de novo enzyme design) fails when performed on modern -lactamases but is highly successful when using the scaffolds of hyperstable/promiscuous Precambrian -lactamases.  underlines Eric A. Gaucher, from the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology.

For their experiment, the team used three structural biology beamlines at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in Grenoble (France): ID29, ID23-1, and the fully automated  hands-off  beamline MASSIF-1, as well as the Xaloc beamline at Alba, the Spanish synchrotron. "Three-dimensional structural information derived from the data obtained at the ESRF was essential for the interpretation of the work, as it led to a high-resolution structure of the new active site and provided conclusive evidence of the role of protein re-organisation in the emergence of the new function" explains Jose A. Gavira, corresponding author, from the University of Granada.

Picture of ID23-1, one of the ESRF beamlines where the experiments were carried out. @ESRF/P.Jayet

This study confirms the potential of ancestral reconstruction as a tool for protein engineering. We provide experimental and computational evidence that laboratory-resurrected ancestral enzyme will make much better scaffolds for new function engineering due to its high stability and dynamics features.  says Jose M. Sanchez-Ruiz.

The innovative combination of bioinformatics, computational biology, structural biology and biophysics allowed researchers to delve deep into evolutionary time, and change the course of an enzyme's evolutionary potential. "Learning more about primordial life, and how it can be re-manipulated, will open up a lot of new avenues for science, and shed light on the puzzle of how complex biological systems evolve at the most fundamental molecular level" underlines Lynn Kamerlin, corresponding author, from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University.

Reference

Risso, V. A. et al. De novo active sites for resurrected Precambrian enzymes. Nature Communications. 8, 16113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16113 (2017).

Additional information

This work was supported by Feder Funds, Grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and benefited from financial support from the European Research Council and NASA.
Something went wrong, please try again later.

Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later.

For daily updates and all the latest breaking news sent straight to your inbox sign up to our daily newsletter

Britain's largest supermarket chain has announced an exciting new feature for its points card customers.

Tesco's Clubcard, which rewards shoppers the more they spend in store and online, is set to become contactless .

With some card holders already enjoying this new feature, the change comes alongside other exciting features.

Shoppers can simply tap their Clubcard at checkout, rather than scanning them, earning points from their transaction instantly, reports Get Reading .

Customers can also access vouchers at the checkout, at the touch of a button, rather than the old paper voucher system.

Chief Customer Officer Alessandra Bellini said: "Tesco Clubcard is one of the most uniquely helpful things we do and it's our way of saying thank you to our customers for shopping with us.

"We've listened to customers and we're delighted to have made Clubcard even simpler and easier to use, introducing a brand new contactless card, an upgraded Clubcard app, and added to our list of partners too.

"Clubcard is the most rewarding loyalty scheme in the sector and we're looking forward to seeing how customers respond to the improvements."

The updated cards were rolled out on July 7 with customers able to start using them straight away.

The latest innovation follows a recent shake up of the Clubcard app by the retailer too.

New customers can now use the Tesco Clubcard app to sign up to Clubcard straight away, while they shop in store.

Here's some of the main questions about the new Clubcard:

What happens if I haven't got one?

Tesco is sending new Clubcards out over four weeks. If you haven't received your new Clubcard by August 7th you can order one through the website.

Do I need to activate the new card?

No, it's all good to go and linked to your existing account  all your points are still there, ready to be used.

Where do I tap the Clubcard?

You need to tap your contactless Clubcard on the chip and pin terminal at the checkout  the same place you would tap or enter your bank or credit card when paying. If you're using a self-checkout machine you'll see a message on the screen to remind you to use your Clubcard.

Is there a limit to how many points you can collect?

No. There's no limit on your new contactless Clubcard as it's just for collecting points and not for paying.

Can I pay using my Clubcard points?

You can only use your points when they have been converted into Clubcard vouchers. Clubcard vouchers are sent out every three months.

I use my Tesco Bank card to collect Clubcard points, so what happens?

If you use your Tesco Bank card to collect Clubcard points, then please continue to do so as normal, your Tesco Bank card remains your combined Clubcard & payment card. Tesco are only replacing regular Clubcards at the moment.

I have another question...

There's a dedicated Tesco help section
The defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and its caliphate project presents a renewed opportunity for the international community to rebuild the country and put an end to the vicious cycle of failure and repair that have plagued the country since 2003. Together with the upcoming national and provincial elections in 2018, the latest development offers a chance to rebuild national cohesion and win citizens confidence in government institutions and authorities. The last opportunity to rebuild the country emerged in 2008-2010 but the success was short-lived when the ISIS rapidly took control of a third of Iraqs territory in 2014.

The most important part of this new attempt at the state-rebuilding process will likely be the breakdown of the ethno-sectarian blocs that have been a dominant force in the previous government formation cycles. Iraq has a complex ethnic make-up with significant Shia, Kurdish and Sunni populations whose leaders are now less able to unify their constituents based on identity politics and intra-community rivalries.

The current mood in the country is one of timid optimism. Although the Iraqis are fairly positive about the most recent developments, they are also worried that the root causes that had led to the rise of ISIS have not been sufficiently addressed. Therefore, many do not see the defeat of ISIS as the ultimate prerequisite towards a healthy state, but they rather put more emphasis on countering corruption through effective state-building and better governance.

When it comes to Iraqs Kurdish leaders, these are now largely focused on securing influence and legitimacy within the Kurdistan Region instead of building a stronger Iraqi state while the Sunnis still have little leverage in Baghdad. While the Shia will undoubtedly still continue to dominate national politics after 2018, they generally also disagree internally about the form of the statehood  the options range from a strong state through strong institutions to a strong security sector.

It is very unlikely that one of these three options will dominate in 2018. The outcome will be largely defined by the struggle for power over the key ministries and the future of the constitutionally mandated independent commissions. The intra-Shia dynamics will also define the future of the US-Iran relationship in Iraq. It is currently, however, hard to imagine that Washington and Tehran will join forces to achieve what is in Iraqs best interests.

Iraq After the Fall of ISIS: The Struggle for the State  Analysis by Renad Mansour  Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs.
The European Union has set out a new vision for how it can help Afghanistan address its challenges and bring positive changes for the Afghan people. The country located in southwestern Asia has been in recent years struggling to boost its socio-economic development amidst the delicate security situation. The EU is seeking to implement much-needed reforms that are indispensable to strengthen the countrys economy.

Federica Mogherini, the head of European diplomacy, commented that the EU would continue supporting Afghanistan in its reform process and democratic path towards rule of law and human rights. She emphasized that this work must be led by Afghans and owned by Afghans, although the active support of the international community is crucial. Neven Mimica, the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, added that Afghanistan is not alone. With the EUs support, more Afghan women are actively participating in the countrys politics. Access to health care has increased, and farmers are better supported to improve agricultural production than before. He also stressed that the EU will renew its engagement and focus on supporting good governance and the justice sector, creating sustainable growth and jobs, and ensuring basic social services for the Afghan people.

Brussels is going to focus on building peace, stability and regional security by promoting an inclusive Afghan-led Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process leading to a peace settlement. Building the capacity of the Afghan government to reach out to all those in sincere negotiations on peace as well as supporting the civilian aspects of security sector reform are the main focus areas. When it comes to building a democratic society, the EU is mostly focused on Afghanistans electoral system and electoral process while also supporting independent electoral bodies designed to assist with drafting electoral legislation and regulations. Brussels also works with Kabul to address human rights concerns including respect for minorities, child protection and fights against impunity. Brussels is also helping Afghanistan implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A special chapter of the mutual strategy is dedicated to migration. Both sides work together to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement and help create an environment that offers the Afghan people an alternative to migration also through the sustainable reintegration of those returned from the EU and non-EU countries through a community-based approach. An important aspect of the EU strategy in Afghanistan is also womens empowerment.
AUD and CAD currencies believed to be most overvalued by Westpac FX analysts today

Pound sterling exchange rate weakness largely caused by Brexit confusion

Bank of Canada forced markets to re-evaluate rate forecasts around the G10

Overbought conditions not unusual at perceived trend changes

The effect that the Bank of Canada (BoC) turning hawkish and subsequently raising rates has had a major effect on the value of the CAD, but its influence has been felt beyond its own situation and into the wider currency markets as a whole.

The shock was caused predominantly by the need to remove money which was complacent to the potential for higher rates in countries where rates were seen as lower for considerably longer.

Central banks such as the BoE and the ECB were faced with rising expectations for rates, but the most notable recipient of these elevated expectations was the AUD.

Australian Dollar

Investors searching for the next major country to make the jump from on-hold to hawkish, found the Australian Dollar as the most likely candidate.

Impressive data of late, most notably a very healthy trade surplus, has encouraged investors that the RBA, seen for a long time as firmly on hold, might make the jump soon to more hawkish policy.

A number of issues potentially stand in the way of this idea, most notably that Governor Lowe of the RBA is quite a staunch dove who probably dislikes the current level the AUD is trading at.

An additional concern comes from the fact that the fundamental economic factors which have conspired to push the Aussie up, have the potential to leave as much in unison as they arrived.

These elevated expectations have pushed the CAD and AUD up more strongly than any other currencies in the G10 and Westpac's FX model suggests that they are the most expensive currencies in that block, with the GBP and the Norwegian Krone as the most undervalued,

According to our latest estimates AUD and CAD are the most expensive currencies in the G10, while GBP and NOK the cheapest."

"The AUD NEER is more than 6% overvalued, up from 4% three months ago."

"At the other extreme GBP is more than 10% undervalued, much of that, of course, a function of the Brexit risk premium and unlikely to be reversed anytime soon.

Canadian Dollar

The Canadian Dollars run has likely been stretched onwards by the slight recovery in Oil prices, pushing it onwards against a flagging USD as USD/CAD exchange rate now looks extremely oversold.

The problem for the long side of this pair is that when trends change or are perceived to have changed, the sentiment and change in momentum as fresh shorts are added to profit taking of longs means that extreme overbought or oversold conditions are commonly seen in technical indicators.

The Aussie Dollar faces such a situation.

The British Pound's cheap valuation is mostly due to a sizeable risk premium and with so much confusion surrounding Sterling, the lack of conviction is unsurprising.

Key Currencies and Their Valuations Today

- The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate converts +0.24 per cent higher at 1 GBP is 1.64651 AUD.

- The Pound to Canadian Dollar conversion rate is -0.08 pct lower at 1.62817 GBP/CAD.

- The Pound to Euro exchange rate today is converting +0.08 per cent higher at 1.11956 GBP/EUR.

- The Pound to Norwegian Krone exchange rate today is converting +0.17 per cent higher at 10.40701 GBP/NOK.

- The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate converts -0.1 per cent lower at 1 GBP is 1.30142 USD.
Take a look at Transferwise - but I noticed they can only send money in Philippine pesos, not receive it. However, depending on what you want to do and how large these transfers are, you'll have a better idea of whether they will suit your needs or not.Depending on the amounts involved and the frequency of the transfers, you may want to go with an FX company. There is a good comparison site for all the major FX dealers here; Best Way to Send Money Abroad to UK, Europe, USA, Australia, Singapore, UAE & More Cheers,Bev
Diesel will be the cheapest cost to operate. A diesel engine running on a fairly constant load around 80% or so of capacity is one of the most efficient internal combustion engines out there. Diesel engine will be more expensive to buy initially so you have to balance capital cost and operating costs. Might be harder to get diesel in smaller capacities, less than 5kW.If only light occasional use and you already gave gas engines around needing gas in containers the difference may not be worth the hassle of having two types of fuel around. Also in a sustained emergency you can always get fuel from your vehicle to run the generator so having a generator same fuel as your car is useful.Sound can always be attenuated by an enclosure or a long extension cord.Running a diesel engine at too low a load can cause problem so getting the capacity right is important.A useful web site for information and pricing on generators is www.generatorjoe.net . They have a lot of information on sizing generators, comparative prices on a wide range of sizes and other useful information. Prices are FOB USA so you will have to make appropriate adjustments.In anticipation of Y2K at home I rewired my main panel to have a sub panel with my essential circuits on it. (Furnace, kitchen and water pump mainly) I then simply ran an extension cord to a generator weather proof plug outside.I used it only once in an extended outage due to a storm, I simply opened the panel, disconnected it from the main panel wired the extension cord into it then moved the generator to the deck near the plug outside and started it up. Worked like a charm, we had lights, food stayed cold in the refrigerator and freezer. Stove and oven did not work but the microwave and gas BBQ was enough for cooking. Biggest problem was hungry cold neighbours lol.
cay said:



Hubs and I have some non-perishables we are desperately wanting to donate but I have no clue where to start. The only time I've seen even a donation bin was around Christmas in Carrefour a few years ago in Fuengirola.



Any advice in the right direction would be much appreciated





Muchas gracias por adelantado!



- Cay Hola todos,Hubs and I have some non-perishables we are desperately wanting to donate but I have no clue where to start. The only time I've seen even a donation bin was around Christmas in Carrefour a few years ago in Fuengirola.Any advice in the right direction would be much appreciatedMuchas gracias por adelantado!- Cay Click to expand...

My town has a permanent food bank based in a former shop, I would guess most larger towns have something similar. You could try contacting this organisation to find the one nearest to you:-I have to admit, at one time I regularly went out and bought bagfulls of non-perishable groceries and took them in as donations. Having seen people in the queue for distribution of the goods who we knew to be drug dealers and probably pulling in more money than we had to live on at the time, I gave it up.


British universities are popular with students from all over the world with the latest research showing that the vast majority of overseas students are satisfied with their studies.The UK is ranked first by international students for overall satisfaction, according to an analysis based on the findings of the International Students Barometer, the worlds biggest survey of international students.It found that overall satisfaction of international students studying in the UK is very high with 91% of international students across all levels of study reporting that they are satisfied with their experience in the UK.The reputation of the institution is the most important factor in international students decision to choose the UK at the undergraduate and postgraduate taught levels at 93% and 95% respectively. For postgraduate research students, the most important factor is the quality of research at their chosen institution at 97%.The UK emerges top in terms of students recommending its universities. Undergraduates ranked the UK first, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Australia and then Canada. Postgraduate students also put the UK top, followed by the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, Canada and Australia. Research postgraduates ranked the UK top, then Australia, Germany, the United States and Canada.While undergraduate international students focus on a mix of social aspects and the learning environment, postgraduate taught students place significant emphasis on the learning dimension of the student experience. For postgraduate research students, the quality of the research environment and employability are important drivers of recommendation.Meanwhile, a separate report shows how British universities have changed, with more foreign students and also more academics from overseas. Non-UK nationals accounted for nearly two thirds of growth in all academic staff since 2006.For some subjects, such as engineering, and the humanities and language based studies, non-UK nationals have accounted for most of the growth in academic staff numbers, 63.5% and 54.6% of growth between 2006 2016 respectively.Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of Universities UK and vice-chancellor of the University of Kent, acknowledged that the last 10 years has seen significant changes for universities, both in terms of the way they are funded and their increasingly important roles locally and internationally.UK universities continue to face a number of challenges, including the possible impact of Brexit. We have to continue to work hard to attract the staff, students, funding and partnerships that are central to the sector's, and the country's, success, she said.
This article first appeared in Blood Horse magazine on September 9, 2000.



Let's make a horse racing movie. You know, the kind they used to make in the 1940s and 50s. It doesn't matter if the plot is implausible. People love this kind of stuff.



First we need a girl. There's always a girl, one who loves horses, having been around them all her life. What better choice than Linda Rice, who comes from one of the country's great racing families. Next we need the veteran horseman with the "good old boy" charm of Walter Brennan in the movie Kentucky. That part goes to Carl Bowling, who defies all the rules and picks out flawed horses at bargain prices and then develops them into runners and sells most of them at a nice profit.



More importantly, we need a horse the public can fall in love with. You know the kind. As a youngster he is unwanted because of physical imperfections, but he has a great personality, a sharp mind, and a ton of talent., and eventually emerges as a star. Fitting the bill is City Zip, who sold for a meager $9,000 to Bowling as yearling because he had undergone ligament surgery as a baby. He then failed to meet his reserve at the Ocala 2-year-old sale and was bought back for $80,000, with the owner vowing to race him and give everyone "a chance to look and see what they missed."



Finally, we need the establishment horse to serve as the foil. The big, grand-looking expensive horse owned and trained by the sport's powerhouses. Look no further than D. Wayne Lukas, the Coolmore partnership of Michael Tabor and John Magnier, and a $1.95 million 2-year-old purchase named Yonaguska.



We set their big dramatic showdown at where else but Saratoga Race Course in the grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, one of the most historic races in the country. But the magic of the Spa is not enough for today's movie audience, so we add a power failure minutes before post time and a thunderstorm that sends bolts of lightning slashing through the ominous black clouds during the running of the race.



With sheets of heavy rain pouring down, Yonaguska's saddles slips and begins to ride up his neck. A flash of lightning startles City Zip. He throws his ears up and suddenly drops off the pace. Bowling believes he has broken down. Another exciting colt, Macho Uno, owned by Frank Stronach, is running a huge race, passing horses on the far turn. He had reared in the gate, slamming the back of his head against jockey Edgar Prado's face, giving the rider a bloody nose. To ad to the movie script, it was Stronach who bred City Zip, then put him up for sale. Now the bargain basement chestnut had come back to haunt him.



In the stands, Lukas is not happy to see Yonaguska hit the front so soon. He feels that's what cost him the Sanford Stakes, in which he finished second to City Zip. This was to be his chance for revenge. Lukas firmly believes the son of Cherokee Run is a superior horse to City Zip.



In the stretch, Yonaguska is still on the lead. Jerry Bailey knows he's at a disadvantage with a slipped saddle beneath him, and he goes to the whip. City Zip has dropped back and is now behind a wall of horses. His jockey Jose Santos, who said the colt was "startled" by the lightning, has no choice but to swing him seven-wide.



Down the stretch, City Zip is flying out in the middle of the track, chopping into Yonaguska's lead with every stride. Linda Rice is screaming from her box, urging him on. Macho Uno is moving up with a strong run, but begins to race greenly after turning for home.



Of course, we have to end the drama with a close heart-pounding finish. But who will emerge victorious? You know the people's horse, City Zip can't lose. It just doesn't work that way in the movies. But Yonaguska also is running his heart out and doesn't deserve to lose.



The finish line is nearing. Yonaguska is giving his all, barely hanging on. City Zip is relentless and is about to engulf him. They hit the wire. Too close to call. Rice seems in a daze as she makes her way down the stairs into the pouring rain. She appears to be oblivious to the elements. She can only stare at the blank tote board.



"Did you get it?" someone asks her. "I don't know," she replies, still staring off into the infield as if transfixed. Lukas remains in his box. In his mind, his horse should have won by daylight.



Then comes the result. From the blackness of the tote board, the numbers of City Zip and Yonaguska emerge, with a bright vertical line next to them, signifying a dead-heat. Macho Uno is a neck away in third. The rest are nowhere.



The music builds to a rousing crescendo. No one knows yet if this is the end of the movie or if there are other scenes to follow. All that matters for now is that there are enough heroes to satisfy everyone. Happy Hollywood ending complete.



In the Saratoga trustees room after the race, Rice and Bowling watch the replay over and over. Neither care that it was a dead-heat. They are both glad to share in the glory. All they know is that City Zip is a grade 1 winner, becoming only the fourth horse in Saratoga's long history to sweep all three 2-year-old stakes - the Sanford, Saratoga Special, and Hopeful.



As they watch the replay they can't help by marvel at their horse, especially considering all he had to overcome in the race. "Look at him," Bowling says. "He can't get in. Look how wide we are. Look at this; will you look at this."



Rice is just as amazed as she watches City Zip bear down and unload through the stretch in pursuit of Yonaguska. "Is that unreal?" she asks. "Look at him. What a nightmare trip this horse has."



Bowling says it was as if the horse had "lost his mind" after the lightning struck. Rice says he looked to be "disoriented."



After buying City Zip, Bowling knew he had himself a bargain when the colt began knocking off track records at will at his owner's 260-acre farm south of Ocala in Oxford. "I've had my mile track for over year," Bowling said, "and I clock and record every ork over it. Even being taken hold of, he broke every record, from an eighth of a mile to five-eighths of a mile." Bowling knows a good horse having raised Favorite Trick, Birdonthewire, and Forever Silver.



He put City Zip in the Ocala February 2-year-olds in training sale with a $100,000 reserve on him. The colt had a "little rough edge in the upper knee and upper joint," according to Bowling, who wound up taking him home, then selling half-interest to his friend Charles Thompson. He was confident he would one day show everyone just what they passed up and what they missed out on.



The morning after the Hopeful, Lukas was still a bit disappointed in the outcome. "We should have won it outright," he said. "But we'll move on to the next one."



Yonaguska was on his toes walking the shed, then was loaded on a van and headed to Belmont Park. Somewhere, down the line he is expected to hook up with City Zip again, and also Macho Uno.



That's when the theater lights will once again dim, and we can all dig into our popcorn and enjoy another great show.



Note: Both colts would meet again in the Hutcheson Stakes. City Zip again closed furiously down the stretch, but this time failed by a half-length of catching Yonaguska, who would also win the Fall Highweight and Sport Page Handicaps and place in the Champagne, Swale, and Lafayette Stakes. He eventually was retired to stud and sent to Turkey. City Zip would go on to win the Amsterdam, Jersey Shore, and Hirsch Jacobs Stakes and place in the Futurity, Fountain of Youth, Hutcheson, King's Bishop, Kelso Hamdicap, and Kentucky Cup Sprint. The half-brother to eventual Horse of the Year Ghostzapper would become one of the leading stallions in America after moving to Lane's End Farm, siring four Breeders' Cup winners and three Eclipse champions in the past three years before his death this week at age 19.










This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

FALFURRIAS  The deaths of 10 immigrants trapped inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio has thrown a harsh spotlight on the persistent humanitarian crisis that tests the limits of officials whose mission is to catch immigrants who enter the country illegally  and rescue them when their lives are in danger.

The Department of Homeland Security regularly warns migrants against nefarious smugglers and the perils of the journey, but the message has done little to deter migrants fleeing violence and extreme poverty.

Bottom line, there is more of an incentive for them to take on those risks, said Robert C. Gilloon, deputy patrol agent in charge of the Falfurrias station of the U.S. Border Patrol, which has borne the brunt of immigrant deaths and rescues in Texas. Theyll hide in a tractor-trailer if they think thats going to increase their chances.

Far fewer immigrants have been attempting to cross the border illegally in recent years as the border security agency has seen both staffing and technology grow dramatically over the past decade, but still hundreds of migrants are dying every year in a desperate bid to reach the United States.

During the 2016 fiscal year, the Rio Grande Valley registered 130 immigrant deaths, more than any other border sector. Texas accounted for nearly 67 percent of all migrant deaths across the Southwest border last year and 74 percent of deaths since October, the start of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, rescues in the Valley, the busiest stretch of border, are roughly the same as a year ago  around 800 since October.

During one brutal stretch of 100-degree days this summer, Border Patrol agents recovered the bodies of six migrants who died in the South Texas brush. Agents have made hundreds of these grim discoveries in recent years as immigrants attempt to slip past border agents.

Last week a body was discovered on a ranch near Falfurrias, and two more were pulled from the Rio Grande  one near Brownsville and the other recovered upriver by Mexican authorities.

Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the migrant deaths a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished.

Gov. Greg Abbott said human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas intends to eradicate, touting Senate Bill 128, which he signed into law this year. The new law instructs the trucking industry on how to recognize and report signs of human trafficking.

But immigrant advocates say this hardline rhetoric ignores the cost of ramped-up enforcement and the failure of Congress to enact immigration reform, leaving migrants no alternative but to cast their lot with smuggling operations who exploit them.

Some Central Americans now pay $10,000 or more to reach the U.S. border. Theyre kept in crowded stash houses for days, crammed perilously into vehicles and forced to march through desert and sweltering heat. Those who cannot keep up are left behind.

Border enforcement has been using the same strategy for the past 20 years, that of prevention through deterrence, said Robin Reineke, executive director of the Tucson-based Colibri Center for Human Rights. Those who died in the tractor-trailer in San Antonio undoubtedly would have preferred to immigrate safely and legally.

More than 7,000 immigrants have died across the Southwest border since 1998, even as immigrant apprehensions have declined precipitously.

Responding to the deaths, the Border Patrol launched an initiative to string together the disparate efforts of authorities, forensic scientists and humanitarian organizations to identify the migrant dead and return them to their families. The initiative, known as the Missing Migrant Program, got its start in Arizona and has since been launched nationwide.

Manny Padilla Jr., the Border Patrols sector chief in the Rio Grande Valley, assigned Hugo E. Vega the task of implementing the programs four main objectives: prevent deaths, locate missing people, identify those who perish and return remains to their families.

The ambitious program has not been easily replicated in Texas. While Texas law requires all counties send a DNA sample of unidentified human remains to an FBI program known as the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, there is no centralized method, as there is in Arizona, for handling remains found along the border with Mexico. Some counties rely on pathologists; others have medical examiners.

In addition, human remains found in Brooks County  where most are recovered in Texas  are transferred to the medical examiners office in Laredo, which falls under a different sector of the Border Patrol.

Vegas program aims to resolve those differences.

We are that link when it comes to forensics, Vega said. Thats what we bring to the table.

Complicating the job of rank and file agents are the ever-changing tactics of smuggling operations. Until recently, smugglers used landmarks to guide immigrants through the South Texas brush. Now they make use of GPS to cut unpredictable and hard-to-find paths through ranches. Even when agents are deployed on a rescue mission, immigrants often run at first sight of them.

This month, agents pursued a group of immigrants as they scattered into the brush near Falfurrias. Agents caught a 17-year-old Honduran, but his 13-year-old sister got away. She had no water and nothing to guide her to safety. Over three consecutive shifts agents scoured the area until she was found.

If they didnt come up with that 13-year-old, what do you think would have happened? asked Tomas W. Slowinski, deputy patrol agent in charge of the Falfurrias station. Thats a certain death.

Ranchers give border agents access to patrol their sprawling properties, but the agents often dont know to search for the missing because families avoid contact with immigration officials. The humanitarian organizations find out about the missing from families but dont have access to the property or resources to go searching the brushland.

We realize the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) are key because they are the direct connection with the families, Vega acknowledged. Many times, those families dont want to talk with us. Theyre afraid.

As a result, the two sides have forged a complicated partnership that is essential to saving lives.

Their effort to mitigate or prevent deaths is welcome, but its also a contradiction because their deterrence policy causes deaths, said Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, a community-based organization in Falfurrias.

Anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter: @amnelsen
Local cement and aggregate companies and the oil and gas industry will fund efforts by the Alamo Area Council of Governments to study emissions that affect San Antonios air quality.

Capitol Aggregates, Martin Marietta, CEMEX, Alamo Cement Co., the South Texas Energy and Economic Roundtable and the Texas Aggregates and Concrete Association will contribute a total of $60,000, AACOG director Diane Rath said at a Wednesday meeting of local officials. The roundtables members include oil and gas producers in the Eagle Ford shale.

We all have a part in air quality, whether were oil and gas, or cement, or a local person living in this community, said Chris Ashcraft, vice president of the roundtable. We need to understand our impacts in order to tackle the impacts.

AACOG will use the money to develop one inventory accounting for pollution from industrial sites and another for emissions from heavy truck idling. Some emissions from these sources form ozone when exposed to sunlight.

Ozone  three oxygen atoms bound together  is the main ingredient in smog. It irritates and damages the lungs and has been shown to worsen chronic conditions like asthma.

Rath was not immediately able to offer a breakdown of how much money comes from which source.

More Information Five entities win air quality awards The Alamo Area Council of Governments gives out annual awards for efforts to improve regional air quality. The 2017 Air Quality Stewardship Award winners are: Alamo Heights Independent School District The district promotes a "walking school bus" where children walk to school together, placed solar arrays at eight district buildings, uses energy-efficient building features, encourages electronic submission of schoolwork to reduce printing and uses high-ozone days as teaching opportunities. City of Leon Valley The city encourages employees to walk or bike to work by providing bike racks, showers and lockers and allows work-from-home days for some employees. Its fleet includes electric vehicles, and the city has banned prolonged heavy truck idling. New construction and renovation of city buildings included energy-efficient features, and solar panels are installed at the fire department, community center and other buildings. The city received a similar reward in 2012. Patrick Health Public Library, Boerne The library built in 2011 includes efficient roofing, light walls, high-performance HVAC and exterior sunscreen panels, with 21 percent recycled materials. It achieved gold-level LEED certification in 2012. The building includes bicycle racks and a discount arrangement with a nearby fitness center for employees to use shower and changing facilities. It provides six preferred parking spots for low-emitting, fuel-efficient and high-occupancy vehicles. Resolute Health Hospital, New Braunfels This hospital, part of San Antonio's Baptist Health System, which opened in 2014 with LEED silver certification, features bike racks and employee breakrooms with showers and changing facilities. Nearly all the waste material during construction was recycled. Many employees also work flex hours and compressed workweeks, which helps reduce traffic congestion that contributes to air pollution. YMCA of Greater San Antonio Twice each year, the YMCA organizes Siclovia, a free event that turns at least five miles of San Antonio streets into a car-free zone for cyclists and pedestrians. Usually held for five hours on a Sunday, it draws more than 60,000 people and promotes biking and walking. The next one is Oct. 22. See More Collapse

AACOG is a consortium of local governments in the San Antonio area funded through grants and work agreements. The industry funding will shore up AACOGs air quality work after a line-item veto by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cut $1.5 million in state funding, which was originally supposed to pay for the inventories.

Its a growing, economically vibrant area, said David Perkins, vice president for environmental, government and public affairs for Martin Mariettas cement and Southwest divisions. As a contributor to the economy and a contributor to employment, we just feel like its absolutely important to participate.

The companies made these contributions even after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pledged to soft-pedal enforcement of the federal ozone standard.

San Antonio and Bexar County are working to reduce ozone levels in the region, where the three-year average ozone level is 72 parts per billion, slightly above a 2015 federal health standard of 70 parts per billion. EPA officials have said they will give states another year before enforcing the standard.

Last week, CPS Energy announced it would provide $135,000 in funding for AACOGs air monitoring network, which was also affected by the governors veto.

BGibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A Bexar County justice of the peace has removed 46 horses and a bull from Schwartz Farms, billed as a horse sanctuary, near Converse.

In this case, animals have unreasonably been deprived of basic care, said Justice Rogelio Roger Lopez, who issued his ruling late Tuesday after hearing testimony well into the night.

The horses and bull were seized by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office on July 7 after deputies investigated reports of neglect and abuse.

Andy Schwartz, owner of Schwartz Farms, was at the hearing but did not comment. He can appeal Lopezs ruling, but no decision about an appeal was announced Tuesday.

The animals will stay at Meadow Haven Horse Rescue in Smiley, about 60 miles east of San Antonio, where they were taken after they were seized, said Sheriff Javier Salazar.

If were going to be responsible pet and livestock owners, part of that is ensuring animals have access to regular nutrition and health care, to make sure they live a long and happy life, Salazar said. Its pretty clear that wasnt happening.

During Tuesdays hearing, farrier Brandon Rogers testified about what he saw during a visit to Schwartz Farms in 2016. He remembered one horse in particular.

The first time I came out, I was very distressed because he had a wide-open hole on the side of his hip  looked like beef jerky and it was dried muscle fiber, the farrier said.

Assistant District Attorneys Trey Mims and Alicia Lovett presented several witnesses, including Roger, as well as Steve Sanchez, the sheriffs lead investigator on the case, and Dr. Eduardo Guevara, the veterinarian who examined the animals.

Guevara scored each horses condition on a scale of zero to 5 and found 16 had a score of 2.5.

Schwartzs defense attorney R. Javier Guerra asked the veterinarian if he had an opinion as to whether Schwartz had intentionally caused the condition of the horses.

I went in with the mindset to assess what I saw, Guevara replied, and that was it.

Lovett came back to Guevara on cross-examination.

Is it unreasonable for 23 of 47 horses to have a sub-optimum body score? she asked the veterinarian.

Very unreasonable, Guevarra responded.

The defense called Stan Jordan, with Bexar County Environmental Services, who had made an unannounced visit to follow up on complaint calls about bad hay, lack of care and animals not being fed.

He said during three visits to the farm in May, June and July, he never found a pattern of neglect.

Under cross-examination, Lovett asked Jordan, who had taken photos of several horses, if he had photographed the animals because he was concerned about them.

That could have been a possible indication, he conceded.

Several dozen animal advocates joined Darla Cherry and her husband, Todd, who run Meadow Haven and want to continue caring for the animals, in support of their efforts. Among the supporters were former employees of Schwartz Farms who had made initial complaints.

vtdavis@express-news.net
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia / U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  A jury on Wednesday began deliberating the case of two Mexican cartel members charged in the 2011 slaying of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jaime Zapata. The two defendants are the last of nine men implicated in an ambush that triggered a congressional investigation and intense cooperation between the United States and Mexico to track down the killers.

Jose Emanuel Garcia Sota, 35, known as Safado, and Jesus Ivan Quezada Pina, 29, known as Loco, are charged with felony murder and other crimes spelled out in a two-week trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

This is a cartel murder, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Seifert said during closing arguments. They are both guilty of the violence that resulted in the attempt to highjack this car. Hold them accountable for the murder of Jaime Zapata.

On Feb. 15, 2011, Zapata, 32, a Brownsville native, and ICE agent Victor Avila were traveling from Laredo to Mexico City on the Pan American Highway in a blue Chevy Suburban when they were forced off the road by a GMC Yukon and Dodge Ram truck carrying heavily armed members of Los Zetas.

A former cartel member testified during the trial that his squad and one under the command of Garcia Sota were attempting to steal the Suburban while trying to replace vehicles lost during a war with a rival crime organization.

The armored Suburban, with diplomatic tags, was built to withstand gunfire and even grenades. But it proved to have a deadly flaw: When the automatic transmission was shifted into park, the doors unlocked and one of them was pulled open as the Americans sought in vain to identify themselves as diplomats.

Avila, who survived the attack, testified that at some point during the assault, a window also lowered slightly, enabling the attackers to stick in an AR-15 rifle and a handgun. They opened fire, striking Zapata fatally and wounding Avila.

A task force was set up to work the case and Mexican authorities cooperated swiftly. A week after the attack, Mexican soldiers arrested six men who claimed initially that they believed the Suburban was being driven by members of a rival gang.

San Luis Potosi was a battleground at the time between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, another drug-smuggling operation along the border.

Before the trial, five other men implicated in the attack pleaded guilty, and two others have died.

The government relied heavily on testimony of imprisoned gang members to make its case.

There is no evidence. There is nothing but the testimony of the lying three musketeers, Robert Feitel, Garcia Sotas court-appointed attorney, said in closing arguments.

The trial is being presided over by Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a San Antonio native.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

State senators intent on giving residents the right to vote before large Texas cities could annex them approved a bill Wednesday overhauling the states annexation statutes.

Under current law, cities can annex unincorporated areas of counties without voter approval. City officials across the state argue this is a way to prepare for growth, because they can better control development within their boundaries and expand their tax bases, a concern because the state offers little financial help to Texas cities.

The bill now moves to the House.

Annexation is one of 20 topics on Gov. Greg Abbotts 30-day special session agenda, which began July 18 and is moving forward at a rapid clip.

State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, proposed Senate Bill 6, after the defeat of similar legislation she filed during the regular session. That bill, SB 715, nearly made it to Abbotts desk but was killed in the waning hours of the session, after a filibuster by state Sen. Jose Menendez. D-San Antonio.

This bill reforms annexation process to ensure our cooperative rights and our Democratic rights are protected, Campbell said Wednesday, as the Senate floor debate began. The bill was approved 19-12.

In the new bill, the right to vote originally only applied to counties with a population of 500,000 a more  a move that would affect what Campbell called the most egregious players out there, meaning the states largest cities, like San Antonio.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, successfully amended SB 6 to give the right to vote to people in counties with populations of 125,000 or more. People in smaller counties can petition against annexation but cant vote on it.

Youre picking and choosing winners and losers in your district, Menendez told Campbell. She argued residents in smaller communities can have more of a say with their city governments.

Campbell later rejected an amendment proposed by Menendez to increase the size of a proposed exemption area around military bases.

She also shot down another Menendez amendment, which she had agreed to in the regular session, that would have grandfathered in an existing annexation agreement between San Antonio and the city of Converse.

Campbell was quick to remind Menendez that the Converse exemption was included in her original bill, which he filibustered.

Its just a new day, Campbell told her colleague.

Threat to the military?

Opponents of Campbells bill argue the measure doesnt take into account how usurping cities annexation authority could actually threaten the missions of nearby military installations.

I think the bill is dangerous to the military, said Maj. Gen. Juan G. Ayala, director of San Antonios Office of Military Affairs.

Texas cities have regulatory and zoning powers that Texas counties dont, so by annexing unincorporated areas, cities have an ability to control development, to an extent.

Of particular concern in San Antonio is Camp Bullis, the large military training facility in north Bexar County thats near an area San Antonio is in the process of annexing. That annexation would have to be put to a vote if Campbells new bill becomes law.

If residents near a military installation have the power to vote on whether to be annexed, and choose not to, the fear is those bases could be subject to more incompatible development. Those concerns have been magnified by President Donald Trumps proposed 2018 budget, which calls for a new round of base realignment and closures, or BRAC.

San Antonio lost Kelly AFB and Brooks AFB in two separate BRAC rounds in the last few decades.

The military only opposes incompatible development, Ayala said.

Campbell and the bills supporters say there are enough existing measures to protect bases from encroachment. They point to the massive Rim shopping center, just south of Camp Bullis, as a sign that San Antonio has done little to regulate development around the installation.

Ayala argues that the Rim is compatible because the development follows the citys noise and lighting regulations.

Proponents of Campbells bill also argue that San Antonio only wants to annex unincorporated parts of the county to increase its tax base, not protect the military bases or implement more land-use controls.

SB 6, unlike Campbells previous bill, does allow for an exemption from the law within a quarter-mile of military bases, if those installations enter into an agreement with the city.

However, San Antonio officials say five miles is whats recommended in a Joint Land Use Study, or JLUS, of military bases in the Alamo City.

Menendez suggested amendments Wednesday expanding the buffer area to five miles, grandfathering in annexations San Antonio has under way and allowing all residents in a city to vote on annexation. State Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, also proposed allowing cities the right to regulate land use around military bases based on whats recommend in a JLUS.

Campbell rejected all of them.

If Campbells bill is signed into law, it would make Texas the first state where cities have no annexation authority and get virtually no state (financial) aid, said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League.

vdavila@express-news.net

Staff writer Peggy Fikac contributed to this report.
The survivors of this weeks deadly immigrant smuggling incident that left 10 dead after being brought to San Antonio in a hot, crowded trailer could be eligible for visas provided to crime victims, immigration experts said Tuesday.

Lawyers warned, however, that the federal government is often reluctant to offer help obtaining those visas.

Twenty-nine people survived and were taken to area hospitals after police discovered the trailer, which had driven up from Laredo, early Sunday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 13 were still in area hospitals. Of the 16 whod been released, three are minors who were turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and will likely be placed with family members in the U.S. At least four were being held by the U.S. Marshals Service as witnesses against the trucks driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency is not starting deportation proceedings against the survivors at this time. If the survivors cant get visas and are put into deportation proceedings, there are some forms of relief they can claim, including asylum, lawyers said.

Decisions about whether to hold the immigrants in custody once theyre released from the hospital are being made by the U.S. attorneys office, the ICE spokesman said. A spokesman for the prosecutors office and a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, so it was unclear how many of those released from the hospital were being detained.

Christy Andrino, the Guatemalan consul general in McAllen, said shes aware of three of her countrys citizens who were in the trailer. One died, a minor whose family lives in Maryland. Another, a 17-year-old, was still in hospitalized Tuesday.

The first time she met with the young man, he was very scared, Andrino said. The second time I visited him, he was OK. He was happy to be alive and he was enjoying a hamburger.

The other survivor identified from Guatemala, a 23-year-old man, was expected to appear in court as a material witness, Andrino said.

We are hoping that theyll have some kind of remedy for being victims, she said.

Bradley is facing up to life in prison or the death penalty on a charge of smuggling immigrants who are in the country illegally. Federal officials allege that as many as 100 people were packed into a tractor-trailer that lacked air conditioning and ventilation for the 150-mile drive to San Antonio on a day that temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.

Eight died in the truck and two more died at area hospitals.

Victims of trafficking crimes are eligible for T-visas, and immigrants who are victims of certain other crimes and help law enforcement officials can be eligible for U-visas. Under both visas, they can eventually claim lawful permanent residency. U-visa applicants require certification from a law enforcement agency.

It would be our position that they are victims, and they should receive visas, or at least should be allowed to go through the process of applying for those visas, said Robert Painter, director of pro bono programs and communications for the legal services provider American Gateways. They should be entitled to basic protection as survivors of trafficking and given time to pursue the legal remedies to which theyre entitled.

However, even cases of those who seem like theyd be good candidates for visas  including in similar fatal smuggling accidents  arent always approved, said Juan Gonzalez, a San Antonio immigration attorney.

Gonzalez said he represented a witness for the federal government in the case of a smuggler who in 2013 drove an SUV loaded with immigrants into a stock pond in Poth, killing three. The driver, Javier Silva Morales, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. An accomplice, Jose Abram Lopez Lozano, was sentenced to three years in prison.

His clients request for a U-visa was denied, despite cooperating with authorities, Gonzalez said.

The fact that 10 people died and all the media attention on the case could bolster a visa case, Painter said.

Jerry Robinette, a former ICE special agent in charge, said the agency vets victims for things like criminal history and past deportations before supporting their visa applications, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees legal immigration, has its own review process. Some violations that would otherwise prevent someone from getting a visa can be waived for the T-visa, Painter said.

I can only speak to the cases that I was involved in in my office, and I know that in the past what we considered a victim and what the attorneys consider a victim are sometimes far apart, Robinette said.

He said it remains unclear if the survivors are the victims of a crime.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Decades before the first tract home builders came along to build homes and neighborhoods in volume, there was H.C. Thorman.

Henry Charles H.C. Thorman was a real-estate mogul who might have been the most prolific residential developer of the 1920s and 1930s in San Antonio.

He built homes for the wealthy  the first and most posh part of Olmos Park being the prime example of his craftsmanship  but also for regular workers and their families.

An advertisement from the 1920s said he built dandy homes that are built substantially and have every modern convenience. Thorman averaged an estimated 30 to 40 houses a year in his heyday.

Some of those Thorman bungalows, on one quiet, little-traveled block he developed, are likely to become the citys next historic district.

East French Place, between North St. Marys and U.S. 281, is home to a collection of Craftsman bungalows. Thorman subdivided this block in 1922. In rapid succession, he built 42 modest homes. The original owners were middle-class families with jobs such as bookkeepers, salesmen, insurance agents and storekeepers, according to its application to the Historic and Design Review Commission.

Theres consistency in the setback and design. Its such a coherent street, said Shanon Shea Miller, the citys historic preservation officer. The homes have a lot of the same features applied in different ways.

Each home is different, but all share design elements and are of similar size, which Miller said helps create a streetscape.

Several of the homes feature clipped front gables, linear front walkways, exposed rafter tails, triangular knee braces, decorative window screens and columns on large pediments to support the porches. Most of the driveways are on the east side of the homes.

All of the homes share the same deep setbacks from the street and have wide front porches.

The block is bounded to the east by U.S. 281, but the original boundary was the Upper Labor Acequia.

The Historic and Design Review Commission heard the neighborhoods application in May. Next, it will go to the Planning Commission, then to City Council for approval, possibly in August.

The historic district application notes that The American Lumberman covered the story in its May 6, 1922, edition:

Building interests here have had their attention centered recently on the almost magical development of a new colony of homes by H.C. Thorman, who within a period of less than sixty days erected forty-two cottagesFrom 600 to 700 men have been kept at work on the houses, probably the largest number ever employed on any one such contract in the city.

The supplies for the project came from the Hillyer-Deutsch-Jarratt Lumber Co., where Maury Maverick (who was a longtime Democratic U.S. congressman) was sales manager.

Thorman was best known for building single-family homes, but he also built apartment buildings and was a real-estate agent. He was the son of German immigrants who became a carpenter and contractor in Toledo, Ohio. He arrived in San Antonio in 1907.

He developed the San Antonio Country Club Addition, and the Olmos Park Estates, the most beautiful of the exclusive residential section of San Antonio, according to the New Encyclopedia of Texas, which called Thorman one of the best known home builders of the Lone Star State.

Other neighborhoods with Thorman homes include Highland Park, areas along Cincinatti, Mahncke Park, Olmos Park Terrace, Tobin Hill and the Woodlawn district off Fredericksburg Road.

Theres a lot of historic references that refer to him as the largest home builder in the city, Miller said. He constructed hundreds of homes. Today, thats not that uncommon. But it was not common back then.

jhiller@express-news.net

Twitter: @Jennifer_Hiller

COMING THURSDAY: Father Carmelo A. Tranchese, an apostle of the poor on West Side.
If you have yet to visit the State Street Plaza in Lemoyne, you may want to check out the shopping center that features a number of small businesses that have carved out their own niche in the area.

There youll find a variety of goods from premium olive oil, to apparel, used books and more. If you happen to be hungry at the time, you can choose from a diverse selection of restaurants offering fare ranging from Japanese to Korean to Lebanese.

A few weeks ago, I took a closer look at the photos that line the front windows of a Japanese restaurant called Nagoya and decided that it was time to give the food a try.

Ive since learned that Hyun Chos love of Japanese food inspired him to open the business that he runs with his wife, Mi Kang. The couple, who are of Korean descent, opened the restaurant in April 2016, and the business continues to grow primarily through word of mouth.

When my companion and I arrived at noon last Saturday, Kang greeted us with a smile and encouraged us to sit anywhere. She grabbed two bottled waters from the cooler and placed them in front of us before tending to a large family that was enjoying a variety of dishes from the extensive menu.

I tried not to stare at the selections that kept making their way to the other table as I contemplated my order. Thankfully, Kang arrived with a menu of pictures to gape at to assist us in making our decision.

Theres an old saying that you eat with your eyes. That maxim played a part in my decision to choose the colorful and attractive Dragon Roll ($12.95). My companion was in the mood for something that would stand up and make his taste buds take notice, so he ordered the Spicy Ramen ($12.55).

There isnt enough room here to enumerate the scores of dishes offered, but to give you a bit of an idea, appetizers include items like fried squid legs, miso soup and shrimp tempura. Sushi lovers have plenty of choices with dozens of rolls listed as regular, spicy and special. Vegetarian maki features combos like cucumber and cream cheese, mango with avocado, and fried tofu and cucumber.

Chicken, pork and shrimp teriyaki are listed among the weekday lunch specials and would pair quite well with any of the six salads that are listed on the menu for a light bite.

In a nod to their Korean roots, the owners also offer Bulgoki, a dish comprised of thinly sliced pork or beef with seasonings like ginger, garlic, pepper and soy sauce.

And Id be remiss if I failed to mention their signature dish Okonomiyaki. The savory pancake can be ordered with a choice of protein like bacon, pork or chicken and is scrambled with cabbage, flour, onion, egg and mushroom, and topped with Japanese mayonnaise and a brown sauce.

Our lunch orders arrived in about 15 minutes, and I admired the bright green dragon roll that stared up at me from my plate. Tucked inside the seaweed and rice were ingredients like deep-fried shrimp and cucumber matchsticks all topped with freshly fanned avocado to resemble the scales of the mythical creature. A slice of ginger rolled up to resemble a rose sat aside it, along with a dab of wasabi shaped in the form of a leaf.

My dining companion gave the ramen a thumbs-up. The rich broth was spicy, but not searing. Pieces of beef and pork swam alongside deep-green bok choy, seaweed, bamboo shoots and a cluster of ramen noodles. The dish was topped with a hard-boiled egg and served with a separate plate of bright yellow pickled radish triangles.

The dessert section of the menu lists either green tea ice cream, or mochi in strawberry, green tea or mango flavors. If youre in the mood for something different, I recommend the latter, which can be described as a pounded, sticky rice with an ice cream filling. The texture, at first, can seem a bit gummy and you may question the sparseness of the sugar, but youll go in for another bite and then another. Its a unique confection that you should try at least once.

Nagoya is a great break from the monotony of the same old routine, and I can recommend it not only for cheerful, prompt service, but also for freshness, flavor and presentation.

Next Up: Dinner at the Stone Lodge Tavern at Allenberry.
Warrenton, VA (20186)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to occasional showers during the afternoon. High 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 39F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Becky Buller, one of bluegrass music most decorated performers, will play with The Becky Buller Band at the Holly Inn in Mount Holly Springs on Friday, Aug. 11 at 8 p.m.

Buller grew up in Minnesota where she lived in the center of a large, diverse and very vibrant bluegrass community. She studied classical violin, but then began playing fiddle with her parents in their group, Prairie Grass. She went to college at East Tennessee State University, where she took part in their Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Studies program.

After graduating she played for 10 years with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike and also for a short time with Darin and Brooke Aldridge.

In 2015, Buller put together her own band that since then has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada. She is featured on fiddle and vocals and is joined by an impressive group of musicians, including bluegrass legend Ned Luberecki on banjo, guitarist Daniele Boner, mandolinist Nate Lee and bassist Daniel Hardin.

Luberecki is the author of Alfred Publications three-part Complete 5-String Banjo Method, and is the host of SiriusXMs Bluegrass Junction. He has been a member of numerous bluegrass groups, including Chris Jones and the Night Riders and The Rarely Herd.

Boner is the director of the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University, Lee is an IBMA award winning instrumentalist, and Hardin performed professionally for three years with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike.

Buller is also recognized in the bluegrass world as a songwriter. Her songs have been covered by bluegrass luminaries such as Ricky Skaggs (Music To My Ears), Rhonda Vincent (Fishers of Men), Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (Be Living), Josh Williams (You Love Me Today), Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out (My Angeline, Rest My Weary Feet, and Cottontown) and The Infamous Stringdusters (Freedom).

In 2013 she penned the title cut of Special Consensus album Scratch Gravel Road, which was nominated for the 2013 Best Bluegrass Album Grammy, and in 2015 she was recognized with a Songwriter Of The Year IBMA award.

In recent years she was featured in the magazine Bluegrass Unlimited and on the cover of Fiddler Magazine. This year she will release her fourth solo album on the Dark Shadow Recording label.

Previous recordings included Little Bird, Rest My Weary Feet and Tween Earth and Sky. Beckys cover of Bill Monroes Southern Flavor, from Tween Earth and Sky garnered the 2015 IBMA Recorded Event Of The Year award.

The Aug. 11 concert is part of the Best of Bluegrass series. The Holly Inn is located at 31 S. Baltimore St., Mount Holly Springs. Tickets are $20.For information call 717-486-3823 or visit www.hollyinn.com.
Theres a good view of the night sky where Stephen Reed lives.

I can lie outside and just stargaze, the 9-year-old boy said Tuesday. He knows where and what to look for now in the heavens above the trailer park.

Reed was among the 30 Carlisle-area students who went on a field trip to the planetarium on the Dickinson College campus.

They are enrolled in the Summer Lunch & Learn program the Project SHARE food bank operates at five locations, including its Farm Stand at 123 Lincoln St. in the borough.

Three days a week, the nonprofit organization offers children ages 5-12 a snack and a lunch to feed their body and a structured lesson plan to nourish their minds.

Many of the students are from low-income families and qualify for free-or-reduced school meal programs that shut down over the summer.

Each year, Project SHARE works closely with local libraries to develop a theme-based curriculum of weekly lessons taught by volunteer instructors, said Joseph Kloza, coordinator of education and communication outreach for Project SHARE.

Bosler Memorial Library in Carlisle and the Amelia Givin Free Library in Mount Holly Springs are partners in the summer program where books donated by the community are distributed to students and their families.

We have been overwhelmed in a good way with donations, Kloza said. These books are being put to good use by entering the homes of a lot of children. Its a collaborative effort. We are supporting the community and the community is supporting us.

The theme this year is Build a Better World, which includes the lesson Other Worlds. That is why the students at the Farm Stand location visited the college planetarium Tuesday.

If I can encourage just one of these kids to go into astronomy, I would be a happy man, said Windsor Morgan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Dickinson.

I got into it as a kid by watching the missions to the moon in the early 70s, Morgan said. Im happy to share my knowledge. I hope I get them interested.

Morgan presented a program called Whats Up in the Sky to teach the students what to look for at night in the stars, constellations, planets and the moon. He also told them about the upcoming solar eclipse on Aug. 21 and how to view it safely.

It was awesome, said Cayson Johnson, 8, a Crestview Elementary School student. I just knew about the Big Dipper and Orion. I didnt know about all the others.

I just thought it was cool, said Kayden Hall, 10, a student at Mount Holly Springs Elementary School. There were views of the night sky looking in all directions.

Reed had one word to describe the whole planetarium experience: Wow.

Its really helpful because some kids after school they just forget stuff, the boy said, pointing out a retention goal shared by Becky Kline, this weeks volunteer teacher at the Farm Stand.

Theres a lot of research on how much is lost over the summer, said Kline, a retired educator with experience teaching all levels from kindergarten to graduate school.

Theres a big range, she said. Some studies have shown a total loss. Most studies show a percentage loss.

One objective of Lunch & Learn is to keep youths engaged in learning so that the loss of retention over the summer is not as profound.

The theme is designed to provoke student interest in as many ways as possible, Kline said. This is one of the most engaging groups of children I have ever worked with. They are really smart, really creative and really good to each other. I really appreciate that they look for each other.

Other Worlds was just one lesson plan in an eight-week program that runs from June 19 to Aug. 9, Kloza said. Other weekly topics included famous bridges and buildings, construction, animals in their habitats, senses and how we perceive the world and diversity in the world.

The five locations are the Farm Stand, Middlesex Elementary School, Letort Elementary School, the New Life Church in Mount Holly Springs and the Carlisle Church of God.

Over 200 children are registered for this years program and between 120 and 150 consistently show up at the host sites, Kloza said. Activities have included learning about bicycle safety from representatives of the American Trauma Society and bringing in service dogs for the children to read to.

Summer Lunch & Learn is supported by about 100 volunteers including teachers, teacher helpers, kitchen workers, site supervisors and drivers who deliver food from the Carlisle High School cafeteria where it is prepared to the host sites.

Without these volunteers, there would be no program, Kloza said. The program would be expensive to operate.

There is no cost for families to register their children to participate.

David Hodge is supervisor of the Project SHARE Farm Stand. He has made it a mission to go door-to-door throughout the neighborhood to help promote the Lunch & Learn program. A lot of families dont know about it, Hodge said.

To volunteer, visit the Project SHARE website at projectsharepa.org or www.timetosignup.com/projectsharepa. All volunteers have to undergo background checks and clearances to work directly with children.
Unless youre receiving the daily emails sent by Donald Trump and his team to supporters, youre not getting the full dose of venom that is being directed at the nations news media.

A recent email from Trump himself begins, Friend, Ive said it before and I will say it again: the Fake News Media is the real opposition. He goes on to write that media are working hand-in-hand with the Left, resulting in an unbelievable lack of journalistic integrity.

The point of the email was to sell supporters Fight the Fake News bumper stickers. Trump claims to be victimized by a 24/7 barrage of hit jobs [and] fake stories.

The future of our great country, Trump writes in closing, can be protected if enough of these bumper stickers are purchased and displayed.

A few days later an email from Team Trump carried the subject line, Official Poll. It declared: Regardless of what we accomplish, the Mainstream Media peddles Fake News in order to mislead the American people.

The poll question was: Do you think the Mainstream Medias coverage of President Trump is too negative?

Note whats happening here. In the opening sentence supporters are instructed that media peddles fake news to mislead them. In the next sentence they are asked whether this is too negative. The choices are yes or no.

The email closes: The President has asked us to reach out directly to our supporters to let us know what you really think.

Trump and his cohorts are seeking to brand news organizations as fake, just as they branded Ted Cruz as lyin and Hillary Clinton as crooked. Say it enough, and impressionable supporters take it as gospel.

All this lays the groundwork for the really bad news almost certain to come from investigators looking into election tampering by Russia and the Putin regimes cozy relationship with Trump and his people. Its all fake!

In a chilling statement on CNN last month that went largely unnoticed, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Trump, spoke of discrediting journalists while taking presidential propaganda directly to the public through social media.

Trumps goal, she explained, is the democratization of information.

Teams of social scientists and journalism professors might require months to fully unpack that remark.

Give Conway this much: she has a way of crystallizing Trumps disdain for journalism with Orwellian precision. It was she, youll recall, who said the president was entitled to use alternative facts. That, along with the administrations relentless campaign to brand negative reporting as fake, seems to be what democratization of information is all about.

Consider the underlying message. If bypassing news media by Trump is, in fact, democratic, then reporters efforts to gather, fact-check and contextualize news must somehow be viewed as un-democratic.

And there is Trumps real angle. Journalists covering this president are worse than fake. They are undemocratic, which is to say un-American. Coming soon to a bumper near you.

Building more walkable cities would be a step in the right direction.
   -     :        ,        
Crews began tearing down the building located at the corner of Weber Road and Plaza Drive on Monday.

In the early days, the building housed one of the first movie rental stores in the area.

More recently, the building was home to Liberty Tax Services and Check, Please, and Country Junction, which is now located in the former offices of the Farmington Press/Daily Journal at 218 N. Washington St.

Plans for the site were unveiled at a Farmington City Council meeting in March of this year. At that time, Balke Brown Transwestern of St. Louis submitted a development plan to the planning and zoning commission on behalf of Kay Jewelers.

The Planned Unit Development (PUD) was recommended for approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission and was later passed by the council.

Plans call for an approximately 3,000-square foot business to be constructed at the site. The back of the building will face Sonic Drive-In.

"We're building a Kay Jewelers," said Chris Zoellner with Balke Brown Transwestern. "It's going to be a 3,000 square-foot building."

Zoellner said they are expecting to turn the building over to the jewelry retailer in October, with another 60 to 90 days of interior construction after that before opening.

Parking for the location will be moved to the east end of the lot, contained within the property as opposed to the parking from the previous building.

At the time of the public hearing, there was much discussion about the exit and entrance for the location.

The lot will contain a proposed in-and-out traffic pattern, with cars entering and exiting from defined locations.

The plan was submitted to the council as one business for the location.
John Barrowman has had his appendix removed.

John Barrowman

The former 'Doctor Who' star was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, for emergency surgery after he collapsed in agony earlier this week.

Taking to his Instagram account after the operation yesterday (25.07.17), he said in a short clip: "I feel like I have been hit by a car. I'm just sore all over and my voice is sore because of the tube going down my throat. The staff in the surgery knew who I was, they were fans which was kind of funny. I was just lucky my appendix didn't burst, they caught it in time. I was in a lot of agony yesterday. I knew something was up, I felt really bad."

Although he's in a bad way, the 50-year-old actor - who also starred in the spin-off 'Torchwood' - has assured fans he's on the mend and will be back home "soon."

He added: "In the surgery they made three incisions on my belly and then did it by laser. I'm just glad it went well and hopefully I should get home soon."

And two hours later, John appeared to be in brighter spirits as he posed for a photograph of him in his TARDIS socks that had been knitted by a 'Doctor Who' fan.

He accompanied the shot with the caption: "Got my fan made #TARDIS socks on keeping my feet warm in the hospital. JB (sic)"
The 25th edition of Milano Unica, the Italian Textiles and Accessories Trade show, was a massive success with over 6,000 exhibitors presenting their high end collections for the fall/winter 2018/2019 season. The show is being seen as more significant commercially in comparison to the September 2016 edition given the quality of the buyers.The show, held during July 11-13, 2017, also witnessed doubling of the visiting time of the buyers at the stands.

The 25th edition of Milano Unica, the Italian Textiles and Accessories Trade show, was a massive success with over 6,000 exhibitors presenting their high end collections for the fall/winter 2018/2019 season. The show is being seen as more significant commercially in comparison to the September 2016 edition given the quality of the buyers.#

The exhibition has participation from several international exhibitors  over 46 per cent from Netherlands, 42 per cent from Portugal, over 32 per cent each from Germany and Russian Federation, over 28 per cent from Spain, over 26 per cent from USA, over 20 per cent from United Kingdom, over 15 per cent from France and over 11 per cent from Turkey. The number of Italian businesses and mills from the Far East countries and, especially, China, slightly decreased. However, these countries will have another opportunity with the October edition in Shanghai.Over all there were 456 exhibitors at the 25th edition of Milano Unica, whose organisation was made possible thanks to the support of the Italian ministry for economic development and ICE Agency.We took a chance and were rewarded by the market. The day before the opening I would have considered a 10 per cent decline in attendance successful, but instead, results are in line with the September 2016 edition, thanks, especially, to the good performance in terms of the participation of international buyers. The doubling of their visiting time is the true confirmation of the strategic importance of the anticipated dates. A winning move that was well received by our exhibitors and we are grateful to have the chance to make this available to the entire Made-in-Italy supply chain, commented Ercole Botto Poala, president of Milano Unica.In my opening speech, I firmly repeated the need for taking on the necessary risks as entrepreneurs, in order to face the emerging and rapid changes we see in the market. I am convinced that errors can occur when one tries new things, but it is much worse to hold ones ground and refuse to implement new innovative solutions. We succeeded in doing this, leveraging on teaming up and going beyond conservative and protective approaches. The success of this edition does not put an end to the challenge. We know that we have only won a battle in an ongoing war, but we are all much more determined and convinced now, continued Ercole Botto Poala.There is obviously room for improvement in the organisation, but the general satisfaction recorded among exhibitors and visitors regarding the quality of the offering and the services provided lets us face the upcoming challenges with confidence. We know we can count on a proven team that does not fear innovation. Also, we can count on the collaboration and flexibility of our suppliers and, in particular, of Fiera Milano. And, last but not least, we can always count on the support of ICE Agency, which, on the occasion, also ensured the participation of an important delegation of buyers coming from China, Japan, Korea, USA and Russia, in addition to the traditional involvement of qualified representatives of the international specialised press, said Massimo Mosiello, general director of Milano Unica, head of operations of the textiles and accessories trade show since the first edition.In this edition as well we have remained loyal to the commitment of making the Italian textiles and accessories trade show also an important cultural moment, representing the extraordinary multiple traditions that contribute to defining made-in-Italy creativity. The magnificent and exciting On tour event, dedicated to the flavours and cultural traditions of the Campania region, was an additional success within the success of this edition. This is the second stage of a tour that, thanks to the positive appreciation received, will be continued in the next editions with other Italian regions, with the creation of special and quality events, concluded Ercole Botto Poala and Massimo Mosiello.This edition further enhanced the role of origin passion and beliefs as a platform for the promotion of Italian fashion products. The exhibition included the top businesses operating in this industry, putting them in contact with the product managers of the global fashion brands and thus winning the challenge of promoting and globalising a super-specialised supply chain that features top competencies, making it a directory of excellence for made-in-Italy production. Also very successful were the collaborations with Milano Unica, where origin is strategically downstream of the textile-fashion chain, and with Mise and ICE Agency for the participation of qualified international buyers, said Corrado Facco, general director of Italian Exhibition Group.The 12th edition of Milano Unica China will be held during October 11-13, 2017 in Shanghai and 26th edition of Milano Unica will be held during February 6-8, 2018 at Fieramilano Rho. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has raised concern over delay in release of funds under Rs 180 billion export package announced by the prime minister earlier this year. Of the package, only Rs 4 billion has been released by the government, said PTEA chairman Ajmal Farooq. The Pakistan textile industry contributes around 8 per cent of the national GDP.

Delay in release of outstanding sales tax and custom refund of Rs 200 billion is hindering the working of the textile industry, said Farooq in a statement. The survival of the textile industry has become difficult with the decline in the exports.

Farooq said that the government should take immediate measures to improve the exports of the textiles sector. Further, he points out that the textile exporters are yet to receive the Refund Payment Orders. In the budget 2017-18 finance minister Ishaq Dar had announced that sales taxes will be refunded by August 14, 2017 for RPO's sanctioned by April 30, 2017.

Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has raised concern over delay in release of funds under Rs 180 billion export package announced by the prime minister earlier this year. Of the package, only Rs 4 billion has been released by the government, said PTEA chairman Ajmal Farooq. The Pakistan textile industry contributes around 8 per cent of the nation#

In a bid to increase the exports of the textiles sector, the government should reduce the manufacturing cost, lower the supply charges and release the refunds at the earliest, said PTEAs vice chairman Muhammad Naeem. He has stressed for immediate payment of all outstanding refunds as undue delay in release of huge funds that runs into billions has resulted into liquidity crisis for cash starved textile exporters and manufacturers. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The consolidated revenue of Raymond Limited for the first quarter of 2018 has increased 14 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1240 crore. The sales of textile segment stood at Rs 572 crore, branded apparel at Rs 270 crore, garment at Rs 144 crore and luxury cotton shirting fabric at Rs 131 crore. In June this year, the company also commenced a garment plant in Ethiopia.

The company's EBITDA for the quarter was up 30 per cent y-o-y to Rs 81 crore. EBITDA of branded textiles was Rs 57 crore, up by 6 per cent over the previous year. There was improvement in the EBITDA margin of Raymond's branded apparel by around 110 basis points versus previous year mainly due to operating leverage. EBITDA of garment lowered by 32 per cent while there was an increase of 17 per cent in the luxury cotton shirting fabric segment.

"In line with the expectations, we have started the financial year on a positive note by posting strong growth in the first quarter. The commissioning of our garment facility in Ethiopia is an impetus to become price competitive for export markets enabling us to grow exponentially. The launch of our Khadi label reinstates our commitment to Make in India initiative and is in line with our endeavour to position khadi as a fashion fabric globally," Gautam Singhania, chairman and managing director, Raymond said. "With GST now being implemented, it will pave way for a unified and simplified tax regime across the country and will also lead to a wide scale inclusion of a largely unorganised textile and apparel sector into the formal economy. With macroeconomic indicators looking positive coupled with upbeat sentiments on the increasing demand and consumption, we at Raymond are confident to continue with growth momentum thus enhancing value for all our stakeholders," added Singhania. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The textile ministry has issued a clarification saying that job work units with an annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh are not required to register for Goods and Services Tax (GST). It has also said that strict action will be taken against master weavers who are insisting relatively small job units and workers to register themselves under the regime.

The clarification was issued after the ministry received various notices from job workers alleging that some grey cloth traders and master weavers are enforcing job workers with annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh to register under GST.

The threshold exemption for GST is of Rs 20 lakh and hence job workers with turnovers less than this amount are not required to register under the regime, said JL Balakumar, deputy director and officer-in-charge at the textiles ministry in a circular.

The textile ministry has issued a clarification saying that job work units with an annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh are not required to register for Goods and Services Tax (GST). It has also said that strict action will be taken against master weavers who are insisting relatively small job units and workers to register themselves under the regime.#

Suitable action will be taken against grey cloth traders and master weavers insisting ineligible job workers to register for GST, said the circular as per a Business Standard report.

Powerloom units were under pressure from master weavers and the notification comes as a relief to them, said P Kumaraswamy, secretary, Coimbatore District Job Working Powerloom Unit Owners Association. He added that out of 600,000 powerloom units in Tamil Nadu, over 80 per cent have a turnover of around Rs 10-12 lakh.

Kumaraswamy also said that merely 20 per cent of the units are working after the implementation of GST as the job work flow from master weavers has reduced considerably. The master weavers do have stocks, but are unable to dispose them due to the lack of proper bills. He expects the situation to go back to normal in the next two months. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The VDMA Textile Machinery Association from Germany has published demanding and comprehensive programs of its B2B forums and conferences, which will be held in Charlotte (NC) and Mexico City in November 2017. Online registrations for the programs are now open and are available at www.germantech-ustextile.de and www.germantech-mextextile.de.Industry experts from the VDMA member companies will present practice-oriented technology topics to decision makers from the local textile industries.

The VDMA Textile Machinery Association from Germany has published demanding and comprehensive programs of its B2B forums and conferences, which will be held in Charlotte (NC) and Mexico City in November 2017. Online registrations for the programs are now open and are available at www.germantech-ustextile.de and www.germantech-mextextile.de.#

For the conference in Charlotte, taking place on November 6, 2017 at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel, three parallel sessions are scheduled: textile machinery and components for the fibre and yarn industry; nonwovens and technical textiles industry; and apparel, home textile & carpet industry. The sessions will feature application-oriented technology presentations from around 25 VDMA member companies.The program in Mexico City will cover two days, November 8 and 9, 2017, at the Hilton Mexico City Santa Fe. The content for the programs include textile machinery and components for the apparel and home textile industry, textile machinery and components for the fibre and yarn industry, and textile machinery and components for the nonwovens and technical textiles industry.Around 29 VDMA member companies will present their latest technologies. Interested decision makers (for example technical management, production managers, quality and maintenance managers, mill owners) from the textile, nonwoven, and carpet manufacturing industries, along the entire textile chain, are requested to register for the forum.Each registrant will be checked and approved. A few weeks prior to the events, the approved registrants will be able to pre-arrange B2B meetings with the experts from the participating VDMA member companies, their subsidiaries and agents via the above-mentioned websites.The training session at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional (Escuela Superior de Ingenieria Textil) to be held in Mexico City on 10 November, 2017 will focus on future engineers. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Strayer Education Inc. (STRA) said it expects total enrollments at Strayer University for the third quarter 2017 to grow 7% to approximately 41,600 students from 38,813 students for the same period in 2016. New student enrollments are expected to increase approximately 7%, while continuing student enrollments are expected to increase approximately 8%. Revenue per student for the third quarter is expected to decrease between 1% and 2%. The company announced that its Board declared a regular, quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock. This dividend will be paid on September 18, 2017 to shareholders of record as of September 5, 2017. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
ALBANY, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- FirstLight, a leading fiber-optic bandwidth infrastructure services provider operating in the Northeast, announced today that ConvenientMD, an urgent care walk-in group with locations throughout New England, has selected FirstLight to provide data, cloud and voice services to enhance connectivity and improve data security across its key locations in New Hampshire.

As an urgent care walk-in group that serves patients seven days a week, ConvenientMD sought to work with a fiber-based communications service provider that would offer speed, reliability and superior customer support.

"To ensure our overall operations are running at peak performance for both our patients and employees, when it came to upgrading ConvenientMD's Internet, IT infrastructure, security and Voice over IP services, we took several factors into consideration," commented George Murray, IT Manager for ConvenientMD. "FirstLight easily met these requirements; the company is locally based, and we can easily get to FirstLight's data center when needed. FirstLight is also highly regarded for its data, cloud and voice services delivered over its own fiber optic network, and the customer service has been exceptional."

As ConvenientMD opens additional locations throughout New England, it will consider expanding its relationship with FirstLight.

"FirstLight proudly serves many leading healthcare facilities and clinics, like ConvenientMD, and we know the importance of not only ensuring strong connectivity, but also the need to provide cloud and security solutions that help address the unique compliance challenges that healthcare organizations face," stated Patrick Coughlin, Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer of FirstLight. "We are excited to welcome ConvenientMD to FirstLight and provide them with the high quality, fiber-based communication solutions that will not only meet their needs but also the thousands of patients who depend on ConvenientMD for health services."

To learn more about FirstLight's data, cloud, voice services and many other network solutions, visit www.firstlight.net.

About FirstLight

FirstLight, headquartered in Albany, New York, provides fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the Northeast connecting more than 5,500 locations in service with more than 20,000 locations serviceable by our 10,000 route mile network. FirstLight offers a robust suite of advanced telecommunications products featuring a comprehensive portfolio of high bandwidth connectivity solutions including Ethernet, wavelength and dark fiber services as well as dedicated Internet access solutions, data center, cloud and voice services. FirstLight's clientele includes national cellular providers and wireline carriers and many leading enterprises, spanning high tech manufacturing and research, hospitals and healthcare, banking and financial, secondary education, colleges and universities, and local and state governments.

To learn more about FirstLight, visit www.firstlight.net, or follow the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About ConvenientMD

ConvenientMD Urgent Care offers convenient access to high quality medical care, at the most affordable rates around. Patients can just walk in, without making an appointment, from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. Patients are typically in and out in under 1 hour and there is always a full medical team on site. The center has friendly staff who provide world-class customer service with state-of-the-art medical equipment, including digital x-ray, lab, EKG and IV equipment. ConvenientMD's expert medical team is ready and equipped to treat a broad range of injuries and illness. ConvenientMD has locations in Bedford, Concord, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Merrimack, Nashua, Portsmouth, and Windham, with additional locations opening throughout New England. Visit http://www.convenientmd.com for more information.

Media Contact:

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)

1-866-695-3629 ext. 6

Email Contact




MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Bee Vectoring Technologies (the "Company" or "BVT") (TSX VENTURE: BEE) is pleased to announce it has received official organic certification in the US, and its proprietary formulation of Vectorite with BVT-CR7 is now listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

The listing means the product meets the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) guidelines under the National Organic Program standard and is allowed for use in certified organic crops. The overall regulatory approval process for BVT-CR7 with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remains on track and a decision by the EPA on the approval for BVT-CR7 is expected in the first half of 2018.

"The US organic food industry is valued at close to $43 billion, and continues to grow around 10% per year," stated Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. "Organic growers however have a limited choice of products they can use to increase the productivity of their crops. The BVT system has been shown to have a unique value proposition for organic farmers, and delivers considerable value in multiple crops through better disease control and higher yields. With this certification, organic farmers will be able to begin adopting the solution once we gain final regulatory approval from the US EPA. This represents a significant business opportunity for BVT in an area of the industry experiencing growing consumer demand and where there are limited solutions available for protecting crops and increasing yields."

The Company is continuing to successfully execute on its documented growth strategy while driving towards commercialization of its proprietary system. BVT is selectively expanding its market opportunities while continuing towards securing US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory approval of its BVT-CR7 beneficial microbe.

About Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc.

BVT has developed and owns patent-pending bee vectoring technology that is designed to harmlessly utilize bumblebees and honeybees as natural delivery mechanisms for a variety of powdered mixtures comprised of organic compounds that inhibit or control common crop diseases, while at the same time enhancing crop vigor and productivity. This unique and proprietary process enables a targeted delivery of crop controls using the simple process of bee pollination to replace traditional crop spraying, resulting in better yields, superior quality, and less impact on the environment without the use of water or disruptions to labour.

Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.beevt.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that BVT expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to BVT'S future plans and technologies, including the timing of such plans and technologies. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although BVT believes that the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include continued availability of capital, financing and required resources (such as human resources, equipment and/or other capital resources), and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of BVT'S management on the date the statements are made. BVT undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change, except as required by law.

Contacts:

Ashish Malik

President & CEO

530-219-7808

marketing@beevt.com



Virtus Advisory Group

Babak Pedram

Investor Relations

416-995-8651

bpedram@virtusadvisory.com



For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:

Josh Stanbury

416-628-7441

josh@sjspr.co.uk




MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- WSP Global Inc. (TSX: WSP) ("WSP" or the "Corporation") will announce its 2017 second quarter results on August 9, 2017. A conference call will be held on the same day at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) to discuss the results.

To participate in the conference call, dial 1-647-788-4922 or 1-877-223-4471 (toll-free). A presentation of the 2017 second quarter highlights and results will be available on the same day at www.wsp.com in the Investor section, under Presentations & Events.

The conference call and slideshow presentation will also be broadcast live and archived in the Investor section of the WSP website.

A replay of the call will be available until September 9, 2017. The telephone numbers to access the replay of the call are 1-416-621-4642 or 1-800-585-8367 (toll-free), access code 51755983. The replay of the conference call will also be available in the Investor section of the WSP website under Presentations & Events, in the days following the event.

ABOUT WSP

As one of the world's leading professional services firms, WSP provides technical expertise and strategic advice to clients in the Property & Buildings, Transportation & Infrastructure, Environment, Industry, Resources (including Mining and Oil & Gas) and Power & Energy sectors. We also offer highly specialized services in project delivery and strategic consulting. Our experts include engineers, advisors, technicians, scientists, architects, planners, surveyors and environmental specialists, as well as other design, program and construction management professionals. With approximately 36,000 talented people in 500 offices across 40 countries, we are uniquely positioned to deliver successful and sustainable projects, wherever our clients need us. www.wsp.com

Contacts:

Isabelle Adjahi

Vice President,

Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

WSP Global Inc.

514-340-0046, ext. 5648

isabelle.adjahi@wsp.com




DEAR HARRIETTE: My boss, "Sara," isn't the most well-liked person at my company. Sara leaves her packages lying around, is very brash and rarely cleans up after herself. Other employees make snarky comments about her behind her back when she is not at work. There's no way to deny that she is all of the previously stated things (she has asked someone if they are pregnant or just "got fat").

Should I defend Sara when I hear these statements? I don't want to ostracize myself, but I feel like I should stick up for my boss no matter what. -- Employee of the Century, Wichita, Kansas

DEAR EMPLOYEE OF THE CENTURY: Watch what you say. You should not defend inappropriate behavior, no matter whose behavior it is. To protect your boss, it would be better for you to speak to her privately and express your concern that when she makes comments about people's body size and condition, it is hurtful and embarrassing, but more, it could put your boss in a compromised position. An employee could accuse her of being discriminatory or worse.

What you can say when people talk about your boss is that you think it's smart for everyone to focus on work. Griping about the boss on the job is not productive.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My father is in his 60s and not in the best health. He still travels for work because he does not want to hand over the reins to anybody else. I respect that my father wants to stay independent; however, I never hear from him when he's traveling. He is sometimes gone for weeks at a time, and I always assume the worst when he doesn't call, text or email once every few days. Am I being an overbearing son? I don't want to hound him, but I need to know my old man is still well. -- Smoke Signals Work, Too, Jacksonville, Florida

DEAR SMOKE SIGNALS WORK, TOO: Your challenge is tough as your father wants to maintain his independence. You need to get creative in order to convince your father to stay in touch. Consider asking him to text you photos when he gets to his destination. Tell him you miss him and would love to see snippets of his trips while you also get to confirm that he's safe

Be honest. Tell him that in this day and age, it is important for you to know where he is. So much is going on in the world, it will set your mind at ease to know that your dad is OK. Admit to acting like a father yourself. Then do it. Go sappy on him. Tell your father that you love him, you worry about him and you need to know that he's fine. Ask him to agree to at least call or text when he gets to his destinations and when he returns home. If he is flying a lot, ask him to shoot you a quick text saying he's safe in whatever city it is, and that's that. You may have to remind him from time to time and even nudge him to respond. Keep trying.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My teenage son has decided to lose his baby weight by exercising. I love this initiative; however, it makes my home smell foul. "Victor" has body odor, and I don't think wearing deodorant crosses his mind. I have hinted that he needs to start using deodorant and have even offered to buy it for him, but Vick just laughs me off. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I was mortified when a friend came over and said I "clearly have sons." How do I get Vick to start using antiperspirant or deodorant? I don't want to scare him away from exercising. -- No B.O., Seattle

DEAR NO B.O.: You need to talk to your son about hygiene and teach him how to care for his body. This is not to dissuade him from exercising. It is also important for him to know about cleanliness and body odor. Tell him directly about his odor and the need to bathe with appropriate soap and use deodorant. Don't give him an option on this. You can also relegate exercise to a certain part of the house that is well-ventilated or that you can make ventilated. You can use air fresheners to help combat the smell and vacuum often. Open the windows, too, to allow the pungent air to leave the house and clean air to flow in.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- CFN Media Group ("CannabisFN"), the leading creative agency and digital media network dedicated to legal cannabis, announces the publication of an article discussing the need for improved delivery technologies for cannabinoid-based therapies and four companies that are on the cutting edge with innovative systems. Cure Pharmaceutical Corp. (OTCQB: CURR) has an oral thin film; AXIM Biotechnologies Inc. (OTCQB: AXIM) is employing chewing gum in its clinical programs; Lexaria Corp. (OTCQB: LXRP) has developed a lipid encapsulation technology; and PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CNSX: PREV) is working with a Sol-Gel nasal delivery system.

Cannabinoids have demonstrated tremendous potential in treating many medical conditions, ranging from epilepsy to chronic pain. The problem is that many of these conditions rely on cannabinoids passing through the blood-brain barrier, while others require rapid absorption into the bloodstream. Conventional delivery systems are not ideally suited to achieve these goals, which have prompted many companies to develop alternatives.

Oral Thin Films

Listerine PocketPack and other breath strips have become a popular way to kill bad breath germs in less than 30 seconds. It turns out that the same type of technology could help efficiently deliver cannabinoids into the bloodstream without the use of water.

CURE Pharmaceutical Corp. (OTCQB: CURR) is developing an oral thin film technology with faster onset and greater bioavailability than tablets and other conventional delivery systems. Using a micro-encapsulation process, the active ingredients are shielded by phospholipids and liposomes to deliver higher doses with better flavor masking. These active ingredients bypass the gastric system and are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream for maximum effectiveness.

Since they're simply placed the tongue to dissolve, oral thin films are ideally suited for children and elderly patients that may have trouble swallowing pills. They may also help improve compliance since they don't require water and have improved flavor masking.

Chewing Gum

GlaxoSmithKline's Nicorette chewing gum has become the most popular nicotine replacement therapy in the world. But surprisingly, chewing gum hasn't been used as a delivery mechanism for many other drugs despite its convenience and benefits.

AXIM Biotechnologies Inc. (OTCQB: AXIM) is developing chewing gum-based cannabinoid therapies targeting a wide range of medical conditions. The company's most advanced program is CanChew Plus for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome ("IBS"), but it has similar programs targeting multiple sclerosis / pain spasticity, Parkinson's disease, dementia, restless leg's syndrome, opioid addiction, tobacco smoking cessation, and other conditions.

In addition to effectively delivering cannabinoids into the blood stream, chewing gum offers a controlled release via cellulose and may improve cerebral circulation, stimulate the basal ganglia, reduce stress, improve memory, and offer neuroprotective benefits.

Lipid Encapsulation

The primary issue with tablets and other swallowed medicine is that they're subject to so-called first pass metabolism. Compounding this problem, studies have shown that cannabinoids do not tolerate acidic environments like the stomach.

Lexaria Corp. (OTCQB: LXRP) is developing lipid encapsulation technologies designed to protect cannabinoids in acidic environments and maximize absorption. The company's researchers processed a mixture of hemp oil, black tea, and select lipids to create a cannabinoid-infused tea that has resulted in as much as a 499% increase in intestinal tissue permeability for cannabidiol ("CBD") over a concentration matched mixture of just CBD and water.

In addition to improved bioavailability, the company's licensable technology platform has a rapid onset of just 15-20 minutes -- compared to 60-120 minutes for conventional therapies -- along with the elimination of undesirable tastes. The company has already signed several licensing agreements to commercialize the patented technology around the world. Lexaria is working with the Canadian federal government, through the National Research Council, on further research, development, and commercialization opportunities.

Sol-Gel Nasal Delivery

Soft gels have become a popular delivery mechanism since they are easy to administer, familiar to patients, and may contain a variety of different chemicals designed for slow-release and other features that improve the safety and efficacy profile of the active ingredients.

PreveCeutical Medical Inc.'s (CNSX: PREV) Sol-Gel technology encapsulates cannabinoids in a soluble form, while nanomicelles provide tissue permeation enhancing properties. Local tissue irritation is avoided as cannabinoids are in-solution and can be presented at lower doses. At the same time, Sol-Gels can remain in place for extended periods of time, which can reduce the administration times to once or twice weekly rather than daily.

Follow or copy and paste this link to see a video of Dr. Harry Parekh, PreveCeutical's Chief Researcher, explaining the Sol-Gel technology:https://content.jwplatform.com/previews/QRRekyqg-DaoTez7J

The company has pioneered a novel process for preparing insoluble drug-containing nanomicelles and incorporating them into Sol-Gels in conjunction with the Parekh group at PACE-UQ. The team plans to file a provisional patent application around the single phase Sol-Gels for nasal delivery, which could vastly improve bioavailability relative to other therapeutics that are already on the market.

Please follow the link to read the full article: http://www.cannabisfn.com/top-4-companies-reinventing-cannabinoid-delivery/

Learn how to become a CFN Media featured company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/become-featured-company/

Download the CFN Media iOS mobile app to access the world of cannabis from your smart phone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cannabisfn/id988009247?ls=1&mt=8

Or visit our homepage and enter your mobile number under the Apple App Store logo to receive a download link text on your iPhone: http://www.cannabisfn.com

About CFN Media

CFN Media (CannabisFN) is the leading creative agency and media network dedicated to legal cannabis. We help marijuana businesses attract investors, customers (B2B, B2C), capital, and media visibility. Private and public marijuana companies and brands in the US and Canada rely on CFN Media to grow and succeed.

Disclaimer:

Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Emerging Growth LLC, which owns CFN Media and CannabisFN.com, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. Emerging Growth LLC may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Emerging Growth LLC may be compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation or equity securities in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure please visit: http://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/.

CFN Media

Frank Lane

206-369-7050

flane@cannabisfn.com




Nemaura Medical Inc. (OTCQB: NMRD), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of sugarBEAT, a wireless disposable adhesive skin-patch for adjunctive use by diabetics as a non-invasive and needle-free continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system announced today that it has appointed Dr. Salim Natha to the company's Board of Directors. Dr. Natha will serve as an independent director of the company and chair the board's Compensation Committee.

Dr. Faz Chowdhury, CEO and board member of Nemaura commented "Salim's expertise as a serving Consultant Ophthalmologist Surgeon specialising in Diabetic Retinopathy will bring a valuable clinical perspective to our Board, and help strengthen our corporate governance as we prepare to launch sugarBEAT later this year."

Dr. Natha is currently practicing as an Eye Surgeon in the UK National Health Service (NHS), and is the clinical lead for a retinopathy screening programme for over 20,000 diabetics in the Ashton, Wigan and Leigh region. He has published several articles in the medical literature and is a peer reviewer for the English National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme. Dr. Natha graduated with honors from the University of Liverpool Medical School.

Dr. Natha commented "Treating diabetes and its complications costs the NHS almost 10 billion (US$13 billion) a year. Breakthrough technologies like Nemaura's sugarBEAT have a potentially transformative role to play in helping diabetics improve their health through better management of glucose levels."

About Nemaura Medical, Inc.

Nemaura Medical is a medical technology company developing the wireless sugarBEAT disposable adhesive skin-patch as a non-invasive, needle-free, pain-free and affordable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for adjunctive use by diabetics. For more information, please visit www.nemauramedical.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts, and may constitute forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to regulatory approvals and the success of Nemaura Medical's ongoing studies, including the safety and efficacy of Nemaura Medical's sugarBEAT CGM system, the failure of future development and preliminary marketing efforts, Nemaura Medical's ability to secure additional commercial partnering arrangements, risks and uncertainties relating to Nemaura Medical and its partners' ability to develop, market and sell sugarBEAT, the availability of substantial additional equity or debt capital to support its research, development and product commercialization activities, and the success of its research, development, regulatory approval, marketing and distribution plans and strategies, including those plans and strategies related to sugarBEAT. These and other risks and uncertainties are identified and described in more detail in Nemaura Medical's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the current year, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. Nemaura Medical undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005646/en/

Contacts:

Nemaura Medical

Bashir Timol

Director of Strategy Corporate Development

bashir.timol@nemauramedical.com
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 26, 2017 / Stony Hill Corp. (OTCQB: STNY), a diversified company focused on the cannabis industry, today announced that it has made a strategic investment in Precision Cultivation Systems. (PCS).

Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Stony Hill will make a direct equity investment into Precision Cultivation Systems. Stony Hill will be a passive investor but looks forward to an expanding relationship with PCS with additional strategic partnership opportunities in the future.

The PCS systems boasts numerous proprietary features that help produce healthier plants that consistently delivers increased yield and higher quality flower. The moisture and nutrient delivery system allows for exceptional plant growth characteristics and reduces root molding. This hydroponic cultivation system is designed to decrease labor costs, while increasing plant growth rates, vitality, yield and essential oil production from unique patent pending components with the sole external factor to operation being nutrient and irrigation supply.

In the PCS's, first cannabis show entry, the prestigious Chalice Cup, Precision Cultivation Systems, along with its Nutrients partner, won the Grand Prize for Best Overall flower (Do-Si-Do), 1st Place Indica, 3rd Place Indica (White Fire OG) and 1st Prize for Highest THC and the Highest Terpenes.

Chris Bridges, President of Stony Hill stated, "As Stony Hill continues to expand into multiple segments of the cannabis industry, this investment fits very nicely into our strategy to expand Stony Hill's hydroponics and growing presence for our platform of products. This investment represents another step toward building our company into a leading platform in the cannabis industry. Stony Hill and PCS will have a synergistic relationship, with a focus on the development of innovative growing systems for the cannabis industry."

Kris Kaminski, CEO of Precision Cultivation Systems, stated, "We are pleased to welcome Stony Hill and Damian Marley as a long-term investor and strategic partner. We welcome Stony Hill into the PCS family and are excited to have access to their considerable sales, marketing, and business expertise. With this partnership, our mission of bringing quality, effective, and reliable cultivation models to growers across the world has taken a significant step forward."

About Stony Hill Corp.

Stony Hill Corp. (www.stonyhillcorp.com) is a diversified company focused on multiples areas of the cannabis, hemp and CBD industry. The Company is focused on select investment, branding, real estate, and partnership opportunities in the recreational, health and wellness, nutraceutical, and media industries.

Stony Hill has several strategic partnerships currently in place and is actively pursuing additional partnerships and other strategic growth opportunities.

About Precision Cultivation Systems

Precision Cultivation Systems LLC is a Delaware based company specializing in the design, manufacture, and implementation of its patent-pending award winning proprietary high-performance plant cultivation systems. Precision Cultivation Systems proudly designs, manufactures and assembles all core system components in the United States of America from medical grade plastics. Precision Cultivation Systems has decades of expertise in commercial cultivation, environmental science, plant physiology, engineering, and manufacturing to make it possible to not just grow but to grow with precision.

Contact

Email: ir@stonyhillcorp.com or info@stonyhillcorp.com

To be added to the Stony Hill email distribution list, please email info@stonyhillcorp.com with STNY in the subject line.

Follow us on:

Facebook @stonyhillofficial

Instagram @stonyhillofficial

Twitter @stonyhillnews

Safe Harbor Statement

Forward-Looking Statements Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are inherently unreliable and actual results may differ materially. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include such factors as the development and protection of our brands and other intellectual property, the need to raise capital to meet business requirements, significant fluctuations in marketing expenses and ability to achieve and expand significant levels of revenues, or recognize net income, from the sale of its products and services, as well as the introduction of competing products, or management's ability to attract and maintain qualified personnel necessary for the development and commercialization of its planned products, and other information that may be detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE: Stony Hill Corp.
Tacton CPQ eases sales processes by aligning with the company's business and technology requirements

LONDON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Based on its recent analysis of the configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Tacton with the 2017 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership. Acknowledging the manufacturing industry's gradual transformation towards Industry 4.0, Tacton has strategically developed a CPQ solution that provides the connectivity, speed, and insight needed for manufacturers to digitize their processes. Tacton's flagship product, the intuitive, browser-based Tacton CPQ, defines product configuration rules and updates them as products change, thereby synchronizing engineering and production with sales. Tacton's intelligent configuration engine, a model-based constraint solver, enables smart manufacturing.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539326/Tactron_Award.jpg

Tacton CPQ offers the following features and benefits:

Fast configuration of complex products and systems suggesting best-fitting solutions

Development of country- and role-specific proposals after taking product variations into account based on local laws and regulations, in multiple currencies and languages

Automated solution optimization for selected result aspects, like price, durability, or weight

Integration with computer-aided design systems for engineering with configured products

Integration with customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and product lifecycle management systems to facilitate data transfer

"Tacton CPQ minimizes the need for costly and time-consuming customization with its constraint-based configuration, as it imposes far fewer rules," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Brendan Read. "The solution considers all variables simultaneously, resulting in error-free, valid, and consistent configurations. Additionally, it facilitates tasks for sales personnel by enabling guided selling, collaborative quoting tools, built-in commercial and technical approval workflows, and automated branded proposal and supporting document generation."

Tacton CPQ's stateless configuration engine handles complex models and high user loads. Its Professional and Enterprise market-tailored editions are available as hosted-on-the-cloud and on-premises solutions. Cloud/hosting on a multitenant platform lowers up-front investment and system maintenance costs for users. More than 250 customers have benefitted from Tacton's solutions in various ways.

Importantly, Tacton keeps its product updated and relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace. For instance, it launched its new CPQ platform in late 2016 with the following features:

Sales engineering process automation through fully integrated CAD functionality

Native live 3-D product visualization as products are being configured

Order entry to ERP systems, with feedback to the CPQ application on order status

A new intuitive user interface with responsive design

Tacton Salesforce has also released an extension for Salesforce CPQ, which is built and hosted on the App Cloud. Furthermore, it has added apps for iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch.

"The company is looking to expand in markets outside of Europe, particularly in North America," noted Read. "In line with this goal, it is laying emphasis on growth through a series of strategic partnership with companies such as Salesforce, Birlasoft, CirrusCPQ, and also through acquisitions like Lumo Graphics. Overall, Tacton has positioned itself very strongly with its Tacton CPQ, serving a wide array of applications and diverse needs for quality, functionality, and price/performance value."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality and that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it supports.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Tacton

Tacton Systems is a world leader in advanced product configuration. Tacton's technology redefines how product configuration is managed, making it radically simpler to configure, design and sell complex products. Tacton's solutions integrate easily with surrounding systems and have standard integrations for many leading e-commerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, PLM, and CAD systems. Tacton is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with customers and resellers across the globe.

Frederic Laziou, CEO, P: +46 709 564312 E: frederic.laziou@tacton.com

Anders Ekman, CMO, P: +46739 202412 E: anders.ekman@tacton.com

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.247.2426

F: 210.348.1003

E: samantha.park@frost.com
ROUYN-NORANDA, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 08/15/17 -- GLOBEX MINING ENTERPRISES INC. (TSX: GMX)(FRANKFURT: G1MN)(STUTTGART: G1MN)(BERLIN: G1MN)(MUNICH: G1MN)(XETRA: G1MN)(OTCQX: GLBXF) is pleased to inform shareholders that Enforcer Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VEIN)(FRANKFURT: N071) has reported visible gold in core (DDH MDD 17006) and outcrop (see Enforcer press release dated July 26) in current work undertaken on the Montalembert property, under option from Globex. Some 260 rock samples collected from mapping in an area 1.5 km x 1.5 km have been sent for assay along with 490 m of channel samples from trench exposures including the No. 3 Vein located approximately 175 m south and along strike of the No. 2 Vein.

Twenty large diameter HQ drill holes totaling some 2,227 m have been completed as well as 45 km of an induced polarization survey. Eighteen of the drill holes are in for assay. Geological team are currently focusing upon following up on ground truthing anomalies indicated by the IP survey and a previous VLF-EM airborne survey.

Globex is pleased by the scope of the work and the dedication to the development of the project demonstrated by Enforcer who has earmarked $2.2 million to exploration on the claims at Montalembert for this year.

For additional details, please see the Enforcer press release of August 15, 2017 and visit their website www.enforcergold.com to see photographs of visible gold in channel samples and drill core. For terms of the option agreement between Globex and Enforcer (formerly Natan Resources) please see Globex's press release dated November 17, 2016.

This press release was written by Jack Stoch, P. Geo., President and CEO of Globex in his capacity as a Qualified Person (Q.P.) under NI 43-101.

We Seek Safe Harbour. Foreign Private Issuer 12g3 - 2(b) CUSIP Number 379900 50 9

Forward Looking Statements: Except for historical information, this news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". These statements may involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity and performance to be materially different from the expectations and projections of Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. ("Globex"). No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits Globex will derive therefrom. A more detailed discussion of the risks is available in the "Annual Information Form" filed by Globex on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

50,172,424 shares issued and outstanding

Contacts:

Jack Stoch, P.Geo., Acc.Dir.

President & CEO

Globex Mining Enterprises Inc.

819.797.5242

819.797.1470 (FAX)

info@globexmining.com

www.globexmining.com




Bacardi Limited, das weltweit grote private Spirituosen-Unternehmen in Familienbesitz, gibt heute bekannt, dass Francis Debeuckelaere, ein 23-jahriger Veteran des Unternehmens, mit sofortiger Wirkung zum Regional President fur Europa ernannt wurde.

Dieser Smart News Release enthalt Multimedia. Vollstandige Veroffentlichung hier ansehen: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006368/de/

Bildunterschrift: Das weltweit grote private Spirituosen-Unternehmen in Familienbesitz, Bacardi Limited, ernennt Francis Debeuckelaere, einen 23-jahrigen Veteran des Unternehmens, zum regionalen Geschaftsfuhrer fur Europa (Foto: Business Wire)

"Es gibt niemanden, der fur diese wichtige regionale Rolle in unserem Unternehmen geeigneter ware als Francis", erklart Michael J. Dolan, Chief Executive Officer von Bacardi Limited. "Francis kann auf eine lange und erfolgreiche Karriere bei Bacardi zuruckblicken und ist das beste Beispiel dafur, wie wir unsere fahigsten Mitarbeiter fordern. Francis hat im Verlauf der letzten 23 Jahre wiederholt seine Fahigkeit unter Beweis gestellt, Teams auf diesem Markt zum Erfolg zu fuhren, zuletzt als VP Managing Director fur Nordeuropa. Francis' Erfahrung und Kompetenz, zusammen mit seiner Motivation und seinem Engagement, sind die perfekte Kombination, um dafur zu sorgen, dass unser legendares Markenportfolio auch weiterhin in ganz Europa wachst und gedeiht."

Debeuckelaere tritt die Nachfolge von Mahesh Madhavan an, der im Marz 2017 zum Nachfolger von Dolan ernannt wurde, wenn dieser als CEO abtritt. Madhavan wird die nachsten Monate damit verbringen, mit verschiedenen Regionen und Markten zusammenzuarbeiten, wahrend er sich auf seine Rolle als CEO im Jahr 2018 vorbereitet.

Debeuckelaere auert sich zu seiner Ernennung als Regional President folgendermaen: "Das Unternehmen und dieses Geschaft liegen mir sehr am Herzen, und es ist daher eine groe Ehre fur mich, diese fantastische Gelegenheit zu bekommen. Dies sind aufregende Zeiten fur Europa und Bacardi. Wir verfugen uber ein beneidenswertes Markenportfolio und ein auerordentlich talentiertes Team. Diese leistungsstarke Kombination, gekoppelt mit dem Freiraum unseres Familienunternehmens, rasch auf schnell wechselnde Markttendenzen zu reagieren, verschafft uns ein Erfolgsrezept in Europa."

Debeuckelaere hat im Rahmen seiner Laufbahn bei Bacardi eine Reihe von europaischen Markten zu groem Erfolg gefuhrt. Unter seiner Fuhrung vergroerte sich Bacardi in Belgien um mehr als das Doppelte, vom drittgroten Spirituosenunternehmen zur Nummer eins. Ahnlich erging es Bacardi in den Niederlanden, wo das Unternehmen um mehr 50 Prozent wuchs, und zwar von Nummer drei auf dem Markt zu Nummer zwei; und nachdem Debeuckelaere im Jahr 2004 zum Aufbau des Unternehmens in der Schweiz beigetragen hatte, stieg Bacardi an die dritte Stelle der Spirituosenunternehmen des Landes auf. Vor seinem Beitritt zu Bacardi hatte Debeuckelaere Positionen im Marketingbereich bei Nestle und der Brauerei Alken-Maes inne.

Debeuckelaere hat einen Bachelor-Abschluss in Philosophie, einen Master-Abschluss in romanischen Sprachen sowie einen MBA der Universitat Lowen in Belgien. Er spricht flieend Hollandisch, Englisch, Franzosisch, Deutsch und Spanisch.

Debeuckelaere wird seine Tatigkeit von Genf in der Schweiz aus ausuben (vorbehaltlich der Genehmigung), und Mitglied des Global Leadership Teams sein.

Uber Bacardi Limited

Bacardi Limited, das weltweit grote Spirituosenunternehmen in privatem Besitz, produziert und vertreibt eine Reihe international bekannter Spirituosen und Weine. Das Portfolio von Bacardi umfasst mehr als 200 Marken und Namen, darunter BACARDI Rum, GREY GOOSE Wodka, DEWAR'S Blended Scotch Whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin, MARTINI Wermut und Schaumweine, CAZADORES 100-prozentig reiner Tequila aus blauen Agaven sowie weitere fuhrende und neue Marken wie WILLIAM LAWSON'S, ERISTOFF Wodka und ST-GERMAIN Holunderblutenlikor.

Das vor uber 155 Jahren am 4. Februar 1862 in Santiago de Cuba gegrundete Familienunternehmen Bacardi verkauft seine Marken in uber 170 Landern. Bacardi Limited ist eine Bezeichnung fur die Bacardi-Firmengruppe, zu der auch Bacardi International Limited gehort. www.bacardilimited.com

Die Ausgangssprache, in der der Originaltext veroffentlicht wird, ist die offizielle und autorisierte Version. Ubersetzungen werden zur besseren Verstandigung mitgeliefert. Nur die Sprachversion, die im Original veroffentlicht wurde, ist rechtsgultig. Gleichen Sie deshalb Ubersetzungen mit der originalen Sprachversion der Veroffentlichung ab.

Originalversion auf businesswire.com ansehen: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006368/de/

Contacts:

Bacardi Limited

K.C. Kavanagh, +1-441-298-1053

kckavanagh@bacardi.com

oder

Amy Federman, +1-441-294-1110

afederman@bacardi.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The US Senate has started debating President Donald Trump's top legislative priority to repeal and replace Obamacare with a Republican health care plan. Tuesday, the Senate agreed to allow the debate on health care legislation reform to go forward with the help of Vice President Mike Pence's tie-breaking vote (51-50). Senator John McCain, who has been resting after being diagnosed with brain tumour, returned to Capitol Hill to save Trump from another embarassment. His vote ensured that the Republicans have 50 votes to move forward on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump thanked the Arizona senator for playing 'such a vital role' in the vote, while Mark R. Warner (D-VA) warned that the vote will have very real and disastrous consequences for millions of Americans. But Tuesday night, the first amendment - to repeal and replace Obamacare - failed to pass as nine moderate Republicans joined all Democrats on a 43-57 vote that effectively killed the measure. Dozens of other amendments are expected to be put to vote this week. In a 15 minute long speech in the Senate, McCain said although he voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered, he 'will not vote for the bill as it is today'. The Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee pointedly chided his party's leaders for crafting a health care bill in private and attempting to jam it past any resistance. He blamed the Republicans by saying that in an effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, 'All we've managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn't very popular when we started trying to get rid of it'. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Note to Editors: There is a photo associated with this press release.

Stingray (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B) is proud to announce a content partnership with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), Native Communications Inc. (NCI-FM Manitoba) and First Peoples Radio (FPR) in Ottawa and Toronto.

Starting today, all Stingray Music mobile app users can listen to channels featuring contemporary artists from Canada's First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities curated in collaboration with the experts at APTN and NCI-FM Manitoba.

Two channels, "Aboriginal Music from Canada - Contemporary" and "Aboriginal Music from Canada - Retro" are currently streaming worldwide on the Stingray Music mobile app.

Stingray thus maintains and strengthens its position as the only streaming service dedicated to promoting Canadian music from Coast to Coast to Coast, at home and abroad.

Listen to "Aboriginal Music from Canada - Contemporary"

Listen to "Aboriginal Music from Canada - Retro"

The Stingray Music mobile app is offered free to all subscribers to a service that carries Stingray Music. The app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

Quotes

"We could not claim to be a truly Canadian music service without promoting the talent of our country's First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities," said Mathieu Peloquin, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Communications of Stingray. "We are truly honoured that APTN, NCI-FM Manitoba, and FPR choose Stingray as a partner to share the vitality of their music with the world."

"APTN has been, from its inception, a strong proponent and supporter of musical talent in our communities, said Jean La Rose, CEO of APTN and FPR. "When Stingray proposed this partnership, we immediately agreed but asked that NCI be part of this new relationship given their strong involvement in this area as well. Together with FPR, we will work to evolve the opportunity for our musical talent and artists."

"NCI has a long history, since 1971, of providing exposure and airtime for our musicians and artists", said Dave McLeod, CEO of NCI Inc." This partnership with Stingray gives us the opportunity to share our communities' musical talent and will provide our artists with well-deserved national and international exposure. We are confident that recognition for our artists is destined to grow as the world discovers the wide variety of musical talents within our Indigenous music community. I expect we will get many requests for more tracks and even more channels reflecting the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis talent."

To download press images, visit our multimedia library: https://brandfolder.com/latest-news/stingray-promotes-aboriginal-music-from-canada

About Stingray

Stingray (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B) is a leading business-to-business multi-platform music and in-store media solutions provider operating on a global scale, reaching an estimated 400 million pay TV subscribers (or households) in 156 countries. Geared towards individuals and businesses alike, Stingray's products include the following leading digital music and video services: Stingray Music, Stingray Concerts, Stingray iConcerts, Stingray Brava, Stingray DJAZZ, Stingray Music Videos, Stingray Lite TV, Stingray Ambiance, Stingray Karaoke, Stingray Loud, Stingray Vibe, Stingray Juicebox, Stingray Retro, Festival 4K, and Classica. Stingray also offers various business solutions, including music and digital display-based solutions, through its Stingray Business division. Stingray is headquartered in Montreal and currently has close to 350 employees worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Israel, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore. Stingray was recognized in 2013 and 2014 as a finalist in the Top 50 of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 list, and figures amongst PROFIT magazine's fastest-growing Canadian companies. In 2016, Stingray was awarded best IR for an IPO at the IR Magazine Awards - Canada. For more information, please visit www.stingray.com

About APTN

September 1, 2017, will mark the 18-year anniversary of the launch of the first national Aboriginal television network in the world with programming by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples to share with all Canadians and viewers around the world. APTN is available in approximately 11 million Canadian households and commercial establishments with cable, direct-to-home satellite, telco-delivered and fixed wireless television service providers. The network launched its high definition channel, APTN HD, in 2008. In 2017, First Peoples Radio Inc., a non-profit corporation established by APTN was granted licences to operate English and Indigenous-language Type B Native FM radio stations to serve the urban Indigenous communities in Ottawa and Toronto. The stations are expected to launch in the spring of 2018. APTN does not receive government funding for operations but generates revenue through subscriber fees, advertising sales and strategic partnerships. APTN broadcasts programming with 72% offered in English, 10% in French and 18% in Aboriginal languages. For program schedule or for more information, please contact APTN at (204) 947-9331 or toll-free at 1-888-278-8862 (Canada), or visit the website at http://www.aptn.ca

About NCI-FM Manitoba

Native Communications Inc. (NCI) operates in Manitoba as a public broadcaster. NCI is an Indigenous service organization offering radio programming, designed for and by Indigenous people. NCI has been broadcasting since 1971, providing Indigenous language and cultural programming. The NCI-FM radio network is composed of 59 FM transmitters located from Winnipeg to Churchill, reaching 98% of Manitoba's population. NCI also produces the multiple-award winning program, the Indigenous Music Countdown, a weekly two-hour top 40 program heard on twelve stations across Canada including SiriusXM Canada.

To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170726-1099806_800.jpg

Contacts:

For more information and to request

press material, please contact:

Mathieu Peloquin, Senior Vice-President,

Marketing and Communications, Stingray

1 514-664-1244, ext. 2362

mpeloquin@stingray.com



Emili Bellefleur

Communications Coordinator

APTN

1 514-544-6124, ext 227

ebellefleur@aptn.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Cardinal Resources Limited ("Cardinal" or "the Company") (ASX: CDV)(TSX: CDV) is pleased to announce interim results for Phase Two of its metallurgical test programme for the Namdini Gold Project ("Namdini").

HIGHLIGHTS

-- Utilizing standard gold recovery techniques has demonstrated an overall increased gold recovery rate of 86%, -- A conventional grind-flotation-regrind-CIL flowsheet continues to be the preferred process option

Cardinal's Project Manager, Bruce Lilford said:

"We are extremely pleased with the interim results as they continue to improve overall recoveries for Namdini. The test results thus far are demonstrating good lithological consistency, which will allow for predictable metallurgical performance in a production scenario.

Our Phase Two metallurgical test programme is focused on determining resource variability for our main lithology domains being metavolcanics, granite and diorite. The test programme was developed to enhance our metallurgical understanding in order to help ensure a robust process design.

Cardinal selected 16 separate life of mine drill holes as representative samples from the three main lithologies across the entire deposit. Each of the five metre downhole sample lengths were then composited by lithology for metallurgical testing.

The geostatistical resource model was used to target the average grade of the combined sample for each lithology, based on a notional cut-off grade of 0.4 g/t Au ("grams per tonne gold"). The intervals were selected to ensure that the following criteria were met:

-- representative spatial distribution within the overall Namdini gold deposit, -- a range of gold grades, predicted to be encountered during normal mining operations, and -- average gold grades matching the overall Namdini geostatistical resource model above a 0.4 g/t Au cut-off

In addition to the drill holes noted above, the Company is conducting additional tests for the anticipated starter pit area. This supplemental metallurgical testing is still in progress.

As the metallurgical testing advances in the project development phase, the process flowsheet will continue to be optimized in order to provide the necessary detailed design criteria."

Cardinal's CEO / MD, Archie Koimtsidis said:

"This round of interim metallurgical results has clearly demonstrated good opportunity for higher gold recovery. We anticipate further confidence and improvement in overall gold recoveries as we continue our metallurgical test programmes."

Qualified Person - Competent Person's Statement

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Marc LeVier, K. Marc LeVier & Associates, Inc., who is a 'qualified person' as defined by National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI43-101"). Mr. LeVier holds a Qualified Professional status from the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America.

The overall release has been compiled by Mr B A Lilford, Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (MAusIMM No. 301055), Project Manager of Cardinal Resources, who has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and the activities being reported upon to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Mr Lilford consents to the inclusion in this report of the statements based on the information in the form and context in which it appears.

Information in this release that relates to the Namdini Project is based on the results of the Metallurgical Testwork programme undertaken at SunTech Laboratories, Johannesburg, South Africa. The work has been monitored on behalf of Cardinal Resources by Mr B A Lilford, MAusIMM (No. 301055), who has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and the activities being reported upon to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Mr Lilford consents to the inclusion in this report of the statements based on the information in the form and context in which it appears.

Disclaimer

This ASX announcement ("Announcement") has been prepared by Cardinal Resources Limited (ABN: 56 147 325 620) ("Cardinal" or "the Company").

This Announcement contains summary information about Cardinal, its subsidiaries and their activities, which is current as at the date of this Announcement. The information in this Announcement is of a general nature and does not purport to be complete nor does it contain all the information, which a prospective investor may require in evaluating a possible investment in Cardinal.

By its very nature exploration for minerals is a high-risk business and is not suitable for certain investors. Cardinal's securities are speculative. Potential investors should consult their stockbroker or financial advisor. There are a number of risks, both specific to Cardinal and of a general nature which may affect the future operating and financial performance of Cardinal and the value of an investment in Cardinal including but not limited to economic conditions, stock market fluctuations, gold provide movements, regional infrastructure constraints, timing of approvals from relevant authorities, regulatory risks, operational risks and reliance on key personnel and foreign currency fluctuations.

Except for statutory liability which cannot be excluded, each of Cardinal's officers, employees and advisors expressly disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the material contained in this Announcement and excludes all liability whatsoever (including in negligence) for any loss or damage which may be suffered by any person as a consequence of any information in this Announcement or any error or omission here from. The Company is under no obligation to update any person regarding any inaccuracy, omission or change in information in this Announcement or any other information made available to a person nor any obligation to furnish the person with any further information. Recipients of this Announcement should make their own independent assessment and determination as to the Company's prospects, its business, assets and liabilities as well as the matters covered in this Announcement.

Not an offer

This Announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute or form any part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities in the Company in any jurisdiction. It is not intended to be and is not a prospectus, product disclosure statement, offering memorandum or private placement memorandum for the purpose of Chapter 6D of the Corporation Act 2001. This Announcement and its contents must not be distributed, transmitted or viewed by any person in any jurisdiction where the distribution, transmission or viewing of this Announcement would be unlawful under the securities or other laws of that or any other jurisdiction. This Announcement is not considered a recommendation by the Company or any of its affiliates, directors or officers that any recipient invest in the Company nor does it constitute as any investment, accounting financial, legal or tax advice.

Not financial product advice

This Announcement does not contain all information which may be material to the making of a decision in relation to the Company. Recipients of this document should carefully consider whether the securities issued by the Company are an appropriate investment for them in light of their personal circumstances, including their financial and taxation position. No account has been taken of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any recipient of this document. Any investor should seek independent financial and taxation advice independent assessment and determination as to the Company's prospects prior to making any investment decision, and should not rely on the information in this Announcement for that purpose. Neither the Company nor its related bodies corporate is licensed to provide financial advice in respect of the Company's securities or any financial products. This Announcement does not involve or imply a recommendation or a statement of opinion in respect of whether to buy, sell or hold securities in the Company. The securities issued by the Company are considered speculative and there is no guarantee that they will make a return on the capital invested, that dividends will be paid on the shares or that there will be an increase in the value of the shares in the future.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this Announcement, including information as to the future financial or operating performance of Cardinal and its projects, may also include statements which are 'forward-looking statements' that may include, among other things, statements regarding targets, estimates and assumptions in respect of mineral reserves and mineral resources and anticipated grades and recovery rates, production and prices, recovery costs and results, capital expenditures, and are or may be based on assumptions and estimates related to future technical, economic, market, political, social and other conditions. These 'forward - looking statements' are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Cardinal, are inherently subject to significant technical, business, economic, competitive political and social uncertainties and contingencies, and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results reflected in such forward- looking statements.

Cardinal disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, circumstances or results or otherwise after today's date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, other than required by the Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rules. The words 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'indicate', 'contemplate', 'target', 'plan', 'intends', 'continue', 'budget', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'schedule' and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements made in this Announcement are qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

To view metallurgical test program details please click on the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CDV0726.pdf

Contacts:

Archie Koimtsidis

CEO /MD

Cardinal Resources Limited

Australia Office + 61 8 6558 0573

Canada Office + 1 647 256 1922

Ghana Office + 233 382 021 838




Philippe Salle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group, will step down from his functions on November 30, 2017.

Gilles Cojan is appointed Vice-Chairman and will become Chairman of the Board of Directors after the departure of Philippe Salle.

Gilles Auffret is appointed senior director.

Pedro Fontana, CEO of Areas (Elior Group's worldwide concession catering business), is appointed Deputy CEO of the Group and will become interim CEO after the departure of Philippe Salle.

Regulatory News:

Elior Group (Paris:ELIOR):

At its July 26, 2017 meeting, the Board of Directors voted to modify the Group's one-tier corporate governance structure and adopt a two-tier system, in accordance with governance best practices currently in force.

It had become apparent to the Board that the sizable amount of time the Chairman dedicated to board and committee meetings (due notably to the numerous subjects to be treated as a result of the Group's ambitious development plan) was not compatible with the duties he was also required to exercise as CEO.

This decision will enable these bodies to function more efficiently.

Accordingly, the Board offered Philippe Salle, current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group, to remain director and CEO. Philippe Salle declared that while he understood the logic and pertinence of this decision, he did not wish to be part of this type of governance structure. As a result, he will step down as Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and member of the Board on November 30, 2017. Until then, he will continue to exercise all of his duties and responsibilities to the fullest.

At its July 26, 2017 meeting, the Board also appointed Sofibim, represented by Gilles Cojan, as Vice-Chairman, a position provided for in the internal rules of the company.

The Board of Directors decided to appoint Gilles Cojan Chairman of the Board, to take up office on the day of Philippe Salle's departure. Gilles Cojan was chosen for his in-depth knowledge of both the industry and the Group, in which he has played a key role notably by ensuring the bulk of its international expansion.

To enhance the corporate governance of the Group, the Board of Directors also decided to confer upon Gilles Auffret the role of senior director to go into effect immediately. Gilles Auffret's mission will be to assist the Chairman of the Board of Directors in organizing the work carried out by the Board, and to ensure the liaison between other independent directors so that he can coordinate the work they carry out and solicit their opinions.

Upon recommendation of Philippe Salle, Pedro Fontana, the current CEO of Areas, Elior Group's worldwide concession catering business, has been appointed Deputy CEO of Elior Group going into effect as of today. Pedro Fontana will be appointed CEO from the date Philippe Salle leaves the Group until the arrival of the new Director and CEO. The Nominations and Compensation Committee is currently reviewing possible successors and will submit its proposals to the Board of Directors as soon as possible.

The Board thanked Philippe Salle for the considerable contribution he has made in the development of the Group, as well as for launching and implementing the transformation plan, the positive impacts of which should continue to feed through in the years to come.

The financial release regarding the consolidated revenue figures at June 30, 2017 will be brought forward and issued on July 27, 2017 before the start of trading, owing to the review of the Group's quarterly information performed by the Board of Directors during its July 26, 2017 meeting.

The English-language version of this document is a free translation from the original, which was prepared in French. All possible care has been taken to ensure that the translation is an accurate representation of the original. However, in all matters of interpretation of information, views or opinions expressed therein, the original language version of the document in French takes precedence over this translation.

About Elior Group

Founded in 1991, Elior Group has grown into one of the world's leading operators in the catering and support services industry, and has become a benchmark player in the business industry, education, healthcare and travel markets. Now operating in 15 countries, the Group generated 5,896 million in revenue through 23,000 restaurants and points of sale in FY 2015-2016. Our 120,000 employees serve 4.4 million people on a daily basis, taking genuine care of each and every one by providing personalized catering and service solutions to ensure an innovative customer experience.

We place particular importance on corporate social responsibility and have been a member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2004 and we reached the GC Advanced level in 2015. The professional excellence of our teams, as well as their unwavering commitment to quality and innovation and to providing best in-class service is embodied in our corporate motto: "Time savored".

For further information please visit our website http://www.eliorgroup.com or follow us on Twitter @Elior_Group

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005900/en/

Contacts:

Elior Group

Investor relations

Marie de Scorbiac, +33 (0)1 71 06 70 13

marie.descorbiac@eliorgroup.com

or

Press contact

Anne-Laure Sanguinetti, +33 (0)1 71 06 70 57

anne-laure.sanguinetti@eliorgroup.com
Country

Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Global Remote Technologies Ltd. / Global Remote Signs LOI to Acquire 1Linx Blockchain Technologies . Processed and transmitted by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Remote Technologies Ltd. ("Global Remote" or the "Company") (CSE:RGT), (OTCMKTS:RGTZF), (Frankfurt Stock Exchange:GR9) is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") to acquire 1Linx Blockchain Technologies Corp ("1Linx"), a New York based blockchain technology company, for their highly successful proprietary Blockchain authentication platform and suite of Blockchain security services.

In the United States, Bitcoin exchanges are considered Money Services Businesses (MSBs) subject to various obligations and regulation. As a "financial institution", MSBs are required to comply with Bank Secrecy Act laws and regulations. 1Linx provides a suite of customer and security services that cater to meeting the regulatory requirements of Blockchain MSBs.

1Linx operates four distinct business lines: operator look-up, customer look-up, IP information, and customer friendly user-experience; all four business lines offer transaction verification services backed by the 1Linx proprietary blockchain technology platform. 1Linx was founded in 2013 by veterans in the mobile data and blockchain space, and have since boasted significant growth year over year. Their proprietary platform has attracted flagship customers like Coinbase.

Founded in 2012 Coinbase is one of the largest digital currency wallet platforms where merchants and consumers can transact with new digital currencies and has quickly become, "the world's most popular way to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin."

The LOI is subject to a number of conditions including the approval of 1Linx's shareholders and board, the approval of RGT's board, and the settlement of all of 1Linx's debt prior to closing. The LOI also outlines the execution of a definitive agreement of which the parties agree to execute within 30 days following the Company receiving the audited financial statements of 1Linx. This agreement will result in RGT acquiring all of the outstanding securities of 1Linx, such that 1Linx will become a direct wholly owned subsidiary of RGT.

This acquisition, and the future development of Blockchain software will allow RGT to provide our Resources, Oil and Gas clients with the most cutting edge security and process development software. We will be able to significantly increase our partner profit margins and will decrease liability for asset and project management.

About Global Remote Technologies

The objective at Global Remote Technologies is to reduce operational costs in the energy domain, specifically the oil sector, with unique, proprietary techniques and technologies that support upstream, midstream and downstream processes. Services are developed to create custom solutions that improve performance, improve health and safety standards, and bring significant savings to clients. GRT operates in rugged locations around the globe, with offices in Canada, Mexico, Oman, and the United States. Global Remote Technologies is a public company, traded in Canada and Germany under the symbols CSE: RGT and FRA: GR9.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Akash Patel

CEO, President and Director

Further information about the Company is available under its profile on the SEDAR website, www.sedar.com (http://www.sedar.com/), on the CSE website, www.thecse.com (http://www.thecse.com/), and on its website, www.grtcse.com (http://www.grtcse.com/).

Contact: Brian Biles

Telephone: 604-329-4421

Website: www.grtcse.com (http://www.grtcse.com/)

Forward-Looking Information: This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of the Company. Although the Company's management believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward- looking information because the Company cannot provide any assurance that it will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
Paris, 9 October 2017

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's leading luxury products group, recorded a 14% increase in revenue, reaching 30.1 billion, for the first nine months of 2017. Organic revenue grew 12% compared to the same period in 2016.

With organic revenue growth of 12%, the third quarter continues the trend recorded in the first part of the year. Revenue increased by 14%, including a negative currency impact of 5% and a positive structural impact of 7%, reflecting notably the integration of Christian Dior Couture. All business groups recorded double-digit organic growth, with the exception of Wines and Spirits, whose progress was limited by supply constraints.

Revenue by business group:

In million euros 9 months 2017 9 months 2016 Change 2017 / 2016

First 9 months

Reported Organic* Wines & Spirits 3 514 3 281 + 7 % + 8 % Fashion & Leather Goods 10 838 8 991 + 21 % + 14 % Perfumes & Cosmetics 4 065 3 578 + 14 % + 14 % Watches & Jewelry 2 789 2 486 + 12 % + 13 % Selective Retailing 9 335 8 283 + 13 % + 12 % Other activities & eliminations (446) (293) ns ns Total 30 095 26 326 + 14 % + 12 %

* With comparable structure and constant exchange rates.The exchange rate impact was -1% and the structural impact was +3%.

The Wines & Spirits business group recorded organic revenue growth of 8% in the first nine months of 2017. Champagne volumes were up 4%, with particularly strong demand in Europe and Japan. Hennessy cognac has been performing well since the beginning of the year. The volume increase was 9% for the first nine months of 2017, despite a third quarter decline related to supply constraints. Higher qualities progressed well.

The Fashion & Leather Goods business group recorded organic revenue growth of 14% for the first nine months of 2017. Louis Vuitton is still driven by its exceptional strength in the field of innovation, illustrated by its first smart watch and the many creations across all of its activities. The qualitative development of its distribution network continues, as illustrated by the opening of the Maison Louis Vuitton Vendome in Paris, which brings together under one roof all the savoir-faire of the Maison. Christian Dior Couture, whose business is consolidated for the first time in the third quarter, achieved an excellent performance. A retrospective at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, which has had tremendous success, celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Maison. Fendi is stepping up its development in the United States with the opening of several new stores. Loro Piana, Celine and Loewe are making good progress. Rimowa has been consolidated since January 2017 while Donna Karan was sold at the end of 2016.

The Perfumes & Cosmetics business group recorded organic revenue growth of 14% for the first nine months of 2017. Parfums Christian Dior continued its strong performance. Perfumes benefited from the continued success of J'adore, Sauvage, and from the launch of the eau de parfum Miss Dior. In makeup, the range of Rouge Dior lipstick grew rapidly. Guerlain rolled out its new Mon Guerlain fragrance internationally. Parfums Givenchy continued its strong expansion, driven by makeup. Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, distributed exclusively at Sephora, experienced an exceptional start.

The Watches & Jewelry business group recorded organic revenue growth of 13% for the first nine months of 2017. Bvlgari achieved a remarkable performance thanks in particular to the rapid growth of its signature jewelry collections Serpenti, Diva and B.Zero1. The launch of the new Festa high-end jewelry line was one of the highlights of the last quarter. Chaumet and Fred also contributed to the overall positive performance. In watches, TAG Heuer and Hublot continue to grow. The new products launched at the Basel trade show have had excellent results.

The Selective Retailing business group recorded organic revenue growth of 12% for the first nine months of 2017. Sephora continues to renovate its stores and expand its store network. After France, Sephora launched its new store concept in Spain with two new innovatively designed flagship stores, placing digital at the heart of the customer experience. Online sales are growing at a steady pace. DFS is experiencing sustained growth, particularly in Hong Kong and Macao. The T Galleria stores in Cambodia and Venice have developed well.

Outlook

In an uncertain geopolitical and currency environment, LVMH will continue to be vigilant. The Group will pursue its strategy focused on innovation and targeted geographic expansion in the most promising markets. LVMH will rely on the power of its brands and the talent of its teams to further extend its global leadership in the luxury market in 2017.

Except for the acquisition of Christian Dior Couture in July 2017, details of which are set out on page 52 of the 2017 Interim Financial Report, no material event or change took place during the quarter or to-date that would significantly affect the Group's financial structure.

Regulated information related to this press release and presentation is available on www.lvmh.fr (http://www.lvmh.fr)

ANNEX

LVMH - Revenue by business group and by quarter

2017 Revenue (Euro millions)

FY 2017 Wines & Spirits Fashion & Leather Goods Perfumes & Cosmetics Watches & Jewelry Selective Retailing Other activities & eliminations Total First Quarter 1 196 3 405 1 395 879 3 154 (145) 9 884 Second Quarter 1 098 *3 494 1 275 959 3 126 (122) *9 830 Total First Half 2 294 6 899 2 670 1 838 6 280 (267) 19 714 Third Quarter 1 220 3 939 1 395 951 3 055 (179) 10 381 Nine months 3 514 10 838 4 065 2 789 9 335 (446) 30 095

* Includes all Rimowa revenue for the first half of 2017.

2017 Revenue (Organic growth versus same period of 2016)

FY 2017 Wines & Spirits Fashion & Leather Goods Perfumes & Cosmetics Watches & Jewelry Selective Retailing Other activities & eliminations Total First Quarter +13% +15% +12% +11% +11% - +13% Second Quarter +6% +13% +13% +14% +12% - +12% Total First Half +10% +14% +12% +13% +12% - +12% Third Quarter +4% +13% +17% +14% +14% - +12% Nine months +8% +14% +14% +13% +12% - +12%

2016 Revenue (Euro millions)

FY 2016 Wines & Spirits Fashion & Leather Goods Perfumes & Cosmetics Watches & Jewelry Selective Retailing Other activities & eliminations Total First Quarter 1 033 2 965 1 213 774 2 747 (112) 8 620 Second Quarter 1 023 2 920 1 124 835 2 733 (67) 8 568 Total First Half 2 056 5 885 2 337 1 609 5 480 (179) 17 188 Third Quarter 1 225 3 106 1 241 877 2 803 (114) 9 138 Nine months 3 281 8 991 3 578 2 486 8 283 (293) 26 326

LVMH

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is represented in Wines and Spirits by a portfolio of brands that includes Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Krug, Ruinart, Mercier, Chateau d'Yquem, Domaine du Clos des Lambrays, Chateau Cheval Blanc, Hennessy, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Belvedere, Woodinville, Chandon, Cloudy Bay, Terrazas de los Andes, Cheval des Andes, Cape Mentelle, Newton, Bodega Numanthia and Ao Yun. Its Fashion and Leather Goods division includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Thomas Pink, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, Nicholas Kirkwood, Loro Piana and Rimowa. LVMH is present in the Perfumes and Cosmetics sector with Parfums Christian Dior, Guerlain, Parfums Givenchy, Kenzo Parfums, Perfumes Loewe, BeneFit Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Acqua di Parma, Fresh, Kat Von D and Maison Francis Kurkdjian. LVMH's Watches and Jewelry division comprises Bvlgari, TAG Heuer, Chaumet, Dior Watches, Zenith, Fred and Hublot. LVMH is also active in selective retailing as well as in other activities through DFS, Sephora, Le Bon Marche, La Samaritaine, Royal Van Lent and Cheval Blanc hotels.

"Certain information included in this release is forward looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties and factors beyond our control or ability to predict, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, projected or implied. It only reflects our views as of the date of this presentation. No undue reliance should therefore be based on any such information, it being also agreed that we undertake no commitment to amend or update it after the date hereof."

Contacts: Analysts and investors: Chris Hollis

LVMH + 33 1.4413.2122 Media: Jean-Charles Trehan +33 1 4413.2026 LVMH France : Michel Calzaroni/Olivier Labesse/

Thomas Roborel de Climens/Hugues Schmitt + 33 1.4070.1189 DGM Conseil UK: Hugh Morrison / Charlotte McMullen +44 7921.881.800 Montfort Communications Italy: Michele Calcaterra/ Matteo Steinbach +39 02 6249991 SEC and Partners US: James Fingeroth/Molly Morse/

Anntal Silver +1 212.521.4800 Kekst & Company





PDF Version (http://hugin.info/143740/R/2140591/819715.pdf)



This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: LVMH via Globenewswire


MCLEAN, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- The Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) Multifamily Research Group today released its Multifamily 2017 Mid-Year Outlook, and a companion video discussing its findings.

Outlook authors Steve Guggenmos and Sara Hoffmann find that the multifamily market will continue to grow for the rest of 2017 and into 2018. Although the market will continue to moderate from cyclical highs, demand for rental housing units will remain steady. As a result, Freddie Mac is predicting that origination volume is likely to hit another record in 2017, reaching between $270 and $280 billion.

Due to steady economic growth and strong demand for multifamily units, rent growth is expected to be similar to 2016 levels and vacancy rates will increase more slowly than initially forecast. However, the number of construction projects are expected to peak in 2017 or early 2018, which will push vacancy rates higher. Absorption of new units in some areas will take longer than in prior years, putting some downward pressure on rent growth.

"In the first half of 2017 multifamily performance, by most measures, remained near the historical average in the majority of markets across the country," said Steve Guggenmos, Freddie Mac Multifamily vice president of research and modeling.

Some larger metropolitan areas -- such as San Francisco, New York City, Washington, D.C. and Miami -- saw significant construction in the past year, which has pushed vacancy rates up and slowed rent growth. However, according to the Outlook, nearly two-thirds of metros will end the year with vacancy rates below their historical averages. In these areas, demand continues to outpace supply, which allows rents to keep rising.

Guggenmos added, "All things considered, 2017 will be yet another good year for the multifamily market. And importantly, it will not be the market's last strong year. Strong demand, fueled by demographic changes and lifestyle preferences, will ensure the multifamily market's continued strength in the years ahead."

Freddie Mac Multifamily is the nation's multifamily housing finance leader. Nearly 90 percent of the rental homes we fund are affordable to families with low to moderate incomes.

Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we've made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders and taxpayers. Learn more at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog FreddieMac.com/blog.

Christopher Spina

703-388-7031

Christopher_Spina@freddiemac.com




(All amounts in EUR)



Q2 2017 - Strong order intake, solid performance with delays in orders booked off



-- Revenue for Q2 2017 totaled 244.0m [Q2 2016: 264.2m]. -- EBITDA for Q2 2017 was 44.2m or 18.1% of revenue [Q2 2016: EBITDA 48.4m or 18.3% of revenue]. -- EBIT* for Q2 2017 was 35.9m or 14.7% of revenue [Q2 2016: EBIT* 39.7m or 15.0% of revenue]. -- Net result for Q2 2017 was 18.6m [Q2 2016: 22.1m]. Basic earnings per share were 2.62 euro cents in Q2 2017 [Q2 2016: 3.09 euro cents]. -- Cash flow from operating activities before interest and tax in Q2 2017 was 61.2m [Q2 2016: 43.7m]. Net debt/EBITDA was x2.15 at the end of Q2 2017. -- The order book was at 418.9m at the end of Q2 2017 compared with 390.3m at the end of Q1 2017 [Q2 2016: 306.5m].



Market conditions are good and Marel's competitive position is strong. In Q2, Marel secured order intake of 273 million. The order book was at 419 million compared with 307 million at the end of Q2 2016. In the beginning of Q3, Marel secured its largest order to date with a groundbreaking Greenfield project with Costco and Lincoln premium poultry in the U.S.



Revenue in Q2 2017 was 244 million with 14.7% EBIT*. Product mix and timing of deliveries of large orders resulted in orders booked off being lower in Q2 2017 than is expected going forward. Cash flow from operating activities was strong at 61.2 million in Q2 2017. Net debt/EBITDA was x2.15 at the end of the quarter. Net purchase of treasury shares amounted to EUR 14.6 million in Q2 2017. The Board of Directors of Marel has at its meeting on July 26, 2017 authorized management to to be used as payment for potential future acquisitions.



Revenue for the first half of 2017 was 496.5 million and is at same level as pro forma revenue for the first half of 2016. Order intake for the first half of 2017 was 565.9 million compared with pro forma 484.9 million for the first half of 2016. The order book was at 418.9 million compared with 307 million at the end of the first half of 2016.



Marel has agreed to acquire Sulmaq, a Brazilian meat primary processing equipment provider. The aim is to strengthen Marel's position in Central and South America and ensure better access to a large and growing market for beef and pork. Sulmaq's annual revenue is around 25 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. In the short term, the acquisition is not expected to have material impact on Marel's financial results.



Arni Oddur Thordarson, CEO:



"In Q2, revenue was 244 million with close to 15% EBIT*. Due to product mix and timing of deliveries of large orders, revenue in Q2 2017 was at a lower level than we expect going forward. Revenue and operational profit for the first six months of the year were at a similar level as for the first half of 2016.



Marel's competitive position is strong and market conditions are good, resulting in a 17% increase in order intake in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. In the beginning of Q3, our great team secured our largest order to date with Costco and Lincoln Premium Poultry where Marel is delivering a highly automated state-of-the-art poultry plant in the U.S. Marel, in partnership with its customers, is transforming the way food is processed by enabling our customers to deliver affordable and high quality food in a sustainable way.



We are as well strengthening our position in South America with the acquisition of Sulmaq, which has been at the forefront of providing primary meat solutions in the region. Marel has had great success in the poultry and fish market in South America over the last two decades and is now gearing up for further growth in this 600 million people region".



Marel agrees to acquire Sulmaq



Marel has agreed to acquire Sulmaq. The aim is to strengthen Marel's position in Central and South America and ensure better access to a large and growing market for beef and pork.



Established in 1971, Sulmaq is at the forefront of providing primary processing solutions to the pork and beef industries in Central and South America. Sulmaq is based in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. The company employs around 400 employees and their main solutions include hog slaughtering lines, cattle slaughtering lines, cutting and deboning, viscera processing and food logistics. Sulmaq has a large installed base in Central and South America and strong customer relationships. The company also develops and manufactures precision investment castings for various market segments. Sulmaq's annual revenue is around EUR 25 million.



Over the years, Marel has grown organically as well as through the acquisition of several internationally renowned brands such as MPS, Stork and Scanvaegt. The Sulmaq acquisition is in line with Marel's strategy to be a full line supplier to the poultry, meat and fish industries globally. Brazil is the second largest producer of beef and the third largest producer of poultry meat in the world and this step will strengthen Marel's position in Central and South America. Marel is committed to invest in Brazil and the Central and South American market, due to its growth potential, advanced agriculture and access to resources for the food industry.



The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions but anti-trust approval is not required. Sulmaq's leaders, Fernando Roos, Henrique Roos and Julio Roos, are instrumental for the future of Marel and they will continue in their current positions at Sulmaq. At closing, the management of Sulmaq intends to reinvest part of their proceeds in Marel shares. Sulmaq will be run as a standalone business unit with support from Marel while the companies work on creating the optimal set-up, which will enable them to serve their customers in the best possible way in the future.



Markets



Marel's competitive position is strong and market conditions are good. In Q2, Marel secured order intake of 273 million. The order book was at 419 million compared with 307 million at the end of Q2 2016. In the beginning of Q3, Marel secured its largest order to date with a groundbreaking Greenfield project with Costco and Lincoln premium poultry in the U.S. This new highly automated state-of-the-art poultry plant will deliver 1.6 million chickens per week and have all the latest technology available to ensure high quality food is produced sustainably at affordable prices.



Marel is the leading global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the poultry, meat and fish industries. Marel continues to introduce a steady stream of innovative products to the market that will continue to increase the customers' value and advance food processing going forward.



Marel Poultry



Marel Poultry had an excellent first half of the year with solid operational profit margins, strong volume and good order intake. During the first half of 2017, Marel Poultry generated 268.1 million in revenue and 47.3 million EBIT (17.6% of revenue). Projects were well distributed geographically and between different products. In Q1, a Greenfield project was secured in Russia and in Q2, large orders were secured in Europe and N-America. Marel is reaping the benefits of a steady flow of highly innovative solutions introduced to its markets. Marel Poultry accounted for 54% of Marel's total revenue for 1H 2017.



Marel Meat



The first half of 2017 was good for Marel Meat with good operational margins, volume, and order intake. Large Greenfield projects were secured in South-Korea and in Spain as well as numerous important projects worldwide. Marel's full line offering in the meat industry is well perceived by customers and various cross- and upselling sales were secured. Marel Meat generated 164.5 million in revenue and 23.0 million EBIT* (14.0% of revenue) during 1H 2017. Marel Meat accounted for 33% of Marel's total revenue for 1H 2017.



Marel Fish



The Q2 2017 results in Marel Fish are negatively affected by product mix and timing of deliveries of large orders. Marel Fish generated 59.2 million in revenue and 1.7 million EBIT (2.9% of revenue) during 1H 2017. Market conditions in fish remain good and good order intake continues with many large projects. In Q2, a Greenfield project in white fish was secured in Norway. Marel Fish accounted for 12% of Marel's total revenue for 1H 2017.



Financial items



Cash flow and investments



The balance sheet is healthy and net interest bearing debt amounted to 385.8 million at the end of Q2 2017, compared to 462.6 million at the end of Q2 2016.



Operational cash flow before interest and tax was 61.2 million for Q2 2017 compared to 43.7 million in Q2 2016. In Q2, Net debt/EBITDA is x2.15 which is within the range of the targeted capital structure.



Marel continues to invest in the business to prepare for future growth and full potential, which is in line with previous communication. Investment activities are expected to be, on average, above normalized levels for the coming period.



In Q2 2017, Marel purchased 4.7 million treasury shares for a total amount of 15.0 million to be used as a payment for potential future acquisitions, as per the company's announcement on 8 February 2017.



Marel sold 0.4 million treasury shares for EUR 0.4 million in order to fulfill obligations of stock option agreements. At the end of Q2 2017, Marel has 28.4 million treasury shares (end of Q1 2017: 24.0 million treasury shares).



In Q2 2017, Marel secured an extension to and amendments of its long term financing at favorable terms and conditions reflecting its financial strength and current market conditions. The all senior loan facilities are approximately 640 million EUR with initial interest terms EURIBOR/LIBOR +185 bps that will vary in line with Marel's leverage ratio (Net debt/EBITDA) at the end of each quarter. The final maturity is in May 2022. This provides Marel with increased strategic and operational flexibility to support the ambitious growth plan introduced at Marel's Annual General Meeting in March 2017



Outlook



Marel is targeting 12% average annual revenue growth in the next 10 years.



-- Marel's management expects 4-6% average annual market growth in the long term -- Marel aims to grow organically faster than the market, driven by innovation and market penetration -- Maintaining solid operational performance and strong cash flow supports average 5-7% revenue growth by acquisition -- Marel's management expects Earnings per Share (EPS) to grow faster than revenue



Growth will not be linear but based on opportunities and economic fluctuations. Operational results may vary from quarter to quarter due to general economic developments, fluctuations in orders received and timing of deliveries of larger systems.



Marel's Capital Markets Day 2017



Marel's Capital Markets Day for institutional investors, analysts and the media will take place on November 2, 2017 at Marel's demonstration center, Progress Point, in Copenhagen. More details and information about registration will be presented on Marel's Investor Relations website.



Presentation of results, July 27, 2017



Marel will present its results at an investor meeting on Thursday, July 27, at 8:30 am (GMT), at the company's headquarters at Austurhraun 9, Gardabaer. The meeting will also be webcasted at marel.com/webcast.



Marel's Investor calendar



-- 3rd quarter 2017 October 25, 2017 -- Capital Markets Day in Copenhagen November 2, 2017 -- 4th quarter 2017 February 7, 2018



Release of financial statements will take place after market closing on the aforementioned dates.



For further information, contact:



Audbjorg Olafsdottir, Corporate Director of Investor Relations and Communications, tel: (+354) 563 8626 / mobile: (+354) 853 8626.



Attachment:

https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=639525

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
DUBLIN, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Smart Insulin Pens Market Insights, Opportunity, Analysis, Market Shares And Forecast 2017 - 2023" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The smart insulin pens market is expected to grow with a CAGR of around 18% during the forecast period 2016-2023

The rising prevalence of diabetes is one of the major factors which is increasing the growth of the global smart insulin pens market. As per international diabetes federation, it is expected that around 642 million people are expected to suffer from diabetes around the world by the end of 2040. Hence, the growing concern for continuous glucose monitoring for diabetic patients is rising the demand smart insulin devices. Factors such as lack of dose flexibility and privacy and security concern are major challenges restricting the growth of smart insulin pens market.

Geographically, North America held the highest revenue share in 2016 in smart insulin pens market. The growth in North America market is majorly driven by the increasing adoption of smart glucose monitoring devices and rising prevalence of diabetes in the North America. The Asia Pacific smart insulin pen market is expected to grow with an impressive CAGR during the forecasted period 2016-2023. The growth in the region is mainly driven by rising adoption of smart devices for glucose monitoring which helps to maintain the sugar level of patients. Furthermore, presence of diabetic patient pool in Asian countries such as India, China, Japan, etc. is also contributing to growth in Asia Pacific smart insulin pens market.

The key players of insulin pens market who are actively working for the development of new technology are Abbott(U.S.), Companion Medical Inc. (U.S.), Elli Lilly (U.S.), Emperra Gmbh (Germany), Medtronic's (U.S.) and Jiangsu Delfu Medical Device Co. (China) .



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Market Overview

2.1. Global Smart Insulin Pens Market: Evolution & Transition

2.2. Market Definition & Scope

2.3. Industry Structure

2.4. Regulatory Framework

2.5. Total Market Analysis

2.6. Estimation Analysis

2.7. Strategic Analysis

2.8. Competitive Analysis

2.9. Strategic Recommendations & Key Conclusions



3. Market Determinants

3.1. Market Drivers

3.1.1. Rising Prevalence of Diabetes

3.1.2. Rising Demand for Diabetes Management

3.1.3. Explosion of Bluetooth Connected Insulin Pen

3.2. Market Restraints

3.2.1. Privacy And Security Concerns

3.2.2. Lack of Dose Flexibility

3.3. Market Opportunities

3.3.1. Needle Stick Injuries

3.3.2. Increasing Adoption of Medical Management Process

3.3.3. Growing Demand for Personalized Or Patient Centric Devices

3.4. Market Challenges

3.4.1. High Cost of Smart Pens

3.4.2. Low Accuracy Concerns



4. Market Segmentation

4.1. Global Smart Insulin Pens Market By Connectivity

4.1.1. Market Definition And Scope

4.1.2. Decision Support Database & Estimation Methodology

4.1.3. Comparative Analysis Across Market Segments

4.1.4. Opportunity Matrix

4.1.5. Market Segmentation

4.1.5.1. Global Bluetooth Connected Smart Insulin Pen Market

4.1.5.1.1. Application

4.1.5.1.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.1.5.1.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.1.5.1.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.1.5.1.5. Key Conclusions

4.1.5.2. Global Usb Connected Smart Insulin Pen Market

4.1.5.2.1. Application

4.1.5.2.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.1.5.2.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.1.5.2.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.1.5.2.5. Key Conclusions

4.2. Global Smart Insulin Pens Market By Indication

4.2.1. Market Definition And Scope

4.2.2. Decision Support Database & Estimation Methodology

4.2.3. Comparative Analysis Across Market Segments

4.2.4. Opportunity Matrix

4.2.5. Market Segmentation

4.2.5.1. Global Type 1 Diabetes Market

4.2.5.1.1. Application

4.2.5.1.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.2.5.1.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.2.5.1.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.2.5.1.5. Key Conclusions

4.2.5.2. Global Type 2 Diabetes Market

4.2.5.2.1. Application

4.2.5.2.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.2.5.2.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.2.5.2.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.2.5.2.5. Key Conclusions

4.3. Global Smart Insulin Pens Market By Channel

4.3.1. Market Definition And Scope

4.3.2. Decision Support Database & Estimation Methodology

4.3.3. Comparative Analysis Across Market Segments

4.3.4. Opportunity Matrix

4.3.5. Market Segmentation

4.3.5.1. Global Clinics And Ambulatory Surgical Centers Market

4.3.5.1.1. Application

4.3.5.1.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.3.5.1.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.3.5.1.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.3.5.1.5. Key Conclusions

4.3.5.2. Global E-Commerce Market

4.3.5.2.1. Application

4.3.5.2.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.3.5.2.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.3.5.2.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.3.5.2.5. Key Conclusions

4.3.5.3. Global Retail Pharmacies Market

4.3.5.3.1. Application

4.3.5.3.2. Adoption Scenario & Market Determinants

4.3.5.3.3. Market Estimations And Forecasts 2014-2023 ($ Million)

4.3.5.3.4. Top Players & Key Products

4.3.5.3.5. Key Conclusions



5. Competitive Landscape

5.1. Key Strategies

5.1.1. List of Mergers & Acquisition

5.1.2. List of Joint Ventures

5.1.3. List of Product Launches

5.1.4. List of Partnerships



6. Geographical Analysis



7. Company Profiles



Abbott

Common Sense Inc.

Companion Medical Inc

Dexcom

Diabnext

Digital Medics Ptd Ltd

Elli Lilly

Emperra Gmbh

Innovation Zed

Medtronic'S

Pendiq Gmbh

Smartplus

Tandem Diabetes Care

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rfjcsw/global_smart





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- 6 River Systems, Inc. (6RS) announced today a new round of investor financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from existing investors. Matthew Howard, a managing partner at Norwest, has joined the company's board of directors alongside Greg Reichow, a partner at Eclipse and formerly VP of Operations at Tesla Motors.

The new investment will accelerate the delivery of the company's Robotic Collaborative Fulfillment System (CFS) and mobile robot, "Chuck." The solution uses a proprietary mobile robot and cloud-based enterprise software to improve warehouse staff productivity and simplify training. The company is experiencing strong demand for the CFS since announcing general availability earlier this year. Their systems are live at leading third party logistics provider and retailer warehouses in North America supporting direct to consumer, retail store replenishment, and service parts fulfillment operations.

"E-commerce is transforming how people shop, but the technology to fulfill these orders has not kept up. 6 River Systems has demonstrated impressive market traction, and their approach to mobile robotic automation is disruptive to incumbent players," stated Matthew Howard of Norwest Venture Partners. "The 6RS solution uses artificial intelligence to profile and assign work to robots and users. Their proprietary software minimizes walking and congestion while maximizing utilization and operator rates -- a new solution to a decades long challenge."

Greg Reichow, a Partner at Eclipse, added "6RS 'uniquely experienced team has delivered a productivity solution designed to improve efficiency by leveraging retailers' existing assets. This approach provides significant benefits to warehouses of all sizes, making automation accessible to thousands of warehouses that are using manual carts to fulfill orders."

First Automation System with a Mobile Robot Lead

The CFS is the world's first automation system to have a mobile robot lead an associate through a zone-based picking and replenishment workflow, maximizing associate rates while minimizing the investment. Because it does not require any new infrastructure, it can be fully operational at a customer site in weeks. By implementing advanced artificial intelligence, the CFS enhances WMS order processing functionality through a simplified systems integration approach. Customers are realizing a two to three times increase in associate productivity, driving an industry leading payback on investment of 12-18 months.

About 6 River Systems, Inc.

6 River Systems, Inc. is based in Greater Boston and was founded by Jerome Dubois, Rylan Hamilton, and Christopher Cacioppo. The 6RS mission is to redefine fulfillment automation for e-commerce and retail operations. Jerome Dubois and Rylan Hamilton are former executives of Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics). www.6river.com

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest is a leading Silicon Valley based venture capital and growth equity investment firm managing more than $6 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders advance on their journey. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel.

About Eclipse Ventures

Eclipse Ventures is redefining the way investments are made in hardware-focused companies. We see a world where hardware, robust software architecture, and compelling data insights are no longer three separate business models. Rather, they are the three pillars that define successful systems companies of the future

MEDIA CONTACTS



6 River Systems, Inc.

Jerome Dubois

866-60-CHUCK

Email Contact



Norwest Venture Partners

Ellie Javadi

650-714-5057

Email Contact




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Serengeti Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SIR)(FRANKFURT: 34S) announces that Daewoo Minerals Canada Corporation ("DMC"), a Canadian subsidiary of POSCO Daewoo Corp., one of South Korea's leading trading corporations, has exercised its right to earn an additional 30% interest, bringing their total interest to 35% in the Kwanika Copper Gold project, subject to finalizing and executing the full Joint Venture Agreement for the project.

Serengeti President & CEO David W. Moore stated, "POSCO Daewoo's commitment provides financial stability and I believe significant value to both the Kwanika project and Serengeti as a Company. Today's announcement provides a clear path forward that will begin with the initiation of a Pre-feasibility in the short term. We look forward to working with a global partner of POSCO Daewoo's caliber having both financial and trading capabilities which will be very advantageous to our shareholders as both companies advance the Kwanika project towards our ultimate goal of putting the project into production".

Kwanika Project Advancement Plan

Over the next 60 days the partners will establish a joint venture company, finalize the full joint venture agreement, DMC will contribute their current 5% interest plus $7 million in cash and Serengeti will contribute an additional 30% Kwanika property interest to the new joint venture company. The partners are currently finalizing a plan and budget to advance the project through completion of a Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) including funding a significant drilling program beginning in late September and initiating other activities consistent with PFS level studies. Serengeti will remain as project operator and will be entitled to charge a 10% operator's fee on expenditures, so long as it maintains a majority interest. Additional terms of the Kwanika joint venture can be found in Serengeti's Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended February 28, 2017 and in NR-2016-02 dated March 7th, 2016, both of which are filed on SEDAR.

PEA Highlights:

An independent NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Kwanika copper-gold porphyry project located in the Quesnel Trough of North-Central British Columbia, Canada was completed in April 2017. The results of the PEA demonstrated the potential technical and economic viability of establishing a new copper-gold mine and mill complex on the property (see NR 2017-04, dated April 3rd, 2017 for full details).

-- Pre-tax and post tax respectively NPV7% of CDN $324 and $191.2 million, 21.1% and 16.6% IRR, over a 15-year mine life. -- Life of mine (LOM) metal production of 601 million pounds copper, 676,300 ounces gold, and 2.66 million ounces silver in concentrates. -- Annual metal production of 50.4 million pounds of copper, 70,100 ounces of gold, and 181,100 ounces of silver in concentrates for the first eight years. -- Initial capital cost of CDN $476 million plus LOM sustaining capital and closure cost of $83 million for a 15,000 tpd (5.4 million tpa) mill and combined open pit, underground mining operation.

National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure.

The Kwanika PEA was prepared by Moose Mountain Technical Services (MMTS) under the direction of Jim Gray, P.Eng., a Qualified Person (as defined under National Instrument 43-101) who is independent of Serengeti and has reviewed and approved this news release. Marek Nowak, P. Eng. and Chad Yuhasz, P. Geo. of SRK Consulting (Canada) completed the NI 43-101 resource assessment report included in this PEA and are Qualified Persons and independent of Serengeti.

David W. Moore, P.Geo., Serengeti Resources Inc. President & CEO is the Company's designated QP for this news release and has reviewed and validated that the information contained in the release is consistent with that provided by the QP's responsible for the PEA.

About Serengeti Resources Inc.

Serengeti is a mineral exploration company managed by an experienced team of professionals with a solid track record of exploration success. The Company is currently advancing its Kwanika copper-gold project in partnership with Daewoo Minerals Canada and exploring its extensive portfolio of properties in the highly prospective Quesnel Trough of British Columbia. A number of these other projects are available for option or joint venture and additional information can be found on the Company's website at www.serengetiresources.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

David W. Moore, P. Geo., President, CEO and Director

Cautionary Statement

This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities regulations. All statements other than statements of historical fact herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding exploration plans and other future plans and objectives, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and future events and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations as well as a comprehensive list of risk factors are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time via SEDAR with the Canadian regulatory agencies to whose policies we are bound. Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the date the statements are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should conditions or our estimates change, other than as required by law and readers are further advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The information in this News Release related to the Kwanika Copper/Gold Project was derived from the PEA. Statements pertaining to projected revenues and cash flows, quantity and grade of mineralized materials, estimated mineral prices are forward-looking statements. The Company cautions that this PEA is preliminary in nature, and is based on technical and economic assumptions which will be evaluated in further studies. The PEA is based on the current (as at January 2017) Kwanika estimated resource model, which consists of material in both the indicated and inferred classifications. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have technical and economic considerations applied to them. The current basis of project information is not sufficient to convert the mineral resources to mineral reserves, and mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Accordingly, there can be no certainty that the results estimated in the PEA will be realized.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

Paradox Public Relations

514-341-0408

Toll free (in North America) 1-866-460-0408

Email: info@paradox-pr.ca



Serengeti Resources Inc.

Tel: 604-605-1300

Email: info@serengetiresources.com

Website: www.serengetiresources.com




SANTIAGO, CHILE -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 --ITAU CORPBANCA (NYSE: ITCB) (SSE: ITAUCORP) announced today that it has rescheduled the conference call to discuss its financial results for the second quarter of 2017 on Tuesday, August 1st, 2017 from 9:30 A.M. Santiago time (9:30 AM ET) to 11:00 A.M. Santiago time (11:00 AM ET) due to an overlap with the time of the conference call in English of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. about its results for the same period.

The call to discuss the financial results will still be hosted by Gabriel Moura, Itau Corpbanca's Chief Financial Officer, and Claudia Labbe, Itau Corpbanca's Head of Investor Relations.

Conference Call Details:

Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: +1 (866) 819-7111 (US Toll Free Dial In), 0(800) 953-0329 (UK Toll Free Dial In) or +44 (0)1452-542-301 (Standard International Dial In). Please quote "Itau Corpbanca" to the operator.

A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available until Tuesday, August 8, 2017, by dialing +1 (866) 247-4222 (US Toll Free Dial In), 0(800) 953-1533 (UK Toll Free Dial In) or +44 (0)1452 550-000 (Standard International Dial In). Access Code: 2339939#

Slides and Audio Webcast:

There will also be a live, and then archived, webcast of the conference call, available through the Company's website. Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast. The webcast can be found at:

http://itaucorp.irwebpage.com/webcast_2017-2Q.html

About Itau Corpbanca

ITAU CORPBANCA (NYSE: ITCB) (SSE: ITAUCORP) is the entity resulting from the merger of Banco Itau Chile with and into Corpbanca on April 1, 2016. The current ownership structure is: 35.71% owned by Itau Unibanco, 31.00% owned by CorpGroup and 33.29% owned by minority shareholders. Itau Unibanco is the sole controlling shareholder of the merged bank. Within this context and without limiting the above, Itau Unibanco and CorpGroup have signed a shareholders' agreement relating to corporate governance, dividend policy (based on performance and capital metrics), transfer of shares, liquidity and other matters.

The merged bank has become the fourth largest private bank in Chile and will result in a banking platform for future expansion in Latin America, specifically in Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Central America. Itau Corpbanca is a commercial bank based in Chile with operations also in Colombia and Panama. In addition, Itau Corpbanca has a branch in New York and a representative office in Madrid. Focused on large and medium companies and individuals, Itau Corpbanca offers universal banking products. In 2012, the bank initiated a regionalization process and as of the date hereof has acquired two banks in Colombia -Banco Corpbanca Colombia and Helm Bank-, becoming the first Chilean bank having banking subsidiaries abroad. The merger with Banco Itau Chile and the business combination of our two banks in Colombia, represent the continued success of our regionalization process.

As of May 31, 2017, according to the Chilean Superintendency of Banks, Itau Corpbanca was the fourth largest private bank in Chile in terms of the overall size of its customer loan portfolio, equivalent to 11.2% market share.

As of May 31, 2017, according to the Colombian Superintendency of Finance, Itau Corpbanca Colombia was the sixth largest bank in Colombia in terms of total loans and also the sixth largest bank in Colombia in terms of total deposits, as reported under local regulatory and accounting principles. As of the same date, its market share by loans reached 5.3%.

Investor Relations

Itau Corpbanca

+56 (2) 2660-1701

IR@corpbanca.cl




IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 26, 2017 / Khang & Khang LLP (the 'Firm') announces a securities class action lawsuit against Asanko Gold Inc. ('Asanko' or the 'Company') (NYSE American: AKG). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Asanko shares from October 24, 2014 through May 31, 2017, inclusive (the 'Class Period'), are encouraged to contact the Firm before July 31, 2017, the lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased Asanko shares during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang LLP, 4000 Barranca Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92604, by telephone at (949) 419-3834 , or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

There has been no class certification in this case yet, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member as well.

According to the Complaint, throughout the Class Period, Asanko made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that the Company's Mineral Resource Estimates are flawed; that some of Asanko's resources models exhibit signs that they have been 'smeared,' which would cause estimates of their ore contents to be inflated; and that as a result of the above, Asanko's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When this news reached the public, Asanko's stock price fell materially, which caused investors harm.

If you want to learn more about this lawsuit, or if you have questions about this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for nearly two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834 , or via e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in certain jurisdictions.

Contact

Joon M. Khang, Esq.

Telephone: 949-419-3834

Facsimile: 949-225-4474

joon@khanglaw.com

SOURCE: Khang & Khang LLP
According to the Complaint, throughout the Class Period, Tahoe made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that consultation obligations relating to the permitting of the Escobal mining license were not met; that the Escobal mining license is subject to suspension; and that as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On July 5, 2017, Tahoe revealed that the Supreme Court of Guatemala issued a provisional decision suspending the Escobal mining license of its subsidiary, Minera San Rafael, in connection with an action brought by CALAS against Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines ('MEM'). CALAS alleges that MEM violated the Xinca Indigenous people's right of consultation in advance of granting the Escobal mining license. Following this news, shares of Tahoe decreased in value materially, which caused investors harm according to the Complaint

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
STUDIO CITY, CALIFORNIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Petroteq Energy Inc. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: PQE)(OTCQX: PQEFF), a company focused on the development and implementation of proprietary technologies for the environmentally safe extraction of heavy oils from oil sands, oil shale deposits and shallow oil deposits, announces the following corporate matters:

Shares for Debt

The Company announces it has entered into a shares for debt agreement, pursuant to which it will issue 60,000 common shares in satisfaction of US$50,000 of indebtedness currently owed to an arm's length creditor. The Corporation determined to satisfy the indebtedness with common shares in order to preserve its cash for use on its extraction technology, and for working capital. The share issuance has been approved by the directors of the company and will be issued upon acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). The common shares issued in satisfaction of the indebtedness will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance.

Management Changes

The Company announces the resignation of Dr. Gerald "Jerry" Bailey as CEO of the Company. Dr. Bailey has elected to retire after five years from his position as CEO in order to have more time to focus on his family and other ventures in which he is involved. He will remain as a director of the Company to provide technical expertise and executive experience to management and has agreed to continue to act as spokesman for the Company at various public venues and speaking engagements.

The Company also announces that the board of directors has appointed Alex Blyumkin, co-founder of the Company, to act as CEO in Dr. Bailey's place and also to serve as Board Chairman. In order to assume these roles Blyumkin has resigned from his officer position as Executive Chairman.

"Jerry has been instrumental in the development and commercialization of Petroteq's unique oil sands recovery technology over the last five years," commented Mr. Blyumkin. "We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Jerry's caliber on our team. Together with the board I thank him for his contributions and tireless dedication and wish him all success in his future endeavors."

Investor Relations

The Company has entered into a services agreement with IRTH Communications, LLC ("IRTH"), a leading provider of investor relations, financial communications, and strategic consulting services to provide investor relations and communication services, subject to TSXV approval.

IRTH, based in Santa Monica, California, provides a full suite of investor relations services utilizing modern technologies coupled with long lasting relationships and relationship building processes to help develop and maintain interest from clients' shareholder bases.

IRTH has been retained for an initial term of 12 months with automatic successive 12 month renewal terms. The first renewal term can be terminated upon 30 days prior written notice, and the agreement can be terminated at any time during a renewal term upon 30 days prior written notice. IRTH will be paid a monthly fee of US$7,500 plus a US$100,000 set up fee, and a further US$100,000 set up fee upon each renewal term, if any.

The Company and IRTH act at arm's length, and IRTH has no present interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or its securities. The fee paid by the Company to IRTH is for services only.

About Petroteq Energy Inc.

The Company is engaged in the development and implementation of its proprietary, environmentally friendly heavy oil processing and extraction technologies. The Company is currently focused on oil and gas exploration and production on mineral leases located in southwest Texas held by Accord GR Energy Inc. (46% of which is owned by the Company), developing its oil sands resources and in expanding production capacity at its Asphalt Ridge heavy oil extraction facility located near Vernal, Utah.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Words such as "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, including the expected completion of the proposed shares for debt transaction and the investor relations agreement, the expected continuing contribution of Mr. Bailey as a spokesman for the Company and the expected ability of IRTH to help develop and maintain interest from the Company's shareholder base, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information, including, final approval of the shares for debt and the investor relations agreement by the TSXV, the continuing contribution of Mr. Bailey, the ability of IRTH to develop and maintain interest from the Company's shareholder base and that the technologies mentioned herein perform as anticipated. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet the Company's expectations and predictions depend on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of the Company to differ materially from its expectations.

Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, changes in laws or regulations; the ability to implement business strategies or to pursue business opportunities, whether for economic or other reasons; status of the world oil markets, oil prices and price volatility; and oil pricing; state of capital markets and ability by the Company to raise capital; litigation; the commercial and economic viability of the Company's oil sands hydrocarbon extraction technology, the SWEPT technology, the S-BRPT technology, and other proprietary technologies developed or licensed by the Company or by Accord which are of experimental nature and have not been used at full capacity for an extended period of time; reliance on suppliers, contractors, consultants and key personnel; the ability of the Company and Accord to maintain their respective mineral lease holdings; potential failure of the Company's business plans or model; the nature of oil and gas production and oil sands mining, extraction and production; uncertainties in exploration and drilling for oil, gas and other hydrocarbon-bearing substances; unanticipated costs and expenses, availability of financing and other capital; potential damage to or destruction of property, loss of life, and environmental damage; risks associated with compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations; uninsurable or uninsured risks; potential conflicts of interest of officers and directors; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ending August 31, 2016, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Petroteq Energy Inc.

Alex Blyumkin

Chief Executive Officer

(800) 979-1897




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Hy-Vee, Inc. based in West Des Moines, Iowa, announced voluntarily recall of eight Hy-Vee brand pizzas that were sold at its six Minneapolis-area stores citing they may contain undeclared soy. No illnesses have been reported in connection with these products to date. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction, if they consume these products. The take-and-bake Hy-Vee brand pizzas were distributed at the Twin Cities Hy-Vee stores in New Hope, Oakdale, Lakeville, Brooklyn Park, Eagan and Savage, near the stores' Italian departments and prepared-meal areas. The Hy-Vee pizzas are packaged in plastic wrapped pizza tins and sold out of refrigerated display cases. They are produced by Hy-Vee's wholly owned subsidiary D & D Foods, Inc., based in Omaha, Nebraska. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A flight from New York was delayed for two hours after a fight erupted between a pilot and a flight attendant. Police officials had to embark the aircraft at LaGuardia Airport after the incident. According to reports, the 54 year-old pilot had a dispute with the 26-year-old flight attendant prior to takeoff aboard the plane. The pilot even called the attendant 'a piece of s---.' Reports say that about six Port Authority police officers, some carrying 'huge' guns, interviewed flight attendants in the jet bridge. The crew were ordered to disembark the flight and the plane departed two hours late at 1:30 p.m. A spokesman noted that the plane was operated by a subsidiary of Delta, Endeavor Air. 'Endeavor Air apologizes to the customers on board Endeavor Air flight 3925, operating as Delta Connection, from LaGuardia to Portland, Maine whose travel was inconvenienced as a result of a disagreement between two crew members. The actions of these crew members, as described, in no way reflects the respect, values and professionalism we expect from our employees,' the spokesman said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BrandTotal, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based martech startup, secured $2M in funding.

The round was led by Glilot Capital Partners, with participation from KDC Media Fund and Dick Clark Productions.

Founded early in 2016 by Alon Leibovich, Amir Leshman, and Omer Ramote, with Oren Dor joining the executive team shortly thereafter, BrandTotal provides a solution for marketers and brands to gain insight into their competitors dark marketing* campaigns.

Using cyber and machine learning methodologies in the form of a proprietary algorithm that accurately models all online consumer activity and identifies competitive plans, BrandTotal provides a platform that delivers actionable opportunities in real-time to allow brands to reverse engineer their competitions marketing strategy and finally go agile  adjusting their marketing strategy quickly.

The company  a graduate of the Microsoft Accelerator program  currently employs a team of 10 and is looking to expand its team in the areas of data science and business development.

FinSMEs

26/07/2017

* Dark marketing is a major trend among brands, as PWCs Digital Services group reports that 94% of company executives believe in reaching customers through targeted, personalized marketing experiences.
New Delhi: A combined 5,076 cases of active banking frauds involving Rs 1 lakh or more causing losses of Rs 16,78,853 lakh were reported by 76 banks during 2016-17, Parliament was informed on Tuesday

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said State Bank of India reported 544 cases of such frauds that caused a loss of Rs 1,91,295 lakh.

The minister further said that for ICICI Bank, the number of cases is 688 causing loss of Rs 36,844 lakh.

To a separate query, Gangwar said public banks received 81,309 complaints about working style in 2016-17, of which 77,291 were disposed of.

SBI received maximum complaints (30,581), followed by Punjab National Bank (6,227), Canara Bank (5,248) and Bank of Baroda (5,043).
Beijing: China accused India on Tuesday of "abusing" trade remedy measures and called for settling trade disputes through consultation.

Reacting to India's move to launch an anti-dumping investigation over photovoltaic cells and units imported from the China, Taiwan, and Malaysia, Wang Hejun, head of the Ministry of Commerce's (MOC) trade remedy and investigation bureau, said China is paying close attention to the investigation and hopes India will conduct it in a prudent manner and as per relevant rules.

He was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying that India should avoid "abusing" trade remedy measures and hoped the two countries can settle trade disputes through consultation.

Wang's comments come ahead of Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to Shanghai to take part in the BRICS trade ministers meeting to be held from August 1-2 to discuss expanding e-commerce cooperation.

Wang said adopting restrictive measures for the trade of photovoltaic products would not only harm photovoltaic sector development in India, but also dampen the sector's long-term development worldwide as well as economic and trade cooperation between China and India.

All countries should cooperate for the sustainable and healthy development of the photovoltaic sector, which is significant in fighting climate change, rather than resorting to trade remedy measures and disrupting trade orders, Wang was quoted as saying.

India's photovoltaic market has witnessed fast expansion, with its photovoltaic power generating capacity growing 3.7 times over the past three years, which has also benefited from China's photovoltaic products with reasonable prices and high quality, Wang said ahead of the BRICS meet aimed at expanding e-commerce cooperation.

E-commerce cooperation, such as in the areas of logistics and payments, is developing fast among the five countries, with many of their products gaining traction on the Chinese market, according to Zhang Shaogang, director with the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs with the MOC.

Meanwhile, economic and technological cooperation will be included in the agenda for the first time in the trade ministers meeting's history to improve the bloc's capabilities in service trade, e-commerce and other fields, the report said.

China imported products worth over US $70.16 billion from BRICS countries in the first half of 2017, up 33.6 percent year on year, MOC data showed.

The Xinhua report, however, did not provide details of China's exports to BRICS countries.

During her visit, Sitharaman was also expected to discuss the yawning trade deficit in India-China bilateral trade which has now crossed over US $50 billion in little over US $70 billion overall trade between the two countries.
New Delhi: Demonetisation led to a decline in Pakistan printed high quality fake Indian currency notes which resulted only Rs 2.60 lakh seizure of such notes in Jammu and Kashmir between 9 November, 2016 and 14 July, parliament was told on Tuesday.

"As per reports of agencies, the demonetisation of bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination resulted in significant positive impact on most theatres of violence in the country," Minister of State of Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Lokj Sabha in a written reply.

"Since illegally held cash forms the major chunk of terrorist funding, after the demonetisation, most of the cash held with the terrorists turned worthless. Demonetisation also led to instant extinguishment of Pakistan-printed high quality fake Indian currency notes. It also adversely affected the hawala operators," he said.

Citing National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, Ahir said that only Rs 2.60 lakh fake Indian currency notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000 (98 notes), new Rs 500 (68 notes) and old Rs 500 (60 notes) have been recovered in Jammu and Kashmir between 9 November, 2016 and 14 July, 2017.
New Delhi: The country's largest mortgage player HDFC on Wednesday reported marginal decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,734 crore for the first quarter ended on 30 June.

Its consolidated net profit during the April-June quarter of previous fiscal stood at Rs 2,797 crore.

However, total consolidated income rose to Rs 14,463 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 13,531 crore for the quarter ended 30 June, 2016.

On standalone basis, HDFC posted a net profit of Rs 1,556 crore for April-June against that of Rs 1,871 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

The company in a statement said the standalone profit numbers for the first quarter are not comparable.

"In the quarter ended 30 June, 2016, it sold shares of HDFC ERGO General to ERGO International AG, a subsidiary of Munich Re for a consideration of Rs 922 crore and had also created a one-time special provision of Rs 275 crore as a charge to the statement of profit and loss," it said.

The reported profit before tax for the quarter ended 30 June, 2017 stood at Rs 2,359 crore compared to Rs 2,700 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The effective tax rate for the quarter ended 30 June, 2017 was higher at 34 percent compared to 30.7 percent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, it said.

"This was because the stake sale of unlisted shares of HDFC ERGO in the corresponding quarter of the previous year attracted long-term capital gains tax at a lower rate of 23.07 percent compared to the marginal corporate tax rate. We expect the tax rate to significantly reduce in the subsequent quarters on account of dividend income and sale of investments," it said.

As a result, it said, the reported profit after tax for the quarter ended 30 June, stood at Rs 1,556 crore.

Standalone income was at Rs 8,141.76 crore for the quarter ended 30 June, 2017, while it was at Rs 8,393.33 crore for the quarter ended 30 June, 2016, it added.

The statement further said individual loan disbursements grew by 21 percent during the quarter.

The average size of individual loans stood at Rs 26.3 lakh.

As at 30 June, 2017, the loan book stood at Rs 3,12,978 crore as against Rs 2,65,731 crore in the previous year.

On asset quality, gross non-performing loans at 30 June, amounted to Rs 3,513 crore. This is equivalent to 1.12 percent of the loan portfolio.

In June 2017, the Reserve Bank of India's Internal Advisory Committee identified various accounts for reference under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The Corporation has an exposure of Rs 909 crore as at 30 June, 2017 in one of these accounts, it said.

"As at March 31, 2017, though the account was not a non-performing loan, as a prudent measure, the Corporation had made adequate provisioning against this exposure. Thus, no further provisioning was required on this exposure for the quarter ended 30 June, 2017," it said.
New Delhi: Digital payments major Paytm may join forces with its investor Alibaba to pick up a minority stake in online grocery retailer BigBasket for about US $200 million, according to sources.

The companies are holding preliminary talks and may take a call on the matter in the next few weeks, sources privy to the development said. They did not wish to be identified as discussions are still on and the deal has not been signed yet.

When contacted Paytm declined to comment, while BigBasket did not respond to emailed queries. Alibaba spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on market speculation.

Investing in BigBasket would help Paytm in further strengthening its play in the e-commerce space. For Alibaba, it would add more muscle to take on US-based rival Amazon.

One of the persons familiar with the development said BigBasket is looking at raising money to fund its expansion plans.

BigBasket has raised over US $200 million from investors including Abraaj Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Growthstory, Helion Venture Partners, IFC and Sands Capital.

With people becoming comfortable buying even milk and bread online, online grocery segment is projected to witness a strong growth over the next few years.

According to a report by Franchise India, the online grocery market is expected to be Rs 2.7 billion market by 2018-19. Industry watchers believe that grocery would become bigger than electronics and fashion, categories that currently dominate online purchases.

Grocery delivery is a cash-intensive business as players operate on wafer-thin margins and often end up losing money on delivery. Players like Snapdeal-backed PepperTap has already shut shop. However, the action is set to return with Amazon US $500 million FDI proposal getting approved.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by 7 September. The court also passed a directive to start proceedings to auction Rs 39,000 crore Amby Valley properties owned by the group.

The bench was informed by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Roy, that the Sahara chief has deposited Rs 247 crore as against the promised amount of Rs 552.21 crore which was to be deposited in the refund account by 15 July.

Sibal told the bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, that the balance amount of Rs 305.21 crore out of the Rs 552.21 crore would be deposited by 12 August.

The bench, however, said that Rs 1,500 crore which Roy would deposit by 7 September would also include the balance amount of Rs 305.21 crore.

The apex court extended the parole granted to him earlier till 10 October.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra asked the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court to proceed with the publication of sale notice with regard to auctioning of Sahara's prime property at Aamby Valley.

The bench fixed the matter for further hearing on 11 September.

On 5 July, the apex court had noted that Roy had deposited Rs 710.22 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account, but had warned him that his cheque of Rs 552.21 crore must be realised within the 15 July deadline.

Roy had earlier told the court that he will pay Rs 1,500 crore on or before 15 June and Rs 552.22 crore exactly a month thereafter.

He has spent almost two years in jail and been on parole since 6 May last year. The parole was granted the first time to enable him attend the funeral of his mother. It has been extended since then.

Besides Roy, two other directors -- Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary -- were arrested for failure of the group's two companies -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) -- to comply with the court's August 31, 2012 order to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors.

Another company director Vandana Bhargava was not taken into custody.
A police team probing the abduction of a popular actress in Kerala in which superstar Dileep has been arrested said on Wednesday, 26 July, that they have questioned his actress wife Kavya Madhavan and her mother. According to recent reports, she is likely to be summoned for questioning again, this time at the Aluva Police Club.

Superintendent of Police AV George told reporters: "I can confirm that she was questioned yesterday (Tuesday). I cannot provide any more information." Kavya Madhavan was reportedly questioned for over six hours at the ancestral home of Dileep. She reportedly broke down several times.

It was on 17 February that the actress was abducted and harassed in a moving vehicle for around two hours in Kochi. The police had earlier arrested the prime accused, Pulsar Suni, and his accomplices.

On 1 July, Kavya Madhavan's office for her e-commerce venture Laksyah was raided by the police in connection to this case. It was said that Suni had previously visited the office twice and had kept a memory card containing pictures of the actress' assault there.

The police also alleged in a report to the court that Dileep wanted 'revenge' from the Malayalam actress in question, as he held her responsible for the failure of his first marriage to Manju Warrier.

On Monday the Kerala High Court refused to give bail to Dileep. On Tuesday his judicial remand was extended till 8 August. He faces charges of criminal conspiracy; in response, he has plead innocence and claimed that he is being framed. On the other hand, the prosecution has said that it has strong evidence against the actor.

Dileep was first tagged in this case when his name appeared in letters written by Pulsar Suni's former cellmate demanding that he pay Rs 1.5 crore so that Suni would not name him in the case.

(With inputs from IANS)
While Kangana Ranaut is already learning sword-fighting to do full justice to her Rani Laxmibai character in Manikarnika, Atul Kulkarni has been roped in to play Tatya Tope in the film, as per DNA.

Firstpost had earlier reported that Suresh Oberoi, has been signed to play Peshwa Bajirao II in the biographical film.

Tope, whose actual name was Ramachandra Pandurang Tope, was one of the generals who led the Indian rebellion of 1857. He also aided Rani Laxmibai in acquiring the city of Gwalior from the British rule.

Kulkarni is not new to bringing historical characters on screen. He had played the role of Ram Prasad Bilmil, an Indian revolutionary, in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti.

The film was a blockbuster and managed to secure a special place in the hearts of Indians for its patriotic sentiment.

Kulkarni's character in Rang De Basanti was also widely appreciated. To make the portrayal of Tope lifelike, the actor has reportedly been learning horse-riding and sword-fighting.

Kulkarni also told DNA that he is putting in everything he can in this role. His body double, who was originally hired to do all the stunts, has been just sitting around the sets, because Kulkarni has taken it upon himself to make the depiction look as authentic as possible.
There seems to be no escaping news about CBFC and Pahlaj Nihalani these days. The Censor Board Chairman, famous for his 'tough' stance, has a knack for finding himself in situations where either, something has outraged him, or he has outraged someone. But this week, he's outdone himself and grabbed the headlines almost every day.

Here's your roundup of what, where and why:

Pahlaj Nihalani might possibly be terminated:

While this is purely speculative, Nihalani might be asked to step down, citing reasons like Smriti Irani's new role as Minister for Information & Broadcasting. Potential replacements for Nihalani have also been looked into, with Prakash Jha, Chandraprakash Dwivedi and Madhur Bhandarkar at the top of these supposed lists. Till we wait for this to be confirmed, Nihalani has said that nothing of the sort has been communicated to him, and that he will stay in the role till he has been asked to leave.

Smoking and drinking not to be shown in films:

Nihalani isn't satisfied simply by disclaimers asking people not to consume alcohol or smoke. He now wants films not to feature these at all, especially at the hands of leading men, claiming "superstars who are followed by millions and who set an example in societal behaviour must not be shown drinking or smoking on screen unless the provocation for doing so is really strong..." in which case the film will automatically certify as A.

An NOC may be required to show cellphone numbers on-screen:

This is another unconfirmed piece of news, but according to DNA the CBFC now allegedly requires filmmakers to provide No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for phone numbers that they may refer to or show on screen.

Nihalani has issued a legal notice against the organisers of the IIFA awards:

After being referred to as a 'watchman' in a sketch by Riteish Deshmukh and Maneish Paul, Nihalani sued IIFA, claiming that he was projected 'inappropriately'. As part of his suit, Nihalani has demanded that IIFA apologises publicly on print and broadcast platforms and pledges never to repeat this. He also went on to claim that the awards show was entirely commercial, and lost its dignity and relevance a long time ago

Indu Sarkar and Jab Harry Met Sejal receive their certifications:

During the trailer launch of the film, Imtiaz Ali announced that Jab Harry Met Sejal has been certified U/A without any audio cuts, while Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar has also been given the U/A certificate, with two cuts and one disclaimer.
For bad timing, this is difficult to beat. With the Chinese dragon belching fire down our backs, it could not be a more inopportune time to go get the armed forces.

With the double downgrade of perks and privileges by reducing canteen limits according to rank and now, stopping free rations for those posted in peace stations, there is a clear stomping of the terms and conditions of service.

This would make the government the first to arbitrarily mess with the armed forces after Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru cut down salaries of officers after the Second World War and the departure of the British by almost 50 percent on the grounds that India was pacifist and did not need armies.

This sunny-side-up attitude was all very well in those days but look where it got us in 1962. The sidelining was done then on the grounds that the army might take over the country in much the same fashion as was happening in Pakistan in that time span.

This argument has been effectively used to frighten politicians into making non-military decisions for the military. Whether it is One Rank One Pension (OROP) or the chasms between the deals given to the bureaucracy vis a vis their emoluments and how they are calculated, as well as their disparate pensions, the urge to keep the uniform suppressed and docile is paramount. How on earth does it help the morale of the nation at this moment when we are facing active hostility on the three borders by messing about with accepted premises for those who join the forces?

How can you break the promise?

At the very outset, this concept of peace postings in cantonments gives the impression that everyone is on vacation. This is far from the truth. Officers and soldiers are on 24/7 duty and training hard.

What happens to a division when it is activated and moved to the frontlines? Does the free ration clause become valid again?

It is bad enough that we have so blithely informed the enemy that we have only ten days ammunition on a war scale after which our guns will run dry. It is even worse that we have a part-time defence minister. But to bring our forces to the point where an officer of the rank of colonel is compelled to go to court against the arbitrary change in the promised terms and conditions is pathetic.

Not only is Colonel Mukul Dev an advocate but he has also done his homework. You cannot ipso facto change the premise on which people were recruited. You do not have to be a legal eagle to know that he has a very sound case. But what is worrying is that we have reached this point where letting the forces down has become sport. There is little realisation of the fact that we are surrounded by hostile elements and the basic tenet that war can only be avoided by having a strong and viable peacetime armed forces. The Rs 96 per day ration money is ludicrously insulting.

The chiefs of the three forces also need to lead from the front. This General Malik-inspired sentiment of we will fight with what we have is largely a surrender to the civilian cadres and the political firmament, few (if any) of whom have sons and daughters in the forces. Hooray Henry grandstanding does not protect national security. The silence on the part of the current incumbents is stunning. They have to fight for their troops and the men who lead them.

Are we so blind to what is happening on the borders?
Mumbai: A day after the police informed the Bombay High Court that Byculla jail inmate Manju Shetye died after falling in the toilet, six jail officials arrested on charge of her murder on Tuesday moved bail application in the sessions court.

In the bail application filed through their lawyer Pankaj Bafna, the arrested officials contended that they need bail as they have small children to look after.

They have also said that contrary to the claim that rod was inserted in Shetye 's private parts the investigation found nothing of that sort.

Bafna said the complainant and other inmates are continuously changing statement.

"The police on Monday told the Bombay High Court that it was a case of accident and not murder on this ground we have sought bail," said Bafna.

Manisha Pokharkar, Wasima Shaikh, Shital Shegokar, Surekha Gulve, Aarti Shingne and Bindu Naikade were arrested last month for assaulting Shetye and causing her death.

The court is likely to hear the plea on August 4. Shetye (45), serving life sentence, died in hospital on 23 June after she was allegedly beaten up by the jail staff.

On 24 June, women inmates, including Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, resorted to violent protest in the prison.

The plea further stated that Indrani and others "masterminded" the false case to gain advantage out of a personal grudge against public servants.

The applicants said on the day of the incident they noticed Indrani was standing in front of the main gate and giving physical indications as well as hints to other inmates, and when she was asked what she was doing she didn't reply and later started screaming.

Later, around 200 inmates surrounded the jail officials and started pushing and assaulting them.

"Indrani instigated and planned the entire riot and influenced all other inmates into rebelling and assaulting the jail authorities by making them believe that they (jail staff) had killed the woman inmate (Shetye) and that it's time to take revenge for her death," the application said.

Indrani and many other inmates charged towards the jail staff carrying plates, bowls, clothes and other articles they could lay their hands on and started throwing them.

While the six jail officials and other station house officers tried to pacify and control the inmates by requesting them to return to their barracks, Indrani did not stop and on her instructions all the inmates started hitting the jail authorities including the accused, the application said.

Some inmates entered the record room of the prison and destroyed many government documents, computers, and tables by setting them on fire with the help of a matchbox, it said.

They also manhandled the jail authorities by tearing their uniforms. Indrani then surrounded the six accused and started hitting them with chappals and bottles, the application said.

Indrani then ran towards the main gate and instructed other inmates to break open the main gate and run away from the prison, it said, adding that she was constantly yelling and telling the inmates to hit whichever jail authority comes in front of them.
New Delhi: The central committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), its highest decision-making body, on Tuesday decided against nominating party general secretary Sitaram Yechury for a third consecutive Rajya Sabha term, a top leader said.

A deeply divided central committee took the decision after a vote by raising of hands, capping deliberations on the contentious issue that lasted nearly four hours.

"The decision was taken keeping in mind the party norm that no CPM leader can represent the party in the Upper House for more than two terms.

"Plus, the Kerala unit of the party was against taking help of Congress to get the party general secretary re-elected", the leader said.

In fact, a majority of central committee members from other southern states, including Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, too, opposed the proposal which had the backing of the West Bengal and Tripura units.

The proposal for a third term for Yechury was moved by the West Bengal unit of the CPM in June after the Congress' central leadership reportedly offered its support to help get Yechury re-elected.

The party's politburo had already rejected the proposal before it came up for discussion by the central committee on Tuesday.

The CPM leadership is also learnt to have spoken to Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan about his interview to a leading English daily in which he said Yechury cannot be sent to the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Congress, an old rival in the southern state.

The second term of Yechury, a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, ends next month.

The election for six West Bengal Rajya Sabha seats, including the one represented by Yechury, will be held on 8 August. Nomination for the poll is to be filed before 28 July.
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
New Delhi: Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with over a decade-old money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing.

Officials said Shah was arrested in Srinagar and is expected to be brought to Delhi on Wednesday. He would be produced in a court.

The ED had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central investigating agency. A Delhi court had earlier in July issued a non-bailable warrant against the separatist leader.

"The warrant has been executed," a senior official said.

The agency had issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case, wherein the Delhi Police's special cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

Shah in the past had told that the ED case against him was "politically motivated".

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani. Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.

During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission.

Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments over the past year.

The ED, sources said, wants to probe the "proceeds of crime" of alleged terror financing in this case.
Mumbai: The building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, which left 17 people dead, figured in the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday with the Congress and the NCP demanding stringent action against those responsible.

The opposition stuck to its demand for an immediate discussion on the incident and forced the House to be adjourned thrice after rejecting the government's proposal to take up the matter later in the day.

The opposition targeted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the incident alleging that the Shiv Sena-ruled civic body had turned a blind eye to the complaints of the residents about the unauthorised works being carried out on the ground floor of the building.

They repeatedly referred to the arrest of Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap in connection with the building collapse.

The leader of the Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, charged that the BMC has become 'a private limited company' which protects the interest of a handful of people.

"The BMC should become a public service body that will protect the interest of the common man," he said.

In a dig at the Shiv Sena, which rules the civic body, he said, "There are some people in the power who are responsible for this tragic accident."

He wanted the government to take stern action against everybody involved in it and asked the ruling BJP not to try to protect its ally (Shiv Sena) in the matter.

Ajit Pawar of the NCP wanted those responsible for the building collapse to be charged with culpable homicide.

"Sunil Shitap (arrested in connection with the building collapse) is said to have links with the Shiv Sena and he has misused his clout to make changes in the building," Pawar said.

NCP member Jitendra Avhad said, "It is the negligence and carelessness of the BMC staff that has led to the building collapse."

BJP MLA Raj Purohit said the residents of the collapsed building had earlier met the civic officials to complain about the renovation going on there but they were allegedly threatened by Shitap.

At the outset, the opposition demanded an immediate discussion and a statement from the government on the incident.

The government, however, proposed to hold the discussion later in the afternoon.

Vikhe Patil sought to know what was the reason behind the delay in making a statement on the floor of the House over the incident.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said, "The government is willing to make a statement followed by a discussion on the issue at 4 pm. If the opposition accepts the proposal, we can do so."

However, opposition parties refused to accept the suggestion and stuck to the demand for an immediate discussion over the incident.

Amid the din, the chair adjourned the House twice for 10 minutes each and then for another 15 minutes.
Darjeeling (WB): The GJM activists and those of other parties took out processions in its various parts, flaying the Centre for ignoring people's aspirations for a separate state on the 42nd day of indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills.

Several hills parties including Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) took out the processions but there was no report of any violence or arson.

"The Centre should respect the aspirations of the people of the hills for a separate Gorkhaland. When they (Centre) are well aware of the ground realities, they should respect it," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said hitting out at the BJP-led government.

The comment comes a day after Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told Parliament in reply to a question that there was no proposal to form any committee to look into the demand for a separate state for the Gorkhas and others agitating in Darjeeling.

"The BJP is making fun of us with such statements. This is an indication that they are not giving importance to our demand. If they think that they can get away with making only false promises to us during elections for the sake of votes, they are wrong. The people of the hills will give them a befitting reply," a senior GNLF leader said.

The 42-day-long shutdown till now has emerged to be the second longest so far in the picturesque hill station, which had witnessed a 40-day bandh in 1988 by Gorkha National Liberation Front and a 44-day shutdown in 2013 by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on the statehood issue.

The ban on internet services which was imposed on 18 June was extended by the district administration on Tuesday till 4 August. The police and security forces patrolled the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil at all entry and exit routes.

Except medical shops, all business establishments, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges have remained closed since the shutdown began.

With food supply severely hit due to the indefinite shutdown, the GJM and various NGOs of the hills have been distributing food items among people.

West Bengal Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purakyastha, who was camping in North Bengal for the last few days, told newsmen at Bagdogra on his way back to Kolkata that the situation in the hills is under control and the administration is committed to provide security to the peace-loving people of Darjeeling.

Nobody would be spared if they try to resort to violence in the hills, he added.
New Delhi: Twelve NDRF teams are being airlifted and rushed to flood-hit areas of Gujarat, a senior official said on Wednesday.

While four teams will be airlifted on Wednesday night, the rest will be sent by Thursday using IAF choppers and by road.

Ten National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are already engaged in relief and rescue operations in Ahmedabad, Aravalli, Bhuj, Banaskatha, Dwarka, Rajkot, Patan, Surat, Valsad and Morbi districts of the state.

"Twelve more NDRF teams are being rushed to Gujarat. They are well equipped with flood relief and rescue gadgets. The home ministry directed the teams to be moved in as soon as possible," the official said.

Each NDRF team includes 45 personnel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas and announced an interim assistance of Rs 500 crore for the state.

Heavy rains triggered floods in Banaskantha and Patan districts of Gujarat after which the army, Indian Air Force and NDRF were called out for rescue and relief operations.

The death toll due to heavy rains and floods across the state stood at 94 till Tuesday.

"So far, the NDRF has evacuated 1,162 people and 19 livestock from flood-affected areas," the official said.

Banaskantha and Patan are among the worst-hit districts due to downpours and flooding of the Banas and Sipu rivers.
After a morning of uproar in the Lok Sabha on Monday over the issue of 39 Indians missing in Mosul, Iraq, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that they have died. "And declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin that I won't commit," she said.

We have no evidence to substantiate the death of the missing Indians in Mosul: EAM Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha #MonsoonSession pic.twitter.com/VQ8sYHDduS  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 26, 2017

"There has been no contact with those missing so far. We have one person saying that the missing Indians have been killed, while 6 other sources say that they are not dead," Swaraj said. She also went on to point out that Iraq has not officially announced the death of the missing Indians either.

The Punjab Congress on Sunday accused the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj of "misleading" the country on the fate of 39 Indians abducted in Iraq and asked her to provide "credible information" on the issue.

"It is very easy for me to say that the 39 Indians are dead. No one including their families will ask me anything after that," Swaraj said on Wednesday. "If people are convinced that the missing Indians are dead and think that I am lying, let them go and tell those family members what they believe."

She also denied saying that the missing Indians are currently in a jail in Mosul. "As per the last intel report, they were housed in jail in beginning of 2016," she said.

Wednesday's speech in Lok Sabha comes ahead of Iraq foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's five-day visit to India, starting Monday. While geo-political and economic affairs will be a part of the bilateral talks with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, the Iraqi foreign minister's visit is also expected to help efforts to locate the 39 missing Indian.

With inputs from agencies
A day after JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar proposed installing a battle tank on the campus to instill nationalism, he said that the suggestion had come from the alumni. ANI reported that alumni had sought a symbol showing the relationship between defence institutes and JNU.

These alumni said why not have kind of symbol on campus, it could be tank/aeroplane/ship/other symbol signifying link b/w JNU & them: JNU VC pic.twitter.com/BWr1hTlkJ4  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

He also defended the proposal by saying that he considers the alumni from various defence academic institutes which have a close association with the university as the alumni of the university as well. This comes after Kumar's remarks on Sunday at an event marking the anniversary of 'Kargil Vijay Divas', created a controversy.

Speaking to ANI, Kumar said, "The Defence Academy where cadets from Army, Navy and Air Force are trained and their degrees are given by us. So, every candidate who passes out of these institutes is alumni of JNU. So, if we have a decommissioned tank, for example, in our varsity then it will only show our stronger and closer association with the defence institutes in this country."

While it brought forth a debate on nationalism and whether this installation meant imposing it, this is not the first time that Kumar has pushed for tanks on campus. In February 2016, some students were arrested over allegations of sedition for raising anti-national slogans. After the incident damaged JNU's reputation, the administration pushed for instilling nationalism among students by flying the tricolour and by installing tanks.
On the occasion of the 18th 'Kargil Vijay Diwas', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country while Defence Minister Arun Jaitley was at India Gate to pay tribute to the war heroes.

Honouring the armed forces in a series of tweets, the prime minister said, "Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War."

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

In Jammu and Kashmir's Dras town, wreath-laying ceremony was held on Wednesday morning to pay tribute to soldiers who lost lives in Kargil War.

J&K (Dras): Wreath laying ceremony held to pay tribute to soldiers who lost lives in Kargil War at Dras War Memorial on Kargil Vijay Diwas pic.twitter.com/UbpzaTwKTR  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Jaitley paid homage to the slain soldiers at India Gate in Delhi. The defence minister, along with Army chief General Bipin Rawat, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and Air Force chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, laid a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti.

Meanwhile, Union minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to laud the Indian Army for its potential.

Every year, the Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 26 July to commemorate Indias victory against Pakistan in the Kargil War. In 1999, the Indian Army had taken control Himalayan posts in the Ladakh, after putting up a fight for 60 days. India lost 527 soldiers, while the Pakistani lost between 357 and 453 of their men, The Times of India reported, citing the official count.

#Delhi: Defence Minister Arun Jaitley pays tribute to soldiers who lost lives in Kargil War, at Amar Jawan Jyoti #KargilVijayDiwas pic.twitter.com/k3qXZUZrGL  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Indian Army is a disciplined, determined and dedicated force. Kargil Vijay Diwas is a celebration of India's exemplary defence capabilities  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 26, 2017

The Indian Army has planned a range of events for Wednesday to pay homage to the gallant martyrs in all stations across the seven states under the area of responsibility of the its central command. The army will also honour participants of the war, 'veer naris', parents of martyrs, veterans and widows will.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will pay homage to the martyrs at 'Smritika' War Memorial in presence of senior serving and retired military officers, junior commissioned officers and other ranks.

On the eve of Kargil Vijay Diwas, reported The Indian Express, BJP president Amit Shah paid floral tributes to Kargil martyrs and felicitated war veterans at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force on Wednesday paid tributes to martyrs to mark the Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Jaitley, along with Army chief General Bipin Rawat, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and Air Force chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, laid a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate.

With inputs from PTI
After a detailed analysis of mobile phones and social media activity in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has identified 48 mob-handlers who provoked the crowd and orchestrated stone-pelting to interfere with anti-terror operations in the Valley.

"As many as 48 hardcore stone-pelters, who would mobilise mobs and target sites of anti-terror operations, have been identified," DNA quoted an NIA official as saying.

The analysis of mobile phones further revealed that even though these handlers lived far away, they were present in the vicinity of the sites of anti-terror operations. The report added that the NIA has identified such operations in a dossier.

Another report in The Times of India said that this analysis found at least 28 WhatsApp groups whose creators, administrators and some members are based in Pakistan and even include identified cadres of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD).

These WhatsApp groups have around 5,000 members. The report also said that the messages posted on these groups were often posted during encounters between terrorists and security forces in the Valley, telling the group members about how their "brothers have been cornered".

Seven Kashmiri separatists, including the son-in-law of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were on Tuesday sent to 10 days' NIA custody by a New Delhi court in a terror funding case on the agency's plea that their custodial interrogation was needed, PTI had reported.

District judge Poonam A Bamba had passed the remand order while partly allowing the National Investigation Agency's plea which had sought the custody of the accused, arrested on Monday, for 18 days in connection with the probe into a case alleged funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA had told the court that the accused  Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar (aka Bitta Karate)  were to be confronted with each other and with other incriminating evidences.

It had also submitted that they have to be taken to various places for the purpose of investigation. Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Geelani, was in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, who had put him under preventive detention immediately after the festival of Eid earlier this month.

Geelani's close aides Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah were arrested by the NIA from the Valley.

Shahid-ul-Islam is the spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

Farooq Ahmed Dar is among the earliest local terrorists in the Valley and among the first locals to receive training in arms in Pakistan, according to News18. He had infamously accepted on video that he was behind the murder of 20 Kashmiri Pandits and had earned the nickname 'Karate' for being a martial arts enthusiast.

The houses of those arrested had been raided by NIA sleuths last month. The raids were part of the NIA's efforts at clamping down on separatist groups allegedly receiving funds for subversive activities in the Valley.

The NIA had claimed that it recovered account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen, during the raids.

With inputs from PTI
The number of stone-pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir has come down this year, CRPF Director General Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar said on Wednesday.

"So far in 2017, only 424 stone-pelting incidents have been reported in comparison with 1,590 incidents last year," Bhatnagar said in New Delhi. He was speaking during the celebration of the 78th anniversary of the CRPF.

Giving credit to security forces, police and central agencies, Bhatnagar said, "Combined efforts of the security forces, Jammu and Kashmir Police and all the agencies including National Investigation Agency (NIA) have made this happen."

The CRPF also said that it has killed 75 militants, including top commanders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and apprehended 252 others in Jammu and Kashmir this year. During this period, the CRPF neutralised two Hizbul Mujahideen, two Lashkar-e-Taiba and one notable Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists in the state, he said.

Bhatnagar said the over 3.5 lakh-strong force has recovered 118 arms belonging to militants in the Valley between January and 26 July this year.

Shabbat Ahmed Bhat and Gulzar Ahmed Lone of Hizbul Mujahideen, Bashir Lashkar Wani and Junaid Mattoo of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Aquib Ahmed alias Abu Hamza of Jaish-e-Mohammed along with two other terrorists, namely Jahangir Ahmed Hannibal and Shabaz Ahmed Wani, were among the notable terrorists killed by the CRPF.

With inputs from IANS
New Delhi: Posing as senior defence and district administration officers, people in Pakistani intelligence agencies are contacting Indian officials to gather information on troop deployment along the India-Pakistan border, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said spillover frequency of Pakistani mobile network into India has been observed in few locations along the India-Pakistan border areas in Barmer, Jaisalmer and Sriganganagar districts of Rajasthan.

"Pakistani Intelligence agencies used to call up officials of post offices, railways, state revenue (patwaris), schools, security personnel and public representatives (Sarpanch), etc, by impersonating themselves as senior defence and other district administration officers to collect information of their interest," he said in a written reply.

He said the agencies of the neighbouring country, including the ISI, continue their efforts to gather intelligence regarding deployment and movement of armed forces along the India-Pakistan border in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat.

The minister said officials having access to sensitive information are regularly sensitised not to inadvertently pass them on to anyone without verifying their identity.

"Moreover, the matter of spillover signals across the border has been taken up by the government at bilateral and multilateral forums," he said.

No instance of use of Pakistani Internet services in the bordering areas to access WhatsApp, Facebook etc. has come to notice so far, Rijiju said.
The Armed Forces Tribunal has suspended the life imprisonment of five army personnel who were convicted by a General Court Martial in 2014 for staging the killing of three Kashmiri civilians at Macchil in the state in 2010, the Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

Out of the five army personnel, one is a Colonel and the other a Captain, the daily said.

The India Today reported that the tribunal has also granted them bail.

Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devender Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar from 4 Rajput Regiment and rifleman Abas Hussain of the Territorial Army were convicted in 2014 for alleged human rights abuse, the India Today reported.

The suspension of punishment means that the troops would be out of jail while the court would continue to hear the case on the trial conducted by the force against them, the India Today reported quoting the two lawyers of the five accused.

The incident had taken place in April 2010 when the three Kashmiris of Nadihal village of Baramullah district were killed by the army and later branded as foreign militants allegedly for brass medals and cash rewards, the Indian Express reported.

Shazad Khan (27), Shafi Lone (19) and Riyaz Lone (20) had been lured to an army camp at Kalaroos in Kupwara where they were subsequently killed in a staged encounter during the intervening night of 29 and 30 April, 2010 at Sona Pindi in Machil sector on the Line of Control (LoC), the daily wrote adding that the army had dubbed them as foreign militants who were killed in an encounter while trying to sneak in through the LoC.

A police investigation later found that the dead were locals, and were made to come to Machil by a former special police officer, Bashir Ahmad Lone, and his accomplices with the offer of jobs and later handed over to the army personnel for Rs 50,000 each, wrote the Hindu in a report.

Following the revelation, the bodies were exhumed on 28 May, 2010, and their family members identified them. A colonel, two majors, five soldiers, one Territorial Army man and two civilians were named by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a charge sheet filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in 2010, the daily reported.

The news of a fake encounter by the army triggered massive protests across Kashmir resulting in clashes with police over around four months that saw 110 civilians killed and 537 injured, while 1,247 CRPF men and 2,747 police personnel were injured.

On Christmas Day in 2013  nearly three-and-a-half years after ordering an inquiry  the army ordered court martial proceedings against five of its personnel. Eleven months later (in November 2014), the army sentenced them to life imprisonment.
Male: After Maldivian troops blockaded its parliament and clashed with opposition leaders for two days, foreign governments urged Maldives to restore the legislature's independence, the Washington Post reported.

According to the report, Sri Lanka-based embassies from the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as the EU delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said that they were alarmed by the recent incidents as it undermined democracy.

On Tuesday, PTI had reported that the United Kingdom urged its citizens to take caution in the capital Male after soldiers fired tear gas on protesting politicians.

The UK government also urged its citizens to avoid large gatherings and protests following the disturbance around Maldives' parliament building.

"Previous demonstrations and political protests have led to violence and arrests," the updated travel summary said.

The United States and other nations have urged the Maldives to safeguard democracy.

What is happening in Maldives?

On Monday, soldiers barred the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) from entering the heavily guarded parliament complex again.

"Even when the parliament is not in session, MPs are free to go to the building and attend to their work, but it is not allowed now," MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP. "This is ridiculous," he added.

The parliament gates were padlocked by soldiers Monday in a move described as illegal by exiled Maldivian opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed.

An opposition coalition, united against President Abdulla Yameen, had been threatening to move a no-confidence motion against the speaker in a bid to impeach the president's ally. But MPs trying to enter the compound were hit with pepper spray and forcibly evicted.

Yameen's office said in a statement on Tuesday that the parliament was closed ahead of an "incoming VVIP visit".

Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif is in the Maldives as the tropical island nation celebrates its 52nd anniversary, the Pakistan High Commission in Sri Lanka said.

"The special measures taken by the security forces at the parliament building on 24 July, 2017, were to ensure the security and safety of the premises, as mandated by the Constitution," Yameen's office said.

The opposition coalition, led by Nasheed, wants to defeat Yameen at elections next year but is struggling with its leadership in tatters.

Earlier this month they secured enough support from government defectors to begin impeachment proceedings against the speaker, hoping to weaken Yameen's grip on parliament.

However, the parliament secretariat declared the impeachment motion was invalid, scheduling the next sitting on 31 July.

The first attempt to impeach the speaker in March triggered chaos when troops acting on Yameen's orders stormed the parliament and removed dissenting opponents by force.

Nasheed became the Maldives' first democratically-elected president in 2008 but was narrowly defeated by Yameen in a controversial 2013 election run-off.

In 2015, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. He now lives in exile in Britain.

With inputs from agencies
Mumbai: The death toll in the Ghatkopar building collapse on Wednesday rose to 17 after five more bodies were pulled out from the rubble of the four-storey building in Mumbai during overnight search and rescue operations, a civic official said.

"Our rescue team along with the fire brigade and NDRF jawans extricated 28 people from the debris out which 17 people have been declared dead while 11 injured have been admitted in the nearby Shantiniketan, and the Rajawadi hospitals," an official of the disaster management unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Five more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the residential building in suburban Ghatkopar during the operations through the night during which two firemen were injured and shifted to a hospital, the official said.

The search and rescue operations are still underway.

According to residents of the Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society, the pillars of the building got weakened due to ongoing renovation of a nursing home located on its ground floor, reportedly owned by a local Shiv Sena leader, leading to the collapse on Tuesday morning.

The city and its suburbs received heavy rains over the last several days, though there has been some respite since Tuesday with downpour giving way to intermittent showers.

The BMC made temporary accommodation arrangements for the affected people and the survivors in three nearby municipal schools, however, survivors preferred to stay at their relatives' homes.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who visited the crashed site yesterday after flying from Delhi, told PTI he will ensure that the affected and aggrieved people get proper relief and rehabilitation as soon as possible.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the collapse site last night and, "An offence has been registered and police are investigating. I have directed the commissioner of BMC to investigate and submit report within 15 days."
Mumbai: The building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area echoed in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Wednesday with the opposition forcing three adjournments while demanding an immediate discussion over the incident.

The residential building collapsed in Ghatkopar on Tuesday, killing 17 people.

The opposition demanded an immediate discussion and a statement from the government over the accident on the floor of the House. The government, however, proposed to hold the discussion later in the afternoon.

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, said, "During the earlier Congress-NCP government, there were two instances when the demand of the then opposition parties  BJP and Shiv Sena  to hold discussions on some calamity was accepted. We held detailed discussions."

"Now, the BJP-Shiv Sena are in power but they are not willing to hold a discussion immediately. What is the reason behind the delay in making a statement on the floor of the House over the Ghatkopar incident?" Vikhe Patil asked.

Responding to his question, Maharashtra's finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said, "The state government understands the gravity of the accident. Hence, Chief Minister (Devendra) Fadnavis himself went to the spot last night."

"We have asked the officials concerned to provide all details about the deaths and the injured persons in the building collapse case," he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said, "The state government is willing to make a statement followed by discussion on the issue at 4 pm. If the opposition accepts the proposal, we can do so."

However, opposition parties refused to accept the suggestion and stuck to the demand for an immediate discussion over the incident. Amid the din, the chair adjourned the House twice for 10 minutes each and then for another 15 minutes.

The death toll in the accident rose to 17 on Wednesday after five more bodies were pulled out from the rubble of the four-storey building during overnight search and rescue operations.

A Shiv Sena worker has been arrested in connection with the building collapse.

The chief minister visited the collapse site last night and said he has directed the commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to investigate the accident and submit a report within 15 days.
After a four-storey residential building collapsed in suburban Ghatkopar on Tuesday, the role of Sunil Shitap  a local Shiv Sena leader  has come under the scanner.

After Siddhi Sai Apartment came down in Ghatkopar's Damodar Park area, 17 people were killed and 11 were injured. The building housed around 15 families. Search operations are still on to extricate the people feared trapped under the concrete rubble. At least 30 to 40 people are feared to still be trapped in the rubble, according to IANS.

The Times of India reported that Shitap owned a maternity home on the ground floor of the building and had been carrying out extensive repairs in the same. The BMC in 2009 had allowed change of use for the ground floor to be used as a nursing home, said Assistant Municipal Commissioner Bhagyashree Kapse. A local resident speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Shitap was politically well-connected and therefore, people were afraid of confronting him.

There had been speculation by the locals right from the start that the collapse was triggered by the renovation work being done by the Sena leader. Congress leader Pravind Cheda told ANI that Shitap was planning to run a guest house in the building and the onus of the tragedy lies on him. DNA too reported that the residents of the building were claiming that Shitap was carrying out renovations to convert the maternity home into a commercial lodging.

Property belongs to Sena's S Shitap,he was running hospital on ground floor&was now going to run guest house, onus lies on him-P Chheda,Cong pic.twitter.com/bikiwNjFK6  ANI (@ANI_news) July 25, 2017

The DNA report also quoted Lalit Vitthal Thak, whose wife and three-month old daughter dies in the collapse, as saying, "(Sunil Shitap) did not have a No-Objection Certificate for the work that was being carried out. He should be punished severely for taking so many lives."

Another DNA report said that Shitap's story is a rags-to-riches one as he used to do odd jobs, including that of delivering newspapers. He then ran a successful local cable network and slowly expanded his business activities to construction. He also took part in political activities and would organise local pilgrimage tours for the neighbourhood residents and often took them to Ekvira temple near Lonavla. "He hails from the Konkan region and was a strong leader in an otherwise Gujarati-dominated Ghatkopar," DNA quoted a Shiv Sena leader as saying.

The police have taken cognisance of the matter as Shitap has been detained under Sections 304(2), 336 and 338 of the IPC. The leader and others associated with the case have been taken to the Parksite police station in Vikhroli for further questioning.

The leader has been charged with negligence and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, according to CNN-News18.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Mongolia's new president Khaltmaa Battulga to visit India, a diplomatic move that may have significant effect on international relations in South Asia.

After all, when you invite a person who fought and won the Mongolian presidential election on a populist, anti-China platform, and that too at a time when a heated standoff between New Delhi and Beijing continues along the border in the Sikkim sector, heads are bound to turn.

Modi, himself, had visited Ulaanbaatar  the capital of Mongolia  in 2015. India had, at that time, extended a line of credit of $1 billion to Mongolia. After Modi's invitation, the then President Pranab Mukherjee also sent a message to Battulga, saying both India and Mongolia believed in democracy, according to The Economic Times.

This India-Mongolia bonhomie has now found hope for even better ties with Battulga's victory.

To understand Battulga's anti-China views, which in fact helped him win the presidential election, it is important to note that China purchases 80 percent of Mongolian exports, according to AFP.

Mongolia's economy grew by a measly one percent last year, a stark contrast from an impressive 17 percent in 2011. It has been hit hard by a more than 50 percent fall in the price of copper, its main export, over the past five years, while slowing growth in its biggest customer China has hobbled the economy.

Given the slow growth, anti-China sentiment has been growing in Mongolia and people want to reduce the country's dependence on China, something which was advocated by Battulga, said the report in The Economic Times.

In fact, Battulga will inherit a $5.5 billion International Monetary Fund-led bailout designed to stabilise its economy and lessen its dependency on China. An incident which also worsened the ties between China and Mongolia was when the Buddhist-majority Mongolia had invited Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to visit the country in November 2016.

An angry China had reportedly closed an important border with Mongolia after Dalai Lama's visit, resulting in many Mongolian truck drivers, who were left stranded at the border, according to News18. Eventually, Mongolia gave in to pressure from China and promised never to invite the Dalai Lama again.

China views the Dalai Lama as a separatist seeking to split Tibet from China and strongly opposes all countries from hosting the monk, who has been based in India since fleeing Tibet during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Now that Battulga has come to power in Mongolia, India has sensed an opportunity.

Perhaps J Mohan Malik, professor at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu, described it best when he told The Times of India: "President Battulgas victory provides an opportunity for strengthening bilateral ties which are now part of the broader spectrum of the Sino-Indian geopolitical rivalry for the support of small and middle powers."
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate APJ Abdul Kalam's memorial in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu and attend several other programmes on Thursday, the second death anniversary of the former president.

The prime minister will hoist the national flag at the memorial designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Pei Karumbu, the PMO said in a statement on Wednesday.

He will unveil a statue of Kalam and offer floral tributes besides interacting with his family members.

Later, the prime minister would flag off 'Kalam Sandesh Vahini', an exhibition bus which would travel across various states of the country and reach Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 15, the birth anniversary of the former President, the statement said.

Modi will then proceed to Mandapam for a public meeting.

He will distribute sanction letters to the beneficiaries of long liner trawlers under 'Blue Revolution' scheme and also flag off a new express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram (via video conference).

The prime minister will also release a synopsis of the 'Green Rameswaram' project, it said.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of the 9.5 km link road on NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai.

The day-long visit will conclude with an address at a public meeting.
United Nations: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the annual UN General Assembly Session in September and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the high-level session, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN.

According to the first provisional list of speakers for the General Debate of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, Swaraj will address the high-level session on the morning of 23 September. She had addressed the General Debate last year as well.

The General Debate will open on 19 September and run through 25 September. All eyes will be on US President Donald Trump, who will deliver his first address to global leaders from the General Assembly hall's iconic green podium on 19 September.

The US is traditionally the second speaker on the opening day of the General Debate, after Brazil.

According to the list of speakers, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address global leaders on 21 September.

Modi had visited Washington late last month for his first bilateral meeting with Trump.

Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014.

In 2015, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when the world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.

He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation. The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.
Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has termed Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-woman outfit based in Kashmir as a "terrorist" organisation for openly supporting banned terrorist Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and asking the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel to revolt against India and join Kashmirs "freedom struggle".

The announcement has come days after NIA registered a case against separatist leaders in Srinagar stating that they have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and others for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India".

According to police officials, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and its chairperson, Asiya Andrabi, who is under judicial custody for over the last two and half months and has been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for anti-India activities, has been preaching a more hardline policy on Kashmir and even showering praises on banned terrorist Saeed even though other separatist organisations have been stressing on starting a dialogue on Kashmir and emphasising on political engagement on Kashmir.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Srinagar, Imtiyaz Ismail Parray, said that the PSA detention orders were issued by the district magistrate. Police officials said that the order was based on a police report over her involvement in anti-India activities.

Most recently, after some Indian armed forces personnel beat up Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel in Kashmir after an Amarnath yatra convoy was not allowed to travel in night hours, the organisation asked the Jammu and Kashmir policemen to give up their jobs and fight for Kashmirs freedom movement.

In a statement released after the incident, Dukhtaran-e-Millat had said, "The ruthless thrashing of the police personnel by the Indian army at Gund, Ganderbal must serve as an eye-opener to the Kashmiri cops and that they should now stop helping India maintain its illegal control over Jammu and Kashmir. Like the puppet government, the police too is run by Indian agencies and this police force, like Indian armed forces and agencies, is equally responsible for brutalising Kashmiris.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat general secretary Nahida Nasreen had said, "The policemen must revolt against India and if they do so, it will be a major step towards our freedom."

Nasreen had also criticised the Indian government for not allowing prayers at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar stating that banning the prayers at the Jamia mosque proves that India is against Muslims and Islam".

"The restrictions around religious places is a proof how these Hindu rulers hate Indian Muslim in general and Kashmiri Muslim in particular, she had said. The ban was applied following apprehensions by the police that the people may take out protests.

Earlier, Nasreen demanded that Indian armed forces including, the Indian Army, Border Security Force (BSF) and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, troops besides the Jammu and Kashmir Police should be declared as terrorist forces at international level as their only aim is to kill, maim and oppress the innocent people of Kashmir".

Dukhtaran-e-Millat's ideology

An all-women outfit, Dukhtaran-e-Millat was formed in 1987, and considers Kashmir as a long pending dispute that has come into existence through implementation of the two nation theory".

The Dukhtaran-e-Millat holds the view that in 1947 when the Partition took place, Kashmir had to become a part of Pakistan due to its Muslim majority status, however, India never "allowed it to happen".

Dukhtaran-e-Millat legitimises use of armed means for the settlement of the Kashmir problem espousing that Kashmiris are fighting for their freedom and existence using different means including political and armed ones, and the people have the right to do so under international laws.

The organisation has been demanding that there was no way for finding any new solution to the Kashmir problem, and is asking that the United Nations should pressurise India for implementing its resolutions in the state of Jammu Kashmir. As per Dukhtaran-e-Millat, it is envisaged in the charter of the United Nations that an "occupied nation, for its freedom and existence, can fight at any level using any medium".

Who is Ayesha Andrabi?

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the all-women outfit has grabbed attention due to controversial remarks made by Andrabi, particularly in the context of developments since year 2000.

Andrabi has been frequently in and out of prisons since 2015, when no curbs were placed on separatist leaders on their movements. Her husband Qasim Faktoo is in jail for over two decades after he was convicted in the murder case of a Kashmiri Pandit as an Hizbul Mujahideen militant. Fakhtoo, who was awarded life imprisonment has denied committing the murder.

The High Court Bar Association (HCBA) in Srinagar has been rooting for the release of Fakhtoo, who has already served 24 years in prison. Bashir Sidique, general secretary, HCBA, said, "The international human rights organisations should ensure justice for Qasim Fakhtoo in releasing him from the prison".

Andrabi has been praising militants for killing government forces and even hailed people who had been converging at encounter sites and helping militants rescue from the cordons as "brave".

Andrabi has been stressing that Saeed is spreading the message of Islam and was working hard against the "evil designs of Indian agencies in Balochistan to disintegrate Pakistan". "The Islamic work of Saeed has not gone down well with the anti-Islam America and India is Americas partner in anti Islam agenda," she said. On 14 August, 2015, Andrabi addressed a rally which was organised by Saeed in Pakistan on the phone, and had also celebrated the Pakistans Independence Day at her Srinagar residence.

The Dukhtaran-e-Millat is also full of praise for Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and has termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a murderer. After Pakistan banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Andrabi strongly condemned condemned house detention of Saeed and four of his associates stating that this was done under pressure from India and US.
With India and China involved in a prolonged standoff in the Sikkim region, resulting in deterioration of ties between the two nations, the upcoming visit of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to Beijing was initially thought to bring some respite. However, with Chinese officials and their state media ratchetting up rhetoric against India, there are several reports which have said that a meaningful dialogue between Doval and Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi is highly unlikely.

Doval is set to travel to Beijing to attend the BRICS NSAs meeting scheduled to be held from 27 July to 28 July. Despite hinting that a bilateral meet could take place between Doval and Yang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "We once again urge India to pull back its troops to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress again that this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides."

As this Firstpost article noted, New Delhi has been expecting that Doval's visit would mark a turning point and result in neutralisation of tensions at the border because the NSA has a certain kind of political consensus, cutting across party lines, to resolve the dispute. Even as the government and the Opposition practically empowered Doval to find a diplomatic way out of the standoff, the Chinese have kept issuing warnings through its media.

The Economic Times reported that a day before Doval's visit, China's foreign minister Wang Yi accused India of intrusion in the Doka La region, thereby dimming prospects of an early resolution to the border stand-off. "The rights and wrongs are very clear," Wang said, claiming that senior Indian officials have "openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter Indian territory." "In other words, the Indian side admitted to entering Chinese territory," Wang further said on Monday.

His statement has been matched by Chinese state-run publication, The Global Times, which has warned Indian media of being too naive in assuming that Doval's visit will lead to a settlement.

In a scathing editorial, it called Doval as "one of the main schemers" behind the border row, and said his trip to Beijing on Friday won't help settle the row. "Doval will inevitably be disappointed if he attempts to bargain with Beijing over the border disputes," the editorial added.

Another Firstpost article noted that it would be unwise to expect a breakthrough from Doval's visit.

"In fact, by needlessly hyping up Doval's routine visit, Indian media is serving to narrow his strategic maneuverability. It is inconceivable that in one meeting (if at all), Doval will be able to influence China into aborting the grand Bhutan strategy that has caused China so much time, scheming and effort. Those hoping for a resolution are innocent of the nature of Chinese power politics," the article noted.

According to News18, a possible scenario is also that the Chinese refuse to meet Doval and the standoff is stretched even further because ahead of the 19th party congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping can't be seen losing face.

The Hindustan Times said that even though Kang left the door open for talks between Doval and Yang by saying that he cannot confirm it but in the past meetings of BRICS NSAs, the officials have held bilateral meetings, a meaningful dialogue on the Doka La issue is unlikely.

Depsite Doval and Yang being the special representatives of their countries for talks on border disputes, Chinese media has warned that the upcoming visit will not sway China. Livemint reported that Doval will be the fourth Indian emissary to be engaging with the Chinese since the tri-junction dispute broke out at the India-China-Bhutan border.

Human resources development minister Prakash Javadekar, minister of state for tourism Mahesh Sharma and health minister JP Nadda have visited China for BRICS-related meetings earlier this month and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi came face to face with Jinping at the BRICS leaders meeting but no resolution has been found yet.

The report also quoted Harsh Pant, a professor of international relations at Kings College as saying, "I don't see any dramatic development out of the visit [Dovals visit to China]. Both sides have ratcheted up the tension to a level from where a dramatic climb down would be difficult." He argues that the best outcome that can be expected from it is to lay the groundwork for a cooling of temperatures.

Therefore, while Doval's visit, with the blessing of the government and the Opposition alike, was highly anticipated to bring about a diplomatic solution to the crisis, the statements from Chinese leaders and state run media has diminished hopes. The Indian media, which was eyeing the visit expectantly, seems to have dulled their hopes. The reports now suggest that though a bilateral meet might take place between Doval and Yang, they are not likely to talk about the China-India standoff.
Beijing: A Chinese daily on Wednesday accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the China-India standoff to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits.

"More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia.

The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing.

It also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishops call for resolving the Doka La issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India."

The article said "so far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain".

"The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes?Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference," it said.

The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems.

"There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea.

The article also blamed the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war.

"It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said.

The article said "neither China nor India wants a war.
Tamil Nadu board is likely to release the HSC class 12th Supplementary Results 2017 this week, media reports said. There has been no official confirmation from the Tamil Nadu board about the dates of announcement of results, however, it is usually announced in the last week of July or the first week of August, The Indian Express reported.

Students are advised to visit the board's official website www.tnresults.nic.in to confirm exam related updates. Information about the upcoming exam results announcements are also available at results.nic.in.

The HSC class 12th exams were held in March by the Directorate of Government Examinations, Tamil Nadu, with about 9.33 lakh student appearing for the exams this year, according to The Financial Express. The overall pass percentage was 92.1 percent, with the girls outperforming boys. Girls had registered a 94.5 percent pass percentage while boys scored 89.3 percent success rate, according to News 18.

The results were declared on in 12 May 2017, however, re-examinations were conducted in June/ July 2017 for students who could not pass the exam. The Indian Express report stated that of the 6,732 schools in affiliated to the board in the state, 1,813 had a 100 percent pass rate.

Here are the steps to check the Tamil Nadu Board HSC 12th Supplementary Results 2017.

Step 1: Visit the Tamil Nadu board official website: www.tnresults.nic.in Cla

Step 2: Enter your registration number in the space provided.

Step 3: Enter your date of birth in dd/mm/yy format and hit submit.

Step 4: Download the result and keep a printout for future references.
Auto refresh feeds

N itish Kumar on his way to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi after meeting with Lalu Prasad Yadav

There are questions of what happens if he resigns? Will there be a JDU-BJP alliance?- CNN News-18

BJP is planning a meeting at 7 pm on whether they would support Nitish or not

Nitish Kumar took the first step by resigning and this could mean a bigger merger between Nitish and BJP. The BJP core committee meeting will reveal more details as to whether BJP would help to support the government from outside. -CNN-News18

Sushil Modi had given enough indications that BJP is ready to back Nitish Kumar

Nitish says he has submitted his resignation to the governor and has quit in the interest of Bihar. He also says that they never expected anyone's resignation.

The two leaders, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, had been at loggerheads ever since the CBI launched raids against Lalu's son and family. While the chief minister Nitish always demanded the Deputy CM of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, to resign, RJD supremo Lalu always maintained that there was no possibility of his son resigning from the post of Bihar deputy chief minister.

He, however, didn't refute the speculations of forming next government. He said that whatever that will be required for Bihar will be done.

"I am not blaming anyone. But for me. I have done as much as it was possible. I thank everyone. The 20 months were not easy. I have run the govt for its 1/3rd period. I have faced many difficulties. But I always kept development in mind," Nitish Kumar said.

With the resignation of Nitish Kumar, there is the possibility of new political realignment in the state

Now that Nitish Kumar has resigned, the question is what could be his next move

Even as NDA remains locked in a core committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss Bihar developments, prime minister Narendra Modi took just 20 minutes in welcoming Kumar's move. Modi's congratulatory message, thanking Nitish for his "move to join the fight against corruption", clears the routes for Kumar to join hands. It remains to be seen what form will BJP's support take, whether from outside or part of the cabinet, but there's no doubt that Nitish's ghar wapsi to NDA is imminent.

The fast-paced events would put even Christopher Nolan's scripts to shame but amid the resignation drama in Bihar, it seems fairly certain now that Nitish Kumar may return to the NDA fold. Nitish, shortly after tendering his resignation to the governor, met the media for an impromptu press conference outside Raj Bhavan and said a decision will be taken in Bihar's interest.

However Modi didn't clarify whether BJP will actually be part of the next govt, or offer outside suppor to JD(U).

BJP is likely to support Nitish Kumar in forming the next government in Bihar. Speaking with mediapersons on Wednesday, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that the BJP is not in favour of mid-term elections. "We don't want mid-term polls. We are happy that Bihar CM didn't compromise on issue of corruption and didn't kneel down before RJD. We welcome Nitish Kumar's decision,"he said.

"We had discussion with Nitish Kumar. There are several misinformation about the case in public domain. We can't go to the public with that information. If we do, the agencies will plug those loopholes. We will say everything when the agencies ask the questions," he added.

The RJD leader also reminded Nitish Kumar about his pledge to make an RSS-free India, and never to join BJP.

"I still have chara ghotala case agaisnt me. There is court conviction in the case, and an appeal has been made. Nitish Kumar knew about the corruption allegations against me," Lalu Prasad Yadav said.

Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday welcomed Nitish Kumar's decision to resign as Chief Minister of Bihar, saying it was a move against corruption, reports IANS. "When the (coalition) government was formed, I had said it would not last for more than two and a half years," Paswan tweeted.

Addressing a gathering of media persons, the BJP said that it welcomes Nitish Kumar's battle against corruption. "A three-member committee of the BJP will report of its views on the Bihar situation. We are committed to development in Bihar," the party said.

The resignation might be 'sushashan babu's' last-ditch attempt to save what little is left of his political capital.

There were enough indications for some time now that the strains in the Bihar Mahagathbandhan were taking a heavy toll on Kumar who was running out of options even as Lalu and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's deputy chief minister, dug in their heels. Pushed to a corner, Nitish chose probity over power but this decision may not be enough in dispelling the notion that he has already compromised his "incorruptible and clean" image by deciding to tie up with Lalu in 2015.

In his fist comments since tendering the resignation as Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi in saying that the world has enough for everyone's needs but not for their greed. It is was an obvious reference to Lalu Prasad Yadav's corrupt empire that threatened to wipe out Nitish's political capital by way of association.

Better to resign than to rub shoulder with the corrupt: Vasundhara Raje | CNN-News18

While Nitish's decision comes as a shock, recent reports of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad facing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for amassing benami properties had not come as a shock to many in the state, who have long suffered the goonda raj that prevailed in Bihar when RJD was in power.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation on Wednesday lays bare the spectre of corruption looming large in the form of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members.

"There was no need of Tejashwi's resignation as CBI action was politically motivated and orchestrated by BJP central leadership", he added.

Lalu Yadav hit back at Nitish Kumar's comment on zero tolerance against corruption stating that Nitish Kumar was aware of the corruption allegations against him while forming the alliance. Speaking about his son and Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu said that the deputy chief minister of Bihar was ready to go to public on 27 August, the day the RJD has called an anti-BJP rally in Patna.

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das congratulated Nitish Kumar for his decision to end the Mahagathbandhan government following corruption allegations against Lalu Prasad Yadav family including deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. "The country is fighting against corruption. The courageous steps of Nitish Kumar will take Bihar forward. It's everybody's responsibility to fight against corruption," he tweeted on Wednesday.

One doesn't know what transpired in the meeting but Nitish's frustration with Rahul's inaction was evident and this may have played no small part in pushing him over the brink. This is a deeper defeat for Congress than is immediately apparent because the fading grand old party loses one more chance to remain in power in one of the key states in the Hindi heartland. Contrast Rahul with prime minister Narendra Modi, who wasted no time in extending a hand of support towards Nitish, eyes firmly set on the future.

The developments in Bihar reflect poorly on Congress and its vice-president's leadership qualities. Soon after emerging from Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening, Nitish Kumar claimed that he had done everything he could to save the alliance, including meeting Rahul Gandhi over the deadlock that arose out of Tejashwi Yadav's decision to stay put. It was sufficient hint that Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as Congress vice-president and a partner in the Mahagathbandhan, could have done more. Perhaps impress upon Lalu Yadav that his son must step down in the larger interest of sustaining the Opposition as a viable political force.

Watching the Bihar developments unfold, it is difficult to avoid the impression that Nitish Kumar and BJP played out an intricately detailed, perfectly laid-out script. Consider the moves which started not on Wednesday but a day before when Nitish, unlike any other Opposition leaders except Sonia Gandhi, got a first-row seat during Ram Nath Kovind's swearing-in as 14th President of India. Mamata Banerjee was seated in the last row while Arvind Kejriwal was left high and dry. On Wednesday, minutes after Nitish had resigned as Bihar chief minister, Narendra Modi sent out two tweets to congratulate him. Simultaneously, BJP's state unit went into a core committee meeting while another meeting was going on in New Delhi. Shortly thereafter, BJP announced unconditional support to Nitish while he thanked prime minisiter on Twitter. Minutes later, all 53 BJP MLAs walked over to 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of the chief minister, and announced their support. The latest CNN News18 reports say that Nitish could stake claim for forming the government on Wednesday night itself. Janata Dal (United) has 71 MLAs. NDA's 58 seats give Nitish enough numbers to form the government. One could say that it stretches credulity to think that there is no premeditation in these turn of events. It's one more indication of how nimble-footed BJP is under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly.

JD (U) leader KC Tyagi said the decision of forming the Grand Alliance government in Bihar was "a mistake" and ruled out any possibility of patch-up with the RJD. Speaking to reporters after Lalu Prasad Yadav addressed the media in Patna, Tyagi said: "After such allegations, there is no point of going along with them. They (RJD) are now untouchable for us." The JD-U spokesperson said that Nitish Kumar had never used harsh language against Lalu Prasad Yadav but the latter "used disrespectful words" for the JD-U president. "It is shameful. We regret our decision to run the government with such person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months.

Nitish Kumar to take oath as chief minister of Bihar at 5 pm on Thursday, reports ANI

10 am: Shivanand Tiwari's sharp criticism of Nitish Kumar after meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav was one of the earliest signs of split in Mahagathbandhan

He also said that they have given 10 am as the time for swearing-in, which initially was 5 pm.

According to reports, Nitish and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi will take oath as Bihar Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Thursday at 10 am. Modi confirmed the time and said that they had submitted a letter, with support of 132 MLAs.

After the stunning political manoeuvre of former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Prasad tweeted late on Wednesday night slamming Nitish for pre-poning his swearing-in ceremony.

"Each development seemed planned. It was all pre-decided. Why was everything done in such rush? His resignation, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backing him, and staking claim to form government within hours of resignation, proves it," Tejashwi said, after meeting the Governor.

Tagging Nitish Kumar's resignation and the developments following it as pre-planned, Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said that they have requested Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to stall the swearing-in ceremony and give the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) a chance to prove majority on the floor.

The deputy chief minister of Bihar Tejashwi Prasad was livid when the time of swearing-in was changed from 5 pm to 10 am. An angry Tejashwi, in a series of tweets, charged Nitish of pretending to be "honest and moral."

Reiterating his party's stand, Tejashwi said, he was only an excuse for Nitish to join hands with the BJP. "Tejashwi ek bahaana tha, case, investigation ek bahana tha, inko (Nitish) BJP ke sath jana tha (I was an excuse, the investigation was an excuse. He just wanted to go with BJP)," Tejashwi told ANI.

RJD offices offices across all districts in Bihar will hold protest march at 12 pm on Thursday, RJD leader Ram Chandra Purve told ANI. Party leaders and Lalu loyalists are livid after Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi for pre-poning the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish at 10 am on Thursday.

The numbers are, however, stacked against him. The JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122. support.

"Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejashwi tweeted.

The JD(U)-BJP combine may have the numbers in the Bihar Assembly to prove its majority, but RJD appeared in no mood to give up without a fight, with Tejashwi Yadav saying he would stake claim to form the next government.

Modi later told journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

But in a series of fast-paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner. First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's JD(U) MLAs.

In what will be remembered as one of the quickest political developments and manoeuvering, Nitish Kumar quit as Bihar chief minister on Wednesday only to stage a dramatic comeback. "In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

In one of the first negative reaction coming from the JD(U) camp, MP Ali Anwar on Thursday told ANI, "Nitishji has taken the decision of going with BJP because his conscience allowed him. Mine does not. My conscience does not allow me to support his move."

He also threatened of protests across the state against Kumar "who will find it difficult to move around". Tejashwi claimed he had support of most JD(U) MLAs. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor-test," he said. He said the governor told him that he has already invited Kumar for taking oath and it is not possible to take back the invitation letter.

He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance the mandate to run its government for 5 years which Kumar "betrayed".

"RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he told reporters after the meeting.

After Kumar's meeting with the governor late last night, Tejashwi, accompanied by some RJD MLAs and leaders, marched to the Raj Bhawan to meet Tripathi.

Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath at 10 am today.

Tejashwi Yadav met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.

In June, Nitish decided to back Ram Nath Kovind for president and called to inform Sonia and Lalu that he was doing so because he shared a great rapport with Kovind.

In another move that raised eyebrows, at the end of September, Nitish broke with his comrades and praised the Centre's surgical strikes

In January 2016, RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh hit out at the chief minister, blaming him for the state's deteriorating security situation.

Nitish and lalu together may have managed to stop the BJP juggernaut but theirs was an uncomfortable alliance. Here are a few instnaces, when the alliance was rocked in the past.

Take a look back at last night's developments that say the political turf in Bihar change completely.

It all started after news channels reported that the strain in ties within the Mahagathbandhan has reached a point where the beleaguered allies were not even having a joint legislators meet ahead of the Bihar Assembly's Monsoon Session, which was scheduled to begin on Friday.

Wednesday evening saw the metamorphosis of Bihar political crisis, with Nitish Kumar tendering his resignation merely an hour after Lalu Prasad Yadav reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance. In a span of less then five hours, Nitish desecrated the Bihar Grand Alliance, and made a dramatic return with the support of former ally, Bharatiya Janata Party.

While on one hand, Tejashwi will march to the governor's house with all RJD MLAs, RJD supporters will block Mahatma Gandhi Setu. RJD offices across Bihar will also hold protests at 12pm, News 18 reported.

RJD supporters have started gathering at Rabri Devi's residence in Patna as the party leaders have given clear indications that they are not going to take "the betrayal" lying low.

Congress legislative meet will take place at 2 pm today. Congress leader CP Joshi will be attending the meet.

On Wednesday, just before Nitish was to meet his legislative members, MLA Poonam Devi, who is also from the Yadav community, openly said that he would defend Tejashwi in the meeting. Out of the 71 JD(U) MLAs, 18 of them are Muslims or Yadavs. Both communities have always supported Lalu.

Bijendra Yadav, MLA and commerce minister in Nitish's cabinet, warned the JD(U) chief against joining hands with the BJP. He said, "Nitishji, (the) people of Bihar have elected you and Lalu both. Any attempt to scuttle the alliance would have serious repercussions."

In a meeting held to discuss the land graft case involving Lalu Prasad's son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, against whom CBI has filed an FIR in a land graft case, many JD(U) leaders voiced their concerns amid opposition from some party men.

After resigning from the post of chief minister, Nitish Kumar's biggest challenge would be to keep his own party united. Leaders from Congress and RJD have already started criticising his move, alleging that the JD(U) leader always intended to join hands with BJP.

Preparations underway as Nitish Kumar all set to be sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister for the 6th time today

While RJD has 80 MLAs, even if it tries to form alliance with Congress, which has 27 MLAs, and CPI-ML, which has three, their number would only add up to 110. There are four independent MLAs who are likely to throw their weight behind the coalition which enjoys majority support.

The JD(U)-BJP combination has the numbers in the Bihar Assembly to prove its majority. Together, the JD(U) and NDA allies have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.

With BJP's backing, Nitish intends to stake claim to form the government. On Thursday, he will take oath as Bihar chief minister to return to his seat, while BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi will also swear-in, but as the deputy chief minister to replace Tejashwi Yadav. Even though Nitish's masterstroke has not gone down well with Tejashwi, there is nothing that the RJD supremo's son can do about it.

Nitish Kumar's resignation on Wednesday witnessed several seasoned journalists and political analysts hailing the former chief minister as an "opportunist". Rajdeep Sardesai marvelled at Nitish's political manoeuvering where he passed off an opportunistic decision as a "moral dilemma."

BJP leader Sushil Modi will be sworn-in as the deputy chief minister of Bihar today at 10 am

Kumar's decision to resign as Bihar's chief minister, though understandable, is shocking. It smacks not just of hypocrisy but also of opportunism on steroids. That he decided to quit as Bihar's chief minister and then return within a few hours with the support of the BJP points at a scripted drama whose denouement was decided in consultation with his one time rivals to the detriment of his current allies.

Several decades later, when the history of Indian politics is written, the current chapter of politics is revisited in the light of facts  not fiction or hyperbole  Kumar would be mentioned in a footnote as someone who promised greatness but embraced opportunism, bringing about his own political demise.

Nitish Kumar has made a historical blunder by cosying up to the BJP. While the entire country was looking up to him to lead an anti-BJP alliance in the 2019 elections, he has chosen to betray his own destiny by becoming a minion of India's ruling clique, giving up the opportunity to become the leader of its opposition and a possible shot at greatness.

Kumar will be sworn-in at 10am along with BJP leader Sushil Modi who wil lbe his new deputy, replacing Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejashwi Yadav who has been accused of corruption. Nitish changed the political equation in Bihar when he resigned on Wednesday evening, citing the failure of his Mahagathbandhan allies  the RJD and the Congress  to act on demands of Tejashwis resignation.

The political landscape of Bihar changed in a matter of hours when Nitish formally staked claim to form the government with the backing of the BJP, marking his return to the NDA fold.

Meanwhile, a trust vote will be held in the Bihar Assembly on Saturday. Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) has 71 MLAs, should have no problem crossing the majority mark given the NDA support.

Former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is unhappy with Nitish Kumar decision to break away from the Mahagathbandhan and ally with the BJP again, reports CNN-News18. Political Editor Marya Shakil reported that Yadav was probably not even kept in the loop ahead of Nitish's big decision.

A more compelling platform has emerged in its place. Championed by BJP, the magnetism of 'anti-corruption' as a political slogan is evident. So strong is its appeal that from Ram Vilas Paswan to Nitish Kumar, all self-styled champions of 'secularism' are reneging on their stated positions on 'communalism' and joining hands with BJP under the 'anti-corruption' umbrella. Politics follows the power principle, not moral codes. Suddenly, Narendra Modi and BJP are no longer political untouchables, but the fulcrum around which national politics revolves.

A plethora of narratives emerged from the potboiler, none as striking as the futility of 'secularism' as a political platform. When Nitish Kumar walked over to the BJP ditching his 'grand alliance' with RJD and Congress, the death knell for 'secularism' as a political slogan was well and truly sounded. It has now become a corrupted, discredited word  a totem for everything between Congress-style mediocrity to RJD-style corruption.

Amid a fast-paced turn of events that would put even Christopher Nolan's movies to shame, Bihar's ex-chief minister Nitish Kumar is slated to be sworn in as the state's next chief minister at 10 am on Thursday morning. The evening that started with the JD(U) chief tendering his resignation from the chief minister's post and dealing a fatal blow to the Mahagathbandhan, ended with him firmly in the driver's seat, poised to return as chief minister this time with NDA's support. It was easier perhaps to keep track of the wickets that fell during India's last 10 overs against England in the final of ICC Women's World Cup last Sunday.

This is the sixth time that Nitish has taken oath as the chief minister in the last 12 years.

Patna's Raj Bhavan echoed with chants of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad" as Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi administered oath to Nitish Kumar as the chief minister and Sushil Kumar Modi as the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy CM of Bihar respectively, at Raj Bhawan in Patna

- Congress legislative meet will take place at 2 pm today. Congress leader CP Joshi will be attending the meet.

- RJD party offices across all districts in Bihar had planned protests across the state. However, after Section 144 was imposed outside Raj Bhavan in Patna, reports said that the protests have been put on hold

Now, that Nitish Kumar's oath-taking ceremony is over and the JD(U) leader is back in the NDA fold, the rest of the day is expected to be packed with press conferences, party meetings and planned protests across Bihar.

Speaking to reporters, Rahul further said that he knew that Nitish would jump ships for the past three-fourt months. "I knew this will happen. There is no credibility in politics, people will do anything for selfish reasons," Rahul added.

In a first reaction that came from the Congress leadership, vice-president Rahul Gandhi slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar and said that the JD(U) cheated Congress and the people of Bihar. "His mandate was anti-communal. He (Nitish) promised the people of Bihar that he will not join hands with the communal, divisive powers in the country. Nitish Kumar has cheated us," Rahul said.

Prime Minister tweeted after the JD(U) chief was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar on Thursday. "Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity," Modi tweeted.

In a series of tweets a little after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar, former deputy chief minister Tejashwi tweeted out saying, "I entered in government with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!" Tejashwi further said that despite "past baggage", it did not stop him in carrying out the duties in the "role of DyCM!"

On asking what he has to say about Rahul Gandhi's "cheating" jibe, Nitish said, "I will respond to Rahul Gandhi in a proper way."

After being sworn-in as the chief minister, Nitish Kumar said that his decision is in Bihar's interest and its developments. Speaking to reporters outside the Raj Bhavan in Patna, Nitish said that whatever was happening in Bihar was not good for the state's development.

JUST IN: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's first cabinet meeting to take place at 11:30 am

"Conspiratorial treachery & rank political opportunism is the real DNA," the grand old party said of its former ally.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took potshots at newly sworn-in Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, alleging that he has unsatiable 'lust for power'.

"They (BJP) wanted to pin the blame on Tejashwi. They were afraid that Tejashwi would come up as a worthy opponent in 2019. This is a conspiracy by Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. This is nothing but political vendetta."

Lalu Prasad Yadav is in Ranchi for hearing in the fodder scam case. "I am a man of principles. How will Nitish show his face to the people of Bihar? He used to swear that he will not return to BJP. This is a huge betrayal for the people of Bihar and for us."

Political parties across the country were shocked when the bihar chief minister resigned on Wednesday.

In a jolt to Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Grand Alliance, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday tenderd his resignation merely an hour after Lalu reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance.

On 22 February 2015, Nitish took oath as the Bihar chief minister for the fourth time. Nitish had succeeded Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had resigned from his office on 20 February, 2015.

Presiding over the top most post in the state, Nitish Kumar on 26 November 2010 became Bihar chief minister for the second consecutive time.

On 3 March, 2000 the then Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar chief minister.

Nitish Kumar has been sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time in 12 years. The Janata Dal (United) chief, in a surprising move, deserted the Grand Alliance and is all set to form the government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The resignation might be 'sushashan babu's' last-ditch attempt to save what little is left of his political capital.

There were enough indications for some time now that the strains of the alliance was taking heavy toll on Kumar who was running out of options even as Lalu and his son, Tejasvi, Bihar's deputy CM, dug in their heels. Pushed to a corner, Nitish chose probity over power but this decision may not be enough in dispelling the notion that he has already compromised his "incorruptible and clean" image by deciding to tie up with Lalu in 2015.

In his first comments since tendering the resignation as Bihar chief minister , Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi in saying that the world has enough for everyone's needs but not for their greed. It is was an obvious reference to Lalu Prasad Yadav's corrupt empire that threatened to wipe out Nitish's political capital by way of association.

Perhaps impress upon Lalu Yadav that his son must step down in larger interest of sustaining the Opposition as a viable political force. One doesn't know what transpired in the meeting but Nitish's frustration with Rahul's inaction was evident and this may have played no small part in pushing him over the brink. This is a deeper defeat for Congress than is immediately apparent because the fading GoP loses one more chance to remain in power in one of the key states in Hindi heartland. Contrast the leaden-footed Rahul Gandhi with PM Modi, who wasted no time in extending a hand of support towards Nitish, eyes firmly set on future.

It was hint enough that Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as Congress vice-president and a partner in the mahagathbandhan, could have done more.

The developments in Bihar reflect poorly on Congress and its vice president's leadership qualities. Soon after emerging from Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening, Nitish Kumar claimed that he had done everything he could to save the alliance, including meeting Rahul Gandhi over the deadlock that arose out of Tejashwi Yadav's decision to stay put.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhis allegation of Nitish Kumars betrayal, JD (U) leader KC Tyagi said, "Rahul has disappointed JD(U). Congress' approach towards corruption is anyway not great and that's why they had expected Nitish Kumar to overlook Tejashwis blatant corruption. But JD (U) and Nitish Kumar have always come down heavily on all those involved in corrupution."

"We have Mayawati, Akhilesh, Mamata... we will get them all together. So what if Nitish has gone to BJP?"

Addressing a press conference after Nitish was sworn-in as the chief minister, Lalu recounted everything that transpired between the JD(U) and the RJD leader. Lalu concluded the press conference by saying that the Opposition, which is being dubbed faceless, has many capable leaders even now.

After Tejashwi's march failed to stop the inevitable and Nitish Kumar was sworn-in on Thursday at 10 am as the Chief Minister of Bihar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's son tweeted out his rage to slam his former ally-turned 'opportunistic rival' Nitish Kumar.

"Ache din are in store for Bihar. RJD is itself responsible for the breaking of Grand Alliance," Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi told ANI

The Janata Dal (United) in Kerala announced it was severing ties with Nitish Kumar. The JD(U) Kerala's chief, MP Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters here that he was even ready to resign from the Upper House in his fight against "fascist forces".

"Nitish Kumar has cheated the people of Bihar. I charge that he (Nitish Kumar) colluded with BJP to file CBI cases against me and my family," Lalu Prasad told after appearing before a CBI court in a fodder scam case.

"Lalu considered him as brother. We are not afraid of anybody. We will teach Nitish Kumar, BJP and JD(U) a lesson," Rabri Devi told India Today.

The SR Bommai case verdict stated that the largest party should be invited to form government.

RJD is consulting legal experts and might approach the Supreme Court as the verdict in the SR Bommai case has not been followed while inviting Nitish Kumar to form government in Bihar.

"Nitish Kumar had never compromised on certain issues. Narendra Modi and Nitish share a chemistry (on zero toleration against corruption). They' ve become icons of good governance. The Grand Alliance was unnatural. I know Nitish. Anti-Congressism is in his blood," Sushil Modi tells CNN News18.

"To decimate democracy and denigrate people's mandate has become the accepted way forward for the ruling BJP," Congress' Randeep S Surjewala said in a statement. He said that every "political and democratic principle was murdered" in Bihar because of the forming of the BJP-JD(U) government.

Because of this difference, BJP was able to grab power in five out of the ten states (including Uttar Pradesh) and union territory that witnessed elections after Bihar.

In a way, Bihar polls turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the BJP and would ultimately point out a key difference between the ruling party and the Opposition: BJP learnt from its mistakes.

While Kumar seems to have shared a love-hate relationship with Lalu, his ties with Modi have only continued to bloom since last year. Despite the fact that Modi and his elevation as the prime ministerial candidate of the NDA in 2014 were the primary reasons behind Kumar's resentment, the bonhomie between the two leaders in recent time is something which can never be matched by Lalu.

After reports that an unhappy Sharad Yadav has got in touch with the Congress and even met Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Arun Jaitley will meet Yadav, according to News18.

Under Lalu, Bihar was so mired in crime and corruption  often by the politicians themselves  that the byword it became Jungle Raj. And when Lalu was an accused in the fodder scam, he simply handed over the levers of power to his wife Rabri Devi. It was business as usual.

IBN reported that the government cars of Tejashwi yadav have been withdrawn following the swearing-in of the new government in Bihar.

The House had to be adjourned for 25 minutes, just five minutes after it met for the day at 11 am.

Proceedings of the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Thursday as some Opposition parties created uproar over the political developments in Bihar and some other issues.

The Bihar Grand Alliance has always laboured over the often patchy relationship between Nitish Kumar and the BJP. The occasional camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish had often rocked the coalition boat, with speculations rife that the Bihar chief minister is cosying up with the saffron party to get rid of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The return of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold will strengthen, in every likelihood, Prime Minister Narendra Modis campaign for a renewed mandate in the 2019 General Elections to Lok Sabha. However, in the process, Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to pay a price for Nitishs return. Its onward march in Bihar is going to be arrested, thereby impacting its long-term prospects in one of the more politically significant states of the country.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi will travel to Delhi after the floor test, reports CNN News18. Modi will decide the names of ministers in the Bihar Legislative Assembly with central leaders. The floor test will be held on Friday at 11 am.

Veerendra Kumar said he expected JD-U senior leader Sharad Yadav and its MLAs in Bihar not to accept Nitish Kumar's decision. "I call upon Sharad Yadav and JD-U MLAs to say that we won't accept it."

"We are not accepting the JD(U) joining the NDA and our relations with Nitish Kumar have ended. It's shocking that Nitish Kumar has joined the NDA. We all thought that he will fight the fascist tendencies but he has now become a part of it."

"Whatever the price, we're ready to pay," he said.

The Janata Dal(United)(JD(U) unit in Kerala on Thursday opposed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for tying up with the BJP and announced it was severing ties with him. The chief of the party's Kerala unit, MP Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters in Delhi that he was even ready to quit the Upper House to pursue his fight against "fascist forces".

Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the deputy chief minister, the post he occupied before Nitish Kumar ended their alliance in 2013. "The JD(U)-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights... At the time, people used to take pride in saying 'I am a Bihari'. In the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD(U)-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights," the deputy chief minister said.

In the 243-member Assembly, Nitish Kumar needs the support of 122 members for a majority. The Chief Minister's party has 71 legislators, the BJP 53. BJP allies have 5 seats  Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP has 2 seats, RLSP has 2 seats and HAM has 1. There are 4 Independents and 4 CPI-ML lawmakers. Between them, the RJD and Congress have 107 seats.

According to vote share BJP has been the states most popular party and no more than 17 voters chose to vote only for JD(U), according to IndiaSpend analysis of electoral results over six elections since 2004.

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, is a very popular leader in that state. Do actual voters in Bihar think the same? Not according to our analysis. JD(U) has only been above the Congress in electoral popularity.

However, in a surprise move, Nitish has announced that he will keep his word on supporting Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi and not NDA's Venkaiah Naidu. The move seems to be aimed at dampening Opposition's 'opportunist' label on himself, as Kumar seeks to convey that he indeed listens to his conscience voice in decission making.

Back-stabber, cheater, crooked politician, opportunist, Bhasmasur: These were all monikers awarded to Nitish Kumar by frenemies, who he recently dumped to join NDA.

Apparently, the widespread sentiment amid party's local leaders is that the central leadership didn't do enough to save the alliance even though it had ample opportunities.

Bihar Congress MLAs are in huddle ahead of Nitish Kumar's floor test in Assembly. Media reports suggest that as many as 10 MLAs may defect to the JD(U) amid growing resentment against the Congress top leadership, India Today reported. CNN-News 18 quoted sources claiming that several Congress MLAs could vote in favour of the new NDA government.

The secular image which he has fostered through the months might not resonate with the Modi and Amit Shah-led BJP. By jumping on the BJP bandwagon yet again and breaking an alliance which was considered as a marriage of equals, Nitish will now have to play second-fiddle to the BJP and demonstrate a greater readiness to accept its terms and conditions than he did before.

After days of speculations, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has embraced the once estranged ally BJP, marking his Ghar Vapasi to NDA.

In-post Vajpayee BJP, will Bihar CM be able to blend in with Narendra Modi's ideology?

The RJD too, on the other claimed support of Left MLAs and independents. Moreover, the party is also "banking on conscience vote of six Muslim and 11 Yadav MLAs within the JD(U)," Hindustan Times reported.

Amid reports of widespread resentment in Bihar Congress, CNN-News18 reported that several Congress MLAs may vote for JD(U).

- News reports say that dissent within Congress is brewing as local leaders blame Rahul Gandhi for not doing enough. Several MLAs may cross-vote in favour of Nitish.

- Sharad Yadav reportedly unhappy with Nitish's decision. He met Rahul Gandhi on Thursday and met JD(U) leaders, reportedly unhappy with the new alliance.

- Unrest boils in JD(U) ranks with several leaders openly declaring discontent over Nitish's decision to join forces with 'communal BJP.

- The 'reunited' NDA claims to have the support of 132 legislators in the 243-member assembly. Nitish Kumar needs 122 votes to win today's trust vote.

RJD has appealed to the Muslim and Yadav MLAs from BJP and JD(U) to vote listening to the call of their conscience. The party has warned the NDA of a stormy Assembly session, claiming that they won't let a governent that had 'murdered the mandate' function in the House.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi also reached the Assembly, who were booed at by the Opposition MLAs.

Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav today hit out at Nitish Kumar calling him a snake who betrayed his party's trust and used them to gain power. RJD MLAs also held protests outside the Vidhansabha, with placards reading "Murderers of democracy".

While JD(U)+NDA is expected to sail through the trust vote as they claim to have the support of 132 MLAs, discontent among JD(U) cannot be ruled out. RJD has also appealed to the Muslim and Yadav MLAs from BJP and JD(U) to vote listening to the call of their conscience. The party has warned the NDA of a stormy Assembly session, claiming that they won't let a governent that had 'murdered the mandate' function in the House.

Firing fresh salvos at his erstwhile ally and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav today claimed that people hav suffered greatly under Nitish Raj. He said that Nitish couldn't dare to sack me even with a 'greedy BJP' behind him.

"Nitish is still my uncle. I would have even considered resigning if he would have asked. But he had preplanned everything and was just waiting to betray us," Tejashwi said.

Tejashwi Yadav is taking on Nitish Kumar in the Bihar Assembly ahead of the floor test.

Tejashwi Yadav alleged that Nitish Kumar was in cahoots with the BJP since months while he was only used as a pawn and an excuse to justify the flip-flop. He said that how was it possible that Narendra Modi tweeted so quickly when the prime minister doesn't seem to be so quick in responding to other political matters.

Sushil Kumar Modi too is facing cases, why did Nitish side with him: Tejashwi Yadav

"Everyone can see how he switched sides. Earlier he used to speak of Sangh-mukt Bharat and now he is the chief minister of the Sangh. He has changed his stand from 'Hey Ram' to 'Jai Shri Ram'." He also told reporters that he would raise the issue inside the House. He accused the BJP of corruption charges.

"He cheated and betrayed the people of the state who gave him massive mandate. He played dirty politics. He just looked for an excuse to defame us and join the NDA", Tejashwi Yadav said before entering the House.

Nitish Kumar should feel ashamed that he is sitting near Sushil Modi, says Tejashwi Yadav

You conduct 'Champaran Yatra' and then sit in the lap of Mahatma Gandhi's killers: Tejashwi Yadav

"If Lalu Prasad didnt have putra moh, Abdul Bari Siddiqui would have been Bihar deputy chief minister," Yadav said.

Hitting back at Tejashwi Yadav, Yadav reminded Tejashwi that he was not the deputy chief minister due to his calibre, but due to Lalu's 'putra moh'.

From a saap (snake) to dhokebaaz (deciever), Nitish Kumar has been called names and taunted for his political volte-face by the Opposition. However, the Bihar Chief Minister has maintained his calm, without showing any signs of retort. Nitish is known to speak with carefully chosen words and avoid making personal attacks.

"They protected Shahabuddin, the never explained corruption cases agaist them. The coallition broke because of their corruption not because of me," Nitish said.

After Tejashwi Yadav's livid speech, Nitish Kumar rose to address the House. He said that he tried very hard to run a government but RJD never followed the coallition dharma.

Not sparing the ertwhile junior partner in alliance, Nitish Kumar said that given the Congress' party's situation in the country, they would not have had got 15 seats in any coallition. "I gave them 40 seats," Nitish said.

"My decision to quit was taken in the interest of Bihar. We had the mandate to serve the people, not one particular family," Nitish said.

Decided to quit in interest of Bihar; mandate was to serve people not one family

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar won the trust vote with the support of 131 MLAs against Opposition's 108 votes. 122 votes were needed to cross the half-way mark in the 243-member Assembly.

"I should ththankful to RJD and Congress. I wouldn't have been here if Tejashwi Yadv would have resigned. The mandate was not for corruption and building 26 benami properties in 26 years." said Sushil Kumar Modi.

Nitish Kumar did all the drama to sit in the lap of RSS-BJP: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav blamed Nitish Kumar for bringing insatbility to Bihar. He said that if Nitish had to make the government with BJP's support why did he waste so much time and public funds on election.

Bihar had to see four governments in four years, only because of one man: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi said that the people of the Bihar are feeling cheated, adding that RJD will take the fight to every village. He said, "I asked many questions to the CM but he had no answers. Will he now pass a law with the BJP that every person who has an FIR should resign from public office? Will he bring liquor ban across the nation" Tejashwi asked. He said that Sushil Modi too had a case against him, how is it that he is fit to be deputy chief minister in Nitish's eye then.

"An unnatural alliance died natural death," Sushil Modi said as he lauded Nitish for not 'bending the knee' to keep the alliance alive. He said that the RJD was seeking vote through secret ballot but if that would have happened "then at least 10-12 people from RJD would have crossed over to our side," Modi said.

At least 10 RJD MLAs would have voted for us if there was secret ballot: Sushil Modi

Nitish Kumar did all the drama to sit in the lap of RSS-BJP: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav blamed Nitish Kumar for bringing insatbility to Bihar. He said that if Nitish had to make the government with BJP's support why did he waste so much time and public funds on election.

Bihar had to see four governments in four years, only because of one man: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi said that the people of the Bihar are feeling cheated, adding that RJD will take the fight to every village. He said, "I asked many questions to the CM but he had no answers. Will he now pass a law with the BJP that every person who has an FIR should resign from public office? Will he bring liquor ban across the nation" Tejashwi asked. He said that Sushil Modi too had a case against him, how is it that he is fit to be deputy chief minister in Nitish's eye then.

People of Bihar will teach them a lesson; when they couldn't answer my questions in assembly, then how will they answer the people?:Tejashwi pic.twitter.com/1057HXIRUJ

"An unnatural alliance died natural death," Sushil Modi said as he lauded Nitish for not 'bending the knee' to keep the alliance alive. He said that the RJD was seeking vote through secret ballot but if that would have happened "then at least 10-12 people from RJD would have crossed over to our side," Modi said.

At least 10 RJD MLAs would have voted for us if there was secret ballot: Sushil Modi

Exactly....this time he joined within minutes. He has done this 6 times in last 12 years https://t.co/7knq7h7X1A

Nitish Kumar is on his way to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Patna on Wednesday, media reports said. This comes just after Nitish Kumar held a closed-door meeting with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at his residence in Patna on Wednesday.

Nitish might inform the governor that he has sacked his deputy Tejashwi Yadav from the cabinet or He himself can resign and recommend dissolution of Assembly.

Security has been beefed up around the Rajbhawan. Governor Kesri Nath Tripathi was supposed to leave Patna today but he changed his itinerary and decided to stay back.

Earlier the RJD also held meeting of its party after which party chief Lalu Prasad categorically rejected demands of resignation of his deputy chief minister son Tejashwi Yadav.

Amid rumours of rift within the Bihar Grand Alliance, Lalu on Wednesday tried to dispel rumours around strains in the alliance. Addressing the press, Lalu said that the so-called bitterness in the alliance was made by media, adding that Nitish has not asked for his son Tejashwi Yadav's resignation.

The alliance partners are said to be at loggerheads over a CBI case against the Yadav family, including Tejashwi, who is also the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Lalu, clearing the air around RJD's position, once again ruled out Tejashwi's resignation. "There is no question of Tejashwi's resignation. All of this is BJP's propaganda and everyone knows this," Lalu said.

"We have built the alliance with great difficulty, it will endure," the RJD chief said. He, however, added that Nitish can pull out of the alliance if he wants to, clearly signalling that who will take the blame in case the alliance is scrapped. Lalu's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, echoed his sentiment, adding "jo hoga dekha jayega (We will see whatever happens)."

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
After resigning from the post of chief minister, Nitish Kumar's biggest challenge would be to keep his own party united. Leaders from Congress and RJD have already started criticising his move, alleging that the JD(U) leader always intended to join hands with BJP.

In a meeting held to discuss the land graft case involving Lalu Prasad's son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, against whom CBI has filed an FIR in a land graft case, many JD(U) leaders voiced their concerns amid opposition from some party men.

Bijendra Yadav, MLA and commerce minister in Nitish's cabinet, warned the JD(U) chief against joining hands with the BJP. He said, "Nitishji, (the) people of Bihar have elected you and Lalu both. Any attempt to scuttle the alliance would have serious repercussions."

On Wednesday, just before Nitish was to meet his legislative members, MLA Poonam Devi, who is also from the Yadav community, openly said that he would defend Tejashwi in the meeting.

Out of the 71 JD(U) MLAs, 18 of them are Muslims or Yadavs. Both communities have always supported Lalu.

Senior leader and former Assembly speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary also opposed Nitish and stressed to continue the alliance with RJD.

After Nitish's resignation, all eyes are on Sharad Yadav who has been against the breaking of the alliance. News18 tried to contact him but he refused to comment over the issue.

Recently when Nitish met Sharad in Delhi, the latter conveyed his obligation to support Lalu citing 'social compulsions'. A senior leader, privy to the conversation, told News18 that he was actually referring to the Yadav vote bank.

It is learnt that Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala M Birendra Kumar and Sharad are on the same page. Birendra went against Nitish's move to support NDA's presidential nominee and voted in favour of Congress backed candidate Meira Kumar.

It would be interesting to see what steps will Anil Hegde, who is authorised to conduct party's organisational election, take as he is very close to Sharad Yadav.

Since Nitish is the president of JD(U), it is important for him to garner support not only in Bihar, but in other states as well where Sharad is considered more influential.

Despite the anti-defection law, JD(U) has not been a rock solid unit. If we go back to the politics of 1990's when Nitish was heading the Samta Party, JD(U) was formed after merging multiple parties.

Even during his second stint as chief minister of Bihar, Nitish witnessed disintegration of the party when Jitan Ram Manjhi, Brishan Patel, Nitish Mishra, Shahid Ali Khan and few others left JD(U) in a hurry.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
Upcoming Assembly session in Bihar starting Friday in all likelihood will witness deft political manoeuvres and strategic alignments as the widening fissures between the ruling Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will make the task of keeping the grand alliance afloat arduous.

The Bihar chief minister is already under pressure to avoid the embarrassment of having to defend, or worse, ignore the corruption charges laid against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav, who is also his deputy in the cabinet. But with an aggressive BJP riling up the attack for the upcoming Assembly session, Sushasan babu (man of good governance), as the chief minister is usually called, who does not brook any compromise with his clean image, will be loathed if he backs the deputy chief minister in the House.

The frayed nerves of the alliance partners were visible on Wednesday when both JD(U) and RJD called up separate meetings of their legislators to brace up for the Assembly session that begins on Friday. Lalu first announced that he will meet his legislators ahead of the assembly Session, with JD(U) close on its heels to call one of its own.

Alliance partners traditionally hold joint meetings ahead of Assembly sessions to draw a combined strategy.

However, as media houses picked up the news and played it in the backdrop of the strained ties within the alliance, a hasty announcement came that the joint meeting will indeed be convened.

Bihar Mahagathbandhan announces joint legislative party meet. pic.twitter.com/mZUHPUe5FZ  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 26, 2017

Before this, JD(U) state president Bashistha Narain Singh had gagged all channels of media communication within the party, asking the spokespersons to refrain from making statements, until further instructions are issued, according to News18.

The decision seems to have come as media spotlight fixated on the differences emerging from within the alliance. With the Assembly session just days away, JD(U) would not want to serve the BJP a fresh controversy on a platter, if a loose tongue happens to say something unwarranted. The opposition BJP has already said that it will not let the House function if Tejashwi does not resign, CNN-News 18 reported.

Meanwhile, efforts to soothe qualms of the beleaguered allies did not seem to have yielded any results. Tejashwi's meeting with Nitish last week too, has reportedly failed with the Bihar chief minister telling his deputy that his arguments relying on ignorance and young age were not enough to give him a clean chit. The party sources said the two leaders also discussed how to keep together the opposition parties in view of future politics, but there too they couldn't make substantial progress.

Nitish also sought to rope in junior alliance partner Congress to sort out differences but that too has failed to thaw the situation. The main bone of contention between the two allies is Tejashwi's resignation. While RJD takes the view that tendering resignation would mean accepting guild, JD(U) is aware it can't evade Opposition fire if it fails to axe the deputy chief minister embroiled in corruption charges.

Nitish had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday with the hope that he could persuade the grand old party to convince Lalu over Tejashwi's resignation and save him the blushes. It could not be learnt whether the Bihar chief minister could garner any assurances from the Congress.

What transpired between Rahul and Nitish was not officially communicated but sources in the Congress said the two leaders discussed the current political situation and the probable solution to de-escalate the tension between allies, according to IANS.

Meanwhile, the party also fears losing its clean image. Even if in hushed voices, a similar sentiment is relayed within the party.

"Nitishji has perhaps never faced such an embarrassing situation in his entire political career when his integrity and clean image is being questioned," JD(U) secretary general KC Tyagi told The Times of India.

Speaking to CNN-News 18, Tyagi also said: "It is true that he (Tejashwi) hasn't given very satisfactory responses. And we will take the course that will ensure that the alliance's age and shine are both maintained."

Another JD(U) leader told Firstpost, "Congress' stony silence on the corruption issue has also to be noted. The party is neither concerned about corruption charges against its own chief minister in Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh nor alliance partner Lalu. Under these circumstances, the business can't be as usual for us in the coalition. We can't put blinkers on our eyes. Nitish's stated policy on corruption is of zero tolerance."

But the troubles of Sushasan Babu doesn't end here.

Nitish might appear to be cosying up with former ally BJP  remember Nitish breaking ranks with Opposition to first support the BJP on demonetisation, then on its presidential nominee. The BJP too has been coyly toying with its erstwhile ally. However, Nitish, for the astute politician that he is, would be acutely aware of the pitfalls of eating his words on secularism a siding with 'divisive forces.'

Nitish knows he has a sizeable support base in Muslims in Bihar. With the BJP earning the ire of the Opposition over cow slaughter, attacks on minorities and beef ban, Nitish embracing the BJP won't be taken kindly by the community.

Kumar also doesn't want to be seen as the man who sank the secular boat, as both Congress and RJD are ready to throw the onus on Nitish, if he decides to snap ties.

Lalu, who briefed the press just hours ahead of the JD(U)'s legislative party meeting subtly took the opportunity to put the ball in Nitish's court. By announcing that he will never be the one to break alliance, Lalu has also put certain pressure on his political ally. The future of the alliance is then in Nitish's hands. Whether he picks a middle path or he chooses to axe Tejashwi, tough times lie ahead of the Bihar chief minister.
New Delhi: There is no evidence of the 39 missing Indians in Iraq being dead or alive but search for them will continue till there is concrete evidence about their fate, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on Wednesday.

Making in a statement in the Lok Sabha, the minister refuted the allegation that the government was misleading the nation on the issue. She said it would be a "sin" to announce the 39 Indians who went missing in June 2014 in Mosul as dead as long as there is any proof.

She said she has asked the Iraq government to give them an update with evidence on what happened to the 39 Indians, who were mostly from Punjab.

We have no evidence to substantiate the death of the missing Indians in Mosul: EAM Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha #MonsoonSession pic.twitter.com/VQ8sYHDduS  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 26, 2017

The minister said that Harjit Masih, who was part of the group abducted by Islamic State militants but had escaped, claimed the Indians were shot dead in a forest in Mosul, but no bodies or evidence had been found.

"After listening to the story, I told the embassy to search the whole of Mosul, and around, you will find the 39 bodies somewhere, or blood stains would be there. I also said the Islamic State has a habit of issuing lists if they kill many people of a country.

"We did not find any bodies, list, video or any photo. I thought we should at least search for them," she said.

The minister said while one person has said they are dead, at least "six sources" have said they may be alive.

She also said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.

She also said that all the information was collected from different sources and there was no evidence to support the claims.

Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians. She however said that in all her meetings with the families of the missing people, she has always made it clear that there was no evidence about them being alive, just as there was no evidence that they were dead.

"I have suggested that the prison warden (of Badush jail) should be contacted, they may have a list. Otherwise there will be bodies, are the bodies in shape to do a DNA test..." she said.

The minister said that in a war there are four categories of people  prisoners of war, the missing, those killed and those believed to be killed. She said there have been cases of people believed to be killed but have been found alive several years later.

"The file will not be closed till there is concrete evidence," the minister added.

Earlier, Sushma Swaraj faced ruckus in the Lok Sabha from opposition members, mostly the Congress, as she was about to speak. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan then asked Sushma Swaraj to make a statement on the issue.

Sushma Swaraj urged the agitating Congress members to maintain silence. "I will speak when there will be no slogan shouting. You all know the matter is very sensitive and needs to be heard sensitively," she said.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, were working in a construction company near Mosul when militants captured the Iraqi city in 2014.

Some relatives of the missing people in Amritsar have said they received phone calls from some of the workers five days after Mosul was captured.

Masih, who was a part of the group and managed to escape, had claimed the Indians were all shot dead a few days after they were abducted.
It is a part of India which is unlikely to attract the gaze of the national media. But what is happening in the tiny village of Kirlampudi in East Godavari district has the potential to change the political contours in the crucial NDA-ruled state of Andhra Pradesh.

The village, with a population less than 10,000, has been taken over by the Andhra police. They number close to 3,000 and have reinforcements from other uniformed units. Deccan Chronicle reports on how without a proof of identity (PAN or Aadhaar card or driving license), no villager can enter his dwelling in Kirlampudi. Even passengers in Kirlampudi-bound RTC buses are being checked.

Kirlampudi is under surveillance through CCTV cameras and Section 144 has been clamped on Kirlampudi with several youth reportedly detained. Close to 30 police pickets have been set up, converting Kirlampudi into a fortress.

This overdrive is because Kapu community leader Mudragada Padmanabham has threatened to undertake a 30-day long padyatra covering 400 km through the East and West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts starting July 26. Not surprising then that the 'Chalo Amaravati' plan has not been given green light by the political establishment.

While the police contention is that a similar effort to rouse Kapu passions in January 2016 led to the torching of Ratnachal Express and a police station in Tuni in East Godavari district, it is the political reasoning that is the real reason for the refusal to grant permission. The four coastal districts form the political nucleus of Andhra and it is common knowledge that whoever wins in these four districts (out of the total 13 in Andhra) goes on to form the government. With passions rising among the Kapu community (27 per cent of Andhra's population), it is a risk Chandrababu Naidu cannot afford to take.

Close to four lakh people attended the January 2016 meeting called by the Kapu Ikya Garjana (United Kapus Roar), reminding many of the Hardik Patel-led agitation of Patidars in Gujarat. The violence that followed diverted the attention of the public and the media but the messaging from the size of the crowd was not lost on Naidu.

What are the Kapus agitating for? They are demanding their inclusion in the backward classes list so that they are then eligible for reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. They would also get benefits like scholarships for studies and eligibility for housing schemes. It is not a new demand as it was made in united Andhra Pradesh in the 90s as well but previous attempts to extend reservations to all Kapus were struck down by the then Andhra Pradesh High court.

After the violence that rocked East Godavari district last January, Naidu set up the Manjunath commission to study the issue and give its recommendations in six months. With no word even after 18 months, it is obvious that the Kapus feel that Naidu is only biding his time and is not serious about keeping his promise.

Naidu and Padmanabham have been locked in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation several times in the last two years. Efforts by the 64-year-old leader who incidentally has been a political nomad, spending time with the TDP, Congress and BJP, to go on hunger strike have been foiled by the police. The chief minister cannot afford to ignore the community's demands either as a mass Kapu decision to vote against the TDP will send him hurtling into the Opposition benches in 2019.

Kammas, the community to which Naidu belongs, and Kapus have never enjoyed a comfortable relationship. The Kapus despite their numerical superiority have had to play second fiddle to the Kammas (less than 5 per cent) and Reddys (6.5 per cent). In the recent past, when Chiranjeevi who belongs to the Kapu community entered politics, they backed him. But his subsequent decision to join the Congress disappointed them. In the 2014 election, Chiranjeevi's brother, actor Pawan Kalyan campaigned for the TDP-BJP combine and that played an important part in the Kapus voting for Naidu as chief minister.

However, a lot of water has flown under the Godavari since then. Naidu's use of force to control the Kapus has come in for fierce criticism. While the government justifies the police crackdown on Kirlampudi citing the Tuni violence last year, the fact remains that controlling a community agitation by use of force is fraught with risk. The TDP government argues that the opposition YSR Congress will attempt to use the opportunity to smuggle in miscreants and indulge in violence and the clampdown is therefore in public interest.

In fact, the CID is in the process of filing its chargesheet in the Tuni violence, holding Padmanabham responsible. Doing so at this stage is only adding fuel to an already difficult situation as Kapu leaders will project it as yet another instance of State versus Kapus.

But politically, Naidu is in a Catch 22 situation since including the Kapus in the backward class list is resisted by those castes already enjoying the benefits of reservations. Then there is the question of whether the Kapus indeed deserve the quota. They are a socially powerful community though economically weak in certain districts.

With Pawan Kalyan striking out on his own and the BJP looking to woo the Kapus by appointing a Kapu president for the state unit, Naidu's options are getting limited. Andhra's political chessboard is getting busy.
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister and said it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the 'grand alliance'.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'grand alliance' was given a mandate for five years and the Congress will strive to respect that.

We are deeply disappointed by the news of Nitish Kumar's resignation. Congress respect Nitish Kumar as a leader: Randeep Surjewala, Congress pic.twitter.com/X0UUO6vLnp  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

"We are deeply disappointed by the news of the resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. We, in the Congress party, particularly Congress president and party vice president have great respect and affection for Nitish Kumar," he said.

The Congress leader said the 'Mahagathbandhan' was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on the policies, principles and cumulative leadership that was presented.

It was also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narender Modi, who challenged the honour of Bihar, he said.

"Responsibility lies up on each one of us to respect this mandate. The Congress party will do everything within its means (to see to it) that this mandate is honoured," he said.

"Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion," he said.

Nitish Kumar threw a political bombshell by announcing his resignation, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan in Patna after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.
Ahmedabad: Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel was on Tuesday re-nominated as the party's candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat and he would file his nomination papers on Wednesday.

Gujarat Congress unit chief Bharatsinh Solanki gave this information in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

Patel's first-term in the Rajya Sabha had begun in 1993 and if re-elected, the 67-year-old leader would become a member of the Upper House of Parliament for the fifth time.

Meanwhile, in a meeting of Congress MLAs held in the state party headquarters in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, Mohansinh Rathwa was elected as the in-charge Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly, till a new leader is appointed.

The new LoP had to be appointed as veteran leader Shankarsinh Vaghela, who was the LoP in the state Assembly, quit the party on 21 July.

The election to the Rajya Sabha seat in Gujarat will be held on 8 August. The last date for filing of nominations for 10 Rajya Sabha vacancies from Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh is 28 July. The process of nominations began on 21 July.

Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will file his nomination papers in Gandhinagar tomorrow, party sources said.

Vaghela had announced his decision to bid goodbye to the Congress on his 77th birthday. However, while announcing the decision, he had said that he would resign as an MLA only after the RS poll, which was seen as a veiled warning that he would try to ensure the defeat of the Congress candidate.

According to sources, at the meeting of Congress MLAs held in the state party headquarters on Tuesday, out of the 57 MLAs of the party, including Vaghela (who is yet to resign as an MLA), five were absent.

"During the meeting, Mohansinh Rathwa was elected as the in-charge Leader of Opposition, till a new leader is appointed," state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

"A whip was issued to each MLA to vote for the party's official candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections," he added.

Of the total 11 Rajya Sabha members from the state, the term of three  Smriti Irani and Dilipbhai Pandya (both BJP) and Congress' Ahmed Patel  is coming to an end on 18 August.

The Congress has 57 MLAs in the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly. It needs the support of 47 of them to get its candidate through. The main opposition party also has the support of two NCP legislators and one of the JD(U).

Despite Vaghela's exit from the party, the Congress is confident of Patel's victory.

Solanki said that they would not face any problem in the re-election of Ahmed Patel, as any "indiscipline" by MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls would invite disqualification for six years.

The meeting took place at a time when the Congress is going through a turmoil after Vaghela's exit from the party.

State Congress in-charge Ashok Gehlot said Vaghela seems to have quit the Congress due to some pressure or as he was being blackmailed by our opponents.

"Vaghela had demanded that he should be made a chief ministerial candidate. His second demand was that the state Congress chief should be changed.

"He also wanted that he should be given free hand in the distribution of tickets. These demands were not possible to meet," Gehlot said.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad lashed out at Nitish Kumar saying that he was aware of his conviction in a fodder scam case when the Mahagathbandhan was formed.

Lalu also reminded Nitish of his tall claims of never opting for a tie-up with the 'saffron' party BJP. He clarified on his son Tejashwi, saying his party was ready to go to public on 27 August, the day the RJD has called a anti BJP rally in Patna.

"There was no need of Tejashwi's resignation as CBI action was politically motivated and orchestrated by BJP central leadership", he said.

Further, Lalu showed some papers alleging Nitish Kumar was facing a murder case dated 31 August 2009 by a lower court in Barh. The RJD leader accused Nitish of influencing the Judge for the proceedings against him.

"Now this case is in Patna High Court. Nitish knew that the court can summon him any day", Lalu said.

He slammed Nitish's claims of zero tolerance against corruption alleging many of his ministers are deep in the mud of corruption. When Lalu Prasad came to know of the decision, he tried to convince Kumar to change his decision. However, he did not budge.

"I appeal Nitish to fight communal forces. Lets all MLAs of JDU, RJD and Congress sit together and chose a new leader but I have my doubts. He (Nitish Kumar) is all set to side with BJP and playing drama before that.", he said.
Editor's Note: First published in July 2017, this article had argued how a minority tag for Lingayats could upset BJP's poll campaign in Karnataka. By approving the Lingayat community's demand for a separate religion status, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may not only snatch a vital section of voters away from BJP right before the Assembly election, he has also turned its chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa into a minority leader. The following article is being republished in the light of the Karnataka government's decision to approve a separate religion status for Lingayats.

Imagine Karnatakas BJP president and Hindutva face, BS Yeddyurappa, metamorphosing overnight into a minority community leader. Thats what is doomed to happen if Chief Minister Siddaramaiah succeeds in his scintillating plan to turn Yeddyurappas Hindu upper-caste of Lingayats into a separate religion with a minority tag.

Yeddyurappa, the BJPs chief-minister-in-waiting, is understandably more than a little annoyed with the idea. Come to think of it, when  and if  Lingayats embrace a new religion, Yeddyurappa will become one of BJPs minority showpieces like an MJ Akbar or a Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi!

The demand for the tag of separate religion comes from a small section of Lingayats themselves, but Siddaramaiahs tacit backing for them is all too evident to fool anybody.

Siddaramaiah prodding Lingayats to detach themselves from Hinduism and float a separate religion is politically as laughable as Mayawati asking the Banias of Uttar Pradesh or Nitish Kumar telling Bhumihars of Bihar to launch their own religions to get the election arithmetic in their favour.

It would also be something like Tamil Nadus AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) leader O Panneerselvam settling scores with Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy of AIADMK (Amma) by asking the latters Gounder community to shake off its Hindu label and don a brand new religion. Or YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh trying to topple Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu by prodding his Kamma caste to have a sparklingly fresh religion with its own temples, priests, reservations et all.

Siddaramaiahs grand strategy

At the root of Siddaramaiahs new gameplan is a demographically ingenious, even if a politically insidious strategy aimed at retaining Karnataka, the only big state his Congress rules in India besides Punjab. With assembly elections only a few months away, the chief minister reckons that one sure way to stay on in power is to siege to the Lingayat vote bank.

The Lingayats have for long been estimated to constitute up to 17 percent of Karnatakas population and largely support the BJP, which is cocksure of forming the next government.

If the old political adage says if you cant beat them, join them, Siddaramaiah believes that if you cant beat them, divide them. The chief minister, who himself belongs to the backward caste of Kurubas, wants to pit Lingayats against Lingayats by encouraging them to have their own religion. And to some extent, he has already succeeded in dividing them into two sections: one supporting and the other opposing a separate religion.

He hopes that the Congress can lure at least some of them with the label of a separate religion and the windfall of benefits that a minority status would bring with it.

Playing Pokemon with religion

In other words, the Congress is playing Pokemon with religion, something that it never ceases to accuse the BJP of doing. Yeddyurappa, who fears that a divided community would mean a loss of support for the BJP, was quick to accuse Siddaramaiah of playing political games with religion by creating confusion.

But the Lingayats are not amused. They are the followers of 12th century reformer Basavanna who preached against caste. There are also Veerashaivas who follow the teachings of Sri Renukacharya, who believed in Vedas, puranas and the caste system. Veerashaivas and Lingayats, who both worship Shiva, have always been considered one and the same. But there are some who contend they are different. They argue that Veerashaivas are a Shiva-sect of Hinduism, while the Lingayats must be deemed to belong to a different religion.

There have been demands, politically motivated, even in the past that the Lingayats must delink themselves from Hinduism. But these demands were forgotten as soon as they were made. This time round, however, Siddaramaiahs behind-the-scenes support for the pro-separation section has lent it a distinctly political flavour.

Besides, what raises suspicions about the latest demand is that a rally on 18 July, where it was voiced, was organised only by a section of the Lingayat seers led by the controversial 71-year-old Jagadguru Maate Mahadevi.

The first woman pontiff of the community, Mahadevi dropped a pearl of wisdom three years ago when she said,

"As long as women, especially college girls and working women, continue to wear revealing clothes, rapes will happen.

A year later, the Jagadguru said she would oppose any move to declare Bhagavad Gita as the national text because it propagated the Chaturvarna system.

But in the same breath, she welcomed Sangh Parivars Ghar Vapsi programme on the ground that many people had converted to other religions due to lack of knowledge and there was no fault in reconverting them to Hinduism.

And she now wants her Lingayats to shake off Hindu religion and go for a new one.

Siddaramaiah would like us to believe that he is only supporting a demand from Lingayats themselves at the 18 July rally at Bidar. But the timing of the rally and his quick support for it has thrown up questions about the motive behind the whole thing. Besides, all this comes after he promoted the use of Kannada in schools and mooted a separate Kannada flag for the state, moves closely linked to elections.

Siddaramaiah has been targeting Lingayats one way or the other for long now. A caste census that he commissioned in 2015, whose report is still to be made public, is said to have found that Lingayats make up only 9.8 percent of the population, but not 17 percent, as believed so far. That was to placate Dalits who, the census said, were the states single largest community. The lowering of their numerical strength raised the hackles of the Lingayats.

And the chief minister promptly sought to woo the community by unveiling a 117-feet statue of its founder Basavanna. He later made it mandatory for government offices in the state to display Basavannas picture.

Caste, caste and caste

What drives Siddaramaiahs election strategy is a three-point recipe: 1) caste 2) caste and 3) caste. With a firm conviction that caste is a clear winner, he has been fashioning himself as an "Ahinda" leader. Ahinda is the Kannada acronym for Alpa sankhyatara, Hindulida, Dalit (minorities, backward castes and Dalits).

He would like to go down in the annals of India as an unmatched messiah of the downtrodden. Every messiah needs a chief apostle to spread the gospel, and Siddaramaiah has found a ready one in housing minister Basavaraj Rayareddy, a Lingayat.

Rayareddy has promised to tour Karnataka and meet the innumerable Lingayat pontiffs to drum up their support for turning the community into a separate religion. And some community seers have threatened to hold a dharna in Bangalore on 4 September to demand separate religion. So the last hasnt been heard of this caste circus.

By supporting the idea of a separate religion for Lingayats, the Congress runs the risk of losing votes elsewhere if the party is seen as a divider of Hindus.

Meanwhile, with a yellow-red Kannada flag in one hand and the history of Lingayats in the other, Siddaramaiahs hands are too full to find time for things like governance.
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday accused the government of adopting a "fascist approach and dictatorial agenda" in stifling the Opposition's voice by not allowing a discussion on crucial issues like lynchings and questioned the prime minister's silence on the issue.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge asked why the Congress and other Opposition parties were denied the right to raise issues of national concern and why the prime minister and the BJP are avoiding a debate on lynchings.

"The BJP government has adopted a 'fascist approach' and 'dictatorial agenda' in preventing the Lok Sabha from debating the issues facing the nation," Kharge told reporters.

He accused the government of displaying an autocratic attitude by not discussing issues in the House and suspending those who demand a discussion on important issues, saying "we don't agree with such an attitude".

"The prime minister has adopted silence in Parliament, even though he has spoken outside in public rallies. He represents the people and is leader of the House, he must inform the House.

"Does he want to work in a democracy, as the leader always gives a statement in the House on important issues and when there is a crisis. He comes for five or ten minutes and goes. This is like ending democracy and the Constitution," he said.

Kharge also alleged that the Speaker took the decision of suspending six Congress members demanding a discussion on lynchings "only after the government exerted pressure".

"The Speaker takes such a decision after the government exerts pressure. We respect the Speaker and there is no charge of partiality," he said, when asked if he meant that the Speaker was acting partial. The six suspended MPs of Congress were present alongside him.

Asked if the Congress would boycott the House proceedings as it had done earlier, Kharge said, "We will fight and persuade. In a democracy, persuasion is important".

"Why are Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP government running away from a debate, discussion and responsibility of the Parliament?

"Isn't the dictatorial and fascist approach of the BJP government an anathema to the functioning of our democracy?" he asked.

Kharge also condemned and questioned the adoption of different yardsticks by suspending the opposition members and letting off BJP member Anurag Thakur for filming the Lok Sabha proceedings with a mere warning.

"Why are two yardsticks being applied - one for the BJP member Anurag Thakur and another for the six suspended Congress members?" he asked as part of four questions from the government. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again shied away from the debate in Lok Sabha, escaping accountability and answers that people of India seek in the light of all pervading volatility. The prime minister chooses to speak in captive audiences and BJP rallies but misses every opportunity for a meaningful debate in the House," Kharge said.
Day eight of the Monsoon Session in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saw revolt and disruptions leading to the adjournment of one House and suspension of members of another House.

Disruptions and protests in the Lok Sabha continued on Wednesday and soon led to its adjournment for the day as Question Hour and some proceedings, included passage of a bill, were conducted amid ruckus.

Opposition members from Congress stood near the Speaker's podium, shouting anti-government slogans and clapping in between as the house took up Question Hour, and later passed The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The Congress members were demanding revoking the suspension of six party MPs as well as a debate on atrocities on Dalits and minorities by cow vigilantes.

Soon after Question Hour, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan urged the MPs to go back to their seats as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj wanted to make a statement on the 39 Indians missing in Iraq.

The Opposition members refused to budge. Soon after as the Speaker let off BJP MP Anurag Thakur with a "warning" for recording Lok Sabha proceedings on his phone, the Congress, which had six MPs suspended for five sittings of the house for throwing papers towards Mahajan, created a further ruckus, demanding that he be suspended too.

The Congress had on Monday filed a complaint against BJP MP Anurag Thakur for what the opposition party said was "filming Lok Sabha proceedings" on Monday, the same day when six of its MPs  Gaurav Gogoi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjit Ranjan, Sushmita Dev, MK Raghavan and K Suresh  were suspended.

As the din persisted, the house was adjourned for 15 minutes.

When the Lok Sabha reassembled, the Opposition members resumed their seats, and Sushma Swaraj made her statement, saying that there is no evidence of the 39 missing Indians in Iraq being either dead or alive but search for them will continue till there is concrete evidence about their fate.

However, soon after the statement was completed, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge once again questioned the Chair for letting off Thakur with "just a warning".

Kharge said that besides suspending Congress MPs on Monday over their "unbecoming" action, in the past too, Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann was suspended for making a video in the Parliament complex and posting it online.

The Speaker then adjourned the House till 2.15 pm.

After the break, protests continued as The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017  which seeks to amend the 2014 Act to declare the Indian Institute of Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kurnool, as an institution of national importance  was taken up.

As Opposition members continued to raise slogans, Parliamentary Affairs Minister HN Ananth Kumar said the suspended Congress MPs have not even apologised to the Speaker.

"They are not having any repentance. They should have apologised. They have not apologised... Whatever they have done is against Parliament, against traditions and is against democracy. They should not do anti-democratic, anti parliamentary activities," he said.

He also said that the government was ready for a debate on the issue.

As the protests continued, the Speaker adjourned the house for the day.

Meanwhile, in the Rajya Sabha, dissatisfied with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh's reply on a discussion on the agrarian crisis and farmers' suicides in the country, the entire Opposition on Wednesday walked out of the Rajya Sabha.

The Opposition members, mainly Congress member Digvijaya Singh and Nationalist Congress Party member Praful Patel, accused the minister of just giving out statistics that were already in the public domain and skirting the main issue.

After Radha Mohan Singh started talking about various schemes, the Opposition members asked him to speak about the ongoing farmers' suicides in the country.

The Rajya Sabha had been discussing the agrarian crisis and farmers' distress in the country since Tuesday.

After listing positive results that various schemes yielded, the agriculture minister said the National Crime Record Bureau's report showed that farmers' suicide constituted just 8-10 percent of the total suicide cases in the country.

Subsequently, Digvijaya Singh asked the minister: "Your schemes are very good and you have allotted enough funds. We know it. But tell us why farmers are agitating? Why are they committing suicides?"

Even Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked Radha Mohan Singh several times during his long-winded reply  that went on for over an hour  to conclude as the Upper House had to take up other listed business.

However, the minister did not pay heed to the Chair's repeated reminders and continued with his reply.

"How much more time (do) you want to take? Please conclude," Kurien repeatedly told the minister.

The Opposition walked out in protest even as the minister continued with his reply.

At the end of the minister's reply, Digvijaya Singh, who had initiated the short discussion on the agrarian crisis, dared Radha Mohan Singh to go and give the same speech in front of the farmers protesting at Jantar Mantar here.

With inputs from IANS
New Delhi: The proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Wednesday by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.

The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day at around 3.45 pm.

For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like "Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)", "tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship)", "jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)" and "Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai".

On the suspension of six Congress MPs, the members, including KC Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted "Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice)". At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamool Congress.

Amidst the day-long slogan-shouting by Congress and other Opposition members with many of them in the Well, the House took up the Question Hour, proceeded partially with the Zero Hour and then debated and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the day's agenda. This bill has been listed for discussion since last week.

As the the din continued, Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said the government has several times requested the Congress members to sit and participate in the discussions but they are not ready to listen.

"We are ready to debate any issue but they are not ready," he said, adding that during the discussion on agrarian crisis, the Congress members had walked out.

"Why is Congress doing a walk in, walk out...they will be walked out (sic) from all over," Kumar said while criticising the Congress members for throwing papers towards the Chair.

"It is highly condemnable. They should have apologised. This is against democracy...this is anti-tradition and anti-democracy," he added.

Earlier in the day, Congress members raised slogans, also accusing the government of adopting a "dictatorial" attitude. But the proceedings continued amid disturbances.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, raised the issue of cow vigilantism. But Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said he would not be allowed to raise any issue during the Question Hour.

After the Question Hour, the Congress members continued to protest and sought to raise various issues ranging from lynchings in the name of protecting cows to the agrarian crisis and the farmers' plight. As external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rose to make a statement on the Indians missing in Mosul city of Iraq, Congress members were unrelenting and Kharge was heard saying that they wanted to raise issues relating to mob lynching and farmers.

However, the Speaker adjourned the House first till noon and then till 12.45 pm as noisy scenes prevailed.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption.

Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, Modi tweeted: "Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption."

"1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," he said in a series of tweets.

"For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," Modi said.

Kumar on Wednesday resigned as chief minister, citing differences with ally RJD over corruption charges against Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad.
The cloud of doubt over the fate of the grand alliance of Bihar has finally lifted with chief minister Nitish Kumar resigning after claiming that it was difficult to work with alliance partners Congress and the Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

He clarified that despite reports, he never asked for anyones resignation and he only wanted alliance leader Lalu to explain the corruption charges.

Nitish and his loyalists have time and again reiterated that the government will not tolerate corruption. After all, for more than ten years, Nitish's "clean image" and the government's 'no tolerance for corruption', is what has kept the JD(U) government consistently in power in Bihar.

The constant corruption charges against Lalu and his family was not just making it difficult for the chief minister to run a "corruption free" government but it also seemed difficult to explain a discordant political alliance with absolutely nothing in common.

Nitish Kumar was elected on a plank of good governance and zero toleration towards corruption. But with more and more corruption charges cropping up against Lalu, and Nitish still remaining silent on the issue, Sushashan Babu's reputation is under threat.

Since Nitish took over as chief minister, the face of Bihar has changed for the better. He has been able to tame the jungle raj and bring about development in the state.

Let's take a look at the corruption charges levied against Lalu and his family which made Nitish finally break the alliance:

The latest in the spree of charges against the Lalu family was the BJP alleging that a petrol pump owned by Tej Pratap was acquired illegally. The license of the petrol pump was terminated by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Tej Pratap Yadav had been given the licence for the petrol pump in 2011, though the land was in the name of an entrepreneur, Amit Katyal. It is now in the name of a company called AK Infosystems, in which Tejashwi is a director, NDTV reported.

Prior to this, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches at 12 locations in a case of alleged irregularities in awarding the tender for maintenance of hotels in Ranchi and Puri. The case registered against Lalu is of criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption, Additional Director of CBI, Rakesh Asthana said.

He said that between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of Indian Railways located at Puri and Ranchi were first transferred to the IRCTC and later on for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to a private firm Sujata Hotel pvt ltd based in Patna.

The allegation levelled is that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party. In return, three acres of land in western Patna was given to Delight Marketing, which is known to the family of Lalu, at a very low cost.

Benami Properties

The Income Tax department had previously charged Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, his son and daughters under the Benami Transactions Act in connection with its probe into land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore and tax evasion.

The department served notices of attachment of assets to Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar, Rabri and son Tejashwi Prasad.

The department has attached immovable assets such as land, plots and buildings in Delhi and Patna which bear a "deed" value of Rs 9.32 crore but the taxman has estimated their current market value at Rs 170-180 crore.

A total of nine plots in Phulwari Sharif in Patna, where a mall is reported to have been coming up, has also been attached by the tax department. Tax department officials had said Prasad's kin held some of the properties under their scanner in a "benami" way.

Fodder Scam

Lalu and his family are also an accused in the fodder scam, which is now a 21-year-old case against the RJD leader.

The fodder scam is regarding large-scale embezzlement of government funds, made by producing fake bills to substantiate payments that were never made. The fraudulent transactions were made in the name of procuring cattle feed over a period of 20 years.

When BJP state unit chief Sushil Modi filed a PIL in the Patna High Court in 1997, demanding a CBI enquiry in the case, Lalus involvement was found out.

"A large amount of money was withdrawn from the governments treasury. In short, it was a loot of governments money by the governments officials backed by the political leadership. About Rs 950 crore was looted by government officials in ten years. It was a huge thing for all of us at that point of time," Asthana said.

BJP leader Sushil leader also levelled allegations against Lalu and his family and held about 10 press conferences, alleging multiple instances of corruption. On each occasion, he has released documents that, he says, were evidence.

He alleged that Hema Yadav, daughter of Lalu, had acquired a "benami" plot worth Rs 62.10 lakh as a "gift" from a grade four employee of the railways, a charge denied by the RJD. He claimed that Hridayanand Choudhary had given his 7.75 decimal land in Patna worth Rs 62.10 lakh to Hema, according to PTI.

He had also accused Rabri Devi of acquiring valuable land alloted to minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui and former minister Sudha Shrivastava when she was the chief minister of Bihar. "By misusing her position as chief minister, Rabri Devi had acquired land worth Rs10 lakh each alloted to Siddiqui and Sudha Shrivastaa by MLA Cooperative," Sushil Modi alleged.

With inputs from agencies
The BJP does not favour mid-term polls in Bihar and wants all legislators to complete their term, senior party leader Sushil Modi said on Wednesday just after Nitish Kumar resigned as chief minister.

"We are happy that Nitish Kumar did not compromise on the issue of corruption and did not bow down to the RJD. The BJP is not in favour of mid-term polls and wants that all MLAs complete their term," he told reporters here.

At a meeting of the state BJP, it was decided that Sushil Modi and some other leaders will apprise the central party leadership of the developments.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday termed the resignation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as "correct and brave" .

On the way of corruption-free Bihar, it is a correct and brave decision on the part of Nitish Kumar. Congratulations to Shri Nitish Kumar, Das said in a statement here.

Stating that corruption had made the country "hollow", he said Kumar would get the support of the country in his fight against corruption.

With inputs from PTI
Patna/New Delhi: In dramatic developments in Bihar, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as chief minister dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him and said it will join it too.

Nitish Kumar, whose resignation was immediately accepted by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday in which Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as deputy chief minister.

Ending a 20-month-long coalition of the grand alliance that defeated the BJP in 2015, Nitish Kumar met the governor on Wednesday evening and handed his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

But he didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP to run a future government. As if in synchronisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Nitish Kumar's resignation, the BJP announced its support to the JD-U leader, Bihar BJP leaders had dinner with Nitish Kumar and then gave a letter of support to the governor, all in a matter of three hours.

"I have been doing my best to provide good governance... But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the governor and gave my resignation," he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan.

He was initially evasive about taking support from the Bharatiya Janata Party. "What has to happen has happened. What will happen now you keep watching. We will definitely keep Bihar's interest in mind and do what is good for Bihar and its people," he said.

Nitish Kumar did not recommend the dissolution of the Assembly, indicating his readiness to work with the BJP.

Shortly after Modi welcomed the developments in Bihar, BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said his party was against mid-term polls.

"Many many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 125 crore citizens of the country welcome and support this honest move," the Prime Minister tweeted.

"It is the need of the hour to rise above political differences for the bright future of Bihar and unite in the fight against corruption," he added.

Nitish Kumar responded: "I am thankful to Narendra Modi for supporting the decision I took."

The BJP Parliamentary Board quickly met in Delhi and appointed a three-member committee of Bihar leaders to study the situation.

Then Sushil Modi announced that the BJP would support Nitish Kumar to form a new government in which it would be the junior partner.

"We will support the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. The BJP legislature party has full confidence in Nitish Kumar as its leader. The decision has also been conveyed to Nitish Kumar which he has accepted," Sushil Modi said.

Ever since the CBI filed cases of corruption against Tejashwi Yadav, his father Lalu Prasad Yadav and sister Misa Yadav, pressure had been mounting on the chief minister to sack his deputy.

But any action against the deputy chief minister could have evoked the wrath of the RJD, whose support was vital for Nitish Kumar.

In the 243-member Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the JD-U 71 and Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs and its allies LJP 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1. There are four independents and four MLAs belong to the CPI-ML.

The JD-U and BJP together make up for 124 seats and with BJP allies the total could go up to 129, clearly crossing the half-way mark.

Nitish Kumar ran a coalition government with the BJP earlier. But he severed ties with it after it announced Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

Giving reasons for his decision to quit on Wednesday, Nitish Kumar said that with a slew of corruption charges, he expected Tejashwi Yadav to give an explanation that could have formed the basis for his continuing in office.

"I waited so that we could have found a way out but nothing of the sort happened. The charges were against a member of the government. I was not in a position to do anything. There was no basis for the government to function.

"In such a situation, it was not possible for the government to function. I heeded to the call of my conscience and decided to resign."

He said he told Lalu Prasad, Congress leader CP Joshi and the JD-U Legislature Party about his decision to resign.

He said he faced a lot of criticism for supporting demonetisation, which had caught the people's imagination, and back Ram Nath Kovind, "who had done a good job as Governor of Bihar and whose becoming the president was a matter of pride for the state".

RJD chief Lalu Prasad said the developments were "pre-planned" and accused Nitish Kumar of being in league with Narendra Modi and the RSS. He said Nitish Kumar resigned not because of Tejashwi Yadav but due to a murder case against him.

Lalu Prasad also suggested that the legislators of the JD-U, RJD and Congress should elect a new leader minus Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav to form a new government.
After an initial boost to the second week of Monsoon Session, Tuesday's proceedings in both Houses remained largely uneventful with the Parliament failing to transact much legislative business, amid repeated adjournments.

As day eight of the Monsoon Session begins at 11 am on Wednesday, Rajya Sabha will focus on the businesses which were listed for Tuesday and which remained incomplete, while the Lok Sabha will take up four bills for further consideration, which were introduced earlier during the Monsoon Session.

Following bills will be taken up for further consideration in the Lok Sabha: The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017, The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017, The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley will once again move to pass the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Saugata Roy of the All India Trinamool Congress will move a statutory resolution to disapprove the ordinance that the bill seeks to replace.

H1-B visa issue, delay in residential projects and women security are some of the issues that will be raised in the Question Hour.

Meanwhile, the issue of suspension of six Congress MPs is likely to be raised in the Lok Sabha.

Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha urged "kind-hearted" Mahajan to revoke the suspension of six MPs. Mahajan, however, said she didn't want to comment on the issue immediately.

The six Congress MPs  Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and MK Raghavan  were suspended on Monday for causing "grave disorder" by storming the Well, tearing papers and throwing them towards the Chair during their protest over growing incidents of lynching by cow vigilantes.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha debated the agrarian crisis on Tuesday with the Opposition blaming the Centre's "faulty import policy" on food grains.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh alleged that there was corruption in Food Corporation of India (FCI) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). He alleged that after demonetisation, restrictions on cattle sale hit farmers. He also said that he has very little hope from the agriculture minister because the seat of power in the BJP-led Central government rests in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Nitish Kumar has resigned as the chief minister of Bihar. The Janata Dal (United) leader submitted his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday.

Earlier, JD(U) sources had indicated that Nitish Kumar might take a tough call, which would be consistent with his stated zero tolerance on corruption position in the days to come.

The RJD-JD(U)-Congress grand coalition has been under severe stress and there were enough indications that the Bihar chief minister is uncompromising on corruption charges even if it involves deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and minister Tej Pratap. There is a substantive paper trail linking their involvement with benami properties and shell companies. On his part Lalu after the meeting of the RJD legislature party ruled out Tejashwi's resignation, asserting that Nitish never asked for his son's resignation. He even stressed that JD(U) is no police to whom he or his sons need to respond to on specific charges.

Under the circumstances, the question is not whether Nitish is going to act against Tejashwi and Tej Pratap but the question is of when? Whether this would happen today, tomorrow ahead of the Monsoon session of state assembly or in the weeks to come.

While no one has an idea as to why Governor Tripathi has extended his stay in Patna -- whether he has been requested by Nitish Kumar to be there in Raj Bhawan tonight or he had his own reasons to stay or it was just a casual decision which has no connection with the emerging political scenario in Patna.

Nitish has convened a meeting of the JD(U) legislature party on Wednesday evening and there he is expected to talk tough, consistent with the line he has so far taken on the issue. Whether he will drive to Raj Bhawan after that is a million dollar question.

As part of his renewed strategy, he did not hold his cabinet meeting which was earlier tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. The chief minister chairing a cabinet meeting ahead of the start of a state assembly session is a norm. But given the current situation, Nitish avoided even holding a cabinet meeting. All eyes are now on the outcome of JD(U) legislature party meeting.

On any other day, Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi's decision to stay overnight in Patna wouldn't have become a news, but with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar headed to meet the governor at his residence, speculations are galore across circles.

Tripathi is the governor of West Bengal and since the time Ram Nath Kovind resigned from the post of Bihar governor to contest the presidential election as the NDA candidate, he has been holding the additional charge of neighbouring Bihar.

Tripathi landed in Patna on Wednesday morning to preside over the convocation ceremony of Nalanda University and was otherwise scheduled to leave for Kolkata in the evening. Then there was a newsbreak that governor Tripathi was rescheduling his programme in Patna and was going to stay in the Bihar capital tonight and leave for Kolkata on Thursday. That has heightened speculations in the political quarters in Patna, both ruling and opposition.
Beijing: China on Wednesday slammed Botswana for going ahead with the Dalai Lama's visit despite its strong objection, saying it will not accept foreign countries' interference in China's internal affairs and harming Beijing's interests.

"We noted relevant reports. China has stated clearly its position on the Dalai Lama's visits to relevant countries. I want to stress that Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) related issues concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will require relevant countries earnestly respect China's core interests and make correct decisions on relevant issues" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

"China will not interfere in other countries affairs, we will not accept other countries to do things that harm the interest of China", he said.

On 14 July, Chinese foreign ministry said it had firmly opposed to Botswana for permitting the Dalai Lama visit and asked it to "accommodate China's core interests".

The 82-year-old Tibetan leader is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone on 19 August.

Earlier, reports from Botswana said President Ian Khama will be meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Botswana confirmed on Tuesday that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country next month as "a foreign dignitary" and that the trip was a "purely private visit".

On China's objections, Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told lawmakers that "the principle of non-interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of China's foreign policy".

"We therefore expect... China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter," the Minister said and expressed hope that the visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader will not affect the strong bonds of friendship between the two countries.

China is a big investor in Africa and has built coal-fired power plants besides road networks and bridges in Botswana.
Washington: President Donald Trump cranked up the heat on Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, scorning him as "very weak" and refusing to say whether he'll fire the nation's top law enforcement officer and his onetime political ally. It was an extraordinary public rebuke, and even fellow Republicans pushed back forcefully.

All through a day of anything-but-subtle tweets and statements, Trump rued his decision to choose Sessions for his Cabinet and left the former senator's future prospects dangling. "We will see what happens," Trump said. "Time will tell. Time will tell."

His intensifying criticism has fuelled speculation that the Attorney-General may step down even if the president stops short of firing him. But several people close to the former Alabama senator have said he does not plan to quit.

In private, Trump raged to confidants that Sessions had been disloyal in recusing himself from the federal investigation of Russia's meddling in the presidential election and the possibility of collaboration with the Trump campaign. Sessions himself had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the election as a representative of the Trump campaign and thus stepped aside from the probe.

As he has previously, Trump said he would have "quite simply picked someone else" for the job if he'd known Sessions would recuse himself. He called Sessions' decision a "bad thing for the presidency," changing a word from his previous comments that it had been bad for "the president." He also said the Attorney-General ought to get cracking on stopping leaks from federal intelligence agencies.

The president's first broadside of the day came in a tweet: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Trump's harsh words drew a strong response from a number of Sessions' former Senate colleagues, suggesting that all Republicans may not fall in line this time behind the president.

"Jeff Sessions is one of the most decent people I've ever met in my political life," said South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. "President Trump's tweet today suggesting Attorney-General Sessions pursue prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate."

Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and others also voiced support of their former colleague, as did several key conservative religious leaders and Breitbart News, the conservative news site formerly run by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint said he understood Trump's frustration with "the endless media obsession over Russia" and his inability to get his agenda through Congress. But he cautioned that "pushing Jeff Sessions out won't get Congress to move forward on his policies or stop liberals attacks. And Trump would lose a great ally and widely respected advocate for the rule of law."

Statements of support came from Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Jenny Beth Martin, who leads the Tea Party Patriots House Speaker Paul Ryan took a hands-off approach, saying simply: "The president gets to decide what his personnel is."

Some White House aides and Trump confidants have begun discussing how to move on beyond Sessions, while others have cautioned the president against firing a figure popular among conservatives  especially during the heat of the Russia probe.

Should Sessions depart, several scenarios could unfold. If Trump follows his own executive order outlining a succession plan, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general until a successor was nominated and confirmed by the Senate. That would leave the president, at least initially, with another Attorney-General of whom he has been sharply critical in both public and private for his handling of the Russia probe.

But Trump also could invoke his authority under the federal Vacancies Act to temporarily fill the slot with someone of his choice who has already been confirmed by the Senate to another position. That could include Cabinet members or other top Justice Department officials but only if the Attorney-General resigned as opposed to being fired, said University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck.

Another option: A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint anyone of his choosing to be Attorney-General if the Senate recesses for 10 days or more in August. This would allow the president to bypass Senate confirmation until 2019. But the length of an August recess remains uncertain, and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has vowed to fight such an appointment.

Sessions' exit could also raise the spectre of Trump asking Rosenstein  or whomever he appoints to fill the position  to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion with Trump's campaign. That would seem to fulfil the vision of the Justice Department that Trump's critics believe he articulated during the campaign: a place that, at his direction, will punish his political enemies.

The White House was intent on tightening the vise on Sessions. Anthony Scaramucci, the president's new communications director, said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt that Trump is "obviously frustrated" with Sessions. When Hewitt said it was clear that Trump wants Sessions gone, Scaramucci replied, "You're probably right."

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that the president was "frustrated and disappointed" with Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

"That frustration certainly hasn't gone away. And I don't think it will," she said.

Trump often talks about making staff changes without following through, so those who have spoken with the president cautioned that a change may not be imminent or happen at all.
Washington: United States president Donald Trump has accused Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad of committing "horrible" crimes against humanity, and vowed to prevent his regime from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

Speaking at a White House press conference with Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday, Trump also called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East.

"I'm not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible," Trump said.

Recalling that he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Assad for using chemical weapons, Trump said, "I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do."

Trump also said he believed there might not be any Russian or Iranian involvement in Syria today had former president Barack Obama taken action against Assad.

Trump accused Hezbollah and Iran of fuelling the humanitarian disaster in Syria.

"Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region," he said.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel," Trump added. "With the support of Iran, the organisation is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."

Hezbollah's "true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran," he said.

Trump demurred when asked to comment on sanctions against Hezbollah.

"I'll be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours," he said. "I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others, so I'll be making that decision very shortly."
Washington: US president Donald Trump has said that he is not planning to sack Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, even as he reiterated he is "disappointed" over the latter's position on the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential polls.

"Well, I don't think I am doing that. But I am disappointed in the Attorney-General," Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether he would be firing Sessions after he went against him on Twitter.

Trump was addressing a news conference at the White House with visiting Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.

Earlier in the day, Trump accused Sessions of being "very weak" in the investigation into former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" he said in a tweet, expressing anger against the man who was the first US senator to endorse his candidacy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Over the last few days, Trump had gone public in expressing dissatisfaction over Sessions' position on investigations related to Russian interference in the American presidential elections of 2016.

Sessions has recused himself from the government's probe of Russian meddling in the US election.

"He (Sessions) should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. If he was going to recuse himself, he should've told me prior to taking office and I would've, quite simply, picked somebody else," the president told the news conference.

The president called it a a bad thing not for the president, but for the presidency. "I think it's unfair to the presidency. And that's the way I feel," he said.

The Attorney-General has said that he would stay in the position as long as it is appropriate.

Responding to another question, Trump said he wants Sessions to be much tougher when it comes to leaks of classified material. "I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen," he said.

"You know many of my views in addition to that, but I think that's one of the very important things that they have to get on with. I told you before I'm very disappointed with the attorney general. But we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell," Trump said.
Jerusalem: Israel removed metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site after their installation triggered deadly violence, but Muslim worshippers kept up a boycott, suspicious over what would come next.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he would maintain a freeze on coordination with Israel despite the climb down.

Israel's decision on Tuesday came in the face of intense international diplomacy seeking to prevent the dispute over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, from sparking wider Palestinian unrest.

The government said it would introduce more discreet measures to secure the compound housing the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.

It installed the detectors at entrances to the site following a 14 July deadly attack nearby that killed two Israeli policemen. Crews removed the detectors and recently-installed cameras early Tuesday. But Palestinians, who saw the new security measures as an Israeli attempt to assert further control over the site, continued their boycott.

Several hundred Muslim worshippers prayed in the surrounding streets Tuesday despite the summer heat, as they have done since the crisis began.

"What we want and what we demand is for everything to return how it was before 14 July," said Mohammed Hijazi, who came from Acre in northern Israel to join the protests. "When that happens we are ready to return to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray to God Almighty."

The compound is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The White House Tuesday welcomed the security cabinet's decision, saying the "the United States applauds the efforts of Israel to maintain security while reducing tensions in the region".

Israel will replace them with "a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Further details were not immediately available.
During the 2016 US presidential election campaign, Donald Trump had boasted that he would surround himself with the most brilliant minds the world had to offer.

In an interview with the ever-friendly Fox News, candidate Trump said, "I would use the greatest minds. I know the best negotiators. I know the ones that are no good that people think are good. I know people that you've never heard of that are better than all of them."

Apparently, the "best minds" included 36-year-old real estate shark Jared Kushner, who was hired as 'Senior Advisor to the President'.

So what are Kushner's qualifications? Well, he paid a record $1.8 billion for a building in New York City  the highest in the history of the Big Apple  right before the 2008 economic crash. Ouch.

He also thought it was a good idea to buy the illustrious New York Post. But perhaps most importantly, Kushner married the president's favourite daughter Ivanka. Sorry, Tiffany.

It's a good thing that he has such bulletproof credentials. After all, Kushner has a lot on his plate: Solving America's drug crisis, bringing peace to West Asia, running the Office of American Innovation, sorting out the quagmire that is Iraq, spearheading criminal justice reform. Some have even called him the Shadow Secretary of State and the Secretary of Everything.

And if that wasn't enough, Kushner has now been entangled in the ever-expanding Russia probe. On Monday, Kushner admitted he had contacts with Russian officials but denied that he colluded with them to help his father-in-law win the election.

Releasing a statement just hours ahead of appearing before a Senate intelligence committee, Kushner said he had dealt with Russian officials, including Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in his capacity as Trump campaign's liaison with foreign governments.

"I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government," Kushner wrote. "I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector," he said.

Kushner may not have known it, but he seemed to echo Bill Clinton's famous statement: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." That didn't end well either.

And here's the icing on the cake. While children are reprimanded by disapproving parents that "ignorance is no defence", one of the most powerful men in the world is relying on just that. According to a report in The Guardian, Kushner told the Senate that he could not possibly have been involved in scheming with the Russian government because he was poorly versed in Russian affairs.

In his 3,700 word statement, Kushner stated  three times  that he could not remember the name of the Russian ambassador and that he had "limited knowledge" of Kislyak, even after Trump started his presidency, The Guardian reported.

Vox reported that Kushner also insisted he was clueless about the infamous meeting Donald Trump Jr had with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, and that he did not read the e-mail sent to him by the former, asking him to attend the meeting. Kushner claimed he missed the beginning of the meeting  where the Russians reportedly offered dirt on Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump Jr  and reached the room only when the ban on US adoptions of Russian children was being discussed, the report further added.

And if Kushner's words don't particularly reassure you that he is adequately prepared for the challenge of solving the world's problems, you won't be reassured by these words from American advertising executive and television personality Donny Deutsch:

"I know Jared Kushner and Ivanka. They lived in my building. They are lovely young people. He has been in his father's real estate business for 10 years. I remember my competency if you have to go and work for my dad for 10 years. Does this person have any qualifications? Lovely guy, I'm sure. Level-headed. Should I be frightened or feel better that Jared Kushner seems to be our de facto chief adviser, secretary of state, on and on and on? Where he's a lovely guy who has worked at a family real estate business for 10 years? Period."

With inputs from agencies
Washington: Applause and whoops greeted Senator John McCain, who is battling brain cancer, as he returned to the Capitol Wednesday to vote for moving ahead on legislation to dismantle Obamacare.

The 80-year-old McCain had a visible scar above his left eye after doctors removed a blood clot earlier in July. Days after the surgery, the senator disclosed that he had a brain tumour and had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, TV and internet. To hell with them!" the feisty McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor.

He bemoaned the lack of legislative action in Congress. McCain also said he would not vote for the current GOP version of the repeal and replace bill.

McCain drew a standing ovation after his remarks. He had cast his vote to take up the health care bill, delivering for his party and President Donald Trump on the issue that's defined the Republican for the past seven years.

"He's tough as a boot," said Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. "Many people understandably would be curled up in bed in the fetal position."

McCain himself campaigned heavily on the "Obamacare" repeal issue in 2016 as he won re-election to a sixth and almost certainly final Senate term. And there could be sweet revenge in defying cancer to undo the signature legislation of the man who beat him for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama.

The Arizona senator would also deliver a key victory to President Donald Trump, despite emerging as one of the president's most outspoken GOP critics on Capitol Hill. During last year's campaign Trump shockingly ridiculed McCain over his years as a POW during the Vietnam War.

And the situation was eerily reminiscent of a similar scenario involving McCain's good friend, the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts (no relation to the current Senator Kennedy), who returned to the Senate in July 2008 while battling brain cancer to vote on Medicare legislation, his dramatic entry in the chamber eliciting cheers and applause. Ted Kennedy died of cancer in August 2009.
Washington: The Trump administration should use "all possible means" to eliminate terrorist safe havens in Pakistan, which are supported by its spy agency ISI, a group claiming to speak for the refugees in that country has said.nn

The World Muhajir Congress (WMC) in a memorandum to members of the US Congress urged them to "employ all possible means to support their true and natural allies in Pakistan". The memorandum was submitted during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Muhajir is an Arabic-origin term used in Pakistan to describe Muslim immigrants, of multi-ethnic origin, and their descendants, who migrated from India after the Partition. According to WMC, about 50 million Muhajirs live in Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban areas of Sindh province. Its memorandum said that Pakistan's military establishment has been "systematically turning" the country into a "safe haven" for religiously motivated jihadists.

"On the other hand, all secular, educated and democracy loving forces in Pakistan are being obliterated. Secular and pro-western Urdu-speaking Muhajirs and Balochs are the prime target of Pakistan's military establishment," it said.

The memorandum alleged Pakistan's northwest tribal areas have been transformed by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)into "jihadist sanctuaries" where several terrorist outfits, including the Haqqani network, have set up their base.

The US blames the Haqqani network for attacks on its forces in Afghanistan and has been asking Pakistan to help it tame the terrorist group. The WMC urged the Trump administration and the US Congress to employ "all possible means" to eliminate terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.
Islamabad: Pakistan is making progress in breaking connection between terror masterminds, their facilitators and executors, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Tuesday.

Bajwa said hostile agencies are using terrorism as a tool, a day after a terror attack in Lahore killed 27 people.

"Regional actors and hostile intelligence agencies are fully involved to use terror as policy tool," Bajwa was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.

Bajwa also said that cowardly incidents of terrorism cannot lower national resolve to eliminate militancy from its roots in the country.

"We are making gains in breaking connectivity between terror masterminds, their facilitators and executors," he said.

He said the army fully supports and stands with police and other law enforcement agencies towards performance of their role as first responders.

He said concurrent blasts at Kabul and Lahore are testimony of both Pakistan and Afghanistan are victims of terrorism and will continue to suffer if these actors are able to use Afghan territory with impunity.

At least 26 people were killed and 41 wounded on Tuesday after a Taliban-claimed car bomb struck a bus carrying government employees through a Shiite neighbourhood in Afghanistan.

He reiterated that Pakistan is ready to help Afghanistan to eliminate terrorist safe havens in their border areas.
Washington: The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to impose new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea for their dangerous and belligerent actions that undermine America and its allies.

The Russia, Iran and North Korea sanctions bill was passed with a 419-3 votes in the lower house of the US Congress on Tuesday.

The bill is aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. It also seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its "continued support of terrorism."

The bill, that notably constrains President Donald Trump's ability to waive the penalties, is now headed to the Senate, where there is support for sanctions but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the is one of the most expansive sanctions packages in the history. "It tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," he said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said the bill seeks to make it harder for Russia to use that type of coercion and empower other nations to join us in standing up against Russian aggression. "These three (Russian, Iranian and North Korean) regimes, in different parts of the world, are threatening vital US interests and destabilising their neighbours. It is well past time that we forcefully respond," Ed Royce, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, an author of the bill, said after the passage of the legislation.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said the House vote on this tough sanctions bill sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that meddling in US elections will not be tolerated. "Senate Republican leaders should move this bill as soon as possible, so that it can be on the President's desk without delay. Passing the bill on a bipartisan basis will send a strong signal to the White House that the Kremlin needs to be held accountable for meddling in last year's election," he said.

On the House floor, Congressman Joe Crowley alleged Putin's interference in the 2016 presidential elections was a blatant attempt to undermine and weaken American democracy, threats that have been met with disregard from the Trump administration. "I'm glad my colleagues in the House voted to impose stronger sanctions on the Russian government and make it harder for the White House to lift existing sanctions. House Republicans should have moved on this long ago, as this is an important step forward to ensure that Russian leaders will face consequences for their actions," he said.

He added that this vote will hopefully also allow the Congress to get back to work for the American people. "The numerous scandals emanating from the Trump White House on Russia are a distraction that has kept Congress from focusing on the issues Americans want to see progress on jobs, the economy, and expanded opportunities for growth," Crowley said.

According to The Hill newspaper, the vote amounted to a rebuke of Trump, whose administration had pushed to water down the bill's provisions giving Congress the power to veto the lifting of sanctions. "While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President's desk," White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders said.

Royce said the bill represents broad bipartisan, House-Senate agreement that the United States must enforce tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The bill, he said, gives the administration important economic and diplomatic leverage by targeting the things that matter to Vladimir Putin and his allies the most, their corrupt efforts to profit from the country's oil wealth and their ability to sell weapons overseas.

To ensure the current economic sanctions remain in place as long as Russian aggression continues, Royce said this bill empowers the Congress to review and disapprove any sanctions relief. "This strong oversight is necessary and appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," he added.

Tehran continues to threaten Israel by providing funding and advanced rockets to Hezbollah, its leading terrorist proxy, Royce claimed. "It continues to hold Americans hostage while developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. To strengthen the US response to the threat from Iran this bill includes provisions originally introduced by my counterpart, Senator (Bob) Corker, which increase sanctions on those involved in the regimes human rights abuses, its support for terrorism, as well as its ballistic missile program, Royce said.
Caracas: President Nicolas Maduro's adversaries are to stage a two-day national strike from Wednesday in a final push to pressure him into abandoning a weekend election for a super-congress they say will institutionalise autocracy in Venezuela.

Millions participated in a 24-hour shutdown last week, leaving businesses closed, families behind doors, and streets barricaded or empty across swathes of Venezuela.

"From 6 am tomorrow, we are going to paralyse this country," opposition lawmaker and street activist Juan Requesens said. "We have shown Nicolas Maduro and his group there is no love for them anywhere in Venezuela or the world."

The opposition, which has majority support after years in the shadow of the Socialist Party during the rule of Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez, says Maduro's planned Constituent Assembly is a farce designed purely to keep him in power.

The 54-year-old president, who calls himself "the son of Chavez" and flag bearer of his "21st century socialism" project, insists Sunday's vote will go ahead despite intense pressure at home and abroad including a threat of United States economic sanctions.

Maduro says the election for the 545-seat assembly, which will have power to rewrite the national constitution and override the current opposition-led legislature, is designed to put power in the hands or ordinary people.

"We are going to decide between war and peace, the future or the past, the sovereign power of the people or the imperialist, oligarchical coup," he told supporters late on Tuesday of the vote, which the opposition is boycotting.
Snapdeal has accepted Flipkarts revised $900-950 million buyout offer, according to a latest report from Reuters. Citing two sources, Reuters stated that the board of Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, approved Flipkarts bid of $900 million-$950 million last week.

The much anticipated deal is now inching closer to close as it is awaiting approval from Snapdeal shareholders. At the beginning of this month, Snapdeal had rejected an S$700-$750 million offer from Flipkart after completing its due diligence. The online marketplace was expecting to fetch at least $1 billion from its sale to Flipkart. Snapdeal has secured more than Rs.113 crores from Nexus Venture Partners and founders earlier in May. Meanwhile, Flipkart acquired eBay India and raised $1.4 billion in funding at $11.6 billion valuation.

Amazon and Flipkart are locking horns to win the lead the Indian e-commerce space. The US retail giant crossed whopping $2 billion investment mark in India earlier this month with a latest funding round.

Source
USB 3.0 Promoter Group that comprises of Apple, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Renesas Electronics, ST Microelectronics and Texas Instruments has announced a new USB 3.2 specification that will offer multi-lane operation for new USB 3.2 hosts and devices, allowing for up to two lanes of 10 Gbps operation. This succeeds the USB 3.1 that was first introduced in 2013 offering 5 Gbps speed, later USB 3.1 gen 2 was introduced that offered 10 Gbps transfer speed.

For example, a USB 3.2 host connected to a USB 3.2 storage device will now be capable of realizing over 2 GB/sec data transfer performance over an existing USB Type-C cable that is certified for SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps, said the group.

Key characteristics of the USB 3.2 solution include:

Two-lane operation using existing USB Type-C cables

Continued use of existing SuperSpeed USB physical layer data rates and encoding techniques

Minor update to hub specification to address increased performance and assure seamless transitions between single and two-lane operation

To get the full speed, a new USB 3.2 host must be used with a new USB 3.2 device and the appropriate certified USB Type-C cable. The final USB 3.2 specification will be released at USB Developer Days North America event in September 2017. We might not see USB 3.2 in devices until 2018 end or 2019.

Source
One day after The Organic Consumers Association told the New York Times that it found traces of glyphosatea controversial herbicide found in Monsantos Roundup (a popular weed killer used on genetically modified organisms or GMOs)in 10 of 11 samples of Ben & Jerrys ice cream, the company fired back Wednesday, saying they havent even seen the group's report yet.

A spokesperson for Ben & Jerrys told FOX Business that, We are aware of the recent New York Times article indicating that trace amount of glyphosate were found in some Ben & Jerrys flavors. While we have not yet seen the results, we can confirm all Ben & Jerrys products are safe to consume. Even if the reported results are accurate, as the laboratory that conducted the test stated, a person would have to consume 145,000 eight-ounce servings PER DAY to reach the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

And, according to the companys website citing its non-GMO standards, they do let consumers know that under mandatory declaration requirement of European regulations and the GMO labeling law passed in [their] home state of Vermont, that the company does allow its dairy and egg suppliers to use conventional animal feeds that contain GMO grains.

Additionally, the levels are far below the ceiling set by the EPA. But the news still comes as a surprise to many consumers, since the company has been marketing itself as non-GMO since 2014.

Rob Michalak, global director of social mission at Ben & Jerrys, also told The New York Times, that while they are working to ensure all ingredients in its supply chain come from sources that do not include any GMOs, none of its plant-based ingredients come from any GMO crops, such as corn or soy. Additionally, the company is trying to figure out a more cost-effective way for dairy farms that supply its milk to use non-GMO feed.

Were working to transition away from GMO, as far away as we can get, Michalak told The New York Times. But then these tests come along, and we need to better understand where the glyphosate theyre finding is coming from. Maybe its from something thats not even in our supply chain, and so were missing it.

While the levels of glyphosate were well below the legal limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) argues that any presence of the pesticide product is misleading to the consumer.

"It's time for Ben & Jerrys to announce it will immediately begin transitioning to 100 percent organic. Otherwise conscious consumers have no choice but to launch a national and, if necessary, international protest campaign and boycott, the OCA said in a post on its website.

Additionally, the OCA says reports published by Regeneration Vermont reveal that Ben & Jerrys suppliersand Vermont and U.S. (non-organic) dairy farmers in general "have gone backwards, rather than forward over the past 15 years in terms of environment sustainability, food safety, and nutrition and greenhouse gas pollution. The organization has also called on the company to stop labeling its ice cream as natural.
Sweden's left-leaning minority government faced a crisis Wednesday after a populist party said it would support four opposition parties in a no-confidence vote against it over one of the largest security breaches in the country.

If passed, the vote would force the ouster of three government ministers and could lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's Cabinet.

Lofven called an emergency Cabinet meeting after the head of the maverick anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats said they would back the right-wing opposition parties in a no-confidence vote, giving them the required majority to oust the ministers.

"There are only two alternatives, either a new election or he himself (Lofven) resigns," Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson said.

Leaders of the opposition parties, known as the Alliance, announced their plan earlier Wednesday following reports last week that a 2015 leak allowed IT workers abroad to access confidential information in Sweden's government and police database. The security breach allegedly came about when the Transport Agency outsourced some of its services to IBM in the Czech Republic.

The three government ministers are blamed for incompetence and delaying the release of information. Lofven, who described the leak as a disaster that put Sweden and Swedes in harm's way, said he first heard about it in January  some 18 months after the leak occurred.

Officials say they do not know if the leak caused any tangible damage. The head of the Transport Agency was fired in January for negligence and waiving security clearance requirements for some foreign IT workers, Swedish reports said.

It was not immediately clear when the no-confidence vote would take place.

Lofven's Social Democrats and the Green Party form the ruling minority coalition government with 138 seats in the 349-member Parliament. With the support of the Sweden Democrats, the Alliance would be able oust the ministers with 187 votes  well over the required 175 majority.

The vote of no-confidence motion targets Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman and Infrastructure Minister Anna Johansson, who knew about the leak earlier than the prime minister but failed to inform him.
What happened

Shares of steelmaker AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE: AKS) finished the day up 12.4% on July 25, following the release of the company's financial and operating results for the second quarter, reporting revenue and profits that both beat Wall Street analyst expectations.

So what

In short, the market is quite pleased with AK Steel's $1.56 billion in revenue, better than the consensus $1.53 billion estimate, and earnings of $0.19 per share, well ahead of the market's $0.13-per-share outlook.

The interesting thing about AK Steel's results is that the company made more revenue and higher profits while selling and producing less steel. According to the earnings release, the company shipped 1.47 million tons of steel in the quarter, compared with 1.56 million tons in the year-ago quarter. Through the first half of the year, tonnage shipped has fallen 8%.

This is at least in part by design, but also due to weakness in an industry AK Steel relies heavily on. According to CEO Roger Newport, the company's strategy to focus on higher-margin products has caused volumes in some categories to fall, but the biggest reason for the volume decrease was weaker demand from the U.S. automakers. Auto sales have been in decline in recent quarters, after reaching a cyclical peak about a year ago. Factor in a recent increase in imported steel -- much of which industry insiders say is illegally subsidized by its country of origin -- and there are near-term pressures that could raise challenges for AK Steel.

AK Steel, like most of its peers in the North American steel industry, have struggled with high levels of imports taking market share even as domestic steel consumption has been relatively high. AK has also struggled with high fixed costs for years and has only recently begun implementing a strategy to bring its costs down, while also focusing on improving its balance sheet.

This has started to pay off, as this quarter's result showed, with higher prices on high-margin products more than offsetting lower volumes. Furthermore, the U.S. economy has continued to show relative strength, which should at least support steady demand for steel.

Now what

That's where the good news mostly ends for AK Steel, and this is the most important thing investors should consider before buying shares of the company: The company has made progress on improving its operations, lowering costs, and deleveraging its balance sheet, but it's heavily tied to the automotive industry -- and is increasing that exposure with the acquisition of automotive supplier Precision Partners.

This creates a situation of almost binary risk for investors, where the company could do extremely well if domestic auto sales recover from the current slowdown, but it could also see its cash flows and profits get hammered if demand continues to weaken.

10 stocks we like better than AK Steel HoldingWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and AK Steel Holding wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017

Jason Hall owns shares of Nucor. The Motley Fool recommends Nucor. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Three Square Market, the River Falls, Wisc. software design company, is the first tech company in the United States to announce it will offer microchip implants to its employees.

The rice size chips will be implanted underneath the skin between the thumb and forefinger allowing workers to open doors that require identification, login to their computers, and even pay for snacks out of the companys vending machine.

In an interview with FOX Business Liz MacDonald, Three Square Market CEO Todd Westby said the microchip implant is the next after the self-driving vehicles.

A lot of people have talked about it, but nobody has actually done it and we felt it was the right time to go ahead with this new technology, he said.

Westby said the microchip is safe to the human body and no electrical waves are transmitted from the chip.

It is FDA approved and it was approved in 2004, he said.

Westby added that no employees can be tracked using the implanted chip.
Though 401(k)s aren't the only means of saving for retirement, and not all workers have access to one, if you're fortunate enough to have an employer who sponsors a 401(k), it pays to take advantage by signing up for an account. Unlike IRAs, which come with considerably lower annual contribution limits, 401(k)s allow current workers under 50 to put away up to $18,000 a year. Those 50 and older, meanwhile, get a $6,000 catch-up allowance that raises this threshold to $24,000. It's these generous contribution limits that enable so many savers to amass considerable nest eggs in time for retirement.

That said, most workers can't afford to part with that much money each year on a long-term basis, and many of us don't even come close to maxing out our 401(k)s. But what if you could somehow max out your plan contribution for just a single year during your career? It may seem like a far-off goal, but here are a few reasons to go for it.

1. You'll build a larger nest egg

First, the obvious. The more money you put into your 401(k) at any given point in time, the more you'll have by the time you're ready to retire. But what you may not realize is just how much that money might grow to over time if you max out for even a year.

The following table shows how much you stand to gain by contributing $18,000 to a 401(k) in a single year, based on the age at which you do so:

If You Contribute $18,000 to Your 401(k) at Age... Here's What You'll Have by Age 65 (Assumes a 7% Average Annual Return) 25 $269,000 30 $192,000 35 $137,000 40 $97,000 45 $69,000

If you're wondering how on earth an $18,000 contribution can grow into $269,000 without factoring additional funds into the equation, it's called compounding. The longer you let that money sit and earn a return -- in our example, 7%, which is a bit below the stock market's average -- the more you stand to gain. Case in point: You'll come away with 15 times your contribution if you max out your 401(k) at age 25 and let that money grow for 40 years.

Also, don't forget that these figures account for only that one year of contributions. In other words, if you max out your 401(k) for a year when you're 25 but then contribute just $6,000 annually thereafter, by age 65, you'll have an impressive $1.38 million to your name.

2. You might snag some extra (free) money

Of the many companies out there that sponsor 401(k)s, an estimated 92% are willing to match employee contributions to a certain degree. Yet a good 25% of workers pass up free money each year by not contributing enough from their own paychecks to snag those matching dollars.

If your company's 401(k) includes a matching incentive, you're pretty much guaranteed to get that full match by maxing out your own contributions. And once you do, you'll get to not only add that money to your account balance but also invest it and turn it into something more.

3. You never know when your income might drop

You never know when you might lose your job, fall ill, or encounter an unavoidable change in living expenses that renders you unable to contribute much (or at all) to your retirement plan. Therefore, if you have the ability to max out your 401(k) at any point, it pays to do so while you can. That especially holds true if you max out your yearly contribution when you're younger.

Here's another way to think about it: Say you typically put $6,000 a year into your account, but you have a year where you get an unexpected bonus and use it to max out your annual contribution. If you encounter some financial upheaval the following year, and it takes a good two years to get back on your feet, your savings will essentially remain on track because you'll have "pre-paid" your contributions, so to speak. And not only will that prevent your savings from taking a hit, but it'll also give you some peace of mind if you can't contribute at another point.

Though maxing out your 401(k) for even a single year might require some serious discipline and sacrifice, it'll be well worth it in the end. And just think -- if you're able to pull off that feat one year, you might manage to do so a second year, and another one after that. And that'll really put your nest egg in great shape.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
In a story July 26 about a protest by American Airlines employees, The Associated Press misspelled the name of a union official. The president of the Transport Workers Union is John Samuelsen, not Samuelson.

A corrected version of the story is below:

American Airlines workers protest over pay, outsourcing

Workers who maintain American Airlines planes are demonstrating for higher pay and an end to outsourcing

By DAVID KOENIG

AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS (AP)  Several hundred workers who maintain American Airlines planes picketed Wednesday at the carrier's home airport, calling for higher pay and an end to shifting maintenance work overseas.

The demonstration underscored conflict between the airlines, which struggled for years but are now earning huge profits, and their union work forces.

Helped by a bankruptcy restructuring, less competition, lower fuel prices and new leadership, American Airlines Group Inc. earned $2.7 billion last year.

"They are not going to hoard it all to themselves," said John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union. "The TWU work force is going to get their fair share in this contract negotiation."

Samuelsen's union organized the midday rally at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which airport police estimated at 600 people. Another protest was planned for later in the day.

The transport union and another union have been negotiating with American for a new contract since late 2015. The transport union says workers need higher wages to make up for concessionary contracts that were approved when American was in financial distress in 2003 and 2012.

They also say that American is raising profits by moving some maintenance work from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to foreign shops where labor costs are lower. American has announced plans to build what the union says will be a $100 million maintenance facility in Brazil  American puts the cost at $50 million.

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the airline gave the union a contract proposal last week that would protect current jobs even as it builds a two-airplane hangar in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Miller said the facility will only service large planes that need maintenance work between flights to and from the U.S. The work is already being done in Sao Paulo without a hangar by workers who are employed by American but are not members of the transport union, he said.

On the wage issue, Miller said that last year American gave pay raises outside of the normal bargaining process to its union employees, including increases of between 15 percent and 36 percent for many maintenance workers.

Samuelsen, the union president, said that even with last year's raises, ground workers at American will soon fall behind in wages because of recent contracts at other major airlines, and they already have inferior health and pension benefits.

___

David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter
One of the nations largest health insurers, Anthem (NYSE:ANTM), said Wednesday it may pull out of more state ObamaCare exchanges by 2018  including those where it has already submitted rate proposals.

There are still many areas of marketplace uncertainties, principally, cost-sharing reduction subsidy funding that make it challenging to be comfortable with the level of predictability of a sustainable marketplace, Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said during a conference call Wednesday. If we arent able to gain certainty on some of these items quickly, we do expect that we will need to revise our rate filings to further narrow our level of participation.

One of the main uncertainties Anthem has cited as it seeks to determine its 2018 participation on the ObamaCare exchanges is the continuation of funding for cost-sharing reduction subsides, or discounted care provided to low-income individuals. The Trump administration delayed a court decision on the legality of these Affordable Care Act subsidies in May, saying it would continue to fund them until a final decision is reached.

Anthem, which currently sells individual ACA-compliant plans in 14 states, has already announced plans to withdraw from three states next year  which comprise about 10% of its ACA-compliant enrollment. It plans to offer more guidance on the future of its participation in the remaining 11 states by the end of the companys fiscal third quarter, Swedish said Wednesday.

As a company our strategy has been, and will continue to be, to only participate inregions where we have an appropriate level of confidence that these markets are on a path toward marketplace stability, Swedish said.

Two of the nations other largest insurers, Aetna (NYSE:AET) and Humana (NYSE:HUM), have already announced they will completely exit the exchanges in 2018 due to marketplace volatility and the damaging costs of participation.

In the second quarter, Anthem announced a nearly 2% decline in enrollment for its individual plans, which includes the coverage it sells on the ObamaCare state marketplaces. Swedish said the company expects its Affordable Care Act-related business will continue to operate at a slight loss for the remainder of the year.

Anthem endorsed the Senates health care plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare last month, saying it would improve stability in the marketplace and help remedy skyrocketing premium costs. On Tuesday, the Senate narrowly voted to open a debate on overhauling the health care system. Discussions are ongoing as to what exactly that overhaul will look like and whether the GOP has enough votes to pass a piece of legislation through the chamber.
Ford (NYSE:F) on Wednesday reported a stronger profit than expected for the second quarter, lifted by a lower tax rate and higher pricing on trucks and SUVs.

The quarterly report is the first since Jim Hackett was installed as Fords CEO after previously leading its mobility unit. Hackett took the helm amid growing concerns on Wall Street over the automakers strategy for investing in new technologies like self-driving cars, as well as its plans to maintain growth in its core business.

In the second quarter, Ford saw its net income climb 4% to roughly $2 billion. The company also provided a full-year earnings forecast of $1.65 to $1.85 per share, above Fords previous estimate of $1.58.

Despite a slowdown in U.S. sales, automakers have benefited from a shift to pickup trucks and SUVs, which generate healthier profits than small cars. General Motors (NYSE:GM), the nations largest automaker, reported a moderate decline in North American pre-tax earnings during the latest period. While volume was down, GM sold a record number of SUVs in the U.S.

North America also supported second-quarter earnings at Ford. Pre-tax earnings in the region hit $2.2 billion, down $500 million compared to the same period a year ago. Profit margins, a closely watched metric, fell to 9% from 11.3%.

Fords F-Series trucks had their best second-quarter performance since 2001, as sales rose 7%. Average transaction prices hit $45,400, up $3,100. Total U.S. sales volume was down 3%.

On the consumer side, we remain very healthy, Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said on FOX Business Networks Mornings with Maria. We think in the second half, its going to be about the same story. Were going to see a very slight decline on retail and somewhat more in terms of fleet.

Ford reported a smaller profit in Europe of $88 million, while South Americas loss narrowed to $185 million.

Overall, higher commodity costs and production cuts weighed on Fords operating income, which fell 16% to $2.5 billion. The results included a one-time charge related to the new factory in Mexico that Ford scrapped earlier this year.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker booked adjusted earnings of 56 cents per share, beating expectations by 13 cents. Revenue fell 1% to $39.9 billion. Wall Street was looking for a larger decline to $37.1 billion.

Fords bottom line got help from a lower effective tax rate. In anticipation of federal tax reform, Ford booked deferred tax credits from overseas markets and halved its expected 2017 tax rate to 15%.

Were very hopeful theres going to be tax reform. Were certainly very supportive of that, and in anticipation of that, were taking these actions this year, Shanks said.

Ford shares slipped 2.2% to $11.02 in recent trading. Ford has dropped 9.2% on the year.
More than 100 people filled a meeting room Tuesday at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library for a two-hour town hall discussion on homelessness.

The event, sponsored by the Corvallis City Club, featured service providers, politicians and the United Way employee charged with trying to find a site for a new mens cold weather shelter.

Two homeless people spoke, with one individual expressing frustration at the "whack-a-mole" situation in which the homeless are given a sleeping bag and a tent and told that camping is illegal. The other homeless person spoke movingly of the challenge of staying sober when you have nowhere to sleep.

Here are highlights from this latest community conversation on the topic:

Kari Whitacre, executive director, of Community Outreach, who had to close her emergency shelter operation July 1 because of a lack of funding:

Our community needs to decide what they want homeless service to look like. We could decide tomorrow that we dont want chronic homelessness. But we havent decided what that looks like, and until we decide we are going to continue to have these forums. Until we have clarity, were going to continue to spin our wheels. We need that values question answered first.

Im so frustrated. Were putting Band-Aids on a crisis. Were not funded enough to get ahead.

Brad Smith of Corvallis Housing First, which used to run the mens shelter on Southwest Fourth Street:

At the county and city level we need the funding cycle to take place in a longer time frame. There is so much time and energy that it takes to apply for small sums or money. And there is the hot potato issue that would have immediate impact. We need to legalize camping in the city and county. Its happening already. Its out there, and the City Council and Benton County need to recognize it for what it is and provide options for restrooms, clean water and a garbage can."

Anne Schuster, chair of the Benton County Board of Commissioners and co-chair of the Housing Opportunities Action Council, which is working to replace the mens cold weather shelter that Smith closed because of negative community reactions, a loss of funding and a lawsuit:

We need a one-stop shop that tells people how to get help. Relationships are a big part of this. We need to show that we care about them. No one-night places. People should not have to worry about having to be out at 7 a.m.

We need to get the Oregon Health Plan involved, health navigators, case workers and once we get them into permanent housing there should be employment and volunteer work and training and education programs to make whatever changes we are making sustainable. Thats my dream. We need an overnight shelter, but in my dream we dont need it. There are so many aspects. We need to decide what we want as a community, like Kari said, and get rid of this NIMBY-ism.

Shawn Collins, the United Way employee who serves as project manager of the HOAC, knows all about NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) while searching for a building for the mens winter shelter.

If we can find the right location, there are people who will step forward to assist. We need to find a location that meets the needs of a shelter and the people around it. It can be really challenging. Its easy for people to say no and harder for people to say yes.

Biff Traber, Corvallis mayor and co-chair with Schuster of the HOAC:

How are we going to pay for it? We need city, county, state and federal funding. All of that is insufficient. Government might come and ask you for more money  and that conflicts with other services  fire service, police service. Thats the challenge for the City Council. We need a vision of where to go, but we also need a funding plan.
A federal judge has dismissed a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit filed by current and former black employees of Time Warner, owner of Turner networks including CNN, TNT and TBS.

U.S. District Court Judge William Duffey of the Northern District of Georgia wrote in Tuesday's dismissal order that the two employees named in the suit failed to show that intentional discrimination based on their race occurred.

The lawsuit filed in December claimed a pattern of discrimination against black employees, particularly men, in evaluations, pay and promotions.

The suit relied heavily on an internal company report on diversity at Turner and CNN, but Duffey said the statistics in the report could be explained by "non-discriminatory factors" and didn't support the claims of intentional and widespread discrimination. Duffey also criticized the original complaint as "fraught with conclusory claims, unsupported by factual allegations sufficient to support the inferences" of discrimination.

An attorney who represented the networks referred The Associated Press to a company spokeswoman on Wednesday. That person didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The judge also refused a request that the plaintiffs be allowed to file an amended complaint. He said the changes were "only cosmetic amendments" and didn't fix the larger issues with the claim.

Daniel Meachum, an attorney for the employees, called Duffey's decision disappointing. Meachum said 190 current and former employees are participating in the class-action suit and he plans to refile the case with different employees named as lead plaintiffs.

"Black people are still being discriminated at CNN and Turner and Time Warner and this order does not put an end to that discrimination," Meachum said in a statement. "So we will endeavor to get our clients their day in court. Our heads may be bloodied but unbowed."
PayPal Holdings Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as the payment processor's growing strategic partnerships helped boost payment volumes.

The company's shares were up 2.4 percent in trading after the bell on Wednesday.

Net income rose 27.2 percent to $411 million, or 34 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30.

Excluding items, the company earned 46 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 43 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

San Jose, California-based PayPal has been expanding its strategic partnerships and investing in new services.

The company has partnerships with Visa Inc , MasterCard Inc , Google's mobile payments platform, Android Pay and several others.

PayPal's collaboration with Apple Inc's services earlier this month has mitigated much concern among investors about competitive threat from Apple. (http://bit.ly/2udRdBv)

PayPal raised its 2017 adjusted earnings forecast to a range of $1.80 per share to $1.84 per share, from $1.74 per share to $1.79 per share range it previously forecast.

The company said it now expected full-year revenue to be in the range of $12.775 billion to $12.875 billion, up from $12.52 billion to $12.72 billion earlier.

PayPal, whose product portfolio includes Braintree, Venmo, One Touch and Xoom, among others, added 210 million active customer accounts in the quarter, up 3.4 percent from a year ago.

Mobile payments volume rose 50 percent to about $36 billion.

PayPal has said more than half of its total active account holders transact using a mobile device.

Payment volumes at PayPal's Venmo, the Braintree-operated peer-to-peer mobile payments platform, more than doubled to $8.0 billion in the second quarter.

Total payments volume jumped 23.5 percent to $106.44 billion.

Total revenue rose 18.3 percent to $3.14 billion.

Up to Wednesday's close, PayPal's shares had risen 49 percent this year.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Sriraj Kalluvila)
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson assured concerned Australian tech entrepreneurs on Wednesday that they will be welcome to continue working in his country after it leaves the European Union.

Johnson was quizzed by technology bosses when he visited the Tyro Fintech Hub shared space for startups in Sydney.

PayDock founder and chief executive Rob Lincolne asked if there will be ministerial support for Australian staff to get visas, while Seatfrog boss Iain Griffin raised concerns about the supply of highly skilled workers in Britain after it exits the EU.

Johnson, who had advocated for Britain's EU departure, seemed surprised by Griffin's concerns, asking him, "Are you really worried?"

"Every business has difficulty finding people," Griffin replied.

Seatfrog is expanding into the Britain and its chief executive is worried Brexit could reduce the country's talent pool.

Johnson said his government wanted to ensure that "people who have energy and talent of ideas can still come to the U.K."

"Of course there will be pressures to try to constrain the overall immigration numbers because they are very, very high at the moment," Johnson said. "But that does not mean we want to see a reduction in the number of tech people who come to London."

Earlier on Wednesday, Johnson toured the Sydney Opera House ahead a bilateral meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

On Thursday, Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Maris Payne for annual talks.

Australian officials said Thursday's meeting would focus on counterterrorism, Europe's future and the threat posed by North Korea, as well as British and Australian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Johnson arrived in Sydney on Tuesday after visits to Japan and New Zealand.
Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) met with government and business leaders in Washington on Wednesday to unveil a plan to spur growth in domestic manufacturing efforts that company executives say will create an estimated 1.5 million new jobs in the United States.

The meeting included a discussion with key individuals on both sides of the aisle about the biggest challenges the U.S. manufacturing sector currently faces. Using an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group and Walmart sourcing data, the company crafted a 10-point plan to recapture an estimated $300 billion in imported consumer goods, stoking job growth in the process.

As weve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal to source an additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs, weve learned a great deal about the challenges our suppliers face in domestic manufacturing, said Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart vice president for U.S. Sourcing and Manufacturing. The good news is weve also learned how to overcome the challenges and, because of our experience, Walmart is uniquely positioned to help facilitate broad engagement in accelerating the expansion of U.S. manufacturing.

Walmarts policy roadmap to boost U.S. manufacturing comes days after President Trumps administration hosted Made in America week at the White House. The event highlighted companies and products crafted in each of the 50 states in a display meant to affirm Trumps commitment to America First policies.

The U.S. manufacturing index, which measures factory activity in the country, reached a near three-year high of 57.8 in June, according to the Institute of Supply Management. Any reading above 50 indicates growth.

The Walmart-backed plan calls for the elimination of so-called policy barriers that officials say are impeding growth in the domestic manufacturing sector. The road map identifies four major obstacles -- a lack of qualified workers, excessive government regulation, dated tax and trade agreements and a lack of coordination among suppliers -- and calls on specific government and business entities to act together to address them.

Enhancing US manufacturing is a top priority of mine, said U.S. Representative Tom Reed (R-NY), co-chair of the House Manufacturing Caucus. Manufacturing is an advancing field where new technologies will open doors to job creation and economic growth. We must work together to remove barriers so that we are more competitive and good paying jobs are once again created right here in the United States.
ObamaCare victim, Marjorie Weer, has a 3-year-old son, Montgomery, with spina bifida that has been on three different health care plans since he was born.

One of the keys to giving a special needs child the care that they need is continuity of care, said Weer.

Weer stood behind President Donald Trump yesterday as he gave recognition to families with special needs children and the struggles they go through.

When ObamaCare was first proposed, Americans were promised that they would be able to keep their own doctor if they preferred. Though, that was not the case for the Weer family, even after they spent hours of research finding the best doctor for their son.

In addition to not being able to keep their chosen doctor, they also saw a rise in their health care costs.

This year our premiums went up 23%. Our income did not go up 23%, but our premiums went up 23%, Weer said.

She also tells FBNs Liz MacDonald that there has been more limited access to health care and that people confuse access to insurance with access to the actual care.

Weer saw this first hand when the family wanted Montgomery to receive treatment at Boston Childrens Hospital, but the insurance provider did not cover out of state care.

It was a long process [the insurance company] did work with me and Im very grateful for that, but it shouldnt be this complicated, she said.

Today the Senate started the process for ObamaCare repeal by voting to begin debate on the proposed senate health care bill. The vote totaled 51-50 with Vice President Mike Pence being the tiebreaker, as well as Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) being flown in for the vote after his brain cancer diagnosis.

Weer sends a strong message to senators saying that she wants to see them repeal ObamaCare.

Get your job done, or well sit home in 2018, Weer said.
The United States Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the introduction of new sanctions on Wednesday against 13 current and former Venezuelan officials who are associated with President Nicolas Maduros regime.

As President Trump has made clear, the United States will not ignore the Maduro regimes ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement Wednesday. As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy.

The individuals sanctioned are believed by the U.S. to be involved in undermining democracy, widespread corruption, stealing from the Venezuelan people and human rights abuses committed to enforce the authoritarian directives of the Maduro regime. These designated people include not only current and former government officials, but also officials from state-run companies, like PDVSA, who have allegedly stole resources from the public.

The United States is introducing sanctions ahead of a controversial Venezuelan election on July 30, which is being orchestrated by President Maduro, to form a new government  the National Constituent Assemblythat will have the power to rewrite the countrys constitution. On Wednesday, administration officials said the U.S. could also target individuals elected to the National Constituent Assembly for sanctions.

More from FOX Business Venezuelas Maduro says vote for new congress will take place

The Venezuelan people have been protesting this election in the streets throughout recent weeks and are currently in the midst of a two-day national strike. The Venezuelan opposition estimates that up to 15,000 civilians have been wounded in protests, with more than 3,000 arrested, according to the White House press release.

President Trump has said the United States is willing to take further action if Maduros regime continues down the same path and follows through with the election.

The Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law, he said last week. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions. The United States once again calls for free and fair elections and stands with the people of Venezuela in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy.

On Wednesday, senior administration officials indicated the White House views July 30 as a pivotal tipping point for not only the future of democracy in Venezuela, but also as a determinant of future U.S.-Venezuela relations. Officials said all options are still on the table depending on what happens over the coming days.
Tesla is going down.

At least one Model S is in a video posted to Instagram by Elon Musk of the first car elevator built by his new tunneling endeavor, The Boring Company.

In April, Musk unveiled a grand plan to build a network of traffic tunnels under Los Angeles that cars would access through strategically-located elevators on the street. Once underground, the cars would ride on computer-controlled maglev sleds at speeds of 124 mph and be directed to their destination like packets of data in a computer.

The elevator video was not accompanied by claims of any breakthrough technologies used in its construction.

The Boring Company has been doing a series of tests on the campus of Musks SpaceX in Hawthorne, Calif., as it explores the development of a high-speed drilling machine that would be used for not just the proposed subterranean highway, but also for an underground Hyperloop transportation system that would link the cities between Washington, D.C. and Boston with 760 mph pods.

Musk claimed last week to have verbal government approval to build, although its still not clear exactly who granted it to him.

Along with the elevator, Musk previously released video of what he says is a prototype for one of the sleds on a test run through a tunnel.
"90 Day Fiance" star Paola Mayfield wants her critics to butt out of her love life.

The Colombian-born beauty took to Instagram to tell off her haters who she says criticize her marriage to Russ.

"People need to stop comparing their life/marriage with mine," Paola wrote Wednesday. "My marriage, my life, my decisions! Stop telling me how to live my marriage and my life."

Paola and Russ have been together for four years. The couple's story has been chronicled on TLC's "90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?"

MORE: PAOLA REGRETS TOPLESS PHOTO SHOOT ON '90 DAY'

Paola acknowledged that she chose to publicly display her marriage -- both good and bad -- on TV but says that doesn't give fans the right to tell her how to live her life.

"Yes I'm public figure," she wrote. "[Yell] at the TV if you are frustrated but don't come to MY ACCOUNT to tell me how to live my life."

She added that she is blocking any negative commenters because she would rather have "quality that quantity" in her followers.
With Game of Thrones Season 7 now in full swing, fans around the world are speculating as to what will happen next for the characters of Westeros. Now, a new fan theory has emerged that has many excited about a key characters potential return, but in a not-so-pleasant way.

As fans know, the series is currently dealing with the oncoming army of the undead known as White Walkers. With the army moving south, and a whole trail of beloved dead characters in the north, some wonder if perhaps any of them will return as villains fighting on the side of the dead. Particularly, everyones favorite limited vocabulary helper, Hodor. Sadly, the actor behind the character is clearly looking to quell those expectations in a hurry.

Were not allowed to talk about it, if there is something [happening], if theres not something, actor Kristian Nairn told InTouch magazine when asked about a possible return. Anyone can come back, but as far as I am concerned, Hodor is dead He deserved a fitting send-off, and I think he got one.

Hodor met a tragic end in Season 6 when it was revealed his inability to say anything but his own name came about from Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead Wright, meddling with the past and accidentally implanting the phrase Hold the door in young Hodors mind. Recently, at the San Diego Comic Con, Nairn and Wright reunited when Conan OBrien and surprised the young star with a visit from his former costar.

It seems theres at least no hard feelings between the actors over the demise of Hodor, who held that door until the bitter end. As for whether or not that heroic moment will be the characters last on screen before the series finishes at the end of Season 8, only time will tell.
President Trump on Wednesday issued a ban on transgender people serving in the military and now Hollywood is chiming in on the news.

POTUS announced the ban in a series of tweets, which sent the social media world into a firestorm.

George Takei, Andy Cohen, Sandra Bernhard and Mia Farrow are among the celebrities lashing out at the president.



Takei wrote, "Trump is banning all transgenders from the military. To those who believed Trump would be a friend to LGBTs, time to admit you were conned."

Farrow encouraged those who disagree with the ban to call their local congresspersons or senators.

"Feel strongly abt heath care? Transgender rights? Let your Senators & Congresspersons know - 202-225-3121 switchboard will connect you."

Andy Cohen chimed in, "Are you TRYING to be an a--hole?"

Seth Rogen lashed out at Ivanka Trump for once writing she stood with the LGBTQ community.

James Corden teased Ivanka that she should give her dad a call.

""Hey Ivanka, James here. Hope all is good, quick question, can you... Erm... Call your dad and have a talk. X"

Trumps ban would stop any transgender person from working with the military in any capacity.

GLAAD issued a statement regarding Trump's transgender military ban to Fox News.

"President Trump today issued a direct attack on transgender Americans, and his administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government  even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation, said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. Today further exposed President Trumps overall goal to erase LGBTQ Americans from this nation. Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldnt make that any more clear.
BROWNSVILLE  Time and patience.

Painter Cliff Newens said thats the key to working on historic buildings like the 136-year-old Moyer House.

Newens was busy Monday morning caulking exterior wood on the second story of the 3,000-square-foot Italianate-style home that is part of the Linn County Parks system.

I really enjoy this, the Sweet Home resident said. The carpenters make her foundation solid and then I get to make her pretty again. Its really an honor to do this.

Newens works for Sorte Painting in Albany.

He said the main body of the home will be spray-painted and all of the intricate trim work will be painted by hand. Before that occurs, loose paint and other debris will be scraped away and old wood will be primed.

He estimates the job will take about two weeks.

While Newens was busy in the air, Dylan Bitle of James Bitle Construction of Brownsville was crafting new window trim pieces to replace rotted areas on both the carriage house and the nearby Moyer House.

There is quite a bit of weather damage, Bitle said. The building is more than 130 years old, so there really isnt just one place. Its a little bit here and a little bit there.

Bitle works for his father and the company focuses on restoring older homes and structures.

Its fun to work with Brian Carroll on this, Bitle said of the county parks director. And, its fun to work on an old home like this. Its really a treat. You have to take your time to do it right, but seeing the quality of construction skills that went into building this house is amazing.

Bitle said repairs began Friday.

He said Linn County employees saved him a lot of time by creating a pattern from one of the homes ornamental trim pieces and then making a dozen of them.

They delivered them Monday and thats really going to save time, Bitle said.

Mandy Cole, Linn County Historical Museum coordinator, said the $18,000 project is being paid for through the Moyer House Restoration Fund, which is amassed by tour admission fees  $2 for adults and $1 for children.

Cole said guided tours of the Moyer House continue throughout the project. Interested persons are encouraged to call ahead at 541-466-3390.

Tour tickets may also be purchased at the Linn County Historical Museum, 101 Park Ave, Brownsville, about a block north of the Moyer House.

The home was built by John and Elizabeth Moyer and includes a front parlor, a music room, a ladies parlor, a dining room and a large kitchen.

The rooms were intricately decorated. Room ceilings are extensively stenciled as are the crown moldings, plus original paintings on the glass transoms and over the bay windows.

In recent years, volunteers have been restoring the interior of the home, from cleaning the stencils to repairing or in some case, replacing wallpaper with recreated materials.
Samantha Burke Okay, so she still hasn't quite made it to Hollywood, but Samantha gave birth to Jude Law's fourth child after a brief fling in 2009. So she's famous by association. Just a year before giving birth to the movie star's daughter, Samantha worked at a Pensacola Beach, Florida Hooters.
As mortally wounded NYPD cop Wenjian Liu lay in a Brooklyn hospital in 2014, doctors asked his stricken wife if she wanted his semen preserved so that she might someday have his child.

Of course she said yes, a friend told The Post  and Tuesday, two-and-a-half years after Lius murder, his widow gave birth to their daughter.

Lius widow, Pei Sanny Xia Chen, named the baby Angel as a tribute to her slain hero husband  whose police hat is now next to her bed at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on the Upper East Side, said the pal, fellow cop widow Maria Dziergowski.

The day Chen was artificially inseminated, she had a dream that Wenjian was there in a white gown looking like an angel and that he handed her a baby, and he said, Its a girl, a little angel,  Dziergowski said.

SPERM COUNT FALLING SHARPLY IN DEVELOPED WORLD, RESEARCH SAYS

So [Chen] knew before everyone that it was a girl.

The babys adorable, smiling, laughing, added Dziergowski, who was with Chen at the hospital Tuesday. She has a lot of hair, a lot of black hair.

Chen  who had only been married to her policeman husband for three months before he and his partner were killed in an ambush by a cop-hating madman  was admitted to the hospital around 12:30 p.m. Monday and gave birth at 4:35 a.m., Dziergowski said.

The baby, whose full name is Angelina, weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and is 19.5 inches long, Dziergowski said.

Sources said the babys birth was particularly poignant for Lius parents, who lost their only son, 32, in the double murder.

Read more from the New York Post.
A community has rallied around a family whose car was stolen while their 11-year-old daughter was at Childrens Hospital Colorado battling cancer for a third time. KoriRae, who was first diagnosed with Leukemia in 2007, was in from Fort Collins with her mother, Jennifer Tyler, at the time of the July 13 theft.

It was gone, I was shocked, Tyler told CBS 4. I couldnt believe it.

They had been staying at a hotel near the hospital as they are scheduled to move across the country so that KoriRae could begin new treatments at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Surveillance footage captured two suspects breaking into the car and driving off. In addition to their vehicle, the thieves also made off with a stroller that KoriRae uses.

NAVY SEAL EMBRACES WIFE FOR FIRST TIME SINCE TRAGIC ACCIDENT

I want to be a normal kid and its kind of hard when theyre stealing our car and stuff, KoriRae had told Fox 31 Denver.

Tyler had referred to the car as the familys lifeline, as they used it to shuttle KoriRae back and forth to crucial appointments. A GoFundMe page was started to help the family with transportation until they found a more permanent solution.

Police in Aurora located the 2000 blue Subaru Legacy a few weeks later, but the vehicle was damaged and missing all four tires, as well as KoriRaes stroller, CBS 4 reported. Thats when police reached out to vendors in the community and asked for help.

JUDGE MAY DECIDE WEDNESDAY WHERE CHARLIE GARD WILL DIE

Obviously this is a very difficult time for this family with what theyre going through so were trying to do what we can to make this time just a bit easier, Police Chief Nick Metz told CBS 4.

A local auto shop, M&M Auto Reconditioning Inc., fixed the car, while someone else donated a new stroller.

I couldnt believe everybody just wanted to pull together and do all this for us, Tyler told CBS 4. Its something I definitely was not expecting.
First, a British judge told a dying babys parents they could not take their child to the U.S. for experimental treatment. On Wednesday a judge may tell them the infant cannot die at the familys home in London, but in a hospice instead.

At a hearing in London, a British high court judge is scheduled to decide where the life of 11-month-old Charlie Gard will end.

Officials at the London hospital where the brain-damaged infant is receiving care say that life-support treatment cannot be done in a practical manner in the home of the infants parents. They prefer that he be moved to a hospice facility instead, the BBC reported.

NEUROLOGIST BACKS FAMILY'S FIGHT TO OVERTURN TEEN'S DEATH CERTIFICATE

Doctors at the hospital noted that the ventilator the baby needs cannot fit through the front door of the parents home.

Charlie has a rare disorder called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which has also robbed him of the ability to use his arms and legs.

The chances of Charlie being able to go home were slight, according to the courts Family Division.

The childs mother, Connie Yates, expressed her frustration Tuesday, as the BBC reported.

NAVY SEAL EMBRACES WIFE FOR FIRST TIME SINCE TRAGIC ACCIDENT

We promised Charlie every day we would take him home, Yates said. It seems really upsetting after everything weve been through to deny us this.

As Fox News has reported, the case has drawn international attention, with Charlies parents receiving support from Pope Francis, President Donald Trump and some members of the U.S. Congress.

U.S.-based pro-life activists flew to London to support Charlie's parents, and the case has become a flashpoint for opposing views on health-care funding, medical intervention, the role of the state and the rights of the child.
A man was diagnosed with Zika virus while living in Texas, the first infection transmitted from a local mosquito in the state this year, health officials announced on Wednesday.

The man from Rio Grande Valley did not travel to other states or countries prior to his diagnosis, according to Texas Health and Human Services. He was tested and is not at risk of transmitting the disease to other mosquitoes.

"Thousands of Zika tests have been done since a DSHS recommendation in April expanded testing of pregnant women and people with Zika symptoms in six South Texas counties," officials said in a news release.

ZIKA VIRUS A RENEWED THREAT

In November and December 2015, the Brownsville area had six locally transmitted cases of Zika reported.

The mosquito-borne virus became a major health concern last year with an increase of infants born with microcephaly, an abnormally small head. More than 5,000 Zika cases were reported last year -- with 224 cases reported to be local Zika transmission in the U.S., the CDC reported.

Health officials still advise pregnant or women who are expecting to be pregnant to avoid countries where the disease is most prominent.
Gradually, and not particularly gracefully, the members of the administration who had contact with Russians are explaining their actions to those who hope to derail Donald Trumps presidency. Its now time for the Trump haters to back off.

I did not collude with Russia, said son-in-law Jared Kushner. How much clearer could he be? Assuming he is telling the truth and that he knows lying to members of Congress would be downright stupid, Kushners closed-door discussion with both Senate and House members and staffers should, barring new revelations, be taken at face value.

Let Kushner use his close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to improve the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

So too, former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, who agreed to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee in exchange for its withdrawal of a subpoena to compel him to testify. Instead, he voluntarily appeared before the committee.

And, perhaps most significantly, Donald Trump, Jr., who seems to have unwittingly put his father in peril with an ill-considered conversation with Russians, has also reached terms that will defer his testimony until at least this fall.

Its now time for the Trump haters to back off.

So what is left? Democrats are convinced that Trump is evil and that his presidency is a direct threat to American democracy. Even some Republicans are appalled at the presidents behavior, but are simply grateful that Hillary Clinton is not cackling in the White House.

If and when the former FBI director, Robert Mueller, releases his extensive investigation of Russian meddling in last years election, it will almost certainly highlight unreported contacts between Trump supporters and Russians with varying degrees of influence.

If Mueller is truly impartial, he will also have to detail similar Russian meetings with Democrats like Sidney Blumenthal. Lets also remember that Mrs. Clinton opposed sanctions against Russia in 2010, when her husband pocketed a six-figure honorarium for a speech in Moscow.

No one wants Russia to have any influence on our electoral system. But the leap to judgment that many elected officials are making is immature, partisan posturing.

Stop it, all of you. And do your jobs.
Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that President Trump's frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions stemmed from the president having "a peculiar concept of what the attorney generals job is."

"[Trump] seems to think the attorney general is some kind of goalie for him, to protect him from whatever may come his way from forces that he finds inimical to him," Hume told host Tucker Carlson. "Thats not the job of the attorney general. It isn't."

The president has repeatedly aired his frustration at Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the FBI's investigation into Russian actions during the 2016 election campaign. Earlier Tuesday, Trump told reporters that "time will tell" whether Sessions would remain the nation's top law enforcement official.

"The circumstances that gave rise to [Sessions'] recusal hadnt really come about at the time when the president appointed him," Hume pointed out. "So, his case against Sessions on recusal doesnt really make any sense to me."

Hume added that "something's going to have to be done" about the situation, saying that "no attorney general or any other cabinet officer can survive for very long when he clearly does not have the confidence of the president."

The veteran analyst also warned that Sessions' potential departure could create a destabilizing domino effect for the administration.

"The question arises whether others in the administration who may be on the outs at the moment may choose not to stay," Hume said. "They may find Trump, as this episode with Sessions may illustrate to them, an impossible person to work for. Thats a very dangerous situation."
Now that a divided Senate has voted to move forward with the Republicans' long-promised legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare, here's what to keep in mind about the health care bill's state of play:

1) Math is always critical on Capitol Hill. That was never better exemplified than when Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, suffering from brain cancer, trekked back across the country to make todays procedural vote.

McCains presence -- and yes vote -- gave the GOPers 50 yeas on the motion to proceed and start debate on the bill. Had McCain not been there, the vote would have been 49 GOP yeas and 50 Democratic noes. That would have killed the effort right there.

McCains presence produced the tie, thus enabling Vice President Pence to break the tie, 51-50.

Interestingly, the Senate is using a special process for health care to sidestep a Democratic Senate filibuster, which can only be overcome by 60 votes. But the problem wasnt with Democrats. Republicans were barely able to scrape together enough votes from their own side of the aisle just to start debate on the legislation.

2) Math is always critical on Capitol Hill Redux. That was never better exemplified by the fact that Pence had to break the tie.

Yes. Fifty senators may have voted to start debate. But as McCain predicted in his speech, getting 51 yeas for this bill, or even 50 so they can again turn to Pence, is problematic. The bill cant shift too far to the right or left. Its fragile enough as it is.

It seems as though they may never be able to get Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to vote yea. Unclear about Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. But Murkowski is more in play than Collins.

Even so, Republicans are already down one. Keep eyes on Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on the right -- and Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, John McCain, R-Arizona, John Hoeven, R-N.D., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and some others in the coming days.

This is the problem that they had with the House health care bill. They fixed one problem for the conservatives and they simultaneously created another problem with the moderates.

The turning radius is more narrow in the Senate than in the House. Thats why the margin for error is virtually nil. It will represent a Herculean effort if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can hold everyone together and not lose more than two votes.

3) Vocabulary terms: Budget Reconciliation, Points of Order, Waive the Budget Act, Vote-a-rama. You will hear these a lot over the next few days.

The Senate is using budget reconciliation to debate the health care bill. Budget reconciliation limits amendments and debate -- nothing else -- to 20 hours.

The advantage of using budget reconciliation is that it turns off filibusters, provided you have everyone on your own side of the aisle in order.

Points of Order are grievances a senator may lodge against a bill if he or she doesnt feel the Senate is operating within its rules or budget reconciliation. However, the Senate can vote to waive the Budget Act -- which created budget reconciliation -- with 60 yeas.

Vote-a-rama is where they cobble all of the votes on amendments, points of order, et al together in a chunk. The Senate may vote for hours on end, just one vote after another.

4) Expect long days/nights in the Senate this week, with a final vote, pass or fail, late Thursday or after midnight Friday. Nuff said.

5) What about the House if the Senate approves a health care bill? Fox News is told there is no plan yet to keep the House here past Friday, the scheduled start of the August recess.

A senior House leadership aide tells Fox News it will evaluate what the Senate has approved -- if something is approved -- and determine if the House needs to come back in August. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told members he reserves the right to recall the House within a 72-hour period.

Also, if the House and Senate have approved differing versions of health care, it may take weeks or months to resolve the differences.

Case in point: The House approved the original version of ObamaCare in November, 2009. The Senate approved its version of ObamaCare in December, 2009. The House and Senate then took until late March, 2010 to merge the bills into one and send a final, unified product to the presidents desk.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night rejected a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to allow insurers to sell low-cost health coverage.

Cruz pitched his Consumer Freedom Option as an amendment to the GOPs plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.

The plan would have let insurers sell cut-rate policies offering limited coverage. It also called for a subsidy of $100 billion, sought by Midwestern moderates, designed to help states ease costs for people losing Medicaid.

But Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asserted that Cruzs amendment didnt comply with a special budget reconciliation process the Senate is using for health care.

Ultimately Tuesday, the first vote on the amendment to the GOPs repeal-and-replace bill failed 57-43, with those voting no including nine Republicans. The 43 yeas were short of the 60 needed to advance the legislation.

Debate on the bill came after Republicans overcame a long delay in drafting a new health care bill, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The vote underscored problems Republicans will have in winning enough votes to recast Obamas signature legislation.

The rejected proposal also included language by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cut Medicaid funding and erase the Obama laws tax penalties on people not buying insurance.

Support for the measure was not clear heading into Tuesdays vote as some lawmakers expressed unease with beginning debate on a bill they didnt fully understand or approve, the Dallas Morning News reported.

However, Cruz urged other Republicans to at least begin debating the legislation in a bid to make good on the partys long-held campaign pledges to repeal ObamaCare.

The measure was expected to fail and was largely seen as more of a test of GOP members support for various proposals.

Following the late-night vote, Cruz remained optimistic.

This was the first step in the process, he said, according to the Morning News. I believe we will see the Consumer Freedom amendment in the legislation that is ultimately enacted.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
President Trump celebrated the Senates procedural vote earlier in the day on repealing ObamaCare but avoided discussing his frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a rally in Ohio on Tuesday night.

Though it still remains unclear whether the Senate will ultimately have the votes to pass health care legislation, Trump portrayed Tuesdays vote as an important step.

The Senate voted 51-50 on Tuesday to start debate on legislation repealing former President Obamas health care law.

Only a few hours ago, the Senate approved a vote to begin debating the repealing and replacing the ObamaCare disaster, Trump said at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown. Finally. You think thats easy? Thats not easy.

He added, Were now one step closer to liberating citizens from this ObamaCare nightmare and delivering great health care for the American people.

The president also issued a warning to Republican senators on the fence.

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, he said.

The rally comes as the president has been lashing out his attorney general over Sessions recusal from the Russia meddling investigation. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Sessions and left open the door to getting rid of him. But he didnt mention Sessions during the rally.

For about an hour, Trump delivered a freewheeling speech, reminiscent of those given during the 2016 campaign, on a variety of topics.

Im here this evening to cut through the fake-news filter and speak straight to the American people, he said.

As he did during the campaign, he took shots at the reporters who cover him.

This has been a difficult week for the media because I forced them to travel with us all around the country and spend time with tens of thousands of proud Americans who believe in the defending our values, our culture, our borders, our civilization and our great American way of life, Trump said.

At one point, the crowd began to chant build that wall. The president then vowed to follow through on his campaign promise.

Dont even think about it, he said. We will build the wall.

Several protesters were escorted out during the speech. After one particularly young-looking man was taken out, Trump remarked: Hes a young one. Hes going back home to mommy. Hes in trouble.

During the speech, Trump brought up a man named Gino Defabio, who said he was a longtime Democrat who voted for the president. He was wearing a shirt that said Trump won, deal with it!

The president also responded to those who say he doesnt always behave like a president should.

Sometimes they say he doesnt act presidential, Trump said. And I say, hey look, great schools, great guy, its so easy to act presidential but thats not going to get it done.

He added, With the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president thats ever held this office. That I can tell you. Its real easy.

Looking back on his six months in office, Trump boasted of withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accords. He also renewed his threat to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

And if we dont negotiate a great deal with Mexico and Canada, we will terminate NAFTA and well start all over again, he said.

Attacking the media again, Trump made the crowd laugh by invoking the possibility a sculpture of him could be on Mount Rushmore.

Id ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, Trump told the crowd. But heres the problem. If I did it jokingly, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, 'He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore.' So I wont say it, OK?
SWEET HOME  A plane accidentally overturned Tuesday afternoon on Foster Reservoir, but no injuries were reported.

The incident was reported shortly before 4 p.m.

According to Linn County Sheriff Jim Yon, John Andrew McKinney, 57, of Lebanon, was using a pontoon-style 1960 Champion fixed wing to pull a young woman in an inner tube across the water.

McKinney was piloting the craft at a slow speed to Shae Point to empty water from its pontoons. Cindy Marie Blondin Witherington, 57, of Sweet Home, was a passenger in the plane.

After the young woman fell from the inner tube, McKinney circled around to pick her up. At this point, one of the pontoons filled with water and flipped the plane.

Trisha Mark, a server at The Point Restaurant, which overlooks Foster Reservoir, said she saw the people in the water and random boats picked them up and brought them to shore.

The FAA will not be investigating the incident, as the organization classifies plane as boats once they're on the water. The Oregon State Marine Board was contacted, along with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Linn County Sheriff's Office was assisted by the Sweet Home police and fire departments.

NOTE: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that the plane had landed on the reservoir.
Perhaps Hillary Clinton hasnt heard the criticism from Democrats to stop blaming Russia and James Comey for her 2016 election loss.

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee reportedly plans to focus her forthcoming memoir on the role that Moscows meddling and former FBI Director Comeys public statements about her email investigation played in her defeat to now-President Trump.

The Hill reported that Clinton has told friends she wants the whole story out there, for a book expected for release in the fall.

She really believes thats why she lost, and she wants to explain why in no uncertain terms, an individual identified as a longtime ally told The Hill.

The report suggests Clinton would return to hammering allegations Russia was involved in the hack of emails from Democratic officials including her campaign chairman, as well as the election impact of Comeys late-stage decision to briefly reopen the email case.

SCHUMER TELLS CLINTON, 'BLAME YOURSELF'

The news comes just days after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested its time to look forward.

When you lose to somebody who has a 40 percent popularity, you dont blame other things -- Comey, Russia -- you blame yourself, Schumer told the Washington Post. So what did we do wrong? People didnt know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that.

Democrats, including Schumer, this week tried to rebrand the party under a new slogan, A Better Deal, looking ahead to the 2018 election.

Former Vice President Biden has also criticized Clintons candidacy in recent months, questioning whether Democrats paid enough attention to blue-collar economic issues.
President Trump may or may not be trying to push Jeff Sessions out, but his top aides arent doing a convincing job of denying it.

The president, of course, could fire him with a phone call, or have an intermediary tell the attorney general he needs to resign. Cabinet shakeups happen all the time.

Instead, the continuing tweetstorm against Sessions amounts to a public flogging of the man who was the first senator to endorse Trump.

At first I thought the president was just venting, and he didnt exactly hide the reason. Trump made clear to the New York Times that he was angry at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, saying he wouldnt have appointed him if he had known that in advance.

The president has expressed frustration and consternation, Kellyanne Conway told Fox, because the recusal has allowed what he considers to be a witch hunt to go forward. And Sessions made the move without consulting him.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new press secretary, told Fox: That frustration certainly hasnt gone away. You know, I dont think it will. She called the Russia probe a complete hoax.

Anthony Scaramucci was told by radio host Hugh Hewitt: Its clear the president wants him gone. And the new communications director, while voicing his respect for Sessions, conceded: If theres this level of tension in the relationship thats public, youre probably right.

Sessions said last week after the swipe in the Times that he had no plans to resign, but how long can he endure this public pummeling?

Trumps latest tweets fault the attorney general for not going after Hillary Clinton:

All this is nothing short of remarkable.

Trump said during the campaign that he would have prosecutors look at Hillary if he won, but dropped such talk after the election, saying he didn't want to "hurt the Clintons" and she had been through enough. It simply doesnt look good for a president to be urging his top law-enforcement officer to investigate his defeated rival.

The pundits are engaging in all kind of speculation that Trump wants Sessions to bow out so he can appoint someone who would either curb Robert Muellers investigation or fire him outright. If thats the caseand its just media chatter at this pointperhaps the appearance would be better if Sessions stepped down.

But this potential upheaval at the Justice Department has sparked new questions about who Trump could get confirmed, or whether he might make a recess appointment once the Senate adjourns. Two names that have been floatedTed Cruz and Rudy Giulianihave both declined, with Rudy saying he thinks Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself.

I suppose this could all blow over. But its noteworthy that Trump hasnt spoken to Sessions since launching the attacks last week.
The IRS said Tuesday it has reached an agreement on guidelines for how to determine whether the Texas Patriots Tea Party should be granted nonprofit status, the Washington Times reported.

The agreement -- roughly eight years in the making -- does not guarantee the conservative groups nonprofit application will be approved or declined.

The group, known as TPTP, will have to answer questions about political candidates and educational speakers invited to events. But the IRS said the words tea party will not factor in its decision, nor will the political beliefs of the individuals in the organization.

In 2015, a bipartisan review from the U.S. Senates Finance Committee found management flaws at the IRS contributed to a dysfunctional culture that allowed agents to mistreat conservative groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.

The American Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit in 2012 against the IRS on behalf of the Albuquerque Tea Party in New Mexico and other conservative groups whose requests for tax-exempt status seemed to be put on hold during the Obama administration.

The Albuquerque group recently received tax-exempt status.

This does provide a path forward for TPTP, Edward Greim, a lawyer representing the group, as well as hundreds of other tea party organizations that have banded together in a class-action lawsuit against the IRS told the Times. We will be watching the IRS closely to ensure that TPTP does in fact receive fair processing.

Between 2009 and 2013, about 500 mostly conservative groups that filed for tax-exempt status found their applications under strict scrutiny by the IRS based on their assumed political affiliation, reported the Times. They were even singled out if the organizations used the words such as tea party or patriots, according to investigators.

Kevin Brady, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to re-open the investigation into Lois Lerner for her alleged role in targeting conservative groups who applied for tax-exempt status. Lerner headed the division that processes applications for tax-exempt status at the time and has since retired.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice cleared Lerner of any charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A conservative-backed plan to repeal the bulk of ObamaCare and give lawmakers a two-year window to replace the struggling health law failed on a Senate vote Wednesday, in the latest setback for the repeal push.

The vote was 55-45 against the amendment, with seven Republicans opposing. The chambers 46 Democrats and two independent senators all voted against the measure.

The so-called straight repeal amendment, offered by Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, would have given senators two years to come up with a replacement. The measure failed on the heels of another sweeping ObamaCare overhaul amendment stalling overnight.

The votes highlight the difficulty Republican senators are having trying to hammer out an actual replacement plan, even after advancing a core bill to debate in a dramatic vote on Tuesday.

The straight repeal was essentially identical to the one that the GOP-controlled Congress sent in 2015 to then-President Barack Obama, who immediately vetoed the bill.

Senate Republicans drafted their first repeal measure of this session several months ago. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at first was unable to get enough support to even hold a vote.

However, McConnell on Tuesday managed to garner enough backing to open debate for this bill, with the expectation that lawmakers would be able to vote on a slew of amendments. The successful test vote was helped in no small part by the dramatic arrival of Sen. John McCain, who voted to start debate upon returning to Capitol Hill for the first time since being diagnosed last week with brain cancer.

The amendment process, though, has been rocky.

Senators on Tuesday night blocked a wide-ranging proposal by Republicans to repeal much of ObamaCare and replace it with a more restrictive plan.

In Wednesday's vote, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine; Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia; John McCain of Arizona; Rob Portman of Ohio; Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Dean Heller of Nevada voted in opposition.

With members divided, Republicans may now move to attempt to pass whats being referred to as skinny repeal. That plan repeals just a few elements of ObamaCare, like the individual and employer mandate and the taxes on medical device makers.

During a rally in Ohio on Tuesday night, President Trump issued a warning to Republicans who were on the fence about repealing ObamaCare.

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, the president said.

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Seven Senate Republicans broke with leadership Wednesday to vote against a so-called "straight repeal" of ObamaCare.

Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Dean Heller, R-Nev.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, joined all Democrats to defeat the amendment, which would have given Congress two years to devise a replacement to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Murkowski attracted Trump's ire earlier Wednesday when she and Collins voted against even allowing debate on GOP legislation to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act. The final tally was 51-50, with Vice President Pence breaking the tie.

Early Wednesday, Trump tweeted that Murkowski had "really let the Republicans, and our country, down." Murkowski responded that she was "comfortable" with her vote.

Heller, who is up for re-election next year, was the focus of Trump's attention during a meeting with GOP senators to discuss health care at the White House last week.

"Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn't he?" said Trump, who added that the people of Nevada would "appreciate" if Heller supported repeal legislation.
Senate Democrats used a parliamentary maneuver Wednesday to cut short a high-profile hearing, where a key witness was set to testify on Russia's misdeeds and also raise fresh allegations against the company behind the infamous anti-Trump dossier.

Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, was set to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that the co-founder of the firm Fusion GPS was hired to conduct a "smear campaign" against him. Further, he planned to testify the campaign was orchestrated by Natalia Veselnitskaya -- the Russian attorney who sought the highly scrutinized Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June 2016.

Browder released written testimony ahead of the hearing but his public remarks were delayed when Democrats invoked the "two-hour rule" to protest Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare. The seldom-used rule bars committees from meeting more than two hours after the full Senate begins a session.

Veselnitskaya, through Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsy Act.  Bill Browder, in prepared statement to Senate committee

I dont know if the minority is intentionally trying to block testimony that may be critical of a firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, but Ill bet two bits that had Paul Manafort or Donald Trump, Jr. appeared at todays hearing, it would not have been prematurely shut down," Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. "The Democrat leadership is playing politics, plain and simple."

Browder now is expected to testify Thursday, but his statement makes clear that he will have plenty to say about Fusion GPS, the shadowy intel company founded by a pair of former Wall Street Journal reporters, including Glenn Simpson.

Veselnitskaya, through Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act, Browder wrote in his prepared testimony, adding that the firm helped to organize a Washington D.C.-based premiere of a fake documentary about Magnitsky and himself.

While they were conducting these operations in Washington D.C., at no time did they indicate that they were acting on behalf of Russian government interests, nor did they file disclosures under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Browders prepared testimony said.

Browder added: This was one of the best examples of Putins propaganda.

Browder hired the late Sergei Magnitsky to uncover details of massive financial fraud in Russia involving corrupt Russian government officials. Magnitsky was imprisoned and ultimately beaten to death by Russian officers in Moscow. In the wake of his death, the U.S. passed a law named for him that brought sanctions against Russian oligarchs suspected of money laundering.

Grassley noted that he had been asking about the Russians working with Fusion GPS since March 2017. He cited the widely discredited dossier compiled about Trump that circulated among Democratic operatives and the media during the latter stages of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr. Simpsons company, Fusion GPS, is the same firm that oversaw the creation of the unverified Trump Dossier, Grassley said in his opening statement. It is vital for the Committee to fully understand Fusions failure to register under FARA and its role in the creating and spreading of the dossier.

Grassley acknowledged that around the same time Fusion helped to orchestrate a propaganda campaign to repeal the Magnitsky Act, Fusion appears to have been involved in the creation of the dirty Trump Dossier.

There are public reports that the FBI used the dossier to kickstart its Russia investigationDid the FBI know that Fusion pitched Russian propaganda for another client as it pushed the Trump dossier? Grassley asked in his opening statement, delivered before the hearing was cut short.

Grassley questioned Veselnitskayas meeting at Trump Tower.

Was it just a clumsy bait-and-switch effort in their unregistered propaganda and influence campaign? They offered dirt on the opponent to get the meeting and then made their pitch against the Magnitsky Act? Grassley asked. Or was it an offer of collusion? Or maybe both?

Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for the presidents eldest son to testify, along with Manafort, and Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS in the committees oversight hearing on FARA. All three witnesses have since reached arrangements to interview with the committee, for now, in private.

There was no mystery of who Natalia Veselnitskaya was. A simple Google search would have shown that she was the main in house lawyer for a high level Russian government official whose son was accused by the US DOJ of money laundering from the Magnitsky case in the US, Browder told Fox News before his appearance before the committee. Either the people in that meeting didn't do any due diligence in advance or someone made an error in judgement agreeing to meet with her in the first place.

But with regard to Fusion GPS, Browder told Fox News that he didnt know what else Simpson was involved with, but that the group did not register under FARA.

Natalia engaged Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS in order to run an anti-Magnitsky Act smear campaign in Washington D.C. which was funded by sources connected to the Russian government, Browder told Fox News.

Though he did not testify before the committee Wednesday, Thor Halvorssen, a human rights advocate with the Human Rights Foundation, submitted statements for the record to the committee in regards to his experience with Fusion GPS.

Its the sort of thing they specialize inmainstreaming false smears, allegations that are so salacious and over the top that people assume they must be true, Halvorssen told Fox News, noting the crude dossier about the president. They did this with Browder, they did this with two other whistleblowers and they did this with me they are outrageous accusations where innocence just isnt enough.

Halvorssen said public exposure is key to combatting Fusion GPS, which he said has been active in international smear campaigns.

in his written statement, Halvorssen told the committee that Fusion GPS targeted him and several others because of their criticism of Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan energy company that was reportedly being investigated for an alleged multi-billion dollar bribe.

I think its clear that this is not the case of a company that forgot to register, or didnt know that they had to register, Halvorssen told Fox News. Fusion GPS purposely, and quite deliberately, chose not to register so that their activity would fly under the radar, leading people to see the result of their work as organic and real, pushing a noble vision of truth, instead of what it actually is smear campaigns in return for large enough retainers.'

But in its statement given to Fox News earlier this month, Fusion said it had nothing to do with the Trump Jr. meeting.

Fusion GPS learned about this meeting from news reports and had no prior knowledge of it. Any claim that Fusion GPS arranged or facilitated this meeting in any way is absolutely false, the statement read.
New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci suggested Wednesday that his efforts to stop damaging leaks will go beyond the West Wing and into federal agencies -- and made clear he wont play the Washington back-stabbing game.

To the contrary, he said, Im more of a front-stabbing person."

Scaramucci, a New Yorker, told Fox & Friends what he doesn't like about Washington is "people do not let you know how they feel. They're very nice to your face, and then they take a shiv or a machete and they stab it in your back."

He said that would change on his watch. "I have the stomach and the backbone to fire you," he said

Scaramucci, who on Friday became communications director as Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned, also said holdovers from the Obama administration are responsible for some of the leaked information that has slowed President Trumps agenda.

He said hes going to be working with the federal agencies and departments within the administration -- a departure from earlier comments.

Im not going to be able to stop the leaks in the inter-governmental agencies and all that other stuff, he told Fox News Sunday. "I'm just focused on the communications team.

Scaramucci also confirmed a Fox News report that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is preparing an investigation into intelligence leaks, saying Sessions will announce the plan as early as Wednesday or perhaps next week.

He also acknowledged again that stopping all the leaks is impossible and suggested his focus will be West Wing employees leaking information on each other.

The president himself deserves better that, said Scaramucci, who declined to directly discuss Trumps dissatisfaction with Sessions' job performance or whether a rift exists between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will soon announce several criminal leak investigations, Fox News has learned.

A U.S. official familiar with the discussions said Tuesday that the planned announcement surrounding stepped-up efforts on leak investigations has been in the works for some time and will most likely happen sometime in the next week.

The news comes in the wake of days of intense pressure on Sessions, with President Trump lashing out and expressing his disappointment with the attorney general, through tweets, interviews and news conferences.

The investigations will look at news reports that publicized sensitive intelligence material, according to officials who have been briefed on the matter.

Meanwhile, it appears that Sessions has no plans to step down at this point.

A source familiar with the conversation tells Fox News that Sessions chief of staff, Jody Hunt, recently told White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that the attorney general had no intention of resigning.

Trump said Tuesday that Sessions has not been tougher on leaks from the intelligence community.

"I want the attorney general to be much tougher," Trump said. "I want the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies we cannot have that happen."

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's new communications director, said Tuesday that he was prepared to "fire everybody" to stop unauthorized information coming from the press office.

Speaking to reporters, Scaramucci said that he was "not doing an investigation. I'm just going to get the leaking to stop." He stressed that he had "the authority from the president to do that."

"You're either going to stop leaking or you're going to get fired," Scaramucci said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
President Trump touched off a firestorm Wednesday after tweeting that he wants to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military in any capacity -- citing advice from his "generals" and medical costs.

In a series of tweets, he wrote:

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

The presidents tweets came only a few weeks after Defense Secretary James Mattis said he would give military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services will affect the readiness or lethality of the force. The deadline for that review was Dec. 1, 2017.

This is worse than dont ask dont tell, this is dont serve, dont serve, The National Center for Transgender Equality said in a written statement. This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science. It is indefensible and cannot stand.

The Family Research Council praised Trumps action.

I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nations military, FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement. The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said "we don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."

But Trump himself tweeted during the campaign season that he would "fight" for the LGBTQ community while his opponent "Hillary (Clinton) brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs."

During his confirmation hearing in January, Mattis was asked whether he believed that allowing LGBT Americans to serve in the military or women in combat would undermine the militarys lethality.

Frankly, senator, Ive never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with, Mattis testified.

Abbie Goldberg, professor of psychology at Clark University who has researched and written about the LGBTQ community, told Fox News no one wins under Trumps plan.

Some people will not serve, which is a loss to the military and the country, Goldberg said. Others will serve, but not openly, and thus they will be at risk for discharge or verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active-duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

The study also found that allowing transgender people to serve in the military would have a "minimal impact" on the health care costs.

The Pentagon announced it would continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief on transgender individuals serving in the military.

We will provide revised guidance to the Department in the near future, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in statement.

Trumps announcement comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate the current practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay for medical treatment for gender transition.

Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler offered an amendment that would prohibit the Pentagon from spending money on transition surgeries or hormone therapy. Her amendment was narrowly defeated earlier this month.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Trumps decision a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans.

On this very day in 1948, President Harry Truman signed the executive order desegregating the U.S. military. Sixty-nine years later, President Trump has chosen this day to unleash a vile and hateful agenda that will blindside thousands of patriotic Americans already serving with honor and bravery, she said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,slammed the sudden announcement and said anyone who is fit to serve in the military should be allowed to do so.

The presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter, McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

"I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified," Carter said in a statement. "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military. There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, the officials said. They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson, Christopher Carbone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The spectacle of wealthy left-wing Hollywood elites publicly knocking members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) because of their robust cheering for President Trump as he addressed their national gathering is producing a backlash among those familiar with both the White House and the 107-year-old youth organization.

Earlier this week, Trump gave a speech in West Virginia to the National Scout Jamboree, a yearly gathering of more than 40,000 Scouts, leaders and volunteers. Besides lauding Scouts values, Trump blasted his predecessor and made other highly partisan comments. Throughout the speech, the boys gave him frequent enthusiastic applause.

Criticism from across the political spectrum focused on the partisan tone of the speech, and the groups leadership even issued a statement distancing itself from Trumps comments.

The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy. The invitation to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies, the BSA statement said.

But while there was bipartisan criticism of Trump for injecting politics into the Boy Scouts meeting, some on the left also ridiculed the Scouts themselves for cheering Trump.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and soap opera actress Nancy Lee Grahn, for example, both likened the Boy Scouts meeting as reminiscent of Hitler Youth rallies.

[Boy Scouts of America] is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy.  Boy Scouts of America

The Hitler invocations are not new where Trump is concerned. Many progressives routinely compare Trump to the Nazi leader. Theres even a Twitter account named @TrumpandHitler.

Moore tweeted: I'm an Eagle Scout. Trump using the 30,000 Boy Scouts as his props tonight was a scene out of Triumph of the Will. Shocking abuse of children.

Grahn, who appears on the soap opera General Hospital, tweeted: Tragically, #boyscouts in 2017 applaud Trump just like the all blonde blue eyed youth did for Hitler in the 30's.

Many say those who are drawing parallels to Hitler and young Nazis are being vicious and irrational.

Its customary to invite the president, said John Stemberger, an Eagle Scout and a former Scoutmaster who founded Trail Life USA, a conservative group that opposes homosexuality and was formed as an alternative to Boy Scouts. If youre going to invite President Trump, you need to know hes going to be President Trump. He was doing what he does.

Though Stemberger has been a vocal opponent of the Boy Scouts more progressive moves, such as allowing gay members and troop leaders, as well as transgender Scouts, he said he objects to the criticism that has been heaped upon the youths after Trumps speech.

There are many legitimate criticisms of the Boy Scouts of America, but its nonsense to compare them to Hitler youth, Stemberger said. Its an irresponsible comment. The left is critical of anything that tries to promote uniformity and character-building. Thats a problem for them.

Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration and now chairman of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called Trumps speech highly inappropriate.

In a speech to the Boy Scouts, of course the president should go and speak, and give views on policy, on the health care bill," Painter said, But I dont think that in front of the Boy Scouts you attack your predecessor, President Obama, and the Boy Scouts to cheer, or attack Hillary Clinton for an election thats over. Youre using the Boy Scouts for a political rally.

That said, Painter noted, tossing out terms like "Hitler youth" is unfair.

I dont want this to be an attack on the Boy Scouts, said Painter, adding that the organization has to invite all presidents. I think it would be sad for people to turn on the Boy Scouts and portray them as a right-wing organization.

Scouting prepares Democratic and Republican [boys] alike to be loyal to their country, their values transcend political party, and patriotism is critical [to them], he said. They have an American flag on their sleeve, not a picture of Donald Trump.
Former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, undoubtedly rejoiced when federal prosecutors announced they had decided against filing criminal charges against the two.

The reaction from the pair likely was different after the state's Government Ethics Commission voted, earlier this month, to resume its own investigation, which had been placed on hold while federal officials pursued their probe. The commission will investigate whether Kitzhaber and Hayes broke state laws barring officials from accepting expensive gifts and misusing their positions for personal gain. The commission also will try to determine whether Kitzhaber and Hayes disclosed actual or potential conflicts of interest.

It's possible that the final result of this investigation could be different than the federal inquiry, for this simple reason: The Ethics Commission has a lower bar to clear than the feds, who were looking for possible criminal charges and had to meet the high burden of proof required for a criminal conviction.

But instead of criminal charges, the commission would seek civil sanctions against Kitzhaber and Hayes if it determines they violated Oregon ethics laws. A civil case would have a lower threshold in terms of the burden of proof. Potential fines for violations could range from $5,000 for accepting gifts above the legal limit and failing to disclose conflicts of interest to $10,000 for willfully violating the law prohibiting misuse of a public position.

You will recall the state investigation was triggered by complaints filed with the commission in 2014 in the wake of reports that Hayes used her unpaid position as an adviser to Kitzhaber to benefit her career. Other complaints alleged that Kitzhaber's associates helped to create jobs for Hayes.

You may be thinking that this Ethics Commission investigation feels like an afterthought, an epilogue to the Kitzhaber and Hayes scandal that likely won't add anything substantial to the saga. And you may be right; certainly, that's how Kitzhaber and Hayes must be thinking about it. Janet Hoffman, a lawyer for Kitzhaber, urged the commission not to pursue the investigation. In a letter, Hoffman called the complaint "politically motivated" and argued that "there is no substantial objective basis to believe that a violation of the ethics laws may have been committed. Rather, these allegations arose in the context of a political election and ensuing media frenzy that resulted in the resignation of a popular, effective governor who chose to put his public duty before the defense of his reputation."

But the commission swept away Hoffman's arguments in its unanimous vote to pursue its investigation. It has some motivation of its own: A thorough investigation of this case could show Oregonians that the commission has clout and that its possible sanctions have real teeth. The commission has some history to overcome in this regard: An analysis by The Oregonian in 2015 showed that the commission had negotiated lower penalties in every case involving a public official since 2008. So the commission might well see the Kitzhaber-Hayes investigation as an opportunity to sharpen its reputation as a watchdog.

It has to do so in a hurry, however: State law gives the commission's staff 180 days to complete its investigation and recommend whether to pursue civil penalties, although it can extend the investigation by 30 days. Those rules help ensure that these investigations don't linger in the same way that the federal inquiry stretched out over more than two years.

Once federal authorities decided not to pursue their case, it was inevitable that the Ethics Commission would resume its investigation. The best-case scenario here is that the commission performs a brief but effective inquiry that brings closure to this sorry chapter. However, we can think of plenty of ways in which this investigation can go completely off the rails. By early next year, we should know which course the probe followed. (mm)
Republicans in Congress have joined the White House in asking questions about the extent to which a Democratic Party consultant may have worked with Ukrainian officials to hurt then-candidate Donald Trump's presidential bid last year.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote a letter earlier this week to the Justice Department asking whether the Democratic National Committee broke the law. Grassley, R-Iowa, specifically asked if the DOJ was investigating Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American DNC consultant who allegedly had meetings at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., to discuss incriminating information about Trump campaign officials.

President Trump, trying furiously to tamp down the controversy over alleged Russian coordination with his associates, has questioned why the same scrutiny is not being applied to the Democrats' alleged Ukraine connection.

In a Tuesday tweet, he complained about the lack of an investigation into Ukraine efforts to "sabotage" his campaign.

Prying into such claims, Grassley's letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein flagged the deficient enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and asked why the Justice Department did not require Chalupa to register.

Chalupas actions appear to show that she was simultaneously working on behalf of a foreign government, Ukraine, and on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign, in an effort to influence not only the U.S. voting population but U.S. government officials, Grassley wrote to Rosenstein, claiming that if that were the case, Chalupa would have been required under law to register under FARA.

FARA requires individuals to register with the Justice Department if they act, even through an intermediary, as an agent, representative, employee or servant or in any other capacity at the behest of a foreign actor to engage with a U.S. official, according to Grassleys letter.

DEMOCRATS BLOCK KEY WITNESS AGAINST SHADOWY FIRM FUSION GPS

Grassley requested a response from Rosenstein by Aug. 3. The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. Grassley said it was imperative that the Justice Department explain why Chalupa had not been required to register.

But Chalupas attorney, Conrad Nowak of Hinshaw Culbertson, LLP told Fox News that the law was inapplicable to Chalupas actions.

When discussing the actions of Alexandra Chalupa, the spirit and letter of FARA could not be more inapplicable. In contrast, Mr. Manafort, we must remember, was in fact directly working for a foreign entity for enormous sums of money, Nowak said, referring to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Chalupa was nothing more than an individual involved in ethnic relations, not unlike countless other ethnic and heritage communities throughout the United States.

Chalupa, who has since left the DNC, worked as a part-time consultant, primarily in ethnic-American outreach.

Her attorney blamed the attack over her activities and the attempt to force them into FARA as nothing more than continued anti-immigrant, anti-ethnic rhetoric.

Nowak did, however, point out that FARA has never had a successful prosecution under its provisions, and that it exempts certain cultural, social or academic activities.

Its my belief that all of this is nothing more than misdirection from the real issue and that is Russian intervention in our presidential election, which it is important to point out, has been already proved and supported by intelligence agencies, Nowak said. Believe me, if there was anything to this Ukraine red herring, we wouldve heard about it a long time ago.

Chalupa was first brought into the conversation in January, after Politico published a report exposing her as a DNC operative, who worked in the Clinton White House and met with officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in an effort to expose ties between Manafort and Russia.

Even before Trump tweeted on Tuesday, the White House was raising questions about Democrats' ties to Ukraine. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders even suggested it could amount to "collusion" -- the same charge critics level against the Trump team and Russia.

A DNC spokeswoman told Fox News the White House has been pushing this narrative to distract.

No one is buying it, DNC Deputy Communications Director Adrienne Watson told Fox News. The Trump campaign embraced an offer from a hostile foreign government to interfere in our elections. Trump and some of his family watched for months as the Kremlin attacked our democracy, and did nothing but encourage and celebrate their efforts.

Watson added: The FBI is investigating whether the Trump campaign was involved in these efforts.

But Grassley has applied scrutiny to both sides of the aisle. His committee initially subpoenaed Manafort to appear in a public hearing Wednesday to discuss the same issue  Foreign Agent Registration. The committee then reached an arrangement with Manafort to avoid public testimony for now.
President Trump slammed Sen. Lisa Murkowski for her defection on Tuesday's procedural vote on an ObamaCare repeal plan.

Senator @LisaMurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump tweeted early Wednesday.

Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, were the only two Republicans to vote no to move forward with debate on Tuesday. The bill narrowly cleared the procedural hurdle.

Collins and Murkowski have been among the moderate Senate Republicans concerned about possible Medicaid cuts in a full ObamaCare overhaul. Both senators sent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., separate letters last week opposing the Senates effort to pass legislation to repeal ObamaCare without new legislation in place.

The presidents tweet only addressed his disappointment in Murkowski, and did not mention Collins.
The Senate will be working overtime this week to pull together its ObamaCare overhaul measure -- voting on a pile of amendments and procedural matters to get a complete bill on President Trumps desk as soon as possible.

Essentially all of the work will fall on leaders of the Republican-controlled chamber who must get enough votes for final passage of their measure, after clearing a major hurdle Tuesday of getting enough votes to even begin debate. (No Senate Democrats or independents support the measure.)

Math is always critical on Capitol Hill: Nothing better exemplified that assertion better than the return of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon following brain surgery. McCain trekked back across the country to make the procedural vote to launch the debate.

His presence (and yes vote) gave the GOPers 50 yeas on the motion to proceed. Had McCain not been there, the vote likely would have been 49 Republican yeas and 50 noes. That would have killed the health care effort immediately. McCains presence produced the tie and allowed Vice President Pence to break the deadlock, 51-50.

The Senate is using a special process for health care bill to sidestep a Democratic filibuster.

Sixty votes are needed to overcome conventional filibusters. Republicans knew they didnt have the votes for that. So they opted for the special, filibuster-proof gambit. But the problem wasnt with Democrats. Republicans were barely able to scrape together enough votes from their own side of the aisle just to begin debate on the legislation.

There was no better example of this than when Pence broke the tie on the motion to proceed. Yes. Fifty senators may have voted to start debate. But as McCain predicted in his speech, getting 51 yeas for this bill -- or even 50 so they can again turn to the vice president -- is problematic.

The bill cant shift too far to the right or left. Its fragile enough as is. It seems as though the Republican brass may never be able to get Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to vote yea. And whether they can persuade Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is unclear.

The GOP senators on the right to watch will be Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Those in the middle of the Senate Republican Conference -- whose votes also are no sure thing -- include Sens. McCain, Dean Heller of Nevada, Jeff Flake of Arizona, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rob Portman of Ohio.

This is the problem House Republicans encountered with the health care bill they passed several months ago. The leaders fixed one problem for the conservatives and simultaneously created another problem with the moderates.

The turning radius is narrower in the Senate than in the House. Thats why the margin for error is virtually nil. It will represent a Herculean effort if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., holds everyone together and doesnt lose more than two votes.

In the coming days and expected late nights, all before Congress leaves for its August recess, Americans can expect to hear the senators talk about such procedural matters as budget reconciliation, point of order, waive the Budget Act, and vote-a-rama.

Budget reconciliation is the special procedure the Senate is using to debate the health care bill.

The parliamentary procedure or tactic limits amendments and debate (debate, nothing else) to 20 hours.

The advantage of such a procedure is that it turns off filibusters -- provided the Democrats or Republicans who control the chamber are united.

Points of order are grievances senators may lodge against a bill if they dont feel the Senate is operating within the rules or strictures of budget reconciliation.

However, the Senate can vote to waive the Budget Act (which created the budget reconciliation process in 1974) with 60 yeas.

The Senate already ran into this problem Tuesday night, after the successful procedural vote.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., made a point of order against an amendment written by Cruz to pare down coverage plans/requirements.

The Senate then attempted to overcome Murrays point of order and waive the Budget Act. But the Senate fell short of 60 yeas. That vote alone to exclude the Cruz amendment casts doubt on the potential for success with the health care bill.

Vote-a-rama is when the Senate votes on all amendments and points of order in a tranche. The Senate may vote for hours on end, just one roll call tally after another.

A final vote on the bill is expected late Thursday or midnight Friday.

What about the House if the Senate approves a health care bill?

McConnell has delayed the start of the August recess by two weeks. But Fox News is told there is no plan to keep the House here past Friday, the scheduled start of the recess.

A senior House leadership aide tells Fox it will evaluate what the Senate approves (if senators can in fact pass something) and determine whether the House needs to come back in August.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told members he reserves the right to recall lawmakers within a 72-hour period.

Also, if the House and Senate adopt different versions of health care, it may take weeks or months to resolve the differences.

The House passed the original version of ObamaCare in November 2009.

The Senate approved its version a month later. The House and Senate then took until late March 2010 to merge the bills and send a final, unified product to then-President Barack Obamas desk.

Just the required reading all of the amendment will take time. At 5:52 p.m. Tuesday, a Senate clerk began reading out loud all 178 pages of the GOPs health care plan from the dais in the chamber. Four reading clerks rotated in this exercise until 8:23 p.m.

In fact, three readings are required before a vote.

The custom dates back to when there was often only one copy of a bill.

Bills were read out loud in the chamber so all members understood the issue at hand. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, some members relied on hearing the bill read aloud  because they were illiterate.

The so-called readings of bills and amendments rarely go on for more than a few sentences before someone asks that the reading end.

But if someone in the Senate objects, the reading must continue. Thats exactly what happened late Tuesday afternoon. Democrats objected to suspending the reading. The reading eats up inordinate amounts of time and is a dilatory tactic.

At 8:23 p.m., Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., asked unanimous consent that the clerks cease the reading. Nobody objected even though the clerks were only about three-quarters of the way through the bill.

Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders staunchly defended President Trumps decision Wednesday to ban transgender people from serving in the military in "any capacity," a move that touched off a firestorm in Washington and beyond.

In her first, solo on-camera press briefing since she replaced Sean Spicer, Sanders faced a battery of questions on the presidents abrupt Twitter announcement earlier Wednesday morning. She said the decision was based on consultation with the presidents national security team and the Pentagon.

This decision was made after extensive discussions with the national security team and it was in the militarys best interest to end this Obama policy, Sanders said. ... This is a very expensive and disruptive policy and based on consultation with his national security team, it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, and he made the decision based on that.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES BAN ON TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS SERVING IN MILITARY

The decision effectively reversed one made at the end of the Obama administration. Transgender service members had been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the prior ban. But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards.

When pressed repeatedly Wednesday on what would happen to transgender service members currently serving in the military, Sanders could not say. She said implementation of the policy would be something the White House and Department of Defense would work together to lawfully determine.

The decision is based on a military decisionnot meant to be anything more than thatobviously this is a very difficult decision. Its not a simple one, but the president feels its the best one for the military, Sanders said.

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he would give military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist would affect the readiness or lethality of the force. The deadline for that review was Dec. 1, 2017.

Sometimes you have to make decisions, and once [Trump] made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, Sanders explained, adding that Mattis was immediately informed of Trump's choice.

Some lawmakers including Reps. Steve King, R-Iowa, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., backed the president's decision, as did groups like the Family Research Council. But the move drew criticism from past secretaries of defense and lawmakers from both parties.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slammed the announcement and said anyone fit to serve in the military should be allowed to do so.

The presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter, McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.

Trump made his announcement in a series of tweets on Wednesday morning:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allowTransgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelmingvictory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

At Wednesday's briefing, reporters questioned Sanders over a tweet then-candidate Trump posted in June 2016, when he said: Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

Sanders responded that the president has made very clear that he is committed to fighting for all Americans.

The on-camera briefing was arranged on the heels of Anthony Scaramucci being named White House communications director.

At the beginning of the briefing, Sanders told reporters that from time to time she would like to give a reminder of why we are here every day.

She started by reading a letter to the president from a 9-year-old boy nicknamed "Pickle" and added some personal reflections about her own family.

I have three children, and the oldest, Scarlett, starts kindergarten in a few weeks, Sanders said, noting she is the first mom to be White House press secretary. As a working mom, its not lost on me what a great honor, and privilege it is to stand here at the podiumI hope to send my daughter a message, and every other kid in America, dont listen to the critics, dream big and fulfill your potential.

Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.
An Alaska man said his boat was repeatedly rammed by an orca whale Sunday while he was fishing with his son and two other people.

Victor Littlefield of Sitka said the killer whale struck the boat numerous times, yanked its anchor line and slapped the boats bow with its tail.

The 33-foot aluminum boat lurched to one side during the attack, Littlefield told the Sitka Sentinel. The event occurred while the vessel was anchored near Little Biorka Island in southeastern Alaska.

US PREPS NEXT MISSILE TEST, FROM ALASKAN ISLAND

Littlefield initially thought the boat was being attacked by a great white shark.

I had just watched Jaws the day before, Littlefield told the newspaper.

But when he took a closer look, he saw the black and white whale.

Littlefields black Labrador retriever, Roscoe, was lying on a commercial ice box on the boat and Littlefield said he wondered if the whale was going after the dog.

It was just extremely bizarre behavior that Id never heard of, he said.

During the attack, Littlefield said he screamed and cursed at the killer whale, terrified it would pull the boat under water when it kept twisting the anchor line around itself.

STUBBS, AN ALASKA TOWNS HONORARY CAT MAYOR, HAS DIED

Littlefields 14-year-old son videotaped part of the incident, which lasted a few minutes, before the whale swam away. No one was hurt and the boat suffered no damage.

It [the fishing boat] lost some paint, but there was no damage to the boat, Littlefield said.

Albert Duncan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Littlefield notified the agency and provided video of the encounter.

Its very rare, Duncan said of the orca attack. With killer whales there has never been a recorded incident with a fatality in the wild.

Littlefield said he was not prepared for the orca attack and wants people to be more careful when going out in the water.

I wanted people to be aware its a possibility, he said. Its always an adventure out there, but this wasnt one I was prepared to deal with.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Saint Columba, best known for bringing Christianity to Scotland from Ireland in the sixth century, led the life of a superhero of sorts on Iona, a windswept island off the west coast of Scotland. He cured illnesses, rendered snakes' venom harmless, resurrected the dead and even saved a swimmer from being bitten by the Loch Ness monster, according to a record of the saint's miracles, which were written a century after his death by the abbot Adomnan.

Now, remnants excavated from a small, rocky hill in Iona known as Torr an Aba have been confirmed to be from the time period during which St. Columba lived. This means it's likely that the remnants are pieces of the walls of the hut occupied by the medieval saint himself, according to the archaeologists working on the site  the very place where the Christian saint prayed, penned poetry and studied  all while overseeing his monastery, also called Iona. [The 10 Most Controversial Miracles]

This latest finding wouldn't have surprised the late archaeologist Charles Thomas, who, upon first collecting the remnants in 1957, suggested that they belonged to St. Columba's hut. Back then, however, he had no way of confirming when the samples were from, because a technique known as carbon dating hadn't yet become widely available. The samples then languished in matchboxes in the professor's garage in England until 2012, when they were passed along to Historic Environment Scotland, a public organization that preserves and promotes Scottish culture and artifacts.

At the beginning of 2017, a team led by Adrian Maldonado, project support officer (archaeology), and Ewan Campbell, senior lecturer (archaeology), both at the University of Glasgow, were finally able to do what Thomas couldn't decades earlier: have the samples carbon dated.

Carbon dating, which can help researchers pinpoint the age of specimens, involves measuring the remaining carbon 14 (an isotope of carbon) in a sample, because scientists know the rate at which it decays. In this case, carbon dating finally confirmed that the hut's remains date to the time of St.Columba's life.

"We dared to hope that we would get something as close to that to the original monastery," Maldonado told Live Science, adding that he never doubted that the scholars who preceded him were on the right track.

While Iona was neither the first nor the oldest monastery in Great Britain  Christianity had already been in Ireland for more than a century by time Iona was established  it was the most influential. Maldonado likens the central role St. Columba's monastery played in the Christian world to the role Oxford or Harvard University had in early academia.

Finding that this hut dates back to St. Columba's lifetime  along with the 10 other radiocarbon dates from the archaeologist Charles Thomas' excavations that Maldonado's team obtained  shows that the remnants of the original monastery, which was previously thought to have been hidden or destroyed may one day be unearthed.

"And now the real fun begins," Maldonado said. "We can begin to look for [the original monastery of St. Columba], now that we know where it might be."

Original article on Live Science .
Scientists will soon venture to the world's hidden eighth continent, the sunken land of Zealandia.

The lost continent, which is mostly submerged, with all of New Zealand and a few islands peeking out from the water, is about half the size of Australia. By drilling deep into its crust or upper layer, the new scientific expedition could provide clues about how the diving of one of Earth's plates beneath another, a process called subduction, fueled the growth of a volcano chain and this lost continent in the Pacific Ocean 50 million years ago. The new expedition could also reveal how that Earth-altering event changed ocean currents and the climate.

"We're looking at the best place in the world to understand how plate subduction initiates," expedition co-chief scientist Gerald Dickens, professor of Earth, environmental and planetary science at Rice University in Texas, said in a statement. "This expedition will answer a lot of questions about Zealandia." [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

The lost continent

In February, scientists argued in the journal GSA Today that Earth has a hidden eighth continent, which should be reflected on maps.

The argument for Zealandia being a continent was based on several lines of evidence. Rocks beneath the ocean floor off New Zealand's coast are made up of a variety of ancient rock types that are found only on continents, not in oceanic crust. The continental shelves of Zealandia are much shallower than those of the nearby oceanic crust. And, rock samples reveal a thin strip of oceanic crust separating Australia and the underwater portions of Zealandia. All of these factors suggest the area underwater around New Zealand makes up a continent, the researchers reported.

Journey to the eighth continent

However, there are still some questions about how Zealandia formed.

Expedition 371, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the International Ocean Discovery Program, aims to answer many of those questions. More than 30 scientists will set sail on July 27 for a two-month expedition aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a massive scientific drilling ship.

From there, the team will visit six sites in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand to drill cores of sediment and rocks from the Earth's crust. Each core will be between 1,000 feet and 2,600 feet (300 meters and 800 meters), meaning that scientists can peer back in time over tens of millions of years.

"If you go way back, about 100 million years ago, Antarctica, Australia and Zealandia were all one continent," Dickens said. "Around 85 million years ago, Zealandia split off on its own, and for a time, the seafloor between it and Australia was spreading on either side of an ocean ridge that separated the two."

After this shift, the area between the two continents was compressed. But around 50 million years ago, the Pacific Plate dove beneath New Zealand, lifting up the two islands, forming a string of volcanoes in the Pacific, and relieving the compressive stress in the ocean crust between the two continents.

"What we want to understand is why and when the various stages from extension to relaxation occurred," Dickens said.

The new findings could reveal how ocean currents and climate changed at the time. Zealandia is usually left out of most climate models dating to 50 million years ago, which could explain why those models have been problematic, Dickens said.

"It may be because we had continents that were much shallower than we had thought," Dickens said. "Or we could have the continents right but at the wrong latitude. Either way, the cores will help us figure that out."

Originally published on Live Science .
One of Deltas subsidiary airlines has had to apologize after an argument between crew members delayed a recent flight by two hours.

Endeavor Air flight 3925 was scheduled to leave LaGuardia airport in New York City at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, but just prior to boarding, a heated argument broke out between a 54-year-old male pilot and a 26-year-old female flight attendant, reports The New York Daily News.

A source for the Daily News claims to have overheard the altercation, but did not clarify what caused why the pilot and flight attendant were arguing in the first place.

ANN COULTER BELIEVES HER DELTA INCIDENT WAS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED

[The pilots] conversation was racist, inconsiderate and unprofessional, said the source, who also overheard him referring to the flight attendant as a piece of s---.

At one point, the source claims the two got physical in the aisle of the plane, with both grabbing at each others arms.

At least six police officers were reportedly called to the scene, but ultimately made no arrests. The Associated Press reports that both parties were replaced before the flight eventually took off two hours after its scheduled departure time.

Endeavor has since apologized to the affected travelers, although a spokesperson for the airline tells Fox News that at no point did any of the passengers witness the altercation, which took place before takeoff.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Endeavor Air apologizes to the customers on board Endeavor Air flight 3925, operating as Delta Connection, from LaGuardia to Portland, Maine, whose travel was inconvenienced as a result of a disagreement between two crew members,

The actions of these crew members, as described, in no way reflects the respect, values and professionalism we expect from our employees.

Endeavor Air is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.
Authorities in West Virginia say they've arrested a homeless man suspected of setting a woman on fire who is also homeless.

Charleston police Lt. Steve Cooper told local media groups that 34-year-old Carl Tramane Magee III was arrested Monday on charges that include attempted murder. Cooper says the victim was asleep on a porch Sunday morning when Magee poured gasoline on her and lit her on fire. Police say the woman suffered extensive burns and is in critical condition at a hospital.

Cooper says video from a neighbor's surveillance camera shows Magee going up to the porch with a gas can and a fire then igniting.

It wasn't immediately known if Magee has an attorney. Authorities say the man is from California but they didn't give his hometown.
The driver of a stifling tractor-trailer packed with immigrants outside a Walmart in San Antonio, Texas, over the weekend had his commercial driving privileges revoked in April, according to Florida driving records obtained by Fox News.

Eight people died in the packed truck, with two others dying at the hospital. And the driver in the alleged human smuggling case, 60-year-old James Matthew Bradley, Jr., was charged with transporting illegal aliens.

Heres what we know so far about the incident and how it unfolded.

What happened?

Someone from the truck approached a Walmart employee and asked for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. The employee gave the person water and then called police.

San Antonio police officers responded to the Walmart shortly after midnight Sunday, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) release.

A police officer saw a number of people standing and lying in the rear of the trailer, and the driver, Bradley, in the cab, it said. Bradley said he didn't know the trailer had people inside, that he discovered them only when he exited the vehicle to relieve himself and he tried to administer aid, according to the release. He also claimed to have been taking the trailer from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas.

San Antonio police said that they "found eight deceased persons and 30-40 others, all undocumented aliens," it said.

The temperature in the Texas city hit 101 degrees on Saturday and didnt go below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m. The truck didnt have working air conditioning, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

What do we know about the people in the truck?

Eight bodies were found by authorities inside the 18-wheeler, while another two people died at the hospital. The ten dead victims are adult men, San Antonio Patch reported.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agents spoke to some of the people who had been in the trailer, who "described how they had been smuggled across the Rio Grande River near Laredo at different times and as part of different groups," the DOJ release said, adding that the groups were gathered in the trailer Sunday.

To maximize their criminal profits, these human smugglers crammed more than 100 people into a tractor trailer in the stifling Texas summer heat resulting in 10 dead and 29 others hospitalized, Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said in a statement.

Officials said 39 people were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination.

Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement that, according to preliminary information, of the people inside the rig, 25 of them were Mexican. Of the 25, four were among those who died and the rest were hospitalized.

Agents have interviewed just five of the dozens of people on board the trailer. Twenty-two people remain hospitalized.

A spokesman for Guatemalas Foreign Ministry has said that one of the victims who died was 20-year-old Frank Guisseppe Fuentes Gonzales. Two other Guatemalans, ages 17 and 23, survived and were said to be in stable condition.

Survivor Adan Lara Vega, 27, said he lost consciousness while sweating profusely without water inside the pitch-black compartment without any ventilation -- and awoke in a San Antonio hospital bed.

Lara Vega told The Associated Press on Monday that people cried and pleaded for water and that he heard children's voices whimper. He said smugglers who hid him and six friends in a safe house in Laredo, Texas, claimed they'd be riding in an air-conditioned space.

The trip from Laredo to San Antonio is about two hours. Lara Vega said he and his friends got in the trailer between 10 and 11 p.m. He also said that he never saw the truck driver and was never offered water. He said they were being charged $5,500 for the trip and the money was never collected.

SAN ANTONIO TRAILER DEATHS: SUSPECT DUE IN COURT AFTER 10 DIE IN SWELTERING TRUCK

What about the driver?

Bradley, Jr., of Clearwater, Fla., has been charged with one count of transporting illegal aliens, according to the DOJ, which said a "federal alien smuggling charge" was filed against Bradley.

Bradley was questioned by authorities and claimed to have been traveling from Laredo to San Antonio, after having the tractor-trailer washed and detailed at a truck stop near Laredo, according to the DOJ release.

Bradley said he was taking the truck to its new owner in Brownsville, Texas, the criminal complaint said.

Bradley claimed he heard banging and shaking in the trailer when he got out of the cab at the Walmart, and he told investigators he went to open the doors and was surprised when he was run over by Spanish people and knocked to the ground, the complaint added.

Bradley said he saw bodies on the floor and that he knew at least one person was dead, according to the complaint. Bradley said he contacted his wife, who didnt pick up, but that he didnt contact 911, the document said.

Bradley called his fiancee, Darnisha Rose, from jail on Sunday. Bradley often referred to Rose as his wife, though they are not married.

SAN ANTONIO TRAILER DEATHS: DRIVER HAD LICENSE REVOKED IN APRIL, CRIMINAL HISTORY

"He said he saw the people in there, laying everywhere," Rose told the AP. "He said he didn't know what to do, which way to go. He was crying, distraught. He was scared. You could tell it in his voice."

Rose defended Bradley as a good man who would always try to help people in need, though she acknowledged he has a criminal history. Documents show his record dates back until at least the 1990s and spans multiple states, the AP reported.

Court records also show that Bradley had been cited repeatedly for violating federal motor carrier safety regulations in Iowa dating back to 1995, according to the AP. At least two of the tickets were for logging more hours than allowed.

Shane Folden, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations office in San Antonio, told The Associated Press Tuesday that agents want to "dismantle the complete organization" behind the smuggling operation.

Folden says that could include money transfers, stash houses for immigrants smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border, and other people involved in planning the operation. Folden declined to say whether Bradley was cooperating with authorities.

Fox News Travis Fedschun and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Intelligence officials believe North Korea will have a reliable, intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year, according to a report published Tuesday amid a warning from a top Republican lawmaker who says he has grown increasingly alarmed about Pyongyang's weapons program.

The Washington Post reported that a new confidential assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency trims two years off the timeline for when North Korea could strike North American cities with atomic weapons. The assessment was triggered by recent North Korean missile tests that indicated the nation's program was further along than expected.

The newspaper said that U.S. officials who had seen the assessment said it concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be able to produce a "reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM" program by sometime next year, allowing the program to move from prototype to assembly line.

The House Armed Services Committee held a classified briefing for all members of the chamber on Tuesday to discuss North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile development. The briefing team included Rob Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy; Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency; and representatives from the DIA and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

"The apparent success of the July Fourth test is an alarming development as North Korea accelerates its pursuit of being able to hold the United States at risk with nuclear weapons," Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said after the classified briefing, "I have grown increasingly alarmed that North Korea is acting with a greater sense of urgency than we are."

North Korea raised the stakes with its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile as Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4. The test marked a significant step toward North Korea's goal of developing a missile with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States

Thornberry, who is pushing for a $2.5 billion increase to the Pentagon's missile defense budget, said Congress and the Trump administration need "to take forceful, swift steps to see that the U.S. and our allies are protected."

In what it calls an effort to stay ahead of the North Korean missile threat, the Pentagon is expanding its arsenal of anti-missile weapons based at Ft. Greely, Alaska, from 32 to 40 ground-based interceptors. That is in addition to four based in California. The interceptors are designed to destroy an ICBM outside the earth's atmosphere by slamming into it during flight. They are the only element of U.S. missile defenses that are designed specifically to stop ICBMs from reaching U.S. territory.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, declined to comment on any change in classified assessments.

Scott Bray, the ODNI's national intelligence manager for East Asia, said North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental-range ballistic missile was not a surprise.

"This test and its impact on our assessments highlight the threat that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose to the United States, to our allies in the region and to the whole world," Bray said.

At a conference in Aspen, Colorado, last week, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said he couldn't disclose specifics about how North Korea has been able to develop its missile program. He said North Korea has had lots of outside partners, suppliers, engineers and talented physicists who have helped them climb the "learning curve faster than one might do if you just simply did it internally."

Also at the conference, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, was asked if North Korea is now a member of the club of nations with nuclear weapons.

Coats said: "Well, they've got some work to do to, I think, get through the club door, but they are very persistent in achieving that goal and we see a lot of research probably gained by each launch that they do whether it fails or succeeds."

___

Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
Seven people in North Carolina were shot early Wednesday morning during a memorial service for a man who was gunned down in his car earlier this week, police said.

The group of mourners had gathered in High Point when several gunshots rang out around 12:40 a.m., police said. Those in attendance were holding a memorial for 35-year-old Alphonso Macer Jr., who was shot to death inside his car Monday.

Officers arrived at the scene to find two people suffering from gunshot wounds. They later discovered five other shooting victims in two separate hospitals in the area.

HEARING SET FOR MISSISSIPPI MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING 8

One person suffered serious injures and six others were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, officials said.

Several homes in the area were also hit by the gunfire.

No arrests have been made in the shooting, and it wasn't immediately clear if the incident was related to Macer's death. Macer had been shot multiple times before his vehicle crashed into a utility pole. The motive of that shooting remained unclear, too, but police were investigating, according to FOX8.
A leading civil liberties group is vowing to challenge President Trump's sudden decision to ban transgender people from the U.S. military.

"I'd be shocked if they go ahead with including trans people who are already serving on the front lines honorably," said Joshua Block, of the American Civil Liberties Unions LGBT Project. "If they try to do that, they'll have to go through us first."

President Obama's administration put in place policies last year allowing transgender service members to serve openly.

Block told Fox News the abrupt switch throws the process into chaos.

"The issue of trans people already serving in the military has already been resolved," he said. "Everyone supports that, not only the Senate but Trump's own Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs."

The ACLU and other legal advocacy groups said that for now, they would take a wait-and-see approach before filing any lawsuits opposing the policy change.

"Once the Pentagon figures out what the president wants to do, and tries to put pen to paper," said Block, "we'll be ready to challenge whatever happens."

There had been a Pentagon delay in allowing new enlistments of transgender recruits, but it was unclear whom the broader policy would affect.

The ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project has been involved in almost every legal fight over these kinds of discrimination claims.

That includes representing a Virginia high school student whose case went to the Supreme Court in recent months.

Gavin Grimm, 18, was born female but identifies as male. He was allowed to use the boys' restroom at his high school for several weeks in 2014. But after some parents complained, the school board adopted a policy requiring students to use either the restroom that corresponds with their biological gender or a private, single-stall restroom.

Grimm was backed by the Obama administration in his argument that the policy violates Title IX, a federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools. His case was put on hold in March after the Trump White House reversed and refused to support Grimm's case.
Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Peter Dame has seen  and caught  it all along the the San Clemente corridor of Interstate 5, including mothers smuggling cash to the Mexican drug cartels and secret loads of hidden heroin, cocaine and meth worth massive amounts of money.

Now, despite a White House award and glowing reviews, the 57-year-old Dame faces mandatory retirement on July 28, despite a dire shortage of agents.

Dame's distinguished career involves being a member of the agency's elite SWAT team, BORTAC. But it is the accomplishments of his 10-man highway narcotics interdiction unit that give him the most pride. Since 2014, the unit has seized $16,801,430 in drugs and $722,834 in cash along the I-5 corridor north of San Diego that eluded agents at the Ports of Entry.

It took less than a year for the Strike Team to prove its effectiveness and receive the White Houses Office of the Executive Presidents Land Interdiction Award for 2014, a first for Border Patrol.

Just this month, agents stopped a 21-year-old woman headed southbound with her 18-month-old daughter and more than $11,000 in cash in her cars central console.

There was a lot more to the story and she did say it was from smuggling, as she had been arrested before for smuggling aliens into the country, Dame said.

And the week before, Dames team seized $465,302 worth of heroin, cocaine, and meth concealed in a vehicle heading north along the same stretch of I-5.

Now, however, it looks like these hauls were Dames swan song.

Given the current manpower shortage of nearly 2,000 agents Dame, who put in 27 years with the agency and has no desire to retire, requested an extension to allow him to stay on the job in large part in response to Acting Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Carla Provost's call for agents to submit requests for exemption from mandatory retirement.

According to a Provost memo distributed June 14 to all chiefs of patrol, the staffing level is dire and options should be explored to mitigate the hemorrhage of agents either through retirement or attrition.

Due to the U.S. Border Patrols critical 1,896 shortages and the impact on National Security, we must explore all avenues available to address our staffing levels, said Provost. A mandatory separation (retirement) waiver is one avenue to ensure we are resourced to successfully secure our borders.

She said the CBP commissioner can approve exemptions from mandatory retirement up to age 60.

"In order to increase the USBP's operational readiness, sector Chief Patrol Agents (CPA) should examine staffing requirements and identify employees approaching their mandatory retirement date within the next year, Provost said in a memo.

Additionally, CPAs should explore employee interest in staying with the USBP for an additional year beyond their mandatory separation date.

Dame, who followed Provosts recommended policy for a waiver and even received a glowing recommendation from her, was left scratching his head in despair when his request was denied without reason.

FoxNews.com reached out to Provost but was informed she was unavailable.

Review of the waiver requirements do leave much to be interpreted.

I let Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Ronald Vitiello know I was disappointed in their decision and said the waiver program was a false promise that I spent five months going through, Dame said. I did send a packet to the White House asking for an Executive Order by priority mail July 5 and have not received a response.

The 5,000 new agents President Donald Trump pledged in an Executive Order early in his tenure apparently will have little impact on bolstering numbers of those tasked with executing one of his primary campaign promises: securing the border.

The consensus among many veteran agents is that between the upcoming wave of retirements, regular attrition rates, and the existing shortage of agents, the 5,000 new agents will barely result in a net zero effect on the staffing.

However, the retirement figures provided FoxNews.com by CBP headquarters do not appear to bear out a crisis. In FY 2016 there were 39 mandatory retirements with only one request for an exemption, which was granted.

This is another contradiction to attempting to retain people, Dame said. What would the American people think of a person with my skills not being retained when there is a willingness by me to stay with the Border Patrol and there is a waiver program available for those who would want to stay?
Jewish groups have asked Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney's office to investigate a California Imam who gave a sermon calling on Allah to "annihilate" Jews "down to the very last one" -- and asked for his congregants to take part in the slaughter.

Imam Ammar Shahin gave the sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis, California on Friday. He asked for Allah to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israel from "the filth of the Jews," according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, and cited an Islamic text that calls for a Judgement Day fight between Muslims and Jews.

Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them, said Shahin, who spoke in both Arabic and English during his sermon. Oh Allah, make this happen by our hands. Let us play a part in this. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds.

ORTHODOX JEWISH GRADE SCHOOL IN UK FAILS INSPECTION FOR REFUSAL TO TEACH ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATION

"The sermon is very antisemitic and violent, much like many sermons in the mosques of the Middle East," MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky told Fox News in a statement. "It is not surprising that the imam/mosque are denying this and saying that it is incorrect or out of context. In fact, there were two different sermons from California mosques this week, both of them calling for destroying/annihilating the Jews."

A video of the sermon was posted to the Islamic Center of Davis YouTube channel on Friday. Excerpts of the sermon, which lasted about two and a half minutes, were translated and posted on the MEMRI website.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is on a holy site for both Jews and Muslims in East Jerusalem, and was the scene of a July 14 terror attack during which three Arab gunmen killed two Israeli police officers.

The shrine was closed for several days in the aftermath of the assault, canceling Friday prayers for the first time in decades. New security measures, including metal detectors, were installed, and immediately drew Palestinian condemnation.

Israel said the security measures were necessary to prevent more attacks, while Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site. The issue has sparked some of the worst street clashes in years.

US MUSLIMS SEE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS, BUT A FOE IN WHITE HOUSE

In a statement on its website, the Islamic Center of Davis stood behind Shahin and his sermon, saying it was taken out of context.

The ICD will always stand against anti-Semitism similarly to how the Jewish community has always stood against Islamophobia in our close knit community, the statement said. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry.

It continued: MEMRI, an extremist agenda driven organization that supports Israels occupation of Palestinian land, and other Islamophobic news organizations, accused Imam Shahin of anti-Semitism, quoting edited, mistranslated, passages of the sermon out of context.

In another statement to the David Enterprise, the center said the sermon described the theological issue regarding the apocalyptic battle between Jesus and the Antichrist, or between good and evil  not against any particular group.

When people believe in Jesus and hold on to the truth, God will support them. This was the purpose of citing the prophetic tradition, the center said. In the context of the full sermon, it becomes clear that the theme of the sermon was against oppression, and not against Jews or any religion.

Steve Cohan, co-president of Congregation Bet Haverim in Davis, said in a statement that Shahins sermon was deeply concerning but that he looked forward to going beyond the online media reports and sharing his thoughts with the Islamic Center leadership.

But not everyone is being quite so understanding of Shahin's rhetoric.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization in Los Angeles, has called upon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to launch an investigation of the Imam for inciting to murder Jews.

By explicitly urging Muslims to annihilate all Jews by their own hands, Shahin has crossed the line beyond protected speech, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Alderstein, both SWC directors, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Hamza El-Nakhal, a longtime member of the Muslim community in Davis and a former president of the Islamic Centers executive board, told the Davis Enterprise that he found the video disturbing.

He said he was out of town and did not attend the Friday service.

While I am disgusted by the action of the Israeli government in preventing Muslim people from doing their prayers in the Masjid Al-Aqsa, I am equally disgusted by any religious leader who does not take the chance (during) high unsettling times to calm their congregations, El-Nakhal said.

Some people like Imam Ammar Shahin become angry for injustices. He spoke while angry. He should not have given this sermon while angry.

Fox News' Pamela Browne and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A notorious animal smuggler is accused of trying to sneak a trio of live -- and deadly -- king cobras into the United States by using potato chip canisters to conceal the slithering snakes.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, of Monterey Park, was charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise and is slated to be arraigned in August, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The venomous king cobra snakes  each about two feet long  were found in March when Customs and Border Protection officers inspected a package mailed from Hong Kong, prosecutors said. There were also three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles in the package, according to authorities.

DAD ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY LEAVING 16-YEAR-OLD SON IN CALIFORNIA PARKING LOT

The cobras were removed, but the turtles were delivered to Francos home by federal agents.

Agents serving a warrant allegedly found Franco's home filled with reptiles, including tanks with a live baby Morelets crocodile, alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle and five diamond back terrapins. Prosecutors said each of those creatures is protected under U.S. law.

This was not Francos first time being accused in a cobra-smuggling attempt. Franco told an agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that he had previously received 20 king cobras in two other shipments, but he said they all died in transit, according to court documents.

CALIFORNIA TEEN SUSPECTED OF CAUSING DEADLY CRASH POSTED ON INSTAGRAM

Agents searched Francos phone and discovered messages he exchanged with a person in Asia regarding shipping turtles and snakes between Hong Kong and the U.S., prosecutors said. Franco said in those messages that he had previously received live cobras and planned to give five of the snakes to a relative of the contact in Virginia, court papers said.

If convicted, Franco could spend 20 years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A California man who had a prior DUI conviction has received prison time after he drove drunk again, crashing into a car and killing one person and injuring five others.

Johnny Mendoza, 27, of Visalia was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for the deadly 2016 crash, according to the Fresno Bee. He pleaded no contest in May to one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while under the influence.

VIDEO SHOWS PATRON TAKE ON ROBBER AT CALIFORNIA STARBUCKS

At the time of the crash, Mendoza was serving probation for a 2014 DUI conviction. Mendoza also skipped his court-ordered DUI classes and did not install a breath alcohol ignition interlock device in his vehicle, which also was required by the court.

CALIFORNIA CONSERVATIVE FLEES TO TEXAS, HOPES OTHERS JOIN HIM

Mendoza had a blood-alcohol level of 0.09 percent and had methamphetamine in his system when he crashed headfirst into a van carrying six passengers, investigators said. The driver, a 42-year-old woman, died from her injuries after the crash. Californias legal limit for driving under the influence is 0.08 percent.
Baxter the cat is being hailed a hero.

The 6-year-old feline is credited with saving the lives of a Philadelphia couple whose home collapsed early Wednesday.

The West Philadelphia couple was home at about 4:45 a.m. when Baxter woke up the man, who was asleep on the first-floor couch, he told FOX 29. The man then woke up the woman, who was upstairs, when the row house made a loud cracking sound. They made a run for it.

A few minutes later, a wall collapsed, sending a large amount of debris onto a construction site next door.

Two men walking in the area at the time of the incident told FOX 29 they heard a loud cracking sound, then a big boom and a woman screaming. When they arrived at the scene, the woman was holding onto a railing that was still attached to the gaping hole on the side of the home.

Philadelphia Police said only minor injuries were reported at the scene.

As for the heroic feline, Baxter ran back into the house through an open door but was rescued three hours later before the home had to be demolished.

The building is known for a mural painted on the side of the brick wall that collapsed. The mural, called "I Wanna Call You Names," is part of several dozen murals by artist Stephen Powers as part of the city's Mural Arts Program.

The cause of the collapse is now being investigated, but officials are looking into ongoing construction next door as possibly playing a role.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Utah woman died aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska, and the death is the result of a domestic dispute, according to a statement from Princess Cruises.

The woman was not immediately identified, but Princess Cruises stated she was 39 years old and the domestic dispute occurred around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Since the incident, our fleet security team has been coordinating with the FBI and other local authorities. They will be embarking the ship when it arrives in Juneau this morning, the statement said. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all those impacted by this tragic event.

The cruise ship, called Emerald Princess, departed Seattle on July 23 for a seven day round trip cruise. A scenic cruising of Alaskas Tracy Arm Fjord scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled as officials investigate the death, the statement said.

Click for more from Fox13Now.com.


An Ecuadorian citizen who was illegally in the United States and had been convicted of rape was among 114 people arrested during an 11-day operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in New York, the agency said Tuesday.

ICE said the sweep, which ended Saturday, targeted fugitives and and people who have violated U.S. immigration laws, including those who re-entered the country after being deported.

Of those arrested during the operation, 82 people had criminal histories, including prior convictions for sex crimes, drug offenses and fraud, while 15 others had pending criminal charges, including assault, larceny and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Others taken into custody included a Jamaican citizen -- with a prior conviction for forcible touching, robbery in the 1st degree and acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 -- and a Mexican citizen whose criminal record includes a 1st degree manslaughter conviction, authorities said.

Our nation has a proud history of immigration, but we are also a nation governed by laws specifically designed to protect its citizens and residents. ERO deportation officers are committed to enforcing the immigration laws set forth by our legislators, said Thomas Decker, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York. Of those arrested during this operation, nine were released from New York custody with an active detainer, which poses an increased risk to the officers and the community.
A Connecticut housekeeper and mother of four who sought sanctuary in a New Haven church has been granted an emergency stay of a deportation order that would have returned her to her native Guatemala.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Wednesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had agreed to take another look at Nury Chavarria's case and a U.S. District Court judge issued the stay. Details of the stay were not immediately released.

"There was never a rational justification for Nury Chavarria to have been threatened with deportation and separated from her children," Malloy said, "and I applaud this decision by ICE and the court to allow her to continue living and working in the United States with her family."

The 43-year-old Chavarria, of Norwalk, had been fitted with an ankle bracelet last month and was supposed to be flown out of the United States last week. Instead, she fled to the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church.

Chavarria entered the U.S. in 1993, but was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge five years later. Fox61 reported that if she had complied with that order, she likely would have been able to gain legal re-admittance to the U.S.

Chavarria told Fox61 that she couldn't comply with the order due to the medical needs of her oldest son, now 21, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Despite being denied asylum, Chavarria had been granted yearly deportation stays and work permits since 2009. It was not immediately clear why her status changed this year.

Click for more from Fox61.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police say a Massachusetts motorist has been arrested after getting out of her sport utility vehicle, removing her shirt and charging topless while holding a knife toward another motorist.

The Cape Cod Times reports the other motorist turned out to be an off-duty police officer who called the Sandwich Police Department to report the woman.

Police say on Facebook that they received a call Saturday of an SUV driving erratically. They say the driver attempted to crash into the caller's vehicle before pulling up behind it at a red light.

Police say the woman got out of the SUV, removed her shirt and ran toward the other vehicle while holding a dagger-like knife. They say the 39-year-old woman is facing several charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon.
An employee at the Mexican Consulate in Houston is accused in a lawsuit of offering U.S. work permits for sale.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Harris County accuses a consulate employee, Fidencio Navarrete Peralta, of accepting $10,000 for two work permits but never delivering them. Navarrete's boss at the consulate, Consul General Oscar Rodriguez Cabrera, also is named as a defendant.

Xochitl Leticia Aguilar seeks return of the $10,000 and other compensation of $200,000. She says her American citizen daughter was hoping to obtain a work permit for her Mexican husband and a friend, but that they received only a single consul ID card.

A consulate spokesman had no comment for the newspaper about the lawsuit and could not be reached Wednesday.

___

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com
A Michigan mother was charged on Monday with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of her 6-month-old son.

Lovily Kristine-Anwonette Johnson, 22, of Wyoming, Mich. was charged after the infant died after not being fed for two days. The baby, Noah Johnson, had been left in an apartment with no air conditioning -- as the temperature inside reportedly reached 90 degrees.

Johnson brought the 12-pound child  who was already dead  to a hospital on Wednesday afternoon and was arrested later that day.

By the time Johnson arrived at the hospital, Noah's body had already started to decompose, according to a Child Protective Services complaint filed against the dead infant's mother, m LIVE reported.

MOM AND SON CONVICTED OF KILLING HUSBAND, POURING ACID ON HIS FACE

The infant had remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnson's apartment and she had not fed him since the prior Monday evening, authorities said.

Johnson previously had complaints made against her by Child Protective Services regarding both Noah and her 2-year-old daughter.

She entered a not guilty plea and was denied bond.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mississippi police officers shot a mechanic to death Sunday after the cops served an arrest warrant at the wrong residence, according to multiple media reports.

Southaven police officers initially planned to arrest Samuel Pearman, who was wanted for assault -- but instead of knocking on Pearman's door, cops went to the house across the street from him, UPI reported.

Warrant shows police at wrong address in deadly Southaven shooting https://t.co/OXrHJN65l7  WREG News Channel 3 (@3onyourside) July 25, 2017

At that house, cops shot and killed Ismael Lopez, 41, after Lopez's pet dog, a pit bull, allegedly tried to attack the officers. The officers also said Lopez had a gun in his hand at the time. Lopez's wife disputes both of the cops' claims.

HEARING SET FOR MISSISSIPPI MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING 8

One of the officers did fire a shot at the pit bull dog, DeSoto County Prosecutor John Champion said. While this was going on, they also noticed at the time that a gun was pointed outside the residence. At this point, the officers began hollering put the gun down, put the gun down, at which point that did not occur and there were more than one shot was fired toward the door, and there was a male subject inside the residence that was killed.

Family members of Ismael Lopez, who was killed by Southaven Police, hire law firm to represent them. https://t.co/zcugycj5cJ pic.twitter.com/Y7rSoBf1K3  Commercial Appeal (@memphisnews) July 26, 2017

Champion said there is a possibility the officers went to the wrong address but confirmed that Lopez was not the suspect the arrest warrant was intended for before the gunfire began.

Somebody didnt take the time to analyze the address, Murray Wells, an attorney who was hired by Lopezs family, told UPI. This is incredibly tragic and embarrassing to this police department that they cant read house numbers.

Lopezs wife, whose name was not released, said the polices version of what occurred before the shooting is not correct. She told Jordan Castillo, a family friend, that Lopez never had his gun in his hands and police started shooting despite the family's door being closed.

"She said when he got up, she heard the footsteps all the way up to the door, she heard the doorknob turn, and then after the doorknob turned it was just gunshots from there," Castillo said.

VETERANS RELEASED FROM PRISON GET SECOND CHANCE

Lopez, an auto mechanic, had been a resident of the neighborhood for 13 years, according to Wells.

The only time the police had ever been there was when they had been robbed, Wells said.

The officer who shot and killed Lopez has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation occurs.
The Senate has blocked a wide-ranging proposal by Republicans to repeal much of former President Barack Obamas health care law and replace it with a more restrictive plan.

Senators voted 57-43 late Tuesday to reject the plan in the first vote on an amendment to the bill. Those voting no included nine defecting Republicans.

CHARLIE GARD

First, a British judge told a dying babys parents they could not take their child to the U.S. for experimental treatment. On Wednesday a judge may tell them the infant cannot die at the familys home in London, but in a hospice instead.

At a hearing in London, a British high court judge is scheduled to decide where the life of 11-month-old Charlie Gard will end.

CLOCK IS TICKING

A leading North Korea expert said the country is a year and a half away from creating a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States.

Some time in the next year, North Korea expert Gordon Chang told Fox News, they will have a nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States and we will have to make a decision about how we deter North Korea.

COMING UP ON FOX BUSINESS: Ronna Romney McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairwoman, will be on 'Mornings with Maria' at 8 AM ET

TEA, ANYONE?

The IRS said Tuesday it has reached an agreement on guidelines for how to determine whether the Texas Patriots Tea Party should be granted nonprofit status, The Washington Times reported.

The agreement -- roughly eight years in the making -- does not guarantee the conservative groups nonprofit application will be approved or declined.
A female transit police sergeant in Philadelphia sustained head, neck and back injuries after she was violently thrown to the ground while investigating a trespasser on Monday -- and the attack was caught on video.

Bodycam footage released Tuesday from SEPTA shows the police sergeant heading to a call for a report of young trespassers near the train tracks in the southwest section of the city.

The officer then walks over to help a fellow cop when a man is seen running up and showing her to the ground using both his hands before running off as she tells him to "stop."

"This was something that did not have to happen," SEPTA Police Sgt. Michael Wright told FOX 29. "This was something that was unprovoked."

After being knocked to the ground, the officer's camera then points towards the sky as bystanders come over to check on her.

"Pretty sure never in a million years you expect to be violently knocked down, simply just responding to find out why this person was inside of a track area," Wright told FOX 29.

The transit agency released images of the suspect, who is believed to be between 30 and 35 years old and 6-feet tall. Authorities said he was wearing a white t-shirt and green and black camouflage-style cargo shorts.

The officer was taken to a hospital for her injuries, and was later released to recover at home, FOX 29 reported.
Police officers fatally shot a 16-year-old boy outside an emergency shelter for juveniles in eastern Arkansas and a criminal investigation is underway, state police said.

The shooting happened Tuesday night at East Arkansas Youth Services in Marion, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. Arkansas State Police said in a release that Marion police officers responded to the shelter at 7:08 p.m. Tuesday and "moments later" reported that a teenager had been shot and wounded by police.

State police said Wednesday that Aries Clark died overnight at a Memphis hospital.

Police and the state Department of Human Services wouldn't say why officers had been called to the shelter or what happened in the moments before the shooting. State police said the findings of the criminal investigation would be forwarded to prosecutors to determine whether the shooting was justified.

State police would not say whether Clark was a resident at the facility. Marion Police have not returned a message seeking comment Wednesday. Little Rock television station KATV reported that two officers were on paid administrative leave during the investigation, but said the department is not releasing their names.

East Arkansas Youth Services is a nonprofit that "provides positive alternatives to institutionalization" for at-risk children, according to its website. It offers nonresidential services for boys and girls from ages 8 to 18, and residential services for boys in the same age range. Madelyn Keith, the nonprofit's executive director and CEO, said in a Facebook post that no one in the facility was harmed and that its managers and staff have cooperated with investigators.

"We also request your prayers for our operations and specifically for all individuals and entities involved in this incident. In turn we also offer our sincere prayers for all affected by this event," wrote Keith, who declined to comment beyond the post.

Department spokeswoman Amy Webb said the shelter contracts with the state to provide services to children in foster care and children who have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Webb declined to comment on the shooting or say whether the boy had received services at the youth shelter. Webb said the facility has had a "favorable compliance history" without any current issues or concerns.
In the 1960s and '70s, Paul Shanley was a popular street priest who counseled gay and troubled youths.

Decades later, he was convicted of raping a boy at a Newton church in the 1980s and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Shanley, now 86, is due to be released Friday, prompting a firestorm of protest from sexual abuse victims.

On Wednesday, two men who are among dozens to accuse Shanley of sexual abuse appeared at a news conference with their lawyers and victim advocates to warn the public about Shanley's release and to ask for help in monitoring him.

John Harris said he was a 21-year-old struggling with his decision to reveal his homosexuality in 1979 when someone suggested he go see Shanley for counseling.

"He raped me under the pretense of helping me," Harris said.

Denis O'Connor said he was 14 when Shanley sodomized him in the late 1960s.

"If he's released, we've got more children that will be abused," O'Connor said.

Boston attorneys Mitchell Garabedian and Carmen Durso said they represent dozens of men who allege that Shanley sexually abused them as children.

Prosecutors sought to hold Shanley in custody beyond his sentence under a law that allows civil commitment of people who are deemed to be sexually dangerous. But two experts hired by the state found that he did not meet the legal criteria to continue to hold him.

Durso said he was told by prosecutors that the experts cited his advanced age as one reason he is no longer dangerous.

"We believe that he continues to pose a threat," Durso said.

"If Paul Shanley doesn't qualify as a sexually dangerous person, then nobody will qualify," he said.

Shanley, who was convicted in 2005, will be placed on probation for 10 years after he is released. Garabedian said Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan told him that Shanley will not be required to wear an electronic tracking device. He will be required to register as a Level 3, or high-risk, sex offender, a designation that means his photo and other information about him will be posted on the state Sex Offender Registry Board's website.

Garabedian said Shanley's upcoming release "has caused many victims to have their wounds reopened." He urged anyone who sees Shanley to contact the local police department to report his whereabouts so authorities can track his movements.

Rodney Ford, whose son said he was sexually abused by Shanley as a child in the 1980s, agreed.

"There's nothing more that we can do than to harass Paul Shanley," he said.

Robert Shaw Jr., an attorney who represented Shanley in his appeal, said Shanley is now "extremely frail."

"The fact that certain persons in our community are calling for the harassment and tracking of Paul Shanley by the public strikes me as an issue for law enforcement," he said.

"It's outrageous. It's deeply disturbing. We don't permit vigilantism in this country. Stalking and harassment are crimes," he said.

The clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston in 2002 after The Boston Globe revealed that dozens of priests had molested and raped children for decades while church supervisors covered it up and shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish.

Shanley was defrocked by the Vatican in 2004 after dozens of men came forward and reported being sexually abused by him. During his trial, his lawyer challenged the reliability of the accuser's repressed memories.

Internal church records that were made public during the scandal contained documents indicating Shanley had attended a forum with other people who later went on to form the North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA, a pedophile advocacy organization.

It was not immediately clear where Shanley will live after he's released. The state Department of Correction declined to comment.

The Archdiocese of Boston, the fourth-largest archdiocese in the country, with more than 1.8 million Catholics, called Shanley's crimes against children "reprehensible." Spokesman Terrence Donilon said Shanley will not receive any kind of financial support or benefits from the archdiocese.
Texas officials on Tuesday said they seized more than 100 animals from a hellacious home that had no air conditioning or water provided for the scores of cats and dogs kept inside.

A total of 27 dogs and 84 cats were found at the home in Keller, located about 31 miles northwest of Dallas. Many of the animals were dehydrated, authorities said.

"We found 84 cats in the garage, which was about 94 degrees, The Humane Society of North Texas' Sandy Shelby told FOX4 News. There was no air conditioning. There was no water in any of the water buckets. The litter boxes had zero litter. It was just feces that was in them."

Police and animal control officials initially received a call from neighbors complaining about the smell coming from the home.

When they first arrived, authorities told FOX4 they found a van in the driveway filled with dogs.

"The van was not running. The windows were rolled up and just cracked a tiny little bit, Shelby said. There were 14 crates full of animals inside."

Shelby said authorities are investigating whether the homeowner got the animals from various shelters with the intention of rescuing them.

"I think that people start out with good intentions, I really do, she said. They don't know when to say 'no.'

Authorities were still deciding whether criminal charges would be filed against the homeowner, FOX4 reported.
Twin brothers died Wednesday morning in a "tragic accident" in New York, drowning in a backyard pool filled with murky water, officials said.

Emergency responders received a call just after 8:40 a.m. of two 3-year-old boys in a pool at a home in the Melville area of Long Island, Newsday reported. Firefighters arrived to find one boy still in the water.

The children's mother had pulled the other toddler out of the pool and administered CPR while she called 911, Suffolk County police homicide squad Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer told reporters.

Firefighters removed the second toddler a short time later, after being told another child was "missing." Photos of the pool showed it was filled with green, murky water.

Beyrer called the incident a "tragic accident." The children were rushed to the hospital, but later died.

"The hospital worked feverishly for a different outcome but it was not to be today," Andrea Mineo, a spokeswoman for Plainview Hospital, told Newsday.
As the bloody Syrian civil war rages on, another much more silent war engulfs the devastated country in the secret hellholes of Bashar Assads prisons where tens of thousands of political prisoners have endured abuse, rape and torture.

Noura Al-Jizawi, remembers how her world fell apart five years ago when she was a student at Homs University. One minute she says she was coordinating a non-violent demonstration, the next she was being hauled off to prison in a blindfold, abducted by Syrian intelligence operatives who held a gun to her chest.

I just wanted to live in a country that respected me as a human; one that offered me some dignity and freedom. I could not accept that I had to live under a dictatorship, Al-Jizawi, 32, told Fox News from southern Turkey where she is an activist. For that, we females  even the old ladies  were tortured the same way as the men. We were hung by our feet, electric shocks, our faces beaten into walls and our skin set on fire. My teeth were all broken. I spent more than a month in solitary confinement. I just kept praying for my body to stay alive.

Then there were the medieval torture techniques. One entailed being bound to what has long been known as the German Chair. A detainees arms and legs would be strapped to a metal chair and their bodies stretched and distorted as they were repeatedly tipped backwards toward the ground.

Al-Jizawi said she and her fellow detainees were fed twice a day -- if they were lucky. The meals consisted mostly of slops of rice riddled with hair, urine and dirty objects. She said the guards threw the food at them, leaving them to eat like animals without plates of utensils.

She and four other women were moved to an underground basement, their mouths taped shut. Later she learned that they were moved because the Red Cross was coming to inspect the prison. The Red Cross inspection followed an outcry from human rights groups and the United Nations.

Al-Jizawi said they had been bruised and battered and they were moved to conceal any signs they had been tortured.

Some women were raped, she said. She said the guards knew the rapes wouldnt be reported given cultural and religious taboos in Syria. But, somewhat ironically, Al-Jizawi believes that the number of female detainees who have endured rape has been vastly exaggerated  by the Syrian government.

This is a tool they use to instill such fear to silence young women, to ensure they stay home, Al-Jizawi explained, noting how rape comes with such deep shame even on the survivor in their society, and threatens to destroy ones marriage prospects for life.

Al-Jizawi said her nightmare finally ended when she was released after six months in jail. She said was forced to plead guilty to win her release. Her family has since fled to Turkey.

The Syrian regime prisons are unannounced ways to exterminate people.  Prison and torture survivor Sarmad Al-Jilane

Professional status offers no protection. A Syrian physician who asked only to be identified as Dr. Karam, told Fox News how he had been tortured after the Assad regime arrested him in 2011.

Karam said it was standard practice for inmates to be dragged around and clobbered with cables and bars until almost all visible flesh was black.

He said he was locked up for more than six months and spent most of that time in Syrias most notorious prison, Saydnaya, just north of the capital Damascus.

I was not allowed to talk or lie down, he said to Fox News from southern Turkey. The whole time my family didnt know where I was, they thought I was dead.

SYRIA CEASEFIRE BROKERED BY US, RUSSIA HOLDING, BUT WITH FLAWS, 'TRICKS' IN PLAY

DEFECTORS FROM NORTH KOREA DESCRIBE CONCENTRATION CAMP, DAILY LIFE

In May, U.S. officials accused the Assad regime of killing as many as 50 prisoners a day at Saydnaya and more than 13,000 there since the civil war began. U.S. officials said another 18,000 Saydnaya prisoners were believed to have died due to starvation and the toll of physical abuse. The State Department has accused the Syrian government of building a crematorium at the site to dispose of detainee remains and destroy evidence.

Sarmad Al-Jilane, a 24-year-old activist, was labeled one such terrorist simply for voicing his opposition in peaceful protests.

He told Fox News that he was arrested in 2011 and the conditions in prison were horrendous. He said three detainees were crammed into a cell that was barely big enough for one person.

He said in the prison they were subject to systematic beatings of ones reproductive organs with an electroshock weapon while a door would be slammed shut on their heads.

I was allowed to go to the bathroom only two times a day, each of 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds end, they started to hit me, Al-Jilane said. The guards would force detainees to stand in a room for as long as 30 hours while throwing water at them, electrifying them, and hitting them with sharp objects, all of this without any investigation.

He said his family, desperate to obtain his release, pulled together a big amount of money to a businessman mediator who communicated with officers and negotiated his release. He was imprisoned nine months and when he was released, he was forced to flee. He now lives in Germany.

The conflict, which shows no signs of resolution, is believed to have killed more than 500,000 people and displaced 11 million Syrians from their home.

The Syrian regime prisons are unannounced ways to exterminate people, Al-Jilane said.
Authorities in northern Nigeria say roughly 10 military personnel have been killed and a similar number of university workers are unaccounted for after Boko Haram extremists attacked their convoy.

The secretary of the Hunters Association in Borno State, Bunu Bukar, says members of the self-defense group saw the bodies of military personnel after the ambush Tuesday.

The military and self-defense group were providing security for oil exploration workers in northern Borno state. Bukar says the convoy had been traveling between Magumeri and Gubio towns.

Nigeria's military has not immediately commented on the ambush.

Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and continues to carry out deadly attacks despite the government's declaration late last year that the extremists had been "crushed."
A British teacher accused of recommending a female student masturbate in order to relieve tension has been permitted to keep his job.

The student, who was in Paul Gibbinsons design and technology class at the Magna Carta School in Staines, Surrey, near London, allegedly was told that masturbating was scientifically proven to work for stress relief.

Gibbinson, 49, allegedly later followed up with the student, asking her if she tried that thing yet.

OKLAHOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT PAYS $125,000 TO FAMILY AFTER TEACHER HAD SEX WITH STUDENT

During a misconduct panel with education officials, Gibbinson denied telling the girl to keep the suggestion secret, which was later found to be proven. The panel also proved that he asked her if she had tried it, according to The Sun.

According to a document detailing the incident completed by the National College for Teaching & Leadership, the panel heard evidence from Pupil A that she confided in Mr. Gibbinson as to difficulties she was experiencing at home, and with her boyfriend at the time.

According to the panel, Over the course of the academic year she would regularly speak to Mr. Gibbinson alone in a classroom about her ongoing difficulties.

Gibbinson had been the subject of previous misconduct hearings, but the panel considered them irrelevant. The panel did convict the teacher of unprofessional conduct but said he could continue working because the nature and severity of the behavior was at the less serious end of the possible spectrum.
An emotionally-charged mass Wednesday -- attended by French President Emmanuel Macron -- marked one year since the brutal murder of a Catholic priest whose throat was slit by two 19-year-old ISIS terrorists.

The ceremony took place outside the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church, inside of which the men killed Father Jacques Hamel, 85, as he celebrated morning Mass last year.

Macron said the two jihadis "have failed" in sowing a thirst for vengeance among French Catholics, and referred to Hamel as a "martyr."

"Hamel's smile has become a reminder of resistance in the face of bigotry," Macron said.

Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, who led the service, said "though he is dead, Father Jacques Hamel is still alive...hate has not triumphed, and it will never triumph."

The mayor of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Joaquim Moise, spoke of the horror that the two jihadis brought to the sleepy Normandy town.

"A year ago, the population of Saint-Etienne was thrown into the whirl of emotions," said the mayor from outside the church.

"The initial disbelief was followed by fear then mixed with incomprehension, sorrow, disgust. In a horrific act, Jacques Hamel's life was taken away."

Following the ceremony, local dignitaries unveiled a 2-meter metal memorial tribute to the slain priest with writings from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"This memorial is a symbol of peace and brotherhood," Moise said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack last July, in which two nuns and an elderly couple were held hostage before the assailants slashed the priest's throat and seriously wounded another man.

One of the nuns slipped away and alerted authorities, and police shot and killed the attackers as they left the church. The attack was one of several ISIS-claimed assaults targeting France over the past two years.

The church reopened in October, with a special cleansing ritual and call for tolerance across religions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The United Nations mission in Congo says the leader of a rebel group who is wanted for crimes against humanity has surrendered in the country's North Kivu province.

The mission said Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka surrendered Wednesday to U.N. forces in Mutongo in Congo's east with full knowledge he will stand trial for alleged crimes. It says he has been transferred to Goma, the capital of the province.

Sheka, the founder of Nduma defense of Congo, has been wanted since 2011 under a national warrant for crimes against humanity, including for mass rapes.

Human Rights Watch Central Africa director Ida Sawyer said his surrender brings hope for justice and a reprieve from violence.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by a myriad of armed rebels since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
A fake doctor who reportedly had carried out a string of botched butt implants in Brazil has been killed in a suspected revenge attack.

A man entered the apartment of Marcilene Soares Gama on Saturday and tied her hands behind her back and made her get into a car, Rio de Janeiro police said. The gunman then shot the 49-year-old in a face and dumped her body on a nearby road, cops added.

"Forensic experts concluded that she was shot in the face at close range, which is usually a sign of anger and hatred," chief investigator Fabio Cardoso told O Globo, according to the BBC.

At least 10 women have come forward saying their bodies were ruined by botched silicone injections carried out by Gama, the BBC reported.

Gama was previously arrested twice for pretending to be a doctor and was facing a court case at the time of her death.

"She never said she was a surgeon. People knew the risks but they went ahead anyway," said her brother-in-law, Daniel Mofacto.

Click for more from the BBC.


An emboldened Hamas on Wednesday called for a day of rage against Israeli security forces, as the terror group claimed a win in the violent dispute over a contested shrine in Jerusalem.

Israel's security cabinet decided late Monday to remove metal detectors set up at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which had angered Muslims.

Hamas responded by holding a celebratory march in Gaza City Wednesday titled Victory in the battle over Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the group called on supporters to confront Israeli security forces Friday as a reaction to recent events in order to deter Israel from continued infractions against our nation and our holy sites, Israel National News reported.

The [Al-Aqsa] Mosque calls for your conscience and your honor, because it is impossible to continue silently in the face of the attempts of the Israeli occupation to start a new reality there," Hamas politburo chairman Ismail Haniyeh said in a letter published by the al-Risala newspaper, according to the Jerusalem Post.

TOP EU COURT SAYS IT WAS WRONG TO END HAMAS TERROR RULING

Israeli officials announced early Tuesday that "sophisticated technology" would be used at the mosque site instead of the metal detectors. It did not elaborate on when the metal detectors would be removed or what exactly would replace them. Israeli media has reported high resolution cameras capable of detecting hidden objects could be the alternative.

Israel is also likely to boost forces in the area until the plan is fully implemented. Earlier Associated Press footage Tuesday showed heavy machinery and workers heading to the entrance of the site.

Israel erected the metal detectors after Arab terrorists killed two policemen from inside the shrine earlier this month. The move by Israel incensed the Muslim world and triggered violence.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two enemies of America are poised for upcoming rocket launches, two senior U.S. officials told Fox News, with another North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile launch expected as soon as Wednesday night and Iran on the verge of sending its own vehicle into space.

Iran's Simorgh space-launch vehicle is believed to be carrying a satellite, marking the second time in more than a year that Tehran has attempted to put an operational satellite into orbit -- something the Islamic Republic has never done successfully, according to one of the officials who has not authorized to discuss a confidential assessment.

Iran's last space launch in April 2016 failed to place a satellite into orbit, the official said.

The intelligence community is currently monitoring Iran's Semnan launch center, located about 140 miles east of Tehran, where officials say the "first and second stage airframes" have been assembled on a launch pad and a space launch is expected "at any time," according to the official.

Just days after President Trump took office, Iran conducted its first ballistic missile test under the new administration, prompting the White House to put Tehran "on notice." Since then there have been other ballistic missile and cruise missile tests, including one from a midget submarine in early May -- a type of submarine used by both Iran and North Korea.

North Korea and Iran have long been accused of sharing missile technology.

"The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles," said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "Over the years, we've seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other's countries, and we've seen all kinds of common hardware."

U.S. officials are skeptical, however, that North Korea and Iran are coordinating their rocket and missile launches.

While Iran insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, officials have long said any components used to put a satellite into orbit can also be used for building an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States.

U.N. resolution 2231 says Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, according to the text of the agreement which went into effect days after the landmark Iran nuclear agreement that was engineered by the Obama administration.

Critics have said that language was purposefully watered down to called upon instead of a more restrictive phrase because Russia intervened.

In a sign Congress is losing patience with both Iran and North Korea, the House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed (419-3) new sanctions targeting Iran, North Korea and Russia, due in part to Iran and North Korea's missile programs.

News of Iran's pending rocket launch coincides with more evidence North Korea is also preparing to test another ICBM, perhaps as early as Wednesday night -- a date that would coincide with the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement, which ended the fighting in the Korean War, but technically not the war itself.

U.S. officials say North Korea has recently moved fueling equipment and trucks to a launch pad near the town of Kusong, near North Korea's border with China and about 100 miles north of the capital city of Pyongyang.

North Korea has a history of conducting missile tests on historic dates.

North Korea's first successful launch of a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska -- a rocket the Pentagon now calls the KN-20 -- occurred on July 4, while the U.S. celebrated Independence Day.

That North Korean ICBM traveled some 1,700 miles into space, seven times higher than the orbit of NASA's International Space Station. It is not clear, however, if the rocket's "re-entry" vehicle successfully returned to Earth in one piece after it splashed down in the Sea of Japan hundreds of miles off the Korean peninsula.

Officials believe a new test of North Korea's KN-20 is for the purpose of testing the re-entry vehicle.
A conservative Iranian state television host, who is known for being a proponent of a strict Islamic dress code, is under fire after a video emerged allegedly showing her drinking beer and not wearing a hijab while on vacation.

Azadeh Namdari was with her family in Switzerland when she was filmed enjoying what looked like an alcoholic beverage and not wearing a headscarf, the BBC reported.

ORTHODOX JEWISH GRADE SCHOOL IN UK FAILS INSPECTION FOR REFUSAL TO TEACH ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATION

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is strictly prohibited under Islam and alcohol has been banned in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic government in 1979. The Islamic dress code, which says that wearing a hijab is compulsory, is rigidly enforced by the morality police in Iran.

Namdari, who is also a presenter and actress, has actively endorsed compliance with wearing the hijab. In 2014, the conservative Iranian newspaper Vatan-e Emruz published a photo of Namdari in a full hijab with the headline: Thank God, I wear the veil.

In the interview, Namdari also advocated for the black chador, which is a large piece of cloth that completely covers a womans body, leaving only the face exposed.

In her interview with the newspaper, Namdari said she was proud to be a chadori  which is the way women who wear a chador refer to themselves.

You have to believe to be a chador. [Otherwise] youll be exposed, she said, according to the Independent. Thank God that I went on air, I was a chadori. I felt safe and I felt respected. All of these are blessings that the chador has brought me.

But after the new video hit the internet, Namdari was accused of hypocrisy and dual-behavior.

The video was shared online on July 24 and already been viewed more than 11,000 times, the BBC reported.

HANNA BOHMAN: MEET THE CANADIAN WOMAN JOINING FORCES WITH OTHER WOMEN TO FIGHT ISIS

According to the Independent, the backlash prompted a torrent of memes that included her being photoshopped with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka in her hand.

"The problem is not #Azadeh_Namdari or people like her. The problem is the ideology, culture and the system that forces individuals in society to have dual-behaviour for some reasons," read a tweet from an account attributed to the pro-government cleric Abolfazl Najafi-Tehrani.

In response to the criticism, Namdari released her own video in which she defended herself for not wearing a headscarf, saying she was in a park with family members and maherem  close relatives around whom a woman does not need to wear a hijab. She said she was wearing a headscarf, but it had suddenly fallen when the video was taken by an unknown person.

She gave no explanation as to why she appeared to be drinking beer.

However, for some people, Namdari's response only added fuel to the fire.

According to the BBC, the Facebook page Iran Without Clerics ripped Namdari for her seeming hypocrisy.

We do not have any problem with you not wearing a hijab or drinking beer, the post read. Our problem is that you take the Iranian people for a fool.
The lawyer for a Russian blogger jailed in Azerbaijan for traveling to a separatist-controlled region of the former Soviet republic says his client has petitioned to be extradited to Israel.

Alexander Lapshin was detained in Belarus last year and extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was charged for his trip to Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia several years ago. He was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this month.

Defense lawyer Eduard Chernin said Wednesday that his client has met with an Israeli consul in prison and petitioned to be extradited there. Lapshin holds Russian, Ukrainian and Israeli citizenship.

Since a separatist war ended in 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of forces that claim to be local ethnic Armenians but that Azerbaijan alleges include Armenian troops.
A man was shot and killed by Australian police Wednesday night after witnesses said he threatened officers with scissors and told cops to "shoot him" during a brief standoff at a Sydney train station.

Police were called to Sydney's Central Station just before 6:45 p.m. local time for a report of a robbery, news.com.au reported. When they arrived, they discovered a man who was reportedly acting violently inside a nearby flower shop.

Video taken by bystanders shows the man charging toward the two officers before he was shot. The officers fired several shots, killing the man at the scene. New South Wales police confirmed "a man has been shot following a confrontation with police," but did not provide additional details.

Witnesses told news.com.au the incident began when the man walked into the flower shop and started "breaking everything."

"A man came from nowhere. He tried to grab an old man, the florist owner, and he was pulling him and yelling at him," Nathan Yin, a witness, told the news site. "I said, 'What the f*** do you want?' and he said, 'I just want to die.'"

Yin added: "The man, I think he was holding scissors and trying to grab police and the police have shot him. Three or four gun shots."

Witnesses also said the man was heard saying "shoot me" to the officers while he held scissors in his hand.

It wasn't immediately clear what the man's name or motive was, and if the incident was terror-related.
Fires that broke out earlier this week in southern France and on the island of Corsica have torched thousands of acres and have now forced 10,000 people to evacuate.

The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire. Its an area that doubles or triples its population in summer, a fire service official said, Agence France-Presse reported.

A new fire in southern France prompted the evacuations.

No residents or tourists have been injured, authorities said. However, the massive blazes have left several responders hurt as they fight to extinguish the fires.

Some eight to 12 firefighters have suffered injuries, according to reports, and roughly 15 police officers have been hurt. The French civil security authority has asked the European Union for assistance and requested two Canadair planes to help control the wildfires.

More than 4,000 firefighters and 19 water bombers have been called in to battle the blazes, AFP reported.

Beach-goers in Saint-Tropez watched as fires continued to engulf the forest in nearby La Croix-Valmer.

Firefighters were said to be close to containing fires in several locations, but strong winds were predicted to hit the area over the next few days, creating a risk that flames could spark again, Reuters reported.

A lightning strike was thought to be the cause of one fire, but cigarette butts are often the cause of fires in southern France during the summer, as tourists flock to the area, Reuters reported.

Nearly 2,000 acres have charred around the Var area of Provence, destroying two villas, with the largest blaze destroying roughly 5,000 acres in northern Corsica. A fire in the neighboring Luberon region was under control Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Portugal has begun fighting a new blaze, just one month after fighting deadly forest fires, AFP reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A senior Muslim official in Jerusalem says worshippers won't return to a contested shrine until Israel removes new railings and cameras it installed after a deadly attack there.

Ikrema Sabri said Wednesday that even after Israel removed metal detectors more steps were required. He said mass prayer protests would continue outside the site -- known to Israelis as the Temple Mount and by Palestinian as the Al Haram Al Sharif -- until the gates of the compound were opened and the metal railings and an iron bridge with cameras on it were removed.

Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, said a lawyer on behalf of the Muslim administration of the holy site will be in touch with Israeli police to demand the changes.

Israel installed new security measures after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site. Under international pressure, Israel removed the metal detectors.

Sabris statements came after Muslim worshippers held their morning prayers outside Jerusalem's most contested holy site despite Israel's removal of the metal detectors that sparked the protest.

Wednesday's prayers came a day after Israel seemingly capitulated to the demands of protesters. But Muslim religious leaders have called for prayers to continue outside until delicate arrangements at the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, return to what they were before Israel installed new security measures. Those measures came after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site.

Muslim leaders have alleged that the metal detectors are part of a purported Israeli attempt to expand control over the site.

Israel has denied such allegations, arguing that metal detectors are routine security devices and that the measures are necessary to prevent further attacks. Palestinians claim Israel is trying to expand its control.

The volatile Jerusalem shrine, revered by Muslims and Jews alike, sits at the center of rival Israeli and Palestinian national narratives and has triggered major confrontations in the past.

Jews revere the site, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times, as the Temple Mount. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

Muslims regard the same hilltop compound as the Noble Sanctuary. Home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, it is Islam's third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Philippine officials say North Korea's top diplomat will be attending an annual Asian security conference next week in Manila where concern over the North's nuclear weapons program is expected to be high on the agenda.

According to officials, a North Korean delegation led by its vice foreign minister flew to Manila Wednesday to discuss with their Filipino counterparts the participation of Pyongyang's top diplomat, Ri Su-yong, in the ASEAN Regional Forum.

The 27-member ARF's annual meetings are also attended by the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, countries involved in the so-called six-party talks aimed at taming the North's nuclear ambition. The talks were last held in April 2009, when the North pulled out to protest international condemnations over its long-range rocket launch.
A court has convicted one of Germany's most prominent Islamic radicals of supporting a foreign terrorist organization and sentenced him to 5 years in prison.

German news agency dpa reported that the state court in Duesseldorf ruled on Wednesday that 36-year-old Sven Lau supported the Army of Emigrants and Partisans, known as JAMWA. He was accused of acting as the contact for extremists wanting to fight for the group in Syria.

Lau, a convert to Islam, made headlines in 2014 when he tried to establish a "Sharia police" in the German city of Wuppertal to enforce a strict interpretation of Islam.

His terror organization trial, which opened in September, covered accusations dating back to 2013.
Russia's defense minister says four battalions of Russian military police are currently deployed in safe zones in Syria.

Russia and Iran, both supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which backs rebels fighting Syrian government forces, agreed on a plan in May to establish four "de-escalation" zones in Syria, pressing Assad's air force to halt flights over designated areas across the war-torn country.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian news agencies on Wednesday that the four battalions are now operating in the safe zones. The chief of the Russian General Staff last week mentioned military police in just one zone and did not give any numbers.

Russia has supported Assad's offensive against Islamic State militants since 2015, and sent the first battalion of military police to Syria in December.
He claims he is the victim of character assassination. Australia has reason to think he committed multiple sexual assaults a long time back. Now the world waits for the truth to come out.

Cardinal George Pell, originally from Ballarat, Australia, had a brief, administrative hearing Wednesday in Melbourne. He said nothing. But the media gathered in force to capture the powerful imagery of a Cardinal in court.

Pope Francis has applauded Pell, his treasurer, for facing the charges and granted him leave to do so. Pell, who is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be charged with sex abuse, is known as an ultra conservative on social issues, but has been all for transparency when it comes to church finances.

His case is awkward for Pope Francis, who has vowed zero tolerance for sex abuse.

Cardinal Pell has maintained his innocence and has said in the past that he finds the whole idea of sex abuse abhorrent.

But he has gone from being under suspicion of helping to cover up the problem in Australia, or at least, not doing enough to answer complaints, to being accused of being an abuser himself.

The Pope pointed out, in a statement that Cardinal Pell has openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse committed against minors.

But as the Pontiff promoted Pell when he was already under the spotlight, he may himself have to answer accusations of looking the other way.

The details of Pells case have not been released, but his hometown has been in the eye of the sex abuse storm. Ballarat is among the places citing the worst cases of sex abuse by church clerics, with dozens of victims having committed suicide over the years.

Worldwide, there have been 4,444 alleged incidents of child sexual abuse between 1980 and 2015, with the average age of female victims being 10  years of age, and boys, 11 .

Whatever the outcome of the case against Pell, Anne Barrett Doyle of an organization called Bishop Accountability said has been quoted as saying, his presence today in a secular courtroom marks the victory of transparency over secrecy, and the rule of law over the Vaticans failed strategy of containment.

Pell, 76, was questioned last year by Australias Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via video link as he was not healthy enough to travel.

But for his trial, he is back home now. Pell claims he is looking forward to his day in court, to clear his name. The trial promises to be a lengthy one. His next appearance will be October 6th.
Tucker Morgan, fourth-generation family member of Kenworth Sales Co., recalls how his great-grandfather started a business out of the back of a Studebaker and how that business would become Kenworth Sales Co.

Seventy-two years later, on July 25, the young descendant watched his familys company break ground for a facility to be built on Ruby Vista Drive, overlooking Interstate 80. Kenworth now has 21 locations in seven states and has operated in Elko for about 10 years. The company Kenworth assists with the buying, leasing, renting, financing, servicing, maintaining, licensing and other aspects of operating a truck.

Elko Mayor Chris Johnson, who tossed a shovelful of dirt into the air during the ceremony, congratulated Morgan on the expansion of his familys company.

Im glad to see the company in Elko, Johnson said, and Im glad the market is strong enough.

Longtime Kenworth employee Ted Prescott, recently made service manager, says he looks forward to working in the new store, which will be about four times the size of the existing facility on Idaho Street.

It certainly should be an upgrade from what we have currently, he said.

The facility will house eight service bays, employ 16-20 employees, create about six jobs and increase warehouse space to 6,000 square feet. Plans also include conveniences for truck drivers and a drivers lounge with internet access. The new facility could also allow the company to have a truck salesman on hand more often and display trucks on-site. Kenworth District Manager Mike McKay said he anticipates annual revenues from service and parts from the Ruby Vista Drive location to total more than $4.5 million.

Compared to what we currently have, McKay said, it will be a mechanics dream.

Representatives of contractor Herm Hughes & Sons, working with local subcontractors, expect the project to be completed in about May 2018.

This new store will allow us to better facilitate the needs of our customer base in the Elko area, McKay said. We are always looking for ways to better serve our customers and look forward to enhancing customer experience with this new, state-of-the-art location.
Members of the King George Board of Supervisors say they dont have the appetite to condemn a piece of farmland so they can build a new fire station.

I dont think anybody wants to do that, said Supervisor Jim Howard.

From the day I was elected, I said I would never have the stomach to condemn anyones property because I wouldnt want my own condemned, said Supervisor Chairwoman Ruby Brabo.

I dont support taking anyones land, and I especially dont support this, added Supervisor Cedell Brooks Jr.

But that doesnt mean that farmer Al Reed, an 83-year-old who lives on the Windsor Drive property thats at the center of the debate, will be able to graze beef cattle over all the rolling hills until his dying days.

About 20 years ago, Reed put most of his 314 acres in a conservation easement and sold 40.6 acresat a much-reduced priceto First Baptist Church of Marshall Heights in Washington.

With the sale came the condition that Reed would have lifetime rights to the property.

Now, its up to the church trustees to determine if Reed will have open fields between his two-story farmhouse and his nearest neighbor to the northor a fire and rescue station to serve the busy Dahlgren area.

If the church accepts the offer, then we will build the fire station there, Brabo said. If the church rejects the offer, then we will move on to the next property.

King George County officials have spent at least six years looking for land on which to build a new facility. Its hard for units to get in and out of the existing fire station on State Route 206 in Dahlgren, which wasnt built for round-the-clock operations, said Chief David Moody.

The county made offers on two other parcels. When their owners declined, county officials moved down the list, Brabo said.

King George officials made an offer on the Reed land, known to locals as Buena Vista, to the church but never got a response, so County Attorney Eric Gregory suggested condemnation proceedings.

Thats when county officials and residents alike heard the back story on Reed, who described the problems hed had since he moved to the farm almost 40 years ago and was told a black person wasnt gonna live there. Someone set his home on fire, andthree different timesshot and killed a cow in his fields.

I aint had nothing but trouble, ever since I been up there,  Reed told the Board of Supervisors last month.

POLITICAL SUICIDE

Since the June 20 public hearing on the proposed condemnation, neighbors and residents have called, emailed and spoken at public meetings on Reeds behalf. Theyve made impassioned pleas, both for him and their lifestyle, and have asked the supervisors to preserve the character of the area out of respect for residents who have a love for the rich agricultural and rural appeal of history that makes King George County such a wonderful place to live, Carrie Gonzalez told the board July 18.

Theyve asked officials to let Reed live out the remainder of his days in peace.

Is there any concern for mankind when this governing body makes a decision? asked Wayne Bushrod, president of the King George chapter of the NAACP.

Don Shelton, a King George resident who considered running for supervisor until he attended meetings and saw the workload involved, told board members their proposal was just wrong.

Please dont condemn this mans land, he said. You will be committing political suicide if you do.

Supervisor Howard stressed the county hadnt done anything but make an offer on the property. By law, its required to advertise that its considering condemnation proceedingsand to have a public hearing to gather commentbut the board hasnt decided its next step, he said.

Supervisor Richard Granger said he understands the concerns people have, and that the only reason condemnation was even on the table is because it could be something we need to do for the health and welfare of our citizens.

MORE TIME

Residents also asked the county to look at some of the commercially zoned property on nearby U.S. 301. At the June meeting, Moody said land on the four-lane highway wasnt an option because it would be difficultand unsafefor fire trucks to cross several lanes or make U-turns.

Plus, the county may not be able to afford any land zoned commercial, Howard said.

Those commercial sites may be $2 million, he said.

King George County made the Washington church an offer of $102,500 for the 10 acres. The full 40.62 acre parcel is valued at $218,600 and the farmhouse is worth $225,800, for a total property value of $444,400, according to King George tax records.

On June 20, Bill Bayliss, a Richmond attorney representing the church, told the supervisors the trustees believe the offer is not fair market value. He said the church hadnt been interested in sellingbut that it certainly didnt want to see the land condemned, and that trustees really would like to not deal with this until Mr. Reed is not living there.

But the lawyer also asked the county in June for more time for church trustees to consider the matter.

The church has indicated an interest in trying to negotiate, Bayliss said.
Republican Congressman Dave Brat expressed support Wednesday for embattled U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying Sessions acted in the highest ethical manner by recusing himself from the investigation into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia.

He did not mention Trumps recent criticism of Sessions decision, instead blaming Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media for trying to stir the pot.

One thing is for sure: when A.G. Sessions erred on the side of caution by recusing himself, he never could have foreseen the 24/7 full-throated obsession over Russia by the mainstream media, stated Brat, whose 7th District includes all or parts of Culpeper, Orange and Spotsylvania counties. The medias attacks have only escalated since Trumps inauguration. Fake news dominates.

He closed the statement by encouraging Sessions to stay the course," echoing other Republicans who have defended the attorney general in recent days. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican whose 1st District includes much of the Fredericksburg region, declined to comment on the controversy.

Trump told The New York Times last Wednesday that he would have not appointed Sessions had he known the attorney general would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, calling the decision very unfair to the president. He also unleashed a Twitter barrage this week in which he accused Sessions of taking a VERY weak position on alleged crimes by Hillary Clinton.

Asked Tuesday whether he would fire Sessions, Trump said: Time will tell."

In his lengthy statement, Brat said Trump is frustrated with those who have called for his impeachment since day one. Those critics, he said, "refuse to honor the outcome of the election.

Brat also took aim at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who he said rushed to appoint former FBI Director Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation when there remains no publicly-available evidence of any crimes committed.

Not only that, but Rosenstein gave Robert Mueller broad investigative authority through the inclusion of a catch-all phrase when authorizing the scope of the investigation, stated Brat, who went on to question Muellers appointment of people with clear political bias.

Meanwhile, Brat said Sessions is dutifully following the presidents orders and deserves our praise for having the guts and the backbone to fight for this great country.

The goal of Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media is to divide two of the principal conservative populist leaders in the nation, and at this time we must all remain united, Brat stated. Our words, policies, and messaging must meet the highest ethical standard as we all try to drain the swamp together.

University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth said it is unusual that a congressman would have to defend an attorney general from the same party, but added: Theres nothing usual about the Donald Trump presidency."

Farnsworth said Brats statement is a reminder of Sessions popularity with conservative Republicans. And firing him, if it comes to that, might make Trump some enemies among people who now count themselves as his friends.
The nail-biting race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt remained too early to call after polls closed across Nevada Tuesday night. Laxalt and Cortez Masto have been locked in a tight race for weeks, both hitting hard on national party talking points. Laxalt has blamed inflation and illegal immigration on Democratic policies. Cortez Masto has promised to block GOP-led attempts at a nationwide abortion ban and said she will fight for a pathway to permanent citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. Both candidates told supporters late Tuesday night that they expected to come out ahead once all the votes were counted.
Steven Salaita, an outspoken former Virginia Tech professor, says he is leaving academia after he had difficulty finding a job.

Salaita, who graduated from Radford University and is a Bluefield native, became embroiled in an academic freedom battle with the University of Illinois in 2014 after the school took away a new job two weeks before classes began after he made anti-Israel comments on Twitter. He later sued the university for rescinding its offer and was awarded $600,000 in a settlement.

Eventually the professor landed at American University of Beirut in Lebanon for the 2015-16 academic year and was given a one-year contract extension for the 2016-17 academic year. Its unknown if he was offered another extension for the upcoming year.

In a 468-word Facebook post published over the weekend, he wrote that he had difficulty finding a job after applying for positions on four continents. He wrote that he will move to the Washington, D.C., area to write and give talks.

I havent always been a good professorIm disorganized and forgetful and reclusive and unresponsive and an easy graderbut Ive never compromised my ethics or sold out colleagues and students in order to ingratiate myself to power, he wrote.

Salaita also wrote hed like to stay in the public eye.

Im still young and energetic, Saliata wrote. I dont intend to slosh around in self-pity. Whatever I end up doing, I will maintain the spirit of noncompliance that defined my time in academe.

That spirit also marked Salaitas time at Tech when he garnered national attention in 2013 by publishing an online commentary critical of the phrase Support the Troops. Despite widespread calls for his firing or other actions against him, Tech officials did not censure him, though they did distance themselves from his message.

Salaita continues to tweet. The day before he announced he was leaving academia he posted, In Israel, freedom of religion means the ability of the state to murder non-Jews without consequence. #Jerusalem

The day after his announcement he posted on Twitter, Thank you, friends, for your kind messages. For those asking how to help, the answer is simple: work to eliminate the sources of repression.
The man accused of fatally shooting Virginia State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter is scheduled to go on trial in October 2018.

If the case goes to trial, Travis Ball could face the death penalty, according to Deputy Capital Defender Jennifer Stanton from Norfolk.

Ball is charged with capital murder, which is punishable by death or life in prison, in the fatal shooting of Walter on May 26 in Mosby Court.

Its up to Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Michael Herring to take death off the tablewhich hasnt happened yet.

Mr. Herring made it clear that if this goes to trial that death will be on the table, Stanton told Circuit Court Judge Beverly Snuckals.

The trial date was set Tuesday for two weeks starting Oct. 9, 2018, giving both prosecution and defense more than a year to prepare.

Learned Barry, who is prosecuting the case with Herring, pushed for an earlier trial in March 2018. But Snuckals deferred to Stanton, who has tried four other capital casestwo at the state level and two at the federal leveland said it typically takes 18 to 20 months to prepare for a capital trial.

Snuckals warned the attorneys not to delay with pretrial motions and proceedings because the date would not be further delayed.
Myles Nathaniel Nix of Spotsylvania County passed away Wednesday, July 19, 2017. For Myles, each day throughout his 13 months of life was a new adventure to experience to the fullest. Myles loved to explore his world and spent many hours trying to figure out how things worked. He loved reading, music, dogs and playing in water. Myles never met a stranger and had a smile for everyone he met. He enjoyed attending, playing and being cared for at the Goddard School where he learned new things every day. Survivors include his parents, Jessica Nix and Brenton McGhee; father Derrick Trump; grandparents Bill and Jacqui Nix, Chris and Gail McGhee, and Jeff and Deb Trump; his aunt, Courtney Nix; as well as numerous other aunts, uncles and cousins. The family will receive friends from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 29 at Covenant Funeral Service, Fredericksburg. A memorial service will follow at 10 a.m. in the funeral home chapel. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to a Memorial Fund that is being established in Myles' name at Navy Federal Credit Union to help with expenses and to provide donations of children's books to local libraries. Additionally, donations can be made to Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers in Myles' memory. Online guestbook at covenantfuneralservice.com
Ralph S. Phipps, of Woodford, originally of Leicester, Mass., passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 25, 2017 surrounded by his family. Mr. Phipps lived a life of service to his country in the US Army with his career as a forester and environmental specialist at AP Hill and Quantico USMC base respectively. He supported his community through his deep involvement with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg and extensive volunteer work, especially with Rebuilding Together, Inc. Mr. Phipps is survived by his beloved wife of 42 years, Joyce Phipps; his children, Eric and Lisa Phipps; his siblings, Joan Hodgeboom, Janet Fryman, Bruce Phipps, and Carol Phipps; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Nelson and Sarah Phipps. A memorial service celebrating his life, humor and adventuresome spirit will be held at 1 p.m. on July 29 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, 25 Chalice Circle, Fredericksburg, VA 22405 or Rebuilding Together, Inc., PO Box 41280, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. Online guestbook at covenantfuneralservice.com.
President Trumps Attorney General Jeff Sessions has a reputation as a law-and-order guy, but the plan he announced this past week to step up civil asset forfeiture efforts skirts the law and jeopardizes order.

The plan is to reverse an Obama administration policy that restricted how often federal agencies would accept property  cash, vehicles, homes, airplanes  seized by local police agencies under suspicion it was used to perpetrate a crime such as drug dealing. That seized property is sold and the local police get 80 percent of the profits to spend as they see fit. This is called equitable sharing.

Sessions rationalized his policy change by saying civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement defund organized crime, take back ill-gotten gains, and prevent new crimes from being committed, and it weakens the criminals and the cartels. Even more importantly, it helps return property to the victims of crime. Civil asset forfeiture takes the material support of the criminals and instead makes it the material support of law enforcement, funding priorities like new vehicles, bulletproof vests, opioid overdose reversal kits, and better training.

Often property is seized and no one is ever convicted of an actual crime. The owner of the cash or property essentially must prove themselves innocent in a civil court.

In a 2010 report called Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture, the Institute for Justice (IJ) noted that the practice provides an incentive for local police to seize property to boost their budgets.

Sessions revised seizure policy allows local agencies to skirt state laws that restrict civil asset forfeitures. In 2014, the Justice Department reported $4.5 billion in asset forfeiture revenue.

In this past session of the Nevada Legislature Sen. Don Gustavson of Sparks filed a bill that would have required proof of a criminal conviction, a plea agreement or an agreement by the parties concerned before property could be forfeited. The bill died without a vote.

Nevada forfeiture law provides paltry protection for property owners from wrongful forfeitures, the IJ reports. The government may seize your property and keep it upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence, a higher standard than many states but still lower than the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. But the burden falls on you to prove that you are an innocent owner by showing that the act giving rise to the forfeiture was done without your knowledge, consent or willful blindness. Further, law enforcement keeps 100 percent of the revenue raised from the sale of forfeited property.

Still, Nevada local law enforcement often engages in equitable sharing with federal agencies, according to IJ, which resulted in $21 million accruing to the local agencies over a decade.

There have been a number of instances in Nevada in which property was seized without anyone ever being charged with a crime.

In January 2013 police seized $167,000 from a man driving a motor home westbound along Interstate 80 in Elko County. A judge just recently ordered the money returned.

Over a two-year period Humboldt County deputies seized $180,000 in cash from motorists. One deputy was caught on tape telling a tourist, Youll burn it up in attorney fees before we give it back to you.

The U.S. attorneys office in Las Vegas demanded a local woman forfeit the $76,667 in salary she earned while running an office for her brother, who was later convicted of mortgage fraud. The sister was never charged. A federal judge called the forfeiture effort the most egregious miscarriage of justice I have experienced in more than twenty years on the bench.

This happened though the Fifth Amendment provides: No person shall be  deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law 

In his policy announcement Sessions admitted there can be problems with asset forfeitures, but he promised to protect the rights of the people we serve. Law-abiding people whose property is used without their knowledge or without their consent should not be punished because of crimes that others have committed.

That promise hardly constitutes due process of law.

Congress should rein in this abuse-prone practice.

In fact, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan have reintroduced the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act.

The FAIR Act will ensure that government agencies no longer profit from taking the property of U.S. citizens without due process, Paul said, while maintaining the ability of courts to order the surrender of proceeds of crime.
SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY officials were probably going by the book when, acting on a complaint, they informed Zoan Baptist Church that it would need a special-use permit to continue hosting Summit Academy, a private, Catholic all-boys school, under its roof.

County officials say that because the church and school are unaffiliated separate entitiesone is Baptist and the other is Catholicand operate under a business agreementthe school paid rent to the churchthe special-use is required if the arrangement is to continue.

The church filed suit against the county, claiming that it is within the churchs constitutional rights to operate the school. Zoan says it considers the 20-student school a ministry of the church.

Further, to allay the countys concerns, the church will no longer require the school to pay rent and has also seated two church representatives on the schools board of directors.

We understand the countys desire to make sure things are done on the up-and-up, but its actions and the ensuing lawsuit seem to us a tempest in a teapot. Could this have been worked out at a table with the various players seated all around? There seem to be obvious constitutional freedom of religion and assembly issues at work here.

Ironically, the county four years ago granted the church a permit to renovate its 12-classroom wing, but suddenly has an issue with the denomination of the school thats using it?

Now, The Free LanceStar has learned, the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors has voted to authorize either or both County Administrator Mark Taylor and Deputy County Administrator Mark Cole to negotiate a settlement with Zoan Baptist over its lawsuit.

Hopefully the settlement will allow the church/school arrangement to continue with the countys blessing and without the need for the costly special-use permit or litigation processes.
How will Congress respond to new arbitration rule?

What will Congress and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, do with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus new rule that curtails the scope of arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts?

Under the rule, while arbitration clauses would still be permissible in consumer financial product contracts, they would have to say explicitly that they cannot be used to stop consumers from being part of a class action in court.

So what are the problems with these clauses?

Fair Arbitration Now says, Most Americans dont know that they are bound by forced arbitration. Buried in the fine print of employment, cell phone, credit card, retirement account, homebuilding, and nursing home contracts are mandatory arbitration clauses. Just by taking a job or buying a product or service, individuals are forced to give up their right to go to court if they are harmed by a company.

In arbitration, there is no judge, jury or right to an appeal. The arbitrators do not have to follow the law, and there is no public review of decisions to ensure the arbitrator got it right. Moreover, contracts typically name the arbitration that must be usedthe one preferred by the company.

Agreements with an arbitration clause prevent consumers from suing for negligence, defective products or scams. Wells Fargo tried to use arbitration clauses in their agreements to defend against allegations they opened accounts fraudulently.

So, will Congress exercise its threat to fight this rule or defund the CFPB? If it does, how will Wittman vote? Will he vote for you and I, the consumers, or for big business?

James Knupp

Hartfield
Trump will bring back greatness

In response to Barbara James July 8 letter to the editor, [America must regain its dignity] I would first say she should stop crying because Donald Trump has been selected by the people to be president.

Her statement, This country is going to hell in a handbasket, is nonsense. Its going to be great again under President Trump. All U.S. citizens should stand with the president, whether they voted for him or not.

No matter who is president, we should all say, Im proud to be an American, regardless of party affiliation.

Under the last administration, we cowardly bowed and denounced our greatness. It is now time to bring our greatness back. President Trump will do that.

As an American, I will supply Barbara James all the Kleenex she needs to wipe her tears of frustration in losing, and I will pray for her redemption.

God bless America and President Trump.

Eugene Korzeniowski

Fredericksburg
Sign up for Free Times Weekend newsletter!

Let us help you find something to do around town. Receive a breakdown of the weeks best concerts, shows and other happenings to your inbox from Free Times!
An ex-Richland County councilwoman accused of paying for vacations and other personal expenses with taxpayers' money has been temporarily barred from practicing law. Read moreSC high court suspends law license of ex-Richland County official charged with corruption
Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.
The Republican president has a job approval rating around 40 percent. The GOP has an unfavorability rating around 56 percent. And Republicans trail Democrats by nine points in an average of generic ballot polls.

All of which makes it notable that the Republican National Committee is trouncing the Democratic National Committee when it comes to raising money, especially from small donors.

The numbers are striking. In June, the RNC raised $13.5 million to the DNCs $5.5 million.

For 2017 so far, the RNC has raised $75.4 million to the DNCs $38.2 million.

The RNC started the year with $25.3 million in cash-on-hand. Now it has $44.7 million. The DNC started the year with $10.5 in cash-on-hand. Now, that has fallen to $7.5 million.

As of June 30, the RNC reported $0 in debt. The DNC reported $3.3 million in debt.

A look inside the numbers is even worse for the DNC. Looking at collections from small donors  that is, those who contributed less than $200  the RNC raised $10.5 million in the months of May and June. The DNC raised $5.3 million from small donors in the same time period.

The RNCs money total is a record  more than was raised in any previous non-presidential election year. That is true for June, and for all of 2017 as well. The $75.4 million raised this year compares to $55.4 million for the same period in 2015; to $51.2 for the same period in 2014; to $41.1 million for the same period in 2013, and so on going back.

Its definitely a reflection of support for President Trump, said RNC spokesman Ryan Mahoney. Our small-dollar donors are giving at a record pace because they believe the RNC is supporting President Trump, and they like that.

The obvious reason for the Democrats troubles is that they lost the White House, the House and the Senate last year. Now, the party appears to have a particularly bad hangover. One data point: In 2013, after Republicans lost their second presidential election in a row and many believed the party faced years in the electoral wilderness, the RNC still raised more money in the January-June period, $41.1 million, than the $38.2 million the Democrats have raised so far this year.

There is much discussion about the intensity of Democratic opposition to President Trump, and indeed Democrats showed a lot of fundraising enthusiasm in the losing Georgia 06 congressional race that turned into a referendum on the president. But the fact is, the passions behind The Resistance have not, or have not yet, turned into support for the main vehicle of opposition to Trump, the Democratic Party.

Democrats have simply not gotten over the Hillary-Bernie split that plagued the party last year. And they have not decided what they will be in the future. Remember, this is a party that won the White House in 2008 and 2012 on the strength of the Obama coalition of minorities, young people, and the college educated  the group political journalist Ron Brownstein calls the coalition of the ascendant. Its not an exaggeration to say that many believed demographics favored them so heavily that they were virtually guaranteed Democratic victories in the years ahead. And then the Trump victory reminded them that there are still a lot of working-class voters in the country who arent necessarily natural Democrats.

This week, Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rolled out a new agenda, which they call A Better Deal, which is designed to appeal to those disaffected voters. And not a minute too soon. When a recent ABC-Washington Post poll asked, Do you think the Democratic Party currently stands for something, or just stands against Trump?  just 37 percent said the party stands for something, while 52 percent said it just stands against Trump, and 11 percent had no opinion.

So now Democrats have a huge job in front of them. And it is unclear whether Tom Perez, the Hillary Clinton-backed candidate who won the DNC chairmanship in a divisive battle with Rep. Keith Ellison earlier this year, is the man to do it. Last month, in explaining another dismal fundraising period for the Democrats, Perez distanced himself from the problem. I got here on March 1, Perez told MSNBC, and I was the first to say it, weve got a lot of rebuilding to do.

The new fundraising numbers dont predict what will happen in 2018. But they do say what is happening now. And that is, in spite of his problems there is enough support for Trump in the Republican base to set new small-donor fundraising records, while Democrats have yet another measure of the work that lies ahead.
Search All categories Advertising General Aerospace General Agriculture General Airlines General America - Post 9/11 General Apparel General Apple Products General Architectural General Architecture Architecture Art & Entertainments Books Celebrities Country Music Dance Magazines Movies Museums Music Music Downloads News & Talk Shows Performing Arts Photography Television Web Sites Arts/Culture General Auction General Automotive Aftermarket Classic Autos Consumer Publications General Motorcycle & Bike Racing Recreational Vehicle Repair & Service Trade Publications Blogging & Social Media Blogging & Social Media Business Advertising / Marketing Books Consumer Research Direct Marketing e-Commerce Entrepreneurs Finance Franchise Human Resources Insurance Investment Management Markets Network Marketing Online Marketing / SEO Payday Loans Public Relations Publications Real Estate Retail Stocks Supermarkets Women in Business Careers/HR General Chemical General Coaching / Mentoring Coaching / Mentoring Computers Apple Products Databases Games & Entertainment General Hosting Instruction Linux / GNU "Open Source" Macintosh Microsoft Windows PC Operating Systems Programming Security Software Tablet PCs Utilities Construction General Consumer Gifts and Collectibles Hobbies Web sites / Internet Design Graphic Design Industrial Web E-Cigarette General eCommerce General Economy General Education College / University General Home Schooling K-12 Post Graduate Technical Electronics General Email Marketing General EmailWire Press Releases Press Release Tips Employment/Careers General Engineering General Entertainment General Environment General Events / Trade Shows General Finance General Food General Franchise General Fraud / Identity Theft General Gaming General Government General Judicial Law Enforcement Legislative Local National Public Services Security State Transportation Healthcare General Home and Family Banking / Personal Finance Bereavement / Loss Home Furnishings / Interiors Landscaping & Gardening Marriage / Relationships Money Parenting Payday Loans Pets Taxes Wedding / Bridal Home Schooling General Hotels/Resorts General Household General Industry Aerospace / Defense Agriculture Apparel / Textiles Broadcast Construction / Building Electrical Food Funeral Healthcare Leisure / Hospitality Logistics / Shipping Manufacturing / Production Mining / Metals Oil / Energy Paper / Forest Products Plumbing, Heating & AC Print Media Printing Publishing Radio Restaurants Tobacco Toy Insurance General Internet/Online General Legal General Leisure General Lifestyle Beauty Dating / Singles Diet / Weight Loss Fashion Food / Beverage Health & Fitness Hotel / Resorts Pastimes Restaurants Retirement Travel & Tourism Machinery General Maritime General Medical Addiction Allergies Alternative Medicine Asthma Cancer Cardiology Chiropractic Dental Dermatology Diabetes Emergency Family Medicine General General Geriatrics Hospitals Infectious Diseases Internal Medicine Managed Care / HMO Medical Products Mental Health Neurology Nursing Nutrition OB / GYN Pediatrics Pharmaceuticals Physical Therapy Plastic Surgery Psychology Radiology / Imaging Research Sports Medicine Surgery Vision Military General Mining/Metals General Miscellaneous General Nanotechnology Nanotechnology Non-profit General Occupational Safety Occupational Safety Oil/Energy General Opinion / Editorial Opinion / Editorial Paper Products General Paper/Forest General Pharmaceuticals General Podcasting Announce Tools and Services Politics Politics Print Media General Public Utilities Public Utilities Publishing General Radio General Real Estate General Religion Christian General Islam Jewish Other Restaurants General Retail General RSS & Content Syndication RSS & Content Syndication Science and Research Science and Research Self-Help / Personal Growth Self-Help / Personal Growth Shipbuilding General Society African American Interests Asian Interests Childrens Issues Disabled Issues / Disabilities Gay / Lesbian Hispanic Mens Interests Native American Senior Citizens Social Services Teen Issues/Interests Womens Interest Software General Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boating / Maritime Bowling Boxing Fishing Football Golf Hockey Hunting Martial Arts Outdoors Rugby Soccer Tennis Water Winter/Snow Sports/Fitness General Stocks General Supermarkets General Technology Biotechnology Computer Electronics Enterprise Software Games Graphics/Printing/CAD Hardware / Peripherals Industrial Information Internet Multimedia Networking Public Sector/Government Robotics Semiconductor Software Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather Weather
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

Google Ad

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

Google Ad

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
US official calls for continued US funding for demining in Artsakh

Today, senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Armenian Caucus Member Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) urged support for U.S. funding for demining efforts in Artsakh during the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats hearing entitled "Examining the President's FY 2018 Budget Proposal for Europe and Eurasia," reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly). "Let's talk a little bit about demining in Artsakh. Our assistance programs for what was then called the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has since Fiscal Year 98 supported lifesaving maternal healthcare, provided for clean drinking water, and cleared mines and unexploded ordinance. HALO Trust, which is leading the demining efforts, reports that it has completed about 88% of its mission but continues to need US funds to continue its lifesaving work, additional humanitarian needs continue. Do we expect HALO Trust to be funded so that it can complete the demining effort?" Rep. Sherman asked. U.S. Department of State's European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Ambassador John Heffern, in return, responded: "Over the years, as you know, we have given Nagorno Karabakh - the people of Nagorno Karabakh - $45 million in assistance, humanitarian as you described it, [for] water and demining. As I understood, the recent HALO Trust report estimated closer to 96-97% coverage on their demining efforts, which is very important, and there is going to be an assessment of that before we make decision on the next step." U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Europe and Eurasia Bureau Acting Assistant to the Administrator Margot Ellis added that demining is normally funded from their regional budget. "In the past we have sent a request to Congress for us to be engaged and we will put in a similar request," she added. In its Fiscal Year 2018 testimony, the Assembly urged not less than $8 million be allocated for Arstakh, including de-mining activities. "For a relatively small investment, America has the opportunity to make a significant difference in the everyday lives of the people of Artsakh," the Assembly stated in testimony. Rep. Sherman also raised the importance of negotiating a bilateral tax treaty with Armenia and making this agreement a high priority at the State Department. He stated: "We've seen a surge in U.S. commercial engagement with Armenia, including as reported by the Ambassador upwards of $500 million in new American investments in the Armenia energy and mining sectors." Sherman continued: "the Department of Treasury has to prioritize where to put their tax lawyers, and a number of other countries want to negotiate these agreements with us. But it occurs to me that we have a national security interest in making sure that we have good commercial ties with the former Soviet states." Sherman noted that the Armenian government has gone on record stating that they will base it on the American model. Earlier in the hearing, Amb. Heffern said that the U.S. is trying to move from an assistance-based relationship to a trade-based relationship with Armenia. Ellis added that USAID "decided to focus on the IT and energy sectors because these were sectors that not only could promote Euro-Atlantic integration, but also provided opportunities for U.S. business expansion and partnership with Armenia." In her written testimony, Ellis stated: "USAID works closely with the EU and other European donors to prioritize assistance, jointly fund projects, and attain maximum leverage while avoiding duplication. In Armenia, for example, we are partnering with the private sector, the host government, and Yerevan State University in a public-private partnership for the 'Establishment of Innovative Solutions and Technologies Center Project' worth $7 million over the course of three years. USAID's investment of $2.5 million is yielding $4.5 million in non-USG funding in support of this program, which will develop and strengthen the educational capabilities of Armenian higher educational institutions in information technology and enhance their research potential in education." "While we appreciate U.S. assistance toward more trade and investment with Armenia, those efforts are necessary, especially considering the ongoing debilitating effects of the coordinated Azerbaijani and Turkish blockades of Armenia and Artsakh," Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian said. "Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act precludes most U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, with the exception of democracy building and humanitarian assistance, 'until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh' or the President issues a waiver for reasons of U.S. national interests. Considering the mounting evidence against the Aliyev regime across the board, Armenia and Artsakh should be receiving more U.S. assistance in addition to trade and investment programs," they concluded. Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
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

Google Ad

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
There currently are 93 Fisher Houses in the United States and in Europe with plans for more.
More businesses means more participants for Philomath Uncorked, the citys seventh annual wine walk.

The event runs 3 to 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Weve had several more businesses open up this year, which is a great thing, said Shelley Niemann, director of Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce, and that also means we needed some more vendors.

New businesses slated to host this year are Vinwood Taphouse, Farmers Insurance, Windsmith Music, Soft Star Shoes, and Staceys Funky Little Hair Salon. Wineries, breweries, distilleries, and meaderies will be paired with each of the participating locations.

It will be a fun walk this year; weve had a high demand for participation, said Niemann.

All told there will be 21 tasting stops and two water stops.

Water stops will have gift baskets available for raffle. NAPA Auto Parts will house an auto-related basket with items donated by Marys Peak True Value and Auto Cars Unlimited. Wine-related baskets at other stops include donations from Spindrift Cellars, Wine Vault, and Citizens Bank.

There will be a few stops on the walk that hold historical significance to Philomath. JanniLou Creations, the quilt shop, is the old Waucomah Theater building. Participants will have a chance to peek into the past at old movie reels and other historical items on display.

The recently revamped Soft Star Shoes building, former Phil-O-Rama skate rink, incorporated portions of the old skate floor and other salvaged items found during the remodel. Soft Star will showcase their new facility and their plans for the totality shoe, a design inspired by the upcoming eclipse.

Philomath new-comer Nectar Creek Mead will not have its facility open in time for the event, but they will participate. Teaming up with Philomath-based Old Blue Raw Honey, the two will set up in the Social Rebekah Lodge on the corner of College and 13th St. The pair has teamed up before, using Old Blue honey for Nectar Creeks mead.

I think its pretty cool you can sample the honey and the mead at the same time, said Niemann.

For those interested in something other than wine to taste, Monroe-based Hard Times Distillery and two Corvallis-based buisnesses, Vivacity Spirits and Oregon Trail Brewery, will attend.

Spindrift Cellars has invited Pink Rib Food Truck to be in their parking lot again this year. Visitors can sample their barbecue and purchase meals.

The Chamber has arranged for Corvallis Pedicab to provide safe travel for those who need it. Rides are free, but tips are welcome.
Growth in Exports to the EU: Foreign Trade in Numbers

As is the case with all small countries characterized by open economic system, foreign trade dynamics in Armenia is one of the fundamental factors outlining the current conjuncture of the whole economy. In that regard, it is interesting to study the major trends in foreign trade during the first part of this year. Thus, according to data published by the RA National Statistical Service (NSS), Armenias foreign trade turnover has increased by 23% during the first five months of 2017 compared to 6.8% growth during the same period in 2016. Exports According to data published by NSS, RA exports grew by about 20.9% during January-May 2017, and imports growth formed 24.4%. This year the largest export commodity group continues to be mining products, which have almost 30% share in exports. The second largest export commodity group is the finished food products, the exports of which grew by 34.1% during the first five months of 2017, reaching 195.7 million USD. Parallelly with traditionally exported commodity types, the beginning of this year saw 300% growth in exports of vehicles, equipment and mechanisms. Nevertheless, despite registered growth, export volume of this commodity group continues to be quite low, making up only 2.4% of total exports. It is noteworthy that despite Armenias membership in the EAEU, the European Union still continues to remain Armenias largest trade partner. About 30% of total RA exports were directed to EU member countries during the first five months of 2017, while EAEU member countries share in total exports formed only 22.2%. Moreover, the share of exports to the EU has grown compared to last year, while exports to the EAEU have suffered a decline. A sharp growth has been registered in exports to a number of European countries. Thus, during the months of January-May 2017, RA exports to Finland have grown by 75.2 times, 33.8 times to Denmark, 8.6 times to Sweden, 5.4 times to the United Kingdom, and 2.1 times to the Netherlands. An impressive 820% growth has been registered in exports to Switzerland, as a result of which Switzerland has become Armenias second largest partner in terms of exports, with 108 million USD exports volume. Imports As already noted, RA imports growth formed 24.4% in January-May 2017, reaching almost 1.5 billion USD. It is especially noteworthy that for the first time since 2008 crisis, RA imports growth rate exceeded that of exports. The parliamentary elections in April should be mentioned among factors contributing to such a growth in imports demand. The election bribes distributed to citizens during the elections have considerably increased consumer spending. In parallel, the volume of private transfers to Armenia has increased by 16% during the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, which has also contributed to import demand. As a result of such a growth in imports, the negative balance in trade has increased by 28.9%, reaching 678.3 million USD. In contrast to exports, RA imports are geographically more diversified. 22.6% of RA imports come from EAEU member countries, and EU member states account for 22.52% of total imports. It is also worth noting that during the first five months of 2017, imports from countries that are not EU or CIS members have increased by 33.9% or 197 million USD, making up about 52.5% of total imports. If we take into account the fact that by 2022 the Republic of Armenia will have adopted EAEU common customs rates, it becomes obvious that the negative impact of higher EAEU customs rates will be proportionally expanded if the current trends in geographical structure of imports are to remain the same. And this will inevitably result in increase in prices for more types of commodities. Andranik Manukyan Union of Informed Citizens
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
felicilin at 26-07-2017 12:09 PM (5 years ago) (f)

Police raided a wedding between a 22-year-old man and a five-year-old girl  but were too late to stop it.

Police raided a wedding between a 22-year-old man and a five-year-old girl  but were too late to stop it. Officers swooped on the man and others involved in the celebrations in the village of Raman Shar in Dakhan Town, Pakistan.

However, police are said to have been moments too late to the event and the nuptials had already been completed.

Those arrested include the groom Habibullah Shar, the registrar Molvi Kifayatullah Bhutto, 40, and the father of the groom Gul Meer.

The bride was also taken into custody along with her mother, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports .

Officers swooped on the man and others involved in the celebrations in the village of Raman Shar in Dakhan Town, Pakistan.However, police are said to have been moments too late to the event and the nuptials had already been completed.Those arrested include the groom Habibullah Shar, the registrar Molvi Kifayatullah Bhutto, 40, and the father of the groom Gul Meer.The bride was also taken into custody along with her mother, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports .

Post Reply Posted: at 26-07-2017 12:09 PM (5 years ago) | Hero
Meet Gabriel Opare, Ghana University Student Who Built New Search Engine To Rival Google & Youtube

felicilin at 26-07-2017 01:10 PM (5 years ago) (f)

Gabriel Opare, a 19-year-old Ghanaian university student is making headlines in the tech industry for building a new search engine to rival Google and Youtube.

Gabriel Opare, a 19-year-old Ghanaian university student is making headlines in the tech industry for building a new search engine to rival Google and Youtube. According to Opare, his new search engine, Mudclo, will challenge the dominance of YouTube and Google.

Mudclo is a free search engine for videos where you can discover and stream videos from the different locations on the internet all in one place.

I believe that my business is good enough and that it can scale globally. It is a legitimate point to say that YouTube is a video hosting website, but they are two different entities. While YouTube is a video hosting website, Mudclo combines the power of YouTube and two other video hosting websites in order to create Mudclo, he said.

According to Opare, his new search engine, Mudclo, will challenge the dominance of YouTube and Google.Mudclo is a free search engine for videos where you can discover and stream videos from the different locations on the internet all in one place.he said.

Post Reply Posted: at 26-07-2017 01:10 PM (5 years ago) | Hero

Starnixx at 26-07-2017 01:14 PM (5 years ago)

(m) keep it up Posted: at 26-07-2017 01:14 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac keep it up Reply

tuscanT at 26-07-2017 01:32 PM (5 years ago)

(m) This is what I want keep hearing coming from Africa. I'm sick tried of hearing Jesus is coming soon or the end time is near while the West building the future right before your very own eyes, your all need to start thinking Posted: at 26-07-2017 01:32 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming This is what I want keep hearing coming from Africa. I'm sick tried of hearing Jesus is coming soon or the end time is near while the West building the future right before your very own eyes, your all need to start thinking Reply

Patrioti at 26-07-2017 01:47 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Ghana university students are doing great while their Nigeria counterparts are mere cult boys and aristo babes. Posted: at 26-07-2017 01:47 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Ghana university students are doing great while their Nigeria counterparts are mere cult boys and aristo babes. Reply

jereva at 26-07-2017 01:55 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Lol that Jesus is coming comment tho

Big businesses dey always kill innovative competitors. But I hope say him go get sponsors and e go enter market Posted: at 26-07-2017 01:55 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Lol that Jesus is coming comment thoBig businesses dey always kill innovative competitors. But I hope say him go get sponsors and e go enter market Reply

Haso112 at 26-07-2017 02:14 PM (5 years ago)

(m) OPARE... YOU'VE MADE MOTHERLAND GHANA PROUD, GOOD BOY....!!! Posted: at 26-07-2017 02:14 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac OPARE... YOU'VE MADE MOTHERLAND GHANA PROUD, GOOD BOY....!!! Reply

osarobo62 at 26-07-2017 02:53 PM (5 years ago)

(m) it's a search website ,...not a search engine. It can never rival youtube or Google.

all the same, it's a good start Posted: at 26-07-2017 02:53 PM (5 years ago) | Hero Reply

blowout at 26-07-2017 03:57 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: canadajobs02 on 26-07-2017 02:18 PM We provide Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mummy Services in the Nigeria the only apparent problem seem to be an issue of privacy, there is an under-ground arrangement to assist you financially if you are interested



Lots of sugar daddies and mummies in Nigeria are looking for young and vibrant babes and guys to satisfy them in bed,but the problem is keeping secret They are ready to take care of you financially and pay good amount for a start. If you are interested call 08147651848 and get hooked up with one. You must be at least 20 years for guys who need ladies and 18 years for babes who need daddies.

Note; only those that call will get a response. Messages and comments will get no reply. So call 08147651848.

See your mates dey create things wey make sense but u dey here dey advertise your pimping services Posted: at 26-07-2017 03:57 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac See your mates dey create things wey make sense but u dey here dey advertise your pimping services Reply

ruthie at 26-07-2017 04:38 PM (5 years ago)

(f) good one Posted: at 26-07-2017 04:38 PM (5 years ago) | Hero good one Reply

CHRISETTE at 26-07-2017 07:46 PM (5 years ago)

(f) Good boy keep it up Posted: at 26-07-2017 07:46 PM (5 years ago) | Hero Good boy keep it up Reply

tegonwa at 26-07-2017 08:40 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: Patrioti on 26-07-2017 01:47 PM Ghana university students are doing great while their Nigeria counterparts are mere cult boys and aristo babes.

Exactly My Dear.In Fact I Will Buy You A Keg Of Palmwine For This Useful Comparison That You Made In Your Comment. Posted: at 26-07-2017 08:40 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Exactly My Dear.In Fact I Will Buy You A Keg Of Palmwine For This Useful Comparison That You Made In Your Comment. Reply
Russian Terrorism Suspects Allege Torture At 'Secret' FSB Site

Carl Schreck July 25, 2017

Lawyers for two Kyrgyz-born brothers charged in a deadly bombing on a St. Petersburg subway train in April have asked Russian authorities to investigate their clients' claims that they were tortured at a "secret jail" outside Moscow.

The suspects, Akram and Abror Azimov, claim they were subjected to electric shocks, simulated drowning, and beatings at the facility allegedly used by Russia's powerful Federal Security Service (FSB), according to an appeal to federal authorities filed by their lawyers earlier this month.

"All of the torture was accompanied not only by dictated testimony, but also threats of reprisals against [his] children and wife," Olga Dinze, the lawyer for Akram Azimov, said of her client in an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Dinze's husband, lawyer Dmitry Dinze, is representing Abror Azimov in the case. She said that they had not yet received a reply to their July 7 appeal to the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office, a copy of which has been seen by RFE/RL.

The allegation that the suspects were tortured at a so-called FSB black site near Moscow was first reported on July 24 by the Russian news site Republic.ru, which said other terror suspects in Russia previously claimed that they faced similar abuses in a facility resembling that described by the Azimov brothers.

The FSB did not publicly comment on the allegations, and its press office could not immediately be reached by telephone on July 25. An e-mailed inquiry by RFE/RL went unanswered.

Investigators say a 22-year-old suicide bomber named Akbarjon Jalilov carried out the April 3 attack in St. Petersburg that killed 15 people and injured 45 others.

Like Jalilov, the Azimov brothers are ethnic-Uzbek Russian citizens born in Kyrgyzstan.

The FSB said Abror Azimov, 26, was detained on April 17 and accused of having "trained the suicide attacker."

But the appeal from the brothers' lawyers claims Abror was detained a day after the subway bombing and held for nearly two weeks in the "secret jail" prior to that announcement.

News of Akram's arrest came on April 19, when officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said he had been apprehended in Moscow and that he was armed with a hand grenade at the time of his arrest.

Russian news agencies broadcast footage provided by authorities showing what they described as Azimov's arrest. The video shows a man sitting at a bus stop being roughly detained by men wearing FSB jackets.

But Akram's mother told RFE/RL two days after the April 19 announcement that he had been taken away by Kyrgyz security officers on April 15 from a hospital in the city of Osh, where he was being treated after surgery.

A staff member at the Osh hospital confirmed to RFE/RL that Akram had undergone sinus surgery at the facility and that several men wearing civilian clothing had taken him away after handcuffing him on April 15.

In their appeal to prosecutors, the brothers' lawyers allege that Akram was taken directly from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport to the purported "secret" facility and tortured for several days prior to the official announcement of his arrest.

Olga Dinze claimed in her interview with RFE/RL that the video showing Akram's alleged detention was staged.

Abror, who authorities say organized the attack, was allegedly subjected to torture for more than three days, including electrical shocks to his genitals, according to the appeal by the lawyers. Both men provided testimony that they believed would end the alleged abuses, the document claims.

Earlier this month, a Moscow court ordered their clients to remain in custody until mid-September. Several other suspected accomplices, also of Central Asian original, are in custody as well.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian and Kyrgyz Services, Republic.ru, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-metro-bombing- azimov-brothers-fsb-torture/28637695.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 25, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 27 strikes consisting of 29 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

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 25 strikes consisting of 27 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, five strikes destroyed 14 ISIS oil stills and five wellheads.

-- Near Raqqa, 12 strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units; destroyed seven fighting positions, a vehicle-borne bomb and a mortar system; and damaged a fighting position.

-- Near Shadaddi, seven strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed two staging areas, two command-and-control nodes, an improvised-bomb storage area, an observation post and a fighting position.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Qaim, a strike suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a supply cache.

Previous Strikes

Additionally, officials reported details today on 13 previous strikes that were unavailable at the time of previous reports.

-- A July 20 strike near Raqqa engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

-- On July 23 near Raqqa, nine strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed six fighting positions, a vehicle and a tunnel entrance; and damaged a supply route.

-- Three July 23 strikes near Kisik, Iraq, engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroyed a fighting position and suppressed a mortar team.

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.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






U.S. Special Operations Forces Train With Ukrainian Counterparts

By Army Capt. William Leasure, U.S. Special Operations Command Europe

ODESSA, Ukraine, July 25, 2017  Across southern Ukraine, U.S. special operations forces trained with Ukrainian special operators and conventional U.S. and Ukrainian naval forces during Sea Breeze 2017, July 10-21.

An annual fixture in the Black Sea region since 1997, Sea Breeze is a U.S. and Ukrainian co-hosted multinational maritime exercise.

This year, Ukraine invited U.S. special operations forces to participate, and U.S. Special Operations Command Europe's Naval Special Warfare Command operators were eager to sign up for the mission.

This is the first time that special operations forces have operated at Sea Breeze, said U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Villegas, the exercise's director. "[Their] capabilities are extremely valued by the Ukrainians and extremely valuable to the U.S."

Naval Special Warfare Command operators were completely integrated into the various air, land and sea missions that required their unique warfighting skill set. Exercise Sea Breeze is a perfect fit for special operations forces to train and exercise their capabilities, the exercise's lead special operations forces planner said. "With the support of the [Air Force's] 352nd Special Operations Wing, we saw a prime opportunity to support [special operations] mission-essential training with our Ukrainian allies," he said.

Unique Capabilities

He added that naval special warfare units bring a host of unique capabilities into the exercise scenario, such as rigid-hull inflatable boats; visit, board, search and seizure expertise; and the strongest direct action capabilities available. However, Villegas noted, capability is only one piece of the puzzle when training alongside a partner nation with shared objectives to assure, deter, and defend in an increasingly complex environment.

"In the spirit of Sea Breeze, we come not to impose what we know or how we operate," he said. "Here, we come to exchange ideas, train towards interoperability and learn to operate side by side should a conflict arise that would require that."

Achieving interoperability with partner nations and interservice partners is a common objective at exercises like Sea Breeze. But here, the U.S. special operations forces capitalized on it. "Interoperability is our ability to conduct combined planning, problem solving, and mission execution efficiently to achieve a mutually-defined end state," Villegas said.

Achieving this end state, he added, hinged on U.S-Ukrainian integration at the tactical level within the special operations platoons, and at the special operations maritime task group level.

"We have combined with our Ukrainian colleagues to integrate their experience and capabilities within our key positions," he said. "Starting in the command team and further within our operations, communications, logistics, and intelligence departments, we were fully partnered."

Down at the platoon level, operators fast-roped from hovering U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, conducted personnel recovery training and boarded vessels at sea.

"Whether it was on the range, in the field, or on the water, these men were a pleasure to work with," said a U.S. special operations forces platoon commander. "The Ukrainians' attitudes made this exercise a great opportunity to exchange training and create a strong relationship."

Overcoming Challenges

As with any exercise of this size and scope, there were challenges to overcome to make the exercise a success while identifying tactical and technical gaps in partner capabilities. "The first major obstacle we had, but were prepared for, was the language barrier," the platoon commander said. "Another was that our mission sets differed slightly from our counterparts'."

To remedy this, he said, he found ways to incorporate the skill sets of each unit in ways to accomplish the mission while building relationships to forge a stronger partnership.

As the operators returned from a long day, mutual trust emerged through combined hard work, long hours and mutual respect for each unit's professionalism.

"You always want to work with a partner force who is motivated, wants to train, and wants to get better, and the Ukrainian [special operations forces] are all of these," the platoon commander said.

On the pier here, overlooking the Black Sea, Villegas expressed the Navy's gratitude to Ukraine for inviting U.S. special operations forces to participate in this year's exercise.

"[Special operations] participation at Sea Breeze is so important for Ukraine and the U.S. Navy and all the other units participating," he said. "Our hosts have been incredibly friendly, committed and dedicated. Their hard work has ensured Sea Breeze 17 was a success, and we are truly very thankful for that."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Task Force Saber exploits the initiative in the fight against ISIS

By Capt. Stephen James July 25, 2017

ERBIL, Iraq -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory against ISIS in the city of Mosul, July 9, 2017. Supporting the fight against ISIS is the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade's 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment. Organized as Task Force Saber, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment provides reconnaissance, surveillance, logistical support and offensive strike capabilities while supporting partner forces in both Iraq and Syria.

The battle for Mosul coincided almost directly with Task Force Saber's entry into the theater.

"When we first started, there were only a couple of neighborhoods liberated on the eastern side [of Mosul]," said Maj. James Brant, the operations officer for Task Force Saber.

"The Iraqis really put their heart into the fight," said Brant.

The 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment became an enabling force for the coalition by emboldening the Iraqi security forces and supporting them with fires, said Lt. Col. Eddy Lee, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment commander.

"This is a fight where you feel you have a purpose and see the greater good," said Brant.

The regiment is equipped with the AH-64E Apache Helicopter, described by Lee as the "best platform of choice to fight in this environment."

The Apache itself became a symbol of American support to the partner forces on the ground. "The Iraqis wanted Apaches there as a message to ISIS," said Brant.

The Apache helicopter pairs with the RQ-7Bv2 Shadow Unmanned Aerial System, which performs reconnaissance and surveillance for the coalition forces.

"The Shadow identifies enemy personnel and hands the target off to the fires platform to strike it," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Paul Van Loan, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment UAS operations technician.

These fires platforms include the AH-64E Apache and the 29th CAB's MQ-1C "Gray Eagle" unmanned aircraft from D Company, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade.

The Shadow, working in tandem with these fires assets, proved to be highly effective and "took it to ISIS in areas they thought they were safe," said Van Loan.

"The 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment attacks the enemy in a time and place of our choosing, in a place he does not expect us to attack," added Lee.

Although their equipment proved vital to the battle, one of the keys to the fight against ISIS was the mindset ingrained in the Soldiers of Task Force Saber.

Prior to deploying to the Middle East, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment trained to maintain a high state of combat readiness and prepared from the onset to be ready to get off the plane and start fighting, said Lee.

"We teach, train and empower our subordinates," added Brant.

This expeditionary thought process trickled down to the most junior leaders and provided a foundation for action across the squadron.

"We have leaders that exploit the initiative," said Lee.

This approach translated to the battlefield as subordinate leaders were able to use the tools at their disposal to quickly bring the fight to the enemy and aid the coalition.

"Our guys were the quickest from identifying to prosecuting the target," said Capt. Jay Laing, commander of B troop, 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment.

"We focus operationally, are aggressive and have tactical curiosity. There is a fight out there and we want to be involved with it," Van Loan added.

Task Force Saber has the equipment and the mindset to actively aid partner forces in the fight against ISIS, but the most important factor was -- and continues to be -- their maintenance and sustainment Soldiers.

"If we lose maintainers, we lose the ability to push combat power forward," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Shawn Middleton, 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment battalion aviation maintenance officer.

"They are our lifeblood," said Lee.

Compounding the complexity of aircraft maintenance was the fact that Task Force Saber elements were spread across different locations in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Furthermore, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment was the first unit to field the new "E" model Apache in theater.

"There were no 'E' model Apaches in theater at the time in Afghanistan and Iraq, we needed special tools and maintainers," said Brant. In addition to bringing the first AH-64E helicopters to Operation Inherent Resolve, the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment is the first unit to operate the U.S. Army's new LAIRCM aircraft survivability equipment in combat.

The Task Force Saber maintenance and sustainment sections worked with the same levels of fervor and focus that AH-64E pilots brought to bear against enemy targets.

Maintenance Soldiers took the initiative with solid planning, which "was key to us continuously running missions to outlying stations," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matt Marshall, the Task Force Saber technical supply officer.

Task Force Saber continues to be a team effort, with Army National Guard and active Army elements from the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade and 16th Combat Aviation Brigade , including the 46th Aviation Support Battalion, 449th Aviation Support Battalion, 2-149th General Support Aviation Battalion and the 1-147th Assault Helicopter Battalion.

"The 2-149 General Support Aviation Battalion showed up from day one ready to work and find ways to maintain aircraft," said Middleton.

The 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment became the first unit to conduct phase maintenance on an AH-64E in Iraq, work that was completed solely by Task Force Saber Soldiers, including the 449th ASB, at their maintenance facility at Taji Military Complex, Iraq.

"They exceeded U.S. Army Forces Command standards for phase maintenance of the AH-64E for allotted time from start to completion," said Middleton. "Without our phase line in Taji, none of this would be possible."

Task Force Saber's additional capabilities allow it to conduct missions beyond attacking the enemy, including aeromedical evacuation, distinguished visitor and logistical moves, said Brant.

The distinguished visitor movements, in particular, enabled the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command (CJFLCC) to accomplish their "advise and assist" mission as it allowed for key leaders to speak directly with their Iraqi counterparts, said Lee.

Middleton also noted that Task Force Saber's strong maintenance program "allows the aviators of Saber to move people around the battlefield and support our Coalition partners on the ground."

As the fight against ISIS in Iraq enters into a new phase, elements of Task Force Saber will simultaneously continue operations in Syria and will support Operation Spartan Shield in Kuwait by conducting deck landing qualifications later this summer. Task Force Saber's 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment is set to return to Joint Base Lewis-McChord this fall.

The 29th Combat Aviation Brigade, an Army National Guard unit, will continue to provide aviation assets, offensive strike capability, operational and logistical support to Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Spartan Shield for the remainder of the year.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






North Carolina Guardsman bridges the communication gap in Romania

By Sgt. Odaliska Almonte, North Carolina National Guard July 25, 2017

CINCU, Romania -- Exercise Saber Guardian 17 was a U.S. European Command training event that took place in July, in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and involved more than 25,000 service members from over 20 allied and partner nations.

The middle of a large exercise like this is not the time or place to have miscommunication issues. It is a time when all military personnel need to be on the same page.

Being able to communicate helps all parties involved to complete a safe and successful mission, no one can afford to have part of a mission lost in translation. Having someone who is proficient in both the English language and the host country's language was imperative to an effective mission during Exercise Saber Guardian.

When the 5-113th Field Artillery had confirmation of their involvement with Saber Guardian, they reached out to one Soldier in the N.C. Guard that could help bridge any gaps in communication that might occur, Spc. Gizela Lupescu.

Lupescu is a Romanian born U.S. Soldier serving with Company, 230th Brigade Support Battalion, 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, as a combat medic.

When Lupescu joined the military she initially wanted to serve in the military intelligence career field and be a linguist. At the time she was not a U.S. citizen and did not qualify for the position. She instead dedicated her training and education to emergency and tactical medicine.

However, the opportunity for her to use her linguistics skills was not far off. As part of the 230th BSB, she had the opportunity to participate in training exercises with Moldova as part of the N.C. National Guard State Partnership Program. In Moldova they speak Romanian.

With several opportunities under her belt as an interpreter for Moldova her linguistic skills were once again in demand but this time it was for one of the NATO's largest yearly exercises, Saber Guardian.

Saber Guardian not only gave Lupescu the opportunity to use her language skills to help both the U.S. and Romania, it also took her back home to her birth country.

"I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity," Lupescu said. "We are learning to collaborate with each other and speak the same language. When we finally get to be in the battle zone we will at that point understand each other, what the other one does and how they do it."

Once in Romania the 5-113th was eager to learn more about how to properly interact with their Romanian counterparts, and learn more about their culture and customs. Lupescu was there to help.

"Soldiers would ask me questions about how to interact with Romanians and the staple foods," she said. "I usually tell them that Romanians are not that different from Americans. Romanians love the American culture which would put them at ease."

As the gears switched from initial set up to mission preparations, Lupesco was readily available to help keep communications clear during the live fire exercise planning.

"Romanian soldiers were surprised at first to see someone in American uniform start speaking in Romanian," Lupesco said. "But immediately I felt the warmth and welcome. The interaction was very familiar, is what I would expect if I was outside the uniform."

When it came time for the live exercise the operation when smoothly. American and Romanian Soldiers were able to coordinate their operation under a unified command thank to the help of one Romanian born U.S. Soldier.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






U.S. Naval Special Warfare Operators Train with Ukrainian SOF at Sea Breeze 17

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170725-01

Release Date: 7/25/2017 7:36:00 AM

From U.S. Special Operations Command Europe

ODESSA, Ukraine (NNS) -- Across Southern Ukraine, U.S. special operations forces trained with Ukrainian SOF and conventional U.S. and Ukrainian naval forces during Sea Breeze 17, July 10-21.

An annual fixture in the Black Sea region since 1997, Sea Breeze is a U.S. and Ukrainian co-hosted multinational maritime exercise.

This year, U.S. SOF were invited to participate by Ukraine, and, accordingly, Special Operations Command Europe's Naval Special Warfare Operators were eager to sign up for the mission.

"This is the first time that SOF has operated at Sea Breeze," said U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Villegas, the exercise's director. "SOF capabilities are extremely valued by the Ukrainians and extremely valuable to the U.S."

NSW Operators echoed this sentiment while completely integrated into the various air, land and sea missions that required their unique warfighting skill set.

"Exercise Sea Breeze is a perfect fit for SOF to train and exercise our SOF capabilities," said the lead SOF planner. "With the support of the 352nd Special Operations Wing, we saw a prime opportunity to support SOF mission essential training with our Ukrainian allies."

He added that NSW units bring a host of unique capabilities into the exercise scenario like rigid hull inflatable boats; visit, board, search and seizure expertise; and the strongest direct action capabilities available.

However, capability is only one piece of the puzzle when training alongside a partner nation with shared objectives to assure, deter, and defend in an increasingly complex environment.

"In the spirit of Sea Breeze, we come not to impose what we know or how we operate," said Villegas. "Here we come to exchange ideas, train towards interoperability and learn to operate side-by-side should a conflict arise that would require that."

Achieving interoperability with both partner nations and inter-service partners is a common objective at exercises like Sea Breeze, but here, the U.S. SOF commander capitalized on it.

"Interoperability is our ability to conduct combined planning, problem solving, and mission execution efficiently to achieve a mutually-defined end state," he said.

Successfully achieving this end state, he said, hinged on U.S/Ukrainian integration at the tactical level within the SOF platoons, and at the special operations maritime task group level.

"We have combined with our Ukrainian colleagues to integrate their experience and capabilities within our key positions," he said. "Starting in the command team and further within our operations, communications, logistics, and intelligence departments, we were fully partnered."

Down at the platoon level, Operators fast roped from hovering U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command - Europe, conducted personnel recovery training and boarded vessels at sea.

"Whether it was on the range, in the field, or on the water, these men were a pleasure to work with," said a U.S. SOF platoon commander. "The Ukrainians' attitudes made this exercise a great opportunity to exchange training and create a strong relationship."

As with any exercise of this size and scope, there were challenges to overcome to make the exercise a success while identifying tactical and technical gaps in partner capabilities.

"The first major obstacle we had, but were prepared for, was the language barrier," the platoon commander said. "Another was that our mission sets differed slightly from our counterparts."

To remedy this, he related that he found ways to incorporate the skillsets of each unit in ways to accomplish the mission while building relationships to forge a stronger partnership.

As the Operators returned from a long day on mission, through the barriers, mutual trust was built through combined hard work, long hours and mutual respect for each unit's professionalism.

"You always want to work with a partner force who is motivated, wants to train, and wants to get better, and the Ukrainian SOF are all of these," said the platoon commander.

On the pier in Odessa, overlooking the Black Sea, Villegas expressed the U.S. Navy's gratitude to Ukraine for inviting U.S. SOF to participate in this year's exercise.

"SOF participation at Sea Breeze is so important for Ukraine and the U.S. Navy and all the other units participating," he said. "Our hosts have been incredibly friendly, committed and dedicated; their hard work has ensured Sea Breeze 17 was a success and we are truly very thankful for that."

Based off the positive reactions of both Ukrainian and U.S. SOF personnel here, both sides hope that participation in Sea Breeze will continue for the foreseeable future.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






QLLEX 2017 conducted at Manchester Fuel Depot

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170725-04

Release Date: 7/25/2017 8:04:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Vaughan Dill NAVSUP FLC Puget Sound Public Affairs

MANCHESTER, Wash. (NNS) -- NAVSUP FLC Puget Sound, U. S. Army 475th Quartermaster Group and the Defense Logistics Agency conducted QLLEX at the Manchester Fuel Depot July 17-24.

QLLEX is an annual exercise for Army Reserve units to train for their wartime mission of providing petroleum and water to units worldwide. This year's exercise had convoys of Army trucks, based out of Joint Base Lewis-McCord (JBLM), transporting fuel provided by NAVSUP FLC Puget Sound's Manchester Fuel Depot, to military installations around Puget Sound and throughout Western Washington.

"These guys run their missions all the time, hauling fuel from here down to Whidbey Island, McChord and Fort Lewis," said 475th Quartermaster Group Command 1st Sgt. Marshall Ellis. "Once a year, all over the country we take over for two weeks by running these missions for them. The mission stays exactly the same; it provides our guys the opportunity to train for our wartime mission."

QLLEX was hosted by the 475th Quartermaster Group, based out of Farrell, Pa., and serves as the largest field training exercise of its kind, with real-world logistic operations at the tactical, operational, and strategic level.

"The mission is to haul fuel," said Capt. Jacob Wood, company commander. "During the two week period that we are here to train, they turn off some of the civilian contracts that typically haul fuel in the area, and we take on those missions. Our company is a medium truck company with 7.5k tankers and we're bulk fuel haulers, so basically we fill up bulk fuel and deliver it to the end line customer."

QLLEX began as the Petroleum Oil and Lubricant Exercise (POLEX) 31 years ago with the initial focus on petroleum, oils, and lubricants. In 2004 it evolved into QLLEX, with a broader focus, becoming a multi-echelon, multi-component, multi-functional, and multi-service exercise. No other CONUS based exercise provides such a broad suite of real-world training opportunities for Soldiers.

NAVSUP FLC fuel operators manned the pumps at the fueling station that was set up for filling up tanker trucks, and conducted training with the Soldiers. During the exercise, approximately 500,000 gallons of fuel were transferred from Manchester Fuel Depot to various sites throughout the state.

"The big thing is," said Wood, "we get to drive our trucks all the time, we drive them bobtail, we drive them empty, but we don't get the opportunity to drive with fuel very often. There are a lot of regulations; we can't just go pick up fuel on a drill weekend, so this is really the only type of exercise we can do, that our guys actually get to drive with a full tanker going down the road."

Each day during the exercise - convoys of four to ten vehicles, transported fuel from Manchester Fuel Depot to sites throughout the Pacific Northwest, including JBLM and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. For safety, some sections of road were managed by military traffic-control personnel while the convoys drove through, but roads remained open to regular traffic.

"When we're not doing an exercise like this we continue to train," said Wood. "It's different driving a truck down the road with no fuel as opposed to being full. The fuel sloshes around, and the load is constantly shifting. We still do a lot of driving; we just don't get the added experience of having a full tanker often."

NAVSUP FLC Puget Sound, one of eight fleet logistics centers under NAVSUP GLS, provides operational logistics, business and support services to Navy, Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command, and other Joint and Allied Forces. Products and services include contracting, fuels, global logistics, hazardous material management, household goods, integrated logistics support, material management, postal, regional transportation and warehousing.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Trump reportedly approves US Navy's annual operation plan in South China Sea

People's Daily Online

By Fang Tian (People's Daily Online) 13:22, July 25, 2017

US President Donald Trump has reportedly approved a plan to give the US navy more freedom to carry out patrols in the South China Sea, but an expert said that the US might be wasting its time.

The Trump administration approved an annual plan for when US navy ships will sail through the contested waters, giving greater freedom to the US navy, according to Breitbart News, a far-right American news site.

The plan was submitted to the White House in April by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, an anonymous US official revealed. The official claimed the White House would be aware of all planned "freedom of navigation operations" so it would not be "a surprise" when requests came up the chain of command, and they would be approved faster than before.

The faster approval process would mean operations could be conducted on a "very routine, very regular" basis, as a part of a program to keep the waters open, rather than as a "one-off event," the official said.

This move is a clear sign that the US is planning on stepping up operations in the South China Sea, Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, told Global Times on July 23.

However, the US may not reach its goal, as stepping up such operations goes against the trend of stability, cooperation, and dialogue in Asia-Pacific region.

The US military's annual plan aims to send a message to US allies that the US remains committed to securing the Asia-Pacific region, especially East Asia, and will not back away from containing China, Zhu said.

The scholar also noted that the approved plan will impact China-US relations.

In fact, the US Congress has debated what impact the plan would have in the South China Sea.

Some have realized that so-called "freedom of navigation" exercises will not put an end to China's claims over the South China Sea, which are based on sovereignty and jurisprudential evidences. The unilateral move by US navy will just put more pressure on China and further aggravate the situation in the South China Sea, which is something that the international community, including ASEAN countries, is reluctant to see, he added.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Saudi Arabia, allies put 18 Qatar-linked entities, people on 'terror' list

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 4:20PM

The Saudi-led quartet of Arab countries has unveiled a new terrorist blacklist of 18 entities and individuals, six of them from Yemen, over having suspected "direct or indirect" ties with Qatari authorities, as an unprecedented diplomatic rift between the Persian Gulf peninsular emirate and the four siege states is increasingly deepens.

A joint statement by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, carried by Saudi Arabia's official news agency (SPA) on Tuesday, designated eight entities, including al-Balagh Charitable Foundation, al-Ihsan Charitable Society and Rahma Charitable Organization, all three from the war-torn Yemen, as "terrorist groups."

It also placed eight individuals, three of whom from Yemen, on the same list, arguing that the named people and entities had provided "support" to the Takfiri al-Qaeda militant group and had carried out actions "on its behalf", alleging that the six had been receiving "significant funding" from authorities in Qatar.

The four countries also placed six Libyan entities, including Nabaa TV, on the blacklist. As for the list of individuals, the Saudi-led quartet of Arab countries also put three Qatari, one Kuwaiti and two Libyan nationals on the so-called terror.

"We expect Qatari authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people," the statement further said.

The growing rift occurred on June 5, when Riyadh, Manama, Dubai and Cairo severed ties with Doha, officially accusing Qatar of supporting "terrorism" and destabilizing the Middle East, allegations that Qatar says are unjustified and stem from false claims and assumptions.

To further pressure Qatar, Saudi Arabia has totally closed its land border with its tiny neighbor, through which much of Qatar's food supply crossed.

All efforts to resolve the unprecedented crisis have so far turned to be futile, including the Persian Gulf tours by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The presence of six Yemeni individuals and entities on the so-called new blacklist can be interpreted as an additional tool by Riyadh, using the pretext of having purported ties with Doha, to exert further pressure on its impoverished southern neighbor, which has been suffering from the relentless bombardment by Saudi warplanes during the past two years.

Since the beginning of the Saudi war on Yemen on March 2015, which was carried out in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, Saudi warplanes have pounded the nation day and night, killing over 12,000 people, including many women and children, and displacing over three million others.

The Yemen war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories. The humanitarian situation in Yemen has also dramatically deteriorated amid a Saudi blockade, which has put the impoverished country on the brink of widespread famine.

Riyadh has so far blocked a number of Yemen-bound foreign humanitarian relief convoys, despite being desperately needed by Yemeni people. Earlier this month, Saudi authorities prevented a United Nations charter flight from Djibouti, carrying aid agency staff, from traveling to the Yemeni capital Sana'a.

The Riyadh regime has, however, failed to reach its goals in Yemen despite suffering great expense.

The coordinated move against Doha is spearheaded by Riyadh, which often manages to have its vassal states fall into line. Saudi Arabia itself is known as the main sponsor of Wahhabi terrorists it has accused Qatar of supporting. Some analysts believe the Saudi anger is rather because Qatar acts more independently of Riyadh, including in its relations with Iran.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Hamas calls for urgent intervention to stop Israel's Judaization

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:43PM

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has called for the immediate intervention of Muslim states as well as international bodies to stop the Tel Aviv regime's Judaization policies at al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Hamas spokesman Husam Badran warned in a statement on Tuesday that Israel is seeking to impose a new status quo in the holy site.

The statement was issued in condemnation of Israel's cutting down several trees and removal of historical stones near the Lions' Gate  commonly known by the Arabic name Bab al-Asbat in Arabic  earlier in the day.

Badran highlighted that young Palestinian men have made considerable residences in Jerusalem al-Quds in their struggle to defend their nation's holy sites and dignity.

Time has come to safeguard these sacrifices through all possible means, he stated.

On Tuesday morning, Israeli authorities removed metal detectors installed at the Bab al-Asbat and Bab al-Nather entrances of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, but kept surveillance cameras to monitor Muslim worshipers..

Israeli authorities installed metal detectors, turnstiles, and additional security cameras in the compound following a deadly shooting attack more than a week ago.

On July 14, three Palestinians opened fire on Israeli forces at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, killing two of them before being shot dead.

Palestinian worshipers have strongly condemned Israel's new restrictive measures at al-Aqsa Mosque, engaging in bitter clashes with Israeli military forces.

The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tensions ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

More than 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in the ongoing tensions since the beginning of October 2015.

The Tel Aviv regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of Jerusalem al-Quds over the past decades by constructing settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population. Palestinians say the Israeli measures are aimed at paving the way for the Judaization of the city.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a flashpoint Islamic site, which is also holy to Jews. The mosque is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Battle with Nusra Front at Syria-Lebanon border 85% done: Hezbollah

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:51PM

The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says its battle to eliminate members of the foreign-sponsored and Takfiri Jabhat Fatah al-Sham  previously known as the Nusra Front  militant group from the Syria-Lebanon border is 85 percent complete as it is continuing its campaign to take their last remaining footholds on the frontier.

Hezbollah's media bureau announced in a statement on Tuesday that resistance fighters had regained control over Komail plains as well as Hamoudi, Baidar and Shoabat al-Nihla areas on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, located 124 kilometers (77 miles) northeast of the capital Beirut, on Tuesday.

Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network later broadcast a video footage, showing the hideout of the self-proclaimed Fatah al-Sham governor of the strategic al-Qalamoun region in Wadi al-Kheil.

Press TV correspondent in Arsal, Mariam Saleh, also said Hezbollah artillery units have been shelling terrorist positions in the area since Tuesday morning as Fatah al-Sham extremists are fleeing to save their lives.

She added that the operation has inflicted heavy losses on militant ranks, noting that Hezbollah fighters have raised the movement's and the national Lebanese flags in the areas they have dislodged Fatah al-Sham terrorists from.

The Arabic-language al-Joumhouria (The Republic) daily newspaper, quoting an unnamed security source, reported on Monday that the Lebanese army has adopted precautionary measures along Arsal in the wake of suggestions that militants may attempt to kidnap military personnel.

Hezbollah launched a major push last Friday to clear both sides of Lebanon's border with Syria from "armed terrorists."

In August 2014, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Daesh terrorist groups overran the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal, killing a number of Lebanese forces. They took 30 soldiers hostage, most of whom have been released.

Since then, Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have been defending Lebanon on the country's northeastern frontier against foreign-backed terrorist groups from neighboring Syria.

Hezbollah fighters have fended off several Daesh attacks inside Lebanon. They have also been providing assistance to Syrian army forces to counter the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy.

The movement has accused Israel of supporting Takfiri terrorists operating in the Middle East.

Israel, which continues to occupy Lebanon's Shebaa Farms and Syria's Golan Heights, is widely reported to be offering medical help to Takfiri terrorists injured in Syria. In December 2015, British newspaper the Daily Mail said Israel had saved the lives of more than 2,000 Takfiri militants since 2013.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Mattis blasts Pentagon for buying camouflage useless in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:28AM

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis has blasted the Pentagon for wasting millions of dollars on getting the wrong camouflage uniforms for Afghan soldiers.

According to a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report from last month, the Pentagon started purchasing the forest-patterned uniforms in 2007, following the approval of a former Afghan defense minister who had saw them online and preferred to the free ones provided by the US military.

It turned out later on that the pricey camouflage cannot be used in most parts of Afghanistan, a country that is just 2 percent woodland.

Mattis addressed the issue in a July 21 memo released on Monday, blasting the "cavalier" spending.

"Buying uniforms for our Afghan partners, and doing so in a way that may have wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars over a 10-year period, must not be seen as inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Department's responsibilities and budget," Mattis wrote in the memo.

"Cavalier or casually acquiescent decisions to spend taxpayer dollars in an ineffective and wasteful manner are not to recur," he added.

The secretary warned that the report should prevent future wasteful spending.

"Rather than minimize this report or excuse wasteful decisions, I expect all DoD organizations to use this error as a catalyst to bring to light wasteful practices," he wrote.

Lawmakers weigh in

The report also drew backlash from some Congress members, with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley calling it "embarrassing and an affront to US taxpayers."

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill asked the Pentagon for explanations by August.

The US House Armed Services Committee was slated to address the report on Tuesday, during a hearing with Inspector General John Sopko.

When asked by The USA Today about the issue, Sopko said the decision to buy the uniforms "was stupid on its face."

"My concern is what if the minister of defense liked purple, or liked pink?" he said. "Are we going to buy pink uniforms for soldiers and not ask questions? That's insane."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Maduro accuses CIA of plotting with neighbors against Venezuela

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:51AM

The Venezuelan president says Mexico and Colombia are working hand in glove with the US spy agency CIA in an American "plot" to overthrow the legitimate government in Caracas.

In a televised interview on Monday, Nicolas Maduro sought explanations from the Colombian and Mexican governments about recent comments by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who said recently that he had held talks in Mexico City and Bogota on the Venezuela issue.

Pompeo told a briefing earlier this month, "We are very hopeful that there can be a transition in Venezuela and we the CIA is doing its best to understand the dynamic there."

According to Maduro, "The director of the CIA has said, 'The CIA and the US government work in direct collaboration with the Mexican government and the Colombian government to overthrow the constitutional government in Venezuela and to intervene in our beloved Venezuela.'"

"I demand the government of Mexico and the government of Colombia to properly clarify the declarations from the CIA and I will make political and diplomatic decisions accordingly before this audacity," he added.

Maduro further accused the governments in Mexico and Colombia of working with the US to protect their oil interests.

The Mexican government has denied the allegations.

The Maduro administration has come under intense pressure by the opposition and its foreign allies, particularly the US, ahead of a July 30 referendum to form a constituent assembly.

The so-called National Constituent Assembly would have the powers to rewrite the constitution and dissolve government institutions. Maduro says the assembly is needed to end political tensions in the country and has vowed to go ahead with the election despite a US threat to tighten its anti-Caracas bans.

The opposition has called on its supporters to boycott the upcoming vote.

In another development opposition leader Henrique Capriles and opposition group Penal Forum reported Monday that lawyer Angel Zerpa, who was chosen by the opposition-controlled congress in defiance of the government as one of the judges in a shadow Supreme Court, has been charged with treason in a military court.

Zerpa, who has been in detention since Saturday, has gone on a hunger strike, Penal Forum director Alfredo Romero added.

The opposition groups claim the real Supreme Court supports the president of Venezuela.

Maduro had warned earlier that the magistrates chosen by the opposition-controlled congress last week for the shadow Supreme Court would be arrested.

"They are all going to jail, one by one," he vowed.

So far, Zerpa is the only one known to have been arrested among the 33 magistrates.

The opposition blames the leftist government for the country's ailing economy.

It held a symbolic vote against Maduro on July 16, demanding conventional free elections, including for a new president. The opposition claimed more than seven million people out of the 31 million population took part.

Venezuela has recently been the scene of intense protests, which broke out after the Supreme Court stripped the opposition-controlled parliament of its powers in April.

The decision was revoked later, but tensions have continued unabated. More than 100 people have so far died.

Maduro blames the US for the unrest in the Latin American country.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Swedish military plans 'largest' drills in 20 years along with NATO troops

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:32AM

The Swedish military has announced plans to hold its "first and largest" wargames in over 20 years, involving all of the country's military branches along with forces from several NATO member states.

The drills, dubbed Aurora 17, are set to be carried out in September and designed to enhance Sweden's defense capabilities and establish a "credible and visible" deterrent that would force any potential enemies "to carefully consider the risks of attacking our country," said a statement by the Swedish Armed Forces, RT reported.

According to the statement, "Several other countries," mostly members of the US-led NATO military alliance, were invited to take part in the maneuvers to enhance "Sweden's defense capability against a larger, sophisticated opponent," in an apparent reference to Russia.

Nearly 19,000 soldiers from Sweden's all military branches are expected to participate in the drills, which will be carried out in the air, on land and at sea, the report added.

Military units from NATO member countries such as Denmark, Estonia, France, Lithuania, Norway and the US, as well as from non-aligned Finland, will also join the exercise, added the statement by the armed forces of Sweden, which is not a member of the military alliance itself.

According to the report, the major training areas for the maneuver will be in the southeastern Stockholm-Maelaren region and the Gothenburg area, as well as on and around the island of Gotland, near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The development comes as commander of the US army forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, openly announced this week that Sweden's increased military activity is in reaction to Russia's growing "assertiveness."

"Russia has changed the security environment," Hodges stated Sunday in an interview with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, adding that "we have to react to that, and not just the US, but the whole of NATO."

"The fact that Sweden decided that they have to put troops back on Gotland is a very clear indication of what's going on. Sweden is known as moderate, credible and alliance free. Nevertheless, Sweden felt that this was necessary," he added.

This is while the Swedish military announced plans in June to replace all of its aging air defense systems and potentially purchase US-made Patriot missiles, citing an alleged threat from Russian Iskander-M missile systems stationed in Kaliningrad.

Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly expressed concern over Sweden's growing military activities and its closer cooperation with NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in early June that Moscow will need to take additional security measures if the Scandinavian country decided to join the alliance.

"If Sweden joins NATO, that will affect our [bilateral] relations in a negative way," Putin stated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, noting that Moscow would regard the move as "an additional threat."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Turkish diplomacy ends in Persian Gulf without results

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:39AM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wrapped up a tour of Arab countries involved in a dispute but has failed to help bring the feuding sides closer to one another.

Erdogan arrived in Qatar on Monday on the last leg of a tour that had also taken him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In Qatar, he met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Qatari state news agency QNA said the two sides discussed joint efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, reviewed defense and economic cooperation, and praised Kuwait's mediation role in the crisis.

During the talks, Sheikh Tamim "reviewed regional developments, specifically the [Persian] Gulf crisis and efforts to contain it and to resolve it through diplomatic means," according to the QNA.

Useless mediation?

But it was unclear how Erdogan had sought to contribute to a resolution of the dispute beyond calling on the leaders he met to try and ease the tensions. It was also improbable that he conveyed any messages from Saudi Arabia  the country leading a diplomatic and economic war on Qatar  to the leadership in Doha. Turkey has firmly taken Qatar's side, to the displeasure of Doha's adversaries, and is thus not looked upon as a trusted go-between.

The dispute has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar and blocking their transit routes to the country. They have accused Doha of "supporting terrorism"  a charge that the blockading countries face themselves. Qatar has denied the accusation and has said it is being targeted because of its independent foreign policies.

The UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash seemed to display the Saudi-led side's unhappiness with Ankara on Monday when he said in effect that Erdogan's regional tour had been useless.

"The Turkish president's visit did not carry anything new, and the hasty stand his country had taken made neutrality as the best option for Ankara. A Qatari review will achieve more than repeated visits," Gargash wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

When Erdogan left Saudi Arabia, where he had met with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed, it was unclear what, if anything, he had achieved diplomatically. The official Saudi news agency did not report much about the meetings except that they had taken place.

In addition to Erdogan, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and representatives from Europe have toured the region in recent weeks in a bid to soothe the tensions between the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, all to no avail.

Qatar has said the dispute is likely to linger. More recently, the Qatari emir said that the blockade by the Saudi-led bloc had been "a pre-planned smearing campaign."

Turkey determined to continue unpopular diplomacy

While in Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was accompanying Erdogan in the regional tour, said that Ankara was trying to organize direct talks between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc.

"The most appropriate way is to sit together around the table and [have] direct talks. This is the main obstacle in front of us and I hope there will be an opportunity for such format soon," he said.

Also on Monday, Russia expressed its own readiness to help mediate in the dispute if requested to do so.

"We are interested in this crisis being overcome, taking into account mutual concerns and finding solutions which will be acceptable for all participants of this process," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kurdish television channel Rudaw.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Was China Spying on US-Australia War Games?

Sputnik News

22:13 25.07.2017(updated 22:23 25.07.2017)

Canberra says a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship was spotted near Australia as major biennial joint military exercises with the US were wrapping up.

A Dongdiao-class electronic surveillance ship (Type 815) from the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was seen in the waters off Queensland during Talisman Saber 2017 activities, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Defense News reported that the Australian Defence Department confirmed a ship they described as an auxiliary general intelligence vessel, "has remained outside Australia's territorial waters but inside the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone in the Coral Sea."

Senior officers present at the drills were unperturbed by the ship's presence, and the Department noted that "the vessel's presence has not detracted from the Exercise objectives."

"We subscribe as the US does to the freedom of the global commons and rules-based global order," said Mal Wise, the Royal Australian Navy commodore who served as commander of the maritime component, adding that Australia wouldn't object to the ship's presence, "as long as they're operating within that construct."

Photos released of the Chinese vessel indicate that it could be the Neptune or the Haiwangxing, and could have used its radar to see how exercises were being conducted and eavesdropped on communications.

Most of this year's Talisman Saber exercise took place in central Queensland near the Shoalwater Bay Training Area. Designed to improve the quality of task force operations, the activities are meant to refine interoperability in organizing and executing missions and expanding combat readiness.

The activities were carried out by a total of 33,000 personnel from Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Japan, and featured land-force maneuver operations, land-force maneuver operations, air and sea operations and paratroop drops.

Beijing appears to be putting its expanding naval capabilities on display lately, as North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed last week that a Chinese intelligence gathering was seen off the coast of Alaska last week, possibly to monitor tests of the US' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD).

The month-long war games concluded on Tuesday in a ceremony near Brisbane on board the USS Ronald Reagan.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Beijing Calls on India to Withdraw Troops From Chinese Territory in Donglang

Sputnik News

17:55 25.07.2017

India must pull its military units back from Chinese territory in Donglang at the Indian-Chinese border near the state of Sikkim to de-escalate tensions, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  India and China have been locked in a border standoff since mid-June. The confrontation occurred after Indian troops blocked the construction of a road carried out by China in the disputed area of Donglang, where New Delhi supports Bhutan's territorial claims.

"The problem can be resolved very easily. They have to leave [China's territory]," Wang said during his visit to Bangkok, as quoted by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The minister emphasized that even some high-rank Indian officials had admitted that the Chinese military had not trespassed the Indian border, thus recognizing that Indian troops were maintaining their presence in the area illegally.

China insists that the territorial dispute in Sikkim was resolved as long ago as in 1890, when China and the British Empire signed the so-called Convention of Calcutta defining the borders in Sikkim. However, India-backed Bhutan is convinced that Beijing's attempt to extend a road to the Donglang area runs counter to a China-Bhutan agreement on maintaining peace in the region until the dispute is resolved.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Lithuanian Military Gathers Data on Russian-Chinese Naval Drills for NATO

Sputnik News

15:02 25.07.2017

Vilnius is collecting data on Russian-Chinese naval exercises in the Baltic Sea with a goal of handing that information to other NATO countries.

VILNIUS (Sputnik)  Lithuania has been closely following Russian-Chinese naval exercises Naval Interaction  2017 in the Baltic Sea and has been informing NATO on its progress, Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Vytautas Umbrasas said Tuesday.

"Lithuania has been continuously monitoring and analyzing attentively the drills conducted nearby as well as other military activity and has shared all available information with its NATO allies," Umbrasas told Baltic News Service.

The Russian-Chinese joint naval drills were first held in 2012. Joint drills Naval Interaction  2017 are the first naval maneuvers in the Baltic sea in the history of cooperation between the two fleets. The active phase of the exercises is scheduled for July 25-27, during which the fleets of the two countries will practice joint anti-sabotage, air and anti-ship defense.

According to Russian Defense Ministry, the main goals of the joint naval drills are strengthening the friendly relations between the fleets of the countries, practicing and improving skills of organizing joint actions at the sea, on the ground and in the air. Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the exercises are not directed against other states.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US Military Chief Hails Sweden's Baltic Island as 'Strategically Important'

Sputnik News

14:05 25.07.2017

Amid Sweden's extensive preparations for Aurora 17, the upcoming major military exercise with a historic appearance of American tanks, a US military chief suggested that no island was more important than Sweden's Gotland, which is looking forward to an extensive remilitarization on the pretense of a "Russian threat."

Sweden's largest military exercise in decades will focus on the Stockholm and Gothenburg regions, as well as Gotland, the Baltic Sea island that became the focal point of Sweden's defense rhetoric amid paranoid fears of "imminent" Russian aggression. According to the Swedish Armed Forces, Aurora 17 is the first and biggest exercise of its kind in more than 20 years.

As US soldiers prepare to join the major exercise in non-aligned Sweden, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commanding general of the US Army forces in Europe, described Gotland as a strategically important location ahead of the exercise.

"You have a strategically very important task here. I do not think there is any island anywhere that is more important," Ben Hodges told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, adding that he was looking forward to using the opportunity of training with Swedish soldiers to the fullest.

Earlier this year, Swedish troops were permanently stationed on Gotland for the first time since 2005, following dramatic evaluations from the country's defense experts who identified Gotland as the primary entry point for "Russian aggression." At Tofta shooting range, south of Gotland's capital city of Visby, soldiers from the newly established unit recently started to arrive with their Stridsfordon 90 tanks.

Amid unfounded fears and unsubstantiated accusations against Russia, a non-NATO member, Sweden has strengthened its ties with the military alliance in recent years, while stepping up its anti-Russian rhetoric.

Russia's joint exercise with Belarus, Zapad 2017, which will be held around the same time as Aurora, has therefore been described as an attempt to "flex its muscles," despite the fact that the US has been stepping up its presence in Eastern Europe with troops and tanks as part of a comprehensive NATO buildup in the Baltic states and Poland.

Nevertheless, it was Russia that "changed the security environment," according to Ben Hodges.

"We have to react to that, and not just the US, but the whole of NATO. The countries closest to the bear have historical experience. They feel the bear's hot breath  and they are the ones most worried," Ben Hodges told Dagens Nyheter.

Hodges hailed Sweden as a moderate and credible partner and welcomed its decision to put troops back on Gotland as a clear indication of what's going on.

Aurora 17 will take place in September, incorporating sea, land and air units from all over Sweden. About 20,000 troops are set to take part, including some 1,500 soldiers from the US, 270 from Finland, 120 from France and between 40 to 60 from Denmark, Norway, Lithuania and Estonia each.

According to Dagens Nyheter, Aurora 17 will stage a mock scenario in which tensions increase between superpowers, with parts of Sweden being attacked by a fictitious country bearing "clear features of Russia." The US is designated to mostly play the attacking "red" side against the defending "blue" side.

In the years following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Swedish Armed Forces were largely dismantled, as the country almost entirely focused on international efforts. Today, the Swedish Armed Forces only number some 20,000 active soldiers, as opposed to the 180,000 in the 1980s.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Four Arab States Add 9 Entities, 9 People to Terror List Over Ties to Qatar

Sputnik News

14:02 25.07.2017

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt added nine people and nine organizations to its unified terrorist list over alleged ties to Qatar, local media reported Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On June 9, the four Arab nations put 59 people and 12 organizations on the terrorist list due to their alleged funding of terrorism and support received from Qatar. The countries warned that the list of individuals and entities supporting terrorism would be updated.

According to the Saudi Press agency, six entities from Libya and three entities from Yemen, including media and charitable organizations, as well as individuals from Qatar, Yemen and Kuwait were included on the terrorist list over their alleged ties with the Qatari authorities. The media outlet added that the individuals and entities added to the list were accused of providing support and funding for the Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda terrorist organizations (both outlawed in Russia), as well as terrorist groups in Syria and Libya.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE broke off diplomatic relations and communication with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. Kuwait acting, as a mediator in the crisis, handed the ultimatum of the four Arab states with 13 demands, to Doha, which has refused to comply.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Indian, Chinese NSAs Likely to Meet in Shadow of Border Standoff

Sputnik News

13:56 25.07.2017

Amid the ongoing border standoff between India and China, the two sides' National Security Advisers (NSA) are expected to meet on the sidelines of a BRICS NSA's meet in Beijing this week.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  India's NSA Ajit Doval is set to attend the meeting from July 27-28 and the Chinese foreign ministry hasn't ruled out a possible bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Yang represents China in the boundary talks.

"I don't have relevant information you mentioned right now. As far as we know, during the previous meetings the host countries arranged for the heads of the delegations to hold bilateral meetings in which they exchanged views on bilateral relations, BRICS cooperation, and multilateral affairs," PTI quoted Lu Kang, spokesperson, Chinese foreign ministry, as saying.

In India, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay hasn't revealed any information so far about Doval's potential meeting with Yang.

Ahead of Doval's visit, a commentary by state-run Xinhua news agency highlighted that India and China "need to enhance communication and nurture trust between them."

Indian experts say Doval's visit may not result in a major change in posture in the immediate term.

"I don't see any major change in posturing out of the visit, not in a dramatic fashion at least. But his visit can certainly lay the pitch for future rounds of discussions," Harsh Pant, a Distinguished Fellow and Head of Observer Research Foundation's Strategic Studies Program, told Sputnik.

Precedents suggest the BRICS NSAs would call on the hosting leadership of the country, but it is not clear whether this time the NSAs will meet President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Keqiang.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson also reiterated that both countries enjoy smooth diplomatic channels, but didn't forget to stress China's stated official position on the standoff.

In the ongoing standoff, China alleges that it is Indian troops that had "illegally crossed into their territory" and calling "India to pull back its troops", linking it with talks between the two sides.

Meanwhile, a series of editorials published in the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese government and communist party, warned India of dire consequences, including teaching it a 1962 kind of "bitter lesson."

Last week, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament that China intends to unilaterally change the status of the tri-junction with Bhutan, which poses a challenge to the country's security.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






India Begins Tunnel Work Through Himalayas to China Border

Sputnik News

11:22 25.07.2017(updated 11:24 25.07.2017)

India's Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will construct two-lane tunnels bypassing a mountain pass at 13,700 feet in Arunachal Pradesh to gain faster access to the China border. The tunnel will connect the Army's 4 Corps HQ in Tezpur to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, which is 22 miles from the border.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The length of one tunnel will be 475 meters while the other 1.79 km which will bypass Sela and several hairpin bends. Due to the construction of tunnels across the Sela pass, the road length reduces by approximately four miles.

"The tunnels would cut down at least an hour of travel time between the Army's 4 Corps headquarters at Tezpur and Tawang. Moreover, the tunnels would ensure that NH 13 and especially the 171-km stretch between Bomdila and Tawang, remains accessible in all weather conditions," BRO said in a statement.

Earlier, the country's longest river bridge which cut travel time from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh by some five hours and by 165 km was inaugurated. While 17 highways along eastern border areas are being converted to double lanes and for use as airstrips for fighter jets in war-like situations, these highways will have weapon storage dumps, landing lights, fuel, and firefighting equipment.

Indian defense ministry has also expedited the work for carrying out final location survey of Misamari (Bhalukpong)-Tenga-Tawang strategic rail new line from March this year. China has been asking India to adopt a cautious and restrained attitude on infrastructure development in areas where consensus has not been reached between the countries.

China considers the upper part of Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet. Both the countries accuse each other of occupying thousands of square kilometers from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Update: air strikes against Daesh

25 July 2017

The RAF are continuing to take the fight to Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Summary

- Wednesday 19 July  Tornados destroyed an explosives warehouse in northern Iraq, whilst Typhoons and Tornados struck a command post and defensive position in Raqqa.

- Thursday 20 July  Typhoons bombed a terrorist position in Raqqa; Tornados and Typhoons attacked terrorists on a Tigris island and destroyed their boat and vehicle transport.

- Friday 21 July  Tornados destroyed an observation and sniper post in Raqqa, whilst Tornados and Typhoons hit an anti-aircraft machine gun in the west of Iraq, and an armed truck in the north.

- Saturday 22 July  Tornados struck an engineering vehicle in northern Iraq.

- Sunday 23 July  Tornados and Typhoons attacked six Daesh positions in Raqqa.

- Monday 24 July  Tornados and Typhoons hit three positions in Raqqa.

Detail

In northern Iraq, intelligence had identified a warehouse near Hawijah in which large quantities of homemade explosives were being stored by Daesh. A flight of RAF Tornados attacked the building with two Paveway IV guided bombs, and demolished it on Wednesday 19 July. A mixed pair of one Tornado and one Typhoon meanwhile provided close air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting to clear the terrorists from Raqqa. A coalition surveillance aircraft identified a Daesh defensive position, and our aircraft conducted a successful attack with a Brimstone missile. A terrorist command post was also identified within the city, and this was struck with two Paveway IVs.

Operations over Raqqa continued on Thursday 20 July, when a Typhoon mission assisted SDF engaged in combat with a group of extremists firing from a building; this was hit with a single Paveway IV which eliminated the threat to the SDF. In northern Iraq, coalition surveillance aircraft had located a number of terrorists on a wooded island in the Tigris, several miles south of Qayyarah, along with their transport  a boat and two vehicles  on the riverbanks. Two Tornados bombed the terrorists on the island with a pair of Paveway IVs, whilst a mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair destroyed the boat and vehicles with Brimstone missiles.

On Friday 21 July, a pair of Tornados bombed the top of a grain silo in Raqqa, where a group of Daesh were stationed in a combined observation and sniper post. In western Iraq, a mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair used a Brimstone missile to eliminate an anti-aircraft machine gun that was concealed under cover, south-east of Rawah. Our aircraft then flew north-east to an area south of Qayyarah, where a coalition surveillance aircraft was keeping watch on a truck armed with a recoilless anti-tank gun. This was destroyed using a Brimstone.

The following day, a Tornado mission used a single Paveway IV to destroy an engineering vehicle which terrorists had attempted to conceal some miles north of Tall Afar. On Sunday and Monday, the RAF operations focused on supporting the SDF in Raqqa. On 23 July, three flights of Tornados and Typhoons conducted missions over the city, in which they delivered successful attacks on six Daesh positions, using Paveways IV bombs and Brimstone missiles. Three more Paveway IVs were dropped on 24 July, targeting a further three terrorist firing points.

UK contribution to the fight against Daesh



Map of UK forces committed to Operation Shader

Campaign against Daesh



Map of Daesh losses and gains in Iraq and Syria since September 2014

Previous update

Friday 2 June: A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair used a Brimstone to destroy an armoured truck moving along a main road on the outskirts of Raqqa. Two other flights operated over Mosul, where attacks were delivered in very close support to the Iraqi forces, hitting eight Daesh positions with a mix of Brimstones and Paveway IVs. The targets included three machine-gun teams and three groups of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades. In addition, a truck-bomb, concealed close to one of the positions, was also fortuitously detonated by one of the attacks.

Saturday 3 June: A Reaper, operating south of Al Qaim in western Iraq, observed a group of dismounted terrorists, with an armed truck close by. One Hellfire missile killed several of the terrorists, a second destroyed the vehicle with a direct hit. West of Kirkuk, a pair of Tornados used a Paveway IV to destroy a Daesh strongpoint, whilst two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons delivered five attacks in Mosul with four Brimstones and a Paveway against a truck-bomb, three sniper teams and a group with rocket-propelled grenades.

Sunday 4 June: A further mixed pair conducted three further attacks in Mosul, using a Brimstone to deal with a sniper, and two Paveway IVs against a pair of Daesh-held buildings from which fire was being directed at Iraqi troops.

Monday 5 June: Two Typhoons, supporting Syrian Democratic Forces close to Raqqa, used a Paveway IV to strike a Daesh-held building in the east of the city itself. Tornados meanwhile continued operations over Mosul, and employed a pair of Brimstone missiles to deliver pinpoint attacks on two firing positions located in a large multi-storey building, where the terrorists had stationed a recoilless anti-tank gun and a machine-gun.

Wednesday 7 June: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft flew an armed reconnaissance patrol over northern Raqqa. It observed two extremists burying booby-traps along routes into the city. Hellfire missiles were deployed, killing both. Some 45 miles south-west of Raqqa, a mixed pair of Tornado and Typhoon fast jets used a Brimstone missile to hit one Daesh-held building. A Paveway IV guided bomb left a second target on fire.

Friday 9 June: Tornados struck a Daesh position in eastern Raqqa.

Saturday 10 June: A Reaper intervened in a fire fight in western Raqqa between the SDF and a group of Daesh fighters. The Reaper hit the latter with a very effective Hellfire attack. The same day, Paveway-armed Typhoons struck two entrances to a network of tunnels built beneath a factory in the north-east of the city.

Sunday 11 June: A Tornado flight patrolled the Mosul area and conducted two attacks. During the first, a Paveway IV was used against a mortar position some 20 miles west of the city. A Brimstone was then used against a Daesh firing point in western Mosul, close to the riverbank. A second Tornado flight, and two pairs of Typhoons, operated the same day over Raqqa. Paveway IVs accounted for four sniper positions and a Daesh-held building, while a simultaneous attack with two Brimstones eliminated two firing points in a building on the western edge of the city.

Monday 12 June: Royal Air Force Tornados patrolled over west Mosul. Despite Iraqi forces being exceptionally close to a target, a Tornado was able to use a single Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a Daesh strong-point. Our aircraft then headed south to an area in the countryside near the small town of Karwi. A truck-bomb workshop had been identified in an isolated building, with three of its deadly products parked some distance away. The three truck-bombs were dealt with first. An attack with a pair of Brimstone missiles scored direct hits on two of the vehicles, and the secondary explosions from one of these then set off the third truck-bomb. A Paveway IV was then used to demolish the workshop.

Wednesday 14 June: A mixed pair of a Tornado and a Typhoon provided further assistance to the Iraqi forces in west Mosul, striking two terrorist-held buildings with Paveway IVs. Before returning to base at RAF Akrotiri, the aircraft struck a third Daesh building, some 24 miles west of Kirkuk.

Thursday 15 June: Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted armed reconnaissance in eastern Syria, some 35 miles north-east of Dayr az Zawr, and used a Hellfire missile to destroy a terrorist truck. Two Typhoons also struck three Daesh positions in Raqqa in support of the offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Elsewhere, two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons operated over northern Iraq. A Daesh mortar was engaged east of Tal Afar, while six positions in Mosul, including machine-gun and sniper teams, were struck using a mixture of Paveway IVs and Brimstones.

Friday 16 June: Typhoons were again in action over Raqqa, when they bombed two further Daesh positions. Typhoons and Tornados, flying as mixed pairs, employed one Brimstone missile and four Paveway IVs to eliminate two machine-gun teams and three other Daesh strongpoints.

Saturday 17 June: Tornados and Typhoons suppressed a Daesh position in Raqqa, and struck six more positions in Mosul, again using a Brimstone and Paveway IV mix to deal with snipers and a machine-gun team.

Sunday 18 June: A Reaper patrolled over Raqqa. Its crew successfully spotted a Daesh mortar team and provided targeting assistance to a coalition air strike against them. The Reaper's crew then used Hellfire missiles to destroy a car-bomb and a second mortar team who were spotted in the act of firing at the SDF. The same day, Tornados and Typhoons were very active over Mosul. A Brimstone was used to target a group of terrorists engaged in a close-quarters firefight with Iraqi troops, while Paveways accounted for nine more targets, including two machine-gun teams, multiple snipers, and extremists armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

Monday 19 June: Flights of Royal Air Force Tornados and Typhoons operated over northern Iraq in support of the Iraqi security forces. Our aircraft conducted attacks in Mosul with Paveway IV guided bombs against six Daesh positions which the Iraqi forces had encountered, including a group of snipers and four machine-gun teams. Thirty miles west of Kirkuk, a Daesh weapons stockpile was also destroyed by a Paveway IV.

Wednesday 21 June: A pair of Typhoons assisted Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa. Two buildings held by extremist fighters were hit with Paveway IVs. In Mosul, a Tornado flight used a Brimstone missile to destroy safely a car-bomb spotted by the Iraqi ground forces. The Tornado flight then used a Paveway IV to eliminate a medium machine-gun team. A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair were also active that day over the city. A Brimstone attack was directed at a mortar position, while Paveways were used against three Daesh strongpoints, including two housing machine-guns.

Thursday 22 June: Tornados and Typhoons conducted attacks with Paveway IVs against six Daesh targets in western Mosul, with some strikes being called in by Iraqi forces positioned extremely close to the terrorist locations. Four machine-gun teams were amongst the threats successfully dealt with by our aircraft. The next day, a mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair used two Paveway IVs to target successfully a large group of Daesh fighters operating with a truck-bomb and an armoured personnel carrier in Raqqa, while in Mosul a Tornado flight conducted three precision attacks with Brimstone missiles on sniper positions.

Saturday 24 June: In similar fashion, a pair of Paveway IV-armed Tornados eliminated a terrorist sniper team in Raqqa.

Sunday 25 June: Operations against groups of Daesh extremists outside of Raqqa and Mosul have also been maintained. Tornados attacked a headquarters and mortar position in eastern Syria, some 55 miles north-east of Dayr az Zawr.

Monday 26 June: Careful intelligence analysis allowed a building on the outskirts of Al Mayadin, in eastern Syria, to be identified as a truck-bomb workshop. A flight of Royal Air Force Tornados struck the target, scoring a direct hit with a Paveway IV guided bomb which left the building ablaze. Two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, meanwhile provided close air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushing into Raqqa and to the Iraqi troops clearing remaining Daesh positions in west Mosul. A Brimstone missile accounted for a sniper team in Raqqa, and a Paveway similarly dealt with snipers in Mosul.

Tuesday 27 June: Our aircraft conducted invaluable reconnaissance operations during.

Wednesday 28 June: Two Tornado flights operated over Raqqa. At the north-western end of the city, at least one suicide bomber was known to be waiting inside a Daesh-held building, waiting for an opportunity to attack the SDF as they closed in. The building and the terrorists inside were struck with a Paveway IV. A second such weapon demolished a building in the east, from where heavy fire had been directed at the SDF. This successful strike allowed the SDF to resume their advance.

Thursday 29 June: A flight of Typhoons used a Paveway IV to silence a sniper team which had been firing on the SDF in eastern Raqqa. The same day, a pair of Tornados conducted a simultaneous Paveway attack on a group of three buildings, all occupied by Daesh extremists, in the south-east of the city. Another Tornado pair meanwhile supported Iraqi troops clearing remaining Daesh positions in the Old City in west Mosul. Our aircraft used Paveway IVs to deliver two successful attacks on strongpoints, using great precision with their munitions, given the extreme proximity of the Iraqi troops to the Daesh firing points.

Friday 30 June: Royal Air Force Tornados and Typhoons provided close air support to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushing into Raqqa. The Typhoons worked closely with a coalition surveillance aircraft which had spotted a large truck-bomb. A direct hit from a Paveway IV removed the threat. A Tornado pair meanwhile bombed a Daesh-held building in the south-east of the city.

Saturday 1 July: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled over Raqqa. A mortar was reported firing on the SDF, and the Reaper's crew spotted its muzzle flashes from a position concealed beneath a tree. A Hellfire missile destroyed the target. Typhoons were also active over the city, where they used a Paveway IV to silence a heavy machine-gun which was holding up an SDF advance. In northern Iraq, two Tornados assisted the Iraqi troops clearing remaining pockets of Daesh resistance in west Mosul. Paveway IVs were used to destroy two strongpoints from which the Daesh fighters were directing fire. The Tornados then responded to reports of a heavy machine-gun team and a group of suicide bombers preparing to attack the Iraqis  a third position was duly destroyed with a Paveway IV.

Sunday 2 July: Mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons operated over both Mosul and Raqqa. In Mosul, the Iraqi ground forces encountered three groups of snipers  all three positions, plus another Daesh-held building, were successfully struck with Paveways. In similar fashion, Paveway IVs were used against two terrorist firing points in Raqqa.

Monday 3 July: Two Royal Air Force Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted armed reconnaissance over Raqqa. One assisted Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who had come under attack from a heavy machine-gun on the top floor of a building. A Hellfire missile through the building's roof silenced the terrorist fire. The second Reaper used two Hellfires in a successful attack on a Daesh headquarters for foreign fighters. A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair were also active over the city. The SDF, advancing into the centre of Raqqa, encountered a strongly defended building. Our aircraft demolished it with a single Paveway IV guided bomb. Two flights of Tornados operated over northern Iraq the same day. One flight used three Paveway IVs to destroy a group of three workshops producing truck-bombs near Hawijah. The second flight supported Iraqi troops in the Old City of Mosul, and conducted strikes with Paveways and Brimstone missiles on seven Daesh positions, including six machine-gun teams.

Wednesday 5 July: Typhoons continued to support the Iraqi troops in west Mosul. Exceptionally careful coordination was needed given the very short distances between the Iraqi forces and the Daesh positions, but the two Typhoons were able to destroy seven strongpoints, including two with medium machine-guns, each struck by a Paveway IV. Tornados kept watch over the latest SDF advances in Raqqa, and used a Paveway IV to deal with a sniper team.

Thursday 6 July: Two Royal Air Force Typhoons, armed with Paveway IV bombs, operated over Raqqa. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) encountered a large building on the southern edge of the city, close to the bank of the Euphrates, which was heavily defended by Daesh extremists. Two Paveways struck the building and brought an end to the terrorists' activity. A mixed pair of a Typhoon and a Tornado were also active over Raqqa, and these aircraft bombed a sniper position which had been firing persistently at the SDF. A second mixed Tornado/Typhoon pair provided similar support to the Iraqi forces clearing the Old City in Mosul. Attacks with Brimstone missiles dealt with three Daesh positions, whilst a Paveway IV was used to destroy a medium machine-gun team.

Friday 7 July: Tornados flew further missions over Mosul, delivering two Paveway IV attacks which eliminated a sniper team and another group of terrorists firing on Iraqi troops. Further south in Iraq, a Daesh-held building had been identified in the countryside some 25 miles north-west of Bayji, with an armed truck hidden inside. Tornados demolished the building with a direct hit from a Paveway IV. Two more such weapons were used in attacks by Typhoons on a pair of defensive positions which the SDF had come up against in Raqqa.

Saturday 8 July: Typhoons conducted attacks with four Paveway IVs, eliminating a light machine-gun position and three other terrorist strongpoints. Tornados meanwhile continued to support the SDF in Raqqa, striking a Daesh position there.

Sunday 9 July: Typhoons hit a further target in Raqqa, whilst two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons assisted the Iraqis as they fought at very close quarters in Mosul; our aircraft dealt with two snipers and two Daesh-held buildings. Prime Minister Abadi visited the city to mark its liberation.

Wednesday 12 July: A mixed Tornado and Typhoon provided support, and delivered successful attacks with Paveway IV guided bombs on three buildings from which terrorists had been attempting to prolong the fight. Over Raqqa, a second mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair flew overwatch as the Syrian Democratic Forces continued their advance through the city; our aircraft used Paveway IVs to engage three Daesh positions which opened fire on the SDF, and successfully silenced each threat in turn.

Thursday 13 July: Royal Air Force continued to support operations by the Iraqi security forces to eradicate any remaining Daesh fighters in Mosul. Two Tornados used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a building occupied by extremists on the west bank of the Tigris, in the Old City of Mosul.

Friday 14 July: With Mosul largely liberated, the major focus for RAF missions has been to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces fighting in Raqqa. Two Typhoons used a Paveway IV to destroy the entrance to a tunnel dug beneath an area in the west of the city. The following day, Tornados and Typhoons utilised eleven Paveway IV bombs against mortar positions in Raqqa, whilst a pair of Tornados used a Brimstone missile against a sniper holding out in western Mosul.

Sunday 16 July: In the course of surveillance over Raqqa, a Reaper delivered a Hellfire missile attack which killed a small group of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades, who had been firing on the Syrian Democratic Forces from a rooftop. Tornados and Typhoons were also very active over the city, and used a Brimstone missile to attack one terrorist firing point, and Paveway IVs to deal with three sniper teams and two other positions defended by Daesh extremists.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US Warship Fires Warning Shots at Iranian Military Vessel

By Carla Babb July 25, 2017

A U.S. Navy ship patrolling in the Persian Gulf fired warning shots at an Iranian Revolutionary Guard ship that came dangerously close to the vessel.

The USS Thunderbolt fired "a couple of warning shots" at the Iranian vessel after it came within 140 meters of the U.S. ship at a high rate of speed, a U.S. defense official told VOA Tuesday.

A statement from the Navy called the Iranian interaction "unsafe and unprofessional."

"The Iranian vessel's actions were not in accordance with the internationally recognized ... 'rules of the road' nor internationally recognized maritime customs, creating a risk for collision," the Navy said.

The shots were used as a last resort after the Iranian ship failed to respond to calls over the radio and sound signals from the American ships, including five blasts from the U.S. Navy ship's whistle, an international symbol for danger.

Two ships from the United States Coast Guard were patrolling with the USS Thunderbolt during the incident, a defense official told VOA.

"These sort of unsafe and provocative actions from the Iranians do nothing but needlessly increase the risk for miscalculation," he added.

Last month, an Iranian military vessel trained a laser on an American helicopter that was accompanying three American military ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Commander Bill Urban, the spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, said the Iranian vessel came within 730 meters of the USS Bataan assault ship.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Faction Leader Claims 30,000 Afghans Fighting in Iraq, Syria

By Ayaz Gul July 25, 2017

A prominent former Afghan insurgent leader Tuesday said 30,000 of his countrymen are fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"Afghans are being trained to fight at home and abroad," said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, while addressing tribal elders in Kabul.

The controversial warlord's Hizb-e-Islami faction recently concluded a peace deal with the Afghan government to end insurgent activities and pave the way for Hekmatyar to come out of years of hiding.

Hekmatyar would not discuss the source of his information on the number of Afghans fighting abroad, but suggested they are doing so only to feed their poverty-stricken families.

"Today, you have 30,000 Afghans fighting in Iraq and Syria. God knows better how many of them have been killed," Hekmatyar said.

Decades of conflict and poverty have forced Afghans to abandon their country and travel across the globe in search of livelihood.

Millions of Afghans continue to live in neighboring Pakistan and Iran while conflict continues to uproot thousands in Afghanistan.

Lately, some displaced families have found the battlefields in Syria and Iraq as a source of income because of Iran.

Iran

Some refugees in Iran, mainly Shi'ite Hazara Afghans, are reportedly being recruited and trained to fight alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria. An estimated 3 million Afghans are in Iran, including about 2 million undocumented refugees.

According to media reports, it is the undocumented refugees whom Iran's Revolutionary Guards exploit and recruit to raise militias fighting in Syria. Reports also say that in return, the volunteers' displaced families are offered legal status in addition to getting hundreds of dollars in monthly salaries. The potential fighters are told they are being sent on a sacred mission of defending holy shrines and Islam.

During parliamentary sessions, Afghan lawmakers have repeatedly urged their government to take up the issue with Iran to stop the exploitation of refugees. Government officials rarely comment on the issue and maintain that Kabul is in contact with Tehran.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Turkish President Criticizes Israel Over Al-Aqsa

By Dorian Jones July 25, 2017

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Israel for security measures at the al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem. Rising tensions over the mosque could threaten attempts at rapprochement between Israel and Turkey.

Erdogan chose his weekly address to his parliamentary deputies to launch a strong attack on Israel for the introduction of security measures to access the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site for Muslims.

Erdogan said Israel's legitimacy makes sense to the extent it respects the rights of itself, Palestine and Palestinians. He said the restrictions on the mosque are not due to safety concerns and that Israel is trying to take al-Aqsa from Muslims under the guise of counterterrorism efforts. Israel has announced the reversal of its decision to install highly visible metal detectors at al-Aqsa entrances. They were installed after Arab gunmen killed two Israeli policemen earlier this month.

Erdogan's ruling AK party derives much of its support from religious voters and the Turkish president has been trying to position himself as a leader in the wider Muslim world.

On Friday, thousands protested in Istanbul against Israel's restrictions and controls on accessing the al-Aqsa mosque. Similar large protests have been held in several Turkish provincial cities. Anger in Turkey toward Israel spilled into violence against Istanbul's tiny Jewish community.

Islamic nationalists attacked Neve Shalom, Istanbul's main synagogue. The attack caused little damage and no injuries, but critics point out police officers normally protecting the synagogue failed to intervene. On Tuesday, Erdogan condemned the synagogue attack.

The president says it does not make sense to attack synagogues here because something has happened at al-Aqsa mosque. He added that it does not suit Islam and it is not allowed.

The rising tensions concerning the al-Aqsa mosque are forcing Erdogan to perform a difficult balancing act. Ankara is in a process of rapprochement with Israel, after relations collapsed in 2010 when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens trying to break an economic sea blockade of Gaza.

Along with trade, energy cooperation is driving rapprochement efforts.

Up until now a Turkish presidential adviser said the Palestinian issue was compartmentalized from wider relations. With tensions continuing over the al-Aqsa mosque, that compartmentalization policy is facing its stiffest test.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Presidential Age Limit Stirs Debate in Uganda

By Halima Athumani July 25, 2017

Uganda's parliament is considering an amendment to the country's constitution on land issues, but it is another proposed revision, not on the table, that is sparking the fiercest debate.

Uganda's constitution sets the age range for president at 35 to 75 years of age.

Born in 1944, President Yoweri Museveni will be 76 years old at the next elections in 2021. That means after three decades in power, he will not be eligible to stand for re-election.

But Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana has discussed amending the constitution.

The public reacted quickly, urging legislators not to touch article 102b.

"The first thing that was done, was to make sure all our telephone contacts are thrown on the Facebook," explains Ruling party MP, David Abala. "Anybody can say anything. They say members of parliament have been paid $100,000, and some of them have called me. They harassed us. They said we trust you, but please, do not tamper with that article 102 about age limit."

No amendment to the age limit has been put before parliament, but that has not stopped the opposition.

Last week, Democratic Party President Norbert Mao and some members of his party marched to the Constitutional Square to hang a banner. Mao and 14 other people were arrested. They were released later the same day.

"Our slogan, 'If you dare and touch it', meaning that provision of the constitution, there will be a reckoning," he said. "This is the last barricade against life presidency. It is the last defense against Museveni's family's despotic ambitions. We had the term limits. The term limits were removed. We thought this one now would not be able to be removed. It turns out the age limit is also a false bottom because it will not hold Museveni."

The president's supporters also sprang into action.

Presidential advisor on political affairs David Mafabi held a meeting for ruling party youth leaders, legislators and academics. He told VOA they are launching a countrywide campaign to lift the presidential age limit.

President Museveni has defended Mafabi, saying his advisor was provoked.

"I hear, that there is a debate about age limit and I do not know what, what are you debating, who has brought a proposal? So, those un-disciplined people, they should know that there will be counter action, political action, because if you play games, the other side will react, so you should not waste your time with people who have no work to do," he said.

Museveni has not said whether he supports lifting the age limit.

Opposition legislator Ssemuju Nganda of the Forum for Democratic Change says this is characteristic of the president.

"He will act through proxies, so therefore this is a legitimate matter, so even if Museveni wanted or he did not want, this is the right time for Ugandans to begin discussing the transition either from Museveni to Museveni or from Museveni to any other person," said Nganda.

Only the attorney general can introduce a constitutional amendment to parliament. The proposed amendment on land rights is currently before a parliamentary committee.

The attorney general's office has not said whether it will propose any further amendments to parliament at this time.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Trump's Son-in-Law Answers More Questions on Russia Contacts

By Michael Bowman, Katherine Gypson July 25, 2017

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, faced questions for three hours in a closed-door interview Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation of Russian meddling in last year's presidential election.

There was no immediate word on Kushner's latest testimony, which came a day after he said that neither he nor anyone else he knew of in the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The leading Republican on the House panel, Representative Mike Conaway of Texas, said: "I found him to be straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question that we had and was willing to follow up on any questions that we think of later that we didn't get to ask this morning. And I thank him for his ... the way he conducted himself this morning in a very professional manner."

The top Democrat on the committee, Representative Adam Schiff of California, said the hearing was "very productive," and that he appreciated Kushner's "voluntary willingness to come and testify today."

Kushner spoke Monday to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a similar closed-door session, while also publicly denying that he or anyone else with the Trump campaign had any improper contacts with Russia leading up to or after the November 2016 vote.

"I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so," Kushner said at the White House in a brief statement after the meeting with the Senate investigators.

"I had no improper contacts," Kushner said. "I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses, and I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information." He said that all of his "actions were proper, and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign."

Trump used Twitter on Tuesday to express satisfaction with what Kushner said Monday.

Manafort also questioned

As part of the Russia probe, Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, met Tuesday with bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Manafort "answered their questions fully," said Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni.

Manafort is being scrutinized about his participation in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer from whom the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., had been advised to expect incriminating material about Clinton.

Manafort gave the Senate panel his notes from the meeting, The Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar with the probe. That meeting has become a focal point for numerous investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, after the younger Trump said he would "love it" if there was material to damage Clinton's campaign.

In a written statement issued before his Monday appearance on Capitol Hill, Kushner confirmed that he, the younger Trump and Manafort met with a Russian lawyer and other figures tied to Moscow last June, but asserted he arrived late to the meeting and heard no discussions of the presidential campaign.

Trump Jr. and Manafort are also sharing information with another panel, the Senate Judiciary Committee. They were initially scheduled to appear before the committee this week, but that testimony has been postponed based on an understanding that the two men will provide the committee with records and other information.

Nevertheless, the Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena Monday night to compel Manafort to testify after failing to "reach an agreement for a voluntary transcribed interview" with the committee. A Judiciary Committee statement said Manafort agreed to provide only one transcribed interview to Congress, "which would not be available to the Judiciary Committee members or staff."

"While the Judiciary Committee was willing to cooperate on equal terms with any other committee to accommodate Mr. Manafort's request, ultimately that was not possible," the statement said.

Key events omitted

Kushner, in his statement Monday, made no mention of some key events that are pertinent to the Russia probe, including Trump's firing of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, who was leading the agency's Russia probe before special counsel Robert Mueller, another former FBI director, took over.

Kushner's statement did not rule out the possibility of Russian election interference, which the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rather, it asserted that Kushner himself had no interactions in or knowledge about plots from Moscow.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Xi calls for united efforts to deepen military reform

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 21:15, July 25, 2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for all-out efforts to push forward military reform with the support of the entire nation and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks Monday afternoon at a group study attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The group study focused on reform of the military in size, structure, and formation.

Carried out in a bold and resolute way, national defense and military reform has taken historic steps and achieved historic breakthroughs and achievements in major fields, pumping great power into building a strong army, Xi said.

The reform mainly includes optimizing the country's military size, structure, and formation, and solving structural contradictions that hinder the development of national defense and the armed forces, he said.

As the reform deepens, China will have a smaller army with better combat capability and optimized structure, the president said.

"Quantity should be reduced and quality improved to build a capable and efficient army, and labor intensity should become S&T-oriented," Xi said, adding that China is developing a joint operation force system with an elite force at its core.

He reiterated that reform on national defense and armed forces is an overall and revolutionary change, with unprecedented strength, depth and breadth.

"We should be resolute, confident, brave and vigorous to achieve victory in such reform," he said, calling for close following of decisions made by the CPC Central Committee and the CMC.

Xi said that the reform should take the correct direction, inspections should be strengthened, and various reform measures should be put into practice.

He said that the adjustment and reform of policies and systems will directly influence the vital interests of officers and soldiers, the army's morale, the military's vitality as well as the reform's overall performance.

Military authorities should intensify relevant research, map out systematic and proactive reform plans, and enhance the "sense of gain" among officers and soldiers, Xi said.

Xi also stressed consolidation and spread of theoretical, practical and institutional achievements acquired through the national defense and military reform.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Chinese jets' intercept of US recon plane 'legitimate and professional'

People's Daily Online

(CNTV) 17:33, July 25, 2017

China's defense ministry on Tuesday rejected US accusations that two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US EP-3 reconnaissance plane flying in international airspace over the East China Sea.

In a statement, ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said the Chinese air force acted in a "legitimate, necessary and professional" manner. China also urged the US to stop such "unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly" activity, according to the statement.

US Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters on Monday at the Pentagon that one of two Chinese fighter jets flew underneath the US EP-3 aircraft "at a high rate of speed", before slowing and flying 300 feet ahead of the EP-3, causing the US plane to take "evasive action to prevent the possibility of collision."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Beijing Urges US to Avoid Provocative Actions in China's Coastal Area

Sputnik News

17:07 25.07.2017(updated 17:11 25.07.2017)

China hopes that the US Navy will avoid provocative actions in China's coastal area, as they may have a negative impact on the relations between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said Tuesday.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  On Monday, US Department of Defense spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis said that two Chinese J-10 fighter jets intercepted Sunday a US surveillance plane in the East China Sea, nearly colliding with it.

"Recently the US vessels have often come close to China's coastal areas for surveillance purposes, such actions have negative impact on China-US relations and pose a threat to China's security Beijing hopes that the United States will stop these activities and will avoid incident like the one noted," Lu said, commenting on the recent incident.

He stressed that China had always complied with international law to ensure safe, over-sea flights, and had always ensured mutual trust in its relations with other countries in order to resolve emerging disputes in a constructive way.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly voiced their protests against US actions in the region, which are considered by Beijing as violations of its own sovereignty. On July, Beijing expressed its outrage over US guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem entering the waters off the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, known in China as the Xisha Islands. According to Lu, the US actions violated Chinese law as well as international law, and constituted a serious political and military provocation.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






N Korea appears to be preparing for new missile test: South Korean source

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:10AM

North Korea appears to be preparing for another missile launch weeks after it sparked an international uproar by its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, a South Korea source says.

The Yonhap news agency on Tuesday cited a South Korean government source as saying that North Korea would launch a new missile soon.

Reports in South Korean and US media predicted the test could coincide with the 64th anniversary of the end of the Korean War on July 27. It is a public holiday in the nuclear-armed North and celebrated as Victory Day.

"Movements by transporter erector launchers carrying (intercontinental ballistic missile) launch tubes have been continuously observed in North Pyongan (province)," said the South Korean source.

"There is a high possibility that the North may carry out (the test-launch) around the July 27 armistice day," the source added.

US and South Korean officials have warned the next missile could be an ICBM as well.

On Monday, the CNN cited a US military official as saying Pyongyang appeared to be preparing for another missile test. That official said transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment were seen arriving at Kusong in North Pyongan last Friday.

On July 4, US Independence Day, Pyongyang test-fired its first ICBM, which experts believe can reach Alaska. The North said the missile could hit anywhere in the world.

Pyongyang says its missile program acts as a deterrent against US aggression and expansionism.

Last week, North Korea refused to respond to South Korea's offer of military and family reunification talks.

"We're keeping close surveillance on the North for possible provocative acts," a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman told AFP.

Yonhap also quoted a different Seoul government source as saying that an 1,800-tonne North Korean submarine in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) may be collecting data to prepare for a ballistic missile test-launch from the North's largest submarine.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






'Merciless Blow': North Korea Vows Nuclear Strike if US Attempts Regime Change

Sputnik News

22:15 25.07.2017(updated 22:23 25.07.2017)

North Korea has vowed to unleash a "merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer" if the Americans attempt to depose their leader Kim Jong-Un - and intelligence officials say that the DPRK may be able to back that threat up, years ahead of schedule.

The new round of hostile rhetoric comes in the wake of comments from CIA Director Mike Pompeo during the July 21 Aspen Security Forum. "It would be a great thing to denuclearize the [Korean] Peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today," Pompeo told The New York Times.

"So from the administration's perspective, the most important thing we can do is separate those two. Right? Separate capacity and someone who might well have intent and break those two apart." Pompeo's comments refer to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who has accelerated the nuclear program pursued by his deceased father.

"I'm hopeful that we will find a way to separate that regime from this system. The North Korean people, I'm sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go."

Pompeo did not directly state that the US or the CIA was seeking regime change in North Korea, but he strongly implied it. This provoked furor in Pyongyang  while the American desire to see the Kim family booted from their seat has always been rumored and discussed in foreign policy circles, this is perhaps the closest any American leader has come since the Korean War to stating that they want to see the Kims out of power.

"Although [Pompeo's] reckless remarks are just balderdash of a guy who has become so angrily desperate due to the ever-increasing nuclear strike capability of the DPRK, they have gone over the line, and it has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK is  'regime change,'" said a spokesman from the DPRK's Foreign Ministry.

"Our army and people have never thought about their destiny and future separated from their supreme leadership," the statement went on to say. "The first and foremost mission of our revolutionary armed forces with the nuclear force as their backbone is to defend the leader at the cost of their lives."

"Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership," it added, "we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time."

The comments went on to say that Pompeo's comments were demonstrative of "illiteracy about the DPRK and an explicit illustration of incompetence of the US intelligence community," and that the likes of the CIA chief "will bitterly experience the catastrophic and miserable consequences caused by having dared to shake their little fists at the supreme leadership."

Building a nuclear ICBM to cross the Pacific Ocean and strike the United States seemed a distant possibility not that long ago  until recent years, where DPRK missile tests perennially exceeded expectations.

A new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released on Tuesday claimed that the DPRK will be able to produce a "reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM" within a year. Just a few years ago, that same estimate was usually around 2025 or 2030.

The DIA estimate corroborates South Korean intelligence reports, which have expressed surprise at the speed by which the DPRK develops these weapons. "The speed of North Korea's ICBM missile development is faster than the South Korean Defense Ministry expected," said Lee Cheol-hee, a National Assemblyman with the ruling left-wing Minjoo party during an intelligence committee hearing.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






India Gets President, the Second Lower Caste One in Caste Sensitive Society

Sputnik News

14:07 25.07.2017

Ram Nath Kovind took oath as India's 14th President on Tuesday morning. The 71-year-old Kovind is only the second lower caste president after KR Narayan. Kovind is also the first member of the ruling Hindu nationalist party BJP to become president.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  A lawyer, Kovind has been a longtime advocate of egalitarianism and integrity in Indian public life and society. His role will be crucial since many regional governments in the recent past have accused the Narendra Modi government of destabilizing them using the governor's office.

Soon after taking charge as President of India, Kovind made an exemplary speech wherein he promised to stay true to the path laid by his predecessor and freedom fighters. "I grew up in a mud house, in a small village. My journey has been a long one, and yet this journey is hardly mine alone. It is so telling of our nation and our society also. For all its problems, it follows that basic mantra given to us in the Preamble to the Constitution  of ensuring Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and I will always continue to follow this basic mantra," Kovind said.

Kovind will serve as President till 2022, the term lasts five years, during which he will have to play a significant role in the 2019 general election and state elections. In India, the Constitution bestows a very limited role to the President but during political crises when no political parties received mandate in the elections, the President has the power to decide which party is in the best position to form a government.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






IRGC says neutralized provocative US Navy move in Persian Gulf

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 4:9PM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has frustrated a provocative move by a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf after it allegedly fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel.

"This morning, a US Navy ship in the north of the Persian Gulf sailed toward an IRGC Navy's patrol ship, which was patrolling in international waters, and fired two shots into the air with the aim of provocation and intimidation," the IRGC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The IRGC Navy's ship paid no attention to the "provocative and unprofessional" move by the US Navy and continued with its mission, it added.

After a while, the IRGC said, the US Navy ship left the area.

The IRGC issued the statement after some Western media outlets quoted a US official as saying that a US Navy ship had fired warning shots toward an Iranian vessel near the northern Persian Gulf on Tuesday after the Iranian vessel came within 150 yards (137 meters) of it.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed the USS Thunderbolt fired the warning shots after the Iranian vessel ignored radio calls and the ship's whistle.

Iran has also repeatedly warned that any act of transgression into Iran's territorial waters would be met with an immediate and befitting response.

A US Navy ship and three British Royal Navy boats were forced to change course when several Iranian fast-attack vessels approached them in the Strait of Hormuz in March.

In January last year, Iran's Navy arrested the crews of two US patrol boats that had trespassed on Iranian territorial waters. Iran released them after establishing that they had done so by mistake.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Iraq seeks 'substantial' Russian military, political presence: Maliki

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:7AM

Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki has called for "substantial" Russian military and political presence in the terror-ravaged country, saying this would bring "balance" to the entire region.

"It's well known that Russia has historically strong relations with Iraq, therefore we would like Russia to have a substantial presence in our country, both politically and militarily," said the senior Iraqi official during a Monday meeting with speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, in Moscow, RT reported.

"This way, a balance would be established that would benefit the region, its peoples and its countries" added Maliki, saying his country believes "in Russia's role in solving most of the key international issues as well as improving stability and balance in our region and worldwide."

Matviyenko, in turn, welcomed Baghdad's desire to boost ties with Moscow and said, "Russia is also determined to expand its interaction with Iraq both politically and economically as well as in the military-technical sphere, and, of course, on the parliamentary level."

Maliki had earlier in the day held talks with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Maliki criticized the US role in Iraq, saying Washington had in the first place contributed to the emergence of the Daesh terrorist group.

Washington now seeks to establish military bases on Iraqi territory in a bid to maintain influence in the region, he said.

"ISIL (Daesh) resembles the Taliban which was created by the US administration to counter the USSR in Afghanistan. The same way, ISIL was created to counter the Iraqi stance, which did not agree to blockade Syria, was against no-fly zones in Syria and against American military bases," said the Iraqi vice-president in an interview with Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.

"The Iraqi society is against foreign military bases on the country's territory," al-Maliki noted, adding that he has already warned the Americans against "coming back to Iraq and setting up bases here."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Macron: Libya Elections May Take Place in Spring 2018

Sputnik News

20:19 25.07.2017(updated 20:35 25.07.2017)

French President Emmanuel Macron said stated that Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar agreed during a meeting in France on a plan to take Libya out of crisis.

PARIS (Sputnik)  Presidential and parliamentary elections may take place in Libya in spring 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.

Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar met in France earlier in the day.

"I can confirm to you an agreement was reached to move towards elections which will take place in spring," Macron said after the meeting.

Fayez Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar agreed during a meeting in France on a plan to take Libya out of crisis, according to Macron.

"They adopted a joint statement which outlines the path, the roadmap of national reconciliation  I believe that the civil war is in no way inevitable, peace can be attained through dialogue," Macron said after the meeting.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Libya National Accord Government, National Army Agree on Security Plan

Sputnik News

20:16 25.07.2017(updated 20:25 25.07.2017)

Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar decided to create a roadmap on the issues of security and defense of the Libyan territory from threats and trafficking of all kinds.

PARIS (Sputnik)  Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar agreed on Tuesday on a plan to ensure security in the country.

"We decided to create a roadmap on the issues of security and defense of the Libyan territory from threats and trafficking of all kinds. We shall seek adherence of all security forces and armed forces within the framework of the reunification of institutions to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism, to control the migration flow through Libyan territory, to control borders and to combat criminal groups," Sarraj's and Haftar's communique reads, according to the Elysee Palace.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Libyan Factions Agree to Cease-fire Deal

By VOA News July 25, 2017

Both sides in the Libyan conflict agreed to the terms of a cease-fire agreement Tuesday during talks mediated by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Libya's prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj, and his rival, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar met with Macron.

"We commit to a cease-fire and to refrain from any use of armed force for any purpose that does not strictly constitute counter-terrorism," the two leaders said in a joint statement following talks.

Along with the conditional cease-fire, the document commits both sides to holding an election "as soon as possible."

"The cause of peace has made a lot of progress today," Macronsaid. "The Mediterranean [region] needs this peace."

The two sides previously held talks in Abu Dhabi in May, after going more than a-year-and-a-half without speaking, in hopes of ending the violence seen in Libya since former leader Moammar Gadhafi was deposed in 2011.

Up until this point, Haftar has rejected the authority of the U.N.-backed government. His forces have gained ground in the east of the country, with the support of Egypt and United Arab Emirates.

Western governments are pushing a U.N.-backed political agreement to unify the country under which Serraj's Tripoli-based government was installed

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






With Washington's Blessing, Seoul to Mount 1-Ton Warhead on Ballistic Missile

Sputnik News

21:52 25.07.2017(updated 22:23 25.07.2017)

Seeking to increase the chances of taking out North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the event of war, South Korea wants to boost its 500-mile range ballistic missile warhead from 1100 pounds to one ton.

By doubling the warhead size, Seoul asserts that it can mitigate the threat of nuclear attack by the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK), and strike underground bunkers where the Pyongyang brass will hide in the event of war, according to the Korea Times.

But to make the dream a reality, Seoul must first get the approval of Washington, as an existing treaty between the allies describing guidelines for the country's missiles prevents the kind of upgrades sought by the South Korean military.

A 2012 revision of the agreement permitted South Korea to fly its missiles farther than the 200-mile limit, up to some 500 miles, but no mention was made of increasing the weapons payload, cited by Korea Times.

Newly elected President Moon Jae-in, during a late June meeting in Washington with US President Donald Trump, remarked that the 2012 New Missile Guidelines would have to be updated.

Trump reacted positively to the request, according to reports, but officials in Seoul are hesitant to comment.

"The government will discuss the issue with the United States in the upcoming Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) and the Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) scheduled for later this year," an unnamed source quoted by the Korea Times said.

South Korean Ministry of National Defense spokesman Moon Sang-gyun, in response to questions about the weapons payload upgrade, said, "It is not proper for me to mention things discussed by the heads of state of the two countries."

"But I can say the military is reviewing various measures to effectively respond to North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats," he added.

Following the 2012 revision of the missile guidelines, South Korea now has the entire territory of North Korea in missile range.

After the treaty's expected update to increase missile payloads to a one-ton maximum, Seoul's warheads will be able to destroy bunkers up to 30 feet underground. Experts estimate that the DPRK has over 7,000 underground bunkers, including nuclear and missile facilities.

"If a payload of 1 ton can be loaded on a [500-mile] range missile, our military will be able to conduct the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan more effectively as the missile's penetration capability will be seriously improved," claimed an unnamed military official cited by the Korea Times.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






South Korea Launches Corruption Investigation Into F-35, KF-X Deals

Sputnik News

03:44 25.07.2017(updated 10:36 25.07.2017)

South Korean officials have opened an investigation into defense acquisition contracts for F-35 and KF-X aircraft pushed for by former President Park Geun-hye, who was sentenced to prison in March for abusing the power of her office, bribery, coercion and leaking classified information.

Defense Acquisition Program Administrator (DAPA) head Chang Myoung-jin has become the subject of a criminal investigation stemming from concerns of negligence and corruption, the Korea Times reported Monday. Chang was tapped by Park for his post shortly before Lockheed Martin and Seoul agreed to the F-35 deal worth at least $7 billion.

South Korea agreed to acquire 40 F-35A conventional take-off and landing aircraft on September 30, 2014. Washington signed off on the program to help its ally retire a fleet of outdated F-4 and F-5 aircraft.

One motivation for initiating the investigation stemmed from Washington bailing on its part of the F-35 deal. South Korean lawmakers wanted new aircraft to supplement its fleet while it worked on building an indigenous "4.5" generation aircraft. According to the Korea Times, Lockheed Martin said it would lend Seoul four key technologies from the F-35  the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, infrared searching and tracking, the electronic optics targeting pod, and the radio frequency jammer  in exchange for procuring fifth-generation joint strike fighters instead of Boeing F-15SEs.

The Washington security establishment soured on the deal and never transferred the technology plans, citing national interest concerns. DAPA originally recommended acquiring F-15 aircraft. But shortly before the F-35 announcement, ex-National Security Officer and then-Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, a Park confidante, reportedly told advisors "we need to make a political decision."

The investigation team consisting of more than 100 prosecutorial personnel now interprets the "political decision" as a nudge from Park to choose the F-35s, the Korea Times noted. Without the technologies from Lockheed, the country's effort to develop and field a South Korean-made fighter by 2026 has been significantly hampered. The project to develop the new generation of jets also received approximately $7.6 billion in government funding.

DAPA promised to create the technologies domestically for the KF-X they were supposed to receive from the US.

Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported in November that effective lobbying by Lockheed Martin spurred an "abruptly announced" decision to deploy controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile batteries in South Korea. South Korean lawmaker Kim Jong-dae declared at the time, "If [Lockheed Martin] manages to accomplish the THAAD deployment by lobbying anyone possible, the rest is offered automatically." In conjunction with THAAD, Kim hypothesized that Lockheed-made Aegis-class ships, Patriot missiles, and F-35s would also be delivered to Seoul. "And you can easily guess who sits in the palm of Lockheed Martin's hand," Kim said.

"There have been a number of suspicions over the Park government's decision to change the model for the nation's next generation fighters from Boeing's F-15SE to Lockheed Martin's F-35," lawmaker Hong Ihk-pyo said on July 18, adding that "thorough investigations are surely necessary." The representative also questioned the viability of the program to build a domestically produced 4.5 generation jet.

A different lawmaker, An Min-suk, charged Lockheed with sending Park's government bonuses in exchange for beneficial treatment during acquisitions decisions, the Korea Times report noted. Former National Security Officer  and close friend of Park  Choi Soon-sil was arrested when Park went down and is being included as a person of interest in the new probe. Lockheed Martin has denied charges that it received business favors as a result of Choi's assistance.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






EU Readies For Transatlantic Fight Over New U.S. Sanctions On Russia

Rikard Jozwiak July 25, 2017

BRUSSELS -- When it comes to Europe's energy security and dependence on Russia for natural gas, Brussels has a message in mind for Washington: don't make our business your business.

This has become evident as the European Commission awaits word from Washington on the fate of a bill that would introduce new, sweeping sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that brought President Donald Trump to the White House.

Agreement on the wording of a revised bill, which was reportedly altered to address European concerns by lessening the potential impact on a pet gas-pipeline project, was recently reached by a group of bipartisan negotiators representing both houses of Congress, and announced by Congressional Democrats on July 22.

A European Commission source familiar with the executive body's concerns but not authorized to speak on the matter told RFE/RL that the EU is "increasingly confident that the new legislation will contain provisions or assurances that protects the EU's energy interests." But as the bill awaits a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is expected to pass the measure on July 25, EU commissioners are watching closely -- ready to retaliate, if necessary, to protect businesses and Brussels' ability to forge its own energy policies with Russia without U.S. interference or attempts to muscle in as an energy supplier.

The 28 EU commissioners are planning to discuss the issue on July 26, the day after the U.S. House vote, with an eye on having a response in hand should the bill pass the Senate and eventually be signed by President Trump.

Another European Commission source, speaking on the same conditions of anonymity, suggested that the "EU simply will take note of the vote in the House of Representatives, but wait with any real measures until the bill is signed by the president, whenever he intends to do so."

Bone Of Contention

Natural-gas supplies are a bone of contention within the EU itself, with some (mainly Central and Eastern European) members decrying an over-reliance on Russian imports and calling for greater diversification of supply.

The new sanctions have prompted concerns within Europe over how the legislation -- which would give the U.S. president the authority to impose sanctions against any companies that aid Russian export pipeline projects -- might affect European suppliers for the proposed Nord Stream 2 project, a contentious extension of a Brussels-backed pipeline that supplies Western Europe with Russian gas.

Trump, meanwhile, traveled recently to Eastern Europe to promote U.S. supplies as a means of countering European reliance on Russian natural gas. "If one of you need energy, just give us a call," Trump told a July 6 meeting in Warsaw that was held to discuss the "Three Seas Initiative" -- a Croatian-Polish project that aims to boost cooperation, including in the sphere of energy, among 12 Russian-gas reliant EU states in the vicinity of the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black seas.

Trump's comments have fed a growing suspicion among some European countries that Washington sees the proposed sanctions as a way to open up a European market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped across the Atlantic.

Christian Egenhofer, who works as a senior fellow and energy expert with the Brussels-based think-tank CEPS, explains that the U.S. State Department had long expressed worries that over-reliance on Russian/Gazprom gas could create a security issue for Europe.

"The argument is that once you are having higher reliance it makes it more difficult to impose sanctions in case something goes wrong," he said. "The new twist is now that it was linked recently to this possibility to carve out a market for U.S. gas which would come in the form of LNG."

Judy Dempsey, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, is even blunter in her assessment of how the European Commission and some European countries such as Germany and Austria perceive the prospect of new sanctions.

"They see this as a blatant attempt to use the sanctions to weaken European companies and get in to make up for the shortfall if, indeed, the Russian gas imports are drastically reduced because of these measures," Dempsey said. "As it is, the Americans have been very active in trying to export liquefied natural gas to Europe and [are] looking for a huge chance now, especially since shale gas is coming online."

'Detrimental Impacts'

Brussels views Nord Stream II, which would bring Russian gas to Germany by way of undersea pipelines, circumventing the Baltic states and Poland, as a way to ensure the continued provision of cheap natural gas. But the bipartisan U.S. bill singles out Nord Stream 2 as having "detrimental impacts on the European Union's energy security, gas market development in Central and Eastern Europe, and energy reforms in Ukraine," a view that is in line with concerns expressed by some EU members but not shared by the bloc overall.

A European Commission impact assessment of an earlier version of the proposed sanctions determined that Nord Stream 2 would be a high-profile target, but that such sanctions could also potentially affect maintenance work on other pipelines in former Soviet Union states as well as other sanctions-complying EU-Russia business in a number of fields, such as mining and the transport sector.

The EU's working relationship with Gazprom also comes into play here. Since finding that the Russian energy giant broke EU antitrust rules in 2015 by "pursuing an overall strategy to partition Central and Eastern European gas markets," Gazprom has worked hard to get back on good terms with Brussels.

Earlier this year, it offered commitments that, according to the European Commission, would "enable the free flow of gas in Central and Eastern Europe at competitive prices." It these warmer relations, on the EU's terms, that some European companies want to take advantage of, according to Dempsey.

"Gazprom knows that it now has to deal with the [European Commission] more and more. And in some ways, Gazprom's behavior has improved a little," she told RFE/RL on July 25. "There is no doubt about this and energy experts say this. But, you know, if a French company or a particular German company can get cheaper gas now from Russia and not just because of the lower gas prices but because Russia needs to sell gas, then in some ways the Europeans are in the driving seat."

Essentially, now that the EU appears to have gained control of its working relationship with Gazprom, it doesn't want to see the United States muck things up.

Earlier concerns expressed by European energy companies, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and the German and Austrian governments, appear to have been addressed in the revision of the bill by rewording it to note that the U.S. president could introduce the sanctions "in coordination with allies of the United States."

That compromise appears to have fallen short of fully assuaging the European Union, and over the last few days the bloc's mission in Washington has worked intensively to lobby Congress ahead of the House vote. European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas on 24 July confirmed that the European Union was "activating all diplomatic channels to address these concerns [stemming] from these U.S. measures with our U.S. counterparts."

Schinas added that "we in the European Union will have an interest in this discussion and we expect this interest to be addressed in the ongoing pre-legislative process."

It the EU fails to get such assurances, it can consider a number of measures in response to the U.S. legislation, including enacting its own laws to nullify the new U.S. sanctions, or filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

An EU diplomat familiar with trade issues who wasn't authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL that a WTO complaint could lead to tariffs on U.S goods, especially in the energy sector, but that the whole process "would take many months with a lot of legal wrangling."

Nuclear Option

A final, nuclear, option would be bans on doing business with certain, unspecified U.S companies. But this would need the agreement of all 28 EU member states, something that at this moment looks improbable as several European countries are keen on maintaining good trade relations with the United States.

Ultimately, any response will carefully weigh past good cooperation with the United States against current European interests.

A diplomat from a Western EU member state, speaking to RFE/RL off the record, said that when international sanctions were first imposed against Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014, Washington and Brussels worked "hand in hand" on all measures to ensure that neither side would "exploit market opportunities previously enjoyed by the other side."

President Trump vowed during his recent trip to Poland that "the United States will never use energy to coerce your nations," but also said "we cannot allow others to do so."

Considering the concerns that Washington might be sticking its nozzle in Europe's gas business, one diplomat from an Eastern EU member appeared to yearn for the way things used to be done between Brussels and Washington.

"While we are against Nord Stream 2, 100 percent, we also recognize that it is very important that the EU and U.S. cooperate when it comes to sanctions," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the current dispute. "That has always been the case before and that is why this new bill can be troubling."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-us-russia-sanctions- transatlantic-fight-nord-stream/28637483.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Active Phase of Russian-Chinese Drills Kicks Off in Baltic Sea

Sputnik News

21:41 25.07.2017

Russian and Chinese vessels left the military harbor of Baltiysk to participate in the active phase of the Russian-Chinese drills Joint Sea-2017, according to 1st Rank Roman Martov.

KALININGRAD (Sputnik)  Russian and Chinese warships have started the active phase of joint naval exercises dubbed Joint Sea-2017 with live-firing drills involving small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery, spokesman for the Russian Baltic Fleet Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Today Russian and Chinese vessels left the military harbor of Baltiysk to participate in the active phase of the Russian-Chinese drills Joint Sea-2017. On the same day, Russian-Chinese tactical groups of vessels were formed in the Baltic Sea and started the active phase of the military naval drills involving shooting at surface and air targets from small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery," Martov said.

He added that in the coming several days the tactical groups would also train in the examination of suspicious ships, retaking vessels captured by pirates as well as conducting search and rescue operations.

The Joint Sea-2017 kicked off on Saturday in Baltiysk and will last until Friday. The drills are aimed at practicing interaction between the Russian and Chinese fleets in countering naval threats, coherence of actions of the crew and enhancing cooperation between the Russian and Chinese naval troops, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






New US Anti-Russian Energy Sanctions to Have 'Brutal' Impact on Europe if Passed

Sputnik News

14:01 25.07.2017(updated 15:23 25.07.2017)

Major European energy projects could be affected by sanctions if the US Congress passes a bill to punish businesses working to develop, upgrade and maintain Russian-related projects anywhere in the world. European Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said the move would impact Europe's "energy independence and security interests."

Major European energy projects could be affected by sanctions if the US Congress passes a bill July 25 to punish businesses working to develop, upgrade and maintain Russian-related projects anywhere in the world.

European Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said the move would impact Europe's "energy independence and security interests."

The Commission prepared a list of eight projects that would be affected.

The list includes: Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas (Shell and Gazprom); Blue Stream (Eni and Gazprom); CPC Pipeline (Shell, ENI and Rosneft); Nord Stream 1 (various European firms and Gazprom); Nord Stream 2 (various European companies and Gazprom); Sakhalin II expansion (Shell and Gazprom); Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline (BP and Lukoil); and Zhor Field (BP, Eni and Rosneft).

Mr. Schinas has said the Commission was following developments "with some concern"  and expected the European Union's "interests" would be addressed in the pre-legislative process.

As the Congressional vote neared, the EU stepped up efforts to minimize the impact on European firms, with a dedicated diplomatic mission dispatched to Washington over the weekend of July 22-23 to convince legislators to soften the terms of the text.

One key change lobbied for would see the permitted threshold for Russian participation in energy projects raised from 10 percent to 33 percent. However, even the much diluted version of the draft bill would impact the eight projects.

The amended draft resolution is to be voted on first by Congress, then the Senate, before ratification by President Donald Trump.

Officials are said to be confident the watered down version will be passed at all three stages  although whatever the outcome, the European Commissioners will meet July 26 to discuss the next steps.

This could well entail retaliatory measures, launched within days  Mr. Schinas said the EU was prepared to respond "adequately and immediately" if necessary, although still expressed hope a robust response would not be needed.

However, any corrective measures taken against the US would require the support of all member states, which includes countries opposed to Nord Stream 2  among them Poland and other Eastern European countries, which believe the project would increase Europe's energy dependency on Russia.

The EU's opposition to fresh sanctions on Russia is understandable. Not driven by principled opposition to the baselessness of the punitive measures, instead many European capitals are concerned about the impact such sanctions would have on their own economies  an unnamed EU official has been quoted in the mainstream media as saying new sanctions would be "brutal" for European firms involved with Russian pipeline projects on the continent, which are many.

After all, Europe initially went along willingly with the first wave of anti-Russian sanctions levied by the US in March 2014, when the parliament of Crimea declared the region's independence from Ukraine following a legal referendum, and formally applied to become part of Russia  although even then, the EU was careful to exempt oil and gas from sanctions, given the bloc's dependence on Russian supplies.

EU leaders regretted their decision when Russia responded with a program of sanctions of its own on countries that had sanctioned it.

The result was that EU goods exports to Russia duly fell by as much as 14.5 percent, amounting to losses as high as US$63.2 billion, and a contraction of the bloc's overall GDP by at least 0.4 percent every year the sanctions were in effect, and falls of over one percent in many Central and Eastern European countries.

In particular, Germany, formerly the largest single exporter to Russia, was deleteriously affected, to the point some economists have attributed the country's major economic wobble in 2014 to Russian countersanctions.

Given it is the EU that suffers most from anti-Russian sanctions, Brussels' fervent opposition to the US' bewildering push for an extension and expansion of the program is easily explicable.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US House Set to Vote on Russia Sanctions

By Ken Bredemeier July 25, 2017

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to approve new sanctions Tuesday against Russia for its meddling in last year's presidential election, at the same time giving Congress new powers to review any attempt by President Donald Trump to ease penalties imposed on Moscow.

The Senate has already overwhelmingly approved its version of the legislation. In both chambers, lawmakers are calling for a 30-day period to vote on any Trump move to curtail sanctions on Russia, such as former president Barack Obama's closure of two Russian compounds in the U.S. in response to the election interference.

Trump has objected to the provision keeping him from taking unilateral action on easing the Russian sanctions as he attempts to foster a friendlier relationship with President Vladimir Putin. It is unclear whether he will sign the legislation or veto it, risking a congressional vote to override a veto. The final version of the legislation is also expected to include sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday that Trump is "looking over where it stands exactly at this point. I think the important part of this is that the president very much supports sanctions on those countries and wants to make sure that those remain but at the same time wants to make sure that we get good deals. Those two things are both very important for the president."

The Senate passed its version on a 98-2 vote and the House is expected to approve its measure by at least a veto-proof two-thirds majority. The two chambers would have to reconcile the differences in their bills before sending the measure to Trump.

One Democratic lawmaker supporting the sanctions measure, Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, told VOA, "By all evidence the Russian government interfered in our elections and tried to help Mr. Trump and we cannot permit that. We have to say to any foreign power, it's not your business to interfere in our elections."

Reaching across the isle

In a rare show of bipartisanship in politically fractious Washington, key Republican and Democratic lawmakers reached accord last weekend on the legislation.

The votes on the sanctions are occurring amidst months of investigations into Russian interference in the election, which the U.S. intelligence community concluded was personally directed by Putin, a claim he has rejected.

Trump has been largely dismissive of numerous investigations underway in the U.S. about Russian meddling in the election aimed at helping him win, repeatedly calling the probes a "witch hunt." But the legislation would require him to submit a report to Congress explaining his reasons for wanting to ease or terminate any sanctions against Moscow.

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, reflecting Trump's views, told CNN on Sunday, "The Russia thing is a complete bogus and nonsensical thing."

Scaramucci, named last week as one of Trump's top advisers, said the president remains uncertain whether Russia hacked into computer files at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington and then released thousands of emails through the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks to damage Trump's challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Numerous congressional panels are interviewing Trump campaign aides about possible links to Russian interests. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting a criminal probe whether the Trump campaign illegally colluded with Moscow and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director who was heading the Russia probe before Mueller took over.

VOA Ukrainian service reporter Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Trump appears to back ending covert CIA program in Syria

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 3:11PM

US President Donald Trump has seemingly backed a decision to halt support for foreign-backed militants in Syria, inadvertently confirming the existence of a covert CIA program to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Trump attacked The Washington Post in connection with a story about the termination of US efforts to aid so-called moderate rebels fighting Assad.

Trump said the newspaper had "fabricated the facts" about his decision to end the "massive, dangerous, and wasteful" CIA program.

"The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump accused The Post of reporting "fake news" and suggested that the newspaper was being used as a "lobbyist weapon" to help Amazon avoid taxes. Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos purchased The Post in 2013.

The newspaper reported last week that Trump had decided to end a covert CIA program that has been arming, training and funding anti-Damascus militants since 2013.

US officials said that ending the CIA operation reflects Trump's interest in finding ways to work with Russia. Moscow had long pushed Washington to end the program, which was started by the administration of former President Barack Obama to overthrow Assad.

However, the CIA effort had failed to achieve its goals and some US lawmakers had proposed cutting its budget. By some estimates, the CIA trained some 10,000 militants.

Some reports suggest that the US switched off the aid program amid Syrian army advances, which have effectively dashed any hopes of foreign-backed militants managing to depose President Assad.

Despite halting the CIA program, the US is still militarily involved in Syria. In May, Trump authorized arming the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces -- a Kurdish militant group -- using Department of Defense funds.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Trump: Secret U.S. Program To Support Syrian Rebels 'Dangerous, Wasteful'

July 25, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has ended a secret program to support rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because it was "massive, dangerous, and wasteful."

Trumps's remarks came days after General Tony Thomas, the head of U.S. special operations, confirmed that the 4-year-old operation had ended but denied the decision was made to placate Russia, which supports Assad.

Trump tweeted on July 24: "The...Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad."

The tweet was a response to an article that said cooperation with Moscow had become key to Trump's strategy in Syria.

This month, the United States and Russia agreed on creating de-escalation zones in southern Syria.

Former President Barack Obama approved the secret program in 2013 as opposition groups sought external support in their uprising against Assad.

Thousands of fighters were trained and armed.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-ends-program-support -syrian-rebels/28636613.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Army 18 Miles From Daesh-Held Raqqa, Could Liberate City Within Hours

Sputnik News

16:39 25.07.2017(updated 16:40 25.07.2017)

The city of Raqqa, which is considered to be Daesh militants' major stronghold in Syria, could be liberated within five hours by the Syrian army that is stationed 30 kilometers away from the city, a Syrian army brigadier general told Sputnik on Tuesday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The Syrian army is currently located 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) away from the city of Raqqa, controlled by the Daesh terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), a Syrian army brigadier general said, adding that the army is capable of liberating the city in five hours if the order was given.

"The army has managed to reach a district, which is 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] from the Euphrates river and 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] from Raqqa. The army is capable to return the city in five hours. The issue of Raqqa liberation depends on the start of the offensive," he said.

According to the military official, Raqqa's liberation was divided into three stages.

"The first stage started with liberation of the Kweiris air base, and the Deir Hafer and Meskane settlements on border with Jordan, which were important Daesh sites. Then the army managed to reach the southeastern outskirts of Raqqa," the military official said.

The second stage involved the liberation of the city of Resafa, and "hundreds of local oil and gas fields."

The army brigadier general stressed that the third stage was currently underway, adding that the military operation was conducted in parallel with humanitarian efforts.

Raqqa has remained under the control of Daesh since 2013, and is considered the de facto capital of the terrorist group. The operation to liberate the city was launched by the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the US-led international coalition, in early June.

In late June, a spokesman for Syria's Tomorrow Movement, a national opposition party, told Sputnik that the city would hopefully be completely liberated within three months.

On July 4, the SDF forces breached the Old City wall in Raqqa, advancing into its most heavily fortified enclave and overcoming the defenses of the terrorists.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Government Warplanes Breach Truce for 2nd Day

By Jamie Dettmer July 25, 2017

Syrian government warplanes broke a cease-fire agreement Monday for the second consecutive day with airstrikes on districts in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta near the country's capital, Damascus, say political activists.

According to the British-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a bombing raid Monday on the town of Arbin left eight civilians dead and at least 30 wounded. The Syrian military said it launched the bombing runs because of a breach of the cease-fire by Jaish al-Islam - an armed opposition group.

On Sunday, government warplanes launched half-a-dozen airstrikes on the towns of Douma and Ain Terma, breaking the so-called Cairo agreement sponsored by Egypt and Russia, which officially went into effect at noon Saturday.

The Arbin attack is "the first time in which civilian casualties have fallen due to shelling by the regime or bombardment by warplanes since the start of the truce agreement in the Eastern Ghouta," the Syrian Observatory said. Political activists also recorded several breaches of the cease-fire by some rebel factions firing mortars.

The airstrikes Monday came despite Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, deploying military police in Eastern Ghouta, just east of Damascus, to monitor the de-escalation zone. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its military police had set up two checkpoints and a handful of observation posts in the area.

International negotiations

Russian military police were also deployed to other de-escalation zones in southwest Syria that were agreed to by the United States, Russia and Jordan earlier this month in a move widely seen as the unfolding of a behind-the-scenes deal to carve up Syria into temporary zones of influence.

There are four de-escalation zones in Syria. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed them when they met at the G-20 summit, where they agreed to a cease-fire accord. But earlier the two leaders had discussed establishing de-escalation zones on the phone, including a call in May.

Under the Cairo Agreement, there's meant to be a full cease-fire in Eastern Ghouta; no Syrian government forces are meant to enter, but humanitarian aid should be allowed in. Several previous cease-fires in Eastern Ghouta have quickly crumbled, with all sides blaming their foes for the collapse. Syria's Eastern Ghouta has an estimated population of nearly 400,000 people and is the biggest Damascus suburb still in rebel hands.

WMDs in urban warfare

The urban warfare there has been among the fiercest of the brutal six-year civil war. Eastern Ghouta was one of two targets of an August 2013 chemical attack and was struck by rockets packed with the chemical agent sarin. The other suburb hit was Western Ghouta. Death toll estimates of the attacks range from 300 people to more than 1,700.

A U.N. investigation team concluded there was "clear and convincing evidence" that sarin had been delivered by surface-to-surface rockets. The Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed the rebels for what it described as a "false flag" operation.

Although the rebels have managed to hang on in Eastern Ghouta, there's been constant infighting between insurgent militias. Rebel commanders say they have little optimism the truce will last, seeing it as a tactical pause for Damascus to maneuver its forces.

On Monday, Trump appeared to confirm on Twitter that he's ended a semi-covert CIA program first started in 2013 that's been off-and-on arming anti-Assad rebels.

Zones of influence

Syria appears now to be destined, at least in the near future, to be split into zones of influence with central and southern Syria to the west of the Euphrates River seen as falling within the territory of the government of President Assad, say analysts. The city of Raqqa and a chunk of the east, to the Iraqi border appears to be deemed to be in a zone of influence overseen by the U.S. and its ground allies as they battle the Islamic State terror group. The Trump administration has made it clear its priority in Syria is the defeat of IS and not the ouster of Assad.

In the southwest, where Russian military police have been deployed, a cease-fire negotiated by Washington and Moscow is largely holding. The Israeli government reportedly is uncomfortable with the idea of Russia policing zones near its border, fearing the action could be used as cover by Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias allied with Assad to move nearer to Israel.

Last week, senior U.S. officials briefed American lawmakers on the "prospects for cooperation" between Washington and Moscow. Some U.S. lawmakers fear cooperation serves the interests of the Assad regime and is undermining any chance of a political settlement of the war being reached.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Taiwan will not dodge any military threats: defense ministry

ROC Central News Agency

2017/07/25 16:28:21

Taipei, July 25 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Tuesday that Taiwan will not take any action that could start a war with China but at the same time will not back down from any threats.

China's military has never given up the idea of using armed force to resolve the Taiwan matter, MND spokesman Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-chi () said at a press conference, addressing the issue of China sending military aircraft close to Taiwan recently on what the Chinese described as training missions.

On three different days over the past two weeks, several Xian H-6K bombers from the People's Liberation Army of China flew over the Miyako Strait, passing east of Taiwan.

The Miyako Strait, which lies between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, is part of Japan's exclusive economic zone but includes a narrow band of international waters and airspace.

Last Friday, the MND released photographs showing two Chinese H-6K bombers, one of which was being tailed by a Taiwanese Indigenous Defense Fighter jet, in Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea.

At Tuesday's press conference, Chen said all of Taiwan's Army, Navy and Air Force intelligence units had been mobilized to monitor the movements of the Chinese military over the past two weeks and will continue to do so.

If China's military intrudes into Taiwan's ADIZ again, Taiwan's will safeguard its airspace and marine areas based on its rules of engagement for emergency situations in wartime, Chen said.

Taiwan will neither act in a cowardly manner nor dodge any military threats, he said.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/pc

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Defence Minister announces helicopter work will stay in the UK

25 July 2017

Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin is pleased to announce that work on the AW159 Wildcat helicopter produced by Leonardo Helicopters in Yeovil will continue in the UK.

Options had been considered to relocate the fabrication work for future AW159 helicopters orders  the export version of the Wildcat helicopters already in service with the British Army and Royal Navy  overseas.

After careful joint analysis with the Ministry of Defence, Leonardo Helicopters in Yeovil has confirmed that it will carry out all future fabrication for the AW159 helicopter in the UK, with much of this work being undertaken at its Somerset facility  an agreement that will sustain 40 highly skilled jobs across the UK-based supply chain.

Wildcat is a highly versatile aircraft, capable of a wide a range of tasks over land and sea. The Royal Navy's maritime Wildcat forms the core of the UK's Frigate and Destroyer aviation capability and performs tasks including Anti-Surface and Submarine Warfare, force protection, transport and the vital information, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) role. Similarly, the Army variant performs reconnaissance, command and control, force protection, and transport roles in a wide variety of environments.

Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin said:

"I am delighted that a solution for UK-based fabrication for the AW159 helicopter has been identified between the MOD and Leonardo Helicopters. An agreement that secures Yeovil as the home of AW159 and Wildcat production and maintenance in the UK."

"This work has not only helped sustain 40 of highly skilled jobs within the UK, but will act as a positive boost for the company and, through improved cost-effectiveness, their export customers. I would also like to pay tribute to Marcus Fysh MP, who has worked tirelessly to secure this great result."

Over a decade ago the MOD bought, as part of the 2006 Wildcat (then Future Lynx) demonstration and manufacturing contract, a number of specialised jigs and tooling for the fabrication of the AW159 Wildcat Helicopters. These essential parts are used to ensure airframe alignment, mould, patterns and manufacturing tools and gauges. These will now be used by Leonardo to carry out the fabrication work in the UK.

The MOD's continuing commitment to the Wildcat was also highlighted earlier this year, when a 271 million five year deal was signed to deliver a range of support and training services for the UK's entire fleet of 62 AW159 Wildcat helicopters, securing 500 jobs at Leonardo's facilities in Yeovil and Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton.



NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Any US decision to send arms to Ukraine hinders peace talks: Russia

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:24PM

Russia has warned that a possible US decision to funnel lethal weapons to Ukraine would set back peace efforts and fuel Ukraine's persistent civil war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remarks in a press conference on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to comments by newly-appointed US special envoy on Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who said that Washington was mulling over shipping "defensive" armaments to Kiev.

Kremlin's response came shortly after Volker's interview with the BBC released earlier in the day.

"We have already said more than once that any action which escalates tension ... and further aggravates the already complicated situation will only move us further and further away from the moment of settling this internal issue of Ukraine," Peskov said, trying to refute Volker's claim that the possible shipment of weapons to Ukraine would not be "provocative."

Ukraine launched an all-out offensive against the Donbass region, including Donetsk and Luhansk restive cities, in 2014 after its pro-Russian residents sought to join the Russian Federation, leading to a protracted conflict which has claimed the lives of some 10,000 people. While Russia has refused to annex the region, it has warned of military action if Ukraine attempted to suppress the ethnic Russian-speaking people in the Donbass region.

The government in Kiev and pro-Russian forces signed a ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in September 2014. They agreed on 12 points, including pulling back heavy weapons, releasing prisoners, setting up a buffer zone on the Russia-Ukraine border, and allowing access to international observers.

The warring sides also inked another truce deal, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Germany, France and Russia. Since then, however, both parties have on numerous occasions accused each other of breaking the cessation of hostilities.

On July 18, self-proclaimed leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko further complicated the already intricate situation in the east of the country when he announced the creation of a new state in the region, called Malorossiya, or Little Russia, which not only includes the areas the pro-Russians control but also the rest of the country.

The name is a remnant of an era when the regions, including the whole Ukraine, were part of the Russian Empire.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a four-way two-hour telephone conversation on the latest developments in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking regions, particularly Donbass, vowing to push ahead with a peace plan to end the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine.

"The French president and German chancellor said such declarations are inexcusable, as are actions against the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the creation of Malorossiya," Interfax reported.

The US and its allies in Europe blame Russian for the uprising in Donetsk and Lugansk but Moscow denies allegations of providing funds and weapons to pro-Russian forces, but insists that it would intervene militarily if Kiev tries to suppress the ethnic Russian population in the industrial region.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






New Envoy Volker Says U.S. Considering Sending Arms To Ukraine

Current Time TV July 25, 2017

PARIS -- The new U.S. special envoy for efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Kurt Volker, says Washington is considering sending Kyiv weapons to help government forces defend themselves against Russia-backed separatists.

Providing lethal defensive weapons would allow Kyiv to "defend itself if Russia were to take further steps against Ukrainian territory," Volker told Current Time TV in an interview in Paris on July 25.

"Russia says it won't do that and isn't doing that, so then there should be no risk to anybody, if that's the case," said Volker, who was appointed on July 7 and visited towns near the front lines in eastern Ukraine on July 23.

President Donald Trump's administration "is now reviewing where the Obama administration left it, considering whether we should provide defensive arms to Ukraine or not," he said. "So that's the state of play."

Volker said he did not think arming Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons would "provoke Russia to do more than they are already doing, and it also isn't going to change any kind of balance that way."

"I hear these arguments that it's somehow provocative to Russia or that it's going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong," Volker told Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America (VOA).

"First off, Russia is already in Ukraine, they are already heavily armed," he said. "There are more Russian tanks in there than [tanks] in Western Europe combined. It is a large, large military presence."

Ukrainian leaders have urged the United States to send weapons and have asked, in particular, for portable Javelin antitank missiles, which soldiers in the conflict say are needed to fend of attacks from tanks and self-propelled artillery.

After a Moscow-friendly president was pushed from power in February 2014 by massive pro-European protests, Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region and fomented separatism in eastern Ukraine.

The ensuing war between Russia-backed forces and the government has killed more than 10,000 people since Aril 2014 and persisted despite a pact known as Minsk II, a February 2015 agreement on a cease-fire and steps to resolve the conflict.

Volker said that ending the fighting will require agreement by all sides on two major principles -- the "territorial integrity of Ukraine, security of all the people" -- and a change in Russia's approach. He suggested the United States is stepping up its efforts.

"What we need to do is bring this to a higher strategic level -- getting more U.S. involvement and engagement, which is partly why I was named; getting Germany and France, the partners in the Normandy process...and, frankly, getting Russia to make a different strategic choice -- that it wants to solve this conflict too."

"If the issue here is the safety and security of all of the people -- Russian speakers, Ukrainian speakers -- this conflict is not providing that; this conflict is killing that," he said. "And so we've got to do a better job of stopping the conflict, getting the forces out, and then providing a basis of governance going forward."

Progress toward implementation of Minsk II has been slow, and fighting has flared up in recent weeks. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said on July 20 that eight Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded amid intense shelling in the previous 24 hours, one of the highest tolls in months.

"We see as many as 1,500 or more cease-fire violations every night," Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Current Time in the interview in Paris. "So this is a very hot conflict that's going on and it has a terrible cost."

Sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union have not prompted Russia to abandon its support for the separatists or fulfil its commitments under Minsk II.

Volker said that is "not a reason to reverse course -- it's a reason to think about what else we can do to get to a point where we can actually solve this."

He also said that Washington and its allies needed to increase their information campaign to counter what he described as Russian "propaganda."

"We need to be...making clear that the Ukrainian people are suffering, making clear that people in the Donbas are suffering, they are cut off from services and supplies from the rest of Ukraine, from Kyiv, they are being blocked by the armed groups that are there led by Russia," Volker said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-volker-sending- arms-russia-conflict/28637079.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






The Danville Police Department is investigating a hit-and-run accident that occurred Monday afternoon at the intersection of North Main Street and Franklin Turnpike.

According to a news release from Lt. Michael Wallace with the Danville Police Department, a 2001 GMC Yukon with was traveling west on Franklin Turnpike when it crossed the intersection, disregarding a solid red traffic signal westbound and struck a 2005 Honda Civic.

The Honda having a green signal, was making a left turn onto Franklin Turnpike when it was struck in the intersection by vehicle, Wallace said in the release.

After being hit by the Yukon, the Honda then hit a 2002 Cadillac Escalade that was making a right turn off of Franklin Turnpike onto North Main Street, the release stated.

Wallace said the driver of the Yukon fled the accident on foot. He is described as a black man wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.

Occupants from the Honda were transported to Danville Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Police are investigating the crash as a hit and run.
Virginia officials are accepting comments by email until Aug. 25 about whether simple possession of marijuana should no longer be a crime, and advocates for changing the law are encouraging participation.

The study being conducted this year by the Virginia State Crime Commission came at the request of the legislature. Comments or material relevant to the study can be emailed to the Crime Commission at vsccinfo@vscc.virginia.gov. The commission will present study findings on Oct. 5.

Jenn Michelle Pedini, the executive director of Virginia NORML - which advocates for reform of marijuana laws - said the group wants the state to hear the concerns of everyday people.

"Seventy-eight percent of Virginians support this type of reform," she said.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City County led the effort for a study and has said he's open to decriminalization.

What's being discussed is not legalization of marijuana, but rather changing the penalty for possession of small amounts from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil fine. Some lawmakers have said they're concerned about the impact of giving someone a criminal record because they had marijuana.

"I think that Senator Norment outlined some very salient points to look at. Hes perfectly aware of the data so he wasnt shooting in the dark," Pedini said.

Virginia NORML wants people to avoid diatribes in comments to the state.

"What we do want is for you to include a brief personal account of how a marijuana possession charge has collaterally impacted yourself and/or your family," the group wrote in an email to followers this month. "Did you lose your scholarship? Your job? Your housing? Your children? Have you had difficulty finding meaningful employment simply because you have a misdemeanor possession conviction?"

Separately from the Crime Commission study, the state's Joint Commission on Health Care is studying whether marijuana oil is beneficial for treating certain diseases and whether it has any detrimental effects.

The General Assembly has already allowed people with intractable epilepsy to legally use those oils. Lawmakers are considering expanding that to other types of illnesses.

In this year's governor's race, Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic nominee, said he supports decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. Libertarian candidate Cliff Hyra wants to legalize marijuana and put it "on a level playing field with tobacco and alcohol, thus generating tax revenue," according to his website. GOP candidate Ed Gillespie has said he's opposed to decriminalization.
To the editor:

President Trump, if you and your family are innocent, the talk of pardons would never be mentioned. And they are. To me, to ask your lawyer to examine your power to pardon your aides, family members and yourself and to threaten Special Counsel Robert Mueller against expanding investigations into your finances seems to show you are getting nervous about what Mueller might find.

This doesnt make sense because Trump has said all along that any offenses are non-existent, fake news, a witch hunt and a hoax. Which is it then? I think I know  another one of his lies.

Innocent people dont ask about pardons, do they? What are you afraid of, Mr. President? I know that Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner all lied on their disclosure forms, which is a federal offense and is most likely why Trump is asking about pardons along with his unusual friendship with Russia President Vladimir Putin. All three sought top security clearances that would give them access to our nations closely guarded secrets and were required by law to disclose all encounters with foreign government officials, which they didnt with all the encounters with Russian officials.

My question is why are these people, along with the president, so closely linked to Putin and why did they lie about it? I cant wait until Mueller sets this country free of all this chaos, and we get back to making this country great again like its always been since the last six months has not.

Our Founders stated that the rule of law applies equally to the president as it does to any citizen. If you excuse the criminality of this administration, you betray every patriot who sacrificed their lives defending this great country. May God bless America.

ROBERT HAYDEN

Blairs
MARTINSVILLE  The states $500,000 grant for Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre likely will be used toward building a water tank there, according to Henry County Administrator Tim Hall.

Several years ago, the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) received a construction cost estimate of roughly $2.8 million to $3 million for the tank, said Hall, who also is vice chairman of the organization. Development of the industrial park was not yet far enough along for the tank to be built then, he emphasized.

But the right time is approaching, he maintains.

The state now classifies Commonwealth Crossing as a Tier 5 project, the highest rank for industrial parks under development. That means all necessary permits have been obtained or can be. The park is the only one in the Virginia currently with the classification, Hall said.

Being classified as Tier 5 basically allows us to tell companies, Were ready when you are, he said. Any construction that has to be done now can be done  within the same period of time that it would take a company to build a plant at Commonwealth Crossing and locate there.

Last Wednesday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that the EDC will receive the $500,000 Virginia Business Ready Sites program grant for Commonwealth Crossing, which is under development on 720 acres off U.S. 220 south of Ridgeway at the North Carolina line.

Water tank construction costs probably have gone up since the EDC received the estimate several years ago, Hall said.

We hope to put it (the project) out to bid this fall, he said.

He is confident, he said, that any other money needed to build the tank can be obtained from other sources, such as cost savings so far achieved in developing the park, creative financing and further contributions from funding partners. Some new partners might want to contribute, he added.

Hall has estimated that between $25 million and $30 million so far has been spent on two of four lots already prepared. Contributions have been received from the state, county and city as well as the EDC, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and The Harvest Foundation.

Commonwealth Crossing could accommodate an industry that needs more than one lot or the entire park, Hall said.

Were adaptable to what a client needs, he said.

Out of concern for jeopardizing potential deals, Hall would not discuss in detail how many companies have shown interest in eventually coming to Commonwealth Crossing or identify the companies.

Yet the EDC is heavily marketing the park and in ongoing conversations with not one, not 20  but numerous companies interested in locating there, he said.

The park has electricity, natural gas, broadband and water/sewer connections. EDC officials have said the lots are being marketed to companies needing lots of water, such as food processors, and the lot next to a railroad is being marketed to companies  such as plastic, rubber and wooden products makers  that depend on rail service to receive materials and ship finished products.

Hall emphasized, however, that Commonwealth Crossing is intended for game-changing projects for the local economy. Those are ones that will create large numbers of jobs for area residents and large investments from which the localities can derive large sums of tax revenue.

Henry County and Martinsville have agreed to share revenues from any firms that eventually come to the park.

With the amount of interest that companies are showing in the park and site preparation that already has occurred there, Im more confident than ever that Commonwealth Crossing will be what we want it to be and need for it to be.

It just takes time, though. In comparison to negotiations with smaller companies, talks with upper echelon companies capable of striking deals with the EDC for game-changing projects typically take longer to achieve, Hall said.

Mark Heath, the EDCs president and chief executive officer, did not return a phone call for comment. He also did not return one last Wednesday.
The continued growth of Danvilles River District, revitalization of downtown Chatham and broadband access in Pittsylvania County dominated the State of the Region address and breakfast Tuesday at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

Danville Mayor John Gilstrap and City Manager Ken Larking spoke for the city, and Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Warren and County Administrator David Smitherman represented the county in a forum-style discussion.

Gilstrap and Larking spoke at length about the River District revitalization. The city has invested more than $33 million in the River District, but the private sector has invested more than $127 million. In the past month alone, three new businesses have been announced on Craghead Street.

Smitherman discussed the revitalization of downtown Chatham. Three businesses have opened in downtown Chatham this year, and more are set to open in the coming months. He also talked about the impending availability of broadband to those within line of sight to White Oak Mountain.

All of the officials praised the teamwork that has come out of the partnership between Danville and Pittsylvania County.

Together as a region, were a lot stronger than we are separately, Larking said.

Danville and Pittsylvania Countys economic development departments have been working together as part of Regional Industrial Facility Authority, and are joining together with the town of Altavista to form the Staunton River RIFA.

They also spoke about the changes made to the area near the Danville Mall, as well as the additions to the Berry Hill Industrial Park, which has been a team effort between the city, the county, and Caswell County.

I find it kind of interesting and humbling to see the regionalism thats displayed here, Warren said. When you see your state put together something and they use the relationship between Danville and Pittsylvania County to do it, it says a lot about who we are as a community, as a region.

Leaders also spoke about the challenges in the area  crime being a big one for the city, though leaders have been working with the police force to help solve the problems that are causing the crime.

One of the biggest challenges county leaders face is money. Smitherman and Warren both talked about how proud they were of the changes that were being made in Pittsylvania County with investments, but now they have to find a way to pay for it.

Nobody ever likes to hear the words tax increase, so we dont like to say it, Warren said. Were looking for some other revenue options to help pay down our debt.

One revenue stream they were looking into is the landfill, which is a $4.5 million asset.

Warren spoke of the next big thing for Pittsylvania County, noting the county cannot rest on its laurels with the precision machining program that has been successful in helping to lure businesses to the area. The next program that both Danville and Pittsylvania school superintendents have identified to work on is information technology and cyber security.

I could not be more optimistic about the future of this community, Smitherman said. Its all here and were doing everything we need to, all it takes is time.

Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore and Delelgate Danny Marshall kicked off the service by presenting a folded flag to the family of Laurie Moran, president and CEO of the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, who died in June. The flag flew over the Virginia Capitol on the day of Morans funeral, June 16.

We were thinking of ways we could honor her in our specific roles, Haymore said. One of the best ways we thought we could do that was to have a flag flown over the capital in her memory.

Haymore recounted his memory of meeting Moran around the age of 12 when his dad, H.F. Haymore, was running for his first public office.

Her passion and dedication to making sure that Danville and Pittsylvania County was cared for and represented, through job creation or anything else she was incredibly passionate about, Haymore remembered.

The presentation received a standing ovation from the audience.
While Congress continues its negotiations to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Trump administration is taking steps that some say are an effort to weaken the law's impact."There's a clear pattern of the administration trying to undermine and sabotage the Affordable Care Act," Elizabeth Hagan, associate director of coverage initiatives for the liberal advocacy group Families USA, told the Associated Press . "It's not letting the law fail, it's making the law fail."This month, the Trump administration ended contracts with two companies that helped people sign up for health insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces. The companies hired "navigators" in 18 cities to spread the word in the community -- at churches, libraries and sporting events -- and guide people through the often-complicated enrollment process.It takes multiple touches to get someone enrolled, and that requires human power, says Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow of health policy at the Urban Institute.The two companies with terminated contracts only signed up 14,500 people for the individual market -- a fraction of a percent of the 9.2 million who enrolled overall -- but they reportedly sought out younger, healthier people. Health policy experts say getting more young people to sign up is key to bringing premiums down and stabilizing the market.When you take away funding for training and provisions for assistance, youre more likely to lose healthier people, and so youre working against the soundness of the markets," says Blumberg. "These are the people who wont move heaven and earth to get enrolled on their own."The ACA is credited with helping the U.S. achieve a record low uninsured rate. In the first nine months of 2016, just 8.8 percent of Americans lacked health coverage. But over the past couple of years, many parts of the country have seen drastic premium increases and an exodus of insurers from the marketplace. Their main reason: They can't afford to insure a population that largely consists of the oldest, sickest Americans.In the last open enrollment period, 36 percent of enrollees were under the age of 35. The loss of more young people on the marketplaces, therefore, may exacerbate the existing problems.A representative from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the Associated Press that the contracts were never meant to be long-term. The federal government still funds navigator grants in 34 states, but all of them are scheduled to end in 2018.The 18 cities that will no longer have federal money for enrollment assistance are: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Houston; El Paso, Texas; Indianapolis; Miami; McAllen, Texas; New Orleans; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Tampa, Fla.; and San Antonio.The move is sure to strike a nerve among the leaders of the impacted cities.Access to affordable health care should not be a political game of volleyball, wrote Tampa, Fla.s mayor, Bob Buckhorn, in an email. It was America's mayors who led the effort to enroll millions of Americans in the Affordable health-care plan, and Tampa will continue to work with local and state partners to promote and provide information on ways to enroll.Blumberg encourages other cities and states to fund their own navigator programs.Its a relatively cheap, but important, piece to stabilize the markets, she says.The 2018 open enrollment season begins on Nov. 1 and ends Dec.15 -- half the time of previous years. Add in the uncertainty on Capitol Hill, and having people to help citizens navigate health care may be needed this year more than ever.
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld a federal judge here who refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the city of Ferguson and police related to the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown.The lawsuit, filed in 2015 by Brown's friend Dorian Johnson, has been on hold pending the outcome of the appeal. Johnson sued Ferguson, former police Chief Tom Jackson and Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Brown.The suit says Wilson assaulted Johnson and violated his constitutional rights, intentionally inflicting emotional pain. It said that Wilson's actions were part of a pattern and practice of misconduct by Ferguson police, and that the city and former Chief Tom Jackson negligently failed to supervise officers.The suit was later moved to federal court, where lawyers for the police sought the dismissal of the case because, among other things, they said Wilson did not use "excessive force" against Johnson, that Jackson was not at the scene and that the city was immune from suits where there was no underlying Constitutional violation.In March of 2016, U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig refused to dismiss the case.In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, Judges Diana E. Murphy and Michael J. Melloy agreed, writing that the facts as alleged by Johnson's suit were sufficient to allow the case to proceed.Judge Roger L. Wollman dissented, saying that he would have dismissed the case because the "seizure" of Johnson was not unconstitutional.The suit has been on hold since March 2016 pending the outcome of the appeal.A grand jury declined to indict Wilson for the shooting. A Justice Department investigation concluded likewise, and also said that some of Johnson's claims about the incident were not supported by other evidence. But a separate report said that Ferguson police violated civil rights by targeted African-Americans, stopping and searching people without reasonable suspicion and making arrests without probable cause.
Minneapolis police officers must turn on their body cameras when responding to any call, traffic stop or self-initiated activity, Acting Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Wednesday, in a key change to city policy in the wake of Justine Damond's shooting death."What good is a camera if it is not being used when it may be needed the most?" Arradondo said at a Wednesday news conference, where he and Mayor Betsy Hodges acknowledged some officers have not been using their cameras enough.In the eight months the equipment has been in use, officers have been allowed broad discretion on when to turn on the cameras.The new policy, effective Saturday, will require officers to turn on the cameras in any encounter with the public, heeding an until-now disregarded 2015 recommendation from the Police Conduct Oversight Commission that police officer discretion on use of the cameras be all but eliminated.Within about two months, police officials said, the cameras will activate automatically whenever an officer activates his or her squad car's lights. Installation of that technology is underway, taking about two hours per squad car. The Minneapolis Police Department has about 200 squad cars."We are not casting judgment on a single officer, nor are we looking at a single event; we are responding to our communities and to recent ongoing assessment," Arradondo said. "This policy enhancement has been in process for a few months now and many officers are using their cameras a lot and as they're intended to be used. But there are some officers who are not using them nearly enough."The July 15 shooting of Damond by Officer Mohamed Noor was not captured on video because neither Noor or his partner, officer Matthew Harrity, had turned on his body camera, and the squad car's dashboard camera was also not running. The incident has drawn international attention and sharp criticism of Minneapolis Police, and led to the resignation of police Chief Janee Harteau on Friday.There have also been persistent questions about why the officers' body cameras weren't turned on. Last week, Mayor Betsy Hodges said in an online statement that she expects officers to turn on their cameras as soon as they begin responding to a call. She also called for an independent audit.Minneapolis City Council members will be briefed on an upcoming audit of the program at a 1:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday.State law requires law enforcement agencies that use body cameras to arrange for an independent audit every two years, starting in 2018.Teresa Nelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, said the less discretion officers have about turning on the cameras, the better."What we have asked for is a policy that requires activation before any citizen encounter," she said. "And the reason for that is, if we have policies when the officers are only capturing footage when they want to have the cameras on, then it becomes solely a tool for police surveillance. But when you have more mandatory policies and more footage, it becomes more useful for transparency and accountability for the officers.In Burnsville, the first Minnesota city to equip its police officers with body cameras, the police department has done internal audits to measure body camera use, said police Chief Eric Gieseke.The department's policy is similar to others around the state, and generally requires officers to turn on their body cameras when an interaction, such as a traffic stop, field interview or enforcement action begins.In the seven years since the department started using body cameras, there have been a few occasions where officers didn't record an incident, Gieseke said. In the beginning, he said, the cameras were a tough sell for some officers -- but over time, usage has improved and officers often turn on the cameras even when they're not required to."It's so beneficial in resolving complaints -- even complaints of a small nature," Gieseke said. "It really sold itself over the years."In Minneapolis, officers must upload the video at the end of their shift. The policy requires that body camera video be retained for at least seven years if an officer uses force or someone is arrested or receives a misdemeanor citation. Officers who fail to follow the department's policy are subject to "the full range of discipline," Arradondo said, including firing."We need to build and regain our community's trust. That is my charge and I've expressed that to all of our officers; that body worn cameras are a tool. It's not everything but it's a tool," Arradondo said,. "As I've told officers, we give them equipment to do their jobs. The one thing we cannot equip them with is the benefit of the doubt."
The worried calls started a day after President Trump's election.Mayor Toni Harp said they came mostly from immigrant residents. It wasn't hard to pinpoint their worries: Trump had vowed to deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Months later, Trump has mostly kept his word on enforcing immigration law, shedding Obama-era deferment policies that once focused on undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Now, undocumented immigrants who have no criminal history are being monitored and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement."These are challenging times for many people living in this nation," Harp said. "Beyond that disruption factor, there is fear and a sense of upheaval -- no one should have to live that way, especially of a result of an arbitrary decision by the federal government."The concerns led the city to partner with other local organizations to create a family emergency preparedness guide for undocumented immigrant families in the city. Concerns were heightened last week after Norwalk resident and mother of four U.S. citizen children Nury Chavarria took sanctuary at a New Haven church. ICE labeled Chavarria a fugitive, but did not specify whether it would enforce her removal order. Chavarria remained at the church Tuesday."In my mind, it speaks loudly about the harsh climate of which we now find ourselves," Harp said.The pocket-sized booklet on emergency preparedness for undocumented immigrants is the latest example of New Haven's prominent status as a so-called sanctuary city, an informal term for cities where local law enforcement limits cooperation with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws and where local officials are vocal supporters of undocumented immigrant communities.In 2007, New Haven made national headlines as the first city to offer municipal identification cards to all residents, regardless of immigration status. Immigrants and supporters flooded into City Hall to get the IDs. The ID was intended to allow undocumented immigrants to access city services, such as parks,Harp said the immigration guide's first draft was created in March and was developed with help from various local stakeholders, including police and immigrant rights activists. Harp thanked City Community Services Administrator Martha Okafor for leading the project. City spokesman Laurence Grotheer said the total cost of design and printing of the booklets was $5,591.80 and paid for by the city. At least 5,000 booklets have been published.Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz said 22,000 children who were born to undocumented parents live in Connecticut and are in the state legally."I am currently the custodian, or parent, to 4,300 children. Can you imagine if that number turned into 26,000?" Katz said, referring to children in DCF custody and the possibility that children of undocumented immigrants could be left in state care.The guide the city printed includes legal and practical tips for families in the event of deportation orders, Harp said. It includes pages for children's personal information, how parents can appoint temporary guardians, contact information for various state and private agencies, and how-to guides for interacting with ICE. The guides will be available at City Hall and other locations in the city. Harp said the city is working on a Spanish version of the guide."It's a little book but there's a lot of information," Harp said.Katz said the state has similar suggestions in a family preparedness toolkit on immigration enforcement introduced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in March.Katz said New Haven's guide will be available at schools and hospitals."They can actually read and pay attention to what may be their new bible, unfortunately," Katz said.Fears over deportation can affect children, keeping students out of school, Harp said. New Haven Board of Education Chief Operating Officer William Clark said under federal and state law the district is obligated to educate children living in the city regardless of their national origin."It's very important for us to protect these children and protect the educational institutions, the schools, as safe places and areas where they can learn and be children," Clark said.Harp said she does not want to a community living in fear."We are a state that values all of our residents, no matter where they come from," Harp said.
Akron child killer Ronald Phillips was put to death Wednesday, the first execution carried out in Ohio in more than three years.Phillips, 43, died by lethal injection at 10:43 a.m. Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. There were no complications, and witnesses said Phillips showed no signs of gasping, choking or struggling.Phillips was the first Ohio prisoner to die by a new three-drug cocktail including midazolam, a sedative involved in problematic executions in several states. Executions have been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when Preble County man Dennis McGuire took an unusually long 26 minutes to die with a two-drug combo including midazolam.Phillips and two other death-row inmates sued the state over the proposed method. The U.S. Supreme Court denied their final appeals late Tuesday night.The Ohio Parole Board twice unanimously recommended against granting Phillips clemency, calling the rape and murder of three-year-old Sheila Marie Evans "among the worst of the worst capital crimes." The toddler, Phillips' girlfriend's daughter, was brutally beaten in the days before her death and anally raped, which Phillips confessed to shortly thereafter.Phillips expressed remorse for her death in a final statement delivered before the lethal drugs were administered."I'm sorry you had to live so long with my evil actions," Phillips said to Sheila Marie's family, according to members of the media who witnessed the execution. "Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. I know she is with the Lord and she suffers no more. I'm sorry to each and every one of you that lived with this pain all those years."Phillips was the 54th Ohioan put to death since the state restarted the death penalty in 1999.Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr said the execution team rehearsed the protocol 18 times.Mohr said the last state execution, during which witnesses observed McGuire gasping and snorting, was "a humane execution.""I witnessed it; I saw that," Mohr told reporters before Wednesday's execution. "I have confidence we're going to continue to do this in a dignified, peaceful, humane way."Prison officials checked Phillips' veins twice Tuesday to make sure they were accessible for Wednesday's execution.Phillips visited with his attorneys, spiritual advisers and a friend on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Phillips was observed praying and reading the Bible several times since arriving at the death house.He was served a special meal Tuesday night that included a bell pepper and mushroom pizza, strawberry grape juice and Pepsi. He declined breakfast Wednesday morning.After the execution Wednesday, Phillips' attorney said Phillips tried every day to atone for his "shameful role" in Sheila Marie's death. Sheila Marie's half-sister and aunt say Phillips never contacted family to seek forgiveness or showed remorse until his final statement today.
On Tuesday, in the afternoon, at Albert Street Uniting Church, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC attended the funeral service for Reverend Raymond Hunt OBE.

In the evening, at the Port of Brisbane, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended a reception in celebration of the 241st anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America on-board the USS Ronald Reagan, where His Excellency addressed guests.
Description

GIS - 26 July 2017: The development of guidelines for industrial effluent discharge permit is the focus of a two-day stakeholders consultation workshop which is being held at Palms Hotel in Quatre Bornes. Some 40 participants from ministries and relevant parastatal organisations and industrial enterprises are discussing about a national strategy for the industrial effluent control and environment protection. The development of guidelines for industrial effluent discharge permit is the focus of a two-day stakeholders consultation workshop which is being held at Palms Hotel in Quatre Bornes. Some 40 participants The workshop forms part of the regional Integrated Water Resource Management Project supported by the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the United Nations Office for Project Services to which Mauritius is a participant. The aim of the project is to contribute to sustainable development through improvements in natural resource and environmental management.

Several themes are on the agenda namely: The current situation of the industrial wastewater discharges in Mauritius; Guidelines towards an integrated approach on industrial wastewater management; and review of the industrial effluents critical parameters. The resource persons at the workshop are Dr Maria Coelho, Water Quality Expert; Mr Jaime Melo Baptista, Expert on Water and Wastewater; and Ms Eugenia Ramos, Laboratory Manager.

In his opening address, the Director of Technical Services from the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities, Dr P.M.K Soonarane, recalled that the issue of effluent discharge permits is in line with Governments policy and strategy for the sustainable development of the water sector in Mauritius. Investments to the tune of more than Rs 17 billion has been planned for the sector till 2021 and implementation is in full swing, he said.

Dr Soonarane stated that such an investment level is programmed to address the whole value chain of water supply in the country, from raw water mobilisation, water treatment, water distribution, improved service delivery to consumers and the protection of surface and underground resources to ensure the sustainability of the sector.

Speaking about the development of industrial effluent development permit, Dr Soonarane underlined that the new system needs to have the following attributes: simplicity in the grant of the permit and monitoring of compliance; realistic standards of different parameters of effluents; need for a right balance between economic development and protection of water resources; and optimisation of financial and human resources.

The overall project

In the context of this project, the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities has benefitted from consultancy services of a water quality expert to review the current situation and provide legal and technical guidelines and recommendations for effluent discharge permits. The study which started in May 2017 will be completed in October 2017.

The specific objectives of the consultancy are to categorise industrial effluents, based on the industrial activity, and propose set of parameters that would be applicable to each category taking into account the receiving environment, propose a new legal approach for regulation of industrial discharge permits taking into account the regime of discharge and the receiving environment; set orientations and policies for the management of industrial effluents (both discharged directly into the environment and in sewers systems) among local/ government/regulation authorities and recommend an approach and guidelines for selection of good practice of effluent treatment for each category of main industries to facilitate compliance with new framework.
(TNS) -- Back in 2011, Patrick Crowley realized that the spread of encryption and cloud computing created big problems for traditional cybersecurity setups.The way Crowley, a Washington University professor of computer science and engineering, solved those problems will soon cause networking giant Cisco Systems to have a development team in the St. Louis area. Cisco agreed this month to buy Observable Networks, the firm Crowley founded to pursue his cybersecurity ideas.The deal should help put St. Louis, which has already received favorable national press for its tech-startup scene, on the map for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and technology workers. It also may boost the national profile of Arch Grants, the St. Louis nonprofit group that handed Observable $50,000 just because the company looked promising.The purchase price wasnt disclosed, but Crowley and Bryan Doerr, Observables chief executive, said keeping Observables 14-person team, of whom 11 are based in St. Louis, was an important part of discussions.Cisco was excited to have the whole company come on board and keep on doing what we were doing, Crowley said. We will be able to do that with far greater resources now.What Observables software does is to enhance security by monitoring all devices attached to a network. The traditional approach of scanning data for malware had become less effective, Crowley explained, as the use of encryption spread.Observable uses an approach called end-point modeling, which creates a profile of each device and detects when its behaving unusually. It would raise an alarm, for instance, if someone tried to download sensitive files on a laptop.Crowley founded Observable in 2011 with an investment from Peter Finley, co-founder of Clayton private equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners. Winning the $50,000 in 2012 was an important early break; Doerr, who previously was chief technology officer at Savvis, said the Arch Grants recognition helped persuade him to join the company in 2013.After that, things happened fast. Observable raised $2.45 million from investors in 2014 and hired salespeople to launch its product commercially. In 2015, Amazon Web Services began offering a data feed that made Observables variety of modeling easier, so the company concentrated its marketing efforts on companies using the public cloud.We had to be thoughtful on where to deploy our limited resources, and this was our big opportunity, Doerr recalls. We were growing in traditional markets, but we noticed that when we were winning in the cloud, we were growing a lot faster.That growth caught the attention of Cisco, which is making a big push in cybersecurity. The Silicon Valley powerhouse decided that it wanted both Observables software and its team of developers.The purchase is a win for St. Louis, too. To bring Cisco to St. Louis is a huge accomplishment, something really meaningful for our region, says Emily Lohse-Busch, executive director of Arch Grants. Not only for our startup community but for other people who are looking to come here, this is a huge stamp of approval.Observables venture capital investors were from New York, but Crowley and Doerr say they didnt feel any pressure to move the company. Its been a very good area for us to build a company, Doerr said. We were very pleased with the ready availability of talent here.Now Cisco, a $48 billion company with 71,000 employees around the world, will get a close look at the local talent pool. If it likes what it sees, cybersecurity may become a major growth sector here.
(TNS) -- When a string of food-borne illnesses devastated Chipotles reputation in 2015, the phone at San Francisco startup MeWe began ringing off the hook.It was restaurant owners and brands calling about MeWes CoInspect app, which helps government agencies and companies digitize public health and safety inspections. MeWe said its app could help companies avoid a disaster like Chipotles.MeWe CEO and co-founder Manik Suri called the Chipotle outbreak an aha moment that inspired the company to refocus the general-purpose inspection app it released in 2014 on the food industry: Everyone eats, everyone eats out, so food and food safety is critical, he said.A few years later, almost 100,000 inspections have been completed using CoInspect. The app allows inspectors to create checklists that include photos and voice memos. Users can also assign inspections, generate reports and analyze trends.Restaurant chains TGI Fridays and P.F. Changs are among those using MeWes software for safety and compliance checks. Its also used by government agencies such as the New York State Department of Health and nonprofits including the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.After starting in Cambridge, Mass., in 2014, the 18-person company moved to San Francisco a year later. It has raised $3.09 million in funding  most from a seed round announced in February. Suri said MeWe is not yet profitable.According to Suri, his motivation to improve the broken workflow of inspections comes from his experience working in a housing clinic as a Harvard Law School student. He accompanied inspectors as they tagged tenant violations, lugging around clipboards, binders and digital cameras to do so. Creating a single inspection report took about four hours.With CoInspect, reporting is two to three times faster, Suri said.CoInspect costs $25 per month for a solo account and $50 per person per month for a professional group of up to 25 people. Prices vary for plans used by large organizations, government agencies and auditing firms, though MeWe did not provide details or a range for the cost.The company is working on integrating its software with food temperature probes and sensors for equipment monitoring. Theres a test unit in the office refrigerator. The goal, Suri said, is to reduce human error and add a layer of verification that is hard to achieve with paper inspections.He said the work of conducting safety checks on paper isnt being done with thoroughness.
Louisville, Ky., has garnered much praise for an award-winning data map that visualizes the modern day effects of redlining  a practice that dates back to the 1930s, and involves racial and socioeconomic discrimination in certain neighborhoods through the systematic denial of services or refusal to grant loans and insurance.

This map, dubbed Redlining Louisville: The History of Race, Class and Real Estate , takes historic data about redlining found in the national archives in Washington, D.C., in 2013, and combines it with a timeline of historic events, data about current poverty levels, neighborhood boundaries and racial demographic info. With a host of tools including buttons and sliders, users can clearly see the correlation between the deliberate injustices of the past and the plight of struggling neighborhoods today.

Jeana Dunlap, Louisvilles director of redevelopment strategies, said the value of this map is wide-reaching, and that it serves to foster awareness and spur discussion of many civic challenges, including digital equity, poverty, and access to basic needs such as full-service grocery stores and health-care services.For Louisville CIO Grace Simrall, the map is proving an asset in the citys ongoing work to improve digital equity. City officials have also looked at the map as lens through which to examine digital inclusion, the effort to provide all residents with equal access to technology, as well as the related skills to benefit.The dialog around digital inclusion has begun to ramp up across the country, with many cities participating this year in the first official National Digital Inclusion Week . Louisville is one of 15 cities currently identified by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a trailblazer in this area , and Simrall said the correlation between redlining and neighborhoods with the greatest need for digital equity is so apparent. This correlation, she said, will help drive future efforts and serve as a useful piece of discussions with private companies about why it is important to make deliberate efforts in West Louisville.If you read these original documents, it was not just about socio-economic needs, Simrall said. There were vibrant, financially healthy neighborhoods, but they were African American. It is absolutely racist at its core. Im proud to work in a government where we fully acknowledge this, that it was institutional racism and that the only way we can really move forward is to talk explicitly about it, and talk about racial equity in all forms.

With the map's February launch, Louisville hosted a series of community events to discuss the findings. Dunlap pointed to these events as key to fostering discourse that is invaluable as Louisville works on revitalizing all neighborhoods within the city. Such work is often done in a vacuum, with civil servants sitting at desks and writing planning policies that alter real lives in places they have little to no first-hand experience. This visualization of redlining, as well as the subsequent community events, is an effort to bridge gaps between policymakers, communities and their mutual understandings of historical struggles that continue to persist to this day.

I didnt want government to, again, sort of re-create history by sitting in a vacuum and trying to prescribe policy for people without truly understanding the experiences that real people were going through today, Dunlap said. A lot of people have asked, Why are you digging up the past? Are we trying to place blame? Why is this a productive exercise? Well, the idea is to explain the history and get the stories of people today.

While baby boomers may remember some of what went on, millennials and Gen-Xers did not see redlining at work, and Dunlap said as such, they are more likely to have no concept of what life was like in terms of racial dynamics back then.

The map was born out of a partnership between Louisvilles government and Joshua Poe, an urban planner who now works as project manager for YouthBuild Louisville. Poe finished collecting data for the map in 2014, when Esris story map format was rising in popularity, and Dunlap and the city collaborated with Poe to fund his efforts.

At a recent conference hosted by Esri, Dunlap discussed the map and said interest in the project from other cities is high. Other than that, she expects this effort to foster transparency about Louisvilles history to continue expanding, with dozens of smaller projects feeding into the larger goal of civic revitalization for the entire city.

Redlining is still a present issue, she said. Its just evolved past mortgage lending. Home insurance is an issue, car insurance is an issue, access to food and health care in neighborhoods is an issue.
How Our Scraper Works, a High-Level Overview

How Our Scraper Works, the Nerdy Parts

Data Architecture

Scraping With Scrapy

Pytest

testdata = ( (get_inmate('2015-0904292'), { 'bail_amount': '50,000.00', }), (get_inmate('2017-0608010'), { 'bail_amount': '*NO BOND*', }), (get_inmate('2017-0611015'), { 'bail_amount': '25,000', }), )

@pytest.mark.parametrize("inmate,expected", testdata) def test_bail_amount(inmate,expected): assert inmate.bail_amount == expected['bail_amount']

get_inmate

@pytest.mark.parameterize(...)

ProPublica  Copyright 2017 Pro Publica Inc. Original headline of "How (and Why) Were Collecting Cook County Jail Data" edited for clarity of original publication.









ProPublica Illinois has just restarted a data collection project to get new information about what happens to inmates at one of the countrys largest and most notorious jails.Cook County Jail has been the subject of national attention and repeated reform efforts since its earliest days. Al Capone famously had  VIP accommodations  there in 1931, with homemade meals and a large cell in the hospital ward that he shared only with his bodyguard. Other prisoners have been more poorly accommodated: In the 1970s, the warden was fired for allegedly beating inmates with his own hands, and the facility was placed under federal oversight in 1974 . During the 1980s, the federal government forced the jail to release inmates because of overcrowding. In 2008, the Department of Justice found systematic violation of inmates 8th Amendment rights and once again pushed for reforms.These days, the jail, which has just recently been taken out of the federal oversight program, is under new management. Tom Dart, the charismatic and media-savvy sheriff of Cook County, oversees the facility. Dart has argued publicly for reducing the population and improving conditions at the jail. Hes also called the facility a de facto mental hospital , and said inmates should be considered more like patients , even hiring a clinical psychologist to run the jail.Efforts to study the jails problems date back decades. A 1923 report on the jail by the Chicago Community Trust says, Indifference of the public to jail conditions is responsible for Chicagos jail being forty years behind the time.The promises to fix it go back just as far. The same 1923 report continues, But at last the scientific method which has revolutionized our hospitals and asylums is making inroads in our prisons, and Chicago will doubtless join in the process.Patterns in the data about the inmate population could shed light on the inner workings of the jail, and help answer urgent questions, such as: How long are inmates locked up? How many court dates do they have? What are the most common charges? Are there disparities in the way inmates are housed or disciplined?Such detailed data about the inmate population has been difficult to obtain, even though it is a matter of public record. The Sheriffs Department never answered my FOIA request in 2012 when I worked for the Chicago Tribune.Around the same time, I started a project at FreeGeek Chicago to teach basic coding skills to Chicagoans through working on data journalism projects. Our crew of aspiring coders and pros wrote code that scraped data from the web we couldnt get other ways. Our biggest scraping project was the Cook County Jail website.Over the years, the project lost momentum. I moved on and out of Chicago and the group dispersed. I turned off the scraper, which had broken for inexplicable reasons, last August.I moved back home to Chicago earlier this month and found the data situation has improved a little. The Chicago Data Cooperative, a coalition of local newsrooms and civic-data organizations, is starting to get detailed inmate data via Freedom of Information requests. But theres even more information to get.So for my first project at ProPublica Illinois, Im bringing back the Cook County Jail scraper. Along with Wilberto Morales , one of the original developers, we are rebuilding the scraper from scratch to be faster, more accurate and more useful to others interested in jail data. The scraper tracks inmates court dates over time and when and where they are moved within the jail complex, among other facts.Our project complements the work of the Data Cooperative. Their efforts enable the public to understand the flow of people caught up in the system from arrest to conviction. What were adding will extend that understanding to what happens during inmates time in jail. Its not clear yet if well be able to track an individual inmate from the Data Cooperatives data into ours. Theres no publicly available, stable and universal identifier for people arrested in Cook County.The old scraper ran from June 5, 2014, until July 24, 2016. The new scraper has been running consistently since June 20, 2017. It is nearly feature-complete and robust, writing raw CSVs with all inmates found in the jail on a given day.Wilberto will lead the effort to develop scripts and tools to take the daily CSVs and load them into a relational database.We plan to analyze the data with tools such as Jupyter and R and use the data for reporting.A manifest of daily snapshot files (for more information about those, read on) is available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/cookcountyjail.il.propublica.org/manifest.csv The scraper harvests the original inmate pages from the Cook County Jail website, mirrors those pages and processes them to create daily snapshots of the jail population. Each record in the daily snapshots data represents a single inmate on a single day.The daily snapshots are anonymized. Names are stripped out, date of birth is converted to age at booking, and a one-way hash is generated from name, birth date and other personal details, so researchers can study recidivism. The snapshot data also contains the booking ID, booking date, race, gender, height, weight, housing location, charges, bail amount, next court data and next court location.We dont make the mirrored inmate pages public, to avoid misuse of personal data for things like predatory mugshot or background check websites.The new scraper code is available on Github . Its written in Python 3 and uses the Scrapy library for scraping.When we built our first version of the scraper in 2012, we could use the web interface to search for all inmates whose last name started with a given letter. Our code took advantage of this to collect the universe of inmates in the data management system, simply by running 26 searches and stashing the results.Later, the Sheriff's Department tightened the possible search inputs and added a CAPTCHA. However, we were still able to access individual inmate pages via their Booking ID. This identifier follows a simple and predictable pattern: YYYY-MMDDXXX where XXX is a zero-padded number corresponding to the order that the inmate arrived that day. For example, an inmate with Booking ID 2017-0502016 would be the 16th inmate booked on May 2, 2017. When an inmate leaves the jail, the URL with that Booking ID starts returning a 500 HTTP status code.The old scraper scanned the inmate locator and harvested URLs by checking all of the inmate URLs it already knew about and then incrementing the Booking ID until the server returned a 500 response. The new scraper works much the same way, though weve added some failsafes in case our scraper misses one or more days.The new scraper can also use older data to seed scrapes. This reduces the number of requests we need to send and gives us the ability to compare newer records to older ones, even if our data set has missing days.Weve migrated from a hodgepodge of Python libraries and scripts to Scrapy . Scrapys architecture makes scraping remarkably fast, and it includes safeguards to avoid overwhelming the servers were scraping.Most of the processing is handled by. Spiders are perhaps the most fundamental elements that Scrapy helps you create. A spider handles generating URLs for scraping, follows links and parses HTML into structured data.Scrapy also has a way to create data models, which it calls Items. Items are roughly analogous to Django models, but I found Scrapys system underdeveloped and difficult to test. It was never clear to me if Items should be used to store raw data and to process data during serialization or if they were basically fancy dicts that I should put clean data into.Instead, I used a pattern I learned from Norbert Winklareth, one of the collaborators on the original scraper. I wrote about the technique in detail for NPR last year. Essentially, you create an object class that takes a raw HTML string in its constructor. The data model object then exposes parsed and calculated fields suitable for storage.Despite several of its systems being a bit clumsy, Scrapy really shines due to its performance. Our original scraper worked sequentially and could harvest pages for the approximately 10,000 inmates under jail supervision in about six hours, though sometimes it took longer. Improvements we made to the scraper got this down to a couple hours. But in my tests, Scrapy was able to scrape 10,000 URLs in less than 30We follow the golden rule at ProPublica when were web scraping: Do unto other peoples servers as youd have them do unto yours. Scrapys autothrottle system will back off if the server starts to lag, though we havent seen any effect so far on the server were scraping.Scrapys speed gains are remarkable. Its possible that these are due in part to increases in bandwidth, server capacity and in web caching at the Cook County Jails site, but in any event, its now possible to scrape the data multiple times every day for even higher accuracy.I also started using a test framework for this project I havent used before.Ive mostly used Nose, Unittest and occasionally Doctests for testing in Python. But people seem to like Pytest (including several of the original jail scraper developers) and the output is very nice, so I tried it this time around.Pytest is pretty slick! You dont have to write any boilerplate code, so its easy to start writing tests quickly. What I found particularly useful is the ability to parameterize tests over multiple inputs.Take this abbreviated code sample:In the testdata variable assignment, thefunction loads an Inmate model instance from sample data and then defines some expected values based on direct observation of the scraped pages. Then, by using thedecorator and passing it the testdata variable, the test function is run for all the defined values.There might be a more effective way to do this with Pytest fixtures. Even so, this is a significant improvement over using metaclasses and other fancy Python techniques to parameterize tests as I did here . Those techniques yield practically unreadable test code, even if they do manage to provide good test coverage for real-world scenarios.In the future, we hope to use the Moto library to mock out the complex S3 interactions used by the scraper.
(TNS) -- A federal judge ruled Monday against a privacy organization's effort to halt the nationwide request for voter information made by Kris Kobach.In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the call from the Electronic Privacy Information Center for a temporary restraining order involving Kobach's request to all 50 states and the District of Columbia for large amounts of voter data."The mere increased risk of disclosure stemming from the collection and eventual, anonymized disclosure of already publicly available voter roll information is insufficient to confer standing," Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote in the ruling.Kobach, a Republican who serves as Kansas secretary of state, gained national attention in recent weeks for his role as vice chairman of President Donald Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.On behalf of the commission, Kobach asked every state for "publicly available" voter roll data. That information included the names of registered voters, their addresses, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers if available, voter history and other personal information.Kobach's initial request was met with lawsuits and bipartisan backlash by some states.Kobach has defended his request but earlier had asked states not to submit their data to the commission until the court ruled on the temporary restraining order.In a statement Monday, Kobach said the commission looks forward to working with state election leaders to "gather information and identify opportunities to improve election integrity.""This ruling is a major victory for government accountability, transparency and the public's right to know about the integrity of our elections processes," Kobach said in the emailed statement.EPIC sued in early July over Kobach's request."EPIC will push forward," EPIC President Marc Rotenberg said in a statement following the ruling. "The Commission cannot evade privacy obligations by playing a shell game with the nation's voting records."The privacy group said in an earlier court filing that "by seeking to assemble an unnecessary and excessive federal database of sensitive voter data from state records systems, (the commission) violated the informational privacy rights of millions of Americans."The organization also raised concerns over the security of the data and said the commission failed to prepare and publish a Privacy Impact Assessment regarding the information.Both Trump and Kobach have claimed widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election, though neither has been able to provide firm evidence to prove their statements.
A Bold, Bipartisan Plan to Return the U.S. to the Vanguard of 21st-Century Technological Innovation
(TNS) -- The Santa Fe City Council is scheduled to decide Wednesday night whether to bring back unmanned, specially equipped vehicles to photograph speeding drivers and then issue tickets through an automated system.The measure is co-sponsored by four councilors who say city streets have seen an uptick in reckless driving since Santa Fe let the program lapse four years ago.The resolution would direct City Manager Brian Snyder to restart the Santa Fe Traffic Operations Program, or STOP, in which the so-called speed vans autonomously monitor stretches of roadway. Estimated revenue from ticketed traffic violations would total $400,000 in the current fiscal year, which ends in June, according to a financial analysis.Also to be considered is legislation that would amend the existing STOP ordinance in the city code to reduce the fine for first-time violators to $50 from $100 and modify how fines for subsequent violations would be levied.Another amendment removes the references to red-light cameras from the STOP ordinance, originally adopted in 2008. The intersection cameras, though approved by the City Council that year, were never installed.The Santa Fe speed-monitoring program ended in 2013 when the city allowed its contract with Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems to lapse. That year, the company became embroiled in a bribery scheme in other states that culminated in multimillion-dollar settlements and jail time for its chief executive.City councilors have said there was no wrongdoing involved in local dealings with the company. Its unclear whether Redflex would submit a bid to contract with the city again, should the program pass muster with the council.Since the STOP program ended, Santa Fe police have seen a 42 percent increase in traffic complaints and requests for monitoring, and total crashes across the city have increased each year since 2014, according to the draft resolution co-sponsored by Councilors Mike Harris, Peter Ives, Signe Lindell and Ron Trujillo, who is running for mayor.The unmanned equipment, which could only be situated on city-owned streets, promotes heightened awareness behind the wheel and also frees up law enforcement officers to deal with other matters, the resolution states.But the speed vans were little loved by some. In 2012, a man opened fire on one of the specially marked SUVs parked on Bishops Lodge Road.The proposals path to the full council was not entirely smooth. The Finance Committee approved the proposal 3-1 in June, assuring it would advance to the full council, but that was after the Public Works Committee voted 3-0 against it in May. The advisory Public Safety Committee also raised concerns with reviving the program before ultimately recommending approval.City spokesman Matt Ross, referring to the divergent committee votes, said the councils decision Wednesday is not a foregone conclusion.It certainly makes the debate a little more interesting, he said, adding he was not sure of Mayor Javier Gonzales thinking about the measure.The vote comes as some residents complain they recently started receiving bills for years-old speeding tickets from the Redflex era. One, retired professor Phillis Ideal, said she received past-due notices from a collection agency over the weekend instructing her to pay $125 each for three separate speeding infractions she was told she had committed in 2013.But Ideal, who described herself as a fanatic bill-payer, said she never received any original notice of having violated speed limits even once in 2013.I would pay my bills if I knew what they were, but I never received anything, she said. I never got anything that said, You got a ticket, you owe this. I havent changed my address, and I know things get lost, but three?Redflex was responsible for issuing notices under the since-ended contract, city spokesman Ross said Tuesday. He added the city is finalizing details for a process by which recipients of past-due notices could contest the speeding tickets.The sudden arrival of those bills has no connection to the proposal to revive the unmanned speed-enforcement program, Ross said. The citys efforts to recoup millions in past-due funds  parking tickets, speeding tickets, utility bills and other fines  has simply coincided with the speed van proposal advancing through city committees, he said.A message left for a Redflex communications representative asking about the years-old tickets and whether the company would be interested in submitting a bid should the program move forward again was not returned Tuesday.The chief executive of Redflex resigned in 2013 in what was described as one of the biggest bribery scandals in the history of Chicago by the Chicago Tribune, which in 2012 exposed the companys scheme to secure millions in city contracts.The company agreed to pay the city of Chicago $20 million earlier this year to settle a suit, and the former chief executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison for that scheme as well as 14 months for a similar scheme in Ohio.
The revealed this week that several local governments across the U.S. are using a Russian brand of security software that the federal government fears could be leveraged by the foreign country for cyberespionage.Earlier this month, the federal government removed Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based company that sells anti-virus security software, from its list of approved vendors. Meanwhile, nearly all the local governments interviewed by theappeared unaware of the controversy. Upon learning about it, most said that they had no immediate plans to stop using the product.The news is merely the latest development in an ongoing debate about whether local goverments are doing enough to protect themselves from cyber threats.Cybersecurity experts have long been sounding the alarm about local governments vulnerability to cyberattacks and the impact such an intrusion could have. They say most local governments face great barriers to protecting their data and systems, including lack of funding, shortage of cybersecurity professionals and general ignorance about the seriousness of the threat.AT&T is not the communication center I care about. 911 is the communication center I care about. [Cyber actors] have the ability to create actual terror in the United States," says Michael Hamilton, the former CISO of Seattle and current founder and president of the managed detection and response firm Critical Informatics, Inc.However, Hamilton believes its premature for local governments to pull out of contracts with Kaspersky Lab, given that there have been no specific vulnerabilities identified and no evidence of malicious intent released to the public. Its got to be demonstrated somewhere that this threat is real" before local governments spend money to replace the software, he says."Its expensive [to switch vendors]. When I was in Seattle, I fired McAfee [the security software company] and it was a huge investment. Theyre not going to make that investment unless they have to, says Hamilton.John Morrisson, systems manager for the Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services, largely agrees. He says his agency likely won't stop using the software unless the feds bar state and local governments from contracting with Kaspersky.I dont want to base it on cost, but we do have a three-year contract with Kaspersky," he says. Still, he clarified, obviously, if there was a problem, cost would not be an issue."In Portland, Ore., another city identified in thestory, a spokesperson toldin an email that the city is investigating the feasibility of disabling its Kaspersky products, which one of the city's vendors is currently using to scan for malicious emails. Portland likely wouldn't take a serious financial hit, however, since it doesn't have a direct contract with Kaspersky itself.For its part, Kaspersky Lab -- which was founded in 1997 by a former employee of Russian military intelligence agencies --denies the allegations by the U.S. government. Controversy, however, has been following the company since at least 2015: According to the, law enforcement urged congressional staff that year not to meet with Kaspersky officials about national security matters.In addition, Michael Flynn resigned as President Trump's national security adviser this year in part because he failed to disclose the money Kaspersky paid him to speak at one of its cybersecurity conferences.Beyond the Kaspersky controversy, Hamilton says local and state governments are in a deep rut concerning cybersecurity. He warns about the effects of cultural inertia, which he says encourages government workers to continue doing things the same way they always have.Its like, We fix potholes and put cops on the street -- we dont hire cyber people,' he says of the mentality of officials at the local level."Cyber people" are in fact the other big obstacle for local governments trying to protect themselves from cyberattacks: There simply arent enough of them working in the public sector. A 2015 survey from the National Association of Chief Information Officers found that 86 percent of IT chief respondents said they struggled to fill vacant IT positions.Hamilton suggests creative solutions to help fill those gaps, such as internships or apprenticeships that might offer lower pay than private-sector jobs but help people gain experience early in their career.But at some point, Hamilton says the federal government will have to bust out the purse and help [state and local governments] with [cybersecurity] funding."Earlier this year, bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill that would create a grant program for state, local and tribal governments to protect themselves against cyberthreats. This kind of funding would likely be welcome, especially with the news that Russia targeted election systems in 21 states last year.The bill, however, has yet to go anywhere.The other cities identified by theas using the program are: Fayetteville, Ga.; San Marcos, Texas; and Picayune, Miss.; which is scheduled to install it in public schools soon.
Mudragada Stir A Damp Squib: Bad Planning?

As expected, the Andhra Pradesh police did not allow former minister and Kapu strongman Mudragada Padmanabham to take out his much publicised 'Chalo Assembly' padayatra from his Kirlampudi residence in East Godavari to Amaravati on Wednesday.

As soon as he came out of his house and walked up to the gate along with a few Kapu JAC leaders, the police prevented him. After a brief argument with the police, Mudragada returned to his house.

The police declared that the Kapu leader would be placed under house arrest for 24 hours under Section 151 of CrPC and if he makes any attempt to re-start the padayatra, he would be pushed back into the house.

The entire village of Kirlampudi and the surrounding villages of Konaseema were turned into a fortress by the police.

Prohibitory orders of Section 30 of the Police Act and Section 144 of CrPC have been imposed in the area. Drone cameras are reportedly being used to keep an eye on the Padayatra.

What has surprised everybody was the way Mudragada meekly yielded to the police pressures and retreated saying he would take out the padayatra whenever he was allowed to by the police.

All that he said was that the police were trying to curtail his rights and said that he would undertake the march under any circumstances.

Obviously, it was a bad planning by the Mudragada and his JAC leaders.

According to political analysts, Mudragada was focussing only on his own padayatra from Kirlampudi instead of converting his agitation into a mass movement.

He should have planned simultaneous rallies from different parts of the state that would converge at Amaravati.

All the plans should have been kept in wraps, but Mudragada asked the Kapus only to join him in the padayatra.

Naturally, the government will not allow this and try to crush it using police force.

The police detained several prominent Kapu leaders across the district well in advance and did not allow anybody to reach Kirlampudi.

And as long as Mudragada takes it as his own personal prestige, the police will have an upper hand and he can never take up the yatra.

Instead, he should rework his strategy and convert it into a mass movement, say the analysts.
Solid-state lithium-ion batteries, with higher volumetric energy densities than currently available lithium-ion batteries, offer a number of conceptual advantages including improved packaging efficiency; improved safety; and long cycle life. However, there remain a number of unresolved issues precluding commercialization at this point. A team from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, and MIT recently published an open-access paper in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society reviewing the practical challenges hindering the development of solid-state Li-ion batteries.

Toyota, which has been working on solid-state batteries for EVs for a number of years ( earlier post ), is in the news with a report by the Wall Street Journal that it will be ready to commercialize a solid-state battery by 2022.

The challenges, they note, are many:

Unresolved fundamental issues remain in the quest to fully understand the behavior of all-solid batteries, especially in the area of electrochemical interfaces.

Parameters that require robust understanding from a product development standpoint are material cost, cell lifetime and shelf life, cell energy density on a volumetric and gravimetric basis, operable capabilities for given temperature conditions, and safety.

The advantage of energy density remains to be realized in solid state electrolytes (SSEs) since most studies to date utilize thick SSEs or cathodes with low active loading compared to liquid counterparts.

The desire to use SSEs in conjunction with Li metal anodes requires understanding and managing the morphology of Li metal plating, which can impact volumetric energy density.

Although operation at both higher and lower temperature compared to conventional technologies is a significant potential advantage of SSE systems, reports of solid state cells achieving parity with traditional systems at room temperature or any other temperature do not currently exist.

The decreased flammability of SSE systems is another potential advantage but requires ongoing validation and study.

The manufacturability and material component costs of SSEs have not been well characterized, and thus the value of these features will need to be weighed accordingly with any added cost.

The operating lifetime of SSEs capturing intrinsic materials parameters such as voltage stability as well as catastrophic failure modes such as shorting have been briefly investigated, but in the absence of high energy density electrode formulations and application based testing protocols that are comparable to commercial liquid electrolyte cells.

To enable development and maturation of solid state battery technology, the value propositions of SSEs must be substantiated with relevant data in the coming years. Companies with competencies in ceramic or battery processing and with the resources to engage in a broad level of materials development and failure analysis may be well positioned to enable this technology. Kermana et al.

In their paper, the team references more than 200 papers, exploring critical aspects of solid-state battery technology including the basic material properties of solid state electrolytesalong with key differences in theory and understanding of material physicsand the fabrication of those materials.

They discuss the solid electrolyte interfaces, including the number of failure modes that can occur due to phenomena at the electrolyte-electrode interface. Failure modes can range from the catastrophic to mere poor performance.

The development of full cells requires understanding of material limitations, processing capabilities and cell form factor.

Noting that all energy storage devices, including batteries, possess inherent risk as energy is being confined in a closed system that can be physically or electrically damaged, they discuss risk mitigation strategies as well.



A basic fishbone diagram highlighting two of the key high level failure modes (impedance growth or electrical shorting) and the variety of potential contributing factors. Possible solutions and the consequent product risks to their implementation, including reduced safety, power, energy density, throughput, or requirement of material innovation are also shown. Understanding the interplay between material level issues and cell level ramifications are highlighted to reiterate holistic approaches. Kermana et al. Click to enlarge.

There has been incredible progress in the field of solid state electrolytes for Li ion batteries. The discussion in this work strongly emphasizes that, in the context of solid state battery technology, a holistic approach to material development, taking cell and product design considerations into account is powerful and necessary in creating resilient and far reaching solid state material technologies in the Li ion space. Highly conductive solid ionic materials have paved the way for the potentially ground breaking technology of high energy density anodes and a true solid state battery.

 Specific research vectors for advancing solid state battery technology include scalable manufacturing of low defect density thin ionic conducting solids, characterization methods to determine defect densities at relevant scales, increasing ionic conductivity of solid state electrolytes further, protective active cathode particle coatings, developing high ionic conductivity materials that are deformable or have low melting temperature, and increasing active cathode particle fraction in solid state electrodes. Kermana et al.

Resources
I picked up a couple of books to read on vacation last month. One never made it because I devoured it before I left. The other turned out to be remarkably timely.

The first was The Bright Hour, Greensboro poet Nina Riggs memoir of living and dying. The author died of breast cancer in February, before the books publication. She was 39 and left a husband, two sons and a painful account of hope and loss, breaking my heart like no other writer in a long, long time.

The second, Red Notice by Bill Browder, provides the background behind todays headlines.

If you want to understand the Magnitsky Act and why were talking about Russian orphans, youll find the answers in Red Notice. It, too, tells a heartbreaking story.

It caught my eye on the bookshelf for its subtitle  A true story of high finance, murder, and one mans fight for justice  and setting in Russia.

Ive had an interest in Russia since high school when I began reading through the Alexander Solzhenitsyn library. I bought a first-edition copy, in Russian, of Gulag Archipelago, in 1974.

Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire, and it is evident now that, under post-Soviet president, or dictator, Vladimir Putin, the Russian regime is evil still.

Browder started an investment firm in Russia in the 1990s after the fall of communism. He soon ran into conflicts with the oligarchs who took over and looted formerly state-owned Russian industries. When Putin first rose to political power in 2000, Browder served his interests by opposing the oligarchs corruption. But once Putin asserted control over his rivals, grabbing huge payoffs, Browder became an irritant. The government put him out of business.

While Browder escaped from Russia, one of his lawyers, Sergei Magnitsky, did not. Magnitsky was arrested, tortured and finally beaten to death in prison.

Browder launched an effort to punish those responsible. It led to the Magnitsky Act, which barred certain Russians from traveling to or doing business in the United States. Sen. John McCain was the co-author of the bill, which was enacted in late-2012. In retaliation, Russia suspended the adoption of orphans by Americans.

Putin badly wants to overturn this law. For years, Russian billionaires laundered stolen money by purchasing real estate and making other investments in the U.S., often in New York. Putin doesnt care about orphans and is willing to deny them the chance for a better life to exert pressure on American politicians.

When Russians meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 brought up the subject of orphans, or when Putin himself raised the issue in a conversation with President Donald Trump in Hamburg this month, they really were pressing for repeal of the Magnitsky Act.

That will not happen. On the contrary, Congress will impose tougher sanctions on Russia, as well as Iran and North Korea, in a bill that also bars Trump from easing existing sanctions without congressional approval. This measure won 98-2 support in the Senate last month and was overwhelmingly approved by the House Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Mark Walker was unequivocally a yes on the bill, his communications director, Jack Minor, told me by email Monday.

Rep. Ted Budds office sent this statement from the congressman: I fully support efforts for a robust response to attempts by the Russian Federation to interfere with the American election process and their ongoing occupation of Crimea. Excellent.

All this makes Bill Browder one of Putins most hated enemies. He wrote in his closing chapter: I have to assume that there is a very real chance that Putin or members of his regime will have me killed someday.

This isnt idle talk. In an interview with The Weekly Standards Benjamin Parker, Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Putin critic, recounts how he has been poisoned twice  and was lucky. Many others didnt survive.

 Accidents, he said. Fake suicides. Plane crashes. A lot of poisonings. And of course, sometimes, plain assassinations like with Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the Russian opposition, who was shot dead 200 yards from the Kremlin walls.

But remember Trumps response when then-Fox News host Bill OReilly called Putin a killer?

There are a lot of killers, the president of the United States said in February. You think our countrys so innocent?

Thats why Congress must limit Trumps ability to make deals with Putin.

Yes, we must work with him. But we also have to understand him  like we understand cancer.
The heart will go on ... a date!

"Titanic" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are serving themselves up for charity, auctioning off a private dinner with the two of them. They made the announcement at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's fourth annual gala last week, according to E! News and People.

The dinner is among the many auction items available for bidders at the star-studded event taking place in Saint-Tropez, France. The nonprofit, which supports various environmentally conscious causes, raised $45 million during its charity auction last year.

The Jack and Rose rendezvous will take place sometime in October or November, given the Oscar winners' busy schedules, at a New York City restaurant of the winner's choosing, according to People.

The glitzy charity gala is expected to be an "elegant evening" with a cocktail reception, live auction and performances, according to Page Six. It will be held at the Domaine Bertaud Belieu vineyard in the French Riviera.

DiCaprio and Winslet have been openly supportive of each other's careers since James Cameron's blockbuster shipwreck film turned them into international superstars in 1997. The two famously reunited at the 2016 Golden Globes when DiCaprio earned the lead actor prize for his role in "The Revenant."
Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville St., will offer a weekly music program called Market Music Makers on the Lindsay Street lawn from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Picnic tables are available to patrons, offering a shady space to have breakfast from one of 12 sweet and savory baked goods and beverage vendors. Or guests can shop more than 110 vendors offering fresh produce, eggs, meat, dairy, sauces and locally made foods.
Warren Buffett's company reported a $2.7 billion loss Saturday as the paper value of its investment portfolio fell during the third quarter, but most of its operating businesses performed well with the notable exception of Geico.
MasterChef

8 p.m. (WGHP)

The top 15 take on another mystery box challenge in this new episode. A random selection lands each chef with a box that contains a different body part of a cow, around which they must create a dish. Gordon Ramsay, Christina Tosi and Aaron Sanchez host.

Salvation

9 p.m. (WFMY)

Darius (Santiago Cabrera) steps up his game as he races to stop the asteroid before the Pentagon shuts him down in this new episode. Meanwhile, Grace (Jennifer Finnigan) must make decisions that could have life-or-death consequences for millions.

Suits

9 p.m. (USA)

While Louis (Rick Hoffman) and Harvey (Gabriel Macht) try to sort out the new firm dynamics, Mike (Patrick J. Adams) enjoys unexpected new business in this new episode. Also, Rachel (Meghan Markle) is challenged by an insubordinate associate.

Odd Mom Out

10 p.m. (BRAVO)

Jill (Jill Kargman) struggles to make a good impression at her art show in this new episode. Elsewhere, when a New York Times best-selling author pays Brooke (Abby Elliott) and Devon (Christopher J. Hanke) a visit, things to not go as planned.
July 26, 1945

The Potsdam Declaration warned Imperial Japan to surrender unconditionally or face prompt and utter destruction. On the same day, Winston Churchill resigned as Britains prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the first general election held in Great Britain in a decade. Clement Attlee succeeded him. As History.com recounts: His Conservative government suffered an electoral loss against Clement Attlees Labour Party, and Churchill resigned as prime minister. He became leader of the opposition and in 1951 was again elected prime minister. Two years later, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his six-volume historical study of World War II and for his political speeches. In 1955, he retired as prime minister but remained in Parliament until 1964, the year before his death.
Updated at 2:53 p.m.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity," citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Trump's announcement on Twitter would reverse the effort under President Barack Obama to open the armed services to transgender people. He did not say what would happen to transgender troops already in the military.

The president tweeted that he was making his announcement after consulting with "generals and military experts," but he did not name any. He said the military "must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The White House did not immediately respond to questions.

At the Pentagon, members of the staff of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared to have been caught unaware by Trump's tweets. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, referred questions to the White House.

In a brief written statement, Davis said the Pentagon is working with the White House to "address" what he called "the new guidance" from the president. He said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials "in the near future."

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since last Oct. 1, they have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military. Mattis announced earlier this month that he was giving military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services would affect the "readiness or lethality" of the force.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study last year estimated about 2,450 transgender people in active military, out of about 1.3 million troops.

On cost, the study said only a subset would seek gender transition related treatment, estimating that health care costs would increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, or a 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent increase in spending on active military.

The issue of transgender troops was debated recently in the GOP-led House, which narrowly rejected a measure that would have forbidden the Pentagon from paying for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy. Supporters saw the measure as an opportunity to roll back what they called Obama's social engineering of the armed forces. But Democrats criticized the proposal as bigoted and unconstitutional, and they won enough Republican support to block it.

Trump's decision drew swift outrage from LGBT groups and from lawmakers from both parties.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, said that when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, she didn't care "if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else. All that mattered was they didn't leave me behind."

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the U.S. armed forces without causing any issues.

"It's an absolute absurdity and another overstep," Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesday's decision is not reversed.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the tweet was "another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, said "any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military_regardless of their gender identity." He said there should be no policy changes until the current review is completed and assessed by the secretary of defense, military leaders and Congress.

And Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said that "transgender people are people and deserve the best we can do for them."

Some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for "keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said "we don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

However, LGBT activists have been angered by many of his administration's actions, including the rollback of federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. Many top members of the administration are long-time foes of LGBT-rights policy changes, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.

Updated at 12:40 p.m.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity," citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Trump's announcement on Twitter would reverse the effort under President Barack Obama to open the armed services to transgender people. He did not say what would happen to transgender troops already in the military.

The president tweeted that he was making his announcement after consulting with "generals and military experts," but he did not name any. He said the military "must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The White House did not immediately respond to questions.

At the Pentagon, members of the staff of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared to have been caught unaware by Trump's tweets. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, referred questions to the White House.

In a brief written statement, Davis said the Pentagon is working with the White House to "address" what he called "the new guidance" from the president. He said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials "in the near future."

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since last Oct. 1, they have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military. Mattis announced earlier this month that he was giving military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services would affect the "readiness or lethality" of the force.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 service members on active duty who self-identify as transgender and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves. There are about 1.3 million troops in the military.

Trump's decision drew swift outrage from LGBT groups and supporters.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, said that when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, she didn't care "if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else. All that mattered was they didn't leave me behind."

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the U.S. armed forces without causing any issues.

"It's an absolute absurdity and another overstep," Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesday's decision is not reversed.

Some lawmakers said this was not the right process for such a policy change.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the tweet was "another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

McCain said "any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military_regardless of their gender identity." He said there should be no policy changes until the current review is completed and assessed by the secretary of defense, military leaders and Congress.

Some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for "keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said "we don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

However, LGBT activists have been angered by many of his administration's actions, including the rollback of federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. Many top members of the administration are long-time foes of LGBT-rights policy changes, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.

Updated at 11:25 a.m.

WASHINGTON  Ash Carter, who as secretary of defense last year ended the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, is criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to ban their service.

Carter issued a statement Wednesday saying that the important thing for choosing who is allowed to serve is whether they are best qualified.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualification," he said, "is social policy and has no place in our military."

Carter added that transgender individuals already are serving capably and honorably in the military.

__

11:10 a.m.

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee is calling President Donald Trump's newly announced ban on transgender military service "an unwarranted and disgraceful attack."

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington says preventing transgender people from joining the military and pushing out "those who have devoted their lives to this country would be ugly and discriminatory in the extreme."

Smith also is challenging the estimates cited by conservative lawmakers that show the Pentagon end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade to pay for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies.

He says those figures "have no basis in fact" and likely were "cooked up by right-wing advocacy organizations whose real interest is not to support military readiness but to further discrimination."

__

11 a.m.

The Pentagon, which appeared to be caught off-guard by Trump's tweets barring transgender people from the military, is referring all questions about them to the White House.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a brief written statement that the Pentagon is working with the White House to "address" what he calls "the new guidance" from the president on transgender individuals serving in the military.

Davis said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials "in the near future."

__

10:47 a.m.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is slamming President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military as "vile and hateful."

In a statement, Pelosi pointed out Trump's decision came on the same day in 1948 that President Harry S. Truman signed the executive order desegregating the military.

The California Democrat called Trump's action "a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who stepped forward to serve our country."

She said a study commissioned by the department found the cost of providing medically necessary transition-related care would be $2 million to $8 million a year, a small amount from what the Pentagon spends on military care.

She said the "disgusting ban" will weaken the military and the nation it defends. She said Trump's conduct is not driven by "honor, decency or national security, but by raw prejudice."

Updated at 10:28 a.m.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump is barring transgender people from serving in the military "in any capacity," citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Trump's announcement Wednesday morning on Twitter did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

The president tweeted that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he added.

Trump's decision drew immediate angry responses from groups that represent transgender service members.

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the U.S. armed forces without causing any issues.

"It's an absolute absurdity and another overstep," Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesday's decision is not reversed.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, director of the Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project, National LGBTQ Task Force, said Trump "has stood against the trans community with this decision and is harming lives for the sake of political gains."

"The military is often the last resort for people who can't find jobs because of discrimination," Rodriguez-Roldan said. She said the transgender community "will not stop fighting" for justice.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military if they meet physical, medical and other standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people to enlist.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, defense officials have said.

They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.

Updated at 9:53 a.m.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump is barring transgender people from serving in the military "in any capacity," citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Trump's announcement Wednesday morning on Twitter did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

The president tweeted that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he added.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, the officials said. They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump says he will bar transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the U.S. armed forces.

Trump said on Twitter Wednesday that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," that the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

Trump added that "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban.

Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting. But transgender troops are already serving openly in the military.

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that the "U.S. government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

Trump tweeted that he consulted with generals and military experts before making the decision.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming .... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump stated over two Tweets.

More to come.
GREENSBORO  Drew Brinkley, the director of Guilford County Animal Services, resigned Wednesday, hours after the county animal shelter was fined $2,500 for housing dogs in outdoor kennels without adequate protection from the sun.

County Manager Marty Lawing confirmed Brinkleys resignation in an email to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Wednesday afternoon.

We will be looking for someone with experience to fill the position on an interim basis and launch a search for a permanent director immediately, Lawing wrote.

Brinkley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad declined to comment on the specifics of Brinkleys resignation, saying only that his departure would not distract the county from operating a quality animal shelter.

Its disappointing any time something like this happens. We wish him the best, Conrad said. It doesnt change our commitment to get the right person in charge of our Animal Services, and it doesnt change our commitment to excellence one bit.

Brinkley, the former operations manager of Orange County Animal Services, took over Guilford Countys Animal Services Department in August. His hiring capped a nationwide search that began after Logan Rustan, the departments previous director, resigned abruptly in June.

Rustans departure ended a year of upheaval at the shelter, beginning in 2015 when Guilford County took back control of the shelter from the now-defunct United Animal Coalition. The coalition, which had operated the shelter for the county on a contractual basis since 1998, lost its license after an investigation by the state uncovered dozens of examples of animal cruelty and neglect.

The shelter has passed most of its state inspections since then, but received two warnings  one in April, the other in June  related to inadequacies in veterinary care, record-keeping and euthanasia protocol. But an inspection last week resulted in a $2,500 fine after inspectors saw 12 dogs in outdoor enclosures without adequate protection from the sun.

At the time of inspection, it was very hot and the animals were in the direct sun, according to the citation from the N.C. Department of Agriculture. These kennels have metal sheeting on top, sides and back ... which intensifies the suns heat.

During previous inspections, state officials told Brinkley to stop putting dogs in the outdoor kennels, according to the state agencys report.

Conrad called the citation unacceptable and said shelter administrators will have to explain why they ignored the states first warning.

I dont know why (the move) didnt happen, he said. That is something that staff would have to answer because our staff needs to be held accountable.

Weve made a commitment that were going to have a shelter that our citizens are proud of and when things like this happen, theres going to be some frustration and some anger. And rightly so, because were not living up to our end of the bargain.

All 12 dogs were moved immediately during the July 18 inspection. State inspectors fined the county $2,400 ($200 per dog), plus an additional $100 after a records review uncovered a cat that had been at the shelter for 25 days without receiving a rabies vaccine.

State law requires that all animals receive a rabies vaccine within 15 days of arriving at the shelter.

The county has 60 days to pay the fine or appeal the citation. In an email to commissioners Wednesday evening, Deputy County Manager Clarence Grier said that state officials had already visited the shelter to confirm that their recommendations had been implemented.

We are presently negotiating with the Department of Agriculture to waive the civil penalty based on the fact that we immediately corrected the items that we were cited for, Grier wrote.

Problems at the shelter will be dealt with, Conrad said, beginning with the search for the new director.

These things are not acceptable, he said. I have told the public we are going to fix this, and we are going to fix it. We are going to find the right person.
A recent story (Trump: USS Ford is 100,000 ton message to the world,  July 22) quotes the president as asking God to bless the crew members who shall sail in her.

But he also asked God to bless and guide this warship.

Is it appropriate to ask God to bless a warship?

Would we ask God to bless a machine gun?

An F-35?

An ICBM silo and its contents?

The request to bless instruments of war is one that an ancient Greek king might have asked of the god Ares, or that a Roman emperor might have asked of the god Mars. But is this something to ask of the deity who talks through the ancient Jewish prophet of beating swords into plowshares?

Would Christians ask this of the one who told Peter to put away his sword because those who live by the sword will die by the sword, and who preached: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God?

While some theologians have made the argument for a just war, though only as a very last resort, there is something unseemly about calling upon God to bless the weapons used in this hellish enterprise.

Joe Moran

Durham
They really are that much better.

People are so enamored of Japans legendary collection of unusual Kit Kat flavors that Nestle Japan is opening a second factory to keep up with the booming demand for the bars, which come in chocolate, obviously, but also strawberry, edamame, grilled potato, sake, and wasabi, to pull at random from a very, very long list. (In 2010, the top-selling flavor was soy sauce.)

Per Bloomberg, the Japanese bars have been available in more than 300 varieties for decades, making the country a go-to destination for Kit Kat tourism. And Kit Kat tourism, like all tourism to Japan, is up: Visitor spending reached record numbers in the six months through June, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. Better yet (for the Kit Kat biz): Theyre spending more than ever on candy, with consumption more than tripling over the past four years.

We have Kit Kat back in Germany, but its not the same, wistful backpacker Matt Borscak told Bloomberg. The cultural touch makes it interesting. I bought a few packs of the wasabi ones, and I cant wait to shock my friends. Other popular flavors  there are currently 30  include matcha, sake, and purple yam. We take pride in our unique flavors and I think that makes Japan special in the Kit Kat world, said Takuya Hiramatsu, a spokesperson for Nestle Japan.

The first new Kit Kat factory to open in 26 years, the plant  located in the western city of Himeji  is slated to open in August and will be dedicated to making upscale, pricier versions of the snack.

While the true epicenter of Kit Kat technology is the brands flagship Chocolatory store in Tokyo, which reopened this week, you can buy at least some of the more exciting flavors on Amazon, including wasabi, matcha, and sake. To get your hands on the brands latest release, though, youll have to book a trip to Tokyo, where a cake-style Gateau Mignon flavor is exclusively on offer.
The Windows 10-powered alcatel Idol 4 Pro smartphone was all set to go on sale in Europe on July 26 (today). But that's no longer the case as the launch has been delayed. A quick look at Microsoft's Germany and France websites reveals the device will now be available there July 31 onwards.

The launch has been pushed further back for those in the UK - the region's official Microsoft website currently says the phone will be available there August 7 onwards.

There's currently no information on exactly why the European launch for the handset has been pushed back, but let's hope there are no further delays.

Source 1 2 3 | Via
The Samsung Galaxy Note8 is set to be unveiled on August 23 and will likely go on pre-order immediately (though sales will likely start in September). According to a Samsung document, the flagship will reach Australia soon after the US/EU reveal  August 25.

The document details the Screen Assure Offer, TL;DR: you get one free screen replacement in the first 12 months after buying the phone. This deal kicks off on Friday, August 25, making it the likley start of the pre-order campaign.



The salient details of the document

The document also helpfully lists the participating stores and all the major players are covered: Samsung stores (off and on-line), carriers Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin Mobile, then retailers JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Woolworths, The Good Guys, Bing Lee, Costco and quite a few others.

Source (PDF) | Via 1 (in Romanian) | Via 2
These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.
Published on 2017/07/25 | Source

Will the first tvN Wednesday-Thursday drama "Criminal Minds" live up to be a good remake after "The Good Wife" "Criminal Minds" is based on an American drama and it begins on the 26th.

Advertisement

"Criminal Minds" is an investigative drama about a team of specialists use a unique profiling technique to look at things in the criminal's point of view.

The American drama has been popular for the last 13 years in over 200 countries. tvN is the first broadcasting station to make another version of it.

The basis of "Criminal Minds" is psychological investigations. In the original, an FBI Behavior Analysis team investigates psychopaths, sociopaths and terrorists through profiling but the Korean version has been customized in Korean standards..

"Criminal Minds" writer Hong Seung-hyeon said, "The original is a famous American drama and there is a lot of American custom in it. They deal with criminal mentality personally so it's quite different from the Korean contradiction. The most difficult part about the remake was the difference in customs. I made sure the drama could communicate to Koreans".

Directors Yang Yoon-ho from "IRIS" and Lee Jeong-hyo from "The Good Wives" are co-directing "Criminal Minds" which will be released on the 26th of July.
Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news

Login Sign Up

 New Ad-free Subscriber Login

Email

Password

Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password.

Stay logged in

Help
Trent Sebbens, Partner at Ashurst, explains how determining whether a direction is reasonable will depend on the particular circumstances of the case.



An employee with a physical or psychological illness or injury can pose challenges for an employer. The condition of the employee may pose a risk to the health and safety of the employee or other workers, and long term or frequent absences may also cause workforce and operational difficulties.



An employer may wish to determine whether the employee is capable of performing the inherent requirements of their role, or, if the employee has been on a long term absence, the prognosis of the employee and when they may be fit to return to work. There are a number of options that may be available to an employer to require an employee to attend a medical examination to obtain this information:



(a) Voluntary agreement: The employer can request the employee to attend the examination and the employee can consent to do so voluntarily.

(b) Express right: If the employer has an express right under the employee's contract of employment or in an enterprise agreement, then the employer can direct the employee to undertake a medical examination in accordance with the terms of the instrument.

(c) Legislative right: There may be an existing requirement under legislation that the employee participate in a medical assessment.

(d) Lawful and reasonable direction: The employer can give a direction that the employee attend the medical examination, if the direction is a lawful and reasonable.

If an employee refuses a reasonable and lawful direction, an employer may be entitled to dismiss the employee for failure to follow that direction.



Reasonable and lawful direction



Whether a direction is reasonable will depend on the particular circumstances of the case. Issuing a direction might be lawful and reasonable where:

 medical certificates provided by the employee are vague or lacking in detail

 there have been frequent or lengthy unexplained absences from work

 the employee has not offered any information about their prognosis

 the nature of the illness or injury of the employee, and its effect on the employee's ability to safely perform work, is not known; or

 there is conflicting medical evidence.



A court or tribunal will also take into consideration the employer's obligations under safety legislation to ensure the safety of the employee and other workers, when considering whether the request is reasonable.



A Full Court of the Federal Court in Grant v BHP Coal Pty Ltd [2017] FCAFC 42 recently upheld a decision of the Fair Work Commission that the failure of an employee to follow a direction to attend a medical examination was a valid reason for dismissal. The Full Court held that while relevant coal mining safety legislation that applied to the workplace did not declare in express terms that coal mine workers (such as the employee) may be required to undergo medical examinations, the legislature intended that they may be so directed if it is reasonable and necessary to ensure that anyone is not exposed to an unacceptable level of risk.



Specialised medical examination



Whether a direction to attend a medical examination by a medical practitioner with a specialisation, such as an occupational physician or a psychiatrist, is reasonable will depend on the circumstances, and in particular, the available information on the medical condition of the employee.



For example, in Thompson v IGT (Australia) [2008] FCA 994, the Federal Court held that it was reasonable for an employer to direct an employee to attend a psychiatric assessment to determine whether the employee was fit to perform his duties and whether he could do so safely. In reaching this conclusion, the Court had regard to the employee's history of significant absences (including unexplained absences), the employee providing medical certificates that only stated "medical condition", and inconsistencies in the employee's own statements about his health.



Conversely, in Schoeman v Director-General, Department of Attorney-General and Justice [2013] NSW1RComm 1018, a tribunal found that the employer's direction to attend a psychiatric assessment was unreasonable because the employee had sustained a wrist injury (in circumstances where, some years prior, the employee had taken time off due to psychological injuries).



Risks



Assessing fitness for work can be a complicated and fraught process. There are a range of legal risks which an employer could be exposed to, such as breaches of the general protections provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) or anti-discrimination laws, unfair dismissal claims, breach of contract or claims under workers compensation laws.



There is no "one size fits all" approach and each step in the management of an ill or injured employee must be carefully considered in light of each employee's circumstances.



This article was contributed by Trent Sebbens, Partner at Ashurst
The Police of Finland has reported that it recorded more than 600 reports of rapes and aggravated rapes between January and June, a number that represents an increase of 23 per cent from the corresponding period last year.

Open public discussion about sex crimes has resulted in an up-tick in the number of rapes and sexual assaults reported to law enforcement officials in Finland.

The open discussion about sex crimes, in particular, has lowered the reporting threshold, analyses National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen.

Improvements in the rights and position of crime victims and the possibility to receive support and assistance have also encouraged people to report crimes, he adds in a press release issued on Tuesday.

Kolehmainen is referring to a legislative amendment introduced last year that obliges police officers to refer crime victims to assistance programmes and take into account their need for protection in investigative and legal processes.

The Police of Finland also reported that the number of foreign nationals suspected of offences decreased by roughly five per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year. Foreign nationals, however, remain overrepresented in certain types of offences, accounting for 27 per cent of all rape suspects.

The identity of the suspect remains unknown in over a quarter of the rapes reported between January and June, according to the press release.

The number of drug offences has also been on the rise in Finland. The rise presents new challenges to law enforcement authorities especially because narcotics are distributed increasingly through anonymous online marketplaces and because drug smuggling operations are increasingly international  as evidenced by the relatively high share of foreign nationals suspected of aggravated drug offences.

The Police of Finland revealed that, in spite of the challenges, its total crime clearance rate has improved from the previous year.

Police have invested in developing investigative processes and increasing the efficiency of investigations. The pre-processing of basic investigations, for example, has been harmonised in accordance with the strategy of the police, which has facilitated the prioritisation of cases, comments Kolehmainen.

The efforts introduced and to be introduced at police departments are expected to raise clearance rates, he tells.

Another key factor according to the press release have been investments in developing the capabilities to prevent cyber crime.

The Police of Finland also conceded that pre-trial investigations continue to drag on excessively. One of the objectives of the ongoing development efforts, it reminds, is to expedite pre-trial investigations.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Roni Rekomaa  Lehtikuva
Gardai pin a suspect to the ground at Connolly Station.

A court has upheld a gagging order banning the media from identifying a man accused of transporting a loaded gun on a Dublin to Belfast train.

The man (23), suspected of being linked to a crime feud, will enjoy anonymity in the courts indefinitely after a judge refused to lift the ban.

Gardai did not object to the continuation of the ban.

Judge Victor Blake told Cloverhill District Court the reporting restriction ordered last Friday by Judge Gerard Jones would continue.

Judge Jones had imposed the order at the request of the defence, who cited "safety concerns" for the accused after he was arrested.

Judge Blake adjourned the case to a date next month for the DPP's directions.

Ammunition

The identity of a co-accused woman, who is alleged to have passed the suspect the gun and ammunition in a bag, is also banned from publication. However, her case is not due back before the courts until Friday.

The man is alleged to have brought a gun and ammunition onto the train at Connolly Station after it was allegedly handed over by the woman (20) on July 19.

The two accused, from the north-inner city, are each charged with three firearms offences - unlawful possession of a CZ model semi-automatic pistol with two rounds of 7.65 Browning calibre ammunition and one shotgun cartridge.

Judge Jones refused to grant them bail at Dublin District Court last Friday.

When the man's case was called yesterday, defence solicitor Danica Kinane asked Judge Blake to confirm "from the outset" that the order on reporting restrictions remained in effect.

"I note what you are saying, Ms Kinane, but it is not specifically noted on the charge sheets," the judge said.

Ms Kinane said Judge Jones had ordered that, although the bail hearing could be reported on, the accused should not be named.

Garda Gary Dunne of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) said there was no garda objection.

Judge Blake said if Judge Jones did make that specific order, it should continue.

The accused, who is on free legal aid, sat smiling in the dock as his case was being dealt with. He was remanded in custody.

Previously, solicitors had asked for the reporting restrictions at Dublin District Court.

It was alleged the man has links to an organised criminal group, with strong connections in Spain, the Netherlands and other countries.
A career criminal who assaulted and falsely imprisoned an 89-year-old grand- mother in her own home will serve at least eight years in prison.

Michael Cash (25), formerly of Ashlawn Park, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, was sentenced for false imprisonment, burglary and the serious assault of Eva Sutton at her home in Old Dublin Road, Bray.

Expand Close Accomplice Jamie OBrien. Photo: INM / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Accomplice Jamie OBrien. Photo: INM

Cash, a father-of-one, was not supported in court and sat impassively as the judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison with the final two years suspended.

His accomplice, Jamie O'Brien (23), also received a 10-year jail term with the final two years suspended in April.

Judge Michael Walsh told Wicklow Circuit Court that the attack on Ms Sutton was savagery and amounted to "torture".

He described Ms Sutton, who is now 91, as a "wonderfully independent woman" who had been in a position to look after herself and live alone in her own home.

"This was savagely and brutally interrupted on the date in question," he said.

Gda Tom Bissett, of Bray Garda Station, told the court that Cash had 96 previous convictions, of which 29 related to burglary and theft.

He said Cash was on bail at the time of the savage attack.

Cash and O'Brien broke into Ms Sutton's home shortly before 5am on September 10, 2015, and subjected her to a 90-minute ordeal during which she was tied up, beaten and told she would be killed or shot.

The pensioner pleaded for the men to stop, but instead she was kicked in the chest and head, dragged by her hair from room to room and tied up with dog leads.

Mercy

They also beat her with her own walking stick and held it across her throat.

The pair falsely claimed to be members of the IRA in a further attempt to threaten and intimidate her.

The attack left Ms Sutton with broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken nose, cuts to her face and legs and severe bruising to her body.

The thugs did not show any mercy as they beat her, even though at one stage she told them: "I'm dying, I'm dying."

They escaped with money and valuables worth more than 6,000.

Most of the stolen items were never recovered.

In a victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Paul Murray, the court heard that Ms Sutton was now residing at Leopardstown Park Hospital.

"Eva wishes that she had died that morning," the statement said.

After a painstaking garda investigation led by officers at Bray Garda Station, a wealth of forensic evidence and DNA footage was gathered against Cash and O'Brien.

They were later arrested but made no admissions during garda interviews.

While being interrogated, Cash denied any involvement in the crime and described the attack on Ms Sutton as "sick".
BRISTOL, Va.  City leaders agreed Tuesday they must scramble to establish an animal shelter, a project not funded in the current operating budget.

The city has contracted with Jones Animal Hospital in Bristol, Tennessee, for those services for decades, but the owner notified city officials last year he wants to discontinue that service. Now he has given the city a Nov. 1 deadline.

After a lengthy discussion, City Council directed interim City Manager Randy Eads to explore a stop-gap solution and prepare a request for proposals to construct a building to house stray animals.

We appreciate their [Jones] service. Theyve done it for over 30 years and I understand their position, Eads said. So its time for the city to step up and do what we need to do in order to care for the animals running at large or [that] have been mistreated in the city.

Eads plans to contact Bristol, Tennessee, and other area shelters today to see if they might temporarily house city animals by the Nov. 1 deadline and until a facility can be found or constructed. He recently discussed a mutual effort with Washington County, Virginia, but said they seemed unlikely to act so quickly.

Mayor Kevin Mumpower said the city should see what, if any, buildings are available or if someone wants to donate land or a building for this project. The council also discussed an existing city-owned building at the landfill and other potential sites.

The long-term plan is  one  we are going to be asking for a private citizen that would be willing to build an animal shelter, and we contract with that private citizen, and we pay for their services, Eads said. If that is not a possibility, then we would look at building the shelter at our expense and taking care of the animals ourselves.

Eads estimated that a building could cost between $90,000 and $500,000 to construct, depending on size and amenities. It is expected to cost about $80,000 a year to operate, Eads said, plus the city would need to hire at least two employees.

An animal shelter wasnt part of the councils recent, lengthy budget deliberations.

Well have to budget for that in the next budget cycle, Eads said. This year, thats something well have to look for somewhere we can cut some costs to pull some revenue in or well have to pull from some other source.

Mumpower said since the state requires localities to provide shelter services the city has little choice.

If we dont have cash, we have money in the reserve fund, Mumpower said. Hopefully, we can get a grant to pay for a portion of it. Youre going to have to have it, and I dont think the problem is going to evaporate and go away.

A new facility would likely need capacity for at least 10 dogs and 15 cats, Eads said. At any given time, the city typically has five dogs and up to 10 cats at the animal hospital.

During the discussion, Councilman Doug Fleenor said he has a building the city could use on a short term basis to house animals, if no other solution is available.

In other matters, council tabled a proposed budget policy since some members didnt receive a copy of the one-page document until Tuesday.
LEBANON, Va.A Honaker man was convicted Tuesday in connection with a fatal crash in 2015.

Clinard Gary Lambert, 54, was found guilty of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence of drug after a two-day trial in Russell County Circuit Court. The countys commonwealths attorney, Brian Patton, said the jury recommended that Lambert serve seven years in prison and pay a $1,500 fine.

Lambert was involved in a two-car crash on Big A Mountain on March 1, 2015. A passenger in the other vehicle, Forrest River Ramey, 27, died in the crash, according to the Virginia State Po-lice.

Lambert had left a methadone treatment clinic just prior to the crash and his blood was tested and found to contain methadone and other controlled substances, witnesses said during the trial.

This verdict will obviously not bring back Forrest, the young man who lost his life in this tragic automobile crash, but it will hopefully help his family and friends as they continue to grieve his loss, Patton said.

The prosecutor added, Hopefully, the defendant and others who would engage in this illegal and dangerous activity will think twice before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle after using drugs or alcohol.
ABINGDON, Va.  A Bluff City, Tennessee, man charged in what authorities have called a drug-related shooting last October was indicted on a first-degree murder charge by a Washington County grand jury Tuesday.

Griffen D. Ferguson, 19, was indicted on two felony charges: noncapital first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

A jury trial has been scheduled for Sept. 11. Washington County Commonwealths Attorney Josh Cumbow did not return a call seeking comment about the case Tuesday.

Ferguson was previously charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection to the death of 41-year-old Larry M. Addair, of Bluff City.

Last October, police responded to a residence on Safari Drive, just outside of the Bristol city limits along Tranbarger Road. Authorities found Addair with what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound to the upper torso. He was taken to Bristol Regional Medical Center, where he died the next night.

Ferguson was identified as a suspect, Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said, as a result of an investigation and interviews. He said Addair provided a brief statement to authorities at the scene before he was flown to the hospital. Due to his condition, detectives were unable to speak to him at the hospital.

Ferguson remained at large in the days immediately following the shooting but turned himself in four days later.

Addair had a history of drug issues, and Ferguson was arrested in September in Bristol, Tennessee, on drug charges, according to court records.

At the time, the shooting was the 10th call at the Safari Drive residence since 2015, according to Sheriffs Office records. Arguments, disturbances, thefts and a wanted person had also been reported.

Staff writer Robert Sorrell contributed to this report.
I voted with the majority in your online poll to the question, What are your initial thoughts to President Trump's tweeted announcement to re
How do we even begin to confront the irony in the failed grasp of an essential duty of a position thats actually the title of that position?

Judge Kurt Pomrenke reached out to two potential witnesses in the federal corruption trial of his wife, former BVU chief financial officer Stacey Pomrenke. His voicemail and letter to his wifes boss and employee delicately enclosed a significant conviction with an expression of gratitude for their support. Words like honest, ethical and innocent were included by the judge within the context of persuading them to speak well of Stacey if they were called to testify.

When the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission inquired the judge about the ethics of his actions and the potential violation of some of the commonwealths Canons of Judicial Conduct, Pomrenke claimed ignorance, noting he misunderstood them and was simply acting as any good husband under duress would do.

But his actions indicate qualification for the severe penalty of retirement, censure or removal mentioned in the JIRCs complaint about the judge. His actions display an inability to interpret the capacity and impact of his title  or, worse, an attempt to sway a decision in his personal favor.

The judge denies any malicious intent. Lets take a moment to examine two reasonable explanations for the judges activity that are void of scheming, then: Either Judge Pomrenke is ignorant, or he is unable to maneuver the ethical complexities of his position.

Lets assume the judge really did misunderstand the guidance of the canons. Pomrenke has served as a juvenile and domestic relations judge since June 2013. That suggests hes been without full comprehension of the requirements of his position for four years.

If we contemplate his answer to his spousal calling, then the judge fails to connect the dominance of his position with his actions. The separation he inserts between acting like a husband and acting like a judge with regard to a trial hes not presiding over doesnt transfer to those involved. Indeed, the letters recipient, BVU President and CEO Don Bowman, explained under oath the intimidation he inferred from the judges letter and included business card  which raises another worry about Pomrenkes misunderstanding of the amount of coercive power he actually holds.

Even if either or both were attributed, ignorance is simply inexcusable in a position of power like a court judge.

Lets assume otherwise, then: Pomrenke doesnt understand the ethics relative to his job.

Clearly, then, hes unfit to be in a position of judgment  quite literally as a judge.

When Judge Pomrenke reached out to the two possible witnesses, the possibility of crossing that bridge toward inappropriateness didnt seem to have even crossed his mind. Pomrenke said he felt helpless in his wifes trial and believed he communicated as a friend on Staceys behalf. But if the pressure was sufficient to cloud his better judgment, his sense and approach to stressful cases does come into question. Sure, everyone has their limits  but this demanded so much more control than hes displayed here.

One might argue that the scope of his actions regarding his wifes trial doesnt reflect his professional judgment of fairness.

His occupational performance is absolutely demonstrated. He failed the ultimate test of clarity in reason: He succumbed to the affective nature of a case  not one he presided over, but one that required greater cognizance of responsibility in virtue of his proximity, title and influence. That says something about the quality of his logical acumen.

No one would doubt the tremendous stress a situation like his could cause, but the visibility of the trial and his judicial knowledge should have dictated more discerning consideration of his actions.

Was the judge intentionally manipulating the fairness of his wifes trial? Possibly. Do his actions admit the retirement, censure or removal that the JIRC believes hes earned? Absolutely.

Im trying to do better, the judge told the JIRC panel last month.

Its too late, Judge. The damage is done, and now youre just another disappointing player in the BVU scandal.
After Parrott's lead disappears, Trone takes 6th District race

Republican state Del. Neil Parrott conceded on Friday after close race. Trone to return as congressman for 6th District.
With only so many minutes to go around, Geronimo makes most of his
This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/
Amidst the hullabaloo over Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalanis diktats and rumoured replacement plans, veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal is wondering what the government is doing with the report submitted by a panel led by him last year.

Subhash Ghai (L), actor and politician Shatrughan Sinha (C), and film director Shyam Benegal (R) attend Whistling Woods International Institute's 10th convocation ceremony in Mumbai on July 18. (AFP)

It was in April last year that the Shyam Benegal Committee report was submitted to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, proposing ways to revamp the censor board to be in sync with the changing times. But there has been a lull on that front since then.

Benegal, whose panel also included Kamal Haasan and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, says he is as clueless as others. I am waiting to know what they are doing with the report, just like you are waiting, Benegal told IANS over phone.

Benegal was handed the responsibility of suggesting ways to modify the workings of the censor board as filmmakers in the past few years have been locking horns over the censorship rather than certification methods.

The report suggested some major changes -- like taking away the CBFCs power to demand cuts in a film, and also made recommendations about the size of board and its functioning.

From creating trouble for Lipstick Under My Burkha over its sexual scenes and abusive words, to raising objections to the broadcast of a clip with the word intercourse from Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jab Harry Met Sejal on television to stirring up yet another controversy by suggesting 12 cuts and two disclaimers, including removal of words like RSS and Akali from Indu Sarkar -- the CBFC has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the past few months.

Now, there are reports that the government is planning to sack Nihalani, who has steered clear from the news by saying: So far, I have not heard any such plans from the government.

Benegal wants to stay away from commenting on the buzz. I have no comments to make on such type of things (on Nihalani being asked to step down). I also dont wish to speculate (on who could be the next CBFC head), said the 82-year-old.

Nihalani is also in the news for saying that disclaimers arent enough for scenes showing actors smoking or drinking, and expressed his wish to scrap them unless theres strong provocation for the sequence.

Benegal, a Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner, wonders why Nihalanis comments garner so much attention.

Well, he can say what he wants... There are printed guidelines, which is also a constitutional requirement for the certification. Now, one doesnt have to go by the statements that anybody makes. I dont see any reason on why we should go on commenting on what statements he is making.

Reflecting on his thoughts about the smoking and drinking disclaimers, Benegal, known for critically acclaimed cinematic offerings like Ankur, Nishant, Manthan and Bhumika, said: Most of the filmmakers in any case dont show smoking because they have to put that line there. Whenever smoking happens they have to put a line there saying smoking is bad for health... That we had for a long time so there is nothing new in that.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Sunny Leone has made a name for herself in Bollywood and has graduated from acting in mostly sex comedies to appearing opposite leading stars, Raees special song being a case in point. Having captured Hindi film industry and making forays in Tamil and Kannada industry, now she is ready with her Bengali debut. The film is called Sera Bangali and Sunny has already started shooting for it.

Take a look at some of the pictures from the sets in Mumbai.

Sunny Leone during the shooting of her upcoming Bengali film Sera Bangali in Mumbai. (IANS)

Directed by Swapan Saha, the film features Rajpal Yadav opposite Sunny and is set to hit the theatres later this year. Ulka Gupta, Laboni Sarkar, Kaushik Banerjee and Shakti Kapoor will also be seen in the movie.

Sunny Leone on the sets of Sera Bangali in Mumbai on July 25. (IANS)

Prahudheva is the dance director of the film that went on floors recently.

Sunny Leone has worked in Bollywood films like Jism 2, Shootout At Wadala,Singh Is Bliing, Mastizaade, Raees and Noor, among others . She also had special appearances in Tamil (Current Theega) and Kannada (DK) films earlier.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
On the 18th Kargil Vijay Divas, we talk to filmmaker JP Dutta, who made the film LOC Kargil (2003), which portrayed the story of the war that India fought with Pakistan in 1999.

Talking about what brought forward the idea, he says,When I heard the details about the war from the armed forces... and the fact that the Indian army had to climb the mountains while the enemy was on top... and the sheer endeavour and bravery shown by our infantry by knocking them off the peaks of our mountains inspired me to make the film and made me realise that this story must be told.

He adds, There are many incidents during the film that are memorable as it was the toughest film I have ever had to shoot. We owe everything to the men that lay down their lives for us. May they all be in peace

The film, that had an ensemble cast of Sanjay Dutt, Ayyub Khan, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Saif Ali Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, had many incidents which stayed with him.

A still from the film LOC Kargil.

The most memorable incident is that during a sequence where the wounded soldiers were being put into the helicopters, we had live helicopters flying in and the actors had to put the stretchers inside these huge flying machines and the blades of the choppers ended up creating a sand storm of sorts and there was zero visibility but the actors kept the scene going and the cameras kept rolling and we got a brilliant shot, says the director, who is also known for his war film Border (1997).

While the film brought the life of soldiers on screen, this film also gave Dutta the biggest compliment of his life.

At the premiere of the movie, Captain Vijayant Thapars mother (a martyr in the Kargil war) came on stage and thanked me for bringing her son alive for 3 hours. That is the biggest compliment I have ever received in my life, he says.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Nimrat Kaur was 17-years-old and still in school at the time of the Kargil War. The 35-year old remembers how the war brought a lot of mixed feelings for her. We were living in Noida, and I remember when the war was going on, I was still in school. Captain Vijayant Thapar, who sacrificed his life during the war lives in our area, so, even though the country won the war, I had mixed feelings about it, she says.

For the uninitiated, Captain Thapar laid down his life while leading a Rajputana Rifles regiment in an attack on Tololing Peak during the Kargil War on June 29th, 1999. He was 22. He was posthumously awarded the

Vir Chakra.

Of course, there was this feeling of pride, knowing that soldiers had battled so bravely and we had won the war. But there was also a sense of loss and sadness after the unfortunate news of Captain Thapars death and everyone was sad because of that, Nimrat recalls.

Nimrat, who lost her father, an army officer, in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994 when she was only 12 years old, knows the value of a soldiers supreme sacrifice. Although the actor is not happy that the country doesnt remember their contribution often, she is happy that Vijay Diwas is celebrated to honour their memories.

I dont think we should need a particular day in a year to celebrate what our soldiers do and talk about their sacrifices. But its a good thing to remember them nonetheless, and the importance of their sacrifice for our country, she says.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Bharti Airtel, Indias largest telecom company, today reported its smallest profit in 18 quarters as the price war triggered by newcomer Reliance Jio led to a massive 75 % fall in its April-June earnings.

The net profit for the first quarter of 2017-18, at Rs 367 crore, was 74.9 % lower than the year-ago period, and the company blamed the disruptive pricing of the new entrant for continued turbulence and stress in the market.

The net income for the Sunil Mittal company stood at Rs 1,462 crore in the first quarter of 2016-17.

The June quarter net profit is the lowest since December 2012 for Bharti Airtel which along with other established telecom firms has been engaged in a fierce tariff war with Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Jio.

The pricing disruption in the Indian telecom market caused by the entry of a new operator continued with industry revenues declining over 15 % year-on-year, creating further stress on sector profitability, cash flows and leverage, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Vittal stopped short of directly naming the new entrant.

The companys total revenue fell by 14 % to Rs 21,958 crore during the quarter under review, from Rs 25,546 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

Bharti Airtel has been able to control to an extent the drastic sequential slide in its net income that had set in after the launch of Reliance Jios 4G services in September 2016.

The quarter-on-quarter fall in net income stood at 1.7 % when compared to Rs 373.4 crore in the March quarter.

On a sequential basis, the net profit had slumped as much as 65.5 % between the second and the third quarter of last financial year ended March 31.

The earnings numbers of the first quarter of this fiscal came in after the market hours.

Incidentally, April-June was the first quarter of charged 4G services by rival Reliance Jio. The newcomer has recently raised the competitive intensity in the sector with the launch of its bundled zero cost Jio phone.

Bharti Airtels consolidated net debt has decreased to Rs 87,840 crore from Rs 91,400 crore in the previous quarter.

The operating free cash flow of Bharti Airtel also declined by 73.5 % to Rs 1,237 crore in the reported quarter from Rs 4,666 crore in the same quarter of 2016-17.

Lower EBITDA along with rising spectrum interest and amortisation costs has resulted in deterioration of Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) to 5.6 % from 7.6 % in the corresponding quarter last year, the statement said.

Net interest costs of Rs 1,789 crore have risen from Rs 1,631 crore in the corresponding quarter last year  largely due to increased spectrum related interest costs. The forex and derivative loss for June quarter was at Rs 39 crore compared to loss of Rs 309 crore in the same period last year.

Airtels India revenues declined by 10 % in the June quarter to Rs 17,244 crore, hurt by the performance of the mobile services segment.

The total customer base of Airtel in India increased by 9.7 % to over 28 crore but its average revenue per user declined by 21.1 % to Rs 154 from Rs 196 on YoY basis.

Average Data usage on Airtel India network grew about three fold to 2611 megabyte (about 2.5 GB) per customer from 904 MB on YoY basis. But the average revenue from the data services per customer declined by 22.7 % during the period.

Mobile market remains turbulent in the current quarter as well, due to disruptive pricing by a new operator, the statement said.

Raghunath Mandava, MD and CEO, Africa, said, Airtel Africa organic revenue growth for the quarter was 1.5 % year on year...New KYC norms impacted customer additions and consequently revenue growth in the quarter.

Airtel said Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, CEO, Rashed Fahad Al-Noaimi has joined as an additional director on the companys board.

Ahead of the results, the companys shares ended 1.76 % higher to close at Rs 427.6 on BSE.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stopped printing 2,000-rupee notes about five months ago, stepping up instead the production of smaller bills, including a new Rs 200, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The central bank is also unlikely to print more 2000-rupee notes in the current financial year, they said on condition of anonymity.

The government brought in the 2000-rupee note to quickly tide over a cash crunch from demonetisation, but fewer lower-value currency in circulation meant people struggled to change the big denomination bill.

The RBIs focus now on printing small bills is aimed at bridging that gap.

About 3.7 billion 2,000-rupee notes amounting to Rs 7.4 trillion have been printed, said one of the people cited above. That more than compensates for the 6.3 billion 1,000-rupee bills withdrawn from November 8.

Most of the printing thats being done, about 90% is only 500-rupee notes. Nearly 14 billion pieces of new 500-rupee notes have been printed so far, one of the people cited above said.

That is also close to the 15.7 billion of old 500-rupee notes (amounting to Rs7.85 trillion) withdrawn from circulation after November 8.

Not all the new notes printed so far have been released into circulation by the central bank.

RBI data shows that currency in circulation stood at Rs 15.22 trillion as on 14 July, eight months after demonetisation. This is about 86% of the Rs 17.7 trillion that was in circulation on November 4.

Separately, the RBIs Mysore press has also started printing the new 200-rupee bills, which are likely to come into circulation next month, according to a second person.

Initially, around a billion 200-rupee notes are expected to hit the market, this person added.

The central bank did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The new batches of 500-rupee notes are expected to ease the shortage of 2,000-rupee notes in circulation that is being reported in certain parts of the country.

The cash crunch which existed till two months ago has now eased with RBI increasing supply of 500-rupee notes over the last 40 days, said Neeraj Vyas, deputy managing director, State Bank of India (SBI).

But we have also seen a sharp drop in the supply of 2,000-rupee notes during this period.

A July 19 report from SBIs economic research wing showed that cash on hand with banks is high at 5.4% of currency in circulation compared with 3.8% pre-demonetisation. This shows that there is excess cash lying in ATMs or bank branches, most of which could mostly be 2,000-rupee notes, concluded the report.

Although we havent seen any drop in supply of 2,000-rupee notes, we expect it to be moved out of ATMs once 200-rupee notes hit the market, said Radha Rama Dorai, country head, ATM and allied services, at ATM service provider FIS.

(Additional reporting by Mahua Venkatesh)
The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have joined hands to incubate innovative ideas and start-ups in the energy sector.

An MoU in this connection was signed at Enterprise Incubation Centre (Lucknow-incubator) of IIM-Lucknow, Noida campus, on July 22.

Students of IIM-Lucknow and its Noida campus, IIM alumni and any graduate who comes up with a brilliant idea for a start-up will be supported under the programme.

Aspirants made presentations before the steering committee comprising executive director, HPCL, Rakesh Misri, GM, HPCL, Sanjay Kumar, senior manager, HPCL, Shantanu Mohinta, managing director of Lucknow-incubator Prof M Akbar, investors Dhianu and Arun Agarwal, and vice-president, Lucknow-incubator, IIM-L, S Rounaque Mustafa.

The Lucknow-incubator of IIM-L had received about 150 applications. After two rounds of screening, 12 applicants were shortlisted and invited for pitching session.

The proposals covered areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, internet of things (IoT) and solar energy.

The selected start-ups will be provided seed investment and incubation at IIM-Ls Lucknow-incubator.

HPCLs executive director said his company was committed to fostering new ideas in energy sector and promoting entrepreneurship among the youth. He emphasised on the significance of the MoU.

Lucknow-incubators MD Prof M Akbar hailed HPCL for bringing the start-up programme to Lucknow-incubator.

The agreement will unlock the unlimited and undeniable potential of the start-up ecosystem in India and translate into major impact for the economy as a whole, he said.

The IIM-L will soon set up an incubation and research centre to promote innovative projects and research on its campus.

Anybody who comes with a viable proposal for setting up an innovative project, the IIM-L will support it and will help in transferring technology to the industry, director, IIM-L, Ajit Prasad had earlier told Hindustan Times.

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has agreed to give Rs 3.5 crore for the incubation centre.
DEHRADUN: Yoga guru Ramdev assured the Uttarakhand government of Rs 1,000 crore annual business as a buyback offer for sourcing the produce of the farmers in the hill state.

After a meeting with chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, the yoga guru said the government and Patanjali are close to reach a formal understanding for a long time association in farming and yoga.

We are committed to promote Uttarakhand as an organic and herbal state. We are working on buy back model that will give Rs 1,000 crore (annual) business to farmers, Ramdev told the media after holding a meeting with Rawat and his officials.

Ramdev added that he had a valuable discussion with the Uttarakhand representatives.

Patanjali and the government are moving towards an understanding to promote herbal farming and revival of traditional farming with required value addition. The details of the understanding will be chalked out in a month and the chief minister will review it, he added.

The Ramdev promoted Patanjali runs a food park in the outskirts of Haridwar. Ramdev shares cordial ties with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Before Wednesdays meeting, Ayush minister Harak Singh Rawat held talks with Ramdevs associate and Patanjali managing director Acharya Balkrishna.

Ramdev added that he plans to open a world class cow shelter and dairy facility in association with the state government.

After assuming office in March, Rawat has been desperate to find ways to showcase development works particularly in the hilly areas. With Patanjali likely to double up as a buyer of herbal and farm produce, the Uttarakhand government seems to have a find a solution in a single stroke.

Patanjali will cooperate in five sectors of organic farming, herbs, branding and marketing of coarse cereals, establishment of Ayush villages in state and opening of a cow shelter, Rawat said. We strongly feel our association with Patanjali will be a game changer. The government will not hesitate in taking bold steps, he said, adding that the government will make necessary arrangements with Patanjali once officials are done with the plan.

Ramdev calls for boycott of Chinese products

On the backdrop of India-China border standoff over Doklam, Ramdev said it was the high time that New Delhi strongly maintains its position on Doklam. China will be affected once Indians boycott Chinese products, he said.

The yoga guru said the Chinese firms are earning to the tune of Rs 25 lakh crore from the domestic market. Ramdev, who has been batting for Swadesi products, demanded a boycott of Chinese products. India should continue to maintain its position over Doklam and Indians have to completely boycott Chinese products..., he said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The visit will allow him to see firsthand the positive contribution Australias defence partnership with Vietnam is making. It is also an important opportunity to look to the future of the bilateral defence cooperation program.

Australia has a longstanding and strong history of engagement in Vietnam. We are working with Vietnam and other countries to ensure our region is safe, secure, and prosperous. Australias defence cooperation program in Vietnam is part of this commitment, said Australian Charge DAffaires to Vietnam, Mr Layton Pike.

Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs (Source: http://video.defence.gov.au)



During the trip, Vice Admiral Griggs set to meet with the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang; the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Senior Lieutenant General Pham Ngoc Minh; as well as Air Force-Air Defence, Navy and Coast Guard leaders to discuss further bilateral cooperation in a range of specialist areas, including maritime security.

Then he will deliver a speech to Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence personnel on overcoming the challenges posed by Australias military modernization efforts. Besides, Mr Ray Griggs will visit the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre to discuss Vietnams current and future contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.

His visit to Vietnam is one part of an extensive regional tour to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, in which he will discuss Australias enduring cooperation with regional military forces./.
Seven juveniles allegedly escaped from a correction home in outer Delhis Alipur after thrashing and tying up the security guard on Monday night.

According to the police, the juveniles were taken to the Alipur home a week ago after they were transferred from three different shelters over disciplinary issues.

On Monday night, the minors aged, between 16 and 17 years, were reportedly taken for dinner by the security guard Satveer.

The boys told him that they will do the dishes in the bathroom before retiring to their rooms. When they went to the bathroom, four of them allegedly held Satveer and tied him up with pieces of cloth.

When Satveer resisted, he was beaten up and punched in the face. When he tried to raise an alarm to alert the authorities, the boys stuffed a few pieces of cloth in his mouth. The boys then got out of the bathroom, scaled the 10-feet-high wall of the home and escaped, a police officer said.

The matter came to fore when Satveer managed to untie himself and alerted the staff at the home. The police were informed and the team searched for the boys in the adjoining areas. They, however, could not be found.

They were searched in the areas adjoining the correction home. The local police stations were also given information. It appears the boys had been planning the escape for the past one week. They had the cloth handy that they used to tie the guard, an investigator said.

The police are questioning vendors in the area and are scanning CCTV cameras installed in the neighbourhood to get some clues. The boys, police said, were involved in cases of theft and loot.
At least five people, including four members of a family, were killed and four others injured after the multi-purpose vehicle they were travelling in was rammed by a truck in east Delhis Kalyanpuri area early on Wednesday, police said.

The Innova was carrying eight members of a family belonging to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. They were returning to their home from the Delhi airport after receiving a relative who was arriving from Iran, police said.

The dump truck overturned after ramming into the Innova. (HT Photo)

As the Innova was passing through Kalyanpuri on National Highway 24 around 3am, a dumper truck travelling on the opposite carriageway broke through the road divider and rammed into the Innova.

The Innova overturned at least thrice because of the impact before coming to a halt. The truck too overturned but the driver managed to escape before he could be caught.

It is possible the driver fell asleep. He escaped from the accident spot, but we hope to nab him soon, deputy commissioner of police (east) Omvir Singh said.

By the time the occupants could be pulled out of the mangled remains of the Innova, five of them had already died. The rest were rushed to a nearby hospital where at least one of them is in a critical condition.

The dead have been identified as 55-year-old Qamar Abbas Zaidi, his wife Anjum Fathima Zaidi, 50, son Azhar Abbas Zaidi, 18, daughter Juhi Fathima, 14, and the 33-year-old driver Mehraj. Among the injured are three children, including Zaidis 13-year-old son Abbas, and a woman, the DCP said.

Relatives of the five persons at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in New Delhi. (Sushil Kumar / HT Photo)

The police said they were in a process of registering a case and have formed a team to identify and nab the errant truck driver and establish the exact sequence of events leading to the accident.

The mangled remains of the two vehicles, meanwhile, were being removed from the accident spot by the Delhi Traffic Police in the morning.

The mangled Innova that met with an accident on NH 24. (HT Photo)

Government data says someone dies every 3.7 minutes in road accidents across the country, which is known for rash driving, inadequate traffic enforcement, badly maintained roads and poor quality cars.

In the last six years, at least 10,000 persons died in road accidents across Delhi. The number is more than thrice compared to Mumbai and at least two times more in comparison to Bengalurus road fatalities.
A four-year-old schoolgirl was raped allegedly by the driver of a private school van in outer Delhis Baba Haridas Nagar on Tuesday afternoon.

The girl, a nursery student at a private school, suffered injuries in her private parts and is under treatment at a hospital, police said.

The driver, Pawan Kumar, 25, was arrested after the girls family filed a complaint against him. An FIR under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Baba Haridas Nagar police station.

Police said Kumar is married and father of a girl child. A police officer said a few families had hired Kumars van to ferry their children to school.

The girls parents told police that around 2 pm on Tuesday , the driver dropped other children home and their daughter was alone in the van when the incident took place.

Kumar was on the way to the girls home to drop her when he allegedly stopped the vehicle in a secluded area, some 600 metres away from her home, and forced himself on her. He allegedly threatened the girl with dire consequences if she told anybody about it.

Police said the driver later dropped the girl outside her home and fled in his vehicle. After reaching home, the child complained about pain in her stomach and private parts and started crying. When the mother found her daughter bleeding, she informed her husband and they admitted her to a hospital.

Doctors at the hospital told the girls parents that she was sexually assaulted. The parents asked their daughter who she told them that she was hurt by the school van driver. The family approached the police and lodged a complaint, said the officer. The driver was later arrested and his van was impounded.

The matter was brought to the notice of the Delhi Commission for Women and senior police officers who assured the family that the case would be tried in a fast-track court.

The police seized Kumars mobile phone and were examining it to see if he had filmed the sexual assault on the rape survivor or any other girl. He would be produced before a city court on Thursday.

The condition of the girl is said to be stable and out of danger. She is being counselled by members of an NGO to overcome the trauma.
A woman in southwest Delhis Kapashera planned the perfect murder of her abusive husband and almost got away with it too, but for the sharp eye of a police informer who spotted injuries on the body minutes before it was cremated.

The woman, Shilpi Adhikari, 32, police said, killed her husband but did not know what to do with the body after the murder.

She slept beside it for two nights inside her one-room house in Kapashera.

On the third day, she informed her neighbours and tried to pass the incident off as natural death. She almost managed to get away with it too but for a police informer, who noticed strangulation marks on the mans neck minutes before the body was to be cremated and informed the police. The police on Tuesday arrested Shilpi and registered a case of murder.

Shilpi Adhikari, a native of West Bengal, worked as a housekeeping employee at the Royal Bank of Scotland. She waited for the weekend to execute her plan, when her husband Nitish usually drank heavily and thrashed her. It had to be done on a Saturday. She had waited the whole week. According to investigating officials, on Saturday evening after dinner, she offered Nitish alcohol. She had bought extra alcohol for her husband from a local shop near her house. She told her husband that it was her treat and continued giving him alcohol till late in the night, an investigating officer said.

Read: He beat me for hours: Delhi woman who smothered husband says he left no choice

At around midnight, when her husband passed out she strangulated him. Unsure about what to do next, she continued to sleep in the same 8x10 feet room with the body, the officer said.

For more than 48 hours, Shilpi did not step out. On Monday morning, at around 9 am, locals in the Kapashera village heard Shilpi crying outside her house. She was wailing loudly, a villagers later told the police.

She told locals that her husband had suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep. Nobody suspected her. The couple had two kids, aged 13 and 11, who live with their maternal grandmother in West Bengal.

According to police, the locals, mostly migrants from West Bengal and Bihar, advised that the body be cremated as it had started smelling because of the heat on Monday as the day temperature was around 37C.

By noon, the locals reached the crematorium along with the body. Shilpi was there too. An officer said Nitishs body was on a pyre, when a police informer noticed some marks on Nitishs body and also realised that the smell emanating from the body wasnt normal. He secretly called inspector Ashish Dalal, posted at the Kapashera police station.

Dalal and his team immediately rushed to the crematorium and stopped the locals from cremating the body. Had we been 10-15 minutes late, the body would have reduced to ashes. There would be no evidence and it would have been a perfect murder. We took the body and sent it for post mortem, an officer told the Hindustan Times.

Doctors told the police on Tuesday morning that the man had died of strangulation more than 72 hours before the body was brought for post mortem. Shilpi, who was detained from the spot, was formally arrested. Nitish, according to Shilpis confession was an abusive drinker who thrashed her mercilessly.

The beatings, like his drinking, had increased over the last few months leaving her with no option but to murder him.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
In a freak accident in east Delhis Old Seelampur, a four-year-old girl died after she fell in a pot filled with hot tea.

The girl fell into the freshly boiled beverage head first on Saturday, receiving severe burns to her face and upper body parts. She battled for life at a hospital for two days before succumbing to her injuries on Monday evening.

The girl, Ayaat, lived with her parents and six other siblings in a cramped rented accommodation in Old Seelampur. Her father, Irfan, works as a tailor in the nearby Gandhi Nagar garments market.

Left with little free space in their room, the siblings mostly spent their time on one large bed. Police said Ayaats older sister had just prepared tea in a saucepan and kept it under the bed as she waited for the older siblings and her parents to join her. But, Ayaat toppled off the bed, landing head-first into the uncovered saucepan. The siblings who tried to help also burnt their limbs.

The child, meanwhile, was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where she underwent treatment for two days, but the girl could not survive.

Our probe has not pointed to any foul play. It was an unfortunate accident, said a senior police officer, adding no case was registered in this connection.
Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Wednesday accused Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of lying in a defamation case filed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader.

Jethmalanis charge came days after Kejriwal filed an affidavit in the Delhi high court denying the lawyers assertion that he used a derogatory word against Jaitley on the instruction of the chief minister.

The legal eagle said he will no longer represent Kejriwal in the civil and criminal defamation cases.

The reason being he lied that he did not give me instructions, fact is he did, Jethmalani told a news agency.

Jethmalani also dared the chief minister to release a letter which purportedly contains details of discussions between Kejriwal and the lawyer on the case. A Times of India report said Kejriwal used even more objectionable words against Jaitley during the discussions.

He (Kejriwal) should release (the) letter which I sent to him, Jethmalani said.

Jethmalani, representing the CM in a Rs 10 crore civil defamation case, allegedly used a derogatory word against Jaitley during a hearing in the high court on May 17, the report said

Jethmalani also told Jaitley he had used the word on the instruction of Kejriwal. This prompted Jaitley to file a separate Rs 10 crore criminal defamation case against the chief minister.

In his affidavit to the HC later, Kejriwal said it was inconceivable that he (Kejriwal) would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words, the report added.

Jethmalani said he has asked Kejriwal to clear his legal fees of Rs two crore.

Fees nahi dega to koi baat nahi, main hazaaron logon ke liye free mein kaam karta hoon (Its ok, if he does not pay. I work for free for thousands of people), Jethmalani added.

(With agency inputs)
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president along with five other students may not be able to continue studying at the university after they refused pay the fine imposed on them on the last day of registration on Wednesday.

At the beginning of every academic year, all students have to pay their dues, including mess bill and fines imposed on account of indiscipline by proctor office, to register to continue as a student at JNU.

A student needs to get all clearances before registration. If the students refuse to pay the fine imposed on them by the proctor office on account of their indiscipline, they stop being a student of the university, said Pramod Kumar, JNU registrar.

Students said it was an attempt by the administration to throw them out from the university.

Today, the last date for semester registration in JNU is over, still 5-6 students, including me, did not get registration for the next semester. Now the condition is that our academic work of last many years will go waste if we will not get registration for the next semester, said Mohit Pandey, president JNUSU.

Pandey, who faces a fine of Rs 20,000, said the vice-chancellor was setting enquiries against students and stopping their academic work to disallow all kinds of dissent.

In the beginning of this semester, almost 30 students did not get registration. We ran a campaign to collect funds to pay the fine for some of the students, he said.

Four students Mulayam Singh, Shakeel Anjum, Prashant Kumar, and Dileep Kumar, moved court on the issue. The court gave us three more days to pay the fine, said Mulayam Singh.

The JNUSU president, however, is not paying the fine. The enquiries against him range from pasting posters to asking for appointment with the VC, he said.

I decided to not give fine because of this ransom tactics of admin. There are no set procedures and standards of enquiries and actions of admin. They do it according to their intentions. In this case it becomes difficult for us to get free and fair judgment through some unbiased enquiry. If they start imposing fine on me in such a manner, then, I have to pay more than 1 lakh rupee, he said.
In an unprecedented verdict, a Delhi court on Wednesday awarded a two-month jail term to a school principal and its director for causing mental trauma to a 7-year-old girl by not allowing her to enter the classroom.

Kavita Chandra was the then director and Romi Chawla was the then principal of Dwarka-based OPG World School, where the incident took place on April 24, 2012. Both have been directed to pay a compensation of R 2.5 lakh each to the girl.

For five long years, my daughter was traumatised and wondered what her fault was. The incident happened when she was in class 3 and admissions were closed in other schools. It took us over two months to find another school, and my child remained at home all this while for no fault of hers, the girls father told Hindustan Times.

Stating that the act of not allowing the child to sit in the classroom amounts to wilful neglect, the court had in June this year convicted Chandra and Chawla under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.

The girls father had complained that his daughter was ill treated and confined by the school management throughout the school hours on April 24, 2012, in order to pressurise him to withdraw her from school. He said that instead of keeping her in the class with her classmates, she was wrongly confined to various other places in the school where neither children were present nor any activity was going on. He claimed that she was not even sent to dining hall to have a breakfast and lunch with her classmates.

During her cross examination in the court, the girl had said that she was told by her class teacher that the director and principal had given instructions to not allow her to sit in the classroom.

During the course of investigation, the director and the principal had said that a transfer certificate was issued on April 23, 2012 on the request of the girls parents. However, instead of collecting the transfer certificate, the child was sent to the school. They said that since the girl was not feeling comfortable on arrival at the school and knowing her past history of asthma, she was sent to infirmary for rest. The school had requested the parents to pick her up and collect the transfer certificate.

However, the girls father said that he had raised questions against the arbitrary increase in school fees and accessory charges, after which the school management sought to evict his daughter with a transfer certificate.

I had already paid the school fees in advance and so I refused to accept the transfer certificate. I told them that I will transfer her only after finding another school. But still the management prevented my daughter from attending her classes, said the girls father.

In its judgment, the court said that whatever may be the differences with the parents, the school authorities could not have allowed the child to be neglected. It further said that the child cannot be thrown out at the whim and fancies of the school authorities.

The girls father said that he ran from pillar to post to get justice for her daughter, who is now 12-years-old. She is one of the top performers in her new school.

ENDS

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A day after the Delhi governments decision to reject the north corporations file to notify boundaries of its zones, the latter has decided to take the matter to court.

The Delhi government on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to the south and east corporation to form the zones. But it rejected the north corporations proposal to form a new zone named Keshavpuram (from Civil Lines, Narela and Rohini zones) and culmination the Sadar Paharganj and city zones on the grounds that it was not legally tenable.

Miffed with the decision, mayor Preety Agarwal and commissioner Praveen Gupta met the lieutenant Governor on Wednesday, seeking his intervention regarding clearance of the file.

According to Agarwal, the L-G was convinced with the proposal as it was in the interest of citizens and sent the file back to the Delhi government.

The proposal to notify boundaries of zones has been rejected on flimsy grounds, saying it would confuse citizens. But that fact is that residents have nothing to do with this process of forming new zones. If a file regarding notification of zone boundaries is not cleared in one week, we will take the matter to the high court, said Agarwal.

The Delhi governments decision to reject the file is politically motivated and deprives people of Delhi from civic and infrastructure facilities, she said.

The new house was constituted more than two months ago but still it is not possible to clear the projects for buying new cleaning machines and hospital equipment. For smooth functioning of the deliberative wing, it is essential to have the statutory committees (such as standing and zonal committees) in place, she said.

The North MCD official said that the decision would help to bring all wards in one assembly constituency under one zone.

A Delhi government official said the north corporations file was rejected as it was not in conformity with the rules and regulation under the Delhi Municipal Act. The proposal to form a new zone is not legally tenable, thats why we rejected the file and shared the details with the civic agency as well, said an official.

They (North DMC) are free to choose any medium for expressing their point of view, said the official on the North MCDs mayor decision to take the matter to court if no decision is taken in a month.

The official confirmed the appointment of eldermen in the three civic agencies. The L-G approved the proposal and a list of 30 eldermen (10 for South, East and North Corporation) was notified today, he said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
They had been planning this vacation together over the phone for months. A trip to Central Market, Sadar Bazar for clothes and Jama Masjid for food topped the list. All of it, however, ended in a tragic accident while they were on their way home from the Delhi airport.

On Tuesday night, Azhar Abbas Zaidi (18) and his sister, Juhi Fathima (14) got dressed to receive their cousin Ali Zaidi and aunt Anjum Fatima, who were coming from Iran, to Meerut. Excited, they insisted that they would accompany their father Qamar Zaidi and mother Anjum Fathima to the airport.

They insisted that they take their cousins Sukene and Abbas Mehendi along. Qamar could not refuse. Azhar, however, had to leave behind their sibling, Mohammad Abbas (14) due to lack of space in the car.

The Innova car they were returning in, however, met with an accident while they were on their way back. As they were passing through Mayur Vihar on National Highway 24 around 3.55 am going towards Ghaziabad, a dumper truck travelling on the opposite carriageway broke through the road divider and fell head-on, on the bonnet of the Innova, crushing it. The truck then turned again falling to its right, while the Innova overturned with the impact. Four members of the family along with the driver died on the spot while the guests, were critically injured.

Members of the victim family outside the hospital. (Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Abbas, who the family had left behind, was waiting for them to return when he got a call about the accident. When we were told that there was an accident, we thought that the car would have been damaged. Never in our dreams could we think that our family will be wiped out, Kausar Abbas, a relative said.

The mangled remains of the Innova car in which the family was travelling. (Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

We are all a joint family and really love each other. We often plan vacations together and this was just one of them. Anjum Fatima is Qamars sister-in-law and the cousins had been planning this get-together for a while. They even planned that they will all go to pick them up from the airport. When I spoke to Fatima on Tuesday she told me how she was excited about her shopping trip to Delhis markets. She even asked me to accompany her to the markets and today she is in the hospital with brain injuries while we have lost half our family, he added.

Abbas, has not yet been informed about the death of his parents and siblings. We have just told him that there was an accident. He is under the impression that his parents are in the hospital. We do not know how to break the news to him. He is just 14-years-old, another relative said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Ho Chi Minh city and Champasak province leaders cut a ribbon to open Ho Chi Minh city Days in Champasak 2017. (Photo: SGGP)

During a meeting with Bounthong Divixay, member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Laos Champasak provincial Party Committee and Chief of the province, Mr. Cang said that his delegations visit aimed to confirm Ho Chi Minh citys efforts and will in reinforcing and increasing the friendly and cooperative relationship between Ho Chi Minh city and Champasak province in particular and between the Vietnamese city and Lao localities in general.

The visit was part of activities marking the 55th anniversary of Vietnam - Laos diplomatic relations (September 5th) and 40th year since the signing of the Vietnam - Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (July 18th).

Mr. Cang expressed his hope that the two localities would share experience in Party building and the activities of Peoples Council; and promote tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in general, and between Ho Chi Minh city and Champasak province in particular.

According to Mr. Bounthong Divixay, the cooperation between Ho Chi Minh city and Champasak province has reported positive progress in recent years, especially in education as Ho Chi Minh city grants 630 scholarships to the Lao province, in medicine plant project, Ho Chi Minh citys assistance in supporting victims of natural disasters and in building a cultural palace. The assistance has contributed to boosting Champasak provinces economic development, he said.

The two localities leaders agreed that the two sides would promote the implementation of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the 2016-2020 period, focusing on exchanging delegations, sharing experience in the operation of Peoples Council, and discussing cooperation in cell tissue culture, microbiological technology and biological products. Champasak province will continue to make favourable conditions for Ho Chi Minh citys investment projects in Laos.

Earlier, the Vietnamese delegation attended the opening ceremony of the event Ho Chi Minh city Days in Champasak 2017 which will last until July 27th./.
In a move aimed at improving their employability prospects, engineering students across the country will have to undergo at least three mandatory internships during their course from this academic year. It will be the responsibility of colleges to ensure internship for students.

In 2015-16, 56% students graduating from engineering colleges remained unemployed.

Not only this, their teachers too will have to undergo mandatory refresher course annually, failing which the approval to their institute can be denied. So far, the system of summer internships was only being followed by reputed engineering colleges.

Every student in technical institute should undergo three internships each spanning four to eight weeks before completion of his/her under-graduation course. The responsibility will be on the institute to help students find a suitable industry for the internship, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

He said as per the data collected by AICTE from 10,328 technical institutes, of the 15.87 lakh students only 6.96 lakh got jobs through campus placements in 2015-16 . However, the minister claimed that the number could have been higher had the students not opted for higher studies and start-ups.

Therefore, it will be wrong to say that more than half of the engineers graduating from technical institutes across the country remain unemployed, Javadekar had said in the Lok Sabha.

The low-employability levels are attributed as much to the lack of requisite skills as the falling demand in the industry.

Meanwhile, the teachers of engineering institutes will have to take up online courses offered on governments SWAYAM portal. Every teacher in each of the technical discipline shall mandatorily undergo an annual refresher course through SWAYAM portal (Massive open online course), encapsulating all advances in their field of study.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modis vision of digital India, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) has created a special cell for issuing digital certificates/degrees to its students.

The varsity, avoiding the use of paper, will now issue digital certificates to students. These certificates will be preserved digitally under the National Academic Depository (NAD).

NAD is a commendable initiative of the central government. It is kind of a bank where students will have digital accounts for procuring and preserving their digital documents issued by the university to them, said a senior official of the varsity.

If a student requires a transcription of his/her certificate anywhere around the globe, he/she can simply access the documents from his digital account with NAD. Unlike the present scenario, students will not have to visit the university in emergency situations to get their certificates. They will also not have to pay any fee to the university for getting certificates.

NAD will provide free services to users for first two years and after that it will charge a nominal fee for preserving documents. There will be full transparency and no risk of fake degrees or certificates involved as students will be identified by their respective Aadhaar number, said the officer.

Pertinently, NAD was recently launched in New Delhi by former President of India Pranab Mukherjee. Vice-chancellors of around 700 universities across country were part of the event, where the human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar directed them to adopt the practice at the earliest.

BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur, confirming the report said, Following the conference of the VCs regarding digital initiatives in higher education, one thing which is very useful for students is the preservation of their degrees and detailed marks with NAD. BFUHS has created a cell for the same purpose.

We have appointed a nodal officer too adhering with the instructions of the concerned ministry. This initiative of the government is a great step in bringing absolute transparency in the education system, said the VC.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Kolkata Union minister of state for human resource development Mahendra Nath Pandey on Tuesday dubbed the controversy over demand to place a decommissioned tank in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) premises as meaningless.

It is better if you discuss the good research works that come out of JNU. These discussions are meaningless, Pandey told mediapersons here on the sidelines of an Assocham event.

JNU vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar had on Monday said that presence of an Army tank will constantly remind students of the great sacrifice and the valour of Indian Army and defence forces.

As for the draft National Education Policy, Pandey said it would be released on December 31 this year.

Asked on reports claiming that Dina Nath Batra - the head of the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, an RSS-affiliated outfit - had recommended removal of Urdu and Arabic words and work of some famous writers like Rabindranath Tagore and Ghalib from the NCERT textbooks, Pandey said there was no such consideration.

This is wrong information. Tagore is an icon and is Indias pride. There is nothing like this. We respect him a lot.

On restructuring the University Grants Commission (UGC), he said talks were on.

For reforming UGC, talks are on. There is no clear plan yet. But we are discussing how to improve the body, he said.
New Delhi Three candidates have been fielded, so far, by different teachers bodies for the post of president in the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) elections, scheduled to take place in August.

The election for the office of president and 15 members of executive committee for 2017-2019 will be conducted on August 31.

Candidates have to file their nominations on August 22 and 23. Counting of votes will take place on the day of elections, August 31.

Left-affiliated Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) put up Rajib Ray, a professor of philosophy from Kirori Mal College, as its candidate for the president post.

Ray is a veteran of the teachers movement and had been twice elected as teacher representative of DU Executive Council, Nandita Narain, DUTA president said.

National Democratic Teachers Front(NDTF), a BJP-affiliated body, has announced last years runner up VS Negi as its candidate, while University Teachers Forum (UTF) candidate will be a professor of political science - Surender Singh Rana.

Our agenda will be to fight for permanent posts, promotions, pensions, pay commission and take up issues of physical education teachers, among others, said Sandeep Kumar, a UTF member and DUTA secretary.

Another group - Academics for Action and Development (AAD) has decided to back the UTFs presidential candidate and will be fielding four of its candidates for DUTA executive committee.

Among other issues, AADs agenda would be to demand maternity leave for ad-hoc teachers, promotions, oppose the retrospective implementation of the point system, and not counting of ad-hoc experience, Rajesh Jha of AAD said.

Election Officer Prof Ujjwal Kumar Singh said that so far two meetings have been held and further discussions would be held to finalise a concrete plan for the upcoming polls.

For the past three consecutive terms, DUTA president post has gone to DTF.

Professor Nandita Narain had been elected for two consecutive terms and before that, a Hindi Professor Amar Deo Sharma was the president of DUTA for one term.

The DUTA president is elected for a single two-year term.
Shillong Director General of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Lt Gen Vinod Vashisht said on Tuesday that only 49 colleges in the country had opted for NCC their elective subjects.

The NCC chief has also urged state governments in the northeast region to take NCC as an elective subject in educational institutions.

We have made plans and there are 49 colleges in our country that have opted for NCC as elective subject. Books are ready, Lt Gen Vashist said during a two-day visit to Meghalaya.

Expressing regret that none of the state governments in the region had taken up the opportunity, he said, If they do not want it, it is their call. It has happened in the last two years, urging the state governments to make use of the opportunity.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had issued a notification directing all universities to offer NCC as a subject in 2016 although NCC as an elective subject was first proposed in 2013 by the human resources development (HRD) ministry.

From the NCC point of view, offering NCC as an elective subject is seen as opportunity to woo students into its fold without them losing too many hours to attend NCC classes.

In its official syllabus, NCC will have a common service subject and specific subjects for the Army, Navy and Air Force for teaching and will be taken as a regular subject rather than an extracurricular one by the educational institutions.

An NCC officer, who did not wish to be named, said the state government was taking time to initiate this and was seeking legal opinion and other expert opinions on the matter.

Making NCC as an elective subject is expected to attract more students to join the organisation without worrying much about their academics, he said.

At present there are about 13.8 lakh cadets in the country and about 89,000 of them are enrolled in the entire northeast region alone.

With regards to the Youth Exchange Programme (YEP) the NCC used to have previously with Canada and other western countries, Lt Gen Vashisht said the NCC is conducting YEP programmes with 11 countries including its neighbour countries and from those in Central Asia and Russia.

Our national interests do not lie in Canada but in the regional neighbourhood. We are having YEP programme with 11 countries now but in proximity to Central Asia, South East Asia and Russia, he said

He said countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Singapore and Vietnam are some of the countries the NCC are having the YEP with.
In a move that will ease the visa application process for NCR residents visiting the Czech Republic, the embassy of the Czech Republic opened a visa application centre at the ILD Trade Centre in Sector 47 on Wednesday.

The development takes place less than a month after visa application centres were opened by the embassy in Chandigarh and Jalandhar.

The Gurgaon centre marks the launch of another important location within Delhi and NCR where people can submit their Schengen visa applications for travel to the Czech Republic via VFS Global. We thus continue to deliver on our promises. This is not the end of our endeavours as we will soon announce the opening of additional Czech visa applications centres in the market, said Milan Hovorka, ambassador of the Czech Republic to India.

VFS Global is a outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide.

With the centre, Gurgaon residents will no longer need to go to New Delhi to get a travel visa.

I have visited Prague (capital of Czech Republic) twice since watching its beautiful landmarks in the movie Rockstar. I remember the numerous visits to the embassy in Chanakyapuri in New Delhi, which involved two hours of hectic travelling. A centre within Gurgaon will be convenient, said Aniket Singh of DLF 5.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
City homebuyers are thinking of holding a major protest against the Haryana government for passing what they feel is a dilution of the Centres Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act.

Homebuyers are not happy with the provision in Haryana-RERA (H-RERA) wherein projects that have been granted occupation certificate (OC) are exempt from RERA ambit. They feel that this provides an escape route to developers.

The resentment comes after the unexpected approval of H-RERA by the Haryana cabinet on Tuesday evening. According to homebuyers, the cabinet approved the rules diluted by the town and country planning (TCP) department.

According to provisions of the Central RERA Act, developers who obtained completion certificates (CC) for their projects before May 1, 2017, will be out of the RERA ambit. However, in Haryana, this is possible with just an OC, which can be obtained much earlier and with more ease than a CC.

Its unfortunate that in Haryana the Central RERA Act lost its sole purpose of helping tens of thousands of homebuyers. I wish instead of buying a home in Gurgaon, I had bought one in Bihar or Odisha where a strong RERA has been notified. Why were homebuyers suggestions not considered? The government must reply and give us solid reasons for not incorporating our suggestion to not accept getting an OC as a reason for exemption from RERA, said Prakhar Sahay, president, Estella Welfare Association.

He added that homebuyers will hold a major protest soon after the Act is published or notified. A number of people waiting for possession of long-delayed flats to be given by builders are active on social media and are planning to persuade a large number of disgruntled homebuyers to participate in the protest.

The Act is yet to be notified by the government, but it seems the OC provision has been made just to give builders adequate time, said a buyer.

Abhinav Trivedi, a homebuyer in BPTP Park Generations, said, H-RERA is nothing but an eyewash and a very clever way to help builders. It was already delayed and now these diluted rules and loopholes will further help builders buy time to save money on their delayed projects and exploit the buyers. This was not expected from this government.

Gaurav Prakash, a homebuyer active on the RERA front, said, We will have to protest Haryanas RERA rules as they are not going to redress grievances of homebuyers whose projects are delayed.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Not satisfied with the rules of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) notified by the Haryana government on Tuesday, residents of private localities are considering taking the legal recourse for a stronger RERA.

A number of homebuyers are also planning statewide protests against the approved rules. The residents said a diluted RERA was something that they had been apprehensive about and that they had already started taking legal opinions on the matter.

Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC), Federation of Apartments Owners Association (FAOA) and others organisations are of the opinion that they have to take the battle to the next level  which in this case means state wide protests  for getting permanent relief.

Shephalika Sharma, vice president, FAOA, said, We are planning a larger movement across the country. The RERA, as notified by the Haryana government, has been disappointing but it was something that we anticipated. The FAOA is writing to the Prime Ministers office and the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA), which had conceptualised the RERA.

Collective action at a pan-India level will be initiated by forums such as the Undiluted RERA, Fight for RERA, FAOA and others to ensure that the law is uniform across the country and in line with the provisions stated by the Centre, she said.

RS Rathee, president of GCC, said, Our main point of contention is regarding private colonies that have failed to fulfil terms and conditions of the licence agreement for the past 30 years. That is why not a single developer has obtained a completion certificate (CC) in the past three decades. We cannot trust the government to ensure timely delivery of homes to lakhs of buyers who bought houses in projects that are delayed.

We wanted all licensed colonies, both old and new, to be brought under the RERA for speedy redressal of grievances, he said, adding that old colonies such as Sushant Lok, DLF, Palam Vihar and Suncity have been found to have several infrastructure deficiencies in an assessment conducted recently.

The deficiency assessment was done by a private consultant at the behest of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram ahead of the takeover of these colonies by the civic body.

Rathee said homebuyers and residents will move a petition in the appropriate court. We will try to ensure that all forums come together under one umbrella for the purpose, he said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
At least 33 people, including 17 members of a family, have died in the past 48 hours in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat, officials said on Wednesday, where tens of thousands of people have been affected by one of the worst floods in the recent times.

Almost the entire Thakor family at Khariya village drowned in floods caused by incessant rains that have lashed the district in the past three days. The dead include six brothers and their families. Dasaji Thakor was the only survivor from the ill-fated family.

Locals recovered the bodies from the mud after the waters of the Banas River started receding as the rainfall stopped in the afternoon.

Bodies of 17 people of the Thakor family were brought in a tractor by villagers to the civil hospital. The post-mortem will be conducted, a local police official said.

According to reports, the family had taken shelter on the terrace amid heavy water logging due to flood in the Banas river. But in the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday the water level rose even above the terrace level and the family was drowned, the official added.

Preliminary reports also suggest the Narmada canal, which passes through the village, was also flooded leading to very heavy water logging in the area.

The entire machinery including NDRF, Indian Army and Air Force were pressed into action for rescue operations. Several thousands were shifted to safer places. But water level rose over 10 to 15 feet in some part of the region. And, this particular family was residing at an agricultural field, revenue minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma said.

The government put the death toll at 94, excluding Wednesdays latest figure, since the onset of monsoon this year. Among them, 41 died due to drowning, added the minister.

The police sources, however, maintained the toll is likely to rise as several people are still missing.

The government said that of 209 water reservoirs in the state 31, which are overflowing, have been put on high alert.

With heavy downpour expected to continue in the state for the next 24 hours, especially in Saurashtra-Kutch region, the coastal and low-lying areas have been put on alert.

Gujarat and Rajasthan are reeling under massive floods, the latest states in the country to face monsoon fury in India where such natural disasters are common through the rainy season.

Officials in Ahmedabad said National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and army personnel struggled to reach people in the worst-affected Banaskantha and Patan districts where more than 5000 houses in 800-odd villages are under water.

So far, more than 50,000 people have been rescued in the two districts.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Nitish Kumar after he resigned as the Bihar chief minister on Wednesday. The JD(U) leader, for his part, thanked Modi for his support. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Kumars move virtually ended a two-year-old uneasy alliance between his JD(U), rival-turned-friend RJD and the Congress. Bihars so-called grand alliance that thwarted the BJPs juggernaut in 2015 was under strain after corruption allegations against RJD boss Lalu Prasad, his son and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and their family.

Many, many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. The countrys 125 crore citizens welcome and support his move for honesty, Modi tweeted.

For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption.

            - 

             Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

 ,                    ,        Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Soon after, Kumar posted on Twitter:

There were speculations that Kumars JD(U) was going to ask Tejashwi to quit, but the CMs resignation came as a surprise to many.

Its not possible to work in this environment. I triedto found out a solution, Kumar told reporters after submitting his resignation to the governor.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, a former partner of the JD(U), has supported Kumar. The JD(U) leader had recently supported the BJPs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, who went on to secure a comfortable victory over the Opposition candidate.

His move had then sparked speculations about cracks in the Opposition ranks, and the Congress reportedly reached out to him to save the Bihar alliance.

Kumars resignation came after a month-long unease in the alliance after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided Tejashwi and Prasad in connection with an alleged land-for-hotels scandal.
Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

Officials here confirmed that Doval who will be taking part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing will be meeting President Xi.

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Chinas State Councillor Yang Jiechi to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

China has said that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it unconditionally withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area.

However, it has acknowledged that talks through diplomatic channels are taking place and hinted at a meeting between Doval and Yang.

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut Indias access to its northeastern states.

Though the BRICS NSAs meeting is scheduled for two days, it was open for the media only on July 28, the last day when the top security officials of the five countries will formally meeting to discuss on global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security and energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

Besides Doval and Yang, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo of South Africa, Minister Sergio Etchegoyen of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of Brazil, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of the Russian Federation would also attend the NSAs meeting.

China hopes that this meeting will help safeguard the common interests of the BRICS countries, move forward political and security cooperation and strengthen the solidarity and influence of the group, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said on Monday.
Chhattisgarh minister Brijmohan Agrawal, whose wife allegedly acquired forest land and is building a resort on it, has said he is ready for any probe after chief minister Raman Singh sought a report into the charges.

Sarita Agrawal allegedly acquired 4.12 hector of government land, raising questions of propriety and conflict of interest.

I am ready for any inquiry, Agrawal, who is the minister for agriculture, water resources and religious trusts and endowments, told Hindustan Times on Tuesday, hours after the chief minister asked for the chief secretary to look into the accusations.

The allegations have embarrassed the government as well as the ruling BJP, which often targeted its opponents over corruption charges and promised a clean administration.

Chhattisgarh is due for assembly elections next year, with Raman Singh eyeing a fourth consecutive term in the mineral-rich state.

The state Congress has demanded an inquiry and resignation of Agarwal, who has been Raipur South MLA since 1990.

The allegations are politically motivated... I bought the land in a legal way and also shown it my affidavit to election commission, Agarwal said.

According to reports in the Indian Express, Sarita bought the land near Sirpur in the Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh in September 2009 and is building a resort on it along with her son.

Several Buddhist sites have been excavated at Sirpur, also identified by as a potential tourist destination by Agrawals ministry.

The land was donated by a farmer Vishnu Ram Sahu to Madhya Pradeshs water resources department in the year 1994 for public welfare.

Later it was transferred to the forest department and after nine years Rs 22.90 lakh was spent on the afforestation of the land.

The reports have said the land purchase was red-flagged by several officials and a farmer leader but no action was taken.
The RJD will stake claim to form the government in Bihar, the partys chief Lalu Prasad said late on Wednesday, hours after Nitish Kumar resigned as the chief minister.

Kumar, whose resignation was accepted by governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday. Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as the deputy chief minister.

Nitish Kumar has underlined that he is an opportunist. Having done what he has, he cannot stake claim without a challenge. The Congress, CPI-ML and independents will back our claims to form the next government, Prasad told reporters late on Thursday while travelling to Ranchi to appear at a fodder scam court hearing.

Struggle is my life. I have to be in Ranchi for the next three days. However, Tejashwi has been asked to present the claim to the governor in the forenoon tomorrow (Thursday), he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, deputy chief minister in the outgoing cabinet and tainted by a corruption case, will meet Bihar governor Tripathi at 11am on Thursday and ask for a chance to prove majority.

Sources in the RJD camp said Prasad spoke to JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is said to be unhappy with the partys decision to break the Grand Alliance. The RJD hopes those backing Yadav will extend their support, the sources said.

The RJD is banking on 16 Yadav and Muslim legislators in the JD(U) to stay away from the NDA grouping and pitch in for what Prasad claims is a secular alliance.

The RJD has 80 members in the Bihar assembly of 243 legislators, besides the Congress 27, three from the CPI-ML and four independent members who voted in support of President Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar governor.

Kumar told journalists on Wednesday evening it had become impossible for him to run the government in an alliance with Lalu Prasads party after it chose to remain silent over corruption charges leveled against the RJD chiefs son, Tejashwi.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
At least six people were killed in West Bengal as incessant rain since Sunday pushed up the water level in more than a dozen rivers inundating large swathes of land across six districts.

During her visit to Delhi on Tuesday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee discussed the flood situation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh.

Though some of the districts witnessed less rain since Tuesday morning, the situation worsened after the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) started releasing water from its reservoirs as water level in the catchment areas had risen dangerously. Since early Wednesday, 1.89 lakh cusecs water was released by the DVC.

Read: Gadkari announces Rs 200 crore for national highway repair in flood-hit Assam

The worst affected districts were Birbhum, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Bankura and Howrah. Parts of Burdwan, Purulia and Murshidabad were also affected. State and national highways were inundated at several places in Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura and East Midnapore. As a result, a number of district towns and villages were cut off from each other forcing the government to sound an alert on Monday.

Read: Eight killed as heavy rains lash Jharkhand

State government officials said the Subarnarekha river burst its banks after water was released from the Galudi dam in Jharkhand. Water was also released from Tilpara barrage in Birbhum. As a result, the Mayurakshi river inundated hundreds of acres of farmland. Water was reported to be rising fast in Chandrabhaga, Kopai and Bakreswar rivers in Birbhum district. In Hooghly district, embankments along the Darakeswar river were washed away and flood water gushed towards Arambagh town.

Read :250-year-old temple in Bengal village faces wrath of a river, administration sleeps

In East Midnapore district, people in Panskura were the worst hit while in West Midnapore people in Ghatal, Chandrakona and Keshpur abandoned several villages and moved to safer areas.

A flooded village Debra in West Midnapore district (HT PTOTO)

The government set up a special control room at Nabanna, the state secretariat. All employees of the disaster management and irrigation departments and chief medical officers have been asked to report for duty. Leaves have been cancelled, said irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee.

The flood has now triggered a blame game between the government and the DVC.

Banerjee alleged that DVC officials did not inform the government before water was released from the dams. DVC officials, however, denied the charges and said the government was kept informed. Banerjee alleged that despite having the capacity to hold more water, the DVC ignored requests from the state. We requested DVC not to release more that 28,000 cusecs. However, they released 84,000 cusecs from their Panchet and Maithan dams. This flooded vast areas, said Banerjee.

Read: Rain continues to ravage Gujarat, 82 killed; rescue efforts on in Rajasthan

But a senior DVC official contradicted the governments claim. He said because of heavy rainfall in Jharkhand water was released from Galudi and Tenughat dams. This prompted us to release water from Panchet and Maithan dams because it is impossible to store so much water flowing down from upper catchment areas, the DVC official said.

There is a committee comprising representatives of DVC, Central Water Commission and governments of Bengal and Jharkhand. Updates on release of water from different dams are passed on to the committee every three hours, he said.

Flooded paddy fields at Kandi in Murshidabad district in West Bengal. (HT Photo)

In Murshidabad district, more than 50 villages in Kandi sub-division were completely inundated and thousands of people displaced. Situation is equally critical in Khargram, Bharatpur and Barwan blocks. In Bharatpur, around 200 families are trapped in their homes. We have started distributing relief material and food, said the state irrigation minister.

State agriculture minister Purnendu Bose visited some affected areas to have an estimate of the damage done to crops.
Legislators of Bihars two ruling allies, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United), will meet separately on Wednesday amid a bitter political standoff on corruption charges that has plunged the coalition government into unprecedented crisis.

The ruling Grand Alliance is facing a storm of criticism over corruption allegations against deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in an alleged land-for-hotels scam.

The JD(U) has repeatedly called for his resignation, a demand rebuffed by the bigger RJD. The Congress is said to be playing the peacemaker with both chief minister Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi meeting Sonia Gandhi this week.

Ahead of the meeting, the RJD appeared combative and in no mood to give in to the demands. If Nitish taken any action against Tejashwi, we will expose him threadbare. I know him for 40 years and his so-called zero tolerance policy on corruption is just a sham, said senior leader Shivanand Tiwary.

The tradition of separate legislature party meetings ahead of an assembly session is common practice but this is the first time the Grand Alliance has scrapped a common meeting, a reflection of the tension within the coalition. But both parties have insisted that the alliance government was not under threat because of the current political crisis.

The JD(U) that has vociferously demanded Tejashwi Yadavs resignation and even issued a now-lapsed four-day deadline, has gone quiet in the run-up to the meeting, authorising chief minister Nitish Kumar to take a call at an appropriate time.

Knowing Nitish Kumar, all I can say at the moment is that he cannot be taken for granted on any issue concerning corruption. If RJD sticks to its stand, anything can happen, but only the CM can say what, said a senior party leader.

JD(U) spokesman KC Tyagi said it was difficult to say anything at this point of time. The RJD should come up with clarification on the charges, he added.

The Bihar assembly session kicks off on Friday and is expected to see fireworks as the BJP is gunning for chief minister Nitish Kumar, who will have Tejashwi sitting next to him in the house. BJP leader Sushil Modi has already said he wouldnt let the house run if Tejashwi is present.
In dramatic developments in Bihar, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as chief minister, dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him.

Kumar, whose resignation was immediately accepted by governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, will take oath at the chief minister at 5pm on Thursday.

In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government, Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Kumars resignation, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption. Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, Modi tweeted: Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption.

Here are Wednesdays highlights on the political crisis in Bihar:

12.30am: Lalu Prasad says: Nitish Kumar has underlined that he is an opportunist. Having done what he has, he cannot stake claim without a challenge. The Congress, CPI-ML and independents will back our claims to form the next government... Struggle is my life. I have to be in Ranchi for the next three days. However, Tejashwi has been asked to present the claim to the governor in the forenoon tomorrow.

12.28am: Tejashwi Yadav along with RJD delegation will meet Bihar governor KN Tripathi at 11 am on Thursday; to stake claim for forming government.

12.07am: Taking a letter of support to governor to stake claim for forming government: Prem Kumar, BJP, on Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumars meet with governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

12.04am: Have asked Governor for time to meet, being the largest party we will stake claim to from government, tweets Tejashwi Yadav. We will also get support from JDU MLAs, he says.

11.56pm: Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi and BJP, JDU leaders leave for Raj Bhavan to meet governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

11.11pm: Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi reaches Raj Bhavan after being discharged from hospital.

10.36pm: Nitish Kumar to take oath as CM of Bihar at 5pm tomorrow.

10.31pm: Bihar governor KN Tripathi admitted to Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna due to an ENT problem.

10.20pm: Nitish may take oath on Thursday. A meeting of JD(U) and BJP MLAs is underway.

10.07pm: When Nitish Kumar broke alliance with BJP in 2013 he choreographed and followed the same script to secure himself. He surrenders as per needs: Lalu Prasads tweet

9.55pm: Sushil Modi says BJP has handed over a letter of support to the governor, and will be part of the new government. All NDA members are heading to 1, Aney Marg to elect Nitish Kumar as the leader, Modi adds.

9.49pm: Sushil Modi, Nityanand Rai and other BJP MLAs reach Nitish Kumars residence in Patna for a meeting of JDU-BJP MLAs, reports ANI.

9.30pm: Sushil Kumar Modi says BJP will be part of the government under Nitish Kumar. BJP and JD(U) leaders are headed to the Raj Bhawan to meet governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

9.02pm: There are charges against both Nitish and Tejashwi. The MLAs of the Grand Alliance parties should sit down and pick a new leader.

Bihars poor, deprived and reservation-backed sections gave the Grand Alliance historic majority against the BJP. This is foeticide of the Grand Alliance There were corruption allegations against us before. Did Nitish Kumar not know while making an alliance and forming a government? -- Lalu Prasads tweets

9.01pm: Nityanand Rai and I called Nitish Ji. The BJP decides to support him; we will support the government formed under him. We will inform the governor also: ANI quotes Sushil Modi as saying

9pm: Thank PM Modi for his tweet on my decision, tweets Nitish Kumar after resigning as Bihar CM

8.55pm: Theres involvement of Narendra Modi. Nitish Kumar slapped people of Bihar. People like Sushil Modi are eager to form a government in Bihar: Lalu Prasad

8.40pm: Meeting underway at Lalu Prasads residence in Patna. Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and senior RJD leaders present.

8.23pm: CP Joshi was informed at the governors house; he asked Kumar to wait. Joshi said he will get back after a word with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi: ANI quotes sources

8.21pm: Nitish Kumar did not inform Rahul Gandhi about his intention to resign in their meeting: ANI quotes sources.

8.02pm: I appeal to Nitish Kumar... All RJD, JD(U) and Congress MLAs should sit down and pick new leader and make a government... His unwillingness to do so will prove he has already struck a deal with the BJP: Lalu Prasad

7.59pm: The BJP welcomes the battle against corruption in Bihar; not in favour of midterm elections... A three-member panel from Bihar will report to central leadership for final call: JP Nadda after the BJPs parliamentary board meeting.

7.58pm: We are deeply disappointed by the news of Nitish Kumars resignation. The Congress respects Nitish Kumar as a leader: Randeep Surjewala, Congress

7.57pm: Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused of section 302; one of Indias CM is main accused in murder and arms case : Lalu Prasad

7.51pm: Nitish Kumar had said that he will never join hands with BJP: Lalu Prasad

7.50pm: RJD chief Lalu Prasad says did not speak to the press over corruption allegations against Tejashwi following lawyers advice.

7.49pm: Nitish Kumar did not ask for resignation: RJD chief Lalu Prasad at a press conference after Nitish Kumar quits as Bihar CM.

7.45pm: RJD chief Lalu Prasad to address a press conference shortly.

7.42pm: We are happy that Bihar CM didnt compromise on issue of corruption and did not kneel down before RJD: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi

7.36pm: We dont want midterm elections in Bihar. The MLAs should complete their term. A three-member committee will talk to MLAs and apprise the Centre of the situation in the state: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi

7.26pm: Source say BJP legislature party to finalise support without preconditions at its meeting late evening today.

7.25pm: Nitish-Lalu alliance was a mismatch. This had to happen: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Nitish Kumars resignation

7.24pm: PM Narendra Modi arrives for BJP parliamentary meeting in Delhi.

7.09pm: The country and time require that for the bright future of India, and especially Bihar, people need to rise above political disputes and fight against corruption together: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

7.09pm: I congratulate Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. The 1.25 billion people of the country are welcoming and supporting his honesty: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

7.08pm: Before resigning, I had informed Laluji and Congress Bihar in-charge CP Joshi: Nitish Kumar.

7.05pm: Gandhiji always said needs can be met on the Earth, but greed can never be fulfilled: Nitish Kumar

7.04pm: I am not blaming anyone, those who want to blame me are free to do so: Nitish Kumar

7.02pm: I felt that for a person like me it was not possible to run this government. I dont want to create a dispute... When I saw there was no other way... I broke myself away (from the alliance with the RJD). The governor has accepted my resignation, and asked me to continue working till the next development.

6.58pm: We worked in the alliance till the point we could: Nitish Kumar

6.57pm: If there are charges then they must have replied to it. We felt they were not in a position to speak: Nitish Kumar

6.56pm: Its not possible to work in this environment; I tried. Tried to find out a solution: Nitish Kumar

6.52pm: The situation is such that its not possible to work. Whatever we do, the discussion is only about one thing: Nitish Kumar

6.50pm: Not possible to work in the grand alliance. We made all attempts. We never asked for anyones resignation: Nitish Kumar

6.34pm: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar reaches Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi amid speculation that he may resign.

6.33pm: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on his way to Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday fielded its president Amit Shah for the August 8 Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat.

Shah is currently a member of the Gujarat legislative assembly and this is for the first time that he will become a member of Parliament. Union minister Smriti Irani, too, has got a BJP ticket to contest the poll for membership of the upper house.

The BJPs election committee cleared these names at a meeting, also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the party headquarters on Wednesday.

Three Rajya Sabha members from the western state  Irani, Dilipbhai Pandya and Congress Ahmed Patel  are retiring next month. Patel filed his nomination papers on Wednesday. Given its current strength in the legislative assembly, whose member vote in the Rajya Sabha election, both Shah and Irani will get elected to the upper house of parliament.

Congress, too, has sufficient members to get Patel elected, but cross voting by 11 Congress MLAs during the July 17 Presidential election and the rebellion by outgoing leader of opposition Shankersinh Vaghela has the Congress worried.

The BJP will be left with 27 extra votes after getting its two candidates elected, and the party is keeping the option open to support any independent candidate, if there is one. Speculation is rife that a close relative of Vaghela may join the poll fray as an independent candidate in Gujarat.

The BJP has also fielded tribal leader Sampatia Uike for the lone Rajya Sabha seat falling vacant following the death of then environment minister Anil Madhav Dave.

Vaghela on Wednesday made it clear that he has no intention of contesting August 8 Rajya Sabha elections. He said his vote as MLA is reserved for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel.

I have assured Patel that my vote is for you. But only if Gujarat in-charge Ashok Ghelot will take back his statements that CBI and ED cases were the reasons that I have left the Congress. Or I will resign as MLA before RS polls, said Vaghela.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will showcase the achievements of the Narendra Modi governments four years at the Centre as well as those in the three terms of the Raman Singh regime in Chhattisgarh when it makes a pitch for retaining power in the state elections next year.

Since the National Democratic Alliance came to power in May 2014, the BJP has fought state elections primarily projecting Modis leadership at the Centre as its USP but these have been largely smaller states or those not ruled by a BJP chief minister at the time of going to the polls.

Chhattisgarh is expected to go to the polls in November 2018 along with two other large states ruled by the BJPs regional satraps  Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

 2018 (election) will be fought on completely new issues. The Congress was in power at the Centre when we fought the last assembly election (in 2013). This time we have the Modi government in Delhi. What Modi ji has done (at the Centre) and we have done (in the state) will together be pitched in the election, the Chhattisgarh chief minister, who is the BJPs longest-serving chief minister in power, told the Hindustan Times.

Asked about how his government would tackle the anti-incumbency of three terms, Singh said having BJP governments in both Raipur and New Delhi is a big positive.

We will tell the people about how the Prime Ministers quick decision making has accelerated the states development, Singh said.

In the last two assembly polls, in which the BJP managed to retain power under Singh, the party projected the state governments achievements including the model public distribution and food grain procurement systems.

Though the BJP managed to retain power in the state, its vote share has been shrinking vis-a-vis its rival, the Congress. In 2013, the ruling party secured 41% of the votes polled and the Congress 40.2%, bringing down the gap between them to less than one percent.

The BJP has already launched itself into election mode, with party president Amit Shahs model of fighting elections.

We have launched mission 65+ and started working in the areas where we are weak, Singh said. We are focusing on the booth level. Even as the chief minister, I am responsible for a particular booth in my constituency (Rajnandgaon), he said.

Singh claimed the problem of Maoist violence has been significantly confined to pockets in the state including the worst-hit districts of Sukma and Dantewada. Ruling out use of air power against Maoists he said, We cannot fire at our own people  Naxals are known to use women and children as human shields.

The ultimate weapon against Naxalism is development ... We are laying a network of roads for which projects worth Rs 25,000 crore are currently on, Singh said.

Claiming significant improvement in the states social development indices, the Chhattisgarh CM said infant mortality rate has come down in the state from 441 in 2003 to 221 now.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Goa Congress asked for a CBI inquiry into a series of cross desecration happening in the state since the last one month after 12 gravestones were vandalised in Marcaim village of North Goa on Tuesday.

Goa police had arrested 53-year-old Francis Pereira on July 14 following the spate of desecration of religious symbols or structures such as holy crosses and gravestones.

It was reported then that Periera had confessed to the crime and said he had been desecrating religious shrines since the last 10 years.

The police was always very confident that he was the culprit. How can the act be done again if he is behind the bars. We suspect major foul play in the series of desecration which have been happening in Goa since the last one month, said Shantaram Naik, state president Congress.

Naik added, I have drafted a letter requesting for a CBI inquiry as we feel that the local police is incapable of handling this issue.

However chief minister Manohar Parrikar assured the legislative assembly on Wednesday that the culprit in Marcaim incident will be arrested soon. Parrikar said Pereiras acts might have inspired someone else.

We cannot stop anyone from taking inspiration from someone, Parrikar said. He (Pereira) has shown 146 places which he desecrated. He has also said (told the investigators) he was not involved in the incident at Marcaim, said Parrikar.

Police have registered an FIR. They have got some definite clues....Give them three-four days and they will arrest the culprit, the chief minister said.

The fact finding report by the church soon after Periera was caught had also requested for a judicial inquiry stating the arrest was nothing but an attempt to pacify the Christian community.

Father Savio Fernandes had said in the report, We do not believe that a man who is more than 50 years of age can damage so many crosses. It is the job of an organised group who wish to disrupt the communal harmony existing in the state.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Congress party on Wednesday voiced deep disappointment at the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister and said it will try to sort out differences of opinion between partners of the Grand Alliance to see that the five-year assembly victory mandate is respected.

We are deeply disappointed by the news of resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. We in the Indian National Congress, particularly, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi have great respect for Nitish Kumar as a political leader, said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Mahagathbandhan (alliance) was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on its policies, principles and the cumulative leadership that we presented, he added.

Surjewala said the 2015 victory was also a mandate against BJP and leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tried to weigh the respect, regard of Biharis in the manner that he chose to do by way of public auction of and distribution of money.

People of Bihar gave respect and regard to Mahagathbandhan based on our policies, principles and leadership, he said.

We shall continue to strive that the mandate given by people of Bihar for a period of five years is fully respected. Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion.

Earlier, Nitish Kumar quit on Wednesday as chief minister claiming he cant work in the current circumstances following corruption allegations against deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav but didnt rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.
The Congress has taken strong exception to President Ram Nath Kovind not mentioning the name of Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his maiden speech after assuming the countrys top post on Tuesday.

The main opposition party also criticised the President for comparing Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi with Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

He is no longer a member of any political party but is the President of India. It is very sad and unfortunate that he did not take the name of Nehru who was a freedom fighter though he did mention his cabinet colleagues BR Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in his speech, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after Kovinds speech.

He has to protect the Constitution and rise above and think beyond party politics, Azad said.

His party colleague Anand Sharma said it was wrong to compare Mahatma Gandhi with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

It is unfortunate that in his first address he chose to equate Mahatma Gandhi with Deen Dayal Upadhyay. It has disrespected history and the fact that while Gandhiji was the mahanayak, Deen Dayalji was neither a leader of Indias freedom movement nor did he make any contribution in building modern India after independence, Sharma said. It is expected that the President rises above partisan considerations.

In his first speech after being sworn in as the 14th President of India in the central hall of Parliament, Kovind remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and Sardar Patel.

Read more: Pomp and tradition come together as new president Ram Nath Kovind takes office

Our Independence was the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of human dignity and of the republican ethic, he said.

Kovind added, These leaders did not believe that simply political freedom was enough. For them, it was crucial to also achieve economic and social freedom for millions of our people.

Concluding his speech, the President said, We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji. These are integral to our sense of humanism. This is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities. This will be the India of the 21st century.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A policemen was shot dead by suspected militants in south Kashmirs Kulgam district on Wednesday evening.

A senior police officer confirmed the development and said the slain cop, Gowhar Nazir Tantray, was on his motorcycle when militants opened fire on him near the Kanjikulla bridge in Kulgam.

Tantray was a resident of Kujjar area in Kulgam and was currently posted in Padpawan.

He was a special police officer (SPO) who was converted to a constable, he said.

A police spokesperson said he joined as a constable in December last year.

Investigation is on in the case and a manhunt has been launched for the militants.

Kashmiri policemen walk a very tightrope in the Valleys conflict. They face the ire of stone-pelting protesters on one hand and bullets of militants on the other.

Earlier in the day, security forces arrested a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, who was earlier involved in incidents of stone pelting, in Sopore town of north Kashmirs Baramulla district, police said.

Basit Najar was caught with a pistol at a checkpoint put up at a fruit market in the town, a police spokesman said.

Police said Najar confessed during questioning that he and his associate, Danish Mantoo, recently joined the LeT and were active in Sopore.

(With agency inputs)

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Body of Dr Pravin Yadav, an accused in the multi-layered Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh, was found hanging at his home in Maharajpur village of Morena district on Wednesday morning.

Dr Yadav, a passout of the 2008 batch from the GR Medical College in Gwalior, had been made an accused in the case in 2012. His case is going on in the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court and he was to attend a hearing slated on Thursday.

The Vypam scam has been dogged by controversy with at least 10 people linked to scam being killed in road accidents and four more committing suicide, according to statistics presented in the court in June 2015.

Apart from these documented deaths, an HT investigation had showed that there were at least 12 more deaths that were in the realm of suspicion.

Sources said the dead include those who were part of the racket that helped candidates crack examinations, middle-men and the victims.



Read more: 25 mystery deaths and 2,000 arrests: All about MPs Vyapam scam

Police sources said Yadavs family members told them that Pravin was depressed for the past several months because of the court case and the fact that his career was in ruins.

He did not leave any suicide note. Morena police have registered a case of death and are investigating the matter.

The Professional Examination Board (PEB) fraud  also known as the Vyapam scam from the boards Hindi acronym  involved multiple rackets that helped candidates rig the examinations for money, including employing imposters to write test papers, manipulating sitting arrangements as well as supplying forged answer sheets.

Read more: US agency helps CBI track 125 unidentified impersonators accused in MPs Vyapam scam

So far, nearly 2,000 people, including politicians and government officials, have been arrested in connection with the scam.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued an advisory to airlines directing them to carry Hindi newspapers and magazines.

The notice has been issued to ensure that reading material in both English and Hindi languages are offered to the passengers.

Not providing Hindi reading material on board is against Indian governments policy for official language, Lalit Gupta, joint director general, DGCA, said in a letter to airlines.

Reacting to the advisory, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)!

DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)! https://t.co/gpkZVKFcOu  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 26, 2017

Earlier this month, Air India decided to stop serving non-vegetarian meals to its economy class passengers on domestic flights, sparking a controversy . Air India said the initiative was taken to cut costs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said on Wednesday it did not favour midterm elections in Bihar and wanted all MLAs to complete their term, minutes after Nitish Kumar quit as the chief minister of the state. (LIVE UPDATES)

We are happy that Nitish Kumar did not compromise on the issue of corruption and did not bow down to the RJD. The BJP is not in favour of mid-term polls and wants that all MLAs complete their term, senior BJP leader Sushil Modi told reporters in Patna.

At a meeting of the Bihar BJP, it was decided that Sushil Kumar Modi and two other leaders will apprise the central party leadership of the developments in the state so a final call can be taken on the crisis.

After the BJP parliamentary boards meeting in New Delhi, JP Nadda said the three-member panel will speak to MLAs in Bihar and apprise the central leadership of the situation in the state.

In a surprise move, Kumar quit, saying he cant work in the current circumstances following corruption allegations against deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav but didnt rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.

Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad earlier said it was for the Janata Dal-United leader to decide whether he wanted to ally with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar.

The break-up was bound to happen. There is no place for honesty and moral values in Lalu Prasads politics. There was no coordination... convenience was the only reason for the alliance (between JD-U and Rashtriya Janata Dal). Such alliance does not work long, Prasad said after Kumars resignation.

Kumar said he quit as the chief minister in the states interest after failing to resolve the crisis plaguing the ruling Grand Alliance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Kumars resignation, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption. Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, Modi tweeted: Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption.
Death toll in Gujarat floods rise to 82, Chinas foreign minister blames India for triggering the border standoff, here are the top news:

1- Flood crisis deepens in Gujarat, Rajasthan; PM Modi inspects home state, gives relief fund

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a Rs 500-crore relief package for flood-hit Gujarat after undertaking an aerial survey of the affected districts even as heavy rains continued to batter most parts of north India. The worsening floods killed another eight people in Gujarat, taking the toll to 82, as rescue teams stepped up efforts to save thousands of people marooned in submerged towns and villages. In neighbouring Rajasthan, six people, including a 10-year-old child, died in rain-related incidents since Sunday.

Read the story here.

2- Chinese foreign minister blames India for Doklam standoff

Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi has blamed India for triggering the standoff near the Sikkim border, calling on New Delhi to withdraw its border troops to resolve the crisis. Wang is the senior-most Chinese official so far to have commented on the impasse. A statement in Chinese issued by the foreign ministry quoted Wang as telling reporters in Thailand that Indian officials had admitted Chinese troops didnt cross into Indian territory. This, he said, means Indian soldiers had entered Chinese territory. The problem was very straightforward, Wang told reporters, and that even Indian officials publicly said that Chinese soldiers didnt enter the Indian territory. In other words, Indian side admitted (crossing) into Chinese territory.

Read the story here.

3- Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif accuses India of harming Saarc by casting shadows of bilateral issues

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday accused India of harming the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) and undermining the spirit of the regional forum. Addressing a news conference with Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in Male, Sharif said India caused harm to the Saarc by seeking postponement of the groupings summit in Islamabad last year. This was not the first time that India harmed the forum as it had done so on four occasions, Sharif was quoted as saying. India undermined and violated the spirit of the Saarc charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation, he added.

Read the story here.

4- Mumbai building collapse: Death toll rises to 12, Shiv Sena leader booked

A dozen people, including two infants, were killed when a 35-year-old four-storey building collapsed on Tuesday in the Ghatkopar suburb of Mumbai, a tragedy that repeats almost every monsoon in Indias space-starved financial capital. The Siddhi Sai building at Damodar Park near Shreyas cinema in western Ghatkopar came apart and trapped more than 20 people. Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, who owns the ground floor and allegedly made structural changes that weakened the building, was charged with culpable homicide and detained by police.

Read the story here.

5- Lalu Yadav prepares for life after Nitish, plans alternative pact with Maya and Manjhi

Amid uncertainties over the continuance of Bihars Grand Alliance government, embattled Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad has initiated moves to stitch together an alternative political platform with Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM). Sources say Prasads initiatives at rearranging Bihars caste-based political calculus are seen as being aimed at pushing his alliance partner and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on the backfoot. With possibilities of a snap midterm election not ruled out, Lalu Prasad has moved swiftly to bolster his political position over past few weeks.

Read the story here.

6- ED arrests Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in terror financing case

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah was arrested on Tuesday night from his Srinagar residence in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged terror financing. The move came a day after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating if funds from Pakistan were used to fuel last years unrest in the Kashmir Valley, arrested seven separatist leaders, including hardline Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelanis son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah. The Enforcement Directorate, which probes financial crimes, arrested Shah in a case that is over a decade old. Shah is expected to be brought to Delhi on Wednesday and produced in a court.

Read the story here.

7- Andhra couple vanishes after learning surrogate is carrying a girl child

A surrogate mother has complained to the Telangana health authorities that the biological parents of the baby disappeared midway through the pregnancy without paying her the promised money. The couple from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh apparently came to know from doctors that the baby growing in the rented womb is a girl. Lakshman, a construction worker of Kuntlur village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, said on Tuesday a woman approached his wife, 20-year-old Venkatamma, in November last year and convinced her to rent her womb for a childless couple. Venkatamma was promised Rs 3 lakh, to be paid after delivery.

Read the story here.

8- Indias concerns addressed? Sri Lanka says no military use of Chinese-built port

Sri Lankas cabinet cleared a revised agreement for its Chinese-built southern port of Hambantota on Tuesday, the government said, after terms of the first pact sparked widespread public anger in the island nation. Under the new deal the Sri Lankan government has sought to limit Chinas role to running commercial operations at the port while it has oversight of broader security. Chinese control of Hambantota, which is part of its modern-day Silk Route across Asia and beyond, as well as a plan to acquire 15,000 acres (23 sq miles) to develop an industrial zone next door, had raised fears that it could also be used for Chinese naval vessels.

Read the story here.

9- Pak high commissioner to India Abdul Basit retires early

The Pakistan government has accepted the request of Abdul Basit, the countrys envoy to India, to resign from the foreign service after he was passed over for the post of foreign secretary earlier this year. Though Basit was to retire in April 2018, he recently sent his resignation letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Sources said on Tuesday that Sharif had approved Basits request for premature retirement. Sohail Mahmood, currently Pakistans envoy to Turkey, has already been named the next high commissioner to India. Mahmood, a 55-year-old career diplomat, is expected to take up his responsibilities in New Delhi next month. Sources in Islamabad had earlier told Hindustan Times that Basit had been unhappy since Tehmina Janjua, who is junior to him, had been appointed foreign secretary in February.

Read the story here.

10- China police warn against illegal gatherings after rare Beijing protest

Police in the Chinese capital have warned against illegal gatherings after they shut down part of a major road when demonstrators gathered to stage a rare protest in Beijing, complaining the government was unfairly targeting a charity. While there are thousands of protests every year in China over everything from pollution to corruption, large protests are rare in heavily guarded and affluent Beijing, with the ruling Communist Party valuing stability above all else.

Read the story here.

11- Botswana confirms it will allow Dalai Lamas visit despite Chinese opposition

Botswana on Tuesday confirmed it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit next month as a foreign dignitary in the face of Chinas fierce opposition to the Tibetan spiritual leader. Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist campaigning for Tibetan independence and consistently condemns foreign governments who welcome him. Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told lawmakers that the visit was purely private but added that the Dalai Lama would be granted the status of a foreign dignitary. The Tibetan leader, who lives in exile in India, is due to speak at the three-day Mind and Life Dialogue conference in Botswanas capital Gaborone on August 19.

Read the story here.
The government needs to exit infrastructure projects and even look at handing over jails, schools and colleges to the private sector as happens to be the case in countries like Canada and Australia, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.

At the same time, he was highly critical of Indias private sector, terming it as most irrational and insensitive.

Kant said it messed up projects by aggressive bidding and creating current crisis in the public private partnership (PPP) model.

The government has done a lot of big projects but the government is not good at operation and maintenance. Therefore, the government must start the process of reverse BOT (build, operate and transfer), must sell out projects and let the private sector handle it, he said addressing India PPP Summit 2017, organised here by industry body Ficci.

Citing the example of dirty bathrooms at airports, which fall under the Airport Authority of India, he said: We must bring in the private sector. That is, the fastest way to bring in private sector and bring private sector money back in infrastructure. These projects are fully de-risked.

He added: The country needs to move into new areas of PPP. There is no need where jails, schools, colleges should be run in government sector. At least experience of many countries like Canada and Australia shows that private sector is capable of doing very good work in creation of quality infrastructure over a long period of time in social sector.

Kant also said that there were huge opportunities for the private sector in India like station re-development projects, Port construction and Sagarmala projects.

There is no shortage of money in the market and India can use the opportunity by de listing its projects, he said.

Need of the hour is to market these projects well, he said, adding that even the freight corridor being built should be privatised.

The dedicated freight corridor build by railways can reduce journey of 14 days to 14 hours which is a paradigm shift that India is looking for, Kant said.

Blaming the private sector for the current crisis in PPP investment in India, he said there are hundreds of examples where private sector has gone for aggressive bidding and didnt bother to do due-diligence as a result of which the PPP mode has got a setback.

Private sector has performed very badly... Private sector in India is most irrational, insensitive I have seen, Kant said citing the example of aggressive bidding in highways and coal sectors.

He said it is high time that the private sector understood that in the long run it causes pain to itself and it causes pain to Indian economy and that the bidding should be made at a rational basis.

Citing the example of Delhi-Jaipur expressway he said it is time that the private sector should do rational bidding and execute projects in a time bound manner.

Kant also stressed the need of restructuring the model concession agreement (MCA) so that the private sector gets more incentives and is encouraged for investments.
Senior doctors and staff of a 150-year-old government hospital in Hyderabad performed havan to allegedly appease the gods after a string of crib deaths in the maternity ward.

The hospital was drawing flak for the death of six newborns in weeks preceding the ritual.

The four-hour mrityunjaya havan at Gandhi Hospital on Monday triggered outrage with people alleging that doctors were falling back on religious rituals, instead of focusing on appropriate treatment to patients.

Hospital officials, however, denied that the deaths prompted the havan in which offerings such as grains and ghee are burned in a small fire amid the chanting of Hindu hymns.

Recent mortality rates are not higher than before. This is a tertiary-care hospital and critical cases are referred here in late stages of illness. Since we dont turn anyone away, there are bound to be some deaths, N Narasimha Rao, the hospitals deputy superintendent, told the local media.

But the outcry forced the hospital administration to initiate an investigation. Doctors and staff were told to avoid such rituals on the premises.

We never encourage such things, Rao said, and promised action based on the probe report.

Doctors also dismissed allegations that taxpayers money was wasted in the havan to prevent baby deaths, saying it was self-sponsored by the medical staff.

Hari Anupama, who heads obstetrics and gynaecology, told reporters: A few nurses, Class IV employees, a few patients and I participated. We collected the money, voluntary donation. Also, it happened outside in the corridor, not in the ward.

About 25 to 30 babies are born in the hospital every day. The number of deliveries spiked after the government recently began giving maternity benefits that includes cash to expectant mothers and items required for a newborn.
The BJP finds itself on the horns of a dilemma over the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat with a section of the leadership unsure whether the party will win a bye-election if incumbent MP and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya resigns.

Maurya took over as deputy CM on March 19 has to get elected to the legislative assembly or the council within six months. His resignation will necessitate a bye-election, which Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati is reportedly eyeing. Mayawati resigned from the Rajya Sabha last week, a few months ahead of her retirement in April 2018.

The BJP fears that if Mayawati is backed by the entire opposition, she may spring an unpleasant surprise on the party. The BJP is touchy about spoiling its winning spree in Uttar Pradesh which it will also need to win to return to power in the 2019 general elections.

A section of the BJP leadership accepts a bye-election in Phulpur against a combined opposition backing Mayawati would be too high a risk to take. The Phulpur parliamentary constituency includes five assembly segments  Phaphamau, Soraon (SC), Phulpur, Allahabad West and Allahabad North.

Maurya polled 503564 votes in Phulpur and won the 2014 Lok Sabha election defeating his nearest rival from the Samajwadi Party by a margin of over 3 lakh votes.

Read more: UP Lok Sabha by-poll: Will opposition unite to take on mighty BJP?

But it is the result of this years assembly election (see box) which is at the core of the BJPs worries. The SP, BSP and the Congress together polled more than 1.6 lakh votes than the BJP. The combined strength of these three parties could have defeated the BJP in four out of five assembly segments of Phulpur parliamentary seat.

Mauryas return to national politics is one of the several propositions being discussed within the BJP. If the BJP decides to avoid a bye-election in Phulpur, Maurya will have to quit as deputy chief minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.

Yogi is also not happy with Mauryas style of functioning and has apprised the party leadership about it, a source close to the CM said. His exit from UP government seems inevitable.

Given the BJPs outreach for the most backward communities of Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats, Maurya could get a berth in the Union cabinet which is likely to be reshuffled after the monsoon session of Parliament ends on August 11.

That would be the last resort, a BJP leader said. Do not underestimate Amit Shah. He believes in taking the opposition head on and may surprise the opposition by accepting their challenge.

A decision on this issue is likely after Shahs three-day visit to Lucknow beginning July 29.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Phulwaria (Gopalganj) The land-for-hotels scam has not only affected Lalu Prasad in the political sphere but people in the native villages of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and his wife Rabri Devi have begun seeking an explanation from the embattled leader.

The CBI registered a corruption case on July 5 against Prasad, Rabri Devi, and his youngest son Tejashwi for alleged irregularities in awarding contracts to run two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels at Ranchi and Puri in 2006 when the RJD chief was the railway minister.

Some at Prasads Phulwaria village, 170 km north-west of state capital Patna, expressed disbelief over the extent of land and quantum of wealth allegedly owned by his sons and daughters, others felt there could be much more to the timing of the attack on the RJD chief than meets the eye.

The villagers acknowledged Prasads contribution to the development of Phulwaiawhich has all kinds of facilities, including a helipad, railway station, big referral hospital, separate power substation, many banks, police station, and a block officeand the valued status it enjoys.

However, there is a growing indication that even Prasads diehard supporters, who are still found aplenty at Phulwaria and adjoining villages, have started believing that the family may have been involved in the wrongdoings.

He has always projected himself as a leader of the garib gurba (poor and downtrodden) and we believed him blindly. But now we wonder as to how could his sons and daughters acquire so much wealth, while our condition has remained unchanged, said 90-year-old Mohammad Shahab Hussain of Mahuan village adjoining Phulwaria.

Laluji must go to the people and clarify his stand on the charges levelled in the FIR registered by the CBI ... In fact, people of the entire area are confused as a lot is happening politically. If there is so much wealth in the name of his sons and daughters, it cannot remain under wraps anymore, Hussain added.

The corruption charges on Tejashwi, who is also the deputy chief minister of the state, has also given rise to a feud in Bihars ruling Grand Alliance with coalition partner the Janata Dal (United) questioning the silence of Prasad and his son.

Following the recent CBI and I-T raids against Prasad and his family members for alleged corruption, there have been speculations that chief minister Nitish Kumar could even consider breaking ties with the RJD.

JD(U)s spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told a regional TV news channel on Saturday that silence is no solution and asked Tejashwi to come clean on the corruption case filed by the CBI.

In fact, silence generally conveys two things. Either, one has accepted his guilt or has nothing to explain to the public on the charges levelled against him, Kumar said in a clear indication that the party hasnt budged from its original demand that Tejashwi must explain the source of his wealth.

Ramsagar Singh of Maripur, another village adjoining Phulwaria, also questioned the way Tejashwi defended himself by saying he was a minor when the alleged land-for-hotel deal was struck and said it indicated something was wrong.

It is not a matter of minor or major. Its a question of disproportionate wealth in his name, which Tejashwi will have to explain to the investigating agency, the 65-year-old added.

Satyendra Singh, 48, a trader at Line Bazaar, seemed to echo Singhs opinion and said with the kind of charges levelled against RJD chiefs family members, the resignation of Tejashwi would be a natural corollary to save the alliance.

Saving the (grand) alliance is more of a compulsion for Laluji and not chief minister Nitish Kumar, he added.

Savitri Devi, 52, of Rabri Devis native village Salar Kela, not far from Phulwaria, said she was totally unaware of the kind of wealth Prasad and his family have amassed over the years. They seem to be arabpatis (billionaires). We had heard of some people getting government jobs in lieu of land. Now, all the stories are proving to be true, she added.

Mohammad Washir Alam, 50, a small trader in Phulwaria, said when the fodder scam happened, Lalu often clarified before his people that officials kept him in dark and wrongly got his signatures on documents.

With fresh corruption charges against the RJD chief and his family, I have reasons to believe that he was involved in the fodder scam, he added.

Munna Yadav, a 29-year-old unemployed man from Manjha, also said the allegations were too strong to be ignored. If Tejashwi or Laluji have to clarify, it should be to the people and not to any political party, he added.

Munna, however, questioned the timing of the raids on Prasads premises and the FIR against him and his family members.

The action by CBI and other investigating agencies soon after BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi launched a tirade against Lalu and family smacks of conspiracy, he added.

QUOTE

Laluji must go to people and clarify his stand on charges levelled by CBI ... people of the area are confused... If there is so much wealth in the name of his sons and daughters, it cannot remain under wraps anymore

Mohammad Shahab Hussain, 90,

Mahuan adjoining Phulwaria.



SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The government on Wednesday said it was currently in discussion with Russia, the US and European Union to commence negotiation on bilateral investment treaty (BIT) based on the new model text.

BITs help project India as an attractive FDI destination as well as protect outbound Indian investments by increasing the comfort level and boosting the confidence of investors by assuring a minimum standard of treatment and non-discrimination, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharman said.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, she said the existing BITs were largely negotiated on the basis of model BIT text adopted in 1993 and as amended in 2003.

She said the 1993 text contained provisions which were susceptible to broad and ambiguous interpretations by arbitral tribunals.

Further, significant changes have occurred globally regarding BITs, in general, and investor-state dispute resolution mechanism, in particular, the minister said.

Accordingly, she said India started the process for review and revision of the earlier model BIT and came out with a revised version in December 2015.

Discussion on commencing negotiations on BIT or investment agreement based on approved Model BIT text with Russia, USA and EU are ongoing, she added.

Replying to a separate question, Sitharaman said 2,360 entities had been recognised as startups by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) as of 20 July.

Under the Startup India initiative, Fund of Funds for startups (FFS) of Rs 10,000 crore has been established and is being managed by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

67 startups have received an overall investment of about Rs 250 crore, of which Rs 55.79 crore has been drawn from FFS, she added.
Palestine on Wednesday sought greater role by India for its cause, even as it asserted that it was not worried over the growing Indo-Israel ties.

During an interaction with reporters here, Palestinian envoy Adnan Abu Alhaijaa said his president, during a visit to New Delhi, was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Indias unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

To a question about Palestines expectations from India, he said, What we are expecting is the government to continue to have a positive attitude for the Palestinian cause. And about the relationship between this government and Israel, I can say it could interfere in the situation.

However, when asked to elaborate as to what he meant by interference, the envoy only said, We expect India to always have a positive attitude.

India has been an old friend of Palestine and supported our cause and people for long. We have a good relation.

Our President Mahmoud Abbas visited India and met PM Modi before his (Modis) Israel visit. And, that is what we take as the official attitude of India towards Palestine, he said, adding Palestine is not concerned about what was reported by Israeli media.

Responding to a question on Modis recent visit and the growing ties between India and Israel, Alhaijaa said Palestine was not worried about it.

Media of Israel blew up the situation about Modis visit. We are not worried about the growing ties between India and Israel as long as its (New Delhis) attitude towards Palestine remains unchanged, he said.

However, the envoy added, India is a great country, and it could play a greater role towards supporting the Palestinian cause.

Asked, if Palestine wanted India to play the role of an interlocutor to resolve its conflict with Israel, Alhaijaa did not give a direct answer and only said, we expect India to continue to play a positive role.

Modi visited Israel from July 4-6, the first by an Indian Prime Minister to that country. However, he did not visit Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, as is common for many visiting foreign dignitaries.

In an interview on July 4, Modi had said, India believes in a two-state solution in which both Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist peacefully, adding he supported all efforts to find an acceptable solution to all the pending issues, including Jerusalem.

The Palestinian envoy on Wednesday addressed the mediapersons about the situation in East Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and said he was addressing in a state of extreme duress.

The issue at hand is the Israeli plan of Judaisation of East Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa Mosque in particular... The latest conflagration has happened because of additional physical hindrances put up by Israel at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, including electronic gates, metal detectors, cameras and barriers, he said.

Alhaijaa said despite UNESCO declaring the mosque to be uniquely Muslim the Israeli side have tried to impose their sovereignty over it and Jerusalem.

We reject this imposition and we reject any desecration of Islamic and Christian religious sites, the envoy said.

He said, Attempt towards Judaisation of Al Aqsa will be dealt with resistance.

Asked what he meant by resistance, Alhaijaa said, It means demonstration and reaching out to the international community and friends to exert pressure on Israel.

Referring to the conflict, he asserted that only sticking to norms can undo the cycle of violence and attempts by Israels extreme right-wing to mobilise support to change the status quo in the city would drag the region into more violence.

The status quo should be returned to what was before July 14, he said.

Two Israeli police officers and three Palestinian attackers were killed during an attack on July 14 in Jerusalem.
Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was on Wednesday sent to seven days Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody by a Delhi court in a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror financing.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the custodial interrogation of Shah, who was arrested on Tuesday, by the ED after the agency told the court that he was not cooperating with the investigators.

The ED had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central probe agency.

A Delhi court had earlier this month issued a non- bailable warrant (NBW) against the separatist leader.

The agency had been issuing to Shah summons earlier too in pursuance of the August 2005 case in which the Delhi Polices Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.

According to the police Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.

Wani was arrested with a large cache of ammunition and Rs 63 lakh, allegedly received through hawala channels from the Middle East, on August 26, 2005.
The Congress Party on Wednesday demanded a judicial probe by a Supreme Court judge into what it claimed a Rs 1,000 crore medical scam allegedly involving state and national leaders of the BJP.

Addressing newsmen Kerala opposition leader and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said many state and national leaders of the BJP and officials of the Medical Council of India were involved in the scam. He said recognition was granted to at least 70 medical colleges and rejected applications of all those who refused to pay the middlemen.

What we have seen in Kerala is just a tip of an iceberg, and I presume they had amassed Rs 1000 crore funds at the national level, he said.

The issue came to light last week when a private medical college owner in Varkala in south Kerala alleged that though he paid Rs 5.60 crore to a local BJP leader he failed to get recognition to his college. An internal party committee that probed the allegation was later leaked out. Later the party expelled a senior functionary RS Vinod from the party.

Since this is a national scam in which national leaders of the BJP are involved, a probe by a central agency wont suffice. It has to be a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge, he said.

Many colleges where the MCI inspectors detected extreme lack of facilities and a shortage of teaching staff found their place on the list while professionally managed ones were left out.

For example, he said, the Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences of the Abu Dhabi-based Aster group was denied permission on the grounds of not having separate canteens for girls and boys, and the lecture hall had only 150 chairs instead of 200.

There was a deficiency of 10.53% in the number of resident doctors and 11.36% in teaching staff at the medical college in the backward hilly district with the largest tribal concentration.

However, Maharajas Institute of Medical Sciences in Maharashtra got its recognition cleared despite having a 57.75% deficiency in teachers and 31.76% in resident doctors.

Many of them do not have even internet access and hostel facilities or lecture halls. The number of patients admitted there were inflated and those found in these hospital beds were not patients at all, he said, citing the inspection reports. The MCI granted permissions disregarding these reports. It is a big scam, he said.
gaurav.bisht@hindustantimes.com

A week after he died in police custody, Nepalese national Suraj, accused in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old school girl, was cremated quietly in Shimla's Sanjuali crematorium on Wednesday.

His body was released by Indira Gandhi Medical College hospital in Shimla at around 8 am on Wednesday morning. By 9:30 am the cremation was over.

A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) re-examined Suraj's body, it was handed over to his wife, Mamta, who arrived at the hospital with daughter Aasha (7) and son Sameer (3). Surajs wife was accompanied by a few other Nepalese nationals. Representatives of Nepalese organisation Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES) had initially protested the holding back of Surajs body.

His widow is all alone here. She left her mobile in the village. All her contacts and important information is in her mobile and she does not have anyone beside her, ABNES president Shoba Ram, who accompanied the body till the crematorium, said.

Despite the police and district administration remaining tight-lipped, hospital authorities are said to have informed Mamta and ABNES late Tuesday evening that Surajs body will be released in the morning. We had no inkling that the cremation will take place today when district administration met us a few days back, Shoba Ram said.

Children light funeral pyre

How will I fend for my family? I have two small children, said Mamta, who was accompanied by women constables. Surajs children lit the funeral pyre as cops assisted them. No religious mantras were read.

Interestingly, no leader from BJP or CPI(M)  parties that created an uproar over Suraj's custodial killing  was present.

Suraj, who was arrested on July 13, died in police custody in Kotkhai on July 19, which led to protests across the state. An angry mob also set the Kotkhai police station on fire. Suraj's body was preserved at the IGMC in Shimla after the autopsy . A multi-member CBI team took over investigation on Saturday and re-examined Surajs. The way Suraj has been cremated is inhuman, former Shimla mayor Sanjay Chauhan said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar decided to break the ruling alliance and go with the opposition BJP because he is facing trial for murdering a man in 1991, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad alleged on Wednesday evening.

Also, he asked Kumar to convene a joint session of the three-party mahagathbandhan or grand alliance that rules Bihar and allow the legislators to elect their own leader. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, nor Tej Pratap Yadav would be a candidate at such a meeting, provided Nitish Kumar is not himself a candidate, he said.

Kumar resigned from the chief ministers post during the day, but was silent on the fate of the alliance that has been pushed to the brink after corruption allegations surfaced against Prasad and his youngest son, deputy chief minister Tejashwi.

Our claim to govern stands because we are the largest party and have a right to this chance. We will not allow Presidents rule in Bihar, Prasad said.

The RJD, JD(U) and Congress are part of Bihars ruling alliance that defeated the BJP in the 2015 state polls. The RJD has 80 legislators, the JD(U) 71 and Congress 27 in the assembly.

But the RJD leader doubted if Kumar would call a meeting of alliance legislators.

I am unsure, he would take heed, labouring as he does under the fear of prosecution in the murder case, he said.

He accused Kumar of working slyly with the BJP-led NDA to destabilise the coalition.

The Prime Ministers tweet after the resignation indicates how strong this conspiracy was to destabilise the alliance, Prasad said.

It is he who backtracked, despite our best efforts. Wasnt he the person who said mitti mein mil jayeengey, BJP key saath nahin jayeengey (wont go with the BJP even if I die)?

Kumar was with the NDA for more than a decade until the BJP made Narendra Modi the alliances prime-ministerial candidate before the 2014 general election.

Confident that he could gain from a split in the JD(U) ranks at an alliance meeting, Prasad turned up the offensive against Kumar.

I say this with great responsibility that Nitish Kumar is charged with crime and the case is with the lower judiciary, he said.

He had indicated this to the Election Commission  He got the proceedings stayed using his power.

He accused the JD(U) chief of thrusting a corruption scandal on his family to hide his own wrongdoings.

With such a case in his own history, the fact that he took cognizance of an FIR by the CBI against Tejashwi is surprising. He is in cahoots with the RSS and the BJP. To say that he is against crime and corruption is a hollow claim, Prasad said.

The JD(U) had asked the RJD leader and his son to come clean on the allegations after they were named in a land-for-hotels scandal and the CBI raided their homes and other properties. The alleged scam is from Prasads stint as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The RJD refused to balk under pressure and dismissed calls for Tejashwis resignation.

For his part, Kumar was under pressure to maintain his clean, incorruptible image and his party said it wont digress from its avowed no-compromise policy on corruption.

Kumars move on Wednesday surprised and angered Prasad in equal measure.

We talked to each other even yesterday. There was no word ever spoken on Tejashwis resignation. He only said there should be an explanation, which we agreed. Now this has happened, the RJD leader said.

Prasad alleged that the entire episode leading to his resignation and keeping the grand alliance on the edge was played out in a well-thought-out manner after a deal with the BJP.

He admitted that Kumar spoke to him before breaking the alliance and accepted that I helped him run the government.

But I would like to tell him, if he cannot fight communalism, he should not think of governing again. You better go for fresh elections.

Prasad said: I believe you are wholly compromised. He fought the BJP, won and now gives up the government to the BJP. Though I do not want to push the state into Presidents Rule, it seems it is not a long way off.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Indian Railways removed the caterer of the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express on Wednesday after a passenger complained he was served a lizard in his order of vegetable biryani.

The passenger told ANI he ordered food in Mokama and complained to the ticket collector and tweeted to railway minister Suresh Prabhu after finding a lizard in his biryani.

The thing which I regret the most is that I was given medicines really late. I was not given any medication for about four hours, he told ANI.

The Railways said it issued a 48-hour notice on the matter. The divisional railway manager of Danapur division, Kishor Kumar, condemned the incident and assured a detailed enquiry in the matter.

It is a very unfortunate incident. A detailed enquiry would be conducted in the case and necessary action would be taken, Kumar said.

Kumar further said that the departments main concern was the health of the passengers. Our concern was the health of all the passengers. All the passengers were attended and it was ensured that the passengers were given the necessary health treatment, he said. He assured that the incident would be taken as a feedback of the railway system to improve the passenger services.

This comes roughly a week after the comptroller and auditor general of India slammed the railways for serving food that was found to be contaminated and expired. In a report tabled in Parliament, the CAG said the food served was unfit for human consumption and that fungal growth, rats and cockroaches were found in the pantry cars of even premier trains.

(With ANI inputs)
A military court suspended on Wednesday the life sentence given to five soldiers who were convicted of killing three Kashmiri civilians in a staged shootout.

Six Indian army personnel, which included a Colonel, were court-martialed for what came to be known as the Machil killings in 2010. The incident triggered a cycle of violence in Kashmir that eventually left 113 people dead.

On Wednesdays the Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the sentences given to five of them  Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devinder and Lance Naiks Arun Kumar and Lakhmi  who were also given bail. The sixth convict, rifleman Abbas Hussain Shah of the Territorial Army, was already on bail.

We had pleaded that on the grounds of parity the other convicts should also get the benefit of being released on bail. And this has been appreciated by the tribunal, said Major SS Pandey (retd), one of the lawyers in the case.

He added there was no direct evidence against the convicted soldiers and the circumstantial evidence was also questionable.

Wednesdays development came as a shock to the family of the victims, who were allegedly lured by a former special police officer and his accomplices to Machil after being promised jobs. They were allegedly handed over to the army for Rs 50,000 each before the troops killed them in a staged encounter near the border with Pakistan on April 29, 2010. The army had described them as Pakistani militants trying to sneak in from the Machil sector along the Line of Control.

We are in extreme pain. Which law is this that you sentence them to life sentence and then within a few years decide to release them? I think they should kill us all  me and my family  so that we can get rid of this agony, said Mohammad Yousuf Lone, whose 22-year-old son Riyaz was one of the victims. We have no hope of any justice now, Lone said.

Ghulam Mohammad Khan, the father of another victim Shahzad Ahmed, said, We dont accept this verdict.

We saw this (suspension of jail term) in news. What is there to say now? If they were guilty before, how are they innocent now, said Abdul Rashid, father of the third victim, Mohammad Shafi.

.
Indias richest municipal corporation has denied non-profit Praja Foundations assessmentmade from the corporations own datathat 18 people die of tuberculosis every day, even as Praja Foundation claims the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has no way of knowing if the assessment is wrong because it cannot access its own death-related data ever since it moved to a new software.

The assessment, released two weeks back, was based on data accessed through Right to Information (RTI) filings from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which refutes its conclusions saying the data has been put together unscientifically.

Praja Foundation alleges that the BMC switched to a new software in December 2015, whose design prevents it from accessing its own data on mortality, leaving it with no way of knowing if Praja Foundations estimate is incorrect.

What the report said

In its The State of Health of Mumbai report, Praja Foundation assessed that 6,472 Mumbaikars died of tuberculosis during 2016-17nearly 18 people every day.

It showed a 37% increase in the number of TB cases in Mumbaifrom 36,417 in 2012-13 to 50,001 in 2016-2017.

Source: Praja Foundation Report

NOTE: *calculated through predictive model

Data for the report were compiled through Right to Information (RTI) filings with municipal and government hospitals and dispensaries.

Data on the cause of death were not available from December 2015 onwards. Praja, working in collaboration with data analytics company Hansa Cequity Solutions, extrapolated the cause of death from January 2016 to March 2017 using a predictive model that Praja Foundation claims gives the closest possible accuracy of up to 95.5%.

TB data now on central platform but cannot be accessed

Until December 2015, cause-of-death information was made available by all 24 BMC wards in System Application Protocol (SAP) software, which was managed locally by its public health department.

After that, the BMC moved from SAP to the Civil Registration System (CRS) managed by the central government. The systems design is such that the Medical Officers of Health of all 24 wards are unable to access mortality data.

We have written to the central government to allow this access about two months ago, Padmaja Keskar, Executive Health Officer, BMC, said.

Medical Officer of Health who is the sub-registrar should have access to this data since he or she is responsible for all deaths and births registered in the ward, said Milind Mhaske, Programme Director, Praja Foundation. However, after adopting the CRS system, they have no way to access data and they arent following up with the IT department of CRS to get it.

Fewer patients treated, more TB programme defaulters

The number of TB cases treated through DOTS, the standard treatment programme for TB, has fallen by 50% over four yearsfrom 30,828 in 2012 to 15,767 in 2016.

Simultaneously, the percentage of defaulterspatients whose TB treatment was interrupted for more than two monthsin DOTS centres has increased from 9% in 2012 to 19% in 2016, even as the government has been promoting its TB haarega, desh jeetega (TB will lose, India will win) campaign.

A ward-wise compilation of the number of TB cases shows that from 2012-2013 to 2016-2017, TB incidence was highest in L ward (Kurla), which had 1,254 patients.

The report also reveals a discrepancy in the number of TB deaths reported by different sources. The Tuberculosis Control Unit of the BMC reported 1,459 deaths in 2015, while the public health department issued 5,680 death certificates in which the cause of death was recorded as across 24 wards in 2016.

This means the municipal corporation is not accessing data from private-sector and other sources such as trust hospitals even though 75% of patients seek private treatment.

Source: Praja Foundation Report,

NOTE: *calculated through predictive model

BMCs written response to Praja

The BMC has written to Praja Foundation to refute its findings.

..the interpretation of the results should be based on the knowledge of the programme and the field situation and adopt scientific methodology, Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Sunil Dhamne, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Public Health, wrote to Nitai Mehta, Founder Trustee of Praja Foundation on July 13, in a letter reviewed by IndiaSpend. It seems you have done random collection of data from various health facilities and added it which is vague.

In a letter back to the BMC on July 17, which IndiaSpend has also reviewed, Praja Foundation has said it collected data from various health facilities in formats chosen by the facilities themselves because in its past experience, whenever we have applied for data/information to a centralized department we have always been advised to [go] to the local units for information.

The foundation has suggested that the public health department bring out an annual statistical health report for various diseases and ailments, causes of death and similar data. It has also stated that it would support the department in this exercise.

Councillors show little concern for TB

Despite the widespread prevalence of TB and rising deaths, Praja Foundations report notes, Mumbais municipal councillors asked 68 questions about the naming or renaming of hospitals, health centres and cemeteries in the house during the past five years, and 45 questions about TB.

Five questions were raised regarding renaming of Jogeshwari Trauma Hospital. Corporators first suggested the name Hinduhridaysamrat Shivsena Pramukh Manviya Shri Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Hospital and later, other corporators came asking for removal of the word Shivsena Pramukh over a series of queries, The Indian Express reported on July 15, 2017.

(Brenda Marbaniang is an intern with IndiaSpend. Swagata Yadavar is principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

(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.)
Nitish Kumar on Wednesday decided to resign as Bihars chief minister after an impasse with his alliance partner Lalu Prasad over the fate of his son Tejashwi  the states deputy CM who has been accused of corruption. (LIVE UPDATES)

Kumar will continue as caretaker chief minister, but he, Prasad, the BJP and the governor now need to take a decision on a future government. That can lead to any of these scenarios:

SCENARIO 1

Kumar could form a new government with NDA support. He needs a total of 121 legislators  he has 71  to back a new claim in the 243-member house. Backing from the NDA  where BJP has 57 MLAs and the support of 4 Independent members  will take Kumars strength to 132 members. The BJP has indicated it is not in favour of a mid-term poll

Likelihood: Very high

SCENARIO 2

Nitish Kumar and the BJP decide not to form next government and opt for mid-term elections considering the corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and his sons.

Likelihood: Moderate

SCENARIO 3

Kumar takes up RJD chief Lalu Prasads challenge to call a combined meeting of Grand Alliance legislators to elect a new leader. Kumar cant be a part of the vote, and neither will Prasads sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap. RJD has 80 legislators and Congresss 27 could lend it support, swinging the scales in Prasads favour.

Likelihood: Low

SCENARIO 4

Prasad and the Congress manage to engineer defection in JD(U), which would require at least 15 members from Kumars party to resign, bringing down the strength of the house where the Grand Alliance would become the majority.

Likelihood: Very low
Some 313,000 tonnes of coal from Russia, 45,000 tonnes from South Africa shipped to Ukrainian TPPs, CHPPs in June

A total of 1.355 million tonnes of imported coal was shipped to Ukrainian thermal power plants (TPPs) and combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) in January-June 2017, including 313,000 tonnes from Russia in June and 44,600 tonnes from South Africa.

A source in the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine that in January-June 2017, some 1.091 million tonnes of coal was delivered to Ukrainian power plants, including 145,100 tonnes from South Africa and 118,900 tonnes from Poland.

Coal stocks at warehouses of TPPs and CHPPs in June 2017 grew by 2% or 51,400 tonnes, reaching 2.643 million tonnes of as July 1, 2017. In particular, gas coal and long-flame coal stocks amounted to 1.874 million tonnes, while anthracite coal stocks amounted to 768,900 million tonnes.

Some 1.736 million tonnes was shipped in June 2017 to Ukrainian TPPs and CHPPs. The plants consumed 1.685 million tonnes.

Fuel oil stocks at TPPs in June grew by 11.7%, to 69,500 tonnes.

Coal stocks at warehouses of the plants as of July 1, 2017 were 63.4% more than a year ago, while fuel oil stock were 38.2% less.

TPPs and CHPPs consumed 108.3 million cubic meters of natural gas in June 2017 compared to 142.2 million cubic meters in May 2017 and 94.1 million cubic meters in June 2016.
Nitish Kumars decision to resign as chief minister on Wednesday dealt a blow to the Congress and the opposition parties that have been trying to cobble up a Bihar-type mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance, ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Kumars exit from a coalition with RJDs Lalu Prasad and the Congress underscores the challenges of such pacts, where once rival regional parties attempt joining hands, often as secular coalitions, to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

A premise has come to exist that the BJP will win the 2019 elections as well. This is attracting fence sitters and leaders of smaller regional parties. The grand alliance idea at the national level is in complete disarray, said political scientist CP Bhambri.

Wednesdays developments indicate that individual political ambitions are difficult to contain in a front based on ideology, and that anti-BJPism, a phenomenon that marked the politics of 1990s, has now lost appeal.

Bihars Grand Alliance successfully obstructed the march of the Narendra Modi-powered BJP in the November 2015 assembly elections, raising expectations that the Bihar model could be replicated at the national level where the dominance of Modis BJP has been overwhelming.

The visions were such that Kumar was touted as the oppositions prime ministerial candidate, a race that he virtually opted out of on Wednesday.

Riding on his victimhood status, Prasad is likely to try to rustle together a fresh secular combination with the possible support of Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party and Jiten Ram Manjhis Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM).

If Kumars Janata Dal (United) splits on the question of Kumars dalliance with the BJP, Prasad might take a shot at installing an RJD government in the state. But the pressure seems to be on the RJD and the Congress to keep the flock together.

A conclave of Opposition leaders will is set for a rally convened by Prasad at Patnas historic Gandhi Maidan next month. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati are among the likely participants. It is possible that the trajectory of Opposition politics for the future will get defined after the mega event.

But for the moment, prospects of a secular alternative at the national level appear dim.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The first indication that something was not right in the power corridors of Patna and that a big decision was in the offing had come earlier in the day.

Bihar governor in-charge Keshari Nath Tripathi suddenly decided to stay back in Patna, moments after he had presided over a convocation ceremony of the Nalanda Open University. He gave no reasons for not returning to Kolkata as scheduled.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad was the next to surprise  cancelling his travel to Ranchi to appear in the fodder scam cases, delaying just enough for the JD(U) legislature party meeting to end and know what had transpired. The Nitish bombshell came at 7 pm. The RJD was not in government anymore.

Patnas New Capital area, which is the political power hub of Bihar, too remained tense through the day with legislators of various parties trooping in for meetings, even as the media kept a hawks eye on the developments.

Would the Grand Alliance, teetering on the edge, collapse today? Nobody knew until RJD chief Lalu Prasad emerged from his own meeting with legislators at 2.30 pm to declare, The GA will not fall, notwithstanding the BJPs efforts to hijack Nitish. He was proved wrong not long after.

There had been no word on what was cooking, either from the JD(U) or even the Congress, whose leaders sulked. The silence from the two non-RJD camp was pregnant with meaning, especially after the hard talk in the morning, with both RJD and JD(U) spokespersons maintaining their rigid stands that, deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, named in a CBI FIR in the railway hotels-for-land scam during his fathers tenure, would neither explain nor resign in the face of the JD(U)s stand that there would be no compromise on corruption.

Sharad Yadav, offered no hint, perhaps aware about the impending decision, though state BJP chief Nityanand Rai said his party was amenable to an alliance without pre-conditions.

All hell broke loose after 7 pm, with the BJP legislature meeting being convened immediately, where its leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the BJP was not in favour of a mid-term election and the party could consider supporting a like-minded ally.

The build-up to the standoff and final showdown was long in the making, complicated by the JD(U)s support for demonetisation, the surgical strikes against Pakistan, and the candidature of governor Ram Nath Kovind for the presidentship. Another hint of the growing fissures in the GA came recently when Nitish skipped the lunch with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, only to show up at Prime Minister Narendra Modis lunch for the visiting Mauritius Prime Minister.

At Kovinds swearing-in, Kumar was also seen mixing more with the NDA leaders and seated in the first row, creating doubts even in the Congress on whether he would play ball.

The Congress which tried to play the peacemaker failed, with the JD(U) insisting that it would not compromise on Nitish Kumars clean image and Tejashwi would have to come clean on the charges raised by the CBI FIR, or resign.
Posing as senior defence and district administration officers, people in Pakistani intelligence agencies are contacting Indian officials to gather information on troop deployment along the Indo-Pak border, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said spillover frequency of Pakistani mobile network into India has been observed in few locations along the Indo-Pak border areas in Barmer, Jaisalmer and Sriganganagar districts of Rajasthan.

Pakistani Intelligence agencies used to call up officials of post offices, railways, state revenue (patwaris), schools, security personnel and public representatives (Sarpanch), etc, by impersonating themselves as senior defence and other district administration officers to collect information of their interest, he said in a written reply.

He said the agencies of the neighbouring country, including the ISI, continue their efforts to gather intelligence regarding deployment and movement of armed forces along the Indo-Pak border in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat.

The minister said officials having access to sensitive information are regularly sensitised not to inadvertently pass them on to anyone without verifying their identity.

Moreover, the matter of spillover signals across the border has been taken up by the government at bilateral and multilateral forums, he said.

No instance of use of Pakistani Internet services in the bordering areas to access WhatsApp, Facebook etc. has come to notice so far, Rijiju said.
The proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Wednesday by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.

The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day at around 3.45 PM.

For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply), tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship), jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste) and Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai.

Lok Sabha FM Arun Jaitley to table Supplementary Demands for Grants 2017-18 & Demands for Excess Grants 2014-15. Bills for consideration and passing: The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017. The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill,

In the Rajya Sabha, the entire Opposition walked out amid Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singhs reply on the discussion on the agrarian crisis and farmers suicide in the country, saying they were not satisfied.

The Opposition accused the Minister of just giving out statistics that were already in the public domain and skirting the main issue.

The Rajya Sabha had been discussing the agrarian crisis and farmer distress in the country since Tuesday.

Here are the updates:

6:23 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day.

6:10 pm: The National Institutes of Technology, Science Education & Research (Amendment) Bill is passed.

5:53 pm: D Raja says, Affirmative action needed for SC/ST/OBC as they dont have access to these institutions.

5:27 pm: NCPs Vandana Chavan says only Major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune provide employment to IT sector. Can the government take initiative to move jobs to tier-II cities, she asks.

5:20 pm: BSPs Rajaram says global ranking of technical insitutes needs to improve.

5:10 pm: JD(U)s Harivansh says backward States must be considered and more NITs should be set up there. Quality of teachers must also be improved.

5:05 pm:

Sh. Radha Mohan Singh's Reply| Discussion on farmers' distress: https://t.co/pRD7kkV8qq via @YouTube  Rajya Sabha TV (@rajyasabhatv) July 26, 2017

4:50 pm: The NITSER Bill looks at setting up an institute in Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh. MoS Pandey says Rs 137.3 crore has been allocated for the work.

Rajeev Gowda of Congress asks for clarification on whether ISER is coming up in Nagaland while the state wanted School of Planning and Architecture.

4:45 pm: Singh finishes his reply. Opposition walks back into the House.

Rajya Sabha takes up bills. MoS MN Pandey introduces National Institutes of Technology, Science Education & Research (Amendment) Bill.

4:30 pm: Unhappy with the ministers reply, Opposition walks out of Rajya Sabha.

4:26 pm:

No evidence of killing of 39 Indians: Sushma Swarajhttps://t.co/iuMXYA8cP2  Rajya Sabha TV (@rajyasabhatv) July 26, 2017

4:25 pm: Chair asks Singh to finish reply quickly. Digvijaya Singh interrupts Singh to ask why farmers are dying despite the Centres great schemes

4:10 pm: Radha Mohan Singh says the Centre knows that a greater budget is required for agriculture, Rs 2948 crore for irrigation, Rs 31,807 crore for crop insurance have been allocated for these 4years.

He encourages farmers to become a collective and apply for loans for allied agriculture activities.

Singh says Rs 29,194 crore were given from the National Disaster Relief fund for farm loan waivers over the last 3 years. He says the Centre cant waive off all loans.

3:55 pm: In the Rajya Sabha, Singh says a national committee has been constituted to study suicides. Studys report from 13 states says volatility of monsoon is a huge cause of pressure.

3:49 pm: Lok Sabha takes up the Companies Bill but protesters fling paper balls at the Chair. House is adjourned till tomorrow.

3:44 pm: Lok Sabha passes the IIIT Amendment Bill.

3:26 pm: Minister Radha Mohan Singh begins reply to the discussion on agrarian crises and situation of farmers.

3:24 pm: Rajya Sabha passes the Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

3:18 pm: In Lok Sabha, BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal says there are no institutes of national importance in Bihar and pleads for setting up of one in Betiya or West Champaram on the centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi.

3:06 pm: Ghulam Navi Azad participates in discussion of Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir.

Discuss the bill with the state government in Jammu and Kashmir rather than bringing it to the Centre: Azad.

3:00 pm: CPI-M P K Biju says many cases are pending in courts regarding appointment of wrong teachers in higher education institution, during discussion on IIIT, Karnool.

2:46 pm: Discussions proceed in Lok Sabha amid Congress lawmakers demanding revocation of suspension of its six MPs.

2:35 pm: TMC MP Saugata Roy says the house is not in order for discussion to take place. He says the house should meet equal justice to Bhawant Mann and the other member who has violated the rules, also appeals for revocation of suspension of Congress MPs.

Rajya Sabha Reply to the discussion on farmers distress leading to rise in the incidents of their suicide in the country. Bills for consideration and passing: The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017. The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017.

2: 20 pm: Lok Sabha takes up discussion of Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

2:15 pm: Lok Sabha resumes amid protest by Opposition over demand for justice.

2:10 pm: Political mythology of Article 370 needs to be looked at within the larger provisions of the Constitution extended to the other states: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh during discussion of The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

2:00 pm: Rajya Sabha session resumes.

1:16 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till 2:15 over Congress demand for action against BJP MP Anurag Thakur.

1:15 pm: Sumitra Mahajan gives stern warning to members against using mobile phones inside the House after BJP member Anurag Thakur expressed regret for allegedly shooting opposition protests in the Well using his mobile two days ago.

I am warning you... Dobara galti nahi honi chahiye (the mistake should not be repeated), she told the member.

1:15 pm: Speaker says no question will be taken on the statement of Sushma Swaraj.

1:13 pm: Swaraj says spoke to Russian foreign minister, He told me to have patience. If the Iraq FM tells me they are dead, Ill pronounce them dead. I have never said they are alive. It is responsibility of the government to search for them and Ill keep searching till the time I get concrete proof. Will wait till the day we get some solid evidence.

1:10 pm: Its very easy for me to say that the 39 Indians are dead. No one including their families will ask me anything after that: EAM Swaraj

1:06pm: Sushma Swaraj: The Iraq FM never said the Indians are dead, he said we dont know if they are dead or alive: Sushma Swaraj.

I told him to contact the prison warden and ask for list of prisoners, if there were people of Indian nationals in the jail. He said these Indians had come to rebuild Iraq, they were construction workers so it is our responsibility to search for them.

I asked the FM to give me concrete proof of the prisoners status and look for them. Ive never mislead anyone. How will I be benefited misleading anyone or will the government draw anything out it?

1:05 pm: Sushma Swaraj on missing Indians: People who are convinced that Im lying, they can go and tell their family.

I never told they are currently in jail. The sources said they were in Badrush in 2014, but there has been no contact with them since then. The picture circulating only says that the jail was blown up but it is not known if there were any Indians. There are unanswered question about the bodies of prisoners and if DNA tests can be conducted to verify their identity.

1: 00 pm: Opposition in Rajya Sabha asks Arun Jaitley to clarify whether the government has decided to scrap the newly launched Rs 2,000 note and introduce a Rs 1,000 coin.

Jaitley doesnt respond even as the Opposition members insisted for clarification from him on the issue.

12:49 pm: Sushma Swaraj gives statement on missing Indians in Iraq.

The incident took place 15 June, 2014. Our govt was formed on June 24, Harjit Massi came and said 40 people were taken hostage by Islamic State. While he managed to flee, he said the rest were killed before his eyes. I said the areas near Mosul should be searched. There will be bodies and or some evidence of so many people being executed. But nothing was found. There was no list or video released by ISIS which the group often produces after killing foreign nationals.

On 24 November, 2014, I spoke in the Lok Sabha and said one person claimed they were killed but six sources said they havent been killed. I asked should I stop search but the alternative is to believe in the sources and continue searching for them. I dont have concrete proof of their death but have no proof of their being alive. If I get one solid proof of their death, Ill tell them: Sushma Swaraj.

How have I misled? Why am I not declaring them dead because its a sin to say someone is dead without proof. I reached Turkey and discuss on the matter. These sources that I mention are no ordinary people but include a President, a foreign minister.

Who are missing and believed to be killed, their files cannot be closed until its proven to be killed. Till date, US continue to search for soldiers missing in the World War II. This filed cannot be closed even if they are listed as believed to be killed.

12:48 pm: Lok Sabha session resumes.

12:35 pm: MPs discuss about tribal welfare in Rajya Sabha.

Congress MP says budgetary allocations for the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes have been reduced. Tribal affairs minister Jual Oram clarifies no budget cut for tribals.

12:34 pm: Rajya Sabha resumes.

12:24 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till 12:45 pm amid noisy anti-government protests by opposition members.

12:16 pm: Speaker Sumitra Mahajan issues clarification on accusations against Jyotiraditya Scindia.

As a speaker, I dont want to be unjust to anyone. Yesterday, when Jyotiraditya Scindia said he was hurt by the accusations against him by Virendra Kumar, there was some mistakes on part by our officers. Certain words were mistakenly deleted in the records. Virendra Kumar had not mentioned the name of any person directly: Sumitra Mahajan.

12:15 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned again.

12: 13 pm: Wont speak amid chaos, Sushma Swaraj as opposition disrupts her speech.

12:11 pm: Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha says have not misled anyone on missing Indians.

12:09 pm: Kapil Sibal says, Didnt expect the leader of the bench to destroy the sanctity of the opposition.

12:03 pm: Ghulam Navi Azad says we raise issues that affect people and not for television camera, in reply to Arun Jaitleys remarks.

12:02 am: Rajya Sabha resumes.

12:02 am: An app has been launched to facilitate ticket booking and CCTV cameras have been installed to check on touts in Railway stations: Prabhu.

11:59 am: AAP MP Bhawanat Mann raises the problem of booking tickets through IRCTC website. Railway minister says the problem persists due to shortage of ticket availability.

11:54 am: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu replies to queries on touts, illegal vendors and the measures taken by the government.

11:42 am: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 12 pm.

11: 38 am: Congress members storm in the well of Rajya Sabha.

11: 30 am: Jaitley says the chair should ensure that zero hour cant be run for the benefit of television camera, demands expunge of Anand Sharmas speech

11: 27 am:

Uproar in RS over President Kovind's speech; Congress' Anand Sharma says Mahatma Gandhi was compared with Deen Dayal Upadhyay yesterday  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

.



11:27 am: BJP MP asks Science and Technology minister if CSIR is getting less funds. Union minister Harsh Varshan more budget is being alloted to the science and technology sector.

11:21 am: Discussion on minority status to Jew. Muqtar Abbas Naqvi says they are peacefully living in Inia

11:05 am: Opposition members raise slogans over suspension of Congress MPs in Lok Sabha.

11 am: Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha session begins.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis aerial survey of flood-affected areas in his home state Gujarat on Tuesday and the announcement of Rs 500 crore as relief havent gone down well in Assam.

Many in Assam, where floods wreaked havoc in 29 of the states 32 districts this month and claimed 77 lives till date, have vented ire on social media accusing the Centre of neglect.

The state government has estimated that the total damage caused by the recent floods is nearly Rs 2,939 crore. The Centre is yet to announce any interim flood-relief package for Assam.

Over 70 died in Assam flood. Modi sends junior minister (Kiren) Rijiju. Flood in Gujarat. Modi flies himself. Why two separate standards? questioned journalist Atanu Bhuyan on Twitter.

While Modi conducted an aerial survey of two flood-ravaged districts in Gujarat, a seven-member central team led by Union home ministry joint secretary VS Sekhar arrived in Guwahati to assess the situation.

Forget the announcement of an aid package, the PM didnt even consider visiting Assam himself or sending a senior minister. It clearly shows Centres biased attitude to our state, farmers activist Akhil Gogoi told media on Wednesday.

Villagers use a boat as they row past partially submerged houses at a flood-affected village in Morigaon district in Assam. (Reuters Photo)

Nearly 1.32 lakh people were displaced by the floods and had to seek shelter in 363 relief camps. Over 15,700 flood affected people were evacuated by rescue teams in 21 districts.

Flood waters have receded in many areas due to clear skies in the past week, but 9 districts still remained inundated and 4,716 people continue to take shelter in relief camps in five districts.

While the state government claims adequate relief was provided to all flood affected, there are accusations of laxity in rescue and relief efforts. Ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government were heckled by affected residents at several places for their late response.

The so-called step-motherly attitude of Centre towards Assam has given fodder to opposition parties in the state as well.

Assam floods claimed 76 lives, Narendra Modi never visited and his government has not released adequate funds, former Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi tweeted on Tuesday.

PM @narendramodi rushed to #Gujarat & announced 500 Cr interim relief & Ex-gratia of 2 Lakh for flood victims & 50 thousand for injured..1/1 https://t.co/4gMEpyp7KF  Tarun Gogoi (@tarun_gogoi) July 25, 2017

President of the opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) Badruddin Ajmal also requested the PM to spare some time for the people of Assam and visit the state.

Many on social media connected Modis decision to visit Gujarat instead of Assam with the upcoming assembly polls in the western state.

Floods killed many in BJP ruled Gujarat and Assam. Where will Modi go, announce relief for? The state going to elections, where else, Rajnath Kashmiri tweeted.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Incessant rain continued to lash Gujarat on Wednesday, worsening a grim situation in the states northern region where tens of thousands of people were marooned by one of the worst floods in recent times.

Several flights were diverted from Ahmedabad on Wednesday with floods damaging parts of the runway, officials said.

Gujarat and Rajasthan are reeling under massive floods, the latest states in the country to face monsoon fury in India where such natural disasters are common through the rainy season.

At least 90 people have been killed in the two states, 82 of them in Gujarat alone, since the monsoon moved into western India in the early part of this month.

Officials in Ahmedbad said rescue workers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and army personnel struggled to reach people in the worst-affected Banaskantha and Patan districts where more than 5000 houses in 800-odd villages are under water.

So far, more than 50,000 people in the two districts have been rescued in the two districts.

Four air force helicopters, two army columns and 18 NDRF teams have been deployed for rescue and relief operations, officials added. Navy divers have also been deployed to assist rescue workers.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of the flood devastation and announced an interim relief fund of Rs 500 crore to the state where elections are due later this year.

State agriculture minister Chiman Sapariya said the floods have caused extensive crop damage.

A survey, including using satellite images, will be conducted to ascertain the actual extent of damage. Based on this, the state will seek a relief package from the Centre, he added.

Air force helicopters were carrying out sorties to drop food packets to those stranded.

LB Bambhaniya, a senior official of flood-ravaged Banaskantha district , said 350 villages had been waterlogged, hitting cotton and groundnut crops.

I am worried about the damage to the fields... We will have to provide financial support to farmers, Bambhaniya said.

The disaster have crippled public transportation with over 1,100 roads inundated. Eleven trains, including the Rajdhani Express, were cancelled or diverted.

Most of schools and colleges in Ahmedabad and north Gujarat districts remained closed. No deaths were reported after Tuesday noon.

In Rajasthan, rescue operations continued in flood-hit Jalore, Sirohi and Pali districts.

On Tuesday, 19 people were rescued from Jalore including seven who had taken shelter on a tree to escape the swirling waters.

The state disaster relief department secretary Hemant Gera said was the under control in Jalore and other areas.

An NDRF team was sent to Rajsamand for resuing people after the water level of the Gomathi rose.

A few tourists stranded in Mount Abu were also rescued, he added.

(With inputs from Sachin Saini in Jaipur and agencies)

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Muslim wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is starting a campaign to popularise planting of tulsi in minority community households, asserting that the plant with known medicinal properties is not a symbol of Hinduism but national unity.

A resolution to popularise tulsi  basil  was taken at the national executive meeting of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), formed in 2002 to bridge growing differences the minority community and the RSS.

Besides, the MRM resolution also vowed to reclaim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and fight for a countrywide ban on cow slaughter, one of the biggest issues for the Sangh Parivar.

The move on tulsi, however, could irk a section of Muslim organisations which accuse the RSS of trying to impose Hindutva customs and traditions on the community. Many Mulsims sees the campaign for ban on cow slaughter as an attack on the communitys eating habits.

Tulsi, known as Reyhaan in the holy book of Muslims, has medicinal value and is considered a jannat ka pedh (tree from heaven). There is a myth that tulsi is worshiped by Hindus alone.

We are trying to get as many Muslims as possible to grow tulsi in their homes for its medicinal and environment-friendly properties, Mohd Afzal of the MRM told HT.

An effort to popularise tulsi last year did not take off. The MRM is redoubling it efforts to counter what it calls misgivings about growing tulsi in Muslim homes.

Even in Dubai there is a park which has more than one 10 kinds of tulsi, Afzal said.

Endemic to Southeast Asia, tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) is one of the most common household plants in India. Leaves of the plant are an integral part of gandmothers medicines for ailments such as cold and cough. The leaves are also used in Hindu religious ceremonies.

Besides tulsi, Afzal said, the MRM will to commemorate the Quit India movement by flaging off a march from Srinagar on August 9 to reclaim PoK.

Time has come to reclaim our region and start a movement to throw Pakistan out of Kashmir. It is time to fill the vacant seats in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly by either allowing PoK members to contest elections or by nominating them. We will push the government to support our demand, Afzal said.

In the J&K assembly, 24 seats are designated for the constituencies of the state that fall in PoK.

The MRM has also urged the community to refrain from slaughtering cows on Eid that falls in September and to find a peaceful resolution to the Ayodhya temple issue.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Small traders and business people are reluctant to accept the new Rs2,000 currency notes fearing the government might withdraw them and because of high possibility of they being fake, HT has found.

Where will the traders go if the government withdraws Rs2,000 note? asked Sandeep Bansal, president of Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Mandal.

Rishi Pal, a trader in Haryanas Hisar, recalled the problems business community faced after Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes were culled on November 2016 and said they didnt want to undergo a similar pain again.

A Whatsapp message being circulated claims that the government will withdraw the Rs2,000 note like Rs1,000/500 notes demonetised last November. A similar message was circulated in October 2016 saying that Rs1,000/500 would be withdrawn.

The RBI has rubbished the latest Whatsapp message but on Tuesday said printing of Rs2,000 notes stopped about five months ago to step up the production of smaller bills, including a new Rs200 note.

The central bank is also unlikely to print more 2000-rupee notes in the current financial year, RBI officials said on condition of anonymity.

The government brought in the 2000-rupee note to quickly tide over a cash crunch from demonetisation, but fewer lower-value currency in circulation meant people struggled to change the big denomination bill. The RBIs focus now on printing small bills is aimed at bridging that gap.

But, there are other reasons also for traders being reluctant in accepting Rs2,000 notes.

A small businessman in Hyderabad said customers are not willing to accept Rs2,000 notes and prefer Rs500 notes. Echoing similar sentiments, Jitendra Kumar, a trader in Haryanas Karnal, said customers prefer Rs100 and Rs500 notes as getting change for Rs2,000 for small transaction is difficult.

Sanjay Gupta president of Uttar Pradesh Adarsh Vyapar Mandal said the traders are not willing to accept Rs2,000 as getting smaller currency for Rs2,000 notes, even from banks, was not easy.

The Rs2,000 note acceptance has been further hit by messages warning against high circulation of fake Rs2,000 notes.

In Bhopal, some traders are not accepting Rs2,000 note after news of fake high denomination currency notes went viral.

I dont accept Rs 2000 notes from unknown customers as there are many fake notes being circulated in the market. I stopped accepting such notes from unknown customers from January-February itself, said Ramesh Keswani, owner of a provisional store in the capital city of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Rishi Pal, who runs pesticide shop in Indri of Karnal said, We are taking Rs2,000 note but we examine it twice because of rumour about the fake currency notes.

Traders in some other places like Jaipur, Ranchi, Kashmir, Delhi and Mumbai, however, said there was no problem in conducting business in Rs2,000 notes.

(With inputs from correspondents in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Srinagar, Bhopal, Hisar, Karnal and Ranchi)
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the oppositions vice-presidential candidate, has expressed concern over the prevailing political atmosphere in the country, saying a subtle fear pervades our politics today that converts a majority from an honest weightage of democratic opinion into majoritarianism.

Two ways of life are now before us. One, that which wants Indians to have freedom of conscience, thought and speech so that the best ideas and energies can be devoted to raising the poor, the marginalised and the discriminated, making India a Republic for all its citizens, he wrote in a letter to Members of Parliament (MPs).

Second, that which wants India to be dominated by one political ideology, one religious order, one majoritarian grip on all, making India a nation of stark, severe and strict uniformity. A subtle fear pervades our politics today. This converts a majority from an honest weightage of democratic opinion into majoritarianism, the very antithesis of democracy, he said.

Gandhi, 72, is pitted against NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu. With numbers favouring NDA, 68-year-old Naidu is considered a favourite to win the August 5 election.

The electoral college comprises 543 elected and two nominated members of the Lok Sabha and 233 elected and 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha. The NDAs strength stands at 550 out of the total 790 members in both Houses.

In his letter, Gandhi urged MPs to use their sovereign independent prerogative of voting without any whip or political command, and choose a person who will support the President and Parliament in fulfilling their republican roles.

Gandhi had earlier faced criticism from the ruling side, especially the Shiv Sena, for seeking mercy for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon from the gallows.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad ruled out on Wednesday his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadavs resignation as Bihar deputy chief minister over corruption allegations, ratcheting up political temperatures in a bitter standoff that has plunged the states ruling alliance into crisis.

At a press conference after his partys MLAs met, Prasad said his younger son was ready to clarify to the Central Bureau of Investigation on an alleged land-for-hotels scam, and that the alliance would remain intact.

I made Nitish Kumar the chief minister and assiduously stitched the Grand Alliance, which has a mandate for five years Nitish Kumar has never demanded any resignation, the 69-year-old leader said.

All eyes are now on a legislature party meeting of the Janata Dal (United), led by Nitish Kumar, this evening. The party has repeatedly demanded Tejashwis resignation, even issuing a four-day deadline that has long lapsed, but has recently appeared to have toned down its objections.

Earlier in the day, JD(U) national spokesman KC Tyagi also said that Nitish never sought Tejaswhis resignation, but wanted him to come clean on the corruption charges against him.

Flanked by his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and other RJD legislators, Prasad made it clear and that Tejaswhi and him would clarify wherever it would be required. It is for the CBI to seek clarification, not JD (U). JD (U) is not police, he said, trying to play down the oft-quoted communication gap between him and Nitish by saying that he talked to Nitish on Tuesday night. I keep talking. Last night also, I said I would be away for three days, he said.

Legislature party meetings are routine ahead of assembly sessions but this round of meetings have gained significance because of the political crisis. The BJP has already said it would disrupt the monsoon session, beginning Friday, if Tejashwi attends the session. The Congress is said to be playing the peacemaker with both Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi meeting Sonia Gandhi this week.

Tejashwis continuing stint is said to be embarrassing to Nitish Kumar, who came to power on a promise of clean governance. But experts say the RJDs political clout and mass base might stop the JD(U) from breaking the alliance government, which trounced the BJP two years ago in state elections.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
State-owned enterprise System of Electronic Trading in Seized Property (SETAM) has signed an official contract with public joint-stock company PrivatBank (Kyiv) to sell the bank's assets at electronic auctions, SETAM has said in a press release.

"We have officially won a tender to sell assets and signed the relevant agreement. Now we are waiting for the list of assets to put them up for sale on our platform," SETAM Director General Viktor Vishnev said.

Earlier Vishnev said that it is planned to put around 2,000 facilities up for sale, including the Bukovel ski report in Polianytsia (Ivano-Frankivsk region), the training base and the stadium of Dnipro FC, several large business centers.

SETAM has similar cooperation contracts with Oschadbank, Ukrgasbank, Ukreximbank and it is planned to attract VTB Bank.

SETAM was launched on May 1, 2017 in the pilot mode in some regions and in August 2014 it was expanded to entire Ukraine.
The Congress on Wednesday kept up its attack on NDA vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu over the allegation of corruption against him and his family members, and questioned the silence of PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on the issue of probity and transparency in public life.

The party claimed that Naidus response to its allegations against him on the issue of probity had raised more questions. Caesars wife must be above suspicion. People of India demand answers. It is time PM, BJP chief and Naidu break silence and answer questions instead of hiding behind platitudes, said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Naidus spokesperson dismissed the charges. Congress party again sought to rehash the same accusations with the sole intention of continuing with their mudslinging campaign against Naidu. The issues raised today have nothing to do with Naidu as they include questioning the policies of concerned state governments and Swarna Bharat Trust. It is for the concerned to respond if they so choose, he said.
Flood situation in south-western Rajasthan, lashed by heavy monsoon rains, is improving slowly as the region reported no rain since Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday.

The situation is under control in Jalore and other areas facing flood-like situation, said Hemant Gera, disaster management secretary. There has been no casualty reported. The water level is receding, he said.

After getting information that water level has increased in Gomathi river in Rajsamand, a NDRF team was sent to the area for rescue operation, Gera said.

Efforts are on to rescue some tourist stranded in Mount Abu due to landslide on Wednesday morning, he said.

Gera said around 2,000 food packets were distributed in Jalore on Wednesday.

Army personnel on late Tuesday rescued eight people from Barmers Gudamalani area, where water entered as a canal on Narmada river got breached with inflow of excess water from Gujarat.

Senior army officials said the force on Wednesday rescued four children in Sanchore area.

Till 8.30 am on Wednesday, the highest rainfall was recorded at Mount Abu in Sirohi, which received 324 mm. In Jalore, the highest rainfall was recorded in Chitwana (tehsil)  281mm. In Pali, highest rainfall was recorded at Desuri with 127mm.

Six people have lost their lives in the three rain-affected districts of Pali, Sirohi and Jalore. More than 500 people had been rescued in the three districts.

Meanwhile, schools in five districts  Jalore, Pali, Sirohi, Jodhpur and Barmer  remained closed on Wednesday.
Employees of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday alleged that the companys top HR officials asked them not to talk to the media or organise any protest against the IT majors decision to shift Lucknow staff to other centres.

Corporate business HR head, DP Nambiar along with another official, Nagraj Hijari told staff at the Lucknow office of TCS that the companys decision was irreversible and the employees would be taken care of at the new centre as per its policy, claimed employees.

Read more: Lucknowites extend support to TCS staff

However, Nambiar was not able to explain why the Lucknow centre was not allowed to grow beyond 2,000 seats in the last 33 years and why it was not given due opportunities by the company despite generating good business, said the employees.

The Lucknow and Bengaluru centres of TCS were launched 33 years back. But the company did not allow the Lucknow centre to grow beyond 2,000 seats while in Bengaluru TCS had over 50,000 seats at present, alleged the staff.

Read more: TCS exit from Lucknow could become an embarrassment for Yogi-led BJP govt

The step-motherly treatment to the Uttar Pradesh capital continued because of an anti-UP lobby in the companys management, added TCS employees.

TCS employees have decided to step up their efforts to retain the Lucknow centre and plan to meet leaders of opposition parties in this regard.
Raksha Bandhan, among the six major festivals that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) celebrates annually, will this year be used by the Sangh Parivar to attain the twin objectives of promoting communal amity, besides mobilising public opinion against using Chinese goods.

More than one objective This year, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an RSS-backed body, will get women from the minority community to tie the rakhi to various Sangh leaders who will assure them of protection. Girls from the minority community will also be encouraged to tie rakhi to Hindu boys. However, sources said, the Sanghs communal amity push was also aimed at using the occasion to tackle the problem of Love Jihad where RSS believes Hindu women were enticed by Muslim youths into affair or marriage and discarded later. Love jihad had become an issue in 2017 UP polls, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where some youths allegedly belonging to Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) were accused of lynching a Muslim man in Bulandshahr on suspicion that he had played a part in helping a youth elope with a Hindu girl.

This year, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an RSS-backed body, will get women from the minority community to tie the rakhi to various Sangh leaders who will assure them of protection. Girls from the minority community will also be encouraged to tie rakhi to Hindu boys. The Hindu girls will also tie rakhis to Muslim boys as part of its communal amity push.

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharak and MRM leader Mahirajdhwaj says rakhi will be used to promote all-religion amity. People of all religions, not just Muslims, will gather and tie rakhis to each other, he told HT.

However, sources said, the Sanghs communal amity push was also aimed at using the occasion to tackle the problem of Love Jihad where RSS believes Hindu women were enticed by Muslim youths into affair or marriage and discarded later.

Love jihad had become an issue in 2017 UP polls, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where some youths allegedly belonging to Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) were accused of lynching a Muslim man in Bulandshahr on suspicion that he had played a part in helping a youth elope with a Hindu girl.

Yes, this communal amity push will surely help in checking all social evils, be it love jihad or anything else, an RSS leader said.

The RSS will also get divyangs or handicapped people to tie rakhis on the occasion in the state capital on August 5. In the run-up to the festival, hundreds of Sangh volunteers have also stepped up a campaign, making people aware of the need to shun Chinese goods.

WhatsApp messages like Wear an Indian Rakhi if you care about your country have started being circulated in Uttar Pradesh, a campaign timed amid an increasingly bitter New Delhi-Beijing standoff over Doklam, which is under Chinas control but claimed by Bhutan. Sangh leaders say the campaign is also aimed at weakening the Chinese financially.

The RSS has previously campaigned against Chinese crackers during Diwali and its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, called for a boycott of Chinese goods earlier this year.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an RSS affiliate floated to promote Indian products, will follow up the initiative with a two-day meeting in Gonda from July 29.

Part of the campaign includes door-to-door contacts, making people aware of how the Chinese are allying with Pakistan to create disturbances in India.

Sangh volunteers at the Gonda meeting will discuss ways to create awareness among people to boycott Chinese products. Bhola Nath of Swadeshi Jagran Manch told HT that a massive rally will be organised at Delhis Ramlila ground in October. During the rally, the Modi government will be urged to opt out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

China is cunningly using the WTO to flood the Indian market with cheap goods. There are larger concerns too. Several Chinese telecommunication companies, a few of which have earned huge profits, make the countrys mobile communications network vulnerable, he said.

Prashant Bhatia, convener of Laghu Udyog Bharti, another RSS affiliate working to promote small and medium scale industries, has also joined the no Chinese product campaign. The move has also found support from Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Sanghs political wing.

The move has also found support from Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Sanghs political wing.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Uttar Pradeshs Etah district, Vipin Verma David, came to the rescue of the members of a Muslim family, who were lying unattended after a road accident on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway on Monday.

The member of legislative assembly (MLA) was on his way to Lucknow to attend the state assembly session when he saw a crowd surrounding a car that had overturned and fallen off the expressway near Pilakhna village in Unnao.

The crowd was simply watching the damaged Alto car that had fallen aside the roadside railing where a Muslim family of five was lying ... I decided to get down and do whatever I could and found an injured woman with her face down in the mud. She murmured Allah when we helped her out, David told the Hindustan Times on the phone on Wednesday.

I decided to get down and do whatever I could and found an injured woman with her face down in the mud. She murmured Allah when we helped her out.

Vipin Verma David, BJP MLA



The family, residents of Kannauj, was heading to Deva Shareef near Faizabad when they met with the accident.

He said two men and two women were injured and one woman was dead after the accident. The women were seriously injured and hurriedly brought up in a chatai (jute sheet) to the expressway.

An ambulance was called besides a Police Response Vehicle and the injured were moved to the Lucknow Trauma Centre, he added.

Although I was getting late but followed my duty as a human being and public representative first and thus went after the ambulance and assured their admission in the trauma centre before leaving, the MLA said and added it was only when the woman said Allah that he came to know that they were Muslims.

It did not matter to me and I did not care for the time of about three hours that I had to remain with them. We tried to talk to and interact with the injured so that they remained conscious and fit for treatment when they reached Lucknow, he said.

On Wednesday, the MLA got a call from the family thanking him for his help and also expressed its wishes to meet him.

The family members informed that the injured were recovering and this was enough for me that my gesture turned fruitful, the MLA said

BJP MLA from Etah Sadar, Vipin Verma David (in brown kurta), helps the injured members of a family on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway on Monday. (HT Photo)

He also assured the family that he will meet them as they expressed a desire to meet him in Etah.

According to government data, a person dies every 3.7 minutes in road accidents across the country, which is known for rash driving, inadequate traffic enforcement, badly maintained roads and poor quality cars.

Experts say many road accident victims lose their life simply because they fail to get timely medical treatment. Many bystanders do not help the injured as they fear they could get embroiled in a police investigation or subjected to harassment due to the legal procedures involved if they provide first-aid, ferry the injured to a hospital or even call for medical or police assistance.

In 2016, the Supreme Court approved the Centres guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who help road accident victims, from being unnecessarily harassed by police or any other authority.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday gave a subtle warning to his ministers against patronising or giving plum postings to corrupt officers and asked them to focus on work instead of making unnecessary announcements.

Yogis warning came after his two-day visit to New Delhi where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other senior party leaders.

Corrupt officers should not get plum postings. We are getting complaints of some corrupt officers being given good postings, said the chief minister while addressing his council of ministers here.

Yogi also referred to the decision for a special lane for VVIPs at toll plazas that was later withdrawn at his behest, and said ministers should refrain from taking such decisions that gave a bad name to his government.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya holds the charge of Public Works Department (PWD) that had issued the controversial order.

Much significance is being attached to the meeting Yogi scheduled after he visited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office in Lucknow (a day before leaving for New Delhi) and meeting top party leaders in New Delhi in the past two days.

Yogis warning assumes significance as it comes in the backdrop of some BJP MPs and MLAs raising their voice over performance of some of ministers at various party forums.

Party leaders have accused ministers for patronizing corrupt officers and raised the issue of laxity in their own work.

Soon after reaching here on Tuesday evening, Yogi reached Lok Bhawan where his ministers had been waiting for some time. He addressed them and later presided over a meeting of the state cabinet.

Yogi asked them to focus on their work instead of making unnecessary announcements. He reminded them that his government had appointed two ministers -- Shrikant Sharma and Siddharthnath Singh -- as official spokesmen to ensure that they could concentrate on their work.

Do your work and dont make unnecessary announcements, said Yogi. He asked ministers to go to the field and visit their constituencies.

Be in Lucknow for two days in a week, pay a days visit to your constituency and spend three days in other districts every week, said Yogi. He also asked ministers to take care of flood affected areas.

The chief ministers warning also assumes significance in view Amit Shahs three-day visit to the state from July 29. Besides meeting BJPs office bearers and other senior leaders, Shah will meet Yogi and some of his ministers here. Shah is likely to discuss with senior leaders the issue of identifying seats for Yogi and his ministerial colleagues, including two deputy chief minister -- Dinesh Sharma and Maurya -- who have to become members of either of the two houses of state legislature before September 19.

Yogi has maintained that the party leadership will take a decision on the issue. Yogi and Maurya are members of Lok Sabha and their resignation would result in by-election to two parliament seats they represent now.

Amid indications that BSP chief Mayawati may step up campaign against the BJP in coming days, the party leadership is evaluating the option of Mauryas continuation as Phoolpur MP and accommodate him as minister at the centre.

Meanwhile, senior party leaders discussed preparations for Shahs visit to Lucknow.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Ask any frequent traveller what the worst part of travel is and you will usually elicit the same response: Airports.

The general rule is that the further West you go, the worse the airports get. As even Donald Trump has said, US airports are terrible, almost as bad as US airlines.There are very few world class European airports and British airports have declined dramatically over the last decade or so. Even when the West tries to get it right, it fails. British Airways so-called state-of-the-art Terminal 5 at Heathrow has been plagued with problems of one kind or the other ever since it opened. (Mostly: technology-related.)

(Shutterstock)

Asian airports, on the other hand, are among the worlds finest. Singapores Changi is not as good as it used to be but it is still pretty damn good. Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi and Seouls Incheon are all far ahead of their counterparts in the West. The international airport I use the most, Delhis Indira Gandhi, is terrific.

One reason why we dont like airports has nothing to do with the buildings themselves but with the staff. In the old days, I used to dread flying back to India because the immigration counters (run, in that era, by policemen) would be too few and the officials would be corrupt or illiterate or both.Then, customs would open all your bags and make you explain the provenance of each item of clothing.

In those days, the cops at immigration desks routinely extorted money from passengers. It very nearly happened to me. On a trip out of Delhi in the late 1980s, the policeman at the Immigration Desk looked at both my passport booklets and pointed out that one had a Bombay address while the other had a Calcutta address. Why was this?

I explained that the first booklet had been issued in Bombay when I lived there. It had run out of pages so I had been issued a new booklet. This happened in Calcutta because I had now shifted there. I offered to show him ID and address proof (I was then editor of Sunday, a Calcutta-based weekly). In any case, it was quite legal to have a passport issued by any passport office anywhere in India.

No, he said. This was very suspicious. He would not let me board my flight.

Even as I outraged about this, he took me into an inside room and indicated that we could come to some kind of arrangement. By then, Air-India had noticed that a passenger was missing and traced me to the room where the cop was trying to shake me down.

Paagal ho! the Air-India Duty Officer said to the cop. Yeh toh patrakar hai!

Senior immigration officials were summoned and I was allowed to board the flight.

(Shutterstock)

I asked the Air-India guy what that was all about. It is very common, he told me. They do this routinely with labourers going to the Gulf. If those guys miss their flights and do not report for work on time, they lose their jobs. So they have no choice and have to pay these policemen whatever they ask for. You are a journalist so the police let you go.

Fired with righteous indignation, I wrote detailed letters of complaint to everyone in the chain of command all the way up to the then Home Minister Buta Singh, who the Delhi police reported to.

Not one person even acknowledged the letter.

I wrote to Buta Singh again. When he did not respond, I called his office. Had my letter reached? It had. Would the Home Minister be looking into the racket at Immigration? They had no idea.

I never got a response from anyone and the racket went on.

Many years later (around 1996 or so, I reckon), I had an even worse experience at Bombay airport. I was horrified to see a passenger slipping a few high denomination currency notes to the cop at the X-Ray so that he would let him take on board whatever dangerous substance had been discovered in the X-Ray of his bag.

I complained to the Inspector on duty. He said he might listen to my complaint but it would take time. If I wanted to make an issue of it, I would miss my flight because he would stop me from boarding the plane.

To the credit of the Bombay police, when I later filed a written complaint they conducted an inquiry and took action against both policemen.

That incident restored my faith in the system and since then, whenever I have come across anything untoward, I have always complained. Fortunately, things are much better at Indian airports now. The CISF handles airport security and does a far better job than the police used to. Customs (at least at Delhi airport) are usually polite and reasonable. And a new Immigration outfit has taken over. This is still the weak link in the chain but it performs much better than the local police ever did.

(Shutterstock)

It helps also that this government has taken the sensible step of doing away with the pointless arrival and departure cards that Indians had to fill in when they travelled. Senior officers at airports are also more responsive.

Last week, I flew from Delhi to Bangkok. The Immigration Officer looked at my Thai visa and asked where I was going. Thailand, I said. Was the visa valid, he asked. Yes, I said and showed him the dates. I didnt really need the visa, I said, because Thailand gives visas on arrival. But I had a long-term, multi-entry visa anyway.

Part of it was written in Thai, he then pointed out. Yes, I said, many foreign countries did that. They used their own languages, along with English on the visas. But all he had to do was read the English part.

No, he said. He could not read what was written in Thai. So he would not stamp my passport. I explained that I had already travelled out of Delhi three times on the same visa. He was not interested.

Eventually I asked him to call his supervisor. He took my passport, left the counter and disappeared for many minutes. Finally, he returned and conceded that I could board my flight.

I could have left it at that but mindful of the fact that this man could deny boarding to other less experienced passengers on similar trumped-up grounds, I went to the complaints counter. They took me to see a senior officer. By then, my Immigration Officer had also arrived at the senior officers cabin.

The officer heard us both out, apologised to me and upbraided the man who wouldnt let me travel because he did not read Thai. I was impressed. Things appeared to have changed for the better.

Later, as I walked to the plane, many people who worked at the airport congratulated me for complaining. These guys bully passengers all the time, they said. Thank God somebody complained to their bosses. So perhaps things havent changed all that much!

But fear of officialdom is not restricted to Indian airports. Passengers can be hassled anywhere. In the US, immigration officers can be rude and menacing. They cant really deny you entry if your papers are in order. But they can send you for a secondary examination, a process that involves a wait of several hours. In Britain they are friendly but over-worked. The queues at the so-called Fast Track counters at Heathrow are mind boggling. In most of Europe, on the other hand, they couldnt care less about admitting you as long as you have a valid Schengen visa so queues move quickly.

(Shutterstock)

The worst airport in Europe is Rome where, in keeping with the fine traditions of Italian bureaucracy, the Immigration guys take long cigarette breaks ignoring the queues in front of their desks, flirt lazily and at great length with women passengers and take ages to read a single passport. It does not matter to them that the Immigration hall is over full or that passengers are fainting from the heat. Even Dhaka is better.

In some Asian countries, officials may be bent. When I arrived in Rangoon in the early 1990s, my host had to bribe the immigration officer to stamp my passport though my documents were in order. (It is normal here he said nonchalantly while I looked horrified.) In Cambodia, two years ago, the Immigration officer asked if I had a gift for him. When I said a firm no, he looked angry but let me through. Leaving Thailand once, many years ago, the Immigration Officer took my passport, left his desk and asked me to follow him. I wondered what this was about but, to my surprise, he did not take me to an office. Instead we went to the duty free shop where he used my boarding card and passport to buy three bottles of whisky for himself. (You no mind? he twinkled.)

(Shutterstock)

And sometimes, airports can surprise you. Japan is one of the most civilised countries in the world but on the two recent occasions when I have landed at Tokyos Narita airport, the scene at the Immigration Hall has been one of total mayhem.

But Narita is an exception. On the whole, countries get the airports they deserve. It was at Heathrow a decade ago that I first noticed the signs that read It is a crime to abuse or assault any member of our staff.

And indeed it should be. But as somebody who has seen how Heathrow is run, I can understand why they need to put the signs up.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
An 11-year-old tribal hostel student in a government-run ashramshala committed suicide by hanging himself from the iron frame of a scrapped tempo near his school on Tuesday.

Police said the boy, a Class 6 student, was ashamed after he was caught stealing Rs30 from his classmate on Monday. The principal had reprimanded him and ordered him to return the stolen cash. The boy skipped school the next day and hanged himself with a nylon rope near a brick kiln.

On realising that he was missing, the principal, a few teachers and his classmates went looking for him and discovered his body.

The Mokhada police said the boy tried to coerce a classmate to enter into a suicide pact with him. However, he refused, said assistant police inspector Prakash Sonawane.

Police sent the body for a postmortem, which confirmed that he died of strangulation. They have registered a case of accidental death and are investigating.

The body was handed over to the boys parents, who are both farm labourers. They performed the last rites on Wednesday morning, said the police.

The boy has a history of criminal activities, said the police. In 2016, he stole a few chicken from a woman, cooked them and ate them in a nearby field. He had also robbed a few women of their bangles, said an officer.
Two youths in their early twenties were found murdered under a flyover at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning.

A few local residents spotted the bodies lying in a pool of blood and informed the police about it.

Prima facie it appears that the deceased were residents of a nearby slum.

The police have not revealed their names so far.

"We think they were killed by smashing their heads with a stone on their heads on Tuesday night. We have sent the bodies to NMMC hospital for conducting postmortems," said a police officer from Turbhe Police station.

"We have just started our investigations to identify the deceased and the culprits. We also have no idea about the reasons behind the murders. So it is too early to say something about it. We will make some breakthrough soon," the officer said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Vile Parle police recently arrested four people for allegedly carrying out several burglaries across Mumbai. The police added they have a prior criminal record and were out on bail.

According to the Vile Parle police, the accused have been identified as Ayappa Shetty, 40, Dinesh Ramashankar Yadav, 26, Himanshu Dilip Somaiya, 34 and Sunil Baburao Shetty, 35.

All of them are autorickshaw drivers and operated in Kandivali, Nalasopara, Malad and Virar. They were wanted in 12 other burglary cases, which were registered against them at various places in Mumbai.

Senior police inspector, Laxman Chavan, of Vile Parle police station said, We have been on the lookout for the accused since the past four months and were working on information against them. We had checked the CCTV footage from the areas where they had committed burglaries and could figure out their faces enough to make a sketch. Their modus operandi was the same.

The burglars would keep an eye on house owners and figure out the timings when the owners wouldnt be home. When their houses would be empty, the burglars would enter the house by breaking open the locks and flee with cash and gold ornaments. The accused used their autorickshaws to carry the booty and flee from the crime spot.

A team led by police sub inspector Vikas Patil nabbed the accused from Kandivali on last Thursday after receiving a tip-off about their hide out. They were later taken to the Vile Parle police station.

There is a possibility that there are more members involved in the crime. We are investigating the case, added Chavan.

He also added that no recoveries have been made until now, but with the ongoing probe there is a high possibility of majority of the stolen items being recovered.

The accused were kept in police custody till Monday and were produced before the Andheri magistrate court on Tuesday. They have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for burglary, criminal conspiracy.
The delegations of Ukraine and Israel will hold the sixth round of negotiations on the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries in Kyiv on July 26-27, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

"The purpose of the sixth round is to continue the detailed consideration of issues of access to agricultural and industrial goods markets, in particular, to determine the degree of reduction of customs tariffs," Natalia Mykolska, deputy minister - Ukraine's trade representative, wrote on her Facebook page on the eve of the talks.

She recalled that during the fifth round in Tel Aviv in March 2017, most of the issues regarding the access of goods to markets were agreed upon and certain sections of the Agreement on rules for determining the origin of goods were worked out.

As representatives of the Ukrainian government previously noted, the Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement with Israel should be the next after the FTA with Canada, signed in July 2016 and effective from August 1, 2017.

Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Israel Volodymyr Groysman and Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Tel Aviv in mid-May this year expressed the hope for the completion of negotiations on the FTA until the end of 2017.

According to the State Statistics Service, in January-May 2017, exports from Ukraine to Israel grew by 48.4% - to $282 million, while imports from Israel decreased by 10.5% - to $84.8 million. In terms of goods turnover, Israel occupied 22nd place among all trade partners of Ukraine, while on balance of trade it took the 10th place.
While Sena leader Sunil Sitap, who was arrested last night in connection with the Ghatkopar building collapse, was produced before a court on Wednesday and has been remanded in police custody for seven days, Rajesh Doshi, 57, who was buried alive in the Ghatkopar building collapse for 14 hours, got a second lease of life early Wednesday morning, all thanks to his mobile phone.Two youths in their early twenties were found murdered under a flyover at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning. Taking note of the rise in cases of swine flu, Mumbai schools asked parents not to send children to school if they have a fever or a cold. Also, the Vile Parle police recently arrested four people for allegedly carrying out several burglaries across Mumbai.

Here are todays top five picks:

1. Bodies of 2 Mumbai youngsters with their heads smashed with a stone found under flyover

Two youths in their early twenties were found murdered under a flyover at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning. A few local residents spotted the bodies lying in a pool of blood and informed the police about it. Prima facie it appears that the deceased were residents of a nearby slum. The police have not revealed their names so far.

2. Swine flu alert: Mumbai schools tell students to stay at home if they have fever or cold

Taking note of the rise in cases of swine flu, Mumbai schools asked parents not to send children to school if they have a fever or a cold. Swine flu known as influenza A (H1N1) is a respiratory infection which could be fatal if untreated. Mumbai reported 92 cases of swine flu last month. Sixteen people have died of swine flu so far this year.

3. Mumbai building collapse: My legs are trapped, Ghatkopar man tells son on phone from under rubble

Rajesh Doshi, 57, who was buried alive in the Ghatkopar building collapse for 14 hours, got a second lease of life early Wednesday morning, all thanks to his mobile phone. Heres how. Doshi got buried under the debris with his mobile phone. Around 6pm in the evening on Tuesday, Doshi made a call to his son from under the building rubble, saying his legs were trapped.

4. Four Mumbai autorickshaw drivers who broke into 12 houses arrested

The Vile Parle police recently arrested four people for allegedly carrying out several burglaries across Mumbai. The police added they have a prior criminal record and were out on bail. According to the Vile Parle police, the accused have been identified as Ayappa Shetty, 40, Dinesh Ramashankar Yadav, 26, Himanshu Dilip Somaiya, 34 and Sunil Baburao Shetty, 35.

5. Mumbai building collapse: Arrested Shiv Sena leader in police custody for 7 days

Shiv Sena leader Sunil Sitap, who was arrested last night in connection with the Ghatkopar building collapse, was produced before a court on Wednesday and has been remanded in police custody for seven days. Demanding maximum police custody, public prosecutor Vaishali Agawane said Sitap had knowledge the building would collapse if changes are made to it.
Upadhyay, who was arrested in 2015 in connection with the murders of his estranged wife artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court, claiming that there were major discrepancies in the probe.

In his plea, which is likely to be come up for hearing by a division bench of the high court on Thursday, Chintan claimed that the crime branchs probe was prejudiced. He said that he was made a scapegoat and implicated in the case by the other accused, who saw him as a soft target. Those who were guilty of the murders were being protected, Chintan claimed.

Chintan said that there was no dispute between him and Hema and that he had no reason to get her killed. The police did not take note of the fact that he was with his friends and associates on the day of the murders, read the plea.

Hema and Bhambhani were killed on December 11, 2015. Their bodies were stuffed in cardboard boxes, which were thrown into a ditch in Kandivli.

Chintan was arrested soon after and the police claimed that he had hired killers to carry out the murders. The police said that he hired prime accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar  a fabrication artist who he knew  and others to kill Hema. Rajbhar and Chintan met the other accused in Chembur to decide upon how to carry out the murders, according to the prosection. While Vidyadhar is still at large, the police arrested his accomplices  Pradeep Rajbhar, Azaad Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar.

In February, the high court had rejected his bail plea observing that prima facie there were sufficient material to establish that Chintan not only nurtured a grudge against Hema, but had also expressed in his personal diary, the desire to get her eliminated.

READ

Mumbai double murder: Sessions court rejects Chintan Upadhyays bail plea

Kandivli double murder: HC rejects Chintan Upadhyays bail plea

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A 13-year-old boy, who attempted suicide 13 days ago following repeated sexual assault, died on Tuesday morning at KEM hospital. The minor was admitted to the hospital on July 12.

He had alleged that his 10-year-old friend committed suicide, as he too was sexually assaulted by the same accused. Based on his statement, the Powai police on Tuesday exhumed the 10-year-olds body and sent it for post-mortem to JJ hospital.

The police said the action was taken to confirm the allegations by the 13-year-old that his friend committed suicide by consuming poison. They said medical tests on the 13-year-old confirmed that he was sexually assaulted. The boy and his friends were residents of a slum pocket in Powai.

The alleged incident took place on July 6 when the boy and his were on the way to their classes. The accused caught hold of the boys and sexually assaulted them after threatening to kill them.

Read: Four teenagers booked for raping 14-year-old boy in Mumbai

After the sexual assault the accused threatened to kill them if they informed anyone about it. Scared and humiliated the 13-year-old decided to end his life and consumed poison. He was rushed to a hospital on July 12 after he started vomiting due to the consumed poison. A FIR is registered under section 377 (unnatural offences) of IPC and relevant sections of POCSO by Powai police station.

The police further said that the boy was sexually assaulted multiple times even before July 6. The police have so far questioned 100 people to track down the accused. They have a name given by the boys mother. The boy before becoming unconscious informed his mother about the sexual assault and also gave her a name.

As of now there is at least one accused in the case who the Powai police are tracing. The boy also told his mother that not only he but his 10-year-old friend was also sexually assaulted by the accused which drove his friend to end his life by consuming poison. Its not clear if the duo decided to commit suicide together.
Ninety-seven people have died and scores have been injured in three building collapses caused by illegal renovations in the past decade. In this time, neither the state government nor the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has done much to prevent such tragedies or to punish offenders. This is because no mechanism exists to prevent illegal alterations on private property or to impose harsh punishments on offenders.

If the BMC notices an illegal alteration or unauthorized construction in your building, the most it can do is issue a notice under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act. If the building does collapse, and illegal alterations or negligence are suspected to be the cause, the police can arrest and charge those responsible under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code  causing death by negligence. It carries a sentence of up to two years, a fine, or both. However, no-one has been so punished in the past 10 years.

Legislator Amin Patel said, As of now, there is stern punishment for violating the MRTP Act by illegally altering a structure. But if someone breaks a pillar and the building collapses, killing people, it should be treated as a murder. It is time to change the outdated legal provisions.

Tuesdays building collapse in Ghatkopar has so far claimed seven lives and left nine people injured. The building wasnt catergorised as dilapidated or dangerous by the BMC in its pre-monsoon survey. Local residents blamed unauthorized renovations by the owner of a nursing home on the ground floor for the collapse.

They alleged that a load-bearing pillar of the building was tampered with, causing the building to tilt and then fall. An official in the BMCs anti-encroachment department said that they hadnt received complaints about any illegal construction there.

Under the Development Control Rules, citizens must get permission from the BMC to build cabins, construct or demolish walls, or otherwise alter structures. Plastering, tiling and painting can be done without the BMCs permission. However, the rules are violated frequently. A BMC official, who did not wish to be named, said, We act once we get complaints about illegal alterations or across them during site inspection. Other than that we have no mechanism to keep tabs on every illegal alteration that takes place.

After a building in Dockyard collapse in 2013, killing 61 people, the BMC appointed a committee to look into the matter. The committee said that the BMC needed to ensure that good-quality raw materials were used in construction and keep tabs on projects to prevent illegal alterations. It also said that residents must obtain and compile architectural drawings of all the stages of construction and all structural audit reports.

In 2007, 26 people died when a building in Borivali collapsed. A case was registered against a jeweler on the ground floor who had allegedly made structural modifications. Six years later, a building in Mahim collapsed because of unauthorised structural changes, killing 10 people.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Mansukhbhai Gujjar, a 75-year-old carpenter who died in the collapse, was not supposed to be at the Siddhi Sai building on Tuesday morning.

He was to go book tickets to meet his daughter in Ahmedabad.

But Gujjar wanted to finish a task first  he had to take measurements for a client and told his family he would be back in 10 minutes.

His brother-in-law, Chetan Bijlani said, He has two daughters, both in Ahmedabad. He thought of doing this one last assignment before leaving for Gujarat on Wednesday.

Bijlani said the family panicked when one of the residents called them about the collapse.

The family couldnt trace Gujjar for hours.

They were finally informed by officials at Rajawadi Hospital that he had been brought to the hospital but has died.
Thirty hours and endless moments of hope and despair later, rescue operations at Ghatkopars Siddhi Sai housing society ended on Wednesday. The toll rose to 17, 14 were injured and were being treated at hopsitals and 139 truckloads of debris was cleared from the site that was once home to at least 12 families.

Rescue workers said they ended operations at 5.30pm on Wednesday after all residents were accounted for. But the hours before that were harrowing for the 90 fire brigade personnel, 300 rescue workers, 50 NDRF men and their sniffer dogs, who combed through the rubble of the five-storey structure looking for people.

At 10.45am on Tuesday, the building caved in with women, senior citizens and infants. The dead included two infants  a three-month-old and 1-year-old  and four senior citizens. The rescue ops began around 11.23am. The fire brigade called it a level 4 emergency and deployed 14 fire engines, two rescue vans and ambulances to the spot.

As rescue operations continued, the scale of the tragedy came to light  by 3pm, 12 people were removed from the debris, four of whom were declared dead; 12 hours after the building collapsed, the toll had risen to 12. As people were found, they were rushed to the nearby Shantiniketan hospital or the Rajawadi hospital.

But the survivors and families of those still missing held on to hope, as neighbours and residents of the nearby societies helped search for people, served tea and biscuits and comforted the families. For one family, the prayers paid off. After 16 hours of being trapped under the rubble, the fire brigade pulled out Rajesh Doshi, a 57-year-old businessman. Doshi luckily had his phone with him when the building came crashing down and he used it to help the rescuers find him.

READ: Sena man arrested for Ghatkopar building collapse named in 6 illegal construction cases in Mumbai

The rescue operations continued through the night, and by 7.30am, 17 people were declared dead. By 5.30pm on Wednesday, rescue operations ended.

So far, seven of the injured have been discharged from the Rajawadi and Shantiniketan hospitals.

People worked round-the-clock not just on the site. Doctors at Rajawadis post mortem centre worked overnight to complete forensic analysis of the 17 bodies and send them back to the families within hours.

Dr Shivaji Kachre from the Nagpada Police Hospital that heads the five post mortem centres, said they sent four doctors and additional staff to the centre.

We completed all documentation and handed over the bodies to avoid further inconvenience to the families, Dr Kachare said.

After residents pointed out that renovation on the ground floor of the building could have weakened it, the police on Tuesday filed an FIR naming Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, who owned three flats on the ground floor. He has been arrested.

On Wednesday, CM Devendra Fadnavis told the Maharashtra assembly that prima facie, it looked like the renovation work was responsible for the collapse and announced that a senior IAS officer will head the committee formed by the Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation (BMC) to probe the incident

.
Shiv Sena leader Sunil and his wife Swati Shitap, who owned a nursing home on the ground and first floor of the Ghatkopar building that collapsed on Tuesday, found themselves in the line of fire just after the incident. According to locals and corporators, Sunil Shitap was renovating the nursing home and allegedly tampered with the pillars of the structure. The Sena, however, distanced itself from the allegations saying Sunil is not from the party.

Locals alleged the couple had undertaken alterations to the structure after shifting all the patients recently. Swati had contested civic polls from ward number 126 in Ghatkopar (West) in February this year. Archana Bhalerao, a BJP corporator from the ward, said, The building was completely stable, not dilapidated. The alterations on the ground floor led to the collapse.

BMC officials confirmed the building was not a part of the list of dilapidated structures prepared before the monsoon. A civic official said, We did not receive any complaints on illegal alterations, not even on the online portal.

Former corporator from Congress, Pravin Chheda, however, said the onus of compensating the victims now lies with the Sunil. He has interfered with three columns of the structure, which resulted in this situation. He was already running an illegal hospital for the past two years and wanted to change it to a guest house.

Resident Binita Ramchandani said, Earlier, we had faced water problems because Sunil was running a commercial business. When we questioned him about the renovation, he told us the BMC is operating under him and he can do whatever he wants.

Despite repeated attempts, both Sunil and Swati Shitap were not available for a comment. Sena vibhag pramukh Rajendra Raut, however, said Sunil is not connected to the Sena. He is not from the party. We just know him as an acquaintance.

Sunil operated from his office on the first floor of the building.

According to Raut, Sunil was looking to redevelop the building, but was not getting support from other tenants. So he started renovating his premises to make the nursing home better.

Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar also said Sunil was not from the party. He further said, Whoever is responsible, appropriate action needs to be taken by the BMC and police.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A hospital right next to the Siddhi Sai building that caved in on Tuesday morning came as a blessing to the dozens injured in the incident.

Officials said the victims were taken to the Shantiniketan Hospital minutes after being pulled out from under the rubble, which meant they got immediate paramedical care. Doctors from the hospital said they treated at least 12 victims, most of whom had head injuries and fractures. The doctors said they also treated many for trauma and shock.

The five-storeyed building collapsed down around 10.45am on Tuesday, and most of the casualties were senior citizens and women.

We started getting patients as soon as locals started rescue operations. As the working population was not at home and children were at school, it was mostly senior citizens and women we treated, said Dr Praful Lokhande, who runs the hospital.

Four women, Ranjan Shah, Sulochana Khalchandani, Amruta Thak and Divya Ajmera were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Their bodies were later sent to the Rajawadi Hospital for a post-mortem.

Sulochanas daughter-in-law Ridhhi suffered a severe head injury and multiple fractures and was rushed to the ICU. She is in stable condition now, Dr Lokhande said.

Doctors from the hospital also helped firemen Ganesh Khandge and Rajesh Rathod from the Kurla fire station.

We rescued a woman from the rubble, but as soon as we bent to pick her up, there was a gas leak. I couldnt breathe and the next thing I remember was on a hospital bed, said Khandge.

Doctors moved Khandge to the ICU as his condition was critical, but he improved and was moved back to the general ward.

.
Maharashtra legislators on Wednesday held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officers responsible for illegal structures and alterations to buildings in Mumbai.

Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Avhad alleged BMC officials from Ghatkopar gave permissions for illegal alterations to not just Siddhi Sai, the building that collapsed, but other structures in the area too.

BJPs Colaba MLA Raj Purohit said illegal constructions were on in hundreds of buildings in his constituency.

Avhad alleged two officers from the legal and building proposal departments of N ward were responsible for the collapse. Apart from the place owned by Shitap, some other establishments have illegally on government land with the help of these officials, Avhad said.

He said the government should take action against the assistant municipal commissioner of the ward and senior police inspector of the area.

The lower house witnessed an uproar over the building collapse.

The adjournment motion moved by opposition was admitted by Assembly speaker and later the debated upon immediately after the question hour.

BMC officials pay no heed to illegal constructions, despite repeated complaints, said Purohit. This is evident in wards A, B, C and D in south Mumbai. The alterations have caused irreparable damage to these buildings. The officials are making crore of rupees, while the common man is scared to file a complaint, he said.

Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu said not a single complaint was registered against illegal construction in the building which collapsed on Tuesday.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Geeta Ramchandani, 58, is one of the oldest residents of the building.

She has been staying there for over two decades with her husband Lalchand.

Lalchand had just left home when the building started shaking.

My wife thought the building was shaking because of the repair work on the lower floors, but she looked out of the window just to confirm, Lalchand said.

She told me she saw the entire building come down, before she got trapped, said Lalchand.

Geeta was stuck under the rubble for more than two hours before the firefighters and rescue operators were able to reach her and pull her out of the debris.

I had just reached the gate and was on my way to work when I saw the building crumble. Fortunately, my wife survived and she is well, but the offenders need to be brought to justice, Lalchand said.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv), the largest airline of the country, has filed several claims to court, and in one of them the airline demands to annul a contract between the leading low cost airline in Europe Ryanair and the Lviv International Airport, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.

"Yesterday I received several court claims from UIA, the essence of which is the following: to annul the contract of Ryanair with the Lviv airport, ban the ministry to help Ryanair in Ukraine, and the icing on the cake  over the possible arrival of Ryanair to Ukraine UIA had to cut prices and caused damage to itself. The airline asks the court that the Infrastructure Ministry compensates dozens millions of hryvnias of the "loss," the minister wrote on his Facebook page.

Omelyan also said that UIA use all opportunities to block the arrival of the low cost airline and allow Ukrainian to fly dozens of times cheaper in Europe and the world and the increase of tourist flow to Ukraine.

"In short, I, of course, will stand fast  Ukrainians have the right and must receive high-quality and cheap services in all spheres. Low cost airlines and Ryanair will be in Ukraine," he said.
Birendra Singh, a resident of Siddhi Sai building at Ghatkopar, which collapsed on Tuesday, said residents had objected to Sunil Shitaps plan to renovate his nursing home on the ground floor.

Singh said Shitap  a Shiv Sena worker, whose wife contested the BMC elections earlier this year  called a meeting 10 days before the collapse and announced that he had permission from the BMC to renovate the nursing home.

We objected to this. I also tried to register a complaint with the N-ward office but was unable to reach the right person. For 10 days, the renovation work caused heavy vibrations in the building.

Bhagyashree Kapse, a BMC officer at N-ward, said, We did not receive any complaints. If changes were being made to the structure, the residents should have complained to the ward office.

Kapse added that the ward office had not received a request for additions or alterations to the building either. She said a user-change permission was granted for the building in 2009, after which no structural audit was conducted.

READ: After 30 hours, rescue ops at Ghatkopar end, probe begins

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the state assembly that there had been no complaints against the renovation work.

However, if people had in fact complained, the civic officers who ignored them would not be spared, he added.

Singh was at work when the building collapsed. His wife and children were also out at the time. He is now living with his in-laws at Bhandup. We have not been given any alternative accommodation, he said.

BMC officials said the cause of the collapse was yet to be ascertained.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta has set up a committee to investigate the incident and submit a report in 15 days. Kapse said, The building was constructed in 198. We have sent debris for testing to ascertain the condition of the building.

Seventeen people died after the five-storey building collapsed on Tuesday.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Former vice-chancellor (V-C) of the University of Mumbai (MU) and Rajya Sabha member Bhalchandra Mungekar on Wednesday demanded the resignation of V-C Sanjay Deshmukh for botching up assessment of question papers.

Speaking at a press conference, Mungekar, who once served in the Planning Commission of India, said the state government is equally responsible for MU's examination mess as it had put an embargo on holding elections for the university's governing bodies and other authorities for the past two years, allowing the V-C to run amok.

Many unpleasant incidents have happened in the university in the last 13 years after I resigned. However, the present crisis is unprecedented. And it's the result of an irrational decision by Deshmukh. He should accept moral responsibility for this mess and resign even if the university meets the July 31 deadline, he said.

Mungekar also demanded that governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who also serves as the chancellor of the varsity, appoint an administrator to take over the assessment work. He said there should be a judicial inquiry of the entire affair. All decisions made by the university need to be examined, he said.

The former V-C also raised concerns over the quality of assessment. Its unjustifiable to fix a target, because the rush to meet it may compromise the assessment quality, he said. However, an MU official rubbished these claims. There has been no compromise in the quality of assessment, he said.

Three universities may help MU with assessment

After Nagpur University agreed to help the MU in assessing papers, the varsity officials are seeking help of other public varsities in the state. According to an MU official, the university has contacted Savitribai Phule Pune University, Shivaji University, Kolhapur and Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. It is also in the process of setting up its online assessment system at these varsities.

Meanwhile, the university has been assessing papers at a steady pace. On Wednesday, around 1.1 lakh papers were assessed, leaving around 4.4 lakh answer sheets unchecked. This year, the MU adopted an on-screen marking process for the assessment of answer sheets in place of traditional pen-and-paper evaluation.

The decision caused a huge delay in the results, as MU couldnt appoint an agency for a long time and the technical glitches continue to plague the system. The delay has affected admissions to various post-graduation courses.

Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who also serves as chancellor of the university, has asked the varsity administration to declare all the results by July 31.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Non-scheduled caste or scheduled tribe employees of the Maharashtra government will not be able to benefit from reservation in promotions, said the Bombay high court on Tuesday.

It struck down a government resolution (GR) that extended such benefits to employees, saying the state had no authority to decide this.

SC and ST government employees will also not be able to benefit from reservation in promotions temporarily. Justice MS Sonak struck down another GR , which gave them such benefits, after the state failed to comply with mandatory legal requirements.

Justice Sonak was hearing a reference necessitated after two judges had conflicting opinions while deciding a challenge to the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunals (MAT) November 2014 decision.The decision had declared the Maharashtra State Public Services Act, 2001, unconstitutional. As two GRs had been issued under this Act, the judges struck them down.

Justice Anoop Mohta had reversed the MAT ruling, while justice Amjad Sayed, had held that the MAT should not have gone into the constitutional validity of the enactment in the facts and circumstances of the case. At the same time, Justice Sayed had struck down the two GRs holding them unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, Justice Sonak decided the reference concurring with the view expressed by Justice Sayed that two GRs  both issued on May 25, 2004 one of which granted benefit of reservation in promotion to government employees belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other extended the same benefit to De-Notified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Category and Other Backward Classes, and the other to SC and ST employees.

Justice Sonak said the GR granting benefit of reservation to non-SC and non-ST employees was liable to be struck down as the government was not legally authorised to extend such benefits to non-SC and non-ST employees.

The text, the context coupled with legislative history as reflected in the statement of Objects and Reasons makes it clear that Article 16(4A) enables the State to make provisions for reservation in matters of promotion in favour of SCs/STs only wherever they are not adequately represented in the services under the State, said Justice Sonak. Conversely, Article 16(4A) does not enable, the State to make provisions for reservations in promotions in favour of 'any backward class of citizens' other than SCs/STs.

The judge struck down the other GR extending benefit of reservation in promotion to SCs and STs on the ground of non-compliance of mandatory requirements of collecting quantifiable data showing that the categories were inadequately represented in state services.
With the Bombay high court recently observing that all education boards should make mathematics optional in Class 10, educators and child development specialists are caught in a debate over the subjects importance.

While, specialists argue that maths adds to students fears and can be made optional in higher secondary, educators said schools need to evolve ways to help students cope with the subject.

Last month, the court observed that students, who want to pursue arts or vocational courses at an undergraduate-level, do not need knowledge of math and so there should be a provision for them to drop the subject in the school certificate examination. It was hearing a petition filed by psychiatrist Harish Shetty on the need for education boards to assist students diagnosed with learning disabilities.

Among national boards, only the Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) gives students a choice to drop math in Class 9 and 10. Students can opt for science, economics or environmental studies over maths.

The rest of the boards, including the Central Board of Secondary Education, the Maharashtra state board, and Cambridge International Examinations, have compulsory maths till Class 10.

Teachers said that if all boards make the subject optional, it would ease the pressure on students. Maths can weigh students down if they have a weak foundation, said Sunita George, a maths teacher and principal, Bombay Scottish School, Powai.

Unfortunately, we measure a childs intelligence by his or her mathematical abilities and this demotivates and shatters the self-esteem of students who cannot cope with the subject, she said.

George said that those who are weak in math do not necessarily have learning disabilities and so cannot avail of concessions such as extra time, use of calculator, or easier version of maths.

There are cases in which children are simply not good in the subject or are victims of parental expectations and pressures, said George, adding that such children benefit tremendously if they drop the subject.

Some teachers said that instead of dropping the subject entirely, schools can help students in overcoming their fears. They suggested lenient checking, scaling down the difficulty level and changing the question paper pattern.

Boards can set the paper in such a way that it can assess multiple intelligences, said Susan Babu, secondary math teacher at Holy Family School, Andheri. The difficulty level can increase gradually, but all students should be able to pass at least.

Babu said maths is an essential life-skill, which will help students in all avenues. Everyone requires maths at some point, she said. Although computers and technology have made basic calculations easy, we need maths to help us understand it.

The CBSE was forced to scale down the difficulty level of the Class 12 mathematics question paper for the March 2017 exams after an unusually tough exam brought down scores of students. The pattern was revamped, introducing short-answer type questions carrying two marks and reducing the weightage of controversial higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions.

However, some educators admitted that such measures would help only if schools take special steps to strengthen maths skills. Maths is no longer tough as it used to be. The syllabus has been watered down and teaching methodologies have changed. Students can easily master it provided they receive remedial support from the school, said Savita Iyer, principal of Bombay Cambridge School, Andheri (East).

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, arrested in connection with the collapse of Siddhi Sai, a five-storey structure in Mumbais Ghatkopar, has been named in six cases of unauthorised construction, alleged former Congress corporator from the area, Pravin Chedda.

Sitap was arrested in the Ghatkopar case on Tuesday night and was produced before a court on Wednesday. He has been remanded in police custody for seven days. He has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (causing death by negligence), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).

CM too faced embarrassment Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had to allegedly once face embarrassment after he unknowingly visited a lounge run by Shitap in Powai Sometime ago, an Opposition legislator alleged that Fadnavis was present for inauguration of an illegal lounge. Replying to the allegation, Fadnavis had clarified that he had visited the place on an invitation by a journalist for birthday of the latters son. He had no knowledge whether it was a bar or a lounge, he had added.

According to Chheda, Shitap was to carry out an illegal construction on a 25,000-sqft recreation ground at Sainath Nagar in Ghatkopar. Chheda claimed he objected to it and took up the matter with municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta who eventually ordered an inquiry. Then assistant commissioner Sudhanshu Dwivedi was suspended in connection with this case, claimed Chheda.

Shitap specialised in land grabbing and illegal constructions. He is an expert at making forged papers, said Chheda.

Even in case of the Ghatkopar building, which collapsed on Tuesday killing 17 people, residents have accused Shitap of converting the building to commercial use in 2009 and starting a hospital on its ground floor.

According to residents, Shitap planned to convert the hospital into a guesthouse. The renovation work for the guesthouse weakened the building leading to its collapse, alleged residents. Shitap owns at least four shops and hotels in Ghatkopar and Powai.

His political stint started with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). He contested the BMC elections on the partys ticket in 2012, but lost. He soon defected to the Shiv Sena, getting a ticket for his wife Swati from ward no 126 in Ghatkopar for the 2017 BMC elections. His wife too lost .

Shitap is said to be office-bearer of the Sena cell in the area. According to locals, he is a part of nexus between land mafia, police and BMC department.

The Shiv Sena has distanced itself from Shitap, calling him a party hopper. He has no relation with the Shiv Sena. We gave a ticket to his wife as we wanted an OBC candidate. Neither Sunil nor she visited our office or kept in touch with the Sena after the elections, said Rajendra Raut, vibhag pramukh of Ghatkopar.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Shlok Babu, a Class 12 student from Powai, and his five friends used their summer holidays to come up with ideas to make the locality plastic-free. The group spent the entire June convincing residents and shopkeepers to avoid using plastic bags.

Through its Plastic-Free Powai initiative, the group studied the use of plastic bags by vendors and devised ways to spread awareness among residents.

We talk about big issues such as global warming, then why not bring the change by taking small steps? Plastic problem is something that we can tackle as a society. And this is what we are doing, said Babu.

The group is urging residents and vendors to opt for bags made of recycled newspaper. The boys have already three boxes of old newspapers from two housing societies in Powai  Avalon and Evita  and placed their first order of 400 paper bags with a womens self-help group in Bandra. Depending on the size and quality,the paper bags will be priced anywhere between 50 paise to Rs 3. The group will be selling these bags to three vegetable vendors and a florist.

We all know that plastic is non-biodegradable. We are happy to be a part of the initiative. These teenagers are spreading the right message, said Megha Shelar, head of Shree Mahalakshmi Mahila Mandal, which will be making the paper bags.

The group also visited 12,000 houses in Powai and distributed pamphlets to promote its newspaper collection campaign for making paper bags. The group has already started collecting newspapers from two other societies. They are now trying to convince other hawkers and shopkeepers to switch to paper bags.

Plastic bags are cheaper in comparison to paper. Through this project, we are providing paper bags at the cost of plastic bags, said Babu.
In another case that could challenge the 20-week abortion deadline in the country, a 21-year-old pregnant woman from Chembur sought permission from the Supreme Court last week to abort her 24-week abnormal foetus.

The doctors diagnosed the foetus with aqueductal stenosis and hydrocephalus  brain abnormalities, which causes mental retardation, in the 21st week.

The apex court on July 24 directed the state-run Sir JJ Hospital, Byculla to form a committee to evaluate the case, based on which the court would take a decision on July 28.

Dr Nikhil Datar, a Goregaon based gynaecologist who evaluated the case, helped the womans husband file the petition.

They are from a poor family. The husband works as a chauffeur and the woman is a homemaker. The woman said she did not want the baby after she learnt about its condition, he said.

He added that although there are treatment options for the babys condition after delivery, however, it will not repair the damage that is already done.

In this case, the cerebrospinal fluid (found in the brain and spinal cord) accumulates in the brain and puts pressure on the brain tissue. The foetal brain thinning is already visible, he added. He said the prognosis varies from cases to cases depending on how much damage to the tissue has happened in the womb. The woman had got an ultrasound at a civic-run hospital, which is often overburdened with patients.

Doctors in the city have been pushing for a revision in the abortion deadline.

Read

19-week pregnant woman in Mumbai may miss abortion deadline owing to thyroid condition
A 27-year-old Thane man, accused of killing his wife in November 2014, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday.

The accused, Rajkumar Tukaram Chavan, worked as an ambulance driver with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He lived with his wife Rupali at Azad Nagar in Kapurbawdi. The two got married in 2008, said police.

On November 11, 2014, Rajkumar came home at 9.30 pm and asked Rupali to serve him food. However, she refused, said K Katkar, investigating officer from Kapurbawdi police station.

The two began fighting after Rajkumar demanded that Rupali serve him food at least three times a day. He left the house in anger and returned around 12 am. He then demanded food once more. However, Rupali refused, he added.

Rupali also rejected his advances. However, he forced himself on her, said police. When she told him never to do such a thing again, he sat on her chest and strangled her. The couples six-year-old son witnessed the crime.

Rajkumar took his children to his parents house. He them confessed to his crime at a local police station, added Katkar.

The police said Rupali field for divorce in a Bhiwandi court in 2012 as the couple had been fighting continuously. Rajkumar said he planned to kill his wife then. He has no remorse. He is convinced that he did the right thing, he said.

Police said Rajkumar had demanded dowry as he wanted to buy an autorickshaw with the money. They however added that Rupali had demanded Rs3 lakh from Rajkumar.

Rajkumar had told us about his marital problems. He had attempted suicide at the Thane railway station two weeks before he killed his wife. He stopped coming to work a week before the murder, said, Shakuntala Majumdar, president, Thane SPCA.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A woman from Chembur had gone to buy vegetables outside her building for a few minutes in April. When she returned she saw that her house was ransacked and her gold jewellery missing. Another woman in Shivaji Nagar went to her daughters school to pick her up and when she returned she found her house robbed.

For the past one year, the Mumbai and Thane police were getting regular complaints of house break-ins within minutes by unknown thieves.

After months of investigation and rounding up several history sheeters, the Tilak Nagar police found just one witness. He told the police that the robbers were dressed in jeans and t-shirts and had sunglasses. He said that the men got out of a Swift Desire and seemed to be guests at a house. However they left the building within 10 minutes, said the witness. We only knew that they drove a Swift Desire, said inspector Santosh Kamble from Tilak Nagar police station.

A team of three officers were then assigned to investigate the series of house break-ins. The officers, including PI Avinash Pore and PSI Amol Ambawane, found that the car that the robbers used had a number plate of a bullet bike from Meerut. The informers told the officers that this gang was from Meerut and travelled by car from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai. The gang would stop on the way to Mumbai and break in to houses. The Meerut gang only chose two- or three-storey houses for a quick escape, said Shahaji Umap, deputy commissioner of police (zone VI). After finding out that the men had rented an apartment in Mumbra, the police team searched the house to find their clothes and other belongings. The five had rented an expensive apartment, saying that they were engineers and had to travel a lot. They did so to avoid staying at lodges and hotels, added Umap.

The team then left for UP on July 5 where they traced the five people who stayed in Meerut and Bulandshahr. After waiting for 12 days and following the five, the police officers arrested them when they gathered at Meerut on Monday to begin their journey to Mumbai. The five identified as Imran Qureshi, 24, Afsal Qureshi, 27, Shahid Shaikh, 35, Sameer Ali, 26, driver, and Irfan Alvi, 35, have allegedly carried out 12 robberies in Mumbai and 25 in Thane and Gujarat.

Although they were school drop outs they had made all arrangements to escape arrest. On searching their car, we found cavities underneath the gear box and steering wheel where they used to stash valuables so that they dont get caught at nakabandis, said Umap. The gang has been arrested for the first time.

READ

121 crore stolen in 2016, Mumbai cops recovered just 23 crore

Man arrested for breaking into Railway cops house
Homebuyers in Noida and Greater Noida are upset with the Uttar Pradesh government as it failed to upload a copy of the revised Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) rules on its website. The website, http://www.up-rera.in/, was launched by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday in Lucknow and listed the RERA rules, albeit without the amendments it had proposed to do away with pro-builder clauses.

The government set up the RERA website to safeguard homebuyers interests, following the Centres approval.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, came into effect on May 1, 2016, and the process of forming operational rules and putting in place the institutional infrastructure, to protect consumer interests and promoting the growth of the realty sector in India, was initiated.

The UP urban housing department in May had announced an amendment to the rules, finalised earlier on October 27, 2016, for removing pro-builder clauses.

As per the latest draft (announced in May) of the rules, the government proposed to bring all under-construction and partially developed projects without an occupancy certificate, after May 1, 2016, under the ambit of the real estate regulatory authority. However, as per the October 27, 2016 notification, ongoing projects will not come under the authority if the builder has developed common facilities and applied for an occupancy certificate.

The RERA website has listed the rules without the amendment, causing confusion among buyers and builders about the definition of ongoing projects.

The chief minister had claimed that the rules were amended to remove pro-builder clauses and to benefit homebuyers in under-construction projects, who are being harassed.

As per the rules uploaded, thousands of homebuyers in under-construction projects have been left in the lurch as they cannot get their issues addressed by the authority.

I fear that if the state government has not put the new rules on the website, RERA will be governed as per October 2016 rules. It means around 40 under-construction projects in Noida will not come under the ambit of RERA and thereby, thousands of homebuyers will suffer without getting a solution under the new law. We will write to Uttar Pradesh chief minister on this issue, said SK Nagrath, president of Jaypee Aman flat buyers association. Jaypee Aman is among the partially completed housing projects.

In Noida, around 50 under-construction group housing projects have been delayed by three to four years due to a slowdown in the realty sector, affecting around one lakh buyers who had invested in projects that were to be delivered by 2012.

In Greater Noida, around 3 lakh homebuyers in 63 delayed realty projects are yet to get possession of flats that were to be delivered from 2012.

Similarly, 13 realty projects in the Yamuna Expressway industrial area, along the 165km Yamuna Expressway connecting Greater Noida with Agra, are yet to be delivered.

The chief minister had assured to notify amendments at the earliest but now, he has launched the website without notifying (amended) rules and appointing a RERA chairman or members. How will the body protect our rights? said Alok Kumar, who has filed a petition in Allahabad high court for speeding up the implementation of the Act.

This is a serious issue (not uploading new rules). The UP government should have uploaded the amended RERA rules to make homebuyers aware of the changes. Why is the state government hiding the changes? I fear that builders have convinced the government of going back on its changes and leave under-construction projects outside the purview of the authority. I will take up this issue in Allahabad high court, as I have already filed a petition on the implementation of RERA, said Kumar.

Mukul Singhal, the principal secretary, urban housing department, Uttar Pradesh, said, We are still working on the revised rules. I do not think there is any problem with the rules already notified and put on the website. As far as buyers fears that builders will seek occupancy certificate or apply for it without providing common facilities in a housing project are concerned, local authorities, such as the Noida authority, will look into the issues.

After the chief minister launched the website, builders in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway areas have started registering their under-construction projects.

We had already prepared the necessary documents for getting our ongoing projects registered as and when the website becomes operational. Many builders have started registration immediately after the website launch, said Amit Modi, director of ABA Corp and the vice-president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI).

Builders are of the view that the RERA will create a positive sentiment in and restore homebuyers confidence in the realty sector.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
European Commission concerned about possible negative effects of Russia sanctions bill passed by U.S. House

The European Commission members are concerned about possible effects that the U.S. bill on Russia sanctions can have on the European Union's energy independence, the European Commission said in a communique circulated in Brussels on Wednesday.

"The Bill as endorsed by the U.S. House of Representatives demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account. It nevertheless foresees the imposition of sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernization or repair of energy export pipelines by the Russian Federation," the communique says.

Depending on the bill's implementation, "this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe, for instance the maintenance and upgrade of pipelines in Russia that feed the Ukraine gas transit system," it says.

"It could also have an impact on projects crucial to the EU's diversification objectives such as the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas project," it says.

"While the College underlined the importance of the sanctions regime against Russia and its strict implementation, it expressed concerns about the possible negative political consequences of the draft Bill," the European Commission said.

It was reiterated at the G7 meeting in May that "new sanctions should always be coordinated between allies."

The document quotes European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying: "The EU is fully committed to the Russia sanctions regime. However, G7 unity on sanctions and close coordination among allies are at the heart of ensuring the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements. This is a core objective that the EU and the U.S. share."

"The U.S. Bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests," Juncker said.

"This is why the Commission concluded today that if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days," he said.

"America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last," Juncker said.

The EU is currently raising its concerns via all diplomatic channels with the U.S. and its counterparts, the communique says.

"The Commission will continue to closely monitor the ongoing legislative process in the U.S. and the subsequent implementation of the Bill and will act swiftly if and when needed," it says.
Pakistan is oscillating between two diametrically opposed narratives. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) appointed by the Supreme Court has presented in its report a damning indictment of overseas asset ownership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his immediate family. Accountability of even the highest and that the fight against corruption must therefore begin from the top, forms one trajectory of discourse and argument. Not so, is the second trajectory.

What is underway inside this camouflage of accountability and probity is a creeping coup to engineer a regime change. Whether it succeeds or not is a different matter but, symptomatically this is, according to the perceptive former diplomat Afrasiyab Khattak for example, part of the cycle of seven or eight years of Bonapartist intervention.

Each of these two narratives is convincingly articulated and is internally consistent. For these arrayed against Sharif, holders of highest office must be even more accountable, the allegations of a witch hunt are preposterous and the judges and JIT officials are performing their role independently and objectively. But there are equally powerful arguments against.

A JIT into financial impropriety and undeclared assets having representation from military intelligence and the ISI is one. How a considerable volume of financial information, from within Pakistan and from third countries, spanning over three decades could be collected and converted into evidence in eight weeks is another. The view that some  perhaps much  of this material are recycled versions of what emerged in similar exercises from the early 1990s has therefore a widespread currency. The present situation may have emerged from the independent revelations in 2016 of the Panama Papers but the substance of the allegations against many of Pakistans principal political families, including the Sharifs, are hardly new.

The fact that the issues or transactions under consideration date back to the nineties, and often earlier make the entire proceedings even more surrealistic. It would appear that Pakistans tangled history since the 1990s is itself being leapfrogged over. In the oscillatory patterns of Pakistans politics between generals Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, the corruption of civilian politicians dominated public discourse. Accountability was the instrument through which Musharraf split the Pakistan Muslim League after the 1998 coup and created a kings party. Undeclared and colossal wealth is not a new development in Pakistan.

The JIT was created following a split 3-2 judgment of the supreme court. Two of the judges had called for the immediate disqualification of the prime minister basing their judgment on Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. These articles are the residues of the violence General Zia had inflicted on the 1973 constitution. Article 62 provides for a prime minister who is Sadiq (truthful) and 63 that he be Ameen (righteous). In the minority judgment, Sharif passed neither test. The JIT report is now back with the supreme court, which has reserved its judgment but it can reasonably be expected in the coming weeks, if not days.

Between these two diametrically opposed narratives is a middle argument. Sharif is paying the price of his own hubris and arrogance in taking on the armythe Musharraf trail, siding with the Jang/Geo group in its tangle with a DG, ISI, the Dawn Leaks case in General Raheel Sharifs last months in office, etc. That in each of these and other similar instances the prime minister persisted despite knowing the results of earlier encounters was no less than a form of lunacy and he will now have to count the costs. What he possibly did not take into account was how much the army had risen in public esteem after Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the decline thereafter in terrorist attacks within Pakistan.

Those who smell a creeping coup in the air point to the role accountability and anti-corruption has played since the 1970s in tilting the civil military equation in a particular direction. This thesis gets a further fillip because many of those leading the legal and political charge against Sharif have, with merit, been identified in the past as the Pakistan militarys advance scouting parties.

Pakistan has within its grasp an important milestone which falls next year  the first ever completion of a full term by an elected prime minister. Whether it will sacrifice this on the altar of a mythical probity in public life remains to be seen. It is possible that this may happen because what is also clear is there are many in Pakistan with a predisposition to choose dreams over reality.

TCA Raghavan served as Indian high commissioner to Pakistan and Singapore

The views expressed are personal
Images of Kashmiri separatists walking the corridors of the Prime Ministers office during Atal Behari Vajpayees tenure have been replaced with visuals of Hurriyat Conference leaders being arrested and taken into custody by a central agency.

The arrest of seven separatists  including hardliner Syed Ali Shahs son-in-law and Mirwaiz Umar Farooqs aide  signals a significant policy shift. For long, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been imploring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be like Vajpayee. In other words, she wants Modi to hold true to the promise of insaniyat (humanity).

Instead, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has slapped charges of hawala transactions and more seriously, accused the separatists of using money sourced from Pakistan to fan the unrest that broke out after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Wani in July last year. The agency is also threatening to question the senior separatist leaders themselves, for scores of benami properties.

Apart from income tax notices that were sent to the Hurriyat leaders in 2002, this is the first time that a nodal agency is digging into insurgency-related charges. A statement issued by the NIA accused those arrested of funding separatist and militancy activities in Jammu and Kashmir and causing disruption in Kashmir Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The law will, of course, take its course  as it must  and the National Investigations Agency will have to prove the case in court, but in the sullen and alienated Kashmir Valley, where perception counts as much as reality, the arrests are being interpreted in various ways.

It is well-known that the Hurriyat has been getting funds from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. What is equally well-known is the fact that Indias intelligence agencies have been generous with their slush funds and former RAW chief, AS Dulat, who authored a book, has even given details of how the separatists were paid. For decades, governments of all political hues have flirted with the separatists in the hope of using them as objective interlocutors but the Hurriyat leaders have been weighed in by their masters in Pakistan.

The script has clearly changed. The Modi government, which in its first year into power, called off foreign-secretary-level talks with Pakistan because its high commissioner had a meeting with the Hurriyat has now decided to pursue them under the law.

The arrests have come at a time when the Hurriyat leaders have not been in control of the Kashmiri street that exploded after Wanis killing. The separatists  who kept issuing protest calendars in the hope of staying relevant -- will now, no doubt, use the arrests to play the victim card in a bid to enhance their appeal.

The NIA probe is also a signal that New Delhi intends to pursue its law and order approach. The crackdown on the Hurriyat is a sure sign that there is no political outreach in the works. This complicates the tenuous alliance between Mehbooba and the BJP and shrinks her room for manoeuvre particularly because she had kept a channel open with Geelani.

But it is clear  New Delhi is running Kashmir more than its state government is.

@shammybaweja

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Imagine yourself 14 years old, experiencing dysphoria in your body and gender expression that is triggering violence and repression at home.

You meet a sympathetic community outside but the law of the land ties you to your natal family. You try and get a certificate to convince the courts but the medical officer doesnt think you look transgender. The hearings drag out over months, even years, draining you of resources, energy and even life.

This could well be the fate of a new generation if a new bill passes.

The legislation, originally aimed to empower Indias transgender community, is increasingly looking like a bureaucratic noose around trans and gender non-conforming people if the officialese that sets up vague and confusing guidelines isnt urgently clarified.

A new report by a parliamentary standing committee, which was looking into the draft transgender rights bill introduced last year, attempts to set right some of these problems. The heart of the committee, led by senior BJP parliamentarian Ramesh Bais, appears to be in the right place. For a country that criminalises homosexuality, it is striking that the report opens with an affirmation of alternative genders and sexual orientations and goes on to admonish homophobia  a stricture that could well shame many members of the ruling party.

The report ends by calling for not just legal, but civil rights for the transgender community such as marriage  a welcome realisation that people cannot live with dignity while being criminalised by both the society and the State.

The report also pushes back on the definition of transgender in the original draft  not wholly female nor wholly male; a combination of female or male; neither female nor male  that many activists deemed offensive and dangerous. But the panel doesnt do enough to create an alternative definition or broaden the ambit to include as many kinds of identities and expressions as possible.

But troublingly, the panel takes the same line as the government on the need for a screening committee to certify transgender people. The committee appears obsessed with the potential for misuse of trans certificates, as if social stigma and socio-economic barriers arent deterrents enough.

Worse, the report endorses the need for a medical officer on the panel  a recommendation at odds with the Supreme Courts to let trans people self identity and a global move away from biological determinism of gender through inspection of genitalia. The recommendations can lead to the creation of a massive bureaucracy that will boost gate-keeping, corruption and favouritism and force the most underprivileged to compete for meagre resources.

The panel also doesnt strike down a clause in the bill that criminalises beggary; instead, it aims to punish organised syndicates. But there is no clarity on how police will enforce this crackdown without arresting and harassing common trans folk begging on the streets. In the absence of adequate provisions guaranteeing employment and education, such a move can wreak havoc on vulnerable populations.

Neither is the clause forcing trans children to stay with natal families addressed adequately. The committee introduces courts into the mix, and calls for recognising alternative structures of care, but doesnt go far enough to recognise families as the primary site of violence for transfolk.

The report came through a process of widespread consultations and long deliberations, the positives of which are seen in the call to define discrimination, add more teeth to grievance redressal mechanisms and affirmative action for transpeople in jobs and education.But the spectre of bureaucracy looms large.

In 2014, the Supreme Courts landmark judgement in Nalsa vs Union of India laid down the rights of transpeople that are necessary to lead a life of dignity and respect. Three years on, little has changed on the ground, despite significant focus and media coverage, and the culprit is the government. Trans employees are scarce, their housing difficult and their educational barriers formidable  as exemplified by trans employees of the Kochi Metro who were forced to quit because no one would rent them an apartment.

All this can change with new legislation and a government push. The committees nod to homosexuality and trans identities is significant, a sign of changed thinking in the ruling establishment and an acknowledgment of how the country, and indeed the world, has moved past a climate of hostility for different genders and sexualities. It is also time, then, to walk the talk on these pledges and ensure trans citizens dont get their lives entangled in babudom and mothballed files.

No country can progress by leaving a section of its population behind on the basis of conservatism and hate. There has been plenty of signalling on Section 377 that criminalises many of us -- from even the RSS chief -- but little action. The government should ensure the full gamut of rights are available for all of its citizens: Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or others. For the mature democracy that India claims to be, it shouldnt be this difficult.

@dhrubo127

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) panel constituted to examine the 10-year-old pregnant rape victim for abortion is learnt to have recommended against it. The girl is nearly eight-month pregnant.

The minor was examined by an eight-member team of doctors following a direction from the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar on Monday asking whether the pregnancy of the minor can be terminated.

The minor should continue with the pregnancy as she has already crossed the deadline to abort the child, one of the panel members said.

Do you think that she can abort at this stage? questioned another member adding: Our (panel members) views are what you are thinking. The doctors were not ready to be quoted citing instructions not to talk to anybody. The country has a 20-week (five months) legal ceiling on abortion.

The girl was accompanied by her mother, member secretary, UT Chandigarh, State Legal Services Authority Mahavir Singh, along with some police officials for the examination at the PGIMER conducted between 9:30am and 1pm. Upon examination, the panel is learnt to have submitted the report by at 2:30pm in a sealed cover to the PGIMER director, who has further submitted it to Mahavir Singh.

The eight-member-panel was constituted on Monday evening. It was chaired by Dr D Behera, head, pulmonary medicine, PGIMER, and member secretary, Dr Vipin Koushal. The other members are Dr Vanita Suri, head, gynaecology, Dr Praveen Kumar, paediatrician, Dr N Khandelwal, head, radiodiagnosis, Dr Ajit Awasthi, head, psychiatry department, Dr Swati Kumari, head, internal medicine and Dr Manoj Kumar Rohit from the cardiology department.

On July, 24, when HT had spoken to some gynaecologists, at least five from the PGIMER had ruled out the possibility of abortion. Those contacted included one of the panel members.

The girl was examined after the SC had asked the member secretary of the state legal services authority to assist the panel in the examination and submit a report on Friday.

The case came to light two weeks ago after the girl was taken to hospital for stomach ache. The girl was raped allegedly by her maternal uncle, a hotel worker, repeatedly over seven months. He has been arrested. The girls family hails from Nepal and has been residing in servants quarters in one of the southern sectors in Chandigarh. Her father is a watchman and the mother works as a domestic help.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A Pakistani gas balloon landed at Kalanaur, 25 km from here, on Wednesday, creating a flutter among local residents.

The green balloon, which had the words Jashn-e-Azadi (Independence celebrations) written on it in Persian script, landed near the taxi stand outside the Kalanaur bus stand around noon.

Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day on August 14, a day before India commemorates the end of the British rule in the country.

A taxi driver caught hold of the balloon, which evoked the curiosity of all those present in the area.

The locals later handed over the balloon to the Kalanaur police.

Talking to HT, Gurdaspur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Bhupinderjeet Singh Virk confirmed the incident and said the balloon was filled with hydrogen and it came down as the gas leaked out.

The balloon entered the Indian territory just because it was blown by the wind in this direction. There is nothing to be panicky about. It caused no breach of security, he added.
Within hours of Rs 7.6-lakh armed robbery at an unguarded State Bank of India branch in Mohali, police arrested a 30-year-old lawyer, who has been practising at the district courts, for the crime.

Manjinder Singh, who studied at Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11, before completing postgraduation from the law department at Panjab University in 2013, was staying in a rented accommodation at Sunny Enclave in Mohali. He was arrested late on Tuesday night from his house.

Hailing from Ferozepur, Manjinder committed the crime to pay off debt he owed to several people, said deputy superintendent of police Alam Vijay Singh. What proved to be his undoing was the false complaint of vehicle theft he made to the police control room soon after the broad daylight robbery at the Industrial Area, Phase 7.

Bumper, broken number plate fell off

A masked man had targeted the bank at 2.20pm on Tuesday, when there were only five staffers present on the premises. Pointing a pistol at the cashier, he made him put money in a bag, and then rushed out of the bank towards a Volkswagen Jetta car parked a few metres away.

As two bank employees chased him and tried to stop the car, the vehicles bumper fell off along with a part of the registration number plate. The robber, however, managed to flee. The whole drama ended in just over five minutes. Manjinder called the police control room at 2:35 pm to report that his vehicle has been stolen from the market, said Mohali senior superintendent of police Kuldeep Singh Chahal.

Half an hour later due to nakas put up at various places, the accused abandoned his car on the rear of North Country Mall and left for his house in Sunny Enclave, said police.A patrol team found the abandoned car and got suspicious.

After searching the documents and matching the broken piece of the number plate, they called Manjinder to collect his stolen car. Using the mobile location, they managed to trace and arrest him.

Money, licensed weapon recovered

Police have recovered the money and Manjinders licensed .32 bore pistol used in the crime and impounded the car. The accused was produced in court, which sent him to two days police remand. He has been booked under Section 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Arms Act.

The absence of a guard and security alarms had made the crime a cakewalk for Manjinder. SSP Chahal said banks need to upgrade their security system. We have held several meetings and even issued written directions to banks managers to deploy security guards, but to no avail, he said.
Incomplete set of text books, no benches to sit and unsafe classrooms mark the state of school education in the district. This, even as chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, no less, expressed his disappointment at the 57% result in Class-10 at the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). After his much-publicised comment, government officials had vowed to improve the education standards and take action, if warranted against teachers. Three months later, it is clear that before any action is taken against anyone, the government needs to ensure the basics that go into making a school are made available.

The bitter reality

Here in the region at least, the PSEB is yet to release books of 17 subjects to students of Classes 1-8. Anecdotal evidence suggests the same is true, across the state as well. Delay in distributing text books is definitely causing academic loss to students. Downloading books online is an option not all students are versed with. We are trying our best to teach the students in the best possible way so that they dont flunk in exams. Availability of books, though, is a major concern, said a senior official of local education department.

Students sitting on the floor in Government Primary School, Jeevan Nagar, Faridkot. (HT Photo)

10 benches for 200 students

An HT team visited a primary school in Jeevan Nagar to find that the school had only 10 benches for 200 students. As a result, students were making do with gunny bads spread on the floor to sit and listen to lectures. This leads to burns and rashes on the skin of some of the students.

We feel helpless at times to help students from avoiding the burning heat. They require proper facilities for education so that they can perform well, principal Nirmal Jeet Kaur said.

The classrooms

What is worse than no facilities is the complete turning of blind eye of the authorities to the use of classrooms that the state engineering department has declared unsafe.

District education officer Dharamveer Singh said, I have instructed the authorities of the schools not to use classrooms which require renovation. At the Jeevan Nagar primary school, three classrooms are in use for the students. We plan to merge the school in a government secondary school nearby where there is ample space. We have also made a list of the infrastructure required. We have made a request for more money.

Headmistress of a government secondary school told HT that many schools in the district were struggling to pay electricity bills. Our power connection was disconnected was we failed to pay bills. The school eventually took a loan and teachers contributed from their pockets to get power restored, she claimed.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) of Punjab Police is interrogating arrested NRI Ranjeet Singh, alias Raja Kandola, afresh after strong clues that the alleged drug lord, who is lodged in the Kapurthala central jail for more than two years now, has set up a drug cartel inside the jail and is funding terror activities too with the money.

First arrested by the Jalandhar (rural) police in June 2012, Kandola is in jail in a case of recovery of Ice party drug worth more than Rs 200 crore. On July 22, he was taken on production warrants from the jail by the SSOC to its headquarters in Amritsar.

The SSOCs swift action came after he was reportedly named by two NRIs arrested by the anti-drug Special Task Force (STF) from Goraya in Jalandhar with heroin on July 19. Both of them, Palwinderjit Singh and Ravinder Singh Ravi, are said to be close aides of Kandola.

Amid the buzz that the special cell only wanted to divert the attention of the STF to save police officers allegedly close to Kandola, SSOC assistant inspector general Sukhwinder Maan only confirmed that Kandola is being interrogated and said: Whenever we will have anything to share, we will share it with the media. Sources said inspector general of police and SSOC in-charge Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh is personally monitoring the probe.

Kandolas role is suspected in some cases of terrorism in Punjab as he has strong links among smugglers across borders, in Pakistan, the UK and the USA. This is a case of immense importance for the state, said an SSOP officer who refused to be named.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) is already probing Kandolas case since 2013 and has filed two chargesheets.

Links with top cops

But, has the special cell picked him up so the STF cant get hold of him and bring out dirty secrets? Sources in the department said Kandola was close to senior police officers; even when cops raided his farmhouse in Samrala in 2012, an SP-rank officer was found residing there.

The ED, too, found strong proof about special favours taken by an IG, a DIG and an SP-rank officer from Kandola, said a senior officer on the condition of anonymity. This IG was even summoned by the ED; but the matter was buried in files. The investigation could not move in the direction of probing the role of police officers, a source in the ED said.

It must be underlined that Kandola was arrested by the then in-charge of Jalandhar rural polices crime investigation agency (CIA), Inderjeet Singh, who was recently busted in a smuggling case and subsequently dismissed as an inspector.

Who bought Kandolas house in Sacramento, California, after he landed in police net? And where did his Jaguar car recovered from Samrala disappear? These remain unanswered questions, the ED officer added.

That is why the police HQ in Chandigarh is abuzz with the theory that Kandola was picked up for interrogation on behalf of some officers to divert the STFs attention. But the STF, sources said, would still seek his remand.

A native of Haipowal village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr), Kandola was allegedly running a racket manufacturing party drugs from methamphetamine and ephedrine, and was getting heroin supply from Pakistan.

Who is Raja Kandola?

Raja Kandola (HT File Photo)

Police said Kandola shifted to the UK in the late 1990s and became rich overnight after he fell into the drug trade there. In India, he was allegedly running a racket manufacturing Ice (a party drug) from methamphetamine and ephedrine and was getting heroin supplies from Pakistan to further smuggle to Delhi and abroad.

He owned massive properties across Punjab, UK and USA, and many of his properties have already been attached by the ED in cases of money laundering.

In Delhi, as per police records, he was running a racket through his alleged girlfriend Vania Khanna who was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment by a Hoshiarpur court in a case of drugs. Kandola escaped from police custody in September 2015 but was rearrested from Rajasthan by the Delhi crime branch.

Kandolas wife, Rajwant Kaur, and son, Bally Singh, have also been booked by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Patiala bids tearful adieu to CM Amrinders mother Rajmata

Amid slogans of Rajmata Amar Rahe (Long live the Rajmata) and showering of petals from a large crowd, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh lit the pyre to bid a tearful adieu to his mother, Rajmata Mohinder Kaur, at the Shahi Samadhan  the familys ancestral cremation ground  on Tuesday. Read more

52-yr-old granny is Ubers first female driver for a bike taxi in Punjab

A 52-year-old grandmother from Mohalis Phase 11 is among the 100 bike taxi riders who started operating in Mohali, Kharar and Zirakpur on Tuesday as part of the Punjab governments Apni Gaddi, Apna Rozgar programme. The bike taxis, launched in partnership with Uber, were flagged off by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal at the Indian School of Business here. Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh could not attend the event due to his mothers demise on Monday. Read more

With arrest of 3 men in Jalandhar, gang involved in 34 ATM thefts across 4 states busted: police

The Kapurthala police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in 34 heists of automated teller machines (ATMs) in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and arrested three of its members, including a Class-10 dropout who is alleged to be the kingpin. Read more

Police arrest college student who got girlfriend raped to avoid marriage

A 19-year-old man hatched a conspiracy with his two friends who raped his girlfriend so that he could later use that as an alibi to not marry her, police in Jalandhar said on Monday.

The case came to light when the victim, aged 19 and a classmate of alleged conspirator Harpreet Singh Happy, approached the police. Happy was arrested and a case under sections 376D (gangrape), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 417 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) registered against him and the two alleged rapists, identified as Bindu and Ravi, both aged 20. All three are from Talwan village in the district. Read more

28 minor girls eloped in Ferozepur in six months; only 8 have returned

In a district where even adults who marry according to their own choice usually face the familys ire, a new issue  of minor girls eloping  is emerging as a new worry for parents and the civil society.

Over the past six months, parents of 28 minor girls belonging to rural and urban areas reported that their minor daughter had been taken away after being misled. In all cases, the male who eloped has been listed as the accused. Of the cases registered, four girls were allegedly misled by males under the jurisdiction of Sadar, Cantonment and Ghallkhurd police stations. Read more

Three Uber bike taxis challaned in Chandigarh

The State Transport Authority (STA), Chandigarh, on Tuesday challaned three Uber bike taxis at Sector 8 for operating in the city without permit.

The action came the same day as Punjab minister Manpreet Singh Badal launched his governments flagship Apni Gaddi, Apna Rozgar scheme by flagging off 100 bike taxis, which will operate in Mohali and Ludhiana districts. Read more

For more stories, visit www.punjab.ht

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
B stands for bad touch and G for good touch is what students are supposed to be taught in government schools to make them aware of sexual abuse.

But 33 of 115 government schools in the city do not even have a counsellor to listen to the complaints of students.

The rape of a 10-year-old city girl has once again put focus on the importance of making children aware of sexual abuse. She was violated repeatedly by her maternal uncle over seven months, leaving her pregnant.

Its been two months since the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) asked each school to form a child-friendly committee to discuss issues like good touch and bad touch with children, starting from kindergarten. But most schools are yet to implement the directions.

Counsellors were asked to fill a pro forma on the basis of their interaction with kids and schools were even asked to place complaint boxes on each floor  preferably in toilets  so that students can come forward without fear.

However, counsellors who talked to HT said nothing has happened so far. Not a single complaint box has been kept in toilets, they say, seeking anonymity.

Heads more concerned about school image

The CCPCR advisory stated that any complaint, whether received through the complaint box or otherwise, is supposed to be reported to the school complaint committee in writing within 24 hours.

The committee has been directed to carry out a preliminary investigation and submit its report to the principal within four days. The committee was also told to report the issue to the UT police immediately. In case the school does not report or abets any offence, the panel has warned of strict action.

One of the counsellors told HT that school heads dont even allow them to submit a direct complaint to the police as they fear it will spoil the institutes image.

The schools were also directed to have a clear protocol to guide teachers to assess changes in childrens behaviour. They are supposed to seek the counsellors intervention or report the matter to the school head and parents immediately in case of sensing any problem. Sharing an incident, a counsellor said girls do come up with their problems often.

A Class-7 girl came up to me once and said, Ma'am, the boy in the other row told me that he wants a kiss, said the councellor. These kind of problems begin from Class 6 and girls do complain about them. It becomes important for the counsellor to deal with such instances delicately. But many schools dont even have a permanent counsellor."

I make sure that I talk to the students individually over sensitive issues and built trust so that they can share their concerns, said another counsellor working at a government school in the citys periphery. However, placing the complaint boxes in toilets is the responsibility of the principals. No such initiative has been taken so far in most peripheral schools. The counsellor alleged the UT education department is least bothered about the quality of counselling in schools. In the past two years, the department has not asked us to submit any report, said the counsellor.

Moreover, counsellors complained they had no incentive to work in schools. Even their paltry salaries are pending for four months, they alleged.

POCSO e-button to rescue

As per the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), child sexual offences often go unreported because of social stigma and lack of awareness.

Government schoolchildren are considered to be the most vulnerable, at both school and home. The POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses) cell set up in the CCPCR received 57 cases of sexual harassment in the first three months of this year. In order to monitor such cases, the NCPCR has added a POCSO e-button on its website. It enables the child to register the complaint by visiting the website (http://ncpcr.gov.in/) and clicking the e-button present prominently on the main page.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER) discussed at a meeting on Wednesday a proposal for the Council of the European Union on possible sanctions against a number of Russian private persons and legal entities due to supplies of Siemens turbines to Crimea, a diplomatic source in the EU's institutions told Interfax.
Forty-two-year-old Hari Chand, working as a peon at Panjab University, was arrested in May this year for raping a minor in a vacant house at Maloya.

The rape victim was the daughter of Chands close friend, who before leaving for work left her at his house in Sector 38 for her safety. Chand, instead, took the girl to his vacant house in Maloya and raped her. This is not an isolated case, where a person known to a minor violated her.

MAJOR CASES THIS YEAR July 14: A 10-year-old girl complains of stomach ache; when taken to hospital, it turns out she is nearly eight-month pregnant. Her maternal uncle allegedly raped her repeatedly over seven months May 5: Ravi, a resident of Ram Darbar, arrested for raping a minor after giving her a drink laced with sedatives. The victim had gone to Burail to shop where she met Ravi, whom was known to her. He took her to a hotel and raped her. January 22: Sunil Kumar, 21, of Kansal caught raping a minor in the forest area at Sector 25. The victim, who is 13 years old, raised the alarm after which a passerby rescued her. The accused had assured the victims mother that he would find a job for her daughter before taking her along

In April this year, a call to the child helpline saved a teenager from sexual abuse by her cousin. The victim, who was staying at Maloya with her fathers sister after the death of her parents, was sexually exploited by her aunts son. She even got pregnant twice and underwent abortion. Like the 10-year-old girl who is now nearly eight-month pregnant after being raped by her maternal uncle, these girls may never be able to trust their close ones.

Even the National Crime Records Bureau data reveal that women are more vulnerable to sexual assault by people they trust. In Chandigarh, 20 rape cases have already been reported since January, of which in 10, the victims are minor. A senior police official said in 75% cases of rape, the accused were known to the victims,. Of these, in 6% cases they were related by blood while in 12% cases they were neighbours.

What is more shocking is that in most cases the victims were subjected to the crime within the four walls of the house, making it the most dangerous place for the girls.

Poor rate of conviction and lack of awareness among women has led to a spurt in cases of sexual assault, says legal luminaries. "Most offenders have been subjected to abuse early in their life. Alcohol and other narcotic abusers may also get involved in such crimes. Where relatives are involved, the victim lives with the trauma and bears everything silently till she reports the matter to the police, said advocate Ravinder Rana.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Stressing that Sikhs have played a pivotal role in economic development of various countries, United Kingdoms first turbaned Sikh parliamentarian, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, said here on Wednesday that raising issues faced by Sikhs will be among his top priorities as a member of the House of Commons.

After paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, he spoke on Operation Bluestar, the 1984 army action ordered by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi to flush out militants from the Golden Temple, during a media interaction and said, Earlier, an inquiry was done (into the UKs alleged role in the operation). But that was a whitewash. Now we will get an independent inquiry done to find out what the role of the then British government was when Operation Bluestar took place.

Dhesi also raised the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed Indiras assassination, and said, The pain is still there in the community. People are awaiting justice, and only justice will help them move on.

About Sikhs abroad, he said, There are countries for which thousands of Sikhs have sacrificed their lives and have also contributed immensely to their development; but it is unfortunate that in those very countries they are asked to remove their turbans in the name of security. Turban is the pride of every Sikh.

He talked about France, where Sikh students are banned from wearing turban in school and others are asked to remove their turbans for official pictures.

It is unfortunate to see that till date Sikhs are facing hate crime. Their identity is mistaken, he said, indirectly referring to Islamophobia and crimes committed as Sikhs are mistaken for Muslims.

Many Sikhs have been shot dead due to this mistaken identity glitch. This needs to stop. I will raise this. I know the community is looking up to me. I am proud to be a member of the UK parliament as it is a diverse House, and even these issues will be heard and resolved, said the MP from Slough segment.

SGPC members honouring Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (centre) and his father at Golden Temple, Amritsar, on Wednesday, July 25. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Earlier, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC) executive members, in the absence of president Kirpal Singh Badungar, collectively honoured the MP and his father, Jaspal Singh Dhesi. SGPC general secretary Amardeep Singh Chawla in his speech told the MP that everyone is proud of his record-breaking win in the elections and also said that it is a big victory for the community that, for the first time, a turbaned Sikh has made it to parliament not only in UK but in the entire Europe.
Actor and wife of actor Dileep, Kavya Madhavan, has been interrogated by the investigation team in connection with the Malayalam actor abduction case.

The investigation team, headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) B Sandhya, interrogated her at Dileeps ancestral house in Aluva on Tuesday.

The prime accused Pulsar Suni had told the investigation team that after committing the crime, he had come to Lakshya, an online marketing firm run by Kavya at Kakkanad in Kochi.

Upon his statement, the police had conducted a raid at Lakshya.

The Kerala high court had on Monday rejected the bail plea of actor Dileep, who was arrested on conspiracy charges in the molestation case of a Malayalam actor.

Bail was denied on the grounds that the actor could possibly influence the witnesses in the case.

On July 11, Dileep was expelled from the primary membership of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) after being arrested. He was also sent to 14-day judicial custody.

Earlier, the two main accused -- Sunil Kumar and Vigeesh, in the abduction and assault of the Malayalam actor, were brought to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu for evidence collection.

This came after a court of Aluva in Ernakulam district granted nine-day police custody of the two accused.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Actor Priya Anand says she doesnt like to get too comfortable playing a certain kind of roles. Instead, she says she would like to do roles -- irrespective of the language and industry -- that make her feel insecure.

Ahead of the release of her forthcoming Tamil film Kootathil Oruthan on Friday, she said: I like to surprise audiences with different kind of roles.

Audiences know what to expect from me when they see my name on screen. I want to change that perception and I can only do that if I dont get too comfortable doing similar roles. I want to do roles that make me feel insecure, said Priya.

The actor, who has featured in Hindi films like English Vinglish and Fukrey, wants roles that challenge her.

I like to take up roles that make me wonder if I can do them. As much as challenging they might be, theres an element of excitement in them and thats what I seek, she said.

Talking about Kootathil Oruthan, in which she has teamed up with Ashok Selvan, she said its a moving story about the under-achiever.

We are always bothered about the underdogs and the successful people. Nobody wants to talk about the under-achievers, about the average Joe. This story will easily strike a chord with audiences because its easily relatable, she said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
For Rakul Preet Singh riding a cycle rickshaw for the first time for her upcoming Tamil film Dheeran Adhigaaram Ondru was a fun affair. Although she has never attempted to ride a cycle rickshaw in the past she was not hesitant at all when she was asked to ride one for a song sequence for the film. A source on the set said, The dance masters assistant could not ride it as the rickshaw was heavy and difficult to paddle, hence the production team was a little hesitant at first when they asked Rakul to ride a cycle rickshaw. However, Rakul was very confident that she could ride it. She rode it really well.

Speaking about the experience Rakul said in a statement, The rickshaw driver was really nervous about me riding his rickshaw. He came to me at least five times to show me where the break was as it was not a regular break. He just wanted to be sure that I dont ram into something. It was a fun experience. I not only enjoyed peddling the cycle rickshaw around with Karthi and rickshaw driver sitting at the back but also had great work out on set.

Paired with Karthi in the film, the film marks Rakuls return to Tamil filmdom after a hiatus. This year, she will also be seen in Mahesh Babus Tamil-Telugu bilingual spy thriller Spyder. Going by the industry grapevine, Rakul might team up with Suriya for his upcoming yet-untitled Tamil outing with filmmaker Selvaraghavan.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Looking for a unique vacation destination? If the idea of going to cliched places like Europe, USA and Dubai does not appeal to you, maybe it is time that you look at the other side of the globe. You need a trip that stands apart and offers a whole new experience, a trip which will resonate with all your senses and not cost a fortune. And if you are not fond of flying, opt for a road trip instead.

South East Asia has become one of the popular destinations attracting a huge number of tourists of late. Goomo, a travel-tech company, has listed the top four destinations in South East Asia that offer a healthy dose of natures beauty, adventure, culture and ancient history who want to go on a short international holiday:

Wat Arun temple in Bangkok, Thailand. (Shutterstock)

* Thailand: Thailand is a country that you can visit even on long weekends with a small budget. It is a beautiful country that offers a rainbow spectrum of spectacular holiday sights from blue lagoons and pink sunsets to orange-robed monks. Three-wheeled colourful TukTuks, taxis, buses and long-tailed boats transport visitors. Diving, snorkeling, wind surfing and sailing are just a few active options available. A variety of local foods, beautiful movie-like beaches, forested hills, mountains and cliffs are waiting for you to explore.

* Bali: Bali, the top choice for honeymooners and surfers has miles of excellent beaches and volcanic landscapes. Most of the action culminates at its self-indulgent Kuta Beach situated in South Bali. Travellers who are in search of more than surf or a hangover mostly opt for Ubud, the peaceful cultural centre of Bali. Some even choose to climb a volcano in the verdant Kintamani region. The magical place is now one of the top destinations in Asia.

Tengku Ampuan Jemaah Mosque in Malaysia. (Shutterstock)

* Malaysia: Malaysia cleaved in half by the South China Sea is a beautiful country which hosts beauties of both the world. While the peninsula flaunts bustling cities, beautiful colonial architecture, green tea plantations and adventurous islands, Malaysian Borneo hosts wild jungles of orangutans, marvelous granite peaks and mysterious remote tribes, along with some pretty spectacular diving.

Merlion statue fountain in Singapore. (Shutterstock)

* Singapore: Singapore, a bustling metropolis, is one of the cleanest and safest cities of the world. The best places to visit in Singapore are Thian Hock Keng temple, Merlion, Universal studio, night safari and numerous shopping points and beaches.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
At least 10,000 people were evacuated overnight after a new wild fire broke out in southern France, which was already battling massive blazes that have consumed swathes of forest, authorities said today.

The new fire came a day after France asked for Europes help to tackle the flames already raging in the tinder dry south, including near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire. Its an area that doubles or triples its population in summer, said a fire service official of the blaze near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast.

The number of people on Frances Cote dAzur bulges in July and August as holidaymakers head to the beach, though the area is experiencing an exceptionally hot, dry summer that has made it especially vulnerable to fires.

A firefighter takes a break at the site of a wildfire near the village of Ortale, Corsica island, France, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo)

On Tuesday over 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish the flames, which have left swathes of charred earth in their wake.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.

The blazes on Tuesday had devoured around 4,000 hectares of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European Union partners to send two extra fire-fighting planes -- a request immediately fulfilled by Italy, according to the EU.

But one union official denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts preventing all the aircraft required from being put into action.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Tuesday that France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet during a visit to Corsica.

People look at smoke from a wildfire that rises from trees in woods near Seillons, in the Var department, France, July 25. (Reuters Photo)

A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained, local fire chief Philippe Gambe de Vergnes said Tuesday.

But the blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmers deputy mayor Rene Carandante described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

Its a disaster area. Theres nothing left, he said.

Francois Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, told AFP that local wildlife, such as the Hermanns tortoises, would be victims of the fires. We are going to find burnt shells.
International volunteers battling the Islamic State in Syria have formed a new unit of LGBT people to take on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis terror group, which has targeted the community for execution by stoning and being thrown off rooftops.

The formation of The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), pronounced as tequila, was announced on Twitter by the International Revolutionary Peoples Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF) on Monday, complete with a photo of a rainbow flag flying in Raqqa, at the centre of the IS so-called caliphate.

TQILAs flag features a black AK-47 against a pink background.

These Faggots Kill Fascists! We shoot back! said a tweet from IRPGF, which itself is part of the International Freedom Battalion, a motley group of foreign fighters battling the IS alongside the YPG, the Kurdish militia also known as the Peoples Protection Units.

These foreign fighters include students, former soldiers and even white collar workers who gave up lucrative jobs in the West to take on the IS.

The IS has been particularly vicious in targeting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people. Since it established its so-called caliphate, it has issued a stream of videos and images depicting the execution of men accused of homosexuality by stoning and being thrown off the roofs of multi-storey buildings.

The IS also claimed the deadly shooting by Omar Mateen at the gay Pulse nightclub in Florida in June last year that left 49 people dead after he pledged allegiance to Baghdadi.

The courts of the IS have also declared that homosexuality is punishable by death and dozens of LGBT people have fled Iraq and Syria to escape persecution by the group.

In a statement on the formation of TQILA, the IRPGF said the subgroup comprises LGBT*QI+ comrades as well as others who seek to smash the gender binary and advance the womens revolution as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution.

TQILAs members have watched in horror as fascist and extremist forces around the world have attacked the Queer community and murdered countless of our community members citing that they are ill, sick and unnatural, the statement said.

The images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by Daesh was something we could not idly watch, the IRPGF said, using the Arabic acronym for the IS.

The IRPGF did not give any details about the strength of the unit or where its members were operating. TQILA spokesperson Heval Rojhilat told Newsweek that many of our comrades are within the LGBT*QI+ community and were already in action in Raqqa.

The IRPGFs statement also criticised Christian conservatives in the global northwest for targeting LGBT people, saying it is not only Daesh whose hatred for Queer, Trans and other non-binary peoples leads to religiously motivated hatred and attacks.

We want to emphasise that queerphobia, homophobia and trans-phobia are not inherent to Islam or any other religion. In fact, we know many Muslims, Jews,

Christians, Hindus, Buddhists etc. who are accepting and welcoming of uniqueness and non-conforming people and some who are even queer themselves, the statement said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Bahrain on Wednesday charged 60 people with forming a terrorist group, with a judicial source saying all 60 are Shias, as authorities tighten their grip on dissent in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The 60 face a mass trial, scheduled to open on August 22, for charges including forming a terrorist group, training in the use of weapons and explosives with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks and the deliberate killing of policemen, public prosecutor Ahmad al-Hamadi said.

Thirteen of the defendants have fled to Iran, Iraq and Germany and will be tried in absentia, state news agency BNA reported.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a judicial source told AFP that all 60 of those charged were Shiite Muslims.

Authorities have jailed hundreds of people since 2011 in connection with Shiite-led protests demanding an elected government in a country ruled for 200 years by the Al-Khalifa dynasty.

Several high-profile clerics and activists, including Sunni Muslims, have been jailed and stripped of citizenship on charges including slander against the state.

The government accuses neighbouring Tehran of provoking dissent in the tiny kingdom, located in the Gulf between Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran.

Bahrain, an ally of the United States and home to its Fifth Fleet, has drawn harsh criticism from international human rights groups for its crackdown on protesters.
Officers from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) are conducting searches in the Kyiv office of PJSC Ukrnafta, the oil company reported on its Facebook page.

"The search is being conducted in accordance with the decision of Solomiansky court within the pre-trial investigation, which has been conducted since November 2015. We cooperate with the investigators and provide all the necessary documents," the report said.

Ukrnafta is the country's largest oil producer. Naftogaz Ukrainy owns a 50% plus one share stake in Ukrnafta, a group of companies associated with the former shareholders of PrivatBank holds about 42% of the shares.
China on Wednesday opposed a new round of unilateral sanctions that the US has imposed against North Korea.

Such sanctions were not conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between China and the US, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing.

China is always opposed to unilateral sanctions outside the framework of the UNSC and especially opposed to long-arm jurisdiction imposed by other countries on Chinas enterprises and individuals, Kang said.

The new sanctions could affect companies from third countries, which trade with North Korea, and especially China, the main trading partner of the isolated regime of Kim Jong-un.

Lu added China has always strictly implemented UN resolutions related to North Korea and will investigate suspected violations of sanctions by Chinese enterprises or individuals according to its own domestic law.

The US House of Representatives, with Republican majority, had approved new sanctions against North Korea, Iran and Russia on Tuesday. The House also limited the Donald Trump governments power to lift sanctions, amid the Presidents intentions to relax US policy towards Russia.

The sanctions come at a time when the international community fears North Korea is preparing for new ballistic missile tests.

We firmly oppose any words and deeds that may heighten the tension, Lu said.
A British judge gave the parents of Charlie Gard until noon on Thursday to agree arrangements for his death with the hospital caring for him, failing which he would be transferred to a hospice where his ventilation tube would be removed.

The 11-month-old baby, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, has been the subject of a bitter dispute between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

The case has triggered a heated international debate in the press and on social media about who should decide a childs fate, and has drawn comment from US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis.

Having reluctantly taken the decision over the weekend to let Charlie die, his parents have been making desperate attempts to make an arrangement that would make it possible for them to spend several days with him, away from hospital.

Charlie requires invasive ventilation to breathe and cannot see, hear or swallow.

At stake in this final, agonising part of the legal dispute is how long Connie Yates and Chris Gard will have with their son before he dies.

Connie Yates (R), mother of terminally-ill 11-month-old Charlie Gard, arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on July 26, 2017, where a High Court judge is set to decide where baby Charlie Gard will end his life. (AFP)

The parents tried for several days to gain permission to take their son home, but as Wednesdays court hearing progressed it became clear that would not happen because the logistical problems were insurmountable.

The parents had made clear that if they could not take Charlie home, they would prefer him to die in a hospice rather than in the hospital, where he has spent most of his life.

But a lawyer for Charlies court-appointed guardian told the court that no hospice could provide care for intensively ventilated children for a long time, so the parents wish to spend several days with him could not be fulfilled.

The parents have been trying to find a doctor willing to oversee a plan that would allow Charlie to be ventilated in a hospice for several days. It was to give them a final chance of making such an arrangement that the judge gave them until noon on Thursday.

Unless by 12 noon tomorrow the parents and the guardian and the hospital can agree an alternative arrangement, Charlie will be transferred to a hospice and extubated shortly after, said Nicholas Francis, the judge presiding over the case.

MOTHER IN TEARS

An alternative arrangement appears unlikely, given the total breakdown in relations between the parents and the hospital.

The judge ordered that the name of the hospice and the exact timing of Charlies last moments should not be disclosed to the public.

At one point, Yates shouted in court, apparently at Charlies guardian: What if it was your child? I hope you are happy with yourself. She then left the courtroom in tears.

Connie Yates, the mother of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, arrives with father Chris Gard at the High Court in London, Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP)

At the start of the hearing, the parents lawyer Grant Armstrong had said they had found a doctor who could help them.

But the guardians lawyer, Victoria Butler-Cole, later said the person in question was a general medical doctor with no experience of intensive care, and that he had not identified any hospice willing to undertake intensive care for a long period.

Butler-Cole said the parents should spend the last few days of Charlies life with him, not with their lawyers.

The dispute first made headlines months ago, when Charlies parents wanted to take him to the United States to undergo experimental treatment.

The Great Ormond Street doctors said it would not help and would only prolong the babys suffering. British courts, backed by the European Court of Human Rights, refused permission, saying the parents plan was not in Charlies best interests.

The parents gave up the legal battle on Monday, saying that the latest scans showed Charlies condition had deteriorated to the point that no recovery was possible. But they remain convinced that the treatment might have helped Charlie had he received it months ago.

The hospital disagrees. It says Charlie had suffered irreversible brain damage by January as a result of a series of seizures, and his responsiveness has not changed since then.
China on Wednesday fumed over the Dalai Lamas planned visit to Botswana, warning the African country not to harm Beijings core interest.

Beijing opposes countries keeping contact or hosting the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it calls a wolf in sheeps clothing and accuses him of secessionist activities in Tibet.

China has stated its position clearly on the Dalai Lamas visit to the relevant countries, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said. We require relevant countries to earnestly respect Chinas core interests. China will not interfere in other countries internal affairs. We will not accept other countries to do things that will harm the core interests of China.

The Dalai Lama will attend a three-day human rights conference at Gaborone in Botswana from August 17.

China is Africas largest trade partner. Chinas state-run companies have the contract of building key infrastructure projects in Botswana.

In 1959, after a failed uprising in Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to India and has lived in self-imposed exile since then.

China uses various tactics to settle scores if any country invites him.

In the case of neighbouring Mongolia, it imposed a kind of economic blockade, crippling the economy of the poor country.

Following his April visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own, Beijing had retaliated by changing the name of six cities in the northeastern Indian state.
China has warned India against using trade remedy measures against Chinese products after New Delhi launched a series of investigations into certain items exported from here.

The ministry of commerce said that trade disputes between India and China should be resolved through consultations rather than investigations.

The ministry statement came after India announced on July 21 it will launch an anti-dumping investigation over photovoltaic cells and units imported from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Malaysia.

China is paying close attention to the investigation and hopes India will conduct it in a prudent manner and according to relevant regulations, Wang Hejun, head of the commerce ministrys trade remedy and investigation bureau told official news agency, Xinhua.

Wang warned that adopting trade remedy measures against photovoltaic products would impact the development of the sector in India and dampen the sector's long-term development worldwide as well as economic and trade cooperation between China and India.

All countries should cooperate for the sustainable and healthy development of the photovoltaic sector, which is significant in fighting climate change, rather than resorting to trade remedy measures and disrupting trade orders, Wang said.

According to the report, India's photovoltaic market has witnessed fast expansion, with its photovoltaic power generating capacity growing 3.7 times over the past three years, benefitting from China's photovoltaic products with reasonable prices and high quality.

The July 21 investigations were the latest to be launched by India against Chinese products this year.

India launched 12 investigations against Chinese products this year, second only to the US, amid a rise in amid a rise in bilateral trade.

Bilateral trade between China and India amounted to 229 billion yuan ($33.7 billion) between January and May, up by 30.1% year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said earlier this month.

But the rise in bilateral trade has come in the backdrop ofwhat Chinese officials say is Indias increasing protectiveness of its manufacturing sector.

We have also discovered that India's trend of launching trade remedy investigations has already shifted from lower-end products such as garments, glass and mining products, to higher-end goods such as new materials and machinery, Xue Rongjiu, deputy director of the Beijing-based China Society for WTO Studies, told the state-controlled China Daily newspaper earlier this month.

Because India's manufacturing structure is similar to China's, especially in the lighting and photovoltaic industries, both are facing the same problem to boost exports to developed markets, Li Gang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said.
US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the US military in any capacity any longer, reversing a 2016 order by the Barack Obama administration.

Trump made this announcement in a string of tweets, taking even the Pentagon by surprise.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming  ...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he tweeted.

The Obama administration opened up the US military to transgender people in July 2016. It was the culmination of a process started in 2015, which allowed women to serve in all wings of the armed forces, including combat units.

In 2016, Eric Fanning became the first openly gay secretary of army.

There are an estimated 6,630 transgender individuals in active military service out of 1.3 million personnel, according to a 2016 study by the think tank Rand Corp. It said 18 countries allowed transgender personnel to openly serve in their militaries, including Australia, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom.
Qatar said on Wednesday that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a disappointing surprise in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.

The four Arab governments named 18 organisations and individuals on Tuesday that they accused of links with Islamist extremism and Qatar.

The move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Qatari government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani official said the blacklist had no basis in fact and was aimed at stripping the emirate of its sovereignty.

It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar, he said in a statement.

This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.

All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries.

The four governments issued a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups last month. Sheikh Saif said it had been widely rejected by the international community.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the regions worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirates only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a terror group by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatars efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

But after talks with European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.

We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations, Shoukry told a press conference.
A senior Muslim official in Jerusalem on Wednesday said that worshippers would not return to a contested shrine until Israel removes the new railings and cameras it installed after a deadly attack there.

Ikrema Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, said that even after Israel removed metal detectors at the site, more steps were required. He said mass prayer protests would continue until the gates of the compound were opened, metal railings and an iron bridge removed and newly installed cameras taken down. He said a lawyer working on behalf of the Muslim administration of the holy site will be in touch with Israeli police to make the demands.

We will not enter the mosque until these things are implemented, he told The Associated Press. Now we are awaiting the response of the police.

The demand sets off the prospect of a renewed showdown ahead of Friday prayers at the site, when a large number of worshippers arrive for the centerpiece of the Muslim prayer week, and extends a crisis Israel was eager to resolve.

Israel installed the new security measures earlier this month after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site. Under intense pressure, it removed the metal detectors and said it planned to install sophisticated security cameras instead.

Israel says the measures were a natural response and necessary to prevent further attacks while Palestinians claim Israel is trying to expand its control over the site.

Members of Palestinian forces loyal to Hamas take part in a military parade in Gaza City on July 26, 2017 as a tense standoff is underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound. (AFP)

The continued standoff highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the shrine  the third-holiest in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The esplanade, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a lightning rod for the rival religious and national narratives of the two sides. It has triggered major confrontations in the past.

The latest development could put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tough spot, as he tries to tamp out a wave of unrest that has triggered international pressure while not appearing to his hard-line base as capitulating.

His government has faced a growing backlash at home for what critics said was hasty decision-making and embarrassing policy reversals.

In a face-saving compromise, and after Netanyahu spoke to Jordans King Abdullah II and others, Israels security cabinet announced Monday that in place of the metal detectors it would employ nonintrusive advanced technologies, reportedly smart cameras that can detect hidden objects. The new security system is said to be set up in the next six months at a cost of $28 million.

Palestinian politicians and Muslim clerics say that isnt enough and are demanding Israel restore the situation at the shrine in Jerusalems Old City to what it was before the July 14 deadly attack.

In response to that attack, Israel closed the shrine for two days for weapons searches and installed the metal detectors. The decision quickly triggered Muslim protests amid rumors that Israel was trying to expand its control at the site under the guise of security  a claim Israel strongly denied.
US vice-president Mike Pence has raised about $1 million at a fundraiser in Washington that also featured Ivanka Trump.

That is according to two people in attendance who described it afterward to The Associated Press. They demanded anonymity to share details from the private event.

Pence serves as the White Houses chief liaison to lawmakers.

His fundraiser capped a day that showcased his role: Earlier he had cast the deciding vote in the Senates move to begin debating how to end President Barack Obamas signature health care law.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and dozens of other lawmakers attended the Pence fundraiser.

Pences political committee can accept checks of up to $5,000 from individual donors and can, in turn, donate that money to political candidates he backs.
Nearly two months after his election as Nepals Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba expanded his cabinet on Wednesday by inducting 19 new faces.

When Deuba was elected the premier exactly 50 days ago, he had constituted a small six-member cabinet, with three ministers each from the Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Center.

Leaders said Deuba and the ruling coalition could not spare time to focus on expanding the cabinet because of two rounds of elections to local government bodies across Nepal on May 14 and June 28.

After Wednesdays expansion, the size of the Cabinet has increased to 26. The 19 new faces inducted into the cabinet include 10 from the Nepali Congress, six from the CPN-Maoist Center, two from the Nepal Loktantrik Forum and one from CPN-Unified.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office to the newly appointed ministers at the Presidents Office.

As envisioned by the Constitution, the executive should be inclusive and represent all sections of society, including women. Deubas new cabinet will have nine ministers representing the Madhes and Tharu communities, who have been campaigning for a fair and equitable share of the pie in the cabinet and other state organs.

Though women leaders have been demanding a 33% share in the cabinet, women account for less than 12% with just three ministries.

Deuba has been criticised for not expanding his cabinet for a long time in the run-up to elections to provincial assemblies and the Parliament, which will be held by January 21, 2108.

Leaders of the ruling party say Deuba could expand the cabinet again as he is holding four portfolios that could be allocated among fringe parties.
North Korea has threatened a nuclear strike on the heart of the US if it attempts to remove Kim Jong-un as Supreme Leader, Pyongyangs state-run news agency reported.

The report in Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday quoted a spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

The spokesman said the law stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the nation was threatened, it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones.

Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time, the Foreign Ministry spokesman added.

The threat was in response to comments from CIA director Mike Pompeo, who said the Donald Trump administration needed to find a way to separate Kim from his growing nuclear stockpile, CNN reported on Tuesday.

As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system, Pompeo said last week.

The North Korean people Im sure are lovely people and would love to see him go.

North Koreas threat comes amid an ongoing assessment from the US intelligence community that Pyongyang has accelerated its intercontinental range ballistic missile program, CNN reported.
Price for aggression should be increased - Poroshenko on U.S. Congress decision on sanctions against Russia

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has called the decision of the U.S. Congress on sanctions against Russia important.

"An important decision of the U.S. Congress regarding sanctions against Russia with powerful bipartisan support. The price for aggression must be increased!" he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress voted for a bill providing for additional sanctions against Russia, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK.

"Some 419 congressmen voted "for", three opposed. Voting took place according to a procedure providing for the support of at least two thirds of the members of the Chamber (290 out of 435).

Now the sanction bill will be submitted back to the Senate for voting. If adopted, the bill will be signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon for a multilateral security meet but the focus will be on his bilateral interactions with the Chinese leadership against the backdrop of the military standoff near the Sikkim border.

Doval will meet President Xi Jinping with his counterparts from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries on Friday. Security officials from BRICS states are meeting to discuss issues such as counter-terrorism and cyber-security in the run-up to the groupings summit to be held in Chinas Xiamen city in September.

But the focus will be on whether Dovals meetings with Chinese officials, including state councillor Yang Jiechi, will help to resolve  or at least ease - the tensions in Donglang, where the standoff is now into its second month.

The BRICS-related meetings, including the meeting with Xi, are slated for Friday but Chinese and Indian officials here were tight-lipped about Dovals schedule.

Beijing on Wednesday repeated its precondition for any dialogue with India to resolve the standoff: New Delhi has to withdraw its troops from Donglang, which is under Beijings control but claimed by Thimphu.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has blamed India for the face-off and importantly chose a foreign country, Thailand, to air his strong views on the situation. Wang told reporters in Bangkok this week the problem was very straightforward and even Indian officials publicly said that Chinese soldiers didnt enter the Indian territory.

This meant, he indicated, the Indian side admitted (crossing) into Chinese territory. The resolution of the problem is very simple, he said: Indian troops have to go out.

India has said it acted in coordination with Bhutan to block the construction of a road by Chinese troops at Donglang as it would alter the status quo and have serious implications for national security.

On Monday, Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang indicated Doval is likely to meet Yang in Beijing but ruled out a discussion on the Donglang standoff.

As far as we know, in previous meetings, usually it is arranged for the heads of delegations to hold (bilateral) meetings to exchange views on bilateral relations and other international issues, Lu had said.

He had added: The crux now is Indian border troops illegally stayed on Chinas territory. Once again, we urge India to pull back to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress that this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides.

Dovals visit is part of the build-up for the BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen city in the first week of September, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the standoff between India and China isnt resolved by then, it will cast a shadow of uncertainty over the summit and might put a question mark on the idea of BRICS.

For now, the multilateral element of the BRICS security summit will be on display this week.

On Friday, the five heads of security delegations from the BRICS states will meet to discuss global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security, energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

Besides Doval and Yang, minister of state security David Mahlobo of South Africa, Minister Sergio Etchegoyen of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of Brazil and Russias Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev will attend the meeting.
Americas beleaguered attorney general Jeff Sessions has found a groundswell of support among Republicans troubled by President Donald Trumps continuing public and vicious attacks on him.

Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators have rallied behind Sessions in recent days, with senator Richard Shelby, in an interview to Fox News, warning Trump that his firing wouldnt be well-received.

Even Breitbart News Network, a strident supporter of Trump, has sided with the attorney general, saying, Sessions has fought in the trenches for a tough line on immigration for years, back when Trump was pouring money into the campaign coffers of Democrats.

Trump has been annoyed about Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation, blaming him for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. He wants Sessions out, and discussed its implications with his advisers and has even looked at possible replacements.

When asked why he didnt simply fire him, Trump said, Im very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell.

Trumps eventual target is Mueller, whom he can fire directly but has chosen not to. And Sessions cant fire him because he has removed himself from the Russia probe and neither would his deputy, Rob Rosenstein, who appointed him. However, Trump might be in a better place with Sessionss replacement.

But with Democrats determined to protect Mueller, Trump will find himself pushed back even by Republicans, who have openly come out in support of Sessions.
Rolling Stone magazine has put liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the cover of its latest issue and asks: Why Cant He Be Our President?

Perhaps recognising that only American-born US citizens can become president, the magazine takes a different tack on its website. There, its headline for the article posted Wednesday is: Justin Trudeau: Is the Canadian Prime Minister the Free Worlds Best Hope?

Trudeau is pictured with his shirt sleeves rolled up and perched on the edge of a desk.

Justin Trudeau appears on our cover. Is Canada's prime minister the free world's best hope? https://t.co/yLLLr6sGGI pic.twitter.com/gZ4awM1HCm  Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 26, 2017

In the profile, writer Stephen Rodrick outlines stark contrasts between Trudeaus liberal views on health care, marijuana legalization and environmental policies and those voiced by US President Donald Trump.

Trudeau is quoted as saying he disagrees with Trump on a whole bunch of issues, but he also stresses that the two leaders have a constructive working relationship.

Trudeau says that seeking to insult Trump or overreact or jump at everything he says on matters where they differ would not result in a constructive relationship.
The US state department has said secretary of state Rex Tillerson is not leaving or resigning as had been reported by some media outlets, adding he was merely taking some time off after a mega-trip overseas.

The secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at the state department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us, spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at the daily briefing on Tuesday.

Tillerson, she added, was just taking a little time off after returning from a mega-trip overseas, referring to the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, and other recent travels.

CNN first reported on Monday Tillerson might be planning to leave over his continuing policy and personnel problems with the White House and the way President Donald Trump has been recently treating a senior cabinet colleague and an early and loyal supporter Jeff Sessions.

Trumps public rebuke and tormenting of Sessions, the first Republican senator to back him as a candidate at a time when most in the party did not expect him to last long, has reportedly worried other members of the cabinet. They are appalled and alarmed the president could do this to a loyal supporter like Sessions.

The report had said citing sources that Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, could leave soon or by the end of the year after completing the reorganisation of the state department, essentially after getting rid of surplus staff.

Tillerson has had troubles with the White House over staffing, and has been forced to drop people he was considering for some senior level position at the state department, such as Elliot Abrams, who was being considered for the Number 2 slot.

Many senior level positions remain vacant. Of the 32 top posts, only one has been filled with a Senate-confirmed appointee. And only five have been nominated or selected for the remaining positions, according to one count.

The position of the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, which deals with India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and others remains vacant after the exit of its last incumbent Nisha Biswal, a political appointee of the Obama administration.

Even the naming of ambassadors has been slowonly 30 have been named for a total of 188 positions, according to a report. India is among those still without a full-fledged ambassador. Rich Verma, the last one, was again a political appointee of the previous administration.

Staffing problems have led to at least one heated exchange between Tillerson and director of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano, at the White House in the presence senior officials such as senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief of staff Reince Priebus.

The secretary of state has also been seen to be at odds with the president on key foreign policy. Just hours after Tillerson made a very public appeal for an end to the blockade of Qatar in June, President Trump came out against Qatar calling it a funder of terrorism, and at a very high level.

But whatever his frustrations and differences with the White House, Rexit, as CNN called his possible exit playing on his first name, Tillerson is staying, the statement department spokesperson said.

We have meetings scheduled. He has meetings scheduled for the rest of the week here in Washington, she added.
Hundreds of Thai schoolchildren and naval officers sent 1,066 turtles scuttling into the sea on Wednesday in a ceremony aimed at bringing good fortune to the new King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who turns 65 on Friday.

The sea turtles, seen as symbols of longevity, waddled into the waves off Sattahip naval base in Chonburi province.

Many Thai Buddhists view freeing captive animals such as turtles or birds as a way to accrue good karma.

Sea turtles are long-living animals. If we release them, it will help His Majesty to have a long life too, said Eagarat Promlumpug, an officer who helps run the navys turtle conservation programme.

The number of freed turtles is seen as auspicious, with the 66 one more year than the kings age  representing the wish for his longevity.

Well-wishers release sea turtles at the Sea Turtle Conservation Center as part of the celebrations for the upcoming 65th birthday of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, in Sattahip district, Chonburi province, Thailand, July 26, 2017. (Reuters)

The centre collects thousands of turtle eggs annually and nurtures the reptiles before releasing them into the Gulf of Thailand.

Royal birthdays are met with a flurry of fanfare and religious ceremonies in Thailand, where the monarchy is seen a pillar of moral authority.

Vajiralongkorns birthday, July 28, was declared a public holiday by the ruling junta after he took the throne late last year.

His father Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away in October 2016, was worshipped as a near demi-god during his 70-year reign. Vajiralongkorn has yet to attract that level of devotion.

All royal family members are shielded from criticism by a draconian defamation law that has landed offenders decades in jail and forces all media in Thailand to self-censor.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson was back at work on Wednesday, with the state department dismissing rumours that he was planning to quit. The department said he was away from work to take some time off after a mega-trip overseas.

Tillerson was scheduled to receive visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Qatars foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to the state departments schedule of engagements of its senior leaders for Wednesday.

The secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at the state department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us, spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at the daily briefing on Tuesday.

She added Tillerson was just taking a little time off after returning from a mega-trip overseas, referring to the G20 meetings in Hamburg and other recent travels.

CNN on Monday reported Tillerson might be planning to leave over his continuing policy and personnel problems with the White House and the way President Donald Trump has been recently treating senior cabinet colleague Jeff Sessions.

Trumps public rebuke and tormenting of Sessions  the first Republican senator to back him as a presidential candidate  has reportedly worried other members of the cabinet. They are appalled and alarmed the president could do this to loyal supporter like Sessions.

The report, citing sources, had said Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, could leave by the end of the year after completing the reorganization of the state department  essentially after riding it of surplus staff.

Tillerson has had troubles with the White House overstaffing, and has been forced to drop people he was considering for senior level positions at the state department.

Of the 32 top leadership posts, only one has been filled by a Senate-confirmed appointee. And according to one count, only five have been nominated or selected for the remaining positions.

The position of the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, which deals with India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and others, remains vacant after the exit of its last incumbent Nisha Biswal, a political appointee of the Barack Obama administration.

Even the naming of ambassadors has been slow  only 30 have been named for a total of 188 positions, according to a report. India is among those still without a full-fledged ambassador. Rich Verma, the last one, was again a political appointee by the previous administration.

Staffing problems have led to at least one heated exchange between Tillerson and director of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano, at the White House in the presence senior officials such as senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Tillerson has also been seen to be at odds with Trump on key foreign policy. Just hours after Tillerson made a very public appeal for an end to the blockade of Qatar in June, Trump came out against Qatar calling it a funder of terrorism, and at a very high level.
Dozens of teen pregnancy prevention programs deemed ineffective by President Donald Trumps administration will lose more than $200 million in funding following a surprise decision to end five-year grants after only three years.

The administrations assessment is in sharp contrast with that of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which credited the program with contributing to an all-time low rate of teen pregnancies.

Rachel Fey of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said Tuesday that grantees under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program were given no explanation when notified this month their awards will end next June. The program, begun under President Barack Obamas administration, receives about $100 million a year.

We know so little about the rationale behind cutting short these grants, said Fey, who said the teen birth rate has fallen by about 40 percent nationally since the program went into effect in 2010. The focus of the program is on evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing teen pregnancy. It does not pay for or provide contraceptives.

A Health and Human Services spokesman said late Tuesday that an evaluation of the first round of grants released last fall found only four of 37 programs studied showed lasting positive impacts. Most of the other programs had no effect or were harmful, the department said, including three that it said increased the likelihood that teens would have unprotected sex and become pregnant.

Given the very weak evidence of positive impact of these programs, the Trump administration, in its ... 2018 budget proposal, did not recommend continued funding for the TPP program, the department statement said.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists urged the administration not to turn back the clock on progress.

Its as though the evidence and the facts dont matter, ACOG President Dr. Haywood Brown said.

The North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens, one of more than 80 current grantees around the country, will lose just under $1 million a year, about three-quarters of its budget, Executive Director Terry Goltz Greenberg said. The program worked with more than 1,700 kids last year in high-poverty neighborhoods where the teen birth rates are three to five times the national average, she said.

Most of the evidence-based programs are not just talking about contraception but are putting it in the context of bigger goals in life, such as, Where do you want to be in three years? How does a kid fit into that, she said.

Elizabeth Gomez, 44, said the Texas programs after-school classes taught her how to discuss difficult topics with her three daughters in a respectful way that made them listen and respond.

For Hispanics, its difficult, because its a taboo to talk about sex, she said.

A letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price signed by 37 Democratic senators called the decision short-sighted. Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grantees served a half-million youth from 2010 to 2014 and were on their way to serve an additional 1.2 million through 2019 when the grant was scheduled to end, the senators said. Their letter asked Price for an explanation and questioned the timing of the notifications in advance of congressional action on fiscal year 2018 appropriations.

Two of Shawanda Brown-Cannons children take classes once a week through a southwest Georgia program called Quest for Change which, according to its director, will lose about 87 percent of its total budget.

The classes prompted both her 17-year-old daughter, Amaya, and her 13-year-old son, Chandler, to talk with their mother about what theyve learned, for instance a Valentines Day class on how to show love without sexual activity.

It opens up a line of communication, Brown-Cannon said.

Angelina Jackson, a 17-year-old high school senior, is a member of Quest for Change. She helps run classroom lessons and organize events as a member of the youth leadership council focused on her school.

Some people are not able to talk to their parents at home about the stuff that Quest does, Jackson said. They provided a comfortable environment where people could ask questions or talk about their concerns.

Vermont-based Youth Catalytics was informed July 5 that its five-year, $2.8 million federal grant had been cut off June 30, the end of the first year. The grant provided about half of the organizations annual budget. As recently as July 3, people from the organization had been working with HHS officials about the details of the program, said Meagan Downey, the groups director of special projects. The grant covered about half of her salary.

Downey said her organization was one of five grant recipients nationwide that lost their funding immediately. Others were given until July 1, 2018 to prepare for the loss of the funds.

Leaders of the HOPE Buffalo program always had an eye toward establishing partnerships with city and community leaders that would enable its work to continue beyond the five-year lifespan of the grant, which provided $2 million a year, Project Director Stan Martin said. With less time and less funding, he said, our efforts were just accelerated.
The Twitter messages of US President Donald Trump show that he is creative, competitive and a rule-breaker, but also has neurotic tendencies, a study has found.

Since joining the social media platform Twitter in 2009 to May 2017, Trump has issued more than 35,000 messages.

This amounts to about twelve tweets a day. With 30 million followers, he is the second most followed politician on Twitter after his predecessor, Barack Obama, who on average tweeted about four times a day.

The researchers, Martin Obschonka from Queensland University of Technology in Australia, and Christian Fisch from Trier University in Germany analysed how aspects of Trumps personality are revealed in the language he used in 3,200 tweets issued by October 2016, before he became president.

They used established software for assessment of language and text for psychological purposes.

Trumps language use and online personality were also compared with that of 105 other famous business managers and entrepreneurs including Apples Tim Cook and Teslas Elon Musk who are not on the political stage.

Their results indicate that Trump is indeed a distinct type of person who shows strong features of a so-called Schumpeterian personality that is said to be typical of successful entrepreneurs.

This personality was described by Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s as being very creative, change-orientated, competitive and rule-breaking.

The analysis further indicates that Trump has neurotic tendencies, and experiences underlying low well-being.

These traits are rather untypical for entrepreneurs since working as an entrepreneur may not only require emotional stability and optimism but also be able to increase happiness due to procedural utility, said Obschonka.

He added that neuroticism isnt necessarily all bad, for it can also stimulate competitiveness.

Maybe this high neuroticism is a major motivator to succeed in Trumps entrepreneurial projects in his business life, but also in his role as political leader, said Fisch.

If social distinction is a core principle of the entrepreneurial personality, then we clearly see this principle reflected in his unusual personality profile, said Fisch.

Many experts agree that really successful entrepreneurs not only dare to be different - they are different, he said.

The researchers speculate that having entrepreneurial personality traits could be advantageous in leading and governing an entrepreneurial society as a top-down process.

However, they stress that leading a company is very different from leading a country and it is unclear whether political leaders with an extremely entrepreneurial personality can indeed act strictly entrepreneurially in their highly responsible role.

The study was published in the journal Small Business Economics.
US President Donald Trump accused Syrias leader Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday of committing horrible crimes against humanity and vowed to prevent his regime from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

Speaking at a White House press conference with Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Trump also called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East.

Trump pledged continued US military aid to Lebanon following his Oval Office meeting with Hariri.

Im not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what hes done to that country and to humanity is horrible, Trump said.

Recalling that he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Assad for using chemical weapons, Trump said: I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do.

Trump also claimed Syria had his predecessor Barack Obama taken action against Assad after drawing a red line in the sand.

Had president Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I dont believe youd have Russia, and I dont believe youd have Iran, anywhere near the extent and maybe not at all, in Syria today, he said.

Trump accused Iran and Hezbollah, which the United States considers a foreign terrorist organization, of fueling the humanitarian disaster in Syria.

Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region, he said.

The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel, Trump said. With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria.

Hezbollahs true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran, he added.

Trump demurred when asked to comment on possible additional sanctions against Hezbollah.

Ill be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours, he said. I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others, so Ill be making that decision very shortly.

Trump praised the Lebanese army for fighting continually to guard Lebanons border and prevent ISIS (the Islamic State group) and other terrorists... from gaining a foothold inside their country.

The United States military has been proud to help in that fight and will continue to do so, he said. Americas assistance can help ensure that the Lebanese army is the only defender Lebanon needs.

The current draft State Department budget calls for cuts in US military assistance and analysts say Lebanon could be among the countries affected.
Two abducted diplomatic officials of Pakistans consulate in Afghanistan have been rescued, officials said on Wednesday.

The officials, posted at Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad, were abducted on June 16 while travelling from Jalalabad province to Torkham border crossing, Foreign Office (FO) said.

(Afghanistan) President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistans Charge dAffaires in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation, it said.

The officials were handed over to the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul by the Afghan ministry of foreign affairs.

They would be flown back to Pakistan to join their families as soon as possible, the FO said.

Foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua talked to Afghan deputy foreign minister Hekmat Karzai and conveyed Pakistans deep gratitude to the Afghan government for safe recovery of the two abducted Pakistani diplomatic officials.

Jalalabad is the regional hub in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The Taliban and militants linked to the ISIS operate in eastern Afghanistan.
Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said he believes there is a need for broad public debate on the issue of possible legalization of weapons, adding that the country is not ready for that step yet.

"I have a clear position on this issue: nothing in this sphere should be adopted under influence of emotions and without broad public debate," Petrenko told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He drew a parallel with the adoption of the so-called 'Savchenko law,' as a result of which some 15,000 criminals walked free and over 14,000 of them committed crimes again.

"Therefore, the issue of weapons legalization should be a topic of broad public debate on whether Ukrainian society is ready to have people walking the streets with legal smoothbore pistols," Petrenko said.

There is a need to clearly discuss everything and stipulate all norms before making specific decisions, he said.

"Therefore, I am against populist statements saying that let's legalize all weapons tomorrow and enable Ukrainians to protect themselves," the minister said.

As to the possibility of former servicemen carrying weapons, this issue should also be a subject of debate, the minister said.

"I believe that we are probably not ready for massive legalization of weapons yet," Petrenko said.
Britains government will announce on Wednesday that it will ban the sale of petrol- and diesel-fuelled cars from 2040 when all vehicles must be fully electric as part of a plan to clean up air pollution, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The reported move follows a similar announcement earlier this month by the French government.

No one was immediately available for comment at Britains environment ministry which was due to make the announcement, according to the newspaper reports.

The Times said the sale of new hybrid vehicles that have an electric motor combined with a petrol or diesel engine would also end under the plan.

The government has been under pressure to take measures to reduce air pollution after losing legal cases brought by campaign groups.

Under the proposals due to be announced on Wednesday, local authorities would be able to charge levies on the drivers of the diesel vehicles on the most polluted roads from 2020, if air quality does not improve, the Daily Mail newspaper said.

Separately on Tuesday, German carmaker BMW said it had chosen its plant in Oxford, England as the location to produce an electric Mini from 2019.

Earlier this month, Volvo became the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine by saying all its car models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids. Local authorities will be able to charge levies on the drivers of the diesel vehicles on the most polluted roads from 2020, if air quality does not improve
UN investigators accused a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition of carrying out a deadly March attack on a Somali migrant boat off Yemen and said the alliance had become a cover for some states to avoid individual blame, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The coalition fighting the Iran-allied Houthi militia in Yemen has denied striking the boat in the Red Sea near the port of Hodeidah. The investigators said the attack killed 42 people and injured 34 of the more than 140 people onboard.

This civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a 7.62 mm caliber weapon from an armed utility helicopter, the investigators, who monitor sanctions in Yemen, wrote in a 185-page report to the U.N. Security Council on Monday.

The Saudi Arabia led coalition forces are the only parties to the conflict that have the capability to operate armed utility helicopters in the area, the report said. It said the helicopter was likely operating from a naval vessel.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.

The UN report said the attack violated international humanitarian law and threatened the peace, security and stability of Yemen.

It said two other alleged attacks on fishing vessels by helicopter or naval vessels in the Red Sea in March had killed another 11 people and injured eight.

It said the Saudi-led coalition, the governments of the UAE and Egypt and the Combined Maritime Forces had not responded to the investigators requests for information.

The coalition receives U.S. arms and logistical support.

Some individual member states of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition seek to hide behind the entity of the coalition to shield themselves from state responsibility for violations committed by their forces, the investigators said.

They did not identify the states by name.

Attempts to divert responsibility in this manner from individual states to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition may contribute to further violations continuing with impunity, they wrote.

Top UN officials this month accused the warring parties in Yemen and their international allies of fueling an unprecedented deadly cholera outbreak, driving millions closer to famine and hindering humanitarian aid access.

UN-led peace talks have stalled. At US Ambassador Nikki Haleys suggestion, the Security Council is considering sending letters to the warring parties reminding them of their humanitarian obligations.

The letter has to be agreed by consensus and Egypt has objected to the draft, said a senior council diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that negotiations were continuing.
The Pentagon has picked up signs that North Korea is prepping for another missile test, a US defence official said today, as the United States cited progress in pushing China to impose tough new UN sanctions.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that if the test goes ahead, it would probably occur on July 27, which is the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

The date is a public holiday in the nuclear-armed North and celebrated as Victory Day.

The official said the test would be of either an intermediate-range missile or North Koreas ICBM -- known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14.

That would be the second time Pyongyang has tested an ICBM, after its July 4 rocket launch that caused global alarm.

Experts assessed it could have put Alaska in range, bringing Pyongyangs long-held dream of a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States within reach, and presenting President Donald Trump with a stark challenge.

Graphic on the main missile launches from North Korea since March. (AFP Photo)

South Koreas news agency Yonhap quoted a government source as saying Seoul had seen North Korea moving transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province.

Theyre setting up for something, a second US defence official told AFP.

After North Koreas July 4 test, the United States launched a push at the United Nations for tougher measures against Pyongyang.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley today cited progress in talks with China on imposing what she termed as pretty serious new UN sanctions.

The United States has been locked in negotiations with China for nearly three weeks on a new raft of measures, and Haley said China was negotiating with Russia separately on possible tougher sanctions.

I think we are making progress, Haley said.

Its not as fast as I would like but these are pretty serious sanctions and so I think that there is a lot of thought going into this.

Haley told the UN Security Council after the test that she hoped to present new measures in a few days, such as cutting off oil supplies, banning North Korean guest workers or imposing new air and maritime restrictions on North Korea.

In all, six sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but two resolutions adopted last year significantly toughened the sanctions regime.

Haley said the true test will be Russias role. Moscow maintains the July 4 launch was not an ICBM, citing its defence ministrys assessment.

Moscow has also argued that sanctions are not the answer to rein in North Korea, and that talks, as advocated by Beijing, were needed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the July 4 launch, described it as a gift to the American bastards.

CNN cited a US defence official saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment were seen arriving at Kusong in North Pyongan last Friday.

Kusong has been the scene of past tests, including in May when an intermediate-range ballistic missile travelled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).

The North last week refused to respond to the Souths offer to open dialogue to ease tension.
The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impose tough new sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia, a move that will antagonize the Kremlin as well as European nations fearing economic ramifications.

The measure notably constrains President Donald Trumps ability to waive the penalties.

The sanctions package, which passed 419 to three after weeks of negotiations, tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe, House Speaker Paul Ryan said after the vote.

The measure now heads to the Senate, where there is support for sanctions but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

The legislation is the result of a congressional compromise reached last weekend and is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and Russias annexation of Crimea.

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has invaded its neighbor Ukraine, seizing its territory and destabilizing its government, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in applauding passage.

Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression.

But the bill could end up penalizing European firms that contribute to the development of Russias energy sector.

New sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests, are also included in the bill.

Key among the provisions is one that handcuffs the US president by complicating any of the leaders unilateral efforts to ease penalties against Moscow in the future -- effectively placing him under Congresss watch.

Trump has faced accusations that his administration had sought to reassure Moscow that sanctions imposed near the end of the Obama administration could be lifted under a President Trump.

Initially, Trump resisted the legislation. But faced with near-total consensus among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the White House blinked, but did not say directly that the billionaire president would sign it into law.

While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the presidents desk, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Veto likely not effective

In mid-June, the Senate voted 98-2 in favor of tough sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, but the text stalled in the House.

With the North Korea sanctions now included, the new measure would need to be passed by the Senate before heading to the White House, likely before summer break begins in mid-August.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he wants the new measure passed and sent to Trumps desk without delay.

US lawmakers, including Republican leaders, have remained wary of the intentions of the billionaire businessman-turned-president -- who has called for better relations with Moscow -- regarding a relaxation of pressure on Putin.

But even if Trump were to veto the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

Russia calls sanctions counterproductive

The Kremlin warned that fresh sanctions on Russia would adversely affect both sides.

We consider such a continuation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive and harmful to the interests of both countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

From Paris to Berlin, the sanctions bill was seen as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupts a carefully crafted order.

To date, sanctions against Moscow have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic, to maintain a united front.

European Union member states were due to meet Wednesday and discuss the issue -- and a possible response.

Several European nations, including Germany, are livid because the new law would allow punishing companies working on pipelines from Russia, for example by limiting their access to US banks.

The provision could theoretically pave the way for sanctions against European partners in Nord Stream 2, a project to build a pipeline carrying Russian gas across the Baltic that could boost supplies to Germany from 2019.

To date, Washington and Brussels had agreed that sanctions would not affect Europes gas supply.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.
US Muslims say they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trumps presidency, but also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society, a new survey finds.

Nearly three-quarters of US Muslims view Trump as unfriendly to them, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday. Sixty-two percent say Americans do not view Islam as part of the mainstream after a presidential election that saw a surge in hostility toward Muslims and immigrants.

At the same time, nearly half of Muslims said they had received expressions of encouragement from non-Muslims in the past year, an increase over past polls. And Muslims remain optimistic about their future. Seventy percent believe hard work can bring success in America, a figure largely unchanged for a decade.

Theres a sense among the American Muslim population that others are beginning to understand them and beginning to sympathize with them, said Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist and adviser to Pew researchers. Prejudice against Muslims has pushed the average American to say, This is really not fair. Im going to knock on my neighbour's door to see if theyre all right, Jamal said.

The Pew survey is its third on American Muslims since 2007, and its first since Trump took office Jan. 20. He promised to fight terrorism through extreme vetting of refugees and had a plan to temporarily ban travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The latest poll of 1,001 adults was conducted by phone, both landline and cellphones, between Jan. 23 and May 2, in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.

The last several months have seen an uptick in reports of anti-Muslim harassment, including arson and vandalism at mosques and bullying at schools. In the Pew survey, nearly half of U.S. Muslims say they have faced some discrimination in the last year, such as being treated with distrust, threatened or called an offensive name. That percentage is only a slight increase over previous surveys.

However, the figure is much higher for respondents who said they were more visibly identified as Muslim, for example by a head covering, or hijab, for women. Sixty-four percent of those with a more distinct Muslim identity said they had recently faced some type of discrimination.

Still, the survey found evidence of a growing sense of Muslim belonging in the United States. Eighty-nine percent said they were proud be both Muslim and American and nearly two-thirds said there was no conflict between Islam and democracy.

A larger share of American Muslims told Pew they had registered to vote and actually voted. Forty-four percent of Muslims eligible to vote cast ballots in last years presidential election, compared to 37 percent in 2007. Those numbers on Muslim voting are compared to 60 percent of eligible voters overall who cast ballots in 2016.

American Muslim leaders, alarmed by anti-Muslim rhetoric in the campaign, made an unprecedented push to register voters in mosques and at community events. Turnout overall was higher after the highly contested 2016 campaign.

Muslims overwhelmingly backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who drew 78 percent of their vote compared to 8 percent for Trump.

Following a trend found in other American faith groups, a slight majority of U.S. Muslims now accept homosexuality, a dramatic reversal from a decade ago when 61 percent said same-sex relationships should be discouraged.

Pew researchers estimate the number of U.S. Muslims has been growing by 100,000 per year, reaching 3.35 million, or 1 percent of the American population. Just over half of U.S. Muslims identify as Sunni, while 16 percent say they are Shiite. Nearly six in 10 adult American Muslims were born outside the U.S.

The largest share of immigrants come from South Asian countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, while others have come from Iraq, Iran, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. American-born blacks comprise about 13 percent of all Muslims in America, but their share is shrinking. Overall, eight in 10 are U.S. citizens, according to the survey.

Eight in 10 American Muslims said they were concerned about Islamic extremism and more than 70 percent said they were very or somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism in the U.S. However, three of 10 said that most of those arrested recently on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack had been tricked by law enforcement authorities and did not represent a real threat.
The US state of Ohio ended its three-year moratorium on the death penalty Wednesday, using a new drug cocktail that included a controversial sedative to execute a convicted child murderer and rapist.

Ronald Phillips, 43, was put to death by lethal injection, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said. He was pronounced dead at 10:43 am (1443 GMT).

Phillips was 19 years old in 1993 when he was convicted of raping and killing three-year-old Sheila Marie Evans, his then-girlfriends daughter.

The US Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal late Tuesday.

The execution of Phillips comes amid waning support among the American public for the death penalty, and as fewer and fewer states carry out capital punishment.

Several states have struggled to find the drugs needed for lethal injections, as pharmaceutical companies have restricted the use of their products for executions.

Court challenges have ensued as states have tried new drug cocktails that some say result in suffering for the death row inmates -- and thereby, a violation of their constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

Phillips was put to death using a three-drug protocol endorsed by a federal appeals court last month that included the sedative midazolam, which lawyers for Phillips and two other inmates said did not lead to sufficient anesthetization.

- No guarantee of pain-free execution -

The midwestern US state had halted its use of capital punishment in 2014, following the botched execution of Dennis McGuire using midazolam, during which the inmate appeared to suffer, snorting and gasping for several minutes.

In the suit filed by Phillips and his fellow inmates, a federal district judge and a three-judge appeals panel initially sided with them, saying the midazolam cocktail posed too great a risk of cruel and unusual punishment.

The state countered that its new drug protocol calls for a 50-times greater dose of the sedative, rendering it more effective. A full appellate panel agreed with Ohio, saying the Constitution does not guarantee a pain-free execution.

Phillipss execution on Wednesday using the higher dose of midazolam was peaceful, and he did not exhibit any complications, witnesses said.

- Worst of the worst -

Phillips admitted to his crimes, but said his own sexual and physical abuse at the hands of his father were mitigating circumstances not considered at trial.

The state twice denied his clemency petitions.

In December 2016, on his second petition, the Ohio state parole board wrote: Phillipss crime involved the killing of a vulnerable three-year-old victim, an abuse of trust, and extensive victimization, therefore making it among the worst of the worst capital crimes.

While the US Supreme Court refused to stay the execution on Tuesday night, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent that the appellate court should have deferred to the evidence-based findings of the lower court judge.

The Court of Appeals and this Court should not so lightly disregard those findings, Sotomayor said.

The United States has now executed 15 people in 2017, nine of them using a drug cocktail with midazolam, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

While the death penalty is legal in a majority of US states, only 49 percent of Americans nationwide support capital punishment for murder, the lowest level of support in more than 40 years, a 2016 Pew poll found.
An Asian-origin teacher has decided to sue United Airlines as she was forced to hold her two- year-old son on her lap after the airlines gave away the toddlers seat to a standby passenger, according to a media report.

Shirley Yamauchi said she hopes her lawsuit will help protect other passengers from this type of treatment.

United said they would change and I want to see that happen. I dont want anymore passengers possibly in danger, she said.

Her attorney says he is ready for a trial.

United deserves everything we can do to them. Well let the people decide what to do to people that are this greedy and put lives potentially in danger, attorney Michael Green was quoted as saying by the Hawai News Now.

Yamauchi, a Kapolei Middle School teacher, held her toddler, Taizo, for the entire three-and-a-half hour flight from Houston to Boston.

As children over the age of two years are required to have their own seat, she purchased a ticket for her son, Taizo - paying almost USD 1,000 each ticket.

When she brought the problem up to flight attendants, Yamauchi said she was ignored.

The airline did not apologise or respond to her until five days later, saying agents inaccurately scanned Taizos boarding pass, the report said.

It could have been resolved at that point, yet not a single flight attendant asked why he was on my lap the whole duration of the flight, Yamauchi said.

On her return trip back to Hawaii from a conference in Boston, she said the airline gave her free upgrades and perks, but she felt the gestures were not genuine.

There was a representative waiting for us. We were escorted to their United lounge, but we explained we dont have a membership with them, yet they asked us to utilise their lounge. The three of us were moved to business class after getting our tickets. He offered to carry my bag for me down to baggage claim. We both received a lei. A flower lei, she said.

When asked for comment about the potential lawsuit, United said, We reached out to Ms Yamauchi to apologise to her and her son, and we also refunded their tickets.

The mothers ordeal during the flight comes following a slew of incidents in which United has been accused by passengers of insensitive behaviour.

In April, a passenger named David Dao refused to give up his seat on a United flight and was dragged, battered and bloodied down the plane aisle by police.

Navang Oza, an Indian-origin man in the US, claimed that the United Airlines cancelled his flight reservation because he filmed an employee during an altercation.

A giant rabbit, who was expected to outgrow his father to become the worlds biggest bunny, also died under the care of United Airlines earlier this year.
When escalating Civil War tensions reached Taos, New Mexico Territory, Confederate sympathizers tore down the Stars and Stripes from its staff on the town plaza and resisted all attempts to restore it. So Union supporters reportedly nailed the flag to a makeshift pole hewn from a young cottonwood tree, raised it over the plaza and guarded it round the clock. Among the zealous members of the color guard were renowned mountain man and scout Kit Carson and prominent fur trapper and Taos merchant Ceran St. Vrain. Such a purely symbolic act of no particular military significance marked something of a climax in the developing loyalties of Ceran St. Vrain, as he responded to the rapidly changing political landscape of the early 19th century and evolved from French expatriate to Mexican citizen to American patriot.

Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain was born on May 5, 1802, in Spanish Lake, St. Louis County, in then French-controlled Louisiana Territory. He was descended from a family of French Flemish nobles who in the aftermath of the French Revolution found a more congenial environment in the New World. His father, former French naval officer Jacques Marcellin Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain, immigrated to Louisiana in 1794 and soon moved north to St. Louis. In 1796 he married Marie Felicite Chauvet Dubreuil. Ceran, the fourth of their 10 children, grew up speaking primarily French. While the formal conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804 technically made the toddler Ceran and his siblings American citizens, given the influence of the surrounding community they likely grew up thinking of themselves as French.

After the family brewery burned down in 1813 and their 48-year-old father died insolvent five years later, the family fell on hard times, and Ceran went to live in the household of family friend and benefactor General Bernard Pratte, merchant, fur trader and War of 1812 veteran. Working as a clerk in Prattes St. Louis store, the teenager learned the fur trading business.

At the forefront of the North American fur trade of the early 19th century were such future legends as John Colter, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Among the first Europeans to penetrate the American West, the mountain men were a tough and violent breed, better suited to a hard life on the untamed frontier than the comforts of civilized society. They made their living trapping fur-bearing animals, mostly beaver, and trading with frontier tribes, often taking Indian wives. Brought into trading centers like Santa Fe, the furs commanded high prices back East and in Europe.

Sited at the junction of the mighty Missouri and Mississippi, St. Louis was a natural hub for the Western fur trade, and its possibilities were not lost on the French community that grew up in the wake of the 17th-century explorations of Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet and Robert de La Salle. Merchants such as half-brothers Jean-Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, Jean-Pierre Cabanne, the Robidoux brothers and General Pratte were quick to see its advantages and developed thriving businesses. In the 1820s they turned their gaze southwest to the unexploited opportunities in New Mexico, newly liberated from Spanish rule in 1821.

In 1824, in partnership with Bernard Pratte and Co. and trader Francois Guerin, St. Vrain joined a caravan down the Santa Fe Trail to the Mexican-administered territory of New Mexico, stopping in the settlement of Taos near the namesake ancient tribal pueblo. For Ceran this initial trip to Taos was the beginning of a lifelong sojourn as a New Mexico merchant, as he pursued trapping and trading opportunities in the southern Rocky Mountains.

While still a young man St. Vrain earned his spurs as a mountain man in several trapping expeditions. In 1827 his mettle was sorely tested after joining a party of 36 trappers headed by General Prattes son Sylvestre, a close friend. When Sylvestre fell ill and died at the headwaters of the North Platte (present-day North Park in central Colorado), 25-year-old Ceran took the helm of the expedition, reportedly at the request of the partys veteran trappers. On his watch an Indian shot trapper Tom Smith from ambush, striking him just below the knee. Smiths lower leg required amputation, much of which the trapper himself performed with a butcher knifetill passing out from the pain. Defying the odds, he survived, thereafter calling himself Peg-leg Smith. After further hardships, Ceran successfully led the party back to Taos in May 1828.

St. Vrain was a stout and powerfully built man with a round face, wide nose and dark bushy beard. The Indians called him Black Beard. He developed into a capable and successful trapper and merchant, branching out in a variety of allied enterprises, including supplies, land speculation and, later, flour mills and sawmills, liquor distillation, even newspaper publishing. He became active in civic affairs and was respected and well liked. In the ghostwritten words of longtime friend Kit Carson: All the mountaineers considered him their best friend and treated him with the greatest respect. He now lives in New Mexico and commands the respect of all, American and Mexican alike.

Lewis Garrard, young adventurer, traveling companion and sometime guest of St. Vrain had this to say about his host: Mr. St. Vrain was a gentleman in the true sense of the term, his French descent imparting an exquisite, indefinable degree of politeness and, combined with the frankness of an ingenuous mountain man, made him an amiable fellow traveler. His kindness and respect toward me I shall always gratefully remember.

St. Vrain may have been settling down in Taos, but he was nonetheless a prominent member of a foreign community viewed with increasing suspicion by Mexican authorities, native New Mexicans and Pueblo Indians

St. Vrain became a naturalized Mexican citizen on Feb. 15, 1831. It was in part a calculated decision, as citizenship made it easier to obtain a trapping license and facilitated such government largess as extensive land grants. By then he had put down roots in the Taos community, learning Spanish, adopting the Hispanicized name of Seran Sambrano and taking a Mexican national as a wife. Over his lifetime St. Vrain had three wivesall local womenby whom he had a number of children. Admittedly, some or all of these unions may have been without the blessing of church or state, and their tenures may even have overlapped.

By early 1831 St. Vrain had partnered with friend and veteran fur trader Charles Bent to form Bent, St. Vrain and Co., which grew into a vast Southwestern trading empire with stores in Taos and Santa Fe. Family members, notably younger brothers William Bent and Marcellin St. Vrain, were also involved in the enterprise. Within a few years they built an adobe structure on the Arkansas River known as Bents Fort. Serving multiple functionsfort, trading post, residence, way station, supply depot and neutral site for negotiations with local Indian tribesBents Fort became a Santa Fe Trail landmark and cornerstone of the fur trade.

St. Vrain may have been settling down in Taos, but he was nonetheless a prominent member of a foreign community viewed with increasing suspicion by Mexican authorities, native New Mexicans and Pueblo Indians. Taos had become a center for mostly American expatriates, boasting a larger foreign population than even Santa Fe, and authorities suspected the Yanquis of harboring traitorous sympathies both during the Texas Revolution and amid rising tensions along the international border.

Indeed, when the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, St. Vrain, like many fellow expatriates, came down on the side of the Americans. He and partner Charles Bent threw open the resources of Bents Fort to Brig. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny and his 1,700 green troops, who took Santa Fe on August 15 without firing a shot. Three days later Kearny declared himself military governor of New Mexico and promptly appointed Bent its civilian governor.

Believing all was well in the territory, Kearny marched on to California, leaving a small force in Santa Fe under Colonel Sterling Price. But a rebellion was already brewing. Amid reports of discontent and resistance in Taos, Governor Bent returned home in January 1847 to soothe tensions and protect his family. Confident he would be well received, Bent refused a military escort. It was a fatal miscalculation. On January 19 discontented Mexican partisans, with help from Taos Pueblo Indians, launched an armed revolt, specifically targeting U.S. authorities. The Indians broke into Bents home, scalped the governor alive, murdered him and further mutilated his body, though his family was allowed to flee. The next day the rebels attacked a mill at nearby Arroyo Hondo and killed more Anglos, including several mountain men.

When news of the revolt reached Santa Fe, St. Vrain, at Colonel Prices request, organized a volunteer company of 65 irregulars, many understandably vengeful mountain men among them. Despite the fur traders lack of military experience, Price then put him in charge of the company, with a field commission of captain. Numbering 353 men in all, the combined force of Prices regulars and St. Vrains volunteers left for Taos on January 23, along the way defeating some 1,500 insurgents at La Canada (Santa Cruz) and again at El Embudo (Velarde). While the rebels boasted a much larger force, they were poorly organized and lacked artillery. Price entered Taos unopposed on February 3.

The panicked rebels had taken refuge in Taos Pueblo, a solid wood and adobe stockade with a mission church to one corner. After an hours-long artillery bombardment, Prices forces stormed the church, hacking at its walls with axes and setting fire to its roof before engaging in hand-to-hand combat with fleeing rebels. St. Vrain played a key role in the melee, by one account shooting and killing ringleader Pablo Chavez, by another narrowly averting impalement on a steel-pointed arrow in the hand of an Indian adversary. Casualties were extremely high among the defenders, who sued for peace the following day.

Military authorities imprisoned rebel leaders Tomas Romero and Pablo Montoya. Convicted of treason by a drumhead court-martial, Montoya was hanged on February 7. A disaffected soldier shot and killed Romero before he could be brought to trial. Fourteen other rebels faced charges of murder and treason before hastily organized civilian courts whose judges and juries were drawn largely from American sympathizers with tenuous claims to impartiality. St. Vrain served as interpreter. Unsurprisingly, all the accused were condemned to death and publicly hanged.

St. Vrains motives in rushing to the aid of the nascent U.S. government of New Mexico were likely twofold. Mountain man and trapper Uncle Dick Wootton, who helped put down the Taos Revolt, noted the primary reason:

The friendships of the mountain men were warm friendships. We had never seen the time when we were not ready to attempt the rescue of a friend whose life was in danger, and it was seldom indeed that the killing or wounding of one of our number had gone unavenged.

Among those who had been so brutally murdered at Taos and Arroyo Hondo were men who had been my warmest and best friends ever since I came to the country, and I felt that I should, if possible, do something toward securing punishment of their murderers and protecting the property which they had left for use of those who were entitled to it.

St. Vrain, who had led trapping expeditions and was an erstwhile mountain man himself, was almost certainly motivated by a similar fierce concern for family, friends and property, not to mention horror at the excesses of the insurrection. But there was probably a pragmatic reason as well. The Mexican government had been chronically unstable, largely ineffective in protecting and governing its northern territories, and stifling with regard to economic activity. American sovereignty promised better protection from hostile Indian tribes, a stronger political and legal structure, and far greater economic freedom. Such considerations were likely not lost on a shrewd and far-sighted entrepreneur. He went all in with the Americans.

St. Vrains military service did not end with the Mexican War. In 1855 he again assumed command of a volunteer company in cooperation with regular troops and Indian scoutsno longer enemiesfrom Taos Pueblo in a largely successful punitive operation against raiding Jicarilla Apaches and Muache Utes. He served as lieutenant colonel under Colonel Thomas Fauntleroy, with Kit Carson as chief of scouts.

During the Civil War years St. Vrain remained a staunch Unionist. At the outbreak of the war Colonel Edward R.S. Canby, newly appointed commander of the military Department of New Mexico, placed him at the head of the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry, with Carson as his lieutenant colonel. Citing declining health, however, St. Vrain soon surrendered his command and focused instead on supplying the Union Army. With Carson at the fore, the 1st New Mexico Volunteers saw action at the Battle of Valverde in February 1862.

St. Vrains support for the war effort is not surprising. With exceptions, New Mexicans tended to favor the Union

St. Vrains support for the war effort is not surprising. With exceptions, New Mexicans tended to favor the Union. Northern residents had especially strong ties via trade with Missouri. They were accustomed to exchanging Yankee dollars in commercial transactions and distrusted the newly minted Confederate currency. Texas bore blame for some of the ill will farther south. During its years as an independent republic, it had laid claim to New Mexican territory, which it sought to annex with ill-fated military expeditions. Residual resentment over those incursions extended to the Confederacy, of which Texas was a part. Having lived in New Mexico for nearly four decades, St. Vrain likely shared such sentiments. Moreover the savvy businessman probably anticipated lucrative Civil War contracts from the well-equipped Union Army.

But as the Taos Plaza flag incident attests, more than self-interest motivated St. Vrain. The United States was in the throes of a major revolution in outlook that paralleled the turmoil on the Civil War battlefields. From a federation of quarreling states, it was becoming a nation in thought and deed as well as name. It would be strange indeed if a man with the soul and vision of St. Vrain were unaffected by this transformation. He lived long enough to witness its rebirth.

Ceran St. Vrain died at age 68 on Oct. 28, 1870, and was buried in a small family cemetery near his home in Mora, New Mexico Territory. Some 2,000 mourners attended his funeral. Even today the Stars and Strips flies round the clock in Taos Plaza in commemoration of the flag-raising at the outbreak of the Civil War.

The economic, political and military upheavals in North America in the first half of the 19th century imposed complex and often contradictory pressure to personal notions of country, citizenship and loyalty. In the life of Ceran St. Vrain we see how a capable and respected individual navigated these waters from expatriate Frenchman and de facto American through Mexican citizen, American sympathizer and, finally, Union partisan and American patriot. WW

Daniel R. Seligman, who writes from Needham, Mass. is a retired engineer with a lifelong interest in the American West. Recommended for further reading: Bents Fort, by David Lavender; The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 15401846, by David J. Weber; Ceran St. Vrain: American Frontier Entrepreneur, by Ronald K. Wetherington; and Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, by Hampton Sides.
Volker intends to talk with Russia's reps in Minsk process in next few weeks

Special Representative of the U.S. Department of State for Ukraine Kurt Volker has said about his intention to communicate with representatives of Russia in the Minsk process, noting that this is a strategically important conversation.

I have to talk with the representatives of Russia in the next few weeks. We have not yet agreed on the day and place, but we will do it, and in my opinion, this is a strategically important conversation, Volker said in an interview with the BBC.

In his opinion, the issue of security on the uncontrolled part of Donbas is more important to discuss with Moscow.
The officials and authorities of the state of Hawaii just released important guidelines on ways to survive a possible nuclear detonation of North Korea. Some of these guidelines included seeking shelter in a blast-resistant building and doing this in minutes.

Previous reports were claiming that Hawaii was preparing for a possible nuclear attack from North Korea since the recent testing of the latter's ballistic missile can reach the said state. With that, Hawaii does not want to take any chances and informed its residents on what they can do if this will happen.

According to New York Times, the escalating tensions with North Korea have put the possibility of a complete wipe-out on the radar of Hawaii's population of more than 1.4 million. It can be recalled that the United States just imposed military pressure against North Korea after its successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It was claimed that this has the capacity to hit two of America's states: Hawaii and Alaska.

The government of the United States just said that the series of North Korea's missile tests is a dangerous escalation. This was also regarded as a current crisis in the administration of President Donald Trump.

Just last Friday, Hawaii released its first set of guidelines which involve the steps that can help their residents in surviving a nuclear blast. These guidelines include listening to the radio and picking shelter preferably one which is made of concrete. They also asked their people to stay there for 14 days or until the area has been cleared.

However, Governor Ige of Hawaii just claimed that the possibility of missile or bomb from North Korea is very low. This is a very unlikely event while he added that their main focus and concentration is to make sure that they are prepared enough.

Also, the governor of Hawaii shared that a missile threat from North Korea does not rank high for them compared to earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, and hurricane. But despite this belief, they still need to prepare for all the hazards and risks.

Since late last year, it was confirmed too that the officials of Hawaii have been working on new guidelines and ideas after several missile tests in North Korea. But with the recent success of the Communists country's firing, new measures were released.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A new riverside town centre at Thamesmead in south-east London could be a game changer for the area.

Thamesmead rose out of the Erith and Plumstead Marshes in the Sixties, the modernist vision of the Greater London Council.

Fifty years on it is infamous as one of Britains great post-war planning disasters and as the backdrop for Stanley Kubricks adaptation of A Clockwork Orange.

Decades of indifferent housebuilding have produced a sprawl of low-rise homes in a mishmash of styles, plonked in culs-de-sac, sprouting from an ugly car-dominated public realm.

AMBITION ON A GRAND SCALE

This is a regeneration ambition on a grand scale  but it has been seized by Peabody, one of Londons most influential housing associations. Thamesmead, named as one of Londons 38 Opportunity Areas, is also among the largest of these sites, covering an area the size of central London.

Peabodys 30-year plan is to increase the existing 46,000 population to 100,000, build up to 20,000 new homes and create 20,000 jobs.

Abbey Wood: the new Crossrail station due to open in 2019

The opening of Abbey Wood Elizabeth line station in 2019 will put Bond Street within 25 minutes and Canary Wharf within 11 minutes.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has committed to extending the Docklands Light Railway to one, and possibly two, stations in Thamesmead, with one of those serving a new town centre alongside the Thames.

We have five kilometres of river frontage and an enormous amount of water and green space over 750 hectares. It is a massive opportunity to exploit a green and blue landscape. And the air really is fresher, says John Lewis, Peabodys executive director Thamesmead.

LONDON'S NEW TOWN

Peabody acquired Thamesmead in 2014. A 1 billion regeneration programme was announced last year and planning permission in principle has since been won for 3,000 new homes on several major sites.

The vision is simple, says Lewis. It is realising Thamesmeads potential as Londons new town. We will improve what is here. We will grow the place. And we will look after it long term.

Central square: homes shops and amenities in Southmere Village are all part of the 1billion Thamesmead regeneration

We are also running a Royal Institute of British Architects-led competition for a new library and community building as part of the scheme.

Peabody has completed a 6 billion merger with housing provider Family Mosaic, and signed off on a partnership deal with the Greater London Authority, which has pledged 80 million funding.

The result is The Reach, the first development in one of Londons Housing Zones, which are designated for accelerated delivery of homes.

About to start in west Thamesmead, The Reach will provide 66 social rent and shared-ownership homes.

West Thamesmead Gateway is a much larger proposal, for 1,300 homes immediately east of Plumstead Overground station. Four private developers are competing for the deal.

Thamesmead Waterfront is the big prize, however. This 197-acre undeveloped site west of Thamesmead town centre has 1.2 miles of Thames frontage. Kings Cross is about 80 acres by comparison. There is enough space for 11,000 homes and perhaps a million square feet of commercial development.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

The DLR will emerge from a tunnel into the town centre. So how do we make that sense of arrival? Its very exciting, says Peabodys John Lewis.

And what is it that people will want from a town centre in 10 years time? This will be the real game changer for the area and make people interested in Thamesmead. But will the likely high values of riverside development be beneficial?

We are aware this will generate an extreme range in home values in the area, based on Berkeley Groups experience with its development at Woolwich Arsenal, and weve got to be conscious that a huge uplift wont benefit everyone. We need a mixed community.

West Thamesmead Gateway: a new neighbourhood of 1,300 homes

We have to think of Thamesmead as a town, not as a set of development opportunities. We can look at costs and values across the whole town so we can address these issues.

Peabody will begin to look for project partners this autumn. We hope to attract significant interest from people with major experience of place development, says Lewis.

Its an opportunity to create the town centre Thamesmead never had. A centre that will be sustained by Thamesmead people, but which will also capture a huge number from a wider area  a water city centre.
Were officially one month out from the August 26th showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, which probably wont live up to the hype but the pre-fight build up promises to be legendary.

That includes the very moments right before the fight when both fighters make their entrance and walk out to the ring with their respective entourages.

According to Love & Hip Hop star, Jason Lee, who is a member of TMT, Floyds camp will be reaching out to Conor McGregors bitter UFC rival, Nate Diaz, to be by his side when he walks to the ring.

Lee told TMZ,

Listen, I dont know, but Im from Stockton, California and I was just in London with Floyd when the whole shit went down with Conor, Lee said. And Im gonna make a call to Nate Diaz. I would love to see him walk out with Floyd.

Mayweather called out McGregor multiple times during their four-stop international press tour for being a quitter and tapping out to Nate Diaz, so it would be fitting if he actually had Diaz walk him out to the ring on August 26th.

Check out Jason Lees comments below.

Floyd
There is an episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza attempts to convince a street gang called The Van Buren Boys that hes a member. George desperately tries to prove that hes a vicious thief, but we know hes not. Nav, for a little over a year, has moreso been a caricature of what people think a rapper should be: with forced braggadocio, a drug reference under almost every breath, and an eye for luxury. Its something which he himself has admitted, though, in his first proper interview: A lot of the things I might have been rapping about, I didnt have at the time.

Nav, similar to George Costanza, has been for the most part unsuccessful in convincing us of his delinquent rap-star status, and this has been one of his biggest detractors. With fame now firmly within reach, and all the related accoutrement as well, Perfect Timing could be the linchpin to an otherwise hollow-sounding artist.

One of the most interesting aspects of Nav also happens to be one that he largely ignores, outside of a few ad-libs and one-off bars its his South Asian lineage (Nav is of Indian descent). At most, he claims to be the first brown boy to get it popping (as well as the first brown boy with a bag). Heems, of Das Racist fame, and to a lesser extent, Big Baby Gandhi, both simultaneously embrace their culture while maintaining elements of a modern rapper. Nav is the first to have this opportunity on a large scale, a mainstream stage to be exact, but on Perfect Timing he basically opts out. Instead, he chooses to follow the path of his admittedly entertaining rapper-personality, giving us rather ubiquitous rapper experiences. This is by no means a plea for Nav to all of a sudden become a socially conscious figurehead of his generation, but at 15 tracks, and bordering on a hour in run time, he would have created a more distinct listening experience if he had broached his background and upbringing a bit more.

Perfect Timing is at its strongest when Nav is fully engulfed in his rapper-persona, and when Metro Boomin leans more to the uptempo spectrum of his production. Immediately, with Perfect Timing, Metro demonstrates why rappers come to him for these one-producer collaborative projects, as he is able to set artists up with production specifically suited for them. While this may hinder the artists opportunity to branch out into a new sound, its perfect for somebody like Nav who is trying to get that first solid project under him after an underwhelming eponymous debut in February.

Nav has a way of sounding disengaged and monotone in flow, typically using the same rhyming pattern no matter what the beat, which tends to work well enough with simple rhyming couplets. On the introductory title track, Perfect Timing, he seems to be at his most-engaged, even bringing some urgency and excitement to his voice, however the lyrics tend to fall flat when their flexes are examined closely: Choppa turn your body into dust is the type of intimidating rhyme that Nav simply cannot pull off. In contrast, he pulls off the flex quite well on the shoulder shimmy-worthy record that follows suit, Hit. Here, hes emblazoned by a catchy beat, creating a simple but effective hook.

The standout track on the album, Minute, which is also almost the albums centerpiece, is produced by both Metro Boomin and Pierre Bourne (in the midst of their competition for the signature producer rap tag). The duo provide one of the bounciest beats on the album, with a backwards string-arrangement. Nav doesnt waste it, with his most radio-ready hook to date. The clever Punch you in your mouth leave diamonds on your lip is a contender for least menacing rap threat, though.

Another key track on the album is the surprisingly self-aware Did You See Nav, which immediately follows Hit. On Metros see-saw production, Nav addresses many of the criticisms hes faced, revealing hes not as ignorant as one might think. Saw Nav in the club and a booth, sleeping off the xans / Just heard his new mixtape, thought the shit was wack / But every time I go out, the DJ keep bringing it back / I tried to DM him and he aint ever hit me back / So I left a comment say youre ugly and your music trash, he raps, undoubtedly connecting with his listeners  including the haters. This song concept proved to be among the most interesting on the album, and it would have been dope if he explored it even further. Still, it shows that there is a sense of self-awareness there, and Nav would do well to explore it more as he matures. The Canadian gives us another glimpse of this on Call Me, as he openly wonders who is latching on to him for fame and who truly likes him for him even delivering a single bar about his relationship with mom.

As enjoyable as Nav can be at the peaks of this album, its dragged down by his constant need to ensure that the listener knows hes a drug user. We never really learn much about Nav on Perfect Timing aside from his unrelenting drug use, and it makes it difficult to form any human connection with him on a personal level, as this shallowness makes him feel more like a one-dimensional character than an actual person. Nav is a 27-year old man whose obsession with fitting in through drug usage is rivaled only by 17-year old Lil Pump. Navs distinct nasal voice is one of his strong suits though, which can alleviate some of the content mishaps, simply because one might overlook lyrics, or rather, let them slide, while enjoying his cadence.

Perfect Timing suffers from its length, as well. Considering Metros previous collaboration albums, Savage Mode and Droptopwop, were both 10 tracks, 15 seems overly ambitious. Nav, as an artist, is not at the point where he can carry a lengthy project, his lack of flows and consistent monotone makes the album a tough start-to-finish listen. There is plenty of fat that could be cut off of Perfect Timing, including some of the featured tracks. The 21 Savage-featuring Both Sides is disappointingly underwhelming considering the menacing beat Metro provides, while A$AP Ferg with Lil Uzi Vert is possibly the weakest song on the album NAVUZIMETROPT2 would have sufficed, the stronger of the two.

Nav isnt talentless. He can hold a melody, create catchy hooks and has an ear for great beats. As true as it that Nav is the first Brown boy to get it popping, there may be there is a certain amount of responsibility that comes with it whether he wants it or not. There is plenty of opportunity for him to grow as an artist and as long as he has credible peers, such as Metro Boomin and The Weeknd in his corner, listeners will continue to give him a chance. The day Nav embraces what makes him different and realizes that maybe being an outsider in rap isnt so bad, is the day when the Brown boy really will be popping.
VIDEO Ucraina a recunoscut pentru prima oara ca a atacat cu drone maritime flota Rusiei din Crimeea. Primul USV achizitionat prin United24 se va numi Herson
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

DENVER - Chipotle says it believes an employee was working while sick at a Virginia location where dozens of customers reported becoming ill earlier this month with what health officials think was norovirus.

After the company reported improved sales for the second quarter Tuesday, CEO Steve Ells said that a company investigation into the illnesses found that its leadership at the store didn't adhere to its protocols.

"We believe someone was working while sick," Ells said, without giving specifics. Health officials had said Monday the specific cause of norovirus hasn't been identified.

A Chipotle representative noted that employees are not supposed to work when ill, and the company offers paid sick days for hourly employees. Ells said the company is adding training to what he called "excellent" protocols to prevent further norovirus cases.

Chipotle's image has been vulnerable as it tries to reassure customers its food is safe since an E. coli outbreak in fall 2015, which was followed by a norovirus outbreak at a single restaurant that same year. Norovirus is a leading cause of illnesses from contaminated food, and infected employees are a frequent source of outbreaks.

The Denver-based chain has been making progress in winning back customers, and said sales rose 8 percent during the second quarter, following a 24 percent decline in the year-ago period. But the most recent figure doesn't reflect any potential fallout from the reported illnesses in Sterling, Va.

At another location in Dallas, the company blamed a structural gap for mice falling from the ceiling.

Chipotle said those events have dampened its recovery efforts in recent days, but that it did not know what the long term impact might be. It stood by its guidance for sales at established location to rise in the "high single digit" percentages for the year. For all of last year, the sales figure declined 20 percent.

For the quarter, the company said it earned $66.7 million, or $2.32 per share. That was more than the $2.16 per share analysts expected, according to Zacks Investment Research. Chipotle noted that its restaurant level operating margin during the period improved, driven by more efficient scheduling of employees.

Total revenue was $1.17 billion. Analysts expected $1.18 billion.
The enemy have carried out 22 attacks on Ukrainian positions, most of which were brief, in the past 24 hours, the press center for the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist operation (ATO) in Donbas said on Facebook on Wednesday.

"At the end of the past day, the situation in the ATO zone remained stably controlled, without the tendency to exacerbate. The Russian occupation forces continued to violate peace agreements, firing on ATO forces mainly from small arms and grenade launchers. In total illegal armed formations violated the cease fire regime 22 times in past 24 hours. In turn, the Ukrainian military fired back, promptly assessing the degree of threat," the ATO headquarters wrote on Facebook.

From 18:00 to midnight, the largest number of attacks was recorded in the Luhansk sector. The enemy used small arms and grenade launchers against the Ukrainian fortified positions near the villages of Stanytsia Luhanska, Troyitske and Krymske. The village of Novozvanivka came under fire from infantry fighting vehicles and 82mm mortars twice, and an enemy 120mm mortar started working near the village of Novotoshkivske.

In the Donetsk sector, the militants carried out two attacks from small arms on Butovka coal mine at the end of the day. The villages of Luhanske and Kamyanka were attacked with grenade launchers, the village of Pisky was attacked from 82mm mortars.

In the Mariupol sector, the invaders used tank shells against the Ukrainian fortified positions near the town of Krasnohorivka.
Texas electricity retailers offer consumers more than 2,000 plans, creating a dizzying array of prices and options that are often difficult to comprehend.

Prices are at the top of every offer, ranging from 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour to 12 cents. Terms range from one to three years, with special introductory offers, clean energy options, free nights and weekends, and even home security bundles.

But how much electricity do you really need, and when do you need it? What is a kilowatt-hour, anyway?

Readers frequently complain about the process of choosing a retailer and then feeling disappointed when the plan wasn't what they expected. Some even miss the old days when Houston Lighting & Power Co. hooked up every house and the Public Utilities Commission set the rates.

Some electric companies have heard your complaints and recognize the need for new business models. The industry is buzzing about offering "energy as a service," where instead of paying for a kilowatt-hour, you tell retailers what you want from your appliances, and they give you a set monthly price for providing that service.

RELATED: Good news, bad news for electricity deregulation

For example, if you want your house kept at 76 degrees when you're home and 84 degrees when you're not, and you want your freezer at 28 degrees and the refrigerator at 36, then the retailer quotes you one price. Lower those numbers, or work from home on a desktop computer, and the price goes up. Either way, the electric company makes sure you get the service you want, and it manages how many kilowatt-hours you use.

Engie Resources, the Houston-based subsidiary of French utility giant Engie, has devoted itself to making this concept work. Engie sold its old-school power plants and is focused entirely on building a retail electricity business, which it anticipates in five years will generate as much revenue as its electric generation business.

Engie Resources President and CEO Sayun Sukduang explained to me why his team is all in on energy as a service.

"You have never woken up in the morning and said, 'I'd love to get my hands on some kilowatt-hours.' But you do wake up in the morning and say it's too hot or too cold. You do wake up expecting your milk to be the right temperature for your cereal," he said. "You don't want to buy kilowatt-hours, so why can't I sell you the temperature you want and optimize the way you live with society's needs while making sure you get that outcome?"

Making this possible are the smart meters that transmission companies have installed at almost every Texas home. They record electricity usage and can report which appliances operate when and how much they consume. Smart home technology, and internet-connected appliances, make it possible to monitor and control a home's consumption from anywhere in the world and make it more efficient.

RELATED: Texas needs to do better at looking ahead on electricity

Retailers make their money managing consumption and trading contracts on the Texas wholesale electricity market, where the price changes every 15 minutes. A retailer can save money by carefully managing what turns on when and for how long.

"My job is to deliver them climate control, light and device functionality at the right environmental impact, in a secure way and at the lowest cost," Sukduang said. "And if they can give me flexibility because their home is now smarter than it was before, that allows me to do it in a much better way than I do it today."

Many customers will feel uncomfortable with an electric company having that kind of control. Even more have lost faith in retailers because of questionable sales tactics. Sukduang said overcoming customer reluctance is one of the biggest barriers to energy as a service.

"We, as an industry, don't know how to talk to customers," he said.

Tens of thousands of Texans, though, do allow their electricity providers to turn up their thermostats on hot days so we all avoid blackouts. And people are buying smart home technology to control thermostats and lighting to save money.

The next obstacle for energy as a service is the Texas retail market, which was designed long before anyone dreamed of controlling thermostats with mobile phones or using an electric car's battery to balance the grid. Under the current system, Texas retailers compete only on the cost to acquire customers, the cost of electricity and retaining customers.

RELATED: Gulf Coast wind farms become vital to Texas energy mix

Usage data is critical to energy as a service, and today's retailers can only see the records of existing customers. To see a potential customer's history to put together an energy-as-a-service bid, they must get a waiver and wait 24 hours.

New York, California and Ohio, meanwhile, are overhauling their electricity markets to allow energy-as-a-service companies to compete.

Texas lawmakers need to update our electricity market rules, because allowing energy as a service will lower costs, boost efficiency and reduce the need for new power plants and expensive transmission lines.

When Texas liberalized the energy markets in 1999, it was at the cutting edge. But almost 20 years later, the time has come to update the rules and give customers even smarter choices when it comes to electricity.
HOGP

DETROIT - A Volks-wagen executive who has been in a Michigan jail for months plans to plead guilty in a U.S. emissions scandal, a court spokesman said Tuesday.

Oliver Schmidt, former manager of a VW engineering office in suburban Detroit, will appear in federal court on Aug. 4. His lawyers disclosed the plan during a brief conference with a judge, spokesman David Ashenfelter said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

In Glenbrook Valley, a 1950s neighborhood near Hobby Airport where the homeowners cherish their original pink bathroom tile and wood-paneled walls, the holy grail of midcentury architecture just hit the market.

The owner of the three-bedroom house on Santa Elena Drive is moving to Florida and listing the home for $425,000.

"Selling it is not going to be a problem," said real estate agent Robert Searcy, who started getting calls on it after posting it on Facebook late Monday.

The 3,419-square-foot home is the kind of place people refer to as a "time capsule" house because little has changed since it was built in 1957.

Perhaps its most notable feature is a party room known as the "Kit Kat lounge" that was furnished in 1960 by Finger Furniture. The receipts are still there to prove it, Searcy said.

The furniture, including a boomerang-shaped martini bar, stage and built-in movie screen, has been passed down from the original owners and will remain when the house sells again.

The home was designed by Doughtie and Porterfield. It has been on architecture tours and featured in magazines. In April, the Heritage Society hosted one of its "SIP" (See Interesting Places) receptions at the home.

"It's fabulous," said Anna Mod, a historic preservation specialist and one of the founders of Houston Mod, a nonprofit group advocating for modern architecture and design in Houston.

There have been some upgrades, but the house cosmetically is much like it was when it was built in the 1950s.

The property was built for Elmer and Myrtle Richardson, who were considered "the top socialites of Glenbrook Valley, hosting many parties in their upstairs lounge," according to a document filed in 2010 with the city's Archaeological & Historical Commission.

The current owner is its third. Jamie Oyler bought the Santa Elena mod a decade ago after living in "a normal house" in Oak Forest.

He liked midcentury modern architecture and became familiar with the neighborhood after driving past it on frequent trips to Hobby Airport.

"Every time I'd pick up friends from the airport, I'd always drive them by it, never thinking I'd live in it," Oyler said.

When it went up for sale, he made an offer immediately.

"I loved everything about the house," he said.

He hosted numerous parties in the Kit Kat lounge, named for a painting original to the room featuring cats and birds drinking champagne. A series of martini bubbles continues off the painting along the wall.

Mod said interest in mid-century modern architecture continues to grow in Houston and nationwide.

"We weren't that attuned to it, say, 15 years ago, but it is very hot now," Mod said, citing Palm Springs as "one of the meccas."

Houston, she said, has a large stock of midcentury housing because of the city's fast growth after World War II.

"NASA was here, and we were trying to compete nationwide as a progressive city, a modern city," she said. "That architectural style blended well for that vision."

Searcy lived in Glenbrook Valley for decades, sold many of the homes there and helped the effort to designate the neighborhood as a historic district, which has coincided with a boost in property values.

Prices per square foot in the neighborhood were in the $40s and stagnant for decades. In 2016, about five years after the city declared it historic, he said, the median price per square foot was $88.

"We're seeing houses reaching 130 bucks a foot on the high end of the market," Searcy said. "It's definitely continued to climb."

Another thing that's new for the area is the interest level.

"I'm seeing more agents from outside of the area coming in with buyers who are requesting Glenbrook," Searcy said. "I used to almost have to beg and cajole people to go in. Now I'm getting people requesting it."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Ana Medrado made an after-work Walmart run with her young son, a quick stop for the pens and pencils topping a lengthy school supplies list.

Her soon-to-be fourth-grader clung to the cart as she scanned the aisles at a Tomball store, memorizing prices. She calculated he'd also need new shoes and button-downs for his uniform and planned to save more expensive purchases for the statewide sales tax holiday next month.

"I'm just comparing prices now," she said. "I might check Target, too."

Medrado is among thousands of Texas shoppers who expect to take advantage of the three-day sales tax holiday, an annual reprieve from the extra charge levied on clothing items, shoes and school supplies purchased in stores and online Aug. 11-13.

The holiday is one of the most inclusive in the country, and lawmakers have bucked a nationwide trend by proposing to expand it further even as other states scale back or eliminate similar exemptions.

Sales tax holidays, long supported by shoppers and retailers, have become somewhat controversial in recent years as states debate whether their economic benefits justify substantial revenue losses.

A study released this week by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, an independent think tank, criticized them as "political gimmicks" that shift shopping patterns without generating economic growth or increasing consumer purchases.

The study noted that 16 states will offer sales tax holidays this year, down from 19 in 2010. Only six other states have holidays centered on school supplies.

Three holidays each year

More Information Back-to-school spending in Houston Average total: $623 Supplies: $93 Clothing: $241 Uniform: $157 Computers: $389 Next tax-free weekend: Aug. 11-13 Source: Deloitte 2017 back-to-school survey The numbers $87M Estimated amount the upcoming tax-free shopping weekend is expected to save Texans. $623 Average amount local shoppers will spend on classroom items, clothes, electronics and computers this season. See More Collapse

In Texas, the back-to-school break is the largest of three sales tax holidays offered each year. The state exempts hurricane supplies in mid-April and certain energy-efficient appliances in late May.

The upcoming holiday, expected to save shoppers $87 million in state and local taxes, generates the most excitement. In addition to school supplies, most clothing and footwear items cheaper than $100 are exempted, giving adults the chance to save a few dollars on purchases for themselves as well as for their kids.

Legislators have long pointed to the holiday as a boon for consumers. State Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, led a move to amend it in 2009 to include school supplies in addition to apparel, anticipating the additions would save shoppers $9.5 million that year.

He again sought to expand it last session with a bill that proposed raising the price limit to $200 per qualifying item and adding certain computers of any price to the list of exempted goods. The legislation stalled, but he plans to introduce a similar measure next session.

"Things that fill the backpack in the 21st century are things like a computer or a tablet or an iPad," he said.

In Houston, pricey additions to back-to-school lists have inflated the cost of supplies. A recent Deloitte survey estimated that local shoppers will spend an average of $623 on classroom items, clothes, electronics and computers this season. That is higher than the national average.

The same survey found that 47 of respondents would increase in-store spending during a sales tax holiday. Forty-two percent would do the same online.

"The timing of the shopping does seem to correspond with the tax-free weekend," said Jeff Buhr, retail partner in Deloitte's Houston office.

Retailers have long promoted sales tax holidays as shopping incentives that save consumers money and boost sales. The prospect for heavier foot traffic has become especially appealing to many stores as rising e-commerce sales squeeze profit margins.

Back-to-school mainstays have been particularly supportive of such tax reprieves. Troy Rice, president of retail for Office Depot and OfficeMax, said in-store sales and traffic increase during tax-free holidays in the states that offer them.

"I can tell you tax-free holidays are an integral component of our back-to-school season and something customers look forward to every year," he said.

The Texas Retailers Association has supported an expansion of the state's back-to-school holiday, arguing that consumers could stand to save even more as electronics and computers become classroom necessities.

Already, the holiday is one of the busiest shopping periods for retailers statewide, said George Kelemen, the association's president and CEO.

"It's going to be a peak three-day period," he said.

Comes with a cost

The Tax Foundation study, however, questioned the degree to which such periods benefit shoppers. It cited a 2001 study that showed some Florida apparel retailers raised prices during sales tax holidays, capturing as much as 20 percent of the benefit meant for consumers.

It also noted that with such holidays come steep costs to state coffers, prompting some lawmakers to eliminate them in recent years. North Carolina, for example, held its last one in 2013 after passing legislation arguing that such breaks cost the state more than $16 million a year. Massachusetts canceled a similar break last year.

Not all shoppers consider the potential savings worth the effort it takes to fight the crowds during the brief holiday.

Laura Solomon, who just started her school shopping for her three children, said she'd rather pay tax on everything than get stuck in long lines during the tax-free weekend.

"There are too many people," she said. "I can't do it."

Montceny Lamas stopped at the Tomball Walmart for school supplies this week, checking off lists for three girls in high school, middle school and elementary school. She bought their back-to-school clothes last year during the sales tax holiday and might do the same this year if she finds the time to shop that weekend.

"I don't know if it was that much savings," she said, "but it helped."
Eric Gay/STF

As the legislative session has worn on, Gov. Greg Abbott has picked fight after fight with Texas' cities, accusing them of trying to "California-ize" the Lone Star State with their protections for immigrants and local tree ordinances. Abbott and the Republican Senate are also working hard to constrain cities' and counties' power to raise property taxes and require voter approval for annexations.

Abbott seems to particularly dislike the state's largest urban outposts. In the latest slight, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio were left off an invitation to a meeting that 18 mayors requested last week to discuss the ways in which the state is attacking local control.
There's a time for dried pasta and there's a time for fresh. When do you use one or the other? It's a matter of preference of course, but if you want to employ a simple light gloss of a sauce (using cream, oil, butter or tomatoes) or when serving a stewed ragu or Bolognese, the choice is obvious: fresh egg pasta.

Not only does tender fresh pasta impart delicate textural notes, it cooks faster than the pantry staple dried variety made with semolina flour, water and salt. And, owing to the eggs, it is more flavorful, too.

Fresh pasta also can be cut into different noodle widths (fettuccine, tagliolini, pappardelle) or stuffed with meats and cheeses to create ravioli, tortellini or cannelloni. It's a versatile product that, once you learn how to make, can elevate your pasta night game.

So how do we get more comfortable with homemade pasta? First, understand that it's easy to make. Second, the more you work with fresh pasta, the more you'll understand - as Italians understand instinctively - what sauces marry well with the different noodle types you can churn out with your pasta machine. (The machine rolls dough into sheets and also cuts it at desired widths.)

For our pasta-making primer we turned to an expert, Fernando Rios, chef de cuisine at Weights & Measures, who has his own glass-walled dough room inside the Midtown restaurant where he makes pasta daily. Rios has been making pasta for 15 years. He worked as the executive pasta chef at Da Marco for a dozen years before assuming his current post.

More Information Fresh pasta dough 1 pound (about about 3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur)  teaspoon salt 12 large egg yolks Instructions: Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Slowly add egg yolks to form a ball. Replace paddle with dough hook and knead at low speed for 2-4 minutes. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour in order for gluten to relax. Pasta can be frozen for a week or two (defrost in the refrigerator). The yield is 1 pounds fresh pasta, which can easily feed four. At this point, you're ready to use dough. Cut ball into four pieces. On a floured work surface, pat out first piece of dough (keep other pieces under a moist towel) and pat or roll into a rectangle, dusting with more flour as needed. With your pasta machine set up on your counter, turn the dial to the widest setting and begin to feed it through the rollers. Begin to roll it thinner, turning the dial down progressively until you get longer sheets. End with the lowest (thinnest) setting then attach the noodle cutting attachment per your machine's instructions and feed the thin sheets through. Dust the ribbon nests with flour to prevent sticking and set aside until ready to use. Fettuccine Aglio Olio Makes 1 portion 6 ounces fresh pasta dough cut into fettuccine 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon butter Thinly sliced fresh garlic to taste 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Instructions: In a medium saute pan, saute garlic in butter and olive oil over medium heat. Drop fresh pasta in boiling salted water (it will cook in just over a minute). Add drained pasta to the saute pan and gently toss, letting the pasta absorb the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Plate and sprinkle with grated cheese. Serve immediately. Note: This recipe is for a simple pasta dish that shows off fresh pasta at its best. The dish can be expanded with the addition of grilled or braised meats and roasted vegetables. See More Collapse

Working with executive chef Richard Kaplan, Rios has perfected a somewhat atypical pasta dough recipe. Many fresh pasta recipes call for water and olive oil as ingredients in the dough mixture, which can be made by hand, with a food processor or a stand mixer until it comes to a ball. The dough is then rested and set through a pasta machine's rollers starting with the widest settings then cranking it slowly through the narrower settings.

At Weights & Measures, the dough is made only with flour, eggs and a pinch of salt. It requires no kneading. After resting an hour, it's ready to roll. Rios stresses that the best eggs should be used, and only AA large size. The restaurant works with a local farm to get choice, fresh eggs whose yolks are bright orange.

"These chickens eat well," Kaplan said.

Kaplan added that home cooks need not fear making and working with fresh pasta dough. "People have a fear of the unknown. They're afraid they're not going to make a mistake because cooking is an exact science. It's not," he said. "Trust the look and feel of the dough. So what if the first time is not perfect? Do it again. Then do it again. And get the feel of it."

Rios said to keep extra flour at hand when working with the dough. As you begin thinning the dough, it should feel supple, yet sturdy enough to continue feeding through the machine until it has come to a desired thickness. Like Kaplan, Rios said fresh pasta first-timers need to keep working with the dough and trust their kitchen instincts. Once they're comfortable with the dough, a whole new world of pasta possibilities is open.

"It's endless with fresh pasta," he said.
Southwest Florida is in deep mourning after losing a legend.

Seventy-year-old men sob speaking about his death during TV interviews. A petition now calls for replacing a Confederate monument with one immortalizing the lovable hero. Protesters have taken to the streets, calling his death suspicious.

I'm talking, of course, about the sudden death of 69-year-old Snooty the manatee.

Snooty, the world's oldest known manatee, died Sunday, less than 24 hours after his 69th birthday celebration.

South Florida Museum caretakers said the 1,300-pound sea mammal somehow made his way into an area of his habitat that's usually blocked off. He couldn't get out and drowned overnight. Distraught employees found him Sunday morning.

To break the news, local TV stations interrupted regularly scheduled broadcasts. Mourners left flowers and heads of Romaine lettuce (Snooty's favorite snack) on the museum steps. Family members called one another to see how they were holding up in a Snooty-less world.

To those of us who loved the whiskered lug, that response seems completely rational.

Snooty was born at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company in 1948, around the same time that Manatee County, Florida, sought a manatee to celebrate the annual Hernandez DeSoto Festival.

He soon became an aquatic rock star. Over his nearly seven decades, he charmed thousands of children and their parents. And by "charmed," I mean he practically converted them to manatee worship. In 1979, he was named the county's official mascot.

When I covered one of Snooty's birthdays for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, fans gushed about how hospitable and welcoming the sea cow was. "It's his personality," they'd say, practically swooning. "He's just so charismatic."

I already know what you're thinking: There's no way a thousand-pound marine mammal can be that captivating.

You're right, to an extent.

Although he showed scientists that manatees have nearly the same brain power as dolphins and can live well past the 10 years they usually survive in the wild, Snooty wasn't much to watch.

Generally, he did little more than swim and munch on Romaine. Once in a while he'd do a barrel roll mid-swim, a feat that always inspired visitors to cheer.

Last year, I had the privilege of meeting and feeding Snooty. I would like to tell you it was a professional encounter during which I interviewed aquarium staff and live-streamed footage of Snooty nibbling on cabbage. In reality, my 15-minute visit consisted of about seven minutes of uninterrupted squealing. When Snooty plopped his flippers along the ledge of the tank and hoisted half his body out of the water, meeting my gaze, I spent another two minutes laugh-crying tears of joy.

I loved him.

My love and Southwest Florida's love of Snooty wasn't born from his ability or inability to do tricks. It was inspired by generations of school kids giggling as they watched the mammoth mascot eat a carrot. It developed after grandparents held their kids up closer to the aquarium's edge, angling for a better view. The love spread from family member to family member, from local resident to tourist.

That's what I'll miss most about Snooty: his ability to bring people together.

Not that Snooty would realize the impact he had on us all. He was just a manatee, after all.

Shelby Webb writes about K-12 education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and send her tips at shelby.webb@chron.com.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It does little more than swim and munch on Romaine.


This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SAN ANTONIO - As authorities tried to determine how a tractor-trailer carrying at least 100 immigrants - 10 of whom died - avoided detection at a checkpoint, Florida officials said Tuesday the truck driver accused of human trafficking lost his commercial vehicle license three months ago.

James Bradley was disqualified from driving commercial after he did not provide a medical card, as required by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, according to Alexis Bakofsky, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

That would prohibit him from driving commercial vehicles in other states, as well.

Bradley was diabetic and had to have a series of amputations, most recently the removal of his leg this spring, according to the Associated Press. He lost his license in April.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations allow commercial drivers with amputations to drive, if they get a special certification. However, a person who uses insulin to control their diabetes, especially to prevent loss of consciousness or disorientation, typically is denied a license.

Also on Tuesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told the Associated Press that the agency is investigating the company Bradley was working for, Pyle Transportation of Iowa.

The agency said its findings will be shared with Department of Homeland Security investigators, who are conducting a criminal investigation into the immigrants' deaths, according to the Associated Press.

When contacted by the San Antonio Express-News, an employee at Pyle Transportation declined to comment.

Bradley, of Kentucky and Florida, was charged Monday with human trafficking after authorities found eight immigrants dead and 30 others suffering from heat-related illnesses in a tractor-trailer at a Walmart parking lot at 8538 S. Interstate 35 on the South Side. Since then, two more people who had been in the trailer died.

Checkpoint review

Bradley told authorities he was hauling the trailer for Pyle Transportation from Iowa to Brownsville and made some stops along the way, including Laredo. He said he was unaware anyone was in the trailer until he parked it in San Antonio and heard people inside.

Pyle Transportation has a history of safety violations, records show. Its license was downgraded to conditional, which means the company does not have adequate controls to ensure compliance with safety standards, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Administration.

If left unaddressed, this noncompliance could lead to a motor carrier losing the ability to operate, according to National Transportation Consultants, an agency that designs and manages safety and compliance programs.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, meanwhile, are looking into how Bradley was able to bring the trailer full of immigrants through a Border Patrol-run traffic checkpoint on Interstate 35, about 29 miles from the Mexican border.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo said he was told the trailer passed through the checkpoint around 10 p.m. Saturday. Police arrived at the San Antonio Walmart parking lot at 12:23 a.m. Sunday.

Seconds to decide

While the Border Patrol will not speak specifically about the Bradley case, it concedes human cargo can slip through in commercial trucks - without a full inspection - because of the massive traffic that passes through there every day, even at night. In fiscal year 2016, 1.2 million commercial vehicles passed through the checkpoint, along with 1.9 million passenger vehicles, according to the Border Patrol.

Joel Martinez, acting deputy chief of the Border Patrol's Laredo sector, said in an interview that it is impossible to fully check every commercial truck that comes through - especially opening up trailer doors to see what is inside.

"While we do do our due diligence, and try to talk to as many as possible, just the sheer numbers we're dealing with, the odds are stacked against us from the beginning," Martinez said.

He said agents check every truck by talking to the driver and examining the paperwork. If the driver or occupants of the rig are not U.S. citizens, permit paperwork is scrutinized. Border Patrol agents also look at paperwork stating what is in the trailer.

The trucks are not weighed, and the vehicles only will be X-rayed on secondary inspection, he said. But the Border Patrol agents will look for signs that raise suspicions and require that fuller, secondary inspection.

"Because of the volume of traffic, they have seconds to determine whether they want to investigate the truck further or not," Martinez said. "In this case, if the guy didn't show signs of nervousness, there was no need to hold him up."

According to court documents, some of the smuggling victims told investigators they were pounding on the interior walls, although it is not known when they were trying to make themselves heard.

Martinez said "it stands to reason that if our agents would have heard something like that, they would have stopped it."

Trucker Jim Cullison, who has hauled refrigerated trailers for 25 years, said the walls are thick and insulated with at least 3 inches of hard foam because of the necessity of keeping products preserved.

"It's next to impossible to hear anybody beating on the walls and or floor or doors," Cullison said in an email to the Express-News.

Jerry Robinette, who was special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio for several years, seconded Cullison's observation, though he said it is unclear if the entire load was picked up in Laredo or if some of the immigrants were loaded after passing through the checkpoint.

"They may have been told, 'Be quiet, you're going through a checkpoint,' and, coupled with that, it's an insulated refrigerated trailer, that would have made it hard to detect," Robinette said.

Shane Folden, the special agent in charge of ICE and HSI, said his agency is investigating the trailer case and its possible link to a larger smuggling chain.

"The goal is to put together the network and dismantle the organization, and a lot of the time, one of the key pieces to that is the money," Folden said. "It's usually a primary motivator for the criminals, and it's a means to remove what's facilitating the crime as well. Usually the money is a key component and it really depends on where the information takes us.

Back at courthouse

Bradley made a surprise appearance at San Antonio's federal courthouse Tuesday and may have spoken further to federal agents, a day after his initial hearing.

Bradley was shuttled from a federal jail to the courthouse in the afternoon, and spent about two hours in a secure area where inmates await court hearings before he was taken back to jail.

He was not scheduled for another court hearing until Thursday. Defendants often are delivered to the marshal cells for "debriefings" in which defendants or witnesses tell their stories to law enforcement or prosecutors.

While Bradley spent time in the holding cells, alleged victims of human trafficking - including two men who had been in the trailer Bradley was hauling - appeared for hearings Tuesday.

The pair that had been in the trailer, like two others who appeared Monday, were ordered held as material witnesses and will provide videotaped depositions next month about their ordeal.

San Antonio Express-News' Jason Buch contributed to this story
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Officials at the Mexican Consulate General in Houston are named as defendants in a lawsuit where one of them is accused of offering U.S. work permits for $5,000.

The lawsuit, filed in a Harris County court on July 17, alleges that consulate employee Fidencio Navarrete Peralta received $10,000 to provide two U.S. work permits but that the plaintiff and her family never received the promised service nor got their money back.

The plaintiff, Xochitl Leticia Aguilar, includes Consul General Oscar Rodriguez Cabrera as a defendant. He is mentioned because he was Navarrete's boss and "knew about the corruption of the personnel under his charge and ignored the alarms," according to the suit.

Sebastian Saucedo, a spokesperson of the Mexican Consulate in Houston, had no comment about the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Navarrete initially said that the work permits were being handled by the consulate.

As evidence in the case, Aguilar submitted copies of text messages allegedly communicating with Navarrete and other current and former staff members of the consulate, though not Rodriguez.

Aguilar is requesting that Rodriguez repay the $10,000, as well as legal, health and compensation costs in the amount of $200,000.

Leslie Robles, Aguilar's daughter, is an American citizen who was hoping to obtain a work permit for her husband, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

Robles, in an interview at the family's house north of Houston, said her husband was in the process of winning legal status through his marriage, but then that stalled. So they agreed to the service offered by Navarrete, she said.

"He made it look like it was all legal," Robles said. She explained that he said it was "part of a program made available to the consulate to legalize really good working people."

According to Aguilar, Navarrete offered "the program" to at least four people in a meeting at her house on Dec. 17, 2016.

Aguilar and Robles say they paid for a work permit for Robles' husband and a plumber friend also paid Navarrete, both in February 2017 at Aguilar's residence in Houston.

Aguilar and Robles said they never received the promised work permits nor social security numbers, but Navarrete delivered one consular identification card, known as "Matricula Consular." They said they paid him $100, instead of the official $27 fee, to get the document without having to wait in line at the consulate.
You should read this column because I am an excellent writer whose skills have been honed by more than a decade of hard work and perseverance. My success is punctuated by numerous awards. I have overcome obstacles that revealed my true character. That is why you should read this column.

No, it is why you should toss it into the nearest bird cage.

Bad essays are like that first paragraph, all hat and no cattle. Hollow, multi-syllabled promises of a point with no actual deliverable. And they'll kill an otherwise strong college application. What can save it? A good yarn.

Take this one: I walked into my counselor's office as a junior at Seguin High School and told her my dream was to study journalism at one of the nation's best schools, Syracuse, in upstate New York. She told me it was too cold up there for a kid raised in Texas. And they probably wouldn't let me in anyway. I was crushed. But look at you. You're mildly interested.

Now, maybe you're 62 and you don't plan on applying to college anytime soon. Fine. But you probably know someone - a neighbor, a grandchild, the kid handing you your hamburger in the drive-thru. They may be headed to college someday, and they'll need this information. Save it. Share it.

I recently wrote about my trip to highly selective New England colleges with a program called EMERGE, which helps low-income and first-generation students through the application process. Not everybody has that opportunity. And considering the dismal ratio of college counselors to high school students these days - in Houston ISD, it's 400:1, I'll offer up the Cliffs Notes. The best tips for getting into an Ivy League School. Or any school.

1. Options. Get some. While many kids dream of Ivies, and there are tangible benefits - generous financial aid, study abroad perks, insider tracks to high-paying jobs - acceptance rates hover in the single digits.

EMERGE fellows are encouraged to apply to about 10 schools, including an elite school that would be a "reach" to get into, an elite school that's more of a match, two top-tier "safety" schools and two public state universities. Laser focus on one school can blind students to other opportunities.

2. The essay. In a sea of impressive transcripts and extracurricular accomplishments, the essay is the student's chance to stand out, to be heard, to be real. Or a chance to bore the pants off the glazed-eyed individual tasked with reading it. Put yourself in that person's shoes. They've read enough diary entries from life-changing church mission trips and resume regurgitations. What they want is a story - ideally, a great one that's true, makes a profound point, shows vulnerability, risk-taking or struggle and includes lots of active verbs.

EMERGE co-founder Rick Cruz told me about a student who came to him in a panic the day his college application was due, unsure of his essay but not sure what else to write. Cruz had him put the essay aside and tell him a story, any story, out loud.

The student began to grin, Cruz recalled, and told one he'd heard often as a boy, about how his parents were travelling in Mexico and stopped at a bench to count what was left of their money. Suddenly, a donkey came along, slurped up the cash and began to chew. His father frantically reached inside the donkey's mouth to retrieve it.

"I said, 'That's kind of funny and kind of crazy,' " Cruz told me. It became the opening anecdote in an eloquent essay about personal narratives and how they shape who we are and who we become. The student was soon left with a new conundrum: choosing between Harvard and Yale.

3. Aim not for admission but for love. Finding a college match is more complicated than applying to a school because of reputation, rankings or because Cousin So-And-So went there.

Approach it like you would online dating, although maybe the eHarmony variety, with its grueling long questionnaire, is better than the face-swiping shallowness of Tinder. A college is more than a pretty facade. Consider common interests, location, size, campus culture or money.

Admissions advisers aren't impressed with boilerplate answers to questions about why you chose the school - top-ranked professors! Ugh. If you can give detailed, personal answers, your application will be more persuasive, and more competitive.

Cruz recommends as a resource the College Board website, which allows a student to create a profile and recommends colleges based on interests.

Another tip? Attend college fairs, apply to fly-in programs that allow students to get a feel for the campus in person.

4. Early matters. This may not help rising seniors. For everyone else, it's never too early to start thinking about college. That's a cliche - but worthy of mentioning since so few heed its wisdom. Don't wait until you need a recommendation letter from a college adviser to meet her. She doesn't bite - not even freshmen.

Speaking of letters, give your counselors and teachers time to write them and maybe provide a helpful outline. Familiarize yourself with deadlines, not just at elite schools. Applying early is often essential at state schools because financial aid and spots in the best programs - say, A&M's engineering school - are often doled out on a first-come, first-serve basis.

And while tests aren't everything, achieving a certain range on the SAT or ACT still matters. Take a prep course, including an excellent free one provided online by Khan Academy. And take the test more than once - it shows grit.

Also, take the hardest schedule you can manage. Earning a B in AP calculus is always better than a perfect score in study hall.

5. FAFSA. Just do it. No matter how much your parents make, fill out the federal application for financial aid, known as the "FAFSA." And do it as soon as allowed, which is earlier now that the government considers income from parents' previous tax year.

Cruz says some students assume wrongly that they have no chance at free money for college. Think again. A Stanford student whose parents make less than $150,000 can go for free. Even if you don't qualify for aid, some merit-based programs require the FAFSA for consideration.

Well, there they are - the Top 5 ways to get into the college of your dreams. You can head over to the bird cage now or hand this column to the nearest college-bound teen. He or she may thank you some day. Just do me a favor and don't let a hungry donkey get it.

Knowledge, like money, is a terrible thing to waste.
Poroshenko hails decision by EU ambassador to impose new sanctions against Russian over Siemens' turbines in Crimea

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has positively assessed the decision of EU envoys on new sanctions against Russia for supplying Ukraine's Crimea with turbines produced by the German Siemens company.

"Four more Russian individuals and three companies will be affected by the honest and just restrictive measures in response for their cynical and deliberate contract violations," Ukraine's head of state said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Poroshenko said he believes "the Siemens precedent" must be punished so that similar violations do not occur in the future.

Germany earlier called on the EU to add four more Russian persons and companies to its sanctions list because of the illegal shipment of Siemens' turbines to occupied Crimea.
AUSTIN -- As he keeps up the pressure to get his agenda approved, Gov. Greg Abbott was accused Tuesday of strong-arming conservative House Republicans to sign on as sponsors for his must-pass bills during the special legislative session.

During a Monday meeting with about four dozen conservative House Republicans, Abbott made it clear he wants them to sign on as sponsors by Friday as the governor continues an aggressive approach to get the legislation approved by the time the special session ends in mid-August. He provided them with a list of the bills he wants them to sign onto, participants said.

Abbott earlier took a rare step of lining up sponsors for his bills in both the House and Senate, despite outspoken opposition from House Speaker Joe Straus to several proposals including the controversial bathroom bill.

Privately, Abbott aides denied the governor pushed too hard for sponsors. But Abbott himself has been clear that he intends to aggressively get as many of the 20 bills passed as he can, and could call lawmakers back into another special session if they don't pass enough of his agenda during the first one.

"The governor had a productive meeting with the members and he looks forward to working with them to advance his special session agenda," Abbott press secretary John Wittman said in response to questions about the meeting, first reported by Quorum Report, a political insiders' newsletter in Austin.

In a statement, Straus said that "the House appreciates the opportunity to work with Gov. Abbott to do what's in the best interest of Texas on education, property tax relief and other challenges facing the state."

House support is a key to ensuring success for Abbott's agenda, much of which Straus a month ago criticized as horse manure and he suggested that the Legislature should be addressing school finance reform and other larger issues rather than bathrooms.

During the early parts of the every-other-year regular legislative session that ended in May, Abbott was at times criticized for taking a hands-off approach to getting some legislation passed. He and his aides said he wanted to let lawmakers work through their own differences, but toward the end of the session both he and his aides were much more heavily involved in pushing to get acceptable final versions of many bills passed that he could sign into law.

Before he convened the special session, Abbott made it clear that he would set the agenda and intended to aggressively push for passage of the topics he wanted to see addressed.

State Rep. Larry Gonzales, a Round Rock Republican who did not attend the Monday meeting but was briefed by GOP colleagues on the discussion, expressed frustration with what sounded to him as a heavy-handed approach by Abbott.

"A responsible member listens to all the debate, listens to all the testimony, takes into consideration all the amendments before you make that decision. That's the responsible thing to do," said Gonzales. "I'm not going to 'Nancy Pelosi' this thing and say we've got to pass it to know what's in it. I will vote for something when it's on my desk, having been fully vetted by witnesses and the body, (and) then I'll vote."

Gonzales, like other House Republicans who spoke privately with a reporter Tuesday, said they may not sign on as sponsors even though Abbott has told them they need to.

"What happens is you put your name on something, and here come the amendments, all the sudden the bill's different and your name is on it. No way. A reasonable member waits, you wait," said Gonzales.

Some House members have said they have been under pressure from unnamed House leaders in recent weeks not to sponsor Abbott's bills that Straus does not support. At the same time, some Senate Republicans have complained privately they felt pressured by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to quickly pass all of Abbott's bills, which Patrick has said he fully supports.

Despite the complaints about political pressure from both chambers, Texas governors -- and legislative leaders -- have a long history of using their clout to get their way. They have killed or held up the passage of other bills, even withheld plum committee assignments, to lawmakers who refused to follow along in a process that generally occurs behind closed doors at the state Capitol.

"That's how politics works," said former Gov. Mark White, a Houston Democrat who pressed lawmakers to support of sweeping educational reforms. "Every governor wants every member to vote for their bills. But it seemed like the harder I tried to pressure them to do something, the less help I got. I generally got more with sugar than vinegar."

Almost daily since the special session began, Abbott has made public a list of various advocacy groups and individuals who support the message of his conservative-bill agenda. He has promised to go public with those who do not support it, in a move that would put pressure on them to change their mind, but has not yet done so.

Amid the reports about Abbott's push for additional House sponsors on his bills, 10 mayors who complained earlier to Abbott in a letter about his legislation to put spending caps on local governments, to limit annexation and preempt local ordinances confirmed they will meet with governor in small groups in coming days. The list includes mayors from Galveston, Corpus Christi, San Marcos, Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, Arlington, Frisco, Irving and McKinney.

Not included yet are mayors from larger cities such as Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Sugar Land and other places that had signed the letter asking for a meeting with Abbott.

Austin Bureau reporter Andrea Zelinski contributed to this story.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A South Texas man was diagnosed with Zika this month, likely the first in the state so far this year to be infected by a local mosquito bite.

The man, a resident of Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley, had not traveled out of the area, leading health officials to conclude he had contracted the disease locally.

"Thousands of Zika tests have been done since a DSHS recommendation in April expanded testing of pregnant women and people with Zika symptoms in six South Texas counties," officials said in a Department of State Health Services news release.

RELATED: Zika virus gives Baylor tropical disease expert a global audience

Six residents in nearby Brownsville were infected with Zika in November and December, leading the state to issue recommendations to test pregnant women in surrounding areas and for others to avoid traveling to the region.

The mosquito-borne virus became a major health concern last year with an increase of infants born with microcephaly. More than 5,000 Zika cases were reported last year, including more than 300 in Texas. The vast majority of those infections were contracted abroad, in South American countries where the virus has spread rapidly in recent years.

Experts a year ago had warned that Zika could spread widely through Texas and other Gulf Coast states in 2017. Assessments this year, though, suggest the virus may not be a pervasive threat.

"I can't go as far as the others in expressing optimism," said Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the Houston Chronicle last month. "It's very good news that so many countries are reporting decreasing numbers, but I think that the Texas threat is great still. I fear that the 2017 season will pick up where the 2016 left off."
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump seemed to blow the lid on the cancelation of a covert CIA program in Syria when he tweeted about it this week. But, intelligence agencies still won't talk about it.

The program arming Syrian rebels has long been an open secret, but for years no one was authorized to discuss it - and few would even after news reports last week that Trump had ordered the CIA to end it.

But Trump essentially confirmed the existence of the program and its cancelation Monday night when he lashed out at The Washington Post.

The president tweeted that the newspaper "fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting (Syrian President Bashar) Assad."

Not a 'declassification'?

Yet intelligence agencies still are mum. The CIA declined comment on Tuesday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also declined to discuss it. The tweet was a topic of chatter among staffers on Capitol Hill, but even there, lawmakers refused to comment publicly because in their minds, the program is still classified.

"Technically I doubt that the tweet would constitute declassification, though it appears to be a disclosure of classified information," said Steven Aftergood, director of the government secrecy project at the Federation of American Scientists.

This isn't the first instance that Trump has casually disclosed classified information.

In May, Trump shared intelligence about an Islamic State threat involving laptops carried on airplanes with Russia's foreign minister and Moscow's ambassador to Washington.

A president is authorized by law to declassify anything he wants.

It's not against the law when he does it. In January 2012, for example, former President Barack Obama officially acknowledged the classified CIA drone program.

The Syrian program, which was started by Obama, was aimed at putting pressure on Assad to relinquish power. The CIA began the covert operation in 2013 to arm, fund and train a moderate opposition to Assad.

Some rebels captured

For years, the CIA effort had foundered and some lawmakers had proposed cutting its budget. Some CIA-supported rebels had been captured; others had defected to extremist groups. But in late 2015, CIA-backed groups, fighting alongside more extremist factions, had begun to make progress in south and northwest Syria.

Last week, Gen. Raymond Thomas, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, did acknowledge the program's existence - and that it had ended.

Thomas said he thought the decision to end the program was not a conciliatory gesture to Russia, which opposed it, but was based on the program's utility.
A state Supreme Court decision this week on Houston's 2015 term limit referendum all but ensures city voters will not see the November mayoral election plaintiffs were hoping to trigger.

The Texas Supreme Court on Monday denied plantiffs' attempts to expedite their case challenging the ballot language that lengthened city officials' terms two years ago, making it unlikely the matter will be resolved before the state's August 21 deadline to order a fall election.
Eric Gay/STF

AUSTIN -- Hundreds of people lined up outside a Texas Senate committee room Friday morning to weigh in on the Legislature's latest attempt to regulate who can use bathrooms and changing rooms at schools and charter schools.

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said her newly filed SB 3 is about parents being able to protect their children from people pretending to be transgender to spy on kids in restrooms. But critics say it's a civil rights issue that will bat transgender students from being able to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender they identify with.
Unfortunately, the horrific deaths in San Antonio of 10 undocumented immigrants being transported on Sunday in a hot, airless tractor trailer were not the first such tragedy we've seen in Texas and certainly won't be the last.

In 2003, 19 immigrants died locked up in a truck in Victoria and in 1987, 18 people died in a railroad boxcar in Sierra Blanca, Texas.

Over the course of time, untold numbers of people have perished making their way north from Mexico and Central America across the arid, rugged border-lands in pursuit of a better life in the United States.

Border Patrol agents routinely find the remains of immigrants who drowned crossing the Rio Grande or died in the southwestern desert.

And what do we get from our elected leaders? President Donald Trump says the best way to stop this human tragedy is to build a wall sealing off our 2,000-mile border with Mexico, for which the current estimated cost is close to $30 billion. Contrary to Trump's campaign promises, the bill will be paid by U.S. taxpayers, not the Mexican government. And in Austin, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blamed "Democrat policies" for the tragedy.

People desperate to escape poverty - and in many cases violence - in their homeland are not easily dissuaded from pursuing their dreams. America has long been the destination for people sailing across oceans to a land they've never seen in a place with a language they've never heard.

Building a wall or driving the undocumented into the shadows of society only empowers the criminals who are to blame for these actions.

It is not difficult to craft a legal solution to these problems, whether it be new immigration laws, targeting the employers who hire the undocumented or helping our neighbors to the south fight drug cartels that smuggle both narcotics and humans.

But for now we should mourn. And we should not forget. Let's not use this unfathomable event as just another political cudgel to beat the anti-immigration drum.
If a boss sitting in the corner office of a glittering downtown skyscraper spent time on social media trying to bully a high-profile employee into quitting, you can bet that a horde of board-certified labor law attorneys would line up around the block to investigate the case. Or at the very least, the C-suite would receive a sit-down with the HR director.

Potential legal ramifications aside, a good boss knows that you don't try to pressure an employee to leave through email or social media.

"Doing so is cowardly and guaranteed to make the situation worse," Bob Rosner and Allan Halcrow write in The Boss's Survival Guide, a go-to primer for executives. "Meet with the employee. Respect the employee in the process."

You can guess that Donald Trump probably never read that book as head of the Trump Organization. He's spent the past week attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions and publicly lamenting that the former Alabama senator had ever been hired in the first place.

When you're the president, it isn't just about respecting your employees. The way the chief executive treats his staff reflects his respect for our system of government and rule of law.

Sessions stood up for our republic when he recused himself from the Justice Department's investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was a key member of that campaign, and his presence could undermine the perception of a fair process.

Trump, however, sees a higher value at play - loyalty. And now he's frustrated that Sessions refuses to simply shut down the whole investigation.

It is hardly a just reward for the first senator to don the "Make America Great Again" cap - not that Trump seems to care.

"It's not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement," Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, referencing Sessions' early backing of his presidential campaign.

Loyalty might as well be the unofficial slogan for this administration. Family members like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner fill the White House. Former FBI Director James Comey was fired after he declined to swear loyalty to the president - and refused to scuttle the Russia investigation.

The issue was even raised during the president's speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia on Monday.

"As the scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal," Trump said. "We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that."

But for Trump, loyalty is a one-way street. Take Sean Spicer, the much-maligned acting White House communications director who lied about crowd sizes, changed suits and endured public mockery at his boss's command. Trump replaced him within six months. And apparently the attorney general is next on his list.

Trump's friends and backers would be wise to remind him that his appointees don't swear loyalty to the president - they swear to uphold and protect the U.S. Constitution. Sessions' resignation, or his firing, would trigger a political crisis more dire than Watergate. The president simply cannot be allowed to shut down investigations that threaten to implicate him or his family. Richard Nixon tried that during the Saturday Night Massacre. He was then forced from office for obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

The Russia investigation has to proceed without presidential interference. Trump can't tweet his way out of this one. Even the president has bosses - the American people and rule of law.
Law-enforcers have detained Ruslan Velyky, former First Deputy Head of the State Department of the Emergencies Ministry of Ukraine in Odesa region, who when performing official duties did not take steps to use available forces and means to extinguish the fire at the Trade Unions House on May 2, 2014 in Odesa, when 42 people died and 125 people were injured.

Officers of the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police have established the whereabouts of Velyky and detained him on Wednesday during the special operation in Odesa, First Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Viacheslav Abroskin wrote in his Facebook page.

"The detainee has been evading the investigation since 2016 and was on the wanted list. A court has chosen a pre-trial preventive measure against him in the form of detention on remand," Abroskin wrote.

As reported, on May 2, 2014, 48 people died and 200 were injured due to the mass riots and fire in Odesa. Most victims of the tragedy died at the Trade Unions House. The investigation revealed that the riots in Odesa were organized and deliberately planned.

Various law enforcement agencies of Ukraine started about a dozen criminal proceedings into different facts. In particular, the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Odesa region launched a series of criminal proceedings into the facts of injury and death of people in clashes of pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists. Later, the Central Investigation Department of Ukrainian Interior Ministry in Odesa region took over these criminal proceedings. Some of these cases have already been transferred to court. The most high-profile of them is the case on the events on the Hretska Square, where the first clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists occurred. There are more than 20 suspects in this case, including two Russian citizens. They are all representatives of the so-called Antimaidan movement.
We have had the case of the Sleeping Lawyer. Then came the case of the Drunk Lawyer. Now we have the case of the Disbarred Lawyer.

As governor of Texas, I authorized 19 executions. Since then, I have seen many cases of profoundly deficient lawyering for people who were sent to death row.

But what happened to TaiChin Preyor, who is scheduled for execution on Thursday, is beyond the pale.

Preyor was convicted of a murder in San Antonio and sentenced to death in 2005. His mother, Margaret Mendez, would do anything to save her son's life. A longtime employee of the U.S. Postal Service, she did not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a dream team to get her son's conviction reversed.

Mendez's niece introduced her to Philip Jefferson at a Thanksgiving dinner in 2007. Jefferson presented himself as a "retired" lawyer. In reality, he had been disbarred in California almost 20 years earlier. He claimed to be associated with Johnnie Cochran, who famously won a not guilty verdict for O.J. Simpson, and Mendez was understandably impressed. He said that due to his "retired" status, he would have to bring in an associate to sign and file documents.

Thus began an extraordinary fraud not only on Preyor's mother but also the courts. The lawyer who worked at Jefferson's direction, Brandy Estelle, had a probate, estate planning and real estate law practice in California. She had no experience in death penalty cases.

Estelle did not disclose to the courts that Jefferson was guiding the litigation or that the two sought duplicate payments from both Mendez and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. All told, Mendez paid $45,000, cleaning out her savings and retirement funds, while Estelle sought compensation from the 5th Circuit for some of the same work without Mendez's knowledge.

No one will be surprised to learn that the "representation" the disbarred Jefferson and the unqualified Estelle provided was shockingly deficient in ways that are rarely seen. They filed a habeas corpus petition on Preyor's behalf that had no citations to the record or evidence outside the record. The federal court denied the petition, finding that it disregarded applicable habeas law.

Most disturbingly, Jefferson and Estelle completely missed the fact that Preyor's trial counsel had conducted a subpar investigation into Preyor's background.

If he had provided effective assistance, he would have found and presented compelling mitigation evidence about Preyor's childhood, which was replete with violence and sexual abuse.

The violence and sexual abuse that Preyor experienced does not excuse his crime, but it could have led the jury to a greater understanding.

If only one juror had heard the mitigation evidence and been persuaded that Preyor was not the "worst of the worst," he would be serving a life sentence today.

It's not too late to fix this disturbing injustice.

In May - a short eight weeks before Preyor's scheduled execution date - the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas authorized funding for new attorneys, with valid law licenses, to investigate and prepare a case for Preyor.

These attorneys have filed a clemency petition asking Gov. Greg Abbott to commute his death sentence to life or, at the least, grant a reprieve to allow his new attorneys to complete their work.

I believe there are rare cases where the death penalty is the appropriate punishment.

If we are to have capital punishment, we must afford defendants the protections that are enshrined in our Constitution.

The Sixth Amendment is clear that the accused shall have the right to the assistance of counsel. At its most basic, that means a qualified lawyer with a law license, not one who has been prohibited from practice. The integrity of our system demands that Preyor's claims receive a fair hearing before his execution can proceed.

Mark White served as governor of Texas from 1983 to 1987 and Texas attorney general from 1979 to 1983. This op-ed originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
As a conservative Republican county judge in a growing county, I'm concerned by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt's property tax plan, Senate Bill 1. Titled the "Texas Property Tax Reform and Relief Act of 2017," it failed to pass during the regular session, but is again under consideration in the special session. I believe the bill will never live up to its promising name.

Unfortunately, it doesn't cut taxes. It's just a distraction from a problematic school finance system, and the eagerness of many in Austin to use unfunded mandates to pay for things they haven't found the money to cover.

For years, the Legislature has quietly shifted the burden of paying for schools onto local property taxpayers like you and me. However, there's nothing quiet or subtle about the big increase in property taxes coming our way.

While this tax increase is hidden, lurking under Rider 3 of the Texas Education Agency budget, at least it's in plain English: "Property values and the estimates of local tax collections on which they are based shall be increased by 7.04 percent for tax year 2017 and by 6.77 percent in tax year 2018."

Under the Texas Constitution, funding schools is a state responsibility. Not long ago, the state paid more than half the cost of education. However, local property taxpayers now shoulder the majority of this burden, with the state paying about 38 percent of the tab.

More for you Point: Local property tax burden is crushing the Texas dream

As state funding for schools has diminished over time, local property taxpayers have made up the difference, increasingly being treated like a credit card with no limit. Counties like ours collect taxes on behalf of local school districts, and as the messenger bringing the tax bill, we're often blamed when school taxes go up. SB 1 takes the blame game further, and we shouldn't fall for it.

Victoria County has successfully cut property taxes in recent years, while school property taxes (which SB 1 doesn't address) continue rising. Bettencourt apparently doesn't think you'll notice that increasing school taxes now make up the majority of your property tax bill.

The Texas House and our local representative, state Rep. Geanie Morrison, made school finance a priority earlier this year. They understand that school property taxes are more than half your property tax bill, and that the property tax system should be more transparent and easier for taxpayers to understand.

The House took the lead and passed property tax reforms this year. Their legislation would have lightened the load on local property taxpayers by $1.6 billion. The Senate rejected this, leaving a hole in school funding that is set to be filled with money from your wallet through higher local property taxes.

The House also passed legislation providing more information and clarity for property taxpayers. The Senate dismissed this initiative as well.

Inefficient school finance formulas aren't the only factor driving up property taxes. The Legislature often forces back-door tax increases through new legislation, rules and regulations that impose added costs on counties, leaving local taxpayers to pick up the tab. Unfortunately, these unfunded mandates have become all too common.

Rep. DeWayne Burns, R-Cleburne, worked to bring more accountability to the process with legislation that would have stopped the state from using local property taxpayers to pay for everything. To truly protect taxpayers, these safeguards would have been written into our state constitution.

His proposal wasn't even given a hearing in the Texas Senate.

As a lifelong Republican, I found this particularly puzzling. Limiting unfunded mandates is one of the most popular pieces of the Texas Republican Party platform. In fact, it received support from 96 percent of delegates at our last state convention.

Those delegates understand the expense and sleight-of-hand nature of unfunded mandates, as do my constituents in Victoria County. Although our county isn't particularly large, half of our county's general fund budget in 2016 was consumed by unfunded mandates that totaled nearly $18 million. While similar situations are a crushing reality facing counties everywhere, this is completely ignored in Bettencourt's property tax plan.

The Texas House has shown leadership this year, and I am hopeful they will show the same leadership again during the special session. Fixing our state's school finance system and ending unfunded mandates are the best ways to give the people of Texas real property tax relief.

Zeller is Victoria County judge. His commentary first appeared in TribTalk, a publication of Texas Tribune.
Everything is bigger in Texas - including, unfortunately, your property tax rate. In fact, Texas has one of the highest effective real estate tax rates in the nation. Only Illinois and New Jersey beat us. Let that sink in. Illinois. And New Jersey. That's unacceptable.

Texas is still the envy of the nation. With our strong economy, overall lower costs of living and high quality of life, Texas remains the best place to raise a family, build a business and create greater opportunity for all.

Your hard-earned dollars still stretch further here; you can buy or rent more square footage with them than in many other states.

And the Texas dream is still within reach for many. For now.

Property taxes are the principal funding source for local governments and help pay for necessary services like fire and police protection as well as our public schools. School property taxes make up just over half of property tax collections; cities, counties and special taxing districts make up the remaining 45 percent.

The city and county property tax burden has grown far faster than median household incomes in Texas, with the highest growth in taxes levied by special purpose districts.

More for you Counterpoint: Legislature has shifted state's share of tax burden to locals

And Texans are being crushed.

No government should be able to tax people out of their homes. We must remember: Homeowners are not renting their land from the city.

But homeowners are not the only ones affected. As the taxes on multifamily and single family rental housing rise, that tax increase is reflected in ever-higher rental payments. Businesses also bear a heavy property tax burden.

Thousands of Texans rightly protest the increase in the appraised value of their home each year in an effort to lower their property tax bill. Even if they are successful in lowering the appraised value, they can still see their tax bill increase - because their local leaders do not cut the tax rate to account for rising values.

In Harris County, for example, the county portion of property tax bills increased 36.4 percent in just the last three years.

We are seeing the same obscene and unsustainable increases in counties around the state. As a result, few other issues unite Texans with such passion. We've heard hours of testimony from homeowners and business owners from across the state who have experienced skyrocketing property taxes:

"I have not gotten a raise in five years, but everyone getting property taxes has."

"I didn't get 29 percent more services."

"It is time for we the people to assert our authority and control the rate of increase in property tax bills."

And while the Legislature passed several property tax relief bills last session that I proudly signed into law to add transparency and improve accountability, we must do more to put a lid on property taxes.

During the special session this summer, I am calling on the Legislature to enact meaningful measures to provide real property tax relief. And I appreciate the leadership of state Sen. Paul Bettencourt and state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, and the strong support of state Rep. Richard Raymond, on this issue.

Today in Texas, if a city, county or special district adopts a tax rate that exceeds an 8 percent tax revenue increase, voters may petition for an election to "rollback" the tax rate. That petition must include signatures of up to 10 percent of registered voters depending on the total dollar amount of the increase, and those signatures must be gathered in 90 days.

That's a herculean challenge in Harris County, the state's largest county, or in any other county, large or small.

As a result, rollback elections are rare.

Voter approval should be a basic requirement for a tax increase. Local officials should ask permission to take your hard-earned money, not your forgiveness.

We must put power back into the hands of the people to hold local governments accountable.

Voters deserve the right to vote on tax rate increases. They should not have to petition their government for that right. And the rollback election trigger must be lower than 8 percent.

By providing meaningful tax relief, the Texas Legislature will help to unleash growth, preserve essential property rights and keep the Texas dream within reach for more Texas families and job-creating business owners.

Abbott is governor of Texas.
When he was about nine years old, Phil Godlewskis father gave him a pocketknife, and he immediately began using it to whittle and shape wood.

Now hes 57, and Godlewski has over the years progressed to creating large, elaborate pieces of art.

I make sculptures, he said. I dont really carve wood, I sculpt it. Theres a difference between a sculpture and a carving; a sculpture is three-dimensional and a carving is only two.

A Texas County resident for most of his life, Godlewski currently shares a home in Eunice with Lizzie Arakelian (who goes by just Lizzie), an accomplished primitives expert and writer for A Simple Life, one of the fields leading magazines. Lizzie is amazed by how Godlewski doesnt draw out or make sketches of his projects before he begins working on them.

Hes somehow able to work without a drawing, she said. Theres no way I could do that, especially having it turn out in perfect proportion.

I have a picture in my head, Godlewski said, and I just go to work.

When hes creating a large sculpture, Godlewski starts the process with a chainsaw.

Then I graduate to smaller and smaller tools as I go, he said.

Most of the pieces Godlewski creates are made with oak.

Because thats whats available around here, he said.

Using oak means having to deal with checking, or cracking, as the wood dries out, Godlewski said.

I have to kind of preserve them from the start, he said.

Godlewski has spent some years living outside Missouri, especially during his stint with the U.S. Navy. Aspen from Colorado is one of his favorite woods to work with.

Because it doesnt check at all, he said.

Some of Godlewskis work has been, or still is, on display at area businesses. He created the eagle thats at Arnolds 21 Burgers and Barbecue in Mountain View and the iconic goat that used to be at The Goat Tavern at Highway 17 and TT in Eunice (which now sits in front of Godlewskis house).

A large unfinished sculpture depicting a man and an eagle on one side and a womans head and the back of the eagle on the other can be seen from Highway 17 in front of Godlewskis house.

People are always taking pictures of it, Lizzie said. It seems like every bicycle rider that comes along stops to photograph it.

Phil Godlewski stands next to the back side of an unfinished oak sculpture at his residence in eastern Texas County.

Godlewski has produced hundreds of sculptures in his career. He sells his work for what he called an easy price, hes always willing to negotiate.

Much of Godlewskis business comes by way of word of mouth, and many of the projects he works on are the result of custom orders. He said he prefers the custom jobs.

Because I dont need any inspiration, Godlewski quipped. They tell me what they want and I do it.

Lizzie said Godlewski actually does find inspiration for many pieces from a particular source.

The shape of the log, she said. That happens a lot; the wood will have parts sticking out and he sees something in it.

A wooden carving hangs on a wall at Phil Godlewskis eastern Texas County residence.

Godlewski has in the past even carved images on living trees. A friend in Colorado once hired him to carve faces in numerous trees in a forested area on his property.

If I do one in a yard or something, Ill scan it with a metal detector first, Godlewski said. As long as you dont ring the tree, itll grow and change and it just looks beautiful.

Not every apparently dead stump Godlewski has worked with was actually dead.

Ive seen it more than once where theyve come back and it looks like theres hair growing out of the sculptures head, he said.

Godlewskis favorite finished piece was a six-foot tall walking stick he fashioned for a man. He only used a pocketknife.

On top it had a mountain man, Godlewski said, Below that was a crescent moon and below that was the grip. It had some swirls and some other mountain scenes. It took me a month to do it, working six hours a day  with a pocketknife. It was cool.

Another favorite was a sculpture of a largemouth bass. Godlewski used a knot in the wood as the fishs open mouth.

I made it look like the fish was turned, and it was coming at you, he said.

The community center in Summersville is conducting a fundraiser, and Godlewski will be donating a wood sculpture.

I figured it was a good cause, he said. Hopefully someone will like it.

This wooden sculpture of a goat made by local resident Phil Godlewski spent years sitting in front of The Goat, a bar and grill at Highway 17 and Highway TT in eastern Texas County.

Theres a difference between a sculpture and a carving; a sculpture is three-dimensional and a carving is only two.

PHIL GODLEWSKI

To inquire about having Texas County resident Phil Godlewski make a custom wooden sculpture, call 417-260-7422.
As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
The U.S. authorities have not yet taken any steps with regard to the possible supply of defensive weapons to Ukraine, Heather Nauert, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, has said.

"The United States has not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled it out to provide to the Ukrainians," Nauert said at a briefing on Tuesday.

"So there was a BBC report headline. Sometimes the headline writers  you all would know this  will get ahead of the story. So there was a headline that implied that we were in the process of doing what you just described. We are not there yet. Let me take out the word 'yet.' We are not there," she added.

BBC earlier reported Special Representative of the U.S. Department of State for Ukraine Kurt Volker said that Washington is actively considering the issue of a possible defensive weapons supply to Ukraine.

According to the report, Volker said defensive weapons could help Ukraine protect itself, drive tanks out of Donbas, would help stop Russia, which threatens Ukraine.
In a letter to The Honorable Oppah Muchinguri MP, the Minister of Environment, Water and Climate of Zimbabwe, Humane Society International is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to investigate the irregularities surrounding the killing of Xanda the lion last week. In particular, HSI requests that Zimbabwe officials fully investigate the hunt, bring legal action against the trophy hunters if warranted, prevent the export of the trophy and establish a five-kilometer no-hunting zone around Hwange National Park.

According to a document posted on the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority website, male lions of any age known to be heading prides or known to be part of a coalition heading prides with dependent cubs (18 months old or less) should not be hunted. At the time of the hunt, researchers with the University of Oxford were tracking Xanda, the 6-year-old son of Cecil the lion. They have confirmed that Xanda was a male in a pride with three females and at least seven dependent cubs of between 12 and 18 months old who are too young to survive on their own and will be vulnerable to infanticide by any male lion who takes over Xandas pride. The researchers informed the professional hunter, whose client killed Xanda, of these facts and that killing Xanda would harm the lion population. The advice was ignored.

Audrey Delsink, executive director of Humane Society International/Africa, said: With so many irregularities shrouding the killing of Xanda, we urge the Government of Zimbabwe to hold the people involved in his death accountable, if they are found to have acted in an illegal manner. Sadly, Xandas killers have also left his cubs vulnerable to infanticide, which means this careless hunt could lead to further unnecessary loss of animals already threatened with extinction. It just further highlights the destructive nature of the trophy hunting industry. At minimum, Zimbabwe must conduct a full investigation and not allow Xandas remains to leave the country as a trophy.

Although the hunting group representing the hunters who killed Xanda claim he did not hold tenure of a pride, the scientists at the Hwange National Park where the hunt took place confirmed the collar returned to them by the hunter was Xandas. The hunters nationality and identity remains unknown.

In the letter, HSI urges the Government of Zimbabwe to:

1. Investigate the killing of Xanda to evaluate whether the relevant regulations and policies were followed and make the findings publicly known;

2. Not issue an export permit for the trophy of Xanda if any irregularities are found;

3. Prosecute any people involved in illegal acts with regard to the killing of Xanda if evidence of such is found; and

4. Establish a 5 km no hunting zone around Hwange National Park to prevent further killings of research animals, as urged by lion scientists at the University of Oxford.

Read the letter here.

Write to the officials: Dont allow Xanda to leave Zimbabwe as a trophy.

Facts:

Fewer than 30,000 African lionsand possibly as few as 20,000are estimated to remain today. Lions exist in 8 percent of their former range and are suffering from loss of habitat and prey in addition to poorly regulated trophy hunting.

A report conducted by Economists at Large and commissioned by HSI found that trophy hunting is not economically important in African countries, with the total economic contribution of trophy hunters at most estimated at 0.03 percent of gross domestic product in the countries studied.

Media contacts:

UK: Wendy Higgins, whiggins@hsi.org, +44 (0)7989 972 423,

USA: Raul Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1-301-721-6440
Tharakorn via Getty Images

Mental health wards for children and young people in England are struggling to recruit the staff they need, according to a new report published by the Education Policy Institute today.

We have explored existing literature and data provided to us by NHS England or from existing NHS sources to get as complete a picture as possible of the state of inpatient mental health services for children and young people. We found that workforce shortages were a particular problem, with one in nine units not meeting the minimum standard for staff to patient ratios. These recruitment difficulties mean that providers are often employing a high proportion of temporary staff. Almost a fifth (19%) of the total pay bill for last year went on bank and agency staff, and nearly a quarter of hospitals did not meet the quality standard that "the unit is staffed by permanent staff, and unfamiliar bank and agency staff are used only in exceptional circumstances". Performance on this measure has deteriorated over the last year from 17% to 24% in 2015-16.

Advertisement

We did, however, find that standards are improving when we looked at the quality of care overall. Services, on average, met 93% of minimum standards in 2015-16 (the same as last year) and 90% of expected standards (up from 85% in 2014-15). This still leaves significant room for improvement, however, as, on average, 7% of minimum standards were not met. Failure to meet these standards can result in "a significant threat to patient safety, rights or dignity and/or would breach the law".

The report additionally investigated whether there are enough beds for young people in inpatient services to meet demand. The number of beds has increased by 71% since 1999, to 1,440 beds in December 2015. Nevertheless, there are still capacity problems, as data provided to us by NHS England showed that there were three occasions in 2016 where no beds were available at all in one region (on two occasions this was the South of England, covering the South East, South West and Central counties and the other occasion was in London). Geographical disparity in the provision of beds is a particular problem. In the North East of England there are 3.0 beds per 100,000 population, compared with 1.1 in the South West. In the South West and Yorkshire and Humber this ratio of beds is below the Royal College of Psychiatrists' recommended standard. The consequences of this limited provision are stark, and include young people being treated on adult wards. Experimental NHS data shows that, in 2016, children under 16 spent a total of 1,657 days on adult wards.

Advertisement

NHS England has recognised this problem and pledged to provide more beds as well as redistribute current capacity. It will, however, be important to continue to monitor capacity across the country to ensure that the level of beds continues to meet demand in the future.

It is important, however, to note that inpatient admission is not always the best approach for young people with mental health problems, as admission can be a disruptive and frightening experience. Consistent provision of intensive community support across the country is needed to help avoid admission unless absolutely necessary. Data uncovered by the Education Policy Institute found that there were nearly 9,000 wasted days where children and young people were in hospital waiting to be discharged. Many of these children could have been back in their local community if the right local services had been in place. Data from 2014 shows that 64% of inpatient care providers did not have an intensive outreach team, despite evidence that such services can relieve pressure on inpatient beds. The government should consider setting consistent standards across the country for the availability of intensive support within the community to help prevent the need for hospital admission where possible.
JanBaars via Getty Images

Gambian asylum seekers discuss their journey together while looking at a map on the wall at an asylum seeker reception center in Italy. UNICEF/Gilbertson VII

Advertisement

Over 100,000 refugee and migrant children, a third unaccompanied, arrived in Europe last year. Many of them knew all too well that they could be killed or drown at sea. They fled anyway. As a young refugee in North Africa told me recently, you don't tear yourself from your family home, or put yourself in the path of violent traffickers, if you're not escaping something much worse behind you.

At Unicef we are acutely aware of the dangers children face. Our striking new study with REACH helps us to better understand what motivates them to leave home in the first place, and what they endure on their journeys. And it calls on us to take action now, with solutions as simple as letting children be with their loved ones.

What we found, in our 850 interviews with children who had arrived in Italy and Greece, was that the vast majority left home without telling their parents, fleeing poverty, conflict and violence. Many of the girls were escaping child marriage. As some peddle the narrative that children are coming to the EU in tens of thousands due to 'pull factors' we must respond with facts: as this new study shows, the majority have no intention to reach Europe at all. They leave in hope of a better life elsewhere in North or Sub Saharan Africa, but in countries such as Libya witness and suffer such extreme trauma and abuse that they are left with little option but to continue on in their search for safety. Almost half of children report being kidnapped for ransom in Libya - a truly staggering figure - while others are arbitrarily arrested or subjected to unimaginable violence and abuse. Some of their journeys took up to two years. These are children, let's not forget.

Advertisement

The study showed us something we can take immediate action on: reuniting children with loved ones in the UK who are willing to care for them. We have seen children often arriving in Italy or Greece knowing they have family in other EU countries but on making an application to join them, find themselves waiting for months, even years. For example in Italy, out of the 14,229 people who requested to be reunified with family elsewhere in Europe in 2016, only 61 were transferred. The whole time the majority are alone and many drop out of official systems to take their future into their own hands, again falling prey to traffickers and smugglers who abuse and exploit them in return for the journeys they facilitate. We heard reports of children engaging in sex with strangers to finance journeys too, others sleeping under bridges with little or no access to food or water. Is this what children should have to endure to reach family waiting to give them the care they need?

Even those who wait in official reception centres face risk, from violence and theft in camps to severe anxiety, distress and uncertainty. One can only imagine the impact this has on a child's mental health and we cannot be surprised when they give up on legal systems that don't appear to work or are too complex to understand. Despite what they go through, children remain determined to reach their family in other countries. Unicef UK is calling on the government to step up.

The UK government can do something simple but effective. Currently, children need to reach European shores before they can apply to reunite with close family members in the UK. Through a simple change to our family reunion rules, we could allow them to apply from their country of origin instead, thereby preventing children having to make the terrifying journey across seas in the first place. The sad reality is that all too often children have lost their parents, been forced to leave them behind, or found themselves separated from them due to the perils of war. What they need is for our rules to allow them to reunite with not only parents, but also adult siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and to be able to do so from wherever they are. This simple change to the UK's family reunion rules would bring loved ones back together. It would prevent so many of these devastating journeys. It would cut off the trade of traffickers and smugglers. It would give children back their futures.

There is added urgency to this desperately needed change - Brexit. As the UK gets underway with negotiations to leave the EU we cannot forget the implications for children. In the very likely case that we leave 'Dublin III' - the regulation that allows children within Europe to reunite with family elsewhere in the EU - unaccompanied children will have nothing to depend on aside from the UK's own rules, rules that aren't working right now. By fixing them we can stop children facing these horrors and losing their lives.
My work on raising awareness about violence against women and girls around the world with my foundation Project Monma has this time brought me to Thailand. I am here to learn more about the experiences of Burmese women living here as refugees and migrant workers. I am in Mae Sot, a small border town on the border with Burma where thousands of migrant workers and refugees from Burma have streamed across the border.

In Thailand, like so many countries around the world, gender based violence is a serious problem.

The Social Development and Human Security for example, found that two years ago 89% of women in Thailand were victims of some kind of violence.

Advertisement

This could include domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment.

For Burmese women, there have been reports of sexual violence and harassment in both the refugee camps and for women working as migrants workers.

Like in many parts of the world, the problem is widespread.

Though the violence is not going unchallenged.

Busayapa Srisompong, a young Thai woman, a law graduate and women's rights advocate has made it her mission to stand up for women's rights in Thailand. Working alongside a women's rights based organization in Mae Sot, Busayapa is working to challenge attitudes that have normalised violence against women. She is also working to help women to receive justice for violence perpetrated against them.

One of biggest challenges Busayapa has found in her work defending women's rights, is silence. Women are not speaking out about violence perpetrated against them. This could be due to shame, fear of being blamed for the violence perpetrated against them or concern about their family breaking up. Many women also feel that even if they did say something, they wouldn't be able to receive justice.

In the case of Burmese women living in Thailand, language is a barrier and many women are in Thailand illegally. Should something happen to them, they are afraid that if they go to the police then they could be deported. So they usually choose to stay silent.

Advertisement

For Busayaypa, one of her central goals in decreasing violence against women in Thailand, is to teach the police the importance of taking gender based violence seriously. In far too many situations, cases of domestic violence are dismissed by the police, she reports.

'Often the police suggest that the victim should go back to her abusive partner, rather than encouraging her to take him to court,' Busayapa explains.

'At first, when I would go to the police, it was difficult to get the police to take the issues seriously. A lot of victims would give up easily. But I would keep going back to the to try and make the police understand how important it is to take issues of gender based violence seriously. Now I can see that I've made a difference, when I go to the police station with a case of violence against women, they listen to me,' she says.

'Even if I can only convince one law enforcer to take these cases of violence against women seriously, then that's making make a change. It is essential that the police give greater support to women who have experienced violence because it is the police who are the first step on the path to women being able to receive justice,' she adds.

As a victim of domestic violence, Busayapa understands all to well the difficulties in building the courage to taken an abusive partner to court.

Advertisement

So for her empowering women and giving them the confidence to be able stand up for themselves, is another central part of her mission. She has started a project called Shero which aims to promote the idea that anyone can be a hero.

She wants to encourage other women to stand up for themselves, and to believe that they can be heroes in their own lives.

'Because there is no justification for violence,' she says.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dear Theresa May,

Apology & compensation for men convicted under unjust anti-gay laws.

On the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which is this Thursday, 27 July, I am asking you to consider making a public apology on behalf of the whole nation to all men who were convicted under discriminatory, anti-gay laws, both before and after 1967, and to announce that those still alive will be given compensation for their terrible suffering.

Around 100,000 men were convicted of consenting homosexual behavior following the outlawing in 1885 of all same-sex acts; with at least 15,000 of these men being convicted after the Sexual Offences Act was legislated in 1967. The latter law was only a partial decriminalisation.

Advertisement

The criminalisation of homosexuality continued in parts of the UK until 2013.

Of the men who were convicted prior to, and following, the 1967 legislation, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 are still alive.

These men deserve an apology and compensation for their painful, heart-breaking persecution. Many were jailed and nearly all endured devastating knock-on consequences.

They often lost their jobs and became near unemployable and semi-destitute because of the stigma associated with having a conviction for a homosexual offence. Some experienced the break-up of their marriages and lost custody and access to their children. Families and friends disowned them and they were abused and sometimes assaulted in the street.

Many descended into a downward spiral of depression, alcoholism, mental illness and suicide or attempted suicide. The psychological and emotional scars were devastating and long lasting.

Advertisement

That's why they need and deserve a Prime Ministerial apology - and state compensation.

You can read my comprehensive, detailed exposure of the intensified police and judicial persecution of gay and bisexual men after 1967 here:

The 'gross indecency' law of 1885 had been used to convict the computer genius Alan Turing in 1952 and, before him, to jail the playwright Oscar Wilde in 1895.

Together with the criminalisation of anal sex, the gross indecency legislation was finally repealed in England and Wales by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. As a result, for the first time in 470 years these two nations had a criminal code that did not penalise gay sexuality.

In Northern Ireland, the ban on anal sex was finally repealed in 2008. Scotland's anti-gay laws were abolished in 2009 but, in the case of sodomy, did not take effect until 2013.

Gay sex ceased to be a crime across the whole of the UK only four years ago - 46 years after 1967.

I would be very grateful if you would consider making this important symbolic gesture of atonement, healing and reconciliation.

Advertisement

Yours sincerely,
The Georgian prosecutor's office has not received a request from the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to detain and extradite former Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetsky charged with misuse of his official position in Ukraine, the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday responding to a report that a Kyiv court sanctioned arrest of the ex-mayor.

"If there is a request for detention and extradition of Leonid Chernovetsky to Ukraine, it cannot be executed since Leonid Chernovetsky is a citizen of Georgia and his transfer to third countries is unacceptable," the prosecutor's office said.

For several years now, Chernovetsky and his family have been living in the Georgian seaside town of Kobuleti. Last year, Chernovetsky intended to participate in the parliamentary elections in Georgia, but then changed his mind. In Kobuleti the ex-mayor is engaged in charity.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine on July 14 announced that Chernovetsky is suspected of abuse of power and official position. He is suspected of illegally handing over land plots for the construction of a helicopter pad in the interests of the allies of former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.
nd3000 via Getty Images

Over the last few months we have seen an increased focus on maintaining higher animal welfare and food safety standards. And today we are talking about importing chlorinated chicken as part of a makeweight in trade deals - which clearly undermines the high welfare standards that the British public demands of our industry.

Is the Government trying to sell out on our animal welfare and food safety standards as part of a makeweight in trade negotiations? Throwing away a crucial food and farming sector would be an absolute betrayal of the British farmers who work incredibly hard to maintain high welfare standards and animal husbandry practices to ensure that we have safe, nutritious and affordable food on our table every single day.

Advertisement

A secure post-Brexit deal must be about Britain's future food security and safety. After all it's a matter of our reputation on the global stage. It's not just about farming safe and affordable food but also about the British values that go into producing it.

British food means a secure supply, it means knowing where our food comes from, and it means standards everyone can trust. We aren't willing to tolerate any compromise on the values that define our Britishness and are part of our national identity.

We know that British consumers trust British chicken. We are proud of our world-leading farming and animal welfare policies as well as high standards in food safety. And we know that poultry meat is the only livestock sector that is capable of quickly scaling-up production to meet growing demand.

Nearly one billion birds are reared for food every year, providing half the meat that the country eats. British poultry meat is a national success story. It has grown in a competitive marketplace, and has never had or sought subsidies.

Advertisement

The UK poultry meat sector offers everything from high animal welfare to food safety as well as provenance, through to jobs and benefit to the economy. The industry's economic contribution has increased by nearly 50% in the last five years with a 4.6 billion gross value-added contribution in 2015. The sector sustained a total of 87,700 jobs in 2015, of these, 37,300 people were employed directly in poultry meat.

Poultry meat invests in the best and the brightest people who genuinely care about bird health and welfare. Our farmers are passionate about what they do - they wouldn't be farming on a Sunday morning if they didn't care about the birds. What we need to do is carry on investing in improving efficiency and productivity so that we get better at feeding ourselves and carry on upholding our values.

Brexit is giving us an opportunity to re-define our Britishness, it should allow us to say unashamedly that our first choice is British, and be proud of and embrace the benefits that this brings in jobs, the economy, and in communities. Now is the time when Government's support towards British farmers and food production is needed most.

As a sector, we welcome Secretary of State Michael Gove's recent comments showing confidence in our world-leading farming standards and banning chlorinated chicken as part of a UK/US trade deal. This is the sort of confidence British farmers and producers require from across Government.
I've long claimed that one of the plus points of holidaying on my beloved Isle of Wight is that it is compact. There's a risk that can manifest itself as claustrophobia if you spend too long there, but it's terribly convenient to not be faced with an hour's drive to get anywhere decent.

I recently did a pseudo-scientific study to see if there was any truth in my hunch that the Isle of Wight has more attractions per square mile than its holiday competition. I just looked at the handful of similar locations which are currently featured on my holiday park guide (Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and the Isle of Wight) but I'd be intrigued to see the results if anyone wants to fund a nationwide study with full peer review and analysis by breakfast television.

To attempt a vaguely fair comparison I decided to look at how many attractions each county has, in relation to its size. Cornwall is obviously larger than the Isle of Wight but you aren't likely to drive from Lands End to Bude for a small playground. A high concentration of attractions is more important than a high number spread over a huge area.

Advertisement

So, the fairest way I could think to do this was to look at the number of attractions listed on TripAdvisor. I'm sure there are flaws in this, as you do get rogue shops and other non-attractions appearing on TripAdvisor as an attraction. However, I hoped it would even out across all the locations.

First up is Devon, which has (according to TripAdvisor) 825 attractions. I'm not inclined to sift through them all to work out which are legitimate as I was hoping to get to bed at some point today. Devon is 2590 square miles, which means there is an attraction for every 3.1 square miles.

Without looking at the others, that means nothing so let's plough on with a comparison to local rivals Cornwall.

Well, according to TripAdvisor you'll find 659 things to do in Cornwall across a land mass of 1376 square miles, which means there is an attraction for every two square miles in Cornwall - significantly more than Devon.

Advertisement

OK, how about Dorset? TripAdvisor reckons there are 437 things to do in Dorset and the county is 1024 square miles, so that puts it somewhere between Devon and Cornwall with an attraction for every 2.3 square miles.

Finally, my beloved Isle of Wight.

According to TripAdvisor (as I keep repeating) there are 184 attractions on the Isle of Wight, with a land mass of 146 square miles. So, there is an attraction for every 0.8 square miles.

OK, so I admit the Isle of Wight is small and I was kind of hoping that the result would go this way (as it was my hunch) but that's a pretty sensational victory. I'm certainly biased, but I encourage you to do the comparison yourself and see if you can find a UK county with more attractions per square mile than the Isle of Wight.

Sure, you can make valid arguments about the size of attractions etc...but let me have my moment.
Two Muslim cousins, enjoying 21st birthday celebrations, had their lives irrevocably changed on June 21st after becoming disfigured in an acid attack in East London. Sparking a nationwide debate, the rise of acid attacks in the UK is now under the spotlight.

Jameel Mukhtar and Resham Khan were on their way out to celebrate Resham's 21st birthday. As they were waiting at a traffic light in East London, a stranger knocked on their window and then proceeded to throw acid across them both. The attack on the two Muslim cousins is being treated as a hate crime.

Resham, who was hoping to begin a career as a model, has written a letter to the public from hospital, alongside a petition, calling for tougher restrictions over purchasing corrosive substances, which can currently be bought and carried legally. Her letter asks:

Advertisement

"Why are acids the new street weapon? Because corrosive substances are readily available in-store and online for as little as 6.50 and the laws surrounding possession is loose."

Since 2010, almost 2,000 acid attacks have been reported in London alone. Almost a third of these attacks occurred in the borough of Newham, east London. The majority of these cases have not led to trial, with 74% of cases being shelved due to victims being unable to identify perpetrators.

On July 13th, five attacks were carried out in succession across London by young boys on stolen mopeds. Some of victims were delivery drivers on mopeds, prompting a protest from drivers across the workforce. Delivery drivers are targets of regular motor-vehicle robberies, which are increasingly involving acid attacks which aim to debilitate victims.

Across the world, victims of acid attacks are disproportionately female, often carried out by partners or ex-partners, or even family members in cases of 'honour' based violence. However, in the UK both the perpetrators and victims are mostly young men. Experts have suggested one reason for the increase has been tougher regulations on the availability of guns and knives, making acid an attractive and easily available alternative.

Advertisement

In order to stop these attacks, people are calling for stricter laws and regulations when it comes to buying and possessing acid. One solution would be to upgrade acid to a restricted substance, meaning a licence is required for purchase. The police have been provided with rapid response kits in order to be able to treat victims of attacks as quickly as possible at the scene of the crime.

While not all the victims are Muslim, in wake of these attacks, particularly that on the aforementioned Jameel Muhktar and Resham Khan, many Muslims have expressed fear at being in public or event leaving their house, specifically in east London.

This comes at a time of increasing Islamophobia and reports of incidents of hate crime in the wake of both the Brexit referendum and the terrorist attacks that occurred within quick succession this year. Tell MAMA found that racist incidents increased 530% in the week following the suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert, and reported a 240% increase in anti-Muslim hate in the seven-day period following the London Bridge attack on June 3.

Last weekend, in Southampton, two Muslim women were victims of a "spoof" acid attack in which they were sprayed with water. This suggests some attacks are being used to incite terror within the Muslim community and prevent them from feeling safe or accepted within society.

Many on social media have highlighted that if these attacks, such as the five attacks carried out on July 13th, were perpetrated by Muslims on white passers-by, the media reaction would have been internationally sensationalised, and they would have immediately been declared as terrorist incidents.

Advertisement

Jameel Mukhtar has himself addressed this issue on Channel 4 News, saying:

"If this was an Asian guy like myself, going up to an English couple in a car and acid attacking them, I know for a fact,and the whole country knows, that it would be classed as a terror attack."

Although the attack is being investigated as a hate crime, little attention has been drawn to the extremist motivations of this attack. The perpetrator, 24 year old John Tomlin, had previously made posts expressing solidarity with far-right extremists on Facebook. These include posts shared in 2015 that say: "A sleeping lion can only be provoked so much before it wakes up and attacks...and so will us British," and "We will stand and we will fight. We will reclaim what is rightfully ours. We will not surrender."

At JAN Trust, we run an online support tool www.saynotohatecrime.org that provides victims a direct link to report crimes, and gives recovery advice alongside access to support networks. As long time campaigners against Islamophobia and violence against women and girls, we offer advice and support to anyone suffering in silence.
An Evolved Music Industry Is Finally Embracing The Value Of Meaningful Relationships

Here Stephen Love explains the motivation behind the creation of Socially Driven Music, a reinvention of the global music industry, and how it works to combine evolving technology and social relationships within the music business.

__________________________

Guest post by Stephen Love of Socially Driven Music

Everyone loves music. Most people have felt the emotion and visceral reaction to a particular song that vividly captures a moment, transports us to a past experience as poignantly as a photo, or inspires us profoundly. Paul Simon could have written this masterpiece, iconic song today. Have a listen and youll understand our compassion for the sentiment as the motivation for creating Socially Driven Music. Then please consider and share the read.

As the music industry is still largely continuing to grapple with the basics of grasping its future, we see the future as much more than music distribution moving from CDs to downloads to streaming. SDM not only utilizes rapidly evolving technology, but applies the potential of comprehensive, interwoven social relationship platforms, predictive analytics and neuroscience to execute on the innate potential and value of music. This is the manifestation of music industry experience infused with visionary foresight and informed by the thoughtful selection of the most advanced world, political and business perspectives available. SDM is the constantly evolving company to take theory into reality with considered reflection of the work of the worlds most recognized thinkers, such as Panos Panay 0f Berklee College of Musics Berklee/Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE) and Open Music Initiative, a collaboration with MIT Media Lab.

Image: Maegalina

SDM mobilizes an army of grassroots Musicpreneurs (advocates) who work with the companys executive team and Mentors (music industry luminaries) to identify local music artist and songwriter talent, cultivate and market it with a multitude of disruptive, innovative systems discussed in previous essays. As we harness music for daily social good, we also monetize it through a plethora of untapped channels and long overdue equitable administration for the good of the creative community and, by extension, the benefit of all the communities music touches.

Giving Back seems to be even more in vogue right now across business sectors, including the music industry. Thats a good thing, except that nobody else has recognized this opportune juncture for a novel and reciprocal artist/fan relationship. This new dynamic is driven by altruism but also serves to return artists and songwriters to an age of equitable royalties through a natural avenue of empathetic benevolence. SDM shares the concern about a deeply divisive society in the US, (indeed, around the world) at a time when social programs are more the responsibility of the public sector and cooperation is urgently needed. Its mission is to empower and interconnect local communities of social good. Music is the common thread and connective tissue that, when purposefully integrated with social good causes, can immensely benefit the constituencies of both. To this point, Mark Zuckerberg revised the Facebook Mission Statement just last month to reflect an emphasis on Community rather than Individual connections. In part by incorporating the potency of institutional and organic playlists flowing from and into communities of social causes (including Facebook Town Halls), SDM cross-promotes and exponentially creates omni-channel/multimedia visibility, marketing, branding opportunities and, most importantly, engagement for all.

Att he core of its visionary music business creative and administrative model, SDM is about uniquely precise crowdsourcing on steroids: identifying the Musicpreneurs and music fans within socially conscious organizations and connecting them with Artists and Songwriters to propel music-driven communities to make a daily  not occasional  difference with whatever their cause (e.g., Stroke Recovery, Childhood Disease and Illness, Substance Abuse, Hunger, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, Cancer, Sexual Health or Dysfunction, Ethnic & Religious Equality, Immigration, Anti-Bullying, Counter-Terrorism and Security, Clean Water, Suicide Prevention, Animal Rights, Patient Advocacy, Senior Care, LGBTQ Equality, Campus Rape, Veterans, Environment, Common Sense Gun Control, Homelessness, etc.). Imagine, for example, how Facebook (in addition to its sophisticated use of Artificial Intelligence, but rather than hiring 3000 part-time monitors) could mitigate its problem of violent, terrorizing, suicidal, bullying and criminal posts by mobilizing communities of relevant causes, powered by music and sponsors, to track and report these abusive posts as the aberrations they are to the rest of us).

Socially Driven Music (SDM)s Value Proposition is to empower a wide variety of important Social Good projects with music fans as the grassroots ambassadors for a shared social impact passion. (#FoodShare#FeedingAmerica, #MakeAWish, #TheDreamFoundation, #MusicFromTheStreets, #PartTheCloud, #HalfTheSky, #StJudesChildrensHospital, etc.). Interestingly, as SDM endeavors to encourage more women into music leadership positions, GE just announced an ambitious program to bridge the STEM gender gap (which we support on behalf of the work of our friend, the late math and science education advocate for women and girls, Dr. Pamela Clute). This comes at a time when thinkers like Andrew Dubber and Samuel Potts are independently hinting at SDMs vision of an ever-evolving, intersected, music-tech industry that transforms music listening into an interactive experience that can educate while entertaining. Potts suggests that the tech industry is already the new music business.

Tell us about the causes youre passionate about and in which you want to be included here: www.sociallydrivenmusic.com.

Think of SDM as the superimposed solution for music discovery, cultivation, distribution and administration presented as a synergistic hub/coordinator/catalyst for parlaying poignant initiatives, often in concert with one another, for impact every day. The caring is an extension of the kind of heart historically displayed by the music industry at catastrophic events. And science, such as is being explored by Apples HealthKit and ResearchKit initiatives, is the co-pilot.

ASAP Science

Brain images show links between music and regions of the brain responsible for sex, emotion, mathematics, memory and coordination. Bruce Brown wrote in Digital Trends in February that Study Shows Music Has The Same Effect On Your Brain As Sex and Drugs.

Researchers at McGill University have proved that music can have the same effect on your brain as opioids and endorphins, reports Fact.

That music rush  the chill many get from just the opening chords of a song  represents your brain releasing natural opioids such as endorphins that block pain and induce feelings of pleasure. In the McGill study, subjects were administered naltrexone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioids by blocking the effects of opioids, so feel-good chemicals have no effect. Naltrexone induces anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure, in this case, the pleasure specifically associated with opioids.

The testing applies to more than just endorphins and music. Preliminary studies have shown that music listening and performing modulate levels of serotonin, epinephrine, dopamine, oxytocin, and prolactin. Music can reliably induce feelings of pleasure, and indeed, people consistently rank music as among the top ten things in their lives that bring pleasure, above money, food, and art, the authors of the study wrote.

In addition to predictive analytics, SDM embraces The Sync Project, Dopamine Labs and other research that is clinically proving the neuroscience causation and impact of music on the human brain (among other initiatives, the Sync Project is demonstrating how music may be used to replace, or at least reduce, use of opioids for pain relief). What would happen if the libraries that are serving as first-responders to opioid overdoses also became meeting places for recovering patients to listen to and share Medicinal Music?

We are also privileged to have begun to explore collaborating with Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, of the UCLA Medical Group, a pediatrician who is researching the influence of music in a study conducted through Mattels Pediatric Pain Program. Dr. Tachdjian has also created the Childrens Music Fund, a foundation he started to raise money to buy instruments for hospital patients across the nation after seeing clinical evidence of its medical efficacy in helping patients.

Susan R. Barry, Ph.D., is quoted in the Maegalina blogpost from Psychology Today: In the last twenty years, brain imaging studies have revealed that musical training has dramatic effects on the brain. Increases in gray matter (size and number of nerve cells) are seen, for example, in the auditory, motor, and visual spatial areas of the cerebral cortex of musicians. As Dr. Oliver Sacks writes in his book Musicophilia, Anatomists would be hard put to identify the brain of a visual artist, a writer, or a mathematician  but they could recognize the brain of a professional musician without a moments hesitation. Another excerpt from the Maegalina blogpost reminds us that Scientists are also wondering if these findings can aid in helping therapy of stroke victims or other patients with damaged portions of their brains. The thinking is that these patients can also learn to rewire their brain to perform tasks of damaged areas in undamaged areas. Music therapy has already been in use for decades for Schizophrenia and other neurological disease. Melodic Intonation Therapy, a form of musical therapy, is starting to be used in stroke victims, however. In a TedTalk by Robert Gupta, he describes the work of Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, a neuroscientist at Harvard. He says, Schlaug found that his stroke victims who were aphasic, could not form sentences of three- or four- words, but they could sing the lyrics to a songafter 70 hours of intensive singing lessons, he found that the music was able to literally rewire the brains of his patients and create a homologous speech center in their right hemisphere to compensate for the left hemispheres damage (Gupta 2012). These results are an exciting find for the future treatment and recovery of stroke victims whom have lost the abilities of speech cognition. This writer employed this modality for his mother and can attest to its efficacy.

Life Noggin

SDM applies this thinking to a range of illnesses and social good causes that can be motivated by music. In conjunction with other innovative analytical and Facebook Group solutions like Liquid Grids (its Caregivers and Cancer communities are some of the largest Facebook Groups), SDM can identify, connect and activate music artists and fans impassioned by the same issues. With facilitation by Socially Driven Music, these motivated aggregations will utilize their collective brainpower to interact with a panoply of companies for support and product sponsorship in accomplishing their shared goals. Think about the work that #MusicFromTheStreets is doing, for example, and the nonexclusive but recurring correlation between homelessness and mental illness and substance abuse. Consider how SDM and its strategic alliances (e.g., Higi and Liquid Grids) can identify and possibly help friends and family of afflicted and addicted people before they become homeless. Now consider the revenue and donations that can be generated from advertising, sponsors, music placements in multimedia, etc.

Our strategies generate participation in these causes by helping to create music with an emotional intelligence (EQ) that will define todays issues for tomorrow: the next generation of songs that follow those featured in the excellent CNN documentary Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History. SDM is focused on emerging talent around the world (some rights issues are less complicated), but also supports Legacy artists like those depicted in the Soundtracks.. series. We know that many of these pioneers remain fantastically creative and productive despite being excluded from (antiquated) pop charts and we bring a game plan untapped by the music industry to assist them in reemerging. It should not be lost on the reader that SDMs concepts address fans of all genres, but also act to reengage former music fans who feel that theyve outgrown the insipidity in much of todays pop music.

The Audience Controls Music Now, said Wes Pentz  Diplo, of act Major Lazer  in a recent interview). SDM agrees and further extrapolates that audiences will also control social good projects when galvanized by music. A recent CNN series called Champions for Change, showcases social good causes that resonate with certain of its anchors who then participate in that activity to expose it to their viewership. It has broadcasts ranging from amputee Veterans being trained to climb mountains, to teaching young girls the metaphor of how the mindset of competitive running corresponds to achieving dreams, to how a program introducing the arts is inspiring school kids whose district budgets have eliminated these programs.

Television series Champions for Change and Soundtracks are examples of a cross-section of caring people identifying and fulfilling a need to help and educate others, respectively. Using specifically designed strategies for seizing upon the commonality in each of these projects, SDM is then able to extend this work with a combination of music licensing innovations, Social Relationship Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, predictive analytics and inventive integration of relevant special interest groups (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, et al). This amalgamation of tech and creative innovation is one of the formulae that SDM employs to feed an insatiable love of stories that we all see evidenced ubiquitously, most recently through the introduction of storytelling tools from Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others.

Confirming how music can create micro-marketing stories through correlative Playlists (to You Tubes chagrin) is video platform Dailymotion and its recognition of the ability of this forum to not only aggregate eyeballs, but generate and motivate interaction amongst its users. Stories, if theyre compelling, have long been recognized by marketing experts as a Call To Action tool. The company Higi (you know them as the blood pressure, heart rate, weight, etc., kiosks inside your local pharmacies) is an example of a fascinating opportunity to reach consumers with medical stories by various celebrities, especially music artists, based on the extensive data it collects. Through its acquisition of SmartStory, it can entertain and educate while also driving sales of OTC product. Combining stories with Higis other acquisition, rewards company Earndit, further entices the consumer. Higi, which partners with Liquid Grids (which also collects and serves to dissect the Big Data science) and Golden Image Enterprises, also has the extraordinary possibility of becoming a POS. It can become a Redbox-type of music access distributor for special promotions and windowing of music that relates to a special motivational story or accomplishment that is targeted individually within a diversity of medical issues. What makes the combination of these companies and SDM even more unique is the prospect of reaching people in need on a localized basis. Localization is the model behind the successes of AirBnB, Dropbox, Groupon, Tinder, Reddit, Foursquare and others, and is one of the main precepts in SDMs DNA. In fact, SDM believes that this understanding is the main driver in Elon Musks desire to bring its own streaming service to Tesla (in which SDM is exploring participating). Imagine the JV implications for Amazon and the potential exposure of emerging local artists through this new music delivery service. Then consider the exponential benefit of coordinated social good campaigns with Higi/Golden Image/Liquid Grids, powered by SDM.

This brings us to Answering The Call  an inspired rallying call for all impassioned causes (check out the video: http://bit.ly/2sik9Xu). We think youll agree that the potential anthem speaks to the ambitious objectives of many social good missions. Van Jones #LoveArmy shares the same message to implore civil discourse and compromise as the solutions for moving forward as does Rand Bishop and his #PeacePilgrim walk, which motivated the song. During Rands 90-day trek completing near the end of July, he will have had the opportunity to talk with a cross-section of California and Oregon and hear the stories of people who share a desire for civil discourse. Its a microcosm sampler that complements the work of other caring people, such as W. Kamau Bell in his CNN series United Shades Of America. These initiatives similarly and reciprocally coalesce around a determination to make a difference by example. Further illustrations include #JourneyAcrossAmerica and its companion challenge, #WhatsMyWin, created by Higi, Golden Imaging Enterprises and Liquid Grids, with Darren Kaviloky. We can find other clear indications of the direction of the music industry in a recent piece published by Jay-Z called This is Our Power that speaks to the need for activism (his Roc Nation manages Van Jones) and in Lady Gaga and Starbucks Cups of Kindness collaboration which complements Starbucks proactive Feed The Hungry campaign. SDM will hope to work with truly activating all these good deeds with a giant step into the future of the music industry propelled by legions of music-loving activists.

While we utilize music to power social good, we must concurrently stay mindful of the current reality of musicians and songwriters struggling to find ways to recreate the lucrative living that was once possible from distribution and broadcasting of their music. SDM embodies some of the smartest solutions for monetization and expansion of music distribution into untapped outlets, while working to dramatically improve the unconscionable paltry royalties being paid to our treasured songwriters and artists (locally and globally). We support the immense possibilities for bringing transparency to intellectual property royalties through various blockchain projects (we like Benji Rogers thinking at dotBlockchain) and the futuristic work of IBM Watson in conjunction with three of the worlds largest Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). Getting artists and writers paid equitably for their work is a cause which precipitates all the others in a logically evolved Smart Contract model (including addressing ATV Music CEO Martin Bandiers exhortation for song credits to be included in digital files), and is the one which will rally and break down real and artificial barriers for the good of all. Check out our previous essays that provide an overview of the innovative solutions SDM brings to the table as it teases the music business into its future and addresses the many continuing holdout issues of an industry in transition. We are humbled that our thinking is aligned with so many visionaries, among them venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla who, according to Venture Beat, thinks that theres a high-paying job on the chopping block: oncology. I cant imagine why a human oncologist would add value, given the amount of data in oncology, he said during a panel conversation hosted by MIT in San Francisco in June. His comments were part of a broader point that education will not be enough to stem the economic upheaval and job loss that comes about as part of the growth of artificial intelligence. He doesnt believe that human radiologists will exist in five years as a result, for example. Similarly, SDM believes that the music industry as we know it today will be unrecognizable five years from now. Join Socially Driven Music in imagining the future of music!

Stephen C. Love, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President, Socially Driven Music, was one of the co-architects of the legendary ATV Music Group (publishers of the Lennon-McCartney catalogue), where he served as Executive Vice President, Worldwide. His career includes EVP Music, Worldwide, at Carolco Pictures, All American Television and Pearson Television (Fremantle). Long considered a big thinker and visionary, he has extensive experience in international music publishing creative, royalties and overall administration, Film and TV supervision, and negotiation of composer, artist and soundtrack agreements for dozens of productions, as well as being adept at negotiation of all synchronization and master use licenses. SDM is a labor of love (pun intended) to transform the music industry for the benefit of music creators, while motivating social good along the way.

Share on:
The City Council has accepted a proposal of $465,000 for the Windsor Mill.

North Adams Council OKs Sale Agreement for Windsor Mill



Wayne Wilkinson takes the oath of office for City Council on Tuesday night. Councilor Keith Bona was also sworn in as vice president. Both replace positions held by Nancy Bullett, who resigned. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the sale of the Windsor Mill.

The decision came after more than a half hour of discussion that included concerns from two tenants in the mill.

Simeon Bruner of Cambridge Development Corp., principal of Bruner/Cott Architects, offered $465,000 for the historic mill with the pledge to invest a minimum of $400,000 on facade and capital improvements within the next three years.

"It's been widely know for the last few years that I want to sell off city property," Mayor Richard Alcombright said. "The things that typically go wrong on large commercial properties ... we don't have the assets to maintain."

The city has owned the building for nearly 40 years, after taking it over from the defunct Economic Development Corp. in the early 1980s. Councilor Keith Bona noted that the very first speech by longtime Mayor John Barrett III referred to selling off the property.

"In my opinion, this has been a very long time coming," he said. "This is something that I wanted to see for decades, that the mill get off the city's property list."

Bona said it wasn't a matter of just getting it back on the tax rolls, but also because the city did not have the resources to maintain the 158,000 square-foot mill and that it shouldn't be competing with commercial landlords.

Councilor Wayne Wilkinson, attending his first meeting after being elected at the last meeting by the council to fill Nancy Bullett's vacant seat, thought the matter should have a more comprehensive vetting. He was concerned that the proposed buyer was not in attendance and that the council had not been provided a more thorough presentation.

He suggested that it be referred to the Community Development Committee but that did not move forward as a motion.

Alcombright said it wasn't really the council's purview to oversee site plans and that development prior presentations had been linked to requests for tax incentives.

"I think that the city government should be the method and the means by which things are permitted," he said. "I don't believe we should be competing with the private sector."

Councilor Robert R. Moulton Jr. said he was "thrilled to see the offer on this." That assessment was shared by others on the council, with Eric Buddington saying he was "perfectly comfortable" and Lisa Blackmer seeing the proposed offer as reasonable.

Blackmer, however, asked if the mayor was comfortable with the price of $465,000. The mill had been appraised at $1.1 million two years ago but Wilkinson, also a professional appraiser, thought that might be high because it had not been compared with more local structures.

"I don't have a problem with the amount we're selling it for," he said, adding his issue was the speed at which the council was being asked to act.

The councilors were concerned for the future of the 16 or 17 tenants in the building. Some were longtime renters, like Stephen Sauve of Sauve Guitars who said he had been there for 40 years.

"It would just really be nice if we had an idea what's going to happen to us," Sauve said. "I would feel a whole lot better."

Alcombright said he had stressed how great the tenants were to Bruner and to a second bidder.

"Mr. Bruner is very cognizant of the tenants who are there," he said. "This could be quite awhile before any tenants may have to move."

The School Department's E3 Academy, an alternative high school program, is definitely moving out and the city is disposing of the materials it's currently storing in the mill.

The mayor said Bruner's initial proposal is for upgrades and landscaping and that his complete vision for art incubators/lofts has not been fleshed out. It could be years, he said, before any significant plans are put forth.

The tenants have from monthly up to three-year leases that he hoped would provide some protection, but he could not guarantee that. They would be in the same position, he suggested, if they were renting from a commercial owner who then sold the building.

Riad Maher, president of MRA Laboratories, said his company had just signed a three-year lease. It manufactures materials for the government and is required to give 12 months notice of any change, including moving.

"We may be asked to leave if our model doesn't fit well with Bruner's," he said. "If our new landlord asked us to leave and does not give us 12 months' notice, we are out of business."

Alcombright said once the council approved the purchase-and-sale agreement, Bruner would be meeting with tenants.

"I think he wants to do right and well by the community and right and well for the community means treating our tenants well," he said.

The buyer is responsible for doing any environmental testing but the city is not obligated to do any remediation. A search of the mill's documentation had not uncovered any environmental issues, but the buyer could back out if something was found.

The vote to enter into the purchase-and-sale agreement was unanimous, with Councilor Ronald Boucher absent. Wilkinson said his concerns had been addressed through the discussion and the involvement of some of the tenants.

Alcombright said he anticipated bringing forward two more purchase-and-sale agreements in the coming weeks. The city had put five properties up for sale earlier this year. The others are the City Yard, the salt shed, Notre Dame Church and Sullivan School. There are reportedly buyers for the City Yard and salt shed, both on Ashland Street.

In other business, the council voted on an amendment to streamline changes in the city's parking ordinances; approved the takeover of the Blackinton Cemetery; heard a report on the quality of the city's water; and referred request to take a stand on the Paris Climate Agreement to committee.

It also approved two taxi-driver applications: one from Tracy Jalbert of Mohawk Forest Boulevard to drive for RJ Taxi and other from Jennifer McKeon of Commercial Street, Adams, to drive for Tunnel City Taxi.
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

This year has been very busy, announces Zoe Kazan, perched on a sofa in Londons Soho Hotel. Ive been wearing a lot of different hats. Its no exaggeration by the 34 year-old actress, playwright and screenwriter. Best known for the 2012 romantic comedy Ruby Sparks, which she wrote and starred in with her off-screen partner Paul Dano, these past months shes been working on a play, After The Blast, thats unveiled off-Broadway this autumn.

Shes also co-adapted Richard Fords book Wildlife with Dano, which marks his directorial debut. And then theres The Big Sick  a comedy that, in the US, is becoming the sleeper hit of the summer. Co-written by Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani and his real-life spouse Emily V. Gordon, the film is inspired by their relationship. Nanjiani plays Kumail, an aspiring comedian in Chicago; Kazan plays Emily, a graduate student.

The film deals with the early months of their time together, when the Pakistani-born Kumail  unbeknownst to Emily  keeps their coupling a secret from his strict Muslim parents. Then she contracts a life-threatening illness and is put into a medically-induced coma for eight days. As a storyline, it sounds more suited to a daytime soap than a comedy. But The Big Sick manages to be both touching and funny.

The prospect of playing girlfriend in a coma, to borrow from The Smiths song, may not sound appealing, but Kazan was struck by the honesty of Gordon and Nanjianis writing. They were very brave to write something so personal about such a difficult time in their life, she says. I would imagine, if I was going to write something autobiographical, it would be very hard for me if people wanted to change things.

Zoe Kazan as Emily and Nanjiani Kumail as himself in the romantic comedy 'The Big Sick'

Kazan, petite and blessed with captivating blue eyes, was a little disappointed when she met Gordon for the first time. I felt kind of let down because we were so similar already, she says. She showed up wearing a shirt that I owned! She just seemed like somebody I already I knew. And one of the reasons its fun to transform as an actor is that youre stepping away from yourself: the way you change your body impacts the way that you feel and it produces a different kind of self.

In a summer where puerile (and expensively assembled) comedies like Snatched and The House have disappointed, The Big Sick has found an audience. Partly because it deals honestly with the immigrant experience in America  specifically the anti-Muslim sentiment thats increased since Donald Trump entered the White House. Has the film inadvertently become more resonant in the months since they shot it? Kazan thinks for a while before answering.

Writers Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani on the set of 'The Big Sick' which was inspired by their romantic relationship

What I see quite a lot online are people of colour saying, Its always been this way. Now theres just a spotlight on it. While it would be short-sighted to lay blame entirely at Trumps door, she adds, I do think that the anti-Muslim sentiment that has been reinforced and stoked by some of the policies of this administration make it feel all the more important to bring this movie into the world, partially because its not polemical.

In her eyes, The Big Sick is not inherently political, despite touching on Islamophobia. I think its power is in its emotionality. My dearest wish is that people who might feel like theyre on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me will still take a chance on this. I dont think were trying to shut anybody out of the conversation; the movie is coming with its arms wide open. I think it invites people in rather than pushes them away and that seems like an important thing to put into the world.

Kazan and her partner Paul Dano who is directing the film 'Wildlife' they have together co-adapted for the screen (Getty for Netflix) (Getty Images for Netflix)

Born in Los Angeles, Kazan comes from a Hollywood family: her mother Robin Swicord is a screenwriter/director (nominated for an Oscar for co-adapting David Finchers The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and her father is writer Nicholas Kazan. This makes her granddaughter to Elia Kazan, who directed Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, though she denies her surname ever really gave her any kudos. I think its a lot less important than other people think it is, she says.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

Kazan is not the sort to ride on anothers coattails. If I didnt feel responsible for my own success and failure that would be hard for me, she says. So far, her acting roles have been indie-centric  films like Meeks Cutoff, Me and Orson Welles and What If. Would she take a Marvel movie if the offer came along? If I was offered a Marvel film, I would not be turning it down! she laughs. A blockbuster would, she says, free her up financially. There are other reasons to do a Marvel movie, but you have to take care of your economic life.

The actress Kazan is best known for her role in 'Ruby Sparks' in which she stars with Dano

Kazan isnt the sort who fancifully lives in an artists garret; New York  where she lives with Dano, whom she met in 2007 on the play Things We Want  is expensive. Theres rent to pay. Its one of the things I feel I learned growing up with parents who are writers sometimes you are taking a job so you dont have to worry about money for the next bit of time. Sometimes a job is just a job and that doesnt make it less important.

Still, money worries aside, Kazan is an artistic purple patch right now. A slice of speculative fiction, After The Blast  her fourth play  sounds intriguing. Its about a world in which weve destroyed our environment and had to retreat underground. Then theres the Dano-directed Wildlife, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan in a story about a boy witnessing his parents marriage fall apart.

Co-writing together with Dano was surprisingly fluid. Its been very easy actually, compared to acting together! she smiles. Weve worked together many times at this point and I would say this has probably been the most seamless collaboration  Its been so beautiful. Weve been together a long time now and its beautiful to watch your partner grow in a new way. Hes a very natural director and Ive been waiting a long time now to watch him do this.

Yet, when it comes to being in front of the camera, Kazan cant shake the feeling that its the hat thats the most difficult to hold onto. As Ive gotten older, I have allowed myself to say no more often. But its not easy, she says. I think most actors feel like their career could evaporate at any time. The uncertainty of not knowing where your next job will come from, even if you have a lot of work behind you..It's very hard to feel that stability.

'The Big Sick' opens on 28 July
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Anne Hathaway is looking to play one of the most famous women in history. She just happens to be made of plastic.

The Ankler reports she's currently in talks to lead Sony Pictures' live-action Barbie movie, stepping in after Amy Schumer previously dropped out due to "scheduling conflicts". Should she sign, she'd be directed by Australian filmmaker Alethea Jones.

The film, which is set to mix animation and live-action, will apparently follow what happens to Barbie after she gets kicked out of Barbieland for not fitting in.

Her adventures in the real world will eventually lead her to realise that "perfection comes on the inside, not on the outside, and that the key to happiness is belief in oneself, free of the obligation to adhere to some unattainable standard of perfection".

Considering the amount of abuse Schumer received from trolls over her original casting in the part, her involvement felt a little more empowering in terms of challenging Hollywood beauty standards, but Hathaway's smart, thoughtful approach to both her work and the industry at large still makes her a very promising choice.

Sony has been developing the project for a while, and it's clear that the studio is keen to focus on Barbie's long history of female empowerment (come on, the woman managed to be both a doctor, a rock star, and an astronaut all in one lifetime), all while attempting to address head-on its more troubling engagement with ideas of perfection and unattainable beauty ideals.

Barbie is currently set to his UK cinemas 29 June 2018.
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Donald Trump has incited the wrath of Hollywood after effectively banning transgender people from serving in the US military, blaming the medical costs and disruption they would cause.

The president stated that the U.S. government will not allow transgender people to serve in any capacity in the military, tweeting: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

The swift social media reaction following his announcement - which, CNN reports, was unknown to the White House press office - has been overwhelmingly negative with LGBTQ celebrities, including Caitlyn Jenner and Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox, both expressing their disgust.

Elsewhere, stars including George Takei, transgender actress Candis Cayne and Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, also waded in with their views.

Many Twitter users, including Hollywood icon Mia Farrow, highlighted a tweet sent by Trump in June 2016 when he thanked the LGBT community, writing: I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A fan of the film Titanic is to get a memorable evening when Leonardo DiCaprio auctions off the chance to have dinner with the Oscar-winning actor and his former co-star Kate Winslet.

The lot will raise money for DiCaprio's conservation foundation, which is holding its lavish annual gala dinner in St Tropez tonight.

The winning bidder can dine with Titanics Jack and Rose at a New York restaurant of their choice. Due to the stars filming commitments, they will have to select a date in either October or November.

Other lots in the auction include a three-metre long sculpture of a tiger created by the celebrated Russian artist Vasily Klyukin. It is called 6/9 to highlight how three species of tiger are now extinct, leaving only six on the planet.

Talking about the inclusion of his piece in this years event, Mr Klyukin said: I have four kids and do not want them to just survive in a desert or caves. Working on this sculpture, I was trying to make it appealing  drawing attention to its name as well as to the substance behind it.

The winning bidder will get the chance to experience one of the film's most memorable scenes for real (Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock)

Another work of art by Mr Klyukin, depicting a dancing fairy, sold for $300,000 at a recent Aids fundraiser in Cannes.

Guests at tonight's gala will be entertained with a special performance by Lenny Kravitz, but members of the audience are just as A-list: Madonna, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hanks, Jared Leto, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Tobey Maguire and Uma Thurman are among those expected to attend.

Last year, the gala dinner and auction raised $45 million and featured guests such as Bono, Chris Rock, Jonah Hill, Naomi Campbell, Mariah Carey, Tobey Maguire and Edward Norton.

Proceeds go to DiCaprio's foundation, which offers grants to environmental causes. The dinner itself will also benefit a GoFundMe campaign that Winslet supports, which is helping a young mother in the UK pay for her cancer treatment.
Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Are you in the deep zone, right now? MUNA vocalist Katie Gavin asks her bandmate Naomi McPherson.

I am, McPherson admits, laughing, somewhere between a trance and a seance. Im lost in thoughts. I feel like Im in college right now. Im having my thoughts!

For those not familiar with the Los Angeles trio, this isnt the first time MUNA have found themselves lost in deep conversation, and it wont be the last. They dont shy away from big topics. At a time when every musician and their dog can declare themselves politically-motivated, the groups 2017 debut album About U strikes a perfect balance between thunderous ideals and a universal inclusivity  all contained within bold, glossy pop songs.

Guitarist Josette Maskin sums things up when praising bandmate Gavin, noting of her lyricism: Shes able to make a human connection with something thats political.

Thats the real appeal of About U. Its a record that takes on big topics headfirst and allows an ever-growing fan base to join the ride.

The group met while at The University of Southern California  Gavin and Maskin studied music, McPherson studied Narrative Studies and American Studies & Ethnicity. Since forming, theyve seen their songs take on a life of their own. I Know a Place is their go-to-rallying cry, a track that sees Gavin singing: I know a place we can go, where everyone gonna lay down their weapon.

The track has personal roots, but last year it found itself starkly applicable to the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. This safe space for the LGBTQ community hosted a tragic act of violence. With that, MUNA shared the song alongside a note on Time magazine, writing about how a track once written for Pride Week became weirdly relevant to a queer culture thats constantly under threat.

Let us push ourselves to imagine a peaceful America where no one has to live in fear, Gavin wrote.

Months later, the song was realigned when performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, two weeks after Donald Trumps inauguration and directly after his travel ban executive order (eventually ruled illegal by a federal court).

Gavin changed the songs lyrics to sing: I throw my arms open wide in resistance. Hes not my leader even if hes my president.

Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

That song has taken on so many lives, admits McPherson. Gavin speaks about her aim to write music thats timeless and universal, and she notes how I Know Place could be applied to so many situations. There have been countless events in recent history that have required us to respond with a statement that says: I know that there exists a place where we can all be peaceful.

At the core of MUNAs work, theres always a arm reaching out, telling those listening in that they dont need to be afraid. McPherson adds that there can often be a divide between artists and the people who consume their art, but that the trio aim to tear down that fourth wall.

MUNA were once asked why they didnt apply their political ideals to punk songs. A strange question, given it suggests political music should be contained to just one genre, while also ignoring an influx of #woke pop from big-name acts like Katy Perry and Gorillaz. We contain multitudes. It doesnt need to be so simple, states Gavin.

In some ways, she feels like shes in a punk group. We have principles that involve not putting money or a financial incentive above what we believe to be a higher purpose as a band, she says. But in 2017 its becoming impractical to put bands into a neat, genre-fied box.

For all the noble efforts to remark on troubled times, its becoming increasingly fashionable to sport political songs with something to say. Several once-forgotten bands have come out of the woodwork with a reignited voice and an anti-Trump stance. Some of these efforts come from a genuine place of wanting to instigate change, others hop on a bandwagon. But McPherson believes this movement, whether a fad or a landmark moment, is more down to young, politicised music fans.

Kids on the internet have access to literature and concepts that maybe kids 15 years ago didnt, she asserts. So many kids now identify as feminists, and I didnt know what that was until I was in high school. People identify as queer, which I had no idea about until I was 16 or 17. That makes a difference. The ones that buy music and go to shows are young kids. Theyre the ones that move culture forward.

Its one of many positive lessons MUNA are drawing from difficult times. Gavin admits that shes still trying to deal with the fact that you can love people who believe in ideologies that you find personally harmful, after members of her family voted for Trump. None of the trio are applying a false, positive spin to ground-shaking events, but theyve come to their own proactive resolutions.

MUNA: There have been countless events in recent history that have required us to respond with a statement that says: I know that there exists a place where we can all be peaceful

Were just not seeing people as people, claims Maskin. Theres a separation that needs to be broken down. People who support Trump are going through a struggle. We need to understand their struggle, they need to understand ours and we need to reach a medium. Otherwise this is just gonna persist and well never figure it out.

Thankfully, MUNA arent sick of being asked about politics. Theyre more than willing to get lost in their own thoughts. Were talking about this stuff a lot right now because were getting ready to write more music. Gavin corrects herself: We are writing more music, actually. Its always been a part of who we are as a band to conceptualise whats going on.

We want to come at it with an intention. I want to use our songs as a way to start conversations.

MUNAs debut album About U is out now via Columbia
Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The next Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, it has been announced.

Following the country's first ever win in the annual competition in May this year, the European Broadcasting Union has confirmed that the city will now play host to 2018's event.

Dates for the show have also been confirmed. The semi-finals will take place on 8 and 10 May, while the final is being held on Saturday 12 May.

The EBU's executive Eurovision supervisor Jon Ola San said: "We are very pleased to announced that RTP will be hosting the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon.

"The city has presented an exemplary proposal, and we look forward to working together to make Portugal's first ever Eurovosion the most exciting one yet.

"We would like to congratulate RTP on their professional and details assessment of all the bids."

Portugal scored its first ever Eurovision victory at the 2017 contest in Kiev, with Salvador Sobral's ballad "Amor Pelos Dois" winning over voters.

The UK managed to achieve its best performance since 2011, after contestant Lucie Jones' song "Never Give Up on You" finished in 15th place, with 111 points.

The country which wins the Eurovision Song Contest is traditionally the one that acts as host the following year.
Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The decision to ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars was always going to grab the headlines.

But the Government is perhaps less keen for people to know that this apparently shocking move may not actually achieve anything at all.

For it will only take effect in 2040, by which time market forces are likely to have largely completed the transition from fossil fuels to electricity-powered vehicles anyway.

While it could be a sign that Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, is taking the issue more seriously, the recommitment to the ban, which was originally announced in 2011, comes after his predecessors were twice ordered by a judge to come up with a better plan to bring the air we breathe into line with minimum safety standards.

And, earlier this year, the European Union issued the UK with its final warning to comply with air quality laws that have been breached for seven years.

Gareth Redmond-King, head of climate and energy policy at environmental group WWF, said the ban might sound good but end up being meaningless.

The Governments been failing to comply with this law for seven years and then is setting itself a target so far in the future that it will be delivered even if the Government did nothing, he told The Independent.

The signs are all there in the market that this is going to happen anyway.

The ban is so far away and so unambitious its not sending a big signal to the market and to the car manufacturers.

That point was echoed by Professor Alastair Lewis, of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at York University.

Given the rate of improvement in battery and electric vehicle technology over the last 10 years, by 2040 small combustion engines in private cars could well have disappeared without any Government intervention, he said.

He stressed the economic arguments for improving the UKs air quality were overwhelming.

The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Show all 10 1 /10 The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Ukraine The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bulgaria Rex Features The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Belarus The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Russia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Armenia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bosnia and Herzegovina REUTERS The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Georgia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Hungary DigitalGlobe The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths China The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Moldova

The costs to the economy, through lost productivity and costs to the NHS are measured in the billions of pounds per year, and could well increase further with an ageing population, Professor Lewis said.

But the ban, which he said was highly symbolic, will not solve the problem entirely.

Electric vehicles have no direct tailpipe emissions but they are still a source of particulate matter from brake and tyre wear and through agitating road dust, Professor Lewis said.

There still remain many other urban sources of pollution not only from transport, but also heating, construction, domestic emissions, and external sources of pollution that drift into cities from outside, most notably from the agricultural sector.

Some other urban sources of pollution are even on an upwards trend, most notably from wood burning stoves.

Rail unions also condemned the Governments plan in light of the recent scrapping of plans to electrify parts of the rail network by Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary.

Mick Cash, RMTs general secretary, said the newly announced ban exposes the rank hypocrisy of their decision to shelve long-planned rail electrification works.

Puffed up news announcements about plans that are a generation away will not mask the reality of scrapped modernisation programmes on our railways in the here and now, he said.

Last year, a World Health Organisation report found 10 towns and cities in the UK, including London, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Southampton and Oxford, had breached what are regarded as safe levels of tiny particles known as PM10. And 39 urban areas also breached the safe levels for a measure of even smaller particles, known as PM2.5.

ClientEarth, a group of environmental lawyers who twice won court orders forcing the Government to come up with a better plan to improve air quality, pointed to the years of delay by the Government  in the past and the future.

Anna Heslop, a ClienthEarth air quality lawyer, said: Successive governments have failed to protect us from illegal air quality.

Weve had to return repeatedly to court to challenge the Government on its weak and incoherent air quality policies and yet, seven years on we are still having to fight to protect peoples health.

The UK Government has been wasting time and taxpayers money trying to defend the indefensible and failing to take the robust action necessary to deal with what it admits is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK.

The headline grabbing move to ban diesel and petrol vehicles by 2040 is, while welcome, way too distant to tackle the air quality crisis now.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

O2 has admitted to deliberately slowing down customers mobile internet speeds.

The mobile operator has been throttling network bandwidth for people roaming in the EU.

Roaming charges were scrapped in the EU on 15 June, meaning you can use your phone as you would at home, without being hit with enormous bills.

However, since then, O2 has been making it harder for phone users to actually do anything online while they're abroad.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

A customer posted the results of speed tests he carried out in Dublin on 13 July, a month after roaming charges were scrapped, using a range of SIM cards from different UK operators.

He found that O2s mobile data speeds were far, far lower abroad than they were in the UK, dropping from 8.52Mbps (download) and 7.19Mbps (upload) at Manchester Airport to 0.25Mbps (download) and 0.30Mbps (upload) at Dublin Airport.

The O2 contract SIM never exceeded speeds of 0.58Mbps (download) and 1.04Mbps (upload) during the customers time in Dublin.

While performance was erratic, the O2 PAYG SIM was able to reach speeds of 6.76Mbps (download) and 1.43Mbps (upload).

On Vodafone, he managed to hit highs of 121.07Mbps (download) and 26.95Mbps (upload), and on Three he reached highs of 7.46Mbps (download) and 1.07Mbps (upload).

The customer was never able to use 4G services on either of his O2 SIM cards.

You could see the phone trying its hardest and on many occasions starting the speed test I was getting 10+ Mbps, however throttling kicked in and it went straight to 0.50 mostly. Im appalled that its still throttled badly and its [sic] shocking that 4G is still not available, he wrote in a post on the O2 forum, spotted by the Register.

Also, O2 Contract is throttled, but not PAYG, what is wrong with O2.

O2 has since confirmed that it has been throttling speeds.

We have put temporary measures in place to protect the service experience for customers roaming in the EU. We are working to have these controls removed within the coming weeks, a spokesperson said.

In an updated statement, an O2 spokesperson told the Independent: "Data roaming surpassed all expectations we therefore have put temporary measures in place to protect the service experience for customers roaming in our Europe Zone. These firewalls are temporary and we are working to have these controls removed within the coming weeks."

According to an April report on 4G coverage in the UK, EE is ahead of O2, Vodafone and Three.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Anti-depressants have been associated with 28 reports of murder referred to the UK medicines regulator in the last three decades, according to a new BBC investigation.

Murderous thoughts were also believed to be linked to the medication on 32 occasions, according to Panorama, although the possible connection does not necessarily mean the drugs caused the events.

In 2016, over 40 million prescriptions were made for SSRIs, a type of anti-depressant that boosts levels of the chemical seratonin in the brain.

Recommended One in ten teachers taking antidepressants to cope with work stresses

For the vast majority of people, the drugs are safe to take, however the programme has uncovered a number of cases of extreme violence thought to be linked to the medication.

A father who strangled his 11-year-old son was among the cases thought to be linked to the drugs, the programme found.

Professor Peter Tyrer, psychiatrist at Imperial College London who has been studying SSRIs, said: You can never be quite certain with a rare side-effect whether its linked to a drug or not because it could be related to other things.

"But its happened just too frequently with this class of drug to make it random. Its obviously related to the drug but we dont know exactly why.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Professor Tyrer is calling for the judicial system to take into account the possible effects of SSRIs in cases where people taking them commit violent crimes.

Drugs manufacturer Pfizer who developed an SSRI called sertraline said a causal link between the drug and murderous behaviour had not been proved.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

When it comes to online dating, people go about it in different ways.

Whilst some like to exchange messages for a good few weeks to make sure they get to know someone a bit before meeting up in person, others prefer to skip the chat and just meet up for a drink to see if theres a spark.

But one couple may have set a record for the amount of time they messaged.

Michelle and Josh

Josh Avsec, 22, and Michelle Arendas, 21, talked on Tinder - albeit sporadically - for three years without ever seeing each other in person.

Their unconventional love story came to public attention after Avsec tweeted out a picture of their exchange.

Arguably ghosting then zombieing each other, the pair, both students at Kent State University in Ohio, made a joke out of how long each of them took to reply to messages.

Arendas replied to Avsecs tweets - notably quicker than she ever had done on Tinder - and Twitter went mad for their story.

They went viral and even caught the attention of Tinder, who offered to send the students on a dream first date to a city of their choosing - Arendas and Avsec opted for Maui in Hawaii.

Before they jetted off though, the couple had to meet for the first time IRL.

And where better to do so than on Good Morning America.

Both dressed in blue, the nervous pair hugged each other, with Avsec saying: Michelle, it is so good to finally meet you.

And in doing so, hearts melted across the world.

Well all be waiting with baited to breath to hear how that first date in Hawaii goes.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Campaign groups and trade bodies have slammed the prospect of the Government banning the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, with one lobby group claiming that such a move would cost consumers and the economy trillions of pounds.

FairFuelUK, a campaign group that fights for lower fuel duty and more transparent petrol pricing, said on Wednesday that if the Government went ahead with the ban it would have missed an opportunity to solve the emissions issue [] fairly and at little cost.

It is inevitable that carbon based fuels will be phased out to favour cleaner fuels, but to do it as a cliff edge in 20 years is naive and ill thought out, it said.

Recommended Britain expected to ban all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040

Better to phase in new fuel technologies to work effectively and be supported, without a target date to terminate diesel and petrol.

It said that several proven solutions to lowering emissions were available, such as retrofitting systems.

The Government has been under pressure to step up efforts to cut pollution for years. Earlier this month France announced a ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars by 2040.

The proposals are widely expected to be announced later on Wednesday and will reportedly give local authorities the right to charge levies on drivers of diesel vehicles on the countrys most polluted roads from 2020, if air quality doesnt improve.

But Quentin Willson, lead spokesman for FairFuelUK, said that the cost of having no fuel stations and having to scrap millions of diesel vehicles would be trillions.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said on Wednesday that much of the success of any plan to phase our diesel and petrol cars depends on the cost of these new technologies and how willing consumers are to adopt battery, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars.

Currently demand for alternatively fuelled vehicles is growing but still at a very low level as consumer have concern over affordability, range and charging points, he said.

Outright bans risk undermining the current market for new cars and our sector which supports over 800,000 jobs across the UK so the industry instead wants a positive approach which gives consumers incentives to purchase these cars. We could undermine the UKs successful automotive sector if we dont allow enough time for the industry to adjust," he said.

Earlier this month, Volvo announced that from 2019 all of its cars would be at least partially powered by electric motors.

At the time it described the decision as "one of the most significant moves by any car maker". It said that by 2019 it would make a range of cars, none of which would be powered purely by a combustion engine.

Between 2019 and 2021 it plans to launch five fully electric cars. Three of them will be Volvo models and two will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars' performance car arm.

On Tuesday, German carmaker BMW announced plans to build an electric Mini at its plant in Oxford in 2019.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

John Lewis has topped a UK ranking of consumer perceptions of quality and reputation, followed by BBC iPlayer and Sony.

The BBC features heavily in the top 10 of the YouGov BrandIndex list of brand health, with BBC One taking sixth place and BBC Two in ninth position.

YouGov said it should be noted that all of the data for the list was compiled before the BBC published its pay figures.

Marks & Spencer took fourth position, followed by Amazon in fifth place, Samsung in seventh, Heinz in eighth and Boots tenth on the list, which takes into account perceptions of a brands quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether consumers would recommend the brand to others.

In parallel to the UK list, Google has beaten sister company YouTube and Facebook to top the global ranking.

Technology firms feature heavily on the global list, with Samsung coming fourth, messaging service WhatsApp in fifth place and Apples iPhone in sixth spot, according to the YouGov BrandIndex data.

Online retail giant Amazon is seventh, and the top 10 is completed by Toyota, Adidas and Colgate.

Ted Marzilli, chief executive of YouGovs data products, said: Tech brands dominate this global list and with good reason.

By their very nature the likes of Google, YouTube and Facebook are open and accessible in most places on earth to anyone with online access.

The presence of Samsung and Apple iPhone are a sign that our mobile devices have become the remote controls for our lives.

All of the brands in the ranking are mainstream with broad utility at their core, and this is as true of the likes of Toyota and Colgate as it is for WhatsApp and Samsung.

Amelia Brophy, YouGovs UK head of data products, said: While the global rankings are dominated by brands born in the past 20 years, the UK list is predominantly made up of ones that have been around a good while longer.

What is striking is that brands such as John Lewis and the BBC have successfully moved with the times, providing services in online settings while continuing to make a virtue of their brand heritage.

The collapse of some big high-street brands in recent years shows that this is no easy task, but as the UK faces an uncertain economic environment, having brand health steeped in history could help.

Tesco topped a related list ranking most improved brand health over the last year, followed by Netflix and WhatsApp.

Press Association
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Government will take steps immediately to stop charging employment tribunal fees and to refund thousands of people who have paid in recent years, following a Supreme Court ruling, the Ministry of Justice said.

Justice Minister Dominic Raab said that in setting employment tribunal fees, the Government has to consider access to justice, the costs of litigation, and how we fund the tribunals.

The Supreme Court recognised the important role fees can play, but ruled that we have not struck the right balance in this case, he said.

We will take immediate steps to stop charging fees in employment tribunals and put in place arrangements to refund those who have paid.

Recommended Supreme Court rules employment tribunal fees are unlawful

On Wednesday, trade union Unison said that the ruling would force the Government to repay more than 27m forked out by employees for cases around unfair dismal, discrimination and other workplace issues since July 2013, when fees were introduced by Chris Grayling, the then Lord Chancellor.

Over the past four years, anyone in England, Scotland and Wales wanting to pursue a case against an employer has had to pay up to 1,200.

Claim fees for unpaid wages, redundancy pay and breach of contract have been setting workers back 160 plus an additional 230 fee for a hearing. For other claims, such as unfair dismissal, equal pay, discrimination and whistle blowing, the claim fee had been 250 plus 950 for the hearing.

Welcoming the judgement, Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said the Conservatives should accept the ruling and consign their immoral Employment Tribunal fees to the dustbin of history.

Mr Burgon, whose party had vowed to abolish the fees during the general election, continued: Its an important day for access to justice for ordinary working people everywhere.

He said that the Conservative Government  which in coalition with the Lib Dems brought in this immoral restricted access to justice  would not have to pay as much as 32m for attacking workers.

Jonathan Bartley, the Green party co-leader, echoed Mr Burgons call for the fees to be scrapped. He added: This ruling is a victory for access to justice and common sense  workers rights are not worth the paper they are printed on if they cannot be enforced.

Earlier this month Matthew Taylor, a former policy chief to Tony Blair and chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, who was commissioned by the Prime Minister to conduct a study into workers rights, implied that regulation needed to be changed urgently  but stopped short of recommending it should be abolished in his report.

Were saying everyone should be able to have a free judgement on whether or not they have those rights in the first place before they proceed with the case, he told the BBC Radio 4s Today programme at the time.

Frances OGrady, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said Wednesdays ruling was a massive win for working people, adding: Too many low-paid workers couldnt afford to uphold their rights at work, even when theyve faced harassment or have been sacked unfairly.

Tribunal fees have been a bonanza for bad bosses, giving them a free rein to mistreat staff. Any fees paid so far should be refunded as soon as possible.

Citizens Advice, an organisation that has helped over 350,000 people with employment issues over the last year, including 17,500 enquiries regarding tribunals, said the Supreme Court ruling should mark an end to fees in Britain.

Peoples employment rights are only as good as their ability to enforce them, said the organisations chief executive Gillian Guy.

He continued: Employment tribunal fees have prevented people from getting justice when theyve been treated unfairly at work. We hope the Government acts swiftly to suspend the fees system and ensure all of those who are out of pocket get their money back.

We have forked out a fortune on employment tribunal fees for our low-paid members who otherwise would not have been able to argue their cases, said Jason Moyer-Lee, general secretary of the Independent Workers of Great Britain union (IWGB) which represents workers in the gig economy.

Given the near total absence of government enforcement of employment law and the Governments refusal to get serious about addressing insecure work, todays decision is a game changer, he said. This is what justice looks like.

Employment lawyers also described the Supreme Courts decision as game changing.

This ground-breaking decision will mean employers will now have to brace themselves for a much more contentious environment as employees are once again free to assert their rights without financial barriers to a judicial remedy, said Crowley Woodford, employment partner at law firm Ashurst.

Philip Richardson, head of employment law at Stephensons Solicitors, said that the decision is a rare opportunity for those in a position of power to take stock of the failings of past fees regimes and set out a reasonable solution for all concerned.
Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

More than half a million pupils are being taught lessons by unqualified teachers, new analysis reveals, fuelling concerns over a growing crisis in teacher recruitment across the country.

Labour analysis of Government figures suggests as many as 613,000 state-school pupils are being given lessons from teachers who lack expertise in the subject.

The number of unqualified teachers has also risen by more than 60 per cent to 24,000, up from 14,800 in 2012, when the Government removed a requirement for teachers to be qualified in the specific subjects they cover.

This coincides with dramatic staff shortages seen across the sector, with more teachers leaving the profession than entering it for the second year running.

Labour condemned the findings, highlighting that the Government has missed its teacher training targets for the fifth year in a row.

Mike Kane, the shadow schools minister, said this failure to recruit and retain good teachers was putting children at risk.

The Government have completely failed in their most basic of tasks and are clearly relying on unqualified teachers to plug the gaps, he said.

Unqualified teachers have no guaranteed training in safeguarding children, controlling a class or adapting teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils, Mr Kane said.

But under the Tories, theyre responsible for the education of hundreds of thousands of our children.

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

While it is not uncommon for teachers who are qualified in one subject area to be assigned a second, other staff members including teaching assistants and native language speakers who do not hold a qualification in teaching are increasingly being pulled in to address staffing gaps, it has been reported.

Earlier this month it was revealed that more than a third of physics teachers to not have a degree in the subject, and more than a fifth of maths and English teachers hold no higher than an A-level qualification in the subject.

Department for Education data also reveals that children in many secondary schools in England are being taught other core academic subjects, including chemistry, geography and languages, by teachers lacking subject expertise.

The lack of science and maths teachers in particular has been of concern for schools leaders for some time, leading many to opt to assign staff to subjects outside of their area.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said at the time: There is a serious shortage of teachers in many subjects and schools have no choice other than to ask teachers to teach subjects in which they do not have a degree.

These staff do an excellent job in difficult circumstances, and may be teaching students lower down the age range.

 Teacher resorts to begging for school supplies

Press Association analysis of the same figures found that the proportion of geography teachers without a relevant post-A-level qualification has risen to more than a third (33.8 per cent), compared with 32.5 per cent five years ago.

It also found that in history around a quarter (24.9 per cent) are lacking in subject expertise, down compared with 2011.

Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: Children and young people deserve to be taught by a qualified teacher and we know parents agree.

A YouGov survey, commissioned by the union, of parents views on education showed the overwhelming majority (80 per cent) would not want their children to attend schools that did not require their teachers to have professional teaching qualifications, he added.

The same survey also showed 73 per cent of parents believed employing unqualified teaching staff in free schools  state-funded schools which are outside of local authority  is a tactic designed to save money, not improve standards.

Earlier this year, the Government relaxed immigration rules for computer science and general science teachers in a bid to address the teaching shortage, marked by experts as critical.

Maths and physics were already on the shortage occupation list, governed by the Migration Advisory Committee, but chemistry teachers were removed from the list as they were no longer deemed an acute concern.

This is despite more than a quarter of chemistry teachers (25.1 per cent) last year holding no higher than an A-level in the subject.

Under Labour all permanently employed teachers had to be qualified, said Mr Kane

This Government changed the rules and scrapped that requirement, allowing schools to employ unqualified teachers, permanently threatening standards.

There is nothing more important to a good education than excellent teaching. The Tories failure on teacher recruitment is putting school standards at risk and its our children who will pay for their mess.

Earlier this year, Education Select Committee MPs warned shortages in England had reached a crisis point, criticising the Government for failing to come up with a coherent plan to tackle a lack of staff in core subjects such as sciences and maths.

The shortage is set to worsen with pupil numbers at secondary schools expected to spike by more than 500,000 to 3.3 million by 2025.

A Department for Education spokesman said: The number of teachers overall has risen by 3.5 per cent since 2010 and the proportion of qualified teachers in schools remains high.

Nine out of 10 schools are rated good or outstanding and we have record number of teachers in our classrooms - 95 per cent of which hold qualified teacher status.

The rest include some trainees working towards their professional qualifications as well as experts, such as leading scientists, sports people or musicians, who headteachers think can add value to individual lessons and enrich the learning experience for children.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The controversial scientist and writer Richard Dawkins has hit back at claims of Islamophobia after a US radio station cancelled his appearance.

The evolutionary biologist was due to address an event hosted by KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California in August, but the station cancelled due to what they said was abusive speech against Islam.

In an email to people who purchased tickets to the event, published on Mr Dawkins' website, the organisers said: We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didnt know he had offended and hurt  in his tweets and other comments on Islam, so many people.

KPFA does not endorse hurtful speech. While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologise for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins views much earlier.

Although the radio station isnt affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, local media reported it had been alerted to Mr Dawkins tweets about the religion earlier  including a 2013 tweet saying Islam is the greatest force for evil in the world today.

But in an open letter to the organisers Mr Dawkins insisted he never used abusive speech against Islam and instead his harsh comments were directed at IslamISM (sic)  a political interpretation of the religion often used to justify extremism.

He said: I have criticised the ridiculous pseudoscientific claims made by Islamic apologists (the sun sets in a marsh etc), and the opposition of Islamic  scholars to evolution and other scientific truths.

I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief.

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

Far from attacking Muslims, I understand  as perhaps you do not  that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women.

I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?

The author is known as an outspoken critic of religious belief  in 2006 the wrote The God Delusion which castigated faith-based explanations for the universe saying evolutionary theory was superior and atheism was evidence of intelligence.
Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Defying 70 years of fevered speculation, a sceptical scientist has dared to declare that the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has been solved  by claiming there was no mystery in the first place.

Karl Kruszelnicki has insisted the reason why so many ships and planes vanish without trace in the area between Bermuda, Florida, Puerto Rico is nothing to do with aliens or fire-crystals from the lost city of Atlantis.

Instead, the Australian scientist revealed, the high number of disappearances is explained by nothing more supernatural than plain old human error plus bad weather and the fact that lots of planes and ships enter that area of the Atlantic Ocean in the first place.

Mr Kruszelnicki told news.com.au that not only does the Bermuda Triangle - (aka Hodoo Sea, Devils Triangle, Limbo of the Lost and other headline-friendly monikers)  cover a large, 700,000 square-kilometre (270,000 square-mile) swathe of ocean, it is also a particularly busy patch of sea.

Recommended Plane carrying New York family goes missing near Bahamas

It is close to the Equator, near a wealthy part of the world  America - therefore you have a lot of traffic, he said.

So, said Mr Kruszelnicki, when you then compare the number of disappearances to the large quantity of ships and planes passing through the Bermuda Triangle, you find there is nothing out of the ordinary about the area at all.

According to Lloyds of London and the US Coastguard, he said, The number that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis.

Mr Kruszelnicki, who has a fellowship at Sydney University for communicating science to the broader community, also said there were simple explanations for the disappearance that did the most to start the whole Bermuda Triangle speculation: the loss of Flight 19.

This was a flight of five US Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that set off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 5 1945 for a routine two-hour training mission over the Atlantic.

 Scientist claims 'air bombs' behind Bermuda Triangle mystery

After losing radio contact with their base, all five planes vanished. No trace of them or their 14 crew members was found.

Even more spookily, it was later claimed, a PBM-Mariner seaplane dispatched that night on a search-and-rescue mission to find Flight 19 also disappeared, along with its 13 crew.

In the absence of either knowledge or fact-checking, speculation about Flight 19 became a growth industry, especially after 1964, when the writer Vincent Gaddis advanced his theories in an article entitled The Deadly Bermuda Triangle.

Whatever this menace that lurks within a triangle of tragedy so close to home, he wrote, It was responsible for the most incredible mystery in the history of aviation - the lost patrol.

This relatively limited area is the scene of disappearances that total far beyond the laws of chance. Its history of mystery dates back to the never-explained, enigmatic light observed by Columbus when he first approached his landfall in the Bahamas.

As well as pointing out that Lloyds of London would disagree with Gaddis statistical analysis, Mr Kruszelnicki also offered simple explanations for the loss of Flight 19.

For a start, he said, despite Gaddis suggestion the patrol vanished in ideal flight conditions, It wasnt fine weather, there were 15m (49ft) waves.

Mr Kruszelnicki added that the only truly experienced pilot in the flight was its leader, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, and his human error may well have played a part in the tragedy.

[He] arrived with a hangover, flew off without a watch, and had a history of getting lost and ditching his plane twice before, said Mr Kruszelnicki.

Radio transcripts from before the patrol vanished, he added, made it clear that Flight 19 had become unsure of its position.

The transcripts show Lt Taylor thought his compass had malfunctioned and that he was above Florida Keys - a string of islands stretching to the southwest of the US mainland - when in fact later analysis by ground staff would show he was to the southeast, near an island in the Bahamas.

Mr Kruszelnicki said Lt Taylor overruled a junior pilot who said they should turn west, and insisted the patrol fly east, unwittingly taking them further into the Atlantic, above deep water where it might be harder to find sunken planes or bodies.

If you read the radio transcripts, said Mr Kruszelnicki, Some of the junior pilots are saying, Why dont we fly to the west?, and the pilot says, Why dont we fly to the east?

Even more damningly for the Bermuda Triangle mystery, said Mr Kruszelnicki, was the fate of the search-and-rescue seaplane that according to Gaddis and others also vanished.

It didnt vanish without a trace, said Mr Kruszelnicki. [It] was seen to blow up.

There were several witnesses to the explosion; an oil slick and debris were found; and after the disaster, the US Navy grounded all other PBM-Mariner seaplanes. The aircraft had already gained the ominous nickname flying gas tanks.

How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle Show all 4 1 /4 How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle bermuda2.jpg On the fairway: one of the islands stunning golf courses How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle bermuda3.jpg The ducking stool How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle bermuda1.jpg Beach in Bermuda How tourism got lost in the Bermuda triangle bermuda4.jpg St Peters Church

It remains to be seen, however, whether Mr Kruszelnicki, a popular science pundit on Australian TV and radio, will succeed in his attempt to close down the Bermuda Triangle mystery.

Very similar efforts have been made in the past.

Lloyds of London has been saying that Bermuda Triangle disappearances occur at the same rate as everywhere else since at least 1975.

That, however, was a bad year for Bermuda Triangle debunking, because Charles Berlitzs book The Bermuda Triangle, published in 1974, was on its way to selling 20 million copies in 30 languages.

By 1977 the Bermuda Triangle had gained such mass appeal that Steven Spielberg included references to it in his avowedly fictional film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which depicted the crews of Flight 19 as having been abducted by aliens.

Seemingly undaunted, Lloyds of London has regularly repeated its claims about the unremarkable nature of the Bermuda Triangle.

In 1997 a spokesman backed up the claim that There are just as many losses as in other wide expanses of ocean, by adding that insurance premiums for voyages through the Bermuda Triangle were no higher than for any other routine sea journey.

This, however, had little noticeable effect.

The theories have proliferated, despite the fact that Gaddis Deadly Bermuda Triangle article had been published in an American magazine that sometimes promoted itself as the magazine of masterpiece fiction.

And despite the fact that Berlitzs bestseller linked the Mary Celeste to the Bermuda Triangle, even though the ship had been found abandoned off the Azores, on the other side of the Atlantic, and its New York-Italy route would have taken it nowhere near the triangle.

It is now possible to go online and find theories that dismiss such absurd notions as planes and ships disappearing into some sort of black hole or time warp within the Bermuda Triangle, and instead explain: The Bermuda Triangle is situated more or less in the middle of an area of the Atlantic Ocean that once housed Atlantis.

When Atlantis was destroyed it sank to the very bottom of the ocean. While the ruined temples now play host to multitudinous underwater creatures, the great Atlantean fire-crystals that once provided so much of the tremendous power and energy that was found in Atlantis still exist.

And they are still emitting strong energy beams into the universe.

From time to time, the force field emitted by these damaged Atlantean fire-crystals becomes very powerful and any plane or ship coming within the influence of this force field disintegrates and is transformed into pure energy.

New theories are constantly being put forward, some with a kernel of scientific truth to them.

Some have attributed Bermuda Triangle disappearances to explosive releases of methane gas, trapped as methane hydrate inside an icy crystalline cage of water molecules beneath the cold seabed of the deep ocean.

Such blowouts, it has been suggested, could release a giant plume of gas that could cause the sea to bubble like it was boiling, sinking ships because the resulting foam was much less dense than the water on which vessels normally floated.

The gas could also rise into the sky, producing a mixture of 5-15 per cent methane that would explode on contact with a hot aeroplane engine exhaust.

One United States Geological Survey scientist consulted on this theory admitted a gas hydrate blowout could indeed sink ships in the manner described.

The only problem, he said, that the most recent naturally-occurring hydrate gas blowout off the south-eastern US probably occurred at the end of the glacial episode  about 15,000 years ago or more, when the more technically advanced men's ships were probably nothing more than hollow logs.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A couple of British newlyweds have told how they were detained at a US airport for 26 hours and their honeymoon utterly ruined, because the groom is Muslim.

The couple, from West London, had spent 7,000 ($9,100) for a two-week trip that would take in Los Angeles, Hawaii and finally Las Vegas. But after being held at Los Angeles International Airport for more than a day, they were handcuffed, marched to a plane and flown back to London.

The couple, Natasha, 29, and Ali, 32, said they were not given an explanation for the way they were treated. However, against a backdrop of Donald Trumps immigration crackdown and his effort to prevent Muslims from half-a-dozen Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, they suspect it was because of Alis Turkish heritage.

I am in utter shock that this has happened, Natasha told the Sun.

We had just got married, we were on our way to our honeymoon as excited as anything and never expected that we would be deported.

We were treated like criminals and we had all the relevant documentation and answered all their questions. Its not okay to treat people like that.

The couple said they were pulled aside for questioning, a process they suspected would take ten minutes. It turned into 26 hours, during which they were refused to a shower and their luggage was taken from them. Their phones were only returned to them once they returned to the UK.

 Donald Trump's immigration crackdown encapsulated in poignant footage of father being deported

As far as we knew before we left everything was fine, but as soon as we got there they wouldnt let us in, they told the newspaper.

We believe since Trump was elected, they took one look at his name, thought he was Muslim and didnt let him in.

A US embassy spokesman said in a statement that the the US welcomes more than a million passengers arriving every day.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveller are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the US, it said.

Under US immigration law applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States.

In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the applicant must overcome ALL grounds of inadmissibility.

Specific grounds of inadmissibility can be found in INA  212(a) and list more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labour certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Two men have appeared in court in connection with alleged kidnap, rape and murder of Celine Dookhran.

Mujahid Hussain, 33, and Vincent Tappu, 28, did not enter a plea during a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey.

Hussain, also known as Arshid, was charged with the murder, rape and kidnap of 20-year-old Miss Dookhran.

The defendant, of no fixed address, was further charged with the rape, attempted murder and kidnap of a second victim, a woman aged in her 20s.

Prosecutors allege that Hussain murdered Miss Dookhran, who was of Indian Muslim heritage, in a suspected honour killing for being in a relationship with an Arab Muslim.

Friends remembered her as a beautiful, intelligent soul, who was known for giving advice on beauty and make-up on social media.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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

Her social media included posts about religious holidays and fasting during Ramadan, with a final tweet posted eight days before her death, reading: Alhamdulillah [praise God] for everything that's all I can say.

Tappu, of Spencer Road in Ealing, was charged with the kidnap of Miss Dookhran and the second victim.

Miss Dookhrans body was found inside a fridge at a house in Kingston on 19 July, hours after she was reported missing alongside the older woman.

She was formally identified on Monday and a post-mortem gave the cause of death as an incised wound to the neck.

A trial date has been set for 17 January, as Miss Dookhrans family are being supported by a family liaison officer.

Scotland Yard originally gave the victim's age as 19 but later revised it to 20.

A 29-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in relation to the case has been released as the investigation continues, the Metropolitan Police said.

A separate investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission is underway because of the short time between the two women being reported missing to police and her body being discovered.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A young Muslim woman who was reportedly kidnapped, raped and murdered in a suspected honour killing in London posted a positive tweet thanking God for everything just days before her death.

Celine Dookhran, 19, was found stuffed in a fridge with her throat slit after a second woman who was also attacked raised the alarm from her hospital bed, a court heard on Tuesday.

The two women were said to have been bound, gagged and kidnapped by masked men on Wednesday. They were taken to a house in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London, where they were both raped and Ms Dookhran was killed.

It has now emerged that Ms Dookhran, who was reportedly involved in a relationship with an Arab man whom her parents did not approve of, wrote on Twitter a week before her death: Alhamdulilah for everything that's all I can say. Alhamdulilah is an Arabic word used when Muslims want to praise god.

Ms Dookhran, who grew up in south London, had a passion for make-up and offered cosmetic advice to her followers on social media. Her messages also included posts about religious holidays and fasting during Ramadan.

A wave of emotional tributes have been paid to the 19-year-old since the news of her death. One of her Twitter followers said: Innalillahe wainna ilaye rajeeon [We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.]

RIP Celine, You did not deserve what has happened, May Allah grant you a place in Paradise. Inshallah.

Another user posted: RIP Celine, you were very beautiful and you will never be forgotten.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, of no fixed address, appeared before Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with the murder, attempted murder, and two counts of rape and kidnap.

He appeared alongside Vincent Tappu, 28, of Acton, west London, who stands charged with kidnapping both women.

Prosecutor Binita Roscoe told the court the teenager was of Indian Muslim heritage and had started a relationship with an Arab Muslim man, The Times reported.

Both defendants were remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on August 21.
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A record number of anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded in the UK as monitors warn of unprecedented reports of attacks, abuse and harassment.

The Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 80 violent assaults targeting Jews in the first six months of this year, as well as verbal abuse, graffiti, vandalism, hate mail and abuse via social media and the internet.

A total of 767 incidents were reported between January and June  a rise of almost a third on the same period in 2016 and the highest since the CSTs records began in 1984.

Some of this may be down to improved reporting, but it is sadly clear that the overall situation has deteriorated, said David Delew, the organisations chief executive.

Anti-Semitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of British Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading.

The CST said the rise may partly be driven by growing concern over anti-Semitism, as well as increased reports from security guards and information sharing agreements with British police forces.

A brick with anti-Semitic graffiti thrown through window of a Jewish home in January (Shomrim)

But analysts said those factors do not explain the unprecedented increase alone, which is more likely to stem from a general, sustained rise in attacks.

Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, described the rise as completely unacceptable and said the Government would work to ensure offenders were subject to the full force of the law.

Everyone in this country has a right to live without fear of abuse or attack and we must as a nation firmly condemn this hatred and all other forms of bigotry, he added.

The Shadow Minister for Diverse Communities, Dawn Butler, condemned the very worrying trend of continually rising anti-Semitic incidents, adding: We must combat and tackle the root cause of this criminality and seek to build a society that is fair, tolerant and free of all forms of racism and discrimination.

Verbal abuse was the most common form of incident recorded, targeting men, women and children who were visibly Jewish due to their clothing, school uniform or other symbols.

Almost a fifth of incidents involved the use of social media, including targeted hate campaigns, neo-Nazi posts and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Jew banker wars.

Anti-Semitic graffiti was reported 111 times, including a swastika with the phrase dirty Jews resign or die scrawled on a wall at the University of Birmingham in March.

There were also 51 incidents of the damage and desecration of Jewish property, in one case seeing a window smashed by a brick emblazoned with the word Jew and a swastika.

Anti-Semitic graffiti at the University of Birmingham in March (CST)

The CST recorded 80 anti-Semitic assaults  the highest figure ever recorded for the time period  and another 56 direct threats, some by offenders using knives, bats, sticks or vehicles.

Its data included 51 incidents at peoples homes, 35 at synagogues, 22 at schools, 16 targeting Jewish public figures and four at Jewish cemeteries.

Almost three-quarters of the incidents were recorded in London and Manchester, which are home to the two largest Jewish communities in the UK, as well as 64 other locations.

Although the identity of offenders was not clear in all cases, the vast majority were men, more than half white and 115 were believed to be from the far-right, 49 anti-Zionist and 12 Islamist.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said the Governments hate crime action plan had improved the authorities response and was encouraging more victims to report incidents directly to police.

Anti-Semitism has no place in this country, which prides itself on openness, diversity and tolerance, she added.

I am clear that one such incident is one too many and we will continue to do everything we can to stamp out the hatred and division that blights our communities.

Ms Rudd said the Government was providing 13.4m to protect Jewish sites and making another 900,000 available for schemes to tackle hate crime.

John Mann, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against anti-Semitism, said the CSTs figures should be of serious concern to everyone in Britain.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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

If we are to pride ourselves on being a diverse, equal and welcoming country we have to reverse this worrying trend, he added.

The report came after authorities were accused of betraying British Jews by failing to crack down on anti-Semitic crime, with offences recorded by police forces around the UK increasing by 14.9 per cent in 2016, according to the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism.

At the same time, the group found the number of charges fell drastically, with alleged perpetrators charged in fewer than a tenth of cases, leaving anti-Semitic crime to become the new normality for British Jews.

Gideon Falter, chairman of Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said the CSTs report corroborates its own research, indicating that 2017 was likely to be the worst year on record for anti-Semitic crime and the fourth record-breaking year in a row.

The reason for this rise appears to be a failure to enforce the law, he argued.

Over the past several years, anti-Semitic crime has been rising dramatically whilst there have only been a paltry number of prosecutions. This emboldens anti-Semites who increasingly fear no consequences for their actions.

The group recommended specialised training for police officers and prosecutors, a review of police forces responses to anti-Semitic crime and the appointment of dedicated senior officers, while calling on the Crown Prosecution Service to publish data on the outcome of cases.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, the National Police Chiefs Councils lead for anti-Semitic issues, said police were taking the threat seriously and working to promote cohesion while protecting the Jewish community.

He said: I want to encourage anyone who is targeted in this way to report to their local police  you will be listened to, taken seriously, and officers will do all they can to bring offenders to justice.
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

An ad stating that Humane milk is a myth has been cleared by the regulator following complaints from members of the dairy industry that it was inaccurate and misleading.

The national newspaper ad for Go Vegan World, a vegan campaign group, in February featured a photo of a cow behind a piece of barbed wire and the headline Humane milk is a myth. Don't buy it.

Smaller text stated: I went vegan the day I visited a dairy. The mothers, still bloody from birth, searched and called frantically for their babies.

Their daughters, fresh from their mothers' wombs but separated from them, trembled and cried piteously, drinking milk from rubber teats on the wall instead of their mothers' nurturing bodies. All because humans take their milk.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said seven complainants, some of whom had experience of working in the dairy industry, and who believed that the ad did not accurately describe the way that dairy cattle were generally treated in the UK, challenged whether the ads' claims were misleading and could be substantiated.

Go Vegan World said the ad did not state or imply that calves were separated from their mothers prior to the 12 to 24 hours recommended by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

But in any case, they believed the exact timing of the separation was irrelevant to the ad, which commented on the injustice of separating cow and calf, claiming later separation actually caused more distress.

They believed most people would consider separation at 25 hours as unjust as separation at 24 hours.

Clearing the ad, the ASA said it understood the complainants were concerned the ad implied a significant number of dairy farms did not comply with animal welfare standards in place in the UK, and milk production was therefore inhumane in that sense.

But it concluded: We understood that Defra recommended that calves should be kept with their mothers for at least 12 and preferably 24 hours after birth.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images 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 UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images

Although the language used to express the claims was emotional and hard-hitting, we understood it was the case that calves were generally separated from their mothers very soon after birth, and we therefore concluded that the ad was unlikely to materially mislead readers.

Press Association
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Police in London have been filmed pointing assault rifles at two young men as they held their hands in the air.

Mobile phone footage shows two armed officers aiming their weapons at the men as they sat in a car in Hackney.

During the stand-off on Tuesday, which lasted over a minute, the men can be seen questioning why the officers were using excessive force" against them.

In separate footage of the same incident, a number of officers police vehicles can be seen at the scene as local people gather, some questioning the need for "so many police".

Scotland Yard said the vehicle was stopped as a result of "information" the force had received, and that three men - aged 25, 24 and 22 - were arrested for possession of drugs, money laundering offences and possession of an offensive weapon - which they revealed was a hammer.

Police said they could not confirm whether the men arrested were those in the car.

In the footage, which has been shared hundreds of times on social media, one of the young men in the car can be heard saying: I dont know why you are pointing guns at us. Weve done nothing wrong. Weve been involved in no criminal activity.

"You lot killed someone the other day. We dont want to be a victim I dont know why you lot are doing this. All of this force for no reason.

A woman can be heard in the background shouting: Theyd only been there for five or 10 minutes and then the police just pulled up like this. And theyve got guns  why? They cant do that.

At one point, one of the officers can be heard saying: Stop talking over me.

The incident came after 20-year-old Rashan Charles, a Hackney resident, died after being chased and apprehended by police in a local shop, prompting widespread anger in the community and demands for justice.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is now investigating officers' contact with Mr Charles.

CCTV footage widely shared on social media shows an officer pursuing him on foot before a struggle ensues, which many have claimed constituted excessive force.

It also follows the revelation that the number of fatal police shootings recorded in England and Wales had hit a 12-year high.

Figures released by the IPCC show there were six fatal police shootings in the 12 months to March 2017, doubling the total of the previous 12 months.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images 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 UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Detectives in Hackney are investigating after three men were arrested for possession of drugs, money laundering offences and possession of an offensive weapon.

"As a result of information the vehicle was stopped by armed officers. When the car and occupants were searched a quantity of drugs, cash and a hammer were recovered. Three men aged 25, 24 and 22 were arrested as above.

"All three were taken to north London police station where they are currently detained. Enquires continue."
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Governments response to terror attacks risks alienating Muslims and driving them away from authorities seeking to protect the UK, a watchdog has warned.

A report by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Max Hill QC, found that mosques and community centres felt under pressure to denounce atrocities even when they had no links to perpetrators.

He took aim at calls, which have been repeated by senior politicians, for Muslims to do more to fight extremism.

Many in the Muslim communities are already doing a great deal and if they could be doing more, no one appears to have made clear what that means, Mr Hill wrote in a foreword to the report.

Failure to do so can lead to further alienation, frustration and perhaps even withdrawal for many in spheres where we all need to protect and preserve meaningful engagement.

Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, said that British Muslims like himself must go further than condemning terror attacks in the wake of the massacre at London Bridge.

 Thousands of British Muslims gather to denounce Isis and call for 'peaceful caliphate'

Enough is enough, announced the Prime Minister the following day, in a speech that claimed there was far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.

Jeremy Corbyn had been heavily criticised by Conservative politicians for calling for a smarter way to reduce the threat than the War on Terror.

He argued that it was the responsibility of Government is to minimise the chance of attacks by giving police the resources they need and to ensure foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country.

Mr Hill made no reference to individual politicians or groups in his report but cautioned over a lack of engagement felt by some communities.

A more proactive role ought to be taken by government at all levels to address wider concerns, and thereby to avoid the perception of engagement with these communities only when things have gone wrong, he added, saying that only the response to the Finsbury Park terror attack was viewed as positive.

The pre-planned research was carried through in May and June in Leicester, Bradford, Manchester and London, coincidentally coming as the UK was hit by a string of terror attacks.

More tributes were left yesterday to the victims of the Finsbury Park attack (AP)

In under three months, atrocities in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park left 36 people dead and 200 injured.

The last atrocity, targeting worshippers leaving a mosque following Ramadan prayers, came after mounting fears that the far-right would attack Muslims in perceived revenge for Isis-inspired attacks.

Mr Hill said that the consequences of the assaults was felt most keenly by victims and their loved ones, survivors and witnesses, as well as the communities closest to the attacks and the former homes of terrorists.

As well as a perceptible rise in outbreaks of Islamophobia, he found worsening levels of trust in British security services and the controversial Prevent counter-extremism services.

Mr Hill said many Muslims he spoke to at community meetings across the country feared being blamed for being complicit in Isis-inspired attacks, with younger followers of the faith sometimes afraid to engage with their local mosques, or to debate their identities and religion because they thought they might be reported to police.

Researchers visited Manchester shortly after the bombing that killed 22 victims leaving an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May.

London Bridge Terror Attack Show all 16 1 /16 London Bridge Terror Attack London Bridge Terror Attack Armed police on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Police Officers outside the Barrowboy and Banker Public House on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Armed police on Borough High Street as police deal with a 'major incident' at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Emergency services near the scene of the incident Screengrab London Bridge Terror Attack People run down Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge Reuters London Bridge Terror Attack Emergency services arrive at the scene near Borough market at London Bridge Carl Court/Getty Images London Bridge Terror Attack Emergency personnel on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack Police sniffer dogs on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA London Bridge Terror Attack A second helicopter lands on London Bridge as police are responding to three incidents in the capital, amid reports that a vehicle collided with pedestrians on London Bridge, Scotland Yard said. Officers are dealing with reports of stabbings in Borough Market, where armed officers attended and shots were fired. They are also at an incident in the Vauxhall area PA London Bridge Terror Attack Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London REUTERS London Bridge Terror Attack Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters London Bridge Terror Attack A police officer escorts members of the public to safety at London Bridge Getty Images London Bridge Terror Attack Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters London Bridge Terror Attack Police attend to an incident near London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters

They met families including one who had their home searched by counter-terror officers in a distressing raid during the investigation into bomber Salman Abedi.

The Forward Thinking report noted that relatives felt police had been heavy handed, taking a mother and young children away from their home, and urged authorities to treat affected families with care and proportionality.

These matters are sensitive and the long-term welfare of Muslim families affected by police investigations must always be uppermost in our minds, Mr Hill said.

These steps and conversations are important because they have the capacity to engender trust and confidence in our security apparatus.

Researchers also held community meetings in Bradford, Leicester and London, with participants in all cities raising concern that underlying problems with housing, health, education, employment and general crime were being placed second to countering violent extremism.

Respondents in Leicester said local Muslim communities had been split into those who work with the Governments Prevent strategy and those who reject it, while in Bradford attendees accused authorities of taking their eye off the ball on key community issues leaving young Muslims more vulnerable to radicalisation.

Soldiers were deployed across the UK and officials reviewed security at 1,300 bank holiday events following the Manchester attack (PA)

There was anger in Manchester over the calls to do more to counter extremism after it emerged that Abedi had been repeatedly reported to relevant authorities, with community organisations feeling much of their positive work was being ignored.

Researchers visited London in the immediate aftermath of the Finsbury Park attack, which was seen by attendees as a result of heightened tensions between different communities and rising Islamophobia.

Greater engagement should be part of a wider shift in the governments approach to countering violent extremism, whereby Muslim communities are not perceived as a problem to be managed but an essential part of the solution, they recommended.

The report said participants in every meeting called for a review to the Prevent strategy, which they said was having a chilling effect and adds to a strong sense of grievance.

Mr Hill said: To allow these feelings to fester may well prove counterproductive in the context where a programme like Prevent needs to succeed  and where our police and intelligence services need the full cooperation of communities in rooting out extremism and detecting nascent plots.

The warning came after Britains most senior police officer said she expects more terror attack plans to be discovered in the UK.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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

Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said six plots have been thwarted in the last four months alone, adding: Progress on the ground in Syria and Iraq does not necessarily translate into a reduction in threat here.

A Government spokesperson said: This Government is committed to making Britain a country that works for everyone and were clear there should be no conflict between being British and being Muslim.

We want all people, regardless of their faith or gender to have access to the same opportunities so that they can reach their full potential.

We have seen the devastating impact radicalisation can have on individuals, families and communities. Through Prevent we are already working closely with local communities to safeguard vulnerable people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

We are reviewing our counter-terrorism strategy in the light of the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London and we will read this report with interest.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Conservatives have officially abandoned a flagship manifesto pledge to provide free schools breakfasts for all primary school pupils in England.

The move follows a series of u-turns on key flanks of the partys general election manifesto, including proposals to lift Tony Blairs ban on new grammar schools, a free vote on fox-hunting, social care reforms, energy price curbs, and plans to end the triple lock for pensioners.

The manifesto, drawn up by the Prime Ministers former chief-of-staff, had included plans to replace free school meals for state school pupils with a free breakfast for every child in every year of primary school.

The election document added: We do not believe that giving school lunches to all children free of charge for the first three years of primary schools  regardless of the income of their parents  is a sensible use of public money.

During the campaign the party came under heavy fire for the pledge, leading to accusations the policy was merely a cost-saving measure and Ms May being branded as the lunch snatcher.

But following the inconclusive election result and with the Conservatives stripped of their majority in the Commons, ministers said the Government would retain the existing provision and dropped its plans to axe free school meals for infant pupils from better off families. It was still unclear whether plans for free school breakfasts would go ahead.

According to Schools Week, however, the breakfasts were quietly abandoned earlier this month in the Lords  and an answer to a written question was only addressed this week during the parliamentary recess.

On 24 July, Robert Goodwill, the childrens minister, said: As announced by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System on 4 July we will not be pursuing universal breakfasts for primary school children and we will be retaining the existing provision for universal infant free school meals.

We will however invest in a breakfast club programme as announced in the Childhood Obesity Plan in August 2016. This committed 10m a year of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to expand breakfast club provision in up to 1,600 schools. Further details of the programme will be announced in due course.

Angela Rayner, Labours Shadow Education Secretary, told The Independent: This is yet another humiliating u-turn on education policy from Theresa Mays weak and wobbly Government. Breakfast doesnt mean breakfast, and they have made a mess of it.

To think that they spent the election campaign telling us that universal free school meals were unaffordable and promising to provide free breakfasts instead  at a paltry 7p a serving. Just weeks later they have abandoned that pledge as they beat a full scale retreat from their own manifesto. How can anyone believe a word they now say?
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Environment Secretary has said the UK should say no to chlorine washed chicken from the United States, in direct contradiction with the International Trade Secretary. Asked whether the UK should allow the import of chorine-washed chicken, yes or no, Michael Gove gave a straightforward answer.

No. I made it perfectly clear, and this is something on which all members of the Government are agreed. We are not going to dilute our high food-safety standards or our high environmental standards in pursuit of any trade deal. Our position when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, and our position now, is to be a leader in environmental standards, he said.

On BBC Newsnight last night, Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, said there was no health issue with chlorine-washed chicken.

Asked about the practice of washing poultry carcasses in chlorinated water, Mr Fox said: The European Union has said that [chlorine-washed chicken] is perfectly safe.

The issue lies around some of the secondary issues of animal welfare and its perfectly reasonable for people to raise that but it will come much further down the road.

We will want to ensure that the scientific advice that we have ensures proper protection for British consumers because dropping our standards is not the way for Britain.

Mr Fox previously condemned media obsession with the issue, which he said would be only a detail of the very end stage of one sector of a potential free trade agreement with the US.

The House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee warned that animal welfare standards could be undermined if post-Brexit trade deals left UK farmers competing against less-regulated foreign rivals.

The peers also raised concerns about the overwhelming reliance on EU citizens in crucial veterinary positions and urged ministers to make sure the industry was able to fill those roles after Brexit.

The report said: Our evidence strongly suggests that the greatest threat to farm animal welfare standards post-Brexit would come from UK farmers competing against cheap, imported food from countries that produce to lower standards than the UK.

Unless consumers are willing to pay for higher welfare products, UK farmers could become uncompetitive and welfare standards in the UK could come under pressure.

They warned that imports from lower-welfare countries could undermine the sustainability of the industry or incentivise a race to the bottom for welfare standards  contrary to the wishes of the UK industry.

Mr Gove disputed the suggestion his words contradicted his colleague, adding: What the Trade Secretary quite rightly pointed out is that of course this issue is important, but we mustnt concentrate on just this one issue when we look at the huge potential of being outside the European Union.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Sadiq Khan has accused Donald Trump of behaving like a 12-year-old as the spat between the Mayor of London and the US President continues.

The London mayor said that he was "disappointed" by the US leader's handling of the aftermath of the London Bridge terrorist attack in early June.

At the time, the US President tweeted criticism Mr Khan for, he claimed, saying there is no reason to be alarmed.

At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed!, he said.

In reality Mr Khan had said Londoners should not be alarmed by the increased police presence in the capital, rather than by the attack itself.

Asked by the New Yorker why he appeared to have got under Trumps skin, the London Mayor replied: The short answer is I dont know, but I can understand if we were both aged twelve years old.

Mr Khan said he was disappointed in Mr Trumps comments and referenced a Nato policy that says members will come to each others defence to suggest that politicians should support each other.

The basic rule amongst politicians and amongst leaders is a sense of solidarityit is almost like our version of Nato Article 5, he said. So I was extremely surprised when the President of the USA, our strongest ally, said what he said. It was disappointing, to be honest.

At the time, Mr Khan said he had better and more important things to focus on than Mr Trumps tweets, while a spokesperson claimed the Republican had taken the Mayors words out of context.

That led the US President to tweet: Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM [Mainstream Media] is working hard to sell it!

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

Mr Khan later called for Mr Trumps proposed state visit to the UK to be cancelled, saying he was not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet.

The pair had previously clashed over the US Presidents plans to introduce a ban on immigration to the US from seven mainly-Muslim countries.

When the Republican first suggested the policy in 2015, Mr Khan called the billionaire businessman a buffoon and said: His views are divisive, they are outrageous, and I hope he loses. Badly.

Mr Trump later said he would remember what he called Mr Khans very rude statements.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

More than a dozen dead bodies have been recovered from a rubber dinghy crammed with 181 people off the coast of Libya.

Among the 13 dead, thought to be sub-Saharan African refugees fleeing Libya's bloody civil war, were two pregnant woman, a charity has said.

The overcrowded boat was found drifting on 24 July near the people-smuggling hub of Sabratha, western Libya.

Recommended Huge fires in Syrian refugee camps highlight dangerous conditions

Images from the boat show corpses lying on the deck, which The Independent has chosen not to publish. They demonstrate the grim reality for migrants on the Mediterranean Sea.

A freelance photographer working for Associated Press who was following Spanish rescue group Proactiva Open Arms, told Time he heard children crying and calling out for their mothers as he boarded the boat.

Ricardo Gatti, who led Proactiva's mission, told the magazine that five of the dead were men and eight were women, two of whom were pregnant.

Bruises on some of the women on the boat indicated they may have been been sexually assaulted, he said.

Aid workers of Proactiva Open Arms recover dead bodies (Santi Palacios / AP)

Proactiva's medical team said it believed the refugees could have died after slumping to the floor because of seasickness. They may have suffocated after inhaling toxic fumes created when fuel from the boat mixed with salt water.

They didnt die by drowning outside the boat, Mr Gatti said, but drowning inside the boat.

At least 2,365 refugees are thought to have died crossing the Mediterranean this year, according to UN data.

Migrants receive life jackets as workers from Proactive Open Arms pull alongside their dinghy (AP)

Since the Aegean route through Turkey was almost completely closed, with stricter Balkans border controls and the EU-Turkey deal, an increased number of refugees are risking the more dangerous route to Europe from Libya to Italy.

A Unicef report released on Tuesday found that many children trying to cross into Europe from Africa did not intend to go to Europe when they first left home.

Systematic trauma and abuse they suffered in Libya motivated the vast majority of them to leave home alone, they were not motivated to make the hazardous crossing by pull factors, the report concluded.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

In April, 18 migrants including four children were found dead in a boat drifting near Sabratha. The interior ministry's security commander said the victims appeared to have died of thirst and hunger.

People smugglers have increasingly packed people into dinghies not fit to make the crossing, with many of the boats sinking.

Yet a trend of refugees being found dead inside boats has emerged, with many migrants being killed when they are crushed or suffocated inside crowded rafts.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on illegal immigrant gang members and suggested they are animals who slice and dice young girls.

Speaking at a campaign-style make America great again rally in Youngstown in Ohio, the US President likened the country to a nation going through a war which needed to be freed from illegal migrants.

The billionaire property developer, who has seen the number of immigrants with no criminal records arrested more than double under his presidency, claimed illegal immigrant gang members are not using guns because they are not painful enough.

One by one, we are finding the illegal gang members, drug dealers, thieves, robbers, criminals, and killers. And we are sending them the hell back home where they came from, President Trump told the crowd prompting applause.

Recommended Donald Trump bans transgender people from serving in US army

And once they are gone, we will never let them back in, believe me. The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people - these beautiful, beautiful, innocent young people - will find no safe haven anywhere in our country.

He added: And youve seen the stories about some of these animals. They dont want to use guns because its too fast and its not painful enough. So theyll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others, and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die.

President Trump, who mentioned no specific examples of where or when instances such as these had taken place, then branded them animals for the second time, saying America had been protecting them for too long.

He added: "Well, they're not being protected any longer, folks. And that is why my administration is launching a nationwide crackdown on sanctuary cities.

Mr Trump, who became famed for making inflammatory, xenophobic remarks during his presidential campaign, claimed US citizens were increasingly grateful for border patrol.

He said: People are screaming from their windows, thank you, thank you to the border patrol and to General Kelly's great people that come in and grab these thugs and throw them the hell out.

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

Were liberating our towns, and were liberating our cities. Can you believe we have to do that? he asked.

The President claimed this was not being done in a politically correct fashion and they were instead doing it rough.

Despite the fact his predecessor Barack Obama was often branded deporter-in-chief by migrant rights activists, Mr Trump vociferously pledged to take a more stringent stance on illegal immigration during his election campaign.

Since arriving in the White House, he has pushed immigration enforcement further up the political agenda and arrests of immigrants residing in the US have increased. Nevertheless, deportations have marginally decreased as fewer people have been caught illegally crossing the Mexican border into the US.

Mr Trump also used the one-hour speech in the blue-collar rust belt city, which is a former centre of steel production, to express his happiness at being back in Americas heartland and away from the Washington swamp.

He also spent the address showing off about his presidential prowess and launching into an attack on fake news.

"It is much easier to act presidential than what we are doing here tonight, believe me. With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's ever held this office, he said.

"I think that with few exceptions, no president has done anywhere near what we've done in his first six months. Not even close.

The address was briefly interrupted by protesters on a couple of occasions  with President Trump jeering at demonstrator by saying hes going back home to mommy.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

At the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday morning, Chairman Susan Collins, Republican-Maine, didn't switch off her microphone. Apparently speaking to Senator Jack Reed, Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat of the committee, Collins discussed the federal budget - and President Donald Trump's lack of familiarity with the details of governing.

After Reed praises Collins' handling of the hearing, held by the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she laments the administration's handling of spending.

I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was 'grant,' they just X it out, Collins says. With no measurement, no thinking about it, no metrics, no nothing. It's just incredibly irresponsible.

Yes, Reed replies. I think - I think he's crazy, apparently referring to the president. I mean, I don't say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.

I'm worried, Collins replies.

Oof, Reed continues. You know, this thing - if we don't get a budget deal, we're going to be paralysed.

I know, Collins replies.

[Department of Defence] is going to be paralysed, everybody is going to be paralysed, Reed says.

I don't think he knows there is a [Budget Control Act] or anything, Collins says, referring to a 2011 law that defines the budget process.

He was down at the Ford commissioning, Reed says, referring to President Trump's weekend event launching a new aircraft carrier, saying, 'I want them to pass my budget.' Okay, so we give him $54 billion and then we take it away across the board which would cause chaos.

Right, Collins replies.

It's just - and he hasn't - not one word about the budget. Not one word about the debt ceiling, Reed says.

Good point, Collins replies.

You've got [Budget Director Mick] Mulvaney saying we're going to put in all sorts of stuff like a border wall. Then you've got [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin saying it's got to be clean, Reed continues. We're going to be back in September, and, you know, you're going to have crazy people in the House.

In a more salacious part of what was recorded, Collins then addressed a radio interview in which Representative Blake Farenthold, Republican-Texas, suggested that if Collins were a man, he'd have challenged her to a duel for opposing the Senate Republicans' Obamacare overhaul bill.

Did you see the one who challenged me to a duel? Collins asks.

I know, Reed replies. Trust me. Do you know why he challenged you to a duel? 'Cause you could beat the s- out of him.

Well, he's huge, Collins replies. And he - I don't mean to be unkind, but he's so unattractive it's unbelievable.

Did you see the picture of him in his pyjamas next to this Playboy bunny? she continues, referring to an infamous photo of Farenthold.

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

At that point, the mic went dead.

The Washington Post
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Donald Trump's tweets about banning transgender people from the army could be far more extreme even than they appear.

The President said that the US will not "accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military", in a tweet. He said that allowing them to serve would lead to "tremendous medical costs and disruption".

The posts certainly confirm that the President will seek to uphold the ban on transgender people joining the US military, a ban that is currently in place. That was supposed to have been lifted by the beginning of this month  a deadline that defence secretary James Mattis pushed back  but now the lifting of that ban appears to have been permanently blocked by Mr Trump.

Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP

More dramatically, the tweets also suggest that transgender people who are currently serving in the army  or those that come out or transition during their service  will also be kicked out. That would be a major break with policy, and roll back huge gains made by trans people in recent years.

Recommended Donald Trump bans transgender people from serving in US army

Transgender people have been able to serve in the US military since last year, after a decision by former defence secretary Ash Carter. And since late last year they have been able to receive medical care and begin the process of formally transitioning, including changing their gender identity within the Pentagon's official systems.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

When the ban on trans people serving was lifted, Mr Carter gave the military until the beginning of this month to develop policies that would allow people who already identify as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. Military chiefs recently announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting, pushing back that decision until December.

But Mr Trump appears to have announced the result of that decision as well as potentially making far more sweeping commitments.

Mr Trump's tweets  which were broad and said transgender people would be banned from serving in "any capacity"  suggested that he would seek to kick out people who are currently serving in any branch of the US military, and in any job. That would be a major break and could lead to thousands of transgender people being removed from their service.

There are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members currently serving in the military, according to a Rand Corp survey, and a further 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that by attacking those thousands of serving members of the military who are transgender Donald Trump is "undermining our military".
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

More than 1,400 Iraqis who claim being sent home would amount to a death sentence" have been told they can stay in the US temporarily, after a US judge blocked their deportations.

US district judge Mark Goldsmith granted their request for a preliminary injunction, giving the Iraqis more time to appeal their deportations in court.

Many of the immigrants, some of whom arrived in the US as early as 1980, are members of minority groups like the Chaldean Christians and the Kurdish and Sunni Muslims. They argue they will be targeted by Isis and other militants for their religious beliefs and Western interests if they are deported.

Recommended Former Isis sex slave returns home to take revenge on the group

Mr Goldsmith agreed.

Each petitioner faces the risk of torture or death on the basis of residence in America and publicised criminal records, he wrote in his decision. Many will also face persecution as a result of a particular religious affiliation.

The US governments concerns, he added, pale to the point of evaporation when weighed against the potential lethal harm Petitioners may suffer.

This is the third time a federal court has halted the deportations.

Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Show all 10 1 /10 Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis An Iraqi Christian prepares for the first Sunday Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi priests hold the first Sunday mass Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christian soldiers attend the first Sunday mass at the Grand Immaculate Church since it was recaptured from Islamic State in Qaraqosh Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis An Iraqi Christian soldier holds his weapon during the first Sunday mass Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis An Iraqi Christian soldier lights a candle Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi priests hold the first Sunday mass at the Grand Immaculate Church since it was recaptured from Islamic State Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi priests hold the first Sunday mass Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Reuters

The Iraqi nationals were rounded up in immigration raids across the country in June, just three months after Iraq agreed to accept some immigrants back into the country. Iraq changed its years-long position on the issue in exchange for being left off of President Donald Trumps travel ban.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the raids targeted Iraqis who had criminal convictions, or who had overstayed their visas. According to Mr Goldsmiths ruling, at least half of the immigrants had been in the United States for more than a decade, because Iraq refused to issue them travel documents.

ICE maintains that the immigrants pose a threat to national security, claiming that an overwhelming majority of those detained have past criminal convictions. Advocates say many of those crimes occurred decades ago, and those convicted have served out their punishment.

Mr Goldsmiths ruling comes in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by civil rights groups on the immigrants' behalf. The lawsuit asks for the deportations to be stayed until the immigrants have an opportunity to prove that they could face torture or death if returned to Iraq.

The ACLU of Michigan, which helped file the lawsuit on behalf of the immigrants, applauded Mr Goldsmiths decision.

A huge sigh of relief was heard throughout the Iraqi-American community last night, said Michael Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU of Michigan. As the judge recognised, immediate deportation is the equivalent of a death sentence for some Iraqi nationals.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A man charged with raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl has claimed she might have become pregnant by having sex with him while he slept.

Justin Armstrong, 38, from Springfield, Massachusetts was held on $50,000 bail after pleading not guilty to forcible child rape on Monday, The Republican newspaper reported.

His lawyer said he denies the allegations, is cooperating with investigators and voluntarily submitted a DNA sample for testing.

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

Prosecutors say Armstrong initially told police the girl said she had been abused by a relative.

But when he heard she was pregnant, they say Armstrong raised the possibility that she raped him while he slept.

The pregnancy was aborted.

Results of DNA testing performed on the fetal tissue are pending.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The widow of a New York police officer shot dead in an ambush has given birth to his child more than two years later.

Pei Xia Chen became pregnant through IVF using sperm preserved from her husband Wenjian Liu.

The detective, 32, was killed along with partner Rafael Ramos, 40, as they sat in a patrol car in Brooklyn in December 2014.

On the night of his death Ms Chen requested that her husband's sperm be frozen.

Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, right, were shot dead while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn (EPA)

She welcomed the couple's baby daughter Angelina into the world on Tuesday at Weill Cornell Hospital, where she was joined by her husband's parents.

The girl was named in tribute to her slain father.

Her name is Angelina, like an angel, like my son is an angel, Mr Lius mother Xiu Yan Li told the New York Daily News.

I'm just so happy," she added.

Ms Chen and Mr Liu were married for just three months before the officers were killed by Ismaaiyl Abdula Brinsley, who later shot himself dead.

Brinsley had earlier posted social media rants about alleged abuse of black Americans by US police forces.

Mr Liu had hoped to have a child with his wife before his life was cut short.

His widow said that on the day she underwent the IVF procedure she dreamed about her husband handing her a baby girl.

She added: I told my friend, Its going to be a girl.' My friend said, No, you havent even checked the sonograms. But I was right."

Healthy sperm can be collected within a 24-hour window following a man's death. If the sperm is frozen properly, the IVF procedure has about a 70 to 80 per cent success rate in women with normal fertility levels.
On July 25, a charitable plan totaling 6 billion yuan (almost $889 million) was declared by He Xiangjian, founder and chairman of Midea Group, a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer.

The plan includes 100 million yuan of Midea stock and a 2 billion yuan cash donation. The money will be used to establish a charitable trust. In addition, it will also support the development of many fields, such as targeted poverty alleviation, education, health care, elderly-care services, entrepreneurship, and culture.

He spent nearly three years preparing the donation plan.

He established the He Xiangjian Foundation in December 2013 after he turned over Midea Group operations to a professional management team. Before then he had started developing a personal philanthropy plan.

His son He Jianfeng, chairman of the foundation, said that value systems are the best heritage, and merit is the most precious treasure.

Recalling his business development, He attributed his personal wealth to reform and opening up, national policies, and support from the government. He said that it is his responsibility to establish the foundation, and charity is his obligation.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A Russian citizen has claimed he was removed from a domestic American flight after another passenger complained the man had occupied Crimea.

In a Facebook post, Andrei Yeomin said Delta Air Lines removed him from the flight "for being a Russian citizen."

"Got kicked out from the plane Delta airlines!!!! Seattle Atlanta. Despite the fact of having platinum membership with the sky team alliance," Mr Yeryomin wrote on Facebook.

"Flight 1588. For being Russian citizen. Not kidding."

 Putin joins celebration marking takeover of Crimea

He added: "Passenger next to me refused to fly with me because according to him I was an occupant of Crimea as well as other Russian citizens. WTF.

Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014 in a move seen by much of the international community as illegal.

Mr Yeryomin said as a result he was forced to get a much later flight.

"God bless America," he said. "Time to go home after 22 years of living here lol.

The Russian Embassy in Washington said it was investigating.

Russian military activity in Crimea Show all 11 1 /11 Russian military activity in Crimea Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian13-ap_1.jpg AP Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian9-ap.jpg AP Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian12-ap.jpg AP Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian11-rtp.jpg Reuters Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian10-afpgt.jpg AFP/Getty Images Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian7-rt.jpg Reuters Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian6-afpgt.jpg AFP/Getty Images Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian8-rt_1.jpg Reuters Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian-navy1-rt.jpg Reuters Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian4-ap_1.jpg AP Russian military activity in Crimea Ukraine-russian3-ap.jpg AP

However, Delta Air Lines dismissed Mr Yeryomin's allegations.

In a statement to the state-run RIA Novosti agency, Delta Air Lines said saying Mr Yeremin had not been allowed to board the plane because he had been late to the flight and had then broken through closed doors.

The statement said: He was interrogated by law enforcement for breaking security rules and was then booked for a later flight to Atlanta."
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Thousands of transgender people serving in the US military face an uncertain future after Donald Trump said he would ban them from serving.

The President made the announcement in a series of tweets, but offered no details on how they would be implemented. The move reverses President Barack Obama's policy that loosened restrictions on transgender people to serve in the US armed forces.

Mr Trump's move drew swift condemnation from rights groups as "raw prejudice" with purely political motives, but it was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military," Mr Trump said.

Recommended US Defence Secretary delays transgender military recruitment

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you," he added.

The new policy comes just weeks after Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the government was reviewing the issue. He said last month that the Pentagon was giving the military another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist would impact its "readiness and lethality".

Flying the flag: Why Pride is still relevant Show all 3 1 /3 Flying the flag: Why Pride is still relevant Flying the flag: Why Pride is still relevant 189241.bin AFP/Getty Images Flying the flag: Why Pride is still relevant 189242.bin AFP/Getty Images Flying the flag: Why Pride is still relevant 189243.bin Rex Features

The Pentagon indicated that it would "work closely" with the White House on the policies in the "near future".

Read more

Transgender people have been allowed to serve openly in the US military, receive medical care, and start formally changing their gender identity in the Pentagon's personnel system since October. But, former Defence Secretary Ash Carter had given the military until July to develop policies around allowing people who had already identified as transgender to join the military if they met physical, medical, and other standards.

Military chiefs had argued that they needed more time to assess policy, and requested an extension of six months past July.

Civil rights activists responded to Mr Trump's transgender announcement saying that it ignored the facts surrounding transgender military service, and called it a cruel policy.

"Today's announcement violates human rights of all transgender Americans," Tarah Demant, the director of Amnesty International USA's Gender, Sexuality, and Identity programme, said in a statement.

"It lays bare the President's prejudice and underlines the fact that creating policy based on bigotry is becoming a dangerous and a cruel pattern for President Trump. The administration continues to target minority communities without pause and without facts."

Vicky Hartzler, a conservative Republican congresswoman, praised Mr Trump for changing President Obama's "costly and damaging policy".

There is not an official tally of transgender people serving in the military, but Mr Carter quoted an estimate from the think tank Rand last year when making his decision, saying that there are around 2,450 transgender personnel in some active position in the US military.

Other groups like the Transgender American Veterans Association, American Military Partner Association, and OutServe-SLDN have said that the figure is higher at 15,500 transgender personnel in the military. According to Rand there were also 1,510 transgender people in the selected reserve.

There are approximately 1.3 million active service members in the US military.

Following the loosening of restrictions on transgender people last year, there were as many as 250 service members who had announced they were in the process of changing their gender identity, or who had been approved for a formal gender change in the Pentagon's personnel system.

The announcement last year followed years of pressure from transgender rights activists to change the policy, an effort that increased following the repeal of the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policies in 2011. Don't Ask, Don't Tell allowed gay people to serve in the military so long as they did not openly identify as gay.

Transgender rights activists have long argued that a ban on service from the community does nothing but alienate and dehumanise transgender people. Research institutions such as the Palm Center, a think tank that supports open dialogue, have argued that allowing transgender people to serve in the military would be beneficial.

"The outdated regulations serve no purpose and only dehumanise and prevent qualified and capable individuals from enlisting and serving. The ban perpetuates trauma to all those involved, both the service member and their family," a report from the Transgender American Veterans Association and the American Military Partner Association on the issue said.

The Pentagon itself has noted that increasing the eligibility for serving in the military could be beneficial. A video posted online by the Department of Defense following last year's announcement says that 75 per cent of young adults in the US are ineligible to join the military for reasons related to health, educational background, or physical appearance. The video also noted that the decision to open up eligibility to serve to transgender people included input from: the leadership of the armed forces, medical and personnel experts across the Pentagon, transgender service members, outside medical experts, advocacy groups, and the RAND corporation.

One of the highest profile examples of a transgender person in the military was Chelsea Manning, who announced her gender identity in a statement the day after being convicted on charges for violations of the Espionage Act and other offences related to the release of nearly 750,000 military and diplomatic cables. Ms Manning was later released from prison after having her sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama. Ms Manning and her attorneys fought for her right to begin gender transition therapies, including hormone treatment, during her time in prison. Those procedures are provided in American civilian prisons when medically necessary, but were not provided at the time in military prisons.

The US military later approved hormone therapy for Ms Manning  a first  and then later approved gender transition surgery  another first. Ms Manning revealed in January this year, months before her release, that she had not seen a surgeon, however. She also said that her medications and therapies up until that point had been severely discounted for the US military, and had cost just $600.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on his Department of Justice, even as his Attorney General seeks to cling on to his job.

Amid mounting speculation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will have little option but to stand down, Mr Trump launched another broadside by social media against his own cabinet member.

Why didn't AG Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation, he said on Twitter. But but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp.

Mr Trumps tweets are just the latest attack on a member of his team who has displayed intense loyalty to the President. As a senator for Alabama, Mr Sessions was the first member of the US Senate to offer public support for Mr Trumps campaign. By joining the cabinet, he gave up a safe senate seat.

Mr Trump made clear in an interview to the New York Times last week, that he was angry with Mr Sessions for recusing himself from a probe into possible links between the campaign and Russia. Mr Trump said the officials decision was very unfair and that he would not have selected him for the job had he known was going to act that way.

 Jeff Sessions says he 'plans to continue' as Attorney General

Observers believe that Mr Sessions behaviour has made it harder for Mr Trump to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is heading the federal probe.

At the same time, it is unclear why Mr Trump does not simply fire Mr Sessions if he wants to get rid of him.

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 Sessions has indicated that he plans to stay put. On Wednesday, it was reported he was carrying out an investigation into the government leaks that have so infuriated Mr Trump.

Yeah. I think he has got a plan that hes put together and at some point, I dont know if it will be today, tomorrow or next week, he will announce that plan, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told Fox News.

Yet, Mr Scaramucci has also indicated he thinks Mr Sessions will have to.

Its clear the president wants him gone, right, he was asked by conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt.

Mr Scaramucci responded: I have an enormous amount of respect for the attorney general, but I do know the president pretty well, and if theres this level of tension in the relationship that, thats public, youre probably right.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Some officials at the Pentagon were reportedly concerned Donald Trump was set to declare war on North Korea when he started tweeting about his plans for the military.

There were nine long minutes between Mr Trumps first tweet - announcing he had been consulting with his generals - and the second, in which he said he had decided transgender people could not serve in the military.

During that time, some people were apparently worried Mr Trump had Pyongyang in his sights, rather than the rights of LGBTQ servicemen and women.

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action, BuzzFeed reported.

Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the President was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

 Sarah Huckabee fails to answer what will happen to transgender people currently serving in military

The news site said Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis is on vacation this week, and officials said he knew Mr Trump was considering the policy change. It said it was unclear if he approved of it.

The news fits with the confused and seemingly shambolic way in which Mr Trump announced his news, the reversal of years of hard-fought progress that had been made by members of the LGBTQ community in regards to the military.

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

Barack Obamas administration had already permitted transgender people already enlisted to serve openly, and was set to allow new transgender recruits to join. The plan was suspended in December.

After Mr Trump announced the news on Twitter, the Pentagon directed all questions on the issue to the White House.

At a briefing, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked what would happen to those transgender people already serving - an issue Mr Trump did not address in his tweets. She did not have a convincing answer.

She said: Thats something that the Department of Defence and the White House will have to work together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

President Donald Trump has cast aside stories about White House infighting, describing the leaks as employees bickering over who loves me the most.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump said his Justice Department should start cracking down on federal employees who leak to the media  except those who have positive things to say about him.

Number one, they should go after the leakers in intelligence, he said. I dont mean the White House stuff where theyre fighting over who loves me the most, OK? Its just stupid people doing that.

Its unclear which stories Mr Trump was referencing in his comments, which elicited laughter from the room. But the press has been replete with stories about White House intrigue in recent days, as the Trump administration has undergone a dramatic staffing shakeup.

Last week, the President appointed former Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci to lead his communications team, despite protest from his top advisers. Shortly thereafter, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced his resignation, saying, Organisationally, they need to get a fresh start.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

Mr Scaramucci seems inclined to provide that fresh start, telling reporters he will fire everybody if leaks from the White House continue.

Im going to fire everybody, thats how Im going to do it, Mr Scaramucci said. Youre either going to stop leaking or youre going to be fired.

The first casualty of this new policy was assistant press secretary Michael Short. Mr Scaramucci told Politico on Tuesday morning that he planned to fire Mr Short. Mr Short offered his resignation that afternoon.

This is the problem with the leaking, said Mr Scaramucci, who leaked the news of the firing himself. ...The fact that you guys know about [Mr Shorts firing] before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has been pressuring his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to resign. The President told the Wall Street Journal that he was "disappointed" in Mr Sessions, and later tweeted that the Attorney General had taken a "VERY weak position" on Hillary Clinton's alleged crimes.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was reportedly disturbed by the Presidents' attacks on his Attorney General, announced recently that he is "taking a little time off," according to a spokesperson.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Jared Kushners statement denying collusion with Russia is blatantly ridiculous, a former Watergate prosecutor has claimed.

Jill Wine-Banks, who worked as an assistant special prosecutor for the Department of Justice during their investigation of Richard Nixon, analysed Mr Kushners remarks in an interview on MSNBCs The Last Word.

First I want to say it was a very smoothly written document, Ms Wine-Banks said of the statement. He clearly has a very good lawyer. But as soon as you start to probe it, it falls apart. The explanations that are offered seem blatantly ridiculous.

Mr Kushner released the 11-page document ahead of his hearing with the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this week. In the statement, the Presidents son-in-law and top adviser said he did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government.

The former real estate developer also delved into his controversial meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer last June.

The meeting has raised questions about Trump campaign ties to Russia, but Mr Kushner dismissed it in his statement as a waste of time. He claimed he did not know the subject of the meeting when he arrived, and made a hasty exit when he heard the lawyer talking about US adoptions of Russian children.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Ms Wine-Banks was sceptical of Mr Kushners account.

The most incredible to me is, I didnt know what I was going to that meeting for. I had no idea what it was about, she said. And when I got there it was about adoptions, and so I was just bored and wanted to leave.

Ms Wine-Banks said every witness to the meeting should be interviewed. She also suggested checking with Mr Kushners assistant to see if he had indeed emailed her: "Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting, as he claims to have done.

The former prosecutor also took issue with the more than 100 foreign contacts that Mr Kushner initially left off of his security clearance form. Among those contacts was a meeting with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, where The New York Times reports the two discussed setting up a secret backchannel between Washington and Moscow. Mr Kushner denies this report.

There are so many questions, Ms Wine-Banks concluded. And almost everything when you really probe it, even though it sounds credible when you first read it  when you think about it, you want to tear your hair out and think, These are just lies, they are not believable.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Angry parents have pledged to withdraw their sons from Boy Scouts amid an outcry over Donald Trump's highly politicised speech to tens of thousands of youngsters.

The US President broke with tradition to attack his political foes, threaten to fire federal employees, and denounce the media in a rambling address at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree.

His speech, which also contained innuendo-laden anecdotes, was likened by one commentator to that of "a drunk stepdad".

Previous presidents to have addressed the Jamboree, held every four years, have typically steered clear of politics and instead saluted Scout values such as trustworthiness, loyalty, and bravery.

Many parents called on the Boy Scouts of America to condemn Mr Trump's speech and were further angered by the organisation's lukewarm response.

"The Boy Scouts of America is a wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy," the group said in a statement, adding it was "long-standing custom to invite the US President to the National Jamboree".

Thousands of people have posted angry comments on the organisation's social media pages since Monday night's speech in West Virginia.

"I will be pulling my son out of Scouting after the silence following the political indoctrination at the Jamboree. Shame on you for allowing this to go unchallenged," wrote Marc Frischhertz wrote on Facebook.

Donald Trump's speech at the National Scout Jamboree was watched by a crowd of 40,000 people (Reuters)

Jude Nevans Cleaver said: "I want you to know that as of this moment, my son is being pulled out of Boy Scouts. You apparently got very confused about what makes for a good role model."

John Footen added: "I am now suddenly questioning whether Scouts represent [the] values that I want my children to learn if this is someone they put forward as a role model with no qualification or cautions to the children."

One Twitter user said her family was withdrawing 14 boys from the Scouts "after what was basically [a] Hitler Youth rally".

The President's speech was watched by a crowd of 40,000 people including tens of thousands of boys aged between 12 and 18.

While he praised Scouts as having "character and integrity" and lauded the virtues of "hard work and perseverance," Mr Trump's 35-minute speech also repeatedly touched on politically loaded themes.

He decried the healthcare law championed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, regaled the crowd of cheering boys with his take on the "incredible night with the maps" when he was elected in November, and encouraged them to boo Hillary Clinton.

A large part of Trump's speech consisted of a long story about a cocktail party he went to decades ago filled with "the hottest people in New York".
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Major international players are warning the United States against imposing further sanctions on Russia, saying that doing so could further isolate America from the world community.

Most recently, Germany and the European Union joined France and Russia in delivering a stern warning to the US. European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker said that the bloc would act within days if it doesnt get assurances that new sanctions wouldnt significantly impact European interests.

The US House of Representatives voted this week to impose further sanctions Russia, Iran, and North Korea, while limiting Donald Trump from weakening current sanctions that were imposed after it was determined that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. The measure  a bipartisan effort that saw just three no votes  provoked Russia, which warned that the new sanctions risked worsening the already sour relations between the two world superpowers.

The United States has previously worked in tandem with the EU to develop sanctions responses to Russian aggression over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The economic bloc worries that American sanctions developed without their input could jeopardise the continents energy security. That includes hurting companies financing a contentious new pipeline  the Nord Stream 2  that would carry natural gas from Russia to Germany.

There are five western firms partnering with Russias Gazprom to build that pipeline, including Germanys Wintershall and Uniper, the Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, Austrias OMV, and Frances Engie.

The U.S. bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests, Mr Juncker said in a statement following a meeting with fellow European commissioners. If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. 'America First' cannot mean that Europe's interests come last.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

The economic bloc reportedly plans on first attempting to find a diplomatic solution to concerns over the sanctions, but are prepared to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization if their concerns are not heard. The EU also plans on using an EU regulation that allows it to defend their companies against the extraterritorial measures from the US, Reuters reports.

Most measures that the EU might take would require approval from all of the member nations in the economic bloc.

In addition to hurting Nord Stream 2 efforts, EU regulators worry that the sanctions could impact upkeep of pipeline networks in Russia that feed into Ukraine and provide more than a quarter of the EU natural gas needs. It may also hurt diversification goals the EU has, like the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas project.

It isnt clear if the US Senate will even vote on the House sanctions bill, however. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said this week that he may want to add some changes to the bill before allowing it to go forward. Still, an original version of the bill was negotiated between the the House and Senate and passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, receiving just two no votes. Should the Senate pas the legislation, it would still require approval from Donald Trump.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Rohingya Muslims say they have been abandoned by their husbands after telling them they were raped by government soldiers.

Women and girls have accused soldiers and police officers of rape and sexual assault during months of violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma.

One woman, Ayamar Bagon, told AFP she has been forced to live on handouts after her husband left her when she told him she was gang-raped by soldiers.

"I was raped close to my due date, in my ninth month of pregnancy. They knew I was pregnant but didn't care," Ms Bagon said.

Clutching her baby daughter to her chest, the 20-year-old added: "My husband blamed me for letting it happen. Because of this, he married another woman and now lives in another village."

 Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses

Hasinnar Baygon, a 20-year-old mother-of-two, told the agency her husband had also threatened to leave her after she was raped by three soldiers.

She alleged they took turns to violate her after all Rohingya men had fled the village, leaving only the women, children and elderly.

"My husband told me he is going to leave me. He blamed me for not running away," she added.

Rohingya mothers face persecution Show all 10 1 /10 Rohingya mothers face persecution Rohingya mothers face persecution Ramida Begum holds her 10-day-old daughter in their shelter in Kutupalang, an unregistered refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. 'The military caught my husband and burnt our house down a week before I left Myanmar. Since then I don't know whether my husband is dead or alive' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Minara Begum sits inside the shelter, cradling her one-month-old son Ayub. Minara fled to Bangladesh from Nasha Phuru village in Myanmar with her husband and mother-in-law. 'My child doesn't get enough breast milk as I don't eat enough nutritious food. I have to buy milk powder from local market though it's not very good for my son' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Amina, pictured with her 16-day-old daughter Sumaiyin, is in a refugee camp Balukhali that neighbours Ramida and Minara's. 'One and a half months ago the military came to our village and kept firing their guns. I ran away with my neighbours to save our lives. You see us alive here only because the God was so kind. They caught my uncle and my younger brother and we don't know whether they are dead or alive' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Fatema sits beside her one-day-old daughter Aasma in Kutupalang. Fatema fled to Bangladesh from Jambuinna village in Myanmar two months ago after her house was burnt down by the military. She crossed Naf River by boat during the night. 'Our situation is better than many other refugees as my husband Mohammad Alom works here as a day labourer. Many of the new refugees have no work here, so they have to rely on relief' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Jamalida cradles her two-month-old daughter Shahida. Jamalida came to Bangladesh with her husband from Nasha Phuru village in Myanmar Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Rehana Begum lays her one-day-old daughter in front of her inside their tarpaulin shelter. Rehana fled her village of Jambuinna in Myanmar three months ago. 'We were in our home and suddenly the military came to our village and started shooting. When we heard the sound of gun shots we immediately went to our relatives. We walked for four hours without any food and water to reach the border at 1 a.m. We paid 25,000 Myanmar kyat (14) to a broker to cross.' Intercepted by Bangladesh border guards, Rehana's family narrowly escaped being sent home. 'They wanted to send us back, but then we heard gunshots from the Myanmar side and the guards released us, saying, "Stay in Bangladesh and save your lives"' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Noor Begum sits next to her one-day-old daughter Sumaiya as she stares into the camera. Noor came to the camp one-and-a-half months ago from Nagpura village with her husband Jahangir Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Rajuma Begum observes her one-month-old son Raihan. 'I fled to Bangladesh because of fear, because I needed to save my children. I was pregnant and suffering from fever while crossing the border. I also have an 11-month-old boy, so it was very difficult to reach the border from our village Wabek in Myanmar. I had to rest frequently. After six hours of horrible walking we finally reached the border at 2am and crossed after paying a broker' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Eighteen-year-old Asmot Ara rests her newly born daughter on her lap. Asmot said she came to the camp one month ago with neighbours from Nagpura village. In Myanmar her father-in-law was killed and their home burnt down by the Myanmar military Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution As Marijaan holds her 25-day-old daughter Noor Habi, her son peers over her shoulder. Marijaan fled to Bangladesh from Khyeri Prang village in Myanmar one month ago after her house was burnt down by the Myanmar military. 'I reached the border at night and crossed by the boat. I paid the boatman to cross the Naf River' Reuters

Earlier this year, a Human Rights Watch report alleged Rohingya women and girls as young as 13 had been raped and sexually assaulted by soldiers.

Human Rights Watch said members of the army and border guard police took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches and sexual assaults against women and girls in at least nine villages in the Rohingya-dominated Maungdaw district in the final months of 2016.

The attacks were reportedly often carried out in groups, with women being held down or threatened at gunpoint by some men while others raped them.

The report stated that more than half of the 101 women UN investigators interviewed said they were raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence at the hands of Burmese security forces.

The Burmese government had repeatedly denied allegations of persecution against the Rohingya.

Boys search for rubbish amid the ashes of burnt houses at a camp for Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State (Reuters)

Last week, the UN's human rights envoy to Burma expressed disappointment over a lack of government effort to tackle problems underlying the violence in the western state of Rakhine after completing a 12-day fact-finding tour.

Yanghee Lee, on her fifth mission to the country, said she saw little improvement in the situation for the Rohingya in Rakhine, where the army has been accused of human rights violations on a vast scale during counterinsurgency operations following an attack on police outposts along the border with Bangladesh last October.

She also said the government prevented her from visiting several areas in Rakhine state and in the north where there is armed conflict.

"The general situation for the Rohingya has hardly improved since my last visit in January, and has become further complicated in the north of Rakhine," she said. "I continue to receive reports of violations allegedly committed by security forces during operations."

Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar huddle in a room at an unregistered refugee camp south of Dhaka, Bangladesh

She accused the government of disrupting her scheduling to make it difficult to plan visits, as well as barring some visits completely.

"As well as increasing restrictions on my access, individuals who meet with me continue to face intimidation, including being photographed, questioned before and after meetings and in one case even followed," she said. "This is unacceptable."

Ms Lee said she would present details of her findings in a report to the UN General Assembly.

Additional reporting by agencies
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A farmer has photographed wild rabbits riding on the backs of sheep to escape rising floodwaters during heavy rain in New Zealand.

Ferg Horne, 64, said he had never seen anything like it and snapped the pictures because he knew his family would never believe what he had witnessed.

"I couldn't believe it for a start," he added.

Recommended Dog rescues drowning deer and becomes social media star

Mr Horne was trudging through the deluge to rescue a neighbour's 40 sheep from the floodwaters on Saturday at their South Island farm near Dunedin when he spotted some dark shapes from a distance.

He was puzzled because he knew his neighbour, who was away in Russia attending a nephew's wedding, did not have any black-faced sheep.

Then he saw the bedraggled wild rabbits hitching a ride - two atop one sheep and a third on another.

The sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about three inches of water.

Mr Horne said the rabbits had got wet but seemed fairly comfortable and relaxed atop their fleeced friends.

The farmer typically shoots rabbits - which are considered pests in New Zealand - when he sees one.

"But they'd showed so much initiative, I thought they deserved to live, those rabbits," he said.

 Disabled sheep given wheels to walk

Mr Horne herded the sheep to a patch of dry ground on the farm about 50 metres away.

"As they jumped through the water, the rabbits had a jolly good try at staying on," he said.

He added the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws. They fell off as they reached higher ground but managed to climb a hedge to safety.

Mr Horne returned later that afternoon to find the floodwaters receding, the sheep all safe, and the rabbits long gone.

The farmer's home also remained dry.
Beijing - Around 200 heads and representatives of Chinese companies participated in a road-show held here and showed their keen interest in investment opportunities offered by government of Punjab province of Pakistan in solid waste management program in urban and rural areas.

The road-show jointly organized by the Punjab government and Pakistan Embassy in Beijing was attended by Punjab Minister for Local Government, Khawaja Manshaullah Butt, technical experts and senior officials of the Punjab government.

The technical team briefed the participants about investment opportunities in solid waste collection and transportation, landfill constructions and operation management, waste to energy projects and hospital waste management projects in Punjab.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister invited the Chinese entrepreneurs to come forward for investment and take advantage of investment-friendly policies and peaceful environment in Punjab province.

Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif is committed to ensure transparency and merit in all the projects being completed in the province, he added.

He said under the cleaner city policy, the municipal solid waste management system will be improved and expanded in the urban and rural areas in the province.

The minister said the long term cooperation between Pakistan and the Chinese companies will provide an opportunity to learn new expertise and experience for better management of solid waste.

The Punjab government will provide full support and facilitation to the companies that would invest in the proposed projects, the minister assured.

In his welcome address, Pakistan Ambassador to China, Masood Khalid briefed the Chinese businessmen about the investment opportunities in different sectors and asked them to take part in development drive launched by Punjab government for the mutual benefit of people of the two countries.

He said the participation of such a large number of companies in the road-show is manifestation of market potential in Pakistan and the longstanding Pak-China deep rooted friendship.

Terming the launch of urban and rural waste management plan a right step towards ensuring a green and friendly environment, he said the Punjab province has abundant natural and human resources and the Chinese businessmen should take benefit of these opportunities.

The Ambassador said more than 19,000 Chinese are already working in different projects under safe and friendly environment. "Chinese workers are already in Pakistan to carry out work on China Pakistan Economic Corridor which is a flagship project of One Belt One Road," the ambassador said.

The participants were informed the provincial government has allocated Rs.15 billion in the budget for the current financial year to extend solid waste management program to five big cities, 25 smaller cities in Lahore Division and 194 cities across the Punjab province.

Under the cleaner city plan, the concerned institutions have been reformed and waste management companies have been formulated in major cities of Punjab.

The department responsible for solid waste management in Lahore District has recently expanded its scope to the adjoining districts of Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib.

The investors have been invited in collection and transportation of municipal solid waste from designated collection points to disposal sites in the three news districts.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Thousands of people evacuated from wildfires raging in the south of France have been left stranded in gymnasiums and on beaches.

Some 12,000 people were told to leave houses around the picturesque coastal town of Bormes-les-Mimosas, as flames continued spread along the Mediterranean coast for a third day on Wednesday.

British tourists were among a crowd of more than 3,000 people forced to take refuge at a beach close to the resort of Saint-Tropez, after a campsite was evacuated overnight.

The wildfires began to burn along Frances Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller and more scattered evacuations.

Eric Martin, from the Var firefighting unit, told BFM-TV that nearly 600 firefighters had conducted about 100 operations to try to contain the flames. He said they had burned around 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres).

Four tracker planes and a fire-fighting aircraft were sent towards thick black smoke that billowed above the horizon.

The airport in Toulon, a city 18 miles from La Londe, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well as the Fort de Bregancon, a monument which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

 Wildfires ravage the south of France

To the east, reinforcements were sent in to battle a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of forest.

Another fire was contained on Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer, after burning two villas, seriously injuring one firefighter and devouring about 500 hectares (1,235 acres).

Further south, flames consumed 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of forest on the northern end of the French island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Frances Mediterranean coast is particularly vulnerable to fires, with its large forests  which are often dry in the summer  and strong mistral winds blowing across the sea to fan the flames. No injuries have been reported among residents and holidaymakers.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The Foreign Office has advised tourists visiting the South of France to monitor local media and follow the advice of local authorities.

It recommended tourists should search on Twitter for the latest advice from regional fire services.

Additional reporting by AP
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A bull killed itself on a wooden post after being sent into a terrified frenzy when its horns were set on fire in front of a baying crowd.

Footage has emerged of the animal becoming confused and scared before it runs a short distance around a ring and hits its head on a wooden post in the small town of Foios in Valencia, Spain.

The animal, which died instantly, was initially tied to the post in front of the baying crowd during the Bulls in the Street festival  which is a scaled down version of Pamplonas famous Running of the Bulls festival.

It was then let go before it flailed around before hitting its head and slumping to the ground.

The bull had reportedly gored a man on the leg earlier that day, but it is not known whether this was the reason it was chosen to be tied to the post.

In footage, which was obtained by animal rights group Bulls Defenders United and posted on their Facebook page, the crowds excitement appears to turn to shock as the animal hits the post, suggesting its death was not planned.

In a comment on the video, the group said: A bull despairs with the fire on its horns and crashes against the trunk to which it was tied.

How many lives will still be taken in the name of traditions that are nothing but barbarity?

Spanish towns and cities have come under intense criticism for the blood sport which sees hundreds of bulls die every year.

Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them safe for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans  we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA

In 2010, the separatist region of Catalonia banned bullfighting, in a bid to differentiate itself with the rest of the country, but the law was struck down by Spains highest court last year which ruled it encroached on the cultural heritage of its citizens.

Now the Balearic Islands, which include Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza, have voted to introduce strict laws which are expected to effectively make bullfighting unviable, including a ban on the use of horses and sharp implements the rings, a 10-minute limit on fights, and the prohibition of alcohol in stadiums.

The islands tried to make it completely illegal in 2016 but were blocked by the high court ruling.

In 2013, the national government declared the practice a cultural asset which allows the sport to draw national funding  a decision opposed by the majority of Spaniards according to recent polling.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Hundreds of firefighters in the Riviera region of southern France and on the island of Corsica have battled against wind-whipped blazes that have left some of them injured.

Eight firefighters and 15 police officers have been hurt in the fires, which broke out on Monday and have consumed nearly 4,000 hectares (9,880 acres) of vegetation, according to French authorities.

A fire service official said 10,000 holidaymakers had been evacuated from an area that doubles or triples its population in summer.

The French civil security authority has asked the European Union for help and to provide two Canadair planes to contain and extinguish the wildfire.

There have been no reports of injuries among residents or tourists.

Flames burned some 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) around the Var area of Provence, with two villas destroyed a dozen kilometres (seven miles) west of Saint-Tropez.

A huge fire in the neighbouring Luberon region was under control on Tuesday.

The Var prefecture said about 100 people were evacuated in Ramatuelle.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The largest blaze was in northern Corsica, with nearly 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) burned.

French interior minister Gerard Collomb arrived on Tuesday evening in Corsica to meet with emergency services.

Associated Press
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has been declared a terrorist organisation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Judges in the European Unions most senior court ruled that the group should remain on an EU-wide blacklist and referred the case back to a lower court.

It came at the end of a long-running court battle to challenge the groups terror designation, following a previous ruling in 2014 when a lower court annulled the 2001 designation and recommended sanctions on Hamas be lifted.

Judges at the General Court accepted arguments at the time that the EUs decision was the result of second-hand information from the internet and press rather than an independent investigation, but the finding was appealed by the European Council.

Palestinian high school students show off their skills during a graduation ceremony from a military school course organised by the Hamas security forces and the Hamas Ministries of Interior and Education (Getty) (Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the ECJ said judges ruled that groups may be listed if there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities and that the Council of the European Union was not legally obliged to undertake its own investigation.

The ECJ therefore sets aside the 2014 judgement of the General Court, a statement added.

It refers the case back to the General Court so that the latter may examine the facts and arguments on which it did not rule in its 2014 judgement.

In the same session, the ECJ ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) should no longer be listed as a terrorist group by the EU because of the reduced risk of terror attacks following the groups military defeat in Sri Lanka.

The European Jewish Congress welcomed the decision on Hamas, saying the ruling sent an important political message for the fight against international terror.

Dr Moshe Kantor, the groups president, said: Hamas is a part of an international terror network and has murdered countless people.

One just needs to look at article seven of their charter to know their proudly stated genocidal aspiration to the mass murder of Jews all over the world.

The US is among the countries globally that classify Hamas as a terrorist group, although in the UK it is not banned in its entirety.

The Home Offices list of proscribed organisation includes its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, for their aims to end Israeli occupation in Palestine and establish an Islamic State.

The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has been subject to widespread travel bans and asset freezes since 2001, and has fought several wars against Israel as well as launching insurgent attacks.

It has opposed sanctions and argued it has a legitimate right to conduct military operations, but senior leaders regularly praise martyrs who launch terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

Hamas founding charter, from 1988, called for the takeover of all territories in former Mandatory Palestine, including modern-day Israel, but a new document presented in May claimed it would accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders.

The proposal would see Israel hand over East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and refugees dating back to the founding of Israel allowed to return to their homes.

Benjamin Netanyahus government blames the group and alleged incitement from other Palestinian leaders for a spate of stabbing and shooting attacks targeting Israelis.

Following a terror attack that killed two Israeli police officers outside a holy site in Jerusalem, the decision to instal metal detectors sparked days of violent protests that saw several deaths, sparking fresh alarm in the EU and United Nations.

Israeli authorities have now decided to replace the metal detectors with cameras and other security measures at the site known as the Haram al-Sharif by Muslims and Temple Mount by Jews.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Seyran Ates has been beaten up in the street, received death threats and had fatwas issued against her since she opened her mosque in Berlin where men and women can pray together and explore a liberal version of Islam.

But the Turkish born lawyer and human rights campaigner has stuck to her beliefs and she is now in Britain to promote a campaign for tolerance and dialogue and fight aggressive extremism in religion and politics. She will, in the course of this, meet Muslim imams and community leaders and seek to help set up mosques where worshippers are not segregated by their gender.

There will, I fully appreciate, be people who oppose what we are saying and doing. But there are others who also feel the same way we do in the UK, as there are elsewhere, and this is a chance to discuss what can be done, she says. We believe that in a democratic society it is very important to have freedom of conscience and freedom of expression without being subjected to abuse and violence. Anyone has the right to pray at our mosque, men and women, people who are LGBT, of whatever race. Surely it is vital to protect these rights.

Recommended Liberal mosque founder vows to keep it open despite Egyptian fatwa

It is perhaps unsurprising that the views of 54-year-old Ates has led to a backlash from conservative clerics. They held that what is being practised at the Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque  named after the Andalusian Muslim polymath who became an acclaimed scholar of Greek philosophy and the great German writer who had a deep interest in eastern writing  was sacrilegious.

In Egypt, the state-run religious institution Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, declared that Islam does not allow men and women to pray together and the Al-Azhar Universitys jurisprudence department issued a fatwa. The main religious authority in Turkey, Diyanet, attacked what was being practised at the mosque as nothing more than depraving and ruining religion. A religious institution in Hamburg has also joined in the denunciation.

There has been vitriol in the social media directed towards Ates with some of the abusers incensed that, on top of everything else, she is training to be an imam. After the assault on her and warnings that she will be killed, she now receives police protection. She says she was sad that these measures had to be taken, but people often react with anger when their right to oppress is challenged. She has, in the past, been attacked by the husband of an abused wife, narrowly escaping a shooting.

As far as the mosque is concerned, there are insults and threats, but I am also getting 300 emails a day from people who support us and urge us to continue. We have got support from all over the world, from Algeria to Australia, from the US and Canada. We get donations sent in. And it is not just Muslims but other religions, and some who are atheists but support our right to pray to God the way we want, says Ates. It is this encouragement which made me think that I should be involved in fighting for the rights of other people and against those who want to suppress those rights.

Ates, who has won a number of human rights awards, is part of a campaign called Stop Extremism, calling for fundamental rights of EU citizens to be protected from extremism. A petition with a million signatures backing the measure would enable Brussels to consider making it a directive with the possibility of it coming into laws of member states. The target is to get 100,000 signatures in the UK. The campaigners hold that there is no reason why this cannot be enshrined into domestic law even after this country leaves the bloc.

Sebastian Reimer, a law and communications specialist from Austria who has accompanied Ates in the UK visit, wants to stress: What we are proposing is against all forms of extremism, not just Islamic extremists. It is aimed at extreme right-wing groups, racists including those who target Muslims and anti-Semites.

We are proposing that this includes a range of issues: extremist acts, funding of extremists, including from abroad, and also oppression of individuals in society such as that of a wife by her husband, for instance, because women are very often victims of this form of intolerance. There is, we think, a reaction against extremism in Europe and we believe there is a lot of support for this move.

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

Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet stood by Ates in Germany, resisting calls for the Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque to be shut down. The Erdogan government in Turkey, among other things, accused it of being linked with Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric blamed for last years failed coup.

In Britain, too, she has received backing from a number of public figures engaged in the civil rights and counter-extremism field. Lord Carlile QC, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has said: I support her efforts and applaud her courageous initiative.

Lord Pannick QC, one of the leading experts in public and human rights law in this country, has stated: Seyran Ates certainly has my support and support of all who believe in freedom of religion. It is sad that those who take advantage of freedom of religion for themselves are reluctant to grant it to others. For Lord Patel of Bradford, Seyran Atess push for inclusivity and freedom of choice in worship is to be applauded.

Ates says: There is certainly a great opportunity for what we are trying to do in the UK. I personally think some mistakes were made here, such as allowing sharia courts to establish themselves. However one tries to hide the fact, they are bad for women. But we are very open to talking with conservative Muslims. Surely they too must be worried that violent people, terrorists are trying to hijack Islam? Surely they too would want to show that Islam is a peaceful, spiritual and beautiful religion?
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

An Egyptian tank crew have been praised for saving over 50 people's lives after they ran over a car bomb to prevent a suicide attack.

Seven civilians, including two young children, were killed when the bomb exploded at a security checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula.

The military said the tank intercepted the vehicle at a checkpoint near the city of Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, and tried to contain the expected blast by running over the car.

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

Video footage showed the tank accelerate to meet the car as it raced towards the checkpoint.

It then ran the car over, which carried four gunmen.

The tank retreated as civilians ran for cover, at which point the car exploded and nearby civilians were caught in the blast.

An army spokesman said the attack could have killed 50-60 people had it reached its target.

The explosion was large, carrying about 100kg of high explosives, the statement said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

An insurgency in Egypt's Sinai region has gained pace since the army toppled President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, following mass protests against his rule in mid-2013.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Palestinians in Jerusalem have once again met to pray outside the al-Aqsa mosque, rather than inside it, in an ongoing protest against perceived Israeli attempts to control access to the religious site.

Worshippers completed morning prayers outside the compound on Wednesday morning, despite the Israeli authorities decision to capitulate to Palestinian demands to remove metal detectors from the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque.

Al-Aqsa is located inside the the citys Noble Sanctuary, as it is known in Islam, or Temple Mount in Judaism.The site is considered holy by followers of both religions, and as such is frequently the subject of tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

 Metal detectors removed from holy site by Israel authorities

Two Israeli guards were killed by Palestinian attacks outside the compound earlier this month, prompting the Israeli government to step up security at the site, including metal detectors, new railings, CCTV and a ban on entrance for Muslim men under the age of 50.

Access to the compound has always been a hugely politically sensitive issue. While it is located in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israeli in 1967, the Muslim-administered site has been operated by neighbouring Jordan in order to avoid conflict.

The new measures were met with outrage by Palestinians and across the Muslim world, sparking protests and violence which led to the deaths of at least four Palestinians in street clashes and the murder of three Israeli settlers in their home in the occupied West Bank.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada 26973.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26974.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26975.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26976.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26977.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26985.bin Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada 26986.bin Robert Capa/Magnum

Following international concern over the growing crisis, the Israeli cabinet voted on Monday to remove the metal detectors. However, the capitulation was not seen as good enough by many Palestinians, and high-profile calls for protests to continue have been heeded.

The Waqf religious body which runs the site, and head of Jerusalems Supreme Islamic Committee Ikrema Sabri, said on Wednesday that legal action is being considered to force the Israeli authorities to remove all the new measures  including sophisticated CCTV technology which can supposedly identify concealed objects.

 Trump: Israelis and Palestinians are 'reaching for peace'

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also reiterated that the current freeze on contact with Israel will remain in place until the status quo in Jerusalem is restored.

International observers, including the UNs Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, have urged both sides to come to a resolution before Friday prayers, which usually draw tens of thousands worshippers, take place.

The tensions could spread well beyond Jerusalem if there was disruption on the Muslim holy day, he warned.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

At least 30 soldiers have been killed in a huge Taliban attack on a national security base, Afghan officials have said.

The militants have said that three US Marines were killed in the assault in the early hours of Wednesday, although the claim has not been verified by the authorities.

The attack on an outpost in Kakhrez in Kandahar province - the heartland of the extremist insurgency - left another 13 soldiers wounded, defence ministry deputy spokesperson Mohammed Radmanish said.

 Afghanistan: Fifteen years since US-led invasion

Militants reportedly managed to capture weapons and vehicles from the base during the swift assault, although 205th Corps Commander General Imam Nazar said that reinforcements managed to beat the attackers back.

There has been intense fighting in the region in recent days amid a renewed Taliban offensive which has also seen a string of horrific suicide attacks on civilians.

A Taliban spokesperson said on Wednesday that the insurgents had made strategically important gains across the country's south over the last week. The group is now in control of some 40 per cent of the country, although it has not managed to maintain a grip on any urban centres.

While Afghanistan's police and military forces total almost 300,000 personnel, they have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since the majority of US and international troops withdrew from the country in 2014.

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Show all 16 1 /16 Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2001 Afghans at the Killi Faizo refugee camp desperately reach for bags of rice being handed out to the thousands who escaped the bombardment in southern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Chaman, Pakistan, December 4, 2001) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2002 Mahbooba stands against a bullet-ridden wall, waiting to be seen at a medical clinic. The seven-year-old girl suffers from leishmaniasis, a parasitical infection. (Kabul, March 1, 2002) All photos Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2003 A mother and her two children look out from their cave dwelling. Many families who, fleeing the Taliban, took refuge inside caves adjacent to Bamiyans destroyed ancient Buddha statues now have nowhere else to live. (Bamiyan, November 19, 2003) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Students recite prayers in a makeshift outdoor classroom in the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from India and Pakistan. (Northeastern Afghanistan, September 2, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Bodybuilders in the 55-60 kg category square off during a regional bodybuilding competition. Many Afghan men, like others around the world, feel that a macho image of physical strength is important. (Kabul, August 6, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2008 A woman in a white burqa enjoys an afternoon with her family feeding the white pigeons at the Blue Mosque. (Mazar-e-Sharif, March 8, 2008) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Addicts inject heroin while trying to keep warm inside the abandoned Russian Cultural Center, which the capital citys addicts use as a common gathering point. Heroin is readily available, costing about one dollar a hit. (Kabul, February 9, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 An elderly man holds his granddaughter in their tent at a refugee camp after they were forced to flee their village, which US and NATO forces had bombed because, they claimed, it was a Taliban hideout. (Surobi, Nangarhar Province, February 7, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Seven-year-old Attiullah, a patient at Mirwais Hospital, stands alongside an X ray showing the bullet that entered his back, nearly killing him. Attiullah was shot by US forces when he was caught in a crossfire as he was herding sheep. (Kandahar, October 13, 2009). Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 US Army Sargeant Jay Kenney (right), with Task Force Destiny, helps wounded Afghan National Army soldiers exit a Blackhawk helicopter after they have been rescued in an air mission. (Kandahar, December 12, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 An Afghan National Army battalion marches back to barracks at the Kabul Military Training Center. (Kabul, October 4, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Eid Muhammad, seventy, lives in a house with a view overlooking the hills of Kabul. He and millions of other Afghans occupy land and housing without possessing formal deeds to them. (Kabul, November 21, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Razima holds her two-year-old son, Malik, while waiting for medical attention at the Boost Hospital emergency room. (Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, June 23, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Young women cheer as they attend a rally for the Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. (Kabul, April 1, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Burqa-clad women wait to vote after a polling station runs out of ballots. (Kabul, April 5, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2015 Relatives, friends, and womens rights activists grieve at the home of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was killed by a mob in the center of Kabul. Farkhunda was violently beaten and set on fire after a local cleric accused her of burning a Quran. (Kabul, March 22, 2015) Paula Bronstein

Civilian and military deaths have sky rocketed since, and the chaos has allowed Isis to gain a foothold in Afghanistan's remote east.

The unrelenting violence has led to widespread anger with the weak and divided government of President Ashraf Ghani, which they say is not doing enough to protect the people from militant violence.

A car bomb attack in capital Kabul this week killed at least 35 people, bringing the number of civilian dead so far in 2017 to 1,697.

A total of 6,800 Afghan soldiers were killed by hte Taliban and Isis in 2016, a figure the US Special Inspector General for Reconstruction (SIGAR) called "shockingly high".

 US drops 'Mother Of All Bombs' on Islamic State cave system in Afghanistan

Last month US President Donald Trump bowed to pressure from the Pentagon to allow the military to set its own troop levels to prevent the precarious security situation from deteriorating further.

A total of 13,000 US and Nato soldiers are currently in the country, although observers fear after 16 years of war Afghanistan has arrived at a stalemate in the fight against extremism.

While it is expected that 4,000 extra troops will be deployed, there is still no coherent strategy from the Trump administration on the USs future involvement.
Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Banning a destination gives a sign to the terrorists they are winning, said Tarek Aouadi, UK director of the Tunisian National Tourist Office. He was speaking a year ago, which was 12 months after 30 Britons were murdered at a seaside resort in Sousse.

Human lives have been lost and security must come first. But we didnt expect it to be this long.

More than two years after Seifeddine Rezgui gunned down sunbathers at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, the British Government has finally eased its travel advice for Tunisia. The country is off the no-go list.

While German, French and Italian holidaymakers have been returning in increasing numbers to Tunisia, the British market is crucial to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. In 2014, close to half a million UK holidays travelled to the North African country; for the last two years, the number has been close to zero.

In practical terms, the change means travel insurance cover can be restored, and UK tour operators can organise holidays.

But luring people back to the Mediterranean beaches, desert landscapes and rich culture will take years rather than months.

Opinions on social media showed how difficult it will be to win over hearts and minds. Comments ranged from Take your bullet proof vest for the beach to I loved Tunisia but afraid it's not for me anymore. Too risky.

Images of the slaughter on the beach in Sousse and the subsequent evacuation of British holidaymakers will linger, and the new Foreign Office travel advice hardly paints a picture of tranquility: The main terrorist threat is from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Libya-based extremists with links to Daesh (formerly referred to as ISIL), it warns.

Despite some improvements in border security, Tunisia has a porous border with Libya, where theres a continuing conflict, an absence of security, and where Islamist terrorist groups operate.

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

I anticipate that a few thousand people who love Tunisia and its people will return to the country over the next few months. Expect a surge of visits over Christmas and New Year, when it offers the prospect of winter sunshine at much lower prices than the Canary Islands.

One or more tour operators may dip a toe in Tunisian waters by February half-term, with a small-scale programme running through to Easter. By putting holidays on sale soon, they will be able to assess demand ahead of deciding what to offer for summer 2018.

Price will certainly play a part: bargain holidays are key to drawing people back to a country that has seen tragedies involving tourists, and as costs for Spain have soared there will be plenty of travellers seeking better value.

Enticing cruise lines back to Tunisia will take longer. Before the attack on the Bardo Museum in the capital in March 2015, Tunis was a very popular port of call. But cruise lines tend to be very conservative: for this year, many of them have cut Turkey from itineraries, even though the country does not appear on the no-go list.

After the shambolic response to the Sousse attack, the security authorities have upped their game. Tunisian special forces are now regarded as outstanding. But in a country with many returning Jihadists, good intelligence is essential  as well as good fortune to ensure that the terrorists do not win once more.
The traditional role of the media in informing, entertaining and raising awareness on current societal issues should never be underestimated. The media does not only inform the public of current happenings in their society and the world at large, but also helps to explain and analyse what is of importance for better public appreciation. The media also sets the agenda of what becomes topical in public discussions.

Africa and China, long-time friends

China was one of the countries that strongly supported the liberation struggle in Africa. An example was the independence of Mozambique in 1975 after years of battling Portuguese colonial rule.

China and Africa have been friends for long, but the most recent and fresh memories of such relations date back to about 60 years ago in the heydays of the struggle for independence on the continent. This struggle lasted until the 1970s (mostly with ex-Portuguese colonies) and even early 1990s with South Africa and Namibia (or South West Africa as the territory was then known.)

While many Western powers sought to keep Africa in perpetual subjugation and imperialist control and domination, China, the defunct East Germany, the then Soviet Union, Cuba etc, were on the side of African nationalists. Such support came in the form of military and civilian training to enable Africans assert control of their sovereignty and destinies. And the African media always told the story.

In return, Africas support for the recognition of the Peoples Republic of China, in replacement of the defeated Kuomintang-led Republic of China, during the United Nations General Assembly vote of October 25, 1971, was crucial. Ever since, the bonds of friendship, evident in trade and political exchanges between Africa and China, have continued to grow. The advent of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, FOCAC in 2000  first at the ministerial level  has since added greater impetus to ties between the two sides. And the African media has continued to tell the story.

FOCAC strengthens ties

The most recent FOCAC summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015 marked a turning point in relations. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced assistance and loans totaling $60 billion for Africa to bolster the continents development in three years in 10 key areas, including capacity-building and educational opportunities.

As regards the lack of skilled personnel, Xi announced that China will establish a number of regional vocational education centers and several capacity-building colleges for Africa, train 200,000 technicians from African countries, and provide the continent with 40,000 training opportunities in China, Xinhua news agency reported on December 5, 2015.

Meanwhile, China will offer African students 2,000 education opportunities with degrees or diplomas and 30,000 government scholarships, he said, adding that each year his country will also invite 200 African scholars to visit China, 500 African youths to study in China each year and train 1,000 media professionals from Africa, Xinhua said.

Journalists not left out

This explains why the number of participants for the China Africa Press Centre (CAPC) has kept increasing since its inception in 2014. The number of journalists for the fourth CAPC batch (2017) stands at 27  all from 27 different African nations. Since our arrival in China in late February 2017, hardly does any month go by without news of African media and other professionals arriving in Beijing for training and experience-sharing with their Chinese counterparts.

Only last May, Chinas media giant, the Star Times Group, gathered scores of African broadcast professionals and senior government officials in Beijing for a two-day seminar on digital switchover. Mid this month, about 100 senior media professionals from Africa arrived in China for three weeks of training and sharing best practices, including over 30 from Sierra Leone and 8 from Cameroon.

One Belt One Road (Yi dai yi lu) opportunities

And what better way is there to connect Africa and China than the opportunities offered by Yi dai yi lu or the Belt and Road Initiative? The Chinese-driven initiative, which aims at erecting major infrastructural facilities in partner countries is not only boosting economic development on the continent, but also facilitating connectivity amongst African and Chinese people.

The stories CAPC journalists write during their stay in China and the experiences they share with those back home all help in fostering better understanding of China  this huge nation that is so far, and yet so close to the hearts of many Africans.

Chinas image, a major problem

The task of African journalists, it must however be admitted, is not easy as China tends to be perceived on the continent largely through the eyes of Western media reporting  which is most often negative. To compound matters, imports of sub-standard Chinese goods by Chinese and African traders only reinforce the already negative perception that China is such a backward country! But what leaves many discerning Africans even more perplexed is the high quality of major infrastructural projects undertaken by Chinese firms in Africa.

The low quality of some Chinese exports to Africa poses a major image problem to the country.

Though I knew about this negative perception long before arriving in China, I was jolted recently when my wife in a telephone conversation told me that our daughter who is only 7 said she cannot dare mention to any of her classmates that her father is now in China.

Her fear is that her classmates would laugh at her; for China is largely seen in my country, Cameroon and in most of Africa, as a backward country that produces poor quality goods. Chinese goods have become associated with poor quality such that the word chinoiserie has been coined in Cameroonian French to refer to anything that does not last and is therefore only patronised by the ignorant and poor.

The fault is all ours!

While the blame for this state of affairs lies largely on the shoulders of African governments that allow in goods without insisting on quality, it is also incumbent on Chinese authorities to shut down factories churning out sub-standard products for the African market.

Not all Chinese exports to Africa are substandard. The quality of Chinese steel roofing sheets is unrivalled.

Like we African journalists were told recently by a Ghanaian entrepreneur based in Beijing, Chinese goods do not have problems of quality anywhere in the world  save in Africa. However, the determination of unscrupulous traders who insist on buying very cheap sub-standard goods in China to resell in Africa and make 500 percent profits needs to be urgently checked once and for good.

Without which, the huge amounts expended by China every year to assist Africa develop through the construction of connectivity infrastructure and offer of scholarships and other training opportunities, will not do much to change the countrys poor image amongst most Africans.

Africans, though not so rich, are proud people who love quality. That is why those who can afford do not hesitate to patronize quality goods  whatever be their origin. China can and should ensure that only quality products leave its shores for African markets like it is already doing for the rest of the world. This would in no way mean loss of the market share.

The opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative are so enormous and should not be dampened by the uncontrolled exports of sub-standard goods to Africa, which only help in ridiculing a good and trusted partner like China.

Huge prospects for greater cooperation

Nevertheless, the future holds great prospects for China-Africa cooperation in more domains. The world having become a global village, and for people with more similarities than differences, there is no reason why Africans and Chinese should not become even greater friends in the years to come.

The growing number of Africans studying in China, rising portfolio of Chinese investments on the continent, and intermarriages between the two peoples, only point in one obvious direction. That Africa and China are bound by destiny to be great friends for much longer than anyone might guess today.

China is the worlds second largest economy since overtaking Japan in 2010. At the rate the economy is growing, forecasts say China is likely to take over the first position from the US by 2030. Across most parts of the world, China is expanding exports of high quality products and the presence of its industries. Ironically, the situation in Africa is quite different as China is often blamed for the influx of sub-standard goods  especially electronic and electrical appliances, clothing, footwear and household utensils. Though the high quality of its steel roofing sheets, newsprint and major infrastructure projects, etc, is undeniable.

Stakeholders concerned about situation

Stephen Ketu, a Beijing, China-based Ghanaian entrepreneur, blames African governments for failing to control the quality of imports. Most African business people who come to China dont understand the market. They end up buying sub-standard goods for resale back home at higher profit margins. This gives the wrong impression that China is flooded with such goods. Africa is the only place in the world where people complain about the quality of Chinese goods. Our importers are either not knowledgeable enough or are simply people of bad faith, Ketu notes.

Most Cameroonian importers buy anything in China to make 500 or 600 percent profits back home. Such people dont bother to find out which Chinese industries produce quality goods, explains Denis Patrick Noah, a Cameroonian businessman and contractor in Guangzhou, southern Chinas Guangdong province, who has been in the country for 10 years.

What a Chinese official thinks

The negative publicity generated by sub-standard Chinese imports into Africa has not however left the countrys authorities indifferent. Luo Jun, a senior official with the Guandong provincial government accuses both African and Chinese business people and middlemen of pursuing profits with no concern for quality.

Sub-standard products undermine the good reputation of Chinese goods. I would like to see the media play a greater role in checking these malpractices and for such manufacturers to be blacklisted. Consumers on their part should be able to make wide choices, Luo Jun said in Guangzhou earlier this year.

Stephen Ketu, who has lived in China for 19 years, began as a barber and today heads a multi-million Dollar business empire. He visits his native Ghana regularly to sensitise local people on how to do quality business in China.

Many of the people I have worked with in Ghana are millionaires today. I want to take my experience in doing business with Chinese to other African countries in order to end the patronage of sub-standard goods, Ketu says. He has also brought in many Chinese investors to his country, the same thing he plans to do in Cameroon with his group of companies during an imminent business mission.

*The initial version of this opinion piece was presented as a short lecture at China Investment magazines media salon in Beijing on July 6, 2017.

The author, Kimeng Hilton Ndukong, is Sub-Editor for World News with Cameroon Tribune bilingual daily newspaper in Cameroon. A member of CAPC 2017 batch, he is currently on media attachment with Peoples Daily Online in English.
Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Tunisia has been taken off the no-go list for British holidaymakers, the Foreign Office has declared, two years after a beach massacre claimed the lives of 38 people.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office no longer advise against travel to Tunisia, except for parts of the south and interior and certain areas near the borders with Algeria and Libya, it said in a statement.

With those 30 words, the Government gave a green light to travellers to return to the North African nation where the Arab Spring began in 2011.

Recommended Tunisia tourism gets surprise boost despite Foreign Office warnings

But in June 2015, 30 British holidaymakers and eight other nationals were killed by a lone gunman at a beach hotel in the resort of Sousse. It followed an attack three months earlier on the countrys leading cultural collection, the Bardo Museum in Tunis, in which 20 tourists died.

The Foreign Office continues to warn: Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Tunisia.

In lifting the blanket no-go ban, however, it adds: The Tunisian authorities have improved security in tourist resorts and their ability to respond to a terrorist incident.

Tunisian security forces have also improved and are better prepared to tackle terrorist threats than they were at the time of the 2015 attacks.

But further attacks remain likely, including in places visited by foreigners such as tourist resorts.

In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Show all 32 1 /32 In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of Denis Thwaites is carried from an RAF C-17, which repatriated the bodies of eight British nationals killed in the Tunisia terror attack, at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford in Britain In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of John Stollery is carried from an RAF C-17, which repatriated the bodies of eight British nationals killed in the Tunisia terror attack, at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford in Britain In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of Elaine Thwaites, one of the victims of the terrorist attack, is taken from the RAF C-17 aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Hearses carrying the victim's of last Friday's terrorist attack arrive at Tunis Airport Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia An RAF C17 transport aircraft arrives at RAF Brize Norton Airport in Oxfordshire carrying the bodies of 8 British people killed in the Tunisia gun attack Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Ambulances carrying the victim's of the terrorist attack arrive at Tunis Airport Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Armed police continue to patrol Marhaba beach in Sousse Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia National guard members patrol at the beach near the Imperiale Marhaba hotel, which was attacked by a gunman in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Military personnel attending to injured British nationals on board an RAF C-17 aircraft en route back to the United Kingdom, in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Military personnel attending to injured British nationals on board an RAF C-17 aircraft en route back to the United Kingdom, in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Holidaymakers lay flowers on Marhaba beach Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Tourists pay tribute to the victims of the Sousse attack at a makeshift memorial on the beach at the Imperial Marhaba resort Reuters In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The Home Secretary Theresa May pays her respects with her counterparts, Frances Bernard Cazeneuve, left, Germanys Thomas de Maiziere, second left, and Tunisias Najem Gharsalli, in Sousse Reuters In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Two tourists pay respects to victims of IS attack on beach in Sousse, Tunisia Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Many people remain unaccounted for and many of their relatives have taken to social media in the hope of obtaining information about those who are still missing (Getty) Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A boy holds a Tunisian flag at the spot on the beach where the attack took place Reuters In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A man kisses a Tunisian flag at the site of a shooting attack on the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui, on the outskirts of Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The front of the Marhaba hotel Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Tunisian Ennahdha party member and former minister Houcine Jazir speaks with Belgium survivor couple Corman (R) and Claude Pesser after a mass shooting in the resort town of Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The bloodstained belongings of a tourist are seen on the sand in the resort town of Sousse AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A broken glass window of the Imperiale Marhaba hotel is seen after a gunman opened fire at the beachside hotel in Sousse Reuters In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Blood stains cover the ground at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse, Tunisia after mass shooting Fethi Belais/AFP/Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Policemen patrolling the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse where tributes have been laid to the dead AFP/Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia People stand in silence next to flowers during a gathering at the scene of the attack in Sousse, Tunisia Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Messages and flowers are left on Marhaba beach where 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Souuse Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Police officers control the crowd while surrounding a man suspected to be involved in opening fire on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Medics help an injured man in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A body lies on a street in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Members of the Tunisian security forces in an armoured vehicle patrol a street in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The beach where the massacre took place Lionel Tunisiano/Twitter In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A general view of the deserted pool and deck chairs at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel EPA In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A woman looks toward a glass door shattered by a bullet at Imperial Marhaba Hotel EPA

The immediate effect is that travel insurance is now once again valid for Tunisia; the FCO no-go warning had the effect of removing cover from standard policies.

The economic and humanitarian effects of the travel ban have been immense, with tens of thousands of Tunisian families losing their livelihoods as hotels and other tourist facilities shut down. The hope is now that British holidaymakers will return in their hundreds of thousands, as they did up to 2010.

There is no prospect, though, of large tour operators setting up package holidays for the remainder of the summer. TUI, the tour operator whose customers were killed at Sousse, said: Thomson and First Choice follow the FCOs advice for all destinations we operate to. As the overall level of advice has now changed for Tunisia, we will look at whether we will re-introduce the destination for future seasons, which will also take in to account customer demand.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook, the other big tour operator, said: Were pleased that the Foreign Office has taken this decision to open Tunisia back up to Brits.

Its great for Tunisia, which used to welcome many thousands of British holidaymakers. Well take a bit of time to look at how and when we put this once-popular destination back on sale and we will update our customers when we have any further news.

It is unlikely that either TUI or Thomas Cook will have Tunisian programmes in place for the main winter season, but it is possible that some holidays could be arranged between February and Easter.

Abta, the travel association, said: This change in level of travel advice means that travel to Tunisia can now resume and travel companies can put in place plans for holidays to Tunisia to restart, should they wish to do so.

There are plenty of scheduled flights available, including a daily connection from London with the capital, Tunis, on the national airline, Tunisair.

A British Airways spokesperson said restoring the airlines link with Tunis is not on the agenda at present: We constantly review our route network and customer demand, but we have no current plans.

But BAs sister airline, Vueling, launched a second weekly link from Barcelona to the Tunisian capital last month.
Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Respect Venice. Youre welcome here but you must play by the rules  or pay for it.

Thats the message from the Venetian authorities, who have unveiled a new campaign, aimed at tourists, to encourage them to behave appropriately in a city which is struggling to cope with the influx of visitors, and where locals are at boiling point over their home being used as a global playground.

Paola Mar, the councillor responsible for tourism, announced that a campaign called #EnjoyRespectVenezia will launch in time for the summer crush.

The campaign will be spearheaded across social media, shown on the city councils website, and provide reminders in the shape of posters around town and flyers at locations like the train station.

Visitors will be reminded not to swim in canals, make picnic stops out of public areas, pause too long on bridges, drop litter, ride bikes through the city or sightsee in bathing suits  all apparently common phenomena.

Transgressors will be fined anything from 25 to 500.

The message we have to get through is that were not joking, Mar told local paper La Nuova. If it gets about that people who do this kind of thing are fined, as well as it being flagged to their respective embassies, perhaps well be able to stop others copying.

Only last weekend, a group of Belgian teenagers went viral when they posted a video of themselves jumping off the bridge designed by architect Santiago Calatrava into the Grand Canal. They have subsequently apologised for their behaviour.

Last August, a tourist jumping from the Rialto Bridge hit a water taxi and died in hospital.

The new campaign has been a long time in the planning. Last month, Mar told The Independent their behavioural campaign would have 12 golden rules  both prohibitory and encouraging, too. The problem is that Venice is perceived as a beach, she said.

The campaign will be launched in 10 languages, including English, Chinese, Arabic and Korean. It will include suggestions on how to change typical behaviour  including highlighting official picnic areas and public toilets.

Meanwhile, the largest island in the lagoon, the Lido, is embarking on a sustainable tourism initiative.
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

This is the third instalment in Robert Fisks series from Syria

For 60 miles across the vast desert of eastern Syria, far beyond the trashed Roman ruins of Palmyra, the army of Syria is moving through the hot grey sands towards the besieged garrison city of Deir ez-Zour. For 60 miles, tanks and heavy artillery  and brand new Russian Army multiple missile launchers  line the narrow, melting highway through the oilfields, pale tents flourishing in the dry wadis of distant hills which belonged to Isis only a month ago, gun batteries thumping amid the sand dunes.

Weve been through this before, of course: Syrian army advances that turned sour in northern Syria, the long siege of eastern Aleppo, Isis retreats that transformed themselves into new and savage suicide attacks out of the desert and into Palmyra. But the Russian army foot patrols in the wrecked modern city of Palmyra  I even saw Russian Army Chechen troops in the city, a vital Muslim component to Moscows military alliance with Damascus  suggest that this time the Syrian army has its enemies on the run.

So enormous is the landscape  harsh, lined with green desert grass and baked sand hills  and so intense is the 47-degree heat, that images do greater credit to this desert war than dry essays on the strategy of an army that plans to free 10,000 of its soldiers still holding out further east, surrounded by Isis for three years in the ancient city of Deir ez-Zour, along with 400,000 civilians in two pockets of land in the valley of the Euphrates.

Sixty miles beyond Palmyra I travelled eastwards, the only western journalist to reach this far front line in a convoy of Syrian vehicles until we stopped just five miles short of the crossroad town of al-Sukhnah.

 Images of people breaking Ramadan fast in ruined Syrian town go viral

Sukhnah means heat. It is the right name. Isis is still there. The desert mirages turn empty sand beds into waterless rivers, but the Syrian encampments and the 122- and 130mm guns are real enough. So are the tanks heading east: some loaded with infantry, thrashing up the tarmac, truckloads of green-painted ammunition boxes crammed on top, soldiers clinging to the tailboards.

The wreckage of war  a bombed-out Isis truck, a shattered army lorry, carbonised buses pushed off the road  is everywhere. A bearded Syrian officer  many of them have grown these big bushy Isis-style beards over the past two years, perhaps to mock their enemies  shouts that the gun line have been ordered to fire, and then the desert shakes ever so slightly and long lines of sand streak in front of the artillery.

They look like those big wheeled guns on the old silent Somme newsreels and they are almost as quiet in the desert. The fine dust absorbs the thumping detonations.

Wreckage of war on the desert highway to Deir ez-Zour (Nelofer Pazira)

When we stop at a military post beside the highway, a sergeant emerges holding two tiny drones, just shot down at a height of 350 feet by a soldier with a Kalashnikov, the machine stinking of burned plastic. A beady camera glass hangs from one wire, the little rotors still rotating at the touch of a finger.

Isis, through the heat haze, is watching us through these sinister little lenses. Someone with a fully working brain in al-Suknah, ready to retreat no doubt, is looking for targets.

Only when we pass the batteries of Russian army BM-30 SMERTCH Whirlwind multiple rocket launchers, their Russian crews beside them, magenta and blue camouflage amid the sand, does a Syrian officer ask us not to take pictures. No problem with Syrias weapons. We can shoot photographs of as many guns as we like, as many mortar batteries, although they appear dwarfed by the immensity of the landscape.

Theres an operational battle map in General Mohamed Khadours air-conditioned headquarters. It shows a black patch for al-Sukhnah, and just to the left a grim series of blood-red circles. These are the gun lines. And Khadour, the senior army commander for this huge area of desert and remote cities  tall, head shaped like a bullet, thinning hair, face darkened by the sun; a 58-year-old graduate of the Aleppo military college with an infantry training degree  coldly reads off a set of coordinates to open fire.

Beside him on a sofa leans a heavy black six-chamber 46mm rocket gun that his men captured up north in Hassakeh  RPG-6, GLV-HEF [stock number] 4348 for those who can trace its foreign manufacturers  and the general looks contemptuously at it.

However many weapons they got from the West, Isis is finished, he says. They are like a banana that has fallen out of its skin. Only the skin is left.

Im not so sure about this. Theres a small truck park in Palmyra filled with the big black iron suicide trucks that Isis manufactured in its caliphate, identical to the massive killer cars captured by the Iraqi army in distant Mosul, far to to the east. General Khadour reports that in one month his soldiers have faced seven suicide trucks and 20 individual Isis suicide fighters, all of whom had blown themselves to pieces.

And I ask the same old question I put to everyone who fights Isis: who are they really? And I get the same reply from the general. Animals, he says. But even animals are not evil.

Curiously, the brain inside the Isis animal does not interest these soldiers. They regard the al-Nusrah / al-Qaeda fighters as far better trained  and with far more sophisticated Western weapons and anti-aircraft missiles  than Isis. For Nusrah, still fighting on in Idlib province, they have a curiosity rather than respect. But for Isis, they have contempt.

There is a creepy story which two officers tell me, which might  given the nature of the Isis mind  have some pathetic truth. Several suicide bombers, they say, were found with womens underclothes in their pockets  for the virgins they would meet in paradise.

Syrian artillery in the desert outside the Isis-held town of al-Sukhnah (Nelofer Pazira)

Some generals only speculate on dates  a sound precaution in the Syrian war  but General Khadour does not hesitate to tell me that he will reach and liberate Deir ez-Zour by the end of August, just 30 days away. Why not? He was head of the security and military headquarters in the eastern region of Syria  including the surrounded city  until he was flown north to fight Isis and Nusrah around Hassakeh. He will, no doubt, resume his duties there when his army breaks the siege.

I and General Mohamed Sbeh here, he says  Sbeh, Khadours subordinate officer, sits, rotund and narrow-eyed, listening like a fox to his left  told the people of Deir ez-Zour we would come back for them, and we shall. That is what I am doing. We have got a third of the way. We have just 130 kilometres to reach Deir ez-Zour.

An Isis radio station went on the air a few days ago and many of the soldiers heard it. They said they were still winning and our soldiers in the desert heard it, General Khadour said. Isis said: We have captured a major in the army and destroyed a tank of the regime and killed a lot of pigs [soldiers]. We all laughed. It was a lie. We have no one captured; we have not lost a tank. We are winning.

But the Syrians are of course taking casualties. On a small hill captured only 24 hours earlier, General Sbeh told me he had two soldiers martyred, one of them an officer, and others wounded. But he said that Isis was now retreating to Mayadeen, along with some of their families.

These Syrian officers are dismissive of American power  their army has certainly advanced in the desert faster than the US-supported and largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces east of the Euphrates when they approached Raqqa  and dismissively list the American airbases on Syrian soil.

We know their bases are outside Hasakeh, and at Al-Ermeilan, Al-Shedadeh and Ein al-Arab [Kobani] and other places  but these are temporary, Khadour says. They cannot stay there.

Burned-out wreck of a small Isis reconnaisance drone shot down by a Syrian soldier (Nelofer Pazira)

The general says he will never retire  like many soldiers, I suspect he likes fighting too much  and he says he will never give up till the end of his life. We first met in Aleppo five years ago when he was defending the middle-class Saef al-Dawla district. We did not know whom we were fighting then, he says.

They had no tactics and we had much to learn. Then they would start getting sophisticated equipment from the West and we had to adopt our tactics. Now we are fighting in the desert.

And therein runs a tale. For the Syrian Army was trained  always  to fight Israel on the Golan Heights, to go to war in cooler climates, to head south. But now it is fighting its way east in arid lands that resemble those of the Iran-Iraq war  indeed, of the Second World War in Egypt and Libya  and it has become a desert army.

Khadour ponders this for some time and then looks across the destroyed modern metropolis of Palmyra. In Roman antiquity, Queen Zenobia ruled this ancient city, infuriating the empire with her arrogance and independence. No civilian has returned to Palmyra. The general gazes across the smashed hotels and villas and shops and laughs mirthlessly. Why did Zenobia ever come here? he asks.
World Trade Organisation tariffs could be imposed if the UK pulls out of the EU without a trade deal. Stock image

Small and medium sized businesses trading cross-border are being encouraged to take up Government-backed support advising them on the level of tariffs that would apply to their products under a hard Brexit.

An average of four businesses every day have been in contact with cross-border body InterTradeIreland looking to tap into its Brexit Advisory Service, including information on the tariffs they could face.

About 15 companies have also been provided with Brexit "start planning vouchers", worth 2000/2000 each, aimed at ensuring businesses get advice on specific issues such as movement of labour, goods, services and currency management.

That could be a sign that businesses are slowly starting to engage with the potential problems Brexit poses for them.

Aidan Gough, the strategy and policy director with InterTradeIreland, said research for the first quarter of the year showed that nearly all companies hadn't done any planning.

"For the type of businesses that we're working with, they're so focused on the here and now and it's hard to get them to think about 18 months ahead," he told the Irish Independent.

"They are aware that the trading relationship could change, but our figures show that 98pc of them aren't planning. What they're saying is that they don't have any information to form their plans. They're so busy competing just to make a success of their business." South to north trade in goods was valued at 1.65bn last year, down from 1.73bn in 2015 and north to south trade was 1.05bn, down from 1.108bn in 2014.

World Trade Organisation tariffs - which could be imposed if the UK pulls out of the EU without a trade deal - are levied on specific product lines and the variation across products can range from 0pc to over 80pc.

Research by InterTrade- Ireland concluded that although a substantial fraction of products would face no tariff, the small percentage of products that would incur tariffs of over 35pc in a WTO scenario make up a significant share of cross-border trade.

"For the vast majority of products - there's about 2,000 products going north to south and south to north - for the vast majority the tariff is actually below 10pc," Mr Gough added.

"It's within the realms of most businesses of being manageable if you start planning for it. They say they don't have information. We're saying here's the worst case scenario. If you have tariffs, find out what it is."

InterTradeIreland is funded by the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of the Economy in Northern Ireland on a 2:1 basis. Its funding is down from around 12m a year in 2008 to about 8m now.

Its budget for 2017 has not been formally approved by the North South Ministerial Council due to the suspension of the North's Assembly.
Hibernia Reit CEO Kevin Nowlan has confirmed that the company is in "advanced talks" with a potential new tenant for its office development at 1 Windmill Lane (1WML).

While Mr Nowlan declined to comment any further on the discussions, he expressed confidence that the Windmill Lane scheme would move into what he termed "the de-risk bracket" shortly.

Approximately 29pc of the building was pre-let to Informatica last March.

Commenting on the Dublin office market, he said: "The good news that we're seeing is that the guys who've made big moves on the speculative [office] space seem to be getting space away. And that's the big thing we focus on."

Mr Nowlan said with a "lot of activity" in the market, prospective occupiers were being moved to make decisions.

"When space gets filled up quickly, I suppose it moves people to make decisions. They say 'if I don't do something here now, I might end up with a real difficulty'," he said.

Ahead of yesterday's AGM, Hibernia Reit said it expected to complete the development of 1 Windmill Lane next month. 2 Dockland Central, Dublin 1, and 1 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, are on schedule for completion in late 2017 and mid-2018. Development of the Hanover Building is due to begin shortly with its completion expected in late 2018.

Office leasing activity for the overall Dublin market in the three months to the end of June came in at over 1m sq ft, bringing take-up for the first half of 2017 to over 1.6m sq ft.

An additional 1m sq ft of office accommodation had been reserved at the end of June. Dublin office vacancy rates fell to 6.5pc overall and to 2pc for Grade A space in Dublin 2 and Dublin 4.
Profit, including non cash valuation charges, at retail property group Hammerson plc increased by 76.7pc year on year to 287.1m (321.8m) on the back of record leasing activity and capital growth.

According to the companys results for the six months ended 30 June 2017, rental income at the company also increased by almost 10pc year on year to 184m.

Meanwhile the value of the companys portfolio grew to 10.5bn from 9.7bn, an increase of 5.6pc in the six months to 30 June 2017.

Ireland

In Ireland, a market the company entered in 2015 through the acquisition of a major loan portfolio, secured on a number of Dublin retail assets, from the National Asset Management Agency, net rental income was 17.4m during the first six months of 2017, an increase of 12pc in like for like rental income.

Read more: Hammerson chief eyes long-term investment horizon as he steers steady course

The increase in rental income was due to a strong performance at Dundrum Shopping Centre, where additional income arose from the settlement of rent reviews and new lettings undertaken, as well as additional non-rental revenues from car park and commercialisation activities.

Occupancy levels in remained very high at 99.9pc, and Hammerson said that demand for space continued to be strong.

The company went on to say that it signed leases in Ireland representing 1.5m of annual rental income in the six months to 30 June.

Key leasing transactions at Dundrum for the company included a first Irish store for Smiggle and Moss Bross second store in Ireland.

Read more: This Australian chain is planning to open 20 Irish outlets

As part of the integration of the Ireland portfolio the company said that it has upgraded the IT infrastructure at Dundrum to improve the footfall and sales data collection processes.

Hammersons redevelopment of Moore Mall South at the Ilac Centre, which commenced in January 2017 is now complete.

The project involved the refurbishment of the mall and the reconfiguration of 10 units into five larger stores which have been let to brands including Regatta, The Works and Nisbetts at more than double the previous passing rent.

Commenting on the results David Atkins, CEO of Hammerson, described the performance as "strong...underpinned by record leasing activity and positive capital value growth right across our business."

"This performance is particularly pleasing in the context of a more uncertain political and economic backdrop and structural shifts in the retail sector," Mr Atkins said.
The ICSA has elected a new national treasurer three weeks after winning a legal battle against the former incumbent, James Reynolds.

ICSA Westmeath chairman Daniel Lynam was elected to the post at a recent meeting of the association's national executive.

Hailing from Castletown Geoghegan, Mr Lynam farms in conjunction with his two sons David and Donal.

The Lynams focus primarily on store to beef heifers with the herd including Charolais, Simmentals and Belgian Blues.

The family also has a dairying operation in Castletown Geoghegan, rear store lambs and currently have 42ac devoted to tillage. Mr Lynam has been actively involved in ICSA for many years.

Speaking following his election Mr Lynam said: "ICSA is committed to courageously defending the interests of farmers, both at national and international level. It is a privilege to represent the farming community of Westmeath and I look forward to helping to further develop the association at a national level as treasurer."

Mr Lynam takes over from Mr Reynolds, who was removed from his senior positions within the body because of his involvement with the National Party which was described in court as being "in the mode of right-wing European Movements".

The National Party co-founder, Mr Reynolds may be facing a bill of tens of thousands of euro after the ICSA was awarded costs in a High Court Application.

The court dismissed Mr Reynold's application to continue an injunction to prevent him being removed as it stated he had not made a strong case likely to succeed in court.
The Irish Farmers' Association is urging Kerry County Council to consider exemptions on new proposals that could subject farmers in the Kingdom to levies on new farm buildings.

The proposed 'development contribution levy scheme' would see a flat rate levy of 4.10 per sq m applied to new expansion on farms in the Kingdom, excluding silage pits, yards and slurry pits.

However, IFA president Joe Healy said the proposed scheme should be reviewed in line with counties such as Clare, Cork and Tipperary, where exemptions are applied up to certain distances to avoid extra charges.

Without such flexibility, the organisation warns the measure could threaten the future of the county's agri sector with output worth almost 400m.

The new levy is part of a suite of draft proposals from Kerry County Council aimed at supporting rural development and the reuse of existing buildings.

"The building work is not all to do with expansion, many farmers have to erect sheds to comply with nitrates and EU regulations, so Kerry should follow local authorities in exempting such works," said Mr Healy.

"Clare, for example, has an exemption for the first 800sqm," he said, pointing out this means your average four-bay farm shed would not face the extra charges.

At the proposed rate of 4.10 per sq m, this would work out at a charge of more than 3,200.

"This would be another huge expense on farmers, bearing in mind that on your average beef and sheep farm last year the earnings were between 13,000 and 16,000 - this would account for around 25pc of their earnings."
Military cooperation between China and Russia is not the next NATO

Russian and Chinese warships kicked off the active naval stage of the Maritime Cooperation 2017 drills on July 25 in the Baltic Seathe heart of Europe, shaking the Wests sense of security.

Three Chinese Navy shipsthe Hefei guided missile destroyer, the Yuncheng frigate, and the Luomahu supply shipappeared in the Baltic Sea for the kick off the routine joint drills, becoming the first Chinese naval group to pay a visit to the Baltic Sea. The series of drills are expected to last until July 28, and will include anti-ship, anti-submarine, and anti-aircraft defense maneuvers. China and Russia have been holding the joint naval drills since 2012.

Piers Cazalet, the acting spokesman for NATO, said that the naval drills in the Baltic Sea are an example of Chinas growing military capabilities and its increasingly significant global role, The New York Times reported.

The joint naval drills in the Baltic Sea are rattling the nerves of the Western powers. However, the Chinese government has made it clear that the drills are not aimed at any third party, which, by definition, includes NATO. In addition, China does not have a ruthless history of colonialism.

But it is hard for the Western powers to shake off that old thinking of world domination. The Baltic Sea is the heart of Europe. One can only imagine how uncomfortable the China-Russia military exercise is making them, said Xiakedao, the WeChat account of the overseas edition of the Peoples Daily.

The Wests anxiety over the joint naval drills is evident from their little tricks, as noted by Xiakedao. The former world power dispatched its Royal Navy to shadow the high-tech Chinese armada through the English Channel on its way to join Russias fleet. This is routine business for the United Kingdom, but the Netherlands and Denmark also dispatched warships.

NATO countries are worried about the growing strategic partnership between China and Russia and the joint naval exercises are being watched closely by NATO warships in the area. The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said in a statement that the U.S. is closely tracking Russian exercises with other participants, like China, according to Stars and Stripes, a news organization that provides news and information to the U.S. military community.

The hysteria is ridiculous. In total, about 10 ships, including the three Chinese warships, are taking part in the joint military exercises. In addition, it took the Chinese warships 40 days to reach the distant frontier, according to Russian news agency Sputnik. Compare that to the scale and frequency of NATO military exercises at Russias doorstep or the scale and frequency of U.S military exercises at Chinas doorstep, and it is obvious that the naval drills are trivial in comparison. There is no need for NATO to be so fragile, said Xiakedao.

Members of NATO ought to be extremely uneasybut for very different reasons. U.S. President Donald Trump has called into question the enduring purpose and nature of the military and political organization and demanded members pay the U.S. for protection, which is problem for the European countries that are struggling with slow to no growth. Furthermore, the new administration is basically just sharpening the edge of former U.S. President Barack Obamas failed rebalance to Asia and the Pacific policy by putting more emphasis on the military dimension. Clearly the U.S.s rock-solid commitment to the alliance is in question.

The truth of the matter regarding the joint naval drills is much more mundane. While China and Russia are forging closer military ties, they are not forming a formal military alliance to engage in expansion or to defend against the potential threat of aggression. China has been very clear that it has no intention to seek expansion. And although China is rising as the West declines, the country is focused on development and cooperationand not world domination. As for Russia, the most important task is to build up the economy. What this all means, of course, is that routine military cooperation between China and Russia is not the next NATO.
125 Broad Street, the tower behind the Bank of England in the heart of Londons City financial district, suffered glazing issues

A SPECIAL-purpose investment vehicle backed by private clients of Bank of Ireland has secured a 14.7m (16.4m) judgment in the UK against a unit of Australian group Lend Lease Construction over faulty glazing used in redevelopment work for a new landmark building that once housed the London Stock Exchange.

The bank's private banking arm owned a 25pc stake in the vehicle - 125 OBS (Nominees1) - that was established to develop a huge office scheme at 125 Old Broad Street in London in 2006. Dundrum Shopping Centre co-owner Hammerson owned 50pc of the vehicle, with GE Real Estate owning the remainder.

Bank of Ireland lauded its own involvement at the time, noting that its private banking arm had been "looking at the city of London for quite a while".

"We believe that now is the right time in the rental cycle to get involved in a speculative office development," Bank of Ireland Private Banking director of property Peter Collins said at the time.

Lend Lease was hired to redevelop the existing seventies-era office tower on the London site. In its place, a 26-storey scheme was developed, which included 320,000 sq ft of grade A office accommodation, and 6,400 sq ft of retail space.

An integral part of the renovation was that a lower-level podium building and tower were to be clad with a curtain walling system of storey-height framed glass panes.

Immediately following completion, huge panes of glass started to shatter. Some fell from the building, endangering pedestrians.

Between 2008 and 2012, there were 17 spontaneous failures of glass panes used in the building's construction.

A London High Court judge hearing the case brought by claimants against Lend Lease described the failures as "disastrous" and noted that the incidents had attracted national media attention in the UK.

While some panes of glass shattered and remained in their frames, other panes fell to street level.

The London court had heard that the glass had been manufactured by a now defunct Italian company. In turn, it procured outer panes from a Belgian company. The glass was to be toughened at a facility in France and further processed in Belgium.

But flaws in the glass resulted in some of it shattering after it was installed.

When one pane fell off the building's seventeenth floor in 2009, police closed the length of Old Broad Street in case pedestrians were harmed by any further falls.

Emergency scaffolding was erected around the entrance to the building. It had been anticipated it would be there for four months, but remained in place for four years.

In 2010, Hammerson decided that the only feasible option open to it was to reglaze the entire building. That cost about 9m (10m).

In awarding costs in favour of the claimants, the judge hearing the case included the reglazing costs, as well as 1.9m for other remedial works and 1.8m in finance costs.

The building was sold in the interim, initially to Brookfield Property Partners, and in 2014 sold again to US private equity giant Blackstone for 320m (357m).

The building is home to a number of tenants and is also the UK headquarters for property firm DTZ.
Revenues at the Irish am of Trailfinders last year rose by 11.5pc to 75.33m (84.26m) as pre-tax profits soared.

New accounts show that the Irish unit was second only to the UK business with revenues increasing from 67.5m in the 12 months to the end of February 28 this year.

The accounts also disclose that the company made a 1m donation to the 'Britain is Stronger in Europe Campaign' that was on the losing side in the UK referendum vote on Brexit in June of last year.

Revenues across the group last year increased by 7pc, going from 682.4m to 728.15m, with the Irish business accounting for 10pc of Trailfinder's global revenues.

The firm operates shops in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

The consolidated accounts for the UK, Irish and 'rest of world' operations do not provide the level of profit recorded by the Irish subsidiary last year.

However, the Irish business contributed to the group recording pre-tax profits of 24.2m - an increase of 24pc on the 19.55m profits in 2015.

The company's UK operation accounted for 89.5pc, or 652m, of the company's business.

The numbers employed by the group last year increased marginally from 1,057 to 1,095.

Staff costs rose from 41.46m to 42.4m.

The profit takes account of 3.46m in non-cash depreciation costs. The profit also takes account of a 10m gain in the value of the company's financial assets.

The accounts also record that Trailfinders' cost of sales increased from 589m to 628m.

The group's accumulated profits at the end of February last year stood at 263m - the group had 226m in cash at the end of the year.

The company was established by former SAS soldier Mike Gooley in 1970 with a staff of four.

The accounts show that the group made charitable contributions totalling 3.75m to the Mike Gooley Trailfinders Charity.
A ballroom catering for up to 250 people is also under construction Photo: Thinkstock

An Irish couple are investing 5.4m into a venue in their home town to transform it into an ideal wedding venue, complete with ballroom.

Kilkenny-based Joe and Julie Comerford are pumping funds into the site in Castlecomer after being given the green light from An Bord Pleanala.

The existing small bed and breakfast, the Avalon Inn, owned by the Comerfords will be upgraded to a 39-bedroom hotel on completion.

Scaffolding has been erected and construction has already begun on the historic building which is centuries old.

A ballroom catering for up to 250 people is also planned for the new venue.

It is understood that the development will create between 30 and 40 new jobs, both temporary and full-time, a huge boost to the north Kilkenny town.

The project manager for the hotel is another local man, Seamus Brennan, who also acts as operations manager at the Comerfords, 307 bedroom hotel in Dublin, The Academy Plaza off O'Connell Street.

The hotel - which will be known as the Avalon House Hotel - will open in the middle of next year.

Councillor Maurice Shortall says there was unprecedented support for the project which "will be the catalyst for economic regeneration of our town and a terrific boost to our neighbouring parishes".

"Gone will be the days when overnight accommodation was a problem in the town the 39 new bedrooms will address that, while the function room and evening meals will add a new dimension to tourism and trade," he said.

"Real connectivity to the visitors to our Discovery Park will become possible last year alone some 110,000 passed through the Park. The project will provide numerous jobs both in construction and staff which are very welcome."
Permanent TSB has announced profit of 36m for the six months to 30 June 2017, down 55pc year on year.

The recovering lender, which remains weighed down by a high portion of non-performing loans, posted an underlying net profit of 53m, which beat consensus forecasts.

Net interest margin, a key barometer of a bank's profitability, rose to 1.81pc, compared to 1.43pc in the previous period.

In total the recovering lender recorded a 62pc increase in new mortgage lending while the wider market expanded by 35pc, underlining PTSB's relatively robust rate of growth.

However despite increases in new customer lending, which was up 61pc year on year to 392m, and the increased mortgage lending, total operating income was down 5pc to 221m.

"The business is in great shape and growing strongly. In the first half, we continued to generate profits and our competitive performance was excellent, with new lending growth outperforming the market and our new Explore current account exceeding our expectations," Jeremy Masding, CEO of PTSB said.

Balance Sheet

Term lending at the bank grew by 59pc year on year, approximately 25pc of which originated via online channels as customers responded positively to our new online offering.

ECB Funding reduced further by 1.2bn in the first half to 0.2bn (approximately 1pc of total funding) which represents the bank's participation in the ECB's Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) Scheme.

Meanwhile customer deposits amounted to 16.9bn at the end of June 2017, marginally reduced from 17.0bn at end December 2016 and represent 81pc of total funding.

Net loans at PTSB amounted to 18.6bn at end June 2017, marginally reduced from 18.9bn at end December 2016, as repayments and redemptions exceeded new lending.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs)

However at 30 June 2017, some 53pc of the banks NPLs are in some form of forbearance treatment.

The bank said in announcing its results that it continues to collect significant amount of cash from customers with NPLs, however, PTSB acknowledged that its NPL level is unsustainably high, currently at 5.8bn.

In response, the bank said that it intends to report progress in reducing its NPL percentage to a high single digit number over the medium term through a range of strategies including: accelerated workout; maximised repayments; natural cures; closures (Assisted Voluntary Sales and Foreclosures); and, portfolio sales.

The challenges that the bank continues to face were acknowledged by Mr Masding, who said that the bank was addressing these challenges "robustly".

"We are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Ireland's fast-growing economy. We will do this by competing vigorously, innovating continuously and delivering more of what our customers want," Mr Masding said.
RTE described efforts to prevent its journalists and editors from using the term 'bonus' as an "unwarranted inhibition" on public interest journalism.

In 2015, the national broadcaster insisted upon using the term to describe increments attached to the pay structure at Ervia, the parent company of Irish Water.

Ervia brought a complaint to the Broadcasting Authority (BAI) in response to a number of terms used to describe pay to its staff.

The phrases used by RTE to describe the increments were "bonus payments", "awards", "top-ups" and "multiplier".

At the time, RTE insisted in a statement that it was entitled to use "terminology which is fair, accurate and comprehensible to its listeners".

The station added: "The attempt to impose only that language which an organisation wishes to be used is an unwarranted inhibition on journalism in the public interest."

The BAI eventually ruled in RTE's favour.

But just hours after this newspaper detailed the bonuses paid to RTE staff, the station released a statement which rejected the use of the term.

"These payments are not bonuses," it said. "RTE confirms that managers have not received bonuses or general pay increases."

This is despite the fact RTE admitted that there were increments paid following performance reviews.

In a follow-up statement last night, a spokesman for RTE said there was a clear difference between the increments paid to Ervia staff and the ones paid out by RTE. "There are two very different things at play here, one being a bonus system, the other being an incremental pay system within agreed salary bands," the spokesman said.

He said in the case of Ervia, RTE reported that staff there had "two further layers of bonus payments, if both the company and their individual business unit exceed all their pre-agreed targets in a given year," the spokesman added.

"Increments apply within existing salary ranges, which are below the 2009 levels. This means that if you reach the top end of your salary range, then you do not receive an increment, or performance-related increment, [as] in the case of managers."

But chairperson of the Oireachtas Communications Committee Hildegarde Naughton called for further explanation. "Call them bonuses, call them increment increases, either way this too has to be made clear and spelled out by RTE what exactly they are and how are they decided," she said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has intervened in the RTE pay row, telling station bosses that he believes "strongly" in the principle of equal pay for equal work.

In his first comments on the controversy, Mr Varadkar also insisted that the Government will force all companies to address the issue of gender imbalance in the workplace.

It comes as RTE bosses held high-level talks at Montrose yesterday as the Irish Independent revealed details of secret bonuses paid to its top brass.

More than 200 managers received top-ups last year, with one in five getting a 3.25pc boost on their salaries.

Read More

In a peculiar move, RTE yesterday released a statement rejecting the use of the term bonuses - instead claiming that it had re-introduced a system of "increments" in 2015 that were paid after a performance review. "These payments are not bonuses. RTE confirms that managers have not received bonuses or general pay increases," the broadcaster said.

RTE previously used the term 'bonus' to describe the pay structure at Irish Water. But a spokesman yesterday insisted that the pay structures at the two organisations were different.

Meanwhile, sources confirmed that senior bosses met yesterday to discuss the fallout from the controversy, as well as plans to conduct an internal review into pay.

Read more: Political backlash grows after 24 hours of radio silence over gender pay

The review was announced after a number of senior female broadcasters, including Sharon Ni Bheolain, Martina Fitzgerald and Emma O'Kelly, publicly spoke out about the gender pay gap.

Ms Ni Bheolain revealed to the 'Sunday Independent' that she earns up to 80,000 less than her co-anchor Bryan Dobson.

But there was further political pressure placed on RTE last night - this time by Mr Varadkar.

"The Taoiseach welcomes RTE's decision to conduct a review into pay in the organisation. He believes strongly that there should be equal pay for equal work and equal experience," Mr Varadkar's senior spokesman told the Irish Independent.

"The Tanaiste [Frances Fitzgerald], on behalf of the Government, is currently developing proposals which would require employers to conduct a survey of pay levels within their organisation, building on the recently published Women and Girls Strategy," he added.

RTE now has 101 staff earning more than 100,000, excluding contracted stars like Ryan Tubridy, Ray D'Arcy and Marian Finucane.

The Irish Independent revealed details which showed 207 managers received "performance increment increases" while at the same time RTE was amassing a deficit of 19.7m.

The station initially refused to divulge figures in relation to the salary top-ups, arguing the release of such information was not in the public interest. The broadcaster received 179m from licence fee payers in 2016.

However, following a Freedom of Information (FOI) appeal from Labour Party senator Kevin Humphreys, it was confirmed that around 40 managers received increases averaging 3.25pc.

Overall, the 207 managers received an average increase of 1.55pc in 2016. The station will not release the financial value of the increases but they are understood to be worth a minimum of 1,000 per employee.

The most up-to-date information available from RTE shows the average salary in 2015 was 57,564, but the vast majority of managers could expect to be on more than this.
Subscribe to The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone via iTunes or SoundCloud.

Owing 37,000, becoming pregnant with no car and no way to pay the rent, 99% of people would have thrown in the towel.

But for Nicole Dunne, who as a trained chef had built up a gastropub business franchising kitchens in pubs to serve restaurant-quality food, despite the writing on the wall it was tough to give up.

I just didnt want to let it go, she tells Brian Purcell on this weeks Ready Business podcast.

Accountants and advisors were telling Nicola to give it up and start again and finally she admitted she had to and moved back in with her parents during her pregnancy.

She wasnt long resting on her laurels however and Nicole would work through the night until 4am to develop her Howth Cuisine products.

The debt was still there but she kept working and chipping away at it. It might only have been 50 or 100 a week but her local suppliers all appreciated it and by 2013 she was finally debt-free and able to fully concentrate on Howth Cuisine to where it has grown and is now sold in SuperValu and Dunne Stores.

Nobody wants to burn a creditor but there is a real importance to being able to draw a line under a debt and walk away, says accountant Robert Mehigan who also joined Nicole on the show along with Allan Shine, CEO of the Kildare Chamber of Commerce.

Nicoles story is one of pure guts. Its seven days a week and the competition is huge. Its a testing time for family life with enormous stress and is an extremely lonely place, says Shine.

Just dont give up, Dunne advises other entrepreneurs. I felt like such a failure but I sing a song with my kids at night, Never, ever, give up and theres some little voice in there that says no matter what, keep going. Usually you find when you want to give up, a few days later theres a turn for the good so just hold on.

Dont miss Nicole's Ready Business Success Tips to help business owners thrive and succeed.

The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone , is available via iTunes , SoundCloud and Stitcher or subscribe to the RSS feed of the Ready Business Podcast using your favourite podcatcher.

You can check out the full Ready Business Podcast series here .

In association with:
There are very few things that make Google owner Alphabet's investors unhappy.

A rising TAC - the cost of driving traffic to its site - is one of them.

Alphabet, which has enjoyed revenue growth rate of over 20pc for the past five quarters, said on Monday that traffic acquisition costs (TAC), jumped 28pc to $5.09bn in the second quarter.

That is the highest percentage increase in TAC in nine years and analysts said they expect it to continue to weigh on margins even as the company's fundamentals remain strong.

Alphabet's shares, which have surged 26pc this year, slipped 3pc in early trading on Tuesday.

Google relies heavily on partners such as Apple, which has made Google the default search engine on the iPhone. It also pays websites to run ads.

"The company continues to cite mobile and programmatic as drivers of overall increases in TAC, which we believe will likely continue to increase in absolute terms and as a percentage of revenue for the foreseeable future," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a client note.

The company has warned that spending on traffic acquisition is expected to keep rising as a shift to mobile advertising continues and programmatic advertising - in which ads are bought, sold and displayed by automated systems - becomes more important.

Traffic acquisition costs were 22pc of advertising revenue in the second quarter. Net ad revenue rose 16pc, compared with 18pc last quarter.

Canaccord Genuity said it expects TAC to jump to $21.07bn in 2017, 25pc higher than last year. It had risen 17pc in 2016.

"The light net ad revenue coupled with the recent run-up in GOOGL's share price are likely to cause a pullback," Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice said.

Despite concerns about TAC, most analysts remained upbeat about the company's potential to keep growing revenue and profit at strong rates.

"Google's 2Q highlights the still long advertising runway and robust innovation-driven revenue growth potential (search, YouTube, cloud, etc) ... we remain long-term bulls given GOOGL's strong top-line momentum and reasonable valuation for growth," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note.

The brokerage cut its price target to $1,040 from $1,050, one of at least five brokerages to do so.

Google's stock closed at $998.31, not far from the median price target of $1,065.

Alphabet reported a 21pc jump in quarterly revenue on Monday, maintaining a growth rate that is rarely seen among companies its size and suggesting the big sales gains enjoyed recently by the other internet firms are not done yet.

The owner of Google and YouTube said it made $3.5bn in net income on sales of $26bn.

The profit would have been much larger but for a record $2.7bn European Union fine. EU competition authorities fined Google 2.42bn for favouring its own shopping service.

Still, the company noted that costs were rising faster than sales and warned that expenses would remain high as more searches shift to mobile devices.

This year, Google is expected to have $73.75bn in net digital ad revenue worldwide while Facebook is expected to take in $36.29bn, according to research firm . Together they will have about 49pc of the market, eMarketer said. (Reuters)
After a tip-off, he was arrested in a small beachside village

A Russian man suspected of laundering at least $4 billion of criminal funds by switching them into the digital currency bitcoin has been arrested in Greece, police said on Wednesday.

Police sources identified the individual as 38-year-old Alexander Vinnik.

After a tip-off, he was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece, on a U.S. warrant, and police said the United States would seek to extradite him.

"Since 2011 the 38-year-old has been running a criminal organisation which administers one of the most important websites of electronic crime in the world," police said in a statement, describing an alleged money laundering operation that "legalises proceeds from illegal activities".

It was thought that 'at least' $4bn in cash had been laundered through a bitcoin platform since 2011; the platform had 7 million bitcoins deposited, and 5.5 million bitcoins in withdrawals.

Bitcoin was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and hidden, making traditional financial regulation difficult if not impossible.

The detainee was held on four counts of running an unlicensed money-transfer operation, conspiracy, money laundering in violation of 17 acts in the U.S. criminal code, and transactions in cash acquired through illicit means.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it had no information on the case.

In a separate prominent cybercrime case, the United States is seeking to extradite another Russian, Peter Levashov, from Spain.

US prosecutors have charged him with hacking offences, saying he operated a network of tens of thousands of infected computers used by cyber criminals.
In this image made from July 22, 2017, video, two rabbits sit on the back of sheep as they avoid rising flood waters on a farm near Dunedin, New Zealand. (Ferg Horn via AP)

THREE wild rabbits have managed to escape rising floodwaters in New Zealand by clambering aboard a flock of sheep and surfing to safety on their woolly backs.

Ferg Horne, 64, who has been farming since he left school at 15, said he had never seen anything quite like it.

He was trudging through pelting rain to rescue a neighbour's sheep from the floodwaters at their South Island farm near Dunedin on Saturday, when he spotted some dark shapes from a distance.

He was puzzled because he knew his neighbour, who in Russia attending a nephew's wedding, did not have any black-faced sheep.

Mr Horne got closer, he thought it might be debris from the storm, which had drenched the area, forcing the farmer to evacuate his home.

Then he saw the bedraggled rabbits hitching a ride - two on one sheep and a third on another.

"I couldn't believe it for a start," he said.

Nobody else would believe him either without proof, he thought, so he pulled out his phone to take a photo, an image he thought his grandchildren would enjoy.

But in fact, Mr Horne inadvertently shot a short video.

"It's a Samsung or a smartphone or whatever you call it. I swear at it every day," he said. "I'm absolutely useless with technology."

Mr Horne said the sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about three inches of water.

He said the rabbits looked like they had got wet but seemed quite comfortable and relaxed atop their mounts.

Video of the Day

Rabbits are considered a pest to farmers in New Zealand, and Mr Horne said when he sees one, he usually shoots it.

"But they'd showed so much initiative, I thought they deserved to live, those rabbits," he said.

Mr Horne herded the sheep to a patch of dry ground on the farm about 50 metres away, but the sheep did not like it.

"As they jumped through the water, the rabbits had a jolly good try at staying on," Mr Horne said.

He said the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws. As they approached the higher ground, they fell off but managed to climb a hedge to safety.

Mr Horne sent his video to his son, who sent images to the local paper and posted them on Facebook.

"From then on it's just gone crazy," he said.
Noel Fielding will voice a character in the Netlfix show (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Noel Fielding will voice a character in an animated adult series from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.

The Great British Bake Off presenter will be joined by his former The Mighty Boosh collaborator Matt Berry in the Netflix fantasy Disenchantment, it was announced on Tuesday.

Expand Close The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is behind the show (Tonya Wise/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is behind the show (Tonya Wise/AP)

Groening said the series would be about life and death, love and sex and and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you.

Fielding and Berry, who played Vince Noir and Dixon Bainbridge respectively in The Mighty Boosh, will also be joined by Rich Fulcher who was Bob Fossil in the cult BBC Three series.

Disenchantment, set in the medieval kingdom of Dreamland, will star Broad Citys Abbi Jacobson as the voice of a hard-drinking princess named Bean.

Nat Faxon will voice her elf friend Elfo and comedian Eric Andre will portray her demon Luci.

Netflix has ordered 20 episodes of the show, with the first 10 being aired next year.

Expand Close Matt Berry won a Bafta for his comedy Toast Of London (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Matt Berry won a Bafta for his comedy Toast Of London (Ian West/PA)

Groening will be an executive producer alongside Josh Weinstein, who worked with him on The Simpsons, as well as Futurama.

Cindy Holland, a Netflix vice president, said: Matt Groenings brilliant work has resonated with generations around the world and we couldnt be happier to work with him on Disenchantment.

The series will bear his trademark animation style and biting wit, and we think its a perfect fit for our many Netflix animation fans.
In the past seven days you couldn't open a newspaper or switch on a radio station without being bombarded by stories about the new season of Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic), which is why I've decided to make today's column a Thrones-free zone.

Well, that and the fact that this most hyped of television dramas has always left me cold. Yes, I know it's brilliantly plotted and filmed and is full of exciting sex and violence and is doing wonders for the Northern Ireland tourist industry, but in essence isn't it just Harry Potter for grown-ups who haven't really grown up?

I can see its appeal to cultural academics who wish to further their careers by reading all sorts of allegorical profundities into its elaborate storylines, but that doesn't conceal the fact that it's basically just X-rated kids' stuff and about as relelvant to the real world as Love Island, where at least the shagging isn't followed by disembowellings.

But who am I to spoil everyone else's fun? So I'll just leave the Lannisters and the Starks and the other warring factions at it and content myself instead with dramas about people whose lives bear some connection, however tangential, to my own.

Not that there are many good examples of these doing the rounds at the moment, though BBC4's new Saturday night foreign import, I Know Who You Are, has begun promisingly.

This Spanish thriller opened with bloodied hot-shot lawyer Juan staggering along a road outside Barcelona with no idea who he is. Or so he says, though his wife is sceptical, as are the police who discover the blood of his niece in his wrecked car, while the girl's father is convinced that he's just covering up her murder and disappearance. Oh, and the young lawyer on the prosecution team had an affair with him when she was a student, which complicates matters even further.

If that all sounds a bit schlocky, well, it is, but the plot twists are intriguing, the cast are pleasingly unfamiliar and the Mediterranean locale is alluring. So that's two hours of undemanding Saturday night viewing taken care of for the next four weeks, just like Inspector Montalbano on the same channel a few years back.

The current Sunday night drama staple continues to be The Handmaid's Tale (Channel 4), though that's a grimmer affair and a slower one, too. Perhaps that's why I no longer feel an urgent imperative to watch every episode - unlike the current season of Fargo (Channel 4), which continues to wrongfoot viewers and remains as thrilling as it's droll.

That's not true of Chance (Universal), which began promisingly with Hugh Laurie's troubled psychiatrist heading for the dark side in his obsession with femme fatale Gretchen Mol, but now it's lost the run of itself with an over-reliance on far-fetched plot turns.

A troubled psychiatrist is also the main character in Gypsy (Netflix), here assuming a fake identity as she fixates on a young woman who serves her coffee in the morning. This can be binge-watched, though I'm afraid one episode was enough for me, with a blank Naomi Watts failing to bring any conviction, or indeed basic credibility, to her role.

In fact, Netflix has recently been proving that it's not always a byword for quality. Yes, it's given us such marvellous series as Better Call Saul, Stranger Things, The Crown and (in early seasons anyway) House of Cards, and it's also come up with winning comedy in Glow and Master of None, but there have been duds, too.

The Standups features half-hour acts by six American comedians, but none of them is even mildly amusing, while Girlboss is mostly insufferable, though you might have a look at Easy, which has some rudely funny moments as its twenty-something couples negotiate sexual minefields in American city life.

Video of the Day

Alas, there's nothing either funny or rude about Francis Brennan's Grand Vietnamese Tour (RTE1), which this week continued its dismal trek through the south-east Asian country with lots more laboured jollity and cackling from the show's preening host.

We heard once more about Garda Brian's dislike of foreign food, the man himself vowing to find a hamburger and chicken and chips, thus making the viewer wonder why on earth he'd signed up for the trip. And we were puzzled yet again at the sight of priest Richard sashaying around in a sarong.

Is there a back story to these people? If so, we haven't been told.

Indeed, we learn next to nothing about his twelve fellow travellers, while information about the country they're traversing is kept to a bare and banal minimum - the voiceover informing us that "Buddhism is Vietnam's most popular religion", just in case we might have thought it was Presbyterianism.

At one point, the host tut-tutted over preparations for a wedding banquet. "Oh, look now!" he exclaimed, "the tables are all crooked. That would drive me mad". Not half as mad as this series is driving me.

Nadiya Hussain is too nice to be driven mad by anything, and in Nadiya's British Food Adventure (BBC2) the Great British Bake Off winner brought her sweetly smiling ways to her first culinary series.

She chatted about learning how to bake at school, she visited a young woman's 75-acre asparagus farm, she met a man who smokes fish. She also cooked some cheese scones, and made a vegetable stir fry and an Eton Mess cheesecake.

I couldn't quite decide, though, about her USP as a presenter. Surely not just her niceness and surely not that she's a Muslim, but I couldn't think of anything else.
Eoghan Murphy speaking to media at the Stameen estate in Drogheda, Co Louth. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Businesses and homes in Co Louth and east Meath are to be left without water until the weekend.

Irish Water has said it "expects" the water supply in the north-east to be fully restored by the weekend and has asked businesses and homes to use supplies of water "sparingly".

Last night, Housing and Local Government Minister Eoghan Murphy visited Drogheda and vigorously defended the actions being taken to tackle "Ireland's worst water crisis".

Mr Murphy weathered a barrage of questions about the hardships local people were going through.

"This is the biggest crisis Irish Water has faced since its establishment. And it became a crisis requiring a national response on Sunday when a third fix didn't work," said the minister, referring to efforts to fix a rupture in a huge water main. "A huge co-ordination effort has been put in nationally to ensure that water is here in a continuous supply for places like the hospital.

"We've 43 tankers coming in from across the country, including Northern Ireland. We've now more than 100 water stations in place that are being manned by the Army," he said.

A "bespoke engineering solution" is being manufactured and will be fitted today to help restore services to Co Louth and Co Meath.

Supply will begin to be restored from tomorrow, but it will take some time for water to get to all points along the network. Areas farthest from the treatment plant can expect the longest delays.

Rolling water supplies will continue in Drogheda today as 33,000 customers left to use the supply have been urged to limit their use.

The rotation plan, which "is a limited water supply for a short period of time", according to a spokesperson for Irish Water, has four time slots for allocated areas from 9am until midnight.

However, the spokesperson said: "Not all houses in the areas will receive water at the same time due to demand."

Water tankers have been secured from Co Wicklow, Fingal County, Dublin City Council, Co Westmeath, Co Waterford and Northern Ireland as well as a number of private sources.

The Army is to continue to help man stationary water stations today.

The Fingal water network was reconfigured to provide a mains water supply to Kilbride yesterday evening.

An alternative water supply has been provided to customers in Southern Ashbourne by laying a 100-metre pipe to connect a water supply in Fingal to Southern Ashbourne.

Irish Water appealed to customers on rolling supplies in Drogheda and on the alternative supply to Kilbride and Southern Ashbourne to conserve water.

A restricted supply will remain in place in the east Meath areas Laytown, Bettystown, Mornington, Donacarney, Julianstown, Clope/Grange Rath and Gormanston.

A total of 43 tankers have been deployed to supplement the mains water supply, to replenish temporary water stations and to supply priority customers.

Stationary water containers remain in place across Co Louth and Co Meath, while 8,000 five and 10-litre foldable water containers were delivered to Louth County Council and Meath County Council for distribution.
A former chemistry student who set fire to a 34,000 BMW car at a luxury motor dealership while he was on drugs has received a two and half year sentence.

A former chemistry student who set fire to a 34,000 BMW car at a luxury motor dealership while he was on drugs has received a two and half year sentence.

Talavs Riekstins (23) had been deemed unfit for work by concerned colleagues and sent home earlier in the day when he turned up at Harford Motor Company to look at Ferrari cars.

He moved on when the dealership staff told him to leave but returned with a filled petrol can. He poured the petrol over a BMW parked outside the dealership and used a lighter to set it alight.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Riekstins, a Latvian national with an address at Kelly's Bay Moorings, Skerries, Dublin, had been under the influence of a substance he had purchased.

He pleaded guilty to arson at Harford Motor Company, Balbriggan on November 24, 2016. He has no previous convictions.

Riekstins later told gardai that he wanted to burn a Ferrari because it was lovely and red. Asked why, he replied because there's no money, no police.

I did it because I had no money, no job, no friends, and I couldnt control my anger anymore, he said. He told gardai that he hadn't had a good night's sleep in five days.

The court heard that there pedestrians, included a woman pushing a buggy, were close to the scene. Riekstins told gardai that he was concerned that he had put people in danger.

Judge Karen O'Connor noted that the company was out of pocket 35,000 from the destroyed car and the owner has since had to make changes in the way the public can access the showroom.

She said one of the main aggravating factors in this case was that fire was impossible to control.

She also noted that Riekstins did not meet the criteria for a mental disorder and that he had taken a substance at the time.

The judge acknowledged Riekstins's guilty plea, his impressive employment history at Ballymaguire Foods and his clean record as mitigating factors.

She accepted that Riekstins had family support in Latvia and wanted to go back to university to complete his undergraduate degree in chemistry.

The judge suspended the final 18 months of the two and a half year sentence and backdated the term to when he entered custody.

At the sentence hearing, defence counsel Tom Neville BL submitted to Judge O'Connor that it was a bizarre incident and that his client apologised fulsomely to the injured party.

Mr Neville asked the judge to take into account that Riekstins's employer had described the incident as completely out of character for the young man.
Several former employees of LeEco have seen their credit limit at China Construction Bank reduced to 1 yuan (about $0.15) as their former employer is mired in financial crisis.

The former employees complained via Sina Weibo on July 25 that their credit limit was recently adjusted to 1 yuan. The bank responded to the complaint by saying the reduction is due to the revelation of some economic cases.

The bank on July 26 explained that the adjustment was a response to an identification check and is temporary. Some 95 percent of the affected users have had their credit limit returned, while the remaining customers are being reviewed. The bank said the decision was made due to the financial crisis of LeEco in order to minimize any impact on the bank, news site Thepaper.cn reported.

Bai Yunfei, one of the affected card holders, said he only worked for LeEco from 2011 to 2013, and he applied for credit before he started working at LeEco. Bai feels it is unacceptable to limit his credit due to his former employers financial issues, according to Thepaper.cn

LeEco has been mired in financial crisis and its CEO, Jia Yueting, has resigned. Last month, the company had 15.9 billion yuan worth of stocks and 1.24 billion yuan of assets frozen by the Shanghai High Peoples Court and a China Merchants Bank branch.
The cousin of two elderly men murdered in their home described them as "angels" as their brutal killer was sentenced to life in prison.

Alan Cawley (30) had been released from Castlerea Prison just four days before he killed Thomas (69) and Jack Blaine (76) in their Castlebar, Co Mayo, home.

Cawley bludgeoned the brothers, who both had special needs, with a shovel and one of their walking sticks in an attack the trial heard described as "overkill".

Cawley, of Four Winds, Corrinbla, Ballina, Co Mayo, had admitted killing the men on July 10, 2013, but denied their murder.

In a victim impact statement, the Blaines' first cousin Paul Dunne said they were "two simple men, two angels". "May they rest in peace," he added.

Cawley's Central Criminal Court trial heard that Tom Blaine had schizophrenia and his brother had dementia, a tremor and a severe hunch in his back, having been involved in a serious accident on a building site years earlier.

Both brothers also had speech impediments. They were under the care of the HSE, and a home help called to them three times a day.

The court heard Cawley had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other disorders as a child.

He was released from Castlerea prison four days before the killings and was provided with B&B accommodation in Castlebar. He bought a bottle of wine around 5pm on July 9 and was seen drinking three pints of Guinness in pubs later that evening.

CCTV footage then captured him walking through the town and crossing paths with Jack Blaine around midnight. Mr Blaine had crossed the road to Rocky's Bar with his empty tea mug in his hand. As was the norm, the barman then made him a cup of tea and carried it across the street, leaving it on his windowsill.

The footage showed Cawley entering the Blaine home with Jack Blaine following behind him.

Cawley told gardai that he had spent about 20 minutes upstairs searching for prescription drugs. He said he came downstairs and Jack Blaine was standing there. He picked up a shovel and beat him with it.

Cawley said he then made his way to the front door, but saw Thomas Blaine in a room at the front of the house. He said he thought that, as they were living together, maybe they were child molesters. He beat Thomas with a stick about 25 times. Cawley then poured boiling water over his helpless victim.

He left the house just over an hour after entering, putting on sunglasses before he walked back to his B&B.

The Blaine brothers' home help arrived at their house at 7.15am and discovered the two men, who had suffered horrendous injuries.

The jurors remained in the jury box while the deceased men's first cousin Mr Dunne delivered the victim impact statement.

He said both men had kept to themselves, looked after each other and seemed happy and safe in Castlebar. He described them as "two honest gentlemen", who had worked hard in both Ireland and England.

He said that Jack Blaine had a speech impediment and was partially blind, but neither ever wanted a fuss. Mr Dunne spoke about how much they were missed. "Not seeing Tommy sitting in his chair smiling is a terrible loss," he said.

Mr Justice Paul Coffey then handed down the mandatory life sentence. "The killings were as wanton as they were savage and I can only express my sympathy to the family of Jack and Tommy Blaine," he said.
A MOTHER-of-three who smuggled up to 100,000 worth of cocaine into Dublin Airport in her luggage has admitted drugs charges.

Jade Seddon (25) had 1.4kg of the drug in her suitcase when she flew in from Brussels.

She was sent forward for sentence to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on a guilty plea.

Seddon, of Lees Road, Oldham, Manchester, was charged with possession and importation of cocaine as well as having the drug with intent to sell or supply last March 30.

A state solicitor told Dublin District Court that the DPP was consenting to the accused being sent forward on a signed plea of guilty.

Judge Fiona Lydon told Seddon she was being sent forward for sentence on all charges.

She granted free legal aid at the request of defence solicitor Amanda Connolly.

Seddon, who has been in custody since being refused bail following her arrest last April, will appear in the circuit court this Friday.

Previously, Gda Killian Foley said Seddon was found in possession of 1.4kg of cocaine, worth between 90,000 and 100,000.

The cocaine was allegedly found in her suitcase as she arrived at the airport, and Seddon had made admissions during interview.

The accused was of very limited means and had three children aged 10, nine and six-years-old, the court heard.

Gda Foley told the court the accused had said "part of the reason she did this" was because her house was being repossessed and she was moving into a new address.

Seddon worked as a cleaner, the court heard.
Alleged suspicious twiddling in the dark during a power black-out in the Harvey Norman outlet at Blanchardstown Retail Park has led to the store facing a 70,000 Circuit Civil Court claim for defamation.

Manager Neill Callan today Wednesday denied he had assaulted 24-year-old Suzanne Thorpe by placing his hand on her shoulder after the lights had gone out and telling her he wanted to search her shopping trolley.

Ms Thorpe, of Corduff Park, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, told her barrister Colm Hennessy she had been examining iPhones at the computer counter when the lights flickered and the store was plunged into darkness during a pre-Christmas shopping trip four years ago.

She claimed she had been physically restrained by Mr Callan as staff, in torchlight, ushered customers from the store and that he told her: Sorry, can you step back, I want to search your trolley.

When cross-examined by Fiona Crawford, counsel for Harvey Norman, Ms Thorpe denied calling Mr Callan a four-eyed c**t and shouting at him: Are you f**king accusing me of stealing when they were outside the store.

Mr Callan told Judge James ODonohoe that although the phones and laptops were attached to security wires they could be removed without setting off an alarm due to the 15-minute power cut. The CCTV was also down.

He told Mr Hennessy, who appeared with Seamus Maguire Solicitors, that he could not remember all of the expletives Ms Thorpe had shouted at him outside the shop but he could definitely recall her calling him a four-eyed c**t.

Ms Thorpe said she had visited the shop with a friend and her aunt who had gone to the picture developing counter while she browsed. She had been looking at iPhones when all of the lights flickered and went out.

Some of the staff produced torches and I was feeling very panicky and headed to get out the door into the daylight, she said. A man put his hand on my shoulder and said he wanted to see what was in the trolley, asking me to step back.

She said she had kept on going and he had followed her outside, all the while looking into her trolley. Outside he had put his arm into the trolley to inspect her purchases but she had stopped him and offered to await the arrival of the Garda. They were never called.

Ms Crawford, appearing with BLM Solicitors for the store, told her Mr Callan would tell the court she had been reportedly seen twiddling with the wire at the back of a laptop. Two customers and another member of staff had spoken to him about her movements.

Ms Thorpe told Ms Crawford she was panicking and when somebody had touched her in the dark her panic got worse.

Mr Callan said there had been a power outage on Saturday 14 December 2013 when the shop was busy. He had seen her at the laptop which she could have removed from the store because the alarm would not have gone off when the security wire was pulled off.

I never went near her in the store. When she walked out I said 'excuse me' and she turned around and said 'are you f**king accusing me of stealing', he said. He had said he was not and denied putting his hands in the shopping trolley.
A vulnerable burglar who stole over 3,000 in perfume and aftershave from a Boots Chemist after a car was reversed into the front doors has been jailed for two years.

Patrick Stokes (36) of Hill Street, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary and criminal damage at Boots chemist, Drimnagh Road on January 14, 2017.

He has 50 previous convictions including five for burglary and nine for theft offences.

Garda David Hickey told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that he responded to an alarm call at the premises at 5.20am. He found the front door smashed and the store full of smoke with stock on the floor. CCTV revealed a silver Honda Civic had been reversed into the front doors twice.

The perfume and aftershave which included brands such as Dior, Gucci, and Dolce and Gabbana were loaded into a wheelie bin brought along by Stokes' accomplice.

The stock taken was valued at 3,183 and damage to the door was estimated at 6,969.

Stokes was nominated as one of the two men involved and arrested several days later. He admitted being involved in the burglary and said he got involved as he was going along with another man. He said the stolen goods had been sold.

Fiona Pekar BL, defending, said Stokes had difficulties in relation to his intellectual capacity which made him vulnerable. She said Stokes mother had said he simply did not have a chance after he became addicted to drugs at 16-years-old.

Ms Pekar said Stokes had been released from prison on a previous sentence last August and had got his life together until he travelled to Dublin to comfort a relative who had suffered a bereavement.

She said that while in Dublin he relapsed into drug abuse and things went pear shaped.

Counsel said Stokes was now at a place in his life where he wanted to make a change and knew he needed help with his addiction. She said due to his underlying difficulties in processing information specialised services may be required in relation to drug counselling.

Ms Pekar submitted Stokes had expressed remorse and had a supportive family.

Judge Pauline Codd noted Stokes had a mild intellectual disability and seemed to be quite vulnerable.

She imposed a three and a half year sentence but suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions including Probation Supervision which was to begin before he left prison.
A 96-YEAR-old woman suing two second cousins for repayment of in loans she says she gave them to do up their houses told the High Court they did not respond when she asked for the money back.

Olive and Ann Cunningham both from Galway pictured leaving the Four Courts yesterday(Wed) after the opening day of a High Court action taken by Kathleen McNicholas.Pic: Collins Courts

A 96-YEAR-old woman suing two second cousins for repayment in loans she says she gave them to do up their houses told the High Court they did not respond when she asked for the money back.

Retired waitress, Kathleen McNicholas, originally from Co Mayo and living in Manhattan, New York, USA, is suing Olive Cunningham (otherwise Llewellyn), Rockfield Park, Galway, and her sister Ann Cunningham, Fursey Road, Shantalla, also Galway.

She is suing her cousins US$300,000 (258,000) for repayment of loans she gave them to do up their houses.

Ms McNicholas, the only surviving member of a family of six children, and who has no children herself, claims she needs the money she loaned the two women to help pay for her own care.

The court heard she had saved hundreds of thousands of dollars since moving to America in 1954 working as a waitress and also from some investments in stocks.

Olive Cunningham says the US$200,000 she received from Ms McNicholas was given to provide 24-hour home care for her ill brother, Johnny McNicholas, the only member of the family still living on the family farm near Knock, Co Mayo, and who died in 2012.

She says she set up a trust to pay for that care and the residue from it, after Johnny died, came to her. She also said she received US$50,000 as a gift from Ms McNicholas to "treat herself" and her immediate family.

None of the money was given as a loan, she says. Ann Cunningham says she received an unsolicited 100,000 from Ms McNicholas during a visit by her and Olive to New York in 2013. She said it was given as a gift because Ms McNicholas "did not want to leave any money behind after her death".

It was one of a number of gifts she received, including another US$100,000 in 2009, and over which there is no claim by Ms McNicholas, the court heard. Giving evidence by video-link from New York, Ms McNicholas told her counsel Oisin Quinn she had given the two women little gifts up until Johnny needed care in 2012.

Olive was looking after Johnny who was the second youngest in the family. She said the money was clearly given as a loan to do works on their homes.

"When I asked for it back, they said they were selling their houses, both of them, and would give the money as prices were going up", she said. But after making those phone calls seeking repayment, she says she could not contact them again.

Asked by her counsel was the money to Olive a gift, she replied: "That is wrong, how many people could give $200,000 as a gift, that is wrong".

She also said she had never heard anything about a trust being set up to care for Johnny. Asked about the circumstances in which she gave Ann the US$100,000 while the sisters were visiting her in New York, she said: "Because she asked for it, I gave it willingly and I said I would need it back and she said yes she would".

The last time she spoke to them was when they said they were selling their houses. "I knew it was a lie, they did not sell the houses". When they would not respond to her calls, she wrote to them telling them she needed the loans repaid for her own care, but again there was no response.

She then brought legal proceedings, which the court heard were expedited because of Ms McNicholas' age. The hearing continues before Mr Justice Charles Meenan.
A member of the Kinahan cartel has been cleared by a Dutch court of the attempted manslaughter of a drug dealer who tried to sell him with baking soda.

However Gareth Chubb (29), from Dublin, was jailed for six months for possession of a loaded gun he pulled out at an Amsterdam cafe earlier this year.

Chubb failed to appear for the hearing but his Dutch lawyer was there for the verdict of Amsterdam District Court. Chubb was free to return to Ireland to await the outcome of his trial and he was not obliged to attend yesterday, a Court official confirmed.

The Dublin gangster had 3,071.30 in cash at the time of his arrest, it emerged as the Court ruled that his property - the money and a Gucci cap  be returned to him.

Expand Close Armed police officers arrived at the pub and the three guns were seized following a search. Stock photo / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Armed police officers arrived at the pub and the three guns were seized following a search. Stock photo

Chubb, said to be an underworld close associate of the notorious Kinahan drugs cartel, was cleared by the three Judge Court of a charge of attempted manslaughter due to insufficient evidence relating to the incident of February 5 last.

The intended victim a Nigerian-Dutch national told police that Chubb pointed a pistol with a silencer attached at him and he heard the trigger of the Walther PKK click 5 times. Judges decided that the noise the victim heard could have been from the guns barrel or handle and not necessarily that of the triggers release.

The gun had jammed during the botched shooting attempt and he ran for his life, he told the Dutch Examining magistrate, according to court files.

It is believed that a row erupted over a fake drugs deal. A Dutch media report quoted the motive as revenge after Gareth Chubb and 3 of his friends, who had been in Amsterdam partying for several days, were sold bread soda instead of cocaine by the Nigerian drugs dealer.

CCTV footage showed Chubb of Keeper Road, Drimnagh pointing the gun with a silencer attached at his victim in Smokeys cafe. During interrogation he admitted being in possession of the weapon.

Public prosecutor Ms J van der Meij had demanded that Chubb be jailed for four years citing "the terror" he inflicted on his victim who was in a state of extreme shock and in fear of his life when he fled the cafe and contacted police".

According to witnesses the Nigerian-Dutch victim was lucky to escape with his life after he fled Smokeys Cafe. Storming the bar Dutch police discovered a Glock Pistol, the Walther PKK and silencer and another pistol.

The location beside Rembrandt Plein, one of the Dutch capitols main squares was crowded with sightseers and people having a night out when Chubb recklessly and nonchalantly pulled a loaded gun gravely endangering public safety and public order the Dutch Prosecutor said.

Expand Close Gareth Chubb / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Gareth Chubb

After Chubb was sentenced to six months, less any time he had spent in pre-trial custody a Court spokesman said it was up to the prison authorities in the Netherlands now to ensure that the sentence is served.

He will be contacted via his lawyer and told he has to report to serve out his sentence, less the time he spent in pre-trial detention; if he ignores that then he will have to go to jail on entering the Netherlands again, unless they decide to appeal this verdict and he is cleared by a higher court.

Chubb, believed to be a significant figure within the Kinahan crime gang who have been waging war against the Hutch family, was a close friend of David Byrne, a Kinahan gang associate whose murder in the Regency Hotel escalated into a deadly gangland war that has resulted in a spate of killings since.
(The Google engineer was testing the "Pailitao" app)

A Google engineer was amazed by a Chinese app called Pailitao, which was introduced at the 2017 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in U.S. state of Hawaii.

This AI app launched by Alibaba has an image search feature that the engineer used to search for shoes. The image was recognized by Taobao, which quickly showed the product and prices.

A Facebook user said it must be easy for Chinese to find the same clothes of pop stars and that it takes him an entire afternoon just to find a hat.

It is said that Chinese language, traditional culture, and apps are the three biggest attractions in China.

Times Magazine has reported the boom of Chinas beauty apps in the West. The New York Times even wrote a piece on how to use them.

According to a report by the Daily Mail, Best Actress in Oscar Brie Larson posted a hand-painted selfie produced by BeautyCam on social media, getting over ten thousand likes in just two hours. If you find fascinating selfies all over the Internet, thank Chinese apps.

(The screenshot of the Meitu selfies)

Chinese beauty app Meitu Xiuxiu is hugely popular in Russia, Sputnik reported, because it allows Russians to apply filters to minimize pores. Necks can be stretched and pinched, chins can be shortened, and eyes can be rounded.

The Global Times reported that Brazil is the seventh largest consumer of Meitu phones, which feature BeautyCam. The marketing manager for Meitu phones in Brazil said Brazilians love beauty and used to pay attention to American beauty apps before discovering Chinese apps.

The makers of the Meitu said their mission is to make the world a more beautiful place.

Michelin from the Pacific island of Samoa has been in China for three years. She said she loves Chinese take-out apps the most, such as Meituan and Elema. I have too many choices. I feel inconvenient when back home, as we have to call the restaurants and it is troublesome to select food in different restaurants.

(The screenshot of the street interview)

A foreigner once said in a street interview that he was amazed that even cooking devices can be delivered with food when he ordered a hotpot.

A manager from a French broadcasting company said the boom of Chinese apps relies on its tech innovation and data. China sets a good example for the world, he said.
Maria McCabe and her daughter Ciara from Ratoath, Co Meath. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government , Eoghan Murphy, speaks during a visit to Stameen Estate, Drogheda. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Work is being carried out today on the burst pipe at Staleen Water Plant Treatment in an effort to restore water to more than 50,000 homes in the north-east. The homes have been without water for the last week.

How long will the repair take?

Expand Close Residents receive water from a dispensing station at Aston Village Drogheda yesterday afternoon. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Residents receive water from a dispensing station at Aston Village Drogheda yesterday afternoon. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

The special parts arrived at Staleen Water Plant this morning and work will continue throughout the day in an effort to repair the pipe. It is not known yet how long the repair will take due to the fragile nature of the operation.

Irish Water Managing Director Jerry Grant stated that they are doing everything they can to repair the 2.2km pipe which serves the Staleen Plant.

Read More

When should water be restored?

It will not be known until later this afternoon whether the repair was successful. If it is successful Irish Water said it will take a number of days to replenish the water and return the supply to homes and businesses.

Expand Close Sabrina Woods gets water from a council filling point at Marleys Lane in Drogheda. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Sabrina Woods gets water from a council filling point at Marleys Lane in Drogheda. Photo: Gerry Mooney

Irish Water along with Louth and Meath County Councils, will continue to ensure water tankers and temporary supplies are mobilised to as many impacted people as possible.

Could a similar water crisis happen in another part of the country?

Speaking on Morning Ireland today Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said that he cant rule out a similar water crisis happening elsewhere in the country due to the complicated and antiquated nature of our water system.

Its a very old and an essential piece of infrastructure that hasnt been maintained, he said.

Where can I get water if I am affected by the crisis?

Irish Water, Meath County Council and Louth County Council are providing limited mains supplies, water tanks and bulk water containers at various locations in both counties.
Terry Leyden & FormerTaoiseach Bertie Ahern during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Chancellor of the National university of Ireland Maurice Manning & Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern & Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen has claimed credit for setting the context of the economic recovery in Ireland.

In a rare public appearance at Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Cowen reflected upon the arduous task he faced as Taoiseach.

He was speaking during a ceremony in which he received a law doctorate in recognition of his role in Irish politics by the National University of Ireland.

The greatest hardship of the recession was the loss of employment for so many of our people - something which I deeply regret, he said.

Expand Close Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

"Two hundred and fifty thousand of our two million workforce lost jobs, the vast majority in construction and related industries and in retail."

Mr Cowen added: "We knew that the required action would understandably be more unpopular than almost any policies in recent Irish history and that this threatened the survival of the Government and our hopes of election.

"However, we also know that to avoid taking the decisions would mean that future recovery could be put off by decades."

Recognition of the scale of the problems Ireland faced and introducing measures to address them facilitated the remarkable recent turnaround in the Irish economy.

Expand Close Terry Leyden & FormerTaoiseach Bertie Ahern during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Terry Leyden & FormerTaoiseach Bertie Ahern during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

These measures by us included a radically changed system of financial regulation, major cuts in public expenditure and the recapitalisation of the Irish banking system.

Widespread reductions in pay levels were also introduced. These measures provided a basis for the return to economic growth, he said.

The former Taoiseach added that he accepts the problems should have been identified earlier and policy should have changed prior to the crisis.

He said the governments decision to capitalise the losses in the Irish banks up front by setting up a national asset management agency.

This had a very significant negative impact on the economy but pushing the problem out would have damaged our long term ability to recover, he said.

Referring to a media headline stating that the former Taoiseach threw others under the bus, Mr Cowen said that the buck stopped with me

Expand Close Chancellor of the National university of Ireland Maurice Manning & Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Chancellor of the National university of Ireland Maurice Manning & Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Despite making this clear in a statement I made to the banking inquiry and that nothing I would say in answering questions should in anyway be interpreted as shifting responsibility elsewhere, and saying so explicitly, we still had some sub editor in a national newspaper at the time giving a headline that I was throwing others under the bus.

That has never been my style and I defy anyone involved in the media who has covered politics during my career to come forward and give me even one instance where I did that, he said.

Mr Cowen added that he thinks the Government should bring our housing policy in line with the UK for three to four years.

If we do that I am of the view that the housing sector will come back much more quickly and in the necessary volume to deal with present day demand.

Clearly, a social housing programme needs to be put in place as well for those who cannot get a mortgage to buy their own home, he said.
A Dublin supermarket is selling five litre water bottles for 1 to help customers affected by the water crisis.

JCs Supermarket in Swords began the offer on Monday to cater for customers in Meath and Louth who had no access water.

JC's Supermarket Director, Robert Savage, has said they're getting a positive response from the deal.

I was talking to a couple from Ashbourne who said that all the shops there were sold out of the big bottles of water. They were delighted with the offer. Ashbourne is only a 15 minute drive from here. Were getting a very positive response from it, he said.

Mr Savage said that the offer will continue until the water crisis is solved.

We got four or five pallets of water in today and even if the water comes back we will continue it for a few days afterwards if people want to stock pile in case it happens again.

Its important to look after customers and give back the community, he added.

Work is being carried out today on the burst pipe at Staleen Water Plant Treatment in an effort to restore water to more than 50,000 homes in the north-east.

The homes have been without water for the last week.
Gardai and Dublin Fire Brigade at the scene of an incident in Crumlin

Stand off at St Agnes Church in Crumlin, South Dublin ends peacefully after armed gardai and negotiators attend. Picture: Arthur Carron

A stand-off at a church in South Dublin on Wednesday evening was resolved peacefully.

Members of the garda Armed Support Unit (ASU) and Dublin Fire Brigade were called to the incident at St Agnes Church in Crumlin shortly before 6pm.

Trained negotiators also attended the incident and officers spoke to a man inside the building.

Up to 100 onlookers gathered around the scene.

A garda spokesman confirmed that St Agnes' Road has been closed and diversions are in place.

At approximately 8.45pm the incident was resolved peacefully.

Expand Close St Agnes' Church, Crumlin. Picture: Google Maps / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp St Agnes' Church, Crumlin. Picture: Google Maps

A man has been taken into custody and there are no reports of any injuries.
THE Cabinet has agreed that the 'digital age of consent' for children to sign up to online services without parental approval should be set at 13.

The selected age is at the lower end of the 13 to 16 scale set under European law for consent by minors for online companies including social media to process their personal information. The planned legislation is part of the process of harmonising Irish law with the EUs General Data Protection Regulation which must be finished by May 25 next year.

Earlier this month the special rapporteur for child protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, said the age should be set at 13.

The age has also been recommended by the Childrens Rights Alliance. Mr Shannon told the Oireachtas Justice committee that the goal of the EU law is to protect young people from online marketing.

He said the current situation where the same data practices are being used to target teenagers as those used to target adults is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be tackled.

Mr Shannon also said there is an obligation to protect children from dangers on the internet but the State must "ensure that it does not unreasonably restrict childrens civil and political rights such as the right to freedom of information and expression."

He said setting the prospect of setting the age at 16 should be "approached with caution and the varying rights at play must be borne in mind".

A senior government source said the special rapporteurs view was taken into account in coming to the decision on setting the digital age of consent at 13.

Yesterday, Ian Power, the executive director of youth information website SpunOut.ie also argued in favour of the age being set at 13.

He wrote in the Irish Times that its already the de facto age here and it is official policy in the US. He also cited a DIT study that showed that 75pc of 13 to 14 year-olds have a social media profile, with just 12pc of Irish children reporting a negative experience.
Ita Lenihan ironing clothes in her back garden with bottles of water in Ratoath, Co Meath, after getting them washed at a friends house. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Ongoing disruption of family life caused by the cut-off of water in east Meath meant a breakdown of normal living arrangements for some.

"It's a nightmare," said mother-of-four Ita Lenihan (53), who sent her teenage son to live in Dublin with his granny.

"My son Luke has been sent to Sutton to his granny where he'll be able to have showers and there are no problems with toilets."

Ms Lenihan has decided to travel to Co Limerick to move into her brother's house until the water crisis is over.

"The water supply stopped on Saturday when I was in the shower with shampoo in my hair. I had to use two bottles of water to rinse it out," she said, speaking at her home in Ratoath.

She said she felt embarrassed that a Spanish student was a guest in her home and he was unable to flush the toilet.

"The student told me his father was a water engineer in Spain and water would never be allowed to be cut off for so long in Spain," she said.

She was ironing laundry using bottled water. One of her friends living nearby kindly did her washing for her and returned the clean clothes to her.

"It's not very nice to have to give your smalls to your friend to wash," she said.

Ms Lenihan said she no longer trusted the water being delivered in tanks at her estate as the water turned out yellow yesterday and left a residue in her filter jug.

"This shouldn't be happening. We're not a third-world country. We pay our taxes," she said.

Ratoath resident Kasia Glinka (30), a mother-of-one, has also had her life disrupted. "I drove to Dublin today to have a shower. It took me over 20 minutes to get to a friend's house," she said.

Ratoath is a village divided into areas that have water and areas without water. She said a local Facebook page featured local families offering showers to local people who have no water supplies.

Another woman had to devise her own strategy to get by, explaining: "I brought my dirty dishes to work today to wash them."

The numbers of local youths turning up for GAA training was expected to increase because the showers at the local club were in good working order.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Chinas overall education system has outpaced many countries around the world, thanks to the Central Governments efforts to improve the sector.

The retention ratio of nine-year compulsory education reached 99.9 percent, higher than the upper-income countries. The gross enrollment ratio for Chinas preschool education came to 77.4 percent, higher than the average of upper-middle-income countries of 69.2 percent.

The gross enrollment ratio for senior secondary education and higher education reached 87 and 42.7 percent, respectively, both of which are higher than the average of upper-middle-income countries.

These achievements are closely related to the Chinese governments overall plans to boost education. To make sure that no student drops out of school due to poverty, China has spent over 4 percent of GDP on education for five straight years.

At the beginning of 2017, the country released the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) on Education, reiterating that spending on education will account for no less than 4 percent of the countrys GDP.

Last year, Tan Honglai, a poor student from southwest Chinas Guizhou province, was admitted by the provinces teaching university. Tan said he and his family would be hopeless without the student loans and scholarships provided by the government.

In 2016, nearly 1.3 million rural teachers received living subsidies in China, covering 97 percent of rural teachers in impoverished areas, according to the Ministry of Education. Subsidies benefited some 81,000 schools in 2016.

Li Hui, a rural teacher in east Chinas Anhui province, said her life has undergone obvious changes in recent years. Besides from the basic living allowance, Im paid an extra 500 yuan ($74) per month for my hard work. We are highly motivated.

In June 2015, the State Council announced the Rural Teacher Support Plan for the overall building of rural teacher teams. According to a plan to support weak schools, 77 percent of the counties and 218,000 compulsory education schools gained access to labs, libraries, and other advanced educational resources.
Pei Xia Chen (32) lost her husband Officer Wenjian Liu (40) and welcomed their daughter on Tuesday (photo: NYPD)

The widow of a New York police officer has welcomed their child three years after his death using sperm preserved from her husband to conceive.

Pei Xia Chen lost her husband Officer Wenjian Liu (32) when he and his partner were shot to death while on patrol in Brooklyn, New York in 2014. On the night of her husband's death, Pei Xia requested that his sperm be preserved in order conceive in the future.

The couple were married for just three months when Wenjian died.

Pei Xia welcomed her first daughter, Angelina, in New York Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday, weighing 6lb 13oz.

Expand Close A picture of Wenjian Liu is positioned as police officers attend a plaque dedication ceremony for two fallen New York Police Department (NYPD) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A picture of Wenjian Liu is positioned as police officers attend a plaque dedication ceremony for two fallen New York Police Department (NYPD)

Pei was supported by her late husband's parents Xiu Yan and Wei Tang, who told New York Daily News: "Her name is Angelina, like an angel, like my son is an angel."

New York Police Department released an image of new mum Pei and her newborn daughter on Tuesday.
Two days this week I've seen two ladies driving, each with a dog on their lap. I can't imagine what would have happened if the dogs had decided to move or had become agitated. Or what would have had happened if the driver had to brake suddenly. Madness.

I love dogs. That's why I'd never endanger their lives or mine.

* I was on Radio Kerry with Danny Healy-Rae on Monday. He'd just driven the new electric Nissan Leaf. I think he's half converted. He's certainly a long way from dubbing electric cars irrelevant, as he did some time back. Naturally, he still has his reservations. And he also wants more charging points.

I'd say if there's one man could get charging points for Kerry - if he really wants them - it is Danny Healy-Rae.

* Subaru have appointed Doyle's Garage, in Askingarron, Co Wexford, as main dealers. Doyle's has been involved in the motor industry for more than 60 years - 36 as a Peugeot dealer. We wish them continued success.

* The action-packed supercar Cannonball spectacle - the biggest organised road trip in Europe - rolls off from September 8 to 10 with more than 160,000 spectators expected. The event, in its ninth year, has raised nearly 900,000 for Irish charities.

This year's proceeds will go to Make-a-Wish Ireland. Cars taking part include McLarens, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martins, Porsches, Maseratis, Rolls Royces and Bentleys. The route will take them through Dublin, Kinsale, Limerick, Galway, Claremorris, Sligo, Mullingar, Offaly and Kilkenny.

* Suzuki will reveal their new Swift Sport (pictured) at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

* The West Cork Vintage Ploughing and Threshing Association's 'Ford 100 Fest' this year takes place on the ancestral home-farm of Henry Ford at Crohane, Ballinascarthy, Co Cork, on Sunday, August 27. It will be sponsored by Ford as part of the marque's centenary celebration here.

Ford models will include the Model T and other major cars from the past 100 years. There will also be a huge display of Fordson tractors.

* A report in Japan says Toyota is working on an electric car with new batteries that substantially lengthen driving range and cut charging time.

The Chunichi Shimbun daily says the car will have an all-new platform and will use solid-state batteries, which allow recharging in minutes. It is, the report says, due to go on sale in 2022.
It may be peak summer holiday season, but that hasn't stopped Stena Line swooping with a 6.50 sale fare to Wales.

Of course, there are conditions...

The fare is available as a day trip to Wales, applies to foot passengers, and can only be claimed on selected days when you book 48+ hours in advance (stenaline.ie).

Still, for the price of a pint in Temple Bar, you'll get to sail from Dublin to Holyhead or Rosslare to Fishguard... and from there, Wales is your oyster.

Here are four more mid-summer excuses to flee your desk...

20pc off with Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus is offering 20pc off European flights next month. Book by Friday, July 28 to bag a discount on travel from August 1 to 31. Quick-thinking clickandgo.com is also bundling the flight deals with several late package holiday offers. See aerlingus.com.

Cassidy's Pay Day Sale

Gotten your July pay packet? Cassidy Travel has a raft of specials, including Las Vegas for three nights departing September 10 (487pp), seven nights in Salou from 275pp and five nights in Dubai from 489pp. See 0818 332500 or cassidytravel.ie.

35pc off Italian holidays

Topflight is offering a slice of La Dolce Vita with this one... As we publish, a 3-star, half-board break on the Adriatic Riviera was reduced from 924pp to 699pp, while a 4-star Sorrento break was down from 1,086pp to 799pp. See topflight.ie.

Etihad's Early Bird offers

Book before July 31 to avail of Etihad's 'early bird' offers for travel from September 10 of this year to May 30th, 2018. Return fares to Abu Dhabi start from 460, or you can fly further afield to Sydney from 999 or Melbourne from 975. The airline is celebrating 10 years of flights from Dublin to Abu Dhabi. See etihad.com.

Read more:

Read More

Book before July 31 to avail of Etihad's 'early bird' offers for travel from September 10 of this year to May 30th, 2018. Return fares to Abu Dhabi start from 460, or you can fly further afield to Sydney from 999 or Melbourne from 975. The airline is celebrating 10 years of flights from Dublin to Abu Dhabi. See etihad.com.
Learning a language can take a holiday to the next level, says our visitor on a Spanish immersion in Andalucia

'You were speeding. Can you show me your driver's licence?"

I'm in a town in southern Spain and have just been stopped by the police. Talking in rapid Spanish, the officer asks for documentation which I don't have. To make matters worse, there's an open wine bottle on the seat beside me. The officer calls for back-up and soon the sheriff arrives, pointing a gun.

All is not as it seems though - this is a comedy sketch, in Spanish, my 'role' is a speeding driver and the 'sheriff' has a toy gun. It's all part of a week-long Spanish immersion, which involves everything from one-to-one conversations to talking on the phone, acting in theatre and even giving a presentation in Spanish. For eight days, we are not allowed to speak one word of English.

Every day, myself and four other 'pupils', from England, Australia and Germany, join five 'volunteers', from Spain and Colombia, to converse and improve our Spanish. We're based in the Andalusian town of Baeza (pictured left) and what's unique about this language programme, organised by Pueblo Espanol, is that there are no grammar classes and the volunteers are not teachers.

Instead, mornings are spent having one-hour one-to-one conversations, in Spanish, with the volunteers. We can sit in the hotel, go for a coffee, or explore the town and we can talk about anything; the main point is that we talk and listen and that is how we learn.

Expand Close Narrow street in historical center of Baeza, Spain / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Narrow street in historical center of Baeza, Spain

At meals we sit evenly divided between pupils and volunteers. Conversation is casual, alternating between the volunteers chatting away in Spanish at 100 miles an hour, and then us pupils taking what seems like 10 minutes to get a complete sentence out. Usually, it's a happy combination of both. When we don't understand a word, it is explained in Spanish, never translated to English. I never even hear the accents of the other English-speakers.

The first morning, I have a one-to-one conversation session with Paola, from Colombia, so we walk around the town. Baeza is a World Heritage Site and the old town has the remains of historic walls plus a network of tiny streets to explore and a huge cathedral which dates back to the 12th century.

Back at the hotel, conversation is interspersed with group activities and then lunch. By the time of the first break at 3.30pm, we've been talking in Spanish for six-and-a-half hours and only half the day has passed. Later, we divide into teams for a game, to work out what items we'd need to survive on the moon. A couple of us have matches on our list - which causes much amusement (you can't light a fire without oxygen). The activities are fun - and it's a nice way of learning, without grammar books.

This is the idea behind Pueblo Espanol - that you improve from a minimum level by being immersed in everyday life rather than classes. "Grammar is important but you have to learn a language in context," says organiser Maria Goyanes. The volunteers are from different parts of Spain, with different cultures and convivencia is at the heart - conversing, to put the language into context.

On learning grammar terms, one of the volunteers, Manuel, puts it perfectly: "Language is made to be spoken," he says. "Kids of 10 and 11 speak a language perfectly, but they don't know what a verb is or the subjunctive."

It's challenging at times. I learned Spanish in university but had forgotten a lot of vocabulary. One morning, volunteer Marixa gets me to describe everything I did from waking up - like taking a shower, dressing, brushing my hair.

Expand Close Ceramic workshop in Ubeda / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Ceramic workshop in Ubeda

I don't remember all the words, so it's frustrating, but for the rest of the week I am suddenly able to understand the conversation when someone arrives at breakfast and refers to anything about getting up or getting dressed.

Over the next few days, we have a guided tour of Baeza, explore olive fields, learn how the Jaen province is the world's olive oil capital and explore the neighbouring World Heritage Town, Ubeda (pictured main).

We do group games and comedy sketches. Every challenge provides laughs. For example, when we divide into teams for a building challenge with sticks of spaghetti, it takes me a while to realise we're building the tallest tower (torre) not a bull (toro).

It's a busy week and there isn't a lot of downtime. Organiser Marcos tells us early on that there will be a point, a few days in, when our heads will melt. We'll think, "I can't speak any more Spanish," and other days, we may feel like we're unlearning everything. He's leaving on day three, "but if you want to cry, just call me", he says. I have my brain melt on day five - I suddenly can't understand anyone and what I think I've ordered for lunch turns out to be something else.

But it passes, and overall my Spanish comes on in leaps and bounds until at the end of the week, we're all chatting away. It's sad to say goodbye to new friends made. Watch out, Marcos, you might be getting that tearful phone call yet

What to pack

You need a minimum conversation level for the programme. Brush up on your Spanish as much as possible before going and do bring any grammar or reference book you might need during the week - to check on any grammar issues, for example.

Getting there

Pueblo Espanol (puebloespanol.com) runs Spanish immersion programmes from March to November. The eight-day programme costs 1,950 and includes more than 100 hours of conversation with native Spaniards, single room and board, activities, guided tours and return transport from Madrid. Flights are extra.

When in baeza

Baeza and its neighbour Ubeda, both World Heritage Sites, have some of the best-preserved examples of Renaissance architecture in Spain. The old part of Baeza was built in Roman times. The town is in the centre of Jaen province in Andalucia, and the surrounding countryside is full of olive trees.
Premium

John Downing Opinion New British prime minister Rishi Sunaks succession proves an important milestone in British political inclusivity

There is an old saying in British politics that goes: The right looks for converts while the left seeks out traitors. It comes to mind when one reflects upon the election of Rishi Sunak as the UKs first non-white prime minister in a party traditionally seen as most opposed to mass immigration and the dilution of national identity via multiculturalism.
Donald Trump has declared that he can be more presidential than any former president, barring Abraham Lincoln.

Following heavy criticism for his address to the 2017 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree on Monday, the commander-in-chief returned to the familiarity of a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he declared being presidential was real easy.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd, some whom were wearing hats bearing Trumps Make America great again slogan, he said: Its much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what were doing here tonight. Believe me.

And I said, with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president thats ever held this office. That I can tell you. Its real easy.

His appearance at Mondays annual Jamboree stirred complaints from scouting and non-scouting families alike for Trumps frequent meanderings into politics: at one point goading the thousands of young attendees into booing his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The real estate mogul has struggled to shake off intense scrutiny over his presidential style in recent weeks, which has been compounded by a Senate investigation into alleged collusion with Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

After his son-in-law Jared Kushners appearance in front of the investigating Senate committee on Monday, Trump tweeted: Jared Kushner did very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians. Witch Hunt. Next up, 11 year old Barron Trump! in reference to a perceived witch-hunt against his close allies and family.

In the ensuing fallout from his recent myriad causes of stress, there is one thing observers may agree on: his presidential qualities are being tested to the limit.
BEIJING  China has lauded President Rodrigo Dutertes promise that the Philippines will adhere to an independent foreign policy and develop normal relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

"We have noted relevant remarks made by President Duterte. China speaks highly of that," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said following Dutertes statement during his state of the nation address (SONA) last Monday.

Lu has also commended the popular Filipino leader for his efforts to put China-Philippines relations back on the right track since Duterte assumed office in June last year.

The past one year and more have seen all-around cooperation between China and the Philippines making important headways, frequent high-level visits, political mutual trust going deeper, practical cooperation demonstrating greater potential, and maritime dialogue and cooperation starting again, Lu said.

Lu believes that China-Philippines relations will bring benefits not only to Chinese and Filipino people but also relevant countries in the region.

Last Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on a two-day reciprocal visit to Manila upon invitation of his Filipino counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano who visited Beijing early this month.

After their bilateral meeting, the two diplomats had reportedly signed memorandum of understanding that would further enhance China-Philippines relations.

Wang Yi has also paid courtesy call on President Duterte at the Malacanang Palace.

China-Philippines relations has normalized after Duterte temporarily shelved arbitral tribunals judgment in the South China Sea.

Dutertes decision and his two productive visits have significantly improved China-Philippines relations strained by the maritime disputes.

In his SONA, President Duterte expressed his gratitude to China for its assistance including the construction of two bridges across Pasig River that will decongest traffic in Metro Manila.

China has recently donated thousands of guns worth $7.35 million to the Philippines to help the military in its war against terrorists.

China has pledged USD24 billion worth of investments and infrastructure projects and normalized trade relations by lifting ban on pineapple and banana imports from the Philippines.

The two countries have also formed Bilateral Consultative Mechanism on the South China Sea. The first was meeting held in Guiyang, China last May while the next is set later this year in Manila.

Both the Philippines and China are now discussing the prospects of a joint development of the potentially oil-rich South China Sea or West Philippine Sea.

Jelly Musico is a reporter of Philippine News Agency and an Intern of Peoples Daily Online
A Disney-inspired cosplay is sending the internet wild.

Jose Davalos, a plastic and make-up artist, shared his incredible Ursula costume on Facebook and the video has clocked up over eight million views.

The video of a purple-hued Davalos acting as Ursula is remarkable  not only for the incredible make-up, but also his realistic impression of the cartoon villain.

The All New Ursula After The Comic Con Masquerade Ball.Thank you All for your Love and Support! and Thank you to the Judges and all the Crowed who was there cheering me up.We Won 3 Awards!!! I cannot be happierI did a video just for fun Singing #Ursula #UrsulaCosplay #UrsulaMakeup #UrsulaProsthetis #Anatomy #Fat #BodySuit #Fantasy #TheLittleMeirmaid #Broadway #DragQueen #DragMakeup #DragProsthetics #MaleToFemale #MakeupTransformation #SFX #SpecialEffects #SpecialEffectsMakeup #Witch #PoorUnfortunateSould #ComicCon #SDCC #ComicCon2017 #Winner #DisneyCosplay #VillainsCosplay Posted by Joo Skellington on Sunday, July 23, 2017

It took two months to create the costume for Comic Con 2017, and it seems the time was worth it. The outfit and make-up swiped three awards, including the Most Innovative Costume and Audience Favourite Award Masquerade Winner.

Davalos has been interested in make-up from a very young age. He said: I loved arts, like drawing, painting and sculpting.

I started doing my first prosthetics out of paper mache and I always loved transforming myself into characters from movies.

I used to steal my Grandmas make-up and and I adored the way she was always glamorous with red lips and make-up. So I started doing that on my face, as well as wearing her vintage clothing to create costumes.

Eventually, his work was rewarded with a scholarship to study in Los Angeles, California.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

Speaking about his new-found fame, Davalos said: Its been really amazing to me. This past few years, since social media, has been a nice way to start a career and try to get recognition.

People and other cosplayers have been so kind to me. They make me feel like I am doing things right, and also being an inspiration to them is just beautiful, because I would have never thought about being relevant to somebody.

Davalos said his favourite cosplay creation so far is Rococo Lumiere from Beauty And The Beast, because he is a huge fan of the 18th century and French history  and its easy to see why; the creation is seriously impressive.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

Stay tuned for what he does next.
Job applications are stressful enough, without the added pressure of being judged on your appearance.

Luckily, this is not something that many people have experienced as its illegal to discriminate on looks. However, one job application has gone viral for ignoring this completely.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

The job is searching for waiting staff at a new jazz bar in Shoreditch, east London. As well as all the normal things you see on job applications, like required experience and skills, it also says that they are looking for extremely attractive waiting staff.

This isnt just a throwaway comment, as the job spec repeats: Physical attractiveness is unfortunately necessary for this role.

People cant quite believe that this is a legitimate job application, finding it overwhelmingly offensive.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

The UK government says: It is against the law to treat someone less favourably than someone else because of a personal characteristic.

A third party called House of Wax London posted the job on recruitment website reed.co.uk.

A statement from reed.co.uk said: At reed.co.uk, we take our responsibilities as a recruitment advertising platform, used by thousands of jobseekers every day, extremely seriously. As such, we have a number of steps in place to ensure jobs advertised with us comply with all appropriate legislation, are non-discriminatory and, of course, genuine.

Clearly, in this instance, an advertiser has used inappropriate language in their posting and so details of the vacancy have been removed whilst we work with them to ensure they are made fully aware of relevant legislation affecting their recruitment.

It has not been possible to contact House of Wax London, and the company told BuzzFeed News that they did not wish to comment on the matter.
In this image from video provided by C-SPAN2, Senator John McCain speaks on the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington (C-SPAN2 via AP)

Applause and cheers greeted Senator John McCain, who is battling brain cancer, as he returned to the Capitol on Tuesday to vote for moving ahead on legislation to dismantle Obamacare.

The 80-year-old had a visible scar above his left eye after doctors removed a blood clot earlier this month.

Days after the surgery, the senator disclosed that he had a brain tumour and had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, TV and internet. To hell with them!" the feisty Mr McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor.

He bemoaned the lack of legislative action in Congress.

Mr McCain also said he would not vote for the current Republican version of the repeal and replace bill.

He drew a standing ovation after his remarks.

Mr McCain had cast his vote to take up the healthcare bill, delivering for his party and President Donald Trump on the issue that has defined the party for the past seven years.

"He's tough as a boot," said Republican Senator John Kennedy. "Many people understandably would be curled up in bed in the foetal position."

Mr McCain himself campaigned heavily on the Obamacare repeal issue last year as he won re-election to a sixth and almost certainly final Senate term.

And there could be sweet revenge in defying cancer to undo the signature legislation of the man who beat him for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama.

The Arizona senator would also deliver a key victory to Mr Trump, despite emerging as one of the president's most outspoken Republican critics on Capitol Hill.

During last year's campaign Mr Trump shockingly ridiculed Mr McCain over his years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

And the situation was eerily reminiscent of a similar scenario involving Mr McCain's good friend, the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, who returned to the Senate in July 2008 while battling brain cancer to vote on Medicare legislation, his dramatic entry in the chamber eliciting cheers and applause.

Mr Kennedy died of cancer in August 2009 (the current Senator Kennedy is no relation).

The possibility of Mr McCain returning had been discussed around the Capitol on Monday, yet the announcement from his office late in the day came as a surprise.

Nor did it guarantee success on Tuesday's vote for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is managing an awkward Republican caucus with almost no room for error in the closely divided Senate.

Yet fellow Republicans took Mr McCain's return as a positive sign for Tuesday's vote.

"John McCain's coming back. That's positive," said Senator Richard Burr.

Mr McCain has not been overly enthusiastic about the Republican health bill or the partisan process through which it has emerged.

After an earlier version was poised to fail, he called on Mr McConnell to reopen the process with a bipartisan approach, advice the majority leader ignored.

But Mr McCain's best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, and other colleagues who have spoken with Mr McCain of late, say he has been itching to get back to the Senate, impatient to return to work.

"Is it surprising that he would get out of a hospital bed and go to work? No," Mr Graham said. "It's surprising he's been in the hospital this long."

AP
Masked militants from a military wing of Hamas, which was listed as a terror group in 2001 (Adel Hana/AP)

The European Union's top court has said a lower court should not have removed the Islamic militant group Hamas from the EU's terror list and has sent the case back for reconsideration.

The EU originally listed Hamas as a terror group in 2001, a move that froze the assets of the organisation in the European Union.

However, the decision was annulled on procedural grounds by an EU court in 2014.

The EU launched an appeal and Wednesday's ruling said the 2014 annulment was wrong and must now be reconsidered.

However, it added that Hamas funds will continue to be frozen pending the outcome of the reconsideration.

In May, Hamas issued a new policy document in a bid to rebrand itself with softer positions. In the new document, Hamas said it accepts a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a departure from the founding charter which envisioned that state in place of a defeated Israel.

At the same time, Hamas also upheld its right of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation, noting that its fight is against occupation, not Jews.

In another terror listing case on Wednesday, the court upheld a decision ordering the removal of the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers from the terror list.

The organisation, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was put on the list in 2006, but the group was defeated by Sri Lankan forces in 2009.

AP
Saffie Rose Roussos' coffin, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, is carried into her funeral at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

Andrew Roussos embraces a member of the clergy as he arrives for the funeral of his daughter Saffie Rose Roussos, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

Mum Lisa Roussos looks on as the coffin of her daughter Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Mourners follow Saffie Rose Roussos' coffin, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, as it is carried into her funeral at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

Mum Lisa Roussos looks on as the coffin of her daughter Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Mum Lisa Roussos and brother Xander look on as the coffin of Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Mum Lisa Roussos and brother Xander look on as the coffin of Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Saffie Rose Roussos came to Manchester in May a happy, smiling eight-year-old to see her pop idol perform on the most exciting night of her young life.

On Wednesday, the youngest victim of the Arena bombing returned to the city in a casket, followed by her heartbroken family and hundreds of tearful mourners, for her funeral.

Saffie was among the throng of elated youngsters leaving Manchester Arena after the Ariana Grande concert, the treat a Christmas present from her parents, when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his home-made bomb packed with nuts and bolts.

She died, from multiple injuries, along with 21 others, seven of them aged under 18.

Expand Close Mum Lisa Roussos looks on as the coffin of her daughter Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mum Lisa Roussos looks on as the coffin of her daughter Saffie Roussos, who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, arrives at Manchester Cathedral for her funeral service. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Her mother, Lisa Roussos, 48, who was gravely injured herself, left hospital on Wednesday to perform the hardest task of any parent, saying goodbye to her child and in the most horrific circumstances.

Saffie's wicker casket, adorned with roses, arrived in a silver hearse at Manchester Cathedral followed by the funeral cortege from Wythenshawe Hospital, where Mrs Roussos is still receiving treatment for her injuries.

Expand Close Saffie Roussos (8) was killed / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Saffie Roussos (8) was killed

She emerged from the lead car, refusing the offer of a wheelchair, instead pausing, limping, but determined to walk into the cathedral for her daughter's service, watched by dozens of well-wishers standing outside.

Her right arm in a sling and hand bandaged up, she carried a red rose in her other hand.

Saffie's father, Andrew, 43, nodded to his son, Xander, 10, hugged by his step-sister Ashlee Bromwich, 23, and his wife, who replied with a weak smile.

Along with five others, Mr Roussos became a pall bearer for his daughter as her coffin was carried inside for the start of the service, just a few hundred yards from the scene of her death.

Expand Close Andrew Roussos embraces a member of the clergy as he arrives for the funeral of his daughter Saffie Rose Roussos, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Andrew Roussos embraces a member of the clergy as he arrives for the funeral of his daughter Saffie Rose Roussos, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

Hundreds of mourners were already inside, many carrying a single rose in memory of Saffie, a request from the family who invited anyone who had been touched by her to come to celebrate her short life.

A moving montage of photos, set to the music of Grande's hit One Last Time, forming part of the funeral ceremony, was released by her family and friends.

Expand Close Saffie Rose Roussos' coffin, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, is carried into her funeral at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Saffie Rose Roussos' coffin, the youngest victim of the bombing of the Manchester Arena, is carried into her funeral at Manchester Cathedral, Britain, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

The YouTube video clip shows a series of family snaps, Saffie happily playing with her brother Xander, smiling alongside her parents on family holidays, wearing make-up and dressing up.

Saffie's friends hope the video, which will be shown at her funeral, will be liked and shared using the hashtag #Saffiethesuperstar to fulfil her dream of becoming a YouTube star.
Tributes have been paid to a couple who died in a horrific car crash on their way home from a wedding reception.

Stuart Moorat, 27, and Georgina Le Prevost, 25, were killed when their vehicle veered off the road on the Channel Island of Guernsey. on Friday.

They were travelling home from a wedding dance, police said in a Facebook post.

News of their deaths was then broken to the guests who were still at the venue, many of whom were reportedly in tears.

Friends and relatives paid their respects to the couple and left flowers at the scene, according to The Mirror.

They were so very happy together," Mr Moorat's mother posted on Facebook.

Helen Moorat added: The only grain of comfort I have is knowing they were together.

Law firm Mourant Ozannes, where Ms Le Prevost worked, released a statement saying staff were "deeply saddened" by her death.

We are all deeply saddened by the tragic and unexpected loss of our wonderful friend and colleague, Georgie. Georgie was a kind, beautiful young woman who was always full of life, laughter and fun, they said in a statement.

She truly brought joy to all of those who were lucky enough to work with her during her six years with us, and was a very dear friend to many.

We will miss her terribly. Our love and prayers are with her family at this very sad time.

A police spokesman said: "We would again ask that anyone who saw the couple at a wedding reception on Friday evening, and in particular anyone who saw them leave, contact Sergeant Tom Marshall on 725111."
Palestinians pray as Israeli border police officers stand guard at the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City (AP)

Israeli security forces remove metal detectors which were recently installed at an entrance to the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Workers dismantle metal detectors outside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, early Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Israeli police officers dismantle metal detectors outside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, early Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Israel's security cabinet has decided to remove metal detectors set up at the entrance to a Jerusalem holy site which had angered Muslims. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Israel has dismantled metal detectors it installed a week earlier at a contested Jerusalem shrine, hoping to defuse a crisis with the Muslim world, including security ally Jordan, the Muslim custodian of the holy site.

The removal of the devices followed the resolution of a 24-hour diplomatic standoff with Jordan over a deadly shooting at the Israeli Embassy in the kingdom, suggesting a broader deal had been struck.

However, there were signs yesterday that the crisis over the shrine, revered by Muslims and Jews, was not over yet. Israel announced it would replace the metal detectors with "advanced technologies", reportedly sophisticated cameras, and additional police deployments.

Muslim leaders had demanded security arrangements go back to what they were before the detectors were erected.

Ikrema Sabri, a senior Muslim cleric, said yesterday Muslims should stay away from the shrine, pending a review of the new Israeli measures.

"Our position is that for now, nobody should enter," he said.

The 37-acre esplanade in Jerusalem's Old City is the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest of Judaism, once home to biblical Temples. It sits on the fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and triggered several major clashes in the past.

Israel had erected metal detectors at the gates to the Muslim-administered site last week, after Arab gunmen killed two Israeli police guards there.

The move incensed the Muslim world, amid allegations Israel was trying to expand control over the site under the guise of security.

The installation of the detectors set off widespread protests and deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence over the past week.

Large crowds of Muslim worshippers prayed outside the shrine in protest every day, refusing to pass through the metal detectors. Israel has denied it has a hidden agenda, portraying the detectors as a needed means to prevent attacks.

However, the Israeli government has come under growing diplomatic pressure in recent days to reconsider the decision. It also faced growing domestic criticism that it had acted hastily. The diplomatic crisis with Jordan over the embassy shooting lent more urgency to finding a solution.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II spoke by phone.

Following the conversation, the Israeli embassy staff, including the security guard who had killed two Jordanians after being attacked by one with a screwdriver, returned to Israel from their base in Jordan.

Jordan initially said the guard could not leave without an investigation, while Israel said he had diplomatic immunity.

Israel's security cabinet said police would increase the deployment of forces until the new security measures are in place. The statement said the government would budget 100 million shekels (24m) to implement the security plan over a period of "up to six months".

Mahmoud Aloul, a senior official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, said yesterday that any changes to the previous security arrangements were unacceptable. "Israel is an occupying power and needs to take its hands from our holy sites," he told Voice of Palestine radio.

In his phone call with Mr Netanyahu, Jordan's king stressed the need to "remove the measures taken by the Israeli side since the recent crisis broke out", Jordan's state news agency Petra said.
U.S. sanctions bill to bring more uncertainties on ties with Russia, Iran, DPRK

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans -- Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie -- voting against the bill.

Political analysts said the move will bring more uncertainties to the country's relations with the three countries.

"The House's 419-3 vote on the sanctions bill reflects changes in its evaluation of threats from the three countries," said Teng Jianqun, director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies.

Teng said the sanctions bill also shows that the United States now has great worries about its national security.

"The bill, undoubtedly, will bring a negative impact and more uncertainties to America's relations with the three countries, as well as solutions to related regional issues," Teng added.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted on under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto.

The measure aims to target key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital U.S. interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbors," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block U.S. President Donald Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" U.S. foreign policy in connection with Russia.

"This strong oversight is necessary. It is appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," Royce said, according to news website The Hill.

The White House on Sunday signaled that Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of interfering in U.S. elections. The Kremlin has said that they viewed the U.S. sanctions bill "negatively."

"Extremely negatively," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying when asked about the Kremlin's take on the draft bill on Monday.

The Kremlin also warned that fresh sanctions on Russia would adversely affect both sides, as well as interests of third countries.

"We consider such a continuation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive and harmful to the interests of both countries," Peskov said.
The UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency was contacted about the incident

A dentist from New York who helped a US organisation search for American servicemen missing from the Second World War has died after making a final scuba dive to explore a wartime plane wreck site in the English Channel, his dental practice partner said.

Dr Bruce Hottum, (63), of Glenford, New York, died last week, Kent coroner's office confirmed to the Associated Press.

An investigation is under way.

The UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it was contacted on Friday afternoon by a dive boat 10 miles east of Ramsgate reporting a diver needing medical aid.

A helicopter was dispatched to the boat and Dr Hottum was airlifted to hospital.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, police in Kent said.

Dr Hottum went to England two weeks ago after receiving a call from the group Project Recover asking if he wanted to explore a Second World War plane wreck site in the English Channel that could contain human remains, according to Dr Charles Fliegler.

Dr Fliegler was Dr Hottum's long-time partner at their dental practice in Kingston, in New York's Hudson Valley.

"He came up on the last dive, didn't feel well and collapsed," Dr Fliegler told the AP.

Dr Hottum was a member of local ski patrols and a certified emergency medical technician who trained other EMTs and firefighters, according to the practice's website.

He helped identify remains using dental records after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr Fliegler said.

"He was busy helping and going into the community. He was a good guy all the way around," Dr Fliegler said.

In recent years, Dr Hottum became interested in efforts to locate, recover and identify the remains of US Second World War servicemen listed as missing in action.

In the autumn of 2015, he went to the Palau Islands in the Pacific with The BentProp Project, a non-profit based in Woodland, California, that researches Second World War wreck sites and searches for American MIAs.

Dr Fliegler said Dr Hottum went to England to explore an underwater wreck site with Project Recover, a Second World War research partnership involving BentProp, the University of Delaware and the University of California San Diego.

Dr Hottum's wife and three adult sons travelled to England to await the release of his body so he can be brought back home for burial, Dr Fliegler said.
The case for impeaching Donald Trump is growing.

USA Today reports: Just six months after his inauguration, Americans already are split down the middle, 42pc-42pc, over whether President Trump should be removed from office, a new USA Today/iMediaEthics Poll finds.

While no serious effort is now underway in Congress to impeach Trump, the results underscore how quickly political passions have become inflamed both for and against the outsider candidate who won last years campaign in a surprise.

A third of those surveyed say they would be upset if Trump is impeached; an equal third say they would be upset if hes not.

Thats extraordinary for the speed with which we reached this widespread willingness to consider impeachment. Not only are we a mere six months into the Trump presidency, but also we have yet to see a final report from the special counsel or a congressional committee.

Impeachment isnt a matter up for popular referendum  or is it? In about 15 months, every member of the House will be up for re-election. Unless Trump is gone by then or thoroughly exonerated (both unlikely, but who knows?), that issue will be front and centre in the race. Its far from nutty  or even a stretch  to discuss grounds for impeachment; indeed, when as many favour it as oppose it, impeachment becomes an entirely legitimate topic.

Republicans wont be able to discredit Democrats on the grounds that they are mulling impeachment. To the contrary, Democrats will try to make Republicans squirm by raising a series of uncomfortable questions:

Why isnt the GOP taking Trumps conflicts of interest, including possible emoluments clause violations, seriously?

Why didnt Candidate X object to the firing of former FBI director James Comey?

Read more:

Why havent the Republicans forced Trump to turn over his tax returns? (A large majority of voters consistently have said Trump should release them.)

How can we trust Republicans who have defended Trump at every turn to do the right thing if the facts show Trump committed impeachable offences? (Even stickier, asking Republicans to specify what would be impeachable puts them in a nasty corner. Refuse to answer, and theyve shown themselves to be flunkies; answer, and they bind themselves to a vote should credible facts come to light.)

Would Republicans move to impeach if Trump tried to pardon himself and/or family members?

Why didnt they demand that Jared Kushner, after his multiple meetings with Russians and failure to report them, lose his security clearance?

This will not be the only issue in the 2018 midterms, but unless Trump is gone or entirely cleared, it will be an awfully significant one. Whats a Republican to do? Simple:

Take Trump conflicts of interest, including possible emoluments clause violations, seriously and begin hearings.

Make clear the objection to Comeys firing and warn that firing special counsel Robert Mueller would have dire consequences. (Better yet, promise to pass and rehire him under a new independent prosecutor statute.)

Pass legislation to require Trump to turn over his tax returns.

Specify what would be impeachable offences: firing the special counsel, obstruction of justice (including directing underlings to lie and/or cover up the reason for Comeys firing), financial wrongdoing, perjury and/or misleading Congress.

State clearly that the GOP will move to impeach if Trump tries to pardon himself and/or family members.

Demand that Kushner, after his multiple meetings with Russians and failure to report them, lose his security clearance.

In short, there is no good reason  aside from blind partisan loyalty (and how has that worked out for the GOP?)  not to do these things. If the GOP doesnt, Democrats have a very strong case in arguing that Republicans have shown themselves unwilling to uphold their constitutional obligations. Put differently, if they keep defending Trump and refusing to address his misconduct head-on, they have no business being in office. ( Washington Post)
US President Donald Trump greets people negatively affected by the Affordable Care Act after calling on Republican Senators to move forward and vote on a healthcare bill to replace law in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington

The US attorney general found himself directly in the crosshairs of Donald Trump yesterday in an apparent attempt to force out the political veteran who was the presidents earliest supporter.

Jeff Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, was widely seen as one of Mr Trumps most loyal foot soldiers, and a man who shared his vision for immigration policy and law and order.

Yet the president unleashed yet another attack on Mr Sessions yesterday, tweeting shortly after 6am: Attorney general Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are the emails and DNC server) and intel leakers!

Nine minutes earlier, he had tweeted in reference to a report by Sean Hannity, a Fox News anchor and diehard Trump loyalist, about Mrs Clinton receiving support for her presidential campaign from Ukraine.

So where is the investigation, AG? said Mr Trump.

Reeling

Expand Close Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Photo: AP / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Photo: AP

The conservative senator was already reeling from an interview last week, in which Mr Trump told the New York Times he would never have

appointed Mr Sessions if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

The president warmed to his theme, describing Mr Sessions on Monday as beleaguered and asking why he was not investigating Mrs Clinton.

Last night Mr Trump told the Wall Street Journal he was very disappointed with Mr Sessions. Its not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement, he said. Im very disappointed in Jeff Sessions.

Asked whether he would remove Mr Sessions from office, Mr Trump said he was disappointed in the attorney generals decision to recuse himself.

Im just looking at it, he said. Ill just see. Its a very important thing.

The presidents attacks have dismayed many within the White House, given how Mr Sessions has set out to work diligently on Mr Trumps pledges  reviewing policing, taking a hard line on immigration, ending sanctuary cities and rolling back a series of Obama-era civil rights actions.

The only thing Mr Sessions has not been able to do is stop the Russia investigation.

Read more:

Maggie Haberman, the New York Times White House correspondent, tweeted: I asked two ppl close to Trump why he is tormenting Sessions instead of firing him. The answer from both, paraphrased: Because he can.

Anthony Scaramucci, Mr Trumps new communications director, did not deny that Mr Trump was trying to push Mr Sessions out in the hope of finding someone more compliant. Mr Scaramucci said he hoped the two men could sit down and work it out.

The Washington Post reported that Ted Cruz, a presidential rival Mr Trump nicknamed Lyin Ted, could be drafted in.

The political website Axios, meanwhile, suggested Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was a contender.

Speculation in Washington was that Mr Trump could make what is called a recess appointment, meaning that he could name a replacement attorney general, who would sit until January without needing Senate approval.

Subpoena

The turmoil in the justice department came on a tough day for the Trump administration.

Paul Manafort, Mr Trumps campaign manager from March to August 2016, was issued with a subpoena by the Senate intelligence committee, investigating the Trump teams ties to Russia.

Mr Trump, in a continuation of his dawn Twitter rant, described it once again as a witch hunt, and sarcastically said that his 11-year-old son Barron may soon be drawn into the scandal.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, was again appearing before a Congressional panel. Yesterday it was the turn of politicians on the House Intelligence Committee to question the 36-year-old, who on Monday insisted: I did not collude.

Congressmen were last night expected to pass a Russia sanctions bill that would impose new punishments for the election hack, and bars Mr Trump from easing the penalties without getting permission from Congress.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is growing increasingly disillusioned with President Donald Trump and could leave his administration before the end of the year, according to two sources who spoke to CNN.

Mr Tillerson has found himself undermined by the president, who openly contradicts him and appears disinterested in the work of Mr Tillerson's team of career diplomats at the state department.

Friends of Mr Tillerson had previously believed he would ride out the rollercoaster at Foggy Bottom - home of the state department. But CNN reported the friends had noticed "a change in tone", and thought that he could well be planning on leaving Washington.

"His frustration is hardly a secret and it has spilled out publicly at times," CNN reported. "But friends sense a change of late.

"Two sources who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity over the weekend said they would not be surprised if there was a 'Rexit' from Foggy Bottom sooner than that."

The 65-year-old Texan has made no secret of his struggle with the role.

The president has made his life harder by blocking a number of people Mr Tillerson wished to appoint, including stopping the hiring of Elliott Abrams as Mr Tillerson's second in command, because Mr Abrams was critical of Mr Trump and his policy positions during the 2016 campaign.

The state department is described as a hollowed-out and demoralised institution under Mr Tillerson, who has failed to convince his boss that diplomacy is something to be prized.

Mr Tillerson reportedly got involved in a heated argument about staffing, in which Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, reportedly called Mr Tillerson "unprofessional".

During his tirade, inside the office of chief of staff Reince Priebus, Mr Tillerson reportedly quarrelled with the director of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano, and made clear he didn't want the White House to "have any role in staffing".

Mr Tillerson has also been undermined on policy.

He advocated remaining neutral during the Gulf dispute with Qatar, saying: "We call on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar. There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade."

Hours later, Mr Trump went against his position and openly backed Saudi Arabia.

"The nation of Qatar, unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level," said Mr Trump. "And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behaviour."

Mr Tillerson unsuccessfully argued against Mr Trump pulling the US out of the Paris climate change agreement, and when asked whether he still wishes the US was part of the deal, he replied: "My views haven't changed."

Were Mr Tillerson to resign, he would be far from the shortest-tenured secretary of state.

Elihu Washburne served only 11 days under Ulysses Grant before being made ambassador to France.

Mr Tillerson was the first secretary of state in modern history who had no experience in any public office before he was appointed.

But he had already travelled the world, hammering out oil deals on behalf of ExxonMobil with leaders from countries including Nigeria, Yemen, Qatar and Russia.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Justine Damond called police to report a sexual assault, and was shot dead by an officer who responded (Stephen Govel/www.stephengovel.com via AP)

A WOMAN slapped the back of police squad car just before the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman in Minneapolis, USA according to newly released court documents.

The detail came in an application for a search warrant, made public Monday in court documents, from state investigators examining what led to the July 15 shooting of Sydney native Justine Damond, 40.

The fatal incident outraged the public in Australia and Minnesota, and led to the resignation of Minneapolis' police chief. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the shooting "shocking" and "inexplicable."

"Upon police arrival, a female 'slaps' the back of the patrol squad. After that, it is unknown to BCA agents what exactly happened, but the female became deceased in the alley," the court document reads. It does not say whether the woman who slapped the car was Damond.

Damond family attorney Robert Bennett could not be reached to comment on Tuesday. Previously, Bennett had said: "Usually people who call the police in their pajamas are not ambushers."

One responding officer, Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was startled by a loud sound near the patrol car shortly before his partner, Mohamed Noor, fired through the open driver's-side window, striking Damond.

Damond, who had made Minneapolis her home and was engaged to be married, had called police about a possible sexual assault in her neighborhood just before midnight. A cellphone was found near her body, according to the court documents.

Last week, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau resigned at the request of Mayor Betsy Hodges, who lost confidence in the chief after the shooting.

Over the weekend, metal street signs mocking the police appeared in the city, reading "Warning: Twin Cities Police Easily Startled," according to KARE-TV.

Noor's lawyer, Tom Plunkett, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Noor has refused to be interviewed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the shooting. Plunkett previously released a statement in which Noor expressed condolences to the Damond family, but declined to discuss the shooting.

Harrity's attorney, Fred Bruno, could not be reached for comment. Bruno previously told the Star Tribune it was "certainly reasonable" for the officers to fear they could be the target of a possible ambush.

Police also on Monday released the officers' partly redacted personnel files, which include records of employment and completed training, including weapons training. However, the files reveal little about job performance.
Palestinians pray as Israeli border police officers stand guard at the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City (AP/Oded Balilty)

A senior Muslim official in Jerusalem has said worshippers will not return to a contested shrine until Israel removes the new railings and cameras it installed following a deadly attack.

Ikrema Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, said that even after Israel removed metal detectors at the site more steps were required.

He said mass prayer protests would continue until the gates of the compound were opened, metal railings and an iron bridge removed and newly installed cameras taken down.

He said a lawyer working on behalf of the Muslim administration of the holy site will be in touch with Israeli police to make the demands.

"We will not enter the mosque until these things are implemented," he said. "Now we are awaiting the response of the police."

The demand sets off the prospect of a renewed showdown ahead of Friday prayers at the site, when a large number of worshippers arrive for the centrepiece of the Muslim prayer week, and extends a crisis Israel was eager to resolve.

Israel installed the new security measures earlier this month after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site.

Under intense pressure, it removed the metal detectors and said it planned to install sophisticated security cameras instead.

Israel said the measures were a natural response and necessary to prevent further attacks while Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site.

The continued stand-off highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the shrine - the third-holiest in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The 37-acre esplanade, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a lightning rod for the rival religious and national narratives of the two sides. It has triggered major confrontations in the past.

The latest development could put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tough spot, as he tries to stamp out a wave of unrest that has triggered international pressure while not appearing to his hard-line base as capitulating.

His government has faced a growing backlash at home for what critics said was hasty decision-making and embarrassing policy reversals.

In a face-saving compromise, and after Mr Netanyahu spoke to Jordan's King Abdullah II and others, Israel's security cabinet announced on Monday that in place of the metal detectors it would employ non-intrusive "advanced technologies", reportedly smart cameras that can detect hidden objects.

The new security system is said to be set up in the next six months.

Palestinian politicians and Muslim clerics say that is not enough and are demanding Israel restore the situation at the shrine in Jerusalem's Old City to what it was before the July 14 attack.

In response to that attack, Israel closed the shrine for two days for weapons searches and installed the metal detectors.

The decision quickly triggered Muslim protests amid rumours that Israel was trying to expand its control at the site under the guise of security - a claim Israel strongly denied.

AP
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has told the country's National Court he did not know anything about the ruling Popular Party's accounting practices when a corrupt scheme allegedly helped fund it.

Wednesday's highly-anticipated hearing was the first time that a prime minister has appeared in court while holding office since Spain transitioned to democracy four decades ago.

Mr Rajoy himself is not accused of wrongdoing, but the court called him to provide evidence as the party's vice secretary general until 2003, and its secretary general until 2004, when the illegal funding scheme was allegedly still operating.

"I never took care of the economic issues in the party. I was devoted to political activity," Mr Rajoy told the three magistrates during the proceeding.

Businesspeople, elected officials and other Popular Party members, including two former treasurers, are among the 37 accused of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion in the "Gurtel case", named after the German translation for belt.

The Spanish word for belt is also the last name of Francisco Correa, a businessman arrested in 2009 who is the key defendant in the case, considered one of the largest corruption scandals in the country's modern history.

Correa faces a 125-year prison sentence if found guilty of controlling the network of aides and companies that arranged free events for the party in exchange for public contracts.

Mr Rajoy arrived in a convoy at the tightly secured National Court compound in San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid.

Close by but out of Mr Rajoy's sight, around 100 protesters held banners accusing the conservative party of covering up corruption. Some signs read "Mafia out, democracy in".

In an apparent attempt to underscore that he is a witness and not a defendant, Mr Rajoy gave evidence seated at a table on the stage at the same level as the three magistrates - not standing in front of them as is customary.

Mr Rajoy repeated what he had said earlier: that he never met Correa and he was the one, as party president in 2004, who ordered a halt to contracting with Correa's companies upon learning that they were misusing the conservative party's name.

The trial is part of a wider probe into illegal party funding reflected in hidden accounting kept by Luis Barcenas, the party treasurer for almost three decades.

In the most damaging allegations to date, Barcenas has said there was always a scheme of illegal contributions to the Popular Party and that top officials were aware. The party and Mr Rajoy have denied his claims.

Mr Rajoy called allegations that high-ranking party officials received illegal bonuses "absolutely false". He explained that some received additional payments from the Popular Party to their salaries as legislators - money he said was taxed. He said those payments were halted as soon as any of the politicians took a position in the government.

As prime minister, Mr Rajoy has made economic growth and job creation his chief goals since the party returned to power in 2011. In June, he won a no-confidence debate called against him by Podemos, a left-wing opposition party, because of the myriad of corruption scandals involving the Popular Party.

AP
US energy secretary Rick Perry has been fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine.

Mr Perry spoke to the pair about the Paris Climate Accord and the possibility of using pig manure as a power source in his 22-minute conversation with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov.

The entire phone call was posted online by Russian news site Vesti .

US Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the authenticity of the call to The Washington Post, saying the duo targets high level officials and celebrities "who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine".

Other victims of past pranks by the pair known as Vovan and Lexus include US House representative Maxine Waters and Republican senator John McCain.

AP
Paul Manafort has agreed to provide notes of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer (AP)

Donald Trump's former campaign chairman has met Senate investigators, giving his recollection of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, sources said.

The appearance by Paul Manafort came as the US president's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with the House of Representatives' intelligence committee.

Both Mr Manafort and Mr Kushner have been co-operating with the committees which, along with special counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was described in emails to Mr Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Mr Trump's presidential campaign.

Mr Manafort met Senate intelligence committee staff and "answered their questions fully", his spokesman Jason Maloni said.

Mr Manafort's discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview.

He had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee and has now provided notes he took at the time, one source said.

The other person said Mr Manafort also said he would take part in additional interviews with the intelligence committee staff on other topics if necessary.

Mr Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors with the House committee on Tuesday.

Republican congressman Mike Conaway of Texas, leading the panel's Russia probe, said he found Mr Kushner to be "straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had".

The committee's top Democrat, Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on "a range of issues the committee had been concerned about".

"We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today," Mr Schiff added.

On Monday, Mr Kushner answered questions from staff on the Senate's intelligence panel, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Mr Trump's victorious White House bid and insisting he had "nothing to hide".

In an 11-page statement, he acknowledged his Russian contacts during the campaign and immediately after the election, in which he served as a liaison between the transition and foreign governments.

He described the contacts as either insignificant or routine and said they had been omitted from his security clearance form because of an aide's error.

"Let me be very clear," Mr Kushner said later, in a rare public statement at the White House.

"I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so."

Emails released this month show that Mr Trump Jr accepted a June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, with the understanding that he would receive damaging information on Democrat Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign.

But, in his statement for the two intelligence committees, Mr Kushner said he had not read those emails until they were recently shown to him by his lawyers.

Mr Kushner's statement was the first detailed defence from a campaign insider responding to the controversy that has all but consumed the first six months of Mr Trump's presidency.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia sought to tip the 2016 campaign in Mr Trump's favour.

Mr Kushner called the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya such a "waste of time" that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.

In addition to the Senate and House intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee has also been investigating Russia's election interference.

The committee has been negotiating terms of a private, on-the-record interview with Mr Trump Jr about the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya.

Republican senartor Chuck Grassley and Democrat Dianne Feinstein had also issued a subpoena for Mr Manafort to give evidence publicly during a Wednesday hearing before the committee.

But late on Tuesday the committee rescinded the subpoena.

Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Mr Grassley, said the committee withdrew the subpoena after Mr Manafort agreed to turn over documents and to continue negotiating about setting up an interview with the panel.

The committee also removed Mr Manafort and Mr Trump Jr from the list of witnesses scheduled for the public hearing.

The committee has sought to talk to Mr Manafort about the Trump Tower meeting, among other issues including his foreign political work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

A separate subpoena issued for Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the research firm behind a dossier of salacious allegations about Mr Trump and his ties to Russia, was also withdrawn.

On Monday Mr Kushner confirmed earlier media reports that he had suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities to set up secure communications between Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who would become national security adviser, and Russian officials.

But he disputed that it was an effort to establish a "secret back channel".

His statement describes a December meeting with Mr Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which Mr Kushner and Mr Kislyak discussed establishing a secure line for the Trump transition team and Moscow to communicate about policy in Syria.

AP
The Daily 202: Trump marginalizes experts, debases expertise

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump, the first president in American history to take office with no prior governing or military experience, has appointed someone with no professional communications experience to be White House communications director.

Making his debut on the Sunday shows, former hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci said his new boss still does not accept the consensus of professional analysts and case officers across the intelligence community that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election.

"He basically said to me, 'Hey, you know . . . Maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it,'" Scaramucci said on CNN.

These two things are not unrelated. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the knowledge and wisdom of experts while elevating nonexperts who lack relevant experience into important jobs across the federal government. This gets less attention than other story lines, but it has been a hallmark of the president's first six months in power.

Party planner Lynne Patton, who helped plan Eric Trump's wedding but had no professional experience in housing, was appointed last month to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development's office for the region that covers New York and New Jersey.

Last week Trump nominated someone who is not a credentialed scientist to be the Agriculture Department's chief scientist. Sam Clovis has described himself as "extremely skeptical" about the expert consensus on climate change. The post he's been tapped for has been occupied by a string of individuals with advanced degrees in science or medicine.

News broke Friday that Trump will nominate a prominent coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, to serve as the No. 2 at the Environmental Protection Agency.

-- Meanwhile, the Trumpists have actively taken steps to prevent experts from doing their jobs. The EPA removed several agency websites in April that contained detailed climate data and scientific information, including one that had been cited to challenge statements made by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. One of the Web pages that was shuttered had existed for nearly two decades and explained what climate change is and how it worked.

The weekend before last, Trump's political appointees at the Interior Department abruptly removed two top climate experts from a delegation scheduled to show Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg around Glacier National Park.

-- The administration is heavily populated with people who lack qualifications that would have been prerequisites to get the same jobs in past Republican and Democratic administrations. It starts at the top: No one not named Trump seriously believes that the president's daughter and son-in-law could have gotten their plum West Wing jobs if not for nepotism.

Jared Kushner purportedly proposed to Russia's ambassador the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump's transition team and the Kremlin last December, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring by the U.S. government.

The president, for his part, didn't want any professionals from the government, including the Russia expert on the National Security Council, to sit in on his meeting with Vladimir Putin. The Russians also reportedly recommended that a note taker be present, but Trump refused.

-- Previous presidents have worked the referees, but Trump has taken it to a whole new level. He's declared war on any ref who calls him for fouls.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that the revised Senate Republican health-care bill would increase the number of uninsured people by 22 million people over the next 10 years if it passed. Knowing the numbers would be abysmal, the administration placed an op-ed preemptively dismissing the independent forecast. "Although the media and the political left will certainly seize on it, the CBO's estimates will be little more than fake news," wrote Marc Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, and Brian Blase, a special assistant to the president for the National Economic Council.

Trump attacked federal judges who found that his travel ban was unconstitutional. Then he criticized professional lawyers in his own Justice Department for pursuing a "watered down" version of the ban that could withstand judicial scrutiny.

The day after he took office, the president personally pressured the head of the National Park Service to back up his overinflated claims about the size of his inauguration crowd. He also vented that the agency had tweeted a picture that showed how relatively few people actually turned out.

The director of the independent Office of Government Ethics, a persistent critic of the Trump administration's approach to ethics, stepped down last week nearly six months before his term was scheduled to end. Walter M. Shaub Jr. drew the ire of administration officials when he challenged Trump to fully divest from his business empire and chastised Kellyanne Conway for promoting Ivanka Trump products from the White House briefing room.

In an administration characterized by its embrace of what Conway notoriously called "alternative facts," the systemic effort to sideline experts who challenge Trump has been a feature, not a bug. But none of this is terribly surprising in the context of the campaign: Trump said he knew more about war than the generals. He cast doubt upon the medical community consensus that vaccines do not cause autism. And he said a federal judge of Mexican descent couldn't objectively adjudicate a fraud lawsuit against Trump University because of his heritage. Speaker Paul Ryan called this "the textbook definition" of a racist statement at the time.

-- Trump's embrace of experts and expertise is situational. Candidate Trump often claimed that the government's unemployment rate was "totally fiction," even though the economists who tabulate it are insulated from political pressure. "Don't believe these phony numbers," Trump said at a rally last year. "The [real] number is probably 28 [percent], 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent."

But when there was a good jobs report in March, which showed the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, then-press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump now believes the same numbers. "They may have been phony in the past, but they are very real now," Spicer said.

-- In a new book entitled "The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters," Tom Nichols describes Trump's victory last November as "undeniably one of the most recent - and one of the loudest - trumpets sounding the impending death of expertise."

The president defended his lack of specific policy knowledge during a rally on the eve of the Wisconsin primary in 2016. "They say, 'Oh, Trump doesn't have experts,'" Trump said. "You know, I've always wanted to say this: . . . The experts are terrible! They say, 'Donald Trump needs a foreign policy adviser.' . . . But supposing I didn't have one, would it be worse than what we're doing now?"

Nichols, a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, believes the "death of expertise and its associated attacks on knowledge fundamentally undermine the republican system of government."

"The abysmal literacy, both political and general, of the American public is the foundation for all of these problems. It is the soil in which all of the other dysfunctions have taken root and prospered, with the 2016 election only its most recent expression," Nichols writes. "Americans have increasingly unrealistic expectations of what their political and economic system can provide. This sense of entitlement is one reason they are continually angry at 'experts' and especially at 'elitists,' a word that in modern American usage can mean almost anyone with any education who refuses to coddle the public's mistaken beliefs. When told that ending poverty or preventing terrorism is a lot harder than it looks, Americans roll their eyes. Unable to comprehend all of the complexity around them, they choose instead to comprehend almost none of it and then sullenly blame experts, politicians and bureaucrats for seizing control of their lives."

Professionals in every industry report that laypeople increasingly challenge their know-how. "No area of American life is immune to the death of expertise," writes Nichols, who worked for the late Republican Sen. John Heinz, Pa., early in his career. "Doctors routinely tussle with patients over drugs. Lawyers will describe clients losing money, and sometimes their freedom, because of unheeded advice. Teachers will relate stories of parents insisting that their children's exam answers are right even when they're demonstrably wrong. Realtors tell of clients who bought homes against their experienced advice and ended up trapped in a money pit."

The 252-page book is packed with illustrations. "What I find so striking today is not that people dismiss expertise, but that they do so with such frequency, on so many issues, and with such anger," Nichols laments. "It may be that attacks on expertise are more obvious due to the ubiquity of the Internet, the undisciplined nature of conversation on social media, or the demands of the twenty-four-hour news cycle. But there is a self-righteousness and fury to this new rejection of expertise that suggest, at least to me, that this isn't just mistrust or questioning or the pursuit of alternatives: it is narcissism, coupled to a disdain for expertise as some sort of exercise in self-actualization."

---

Video: The White House recently released a video cataloguing suggested faults of the CBO's health-care analysis. Here's a Fact Checker corrected version. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

URL

Embed code

trump-202

Washington Post News Service (DC)

7/24/2017 7:20:20 AM Central Daylight Time
Anti-Chinese flyers seen at two universities in Australia at the first day of new semester

Flyers printed in awkwardly-worded Chinese with insulting warnings were seen on building walls at the University of Melbourne and Monash University recently, as a new semester just started with a rising number of Chinese students studying in Melbourne.

The posters, found in the most popular sites in the two universities, warned that Chinese people are not allowed into the building, otherwise they would be indicted or deported". Logos from the National Union of Students, the Chinese Student and Scholars Association at the University of Melbourne, and the Monash Chinese Student Association, were found at the bottom of the posters.

However, the organizations all denied their knowledge about the posters and helped remove them around campus. Our society has been maliciously slandered by these notices put up around the university campus and it has created a harmful and poisonous atmosphere for all students, said those organizations in a joint statement, reported by The New York Times.

A pro-Nazi group The Antipodean Resistance claimed to be responsible for the posters on Twitter. The group, described as white supremacist by some media, explained its concept about being white on its website: White people, or Europeans, or whatever youd like to call us, might have more potential than people from other races, but if we dont live up to it, we will be as low as the rest of them.

Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang responded on a press conference regarding the issue, saying that China hopes the case can be handled properly as soon as possible. The safety, dignity and legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese students in Australia must be protected with concrete efforts, he said.

According to data from the Australian government, there are 502,544 international students in Australia in May 2017, of which 30% are Chinese. The number of Chinese students in Australia raised by 15.7% in 2016 from a year ago, which makes China the top home country for foreign students in Australia.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has told the Parliament that it is a sin to declare that the 39 Indian missing in Iraq since 2014 as dead.

"This government won't end the search for our missing citizens until we have proof they are not alive," the Union minister said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

BCCL

"We had six sources claiming that the missing Indians were alive... I have no proof that Indians are dead...I will not say that, what if I say they are dead and one of them is found alive," she said.

The minister's clarification came after she was accused of lying and hiding the truth about the missing Indians.

She also added that the Indian government will continue to search for them as nobody has been able to confirm that they have been killed.

The 39 men, mostly from Punjab who were working with an oil firm in Mosul when the city was overrun by the Islamic State in 2014.

BCCL

The Indians were said to be taken hostage by the Islamic State. One of the captives, Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur, managed to escape the militants and made it back to India.

He claims to have witnessed the massacre of the others, something the government has refused to acknowledge.

In her multiple meetings with the relatives of the missing, Mrs. Swaraj had repeatedly assured them that their loved ones are alive.

BCCL/ File

However many have dismissed the claim and questioned the possibility of an outfit like ISIS holding 39 people hostage for three years, without even making any ransom demand their release.

The government's claim has also weakened after the recent fall of Mosul, from where the men were abducted. The last known location of the 39 men, the Badush prison is currently in ruins after the fight to retake the city from ISIS.

PTI

Even Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's who is on a five-day visit to India, had refused to confirm that the men are alive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Assam today and discussed the issue of flood relief with state chief minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited flood affected parts of his home state Gujarat to take stock of the situation.

On Tuesday PM Modi announced a relief package of Rs 500 crore for the flood-affected districts. He also declared ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured in the floods.

PMO/ Twitter

Modi conducted an aerial survey of flood-ravaged areas of north Gujarat where the authorities have shifted more than 36,000 people to safety and rescued more than 1,600 with the help of Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force personnel since Monday.

PMO/ Twitter

The flood situation in Gujarat and Rajasthan is expected to continue the same at least for a couple of more days as heavy rains have been forecasted in the two states.

PTI

Meanwhile in Assam, which has been in the grip of the worst flood in decades, the situation has shown signs of improvement.

As the downpour has slowed down water has began receding in many parts, bringing in much needed relief.

But the devastative floods have left a trail of destruction in its path, claiming 77 lives so far.

PTI

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), some 23,118 people have been affected by flood in nine districts.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal who had recently met Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi had sought the center's intervention.

AFP

Currently an inter-ministerial team is on a visit to Assam to carry out an on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation.

The team will conduct an on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation and will be visiting flood-affected areas of Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Barpeta, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of Assam till July 28, an official release said.

But the lack of central assistance and action has left many in the state miffed.

PM. Modi visited flood affected Gujarat but didn't bother to visit Assam. He forgot that he is PM of India not CM of Gujarat  Kya Milega ? (@Kya_Milega) July 26, 2017

narendra modi prime minister: Sir, pl visit Assam Flood affected Area  Awadhesh Shah (@shah_awadhesh) July 26, 2017

Dear Modi Ji what about the announcement for the recent flood victims in Barak Valley Regions of Assam?

Have you got any 4 Assam??  abdul hashim (@hashimabdul24) July 25, 2017

Many states incl odisha,Assam is going through severe flood condition but modi choose Guj

Equality for Eastern states?? Anyone pls  Raghunath Sahoo (@sahoo_raghunath) July 25, 2017

Over 70 died in Assam flood. Modi sends junior minister Rijiju. Flood in Gujarat. Modi flies himself. Why 2 separate standards @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/zt5aZVf6Vx  atanu bhuyan (@atanubhuyan) July 25, 2017
Sikh-Americans have brought a question on-board that many religious alliances have been ignoring all along - where are the women in performance?

flickr

Sikhs in America want women to perform Kirtan or just allowed to sing shabads or hymns at the Golden Temple in order to recognise the important role played by them.

More than 120 young Sikhs aged between 7 and 17 gathered together from across the United States and Canada in Maryland to raise this concern.

They're asking why Sikh women are not performing Kirtan at Darbar Sahib?

NDTV

"It is clear from the many other historical references that Sikh women were crucial to the success of the 5th largest religion and it is extremely important that we give them their deserving role in Sikh affairs, especially being able to sing shabads or hymns at the very heart of Sikhism, in Darbar Sahib, the Golden Temple," Rajwant Singh, one of the Sikh Americans who taught the campers said, reports PTI.

The Washington based Guru Gobind Singh Foundation organised this event and helped the children in channelising their concerns.

mustseeplaces

"This Panth would not be where it is today without the actions of Sikh women, so we should recognise their contributions," said Sehejneet Kaur, one of the counsellors who is pursuing dentistry.
Two hapless elephants, that were swept into the sea off Sri Lanka's eastern coast, were rescued by the country's naval patrol on Sunday morning.

youtube

Three navy boats were deployed to rescue the stranded elephants along the coast of Trincomale. The team of navy divers helped bring the animals safely to the shore.

The elephants were the inhabitants of the Foul Point jungle from where they were swept into the sea. It was not a first-of-its kind incident. Not very long ago, an elephant was drawn into the sea in strong currents before being rescued by the navy.
India's Internet connectivity sucks! Do Youtube videos play without stuttering pauses for you? Aha!

But, don't worry, Sundar Pichai's Google has a plan to fix that.

Well, to be honest, Google's trying to fix slow Internet speeds all over the globe by doing what it does best -- finding an ingenious solution to supercharge the Internet traffic lanes.

Believer it or not, but the Internet's close to 40 years old, and a lot of its underlying technology isn't fully updated. One of which is the traffic congestion protocol, an algorithm that acts to minimize traffic jams on the Internet's data highways. Most of it is ancient tech dating back to the 1980s, when the early Internet was just plain text. But the Internet is now dominated by multimedia content, and streaming all that video chokes up the Internet lanes and throws the old congestion protocol into a tailspin.

Does this look like efficient congestion management?

This is what Google's trying to change fundamentally, with its new Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time algorithm, or just BBR for short.

But unlike some of Google's previous efforts, it wants to standardize BBR so that companies that run the Internet's backbone can adopt it so that everyone benefits from the speedier data transfer rates.

In the past, Google had applied a version of BBR to speed up Youtube videos between 4% to 14% worldwide -- which is a huge gain in terms of video transfer speeds. It's also developed the QUIC protocol (adopted by major Internet companies) to speed up video speeds worldwide, and has supercharged its Chrome browser (through new algorithms) to fetch data from the Internet faster than other browsers.

Google will soon release the BBR algorithm so that any developer could incorporate its learnings and develop speed-efficient services. But the search giant's ultimate plan is to incorporate BBR technology at the TCP level of Internet -- right into the fabric of the Internet's data pipes, so to speak.
Workers at Vivos manufacturing facility in Greater Noida reportedly turned violent yesterday, after an altercation with security guards sparked tempers on both sides.

The workers were peeved after the China-based smartphone company fired over 60 workers Tuesday evening without prior intimation. Later, a security guard at the factory slapped one of the workers, which sparked a protest outside the facility. Furthermore, the report indicates that workers inside the factory building broke windowpanes and assembly units.

The protesters claim that Vivo hired a number of workers during the IPL season, and begun laying them off after it ended. Vivo was one of the sponsors of this years IPL, and even released a limited edition version of its V5 Plus smartphone to coincide with the event.

The workers have reportedly claimed that the company has fired over a thousand employees in the months since IPL ended, and was planning to fire over 2,000 more.

Love Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police at Gautam Budh Nagar, said, The situation is under control. We have asked the workers not to indulge in any kind of violence and have also asked the company to mend their policies.

Vivo has since responded to the incident, with a spokesperson saying, "With continuous growth and strategic review, we look at staffing the right size in various divisions to improve productivity. The layoff is in line with this business decision. We have strictly adhered to the rules and regulations of the contract, and are taking all the right measures to ensure a peaceful transition, keeping their best interests in consideration."

With inputs from Times Of India
NASA knows that its International Space Station wont be around forever. Eventually, the structure will pass its extended lifetime and will have to be decommissioned.

But that doesn't mean it needs to be scrapped.

Artist rendering of the NextSTEP habitat docked with Orion in cislunar orbit - Lockheed Martin

Instead, the space agency has given aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin the go ahead to refurbish an old cargo module of the ISS. As part of NASAs Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program, the company will be repurposing the Donatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM).

Lockheed Martin is renovating and tweaking the module at the Kennedy Space Center in order to build a prototype deep space habitat. If the project succeeds, the habitat would eventually be sort of a midway rest stop for astronauts onboard rockets headed to Mars.

Lockheed Martin will look to install life support and other systems to turn the old module into an astronaut habitat for NASAs Deep Space Gateway system. Cannibalizing old ISS parts like this could save the space agency huge amounts of money and resources that would otherwise go into launching heavy equipment into space for future exploratory missions.

NASA's recruitment poster for Mars

We are excited to work with NASA to repurpose a historic piece of flight hardware, originally designed for low Earth orbit exploration, to play a role in humanitys push into deep space, Bill Pratt, Lockheed Martins NextSTEP program manager, said in a statement. "Making use of existing capabilities will be a guiding philosophy for Lockheed Martin to minimize development time and meet NASAs affordability goals."

Lockheed Martin already has a concept idea cemented, and theyll be building the prototype based on that over the next 18 months. And if the project is successful, the company may also receive a contract to figure out how other parts of the ISS can be repurposed for future visits to Mars and beyond.
More than 700 students in northeast China's Shenyang Urban Construction College were finally allowed to go home for their belated summer vacation, after nearly a week of nightmarish internships.

Mostly information engineering and mechanics majors, the students said the internship was arranged by their college and directly linked to their credit points. However, they were assigned posts that had nothing to do with their majors and were given poor accommodation, with confused management.

All the students were crammed into a room of no more than 150 square meters for training. More than 300 students had to share a room with just two small fans working in the night. Cafeteria staff did not serve enough food, and some of the students suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.

The frustrated interns posted their woeful experiences on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, which soon caught public attention.

The provincial education department of Liaoning released a statement ordering every college and university in the province to suspend all summer internships.

Following the statement, Shenyang Urban Construction College posted a statement of apology to the students, their families and the public, admitting its internship operations were inappropriate, promising to compensate students.

At the same time, a vocational college in Sichuan Province was exposed in the media for forcing over 500 students to do assembly line work some 1,500 kilometers away, saying the internship was obligatory for graduation.

Qian Jingfeng, a vocational guidance expert in Shanghai, said such internships were often private arrangements between companies and college teachers. He said internships involving intensive labor or basic skills could hardly be beneficial to students' employment after graduation and were a roundabout way to ease labor difficulties in certain companies.

Internship opportunities are scarce in China, with some students pointing out that they can be more difficult to find than an actual job.

On the one hand, the skills college students learn at school are mostly divorced from practice at work. But on the other hand, companies are often not willing to offer pre-work training to interns, according to Qian.

"For some posts that require strong skills, it takes at least one or two months for an intern to master the skills, by which time the autumn semester will start," an HR specialist said.

Liu Jianping, a former Communist Party of China chief at Tianjin University and now a national legislator, has brought attention to the issue of college student internships for three consecutive years at the national "two sessions."

He said there were three reasons behind the internship chaos.

Firstly, there was a weak understanding among Chinese that college student internships were the common responsibility of the whole society.

Secondly, there was a lack of laws and regulations to enforce proper internship activities.

Thirdly, there was a lack of supporting measures and preferential policies to encourage companies to receive college students as interns.

"The legislature should work to introduce laws and regulations to safeguard college students' rights of internship. The national education spending should set up a special fund to cover insurance for interns and training expenses for companies," Liu said.

"Other government sectors such as social security, industry and commerce administration, legal aid and education can also chip in to form an organization that offers consulting and information services to college students looking for an internship."
Xinhua photo

The Belt and Road Initiative will play a key role in the cooperation between China and the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

Wang said the Philippines is an important part of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, as the Southeast Asian country was the first stop of the Chinese commercial ships from Fujian province.

Like in history, the Philippines will once again be a vital part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, he said.

Wang said under the framework of Belt and Road, China will help the Philippines strengthen its infrastructure like bridges and roads that can facilitate connectivity in the region.

Wang made the remarks at a joint press conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano in Manila.

Wang noted that the relations between China and the Philippines have improved after President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to China in October last year.

At the press conference, Cayetano expressed support to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Cayetano said the Philippines, chair of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) this year, will include the initiative in the ASEAN development plan to further enhance ASEAN-China relations.

In their talks on Tuesday, the two foreign ministers discussed a slew of topics, including anti-terrorism, anti-illegal drugs, infrastructure, economy and trade, people's wellbeing, defense, arts and culture.

Cayetano said the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have now entered a "golden age," adding that the ties have grown deeper.

The two ministers also discussed the South China Sea, both agreeing that the situation in that region has stabilized.

They recognized the support of ASEAN member countries, noted the progress made by China and ASEAN in crafting the framework of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

The two sides also vowed to further strengthen coordination and communication, so as to further strengthen relations.
Ten Myths About Israel





Review of Ilan Pappe's Book



By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

July 26, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Particularly, in the US and some European States, the Israeli and Zionist versions of history are widespread. Israels narrative relies on a collection of myths aimed at bringing the moral right and the ethical behavior of the Palestinians into twilight and making their claim to their country appear as illegitimate. Israels negation of Palestinian existence in the Land of Palestine is, however, a falsification of history.

Ten Myths About Israel came out in Germany in 2016 under the title Whats wrong with Israel? The Ten Main Myths of Zionism. The mainstream media ignored it, which could also be the case in the US. Its sad but that how media power works in favor of Israel.

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, who lives in exile in Britain, deals in this book with the myths of Zionism and exposes them as legends consisting of half-truths and fabrications of history. The Zionist narrative has only little to do with historical reality and truth.

The Running Gag of the Zionist historical narrative is the story of the empty land of Palestine, into which people without a land had finally returned after 2000 years of exile. The slogan of a country without a people, for people without a country, is the most prominent expression of the Zionist mythology. For Pappe, its less important whether the Jews existed as a people, rather than that the Zionists deny the existence of a Palestinian population but simultaneously claim that the State of Israel represents all the Jews of the world and does everything for their benefit and acts for them. Such a claim is just as daring as the identification of Zionism with Judaism because it takes Jews hostage for Israels despising policy.

The Zionists presented the colonization of Palestine with biblical rhetoric; this served only as a means to an end. The highest prophet of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, even considered Uganda and other places instead of the Zionist Promised Land. Finally, they found their roots in Palestine. From then on, the Bible became both the justification and the guideline of the Zionist colonization of Palestine, writes Pappe. He describes Zionism as a colonial settler movement and Israel as a Settler Colonial State.

The author points out that the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1947/48 was ethnic cleansing. Likewise, the 1967 June war, which is also called the Sixth Day War, was not an act of self-defense of the little David against an overpowering Goliath, but an Israeli attack on which the Israeli security establishment has minutely prepared for years.

The claim of being the only democracy in the Middle East is put in the right perspective. Israel resembles rather an ethnocracy than a democracy in the classical sense of the meaning. The peace process, which was highly praised by the Western political establishment ended in the acceleration of the colonization of Palestine and in the establishment of Palestinian regime that has to do the dirty work for Israeli occupier.

In his book, Ilan Pappe gives his backing for the historical truth that the Israeli political establishment must face if it is interested in peace. Israels security establishment abuses Judaism because it equates its Zionist expansionist and oppressive policy with Judaism. Enlightenment is, therefore, more than a necessity, which the book does excellently by deconstructing the mythological web that surrounds the history of the State of Israel.

This book is an absolute must for an interested public, the political and the media class to understand what Israel is all about.

***

Title: Ten Myths About Israel

Author: Ilan Pappe

Publisher: Verso (May 2, 2017)

ISBN-10: 1786630192

ISBN-13: 978-1786630193

Click here to order.

Featured image from Verso

The original source of this article is Global Research Copyright  Dr. Ludwig Watzal , Global Research, 2017
Policing for Profit: Jeff Sessions & Co.s Thinly Veiled Plot to Rob Us Blind

By John W. Whitehead

Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle  a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him, he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology or cannibalism. It is the aim of the Bill of Rights, if it has any remaining aim at all, to curb such prehensile gentry. Its function is to set a limitation upon their power to harry and oppress us to their own private profit. H.L. Mencken

July 26, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Lets not mince words. Jeff Sessions, the nations top law enforcement official, would not recognize the Constitution if he ran right smack into it.

Whether the head of the Trump Administrations Justice Department enjoys being the architect of a police state or is just painfully, criminally clueless, Sessions has done a great job thus far of sidestepping the Constitution at every turn.

Most recently, under the guise of fighting crime, Sessions gave police the green light to rob, pilfer, steal, thieve, swipe, purloin, filch and liberate American taxpayers of even more of their hard-earned valuables (especially if it happens to be significant amounts of cash) using any means, fair or foul.

In this case, the foul method favored by Sessions & Co. is civil asset forfeiture, which allows police and prosecutors to seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets all without so much as charging you with a crime .

Under a federal equitable sharing program, police turn asset forfeiture cases over to federal agents who process seizures and then return 80% of the proceeds to the police. (In Michigan, police actually get to keep up to 100% of forfeited property.)

This incentive-driven excuse for stealing from the citizenry is more accurately referred to as policing for profit or theft by cop.

Despite the fact that 80 percent of these asset forfeiture cases result in no charge against the property owner, challenging these takings in court can cost the owner more than the value of the confiscated property itself. As a result, most property owners either give up the fight or chalk the confiscation up to government corruption, leaving the police and other government officials to reap the benefits .

And boy, do they reap the benefits.

Police agencies have used their ill-gotten gains to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear, reports The Washington Post. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.

Incredibly, these asset forfeiture scams have become so profitable for the government that, according to The Washington Post, in 2014, law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did . As the Post notes, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion.

In 2015, the federal government seized nearly $2.6 billion worth of airplanes, houses, cash, jewelry, cars and other items under the guise of civil asset forfeiture.

According to USA Today , Anecdotal evidence suggests that allowing departments to keep forfeiture proceeds may tempt them to use the funds unwisely. For example, consider a 2015 scandal in Romulus, Michigan, where police officers used funds forfeited from illicit drug and prostitution stings to pay for ... illicit drugs and prostitutes .

Memo to the rest of my fellow indentured servants who are living through this dark era of government corruption, incompetence and general ineptitude: this is not how justice in America is supposed to work.

We are now ruled by a government so consumed with squeezing every last penny out of the population that they are completely unconcerned if essential freedoms are trampled in the process.

Our freedoms arent just being trampled, however. Theyre being eviscerated.

At every turn, We the People are getting swindled, cheated, conned, robbed, raided, pickpocketed, mugged, deceived, defrauded, double-crossed and fleeced by governmental and corporate shareholders of the American police state out to make a profit at taxpayer expense.

Americans no longer have to be guilty to be stripped of their property, rights and liberties. All you have to be is in possession of something the government wants. And if you happen to have something the government wants badly enough, trust me, their agents will go to any lengths to get it.

If the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.

Heres how the whole ugly business works in a nutshell.

First, government agents (usually the police) use a broad array of tactics to profile, identify, target and arrange to encounter (in a traffic stop, on a train, in an airport , in public, or on private property) those individuals who might be traveling with a significant amount of cash or possess property of value. Second, these government agentsempowered by the courts and the legislaturesseize private property (cash, jewelry, cars, homes and other valuables) they suspect may be connected to criminal activity.

Thenand heres the kickerwhether or not any crime is actually proven to have taken place, without any charges being levied against the property owner, or any real due process afforded the unlucky victim, the property is seized by the government, which often divvies it up with the local police who helped with the initial seizure.

In a Kafkaesque turn of the screw, the burden of proof falls on the unfortunate citizenry who must mount a long, complicated, expensive legal campaign to prove their innocence in order to persuade the government that it should return the funds they stole. Not surprisingly, very few funds ever get returned.

Its a new, twisted form of guilt by association, only its not the citizenry being accused of wrongdoing, just their money.

Motorists have been particularly vulnerable to this modern-day form of highway robbery.

For instance, police stole $201,000 in cash from Lisa Leonard because the moneywhich Leonard planned to use to buy a house for her sonwas being transported on a public highway also used by drug traffickers. Despite the fact that Leonard was innocent of wrongdoing, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the theft on a technicality.

Police stole $50,000 in cash from Amanee Busbee which she planned to use to complete the purchase of a restaurantand threatened to hand her child over to CPS if she resisted. Shes one of the few to win most of her money back in court.

No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter

Police stole $22,000 in cash from Jerome Chennault which he planned to use as the down payment on a homesimply because a drug dog had alerted police to its presence in his car. After challenging the seizure in court, Chennault eventually succeeded in having most of his money returned, although the state refused to compensate him for his legal and travel expenses .

Police stole $8,500 in cash and jewelry from Roderick Daniels which he planned to use to purchase a new carand threatened him with jail and money-laundering charges if he didnt sign a waiver forfeiting his property.

Police stole $6,000 in cash from Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson and threatened to turn their young children over to Child Protective Services if they resisted.

Tenaha, Texas, is a particular hotbed of highway forfeiture activity, so much so that police officers keep pre-signed, pre-notarized documents on hand so they can fill in what property they are seizing.

As the Huffington Post explains , these police forfeiture operations have become little more than criminal shakedowns:

Police in some jurisdictions have run forfeiture operations that would be difficult to distinguish from criminal shakedowns . Police can pull motorists over, find some amount of cash or other property of value, claim some vague connection to illegal drug activity and then present the motorists with a choice: If they hand over the property, they can be on their way. Otherwise, they face arrest, seizure of property, a drug charge, a probable night in jail, the hassle of multiple return trips to the state or city where they were pulled over, and the cost of hiring a lawyer to fight both the seizure and the criminal charge. It isnt hard to see why even an innocent motorist would opt to simply hand over the cash and move on.

Unsurprisingly, these asset forfeiture scams have become so profitable for the government that they have expanded their reach beyond the nations highways.

According to USA Today , the U.S. Department of Justice received $2.01 billion in forfeited items in 2013, and since 2008 local and state law enforcement nationwide has raked in some $3 billion in forfeitures through the federal equitable sharing program.

So now its not just drivers who have to worry about getting the shakedown.

Any American unwise enough to travel with cash is fair game for the government pickpockets.

In fact, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been colluding with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and local police departments to seize a small fortune in cash from American travelers using the very toolsscanners, spies and surveillance devicesthey claimed were necessary to catch terrorists.

Mind you, TSA agents already have a reputation for stealing from travelers, but clearly the government is not concerned about protecting the citizenry from its own wolfish tendencies.

No, the government bureaucrats arent looking to catch criminals. (If so, they should be arresting themselves.)

Theyre just out to rob you of your cold, hard cash.

Think about it for a moment. You pay a hefty fee just to be able to walk free. Its called income tax. As former presidential candidate Ron Paul recognizes, The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government. And if you refuse to pay any of that so-called income tax, youll be severely fined and/or arrested and put in jail.

One more thing: you dont really own your property. That is, your house or your land. Even when you pay off the mortgage, if you fail to pay your property taxes, government agents will evict you and take your home.

This is not freedom.

There was a time in our history when our forebears said enough is enough and stopped paying taxes ( a pittance compared to what we are forced to shell out in taxes today ) to what they considered an illegitimate government. They stood their ground and refused to support a system that was slowly choking out any attempts at self-governance, and which refused to be held accountable for its crimes against the people. Their resistance sowed the seeds for the revolution that would follow.

Unfortunately, in the 200-plus years since we established our own government, weve let the corporate elite and number-crunching bureaucrats pilfer our bank accounts to such an extent that were back where we started.

Once again, weve got a despotic regime with an imperial ruler doing as it pleases.

But what if we didnt just pull out our pocketbooks and pony up to the federal governments outrageous demands for more money? What if we didnt just line up to drop our hard-earned dollars into the corporate collection bucket, no questions asked about how it will be spent? What if, instead of meekly tolerating the governments ongoing efforts to rob us blind, we did something about it?

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , if the government can just take from you what they want, when they want, and then use it however they want, you cant claim to be anything more than a serf in a land they think of as theirs.

Its up to We the People to demand reform.

These injustices will continue as long as we remain silent.

As American journalist H.L. Mencken observed:

The American of today, in fact, probably enjoys less personal liberty than any other man of Christendom, and even his political liberty is fast succumbing to the new dogma that certain theories of government are virtuous and lawful, and others abhorrent and felonious. Laws limiting the radius of his free activity multiply year by year: It is now practically impossible for him to exhibit anything describable as genuine individuality, either in action or in thought, without running afoul of some harsh and unintelligible penalty. It would surprise no impartial observer if  the goddess of liberty were taken off the silver dollars to make room for a bas-relief of a policeman in a spiked helmet. Moreover, this gradual (and, of late, rapidly progressive) decay of freedom goes almost without challenge; the American has grown so accustomed to the denial of his constitutional rights and to the minute regulation of his conduct by swarms of spies, letter-openers, informers and agents provocateurs that he no longer makes any serious protest.

In other words, make them hear you.

And if they wont listen, then I suggest its time for what Martin Luther King Jr. called for when government doesnt listen:  militant nonviolent resistance .

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org .
Trump Is Being Moved Aside So That Conflict with Russia Can Proceed

By Paul Craig Roberts

July 26, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - What is the Congress up to with their stupid bill that imposes more sanctions and removes the power of President Trump to rescind the sanctions that President Obama imposed?

Congress is doing two things. One is that Congress is serving their campaign contributors in the military/security complex by being tougher with Russia, thus keeping the orchestrated threat alive so that Americans denied health care dont start looking at the massive military/security budget as a place to find money for health care.

The other is to put President Trump in a box. If Trump vetos this encroachment on presidential power, Congress and the presstitute media will present the veto as absolute proof that Trump is a Russian agent and is protecting Russia with his veto. If Trump does not veto the bill, Trump will have thrown in his hand and accepted that he cannot reduce the dangerous tensions with Russia.

In other words, the bill is a lose-lose for Trump. Yet Republicans are supporting the bill, thus undermining their president.

Yesterday I heard an orchestrated, staged interview between two women on NPRs All Things Considered (on NPR all things are never considered). It was a propaganda show focused on Trumps expression of disappointment in Jeff Sessions, whom Trump mistakenly appointed Attorney General.

When Trump nominated Sessions, the Democrats and the presstitutes went berserk. Sessions was unqualified, a racist, blah-blah. But now Sessions is the hero of the presstitutes and Democrats. They love him, because he has sold out Trump on the question of the justification for an investigation of Trump as a suspect Russian agent by an independent prosecutor who happens to be a member of the anti-Trump ruling establishment.

In other words, Sessions, who has been beat up previously by the establishment, is too afraid to do his job.

In other words, Trump had, as I predicted, no idea what he was doing when he chose his government.

So now he suffers for his ignorance.

What was the point of the staged NPR interview between the two women? The point was that Sessions, unlike Trump, respects the rule of law whereas Trump wants to bend the law in order to cover up for himself. The interview was staged so that without the two women having to say it, Trumps anger at Session was proof that Trump was guillty of some illigitimate Russian connection.

No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter

In other words, it was carefully constructed innuendo. Who constructed the innuendo? NPRs women were just reading from a script.

As far as I can tell, there is no one in Trumps government who is loyal to Trump or who is willing to back Trumps effort to stop provoking the Russians and to cease serving as Israels military force in the Middle East. As far as I can tell not only the Democratic Party but also the Republican Party supports the left-wings view that Trumps election was illegitimate, because he was elected by the votes of illegitimate peoplethe deplorables to use Hillarys term.

Who are the deplorables? They are the remnants of the American working class. They are the people whose jobs were sent overseas to Asia by the global US corporations in order to enrich their shareholders and executives via higher profits from lower labor costs. They are the people who in order to stay afloat had to rely on debt in place of the missing income and whose debt is now so high that they have no disposable income. A huge proportion of the American population is incapable of raising a measly $400 without having to sell personal possessions.

In other words, they are refugees from a destroyed American middle class.

Trump stood up for them against the rich who ruined them, and now the rich are going to ruin Trump.

It will teach a lesson. Henceforth in the United States no one will dare to stick up for the American people. America is not for Americans any more than the world is for the peoples of the world. America and the world are for the One Percent. No one else. Russia, China, and Iran are in the way, and, thus, they are on Washingtons hit list.

It is heartbreaking to watch the Russians continue to believe, lesson after lesson to the contrary, that they can reach a deal with Washington. This unrealistic hope will destroy Russia. The Russian government will continue to grasp at straws and be put off guard.

It is utterly amazing that the Russian government can believe after its extensive history of being left hanging in the wind by its agreements with Washington that any agreement with Washington is worth anything.

Perhaps Russia is aware of the evil that they face in Washington. Perhaps the Russian emphasis on diplomacy is just a way of gaining time to get prepared for the war that Washington intends to bring to them.

There is little doubt that the great and wonderful beacon of light that is Democracy in Washington, also known as the government of the exceptional people and the indispensable country, is lost in hubris and arrogance and will destroy life on earth.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .
Say Goodbye to Regime Change in Syria





Trump's decision to stop sending arms to rebels alters everything.



By Scott Ritter

July 26, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - President Donald Trump has ordered that the CIA begin to phase out its covert train-and-equip program in support of so-called moderate rebels fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The program represented the tip of the spear of a larger goal of regime change that had been the official policy of the United States since September 2013, when President Obama declared Assad must go in the aftermath of a chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta that killed hundreds of civilians. Through this action, President Trump is walking away from an established policy of America taking an active role in forcing the Syrian Presidents ouster, willing instead to leave Assads fate in the hands of the Syrian people and its allies. The decision by Trump to terminate support for the moderate Syrian rebels, while not giving voice to a policy that rejects regime change in Syria, is the clearest signal yet that the United States has changed course on trying to force regime change in Damascus as a precondition for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

The train and equip mission of the CIA in Syria can be traced back to the spring of 2011, when a revolution broke out in Libya against the dictatorial rule of Muammar Gadhafi. Backed by NATO airpower, anti-regime fighters were able to establish control over large areas inside Libya. The CIA began a program to train and equip these fighters , supplying weapons to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who in turn shipped these weapons to Libya, where they were turned over to Libyan rebels. (This circuitous route was chosen to avoid the U.S. being in violation of a UN embargo against weapons deliveries to Libya.)

In August 2011, in the aftermath of the capture of the Libyan capital of Tripoli by rebel forces, Qatar began diverting arms originally intended for Libya to Turkey, where they were turned over to rebel forces that had, since June of 2011, been fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. These rebels were grouped together under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an ostensibly secular resistance group that was in reality controlled by the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood , an Islamist organization that had been crushed by Bashar al-Assads father back in the early 1980, and was operating in exile in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. While the CIA was not directly involved in this activity, CIA personnel in Libya and Turkey monitored these shipments to make sure no sensitive weaponry, such as hand-help surface-to-air missiles, made their way into Syria. This effort, which involved billions of dollars of arms, including those provided by the United States for the express purpose of aiding Libyan rebels, continued through 2012 and into 2013. (The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, who was killed in an attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, was involved in coordinating these weapons transfers .)

As the fighting in Syria expanded in scope and scale, the number of anti-regime combatant organizations increased. The FSA took on an increasingly Islamist character, and many of its fighters defected to more extreme organizations, such as al-Nusra (an Al Qaeda affiliate). Many of the CIA-provided weapons being shipped by Qatar through Turkey made their way into these Islamist units, with the unintended result being that the U.S. was actively arming Al Qaeda and other extremist entities openly hostile to American interests. In an effort to control the flow of weaponry into Syria, President Obama authorized the CIA to formally take over the process of training and equipping Syrian rebels. This operation, known by its codename, Timber Sycamore, was run out of Turkey and Jordan with the full support of both governments.

From 2013 through 2015, Timber Sycamore oversaw the purchase of billions of dollars of modern weaponry from Balkan suppliers, primarily in Croatia, and their shipment to ports in Turkey and Jordan, where the CIA, working with Turkish and Jordanian intelligence agencies, trained and equipped thousands of rebel fighters from more than 50 groups inside Syria that had been vetted by the CIA. The impact of this program on the fighting in Syria was significantby the fall of 2015, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad was teetering on the brink of collapse, largely due to the military pressure brought to bear on the regime by these U.S.-backed groups. The success of these rebels played a large role in triggering Russian military intervention in Syria in the fall of 2015, with Russian air power being unleashed against these very same rebels in an effort to save the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Russian gambit worked, and by 2016 the Syrian military had reclaimed the initiative, recapturing the city of Aleppo and driving the U.S.-backed rebels back on all fronts.

No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter

The U.S. and its allies had no effective response to the Russian intervention. One of the reasons for this is the fact that there was little to differentiate the U.S.-backed rebels on the ground inside Syria from the more extremist fighters from al-Nusra and other Islamist groups. While the United States protested the Russian air strikes, it had to deal with the reality that Timber Sycamore was arming far more than just the so-called FSA. In both Turkey and Jordan, corrupt intelligence officers were siphoning off tens of millions of dollars in weapons and munitions, selling them on the black market, where they were bought by al-Nusra and, after 2014, ISIS. The U.S.-backed rebels would often sell or trade their US-provided weapons to both al-Nusra and ISIS, and in many cases, U.S.-trained fighters would defect with these weapons. Thousands of fighters serving under the banner of Al Qaeda and ISIS were, in fact, armed and trained by the CIA.

Another problem confronted by the United States was the growing divergence between its objectives in supporting so-called moderate Syrian rebels, which were shared by Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and the willingness on the part of Turkey and Qatar to train and equip more radical anti-Assad fighters, including al-Nusra (Al Qaeda) and ISIS. The position taken by Turkey and Qatar are rooted in their mutual support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which had morphed into various radical Islamist units operating inside Syria under the guise of the FSA, but in reality fighting in support of both al-Nusra and ISIS. Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood became unsustainable for Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab nations, which subsequently outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The demise of Timber Sycamore is directly linked to the ongoing crisis between Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbors over support for the Muslim Brotherhood; Turkeys position in support of Qatar has, given Ankaras status as a NATO member, likewise created diplomatic problems for the U.S. that are simplified through the termination of the CIAs train-and-equip efforts in Syria.

President Trumps decision to terminate Timber Sycamore is part and parcel of an overall policy objective designed to gain control over U.S/ objectives in the region. In many ways, Washingtons policy of regime change in Syria, of which the CIAs train-and-equip program was a major part, was responsible for the crisis currently underway in Syria, and the region as a whole. Central to this failure was the notion that there existed inside Syria a moderate, secular force able and willing to take down the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which led to the decision to flood the region with U.S.-provided arms and munitions that only served to spread of Islamic extremism under the banner of Al Qaeda and ISIS.

The fact is that there was no secular, moderate force worthy of the name operating inside Syria; virtually the entire anti-Assad effort is dominated by Islamist extremists who, if Assad was overthrown, would probably replace a secular dictator with something far worse. The Obama policy of regime change in Syria, like the Bush policy in Iraq, has done little more than unleash forces which the U.S. was unable to control, costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and the blood of American military personnel who lost their lives in its implementation.

President Trumps decision to terminate Timber Sycamore, and with it the Obama-era policy of Assad must go, when seen in this context, is the clearest expression to date of his desire to rein in the unsuccessful policies of the past. The presidents decision liberates the United States, which can now proceed in its fight against ISIS and Islamic extremism unencumbered by policies that do little to further American interests while empowering enemies. By working with Russia to focus on the defeat of ISIS, President Trump is positioning the United States to play an important role in helping shape a political solution to the Syrian problem that will bring peace to the people of Syria and the region. Achieving such a solution will not be easy, nor is the outcome guaranteed. Timber Sycamore, however, was nothing more than an impediment in this regard, and President Trump was wise in shutting it down.
It was acompletely sombre mood that engulfed Luliba and Nyalwanda villages in Matayos Constituency, Kenya recently after a 19-year-old teen hanged himself over love affair.



According to SDE, the boy, Moses Wandera committed suicide yesterday morning at his aunts home in Nyalwanda upon realising that his girlfriend had deserted him and married another man in the neighbouring Busende village. The deceased hails from Luliba village.

According to residents of Luliba village, Wandera dropped out of Murende Secondary School while in Form Three late last year to live with the girl who dropped out of Luliba Primary School due to pregnancy. The girl gave birth one year ago.

They rented a house in Bumala, Butula Constituency, where they stayed for a while before life became difficult and the boy decided to go and stay with his aunt. The girl returned to her parents in Luliba where she soon got into another relationship.

Nasewa location chief Steven Wawire warned youths against taking their lives over love affairs.

Mr Wawire said the father of the deceased was planning to take his third born son back to school.

They were in love and certainly had agreed to get married, so when he (Wandera) realised that his girlfriend had left him for another man, he decided to hang himself, said the chief.
Some Nigerians were taken by surprise while others expected it when the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was omitted from the list of PDP governors who were to visit President Buhari by 3pm on Wednesday ( today ) Some Nigerians were taken by surprise while others expected it when the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was omitted from the list of PDP governors who were to visit President Buhari by 3pm on Wednesday ( today )

. 1. Fayoses absence

Explaining why Ekiti state governor was not among those selected, the presidency exonerated itself from the selection of the seven governors that were chosen to visit President Muhammadu Buhari in London, saying that the selection was handled by the governors forum.

2. Absence of media and journalists in delegation

The presidency also said that the non inclusion of the media team especially television or newspapers could be to save money.

3. Date of Buharis return

The media team of the presidency has said that it is only the medical team of President Buhari who have been with him since May 7 that can determine when the President would return to Nigeria.

4. Timing of the visit

Femi Adesina explained the reason for the visit against the backdrop that it had been reported that President Buhari was recuperating, he said it was the best time for the president to receive visitors as he was recovering.

5. What was discussed at the meeting?

The presidents media aide spoke on what was being discussed at the meeting saying: Next week there is going to be a follow up meeting between the Acting President and the PANDEF.

You will recalled that last November the President has held a meeting with the leaders of PANDEF where issues of Niger Delta development was discussed in which the Acting President embarked on the visit to the states of the Niger Delta.

And since then the president asked that an inter-ministerial committee be composed led by the Vice President to look at all the issues, specifically using the PANDEF demand as the take off point.

According to the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, he said the president was very cheerful and has not lost any bit of his sense of humour. In a telephone conversation that Naij.com had with with Femi Adesina, the presidents media adviser, following the meeting of the APC governors and leaders with President Buhari, he said the president was delighted to receive the delegation and asked each governor about affairs in his state.
Nollywood actor, Chidi Mokeme has ridiculed the recent picture showing ailing President, Muhammadu Buhari with some All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftains in Abuja House, London.

The actor described the emergency meeting held in London on Sunday as a house warming of new seat of government in Abuja house, London.

He took a swipe at the fact that despite hours spent at the meeting, no video was shared showing officials and president Buhari talking.

He stated this via his instagram page @chidimokeme, Members of the kitchen cabinet permitted some members of the balcony cabinet to attend the house warming of our new seat of government in Abuja house, London.

The visitors were treated to sumptuous buffet of #MadeInNigeria menu, drinks and Benue banana..

As usual, our well mannered elders maintained the tradition of not talking while you eat.

So enjoy the images as we await further details. #ChidiSense

Source: Daily Post
Controversial media personality, Charly boy Oputa has admonished people of the South-East to abandon the struggle for Biafra.

He said it was a waste of time.

Speaking with Sun, the social rights activists advised Igbos to devote their time to other productive ventures instead of agitating for Biafra.

He said, Unfortunately, the dreams of nationhood is lost on the altar of deception, and my Igbo brothers must be circumspect on the fact and history, and not be hoodwinked into some insane propaganda that will only lead to more wahala.

So, instead of Biafra, we should channel our energies and abilities towards developing the South-east to become the economic hub of Nigeria. Igbo nation and my people are great but for us to move forward we must kill our individualistic tendencies and come together to do great things.

The fall of Biafra after the genocide, starvation, and immense suffering of my people should teach us something. I believe the failure of the Igbo nation is the fault of the people, her so-called elites and decision-makers.

Why have we not poured our energy, capacity and ability into making the South-east the Dubai of the nation as well as the engine room of the Nigerian economy? Who would be our leaders when the South-east is infested with political power-grabbers, 419ers, mindless criminals and looters of our commonwealth and resources? Need I mention names?

Our problem is the lack of men of integrity and a progressive mindset. We lack the right kind of leadership that will fight for the interest of the people. Let it be clear to all that the sufferings and poverty of the people of the South-east are also the sufferings and poverty of the peoples of the other geopolitical zones in Nigeria, including my northern brothers.

Even the nascent anti-corruption fight in the country has seen all tribe accordingly represented. It is therefore retrospectively insane to begin to think that a people with a problem would suddenly be relieved when they are attached with a tag#BIAFRA; Abegi.

Therefore, I insist that our mumu don do because the failure of leadership is evident in our agitation for fairness, justice and equality for every Nigerian not just for every Igbo man. And so the mind of the typical Igbo leader needs a revolution so that it can be realigned for the interest of the people rather than the interest of a few.

Source: Daily Post
A 14-year-old wife from Lifari Village in the Mashegu Local Government Area of the state has been arrested by the Niger State Police Command for allegedly killing her 40-year-old husband, Isiaka Usman.

It was learnt that the suspect, Aisha Isah, and the late Usman, to whom she got married five months ago, were cousins.

Northern City News gathered that Isah had been complaining of starvation and maltreatment since she started living with Usman, who already had two wives.

One of the two wives was said to have left on account of the failure of Usman to meet up with his responsibilities to his family.

The teenage wife told our correspondent on Tuesday that her late husband failed to provide for her for two days.

And when I confronted him, he slapped me and out of anger, I hit him on the forehead with a pestle and he collapsed and died, she explained.

Isah added, My husband had the habit of not giving us money for food and each time we (the wives) confront him, he would tell us to go to our parents home and eat. He never cared about us; he beat us every time we demanded money for food.

Asked if the other wife was at home at the time of the incident, she stated that the other wife went to the hospital with her baby.

My mate was not around; it was only me and my late husband that were in the house at the time of the incident. I picked a pestle and hit him, he fell on the ground and I ran to my mothers house at Kahigu Village in Mashegu council, Isah said.

Isah said she inadvertently killed her husband out of anger and pleaded for forgiveness.

I am sorry for what happened, it is the devils work and I pray my parents will forgive me; I never knew that he would die, I regretted all my actions, she stated.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, explained that the victim died at Mashegu Hospital where he was taken for treatment.

Elkana described the incident as unfortunate, but added that the suspect would nevertheless be prosecuted as a juvenile offender.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte meets with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pledged on Tuesday that his country is to build stronger bilateral relations with China.

"The Philippines attaches great importance to China's status and influence in the world, and is willing to build stronger relations with China," Duterte said in his meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Duterte said the Philippines highly appreciates the support China extends to his country and the role China plays in his country's nation building, especially China's support to combat terrorism.

Duterte expressed his satisfaction with the development of the bilateral ties between the two countries, saying the Philippines is willing to deepen cooperation with China in all sectors so as to benefit the two countries and their peoples.

Wang reiterated that China unswervingly supports Philippine's independent foreign policy.

Wang recalled that bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have fully improved under the guidance of the leaders of the two countries, saying improvement in relations has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples.

"Facts speak louder. For neighbors, dialogue is better than confrontation, cooperation is better than friction. History will show that we have made a right choice," Wang said.
An Ebonyi sate-based General overseer of King of Kings Deliverance Ministry, Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi has made a strong prophecy that the ailing President Muhammadu Buhari will not return to Nigeria as the President and the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo will be sworn-in the President in his stead in the midst of fiery oppositions.

Prophet Chukwudi also revealed that come next election in 2019, the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar will emerge as the President of Nigeria.

The Prophet stated this categorically while he was being conferred with a new title by his kinsmen.

Read here:
A young Nigerian man identified as Jude Iroh Junior has lost his life after he was gunned down during the renewed clash between the Vikings and Black Axe Confraternities in Ugep, Yakurr LGA of Cross River State last month.

The deceased was later identified as the nephew of the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Prosecution, Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla.

It has now been revealed that one of the cultists who allegedly shot the deceased and hacked him to death has been arrested while trying to withdraw money from Skye Bank in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital.

Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla shared the photos and wrote: This is the picture of Sunday Ojor Abam , the bloody cultist/terrorist/murderer who shot my nephew, Jude Junior at close range in his chest after his fellow cultists/murderers/terrorists have dealt 32 machetes/axes on him and had fallen to the ground wringing in excruciating plans on the 29 June 2017 in Ugep, Cross River State !

The coward had soon after his dastardly and murderous acts run into hiding ! But yesterday in Uyo ,Akwa Ibom State he was apprehended by vigilant bank officials when he went a branch of Skye Bank in Uyo to withdraw money ! He didnt know that we had alerted the Police to block his account !

He was apprehended and taken to the A Branch of the Nigeria Police Force, Uyo! This picture while the murderer was Cooling his heels in the Police detention cell ! He made a statement confessing and admitting that he committed the crime . He also mentioned the names of his gang and their well placed sponsors.!

Kudos to Skye Bank and the Nigeria Police Force . In this era of change there is no hiding place for criminals.
This should be at least, the second time we are getting news of Enugu state being attacked by herdsmen.

Youths, women, children and traditional rulers of Ozalla community in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, yesterday, besieged Ozalla police station in protest, seeking security agents protection of the community from alleged impending invasion of the community by herdsmen.

The protesters also blocked Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway by four-corner junction, apparently to seek governments intervention. The police had hectic moment dispersing the protesters that caused traffic gridlock along the busy highway.

They carried placards with inscriptions such as: Enugu government, come to our rescue; Fulani, stop raping our women; Fulani release our chief security officer; Fulani, restore our farmlands; Fulani herdmen have chased us out of our homes; SOS: Come to our rescue now; Fulani leave Ozalla alone. .

Two monarchs in the comunity, Igwe Casmir Chibuike and Igwe Crescent Okafor; a Catholic cleric, Rev Fr. Tobias Anichebe, and other leaders of the community held a meeting with officials of Ozalla police station to find solution to the situation in the community.

Presdent-General of Umuanee-Ozalla Autonomous Communirty, Chief Okwudili Chianeke, said the crisis started last Friday when some herdsmen reported to the Police in Ozalla that one of their boys, 27 -year- old Bassa Tobi, was killed in Ozalla.

Chianeke said: They did not report to the traditional rulers, they came to the police and took the corpse. Later, we learned that the chief security officer of Ozalla community, Bonaventure Nwoye, had been arrested.

When we came here (Ozalla police station), they insisted they will take Nwoye to the State CID and that is the situation we are. After that, on Saturday, herdsmen started threatening our people, especially women. What we are now telling the state government is that we are now refugees in our own town.

Igwe Okafor, who spoke with newsmen after meeting with the police at Ozalla, said since 2016, when the community had a truce with the herdsmen to leave the community, there was relative peace until last weekend.

Igwe Okafor said: I did not hear from them again until they picked up our chief security officer and our people started running for their lives, taking refuge at the police station.

That was why we came to the police station because we dont have any other protection except the Police.

Chairman of Nkanu West Local Government Area, Mr. Afam Okekere, said the herdsmen refused autopsy proposed by the police and buried the corpse, citing religious belief. He disclosed that herdsmen pointed accusing fingers at the head of vigilante in the community, which made the police to arrest the vigilante chief, even when the police had admitted there was no evidence of gun shot on the corpse.

Contacted, the state Police spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, said the state command had begun investigations into the alleged murder. Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Security, Major-General Fred Eze (retd), accompanied by other top government officials addressed the protesters and thanked them for being orderly, saying a meeting with the herdsmen and other aggrieved community leaders would be held later yesterday.

He promised that the outcome of the meeting would be communicated to the Ozalla youths and other community leaders.
*Photo used for illustrative purpose*

A 38-year fake prophetess, Mrs Patience Adams has been arrested and charged before a Lagos court for allegedly defrauding a greedy woman to the tune of N600,000 using prophecy of better husband and good money, PM Express has revealed.

It was gathered that the incident happened at Arida area of Idimu in Alimosho Local government Area of Lagos. The victim identified as 28-year old Cynthia Frank was defrauded after Adams reportedly met her and gave her some revelations about her life that seemed to be real in the form of prophecy.

Adams had promised Frank that shell get two major blessings after she must have delivered her from demonic influence that was obstructing her progress. One of such promises was to make her rich by ensuring she multiplied all her money and the second was to get her a good husband that will take care of her.

She reportedly asked the victim to bring all her money and after the deliverance and blessing, she will multiply the money and she will take it home. However, the music changed after the victim went and borrowed money including her own money and handed it over to Adams and was told when she will come for the prayer and blessing.

On the day they agreed, the victim went there but did not find Adams as she was told by neighbours that she never lived in the area.

It was then it became clear to her she had been duped. She went and reported the incident at Idimu Police division who trailed Adams and eventually arrested her.

Adams was charged before Ejigbo Magistrates court for obtaining under false pretence and stealing under the Criminal Code.

She pleaded not guilty.

The presiding Magistrate, Mrs J.O.E. Adeyemi granted her bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum. She was remanded in prison custody pending when she will perfect her bail. The matter was adjourned till 21 August 2017.
The Presidency, on Tuesday, gave answers to those asking why President Muhammadu Buhari was meeting with State governors.

The sudden change in decision to accept the governors was attributed the Presidents change of mind to what it called the change in circumstances.

It said this was the proper time for him to receive delegations rather than when he was indisposed.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, disclosed this to State House correspondents at a press conference at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

They addressed journalists alongside the Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande.

They had confirmed The PUNCHs Tuesday lead story that some state governors, drawn from both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, would visit Buhari in London.

When asked specifically to give the mission of the state governors, who will be meeting with Buhari on Wednesday (today), Shehu said, The visit is a goodwill visit and there is nothing more than that.

I believe Nigerians in various positions have yearned to go and meet the President and at some point, this obviously has not been permitted.

But given the change in circumstances, you can see that it is coming from London itself and the President is welcoming it.

It is a goodwill visit. As a cultural people, we visit people leaving hospital and I am sure the President himself will be delighted to see people coming from the six geopolitical zones to convey the goodwill of Nigerians.

Shehu said the visiting team would be led by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and the Zamfara State Governor, Abdulazeez Yari.

He listed other members of the delegation to include Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Umar Ganduje (Kano); Kashim Shettima (Borno); Samuel Ortom (Benue); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).

The presidential spokesman said the delegation would leave Nigeria on Tuesday night, arrive in London early on Wednesday (today) and meet the President by 3pm.

When asked why the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, a strong critic of Buhari, was not included in the delegation, Adesina said the question should be directed to the NGF that did the selection.

When also asked why the President preferred such visits to broadcasting a message to Nigerians, Adesina said that was Buharis choice.

It is a question of what he (the President) prefers and this is what he prefers for now. He would rather receive that delegation and that is what is happening. If the President opts for address, he will do it, he said.

When asked why members of the Presidents Media team were not part of the delegation, Shehu said the Presidents Personal Photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, would be part of the delegation.

They say a picture conveys more than a thousand words. Bayo will be there and I think it will be more beneficial to Nigerians than if the Special Adviser was on that trip without a cameraman, he stated.

When again asked why this delegation will be going when those who met with the President on Sunday were state governors, Shehu said, You will notice that those that went at the weekend are members of the All Progressives Congress.

So, those who are going now are on a broader platform, which is the Nigeria Governors Forum. As to who is sponsoring, I dont have any information on that, he said.

Adesina also justified the visits at a time when the President is said to be recuperating.

He said, It is the right time for the visit like Mallam Garba said earlier. When somebody has recovered or something or the other happened, it is in our culture for us to visit such a person.

So, this is the right time because the news is that he is recovering and recovering well.

When again asked the specific time Buhari would return and if there would be cabinet reshuffle on his return, Adesina said, That (the Presidents date) already is in public domain. He will come back when the doctors certify.

It is in the letter he wrote to the AU chairman which was made public this afternoon. He said he was just waiting for his doctors to tell him all is well and then he will return home.

In terms of whether there will be a shake-up of government or not, the President is the head of the government and is his prerogative; so nobody can speak for him on that.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is making good progress in London, where he is currently receiving medical attention.

According to a statement on Tuesday by Adesina, the President made the disclosure in a thank you letter he wrote to the President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, for the nationwide prayers held last week by Guineans for his recovery and good health.

Adesina said the President had earlier made a telephone call to Conde, who is the current Chairman of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.

Buharis letter to Conde dated July 24, 2017, read, I thank you for your kind and thoughtful action in organising nationwide prayers for my good health.

Your Excellency will be pleased to hear that I am making good progress, and as soon as doctors advise, I shall return to my duties and continue serving the Nigerian people, who elected me and are daily praying for my recovery.

In an earlier letter, Buhari was said to have also accepted his nomination as leader of the 2018 AU Theme on the Fight Against Corruption, which came from African leaders at the 29th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 4, 2017.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The presidency has finally explained why Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State was not included in the list of delegates sent to visit ailing President Muhammadu Buhari in London.

DAILY POST reports that seven governors led by the Chairman of Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari would be jetting out to London this night to visit Buhari who is nursing his health in the UK.

Explaining the reasons for Fayoses non-inclusion, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina said the presidency had no hand in the selection of the delegates to London.

The selection was by the governors forum and you will see that the delegation is headed by governor Yari who is chairman of that forum. So that question should go to the forum, he said

He explained that unlike the previous visit to the President made by only members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) governors, this delegation was on a broader platform, the NGF, with membership also drawn from the opposition.

On why the president does not prefer the broadcast option while addressing Nigerians, he said, It is a question of what he prefers and this is what he prefers for now. He would rather receive that delegation and that is what is happening. If the president opts for address option, he will do it.

Instead of being curious, it should be the right time for the visit. When somebody has recovered or something has happened, its in our culture to visit such a person. So, this is the right time to visit the president because the news is that he is recovering and recovering well.
Police are holding g a 35 year old male student of DMI St Eugene University in Lusaka identified as Edward Makayi in connection with publication of defamatory statements on his Facebook page created in the name Royson Edwards M, Lusaka Times reports.

Police Spokesperson Esther Katongo said the suspect is a student in the School of Engineering at the said University.

Mrs Katongo said the defamatory remarks which were authored and posted between April, 2017 and July, 2017 were targeted at President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, Home Affairs Minister, Stephen Kampyongo, Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya and Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja.

Others are Deputy Secretary General of the Patriotic Front, Mrs Mumbi Phiri and Presidential Press Aid, Mr Amos Chanda.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in Court on Thursday, 27th July, 2017 for the offence of Defamation of the President which is contrary to Section 59 of Cap 87 of the Laws of Zambia.

The Police Spokesperson says the suspect is yet to be slapped with other charges for defaming and use of insulting language against Senior Government officials and other persons.

We wish to inform Members of the Public that investigations in other cases where people are using social media to make defamatory and insulting remarks have continued. The Zambia Police working in conjunction with ZICTA have intensified investigations in crimes committed through social media and we hope to bring more culprits to book, she said.

In view of the above, members of the Public are forewarned to desist from posting insults and defamatory remarks before the long arm of the Law catches up with them, Mrs Katongo said.

We also wish to caution all those fond of opening fake accounts on social media using false particulars that such deception will not protect them from prosecution as Law enforcement officers are able to trace your real identity.
The Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja, has decided not to explain why it expelled its student, Kayode Bello, after protesting against seat reservation in a lecture room.

The Secretary to the Council of Legal Education, Mrs. Elizabeth Max-Uba, had promised that the school would release a statement on the expulsion on Monday.

This is just as mixed reactions trailed the action of the school.

While many people described the decision as repressive, others blamed Bello for being aggressive.

PUNCH Metro had reported on Monday that Bello came to the notice of the authorities after he complained to Max-Uba about leaking sewage pipe in the toilet of his hostel and non-functioning of water system in the hostel rooms.

However, issues leading to his expulsion reportedly started from his disagreement with a fellow female student, identified as Chidima, over a seat the latter reserved for another student on March 15, 2017.

The Head Marshal of the school, one Akinyemi, was said to have intervened between the duo, asking Bello to forfeit the seat.

The 34-year-old graduate of University of Ibadan, Oyo State, contested Akinyemis judgement on the grounds that the head marshal had earlier warned against seat reservation in the overcrowded class.

While Bello petitioned the secretary and Public Complaint Commission on the matter, Akinyemi queried him.

Bello was accused of inciting students against the school and was ejected from his hostel room, while the door to the apartment and his bed were removed.

He was dragged from the library of the Nigerian Law School on July 17, after he refused to sign his expulsion letter and detained for hours at the Bwari Police Station, where his complaint against his eviction was earlier reported without action.

An official of the Public Complaints Commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had told PUNCH Metro that the school had not replied to the commissions enquiries on the case, adding that a team of investigators visited the institution, but were unable to meet with the management.

The source said the team would pay another visit on Wednesday (today).

The Secretary to the Council of Legal Education, Max-Uba, had promised that the school would release a statement on the expulsion on Monday when contacted by our correspondent on Sunday for a reaction.

As of 10pm on Tuesday, she had yet to send the reaction to an email address our correspondent sent to her. Several calls put across to her line were unanswered, and she didnt reply to text messages sent as a reminder.

Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media, including lawyers who claimed to have graduated from the Nigerian Law School, have condemned the decision of the school.

One Hilary Ogbonna, stated on Twitter that the act was retrogressive and inhuman.

In 2017, the #Nigerian Law School, which should be a beacon of #humanrights is suppressing freedom and #humandignity. #Shame @NigBarAssoc, @HilaryOgbonnawrote.

A lawyer, Omoola, with a Twitter handle, @surdeeeq, accused the school of being undemocratic, saying, An institution which is supposed to uphold rule of law cannot tolerate dissent from law students.

A poster on PUNCH Online, with an alias Buharism, corroborated Bellos allegation on the over-stretched facilities in the Nigerian Law School.

He said, Students were treated worse than slaves. One is not expected to complain or insist on ones right. The school authority called this slave-like condition as being fit and proper.

I attended the Lagos campus of the school in 2009/2010. It took almost two months before I could be allocated a room, in spite of the fact that the hostel accommodation was paid with the school fees. We only had access to the Internet about two weeks to graduation, despite having been charged the sum of N30,000.00 for same. Till date, the school refused to supply us with coursebooks and other materials paid for. The electricity situation was horrible and we dared not whimper, let alone complain. We were desperate to be fit and proper!

However, one Akin Olu, @akinzotweets, blamed Kayode for fighting a right cause while using a wrong approach.

He tweeted, I agree with being bold to tell your truth. What I dont agree with is why he alone is surrounded by notorious precedents. Ah, abeg!

Another Twitter user, @Seyi, aka Senior Man, said, Law school invited you for hearing, you ignored them you played yourself. Your admission is a joke to you.

Bello, who confirmed the invitation to our correspondent, said he declined it because the Nigerian Law School and the secretary neither acknowledged the receipt of his petitions nor replied to it.

He said, I told the Dean, Students Affairs, that there could never be justice in that panel. The school evicted me from the hostel that I paid N60,000 for. They brought policemen with a rifle in the middle of the night to chase me out. They did not reply to my petitions.

What if I had appeared before the panel and they did something more dangerous than evicting me? I even told them that anytime I see any of them coming closer to me, I would see the person as an attacker.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Shoukry welcomed the conditional ceasefire agreed to by the two Libyan sides in Paris on Tuesday

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Libyas Prime Minister Fayez Al-Serraj and the United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame in Paris on Tuesday, a foreign affairs ministry statement released early Wednesday read.

According to the statement, Shoukry hailed the meeting that took place, also in Paris on Tuesday, between Al-Serraj and the divided country's eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, during which they both committed to a conditional ceasefire and and to work towards holding elections next spring, in talks chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting between Al-Serraj and Haftar represents an important additional step on the path to achieve national reconciliation and heal the rift between the different Libyan factions, the statement added.

Shoukry also praised the UNs efforts in Libya and cited the importance of implementing the Skhirat agreement, which was signed in Morocco in 2015 and mandates the reaching of a peaceful transition of power in Libya and the establishment of a national unity government.

Since the ousting of long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country has slid into conflict, and now has rival governments and parliaments in the west and east.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A woman in Uganda is nursing injuries at a hospital after her husband allegedly sliced her neck because her parents enrolled her for a nursing course in the US.

Musa Kisakye, a boda operator, allegedly attacked Ms Olivia Nangonzi, after informing him that her parents had enrolled her for a nursing course in the US.

After cutting Nangonzis neck, according to police, Kisakye, who thought he had accomplished his mission, used the same knife to slice his neck.

Mr Rogers Sseguya, the Mukono Police District commander, says , Kisakye is in critical condition at Kawolo Hospital.

Kisakye and Ms Nangonzi are residents of Makata, Nakisunga Sub-county, Mukono District.

They married three years ago and have one child.

He thought he had killed me, Ms Nangonzi said. Actually, I was too weak and I could not scream. Thats when he also cut his neck.

She said: I was preparing to set off to America this very week. Unfortunately, my husband wanted to kill me claiming that he wanted me to [stay] at home without upgrading [my skills].

Mr Seguya said if Kisakye recovers, he would be charged with attempted murder.
More Prophets Prophesying.. Wetin Person No go Hear!!!

President Muhammadu Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo

The General overseer of King of Kings Deliverance Ministry, Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi has prophesied that ailing President Muhammadu Buhari will not return to Nigeria as the President.

He further noted that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo will be sworn-in as President amid fierce opposition. The Prophet added that the 2019 will be won by the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

He made the prophesies while being conferred with a new title by his kinsmen

I saw Buhari saying that he is no more in charge. Then I saw Osinbajo being sworn in. But the opposition is just too much. He can only last till 2019.

He should battle very well not to be removed from office before then. This is not the first time I am saying that Buhari will not pilot Nigeria into 2019, and this is not the first time I am being shown Atiku as the next president.

Its over three years now that Atiku was first revealed to me.

Buhari has handed over power spiritually to Osinbajo. He cannot return to power, in case anyone is expecting him, the Prophet said.
The member representing Magama Constituency in the Niger State House of Assembly on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abbas Waziri, says the party will bounce back in 2019 if it offers Nigerians something new.

Waziri said on Tuesday in Minna that with the resolution of the leadership crisis that rocked the PDP, many of those who defected would return to the party.

The lawmaker, who noted that the party had learnt its lesson, called on those that left to have a rethink and come back.

Waziri, one of only three PDP members in the Assembly, maintained that the party still enjoyed the goodwill of Nigerians.

People still appreciate the PDP because of what we have been able to achieve during our time.

We tried our best when we had power at the centre and you cannot dispute that, he said.

On his constituency social services, he said he built a block of 5 class rooms at Auna as well as the electrification of Shagwa.

According to him, other projects executed by him include the purchase and installation of 500KVA transformer in Nasko and construction of Solar powered borehole in Majinga.

He assured his constituents that he would deliver more dividends of democracy in the remaining two years of the present administration.

Waziri assured that the 8th state legislature was poised to pass bills and make an input in the execution of projects that had a direct bearing on the people.

I want to assure residents of the state that we have their interests at heart, they should expect more dividends of democracy in the years ahead.

The 8th legislature in Niger is one that is committed to the cause of the people and will stop at nothing to champion such cause.

Source: (NAN)
The Pepsi Nigeria has now officially declared the return of its 50 Cl bottled drink to its initial price of one hundred naira.

In a series of tweets yesterday, Pepsi made this latest development known with the hashtag of #No Shakin CarryGo

However, as contained in the tweeted picture, the drink is available at the Lagos and Ibadan depots.

This is coming after days after MMMG artiste, Teknos announcement that he still has N2million left to give to Nigerians with small business ideas and those with educational needs, it seems millions of Nigerians will also be enjoying a reduction in the price of Pepsi 50cl Plastic Bottle.

See tweet:
Three Men Have been dismissed from the Police force after extorting money from a Citizen who they said was a yahoo boy

The action was taken in a case of illegal arrest and extortion reported three weeks ago by an unnamed Nigerian using the popular social-messaging service, WhatsApp.

A statement by Assistant Commissioner Of Police of the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) in Abuja, Abayomi Shogunle, said the dismissal followed an internal trial at which the men were found guilty, under the Police Act, of corrupt practices and discreditable conduct.

In a major image-makeover effort, the PCRRU is sending to the public such messages as:

Remember, Bail is Free, PCRRU says NO TO IMPUNITY and our quick response will put a smile on your face.

The dismissed officers are: Inspector Okelue Nkemeonye, Sgt. Braimoh Sunday and Sgt. Yusuf Olukoga, met their fate after the complaint was filed on June 21.

Their lead officer, ASP Bayo Obadiah, received an official query and his case is being sorted out.

In his message to the PCRRU, the complainant told the horrendous story of how he was abducted by a team of policemen that morning as he came out of a bank to transact business.

Held all day until about 6 p.m., not only was he beaten by the policemen, they used his ATM to withdraw money from his account, and transferred money into another account provided by one of them.

According to ACP Shogunle:

Upon the receipt of the complaint, a case with Tracking Number PCRRU637624 was registered and acknowledgment of complaint sent to the complainant. PCRRU Investigation team was dispatched to Ikorodu where all the three dismissed policemen including AP No. 98199 ASP Bayo Obadia who led the team were apprehended. PCRRU preliminary investigation reveals that all the allegations contained in the WhatsApp message actually happened.

In addition, he said the four police officers who were armed on the day of the incident had falsely paraded themselves as operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) despite not being posted to SARS by police authorities.

Investigation also showed that the officers extorted a total sum of N200,000 from the young men whom they tagged Yahoo Yahoo Boys, the money forcibly taken from them via a N90,000 ATM withdrawal and another N110,000 mobile bank money transfer to a third-party account provided by the policemen, ACP Shogunle continued, adding the extorted N200,000 was recovered by the PCRRU Investigators.

He said:

All the arrested officers, witnesses and recovered exhibits including the N200,000 cash and printed bank statement of account were handed over to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2 Lagos for further detailed investigation and necessary disciplinary measures, The approval of the punishment of dismissal from service as recommended by the Adjudicating officer is part of the outcome of the disciplinary measures.

With reference to ASP Bayo Obadiah who led the team of the infamous men on this unacceptable conduct, he pointed out that an official query was issued to him by the AIG Zone 2 Lagos, and that both his reply and that query have been forwarded to the office of the Force Secretary in Abuja from where it will go to the Police Service Commission as required by Police Regulations.

Shogunle said:

The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, has commended the complainant for coming forward to report the incident to PCRRU, the IGP has also said that all allegations of professional misconduct reported against any police officer would be treated in line with relevant laws and in keeping to the Change Begins With Me Campaign of the Federal Government, .

He encouraged the public to report cases of police misconduct to the PCRRU for resolution, stressing that the IGP Idris led administration is bent on ensuring a more public friendly and corrupt free police force in Nigeria.

Source: Tori.ng
President Muhammadu Buhari has written to thank the President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, for organising a nationwide prayers held last week by Guineans for his recovery and good health.

This was confirmed in a press release issued by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity on Tuesday.

In a letter dated July 24, 2017, President Buhari, who had earlier made a phone call to Conde, who is the current Chairman of the Assemblies of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, stated:

I thank you for your kind and thoughtful action in organizing nationwide prayers for my good health. It is a gesture that I will forever cherish and treasure.

Your Excellency will be pleased to hear that I am making good progress, and as soon as doctors advise, I shall return to my duties and continue serving the Nigerian people who elected me and are daily praying for my recovery.

In an earlier letter, President Buhari had also accepted his nomination as leader of the 2018 AU Theme on the Fight Against Corruption, which came from African leaders at the 29th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 4, 2017.

While thanking you for the kind words and for the nomination, the President wrote to Conde, I wish to express my readiness to accept this new important role and to reiterate my commitment to contribute towards our collective efforts to strengthen good governance and development on the continent. I, therefore, look forward to working closely with you in the realization of this objective.

Source: ( PM News )
The United States of America has released the details of how former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly laundered about $144m, using part of the funds to purchase a yacht, landed properties, furniture and artworks.

According to the US, while she held sway as the Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani, who was otherwise known as the Madam or Madam D, led a lavish and privileged lifestyle, spending more than one million dollars on furniture, artwork, and other furnishings purchased within the Southern District of Texas, and shipped, in part, to London and Abuja, Nigeria.

These were contained in a 91-page verified complaint filed by the US Government before the US District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where it is seeking an order to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m linked to Diezani.

The US, in the verified complaint signed by a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Elizabeth Crispino, said Diezani allegedly acquired the assets with kickbacks from an international conspiracy to obtain lucrative business opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

The assets, the US stated, were acquired between April 2010 and May 2015 when Diezani was overseeing Nigerias state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Among the properties, which the US now seeks to be forfeited, are a 65-metre motor yacht, named M/Y Galactica Star; two properties known as 807 and 815 Cima Del Mundo Road, Montecito, Calif; as well as funds in a couple of companies.

The US stated that Diezani, with the help of and in conspiracy with two Nigerian businessmen, Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, laundered the proceeds of the illicit business opportunities into and through the United States.

In the court processes obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the US detailed, using tables, the living and lifestyle expenses for Alison-Madueke.

One table, tagged, Rental Payments, showed how Aluko and his company, Tracon Investments Limited, helped Diezani to make a total of at least 537,922 in rental payments for two central London residences both located at 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, where Diezani and her mother stayed between August 2011 and January 2014.

Another table, tagged, Transportation Services, showed how Aluko and his beneficially-owned company, TENKA, helped Diezani to make at least 393,274.32 in payments to a car hire company, the Chauffeur Company, while Omokore and his own company, Energy Property Development Ltd., also paid at least 4,424.40 to the Chauffeur Company to convey Diezani and her family about the UK between December 2012 through at least July 2014.

The FBI agent, Crispino, stated, Upon information and belief, the above payments were made corruptly by, on behalf of, or at the direction of Aluko and Omokore for the benefit of Alison-Madueke and/or her family, in return for Alison-Maduekes having improperly influenced the award of the Forcados SAAs to AEDC and in anticipation of or in return for her improperly influencing the award of the Brass SAA.

In particular, the director of the Chauffeur Company has stated that in or around June 2014, he was assaulted in the hallway outside of Alison-Maduekes known residence at Flat 19, 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, by two men known by the director to be Alison-Maduekes associates.

This assault occurred as the director of the Chauffeur Company was attempting to deliver a letter concerning approximately 224,000 in unpaid services provided by his company to Alison-Madueke.

The director of the Chauffeur Company has further stated that, upon hearing the commotion, Alison-Madueke herself appeared and instructed her associates to settle the unpaid bill.

As the preceding table indicates, roughly one month after the hallway assault, TENKA paid a total of 135,361.48 to the Chauffeur Company.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: The unmasking of Diezani Alison-Madueke

Crispino said Diezanis assets were liable to being forfeited under 18 U.S.C.   981(a)(1)(A) and 981(a)(1)(C), as they were derived from, or traceable to the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, as that term is defined in 18 U.S.C.  1956(c)(7), or a conspiracy to commit specified unlawful activity, and as property involved in money laundering violations of 18 U.S.C.  1956 and 1957.

Crispino stated that Section 1956(a)(2) prohibits transferring funds known to be the proceeds of unlawful activity from a place outside the United States to a place in the United States, with knowledge that the transfer is designed in whole or in part to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, including the proceeds of an offense against a foreign nation involving bribery of a public official, or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds by or for the benefit of a public official.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Fans of acclaimed film producer, Tade Ogidan, can now look forward to another masterpiece from him as he has started work on a new movie titled, Gold Statue.

Apart from assembling some of the best Nollywood actors for the project, he is partnering a mega relaxation and amusement centre  High Impact, owned by Solution Media and Infotech Limited, located on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.

Gold Statue is coming seven years after Ogidans last feature film, titled Family on Fire. The new work, according to him, will be filmed in Lagos, Ilesa, Dubai and London. The plan is also to premiere it in key film festivals across the globe, as well as private places in Nigeria.

Making this known at a media round-table meeting held at the Arcade Building of the Hi-Impact Planet Amusement Park, Ogidan said the movie would feature great artistes that include Alibaba, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sola Sobowale, Gabriel Afolayan, Kunle Rhemmy, Rycardo Agbor, Nobert Young and Segun Arinze.

Ogidan said, The primary location for the filming is Hi-Impact Planet Amusement Park, owned by Solution Media, a company I considered as having, perhaps, one of the craziest equipment that anyone can find around. The production equipment for the movie are exactly same as has been used for recent blockbuster Hollywood movies.

Ogidan described Gold Statue as an adventure comedy that he had been working on for a while. Adding that Ali Baba and Shobowale were co-producers of the movie, he noted,  Its a full house of producers with a lot of experience. That gives me room to be able to concentrate as the director. Of course, its a very technical story. Expect a bit of prison stuff in it and you will be amazed at the research that has gone in to this. Its a partnership that we believe will be an awesome outing and thats really what is important.

The movie follows the adventure of two young men, Wale (Gabriel Afolayan) and Chike (Kunle Rhemmy) in search of a gold statue. It centres on the length that both men can go to acquire the statue, which is believed to belong to aa deity.

Source: Punch
The UN Security Council has appreciated efforts by the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to combat Boko Haram and called for support by UN member states for the team.

The Security Council President for the month of July, Liu Jieyi, in a statement, expressed the bodys concern over the threat of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin.

Liu condemned all terrorist attacks in the West African sub-region, especially in Northern and Central Mali and the Lake Chad Basin by Islamic State in Iraq and Boko Haram respectively.

He expressed concern over attacks on civilians, the primary victims of terrorist violence and urged a holistic approach to degrade and defeat the terrorists in compliance with international law.

The Security Council encourages member states and multilateral partners to lend their support to the MNJTF to ensure its full operationalisation.

This includes the provision of modalities to increase the timely and effective exchange of intelligence to further the regions collective efforts to combat Boko Haram, whenever possible and appropriate, Liu said.

He expressed the commitment of the Council to work through the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) to strengthen cooperation in addressing cross-border security threats and curbing the spread of terrorism.

The Security Council notes the collaboration undertaken between UNOWAS and the Peace-building Commission and encourages continued close and effective cooperation in support of sustainable peace in the region, Liu said.

He said the Council noted the dire humanitarian situation caused by the terrorists activities in the Lake Chad Basin.

He called on the international community to immediately support the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the people most affected by the crisis in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

Liu said support to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for Boko Haram victims included honouring the UN appeal for the Lake Chad Basin region.

He urged regional governments to facilitate humanitarian access and to work with the UN in developing aid delivery options.

Source: ( PM News )
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday evening at the Fourth National Conference for Youth in Alexandria that economic and social reform is the only way to preserve the country and undermine attempts to turn Egypt into a failed state.

El-Sisi said that the government's economic reform programme has already had a positive impact, with the past three years witnessing a tripling in foreign reserves as well as a decrease in unemployment rates and a $7 billion surplus in the balance of payments.

He said that the recent economic measures adopted by the state were inevitable, and that protective measures have been put in place to ease the burden of the economic reform programme on citizens.

On the Monday session of the conference, President El-Sisi announced that Egypts foreign reserves are now close to $35 billion.

The reserves have been climbing since November 2016, when Egypt signed an agreement for a three-year $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Reserves have increased from $28.641 billion at the end of April to $31.125 billion at the end of May.

El-Sisi also hailed Egyptians' endurance and acceptance of the burdens caused by the economic reforms, calling on intellectuals and the media to stress to the necessity of undertaking these reforms as well as highlighting attempts to tear apart the state.

El-Sisi also said that countries that sponsor terrorism will be recorded in the "black pages of human history."

"Over the past four years, terrorism, supported by these countries, has targeted Egypt with ruthlessness and determination, and we have increased our determination to confront it with thought, construction and development," El-Sisi affirmed.

"As long as we have blood in our veins, we are willing to confront the evil of terrorism without compromise or retreat."

El-Sisi affirmed that Egyptians are willing to continue development efforts to build their country and achieve their will as expressed on 30 June 2013, when mass protests led to the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A new study suggests that distant "long-period" comets -- which take more than 200 years to orbit the sun -- are more common than previously thought. This illustration shows how the researchers used data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft to determine the nucleus sizes of several of these distant comets. They subtracted a model of how dust and gas behave in comets in order to obtain the core size. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft has delivered new insights about these distant wanderers. A team of astronomers led by James Bauer, a research professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, found that there are about seven times more long-period comets measuring at least 1 kilometer across than previously predicted.

The researchers also found that long-period comets are, on average, nearly twice as large as Jupiter family comets, whose orbits are shaped by Jupiter's gravity and have periods of less than 20 years. The findings were published July 14, 2017, in The Astronomical Journal.

The number of comets speaks to the amount of material left over from the solar system's formation, Bauer said. We now know that there are more relatively large chunks of ancient material coming from the Oort Cloud than we thought.

The Oort Cloud is too distant to be seen by current telescopes, but is thought to be a spherical distribution of small icy bodies at the outermost edge of the solar system. The density of comets within it is low, so the odds of comets colliding within it are low. Long-period comets that WISE observed probably got kicked out of the Oort Cloud millions of years ago. The observations were carried out in 2010 during the spacecraft's primary mission, before it was renamed NEOWISE and reactivated to target near-Earth objects (NEOs) in 2013.

Our study is a rare look at objects perturbed out of the Oort Cloud, said Amy Mainzer, a co-author of the study based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and principal investigator of the NEOWISE mission. They are the most pristine examples of what the solar system was like when it formed.

Astronomers already had broader estimates of how many long-period and Jupiter family comets are in our solar system, but had no good way of measuring the sizes of long-period comets. This is because the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds each cometknown as a comaappears hazy in images and obscures the comet's nucleus.

By using WISE data that shows the infrared glow of the coma, the scientists were able to subtract the coma from each comet and estimate the size of the nucleus. The data came from WISE observations of 164 cometary bodiesincluding 95 Jupiter family comets and 56 long-period comets.

The results reinforce the idea that comets that pass by the sun more frequently tend to be smaller than those spending much more time away from the sun. That is because Jupiter family comets get more heat exposure, which causes volatile substances like water to sublimate and drag away other material from the comet's surface as well.

Our results mean there's an evolutionary difference between Jupiter family and long-period comets, Bauer said.

The existence of so many more long-period comets than predicted suggests that more of them have likely impacted planets, delivering icy materials from the outer reaches of the solar system.

Researchers also found clustered orbits among the long-period comets they studied, suggesting there could have been larger bodies that broke apart to form these groups.

The results will be important for assessing the likelihood of comets impacting our solar system's planets, including Earth.

Comets travel much faster than asteroids, and some of them are very big, Mainzer said. Studies like this will help us define what kind of hazard long-period comets may pose.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed and operated WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The NEOWISE project is funded by the Near-Earth Object Observation Program, now part of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The spacecraft was put into hibernation mode in 2011 after twice scanning the entire sky, thereby completing its main objectives. In September 2013, WISE was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.

###

This press release was adapted from text provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This research was supported by NASA (Award No. NNA09DA77A). The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views of this organization.

The research paper, Debiasing the NEOWISE Cryogenic Mission Comet Populations, James Bauer, Tommy Grav, Yanga Fernandez, Amy Mainzer, Emily Kramer, Joseph Masiero, Timothy Spahr, Carolyn Nugent, Rachel Stevenson, Karen Meech, Roc Cutri, Carey Lisse, Russell Walker, John Dailey, Joshua Rosser, Phillip Krings, Kinjal Ruecker, Edward Wright and the NEOWISE Team, was published in The Astronomical Journal on July 14, 2017.

Media Relations Contacts:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Elizabeth Landau, 818-354-6425, elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov

University of Maryland: Matthew Wright, 301-405-9267, mewright@umd.edu

University of Maryland

College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

2300 Symons Hall

College Park, MD 20742

http://www. cmns. umd. edu

@UMDscience

About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 7,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $150 million.
Americans Are Saving Less. Heres How to Save More. Young & The Invested - Sat Nov 12, 6:00AM CST Several recent data studies show that Americans, after saving heavily during the pandemic, are starting to pull money from those savings. We discuss how to maintain healthy savings habits.

Hog Prices Closed Mixed Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Lean hog prices were mixed on Friday with 12 to 52 cent losses through the April contract. The deferred contracts closed 10 to 15 cents in the black with May UNCH. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price... HEZ22 : 84.350s (-0.62%) HEJ23 : 94.100s (-0.13%) KMZ22 : 94.900s (-0.63%)

Friday Cotton Closes Triple Digits Higher Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Cotton added 116 to 182 points to the upside on Friday after a brief pause for the WASDE numbers. That kept the board under the high on Tuesday, but ended as a weekly gain of 253 points. USDAs FAS... CTZ22 : 88.20s (+2.11%) CTH23 : 86.33s (+2.09%) CTK23 : 85.56s (+1.89%)

Wheats Close in Black on Friday Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Wheat futures ended with +1% gains on Friday. KC HRW closed the strongest on Friday with 1.8% to 2% gains, leaving the Dec contract 10 1/4 cents in the red. CBT SRW closed between 1% and 1.3% higher across... ZWZ22 : 813-6s (+1.28%) ZWH23 : 835-2s (+1.15%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.4644 (+1.39%) KEZ22 : 943-4s (+1.97%) KEPAWS.CM : 9.0182 (+2.07%) MWZ22 : 945-6s (+1.53%)

Triple Digit Losses in Friday Cattle Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST The cattle complex faded on Friday on a recovery in the grain complex. Front month fat cattle futures ended the day $0.72 to $1.77 lower. December contracts were 13 cents weaker for the week. Feeder cattle... LEZ22 : 151.525s (-1.01%) LEG23 : 153.250s (-1.14%) LEJ23 : 157.050s (-0.91%) GFX22 : 176.950s (-0.94%) GFF23 : 178.575s (-1.72%)

Soy Prices Rally on Friday Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Front month soy futures ended the day higher on a bounce back from Thursday. Beans closed with 1.6% to 1.9% gains of as much as 27 cents. That left the Jan contract at a net 12 1/4 cent loss for the week.... ZSX22 : 1455-4s (+1.75%) ZSPAUS.CM : 14.2086 (+1.90%) ZSF23 : 1450-0s (+1.90%) ZSH23 : 1453-6s (+1.80%)

Corn Markets Close in Black Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Corn futures bounced back into the weekend with gains of 2 to 4 3/4 cents. USDA announced a private export sale of 209,931 MT of corn to Mexico this morning. The Ukraines Ag Ministry had 7.8 MMT of... ZCZ22 : 658-0s (+0.73%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.5662 (+0.81%) ZCH23 : 663-0s (+0.53%) ZCK23 : 662-6s (+0.49%)
Vince Toenjes, the former general counsel and corporate secretary for Chicago-based self-storage operator LifeStorage LP, which was purchased last year by Sovran Self Storage Inc. (now known as Life Storage Inc.), has joined the Atlanta law firm of Weissmann Zucker Euster Morochnik P.C. (WZEM) to serve in its real estate and corporate practice. In his new role, Toenjes will work with self-storage operators as well as owners of other business types.

Toenjes career has involved a full range of corporate counseling, with legal practice in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial leasing, construction, corporate governance, employment law, finance, investor relations, land use, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate, according to a press release. "We are excited to have Vince on board. He is a very talented, versatile and approachable real estate and corporate attorney who has experience in a wide variety of complex transactions across multiple industries for more than two decades, said Scott Zucker, a partner with WZEM and a well-known self-storage attorney. He greatly bolsters our already prominent real estate and self-storage practice and overall corporate-transaction capabilities."

In addition to his experience with LifeStorage, Toenjes previously served as deputy general counsel, assistant corporate secretary and vice president of real estate for publicly traded retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. Before going in-house, he was also a shareholder at Denver-based law firms Gorrell Giles Gollata PC and Moye White LLP. He has advised numerous companies including Dick's Sporting Goods, Quizno's and Vineyard Vines.

Admitted to practice law in Colorado, Toenjes received a juris doctor degree in 1994 from the University of Denver School of Law. He also holds a bachelors degree from the University of Colorado and a masters in finance from the University of Houston.

LifeStorage was acquired in 2016 by real estate investment trust Sovran Self Storage Inc., which has since changed its name to Life Storage Inc. While with the company, Toenjes helped build a portfolio of more than 90 facilities and assisted in closing the 2016 transaction, the release stated.

WZEM is a transaction- and litigation-services firm assisting all types of businesses with legal needs relating to banking, construction, employment, finance and real estate. With offices in Atlanta and Denver, it specializes in business litigation with an emphasis on real estate, landlord-tenant and construction law.

Zucker is a regular contributor to industry publications and events, including Inside Self-Storage magazine and the Inside Self-Storage World Expo. Video copies of seminar presentations made by Zucker can be purchased and viewed at www.iss-store.com.
Temperatures in Cairo are expected to reach a high of of 39 degrees Celsius and low of 26 degrees on Thursday, state news agency quoted a statement by Egypts Meteorology Authority(EMA) as saying.

Humidity in Cairo will reach highs of 90 percent during the early morning and night and will average 35 percent between 12pm to 3pm, EMA Spokesman Waheed Seoudi told Ahram Online.

Temperatures in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria are expected to be milder for residents and summer tourists on Thursday with a high of 32 and low of 26 degrees Celsius; humidity in the city will average 95 percent during the early morning and night and 55 percent between 12pm to 3pm.

Upper Egypts Aswan and Luxor will witness higher temperatures with both registering highs of 43 and lows of 26 degrees Celsius.

Winds will be active on the Gulf of Suez, which might disrupt navigation, EMAs statement added.

Waves on both the Mediterranean and Red Seas will be mild ranging between 1.5 to two meters in height.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Whether it is recommendations from Google or an online retailer, personalisation has permeated all aspects of modern life and insurance should be no different.As an industry with a rich history of data use and segmentation, insurance is well-placed to utilise new technologies and data enrichment tools to offer uniquely personalised services as society comes to demand more specificity, according to an expert.Kevin Gaut, chief technology officer at SSP, said that the industry will need to utilise personalisation as consumers come to expect it as it features in most transactions.I think everything else is becoming personalised, Gaut told Insurance Business. Society is now expecting a level of personalisation that our insurers are going to have to deliver.Gaut highlighted a solution that SSP has worked on with UK-based insurer Direct Line which sees the firm target small businesses with a simple series of questions tailored to specific market segments. The first iteration has targeted hair salons and Gaut said that personalisation to specific industries and specific clients will only increase.For brokers and the wider industry, a move toward technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide more opportunities to personalise cover in both commercial and personal lines.Technology costs have dropped as it becomes more widely available and Gaut said that the best advice for those looking to boost their technology for consumers is to start small as the traditional insurance market undergoes drastic change.What we would say is start small and understand what your own customers want, Gaut said. It might be that you start off by delivering capabilities for customers to see their documents online through a secure portal and from there you might start to push messages or get them to do certain product lines that they can self-serve.
Climate change could lead to a larger market for insurers as more people seek protection from losses  but the higher probability of severe weather events could ultimately prove to be a bane for the industry.



For example, a recent study by CoreLogic found that nearly 6.9 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at potential risk of damage from hurricane storm surge, with a total reconstruction cost value of more than $1.5 trillion.



Celebrate excellence in insurance. Nominate a worthy colleague for the Insurance Business Awards.



A separate study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that the total economic costs of climate change for urban centres worldwide could be 2.6 times higher when the urban heat island effect is taken into account. Cities at the worst end of the spectrum stand to lose as much as 11% of their gross domestic product (GDP) compared with the global loss average of 5.6%.



The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has witnessed a deluge of repeat claims. Over the last two decades, the number of properties reporting a second loss has increased by 67%, according to Evan Hecht, president of The Flood Insurance Agency.



The number of properties that have had a third loss has increased 56%, Hecht said at IBAs recent CAT Risk 2017 Masterclass. The NFIP is almost $25 billion in the red, Emergency Management reported. It is up for reauthorization next September.



Geopolitical risks could also increase in the Middle East and Africa as rising temperatures lead to a tight supply of water. I think the water scarcity [global crisis risk] is the most dramatic, because its the hardest one to do anything about, said Christof Bentele, head of global crisis management at Allianz Global Corporate & Security.



Water scarcity is such a massive problem in so many countries and it could really lead to mass migration and economic refugees who are going to tend to head towards Europe, in my view. The whole area from northern Africa, up through the Middle East, and up to Afghanistan, millions of people are going to fall under the water scarcity problem, he added.








A woman who was accused of intentionally drowning her fiance in the Hudson River by tampering with his kayak as part of a murderous plot to collect on his life insurance pleaded guilty on Monday to a lesser charge that could minimize the amount of additional time she spends in jail.

Angelika Graswald, a Latvian national, had been charged with secretly removing a drain plug from Vincent Viafores kayak before a daylong boating excursion and then watching him drown after he capsized in the river in 2015. Her attorney had said that the death was an accident, caused by high waves, cold water and alcohol, and that police investigators had coerced her into blaming herself for the death during a lengthy interrogation.

Graswald, who had been facing murder and manslaughter charges, had been in custody awaiting trial.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said Graswald, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, admitting she caused Viafores death on April 19, 2015, by removing the plug from his kayak, knowing that he wasnt wearing a life vest or wetsuit and that the Hudson River waters were dangerous and cold. The couple had been visiting an island that is home to Bannerman Castle.

Graswald was arrested on April 30, 2015, and Viafores body was found almost a month later. Prosecutors said the missing plug from Viafores kayak was found in the car Graswald was driving. Officials had argued a $250,000 life insurance policy was the motivation.

Her attorney, Richard Portale, said, Weve maintained from the very beginning this was not an intentional act.

The criminally negligent homicide charge carries a sentence of up to four years in prison. Graswald is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 1. Portale said with the time shes already been in custody she would likely be out by late December.

Hoovler said the guilty plea will make Graswald, who has legal permanent U.S. residency, liable to be deported. Portale said if the federal government filed to have her deported, there would be a court proceeding to contest it.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York
The National Transportation Safety Board was scheduled to meet and detail a probe into a 2015 crash between a commuter train and an SUV that killed six people in the New York suburbs, a day after a U.S. official told The Associated Press that investigators determined the crash was extra deadly because of an unusual rail design.

The NTSB was scheduled to meet Tuesday in Washington, where a final report of the February 2015 crash was expected to be presented.

The Metro-North Railroad train crashed into an SUV on the tracks at a crossing in Valhalla, about 20 miles north of New York City. The impact sparked an explosion, and flames blasted into the passenger area, burning out the first car of the train. The driver of the SUV and five people aboard the train were killed. More than a dozen others were injured.

NTSB investigators found that about 340 feet of electrified rail was pulled up from the ground, penetrated the SUVs fuel tank and then sliced into the train, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

The rail was an under-running or under-riding design, in which a metal shoe slips underneath the electrified third rail, rather than skimming along the top. Questions were raised after the crash about whether the collision caused the shoe to pry up the third rail. Metro-North, which operates in New York and Connecticut, is believed to be the only U.S. commuter railroad with the under-riding rail configuration.

NTSB investigators also are recommending risk assessments be conducted for grade crossings, the official said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates Metro-North, will carefully review any safety recommendations made by NTSB investigators, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.

Passengers were trapped in the fiery, mangled wreckage and tried to pry open the doors to escape. One passenger, whose hands, shirt and hair were on fire, shattered an emergency box and then pried the doors open before leading a group of passengers out of the wreckage.

The SUVs driver, Ellen Brody, had stopped in traffic on the tracks, between the lowered crossing gates. Witnesses said Brody got out of her SUV to inspect the damage to it before driving forward and being struck by the oncoming train.

Brodys husband is suing Metro-North, the MTA and the trains engineer, saying the crash was caused by a badly designed grade crossing and improper warning signs. Alan Brody says his wife must not have realized she was on a railroad track.

After hearing from the AP about the NTSBs findings, he noted Monday that courts also are being asked to weigh the crash and its causes. He said hell continue pressing the MTA to modernize and improve the railroad.

There are substantial systemic issues at stake here, and, you know, somebody has to take it on, he said. Im dead serious about it. I have a reason to be dead serious about it. They (officials) didnt lose anyone.

A data recorder showed the trains engineer hit the emergency brakes and sounded the horn as the train bore down on the Valhalla crossing, traveling 58 mph in a 60 mph zone, the NTSB has said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA New York
A Tennessee woman accused of stealing $3 million from a trucking companys New Jersey facility has been sentenced.

Fifty-five-year-old Tracey Perrigan, of Sparta, was sentenced to 33 months in prison Monday. Perrigan had previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Prosecutors say Perrigan authorized purchases by company drivers when she worked at a Branchburg, N.J., facility of a New York trucking company. Officials say Perrigan used a program called Comcheck to send $3.25 million in company funds to a trucking company she owned with her husband from 2007 to 2015.

A judge has ordered Perrigan to pay restitution.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance New Jersey
The UK became the latest European country to mark the end of the line for diesel and gasoline fueled cars as automakers such as Volvo race to build electric vehicles or face the consequences of getting left behind.

In London, the government said it will ban sales of the vehicles by 2040, two weeks after France announced a similar plan to reduce air pollution and become a carbon-neutral nation. For the auto industry, the end of an era for fossil-fuel powered cars poses a challenge not everyone is welcoming.

We could undermine the UKs successful automotive sector if we dont allow enough time for the industry to adjust, said Mike Hawes, chief executive officer of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Outright bans risk undermining the current market for new cars and our sector, which supports over 800,000 jobs across the UK, he said. The industry instead wants a positive approach which gives consumers incentives to purchase these cars,

Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, is keen to shore up diesel, since it powers many of its lucrative sport utility vehicles and big sedans, but others are embracing the new reality. Swedens Volvo Car Group said that by 2019 all of its cars will have an electric motor, while BMW AG will build an electric version of its iconic Mini compact car in Britain.

The global shift toward electric vehicles will create upheaval across a number of sectors, from oil majors harmed by reduced gasoline demand to spark plug and fuel injection makers whose products arent needed by plug-in cars. In the U.K., the decision is partly brought on by stringent European Union emission rules that the country must follow even as it is set to leave the bloc.

We cant carry on with diesel and petrol cars, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said on BBC Radio 4s Today show. Its important we all gear up for a significant change which deals not just with the problems to health caused by emissions but the broader problems caused in terms of accelerating climate change.

The environmental push comes as the UK plans to invest more than 800 million pounds ($1 billion) in driverless and zero-emission technology and outlined plans to invest 246 million pounds in battery technology research. For activists, the new targets are not ambitious enough.

2040 is far too late, said Areeba Hamid, a clean-air campaigner at Greenpeace UK. Car manufacturers like Volvo have announced their intention to move away from petrol and diesel by the end of this decade. Germany, India, the Netherlands and Norway are all considering bans by 2030 or sooner.

Critics are also concerned that it will be up to local authorities to impose tough levies on the most polluting diesel vehicles as soon as 2020. The plan is to urge local jurisdictions to reduce emissions first, by fitting diesel vehicles with filters, changing road layouts and removing speed humps.

What were saying to local authorities is: Come up with an imaginative solution to these proposals, Gove told the BBC.

The UK has the largest fleet of diesel vehicles in Europe after drivers were encouraged to switch from gasoline because diesel has more range and emits less carbon dioxide. But emissions from the fuel are between eight and 10 times more toxic, according to Stephen Holgate, medical research professor at the University of Southampton and special adviser on air quality at the Royal College of Physicians.

Britain has now switched emphasis and is seeking to position itself as a leader in electric and driverless car technology, hoping to create jobs and export opportunities as it quits the European Union. Todays decision represents a more ambitious update to last months Queens Speech, which said the government would set a target for almost every car and van to be zero emission by 2050.

Plug-in cars are still only about one percent of all UK vehicle sales, yet the country is one of only a handful worldwide to have more than 100,000 plug-in automobiles on the road.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Trends Auto Europe Energy Oil Gas Pollution
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Blue Marble Microinsurance announced they have formed a partnership designed to provide microinsurance for small ranchers in Latin America who use a weather-resilient practice called silvopasture.

Silvopastoral farming is the practice of combining trees with forage pasture and livestock, which improves ranchers resilience to floods, storms and droughts, while at the same time increasing meat and milk production in a smaller area, said TNC.

A non-profit conservation organization operating in 70 countries, TNCs mandate is to show that nature can be a solution for mitigating risks communities face from climate change.

As financing is a key challenge to bring such natural solutions to scale, TNC said it is collaborating with the insurance industry to develop solutions that promote such sustainable techniques.

For a rancher, assurance (or insurance) that he or she can recover in the event of a loss during the implementation phase favors greater adoption and expansion of these sustainable systems, said TNC and Blue Marble.

Blue Marble views insurance as a catalyst for the adoption of silvopastoral systems, explained Blue Marble by email. While the design of the insurance solution is in its early stages, our intention is that insurance will protect cattle ranchers adopting silvopastoral systems against risks to the implementation and maintenance of these systems.

I am very pleased that Blue Marble is working with The Nature Conservancy. Insurance is a catalyst for scaling some of their innovative programs, and through embedding insurance in these programs, we will improve the lives and futures of farming families and help address climate change at the same time, said Joan Lamm-Tennant, chief executive officer of Blue Marble, in a statement.

The adoption of silvopastoral systems has been slow given the relative high levels of investment needed, amounting to US$2000-US$3000 per hectare, depending on location and system variations, TNC noted.

TNC said silvopasture improves the resilience of small ranchers in multiple ways including:

Higher livestock productivity  up to 67 percent increased milk production and/or 51 percent increased meat production, especially after the second year of implementation

Diversification of income sources  timber and/or fruit trees

Resilience against climate change  increased water quality, soil protection, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, maintained production during severe conditions, such as El Nino

Better agronomic practices  50 percent decreased use of herbicides and frequency of erosive fires.

These systems play an important role in minimizing the impact of one of the highest contributors to GHG emissions  cattle ranching and grazing, TNC said.

With 68,000 people being displaced by climate change every day, the world demands innovative approaches and the time is now. Our partnership with Blue Marble Microinsurance brings tangible evidence of how the private sector is inextricably linked to building stable and resilient local economies in the face of an uncertain climate, said Kathy Baughman McLeod, managing director for Climate Risk & Resilience at TNC.

Over the last five years, silvopastoral production systems were piloted in one community in Chiapas and six communities in the Yucatan Peninsula with great success, said Dr. Isabel Studer, executive director for the Mexico and Northern Central America program at TNC. However, since these production models have struggled with rapid adoption, were grateful for this partnership with Blue Marble that will deliver benefits to both the environment and the people of Chiapas.

Source: The Nature Conservancy/Blue Marble Microinsurance

Topics Agribusiness Climate Change
UniCredit SpA said hackers accessed about 400,000 client bank accounts in Italy, taking biographical and loan data in one of the biggest breaches in Europe to date.

The breaches occurred in September and October of 2016 and June to July of this year, the bank said on Wednesday in an emailed statement. Unauthorized access through an Italian third party provider gave access to some customer data related to personal loans, with the lender saying IBAN numbers and other personal data may also have been accessed.

Banks are boosting cyber-defense budgets and hiring former intelligence and law enforcement officials to build up defenses against hackers as lenders open their networks to connect with new money-management apps and other fintech offerings. In the UK, banks such as Barclays Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc have joined forces with law enforcement in a unit called the Cyber Defence Alliance.

Prominent hacker attacks such as WannaCry in May and Petya in June that penetrated 80 Ukrainian banks, government agencies and multinational firms such as shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk AS have raised awareness of the vulnerability of some companies.

There arent material damages for the bank and its clients from these attacks, Daniele Tonella, CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, the IT unit of the bank, said in a phone interview. No data, such as passwords allowing access to customer accounts or allowing for unauthorised transactions, has been affected, he said.

The breach involved customers with financing and consumer-credit loans with UniCredit, said Tonella. The banks IT department discovered anomalies while conducting checks, finding that some users from an external commercial partner were accessing client data. UniCredit, immediately blocked the intruders, closed the breaches and upgraded the system, he said.

UniCredit, which is investing 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in upgrading and strengthening its IT systems, has started an audit and will file a report with the Milan prosecutor, it said. The banks IT investments include the strengthening of infrastructure through digitalization activities, technological development of core systems and the continuous updating of the infrastructure, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Cyber
UK regulators set out plans for ensuring senior staff of financial-services firms can be held to account for misconduct on their watch, extending rules already in place for banks to almost all firms.

The Senior Managers and Certification Regime is a response to the 2008 crisis, which highlighted how responsibilities at banks, insurers and other companies werent clearly delineated. That allowed highly placed individuals to dodge responsibility for misconduct by their staff such as sales of unnecessary insurance products or rigging of benchmarks that have resulted in billions of dollars being paid out in fines and remedies.

The Financial Conduct Authority proposed applying five conduct rules to all staff at firms it supervises. It will also demand that senior managers responsibilities are clearly set out so that they can be held responsible for their own and their staffs actions. The proposals follow a 2015 decision by the UK Treasury to apply the rules to all sectors of the industry.

This is about individuals, not just institutions, Jonathan Davidson, executive director of supervision for retail and authorizations at the FCA, said in a statement. The new conduct rules will ensure that individuals in financial services are held to high standards, and that consumers know what is required of the individuals they deal with. The regime will also ensure that senior managers are accountable both for their own actions, and for the actions of staff in the business areas that they lead.

Due Care

Firms will have to certify individuals who deal with consumers for their fitness, skills and propriety at least annually, the FCA said.

The FCA said its five conduct rules mean all financial-services staff at the firms it authorizes must act with integrity; act with due care, skill and diligence; be open and cooperative with regulators; pay due regard to customer interests and treat them fairly; and observe proper standards of market conduct.

The Bank of Englands Prudential Regulation Authority, which oversees the biggest firms, said it was focusing its efforts on ensuring there is an effective governance system with a clear allocation of responsibilities within firms, and that it wanted to be certain it was able to hold individuals to account.

The regime has teeth, and could involve a lot of heavy lifting on the side of businesses to implement, including for insurers, Emma Rachmaninov, senior associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said in a statement. Firms with headquarters outside of the UK or with significant management involvement from group level face some of the biggest challenges, as they work to ensure that their governance structures fit the new regime.

The PRA said it will publish its final rules in a policy statement next year. The rules wont come into force until the Treasury sets a commencement date.

With assistance from Suzi Ring.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
On 14 July, unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Gizas El-Badrashin town, killing two low-ranking policemen and three conscripts

Egypts interior ministry said on Wednesday that security forces have killed four terrorists and arrested two in two separate raids in Giza targeting those behind an attack on a checkpoint in mid-July that killed five security personnel.

The interior ministrys statement said that security officials identified two hideouts for members of the group behind the 14 July attack on a checkpoint in the Giza town of El-Badrashin, one in the satellite city of 6 October and another in Gizas Haram district.

As police were attempting to raid the hideout in 6 October, the suspected militants started firing at security forces, prompting a shootout that killed all four militants, the statement added.

Two terrorists were found and arrested in the second hideout in Harams Faisal Street.

A number of weapons were found in the hideouts, including machine guns and materials used in manufacturing explosive devices.

Egypt is battling Islamist militant groups that are mainly concentrated in the restive northern part of Sinai.

However, militants have also struck elsewhere in the country, including the capital, often targeting police and army personnel.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A federal jury in Chicago on Monday found AbbVie Inc. fraudulently misrepresented the risks of its testosterone replacement drug AndroGel and ordered the drugmaker to pay $150 million in punitive damages.

The verdict, which came in response to a lawsuit Jesse Mitchell and his wife filed in 2014, is the first in response to over 6,000 pending lawsuits that have been consolidated in federal court in Chicago.

The decision in the Mitchell case is the first in a series of test trials aimed at helping plaintiffs and manufacturers of AndroGel gauge the range of damages and define a legal strategy and settlement options. These so-called bellwether trials are often used in product liability where hundreds of people have similar claims.

The jury said AbbVie was not negligent or strictly liable for a heart attack Mitchell suffered after taking AndroGel, but said the company falsely marketed the drug.

It did not award Mitchell compensatory damages for his injuries and losses.

The jury found that AndroGel did not cause any damage, AbbVie said in a statement. The company said that it did not expect the punitive damage award to stand, without providing further details.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said the jurys decision to award punitive damages without granting compensatory damages was extremely unusual.

Usually you cant recover punitive damages without having any compensatory damages, Tobias said.

Tobias, who focuses on mass torts and product liability, said the drugmaker is certain to appeal the verdict.

But he said that the verdict did not bode well for AbbVies remaining trials.

The fact that a jury awarded punitive damages may encourage plaintiffs and their lawyers to bring on more cases and pursue them even more aggressively.

The companys stock was at $73.9, down 0.96 percent or 72 cents.

Mitchell suffered a heart attack in 2012 after almost five years of treatment with AndroGel, but recovered after several months, according to the lawsuit he filed.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Andrew Hay and Diane Craft)

Topics Drugs
Clay Henderson has lived on the same block along the Indian River in New Smyrna Beach for 34 years. Living in a storm-prone state like Florida, you expect to see a river top its bank on occasion, but only in the past two years has Henderson seen it happen on sunny days.

He hears similar stories almost everywhere he travels in Florida. In dozens of locations along the states 1,350-mile coastline, sea level rise is no longer an esoteric discussion or a puzzle for future generations to solve. Its happening now and is forecast to worsen over the next 20 to 30 years.

Canal systems in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Gables have become a liability. For officials in Port Orange and Longboat Key, fortifying storm drains against encroaching seawater is a concern. Along the Withlacoochee River on Floridas Gulf Coast and the Matanzas River at Marineland, residents report finding saltwater species theyve never seen before in those waterways.

Federal gauges stationed around the states coast document the slowly rising water. After decades of almost imperceptible increases, the sea began rising faster about 30 years ago, said William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It jumped again beginning in 2006. Now NOAA reports sea levels are rising along parts of the Florida coast by more than a third of an inch every year.

The average person visiting a favorite beach or fishing hole surely wont notice the difference. But soon, if the trend of the past 30 years continues, the impact will be hard to miss.

Henderson and others who have spent a lifetime on the water already notice a difference.

Until the last couple of years, the only time the water would have come over the seawall would have been for a named tropical event or one of the extraordinary noreasters, said Henderson, executive director of Stetson Universitys Institute of Water and Environmental Resilience. In the fall of 2015 and 2016, he said, the water came out of the banks on cloudless, breezeless days.

A Coast in Peril

Mid-range projections by NOAA scientists  not the worst-case scenario  put the seas around Florida up to 17 inches higher by 2030, with the highest rise at Mayport, Fernandina Beach and Daytona Beach.

With just a 9-inch rise in sea level, NOAA advisories for coastal flooding capable of causing significant risks to life and property could occur 25 times more often, said Sweet, lead author of NOAAs January report describing the updated sea level scenarios. Higher seas would push seawater inland in waterfront areas along bayfronts in Sarasota and Apalachicola and in low-lying areas along the St. Johns, Suwanee and other rivers, flooding neighborhoods with increasing frequency and longer duration.

By 2070, the mid-range scenarios call for seas to be anywhere from 8 inches to 5.5 feet higher than today. By the turn of the century, NOAA projects the ocean could be as much as 10.5 feet higher, a height that could turn some of the states most crowded communities into new scuba diving destinations.

Just three feet of sea level rise could force at least 1.2 million Floridians to abandon low-lying communities and migrate to higher ground, according to a study co-authored by Jason Evans, an assistant professor of environmental science at Stetson University. A six-foot rise could displace 6 million.

Scientists say the ocean began rising more than a century ago, averaging an almost imperceptible 1.5 millimeters a year from 1900 to 1990, based on data from a network of federal tide gauges around the country.

In the 1990s, the rising sea doubled its previous rate, reaching about an inch a decade, said Sweet. And then, over the past 10 years, tide gauges in Fernandina Beach, Mayport and Key West recorded an increase of about 0.9 centimeters per year, a little more than a third of an inch per year.

Whether that higher rate continues remains to be seen, said Sweet, lead author of a January report by NOAA, the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Geological Survey and others. The report, Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States, uses information from tidal gauges around North America to show how sea level rise might occur regionally, based on local elevations and ocean depths.

The goal was to inform people, said Sweet, so they can make smart decisions as they plan for the future.

Their research indicates that the sea will rise at least another 12 inches by 2100. NOAAs higher scenario projections indicate seas could rise as much as 11 feet in Bradenton and Daytona Beach and 10.75 feet in Panama City and Cedar Key.

Hard to Soft Butter

Seas have risen and fallen hundreds of feet in the ancient past. This time scientists at NASA, NOAA and other academic and governmental organizations say warming temperatures around the world  a result of increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere  are to blame.

They report that warming, especially in the worlds polar regions, is driving the melt occurring on land-based glaciers and ice sheets and the thermal expansion of warming ocean water. Federal studies show average sea surface temperatures have increased since 1980, in part because the ocean stores excess heat from the Earths atmosphere, and as the water warms it expands, leading to additional sea level rise.

The two enormous ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are holdouts from the last ice age, said oceanographer John Englander, a Boca Raton resident and author of High Tide on Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis.

Greenlands ice sheet is 660,000 square miles and about two miles thick. Antarctica is 5.4 million square miles, covered by an ice sheet that averages a mile thick. Scientists with NASA, NOAA and other organizations say both ice sheets are losing gigatons of ice a year to melting.

At a lecture in Sarasota in April, University of Miami professor Harold Wanless described his visit to Greenland. It was a sobering experience, Wanless said, to see ice sheets with rivers and lakes, fracturing like going from hard butter to soft butter.

The melting of that land-based ice is akin to pouring water into a glass, said Englander. A land-based glacier moving into the ocean has a similar effect, like adding an ice cube to the glass of water.

While melting sea ice often attracts the splashiest headlines, it does not contribute directly to rising sea levels. But it is a crucial issue because federal scientists say thawing sea ice leads to additional warming. For example, with smaller areas of ice reflecting sunlight in the Arctic, open dark areas of water absorb the suns energy instead and grow warmer. Scientists with NOAA and NASA say warmer temperatures as a result of declining Arctic sea ice are helping to thaw areas of permafrost and allowing additional greenhouse gases stored in the permafrost to escape into the atmosphere. That in turn leads to the warming that fuels sea level rise.

Scientists are working to understand just how much water the melting ice sheets could contribute to sea level, said Sweet. But the rate of ice sheet loss prompted Sweet and his colleagues to bump up their upper level estimates of sea level rise for 2100 and beyond.

Andrea Dutton, assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida, doesnt find the sudden increase in sea level rise surprising. Her study of the oxygen isotopes found in ancient coral reefs across the world shows the rate of sea level rise has always varied from decade to decade, she said. Her research will be used to help refine projections for how melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica could affect sea levels.

Happening to Us Right Now

Regardless of whats happening in the worlds polar regions, Bruce Mowry, city engineer for Miami Beach, is among those already dealing with the rising ocean. Sea level rise is happening to us right now, Mowry said. Im out meeting residents every day talking to them about the impacts.

While the phrase rising seas prompts mental pictures of a rising ocean sweeping into beachfront hotels and homes  as it did in Daytona Beach during Hurricane Matthew last fall  the more pressing issues are the ones being encountered in Miami Beach and other neighborhoods that have drained their stormwater to the sea for generations.

The sea has begun pushing back, swelling with lunar high tides and storms, reversing the flow in drainage canals and flooding neighborhoods. Rising water infiltrates stormwater systems, coastal highways, septic tanks and fresh water wells.

Over the past couple of years in Miami Beach, on a bright sunny day, the streets would fill with water, twice a day with the tide, Mowry said. The citys existing drainage system had created avenues for water to come right into our city, he said. Now the city is spending $500 million to hold back the tide and prevent flooding. The city has installed check valves on storm drains, and is building up streets and sidewalks, as well as changing some of its building codes.

Stormwater is the No. 1 sea level-related issue already occurring, said Stetsons Evans, with most coastal communities in the Southeast United States already experiencing periodic stormwater drainage issues and failures.

The water level is 5 to 6 inches higher than when drainage pipes were installed 50 or more years ago, said Evans, who works with cities in Florida and Georgia on sea level rise issues. When it rains heavily we have an issue because the water just cant get out of the canal or stormwater basin.

Most communities begin to plan because they are seeing saltwater in roads, said Evans, and its coming into their yards and killing their grass.

One of those communities is Longboat Key in Sarasota and Manatee counties, where residents have experienced sunny day street flooding in Longbeach Village, an older bayside neighborhood with the lowest elevation on the island.

Like other low-lying areas on bays and rivers, the islands shoreline on Sarasota Bay is more vulnerable than the dune-protected Gulf coast, Town Manager David Bullock said. During unusually high tides, seawater rises through the storm drains and enters the streets.

Lee Hayes Byron, Sarasota Countys sustainability manager, watched that near the Mar Vista restaurant in Longbeach during one recent flooding event on a sunny day.

When a boat went by, said Byron, the puddle in the street moved.

Not every coastal local government has documented problems.

Walton County spokesman Louis Svehla said his northwest Florida community hasnt experienced any issues with sunny day flooding in their area.

A Force Multiplier

In South Florida, sea level rise is a force multiplier, said Jim Murley, chief resiliency officer for Miami-Dade County. Its slowly making natural events a little worse.

Sea level rise is taking place so gradually youre not going to see it, but its amplifying those events, Murley said. People tend to overlook these events we need to be paying attention to.

Bob Whitener, a retired Marine, couldnt overlook the rising water at his familys cottage on Cedar Key. His family has vacationed in a cottage there for about 75 years.

In 2006, he spent $11,000 to raise the cottage four feet, to keep it safe from floodwater. Now other neighbors are doing the same thing.

It seems like in the last decade, things have started heating up, Whitener said. In late May, he snapped photos in his backyard as seawater came up over the seawalls.

High winds and a high tide from the southwest were blowing the water onto the island, Whitener said. Thats unusual.

Such issues are only going to get worse, said Thomas Ruppert, an attorney and coastal planning specialist with the Florida Sea Grant College Program. If it seems like a big deal during a high tide now, you can bet your bottom dollar youd better start thinking about it really quick.

Business is booming in backflow preventers as local governments and utilities try to keep the ocean from infiltrating stormwater systems. One of those cities is Fort Lauderdale, which has billed itself as Americas Venice since the 1920s.

Turns out that was pretty darned appropriate, said Ruppert. It has a little ironic ring to it now.

Venice, Italy is working to complete a set of $6 billion floodgates to hold back rising seas. Meanwhile, to keep Fort Lauderdales canal-laced neighborhoods from flooding, Ruppert said the city is installing backflow preventers and upgrading drainage systems.

In St. Augustine, the nations oldest city, nuisance flooding is now happening more than a dozen times a year, said Mayor Nancy Shaver.

Kathryn Frank, an assistant professor in the department of urban and regional planning at the University of Florida, has worked to document sea level rise on both coasts, in Flagler, St. Johns and Levy counties. In Levy County, Frank said, old-timers have described islands that are disappearing and places they can reach in their boats that they couldnt before.

But defining the potential impacts of rising seas along Floridas coast is not easy because so many changing dynamics are at work all at once. For example, Evans and Frank said its difficult to tease apart the factors driving erosion and other changes along the beach.

Erosion cant be blamed on a single factor, said Evans. But as the ocean rises, it will make that issue worse. Florida already spends millions of dollars to battle beach erosion every year, and studies differ on whether beach renourishment helps or worsens erosion.

But the powerful storm surges from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Hermine in 2016 seemed to offer a glimpse of the damage that could occur in the future. Saltwater poured into seaside communities from Sarasota north to Apalachicola on the Gulf Coast and from New Smyrna Beach to the Carolinas on the Atlantic Coast. In many cases, the water remained for days.

Scientists havent determined whether higher seas worsened the widespread flooding, but they say the flooding illustrates the states vulnerability to the sea. If sea levels continue to rise, for example, higher seas would lead to more devastating impacts from storm surge.

In Flagler County, Hurricane Matthews erosion damage could cost more than $50 million to repair.

In Cedar Key, Hurricane Hermines storm surge measured 7.5 feet. Topped by powerful waves, it pushed water levels to a record 6.1 feet above the mean higher-tide mark. Records on the island date back to 1914. Kathryn Frank, the UF researcher, said one road in the town remained flooded for a week. So did a spot on the main highway to the island archipelago. Other low-lying areas in Cedar Key remained flooded for a month.

Those are the places that are just going to get worse, she said. Theyre vulnerable because theyre low-lying and sea level rise will make that much more difficult.

The Seas Insidious Reach

Hermine created another issue thats forecast to occur with increasing frequency.

The water table, the shallow layer of groundwater under most of Florida, will get higher, said Sweet, the NOAA oceanographer. Ocean water interacts with underground aquifers and the higher density saltwater displaces the fresh water.

It also will take fewer inches of rain for the soil to become saturated, said Frank. It will flood more easily and the floods will stay longer because the water table is higher.

Floridas geographic location adds two additional factors that could contribute to higher-than-average sea level rise: its proximity to the Gulf Stream and the influence of the earths gravitational forces.

The Gulf Stream, a seawater current that parallels the Florida Coast in the Atlantic Ocean, is seasonal and typically slows down in the fall, Sweet said. Its also sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure, winds and disturbances along a region influenced by the Bermuda High, a ridge of high pressure that expands and shrinks across Florida and the western Atlantic Ocean.

When the Gulf Stream slows down, coastal sea levels rise, said Sweet. Since the mid-2000s, theres a noticeable, more prolonged slowdown.

Gravity could come into play as the melt continues on Antarctica and Greenland, said Sweet. For now, the tremendous ice pulls water closer, he said. As it melts and the seas rise, the gravitational pull will be less and the water will be released to go elsewhere. Some forecasts, he said, call for it to pool higher around Florida, which will be particularly sensitive to the reduction of ice in Antarctica.

Long before flooding permanently swamps low-lying parts of Florida, Sweet said people who live along tidally influenced bodies of water, such as coastal rivers and tidal creeks, will begin experiencing rapid increases in the frequency and duration of tidal flooding. Using the mid-range scenarios, NOAA projects that could be happening by 2030-2040.

The change wont be gradual, said Sweet. Its going to be happening by leaps and bounds.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA Florida Flood Hurricane Education Universities
E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei.

Sky: Rafforzata leadership

Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018.

Sfida Serie A

Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia.
Top News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) Facial and Body Recognition Patent Application Received a Notice of Allowance

San Diego, CA - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) with GBT Tokenize Corp. ("GBT/Tokenize") received a notice of allowance for its facial and body recognition non-provisional patent application.

Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Enters into Agreement with Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most Recognized Auto Groups, to Distribute the Mullen I-GOTM in Ireland and United Kingdom

BREA, Calif. - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle manufacturer, announces today that it has entered into an agreement to appoint Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most recognized dealership groups, as marketing, sales, distribution and servicing agent for the Mullen I-GO in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) AI Driven Financial Technology Patent Application Received a Notice of Publication

San Diego, CA - November 3, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) received a notice of publication for its financial software patent application.

Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: Intellagents, a FatBrain AI (OTCQB: LZGI) Company, Announces Hiring of Insurtech Industry Veteran as Chief Revenue Officer

NEW YORK, NY - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, announces the hiring of Euan King, an experienced and respected Insurtech industry leader as Chief Revenue Officer for insurance technology-focused subsidiary Intellagents.

Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas:

Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by

Investorideas.com Newswire:

Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire
An ambulance paramedic was left stranded at a filling station in Co Laois after a disagreement with a colleague who drove off and left him 100kms from his base, writes Patrick Flynn.

The alleged incident occurred last Saturday night as two Tipperary based National Ambulance Service (NAS) paramedics were returning to their base in Clonmel, Co Tipperary after completing a patient transfer call in Dublin.

According to sources, the paramedic had expressed concern about his partners driving and asked them repeatedly to slow down.

The driving paramedic is reported to have pulled off the motorway and into a filling station in Portlaoise Co Laois and dropped their colleague off before driving away again.

After staff at the ambulance control centre were notified, an ambulance was dispatched from Roscrea in Tipperary to collect the stranded paramedic.

As a result, North Tipperary was left with depleted emergency ambulance cover for several hours while, at the same time, the county's rapid response unit was also off the road.

The Roscrea crew then transported the paramedic 50kms from Portlaoise to Urlingford on the Tipperary/Kilkenny border.

Another ambulance service member, not believed to have been on duty at the time, collected the paramedic in Urlingford and drove him to Clonmel a further 60kms away.

The HSE has not answered specific questions in relation to the matter including whether an investigation is underway; whether a formal complaint has been made about the incident or whether the staff members involved are still on duty.

A spokesperson said however: "The National Ambulance Service can confirm that on Saturday 22nd July last, a disagreement arose between two NAS Staff, at the end of their shift. Local NAS management are working with the staff to resolve the issue.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree on Tuesday formally establishing the National Council to Combat Terrorism and Extremism, which will be tasked with "mobilising institutions and the public" to counter terrorism and its causes, state news agency MENA reported.

The council, which is chaired by the presidency, will include the parliament speaker, the prime minister, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the Coptic Orthodox pope, as well as a number of ministers, including the defence, religious endowments, justice, interior and foreign ministers.

Several public figures will also be on the council, including former grand mufti Ali Gomaa, the head of the State Information Service Diaa Rahswan, writer Farouq Goweda and actor Mohamed Sobhy.

The Egyptian president first mentioned the formation of the council in a speech to the nation in mid-April following twin terrorist attacks that targeted churches in Alexandria and Tanta, killing 46 people and injuring dozens.

The council is tasked with implementing a comprehensive national strategy to combat terrorism and extremism, both at home and abroad, as well as to coordinate with religious institutions and security agencies to spread moderate religious discourse in the face of radical ideologies.

It will also be responsible for "amending existing legislation to address obstacles facing access to justice as well as facilitating coordination and cooperation between all security and political bodies and with the international community, especially neighbouring countries," according to the decree.

The council also seeks to coordinate Arab positions on terrorism-related issues, and to establish a regional inter-Arab entity to this end.

"[The council] will also take necessary legal measures against nations that support terrorism against the Egyptian state," the decree says.

The council will also suggest security plans and legal strategies and follow up on their implementation, and will hold a meeting every two months or whenever necessary, according to the decree.

In early July, a three-month nationwide state of emergency, which was first implemented in April following the church attacks, was extended by parliament.

Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency mainly concentrated in the restive northern part of Sinai. However, Islamist militants have recently carried out attacks in other parts of the country, mainly against police and army personal as well as Coptic Christian civilians.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


It is hoped that a new pharmaceutical facility in Co Roscommon could create up to 300 jobs in the future.

A total of 100 construction jobs will be created in the shorter term at the 'PriMe 6' development, just outside Athlone.
The Republican-led House of Representatives has decisively approved legislation that hits Russia with additional financial sanctions.

The new penalties are aimed at rebuking Moscow for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

Lawmakers voted 419-3 to pass the bill, which prevents President Donald Trump from waiving the sanctions against Russia without first securing permission from Congress.

The measure now heads to the Senate for action.

The bill could be sent to Mr Trump before Congress begins its August recess.

The legislation also would slap penalties on Iran and North Korea.

Mr Trump has not threatened to reject the bill, but senior administration officials had objected to the requirement for a mandated congressional review should the president attempt to ease or lift the Russia sanctions.

They argued the review infringes on the president's executive authority.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other senior administration officials had objected to a mandated congressional review should the president attempt to ease or lift the sanctions on Russia.

They have argued it would infringe on the president's executive authority and tie his hands as he explores avenues of communication and co-operation between the two former Cold War foes.

But Mr Trump's persistent overtures to Russia pushed lawmakers to include the sanctions review.

Many lawmakers view Russia as the nation's top strategic adversary and believe additional sanctions will allow the US to operate from a position of strength in any negotiations with Moscow.

Mr Trump's "rhetoric toward the Russians has been far too accommodating and conciliatory, up to this point," said Representative Charlie Dent.

"Russian behaviour has been atrocious," Mr Dent said. "They deserve these enhanced sanctions. Relations with Russia will improve when Russian behaviour changes and they start to fall back into the family of nations."

Heavy support for the bill from Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate has effectively scuttled the potential for Mr Trump to derail the legislation.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Sunday the president would sign the sanctions bill. But on Monday, Ms Sanders said Mr Trump is "going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like".

"The president very much supports sanctions on those countries but at the same time wants to be sure we get good deals," she told reporters on Air Force One. "Those two things are very important."

Signing a bill that penalises Russia in part for interfering in 2016 campaign would mark a significant shift for Mr Trump.

He has repeatedly cast doubt on the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia sought to tip the election in his favour.

He has blasted as a "witch hunt" investigations into the extent of Russia's interference and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

The North Korea-related sanctions bar ships owned by the reclusive nation or by countries that refuse to comply with UN resolutions against Pyongyang from operating in American waters or docking at US ports. Goods produced by North Korea's forced labour would be prohibited from entering the United States.

The sanctions package also imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile programme and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.
Thats the view of Julian Enoizi of Pool Reinsurance, the UK government-linked body that backstops insurers against terror payouts.

The spate of recent attacks in London and the suicide bombing of a Manchester pop concert in May highlighted shortcomings in coverage, he said. We need to close gaps such as business interruption thats not the result of physical damage and coverage of cyber terror as well as the low take-up among businesses outside of London, the Pool Re chief said.

Vehicle attacks on Westminster Bridge in March and London Bridge three months later highlighted how the industry should address the issue that motor insurance provides unlimited cover, potentially leaving insurers liable for massive payouts, he said. Pool Re was formed as a venture between the industry and government in 1993 after the bombings in London by the IRA.

The company has met more than 600m (670.6m) of claims, the largest being its 262m payout for the IRA bombing of Bishopsgate in London.

Two-and-a-half decades later, the attacks of 2017 have shown the need for Pool Re to start covering so-called non-damage business interruption, Mr Enoizi said.

Broadening cover would mean higher reinsurance premiums for Pool Res members, which include the local units of every major non-life insurer from Allianz and Aviva to Zurich.

He expects the largest claims this year to result from damage to the Manchester concert hall and interrupted business due to the closing of the nearby train station.

The Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge attacks all resulted in claims for Pool Re, Mr Enoizi said. Its still too early to tell how large these will be. We are still receiving claims.

Pool Res support means it would take a terror attack exceeding 10bn before the capacity of the UK industry was exhausted, Mr Enoizi said. Still, thats less than a third of the $43.6bn (77.4bn) insured loss from the September 11, 2001 attacks  the costliest terror-insurance claim in history.
Jay Choudury, aged 28, of Garrane Darra, Wilton, Cork, pleaded guilty to the offence which was carried out on March 23, 2016, at Cork City Library.

Inspector Gary McPolin said: The file relates to an attempted sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl that occurred at the library on that date.

The complainant reported that she was hugged and kissed by an unknown male when she was visiting the library.

CCTV at the scene captured a male matching the description given and the male was later identified as Jay Choudury.

He was subsequently arrested and detained in relation to this incident and made full admissions in relation to his involvement in the incident that was recorded on DVD.

Judge Aingil Ni Chonduin said that prior to the imposition of sentence, she wanted to see a probation report on the defendant.

The judge warned the accused that there should be no adverse reports from gardai about his behaviour. Judge Ni Chonduin said that if the accused fell at his first hurdle the gardai had liberty to re-enter the case within 48 hours.

Otherwise, Choudury was told he should co-operate with the probation service in the preparation of the report. The judge remanded him in custody until September 28 for sentencing.

Defence solicitor, Eddie Burke, said the accused now realised that he could not behave in the way that he did in the library and that his actions were totally inappropriate.

He struck up a conversation with her. They were talking about cats. He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, said Mr Burke.

There was a brief conversation about an exchange of phone numbers. But the girl got frightened and ran off.

There was no actual exchange of phone numbers on the occasion. We notified the State of the plea of guilty that was being entered to this charge so the young girl would have been told that there was no need to come to court to give evidence.
GET INFORMED ...

IRELAND: Jury finds Alan Cawley guilty of double murder of two elderly brothers in Mayo

IRELAND: Water supply in north-east may not come back until weekend, says Irish Water

IRELAND: Horrible experience for family fleeing domestic abuse

ANALYSIS: Sad and sadly inevitable conclusion to case of Charlie Gard

WORLD: Man gets 18 years for battering boy, 5, to death over lost shoe

BUSINESS: Dublin Port sees rise in trade figures

SPORT: Kenedy sent home from Chelsea's pre-season over social media posts

... SOME DISTRACTION

VIRAL: When nobody came to this soon-to-be mums baby shower the internet had the best response

ENTERTAINMENT: Glastonbury's replacment festival is coming to Ireland

VIRAL: A family from Muff in Donegal appeared on Family Fortunes AU and this happened
This scenario was outlined at Cork District Court by Insp Gary McPolin.

Danius Brazdzionus, aged 46, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of resisting Garda Ross McCabe at the scene of the domestic incident at 2am on May 29.

The inspector said, that on a scale of one to 10, the obstruction of the guard ranked at five.

Judge Aingil Ni Chonduin referred to that rating of the incident and decided that a fine of 500 was appropriate in the circumstances.

Deirdre Wilson, defence solicitor, said that all of the defendants difficulties stemmed from alcohol and he had undergone treatment for chronic alcohol addiction.

Ms Wilson said that the accused was very regretful and that the behaviour was largely out of character. She said that the accused was working and that his wife was present in court with him yesterday to support him.

The accused had several previous convictions, including one for assault.
The warnings were issued at a meeting of the Cork City and County joint policing committee (JPC).

A number of students, both Irish and from abroad, were duped into paying sizeable deposits to people who did not own properties they were intending to rent.

Chief Supt Gerard Dillane said he wanted to advise students and their parents to be vigilant of the scam as they start looking for rental properties in the city ahead of the new college year at CIT and UCC.

This happened last year and we want to warn people that these con artists could do it again, said the senior officer.

Bogus owners were advertising much sought-after accommodation near the third-level colleges on Facebook, DoneDeal, Gumtree and via classified adverts in some newspapers.

Some of the ads even included pictures of the properties.

Gardai have advised students not to hand over any money until they have seen the interior of the property and if possible talked to other tenants to ensure the person saying they are the owner actually is.

In certain cases last year, students were actually shown the inside of properties by the con artists and thats why gardai say it is important to try and talk to other residents to establish the true identity of the owner.

They have warned people never to send a cash transfer via Western Union or wire transfers because it will be virtually impossible to trace the recipient.

Instead, they say money should be sent only to a bank account, which would provide some traceability.

Chief Supt Dillane also warned farmers in particular about a wave of thefts of farm machinery and a craze for stealing quad bikes from outside farms.

He said thieves were targeting garden sheds as well, especially in rural areas, taking strimmers and lawnmowers which they would then sell on.

The senior officer added that farmers needed to do more to secure their property and should not leave valuable equipment stored in unsecured locations away from the inhabited area of the property.

While property theft is not a high as it was two years ago, it is beginning to climb again, which a number of councillors on the JPC described as disappointing.

Overall reported thefts of property from April to June this year stood at 1,519, up from 1,343 during the same period in 2016.

In addition, there has also been an increase in the unauthorised taking of vehicles and thefts of property from them.

From April to June this year there were 191 reported thefts in the city and county of property from vehicles.

This was up from 129 in the comparable period last year.

Reports of stolen cars also rose from 69 to 95.

Bicycle owners were also hit as thefts of bicycles increased from 52 to 71. The majority of thefts occurred in the city centre.
Britain on Wednesday lifted its warning against "all but essential travel" to Tunisia, two years after a shooting spree by a Islamist militant attacker at a beach hotel in which 30 British tourists were killed.

"This update reflects our latest assessment that the risk to British nationals in Tunisia has changed," Alistair Burt, junior foreign minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

"This is in part due to the security improvements that the Tunisian authorities and tourist industry have made since the tragic terrorist attacks in 2015, with support from the UK and international partners."

While Britain revised its travel advice for virtually all of Tunisia's Mediterranean coastline, it continues to warn against all or all but essential travel to southern and western regions.

These areas are mostly on Tunisia's borders with Libya and Algeria, where Tunisian authorities have been fighting smugglers and Islamist militants.

Gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 people, including 30 British tourists and three Irish citizens, in a shooting spree in June 2015 at the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel on the coast in Sousse, Tunisia.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

A British inquest criticised the Tunisian police response to the massacre as "at best shambolic, at worst cowardly".

Tunisia's economy is heavily dependent on tourism and authorities have repeatedly asked for the warning to be lifted.

Before the beach attack, more than 400,000 British tourists visited Tunisia annually.

But last year just 20,000 British visitors were recorded, official Tunisian figures show.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Chief Justice Susan Denham said concerns over social media were widespread and real and that new laws were needed.

Her comments follow concerns during the Jobstown trial over the use of social media by supporters of the seven defendants and the use of Twitter by defendant Paul Murphy TD, who even received a warning about his tweets from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Speaking at the launch of the Courts Service Annual Report 2016, Ms Justice Denham said the fundamental right to a fair trial needed to be protected.

She is sending a draft discussion paper this week to the presidents of the various courts in a bid to draw up rules on the area.

Concerns over social media are widespread and real, said Chief Justice Denham. There are genuine concerns over the dissemination of false claims.

She said, to date, it had been rare for courts in Ireland to use contempt of court laws to curb inaccurate and disruptive online communications about cases.

Speaking days before her retirement, she said it would be naive not to plan for the future in this area.

There are several areas we need to address in protecting the right to a fair trial of an individual in this era of social media.

The fundamental right to a fair trial does not change in the face of any new means of communication. Rules can and must reflect the new reality of same.

She highlighted three stages to the process:

Consider draft guidelines regarding the who, when and what of using social media in courtrooms;

Discuss with those who use social media in and around courts about the guidelines;

Look at legal reform to take cognisance of the reality of social media.

In this regard, she said, I will this week send to the presidents of each court a draft discussion paper on guidelines on the use of social media in the courts.

I will ask the Courts Service to engage with the media and legal profession on this issue.

Also speaking at the launch, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan welcomed the review and said it would support a similar examination he had initiated after the Jobstown trial.

The Jobstown defendants were declared not guilty last month.

This is an issue that has arisen on a number of occasions in recent times, he said. I want to acknowledge the importance of what the chief justice has said and I am keen to have a review with a particular reference to the applications of social media in civil law on the matter of contempt of court.

A couple of days after the trial ended, Mr Flanagan said he was keen to review the area, saying courts must operate without any undue influence or duress.

Yesterday, he added: I look forward to working closely with the Courts Service in order to ensure any recommendations that may be forthcoming will be acted upon and Im reviewing the law at the moment in that area because I think its important that the law keeps pace with advances in technology and we ensure that everybody is entitled on all occasions to a free and fair trial without outside influence.

Legal sources said that guidelines have been produced in the UK and the US, including on directing jurors regarding their use of social media and controlling usage in the courtroom.

One of the issues is who can or should use social media in court, said a source. If they can use it, when they can use it, and what they can say.

In some countries, only bona fide members of the press and lawyers are allowed to use social media  everyone else is prohibited.

Since 2011 in England and Wales, if a member of the public wants to use live text-based communications, such as email and social media, in court, they must make an application to a judge.

The rule does not apply to the media.

Last year guidelines were issued by the Lord Chief Justices office in Northern Ireland that members of the public could not use social media or email from court.
The commitment came yesterday from Fiona Monaghan, who heads up the Wild Atlantic Way project for Failte Ireland.

She met in Courtmacsherry yesterday with a campaign committee representing a number of villages on the Seven Heads peninsula, located between Clonakilty and Kinsale.

Minister of state for tourism Brendan Griffin and West Cork-based minister of state for health Jim Daly were among the politicians present.

Ms Monaghan, joined by Failte Ireland programme manager Josephine ODriscoll and colleague Marie Healy, said: We had a very engaging and robust discussion with representatives of the Campaign to include the Seven Heads on the WAW.

Were very heartened by their energy and enthusiasm and by the number of things to do and see in this area, so we are committed to come back and meet with the local interests again in the next couple of weeks.

We will forensically look at this stretch of the coast with a view to seeing how it could be possibly included when we do the review of the Wild Atlantic Way in early 2018.

Both ministers also backed other politicians and councillors in supporting the local campaign committee.

The major tourist route skips the entire peninsula but runs through the village of Timoleague, 3km from Courtmacsherry.

Mr Daly said he was pleased by a commitment by Failte Ireland to review the route by early 2018.

He said his colleague Mr Griffin had asked Failte Ireland to engage with Cork County Council and the local campaign committee to ensure there were no obstacles to inclusion of the route on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Kerry-based Mr Griffin said: I want to see the Seven Heads route included on the Wild Atlantic Way, its a spectacular part of the country  it will enhance the locality and enhance the visitor experience as well.

We had a very constructive meeting with the campaign committee. It is important that we have local communities trying to develop tourism from the ground up  thats the approach we need to take as a country.

Local committee chairman, Barry Holland, said: The outcome of the meeting was good, we certainly were able to make a very strong case about why the Seven Heads should be included on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Committee member Mark Gannon said: Were very thankful for the visit of both ministers who are very supportive.

We are a bit disappointed that Fiona Monaghan wouldnt commit to saying that the peninsula would be added but she did commit to meeting us in two weeks time, and were hopeful she will make a decision then to add us to the Wild Atlantic Way  there is no reason why she shouldnt.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," the Republican president wrote.

The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military in 2016 under Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. It was expected to start allowing transgender people to begin enlisting this year, provided they had been "stable" in their preferred gender for 18 months.

Last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved a six-month delay in allowing transgender recruits to join the U.S. armed forces.

The delay alarmed transgender advocates.

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter cited a study by the RAND Corporation think tank saying there were about 2,500 transgender active-duty service members and 1,500 reserve transgender service members.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The enterprise still seems a bit leery about blockchain, although it isnt for lack of trying among solutions providers who say it can help with everything from ecommerce to back-office workflow processing.

The digital ledger technology that has led to the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum is also capable of providing an open, nearly unbreakable record of virtually any other kind of transaction, whether it is an exchange of code on a development project or updates to a user profile. This is what makes it such a compelling tool for the enterprise: Virtually anything that needs to be tracked through time and verified as accurate up to the present can utilize blockchain.

Still, the technologys reputation as an enabler for swindlers, drug dealers and terrorists has placed a high bar on its acceptance into the enterprise, something a number of organizations are hoping to overcome.

Think of blockchains effect on digital transactions as equivalent to Googles effect on search, says Victor Wong, CEO of blockchain applications management developer BlockApps. In a recent interview with Enterprisers Project, he noted that Google prioritizes its results, in part at least, on the number of links it has. The thinking is that more links indicates more useful information for a greater number of people. Blockchain works the same by verifying data, and any changes to that data, on multiple sites around the world. With perhaps hundreds, even thousands, of databases all checking against one another at the same time, the network itself becomes that chief guard against tampering.

To create this network of blockchains, however, the data industry will need a way to connect the individual blockchains housed on private networks. Thats what a company called Nuco hopes to do. Created by former Deloitte employees, that company has developed the Aion platform that acts as a bridge between disparate blockchains so data can be transferred securely from one to another. The system uses a token-based incentive system to get parties to validate transactions and contribute resources to the environment, while at the same time provide a voting system to oversee governance and future development.

Meanwhile, a company called The Bitfury Group has created the Exonum development framework to give the enterprise a hand when it comes to creating customized blockchain applications. Utilizing a combination of snapshots to anchor projects like Bitcoin and the Rust programming language, as well as smart contract management derived from intelligent business logic, Exonum is said to provide a secure, high-performance mechanism to quickly push applications and services into production environments. Source code is available on Github.

But probably the biggest confidence-builder for blockchain is the fact that trusted IT vendors like Microsoft are embracing it as well. Inside Bitcoins reports that the company recently outlined an ambitious strategy to incorporate Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) into the Azure cloud. The platform uses the Ethereum project and the Solidity programming language for both test and deployment of blockchain apps. The company is initially looking at financial institutions and insurance providers to test the system, but it expects use cases in manufacturing, health care and other industries before long. The company has also pledged support for other projects, including Chain Core, Hyperledger and Quora.

Blockchain is so new, and so revolutionary, that the enterprise can be forgiven for wanting to tread lightly. But it is also one of those technologies that has the potential to pull the rug out from under long-established business models, giving start-ups a strong wedge to break into established industries.

Its probably too soon to say definitively whether blockchain will help or hurt a given enterprise, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on.

Arthur Cole writes about infrastructure for IT Business Edge. Cole has been covering the high-tech media and computing industries for more than 20 years, having served as editor of TV Technology, Video Technology News, Internet News and Multimedia Weekly. His contributions have appeared in Communications Today and Enterprise Networking Planet and as web content for numerous high-tech clients like TwinStrata and Carpathia. Follow Art on Twitter @acole602.
Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus.
The bodies of 25 people, including 17 members of a single family, were pulled from the mud Wednesday as the death toll from major flooding in India climbed towards 120, an official said.

Authorities found the bodies in two villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district, Gujarat, as floodwaters receded, said assistant superintendent of police Aksharaj Makwana.

"In all 25 bodies were fished out from two villages on the bank of Banas river," he told AFP.

Local police said earlier 17 of the dead found in Kharia village were from one family.

A senior Gujarati government official, Pankaj Kumar, said 2655 stranded villagers had been rescued from Banaskantha district, with at least 260 airlifted to safey by India's Air Force.

Gujarat's state emergency authority said Wednesday at least 12 other bodies were found overnight as rescue crews sifted through communities devastated by heavy monsoon flooding.

The official death toll from the floods in India's westernmost state stands at 119, with more than 36,000 people evacuated to safe areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies Tuesday, urging people across his home state to remain resilient.

Apart from Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In Assam at least 75 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A UN helicopter crashed in northern Mali on Wednesday in an apparent accident while serving with the 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in the country, a UN source told AFP.

"One of our helicopters crashed in northern Mali today... This was an accident. We will release the toll later," the source in the northern city of Gao said.

The UN source added that "nothing at this stage" would suggest the aircraft "was hit or shot at". Northern Mali is the site of frequent fighting between armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

The United Nations force, known as MINUSMA, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission.

In 2012, Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on civilians, the Malian army as well as on UN and French forces.

Previously two Dutch UN peacekeepers died in 2015 when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamists killed 10 people in an ambush on an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, the army said Wednesday.

"Suspected Boko Haram terrorists ambushed the escort and team of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) staff returning from oil exploration" in the Magumeri area of Borno state on Tuesday afternoon, said army spokesman Sani Usman in a statement.

"So far, they have rescued all the NNPC staff and recovered the corpses of the officer, eight soldiers and a civilian who have been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital," Usman said.

"The troops are not relenting in the pursuit, search and rescue effort."

Initially, it was believed that Boko Haram had kidnapped the 10 oil workers, who had been contracted to carry out research work on oil exploration activities in the Lake Chad basin.

But the latest information appears to show that Boko Haram launched an ambush, resulting in a pitched battle between Nigerian security forces and the jihadists.

Exploration has started in Nigeria's inland basins, ranging from central Benue state to Boko Haram's heartland in the northeast.

But insecurity caused by the eight-year Islamist insurgency has disrupted work.

Boko Haram has killed over 20,000 people since it took up arms against the Nigerian government in 2009.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
POLICE are investigating an incident where an 80 year old Isle of Wight woman handed over 220 to two suspected rogue traders.

Two men were seen on Meadow Way in Sandown yesterday (Tuesday) at around 10am.

The victim agreed to pay the men 100 to clean her conservatory and gutters after they knocked on her front door.

The two men later presented the woman with a bill for 220 which she paid in cash, stating she felt intimidated.

One of the men was described as small, the other as chunky.

A 16 year old boy from Warwickshire and a 20 year-old man from Wales were later arrested on suspicion of committing fraud by false representation in relation to the investigation.

They have been released from custody, but remain under investigation.

Anyone with information, or who saw anything suspicious, in the area can contact police staff investigator Laure Taylor at Newport Police Station by calling 101 quoting 44170286286, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, where information can be left anonymously.

The police have since issued crime prevention device:
Egypts foreign reserves are now close to $35 billion, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced during a question-and-answer forum at the Fourth National Youth conference in Alexandria on Monday.

I am doing my best, Egyptians. Are you fulfilling your duties? El-Sisi said, addressing the attendees and television audience.

Earlier this month, the Central Bank of Egypt continued to climb, registering $31.305 billion at the end of June.

The reserves have been climbing since Egypt signed an agreement for a three-year $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 2017.

Reserves have increased from $28.641 billion at the end of April to $31.125 billion at the end of May.

The president's estimate of current reserves is close to the $36 billion in foreign reserves Egypt held before the 2011 uprising.

The popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 led to a period of political turmoil that dried up Egypt's vital sources of foreign currency, such as tourism and foreign investment.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Despite Israels 5th election in four years, it remains a beacon of democracy and freedom

The Israeli elections are fast approaching. On November 1, Israelis go back to the polls for the fifth round of elections in less than four...

What is a Jew? Israeli museum attempts an answer

JERUSALEMI was on a short visit to Israel and spent time with a friend with whom I have been engaged in a 30-year argument. Elli...
Not only has Israel usurped 87% of the Palestinian water but deprived them from their right to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque as well

Israel seizes 87% of our water and wants to sell us sea water in return

Israels illegitimate diversion of the River Jordan was the main reason behind the rising the tensions that ended fifty years ago with Israel's launching the June 1967 aggression on Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupying the remaining Palestinian lands; the West Bank and Gaza. The majority of the youth generations does not know this and definitely cannot remember it.

What the world ignores is the fact that Israel's diversion of the River Jordan's water has reduced the water flowing into the Dead Sea, one of the World Heritage Sites, from 1400 million cubic meters annually to less than 30 million cubic meters.

For Israel has diverted 500 million cubic meters from the River Jordan's water to the Negev Desert so as to develop its settlements there and diverted other million cubic meters in order to meet additional demands without caring at all about the others' needs.

Thus, Israel has encroached on the water rights of Jordan, the Palestinians and Syria and created the problem of the Dead Sea dryness and the danger of its disappearance. This in its turn was used as a justification for the Two Seas Canal Project.

The important matter here is that, according to international treaties, the West Bank Palestinians' water rights in the River Jordan reaches up to 250 million cubic meters which Israel grabs it totally.

As for what's most important, the West Bank's water sources are equivalent to one thousand million cubic meters annually coming from both River Jordan and the underground water which are fed with rainwater.

According to specialised sources, this amount of water is enough to meet the Palestinian needs in the occupied lands for fifty years based on a consumption rate reaching 170 liters per person annually.

In reality, Israel through the force of military occupation seizes 87% of the Palestinian water in the occupied lands and devotes a large portion of it to illegal settlements. The Palestinians are obliged to buy a huge amount of their water, which Israel has usurped. Most Palestinian consumers pay double the sum paid by the Israelis in average.

In other words, Israel seizes 87% of our natural fresh water or about 870 million cubic meters annually and wants to sell us now 32 million cubic meters of desalinated sea water in return to exorbitant sums, according to the Two Seas Canal Agreement. How strange, some people see this as an achievement!

The Israeli settlements have depleted Gaza sector's ground water before leaving and through constructing dams holding the rainwater falling on the Hebron Mountains, Israel has prevented it from reaching the Gaza Sectors basins.

Thus, 97% of Gazas water became saline as well as the collapse of the sewerage system caused most of it to be polluted.

As for the West Bank, Palestinians arent allowed to use more than 50 cubic meters annually, while illegal settlers are permitted to consume what amounts to 2400 cubic meters annually i.e. forty eight times to what the Palestinian consumes. This is one of characteristics of the racial discrimination regime which the occupation has established.

Hence, several villages and towns suffer from repeated water outages during hot summer days and some of which endure the outages for two months or more.

Even in the city of Ramallah, water isnt available in most of the houses for more than once or twice a week.

Without ending the occupation and the Palestinians getting their human and water rights, neither the Two Seas Canal will benefit them, nor will it meet their strategic needs.

After the recent Jerusalem operation, Netanyahu attempted to deceive the world through claiming that it will not change the reality of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, he has actually changed it years ago. Therefore, he is depriving 90% of the Palestinians from the right to reach it and pray inside it. He will continue to change the reality in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa along with all whats related to water sources as long as the international community is trying to adapt to his aggressive policies instead of confronting them.

The writer is Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


By continuing to browse or by clicking "Accept," you agree to our site's privacy policy.
I received many comments on last weeks column about those jailed for protesting the Tiran and Sanafir agreement with Saudi Arabia and my urging for their release and the dismissal of the cases against them.

Some comments were supportive, defending the prisoners freedom, while others were more circumspect, arguing that they broke the law and must bear the consequences, because the law must be applied to everyone equally.

I thank everyone who chimed in, whether in agreement or dissent, and I also fully appreciate the need to enforce the law without bias or discrimination. But there are three factors that should be considered when discussing the case of those detained in connection with the islands agreement.

First, the protest law, which was the basis for the arrest of those demonstrating against the agreement, has been controversial since its inception because it violates the constitutional right of free expression and peaceful protest.

In fact, the Supreme Constitutional Court last year found some articles of the law unconstitutional, holding that peaceful protest is an inalienable right. Although the House of Representatives quickly amended the law, the changes in my view fell short and did not correct the fundamental flaw in it, which is that it makes peaceful protest a crime.

The key word here, by the way, is peaceful, which must be the standard by which we judge. If someone takes a demonstration as the opportunity to attack people or property, that person commits other crimes punishable by criminal law and should not be considered a peaceful protestor.

Second, several of the those imprisoned for protesting the agreement face charges that go beyond simply demonstrating without a permitfor example, joining underground organizations. But in fact they are members of lawful political parties with known offices, official member rolls, and public positions.

Blurring legal lines like this when prosecuting opponents of state policies severely damages justice and state credibility, and its unfortunately a decades-long tradition in the state playbook: if you want to pursue your opponents, you bring a slew of sweeping charges in the hope that one of them will stick.

So, yes, its true that the law should be applied equally to all without discrimination, but it is similarly true that the law must be applied judiciously, not selectively against state dissidents and so broadly as to undermine justice. And this point applies equally to the islands protesters and to all cases in which political opponents have faced arbitrary charges.

The third consideration is appropriateness. The state makes a serious error when it treats young people demonstrating in defense of national, territorial sovereignty like common criminals. In the end, the state got its wish: parliament approved the agreement and the president ratified it despite popular anger.

How can those in power not see that continuing to imprison the protestors while other people who committed all manner of other crimes are released is a grave affront to the state? Taking into account appropriateness before cases reach the courts is not inconsistent with the fair application of the law, for criminal procedural codes provide ample margin for just these kinds of considerations.

The state should reassess, not only Yehia case of protestors against the islands treaty, but everyone who has been imprisoned simply for expressing their opinion.

No matter how unpopular or crude such expressions might be, in the end they are still expression, not assault, vandalism, or terrorism. Blurring these lines ultimately serves the interests of the real criminals, putting them in the same basket with patriotic young people who care about their country.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


BB&T board declares 3-cent increase in dividend

The board of directors of BB&T Corp. declared Tuesday a quarterly common stock cash dividend of 33 cents, a 3-cent increase over the previous dividend.

The dividend is payable Sept. 1 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 11. The company said June 28 it would raise the dividend as part of getting Federal Reserve approval of its latest capital plan.

BB&T had 808 million shares of common stock as of June 30. It has paid a cash dividend to shareholders of its common stock every year since 1903.

The bank also said June 28 it would consider spending up to $1.88 billion on share repurchases, beginning in the third quarter. The bank said July 20 it would spend $920 million on share repurchases during the third quarter.

A company typically buys back its shares from the marketplace to reduce the number of outstanding stock shares. Because there are fewer outstanding shares, those remaining can become more valuable. Companies also buy back shares when they believe the shares are undervalued.

Richard Craver

Mortgage fees, profits down for Surrey Bancorp

Surrey Bancorp reported a 16.1 percent decrease in second-quarter net income to $917,000.

The Mount Airy bank said Tuesday net income was $962,480 when excluding a $46,000 preferred stock dividend payment. Diluted earnings were 23 cents, down 4 cents from a year ago.

Loan revenue rose 9.9 percent to $2.87 million. The bank had a $136,000 recovery to its loan-loss provision compared with adding $137,000 a year ago.

Fee revenue dropped 35.8 percent to $603,236. The bank had a gain of $315,754 a year ago from tax-exempt life insurance proceeds. The bank also reported a decline in mortgage loan fees in the second quarter.

Total assets were $283.8 million on June 30, up from $262.6 million on June 30, 2016.

Richard Craver

Snyder-Lance plans to cut 250 jobs, close Fla. plant

Snyder-Lance Inc. unveiled a restructuring plan Tuesday that will lead to the closure of its chips plant in Perry, Fla., by Sept. 30, and the elimination of 250 employees companywide.

The job cuts will take place this week, the Charlotte company said.

John Maples has been named as chief customer officer, effective immediately. He is being promoted from president of its Direct Sales division.

This is a required first step to improve our financial performance, balancing costs and expected levels of profitability in a very competitive environment, said Brian Driscoll, the companys president and chief executive.

We will provide a comprehensive overview of the multi-year transformation plan when we report our second quarter financial results on Aug. 8.

Richard Craver

Maine may restrict tobacco sales to age 21

A bill in Maine to raise the age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who hasnt indicated if hell sign the bill.

The bill would take effect in July 2018 and also apply to electronic smoking devices.

Maine could become the fourth state with an age-21 restriction, along with California, Hawaii and Oregon.

Retailers argued it would drive tobacco sales to New Hampshire and said adults should be allowed to purchase legal products. Such groups argue kids will always find a way to access tobacco products.

The Associated Press
Keiper named spirit ambassador

Jordan Keiper of Winston-Salem, formerly a manager/co-owner of The Tavern in Old Salem, has been named the N.C. Spirit Ambassador, to support the growing N.C. craft distillery industry.

Keiper has been hired by a group of about 20 N.C. distilleries to promote the industry in the state and work with restaurants, bars and employees to expand the use of North Carolina distilled spirits. His duties will include special events and tastings.

Keiper is a graduate of the culinary program at Guilford Technical Community College and for the last five years has helped run the bar and dining room at The Tavern in Old Salem. Before taking on this new job, Keiper had been considered an unofficial ambassador for N.C. distilleries because he spent much of his free time supporting them and advocating for them.

For more information, contact Keiper at Jordan@sippingnc.ws or 336-287-4348.

Chick-fil-A tests

meal kits

Chick-fil-A is testing family meal kits in Greensboro and two other cities nationwide.

Family Style Meals will be available through Nov. 18 in Greensboro, Phoenix and San Antonio.

The Family Style Meals include one entree, two sides and eight mini rolls to serve four people with the option to add additional entrees, shareable sides and beverages. Plates, utensils and condiments are also included.

The entrees can be Chick-n-Strip (12-count); Original Chick-fil-A Chicken Breasts (4-count); Chick-fil-A Nuggets (30-count) and Grilled Chicken Breasts (4-count).

Sides include bacon baked beans, fruit cup, mac n cheese, side salad and the superfood side.

The Family Style Meals includes lower-calorie meals. For example, a meal with Grilled Chicken Breasts, Side Salad and Fruit Cup with two Mini Rolls has less than 300 calories per serving.

The Family Style Meal starts at $29.99.

The company said that it will evaluate customer feedback from the test period to decide whether to add Family Style Meals to menus nationwide.

Cheerwine Kreme

set to return

Cheerwine and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are bringing back Cheerwine Kreme, a collaborative soda that debuted as a limited-edition product last year.

Cheerwine Kreme is available through September in 2-Liter and 20 ounce bottles in major grocery chains and select convenience stores in North Carolina and South Carolina, and online at Cheerwine.com.

Cheerwine Kreme tastes mostly like Cheerwine but is slightly different.

In a review of the soda last year, the Winston-Salem Journal found that Cheerwine Kreme had less cherry flavor and less punch than the original Cheerwine, and did not taste like a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut.

Cheerwine is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, and Krispy Kreme is celebrating its 80th.
WASHINGTON  Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted to proceed with debate on Republicans efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, keeping alive their partys attempt to keep a long-standing campaign promise.

Republicans needed ailing Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who recently was diagnosed with brain cancer, to return to Washington to get to 50 votes, allowing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote to move forward with debate. Two Republicans  Maines Susan Collins and Alaskas Lisa Murkowski  voted against the motion to proceed as did all 48 senators who caucus with Democrats.

I am glad the Senate has finally begun to build a solution to the health care crisis facing our nation. This debate will allow each and every senator the opportunity to bring forward their ideas for consideration through an unlimited amendment process, Burr said in a statement after the vote. It is my hope that at the end of this process we will pass legislation fulfilling our promise to the American people: repealing and replacing Obamacare.

What happens next is still somewhat uncertain.

After 20 hours of debate, the Senate is expected to vote on a complete repeal of the 2010 health-care overhaul that was President Barack Obamas signature domestic achievement. The vote is expected to fall short of 50 votes.

The Senate could then vote on its own replacement bill  the Better Care Reconciliation Act  but that would need 60 votes after a procedural ruling by the Senate parliamentarian.

Once that fails, the Senate could move on to a lesser repeal, cherry-picking parts of the ACA for elimination that could muster 50 votes, like the individual mandate to buy health insurance, the mandate for companies of a certain size to cover employees and taxes on medical devices.

If that so-called skinny repeal passes the upper chamber, Senate and House members could come together to work out differences between bills in each chamber.

Over the last several years, Obamacare has hit hardworking North Carolina families with skyrocketing premiums and fewer choices, while small businesses have struggled to comply with the laws costly and burdensome regulations, Tillis said. The status quo of Obamacare is unsustainable, and todays procedural vote sets the stage for an open amendment process where all senators  Republicans and Democrats alike  will be able to put forward their ideas to reform our nations health care system.

Republicans have campaigned against the ACA since its passage. But after gaining full control of Congress and the White House in November, theyve found turning those slogans into action difficult. The House needed multiple attempts to pass its American Health Care Act, and the Senate has been stymied by a lack of cohesion among its members.

More than 22 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 under the versions of the Senate bills analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office.

None of the Republicans health-care proposals have been very popular with voters. Some are polling at percentages in the teens. Democrats are eager to use the votes as fodder in the next election, much as Republicans ran against the unpopular Obamacare  which has, as McCain pointed out in a Senate speech after the vote, gained in popularity as the Republican alternatives have been debated.

No matter which bill moves forward, millions of North Carolinians will lose health insurance. Thousands will die because of it. Medicaid will be gutted, and those suffering from opioid addiction will be left to fight on their own, said Wayne Goodwin, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Our nations doctors, patient advocates, business leaders, health insurers, and the American people have all rejected these cruel bills. If Senators Burr and Tillis dont do the same, theyll have to answer to the North Carolina people.
At the age of 75, I'm coming to realize that I may never know for certain what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on their round-the-world flight that disappeared in the South Pacific in July 1937. I have been in love with her forever and it's painful to have no resolution, only the same old theories. Like Hansel and Gretel disappear into the woods and some think they got baked by the witch and others think they were deadly allergic to gingerbread containing glutens. I like to think Amelia was rescued by Howard Hughes and lived with him secretly at the Royal Flush in Las Vegas, had a child, and gave him up for adoption by my parents John and Grace Keillor in Anoka, Minnesota, but it's a theory based on alternative facts and has been suppressed until now.

A recent TV documentary tries to prove she crashed and was captured by the Japanese and it brings forth a blurry photograph of a dock on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands and a slight woman with short-cropped hair sitting, her back to the camera, a hundred feet away, who purportedly is our Amelia. We want it to be her, but it could also be your Aunt Sadie of Schenectady. Meanwhile, a Japanese gentleman comes along to say he spotted that very photograph in a book published in 1935, two years before the flight.

It is hard to believe that one of the most famous women in the world could walk away from a crash in a populated area, then vanish without anyone taking note. Very hard.

I can live with the mystery of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance -- he's gone, it's done, bada bing bada boom. I don't care about the identity of Jack the Ripper. I am satisfied that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that day in Dallas. It matters little if Edward de Vere or Christopher Marlowe or the Duke of Earl wrote Shakespeare's plays, let's just enjoy them. My faith in the Resurrection does not depend on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Bigfoot is a fake, ditto the Loch Ness Monster. D.B. Cooper died; parachutes are no cinch for jumping out of a jetliner and into a national forest. Stonehenge is a circle of ancient stone blocks erected by some people for some purpose, probably religious: I don't need to know any more.

But I need to know about Amelia. She was a sweetheart, a Kansas tomboy who was not out to make a statement so much as she simply loved to fly and feel the wind in her hair. In newsreels, she grins as she climbs out of cockpits, a dashing feminist in the Age of Dowagers. She wore pants. She was lithe and limber. She enjoyed her fame. She flew solo across the Atlantic, solo from Hawaii to California, she was the forerunner of the spirited feminists we've known and loved, who bore no grudge against men but prevailed thanks to wit and smarts and perseverance and a terrific smile.

OK, she was not a great pilot. She was careless at times. She was a self-promoter who married her publicity guy and agent. She used her fame to pitch Lucky Strike cigarettes, Beech-Nut chewing gum, Longines watches, Mobil Oil and her own line of women's clothing. She was no Dorothy Day or Pearl Buck.

I forgive her all of that for her gumption, her ebullient spirit in the midst of the Great Depression, and also for the fact that, in 1913, when she was 17, she lived in St. Paul, a few blocks from where I live, and attended Central High, as her alcoholic father struggled to hold onto his job at the Great Northern Railroad.

In fact, 1913 was the year my dad was born. I am not putting forth the theory that the 17-year-old Amelia moved to St. Paul to hide her pregnancy and that she gave up the boy to my grandparents Dora and James Keillor of Anoka, but the truth is that Dad was more glamorous than anyone else in his family, obviously an import. He had a big romance with my mother and they eloped in 1937, the year the plane went down. Mere coincidence? We may never know for sure. The past is wreathed in shadows as we fly on into the mists, looking for an island that according to our maps is somewhere out ahead and if not, we will be swallowed up by history. May it be kind to us all.
An Egyptian court sentenced 43 individuals to life in prison Tuesday for crimes of vandalism, rioting and attacking Egyptian authorities. The acts for which the protesters were convicted took place in 2011, among an outbreak of demonstrations against then-president Hosni Mubarak [BBC profile]. The defendants were also fined [Reuters report] 17 million Egyptian pounds. Ten other protesters were handed down lesser sentences of five or ten years, 96 protesters were acquitted of their charges. The convicted parties may appeal their sentences.

The Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder] sparked a string of legal proceedings, many of which are still playing out. In April a Cairo criminal court sentenced [JURIST report] Muslim Brotherhood [BBC backgrounder] leader Wagdy Ghoneim to death, in absentia. In March Mubarak was released from prison after six years in custody after he was acquitted [JURIST reports] in a retrial of charges that he killed protesters during the civil uprising in 2011 that ended his 30-year reign. In January Egyptian activist and youth leader Ahmed Maher, known for his role in the 2011 revolution against the former president, was released [JURIST report] from prison following his arrest in 2013.
Philadelphia, 07/26/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/

If you have a dog, youre in good company. The ASPCA says there are about 78 million four-legged companions in the United States, and approximately 44 percent of American households have a furry family member. And while most dogs are well-behaved and safe, they are still animals with an animals instincts to protect, defend, and lash out when they perceive theyre being threatened.

Unfortunately, dog bite injuries are among the most devastating types of personal injuries. A dogs teeth can tear skin, penetrate muscle, and destroy nerves. According to NPR, dog bite injuries are also on the rise  especially among postal workers.

Online Shopping and Dog Bite Injuries

What do online shopping and dog bite injuries have to do with each other? It may sound like the opening of a joke, but its no laughing matter.

According to an NPR report, dog attacks among postal workers have jumped in the past year. The culprit? A growing number of Americans shopping online instead of at retail stores. The USPS says its workers suffered 6,755 dog bite injuries in 2016, which is 200 more than in the previous year.

Certain cities experienced more postal worker dog bite attacks than others. For example, there were 80 dog bite attacks in Los Angeles. Other cities with a sharp increase in dog bite attacks include Houston, San Diego, and Louisville.

Dog bites are also on the rise among UPS workers, who suffered 900 dog bites in 2016.

What You Can Do to Avoid a Dog Bite Attack

Whether youre an animal lover or prefer to remain pet-free, its a fact that nearly half of U.S. households own a dog. For this reason, its important to be vigilant whenever youre around dogs or other types of animals.

The ASPCA recommends the following tips:

Know dog body language  Learn to recognize the signs of an aggressive dog. Dogs who feel threatened will put their ears back, show their teeth, and bark. They may even wag their tails, which can be confusing, as many dogs also wag their tails when theyre happy.

Keep kids in sight  Never allow a child to play with a dog unattended. Small children dont always understand the difference between a playful and an irritated dog. Even if the dog is a family pet, make sure youre nearby if a child is interacting with a dog.

Teach kids the proper way to react  It is human instinct to run when faced with danger. However, dogs will chase a person if they run. Teach children to remain very still and to avoid eye contact with an aggressive dog. Experts say kids should also be taught to curl into a ball with their fingers laced around their head and over their ears if a dog knocks them to the ground. In most cases, dogs will sniff at the child, lose interest, and walk away.

Philadelphia Dog Bite Lawyer Discusses Dog Bite Injuries

Philadelphia dog bite lawyer Rand Spear explains, Sadly, the majority of dog bite victims are children. In the U.S. alone, more than 4.5 million people are attacked by dogs every year, and 1 in 5 of these victims require medical attention for their injuries. Because children are shorter and more vulnerable to injuries, the personal injuries they suffer due to a dog bite can be devastating and life-changing.

Contact a Philadelphia Dog Bite Lawyer Today

If you or your child has been injured by a dog bite, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and other losses. Discuss your options and the next steps in your case with Philadelphia and New Jersey dog bite lawyer Rand Spear today at 888-373-4LAW.

Sources:

source: http://randspear.com/2017/07/19/philadelphia-dog-bite-lawyer-discusses-dog-bites-rise/

Social Media Tags:Philadelphia Dog Bite Lawyer, Dog Bite Attack, Dog Bite Injuries

Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution  SubmitMyPressRelease.com

Like Us on Facebook

It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print
Team receives nearly $11 million COBRE grant to establish neuroscience research center



Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A Kansas State University psychological sciences team is receiving a prestigious five-year, $10.6 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, grant. From left, the researchers involved include Heather Bailey, assistant professor of psychological sciences; Lester Loschky, center associate director and professor of psychological sciences; Kimberly Kirkpatrick, center director and professor of psychological sciences; Charles Pickens, assistant professor of psychological sciences; and Mary Cain, professor of psychological sciences. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  The National Institutes of Health is awarding a Kansas State University-led team of psychological sciences researchers with a prestigious five-year, $10.6 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, grant. It is the largest grant in the history of the psychological sciences department.



The team  which also includes collaborators from Wichita State University and the University of Kansas Medical Center  will use the grant to establish the Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity, or C-NAP, center. Plasticity refers to the brain's ability to grow and change its connections, and encompasses both natural aspects of human brain development throughout the lifespan as well as those due to experiences.



The center will support cognitive, behavioral and neurobiological research as well as laboratory renovation and upgrades; faculty, postdoctoral fellow and graduate student recruitment; and professional development.



This is only the second time that Kansas State University has received a COBRE grant. COBRE funding comes from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences and supports multidisciplinary centers that focus on biomedical research. Kimberly Kirkpatrick, professor of psychological sciences, will serve as director of the C-NAP center and Lester Loschky, professor of psychological sciences, will be associate director.



"The enrichment to our research community is going to be substantial," Kirkpatrick said. "This grant will bring a lot more resources and infrastructure improvements and it will enhance our graduate program. The funding will allow our faculty members to take their research to the next level, which is a big deal."



"This is a tremendous event in the history of the psychological sciences department, and it will be transformational," Loschky said. "The COBRE grant will greatly help the psychological sciences department to achieve its overarching goals for the 2025 plan of raising our stature both nationally and internationally. It makes me very proud of our department."



The funding initially will support four faculty members who are serving as project leaders as well as postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students who will help conduct the research. The four researchers are receiving $150,000 to $200,000 grants to support their work and are partnering with leaders in their research fields to help implement their projects. The center also will recruit two new faculty members during the five-year grant.



The four project leaders and their research topics include:



 Mary Cain, professor of psychological sciences, who will study how environmental enrichment can change brain structure and create resistance to alcohol abuse. She will collaborate with Stefan Bossmann, professor of chemistry.



 Heather Bailey, assistant professor of psychological sciences, who will study how an older adult's rich body of knowledge can help overcome the degradation of working memory for everyday activities that people experience as they age. She will collaborate with the University of Kansas Medical Center's Hoglund Brain Imaging Center.



 Charles Pickens, assistant professor of psychological sciences, who will study the neural circuits involved in cognitive flexibility and decision-making.



 Rui Ni, associate professor of psychology at Wichita State University, who will work to develop interventions to mitigate cognitive and visual impairments that affect driving abilities in aging individuals.



"This grant is designed for faculty success," Kirkpatrick said. "We are investing in faculty with money, time and other resources to try and build them up. The funding will open the door for many more collaborations and training seminars that will benefit faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students."

In addition to supporting faculty projects, the COBRE grant will fund three core research facilities, including:



 Renovating the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory Research Core at Kansas State University so researchers can use state-of-the-art neuroscience techniques.



 Building a new Neuroinformatics Research Core at Kansas State University  under the direction of Daniel Andresen, professor of computer science  to improve data modeling and visualization capabilities.



 Creating a 3-D driving simulator at Wichita State University that uses advanced technology, such as eye tracking, to study driving behavior.



The COBRE grant also supports a pilot grant program to recruit new faculty members to the center, a training program for postdoctoral researchers and a scientific exchange network to build collaborations with other universities. During the five years of grant funding, the university will organize two miniconferences for scientists to share their latest research.



A team of interdisciplinary faculty members made up the internal advisory board for the COBRE grant development and will continue as advisers during the project. The team includes Michael Young, professor and head of psychological sciences; Brian Spooner, university distinguished professor of biology; Daniel Marcus, professor emeritus of anatomy and physiology; and Rhonda Lewis, department chair and professor of psychology at Wichita State University.



COBRE support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences can be renewed for a total of three five-year phases. The current grant covers phase one and will support initial center development.
KEARNEY  The Buffalo County Board of Commissioners renewed a contract with Lancaster County Youth Services Center to house Buffalo County juveniles, if needed.

Buffalo County Sheriff Neil Miller said the county contracts with youth detention centers to hold youths younger than age 18 who are charged with nonadult crimes, typically for probation violations, he said.

Buffalo County also contracts with a facility in Madison, but Miller said the county needs another option.

It gives us some flexibility. In case ones full, we have a place to go, he said.

All board members present  Chairman Bill McMullen of Kearney, Vice Chairman Ivan Klein of Gibbon, Joe Brayton of Kearney and Dennis Reiter of Elm Creek voted in favor of the contract. Board members absent were Sherry Morrow of Kearney, Kent Greder of Kearney and Ron Loeffeholz of rural Kearney.

In other news, the board approved Tax Equalization and Review Commission judgments on 2016 property valuations of three parcels of property owned by Paul Younes near Third Avenue and Talmadge Streets.

Buffalo County Deputy Attorney Andy Hoffmeister said former Buffalo County Assessor Joe Barber originally set the property valuation total of the three properties at about $988,000. In 2016, Younes protested that he believed the total valuation to be about $124,000. The Buffalo County Board of Commissioners set the valuation at about $138,000.

Barber then appealed the boards valuation to TERC, Hoffmeister said. The Buffalo County Board of Commissioners accepted TERCs suggested final total valuation of $560,000.

In other matters:

- The board tabled discussion about a drafted contract with Nebraska Adult Parole for jail bed space.

- The board accepted the sale of surplus property that was on July 15. The total sale was $28,332, McMullen said.

- J.C. Ourada of Elm Creek requested a transfer of water rights from irrigated land, which is now dedicated to the public. The board approved.

- The board approved a special designated liquor license for Muddy Creek Bar of Ravenna to sell alcohol at a special event at Ravenna Lake during the total solar eclipse weekend.

- The board approved a special designated liquor license for an event at Rowe Sanctuary in September.

@erikadpritchard
KEARNEY  Needed, the PowerPoint slide said, Single father in Kearney about to be reunited with his 7-year-old son needs bunk beds so they can share the single bedroom in his apartment. Right now, the father is sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

That real-life appeal popped up on the screen Tuesday morning at the CarePortal Launch featuring Nebraska first lady Susanne Shore as the keynote speaker.

CarePortal is a new program that will allow case managers at the state Department of Health and Human Services to ask local churches to help fill the needs of vulnerable children and families. If a church can assist, CarePortal will connect the church with that family. Nebraska is the 13th state in the United States to adopt the program.

Now, it will be easier than ever for churches to answer Gods call for care of the vulnerable, Bill Williams, director of program operations for COMPASS and master of ceremonies for the event, said.

Shore knows about such needs firsthand. She said that when she volunteered at CASA in Douglas County a few years ago, a father of four could not get custody of his four children until he had beds for them. Shore got the beds from her church.

This program will keep small problems from ballooning into large problems, she said. This will help families stay together. Kids can stay safe and stay at home.

Thats why CarePortal was founded in Nebraska, Ryan Stanton said after the program. He is the executive director of COMPASS, a nine-year-old organization in Kearney that helps children with family support, foster care licensing, financial assistance and more.

Earlier this year, Stanton learned that DHHS wanted to involve faith-based communities to help meet local needs. He heard about CarePortal, did a Google search and found an informational video. I knew this is what we were looking for, he said. Its a fast, effective, proven way to connect churches with local needs.

Talks with the state followed, he said, and the state was 100 percent on board.

So were local churches. COMPASS has relationships with 15 churches in Kearney. So far, seven churches are participating with CarePortal. They are Cornerstone Berean, Kearney eFree, New Life, Spirit of Life Open Bible, The Table, Grace Fellowship and Trinity Presbyterian.

Members of at least eight other churches were among the 88 attendees at the Tuesday launch, and efforts are underway to involve churches in Gibbon, Minden, Holdrege, Grand Island and North Platte.

Churches were excited. From the beginning, they wanted to help, but they didnt know how. This is a simple, practical way the church can help, Stanton said.

CarePortal has no contracts with government or child welfare agencies. Local churches are asked to pay $100 a month to help finance the team, network and technology, although Stanton said no church will be turned away.

The network is finalizing a grant through The Nebraska Children and Families Foundation to help with some startup costs, Stanton said. The state may ask local donors, companies, organizations or foundations for help in launching the program.

Under the system, Stanton said, needs will be posted on the CarePortal system, but with no information about the persons or families involved. Churches will respond online, after which the caseworker will bring the church and the family together. Were not a facility that stockpiles couches and washers and dryers, Stanton said. But how better can we show Gods love than by helping those down and street and around the corner?

Also speaking Tuesday was Doug Weinberg, director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the DHHS. He said 1,000 of the 35,000 child abuse calls the DHHS receives in Lincoln each year come from Buffalo County, but its rarely about abuse. Its more often about household needs.

We believe this program will help keep them from coming into the system in the first place, he said.

Kathleen Stolz, Central Service Area administrator for DHHS, said household needs can include rent; window air conditioners; cribs; car repair; bikes; beds, because some kids sleep on the floor or on couches; and groceries.

Filling needs through the CarePortal will be a godsend, she said.

By the end of the event, Spirit of Life Open Bible Church at 3148 Dove Hill Road said it would provide bunk beds for the single father.
OMAHA -- Two former Omaha police officers will face charges in connection with the June 5 death of a mentally ill Oklahoma man.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced Wednesday that he is charging Scotty Payne with second-degree assault, a felony, and Ryan McClarty with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

Zachary Bearheels, 29, died after the former police officers punched and shocked him more than a dozen times while trying to force him into the back of a police cruiser near 60th and Center Streets. Payne, an Omaha police officer for five years, shocked Bearheels 12 times with a Taser. McClarty, a two-year officer, reportedly punched him 15 times after Bearheels ripped one of his hands free from a handcuff.

In explaining the charges, Kleine said "there's no evidence whatsoever that these officers intentionally killed Zachary Bearheels."

"Police officers are placed in very difficult positions," Kleine said Wednesday. "It's a daunting task in today's society."

But, he said, officers "are capable of making serious mistakes in their encounters with citizens."

"Law enforcement should protect those who are most vulnerable," Kleine said, particularly those with a mental illness.

During the announcement, Kleine showed video of the officers' confrontation with Bearheels, including Payne's Taser shocks to Bearheels and the punches by McClarty.

Some in the audience began crying as the video was shown.

"I think the video, to some extent, speaks for itself. This is an encounter with an individual who had committed no crimes," Kleine said.

Payne will turn himself in Friday morning, with a bail hearing Friday afternoon, Kleine said.

McClarty will be cited on suspicion of third-degree assault.

After Bearheels death, Kleine initially mentioned the possibility of manslaughter charges.

But in early July, a coroners physician ruled that Bearheels death was not caused by blunt-force trauma. Dr. Michelle Elieff said she also couldnt conclude that Bearheels death was the direct result of the repeated shocks of the Taser.

Elieff instead said Bearheels suffered a sudden death associated with excited delirium ... physical struggle, physical restraint and use of a (Taser).

Under state law, second-degree assault  using a weapon to cause bodily injury  carries the same penalty as manslaughter: up to 20 years in prison. In second-degree assault cases, prosecutors need to prove only that a person used a weapon to cause injury.

If convicted of the misdemeanor, McClarty would face up to a year in jail.

South Sioux City resident Frank LaMere, a Winnebago activist, watched Kleine's announcement from the back of the room. At one point, he urged Kleine to charge everyone from the officers on the scene to the commanders who were overseeing the officers.

He suggested that a September grand jury investigation could look into whether others were complicit in Bearheels' death.

"That's what this is about -- public trust," LaMere said. "That day, June 5, no one needed to be served more than Zachary Bearheels. Nobody in this community needed to be protected more than Zachary Bearheels.

"He died at the hands of the Omaha Police Department. If we're not going to serve and protect, take that out of your mission statement."

Sign up for World-Herald news alerts

Be the first to know when news happens. Get the latest breaking headlines sent straight to your inbox.

Email address

Subscribe

April Gladfelter, a member of the Omaha tribe who has a son who suffers from mental illness, delivered a shrieking and tearful statement at the end of the press conference.

She said she worries about her son when he's walking to the store or bus stop.

"Is he (the) next victim?" she wailed. "To see (Bearheels) being pulled by his hair. That is so inhumane. We are people too, we have feelings, we bleed the same color as all of you. ... I love everyone and I want this community to learn from this. This cannot continue to go on."

After the press conference, Gladfelter called the charges "bogus"  because she thought the charges should be more severe and that the two female officers involved should also be charged.

"The others didn't stop their coworkers," she said about officers Jennifer Strudle and Makyla Mead.

Bearheels had been riding from South Dakota, where he was visiting relatives, to his home in Oklahoma. A driver kicked him off the bus in Omaha and Bearheels spent most of Sunday, June 4, behaving erratically in midtown Omaha. He licked the windows of a store, danced in front of another store and was at times incomprehensible to responding officers.

An autopsy revealed he had no drugs or alcohol in his system. Family members say he likely wasnt taking his medications for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer decried the officers actions at a press conference in June. He recommended that Payne and McClarty be fired.

Payne's attorney, Steve Lefler, said his client looks forward to his day in court. Payne was in his fifth year on the force. The city fired him after this incident.

"I want the community to know that Mr. Payne is not just a good guy, he's a great guy," Lefler said. "I've talked to older officers who have said that he's one of the best recruits they've had in years.

"He did not become a police officer to hurt anybody, to kill anybody. He feels terrible that this happened."

The felony charge against Payne is the first filed against an Omaha officer since 2013, when Officer James Kinsella was charged with tampering with evidence in connection with a controversial arrest of three brothers at a north Omaha home. The felony was lowered to lesser misdemeanors in a plea deal.

If convicted, the officer would be the first since Sgt. Lance Harrison to be convicted of a felony. Harrison was convicted in 2011 of terroristic threats after he threatened a fellow driver in a road rage incident in Sarpy County. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail and five years probation, which was revoked in 2016 after he was convicted of DUI. Harrison changed his name last year, saying in his court petition that the notoriety of his felony conviction has made gaining employment nearly impossible.

Schmaderer promised several changes within the police department after Bearheels death, including a recruit class of experienced officers and more training on mental illness and the use of a Taser.

Bearheels was a member of the Rosebud Sioux of South Dakota, and after Native American activists raised concerns about how he was treated, Mayor Jean Stothert agreed to create a Native American advisory board.

The last officer to be charged in connection with an in-custody death was Todd Sears. A grand jury initially charged him with manslaughter in the October 1997 shooting of Marvin Ammons. However, a judge later determined that an alternate grand juror had had too much influence in that case  and Sears indictment was thrown out.

A subsequent grand jury declined to indict Sears.

Kleine decided to forgo a grand jury and charge these officers on his own. Under state law, either a grand jury or a prosecuting agency can file charges.
Dear Kearney community, Sunday marked five years of being a burn survivor for me. That horrific day when someone decided to set a fire in Karen Murrays home, where I was working, had changed a lot in my and my familys lives. I went from planning to graduate from nursing school in two semesters to being in a burn unit and fighting for my life.

After many challenging days and years with my health and hardships that my family and I had to endure, I am back at the University of Nebraska Medical Center nursing school with help and support of Kearney Vocational Rehabilitation. My family and I have received so much support from the community that we are forever grateful. Special thanks to Kearney Volunteer Fire Department and Saint Elizabeth Hospital for saving my life; voc rehab for supporting me to continue with my education; Northeast and Meadowlark schools for taking special care of my children and us during difficult days; Kearney Clinic for incredible pediatricians; and the wonderful Valley Pharmacy staff. Also, thanks to Good Samaritan Hospital ( my former coworkers and managers); YMCA for providing us with free family membership for five years; and the list can go on and on.

Thank you to some very special friends. You know who you are. You have been walking the not-so-easy roads with us helping, supporting, advocating and encouraging along the way. Despite being far away from family and friends in my home country Tajikistan, I can say with certainty that during those difficult days, we were surrounded by love and support of our Kearney community. We did not feel like immigrants or outsiders. I am grateful beyond words and appreciate everything that this wonderful community has done for me and my family, and I will strive to give back as much as I can in return.

Sarvinoz Kadyrova, Kearney

EDITORS NOTE: The author was severely burned in a July 23, 2012, structure fire in Kearney. She had third-degree burns on her face, hands, arm and one shoulder, and underwent several skin grafts. Karen Murray, 60, of Kearney, died from her injuries five days after the fire, which was ruled by the State Fire Marshal to be caused by arson. The case remains under investigation by the Kearney Police Department.
KEARNEY  A Bellevue man must complete classes in responsible thinking after leading law enforcement on a pursuit south of Shelton in February.

Joseph T. Paterno, 21, was sentenced last week in Buffalo County District Court to 30 days in jail and was placed on one year probation for the Feb. 12 incident. Under his probation, Paterno must complete outpatient counseling, a victim impact panel and classes in peer relationships.

Judge Gerry Jorgensen gave him until September to begin serving his sentence and gave him three days credit for time already served.

At about 2:41 a.m. Feb. 12, the Buffalo County 911 Communications Center received a report of a car trying to run another vehicle off Interstate 80 near Gibbon. A sheriffs deputy pursued the car until they crossed into Kearney County.

Later, a Nebraska State Patrol trooper located a vehicle with its lights off on a dead-end road in Kearney County. When the trooper activated her emergency lights, the car fled on Denman Road south of Shelton toward Kenesaw in Adams County.

The car went through Kenesaw and back north on Denman Road until it came to a curve at 24th Road. The car missed the curve, hit the curve sign and came to rest about 200 feet from the road.

The car crashed as Paterno and John Kelly, 22 also of Bellevue were trying to navigate the curve while trying to switch drivers.

Kelly, who was identified as the driver at the time, and Paterno were then taken into custody without incident. Kelly has been convicted of flight to avoid arrest and willful reckless driving in the incident. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

@HubChic
FILE - In this May 8, 2017 file photo, attorney Guy Cook speaks a news conference while looking at a photo of Simon, a giant rabbit that died after flying from the United Kingdom to Chicago, in Des Moines, Iowa. A group of Iowa businessmen have filed a lawsuit against United Airlines over the death of Simon. The businessmen filed the lawsuit Wednesday, July 26, 2017, more than three months after airline workers found the continental rabbit named Simon dead. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
A photo of Queen Elizabeth is viewed as a collection of artwork by famed American photographer Annie Leibovitz is donated to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax on Thursday, June 6, 2013. A federal board has rejected the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's application to certify a multi-million-dollar collection of iconic photographs by famed American artist Annie Leibovitz as "cultural property" of outstanding significance. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Something went wrong, please try again later.

Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later.

Sign up to our daily newsletter for all the latest Kent stories and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.

The leader of a far-right political party was taken into custody by Kent Police today, according to a video on the group's Facebook page.

Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen filmed herself outside a police station this afternoon (July 26) saying that Paul Golding had been "seized" by officers and "taken into custody".

The pair are believed to have returned here as part of their bail conditions, after they were arrested in May on suspicion of inciting religious hatred.

'Seized'

In the video, shown live on the Britain First Facebook page, Ms Fransen said: "Paul Golding is currently in custody.

"I got into this interview room and the police officer in charge of this case has said the CPS need more work to be done."

But the activist was dubious as to the reasons why she had been "called back" to the station.

"It's just another reason to keep us on bail," she added.

"To try and monitor and restrict our activities, which isn't going to work - it never has, I don't know when they're going to wise up."

The two Britain First leaders were arrested on May 10 after they were linked to what was then the ongoing trial of four men suspected of carrying out a gang rape in a flat above a Ramsgate takeaway.

All four were found guilty on May 26 and remanded in custody ahead of sentencing, which has not yet taken place .

After being arrested Golding and Fransen were released on bail, originally with conditions which barred them from speaking publicly about the trial or visiting a number of properties in Kent.

Kent Police has previously not released information about the specifics of Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen's bail conditions. Kent Live has approached them for further information.
The origins of Veterans Day Throughout the year, we have a few different observances for those who have served our country. We have Memorial Day to celebrate those who gave...

Spindle Items .. PLANNING YOUR TRIP  For those of you who are planning to visit Universal Studios this winter, you may want to know that Universal...

Out of the Past 25 Years AgoNov. 12, 1997 With only one resident questioning its adoption, the Tonawanda Town Board Thursday night adopted the 1998 budget totaling $61,242,060. The...

Winter parking restrictions update There is a lot going on in the Town of Tonawanda this month, so lets get right to it, along with some presidential quotes for...
Heres a finding I did NOT expect: According to a 2017 research (opens in new tab) paper at Harvard Business School, employees who have the option to contribute to a Roth 401(k) instead of a traditional 401(k) tend to contribute the same amount to either account. Given that a Roth 401(k) usually results in more money taken out of your paycheck every week or month than a traditional 401(k), thats unexpected!

Traditional 401(k) contributions are made on a pre-tax basis while Roth 401(k) contributions are made post-tax. So, assuming a given level of cash flow available, most of the time contributions to a traditional 401(k) will be more affordable than contributions to a Roth 401(k) because traditional plans drive your annual taxable income lower. Youll still have to pay taxes on the contributions later when you retire, but the taxable event is deferred.

Take the case of Priya, a 49-year-old single mom. She makes $135,000 a year and lives alone with her son. Not counting her employers match, Priya saves $350 per pay period in her traditional 401(k), totaling $9,100 a year. Absent other considerations, her $9,100 contribution reduces her annual taxable income from $135,000 to $125,900. As a result, since her taxable income is less, she will pay less income taxes.

Subscribe to Kiplingers Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign up for Kiplingers Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice - straight to your e-mail. Sign up

What if Priya were to switch her contributions to her companys Roth 401(k)? She is considering contributing the same amount: $9,100. However, because contributions to a Roth are post-tax, they would no longer reduce Priyas taxable income. Thus, she would pay taxes on $135,000 instead of $125,900. Hence, Priya would end up owing more taxes for the year.

A no-brainer for the traditional 401(k), right? Wrong. Roth 401(k)s provide one major advantage. If Priva switched to the Roth and maintained her contribution level, she might end up with more income in retirement as Roth 401(k) distributions in retirement are tax-free, whereas traditional 401(k) distributions are taxed as income. However, switching her contribution to the Roth would be at the expense of her current cash flow. Can Priya afford it?

What if she would reduce her Roth contribution to keep her current cash flow constant? In that case, it is not clear that Priyas after-tax income in retirement would be higher or lower with a Roth 401(k) than with a traditional 401(k). Answers would require further analysis of her situation.

Its important to remember that neither Roth 401(k)s nor Roth IRAs are tax-free: they are merely taxed differently. That makes the decision to invest in one or the other an important financial-planning decision: Employees need to understand the benefits and drawbacks of both approaches to make an informed decision that balances current spending desires with future income needs.

According to John Beshears, the lead author of the Harvard study (opens in new tab), one possible explanation for his finding is that people are confused about the tax properties of the Roth. Another possibility could be that people have greater budget flexibility than they give themselves credit for. Either way, employees should seek additional support before making this very important decision.
If you are a small-business owner, you may want to consider a very popular small-business company retirement plan called a "SIMPLE IRA." There is a reason why it is called "simple." It's about as easy to open as an IRA, with larger contribution limits, and opening this plan will not prohibit you from investing in a personal IRA.

If you have 100 employees or fewer, you can set this plan up. Employees, including the employer, are allowed to contribute up to $12,500 a year in pre-tax contributions, similar to a 401(k) plan. For those 50 or older, there's a $3,000 catch-up provision, allowing you to put in up to $15,500 a year pre-tax.

Here's why small-business owners love this plan.

Subscribe to Kiplingers Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign up for Kiplingers Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice - straight to your e-mail. Sign up

1. It's generous. Both the employer and employees are allowed to put "all" of the first $12,500 of their salary pre-tax ($15,500 for those 50 or older) into this plan, rather than a percentage of their salary, as is the case with most large-company plans. For example, if an employee under 50 had a salary of $40,000 a year and he or she is allowed to contribute 15% of their salary to a 401(k) plan they could only put in $6,000. But in a SIMPLE IRA its not a percentage of their salary, so as long as they earned $12,500 or more ($15,500 for those 50 or older), they can put all of it into the plan pre-tax.*

2. It's rewarding. If the employee doesn't contribute to the plan there's no "requirement" for the employer to put any money in on behalf of that employee. If the employee does contribute, then the employer is required to match up to the first 3% of that employee's annual compensation. This means the small-business owner is only required to reward employees willing to save money for themselves. Although less popular, the employer, as an alternative, could instead make a non-elective contribution for all eligible employees, whether or not they contribute, equal to 2% of their pay.

3. It's family friendly. A small-business owner who has a spouse who works in the business, even part time, can make a "combined" contribution of up to $25,000 per year, all pre-tax ($12,500 each) if they are under age 50, as long as they have compensation of at least $12,500 apiece (or up to $31,000 combined if they are both 50 or older). Plus, the employer can do the above mentioned match of both spouses compensation into the plan and deduct it, since it's considered a business expense for the owner.

4. It's business friendly. This plan is free from the much more complicated ERISA reporting required with plans of larger companies. There is no requirement to file a complicated 5500 tax form, no non-discrimination rules limiting the contributions of the owner or better paid employees, and very minimal overall paperwork (am I dreaming?).

The business owner may establish this plan on any date between Jan. 1 and Oct. 1 to contribute for that year

Remember sometimes the "simple" ideas are the most effective.

*The employee would need to pay slightly more, since FICA taxes must be paid on contributions going into a SIMPLE plan. For example, to put in $12,500 the employee would need to earn approximately $13,535 to cover FICA tax.
SHANGHAI, July 26 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance on Wednesday auctioned 32 billion yuan ($4.74 billion) of three-year bonds at an average yield of 3.46 percent, traders said, below market expectations.

Market forecasts had centred on 3.48 percent and ranged from 3.43 percent to 3.51 percent.

The auction yield also came in below Tuesday's benchmark secondary market yield of 3.4932 percent for three-year government bonds .

For stories on Chinese debt issues, click on .

($1 = 6.7545 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
* STOXX 600 up 0.6 pct

* Chipmaker ASM International falls as Q3 outlook disappoints

* Tullow, Petrofac boost energy stocks

* Peugeot drives autos higher

* Euro strength weighs on industrials earnings

(ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)

By Helen Reid

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Supportive crude prices and strong results from energy firms and autos companies helped European shares inch higher on Wednesday, while banks were the worst-performing sector as results disappointed.

The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.6 percent, in line with euro zone stocks and blue-chips , as oil and gas stocks gained 0.7 percent and autos climbed 1 percent.

"Indications are more positive on the outlook for energy stocks, especially for the most geared such as oil services," said Angelo Media, head of equities at Banor SIM in Milan.

"While there was a lot of kitchen sinking from firms in first-quarter numbers, they have reset expectations over valuations and cleaned up balance sheets now."

Oil services firm Petrofac led index gains, up 3.6 percent after winning new contracts in Iraq worth $100 million. Shares in Tullow Oil rose 3.1 percent after higher output from new fields helped the Africa-focused oil producer to a 46 percent rise in sales revenue over the first half, though it also reported impairment charges due to stubbornly low oil prices. Peugeot maker PSA Group jumped 6 percent, leading autos higher after the firm hit a new profitability record, beating analyst expectations with an increase in sales for the first half. Five years after ECB chief Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes to preserve the euro" speech, which set the foundations for strong gains in the currency, the euro was again front and centre of investors' minds. Recent strength weighed on earnings growth expectations for euro zone corporates, particularly those most dependent on exports, such as industrials firms.

The euro rose to a fresh two-year high of $1.1711 on Tuesday.

"We believe that the impact is manageable if we don't go beyond $1.20 to the euro," said Angelo Meda, head of equities at Banor SIM in Milan.

"If we do, it will start to have an impact and depress European stocks, especially exporters, cyclicals and industrials."

With a quarter of euro zone MSCI Europe companies having reported so far, 40 percent beat earnings estimates while 48 percent missed, according to Thomson Reuters data.

There were already signs of strain among industrials, the sector seeing the worst performance with 86 percent of firms missing expectations, of the 33 percent having reported.

Among top fallers, chipmaker ASM International fell 7.8 percent, on track for its worst day in four years as its third-quarter order outlook disappointed analysts despite record order intake for the second quarter. Investors have high expectations for tech firms such as ASM, which have made strong gains this year. The sector is up 14 percent this year, the second best performing in Europe.

UniCredit weighed on the banking index which fell 0.1 percent. The Italian bank's shares were down 0.9 percent after it said it had suffered a cyber attack giving unauthorised access to Italian clients' data. "Cyber attacks are something we need to live with," said Meda. "It's more positive for cyber security stocks than it is negative for Unicredit."

Swiss pharma company Lonza meanwhile shot 6.8 percent up to a record high after a better than expected second quarter and new mid-term targets. (Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Kit Rees and Jon Boyle)
Editor's Note: Kitco readers, have your say! Check out our newest feature  KITCO CHAT!  where you can share your comments and ask questions directly to us.

(Kitco News) - Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE, TSX: ABX) Wednesday reported a 65% rise in its adjusted profit during the second quarter, helped by the combination of increased gold production and lower costs.

The company also paid down another $309 million of its debt, maintaining a focus on debt reduction in recent years.



Adjusted net earnings for the second quarter were $261 million, or 22 cents per share, compared to $158 million, or 14 cents, in the same period of 2016.

Net earnings were $1.084 billion, or 93 cents, compared to $138 million, or 12 cents, in the prior-year period. The sharp rise in net earnings was mainly the result of $882 million in gains on sale of Barricks 50% interest in the Veladero mine and sale of a 25% interest in the Cerro Casale project.

Barrick produced 1.432 million ounces of gold in the second quarter, up from 1.34 million a year ago. All-in sustaining costs fell to $710 per ounce from $782 in the second quarter of 2016.

The companys debt was trimmed by $309 million in the second quarter, taking this to $487 million for the year to date. On June 30, Barrick completed the sale of a 50% interest in Veladero for $960 million, with officials reporting this will be allocated to debt reduction.

Achieving and maintaining a strong balance sheet remains a top priority, Barrick said in its earnings release. We intend to reduce our total debt from $7.9 billion at the start of 2017 to $5 billion by the end of 2018 -- at least half of which we are targeting this year. We will achieve this by using cash flow from operations, further portfolio optimization, and the creation of new joint ventures and partnerships.

Barrick listed a cash balance of approximately $2.9 billion as of quarter-end. The company maintained a dividend of 3 cents per share, payable on Sept. 15 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Aug. 31.

Officials said they continue to expect full-year gold production of 5.3 million to 5.6 million ounces, with AISC of $720 to $770 per ounce. This does not include any revisions to Acacia Mining annual output as a result of Tanzanias export ban on concentrates currently impacting Acacias operations.

Barrick holds a 63.9% equity interest in Acacia, which is evaluating the impact on production from the export ban and other recently enacted legislation. Barrick said it will begin direct discussions with the government of Tanzania in an effort to resolve issues affecting Acacia.

Barrick continues to monitor the situation, and should Acacia revise its full-year outlook, Barrick will evaluate the impact to its own guidance at that time, Barrick said, adding that Acacia operations impacted by the current ban on concentrate exports (Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi) account for approximately 6% of Barrick's 2017 gold production guidance. In total, Acacia accounts for approximately 10% of Barrick's 2017 gold production guidance.

Barrick produced 104 million pounds of copper in the second quarter, with an AISC of $2.38 per pound. This compares to 103 million pounds and AISC of $2.14 per pound in the second quarter of 2016.

Barrick said it continues to anticipate full-year copper production of 400 million to 450 million pounds, with AISC of $2.10 to $2.40 per pound.
Editor's Note: Kitco readers, have your say! Check out our newest feature  KITCO CHAT!  where you can share your comments and ask questions directly to us.

Gold has slipped back below its 50- and 100-day moving averages, says Sam Laughlin, senior precious-metals trader with MKS (Switzerland) S.A. As of 8:10 a.m. EDT, spot gold was down $3.15 to $1,246.25 an ounce as traders awaited the outcome of a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee Wednesday afternoon. The 50-day average stood at $1,249.40, while the 100-day average was $1,248.80. The metal came under pressure in New York Tuesday, and that pressure continued in Asia-Pacific trading overnight. The technical break during Asian trade today saw some participants heading for the exits as we near the FOMC rates announcement, and it is difficult to see gold making any headway above $1,250 leading into the Fed, Laughlin says. A hawkish tone from Yellen today will open up a test toward the 200 DMA around USD $1,229, while a dovish skew is likely to see a recovery test $1,258-$1,262.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Commerzbank: Gold Flows Out Of Exchange-Traded Funds

Global gold-backed exchange-traded funds posted substantial outflows on Tuesday, reports Commerzbank. Holdings in ETFs tracked by Bloomberg fell by around 7.5 tonnes. Outflows of 54 tonnes have been seen since the start of the month, reversing almost all the inflows in the whole of the last quarter again, Commerzbank says. Virtually all of the outflows were withdrawn from the SPDR Gold Trust.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Walshs Lusk: Investors Watching Fed For Signs Of Future Policy

Investors will be eyeing communications from the Federal Open Market Committee after a meeting Wednesday, trying to gain clues on when the next interest-rate hike is coming, says Sean Lusk, director of commercial hedging with Walsh Trading. Dovish Fed commentary tends to support gold, and vice-versa. No changes in U.S. monetary policy are expected, he says. However, the Fed could indicate the timing of reducing its big balance sheet of U.S. securities. The tone of the FOMC statement will also be important for markets. Just recently, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has sounded a more dovish tone on U.S. monetary policy.
BUDAPEST, July 26 (Reuters) - Hungary has sold 1 billion renminbi worth of three-year Panda bonds at a yield of 4.85 percent, Economy Ministry State Secretary Agnes Hornung told a news conference on Wednesday. The bonds, proceeds from which will be converted into euros, were sold near the mid-point of an initial price guidance of 4.6 percent to 5.2 percent. The sale helped Hungary raise about 130 million euros ($151.05 million), Hornung said. Hungary can sell another 2 billion renminbi worth of Panda bonds, which are targeted at investors in mainland China. The debt agency AKK will decide on any further issuance depending on market conditions, Hornung said. ($1 = 0.8607 euros)

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
COLOMBO, July 26 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan rupee traded firmer on Wednesday as dollar selling by exporters and banks outpaced importer demand for the U.S. currency, in the absence of greenback purchases by state-owned banks which weighed on the local currency, dealers said.

The spot rupee was traded at 153.45/55 per dollar at 0620 GMT, firmer from Tuesday's close of 153.55/60.

"The rupee is strengthening in the absence of the state banks (dollar buying)," a currency dealer said, requesting anonymity.

"Today, inward remittances are more than exporter (dollar) sales, which helps the rupee to appreciate and the cabinet approval to Hambantota port deal also helping to build the confidence."

Sri Lanka's cabinet cleared a revised agreement for its Chinese-built southern port of Hambantota on Tuesday, which will bring in around 1 billion dollar investment, after terms of the first pact sparked widespread public anger in the island nation. Last week, central bank Governor Indrajith Coomaraswamy said the rupee was still "over-valued" and that the monetary authority was still buying dollars to avoid any appreciation.

The banking regulator is compelled to buy dollars from the market to meet a reserves target set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a $1.5 billion, three-year loan programme.

Sri Lankan shares were trading 0.27 percent firmer at 6,680.62, as of 0626 GMT. Turnover was 189.9 million rupees ($1.24 million).

($1 = 153.5000 Sri Lankan rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
(Updates with Deutsche Bank comment)

By Arno Schuetze and Simon Jessop

FRANKFURT/LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank's planned listing of its asset management arm is unlikely before the first half of next year and could be later, as it wants more time to refine and sell the business's strategy to potential investors, people close to the matter said.

Germany's largest lender announced plans to list the unit, including its main DWS retail asset management brand, in March as part of a broader restructuring aimed at reviving the bank's fortunes following costly lawsuits and trading scandals.

While it said at the time the share sale would take place at some point over the next two years, investors expected the bank to move quickly to take advantage of buoyant equity markets and seal a deal that could raise 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion).

But its so-called "equity story" for selling the business to investors is far from ready, and Deutsche is desperate to avoid another U-turn after it put retail business Postbank up for sale, only to decide later to keep it, the sources said.

Some investors have also indicated they would prefer a stronger focus at Deutsche's asset management arm on so-called passive investments or exchange traded funds (ETFs), whereas its main business is currently with actively managed funds.

"The IPO story is not ready yet," one of the people said, adding that in his view the unit needed to invest in its ETF business to keep up with competitors.

A spokesperson for Deutsche said: "We are currently focused on creating a Deutsche AM business that is distinct from Deutsche Bank, in preparation for the planned partial IPO. We expect to complete that process later this year. We have not yet started to present our equity story to investors."

Deutsche Bank reports second-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Chief Executive John Cryan conceded in May it would take time to realise the benefits of the lender's latest efforts to "plant and sow" - or breathe new life into the Deutsche brand.

ETFs

Deutsche Asset Management currently has 723 billion euros invested worldwide, of which 540 billion are actively managed, 103 billion in ETFs and the rest in alternatives such as real estate.

Concern around the scale of Deutsche's ETF offering comes as market leaders BlackRock and Vanguard continue to grow assets under management in Europe, with the latter flagging plans to expand its continental operations. Underpinning that is a belief the market for ETFs in Europe will continue to grow strongly over the coming years, fuelled in part by new regulations aimed at making the costs of investing more transparent.

European ETF assets rose for the fifth straight year to hit a record 514.5 billion euros in 2016, data from Thomson Reuters Lipper show, up 15 percent but still just a fraction of the 9.4 trillion euros in total invested assets.

But with asset managers under pressure from investors to cut fees, even in the already low-cost ETF market, a provider needs to have scale to succeed.

European sales of ETFs during 2016 were led by BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, the Lipper data show, with Deutsche Bank not even making the top-10.

It still retained its position as the second-biggest ETF provider in Europe, behind BlackRock's iShares, with assets under management of 53.3 billion euros, the data show.

But by May, Deutsche's ETF brand Xtrackers had fallen to third place behind BlackRock and Societe Generale's Lyxor unit. [ ]

An analyst at a top-50 shareholder in Deutsche Bank was more sanguine about the company's ETF market position, with a number six position globally leaving it "probably at minimum efficient scale", but with "clearly scope to build" in the United States.

Deutsche Bank is, however, making headway with the organisational work for listing the asset management division.

Division head Nicolas Moreau said last month the bundling of the unit's businesses into one holding company would be done by October, as would the finalisation of distribution and service contracts between Deutsch asset management and its mothership.

Investment banks vying for mandates to help organise the listing had expected Deutsche to pick a so-called global coordinator - which will work alongside Deutsche's own investment bank on the deal - before the summer break.

That has slipped into the second half of the year, people close to the matter said, adding banks that helped Deutsche with its 8.5 billion euro capital raising earlier this year stood a good chance of securing roles on the deal.

Deutsche hopes that by giving its asset management arm more operational independence the unit will attract more talent, and Cryan has said the bank will maintain a "controlling and super-majority stake" in the business.

($1 = 0.8602 euros)

(Additional reporting by Kathrin Jones and Alexander Hubner; Editing by Mark Potter and Susan Fenton)
(Adds more on Hamas ruling, Tamil Tiger removal)

LUXEMBOURG, July 26 (Reuters) - The European Union's top court kept Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist on Wednesday and removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels, the Tamil Tigers.

Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overruled the General Court's view of 2014 that the Council of the European Union, the 28-nation grouping, had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.

The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than decisions by a "competent authority". But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing.

"The Council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing," the ECJ said. The EU needed to rely on more recent material than used in its initial decision, it said.

It said the General Court should now examine the facts and arguments it did not consider in its 2014 ruling.

In a parallel case, the top court did rule that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU's terrorism list.

The court said that EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009.

"The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of the continued freezing of the LTTE's funds," it said.

The EU terrorism list, created after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and last updated in January, includes 13 individuals and 22 organisations, such as the Communist Party of the Philippines and Peru's Maoist-inspired rebel group, Shining Path.

Hamas has been listed since 2003, its military wing since 2001. LTTE was added to the list in 2006.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Elizabeth Miles; Editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek and Louise Ireland)
(Adds background on Quarles)

By Pete Schroeder and Patrick Rucker

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. banking rules must protect the financial system but they need "some refinement," President Donald Trump's nominee for the Federal Reserve's top regulatory post told lawmakers on Wednesday.

"As with any complex undertaking, after the first wave of reform, and with the benefit of experience and reflection, some refinements will undoubtedly be in order," Randal Quarles told the Senate Banking Committee in prepared testimony ahead of his confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Quarles will be the central bank's top official tasked with protecting the stability of the financial system.

Quarles worked as a Wall Street lawyer and U.S. Treasury official under President George W. Bush. He was also an executive with private-equity firm Carlyle Group LP (CG.O) and is expected to face tough questions from Democratic lawmakers.

Republicans control the Senate and have the votes to confirm Quarles over any objections from Democrats.

If confirmed, Quarles would step down from the Cynosure Group, an investment group he founded in 2014.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker and Pete Schroeder; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
HANOI, July 26 (Reuters) - Vietnam received an estimated $9.05 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in January-July this year, up 5.8 percent from the same period in 2016, the government said on Wednesday. Pledges of new FDI during the seven-month period rose 48.7 percent from a year earlier to $12.92 billion, while additional funds to existing projects jumped 38.5 percent to $5.87 billion, the investment ministry said in an online report. Vietnam's FDI inflows hit a record high of $15.8 billion in 2016. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
You can now donate to Kiwiblog
Bill English announced:

Prime Minister Bill English today signalled Nationals intention to work with support partners  United Future and ACT  in this years General Election. 

We are encouraging National supporters to give their electorate vote to ACT candidate, David Seymour, in Epsom, and United Future candidate, Peter Dunne, in Ohariu  and their party vote to National.

To be clear, we want to increase our party votes in those electorates and thats what our National Party candidates will be working hard to do.
Lee Kyung-jae / Corutesy of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts

The Sejong Center for the Performing Arts said Wednesday it appointed Lee Kyung-jae as the new director to head the Seoul Metropolitan Opera which is an affiliate of the arts center.

Lee will be the sixth director to head the opera company and also the youngest at the age of 44. He will start his tenure on Aug. 1 for two years.

Lee majored in vocal music at Seoul National University and has a master's degree in opera directing from the graduate school at Indiana State University. He performed post-doctoral work in performing arts at Sungkyunkwan University.

He has experience directing opera repertoires with several performing groups from Seoul Metropolitan Opera, Korea National Opera, and Daegu Opera House.

Since 2013, he has served as the permanent director of Seoul Metropolitan Opera's "Opera Matinee" program. He received a director's award at the Seoul Arts Center's Arts Award last year.
Critics blast stance of policymakers



By Nam Hyun-woo



The finance minister and the presidential economic adviser took criticism for failing to speak out with their beliefs on the economy, casting doubts on their roles as chief policymakers leading Korea's economic strategies.



Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon, who doubles as strategy and finance minister, said this week the government is considering a hike in nominal tax rates and will announce related tax code revisions next week.



The remark came amid the government's announcement of an economic policy roadmap aimed at expanding welfare policies through greater fiscal spending. Critics asked how to finance the expenditures, with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) asking for a tax hike.



The fast pace to raise taxes sharply contrasts with the previous stance of Kim, who iterated caution in jacking up tax rates.



In a press conference on his inauguration last month, Kim said: "I don't consider increasing income and corporate taxes. A tax code revision will be focused on job creation and redistribution of wealth."



He confirmed his stance in an economic ministers' meeting last week that "a tax hike is a delicate issue."



In a financial affairs meeting late last week, however, President Moon Jae-in required the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to accept suggestions of the governing party on hiking tax rates.



With the country's chief executive wrapping up the debate over tax hikes, Kim seemingly opted to remain silent. He did not mention the issue during a meeting between the government and the DPK on Monday.



The DPK hopes to raise the taxes of super-rich people and large businesses. Its idea is to levy heavier taxes on businesses earning over 200 billion won ($178.2 million) per year and individual taxpayers whose annual salaries top 500 million won.





Moon's economic adviser



The President's economic adviser Kim Hyun-chul is also facing similar criticism.



Moon's policy goal is driving economic growth through expanded government spending. In the policy roadmap, the government decided to raise the budget more than the economic growth rate for the next five years.



But this is not in line with Kim's views of the nation's economy.



In his 2015 book, titled "How to Break through the Low Growth Era" the then Seoul National University professor wrote, "There is a limit in boosting domestic demand through government spending."



Kim pointed out Korea's government debt will likely soar in the future, because tax revenue will decline due to low growth, while its expenditures, especially welfare costs, will grow because of its aging society.



Korea's general government debt, which is the sum of central and local government debt and nonprofit public institutional debt, accounted for 44.2 percent of its GDP at the end of last year.



It is lower than the average of OECD member states, but the country's public sector debt, which includes non-financial corporation debt accounted for 64.4 percent at the end of 2015, which Kim said is similar to Japan's figure 20 years ago just before the collapse of the asset price bubble.



"Thus, there is little room for the government to maneuver to increase domestic demand instead of households and businesses," he wrote.



Of note is that Kim changed his stance in his latest book, titled "Inclusive State," which is a carbon copy of the country's economic policy roadmap later announced.



In the new book published this month, he asserts improved social welfare services and job creation is an effective way to break the economic deadlock Korea is facing, and relying on conglomerates for job creation is already showing its limits, implicating the significance of increasing the government role in job creation.



Kim stated that the country can secure resources for improved welfare services by raising corporate taxes.



"In order to apply Switzerland's social welfare model, Korea needs at least 40 trillion won to 80 trillion won, which can be secured by a 3 percent tax hike and a 3 percent cut in unnecessary expenses," he wrote.



Pundits say the two Kims' dilemma is caused by the President's strong will to drive an economic paradigm shift in the early stages of his administration.




Rural Development Administration Director General Lee Kyu-seong, third from left, presides over a meeting with agricultural officials from African countries in Dakar, Senegal, July 11. The state-run agricultural research institute has pledged to share more know-how with its African counterparts. / Courtesy of RDA



By Lee Hyo-sik

The Rural Development Administration (RDA), the state-run agricultural research institute, has been sharing its state-of-the-art agricultural knowledge with developing nations in Africa to help them boost production, control pests and diversify farm products.

Early this month, the institute held a meeting in Senegal, inviting agricultural officials from dozens of African countries, to find effective ways to strengthen the partnership and offer more tailored, field-oriented support to farmers there.

The RDA also opened a research center in the western African nation to develop rice seeds that can yield a larger harvest and are more resistant to pests. It also donated thousands of agriculture-related books to its counterpart.

From July 10 to 13, the RDA organized the Fourth Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) general assembly in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss issues such as Africa's food security amid global warming, and sustainable agricultural practices.

The gathering drew about 100 government officials and researchers from 20 KAFACI member nations and from agricultural research institutes across the continent. The participants also discussed ways to develop high-yield rice plants and nurture agricultural researchers.

RDA Director General Lee Kyu-seong, who presided over the meeting, said the institute will work harder to form a win-win partnership with its counterparts in Africa.

"We will pass our technical know-how and expertise on to our partners here and more closely cooperate with agriculture institutes," Lee said. "The RDA will introduce more cooperation programs to help boost Africa's agricultural productivity and improve the livelihoods of African farmers. Hopefully, our efforts also will improve Korea's image across the continent."

Since July 2010, the RDA has been offering support to African nations through KAFACI, including Ethiopia, Cameroon, Angola and Uganda. By admitting Tanzania to the multilateral body this year, membership rose to 21.

It has provided information on how to cope effectively with diseases and pests affecting rice and other crops, as well as transferring a wide range of agricultural techniques to increase production, develop disease-resistant crops and operate farm machinery.

After chairing the KAFACI meeting, Lee met the heads of the Korea Project on International Agriculture (KOPIA) centers, set up to implement the KAFACI initiatives.

The RDA operates six KOPIA centers in Africa, eight in Asia and six in South America. They provide practical, field-oriented support to local farmers.

"The centers have been playing an important role in enabling African farmers to engage in modern agricultural practices and earn more income," Lee said.

The institute also opened a research lab in Senegal to develop rice seeds that produce more crops and are more resistant to pests in Africa. It will be a training facility for agricultural researchers and students.

The RDA plans to increase the continent's rice production by more than 25 percent by 2025 through the KAFACI initiatives, according to the director general. He said it will develop rice plants more suitable for the African environment and transfer advanced cultivation techniques.

On July 12, the institute donated 2,300 agriculture books to the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research to help its researchers broaden their knowledge.

The RDA, founded in 1906, has its headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, and operates four research affiliates specializing in crops, horticulture, herbs and livestock.
By Kim Jae-kyoung



The United States and its allies are joining forces to tighten the screws on North Korea to curb Pyongyang's development of its nuclear weapons.



In particular, following the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska, the U.N. Security Council is threatening harsher sanctions on the isolated country led by young leader Kim Jong-un.



However, its provocations never stop. Nobody believes such countermeasures will bring any meaningful changes to North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship or the future course of its policy direction.



Why isn't strengthening sanctions to rein in North Korea working?



There are two key reasons why they aren't bringing the North under control, according to North Korea experts.



First, the sanctions are not strong enough to make North Korea behave. Second, international cooperation is insufficient to bring about the desired results.



They said people's common belief that "sanctions don't work" is based on two assumptions  that North Korea is the most sanctioned country on Earth and that all countries are doing everything possible to implement sanctions.



But they argue neither of the two assumptions is true.



According to North Korea analyst Joshua Stanton, who watches sanctions closely,the sanctions against North Korea are far weaker than those against Iran and, until about a month ago, even Zimbabwe.



"They are limited in scope to focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons development and proliferation," Tara O, adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, told The Korea Times.



"For sanctions to be effective, international cooperation is required. A major problem is that the U.N. member states' implementation efforts are not uniform and sufficient."



She pointed out that while China is the main actor that should increase its efforts, it isn't the only country North Korea relies on to evade sanctions.



"North Korea has set up front companies in China, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere to conduct procurement, sales and money laundering themselves, or set up additional front companies to do such activities," she said.



UN sanctions quite limited'



In the face of the Kim regime's defiance, it is important to acknowledge that tightening sanctions on the North is in the world's interests.



"It is the responsibility of all states to abide by, at a minimum, existing U.N. resolutions, but of course, states should be encouraged to tighten sanctions on the North even further than existing U.N. sanctions, which are still quite limited," said Balbina Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies.



In particular, she stressed that South Korea and Japan, as well as Australia and others who are U.S. allies and members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) should all be pressing ASEAN to do more about North Korea.



The ARF is one of the few regional multilateral organizations in which the North is a regular participant.



"North Korea's provocations, while being progressively dangerous and disturbing, do not pose an existential security threat to ASEAN countries," said Hoang Thi Ha, lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.



"Some ASEAN countries may feel increasingly apprehensive about Pyongyang's acts of defiance and quietly distance themselves from the latter, but they do not want to burn their bridges."



Experts stressed that implementation should be the focus in order for sanctions to be more effective.



"Countries need to commit at the leadership level,devote enough resources to the matter and give broader authority, not only to investigation but prevention as well," O said.



"They need to pass relevant laws and develop a habit of sanctions implementation."



She said there should be more efforts to enhance cooperation with countries in the region and the U.S. to share information and best practices.



"The majority of the entities helping North Korea to circumvent the sanctions are in China, so China needs to do more," she said.



"At the same time, Southeast Asian and other countries can make more concerted and proactive efforts to implement sanctions and comply with U.N. resolutions."



More importantly, it should be recognized that ASEAN is not the only party other than China that provides a lifeline to Pyongyang.



North Korea has extensive relations with countries throughout Africa such as Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Egypt, Latin American and Caribbean countries such as Panama and Cuba and even European nations Poland and Romania.



"The world community, not just the U.S., should focus on a global approach if it wants to tighten sanctions on North Korea," Hwang said.




Hyun Jeong-eun may help improve ties with Pyongyang



By Yi Whan-woo





Hyun Jeong-eun

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun is drawing attention over whether she can help the government make a breakthrough in inter-Korean ties, as she awaits North Korea's approval to enter the country next month.

Hyun was treated as a "state guest" in North Korea for her efforts to succeed late Hyundai Group founder and her father-in-law Chung Ju-yung as well as his late eldest son and her husband Chung Mong-hun in facilitating inter-Korean economic cooperation, according to the sources, Wednesday.

Hyun plans to visit Mount Geumgang with executives from Hyundai Asan, Hyundai Group's investment arm in North Korea, to commemorate the 14th anniversary of her husband's death on Aug. 4.

Under the circumstances, she may convey a government message about resuming cross-border dialogue if the North Korea regime allows her to visit the country, said Paik Hak-soon, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.

Despite President Moon Jae-in's recent peace overture made in Berlin, North Korea has been refusing to accept any dialogue with the South, including military and Red Cross talks.

"Hyun may be able to add to the Moon administration's steps toward reconciliation," Paik said.

According to the Ministry of Unification and Hyundai Asan, the company officials contacted the Beijing office of the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee via telephone and e-mail July 21 to find out if the visit to Mount Geumgang was possible.

The committee is a consultation body handling inter-Korean issues under the wing of the United Front Department.

It responded that it will soon confirm whether the visit is approved, according to the unification ministry.

Meanwhile, some analysts speculate that Hyun's possible visit to North Korea will not contribute to a thaw in inter-Korean ties. They claim that it should be seen as a "special case" only applicable to Hyun and Hyundai Asan.

If realized, this will be the first time since 2015 that the commemoration for Chung will take place at Mount Geumgang, where Hyundai Asan developed a joint tourism project before it was suspended in 2008.

Hyundai Asan held a commemorative ceremony there every year except for 2016 when inter-Korean relations worsened following North Korea's two nuclear tests a series of ballistic missile tests.

In 2013 and 2014, Kim sent a letter to Hyun through the committee, wishing the best of luck to her and bereaved family members as well as Hyundai Group.

Chung junior killed himself in 2003 amid investigation into suspicions that he secretly passed a large sum of money from the South Korean government to North Korea in spring 2000. The money was believed to be a means to ensure the first inter-Korean summit take place in June 2000.
Kim Ryen-hui speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at its office in Seoul, Friday. Kim, who claims she was deceived into coming to South Korea, is calling to be sent back to her hometown of Pyongyang. / Korea Times photo Shim Hyun-chul



By Kim Bo-eun

Kim Ryen-hui, 48, has never been more hopeful that she will finally have her wish to return "home" to North Korea granted than now, since she first set foot in South Korea in 2011.

"I am living day by day with the hope of good news," Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

The "title" on her name card is "Pyongyang resident," and together with her Seoul address it also bears her home address in Pyongyang where her husband and daughter live.

"President Moon Jae-in was a human rights lawyer. I believe he is pushing for the resumption of separated family reunions to grant people their basic rights," she said. "If he considers the pain of separated families, he would not let situations like mine continue."

Last week, the South Korean government proposed military and Red Cross talks with their counterparts in the North. The Red Cross talks were aimed at holding a fresh round of reunions for separated families.

Pyongyang has kept silent. It has maintained the reunions will not take place unless Kim and 12 restaurant workers who came to the South last year are sent back.

Defectors' stories

When Kim came to the South in 2011, she had no intention of settling here. In her hometown, she worked as a seamstress.

But while visiting a cousin in China she fell ill, and a broker told her she would be able to earn her medical expenses if she worked in the South for a few months.

However, in the process of doing so, she learnt this wasn't true.

Upon arrival, the nation's intelligence agency interrogates defectors for three months with the aim of weeding out spies among them. They spend the next three months at a government-run resettlement center.

"The moment the questioning began, I pleaded, telling the authorities I was deceived into coming to the South  that I have my family waiting for me in Pyongyang," Kim said.

"But they told me I had to sign papers stating I would become a South Korean citizen if I wanted to leave the center."

While defectors are able to obtain passports six months after settling down, this did not apply to Kim, who was set aside by authorities as someone to monitor. Some ultra-conservatives suspected she might be a North Korean spy.

When leaving through legal means was no longer an option, Kim said she attempted to stow away, bought a fake passport and even pretended to be a North Korean spy, in the hopes of being repatriated.

In 2015 she was convicted of being a spy but got a suspended sentence due to a lack of evidence.

Kim currently faces questioning for allegations of violating the National Security Law, for uploading posts praising the North Korean regime on Facebook and for requesting the Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul to send her back to Pyongyang last year.

But she continues to promote her story, through press conferences with civic groups.

"Kim claims she was deceived into coming here, and that she was forced to sign government documents against her will," said Jeong Jin-woo, head of the National Council of Churches at Korea's Human Rights Center.

"Transcending political ideologies, the governments should allow Kim to return to the North from a humanitarian perspective, because it is an inherent right to freely choose one's location of residence," he said.

Kim's case has been publicized since a local daily reported on her in 2015. Foreign news outlets have picked up her story and put her in contact with her family. Up until recently, she had been thought of as the only one among around 30,000 defectors here wanting to return to North Korea.

But Kwon Cheol-nam, another defector, spoke out in a press conference last month.

Kwon, 45, came to the South in 2014, "deceived" by a broker's claims that the South Korean government would provide him with a home and a job.

In his hometown of Yonsa County in North Hamgyong Province, he was a "retailer." After defecting to the South, he worked as a laborer at greenhouse farms and construction sites.

"My life in the North was better. Here my employers treated me with contempt (like a dog) and did not give me due payments," Kwon told The Korea Times in a separate interview.

These days, Kwon is picketing in front of Cheong Wa Dae, the Ministry of Unification and the National Assembly with the hopes of being sent back. He has also submitted a petition to the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul.

"I spoke with my 16-year-old son on the phone, but he sounded unfamiliar because his voice had broken. My father passed away from stress after I defected. All I want is to go back home to my family," he said.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, met with Kwon during his visit to Seoul last week.

"We need to remember that many who come from the North to the South are leaving behind relatives and families, so I believe there are human rights implications over the situation that I as a human rights envoy need to look into," he said in a press conference.

"The Special Rapporteur on human rights in the DPRK has received a copy of the petition and is looking into the issue," the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul said via email, Wednesday.

Gov't stance

While the liberal Moon administration's policy toward the North is taking a turn from the hard-line stance of the previous administrations, it remains to be seen how the government will deal with this issue.

The unification ministry's stance remains unchanged amid uncertain circumstances.

"Kim's willingness to settle here was confirmed in administrative procedures, and currently there are no legal grounds to be able to send defectors back," a ministry official said Tuesday.

"There are many aspects to consider, such as the relations between the North and South, and the consequences the defectors may face when they go back. It is an issue that calls for discretion, and negotiations between the governments," he said.


By Kim Bo-eun





Flitto CEO Simon Lee

Earlier this year, human translators beat artificial intelligence (AI)-powered translation programs at a competition held at Sejong University.

But there are still concerns that AI translators will someday outplay their human counterparts, painting a bleak future for the profession. After all, last year, Google's computer program AlphaGo defeated Go master Lee Se-dol in a historic match that signaled the possibilities of AI outperforming humans in various fields in the near future.

Simon Lee, CEO of Flitto, a global crowd sourcing translation platform, rejects this idea of intense competition between human and AI translators.

"Even professional translators rely on machine translations for rough drafts," Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.

"Human and machine translators will continue to support each other, and both sectors will grow rapidly," he said.

Flitto was founded in 2012 with the aim of helping people overcome language barriers.

"The name was derived from flit to,' which means fly quickly from one place to another, like transcending language barriers," Lee said.

Since it participated in Techstars London's incubator program, the first Asian start-up to do so, in the same year it was founded, and won the Seedstars World Competition in 2014, Flitto has been carving a niche in the global translation market, which has an estimated size of $40 billion in 2016 and continues to grow.

The Flitto model

Flitto's service model is based on the need for human minds in the process of translation.

Users can request translation for a simple slang or phrase that is unavailable on Google Translate, and instantly get answers from translators around the world.

The users can then select from the various answers based on the translators' ratings.

While translators are required to pass a test to be able to provide these quick translations, they may still commit errors. In addition, the answer users select may not necessarily be the most accurate.

To this drawback of the service, Lee is unfazed: "Errors exist on every platform including Google and Naver."

Lee, who has a good command of Korean, English and Arabic and is knowledgeable of French and Chinese, confidently uses Flitto to communicate with foreign employees and when traveling for business.

In addition to quick translations, Flitto also facilitates translations for longer documents, such as resumes, business presentations and theses.

Once users submit a request, professional translators, who undergo a more rigorous certification process, present their offers, outlining the cost and estimated completion time.

The users select the offer that suits them; and they can also communicate directly with the translators during and after the task such as to get an update on the task or to request revisions on the translated document, respectively.

"People who submit translation requests to conventional agencies never know who translates their work because the agencies conceal this information at all costs to prevent the customer and translator from dealing directly with each other," Lee said.

In contrast, Flitto's model presents customers with a wider range of available translators, and can establish trust between the customer and translator as their identities are known.

Currently, 7.5 million people in 173 countries use Flitto's translation services in 18 languages, and around 1.2 million translators perform an average of 70,000 translations daily.

Users avail the services by purchasing points with credit cards, and translators can convert the points they earn into cash or coupons that can be used at convenience stores or coffee shops.

Flitto takes a 10 percent commission from the payments for professional translations, which is considerably lower than the market rate for agencies.

Its main source of revenue is sales of data collected from the platform to other businesses.

Status of AI in translation

According to Lee, major translation platforms such as Google and Naver employ the same technology, neural machine translation, which uses a greater pool of data to provide more accurate translations than statistical machine translation, an earlier technology.

What distinguishes translation services are the additional features they offer, which Lee explains using the case of burger restaurants.

"If burgers taste more or less the same, features such as a restaurant's interior and perks, like free soda, will make the difference."

Baidu, for example, offers translations for various types of content from around the world, such as cartoons, while Google uses "Word Lens" to automatically provide translations of words when pointing a smartphone camera at them. Naver's translation service Papago facilitates context-specific translations by enabling users to set a specific location, such as a police station.

Flitto users can already get instant translations when they take pictures at the Museum of Modern Art in New York or Uffizi Gallery in Firenze, Italy. It is also getting ready to launch a service that will provide users translations and pictures of dishes when they take a photo of a menu.

Flitto is working with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to make the service available at the city's restaurants.

Lee predicts translation demand for Arabic will grow but says currently, Arabic translation services are few. Thus, Flitto will also launch a service that will enable users to take pictures of Arabic text and get translations of the text, as Arabic characters may be difficult to type for non-speakers.
By Jun Ji-hye



Korea's K-9 self-propelled howitzers will go through performance evaluation tests in Egypt later this month, sources said Wednesday, indicating negotiations over their possible export are ongoing.



"A K-9 Thunder howitzer has arrived in Egypt," a source told Yonhap News Agency. "Test-firing will take place at the end of the month at a range located west of Cairo."



In June 2016, defense officials here told reporters that Hanwha Techwin, the manufacturer of the K-9 howitzer, was in talks with at least seven countries in Asia, Europe and Africa over exporting the artillery piece. At the time, they did not reveal the names of the countries, citing confidentiality obligations.



Hanwha Techwin, the defense arm of Korea's conglomerate Hanwha Group, developed the 155-millimeter howitzer for the nation's armed forces in 1998 to replace K-55 howitzers.



The K-9, with a maximum range of 40 kilometers and a maximum travel speed of 67 kilometers per hour, can fire six rounds a minute.



Other howitzers competing with the K-9 in Egypt include those made by France, Russia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.



Military officials here say the K-9, one of the core weapons used by the Republic of Korea Army, has a competitive edge due to its low price and high performance, and it has proven reliable during operations.



Egypt reportedly plans to complete performance evaluations of the howitzers by the end of the year and sign a deal at the beginning of next year.



Seoul initially began negotiations with Cairo to export the K-9 in 2010, but the talks came to a standstill the following year amid the Arab Spring revolution, which ousted then-President Hosni Mubarak, sources noted. The two sides resumed their negotiations this year, they added.



In 2011, the Korean defense company sold 350 K-9 howitzers to Turkey on a technology transfer basis, which called for the firm to provide parts and technology. The value of the deal was estimated at about $1 billion.



Then in 2014, the firm also signed a deal with Poland to sell 120 K-9s. At the time, the company said the export, whose total value was estimated at about $310 million, was expected to help the firm pave the way for more sales in Europe.



Finland was the third country to purchase Korean-made K-9s and India, the fourth.




Lee Dong-hak, former renovation committee member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times. / Korea Times photo by Choi Ha-young



By Choi Ha-young

Lee Dong-hak, former renovation committee member of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has been a maverick in the ruling party, never hesitating to make cutting remarks against the party's senior lawmakers to make room for young politicians.

The 36-year-old is now preparing a round-the-world trip posing as a "chief of the global village." For two years beginning in August, he will visit 60 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and South and North America.

By staying two to three weeks in each country, he is planning to make in-depth studies through interviews with citizens, civic activists, policy makers, experts, entrepreneurs and labor union members. His curiosity is simple but serious  how do other countries tackle social conflicts.

"Korea will face a dramatic change amid a plunging birthrate and an increasing aging population. This must ignite various conflicts between the generations and between men and women, as well as between employers and workers. I hope to see how other countries deal with this," Lee said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

"Conflicts will become fiercer, since various natural resources are running out along with climate change. From the texts I have read, I want to see the global issues from a broader angle," he added.

Lee worked for former presidential hopeful An Hee-jung drawing up youth policies. As an up-and-coming politician, he has struggled to make the voices of young people heard in the DPK which has never been easy. This is why Lee is interested in the quota for females and young people in the political parties of other countries.

"It seems like Northern European countries take quotas for females, young people and social minorities for granted. Politicians here easily come up with blueprints of equality citing statistics in these countries, but what I wonder is how they achieved it," Lee said. "There must be struggles, wounds and compromises behind it. That's what I have to observe as a politician."

In early August, he will head to Japan. He is keen to learn about the curriculum at Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, a school that nurtures young people who dream of becoming career politicians.

"South Korean political parties lack a system to promote young people to become politicians. It's all up to individuals, like what I've done. I want to see the institute's program firsthand and interview the politicians who took the courses."

President Moon Jae-in touted public diplomacy in his five-year policy roadmap unveiled last week. Calling himself a "first citizen envoy," Lee, a Taekwondo master, aims at bridging parties, civic groups and labor unions in South Korea between those in foreign countries through his two-year journey.
By Kim Rahn



A young entrepreneur may lead the newly created ministry handling small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups, sources said Wednesday.



President Moon Jae-in pledged during his election campaign to elevate the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) as an independent ministry. So it is expected Moon may pick a symbolic figure who can represent his focus on nurturing small companies.



A source from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said it is unlikely for a politician to become a minister of the new organization, which gained the official name of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Wednesday.



"Five ruling party lawmakers were already appointed as Cabinet members. Moon is unlikely to choose another incumbent lawmaker for the minister post," the source said, adding the party leadership agrees on the stance.



The chances of naming a lawmaker have become slimmer after Rep. Kim Young-joo was recently picked as labor minister.



"Cheong Wa Dae is screening several candidates, and most of them are not politicians but experts in their field," the source said. "It is a majority opinion that a person who knows the situation and hardships of startup companies should take the job."



So the attention for possible nominees has been switched from lawmakers to professors and former government officials at economy-related ministries, while some expect a young entrepreneur to be named as a symbolic appointment.



Some on the potential minister candidate list are Yonsei University's business school professor Rhee Moo-weon who helped Moon draw up election campaign pledges for measures to cope with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Hanyang University's business administration professor Han Jung-wha who led the SMBA from March 2013 to January 2016, and former DPK lawmaker Chun Soon-ok who was the head of the party's special committee for small businesses during the 19th National Assembly.



A Cheong Wa Dae official said the nomination may take a few days, and will probably be announced next week. "We officially began screening candidates Tuesday when the revision on the government organization to establish the new ministry was proclaimed at the Cabinet meeting following the recent passage of the bill at the Assembly," he said.



Creating the ministry to support SMEs, venture startups and micro-businesses was among Moon's promises to nurture and spur startups and create jobs. The ministry will also have a department in charge of supporting self-employed people at small businesses such as restaurants and lodgings.




The Moon Jae-in administration has embarked on an unprecedented economic experiment _ income-driven growth through the expansion of fiscal spending. Job creation and income growth will be two pillars of the new government's scheme to tide over low growth and wealth polarization.



The five-year economic plan, unveiled Tuesday, is a far cry from the country's long-held export-driven growth strategy, which put growth over distribution. President Moon said the plan will mark a ''complete paradigm shift'' in Asia's fourth-largest economy.



It is undeniable that Korea needs change. The government rightfully noted that our growth model _ in which conglomerates' export growth led to investment and income gains _ has reached its limit. Given that low growth has been fixed and polarization has deepened, there must be a new growth model.



But one has to wonder if the experiment will produce good results, considering there has been no successful case of income-led growth.



The government has laid out a plan to keep the rise of its spending above economic growth valued at current prices. If so, fiscal spending will expand by 5 or 6 percent, up from 3 percent at present. Our fiscal health is still good, but this is no time for complacency. Gnawing away at national coffers without fostering growth engines would be tantamount to handing down our debt to future generations.



What's alarming is that the government has no viable blueprint yet on how to raise taxes at a time when it is seeking to increase household incomes and create jobs with fiscal resources.



To carry out its ''distribution-first'' policies, the Moon administration needs 178 trillion won _ by its own estimate. The ruling party has proposed raising taxes on bigger companies and super-rich individuals, but the increased tax revenue would be only 3.8 trillion won a year, which is absurdly insufficient.



Korea's major industries have been struggling with the erosion of competitiveness as well as a low birthrate and population aging. But it's doubtful if the five-year plan could offer solutions to these fundamental problems. The concern is that Korea might follow in the footsteps of some countries in Southern Europe beleaguered with excessive debt.




By John Burton





Lee Jong-kul, a prominent lawmaker from President Moon Jae-in's Minjoo Party, last week told a seminar in Washington that South Korea may have to acquire nuclear weapons, an idea that until now has been confined to the conservative political fringes in Seoul.

"If North Korea continues to conduct nuclear weapon and missile tests while the North Korean nuclear negotiations are sluggish, South Korea should decide whether to break the principle of denuclearization and start developing nuclear weapons," Lee said in a speech at a forum in the U.S. capital sponsored by several Korea-related religious groups.

"An astronomical amount of money on armaments would be incurred to fight against nuclear weapons with non-nuclear weapons. It is clear that the most effective deterrent to nuclear weapons is a nuclear weapon itself," he stated. "Therefore, I believe that we need a phased strategy for nuclear armament. The first phase is to adopt highly effective weapon systems such as nuclear submarines, and the next phase is to promote the relocation of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons [to South Korea], and in the final phase, we should develop our own nuclear weapons."

The remarks appear to underscore the surprisingly muscular approach that the Moon administration is taking on defense issues despite its pursuit of an engagement policy with Pyongyang. Moon recently proposed that South Korea should increase its defense spending to 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, up from the current 2.4 percent, even as Seoul was proposing talks with North Korean on easing military tensions and reuniting separated families. "The new government is seeking a dialogue with North Korea, but it would be meaningless without the overwhelming national defense power," said Moon as quoted in a Blue House statement.

Lee's suggestion that South Korea may have to acquire nuclear weapons represents a dramatic reversal of his previous position. Lee, who served as Minjoo Party floor leader in the last National Assembly session, last year sharply condemned proposals for nuclear armament by some conservative lawmakers from then President Park Geun-hye's Saenuriparty, including his counterpart as National Assembly floor leader, Won Yoo-chul. Lee said that they "have brought up an irresponsible chauvinist nuclear armament theory. That is outdated nationalistic populism."

But Lee adopted a more somber tone in his Washington speech, saying that

"The nuclear and missile capabilities of North Koreahave been upgraded to pose serious threats. However, the international cooperation system to keep the North in check has been nullified," citing U.S.-China tensions over the U.S. deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in South Korea.

Although Lee endorsed continued dialogue with Pyongyang, he warned that while the Moon administration "should inherit the basic principle of the Sunshine Policy,"it "needs to face the fact that North Korea's military capabilities have fundamentally changed since the Sunshine Policy period" of the previous decade as the Moon administration seeks to first freeze and then abolish the North's nuclear program.

What is particularly striking about Lee raising the idea of a nuclear option is that it indicates that this proposal is now being debated within "progressive" Korean political circles as well as conservative ones.

Attention has recently focused, for example, on Moon's support for a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to counter North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile capability. This has raised concerns among the international non-proliferation community that the development of an enrichment capability for fueling nuclear submarines would also give South Korea the capability to build nuclear weapons.

The willingness of those affiliated with the Moon administration to even consider a nuclear option may reflect uncertainty over the Trump administration's commitment to defending South Korea in face of a North Korean threat and as well as a desire by Moon to create an independent military capability less reliant on the U.S.

But continued discussions about a nuclear option for South Korea could also be seen as a signaling mechanism by Seoul to persuade Washington and Beijing to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program or seek reassurance from the U.S. on security guarantees.

For example, Hong Hyunik a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, told the forum that U.S. tactical nuclear weapons should be reintroduced to South Korea, which were removed in 1991, because THAAD was "useless" as a deterrent in stopping a North Korea missile attack. He said that the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons would force North Korea to resume negotiations on the dismantlement of its nuclear and missile program, with one possible outcome being that North Korea could acquire a security guarantee by being placed under the nuclear umbrella of either China or Russia like that provided by the U.S. for South Korea.





John Burton, a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Washington,D.C.-based journalist and consultant. He can be reached at johnburtonft@yahoo.com.

foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr
By Lee Min-hyung



The government will start the controversial telecom fee reduction drive in September, Science and ICT Minister Yoo Young-min said Wednesday.



"The science ministry will raise the discount rate for the telecom subscription to 25 percent from the existing 20 percent, which will take effect in September," he told reporters.



Any telecom subscriber here can take advantage of the telecom discount when signing up for a one-year or two-year subscription contract with a mobile carrier on a handset purchase, choosing between a monthly rate-cut or a one-time subsidy.



The latest move comes as part of the Moon Jae-in administration's campaign pledge to reduce household telecom expenses.



The promise has brought up a heated debate between the government and mobile carriers here. They strongly opposed the move, as it would hold back their plan to make investments in such areas as the upcoming fifth-generation (5G) network infrastructure.



But Yoo said the telecom operators including SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus have to come up with new business models with the 5G network. He called for them to reduce their heavy reliance on major revenue streams - mostly from the recurring telecom fees from their tens of millions of subscribers.



"Mobile carriers should remain more agile in shifting their revenue generation processes," he said.



On Tuesday, he held his first meeting with SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho. The company is the nation's leading mobile carrier.



But the science minister said he would do the utmost to find middle ground where both parties can benefit rather than pushing for a one-sided policy.



"We agreed to narrow our differences through dialogue," the minister said, without elaborating further over details of the ongoing telecom fee controversies. They include the abolition of the basic telecom fee of 11,000 won ($9.81). This, one of Moon's campaign pledges, turned out to be unrealistic as the government practically scrapped the plan amid fierce opposition from telecom operators.



Yoo said he would soon hold a meeting with the heads of the two smaller mobile carriers.



Yoo took office on July 11 as the new science minister, replacing the previous chief Choi Yang-hee who led the organization since July 2014 for three years.



Besides the local telecom industry issues, Yoo stressed that the nation should leap into a software powerhouse, naming big data as the driving force toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution.



"We know how crucial big data is, but have so far kept a low-profile approach in terms of the government investment in the technology," he said. "The government and business circles should take a more flexible and aggressive attitude for big data."




Ethical firms come to fore in Moon administration





Ham Young-joon, Ottogi chairman

By Park Jae-hyuk

Since medium-sized food company Ottogi is scheduled to join a meeting with President Moon Jae-in alongside the nation's top conglomerates Thursday, market observers have begun to look for another company fulfilling its social responsibility.

The administration has emphasized it will sincerely support socially responsible firms, regardless of their size, in line with Moon's promises to reduce the number of irregular workers and eliminate unfair practices of conglomerates.

For its high proportion of full-time employees and transparent management, Ottogi has been regarded as one of Korea's most ethical firms. A Cheong Wa Dae official also said the special invitation shows recognition of the company's business practices.

Industry watchers therefore expect such respected firms as Hanssem and Yuhan-Kimberly will benefit from the incumbent administration, noting Ottogi's stock price rose sharply after the President's surprise invitation of its chief to Cheong Wa Dae.

Hanssem, a medium-sized company specializing in furniture, has been recognized for founder Cho Chang-gul's donations.

The honorary chairman donated his stock shares worth 215.5 billion won ($193 million) this May to Hanssem DBEW Research Foundation, a nonprofit think tank founded in 2012. He promised in 2015 to donate 2.6 million company shares, half of his stake, worth 460 billion won to the think tank, and has donated 1.66 million shares as of this May.

"He plans to donate the remaining shares gradually," a Hanssem official said.

Hanssem has also promoted the welfare of its female employees, running a daycare center, reducing work hours of pregnant employees and offering jobs to women who take career breaks.

Yuhan-Kimberly, a joint venture between Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan Corp. and U.S. personal care company Kimberly-Clark, has maintained its good reputation for decades.

Just as Ottogi, the proportion of full-time employees at Yuhan-Kimberly was as high as 97 percent in 2015. Employees have worked for the company for 18 years on average.

Promising to maintain Yuhan founder Yoo Il-han's devotional attitudes, the company has also carried out various corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, including a tree-planting campaign, employment of senior citizens and financial support for low-income families.

CSR experts selected its tree-planting campaign, Keep Korea Green, as the most recognizable CSR activity in Korea, according to a survey by the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies last year.

The survey showed consumers ranked both Yuhan Corp. and Yuhan-Kimberly among the top 10 socially responsible companies along with larger companies such as Samsung, Hyundai Motor and LG.

Industry officials, however, warned Hanssem and Yuhan-Kimberly may have to struggle to maintain their reputations.

The former has faced conflicts with its customers, who are not satisfied with its work.

The latter has drawn criticism for its price hike of sanitary pads last year, when the public realized that some low-income teenagers were using shoe insoles and toilet paper as alternatives for sanitary pads.

It has also come under fire for relatively higher dividend payments to Kimberly-Clark's Hungarian branch, the largest shareholder of the Korean firm.

Yuhan-Kimberly refuted that the company has increased not only dividends but also investments, and has donated sanitary pads to low-income teenagers.
Pictures of a Starbucks Mango Banana Blended beverage containing dozens of plastic particles that a pregnant consumer uploaded on an online community. / Courtesy of Nate Pann

By Park Jae-hyuk

A Starbucks store here sold a drink containing dozens of plastic particles to a pregnant woman, the global coffee chain's Korean unit admitted Wednesday.

The particles fell into the beverage when a barista unknowingly dropped a bottle cap from a bottle of mango juice into a blender.

Although Starbucks Coffee Korea said the customer accepted the company's apology, it has come under criticism for the store's poor response to her.

Earlier this week, the customer wrote about the incident on a local online community, Nate Pann, uploading a picture of the plastic particles.

"Immediately after I took a sip of the Mango Banana Blended that my husband bought for me over the weekend, I felt something strange and spit out three plastic particles," she wrote. "When I looked I could see the debris in the cup."

Her husband showed the drink to the store clerk who said they could get a new beverage, according to the woman.

"When my husband complained about it, the clerk then said we could receive a refund," she wrote.

Claiming the drink contained dozens of sharp plastic particles, the victim wrote that she might have miscarried, had she finished the beverage.

"Without checking my safety, Starbucks only offered me an exchange or refund," she complained. "I asked the company to get in touch with me, but it has yet to respond."

Starbucks Coffee Korea admitted its fault.

"We tried to get in touch with the customer but we could only belatedly meet with her due to a scheduling conflict," a Starbucks Coffee Korea official said. "She accepted our apology and deleted the online post from the website."

Promising to prevent the recurrence of such accidents, the company said it will set customer safety as its top priority. However, it did not discipline or punish the barista for his mistake.

Operating more than a thousand stores in Korea, 500,000 customers visit Starbucks every day on average. The company recently celebrated its 18th anniversary here.
Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) chaired by Sri Lanka met in Dubai for a two day Special Workshop from 4-5 July 2017 at senior officials and experts level representing the member Governments of the ADD and including observers from civil society, the private sector, and international organizations. The main objective of the workshop was to operationalize the four (04) collaborative tracks that were approved by the ADD Ministers at the Inter-Ministerial Consultation in Colombo in January this year, namely, alternative model for labour recruitment, certification of skills and recognition, comprehensive information management and Technology in the Governance of Labour Mobility. The outcome will be shared with the ongoing UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration as ADD best practices in consultation with the ADD Members States.

ADD represents one of the largest regional migration corridors.

Please see the full report on the workshop proceedings.

26th July 2017

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva
Happy birthday, Aldous Huxley! The author of Brave New World, a classic of dystopian literature, was born 123 years ago Wednesday.

The British novelist and intellectual, and longtime Southern California resident, remains best known for Brave New World, his 1932 novel about a fascist government that controls its population with strict rules and widely available mind-numbing drugs.

Still widely taught in schools today, the book received mostly (but not uniformly) positive reviews when it was released just a few years before dictators would seize power in Germany, Spain and other European countries.

Advertisement

British philosopher Bertrand Russell was among the books admirers. In the unhappy days in which it is our lot to live, Utopias are written in order to make us still more unhappy, Russell wrote. Mr.Aldous Huxley, in his Brave New World, has shown his usual masterly skill in producing this result upon the reader, for he has undertaken to make us sad by the contemplation of a world without sadness.

The novel spawned film and radio adaptations, even into the present day. A television adaptation is in the works from Stephen Spielbergs production company Amblin Television; the series is expected to air on the Syfy network.

Huxley would follow up the novel in 1958 with Brave New World Revisited, a long essay in which he argued that his pessimistic predictions for the future were being proven true.

Aldous Huxley and some of his archives (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

While Brave New World is by far his most famous book, Huxley also gained acclaim for novels like Point Counter Point (1928), a biting satire of intellectualism, and Island (1962), a utopian answer to Brave New World.

He also gained fame for his 1954 essay The Doors of Perception, which chronicled his experiment with the psychedelic plant extract mescaline. He took the drug on a spring day in 1952 in West Hollywood with the British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. (A young, hopeful poet and musician in Los Angeles, Jim Morrison, was so taken with the book, he named his band The Doors after it.) The onetime member of the Bloomsbury set was an early proponent of psychedelics.

Huxley moved to Southern California in the late 1930s. The writer, who by some accounts was nearly blind (others said hed regained his eyesight) was heavily involved with the Hindu group the Vedanta Society of Southern California, and contributed frequently to its journal, Vedanta and the West.

Huxley died of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 69. Any other day, his death might have dominated headlines, but he died on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Brave New World continues to be read and to draw controversy, 85 years after it was published. The novel was among the top 10 challenged and banned books in American schools and libraries in 2010 and 2011.
AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Randall Stephenson found himself in uncomfortable territory after President Trumps appearance before thousands of Boy Scouts on Monday turned into a political rally with Trump boisterously bashing his rivals.

Stephenson, a former Scout who serves as president of the Boy Scouts of America, was among the officials who invited Trump to speak at the West Virginia jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America.

The controversy comes at an awkward time for Stephenson. His Dallas company is seeking the approval of Trumps Justice Department for its $85.4-billion takeover of media company Time Warner Inc.

Advertisement

During his speech before a crowd estimated at nearly 40,000, many of them teenage boys, Trump referred to Washington as a cesspool and threatened to fire one of his Cabinet secretaries if Congress failed to repeal Obamacare.

As the Scout law says: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal  we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that, Trump told the group, according to a transcript of his remarks.

It was not unusual for a sitting president to appear before the group. The Boy Scouts of America, in a statement, said the tradition dates from 1937, when the President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended an event.

The Boy Scouts quickly sought to distance itself from Trumps remarks, saying the group was wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any one position  political candidate or philosophy.

This 80-year-old custom of inviting presidents to speak to Scouts is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies, the Scouts said. Rather, the speaking invitation is based on our Duty to Country from the Scout Oath and out of respect for the Office of the President of the United States.

Before the election, Trump said he would block an AT&T-Time Warner merger because it would give the company too much power.

AT&T would become the nations largest media company, with such prominent properties as CNN, HBO, TBS and Hollywoods largest movie and television studio, Warner Bros., and vast reach through its Internet and cellphone service and TV distribution with its DirecTV subsidiary in El Segundo.

However, executives familiar with the Justice Department review say privately that Trump has since softened his position and they are expecting the deal to be approved as early as September.

An AT&T spokesman referred inquiries about the controversy to the Boy Scouts.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns about the mammoth merger. Some worry that Trump, who has consistently railed against CNN, calling it fake news, might try to extract more favorable news coverage from CNN as a condition of the deal. He has hinted that CNNs president, Jeff Zucker, might be fired after a merger.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) this month wrote Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to say that political interference in an antitrust enforcement was unacceptable.

meg.james@latimes.com

@MegJamesLAT

ALSO

Former Fox News executive files $48-million lawsuit over sexual assault scandal

Sony Pictures picks a new television team

Hulu hires a marketing officer from Google

O.J. Simpsons parole hearing is a ratings dud with 13.5 million viewers
Amazon.com Inc. has some job openings. Lots of them.

The Seattle e-commerce giant said Wednesday that its looking to fill more than 50,000 positions across the United States. The announcement comes at a time when the labor market is growing tight with back-to-school and holiday shopping around the corner. Others will be competing for many of those potential hires.

Amazon will open the doors to job seekers Aug. 2  next Wednesday  at 10 of its warehouses. The majority of jobs will be full time. More than 10,000 part-time jobs also will be available at sorting centers, along with some supporting and managerial positions.

Amazon said in January that it wanted to hire 100,000 full-time workers over the next 18 months. Since that time, it has steadily announced jobs, including plans to add 900 workers in Boston and 1,600 in Michigan.

Advertisement

Although the nations unemployment rate is 4.4%, near a 16-year low, the average hourly pay rose just 2.5% in the last year. The last time unemployment was this low, wages were rising at roughly a 4% rate.

Wage increases have been slow in coming, however, something that is being watched closely by U.S. monetary policymakers.

Amazon said its jobs offer highly competitive pay, along with health insurance, disability insurance, retirement savings plans and company stock. Other benefits include up to 20 weeks of paid maternity leave and programs such as Ramp Back, which give new mothers more control over the pace at which they return to work.

Amazons growth has been phenomenal, with sales almost doubling in a three-year span, and now it is seeking to grow outside its core. It recently announced a $13.7-billion deal to buy organic grocer Whole Foods. It added Sears Kenmore products to its website, and its rolling out its own ready-to-eat meal packages, competing with companies such as Blue Apron.

The warehouses that will welcome job seekers Wednesday are in Baltimore; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Etna, Ohio; Fall River, Mass.; Hebron, Ky.; Kenosha, Wis.; Kent, Wash.; Robbinsville, N.J.; Romeoville, Ill.; and Whitestown, Ind.

Applicants for part-time jobs also will be welcomed that day at sites in Buffalo, N.Y., and Oklahoma City.

Amazon shares rose 1.2% on Wednesday to $1,052.80.

ALSO

The yellow light is on: California loses 1,400 jobs as economy shows signs of slowing

As Californias labor shortage grows, farmers race to replace workers with robots

Trump says Apple has plans to build 3 U.S. factories; Apple doesnt comment

Foxconn will build factory in Wisconsin, White House invitation says

UPDATES:

2:20 p.m.: This article was updated with Amazons stock movement.

This article was originally published at 9:55 a.m.
Health insurer Molina Healthcare Inc. will lay off about 1,400 employees as the Long Beach company looks to cut costs and increase profitability.

The layoffs will hit 10% of staff in the companys corporate and health-plans units, from senior leaders to front line staff, interim Chief Executive Joe White said in a memo sent to employees Monday that was obtained by The Times.

Notice will go out to affected employees in two waves and will largely be completed by the end of September, according to the memo.

Advertisement

The company said it would provide severance packages, interview and resume help, and would give affected employees access to Molina Healthcare recruiters to help some qualified candidates find positions in other departments or locations.

Molina Healthcare employs about 6,400 people in its corporate segment, and 7,700 people in health plans, according to its latest annual report, released in March.

This was a very difficult decision, and one that I do not take lightly, White wrote in the memo. But we must never flinch from making the decisions that will allow the Molina mission to continue.

Molina Healthcare declined to comment.

Founded in 1980 by a Long Beach emergency room doctor, Molina Healthcare has traditionally been known as a Medicaid provider and emerged as a major player in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, health insurance markets.

As of March, the company had about 4.8 million members in 12 states and Puerto Rico who were eligible for Medicaid, Medicare and other government-sponsored healthcare programs for the poor. In California, the company had 765,000 members and operates several of its own clinics.

In May, Molina Healthcare ousted its two top executives  the sons of the firms founder  in a move the company attributed to poor financial results.

Analysts said Molina Healthcare had long lagged competitors in profitability. An effort to improve that under Chief Executive J. Mario Molina and his brother, Chief Financial Officer John Molina, had been slow to materialize and inconsistent in its progress. The two brothers remain on the companys board.

The company and the management team did an excellent job growing the top line, said Chris Rigg, director at Deutsche Bank. It was just not able to effectively and really consistently translate the revenue growth to earnings growth.

White, the companys chief financial officer, assumed the role of interim CEO, while Dale Wolf, a director, became the firms chairman.

Although the timing of the layoffs was surprising  coming while the company is looking for a permanent CEO  the actual decision to cut jobs was not, said Dave Windley, managing director at Jefferies.

Their margins are very low relative to their competitors, he said. The idea that they need to streamline costs and become a more efficient operation is fairly apparent from the financial performance.

In the memo to employees, White said the company had started an effort known as Project Nickel, which would improve Molina Healthcares operating and financial performance and position the firm to be exceptionally strategic in doing more with less.

The effort involves managing medical costs and increasing revenue by winning more government contracts.

The Medicaid market is expected to grow, and Molina Healthcares track record of winning opportunities in that sector could be an additional plus for the company, said Sarah James, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.

In 1994, Molina Healthcare won a no-bid state contract estimated at the time to be worth $400 million to provide care for mothers and children in Californias Medicaid program.

But the company also faces some uncertainty in its future role in the ACA exchanges. Earlier this year, then-CEO J. Mario Molina wrote a letter to Congress saying that Molina Healthcare would have to pull out of the exchanges if the government did not continue to provide subsidies that lower an individuals out-of-pocket costs based on their income.

The current management has not yet indicated what its plans are for further involvement, analysts said.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga

ALSO

Amazon announces U.S. hiring spree as labor market tightens

Q&A: Why this company is implanting microchips in its workers

Why the grim reaper of retail hasnt come to claim Best Buy
Hotels have been sold out for years. Eclipse viewing glasses are back-ordered on Amazon. People are charging thousands for a one-night stay in their homes. There are T-shirts, mugs, posters, books, iPhone cases, pillows and leggings.

The Great Solar Eclipse is coming, and theres money to be made.

With more than 12 million people living in the so-called path of totality, and millions more traveling to see the historic Aug. 21 solar eclipse, companies and enterprising individuals are sensing opportunity.

Advertisement

Of course people are taking advantage, said Jaci Hill, who is helping her mother rent her Idaho Springs home on Airbnb for $1,000 on the night before the eclipse. It is definitely a situation of supply and demand.

Economists say it is difficult to gauge how much revenue will be generated from the eclipse because it is such a rare event  its the first total solar eclipse to traverse America in 99 years, and the first time the path of totality will eclipse only over the contiguous U.S. Cities from coast to coast are expecting a windfall of business for hotels, restaurants, gas stations and retailers  even Porta-Potty rental companies.

Merchandise sales have been brisk on GreatAmericanEclipse.com, said Polly White, the websites business manager.

Its smart to get your supply before eclipse day to beat the inevitable shortages! the site warns. There are $20 glow-in-the-dark Occupy totality! T-shirts, an $8.95 pack of temporary tattoos, a $6 embroidered patch and a $3 luggage tag.

One item, called the Advice From a Solar Eclipse Magnet, reads: See the total picture. Be moved by beauty. Live in the moment. Be naturally phenomenal. Lighten up! It costs $4.50.

I know people really like having swag after theyve had an amazing experience, White said.

Another site, Eclipse2017.org, has a page dedicated to eclipse stuff for sale!

Dan McGlaun, owner of Eclipse2017.org, said he would have made millions if he had chosen to sell merchandise directly instead of merely linking to other companies (his site does sell viewing glasses).

That being said, McGlaun does have something in the works. His site is teasing a mysterious, yet-to-be-announced product: The best, most original, most unique souvenir of the 2017 total solar eclipse! Watch for it Coming soon.

The eclipse market is not only limited to viewing glasses and apparel. Frey Vineyards in Redwood Valley, Calif.  which isnt even in the path of totality  has released an Eclipse 3-Pack Special that includes a bottle of sparkling wine, a bottle of organic Zinfandel and a bottle of organic Chardonnay for $88.

The Frey family are eclipse chasers and met people working on the Great American Eclipse website who suggested they make a special wine for the event.

Jonathan Frey, general manager of Frey wines, expects to sell out of the specialty wines before the eclipse.

It is a tradition to pop a cork after an eclipse that goes well, Frey said.

Lodging providers stand to profit hugely.

With millions of people estimated to flood into several small cities across the path of totality, which stretches from Oregon to South Carolina, hotels are preparing for a flood of overnight guests.

Most traditional lodging facilities have been booked for months if not years, leading people to jack up prices on Airbnb.

Nashona Haldane, a designer, defended her decision to rent her Idaho Falls home for more than $2,000 a night. She said she is looking to make some extra money to take a family vacation and pay her bills.

I dont see it as taking advantage, but rather as an opportunity to help my family, she said. Our town is small and rarely gets any opportunities like this one.

Lanette Amundson, a disaster responder for the Red Cross in Salem, Ore., is listing her apartment on Airbnb for $7,500 a night, saying she wants to ensure she has enough money to replace any broken items or belongings.

We have had a few inquiries and also a few messages that werent polite about the price, Amundson said.

Another Airbnb host, Karli Harvey, is looking for someone to rent a camping spot in her backyard for $150 a night. Shes already rented out the guest room in her house for $500 a night.

If youre coming here, then it is putting a strain on the people who live here and the local economy, so you should pay more for a place to stay, Harvey said.

Restaurants, too, are gearing up for a flood of customers.

The Black Bear Diner in Madras, Ore., expects to serve roughly 1,500 customers on the day of the eclipse, or about five times the usual number.

Owner Joe Davis has also cut the number of menu items for that day, ordered two extra-large dumpsters for garbage, rented a truck to bring his employees to work and hired six parking attendants to ensure only customers park in the restaurants 70 parking places.

He has also ordered portable toilets to be placed in the parking lot.

I am expecting to have a waiting line the whole day at the restrooms, he said.

rachel.spacek@latimes.com

@rachelspacek

ALSO

The Great American Eclipse is in August, and scientists are ready

Parades, parties and port-a-potties: Eclipse mania is taking hold from coast to coast

Want to watch Augusts total solar eclipse from 35,000 feet?
China is defending last weekend's encounter between two of its fighter jets and a U.S. military surveillance plane over the East China Sea.

U.S. military officials say one of two Chinese J-10 fighters flew under a U.S. Navy EP-3 plane at a high rate of speed Sunday, then slowed down and pulled up directly in front of the plane, forcing the crew to take evasive action to prevent a collision. One of the Chinese jets was armed.

The U.S. plane was conducting a surveillance mission in international waters 80 nautical miles, or 150 kilometers, from the Chinese city of Qingdao when the incident occurred.


President Trump said Apple Inc. has committed to build three big manufacturing plants in the U.S., a move that would represent a major change in strategy for the worlds most valuable company and boost the White Houses long-held promise to return overseas factory jobs to America.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told him the new factories were already in the works.

I spoke to [Mr. Cook], hes promised me three big plants  big, big, big, Trump told the Journal. I said, You know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I wont consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward.

Advertisement

Apple didnt respond to a request for comment.

The iPhone maker has said little about its plans to boost manufacturing in the U.S. In May, Cook said Apple would invest $1 billion into a fund to promote advanced manufacturing stateside. The first recipient of that fund was Corning Inc., which makes glass for iPhone and iPad screens. The company, based in western New York, received $200 million from Apple.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese-owned electronics giant that operates most of Apples massive factory network in China, is considering opening a plant in Wisconsin large enough to accommodate 10,000 workers. Still, that would represent a drop in the bucket compared to the companys China operations. Plants there hold in excess of 100,000 workers.

Youre going to need people to work in these massive plants, Trump told the Journal. Im going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isnt working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then youll have another area 500 miles away where you cant get people, Im going to explain, you can leave. Its OK. Dont worry about your house.

Apple says it directly employs 80,000 workers in the U.S. and an additional 450,000 through suppliers.

Its small-contract manufacturers on American soil include Flex Ltd., which builds Mac computers in Austin, Texas, and Quanta Computer Inc., which produces Macs in Fremont, Calif., according to the Journal.

The president has had a prickly relationship with Apple. He called for a boycott of the company when it declined to assist investigators in unlocking an iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack last year. He also pressured Apple on the campaign trail to stop making so many products overseas.

In turn, Cook hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton and was reportedly on her short list for vice president, according to stolen emails obtained by WikiLeaks.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Follow me @dhpierson on Twitter
Bi-folding doors slide away for a seamless indoor-outdoor transition at this modern villa in San Diegos La Playa area. The multi-function living spaces combine vaulted ceilings, polished stone and picture windows that frame harbor and ocean views. A two-story casita sits beyond the swimming pool and holds an executive office.

The details

Location: 448 San Gorgonio St., San Diego, CA 92106

Asking price: $2.7 million

Built: 1989

Architect: Rob Quigley

Advertisement

House size: 3,300 square feet, five bedrooms, five bathrooms

Lot size: 0.32 acres

Features: Clean lines; marble floors; bi-folding and sliding glass doors; eat-in kitchen with breakfast nook; step-down living room; two-story casita with office; guest quarters with private entrance; four-car garage; art studio; swimming pool and spa; expansive decking

About the area: In the 92106 ZIP Code, based on 22 sales, the median sales price in June was $1.149 million, according to CoreLogic. That was a 16.6% increase in median sales price year over year.

Agents: JoJo Giordano, (619) 995-5252, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties

To submit a candidate for Home of the Day, send high-resolution color photos via Dropbox.com, permission from the photographer to publish the images and a description of the house to lauren.beale2@latimes.com.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATHotProperty

MORE FROM HOT PROPERTY:

Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor sells his modern mansion for $5.3 million

Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman lists Laurel Canyon compound with recording studio

Feud star Alfred Molina snaps up view-house in La Canada Flintridge

Kylie Jenner gets $3.15 million for her glammed-up starter home in Calabasas
Local election officials are looking for some good hackers.

As part of an effort to create a new voting system, Los Angeles County computer specialists are headed this week to Defcon, one of the worlds largest hacking conventions, where attendees will try to compromise a new target  voting equipment.

County Registrar-Recorder Dean C. Logan said he hopes Defcons new Voting Village will give his staff more to worry about as they work to revamp the way Los Angeles County votes.

Defcon, which draws 20,000 participants to Las Vegas yearly, has set aside a space this year for hackers to pick apart voting machines, assail voter-registration databases and carry out mock attacks on various voting processes from around the country.

Advertisement

In time-honored Defcon style, some will play offense and some will play defense, and the point is to expose vulnerabilities.

There is a past history in the election community ... to kind of resist this kind of event. But we need to embrace this. We need to know what the threats are.  L.A. County Registrar-Recorder Dean C. Logan

Defcon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Moss, known by the online moniker Dark Tangent, said he and fellow Defcon planners have spent months buying voting equipment on EBay to prepare for the event.

He said he hopes the Voting Village will spur new interest in problems in U.S. election systems.

Hackers are always looking for something new to play with, said Moss, who seemed almost to be rubbing his hands: Its going to be such a rich area!

The event comes at a moment of heightened interest in possibilities for election tampering.

American intelligence officials released an assessment in January saying that, although the vote count was not affected, Russian-government hackers interfered in the 2016 national election. The report said they hacked Democratic National Committee networks and officials emails and selectively leaked material in an effort to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Russian hackers had gained access to state and local electoral boards in an effort to learn about their processes and equipment, according to the assessment, and Kremlin-linked sources pushed negative stories about Clintons health and charity. In addition, the sources sponsored social media campaigns to amplify scandals about her and denigrate her candidacy.

Last month, Homeland Security officials went even further, saying the FBI had found evidence that Russian-backed hackers had penetrated election systems in 21 states in 2016, including Illinois and Arizona.

Security advocates are very, very worried about hackers next moves, said Barbara Simons, a prominent San Francisco computer scientist who leads Verified Voting, a nonprofit election-security advocacy group.

Simons, who will open the Defcon event Friday at Caesars Palace, said she hopes to use the occasion to kick off her groups national awareness campaign about our broken voting system and require voter-marked paper ballots nationally.

Los Angeles County officials, meanwhile, are years into a $15-million effort to develop what they call a new voting experience to replace the card-and-stylus system now in use because, they say, its too hard to replace broken parts on the old system, and too hard to adapt it to reforms aimed at making voting easier.

They have proposed a replacement that features a prototype electronic, touch-screen ballot marker and an open-source software platform for tallying. A pilot program will be in voters hands next year, and all county voters may be switched to the new system as early as 2020.

In concept, L.A. Countys plans dovetail with what security advocates such as Simons have been calling for  in part because they preserve the paper ballot.

Paper balloting may seem anachronistic. But in the new world of rampant cyber-insecurity, paper is almost seen as cutting edge. Paper is a very good thing, said Simons, whose group also advocates mandatory audits of computer tallies.

Logan, the registrar, said paper ballots are key to keeping the proposed system secure and convincing voters to trust it. After using the touch screen, he said, voters will be able to examine their printed ballot and place the card in a box by hand, he said.

The proposed switch to open-source tallying software also reflects current security thinking, Logan said.

Open-source systems dont rely on secret, proprietary code. And although they arent immune to intrusions of malicious code, you have a better chance of finding it than with proprietary code, Simons said.

Despite the plaudits the countys voting reform effort has won  it was a semifinalist for a Harvard government award  Logan said he wants the proposed system to face even tougher tests.

Enter Defcon, with its whiff of outlaw credibility and its democratic style of ferreting out the latest computer break-in techniques.

There is a past history in the election community ... to kind of resist this kind of event, Logan said. But we need to embrace this. We need to know what the threats are.

Logan said its too early to send the countys proof-of-concept for a new election system to Defcon, but thats in the works for next year.

For now, three specialists plan to go  all of whom are involved in reviewing the proposed new voting systems. They aim to learn how to better detect, and defend against, hacks, Logan said. Theyll be on the lookout for hackers with what he called hands-on experience. Logan plans to invite the hackers to attack the proposed system as a test down the line  to kick the tires, as he put it.

Moss, the Defcon founder, said the idea for the Voting Village grew out of conversations with fellow researchers after the 2016 national election and hacking controversy.

As he talked to coding experts and dug up academic studies, he said he was struck by how little had been done to put manufacturers equipment-safety claims to the test.

In particular, he said theres been a dearth of recent studies of complete, end-to-end election systems.

Tight proprietary control of back-end software makes it difficult to simulate such systems, he said. So this years Defcon attendees will have to settle for dismantling pieces of them.

Organizers have collected 25 pieces of election equipment, most of which is still used. Paper will not be spared: poll books and the punch-card systems, whose ambiguous hanging chads caused headaches in the George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential race in 2000, will be on hand and ready to be preyed upon.

Defcon draws software specialists and mechanical hackers  lock pickers, for example. So code-based and analog systems will get a work-over, Moss predicted.

Moss said he hopes to get election officials and cybersecurity researchers talking, and hes seeking a complete simulated election system for Defcons election event next year.

The deficiencies of existing systems are serious, Moss said.

But its not an insurmountable problem, he said. The problems are mostly human problems, like not having resources, or doing something because its new, not because its better.

jill.leovy@latimes.com

ALSO

Girl Scouts offers merit badges for making friends, painting and horseback riding. Up next: cybersecurity

In this digital netherworld, a market for pedophilia, human trafficking, weapons sales and hacking emerges

As your Roomba cleans your floors, its gathering maps of your house

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg clash over the future of artificial intelligence
Foxconn, the Taiwanese maker of Apple Inc.s iPhone, will build its first American factory in Wisconsin, a sprawling campus to produce liquid-crystal display panels that would represent one of the largest investments by a foreign company in the United States, officials said Wednesday.

The factory is expected to add 3,000 to 13,000 direct jobs and amount to a $10-billion investment, a move that will boost President Trumps credentials in his pledged goal to bring more overseas jobs back to the U.S.

We are committed to creating great jobs for American people, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said at a news conference at the White House on Wednesday attended by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Advertisement

Trump said the investment was a show of confidence in the U.S. economy and his leadership.

If I didnt get elected, [Gou] definitely would not be spending $10 billion, the president said.

Foxconn is best known as the assembler of the iPhone, and it relies on Apple for more than half of its business. Its unclear if Apple, which has not responded to several requests for comment, will have any role in the Wisconsin plant.

The developments came the day after Trump said Apple Inc. had committed to build three big manufacturing plants in the U.S., although Apple did not announce that, nor did the company respond to a request for comment.

Ever since he kicked off his presidential campaign, Trump has tried to champion a return of overseas manufacturing jobs to the U.S.  particularly from China. Foxconn employs more than a million workers.

In April, Trump met with Gou, who has long shown an interest in building a factory in the U.S. In 2014, Gou told reporters he wanted to relocate capital-intensive and high-tech manufacturing to America, the companys biggest and most important market. Such a move would help the company deliver its most sophisticated and largest flat-screen TV panels to U.S. customers without the complication of shipping from Asia. It would also give Foxconn access to American know-how to better the companys chances of diversifying its business beyond contract manufacturing at a time when sales of smartphones and tablets are slowing.

Automation, software and technology innovation will be our key focus in the U.S. in the coming few years, Gou said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Foxconn has every intention of establishing itself as a major player in TV sales, having spent $3.8 billion last year to acquire Sharp.

They want to move up the food chain and not just be a supplier of iPhones, said Wayne Lam, an analyst for IHS Markit.

Until now, Foxconns interest in the U.S. had been seen by some as bluster. The company had pledged to invest $7 billion and hire 50,000 American workers shortly after Trumps election. But an earlier promise to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers in central Pennsylvania has yet to materialize. Still, any move to expand production onto American soil could be viewed as politically advantageous.

Given the recent shifts in public perception and policy dynamics around offshoring, a move to establish or repatriate manufacturing activities could help a provider appeal to domestic consumers, and perhaps more importantly, gain favor with policymakers, wrote Gartner analysts Sam New and Kamala Raman in a joint statement.

The analysts also said it was beneficial for Foxconn to open factories in several countries to shield against any shocks in the supply chain like the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that upended Asian suppliers and manufacturers of electronics.

Before the Wisconsin decision, Gou had reportedly been looking into several states, including Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Wisconsin put on a full-court press for Foxconn by showing company representatives potential sites, introducing them to local officials and even inviting them to a barbecue at the governors lakeside mansion.

But the bid for the Taiwanese manufacturing giant has already stirred controversy over how much the state intends to provide in incentives.

In Wednesdays announcement, Walker said his state would spend $3 billion in incentives to help build a 20-million-square-foot factory campus, the size of 11 Lambeau Fields. One other advantage for Wisconsin is that it offers an exemption on taxes for manufacturing profits.

Playing local officials off each other is nothing new for Foxconn, which built an electronics manufacturing empire in China in no small part because local governments offered generous enticements for the promise of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Foxconns symbiotic relationship with Apple gave rise to factory towns in places like Zhengzhou in Chinas central Henan province. Officials in the so-called iPhone City provided Foxconn with $1.5 billion to construct sections of its factory. The city also built roads and power plants and helped recruit workers for the factory, according to an investigation by the New York Times.

Foxconns first U.S. plant will almost certainly be nothing like its factories in China, all-encompassing campuses that operate like cities with their own dormitories, hospitals and Internet cafes. The often grueling work churning out products for Apple, Samsung and Sony, to name a few, has notoriously taken a toll on young Chinese factory workers, resulting in a spate of suicides over the years.

But keeping American workers happy may be one of the easier challenges facing Foxconn in Wisconsin. Higher labor costs can potentially be absorbed in a trade-off for cheaper distribution and cutting-edge automation. Ramping production up to rival China is another story, however.

A study by MIT Technology Review estimated that an iPhone 6s Plus, which costs $749, would sell for between $779 and $789 if it were manufactured in the U.S. using the same global supply chain. The same phone made with components sourced entirely domestically would cost between $809 and $849. The problem, the study noted, is that it would be almost impossible to source all the components from the U.S. Almost half of Apples suppliers are in China, all with access to well-established distribution networks and skilled labor that helped the company sell 212 million iPhones last year.

Theres no way plants in the U.S. can produce 200 million iPhones. Its just impossible, said Lam of IHS Markit, who did not participate in the MIT study. They would need the skill sets that dont exist here anymore.

Experts say it makes sense for Foxconn to start with LCD panels; their production is largely automated and requires skilled technicians and engineers not unlike the production of semiconductors. Building them in the U.S. mirrors Apples decision to produce its high-end computers through American manufacturers such as Flex Ltd. in Austin, Texas, and Quanta Computer Inc. in Fremont, Calif., according to the Journal.

The economics of LCD panels is different from iPhones, said Jason Dedrick, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. You can find the resources and the skilled labor. Its more a question of what subsidies you get.

Such a move by Apple would represent a major change in strategy for the worlds most valuable company and boost the White Houses long-held promise to return overseas factory jobs to America.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told him the new factories were already in the works.

Apple has said little about its plans to boost manufacturing in the U.S.

ALSO

Worried about election hacking, L.A. County officials are turning to hackers for help

Ubers latest bid to win over drivers: 24/7 phone support

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg clash over the future of artificial intelligence

UPDATES:

3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with details of Foxconns plans disclosed during a news conference with President Trump.

This article was published at 9:15 a.m.
Some of the technology industrys most prominent companies and leaders called for inclusion after President Trump proposed barring transgender people from the U.S. military.

Following a series of Wednesday morning tweets from Trump that said allowing transgender people to serve would result in tremendous medical costs and disruption, Apple, Google, Uber, Facebook and Twitter and their leaders voiced their support for transgender members of the military  but were careful not to mention Trump by name. Their statements were general calls to action, some using the hashtag #LetThemServe.

Everyone should be able to serve their country  no matter who they are, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his profile.

Advertisement

We are indebted to all who serve. Discrimination against anyone holds everyone back, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted.

We are grateful to transgender members of the military for their service, Google tweeted.

We are indebted to all who serve. Discrimination against anyone holds everyone back. #LetThemServe  Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 26, 2017

We are grateful to transgender members of the military for their service. #LetThemServe https://t.co/fTF7FodpWi  Google (@Google) July 26, 2017

2/ These patriotic Americans deserve to be honored and respected, not turned away because of who they are.  Uber Comms (@Uber_Comms) July 26, 2017

The measured critiques illustrate Silicon Valleys relationship with an administration with which it disagrees, but one it is hesitant to cross.

Though the tech industry has found itself on the opposite side of the White House on many issues  immigration, offshoring of jobs, encryption and the presidents travel and refugee ban among them  its leaders still meet with Trump and his administration. Many of those cautiously condemning Trumps tweets Wednesday attended a White House tech conference last month.

Tech leaders have spoken out in recent years against legislation they see as infringing upon LGBTQ rights. Apple, Google, Microsoft and others last year criticized a North Carolina law that limited bathroom access for transgender people.

Tech companies have learned the hard way the consequences of not speaking out.

Due to his role on a White House advisory council and his perceived coziness with the Trump administration, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was slammed by critics after the president signed an executive order barring travelers and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Customers took to Twitter using the hashtag #DeleteUber  leading thousands to delete the ride-hailing app from their phones. Kalanick later quit the panel, before resigning from his job as scandals enveloped the company.

Ubers public relations team was quick to tweet its displeasure with Trumps announcement Wednesday.

These patriotic Americans deserve to be honored and respected, not turned away because of who they are, the Uber Comms account tweeted.

alexa.dangelo@latimes.com

@andangelo15

ALSO

Trump floats Gary Cohn for Fed chief  or maybe hell keep Janet Yellen

Net neutrality face-off: Lawmakers ask Google, Comcast and other execs to testify

Trumps presidency may be hurting his L.A.-area golf course
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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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 
Chef Esdras Ochoa has come a long way in the last decade. Ten years ago, the Mexico City-born art-school grad started his cooking career, serving Mexicali-style tacos out of his Dodge Ram truck in downtown Los Angeles. Five years ago, Ochoa swapped the parking lot for a brick-and-mortar taqueria, Mexicali Taco & Co. In May 2016, Ochoa turned a former Elysian Valley (aka Frogtown) auto body shop into Salazar, which has become a wildly popular Sonora-style barbecue restaurant. Now, Ochoa is tackling another neighborhood  this time in Hong Kong.

This area is what Frogtown was  its up and coming, kind of hidden, Ochoa, 35, said recently in the kitchen of 11 Westside, his new restaurant and bar, set to open next month in the Kennedy Town neighborhood of Hong Kong.

Ochoa says he isnt going to serve only traditional Mexican cuisine at the 4,000-square-foot restaurant; he doesnt think Hong Kong is the market for that. At first, you come very confident, then you realize its not L.A. Its a whole different vibe, he said. Here, a lot of people dont know what a taco is  especially locals  so I have to start from the very beginning.

Advertisement

At 11 Westside, Ochoa wants to experiment with his favorite L.A. dishes, using Asian ingredients and cooking techniques, not to follow any trends but to incorporate the ideas of his new staff with his own cooking. So far, the culture blending has yielded carne asada fries dressed with Korean short rib aioli and barbacoa translated into noodle soup.

I want to have some fun, said Ochoa, who wants his new diners to think, Oh, this guy really respects our culture and respects being here.

Chef Esdras Ochoa at his Frogtown restaurant, Salazar. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

RELATED: Esdras Ochoa, the taco missionary 

Hong Kong was not originally part of his expansion plan. The chef was brought into the project by a founder of Boba Bear, a chain of boba, dessert and hookah cafes that opened in L.A.s Koreatown in 2010 and has since expanded to Hong Kong from Southern California.

They flew me over here for a week, and I fell in love with the city, Ochoa said. It happened so fast.

Joining Ochoa in 11 Westside is another Angeleno: Daniel Eun, the former bar manager at the Normandie Club in Koreatown, was tapped to run the bar program. This will include craft cocktails at the restaurant  some on draft  but also at the Wilshire, a separate black marbled bar at the back of the restaurant, hidden away like a speak-easy.

When Ochoa first moved to Hong Kong and was trying to find his footing  geographically, gastronomically  he met Luis Porras, a chef and restaurateur from Sonora, Mexico. Hes the pioneer of anything Mexican in Hong Kong, Ochoa said. Years ago, Porras opened a glamorous Mexican restaurant with wealthy investors, going so far as to import building materials from Jalisco and Michoacan.

He said he made it super-authentic  mole, enchiladas, all of the traditional dishes, and he said people didnt understand it back then. He was way ahead of his time. The restaurant closed a few years later. Porras then returned with Agave Tequila y Comida. Instead of focusing on traditional Mexican dishes, he divided the menu into two parts: one that Mexicans would find legit and one of touristy Mexican food. (Think sour cream and olive-topped nachos.) Thats how hes able to thrive, Ochoa said.

View of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Central beside Victoria Peak. Taken from Victoria Peak (Taiping Mountain). (Ratnakorn Piyasirisorost / Getty Images)

Ochoas biggest challenge right now is hiring staff. Nobody wants to be a dishwasher, he says. But while finding people to run the kitchen has been problematic, Ochoa isnt having many issues stocking it. It is Hong Kong, so you can find anything you need, it just costs a lot more here, he says. Ochoa is working to keep prices low, even when imports, particularly dried peppers from Mexico, are costly. You can find [dried peppers], but theyre five to six times the price, Ochoa says. Hes seen tacos in Hong Kong selling for $7 to $8, something diners wouldnt tolerate in Los Angeles, much less Mexico.

The high price may not be a deterrent to the expats who live near the new restaurant. Kennedy Town is going through gentrification much like Frogtown is in Los Angeles. Ochoa enticed Angelenos to Frogtown with tacos, but will he get those in Hong Kong to Kennedy Town?

I could be very scared of a lot of things, Ochoa said. Its been the same with all of my projects. Ill just focus on the positive, give this a shot and see what happens.

11 Westside, 1/F The Hudson, 11 Davis St., Kennedy Town, Hong Kong.

food@latimes.com
Projection mapping: In the July 25 Business section, an article about projection mapping prominently featured a quote that was incorrectly attributed to Kate Johnson. The pull-out quote should have been attributed to Lightform Chief Executive Brett Jones, as it was in the body of the article.

Russian researcher: In the July 24 Section A, an article about Russian researcher Yuri Dmitriev said that he has four children. He has three.

Pool floats: In the July 23 Business section, an article about Funboy pool floats said that artist Donald Robertson, who is collaborating with the company, is a former creative director at Estee Lauder. Robertson currently holds that post.

Advertisement

If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times journalistic standards and practices, you may contact Deirdre Edgar, readers representative, by email at readers.representative@latimes.com, by phone at (877) 554-4000, by fax at (213) 237-3535 or by mail at 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The readers representative office is online at latimes.com/readersrep.
China has strengthened border security to prepare for a potential crisis in North Korea, including a possible U.S. strike on North Korean nuclear facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

"Recent measures include establishing a new border defense brigade, 24-hour video surveillance of the mountainous frontier backed by aerial drones, and bunkers to protect against nuclear and chemical blasts," the daily said.

"China's military has also merged, moved and modernized other units in border regions and released details of recent drills there with special forces, airborne troops and other units that experts say could be sent into North Korea in a crisis," the daily added. "They include a live-fire drill in June by helicopter gunships and one in July by an armored infantry unit recently transferred from eastern China and equipped with new weaponry."
USC names retired aerospace executive Wanda Austin as acting president, announces Nikias departure By Harriet Ryan USC appointed a retired aerospace executive as interim president and laid out a detailed plan for selecting a permanent leader Tuesday, ending speculation about whether outgoing President C.L. Max Nikias might remain in the post. Nikias, embattled over his administrations handling of a campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, relinquished his duties after a meeting of USCs board. The trustees tapped one of their own, Wanda Austin, an alumna and former president of the Aerospace Corp., to temporarily run the university. The trustees also approved the formation of a search committee and the hiring of firm Isaacson, Miller to coordinate the selection of a successor. A second search company, Heidrick & Struggles, will also advise trustees. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Ex-student sues elite Brentwood School after teacher is charged with sexually abusing him By Richard Winton A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities. The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywoods elite and L.A.s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually. The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the schools counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Civil jury vindicates fired Montebello school executives in whistleblower case By Howard Blume The Montebello school district is in dire straits  at risk of insolvency and under apparent criminal investigation. An outside audit in July found some teachers earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as improper raises, excess paid vacation time and inappropriate overtime, sick leave and car allowances. Fixing the district and pinpointing blame could take time. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. schools fall short on safety measures, new report warns By Howard Blume After the mass shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Los Angeles school officials reassured parents that much had been done to keep local schools safe. California had tougher gun laws, after all, and the school district paid close attention to students mental health. But a new report issued Monday by a panel convened to take a close look offers some cause for concern, flagging inconsistent campus safety measures, thinly spread mental health staff and inadequate coordination between the school district and other public agencies. With the stakes this high, we must strive to do better, said L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, who assembled the panel. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

L.A. school district says more are graduating, but rate may not show it By Howard Blume The L.A. Unified School District has hopes of continuing its winning streak this year with another record graduation rate, but the official numbers may not show it. A senior district administrator warned the board Tuesday that graduation rates were likely to decline 2% to 3% across the state, even though L.A. Unified is likely doing better than ever in producing graduates, he said. The issue is that the state will now count high school students who transfer to adult school as dropouts, said Oscar Lafarga, who heads the districts office of data and accountability. Previously, schools treated these students as though they had simply enrolled in another high school, he said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Betsy DeVos to California: Not so fast on that federal education plan By Joy Resmovits In April, Californias top education officials breathed a sigh of relief. After months of debate and back-and-forth with Betsy DeVos staff, they had finalized a plan to satisfy a major education law that aims to make sure all students get a decent education. The state focused on aligning its plan to fulfill the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act with Californias Local Control Funding Formula, which gives extra money to districts to help students who come from low-income families, are in the foster system or are English learners. But this week, DeVos team said not so fast. Jason Botel, the U.S. Department of Educations principal deputy assistant secretary, sent California education officials a letter asking for more information in such areas as measuring student progress, graduation rates and English learners. In an unsigned statement, the California Department of Education declared itself surprised and disappointed because officials thought  after a meeting with federal officials in Washington  that they were on the right track to get approval. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act plan will be up for discussion once again at the July meeting of the State Board of Education. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved most state plans. Every Student Succeeds is the Obama administrations 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. school board sets a new goal: prepare every grad to be eligible to apply for Cal State or UC By Sonali Kohli Last month, Los Angeles school board president proposed a spate of highly ambitious mandates aimed at ensuring that every district graduate be eligible to apply to one of the states public four-year universities by 2023. By the time the L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved the resolution Tuesday, the original language had been watered down. The goal is no longer that in five years 100% of students meet the long list of benchmarks, which include not just college eligibility for graduates but first-grade reading proficiency and English fluency by sixth grade for all students who enter the district in kindergarten or first grade speaking another language. The original college-readiness goal, for example, called for 100% of all high school students to be eligible to apply to one of the states four-year universities. Now the goal seems to offer more wiggle room: Prepare all high school graduates to be eligible to apply to a California four-year university. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

We have been hurt. More women say they were mistreated by USC gynecologist By Richard Winton USC student Anika Narayanan says she vividly recalls her first appointment with Dr. George Tyndall at the campus health center, alleging that he made several explicit comments during an examination she felt was inappropriate and invasive. When she came back for a second visit in 2016 after a nonconsensual sexual encounter, he allegedly chastised her, she said in a civil lawsuit and at a press conference Tuesday. He asked me if I had forgotten to use a condom again,  said Narayanan, 21. At one point, she said, Tyndall asked if I did a lot of doggy style,  she said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. Unified gives inspector general brief contract extension By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday extended the contract of Ken Bramlett, its inspector general, by three months, though his job is far from secure and questions remain about the future direction of his watchdog office. Board members also unanimously promoted Vivian Ekchian, who had been the runner-up for the superintendents job, to deputy superintendent  the districts No. 2 position. Both moves had elements of peacemaking between different factions on the board. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

USCs handling of complaints about campus gynecologist is being investigated by federal government By Harriet Ryan The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled misconduct complaints against a campus gynecologist, the latest fallout in a scandal that has prompted the resignation of USCs president, two law enforcement investigations and dozens of lawsuits. In revealing the inquiry by the departments Office of Civil Rights, officials rebuked USC for what they alleged was improper withholding of information about Dr. George Tyndall during a previous federal investigation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has been criticized for taking a less vigorous approach to examining sexual misconduct than predecessors, called for a systemic examination of USC and urged administrators to fully cooperate. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Judge to sentence woman and her boyfriend for the murder of an 8-year-old that led to L.A. child welfare reforms By Marisa Gerber A woman and her boyfriend are expected to be sentenced Thursday for the torture and murder of an 8-year-old boy whose killing in 2013 provoked public outrage, prompted sweeping reform of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, and led to unprecedented criminal charges against social workers who handled the childs case. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her son, Gabriel. A jury decided last year that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 37, should be executed. When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home in May 2013, Gabriel had slipped out of consciousness. He had a fractured skull, broken ribs, burned skin, missing teeth and BB pellets embedded in his groin. A paramedic would later testify that every inch of the boys small body had been abused. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. Unifieds spending out of step with similar school systems, task force says By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school district is out of step with similar school systems, spending more on teachers pay and health benefits and less on activities that could enhance student learning, according to a new report by an outside task force. The L.A. Unified School District Advisory Task Force did not make specific recommendations, but instead posed a series of questions it said the district needs to answer to make sure its funding is aimed at providing a full opportunity for all students to succeed. What were trying to say is: Lets put the data on the table. Lets look at the truth. Lets be transparent and here are the numbers, said task force member Renata Simril. This is not to say that  we should cut teachers salaries. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Top USC medical school official feared dean was doing drugs and alerted administration, he testifies By Paul Pringle A former vice dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine testified Tuesday that he feared the schools then-dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, could be doing drugs and expressed concerns about his general well-being to the universitys No. 2 administrator before Puliafito abruptly left his job in 2016. Dr. Henri Fords testimony at a hearing of the state Medical Board marks the first suggestion that any USC administrator had suspicions about Puliafitos possible drug use before he stepped down. A Times investigation in 2017 found Puliafito led a secret second life of using illegal drugs with a circle of young criminals and addicts. Puliafito testified about his behavior at the hearing Tuesday, saying he took drugs with one young woman on a weekly basis. Ford said that he decided to alert USC Provost Michael Quick after receiving reports in early 2016 that Puliafito was partying in hotels with people of questionable reputation, and that he came to worry about his mental stability. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year By Jessica Calefati With more than half a billion dollars socked away for next school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District hardly seems just two years from financial ruin. Its a scenario that is especially tough to swallow if youre a low-wage worker seeking a raise or a teacher who wants smaller classes. But budget documents show that todays $548-million surplus cannot be sustained  and that even basic services face steep, seemingly unavoidable cuts because of massive problems barreling the districts way. Theres a disconnect between the rosy short-term picture and what we know is coming, said board member Kelly Gonez. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

We have failed: Top USC officials try to reassure students amid gynecologist scandal By Joy Resmovits Top administrators at USC are reaching out to students in the wake of misconduct allegations against the universitys longtime gynecologist, acknowledging failings and vowing reforms as they try to address growing outrage over the revelations. Several USC deans have sent out messages trying to reassure students and faculty that the university is committed to changing. We have failed, wrote Jack H. Knott, dean of USCs Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a May 24 letter. What happened is antithetical to everything we know is right. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Rick Caruso is named chair of USCs trustees, vows swift investigation of gynecologist scandal By Thomas Curwen The University of Southern Californias board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. In his first act as chairman, Caruso announced that the white-shoe L.A. law firm OMelveny & Myers would conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the gynecologists conduct and reporting failures at the clinic. He set an ambitious timeline for the review, pledging it would conclude before students return for the fall semester. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

UC Berkeley students persistence helps win more liberal rules for in-state tuition By Teresa Watanabe Ifechukwu Okeke thought shed be a shoo-in for in-state tuition when she was admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2016. She had moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2012 to go to Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. By the time she got her acceptance to transfer to UC to study molecular and cell biology, she had lived in California four years. She had a California drivers license, bank account and rental records as proof. UC Berkeley, however, ruled she was a nonresident  which meant she would have to pay nearly $27,000 more. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

State medical board calls former County-USC doctor a sexual predator, suspends his license By Matt Hamilton A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a sexual predator who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Global California 2030 aims to get more students learning more languages By Joy Resmovits Tom Torlakson (Andrew Seng / Associated Press) Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Wednesday announced a new statewide effort to encourage students to learn more languages. Called Global California 2030, its goal is to help more students become fluent in multiple tongues. Torlakson said that by 2030, he wants half of the states 6.2 million K-12 students to participate in classes or programs that lead to proficiency in two or more languages. By 2040, he wants three out of four students to be proficient enough to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Torlakson announced the initiative at Cahuenga Elementary School, which offers a dual-language immersion program in English and Korean. Californias public school students speak more than 60 languages at home, and 40% come to school with knowledge of a language other than English. Torlakson called his plan a call to action that invites parents, legislators, educators and community members to pool resources to expand language offerings in schools and get more bilingual teachers trained. He said the state already is working with Mexico and Spain to expand a teacher-exchange program. Fluency, the plan argues, can help students succeed economically  and language acquisition can help their overall critical thinking. The initiative builds on Proposition 58, a ballot initiative passed in 2016 that undid an earlier requirement that English learners be taught in English-immersion classes unless their parents signed waivers. Torlakson recently visited Mexico and met with that countrys education secretary. They later signed a pact to increase collaboration, particularly in language education. This [Global California 2030] is great follow-through on Toms part and very important, Patricia Gandara, a UCLA education professor who hosted the Mexico meeting, said in an email. It hands over a plan to move forward in an area in which California has a unique advantage, but must seize the opportunity. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Jury convicts man of murder in 2015 slaying of UCLA student found inside her burning apartment By Marisa Gerber A jury on Tuesday convicted a man in the 2015 slaying of a UCLA student found dead inside her burning apartment  a gruesome stabbing case that led to a fierce rebuke of the police response amid concerns that the killing could have been prevented. The panel deliberated for about six hours before finding Alberto Medina, 24, guilty of murder, arson, burglary and animal cruelty. On Sept. 21, 2015, firefighters found the charred body of Andrea DelVesco inside her apartment after responding to the complex a block from campus. The 21-year-old student  an Austin, Texas, native known to her sorority sisters as a fearless giver who befriended others with ease  was stabbed at least 19 times, authorities said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

LAPD begins sweeping criminal probe of former USC gynecologist while urging patients to come forward By Adam Elmahrek The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USCs longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. Tyndalls behavior and practices appear to go beyond the norms of the medical profession and gynecological examinations, said Asst. Chief Beatrice Girmala. We sincerely realize that victims may have difficulty recounting such details to investigators. We are empathetic and ready to listen. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

At L.A.'s only school for the deaf, parents want leaders who speak the same language By Anna M. Phillips Ever since her son was 6 months old, Juliet Hidalgo has been bringing him to the Marlton School, a low-slung building in Baldwin Hills that for generations has been a second home for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Los Angeles. Marlton staff taught Hidalgos brother and sister, both of whom are deaf. The school was where her deaf son learned to make the signs for milk and food. Hidalgo had planned to enroll her daughter, taking advantage of a popular program that allows hearing children to learn American Sign Language alongside their deaf siblings. But after more than a decade of involvement, she and other family members are considering withdrawing their children. They are not alone. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor By Ryan Menezes An unprecedented amount of money from wealthy donors, unions and corporations is flowing into the California governors race, giving independent groups  unrestricted by contribution limits  a greater say in picking the states chief executive than ever before. The groups have already spent more than $26 million through Thursday, the most ever spent by noncandidate committees in a gubernatorial primary, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance reports. California elections have always been expensive, and the future is even more expensive, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former state Republican leader. The stakes are very real. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

2 hurt in Indiana middle school shooting; suspect in custody, authorities say By Associated Press Authorities say two victims in a shooting at a suburban Indianapolis school are being taken to a hospital and the lone suspect is in custody. Bryant Orem, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, said in a news release that the victims in Friday mornings attack at Noblesville West Middle School are being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and their families have been notified. He says no other information is available about the victims. Orem said the suspect is believed to have acted alone and was taken into custody. No additional information about the suspect was made public. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

For new L.A. schools chief Austin Beutner, some key unions are giving no honeymoon period By Howard Blume In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest. Theyve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications, local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best  not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Pressure grows on Board of Trustees amid USC gynecologist scandal By Paul Pringle USCs large and powerful Board of Trustees is coming under growing pressure to provide a stronger hand as the university faces a crisis over misconduct allegations against the campus longtime gynecologist that has prompted calls for President C.L. Max Nikias to step down. Allegations that Dr. George Tyndall mistreated students during his nearly 30 years at USC have roiled the campus, with about 300 people coming forward to make reports to the university and the Los Angeles Police Department launching a criminal investigation. USC is already beginning to face what is expected to be costly litigation by women who say they were victimized by the physician. So far, the trustees to whom Nikias reports have expressed sympathy for the women who have come forward and launched an independent investigation while also publicly backing the president. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

UC regents approve leaner budget for Janet Napolitano By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents on Thursday unanimously approved a leaner, more transparent budget for President Janet Napolitano, moving to address political criticism over the systems central office operations. The $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 reflects spending cuts of 2%, including reductions in staffing, travel and such systemwide programs as public service law fellowships, carbon neutrality and food security. Napolitano shifted $30 million to campuses for housing needs and $10 million to UC Riverside to support its five-year-old medical school. She also permanently redirected $8.5 million annually to help enroll more California students, as required by the state. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

USCs Academic Senate calls on university president to resign after a series of scandals By Matt Hamilton The body that represents USCs faculty called on President C.L. Max Nikias to resign Wednesday in the wake of relevations that the universitys longtime gynecologist faced years of accusations of misconduct by students and colleagues at the campus health clinic. The Academic Senate took the vote late Wednesday afternoon after a fiery town hall meeting attended by more than 100 faculty members, many of whom voiced outrage over Nikias and the Board of Trustees leadership. The vote came a day after the trustees executive committee stood firmly behind Nikias, saying it has full confidence in his leadership, ethics and values. At the town hall meeting, Senate President Paul Rosenbloom said he did not think Nikias or Provost Michael Quick committed wrongdoing but that the university president deserved criticism for a lack of transparency. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Californias public universities on the way to getting a big longed-for boost in funding By Teresa Watanabe The University of California and California State University systems are poised to get major funding boosts that will help them enroll thousands of additional state students and eliminate the need for tuition increases in the coming school year. A key Assembly budget panel on Wednesday approved $117.5 million in new funds for the UC. A Senate panel approved a similar sum last week. The same committees recently approved even more funding for the Cal State system. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

UC regents to scrutinize Janet Napolitanos office budget in a step toward stronger oversight By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents this week plan to scrutinize the budget of President Janet Napolitano, whose office came under political fire last year for questionable spending and murky accounting. Regents will vote on the proposed $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 during their two-day meeting, which starts Wednesday, at UC San Francisco. They also will discuss state funding, financial aid, online education and transfer student policies. Board Chairman George Kieffer said regents are stepping up to exert stronger oversight of the presidents office after a blistering state audit last year found financial problems including an unreported $175 million budget reserve. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities. The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased. The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide compared with 2015, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up. But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Kentucky teachers rally at Capitol over state budget By Associated Press Thousands of Kentucky teachers filled the streets near the state Capitol in Frankfort on a cold, overcast Monday to rally for education funding. Teachers and other school employees gathered outside the Kentucky Education Assn. a couple of blocks from the Capitol chanting, Stop the war on public education and holding or posting signs that say, Weve Had Enough. Were madder than hornets, and the hornets are swarming today, said Claudette Green, a retired teacher and principal. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy L
Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law a measure placing limits on how alleged child sexual assault victims may be interviewed during civil legal proceedings.

State Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose) said he authored the bill after meeting with parents who decided not to file suit because they were afraid defense lawyers would traumatize their children. He also met with parents who felt defense attorneys experts had manipulated their children.

Manipulation is currently allowed under the existing anything-goes process  for litigation on child abuse cases, Beall said in an interview. This bill would start imposing some standards or rules of behavior when it comes to cases that involve interviewing children.

Advertisement

Defense lawyers previously were permitted to conduct a seven-hour-long deposition, as well as have doctors or psychologists evaluate the children with few limits and no supervision.

The new law  which passed the state Senate and the Assembly with no opposition  allows only doctors or clinical psychologists with expertise in child abuse to evaluate anyone under 15 years old, for up to three hours.

Micha Liberty, an Oakland-based attorney, said she had seen horrific abuses of the process that caused sustained trauma to child witnesses.

She described the case of one 6-year-old boy who had allegedly been sexually abused. During the deposition, the defense attorneys medical expert denied the youngster a bathroom break. The boy wet his pants and started crying, and it became harder for him to answer questions.

Liberty said that as she and the boys mother sat in the waiting room, they heard the expert yelling that good boys dont cry.

Defense attorney Decio Rangel said he thought the three-hour limit was a good idea. It protects a young victim from unscrupulous questioning, said Rangel, who previously worked as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County with a specialty in sexual assault.

But, Rangel said, the required expertise in child abuse might be overkill. Anybody with any kind of experience can ask those kinds of questions of a minor, he said before adding: I can see why they put that in there.

Joy.Resmovits@LATimes.com

@Joy_Resmovits
A California teen accused of driving drunk as she livestreamed a crash that killed her younger sister pleaded not guilty Wednesday to half a dozen felony criminal offenses, including gross vehicular manslaughter.

Along with a felony manslaughter while intoxicated charge, Obdulia Sanchez, 18, is facing another count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, according to the Merced County district attorneys office.

She is also charged with two counts of driving under the influence resulting in injury and two additional counts of driving with a 0.08% blood alcohol content causing injury, the district attorneys office said.

Advertisement

The behavior demonstrated both prior to and after the incident, as documented by the defendants own recording, is disturbing and shocking, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Nutt said in a statement. The Merced County district attorneys office will do everything in its power to see that justice is done in this matter.

Sanchez appeared on video for her arraignment. Speaking on Sanchezs behalf, her public defender, Ramnik Samrao, pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Outside the courtroom, Samrao told reporters Sanchez feels absolutely terrible.

He said although Sanchez admitted to killing her sister in the live video, it is unclear whether a crime was committed.

We dont know that she was drunk, thats the allegation, he said.

After the hearing, Nutt said Sanchez, whose blood alcohol content was 0.10%, was not paying attention while driving. She was driving erratically and not holding the wheel, he said.

Nutt said the video reflects some depravity and some stupidity.

If Sanchez is convicted, she faces up to 13 years and eight months in prison, according to the district attorneys office. She is being held in lieu of $560,000 bail.

The case received international attention after she recorded the moments before and after the crash on Instagram Live on Friday.

The Stockton resident filmed herself behind the wheel of a 2003 Buick as her 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez, and a second 14-year-old girl sat in the back seat.

The alarming video showed when Sanchez lost control of her vehicle and crashed.

Moments later, she showed the body of her sister and says: I  killed my sister, OK. I know I am going to jail for life, all right? Sanchez said. This is the last thing that I wanted to happen, OK?

The California Highway Patrol said Sanchez was driving north of Los Banos when she swerved off the road and over-corrected her turn. She then veered across the road and crashed into a wire fence and her car rolled into a field.

The two girls in the rear seat, who were not wearing seat belts, were ejected from the vehicle, the CHP said.

Sanchez, who was arrested after the crash, was previously convicted of reckless driving, said Jessica Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The offense occurred in 2013 when Sanchez was 14 and driving without a license, Gonzalez said. The conviction resulted in two negligent operator points on her driving record, she said.

Sanchez was driving with a valid California license at the time of the fatal crash.

Manuela Seja, the surviving passenger, suffered major trauma to her right leg, authorities said. The girl told KFSN-TV that she and Jacqueline Sanchez were dating. That day, Obdulia Sanchez and Jacqueline Sanchez had driven from Stockton and picked her up at her home in Fresno.

Manuela told KSEE24-TV that she is not mad and doesnt blame anybody for the crash.

Its all affected by social media, and thats what life is now and its going to advance more and more. Thats what its all going to be about, she said.

Mary Hernandez was one of the first people to spot the Instagram Live video, which can be shared for up to 24 hours before it disappears. The 25-year-old Stockton resident told the Los Angeles Times that she quickly recorded the video, saved it and shared it on Facebook before it vanished.

It was just so wild, she said. I couldnt believe that was on her social media.

Moments before the crash, Sanchez had recorded another short video taken while she was driving on city streets with her sister, said Hernandez, who saved a copy of that video as well. The video showed Sanchezs car coming perilously close to hitting a minivan that turned left in front of her. As music played, her sister, who was in the front passengers seat, could be heard yelling and moving her hands dramatically.

 This video was record Friday sometime before the fatal crash, Mary Hernandez said. It shows Obdulia Sanchez driving with her sister and nearly hitting a minivan.

Days after the crash, the siblings father, Nicandro Sanchez, told KFSN-TV that his eldest daughter was confused and distraught.

It was an accident. It happened that way. Who knows why? he told the television news station.

The sisters cousin, Francisco Sanchez, said the video was an eye-opener.

Its disturbing to see those images, the 35-year-old Stockton resident said.

He said Obdulia Sanchez was always out and about.

She was kind of disconnected, the sisters cousin said.

Obdulia Sanchez is the oldest of four siblings, and Jacqueline was a middle child. Jacqueline was a quiet teenager and played a big-sister role in the family, he said.

Jackie was just a sweetheart, quiet and never disrespected anybody, Francisco Sanchez said. She is a real loss to the family. She is a real loss to my aunt and uncle.

Relatives created a GoFundMe page to help pay for Jacquelines funeral expenses.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

ALSO:

She killed her own sister: Family reeling after California teen livestreamed deadly DUI crash

Pasadena officer who investigated overdose was skeptical of USC med school deans story, recording shows

Caught on video: Man flips over street vendors cart in Hollywood, unleashing public anger

UPDATES:

10:35 a.m.: This article was updated with details of the charges filed against Obdulia Sanchez.

2:50 a.m.: This article was updated with Sanchezs not guilty plea and comments from attorneys.

This article was originally published at 10 a.m. July 25, 2017
Customs officers made a startling discovery earlier this year while inspecting a package on its way to a Monterey Park apartment: three highly venomous king cobra snakes, each about 2 feet long, hidden in potato chip cans.

On Tuesday, the alleged intended recipient  Rodrigo Franco, 34  was arrested on a federal smuggling charge after a monthslong investigation that also involved the seizure of a young crocodile, three alligator snapping turtles and five diamond back terrapins, all of which are protected species, federal officials said.

For months, according to federal court records, Franco used WhatsApp, a smartphone messaging platform, to negotiate shipments of snakes and turtles to and from Hong Kong.

Advertisement

In March, authorities intercepted the package with the three deadly snakes along with three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles. That same day, Franco had attempted to mail six other turtles wrapped in socks to Hong Kong. That package also was intercepted.

A day later, a postal worker delivered the package with the turtles shipped from Hong Kong to Francos Monterey Park home. Authorities had removed the cobras from the package, noting that delivering them posed a safety risk.

After the package was accepted, federal agents approached with a warrant to search the home. Inside a childrens bedroom, they found a glass tank with the crocodile, along with tanks containing endangered turtles.

Franco told authorities that he had previously received two other packages with 20 king cobras, all of which, he said, had died in transit.

Franco was charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise into the United States, which carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned in August.

Officials said two of the cobras seized in March are receiving care at the San Diego Zoo, while the third died for unknown reasons.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek

ALSO

Caught on video: Man flips over street vendors cart in Hollywood, unleashing public anger

A tragic accident: Boy who just turned 2 killed as relatives SUV backs out of Fontana driveway

She killed her own sister: Family reeling after California teen livestreamed deadly DUI crash
A mans death and the presence of a white powdery substance found inside a Santa Ana apartment Wednesday triggered a large emergency response when authorities feared the chemical could be lethal.

When police responded to a medical emergency in an apartment in the 800 block of Fairview Street, they found a 30-year-old man dead with a bloodied nose, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. Two other men, 18 and 25, were also found incapacitated but alive.

As officers looked around, they spotted the powdery substance and drug paraphernalia nearby, he said. The officers immediately notified members of the Orange County Fire Authoritys hazardous materials team to inspect the substance, and the two men were hospitalized.

Advertisement

Officers were worried that the powder may have been fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that drug dealers use to cut heroin and cocaine.

 Anthony Bertagna, Santa Ana public affairs officer, describes the scene at apartment where one person died and two others were hospitalized. (Video by Allen J. Schaben)

Fire Capt. Larry Kurtz said authorities wont know what the substance is until they run it through a battery of tests.

A woman and three children were also found in the 800-square-foot apartment and removed, Bertagna said. They, along with the officers and paramedics, all underwent decontamination, essentially an intense shower.

Bertagna said a recent spike of fentanyl-related death nationwide have forced officers to use new safety measures when they respond to calls where they suspect the drug is present.

Officers have been trained to back off when they come across white powder and an unconscious victim at the scene of a call, he said.

Thats when they let the pros deal with it, Bertagna said.

A small dose of the odorless white power can be fatal.

In some cases, just touching the powder could trigger an overdose like it did this year in Ohio. There, an East Liverpool police officer accidentally overdosed on fentanyl when he brushed off a powdery substance from his shirt. Authorities said the powder got onto his shirt when he was searching a car during a traffic stop.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

ALSO

In rural America, opioid prescriptions continue to flow, new CDC report shows

As opioid addiction skyrockets, treatment for addicts lags far behind, insurance data show

Tens of thousands died due to an opioid addiction last year. With an Obamacare repeal, some fear the number will rise

An 8-year-old was taken off life support, his organs donated. Now, police are investigating
Lancaster and Palmdale have long battled for supremacy in the Antelope Valley, and the rivalry extends to the cities mayors, R. Rex Parris and James Ledford.

Five years ago, Parris, Lancasters mayor and a well-known litigator, heard about a lawsuit filed by a civil rights group aimed at forcing nearby Palmdale to shift from at-large to district elections in an effort to elect more nonwhite candidates.

Parris eventually decided to provide legal help to the plaintiffs and, in the process, got a chance to depose Ledford.

Advertisement

So on a February morning in 2013, Parris peppered the Palmdale mayor with questions for hours  asking him about politics, city affairs as well as details of his own life and work.

Now, issues raised in the deposition have become part of a public corruption investigation into Ledford by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. Last month, prosecutors charged Ledford, 64, with illegally receiving nearly $500,000 from local consultants and failing to publicly disclose the income on economic statements.

Ledford could enter a plea as early as Wednesday. He did not reply to several requests for comment. His attorney has urged the public to not pass judgment, noting the accusations made by the district attorney have not been proven.

Parris said he had no idea his tough questions would play a role in the scandal  but knows others might think differently.

I knew how it would look, Parris said. It would look like a personal vendetta. It really wasnt.

The case has heightened the already well-known feud between Palmdale and Lancaster, the two biggest cities in the fast-growing high desert region at the northern edge of Los Angeles County.

The cities have battled over Wal-Marts, Costcos, a power plant and car dealerships.

It was like the Hatfields and McCoys, where you dont know exactly how the fighting all started, said David Childs, who served as Palmdale city manager from 2012 until he retired in June 2015. This rivalry is not the only one that occurs, but it was certainly a distraction.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris deposed the mayor of neighboring Palmdale, Jim Ledford, in 2013. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Many trace the so-called Cactus Curtain rivalry between the cities back to 1962, when Palmdale broke away from Lancaster and became incorporated.

Others cite a high school rivalry and also a stretch during the 1980s and early 1990s, when the cities fought over investment money that washed into the valley.

In 2012, Parris held a doll during a local television news interview and pretended it was Ledford. A year later, the Palmdale mayor said of the rivalry:

The curtain exists, but our side is nice and smooth. Its their side thats all prickly.

Parris response: Weve attempted to talk. But theyve given us the finger.

In 2012, Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman sued Palmdale, arguing that at-large seats on city councils disenfranchise minorities. Palmdales lawyers had lined up expert witnesses who seemed prepared for a long slog of litigation, he said.

Shenkman said he was spending tens of thousands of dollars and needed legal and financial assistance. For months he tried to get Parris to help him.

I tried to avoid the case because I knew how it would look, Parris said. Im the mayor of Lancaster. There is a war between the two cities.

The Lancaster mayor said he was eventually persuaded by a history of litigation between his city and Palmdale.

So I just didnt feel any constraints that I might have normally felt, Parris said.

Parris said his firm spent $234,717 on the case.

He insists he had nothing personal against Ledford.

We have a lot in common. We went to the same high school. We went to Antelope Valley College, Parris said.

On the morning of the deposition, Parris said Ledford arrived with about a half-dozen attorneys. So the Lancaster mayor said he left the room to get backup. I went and got six of my lawyers, Parris said.

Shenkman said Parris actually earned his keep in the first two hours of questioning. Then he just let the Lancaster mayor and veteran litigator keep asking questions.

I was really just an observer looking on, not in disbelief but amusement, Shenkman said. Video of the deposition shows Parris launching an array of questions at Ledford.

Well be talking about their wives and kids and Ill ask them a question about the case, Parris said. Its very disconcerting for people.

Ledfords attorneys objected repeatedly, but short of pulling the mayor from the deposition, there was not much they could do. It wasnt as if Parris went in with a plan to blow open a case against Ledford.

The questions that ultimately proved problematic for Ledford centered on how he made a living.

During a particularly heated part of the deposition, Parris alleged that Ledford was getting money from a no-show job, saying the Palmdale mayor was receiving $2,600 every two weeks for doing what appears [to be] absolutely nothing.

Ledford did not respond, but his attorney had objected to the line of questioning  at one point referring to it as a fishing expedition.

In the end, the lawsuit was successful, extracting changes on how voters in Palmdale would choose elected officials. As part of the settlement, Palmdale agreed to pay $4.5 million to the plaintiffs attorneys, including Shenkman and Parris.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford is behind the effort to bring upscale businesses to the city. The very, moderndesign Wickes furnitures store at the Sierra Commons opened a year ago and reflects that change. Photo shot on Friday, September 29, 2006. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Then in May, almost exactly four years after the deposition, officials from the L.A. County district attorney offices Bureau of Investigations descended on six locations, including Ledfords home, office and a local nonprofit called the Aero Institute.

That month, the mayors former campaign manager Kamal Al-Khatib, insisted the investigation was a politically motivated witch hunt driven by Parris and other Ledford enemies.

Mayor Ledford is honest man and loved by his residents, that [is] why he was elected as a Mayor for 13 terms, Al-Khatib said in a written statement.

Prosecutors alleged that over the course of about seven years Ledford had received about $491,000 from the arrangement with two consultants, Kimberly Shaw and Susan Miller. The consultants, Shaw, 61, and Miller, 68, each face charges of conspiracy, embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds.

The indictment says that money was funneled to Ledford from the Aero Institute through a series of companies controlled by Miller and Shaw, who both hold leadership positions at the institute, which is almost exclusively funded by NASA.

Shaw also had been paid $1.4 million as a consultant to the city of Palmdale between 2007 and February of this year, according to invoices provided by the city.

Shaws lawyer Stanley L. Friedman said the financial transactions were open and aboveboard.

She maintains her innocence and intends to prove it in court, Friedman said.

Millers lawyer Allen J. Bell declined to comment.

On June 21, Ledford briefly appeared in court and delayed entering a plea. His lawyer Anthony Falangetti said that these right now are accusations that have yet to be tested in a court of law.

He added that the payments to Ledford were completely appropriate, saying, [Ledford] got paid to do some work, and he declared who paid him.

Ledford, Miller and Shaw all delayed entering a plea at a Wednesday morning court appearance. Theyre now all scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 19.

Despite a call by a member of the Palmdale City Council for him to step aside until the case is resolved, Ledford continues to serve as mayor. A local newspaper conducted what it called an unscientific but utterly democratic poll asking whether he should step down.

The polls finding: 37.5% said he should stay in office while fighting the accusations. Just over 44% said he should resign.

On a recent evening this month, Ledford presided over a council meeting at Palmdale City Hall.

One of the issues on the agenda: Whether Palmdale should become part of the energy cooperative run by its neighbor, and rival, Lancaster.

benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com

@boreskes

Times staff writers Richard Winton and James Queally contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

11:30 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details about Ledford, Shaw and Millers next court appearance.

This article was originally published at 5:00 a.m.
A 10-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing child pornography, the department announced.

Authorities said Officer Joshua Enea, 37, of Antioch, has been placed on suspension without pay and removed from contact with the public in the latest scandal to hit the troubled department.

The publics trust is of the utmost importance to the members of the SFPD, officials said in a statement. The department will continue to work hard with the community to build and maintain this trust. As the department has emphasized in the past, members will continue to hold each other accountable and will act swiftly to report any behavior that might bring dishonor to the Police Department and the city of San Francisco.

Advertisement

Over the last few years, San Francisco officers have been embroiled in controversial shootings and corruption allegations, and have been accused of exchanging racist text messages among each other while discussing the public they serve. In the wake of those scandals, department leaders emphasized that officers should report misconduct by their colleagues.

The agencys Internal Affairs criminal division began investigating Enea in February.

The Contra Costa County district attorneys office charged Enea on Wednesday with one count of possession of child pornography, but an arraignment date has not been set.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

ALSO

Father of Australian tennis star arrested in connection with child molestation case

Sheriff investigates disturbing claims of deputy misconduct with youth in mentoring program

Law places limits on interviewing alleged child sex abuse victims
The police officer who last year questioned the then-dean of USCs medical school about his role in the drug overdose of a young woman expressed skepticism at Dr. Carmen Puliafitos account, according to an audio recording that was made by the officer and released Tuesday.

Puliafito told the officer he was at the Pasadena hotel room where the overdose occurred as a family friend to help the woman, who was later rushed to Huntington Memorial Hospital.

The unidentified officer is asked by a social worker at the hospital what he thought of the account offered by Puliafito.

You buy it? says the social worker on the recording that Pasadena police released in response to a California Public Records Act request by The Times.

No, the officer replies.

The social worker later laughs and says: A friend of the father. Excuse me? Thats funny.

The officer and social worker then speculated about Puliafitos relationship with the woman and discussed the drugs and provocative clothing found at the scene.

Despite the officers doubts, a required report on the overdose at a Pasadena hotel was not filed until three months later, after The Times made repeated requests for information. No arrests were made.

In a statement Tuesday, Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez defended his departments handling of the overdose, saying it lacked evidence to arrest Puliafito in connection with methamphetamine that officers found in the hotel room registered in his name. It remained unclear if the department followed up on its investigation after questioning Puliafito at the hospital.

The woman who overdosed, Sarah Warren, now 22, told The Times the police never interviewed her. About six hours after she overdosed, Warren said, Puliafito picked her up at the hospital and they returned to the hotel to resume using drugs.

Puliafito, 66, resigned as dean of the Keck School of Medicine three weeks after the overdose, saying he wanted to pursue opportunities in the biotech industry. His involvement in the incident was not publicly reported until The Times published an investigation last week that found Puliafito associated with a circle of younger criminals who said he abused drugs with them.

On March 4, 2016, an employee of Hotel Constance in Pasadena requested an ambulance for a guest who had suffered an apparent overdose. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After he stepped down as dean, Puliafito remained on the USC faculty and continued to accept new patients, according to the schools website.

The Pasadena polices handling of Warrens overdose and Puliafitos involvement have been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism.

Last week, Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell sent a memo to council members saying that The Times account of the hotel incident reflects poorly on the city and the Pasadena Police Department.

As indicated in the article, initially there was no police report made of the incident, Mermell said. There should have been and that was a failure on the part of our responding officer. Once this came to light, [police] undertook an appropriate investigation and ultimately the involved officer was the subject of disciplinary action.

Its unclear whether the officer in the recording was disciplined.

On Friday, USC administrators announced that Puliafito had been suspended from the faculty and barred from seeing patients, and that the school had begun the process to fire him.

The Medical Board of California has said it is investigating Puliafito, based on The Times report.

An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of USC med school dean 

The overdose occurred March 4, 2016, at the Hotel Constance on Colorado Boulevard. A hotel employee called 911 to report an apparent overdose. On the recording, Puliafito is heard identifying himself as a doctor and saying the woman was his girlfriend. He told the 911 dispatcher that the woman had a bunch of drinks and shes sleeping.

Paramedics arrived at the hotel and took Warren to the hospital. The police officer met Puliafito at the hospital, where he interviewed the doctor.

On the police officers recording, Puliafito can be heard telling the officer that hes a friend of Warrens father.

When asked if he has a romantic relationship with Warren, Puliafito responds no.

Puliafito said he thought she was sleeping, and she was breathing and you know, and hadnt thrown up or anything.

You as a doctor, did you notice anything that would have alarmed you? the officer asked.

Puliafito responded that he was an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon.

So not an emergency medicine physician. I mean, I basically looked at her respirations, you know, he said. When I saw her at the beginning, she was responding to me. Later, he said, Warren didnt seem to be waking up.

A witness to the incident told The Times of phoning USC President C.L. Max Nikias office, giving two employees an anonymous account of the overdose and demanding that USC take action against Puliafito.

Phone records reviewed by The Times showed the witness made a six-minute call to Nikias office on March 14, 2016, 10 days after the overdose.

Last week, Puliafitos successor as dean, Dr. Rohit Varma, told a gathering of scores of students that USC had found no evidence, particularly, of that phone call.

But on Tuesday, a crisis management specialist representing USC, Charles Sipkins, said that Nikias office did receive an anonymous call about Puliafitos presence at the hotel overdose. However, the anonymous report did not make it to top university officials, Sipkins said.

ALSO

Steve Lopez: Yet another USC scandal requires blunt talk about money culture and values on campus

Police union examines incident at Pasadena hotel involving a former USC dean after an officer is disciplined

Drug allegations involving former USC medical school dean are probed by Medical Board of California

Former USC medical school dean no longer seeing patients; Pasadena police discipline officer
The overwhelming vote Tuesday by the GOP-controlled House to impose new Russia sanctions sends a strong and defiant message to President Trump  all the more remarkable because it came from his own party.

The 419-3 vote not only bucked a tradition of leaving foreign policy matters to the president, it marked the most significant example to date of the current Republican Congress standing up to its often unpredictable and disruptive standard-bearer.

The new bill orders up a regimen of tougher sanctions in reprisal for Russias meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. More importantly, it prevents Trump from unilaterally easing the punitive measures, something he has hinted he might do.

Advertisement

Congress is uncomfortable with any rapprochement with Moscow without getting some things for it, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said ahead of the vote. Were sending a message to Moscow. But if the president had any intention of trying to give Vladimir Putin what he wants on certain areas, I think hell think twice about it.

A similar bill was approved earlier by the Senate on a 98-2 vote. Tuesdays House version wrapped in sanctions against North Korea, so it must return to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. The bill also includes sanctions against Iran, making it harder for Trump to veto, should he be so inclined.

Several foreign policy professionals said they normally oppose congressionally mandated sanctions because they are harder to unwind, and interfere with the smooth and intricate flow of international diplomacy.

But they said Trumps unorthodox approaches and his apparent affinity for Putin, the Russian president, have given sufficient cause for Congress to act on its own.

It is not unusual that Congress wants to tie a presidents hands, but it is highly unusual that the presidents own party is tying his hands, said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former advisor on Russia to the State Department. It tells me that there is a lot of suspicion about Trump, his family and ties to Russia.

It tells me that there is a lot of suspicion about Trump, his family and ties to Russia.  Jeffrey Mankoff, Russia scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on U.S. intelligence conclusions that Russia meddled in the 2016 campaign, has spoken glowingly about Putin and, at least publicly, did not use the recent meeting of the Group of 20 major economies to rebuke the Russian president for his apparent misdeeds.

This is a show of extreme discomfort, from a Republican Congress to a Republican president, said Richard Nephew, a research scholar at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy.

Traditionally, foreign policy experts, historians and a number of the United States allies abroad have been loath to see Congress step into matters of international diplomacy. The single voice of a chief executive can respond in immediate and decisive ways that the 535 voices of the U.S. Congress cannot.

And when sanctions against a country or entities in other countries are enshrined in U.S. law, it takes another law to undo them.

In 1974, over the objections of President Ford, Congress voted unanimously to punish the Soviet Union with trade sanctions and embargoes in response to human rights abuses, particularly its refusal to allow Jewish citizens to emigrate. Eventually, under President Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, Soviet Jews did begin to leave in large waves.

The Soviet Union fell in 1991, and yet the law, known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, remained on the books until 2012.

Diplomats say it was a constant irritant in negotiations over the years with the Russians, who found it condescending, not to mention outdated and unnecessary.

In a curious twist, the Jackson-Vanik amendment was repealed as part of the so-called Magnitsky Act signed by President Obama, which normalized trade but also punished several individuals connected to the death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. That act prompted Putin to suspend U.S. adoptions of Russian children, an issue cited somewhat improbably by some of Trumps advisors as the motive for their meetings with Russians during the election campaign.

There have been a few other instances in which Congress has tied the presidents hands. In the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, Congress imposed a harsh trade embargo on Cuba, in part in response to Cubas shooting down of two small airplanes from a Miami-based anti-Castro humanitarian organization.

Yet as relations between Havana and Washington improved, and Obama in 2014 renewed diplomatic ties, he could not lift the embargo because it was congressionally mandated. Cuban leaders argue the embargo has crippled the islands economy, and it remains the single greatest point of contention between the two countries. A small handful of Congress members refuse to repeal it.

Similarly, one problem with the new Russia sanctions, Mankoff said, will be that  as with the Jackson-Vanick amendment  they will outlive the Trump administration and constrain future presidents.

Elsewhere in Trumps administration, others have also shown ambivalence toward sanctions. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he thought sanctions sometimes hurt U.S. businesses. Just this month, Exxon Mobil was fined $2 million for violating Ukraine-related sanctions by signing new deals with Russias blacklisted state oil company in 2014, when Tillerson was Exxons CEO.

We would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue, Tillerson argued before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June.

A spokeswoman for Tillerson, Heather Nauert, could not say Tuesday whether that remained the secretarys position with the House version of the sanctions bill.

It is debatable how much effect ongoing sanctions have had on Russia. The U.S. and the European Union imposed measures following Putins aggression in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014. The Russian economy has suffered, but at least as much from falling oil prices and other external factors.

New sanctions could hurt, however, especially as Russia attempts to attract foreign investment for the next generation of energy projects where costly exploration missions will be needed to tap into new oilfields.

Europe, meanwhile, is also less than thrilled about the new round of sanctions, especially because European leaders were not consulted.

Led by Germany, several European countries say they are worried that they will be caught up in the punitive measures as they attempt to do business with Russia involving a new proposed gas pipeline, the Nord Stream 2 project. It would supply much of Western Europe with Russian gas.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter

ALSO

U.S. threatens more sanctions on Venezuela

After Trump reluctantly certifies Iran is obeying nuclear deal, he slaps it with new sanctions

Trump did discuss sanctions with Putin despite the presidents earlier denial, White House says
The weight of a heavy sentence landed in the quiet federal courtroom Wednesday morning, leaving Gregory Burleson occasionally stroking his graying beard and his attorney pleading unsuccessfully for leniency.

The 53-year-old Burleson was the first to be sentenced for his role in the 2014 standoff between federal agents and supporters of Cliven Bundy near his Nevada ranch.

He got 68 years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro did take into account his blindness and frailty  he sat in a wheelchair during the hearing  but she also reminded Burleson of his crimes, which included threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice and interstate travel in aid of extortion.

Advertisement

She said agents  who hunkered down in a wash while Bundy supporters trained guns on them, recorded them and shouted at them  were scarred from the experience and suffered mental trauma.

That isnt something that heals over with a scab, Navarro said. You cant put it in a cast or stitch it up.

The case has been watched closely as it marked another round between the federal government and those who believe public lands should be transferred to local control. Burlesons trial drew supporters from neighboring states throughout the proceedings, which ended in April, and a handful would gather outside the courthouse to monitor the developments and post updates to sympathizers on social media.

But only a few showed up for Burlesons sentencing at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas. They gathered outside on the sidewalk and they stretched a banner across two ladders that read, Whatever it takes! and a reference to a website seeking to free Cliven Bundy.

Inside the courtroom, some supporters watched the sentencing, and Burlesons mother appeared overcome as she talked quietly with his attorney, Terrence Jackson, in a corner outside the courtroom after Navarros decision.

He was resigned, Jackson said. He knew this was coming.

While Burlesons sentence was lengthy  fellow convicted Bundy backer Todd Engel is scheduled to be sentenced in September  it was less than it couldve been as Navarro took into consideration his deteriorating health. Jackson said he will appeal and said the sentence amounted to a life sentence for Burleson.

With the reduction, it seemed to point to the federal governments spotty and difficult track record with the Bundy family in court.

Last year, prosecutors lost a case when an Oregon jury acquitted Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven Bundys sons, and six others involved in a 2016 confrontation that centered on a 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

That standoff resulted in several pleading guilty to several charges, but Ammon and a brother, Ryan Bundy, were acquitted of a slate of federal felony charges. The confrontation also drew widespread attention after one man, Robert LaVoy Finicum, was fatally shot while he attempted to avoid a roadblock set up by federal agents.

That acquittal of Ammon Bundy appeared to embolden those who think they are entitled to cattle-grazing rights on public lands without paying fees to the Bureau of Land Management and has given rise to some state lawmakers who have pushed for the transfer of federal lands to the states. The issue is especially prominent in states like Nevada and Utah, where the federal government controls 84% and 65% of the land, respectively.

The 2014 standoff was triggered after federal agents rounded up Bundys cattle they said were grazing on federal land illegally. The government says Cliven Bundy owes the government about $1 million in grazing fees. He insists he doesnt have to pay.

After the cattle were corralled, Bundy supporters, many of them armed, arrived from Nevada and states near and far to protest the government action. The supporters set up a military-style camp by his ranch near Bunkerville, east of Las Vegas. The situation grew tense, but there was no violence. In the end, officials gave in and let the cattle go.

Four men charged in the standoff avoided convictions after jurors were unable to reach a decision on dozens of counts. Those men  Eric Parker, O. Scott Drexler, Richard Lovelien and Steven Stewart  are currently being tried again in federal court.

Cliven and Ammon Bundy are also set to face trial in Las Vegas once that trial is completed.

Burleson has 14 days to file his intent to appeal. Jackson requested a prison with medical facilities to accommodate Burlesons health problems, including his blindness, a skin condition and a battle with alcoholism.

Burlesons lawyer said on Wednesday that his client was manipulated into participating in the standoff and was only seeking fame  despite Burlesons admission that hed posted alcohol-fueled rants against the government. He said he never intended to harm or kill anyone during the standoff.

Jackson said Burleson was sucked into the movement.

He became mesmerized by his fame, Jackson said.

Navarro, however, said it was clear it wasnt happenstance that put Burleson in the standoff. She said he wanted to be there.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

ALSO

A bullet hole, a mystery and an FBI agents indictment  the messy aftermath of the Oregon refuge standoff

California teen who livestreamed deadly crash is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter

Inmates in O.C. jailbreak last year recorded video of their escape

UPDATES:

3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background and quotes from Gloria Navarro.

This article was originally published at 12:05 p.m.
Potentially damaging documents dating back to the 2008-2013 Lee Myung-bak administration have been discovered at Cheong Wa Dae, press reports said Tuesday.

They reportedly include information related to approval of the Lotte World Tower skyscraper, which drew suspicions of irregularities. Some reports said the documents were found in a filing cabinet in the national security office and contain information about the Lotte World Tower and STX, a shipbuilding company that went belly-up last year.

The government approved the construction of the Lotte World Tower in 2009 after the runway of a military airport south of Seoul was realigned to avoid Air Force jets crashing into the skyscraper during takeoff and landing. STX was mired in a corruption scandal involving a Navy chief of staff.

Earlier, Cheong Wa Dae officials said they unearthed more than 300 documents from the Park Geun-hye era, including a potential paper trail in the bribery case against Park and de facto Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong.

But this time the presidential office neither confirmed nor denied reports of the discovery after it was accused of seeking to use the information to take revenge on political foes.

Opposition lawmakers, smarting from the ouster of their last president, continue to accuse Cheong Wa Dae of briefing against its opponents.

A high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told the Chosun Ilbo, "We have not received any specific information and nothing has been confirmed. We need to consider whether or not to announce the discovery of additional documents and cannot comment on each news report."


Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held his first public event in five days Wednesday  a meeting with the visiting Lebanese prime minister  as aides try to quell speculation over whether he is considering resigning.

Speculation about the possibility of a Tillerson resignation has been mounting as the secretarys frustrations with life in the Trump administration have been increasingly on display. His top aides deny he is considering resignation, but that has not stopped the guessing game.

CNN even gave it a clever name: Rexit.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday he had spoken with Tillerson on Tuesday night and encouraged him to hang on.

Advertisement

Tillerson is a patriot, he really is, and he wants good things to happen for our country, Corker said at a forum sponsored by the Washington Post.

I dont think Tillerson is on the verge of resigning. I dont see that, Corker said. I think he understands how important the triumvirate that exists between him and [Defense Secretary James] Mattis and [national security advisor H.R.] McMaster are for our nation today.

The fact that Corker felt moved to publicly comment on the issue indicates how widespread the speculation has become.

Some officials at the State Department blame the White House for the talk of Tillerson quitting, believing that the rumors are a trial balloon being floated as a way for President Trump to warn Tillerson to keep in line  Trump toying with his secretary of State similar to the way he is publicly tormenting Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

On Wednesday, standing before cameras for a brief meet-and-greet with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the normally taciturn Tillerson seemed to take pains to show how active he has been, going into unusual detail about his day so far.

So I had a very good working breakfast this morning with [House] Speaker [Paul] Ryan, Tillerson told reporters. We covered a number of important topics, had a lengthy meeting with the vice president at the White House on some important policy issues today, and now Im pleased to welcome prime minister of Lebanon Hariri here at the State Department. 

And I know the prime minister had a very, very positive meeting with President Trump yesterday, and we look forward on kind of building out on some of the details from that meeting.

Later, appearing with the foreign minister of Qatar, Tillerson responded to a question about whether he was staying in his job.

Im not going anywhere, he said. Asked for how long, he said: As long as the president lets me. He added that his relationship with Trump was good.

Before Wednesday, Tillersons last appearance was an unannounced speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia on Friday. The State Department public schedule in recent days listed no public appointments for Tillerson.

A spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, let slip on Tuesday that he was out for travel for a few days, possibly to his home state of Texas. Nevertheless, his staff apparently thought it important for him to be back at Foggy Bottom on Wednesday as they were being called on repeatedly to knock down resignation rumors.

Other officials said Tillerson appeared determined to stay in office at least long enough to conduct the wide-ranging organizational overhaul of the State Department that he launched in response to President Trumps orders to slash the budget for diplomacy, foreign assistance and international development work by nearly a third.

To the chagrin of many in the department, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil has embraced the budget cuts and vowed to create a leaner, more efficient bureaucracy.

But Tillerson has also revealed a deep frustration with the mission and the office. Returning earlier this month from a long, grueling trip to Europe and the Persian Gulf region, Tillerson gave a series of surprisingly candid remarks to two reporters on board his private jet.

Well it is a lot different than being CEO of Exxon because I was the ultimate decision-maker, he said of his current job. That always makes life easier.

He went on to speak somewhat wistfully of the efficient, disciplined, streamlined decision making of a corporate world where he knew all the players and could be confident of the process, by contrast to being an aide to a volatile, inexperienced boss.

The trip to the Gulf, for example, was in large part to smooth feathers ruffled by Trump, who publicly contradicted Tillerson by siding with one ally, Saudi Arabia, in an angry dispute with another ally, Qatar. Trump has also contradicted Tillerson on issues from NATO allegiance to ties with Mexico.

Tillerson also had to fight tooth and nail to get Trump to sign off on certifying that Iran was compliant with the 2015 nuclear accord; failure to do so could have serious international consequences, straining U.S. alliances. Just this week, Trump again publicly threatened to overrule Cabinet members and break the accord.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter

ALSO

GOP senator says Im worried about Donald Trump, calls Republican congressman so unattractive

Gov. Jerry Brown signs law to extend cap and trade, securing the future of Californias key climate program

House approval of Russia sanctions bill is a rebuke to Trump

UPDATES:

1:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with a quote from Tillerson at his appearance with the foreign minister of Qatar.

This story was originally published at 1:15 p.m.
Its hard to ignore the irony of Sen. John McCain returning to Washington from cranial surgery at the Mayo Clinic just to keep alive a bill that would make health insurance unaffordable to millions of Americans. Had McCain (R-Ariz.) considered the symbolism of his actions more carefully, he might have lingered longer at the hospital.

But immediately after voting Tuesday to proceed to debate on the healthcare measure, McCain gave his colleagues a much-needed lecture on how badly theyve gone astray  not just on the healthcare bill, but on legislating in general. Noting that the Senate has often been called the worlds greatest deliberative body, McCain said, Im not sure we can claim that distinction with a straight face today.

No, they most definitely cannot.

The path the Senate took to reach this point  private negotiations by Republicans to develop legislation affecting one sixth of the U.S. economy, never bothering to hold hearings, let alone negotiating with Democrats  is shameful. So is the path that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is leading them down now, as they fast-track a bill they havent seen and devote no more than a few minutes of debate to a series of major amendments regarding health insurance cost and availability.

Advertisement

The goal here should be to make insurance more available and affordable, not push it out of reach of those with preexisting conditions or little income.

McCain has been called a maverick for his willingness to stray from GOP orthodoxy. But on Tuesday he sounded like a traditionalist, excoriating the Senate for abandoning the painstaking, cautious processes that are the hallmark of good legislating in favor of procedural shortcuts and winning at any cost.

Although hed just voted to let debate begin on McConnells mystery healthcare bill, McCain nevertheless called it a shell that he couldnt support in its current form, the product of an indefensible process. Weve tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them its better than nothing, asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition. I dont think that is going to work in the end. And it probably shouldnt.

No, it most definitely should not.

What the Senate ought to do on healthcare, he said, is what it has traditionally done, but has abandoned in its hyperpartisan dysfunction: Hold hearings. Take ideas from both sides. Bring a bill to the floor and try to pass something that will be imperfect, full of compromises, and not very pleasing to implacable partisans on either side, but that might provide workable solutions to problems Americans are struggling with today.

One other requirement that McCain should have included, but did not: Whatever the Senate does, it should make things better for as many Americans as possible. The Affordable Care Act has flaws, but they can be fixed. Like the House-passed healthcare bill, the Senate GOPs proposal has problems that are far more fundamental, and they cannot be remedied. The goal here should be to make insurance more available and affordable, not push it out of reach of those with preexisting conditions or little income.

To his credit, McCain didnt limit his critique to the healthcare legislation, but addressed the day-in, day-out operations of todays Senate. Debates are more partisan and more tribal more of the time than any other time I remember, McCain said, and thats demonstrable, as is the fact that the Senate and Congress as a whole are getting less done. Those conditions didnt emerge overnight, and like most of the problems afflicting the Senate, they arent attributable exclusively to one party or the other. Instead, there has been steadily escalating unilateralism and obstruction, a destructive cycle that no one seems to able (or eager) to stop.

The answer, as McCain so eloquently put it, is to accept incremental progress built around bipartisan compromises  the best that can be expected in a country as diverse and quarrelsome and free as the United States. Considering the injustice and cruelties inflicted by autocratic governments, and how corruptible human nature can be, the problem-solving our system does make possible, the fitful progress it produces, and the liberty and justice it preserves, is a magnificent achievement, he added.

Senators badly need to find their way back to that place. They also need to take to heart McCains reminder that they are  collectively  an important check on presidential power. Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the presidents subordinates. We are his equal, McCain intoned. Its time they started behaving that way.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook.
In the pantheon of Donald Trump tweets, his three-part missive Wednesday morning declaring that transgender people would not be allowed in the military was not his most rude, mindless or irrational. But it is deeply troubling nevertheless. He essentially called for a step backward in time that goes counter to all the slow but necessary progress the United States has made in recent years in its treatment of transgender people.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, Trump tweeted. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Policy statements made on Twitter dont generally include much thoughtful argument. But in this case, Trump offers two separate justifications that just dont stand up. The tremendous medical costs for gender-transition-related healthcare are, in fact, negligibly small  an increase of between $2.4 million and $8.4 million. The military spends some $50 billion each year on healthcare, according to a Rand Corp. study.

Advertisement

Shamefully, Trump made his toxic policy pronouncement on the anniversary of the day that President Truman ordered the military desegregated.

(By way of comparison, the newspaper Military Times reported in 2015 that the Department of Defense spent $41.6 million on Viagra.)

And Trumps assertion that transgender troops disrupt the military is equally specious, reminiscent of fallacious arguments made in earlier years about women, gays and lesbians. There are already 18 allied militaries around the world that allow transgender individuals to serve openly; of the four studied closely by Rand, none reported a negative impact on the operational readiness, operational effectiveness or force cohesion.

President Obamas former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter lifted the ban on transgender troops in 2016, but current Defense Secretary James N. Mattis announced last month that he was delaying the implementation of the final piece of the new policy until more research could be done. That study was to be completed by December.

The 2016 Rand study estimates that there are some 2,450 transgender people in active service (though it acknowledges that the figure is difficult to pin down). Will Trump make them all leave? Will they be required to hide in the shadows, as in the days of the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy?

Many questions remain, and the military doesnt have answers, judging from the fact that it referred all press inquiries to the White House. Nevertheless, a Pentagon statement said the Department of Defense would work with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the Commander-in-Chief.

Shamefully, Trump made his toxic policy pronouncement on the anniversary of the day that President Truman ordered the military desegregated. What an ignoble way to mark that anniversary.

At the very least, the Defense Department should be allowed to finish its review. Trump should rescind his comments in tomorrow mornings tweet storm.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) took to the airwaves last week to call out three female senators for opposing the GOP healthcare bill, stating that if they were men, he might have asked them to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.

In other words, if Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski were dudes, Farenthold would be down to shoot them, which is confusing, because Texas is very good at capital punishment for murder.

But Farenthold wont, because theyre ladies, and gentlemen from Texas always respect ladies. They hold the door open there and say maam, as in I guess I wont kill you for disagreeing with me today, maam.

Advertisement

Who said chivalry is dead?

Now if I were Capito, I would have a very hard time not tweeting at Farenthold, Boy, I wish you would. Capito runs four miles most days. She could have a quick draw. Farenthold also runs well, notably away from a sexual harassment lawsuit settled out of court in 2015.

But the three senators have not stooped to Farenholds level (at least publicly), possibly because they are busy governing the country. Their focus and relative probity stands in sharp contrast to President Trump, who never misses the chance to take the time out of his day to trash his critics via Twitter. It also illuminates the swamp in a brand-new way: Washingtons biggest problem isnt pork or partisanship. Its men.

Men wrote the Senate healthcare bill that has foundered and may finally die this week. It foundered in part because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the decision to exclude women from the 13-person drafting group. Ostensibly, McConnell excluded women because he correctly assumed they would have would have balked at many of the bills provisions, such as defunding Planned Parenthood or slashing Medicaid spending, which women depend on the most.

Had he included them, the Republicans might have negotiated a bill that could have passed already, rather than go through several more iterations of rocky debate.

Instead, men tried to pass a bill that only 13% of Americans supported, contributing to the (true) perception that the majority of Congress does not give a damn about what ordinary citizens think.

Women were the ones who stopped Congress this time, with Capito saying she did not come to Washington to hurt people. Later, Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) also got on board, seemingly dooming the bill  at least until Trump started strong-arming Senate Republicans to give the legislation another chance.

Too many men also conflate violence with power. Rep. Farenthold may have thought he was flexing when he quipped about settling matters out back. In reality, fighting serves only those too weak to persuade.

True power is standing up for your beliefs, even in the face of massive dissent. That is what Capito, Collins and Murkowski did last week, and what Collins and Murkowski did again Tuesday when they voted against the motion to bring the bill up for debate.

Its hardly their first rodeo in political courage. In 2013, it was Collins who convened a small bipartisan group of senators made up eight men and six women (including Murkowski) to figure out how to keep the government from shutting down. Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily from women in the Senate, Sen. John McCain said after the deal was announced.

Their efforts were in line with the trend: According to researchers at the National Bureau for Economic Research, Republican women in particular excel at bipartisanship, possibly because they tend to be left of their partys center, and therefore more likely to find common ground with Democrats.

Another reason many female legislators may compromise well is because they may be less egotistical. According to a 2001 survey that asked American members of Congress why they ran, men responded that they had always wanted to. The No. 1 reason for women? The ability to effect change in society.

Imagine if 100% of politicians cared about that.

Cassady Rosenblum is an intern in The Times Opinion section.

cassady.rosenblum@latimes.com

@cassadyariel

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook

MORE FROM OPINION

John McCain rescued the Senate GOP healthcare bill. Can he rescue the Senate?

Want to be happier? Buy yourself more free time

In the absence of an actual Obamacare replacement plan, the GOP votes to debate ... no bill at all
To the editor: Steve Lopezs column in Sundays Times scores an important point.

(Re: Decrying cafe is ridiculous, Column, July 23)

Who are these self-appointed bullies with their masked attacks on Weird Wave Coffee? Will no one of good character in Boyle Heights call these miscreants out for what they are and take action against them?

Advertisement

Tom Pincu, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: Steve Lopez swung and missed. He has joined the choir of those attacking the protesters.

Yes, we all should all reject violence and the destruction of property. But it is not clear if the individual who did this is connected to the protesters.

Rather than attacking those who demonstrate peacefully, we should be praising them. These protesters should be given credit for sparking this vital conversation.

It is silly to argue that this is about change and that these people are cowards. This struggle in Boyle is not about rejecting change.

It is about injustice about the ruthless displacement taking place. Developers are in bed with politicians and art galleries, and renters feel powerless.

Chamba Sanchez, Silver Lake

::

To the editor: The perception of an outsider who sees Weird Wave Coffee Roasters as the flagship model of what is to come in Boyle Heights is barely scratching the surface of the economic changes that are occurring in the neighborhood.

First and foremost, the median income for a single household in Boyle Heights hovers above $34,000, so anyone with a college degree has a high likelihood of making an income that is higher than that threshold.

Secondly, race and income in the United States are historically interrelated. We should not ignore the fact that black and brown families have historically been undervalued and overlooked when purchasing a home.

Finally, gentrification does not provide benefits for the existing members of a community. If a new business attracts other new businesses, then the amount of generated job opportunities do not outweigh the number of local residents who will be displaced by non-native community members.

Steven Almazan, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: The anti-gentrification push absolutely misses one of the biggest opportunities to support the future of their own neighborhood.

Look back at the post WWII era and you will see how exclusionary laws and housing covenants, which sidelined minorities from purchasing houses in many areas of Los Angeles, were the largest roadblock to success.

As mentioned in the article some longtime residents like the rising property values, it is those minority families who did purchase in Boyle Heights when they could not buy in other parts of the city who will be most hurt by this movement.

Fight for your community by supporting independent businesses that generate wealth locally, hold developers and politicians accountable to build low income housing with rent controlled units but do not prevent your own neighbors who were smart enough to purchase over the last 60 years from receiving return on their investment.

Anthony Saccacio, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Should our president decide he is above the law of the land and pardon himself, how will the people know he is not lying?(Re Trump asserts he has complete power to pardon, July 23)

Ed Lister, Santa Barbara

::

To the editor: Trump is nuts. Isnt that enough to cashier him out of office, and saddle us with Cotton Mather Mike Pence for 3  more years? Just saying.

Advertisement

Charles Ruebsamen, Claremont

::

To the editor: If the president has complete power to pardon, including himself, does that mean he has complete power to commit crimes?

Things may be about to get much worse.

Alexa Foster, Coto de Caza, Calif.

::

To the editor: So the president thinks he has the power to pardon himself.

By way of analogy, cant a Catholic priest can forgive the sins of others but not his own?

Mary Anne Vincent, Corona, Calif.

::

To the editor: During our Stone Age formative eons, tribes with devoted followers of a charismatic leader could compete more successfully with neighboring tribes for scarce resources, resulting in an evolutionary advantage. A characteristic trait of such leaders is certainty in addressing issues of the moment.

It strikes me that this is the pattern between Donald Trump and his followers. For most of the people who voted for him, he can do no wrong.

Thomas Blackburn, Redlands

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
At a campaign-style rally in Ohio on Tuesday night, President Trump insisted that, except for the late, great Abraham Lincoln, he could easily act more presidential than any president in history. Just the day before, however, Trump demonstrated how utterly, odiously unpresidential he truly is.

On Monday, Trump turned an address to thousands of Boy Scouts at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia into a mean-spirited, boastful, bullying political speech that failed to live up to any of the values to which Boy Scouts aspire. He described the nations capital as a sewer. He took a gratuitous swipe at his predecessor, President Obama, and mocked his opponent in the last election, Hillary Clinton, smiling in approval as some of the Scouts booed the two Democrats. He bragged, yet again, about his electoral victory and mindlessly thanked the youthful Scouts for their votes.

Three members of his Cabinet stood with him on the stage  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. They were at the event because each had once been involved in Scouting, but, as Trump flung his insults and puffed himself up, they grinned stupidly, looking less like old Eagle Scouts than like the Three Stooges.

Advertisement

1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)

Prices smile wore thin when Trump joked acidly that he might fire him if he failed to shepherd an Obamacare repeal through Congress. This came after a tirade about healthcare, a subject about which Trump has shown near complete ignorance.

Attempting to get back to the reason he was invited to speak to the Scouts, Trump began to list the virtues expressed in the venerable Scout Law, but he couldnt resist another veiled jab. As the Scout Law says, a Scout is trustworthy, loyal  we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that, Trump said. No one doubted that the president was referring to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, who has been the target of Trumps ire ever since Sessions followed the law and recused himself from involvement with the Justice Departments investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

A normal president  a presidential president  would have taken the occasion as a chance to inspire the young men in his audience, but, for Trump, it was just one more stump speech in a perpetual campaign to firm up his political base, another chance to boast while denigrating his opponents and underlings. This man is an appalling example for our countrys young people, just as many an American parent predicted after his disgusting remarks about sexually assaulting women were revealed last fall in the Access Hollywood video.

And, when Trump egotistically says how easy it is to act presidential, he debases an office that has been instilled with prestige by a long list of great presidents reaching back to George Washington. Trump has no idea how to be presidential. He treats the White House like a branch of the family business. In the style of a Mafia don, he expects Cabinet officials and lawmakers to put loyalty to him above respect for the law and the Constitution. His tweets and most of his unscripted public statements are undignified, untutored and frequently unhinged.

Trump is a cruel clown and a cunning con man. He is no Boy Scout.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter

MORE FROM OPINION

John McCain rescued the Senate GOP healthcare bill. Can he rescue the Senate?

Want to be happier? Buy yourself more free time

In the absence of an actual Obamacare replacement plan, the GOP votes to debate ... no bill at all
Kamala Harris works to forge relationship with Central Valley

Sen @kamalaharris talking grapes with Fowler Packing Co president Dennis Parnagian in the fields outside metro Fresno pic.twitter.com/smVuRfbSpQ  Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) July 5, 2017

The drought may be over in the minds of urban Californians, quite literally washed away by huge accumulations of rain last year that filled reservoirs and left the states mountains covered with snow even now.

But the farmers and others in the Central Valley, veterans of multiple drought-and-flood cycles, know the reprieve is only temporary. On Wednesday they pressed new U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to work to ensure a more reliable source of water for the nations most bountiful farming region.

This area is drying on the vine, Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, told Harris during a roundtable with Central Valley officials.

A long-term solution can only come through federal and state action to protect the areas water supply, he said.

Jason Phillips, chief executive of the Friant Water Authority, said recent rainfall had done little to stem problems caused by nearly a decade of drought.

A canal that runs from Fresno to north of Bakersfield sunk in some places as much as 2 feet in two years, he said, wreaking havoc on a system that operates on the force of gravity.

We cannot get all the water to our growers, he said.

The meeting between Harris and nearly two dozen agriculture and water officials was meant to ease what is typically a fraught relationship between the states Democratic leaders  all of whose power bases are in metropolitan areas  and the mostly Republican Central Valley powers that traditionally look at them with skepticism.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has worked for two decades to aid the agricultural industry  at the roundtable, several nodded as Harris referred to the senior senator as an incredible warrior for the area.

But Harris predecessor, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, was allied more with environmental groups that have fought dams and other water systems. As a result, she was viewed negatively by many here.

Harris was intent Wednesday on persuading the Central Valley representatives of her interest in places beyond her base in Alameda and San Francisco counties.

They, on the other hand, worked to convince her to be more in the Feinstein mold on issues important to the area  from reliable water to immigration programs to environmental protections that take into consideration the areas needs.

President Trump was highly popular in much of the Central Valley, apart from Fresno County, which leans Democratic because of its metropolitan shadings. But some issues important to the valley cut in politically unorthodox ways.

Republicans here are more concerned than those elsewhere with passing a plan that would give legal status to immigrants, on whom agriculture depends. With undocumented workers worried about deportation, and the border tightening to those not yet here, the labor supply has already shrunk, farmers said.

Theyre out there working, being productive people, said farmer Joe Del Bosque. They work hard for us, and we have nowhere to reach.

Del Bosque said he recently held a training session for new workers. Of the 200 people who showed up, only a handful were born in the United States, he said.

Environmental regulations prized by Democrats elsewhere are often frowned on by some party members here and blamed for the areas water difficulties.

Several of the participants lobbied Harris for her support of dams that have long been under consideration by federal and state officials, particularly the Temperance Flat Dam, which would be constructed on the San Joaquin River.

Harris offered no assurances on the topic to the group on Wednesday. Afterward, speaking to reporters, she also did not take a position.

One of the things that were going to have to figure out ... is what is the right solution for that, she said of a plan to construct the Temperance Flat Dam and several others. Is it going to be about the building of dams? Is it also going to be about looking at  also looking at  other sources of renewable and sustainable reliable sources?

Both sides signaled they did not expect an alliance on all fronts. But Harris said she would serve as an advocate for farmers during the crafting of a new farm bill and other measures before the Senate.

William Bourdeau, executive vice president of the politically influential Harris Farms, told the senator he wished the majority of her supporters who reside in urban areas would have a better understanding of the risks and challenges of farming.

We need somebody to explain the symbiotic relationship we have, he said.

I agree with you completely, she replied.
The Trump administration strengthened its crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities Tuesday, announcing a new policy that says local governments will lose some federal grants if they do not give advance notice when illegal immigrants are about to be released from custody and give immigration agents access to local jails.

The new policy, announced by the Department of Justice, will apply to all cities that get grants from the so-called Byrne Justice Assistance grant program, for which the administration has requested just over $380 million for the coming year.

So far, the new policy applies only to those justice assistance grants, which local jurisdictions can use for a wide variety of programs related to law enforcement, including drug treatment, witness protection and prisoner reentry programs.

Advertisement

Although the move carries considerable symbolism because of the high-profile debate over sanctuaries, the money involved is roughly half a percent of federal grants to state and local governments, according to figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

So-called sanctuary policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing the new policy. These policies also encourage illegal immigration and even human trafficking by perpetuating the lie that in certain cities, illegal aliens can live outside the law.

This is what the American people should be able to expect from their cities and states, and these long overdue requirements will help us take down MS-13 and other violent transnational gangs, and make our country safer, he said.

Sessions has been pressuring so-called sanctuary cities for several months, but this is the first time that the Justice Department has set down specific rules and applied them to an entire grant program.

Under the policy, cities will have to meet three conditions if they want the grants: allowing Department of Homeland Security agents access to local and state jails to question people who lack documentation; giving 48-hour notice when undocumented prisoners are about to be released; and complying with a law that prohibits jurisdictions from stopping the exchange of information about an individuals immigration status.

The policy, announced as Sessions comes under extraordinary criticism from President Trump, seems guaranteed to garner strong opposition from cities and the courts. In some states, courts have held that state and local authorities cannot detain people who are not charged with a crime simply because of a request from federal immigration agents.

Some cities have gone beyond refusal to cooperate with detainers, refusing all cooperation with immigration enforcement on the grounds that otherwise law-abiding people who are in the country illegally can be deported if they are snared on minor crimes.

Trump told a raucous crowd of supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday evening that his administration had launched a nationwide crackdown on sanctuary cities.

The predators and criminal aliens who poison our community and prey on our young people ... will find no safe haven anywhere within our country, Trump said.

Sessions, a fierce advocate for tougher immigration enforcement throughout his career as a U.S. senator from Alabama, has made the issue a priority during his tenure as the nations top law enforcement official. On Friday, he made a speech in Philadelphia, blaming the citys sanctuary policies for contributing to violent crime.

Trump is expected to raise similar issues on a trip later this week to New Yorks Long Island, which is slated to highlight some recent high-profile crimes blamed on the Salvadoran-based MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha gang.

joseph.tanfani@latimes.com

Twitter: @jtanfani

ALSO

With Pence breaking a tie, Senate votes to begin debate on Obamacare repeal bill

Trumps lawyers claim a free-speech right to urge supporters to use reasonable force to kick out protesters

Gov. Jerry Brown signs law to extend cap and trade, securing the future of Californias key climate program

UPDATES:

6:40 p.m.: Updated with comments from President Trump to supporters in Youngstown, Ohio.

This article was originally published at 5:10 p.m.
It took a tie-breaking vote from the vice president and the dramatic return of an ailing senator, but crucial debate on the years most pressing policy question has begun.

Even so, the outcome remains unclear. Will Republicans eventually coalesce around some version of a plan to repeal Obamacare?

Good morning from the state capital. Im Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and the political view from California continues to be much different, as Gov. Jerry Brown signs into law an extension of the states landmark cap-and-trade climate program.

Advertisement

But first, from Obamacare to the fate of Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, lets talk Washington.

MCCAIN AND PENCE: THE VOTE TO DEBATE

It wasnt clear until Tuesday whether Republicans actually had enough votes to bring the repeal of the Affordable Care Act to a floor debate in the U.S. Senate.

They did, but only after a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.

Even that wouldnt have been enough had Arizona Sen. John McCain not returned to Washington and joined the effort. Days after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, the veteran lawmaker returned to Capitol Hill and cast what ended up being the decisive 50th Republican vote.

McCain used the opportunity to deliver a sharp rebuke to lawmakers from both parties for their rhetoric and record over the past few months.

Were getting nothing done, my friends, McCain said. Were getting nothing done.

The largely unified GOP action to move forward came after some public prodding of senators by President Trump on Monday. But it didnt last long, as several Republicans broke ranks Tuesday night and rejected the first replacement proposal.

Its unclear if any GOP healthcare plan makes it out of the Senate during the coming hours of debate. Then theres the question of what the House would do with such a plan, and when.

Even Tuesdays initial procedural vote carried risk for some senators. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, one of the fence-sitters on the topic the past few weeks, was quickly criticized on social media for his support of the Senate debate effort.

Check in on our Essential Washington news feed for the latest on the Senate debate.

FOR CAP-AND-TRADE, ITS ON TO 2030

Here in California, Browns decision to use the San Francisco skyline as the backdrop for Tuesdays signing of a sweeping extension of the states cap-and-trade program was about more than just a good photo op.

Its the same spot where, in the early fall of 2006, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the states overarching climate change plan into law. That law is what paved the way for state regulators to create the system of doling out and auctioning off greenhouse gas allowances.

Schwarzenegger joined Brown and legislators at Tuesdays event, the culmination of months of negotiations in Sacramento on the finer points.

California is leading the world in dealing with the principal existential threat that humanity faces, Brown said during Tuesdays ceremony.

TIME WILL TELL FOR SESSIONS

Perhaps the least surprising development this week -- and thats mainly because its hard to be surprised any longer -- was Trumps continued public poking at his attorney general.

After he expressed disappointment last week with Sessions over the springtime recusal on all things related to the Russian election investigation, Trumps new swipes have been both online and from behind the podium.

Most notably, the president told reporters on Tuesday that he was very disappointed that Sessions decided in the spring to recuse himself from the Russian election interference investigation.

Time will tell, Trump said at a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hiriri. Time will tell.

Trump also chastised Sessions for not ordering an investigation into the actions of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The presidents criticism of the reliably conservative Alabama Republican isnt sitting well with some writers and commentators in the right-leaning media.

SESSIONS AND SANCTUARY CITIES

Sessions, in the meantime, made news of his own on Tuesday. The Department of Justice waded back into the hot-button debate over sanctuary cities, issuing a stern warning to those local governments about the price for not cooperating on illegal immigration issues.

The new policy will require the cities to work with agents if they want to continue to receive federal grants from the Byrne Justice Assistance program. The conditions set out by Sessions team will no doubt be the subject of further legal scrutiny and represent a sharp new turn on the issue.

AND (AGAIN) SPEAKING OF RUSSIA...

The Sessions saga seemed to quickly overshadow the big news of Monday: testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior advisor.

Kushner took the unusual step of reading a statement in front of reporters camped out in front of the White House on Monday, strenuously denying any electoral collusion with Russia. Kushner then met privately with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

Meawhile, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday there was no directive for the meeting between a banker and Kushner.

TRUMPS VOTER FRAUD PANEL: COURTS SAY YES, STATES STILL SAY NO

The success of the presidents commission to investigate his unproven voter fraud allegations wont rest on the courts, it now appears.

On Monday, a court refused to block the panels request of voter information from states across the country. The ruling rejected the assertion that the federal commissions request was neither constitutional nor fair to the privacy rights of millions of voters.

But the legal victory for the presidential panel doesnt change the simple fact that there are a number of states where elections officials have refused to honor the voluntary request. And here in California, Secretary of State Alex Padilla reminded the commission of that -- and of his refusal to go along -- in a Tuesday statement.

CALIFORNIAN INDEPENDENCE, TAKE TWO

Backers of an effort to split California off into its own nation are likely headed back to the streets to collect voter signatures on a possible 2018 ballot measure.

On Tuesday, the attorney generals office issued a formal title and summary for the initiative, which has been revised to focus on negotiating autonomy for the state. It wouldnt, on its own, attempt to secede from the United States. That Calexit effort fizzled earlier this year.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- I think hes crazy. And thats not all that was heard in a candid moment between two senators talking on Tuesday about Trump and a House colleague, all of it captured on an open microphone.

-- It was unlike any presidential speech ever given to the annual gathering of Boy Scouts. Which was precisely the problem, said critics of Trumps Monday remarks.

-- Lawyers for the president told a federal court on Tuesday that Trump had a 1st Amendment right to urge his supporters to kick disruptive protesters out of his 2016 campaign rallies.

-- The president added Rep. Adam Schiff to the unofficial nickname club on Monday, calling the Democrat from Burbank sleazy in a tweet. Schiff then decided to use it to his advantage as a fundraising tool.

-- Gov. Brown walked the red carpet on Tuesday night in Los Angeles at a screening of former Vice President Al Gores new climate change documentary, An Inconvenient Sequel. The day before, Gore was in San Francisco, where he praised the governor for securing a deal on Californias cap-and-trade program.

-- Meanwhile, the candidates vying to replace Brown are being pressed on their views about affirmative action by Latino and black lawmakers, potentially injecting a volatile racial element into the 2018 race.

-- Did anyone notice congressional Democrats attempting to unveil a new economic agenda on Monday? The progressive-leaning agenda includes higher wages, child care and job training.

-- Sen. Kamala Harris, whose future political ambitions have been the subject of widespread rumors, recently spent time with in the Hamptons with a top bundler for former President Barack Obama and a bankroller for liberal causes across the country.

-- With whom does Schwarzenegger argue about politics more than anyone else? Himself, he said in a podcast interview published on Tuesday.

-- Whats on the agenda for 2017 of Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson? Housing, racism and pot.

-- Election dates have been set in the race to replace Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) in the state Assembly. The primary for the special election in the 51st Assembly District will be Oct. 3, with a likely runoff on Dec. 5.

-- Los Angeles County voting officials are designing a new voting system. On Friday, they plan to take a prototype to Las Vegas to see if hackers can crack it.

LOGISTICS

Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Miss Mondays newsletter? Here you go.

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter at @johnmyers and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast
The U.S. state of Hawaii has decided to resume evacuation drills every month starting in November in case of a North Korean missile attack. The drills are based on the assumption that a 15-kiloton nuclear weapon detonates 300 m above Honolulu. They could put a dampener on the state's crucial tourism revenues, but authorities said they are necessary all the same.

Although state authorities said an attack is "a low probability," they added, "We have to keep a lookout for that. That's why we're talking about updating the plan. It's an awakening." The U.S. is taking the threat of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile extremely seriously.

But South Korea remains blase. There was a news report that Seoul opposed labeling the North Korean missile an ICBM in a joint letter penned by the leaders of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan condemning the launch.

The point is debatable -- the missile has at most a range of 7,000 km -- and there is no need to exaggerate the threat, but the North is rapidly developing its missile technology, whether South Korea acknowledges it or not. It is only a matter of time before it does develop a bona fide ICBM that can carry a nuclear warhead.

The government's easy-going attitude is the result of a chronic insensitivity the South Korean public has developed vis-a-vis the North Korean military threat. To be sure, North Korea is mainly building up a massive nuclear arsenal to face off with the U.S. over control of the Korean Peninsula, but if it actually resorts to using these weapons, South Korea will become the first target.

South Korean authorities have never even considered nuclear evacuation drills, on the mistaken assumption that North Korea has yet to mention a nuclear detonation over South Korean airspace as a possibility. And many South Koreans have their head in the sand to such an extent that the government would be sure to face vocal opposition if it did stage any evacuation drills.

Another problem is that Kim Jong-un's nuclear brinkmanship could actually pay off because Americans are taking the threat so seriously. If the U.S. cannot find an effective military solution, it may opt to negotiate with Kim. Seoul needs to be wary of the possibility that its future will be determined over its head by the U.S. and North Korea.

Still, it is bizarre for a neighboring country to be so complacent when Hawaii 7,000 km away is taking the threat so seriously. Since the new government was inaugurated, it seems that the hazards of South Korea's own nuclear power plants has been given more priority than the threat of North Korean nuclear bombs. South Koreans urgently need to wake up.


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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Watch live: White House news briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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
Thousands of firefighters from across California, including some from Burbank and Glendale, descended on Mariposa County last week as a massive wildfire burned through the region.

The Detwiler Fire has consumed more than 78,000 acres in an area adjacent to Yosemite National Park. With 65% of the fire contained, Cal Fire said 131 buildings have been destroyed  including 63 homes  and another 1,500 structures are at risk.

When the fire first broke out on July 17, 780 personnel were called in to battle the flames.

One week later, that number ballooned to 4,914, including a team made up of firefighters from the Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena fire departments.

Strike Team 1203A arrived in Mariposa County the day after the fire started and was tasked with structure defense, according to Burbank Fire Battalion Chief Ron Barone.

Anita Shandi, a spokeswoman for the Glendale Fire Department, said firefighters worked 24-hour shifts as they battled the blaze throughout the week.

The firefighters were expected to be back in Los Angeles County by Tuesday evening, Barone said.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
When you stand outside Sardos Grill & Lounge in Burbank at about 7 p.m., the hum of vehicles driving down the nearby Ventura (134) Freeway fills the air. However, step inside the establishment two hours later and youll immediately hear someone singing hits such as Neil Diamonds America.

The unassuming 49-year-old restaurant and bar is tucked away in a strip mall next to a Bank of America and a Vons on Pass Avenue. Dozens of patrons flock to Sardos during the week to grab a drink or two and summon the courage to sing their favorite song.

Though there were people singing and cheering each other on Monday night, there was a somber undertone that evening because the owner of Sardos announced late last week he will be shutting down the establishment on Friday for financial reasons.

Seymour Satin, who has been working at Sardos for 14 years, said the property owner raised his rent earlier this year to about $10,000 a month, which proved to be too much for him.

Its too high for this area, with no drive-through traffic and no walking traffic, he said. Its a ridiculous rent, but the owners feel that they can get it.

Satin, 59, of North Hollywood, said he has done everything he could to keep the bar afloat. He has tried promotional nights and refinanced his home to have enough money to pay the rent and his employees. However, it has come to the point where nothing is working.

He has even tried finding a new location for the business, but Satin said he could not find a site that meets the citys requirements for a bar.

The last decade has not been particularly kind to Satin. Though his first six years of owning the bar were fruitful, business started going downhill around 2007. During that time, Caltrans started an onramp project at Hollywood Way, which resulted in street closures along Pass and drove many of Satins customers to other bars.

Satin said he barely recovered from the freeway construction, but it would not be the last thing to affect his business. In 2015, Sardos had to close for about three months after a fire destroyed the kitchen. The booths, liquor cabinets and bar stools were all damaged by smoke and had to be replaced.

Even after getting Sardos up and running again, Satin said business never really recovered.

It was never Satins goal to own the bar. As a former professional researcher, Satin said he was in between jobs and stumbled upon a managerial job at Sardos. After a few years, he had enough money to buy the restaurant and would soon fall in love with the establishment and the people who came in.

I would have loved to keep this around until its 50th anniversary, which would have been in 2018, but I cant do it, Satin said.

Though he would have liked to leave Sardos on better terms, Satin said that he is looking forward to spending time with all the current and former regulars he has met during the years during the bars final week.

One of those regulars, Sunland resident Jim Sabo, has been paying visits to Sardos nearly every Friday for the last 12 years.

Sabo, 47, said that he never would have visited Sardos over a decade ago had it not be for a friend who frequented the bar before he did. He was hesitant to go at first because singing karaoke in public was not something he thought he would like.

But we came over, and I wound up having a good time, and before I knew it, I was coming in here every Friday, he said.

On Monday, Sabo belted out his rendition of The Middle by Jimmy Eat World and was cheered on by friends and strangers alike.

Later in the night, Burbank couple Janelle and David Polk each grabbed a microphone and sang Stop Draggin My Heart Around by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. The Polks met at Sardos nine years ago and married shortly after.

The Polks said they were shocked to hear that Satin would be closing Sardos doors on Friday. Though they met each other at Sardos, the couple said that they have not gone to the bar as much as they used to and now regret not spending more time there.

Ive met so many people here that feel like family, and I feel like we took it for granted a little because we live really close, Janelle Polk said. But the closing has brought a community of people that Ive known for a long time back together.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
The Huntington Beach Planning Commission approved a zoning amendment Tuesday night that would prohibit the sale or distribution of non-medical marijuana by businesses in the city. It also would regulate the cultivation of recreational marijuana.

The commission voted 6-1, with member Dan Kalmick dissenting.

The amendment will now go to the City Council.

Kalmick said the city is devoting a large amount of resources to regulating a boogeyman. He said it is basing its decision on data from other areas that have legalized marijuana, like Colorado, but he said the city should conduct its own analysis.

According to the Huntington Beach Police Department, non-medical marijuana businesses and deliveries could have negative effects, such as an increase in robberies, thefts and burglaries, a city staff report states.

The department says cities that have non-medical marijuana businesses have seen increases in arrests related to driving under the influence, according to the report.

Proposition 64, which voters statewide passed in November, allows people 21 and older to use and cultivate non-medical marijuana, with stipulations granting local governments the ability to ban recreational marijuana businesses and regulate cultivation.

Planning Commissioner John Scandura said the problem with legalized recreational marijuana is that governments will be spending the next few years figuring out how to regulate it. He said Huntington Beach shouldnt be part of the initial turmoil and should ban non-medical marijuana businesses now.

Henry Carey, a downtown business owner who attended Tuesdays meeting, urged the commissioners to reconsider the ban, citing the healing effects marijuana has had on his epilepsy.

Under the amendment, outdoor cultivation of recreational marijuana would be illegal. Indoor cultivation would be restricted to private residences in an enclosed area with a ventilation or filtration system that prevents odors from leaving the home, according to city documents.

Marina denied

The commission unanimously denied a proposed marina after several residents voiced opposition to the project.

The project planned for 16926 Park Ave. included a public marina with a 66-foot community docking area, a floating pedestrian ramp and a two-story building with an office, public restroom and caretakers unit totaling 1,328 square feet, according to city documents.

Many residents said the marina would bring unwanted traffic to the narrow street.

Mike Van Voorhis, who lives in the area, asked those in the audience who opposed the project to stand, and about 40 people obliged.

A larger version of the project was denied by the commission and City Council in 2007. The commission cited evidence that there would be significant detrimental effects on the environment and on people who work or live nearby, according to city documents.

Mike Adams, the applicant working with the property owner, said the new plans addressed the past comments, but commissioners Tuesday werent convinced.

Kalmick said he had a lot of concerns about the project and said it might sacrifice the property rights of some in favor of another.

Chairwoman Connie Mandic cited several reasons she couldnt support the project, including the narrowness of the street.

General plan update review

The commission also was presented with an overview of an assessment estimating the effects of sea-level rise on areas of Huntington Beach as part of an ongoing review of the environmental impact report for the citys general plan update, which will guide local development decisions through 2040.

The assessment, by consultant Michael Baker International, concluded that Huntington Harbour and areas of Sunset Beach would be vulnerable to sea-level rise by 2030. Bolsa Chica, the Huntington coastal bluffs and the beach would be vulnerable by 2050, and there could be widespread coastal and inland flooding by 2100, according to the assessment.

A series of strategies intended to combat the effects was laid out at Tuesdays meeting, including building new developments in areas that arent considered hazardous, putting up barriers between hazardous areas and existing developments and flood-proofing with sandbags and other materials.

Some commissioners expressed concerns about how best to deal with sea-level rise.

Scandura said hes noticed that some homes in Huntington Harbour dont have bulkheads protecting them from the water.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot
Good morning. Its Wednesday, July 26. Heres whats been happening around O.C.

TOP STORY

Santa Anas ex-police chief alleges wrongdoing by top city and officers union officials

Santa Anas former police chief has taken a step toward suing the city for alleged wrongdoing he says involved the officers union president, Mayor Miguel Pulido, and two other City Council members the union helped win election last year. In a legal claim he filed against the city, Carlos Rojas said he was forced to involuntarily resign his civil service position as a result of potential illegal activity and/or noncompliance [with rules and/or regulations] among city officials. Voice of OC

AROUND THE COUNTY

Orange County jail inmate found dead; five workers put on leave

The Orange County district attorneys office is investigating the jailhouse death of a 27-year-old man convicted of car theft who was sharing a cell with a man charged with two murders. Los Angeles Times

Disneyland wait times up 28% despite peak pricing and other efforts

Average wait times at the Disneyland Resort have been rising over the past few years, despite efforts by the park to ease crowding by raising ticket prices on peak demand days and expanding a ride reservation system, among other changes. Los Angeles Times

Laundry Love helps homeless and low-income families in Huntington Beach

Laundry Love Huntington Beach volunteers provide free laundry services to homeless and low-income families, offering what may be their only way to get clean clothes for the month. TimesOC

TRAVEL

O.Cs waterfront hotels get a makeover

Surf City never looked so good. New restaurants, hotels and shops have changed the face of Huntington Beach, adding a clean, well-organized look to the citys oceanfront that capitalizes on its greatest asset  crashing waves and a popular beach. Los Angeles Times

FOOD

Five places to eat at the new Lido Marina

A just-completed multi-million dollar revitalization is turning Lido Marina Village into a spendy-chic dining and shopping destination that fits in perfectly with the laid-back ritz of peninsula life. Here are five new places to eat and drink at Newport Beachs latest summer destination. TimesOC

Author of The 40-year-old Vegan wants to veganize your comfort foods

Sandra Sellani can turn cashews into ricotta cheese and ranch dressing, zucchini into spaghetti noodles and chickpeas into a deli tuna salad. TimesOC

BUSINESS & REAL ESTATE

Contemporary perch is easy, breezy in Laguna Beach

Sweeping ocean views run from north to south at this custom-built contemporary home, which sits on a bluff overlooking Victoria Beach. Los Angeles Times

OPINION

Op-Ed: The upside of visible homelessness in Orange County

Whenever I see homeless people somewhere in Orange County where Ive never noticed them before  say, inside a tent at the Tustin Civic Center, begging for money off the 5 Freeway in Mission Viejo or washing themselves in a bathroom sink at the Westminster Mall  I applaud. Los Angeles Times

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.
Ahoy!

Theres big news in the world of boat shows, as the National Marine Manufacturers Assn. sold two major West Coast shows to Newport Beach resident Duncan McIntosh. In addition, NMMA has put another West Coast show on hiatus.

McIntosh is the first name that surfaces when you think of Southern California boat shows, especially the Newport Beach Boat Show, which will host its 43rd annual event in May.

The Duncan McIntosh Co. has purchased the Los Angeles Boat Show, which has changed ownership a few times, and the San Diego International Boat Show.

Additionally, NMMA announced the cancellation of the 2016 show of the newly revitalized Progressive Insurance San Francisco Boat Show.

I was at the Miami Boat Show, where I bumped into the president of the association. He made me an offer I couldnt refuse, Duncan said, in what I call classic Duncan-ism speak.

He is gracious about not acknowledging the huge tasks of revitalizing these two shows.

Duncan is a very good local producer who has agreed to keep the San Diego Boat Show going, Thom Dammrich, NMMA president, said. As for San Francisco, there had been no significant boat show in the Bay Area for a number of years when we decided to produce an S.F. Boat Show at AT&T Park. It was a great venue.

Many boaters might remember when Duncan ran the Columbia dealership in Newport Harbor. Then he changed course and set sail into the nautical publishing world and began producing world-class boat shows.

Duncan McIntosh Co. now publishes Sea, Boating World, Editor and Publisher and OC Weekly. A bold move among boaters and fishermen was the purchase of The Log newspaper, which was founded in 1971 and is the oldest and largest boating newspaper in California. The FishRap News is now included in each issue of The Log.

Duncan earned a U.S. Coast Guard Masters License, and is known to travel nationwide to test new boat designs. We have spotted each other on a few flights. I have known Duncan for decades and must disclose that I have contributed boat-test articles to Sea Magazine and broadcast my radio show from his boat shows.

September 2011 was a sad period when his wife and partner, Teresa McIntosh, died of cancer at 69. She was fondly remembered with a celebration of life at the Balboa Pavilion.

In 2007, Oct. 23 was officially proclaimed Duncan McIntosh Day in Newport Beach by then-Mayor Steve Rosansky at the inaugural Marine Industry Good Sea Scout Luncheon. Duncan became the first recipient of the Newport Sea Bases award to those who contribute above and beyond to the marine industry and community. He continues that tradition as an active Newport harbor commissioner.

In Newport Harbor, however, he is mostly known as the pioneer who started the Newport In-the-Water Boat Shows in 1973. Both of his Newport Boat Shows and Lido Yacht Expos have grown from the 70s to become the largest in-the-water boat shows west of the Mississippi River, not to mention economic boosters for the local economy. Who remembers when he held some shows at the Newport Dunes, and the boats entered into the lagoon after removing the Dunes bridge?

Coming out of the Great Recession in April 2010, I quoted McIntosh as saying, The new year is shaping up to be great for the Newport Boat Show. Another perfect example of a Duncan-ism and his upbeat, can-do attitude.

Last week, Duncan told me, I think we can revitalize this 60-year-old event and pump some new life into it.

But, he added, Time will tell if my instincts are still up to the challenge. He was referring specifically to the L.A. Boat Show acquisition, which is not his only recent purchase, as he just bought the OC Weekly as well.

Yes, only time will tell. However, I know Duncan, and I have seen what he can do.

Safe Voyages!
Though President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, this is no time for the 70% of Americans who believe climate change is happening, according to the Yale Climate Change program, to recoil in defeat.

Rather, we should feel empowered that a 2016 post-election poll of registered voters found that majorities of Democrats (86%), independents (61%) and Republicans (51%) alike wanted the United States to participate in the accord, according to Yale, and that two out of three voters said the U.S. should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do.

Thus, it is exactly the time to speak out against the misguided actions of the White House by taking decisive steps well within our reach as individual citizens and communities.

After all, the Paris Agreement is only a broad-stroke commitment from participating countries to collectively limit global warming to 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. It has always been true that only Congress and legislative bodies at the state and local levels, not the president, can enact laws that can move us from a fossil fuel to a sustainable energy economy.

Heres whats happening at various jurisdictions around the nation already.

Efforts are underway to pass state-level carbon pricing mechanisms, with the ultimate goal to pressure Congress to act nationally on climate change. The state of New York enacted a carbon price on fuels in 2015, and various bills taxing carbon are in play in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

Oregon has already set a cap on carbon emissions, and in California, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on July 25 extending to 2030 the states first-in-the-nation cap and trade program wherein companies are required to buy permits to release greenhouse gases. California has also passed the first state-level resolution entreating Congress to enact a national carbon tax (the dividends would go to low- and middle-income residents to offset resulting price rises in consumer products).

Local jurisdictions around the nation are also feeling how critical it is to send a strong message to their representatives on the hill. Eleven cities have passed general resolutions calling on Congress to act on climate change, and resolutions passed in 35 other cities and counties, including 12 in California, more specifically petition for some form of a national carbon fee and dividend, according to the Climate Citizens Lobby.

Every American has it within their power to contribute to the growing momentum at community, state and national levels to address climate change head-on. Having your voice heard can be as simple as phoning your elected representatives to state your concerns to greater involvement through participation in local organizations focused on climate change solutions. This is how democratic change happens.

Newport Beach and other Southern California jurisdictions must do what others across the country have done, pass a resolution telling Congress to step up and lead the rest of the world in addressing the crisis of global climate change.

SARAH MOSKO lives in Santa Ana.
Midsummer is typically a time when we cope with issues related to hot, dry weather. This summer is no exception, with fire crews throughout Southern California battling to keep blazes in check.

But this summer is a bit unusual in that we are also seeing a problem that typically arises during the rainy season. Last winter was one of the wettest ever recorded, and as a result rivers and flood channels, fed by melting snowpack, are swollen with fast-moving water.

The danger this development poses should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, and sometimes tragically, it often is.

Several people have died in the Kern River this year, including an Orange County rapper, Michael Ramirez, aka Dossicc, who was swept away by powerful currents during a late-June camping trip.

Its not just the Kern River. Up and down the state, waterways keep claiming victims. And what makes these deaths even more devastating is that they are entirely preventable.

Those of us who live in coastal Orange County have been educated to treat strong ocean currents with great reverence. But what many of us dont realize is that any body of moving water carries risk, from a raging river like the Kern to innocuous-looking creeks where hazards often lurk beneath the surface.

People attempting to swim, or who accidentally fall into these waterways, can easily be overpowered by strong currents that arent always recognized by inexperienced eyes. Even the most skilled swimmers fight to stay afloat, a struggle that becomes even more difficult as they are pummeled by debris  items as large as sofas have been found in rivers and channels  or they become tangled in submerged vegetation.

What happens is people get pulled underwater and pinned because of the force of the water pushing down against them, said Capt. Larry Kurtz of the Orange County Fire Authority.

That force can be many times more powerful than ocean waves.

Theyre so surprised at the force of the water as theyre being swept downstream, he said. Theyre like a piece of helpless driftwood.

Water temperature is also a factor, Kurtz said, even during the hot summer months. River water is often cold, and hypothermia sets in after six minutes, slowing brain functions, weakening muscles and contributing to panic. Its a deathly spiral that happens quickly and without mercy.

Although I have never known any swift-water victims personally, I cant help feeling a particular sadness when such tragedies occur because I first wrote about the dangers of swift water 25 years ago. As a reporter, I participated in news coverage after the drowning of 15-year-old Adam Bischoff in the Los Angeles River.

Bischoffs failed rescue and eventual death was captured by news crews, and as a result the incident received a great deal of attention at the time. Even today memories of the horrified expression on the teenagers face, caught in photographs moments before he succumbed, still haunt me.

In the aftermath of Bischoffs death, fire agencies throughout the state dedicated themselves to improving their swift-water rescue operations, which are notoriously difficult in part because the victim is a moving target. Now most agencies have highly skilled professionals and specialized equipment devoted to these rescues, and they conduct ongoing public education campaigns to warn people of the dangers.

In the 1990s, I also wrote some stories about a woman whose fiance had jumped into the Los Angeles River to try to save a boy who had fallen in. The boy survived, but his rescuer died. The victims fiancee dedicated herself to promoting swift-water safety, and produced an award-winning documentary on the subject, which proved highly influential in efforts to raise awareness and provide more resources and training for rescue teams.

But all those efforts havent been enough, because here we are in 2017, and people are still dying.

Often tragedies spring from a series of small mistakes, Kurtz said. People stand too close to rushing water and fall in, or they inch closer and closer until they slip on the eroding shoreline. Sometimes they ignore barriers that have been erected to keep swimmers away or fail to heed posted warning signs. Some victims have leapt in to try to save others.

The first mistake is always the biggest: A lack of respect for  and understanding of  the sheer, unrelenting power of moving water.

Parents, you have an important role to play. You wouldnt let your child go to the beach without educating them about the dangers of ocean currents. You wouldnt even let them out the door without sunscreen.

Make sure youre kids also know that any body of moving water is not to be underestimated. Talk to them about it now. Show them the news stories and explain to them that last winters rain and snow, while a very welcome development for our previously parched state, has also led to more dangerous conditions at rivers and flood channels.

They must also be made aware that the last thing they should do is jump in to try to save another, or else they too will require rescuing. Always call 911, and let the professionals do their jobs.

As Kurtz said, We at the Orange County Fire Authority, and I believe I can speak for all fire agencies, we dont want your business.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.
IMF revises up Chinas growth view for 2017/18

From:Xinhua | 2017-07-25 10:20

THE International Monetary Fund yesterday revised up Chinas growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 to 6.7 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, with the better China prospects expected to drive global expansion.



The updated World Economic Outlook report, which came days after China posted a stronger-than-expected second quarterly performance, was a reflection of a solid first quarter underpinned by previous policy easing and supply-side reforms, including efforts to reduce excess capacity in the industrial sector, the IMF said.

China is quantitatively a big contributor to the overall world growth picture. More generally, strong Chinese growth drives particularly Asian region but also throughout the world, said Maurice Obstfeld, chief economist of the IMF in an interview with Xinhua after the release of the updated report.

The revision of 2017 followed an April upgrade by the IMF on Chinas gross domestic growth forecast to 6.6 percent and 6.2 percent for 2017 and 2018 respectively, 0.1 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point higher than its previous forecast.

China has set its full-year growth target for 2017 at around 6.5 percent. The 6.7-percent forecast will leave the worlds second-largest economy on par with its growth level in 2016.

The IMF also revised up Chinas economic forecast for 2018 by 0.2 percentage point to 6.4 percent, citing hopes the country may keep high public investment and delay fiscal adjustment to meet its target of doubling the 2010 real GDP by 2020.

But the IMF also warned against strong credit growth that may come with rising downside risk to medium-term growth.

Obstfeld said the IMF recognizes China is going through a very important rebalancing process, which will inevitably entail slowing growth.

He said Chinas recent moves to redress non-performing loans and a coordinated financial oversight overhaul are welcome.

As I have said before  what happens in China doesnt stay in China  the spillover to the global economy is very large ... And its very important for the world economy that China not just grows at a strong rate but that it grows in a stable fashion, dependable fashion without big fluctuation, said Obstfeld.

While highlighting Chinas action in reforming and improving its financial oversight such as the centralization of financial oversight, Obstfeld also noted the necessity for China to push forward structural reform on state-owned enterprises, suggesting that China needs to put SOEs on firm budgetary basis and think harder on the financial sector.

On the global perspective, the IMF said the pickup in global growth recovery remains on track, maintaining its previous forecast of global growth at 3.5 percent and 3.6 percent respectively for 2017 and 2018.

However, it revised down the growth forecast of the United States from 2.3 percent to 2.1 percent in 2017, and from 2.5 percent to 2.1 percent in 2018, primarily reflecting the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary than previously anticipated.

Another country with lower growth forecast for 2017 is Britain with its weaker activity in the first quarter.

But the IMF growth projections of the economies of the eurozone, Japan and Canada were revised to stay at 2 percent.
Budapest, an architecturally stunning city that straddles the Danube River in central Europe, has long been the cultural and commercial heart of Hungary.

Now its also been named the worlds top cruise port in the 2017 Cruisers Choice Destination Awards.

The city, a popular stop on European river cruise itineraries, received the award based on consumer ratings compiled by CruiseCritic.com and was one of 15 cruise destinations spotlighted worldwide.

Advertisement

The online travel website, which announced the awards Wednesday, also noted that its research shows a majority of cruisers (44%) reported that itinerary is the most important factor when planning a cruise. Other factors: price (32%), sail dates (12%) and departure port (12%).

Budapest, which combines the colorful hills of Buda with the businesslike boulevards of Pest, was praised by cruisers for its history and beauty. Many passengers said they extended their stays pre- or post-cruise to explore the city even further.

European river cruise ports proved to be popular, Cruise Critic reported, taking top honors as the highest-rated cruise region. And Budapest; Wurzburg, Germany; and Vienna, Austria, were all listed within the top five overall cruise ports.

Glacier Bay in Alaska and St. Petersburg, Russia, were also named in the top five.

Quebec City was named best of the U.S. and Canada, with cruisers saying the city offers a European-like experience.

Kauai and Glacier Bay were named best in Hawaii and best in Alaska, respectively, both for the second year in a row.

In Mexico, Cabo San Lucas took the top spot in the category for Mexican Riviera, Central and South American port. Cozumel, Mexico, was named best in the Western Caribbean and Riviera Maya.

Other first-place winners include:

 Singapore, best in Asia and the South Pacific

 Akaroa, New Zealand, best in Australia and New Zealand

 Kings Wharf, Bermuda, best in the eastern Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda

 Curacao, Lesser Antilles, best in the southern Caribbean

Amsterdam, best in Western Europe

Dubrovnik, Croatia, best in the eastern Mediterranean

 Villefranche, France, best in the western Mediterranean

 Castaway Cay, best cruise line private island (Disney Cruise Line)

ALSO

See the wonders of the northern lights on a winter tour of Alaska

Isla Cozumel ranks high with cruise ship travelers, CruiseCompete says

Eat, pray, sail? Windstar pairs James Beard chefs with upcoming cruises

Tired of waiting in long lines on the ship? How to skip them and enjoy the cruise

travel@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimestravel
There is life outside the neon lights of Las Vegas. Visitors who want to play in Sin City by night and see some of the Southwests most iconic natural landscapes by day may want to check out a new air-and-land tour.

Next Tuesday, Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines will start taking visitors to lesser-seen sights in northern Arizona. The Antelope Canyon Expedition Tour lasts 11 hours and takes guests from their Vegas hotels to the Boulder City, Nev., airport.

Advertisement

From there, sightseers take off for Page, Ariz., the jumping-off point for visits to the spiral-interior Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, where the Colorado River makes a spectacular U-turn that can be viewed from atop a towering cliff.

Antelope Canyon, located on Navajo Nation land, is a slot canyon carved from sandstone millions of years ago. While not commonly visited given its remote location, the canyon is popular with photographers who capture narrow beams of sunlight pouring into the crevices.

For now, the tour is only offered to groups willing to charter an entire plane. Visitors can rent a nine-passenger Cessna Caravan for $3,500, which works out to $389 per person. It includes guided tours from the air and on the ground plus a picnic lunch.

A 16-passenger Vistaliner is priced at $6,000, or $375 per person. The planes are de Havilland Twin Otters with large windows added to provide unobstructed views of the scenery below.

Starting April 1, 2018, the tour operator plans to offer the trip to individual guests for $499 per person. Tours will be offered year-round too.

The air tour operator also offers flights over and into the Grand Canyon. The company says its the first company to offer sightseeing trips to the Page/Lake Powell region.

Info: Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines, (800) 634-6801

ALSO

Mariah Carey will return to Vegas for handful of Christmastime concerts

Where to find smokin fresh cocktails in Vegas

Circus 1903' brings classic big-top thrills to Vegas. Yes, there will be elephants, just not live ones

Learn how to perfect your poker face at a Vegas master class

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
John Dean had served as White House counsel for President Nixon from July 1970 until he was fired on April 30, 1973. Dean later pleaded guilty to a single Watergate-related felony count.

After his testimony for prosecutors helped with additional Watergate scandal convictions, Deans sentence was reduced. He was released on Jan. 8, 1975.

Media outlets covered his return to California. On Jan. 15, 1975, Dean and his wife, Maureen, held the large news conference at their Los Angeles home.

Advertisement

Los Angeles Times staff writer Jerry Belcher reported the next morning:

John W. Dean III, whose testimony on Watergate played a large part in bringing down the Nixon administration, said Wednesday he would like to see and talk to the former President.

But, the former White House counsel quickly added, whether he wants to see me is a big question in my mind.

Dean, 35, and his wife, Maureen, met with newsmen Wednesday morning outside their hilltop home in Los Angeles. They were reunited last week after his release from a federal prison term for his role in Watergate scandals.

The youthful looking Dean had words of sympathy and praise for Richard M. Nixon.

He also said that while there was more to be told about Watergate, I dont think there will be any [more] enormous bombs  that will be dropped. 

Of the former President, Dean said, I think Mr. Nixon obviously can fill in some gaps [in the Watergate story] and hopefully he will. 

For more, check out this recent June 1, 2017, story by Mark Z. Barabak: John Dean helped bring down Richard Nixon. Now he thinks Donald Trump is even worse.

Jan. 15, 1975: John W. Dean III and wife, Maureen, meet reporters at their home. This photo appeared in the Jan. 16, 1975, Los Angeles Times. (Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times)

Jan. 9, 1975: John W. Dean III and his wife, Maureen, are driven home from airport after his release from prison. This photo appeared in the Jan. 10, 1975, Los Angeles Times. (Fitzgerald Whitney / Los Angeles Times)

November 1978: Dean, center, makes a point to actors Rip Torn, seated left, and Martin Sheen, left, on the set of television miniseries Blind Ambition." This photo appeared in the Nov. 21, 1978, Los Angeles Times. The man on right was cropped out and not identified. (Tony Barnard / Los Angeles Times)

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here
In the early 1980s, Indias national airline, Air India, commissioned a painting from artist Anjolie Ela Menon to add to a collection of contemporary Indian art that hung in its offices and executive lounges around the world.

Menon created Inside Outside, a series of six panels depicting multiethnic faces of Air India travelers and arranged in the shape of a door, and handed it over to the airline.

Some time later, Menon recalled, she was invited to an event at the plush Mumbai apartment of the state-owned companys chairman, Yogesh Chander Deveshwar. Hanging on one of the walls was Inside Outside  except that a panel featuring a boys face was missing. In its place was a piece of cardboard.

Advertisement

I asked Mr. Deveshwar how this had happened, Menon said. And he said he had got it in the same condition.

The lost panel  on its own likely worth thousands of dollars  was part of one of the most important and perhaps most mysterious contemporary art collections in India, a trove of thousands of paintings curated during the heyday of the once-proud airline. Artists say the works have been mishandled and abused, much like Air India itself.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modis government explores selling the 85-year-old company, now racked by debt and public relations nightmares, there is renewed interest in a collection that experts believe could be worth tens of millions of dollars  except that no one seems to know where all of it is.

Some pieces lent to Air India executives to display in their homes were not returned. Works sent overseas are unaccounted for because the company never kept a meticulous inventory.

Still more were stored at the airlines former seafront headquarters in Mumbai in questionable condition, said Menon, who visited several years ago and found paintings lying haphazardly, not wrapped in plastic, not cataloged, not labeled.

Theres no account of it all, the 77-year-old oil painter and muralist said. Paintings have disappeared in peoples private collections or theyve been sold. Its a big scam. Its bad. Our work should be honored and stored properly.

Jayant Sinha, Indias minister of state for civil aviation, said the government began taking inventory of the collection after Modi took office in 2014 and found that some art objects were not properly accounted for and tracked.

In the next few months, we hope to fully account for all these valuable art objects and ensure their safe custody, Sinha said.

Dubbed the Maharajahs collection  after the airlines portly, mustachioed mascot  the works have long been a subject of wonder in Indias art world. For several decades beginning soon after Indias independence in 1947, Air India was one of the countrys biggest corporate collectors of contemporary art, sculpture, textiles and artifacts.

Driven by founder J.R.D. Tatas philosophy that its offices should reflect national culture and achievement, the airline deployed buyers to galleries across the country and acquired early pieces by some of Indias foremost painters  including M.F. Husain and V.S. Gaitonde  sometimes in exchange for plane tickets.

India has few public galleries, so artists and patrons cheered Air Indias announcement two years ago that it would open a museum to showcase its collection in one place for the first time. Those plans are on hold because of the possible sale.

Longtime whispers about the state of the collection spilled into the open in June when artist Jatin Das learned that one of his pieces, a 1991 oil painting acquired by Air India  and therefore property of the government  was for sale on the open market.

Curator Pooja Acharya had emailed Das asking him to authenticate a 6-by-3-foot canvas that one of her clients was interested in purchasing from a private seller. Acharya said the seller told her she had bought the painting, called Flying Apsara, 20 years earlier from an art show.

But that turned out not to be true. The airline found that a former executive director who was lent the painting had left the company without returning it.

In an email to The Times, Acharya identified the seller as Rohita Jaidka, who according to her LinkedIn profile worked for more than 30 years at Air India, leaving the company in 2011 as an executive director. Jaidka did not respond to phone calls or messages.

After Das wrote to the airline asking for a full accounting of his work in its collection, the India Today website reported that the airline was in the process of conducting a detailed audit of the collection that would be completed by September.

Das letter to the airline was published by India Today and made national news.

I have been documenting my and my mothers work for years. I have done it all alone. If I can do it, why cant a big company like Air India?  Painter Arpana Caur

A few weeks later, the Das painting suddenly reappeared by courier at Air Indias offices in New Delhi, removed from its frame and partially torn. Das went to see it and was aghast at its condition.

It wasnt returned, Das said. It was crushed, folded and returned.

When airline employees attempted to track down the sender, they found the return address, in the nearby city of Gurgaon, was fake. The Press Trust of India reported that the airline was now examining how many more former or serving Air India officials could be in possession of such paintings.

Painter Arpana Caur, daughter of novelist Ajeet Cour, said what happened to Das work was shocking and careless.

I have been documenting my and my mothers work for years, Caur said. I have done it all alone. If I can do it, why cant a big company like Air India?

It was more bad publicity for a company that has had no shortage of it. Since 1994, when India opened its airspace to private carriers, Air India has seen its market share dwindle and its debt soar to $8 billion.

This year, the airline has been in the news for a 16-hour flight to Chicago with clogged toilets, crew members pilfering food from a London hotel buffet, the discovery of a packet of morphine on an in-flight food trolley and a malfunctioning air-conditioning system on a flight to New Delhi in July, when temperatures often surpass 100 degrees.

Worst airline ever experienced, reads one review in TripAdvisor. A third-class ride, says another. (There are others, to be fair, that praise the airline.)

There is a joke among the staff that they say a prayer after every landing, said K.V.J. Rao, a union leader and former Air India crew member. In the name of cost cutting, the airline has compromised on everything, from service to safety.

Apparently tired of the bad headlines, Air India recently issued a gag order barring current and retired employees from criticizing the company in the media. Rao was suspended by the airline in 2014 for alleged fraud, although he says he was punished for speaking out about the companys labor practices.

Raos father also worked for the airline, and as a child he would visit the Air India offices in Mumbai, where the art collection for years was housed in the higher floors, off-limits to visitors.

As kids we would wonder, whats so special about this? Rao said. Now the assumption is that bureaucrats and politicians have looted it.

Air Indias art buying days are long gone, but for a generation of painters the company was a crucial patron at a time when there was hardly any domestic market for their work.

S.G. Vasudev, a painter who sold several pieces to the company  including a large 1977 canvas in exchange for a plane ticket to London  said he often wondered about the fate of work that he hasnt seen in decades.

Air India acquired many of its pieces at throwaway prices, but they are probably worth much more today. A Gaitonde abstract canvas recently sold for more than $4 million.

Vasudev worried that other pieces will be found to have been stolen because they are so valuable.

I dont know whether they handled the works properly, he said. They should have thought of having a proper art curator who could have documented all the works and now these problems would not have arisen.

Parth M.N. is a special correspondent.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

ALSO

After a Hindu mob lynches a Muslim teenager in India, his family asks, Why are they allergic to us?

A new film tells the story of the Sikh boy ruler who was ripped from his kingdom and transformed into an English aristocrat

Late for a flight? No problem for Indian VIPs
Sweeping new efforts to bring Britains growing air pollution crisis under control were announced by the government Wednesday, including a ban on the sale of new diesel and gasoline vehicles beginning in 2040.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the changes are part of a $3.9-billion clean air strategy, adding there was no alternative to embracing new technology.

We cant carry on with diesel and petrol [gasoline] cars, he said, not just because of the health problems that they cause, but also because the emissions that they cause would mean that we would accelerate climate change, do damage to our planet and the next generation.

Advertisement

The move was welcomed by environmental activists but criticized by many who said it does little to tackle pressing short-term air pollution problems.

It is a welcome start, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said on Twitter, but added that an urgent plan to cut air pollution now was desperately needed, including the creation of clean air zones, better investment in public transport and a scrappage program to help people financially to replace their diesel vehicles.

The government strategy was published Wednesday, days before a July 31 high court deadline.

The courts had forced the government to produce new anti-pollution plans to tackle dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide after agreeing with environmental activists that a previous set of measures was insufficient to meet European Union limits.

There has been an increasing shift away from internal combustion engines and toward electric vehicles in recent months, with Volvo announcing that all of its new cars would be partly or fully battery-powered by 2019.

And this week, German carmaker BMW said an all-electric Mini would join the fleet of vehicles produced at its Oxford, England, plant in 2019.

Air pollution is estimated to account for up to 40,000 deaths in Britain each year.

It was described by a government spokesman as the biggest environmental risk to public health in the United Kingdom, but Wednesdays announcement is by no means the most far-reaching or ambitious in Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macrons government announced this month that it also would ban the sale of all diesel and gas cars by 2040.

And mayors in Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens also have said they plan to ban diesel vehicles from their respective cities by 2025. In London, there are several days a year, usually during hot weather, when pollution reaches dangerous levels and advisories are issued for the sick or vulnerable to stay indoors while the wider public is urged to avoid strenuous outdoor activities.

A congestion charge has been in effect in London since 2003 to try to stem the flow of vehicles entering the capital during the week.

Cycle lanes also have been improved, a bike-share scheme was established and public transport fares were frozen in 2017 in an effort to get more people out of their cars and in environmentally friendly, sustainable modes of transportation.

Mayor Sadiq Khan also is looking to create an ultra-low emission zone in the center of the capital by April 2019 by charging $16 a day to any car that enters without meeting low emissions targets.

Despite the push toward electric cars, the government has been careful not to demonize drivers of gas and diesel vehicles, especially because previous governments encouraged motorists to buy diesel fuel.

Industry leaders also have warned about the risks these changes could pose to the economy, a warning that will not be taken lightly as Britain severs its decades-old partnership with the European Union and seeks new trade agreements around the world.

Currently, demand for alternatively fueled vehicles is growing but still at a very low level as consumers have concerns over affordability, range and charging points, said Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Outright bans risk undermining the current market for new cars and our sector, which supports over 800,000 jobs across the U.K., so the industry instead wants a positive approach, which gives consumers incentives to purchase these cars.

We could undermine the U.K.s successful automotive sector if we dont allow enough time for the industry to adjust.

The governments strategy includes a $332-million fund for local authorities to tackle air pollution problems.

They are being encouraged to come up with their own solutions, but the government paper said ideas include the introduction of charging zones in high-pollution areas, a cleaner fleet of public transport and the reprogramming of traffic lights to smooth the flow of traffic.

Ultimately, the government hopes that by 2050, all cars and vans on Britains roads will have zero emissions. An incentive-based diesel scrappage scheme has not been included among the proposals, something many environmental groups had wanted, but Gove said it was not off the table.

If local areas could come up with scrappage schemes that are value for money and appropriately targeted, then we have no ideological objection to them, he said on the BBC.

Im in favor of dealing with the problem in the most effective way possible.

Boyle is a special correspondent.

ALSO

Plan calls for L.A., Long Beach ports to go to zero-emissions technology; cost could hit $14 billion

L.A. requires air filters to protect residents near freeways. Are they doing the job?

The surprising link between air pollution and Alzheimers disease
Since his brother and father were arrested and imprisoned while visiting Iran nearly two years ago, Babak Namazi has been trying to persuade the U.S. government to step up its fight for their freedom.

Both inmates  45-year-old Siamak Namazi and 81-year-old Baquer Namazi  are Iranian American dual nationals who were convicted of espionage in a secret trial last year and are now serving 10-year sentences in Tehrans Evin Prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.

You always think the worst and it paralyzes me, said Babak Namazi.

Advertisement

Now it appears that the familys quest for their release is gaining traction.

The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday calling for Iran to release all U.S. citizens and legal residents being held for political purposes.

The White House had already started to elevate the issue. Last week, it threatened new and serious consequences if Iran did not release all imprisoned U.S. citizens. That prompted Iran to call for the U.S. to release Iranians it is holding, suggesting to some experts that Iran is willing to negotiate a trade.

For Iran, a prisoner swap would resolve a problem of their making, said Reza Marashi, research director for the National Iranian American Council. Iran doesnt have the upper hand when it unjustly detains Americans. Iran needs to resolve this so that a bad situation doesnt get worse.

It is unclear where the Trump administration stands on the idea of an exchange. The last prisoner swap occurred in January 2016 under the Obama administration when four Iranian American dual nationals were freed in exchange for the release of seven Iranians. The exchange was seen as a sign of good faith in the wake of a deal to monitor Irans nuclear program.

Siamak Namazi was rumored to be among the Americans who would be freed, but his release never materialized.

His brother said that engagement with the Trump administration was slow at first, but that it has improved in recent months.

Last month I left a meeting very confident that the case of my family has become a top priority for the Trump administration, said Babak Namazi, who testified alongside relatives of other prisoners on Tuesday before a congressional foreign affairs subcommittee.

At least four Americans are imprisoned or missing in Iran.

This month, Iran sentenced Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese American student at Princeton, for spying. Robert Levinson, a 69-year-old former FBI agent, went missing in Iran in 2007, and his whereabouts are unknown.

There are also two U.S. permanent residents detained in Iran. Karan Vafadari, who owns an art gallery in Tehran, was arrested last July. Nizar Zakka, an information technology expert originally from Lebanon, is believed to have been detained in Iran since 2015.

In addition, Gholamrez Reza Shahini, an Iranian American dual citizen, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in October for national security crimes but was released on bail and is under house arrest in Iran, according to family members.

The issue of jailed Americans in Iran has been a sensitive subject in U.S.-Iranian relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In recent years, Iranian hard-liners have used the arrests of Americans to undermine the efforts of President Hassan Rouhanis government to improve relations with the West, experts said.

The Trump administrations threats on the issue of imprisoned Americans follow the imposition of U.S. sanctions last week on 18 entities and individuals connected to Irans ballistic missile program, military procurement and Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps  the powerful hard-line security and military organization whose members are believed to have jailed the Namazis and other Americans.

The Iranian regime continues to detain U.S. citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security-related charges, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the day the sanctions were announced.

President Trump had made it clear to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that bringing Americans home from overseas detention was an issue of huge concern and an administration priority, a senior State Department official told reporters Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official would not say how any negotiations would take place.

Iranian officials have intensified their rhetoric on the issue and this week started releasing names of its nationals whom it says the United States has unlawfully detained, or requested its allies to detain.

Recently a number of Iranians in various countries, at the request of the U.S., were arrested on the baseless claims of circumventing sanctions, said Abbas Araghchi, Irans deputy foreign minister, according to an article published Monday by Raja News, an affiliate of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The article also lists the names of 12 Iranians who were apparently detained in the U.S. and elsewhere, including some who were released during the prisoner swap with the U.S. in January 2016.

On a visit to the U.S. last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made similar claims during an event at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. He said that an Iranian woman who is two months pregnant was arrested a few weeks ago in Australia, along with an Iranian national living in Spain and another in Germany.

Im not saying that its tit for tat, but Im saying that we need to address this humanitarian problem from a humanitarian perspective and not from a political perspective, Zarif said. And Im certainly ready to do all it takes on my side to help reside this humanitarian problem.

The Namazi family is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Siamak Namazi, who was visiting relatives in Iran, was arrested there in October 2015. In February 2016, his father traveled there to seek his release and was arrested.

According to Babak Namazi, his brother, a businessman, has been held for most of the time in solitary confinement. Their father, a retired official with the United Nations Childrens Fund, has lost 30 pounds and twice been hospitalized.

Babak Namazi said he fears his father will die.

I continue to urge the Trump administration to do everything possible to bring them home. We are literally running out of time, he said.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report. melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad
When a military court sentenced a Jordanian soldier to life imprisonment this month for killing three U.S. Special Forces soldiers in November, many in the country saw the verdict as a capitulation to the demands of U.S. authorities. They insisted the soldier, 1st Sgt. Maarek Abu Tayeh (also known as Tawayha), was a hero who was just doing his duty, and held protests demanding his release.

But on Monday, Jordans army released security camera images of the incident, which showed a six-minute hunt in which Abu Tayeh stalked the lightly armed Green Berets, despite repeated attempts by the Americans to show they were friendly.

Advertisement

Three soldiers, Staff Sgts. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27; Kevin J. McEnroe, 30; and James F. Moriarty, 27, were killed in the shooting at the King Faisal air base in the area of Jafr, in the south of Jordan. The incident left the government in Amman struggling to justify Abu Tayehs actions to its U.S. ally even as an FBI and Special Operations Command investigation rebuffed Jordanian explanations.

Jordanian officials had initially blamed the American troops for not stopping at the bases gate and properly identifying themselves, with some going so far as to say the Green Berets had been drunk.

A later version of events said that Abu Tayeh had fired after hearing a gunshot and that the fire exchange was quickly halted upon knowing that friendly U.S. members were on the other side, according to a letter addressed to Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) by Jordans ambassador to Washington, Dina Kawar, in March.

The video, which was previously shown to the U.S. as well as to the parents of the slain soldiers, contradicts both accounts.

A pin bearing the image of Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, a slain Green Beret, is worn by his father, Charles, in Amman, Jordan, on July 17, 2017. (Reem Saad / Associated Press)

It opens with a four-vehicle convoy bearing the Americans rolling to a halt after passing a gate that is opened and closed by a Jordanian soldier.

The first sign anything is wrong comes when bullets fired from off-camera strike a white pickup with the Americans inside. Two soldiers, Moriarty and an unnamed Green Beret, run out of the third and fourth vehicles in the convoy and take cover behind concrete barriers. They pop their heads to shout at Abu Tayeh, waving their arms above their heads (at one point for a full 14 seconds) to stop his attack.

When the Americans run to another set of barriers, Abu Tayeh runs up to them armed with an M-16 and wearing a bulletproof vest. As he raises his rifle to shoot, Moriarty pops up with a pistol and fires a bullet before being cut down. It gives the other Green Beret the time needed to swing around the concrete barrier and shoot Abu Tayeh in the neck, critically wounding him.

Other Jordanian soldiers seen in the video run away and hide during the gun battle, while other vehicles approaching the base appear to be unaware of the firefight.

The video does not show what first spurred Abu Tayeh to attack. It has no sound and is recorded from a vantage point that keeps Abu Tayeh obscured for most of its duration.

The Green Berets were involved in a training program for Syrian rebels.

A public version of a Special Operations Command report on the investigation denied there had been any alcohol and said the Americans had followed protocol.

Abu Tayeh was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor last week. Because no links were found to terrorist entities, he was charged as a criminal, meaning he could not be given the death penalty under Jordanian law. Nevertheless, he insisted he was not guilty and had been acting in self-defense. (This despite having fired 63 rounds of his M-16 at the Americans, who were armed only with pistols, according to the report.)

Maarek Abu Tayeh stands behind bars on July 17, 2017, in the Jordanian capital, Amman, during his trial for the killing of three American military trainers outside an army base last year. (Khalil Mazraawi / AFP/Getty Images)

Investigators have been unable to explain Abu Tayehs motivations. On the day of the sentencing last week, Moriartys father, Jim R. Moriarty, said in a phone interview from Amman that he knew less about what happened today than I knew the day it happened.

He blamed Jordan for lying repeatedly about the incident.

Protests erupted in the south of Jordan after the verdict, with relatives of Abu Tayeh, who is a member of the Howeitat tribe, demanding that Jordans King Abdullah II set him free.

The Howeitat is an important tribe in the country; its onetime leader, Auda Abu Tayeh, figured prominently in Col. T.E. Lawrences Seven Pillars of Wisdom as well as David Leans movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

Members of the tribe insisted Abu Tayeh had acted in self-defense even after the videos release, saying on the Howeitat Facebook page that they were proud of the hero Maarek who defended the base while others hid.

They vowed Abu Tayeh would be released.

But a damning statement from the Jordanian armed forces released early Tuesday confirmed that Abu Tayeh had violated the military orders and instructions that are in place at the entrances of bases.

It added that his behavior was not in self-defense, that he was not threatened by any party, and that he had fired at the Americans even though they had followed all instructions that allowed them to enter the gate of the base and that he knew they had left and when they would return.

ALSO

Conflict among Syrian forces may draw U.S. into proxy fight

Pache, a stew of sheep and cow innards, may not look appetizing, but the people of Mosul adore it

I watched her die: The last push for Mosul, from those who lived through the ferocious battle

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @nabihbulos
To point out that the affidavit in support of plaint is defective, reliance is being placed upon the judgment reported at (2007) 1 SCC 341...
The State Council has released a guideline on establishing a modern hospital management system.

According to the guideline, the new system should focus on serving peoples diversified needs in health care with affordable, fair, and inclusive services.

Meanwhile, public hospitals should maintain their non-profit status under the direction and supervision of governments.

It is projected that by 2020, a modern hospital management system with clear responsibilities, scientific management, efficient operation and effective supervision will be established.

To upgrade the current hospital management system, every hospital should formulate its own charter to clarify its nature, direction, source of funds, and rights and liabilities of its employees.

The decision-making mechanism should also be improved, with hospital directors responsible for all matters related to medical care, education, scientific research and administration, while decisions should be made through work meetings.

In addition, the management of medical care safety and human resources should be improved with better finance, assets management, and performance assessment in place.

Talent training and scientific research are also highlighted in the guideline to raise competitiveness and treatment at hospitals.

According to the guideline, governments should exercise power in governance, development, key decision-making, assets, and other major matters, while allowing hospitals to decide their organization structure, recruitment and other operational affairs.

Governments should also enhance supervision on medical care quality, fees, prescription drugs and illegal behaviors.

Meanwhile, hospitals must enhance their self-discipline, and release information on quality, safety, pricing, financial status, performance assessment and other key matters for public supervision.
More and more overseas innovators are coming to China to realize their dreams as mass entrepreneurship and innovation become national strategies under the support of Premier Li Keqiang.

The Economist reported that Shenzhen in South Chinas Guangdong province is attracting global entrepreneurs to make new and innovative products.

Innovation and invention are turning the former base of copycats and the Pearl River Delta into a region of advanced manufacturing clusters.

China is promoting Internet Plus, a policy open for the world, Premier Li said during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2017, also known as Summer Davos, in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian on June 28.

Premier Lis words were considered a strong signal to the nation to welcome more foreign investors.

More and more foreigners saw business opportunities in China flourish with Internet Plus and upgraded consumption, while the countrys favorable environment for innovation and entrepreneurship facilitates their dreams.

Citing Shenzhen as an example, The Economist also pointed out that China is embracing open innovation and provides affordable solutions for all instead of trying to cover them up.

According to analysis, Chinas innovative ecosystem, a combination of policy support and a complete industrial chain, has outpaced many countries.

GGV Capitals Jenny Lee said in Shenzhen it only took half a year for hardware startups to transform an idea into products, while in the US the course usually lasts two years.

The already frenetic pace of Chinese innovation is speeding up further, The Economist said in an article. Many multinationals have a listening post in the city to stay close to the latest trends.

Shenzhen has become the global hub of innovation in smart manufacturing, favored by makers of all stripes.

Hans Uszkoreit, a professor with the European Academy of Science, said as the Chinese government and Chinas industries are proactively promoting artificial intelligence and application of big data, coming to China to start a business will be the best opportunity to turn his research results into uses.

As Premier Li said, Chinas innovation and entrepreneurship movement is open to the world.

We should draw experiences and attract more foreign enterprises coming to China with capital, technologies and talents, to cooperate with each other for mutual benefits, he said.
Jul 26, 2017, 3:49pm ET

Judge allows Waymo to question Levandowski in Uber trial

The judge overseeing the case has warned against \"potential abuse\" by Waymo, knowing that the former Google engineer will likely take the Fifth.

Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski could be cross-examined in Waymo's ongoing lawsuit against Uber.

Levandowski is the central figure in the dispute, accused of stealing thousands of proprietary design files from Google and recreating the same technology after being hired by Uber.

The engineer so far has asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, hindering the discovery process ahead of a trial and leading to his dismissal from Uber for failing to cooperate in the company's internal investigation.

District Judge William Alsup will allow Levandowski to be called to the stand, but he has warned against "potential abuse, mainly by Waymo" if attorneys focus on "argumentative" questions knowing that he will take the Fifth, according to quotes posted by TechCrunch.

To help maintain decorum in the trial proceedings, Alsup has demanded that any questions be submitted for review ahead of the trial.

Lawyers for both sides are reportedly still bickering over discovery issues and depositions in the weeks ahead of the early-October trial date.
UPDATE: Defiant Allentown mayor: I'm innocent and I'm not leaving

Federal authorities revealed Wednesday five people are facing charges in connection with pay-to-play schemes in Allentown and Reading.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, former Reading Mayor Spencer Vaughn, consultant James Hickey, attorney Scott Allinson of the Norris McLaughlin law firm in Allentown, and Rebecca Acosta were named in indictments unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District.

Hickey owns the lobbying business Sovereign Enterprise and previously served as administration director under former Northampton County Executive Glenn Reibman.

Acotsa was president of the Reading School District Board of Directors, and at the time of the allegations in 2015 was running for a district judge seat.

Pawlowski, Allinson and Hickey face multiple charges of bribery, extortion, mail fraud, wire fraud and lying to the FBI in the Allentown case. Hickey is also charged with Vaughn and Acosta in the Reading case.

Currently seeking a fourth term in office, after winning the Democratic nomination in May, Pawlowski has said he will not resign. He repeated that stance and maintained his innocence at a Wednesday afternoon news conference outside his city home.

"I want to make it clear to everyone -- I have done nothing wrong," Pawlowski said. "In no way, shape or form was city hall ever for sale."

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen said the investigation found "enormous levels of corruption in the city of Allentown."

Pawlowski and others schemed to get contributions and benefits as they awarded contracts for street lights, collecting delinquent taxes, cyber security and city pools, Lappen said.

The city had a system for awarding contracts, but "Pawlowski and his co-conspirators would not allow that legitimate system to run its course," Lappen said. "They rigged the system"

The acts victimized the community and victimized legitimate businesses trying to do business with the city, Lappen said.

Investigators allege Pawlowski used Hickey and Mike Fleck to arrange thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, as well as tickets to a Philadelphia Eagles playoff game, in exchange for city business and contracts.

Fleck, a former Easton city councilman, provided consulting services to Pawlowski and Spencer; he was Spencer's campaign manager in 2011 and handled Pawlowski's campaigns for mayor, governor and senator.

Prosecutors said the mayors used Fleck and his employees to communicate "to certain donors that they were expected to provide items of value, including campaign contributions, in return for certain past or prospective official actions in Reading and Allentown."

Fleck also reportedly wore a wire and secretly recorded clients of his H Street Strategies.

Pawlowski seemed to be aware he was being recorded, according to prosecutors. He allegedly had his office "swept" for recording devices, and advised his campaign office to do the same.

Prosecutors said the kickback scheme started in the fall of 2013, when Pawlowski was running for Pennsylvania governor and the city was looking to award its delinquent tax collecting contract.

Northeast Revenue Service was awarded the contract, but prosecutors allege that occurred after donations were made to the political action committee the Pennsylvania Liberty Fund, which then made donations to Friends of Pawlowski.

On Jan. 4, 2014, Pawlowski, an employee of Fleck's and a company official ate at Del Frisco's restaurant and then went to the Eagles game against the Saints.

Then-Finance Director Garret Strathearn falsified paperwork to give the false impression that a donor, referred to as "the Partnership," earned the collection contract.

Strathearn pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and is awaiting sentencing.

Hickey as an alleged go-between

Hickey is accused of working to award a $3 million city streetlight contract to Pawlowski's pick -- The Efficiency Network. Prosecutors said an employee of Fleck's also worked on awarding the contract, identified only as S.R. in the indictment. Pawlowski's attorney said the employee is Sam Ruchlewicz.

Hickey referred questions about the allegations to his attorney, Jim Polyak.

"Jim's not guilty of the crimes with which he's been charged. We expect the case to be resolved at trial," Polyak said.

The Efficiency Network had employees who repeatedly donated money to Pawlowski's political action committee, and Hickey allegedly arranged "a stream of campaign contributions" to Pawlowski.

The contract was so assured, Hickey reportedly told someone "the cake is already baked" before the contract was formally awarded.

Prosecutors previously said then-Managing Director Francis Dougherty also worked directly to award the street lights contract to Pawlowski's pick.

Dougherty has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with the street light contract, and is awaiting sentencing.

Hickey acted as a go-between with Dougherty and Patrick Regan, a vice president with The Efficiency Network at the time of the alleged incidents, to give Dougherty a "degree of separation," prosecutors said in the indictment.

That allegedly included passing Regan's work on the city's request for qualifications and request for proposals to Dougherty, and then giving information from Dougherty to the company.

Regan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and is also awaiting sentencing. He no longer works for The Efficiency Network.

In October 2014, Hickey reportedly emailed Regan and advised him to attend a fundraiser and contribute money to Pawlowski. What followed was thousands of dollars in donations to the Friends of Ed Pawlowski.

Seven months later, Pawlowski allegedly told Fleck he wanted more money from Hickey -- $50,000 -- once the street lights contract was done, but that he did not want the money directly from Hickey.

Money, money and more money

The indictment details the alleged back-and-forth between Pawlowski and Allinson over donations and city contracts.

Between 2006 and 2014, the Norris McLaughlin law firm received over $1 million in legal fees from the City of Allentown.

In an emailed statement, the firm said it was cooperating with the investigation.

"A few of our attorneys contributed to Mayor Pawlowski's campaigns, as well as to other political candidates, and they did so without ever asking for, expecting, or receiving anything in return. Given our respected standing in the community, this should surprise no one. Our clients and friends know that we would not tolerate, allow, or participate in any pay-to-play scheme," the statement read.

"The firm has not engaged in any illegal, improper, or unethical conduct. We are extremely disappointed that the U.S. Attorney's Office has chosen to include Mr. Allinson in the indictment," the statement went on to say.

Between February 2012 and October 2013, Allinson donated a total of $1,350 to Friends of Pawlowski.

In December 2014, prosecutors allege Allinson told Pawlowski he couldn't ask co-workers for donations for the mayor because they weren't getting enough work from the city.

"But the well is completely dry right now and so I'm just talking our dialect of English that, you know, we've been unbelievably supportive in the past and now, you know, the work's going everywhere but, but to our shop . . . This is a short term fixable issue," Allinson reportedly told Pawlowski.

By the next month, Pawlowski allegedly said he would continue to give lots of work to Allinson and the firm, but that he needed Allinson to be a fundraiser for him.

That included a reported request for $12,500 from Allinson. Fleck told the mayor he was going to "beat the s**t" out of Allinson to get the money.

Donations from Allinson followed, and by March of 2015, Allinson told Fleck he would let a firm partner know they needed to "cobble some money together" because of the work they were getting from the City of Allentown.

It "isn't like we are being hired because we are good guys. It's not the way this s**t works," Allinson reportedly said.

By May of 2015, Pawlowski got a $25,000 donation after meeting with Allinson and another member of the law firm, prosecutors said. By June, the firm donated $20,000 to Pawlowski 2016, federal authorities said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com

Don't Edit

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski takes part in a swearing-in and badge-pinning ceremony for city police Feb. 19, 2015, at Allentown City Hall. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Don't Edit

The plea deals began within months of an FBI raid on Allentown City Hall as part of a pay-to-play probe into city contract practices.

But it would be more than two years until city Mayor Ed Pawlowski, long implicated in the investigation, would be indicted.

That all changes this week. Word surfaced Tuesday that the third-term Democrat faces indictments set to be unsealed Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Here is a look back at how we got here.

Don't Edit

July 2, 2015

FBI search Allentown City Hall as part of contract review probe

Agents arrived late in the morning and spent several hours at the government facility on Hamilton Street, serving a warrant seeking documents dating to 2005. "We understand this has something to do with the city's contract review process," said Susan Ellis Wild, six months into her position as city solicitor.

Don't Edit

July 6, 2015

Pawlowski suspends Senate bid amid federal probe

Pawlowski suspended his bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in 2016. This race was central to the pay-to-play scheme, prosecutors say, claiming Pawlowski directed consultants to raise campaign contributions from businesses that profited from city contracts and that sought preferential treatment from the city.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Sept. 10, 2015

Developer details pay-to-play with Allentown's mayor

Lehigh Valley developer Ramzi Haddad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. He was on the list of vendors sought by the FBI, and he allegedly described to investigators donations made to "Public Official No. 3," who was unnamed but who was identified as Pawlowski, in exchange for preferential treatment in Allentown.

Don't Edit

Allentown City Council is seen Sept. 10, 2015. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Don't Edit

Nov. 30, 2015

Ex-assistant city solicitor admits pay-to-play role

Dale Wiles, who resigned earlier in the month, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with awarding an Allentown contract to collect delinquent real estate taxes.

Don't Edit

Jan. 11, 2016

Former city finance director pleads

Garret Strathearn, Allentown's former finance director, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, prosecutors announced.

Don't Edit

Jan. 14, 2016

Guilty plea for former Allentown controller

Elected to a second term in November 2015, Mary Ellen Koval had resigned suddenly a week prior. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in what her attorney called an effort to help Allentown in "moving past this whole mess."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Jan. 20, 2016

City council calls for Pawlowski to resign

"The FBI did not come here on a witch hunt," Councilman and former city police official Daryl Hendricks said during the meeting, which drew residents to the microphone both in support of Pawlowski and agreement with council. "Innocent people do not plead guilty. ... There is no doubt in my mind that our mayor, Ed Pawlowski, will be indicted."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

April 21, 2016

Mike Fleck pleads guilty in pay-to-play schemes

Former Easton City Council member and mayoral candidate-turned-political consultant Mike Fleck pleaded guilty to two federal charges in the investigation into bribery and extortion used to raise campaign funds in Allentown and Reading. He and his company had provided consulting services to Pawlowski and Reading Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer.

Don't Edit

April 28, 2016

Engineering contractor admits guilt

Matthew McTish, president of the engineering firm McTish, Kenkel & Associates that was named in the FBI's subpoena, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. McTish said that under pressure from the mayors and their staffers, he agreed to raise thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in order to be considered for municipal contracts in Allentown and Reading.

Don't Edit

Francis Dougherty, right, sits alongside Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski during his confirmation hearing as managing director in February 2012 in city hall. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

March 22, 2017

Pawlowski's former right-hand man admits role in kickback scheme

Ex-Allentown Managing Director Francis Dougherty pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a $3 million street light contract with the city. As part of the plea, the former high-ranking official agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation and, if necessary, testify.

Don't Edit

May 16, 2017

Pawlowski wins Democratic primary election

The incumbent shook off the baggage of the ongoing investigation and field of six challengers in his bid for a fourth term as mayor. He faces Republican candidate Nat Hyman in the Nov. 7 general election.

Don't Edit

June 21, 2017

More guilty pleas in Allentown, Reading pay-to-play investigation

Two more people pleaded guilty in the Allentown and Reading investigations into public officials taking bribes and kickbacks via campaign contributions in exchange for city contracts. Mark Neisser, an executive with New Jersey engineering firm T&M Associates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. Patrick Regan, a vice president with The Efficiency Network, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in relation to Allentown's $3 million street light contract.

Don't Edit

June 22, 2017

City council overrides Pawlowski's veto on mayoral term limits

Council voted without dissent to put a referendum before voters in November on limiting the Allentown mayor to two terms, bucking Pawlowski's veto of the proposal.

Don't Edit

July 25, 2017

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski finally indicted

Pawlowski was notified he has been indicted, with the indictments under seal, defense attorney Jack McMahon said. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced a news conference for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Philadelphia. The topic: "Announcement of charges in matters concerning Lehigh and Berks counties."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A New York City man admitted to possessing 10 ounces of cocaine, valued at $26,000, that was found during a traffic stop on Interstate 78, according to police.

Earl A. Berry (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Earl A. Berry, 37, of the Bronx, was driving 78 mph in a 65 mph zone when he was stopped by Pennsylvania State Police about 7:55 p.m. Tuesday on I-78 West in Lower Saucon Township, just west of the Hellertown/Bethlehem interchange, police said.

The trooper observed a small, grocery-type bag tied around a ball-shaped object in the glove compartment, when Berry opened it to retrieve registration and insurance documents, court records say.

A female passenger told police the Ford Explorer belongs to her husband and gave police permission to search it, police said.

The bag contained a taped ball that of cocaine, in addition to a cutting agent and rubber bands commonly used in drug sales, according to police. Berry allegedly told police it was his.

He was arraigned before District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez on a felony charge of drug possession with intent to deliver, in addition to misdemeanor drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia and a summary speeding charge.

He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $500,000 bail and faces a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled Aug. 9 before District Judge Anthony Rapp Jr.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Big city residents can rely on finding a local market that they can pop in for a few staples and a bite to eat.

But most Bethlehem neighborhoods have lost that charming convenience.

Historic District resident Genevieve Marcon is hoping to change that.

Before moving to Bethlehem, she lived in Philly and New York City, where she depended her neighborhood market.

"That is something that I really miss living here," Marcon said. "I'm excited we'll be able to create that."

Next spring, Marcon plans to open the Church Street Market at the corner of Church and New streets in the former Church Street Antiques storefront, 1 E. Church St.

"It is something the neighborhood needs," Marcon said Tuesday.

She bought the building from Sam Guttman, who operated the antiques store, in 2016. The Warren Salon currently occupies the space, but its moving to Broad Street in December.

Last week, the Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board granted Marcon a special exception to convert the space from the salon, a nonconforming use, to the cafe and market, another nonconforming use. The building sits in a residential district.

Neighborhood residents turned out to speak in support of the project, she said.

"We have coffee shops and places to pick up a sandwich or breakfast, but no place to get any grocery items or prepared foods," Marcon said. "I think this will be a unique thing for the neighborhood."

The market will be open Tuesday through Saturday. Marcon has approval to operate from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., but she's not sure if she'll close at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m.

Marcon has a built-in customer base.

The cafe sits just across from Bethlehem's City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library. And in the mornings and afternoons Moravian Academy parents' cars snake around the block waiting to pick up their children.

She plans to offer breakfast and lunch serving whole foods with a gourmet twist. The menu will highlight the makers of the Lehigh Valley, like bread and pastries from The Wayfare Baker, local cheese and produce from local farmers, Marcon said. She will also offer catering.

"Simple, basic food," Marcon said. "Good for you food."

Counters will be installed along the large windows fronting on Church and New Streets. A commercial kitchen will be added along with a display counter for all of the food. There will be a refrigerator case and shelving for the grocery staples as well.

The market will be stocked with pantry staples and a small selection of in-season produce, cheeses, breads, eggs, butters and yogurts. She expects the products to change based on customer feedback -- if a lot of people request it she will offer it.

"We are not going to be a substitute for going to the grocery store, but hopefully a place you could come in and pick up a prepared meal or pick up a few things to prepare a meal at home," Marcon explained.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A 32-year-old Allentown man admitted to arranging sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

In reality, Michael Andrews was sending messages to an undercover agent. Andews was arrested in September when he tried to meet the "girl" in Upper Macungie Township.

On Tuesday, Andrews pleaded guilty to unlawful contact with a minor and attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Andrews is scheduled to be sentenced in October. Under his plea deal, his sentence will be in the state's standard range guidelines, 54 months to six years, according to prosecutors.

Andrews, of the 2100 block of South Lumber Street, remains in county jail in lieu of $150,000 bail until he is sentenced.

Andrews allegedly posted an ad on Craigslist with the title "looking to give a girl oral - m4w (Whitehall)."

A special agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office responded on Aug. 26 as a 13-year-old girl named Marisa. The "girl" immediately disclosed her age to Andrews, according to transcripts of the conversations.

Andrews initially told the girl she was too young, "gotta be at least 18" and "You should be careful meeting ppl online can be dangerous dear."

After the girl stated she was using a Google voice account and her parents wouldn't see the texts, Andrews reportedly wrote, "We will jus be friends for now" and later emailed a picture of his face.

By Aug. 30, Andrews was texting the girl graphic descriptions of what he would "teach" her, court records show.

Andrews said he initially didn't want to talk to "Marisa" due to her age, but continued talking with her even though he knew she was 13, prosecutors said.

"Andrews stated if he had met the child, he would have had sex with the child," court records state.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Lehigh County is among 12 counties in Pennsylvania chosen for a pilot program offering a new way to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs, particularly dangerous opioid painkillers.

The free Deterra Drug Deactivation pouches can dissolve up to 45 unwanted pills with a carbon-based insert that is activated with warm water.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Wednesday visited the Giant Pharmacy in Coplay to introduce the pouches, which pharmacy manager Brian Faenza demonstrated.

Four out of five heroin addicts get their start with abuse of prescription drugs, Shapiro said, and 70 percent of prescription drug abusers say they obtain them from a friend or relative or find them abandoned and unused inside a medicine cabinet.

"I want to make very clear that this is my top priority as your attorney general, battling the heroin and opioid epidemic," Shapiro said. "And we have to deal with this on multiple fronts. ...

"But listen, I'm the first one to tell you, as the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis, that we have got to deal with this in a multidisciplinary way."

Lehigh County is home to 44 pharmacies that will offer the pouches, among 278 statewide. They are in addition to drug take-back boxes available in police departments and other locations where residents can safely get rid of prescriptions.

State law enforcement officials chose the 12 counties based on heroin and opioid overdose death rates, opioid prescriptions and the availability of these drug collection boxes, Shapiro said.

"So we're seeing a high number of overdose deaths here in Lehigh County, we're seeing a high number of opioid prescriptions given out and we're seeing not enough of these drug drop boxes available to people within a reasonable ride from their home," Shapiro said.

Data being tracked on their use could result in more counties receiving the pouches.

The state ordered 300,000 of the pouches at a cost of just under $1 million, paid for out of fines on impaired driving and drug violations, Shapiro said.

Drug take-back initiatives collected 26 tons of prescription drugs last year in Pennsylvania and 22 tons so far this year, Shapiro said. Overdose deaths, meanwhile, reached 4,642 last year statewide, including more than 115 in Lehigh County, for a rate of 13 Pennsylvanians a day.

That makes heroin and opioid overdoses Pennsylvania's No. 1 cause of accidental death, ranking behind only California and Ohio as the hardest-hit states in the nation, the attorney general said.

Starting Aug. 1, the Deterra pouches will be given to anyone who fills a prescription for a Schedule II narcotic, such as Percocet, oxycodone and fentanyl.

"And if you're not given a Schedule II narcotic but you still want to dispose of the medicines in your cabinet, simply ask the pharmacist behind the desk for a pouch and they will give one to you," Shapiro said.

Designed to be thrown in the trash once used, the pouches are an environmentally preferred means of disposing of unwanted drugs compared to simply flushing pills down the toilet and introducing them to Pennsylvania's waterways, Shapiro said.

"Listen, we are tackling this fight on every street corner, in the boardrooms of pharmaceutical companies, in doctors' offices, on every single front," he said. "But we cannot win this fight without you. We need you to join us in this fight because this is a fight we cannot afford to lose.

"And so we're asking people to take some personal responsibility when they get their prescriptions. We need you to join this fight and dispose of your unused prescription drugs. We need you to join this fight and help us reverse these dangerous trends that exist here in Pennsylvania and help us win this battle."

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A man endured a sword attack before he shot his adult son Tuesday afternoon in Montgomery County, neighbors tell news organizations.

Officials confirmed to WFMZ that Joseph Lee shot Andrew Lee "multiple times" after an argument in Pottstown. Andrew Lee was in critical condition in a local hospital, Channel 69 said.

Joseph Lee suffered a cut hand, police told WFMZ, but wouldn't confirm how the injury happened.

The Pottstown Mercury, citing neighbors, reported Joseph Lee was wounded by a katana sword, a traditional Japanese weapon.

Neighbors told the Mercury that Joseph Lee said, "I just shot my son. I'm trying to see if my son is all right."

The men "fought constantly ... over the past few months," the Mercury said.

Both news organizations said police regularly were at the home in the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue.

"You're just scared," neighbor Michelle Moriarty told the Mercury. "You're always on edge. The person next to you is unhinged and they have a very large amount of weapons in the house."

The incident remains under investigation and no charges had been filed as of early Wednesday morning, WFMZ said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Dean Chambers

As Pennsylvania considers following the leads of New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware in legalizing state-regulated gambling on the internet, U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Lehigh Valley, is expected to push an internet gambling ban again soon in Congress. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has urged Congress and President Trump not to ban internet gambling.

A resolution passed earlier this year in the New Jersey legislature and signed by Christie notes a federal ban on internet gambling would cause the "dismantling (of) the investments that the state and Atlantic City casinos have already made to implement and regulate Internet gaming," and take away "economics and employment opportunities already realized." Federally banning Internet gambling would eliminate millions in revenue for states like New Jersey.

The campaign over the last few years to pass a ban in Congress has been at the behest of billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who views internet gambling as competition for his brick-and-mortar casinos. Adelson, who owns the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, has donated tens of millions to the campaign and super-PACs supporting Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and Congress. In return, several members of Congress have introduced various bills to ban state-regulated internet gambling.

Dent is expected to submit the latest effort to the State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations bill pending in Congress. Many grass-roots citizen organizations, many members of Congress and other elected officials oppose the idea on the basis that states, consistent with the 10th Amendment, should decide whether to legalize regulated internet gambling. The heavy hand of big government should not be used to impose legalized internet gambling or to prohibit it by federal law.

Internet-based gambling has been a source of significant revenue for Atlantic City, where several casinos had closed before the legislature enacted legislation allowing them to get into the business of online gambling. New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada are all seeing substantial tax revenues from legalizing regulated Internet gambling. All of this is threatened by the wishes of Adelson.

The voters elected Dent and others to reform government and represent the interests of the American people. Banning online gambling is a solution to a non-problem that will cost many states a great deal of tax revenue, all for the purposes of granting a crony capitalist benefit to one billionaire, who has donated massive sums of cash to key politicians in Washington.

Congress should stand up for the interests of the American people by defeating, as it already has on several occasions, this latest effort to pass a federal Internet gambling ban.
Reversing an Obama administration policy, President Trump said Wednesday that transgender people will not be permitted to serve in the armed forces in any capacity.

In a series of tweets, Trump said, "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow ... transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

In 2016, then-Defense secretary Ash Carter gave the Pentagon a year to develop procedures for admitting transgender recruits. His successor, Jim Mattis, extended that review period by six months on June 30. He advised that accepting transgender people had to be weighed against the "readiness" and "lethality" demands of the military.

LGBT advocates called the president's decision a "direct attack" on the rights of transgender people, as well as the entire LGBTQ community. The American Civil Liberties Union said it might seek to overturn it in court.

What do you think? Should the military accept transgender people? Are they a potential liability to the nation's defense? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comments section.
Ever get sick of making that painful trip to the portaloo, being both tired and hungover making things than much more distasteful. Ever wish you could be surrounded by the comforts of a bathroom that isn't a crime to humanity?

Well 2017 is your year!

Loowatt are bringing their eco-friendly toilets to the main campsite at Electric Picnic for the very first time.

These multi-award winning loos don't use water or chemicals. Instead, the waste from the toilets will be sent to an industrial composting facility where the waste will be turned into compost.

Loowatt's toilets are clean, futuristic, odour-free, low impact, and they look cool too.

Some of the luxuries you will receive if you book with Loowatt include the highest levels of hygiene and comfort, luxury hand soap and lotion,exclusive makeup area with mirrors, seating, hair straightners, and hair dryers (wristband holders only), hair straighteners and hair dryers for wristband holders only.

Loowatt's core technology is also providing needed sanitation for households in Antananarivo, Madagascar in a pilot project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Early bird tickets are on sale now and will cost 32 per adult or 5 per child.
The people of Portlaoise are fed up with public order crimes, said Judge Catherine Staines, last week vowing to get tough on people who make a nuisance of themselves in public.

Her remarks came as she directed Fiona OCallaghan (39), Patrick Street, Mountmellick, to do some voluntary work in her community as punishment for shouting in the street in an alleged dispute over stolen money.

Inspector Eamonn Curley gave evidence that on July 8 this year, the gardai received a 999 call to attend at OMoore Place, Portlaoise. There were around 50 people in the area, including children, and the accused was sitting in a parked vehicle shouting out the window at another person, trading insults.

She then got out of the car and attempted to run at the person, but the gardai tried to hold her back. She became abusive towards the gardai and was arrested.

She had 42 previous convictions.

Defence, Ms Josephine Fitzpatrick said her client was not proud of her actions.

On the day, she had been travelling with her friend and gave a lift to a third party, and when that party got out of the car it was discovered that 140 was missing.

Ms Fitzpatrick said that this behaviour was out of character for the accused. The accused previously had drug difficulties but is now on 95ml of methadone.

Defence went on to say that the accused has signed up to do a course in social studies to improve herself.

The accused had done community service before and would be willing to do more, said Ms Fitzpatrick.

Said Judge Catherine Staines to the accused: How do you think the people in Portlaoise feel, if theyre out for a walk or to go to the shop and they have to hear you roaring and shouting?

Replied the accused: Its not acceptable and I do apologise for how I acted.

Judge Catherine Staines asked the probation officer, Ms Ann Walsh, whether the accused would be suitable for community service, but Ms Walsh replied she would not be due to the level of methadone she is on.

Judge Staines then suggested that the accused do some form of voluntary work, perhaps with the local Tidy Towns group.

Ms Fitzpatrick said her client would be willing.

Judge Staines said she had been considering a one-month prison sentence, as she had no doubt that the people of Portlaoise are fed up with public order offences of this nature. She said that she will be taking a serious view of such offences from now on.

If shes studying social studies she can study how to put something back into her community, said Judge Staines.

The judge adjourned the matter to October 12, telling the accused to complete at least 50 hours' voluntary work for her community.
Arrests are on the cards following three weeks of an extensive 24-hour Garda protection operation for senior staff in Portlaoise Prison.

The Leinster Express understands that senior members of staff at the prison have been under protection following a number of threatening incidents involving a nationally known gang from the south-west.

It is understood that five members of staff are involved, and a number of these are from Laois.

Two incidents of threatening behaviour have occurred on the private property of senior prison staff, with one of these incidents taking place in Laois.

It is understood that the threats are a result of a crackdown on contraband in Portlaoise Prison.

During a search, phones and other items are believed to have been seized.

This resulted in the transfer of a number of prisoners out of Portlaoise Prison.

It is understood that Portlaoise Gardai have made substantial progress in their investigations and are following a definite line of enquiry.

The Irish Prison Service and the Garda Press Office declined to comment.
First class court accommodation is an important part of providing an excellent courts system, according the Portlaoise-based TD and Government Minister Charlie Flanagan.

The Minister for Justice and Equality did not refer to Portlaoise Courthouse or its shortcomings on being presented with the Courts Service Annual Report, 2016. However, the Laois TD looked forward to improvements in the courts infrastructure.

I was a solicitor in practise in Portlaoise for many years, so I know first-hand the importance of the Courts and the Courts Service to the State and I am delighted with the significant improvements happening across the courts system.

"The Government is committed to providing for an excellent courts system. The provision of first class court accommodation and resources is an important part of achieving this goal," he said.

Minister Flanagan said four new courthouses are being constructed around the country and three courthouses are being refurbished and extended. Earlier this month he opened the new Drogheda Courthouse.

The Fine Gael TD said he looked forward to the completion Letterkenny, Limerick, Wexford, Cork, Mullingar and Waterford courts.

The court service has acknowledged the fact that the courthouse in Portlaoise is no longer fit for purpose. Its officials told Laois Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming recently that a site had been earmarked behind Laois County Council in Portlaoise.

However, this site is not yet accessible by road and includes large electricity pylons carrying power cables which would have to be diverted or put underground.

The existing court on Main St dates back to the 1800s. While it was expensively upgraded in the past 20 years, it is no longer deemed suitable for criminal of civil court cases. Some have also said it has damaged business on the town's Main Street.

Both the District and Circuit Courts sit in Portlaoise dealing with criminal, civial and family law cases. The building can accomodate just two sittings and has only recently had secure jail cells added.

Sometimes both court chambers ave been packed. Public order is a frequent problem.
A High Court judge has urged parties involved in a row over damage allegedly caused to houses located near the site of the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin to consider going to mediation.

The comments were made by Mr Justice Paul Gilligan after proceedings were taken by several residents from the O'Reilly Avenue, Ceannt Fort, and Mount Brown areas against the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and BAM Civil Limited, the firm which is building the hospital and whose headquarters is in Kill, Co Kildare, came before the court.

The residents, who live close to St. James Hospital in Dublin where the new 1bn children's hospital is being constructed, claim their homes have been damaged as a result of certain works being carried out by the defendants.

They are seeking orders including an injunction preventing works being done on the site until steps are taken to remediate and protect houses adjoining the construction site from sustaining any further damage.

Today, Wednesday, July 26, Shane Murphy SC for BAM told the court that if an injunction is granted it could potentially result in the cessation of all construction works on the site of the new hospital.

Jarlath Fitzsimons SC for the development board said that his side was prepared to mediate the dispute rather than fight the injunction application before the court.

John Rogers SC for the residents denied that the residents are seeking orders that would stop all works on the site.

His clients do not want the children's hospital project held up. What they are seeking is that steps be taken by the defendants to protect his client's properties from sustaining any further damage, counsel said.

There was clear evidence that his clients properties have already suffered "very significant damage" caused the construction work already done on the site. Counsel added his clients welcomed any offer to mediate the dispute.

However, the difficultly is that the defendants wished to continue with works close to their properties before carrying out the remedial works the residents engineering expert says is necessary to protect their properties.

In the circumstances, counsel said his clients want to proceed with their application for an injunction.

Mr Justice Gilligan adjourned the matter to Friday morning, and told the sides that a judge would be made available to hear the application.The judge said that while he was not expressing a view on the application, the National Children's Hospital was one of the biggest projects ever undertaken in the city of Dublin.

The judge said he did have sympathy for anyone whose homes have been damaged and the "difficult position" the residents found themselves in.

However the granting of an injunction in this case would, the judge said, would have "very serious repercussions." He asked that the defendants offer of mediating the dispute be considered by the residents in advance of Friday's hearing.
A 73-year-old woman charged with running a brothel in Kildare has told a court that she needed money to pay for for a kidney for her son.

At Naas District Court today (July 26), Terezinha Aparecida de Jesus, with an address given as 8 Basin Street, Naas, pleaded guilty to allowing the premises at 8 Basin Street, Naas, to be used as a brothel on November 9, 2016.

After hearing details of the case, Judge Desmond Zaidan applied the Probation Act on the basis that she was going back to her native Brazil.

The woman, who was assisted and comforted by her Portuguese translator during the hearing, was visibly upset during the case.

When she appeared at an earlier sitting of the court on July 5, the case was adjourned after it emerged that the defence said it would be making an initial legal point. Earlier this year, Gardai asked for more time to clarify some issues and later said that the technical issues involved had now been addressed and the matter could proceed.

When the question of the legal point was raised today, Matthew Byrne, solicitor for Ms de Jesus, said that while there was a legal point to be made, his client had instructed him to plead guilty.

A female Garda told the court that the premises on Basin Street was put under surveillance and there had been a complaint from a member of the public. Gardai visited it on November 9 of last year and it emerged that the defendant was looking for 80 for sex. There was only one female, Ms de Jesus, there at the premises.

Judge Desmond Zaidan asked if people were paying to have sex with a seventy year old woman. It would appear that way, said said the garda, who added that a younger person had been advertised on a website.

She said another younger woman was involved, but was not there at the time of the offence. Gardai found just 80 in cash at the brothel.

The Court was told that Ms de Jesus had arrived in Ireland just three or four days previous to the incident and she had had just one customer. Gardai said Ms de Jesus made a full statement.

Mr Byrne said that Ms de Jesus held a European passport and had been in Ireland before this. He said her 98-year-old mother was extremely ill in Brazil.

Judge Zaidan asked what came over her to do this. Mr Byrne said her 40-year-old son was awaiting a replacement kidney in Brazil and she needed the money.

Ms de Jesus had no previous convictions of any kind. Mr Byrne said she was anxious to return to Brazil. I dont believe she will return to Ireland, he said.

Mr Byrne said his client was extremely embarrassed and the court could see she was upset. He said she was not a woman of great means and he asked the judge not to impose a jail sentence.

The judge asked if her son knew she was in court. Mr Byrne replied: No. Mr Byrne said she was only doing it to save her son.

The court was told that there did not appear to be any criminal involvement.

Judge Zaidan said that some were open to abuse by people running brothels. Gardai said they did not believe that was happening in this case.

Judge Zaidan suggested that she might like to contact the organisation which helps women involved in prostitution. On the basis that she undertook to go back to Brazil, he said he would apply the Probation Act and not convict her. He ordered that the 80 found at the brothel go to the State.

The court was told that the address was no longer being used as a brothel.
One of the big challenges of our time is to provide work for all those who need it, work which is useful, fulfilling and which pays enough to live on. And although the British economy is creating around half a million jobs (net) a year, many of them do not satisfy those simple criterion.

The need for good quality jobs will increase as the population increases and working careers get longer, yet hardly anyone is thinking about where these jobs are to come from. Government departments, unions and think-tanks tend to concentrate on where jobs have been created in the past or predicting where they may come in the future, or on skills training or how to improve conditions for those already in work. The private sector seems to regard jobs as a by-product, a necessary evil in the process of making a profit, and in the public sector the government wants to cut as many jobs as possible to save tax-payers money. No one is actively looking at areas where new and worthwhile jobs can be created and how to do it.

Let me be bold and suggest six sectors where this might be done, in what I call the infinite industries ie where there is no limit to the amount of production that can be done: education, health, energy, environment, sport and the arts.

Not only are these industries infinite, they are labour-intensive, easy on the environment, and they provide the kinds of jobs people really want to dolearn and teach, care for the ill and vulnerable, work out-doors, physical work, creative work.

My plan is for the government to pump-prime jobs in these industries by investing in them much more than it does at present  ending austerity in education and health and subsidising projects in the other areas. Yes, this would mean more taxation and/or more borrowing (and there is plenty of room for both when compared with other European countries) but it would be a better investment in our future than the current industrial policy of subsidies to the car industry and building warships. In the long-run, of course, more people would be in employment, paying taxes and coming off welfare.

Traditional economists will tell you that such a policy would lead to a drastic fall in productivity and growth. This is probably true, as far as it goes, but actually, these two measures are false pictures of our economy, more suited to a time when Britain was a manufacturing country. Now, manufacturing only accounts for 10 per cent of the economy, 80 per cent of our GDP comes from services and how can you measure productivity and growth in education or health ?

Finally, I think Liberal Democrats are well placed to adopt this job-creation agenda. We believe in a real mixed economy, a 50/50 partnership between the public and private sectors. We believe in decentralisation, and local initiatives by councils or voluntary organisations are perhaps best able to develop job creation projects. And we believe each individual has the right to a decent job which fulfils his or her potential, which pays enough to buy a home and raise a family and which brings a sense of satisfaction and even happiness.

For full details e-mail me on [email protected] for a copy of my pamphlet Good Work  How to create worthwhile jobs.

* John Knox is a member of Edinburgh South Liberal Democrats, a retired journalist and a recent council candidate.
A GOVERNMENT scheme that aims to repair vacant houses in Limerick will only cover a tiny fraction of the empty units lying idle across the city and county, the Leader has learned.

A national 32m repair and lease scheme will work on an estimated 30 units across the city and county  just 0.3% of the 8,463 vacant houses in Limerick.

That is according to new figures released by the Department of Housing.

Solidarity councillor Cian Prendiville said that the scheme is barely scratching the surface.

It seems to be more about ticking the boxes so the government can say they tried, rather than actually addressing the problem.

There are 600 vacant houses in the old Georgian Quarter of the city centre, and many of these could be turned into three or four apartments.

"If the Government are serious about tackling vacant sites they should launch a new regeneration programme, targeting those vacant units. By bringing them into public ownership and developing them as quality, affordable and social housing to rent or buy we could reinvigorate the city centre, protect our heritage, whilst also helping to address the housing crisis, he stated.

A spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said that it has two initiatives for tackling the issue; the repair and lease scheme, and the buy and renew scheme.

The repair and lease scheme offers owners of vacant property up to 40,000 to refurbish the house, with the aim of leasing it to the local authority, and is then provided to those in need.

The latter initiative allows the council to purchase the property, refurbish it, and enable it for social housing. The council is encouraging interested property owners to come forward.

The level of response has been positive.

There is scope to seek approval to increase the number of units should there be sufficient demand for this scheme. There will be a mobilisation period with the scheme given the extent of refurbishment required in many cases.
FUNDING issues could spell the end of a helpline supporting LGBT people across Ireland, local Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins has warned.

Money necessary to allow this helpline to continue looks set to dry up within five days from now, and Mr Collins has called for this cashflow to continue.

Based in Dublin, the annual budget of the LGBT helpline is around 132,000.

Of this, 88,000 comes from Pobal with the balance from the HSE.

Mr Collins says if just 22,000 is allocated to the helpline, it will allow it breathing space to continue operating beyond next week and potentially apply for additional funding.

Mr Collins wants the government to set aside this sum to save the helpline, which supports members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community across Ireland.

He said: The Government needs to make this a reality. The LGBT Helpline has been undertaking stellar work for many years. It has provided an invaluable service to the LGBT community and has worked to promote inclusion.

"It has recently come to my attention that the Helpline is facing closure due to problems it is experiencing in securing funding. This is a deeply unfortunate situation and I believe the Government needs to step in to allow the service to continue to operate in the months ahead.

Mr Collins added: The LGBT Helpline is an important service and every effort should be made to allow it to continue operating. The Government needs to do the decent thing and intervene in this situation.

The LGBT helpline operates between Monday and Wednesday from 6.30pm to 9pm, Thursdays until 10pm, and Fridays from 4pm until 9pm.

At weekends, it operates between 4pm and 6pm.

It can be contacted at 1890 929 539 for more.
THE funeral takes places this Friday of the pedestrian who died after he was struck by a car near his home in the city earlier this week

Father-of-one Michael McNamara (40) from Monabraher Road, Ballynanty, died from injuries he sustained after he was struck by a dark-coloured BMW at around 11.30pm on Sunday night.

Mr McNamara, who was originally from Moyross, was initially treated by paramedics at the scene but was pronounced dead at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) where a post mortem was carried out.

The single vehicle accident happened at Kileely Road near its junction with Cregan Avenue  almost directly outside St Lelias Church.

Mr McNamara was returning home from his brothers home when the collision happened.

He was with me here in the house earlier on the night, playing darts. He went away, and then I was called down to the road by a neighbour. I went down there and he was lying on the ground, Christy McNamara told the Irish Sun. He had a heart of gold, you couldnt meet nicer, he added.

A woman who knew Mr McNamara was visibly upset when she arrived at the scene of the accident on Monday.

All I know is he got knocked down. I cant believe it. I cannot believe it, Its very sad, he was a lovely person to tell you the truth, its shocking he was such a nice person, she said.

According to gardai, the driver of the 07 MO-registered BMW, whose aged in his 20s, was not physically injured.

Forensic collision investigators carried out examinations at the scene of the collision for several hours on Monday morning before the car was removed to a secure compound where it will be technically examined.

Mr McNamaras funeral Mass will take place at St Lelias Church, Ballynanty at 11am on Friday.

He is survived by his parents Pauline and Paddy; daughter Kellie; sisters Denise and Tanya and brothers Christy and Darren.

Gardai at Mayorstone Park station are investigating the circumstances of Sunday's accident.
LESS than 2% of Limericks working population cycles to work, according to new Census figures recently published by the Central Statistics Office.

The statistics show that of Limericks 76,098-strong labour force, just 1,159  or 1.5%  people cycle to work. The figures show that 7,100 people walk to work, while 1,917 travel via bus, and 140 commute to work by train.

In Limerick city, 2.4% of people cycle to work, less than half of Galway and Corks bike user levels, and a quarter of Dublins. The rate of Limerick city bus users, at 3.95%, is also considerably lower than other Irish cities.

Solidarity councillor Cian Prendiville said that Limerick is lagging behind other cities.

I don't see why Limerick couldnt at least match the numbers using the bus and bike to get to work in Galway in the very short term.

As it stands they are twice as good as we are. With more investment in bus and cycle lanes, and more frequent services I think we could easily double the numbers. Ultimately, we should be striving to match Dublin and the other cities in terms of frequent and reliable public transport, he said.

Cllr Prendiville said that not only does using smarter travel mean less traffic, it also is cheaper, healthier and more environmentally friendly. He said that he has previously proposed that Limerick City and County Council engages with Bus Eireann to organise a car-free day with free public transport into the city.

We need to encourage more people who maybe never take the bus, to give it a go, he said.

More than 48,000 people drive to work.

- For a further breakdown of the Census figures, see the Limerick Leader broadsheet, in shops on Thursday
THE jury in the trial of three men who are charged in connection with two aggravated burglaries in County Limerick more than five years ago has begun its deliberations.

Patrick Roche, aged 52, of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin, Dublin; his son Philip Roche, aged 24, also of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin and Alan Freeman, aged 37, of Pearse Park, Tipperary Town have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary relating to an incident at Sunville House, Pallasgreen on April 16, 2012.

All three also deny falsely imprisoning Gerard Garvey, his wife Ann and three of their four children after entering their family home at around 10pm.

Patrick Roche and Philip Roche have also pleaded not guilty to similar charges relating to an incident at the home of three elderly siblings at Ballyluddy, Pallasgreen on May 31, 2012.

Mr Freeman  a brother-in-law of Patrick Roche  is not charged in connection with that incident.

Over the course of almost five weeks of evidence, the jury of seven men and five women heard from a large number of gardai as well as several civilian witnesses.

The trial also heard evidence from two witnessess who have each been convicted over their involvement in the aggravated burglaries.

Evidence in the trial concluded last week and the jury of seven men and five women began their deliberations shortly before 3pm this Wednesday.

They were sent home for the evening just after 5.30pm and are due to return to court in the morning.

Sending the jurors home, Judge John Hannan told them to relax and enjoy the evening and not to discuss whats going on with anyone.
We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.
Nigeria is adamant that the sailors should be tried in court. The charges against them will be slapped once they reach the country.
Four San Francisco supervisors demanded Wednesday that Sutter Health keep the doors open at its Mission District facility for long-term and acutely sick patients. The nonprofit had planned to close it in October.

The request came at the end of a raucous, at times tearful meeting of the supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee, where scores of doctors, nurses and patient relatives accused Sutter of putting money ahead of the sick and dying.

We want you to go back to your executives and say, Our staff is unified, the supervisors are unified, the Department of Public Health is unified  they all want to keep this unit open, said committee chair Supervisor Hillary Ronen.

And I hope that when we call (another) hearing in September, that thats what well be hearing from your hospital, she said.

The closure of San Franciscos only subacute nursing unit is part of a plan to make way for two new hospitals in Sutters California Pacific Medical Center network  one to replace St. Lukes Hospital in the Mission, which houses the doomed subacute and skilled nursing unit, the other at Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard.

The new St. Lukes campus, renamed Mission Bernal Campus, will open next year, and the building at Van Ness and Geary will follow in 2019. Once they open, Sutter will demolish the old St. Lukes Hospital, hewing to an agreement it negotiated with the city in 2013 to build the new hospital on Van Ness.

That agreement didnt require Sutter to keep any subacute beds in San Francisco.

Both new hospitals are only licensed to have regular beds, which are expected to fill up daily with surgery patients, mothers delivering babies and other people with medical emergencies, said Mary Lanier, chief administrative officer at California Pacific Medical Center.

The beds we will have in the new configuration will be full, Lanier said during Wednesdays meeting.

She said the new hospitals would not have room for subacute beds, which are reserved for people with severe conditions who need long-term care.

There appears to be little demand for those beds in San Francisco. The unit thats shuttering at St. Lukes has 79 beds, 40 of which are for subacute patients. Twenty-four of those subacute beds are filled, with one patient awaiting discharge later this week.

But as San Franciscos population ages, demand for these 24-hour care services is expected to grow. The city will likely need about 2,000 additional skilled nursing beds by 2030, said Colleen Chawla of the citys Department of Public Health.

Nurses and doctors were quick to denounce Sutters plan at the hearing Wednesday, saying it showed little compassion for the people with terminal illnesses who would be shipped off to other counties.

Ronen and fellow Supervisors Jeff Sheehy, Sandra Lee Fewer, and Ahsha Safai  who called the hearing  also had strong criticism for Sutter Health.

I feel like this is a violation of the Hippocratic oath: Do not harm, said Sheehy, who is the only HIV-positive supervisor and a fierce advocate for survivors of the AIDS epidemic.

Every doctor commits to that, Sheehy continued, but is that anywhere in the mission of Sutter?

He and the other supervisors accused the health network of basing its decisions on money. Many of the critically ill patients who need ongoing care are beneficiaries of the states Medi-Cal assistance program, which limits reimbursement rates for hospitals.

Ronen saw Sutters move as a symptom of the overall broken health care system in the U.S.

We are going to fight the efforts of individual hospitals that in name are nonprofit, but actually seem to be for-profit, she said.

Sutter spokeswoman Stacey Wells disagreed, noting that the network is the largest provider of care to Medi-Cal patients in Northern California, a fact we know the supervisors greatly appreciate.

Chawla said Sutters plan to close the facility at St. Lukes reflects a national trend, as hospitals with skilled nursing and subacute beds shut down and shift those patients to other types of facilities that are less expensive to operate.

San Francisco currently has 2,502 skilled nursing beds at various locations. If the unit at St. Lukes closes, the city will no longer have spots for subacute patients, who can still be served at 11 other locations in the Bay Area.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
In the weeks leading up to the tragic deaths in San Antonio of nine immigrants found in a tractor-trailer, Border Patrol agents in Laredo said they'd seen a rise in smuggling attempts using commercial trucking.

This year is on pace to set a record low for illegal immigration, but an activist who tries to prevent migrant deaths said there are still many willing to risk their lives to enter the U.S. He blamed policies that he said failed to address the root causes of illegal immigration for recent deaths.

Border Patrol agents in Laredo have reported an increase in smuggling attempts in tractor-trailers in recent months, starting with the June 19 discovery of 44 people from Mexico and Guatemala after police stopped an 18-wheeler near one of the city's international bridges.

On July 7, agents found 72 people from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador inside a locked trailer in the same part of town. The next day, they found 33 people from Mexico and Guatemala in a trailer stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35. In an incident last week, agents at the checkpoint found 16 people in a locked trailer, according to a news release from the Border Patrol.

READ MORE: 27-year-old Laredo man sent nude photos to underage boy via Snapchat, police say

San Antonio tends to be a pass-through city for immigrants coming up from the border and heading to major cities or regions of the country with industries that tend to attract immigrant labor, such as agriculture and construction, the activist said.

In one of the biggest smuggling tragedies in the country's history, 19 people died in 2003 after being abandoned in a trailer in Victoria. The driver of that truck was sentenced to life in prison, but that was overturned and he was later given a prison term of nearly 34 years.

Agents working at the checkpoint in Falfurrias, on U.S. 281 north of McAllen, said they encountered immigrants hidden in trailers twice in one day in mid-June. On the first occasion, they found 13 immigrants hiding among cargo, and on the second, only an hour later, they found eight people hiding in a locked moving truck.

Government officials have placed blame on the smugglers themselves, who they said often put at risk the lives of people who pay thousands of dollars to be smuggled into the country.

Julian Calderas, former deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio, said the penalties for human smuggling are too low. Most smugglers face a maximum of 10 years in prison, although they usually receive considerably less time under federal sentencing guidelines. They can face up to life in prison if someone is injured or killed.

"I put it on the smugglers," said Calderas, now CEO of consulting firm XFed. "They treat these human beings as a commodity that they just don't care about."

Eddie Canales, the director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, agreed that smugglers have little regard for the immigrants who hire them. He said smugglers often mislead their charges about the risks they face and how much time they might spend packed in a trailer or walking through the scorching South Texas thornscrub.

However, he blamed what he called "death by policy"  the results of U.S. policies that focus on enforcement and not the violence in countries driving people from their homes and the desire for cheap labor here  for the deaths.

RELATED: Teen didn't understand risks of crossing the border illegally, father says

"We create the smuggling industry because we don't have a system that creates safe, orderly and regular migration," he said.

Calderas said deaths as a result of smuggling have been common for decades and only recently have received media attention.

"I think the argument is backwards," Calderas said of those who blame immigration policy for the deaths. "If there was more enforcement and more resources to fight this kind of stuff once they get past the border, we would be able to prevent more things like this. The problem is when you stop them, you arrest them, people don't look at it like you're saving a life. They look at it like you're arresting people who are just coming to work, but you may have saved a life because you don't know what's coming next."

Canales, who does most of his work trying to help migrants who hike around the checkpoint in the brush country near Falfurrias, said he found a body Friday and was contacted last week by the families of seven immigrants who disappeared.

The immigrants found in the truck in San Antonio came up I-35 from Laredo. They most likely were loaded onto a truck at a stash house near Laredo or hiked around the checkpoint, an arduous ordeal that can take days, before being loaded into the trailer. Either way, they would have been exposed to incredibly hot and dangerous conditions, he said.

"There's no vents in those trucks, in those tractor-trailers to let air in," Canales said. "And that's a very, very desperate situation for someone to get into that truck like that. People think it's going to be a short drive to San Antonio."
The Laredo Sector Border Patrol Foreign Operations Branch recently repatriated a Mexican national by turning him over to the custody of Mexican government officials from the Procuraduria General de la Republica.

The Mexican national had an active warrant for kidnapping in his native country and was currently in the United States serving time in jail for human smuggling. He was arrested in July 2016 after he attempted to smuggle eight people into the United States through Laredo.
War is supposed to be hell, but when filmmakers take it as their subject, they often make it look like a kind of heaven, one where men emerge from the muck as biblical angels, rising above their circumstances to fill us with terror and awe. It's one of those subjects that present both artists and audiences with a sharply strung tightrope over a cavernous space. Many excellent moviemakers have tumbled off the edge as they try to depict the grand nature of conflict without allowing visual spectacle to blunt their insights about the horrors of war.

"Dunkirk," Christopher Nolan's film about a daring British effort to evacuate hundreds of thousands of troops stranded on a French beach in the early stages of World War II, is a significant accomplishment by any measure. And it is particularly notable for the way Nolan and his collaborators manage to make the violence of the war work to reinforce their ideas about the nature of conflict, rather than allow their stunning images to undercut their arguments.

War does have an aesthetic quality, of course. I'm working on a long-term project about the Vietnam War, which has meant watching hours of footage of napalm exploding in Vietnamese hamlets and rows of helicopters streaming across the sky. The weird blossoms of flame look like tropical flowers; the helicopters project a sense of order that is, of course, more illusion than reality.

It can be dangerously easy to detach those images from their results, to forget a little girl running down a road covered in burns, or to ignore the muck and blood into which those war machines deposited American soldiers. And Hollywood has often done that. Our action movies are full of luminous but oddly inconsequential explosions. They bristle with the machinery of war. Our heroes always win, and the civilians we see on the ground during fight scenes are intended to stoke our emotions, even though danger generally misses them by a carefully calibrated hair.

The beauty that Nolan and his cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, capture in "Dunkirk" works to very different purposes. Rather than taking us out of the desperate conflict raging on and near the beach, the film's gorgeous images heighten the sense of strangeness, dislocation and fear that dominates the movie.

The opening sequence takes place in the streets of a pretty little city that at first appears unmarked by war, save for its silence and emptiness; a city doesn't feel like a city without people to occupy it. You shouldn't be able to take a break to relieve yourself in the open without someone to yell at you, or to race through your neighbor's back yards without cries of surprise or the barks of excited dogs.

At certain moments, Dunkirk looks like a fabulous destination for a pleasure trip. Nolan and Van Hoytema film the beach where the British forces wait for rescue and the skies where British and German pilots stalk each other in brilliant, at times almost tropical, color. At one point in the movie, I began trying to write all the shades of blue I could spot in my notes. The water seems unusually clear.

But as the planes tilt and whirl through the air, and bombed ships begin to list and sink, these spectacles become menacing. The horizon between sky and sea goes vertical. Inside a doomed ship, water advances from left to right along the screen like an unstoppable wall. The elements that normally tell us to expect sybaritic tropical bliss have become the agents of inexorable doom.

"Dunkirk" even reverses the polarity on the glamour of victory and defeat. Some of that is inherent to the story, which is about little pleasure boats doing what big, sexy military hardware could not. But the film leans into that idea rather than minimize it. It's life preservers that are precious in this movie, not big guns.

Victory looks like pulling cold, shivering men into little boats and giving them tea. Defeat has a luminous quality to it. We see the jet trails that follow downed planes as they head toward the sea, or the pyre a pilot (Tom Hardy) makes of his plane to avoid giving it over to the enemy. That blaze illuminates his stoicism, but also his capture. Defiance may be a partial victory, but its companion is suffering.

"Dunkirk" even manages to make Winston Churchill's June 4, 1940, speech to the House of Commons, by now a hoary cliche, seem fresh. We encounter it when Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), the soldier whose attempts to escape from the beach are a stand-in for the efforts of so many other desperate souls, makes it to safety and reads Churchill's text on board a military train. Churchill's words seem like a rallying cry to those of us who hear them from a safe civilian perch.

The expression on Tommy's face when he glances up after "We shall never surrender" tells another story. Tommy's surprise reminds us what Churchill's speech really means: that Tommy and other young men like him are being asked to go into that same hell all over again.

"Dunkirk" almost could have been a silent movie, and at times, I wish it had been. The film is full of actors with wonderfully expressive faces: Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh can mine infinite reserves of emotion with just a few muscle movements; Hardy proves yet again that he can spend most of a movie with his face covered and still hold your attention; and Whitehead and Cillian Murphy's faces beautifully convey the blankness of exhaustion and the strain of exertion.

The dialogue, by contrast, often lingers in a zone between clunkiness and exposition. I suppose some of it is necessary simply to move things along. But Nolan already took one step in the direction of silence by using text early in the movie to establish the larger circumstances of the film and its three parallel timelines. Just as he showed that using beauty can enhance the terror of a war film rather than minimize it, I wish he'd taken a step further and challenged us to remember that silence can sometimes be more expressive than any spoken words.
The Nationals are hopeful that Stephen Strasburg will make his next scheduled start despite exiting Sundays outing after two innings with pain in his forearm.

The right-hander met with team doctors but did not undergo an MRI exam, Washington manager Dusty Baker said Tuesday. A team spokesman later told reporters that Strasburg was diagnosed with a nerve impingement that is no longer a problem, without providing further details.

The doctor said hes doing fine. Hoping hell progress enough to make the next start, Baker said.

Following Sundays start at Arizona, Strasburg described the problem as slight achiness in his forearm and said the early exit was a precaution.

Strasburg (10-3 with a 3.25 ERA in 20 starts) is scheduled to start Friday at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.

The 28-year-old pitcher had Tommy John surgery in 2010. His more recent injuries include a forearm strain last season.

He said hes feeling good, Baker said. Hes not alarmed, didnt look alarmed.

Shortstop Trea Turner, sidelined since June 30 with a right wrist fracture, was expected to have an X-ray, Baker said. Turner fielded grounders before Tuesdays series opener against the Brewers but did not throw.

Left-hander Enny Romero also left Sundays game with an injury, but Baker said the relievers back spasms subsided.

Injury report: Miami first baseman Justin Bour, who left a game Monday with an oblique strain, was placed on the disabled list. Usually these really arent 10-day things for me, manager Don Mattingly told MLB.com. The average is about 28 days or something like that for a rib cage. I think it would be more along those lines than 10 days. Miami shortstop JT Riddle (biceps tendinitis) also went on the DL. ... The Cardinals placed right-hander Adam Wainwright on the disabled list with back tightness, and St. Louis put outfielder Dexter Fowler on the DL because of a strained left wrist. ... Angels right-hander Alex Meyer, on the DL with shoulder inflammation, underwent an MRI exam that revealed no structural damage.

Briefly: The Brewers reportedly agreed to a deal to acquire reliever Anthony Swarzak from the White Sox for minor-league outfielder Ryan Cordell. Swarzak has a 2.23 ERA in 481/3 innings this season. ... The Rockies recalled pitcher Carlos Estevez from Triple-A Albuquerque and sent pitcher Jairo Diaz to the minors. ... Toronto relievers Jeff Beliveau and Lucas Harrell have cleared waivers and accepted assignments to the minors.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Whataburger fans (read: pretty much everyone in Texas) are going crazy over the burger chain's latest contest.

Three lucky winners will win custom shoes designed by footwear designer, Jake Danklefs. Participants can enter simply by sharing their custom Whataburger order to social media, or their contest website.

WHICH IS BETTER? In-N-Out vs. Whataburger, which would win?

The shoes will feature the completely different looks like the iconic orange and white strips, spicy ketchup, and customization stickers, and will not be available for sale.

Fans are having a field day sharing their unique orders to Whataburger's social media with the #WhataThoseContest hashtag and sharing just how much they want those shoes.

"I need some for when I get married so it can match my tux," said one user.

Another person commented that the spicy ketchup shoes are "lit."

The contest even has some people contemplating their existence, asking questions like "Why do I want these?"

The contest will be taking submissions beginning July 25 through Aug. 6 at midnight.

Take a look through the gallery above to see 10 things you probably didn't know about Texas' favorite burger chain.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

This story ran in the Houston Post on April 2, 1967, just a year after U.S. banks joined together to create the first general purpose credit card. Consumer credit wasn't new - department stores offered charge plates for their customers in the 1920s, Diners Club debuted in 1950 and American Express launched its version in 1958 - but the new bank-issued products in the 1960s hoped to expand the practice of instant credit to well-heeled consumers. Today, about 72 percent of all U.S. adult consumers have at least one credit card.

Bank of the Southwest will begin offering certain qualified Houstonians an immediate line of credit around the world Tuesday when the bank initiates its Executive Credit program.

The banking service in conjunction with American Express Company's bank credit card program, will give card holders world-wide credit of at least $2,000, charge privileges and services of the American Express credit card, A.G. McNeese Jr, Bank of the Southwest board chairman, announced Saturday.

"Executive Credit was designed for the convenience of professional, management and sales people who travel and entertain extensively and who need immediate cash or credit without having to make separate applications each time a loan is needed," McNeese said.

IN 1959, TEXAS National Bank introduced a credit card service called Charge Plan. It was sold by the bank shortly after the bank merged with the National Bank of Commerce.

Under the new Executive Credit Plan, Bank of the Southwest will activate an unsecured loan at any time and in any amount up to the credit limit established when the card was issued.

Card holders can have funds transferred to their checking account or can purchase cash or travelers cheques at any American Express Co office, drawing on their line of established credit, McNeese said.

American Express will continue its regular credit card program, he said. Holders of these cards can apply for the newer Executive card at the Bank of the Southwest without any additional charge. Persons without American Express credit cards can obtain them through an application for Executive Credit.

Executive credit will be established, upon application, to individuals who meet the bank's qualification which include an annual income of $10,000 or more or a personal net worth of $40,000 or more," McNeese said.

Persons using the Executive Credit account will be billed each month by Bank of the Southwest. The statement will include an interest charge calculated at 1 per cent on the average monthly outstanding balance. There are no other charges, McNeese said.

If the American Express card is used, persons holding the Executive Credit card have the option to pay the bill in full or convert the Express statement into a loan against the credit if the bill is more than $100.

The Executive Credit balance will have the protection of Life Insurance which provides for full repayment of any unpaid balance to the bank in the event of death during the term of the loan. The account is also covered with a $100 deductible liability insurance policy which is free.

THE MINIMUM monthly payment on the account is $100 unless, of course, the unpaid balance in less than that amount. Otherwise, a payment of 1-10 of the balance owing after the last advance.

Upon signing an authorization form with the Loan Department of Bank of the Southwest, monthly payments will be automatically deducted from the user's checking account and a notice of the amount forwarded him.

McNeese said the Executive Credit program does not give the user automatic overdraft privileges on his checking account. If the line of credit is exceeded, the bank will in some cases authorize a slight excess, he said.

AT PRESENT corporate accounts or cards issued in the names of companies are not eligible for the Executive Credit program. Card holders may supply supplementary regular American Express cards for members of their immediate family at an additional cost of $7 per card.

There is now a $12 yearly fee for the use of the American Express card. There is no charge for the Executive Credit card until it is used.

McNeese said only the basic card holder will have an Executive Credit Card. Supplementary card holders may not draw drafts in American Express offices for the purchase of travelers cheques but may cash personal checks up to $300 domestically and $500 overseas. In all other respects the supplementary credit cards carry all the privileges of an American Express Credit Card.

E.H. Deininger, vice president of Bank of the Southwest, will be in charge of the Executive Credit program.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

COMING NEXT THURSDAY

Bank branches begin popping up in grocery stores.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

COMING NEXT THURSDAY

Bank branches begin popping up in grocery stores.
When we first see Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, she is emerging from a tub of ice, bloodied, bruised but still glamorous, photographed in a stylized black and white; then she is off to a mission debriefing.

She truly is the spy who came in from the cold. But Therons Lorraine Broughton is a far cry from John le Carres Alec Leamas; her adventure into East Germany isnt about intricate plotting or cat-and-mouse spy games, but bull-in-a-china-shop, bone-crunching action. She is a female Jason Bourne, or, if you prefer, a female James Bond (the blunt, brutal Daniel Craig version), and like Bond, she can look terrific ordering a mixed drink in evening wear, and, as it turns out, bedding a woman as well.

Adapted from the graphic novel series The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, David Leitchs feature debut is a mostly fabulous, though thinly plotted, ode to the glories of hand-to-hand combat, Euro 80s music and the good/bad old days of the Cold War.

Told in flashback from the debriefing by her MI6 handler (Toby Jones) and CIA observer (John Goodman), the film is set in East and West Berlin in 1989 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After a British agent (Sam Hargrave) is killed, Broughton is sent by her superiors (Jones, James Faulkner) to recover a missing list of double agents from the West operating in the East. If that list falls into KGB hands, their lives are over. Broughton is to make contact with a British agent already in East Berlin, David Percival (James McAvoy), an agent her superiors describe as having gone native.

And with good reason. A hard-partying, hard-drinking playboy who hangs out at underground East Berlin clubs, Percival is, Broughton decides, not to be trusted (and not only because of his disastrous Sinead OConnor hair). Nevertheless, they begin as partners to find the list, which is in control of a wannabe East German defector nicknamed Spyglass (veteran actor Eddie Marsan, Inspector Lestrade in the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies).

Theyre up against KGB agent Aleksander Bremovych (Roland Moller), who is also frantically looking to acquire the list but has the numbers and firepower on his side. Theyre also looking for a double agent who might be embedded with the good guys, code-named Satchel, who might expose them.

Broughton eventually develops her own contacts separate from Percival, including French agent Delphine Lasalle (Algerian-born actress Sofia Boutella), whom she recruits through seduction; double agent Watchmaker (Til Schweiger) and East German youth activist Merkel (Bill Skarsgard), who generously takes time away from his project to tear down the Berlin Wall to help her.

If this sounds plot-heavy, it isnt. Basically, it goes down like this: Wherever Broughton shows up, a host of villains appear. She kicks ass. Next scene.

While it gets tedious at times, one has to give it to Theron. It was apparently the goal of her and Leitch, a former stuntman whose next film is Deadpool 2, to make the toughest hand-to-hand combat movie with a female lead in movie history, and Atomic Blonde is in the conversation (several classic Hong Kong films would be as well).

In the bravura centerpiece of the film, an extended fight scene through the hallways and flats of an East Berlin apartment building, Theron is so beaten and bloodied she becomes about as run-through-the-mill as Aileen Wuornos, her Oscar-winning, heavy-makeup performance from 2003. But be it noted, she gives as good as she gets.

Leitch makes up for the thin plotting  youll guess who Satchel is long before the movie reveals it  with a colorful re-creation of East Berlin, and there are a few pleasures: Broughton loses her pursuers by ducking into a cinema showing Soviet master Andrei Tarkovskys Stalker; legendary German actress Barbara Sukowa, a discovery of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, appears as a coroner; and the pulsing 80s soundtrack includes Nenas antiwar protest 99 Luftballons, After the Fires Austrian version of Der Kommissar and Siouxsie and the Banshees Cities in Dust.

But through all the noise and distractions, this is Therons film. On the heels of her stunning performance as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, where she basically stole the movie from Tom Hardy (hard to do), she now is the pre-eminent action actress in the movies. And with the ending of Atomic Blonde clearly hinting at a sequel(s), we probably will delve into the case files of Lorraine Broughton once again.

G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmsAllen

Atomic Blonde

Action. Starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy and John Goodman, Toby Jones. Directed by David Leitch. (R. 115 minutes.)
If you ever need a house sitter, the comedy-drama Family Life suggests that you might want to avoid sullen loners. Obvious? Maybe, but in the movie, thats just the sort of fellow a Chilean family entrusts with their home while theyre on vacation.

The film pokes some fun at conventional families rather than launching an all-out assault. The concerns and interests expressed by the professor (Christian Carvajal), his wife (Blanca Lewin) and their young daughter are amusingly trivial when viewed from outside.

Less droll is the arrival of Martin (Jorge Becker), a long-lost cousin the professor encountered at the funeral of Martins father. Trusting the leather-jacketed and clearly troubled Martin seems like a stretch  hes a guy who tries to give the wife the wrong kind of kiss as the familys about to leave for Paris.

Before they depart, the film tries to humanize Martin a bit, hinting at the pain he suffered in a past relationship and his inability to bounce back from his fathers death. Still, somethings awry in the household, and in case we miss the point, the daughter leaves behind graffiti suggesting that her feelings for her parents  and Paris  are anything but warm and cozy.

Alone in the house, Martin begins poking through his hosts stuff and making himself at home in ways that push the boundaries of propriety.

When the familys cat takes off, Martin sets out in search and encounters Pachi (Gabriela Arancibia), a single mom who has lost her dog. A heated sexual relationship follows, with Martin telling her the house is his own, and cooking up a story about having been abandoned by his wife and child. Martin, Pachi and her son, with whom Martin bonds, become a kind of substitute for the vacationing family, all based on Martins fabrications.

The unavoidable question arises: What will happen when the professors family returns from Paris? Unfortunately, filmmakers Alicia Scherson and Cristian Jimenez dont seem quite sure where to go with their setup. Martin finally remains elusive, and we struggle not to withdraw whatever sympathy we might feel for his loneliness.

Finally, the plainspoken Pachi remains the most appealing character, and its hard to guess what the directors want us to feel about Martin. The ending is something of a disappointment, and reinforces a suspicion viewers may have had early on that perhaps theres less to Martin than meets the eye.

Walter Addiego is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: waddiego@sfchronicle.com.

Family Life

Comedy-drama. With Jorge Becker, Gabriela Arancibia, Blanca Lewin, Christian Carvajal. Directed by Cristian Jimenez, Alicia Scherson. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated. 80 minutes.
President Trump set off a bipartisan firestorm Wednesday morning by tweeting that the government will not allow transgender people to serve in the military in any capacity.

In a series of early morning tweets, Trump wrote, After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, he tweeted.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) quickly condemned Trumps decision.

This is discriminatory, and un-American, Harris tweeted. To the transgender servicemembers who defend our nation, I stand with you. We should honor the courage of Americans who volunteer to sacrifice for our nation, not turn them away.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called Trumps military transgender ban a vile and hateful agenda.

This disgusting ban will weaken our military and the nation it defends, Pelosi said in a statement. Once again, President Trump has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by raw prejudice. This is a dark day for thousands of heroes in our military and for our entire country.

Republicans also expressed disappointment and outrage at Trump for posting policy decisions on social media.

More for you Texas transgender activists dismayed by Trump's new ban

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trumps statement unclear and promised that the committee would conduct oversight on the issue of transgender people serving in the military.

There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity, McCain said in a statement. We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so  and should be treated as the patriots they are.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the presidents announcement is something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together on as implementation takes place.

Ill try to make this clear, this was a military decision. This was about military readiness, this was about unit cohesion, this was about resources within the military and nothing more, Huckabee Sanders said during a White House press briefing.

She eventually threatened to end the briefing after reporters repeatedly asked her questions regarding Trumps statements. If those are the only questions that we have, Im going to call it a day, she said.

When a reporter shouted a question about his Twitter announcement during a gathering on the White House lawn with the American Legion Auxiliary youth, Trump called the reporter, very rude.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) filed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill to block Trumps decision to ban transgender people from entering the military service. The amendment states that government funds for defense cant be used to implement, enforce, or observe any directive from the president that bars or restricts the ability of transgender persons to serve in the Armed Forces.

Trumps announcement comes on the 69th anniversary of President Harry Trumans executive order to desegregate the U.S. military. The order, signed by Truman on July 26, 1948, stated, It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.

Alberto Lammers, the director of communications for the San Francisco LGBT Center, said in a statement to The Chronicle, Mr. Trumps treatment of transgender service members is reprehensible and appalling. Its extremely disheartening to know that our military will be discharging highly trained service members on the basis of minimal medical costs instead of retaining and recruiting the best.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) also tweeted his condemnation and promised to fight against the presidents announcement.

Trump attack on #transgender soldiers makes me want to fight harder to support our trans brothers/sisters. Lets keep fighting for equality. Story of US is advancing civil rights, ending discrimination. Trump does opposite: ending civil rights, advancing discrimination. We #resist . Trump says transgender soldiers don't deserve healthcare. At least he's consistent since he also thinks 20M Americans should lose healthcare.

It is unclear how Trumps announcement will be implemented and how it will impact transgender people now serving in the military.

There are currently over 134,000 American veterans who are transgender and over 15,000 transgender people serving in the military, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research group, found that the costs of gender-transition related to health care treatment is relatively low.

The total cost of medical care for transgender troops would increase health care costs by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in health care expenditures.

Transgender reassignment surgery  which not every trans person chooses to undergo  can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to nearly $100,000, depending on how extensive it is, according to Courtney DAllaird, founding coordinator for the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center at the University of Albany in New York.

Werent we just last year christening the Harvey Milk vessel in the Navy? DAllaird said, referring to the 2016 naming of a Navy supply vessel after the gay rights pioneer from San Francisco.

And now this? But I have to say that Im shocked that people are shocked. This is not a surprise, said DAllaird, who is a trans man. Its a trend of this administration to specifically attack LGBT rights, to say something to make sure its known to everyone that there will be no attention or support for trans people.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a public policy think tank in San Francisco, said Trumps announcement would cause discrimination and ultimately harms military readiness.

This is a shocking and ignorant attack on our military and on transgender troops who have been serving honorably and effectively for the past year, Belkin said in a statement.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the the National Center for Transgender Equality, said Trumps announcement was indefensible.

This is worse than dont ask dont tell, this is dont serve, dont serve. This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science, Keisling said in a statement. The President wants to discard thousands of trained and skilled troops who are already serving honorably and done nothing but be honest about who they are.

Former Vice President Joe Biden also commented on the decision through Twitter, writing, Every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve. Full stop.

In June 2016, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that transgender individuals would be able to serve in the U.S. armed forces. The policy was to be phased in during a one-year period. It would allow service members to transition gender while serving, set standards for medical care and outlined responsibilities for military services and commanders to develop and implement guidance, training and other programs both in the near and long term.

Carter stated that at one year, the services will begin allowing transgender individuals to join the armed forces. A little over a year ago, the Department of Defense said the full policy must be completely implemented no later than July 1.

Trumps decision comes five days before the full implementation of the policy. In June, Gen. James Mattis, Trumps defense secretary, delayed Carters plan to accept transgender troops and to accommodate transgender service members medical needs by six months.

In February, Trump rescinded federal protections that were implemented for transgender students, allowing them to use bathrooms that coincided with their gender identity.

Trumps tweeted announcement comes about a year after he pledged in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention to protect the rights of LGBTQ people.

He made the remarks in the wake of the mass shooting a month earlier at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Fla., 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist, Trump said. This time, the terrorist targeted the LGBTQ community. No good, and were going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Kevin Fagan contributed to this report.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Not soured by the politicking and the back-door dealing that takes place at the capital, freshman State Representative Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd) has announced he wants to return to Austin and represent Texas House District 18.

"When I was sworn in, with my hand on the Bible, I publicly vowed to uphold our Constitution. I gave my word and I take that responsibility very seriously," he said in a letter to supporters.

"I made a vow to conduct my work without compromise of strong moral convictions and to strive in preserving our individual liberty. It is my job to see that your interests are represented within the rule of law and to do so without creating undue burden," Bailes said.

The district, which encompasses Liberty, San Jacinto, and Walker counties, elected Bailes to the state legislature overwhelmingly in 2016 replacing a retiring John Otto.

The freshman legislator, who just spent a good bit of his time back in the district prior to the called Special Session this summer, lamented on not only learning the process of the legislature, but the ramifications of angering political friends and foes.

"There are a lot of pieces that go into passing a piece of legislation," he told Dayton Rotary members in a recent meeting.

In this session, Bailes filed 13 bills and seven went directly to the governor's desk and were signed.

A company which offers a closed system for people in the legislature and lawyers ranked Bailes sixth in the top ten session ranking analysis of effective members of ratio of bills passed in the 85th session.

"We actually had 11 out of 13," Bailes said. "We had seven directly signed by the governor, two were the MUD and PID for River Ranch," and two others, a stand-alone bill and a senate omnibus bill.

The representative said he had a lot of voices giving him advice.

"In my decisions, my focus remains on what is best for all Texans and for HD18, specifically. I am fiercely independent and have no need to be told what to think, what to say, or how to vote. I look to the people of HD18 for their guidance," he said.

Bailes was also able to negotiate a better deal with the controversial developer in Plum Grove meaning county residents will not pick up the tab-only those who will live in those new districts will now absorb that cost.

He not only worked on the property rights but tax reform and the troublesome school finance issues.

"You can't address property tax reform without first addressing school finance," he said. Bailes continues to work with his colleagues for property tax reform, public education, and private property rights. Those issues are again before the legislature in the Special Session occurring now.

Bailes currently serves on the Land and Resource Management Committee, Small Business and Economic Development Committee, and Rules and Resolutions Committee. As a member of the House Rural Caucus, he works closely on issues important to rural Texas, ranging from ground water protections to alternative energy development.

Representative Bailes' conservative values and work ethic are deeply rooted in his upbringing on his family's dairy and beef cattle operations in San Jacinto County. As a successful small business owner and beef producer, he has a proven track record of personal and professional successes through hard work.

"I have a deep love for this district," he said.

"It is my home and has been my family's home for generations. I was born and raised here, attended public schools here, and have built my business here. The same holds true for my wife, Courtney. We both have deep roots in this East Texas soil and can't think of any place we would rather raise our two sons."

He and his wife, Courtney, have two sons, Cinco and Rigby, who both attend public school in Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD where Courtney is a teacher. They worship together as a family at First Baptist Church, Coldspring and are very involved in the community.

"Together, we can work united to keep HD18 a great place to live. As we experience growing pains, many of our communities as we know them are evolving and changing, though we must be forward thinking," he said.

"As your representative I am continually looking beyond the obvious to prepare for the unknown. Right now, we have a lot of unknowns. Although we have challenges, we have even more opportunities for practical, positive change and by being proactive we will be able to meet the challenges head on," Bailes said.

The freshman legislator said he is focused on the Special Session, but looks forward to visiting with the people of his district when he returns home.

The Republican Primary is in March 2018 and Bailes said there will be plenty of campaign events with dates and locations to be announced soon.

For more information on the Bailes re-election campaign, contact them at 936-653-2480.
Dramatic video from the U.S. Coast Guard captured the moment Monday when the captain of a capsized Alaskan fishing boat risked his life to rescue one of his crewmen from choppy, 47-degree waters near Kodiak Island.

Captain Christian Trosvig and his crew of three had spent the afternoon trawling for salmon in the Kupreanof Strait off the coast of Alaska's Raspberry Island when suddenly their vessel, the Grayling, started to take on water.

As the stern sank below the surface, a distress call went out to the other fishing boats in the area, according to KTUU. The Calista Marie arrived, and the men on board agreed to tow the troubled Grayling back to safety.

It should have been a quick trip, the shore only about a quarter-mile away. But soon after they got going the Grayling rolled over without warning, throwing Trosvig and the three other fishermen into the frigid, turbulent sea, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

Fighting 6-foot waves, Trosvig and another crewman managed to pull themselves onto a lifeboat from their sinking vessel, Dale Pruitt, the Calista Marie's captain, told the Dispatch News. Another crewman swam to the Calista Marie and climbed aboard, he said.

The fourth member of the Grayling was nowhere to be found.

Pruitt told the Dispatch News that his men and crews from other nearby vessels scanned the sea for the missing fisherman.

"That was a scary moment," he said.

He radioed the Coast Guard an emergency message saying the Grayling had capsized and one of its crew was lost, according to Alaska Native News. A helicopter on a training flight more than 50 miles away was dispatched to help.

Some 20 minutes passed with no sign of the fisherman.

Then, finally, his limp body drifted to the surface - 50 yards away, right next to the overturned Grayling.

Trosvig dove in. Around the same time, the Coast Guard's MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter arrived, piloted by Lt. Kevin Riley, who described the scene to Alaska Public Media.

"We had just made one pass, maybe two, searching overhead," Riley said. "We saw visually and in our sensor the crew member that was missing, basically floating."

Riley lowered the helicopter and watched the captain jump into the water.

"It looked like he was swimming very fast," he said of Trosvig. "I'm sure the water was cold. It was probably in the upper 40s out there. But he was swimming extremely fast considering he was in a life jacket."

Conditions were treacherous, Riley added in comments to KTUU, saying the high waves, the overturned boat and the nets and rigging floating around the men made the rescue especially risky.

Shaky footage from the helicopter shows Trosvig with an orange life jacket strapped to his shoulders paddling up to the fisherman and grabbing hold of him by his right arm. The fisherman appears unresponsive, bobbing up and down as waves roll over the two men and water splashes up from the sides of a vessel near them. At one point, Trosvig appears to lose his grip and the fisherman slips below the surface, disappearing from view. Trosvig plunges under to retrieve him.

Moments later, a small boat appears in the frame. A man on board throws them a rope and an orange float and pulls them to the vehicle's aft. The video ends as the men begin lifting the fisherman out of the water.

Once on board, Trosvig immediately started performing CPR, Pruitt told the Dispatch News. After about five minutes, Pruitt said, the fisherman was revived.

The Coast Guard told local media that the fisherman was taken by helicopter to the Kodiak Municipal Airport, where medics treated him for hypothermia and aspiration of diesel fuel.

"Chris was the hero," Pruitt told the Dispatch News. "He saved that guy's life."

Riley, the helicopter pilot, also praised Trosvig's actions. "That fisherman didn't hesitate," he said in a statement. "It is a testament to how tough those fishermen are and how far they will go to help their fellow Alaskans."

Officials said it wasn't clear what caused the Grayling to capsize. The crew members' names have not been released, nor has the rescued fisherman's medical condition.

Trosvig, a resident of Kodiak, Alaska, has been fishing in the area for more than 20 years, according to local media. In a brief Facebook post Tuesday, he said he had lost his twin brother "to the sea."

"It was not going to happen again," Trosvig wrote. "To God be the glory for giving me courage and strength to get my man out of the water and bring him back to life."

---

http://wapo.st/2eN2m6u
WASHINGTON - The second act of Edwin Jackson's career with the Washington Nationals is two scenes deep and, after the Nationals' 8-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night, can be boiled down to the 91st pitch in each.

Last week, pitch No. 91 in Jackson's return to the Nationals was his last, and it secured the third out of the seventh inning, an uplifting performance that earned him a win in a 4-3 victory in Anaheim against the Angels. On Tuesday, Jackson, reverting to the command difficulties that have plagued his career, threw his 91st pitch three innings earlier and Travis Shaw belted it 394 feet just over the wall in left-center field at Nationals Park for a three-run home run.

The blast put the Brewers (54-48) ahead 5-0 before the fourth inning was over. Washington (59-39) didn't respond with an offensive onslaught to mask the fifth starter's troubles as it did so often when Joe Ross filled the role earlier this season. Instead, Zach Davies, who entered with a 4.76 ERA and 1.486 WHIP, muzzled the Nationals' bats over 72/3 innings to steer the reeling Brewers to their second win in nine games.

A few hours before first pitch Tuesday, Stephen Strasburg, who exited his start Sunday in Arizona after two innings with another flare-up, played catch on flat ground. Minutes later, a Nationals spokesperson told reporters the right-hander, whose original diagnosis was forearm tightness, "had some nerve impingement that has been alleviated." Where exactly wasn't divulged. Nothing else was. Left unclear is whether Strasburg is on schedule to make his next start.

But Strasburg was just the latest of the Nationals' concerns. Eight Nationals are on the disabled list. Another, Ryan Raburn, is on the bereavement list following the death of his grandfather. Another, Enny Romero, also left Sunday's game with back spasms. Manager Dusty Baker spent most of his pregame session with reporters Tuesday addressing most of those players' statuses.

"We're kind of walking wounded, and our extra guys are chipping in big time," Baker said. "Fortunately for us, our main all-stars, our core guys, are healthy and doing well because those are the guys that are in a very important situation where they have to do the job. And they are doing it."

Among those core guys are Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon. The quartet, in that order, makes up perhaps the best middle-of-the-order combination in baseball, a gantlet pitchers seldom emerge from unscathed. But Davies shut down the foursome, allowing them just two hits and a walk in the 12 plate appearances against him. The rest of the lineup went 1 for 15 with two walks against Davies.

Jackson's final numbers in Anaheim last week were sturdy. He limited the Angels to two runs over seven innings. Most importantly, he didn't issue a walk. It was the kind of efficiency that was not a staple of Jackson's nomadic career. He was, however, by no means dominant. The Angels hit the ball hard off him, especially over the first two innings, but the defense behind him was good and he managed to evade trouble. Jackson, appearing at Nationals Park in a home uniform for the first time since the 2012 postseason, didn't benefit from such luck Tuesday night.

Jackson retired the first two batters he faced. It became a struggle from there. He issued a couple of two-out walks and tossed 29 pitches in the first inning. He threw another 25 and allowed his first run in the second. Yet, though he had thrown 69 pitches by the end of the third inning, he trailed only 1-0.

Then his defense failed him. The crucial mishap occurred when Davies dropped a sacrifice bunt to the first base side in the fourth. The ball rolled to a charging Zimmerman, who had ample time to make the routine throw to first base, where Murphy was running over to cover. But Zimmerman's throw went behind Murphy and bounced off Murphy's glove, allowing Davies to reach base safely.

Two batters later, Ryan Braun hit a groundball to Murphy's right. The second baseman tumbled to snag it, but his flip to second base wasn't in time, allowing Davies into scoring position and a run to score. Shaw followed with his three-run home run, his 23rd of the season, to blow the game open with four unearned runs.

Jackson lasted one more inning, forced to absorb more blows to lighten the load on a bullpen that was called upon to log seven innings following Strasburg's early departure Sunday. The blows came in rapid succession in the form of back-to-back home runs. First, Eric Thames led off the fifth with a towering blast off the facade of the third deck in right field. Manny Pina then matched him, launching a solo homer over the wall in center field to give Milwaukee a seven-run cushion.

Jackson retired the next three batters to end the second scene of his second act in Washington with 112 pitches and a loss.
WASHINGTON - A congressional information technology staffer was arrested Monday evening before a scheduled flight for Lahore, Pakistan, and charged with bank fraud in connection with a $165,000 loan from the congressional Federal Credit Union, authorities said.

Imran Awan, 37, pleaded not guilty Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey in Washington and was released to a high-intensity supervision program whose conditions include GPS monitoring, a nighttime curfew and staying within a 50-mile radius of his home in Lorton, Va., federal prosecutors said. He was arrested at Dulles International Airport, his attorney said.

Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, allegedly secured a $165,000 home equity loan in January from CFCU on a house in Alexandria, Va., after claiming it was their primary residence, when it was a rental property, FBI Special Agent Brandon Merriman wrote in an affidavit for Awan's arrest. The couple told the credit union to wire the money to Pakistan for use in purchasing a property, Merriman wrote.

Alvi, also a former House IT worker, and the couple's three school-aged children, were approached by federal agents but allowed to board a flight to Lahore on March 5 Merriman wrote, but he said that he "does not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States."

Awan's attorney, Chris Gowen, said in a statement, "Because we are confident in the integrity of the U.S. justice system, we are confident that Mr. Awan will soon be able to clear his name and get on with his life. Neither Mr. Awan nor his wife have ever had any intention to 'flee' the United States."

"They are U.S. citizens who have built a full life and have a strong community life in this country. They will stand and fight whatever charges are presented," Gowen said. The couple had round trip tickets, and Awan had informed the government of his plans to travel, Gowen said.

Awan had worked for the House since 2004 as a shared employee, getting paid about $165,000 per year from about a dozen Democratic members in 2015 and 2016, for example, according to Legistorm. Most payments ended by early February, the congressional data tracking service reported.

Awan worked most recently for U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., before he was fired Tuesday, her spokesman said.

"Mr. Awan previously served as an employee in our office, but his services have been terminated," David Damron said.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office of Washington, D.C., and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police declined to comment, citing the pending case.
The family of a 32-year-old East Bay man who died in a scuffle with officers last year is suing the city of Pittsburg and its police department for wrongful death.

Humberto Martinez died on July 26, 2016, after police chased him into a Pittsburg home and shocked him with an electric stun gun as he resisted arrest, officials said.

Attorneys for Martinezs family said the officers used reckless tactics during the altercation, including an improper carotid hold, and other blows to the suspect, resulting in his death, according to the federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit comes on the one-year anniversary of Martinezs death.

Officers said they tried to pull Martinez over around 2:30 the morning of his death, but he drove away and ran into a home on the 4200 block of Hillview Drive.

Martinez had a lengthy criminal history, involving assault and weapons and drug charges, police said. He previously lived at the home and officials said he knew the people living there.

Martinez was actively fighting with police officers on the floor of the homes kitchen, prompting the officers to use a stun gun, Pittsburg police Capt. Ron Raman said shortly after the episode.

The stun gun, though, did not have an effect, and several more officers came to the scene to help subdue Martinez, police said.

Once police handcuffed Martinez, they realized he had become unresponsive. The officers removed the handcuffs, started CPR and used an automatic external defibrillator to revive the man, Raman said. Martinez died at a nearby hospital an hour later.

Attorneys for Martinezs family, though, said the officers use of force was totally unnecessary and unreasonable under the circumstances and was done without a legitimate law enforcement purpose.

The family is suing for damages to cover costs associated with Martinezs death.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was greeted by applause from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as he walked onto the Senate floor, delivering Republicans the critical 50th vote to begin debate on an unknown plan to overhaul the health-care industry.

Then the Arizona Republican, done with the niceties, delivered a 15-minute excoriation of the modern Senate. A Senate riven by partisan infighting and almost no effort to work across the aisle. A Senate that has abandoned the principle that legislative committees had provenance of the process.

A Senate so broken that the only way to even begin a health-care debate was to drag an 80-year-old man, diagnosed last week with brain cancer, 2,300 miles across the nation from Phoenix to cast that critical vote.

"Let's trust each other. Let's return to regular order. We've 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," McCain told his colleagues, who gave him the floor for an unusual address usually reserved for a retiring senator. "We're getting nothing done, my friends. We're getting nothing done."

His mere presence gave Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., his biggest victory since the April confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, allowing debate on a still unformed legislative package designed to replace the Affordable Care Act. McConnell joined a long line of senators embracing McCain upon his arrival.

WhileMcCain cast blame far and wide for the Senate's shrunken status, he left no hint of subtlety in singling out the GOP leader's secretive, zigzagging effort to draft the health-care bill.

"All we've managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn't very popular when we started trying to get rid of it," McCain said, noting rising support for the 2010 ACA. "I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered. I will not vote for this bill as it is today. It's a shell of a bill right now."

Despite this warning, McCain's vote on Tuesday helped enable the broken process on health care he came to the floor to decry. It allows McConnell to continue to circumvent the committee work and bipartisan negotiations McCain said represents the best of the Senate. A no vote would have forced leaders back to the drawing board, possibly into a bipartisan negotiation, but now they will barrel ahead, possibly for weeks or months, on the Republican-only effort.

There was nothing new about a defiant McCain speech. On July 12, two days before his surgery to remove a blood clot that led to the diagnosis of a brain tumor, McCain delivered a fiery speech with the same defiant themes - it was delivered to an almost empty chamber. Just McCain being McCain.

But Tuesday McCain wasn't just being McCain.

He spoke for more than 225 years of Senate history, trying to force his colleagues to break free of this era's political spell. No one quite knew where he would end, almost sounding as if he was about to announce his retirement.

Almost every senator sat in his or seat, hanging on every word. McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., twisted themselves sideways so that they could look directly at McCain, his left eye still deeply swollen from the surgery.

Both leaders grew visibly emotional at times, McConnell's face bright red as Schumer's eyes glistened.

Whether his words will have any lasting impact remains to be seen, and frankly, is not very likely. When McCain concluded, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote and both sides marched out to partisan news conferences blaming one another for the gridlock in Washington.

"This legislation is open for amendment, not just by Republicans but by Democrats as well," Sen. John Cornyn , R-Texas, the majority whip, told reporters. "Should our Democratic colleagues, in the spirit of Senator McCain's remarks, decide to participate in the process and build a bipartisan piece of legislation, this could well be the beginning of that healing process for this institution."

Yet Cornyn knows full well that is not going to happen, that the entire process being used now is a fast-track effort under rules that allow budgetary measures to pass on a simple majority without having to clear a 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. Long ago Democrats said they wanted no part of the work on an ACA repeal, and McConnell was more than happy to take them up on that non-offer.

McCain now finds himself among the last of a generation in the Senate. He is venerated across the nation for surviving five-and-a-years of captivity and torture during the Vietnam War. But he is worshiped inside the Senate for the latter half of his 30 years here, when he took on the role of bipartisan elder statesman.

McCain acknowledged that he has not always lived up to his own ideal. His temper legendary, his clashes with some colleagues have been incendiary. "Sometimes I've let my passion rule my reason. Sometime I made it harder to find common ground because of something I said to a colleague," he said.

He and McConnell have had an on-again-off-again-on-again relationship. Its rockiest patch came 15 to 20 years ago as they clashed over campaign finance legislation restricting large donations to political parties. McCain beat McConnell on the Senate floor, but McConnell won in court, leading the legal battle that gutted McCain's eponymous bill.

When McCain returned to the Senate following his loss in the 2008 presidential election, McConnell effectively deputized him to lead the GOP caucus on national security issues. In recent years McConnell has sometimes relied on McCain as an emissary to Democrats, particularly Schumer, who grew close to McCain during the 2013 effort to overhaul immigration and border laws.

But in recent weeks, McCain has grown increasingly angry with the way McConnell abandoned any hint of so-called regular order, working with an ad hoc group of Republicans in his office and then drafting the legislation on his own, reworking it each time he ran out of support from within the GOP caucus.

"I don't think that's going to work in the end, and probably shouldn't," McCain said.

Democrats applauded the call for bipartisan effort, prompting McCain to remind them that Democrats passed the ACA with only their votes eight years ago.

As Republicans cheered at those remarks, Schumer made a bowing gesture toward McCain, acknowledging the point.

"We're not getting much done apart," McCain told his colleagues. "I don't think any of us feels very proud of our incapacity. Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isn't the most inspiring work. There's greater satisfaction in respecting our differences but not letting them prevent agreements."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Fire crews from Magnolia and Montgomery have contained a large wild fire in the Magnolia area that started where the deadly fires of 2011 started that charred more than 18,000 acres.

According to Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley, the fire actually started Sunday but was extinguished. However, Riley said the fire flared back up Tuesday evening around 5:30 p.m. and spread through a heavily wooded area near the Crown Ranch subdivision.

"It's scary," Riley said. "This fire started in the exact place the fires in 2011 started."

Riley said fire crews are expected to remain on scene through the night. The fire, he added, did threaten several homes but crews were able to stop the blaze before the homes had any damage.

A second smaller fire started near the scene of the current fire around 7:30 a.m. and Riley said fire officials were investigating what he called as "suspicious" fire.

In addition to the Magnolia Fire Volunteer Department and the Montgomery Fire Department, the Texas Forest Service and the Montgomery County Fire Marshal's Office were also on scene.

No other information was available.

According to a previous Courier article, in September 2011, a lightning strike near Crown Ranch sparked a blaze that consumed more than 18,000 acres and 75 homes in a three-county area.

Beginning Sept. 5, the Tri-County Fire quickly spread throughout Montgomery, Grimes and Waller counties, displacing thousands of residents to shelters over the next two weeks. Combined with the massive Bastrop County fire that broke out over the Labor Day weekend and destroyed nearly 500 homes, the Tri-County Fire contributed to the worst wildfire year in Texas, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.

Only seven homes were lost in Montgomery County from the Tri-County fire, which measured approximately 6 miles long and 3 miles wide in some areas.
BERLIN - The refugee wave that buffeted Germany in 2015 is now crashing down on the nation's courts, as migrants seeking relief from the Syrian civil war challenge efforts by one of Europe's most welcoming states to limit their rights.

Some 250,000 asylum appeals are pending across Germany, according to estimates from an association of administrative court judges. Nearly 13,500 are ongoing in the capital alone, part of a tenfold increase over the past year.

Stephan Groscurth, a spokesman for Berlin's administrative court, said the appeals - filed by the growing number of migrants who have been denied protection or given less than they were seeking - make up two-thirds of court business. "This will paralyze us for years," a judge told Der Tagesspiegel, a German daily based in Berlin.

The courts are the last bastion of hope for Amira Suleiman, 44. She has not seen her husband or 12-year-old son for two years - not since she fled to Germany from Syria, setting out from the Palestinian refugee camp at Yarmouk, a war-ravaged place in Syria that had once been their home.

The separation was supposed to be temporary, as family reunification is a right owed to refugees under European law. But Suleiman isn't a refugee, according to Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

Instead, the migration office assigned her only subsidiary protection status that carries no right of family reunification, recognizing that she may suffer harm in her country of origin but denying her protection as a refugee. Hundreds of thousands are in the same position, as Germany has substantially reduced the rate of refugee claims it accepts.

"I have no other way of making my family whole again," Suleiman said. "I thought this was my right, and when I heard, I thought, 'How could this possibly be?' "

She filed an appeal last December. A half-year later, she is still waiting for a decision.

The conflict over subsidiary protection and family reunification remains in the shadows of an intensifying global debate over the duty of nations to aid refugees. A recent flash point is the situation on the Mediterranean Sea, where a record number of people died last year fleeing war and poverty in North Africa.

But the debate's throbbing heart is still Germany, whose chancellor, Angela Merkel, said last week she would not cap the number of asylum seekers her country would admit.

In 2015, she welcomed more than a million migrants, saying, "We can do this" - a declaration of German resolve tinged with enduring national guilt over the crimes of the Nazi past. But now, thousands of asylum seekers are taking her government to court for denying them protection under the 1951 Geneva Conventions on refugees.

Many have won.

Asylum seekers from Syria have seen a nearly 90 percent success rate on appeal, according to the federal migration office, although higher courts have reversed some of these decisions. The overall success rate for asylum seekers appealing their decisions is lower, but it has also climbed in recent years.

An administrative court judge in Berlin, Kai-Christian Samel, said the task is deciding whether migrants "are as individuals subject to political oppression or if they are just in fear of indiscriminate danger." This is also what the migration office is charged with doing.

"The courts are cleaning up the mess," said Nora Markard, a law professor at the University of Hamburg. "The success rate tells us how important judicial review is - and how important it is for people to have legal representation."

The surge of appeals reveals the precariousness of policies adopted by the European Union's largest state to address the most extreme displacement of people since World War II. It comes as the German government pivots to limit migrants' rights, spurred by public opinion that has turned against an open-door policy following attacks carried out by militants from Muslim-majority countries.

The cases reflect the resistance of asylum seekers to a reinstatement of Europe's old border regime. And they point to the critical link between migration and family reunification, knotted issues also under scrutiny in American courts weighing the legality of the Trump administration's travel ban.

But the backlog in German courts also shows how policy changes geared toward efficiency - the goal pursued by Germany in signing a 2015 contract with McKinsey & Co. to streamline its asylum procedures - can backfire, trading one bureaucratic morass for another, with high stakes for people, such as Amira Suleiman, caught in between.

Suleiman was denied refugee status following an interview in November 2016, more than a year after she had filed for asylum. In the three-hour interview, she explained how she had been born in Yarmouk, how she had seen rapes and torture, how a rebel sniper had threatened to kill her, how she had cancer and was being treated in Berlin.

She expected Germany to recognize her as a refugee - a status hinging, under Geneva guidelines, on "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

She had good reason to be confident, according to experts, who said Palestinians should qualify as refugees on leaving U.N. sanctuary.

"For me, that would be a clear-cut refugee case," said Constantin Hruschka, an asylum lawyer formerly with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Germany and Geneva.

But the migration office found no evidence of "concrete threats or attacks that are so severe that they are violations of fundamental human rights," it wrote.

Subsidiary protection allows Suleiman a one-year residence permit, instead of the three years for refugees, and imposes more stringent qualifications for obtaining a long-term license to stay in Germany. Otherwise, it affords many of the entitlements granted to refugees, including unrestricted access to the labor market.

But in legislation passed in February 2016, the German Parliament stripped the right of family reunification from migrants with subsidiary status. The restriction is set to remain in effect until at least March 2018. It accompanied a raft of changes, promoted by the conservative wing of the ruling coalition, that included fast-track asylum centers, expedited denial for certain classes of migrants and broader grounds for expulsion.

Simultaneously, the Interior Ministry instructed the federal migration office to abandon written procedures that classified migrants from Syria as refugees. Instead, it required individual interviews, a more discretionary system that enabled officials to grant only subsidiary protection to multitudes of asylum seekers.

Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, had broadcast the changes as early as November 2015, saying of Syrian asylum seekers, "We're telling them, 'You will get protection, but only so-called subsidiary protection - that is to say, for a limited period and without family unification.' "

A March 2016 letter from Aydan Ozoguz, Germany's commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, assured a refugee law clinic in Hamburg that the Interior Ministry had not directed the federal migration office to favor the lower status.

What is now clear, however, is that asylum policy has reversed course.

Just 0.6 percent of migrants from Syria who received asylum decisions in 2015 were granted subsidiary status; 41 percent in 2016; 60 percent so far in 2017.

The federal migration office denies making a policy decision to rely on subsidiary status. The director of the office, Jutta Cordt, said officials "evaluate every individual refugee story very carefully and grant subsidiary protection if a person has not been individually persecuted but fled from civil war."

But for Christoph Strasser, former commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid, this explanation isn't plausible. He sees the extraordinary increase in the use of subsidiary status for asylum seekers from Syria, who are in no less danger today than they were two years ago, as confirmation of the concerns that led him to resign his position when lawmakers adopted the restrictive measures.

"We have been duped," Strasser said. When the rule suspending family reunification was under consideration, he recalled, "the Interior Ministry claimed that a maximum of 1,500 people would be affected by this."

But the asylum center in his Munster constituency, he said, "confirmed that there had been instructions by the Interior Ministry to increasingly give subsidiary protection to Syrians."

Experts said this violates international law.

"If they are really motivated by the desire to avoid family reunification to persons who are in fact refugees," said James C. Hathaway, a professor of refugee law at the University of Michigan, "that's both legally and morally wrong."

That is the gist of Suleiman's appeal. And without a decision from the court, her attorney, Oda Jentsch, said, "every day is torture."

Suleiman's husband tells her to give up and go back to Syria; that way, at least, they would be together. But her lawyer promises there soon will be a verdict.

"I try to forget and live normally," Suleiman said. "But I want a permanent solution."
RICHMOND - The Republican and Democrat running for Virginia governor each picked up seven-figure campaign contributions from national groups after their first debate.

Not 30 minutes after Ed Gillespie and Ralph Northam stepped off the debate stage Saturday, the Republican Governors Association announced it would plow $2 million into Gillespie's campaign - on top of an earlier $1 million donation.

And on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee said it would give $1.5 million to Northam, the state's lieutenant governor. It also dispatched three top staffers to Virginia to work with his campaign.

Also Tuesday, Gillespie announced that he will launch statewide TV ads - the first of the general election.

The race for Virginia governor is the country's marquee statewide contest this year, and is expected to draw national money and attention until the November election. Both parties are viewing the contest as a referendum on President Trump that could also presage the outcome of the 2018 midterms.

A recent Monmouth University poll of likely voters found Northam and Gillespie tied, at 44 percent each. They are vying to succeed Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a popular Democrat who is prohibited by law from seeking a consecutive term.

The RGA called its $2 million contribution to Gillespie a "response to the impressive leadership he demonstrated in the debate."

"Virginia is a top pickup opportunity for Republicans and the RGA is proud to partner with Gillespie's campaign as an early investor," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, chairman of the RGA, said in a written statement. "With this additional major investment, the RGA is proving once again that we are all-in to ensure Ed has the resources to win in November."

The DNC put its donation to Northam, first reported by NBC News, in similar terms.

"The DNC is all-in in Virginia," Chairman Tom Perez said in written statement. "We are training organizers, doubling our boots on the ground, and making significant investments in our digital and data operations that will help lift Democrats to victory up and down the state ballot."

Perez dispatched his chief of staff, Sam Cornale, to work with Northam's campaign, along with the DNC's political and organizing director, Amanda Brown Lierman, and political adviser Ramsey Reid. Some Republicans suggested the DNC was sending staff because of perceived weakness in Northam's organization. Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel pushed back against that notion.

"The momentum in the race has been and remains with Dr. Ralph Northam, who has outraised, outdebated, and outclassed Ed Gillespie in every head to head contest," Yheskel said in an email. "The RGA has propped Ed Gillespie's campaign up with $3 million since his near upset to a neo-confederate in the primary. No matter how hard Republicans try to spin, Democrats quickly united in the Virginia governors race and the DNC's investment of staff and resources are a reflection of that coordination."

Northam raised $9.4 million for the governor's race by June 30 compared with $6.7 million for Gillespie. Northam spent all but $1.75 million fighting off former congressman Tom Perriello in the Democratic primary, which Northam won by 12 points.

Gillespie, widely expected to coast to victory in his three-way primary, spent relatively little but barely eked out a victory over Trump acolyte Corey Stewart, who focused his campaign on the preservation of Confederate monuments.

Starting Wednesday, Gillespie will air three ads statewide, according to his campaign, which declined to comment on the duration or dollar value of the ad buys. One of the ads touts his plan to improve the economy by cutting taxes, spending and red tape.

The other two highlight Gillespie's humble roots. In one, "American Dream," he recalls his Irish-immigrant grandfather, who worked as a janitor. The other, "Odd Jobs," is a more lighthearted take that shows Gillespie juggling plates of food, pouring beer and deftly backing into a cluttered garage.

"I learned a lot in college, like how to carry four plates in two hands, how to properly serve a beer, and I learned how to park large cars in small spaces," he says. "I know about working hard to get ahead. But today, too many Virginians are working hard and feeling stuck. I know we can do better, and as governor, I'll make sure we do."
For the first time in more than three years, the state of Ohio executed a death row inmate, ending a lull that followed an unusually drawn-out execution relying on a controversial lethal-injection drug.

State officials executed Ronald Phillips by lethal injection on Wednesday morning at a state prison in Lucasville, about 80 miles south of Columbus, the state capital. The execution was completed at 10:43 a.m. without complications, according to multiple reporters at the prison.

Phillips, 43, was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to death for raping and murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, according to court documents and records that describe Phillips brutally assaulting the young child. He had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a last-ditch stay, questioning the state's planned method of execution and arguing that he "bears no resemblance to that teenager" sentenced to death decades ago.

Late Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied his requests to stay the execution. The justices did not offer any explanation, though two said they felt Phillips should have had a chance to further question Ohio's execution method.

Phillips's execution marks a rare lethal injection with significance resonating beyond the Buckeye State. Executions in the United States are increasingly unusual, as infrequent as they have been in decades and confined to a small number of states. In part, this is because numerous states are no longer in the business of capital punishment, banning the practice outright or effectively halting it. Other states, like Ohio, have sought to carry out executions, but have been repeatedly delayed by an ongoing shortage of execution drugs along with court-ordered stays.

If that changes in Ohio, it could lead to a small uptick in executions nationwide this year. There still will be fewer executions in 2017 than in most years dating back to the early 1990s, but Ohio already has made plans for additional executions, including three set for later this year and 23 more scheduled to take place between 2018 and 2020. Given the nationwide drop in executions, the planned Ohio executions, should most or all of them occur, could potentially account for an outsize share of the country's lethal injections in the coming years.

Ohio has 139 inmates on death row, among the largest such populations nationwide. For most of this young century, it also has been among the country's most-active executioners: Between 2001 and 2014, Ohio executed at least one inmate each year, a rate matched only by Texas and Oklahoma during that span, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.

The last few years of that period saw a shift that continues to reverberate through states with capital punishment. Drug companies have objected to their chemicals being used to kill people, leading to a shortage that has spurred states to postpone executions or, in some cases, adapt new and untested combinations of drugs. While the drug shortage has continued, some states also have faced logistical or legal issues, helping contribute to an overall decline in executions. There were 20 executions last year, the fewest in a quarter-century.

In January 2014, unable to obtain its preferred drug for an upcoming lethal injection, Ohio turned to a new two-drug protocol, pairing midazolam and hydromorphone. The two drugs, which had never before been used to carry out an execution in the United States, were combined to execute Dennis McGuire, who had admitted to raping and murdering Joy Stewart, a pregnant newlywed, in 1989. (Officials had originally intended to first use the new combination on Phillips two months earlier, but his lethal injection was postponed.)

According to witness accounts, McGuire appeared to gasp several times during the execution and, at multiple points, made loud snorting sounds. It took McGuire 26 minutes to die, the Columbus Dispatch reported. One witness later wrote of McGuire's death: "I came out of that room feeling that I had witnessed something ghastly."

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction issued a report later that year pushing back on such accounts, concluding that the drugs "had their intended effect and that McGuire did not experience any pain or distress." The agency also said it had decided to keep using the drug pairing but to increase the doses going forward.

Several months later, Ohio reversed course, stating in January 2015 that it would switch to a different drug combination, which meant rescheduling executions. The first inmate with a scheduled lethal injection postponed at that point was Phillips, who had been set to die about a month later. Not long after the January announcement, Ohio said it would postpone even more executions because it needed time to obtain new lethal injection drugs.

Ohio's delays occurred while midazolam, one of the drugs used in McGuire's execution, became increasingly controversial for its use in executions. The sedative also was utilized in several bungled, unusually long or otherwise controversial lethal injections in Oklahoma, Arizona, Alabama and, earlier this year, Arkansas.

Much like Ohio, Arkansas was resuming executions after a years-long lull, hurrying to schedule an unprecedented eight lethal injections in 11 days to utilize its lethal drugs before they expired. Authorities said the schedule was needed because they were not sure they could obtain more. Ultimately, four of the eight executions in Arkansas were halted and the other four carried out; the final execution in that series prompted questions after witnesses said the inmate lurched and convulsed during the process.

Ohio, meanwhile, has been slowly moving toward resuming executions. Last fall, state officials announced another lethal injection combination, declaring that they would utilize midazolam along with rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride for Phillips's execution and two others to follow, according to court records. While Phillips and other inmates challenged the new protocol, a federal judge stayed the executions, postponing them yet again, but a divided federal appeals court last month reversed that stay.

"Ohio intends to fulfill its statutory obligation of carrying out court-ordered executions in a lawful, humane and dignified manner," JoEllen Smith, the spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, wrote in an email Tuesday.

Phillips had petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to stay his execution. In one filing, he questioned Ohio's lethal injection protocol, and in another argued that he should not be executed for a crime committed while he was a teenager. His attorneys also said he has changed since being convicted and sentenced. "He has grown to be thoughtful, remorseful, generous, and reflective," they wrote in a filing this week. In response, state officials dismissed his argument and urged the justices not to call off the execution.

The Supreme Court denied his stay requests in orders released late Tuesday, offering no further explanation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented from one order and said Phillips and other inmates should have gotten a chance to pursue their claim that "Ohio's execution protocol is a cruel and unusual punishment."

Anti-death penalty groups called for the lethal injection to be halted, but state authorities had already denied Phillips's earlier requests to avoid execution. The Ohio Parole Board rejected Phillips's clemency request last year, and Gov. John R. Kasich (R) said he backed that decision.

"Given the extremely brutal nature of the offense committed against an innocent three-year-old child, I agree with the Ohio Parole Board's recommendation that clemency is not warranted in this case," Kasich said in a statement.
One officer fired shots at the pit bull that hurtled out of the mobile home in Southaven, Miss., police said. The other officer fired at the person pointing a gun from behind the cracked front door.

They had been trying to serve an arrest warrant in an aggravated assault case at a mobile home in the neighborhood before the sudden explosion of gunfire Sunday night. When they surveyed the aftermath, they made a heart-dropping discovery: They were at the wrong home.

Ismael Lopez likely never knew why officers were at his door - or even that they were officers.

What authorities know is that the officers involved, who have not been named, were trying to serve an arrest warrant at the house. When they approached, the door was open a crack and the gun was aimed at them, authorities said.

"The officers began hollering 'Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Put the gun down!' at which point that did not occur," District Attorney John Champion told the Commercial Appeal. "More than one shot was fired toward the door. There was a subject, a male subject, inside the residence that was killed as a result of this gunfire."

No one else was injured, and it's unclear if Lopez ever fired a shot at officers.

The district attorney stressed that Lopez, 41, didn't have a warrant out for his arrest or a criminal record.

"The deceased subject had absolutely no warrant for his arrest," Champion told Jackson, Miss., CBS-affiliate WJTV. "He wasn't wanted for anything at all. I want to make that abundantly clear at this point."

Lopez's family has hired a lawyer, and people close to him tried to reconcile how a kind mechanic with a penchant for helping those in need could meet such a violent end.

Family friend Jordan Castillo told the Commercial Appeal that Lopez was a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who had lived and worked in the United States for years. He had been a mechanic for the city of Bartlett and operated a small mechanic's shop across the street from his home. Castillo described Lopez as a father figure.

On Monday, Castillo showed reporters the broken railing on the front porch of Lopez's home and the three bullet holes in its front door.

"If you're shooting through a door in that manner, you don't know who's behind that door."

The family's attorney, Murray Wells told reporters the house officers should have gone to, had a large 'P' on the door.

"They should have never been on the property in the first place," he told the Commercial Appeal.

He also has disputed several aspects of the police department's account. He told Jackson, Miss., NBC-affiliate WMCA that Lopez didn't have a gun in his hand when he was shot and that neighbors and Lopez's wife, who had been in bed with him, didn't hear officers tell him multiple times to drop the gun.

According to Wells, Lopez's wife stayed in bed while he went to the door to see what was happening outside. That's when she heard gunshots. She ran to her husband, but by the time she reached him, he was dead.

As the investigation continues, Wells said the family was most concerned about not having Lopez's name marred by the violent way he died.

"They've been in that home for 13 years. The only time the police had ever been there was when they had been robbed," Wells told WMCA. "No criminal history whatsoever. A long-standing employee of the city of Bartlett, mechanic. Loved in the neighborhood."

Samuel Pearman, the man police were actually looking for on Sunday night, said they had also disparaged his name, according to WMCA. He went on Facebook Live saying the accusations against him were false.

"They made me out to be something I'm not," he said. "I haven't hurt her. She's the one who slapped me."

Lopez's shooting happened as U.S. police departments are under intense scrutiny for their use of lethal force, especially against minorities.

According to The Washington Post's Fatal Force database, 559 people have been shot by police this year. In 2016, 963 people were killed by police.
AUSTIN -- With only one exception, the Senate approved the last of the bills relating to the special session agenda remaining on its calendar Wednesday. Many of these measures are aimed at restricting city authority in favor of the state. This will give the House 20 days to consider Senate legislation relating to these issues.

First, the Senate gave approval to a bill that would require women to purchase supplemental insurance plans if they want coverage for elective abortion procedures. SB 8, by Conroe Sen. Brandon Creighton, would prohibit the inclusion of elective abortion coverage in employer-offered, government or ACA exchange insurance plans. Plans could still offer coverage for medically-necessary abortions.

Also Wednesday, the Senate passed a measure intended to combat mail-in voter fraud. Texas permits people older than 65, people with a disability, or people who won't be home during early voting or on Election Day to vote by mail ballot. North Richland Hills Sen. Kelly Hancock says that this alternate system is ripe for mail-in voter fraud, and pointed to a number of on-going investigations into questionable mail ballots, including 700 suspicious ballots in Dallas County.

His bill, SB 5, would enhance penalties for mail-in ballot fraud, enhances protections for elderly and disabled voters, and would strengthen signature verification procedures to detect potential fraudulent ballots. It also requires prompt reporting of mail ballots rejected under fraud suspicion to the state Attorney General.

The rest of the bills considered and passed on Wednesday dealt with restrictions on municipal authority. First, SB 6 by New Braunfels Sen. Donna Campbell, would curb cities' ability to annex areas by requiring input from citizens in the area to be annexed. Before a city can annex an area, the bill would require that it receive the approval of a majority of the registered voters there; by petition in a small area with less than 200 residents, and by election in more populous areas. The city would have to pay for the petition or election and would have to hold public hearings beforehand to permit public input.

Next, the Senate approved a bill that would end cities' authority to regulate the use of handheld devices while driving. Under SB 15 by Dallas Sen. Don Huffines, only the state could place limits on the use of handheld wireless communications devices while behind the wheel. The bill would end existing ordinances prohibiting use of a cell phone without a hands-free accessory in more than 40 Texas cities. State law already bans cell phone use in school zones and for drivers younger than 18. A statewide ban on texting and driving, passed during the regular session, is set to go into effect on September 1.

City and county permitting processes would be governed by a uniform and expedited state-wide standard under a bill passed by Fort Worth Sen. Konni Burton. Her bill, SB 13, would require all municipal permitting processes to follow the same rules. The intent of the bill is to reduce the time from application to approval to about 30 days.

Finally Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that would end city protections for trees on private property. SB 14, by Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, would override existing ordinances that prevent people from cutting down trees or vegetation on their own land without municipal approval. This bill would not apply to some safety ordinances, such as those intended to prevent tree disease or wildfires.

The only item on the Senate agenda not passed over the last three days is SB 18, by Wichita Falls Sen. Craig Estes. This measure, which seeks to put a cap on the growth of local government spending, is set to be taken up next week.

The Senate will reconvene Friday, July 28 at 10 a.m.
The head of the State Department's diplomatic security bureau has resigned and will leave his post on Thursday, leaving the two top positions vacant for the foreseeable future in the bureau in charge of embassy security around the world.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Bill Miller announced his resignation and retirement from the State Department on July 19 in a note to staff, which I obtained. His last day of service will be July 27. Miller has been the top official in the Diplomatic Security Service since January, when the Senate-confirmed assistant secretary Gregory Starr was asked to resign.

Starr had been singled out by Republicans during the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Starr was asked to resign after President Donald Trump's inauguration, along with a host of other senior State Department officials. This is common at the beginning of a new administration, although traditionally officials are not pushed out until replacements are found.

Miller, whose official title was principal deputy assistant secretary of state and director of the Diplomatic Security Service, resigned voluntarily and was not asked to resign or fired, a senior State Department official told me. He has been a member of the Diplomatic Security Service since 1987.

"It is with extraordinary sadness, counterbalanced by extreme pride, and with the deepest sense of humility, that I announce my retirement from the Department of State and the Diplomatic Security Service," he told colleagues in his note. "I have been blessed throughout my life in so many ways. I count among those blessings the opportunity to SERVE with all of you."

Christian Schurman, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, will assume the role of acting assistant secretary for the bureau, said Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman.

"We thank [Miller] for his leadership and dedicated service, and we wish him the very best," she said.

Sources close to Miller told me that he had been hoping to be appointed to lead the Diplomatic Security Service on a permanent basis but was informed that he would not be getting the job. Two sources familiar with the situation said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to bring on Michael Evanoff, who was the head of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's personal security detail when she led the State Department.

Rice has been advising Tillerson and was part of the effort to persuade President Donald Trump to choose him for secretary of state. Evanoff declined to comment.

Miller's departure is only the latest in a string of senior State Department officials who have decided to resign or retire since Trump came into office. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones will retire early next month and move to the Cohen Group, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm.

Several other senior State Department officials and Foreign Service officers have decided to retire rather than take on new posts. And while turnover is natural with any change of administration, several officials also say that there is broad frustration in the department's senior ranks with Tillerson and his approach to running the department.

"If no one is going to give you the job but they are going to ask you to crush your team with budget cuts and impossible tasks, why would you stay?" said one recently departed senior State Department official. "The thing this administration doesn't get about the foreign service and State in general is that our skills and expertise are very marketable in the private sector. We have choices."

Besides Tillerson, only one senior State Department political appointee and a handful of ambassadors are in place. Zero assistant secretaries of state have been confirmed. Tillerson has reportedly clashed with the White House on personnel issues, including his initial desire to appoint Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to serve permanently.

BuzzFeed reported that Tillerson is now favoring former Treasury Department official Olin Wethington for that post. Administration officials told me the White House prefers Michael DeSombre, a mergers and acquisitions attorney in Hong Kong who is "Worldwide President" of "Republicans Overseas."

The diplomatic security post is particularly important because of the crucial role that bureau plays in protecting American officials and property at diplomatic posts all over the world. During the campaign, Trump often criticized Hillary Clinton for failing to protect diplomats as secretary of state, especially in the case of the Benghazi attack.

In addition to protecting U.S. diplomats and embassies in more than 160 countries, the diplomatic security bureau also protects the secretary of state and more than 100 domestic State Department facilities, investigates passport and visa fraud, conducts personnel security investigations and issues security clearances.

Even if Evanoff is nominated soon, it may take weeks or months for him to be confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, the office that is in charge of preventing the next Benghazi attack will have to make do without permanent leadership in place.
WASHINGTON - President Trump has discussed with confidants and advisers in recent days the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Jeff Sessions leaves the job, but he has been warned not to move to push him out because of the political and legal ramifications, according to people briefed on the conversations.

Still raging over Sessions' recusal from the Justice Department's escalating Russia investigation, Trump has been talking privately about how he might replace Sessions and possibly sidestep Senate oversight, four people familiar with the issue said.

Two of those people, however, described Trump as musing about the idea rather than outlining a plan of action, and a senior White House official said no action is imminent. Several people familiar with the discussions said that Trump's fury peaked over the weekend and that he and Sessions now seem to be heading toward an uneasy detente.

When asked Wednesday about the president's discussions of a recess appointment, the White House released a one-sentence denial from Trump: "More fake news from the Amazon Washington Post." The Washington Post is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Evan Vucci/Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Andrew Harnik/STF Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford Show More Show Less 5 of 5









Those who have discussed Sessions this week with Trump or with top West Wing officials have drawn different conclusions from their conversations - in part because the president ruminates aloud and floats hypotheticals, often changing his views hour to hour.

Some advisers have come away convinced that Trump is determined to ultimately remove Sessions and is seriously considering a recess appointment to replace him - an idea that has been discussed on some of the cable news shows the president watches. These advisers said Trump would prefer that the attorney general resign rather than have to be fired.

"My understanding is the Sessions thing ends with Sessions leaving the attorney general job to go spend more time with his family," said one outside counselor to the White House, who, like many other people interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject is highly sensitive.

But others involved in the discussions have concluded that Trump is merely venting with his continued assault against Sessions - one described it as "an emotional exercise," while another called it "just a rough-up job." They said Trump has neither fully articulated nor set in motion a plan to replace Sessions.

The president has the power to make a recess appointment when the Senate adjourns for a long break of more than a week, allowing the appointee to avoid Senate confirmation and serve through the end of next year. But Democrats have already signaled that they will use parliamentary stalling tactics to prevent the Senate from formally adjourning throughout the upcoming August break - in part to prevent Trump from being able to unilaterally install a new attorney general.

Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted a warning to Trump that his committee's schedule already is "set" for the remainder of the year. It will consider judges and subcabinet nominees first, he wrote, adding, "AG no way."

More for you The GOP's cowardice invites Trump to fire Sessions

Trump has long confided privately what he began to say publicly last week - that he blames Sessions' recusal for setting in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as the special counsel of the Russia probe, which the president sees as unfair and a metastasizing problem for himself and his family.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily and was at the White House on Wednesday for unrelated meetings with other officials.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters Wednesday that Trump was "disappointed" in Sessions but also said, "You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job, and that's where they are."

Sanders added, "He wants him to lead the Department of Justice. . . . He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, R, who has spoken with Trump this week, said he believes the president's attacks will quiet down. "My read of him and the people around him is probably, in the end, it will be calm and we'll move forward," he said.

Asked whether he believes Sessions will leave the Justice Department, Gingrich said, "No, no . . . I really don't think so." But he acknowledged that he cannot be certain until the president makes up his mind. "He is really mad," Gingrich added.

Several lawyers around Trump have been urging the president to stop his saber-rattling against Sessions and Mueller, according to three advisers. The president has countered that he believes the probe is a mere political attack - a "witch hunt" and "hoax," as he often says on Twitter - and that he has no legal jeopardy to worry about.

But several lawyers have told Trump that his comments send a signal to Mueller that the president is trying to shut down or curtail the investigation, as though he does have something to hide.

Trump has largely shrugged off these concerns. "In his mind, he is his own best advocate, his own best lawyer," one adviser said. "He's not willing to let the Mueller probe and other events unfold without taking action himself. "

Replacing Sessions could be a precursor to firing Mueller as special counsel. But several of Trump's White House advisers - including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon - have strongly counseled him against ordering the dismissal of Mueller, which they have warned would be a political, if not legal, catastrophe, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Furthermore, Trump's advisers have argued that replacing the attorney general would be a political distraction from the big-ticket items the administration is pushing in the Senate, including health care, taxes and the budget.

The discussions about Sessions' fate come during a period of heightened anxiety inside the West Wing. The president has begun a staff overhaul, including empowering Anthony Scaramucci with a broad mandate as communications director and all-around adviser.

Priebus is fighting to maintain his influence with the president. The former Republican National Committee chairman has privately touted his ability to raise money from wealthy donors, suggesting he could bring in funds to a legal-defense fund, according to two people familiar with his appeal.

There has been tension in recent weeks between some in Trump's orbit who want the RNC to absorb Russia-related legal fees and RNC officials who believe that would be an inappropriate use of party resources.

Trump, who has called Sessions "beleaguered" and "very weak," renewed his rhetorical attacks on Wednesday by questioning why Sessions had not replaced the acting FBI director.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote: "Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!"

The attack was curious considering the president has the authority to remove McCabe himself without Sessions. After Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with four candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, but the administration decided to stick with McCabe.

---

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jenna Johnson, Paul Kane, Abby Phillip, Karen Tumulty and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

---

Video: President Trump turned on his longtime surrogate Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other members of the Justice Department over the ongoing Russia investigation, and Sessions' recusal from it. (Jenny Starrs / The Washington Post)

URL:

http://wapo.st/2gO2ByO

Embed code:
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's director of strategy has resigned, leaving the British government without the authors of her Brexit vision at a critical time in negotiations with the European Union.

Chris Wilkins will leave his post inside May's office in 10 Downing Street at the end of this week, he said by telephone on Wednesday.

The departure means that May has lost both her top strategists in the wake of last month's general election. Nick Timothy, her co-chief of staff, quit the day after May's Conservatives were stripped of their parliamentary majority in the poll. He and Wilkins wrote the Brexit speech in January in which she set out her plan to take the U.K. out of the single market and customs union.

Wilkins, who informed May of his decision last week, before she went on vacation, said he intends to work in the private sector as a communications consultant.

"I always planned to leave but agreed to stay on after the election until the summer, and will be leaving at the end of the week," Wilkins said. "I continue to support the prime minister and wish her and the team well for the future."

He was said to have been dismayed by the disastrous result for May's party in last month's election, and in particular the way the Conservative Party's campaign was run, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

Wilkins worked as the premier's chief speech writer, a role in which he helped shape her vision of reforming the U.K. economy to prioritize the needs of ordinary working people who had been overlooked in the past. Alongside Timothy, Wilkins believed May should have fought the general election as a candidate who would radically change Britain.

Instead, Wilkins was said to have been frustrated that the election consultant Lynton Crosby ordered May to campaign on the promise of providing "strong and stable leadership," a message that allowed her to be portrayed as the establishment candidate, the people said.

The exit of Wilkins -- following the series of resignations in the aftermath of the vote -- is another blow to May at a time when her government is in the middle of complex talks on Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

In the days after the June 8 election, Timothy and Fiona Hill, May's joint chiefs of staff, quit, followed by the head and deputy head of her policy unit. Three senior communications advisers have also resigned since she called the vote.
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United States' longest war doesn't look like it'll end anytime soon.

Sixteen years have passed. Nearly 2,400 U.S. soldiers have died. More than $700 billion has been spent. But talk of "winning" is scarce.

The goal now seems more akin to "not losing."

A resurgent Taliban now controls 40 percent of the country's districts. A fledgling ISIS affiliate is proving hard to eliminate in the mountainous east. The popularity of the American mission here has eroded into cynicism as the war grinds on. Afghan civilians and security forces are dying in record numbers - and more than 600 civilians were killed by NATO or government-aligned forces last year. Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to U.S. government watchdog SIGAR.

Perpetual conflict and lack of opportunity are driving thousands of Afghan youths to either flee the country or join militant groups. Discontent with the government and the revival of ethnic rivalries are threatening to plunge the country into political chaos, or worse. Regional powers such as Iran, Pakistan and Russia advance their own strategic interests in Afghanistan, often at the cost of American objectives.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster are leading a White House review of Afghanistan policy. The United States currently has around 8,800 troops here, down from a high of more than 100,000 in 2011. The debate has been intensely fractious within the administration, with President Trump particularly skeptical of his advisers' plan for a modest troop increase and multiyear commitment to the war - essentially par for the course. Given the way the war is going, many Americans may be wondering why their government is still in Afghanistan at all.

With that in mind, the Post's Kabul bureau asked a variety of people here - from the Taliban's spokesman, to provincial politicians, to taxi drivers, to the press officer for the U.S. military, and more - this question: What would happen if the United States totally disengaged from Afghanistan?

- Navy Capt. William Salvin, spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan:

"If the U.S. & NATO were to leave Afghanistan, it will leave a void that would be exploited by the 20 terrorist and violent extremist organizations that are based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. That is a higher concentration of terror groups than anyplace in the world. Those groups would seek to both destabilize Afghanistan and organize and launch attacks against the U.S. and the West. Those terror groups would also work destabilize the legitimate government of Afghanistan that is fighting to bring peace and stability to the country."

- Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban:

"It will be cause of salvage for both Afghans and America, if Americans withdraw and put an end to the occupation. It will prevent further loss of its manpower and economy and lead in ending America's longest war in history and decline of America's prestige globally.

"From the other side, this will be a means of salvage for us Afghans, too; the war will possibly end here, Afghans will unite and will create a sound Islamic establishment. Therefore, if America's occupation comes to an end, it means that the problem between the two nations will end, too."

- Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies"

"Disengagement would result in the partition of the country into regions akin to 'Somalia' and 'Somaliland.' The Pashtun heartland will resemble the former and and the Central, Northern and Western regions the latter. In this scenario, Pakistan revives its strategic depth by creating a 'Grand Waziristan,' comprising of Pashtun-dominated border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Russia will consolidate its reign over Central Asian states. Should Afghan and regional players fail to manage this scenario, then the Pashtun heartland will revert to an Islamist, Sunni, Pashtun Caliphate where attacks on the West could be launched."

- Hashemi Nezhad, political analyst, researcher and writer:

"Afghanistan relies on foreign aid entirely. If the United States pulls out of the country, the government will collapse and inter-factional political and military conflicts will ruin all the achievements the country attained since 2001."

- Hameedullah Tokhi, lawmaker from restive, southern Zabul province:

"The U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has earned the government here enmity of the entire region such as Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia, who all support the Taliban now.

"We do not want the U.S. to remain forever in Afghanistan and defend us, but to leave in a responsible manner, without any fallout. Premature disengagement or departure will mean 100 percent failure of the United States not only in Afghanistan, but globally. It will be forced to end its military missions across the world and will mean a defeat similar to the one the former Soviet Union faced not only in Afghanistan, but in the world stage. The Soviet Union disintegrated after the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"Putin as a strong leader has been able to make Russia, the heir of the Soviets, stand on its feet, but Trump is not strong at all compared to Putin. If he opts to disengage, that surely will be the demise of U.S. might globally."

- Ahmad Shah, 57, taxi driver:

"If Trump chooses to pull the troops out of Afghanistan, the likely scenario will be another big war involving factional leaders, backed by our neighbors. It will be a disaster for us and also for the United States. Leaving without winning the war certainly means defeat. It will damage America's prestige in the world."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Parents might want to double-check their school calendars next month.

Gone are the days when Texas public school students all returned to the classroom on the same day. This year, starting Aug. 10, there are four different first days of school among Bexar Countys 16 traditional school districts.

The earliest, Aug. 10, belongs to Lamar Elementary School in the San Antonio Independent School District, which is piloting a year-round model, with a six-week summer break offset by shorter breaks throughout the year. The rest of SAISD goes back to school Aug. 14.

South San Antonio, Alamo Heights, and Fort Sam Houston ISDs begin the school year Aug. 21, while the other districts in Bexar County will adhere to the state-required start date of the fourth Monday in August, which this year falls on Aug. 28.

RELATED: San Antonio school leaders unite to oppose 'bathroom bill'

Statewide, a majority of students now attend school districts that got the exemption by becoming a district of innovation, according to the Texas Education Agency. Available since last year, districts can obtain the designation by detailing performance goals and identifying statutes from which they would like to opt out, mainly operational rules such as calendars, class sizes and whether they can hire teachers who lack certifications.

Most districts of innovation in Bexar County wanted the earlier start dates so they could align their calendars with standardized test schedules and community colleges, to give high schoolers a chance to get college credit or let graduating seniors enroll in college summer coures that typically start early in June.

Northside and North East independent school districts, the largest in Bexar County, stuck with the Aug. 28 start date. So did Houston ISD, though 17 of 25 school districts in the Houston area will resume classes earlier, according to the Harris County Department of Education.

School start dates have long been a touchy subject across the country, particularly outside of the Northeast, where schools typically start after Labor Day. Tourism officials and some parents argue that starting school earlier hurts states' economies and makes it more difficult to visit with family or attend summer camps.

RELATED: Two San Antonio-area school districts land on 2017 Niche Texas ranking

Texas enacted its fourth Monday in August law in 2007, after some schools began the first week of the month.

That the exemption comes from a formal designation that is fairly easy to obtain puzzles Dan McIlduff, the assistant superintendent of educational support services at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, which will start Aug. 28.

I don't understand what the difference is, McIlduff said. If the state allows people to do it by filling out a piece of paper, why not let everyone have a choice?

The TEA granted SAISD in-district charter for Lamar Elementary starting this year, with a model that includes an extended school year and a longer school day to enable extracurricular activities with community partners.

Lamar parents and employees surveyed by SAISD choose the Aug. 10 start date, but even the Aug. 14 start for the rest of the district will end the fall semester before Christmas instead of the middle of January, so students can take end-of-semester exams before the holiday, district spokeswoman Leslie Price said.

Last school year, the first semester officially ended Jan. 12, forcing teachers to repeat lessons after the New Year that had already been taught before Christmas  You end up coming back and then kind of preparing again, she said.

RELATED: Records: 34 reports of public lewdness at San Antonio-area schools in 2015-2016

Starting early will also reduce summer learning loss and allow more time to prepare students who will take the third assessment of state standardized tests, administered in June to students who did not pass on their first two tries, Price said.

Now SAISD officials are trying to remind parents that their school year starts earlier than everyone elses. They sent letters and registration packets in the spring but thats not enough when its different from what they may be hearing from other school districts, Price said. There can be confusion with different dates out there in the community.

Banners announcing the Aug. 14 start date went up last week, draped across busy streets. Phone notifications went out to parents and the district has been posting reminders on social media sites, she said.

South San ISD will start the 2017-18 school year on Aug. 21. According to the innovation plan its board approved in April, beginning the school year earlier will allow the district to have more balanced semesters, similar to those of colleges, hold exams before winter break and provide more instructional time before STAAR and Advanced Placement exams are held in the spring.

RELATED: Records: About 2,000 students disciplined for fighting at S.A.-area elementary, middle, high schools

The change will also enable students enrolled in the districts Early College High School to align their high school and college coursework, officials said.

Alamo Heights ISD will start on Aug. 21 under a district of innovation plan that allows it the flexibility to decide its calendar annually, to balance instructional time in a way that supports its course curriculum and allow students to enroll in college courses that begin in early June, thereby increasing college and career readiness, district officials said in a prepared statement.

This year classes start on a Monday, but the district might decide in the future to begin the first week of classes with a shortened week, easing the transition for students entering kindergarten, middle school, and high school, they said.

Houston Chronicle reporter Shelby Webb contributed to this report from Houston, and Express-News Staff Writers Lauren Caruba and Janelle Polcyn contributed from San Antonio.

amalik@express-news.net
WASHINGTON  Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, up for re-election next year, is dismissing reports that the Trump administration is considering him as a possibility to replace the embattled Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

Jeff Sessions is a friend and a strong conservative, Cruz said in a statement. I was proud to vote to confirm Jeff and to vigorously defend his confirmation, and Im deeply gratified that we have a principled conservative like Jeff Sessions serving as Attorney General.

Cruz added that he is concentrating on Texas.

The stories being reported in the media tonight are false, he said Monday night. My focus is and will remain on fighting every day to defend 28 million Texans in the U.S. Senate.

Cruzs name has come up in several media accounts of the search for possible replacements for Sessions, who appears to have fallen out with President Donald Trump over his decision to recuse himself from the Justice Departments probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers! Trump said Tuesday morning on Twitter.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giulianis name also has been floated. Giuliani also has dismissed the reports, telling CNN that he thinks Sessions made the right decision to recuse himself.

Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn also defended Sessions on CNN on Tuesday. I know Jeff Sessions well, and hes a good and honorable man, Cornyn said. I think hes doing what he believes hes obligated to do under the rules that govern attorney generals and that, in order to restore the credibility of the Department of Justice and the FBI, something we sorely need after the last administration, that he made the right decision to recuse himself.

I happen to agree with him that he did, having participated in the campaign like he did, Cornyn continued. I think in order to maintain the impression of impartiality, which is so important to building public confidence, that I think Jeff Sessions did the right thing.

Replacing Sessions is viewed by many observers as part of a potential strategy to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and end the investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russians.
WASHINGTON  Blake Farenthold would seem to have little to fear  except from a certain female senator from the Northeast who was inadvertently recorded commenting on his looks, which she found wanting.

The Republican congressman from Corpus Christi has survived a failed sexual harassment suit and campaign billboard depicting him in duck print pajamas posing with a scantily clad waitress.

He was still re-elected to a fourth term in November with nearly 62 percent of the vote over Democrat Wesley Reed.

So it seems unlikely that voters will punish him for alluding to the possibility of a duel with some female senators from the Northeast during a radio interview Friday with Bob Jones of Corpus Christi radio 1440 Keys.

But one of the scorned senators, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, fired back Tuesday in private remarks captured on a livestreaming audio at the end of a Senate committee meeting.

Did you see the one who challenged me to a duel? Collins was heard asking Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

I know, Reed replied. Trust me. Do you know why he challenged you to a duel? Cause you could beat the (expletive) out of him.

Collins continued: I dont mean to be unkind, but hes so unattractive its unbelievable. She also mentioned the infamous duck print pajamas photo, which is widely available on the internet.

Farentholds office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some media accounts depicted Farenthold as angry over stalled legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. But those who know the former radio disc jockey, computer consultant and step-grandson of longtime Texas Democratic icon Sissy Farenthold, know he has a peculiar way of expressing himself.

In his pre-congressional days, Farenthold left some interesting fingerprints on social media, frequently joking on Flyer Talk about flight delays, hangovers and, in one instance, the possibility of getting upgraded next to the hot redhead in 12B.

His churlish comment about sparing three female senators from a duel, implying that hes too much of a Texas gentleman, seemed of a piece with an irreverent sense of humor, illustrated by his penchant for goofy Hawaiian shirts  a wardrobe choice he freely admits his wife hates.

Though the radio interview topic was Obamacare, and the three Republican women who were balking at the GOP health care bill in the Senate, Farentholds critics detected a whiff of patronizing sexism in the congressmans remarks.

If it was a guy from South Texas, I might ask them to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style, he said, recalling the 1804 duel in which then-Vice President Aaron Burr killed former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.

Farenthold didnt name the holdouts, but Congress watchers know who they are, even if theyre not all from the Northeast: Collins, along with Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Collins and Murkowski cast the only GOP votes against a procedural motion to advance the GOP health care bill later Tuesday.

Regardless of how the health care bill ultimately fares in the Senate, few political observers believe that Farenthold has hurt himself in his conservative Texas district, notwithstanding a light-hearted reference to gun violence that some found unseemly given recent attacks on Washington lawmakers.

His district has been targeted in a Democratic redistricting case, but that is unlikely to threaten him in the foreseeable future.

He supported Donald Trump in the 2016 elections because he thought he would shake things up. Farenthold knows what its like to be inside the shaker, and so far  in four elections  he has always come out ahead.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

If you think its hot now, San Antonio, just wait until the weekend.

Forecasters are predicting temperatures will climb even higher into the triple digits by Saturday, when the high could reach 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures have been 100 degrees or above every day since July 20.

Theres a large ridge of high pressure really across all of the Southern and Western U.S., NWS meteorologist Eric Platt said. Thats whats helping to bring the heat.

Saturdays high could break a 71-year-old record. Platt said the highest temperature recorded in San Antonio for July 29 was 103 degrees in 1946.

The heat and lack of rainfall are also drying out the region. San Antonio has received only 0.15 inches of rain so far in July, according to NWS data.

Most of Bexar County and its neighboring counties to the northeast are now in moderate drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map.

On Tuesday, Bexar County commissioners voted to institute a ban on open burning, citing 650 grass fires so far this year.

Outdoor watering remains restricted to once a week as the Edwards Aquifer pool below San Antonio continues dropping. The level of the J-17 monitoring well reached 654.5 feet above mean sea level Tuesday.

Temperatures could ease slightly to 99 degrees by Monday, according to the NWS, which is predicting scattered thunderstorms across South Central Texas on Sunday and Monday.

Catholic Charities is asking for more donations of 20-inch box fans to help the elderly residents who dont have air conditioning. Fans can be donated at any San Antonio fire station.

To avoid overheating: drink plenty of fluids, wear loose-fitting, lightweight, light-colored clothing, get out of the sun as often as possible, use sunscreen and gradually acclimate to the heat.

BGibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
A San Antonio man will be 106 years old before he is eligible for parole after a state district judge sentenced him to two life terms in the deaths of three men.

Frank Campos was 44 years old when Beeville police arrested him on a capital murder warrant out of San Antonio in the execution-style shootings of two men in 2015.

San Antonio police officers found the bodies of Michael Oliver Otten, 52, and Stephen Anthony Ream, 48, a little before noon Jan. 16, 2015, in the garage of a residence in the 400 block of Linda Drive on the North Side. They had been shot multiple times in the head and back, according to court documents.

Police said at the time that Campos, Otten, Ream and another man argued at the home, Campos left and returned with a gun and shot the men.

Beeville police took Campos into custody after he called 911 and said he had committed crimes in San Antonio and wanted to turn himself in.

While discussing the garage deaths, Campos also told authorities about an unrelated case. He told police he was responsible for the death of Stephen A. Vazquez, 33, who died Feb. 21, 2014, from a gunshot wound to the head. That case had run cold until he confessed, according to court documents.

Initially charged with two counts of capital murder, Campos, now 46, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder in the deaths of Otten and Ream, as part of the agreement. Campos also pleaded guilty to killing Vazquez.

Capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Murder is a first-degree felony, punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison. State District Judge Jefferson Moore sentenced Campos on Monday to two life sentences and stacked them, meaning that Campos would have to serve at least 60 years before he is eligible for parole.

ezavala@express-news.net

Twitter: @elizabeth2863
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A San Antonio police officer is out of surgery and expected to make a full recovery after being shot in the stomach and leg during a struggle with a suspect on the Northwest side.

Officer Nathan Becerra, a four year veteran of the department, remains at University Hospital.

Govonie Luis Casiano, 26, was killed during the struggle, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner. He died from multiple gunshot wounds.

One other person, 27-year-old Dennis Moran, was arrested on charges of attempted capital murder, evading arrest, felon in possession of a fire arm and resisting arrest. He also had an outstanding warrant, police said.

A third person in a vehicle with the two suspects was not charged with anything and was released.

The other officer with Becerra at the time of the shooting, Officer Michael Medina, also fired his weapon, according to SAPD. He has been with the department for just under one year and serves on West Patrol. He will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

RELATED: SAPD: Robbery suspect killed, 2 others injured in crash after botched drug deal at S.A. Taco Cabana

Officers were called to the 6000 block of Ingram Road on the Northwest Side for a disturbance late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, McManus said. Once the officers arrived on scene, they determined the incident was a home invasion and robbery.

Officers were then directed to the back of the building, where they found three people in a car.

Becerra was dealing with the driver and "started to struggle," McManus said. Someone from the backseat started shooting with a handgun, hitting Becerra in the stomach underneath his body armor. The officer fired back, killing the suspect.

RELATED: Father: Teen didn't understand risks of crossing the border illegally

Two weapons were recovered at the scene of the shooting.

McManus said there is "no further danger in the apartment complex" where the shooting occurred.

A San Antonio police officer, who wished to remain nameless but knows Becerra, said he "did what we're trained to do."

"Stay in the fight. Just because you're hurt, you're not out. They drill that into our heads at the academy. Fight until your last breath because in this job, if you give up, you die."

The shooting comes less than a month after San Antonio police officer Miguel Moreno was killed and officer Julio Cavazos was injured after approaching two suspects north of downtown. In May, a San Antonio firefighter was killed while searching for potential victims in a Northwest Side fire, a mile and a half from where the officer was shot.

RELATED: Officials ID Bexar County inmate who died less than a week after being booked

Just eight months ago, the city mourned the death of police Detective Benjamin Marconi, who was ambushed in front of police headquarters in November.

It has been the deadliest period of time for civil servants in San Antonio since late 1988 and early 1989, when four police officers and one firefighter were killed in the line of duty, according to the citys website.

eeaton@express-news.net

Twitter: @emilieeaton
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  The failure of an early version of the Republican health care bill means that Sen. Ted Cruz's proposal to allow insurers to sell bare-bones, low-cost policies next to plans that meet all Obamacare mandates has been scrapped for the now.

The Texas Republican's "Consumer Freedom Option," once seen as a compromise amendment, fell victim Tuesday to one of the first votes in the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

NO. 1 ISSUE: Poll shows Americans rank it at the top for the first time

The vote came late Tuesday after Republicans were narrowly able to break an impasse and begin debating a long-delayed health care bill.

Story continues below ...

The initial version of the Senate bill, to which the Cruz amendment was attached, would have repealed major portions of the 2010 health care law and rolled back planned spending on Medicaid.

Needing 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, it failed 43-57, with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition. Part of the filibuster was based on a point of order raised against the Cruz measure, which still had received no cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The vote was among the first of dozens that are expected this week as Republicans seek to fashion long-stalled Obamacare replacement legislation. Nor was it the last disappointment for Republican leaders, who saw a subsequent version of their health care initiative go down Wednesday afternoon on a 45-55 vote.

Cruz defended his amendment in a Senate speech Tuesday night, citing a Health and Human Services estimate that it would expand coverage by more than two million people and reduce health insurance premiums by more than $7,000 per year.

That projection, however, was based on the assumption that the skimpy, non-Obamacare plans on the market would come with $12,000 annual deductibles and $12,000 out-of-pocket limits.

Cruz said his plan would give consumers a choice.

"If you like your Obamacare plans, those are still there," he said. "It just adds new options and lets you decide, do you want the Obamacare option or do you want something else. You can actually purchase something you and your family can afford."

Critics, including insurance companies, said his plan would be unworkable: Healthy people would indeed gravitate toward lower-cost policies, analysts said; But sicker, older patients would likely remain in the Obamacare plans, raising their prices and destabilize the marketplace.

The Cruz amendment rallied some conservatives behind the earlier GOP bill, but did not win over GOP moderates in the Senate.

Nonetheless, congressional aides say it could be revived in a future version of the bill.
Eric Gay/STF

AUSTIN  The Texas Senate voted Wednesday to crack down on voter fraud involving mail-in ballots, ramping up verification rules and mandating jail time for scofflaws.

Senate Bill 5 was finally approved along party lines with no debate. It now goes to the House for consideration.
A person who loved helping others, Mary Monica Boerner McMullen, who died July 12 at 72, was always willing to go one step further.

Obtaining a masters degree at St. Marys University in 1971, McMullen taught elementary school before becoming a high school guidance counselor in Somerset Independent School District. She also worked at Medina Valley Independent School District as a guidance counselor.

After retiring, she developed an active volunteer career, starting with the Rape Crisis Center and later working at the Medina Valley Volunteer Fire Department.

She drove the ambulance, said her daughter, Mary Lisa Taskiran. Then she decided she wanted to be in the back and went to EMT (emergency medical technician) school.

More Information Mary Monica Boerner McMullen Born: Aug. 14, 1944, Minneapolis, Minnesota Died: July 12, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Thomas Andrew McMullen; parents Mary Monica and Ralph E. Boerner Survived by: Daughter Mary Lisa Taskiran and son-in-law Huseyin; son Thomas F. McMullen and daughter-in-law Jacqueline; five grandchildren; a sister Services: Visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, funeral at 10 a.m. Sunday, both at Porter Loring Mortuary North, 2102 N. Loop 1604 East. See More Collapse

McMullen also volunteered at Haven for Hope, Meals on Wheels and Threads of Love, among others.

Raised in the aftermath of the Depression, McMullen grew up in Ohio, one of two adopted daughters.

Educated in Catholic schools, McMullen attended Duquesne University in Pennsylvania, where she met her future husband, before returning to Ohio to finish her bachelors degree at the now defunct Mary Manse College.

Marrying in 1965, McMullen and her husband, who was in the Air Force, moved frequently before deciding to settle in San Antonio in 1978.

Left to raise their two children while her husband was on assignment in Turkey for almost two years, McMullen never missed a beat.

When her children, who were competing as BMX bicycle racers at the time, wanted to race in Houston, McMullen took them and a few of their friends.

I was in third grade, and she took about six kids, said her son, Thomas F. McMullen. We camped out on a lake for a week and raced  on the weekends.

When her children started delivering newspapers for what was then the San Antonio News, which was delivered in the evening, McMullen was happy to help.

We grew that into five or six routes, Taskiran said. Shed go to work all day, come home and help us deliver the evening papers; we got a swimming pool at the house with the money we made.

At school, McMullen cared deeply about her students, especially while working at Somerset ISD.

There was a lot of poverty and need, Thomas McMullen said. She really did good there, enjoyed giving of herself. It wasnt a job to her; she just loved what she did.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

For decades, Justin Herman Plaza has been a place where protesters gather to march up Market Street, an open space for skateboarders to grind and BMX riders to do flips, the site of mass pillow fights on Valentines Day and where Cal football fans rally before the Big Game against Stanford.

Now the plaza is subject of something less physical  its very name.

This week, Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution recommending that the Recreation and Park Department strip mid-century redevelopment czar Justin Hermans name from the plaza, temporarily renaming it Embarcadero Plaza while city policy makers come up with a new moniker.

Herman, who died of a heart attack in 1971, was a driving force behind the redevelopment that displaced thousands of residents  mainly African Americans and Japanese Americans  from 60 city blocks of the Western Addition and Fillmore district in the 1960s. His policies also moved mostly poor people from parts of Chinatown and South of Market.

Peskin said that Herman, who presided over the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency from 1959 to 1971, personified a dark chapter in modern San Francisco history.

This is a public admission that the city made mistakes in its urban renewal policies of the 1950s and 1960s, Peskin said. This is a cathartic and important first step in a two-step process.

More Names that grace our streets and monuments often tainted in time

While the renaming seems to have broad political support  all 10 of Peskins colleagues co-sponsored the ordinance at Tuesdays board meeting  the effort will inevitably prompt a re-examination not just of Hermans role in the city history, but also a debate over whose name the space should bear.

When you name a street or a monument or a park after a person, you are making a statement about what the community values, said Rachel Brahinsky, a professor of urban studies at the University of San Francisco who has studied Hermans legacy. Its a way of deciding which side of history the city wants to uphold.

Even before Peskins resolution there were campaigns to rename the space after another person. One group wants to call it Maya Angelou Memorial Plaza, after the late poet who spent her formative years in San Francisco and was the citys first African American street car conductor.

A competing faction wants it to be called David Johnson Plaza, after the 90-year-old African American photographer and community activist known for his black-and-white photographs that captured the Fillmore district before parts of it were bulldozed.

Ironically, one public official who will play a role in the renaming process worked as a special assistant to Herman in the late 1960s. Recreation and Park Commission President Mark Buell did stints in Hermans office in 1966 and 67 and again in 1970, after returning from the Vietnam War.

Buell would support renaming the plaza, even though he says Herman was a complicated leader who did a lot of good for the city. He said that removal of thousands of families and destruction of Victorian buildings in the Western Addition was wrong, even if many of the units were dilapidated and owned by predatory slumlords.

I would be the first to say it was a flawed approach, Buell said. The flaw was the cultural disruption of the community, that part of the fabric of the city.

He said that Herman was a product of his time. The urban renewal program Herman oversaw  similar to what Robert Moses carried out in New York  was driven by federal government programs offering two-thirds of the funding to rebuild deteriorating communities. That enticement led to the destruction and rebuilding of big chunks of many cities.

Buell also cited Hermans positive accomplishments: He was ahead of his time in hiring a diverse workforce. He personally paid for Bayview leader Eloise Westbrook to go to Washington, D.C., to lobby for increased funds for public housing in a San Francisco that  even in the 1960s  was far too expensive for many people. He also battled hotel owners over the Yerba Buena redevelopment and pushed for integrated affordable housing in Diamond Heights.

Buell also said Herman wasnt operating in isolation  he carried out his duties under three mayors, who had ideas of their own.

There is a lot of blame to go around, Buell said.

San Francisco resident Julie Mastrine, a performance artist who has spent a lot of time at Justin Herman Plaza, has gathered more than 11,000 signatures to rename the plaza. At first she said that she thought Angelou would be an appropriate namesake but became more of a Johnson partisan after learning more about the photographer.

Either way, she wants it changed. It upset me that this place I enjoy so much is named after someone I dont think should be honored in this way, she said.

Meanwhile, Johnsons wife, writer Jacqueline Sue, put together a package of information about her husband and has been lobbying members of the Board of Supervisors. Johnson, who was originally from Jacksonville, Fla., turns 91 next Thursday. He came to San Francisco after serving in the Navy to study with Ansel Adams and in 1971 sued the San Francisco school district over desegregation enforcement.

He said he gets a kick from the idea the plaza might one day bear his name.

I think its a splendid idea, Johnson said. If its going to happen, its good that its happening now. Not next year or five years from now.

I never met Mr. Herman, Johnson said. But I met a lot of the results of his work. Many of my friends lived in those fantastic, beautiful Victorians in the Fillmore. That entire area got wiped out.

David Glassberg, a University of Massachusetts history professor, said naming public spaces after individuals calls attention to places and keeps the memory alive of people who otherwise might be forgotten.

At the same time, he said, there is a logic to naming parks or plaza after something that makes it easier to find.

Embarcadero Plaza is not a bad name, he said.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: JDineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to a new Office of Cannabis and created two big assignments for its yet-to-be-hired director.

The director will work with the citys controller and Human Rights Commission to prepare two reports by Nov. 1  one that analyzes social disparities that may cause some groups to be left out of the cannabis industry, and another to make recommendations on how to keep medical marijuana affordable.

The board laid out those instructions in two amendments to the ordinance sponsored by Supervisors Jeff Sheehy and Malia Cohen, which set up the office.

Board President London Breed suggested San Francisco take a cue from Oakland, where lawmakers set up an equity program that sets aside cannabis business permits for former inmates and people living in neighborhoods with historically high numbers of marijuana arrests.

Given all the supervisors concerns over fairness in an industry thats expected to boom, Cohen pushed for a temporary moratorium on new cannabis dispensary permits, beginning as early as September. The supervisors also voted 9-2 to approve Supervisor Ahsha Safais request to limit the number of dispensaries to three in the Excelsior district he represents. Supervisors Jane Kim and Sandra Lee Fewer dissented, saying it set a bad precedent because it allows the supervisors to do the work of the Planning Department.

The board also rejected a property owners attempt to build a hotel on Lower Nob Hill at the site of an apartment building destroyed by fire in 2010.

The developer 824 Hyde Street Investments, which purchased the property in 2015, received approvals in 2016 for 14 units of housing on the site, but reversed course and decided a small hotel would be preferable. The Planning Commission approved the hotel in June on a 4-3 vote, but Lower Polk Neighbors appealed to the Board of Supervisors, arguing that housing was a more pressing need than hotel rooms.

Allowing the property to switch from residential to hospitality would make a policy statement that we dont believe in a tenants right to return, said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the area.

This would be tantamount to saying its OK to have a fire and change use, he said. It undermines rent control. It undermines so many policies.

Also, Kim introduced a law that would let voters know who is pouring money into local candidates and ballot measures.

Kim, a progressive, said in a separate interview that she became more acutely aware of the influence that money has over politics when she lost last years state Senate race to moderate former Supervisor Scott Wiener. He had a financial advantage of more than 2 to 1 from campaign donors and from people who invested money to defeat Kim.

She said she believes that San Francisco voters are canny and generally mistrustful of deep-pocketed contributors, but its not easy for the average person to slog through a tangle of campaign filings to find all the funding sources.

Her law calls on the citys Ethics Commission to send pamphlets to all registered San Francisco voters, saying which outside committees supported each candidate and ballot measure, and where those committees got their money. It would also require the Department of Elections Voter Information Pamphlet to clearly state which candidates accepted the states voluntary expenditure ceilings. And it would require radio and television campaign ads to disclose donors at the beginning, rather than at the end.

Other supervisors introduced proposals on a wide range of issues. Hillary Ronen pitched an ordinance to name the airports domestic terminal after slain supervisor and famed gay activist Harvey Milk. Sheehy, who is the only gay supervisor currently on the board, co-sponsored the proposal.

Mark Farrell pushed for a citywide ban on flame-retardant chemicals in furniture and childrens products. Peskin proposed creating an impact zone for businesses affected by delays in the Central Subway project, and to offer them financial assistance.

Rachel Swan and J.K. Dineen are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com, jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan @sfjkdineen
There are several factors to consider when deciding whether or not you need legal representation following an auto accident. While every auto accident is unique, there are several situations in which you should definitely consider contacting an experienced auto accident attorney.

1.When a serious injury or death occurred. If you or a loved one was seriously injured or killed in an accident, contact an attorney immediately. Hiring an attorney in a timely manner can help protect your rights and ensure that essential evidence is preserved. Serious injuries include broken bones, soft tissue damage, head and face injuries, neck and back injuries, or any other injury requiring hospitalization.

2.When a loss of wages occurs. If an accident has cost you time away from work and resulted in lost income, you may be able to recover those lost wages from the responsible party.

3.When a commercial vehicle is involved. If you were involved in an accident that involved a commercial vehicle, such as a delivery truck or an 18-wheeler, it is better to err on the side of caution. Accidents involving company vehicles can become complicated very quickly as company vehicles are subject to additional laws and regulations. You need an attorney who has the experience and resources to navigate these complex cases.

4.When there is contested liability. If there is any dispute about who caused the accident, an attorney can help you make sure that any fault determinations are correct. In Texas, civil litigation is decided on preponderance of evidence. This means that a party found to be 51% liable or more is unable to recover damages. Additionally, insurance companies will often dispute liability and assert their policyholder was not entirely responsible for a crash to mitigate payouts.

5.When an insurance company fails to offer a fair settlement. If an insurance company is not offering a fair settlement, it is time to contact an attorney. Insurance companies are in the business of making money  as such, they will attempt to payout as little as possible. If you believe you deserve more than what an insurance company is offering, do not be afraid to seek legal representation.

6.When an insurance company ignores you. Some insurance companies will drag their feet and ignore your phone calls as a tactic. The hope is that you will be so fed up with the process by the time they make an offer that you will accept a settlement that is less than what you deserve. If you feel that an insurance company is ignoring you or attempting to delay the closure of your claim, contact an attorney to apply pressure.

7.Your claim was denied. Occasionally, and insurer will attempt to deny a justified claim outright. If you feel that your claim should be covered under a policy, contact an attorney.

8.When you have questions. If you are ever unsure about your rights following an accident or have questions about how you should proceed, contact Thomas J. Henry for a free consultation. One of our experienced personal injury attorneys will review your case and help you determine if legal representation is right for you. Our attorneys are available to assist you 24/7, nights and weekends.

Contact an experienced auto accident attorney

Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys is a personal injury law firm with offices in Corpus Christi, Texas, San Antonio, Texas and Houston, Texas representing accident victims nationwide.

Our attorneys are available to respond to auto accidents at any hour, day or night. Our lawyers understand that the immediate acquisition, or acquiring, of evidence is paramount to understanding how the accident occurred. Remember, your choice does matter. Contact our offices- we are available 24/7, nights and weekends.

Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry Personal Injury Law. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com.
Check out our latest E-Edition

Accessible anytime and anywhere on your desktop, tablet and smart phone devices. The Lodi News e-Edition is enhanced with the latest digital tools, including RSS feeds, social networking and much more.

Check out our latest E-edition!
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 26 2017

Ra: "It is a great honor to receive an award from such a dedicated and important organization."

Franklin Square, NY - July 26, 2017 - Since he was elected to the state Legislature Assemblyman Ed Ra (R- Since he was elected to the state Legislature Assemblyman Ed Ra (R- Franklin Square ) has worked to provide equitable funding for schools that serve all types of student needs. Monday, his dedication was awarded by the 4201 Schools of New York State with the 2017 Award of Merit. The mission of 4201 schools is to enhance and advocate for the education of students with low-incidence disabilities, which include blind and deaf students. There are currently nine private state supported 4201 schools in New York State.

It is a great honor to receive an award from such a dedicated and important organization who commit themselves to the education and mentoring of disabled, blind and deaf students, Ra said. Over the last several years we have seen education funding increased throughout New York, but many of the facilities that educate disabled deaf and blind students are too often forgotten. I am determined to make sure that these institutions and students are not only recognized, but also funded equitably.

I would like to thank the 4201 Schools of New York State for honoring me and recognizing my efforts to champion such an important cause, said Ra. This organization along with the dedicated teachers, faculty and staff provide an environment that makes our most vulnerable students thrive and I am deeply humbled and honored to be recognized by such a hardworking and dedicated organization.

Ra held a press conference in February with lawmakers from across the aisle calling for equitable funding for 853, 4201 and 4410 schools. Ra was joined by a host of other advocates.
Nature & Weather, Local News, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 26 2017

"House of Representatives passed my bipartisan bill to allow for continued research, public access and permanent preservation of Plum Island."

Long Island, NY - July 26, 2017 - Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) announced that the House of Representatives today passed his bipartisan bill, the Plum Island Preservation Act (H.R. 2182), which would prevent the sale of Plum Island by the federal government to the highest bidder. H.R. 2182, which you can view here, has received unanimous support from the Long Island and Connecticut House delegations, as well as a coalition of over 65 local and national environmental groups. In order to become law, the bill must also be passed in the United States Senate. Prior to the House vote, Congressman Zeldin spoke on the House floor in support of his bill, which you can view here.

Congressman Zeldins bill will commission the Government Accountability Office, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, which currently owns the island, to formulate a comprehensive plan for the future of the island. This legislation requires the plan focus on conservation, education, and research and include alternative uses for the island including a transfer of ownership to another federal agency, the state or local government, a nonprofit, or a combination thereof. Allowing for continued research, public access and permanent preservation of the island, Congressman Zeldins bill, H.R. 2182, will suspend laws passed in 2008 and 2011 that mandated the public sale of Plum Island by the federal government to the highest bidder.

Congressman Zeldin said, Today, the House of Representatives passed my bipartisan bill to allow for continued research, public access and permanent preservation of Plum Island. Since taking office in 2015, one of my highest local priorities has been to protect Plum Island. The current law, which mandates the sale of the island to the highest bidder, is the wrong path forward. Preserving this islands natural beauty, while maintaining a research mission, will continue to provide important economic and environmental benefits to Long Island. It will also ensure that the state of the art research facility at Plum Island does not go to waste. This bill will now be sent to the U.S. Senate. I, along with the bipartisan supporters of this bill in the House from New York and Connecticut, in addition to the 65+ environmental and community organizations in the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, will continue to urge Connecticut and New York's U.S. Senators to get this important bipartisan legislation over the top in their Chamber. We need to get this bill to the Presidents desk as soon as possible.
Pets & Animal, School & Education, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 26 2017

The SPCA feels strongly that teaching children at an early age to have compassion for our furry friends.

Holtsville , NY - July 26, 2017 - On July 18, 2017 at the request of On July 18, 2017 at the request of Holtsville Ecology, Suffolk County SPCA Sgt. Thomas Cappetta provided information about the proper care of animals and enforcing animal cruelty laws in New York State to Humane Education Students from the Kaeli Kramer Foundation.

The Suffolk County SPCA feels strongly that teaching children at an early age to have compassion for our furry friends is imperative for preventing cruelty to animals.

The Suffolk County SPCA is a private, nonprofit, charitable organization and the voice for animals in Suffolk County. We do not receive taxpayer or public funding and we must rely on the support and generosity of donors to exist. Please help us to provide a better life for pets and other animals in Suffolk County. Donations can be mailed to: Suffolk County SPCA, P.O. Box 6100, Hauppauge, NY 11788-0099 or by logging onto our website: www.suffolkcountyspca.org
Hezbollah sniper team in western Qalamoun, Syria near Jurud Arsal

As Hezbollah continues to advance in the Jurud Arsal area of Lebanon, it has issued an ultimatum to the Sunni jihadists who remain. Hezbollahs enemies are part of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (Assembly for the Liberation of the Levant, or HTS), which includes the al Qaeda branch formerly known as Jabhat al Nusrah.

Hezbollahs command in the Arsal area released a statement Monday afternoon directed to the Sunni militants:

The battle with Jabhat al Nusrah is on the verge of its end, it [referring to Hezbollahs command] calls on armed groups remaining in Jurud Arsal to spare their blood by throwing down their weapons and surrendering themselves with guarantees for their safety. Otherwise, the statement implied, militants will face continued advances by the Shiite jihadist group.

In addition, Hezbollah claimed to capture several more areas of the Jurud Arsal region. According to Lebanese publication The Daily Star, this means that the Shiite group has captured over 80% of the Sunni militant-held area. However, this figure  which closely matches previous numbers released by Hezbollah  does not include areas of Jurud Arsal held by fighters loyal to the Islamic State. That area has yet to be breached by either Hezbollah or its Syrian military allies.

Meanwhile, HTS released its own infographic depicting the battles raging in western Qalamoun, Syria, as part of the Hezbollah-led operation. HTS claims to have killed more than 200 fighters and wounded 250 others from the Syrian military or Hezbollah. It also claims to have captured one Syrian army soldier, as well as three tanks, two bulldozers and three military vehicles were reported destroyed.

The Sunni jihadists also claimed to have recaptured several points in western Qalamoun. Prior to the infographic, HTS released a video of three Hezbollah fighters captured in 2016. The prisoners urged the end to the Hezbollah offensive in return for their safety.

HTS infographic:

Hezbollah prisoners of HTS:

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Kochi: The police team on last day quizzed actress Kavya Madhavan's mother Shyamala in connection with the sensational case of abducting and assaulting a prominent actress.

Kavya Madhavan was also interrogated in connection with the case. She was questioned by ADGP B Sandhya at Dileep's ancestral house in Aluva on Tuesday. According to the reports, Kavya told the investigation team that she does not know anything about the incident.

The investigation team will compare Kavya's statement with the statements given by Dileep and Pulsar Suni.
Berbatov: Do not underestimate Fulham

Article

The ex-Red says United will have 'a problem' if they take another of his former clubs lightly on Sunday.
MARTINSVILLE  Students attending a summer camp at the New College Institute (NCI) last week learned about future career options in science, technology, engineering and math.

NCI hosted the Steer into STEM camp in cooperation with the Wendell Scott Foundation, named after the first African-American NASCAR driver. The Danville-based foundation provides at-risk youth ages 8-18 mentoring, job-skills training and educational opportunities in those four areas of study.

Twelve students participated in the camp, which included hands-on, technology-related activities such as automobile racing simulator machines. They also took field trips to racing destinations such as Virginia International Raceway near Danville and Pit Crew U in Mooresville, N.C., according to NCI Marketing and Communications Director Autumn Morris.

These students are our future, said foundation Executive Director Warrick Scott, who is Wendell Scotts grandson. All of these young men and women are truly brilliant. I think camps like these prove that theres a certain amount of community synergy and a certain amount of education opportunity that we all pull together and work together.

NCI Executive Director Leanna Blevins said the institute is partnering with the foundation in striving to create innovative educational opportunities.

Exposing students to new technology and new places inspires them to think outside the box and consider new opportunities that they may not have known before, Blevins said. We want students in our area to be aware of educational and career opportunities available to them, especially within the growing STEM fields.

Although the camp emphasized learning to use technology, history also was a central element in the instruction. Students learned about the accomplishments of Wendell Scott and his ability to persevere through obstacles and find creative solutions when he faced barriers to his career, Morris said.

Warrick Scott introduced his father, Frank, one of a few surviving members of his grandfathers pit crew. Had it not been for sacrifices they made over the years, the family would not have been able to establish an educational foundation, he emphasized.

Frank Scott encouraged the students to dream fiercely and work tirelessly to accomplish their own goals. He also recounted personal stories from his fathers racing career. Despite being faced with racism and other obstacles, he said, Wendell Scott persisted, achieved his goals and overcame barriers.

NCI and the foundation will co-sponsor Legendary Conversations, a networking and social event at 5 p.m. Friday at the institutes main building on the Baldwin Block along Fayette Street uptown. The free event will include cocktails and panelist discussions of Wendell Scotts trials and successes.

For more information about the event, call 403-5610 or go online to www.newcollegeinstitute.org.
TODAYS WORD is Catch-22 (kach twen-tee too). Example: Fresh out of high school, Billy found himself stuck in a catch-22; he desperately needed a job, but every job he found required five years of experience.

TUESDAYS WORD was extemporaneous. It means spoken or done without preparation. Example: He was, uh, great! Thornton said in his extemporaneous review of The Great Gatsby.

Oak Level Breakfast

The Oak Level Ruritan Club will have a ham and egg breakfast Saturday from 7 to 10 a.m. The cost will be $7 and the menu will include country ham, saw mill gravy, scrambled eggs, eggs fried to order, apples, grits, red eye gravy, coffee and orange juice. All the proceeds go toward the clubs community projects and scholarship fund.

TODAY IS: National Bagelfest Day

National Bagelfest Day was created by the late Murray Lender, owner of Lenders Bagels. In 1986, Lender started the festival in Mattoon, Illinois, home of the worlds largest bagel factory. Introduced to the United States by Polish Jewish immigrants, bagels were a thriving business that developed in New York City. Handmade bagels were the norm until the 1960s, when Daniel Thompson invented the bagel maker. The debate still rages over whether handmade bagels or manufactured bagels are superior. Today is a good day to sample a few and find out.

School Board

The Henry County School Board will hold its scheduled planning meeting Thursday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chatmoss Country Club.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Volkswagen manufactures automobiles, but the company also manufactures another product that has nothing to do with cars. In fact, this other product is their biggest seller  although the price is admittedly much lower than a new automobile. What is the other product Volkswagen makes?

TUESDAYS TRIVIA ANSWER: Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Kings Guard. What is unusual about Sir Nils Olav III? The answer: Hes a penguin. Nils Olav III is the third penguin to serve as Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Kings Guard since 1972. How did that happen? In 1913, Norway presented the Edinburgh Zoo of Scotland with a king penguin to celebrate the zoos grand opening. When the Norwegian Kings Guard visited the Edinburgh Military Tattoo of 1961 for a drill display, a lieutenant named Nils Egelian became interested in the zoos penguin colony. When the Guards returned to Edinburgh again in 1972, he arranged for the unit to adopt a penguin. It was named Nils Olav in honor of Nils Egelian and King Olav V of Norway. Nils Olav was given the rank of lance corporal and receives a promotion each time the Kings Guard returns to the zoo. The original Nils Olav passed away shortly after being promoted to sergeant in 1987; his place of honor was taken by a two-year-old penguin given the name Nils Olav II. A third penguin, Nils Olav III, took over for his predecessor in 2008. On August 22, 2016, Nils Olav III was promoted to Brigadier in a ceremony attended by more than 50 members of the Kings Guard.
Irish rock band The Script will release a new album in September and has set dates for a U.S. tour that includes stops in Connecticut and Boston.

The band will play the Grand Theater at Foxwoods on Sept. 28 and the Orpheum Theater in Boston on Sept. 30.

Tickets for the shows go on sale Friday, July 28 through all Ticketmaster outlets and locations including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000.

The band releases "Freedom Child" on Sept. 1. The Script formed in Dublin in 2001 and since 2008 has been one of Ireland's top selling acts.
LONGMEADOW - A Longmeadow eighth-grader is among a handful of students who will travel to the Bahamas this month for an ecological study program.

Along with four other students and five teachers, Adam Wiatrowski, who attends St. Mary's Academy, will travel to the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas to tag and track green sea turtles, a statement from St. Mary's Academy says. More than 1,000 people applied.

The trip comes after Wiatrowski was selected as a 2017 JASON Argonaut, the statement says. JASON was founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the location of the Titanic.

"The program provides curriculum and learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for K-12 students, and high-quality professional development for teachers," the statement says. "Each student and teacher Argonaut applies through a highly competitive and rigorous selection process, submitting an extensive array of background information that provides testament to their character, dedication, academic abilities, communication skills, and most importantly, enthusiasm for science."

Wiatrowski aspires to be a marine biologist, the statement says. In fact, Ballard encouraged him to apply for the spot on this year's team.

"Adam has always been interested in the field of marine science," the statement says. "His interest was sparked at a very young age while visiting Mystic Aquarium and learning about Dr. Ballard and his ocean research missions."

The sea turtles the group will focus on tagging have seen a decline in population and available habitat space, the statement says. the Bahamian government has made it illegal to catch green sea turtles in the country's waters.

"The JASON Argonaut team will help ... by monitoring the abundance of turtles in different areas and tracking the physical features of habitats that attract the most turtles," the statement says. "Additionally, they will also help determine shark abundance to assess predation risk in different areas."
If a driver is spotted texting behind the wheel, a law enforcement officer can pull them over and issue a fine. A bill considered Tuesday would give officers that same authority in connection with a cause that many health professionals say is just as deadly -- exposing young children to secondhand smoke by smoking while they are in the car.

The Committee on Public Health heard testimony on a Rep. Paul Heroux bill that aims to tighten restrictions on smoking and driving. Heroux filed "an act to protect little lungs" to stop drivers and passengers from smoking in cars where children young enough to use a car seat are passengers.

Secondhand smoke is detrimental to a child's healthy development and exposure is more intense in a confined space like a car than in a home or apartment. Some 50,000 nonsmokers die from secondhand smoke exposure in the United States every year, according to Sana Raoof of Harvard Medical School. By comparison, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Association reports some 3,477 people were killed by distracted driving, including texting and driving, in 2015.

"So many deaths due to cancer are truly preventable .... The most intense secondhand smoke is occurring in cars. Smoking just half a cigarette causes secondhand smoke concentrations that are 10 times what EPA considers hazardous," Raoof said. "Contrary to popular belief, opening a window or turning on the AC doesn't change these levels because the flow of wind past a window traps smoke inside the car. These intensive levels in cars cause irreversible pulmonary disease, sudden infant death syndrome due to carbon monoxide poisoning, and cancer in adulthood."

The legislation would allow law enforcement officers to stop a driver observed smoking while in a car with a child using a car seat, similar to the way officers may pull over someone observed texting and driving. The offender would be subjected to a $100 fine, according to the bill. The officer would not be able to search the vehicle, the driver or passengers solely because of that violation, the legislation states.

The bill wouldn't lead to flawless enforcement, Raoof said, though it could make drivers think twice before lighting up with a little one in the back seat.

Sen. Kathleen O'Connor Ives urged the committee to report the legislation favorably as it did last session. Heroux previously filed the bill in 2013.

"This bill would importantly ban smoking in a car when a child is in a car seat. Notably, eight states including Maine and Vermont have made it illegal to smoke with minors in the car. In 2006 the U.S. Surgeon General released a report, the Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, concluding that secondhand smoke exposure has been linked to adverse respiratory health in children as well as ear infections, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome. Secondhand smoke contains 250 chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic. Children's' brains and bodies are still developing and exposure to these toxins in a confined space such as a car is detrimental to their healthy development," O'Connor Ives said. "Children do not deserve to be prisoners to deadly results related to exposure to secondhand smoke."
Montana Department of Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote today announced $862,000 in grants to nine research projects in five communities to encourage innovation, research and high-wage job creation.

"Investing in technology is a proven way to strengthen Montanas diverse economy and create jobs," said Director Haxby-Cote. "Continuing to fund cutting-edge research is key to ensuring Montana remains competitive with rapidly-changing technology, and is an investment into the future of the businesses that will grow because of that research."

The funds are being awarded through the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology. MBRCT supports economic development by investing in research projects that have a clear path to commercialization.

Since 2001, the board has funded $42.8 million into 234 research projects, which in turn have attracted another $369 million in investment.

Full Story: http://marketmt.com/News/montana-department-of-commerce-announces-862000-in-grants-to-fund-technology-innovation
After revenues came in $75 million lower than projected, the state Tuesday announced severe cuts that will deeply affect the way government serves Montanans, including lost jobs and reduced or terminated programs.

About 20 people will lose their full or part-time jobs and many unfilled posts will remain that way. Other cuts include pulling about half the money in the state fire fund out to beef up reserves and ending a contract with the insurance company that administers Medicaid expansion. The Montana State Historical Society and the state library also saw its budget gutted, which will result in a vast drop in services.

Full Story: http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/montana-will-cut-services-lay-off-more-than-employees-to/article_864e874e-626d-5096-afd6-63940ffbdb03.html
The number of college and university students has dropped for five straight years, to about 18 million in the semester just ended, and no upswing is expected until 2023. What growth does lie ahead will come from places where students are most likely to need more financial aid and support.

Why is Montana in the "Red"?

by JON MARCUS

Full Story: http://hechingerreport.org/2-4-million-fewer-college-students-five-years-ago/
Morgan County Veterans Day Parade slated Nov. 11 Audio Article The Morgan County Veterans Day Parade will be held on Friday, Nov. 11. The parade will form at the Commons, in McConnelsville, at 9:30 a.m. and set out at 10 a.m. The American Legion Post 24 will render honors at the monuments at the Commons, Riecker Building, the Square, at...

A concert with two purposes Audio Article Wednesday, Nov. 30, a concert with dual purposes is being held at the Twin City Opera House in McConnelsville, Ohio. Its a thank-you to healthcare workers, who can attend for free, and its a benefit for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. In September 2021, Rick Shriver contracted COVID-19. He collapsed...

BOE reminder of early voting hours and polling location change Audio Article Remaining early voting hours at the Morgan County Board of Elections are as follows: from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov, 2 through Friday, Nov. 4; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5; from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6; and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m....

Lions Club announces annual Wreaths Across America Audio Article On Saturday, Dec. 17, the Chesterhill Lions Club will be joining with National Wreaths Across America in the laying of wreaths at each of the seven cemeteries located in Marion Township. The mission is to honor the local veterans who have served our nation so their families can rest assured...

Governor DeWine awards $6.7 million for domestic violence survivor programs Audio Article Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has announced that he is awarding $6.7 million to support the work of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN) to offer mobile and health advocacy services and temporary residential services for domestic violence survivors across the state. The announcement comes during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month....

CDC committee vote wont change Ohio school vaccine requirement Audio Article Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA has released the following statement: The CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendation for the COVID-19 vaccine to be added to the formulary or schedule of vaccines for children does not mandate this vaccine for school children. Ohio law determines...
#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...
Burnout rates and physician dissatisfaction remain too high. Work-life balance is the buzzword answer often cited to solve these problems, but incorporating life into a physicians career is easier said than done. Share on Pinterest Is striving for work-life balance causing physicians additional anxiety? The Cambridge dictionary defines work-life balance as the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy. For physicians, however, the concept of work-life balance is not so straightforward, as Dr. Siva Raja from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, OH, and Dr. Sharon Stein from the University Hospital Case Medical Center in Cleveland have highlighted . In the three As of physician excellence  able, affable, and available  available is often the easiest to perfect, they point out. Defining what work time means is complex in modern medicine. Typical physician duties include patient contact, administrative tasks, charting, teaching, meetings, and community outreach activities. The addition of mobile technology also means that work time can easily creep into life time. Even so, the life aspect of work-life balance is more straightforward. Time outside of work can include wellness needs, such as sleep, nutrition, exercise, spiritual pursuits, and interactions with family and friends. However, as Drs. Raja and Stein note, it also includes daily living activities, such as meeting household needs, which involves shopping for groceries, doing the laundry, cleaning, and paying bills. Research shows that physicians work an average of 51.4 hours a week, with nearly 1 in 4 (23.5%) working 6180 hours each week. After factoring in sleep, how easy is it to fit in this elusive time outside of medicine? And should all physicians strive for work-life balance, or is a career in medicine incompatible with this concept?

Is work-life balance just hype? In an opinion article published in Frontiers in Pediatrics, Dr. Arun Saini  an assistant professor in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis  describes the reasons for physicians seeking a better work-life balance as varied and personal. Dissatisfaction, depression, and burnout are common in physicians, Dr. Saini writes. Most millennial physicians are paying more importance to work-life balance after seeing the firsthand effect of burnout in their colleagues and among their family members. There is also a shift in the family dynamics of [the] millennial, as most families have both parents working and limited support from immediate family members. This has put additional pressure on their abilities to manage work-life balance, Dr. Saini told Medical News Today. An American Medical Association survey revealed that 92% of physicians aged 35 or younger felt that work-life balance was important. One respondent noted, We are focused on maintaining our identities and relationships outside of work, and many older physicians sacrificed having a life to be good doctors. Female physicians, in particular, report work-life balance as a significant concern, with the goal of achieving this balance often affecting their career choices. Statistics show an increase in the numbers of female physicians in the United States  with females representing 52% of medical students and 46% of residents in 20182019. However, research suggests that there has been little change for females in terms of domestic tasks and responsibilities. Yet some take exception to the concept of work-life balance. Dr. Andreas Schwingshackl  an assistant professor in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and UCLAs Mattel Childrens Hospital  suggests in an opinion article that the pursuit of work-life balance can actually worsen physicians quality of life by adding additional, often unrealistic, expectations to [their] already stressful lives. Dr. Schwingshackl says that seeking a distinction between work and life implies that life only occurs whenever we are not at work and assumes that life is good, and work is bad. To him, this separation means that there is always a conflict. He recommends a different approach instead. Once I was able to integrate rather than separate all my daily activities [and] harmonize rather than divide my time, not only between work and life but also between clinical care and research, the pursuit of balance shifted from work-life to life-nature-universe. The result was an overwhelming daily feeling of balance,' Dr. Schwingshackl explains. Whatever the definition, what practical advice can physicians follow to avoid dissatisfaction and burnout by achieving the balance that is important to them personally?
A new study of Canadian populations has found that people living in rural households are less likely to be diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease than individuals living in urban households, particularly when the disease starts in childhood. Share on Pinterest A study recently conducted in Canada has highlighted the importance of environmental factors on the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease. The research also shows that spending the first 5 years of life in a rural household is tied to a lower risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) later in life. The study, which is published in the The American Journal of Gastroenterology, is the work of teams from the Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute in Ottawa and several other research centres in Canada. IBD is a group of diseases wherein the gut, or gastrointestinal (GI) tract, becomes damaged as a result of chronic inflammation. The two main categories of IBD  Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis  have both similar and distinct features. For example, Crohns disease can affect any part of the GI tract between the mouth and the anus, whereas ulcerative colitis only affects the colon, or large intestine, and the rectum. Also, in Crohns disease, inflammation can occur in all layers of the gut, whereas in ulcerative colitis it only occurs in the innermost layer of the colon. Symptoms of IBD include persistent diarrhea and abdominal pain, sometimes with bloody stools or bleeding from the rectum. People with IBD can also experience fatigue and weight loss.

IBD rising worldwide Scientists do not know exactly what causes IBD, but they suspect that it arises from a faulty immune reaction that mistakenly attacks the bodys own tissue to cause inflammation. They suggest that such a reaction could be triggered by environmental factors that some people, because of their genetic makeup, are more susceptible to. In the United States, estimates suggest that around 3 million people , or 1.3 percent of adults, are living with IBD. This represents a large increase from the 2 million reported for 1999. In Canada, where the new study was conducted, there are approximately 233,000 people living with IBD. Canada has one of the highest incidences of IBD in the world, and the rates are continuing to rise  especially among very young children, note the authors. In their study paper, the researchers explain that rates of IBD have also been rising in other parts of the world over the past 50 years. They suggest that increased urbanization could be a reason, perhaps due to its influence on the composition of microbes in the gut, particularly in early childhood.

Need to study IBD and environment The researchers note that while an analysis of dozens of studies has pointed to a link between increased urbanization and higher incidence of IBD, the results are full of inconsistencies, which could partly be due to the many different definitions of rurality. They also point out that there has been no assessment of the link between timing of urban exposure and age at which IBD is diagnosed. They argue, therefore, that it could be very useful for IBD research to investigate in more detail the link between age at which IBD is diagnosed and the age of exposure to a rural or urban environment. Clear results from such an investigation could, for example, help researchers to pinpoint the interactions between genetics, environment, and gut microbes that lead to IBD. This could help them to establish the age at which intervention could best prevent the disease.

More IBD in urban population Thus, the team decided to carry out a population-based study, using validated data from official health records, to assess the risk for IBD in people living in Canada, based on rural or urban residence. First, they analyzed the link between rural or urban dwelling and age at diagnosis of IBD, and then they assessed the extent to which continuing to live in a rural or urban environment after birth raised the risk of developing IBD later in life. The researchers identified a total of 45,567 people diagnosed with IBD who were living in four provinces in Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Ontario) between 1999 and 2010. Of these, 6,662 lived in rural households and 38,905 lived in urban households over that period. Based on those figures, they calculated the incidence of IBD to be 30.72 per 100,000 person-years in the rural population and 33.16 per 100,000 in the urban population.
A 9-year-old child from South Africa has been living with HIV in drug-free remission for 8.5 years, scientists announced at the ninth International AIDS Society conference, held in Paris, France. Researchers report that this is the third instance of prolonged HIV remission in a child after anti-HIV treatment. Share on Pinterest Treating HIV-infected children briefly in infancy may lower the need for life-long therapy.

Image source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) The research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that early treatment of the virus in infancy may suppress HIV to undetectable levels, which could reduce the need for life-long drug treatment. Dr. Avy Violari, head of pediatric research at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, co-led the study with Mark Cotton, head of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stellenbosch University, also in South Africa. At the conference, the researchers presented the case of the South African child, who was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2007, at just 32 days old. The child was enrolled in the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) clinical trial, which is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The infants in the trial were randomly assigned to receive either deferred antiretroviral therapy (ART) or early ART for 40 or 96 weeks, at which point the treatment would be stopped. The South African child was among the 143 infants who received early ART treatment for a total of 40 weeks.

Early ART treatment tied to HIV remission Before treatment, the childs levels of HIV in the blood, or viral load, were very high. At around 9 weeks of age, the child started ART, which suppressed the virus to undetectable levels. The childs treatment was halted at 40 weeks, and their immune health was monitored during years of follow-up examinations. Investigators assessed the childs immune health and the presence of HIV at age 9.5 years. They found a reservoir of virus in a tiny portion of immune cells, but otherwise no evidence of HIV infection was detected and there were no associated symptoms. While the researchers detected a trace of response by the immune system, they were unable to identify any HIV capable of replicating. It was confirmed that the child does not have genetic characteristics connected with spontaneous HIV control, which suggests that the 40 weeks of ART received during infancy may have played a key role in achieving HIV remission. Since the initial treatment, the child has maintained undetectable levels of HIV. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of sustained control of HIV in a child enrolled in a randomized trial of ART interruption following treatment early in infancy, says Dr. Violari.
Scientists call for public health action as they highlight the dangers of the so-called overfat pandemic that is currently sweeping the United States.

Share on Pinterest New research finds that 90 percent of U.S. men are overfat, and it warns that belly fat poses the most significant risk to ones health.

Obesity and excessive weight are public health concerns; over 70 percent of U.S. adults are either obese or overweight. But being overweight or obese is not the only thing that we should be worried about, new research warns.

The overfat pandemic is a public health crisis in the U.S. and around the world, write researchers Philip Maffetone, Ivan Rivera-Dominguez, and Paul B. Laursen, in a study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

Paul B. Laursen is the corresponding author of the study and a professor at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.

As the researchers explain, the term overfat describes excessive body fat that builds up in certain parts of the body, and it can affect even individuals who are of normal weight. Such a buildup of fat can still pose serious threats to ones health.

Being overfat may raise the risk of cardiometabolic disorders, which can, in turn, lead to a range of chronic diseases and possibly premature death.

The same researchers previously coined the term in a study in which they reported that between 62 and 76 percent of the global population are likely to have this health problem.

Their new study  which consists of a review of existing research  zooms in on 30 of the worlds most developed countries, as classified by the Human Development Index.
Brain stimulation could be used to treat cognitive deficits frequently associated with schizophrenia, according to a new study from King's College London.

There is currently a lack of effective treatments and an urgent need for new interventions to address these problems in short-term memory and decision making, which are often severely impaired in people with schizophrenia. This can make it difficult for them to ade-quately plan, sustain necessary focus and attention, and remember information, which has a significant impact on day-to-day life.

These so-called cognitive deficits are not addressed by current antipsychotic medications, which only treat more widely recognised symptoms such as delusions and hallucina-tions. Researchers are therefore increasingly looking towards novel interventions and 'neuromodulation' has emerged as a promising new technique that can physically alter and improve the brain's functioning.

In the study, published in Brain, the researchers set out to use one particular form of neuromodulation - transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) - to see if they could undo some of these cognitive deficits in 28 people with schizophrenia. tDCS applies a small, painless electrical current across the brain through two electrodes applied to the scalp. Previous research has shown that this can improve the 'plasticity' of brain cells, making them more amenable to new inputs or training; in other words, it may make it eas-ier for the brain to learn.

The researchers applied tDCS with tasks which specifically tapped into 'working memory' and 'executive functioning': the principle was that 'training' the brain in regions that are typically poorly performing in schizophrenia would be enhanced by the brain stimulation technique. An improvement in cognitive performance was seen in those who had tDCS (and not in participants who received a 'sham' intervention), but only 24 hours after the brain stimulation was applied. This suggests that any changes in the brain and brain cells induced by neuromodulation may take some time to occur.

The researchers also ran brain imaging analyses to determine what was happening in the brain as these changes occurred. They found that tDCS was linked with changes in brain activity in regions associated with working memory and executive functioning, as well as in the cerebellum, a part of the brain increasingly recognised as important in learning.

Although an early study into neuromodulation and schizophrenia, this research is the first to suggest that tDCS could improve cognitive performance by changing activity in the brain. The study had a relatively limited sample size, so a larger, randomised controlled trial is now required to replicate these findings.

Dr Natasza Orlov, first author from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, said: 'It's critical that we address some of the cognitive deficits seen in people with schizophrenia, as these determine how people do in real world settings, such as work and relationships. Anything that could positively address these could be incredibly helpful to our patients and their families.'

Professor Sukhwinder Shergill, senior author from the IoPPN at King's College London, said: 'Our study is the first of its kind and confirms that tDCS may help with some aspects of cognitive deterioration in patients with schizophrenia. Given the lack of treatments in this area, this is enormously important. Our brain imaging data is also helping to under-stand how this is happening, which will support future research in this field.'

Article: Stimulating thought: a functional MRI study of transcranial direct current stimulation in schizophrenia, Natasza D. Orlov, Owen O'Daly, Derek K. Tracy, Yusuf Daniju, John Hodsoll, Lorena Valdearenas, John Rothwell, Sukhi S. Shergill, Brain, doi: 10.1093/brain/awx170, published 24 July 2017.
Advertisement

These are important findings since our previous work shows that the number of very young children being diagnosed with IBD has jumped in the past 20 years," says Dr. Eric Benchimol, lead author of the study, scientist at ICES and a pediatric gastroenterologist at the CHEO Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, in Ottawa."The findings also strengthen our understanding that environmental risk factors that predispose people to IBD may have a stronger effect in children than adults."IBD primarily includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which are lifelong conditions that cause inflammation in the digestive tract, leading to chronic diarrhea, blood in the stool, abdominal pains and weight loss.The study published today in theidentified a total of 45,567 patients diagnosed with IBD; 6,662 of those patients diagnosed with IBD were living in rural residences and 38,905 were living in urban residences from 1999 to 2010 in four Canadian provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Ontario).The overall incidence of IBD was 30.72 per 100,000 person-years in the rural population compared with 33.16 per 100,000 in the urban population."We've known that in addition to genetic risk factors, environmental factors have been associated with the risk of developing IBD. But this new study demonstrates the importance of early life exposure in altering the risk of IBD, and that needs further study," says Benchimol.There are approximately 233,000 people living with IBD in Canada, which has one of the highest rates of these immune-mediated diseases in the world.Rates are rising in Canada, particularly in very young children. The reason is not certain, but increased urbanization may play a role.The researchers suggest that living in a rural or urban environment may change the intestinal microbiome, due to different exposures early in life, resulting in decreased or increased risk."Canada has one of the highest rates of IBD in the world, with most cases diagnosed in individuals between the ages of 15 and 30, and an increasing incidence seen in children under the age of 10 " said Mina Mawani, President and CEO of Crohn's and Colitis Canada."We are happy to partner and collaborate with CanGIEC in the effort to better understand these diseases. The results of this study provide additional knowledge of the risk factors associated with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis."Source: Eurekalert
Advertisement

"Our investigation suggested the seeds might not be the cause as the seeds are not eaten in Bangladesh and instead found the deaths in 2012 were most likely due to an exposure to multiple, highly toxic agrochemicals," said M. Saiful Islam, MSS, MPH, an Associate Scientist at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and the lead author of the study."These deaths occurred at a time when lychee was being harvested and consumed across Bangladesh. If the seeds were the cause, then we would expect to see cases scattered across the country, not just in a certain small area."Islam and colleagues from icddr,b, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based their conclusion on an exhaustive investigation into 14 cases of AES in children 1 to 12 years old that occurred between May 31 and June 30, 2012 in the Dinajpur District in northern Bangladesh. Only one child survived.The scientists discovered that around the time of the 2012 outbreak, growers were applying endosulfan in the orchards, which, the study notes, is a "highly toxic" insecticide that has been banned due to the deleterious health effects in more than 80 countries.As of 2016, Bangladesh was one of several countries, including the United States, that still allowed restricted use of endosulfan. The pesticide was slated to be phased out of use in the United States by the end of 2016.According to the study, 13 of the 14 children lived either right beside or within 10 meters of a lychee orchard. One victim did not live as close to an orchard, but, before falling ill, he reportedly consumed a large number of lychees collected from the same orchards.The outbreak occurred around harvest times, when there is typically an abundance of lychee fruit on the ground around the trees. Local residents told the investigators that it was common for children to play in the orchards and to eat fruit that had fallen on the ground without washing it, using their teeth to peel the lychee's tough skin. In addition, several of the victims had family members who worked in the orchards, which, the study notes, could have increased exposures via residues on clothing worn into the home.. Several families of victims reported the symptoms began with a sharp, sudden cry from their child. Loss of consciousness occurred, on average, about 2.5 hours after the onset of illness and deaths within about 20 hours or less. Other symptoms included respiratory distress, froth at the mouth and convulsions. While it is known that an infection like meningitis can lead to AES, the scientists asserted that the "short duration between onset of illness and death all suggest the outbreak was more likely due to a toxic poisoning than an infection."Islam said physical evidence collected from the orchards, which included discarded containers of insecticides and other chemicals, and interviews with community residents suggested that multiple chemicals were applied to the fruit and in amounts far greater than are normally used by other lychee producers.The study also found evidence that the lychee growers were applying an insecticide that had been approved only for use in cotton, not food crops. "People in the communities told us that sometimes the spraying was so heavy it became difficult to stay in their houses and that the smell would linger for hours," he said.The researchers also noted that clinical symptoms seen in the children were similar to what was noted in an outbreak of sudden child deaths in 2009 in Bangladesh that was linked to the carbamate class of insecticides, which were also used in the lychee orchards.Additionally, the study pointed to a 2015 outbreak in the same region that involved 12 recorded hospitalizations and 11 deaths as further evidence that the 2012 outbreak is likely associated with the use of toxic chemicals in the area.Islam and his colleagues plan to conduct follow-up studies in an effort to obtain more biological evidence from victims--specifically liver and brain biopsies along with a focused ethnographic study that could provide more definitive evidence of chemical exposures."This study makes a strong case for the value of solid detective work and community engagement when investigating the causes of a dangerous and tragic public health crisis," said ASTMH President Patricia F. Walker, MD, DTM&H, FASTMH. "By working closely with the affected communities and earning their trust, researchers were able to identify the potential role of agricultural chemicals in this outbreak. Community education and improved oversight of pesticide use will be needed to help reduce the risk of future tragedies"Source: Eurekalert


Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested

You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends.

Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
Advertisement

"To be able to reduce the reliance upon opioids and other medications with side effects, it is crucial to establish evidence showing mind-body practices like yoga provide benefit in both veterans and non-veterans with chronic pain," he said.Veterans in the study who were randomized to the yoga group attended a 12-week yoga program immediately after randomization. Comparison participants were invited to attend the yoga intervention only after six months.The 12-week yoga intervention consisted of two 60-minute instructor-led yoga sessions per week, with home practice sessions encouraged. The intervention was based on hatha yoga, which involves yoga postures and movement sequences, along with regulated breathing and mindfulness meditation.Outcomes were assessed at the baseline, six weeks, 12 weeks and six months.Both study groups had reductions in disability scores after 12 weeks. However, notable differences emerged at the six-month assessment, with scores continuing to drop in the yoga group but increasing in the delayed-treatment group.Along with those improvements, pain intensity decreased in the yoga group at all three time periods, while the delayed-treatment group had negligible changes.There was also a 20 percent drop in opioid pain medication use at 12 weeks in both groups as determined through self-report questionnaires and a review of medical records.Notably, reductions in disability and pain intensity were found despite the reductions in opioid use and other medical and self-help pain treatments at six months.The trial confirms the findings of two prior randomized controlled trials with non-veterans showing that yoga is safe and can reduce pain and disability among adults with chronic low back pain.The study is one of the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of yoga specifically in military veterans, a population that faces more health challenges and may be harder to treat than non-VA populations, say the researchers. They point out that as with other non-drug treatments for chronic low back pain, yoga may not help everyone or may not completely eliminate chronic low back pain, but reduced pain and disability can often maintained long-term with ongoing yoga home practice.Military veterans and active duty military personnel have higher rates of chronic pain than the general U.S. population, and the back is the area of the body that is most commonly affected.In addition to pain, those with the condition also report increased disability, psychological symptoms, and reduced quality of life. In the U.S., chronic low back pain is the leading cause of lost productivity and the second most common cause for physician visits. Billions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. on health care related to back pain.The team says that given the results of their study, VA facilities nationwide may want to consider developing and expanding formal yoga programs to help veterans with back pain. Many VA facilities already do offer yoga classes, along with other complementary and integrative health programs.Source: Eurekalert
He rules the northern belt of India and is making his own space in B-town. Diljit Dosanjh may have done just two films in Bollywood but the man is already ruling millions of heart. From establishing himself as an actor who can ace any character to winning Best Male Debutant in IIFA for Udta Punjab', he has already become a name that many watch out for.

 Twitter

He gave a great performance in Udta Punjab' and his chemistry with Kareena Kapoor Khan was appreciated. Well, one has to agree that sharing screen space with Kareena and not being over-showed by her charm is something Diljit really rocked at. Soon he left us amazed when he bagged Phillauri' starring Anushka Sharma and people loved his Sufi avatar in the film. And how can we forget songs by him!

And now this Punjabi heartthrob is all set to romance leggy lass Ileana D'Cruz. Now isn't that an amazing news? We bet these two will set the screen on fire and we can't wait to see them together.

This film is being directed by Shaad Ali who is known for his films Saathiya' and Ok Jaanu'. The title of the film is yet to be decided but one got to agree Shaad has roped in a fresh pair and people will definitely love to see them together.

Currently, Ileana is gearing up for the release of her film Mubarakan' starring Arjun Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Athiya Shetty which is set to hit the theatres on 28th July. Also, she will be seen in Baadshaho' with Ajay Devgn, a film that has the emergency period as its backdrop.

 Twitter

Not many know but Diljit was also offered the role that Emraan Hashmi is playing in Baadshaho' but things didn't get materialised. Milan sir is a nice director. The role that I was offered I felt I would not be able to justify. It was a nice role. But I couldn't relate to the character. I felt I couldn't just do it. I did speak to Milan sir after that, Diljit told in a media interaction.

Well, Shaad Ali's movie is set to start its shoot from September 2017 and we bet many of us are already loving the idea of watching these two together.
Is this image from the set of his new movie? Is it some photo shoot he was a part of? Is this a fake image? No, this is actually beloved actor Nicolas Cage, who wore the flamboyant traditional clothing during his visit to Kazakhstan. He attended the 13th Annual Eurasia International Festival and also posed alongside the nation's first lady, Sara Nazarbayeva. While, the whole world was wondering why Cage was wearing what he was wearing, his poker face was proof enough that he was having similar thoughts as well.

 Twitter

If we were given a chance where we could live out one day like our favourite stars, I am sure most of us would pick Cage aka our debonair treasure hunter as the ideal option. We don't think there's anything that this man can't do. One minute he romances the beautiful Diane Kruger, other minute he wears traditional attire and becomes a meme that we won't get over anytime soon. Considering the savage platform that Twitter is, it was hard to let this picture get lost in the ocean called the Internet. As expected they expressed their concerns aka thoughts aka creative ideas in their own brutal way and spared none in the process. Not even the Pope or President Donald Trump.

Sometimes I'm confident, feeling good, content with my life, sometimes I'm Nicolas Cage in Kazakhstan pic.twitter.com/ZD3nwweyzP  Melissa (@melissaalynn_) July 25, 2017

Well, the feeling is mutual.

Cage wondering how all his life choices led to this moment pic.twitter.com/ikjzb77s2V  JMF (@jmfinn) July 23, 2017

Nothing is too much for him.

The things Nicholas Cage is willing to do to steal the Declaration of Independence is truly admirable. pic.twitter.com/GzE22NXjQy  smol satan (@spacebabyBlake) July 24, 2017

Nicholas Cage looks like he's just heard 9 of the 10 activation words and is about to go full Winter Soldier. pic.twitter.com/liabS5MZJ1  Hanna Flint (@HannaFlint) July 24, 2017

People who don't know WTH they're doing there looks like a cool group.

Nic Cage in Kazakhstan added to the photo of "People who don't know WTH they're doing there". pic.twitter.com/eNJSlAX0Fi  Persian Rose (@PersianRose1) July 24, 2017

This person has what it takes to become the next Sherlockeagle eyes.

Is no one gonna address the fact that he's wearing trainers with this suit? #NicholasCage pic.twitter.com/A5Z7Yzc82a  Zeinab (@_Zozziie_) July 24, 2017

He looks like he was just teleported into this body a la Quantum Leap and is figuring out who and where he is https://t.co/1fBbgBvYKM  Damien Mulley  (@damienmulley) July 23, 2017

Fans even suggested some kickass possible story plots and all we are waiting now is for someone to take a cue already.

I'm really excited to see #NicolasCage starring in the new Yakov Smirnoff biopic. pic.twitter.com/LLQOINaPyL  Dave Landau (@LandauDave) July 24, 2017

When you Nicolas Cage and you wake up to find you're the next Tsar of Russia pic.twitter.com/YbTn6J7ctC  Matt Dawson (@SaintRPh) July 23, 2017
The News in Brief

Turkmen Foreign Minister Meets Georgian Leaders in Tbilisi



The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, visited Tbilisi on July 17, where he met his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Energy Minister Ilia Eloshvili.



Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze was the first to meet Meredov.



Political cooperation between our countries is dynamically developing, particularly in the last few years. This is manifested in high level visits and meetings, and I am sure that with this pace, we will achieve tangible results in the future, Foreign Minister Janelidze stated at his joint press briefing with Rashid Meredov.



Both sides reported that the two Ministers covered a broad range of bilateral and regional issues at their meeting, focusing on energy and transport cooperation.



Our countries have special location, we have special opportunities bringing benefits not only through our bilateral cooperation, but also to the entire region, Janelidze said at the press briefing.



Turkmenistan plays a very huge role in terms of the development of transport, energy and transit projects; we talked on these topics and set goals so that jointly, together with our partners, we work on using these opportunities, Janelidze added.



Energy and transport cooperation was also discussed at Meredovs meeting with Prime Minister Kvirikashvili and President Margvelashvili.



The Presidents office reported after the meeting that the sides spoke on the prospects of bilateral relations in the areas of trade, economy and energy, as well as on the development of the Lapis Lazuli Railroad and the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline projects and on cooperation between the Caspian and the Black Sea regions.



The Prime Ministers office said the discussion focused on bilateral and regional cooperation in transport and energy sectors, including through the White Stream project.



Prime Ministers office also announced that Giorgi Kvirikashvili is to visit Turkmenistan in the near future.



Turkmenistan is the leading trade partner for Georgia among Central Asian countries, according to the State Statistics Office, Geostat. Georgias trade turnover with Turkmenistan stood at USD 85.7 million in 2016, with exports at USD 10.3 million (USD 16 million in 2015) and imports at USD 75.4 million (USD 112 million in 2015). (civil.ge)







I hope Poroshenko took towel and soap from Kiev in order to avoid further complications  MikheilSaakashvili



Former President of Georgia MikheilSaakashvili has responded to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkos visit to Georgia on his Facebook page.



I am glad that at last, President Poroshenko has departed for Georgia in order to pay an official visit there. No matter what kind of leaders there are, the relationship should still develop. I do not know whether Petro Poroshenko is informed but the Georgian government has started legal proceedings against me over misuse of money and the accusations also include Services for Victor Yushchenkos Bath that amounts 28 Euro. Therefore, I hope President Poroshenko took a towel and soap from Kiev to Tbilisi in order to avoid further complications, MikheilSaakashvili posted on Facebook. (ipn)




Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey to expand co-op in customs sphere

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are expanding cooperation in the customs sphere.This is envisaged by the final declaration adopted in Baku July 19 at the first trilateral meeting of Chairman of Azerbaijans State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev, Georgias First Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili, and Turkeys Minister of Customs and Trade, Bulent Tufenkci.The meetings participants have decided to create a permanent commission which will help to improve the relations among the customs structures of the three countries, as well as between business and customs authorities in the region.According to the declaration, the customs authorities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will jointly work on the development of transit cargo transportation, invest in the modernization of customs services, and create mechanisms for the exchange of information on subjects and goods passing through the borders of the three countries.It should be noted that two documents were signed during the Baku meeting: a joint declaration on expansion of the trilateral cooperation in customs issues among the three countries, and an agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan on creation of an electronic system for the exchange of information on transit transport by vehicles.According to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee, the countrys trade turnover with Turkey totaled $1.2 billion, and with Georgia $270.35 million in 1H17. Both countries are listed as Azerbaijans major foreign economic partners.
Greece is in favour of the European perspective of the Western Balkans, including that of Albania. But a condition for this European course is these countries' adherence to European regulations and the principles of the rule of law. The violation of these principles by a candidate country means that, in reality, this country does not want its European course.



We stress that building rule of law and protecting minority rights  which is expressly linked to protecting the property rights of the members of minorities  have been set by the EU Council of Ministers as a sine qua non for the opening of Albania's accession negotiations.



Unfortunately, violating every sense of the rule of law, the Albanian authorities today began demolishing tourism properties in Drymmades, Himara, owned by members of the Greek National Minority. This demolition was carried out in deviation from the provisions of Albanian law and before the final court rulings had been issued.



The fact that the demolitions were carried out in the middle of the tourist season, in spite of the legislative provisions prohibiting such activities during this period, confirms that Albania has not understood the demands of the EU Council of Ministers.

Greece and the EU have made clear the European demand that the rights of the indigenous National Greek Minority be safeguarded. The consolidation of the rule of law and the protection of the fundamental rights of minorities, including property rights, have been set by the EU as clear prerequisites for the opening of accession negotiations with Albania.
POINTE AUX BARQUES -- For the first time, a comprehensive book details a complete and accurate history of Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse.

Author Ron Burkhard pays tribute to a local landmark in his new book titled, "The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse: A Comprehensive History Written by a Native Son."

This 438-page, hardcover book contains almost 400 photographs and images. The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse covers the history of the lighthouse tower, buildings, and equipment as well as the keepers, assistants and their families along with highlighting their hardships and courageous acts. Burkhard portrays the personal side of history at the lighthouse reservation -- and even makes mention of a ghost.

With his vast professional and intimate knowledge of Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse, Burkhard interprets documents, letters and blueprints so that researchers and readers easily understand the historic significance of this beacon.

Burkhard's firsthand research includes actual accounts written by the keepers. He also utilized local and government records to correct previously accepted erroneous facts about this lighthouse and its personnel. In addition, the author provides proof that this lighthouse was built in the wrong location in 1847. Evidence and pictures from an on-site, professional archeological dig are used to disprove information and document new discoveries.

Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse was home to Catherine Shook, Michigan's first woman lighthouse keeper; Catherine's husband, Peter, went down in history as the first keeper in Michigan to die while on duty. In 1880, Keeper Andrew Shaw rescued sole survivor Captain Jerome Kiah and mourned the horrific loss of six surfmen from the lifesaving station. This shore-based lighthouse survived two terrible forest fires in 1871 and 1881 that swept Michigan's Thumb area, only to be nearly destroyed by a careless caretaker smoking in bed.

Burkhard closely examined the lives of the men and women who lived here and shares extensive biographies about them; through caring research, Burkhard located and photographed many of their gravesites. These men and women were pillars of their communities, highly respected and burdened with great responsibilities.

Currently, Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse is an Active Aid to Navigation, and thanks to Burkhard's research, the history of this lighthouse lives on.

Burkhard worked for over 33 years at General Motors, retiring as a quality analyst in 2001. In 2002, his initiatives and efforts led to forming the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society.

If you would like to order your signed copy by mail of "The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse: A Comprehensive History Written by a Native Son," you can send a check for $40 to Nautical Images, LLC, Attn: Capt. Ron Burkhard, 9132 S. West Bay Shore Drive, Traverse City, MI, 49684.

To learn more about this book or the author, email rburkhard@charter.net.
BAD AXE -- The Huron County Board of Commissioners flipped its stance on whether a Michigan Attorney General opinion should be sought on mosquito abatement being placed on the ballot.

The board voted 6-1 to seek the opinion Tuesday, after having voted two weeks ago 3-3 not to find out the attorney general's office stance on whether the board can initiate a referendum on mosquito abatement.

The reason commissioners John L. Bodis and Ron Wruble gave for voting against the move on July 11 was that they didn't want to second guess the opinion of county Corporate Counsel Steve Allen.

But Allen, who previously said the move must come from residents, made it clear that he was not offended by the idea.

"I'm not offended by anybody wanting another opinion," Allen told the board Tuesday.

Wruble reversed his stance on the issue by voting "yes" Tuesday, while Bodis stood his ground and voted "no."

Commissioner Steve Vaughan also reversed his vote, and supported the move because he had heard from constituents that they would support mosquito abatement.

Vaughan had previously said that since his constituents lived in central Huron County and away from the shore, they would not benefit from mosquito abatement.

Commissioner John A. Nugent was absent for the July 11 vote. He supported seeking the opinion, comparing it to getting a second opinion from a physician.

Nugent also cited a "reputable law firm" that had submitted an opinion that concurred with Allen's, saying that the board has no legal authority to initiate a referendum.

Commissioner David G. Peruski commented that it would be a good idea to find out whether residents could submit a petition for referendum, or if the Huron County Health Department may be responsible for initiating action, as it is a health and safety issue.

Vaughan said it would be good for the media to get the word out to the public to see what the people prefer.

In other business, the board received a report about investment opportunities to fund retirement benefits.

Colleen Kuehnel, of the Municipal Employment Retiree System (MERS) of Michigan, told the board about investment opportunities the county could use to manage Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liabilities.

Kuehnel focused on the MERS Retiree Healthcare Funding Vehicle, which establishes an employer account for healthcare expenses.

Any funds put into the account would be earmarked specifically for employee healthcare expenses.

MERS would do the legal footwork required to set up the fund, and the board's only responsibility would be to pass a resolution permitting the account.

Wruble said that the county has $4.3 million in a trust that could be transferred into such a fund.

The county currently manages those funds via certificates of deposit. Although it would be a higher risk, Kuehnel demonstrated how the county could get a better return on investments through the MERS program.

The board also:

 Received a letter from four union representatives in the county building objecting to the establishment of an ad hoc committee formed last month to negotiate with three Huron County Sheriff's Office unions.

"The formation of this ad hoc committee has allowed board members' personal feelings and bias to affect their duites as members of the personnel committee, and allowed board members to pick and choose the negotiations in which they would like to participate," the letter stated.

The union reps asked that the ad hoc committee "negotiate with all county unions or none at all."

 Honored Ubly High School junior Haili Gusa, state 800-meter champion with a resolution recognizing her achievement.

 Heard a presentation from Matthew Muir, Michigan director of the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks. He urged the board to sign a letter opposing increases in truck sizing and weight.

 Hired Madeline Vieau-Brown as a full-time accountant clerk/receptionist in the Friend of the Court office with a salary of $29,218.

 Designated the financial institutions for deposit of all public money.

 Approved James and Julie Tyrell's application for the PA 116, the state's farmland preservation program.

 Released 0.65 acres from PA 116 as requested by Wayne Lubeski.

 Approved the Region VII Area on Agency on Aging's proposed FY 2018 Annual Implementation plan.

 Accepted the fiscal year 2016 audit as presented last week by Hyzer, Hill, Kuzak & Co.

 Approved the Family Medical Leave request as submitted by Tamara M. Piotter.
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...
The head of U.S. oversight for Afghanistan told lawmakers Tuesday that the Pentagon's wasteful purchase of untested camouflage uniforms for Afghan forces is under criminal investigation.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said the Defense Department spent $94 million on a proprietary camouflage pattern -- known as HyperStealth Spec4ce Forest -- for Afghan army forces "without determining the pattern's effectiveness in Afghanistan compared to other available patterns."

The effort resulted in $28 million in excess costs to the U.S. taxpayer and, if unmodified, Sopko said, this procurement "will needlessly cost the taxpayer an additional $72 million over the next 10 years."

Sopko's investigation also found that the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, or CSTC-A, could not identify the total amount of direct assistance spent on Afghan uniforms -- nor could it account for the total amount of uniforms actually purchased due to poor oversight and poor recordkeeping.

Related content:

"These problems, Madam Chairwoman, are serious. They are so serious that we started a criminal investigation related to the procurement of the [Afghan National Army] uniforms," Sopko told the committee.

As a result of the investigation, he added, "I am going to announce today that we believe it is prudent to review all of CSTC-A's contracts related to the procurement of organizational clothing and individual equipment in Afghanistan."

The investigation's embarrassing findings recently prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to scold the Pentagon bureaucracy, describing the episode as emblematic of an attitude in the Pentagon that allows poor spending decisions to be excused, overlooked or minimized.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, the Missouri Republican chairwoman for the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, asked how the forest camouflage pattern was selected over other more economical patterns that are owned by the Defense Department.

Sopko said Afghanistan's minister of defense was never shown any Defense Department-owned camouflage patterns.

"He was basically shown only the patterns owned by one company," Sopko said. "The only options we gave the minister of defense were the proprietary patterns. The bigger problem is no one ever did an assessment as to what type of camouflage is best in Afghanistan.

"Basically, what we were told by CSTC-A, and we are researching this right now, is the minister of defense liked this color, so he picked it," he said.

Peter Velz, director for Afghanistan Resources and Transition for the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, agreed with Sopko's report, saying that a "DoD organization with expertise in military uniforms should conduct an analysis of whether there might be a more cost-effective uniform design and camouflage pattern that meets operational requirements."

"We believe this is the best way to determine the merits of the report's claim that DoD may have spent as much as $28 million over 10 years on uniforms that may be inappropriate for Afghanistan's operational environment," Velz said.

The appropriate Pentagon experts have begun developing a plan for the study, which is expected to begin in the coming weeks, he added.

It's unclear if Velz' office is aware that the U.S. Army conducted an exhaustive camouflage study, which featured an operational evaluation of multiple camouflage patterns -- including HyperStealth, in Afghanistan. The effort resulted in the Army selecting Crye Precision's MultiCam pattern in 2010 as the service's official pattern for Afghanistan.

Since then, the Army has adopted its new Operational Camouflage Pattern, a government-owned pattern that closely resembles MultiCam.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., asked what else the subcommittee can do to help prevent these types of mishandled contracts.

Sopko said that holding these types of hearing is important, but so is making sure "tough, hard questions are asked."

"One question you could ask, and I think the full committee should ask, is how many people identified by my office, by the DoD office or by [the Government Accountability Office] have actually lost their jobs because of wasting taxpayers' dollars," Sopko said.

"Send that letter to the Department of Defense ... I bet you no one. We identify these problems; no one is held accountable," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
LIVONIA, MI - A sneak peek inside Amazon's fulfillment center in Livonia on Wednesday revealed an enormous warehouse to be filled with the online retailer's merchandise by the holiday season.

Amazon executives and construction managers led a media tour of the facility at 39000 Amrhein in Livonia and talked about the impact of the 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center and what steps are ahead to get the facility running.

"This represents a first," said Fred Holwey, senior operations manager at Amazon.

The facility is the first Amazon fulfillment center in Michigan and is one of Amazon's largest fulfillment centers to date. It's one of 29 new centers the company anticipates opening.

Totaling 1,009,000-square-feet, the facility is located at the corner of Amrhein and Eckles roads in a Livonia industrial strip. The property formerly housed the GM Delco Chassis plant.

Workers in fluorescent yellow and orange vests could be seen setting up conveyor belts leading to the facility's 96 truck docks and putting together storage racks to hold Amazon merchandise.

The fulfillment center will contain everything from furniture and appliances to smaller items like electronics, said Holwey. Products will be delivered to the site for sorting and later picked up for customer orders.

"This is simply colossal," said Livonia Mayor Dennis Wright, looking around at wide open spaces and towering storage racks that nearly reach the ceiling of the massive warehouse.

The fulfillment center is good news for Livonia, he said, along with the 1,000 workers Amazon expects to hire and train ahead of the holiday season.

"We're there for whatever they need," Wright said.

Construction is nearly complete, which construction manager Todd O'Donnell, attributes in part to a mild winter. Work on the facility began in October 2016.

"It made all the difference, because we were able to work through the winter," he said. "We had a good turn of luck."

Merchandise will take up about two-thirds of the warehouse, O'Donnell said.

The plan is to start operations in the fall, "in time for peak reason," O'Donnell added.

The fulfillment center is not expected to have a sizable impact on delivery times for Michigan customers, Holwey said, because Amazon items are shipped from a variety of sites across the U.S., including similar facilities in Chicago and Indianapolis.

Amazon is also working to build another distribution center in Romulus, just north of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and currently operates a sorting facility in Brownstown Township.

"We picked this site because there was a geographical need in the area," Holwey said about the Livonia fulfillment center.

If Amazon hires 350 new employees by December 31, the company will receive a $2.6 million performance grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund. The grant jumps to $7.5 million if 1,000 employees are hired by the end of 2020.

Amazon said it's looking to fill positions in operations management, human resources, IT, facilities management and finance. Workers will receive full benefits at the start of employment, along with maternity and parental leave.

The company currently has one job description for a Lead Fulfillment Associate on its website. The description said wages start at $14.70 an hour, and applicants must be 18 years old and have a high school diploma or equivalent.
Michigan author Tal M. Klein says of the world he created in his book "The Punch Escrow" - "The idea is that it's a future we can look forward to. It's a little bit weird, but it's not a terrible place to live."

Michigan author Tal M. Klein, whose hard science fiction book "The Punch Escrow" was released Tuesday, plans to read excerpts from the novel at Literati Bookstore, 124 E. Washington St. in Ann Arbor, 7 p.m. Friday, July 28.

Klein and the book appear to be going places.

He has a three-book movie deal with Lionsgate, and and talks are underway with English director James Bobin to adapt the screenplay.

Bobin is known for directing "Flight of the Conchords," "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "The Muppets."

"Other than marrying my wife or having my kids, it's probably, I mean, one of the coolest things that's ever happened," Klein said.

He wrote the book while working as a chief marketing officer for a security company in Palo Alto, California. Klein now lives in Bloomfield Hills with his wife and two daughters, and works as a strategist for Lakeside Software.

"If anybody would have guessed what I would go do, writing a book was probably not among them," said Klein.

Klein's introduction into the writing world was spurred by his daughter, Iris. She wrote her own children's book at 5 years old titled "I'm a Bunch of Dinosaurs," which he helped her publish through Kickstarter. That experience inspired him to write his own book.

"The Punch Escrow" takes place in New York City in the year 2147, with teleportation as the main mode of human transportation.

Protagonist Joel Byram keeps busy "training artificial-intelligence engines to act more human."

In Joel's world, genetically engineered mosquitoes feed on carbon emissions instead of blood.

The plot thickens when he is accidentally duplicated while teleporting to meet his wife in Costa Rica. The organization in charge of teleportation, International Transport, is secretive, and the real Joel has to find a way back to his wife with the unforeseen difficulty of two identities.

Klein developed the imaginative world of "The Punch Escrow" over the course of three years, alongside a panel of scientists. Friends of his, a physicist, a geneticist, a molecular biologist, a computer scientist and an anthropologist, helped guide his decision making, taking into account logical projections of technological advancement.

"I wanted to create a world in which STEM was a basic fundamental need, along with nutrition. You needed to know technology and science in order to survive," said Klein.

At Literati, Klein plans to read a passage from the book and take questions from readers. Though science and technology are driving themes of the book, Klein also stresses the importance of love as a force that moves the writing forward.

"I hope the thing that people get out of this book is that love is this glitchy, weird thing about us that makes us great and continues to make us great in the future," he said.
ANN ARBOR, MI - University of Michigan College of Engineering Dean Alec Gallimore realizes that for many, the term robotics brings to mind fictional humanoids like Star Wars' C-3PO.

While the school has taken steps to advance technologies in developing two-legged walking and running robots, Gallimore insists the world of robotics goes far beyond humanoids.

"Robotic technologies are already all around us - assisting with surgical procedures, making cars safer, exploring our solar system and, as of late, interstellar space," Gallimore said. "They're going to continue to evolve and lead to more technological innovations that keep humans out of harm's way, eliminate our need to deal with repetitive tasks, help our injured get better and live a more fulfilling life, and work side-by-side with us to enhance our sensing capabilities, to name just a few examples."

In the not-so-distant future, some of those technologies are expected to be developed at the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building, a $75-million, four-story, 140,000-square-foot facility set to be built on UM's North Campus, in close proximity to the Mcity autonomous vehicle testing site.

The facility will include an obstacle course for robots and space for testing autonomous drones.

Construction is expected to begin after the project's design goes before the UM Board of Regents sometime this fall, according to College of Engineering Resource Planning and Management Executive Director Deborah Mero.

The board approved naming the facility the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building in April after a $15 million gift from the Dearborn automaker to the College of Engineering. Ford plans to lease the fourth floor for a research laboratory.

The funding will go toward construction and acceleration of the project to a completion date of late 2019, rather than winter 2020.

The facility will house classrooms, offices, a start-up style open collaboration area and tailored lab space for a variety of robotic technologies.

Plans include a three-story fly zone for autonomous aerial vehicles, an outdoor obstacle course for walking robots and high-bay garage space for self-driving cars.

In addition to the specialized labs, the facility will include two large, shared lab spaces, two classrooms and offices for 30 faculty members and more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

UM Associate Dean for Research at the College of Engineering Steve Ceccio likened the design of communal spaces within the building to popular campuses in Silicon Valley, including Google, where spaces encourage people to communicate and share ideas with each other.

"The inside of the building is really designed to promote collaboration," Ceccio said. "The robotics team worked with architects to try to configure the space so different groups could work alongside each other, so there are a number of communal spaces for them to chat. They have structured the building so that you're forced to walk through common spaces from one important part to another, which encourages people to intermingle and meet with each other."

In addition to the fly zone within the building, an outdoor aviary and a larger fly zone is planned adjacent to the facility where a net will allow students to test and navigate drones.

Ceccio said the facility will allow UM to continue to be a leading institution not only in developing the artificial intelligence and data processing, but in the physical realization of those devices.

"What makes what Michigan does special is we're very good at both," Ceccio said. "In addition to the thinking behind robotics, we can actualize by fabricating and testing these devices."

Ford's on-campus presence will expand a partnership that been growing since 2006, said Ken Washington, vice president of Research and Advanced Engineering, and chief technology officer of Ford Motor Company.

Ford's work in robotics will include a strong emphasis on autonomy, Washington said, as well as artificial intelligence.

"The alliance is focused mainly, although not exclusively, on collaborative projects with engineering," Washington said. "Our work with UM in the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building will be centered on autonomy, artificial intelligence and robotics generally, though we will also collaborate more broadly since part of the Michigan difference is the breadth of excellence.

"Our presence in the new building will be tightly integrated with our recently established Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Research team that is dedicated to evaluating new sensor technologies, machine learning methods and development of personal mobility devices, drones and other aerial robotics to enhance first- and last-mile travel."

Gallimore said the building's close proximity to the Mcity test facility was intentional, allowing Ford's researchers to cross-pollinate with UM faculty members, in addition to accessing a high bay space for autonomous vehicles.

That could spur new projects with faculty members who hadn't previously worked in the mobility space, Gallimore said. The collaboration will extend beyond Ford, he noted, with a host of partnership opportunities within the new facility.

"It'll be situated across the street from the FXB Building, which houses our Aerospace Engineering Department; and the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Building, and next door to the Space Research Building and our new, five-story netted facility for testing autonomous aerial vehicles called M-Air," Gallimore said. "And that's just in its immediate vicinity. We envision collaborations with many colleges, schools and institutes at Michigan."

With robotics being a key area of focus for the College of Engineering, both in research and education, Gallimore said UM is growing its undergraduate course offerings in the program which presently focus on manipulation and planning, algorithmic foundations of robotics and autonomous vehicles.

At a fundamental level, robotics lies at the busy intersection of a number of engineering disciplines, Gallimore said, from mechanical, electrical and computer science to aerospace, biomedical, industrial and marine engineering, as well as climate and space sciences.

The new facility will allow robotics to realize its true potential at UM, he said, by bringing the different disciplines into the same space.

"When our building opens, we'll be one of only a few universities in the nation with a dedicated robotics facility," Gallimore said. "And ours will be the most advanced in what it offers both faculty and students, with a three-story fly zone for autonomous aerial vehicles, an outdoor obstacle course for bi-pedal robots and high-bay garage areas for self-driving cars.

"We have some of the best people in the field already," he added. "Now we'll be giving them the best, most up-to-date facilities."
HOWELL, MI - A court hearing in the case of a Fenton man facing second-degree murder charges after a May crash killed five people in Livingston County was adjourned Wednesday, July 26.

Matthew J. Carrier, 21, was scheduled for a probable cause hearing Wednesday in Livingston County's 53rd District Court, but the hearing was moved to Aug. 23, according to court records.

The change in court dates was made to address scheduling conflicts with Carrier's defense lawyer, Howell-based attorney Rolland Sizemore, and to allow more time for the accident reconstruction report to be completed, according to a report from the Livingston Daily. A preliminary examination is expected in September.

Carrier faces 19 felony charges in the May 9 crash at the intersection of Argentine Road and M-59 in Oceola Township.

Prosecutors believe Carrier's blood-alcohol level was "well in excess" of the legal limit for driving in Michigan, and that he was driving near 100 mph southbound on Argentine Road when he failed to stop at a stop sign at M-59 and struck another vehicle.

Carrier's exact blood-alcohol level has not been released. The legal limit for driving in Michigan is 0.08 percent.

Two of Carrier's passengers - Justin Andrew-Humberto Henderson, 18, and Preston Taylor Wetzel, 24, both of Fenton - were killed in the crash, along with three passengers in the other vehicle - Candice Lynn Dunn, 35, of Oakland County, her mother Linda K. Hurley, 69, of Macomb County and Hurley's boyfriend, Jerome Joseph Tortomasi, 73, of Macomb County.

Carrier, Carrier's other passenger Kyle Eugene Lixie, 23, and the driver of the other vehicle, Albert Boswell, 39, of Oakland County, were critically injured.

Neither Carrier nor Boswell had valid driver's licenses at the time of the incident.

Livingston County Prosecutor William Vailliencourt previously said at Carrier's arraignment that prior to the crash, Carrier had been questioned about whether he was too drunk to drive.

He was previously convicted of being a minor in possession of alcohol in both 2013 and 2016, and was convicted of operating while under the influence in 2014.

He now faces five counts of second-degree murder, five counts of operating while intoxicated causing death, two counts of operating while intoxicated casing serious injury, five counts of driving while license suspended causing death, and two counts of driving while license suspended causing serious injury.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder and remains held without bond.
The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday determined that Washtenaw County 14A-1 District Court Judge J. Cedric Simpson engaged in judicial misconduct when he interfered with an intern's drunken driving arrest in 2013.

The Judicial Tenure commission came to the same conclusion last year and recommended Simpson be removed from the bench.

On appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court found that punishment too harsh. Instead, they will be imposing a 9-month suspension without pay and fines of $7,565.54, according to the decision.

The suspension is effective immediately.

The court found that Simpson violated Michigan court rules by engaging in conduct involving "intentional misrepresentations" or "misleading statements."

Simpson "failed to prudently guard against influencing the investigation or used his judicial office in an effort to interfere with it," Justice David Viviano wrote in the majority opinion.

The case date back to September 2013, when Simpson arrived on the scene of a crash involving his intern, Crystal Vargas, who was being arrested for drunk driving at 4:30 a.m. in Pittsfield Township, near the judge's home.

Simpson spoke with both the arresting officer and Vargas at the scene, video footage of the arrest shows.

The court noted that Simpson spoke with Vargas at the scene without the arresting police officer's permission.

"Respondent's question regarding whether Vargas simply needed a ride was a transparent suggestion to the officer to end his investigation and allow respondent to drive Vargas away from the scene," Viviano wrote.

The court decided that Simpson's behavior at the crash scene "constituted judicial misconduct because he used his position as a judge in an effort to scuttle a criminal investigation with his intern."

The court also found that Simpson succeeded in delaying the charges being brought against Vargas, and that he made intentionally misleading statements to the Judicial Tenure Commission during his hearing.

Justices Joan Larsen, Richard Bernstein and Bridget Mary McCormack joined Viviano in the majority ruling.

Justices Stephen Markman and Brian Zahra dissented, appearing to call for Simpson's removal.

"In recent cases, this Court has made it reasonably clear that a judicial officer who lies during the course of disciplinary proceedings is not competent to sit as a judge, and we have consequently removed such judges from office," Markman wrote.

The majority found that "the recommended sanction of removal from office is disproportionate to the misconduct."

Justice Kurtis Wilder did not take part in the decision.
ANN ARBOR, MI - There's been a lot of debate in the past year over issues such as Ann Arbor's deer management program and a 17-story development proposed on city-owned land.

What's going to be the next hot issue in the year ahead?

Candidates running for City Council in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary took turns answering that question at a candidate forum hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party this week.

Here are their answers in the order they spoke. First Ward incumbent Jason Frenzel could not attend due to another commitment.

Stephen Kunselman, 3rd Ward challenger

Kunselman said the top issue that comes up when he's talking to residents is roads.

"Why aren't we talking about roads?" he said. "Why doesn't City Council put more money to roads, rather than just millage money?"

If the city didn't have dedicate millage funds for roads, he said, then the city would have no road improvements at all because the City Council doesn't put discretionary general fund dollars toward roads.

"Roads affect everything from bicyclist safety, car safety, pedestrian safety," Kunselman said.

"We have to make sure that we maintain our roads, we have to fill our potholes, and we need to reconstruct a number of our roads."

Kunselman raised concerns that not enough roads in his ward are seeing improvements this year. See the 2017 project list.

"I've been through the whole ward and I've yet to see any construction whatsoever on any of our roads," he said.

"And if I get elected, we're going to make sure that there's at least some roads in Ward 3 that are under construction in 2018."

Anne Bannister, 1st Ward challenger

In addition to roads, Bannister said she thinks transparency in local government is going to be a big issue.

She said the city has spent a lot of money planning for a new Amtrak station while keeping certain information from the public, including what she described as "secret negotiations with the federal authorities" about a proposed location for the station.

The city has refused to publicly release certain information about the train station project, including certain email exchanges between the city and the Federal Railroad Administration.

"Ann Arbor deserves better than that," Bannister said. "I think that our council members need to know and our citizens need to know."

She added, "We're not talking about national security. We're talking about where our tax dollars are going. And we've already spent $2 million. So if I'm elected, I will look for transparency for us."

David Silkworth, 5th Ward challenger

Silkworth said people's ability to participate in democracy and how the city is developed is a huge issue now and will be in the next year.

"Thousands of people signed a petition to be allowed to vote on how the Library Lot will be developed," he said, referring to petitions that were rejected by the city for not meeting legal requirements.

"The ballot initiative fell short because of technical disqualifications, and Council Member Eaton put forward a proposal asking council to vote to approve putting it on the ballot last November. My opponent and the majority on council voted that down."

Silkworth said residents are telling him they want to have a voice in how the city is being run, and they want a good city government with responsive and responsible council members.

"That is the ever-present issue we have right now."

Chip Smith, 5th Ward incumbent

Smith said he thinks transportation, including the train station project, is going to be the top issue over the next year.

"I think in the next year the discussion is going to be about a vote leading up to a train station, you know, and that information," he said. "That's going to have a lot of people on both sides."

A previous City Council decided years ago the question of whether to build a new train station eventually will be put to voters.

As far as the city not releasing certain information, Smith said the city is using federal funds and playing by federal rules.

"They set the rules," he said. "We don't get to tell them what to do. It stinks. It's not the way that we do it, but we cannot just break their rules without being on the hook for that money."

Smith said he thinks questions about the city's transportation priorities are going to come up over the next year, and whether that means simply repaving miles of vehicle lanes or creating complete streets that are safe for everybody and provide better lighting, as well as better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

"All of those things, I think, are very key issues that generate a lot of passion within the city."

Jaime Magiera, 4th Ward challenger

Magiera said he thinks the intersection of transportation, housing and addressing climate change is going to be the top issue.

He said some things have to change in terms of providing safe, efficient transportation and access to housing and amenities.

"It's going to require some changes to our streets, some changes to the way in which we do housing, and all of those things are going to be very significant and bring a lot of public attention," he said.

He said he'd talk to people from across the spectrum and come up with solutions that do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people in an environmentally sustainable way.

Jack Eaton, 4th Ward incumbent

Eaton said the top issue he's hearing from residents is the burden that taxes place on homeowners.

"When I first started running for office, I heard about our high taxes mostly from people on a fixed income. This year I'm hearing about our tax burden from all age groups, all income levels," he said.

"We've talked about a number of lofty goals that we'd like to take on: affordable housing, climate action, a train station. All of those have large price tags. And so if we're going to try to address all of those, there's going to be an enormous pressure to raise taxes, to pass new millages. So I think that's going to be one of the biggest issues in the coming years is how do we all of the things that we'd really like to do within the amount of money that we have?"

Zachary Ackerman, 3rd Ward incumbent

Ackerman said he agrees with Kunselman that roads are a major issue, but he said it's hard to spend the city's discretionary general fund dollars on roads on top of what's already spent through dedicated funds for street maintenance and repairs.

He said Michigan is still last in the nation in terms of per-capita road spending and Lansing isn't giving the city enough money.

"Which means that burden is on us," he said. "And when we also spend 50 percent of our general fund budget on public safety -- our police, our fire and our courts -- there's not a lot of wiggle room to reinvest in our roads from our general fund, which means we need to be spending our money smarter. And I'm very proud of our new roads plan."

Under the new roads plan, Ackerman said, the city isn't going to just wait for roads to fail and then replace them. He said it prioritizes more preventative maintenance, including patching and sealing before freeze-thaw cycles create potholes in the spring.

"It means when a road is crumbling, we're going to mill off the top three inches and replace that, which means you get a new-feeling road and roads are closed for shorter amounts of time while those orange barrels are up," Ackerman said.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The Board of Directors meeting will be held on 5th August 2017 to consider the unaudited results of the Company for the quarter ended 30th June 2017.Source : BSE

Read More
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

In compliance with Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements), Regulations, 2015 please find attached the details regarding the proceedings of the 98th Annual General Meeting (AGM), of the Company held on Tuesday, 25th July, 2017 at 3.00 p.m. at the Kala Mandir, Sangit Kala Mandir Trust, 48, Shakespeare Sarani, Kolkata 700017.Further to the above, pursuant to Regulation 44(3) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements), Regulations, 2015 we are submitting herewith the details regarding the voting results of the business transacted at the AGM in the prescribed format. We are also enclosing the consolidated report of the Scrutinizer on e-voting and voting through ballot form at the AGM.Source : BSE

Read More
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Battle lines are drawn yet again between large incumbent telecom operators and disruptive recent entrant Jio (owned by Reliance Industries). This time the dispute is over interconnect usage charge (IUC) or mobile interconnect charge (MTC), a charge that is paid by the service provider whose subscriber makes the call to the service provider in whose network the call is received. So if a caller of Idea calls a subscriber of Airtel, Idea pays Airtel 14 paise/min. Idea recovers this amount from its subscriber; the receiving party doesnt pay anything in India.

IUC is important not only from the perspective of operators as it gives them a revenue stream, but it is also a key component of voice tariffs and, therefore, also has a bearing on consumers monthly bills. This underscores the importance of the battle between the incumbent telecom operators and Jio.

In order to understand why smaller operators are asking for lower IUC while incumbents are asking for a higher charge, it is important to understand how the termination charge can be used as a lever by operators to change the competitive dynamics.

For instance, if mobile termination rates are too high then smaller operators  a group that currently includes Jio -- will never be able to attract new customers as costs would be high. A Trai consultation paper to review interconnect charge in 2014 highlighted this point and said: A large network may also seek to foreclose entry by charging high interconnection prices, which eliminates or weakens smaller competitors for the same pool of retail customers. In addition, a large network will, other things being equal, benefit from high interconnection charges which enhance its revenues. Smaller operators point out that globally IUC has been consistently coming down as a percentage of voice tariffs.

In fact, the share of IUC in overall voice tariff is between 1-13 percent in other global markets. In India, IUC accounts for 45 percent of voice tariff assuming voice tariffs are at 31 paise per minute. That said, its worth noting that in absolute terms Indias voice tariffs and interconnect charges are the lowest in the world and the share of IUC has been rising because tariffs have been driven down by competition.

Interconnect charges have never been an easy subject for Indias regulators and all decisions to lower them have been challenged by the incumbents in courts. Interconnect usage charge was last reviewed and lowered to 14 paise/min from 20 paise/min in 2015, when Rahul Khullar was the Trai Chairman.

The regulator has now decided to review the termination charge again to evaluate if Bill and Keep (BAK, a regime where each operator bills its customers and keeps the money) can be implemented. Most regulators across the world have moved to a regime of low interconnect charges or BAK; BAK works best where there is symmetry in traffic or there are two operators, like in the United States.

The technological reason for IUC to fall is a change in how voice traffic is carried on mobile networks. As telcos migrate to the next generation IP (internet protocol) networks, the cost of carrying voice traffic is zero as carrying voice in the form of data packets requires little bandwidth.

The IP network carries voice on LTE (VoLTE) or voice over internet protocol (VoIP). In 2014 when the telecom regulator had discussed the migration from GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) to VoLTE, the assessment was that the time was not right and operators needed time. Now with Jio having launched its voice services on VoLTE and other operators looking to launch later this year, the argument to lower termination charges sounds logical.

Voice and SMS business for telecom operators across the world have been on the wane for years thanks to over-the-top (OTT) apps like WhatsApp and Skype. Between 2012 and 2018, global telcos are expected to lose USD 386 billion in revenues, says Fortune magazine. In several world markets voice is already free; this has been enabled by telcos moving to VoIP or VoLTE. The same would have played out in India, Jio or no Jio, if data and handset prices had been allowed to fall.

At Rs 250/GB of data and expensive handsets, data penetration did not pick up until Jio shook things up. There is plenty of demand for data in India: currently the country uses 120 crore GB a month, up eight times from last years figure. A higher IUC on voice would skew Jios economics and affect its financials.

Jio has launched its services on an IP network and voice services are offered through LTE or VoLTE. However, when the call terminates on GSM networks, subscribers of those other networks can receive the call even if they don't have VoLTE handsets. Incumbent telecom operators want interconnect charges be doubled from the current 14 paise/minute as the asymmetry in voice traffic has increased substantially after the launch of Reliance Jios services and announced free voice services. With the increase in traffic, the incumbents are claiming that they need to make additional investments to support a tsunami of traffic.

However, this argument of incumbents telecom, experts say, is hard to comprehend because they are asking for higher charges to support legacy technology. An industry veteran asks: "Why should consumers pay for an inefficient, legacy technology?" If the interconnect charges are high then Jio would not be able to price its services attractively and take data to remote parts of the country even if its own cost of voice is significantly lower than those of the incumbents. Jio is seeking to change the industrys dynamics by offering voice free and push data usage. If Jio has to offer services at attractive rates, then it needs to also bring down costs and IUC is a big component of its cost structure. It is for this reason the Jio is arguing for either a very low mobile termination charge or BAK.

Industry experts believe that incumbents will find it very hard to justify higher interconnect charges only so that operators can support legacy 2G networks. Former regulators and telecom experts agree that incumbents demand higher IUC when networks are moving to IP and voice will be delivered on VoLTE is rather strange.

A very senior retired government official, who was closely associated with the sector, says Jios argument for zero IUC is valid if networks are moving to VoLTE as the cost of carrying voice is negligible or zero on such IP networks. Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have talked themselves into a tough spot by announcing a shift to VoLTE and asking for higher charges to support an outdated technology.

At a simplistic level, voice delivered through IP is very different from 2G. According to some estimates, voice requires 18 kbps throughput which is equal to less than 0.13 MB per minute data equivalent. With data prices falling to Rs 10/GB this translates into 0.13 paise per minute. An IUC of 14 paise per minute would amount to substantially high per GB rate. The incumbents are also asking for a floor price for voice; this militates against the broader national aim of getting the best prices for consumers.

Industry stalwarts claim that incumbents want to restrict Jio by ratcheting up interconnect charges because Jio is well placed to offer voice and data services across India, as it has spectrum in the sub-1 Ghz band (850 Mhz), while incumbents dont have it in the sub-1 Ghz band yet. For VoLTE sub-1 Ghz spectrum is critical. This means that if Airtel, Vodafone or Idea have to launch VoLTE it would be on 1800 Mhz or 2300 Mhz, which are not very efficient for launch of voice over LTE. So while incumbents would be able to offer voice on GSM technology in rural areas, delivering data would take them longer. Jio, on the other, hand can offer voice and data in the remotest part of the country as it has built a network that is capable of delivering that.

Experts argue that while the regulator may find it hard to justify BAK, mobile termination charge can only go down from here as the shift in technology has driven down costs for voice, too. Globally, the move is towards unlimited voice and data: Telcos are moving to speed-based pricing instead of per GB and per minute rates.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.)
Mitessh Thakkar of miteshthacker.com told CNBC-TV18, "Apollo Tyres was buzzing nicely with good pricing volume action. It is a buy with a stop of Rs 258 and look for target of Rs 285. I would want to be aggressive once we get past Rs 266 levels. The second stock on my list is Indiabulls Housing. It was a stock which I had covered yesterday as well, good reaction with the results, fresh swing high, so buy with a stop at Rs 1,170, look for Rs 1,265 kind of a target."

"The solitary sell call, which I have is Ramco Cements, slightly illiquid but the stock is clearly breaking below key levels and a negative chart structure is what I can observe. So I would sell with a stop at Rs 688 for target of Rs 625."

"Two more buy calls, UPL is a swing breakout buy, keep a stop at Rs 864, look for target of Rs 925 and Chennai Petroleum had a good candlestick pattern. So I would buy that with a stop at Rs 389 for target of Rs 416," he added.
Meta layoffs | Why Zuckerberg's Metaverse bet has proven to be a bit too costly
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, the Indian unit of British drug giant GSK Tuesday said it expected to close the sale of its 60-acre land parcel in Thane, Maharashtra by the end of December.

The company said it has received 5-6 bids from prospective buyers and the property committee set up by the board is evaluating the bids.

We are trying to extract the maximum value, said Deepak Parekh, chairman of GlaxoSmithKline at companys annual general meeting.

In 2012, GlaxoSmithKline closed its factory located on the land that housed an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing unit. The plant had been functional since 1961.

The sale of Thane land could fetch the company around Rs 1,500 to 1,600 crore.

Its an industrial land so there is a fair amount of payment to be made for conversion from industrial to residential, Parekh said.

Selling the land parcel in Thane hasnt been easy for GlaxoSmithKline due to numerous government clearance issues including urban land ceiling (ULC) clearance, conversion from industrial to residential land, labour NOC (no-objection certificate), among others.

In April the Mint newspaper reported GlaxoSmithKline cancelled bids to sell its Thane land parcel for around Rs 1,500 crore, quoting sources. That was the second time it scrapped the sale, after attempting it first in 2014.

Large Mumbai builders including Oberoi Realty, Piramal Realty and Wadhwa Group were interested in the plot, but the deal, considered one of the largest in value terms in the last three years, failed as buyers, wary of pending government permissions, were not willing to pay what GSK wanted, Mint went on to say quoting its sources.

The company said sale of its 80-acre land parcel in Bengaluru could take a hit, if the government goes ahead with proposed green zone implementation in that area.

We understand from the local government that they are trying to make it a free zone or green zone, in which case we dont get any value, Parekh said, adding, So we are still working with the government."

Currently, the company is working on the remediation of the land. It still take couple of years before we can sell if the government gives us permission, Parekh said.

The Bengaluru property is expected to fetch the company anywhere between Rs 1,200  Rs 1,500 crore.

GlaxoSmithKline is investing Rs 1,000 crore in a new state-of-the-art pharmaceutical factory in Vemgal, Karnataka, which is expected to be completed by end of 2018. The facility when completed will produce more than 8 billion tablets and 1 billion capsules per year.

GlaxoSmithKline has earlier sold its properties in India including office premises at Cunnigham Road in Bangalore to Dawat-E-Hadiyah Trust of Mumbai, for a consideration of Rs 23.10 crore.

The company had sold another plot at Worli in Mumbai for Rs 107.60 crore to I-Ven Realty in 2004.
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL) has not yet taken any decision on accepting the proposal made by Tata Power and Adani Power offering to sell 51 percent equity stake in the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) for as low as a rupee.

CNBC-TV18 has now learnt that the second round of deliberations amongst the stakeholders will take place once NTPC submits its technical assessment report for the Gujarat-based power plants. NTPC will submit its report soon.

The stakeholders are still exploring the legal tenability of the assets on offer and that they will be taken over by the banks once the decision is taken.

The lead bankers for these two projects are SBI, Axis Bank and Canara Bank. While debt for Adani Power's Mundra units stands at about Rs 28,700 crore with losses of about Rs 7,744 crore, Tata Power's Mundra units' debt is close to Rs 10,159 crore with Rs 6,457 crore as losses.

The debts of these companies-- Adani Power stand around Rs 28,700 crore with losses of Rs 7,744 crore and for Tata Power, the debt stands at Rs 10,159 crore and Rs 6,457 crore as losses for the companys Mundra Project.

Mundra project of Tata Power is a UMPP and these discoms (GUVNL) will take a decision based on the commercial viability of these projects as well as legally if it is allowed to take the contract.
Cement

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

CK Birla group firm Orient Cement Ltd today reported a net profit of Rs 38.92 crore in the first quarter ended on June 30, 2017.

The company had posted a net loss of Rs 7.56 crore in the same period last fiscal, Orient Cement Ltd said in a BSE filing. Revenue from operations during the period under review was at Rs 656.73 crore as against Rs 505.21 crore in the year-ago period, up 30 per cent.

During the quarter, the company signed definitive agreement for acquisition of 74 per cent shares of Bhilai Jaypee Cement from Jaiprakash Associates and its nominees for an enterprise value of Rs 1,450 crore.

The company also inked similar pact for the business transfer of Nigrie Cement Grinding unit of Jayprakash Power Ventures Ltd at an enterprise value Rs 496 crore, it added.

Shares of Orient Cement Ltd were trading at Rs 160.85 apiece in the afternoon trade, up 0.09 per cent from the previous close on BSE.
Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited (AIC) is a government-owned company that offers agriculture insurance schemes to those in need.

The company was formed in 2003 after union finance minister Yashwant Sinha announced in his budget speech that a new corporation for agriculture insurance needs to be set up in order to serve farmers better.

Just like Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) offers insurance schemes pertaining to securing an individual's life, AIC is the implementing agency appointed by the government to offer insurance schemes that help secure earnings and yields of farmers.

Schemes offered by AIC

AIC offers area-based crop insurance schemes in over 500 districts across the country. These schemes are intended to serve farmers based on where he cultivates his crop and which crop is being cultivated.

For instance, crops such as tapioca and pineapple can only be grown in Kerala. Hence, the crop insurance plan offered to farmers from Kerala would be different from what is offered to other states, as the crops grown there are different.

However, for widely-grown crops like paddy, the company offers the same insurance scheme across states.

The scheme will work like any other insurance scheme, wherein the farmer/owner of the crop has to pay a premium. If the crop is damaged by natural calamities, seasonal crises or pests, the farmer can claim the sum insured.

The sum insured by the company also varies from farmer to farmer. If a farmer has availed an agriculture loan, he or she will be directly put under the agriculture loan plan, where the sum insured will be the loan amount he or she had availed.

For others, who have voluntarily opted for insurance, the sum insured will be equivalent to the threshold yield the farmer is expecting to get.

The premium paid by the farmer varies based on the type of crop being grown. In these schemes, it is usually a small fraction of the sum insured.

If one grows oilseeds and crops like bajra, the premium is 3.5 percent. For other kharif food crops (like pulses), the premium is 2.5 percent.

For all rabi crops except wheat, which are grown in the winter, the premium is 2 percent. Wheat carries a premium of 1.5 percent.

The amount that can be claimed will be derived by multiplying the sum insured into the shortfall percentage (the difference between the threshold yield and current season's actual yield).

Apart from the mainstream crop insurance schemes, AIC also offers these off-beat crops and weather-related insurance schemes.

(Source : http://agricultureinsurance.gibl.in/ )

Also read: Drop in reassurance support to crop scheme as global players reduce exposure

AIC ownership

AIC is a state-owned company, in which General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) holds a 35 percent stake and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) holds a 30 percent stake.

Since the NABARD and GIC own more than 20 percent each, AIC is listed as their associate company.

Other promoters like National Insurance Company Limited, the New India Assurance Company Limited, the Oriental Insurance Company Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited own 8.75 percent each.

Shortcomings of AIC

According to a CAG report published earlier this month, "GOI (Government of India) and state governments did not maintain databases of insured farmers. AIC also did not maintain comprehensive data under any of the schemes." The report implicitly pointed out that nearly two out of three farmers are unaware of the insurance schemes.

The report also said that fund houses and banks delayed loan and insurance disbursements, "resulting in denying or delaying insurance coverage to the farming community."

It added that there was no effective mechanism to monitor the implementation of the schemes.

Furthermore, AIC reportedly did not verify claims by private insurance companies before releasing funds to them. It also failed to take the reinsurance cover under NAIS, but took reinsurance cover for its own share of claim liability.
India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gestures while giving his closing remarks during the "Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future" conference in New Delhi, India, March 13, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee - RTX28WPP

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today sought Parliamentary approval for additional gross expenditure of Rs 11,166.18 crore. As a part of first supplementary demand for grants, net cash outgo will be worth Rs 10,647.45 crore.

Supplementary demand for grants reflects the additional expnses sought by various ministries over and above the amount allocated in the Budget. It also indicates the spending appetite of the Centre.

Out of the additional spend of Rs 11,166.18 crore, a total amount of Rs 7,000 crore has been granted to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, towards payment of differential royalty to state governments.

Another Rs 2,000 crore has been granted to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The cash outgo will involve providing budgetary support to units in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and North East states including Sikkim under the new indirect tax system-Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Labourers work on a dried lake to try and revive it under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) at Ibrahimpatnam, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, June 17, 2009. The government has started a pilot project to quantify climate benefits from the NREGA, the anti-poverty scheme that could become one of the country's main weapons to fight criticism it is not doing enough to tackle global warming. The flagship anti-poverty plan, started three years ago, provides 100 days of employment every year to tens of millions of rural poor, a move that partly helped the Congress party-led coalition return to power in a general election. REUTERS/Krishnendu Halder (INDIA ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) - RTR24R00

The government has set up several camps for over a month in villages across the country to fasten the linking of Aadhaar with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) accounts, according to an Economic Times report.

Out of the 10.7 crore active NREGS workers, the rural development ministry has the details of about 85 percent workers. Bank accounts, though, of only 50 percent of the workers have been linked with Aadhaar number for want of firsthand consent, a senior rural development official told Economic Times.

The camp, which is being organised from July 25 to September 10 by the rural development ministry in consultation with the department of financial services, is likely to enhance the speed of seeking consents from the beneficiaries for seeding their bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

Government had missed the Centre's December 31 deadline last year to link all the NREGS accounts with Aadhaar in the hustle of removing black money through demonetisation.

However, the delay did not change government's decision to link the two because linking NREGA accounts with Aadhaar will help the ministry to prevent the leakage of funds and clean the duplicate or invalid NREGS cards within the system.

Earlier, Chief Executive Officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Ajay Bhushan Pandey had told Moneycontrol that Aadhaar is a great enabler because it can potentially de-duplicate any system and remove duplicates, bogus and fake data from the system.

"With Aadhaar, the government knows who has been given benefit and who hasnt been, who has been excluded and who has not been excluded," Pandey had said.

According to Economic Times, about 1.12 crore NREGS cards were removed from the system on accounts of being fake. The number includes over 10 lakh workers who surrendered their job cards to the government withdrawing themselves from the scheme due to varied reasons.

The move will help the government eliminate one of the major criticisms of the scheme, delayed payment.

Of the 93.4 crore person days of work that was generated between April and July, payments for only 86 percent were made on time under the scheme,l reported Economic Times.

The payments were delayed for rest 14 percent of the workers despite the release of Rs 23,443 crore, half the budgetary allocation for the scheme, to the states in April.

The ministry is expected to release the rest amount to the states after the submission of a detailed audit report in September.
The two founders of Crayfish see the service as a "one stop shop" to help businesses operate in China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The first online marketplace to get Chinese projects, tasks and jobs done by qualified bilingual speakers has been launched.

Crayfish, which operates with a similar model to that of the global freelancing platform Upwork, helps British and Western businesses operate in China.

Users post projects on the site and bilingual freelancers with relevant qualifications respond with bids and proposals.

After a proposal is accepted, users pay the fee to Crayfish which is then released, minus commission, to the freelancer upon completion of the job. The company said it is meeting a "real need for a single source of help" for those doing business in China by providing useful information, knowledge and insight as well as a mechanism to get Chinese projects done, quickly and affordably. Crayfish co-founder Zhang Ting, from Sichuan province, graduated from Cambridge University's Judge Business School in 2000 before holding various roles in Chinese trade and investment.

She said technology can provide solutions to cross-cultural barriers in the business world.

"Most SMEs do not have the in-house resources to handle Chinese projects, and consultants and agencies are expensive," she said. "We have enabled them to access qualified Chinese speakers in their specific fields."

The service started in mid-June. So far, the largest fee paid to a freelancer is 1,500 pounds ($1,960) for a translation of a 115-page transfer pricing document for a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

"They were promised a translation from an agency and were let down two days before," Zhang said.

"Within five hours of posting on our site they attracted seven proposals and chose a freelancer who had 25-years' experience."

The site also handles smaller commissions.

For 50 pounds, a UK semiconductor company used a China-based translator with a degree in electronic engineering to draft the Mandarin version of a technical press release.

And project postings are starting to move beyond translation.

A UK solar company is currently reviewing proposals from China-based freelancers with industry experience to help find samples and buyers in the Chinese market.

"In the post-Brexit era, British business have to start looking at exporting to countries outside the EU, and China is one of the most important markets," Zhang said.
A vendor waits for customers as he sells rice at a market in Kolkata September 23, 2010. India's food price index rose 15.46 percent in the year to September 11, government data on Thursday showed. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA - Tags: AGRICULTURE BUSINESS) - RTXSK2L

India is discussing with the European Union the concerns of domestic rice exporters that tightening norms on pesticide use will affect their shipments to the region.

The European Commission has brought down the maximum residue limit (MRL) level for fungicide Tricyclazole in basmati rice to 0.01 mg per kg from next year.

"We are discussing the matter with them. Some European countries also use this pesticide," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia told reporters here today.

Rice exporters body AIREA has stated that tough norms by the European Commission will hit the exports badly as trade worth over Rs 1,700 crore could shift to Pakistan.

AIREA has said that the EU has virtually imposed a ban on import of Indian basmati rice by reducing 100-fold the import tolerance level of Tricyclazole and it is not possible to bring down the pesticide level all of a sudden to nearly zero.

Two aromatic basmati rice varieties -- PB1 and 1401 -- are exported the most to the EU.

The shipments of these varieties with Tricyclazole MRL at 0.03 mg per kg were accepted so far from India. At least two crop cycles are required to effect the desired change.

Moreover, there is no scientific evidence that it is harmful to human health, he said, adding that meanwhile farmers are being educated to use the fungicide in a judicious manner.

Agricultural and Processed Food Products and Export Development Authority (Apeda) Chairman D K Singh said that it is organising awareness programmes about use of such pesticides in rice.

"We have started the awareness programme. Our target is to reach 50,000 farmers in next two months. The target is mainly rice growing areas. We are telling them about judicious use of such pesticides," he said.
As acceptance rates are low and stringent at the Ivy League schools in the US, women's colleges are finding interest from Indian students. Founded as an alternative for women students, who were not accepted at Ivy League schools, these institutes offer research and academic facilities that are on par with global institutes.

Adarsh Khandelwal, co-founder of foreign education consulting firm, Collegify, said there is a pre-conceived notion that women's colleges will not be able to teach effective skills of interacting with male colleagues at leadership levels in future.

This is not true. There is more personalised attention given to students so that they are ready to face the corporate world once they pass out, he added.

United States is the top choice for Indian students planning to go abroad for higher education. Among them, about 30-35 percent are estimated to be women. Officials from foreign education consultancies said there is a rise in applications to women's colleges also because it is marginally easier to get through to them.

The rate of acceptance at the top ten institutes in the US is almost 15-25 percent depending on the university and the course. Compared to them, women's colleges have an acceptance rate of almost 40-50 percent, the official said.

Students also said that partnerships with other institutes and proximity to Ivy League schools is an advantage.

Damini Mohan, a pass-out of Barnard College in New York (class of 2015) said that women's colleges in the US are exciting, nurturing spaces that engage women from around the world academically while also bolstering their leadership skills.

Many women's colleges (Barnard, Wellesley, Smith, among others) are in partnership with other colleges, often large research institutions such as Columbia and MIT that offer a plethora of academic resources, clubs and sporting teams and libraries. One enjoys the comfort and unparalleled attention of a small liberal arts college while having access to cutting edge research institutions, added Mohan.

Khandelwal said that the exposure offered by women's colleges to the students is also high since they are located within or few miles away from Ivey League schools, which they are in partnership with.

Placement opportunities are also plenty. Mohan said that while colleges have strong placements for finance, consulting, technology, if you are looking to work in the non-profit or development sector, it can be more difficult to find a sustainable job.

Amy E Markham, Associate Dean of Admission, Director of International Admission, Mount Holyoke College, US said that they offer many courses relevant to all of the emerging sectors, including a pre-health program.

A liberal arts education offers classes that can feed into a wealth of stable, growth-oriented careers  from the physics of energy-production to creative writing and stagecraft; from education degrees and teacher certification to a pre-health program that prepare students to enter the medical school of their choice, added Markham.

At Mount Holyoke, they also have funded internships and emphasise the traditional classroom education combined with real-world experience.

In 2015-16, 1.65 lakh students studied in the United States in 2015-16, according to the Open Doors report. This was a 25 percent increase over the previous year.
Nicolas Dumoulin

In the wake of the current tech-driven revolution, employees and employers alike need to be aware and prepared for the changes that automation will soon bring. With the exponential pace at which technology is advancing today, one can expect this shift to have an inevitable impact on the job landscape in India.

Due to a number of factors, the movement towards complete digitalisation will take time to come into full effect and there are still large-scale shifts that need to take place, before the effects of automation are fully realised. Much of this is down to development stage: as a result of lower-wage work, there are still numerous tasks being carried out by manual labour in India. In contrast, one might see these same jobs being automated in more developed markets.

A look at Indias current employment scene reveals that skills required now, versus those that will be essential in the future, are not well aligned. The majority of the countrys workforce is involved with execution or operational jobs, many which can be replaced by technology. Compare this to the professional jobs, where unique skills make this less likely. Unfortunately, many workers have insufficient time to adjust, and lack an awareness of the need to reskill. They may also be so engaged in their current roles that time for retraining is limited.

The automation of jobs on the blue-collar frontline has been increasing rapidly. In time, we may see a similar trend within white-collar jobs, altering the requisite skill sets for our key sectors in the future. While we already see shifts in manufacturing, banking and IT, India is yet to witness the sea-change that may come from parallel shifts in e-commerce, retail and HR.

Automation is likely to have the most impact on tasks that are administrative in nature. For instance, entry-jobs may become easier for programming-based systems to perform, and even execute better. Robotics should enable greater data mining and analytics, injecting deeper intelligence into the process, which in turn inform the higher-level tasks. Systems will likely acquire roles currently comprised of transactional exchanges, where a program can understand the data, and create a process around it. Similarly, future job security may lie in those positions that are commercial in nature, and which deal with complex relationship management.

Most industries will at some point witness an impact on jobs due to automation. Jobs requiring data management, where one can study the data, foresee trends and predict the future, could be those witnessing the strongest impact. While traditional industries adopt and explore ways to integrate technology into their existing businesses, newer industries are implementing the changes at a faster pace. Owing to the dynamic nature of technology, it will likely be a continuous process: and one cannot put a timeline as to when it will end. Instead, we should view automation as an ongoing activity, with some industries or organisations leading the shift, while others follow later.

The Indian economy is growing exponentially and attracting large foreign investments, which should aid in expanding the various industries in the country. The growing challenge will be to attract people with the necessary skill sets. Today, approximately 56 percent of the entire workforce is equipped with the necessary skill sets. This figure demonstrates that almost half of the workforce are not adequately skilled to take up roles in the future.

As a consequence of automation, the biggest challenge for India may be growing rates of unemployment. The Indian workforce comprises a large proportion of lower-skilled workers, potentially placing it in a critical position. Additionally, the prospect of a large influx of young individuals entering the Indian economy, some without the necessary skills for future jobs, could be disadvantageous for the country. The initiatives by the government to upskill and educate the country are therefore of utmost importance, and should hopefully provide a strong counter measure to this trend.

As an employee, what should one do? Many might consider upgrading their skills in order to boost the value they adding to their organisation. By demonstrating their future role, they can help to better secure their jobs where other activities may be converting to technology-driven tasks. The differentiation, from an employers perspective, will be about acquiring valuable professionals with advanced skill sets. To this end, employers can help to better equip their teams, building a group that can harness technology, to inject further value into their companies.

The writer is Managing Director of Michael Page India
Kartikeya Sundaram wrote a Digital Learning Book for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and taught there. The book is now available as an e-book on Amazon. It has been translated into Hindi to be used nationwide as learning aid to the Prime Ministers Digital India initiative.

Similarly, Rhea Bhutani created music notes in Braille so that the blind can take exams in music. There was also attempts made for the book to be used by blind schools pan-India.

Merely mentioning music, writing or dance as an extra-curricular activity while applying for a university abroad is no longer adequate. International institutes now want individuals to give detailed descriptions of these activities and the impact that it has had on the society.

Adarsh Khandelwal, co-founder, Collegify said that international institutes no longer are content with merely a simple hobby or interest but want students to demonstrate serious interest in the particular activity. Collegify is a college consulting firm which guides students on studying abroad.

Now we are seeing that a huge number of students, including those from India, are being wait-listed in the international institutes. Top institutions like University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have received 30 percent more applications than usual, said Khandelwal. He explained that apart from a strong resume, an updated LinkedIn profile was also essential.

He explained that students who have been wait-listed are required to re-apply to show how serious they are about the particular course. The conversion rate from being wait-listed to getting admission is very low, he added.

For this, students also take up group projects to demonstrate their team work abilities. Three students did a project on enabling single women to claim their right to parental property. This looked at an online platform which can bridge the distance between the law and its implementation. It included a portal which is accessed by womens NGOs to upload cases requiring redressal for claim to parental property by single women.

Khandelwal said that unless a student gets through to an institute which is among the top 40-60 in the world, there is no point in going abroad for an undergraduate degree programme. He added that Indian students apply to atleast 15-16 institutions abroad so that they get through to an institute of their choice.

Especially, for Indian students, he said that living expenses do not get covered by scholarships and hence institutes are also reluctant to take students who will not be able to meet these cost requirements.

To increase the chances of getting through, the quality and quantity of project is crucial. An example here would be economics aspirant Prisha Singh who initiated AdventAge, which is an organization to deal with the issues of the Abandoned Elderly, the mental & physical health issues of the elderly. As part of this, she organized health check-ups and distribution of blankets, dry fruits and vitamin supplements in slums.

According to an Open Doors report, 165,918 students from India were studying in the United States during 2015-16 -- up 24.9 percent from the previous academic year. India is the second leading country of origin for students coming to the United States, comprising 15.9 percent of the all foreign students in the country.

The majority of Indian students in the US study at the graduate level. In 2015-16, the breakdown was: 11.6 percent undergraduate; 61.4 percent graduate students; 1.5 percent other and 25.5 percent Optional Practical Training.
IRB Infrastructure Developers | In 2020 so far, the share price has moved up 76 percent to Rs 131.20. It's trailing twelve months (TTM) P/E was 6.40 multiple while 5-year average P/E was 8.30 multiple.

The Haryana Cabinet has approved the final Haryana (Regulation and Development) Rules 2017, making the state the 23rd state to have notified the rules.

Among the points that the Cabinet took up is the crucial one what the definition of "ongoing project" will be, differential pricing for registration of real estate projects, and penalty clause.

Some of the final rules included deletion of definition of Carpet area and Flat and amendment in the definition of term ongoing project.

The amended definition of term ongoing project means a project for which a license was issued for the development under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975 on or before May 1 this year and where development works were yet to be completed on the said date, but does not include (i) any project for which after completion of development works, an application under Rule 16 of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Rules, 1976 or under sub code 4.10 of the Haryana Building Code 2017, as the case may be, is made to the Competent Authority on or before publication of these rules and (ii) that part of any project for which part completion/completion, occupation certificate or part there of has been granted on or before publication of these rules, sources said.

This means that now only projects where completion or occupancy certificate or part of it has been issued will be exempted from registration. Whereas in earlier draft if developer has applied and it is granted in three months were also exempted, explained Sunil Tyagi of Zeus Law.

As for registration fees, the promoter shall pay a registration fee at the rate of Rs 10 per square metre of the total area of the real estate project in case of residential use in hyper/high potential zone and Rs 5 per square metre in case of low and medium zone. In case of commercial use, registration fee shall be Rs 20 per square metre.

In the case of residential/industrial plotted colony, the rate would be applicable for gross area of the colony.

In the case of Group Housing, Commercial/ Cyber City/ Park/ any other, above rates are upto 175 FAR.

This is a welcome step. I hope the industry will get organized and command professionalism and respect of the customers," said Naveen Raheja, Chairman and Managing Director of Raheja Developers, that has registered close to 10 projects so far. "Unscrupulous elements and fly-by- night operators will now be weeded out. As far as registration fees for registering with the regulator are concerned, these have been brought at par with other states. This will ensure that exorbitant registration fees will no longer be a deterrent for builders to register with the regulator.

So far, 25 developers have registered manually with the regulator. The total licenses issued in Haryana so far has been around 1,500.

Homebuyers, however, are not happy. If the cabinet has actually cleared the diluted HRERA, this is extremely unfortunate and deceitful. RERA came out from the crying voices of the aggrieved existing home buyers, but the government has further increased that pain by snatching away the option of relatively quick justice and assurance of regulated environment, said Gaurav Prakash , a homebuyer in New Gurgaon.

The Draft Haryana (Regulation and Development), Rules, 2017 were notified vide Haryana Government gazette notification dated April 28 this year for inviting suggestions/ objections from the public and others stakeholders. In all, 1874 suggestions/ objections were received in this regard from promoters and their respective associations, allottees welfare associations and individuals

The 22 states that have so far notified the rules include Uttar Pradesh; Gujarat; Odisha; Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra; Madhya Pradesh; Bihar; Chhattisgarh; Rajasthan; Uttarakhand; Assam; Jharkhand; Punjab; Tamil Nadu; Karnataka; NCT of Delhi (by Mo/UD); Andaman & Nicobar Islands; Chandigarh; Dadra & Nagar Haveli; Daman & Diu; Lakshadweep and Puducherry
In a scathing blog post, a few former employees of online food delivery startup Swiggys sales team have alleged that the company's management has been tampering with order volume figures in order to manipulate the media, stakeholders, restaurant owners, and most of all its own investors. Swiggy has officially denied the allegations.

According to the blog post by the alleged ex-employees, Swiggy has steadily increased its commission share from 5 percent to 10 percent, and now nearly at 25 percent per order. The management wants us to take this to an average of 30 percent by 2022, the posts authors allege.

We are made to lie about our market share, as well as order volumes to restaurant owners. The worst part is that instead of helping these restaurants grow their business, we are being trained to arm-twist them to increase our commissions every couple of months, the post alleges.

Swiggy, in an e-mail reply to Moneycontrol, squarely denied the allegations and said that the blog post from an anonymous source is targeted at maligning the reputation of Swiggy as an organisation.

A Swiggy spokesperson said that the post is published with a mischevious intent. The article carries inaccurate facts regarding business and order numbers. It not only references employee departures from a year and a half back but also presents details on our partners out of context and with mischievous intent, Swiggy said in a statement.

Swiggy recently raised USD 80 million in Series E funding led by Naspers in May this year. Existing investors Accel India, SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, and Norwest Partners had also participated in this round of funding.

Employees allegedly fired from Swiggy

The blog post, which appeared on Tumblr, claims to have been co-authored by four people. One of these four employees claims to have quit the company three months ago, while another said he was asked to leave. In order to hand over a pink slip, the employee alleged that Swiggy used a very farce performance management system.

The other two are still on Swiggys payrolls, but claim that they are quitting in the next two weeks.

All the good engineers, head of engineering, VP product, head of recruitment, many good managers and team leads have already left. I have also heard that our VP, Gunjan has been recently fired quite unceremoniously, the employees claim in the blogpost.

It could not be determined if the post was referencing to Gunjan Shah or Gunjan Chand of Swiggy.

Citing screenshots of official order volume data and the subsequent investor presentation, the employees alleged that the management deliberately hid a year-on-year dip in order volumes in January 2017 for their latest fundraising round.

The employees allege that management shaved off the December (2016) numbers in the slides in order to show a linear growth curve across all months of our existence.

The unit economics are bad. The unit economics presented to investors and the team do not contain all the costs that should (according to us) be a part of the story. At the ground, we know how much money we are losing. But all of us are kept in the dark, they added in the post.

As per the employees, who have access to the order volume tracking dashboards, Swiggy has also 'lied to the media' by bumping up its volumes to 4 million orders a month, while actually, the figures stood somewhere at 2.76 million.

The post is referring to a profile piece in a mainline newspaper which awarded the company as Startup of the Year this month.

We have heard that the order volumes are inflated by recording fake orders in our internal IT systems, the post alleges.

Apart from management misappropriations, the employees have also accused the company of harbouring an unhealthy work environment, where people are fired arbitrarily, and existing workforce is denied bonuses and variable payouts.

They just need bots who are available 24/7 and if you are not, you will be put on a PIP in some pretext or the other and be out of the door before you know it, the employees allege.

According to them, at least 1015 percent of the staff is always on PIP and then asked to leave, on any given time.
Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Ruchit Jain, Kunal Saraogi and Ashish Kyal battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy Ceat with a stoploss at Rs 1837 and target of Rs 1930

Buy Cholamandalam Finance with a stoploss at Rs 1122 and target of Rs 1230

Buy Britannia Industries with a stoploss at Rs 3810 and target of Rs 3930

Buy JSW Steel with a stoploss at Rs 210 and target of Rs 223

Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush

Buy Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services with a stoploss at Rs 392 and target of Rs 412

Buy Shriram Transport with a stoploss at Rs 986 and target of Rs 1030

Buy Jubilant Foodworks with a stoploss at Rs 1250 and target of Rs 1350

Buy Max Financial with a stoploss at Rs 609 and target of Rs 625

Ashish Kyal of Waves Strategy Advisors

Buy Bajaj Finance with a stoploss at Rs 1600 and target of Rs 1685

Buy Britannia Industries with a stoploss at Rs 3765 and target of Rs 4010

Buy Godrej Consumer Products with a stoploss at Rs 969 and target of Rs 1035

Sell IOC Future with a stoploss at Rs 384 and target of Rs 361
Copper cooking pots still in use today, some dating back to King George IV, sit on racks in the kitchens at Buckingham Palace in London March 25, 2011. Staff at Buckingham Palace have lifted the lid on preparations for Prince William's wedding next month, giving an insight into what guests can expect and the amount of work they have put in to make the event a success. REUTERS/Nick Ansell/POOL (BRITAIN - Tags: ROYALS ENTERTAINMENT POLITICS FOOD) - RTR2KJGP

Achiievers Equities' commodity report on Copper

Copper trading range for the day is 386.5-416.7.

Copper rallied near to 4% as copper mine in Indonesia entered its fourth month of strikes, which helps further boost the base metal.

On the supply side, Antofagasta PLC and Barrick Gold Corp.'s Zaldivar mine averted a strike overnight, but threats to supply still exist.

Copper also seen support as traders are optimism over President Donald Trumps infrastructure plans, is now being powered to fresh highs.

BUY COPPER AUG 2017 @ 402.00 SL 398.00 TGT 406.50-410.50.MCX.

For all commodities report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More
Achiievers Equities' commodity report on Crude oil

Crudeoil trading range for the day is 2966-3160.

Crude oil surged more than 3% as OPEC vowed to re-balance oil markets even if it takes supply quotas through 2018.

Saudi announced it would cut August exports to 6.6mbpd, while Nigeria will be compelled to join the supply quota plan.

China's crude imports will exceed 400 million tons (8 million bpd) this year and likely grow by double digits next year.

BUY CRUDEOIL AUG 2017 @ 3070 SL 3040 TGT 3105-3135.MCX.

For all commodities report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Shares of metal stocks, early on Wednesday, rallied on the back of a surge in global commodity prices, particularly in metals.

As a result, Hindalco, Vedanta, and Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Nalco, among others, gained between 1.5 and 5.25 percent intraday. The Nifty metal index too rose over 1.45 percent.

Copper futures gained over a percent on the global front, thereby pushing these indices higher.

At 09:52 hrs Jindal Steel & Power was quoting at Rs 146.05, up Rs 6.20, or 4.43 percent. It touched a 52-week high of Rs 147.20. Meanwhile, National Aluminium Company was quoting at Rs 72.30, up Rs 1.60, or 2.26 percent.

Hindalco Industries, meanwhile, was quoting at Rs 221.35, up Rs 1.65, or 0.75 percent, while Tata Steel was quoting at Rs 562.65, up Rs 9.55, or 1.73 percent on the BSE.

Backed by strong numbers and the metals rally, Vedanta was quoting at Rs 280.55, up Rs 6.15, or 2.24 percent on the BSE. It touched a 52-week high of Rs 281.40.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

SMC Global

The Nifty is moving up and has been making new highs on regular basis with a decent addition in open interest (OI) which indicates the strength in the current trend.

The Option writers were active last week as we have seen Put writing in 9900, 9800, 9700 strikes and unwinding in calls. The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) options data also indicates fresh buying in index calls (9900, 10000 strikes).

Moreover, from derivative data, it is quite possible that Nifty may expire above 10,000 levels in the current series. As in the recent past, we have seen aggressive put writing in near strikes with 9900 strike holds the maximum put open interest indicating strong support zone.

On Tuesday, Call writers were unwinding call short position which once again indicates the possibility of upside before expiry. On the technical front, 9920-9930 spot levels are strong support zone and the current trend is likely to continue towards 10,050-10,100.

Top five stocks which can give up to 14% return in the short term:

Bharat Wire Ropes: BUY| Target Rs120| Stop Loss Rs97| Upside 14%

The stock has been consolidating in the broader range of Rs110-90 from the last 4-5 months. However, in the recent sessions buying interest has been once again seen in the stock with marginally higher volumes.

Alongside, it is trading well above its short and long term moving averages. Moreover, on the daily charts, it has made a bullish flag formation and is on verge of upside breakout.

Traders can accumulate the stock in a range of Rs108-105 for the target of Rs120 with a stop loss below Rs97.

Raymond: BUY| Target Rs890| Stop Loss Rs750| Upside 11%

After giving sharp rise from Rs700 to Rs820 levels, the stock went into consolidation phase and traded in a narrow range of Rs775-820.

On daily charts, it has formed bullish flag formation and is on verge of giving a breakout. In addition, the positive divergence in RSI indicator supports the prices for next up move going forward.

Traders can accumulate the stock in a range of Rs810-800 for the target of Rs890 with a stop loss below Rs750.

Strides Shasun: BUY| Target Rs1,215| Stop Loss Rs1,000| Upside 13%

Smart recovery has been seen in the stock from lower levels after testing 900 levels on the downside. Currently, the scrip is trading well above its 200-days EMA and has given symmetrical triangle breakout above Rs1050 levels.

The consistent volumes along with the rise in price suggest that the recovery should remain sustainable going forward. So, traders can accumulate the stock in a range of 1085-1075 for the target of 1215 with a stop loss below 1000.

Federal Bank: BUY| Target Rs130| Stop Loss Rs110| Upside 11%

The stock has been consolidating in the range of Rs110-120 from last one month. In past few sessions once again rise in price has been seen along with hefty volumes.

On the weekly charts, it has formed ascending triangle formation in an uptrend which is considered as a bullish signal for the scrip going forward.

Traders can accumulate the stock in a range of Rs120-117 for the target of 130 with a stop loss below 110.

Pidilite Industries: BUY| Target Rs905| Stop Loss Rs780| Upside 10%

After taking support at its 200-days EMA on the weekly charts, the stock has been consistently maintaining its uptrend and making higher highs and higher lows.

In the recent week, once again, the stock has given a sharp upside and is on the verge of giving breakout above its five-week consolidation range.

Moreover, on the daily charts, it has formed a diamond pattern and giving upside breakout. Traders can accumulate the stock in a range of Rs830-820 for the target of Rs905 with a stop loss below Rs780.

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 decision.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Share price of Suzlon Energy rose 4 percent intraday Wednesday as it has won wind power project from Saudi Arabia company.

Suzlon group has won an order of 50.40 MW wind power project from Riyadh based Alfanar Group of Saudi Arabia.

This is a maiden order from Alfanar, for 24 units of S111-90m wind turbine generator, each with a rated capacity of 2.1 MW.

The said project will be completed by March 2018.

The company will execute the entire project on a turnkey basis and will also provide operation and maintenance service.

At 10:53 hrs Suzlon Energy was quoting at Rs 19.60, up Rs 0.65, or 3.43 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
Source: Pixabay (under CC-0 licence)

With the intention of making engineering students more employable, the government has made it mandatory for each student to complete a minimum of three internships during their under-graduation.

Over 60 percent of as many as eight lakh engineers stayed unemployed last year after their graduation as per All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) data reported by the Times of India.

AICTE also revealed that less than 1 percent of the engineering students take up summer internships.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday told the Lok Sabha that all students of technical institutes in India are ought to undergo three internships from this academic year. Their respective institutions are responsible for finding students suitable industries for internship, the Hindustan Times reported.

As per the report, AICTE has collected data from 10,328 technical institutes and the result showed that only 6.96 lakh out of 15.87 lakh students got employment through their campus placements in the academic year FY16.

The internships, aimed to impart experience and skill to the students, are supposed to be four to eight weeks long. Additionally, unless teachers go through refresher courses each year, the approval for the respective institutes would be at stake.

The low employment rates are seen to be caused equally by lack of higher skill-level and decreasing demand for employees in the IT sector.

According to AICTE's annual report for 2015-16, the government has taken a series of initiatives under Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojna for Technical Institutions to reduce unemployment; the schemes were effective since Academic Session 2016-17.

The initiative directs Technical Institutions and Polytechnic colleges to utilize their existing infrastructure and offer engineering courses in the off-college hours to youths. The trainees having eligibility to get certified by National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) will have a better chance at landing private sector jobs, the report stated.

"The main objective of the scheme is to impart engineering skills for 10 lakh youth in the next three years," AICTE's annual report stated.
Kalpataru Power Transmission | Company incorporated wholly owned subsidiary in Republic Of Senegal.

Uttar Pradesh government proposed a target of generating 10,700 MW solar power by 2022 on Tuesday, just a day after Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) struck down power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with six companies for delay in setting up solar power plants.

Uttar Pradesh's aim to generate 8 percent of state's power from renewable source is in line with India's target of reaching 170 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, of which 100 GW is to be generated from solar power.

According to the Draft UP Solar Power Policy-2017, the state will set up solar parks with a minimum capacity of generating 100 MW. Out of which, the 50 percent of the power generated is mandated to be sold to a UPPCL Distribution Licensee, adding to the state's utilities revenue.

The state has promised to provide a Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of Rs 25 lakh for a detailed project report, Rs 25 lakh (or 30 percent of the project cost) for the solar park and subsidy of Rs 10,000 per KW to encourage grid connected roof top solar set ups.

However, the recent withdrawal of agreement from six companies is likely to affect UP's 2017 Solar Power Policy as the move has upset the developers in UP who are seeking legal alternatives for the same.

Our projects are more or less ready, but transmission lines are still to be drawn. We have to match our own project timeline with that of transmission timeline, lest the modules get degraded. It is unfair to pin all the blame on us and cancel the projects due to that, an official of a company whose project has been cancelled told Financial Express.

The six companies, which were a part of the agreement with 15 companies under the state's 2013 Solar Power Policy, had an aggregated capacity of 80 MW of solar power.

Apart from the delay in setting up of solar power plants, the rift between the stakeholders widened as UPPCL objected to the companies' setting up the solar panels now as per the previous arrangement even though the cost of solar panels reduced drastically.

Allowing the remaining six companies to set up solar panels by extending the deadline, would have give them 'undue benefits' compared to the other nine companies who completed the agreement in time.

A shortfall in the state's solar power generation is likely to affect the country's growing solar capacity.

Earlier, ratings agency ICRA reported that India's solar capacity addition is expected to increase from 3.5-4 GW in FY17 to at least 7-7.5 GW (in grid connected utility segment) in FY18.

With successful implementation of this policy, UPPCL could help generate over 6 percent of India's required target of 100 GW solar power generation by 2022.

However, there are other roadblocks in the discom sector which the state and the Centre needs to check.

The demand for solar power will come from UP. But concerns regarding ease of doing business persist as the state has been pushing developers for a downward revision of already committed PPAs, Associate Director - Consulting at Bridge to India Jasmeet Khurana told Business Line.

Owing to the decline in price of solar panels, UPPCL had earlier called all 15 solar developers, who had signed the contract then under tariffs ranging between Rs 7.02 per KHW and Rs 8.60 per KHW in December 2015, asking them to voluntarily agree to the lowest bid of Rs 7.02 per KHW.

However, the developers who had already installed their projects declined to do so.
The airlines will now have to keep Hindi publications alongwith English on flights. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sent a notice already to the airlines.

The notification said that there is a lack of Hindi publications  newspapers and magazines  for the travellers on flight. This practice is not in tandem with the official language policy of the government, DGCA stated.

The decision has been taken to help bring at par the number of Hindi and English language newspapers and magazines in flights.

Earlier this month, the aviation regulatory body had criticised airlines for not carrying enough Hindi language publications.

The move was met with negative reactions for "contributing to the promotion of Hindi" and was seen by many as the DGCA overstepping its role, as per a report in the Economic Times.

DGCA had later clarified that the directive was just "advisory in nature".

Lately, a series of moves by the government to promote Hindi language has attracted criticism as India does not have a national language.Protests were held in southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka against the 'imposition' of Hindi recently.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Indian army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lieutenant General Om Prakash, lays a wreath at a war memorial during "Vijay Diwas" (or victory day celebration) in a military garrison in Srinagar July 26, 2012. The Indian army commemorates "Vijay Diwas" annually in memory of more than 500 soldiers who were killed thirteen years ago during a war with Pakistan. The war took place in the mountains of the Kargil and Drass sectors, at the Line of Control or a military ceasefire line, which divided Kashmir between the two south Asian rivals. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR - Tags: ANNIVERSARY MILITARY POLITICS) - RTR35BQO

Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured the Indian martyrs of the Kargil War on Wednesday in a series of tweets.

India is celebrating the Kargil Vijay Diwas on Wednesday.



Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.

 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation and the security of our citizens during the Kargil War, he wrote on Twitter.

What is Kargil Vijay Diwas?

India marks the 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' every year on July 26 to commemorate India's victory over Pakistan in the 1999 Kargil War.

The Indian Army had successfully taken back command of outposts after 60 days of fighting, helping India regain possession in Kargil.

Kargil Vijay Diwas traditions

The day is celebrated in the Kargil-Dras sector in the state of Jammu & Kashmir and in New Delhi where the incumbent Prime Minister pays homage to the martyrs at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate.

Simultaneously, a ceremony is also held at the Dras War Memorial close to Tiger Hill, which was the war's epicentre.

Functions are also organised by the Army across the country to commemorate the win.

About the Kargil War

During the winter of 1998-99, groups of the Pakistani Defence Forces, disguised as militants, were sent across the Line of Control (LoC) to infiltrate under "Operation Badr". The aim was to cut the link between the Kashmir region and Ladakh, thereby forcing Indian forces to withdraw from the Siachen Glacier.

India initially thought the LoC was infiltrated by militants, but soon realised the true nature of the opposition based on the techniques of warfare they encountered. The Indian government mobilised 2 lakh soldiers under "Operation Vijay" and routed the infiltration.

As many as 527 Indian soldiers lost their lives and more than 1,300 were wounded during the 60 days of warfare.
There is no concrete evidence that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq have been killed and "I will not commit the sin" of declaring them dead without any evidence, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today.

Making a forceful statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj said the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead.

"This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence," Swaraj said, two days after holding talks with Iraqi foreign minister on the issue.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians.

"I have never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government get by misleading the people on the issue," she said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has advanced a crucial meeting of JD(U) legislators from Friday to Wednesday where he may spell out his next move on deputy Tejashwi Yadav who has been booked by the CBI on corruption charges.

The all-important Legislature Party meeting comes two days before the Monsoon Session of the Assembly on Friday. JD(U) leaders believe sitting with Tejashwi in the Assembly will send wrong signals within the party.

Read More: http://www.news18.com/news/politics/cm-nitish-kumar-to-meet-jdu-mlas-today-may-take-call-on-deputy-cm-tejashwi-yadav-1472923.html
14:40 That is a wrap on the nearly 3-day-long developments from Bihar. Thanks for staying tuned.

14:30 WHAT'S NEXT? | Patna High Court will on Monday hear two PILs challenging formation of the new government by the JD(U) and BJP. The petitions sought the court's order for issuance of a direction to invite the leader of the single largest party to form a government in the state.

the JD(U), BJP and others got 131 votes while the opposition got 108 votes, Speaker Vijay Kumar Chowdhury said. The NDA had earlier submitted a list of 132 MLAs to the Governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three Independents. In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs,

the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

13:22 Tejashwi Yadav says he raised several questions in Bihar Assembly, but Nitish Kumar and the BJP had no answers.

13:20 The BJP and Nitish Kumar disrespected the mandate given to Mahagathbandhan: Tejashwi Yadav after Nitish Kumar wins trust vote.

13:05 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has won the trust vote in Bihar Assembly. 131 MLAs voted for the confidence motion, while 108 voted against the motion.

13:00 Bihar Speaker calls for lobby division to test the strength of the new Nitish Kumar government. MLAs have two options  for, or against the confidence motion.

13:00 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has spoken in Bihar Assembly. He says that his government will focus only on development. The RJD ignored our party. The mandate was for a transparent, corruption-free government, he tells Assembly.

12:25 BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav says Tejashwi Yadav Bihar's youth want to knwo how did the 22-year-old amass properties worth crores of rupees.

12:15 Typical of Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister has been calm inside the Bihar Assembly. He hasn't responded to any of the barbs directed at him or his party. The political stalwart is known for not speaking out of line. Is Nitish Kumar waiting for tempers to cool down?

12:00 Chief Minister has moved confidence motion in Bihar Assembly.

11:45 Tejashwi Yadav seems livid and angry. He takes the fight from Nitish Kumar to Sushil Kumar Modi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Why did Sushil Kumar Modi take oath as Deputy Chief Minister if he is facing cases? he asks. Further more he questions the Governor's decision to prepone swearing-in ceremony. Finally, he asks why did the Prime Minister tweet so quickly on Nitish Kumar's resignation.

11:40 Tejashwi Yadav says Nitish Kumar didn't discuss his resignation. The former Deputy Chief Minister says he was taking legal opinion and had informed Kumar about it.

11:30 Multiple reports hint at ruckus inside Bihar Assembly after Tejashwi Yadav said "Nitish Kumar must be ashamed of himself".

11:20 Nitish Kumar had decided to go with the BJP well before Wednesday. Whenever he fights alone, he is exposed. Nitish Kumar needs either the BJP or the RJD. I was used as a pawn: Tejashwi Yadav, according to a CNN-News18.com report.

Patna

RJD's

Bihar

Keshri

Nath

Tripathi

Nitish

TheHigh Court will on Monday hearplea againstGovernors decision to inviteKumar to form the government despite RJD being the single-largest party.

RJD had on Thursday said it would move court as well as knock at the "people's door" to protest against the Bihar Governor's invitation terming it "blatant violation" of a Supreme Court judgement.

10:51 Meanwhile, BJP President has filed Rajya Sabha nomination for Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.

10:50 BJP confident of sailing through trust vote. Party says it has the backing of 132 MLAs  a number comfortably more than the magical half-way mark of 122. "Very clear that we will win trust vote as we have support of 132 MLAs," BJP's Mangal Pandey tells ANI.

10:40 RJD and Congress MLAs are protesting against Nitish Kumar's "betrayal" with placards and slogans. Reports suggest that Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi is facing trouble entering Bihar Assembly.

10:33 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has arrived for the floor test in Bihar Assembly.

destabilise

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party accused Nitish Kumar of "double standards" for forming government in the state, a day after his dramatic resignation, with the support of the BJP. The party also claimed that the BJP may resort to "tactics" to destabilise the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi. "We supported Nitish (Kumar) for his good governance record and his fight against the communal BJP," AAP's chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh said.

Bihar

Nitish

Bharatiya

Janata

Rashtriya

Janata

levelled

Tejashwi

Yadav

Just 20 months after he took oath asChief Minister in November 2015,Kumar was again sworn in as Chief Minister for the sixth term after he formed an alliance withParty. Kumar cited irreconcilable differences withDal (RJD) on the issue of corruption chargesagainst Deputy Chief Ministerthat created a rift in the Grand Alliance.

The RJD on Thursday said it would move court as well as knock at the "people's door" to protest against the Bihar governor's invitation to the JD(U) and the NDA to form a government in the state in "blatant violation" of a Supreme Court judgement.

JD(U) Rajya Sabha MPs Ali Anwar and MP Veerendra Kumar met senior leader Sharad Yadav here amid reports that he was also displeased with Nitish Kumar's action. Yadav, a former party chief and Leader of the JD(U) in the Rajya Sabha, has so far not commented on the development. Sources close to him said he was "unhappy" with the Bihar chief minister's move as he wanted the 3-party Grand Alliance, also comprising the Congress, to continue.

09:00 Lalu Prasad's RJD can play a spoilsport. The RJD says it has the backing of 27 Congress MLAs, 2CPI-ML legislators and a few Independents candidates. Some RJD leaders have even reportedly said JD(U) MLAs would cross over to them during the trust vote.

08:50 Remember, a section of JD(U) is unhappy about Nitish Kumars decision to walk out of Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) and form a new government with the BJP.

08:47 While JD(U)+NDA combine makes a strong case for Nitish Kumar to effortlessly sail through the trust vote, discontent among JD(U) may make things tougher for the Chief Minister.

Bihar Assembly  243 MLAsHalf-way Mark  122JD(U)  71 MLAsNDA  58 MLAsRJD  80 MLAs

Congress  27 MLAs

08:30 Hello and good morning. Crucial day for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as he seeks a trust vote.

THE STORY SO FAR

* Nitish Kumar sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister on Thursday. Sushil Kumar Modi takes oath as Deputy Chief Minister* Nitish Kumar will face a trust vote on Bihar Assembly on Friday.* Section of JD(U) say they weren't kept in loop about alliance* Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi accused Nitish Kumar of cheating the people and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).* PM Modi congratulated the CM and Deputy Chief Minister

* Kumar had resigned on Wednesday evening after a prolonged rift over corruption allegations with ally RJD's senior leadership.

23:36 It's been another day of drama in Bihar. We'll be back with you live tomorrow morning for the trust vote in the Bihar Assembly.

22:12 The Aam Aadmi Party today accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of "double standards" for forming government in the state, a day after his dramatic resignation, with the support of the BJP.

The party also claimed that the BJP may resort to "tactics" to destabilise the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.

21:28 Terming the developments in Bihar as a "wrong signal for democracy", BSP president Mayawati said that misuse of power and official machinery by the BJP leadership posed a serious challenge to established democratic norms.

20:48 Lalu Prasad is currently meeting with RJD legislators at his home in Patna. What will be his next move?

20:20 Here's a summary of the cracks in the JD(U).

19:39

19:13 All eyes are on Sharad Yadav now. Will he stage a rebellion?

18:38 Lalu Prasad's wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi has hit out at Nitish Kumar, saying he stabbed the RJD in the back and they won't align with him again.

18:18 JD(U) MP Ali Anwar says that Sharad Yadav was not kept in the loop about the party's alliance with the BJP.

18:11 The rift in the JD(U) is apparent now. The Kerala unit of the party has split with its parent, saying they won't support Nitish if JD(U) becomes part of the NDA.

17:55 A meeting of JDU) MPs is currently taking place. Party MP Arun Sinha says there is no rebellion in the party, also says that Nitish Kumar did not consult them.

17:40 Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others. Prasad's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report(ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR. The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

17:20 The trust vote in the Bihar Assembly will take place at 11am on Friday.

17:09 New Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi says that many JD(U) leaders felt suffocated in the alliance with the RJD.

16:53 LJP leader Chirag Paswan says Lalu had defamed the JD(U). LDP is an NDA ally.

16:42 Sharad Yadav is expected to meet JD(U) legislators in the next half an hour. Will there be a rebellion in the ranks?

16:29 Nitish Kumar has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Buzz is that a special financial package for Bihar is on the anvil.

16:15 Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has congratulated JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for taking over as the chief minister of Bihar.

16:00 More on Sharad Yadav: The JD(U) leader will meet Union Minister Sharad Yadav today.

15:55 The issue pertains to the land-for-hotels-deal case. You can find out more about the case here.

15:44 News agency Press Trust of India is now reporting that the Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against Lalu Prasad and his kin.

15:33 There is still some suspense as former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav may stage a rebellion. Sources have told CNN-News18 that Yadav is upset about the alliance with the BJP.

15:15 MUST READ | Bihar sees govt in sync with Centre after 20 years, hopes of special status brighten

15:13 Sushil Modi says that joining hands with Nitish Kumar will make NDA even more powerful in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

14:54 It's now Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's turn to vent. He tweets: If after campaigning against BJP you want to join BJP, spirit of democracy requires you2resign&seek a fresh mandate. This is amoral politics (sic)

14:46 The party has called the press meet to refute allegations levelled by Lalu Prasad against Nitish Kumar. The RJD chief had claimed that there was a murder case pending against the Bihar Chief Minister.

14:42 The JD(U) is now holding a press conference.

14:39 Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary claims Nitish Kumar's resignation was pre-planned.

14:34 It's not all good news for the JD(U). Former chief Sharad Yadav has met Congress leaders and called for a meet of JD(U) legislators at 5pm this evening.

14:24 The Congress is on the offensive, Senior MP Ghulam Nabi Azad says, I think it has become Nitish jis habit to change parties and stands every few years.

14:15 CNN-News18, quoting sources, says former JD(U) President Sharad Yadav will be inducted into the Union Cabinet.

14:05 Deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Modi says the party was in touch with a few MLAs from RJD and Congress, but was sure that BJP didnt need their support. We have the numbers. We have the support of 131 MLAs. Weve asked for a floor test tomorrow. We are absolutely ready to prove our majority, he said.

13:58 Nitish Kumar has tweeted once again thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and adding that there will be no compromise on corruption.

13:50 Some more bad news for the RJD. Its legislator Maheshwer Yadav says he will switch sides to the JD(U).

13:43 Lalu Prasad says he is considering an appeal in Supreme Court against the Governor's decision.

13:41 Some humour on Bihar's political situation:

13:19 Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi has reacted to Rahul Gandhis allegation of Nitish Kumars betrayal, He said, Rahul has disappointed JD(U). Congress approach towards corruption is anyway not great and thats why they had expected Nitish Kumar to overlook Tejashwis blatant corruption. But JD (U) and Nitish Kumar have always come down heavily on all those involved in corrupution.

13:10 Nitish Kumar's government will face a trust vote in the Bihar Assembly tomorrow.

12.44 As Nitish Kumar joins hands with BJP, here is a look at 10 reasons why the Mahagathbandhan fell apart.

12.21 Lalu speaks out against Nitish. Nitish compromised on values and forgot anti-communal goal, says Lalu.

12.19 Even as Bihar Cabinet meet is underway at Nitish Kumar's residence, Lalu Prasad Yadav says that Nitish Kumar's move has hurt Bihar.

12.07 Hours before Kumar announced his decision to step down as Bihar CM and sever ties with RJD, Lalu, a seasoned politician who should have known otherwise, put his faith behind his son and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav against whom a CBI corruption case is currently on.

11.46

11.:30 Even as Nitish Kumar engineered a coup and joined hands with BJP to form the government in Bihar, the Congress is mincing no words. On Thursday, the grand old party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused Janata Dal (United) Chief Nitish Kumar of "cheating" the people and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).

11:15 Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is livid on Nitish Kumar's decision. "I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!" he tweets.

11:04 For those who missed it  Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said Nitish Kumar deserted the Mahagathbandhan for personal politics. He joined the wrong people, and Nitish Kumar has cheated us," Gandhi says. He adds that he was aware of Nitishs plans for the last 3-4 months. Nitish has gone against an anti-communal mandate given by Bihar, he says.

11:03 Ahead of the first Cabinet meeting of the new Bihar government, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says his decisions on resignation and alliances were based on the development of Bihar. When asked to comment on Congress VP Rahul Gandhi's 'cheated' remark, Nitish says "sab ka jawaab denge."

10:55 CNN-News18 reports that Nitish Kumar has called in a Cabinet meeting at 1130 am. Thereafter, a test of strength would take place in Bihar Assembly. Looks like its business as usual for Nitish Kumar. Meanwhile, RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav has reached a court in Ranchi in a corruption case.

10:50 Congratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity.  PM Narendra Modi tweets.

10:43 Voicing Betrayal  Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi says Nitish Kumar has cheated us. Nitish Kumar misled me when we met previously. We knew for the last 3-4 months that this was going to happen, he says.

10:42 The Rise of Nitish Kumar

During 1998-99, Nitish Kumar served as the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later as the Minister for Agriculture in the AB Vajpayee government.

In 2000, Nitish became the chief minister of Bihar for the first time. But his government lasted only seven days.

He returned as Railway Minister in 2001, a position he served until the term ended in 2004.

His party merged with Janata Dal (United) in 2003 which was also part of the NDA.

He came to power as the Bihar Chief Minister again, after JD (U) and BJP won in 2005. The alliance convincingly retained power in 2010.

Belonging to the socialist class of politicians, Nitish Kumar was an active member of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement between 1974 and 1977. During this time, he also became close to Satyendra Narayan Sinha who would later become Bihar's Chief Minister.

In 1994, Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes came together to form the Samta Party. The party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections yielded good results and established Nitish as a leader of rich calibre.

10:30 JD(U)'s return to the NDA fold marks a significant shift in the fortunes of the Opposition parties. Nitish Kumar was seen by political experts as the strongest face of what is called the "united Opposition" or the "Grand Alliance" and was touted as a Prime Ministerial candidate by many. With Bihar, the Opposition was hoping for a strong Grand Alliance for 2019. Now, with this Gathbandhan, BJP will lead 18 states in India, strengthening its position for the 2019 elections.

Read More | Mission 2019: What Nitish alliance means for PM Modi and BJP?

10:20 Nitish Kumar first became Chief Minister in 2000, although for just 7 days.

10:15 Slogans of Inquilab Zindabad slogans were raised as Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar CM. The JD(U)-BJP combine is back in power after four years in Bihar. The Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated as head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

10:10 Nitish Kumar is now a six-time Chief Minister and second time in past two years. Some are terming it Nitish Kumar's "ghar wapsi" in to the NDA-fold. It was a short ceremony, in contrast to the last time Nitish Kumar was sworn in.

10:05 Sushil Kumar Modi is sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.

10:00 Nitish Kumar starts taking the oath as Bihar Chief Minister. He says he will dutifully serve the state to the best of abilities.

09:55 Nitish Kumar has reached Raj Bhavan. He comes back at the helm within 24 hours of resigning as Chief Minister.

09:51 Sushil Kumar Modi has reached Raj Bhavan in Patna for the oath-taking ceremony. He will be inducted into the new Bihar government as Deputy Chief Minister.

09:50 Meanwhile, JD(U) heavyweight Sharad Yadav maintains silence on the happenings in Bihar and the JD(U)-NDA tie-up.

09:40 CNN-News18 reports that BJP leader JP Nadda says the party has ensured that the government in Bihar is not destabilised. BJP gave unconditional support for the prosperity of the state, he says.

09:33 "Just received invitation from Hon'ble Governor to take Oath and be a part of Bihar Govt"  BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweets.

09: 30 RJD offices offices across all districts in Bihar will hold protest march at 12 pm on Thursday. RJD is angry at the Governor for preponing the swearing-in ceremony to 10 am. Governor Tripathi had earlier invited Tejashwi Yadav and five other RJD MLAs for discussion.

Akhilesh

Yadav



  ,     

        

Bihar Today

 Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 27, 2017

09:15 The JD(U)-BJP combine returns to power after four years in the politically volatile state. Prodded by Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

09:05 Tejashwi Yadav seems miffed. He says the Governor gave them an appointment at 11 am while calling in Kumar for swearing-in at 10 am.



Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

09:00 Number crunching: JD(U) has 71 MLAs in the House, NDA 58 and Congress 27. While JD (U) and NDA together cross the halfway mark, RJD and Congress only have 107, which is 15 short of simple majority. Nitish has two days to prove majority.

08:55 Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi has invited Nitish Kumar to take the oath as Chief Minister at 10 am.

08:44 Less than 24 hours after he resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar will back to do the top job in the state.

00:20 Tejashwi Yadav breaks his silence. Says he won't give up and will speak to the Governor on Thursday and stake RJD's claim as the largest party. Till then, we say good night with the story of how the RJD leader was at the centre of the storm which broke the Grand Alliance.

23:56 Nitish Kumar and MLAs have now reached the Governor's House

23:41 The RJD has said that Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav, who was the focus of the corruption allegations, will be the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly.

23:12 The alliance is no more, and today's drama can be compared to when the JD(U) and RJD first came together. Read more.

22:54 The attention will now turn to the composition of Nitish Kumar's Cabinet and whether JD(U) leaders could get berths in the Union Cabinet.

22:51 More from Lalu Prasad on Twitter: All JDU MLAs caged in CM house since evening. Why so mch insecurity?Just cuz MLAs realise tht they are elected against BJP's divisive agenda.

22:44 Here's the latest: Governor Tripathi has been discharged and JD(U), BJP will form the new Bihar government on Thursday. Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as Chief Minister at 5pm.

22:30 Lalu Prasad is intent on making his voice heard. He has dared the JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to declare fresh elections and seek a fresh mandate. "In Bihar, we had received record-breaking mandate against the BJP. Now, Nitish will run the government with the same BJP on "moral grounds," he has tweeted.

22:24 The BJP says it has faxed its letter of support to Raj Bhawan and the new government will be formed tomorrow.

22:19 Some more drama. There was speculation that JD(U) and BJP legislators may approach the Governor tonight to stake claim. But Governor Tripathi has now been hospitalised with a nose infection.

22:14 JD(U) leader Ajay Alok says the party could not afford to be seen as siding with the corrupt.

22:10 Another salvo from Lalu Prasad on Twitter: When Nitish Kumar broke alliance with BJP in 2013 he choreographed & followed the same script to secure himself. He surrenders as per needs

22:02 Sushil Kumar Modi refuses to say if he will be Deputy Bihar CM again, but says JD(U) and BJP legislators are holding a meeting at Nitish Kumar's residence at the moment.

21:59 BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi says the BJP will be part of the new government in Bihar.

21:58 The timing couldn't be worse for Lalu Prasad, who has a court case in Ranchi tomorrow morning and has to leave tonight amid this worsening crisis.

21:53 CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweets: A point to ponder. Bihar CM's resignation at this moment, when atrocities against Dalits and minorities are rising across India, helps whom?

21:42 Alliance partner Congress has now lashed out at Nitish Kumar, saying he has betrayed the people's mandate.

21:32 Bihar BJP Chief Sushil Modi said that he has communicated to Nitish Kumar via telephone that he will support him. "We have decided to support the Nitish-led government and we will convey our message to the Governor of Bihar as soon as possible."

"We have told him that we accept him as our leader and he is ready for it," Sushil said, adding, "we will support the government formed under him."

21:27 In fact, the JD(U) and BJP legislators are reportedly planning to meet the Governor and stake their claim to form a government tonight.

21:25 JD(U) legislators have now gathered at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's residence.

21:18 Lalu Prasad has tweeted too. He reiterates that Nitish was aware of the corruption allegations before the Grand Alliance was formed.

21:13 More from Twitter. Nitish Kumar has thanked has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his earlier tweet applauding the decision to resign.

21:07 CNN-News18, quoting sources, says that the BJP will inform the Bihar Governor on Wednesday that it will support the JD(U).

21:00 Those reports are now confirmed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. So a JD(U)-BJP alliance government looks a likely outcome.

20:52 Unconfirmed TV reports suggest that the BJP has extended unconditional report to Nitish Kumar.

20:44 Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha elections.

20:42 Meanwhile, amid all this drama, the BJP is now announcing that party president Amit Shah will contest Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.

20:33 The Congress had repeatedly tried to defuse the fire, but the Grand Alliance now looks over.

20:23 More on the math: The RJD has 80 seats and the Congress has 27. Together, they reach 107, which is still short of the halfway mark of 122.

20:20 Lalu Prasad still wants this government to continue. "All RJD, JD(U) and Congress MLAs should sit down and pick a new leader and make a government," he said.

20:16 "Nitish Kumar is hand-in-glove with the BJP and RSS. What is this agreement? Prime Minister Modi tweeted immediately after Nitish's resignation. He even congratulated him." says Lalu.

20:08 Lalu Prasad says that as the single-largest party, the RJD has a claim to power.

20:02 A reaction from Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasudhara Raje. A BJP leader, she says it is only fair for the Prime Minister and the party to support Nitish Kumar.

20:00 He now claims there is a murder case against Nitish Kumar dating back to 2009.

19:58 Lalu says he repeatedly told Nitish Kumar that cases against him and his family were false.

19:56 I don't need to have an explanation for JD(U) leaders, says Lalu.

19:54 Lalu says he spoke about with Nitish for about 40 minutes last night. Insists that he did not seek Tejashwi's resignation.

19:52 A seemingly unruffled Lalu claims Nitish said he would die, but not join the BJP.

19:50 Lalu Prasad says Nitish Kumar was aware of the corruption allegations when the alliance was formed back in 2015.

19:47 We are happy that Bihar CM didnt compromise on issue of corruption and did not kneel down before RJD: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

19:45 Apart from an alliance, the BJP could also consider supporting Nitish Kumar's government from the outside.

19:40 He says the BJP's future strategy will be decided by the BJP's Parliamentary Party. Important: He said the BJP is not in favour of mid-term elections in Bihar.

19:38 BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi is now speaking.

19:34 Nitish Kumar has insisted that he did not seek Tejashwi Yadav's resignation. "I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

19:32 Still no official word from Lalu Prasad and the RJD.

19:30 Now for the math. There are 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. The RJD is the single-largest party with 80 seats, but well short of the halfway mark of 122. The JD(U) has 71 seats and it can cross the 122-mark with the help of the BJP's 53 seats.

19:25 The BJP Parliamentary Party board is also set to meet in Delhi shortly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will be in attendance.

19:23 The attention will turn to the math in the Bihar Assembly now. We'll bring you an update shortly.

19:20 The BJP core committee is reportedly meeting now. A reminder that the BJP and the JD(U) have ruled Bihar together before, but Nitish Kumar pulled the plug in the build-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

19:16 Big news. The Prime Minister has reacted. Modi has congratulated Nitish Kumar for taking a major step in the fight against corruption.

"The citizens of this country welcome and support this honest move," the tweet reads. "It is important for everyone to rise above politics and fight against corruption."

19:13 Here's the background of what led to this big step from Nitish Kumar: The two bigwigs, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, had been at loggerheads ever since the CBI launched raids against Lalu's son and family. JD(U) leaders had demanded that Nitish's deputy Tejashwi should resign, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad always maintained that there was no possibility of his son resigning from the post of Bihar deputy CM.

19:10 Nitish Kumar says he tried really hard to keep the alliance intact, but he could not compromise any further.

19:08 A quick reminder that this government has lasted less than two years.

19:07 BJP non-committal as well. Ravi Shankar Prasad says it is up to Nitish what happens next.

19:04: The next big question: Will JD(U) form a government with the BJP's support? Nitish is non-committal and says it remains to be seen.

19:02 A full-fledged attack, this. Nitish says greed of Lalu family cannot be satisfied.

19:00 "It was becoming difficult to work with RJD," says Nitish.

18:59 Nitish says he spoke to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi earlier but no solution was hammered out.

18:56 Kumar confirms he submitted his resignation to the Governor. Says he quit in the interest of the Bihar.

18:54 Nitish Kumar is now speaking to the press.

18:50 "Has Nitish asked for the resignation of Tejaswi Yadav?" Prasad retorted in reply to a volley of questions by scribes regarding JD(U) insistence that the embattled deputy chief minister should come clean on accusations in public.

18:48: The development came hours after RJD President Lalu Prasad ruled out a resignation by his son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav as Bihar's deputy chief minister following the lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case and blamed the BJP for the 'present crisis' in the state.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday resigned from his post amid a rift with coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Criticising alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against senior leaders of the party, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar.

Talking to the media outside Governor Tripathis house, Kumar said that he took the decision with the best interests of the state in mind.

The decision was made at a meeting of JD(U) ministers on Wednesday evening after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi Yadav as the deputy chief minister. Both Lalu Yadav and Kumar have claimed that the latter had never asked for Tejashwis resignation.



#NitishQuits

Nitish Kumar has won our hearts. A new phase of next level politics starts in his life. Best of luck Nitish ji and well done.

 SmaRty

Soon after the announcement, Twitterati went gaga with praises over Nitish Kumar and his decision to leave the post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Nitish Kumar over this move and tweeted about it:



            - 

            July 26, 2017





Nitish Kumar ji finally out of Maha-gathbandhan of corruption & took 1st step towards Bihar Maha-Developed future#NitishKumar #NitishQuits

 Vishal Sudarshanwar (@Vishal_Sud) July 26, 2017
Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav

Nitish Kumar stepped down as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday, but the grand alliance between Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar had been under threat for several days ever since RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's house was raided on July 7.

On July 7, a 27-member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the premises of Lalu Prasad Yadav and found several property documents and laptops linked to a 2004-2005 corruption case.

The FIR which led to the raids accused Lalu Prasad Yadav of rigging a tender in 2005. When Lalu was the Union Railway Minister in 2005, he allegedly subleased two railway hotels in Patna and Puri to a favoured company in return for two acres of land being transferred to the Yadav family through benami account. Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also charged in the case along with his mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister.

Charges against Lalu and his son was filed under Section 420 (cheating) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

On July 11, the JD(U) made it clear that Nitish Kumar wanted Tejashwi Yadav to resign as the Deputy CM and explain the charges against him. He was given a four-day deadline by Nitish Kumar to explain his allegations.

Kumar said on Wednesday that Tejashwi was unable to explain himself.

JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar had indicated that RJD had no plans of dislodging Yadav and remarked that they know how to follow alliance politics.

A day after Nitish Kumar had asked for an explanation, Tejashwi Yadav had refused to resign and said that he was hardly 14-15 years old when the case took place. He also said that the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party secretary Amit Shah are playing "vendetta politics against him", accusing the BJP of targeting him because he belonged to a poor family.

Amid the growing demands by the JD(U) for the resignation of Yadav, Sonia Gandhi was said to act as the peacemaker between the two battling parties. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress which is the third in the grand alliance was allegedly trying to save the alliance. But Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday that those efforts had failed.
By CNBCTV18.COM

Local brand Xiaomi snagged the fourth-place spot that was held by Apple, leaving Apple at No. 5, according to Canalys, an independent analyst company. Samsung is also in the top 10 smartphone brands in China, although only the top four brands were ranked by Canalys' statement.

Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market fell last quarter, according to one analysis, representing the waning dominance of the iPhone ahead of a major milestone.

Local brand Xiaomi snagged the fourth-place spot that was held by Apple, leaving Apple at No. 5, according to Canalys, an independent analyst company. Samsung is also in the top 10 smartphone brands in China, although only the top four brands were ranked by Canalys' statement.

Huawei

: 23 million

Oppo: 21 million

Vivo: 16 million

Xiaomi: 15 million

Source: Canalys

Apple does not break out figures on sales of individual products in each region, and was not immediately available to comment. But earlier this year, a separate report from Counterpoint Research found that the iPhone was not the top selling smartphone in China in 2016, the first time Apple had been unseated since 2012.

Remaining in the top of the crop is key for Apple because the top five brands accounted for almost 75 percent of the 113 million shipments in China, Canalys estimates. It's an area where Apple has struggled in recent years, with sales down 14 percent year over year last quarter.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed long-term optimism on the Chinese market, despite strong competition provided by WeChat's software ecosystem, which works on Android or iPhone devices. Apple recently created a new post, managing director of greater China, tapping an executive that has developed China-specific features for iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone 8, considered a marker of the device's tenth anniversary, is expected by some analysts to revamp Apple's influence in China. Sales in greater China are expected to hit $9.96 billion in the September quarter, according to FactSet, up from $8.79 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Unrest in Kashmir

The seven separatists arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir were sent to 10-day custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after they were produced in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

One of the seven arrested is Altaf Ahmed Shah, son-in-law of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The others include suspended Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan, Hurriyat spokesperson Ayaz Akbar, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's close aide Shahid-ul-Islam, Bitta Karate, Pir Saifulla and Merazuddin Kalwal.

The arrests were in connection with a long-running probe by the NIA into terror funding activities through hawala dealers across borders in the Kashmir Valley. The seven were arrested for violating several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

How did it all start?

On June 3, the NIA decided to conduct a probe as part of a preliminary enquiry into terror funding activities in Kashmir.

The next day, the NIA carried out raids at 26 locations in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana. The raids were conducted on all the seven arrested in the case.

After the raids, the NIA revealed that close to Rs 2 crore cash, gold jewellery, letterheads of banned terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, amd pen drives, laptops, mobile phones, phone diaries apart from property related documents were found. The funds were allegedly utilised to stir up unrest in the Valley last year which killed more than a 100 people and injured many more.

The illegal bank accounts and lockers found during the raids were frozen immediately. Officials had also reported that various Hurriyat leaders were questioned before the raids took place.

The case had started when separatist leaders divulged information on receiving funds from terror groups in Pakistan to carry out militant activities in the Valley in a sting operation carried out by a news channel.

The raids which followed were the first carried out in simultaneous locations. Earlier, raids by the Enforcement Directorate took place on individual residences of the alleged hawala operators and individual separatist leaders.
you are here:
Japanese imaging and optical products major Canon Inc is expecting USD 10 billion sales from Asian markets by 2020 as the company bets big on fast growing emerging markets of the region that includes China and India.

"We are looking USD 10 billion USD by 2020 from the total sales of the Asia group," Canon Inc Executive Vice President Hideki Ozawa told PTI.

Presently, the Asian marketing region is contributing around 23-24 per cent of the total global sales. In 2016, Canon Inc had reported net sales of USD 29.32 billion.

"Contribution from Canon Asia is increasing... Eventually Asia would be the leading contributor," said Ozawa who is also President & CEO Canon China, adding it would beat Japan, which is presently its biggest market.

In some products range such as cameras, Asian market has already exceeded Japan, he said.

The Asia region includes markets like China, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong etc.

"China is the fastest growing market followed by India, South Korea, Malaysia and other markets. They are always competing with each other in a good way," he said.

China is the leading market in the region and there is huge gap between them and other Asian markets, while India shuttles between two and three.

"We want India definitely to be at number two and eventually to catch up with China," said Ozawa.

However, on being asked about the projected time frame in which Canon India would grow to be comparable with Canon China, he said the gap is huge and would take time.

"Even it's going to take time, we are going to stay with India. We would keep watching and helping it. In terms of making Canon's entire global and Asian business bigger, we can not afford to ignore India and China and emerging countries. That's for sure," Ozawa said.

Canon India closed 2016 with revenues of Rs 2,348.6 crore.

"In the next three years, we are targetting Rs 3,500 crore business by 2020," said Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi

Presently, India is contributing around 1.2-1.5 per cent to the Canon's global sales and Kobayashi is expecting it to increase in coming years.

Canon India, which is largely present in the printers and imaging products business would expand as it has plans to enter into medical imaging systems and security and surveillance camera products.

"Besides b2b and b2c, we are also going to set up industrial domain, which would give us more stability over the operations of the company. The medical system, security camera systems, industrail domain business, semiconductor business would come in this," said Kobayashi adding that it would start from this year itself.

As part of expansion of its product portfolio, Canon India today launched third generation multi function printing devices.

Set up in 1997, Canon India has completed 20 years here.
Source: www.kremlin.ru

Chinas policy of expanding its boundaries and claiming other countries territories led to confrontation with many of its neighbouring countries. As these nations look at the US government to help contain China's expansionist policy, relations between the US and China could get strained.

The Chinese government yesterday defended the action of its pilot who flew fighter plane close to a US naval plane in the East China Sea on Sunday, which was carrying out reconnaissance activity in the area.

China has asked the United States to immediately stop all activities carried out by the US Navy in the South China Sea and East China Sea as it threatened its national security.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang in a statement issued on Tuesday said, "China's Air Force dealt with it in accordance with laws and regulations. The Chinese pilots' manoeuvres are legal, necessary and professional".

The US military aircraft's surveillance activities threatened China's national security, damaged both countries' military security and posed a danger to the safety of both the Chinese and US pilots, said Guoqiang.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Monday that two Chinese J-10 fighter jets intercepted a US EP-3 plane over the East China Sea during the weekend, with one jet coming within about 90 meters of the US aircraft causing it to change direction. The plane was flying in international airspace over the East China Sea.

Doklam Standoff and Indias military preparedness

The current standoff between India and China over the Doklam Plateau at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China has entered its second month, when at the request of Bhutan, Indian army stopped construction of road by the Chinese army in the Bhutanese territory.

The area is close to strategic corridor of chickens neck linking Northeast region of India with the rest of the country.

China denied entry to Indian pilgrims visiting Kailash Mansarovar via Nathu La on the Indo-China border in Sikkim on June 23.

The Chinese side has conducted live fire drill in Tibet plateau near the Indian border to assert its claim.

Indian side maintains that the dispute can be diplomatically resolved amid constant war rhetoric from the other side. The issue is likely to be taken up by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval with Chinese counterpart at the BRICS NSA Summit on July 27-28, being held in Beijing.

The Indian government recently authorised Indian army to procure critical weapons systems and military platforms to maintain combat readiness for short duration "intense wars" amid heightened tension at India-Pakistan border and China.

Indias External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, while answering to a question in Rajya Sabha, said, If China unilaterally changes the status quo of the tri-junction point, then that is a direct challenge to our security. Their demand is that we should withdraw our troops from there. We want that, if we are having a conversation, if we want to have talks, then both should withdraw their armies. From our side, there is no unreasonable demand.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a Hindu nationalist organisation, has called for a boycott of Chinese goods and asked all Indians to chant a 'mantra' before their prayers, " Let Kailash, Himalaya and Tibet be delivered from the demonic clutches of China.

Chinas frustration of India not joining OBOR

Chinese President Xi Jinpings ambitious project One Belt One Road (OBOR) of linking Asia, Europe and Africa providing newer markets for the Chinese goods has been criticised. Indias refusal to join OBOR has enraged China.

China has committed to invest USD 46 billion in building China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that will allow Chinese goods to be transported faster to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Microsoft Valuation: $92.7 billion Change in valuation: 16 percent Change in rank: -1

Global technology giant Microsoft is shifting to higher gear in getting more customers on board for its cloud-based services in India as it aggressively targets new as well as existing cloud technology users.

"Anybody who is on the cloud in India and anybody who has the potential to be on the cloud in India is a conversation for us," Microsoft India President Anant Maheshwari told PTI.

Maheshwari further said: "I am sure there will be a lot of speculation around how, what is the content of those conversations (with potential customers). Unless we have something real that we would have agreed on with the customer, we can't talk about it."

The comments assume significance amid reports that Microsoft Corporation could invest up to USD 100 million (Rs 640 crore) in buying a small stake in cab aggregator Ola.

Citing sources, the reports said the deal could see the ride-hailing service switch to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Maheshwari remained tight-lipped on these reports, instead saying the company doesn't comment on market speculations.

Microsoft has been pushing its Azure cloud service in India. Its competitors include AWS and Google, among others.

In February this year, Microsoft had announced a long- term cloud services deal with e-commerce platform, Flipkart. Later, in April, Microsoft was part of the USD 1.4 billion fund raising round by the online retailer.

Microsoft has already set up three data centres in India to offer secure commercial cloud services in India.
A Volkswagen executive charged with fraud and conspiracy for his part in covering up the "dieselgate" emissions-cheating scandal has agreed to plead guilty, US officials said today.

Oliver Schmidt, who led the German automaker's US regulatory compliance office from 2012 to March 2015, will plead guilty at an August 4 hearing at a US federal court in Michigan, the officials said.

It was the latest development in the two-year old scandal, after VW admitted in 2015 to equipping about 11 million cars worldwide with defeat devices to evade emissions tests, including about 6,00,000 vehicles in the United States.

Prosecutors and lawyers representing Schmidt told US District Judge Sean Cox of the plea agreement during a morning status conference, court spokesman David Ashenfelter told AFP.

In an email to AFP, the Justice Department confirmed the plea deal, but there were no further details released on its substance of the agreement. Schmidt's attorney did not immediately return requests for comment.

Schmidt would be the second VW employee implicated in the emissions scandal to plead guilty.

James Liang, a former Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty last year of helping devise a defeat device used to circumvent emission tests. An FBI affidavit cited him as a cooperating witness in the government's case.

The German automaker pleaded guilty in March to criminal charges that it defrauded the US and conspired to violate the Clean Air Act.

The company agreed to pay USD 4.3 billion in criminal and civil fines, on top of USD 17.5 billion the company had already agreed to pay in settlements with car owners, dealers and for environmental cleanup.

Regulators in 2015 discovered that Volkswagen diesel cars marketed as clean in fact spewed up to 40 times the permissible limits of nitrogen oxide during normal driving, but this was hidden during emissions testing.

The company developed the illegal technology in 2009 and prosecutors alleged senior employees attempted a coverup after learning of the scheme in 2015.

Volkswagen still faces an array of legal challenges in Germany and worldwide relating to the scandal.

The global carmaker has so far set aside more than USD 24.4 billion to cover fines and compensation related to dieselgate, but experts estimate the final bill could be much higher.
Education

Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu.

Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu.

Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events:

International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu.

EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu.

Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale  an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s  will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets  June Homecoming: Participant  $18 per person; Sustainer  $25 per person; Benefactor  $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler  Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events:

SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available  for information call 610-275-1960

Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above)

SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m.

Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.  4 p.m.  computers are available during those hours.

Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863.

Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376.

Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com.

The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes:

Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at

other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020.

CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313.

The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events:

Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.

Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30.

Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301.

For Kids & Families

The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443.

Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950.

Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required.

The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950.

Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus.

Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage.

Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun.

Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train.

Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world!

Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class.

Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org.

Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583.

Community Events at the Ambler Y:

-YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register.

Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org.

Health

Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot.

The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information.

Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245.

Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net.

Spring Aquatic Programs  UDHS Pool:

-Summer is just around the corner  Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required.

 Shallow Water Aerobics  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR.

 Adult Swim Instructions  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR

-Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21.

-Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday  Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m.

-Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons.

-Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates.

Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994.

SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com.

Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org.

Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs:

FITNESS CLASSES

Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month.

Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30  9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000.

Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30  7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047.

New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.  12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30  4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931.

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325.

Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes.

Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com.

Librarytalk

Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744

www.upperdublinlibrary.org

APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS:

Storytimes: Please register in the library.

o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m.

o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m.

o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6.

APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS:

North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee

APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS:

NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org.

One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register  contact info above.

Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744.

o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register.

Meetings:

Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m.

Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m.

Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org.

For children and teens at Blue Bell:

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m.

* May 14  Despicable Me

* June 11  Alpha and Omega

* Special Events

* April  watch for date of spring/Easter events

* April 14 at 4:30 p.m.  Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children.

* April 14 at 7 p.m.  Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided.

* April 16 at 1 p.m.  Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King.

* April 16 at 1:30 p.m.  Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes?

* April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button.

* April 30 through May 3  Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults.

* May  sign up for Science in the Summer

* June  sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children

* June  sign up for Summer Reading, all ages

For adults at Blue Bell:

* Daytime Book Discussion Group  fourth Tuesday, Jan  April at 1:30 p.m.

* April 26  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Night-time Book Discussion Group  third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

o April 19  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges

o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked?

*Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs

* Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class.

* Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class.

* Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m.

* Giant Book Sale, April 29  May 3

o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults!

o Held during library hours.

o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m.

o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join.

* Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series

o May 11 at 1 p.m.  Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society

* Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room.

* Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read.

* Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome.

* Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome.

*Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older.

* Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours

* Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours

* Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday!

Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library.

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* For adults:

* Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn.

* Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net

* Special Events:

* April 14 at 1:30 p.m.  Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian.

* April 19 at 7 p.m.  Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m.

* April 21 at 7 p.m.  Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades.

*May 2 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

*May 10  Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*May 12 at 1:30p.m.  Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

*May 17  Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*June 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

Meetings and Lectures

The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833.

The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200.

The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/.

LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings.

Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org)

-Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them.

The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter.

For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps.

Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin.

Special Events

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County.

The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065.

Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members.

Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex.

The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com.

The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348.

The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org.

Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163.

The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu.

The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com.

The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net.

Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages.

13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries.

Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family.

The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler.

JPRN  Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them  Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike.

Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies.

Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately.

Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways.

Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table.

Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp  Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall:

-Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store.

Music and Theater

The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220.

Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html.

Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free.

The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org

Religious News

The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276.

Reunions

St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net.

Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572.

Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779.

Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net

Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net

The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411.

Support

New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149.

PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931.

The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296.

Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656.

Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group  every other Wednesday, 7  8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support  second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner  Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers  Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information.

CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7  8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich,
Send items for Worship News to religion@thereporteronline.com. Address questions to Nancy March, editor, at nmarch@thereporteronline.com. Deadline is noon Thursday to appear in the Saturday Worship News and Notes. Presentation of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church has one more Sidewalk Ukrainian...
Jarrett Coleman goes from school board to statehouse with win in 16th Senate District race
Rabbis installation at Keneseth Israel will get a boost of student creativity
A local man who settled a wrongful arrest lawsuit against a southern California police department in 2015 claims he was illegally detained by Morgan Hill officers earlier this year after he refused to show them his drivers license, and he thinks he has been targeted due to his history of contentious contact with law enforcement.

The Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office dismissed the case against Jesse Katz of Morgan Hill in relation to his Jan. 27 arrest near Del Monte and Spring avenues. But authorities say that doesnt mean MHPD officers overstepped their bounds by taking him into custody.

Civil liberties advocates disagree, and Katz says his arrest in Morgan Hill so closely mirrors an incident in Barstow in 2014which ultimately forced that citys police department to adopt a new training bulletinthat he plans to take civil action.

On Jan. 27, an MHPD officer saw a motorcycle parked on the sidewalk, leaning up against a fence outside a residence on Spring Avenue, according to police reports found in Katz court file. As the vehicle was blocking the sidewalka violation of the state vehicle codethe officer stopped and tried to make contact with the owner.

Katz, 38, was helping a friend at the home in question, and responded that he was the owner of the motorcycle when the officer called to him over the fence. The officer asked him to move the vehicle, to which Katz replied he would do so.

After waiting a few moments without Katz approaching the motorcycle, the officer called out to him again, according to the police report. Katz then exited the yard and walked toward the motorcycle. The officer asked him for his identification, but Katz refused to present an ID and declined to identify himself by name.

Katz then told the officer he wanted to speak to a shift supervisor, who arrived along with another officer within a few minutes.

What is the law?

After arguing with the officers on sceneas depicted in the initial officers body camera footage obtained by Katzhe was arrested on suspicion of refusing to present his drivers license to an officer, and resisting police.

But Katz argued with the officers and sergeant that he is not required to show his identification upon their request. He particularly took issue with MHPD Sgt. Carlos Guerreros statement during the incident that a drivers signature on a California license states you shall present your license when asked by an officer.

Katz said this is 100 percent factually inaccurate and untrue.

That is only true when the person is driving, Katz told the Times. There is no law compelling a citizen to provide identification without cause.

California Vehicle Code section 12951, cited in the MHPD report, says the driver of a motor vehicle shall present his or her license for examination upon demand of a peace officer. On Jan. 27, Katz told the responding officers that he was the owner of the motorcycle, but not that he had been driving it. He declined to say whether he drove the vehicle to the location where he was ultimately arrested.

The MHPD report does not claim that Katz had been driving the motorcycle.

If they wanted to issue a citation, they should have issued a citation to the vehicle, Katz added.

A staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union clarified that no person stopped by a peace officer in California has to present their drivers license unless they are operating a vehicle.

But the ACLU attorney, Adrienna Wong, said in general termsnot referring to Katz most recent casethe ACLU continues to see arrests of people in California on suspicion of resisting officers just because they didnt present their ID when asked. These cases are often dismissed by prosecutors, but sometimes they arent, Wong said.

Thats a problem, when prosecutors keep filing those charges, Wong said. They should very well know thats not the law in California.

Wong was also familiar with Katz 2014 case against the Barstow Police Department, in which he and his brother enlisted the ACLU to file a lawsuit claiming wrongful arrest. That lawsuit stems from an incident in which a Barstow officer asked the Katz brothers for their ID while they were eating at a restaurant, after another customer accused them of theft without presenting any evidence. The brothers refused, and the officer arrested them.

The Katz each won a settlement of $15,000 from the City of Barstow. But Jesse Katz said the important part of the settlement is that Barstow officials agreed to adopt an internal training bulletin clarifying the law.

(A) person who is subject to a police contact or lawful detention is not required to identify himself, the Barstow Police Department training bulletin reads, in part.

Case closed?

The D.A.s office dismissed Katz case in April, according to Deputy D.A. Jason Malinsky. However, Malinsky noted there was circumstantial evidence that Katz had been driving the motorcycle that was blocking the sidewalk, and MHPD officers had probable cause to arrest him due to his multiple refusals to present his license, thus delaying their investigation.

We dismissed the case against Mr. Katz because we concluded the interests of justice would not be furthered by his prosecution for what amounted to a 13-minute delay, Malinsky said in an email.

MHPD Capt. Shane Palsgrove denied the Times request for the officers body-camera footage of the Jan. 27 incident. He noted that the D.A.s office has a different standard for prosecution than police have for making an arrest, but he referred follow-up questions to the city attorney.

Morgan Hill City Attorney Don Larkin said he has reviewed the MHPD file on the case.

Im comfortable with how our officers responded, Larkin said.

Katz obtained one of the three responding officers body-camera videoswhich he shared with the Timesthrough the evidence discovery process. Among Katz remaining complaints is the fact the authorities did not turn over the other videos.

Katz also thinks MHPD has had it out for him ever since officers responded to his previous home, on Count Fleet Court in south Morgan Hill, multiple times on complaints of oversized or inoperable vehicles parked in his driveway. These contacts, which ultimately led to a citation for Katz, occurred in 2015.

When the Times reported on that case, Palsgrove confirmed that an MHPD sergeant had sent an email to the department asking officers to respond to the Katz home with more than one officer due to the familys anti-police stance. Palsgrove at the time cited Katz arrest in Barstow as one reason for the need to respond with numbers.

Katz thinks its not fair for MHPD to react that way to a case in which he was completely vindicated.

There has been a clear pattern of harassment and arbitrary, inconsistent enforcement of the rules, Katz said. The only avenue left to me is to sue them in civil court and seek policy changes and police training guidelines, like we did in Barstow.
Police arrested a Morganton man after the 4-year-old child he was supposed to be watching was found wearing just his underwear in a parking lot Tuesday.

Fermin Gonsales Gomez, 32, was charged with child abuse and possession of schedule IV narcotics after a Morganton Department of Public Safety officer found him asleep after taking drugs while the child was unattended outside, according to a police report.

Officer J.D. Walker responded to the scene around 7 p.m. after Jennifer Hicks said she saw the boy playing in the parking lot of Stonebridge Apartments, the report said. Hicks asked what he was doing, and he replied he was going down the hill to save his mother.

After police arrived, a neighbor recognized the child and told Walker where he lived. Walker knocked on the door several times, but no one answered, the report said.

The boy opened the door and walked inside the apartment, and Walker noticed Gomez lying on the sofa. Walker announced who he was and attempted to wake him up. He finally woke up after several attempts, the report said.

Walker explained the situation to Gomez, who admitted it was his fault and told officers he thought the boy was asleep in his room, the report said. Gomez seemed confused and made Walker aware that there was a 1-year-old girl in the apartment.

Gomez later told Walker that the boy had gotten out two days prior and that a latch was placed on the door to keep him inside, the report said. Gomez said he did not lock the latch because the children were asleep and because he did not think their mother would be gone long.

Fresh needle marks on Gomezs arm and his behavior caused Walker to believe he was impaired, the report said. Walker had Gomez perform an eye test and asked about the needle marks, which Gomez said were from an old habit.

The boys mother, Lauren Warden, returned home after receiving a call from a neighbor, the report said. She told Walker she had left with a neighbor one hour before to attend a food give-away at The Outreach Center. The center is 0.3 miles away from the apartment.

Sgt. Edwards asked to search the apartment and was given permission by Warden and Gomez. Edwards found six empty syringes in a nightstand, and Warden said she thought (Gomez) was clean now.

Gomez told officers again that the needles were from an old habit and were unused. He then admitted to using Clonazepam, more commonly known by the trade name Klonopin, which he said he bought illegally, the report said.

Edwards also located two more Clonazepam pills in a cigarette box and two syringes inside a Pepsi bottle in the trash can, the report said.

A Burke County Department of Social Services worker arrived at the apartment to speak with Warden and Gomez. Gomez agreed to not have contact with the boy during the investigation, the report said.

Walker arrested Gomez for possession of a schedule IV narcotic, possession of drug paraphernalia and child abuse, the report said. He was given a $2,500 bond and was transported to the Burke-Catawba jail.

Gomez said he was not the boys biological father but has been his guardian since he was 6 months old, the report said. Gomez and Warden are both the biological parents of the 1-year-old girl.

Gomez has previous convictions for larceny and possessing stolen goods, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website. He also has multiple unemployment benefit violations.
The current administration has established the Commission on Electoral Integrity and that body has demanded that states turn over data (including Social Security numbers, birth dates, party affiliation, etc.) on all voters. Fortunately, many states have turned over only information that is public record.

The President has states, "What are they worried about?" Citizens are worried about having their information hacked by Russians and/or others. It is common knowledge that data compromise is a frequent occurrence. Elected officials should be protecting citizens, not making them sitting ducks for the sinister forces who have shown the capacity to hack computer systems almost at will.

Additionally, many of us are also worried about our personal information being in the hands of those for whom love of money trumps everything.
Accountant David Lawson says he has been an unsophisticated investor for decades. But as he is now in his early 60s he is looking to take a more structured approach to his savings and investments.

He says: I first invested in the 1980s, and bought into a number of the privatisation shares, including British Gas and BT (BT.A). I also worked for Shell for many years and invested in a number of the share save schemes they ran.

As a result Lawson ended up with a sizeable holding in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB).

Lawson prefers holding individual shares to funds, partly because he says he feels this is a more cost effective way to invest. He says he prefers to make the decisions of which shares to buy, rather than handing this responsibility over to a fund manager.

After his parents died Lawson inherited some further UK-listed shares, including Lloyds (LLOY). Adding these to his existing holdings he realised his portfolio was very unbalanced  largely in oil and utility companies and banks.

When he was made redundant from Shell, it prompted him to review his finances.

He explains: On principle I like the idea of passive funds that follow the market. However, when you look at it you can see that a FTSE 100 tracker, for example, is quite unbalanced. There have been times when the around half of the FTSE 100 has been in financial and oil companies, so investing in such a fund wouldnt necessarily help me diversify significantly. My portfolio would still be very overweight in these same sectors.

Diversifying Away from Oil and Banks

Instead, Lawson has been selling some of his existing holdings and diversifying into different sectors: Im divesting some of my Royal Dutch Shell shares over a number of years so I am not hit with capital gains tax. Im reluctant to sell either the BT or Lloyds holdings at present because the shares have fallen in value in recent years. Im hoping they will recover.

According to Morningstar analysts Royal Dutch Shell shares have a four star rating, reflecting the fact that shares are currently trading below their Morningstar analysts fair value price.

Allen Good, a senior analyst at Morningstar said: With the BG acquisition on the books, Shell is embarking on the necessary steps to compete in a world of $60-per-barrel oil. Like the rest of the integrated group, Shell is working to reduce its cost base, which has become bloated during the past five years, by reducing head count and improving its supply chain.

Good notes that it has been fairly successful in these aims, recently posting that the company posted another strong quarter of cash flow generation. This has been partly helped by increased commodity prices. But Good adds: Shell continues to stand out as the most undervalued integrated [company in its sector] as the market fails to recognise the improvement in operations and financial health. We think the quarter demonstrates the potential for improvement over the coming years.

Lloyds Remains Undervalued

Morningstar also has a positive view of Lloyds, which also has a four-star rating. Analysts point out that the bank has now returning to private ownership, with the Government selling off its remaining stake in the company in 2016. Morningstar says: We expect Lloyds profitability to continue and we believe the group will maintain its dividend policy of a payout ratio of at least 50%.

If this does turn out to be the case, there may be some share price appreciation which could benefit Lawson. Morningstar analysts describe the bank as a lean UK retail bank with a strong brand umbrella.

Lawson says: My aim is to invest in one or two shares within each sector. I will have the same weighting in each though. If mining shares plummet, which has happened in recent years, this will only affect around 5% of my portfolio.

Looking for Attractive Opportunities

Lawson has tried to identify what he thinks are the most attractive shares in each sector. He says: Ive been investing on and off for years. There are time when the stock market is depressed, often for quite a period of time, but in my experience it always bounces back. Shares seem to produce the best returns over the longer term.

Lawson has been looking for opportunities to buy his preferred companies; last years Brexit vote have him the opportunity to pick up several shareholdings at a reduced price.

These included British Land (BLND), WPP (WPP), Prudential (PRU), and the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

The insurer, Prudential, has a two-star rating from Morningstar analysts, mean they consider it to be currently trading above fair value. Analysts say: Prudential is predominantly a life insurer with product focuses on highly commoditised fixed and variable annuities and unit-linked health and protection. It is therefore difficult for the business to establish a sustainable competitively advantage.

WPP is rated three stars, meaning analysts consider the shares to be fairly valued. Analysts note that sales in the first quarter of this year were ahead of expectations: The firm continued its aggressive acquisition strategy during the quarter, focusing mainly on emerging markets and digital, which we believe could drive growth in the long run.

But analyst Ali Mogharabi warns geopolitical factors are behind the sluggish growth of advertising.

Taking Risk in Retirement

Lawson, who was widowed several years ago, is taking a long-term view on his finances.

I invest in ISAs, through AJ Bell, but I didnt embrace these early enough. Ive been gradually moving some of my holdings into more tax-efficient wrappers, he said.

It seems to me that many financial advisers say you should be looking to take fewer investment risks when you reach my age. Im not sure I agree. Im investing to provide myself with some additional funds for later in life, but Id also like to be able to leave some to my children. On that basis, Im looking at 20-year investment horizon, maybe more.
Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
There are 11 US states (and DC) where it is currently more affordable to rent a home than to buy one.



Washington DC, Arizona and Nevada are among those identified in a coast-to-coast analysis of housing markets by GoBankingRates.com using estimated rental price for all homes, median home price, and mortgage cost data from Zillow and Trulia.



Monthly costs include taxes and insurance and were based on a 30-year mortgage with a 20% downpayment.



In Arizona, monthly rent would cost $1,273 while a mortgage would cost $1,326; In Colorado, renters would pay $1,807 while homeowners would pay $1,918; and in Washington DC, rent would be $2,632 against mortgage and associated homeownership costs of $2,718.



The other states were renting is more affordable are: Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Among those, the difference is highest in Hawaii, where a renter would pay $2,433 with a homeowner paying almost $500 a month more ($2,916).



In the other 11 states found to have higher homeownership costs, the difference is generally around $100 or less (in Wyoming its just $8 a month), which may prove to be less of a deal breaker when considering the benefits of homeownership (including the likelihood of building equity) compared to renting.
Vaquero Midstream to expand southern Delaware footprint

THE WOODLANDS, Texas  Vaquero Midstream announced an agreement with its bank group to increase their revolving line of credit from $40 million to $95 million. The increased bank capacity will be used to support the construction of a second 200 million cubic feet per day cryogenic processing plant at the existing Caymus plant site located in Pecos County of the Southern Delaware Basin.

Vaqueros 30 inch and 24 inch Lariat rich-gas gathering header transverses northwest from the Caymus facility near Waha through the heart of some of the highest GOR production in the Southern Delaware Basin. Over 70 rigs are currently active within 10 miles of Vaqueros gathering line. This drilling activity is driving volume growth for current customers as well as other potential new customers near the Vaquero rich-gas gathering header.

Upon completion of Caymus II plant construction, Vaquero will have 400 Mmcfd of processing capacity in service at the site, with further expansion capability to over 1 billion cubic feet per day. Construction is estimated to be complete in the first quarter of 2018.

In addition to the more than a dozen markets currently available to its producer customers through connections at the WAHA Hub, Vaquero is constructing an additional interconnect to the Roadrunner Gas Transmission pipeline taking gas into Mexico. This interconnect will supply the needs of the CFE and other Mexican market demand.

We expect to need the second plants capacity to handle our current customers growing gas volumes by the end of the first quarter of 2018, said Gary Conway, CEO. By initiating construction now, we are able to ensure that our producers will have capacity for processing gas volumes in our system next year.

BJ Services plans to go public on NYSE

By Jordan Blum

Houston Chronicle

Houston fracker BJ Services plans to go public through an initial public offering of up to $100 million.

The Tomball-based hydraulic fracturing company with a 145-year history reemerged as a standalone company at the end of last year when it was spun out of Houstons Baker Hughes, which is now a part of the General Electric family.

The freestanding BJ Services is now taking the next natural step and planning to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the BJS stock ticker. The company isnt yet releasing any other details on financing or timing.

Touting itself as the largest North American-focused company focused just on fracking and cementing services, BJ is hoping to capitalize on the surging shale oilfields, even though crude oil prices continue to struggle under $50 a barrel.

BJ Services said it owns 43 fracking crews and 241 cementers with roughly half of each of them currently operating. BJ hopes to have 31 fracking crews in service by December as activity levels continue to ramp up.

BJ Services was founded in 1872 as the Byron Jackson Company. Baker Hughes bought BJ Services Co., of Houston, for $5.5 billion in 2009, to expand into the fracking business, and the deal served as a financial drag for Baker Hughes ever since. Baker Hughes still kept its international and offshore pressure pumping business.

The BJ Services pressure pumping deal brought Baker Hughes, a GE company, into partnerships with Houston-based CSL Capital Management private equity firm and Goldman Sachs merchant banking fund, called West Street Energy Partners. Baker Hughes kept a 46.7 percent ownership stake in BJ Services.

BJ Services combined with CSLs Allied Oil & Gas Services business, which was acquired last year. New Allied Chief Executive Warren Zemlak, a veteran of Schlumberger, is the BJ Services CEO.

CSL and Goldman Sachs contributed $325 million in cash to the new company. Baker Hughes received $150 million of the total, while the remaining $175 million was intended to position BJ Services for growth.

BP weighs launching new IPO

By Jordan Blum

Houston Chronicle

Global energy giant BP said its considering taking its pipeline business public through an initial public offering.

BP said the publicly traded spinoff, tentatively called BP Midstream Partners, would house its Gulf Coast and Midwest pipeline assets that transport its crude oil, natural gas and refined products.

While no decision is made, BP said the IPO offers the opportunity to grow its pipeline business, while also giving investors new venues to find value.

London-based BP said the IPO would could in the form of a master-limited partnership, a uniquely American tax-avoiding corporate structure that requires the companies to distribute most of their income to investors in payments similar to stock dividends. MLPs are most popular with pipeline companies.

Out of the so-called Big Oil giants, only Royal Dutch Shell already has an MLP, having launched Shell Midstream Partners in 2014.
'The big truck is still on ...
GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.
Do you get a thrill from hearing sonic booms? Brevard County will be the place to be for two weeks in August.

NASA begins sonic boom research Monday, Aug. 21

Testing done daily at Kennedy Space Center

NASA hoping to develop aircraft with quieter sonic booms

NASA will be researching sonic booms for a nearly two-week period from Kennedy Space Center starting Monday, Aug. 21.

NASA will fly an F-18 research plan two to three times per day, and communities and beaches around KSC may experience the sonic booms.

However, they've also carefully planned their flights so that people in larger cities like Titusville or Cocoa Beach won't be disturbed significantly. They may hear a distant sound similar to the rumble of thunder.

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock wave produced when an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1).

NASA will collect data on sonic booms in low turbulence, medium turbulence and significant turbulence. Turbulence can play a big part in how loud a sonic boom is.

The research is key to developing quiet supersonic aircraft, which produce a loud thump rather than the louder sonic boom.

Last year NASA did the same series of tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the climate is hot and dry.

This year's tests are happening in Florida, where the climate is far more humid. NASA says that humidity can make sonic booms louder.

However, NASA says its pilots will be flying at high enough altitudes so that the booms are not dangerous to people, animals or buildings.

Longtime residents of Brevard County are no strangers to sonic booms. The booms were very common when space shuttles returned from missions. Recently, sonic booms returned to Brevard County when SpaceX began doing land-based landings of their Falcon 9 first stage rocket.

The sonic booms are expected to last through the end of the month, and possible into early September. More information is available on the NASA website.



This map gives you a general idea of the flight path for the NASA tests and where sonic booms may be heard.(NASA)
It looks clear at the moment because the road is yet to open, but the Central Florida Expressway Authority expects to see 6,000 vehicles a day use the initial stretch of the Wekiva Parkway in its first year of existence.

1st 2 sections of Wekiva Parkway south corridor opens Thursday

Stretch is 5 miles from end of SR 429 to Kelly Park Road



RELATED: Wekiva Parkway Sections 1A & 1B on CFX website

Here is a quick breakdown of what its opening means for you:

First off, when all is said and done by 2021, the Wekiva Parkway will finish Central Florida's beltway, connecting all the way north to State Road 417 and the Interstate 4 corridor.

There are essentially two halves to the project. CFX is building the southern corridor, while the Florida Department of Transportation is in charge of building the northern section.

Whats opening Thursday? The first two sections of CFX's southern corridor will open Thursday, which is a 5-mile stretch extending north of the existing end of State Road 429 at Connector Road to Kelly Park Road.

Central Florida's last portion of the beltway will also feature a big first: "The Wekiva Parkway is the first expressway in Central Florida to feature all-electronic tolling, said Mary Brooks, a spokeswoman for the Wekiva Parkway. So folks who use the Parkway won't need to stop, change lanes, slow down or anything. They will just continue to drive at safe highway speeds and be able to pay their tolls."



The new portion of the Wekiva Parkway opening Thursday, July 27, 2017, is a 5-mile stretch from the end of State Road 429 north to Kelly Park Road. (News 13)

That all-electronic tolling feature means motorists should consider getting a SunPass or an E-Pass. If you don't have either of these electronic devices in your vehicle, CFX will capture an image of your license plate and send you a monthly invoice  which is 20 percent more expensive with processing fees.

Aesthetically speaking, the Wekiva Parkway has a slew of features that no other CFX road has.

"You've got archways, you've got stone relief, and youve got warm earth tones, brown colors. You've always got decorative pedestrian hand-railing, Brooks said. You've got wider medians, where in about a year or so you will have enhanced landscaping with more mature trees.

The first two CFX portions of the Wekiva Parkway cost $102 million. When completed, their sections will cost more than $270 million of the entire $1.6 billion project.
Roseanne McCulloh/AP

New parents in San Francisco can now donate their infants umbilical cord blood for use in transplants or medical research.

The program started at Kaiser Permanentes medical center on Geary Boulevard is part of a national effort. Usable blood is sent to the Cleveland Cord Blood Center in Ohio, where it is stored and placed in a registry that is available free for public use and can be drawn on by doctors in the United States and 17 other countries.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Rackspace Hosting has joined a growing chorus of corporations fighting Texas lawmakers efforts to regulate transgender peoples access to public restrooms.

Newly-anointed CEO Joe Eazor slammed the proposed law as discriminatory and potentially crippling to the states business-friendly image in a statement Wednesday.

The San Antonio-based managed cloud computing firm, which has 5,700 employees, signed onto an open letter maintained by the Texas Association of Business opposing a so-called bathroom bill in any form last week, Rackspace spokeswoman Megan Ketterer said.

Rackspace is a successful representative of Texas thriving business culture and, like most major employers here, we maintain a commitment to equality and inclusion, Eazor said. State regulation of bathrooms risks crippling the open, business-friendly culture that has enabled Texas to attract employers, talented workers, customers, and visitors from all over the U.S. and the world.

Eazor continued, (Senate Bill 3) serves only to distract from our states many merits, and hurts our business community. We urge the legislature to vote against this legislation and keep our business environment and our state competitive.

Texas senators voted Wednesday to send Senate Bill 3, which would bar transgender men and women from using bathrooms that match their gender identity in government buildings and public schools, to the state House of Representatives, where it faces tougher hurdles. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican who wrote the bill, are the legislatures most prominent proponents of enacting a transgender bathroom law  arguing the legislation is needed to protect women. House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, has opposed bathroom legislation.

Texas companies and business groups have grown increasingly vocal in their distaste for legislation regulating transgender bathroom access since Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to deal, in part, with the issue.

More than a dozen San Antonio chief executives  David Zachry of Zachry Corp., Sam Dawson of Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. and Bill Greehey of NuStar Energy  blasted the legislation as detriment to the pro-business environment in Texas in a letter to Straus last week. A group of 14 Dallas-based CEOs  including Doug Parker of American Airlines, Randall Stephenson of AT&T and Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines  railed against the bill in a similar letter to Abbott, Patrick and Straus earlier this month.

Rackspace isnt the only tech company to oppose the measure. Major tech CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Tim Cook of Apple, have told state lawmakers not to pass bathroom legislation. And IBM has said it may rethink its commitment to Texas if lawmakers enact transgender bathroom restrictions.

JFechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports
Recognize the name Ross Ulbricht? What about the Silk Road? (Hint: Its not the ancient one Marco Polo travelled.)

Narratives and counter-narratives abound in the exceptional American Kingpin (Portfolio/Penguin, $27), Nick Biltons account of the Icarus-like arc of the $1.2 billion online drug emporium Ulbricht patched together from the digital equivalent of chewing gum and string; he then ruled it with an iron rod over suitably encrypted instant messages, before an alphabet soup of federal agencies caught up with him and his silver Samsung 700Z laptop in 2013. American Kingpin is about the grip of an idea on a young man with a point to prove. But was he Walter White or Walter Mitty? Read the full review.

Here are some other new books crowding the night table.

House of Spies (Harper, $28.99) is a continuation of Daniel Silvas previous novel, The Black Widow, which focused on the infiltration of ISIS by Israels intelligence organization. The undercover agent was a woman who managed to nurse the fictional ISIS leader, Saladin, back from an injury, which only led to a catastrophic attack in Washington, D.C. In Spies, ISIS attacks London, which intensifies the international cooperation to find and eliminate Saladin. As in past Silva novels, the action is ripped from the headlines. The tension builds steadily and the stakes keep rising, sometimes in unexpected ways. Read the full review.

Laura Dassow Walls new biography Henry David Thoreau: A Life (University of Chicago Press, $35)  timed to the July bicentennial of the woodland philosophers birth  is akin to one of his less common ambles, an attempt to present us with a man who was only tokenly about sitting in a small house on a rise over a pond. A Thoreau biography feels like it is going to be serious, heavy, sententious  probably not fun, but good for you, like unsweetened cranberry juice straight from the bog. But what do you know  Walls alleviates this problem by finding humor in some of Thoreaus various situations, if not his actual words. And, there may have been romance. Thoreau, you sly dog, you. Read the full review.

Jim LaVilla-Havelin, who has been picking the poems printed in Sundays Express-News since 2010, closely observes nature in his fifth collection of poems, simply entitled West (Wings Press, $16). Living on acreage near the small town of Lytle, south of San Antonio, accounts for LaVilla-Havelins precise recognition of wildlife and seasonal changes  especially drought conditions  throughout the poems. LaVilla-Havelin approaches the place with humility and quietness. He makes us witness it as he does. Read the full review.

The Dadland (Atlantic Monthly Press , $26) of Keggie Carews first book is a vast expanse indeed. Spurred by her enigmatic fathers retreat into dementia, Carew determined to uncover his past, and with it, hers. Tom Carew, known with affection as the mad Irishman, was a British special operations officer during World War II. To understand his military history required archival deep-diving, while plumbing the (relatively) peaceful years involved sifting through diaries and letters, sorting out generations of mismatched marriages (temperament, class), and engaging in capacious acts of empathy and imagination. Part memoir, part biography, part military history, Dadland is also a lovingly unconventional elegy for a generation. Read the full review.

SBennett@express-news.net
What do you get when two art collectors move into a sleek house with wall space and natural light to spare? You get a museum in most every meaning of the word.

Erika and Matthias (they preferred not use their last names) saw that possibility when they first stepped into their 4,500-square-foot Terrell Hills home of eight years. When we walked in, we said, Its got gallery walls. Look at the big wide open space, she recalled.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Between health care and a host of other contentious issues, the U.S. Senate is turning into the new Hotel California: Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (and their 98 colleagues) can check out any time they like, but they can never leave.

The traditional languorous August recess is little more than a distant memory, as senators dig in for battle on GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare  with no end in sight.

And Democrats themselves have an interest in keeping the Senate open for business, if only to guard against a Trump-inspired recess appointment to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a prelude to firing special prosecutor Robert Mueller. (He of the Russia-influence investigation that the president regularly calls a hoax).

In recent years, Murphy has taken his family to his parents beach home in Old Lyme. And Blumenthal generally stays put in Greenwich, traveling around the state to meetings, parades, ceremonial events  you name it.

But this year both will find themselves stuck inside of D.C. on weekdays, a steamy alternative to the nice onshore breezes of the Long Island Sound.

Murphy shrugged off the loss of vacation time.

We knew this was a possibility so we hadnt made any firm commitments, he said.

Blocking the GOP replacement of Obamacare is the most important issue facing the state of Connecticut; the stakes are incredibly high, Murphy said. Im committed to stopping this thing and giving it every ounce of my being to do so.

For his part, Blumenthal said: Any day in Connecticut is a good day for me, and I wont say the converse is true. All things considered, Id rather be in Connecticut, but I will happily do my duty down here (in Washington).

A challenge for The Mooch

At Goldman Sachs back in the day, Rep. Jim Himes was a contemporary of the new White House Communications czar, Anthony The Mooch Scaramucci. But Himes says her never knew the smooth-talking Long Islander, who expressed his love for Donald Trump several times at his opening news conference last week.

I was in investment banking and he was in sales, Himes said, noting they overlapped only briefly in the 90s.

He recalled Scaramucci visiting him in his Washington office some time in 2010 when Himes was a freshman and contributing architect of the Dodd-Frank legislation reining in Wall Street.

Scaramucci was promoting his first of three books, Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul. A friend of Wall Street regulation he definitely was not.

Hes a unique guy and a consummate salesman, Himes said. Theres no question in my mind he will be a smoother operator than Sean Spicer. But I worry hell feed the presidents high self-regard. Ive never seen a White House spokesman be so fawning.

For a salesman, a good product always sells itself. But a flawed or defective product, well, thats a much harder sell.

Himes sees some of that equation playing into Scaramuccis White House tenure.

The underlying dynamics dont change, said Himes. Whether its crowd size at the Inauguration, President Obama wiretapping Trump Tower or millions of illegal voters depriving Trump of the popular vote in 2016, Himes said Scaramucci will have to confront the stark reality: If you want to keep your job, youll have to say things that only the president of the United States thinks are true. Its a tough position to be in.

Pushing for change

Pity the poor, honest nonpartisan advocate trekking to Washington to promote an agenda of fighting poverty at home and abroad.

Or maybe not.

For Phyllis Behlen, a Greenwich resident and local coordinator of a 37-year-old organization Results, a five-day trip to Washington was not a total frustration  even as chaos over health care and other issues was breaking out all around her.

Behlen made the trip with Nancy Gardiner of Trumbull, Lucinda Winslow and Bill Baker of Stamford, and Results board chairman Kul Gautam, who lived in Greenwich from 1995 to 2000.

They visited the offices of all six Connecticut members of Congress, and got to see Himes in person. Their agenda is simple enough: Whether its Food Stamps, Medicaid or foreign aid through USAID, the impoverished people of the world need all the help they can get.

But crossfire notwithstanding, Behlen insisted bright spots do happen in Washington.

Last week, for instance, the House Appropriations approved nearly $2 billion in spending overseas for nutrition, maternal and child health, and basic education. All those numbers were well over those proposed by Trump in his 2018 budget.

By luck if not by design, the trip could not have been more well-timed. Himes and fellow Connecticut lawmakers are immersed the battle over GOP health care, which (if approved) would scale back Medicaid drastically.

What Im seeing is this needs to move to a place where Republicans and Democrats are sitting together and addressing the issues that clearly exist with the ACA (Obamacare), Behlen said. Everyone is in agreement that there are problems. This is simply a function of Congress doing the peoples will.

dan@hearstdc.com; @danfreedma
GREENWICH  The cost of constructing a new New Lebanon School will be nearly on target with predictions from a year ago.

The Gilbane Building Company presented a proposed guaranteed maximum price of $30,894,305 to the New Lebanon Building Committee on Wednesday morning. In August 2016, the construction management company predicted construction costs would be about $30,448,000.

It really came in pretty darn close to where it was, said Stephen Walko, chair of the building committee.

If accepted by the building committee, the guaranteed maximum price for construction plus architectural costs, the purchase of furniture and fixtures and a contingency of five percent would pinpoint the total cost of the project at $37,402,760.

Were over the proposed budget by $93,702, said Walko, a small amount in a project of this scale.

The New Lebanon Building Committee did not vote on Gilbanes guaranteed maximum price because doing so would entail accepting contracts with individual construction vendors; something the building committee will not do until funding from the state is secure for the project.

The state is expected to fund $20 million in a grant, with the rest of the construction paid for by the town. The state General Assembly votes on funding for the New Lebanon project as part of the state bond bill. The bond bill is voted on directly after the state budget, which has been frozen in political gridlock in Hartford since the budget due date of June 5.

emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Fans will get to meet both the cast and the author of "Who's in Bed with the Butler?" after the Aug. 4 performance of the farce at Dinner Theatre at Franca's, producer Lina Pignataro says.

The show's playwright, Michael Parker, will attend the production while visiting Houston from his home in Turks and Caicos, she said.

The play will run through Aug. 12 at Franca's Italian Restaurant in the Bay Area, whose dinner theater, Pignataro said, boasts a new stage, more seating and an advanced sound system.

Parker's daughter, a Houston attorney, has previously enjoyed other productions of her father's plays at Franca's, said director Charlotte Jackson of Santa Fe.

"What an exciting and rare opportunity to perform the play with the playwright in the audience," said Patti Meiners of Clear Lake. "I'm probably a little more nervous."

In the show, Meiners portrays Constance, the daughter of a deceased billionaire, with her husband, John Meiners Jr., as her character's lawyer, Vance.

John Meiners Jr. is also an accomplished playwright, most recently winning a spot in Scriptwriters Houston's 27th annual 10x10 Festival of original 10-minute plays. His script, "Jeannie," will be performed Aug. 17-20 and 24-26 at The DeLuxe Theater in Houston.

"To say it's thrilling when the characters I've only imagined actually take on a living, breathing presence is an understatement," he said. "As a playwright, I am filled with wonder when the words on paper come alive on stage."

Jackson, who also directed Parker's farce, "Sex, Please, We're Sixty," at Franca's, said, "It will be very interesting to have the actual playwright in the audience. Mr. Parker's plays are a challenge because they are so complicated, all the things he's written into them. This is a funny, funny, fast-paced comedy, with a lot of physical humor. The fact that his plays move so quickly, with so much going on, is something audiences seem to enjoy about them."

Parker, whose plays have been produced in 29 countries, grew up in England, where he honed acting skills in British works, Jackson said.

According to biographical information at www.michaelparkerplaywright.com, Parker moved to Canada at age 23, made a mint as the owner of a temporary office help business, then retired to the Caribbean.

Parker tried his hand at writing a play in a distinctly American setting but employing devices used in popular "naughty but nice" British farces. The result was "The Sensuous Senator," which was inspired by a 1987 sex scandal involving former U.S. presidential candidate Gary Hart and campaign fundraiser Donna Rice, who were photographed aboard a yacht called "Monkey Business."

Parker followed the production of "The Sensuous Senator" with "The Amorous Ambassador," which was published by Samuel French Inc. in New York City.

Following the success of "Who's in Bed with the Butler?" in 2003 and other scripts, Parker began writing with his wife, Susan, and they co-authored "Sin, Sex & the CIA" in 2006.

"I have had so much fun writing with Susan that I will never write alone again," he said.

Pignataro said that "Who's in Bed with the Butler?" is about a billionaire's stipulation that all of his assets go to his only child, Constance, except for a $22 million yacht he wanted someone named Josephine to have, a $25 million art collection left to a Renee and some priceless antique automobiles willed to a Marjorie.

Constance and Vance hire a bumbling detective to help them find out who the "bimbo" beneficiaries are, and they discover that all three are mistresses of the billionaire's busy butler.

In addition to the Meiners, the cast includes Steve Forgus of La Marque as the butler, Judy Alhlorn and Kathy Edge of Bacliff, Steve Quimby of Pearland, Amy Morneau of League City, Stefanie Sheidy of Shoreacres and Dianne Foussac.

Crew members include Glen Gage of Clear Lake and Bev Forgus of La Marque.

Tickets are $35. Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. The show starts at 8 p.m.

The performances are at 1101 E. Nasa Parkway, Houston.

For reservations and further information, contact Franca's at 281-488-2207 or www.francasrealitalian.com.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who ca be reached at donmaines@att.net
An Oklahoma county sheriff is among six people indicted by a grand jury on felony second-degree manslaughter charges following the 2016 death of an inmate who was found dead after more than 48 hours of confinement in a chair.

Anthony Huff died in the Garfield County Jail in Enid after he was arrested on public intoxication charges on June 4. He was strapped to a chair two days later, where he remained for more than two days without adequate food or water, according to jail records and court documents. Huff was found unresponsive and pronounced dead on June 8.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday night what roles each of the six indicted people allegedly played in Huff's confinement, treatment and eventual death, or if they had attorneys who could comment on the allegations.

Garfield County Sheriff Jerry Niles, who took office in 2013, was the most senior official implicated in Huff's death. He was arrested and led away in handcuffs Tuesday.

The other five officials worked at the jail, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.

Jennifer Niles, the jail's administrator, appears to be the second-most senior official implicated. It was not clear Tuesday night if she is related to Sheriff Niles. Other officials indicted were two nurses, one assistant jail administrator and a detention officer.

A medical examiner said Huff's cause of death was related to natural causes on June 9, and the probable cause of death was due to "chronic alcoholism and due to a compulsive condition from a prior disease," Hunter said in a release.

Garfield County Judge Paul Woodward unsealed the indictments issued by the state's multi-county grand jury, which has deliberated since March. The jurors submitted charges last week, Hunter said.

"I commend the grand jurors, attorneys and agents for their work on this case, leading to the indictments," Hunter said. "The state's multi-county grand jury is an invaluable resource the state depends on to assist law enforcement and prosecutors."

The case will be prosecuted in Garfield County by District Attorney Chris Boring, who received the case after his colleague, District Attorney Mike Fields, recused himself due to his advisory role to sheriffs in his district, which includes Niles, Hunter said.
As state secrets go, Russia's program of export finance and loans to other nations might be one of the worst kept.

While discussions about aiding cash-strapped allies frequently spill into the open, the Finance Ministry's debt chief Konstantin Vyshkovsky says information about individual loans isn't public and a budget addendum on state financial and export credit is classified as "secret." But, speaking in an interview at his office a short walk from the Kremlin, Vyshkovsky said Russia has committed about $70 billion in total to such loans, a figure that hasn't been disclosed before.

"Direct loans from the budget are a big rarity in the world," Vyshkovsky said, calling the practice something "particular to Russia." On average over the past decade, about $3 billion has been allocated annually in the budget for that purpose, he said, which makes it comparable to the 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) provided by the U.K.'s state-run credit export agency for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Russia doesn't make much effort to keep the spending under wraps, using it to grease political ties and pave the way for projects from China to Hungary for its nuclear energy agency, Rosatom. Some loans also go bad, keeping the subject in the public eye. Most recently, crisis-stricken Venezuela failed to make payments on its debt, opening a 53.9 billion ruble ($900 million) hole in Russia's expected government revenue this year.

Stuck with Soviet-era debt that it thought was too hopeless to recoup, Russia has even opted in recent years to write off money owed by former communist allies such as Cuba and North Korea. In contrast, Russia took more than 60 years to repay the loans received by the Soviet Union from the U.S. during the Second World War.

Despite the risks of lending to other states, the policy presents little "short-term" threat to the budget, according to Karen Vartapetov, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings in Moscow.

"Not all credit that was provided will be returned on time or in full," he said. That will "reduce the state's liquid assets and/or result in the appearance of losses for budget revenues."

Although Vyshkovsky wouldn't discuss the situation around Venezuela, he said the authorities want to impose more order on the process of lending to other countries. The Finance Ministry is now working on a document to formalize the rules and conditions for such loans and establish the criteria for countries that can get credit on preferential terms, he said.

"With each year, the volume of state export credits and the number of countries that get them are growing," Vyshkovsky said. The ministry assesses a potential borrower's "solvency before signing any agreement on providing a state credit."

"Financial credit," extended for nations to meet their general needs or stabilize the budget, makes up a small share of Russian state loans, according to Vyshkovsky. It requires a decision at the highest political level and goes to countries enjoying especially close ties with Russia, he said.

The vast majority of money made available by the government covers export finance, with the borrower getting Russian products and services and a domestic company receiving the funds. Nuclear projects account for 90 percent of the $70 billion total in state loans, followed by the defense industry and civil aviation, according to Vyshkovsky.

Russia kept up the practice of state export loans during the leanest years after the Soviet collapse more than a quarter century ago. In 1991, China got funding for its Tianwan nuclear power plant, which it fully repaid ahead of schedule and has since made deals with Rosatom on a commercial basis, Vyshkovsky said.

Unlike most nations that offer guarantees in the form of export insurance for loans made out by commercial banks, what makes Russia's approach unique is that it provides the funding directly from the budget.

As the example of Hungary's "deal of the century" shows, money talks. A member of the European Union, it scrapped bids for the expansion of its nuclear plant in 2014 and handed the contract to Rosatom after Russia offered to pre-finance much of the project in the form of a 30-year, 10 billion-euro ($11.7 billion) loan that covered 80 percent of the total cost. At the time, the government, still paying higher borrowing costs because of its junk sovereign credit status, said it had secured a loan at "below-market" rates.

While Rosatom has had less luck in countries like Bulgaria, it's also involved in building a nuclear plant in Turkey valued at some $20 billion. When it comes to such costly projects, few rivals can match the financial muscle of Russia, which is additionally drawn to offer government backing because politics come into play.

"These are major, long-term loans," said Vladimir Salnikov, deputy director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting in Moscow. "The presence of not just economic but also political considerations naturally translates into the state's increased role in giving such projects financial support."

--Bloomberg contributor: Zoltan Simon
The quality of sperm from men in North America, Europe and Australia has declined dramatically over the past 40 years, with a 52.4 percent drop in sperm concentration, according to a study published Tuesday.

The research - the largest and most comprehensive look at the topic, involving data from 185 studies and 42,000 men around the world between 1973 and 2011 - appears to confirm fears that male reproductive health may be declining.

The state of male fertility has been one of the most hotly debated subjects in medical science in recent years. While a number of previous studies found that sperm counts and quality have been falling, some dismissed or criticized the studies over factors such as the age of the men included, the size of the study, bias in counting systems or other aspects of the methodologies.

Some of the other concerns are outlined in an analysis published by the American Society of Andrology, which focuses on the male reproductive system. The skepticism also has to do with the difficulty of comparing records from a fertility center in the 1970s with one from today and with the fact a single man's sperm count may fluctuate during his life span due to his weight, use of alcohol and many other factors.

However, Shanna H. Swan, one of the authors of the new study published in the Human Reproduction Update, said that the new meta-analysis is so broad and comprehensive, involving all the relevant research published in English, that she hoped it would put some of the uncertainty to rest. Then the scientific community could move forward into putting its resources into figuring out the why of what is going on, she said.

"It shows the decline is strong and that the decline is continuing," Swan said in an interview.

The analysis found drops only for men in Europe, North America and Australia and not for those in South America, Asia and Africa. Swan explained that this could mean that there's something specific to certain cultures or regions that affects sperm, but that it's also possible that there just isn't enough data yet to draw firm conclusions about the rest of the world. There have been far fewer sperm studies conducted in non-Western countries. (Some of the most recent ones have also noted a decline in aspects of sperm quality. A study published earlier this year about China's Hunan province found that 56 percent of sperm donations met the criteria for health in 2001 vs. only 18 percent in 2015.)

The most important data points in the new study involved sperm concentrations for what are known as "unselected" men who haven't yet proven they are fertile. These are men in the studies who are on the younger side and are not yet fathers or do not have partners who are pregnant. Researchers estimated that these men had an average sperm concentration of 99 million per milliliter in 1973 but that that had dropped to an average 47 million per milliliter in 2011.

That is a disturbing number given that, according to World Health Organization criteria, men with a sperm concentration of less than 40 million are considered to have an impaired chance of conceiving and those with a sperm concentration of less than 15 million per milliliter are unlikely to be able to have children.

These numbers mean "surprisingly higher proportions of men are falling into the infertile and sub fertile categories," Swan said.

There are numerous theories about what may be happening to sperm. Many scientists say the most sensitive period may be during the first trimester, when the developing fetus's reproductive system may be impacted by a mother smoking, stress she experienced or food she ate. Exposure to chemicals that can change hormone levels, known as endocrine disrupters, are among the issues being studied.

Over the life span, men are also exposed to a number of other things that could potentially influence sperm concentration: pesticides, lead, X-rays, stress and countless other factors.

The changes in the womb can cause permanent damage, Swan explained, while the adult exposures are mostly reversible.

The issue of sperm isn't just about having babies.

It has larger implications for men's health. Poor sperm health has been linked to cardiovascular issues, obesity, cancer and more generally to higher rates of hospitalization and death. While men's life expectancy is increasing overall thanks to advances in medical care, nutrition and sanitation, it isn't unthinkable that that could one day reverse.

"Having a low sperm count is a signal," Swan said, "that there's something wrong in men's health overall."
Melbourne, Australia

The most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis made his first court appearance in Australia on Wednesday in a scandal that has stunned the Holy See and threatened to tarnish the pope's image as a crusader against abusive clergy.

Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis' top financial adviser, has maintained his innocence since he was charged last month with sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as "historical" sexual assault offenses  meaning crimes that occurred years ago.

Pell did not say anything during his court appearance or as he left court, surrounded by police and journalists.

He has not yet entered a plea. On Wednesday, his lawyer Robert Richter told the court Pell planned to plead not guilty at a future court date.

The cardinal's court appearance lasted just minutes and was remarkably routine. Yet the image of one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church standing before a cramped courtroom overflowing with journalists and spectators was anything but.
UTSA President T. Taylor Eighmy now can be called just that  president.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted Tuesday afternoon to make him president of the University of Texas at San Antonio after a 10-month search and the mandatory 21-day waiting period following his selection as the sole finalist.

In a prepared statement, Eighmy said he was "profoundly grateful" for "this incredible opportunity."

RELATED: UTSA President Romo's hugs were sexual harassment, UT System report states

"I believe that great cities need great universities," he said. "All the ingredients are in place for UTSA to leverage access and discovery to become the very best Hispanic-serving top tier research university."

Eighmy, 60, was the vice-chancellor for research and engagement at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where he also taught civil and environmental engineering.

Eighmy was traveling and would not be available for interviews Tuesday, a system spokeswoman said. He starts his new job Sept. 1.

RELATED: UTSA President Romo 'looks forward' to clearing his name

Steve Leslie, the UT System vice chancellor of academic affairs, said last month that Eighmy's research experience aligns well with UTSA's goal of reaching Tier One status, a designation reserved for top research institutions.

Before taking the job in Knoxville, Eighmy was a senior vice-president for research at Texas Tech University. During that time, two laboratory explosions occurred that led him to create a national task force in Knoxville for university laboratory safety. That work led to a leadership award by the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Association last year.

The regents' unanimous choice of Eighmy for the UTSA job was not without controversy. State Sen. Jose Menendez blasted the UT System for its selection process, asking why there were so few Latinos on the search committee and saying he was "dismayed at the lack of transparency or consideration for a Latino(a) candidate."

RELATED: UTSA's Romo resigns after being put on leave

Considering that UTSA is a majority Hispanic institution, Menendez said in a statement that the committee should have picked a president who could lead UTSA toward Tier One and still serve as a role model for the UTSA student population.

The system confirmed the 16-person committee had only three Latinos.

Eighmy will succeed Interim President Pedro Reyes, who has been leading the university since its former president Ricardo Romo resigned in early March.

Romo had announced his retirement at the end of the academic year but left the UTSA community early after an internal investigation found him likely to have sexually harassed his employees.

"UTSA should be the exemplar for the new urban-serving university, and I hope it can become a beacon for all as a place to learn, discover and engage," Eighmy's statement Tuesday said. "I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, students and community leaders to realize these aspirations and am very appreciative of the warm welcome and support from the UTSA community, especially from Interim President Reyes."

Eighmy is married and has one daughter who works at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

sfoster-frau@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who testified against Texas' "bathroom bill" earlier this month, said he thought President Trump's new ban on transgender people serving in the military is "totally offensive."

"It's certainly discriminatory. I question its constitutionality. The notion that one's gender is in any way connected to patriotism and service to the country is totally offensive," Nirenberg said.

The president announced Wednesday morning the government would not longer "accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," reversing a year-old Obama-era rule, on Twitter Wednesday.

RELATED: Trump bars transgender individuals from US armed forces

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio told mySA.com that, "America's armed forces need every patriotic person willing to serve and defend our country."

"The president's policy announcement today is gratuitously discriminatory and will damage our national security," he said.

Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said on Twitter: "Everyone who wants to serve and is qualified to serve should have the opportunity to do so regardless of gender identity. Trump is wrong."

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said the country should honor and protect all people, no matter their gender.

"The master of distraction is at it again," Doggett said. "Caught up in the swirl of misconduct surrounding the Trump family, he issues yet another ban to change the subject. Tweeting that he will not 'allow' an estimated 2,500 out of 1.3 million service members 'to serve in any capacity' does a great disservice to our country. It puts politics over safety."

The issue is particularly acute in San Antonio, "Military City U.S.A.," home to three major military bases and in a state where the right of transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their choice has been the topic of extensive legislative debate.

RELATED: Bathroom bill wins key vote in Texas Senate

Trump's announcement came hours after Texas' "bathroom bill" passed the Senate.

On Friday, Nirenberg was in Austin testifying against the proposed legislation.

"The legislation puts transgender people in the crosshairs of discrimination in an attempt to protect children and women from a problem that clearly does not exist," he said. "Discrimination is as bad for business as it is for the safety of the most vulnerable members of our community."

Officials with GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, called the move a "direct attack on transgender Americans," in a statement.

"Today further exposed President Trump's overall goal to erase LGBTQ Americans from this nation. Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldn't make that any more clear," said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President and CEO.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

AUSTIN  San Antonio waged a fight against efforts to limit local authority at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday, when Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Gov. Greg Abbott and some top lawmakers are trying to score cheap political points with proposed property tax restrictions.

It certainly feels as though some members of this Legislature have declared war on the cities of Texas  the very cities that drive the state economy, the places where the largest numbers of Texans live. And this is troubling to me and cities all around the state, Nirenberg told the House Urban Affairs Committee.

Besides hammering on the tax issue, Nirenberg took aim at a proposal to curb cities ability to regulate tree-cutting on private property, saying that areas will be clear-cut if their authority is taken away.

And a plan to negate local regulations on the use of handheld mobile communication devices while driving would be dangerous despite a new statewide ban on texting while driving, he said: You would quite literally be putting the lives of my constituents at risk.

Nirenberg, who testified at the committee along with leaders from San Marcos and Plano, isnt the only Alamo City leader in the battle for local control.

Police Chief William McManus, who also has spoken out against the property tax revamp, fought the so-called bathroom bill Tuesday alongside Officer Jimmy Rodriguez of the San Antonio Police Officers Association and Northside Independent School District Superintendent Brian Woods,

They joined law enforcement leaders from around Texas and advocates for survivors of sexual assault at an event on the Capitol steps against the bathroom bill, which Nirenberg also opposes.

Theyve got a powerful ally in another leader from San Antonio, House Speaker Joe Straus, who is against the bathroom bill and more generally has spoken out in favor of local control.

The bathroom bill, to which the Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday, would bar city and school district policies that protect transgender peoples ability to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity rather than what is listed on their birth certificates.

Supporters call the bill a matter of public safety and privacy, while opponents worry over economic boycotts since its viewed as discriminatory and say it would hurt a vulnerable population.

McManus said a search of records found no reported incidents of bathroom assaults in San Antonio. At the same time, he said, the bill would create psychological trauma and confusion.

I believe that if you propose a bill to address a criminal justice concern, its important to determine if you actually have a problem. This bill is a solution looking for a problem, McManus said.

McManus also has long said the property tax proposal would hurt the citys ability to provide public services.

The proposal would change current law, which allows voters to petition for a rollback election if cities, counties or special districts increase collections by more than 8 percent. Instead, it would change the rollback rate to 4 percent and make the election automatic.

Critics have pointed out that school levies make up the largest share of the local property tax burden statewide, but school taxes would be untouched by the bill under consideration. Straus and other say reforming school finance to relieve the large burden on local property taxes is the best way to provide relief.

Local officials say the current proposals would provide little relief to individuals but make a big difference in local budgets, affecting services that residents count on.

Nirenberg made that point again Tuesday and criticized those driving the measure.

I, and my counterparts across this state, stand against attempts to score cheap political points so that some may say that they have lowered taxes, even though the burden is merely spread to other places. I speak for the city of San Antonio when I say I will not support mortgaging my childrens future or the future of the State of Texas, Nirenberg said.

In response to questions afterward, Nirenberg said he was referring to the folks that have authored and support this legislation that would really do nothing for the homeowners in the state of Texas.

It provides no meaningful relief to residents who desperately need property tax reform, and the Legislature is ignoring the true cause and cure for that, he said.

Asked whether he included Abbott in that group Nirenberg said, I do, because its his agenda.

Abbott and the lawmakers carrying the legislation hit back.

Fighting in favor of higher taxes is a position that youre likely to find in California, not Texas. The governor is proud to be fighting for the millions of Texans who are desperately seeking property tax relief, said Abbott spokesman John Wittman. Abbotts office has confirmed he will be relentless in his efforts to pass all 20 items he has placed on the special session agenda.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, said, All Im attempting to do is protect taxpayers, make them have a better standing in the process, and give them the ability to hold local taxing entities accountable. And if the mayor has a problem with that, thats not my concern. Im standing up for taxpayers.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said the San Antonio finance department testified that a 4 percent rollback rate would have triggered an election in six of the past 10 years. He said this would have meant $58 million of relief under his measure, unless voters approved the increases.

I believe these facts from the city itself prove the need for SB 1 property tax relief in San Antonio, and facts are stubborn things, said Bettencourt. Senate Bill 1 is his rollback measure, which has won a positive vote from the Senate.

The $58 million would have saved the average taxpayer $3.91/month, yet would have resulted in 580 fewer police officers, city officials said.

Nirenberg said city revenues have grown at a modest 3 and a half percent per year over the past decade to finance services people want.

He and the other mayors got a positive response from the Democratic chair of the Urban Affairs Commitee, Rep. Carol Alvarado of Houston, who called herself an advocate of local control. Several bills about tree regulations are in her committee, and she invited the testimony Tuesday on the respective roles of state and municipal governments.

If people dont like what youre doing, then there are things called elections, she said. I dont see it as our job to overreach and try to govern your city.

Cities and counties have been pushing back at the agenda set for the special session by Abbott, which includes a number of proposals to limit local authority that didnt make it in the regular session that ended May 29.

Two of them  the property tax measure and the bathroom bill  are part of the underlying reason that Abbott had to call the overtime session in the first place. They are pet priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

When it was clear the tax reform and bathroom bills would die in the regular session, Patrick stalled a crucial measure to continue several state agencies so Abbott would have to call a special session. He urged Abbott to put the initiatives on the special session-agenda, and Abbott, who supports them, did so.

Nirenberg and 17 other mayors from across Texas last week asked to meet with Abbott over their concerns that several proposals on the agenda will directly impede the ability of Texas cities to provide vital services that reflect the priorities of local residents.

The Texas Municipal League on Tuesday said Abbott has set up meetings with the mayors of Corpus Christi, Galveston, San Marcos, Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, Arlington, Frisco, Irving and McKinney.

We havent received a response yet in San Antonio, Nirenberg said. Were hopeful that well be able to address our concerns in some way, shape or form.

Im optimistic, because the state is made up of great people, that reason will prevail, he said. But as Ive said before, the most positive part of the states agenda right now is adjournment.
AUSTIN - Texas senators gave their final stamp of approval Thursday to a bill that would forbid city and county property tax increases above a certain level without voter approval.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and other local officials strongly oppose the measure, saying it would hamper their efforts to provide needed services and wouldnt have the stated goal of providing significant tax relief to individuals.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has championed the bill by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and its favored by Gov. Greg Abbott, who put it on the agenda of the special session.

The bills backers say its needed to help Texans who are being crushed by property tax bills. Critics point out that the bill wouldnt affect school taxes, which make up the biggest share of overall property tax bills statewide.

Under current law, voters can petition for a rollback election if cities, counties or special districts increase local property tax collections by more than 8 percent. Bettencourts bill would change the rollback rate to 4 percent and make the election automatic.

The bill would exclude entities from the lower rollback threshold if they collect less than $20 million, although those cities could have an election to opt in to the lower rate, under amendments added by senators.

Senate Bill 1 was approved 19-12 just after midnight Wednesday, mostly along party lines. The exception was Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who joined the Senates 11 Democrats in voting against it.

The bill next goes to the House, where its being carried by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. Bonnen didnt bring a rollback election bill up for a House vote in the regular session, saying there wasnt enough support to pass it.

Bonnen has since said there may be more support for the bill in the House. He had a hearing on the proposal Tuesday and said there could be a committee vote this week.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
A 49-year-old motorcyclist died early Wednesday after suffering a "catastrophic" leg injury in a crash on the Northeast Side.

Paramedics responded to the crash around 2:45 a.m. in the 8200 block of Interstate 35 in the southbound lanes, where they found the motorcyclist injured, but still alive.

The paramedics took him to nearby San Antonio Military Medical Center for treatment. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

RELATED: SAPD: Officer shot, suspect dead after NW Side invasion leads to shootout

Police said the victim was on a Harley Davidson motorcycle headed southbound on I-35 with a group of other motorcyclists. They entered a construction zone, where traffic narrowed from three lanes down to one.

The motorcycle caravan passed an 18-wheeler and another vehicle, then took the Walzem Road exit. The victim lost control of his motorcycle, struck a damaged guardrail and crashed. A preliminary police report said the motorcyclist suffered a "catastrophic" leg injury that led to his death.

Police said no one else was involved in the crash.

Authorities have not released the identity of the motorcyclist.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
The three surviving suspects of a botched robbery at a North Side Taco Cabana were charged with murder while still at a hospital, where they were being treated for injuries sustained in a car crash, according to San Antonio police.

Krystian Huerta, the 25-year-old driver at the time of the crash, is also facing charges of intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter. His bond was set at $225,000. Alexandra Marie, 22, and Jose Luis Garza Jr., 25, do not face any additional charges. Their bonds are $100,000.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

UPDATE: A Texas version of a North Carolina-style "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people has again passed the state Senate, on Tuesday, July 25.

The bathroom bill that has divided Texans statewide continued its tenacious march through the Texas Senate Tuesday, unaffected by fresh warnings from police that the bill will make their jobs harder.

After nearly 8 hours of debate and questioning, Senators voted to let the latest bathroom bill advance to a final vote of the Senate. Just after midnight the bill won final passage.

Almost all Democrats in the chamber voted against the bill and emptied the Senate rule book looking for ways to kill the bill that they've labeled "discriminatory" toward Texas' transgender community. But given their minority status, the GOP leadership was able to swat aside their attempts and position the bill that they've called a priority for the special session for quick passage.

"This bill will hit, what I call, the reset button, and provide privacy and safety that Texans expect," Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said.

Kolkhorst said the legislation is needed to provide statewide protections to women and girls so that they are not victims of voyeurs and other sexual predators who can exploit current laws gain access to women's bathrooms.

"Women do expect some privacy in those intimate settings," Kolkhorst said.

Under Kolkhorst's bill, people would be required to use the bathroom and changing rooms at public schools and charter schools corresponding with the sex on their birth certificates, even if they are transgender.

Advocates for the transgender community say the bill will force people who identify with one gender to use bathrooms with the opposite sex.

"There are hundreds of people who are going to get hurt," Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, said in a futile final speech before the Senate voted to move the bill forward.

Sen. Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat, said the bill essentially "marginalizes a vulnerable group" and is meant to discriminate against them.

The vote came seven hours after police chiefs from around the state called on the Senate to abandon the bill. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said there is no crisis in bathrooms now and the Legislature could be creating a distraction for police.

"It's bad law," Acevedo said. "It's bad political theater. And at the end of the day it is bad for Texas."
The discovery of dead and dying migrants in a hot tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio early Sunday is a gruesome demonstration of the desperation that causes people to risk their lives to get to this country. But it also puts in stark perspective the need to enact the kind of comprehensive immigration reform that would make such risk-taking less prevalent.

And it points also to the need for U.S. foreign policy in the Southern Hemisphere that attacks root causes.

Which is not to say that the authorities shouldnt take every measure to dismantle the human trafficking operations that profit from such desperation.

Its unlikely that the driver in custody  James M. Bradley, 60, of Florida  acted alone, though he claims that he was unaware there were people in the trailer.

Alerted by a Walmart employee who had been approached by someone from the truck asking for water, authorities found eight dead immigrants. Two died later. More than two dozen others were taken to area hospitals for treatment for conditions related to prolonged exposure to extreme heat without water.

In court documents, surviving immigrants told of withering heat, a trailer jammed with too many people, no food or water, people rendered unconscious in the trip to San Antonio and one single vent to share gulps of fresh air. In other words, a nightmare journey that demands those ultimately arrested and convicted face the stiffest penalties.

The trucks air conditioning was not working.

It appears that some or many of the immigrants were from Mexico, but troubled countries in Central America, where lawlessness and unemployment reign even more, have also been major contributors in recent years.

Thats why the United States and others should do more to help all these countries more firmly establish the rule of law and economic stability. Mexico has its problems, but El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras all suffer from even weaker government institutions and rampaging gangs that forcibly recruit young men, while preying on all around them.

The right kind of targeted foreign aid could tackle root causes.

But imagine if there were also a functional  legal  mechanism for such immigrants to come here. There wouldnt be the need to take such risks.

This is where comprehensive immigration reform comes in. The current system is broken. The laws, as currently enforced, set a premium on punishing the immigrants but leaving employers virtually alone.

Meanwhile, industries are in need of workers because Americans wont do certain jobs.

Comprehensive reform could fix all this.

Human trafficking is a scourge that should be tackled with the full force of the law. But immigration law itself also deserves immediate attention.
TRENTON, N.J.  New Jersey has become the latest state to change the tobacco buying age to 21, AOL.com reports. Gov. Chris Christie signed the new law on Friday. By raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21, we are giving young people more time to develop a maturity and better understanding of how dangerous smoking can be and that it is better to not start smoking in the first place, Christie said in a statement.

New Jerseys law applies to all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. The new law will go into effect on November 1.

Meanwhile, merchants are disappointed about the change, given that neighboring states will still sell tobacco products to those between the ages of 19 and 21, WFMZ-TV reports. It's going to be a negative business-wise, said Sal Cassar, owner of Towne Market in Phillipsburg, N.J. There's no two ways about that.

Cassar estimated that customers between the ages of 19 and 21 buy around a third of his tobacco sales. You don't only lose the cigarette sell, [you also lose] any other associated product that the customer was going to buy, he told the news source.

Meanwhile, in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill that would have increased the states tobacco buying age to 21, the Press-Herald reports. I believe that at 18 they are mature enough to make a decision and Im tired of living in a society where we social engineer our lives, the governor said of his veto.
Yves here. Im in catch-up mode and thought this article from last week was still germane.

As the festering losses in the Italian banking system remain unaddressed, thanks in no small measure to the German desire to deploy its new toy of bail-ins on Italian savers and investors versus understandable local resistance, this article helps clear up some misapprehensions as to how this problem arose, and more important, how the new flawed regulatory regime is favorable to German banks and particularly hard on their Italian cousins.

Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

Has the European banking union worsened rather than solved the credit and financial market conditions in the area? In a recent speech at the European Parliament re-edited for this blog, Vladimiro Giacche, President of Centro Europa Ricerche, clarifies many obscure and misunderstood aspects of the story: the economic and political interests involved and the peculiar case of the Italian banks.

The European banking union was born with the declared objective to reduce the financial balkanization of the Eurozone. Balkanizationthe breakdown of cross-border banking when anxious lenders retreat to domestic safe havenswas rightly perceived as one of the main threats to the stability and the very existence of the common currency.

In fact, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, most available analyses showed how a systemthat until 2008/2009 was so deeply interconnected it seemingly could never be disentangledhas since then been redefining itself along national lines. Eurozone cross-border lending has fallen to almost half of its pre-crisis levels, and many investors and banks have returned to core countries (Germany and France). Lending in so-called peripheral countries (Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy), meanwhile, has reverted to being essentially domestic. This was politically embarrassing but also dangerous, since it made an end to the common currency technically feasible.

Whats worse, this new situation created an additional problem just as dangerous: a vicious and potentially catastrophic feedback loop between bank credit risk and sovereign credit riski.e., the risk that a nation could be pushed into default.

One Goal, Three Pillars

The original idea was that a banking union would re-establish an integrated banking and financial market through three main pillars: 1) a common banking oversight system 2) procedures that limit the risk of contagion in the event of a crisis, and 3) an European-wide insurance on deposits that could break the link between country risk and bank risk.

This was the theory. In practice, the banking union generated huge asymmetries and unfair competitive conditions across the Eurozone. Such asymmetries affected the Italian banking system in particular in a way that contributes to explaining todays events.

As far as the first pillar is concerned, the common banking supervision system covers various national banking systems very unevenly. It ignores high systemic risk from some of the larger countries in the area and therefore, at least in the short term, favors them.

As to the second pillar, the procedures for rescue or resolution of the banks in crisiswith a basic prohibition of public bailoutshave themselves heavily asymmetric effects that damage some national systems, starting with Italy. Notably, these rules were established only after many European countries had extended unprecedented financial support to their national banks. Those huge financial transfers had de facto suspended the European regulation of state aidthat is, of public nation-based interventionsin the wake of an emergency. Doing so significantly distorted the competitive playing field for banks across different countries in Europe.

Abolishing the possibility of a timely public bailout today penalizes those countries, like Italy, that had not massively supported their national banking system in the earlier phase. For them, the bailout option is now subordinate to very stringent criteria and postponed for so-called bail-ins,that is, schemes that hold stock, bond and deposit holders liable for bank lossesall while leaving open the option of a bank default.

As to public transfers to banks, an article published by M. Fruhauf on Frankfurter Allgemeine of August 16th 2013a few months before the approval of single supervisory mechanism for banking by the Council of the European Unionprovides rather impressive data. Just one example of the many bailouts in Germany in the aftermath of the financial crisis was the guarantee the government gave the insurance company Hypo-Re, which amounted to up to 145 billion euro. The cost thus far to German taxpayers of this rescue is 20 billion euro. Other sources provide slightly different overall numbers on public bailouts, but what clearly emerges is the peculiarity of the Italian banking situation, which until now involved far less public help than those of the other European countries.

The negative effect of the first two pillars of the banking union then became destructive because of the absence of the third pillar: European-wide insurance on deposits. This mechanism was essential to the declared objective of the banking union: arresting the process of financial balkanization. In fact, the absence of European-wide insurance kept the burden of (partially) protecting savers on the shoulders of the nation-state. It also, once again, contradicted the European solidarity that should be the basis of the institutional architecture of the EU and in particular of the Eurozone.

The effect of the banking unions set of normsthe two existing pillars and the non-existent onehas been catastrophic, especially for the Italian banking system. For which the new rules have changed substantially and without any transitory phasing in from the pre-existing system. The banking union rules also contradict two articles of the Italian Constitution (art. 43 and 47).

In spite of the intentions, the new normative context heavily penalized the savers, especially those who held so-called subordinated bonds, which suddenly became more risky with the new regime.

And, as it was easy to predict, the absence of a public backstop for crisis situations as well as the absence of a system of European insurance triggered a bank run against banks perceived as the most fragile, or that were facing some company crisis that would have been easily manageable in the previous normative system. In this way, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, the liquidity problems of some institutes triggered a bank run which put their solvency at further risk.

Another major asymmetry, and danger, derives from the treatment in the new regime of market risk. Already in the stress tests and Asset Quality Review managed by the European Central Bank, the weight of this riskwhich is linked to financial activity, and includes derivatives transactionswas significantly underestimated. The new system put a much greater emphasis on credit risk  thus penalizing systems like the Italian one that are relatively less financialized but in which credit risk is a relatively more important factor.

Theres more: market risk, as opposed to credit risk, does not even appear in the five priorities of the European banking vigilance activity of the European Central Bank, as evidenced by its 2015, 2016, and 2017 annual reports (see the last one).

The upshot is that under the current system, the type of risk that caused the 2008 crisis and the ensuing Great Recession is insufficiently monitored. Whats especially insufficiently monitored is the market risk run by some big German and French banks and in particular that of a colossus such as Deutsche Bank. Knowing the effective value of Deutsche Banks Level 3 assets (derivatives) is more an exercise of divination than a scientific estimation: indeed, the team of the ECB that recently conducted an inspection by the Frankfurt Bank was not even asked to price the value of the derivatives in the portfolio. The European Supervisory Authority had given up on it with a peculiar justification: It is unrealistic to evaluate the adequacy of derivative pricing in the portfolio of Deutsche Bank and other big banks, due to the discretion given to banks and reviewers (see L. Davi, BCE, 68 banche sotto ispezione. Fuori i Level 3 dalle verifiche, Il Sole 24 Ore, 25 January 2017).

And the Winner Is

The clear winner of the banking union has been the German banking system: All German banks, but especially the small and medium ones, who benefitted from the establishment of a 30 billion euro balance sheet floor for banks to be subjected to ECB supervision. To obtain such condition as part of the first pillar, German minister of Finance Wolfgang Schauble threatened to veto the banking union project as a whole, and it is no mystery that he was thinking precisely about banks such as the relative small Sparkassen (savings banks).

Of the 417 Sparkassen, only one is under the supervision of the ECB today; we are talking about banks that count for the 22.3% of the loans in that country for a total of 1000 billion euro.

But this is not the only way these public banks, traditionally tied to the German ruling party CDU, were protected. At least two other ways deserve mention.

The first is how the so-called Institutional Protection Schemes (IPS) were kept outside the European regulation. IPS are systems of mutual protection and guarantees of the associate banks, regulated via a contract. They exist in Germany (Sparkassen and Volksbanken), Austria (Raiffeisen banks) and Spain (saving banks). IPS arent banking groups, nor banks networks. Hence, they are not directly under the European disciplinethe European Directive on capital requirements [CRD IV] does not even mention themnor the Basel Accords. This is how Thomas Stern, expert for banking regulation at the Austrian Financial Markets Authorities, characterized the situation: The decision of the European legislator to not extend the regulation about capital and liquidity to the IPS is remarkable and hard to understand from a prudential point of view. Stern wrote these lines in 2014, but the situation is hardly improved since then.

Being member of an IPS confers significant privileges. Needless to say, the Italian banks that resemble the Sparkassen and Volksbankenthe Banche di Credito Cooperativo (cooperative banks) are fully subject to the European regulation, including the standard capital and liquidity requirements.

The second way in which the German government helped the Sparkassen is very interesting but not well known: It postponed the system of mutual guarantee and deposit insurance between European banks indefinitely.

The link here may not appear straightforward. In 2013, the banking union started with two out of the three pillars only. It was a huge mistake for Italy to accept this asymmetry, which made the banking union inconsistent with respect to its own declared goals.

In 2015, however, the negotiations for the mutual guarantee proceeded. Sparkassen and Volkbanken did not want to participate for two reasons: first, because they mistakenly believed that they could protect themselves thanks to their special IPS status; and second, because they feared that doing so would mean a step toward the need to fully comply to the general regulations, without benefitting any longer from regulatory exceptions.

The first opposing statements by the Sparkassen go back to the summer of 2015. Subsequently, Schauble threatened to block the norm in the Council, with the official excuse that Germany refused to pay for other countries banking problems. Various attempts to compromise were unsuccessful, because all implied some sort of European supervision on the German banks  disclosing thus the real nature of the problem: the German governments desire to hinder any form of European supervision over German Sparkassen and other minor banks.

In early December 2015, even Schauble appeared forced to concede to pressure from the European Commission and the main States of the Eurozone. The economics-focused newspaper, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, underscored how such a decision could pave the way to a hard conflict between German banking sector and the government.

Then, on December 8th, the bombshell. Schaubles counter-attack plan consisted of first delegitimizing the ECB for its alleged conflict of interest in being the monetary authority and the supervisory authority at oncea condition that European leaders, Schauble included, had recently decided. He then announced his opposition to the mutual guarantee proposal unless all states transposed the bail-in regulation in their own law and, crucially, unless the risks of the banking systems were previously reduced. He later clarified that European banks must reduce the amount of their own nations sovereign bonds in their portfolio. This tactical move not only postponed the discussion indefinitely, but also shifted attention from bank risk to individual nations (sovereign) risk, a field in which Germany has nothing to be afraid of. It was in fact Italy, under Prime Minister Renzi, that was forced to veto the discussion on sovereign bonds in banks balance sheets, thus blocking discussion on the third pillar.

In the meantime the other two pillars were activated, skipping over entirely the transitory period for smoothing out the regulatory shift that had originally been proposed. The result can readily be seen: The German Sparkassen can continue to benefit from softer capital requirements and from an almost exclusively domestic vigilance. Its an explosive mix that could eventually lead to a banking crisis.

A crisis of the banking sector in Germany today would have nothing to envy, in its effects, by comparison with the US Saving & Loans Banks crisis in the 1980s. A positive German economic cycle and the fact that the major risk areas are currently different combine to temporarily the threat it poses. In the meantime, the Sparkassen defend to death their autonomy and the right not to be supervised by any European authority (see Deutsche Banken sehen EU-Aufsicht kritisch, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 June 2017).

The Fallout

Understanding this context, the roots of the troubled Italian banking system become clearer. The burden of non-performing loans (NPLs) grew out of the worst economic crisis in peacetime since 1861. The problem also emerged because no bank bailout was undertaken after 2008. If we look at the stock prices of the banking sector in the last years, it is easy to spot a very negative trend. However, on a closer look, the price drops were not due to generically bad news, but rather to news related to European regulations or interventions of the European regulator aimed at one specific bank or situation. These latter include letters sent by the European supervisory agency sent to one or another bank or banks, for instance asking to sell immediatelyand therefore at a very low priceproblematic loans.

From the end of 2015when the European Commission stopped the intervention of the Italian interbank guarantee fund to save four local banks in troublesto February 2016, after the bail-in regulation entered into force without a transition period and without any European-wide deposit insurance, 46 billion Euro out of 134.6 of Italian banking sector capitalization were burned. Thats a drop of 35%.

In all the cases of banking troubles or crises occurring in Italy from the end of 2015 onward, a dominant element was the flight from deposits, which would have not occurred with the national regulation in place before the banking union. In all those cases, the absence of a public backstop in the form of a bailout was crucial. Its no exaggeration to say that for the Italian banking sector the new regulation has brought only additional risk and not stabilization, the stated intention.

What to do? At the beginning of 2016 in Italy there was a debate about whether to suspend the bail-in regulation. At that time, many member states of the European Union were in favor of suspending the Schengen Treatythe EU free movement deal that took effect in 1995. Suspending Schengen is in place de facto, but the bail-in never was. This is astonishingespecially given the bail-in regulations contradiction with the Italian Constitution, and given the asymmetries inherent in the strange wobbly table with two legs that we kindly call banking union. But its never too late to reverse wrong policies and negotiation mistakes, provided you understand them.
One of the dangers of being limited to the English-language press is that important aspects of major news stories can readily be reported in an awfully one-sided manner. The object lesson today is the latest US sanctions against Russia, which passed the House today by a 419-3 margin. The hot button for Europeans that the bill targets the NordStream2 pipeline that would deliver gas from Russia to Germany. They also single out a large range of players, including Russian banks, energy exporters and projects, and arms merchants. Moreover, unlike past sanctions, they cannot be reversed by the President but require Congressional approval for any rollbacks.

Unlike past sanctions against Russia, which European governments have backed, albeit with some grumbling, since some countries, particularly Germany and the Netherlands, have commercial ties with Russia, the EU is opposed to the latest US campaign. From the Financial Times:

Brussels has stepped up its diplomatic offensive against the US moves, warning that several oil and gas projects involving Shell, Eni and BP are at risk. On Tuesday, officials said Brussels was activating all diplomatic channels in an effort to persuade lawmakers to dilute the bills impact on European companies and the continents energy security. EU officials are concerned that the sanctions could damage multibillion-euro pipeline and infrastructure projects straddling Russian territory and beyond in areas as far apart as the Baltic and Black seas. A list prepared for EU commissioners shows that projects at risk include the proposed Baltic liquefied natural gas plant on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, in which the Anglo-Dutch group Shell has a stake alongside Russias Gazprom. The list also includes Blue Stream, the gas export pipeline linking Russia with Turkey in which Eni of Italy has a 50 per cent. The threat to this pipeline centres on penalties against the maintenance and repair of pipelines on Russian land or waters. Documents seen by the Financial Times also state that BP would not be able to engage in its activities with Rosneft if the US penalties hit operations by European companies to maintain, repair or expand pipelines in Russia. The list also includes the CPC pipeline in which European groups such as BG Overseas Holdings, Shell and Eni work with Russia to carry Kazakh oil to the Black Sea via Russia. Both the existing pipeline and its proposed expansion could be hit by the sanctions. As a result, European officials believe the impact of the new sanctions would go far beyond the contentious Nord Stream 2 project that Gazprom is building between Russia and Germany and the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

New Europe (hat tip Micael) states that Brussels plans to retaliate against the US if the sanctions are imposed, although it may not be able to deliver on its threat:

It is unclear whether EU member states such as the UK, the Baltic States, Poland, or Hungary are willing to sign off retaliatory measures towards Washington.

I hope German language readers can help flesh out the input from a regular reader of the German press. He said that the German businessmen and politicians see the latest round of sanctions have as a major objective foisting US gas on Europe and that they dont like being stuffees. SPD party leader and foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel apparently made a speech on this topic in the last few days. This would be consistent with his earlier statements, as reported by WSWS last week:

Germanys Foreign Ministry published a sharply-worded press release Thursday from Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democrats, SPD) and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern (Social Democrats, SPO) denouncing the United States foreign and economic policies. Republicans and Democrats agreed almost unanimously, by 97 votes to 2, to impose new sanctions on Russia in the Senate on Wednesday Gabriel and Kern brusquely rejected the US Senates measure. The bill was really about the sale of American liquefied gas and the sidelining of Russian gas supplies in the European market, according to the two social democratic politicians. That emerges from the text particularly explicitly. The goal was to secure jobs in the American oil and gas industries. The US and Europe had since 2014 side by side and in close joint consultation answered Russias annexation of Crimea, which is illegal under international law, and its actions in eastern Ukraine.  But the threat to impose extraterritorial sanctions which violate international law on European companies participating in the expansion of European energy supplies could not be tolerated. Europes energy provision was a European affair, and not one for the United States of America! Gabriel and Kern went on to warn, Instruments of political sanctions should not be connected with economic interests. Threatening European companies in US markets with punishments if they participate in or finance projects like the Nord Stream II oil pipeline with Russia would introduce an entirely new and extremely negative quality to European-American relations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel explicitly backed her Foreign Minister on Friday. There was very strong agreement in terms of content with Gabriels statement, stated government spokesman Stefan Seibert. It is, to put it mildly, an unconventional action by the US Senate. It was troubling that European businesses were being targeted by sanctions to punish Russian behaviour. That cannot be allowed, added Seibert Following the G7 summit three weeks ago, Merkel, in a speech delivered in a Munich beer tent, called into question the alliance with the United States, which formed the basis of Germanys foreign policy in the post-war era. The times in which we could completely depend upon others are long past, she stated and advanced on this basis the demand, We Europeans really have to take our fate into our own hands and fight for our own future.

OilPrice today confirmed that US shale gas is in a glut in Why U.S. Shale Drillers Cant Sell Their Gas:

Natural gas output from the U.S. shale formations is at a record high. So are recoverable gas reserves, according to the Potential Gas Committee. This sounds like good news for everyone except producers: there just are not enough pipelines to transport the gas, which is already uncomfortably cheap because of the abundant supply. As natural gas prices recovered from the lows they hit last year on oversupply, shale producers became bolder and started ramping up, just like oil drillers did. As a result, according to Bloomberg data from June, output in the Marcellus shale and the Permian has hit a record. In the Marcellus shale, daily output is close to 20 billion cu ft, while associated gas in the Permian is creeping closer to 10 billion cu ft daily. As of last week, the Energy Information Administration calculated gas output in Marcellus at 19.55 billion cu ft daily. Output in the Permian was 8.49 billion cu ft. Utica produced 4.45 billion cu ft of natural gas. Haynesville and Eagle Ford both yielded more than 6 billion cu ft of gas. Next month, the EIA projects shale gas production to continue rising across the board, reaching a total 52.858 billion cu ft daily, from this months estimated 52.021 billion cu ft The situation is pretty simple: the pipeline shortage is making it difficult for everyone from producer to consumer to make the best of the current abundance of natural gas supplies.

Mind you, pipelines are also the preferred way to deliver shale gas to LNG transport facilities, but you get the overall picture.

And the Administration clear that he sees US energy exports as a major foreign policy tool. As Energy Secretary Rick Parry stated earlier this month:

An energy dominant America means self-reliant. It means a secure nation, free from the geopolitical turmoil of other nations who seek to use energy as an economic weapon. An energy dominant America will export to markets around the world, increasing our global leadership and our influence.

As CNBC pointed out:

Trump re-branded efforts to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to markets in Eastern Europe and Asia that had been set in motion during the previous presidential administration.

I hope Europe-based readers will pipe up in comments, particularly as to whether they think Germany can get the rest of the EU behind opposing the US. I understand that one impediment is that some countries like Poland have invested in LNG facilities and thus arent on the same page as the Germans.
Solar scientists rough up silicon panels to boost light capture (Nanowerk News) Power generation cost using solar panels depends on getting as much electricity out of the panels as possible while keeping the manufacturing costs low. Anyone who has considered installing solar panels might be aware of the trade-off between efficiency and the initial cost of the panels. Engineers and researchers are finding new ways to obtain power out of solar modules, but doing so without adding to their costs is becoming more and more difficult.

Figure 1. Fabrication of ultralow reflectance polycrystalline silicon wafers by use of the developed technology.

Now a team of scientists at Osaka University has taken a step closer to making inexpensive solar cells that can deliver the same high efficiency as more complex and expensive cells (Solar RRL, "Improvement of Conversion Efficiency of Silicon Solar Cells by Submicron-Textured Rear Reflector Obtained by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching").

Unmodified silicon solar cells throw away light energy in the form of reflection, so most solar cells have some kind of antireflective coating, explains first author Daichi Irishika. To avoid using these extra coatings we fabricated a submicron structure using a simple wet treatment directly into the silicon surfaces to give the cell its own antireflective coating.

Figure 2. Comparison of low reflectance mechanisms for previous technology and developed technology. (Osaka University)

Antireflective coatings, similar to those used on reading glasses, can help to get more light into solar cells and boost their electricity output. However, these coatings are expensive to produce, especially for covering large areas.

The Osaka team has previously made low reflection silicon cells using a much cheaper process based on the surface structure chemical transfer (SSCT) method to fabricate so-called black silicon. Chemically treating the front side of silicon cells produces tiny submicron silicon structures, which prevent light reflection and give a black appearance.

The team has also developed a method to passivate the submicron silicon structures with huge surface area to prevent the recombination loss by deposition of phosphosilicate glass followed by heat treatment. This method can simultaneously form pn-junction to separate photo-generated electrons and holes, and therefore, it isnt an additional process.

Figure 3. Developed technology for prevention of recombination of photo-generated carriers in the nanocrystalline silicon layer. (Osaka University)

Building on their previous success, the Osaka team turned their attention to the back side of the silicon cells and created rougher light-trapping microstructures to capture even more infrared light.
Gardai investigating deer poaching conducted a trawl of social media and found video and photographs of deer which had been hunted down in parts of south Tipperary by specially-bred dogs, a court has heard.

Three men pleaded guilty at Clonmel Circuit Court to illegally hunting and killing wild Irish deer, using dogs, and causing them unnecessary suffering, between September of 2014 and January of 2015.

The crimes were uncovered during the gardas Operation Bambi investigation into deer poaching.

All three - Keith ODwyer (27) of 16 Glenview, Carrick-on-Suir; Dean Murphy (25) of Ballyrichard Court, Carrick-on-Suir; and Jamie Regan (28) of 25 Comeragh View, Carrick-on-Suir - received two-year suspended sentences.

Sergeant Barry Boland told the court that a report was made to the gardai in October of 2014 by Damien Hannigan of the Irish Wild Deer Association, that he had come across disturbing footage on Facebook in relation to the hunting and killing of native wild Irish deer, using dogs.

Gardai saw one video clip on Facebook, filmed in a field near Clonmel, of a red stag being grabbed around the neck and other parts of his body by three dogs, before escaping across the river Suir.

An investigation included trawling through social media, Sergeant Boland said, and they came across a number of other stills which showed either deer being hunted with dogs, or deer lying dead in front of people who were posing. All were taken at night-time.

Deer are a protected species in Ireland, cannot be hunted with dogs and can only be hunted with a rifle under specific certification.

Gardai established that eight different people were involved in this activity which used lurcher-type dogs, greyhounds bred with bulldogs across five generations, to take down deer.

These dogs are specially bred, they are big and aggressive, the sergeant told the court, adding that they are like greyhounds on steroids, for all the world, and that what was done to the deer was objectively cruel. There were 12 deer involved on the video and images found on the internet.

The homes of all three defendants were searched and they men were arrested, separately, and admitted their role in what happened. They had all been involved in hunting rabbits and foxes as teenagers and progressed onto deer. Neither Keith ODwyer or Dean Murphy realised that what they were doing was illegal, the court heard.

Jamie Regan didnt appreciate the level of cruelty involved in what happened until it was shown to him, the court was told. None of them hunted deer for any material gain, but for sport.

Keith ODwyer had 27 previous convictions for road traffic offences, assault, theft, drug possession, breach of a barring order, criminal damage, and public order offences.

Dean Murphy had one previous conviction, for assault causing harm, and had recently obtained employment with a construction firm and also had a character reference from Carrick Swans GAA Club.

Jamie Regan works as a block layer.

Judge Thomas Teehan said the crimes involved inherent cruelty to animals through the pursuit of those animals by quite vicious dogs, bred for the purposes of hunting deer.

Both ODwyer and Murphy pleaded guilty to two counts of the offence while Regan admitted one count. A charge against Regan of possession, for the purposes of sale or supply, of cocaine worth 5,675 was adjourned for a year to allow him collect 2,000 for a charity dealing with victims of drug crime. All three were told to pay 1,000 each to animal welfare organisations within the next nine months.

More news...

Two guilty of vicious assault on man over alleged drugs debt
(Natural News) Viewers were recently left disappointed after a highly touted race between Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and a Great White shark turned out to be nothing more than a computer-generated simulation.

Given the name of the show, Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White, its understandable that some people were expecting one of the worlds greatest swimmers to hop into the ocean and compete for glory against a giant, terrifying shark. Even the promotional material was a bit ambiguous, with one press release saying: The worlds most decorated athlete takes on the oceans most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark  the race is on!

The one-hour special played it up, putting Phelps face-to-face with real sharks while cage diving in the build-up to the race. However, when the time came to start the clock on the 100-meter race, some viewers felt like they had been deceived when the 28-year-old swam next to a computer-generated Great White shark rather than the real thing.

The team from the Discovery Channel had previously recorded a real shark swimming the same 100-meter stretch of water in Moseel Bay, South Africa, and created the simulation based on its actual speed as it swam in pursuit of bait that scientists trailed using a high-tech water vehicle prototype.

Donning a special Phantom wetsuit inspired by the skin of a shark that was created to increase his buoyancy while reducing his drag and a shark-like monofin flipper, he managed to keep pace with the animated shark until around halfway through the race. The shark eventually beat him by two seconds.

Before the main event, Phelps was shown swimming 50-meter races against virtual hammerhead and reef sharks. Phelps beat the reef shark by 0.2 seconds but lost to the hammerhead.

Were viewers deceived or were their expectations unrealistic?

When you think about it, it makes sense that the race was set up this way. Why would the 23-time Olympic gold medalist risk facing one of the oceans greatest predators on live TV? How would the shows producers be able to convince a wild shark to swim side-by-side against him and stay on course?

In fact, in an interview leading up to the big event, Phelps told Good Morning America: Were not in the water at the same exact time. I think thats the one thing we all  we want everyone to know  I was safe, which was No. 1.

Nevertheless, Twitter was abuzz with Tweets from people who were surprised by the way the show went down. Reactions ranged from humorous to downright nasty. Many people said they felt like they had been tricked and would even stop watching the Discovery Channel. While one can say that the advertising was perhaps slightly misleading at times, its hard to be too angry when Phelps himself said he wouldnt be in the water with the sharks in interviews ahead of the event.

Not everyone was unhappy with the show. Scripps Institution of Oceanography Marine Biologist and Shark Scientist Andrew Nosal was pleasantly surprised by the program, applauding it for being good, clean fun and showcasing shark science rather than perpetuation misinformation and fearmongering like many shark specials tend to do. He said that any show not about shark attacks was welcome.

Nosal is right, of course. While some sharks  like Great Whites  can indeed be quite dangerous, there is also a lot of misinformation floating around about these animals. Sharks help keep the oceans ecosystem in balance, and shark die-offs like those that have been seen in recent years can be a sign of deeper problems in the ecosystem. Moreover, its likely that truly pitting a shark against Phelps would have brought it outside of its natural environment in some way, and then the Discovery Channel would have been dealing with a different type of negative publicity.

For his part, Phelps told USA Today that he gained a new appreciation for how quickly these animals move through the water given their size. He also challenged the shark to a rematch, claiming the 55-degree water put him at a disadvantage.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

LiveScience.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) England and Scotland are set to relax the restrictions that are currently placed on blood donations from gay men and sex workers as part of a series of reforms that were recently announced by the government.

Under the current rules, gay men must wait a full year after the last time they had sexual intercourse before they are allowed to donate blood. This is considered by many to be a de facto ban as most sexually active people find it difficult to abstain for such a long period. The new rule sees the period of abstinence dropped to just 90 days.

Moreover, sex workers will also be subject to the same 90-day period; in the past, they were completely banned from donating blood.

The new rules have been established in response to testing advancements that allow blood-borne viruses like HIV and hepatitis B and C to show up much earlier than before, rendering the previous long waits unnecessary.

At the height of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, gay men were banned entirely from donating blood. At the time, testing methods were not as quick or accurate as they are now, and this group had a significant risk of HIV. The U.K. relaxed the outright ban to a 12-month abstinence requirement in 2011.

Scientists now say three months is enough time

Scientists say that viruses and infections can now be detected within just three months of infection. Experts believe this rule change will enable the countrys blood supply to grow without compromising its safety. The U.K. is not currently experiencing a shortage, but NHS Blood and Transplant says that 200,000 new donors are needed each year to replenish the blood supply.

The Welsh Government is currently considering whether or not to follow suit. There have also been proposals to change the laws regarding donations from those who have undergone endoscopy, acupuncture, tattooing or piercing.

The U.S. currently uses donation rules that are similar to those the U.K. now considers outdated, but then again, the FDA has never been known for being logical. Although the ban on donations from gay men that had been in place for 30 years was recently replaced with a year-long ban, many feel this is still too strict.

Critics of the current rules point out that although gay men as a group do have a much higher risk of HIV, a monogamous gay man who practices safe sex with his partner is less at risk than a promiscuous heterosexual man who sleeps with hundreds of partners yet is not subjected to a one-year abstinence period. In addition, HIV can now be detected just two to three weeks after infection, making the year-long wait needlessly lengthy.

Other potential screening approaches

Many have suggested that a more effective approach than a ban that is likely excluding a lot of potentially useful and life-saving blood would be the method used in Italy and South Africa, where all potential blood donors are screened on an individual basis for risky behaviors like unprotected sex and intravenous drug use. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of blood that is accepted from heterosexuals who engage in risky behavior. Of course, this requires specially trained personnel to carry out the screening; in the U.S., unskilled labor and automated computer systems are generally used for the screening.

A 2010 study from the University of California Los Angeles found that removing the 12-month ban in the U.S. could add as many as 298,000 pints of blood to our national supply.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

TheGuardian.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The infectious climate change narrative that is being drilled into the minds of the next generation isnt about protecting the planet. The term climate change is being used to get people to believe that they are supporting science, supporting the environment, protecting the Earth, and committing to a clean future. But it doesnt matter if your intent is good and you want to protect the planet; if you believe in the popular climate change narrative, you are simply being used by the globalists and central planners. Investments are at stake. Controlling elites will find any way to tax your existence so they can fix the problem of carbon.

But you see, carbon is not the evil molecule that the climate propagandists have made it out to be. The real human activities that are polluting the planet and poisoning people have nothing to do with carbon. Brain-damaging elements such as lead are increasing in the air, water, and soil. Pharmaceuticals are increasing in the water, intermixing and affecting human chemistry. Widespread pesticide and herbicide use is impacting microbial life, plant life, and ecology on a grand scale. Biosludge, a toxic slurry of municipal waste, is being repackaged as fertilizer and spread on rural farms. Fukushima radiation continues to leak into the oceans, distorting aquatic life. (RELATED: Ten alarming, real threats to the environment that are widely ignored by climate change advocates)

These important topics are all but dismissed however because all that climate change alarmists want is to influence your belief and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which would send temperatures plummeting worldwide. Even though carbon is an essential molecule of life and is currently measured at record low levels relative to Earths history, its your belief that the global elites need. Right now, carbon levels average slightly above 400 ppm, but ironically were as high as 7,000 ppm in the past. Volcanoes put more carbon into the atmosphere than human activity. Much of this carbon fiasco is out of human hands.

Arrogantly, global elites want to manipulate the temperature and weather patterns on Earth, in order to send Earth on a path of plummeting temperatures worldwide. The ultimate goal of these elites: Depopulation.

Climate change is the term used to devise for a colder, icier planet, devoid of life. The more we believe in reducing atmospheric carbon, the more we get behind their plans of central economic planning and depopulation. After all, a warmer, wetter planet is a green planet. Therefore, climate change propaganda and carbon reduction are rooted in eugenics, in population reduction, and getting people to cheer it on.

The evidence for this plan is found in the guilt that is being projected upon those who dont buy into climate change and reduction carbon levels. By not falling for the propaganda, you can be called a climate denier. Some people in authority have called for penalties and civil action against those who deny climate change.

We are supposed to feel guilty for our carbon footprint. We are looked down upon, like we are taking up space and using up resources that dont belong to us. Every breath we breathe is looked down upon as sin, as we exhale carbon dioxide. Even cow and sheep farts are fair game to be regulated and taxed. Expected to go along with the climate change narrative, we are shamed for existing, for breathing, for consuming energy and reproducing.

For people to thrive, the planet actually needs higher CO2 levels. Higher CO2 and warmer conditions would make it easier for people to grow a diverse array of crops. Evaporation of ocean water in warmer conditions would help regions become more self-reliant in the area of food production. Warmer weather invites abundance. Sure, people must learn to adapt to regional changes that take place on this planet, but the hysteria of climate change does nothing but fuel the flames of depopulation goals and manipulation.

Getting serious about pollution requires tackling the real issues that affect the water, soil, and air. Letting global government confiscate the fruits of your labor so scientists can control the weather and deplete the atmosphere of carbon is a dagger to all logic and reason. (Thankfully, President Trump broke ties with the Paris Climate Accord.) Feeling shame for exhaling carbon dioxide and cheering on global plans for weather control that leads to a colder planet is not in support of life. Its anti-life.

Learn why carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant for our planet:

(RELATED: Keep up-to-date at ClimateScienceNews.com)

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

DailySignal.com
After tackling the genomes of bacteria and yeast, synthetic biologists are setting their sights on rewriting those of more complex organisms, including humans.

Under typical laboratory conditions, strain JF1 of the bacterium Escherichia coli looks like any other  a spatter of yellow-tinged colonies on an amber agar plate. But bathe the colonies in wavelengths of red, green or blue light and their cells convert chemicals in the growth medium into pigments in a pattern that matches that of the coloured light to which they were exposed, yielding a muted and blurred image that is reminiscent of a 1970s Polaroid. Human chromosomes under a scanning electron microscope. Credit: Power and Syred/Science Photo Library

Christopher Voigt, whose lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge created the intricate genetic circuit that drives this transformation, reported in May 2017 that his team had used the system to recreate a multicoloured geometric illustration of lizards by Dutch artist M. C. Escher1. That exercise was just for fun, he says, and a way to demonstrate the state-of-the-art in synthetic biology. But it was not easy: the circuit contained 18 genes and 32 regulatory elements, spread over 4 small circular molecules of DNA known as plasmids, and 46,198 base pairs of DNA. It responds separately to red, green and blue light. When you add it all up, it's quite a sophisticated project, Voigt says.

And it's not the only one. Synthetic biology is awash with projects of similar or even greater complexity. Improvements in techniques for synthesizing and editing DNA have brought reduced costs and enormous precision, helping biologists to build from scratch or re-engineer the genomes of microorganisms such as E. coli and brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Synthetic-biology researchers are now having serious discussions about re-engineering the genomes of more-complex organisms, including humans, although substantial hurdles stand in the way. For instance, the manipulation of large pieces of DNA presents technical challenges, and despite the falling cost of DNA synthesis, the cost is still prohibitive when billions of bases must be rewritten.

Results over the past two years have certainly increased my optimism that we may be able to do some really profound engineering in animals, says Peter Carr, a synthetic biologist at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts.

In a 2015 letter2 to the journal Trends in Biotechnology, Carr asked: Is there a synthetic biology equivalent of the sound barrier, or of the speed of light? The question was rhetorical because immutable limits clearly exist  the growth rate, for example, cannot be infinitely fast. But what constitutes a sound barrier in synthetic biology is evolving, he says. Designs that were on the cusp of feasibility a few years ago are now practical.

Researchers who once struggled to produce a few kilobases of synthetic DNA are now building whole genomes on the scale of megabases. In March 2016, sequencing and synthetic biology pioneer Craig Venter and his colleagues announced that they had pruned and rewritten the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides from about 1 megabase to 531 kilobases to create a 'minimal' genome3  the smallest set of genes that is required for life.

In August 2016, researchers led by George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and Nili Ostrov, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab, reported that they had produced a bacterium, dubbed 'rE.coli-57', in which seven codons  the triplets of nucleotides that encode particular amino acids  had been stripped out and replaced with synonymous alternatives4 in a process known as genetic recoding. And in March 2017, a team led by Pamela Silver, a biochemist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, described its initial attempts to recode the genome of strain LT2 of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium5, replacing around 200 kilobases of genomic DNA and eliminating a specific leucine codon in the hope of preventing the transfer of genes between pathogenic microbes.

Most dramatically, in March 2017, an international consortium led by Jef Boeke at the New York University Langone Medical Center and Joel Bader of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, reported the end-to-end rewrite of 5 of the 16 chromosomes of S. cerevisiae6  a milestone in an international project called the Synthetic Yeast Genome Project (Sc2.0). Sc2.0 aims to optimize and synthesize the complete genome of S. cerevisiae for both industrial and pure research applications. For instance, says Boeke, by removing all DNA sequences that do not encode proteins (introns), the team can assess the biological roles of the cellular machinery required to handle those genetic elements.

The artificial yeast chromosomes designed for Sc2.0 have been streamlined and stabilized by deleting repeated sequences and introns, by moving sequences that encode crucial pieces of the protein translational machinery to a dedicated chromosome, and by eliminating the codon TAG, which signals a stop in translation, and replacing it with an alternative stop codon, TAA, to facilitate protein engineering. A customized software package called BioStudio enabled the team to manage the genetic bookkeeping required to complete such a massive task.

Yeast genetically engineered to produce pigments from bacteria, other fungi and plants. Credit: Jasmine Temple The logistics of Sc2.0 were substantial, says Patrick Yizhi Cai at the University of Edinburgh, UK, who is the project's international coordinator. Yet the actual process of editing the yeast chromosomes was fairly routine, requiring just a few plates of yeast in the incubator, says Leslie Mitchell, a postdoc in Boeke's lab who led the subgroup that synthesized chromosome VI.

The Sc2.0 team uses a strategy called SwAP-In to rewrite chromosomes piece by piece (see 'Rebuilding a chromosome'). Researchers first assemble short single-stranded molecules of DNA known as oligonucleotides into building blocks of about 750 bases, and then into 'chunks' of 10 kilobases or fewer that, in turn, are combined into 'megachunks' of 3060 kilobases. Each megachunk contains one of two marker genes that enable the selection of yeast carrying these genes  in this case, URA3, which enables yeast to grow in the absence of uracil, and LEU2, which enables growth when leucine is missing. The megachunks are then slotted into an existing chromosome through homologous recombination, a natural process in which one stretch of DNA is replaced with another, rewriting the DNA from one end to the other. As each subsequent segment is integrated, it replaces the marker gene of the previous segment, swapping the yeast cell's nutritional requirements between uracil and leucine. Following quantitative PCR analysis to ensure that each megachunk has been fully incorporated, the resulting yeast strain is tested for its ability to form colonies under relatively stringent conditions; its slowed growth or death in comparison to the wild type indicates a problem in need of repair. The idea is: integrate the megachunk, test the fitness, and repeat, Mitchell explains.

Writer's block

A single megachunk can be integrated and tested in about two weeks, Mitchell says, assuming that there are no problems. Fitness testing and 'debugging' (error correction) take longer than the actual build at this point, says Boeke.

Each chromosome completed so far presented only a handful of notable 'bugs', he says. Some stemmed from errors in genome annotation, whereas others were caused by codon replacements that, for instance, alter the secondary structure of RNA.

For the most part, the yeast rolled with the punches. Yet the glitches that did crop up hint at the challenges faced by a larger-scale engineering project called Genome Project-write (GP-write), which aims to rewrite the genomes of more-complex eukaryotes. Besides the obvious problem of scale  at 3 billion base pairs, the human genome is two orders of magnitude larger than that of S. cerevisiae  the genomes of more-complex organisms tend to be less well annotated. When Venter's team first tried to build a minimal genome in M. mycoides, it applied a rational design, using published genetic data to compile a list of essential genes  an approach that didn't work. Our lack of basic biological knowledge, even with the simplest bacterial genomes, is huge, Venter says. Success came instead from a top-down approach that whittled away the genome to arrive at a core set of 473 genes. But about one-third of those have no known function. I found that to be just kind of a mind-blowing result, Silver says.

And there are further challenges. Sc2.0 and other genome-rewriting projects have tended to steer clear of the regulatory regions of genes, but in more-complex organisms such as eukaryotes, these are often located far from the genes that they influence, and might not yet be fully mapped. Researchers may therefore not know which segments to rewrite, and which to leave alone. It is also unclear how such large-scale genomic changes might affect chromatin architecture and therefore gene expression.

On a practical level, chromosome-sized molecules of DNA cannot be easily manipulated without being broken, and there is no efficient way to deliver them into most eukaryotic cells. Even if scientists can deliver the DNA, they might not be able to integrate it into the genome because most such cells are unable to perform homologous recombination as readily as yeast, and their slower growth drags out each experimental step.

There also is the cost of synthetic DNA to consider. Silver's team received funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for her work in S. typhimurium, which allowed it to negotiate a favourable price for DNA synthesis. But at a per-base price of US$0.10, she says, it will cost more than $1 million to complete her project; the human genome, by comparison, would cost hundreds of times more.

It's going to get easier and easier with time to build large genomes.

Yet Church says it is just a matter of time before technology catches up with ambition. My guess is, it's going to get easier and easier with time to build large genomes.

Precision rewrite

Genome rewrites so far have largely stuck to nature's recipe. But ultimately, biologists hope to impart new functions.

Several projects, including the rE.coli and S. typhimurium studies, are focusing on genetic recoding, in which codons removed from the genome are freed for other uses. Jason Chin, a synthetic biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, has done extensive work to manipulate the genetic code. He says that such recoding can advance protein engineering, not to mention the design, testing and synthesis of new chemical polymers built from monomers other than standard amino acids. Other possible applications include biocontainment (preventing release of an organism outside the lab) and genetic isolation (protecting organisms from viral infection).

In 2005, while working as a postdoc with Church, Farren Isaacs, now a bioengineer at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, began to pursue the idea of recoding the E. coli genome, focusing his energy on replacing the stop codon TAG throughout.

Because E. coli contains just 321 TAG codons, Isaacs was able to accomplish this task by modifying an existing genome rather than synthesizing one from scratch7. Using a strategy called MAGE (multiplexed automated genome engineering) that enables multiple DNA sequences to be edited at once, Isaacs and his colleagues first divided the E. coli genome into 32 segments and altered the TAG codons in each to the synonymous codon TAA. Next, they joined the 32 modified segments into a single molecule by exploiting a natural process of genetic exchange between bacteria. To complete the recoding process, the team deleted a gene that encodes a protein known as RF1, which recognizes the codon TAG. (A related protein, RF2, recognizes the codon TAA.) Survival of the modified E. coli following removal of this otherwise essential gene showed that their recoding process had worked. et al. Science Credit: Adapted from Zhang http://doi.org/b9ss (2017)/AAAS

For many researchers, existing technologies provide all the power they need to hack the genome. eGenesis, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to turn pigs into sources of transplantable organs. Luhan Yang, cofounder of the company, explains that the idea is to pare back the pig genome using CRISPR to remove sequences encoding proteins that might evoke an immune response in people. New genes encoding proteins that help to make the pig tissues compatible with humans can also be introduced. We think dozens of modifications probably would suffice, she says.

Yet the approach is different for more-expansive projects. Ostrov and Church's rE.coli project, for instance, removed the TAG stop codon and two codons each for serine, arginine and leucine from E. coli to create a 57-codon strain4. That work required 62,214 changes, which the team made using bottom-up DNA synthesis rather than top-down editing. With so many necessary genetic modifications, Ostrov explains, we might as well make the genome from scratch.

None of these genome-hacking studies has actually built a chromosome-sized molecule of DNA in one continuous stretch. Most commercial suppliers of synthetic DNA rely on a decades-old method of synthesis that is unsuitable for producing molecules longer than about 200 nucleotides. Church's team, as do most groups pursuing genome synthesis, assembled the DNA it required hierarchically. It purchased pre-made segments of genes that were 24 kilobases long, assembled them into 50-kilobase-long blocks in yeast using homologous recombination, and transferred these completed segments into E. coli. The team then deleted the corresponding region of the E. coli genome, and tested the resulting strain of bacteria for fitness.

According to Ostrov, the recoding process went smoothly, despite a few bugs. For example, altering the coding sequence of a particular gene inadvertently weakened the promoter of an overlapping gene, reducing the fitness of the strain.

There's idiosyncratic information in the genome, explains Chin, and it can only be deciphered experimentally.

Circuit city

Other researchers are developing genetic circuitry to imbue genomes with new functionality.

Generally, these circuits  such as Voigt's image-capturing strain of bacteria  are built up from simpler designs that use proteins called transcription factors as positive or negative input and output signals. Wilson Wong, a biomedical engineer at Boston University in Massachusetts, builds his designs instead using enzymes known as recombinases that invert or delete segments of DNA  a design strategy called BLADE (Boolean logic and arithmetic through DNA excision).

Wong says that BLADE frees researchers from the difficulty of linking circuits to one another, which requires the output strength of one circuit to be matched with the anticipated input of the next.

In one demonstration, Wong and his team created a Boolean logic look-up table8  a genetic circuit, about 10 kilobases long, that is capable of turning into any of 16 possible logic gates depending on whether 6 recombinases are present.

Wong's team essentially designed that circuit using a pencil and paper. But ultimately, synthetic biologists hope to build their designs in silico. Voigt, working with Douglas Densmore, an electrical engineer at Boston University has developed a tool called Cello (cellocad.org) to make that possible. Researchers specify genetic-circuit designs in a programming language called Verilog, and Cello produces the DNA sequences that are required to make them work9.
A young Oakland man arrested last year on terrorism-related charges conspired to kill 10,000 people across the Bay Area by blowing up gay clubs in San Francisco, planting backpack bombs on the University of California, Berkeley campus, setting fire to the Berkeley Hills and selling cocaine laced with rat poison, according federal court records obtained by NBC Bay Area.

NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit first broke the news that Berkeley High School graduate Amer Sinan Alhaggagi, 22, was indicted late last week for attempting to provide support to the terrorist group ISIS.

During a December detention hearing, federal prosecutors recounted in detail conversations dating back to last July that Alhaggagi had with FBI informants posing as ISIS sympathizers.

I live close to San Francisco, thats like the gay capital of the world, Alhaggagi allegedly told an FBI informant during an online conversation. Im going to handle them right. LOL. Im going to plant a bomb in a gay club. By god, Im going to tear up the city. The whole Bay Area is going up in flames. My ideas are genius.

But Alhaggagis attorney at the time argued his client never actually intended to commit those atrocities.

The real ultimate issue is how much of these allegations are very stupid and very inappropriate and very disturbing puffery, and how much was intended to be acted out, Federal defender Hanni Fakhoury said during the hearing.

Prosecutors say Alhaggagis actions went beyond puffery.

During the detention hearing, they said Alhaggagi met face-to-face with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS sympathizer, taking him on a tour of the Bay Area and pointing out possible targets for an attack. He also provided three backpacks that could be used to carry bombs to the undercover agent, according to federal prosecutors.

When federal agents served a search warrant at Alhaggagis residence, prosecutors say they found a bomb making manual on the desktop of his computer.

At one point, prosecutors say Alhaggagi even asked an undercover agent if he should kill his own friends.

Do you think I should kill my non-believer friends? Alhaggagi allegedly said. Thats like sending an all-out statement that no one is safe. Ill just call them over and tie them up and execute them.

According to prosecutors, Alhaggagi planned to flee to Mexico after carrying out those attacks. From there, prosecutors say he planned to join Islamic State fighters abroad.

Despite those disturbing conversations, Fakhoury said his clients actions tell a different story.

When prosecutors brought up a trip to Saudi Arabia they found concerning, Fakhoury said Alhaggagi was merely attending his sisters wedding. Prosecutors alleged Alhaggagi told an undercover agent hed purchased rat poison using stolen credit cards, but Fakhoury said federal agents never found evidence that actually took place. When prosecutors claimed Alhaggagi intended to use stolen credit cards to purchase materials for terror attacks, Fakhoury said the only items his client actually bought with those stolen cards were clothing from an online retailer.

Theres a disconnect between his words and actions, Fakhoury said.

During the hearing, federal prosecutors discussed how they were able to track the disturbing online comments to Alhaggagi.

Initially, undercover agents in communication with Alhaggagi were unaware of his true identity or where he lived. However, remarks about wanting to set fire to the Berkeley Hills gave investigators their first clue Alhaggagi lived in the Bay Area. When Alhaggagi allegedly claimed he would join a local police department to steal weapons if he couldnt make bombs himself, investigators began contacting Bay Area law enforcement agencies. They eventually found an application Alhaggagi submitted to the Oakland Police Department. When an undercover agent met with Alhaggagi for the first time, they confirmed he was their suspect.

But a few months later, prosecutors say Alhaggagi cut off communication with those undercover agents. Agents ultimately arrested him on identity theft and fraud charges relating to the online clothing purchase he made using a stolen credit card. They eventually added the charge of providing support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Alhaggagis family said in a written statement given to NBC Bay Area that he loved this country and never intended to carry out a violent attack.

We were shocked to learn of the accusations involving Amer. Amer is not and has never been radicalized in any way. He grew up in this country and loves it here. He is peaceful and kind. He was very young and immature when he got involved in the online conversations that are the basis for these accusations. He did not think those conversations were serious and he never had any intent to harm anyone. We love him and continue to fully support him.

Alhaggagis arraignment has not yet been scheduled. NBC Bay Area will continue to follow the story and provide updates as more information becomes public.
A member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is calling for a ban on anything containing a series of flame-retardant chemicals.

Lawmakers discussed the ban at a Tuesday meeting at City Hall.

Supporters, including firefighters, said the ban would lower cancer rates and developmental problems that studies said are linked to the chemicals.

But critics disagree and nobody seems clear on what it would mean for thousands of the cities retailers.

Supervisor Mark Farrell lists items in his office that likely contain flame-retardant chemicals.

"It exists everywhere," Farrell said.

The supervisor adds carpet, blankets and children's products -- items residents likely will have in their homes -- that he believes are hazardous.

"It has to stop," Farrell said. "Someone needs to take a step forward."

Farrell introduced legislation to ban the sale of any item containing the flame-retardant chemicals in San Francisco.

So what would the ban mean for thousands of retailers who sell the products in the city?

Farrell said they will have at least until the start of next year to rid their inventory.

A lobbying group that has successfully blocked similar state legislation responded to the ban and said the idea is short sighted.

Bryan Goodman with the American Chemistry Council's North American Flame Retardant Alliance provided the following statement Tuesday:

"Flame retardants provide consumers with a critical layer of fire protection. It is important for all San Franciscans to remember that flame retardants, like all chemicals, are subject to review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. So consumers do not have to choose between chemical safety and fire safety, as we can have both."


A San Francisco supervisor is pushing to name SFO's Terminal 1 after slain LGBTQ rights activist and former city politician, Harvey Milk.

Jeff Sheehy's top priority, which has the support of the Airport Facilities Naming Advisory Committe, was introduced to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, according to a statement.

Hillary Ronen, a former aide to Supervisor David Campos, introduced legislation to begin the process toward christening the structure Harvey Milk Terminal.

Milk was San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor, who along with then Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated in 1978. They were shot dead by former Supervisor Dan White.

"Their legacy endures in our city and in these dark times, Harveys message of hope resonates more than ever," Sheehy said in a statement. "As we work to guarantee civil rights for LGBTQ people here and around the world, there is no more fitting tribute than naming Terminal One after Supervisor Milk."

The AFNAC has also recommended naming a San Francisco International Airport access road Harvey Milk Way.

"As a kid in Texas, coming out was one of the hardest experiences of my life. Harveys election and his voice for our community inspired me and many others to come to San Francisco," Sheehy added. "The fact that I sit in the same legislative seat as Harvey is awe-inspiring.

"Sadly, the fact that we only have one LGBT supervisor today means our communitys work for full inclusion is far from over."
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that electronics giant Foxconn will build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that's expected to initially create 3,000 jobs, the largest economic development project in state history.

The announcement comes at a critical juncture for a Trump administration that pledged to generate manufacturing jobs but has struggled to deliver results as quickly as the president promised. Trump's plans for health care and tax cuts face a murky future in Congress, while his administration is bogged down by an investigation into Russia's possible ties with his presidential campaign.

In a White House speech, Trump said the financial commitment by Foxconn CEO Terry Gou was a direct result of his electoral win.

"If I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion," Trump said. "We are going to have some very, very magnificent decades."

But the decision to build the plant in Wisconsin also stemmed from $3 billion in state economic incentives over 15 years if Foxconn invests $10 billion in the state and ultimately adds 13,000 jobs. The incentives would only be awarded if Foxconn creates the jobs and pays an average salary of nearly $54,000.

The Wisconsin factory, scheduled to be open by 2020, would be massive. The campus dubbed "Wisconn Valley," would cover nearly 1.6 square miles and be three times the size of the Pentagon.

It will produce liquid-crystal display panels, or LCDs, that are used in televisions and computer screens. It will be located in the congressional district of House Speaker Paul Ryan. It would mark a substantial gain for a state that currently has 472,000 manufacturing jobs and is still recovering from factory layoffs  including the closure of a General Motors plant in Ryan's hometown  that hit after the 2008 financial crisis.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is perhaps best known for assembling Apple iPhones in China.

Inside the White House, discussions with Foxconn about opening a U.S. plant were led over several months by Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and the president's son-in-law, and Reed Cordish, an assistant to the president on technology initiatives. The president had met personally with Gou, who on Wednesday complimented Trump's leadership at the event by saying, "Mr. President, the eagle flies."

Seven states had competed for the Foxconn plant. By awarding the plant to Wisconsin, Foxconn would appear to be giving a victory to both Trump and the state's Republican governor, Scott Walker, who is up for re-election next year.

Other states that vied for the plant are Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Foxconn said in a release the announcement was just the first of several investments the company will be making in the U.S.

Walker and several other Wisconsin officials, including Ryan, attended the White House announcement.

Landing the multistate competition has been cast as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Foxconn is the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other devices for Apple and other brands. It has been eyeing building the plant in a part of Wisconsin represented by Ryan, who said he has met with company officials at Walker's request.

Critics have cautioned that Foxconn has made promises before to invest in the U.S. and not followed through. Foxconn promised in 2013, for example, to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new, high-tech factory in Pennsylvania that was never built. State Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Wisconsin Legislature's budget committee, said any deal would be examined with a "fine-toothed comb" and need to win approval by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Walker said he planned to call a special legislative session to consider the incentives. They include up to $1.5 billion in income tax credits for job creation, $1.35 billion in income tax credits for capital investment and up to $150 million in a sales tax exemption for the purchase of construction materials.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is from Ryan's congressional district in southeast Wisconsin, told WTMJ-TV on Tuesday that Trump, when flying over the area in Kenosha County during a visit to Wisconsin in April, noticed vacant land where a former Chrysler Motors plant used to be.

"He said, 'That land should be used,'" Priebus said. "So when Foxconn came into the White House, into the Oval Office, the president said, 'I know a good spot that you should go to, that place in Kenosha.'"

That part of the state is an attractive location for a large plant because of the area's proximity to Lake Michigan and its abundant water supply. To make flat-panel displays, the company will need access to great quantities of water to keep work spaces dust-free, among other things.

The news sent a jolt of excitement across Wisconsin, even among longtime Democratic critics of Walker.

"It's an exciting opportunity," said Democratic state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca.

Barca, like many Democrats, voiced concern about how much taxpayers may have to contribute in tax breaks and other incentives.

"We want to make sure it's a fair deal for everybody," he said. "We want a win-win-win."
Two House Democrats directly defied Gov. Bruce Rauners call to show up in Springfield over education funding Wednesday, choosing instead to hold a service day as a show of opposition to the special session.

Rather than arriving at the Capitol with their colleagues, state Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Ann Williams instead showed up at Gale Community Academy, a Chicago Public School on the citys North Side.

Joined by CPS parents, the lawmakers cleaned and painted the schools classrooms in protest of what they called a sham and political stunt by the governor.

Rauner called the special session Monday after legislators did not send him Senate Bill 1, a measure to establish a new statewide school funding formula. [[432983263, C]]

Calling it a bailout for Chicago, he has vowed to amendatory veto the bill to remove financial considerations for CPS block grant and pension payments  the only district statewide for which the state does not pick up employer contributions.

Its currently being held on a procedural motion as Democrats seek more time to negotiate with the governor, who said Monday that theres nothing to discuss until the bill is on his desk.

We thought it was important to push back against the governors rhetoric that Senate Bill 1, which would provide equity for all Chicago students as well as students throughout the state, is a Chicago bailout, Williams said Wednesday. Thats inaccurate, unfair and wrong.

A spokesperson for Rauner called it disappointing that two Dems who supported this bill won't show up to work on it, though Cassidy and Williams countered that theyre unable to act now, as the bill is not in the House.

From a legislative perspective, there is no function a House member can perform in the current scenario, Cassidy said in a statement, adding that SB 1 would first have to be acted upon in the Senate and that the governor is counting on people to blindly accept his attacks on Chicago Schools and the children of our communities.

I cannot in good conscience sit in Springfield and accomplish nothing while my schools face very real and daunting budget challenges, Williams added on Facebook. I stand ready at a moments notice to return to Springfield should a vote be called or should the Governor be willing to meet regarding his threatened veto and its impact on our neighborhoods schools. [[419186634, C]]

Cassidy and Williams said they planned to perform service projects at schools around the area for each day of the special session, scheduled through Friday and again on Monday.

Rauner has imposed a deadline of July 31 to implement education funding reform, as schools across Illinois will be looking for the first general state aid payment by August 10.

That state funding, which is contingent upon shifting to an evidence-based model, is critical for some districts to be able to open their doors on time this fall.

The families at Gale and in schools all over the city dont have the luxury of nine homes and choosing which great school they want their kids to attend, Cassidys statement ends. They need these schools open on time. If I cant make that happen with my votes, I intend to do everything I can to make it possible with my hands.
At least two state representatives plan to boycott the special session Gov. Bruce Rauner called on school funding this week.

State Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Ann Williams will not be among the lawmakers heading back to Springfield Wednesday, the Chicago Democrats announced in a release, saying they reject the political stunt.

Instead, they plan to hold a service day painting classrooms at Gale Community Academy, a Chicago Public School on the citys North Side.

Their announcement came as the fight over school funding across Illinois continues to heat up, with pressure mounting on several fronts for the governor. [[432983263, C]]

Rauner released a new online campaign ad Tuesday, calling on his wife to offer testimony on his education record.

"It's about doing what's right, not what's easy, Diana Rauner says in the new ad, running just one day after the governor called lawmakers back to the Capitol in a battle over the states schools.

State aid for K-12 schools is contingent on changing Illinois funding formula to an "evidence-based model" like that of Senate Bill 1, which passed the legislature in May.

It is currently being held on a procedural motion, as Democratic lawmakers seek more time to negotiate after Rauner vowed to veto the measure, decrying it as a "bailout" for Chicago Public Schools.

However, Rauner said Monday that he would be unwilling to meet with legislative leaders until SB 1 is on his desk, claiming there is nothing to discuss and Democrats want a crisis.

Democratic Speaker of the House Mike Madigan took issue with that, issuing a statement Tuesday that pointed fingers at Rauner for continuing to create a crisis that pits one child against another.

The governor knows very well that the education funding reform bill in question is not in the House, and members of the House cannot take positive action on the governors call until it is in our chamber, especially as he refuses to even detail the changes he would like, Madigans statement continued.

Governor Rauner, however, can take action. Instead of simply paying lip service to how desperately Illinois schools, educators, students and property taxpayers need education funding reform, he can put aside his veto threats and sign a bill he is on record as supporting 90 percent of, he added.

Instead of playing political games with our childrens education, he can agree to sign a bill that fixes one the most inequitable funding formulas in the country. I urge the governor to stand with us in choosing reform over a status quo that is failing our students. [[419186634, C]]

At issue is the way the bill factors CPS finances into what would become the new statewide funding formula. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with both Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton Monday as he continued his calls for Rauner to sign the legislation.

"My view is do what's right," Emanuel said Tuesday. "I know for a fact the old Bruce Rauner  before there was this coup in his office  supported, by saying he agrees with 90 percent of the funding in education, 90 percent of what's in this bill," he added.

In the midst of his major staff overhaul  over the course of which nearly two dozen staffers have resigned or been fired  the Republican governor is hoping to rally his own party behind him.

Early Thursday, Rauner will meet with legislators in the first-ever joint House and Senate GOP caucus, no doubt looking to see where they stand.

Sometimes we need fresh troops to engage in the battle and that's what we've done. It signals no shift or change in my views," Rauner said Monday when asked about the changes in his office.

Hes imposed a deadline on education funding reform of July 31, as schools across Illinois will be looking for the first general state aid payment by August 10.

And as the battle moves back to Springfield, Rauner faced additional pressure at home Tuesday, as more than 400 people gathered at his house in suburban Winnetka to protest cuts to child care assistance.

In a demonstration organized by Service Employees International Union, hundreds of children and child care providers came together to voice their objections to new requirements for low-income workers  largely minority women  to pay for their own training.

Every child care provider that does not comply with those requirements will be kicked out of the program, childcare worker Maricarmen Macias said.
For hundreds of brides and bridesmaids statewide, the now-bankrupt Alfred Angelo has clients money and their dress.

The companys bankruptcy filing lists 277 creditors in Connecticut, and according to an email between one of those clients and the companys attorney, Patricia Redmond, dresses shipped after June 24 are stuck at the port in California and will not arrive to its customers.

Alfred Angelo recently sent its bankruptcy notice to its creditors. Doing so imposes an automatic stay against most collection activities, which means creditors cannot sue or demand payment from the company. The case has to go through its respective process, which will likely take at least six months.

In the meantime, those affected can file a claim through the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Alfred Angelo is based. The court has one general case for Alfred Angelo customers and another one for those specifically affected in the northeast.

In the email correspondence, the companys attorney suggests affected customers take advantage of both cases.

Redmond said a claim status update will likely be available early 2018.
The findings of the report into the Valhalla train crash that happened more than two years included some areas where Connecticut could end up being a focus.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that driver error was the primary factor in the collision and explosion with an SUV at a railroad crossing that led to the deaths of six people, including the driver.

One of the other main findings related to the design and implementation of the electrified third rail that provides power to the line. Investigators found the very design led to it coming in contact with the SUV, and exploding, leading to images seen around the world of the charred and smoldering train car connected to the automobile.

In Connecticut, Metro-North tracks are not powered by a third rail, but are instead powered by whats known as a catenary system. That complex arrangement of wires and cables above the tracks in Connecticut was installed in 1907 and only routine maintenance had been provided up until the 1980s.

State officials told NBC Connecticut that catenary system is in the midst of an upgrade, which is expected to be complete by next summer.

On issues with railroad crossings, and making sure they are clearly marked and up to date, Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) Commissioner James Redeker said in a statement, "CTDOT and Metro-North have worked to make every crossing as safe as possible, with lights, signage, gates and other warning devices. Ultimately, it is up to drivers to be aware of their surroundings as they approach a rail crossing. The train always has the right of way at a crossing."

The NTSB also recommended that Metro-North needs to conduct a risk-assessment along its tracks and railroad crossings.
A Danbury driver, who was distracted by his GPS, was arrested on Wednesday for hitting a police cruiser and sending the trooper to the hospital in January, Connecticut State Police said.

State police said on Jan. 23, they were responding to an unrelated motor vehicle accident on Route 7 north near exit 12 in Brookfield at 8:19 p.m.

Trooper First Class Karen Nixon arrived at Route 7 in her marked cruiser, with emergency lights activated, and parked her police vehicle in the left lane a distance away from the crash to provide additional protection to the scene.

While troopers investigated the area and the tow truck operator hooked up the damaged vehicle, Brian Glasser continued driving in the left lane at a high rate of speed.

Glasser collided with Nixon's cruiser rear end and pushed the car 70 feet forward, police said.

Nixon was transported to Danbury hospital, while Glasser complained about minor injuries but declined medical attention at the scene, according to troopers.

The 38-year-old Danbury man said he was distracted as he looked for an address on his GPS and did not see the cruiser protecting the left lane of Route 7, Connecticut State Police said.

An arrest warrant was obtained for Glasser and he turned himself in on Wednesday as a result of the January crash.

Glasser is accused of following too closely, distracted driving, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and assault. He was released on bond.
A prominent Connecticut rabbi who was accused of sexually assaulting a male high school student more than a decade ago has been charged with sexual assault in the second degree and risk of injury to a minor.

Police said the suspect, 77-year-old Rabbi Daniel Greer, of New Haven, was the dean of the Yeshiva of New Haven/the Gan School, where the victim was a high school student.

Authorities obtained a warrant charging Greer with sexual assault in the second degree and risk of injury to a minor. He turned himself in to authorities at police headquarters Wednesday morning.

In May, a federal jury awarded $20 million to the man who accused Greer of repeatedly raping and molesting him when he was a student at the Jewish boarding school from 2001 to 2005. Green has requested a new trial in the civil case.



Police said the victims attorney contacted them in August 2016, alleging hed been the victim of sexual assaults from early to mid-2000s.

Bond for Greer was set at $100,000 and he posted it, according to police.

He has denied the allegations brought against him. NBC Connecticut went to his New Haven home Wednesday, but Greer did not answer the door.

His attorney and the school have not responded.
Straight off a slim but symbolic health care win in Washington, President Donald Trump arrived in Ohio for a victory lap on Tuesday night with the very voters who helped put him in office.

"We're now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care for the American people," Trump told a crowd of several thousand in Youngstown, Ohio, hours after the Senate took one small step toward Republicans' years-long promise to repeal and replace former President Obama's health care law.

"You think that's easy? That's not easy," he declared.

Tuesday's trip to Youngstown, a staunchly working-class, union-heavy enclave that has long helped anchor Democrats in Ohio, served as a welcome distraction from Washington for a president who loves to relive his once-unlikely Election Day win.

In a room filled with supporters, Trump talked up his first six months in office, claiming that no other president had done "anywhere near" what he'd done in his first six months.

"Not even close," he said.

In Trump's telling, citizens have been applauding his administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. He described people screaming from the windows, "Thank you, thank you!" to border control agents.

"We're liberating our towns and we're liberating our cities. Can you believe we have to do that?" he asked, adding that law enforcement agents were going after gang members  and "not doing it in a politically correct fashion."

"Our guys are rougher than their guys," he bragged.

Ahead of the rally, Trump stopped by a veterans' event as part of the White House's weeklong celebration of servicemen and women. Following brief remarks by several of his Cabinet members, Trump entered a small room of veterans, several of them over 80 years old, and praised them for their commitment and sacrifice for the country.

"A truly grateful nation salutes you," Trump told the group in Sutherland, Ohio.

But he quickly shifted gears to recall his unexpected election win in Ohio, praising Youngstown and towns like it for helping him secure the electoral votes that put him over the top.

"It was incredible time we had. You saw the numbers," he said. "Democrats, they win in Youngstown  but not this time."

Trump has mainly sought to re-litigate his 2016 victory in friendly territory, escaping Washington to recharge with boisterous crowds that embrace his jabs at "fake news" media, Democrats and even those Republicans whom Trump once vowed to defeat as part of his effort to "drain the swamp."

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.
The front lines in the new war on drugs  the growing opioid epidemic  will be drawn in North Texas on Wednesday as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will stage a protest outside of the annual shareholders meeting of McKesson Corporation, the nations largest pharmaceutical distributor.

McKesson, which ranks 5th on the most recent version of the Fortune 500 list, has offices in Irving and last year announced a planned expansion which would add approximately 1,000 additional local jobs.

The Teamsters are targeting McKesson, in part, because the union claims the company has failed to take proper ownership of an industry practice that has claimed an ever-increasing number of lives.

This is as clear-cut a case as I have ever seen of putting pure profit ahead of the well-being of American citizens, said Ken Hall, General Secretary Treasurer of the Teamsters union. Im not talking about making somebody sick. Were talking about killing people.

Drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed in recent years, many of which come from misuse of prescription opioid pain medication.

Upwards of 59,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2016, according to an analysis of data by the New York Times, which would be the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States.

By comparison, 40,200 people were killed in car crashes in 2016, according to the National Safety Council.

According to statistics released by the FBI, 15,696 people were the victims of homicide in 2015, the most recent year for which there is data available.

In January of this year, McKesson agreed to pay a record $150 million penalty for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act, according to the United States Department of Justice.

Federal investigators alleged that McKesson failed to report suspicious orders of pharmaceutical drugs. For example, of 1.6 million orders for controlled substances in Colorado, McKesson flagged 16 as suspcious - all connected to one instance related to a recently terminated customer.

McKesson supplied various U.S. pharmacies an increasing amount of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, frequently misused products that are part of the current opioid epidemic, the DOJ noted in a news release about the settlement.

The investigation that resulted in the record settlement came on the heels of a 2008 settlement in which McKesson agreed to pay a $13.25 million penalty for similar violations.

In the [more recent] case, the government alleged again that McKesson failed to design and implement an effective system to detect and report suspicious orders for controlled substances, the DOJ wrote.

In a statement posted on the McKesson corporate website, Chairman and CEO John Hammergren emphasized his companys role in the current concern regarding the distribution of prescription pain medicine.

Pharmaceutical distributors play an important role in identifying and combating prescription drug diversion and abuse, Hammergren wrote. McKesson, as one of the nation's largest distributors, takes our role seriously."

In the corporate statement, a McKesson spokesperson wrote the following:

"McKesson is committed to working with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) on an ongoing basis to identify new ways to prevent misuse of controlled substances. As part of the settlement agreement reached, McKesson and the DEA plan to meet regularly over the next five years to ensure ongoing alignment."

In a statement provided to NBC DFW on Wednesday, a McKesson spokesperson emphasized its commitment to increased oversight.

We take our responsibility to help manage the safety and integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain extremely seriously and are committed to maintaining -- and continuously improving -- strong programs designed to detect and prevent opioid diversion," Kristin Hunter Chasen wrote. While we dont manufacture, prescribe or dispense opioids to patients, we are doing everything we can to help address this crisis in close partnership with doctors, pharmacists, government and other organizations across the supply chain.

McKessons shareholders will gather in Irving on Wednesday as part of an annual meeting in an effort to encourage investors to join the union in pushing the company to implement reform.

It would not take a lot of oversight to figure out, for a company like McKesson, that there is a problem and that those drugs are being abused, said Ken Hall of the Teamsters.

In addition, the Teamsters will urge shareholders to vote against the latest compensation package for CEO John Hammergren, which has not only made him the country's third highest paid CEO but has insulated him from the legal, political and reputational risks surrounding the company's role in the opioid crisis, a Teamsters press release noted.

On Wednesday, a McKesson spokesperson noted that although the Teamsters do have a finanncial stake as shareholders in the company, the labor union has another reason to protest, as well.

The recent efforts by the Teamsters labor union do little to address the root causes of the opioid epidemic. Nor can these attack efforts be disentangled from the labor contract dispute the Teamsters have been engaged in at one of our companys facilities," the spokesperson wrote.

In March 2016, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that McKesson will consolidate and expand its operations in the Dallas metro area and open a new regional office in Irving, according to a news release.

McKessons expansion is projected to create at least 975 new jobs and $157 million in capital investment in the State of Texas.

This expansion is yet another testament to the power of Texas low-tax, low-regulation economic climate that continues to attract industry leaders, innovators, and job creators from around the globe, Governor Abbott said.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Michael Snowden, a 31-year-old flight engineer killed July 10 in a military plane crash, has returned home to North Texas.

Snowden was among 16 crew members on a KC-130 that crashed while flying over a soybean field north of Jackson, Mississippi. The crash, which remains under investigation, killed everyone on board.



Snowden's body arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

After his arrival, Snowden was driven to the Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral home while being escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders. The riders will also accompany Snowden on his ride to the cemetery Friday and will stand in a flag line at his interment service.



Though he was born Abilene in 1985, Snowden's family eventually moved to Dallas where he attended Highland Park High School and played lacrosse.



After graduation he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He'd go on to to graduate from Texas State University in 2010, where he also played lacrosse. He returned to active duty in 2012.



"Snowden, or simply 'Snow' by all who knew him, was a man who loved God, his family and friends, and his country. He was an avid lover of Texas Country music, grilling steaks, and working on his truck all at the same time whenever possible," according to his obituary on Legacy.com.



Snowden's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas. He will be buried at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery at 2:45 p.m. Friday.


Authorities say a police officer is in serious condition after a fatal gunfight outside an apartment complex in San Antonio.

Officers responded early Wednesday to a disturbance call at the complex where investigators believed a home invasion may have occurred.

One officer confronted three suspects in a car and began struggling with the driver. A back-seat passenger got out of the car and began firing, striking the officer at least once, according to William McManus, San Antonio police chief.



McManus said it appeared the wounded officer and at least one other officer returned fire, killing the alleged gunman.



The chief said the injured officer, a four-year department veteran, underwent surgery for a stomach wound.



The car's driver and the second passenger were taken into custody.


President Donald Trump announced a controversial change to military policy Wednesday morning on Twitter, writing that transgender Americans will no longer be allowed to serve "in any capacity" in the U.S. military.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption," Trump added.

The decision has been met with mixed reaction and raises serious questions for thousands of transgender Americans currently serving.

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military since June 2016, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended a ban. Trump tweeted at the time, during the presidential campaign, that he would fight for the LGBT community.

His announcement on Wednesday did not say what would happen to transgender people currently serving in the military.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at an afternoon briefing that the White House and Department of Defense would "have to work together as implementation takes place and is done lawfully."

Nicole Lynn Perry, a transgender Marine veteran from North Texas, was angry and disheartened by the decision Wednesday.

"It was like, I served honorably, why are you preventing others like me who have gone before me, and who want to go after me, why are you preventing them from serving honorably?" Perry said.

Perry fulfilled a lifelong dream to join the military by becoming a Marine, serving from 2008 to 2013.

"To be able to say I served in the Marine Corps, it's a big deal," she said.

It was also challenging. She never told her unit she was transgender. After Perry left the military she began to transition, but she does believe there is a place for everyone in the military.

"Whenever you are in the foxhole, it's your buddy to your left and right. It's your brother, it's your sister. That's it. There is no, 'Oh, well, because they are trans I won't fight for them. Oh, because they are gay I won't fight for them.' No, that's your buddy. You don't care. You are there because you want them and you want yourself to get home alive to their families," Perry said.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops. One study by RAND  a research company that provides analysis to the military  found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

RAND estimated the cost of extending gender transition-related health care coverage for transgender personnel to increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, representing a boost of between 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent.

Some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for "keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Trump's supporters "will be happy to hear it. We don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."
Pasadena's city manager Tuesday authorized the release of police interview recordings that officials say show former USC medical school dean Carmen Puliafito did not try to influence a police officer regarding his investigation into a woman's hotel room drug overdose.

USC has begun the process to terminate Puliafito and strip him of his faculty tenure because of alleged substance abuse activities.

Released Tuesday along with the audio recordings of police interviews with Puliafito and hotel staff after the March 4, 2016, overdose were the incident and property seizure reports.

"Due to the intense public interest in this matter regarding Dr. Puliafito's interaction with Pasadena police, the city is releasing these documents and the recordings,'' according to a statement from Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermel.

"We want to assure the public that our officer responded and investigated the incident. The recordings clearly show no one, including Dr. Puliafito, attempted to influence the officer or have him dismiss the incident in any way."

Redacted copies of the written reports had been previously released to news media under a public records request.

"The Pasadena Police Department continues to review its records for additional information that can be released regarding this incident," according to a city statement that said, "There was and still is no evidence in the possession of (police) that Dr. Puliafito committed a crime the night of March 4, 2016.

Although 1.16 grams of methamphetamine were found inside an unoccupied hotel room, the substance was "not in anyone's physical possession, limiting any value as possible evidence for prosecution," according to the city, which cited statements by Police Chief Phillip Sanchez.

"The officer filled out a property report that night and he preserved the evidence and documented the confiscation of methamphetamine in a timely manner," Sanchez stated.

"The officer also conducted and recorded an interview of Dr. Puliafito, correctly preserving his statement and ultimately writing a report on June 8, 2016. We do recognize that the incident report was not written in a timely manner in conjunction with the property report."

No reason was given for the delay.

Puliafito is under immediate suspension from the university, barred from its campuses and any association with USC, including attending or participating in university events, Michael W. Quick, the university's provost and senior vice president for academic affair wrote in a memo to faculty members.

"We certainly understand that substance abuse is a tragic and devastating disease,'' Quick wrote. "But we are also bound to our responsibilities as a university to take the necessary actions concerning Dr. Puliafito's status."

USC President C.L. Max Nikias has announced that former federal prosecutor Debra Wong Yang has been hired to look into recent allegations by the Los Angeles Times that Puliafito abused hard drugs and associated with criminals and drug users.

Puliafito, 66, a renowned eye surgeon, led the Keck School of Medicine for almost a decade before resigning in 2016. He remained on the Keck faculty and continued to represent the university at public events as recently as this summer.

The Times published an article reporting that during his tenure as dean, Puliafito kept company with a circle of criminals and addicts who said he used drugs with them.

The paper also reported that Puliafito was with a prostitute when she overdosed on drugs at the Pasadena hotel room and had to be rushed to a hospital.

The same day as the report, USC said Puliafito was no longer seeing patients and was on leave. Puliafito resigned his $1.1 million-a-year dean's post in March 2016, saying he wanted to explore outside opportunities.

Yang is a former U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, a former state judge and a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission. She currently is a partner in the international law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Nikias said Yang will investigate the details of Puliafito's conduct, the university's response, as well as its existing policies and procedures and make findings and recommendations to the USC Board of Trustees Executive Committee.
A Southern California transgender service member said he was surprised and saddened by President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military.

Army Reservist Rudy Akbarian also works as an employment specialist at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where he helps homeless LGBTQ youth find employment. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, he said he heard about the announcement -- issued by President Trump early Wednesday in a series of tweets -- when he arrived at work.

Akbarian said he was brought to tears.

"I actually got to work this morning and one of my supervisors told me," Akbarian said. "At first, I didn't believe it. My heart dropped a little bit. It hurt."

Akbarian, who has been in the military for more than five years, said he is openly transgender, a fact known to people in his chain of command.

"The discrimination I'm facing now is from outside the military, not the people who work with me," he said. "The military is an extremely diverse organization and it should stay that way. And I have to ask, why would any president prevent those who want to serve our country -- who are willing to lay down their lives for our country -- from doing so? We deserve the right to fight for what we love. As a trans service member I have fought very long and hard to be my authentic self. No one is going to take that passion or my love for this country away from me."

Trump said on Twitter Wednesday morning that he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity." He cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" as the basis for the ban, which was lifted last year under the Obama administration.

Since last Oct. 1, transgender service members have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system. Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials, The Associated Press reported.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a brief written statement that the Pentagon is working with the White House to "address" what he called "the new guidance" from the president. He said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials "in the near future."

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study last year estimated about 2,450 transgender people in active military, out of about 1.3 million troops.

A White House spokeswoman did not say what will happen to transgender troops currently serving in the military. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday afternoon that the Department of Defense and the White House will work together to implement Trump's plans.

She did not provide a timeline for the process.

Akbarian said he is committed to continue his service to the United States.

"I've had too many people supporting me to just give up, so I don't plan on doing that," Akbarian said. "I love my country, the people I serve and the people who serve with me. I've had so many people reaching out to me about the president's tweets. Here are the facts: We are not a disruption to the military. In fact, we are a vital part of it. Transgender service members serve as aircraft crew, mechanics and even drill sergeants, and many other critical roles.

"Not everyone responded well after learning I was transitioning, but after spending time on missions and realizing we all share the same love for the country, we worked together and got the job done."

Sanders described the move as a "military decision" and said Trump was concerned the current policy "erodes military readiness and military cohesion." She said the secretary of defense was notified Tuesday after Trump made the decision.

Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, said the center will contest Trump's proposal.

"They may harm us initially, but right is on our side for the long term," she said. "In the meantime, we will fight this policy reversal, not only for our community, but for our country. We will continue to fight Trump's attempts to attack and diminish LGBT people, which only serves to diminish all Americans.

"He dehumanizes the very people who have pledge to risk their lives for our country and the values that our nation stands for -- freedom, justice, liberty."

Amanda Goad, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, echoed Jean's remarks, and blasted the president for trying to "score cheap political points" on the backs of loyal service members.
A Monterey Park man was arrested on federal smuggling charges Tuesday stemming from the seizure of a package that contained three king cobras hidden in potato chip canisters.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was taken into custody without incident by special agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after he was named in a federal criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles last week, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Franco is charged with one felony count of illegally importing merchandise into the United States, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

According to the affidavit in support of the complaint, U.S. Customs and Border Protection on March 2 inspected a package sent from Hong Kong and discovered three live king cobra snakes -- a protected and highly venomous reptile -- each of which was nearly 2 feet long.

In addition to the three snakes, the parcel being sent through the mail contained three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles, prosecutors said.

On the same date, Franco also allegedly mailed six protected turtles -- desert box turtles, three-toed box turtles and ornate box turtles -- from the United States to Hong Kong, but that shipment also was intercepted by the USFWS.

Because of the danger associated with the cobras, the snakes were seized from the package that had come from Hong Kong. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service made a controlled delivery of the soft-shelled turtles to Franco's home. Immediately after the package was delivered, federal agents executed a search warrant at the residence.

While searching the home, agents found the package that originated in Hong Kong in a children's bedroom, in which they also discovered a tank containing a live baby crocodile and tanks containing alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle, and five diamond back terrapins -- all of which are protected species, according to the affidavit.

During a subsequent interview with authorities, Franco allegedly admitted that he had previously received 20 king cobras in two prior shipments -- but he said all of those snakes had died in transit, prosecutors said.

During the ensuing investigation, authorities obtained evidence from Franco's phone, which contained messages in which he and someone in Asia allegedly discussed shipping turtles and snakes between the United States and Asia. According to the complaint, the messages indicate that Franco had previously received live cobras from his contact in Asia and was going to give five of the snakes to a relative of his contact.
"Disgusting," "ugly," "un-American" and "hateful" were among the reactions state and Southern California Democratic political leaders had Wednesday to President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender people will be barred from serving in the military.

Trump made the announcement in a series of morning tweets. It comes about a year after the lifting of the ban.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military," Trump wrote.

He added, "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The decision reverses a move made by President Barack Obama last year when he announced that transgender people could serve openly in the military.

"No one who is patriotic, courageous and selfless enough to serve in the armed forces should be denied that opportunity because of who they are," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "The president's decision to bar transgender Americans from military service is at odds with the values of freedom and equality that our men and women in uniform fight for every day."

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, who spent four years on active duty with the U.S. Air Force and continues to serve in the reserves, said Trump's action "is not based on facts, it is based on naked bigotry."

"I know because I served on active duty," Lieu said. "The military doesn't care what your sexual orientation or identity is, or who you love. It cares about whether you can shoot straight and complete the mission. The president's discriminatory decision harms our military readiness for our volunteer-based military. Thousands of transgender Americans are already in the military."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who has become one of Trump's most vocal critics in Washington, accused the president of breaking his promise to support the LGBT community.

"In February, President Trump made an unequivocal promise to the LGBT community to maintain existing federal non-discrimination protections," Schiff said. "With his announcement this morning, Trump has reneged on his promise to the American people by disallowing transgender people to serve `in any capacity' in the U.S. military. Simply put, Trump's anti-transgender pronouncement is ugly and wrong because discrimination is never patriotic; allowing all who love this country to serve, is."

California's two U.S. senators, both Democrats, also blasted the announcement, with Sen. Kamala Harris calling it "discriminatory, wrong and un-American."

"We should not punish or turn away courageous people who are willing to risk their lives to serve our country -- we should embrace them," Harris said. "The president's claim that the service of transgender people impacts military readiness is not backed up by facts, nor is it publicly supported by our military leadership."

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, called the action "disgusting."

"It's startling he would make our country less safe by recklessly preventing a group of patriots from continuing to serve their country," she said. "I proudly stand behind our transgender community as they are cowardly assaulted by the president from his social media account."

A host of celebrities also weighed in on the announcement via Twitter. Included among them was one of the nation's most well-known transgender individuals -- Caitlyn Jenner.

"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?" Jenner wrote.

Jenner re-tweeted one of Trump's posts from June 2016, in the midst of the presidential campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. That post from Trump read, "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs."

Civil rights organization Equality California issued a statement, calling the ban "unconscionable."

"Donald Trumps attack on transgender service members who are serving with distinction and valor and who put their lives on the line every day to protect our country is unconscionable," the statement said. "It is blatant discrimination and plays on the kind of hate and bigotry that we saw during his campaign and throughout his presidency. He has once again taken steps to target the LGBTQ community and seems intent on taking our armed forces back to a time of secrecy and intimidation."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein added, "All Americans who are fit and willing to serve our country in the military should be given the opportunity to do so. President Obama recognized this and rightly decided that transgender individuals shold be allowed to serve."
President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the U.S. military "in any capacity," saying they would cause "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military since June 2016, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended a ban. Trump had tweeted at the time, during the presidential campaign, that he would fight for the LGBT community.

His announcement on Wednesday did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

Trump's Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at an afternoon briefing that the White House and Department of Defense would "have to work together as implementation takes place and is done lawfully."

Asked about Trump's past vow to fight for the LGBT community, Sanders said that the ban was a "military decision" and wasn't a "simple one."

"This was a military decision. This was about military readiness," she said, adding that it was also about "unit cohesion."



At the Pentagon, members of the staff of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared to have been caught off guard by Trump's tweets.

"We refer all questions about the Presidents statements to the White House," Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the Commander-in-Chief on transgender individuals serving the military. We will provide revised guidance to the Department in the near future."

Sanders said that the president's national security team was part of the consultation and Mattis was informed on Tuesday.

The Pentagon's website still said, as of Wednesday morning, that "transgender Service members may serve openly, and they can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from the military solely for being transgender individuals."

Trump tweeted that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he added.

Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so." He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.



There are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Two studies  including RAND's  have found health-care cost for transgender service members to be low in the context of the militarys health care budget.

RAND estimated the cost of extending gender transition-related health care coverage for transgender personnel to increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, representing a boost of between 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent.

Another from the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2015 called "Caring for Our Transgender Troops  The Negligible Cost of Transition-Related Care" said: "When it was announced that the U.S. military anticipates lifting its ban on service by transgender persons, critics expressed concern about the cost of providing transition-related care. But the cost will be negligible in the scheme of the military's health care budget."

Republican John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that Trump's tweet "is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today," he said in a statement. "Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the militaryregardless of their gender identity."

McCain added that no new policy decision would be appropriate until a Defense Department study is complete and vowed Senate oversight on the issue.

"I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone," Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a statement. He said he planned to get clarity from the military.

Trump's decision earlier drew immediate angry responses from groups that represent transgender service members.

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the U.S. armed forces without causing any issues.

"It's an absolute absurdity and another overstep," Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesday's decision is not reversed.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, director of the Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project, National LGBTQ Task Force, said Trump "has stood against the trans community with this decision and is harming lives for the sake of political gains."

"The military is often the last resort for people who can't find jobs because of discrimination," Rodriguez-Roldan said. She said the transgender community "will not stop fighting" for justice.

Trump's tweets also prompted fierce backlash from prominent Democrats and other supporters of transgender service members.

The "decision to ban transgender Americans from the military is a vile attack on brave individuals defending our country," House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said transgender Americans "are serving honorably in our military. We stand with these patriots."

Sarah McBride, a spokesperson for the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, wrote, "A man who received 5 deferments from Vietnam is threatening the careers of 15,000 trans troops. Reprehensible, unpatriatic, and dangerous."

Others on social media noted that Trump's decision falls on the anniversary of President Truman's action on July 26, 1948, to end racial segregation in the armed forces.

Some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for "keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Trump's supporters "will be happy to hear it. We don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."

Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Penatagon's personnel system.

But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On the eve of the deadline, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting, giving the armed forces another six months to study the issue.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, the officials said. They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Republican-led House narrowly rejected a measure earlier this month that sought to strike an Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy.

Thousands of transgender Americans are currently serving in uniform and there is no reason to single out these brave men and women and deny them the medical care that they require, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told USA Today this week.

Mullen oversaw the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell in 2011.

Missouri GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who authored the amendment to end the funding, was among those who cheered Trump's decision on Wednesday.

"I'm pleased to hear that President Trump shares my readiness and cost concerns, and I'm glad to hear the president will be changing this costly and damaging policy," she said in a statement. "Military service is a privilege, not a right. We must ensure all our precious defense dollars are used to strengthen our national defense. Now, we can focus on rebuilding our military and addressing the growing threats around the world."
Democratic and Republican politicians, LGBTQ rights advocates and others derided on Wednesday President Donald Trump's Twitter announcement that transgender people will be banned from U.S. military service in "any capacity."

Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

The surprise announcement drew criticism from across party lines.

Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the announcement, saying in a statement that it should not have been made on Twitter and "there is no reason" for forcing resignations.

The Presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter.

The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the militaryregardless of their gender identity. We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do soand should be treated as the patriots they are."

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted: "@POTUS anti-trans pronouncement is ugly and wrong. Discrimination isn't patriotic -- allowing all who love this country to serve, is."

Other critics included LGBTQ advocates, like actor George Takei, and the organizers of the women's march.

Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler, of Missouri, came to Trump's defense, tweeting: "Pleased to hear that @realDonaldTrump shares my readiness and cost concerns, & will be changing this costly and damaging policy #readiness."

Hartzler previously proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have ended the Pentagon providing funds for gender-reassignmnet surgeries for active-duty service members. The amendment was voted down.

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? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr  Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017

The founder of the protest group that staged a "Queer Dance Party" in front of Vice President Mike Pence's Washington D.C. home in January also came out against the U.S. military trans ban.

Faris Nasr, founder of Werk for Peace, told NBC: "We are appalled and outraged by Trump's blatant act of bigotry against the transgender community. When transgender individuals experience unemployment at three times the rate of the general population and face alarmingly high rates of employment discrimination, Trump's discriminatory actions only seek to further marginalize a population that is already struggling to survive to live out their truth."
The widow of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed in an ambush attack has given birth to a baby girl through in-vitro fertilization, the NYPD said.

The birth comes about 2  years after Det. Wenjian Liu was killed in a Brooklyn shooting along with his partner.

Pei Xia Chen, who goes by Sanny Liu, gave birth to the baby girl, named Angelina, on Tuesday, according to the NYPD. She was joined by Det. Lius parents, Wei Tang Liu and Xiu Yan Li, at Weill Cornell Hospital.

NYPD

Chen gave birth to her late husbands baby more than two years after his death. Liu and his wife had always planned to have children, but those plans were tragically cut short when Liu was fatally shot alongside Det. Rafael Ramos as they sat in their patrol car on Dec. 20, 2014 in Bedford-Stuyvesant by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who fatally shot himself in a nearby subway shortly after the ambush.

The night her husband was killed, Chen requested that her husbands semen be preserved, so that she may one day have his child, the NYPD said. The night after his death, she had a dream that he was handing her a baby girl.

I got pregnant through the [in-vitro fertilization] procedure, Chen said. And I told my friend, Its going to be a baby girl. My friend said, No, you havent even checked the sonograms, but I was right.

Chen said she cant wait to tell her daughter that that her father was a hero, and to introduce her daughter to the NYPD, which she refers to as her big blue family.

Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton on Sunday dedicated bronze plaques to honor two police officers who were shot to death while sitting in their cruiser exactly one year ago.
A man accused of drunkenly strolling down a road in Maine wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to his amputated arm has been arrested.

Maine State Police said 31-year-old Corey Berry, of Hollis, was arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal threatening. He was released after posting $200 bail.

Police say Berry was first spotted walking on Plains Road in Hollis around 6 p.m. before fleeing into the woods. He was taken into custody after re-emerging in Waterboro.

"It's pretty unsettling," said Lindsey Morton of Waterboro. She said the clown came out of the woods beside her home. Her husband watched as police took down the clown and arrested him.



Police said Berry was intoxicated but cooperative. He told officers he was copying previous clown sightings as a prank, similar to the creepy clown sightings that made national news last summer.

"He has a very weird way of doing pranks," said Paula Libby of Hollis, who lives on Plains Road. "A clown is supposed to be happy. That clown would scare the daylights out of anybody."

Berry was released from York County Jail after posting $200 bail.

A phone number for Berry couldn't be found Wednesday, and it wasn't known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
We value your privacy.

Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy.
What to Know Six men were arrested in Brooklyn for allegedly running an international heroin ring

They have connections to Mexican cartels and moved the drug to Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, authorities say

They allegedly boasted about their lavish lifestyle on Instagram; an account shows photos of cars, jewelry and designer clothes

A major heroin ring operating out of New York City was busted this week, and federal authorities say theyve arrested dealers whove been living the high life, including a man who lavished his young children with a Versace stroller and Gucci sneakers.

Luis Lopez, Peter Vasquez and Victor Agosto were arrested in Brooklyn on Wednesday. The three men allegedly ran an international heroin ring from Brooklyn, Queens and other locations. Three other men were also arrested.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

Twelve kilograms of heroin worth $900,000 were seized Wednesday morning during the arrests, authorities say.

Authorities allege the men had connections to Mexican cartels and were able to move heroin from Mexico to Los Angeles, and from there to Chicago and New York. Papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn say they also traveled to Mexico for meetings with a drug cartel there.

During the investigation, agents seized more than $800,000 in drug proceeds, prosecutors said. Ohio state troopers discovered about $300,000 of that total hidden in a car rented at LaGuardia Airport in 2011, the papers said.



An Instagram photo under the user account @fishmoneybagz shows some of the suspects  including Vasquez, Lopez and Agosto  posing in pricey bathing suits on a boat.

[NATL-NY] See Inside New Jerseys Darlington Estate, the 58-Room Masterpiece Hailed as Americas Versailles

Authorities say photos like that one prove the accused were living large off money they made selling heroin, and that everything from a $20,000 watch to gold chains and bracelets were flaunted openly on social media.

Instagram photos show hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry owned by Lopez and his wife, as well as a $3,000 Versace stroller for one of their children and Gucci sneakers worth hundreds of dollars that their 8-year-old daughter wore to her fifth-grade graduation, authorities say.

The three men allegedly compiled a fleet of cars worth more than $1 million, including a Lamborghini Huracan, Rolls Royce Ghost, Bentley, Audi R8 Spyder, Mercedes CLS63, Mercedes S550, Porsche Cayenne, Maserati, Range Rover Sport and BMW M4.

When they wanted to relax, the accused jetted off and spent large amounts of money to rent out a Miami waterfront property, authorities say.

If convicted, the men face decades behind bars.



It wasnt immediately known if the six men had attorneys who could comment on their arrests.

[Photos-NY Subscription Service] Consumer Reports Ranks America's Supermarkets From Best to Worst
A 20-year-old high school student was arrested and charged Tuesday, nearly two years after police say he tried to rape a store clerk in the South Bronx.

Oumar Fofana, of the Bronx, was charged with attempted rape and sex abuse in a case that stretches back to August 2015. Police said they were able to link him to the crime through DNA evidence.

Police say that Fofana is the man who walked into a clothing store near East 157th Street and Third Avenue and browsed through merchandise before trying to rape a 41-year-old woman working there in a back room.

The woman was able to fend off her attacker, police said.

Fofana was arrested at his high school on Tuesday. Sources say he's a senior at the school, meaning he allegedly committed the crime in his earlier years, possibly when he was a sophomore.



As he was being escorted out of the 40th Precinct station house on Tuesday evening, Fofana was asked about the charges against him by a News 4 New York reporter. He responded: Its not cool.

The News 4 reporter asked him if he committed the crime hes been charged with, to which he responded: Yeah. Dont be like me.

Fofana has a criminal record that includes grand larceny and criminal mischief.

It wasnt immediately known if Fofana had an attorney who could comment on the charges.
Criminal prosecutions are rare for people who fail to register as foreign agents, according to a top Justice Department official who testified Wednesday about an obscure law receiving new attention amid investigations into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general, told Senate lawmakers that the Foreign Agents Registration Act  a law aimed at ensuring transparency about lobbying efforts done in the U.S. at the direction of foreign governments or principals  contains multiple exemptions for registration and requires proof that someone intended to break the law by failing to disclose their work.

He said lawyers in a specialized Justice Department unit often prod someone to voluntarily register instead of seeking to charge them.

"The high burden of proving willfulness, difficulties in proving direction or control by a foreign principal and exemptions available under the statute make criminal prosecution for FARA violations challenging," Hickey said.

Nonetheless, he said, the Justice Department will not refuse to bring a case if there is evidence of intentional wrongdoing. It has brought four criminal prosecutions under the statute since 2007, all of which he said have resulted in convictions.

The law has been broadly discussed in the last year because of Justice Department investigations into Trump campaign associates and because of a watchdog report last year that said the statute had been weakly enforced for decades. That report, from the Justice Department's inspector general, found that the number of FARA registrations had declined in the last two decades and that prosecutions and civil enforcement actions were rare. The report made several recommendations for improvement.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort belatedly registered in June with the Justice Department for political consulting work he did for a Ukrainian political party before joining the Republican candidate's presidential bid. He acknowledged that he coached party members on how to interact with U.S. government officials.

Besides Manafort, Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and his consulting firm registered in the weeks after his ouster from the administration for lobbying work that could have benefited the Turkish government.

Manafort had been invited to testify at Wednesday's hearing but he did not appear. Instead, he agreed Tuesday night to turn over documents and to continue negotiating about setting up an interview with the panel.

The committee also removed Donald Trump Jr. from the list of witnesses scheduled for Wednesday's public hearing.

The panel has sought to talk with Manafort about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in New York with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, among other issues including his foreign political work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

On Tuesday Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff, providing his recollection of the Veselnitskaya meeting and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview. Manafort "answered their questions fully," said his spokesman, Jason Maloni.

Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was also on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a second day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.

Both Manafort and Kushner have been cooperating with the committees which, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

The two men have faced particular scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was flatly described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump's presidential campaign.

Manafort's discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 meeting, according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors. Manafort had previously disclosed the meeting in documents he turned over to the committee. He has now provided the committee with notes he took at the time, one of the people said.

The other person said Manafort has also said he will participate in additional interviews with the Senate Intelligence Committee staff on other topics if necessary. Those meetings haven't yet been scheduled.

Kushner spent about three hours behind closed doors Tuesday with the House intelligence panel. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the committee's Russia probe, said he found Kushner to be "straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had." He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.

The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on "a range of issues the committee had been concerned about."

"We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today," Schiff added.

Associated Press writers Chad Day and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
A kitchen fire forced the iconic Llanerch Diner in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to temporarily close.

The landmark eatery along Township Line Road in Upper Darby became internationally famous after being featured prominently in the 2012 film "Silvers Linings Playbook" starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

One of the diner's cooking grills caught fire around 5:30 a.m. Monday. Upper Darby firefighters said it took about 20 minutes to bring the flames under control. No one was hurt.

Firefighters had to open up part of the ceiling to make sure the flames hadnt extended up there, fire officials said.

Fire Temporarily Closes 'Silver Linings Playbook' Diner

A stalwart eatery in Delaware County, locals began competing with fans of the movie who came from around the world to sit in the same booth as the movie's stars. A key scene from "Silver Linings Playbook," which earned Lawrence a Best Actress Academy Award, takes place in Llanerch.

The diner will remain closed for at least a week, pending approval to reopen from the health department, firefighters said.
For "Book of Mormon" cast member and San Diego native Jacob Haren, stepping onto the stage at the San Diego Civic Theatre is a dream come true, one he has dreamed of ever since he was a little kid sitting in the audience.

"I just remember being a little kid, sitting in those seats, and never knowing if I was going to be good enough to be in a show like that, and wanting to be like those performers so badly," Haren told NBC 7.

Haren, born and raised in San Diego's North County, spent most summers performing in Vista's Moonlight Stage Productions. The Westview High School graduate has performed at theaters across the County, including "The Old Globe", but it was a La Jolla Playhouse musical that changed his life: "Up Here".

The musical, written by Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez ("Frozen"), first had its world premiere at the Playhouse in the fall of 2015.

It was during that production that Haren met Bobby Lopez, who approached him about "Book of Mormon", the musical he had co-written music and lyrics several years before.

"Book of Mormon" follows two Mormon missionaries as they travel to Africa to preach the Mormon religion. The musical comedy is written by "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

"On opening night (Bobby) just kind of looked at me and said, 'You know, next thing we gotta do is we gotta get you in for 'Book of Mormon,''" Haren recalled. "But I just kind of thought to myself, yeah sure."

"You just never know if they really mean it or if they're trying to be nice," Haren added.

But two days later, Haren said, he received an email asking him to make a tape for the show. At the time, he did not think much of it.

"In fact, I was making a tape for another show at the time," Haren said. "I made two tapes in between shows one day on a Saturday at La Jolla and I actually didn't spend very much time on the Mormon one because I was it was more likely the other one was going to happen."

A week later, at the Playhouse, Haren told Lopez he had submitted the tape for the show.

"Bobby was at the show and I was saying hi," Haren said. "I was like, hey just so you know I made that tape for Mormon, and he said, yeah, and I hear you're getting an offer."



The news left him so shocked, he was not sure he had not heard him properly, Haren said.

"I actually literally asked him, 'What? what did you say?' and he's like, I hear you're getting an offer and I was like, um, okay," Haren said, completely shocked.

"So for those three days, the whole time was like, was he just saying that, or am I actually going to get it?" Haren recalled.

But three days later, "Book of Mormon" officials offered the San Diego native a spot on the touring production --- an unexpected dream come true.

I've literally been waiting my whole life to come to San Diego on a national tour and the day is finally here. #MaHaNeiBuEebowai  Jacob Haren (@jacobdharen) July 25, 2017

"Of course, I had grown up seeing national tours and thinking it would be amazing to be in one one day, but especially with the way that 'Mormon' happened, I just had no idea that that's the way it was going to go," Haren said.

The North County resident was no stranger to "Book of Mormon" when he signed the contract for the tour. He was in New York City when the show first came out and still remembers reading Ben Brantley's New York Times review of the show, which called it the "musical of the century".

Haren waited three hours for standing room tickets to see the original Broadway cast.

"I just absolutely loved it," Haren recalled. "I just cried through the whole thing, because it's such a joyous show and its music that's infectious and fills your spirit."

San Diegans heading to see the show will first recognize Haren in the show's opening number, when he belts the word "Hello" as Elder White. He later gets sent to France, and you'll see him again in Uganda.

For Haren, the unique part about doing the show each night is the play's combination of well-known hits (thanks in large part to the show's commercial success) and the message it sends.

"I feel like I really am making a small difference every night," Haren said. "It's a beautiful story about faith and I think of it as being a gigantic discussion on so many important issues."

Haren, with the show for nearly two years now, will for the first time perform at the Civic Theater this week. The tour that came to San Diego the past two years has since gone to Australia; this will be the first time this particular touring production will be stopping in San Diego.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Haren, who will play his last eight shows with the tour in San Diego before departing.

"I have no idea what I'm even going to feel when I walk into that theater today," Haren said on Tuesday, before the first performance.

[[436573483,C]]

It's a surreal experience, Haren said, but in many ways, it feels like just another show he will be performing in San Diego, one of many he has performed in this city over the years.

"I have the same family and friends coming to see me that saw me in The Ugly Duckling in "Honk," the youth production I did when I was 11," Haren said. "I think that is really cool because those experiences I had as a child as just as important as the 'Book of Mormon.'"

As a young boy growing up in San Diego, Haren said, he did not make it out to New York City to see a show until he was 21 years old.

The Civic Theater was his Broadway, and the theater holds a special place in his heart.

"I feel like I'm on Broadway at this theater," Haren said. "It almost might be a bigger deal to me doing this tour in San Diego than if I were to ever make my Broadway debut one day."

"Book of Mormon" runs through July 30 at the San Diego Civic Theater. To purchase tickets, click here.
A man accused of attacking twelve San Diegans, a majority of whom were homeless, in a 2016 crime spree has been found not competent to stand trial.

Jon David Guerrero, 39, faces four murder charges, three attempted or premeditated murder charges, two arson charges and five assault charges in attacks on several homeless people and other San Diego residents, some of whom were killed with railroad spikes. He is being held without bail.

On Wednesday, Guerrero was found not competent to stand trial. He will be sent to Patton State Hospital for treatment until he is competent to stand trial. It may be months, or years, before he stands trial on the charges.

Prosecutors say Guerrero attacked a dozen people throughout San Diego in a spree that began on July 3, 2016.

Angelo de Nardo, 53, was found badly burned near train tracks in Bay Ho. Investigators say they believe the homeless man died before he was set on fire.

On July 4, two homeless men were discovered attacked within an hour of each other in Bay Ho and Ocean Beach in the early hours of morning around 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. They both suffered severe trauma to the upper body.

One 61-year-old victim survived the attack. However, 41-year-old Shawn Longley died from his injuries.

Two days later, San Diego police found 23-year-old Derek Vahidy in Pantoja Park near State and G Streets. Vahidy had been beaten and set on fire, police said. He later died in the hospital.

Guerrero was arrested on July 15 after a fifth man was attacked at 18th and C streets.

In December, Guerrero was also charged in the July 13 attack of an elderly woman: 83-year-old Molly Simons. However, unlike Guerrero's other victims, Simons was not homeless.

The 83-year-old woman was found beaten on July 13 near Arizona Street and University Avenue as she was walking to a nearby bus stop to volunteer at a local YMCA, according to her autopsy report. She died at the hospital.

Previously, at his arraignment, a judge ordered news organizations to tile Guerrero's face as the DA's office continues to investigate possible assault cases for connections.
The saga of Dakota the dog isn't over.

A Maine judge on Monday signed off on a deal to spare the life of the dog that won a disputed pardon by Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

But LePage said he's not happy because his pardon was taken off the table as part of the deal reached on Monday. He told WVOM-FM in Bangor on Tuesday that he's going to filing a second pardon for Dakota.

Dakota, an Alaskan husky, was declared a dangerous dog after attacking two dogs, killing one of them, in separate incidents. LePage said the owner should be punished, not the dog.

Nine lawyers were present during the court hearing to determine Dakota's fate. Two of them were from LePage's office.
Australia was disappointed that hundreds of its rejected refugees would not begin resettling in the United States this month under a deal that predates President Donald Trump's administration, an official said on Friday.

President Barack Obama's administration agreed to accept up to 1,250 refugees among hundreds of asylum seekers  mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka  who have been languishing for up to four years in immigration camps on the impoverished Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said Australia wanted the refugees to start moving in July, but the United States had already filled its 50,000 refugee quota for the current fiscal year.

"We're disappointed that they haven't been able to move this month, which was my hope, but their new program year starts on Oct. 1, and we're working with both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that we can get people off as quickly as possible," Dutton told reporters.

Trump berated Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during their first telephone conversation as national leaders in January over the deal which Trump described in a tweet as "dumb."

Trump said the refugees would be subjected to "extreme vetting" before they were accepted. There are few details on what that would entail.

Australia will not settle any refugees who try to arrive by boat  a policy that the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and occasionally deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia. Australia instead pays Papua New Guinea and Nauru to house asylum seekers in camps that have been plagued by reports of abuse and draconian conditions.

Dutton said he was determined to close the men-only camp on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea by the end of October. Asylum seekers on Manus who were rejected by the United States would be transferred to Nauru, who will remain open indefinitely.

Australia last month reached a settlement of 68 million dollars with more than 1,900 asylum seekers who sued over their treatment on Manus.
A federal appeals court has blocked a District of Columbia law that makes it difficult for gun owners to get concealed carry permits.

A divided three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the law requiring people to show "good reason to fear injury" or another "proper reason" to carry a weapon infringes on residents' Second Amendment rights.

D.C. officials can ask the full appeals court to review the ruling.

Despite the court's ruling, D.C. will uphold the law for now, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said.

Washington, D.C. is the safest it has been in years," the mayor said in a statement. "The District's 'good reason' requirement is similar to the concealed carry requirements in other states and, for now, it remains in effect.

Under the law, reasons to get a permit might include a personal threat, or a job that requires a person to carry or protect cash or valuables. Lower court judges have disagreed on whether the law is constitutional.

Judge Karen Henderson dissented, saying she believes the law passes constitutional muster.

Attorney General Karl Racine said his office, Bowser and the D.C. Council will continue to fight for "common-sense gun rules."

"The District of Columbia's 'good reason requirement for concealed-carry permits is a common-sense gun regulation, and four federal appeals courts have rejected challenges to similar laws in other states," Racine said in a statement.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson also said the ruling ran contrary to previous court decisions across the country.

The 2-1 panel decision is at odds with four other Circuit Court decisions on this issue," Mendelson said in a statement. "Accepting this without appeal would make the District an outlier among the states, and not in a good way, on this important issue of public safety.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton opposed the court's ruling as well, hedging her bets that the decision could be successfully challenged.

"If appealed to the full Circuit Court, I believe the chances are excellent that this decision will be overturned, with the recognition that the Districts requirement is in line with other gun safety legislation that has survived court attacks," she said in a statement.



This decision is the latest in a long-running tussle over the city's gun laws. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the city's ban on handguns, leading the city to rewrite its gun laws. City law now requires residents to register guns kept at their homes or businesses; more than 16,500 guns were registered as of September, police told the Associated Press then.

Anyone who wants to carry a weapon outside the home needs a separate concealed carry license. The police department said in September that 89 people had been granted concealed carry permits and 374 had been denied.
A Silver Spring woman vowed to get justice after her 20-year-old son was killed in their home last week. Now, police say they have made three arrests.

Two men from Arlington, Virginia, and a third man from Suitland, Maryland, have been charged in the July 19 killing of Jon-Christian Kemachet-Webster, Montgomery County police said Wednesday afternoon.

Oliver Waltz Farley, 19, of the 1500 block of S. Randolph Street in Arlington; Re'Quan Kasim Hopson, 21, of the 1900 block of S. Kenmore Street in Arlington and Brian Anthony Mackall, 20, of the 4100 block of Suitland Road are each charged with first-degree murder.

The three men went to Kemachet-Webster's family's house to buy "a large quantity of marijuana," police said. Farley and Mackall went into the house to make the deal, and Hopson drove the getaway car, according to investigators. Kemachet-Webster was shot on the second floor of the house.

Police did not immediately say who is believed to have been the shooter.

The three men went to the house on the 1600 block of Belvedere Boulevard, in the Forest Glen area.

Kemachet-Webster invited Farley and Mackall into his home while Hopson waited in a car outside. Once the three men were upstairs, Kemachet-Webster was shot.

Farley and Mackall went outside, and Mackall hopped into the getaway car. He and the driver left. Farley left the area of Kemachet-Webster's home and later was picked up from the area by an Uber driver, police said.

Kemachet-Webster's mother, Gisell Morch, saw the young men.

"I saw you. I saw what you did. I chased you to your car. So you know that I recognize you and the car. So, now you're going to have to come after me," she previously told News4, staring right into the camera.

"You did something to my son, who was innocent, so now you're going to have to come after me. And may God get you," she said.

A resident of Kemachet-Webster's home called 911 about 9:50 p.m. Officers responded and found the young man with a gunshot wound.

Medics took Kemachet-Webster to a hospital, where he died.

Hopson was arrested the next day in Arlington, for offenses in Arlington that were unrelated to the homicide. Police did not immediately release additional details.

In an interview with Montgomery County police, Hopson admitted to driving Farley and Mackall to Kemachet-Webster's home to buy marijuana, and driving Mackall away.

Hopson was charged with murder and is being held in the Arlington County jail.

Farley then was arrested the same day at his job in Northwest D.C. He's being held in D.C.

Five days later, on Tuesday, Mackall was arrested in D.C. He's being held in D.C.

All three men are expected to get extradited to Montgomery County.

"A parent is not supposed to bury their child. A child is supposed to bury their parent," Morch said the day after her son was killed.
An algae bloom is creating a toxic chemical in two lakes in Montgomery County, Maryland, and officials and a veterinarian said it could harm people and their pets.

Increased levels of blue-green algae, which can release a toxin known to cause liver damage if ingested, have been found in Lake Needwood and Lake Frank in Rock Creek Regional Park.

The toxin microcystin can be harmful to humans, and it can kill dogs that drink it.

"An algal bloom toxicity can be very dangerous and possibly lethal if not treated when clinical signs start occurring," Dr. Matthew Antokowiak, a veterinarian at AtlasVet in Washington, D.C., said in an email.

In a statement issued Monday, Montgomery Parks advised pet owners to keep their dogs on leashes and to make sure the animals stay out of the water.

Antokowiak advised dog owners to be careful.



"When you are near a body of water and are tempted to let your dog go swimming, if you notice anything weird, slimy, gross or unusual floating in the water, it would be better for both you and your pet to stay on dry land, he said.

Signs that a dog has been affected include excessive drooling, panting, fainting, vomiting and seizures.

Pollutants usually cause algal blooms, including fertilizers from homes and farms, Montgomery County natural resource specialist Matt Harper said.

Warnings about algal blooms in the two Maryland lakes have been issued every summer since 2009, he said.

Algae grows in the lakes year-round. In the summer months, the lakes get more direct sunlight and warmth. These, coupled with pollutants in stormwater runoff, create the perfect storm for algae growth, Harper said.

The algae lets off microcystin, which Montgomery Parks monitors. If microcystin is measured at more than 10 parts per billion, it has potential health risks, and the department issues warnings.

Once increased levels of microcystin are detected, theres not much officials can do to stop it.

Better management of stormwater could potentially prevent future algal blooms, Harper said.

"I dont think [the lakes] have necessarily been prioritized, he said.

The lakes are still safe to enjoy, Harper said. Swimming is always prohibited, but boating and fishing are allowed.

I would definitely not hesitate to still use [them], Harper said.

This is more of a precaution, he continued. I would take my kids out there on the weekends without any hesitation.



Still, visitors are advised to wash their hands after being in or near the lakes.
Soon after President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the U.S. military "in any capacity," elected officials from Connecticut are condemning the ban and Gov. Dannel Malloy said he signed an executive order Wednesday reinforcing the state's nondiscrimination policies within the Connecticut Military Department.

Malloys order directs the Connecticut National Guard, the Connecticut Air National Guard and the other armed forces of the state to take no action that discriminates against service members in enlistment, promotion, or any other aspect of their service, on the basis of their gender identity or expression, unless superseded by federal law, regulation, or formal directive from the U.S. Department of Defense, according to Malloys office.

He said it also directs the Connecticut Military Department to review existing personnel policies and any formal directive from the Department of Defense or other federal entity, whether issued today or in the future, to ensure that service members are afforded the maximum protection and the greatest opportunity to serve our state and nation, regardless of their gender identity or expression, and to minimize any discriminatory impact on service members from any federal directive.

Lawmakers have been responding all day after Trumps Tweets this morning.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro Tweeted, Discrimination isnt patriotic. Members of our armed services deserve better than Pres Trumps shameful transgender ban.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, Trump said in a series of Tweets.

The president's Tweet did not say what would happen to transgender people who are already in the military.

There are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy issued a statement Wednesday afternoon.

Anyone who wants to and is qualified to serve in our military should be able to do so, period. Discrimination should have no place in our Armed Forces, Murphy said in a statement. There are thousands of members of the transgender community who are currently bravely and ably serving our country today. Ill work with my colleagues to overturn this hateful policy.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal also issued a statement.

Servicemembers should be accepted on the basis of their ability to fight, train, and deploy without discrimination. Many transgender Americans have served honorably and capably  and countless others are serving now and would seek to serve in the future. President Trump should be thanking these servicemembers and veterans for their dedication and commitment to our nation instead of barring them from service. This rash and surprising Tweet contradicts the Department of Defenses previous policy decision to allow transgender servicemembers to serve openly, and constitutes official discrimination, Blumenthal said.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney released a statement, calling the president's statement "the height of irresponsibility."

The presidents statement also flies in the face of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, who just yesterday called for equal treatment of qualified and well-trained service members regardless of gender identity. Since our nation eliminated racial segregation in the military 69 years ago today, the United States has expanded opportunity for more Americans, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, to wear our nations uniform. This order is a clear reversal of that legacy which fundamentally recognizes that it is in our nations best interest to find the best and brightest, Courtney said in a statement.

Furthermore, the presidents use of the phrase my generals when referring to the senior commanders of the United States Armed Forces flies in the face of our democratic norms and institutions. This is a nation of laws, not rulers. While the president is the Commander in Chief of the military, military leaders do not serve him alone. They took an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, not any one person, Courtney added.

Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman issued a joint statement earlier today in response to the president and Malloy called the presidents announcement ignorant and profoundly troubling.

President Trumps announcement that he plans to ban transgender individuals from serving in our military is ignorant and profoundly troubling. The reality is that a persons gender identity or expression has nothing to do with their willingness or ability to defend our nation, Malloy said in a statement.

Any able person who wishes to serve in the military should have that right  regardless of race, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. In recent years, our military has made great strides to be more inclusive. The Presidents announcement sends a frightening signal to the public that our government condones discrimination and raises serious questions about what other advancements towards inclusion in the military may also be in jeopardy, Malloy went on to say.

The governor said Connecticut will not abandon transgender individuals.

This is a wrong-minded and harmful policy and we will explore our options for what can be done to stop it, Malloy said in his statement.

Lt. Gov. Wyman added that excluding citizens from public service is not a strong or decent foundation for policy-making of any kind, and government especially should represent the people it serves.

She went on to call the policy reckless and dangerous.

Connecticut supports its LGBTQ residents, we expect Washington to as well. I urge the President to instead focus his time and energy in service to the values of the American people, our economy, and our standing as a world leader, Wyman said in a statement.
Six more Rhode Island beaches have been recommended closed to swimming by public health officials due to high bacteria counts.

The Department of Health on Tuesday recommended closing Oakland and Conimicut Point Beaches in Warwick; Third Beach and Peabody's Beach in Middletown; and town beaches in Barrington and Warren.

That brings to seven the number of beaches statewide that are currently closed because of poor water quality. Slack Pond in Smithfield was recommended closed earlier this month.

The health department says the status of a beach may change daily.
An 8-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries Wednesday afternoon when a sailboat overturned off Wareham, Massachusetts.

Environmental Police said nine children and three adults were rescued when a power boat near Stony Point Dike capsized at 4:41 p.m.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Nicole Groll said someone on a private vessel nearby had spotted the 18-foot boat and called for help, then took people in the water on board.

By the time Martin Van Breems and his crew on the Disco Volante got to the scene, there were parents and children from three different families in the water.

"The people in the water were screaming and crying. One kid couldnt be accounted for. It was heartbreaking," Van Breems said. "I heard one daughter scream, 'I love you mom'. They were scared."

Van Breems said his crew, co-captain and four students had just finished practicing man overboard drills.

"My co-captain spotted the over turned boat and people in water," he recalled.

Everyone had on a life jacket and Van Breems' crew was able to get most of the victims out of the water.

Michael Margulis had also been diving nearby, servicing moorings in Buzzards Bay.

"I was fully dressed in my wet suit, dive gear rigged, ready for another dive so I thought I could aid and assist by just showing up," Margulis.

When Environmental Police arrived and most of the victims had been rescued, an 8-year-old boy was still unaccounted for.

"I switched my dive gear over, went over the rail, started searching the submerged boat, one victim was wearing a life jacket, stuck in the the bow section of the boat, I was able to free that person and bring him to the surface," Margulis recalled.

After CPR was performed on the child, he was taken to Tobey Hospital then by medical helicopter to Boston Children's Hospital.

The other children and adults that were rescued did not suffer serious injuries. Most were evaluated at Tobey Hospital.

"Its rough out there, it might be a sunny day at the beach but when youre out on Buzzards Bay, the wind and waves can offer hazardous conditions, wear your life jacket," said Margulis.

Environmental Police are investigating the exact cause of the accident.
A Vermont community celebrated Wednesday's 90th anniversary of an event that brought immense pride to Springfield: a visit by famed aviator Charles Lindbergh.

On July 26, 1927, a nationwide victory tour brought Lindbergh to Springfield in his plane, "The Spirit of St. Louis."

A massive, adoring crowd gathered at what was then Vermont's only certified airport, to cheer the pilot's instant fame. He had just accomplished the incredible: a solo flight from New York to Paris.

Fast forward 90 years, and his daughter touched down at the Hartness State Airport in Springfield in a glider named for her mom, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

"It was absolutely wonderful," Reeve Lindbergh said of the flight over Springfield organized by pilots who use the airport today.

"It was probably one of the most important events that ever happened here," historian Bruce Johnson said of the significance of the visit by "Lindy" in 1927. "And it was something the whole community was involved in."

In the years following his grand tour, Charles Lindbergh's life would see tragedy, in the form of the kidnapping and murder of his son.

He'd also spark controversy for initially opposing U.S. involvement in World War II.

But Reeve Lindbergh said she hopes her dad's legacy is his fascination with advancement, while celebrating America's character and landscape in all the places he visited to talk up flying  including Springfield.

"Trying to be sure we didn't lose our environment, our towns, our farms, as we embraced technology," Reeve Lindbergh said of what a lesson from her dad could be for 2017. "I don't know what he'd do about things like cell phones and WiFi, but I think he'd have the same message: don't lose what you love even as you go forward with technology."

Marion Harlow, 97, of Springfield, witnessed Lindbergh's visit when she was just shy of her eighth birthday.

"In those days, an airport was really something," Harlow recalled. "In my mind, he was a celebrity because he was the first who ever flew an airplane very far."

Today, that concept may seem quaint, but it's part of Springfield's proud history, as it honored the day a hero came to town.
The nation's top veterans affairs official plans to meet next week with doctors at the Manchester VA Medical Center who have alleged substandard care at New Hampshire's only hospital for veterans.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin recently removed the hospital's top two leaders and ordered a review after the Boston Globe reported on a whistleblower complaint filed by physicians. He also has ordered the VA's inspector general to launch its own investigation and plans to meet with the state's congressional delegation at the hospital on Aug. 4.

A spokesman for Shulkin said Wednesday the secretary also plans to meet with the whistleblowers and looks forward to hearing their reviews.

The doctors say they have no confidence in the review and are pressing for investigators from outside the federal government.
Police in Brockton, Massachusetts, are seeking the public's help in locating a person who shot a cat in the eye with a blowgun dart.

Brockton Animal Control responded to the Mulberry Street area on Sunday for a report of a cat that had been injured by a sharp object. The item turned out to be a homemade dart suspected to have been fired from a blowgun.

The cat was found to be suffering serious injuries as a result of the injury. A photo released by animal control showed the cat with a cut over its eye and severe swelling.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Brockton Animal Control at 508-580-7835.
Police in Brattleboro, Vermont, have arrested a man in connection with multiple burglaries of businesses.

Police said the break-ins happened on Monday morning. Police later arrested 40-year-old Benjamin Lyons in the Vermont town of Newfane following a brief foot chase.

Lyons, of Trescott Township, Maine, was jailed on $20,000 bail. An extradition warrant had been issued by the state of Maine on a trafficking charge.

It wasn't immediately known if Lyons had a lawyer.
Anyone with photos or video of a 10-alarm fire that completely destroyed a Massachusetts apartment building complex under construction is asked to contact investigators.

The State Fire Marshal's office said the investigation is still ongoing into Sunday's extensive fire on Cooper Street in Waltham.

The fire, which still had hot spots being tended to on Monday, completely destroyed the 264-unit building, and damaged at least two other buildings and more than 20 vehicles.

Officials said the fire started around 4 a.m., and went from two buildings to five buildings within minutes, causing each structure to collapse.

"It spread very quickly," Waltham Fire Chief Paul Ciccone said.

The apartment complex, which would have had luxury apartments, was slated to be finished by the end of the year.

Witnesses who took photos or video of the fire in its early stages are asked to call the Waltham Fire Department at 781-314-3700.

The fire is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal's office, ATF agents, state police and the Waltham Fire Department.




Mirroring the perfection that is already in us

Regular columnist James Knight argues that responding to the best qualities in others, and in ourselves, is the best way to live our lives.

You know when you have an annoying person in your life - a family member, a work colleague, an acquaintance who has joined your social circle, etc - you know that the best way to make them less annoying is to treat them as though they are anything but annoying, right?



It works like this. Pretty much everyone who has faults doesn't have them all the time. Bad tempered people have their temperate qualities, angry people can be gentle and kind, incompetent people can show flashes of proficiency, and selfish people can surprise you with irregular expressions of empathy and generosity of heart.



And as sure as eggs are eggs, the best way to get people to show more of the good qualities and less of the bad ones is to focus on the good parts of the character - that is, doing your best to treat them as if they already are the thing you want them to be.



If you do this, you'll find that when you treat angry people as though they are gentle and kind, they will be gentler and kinder. By treating them as the best version of themselves, they will become more like the best versions of themselves, and it will probably even help them deal with the things that were making them angry in the first place.



Miraculously this even works with incompetent people too. Treat them as though they are much better than they are and they seem to raise their game. Obviously don't get complacent - faults need dealing with, particularly when they jeopardise the running of a business or cause bad relations - but generally incompetent people seem to respond positively to being built up above their merits.



I suppose it's because the converse is so apparent: that when we pick fault or focus on the worst in people it makes them an even less good version of themselves. I think the above wisdom can help inspire us in our Christian faith, because when God looks at us He is no longer looking at our imperfections, He is judging us through what Christ did on the cross. When He looks at us He doesn't see all the selfishness, greed and unkindness - He sees the love and grace of His Son on the cross, giving His life to proclaim a victory for us over sin.



Hebrews says that because of one sacrifice Christ has made perfect forever those who are being made holy; and Romans says that righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. In other words, God already thinks we're awesome because we are living with the power of Divine love and grace inside us (the same power that raised Christ from the dead, no less - which, in terms of a motivation for development and progress, are probably the most powerful words that have ever been revealed to us).



I'd argue that that is perhaps the principal motivation that can inspire us to be the best we can be - not that God is perfect and looks upon us as being imperfect creatures needing to sort our mess out - but instead that God has already sorted our mess out with the death and resurrection of Christ, and that all we must do to live a full life under the free gift of salvation is act as close as we can to the perfection that is already in us.

The above image is courtesy of https://pixabay.com



James Knight is a local government officer based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as The Philosophical Muser, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC).

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.

j.knight423@btinternet.com
By PTI

BENGALURU: Japanese imaging and optical products major Canon Inc is eyeing a jump in sales to USD 10 billion from Asian markets, including China and India, by 2020.

"We are looking at USD 10 billion sales by 2020 from the Asia group," Canon Inc Executive Vice President Hideki Ozawa told PTI.

Presently, the Asian marketing region is contributing around 23-24 per cent of the total global sales. In 2016, Canon Inc had reported net sales of USD 29.32 billion.

"Contribution from Canon Asia is increasing... Eventually Asia would be the leading contributor," said Ozawa who is also President and CEO Canon China, adding it would beat Japan, which is presently its biggest market.

In some products range such as cameras, Asian market has already exceeded Japan, he said.

The Asia region includes markets like China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong etc.

"China is the fastest growing market followed by India, South Korea, Malaysia and other markets. They are always competing with each other in a good way," Ozawa said.

"We want India definitely to be at number two and eventually to catch up with China," said Ozawa.

However, on being asked about the projected time frame in which Canon India would grow to be comparable with Canon China, he said the gap is huge and would take time.

"It's going to take time but we are going to stay with India. We would keep watching and helping it. In terms of making Canon's entire global and Asian business bigger, we can not afford to ignore India, China and emerging countries,"

Ozawa said.

Canon India closed 2016 with revenues of Rs 2,348.6 crore.

"In the next three years, we are targetting Rs 3,500 crore business," Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi said.

Presently, India is contributing around 1.2-1.5 per cent to the Canon's global sales and Kobayashi is expecting it to increase in coming years.

Canon India, which is largely present in the printers and imaging products business is also looking to enter into medical imaging systems and security and surveillance camera products.

"Besides B2B and B2C, we are also going to set up industrial domain, which would give us more stability over the operations of the company. The medical system, security camera systems, industrial domain business, semiconductor business would come in this," said Kobayashi adding that it would start from this year itself.

As part of expansion of its product portfolio, Canon India has launched third generation multi function printing devices.

Set up in 1997, Canon India has completed 20 years here.

BENGALURU: Japanese imaging and optical products major Canon Inc is eyeing a jump in sales to USD 10 billion from Asian markets, including China and India, by 2020. "We are looking at USD 10 billion sales by 2020 from the Asia group," Canon Inc Executive Vice President Hideki Ozawa told PTI. Presently, the Asian marketing region is contributing around 23-24 per cent of the total global sales. In 2016, Canon Inc had reported net sales of USD 29.32 billion. "Contribution from Canon Asia is increasing... Eventually Asia would be the leading contributor," said Ozawa who is also President and CEO Canon China, adding it would beat Japan, which is presently its biggest market. In some products range such as cameras, Asian market has already exceeded Japan, he said. The Asia region includes markets like China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong etc. "China is the fastest growing market followed by India, South Korea, Malaysia and other markets. They are always competing with each other in a good way," Ozawa said. "We want India definitely to be at number two and eventually to catch up with China," said Ozawa. However, on being asked about the projected time frame in which Canon India would grow to be comparable with Canon China, he said the gap is huge and would take time. "It's going to take time but we are going to stay with India. We would keep watching and helping it. In terms of making Canon's entire global and Asian business bigger, we can not afford to ignore India, China and emerging countries," Ozawa said. Canon India closed 2016 with revenues of Rs 2,348.6 crore. "In the next three years, we are targetting Rs 3,500 crore business," Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi said. Presently, India is contributing around 1.2-1.5 per cent to the Canon's global sales and Kobayashi is expecting it to increase in coming years. Canon India, which is largely present in the printers and imaging products business is also looking to enter into medical imaging systems and security and surveillance camera products. "Besides B2B and B2C, we are also going to set up industrial domain, which would give us more stability over the operations of the company. The medical system, security camera systems, industrial domain business, semiconductor business would come in this," said Kobayashi adding that it would start from this year itself. As part of expansion of its product portfolio, Canon India has launched third generation multi function printing devices. Set up in 1997, Canon India has completed 20 years here.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: The NSE benchmark index breached the historic 10,000-mark during early morning trade on Tuesday. Unlike its peer BSE, the top brass at NSE didnt cut a cake though, as the index lost some of its pop soon, with the 50-share Nifty index closing negative. The Sensex, too, pared losses after investors booked profits in recent gainers.

A slew of things added to the Niftys all-time high of 10,011.30 points. Better-than-expected quarterly earnings, led by a sharp rally from blue chips like Reliance Industries and ITC, availability of liquidity, both foreign and domestic capital, favourable monsoon, and anticipated rate cuts as early as next week. Adding to the fizz are a string of economic measures like demonetisation, GST, and tightening of tax compliance all strengthening the confidence of investors in Indian markets.

It is an affirmation of the strength of Indian economy, said Arun Thukral, managing director and CEO, Axis Securities. But, a wave of profit-booking dragged the gauge down by 1.85 points, or 0.02 per cent, to settle at 9,964.55. The flagship Sensex climbed to a life-high of 32,374.30 before closing down 17.60 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 32,228.27.

However, profit booking at higher levels pulled the market to mild corrections due to psychological effect, muted Q1 results for midcaps and awaiting Fed monetary policy meet, said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.

Participants also looked up to US Federal Reserve policy meeting later on Tuesday. Key indices in the Asian region lay low. Major losers include Lupin (1.9 per cent), along with Tata Motors, Coal India and Sun Pharma. Asian Paints fell 0.35 per cent after the company reported a 20.23 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the first quarter.

Airtel surged 1.76 per cent after reports of the government considering giving telcos more time to pay for the spectrum they bought, to ease sectoral stress. Axis Bank, too, rose 1.94 per cent, TCS up 1.50 per cent and Tata Steel 1.03 per cent.

Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 668.87 crore while FIIs sold shares of Rs 366.84 crore on Monday. The capital goods index fell the most. Auto, healthcare and FMCG too weighed. Sectoral indices such as metal, realty and banking finished higher. Broader marketsthe midcap and smallcap indicesoutperformed.

MUMBAI: The NSE benchmark index breached the historic 10,000-mark during early morning trade on Tuesday. Unlike its peer BSE, the top brass at NSE didnt cut a cake though, as the index lost some of its pop soon, with the 50-share Nifty index closing negative. The Sensex, too, pared losses after investors booked profits in recent gainers. A slew of things added to the Niftys all-time high of 10,011.30 points. Better-than-expected quarterly earnings, led by a sharp rally from blue chips like Reliance Industries and ITC, availability of liquidity, both foreign and domestic capital, favourable monsoon, and anticipated rate cuts as early as next week. Adding to the fizz are a string of economic measures like demonetisation, GST, and tightening of tax compliance all strengthening the confidence of investors in Indian markets. It is an affirmation of the strength of Indian economy, said Arun Thukral, managing director and CEO, Axis Securities. But, a wave of profit-booking dragged the gauge down by 1.85 points, or 0.02 per cent, to settle at 9,964.55. The flagship Sensex climbed to a life-high of 32,374.30 before closing down 17.60 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 32,228.27. However, profit booking at higher levels pulled the market to mild corrections due to psychological effect, muted Q1 results for midcaps and awaiting Fed monetary policy meet, said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services. Participants also looked up to US Federal Reserve policy meeting later on Tuesday. Key indices in the Asian region lay low. Major losers include Lupin (1.9 per cent), along with Tata Motors, Coal India and Sun Pharma. Asian Paints fell 0.35 per cent after the company reported a 20.23 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the first quarter. Airtel surged 1.76 per cent after reports of the government considering giving telcos more time to pay for the spectrum they bought, to ease sectoral stress. Axis Bank, too, rose 1.94 per cent, TCS up 1.50 per cent and Tata Steel 1.03 per cent. Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 668.87 crore while FIIs sold shares of Rs 366.84 crore on Monday. The capital goods index fell the most. Auto, healthcare and FMCG too weighed. Sectoral indices such as metal, realty and banking finished higher. Broader marketsthe midcap and smallcap indicesoutperformed.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The government needs to exit infrastructure projects and even look at handing over jails, schools and colleges to the private sector as happens to be the case in countries like Canada and Australia, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said today.

At the same time, he was highly critical of India's private sector, terming it as "most irrational" and "insensitive".

Kant said it messed up projects by aggressive bidding and creating current crisis in the public private partnership (PPP) model.

"The government has done a lot of big projects but the government is not good at operation and maintenance.

Therefore, the government must start the process of reverse BOT (build, operate and transfer), must sell out projects and let the private sector handle it," he said addressing India PPP Summit 2017, organised here by industry body Ficci.

Citing the example of dirty bathrooms at airports, which fall under the Airport Authority of India, he said: "We must bring in the private sector. That is, the fastest way to bring in private sector and bring private sector money back in infrastructure. These projects are fully de-risked."

He added, "The country needs to move into new areas of PPP. There is no need where jails, schools, colleges should be run in government sector. At least experience of many countries like Canada and Australia shows that private sector is capable of doing very good work in creation of quality infrastructure over a long period of time in social sector."

Kant also said that there were huge opportunities for the private sector in India like station re-development projects, Port construction and Sagarmala projects.

There is no shortage of money in the market and India can use the opportunity by de listing its projects, he said.

"Need of the hour is to market these projects well," he said, adding that even the freight corridor being built should be privatised.

"The dedicated freight corridor build by railways can reduce journey of 14 days to 14 hours which is a paradigm shift that India is looking for," Kant said.

Blaming the private sector for the current crisis in PPP investment in India, he said there are hundreds of examples where private sector has gone for aggressive bidding and didnt bother to do due-diligence as a result of which the PPP mode has got a setback.

"Private sector has performed very badly. Private sector in India is most irrational, insensitive I have seen, Kant said citing the example of aggressive bidding in highways and coal sectors.

He said it is high time that the private sector understood that in the long run it causes pain to itself and it causes pain to Indian economy and that the bidding should be made at a rational basis.

Citing the example of Delhi-Jaipur expressway he said it is time that the private sector should do rational bidding and execute projects in a time bound manner.

Kant also stressed the need of restructuring the model concession agreement (MCA) so that the private sector gets more incentives and is encouraged for investments.

NEW DELHI: The government needs to exit infrastructure projects and even look at handing over jails, schools and colleges to the private sector as happens to be the case in countries like Canada and Australia, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said today. At the same time, he was highly critical of India's private sector, terming it as "most irrational" and "insensitive". Kant said it messed up projects by aggressive bidding and creating current crisis in the public private partnership (PPP) model. "The government has done a lot of big projects but the government is not good at operation and maintenance. Therefore, the government must start the process of reverse BOT (build, operate and transfer), must sell out projects and let the private sector handle it," he said addressing India PPP Summit 2017, organised here by industry body Ficci. Citing the example of dirty bathrooms at airports, which fall under the Airport Authority of India, he said: "We must bring in the private sector. That is, the fastest way to bring in private sector and bring private sector money back in infrastructure. These projects are fully de-risked." He added, "The country needs to move into new areas of PPP. There is no need where jails, schools, colleges should be run in government sector. At least experience of many countries like Canada and Australia shows that private sector is capable of doing very good work in creation of quality infrastructure over a long period of time in social sector." Kant also said that there were huge opportunities for the private sector in India like station re-development projects, Port construction and Sagarmala projects. There is no shortage of money in the market and India can use the opportunity by de listing its projects, he said. "Need of the hour is to market these projects well," he said, adding that even the freight corridor being built should be privatised. "The dedicated freight corridor build by railways can reduce journey of 14 days to 14 hours which is a paradigm shift that India is looking for," Kant said. Blaming the private sector for the current crisis in PPP investment in India, he said there are hundreds of examples where private sector has gone for aggressive bidding and didnt bother to do due-diligence as a result of which the PPP mode has got a setback. "Private sector has performed very badly. Private sector in India is most irrational, insensitive I have seen, Kant said citing the example of aggressive bidding in highways and coal sectors. He said it is high time that the private sector understood that in the long run it causes pain to itself and it causes pain to Indian economy and that the bidding should be made at a rational basis. Citing the example of Delhi-Jaipur expressway he said it is time that the private sector should do rational bidding and execute projects in a time bound manner. Kant also stressed the need of restructuring the model concession agreement (MCA) so that the private sector gets more incentives and is encouraged for investments.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Nine months after Singapore-headquartered Tigerair and Scoot, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, announced their merger, the companies officially announced here on Tuesday that the integration process was complete. From now on, all Tigerair flights will operate under the Scoot brand.

Tigerairs last flight departed Singapore for Tiruchirappalli at 23:05 on July 24. This marks the completion of the Scoot-Tigerair integration process that began last May when the airlines were brought under a common holding company, Budget Aviation Holdings, a statement said.

Tigerairs website has begun redirecting visitors to Scoots webpage. Scoot started its operations in India last year. It will now take up operations of destinations which were catered to by Tigerair till now such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Tiruchirappalli and Lucknow.

Scoot will be operational in five new destinations by June 2018 including Honolulu, Scoots maiden US destination, and Harbin in Northeast China. The remaining three are short-haul destinations  Kuching and Kuantan in Malaysia, and Palembang in Indonesia. Coupled with Tigerair network, this will bring Scoots total destination count to 65 across 18 countries.

Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin said, As we come to the end of Tigerairs journey, we open up a brand new chapter for Scoot. Building on what Tigerair and the old Scoot had achieved since their respective inceptions, we are stronger than we have ever been before.

Further, to celebrate the merger to the single Scoot brand, the company is offering special one-way promotional fares from Bengaluru to Singapore (Rs 5,599), Bali (Rs 9,799), Hong Kong (Rs 10,499), Melbourne/Sydney (Rs 12,499) apart from an additional 10 per cent through promotional codes for a booking period from July 25 to August 6, 2017.

BENGALURU: Nine months after Singapore-headquartered Tigerair and Scoot, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, announced their merger, the companies officially announced here on Tuesday that the integration process was complete. From now on, all Tigerair flights will operate under the Scoot brand. Tigerairs last flight departed Singapore for Tiruchirappalli at 23:05 on July 24. This marks the completion of the Scoot-Tigerair integration process that began last May when the airlines were brought under a common holding company, Budget Aviation Holdings, a statement said. Tigerairs website has begun redirecting visitors to Scoots webpage. Scoot started its operations in India last year. It will now take up operations of destinations which were catered to by Tigerair till now such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Tiruchirappalli and Lucknow. Scoot will be operational in five new destinations by June 2018 including Honolulu, Scoots maiden US destination, and Harbin in Northeast China. The remaining three are short-haul destinations  Kuching and Kuantan in Malaysia, and Palembang in Indonesia. Coupled with Tigerair network, this will bring Scoots total destination count to 65 across 18 countries. Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin said, As we come to the end of Tigerairs journey, we open up a brand new chapter for Scoot. Building on what Tigerair and the old Scoot had achieved since their respective inceptions, we are stronger than we have ever been before. Further, to celebrate the merger to the single Scoot brand, the company is offering special one-way promotional fares from Bengaluru to Singapore (Rs 5,599), Bali (Rs 9,799), Hong Kong (Rs 10,499), Melbourne/Sydney (Rs 12,499) apart from an additional 10 per cent through promotional codes for a booking period from July 25 to August 6, 2017.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: As much as Rs 100 crore is expected to go into the Senior Citizens Welfare Fund following a directive by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on Tuesday.

The regulator has directed all insurance firms to check on the insurance accruals lying unclaimed for 10 years as on September 30, 2017 and deposit the same into a fund meant for senior citizens by March 1, 2018.

For the entire insurance industry, it could be more than Rs 100 crore, said a senior official in the Life Insurance Corporation of India. There are many reasons why insurance accruals remain unclaimed. It could be because some policy holders forget to collect the money or theyve paid part of the premium period but failed to collect that. Some have changed their residence but failed to update their address with the insurer. In some cases, the nominees of policy holder may not be aware of the insurance amount deposited by the policy holder.

Charanjit Attra Partner in an Indian member firm of EY Global, said, It is a good directive and keep in pace with the objective of providing the state support for the senior citizens, by utilising the unused funds.

SCWF rules mandate entities to transfer unclaimed amount of 10 years to the fund. The rules apply to all insurers.

Irdais order also directs the insurance companies to collect the details of such accounts and the prescribed format in which the unclaimed deposits have to be submitted from the Department of Financial Services.

The regulators past directives to check on policy holders had also benefitted many, as they were able to claim the amount, after following the process, Irdai officials said.

NEW DELHI: As much as Rs 100 crore is expected to go into the Senior Citizens Welfare Fund following a directive by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on Tuesday. The regulator has directed all insurance firms to check on the insurance accruals lying unclaimed for 10 years as on September 30, 2017 and deposit the same into a fund meant for senior citizens by March 1, 2018. For the entire insurance industry, it could be more than Rs 100 crore, said a senior official in the Life Insurance Corporation of India. There are many reasons why insurance accruals remain unclaimed. It could be because some policy holders forget to collect the money or theyve paid part of the premium period but failed to collect that. Some have changed their residence but failed to update their address with the insurer. In some cases, the nominees of policy holder may not be aware of the insurance amount deposited by the policy holder. Charanjit Attra Partner in an Indian member firm of EY Global, said, It is a good directive and keep in pace with the objective of providing the state support for the senior citizens, by utilising the unused funds. SCWF rules mandate entities to transfer unclaimed amount of 10 years to the fund. The rules apply to all insurers. Irdais order also directs the insurance companies to collect the details of such accounts and the prescribed format in which the unclaimed deposits have to be submitted from the Department of Financial Services. The regulators past directives to check on policy holders had also benefitted many, as they were able to claim the amount, after following the process, Irdai officials said.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: A gang of four men from Jharkhand, who had conned thousands of customers through an online scam termed as bottom fishing, are now cooling their heels behind bars.

Investigating officials were shocked to find a database of 16,000 customers bank accounts, multiple PAN cards and 460 SIM cards in the possession of the gang who are said to be college dropouts. The four men allegedly lured people by offering cash benefits for investments.

The modus operandi of the gang was to skim small amounts from many bank accounts, which would usually go unnoticed and no one would file a case, the officials said.

Investigators of the CIDs Economic Offences Wing, who busted the online racket, said the men were offering electronic gadgets and home appliances at throw away prices as part of their trap. Police have seized 15 mobile phones and laptops and hard disks which contained the database of account numbers. Most of the victims were lured with an investment offer in various schemes for monetary benefits of 2 per cent on their investment.

The arrested are Kapil Dev Suman alias Ajay Singh (26), Suraj Kumar (25), Susheel Kumar (24) and Biplav Kumar (24). They are natives of Bokaro in Jharkhand and had come to city to pursue their education five years ago. They were diploma dropouts and two worked in a call centre for a while.

CID officials said preliminary investigation revealed that the gang may have conned people to the tune of `15 lakh or more.

A senior police officer said, The gang created more than 600 domain names to open online portals to cheat people on the pretext of selling products for cheap. CID found that the gang opened 28 bank accounts with fake documents and forged multiple PAN cards. They used 460 SIM cards and 15 mobile phones to skim the money through online transaction.

They lured people with investment offers with cash benefits. The victims were asked to log in to websites such as www.paymaza.com and www.manafaperday.com and were directed to update banking information. But the customers neither got the goods nor the interest promised, the officer added.

The gang was nabbed based on a complaint on July 13 by one Suresh Sakri, a resident of JP Nagar. He had filed a case with the Cyber Crime police stating that two unanimous transactions were made through the SBI Buddy app and `5,000 and `2000 were debited from his account.

Three special police teams were formed and sent to Patna, Bodh Gaya and Ranchi. A technical team analysed the phone records, websites, e-mail IDs while a banking team probed the transaction details.

It was found that the money was credited into the account of Suman who had given fake documents in the name of Ajay Singh. He was picked up by the police and he revealed the names of his friends who were involved in the fraud. They wanted to lead a lavish life and used to stay in posh hotels, police said.

What cyber security experts advise

Verify the credibility and authenticity of firms before making payments.

Check for SEBI and RBI registration numbers of online traders.

Avoid making heavy payments through e-commerce portals.

Check for the lock/padlock symbol, SSL certificate, on the browser window which assures security.

All bank credentials should not be entered on a website.

Confirm the genuineness of payment gateway before a transaction and prefer popular portal only.

Avoid revealing bank details over phone, emails or SMS.

Check for skimming devices during card transactions.

BENGALURU: A gang of four men from Jharkhand, who had conned thousands of customers through an online scam termed as bottom fishing, are now cooling their heels behind bars. Investigating officials were shocked to find a database of 16,000 customers bank accounts, multiple PAN cards and 460 SIM cards in the possession of the gang who are said to be college dropouts. The four men allegedly lured people by offering cash benefits for investments. The modus operandi of the gang was to skim small amounts from many bank accounts, which would usually go unnoticed and no one would file a case, the officials said. Investigators of the CIDs Economic Offences Wing, who busted the online racket, said the men were offering electronic gadgets and home appliances at throw away prices as part of their trap. Police have seized 15 mobile phones and laptops and hard disks which contained the database of account numbers. Most of the victims were lured with an investment offer in various schemes for monetary benefits of 2 per cent on their investment. The arrested are Kapil Dev Suman alias Ajay Singh (26), Suraj Kumar (25), Susheel Kumar (24) and Biplav Kumar (24). They are natives of Bokaro in Jharkhand and had come to city to pursue their education five years ago. They were diploma dropouts and two worked in a call centre for a while. CID officials said preliminary investigation revealed that the gang may have conned people to the tune of `15 lakh or more. A senior police officer said, The gang created more than 600 domain names to open online portals to cheat people on the pretext of selling products for cheap. CID found that the gang opened 28 bank accounts with fake documents and forged multiple PAN cards. They used 460 SIM cards and 15 mobile phones to skim the money through online transaction. They lured people with investment offers with cash benefits. The victims were asked to log in to websites such as www.paymaza.com and www.manafaperday.com and were directed to update banking information. But the customers neither got the goods nor the interest promised, the officer added. The gang was nabbed based on a complaint on July 13 by one Suresh Sakri, a resident of JP Nagar. He had filed a case with the Cyber Crime police stating that two unanimous transactions were made through the SBI Buddy app and `5,000 and `2000 were debited from his account. Three special police teams were formed and sent to Patna, Bodh Gaya and Ranchi. A technical team analysed the phone records, websites, e-mail IDs while a banking team probed the transaction details. It was found that the money was credited into the account of Suman who had given fake documents in the name of Ajay Singh. He was picked up by the police and he revealed the names of his friends who were involved in the fraud. They wanted to lead a lavish life and used to stay in posh hotels, police said. What cyber security experts advise Verify the credibility and authenticity of firms before making payments. Check for SEBI and RBI registration numbers of online traders. Avoid making heavy payments through e-commerce portals. Check for the lock/padlock symbol, SSL certificate, on the browser window which assures security. All bank credentials should not be entered on a website. Confirm the genuineness of payment gateway before a transaction and prefer popular portal only. Avoid revealing bank details over phone, emails or SMS. Check for skimming devices during card transactions.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: A Pakistani terrorist convicted of illegally laundering money in India has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment after more than a decade-long legal battle.

Fahad Hai, who was arrested in 2006 from Mysuru was convicted by Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge Basavaraj S Sappannanavar here on Tuesday. This is the first case where a Pakistani national has been convicted under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), said Enforcement Directorate (ED).

In 2006, the intelligence agencies had shared information about terrorists from Pakistan planning activities in Mysuru.

A police squad kept watch near the high tension power line at Vijaynagar Ring Road, Mysuru.

On October 26, 2006, the on-duty police officer noticed two persons coming on a two-wheeler around 11.45 pm. When intercepted and enquired about their names, the pillion rider informed that he knew only Hindi. One of the police officers showed his identity card and asked them in Hindi to get down. Immediately the pillion rider jumped and took out a rifle from the bag kept on his lap and fired on the police squad.

Another police squad rushed for help and the cops together overpowered the pillion rider and apprehended both the persons. They identified themselves as Pakistani nationals. Md Ali Hussain and the pillion rider Md Fahad were illegally residing at No. 186, 4th Cross, Rajiv Nagar, Udaygiri in Mysuru.

Further probe revealed that they were active members of the banned Al-Badr organisation and had entered India without any valid travel documents. They also possessed AK 47 rifle, pistol, live bullets without any license, mobile and satellite phones.

They were subsequently charged under several sections of the IPC, Indian Arms Act, 1959, Foreigners Registration Act and Explosive substance Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Based on the above charge sheet, investigation was initiated under PMLA by the Enforcement Directorate. An amount of Rs 50,492 (Rs 44,174 plus interest accrued) was attached.

Prosecution complaint was filed by counsel S Mahesh on behalf of the Directorate, in the Principal City Civil and Sessions Court and Special Court under the PMLA. The Court convicted the accused under PMLA and confiscated the attached amount.

BENGALURU: A Pakistani terrorist convicted of illegally laundering money in India has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment after more than a decade-long legal battle. Fahad Hai, who was arrested in 2006 from Mysuru was convicted by Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge Basavaraj S Sappannanavar here on Tuesday. This is the first case where a Pakistani national has been convicted under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), said Enforcement Directorate (ED). In 2006, the intelligence agencies had shared information about terrorists from Pakistan planning activities in Mysuru. A police squad kept watch near the high tension power line at Vijaynagar Ring Road, Mysuru. On October 26, 2006, the on-duty police officer noticed two persons coming on a two-wheeler around 11.45 pm. When intercepted and enquired about their names, the pillion rider informed that he knew only Hindi. One of the police officers showed his identity card and asked them in Hindi to get down. Immediately the pillion rider jumped and took out a rifle from the bag kept on his lap and fired on the police squad. Another police squad rushed for help and the cops together overpowered the pillion rider and apprehended both the persons. They identified themselves as Pakistani nationals. Md Ali Hussain and the pillion rider Md Fahad were illegally residing at No. 186, 4th Cross, Rajiv Nagar, Udaygiri in Mysuru. Further probe revealed that they were active members of the banned Al-Badr organisation and had entered India without any valid travel documents. They also possessed AK 47 rifle, pistol, live bullets without any license, mobile and satellite phones. They were subsequently charged under several sections of the IPC, Indian Arms Act, 1959, Foreigners Registration Act and Explosive substance Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Based on the above charge sheet, investigation was initiated under PMLA by the Enforcement Directorate. An amount of Rs 50,492 (Rs 44,174 plus interest accrued) was attached. Prosecution complaint was filed by counsel S Mahesh on behalf of the Directorate, in the Principal City Civil and Sessions Court and Special Court under the PMLA. The Court convicted the accused under PMLA and confiscated the attached amount.
Venkatesan Parthasarathy By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has identified 78 black spot (accident zones) locations on National Highways (NHs) across Tamil Nadu. Of that figure, 63 locations have been deemed as requiring permanent remedial measures, to reduce instances of accidents.This assumes significance as the State leads the nation-wide chart in terms of accidents taking place on NHs.

According to the transport research wing, functioning under MoRTH, the State recorded 21,902 accidents on NHs during 2015, with 5,752 fatalities.

Senior National Authority of India (NHAI) officials told Express that NHs passing through the districts of Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur and Villupuram account for the majority of accidents. Two NHs, especially NH32 (Chennai-Nagapattinam) and NH48 (Chennai-Bengaluru) have seen several accidents down the years, they added.

A recently submitted report by an expert team to the ministry had suggested a two-pronged strategy. We have already made temporary arrangements, like putting up warning boards, at these locations but we are now working on permanent measures, a officer, on condition of anonymity, said. Permanent remedial measures include construction of flyovers, grade separators, underpasses and service roads.

Significantly, the topic was brought up during a review meeting held by the Minister of State (Road Transport, Highways and Shipping) Pon Radhakrishnan in Chennai on July 14. He had asked the officials to take early action for implementation of the permanent remedial measures at these locations.

The officer said approval for permanent measures costing around `70 crore has already been given for 7 locations, while an estimate is being done for the balance work. The NHAI hopes to start work on permanent measures at all identified locations before the end of the current financial year.

CHENNAI: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has identified 78 black spot (accident zones) locations on National Highways (NHs) across Tamil Nadu. Of that figure, 63 locations have been deemed as requiring permanent remedial measures, to reduce instances of accidents.This assumes significance as the State leads the nation-wide chart in terms of accidents taking place on NHs. According to the transport research wing, functioning under MoRTH, the State recorded 21,902 accidents on NHs during 2015, with 5,752 fatalities. Senior National Authority of India (NHAI) officials told Express that NHs passing through the districts of Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur and Villupuram account for the majority of accidents. Two NHs, especially NH32 (Chennai-Nagapattinam) and NH48 (Chennai-Bengaluru) have seen several accidents down the years, they added. A recently submitted report by an expert team to the ministry had suggested a two-pronged strategy. We have already made temporary arrangements, like putting up warning boards, at these locations but we are now working on permanent measures, a officer, on condition of anonymity, said. Permanent remedial measures include construction of flyovers, grade separators, underpasses and service roads. Significantly, the topic was brought up during a review meeting held by the Minister of State (Road Transport, Highways and Shipping) Pon Radhakrishnan in Chennai on July 14. He had asked the officials to take early action for implementation of the permanent remedial measures at these locations. The officer said approval for permanent measures costing around `70 crore has already been given for 7 locations, while an estimate is being done for the balance work. The NHAI hopes to start work on permanent measures at all identified locations before the end of the current financial year.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD/WARANGAL: Uppal police arrested two persons on Tuesday for smuggling ganja from AP into the city. They seized 37 kg ganja and an auto rickshaw from the accused and remanded them. P Krupendar (20), an autorickshaw driver from Secunderabad, and D Srikanth (20), a mason from Alwal, were caught by the patrolling police when they were transporting ganja in five backpacks to the city.

The arrested duo, along with the seized material, were produced in the court and efforts were on to apprehend three others, police said. In another instance, railway police seized 24 kg of ganja worth `1.2 lakh from a passenger who was transporting it on the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express on Tuesday. The railway police checked the luggage of a passenger A Shekar who was travelling from Visakhapatnam to Mumbai when the train reached Warangal station and seized 24 kg of ganja.

HYDERABAD/WARANGAL: Uppal police arrested two persons on Tuesday for smuggling ganja from AP into the city. They seized 37 kg ganja and an auto rickshaw from the accused and remanded them. P Krupendar (20), an autorickshaw driver from Secunderabad, and D Srikanth (20), a mason from Alwal, were caught by the patrolling police when they were transporting ganja in five backpacks to the city. The arrested duo, along with the seized material, were produced in the court and efforts were on to apprehend three others, police said. In another instance, railway police seized 24 kg of ganja worth `1.2 lakh from a passenger who was transporting it on the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express on Tuesday. The railway police checked the luggage of a passenger A Shekar who was travelling from Visakhapatnam to Mumbai when the train reached Warangal station and seized 24 kg of ganja.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: No blood samples will be taken from Tollywood actress Charmme Kaur when she is questioned on Wednesday about her possible involvement with drug peddlers in Telugu cinema.

After hearing her petition today, Hyderabad High Court judge A Rajasekar Reddy directed the detectives of Prohibition and Excise Department to question Charmme between 10 am and 5 pm on Wednesday, at a place of her choice.

The judge, however, turned down her request to allow her to take her lawyers along with her to her grilling. The HC further directed the detectives not to force her to submit blood samples.

Charmmes lawyer P Vishnuvardhan Reddy argued that questioning the actress under duress would be unconstitutional and against the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Nandini Satpathy case.

He asserted that his client is neither an accused nor a witness in the case.

The special counsel for Prohibition and Excise, Sharath Kumar, clarified that no pressure was sought to bring upon the actress to submit samples. The actress is among 12 Tollywood personalities who have been summoned to explain their presence in the call records of drug dealers arrested in Hyderabad in recent weeks.

All actors, directors and celebrities who have been summoned so far, have voluntarily given samples of their blood, hair, nail scrapings and so on, he said. Judge Rajasekhar Reddy gave his approval to Sharath Kumars argument against allowing actress Charmme access to her lawyers while being questioned by the Excise and Prohibition Officials. However, a woman officer will be present and the department agreed not to pressure the actress during questioning. The entire proceedings and interrogation will be video graphed they added.

Charmme scheduled to be grilled today

Actress Charmme Kaur is scheduled to attend the questioning on Wednesday, according to enforcement wing director Akun Sabharwal. Charmme Kaur is to appear before the SIT tomorrow morning at 10.30, he said.

HYDERABAD: No blood samples will be taken from Tollywood actress Charmme Kaur when she is questioned on Wednesday about her possible involvement with drug peddlers in Telugu cinema. After hearing her petition today, Hyderabad High Court judge A Rajasekar Reddy directed the detectives of Prohibition and Excise Department to question Charmme between 10 am and 5 pm on Wednesday, at a place of her choice. The judge, however, turned down her request to allow her to take her lawyers along with her to her grilling. The HC further directed the detectives not to force her to submit blood samples. Charmmes lawyer P Vishnuvardhan Reddy argued that questioning the actress under duress would be unconstitutional and against the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Nandini Satpathy case. He asserted that his client is neither an accused nor a witness in the case. The special counsel for Prohibition and Excise, Sharath Kumar, clarified that no pressure was sought to bring upon the actress to submit samples. The actress is among 12 Tollywood personalities who have been summoned to explain their presence in the call records of drug dealers arrested in Hyderabad in recent weeks. All actors, directors and celebrities who have been summoned so far, have voluntarily given samples of their blood, hair, nail scrapings and so on, he said. Judge Rajasekhar Reddy gave his approval to Sharath Kumars argument against allowing actress Charmme access to her lawyers while being questioned by the Excise and Prohibition Officials. However, a woman officer will be present and the department agreed not to pressure the actress during questioning. The entire proceedings and interrogation will be video graphed they added. Charmme scheduled to be grilled today Actress Charmme Kaur is scheduled to attend the questioning on Wednesday, according to enforcement wing director Akun Sabharwal. Charmme Kaur is to appear before the SIT tomorrow morning at 10.30, he said.
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA/KAKINADA : With just a day left for the Chalo Amavarati rally called by Kapu patriarch Mudragada Padamanabham, tension is building up not only in East Godavari district, but also Amaravati, the seat of the administration. With police denying permission for the rally, security personnel have been deployed all over sensitive areas in the state, particularly in Krishna, Guntur and the twin Godavari districts as there is a likelihood of Kapu activists trying to reach the secretariat from any direction they can. Police have restricted entry to villages around the secretariat to prevent demonstrations.

Director General of Police N Sambasiva Rao, speaking to journalists in Vijayawada said since the rally was illegal, everybody should keep away from it.Meanwhile, on a political front, the N Chandrababu Naidu administration, dashed off a letter to the KL Manjunath Commission seeking a report on the inclusion of Kapus in the backward classes category as early as possible. The state government has authorised MROs to issue caste certificates to Kapus in areas where they are recognised as BCs.

VIJAYAWADA/KAKINADA : With just a day left for the Chalo Amavarati rally called by Kapu patriarch Mudragada Padamanabham, tension is building up not only in East Godavari district, but also Amaravati, the seat of the administration. With police denying permission for the rally, security personnel have been deployed all over sensitive areas in the state, particularly in Krishna, Guntur and the twin Godavari districts as there is a likelihood of Kapu activists trying to reach the secretariat from any direction they can. Police have restricted entry to villages around the secretariat to prevent demonstrations. Director General of Police N Sambasiva Rao, speaking to journalists in Vijayawada said since the rally was illegal, everybody should keep away from it.Meanwhile, on a political front, the N Chandrababu Naidu administration, dashed off a letter to the KL Manjunath Commission seeking a report on the inclusion of Kapus in the backward classes category as early as possible. The state government has authorised MROs to issue caste certificates to Kapus in areas where they are recognised as BCs.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: As UP CM Yogi Adityanath got on his visit to Ayodhya on Wednesdaya second in the last four months after assuming chargeyet again the Ram temple issue dominated the political discourse of UP. The CM exhorted all the stakeholders of the temple dispute to resolve the issue with mutual consent and dialogues, keeping in mind the suggestions of the Supreme Court of India.

The temple issue should be resolved amicably and peacefully through mutual consent and dialogue. All the parties involved must pay heed to the SCs suggestion while approaching the issue, the CM said while speaking during an event held to mark the 14th death anniversary of Mahant Pramhans Das of Digmabar Akhara. The Mahant is a prominent figure in the temple movement.

The CM felt that the solution to the vexed issues was entrenched in the politics of positivity. If the parties involved managed to arrive at a mutually agreed solution to the dispute, it would send a positive message across the world and would help silencing the global powers working against the interests of the country, the CM said.

Pointing out the association of Gorakhsha Peethh with Ram temple movement from the days and times of his mentor and Guru Mahant Avaidyanth, the UP CM reiterated that his visits to Ayodhya should not be made an issue.

"I have been visiting Ayodhya all this long and shall continue to come here again and again. It should not bother anyone," he maintained. He linked his visit to his devotion for Lord Ram. "I am a Ram bhakt first and anything else later. The charisma of Lord Ram draws me to this place," averred CM Adityanath.

He also touched the Ram Setu issue subtly saying that in his quest to develop Ram circuit, his government would focus on the development of all the places, including Ayodhya, Shringverpur, Panchvati, Chitrakoot till Rameshwaram, related to Lord Ram in one way or the other. If need arises, we will also get the Ram Setu constructed so as to unite the people of the country, he stated.

On resumption of Ramleela in Ayodhya, CM Adityanth said people have watched Ramleela with devotion and fervor irrespective of their faith and religious beliefs in the past. He gave the example of Indonesia, saying that despite it being the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Ramleela is celebrated as the Southeast Asian nation national festival.

During his visit in Ayodhya, the chief minister met a number of religious heads. Prominent among those who shared the stage with the CM included chief of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Nritya Gopal Das, Manaht Dharma Das, and a number of saints and seers.

LUCKNOW: As UP CM Yogi Adityanath got on his visit to Ayodhya on Wednesdaya second in the last four months after assuming chargeyet again the Ram temple issue dominated the political discourse of UP. The CM exhorted all the stakeholders of the temple dispute to resolve the issue with mutual consent and dialogues, keeping in mind the suggestions of the Supreme Court of India. The temple issue should be resolved amicably and peacefully through mutual consent and dialogue. All the parties involved must pay heed to the SCs suggestion while approaching the issue, the CM said while speaking during an event held to mark the 14th death anniversary of Mahant Pramhans Das of Digmabar Akhara. The Mahant is a prominent figure in the temple movement. The CM felt that the solution to the vexed issues was entrenched in the politics of positivity. If the parties involved managed to arrive at a mutually agreed solution to the dispute, it would send a positive message across the world and would help silencing the global powers working against the interests of the country, the CM said. Pointing out the association of Gorakhsha Peethh with Ram temple movement from the days and times of his mentor and Guru Mahant Avaidyanth, the UP CM reiterated that his visits to Ayodhya should not be made an issue. "I have been visiting Ayodhya all this long and shall continue to come here again and again. It should not bother anyone," he maintained. He linked his visit to his devotion for Lord Ram. "I am a Ram bhakt first and anything else later. The charisma of Lord Ram draws me to this place," averred CM Adityanath. He also touched the Ram Setu issue subtly saying that in his quest to develop Ram circuit, his government would focus on the development of all the places, including Ayodhya, Shringverpur, Panchvati, Chitrakoot till Rameshwaram, related to Lord Ram in one way or the other. If need arises, we will also get the Ram Setu constructed so as to unite the people of the country, he stated. On resumption of Ramleela in Ayodhya, CM Adityanth said people have watched Ramleela with devotion and fervor irrespective of their faith and religious beliefs in the past. He gave the example of Indonesia, saying that despite it being the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Ramleela is celebrated as the Southeast Asian nation national festival. During his visit in Ayodhya, the chief minister met a number of religious heads. Prominent among those who shared the stage with the CM included chief of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Nritya Gopal Das, Manaht Dharma Das, and a number of saints and seers.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a major political development, the BJP on Wednesday decided to field party chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani for the Rajya Sabha elections. This would be the first time Shah contests an election to become a Member of Parliament.

Confirming the development after the BJPs Parliamentary Party meeting, Union Minister JP Nadda said,

Both leaders will contest from Gujarat, where three seats will fall vacant in September. Elections are going to be held on August 8.

Irani was recently made the Information and Broadcasting Minister after the post fell vacant following the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, who was made the NDAs vice presidential candidate. Irani was appointed as Human Resources Development Minister after the BJP took over at the Centre and was made the Union Textile Minister in 2016.

Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the State.

The terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal would end on August 18.

NEW DELHI: In a major political development, the BJP on Wednesday decided to field party chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani for the Rajya Sabha elections. This would be the first time Shah contests an election to become a Member of Parliament. Confirming the development after the BJPs Parliamentary Party meeting, Union Minister JP Nadda said, Both leaders will contest from Gujarat, where three seats will fall vacant in September. Elections are going to be held on August 8. Irani was recently made the Information and Broadcasting Minister after the post fell vacant following the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, who was made the NDAs vice presidential candidate. Irani was appointed as Human Resources Development Minister after the BJP took over at the Centre and was made the Union Textile Minister in 2016. Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the State. The terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal would end on August 18.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Freedom fighter and noted Gandhian K E Mammen passed away on Wednesday in a private hospital at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district on Wednesday. He was 97.

Mammen had been admitted to the private hospital since November 2013. He was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit on Monday as his health worsened. When his blood pressure started dipping, he was put on ventilator support.

Mammen, a bachelor, declared his intention to stay in the private hospital till death since being admitted here in 2013. He was a one man army who took up battles on issues of public interest in front of the Government Secretariat.

His lonely fights were powered by moral strength as he was steadfastly following the values he had imbibed from the time of freedoms struggle.

His fights against liquor, violent politics, harthals and corruption always forced the political leadership in power to urgently intervene to get the issues solved.

Born to KC Eapen and Kunjandamma of the prominent orthodox christian family, Kandathil, in Kottayam on July 31,1921, he had evinced keen interest in freedom struggle since his childhood.

Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyers' action against Quilon National Bank led to his father's imprisonment as he was one of the owners.

While studying in Government Arts college, Thiruvananthapuram he became the president of Travancore Students Federation. His activities during the student days had prompted the authorities to oust him from Arts college. He later joined St Thomas college Thrissur and Madras Christian college only to discontinue education in 1942 to get active in the Quit India Movement.

The assassination attempt on Sir CP by KCS Mani led to the arrest of Mammen.

After returning to Kerala, he based himself in Kottayam and Thiruvalla. It was in 1996 that he returned to Thiruvananthapuram and stayed here till the end.

He has won the Ramashram award, Lohia Vicharavedi award, TKV Foundation award and the Kottayam YMCA award.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled Mammen's death. In his message the chief minister said Mammen had preserved the values he had imbibed from the national movement till the last breath of his life. Upholding Gandhian values he was always on the forefront to solve various issues of public interest, he said.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Freedom fighter and noted Gandhian K E Mammen passed away on Wednesday in a private hospital at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district on Wednesday. He was 97. Mammen had been admitted to the private hospital since November 2013. He was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit on Monday as his health worsened. When his blood pressure started dipping, he was put on ventilator support. Mammen, a bachelor, declared his intention to stay in the private hospital till death since being admitted here in 2013. He was a one man army who took up battles on issues of public interest in front of the Government Secretariat. His lonely fights were powered by moral strength as he was steadfastly following the values he had imbibed from the time of freedoms struggle. His fights against liquor, violent politics, harthals and corruption always forced the political leadership in power to urgently intervene to get the issues solved. Born to KC Eapen and Kunjandamma of the prominent orthodox christian family, Kandathil, in Kottayam on July 31,1921, he had evinced keen interest in freedom struggle since his childhood. Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyers' action against Quilon National Bank led to his father's imprisonment as he was one of the owners. While studying in Government Arts college, Thiruvananthapuram he became the president of Travancore Students Federation. His activities during the student days had prompted the authorities to oust him from Arts college. He later joined St Thomas college Thrissur and Madras Christian college only to discontinue education in 1942 to get active in the Quit India Movement. The assassination attempt on Sir CP by KCS Mani led to the arrest of Mammen. After returning to Kerala, he based himself in Kottayam and Thiruvalla. It was in 1996 that he returned to Thiruvananthapuram and stayed here till the end. He has won the Ramashram award, Lohia Vicharavedi award, TKV Foundation award and the Kottayam YMCA award. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled Mammen's death. In his message the chief minister said Mammen had preserved the values he had imbibed from the national movement till the last breath of his life. Upholding Gandhian values he was always on the forefront to solve various issues of public interest, he said.
Abhijit Mulye By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: A day after a residential building collapsed in the Ghatkopar area in Mumbai leading to the death of 17 people, police arrested Shiva Sena leader Sunil Shitap on Wednesday for allegedly carrying out illegal alterations to the building causing it to collapse.

The building had a nursing home on the ground floor, which was being renovated. Sources said that Shitap, who owned the nursing home, carried out illegal alterations. He was booked for culpable homicide along with other sections of the Indian Penal Code on Monday and was interrogated for around three hours last night. He was arrested at around 7 am on Tuesday morning, police said.

Fire fighters could rescue only 27 residents trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building as the death toll rose to 17. Two wings of the ground plus four storied Sai Darshan collapsed at around 10.45 am on Tuesday . Those rescued were sent to BMCs Rajawaid hospital, said fire brigade chief Pratap Rahangadale.

CM Devendra Fadnavis, who visited the site late last night had directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner to conduct a probe in the reason that caused the disaster, said that police too are conducting their inquiry.

A two-member committee has been appointed that would submit their report within 15 days, BMC commissioner said later.

MUMBAI: A day after a residential building collapsed in the Ghatkopar area in Mumbai leading to the death of 17 people, police arrested Shiva Sena leader Sunil Shitap on Wednesday for allegedly carrying out illegal alterations to the building causing it to collapse. The building had a nursing home on the ground floor, which was being renovated. Sources said that Shitap, who owned the nursing home, carried out illegal alterations. He was booked for culpable homicide along with other sections of the Indian Penal Code on Monday and was interrogated for around three hours last night. He was arrested at around 7 am on Tuesday morning, police said. Fire fighters could rescue only 27 residents trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building as the death toll rose to 17. Two wings of the ground plus four storied Sai Darshan collapsed at around 10.45 am on Tuesday . Those rescued were sent to BMCs Rajawaid hospital, said fire brigade chief Pratap Rahangadale. CM Devendra Fadnavis, who visited the site late last night had directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner to conduct a probe in the reason that caused the disaster, said that police too are conducting their inquiry. A two-member committee has been appointed that would submit their report within 15 days, BMC commissioner said later.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed on Tuesday that New Delhi had admitted to entering his countrys territory. Making his first remark on the current standoff at the Bhutan border, Wang Yi said the solution was for Indian troops to conscientiously withdraw from the Doklam area.

The rights and wrongs are very clear. Even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian territory, he said in Bangkok on Monday. In other words, the Indian side has admitted to entering the Chinese territory. The solution to this problem is very simple: conscientiously withdraw.

The issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing on July 27 and 28. Doval would be attending a meeting of security advisers of BRICS nations. The Chinese State media, however, were divided over the possible outcome of Dovals visit.

While China Daily was hopeful of a peaceful resolution to the deadlock, Global Times called the Indian NSA the main schemer and said his trip wouldnt sway Beijing. The Global Times editorial, Doval visit wont sway China over border standoff, said Beijing would not talk until Indian troops were withdrawn.

Earlier on Monday, the Chinese military warned that it would defend its territory at all costs. Responding to the threat, vice chief of Indian Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said China would continue to remain a threat for the country in future. Despite having the Himalayas between us, China is bound to be a threat for us in the years ahead, Lt Gen Sarath Chand said at an event in national capital.

His views were supported by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who informed Parliament that Indian forces were reasonably and sufficiently equipped to defend sovereignty of the country. Questions on the Armys preparedness were also raised in the Upper House, with opposition members bringing up the issue of critical shortage ammunition.

The questions were based on a CAG report that said the army faces a shortfall of 40 per cent, that is, 61 out of 152 types of ammunition available were meant for less than 10 days of fighting. The army is supposed to hold stocks of ammunition for 40 days of an intense war. To this, Jaitley claimed the CAG report had the year 2013 as a reference point while there have been follow-ups.

NEW DELHI: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed on Tuesday that New Delhi had admitted to entering his countrys territory. Making his first remark on the current standoff at the Bhutan border, Wang Yi said the solution was for Indian troops to conscientiously withdraw from the Doklam area. The rights and wrongs are very clear. Even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian territory, he said in Bangkok on Monday. In other words, the Indian side has admitted to entering the Chinese territory. The solution to this problem is very simple: conscientiously withdraw. The issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing on July 27 and 28. Doval would be attending a meeting of security advisers of BRICS nations. The Chinese State media, however, were divided over the possible outcome of Dovals visit. While China Daily was hopeful of a peaceful resolution to the deadlock, Global Times called the Indian NSA the main schemer and said his trip wouldnt sway Beijing. The Global Times editorial, Doval visit wont sway China over border standoff, said Beijing would not talk until Indian troops were withdrawn. Earlier on Monday, the Chinese military warned that it would defend its territory at all costs. Responding to the threat, vice chief of Indian Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said China would continue to remain a threat for the country in future. Despite having the Himalayas between us, China is bound to be a threat for us in the years ahead, Lt Gen Sarath Chand said at an event in national capital. His views were supported by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who informed Parliament that Indian forces were reasonably and sufficiently equipped to defend sovereignty of the country. Questions on the Armys preparedness were also raised in the Upper House, with opposition members bringing up the issue of critical shortage ammunition. The questions were based on a CAG report that said the army faces a shortfall of 40 per cent, that is, 61 out of 152 types of ammunition available were meant for less than 10 days of fighting. The army is supposed to hold stocks of ammunition for 40 days of an intense war. To this, Jaitley claimed the CAG report had the year 2013 as a reference point while there have been follow-ups.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country on the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," Modi said in a series of tweets.

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

"Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe," he added.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights.

It took about three months for the the Indian forces to recapture the posts.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country on the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'. July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan. "Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," Modi said in a series of tweets. Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017 "Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe," he added. Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017 The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights. It took about three months for the the Indian forces to recapture the posts.
By PTI

MUMBAI: The building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, which left 17 people dead, figured in the Maharashtra Assembly today with the Congress and the NCP demanding stringent action against those responsible.

The opposition stuck to its demand for an immediate discussion on the incident and forced the House to be adjourned thrice after rejecting the government's proposal to take up the matter later in the day.

The opposition targeted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the incident alleging that the Shiv Sena-ruled civic body had turned a blind eye to the complaints of the residents about the unauthorised works being carried out on the ground floor of the building.

They repeatedly referred to the arrest of Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap in connection with the building collapse.

Leader of the Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, charged that the BMC has become 'a private limited company' which protects the interest of a handful of people.

"The BMC should become a public service body that will protect the interest of the common man," he said.

In a dig at the Shiv Sena, which rules the civic body, he said, "There are some people in the power who are responsible for this tragic accident."

He wanted the government to take stern action against everybody involved in it and asked the ruling BJP not to try to protect its ally (Shiv Sena) in the matter.

Ajit Pawar of the NCP wanted those responsible for the building collapse to be charged with culpable homicide.

"Sunil Shitap (arrested in connection with the building collapse) is said to have links with the Shiv Sena and he has misused his clout to make changes in the building," Pawar said.

NCP member Jitendra Avhad said, "It is the negligence and carelessness of the BMC staff that has led to the building collapse."

BJP MLA Raj Purohit said the residents of the collapsed building had earlier met the civic officials to complain about the renovation going on there but they were allegedly threatened by Shitap.

At the outset, the opposition demanded an immediate discussion and a statement from the government on the incident.

The government, however, proposed to hold the discussion later in the afternoon.

Vikhe Patil sought to know what was the reason behind the delay in making a statement on the floor of the House over the incident.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said, "The government is willing to make a statement followed by discussion on the issue at 4 pm. If the opposition accepts the proposal, we can do so."

However, opposition parties refused to accept the suggestion and stuck to the demand for an immediate discussion over the incident.

Amid the din, the chair adjourned the House twice for 10 minutes each and then for another 15 minutes.

MUMBAI: The building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, which left 17 people dead, figured in the Maharashtra Assembly today with the Congress and the NCP demanding stringent action against those responsible. The opposition stuck to its demand for an immediate discussion on the incident and forced the House to be adjourned thrice after rejecting the government's proposal to take up the matter later in the day. The opposition targeted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the incident alleging that the Shiv Sena-ruled civic body had turned a blind eye to the complaints of the residents about the unauthorised works being carried out on the ground floor of the building. They repeatedly referred to the arrest of Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap in connection with the building collapse. Leader of the Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, charged that the BMC has become 'a private limited company' which protects the interest of a handful of people. "The BMC should become a public service body that will protect the interest of the common man," he said. In a dig at the Shiv Sena, which rules the civic body, he said, "There are some people in the power who are responsible for this tragic accident." He wanted the government to take stern action against everybody involved in it and asked the ruling BJP not to try to protect its ally (Shiv Sena) in the matter. Ajit Pawar of the NCP wanted those responsible for the building collapse to be charged with culpable homicide. "Sunil Shitap (arrested in connection with the building collapse) is said to have links with the Shiv Sena and he has misused his clout to make changes in the building," Pawar said. NCP member Jitendra Avhad said, "It is the negligence and carelessness of the BMC staff that has led to the building collapse." BJP MLA Raj Purohit said the residents of the collapsed building had earlier met the civic officials to complain about the renovation going on there but they were allegedly threatened by Shitap. At the outset, the opposition demanded an immediate discussion and a statement from the government on the incident. The government, however, proposed to hold the discussion later in the afternoon. Vikhe Patil sought to know what was the reason behind the delay in making a statement on the floor of the House over the incident. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said, "The government is willing to make a statement followed by discussion on the issue at 4 pm. If the opposition accepts the proposal, we can do so." However, opposition parties refused to accept the suggestion and stuck to the demand for an immediate discussion over the incident. Amid the din, the chair adjourned the House twice for 10 minutes each and then for another 15 minutes.
By IANS

PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday said Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar Chief Minister was "pre-planned" as he has not ruled out the possibility of joining hands with the BJP.

Addressing reporters after Nitish Kumar resigned over the corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad called for a meeting of the MLAs of the Grand Alliance - JD-U, RJD and Congress - to elect a new leader.

"Nitish is playing into the hands of the BJP. After resigning as Chief Minister he did not rule out the possibility of joining hands with the BJP. Everyone knows that Nitish is aligned with Modi," Lalu told reporters here.

Lalu also said that within minutes of Nitish Kumar's resignation Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted welcoming the move.

Lalu said that with the resignation of Nitish Kumar, the whole government including Tejashwi Yadav has gone.

"Now let Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi stay out and the MLAs of JD-U, RJD and Congress should elect a new leader. Since we are the single largest party in the Assembly so the claim of legislative party leader goes with us," Lalu Prasad said.

He said that Janata Dal-United President Nitish Kumar had asked for the resignation of Tejashwi Yadav.

"We were not at fault so why should we (Tejashwi) resign. As far as explanation was concerned, everything was explained to Nitish Kumar," he said.

Attacking the JD-U leader, Lalu Prasad said that the JD-U leader was facing "cases under the murder and Arms Act".

"He is facing charges of murder, which is bigger than the charges of corruption. He has accepted about the charges in his election affidavit," Lalu said.

"We were aware of the case since long but did not find it appropriate to disclose. Nitish Kumar knows about this so he tendered his resignation. He is aligning with the RSS. Everything was set," he added.

PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday said Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar Chief Minister was "pre-planned" as he has not ruled out the possibility of joining hands with the BJP. Addressing reporters after Nitish Kumar resigned over the corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad called for a meeting of the MLAs of the Grand Alliance - JD-U, RJD and Congress - to elect a new leader. "Nitish is playing into the hands of the BJP. After resigning as Chief Minister he did not rule out the possibility of joining hands with the BJP. Everyone knows that Nitish is aligned with Modi," Lalu told reporters here. Lalu also said that within minutes of Nitish Kumar's resignation Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted welcoming the move. Lalu said that with the resignation of Nitish Kumar, the whole government including Tejashwi Yadav has gone. "Now let Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi stay out and the MLAs of JD-U, RJD and Congress should elect a new leader. Since we are the single largest party in the Assembly so the claim of legislative party leader goes with us," Lalu Prasad said. He said that Janata Dal-United President Nitish Kumar had asked for the resignation of Tejashwi Yadav. "We were not at fault so why should we (Tejashwi) resign. As far as explanation was concerned, everything was explained to Nitish Kumar," he said. Attacking the JD-U leader, Lalu Prasad said that the JD-U leader was facing "cases under the murder and Arms Act". "He is facing charges of murder, which is bigger than the charges of corruption. He has accepted about the charges in his election affidavit," Lalu said. "We were aware of the case since long but did not find it appropriate to disclose. Nitish Kumar knows about this so he tendered his resignation. He is aligning with the RSS. Everything was set," he added.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: THE government is not ready yet to conclude that 39 missing Indians in Mosul are dead. Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday asserted that there is no evidence on whether the missing Indians in Mosul are dead and it would be a sin to claim this. She told the Lok Sabha that it was the governments duty to keep looking for them. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence, Swaraj said in the Lower House.

Explaining the governments stand, she said, There are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos. The government, Swaraj said, has been in touch with countries in the region, including Turkey, which can help India in the case.

Swaraj made it clear that the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead. This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead, her statement, which came after holding talks with the Iraqi foreign minister on the issue, said.

The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab region, was taken hostage by ISIS when it attacked Mosul in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted. Family members of the missing Indians have alleged of government not making things clear on the issue.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians. I never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government gets by misleading the people on the issue, she added.

Swaraj said she told her Iraqi counterpart that she will not accept anything on the issue without proof and requested him to continue the search for them.

Swaraj cited the example of the Congress government declaring a soldier martyr in 1971 war and after 45 years, it was found that he was in a jail in Pakistan.

If someone feels they are dead, you are free to go to the families. But if anyone of them (Indians) comes back, then it will be your responsibility. Similarly, their families are free to carry out ardas (rituals) but it will be their responsibility if someone comes back, she said.

NEW DELHI: THE government is not ready yet to conclude that 39 missing Indians in Mosul are dead. Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday asserted that there is no evidence on whether the missing Indians in Mosul are dead and it would be a sin to claim this. She told the Lok Sabha that it was the governments duty to keep looking for them. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence, Swaraj said in the Lower House. Explaining the governments stand, she said, There are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos. The government, Swaraj said, has been in touch with countries in the region, including Turkey, which can help India in the case. Swaraj made it clear that the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead. This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead, her statement, which came after holding talks with the Iraqi foreign minister on the issue, said. The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab region, was taken hostage by ISIS when it attacked Mosul in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted. Family members of the missing Indians have alleged of government not making things clear on the issue. The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians. I never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government gets by misleading the people on the issue, she added. Swaraj said she told her Iraqi counterpart that she will not accept anything on the issue without proof and requested him to continue the search for them. Swaraj cited the example of the Congress government declaring a soldier martyr in 1971 war and after 45 years, it was found that he was in a jail in Pakistan. If someone feels they are dead, you are free to go to the families. But if anyone of them (Indians) comes back, then it will be your responsibility. Similarly, their families are free to carry out ardas (rituals) but it will be their responsibility if someone comes back, she said.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

KOHIMA: Nagaland could be the first state to face political instability after the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the appointment of parliamentary secretaries in every state.

The SC ruling came a day after the chief minister T R Zeliang had rewarded 26 MLAs, mostly from the Naga Peoples Front (NPF), by appointing them as parliamentary secretaries.

They were among a group of MLAs who had helped him wrest power from his predecessor Shurhozelie Liezietsu. The NPF predicted that the SC ruling would create political instability in the state. The aims and objectives of downsizing of ministries were very noble but in a state that has various tribes, this ruling is going to create instability, NPF press secretary Sebastian Zumvu told the New Indian Express.

Following the ruling, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur could also face trouble. Usually, MLAs who cannot be inducted into the ministry are kept in good humour with the post of parliamentary secretary. The BJP government in politically-unstable Arunachal has 24 parliamentary secretaries out of the total 59 MLAs.

In Meghalaya, there are 17 parliamentary secretaries who enjoy the rank and status of a cabinet minister.

Congress-ruled Mizoram has seven parliamentary secretaries but even if they lose the posts, it may not be a problem for CM Lal Thanhawla.

Thirty two of the 40 MLAs in the House are from the Congress.

Manipur had 12 parliamentary secretaries, six of whom quit the post after being made members of various committees. The BJP-led coalition may explore similar option for the remaining six.

Assam does not have a single parliamentary secretary. Were even six ministers short of the mandated 19, said a government spokesman.

KOHIMA: Nagaland could be the first state to face political instability after the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the appointment of parliamentary secretaries in every state. The SC ruling came a day after the chief minister T R Zeliang had rewarded 26 MLAs, mostly from the Naga Peoples Front (NPF), by appointing them as parliamentary secretaries. They were among a group of MLAs who had helped him wrest power from his predecessor Shurhozelie Liezietsu. The NPF predicted that the SC ruling would create political instability in the state. The aims and objectives of downsizing of ministries were very noble but in a state that has various tribes, this ruling is going to create instability, NPF press secretary Sebastian Zumvu told the New Indian Express. Following the ruling, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur could also face trouble. Usually, MLAs who cannot be inducted into the ministry are kept in good humour with the post of parliamentary secretary. The BJP government in politically-unstable Arunachal has 24 parliamentary secretaries out of the total 59 MLAs. In Meghalaya, there are 17 parliamentary secretaries who enjoy the rank and status of a cabinet minister. Congress-ruled Mizoram has seven parliamentary secretaries but even if they lose the posts, it may not be a problem for CM Lal Thanhawla. Thirty two of the 40 MLAs in the House are from the Congress. Manipur had 12 parliamentary secretaries, six of whom quit the post after being made members of various committees. The BJP-led coalition may explore similar option for the remaining six. Assam does not have a single parliamentary secretary. Were even six ministers short of the mandated 19, said a government spokesman.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Disappointed with President Ram Nath Kovind for equating Deen Dayal Upadhyay with Mahatma Gandhi and not mentioning Jawaharlal Nehru in his acceptance speech, the Congress on Wednesday said that it was unacceptable how the President has equated a Jan Sangh leader to the father of the nation.



Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Anand Sharma said it is disrespecting the history and the sacrifices made by Mahatma Gandhi.



It is very unfortunate that the President of India, who should represent the entire country and is representing a particular agenda or ideology. The President of India should not have one view point or thought or an agenda. That is what we expect from our new president of India to do. We were disappointed that he didnt mention Indias freedom fighter, first Prime minister who is truly a global statesman. His contribution and sacrifices, while he refers to..it is disrespecting history, he added.



Sharma said that the BJP has every political right to remember Deen Dayal Upadhyay and pay tributes, but they cannot be equated to the father of the nation.



It was equally shocking when the President chose to equate the father of the nation who sacrificed everything including his life for the cause of this country and its freedom and its people. With Deen Dayal Upadhyay, he was not a president or a freedom fighter, nor a minister. He might be a RSS ideologue. The BJP has every political right to remember him and pay tributes but he cannot be equated to the father of the nation. This is unacceptable, he said



The Congress leader further said that this shows the pettiness of the Government that they are not even mentioning that this is the centenary year of the Indira Gandhi, but they are celebrating the centenary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay as a state, as government at public expense.



Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament on, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India today, remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters.



"Our Independence was the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of human dignity and of the republican ethic," he added



"We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji," the President said.

NEW DELHI: Disappointed with President Ram Nath Kovind for equating Deen Dayal Upadhyay with Mahatma Gandhi and not mentioning Jawaharlal Nehru in his acceptance speech, the Congress on Wednesday said that it was unacceptable how the President has equated a Jan Sangh leader to the father of the nation. Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Anand Sharma said it is disrespecting the history and the sacrifices made by Mahatma Gandhi. It is very unfortunate that the President of India, who should represent the entire country and is representing a particular agenda or ideology. The President of India should not have one view point or thought or an agenda. That is what we expect from our new president of India to do. We were disappointed that he didnt mention Indias freedom fighter, first Prime minister who is truly a global statesman. His contribution and sacrifices, while he refers to..it is disrespecting history, he added. Sharma said that the BJP has every political right to remember Deen Dayal Upadhyay and pay tributes, but they cannot be equated to the father of the nation. It was equally shocking when the President chose to equate the father of the nation who sacrificed everything including his life for the cause of this country and its freedom and its people. With Deen Dayal Upadhyay, he was not a president or a freedom fighter, nor a minister. He might be a RSS ideologue. The BJP has every political right to remember him and pay tributes but he cannot be equated to the father of the nation. This is unacceptable, he said The Congress leader further said that this shows the pettiness of the Government that they are not even mentioning that this is the centenary year of the Indira Gandhi, but they are celebrating the centenary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay as a state, as government at public expense. Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament on, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India today, remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters. "Our Independence was the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of human dignity and of the republican ethic," he added "We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji," the President said.
By ANI

LUCKNOW: An FIR has been registered against Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Wednesday for his controversial comments against Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.



The FIR has been lodged in Hussainganj police station in Lucknow.



Earlier, Diskhit sparked controversy asserting that General Rawat shouldnt make statements like a sadak ka gunda



He said, It feels our Army chief speaks like a 'sadak ka gunda' (roadside thug). While this is expected from Pakistan who are like the mafia, why does our own chief make such pronouncements?



Dikshit's remark drew flak from all corners.



Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the comment made by party leader Army Chief were wrong, insisting that politicians should refrain from making such statements against the Army Chief.



Gandhi further said that the Indian Army serves the nation and, therefore, no political statements should be made against them.



Echoing similar views, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "It shocks us. It did not come from somebody from Congress, but from a very eminent Congress leader."



Later, Dikshit tendered an apology for the same and said he shouldn't have used "uncivilised" words to convey his message.



"It was a statement given to you (ANI) only and it was in the context of the constant statements that the Army Chief has made with regard to the army's preparation and Pakistan. I thought Indian Army chiefs normally don't make these statements and they have a different manner in which they approach," Dikshit told ANI.

In an interaction with ANI, General Rawat had earlier said that the Indian Army is well prepared to face external as well as internal threats of the country.

Indian Army is fully ready for a two and a half front war, he had said.

LUCKNOW: An FIR has been registered against Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Wednesday for his controversial comments against Army Chief General Bipin Rawat. The FIR has been lodged in Hussainganj police station in Lucknow. Earlier, Diskhit sparked controversy asserting that General Rawat shouldnt make statements like a sadak ka gunda He said, It feels our Army chief speaks like a 'sadak ka gunda' (roadside thug). While this is expected from Pakistan who are like the mafia, why does our own chief make such pronouncements? Dikshit's remark drew flak from all corners. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the comment made by party leader Army Chief were wrong, insisting that politicians should refrain from making such statements against the Army Chief. Gandhi further said that the Indian Army serves the nation and, therefore, no political statements should be made against them. Echoing similar views, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "It shocks us. It did not come from somebody from Congress, but from a very eminent Congress leader." Later, Dikshit tendered an apology for the same and said he shouldn't have used "uncivilised" words to convey his message. "It was a statement given to you (ANI) only and it was in the context of the constant statements that the Army Chief has made with regard to the army's preparation and Pakistan. I thought Indian Army chiefs normally don't make these statements and they have a different manner in which they approach," Dikshit told ANI. In an interaction with ANI, General Rawat had earlier said that the Indian Army is well prepared to face external as well as internal threats of the country. Indian Army is fully ready for a two and a half front war, he had said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A woman, who claims to be the biological daughter of late Sanjay Gandhi, today moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the release of the movie 'Indu Sarkar'.

The movie is scheduled to be released this Friday.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner mentioned the matter before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and alleged that the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed movie is "full of concocted facts and is totally derogatory".

The bench also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar refused to give a date for hearing the plea.

"You give your memo. We will see to it. We are not giving any date," the bench said.

Petitioner Priya Singh Paul's counsel alleged in the court that the movie contains "derogatory facts" to malign the image of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The counsel told that the movie was scheduled to hit the screens on July 28 and they are seeking a stay on its release.

The plea has challenged the July 24 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing her plea to stay the release of the movie.

The high court had said that the petitioner had not made out any case for the court to interfere and stay release of the movie after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) already granted certificate to the movie.

The Bombay High Court had also noted that no acknowledged descendant of Sanjay Gandhi has raised objection to the film.

NEW DELHI: A woman, who claims to be the biological daughter of late Sanjay Gandhi, today moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the release of the movie 'Indu Sarkar'. The movie is scheduled to be released this Friday. The counsel appearing for the petitioner mentioned the matter before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and alleged that the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed movie is "full of concocted facts and is totally derogatory". The bench also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar refused to give a date for hearing the plea. "You give your memo. We will see to it. We are not giving any date," the bench said. Petitioner Priya Singh Paul's counsel alleged in the court that the movie contains "derogatory facts" to malign the image of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The counsel told that the movie was scheduled to hit the screens on July 28 and they are seeking a stay on its release. The plea has challenged the July 24 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing her plea to stay the release of the movie. The high court had said that the petitioner had not made out any case for the court to interfere and stay release of the movie after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) already granted certificate to the movie. The Bombay High Court had also noted that no acknowledged descendant of Sanjay Gandhi has raised objection to the film.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the Aadhaar card privacy matter.

Earlier on July 20, all the petitioners had completed their argument in the apex court.

A nine-judge Constitution bench was hearing the arguments from various petitioners and respondents in the Aadhar privacy case.

The nine-judge Constitution bench was headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar.

The lawyer of the petitioner, in connection with the Aadhar matter argued on all issues arising out of the Aadhar card, especially the concern over whether it breaches the people's right to privacy.

"The issue is simple. Is there a fundamental right to privacy under the Indian Constitution? The view that existed earlier was an opinion that different fundamental rights were individual and distinct. And that Article 21 was a residuary right. The basic freedoms were under article 19," Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanian said yesterday.

Subramanian further argued that privacy is embedded in all processes of human life and liberty. The Preamble uses two expressions liberty and dignity. These two words are intended to convey an inherent right recognised by the Constitution and the privacy is embedded in both.

On June 10, the top court had ruled that from July 1 onward, every person eligible to obtain Aadhar card must quote their Aadhar number or their Aadhar Enrolment ID number for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as for applications for Permanent Account Number (PAN).

Following this, the apex court pronounced its order on mandatory requirements of Aadhar card for Income Tax Return (I-TR).

The Income Tax Department has stepped up its efforts to encourage people to link their PAN with Aadhar.

On July 12, the top court decided to constitute a five-judge bench to hear whether there is a right to privacy or not.

The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, which said that its five-judge Constitution Bench will hear Aadhar-related matters.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the Aadhaar card privacy matter. Earlier on July 20, all the petitioners had completed their argument in the apex court. A nine-judge Constitution bench was hearing the arguments from various petitioners and respondents in the Aadhar privacy case. The nine-judge Constitution bench was headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar. The lawyer of the petitioner, in connection with the Aadhar matter argued on all issues arising out of the Aadhar card, especially the concern over whether it breaches the people's right to privacy. "The issue is simple. Is there a fundamental right to privacy under the Indian Constitution? The view that existed earlier was an opinion that different fundamental rights were individual and distinct. And that Article 21 was a residuary right. The basic freedoms were under article 19," Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanian said yesterday. Subramanian further argued that privacy is embedded in all processes of human life and liberty. The Preamble uses two expressions liberty and dignity. These two words are intended to convey an inherent right recognised by the Constitution and the privacy is embedded in both. On June 10, the top court had ruled that from July 1 onward, every person eligible to obtain Aadhar card must quote their Aadhar number or their Aadhar Enrolment ID number for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as for applications for Permanent Account Number (PAN). Following this, the apex court pronounced its order on mandatory requirements of Aadhar card for Income Tax Return (I-TR). The Income Tax Department has stepped up its efforts to encourage people to link their PAN with Aadhar. On July 12, the top court decided to constitute a five-judge bench to hear whether there is a right to privacy or not. The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, which said that its five-judge Constitution Bench will hear Aadhar-related matters.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Shah, who was arrested from his residence yesterday, was produced in the Patiala House Court today and has now been sent to a seven-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody in connection with a terror-funding case.

Shah was under house detention for a very long time, in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar. The reason for his arrest is yet unknown as he was already under house arrest since many months.

On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Six of them were arrested from Srinagar, while Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

NEW DELHI: Separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Shah, who was arrested from his residence yesterday, was produced in the Patiala House Court today and has now been sent to a seven-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody in connection with a terror-funding case. Shah was under house detention for a very long time, in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar. The reason for his arrest is yet unknown as he was already under house arrest since many months. On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley. All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody. The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Six of them were arrested from Srinagar, while Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi. The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir. The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time. The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: At least two persons died and several were feared trapped in the debris of a dilapidated century-old building that collapsed at 10 Indian Mirror Street at Taltala here on Tuesday.

A portion of the building collapsed on Tuesday afternoon that maybe a fallout of incessant rains over the past 72 hours throughout southern West Bengal.

Though identity of the deceased is yet to be ascertained, the deceased and trapped are said to be residents of the building. Kolkata mayor and Fire Services minister Sovan Chatterjee reached the spot and said that while a part of the

building housed people, another was being used as a warehouse.

He also stated that more than 1,200 dilapidated buildings in the city have been identified as dangerous.

"Rescue operations are on and the deceased are yet to be identified. The exact number of people under the wreckage is yet to be ascertained," a n official of Taltala police station said.

KOLKATA: At least two persons died and several were feared trapped in the debris of a dilapidated century-old building that collapsed at 10 Indian Mirror Street at Taltala here on Tuesday. A portion of the building collapsed on Tuesday afternoon that maybe a fallout of incessant rains over the past 72 hours throughout southern West Bengal. Though identity of the deceased is yet to be ascertained, the deceased and trapped are said to be residents of the building. Kolkata mayor and Fire Services minister Sovan Chatterjee reached the spot and said that while a part of the building housed people, another was being used as a warehouse. He also stated that more than 1,200 dilapidated buildings in the city have been identified as dangerous. "Rescue operations are on and the deceased are yet to be identified. The exact number of people under the wreckage is yet to be ascertained," a n official of Taltala police station said.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: After the recent arrest of a 14-year old boy for alleged rape and murder of a girl child in Lucknow, two teenagers, were nabbed by police in the Sangam City of Allahabad on Monday in connection with the murder of a 13-year-old boy.

While one of the boys arrested was 16 years old, the other was 11. The two have reportedly confessed to the crime and admitted that they stoned their friend Sumit (13) to death on July 17.

Cantt police sources said, Sumit and the two culprits assembled at Rajapur cemetery of the city area in the afternoon of July 17. The trio reportedly consumed narcotic. Possibly they were addicted to whiterner inhalation, which is considered to be the first step towards alcoholism and addiction, police said.

As the three got dozed off after inhaling whitener, one of them asked Sumit if he would shell out some money so that they could get a beer. However, Sumit refused. Consequently, the other two got annoyed and picked up a fight with Sumit.

The spat turned ugly when Sumit, in a fit of rage, allegedly bit one of the boys on his shoulder. Irked, the boy hit Sumit on his head with a brick, knocking him unconsciousness.

Fearing that if Sumit regains consciousness, they will get arrested, the two thrashed him with stones until he died. Later, they stole the money in Sumit's wallet and divided it equally among them before fleeing the spot.

Fearing arrest, the duo left Allahabad. However, on July 23, both returned to the city assuming that the police won't identify them.

By then, Cantt police had recovered Sumits body and were already on a look out for them. According to Station House Officer (SHO) of the Cantt Police Station RK Awasthi, the two belong to the lower strata of the society.

While the elder of the two worked at a cycle repair shop, the younger was employed in a small food joint.

Station House Officer (SHO) Awasthi said both of them have never been to a school. Nor did they have a criminal background.

Police said all the three teenagers had known each other for the last two years and were addicted to whitener inhalation.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported a 100-300% increase in juvenile delinquency rates across the country recently.

LUCKNOW: After the recent arrest of a 14-year old boy for alleged rape and murder of a girl child in Lucknow, two teenagers, were nabbed by police in the Sangam City of Allahabad on Monday in connection with the murder of a 13-year-old boy. While one of the boys arrested was 16 years old, the other was 11. The two have reportedly confessed to the crime and admitted that they stoned their friend Sumit (13) to death on July 17. Cantt police sources said, Sumit and the two culprits assembled at Rajapur cemetery of the city area in the afternoon of July 17. The trio reportedly consumed narcotic. Possibly they were addicted to whiterner inhalation, which is considered to be the first step towards alcoholism and addiction, police said. As the three got dozed off after inhaling whitener, one of them asked Sumit if he would shell out some money so that they could get a beer. However, Sumit refused. Consequently, the other two got annoyed and picked up a fight with Sumit. The spat turned ugly when Sumit, in a fit of rage, allegedly bit one of the boys on his shoulder. Irked, the boy hit Sumit on his head with a brick, knocking him unconsciousness. Fearing that if Sumit regains consciousness, they will get arrested, the two thrashed him with stones until he died. Later, they stole the money in Sumit's wallet and divided it equally among them before fleeing the spot. Fearing arrest, the duo left Allahabad. However, on July 23, both returned to the city assuming that the police won't identify them. By then, Cantt police had recovered Sumits body and were already on a look out for them. According to Station House Officer (SHO) of the Cantt Police Station RK Awasthi, the two belong to the lower strata of the society. While the elder of the two worked at a cycle repair shop, the younger was employed in a small food joint. Station House Officer (SHO) Awasthi said both of them have never been to a school. Nor did they have a criminal background. Police said all the three teenagers had known each other for the last two years and were addicted to whitener inhalation. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported a 100-300% increase in juvenile delinquency rates across the country recently.
By PTI

PATNA: On a day of fast-paced developments, Nitish Kumar resigned today as Bihar Chief Minister, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and joining hands with BJP to form the next government, barely hours after quitting office.

Kumar will be sworn-in as chief minister today evening, marking the return of a JD(U)-BJP dispensation in the politically volatile state after four years.



BJP sources also said Union Minister J.P. Nadda and BJP General Secretary Anil Jain will visit Patna on Thursday as observers to attend the BJP legislature party meeting.

Patna: Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi & other BJP, JDU leaders leave for Raj Bhavan to meet Guv pic.twitter.com/uQ03rn22k8  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017



Nitish Kumar, whose resignation was immediately accepted by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday in which Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as Deputy Chief Minister.

Sources said that the NDA and JD-U will have 14 ministers each in the new government.

The BJP on Wednesday night announced its support to Nitish Kumar for forming a new government in Bihar, which it said the JD-U leader has accepted.

BJP senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is part of the three-member committee formed by the party high command to give a report on the situation in Bihar, made the announcement here.

Have asked Governor for time to meet, being the largest party we will stake claim to from govt, tweets Tejashwi Yadav (file pic) #Bihar pic.twitter.com/UZSLTHp9FM  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

He said the BJP will join as a partner in the Bihar government.

"We will support the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. The BJP legislature party has full confidence in Nitish Kumar as its leader. The decision has also been conveyed to Nitish Kumar, which he has accepted," Modi said after a meeting of the legislature party meeting.

He said the BJP will join the government and a decision in this regard will soon be conveyed to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

Earlier today evening, in a surprise move, Nitish, the Bihar Chief Minister resigned, claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.



In the past 20 months of the Mahagathbandhan government, a strong foundation for social reform was built in Bihar through prohibition and the states infrastructure needs are being addressed. I tried my best to run the alliance and the government, but the matters that came up made it impossible for me to continue, said Nitish Kumar to journalists outside the governors house.



Asked whether he would take support of the Bharatiya Janata Party to run the government, the Janata Dal-United leader avoided a direct answer but threw enough hints that this cannot be ruled out.



"What has to happen has happened. What will happen now you keep watching. We will definitely keep Bihar's interest in mind and do what is good for Bihar and its people," he said.

He said he had, before submitting his resignation, communicated his decision on the telephone to Lalu Prasad and C P Joshi, the Congress general secretary in charge of Bihar. Stating that he had not asked for Tejaswis resignation but only a public clarification on the charges against him, Nitish Kumar said he was hurt by the RJDs refusal to comply.

I listened to the voice of my conscience and took this decision in the interests of Bihar. I had told the RJD of my views, and they had to act. This crisis was deliberately produced (by the RJD), he said.

Recalling his support for demonetisation, Nitish Kumar said he had called for raids on benami properties and asked: Now how can I go back on my principles?

In an obvious attack on the RJD chiefs family for amassing prime land worth hundreds of crores of rupees, Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi: I always say peoples needs can be fulfilled, but not their greed. What will one do with so much property? Coffins do not have pockets.

Indicating his willingness to ally with BJP, Kumar said: I will consider anything that is in the interests of Bihar in order to promote good governance and development with social justice.

The BJP, which had been prodding Nitish Kumar to sack Tejaswi, welcomed the resignation.

(With Inputs from ENS and Agencies)

PATNA: On a day of fast-paced developments, Nitish Kumar resigned today as Bihar Chief Minister, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and joining hands with BJP to form the next government, barely hours after quitting office. Kumar will be sworn-in as chief minister today evening, marking the return of a JD(U)-BJP dispensation in the politically volatile state after four years. BJP sources also said Union Minister J.P. Nadda and BJP General Secretary Anil Jain will visit Patna on Thursday as observers to attend the BJP legislature party meeting. Patna: Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi & other BJP, JDU leaders leave for Raj Bhavan to meet Guv pic.twitter.com/uQ03rn22k8  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017 Nitish Kumar, whose resignation was immediately accepted by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday in which Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as Deputy Chief Minister. Sources said that the NDA and JD-U will have 14 ministers each in the new government. The BJP on Wednesday night announced its support to Nitish Kumar for forming a new government in Bihar, which it said the JD-U leader has accepted. BJP senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is part of the three-member committee formed by the party high command to give a report on the situation in Bihar, made the announcement here. Have asked Governor for time to meet, being the largest party we will stake claim to from govt, tweets Tejashwi Yadav (file pic) #Bihar pic.twitter.com/UZSLTHp9FM  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017 He said the BJP will join as a partner in the Bihar government. "We will support the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. The BJP legislature party has full confidence in Nitish Kumar as its leader. The decision has also been conveyed to Nitish Kumar, which he has accepted," Modi said after a meeting of the legislature party meeting. He said the BJP will join the government and a decision in this regard will soon be conveyed to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. Earlier today evening, in a surprise move, Nitish, the Bihar Chief Minister resigned, claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government. In the past 20 months of the Mahagathbandhan government, a strong foundation for social reform was built in Bihar through prohibition and the states infrastructure needs are being addressed. I tried my best to run the alliance and the government, but the matters that came up made it impossible for me to continue, said Nitish Kumar to journalists outside the governors house. Asked whether he would take support of the Bharatiya Janata Party to run the government, the Janata Dal-United leader avoided a direct answer but threw enough hints that this cannot be ruled out. "What has to happen has happened. What will happen now you keep watching. We will definitely keep Bihar's interest in mind and do what is good for Bihar and its people," he said. He said he had, before submitting his resignation, communicated his decision on the telephone to Lalu Prasad and C P Joshi, the Congress general secretary in charge of Bihar. Stating that he had not asked for Tejaswis resignation but only a public clarification on the charges against him, Nitish Kumar said he was hurt by the RJDs refusal to comply. I listened to the voice of my conscience and took this decision in the interests of Bihar. I had told the RJD of my views, and they had to act. This crisis was deliberately produced (by the RJD), he said. Recalling his support for demonetisation, Nitish Kumar said he had called for raids on benami properties and asked: Now how can I go back on my principles? In an obvious attack on the RJD chiefs family for amassing prime land worth hundreds of crores of rupees, Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi: I always say peoples needs can be fulfilled, but not their greed. What will one do with so much property? Coffins do not have pockets. Indicating his willingness to ally with BJP, Kumar said: I will consider anything that is in the interests of Bihar in order to promote good governance and development with social justice. The BJP, which had been prodding Nitish Kumar to sack Tejaswi, welcomed the resignation. (With Inputs from ENS and Agencies)
R Aravamudan By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: It was in 1963 that I returned from a spell of training in NASA to set up the sounding rocket launch facility at Thumba near Trivandrum. Shortly thereafter, I met Professor U R Rao who was at that time attached to the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and was planning a series of sounding rocket experiments carrying payloads to detect X-ray sources. Over the next few years, Dr Vikram Sarabhai entrusted the task of setting up a satellite development division to Prof Rao. After the untimely demise of Dr Sarabhai in 1971, a decision was taken to shift the satellite development activities to Bengaluru under his leadership. The nascent centre was set up in a couple of industrial sheds in Peenya and this was where Indias first indigenous satellite Aryabhata was assembled.

Prof Rao went on to become the Chairman of ISRO on the retirement of Prof Dhawan.

During his tenure, he appointed me as Director of the Sriharikota Launch Centre. This was a tumultuous period of great activity when there were many successes and failures. He ensured that the teams learnt valuable lessons from the failures and came out with improvements.

The excellent reliability of our workhorse Polar SLV and the subsequent development of geostationary SLV with indigenous cryo-technology are all testimony to this. He also led the team, which battled the embargoes imposed on us by the US, thus sowing the seeds for the indigenous development of the cryo stage of GSLV.

Even after retirement, he continued to attend office every day. Prof Rao played a key role in defining the scientific objectives of all our major missions. His legacy is something which will continue to be with ISRO forever. (R Aravamudan was the Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and ISAC, Bengaluru. His book ISRO: A Personal History was published by Harper Collins in 2017).

BENGALURU: It was in 1963 that I returned from a spell of training in NASA to set up the sounding rocket launch facility at Thumba near Trivandrum. Shortly thereafter, I met Professor U R Rao who was at that time attached to the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and was planning a series of sounding rocket experiments carrying payloads to detect X-ray sources. Over the next few years, Dr Vikram Sarabhai entrusted the task of setting up a satellite development division to Prof Rao. After the untimely demise of Dr Sarabhai in 1971, a decision was taken to shift the satellite development activities to Bengaluru under his leadership. The nascent centre was set up in a couple of industrial sheds in Peenya and this was where Indias first indigenous satellite Aryabhata was assembled. Prof Rao went on to become the Chairman of ISRO on the retirement of Prof Dhawan. During his tenure, he appointed me as Director of the Sriharikota Launch Centre. This was a tumultuous period of great activity when there were many successes and failures. He ensured that the teams learnt valuable lessons from the failures and came out with improvements. The excellent reliability of our workhorse Polar SLV and the subsequent development of geostationary SLV with indigenous cryo-technology are all testimony to this. He also led the team, which battled the embargoes imposed on us by the US, thus sowing the seeds for the indigenous development of the cryo stage of GSLV. Even after retirement, he continued to attend office every day. Prof Rao played a key role in defining the scientific objectives of all our major missions. His legacy is something which will continue to be with ISRO forever. (R Aravamudan was the Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and ISAC, Bengaluru. His book ISRO: A Personal History was published by Harper Collins in 2017).
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Criticising The Suspension of six Congress MPs from the Lok Sabha citing unruly behaviour, the senior Congress leader Anil Shastri accused the Modi Government of throttling democracy by muzzling the Oppositions voice.

Talking to the media at Sathyamoorthy Bhavan, the State Congress headquarters, here on Tuesday Shastri resented the denial of opportunity to his party MPs to raise several issues including beef in Parliament.

Anil Shastri, a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), added, We cannot allow democracy to be throttled like this.

Our members wanted to raise several issues including beef in Parliament. It is unfortunate that they were not allowed, he rued.

Attacking the Modi-led Centre for denying permission to peoples representatives to raise public issues in Parliament, he said, The philosophy of Modi is to throttle democracy.

The BJP Government had been issuing a new slogan every day to cover up its failure to fulfill its poll promises, including creation of two crore jobs a year and bringing back black money stashed in overseas countries, he said.

Saying the AIADMK was in a shambles in Tamil Nadu, Shastri called upon his compatriots here to take advantage of the volatile situation to strengthen the party by reaching out to the grass roots.

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president S Thirunavukkarasar accused the AIADMK Government of failing to uphold the rights, including exemption from NEET.

Instead of upholding the rights of the State, the shaky AIADMK Government had been kneeling before the BJP and the Union Government, he said.

Thirunavukkarasar, who is a former AIADMK minister, lashed out at both factions of the AIADMK for rushing to New Delhi to hold a kangaroo court on the factional feud and not for getting exemption from NEET and upholding the rights of Tamil Nadu students who were deprived of their fair chance to qualify for medical admission.

Earlier, Anil Shastri released the English version of a book, Steps to Achieve Success, written by Congress MLA and leading entrepreneur H Vasanthakumar.

CHENNAI: Criticising The Suspension of six Congress MPs from the Lok Sabha citing unruly behaviour, the senior Congress leader Anil Shastri accused the Modi Government of throttling democracy by muzzling the Oppositions voice. Talking to the media at Sathyamoorthy Bhavan, the State Congress headquarters, here on Tuesday Shastri resented the denial of opportunity to his party MPs to raise several issues including beef in Parliament. Anil Shastri, a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), added, We cannot allow democracy to be throttled like this. Our members wanted to raise several issues including beef in Parliament. It is unfortunate that they were not allowed, he rued. Attacking the Modi-led Centre for denying permission to peoples representatives to raise public issues in Parliament, he said, The philosophy of Modi is to throttle democracy. The BJP Government had been issuing a new slogan every day to cover up its failure to fulfill its poll promises, including creation of two crore jobs a year and bringing back black money stashed in overseas countries, he said. Saying the AIADMK was in a shambles in Tamil Nadu, Shastri called upon his compatriots here to take advantage of the volatile situation to strengthen the party by reaching out to the grass roots. The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president S Thirunavukkarasar accused the AIADMK Government of failing to uphold the rights, including exemption from NEET. Instead of upholding the rights of the State, the shaky AIADMK Government had been kneeling before the BJP and the Union Government, he said. Thirunavukkarasar, who is a former AIADMK minister, lashed out at both factions of the AIADMK for rushing to New Delhi to hold a kangaroo court on the factional feud and not for getting exemption from NEET and upholding the rights of Tamil Nadu students who were deprived of their fair chance to qualify for medical admission. Earlier, Anil Shastri released the English version of a book, Steps to Achieve Success, written by Congress MLA and leading entrepreneur H Vasanthakumar.
By Associated Press

DAKAR: The United Nations says a peacekeeper from Morocco has been killed in Central African Republic.

A statement Monday morning says the peacekeeper was killed Sunday in the southeastern town of Bangassou by suspected anti-Balaka militias.

The statement says three other peacekeepers were injured.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Central African Republic and roughly 100,000 displaced in the past two months. Sectarian violence that began in 2013 has been moving into the impoverished country's central and southeastern regions, prompting warnings of a national conflict roaring back to life.

In Bangassou alone, more than 150 people have died in fighting between militias and U.N. peacekeeping forces.

DAKAR: The United Nations says a peacekeeper from Morocco has been killed in Central African Republic. A statement Monday morning says the peacekeeper was killed Sunday in the southeastern town of Bangassou by suspected anti-Balaka militias. The statement says three other peacekeepers were injured. Hundreds of people have been killed in Central African Republic and roughly 100,000 displaced in the past two months. Sectarian violence that began in 2013 has been moving into the impoverished country's central and southeastern regions, prompting warnings of a national conflict roaring back to life. In Bangassou alone, more than 150 people have died in fighting between militias and U.N. peacekeeping forces.
By PTI

BEIJING: A Chinese daily today accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the Sino-India standoff to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits.

"More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia.

The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing.

It also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishops call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India."

The article said "so far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain".

"The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes?

Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference," it said.

The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems.

"There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea.

The article also blamed the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war.

"It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said.

The article said "neither China nor India wants a war.

BEIJING: A Chinese daily today accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the Sino-India standoff to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits. "More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia. The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing. It also took exception to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishops call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India." The article said "so far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain". "The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes? Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference," it said. The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems. "There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said. China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea. While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea. The article also blamed the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war. "It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said. The article said "neither China nor India wants a war.
By PTI

TEHRAN: Iran's top nuclear negotiator said today that new sanctions approved by the US House of Representatives were "a hostile measure" that breached Washington's commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.

"The ongoing action in the US Congress... is very clearly a hostile measure against the Islamic republic of Iran,"

deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to the ISNA news agency.

Araghchi led the negotiating team that agreed the deal with world powers in 2015 known as the JCPOA, by which Iran agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

The new sanctions bill passed by the House on Tuesday, was merely "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields," Araghchi said.

"Still, it can influence the successful implementation of the JCPOA and reduce Iran's benefits under the JCPOA. That's why it is incompatible with various sections of the JCPOA which the US has committed to implement with good intention and in a constructive atmosphere," he added.

"These are America's commitments. What the Congress is doing is against these commitments and for sure will be met with a reaction from Iran."

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The UN and other signatories to the nuclear deal have agreed that Iran has stuck to its commitments, which has been reluctantly accepted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

"The new US administration has been forced to confirm Iran's loyalty to the deal twice within the past six months and it has had no other option as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in various reports has clearly expressed Iran's compliance with its commitments," Araghchi said.

TEHRAN: Iran's top nuclear negotiator said today that new sanctions approved by the US House of Representatives were "a hostile measure" that breached Washington's commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal. "The ongoing action in the US Congress... is very clearly a hostile measure against the Islamic republic of Iran," deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to the ISNA news agency. Araghchi led the negotiating team that agreed the deal with world powers in 2015 known as the JCPOA, by which Iran agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions. The new sanctions bill passed by the House on Tuesday, was merely "a compilation of previous US sanctions in the non-nuclear fields," Araghchi said. "Still, it can influence the successful implementation of the JCPOA and reduce Iran's benefits under the JCPOA. That's why it is incompatible with various sections of the JCPOA which the US has committed to implement with good intention and in a constructive atmosphere," he added. "These are America's commitments. What the Congress is doing is against these commitments and for sure will be met with a reaction from Iran." The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response. The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards. The UN and other signatories to the nuclear deal have agreed that Iran has stuck to its commitments, which has been reluctantly accepted by the administration of President Donald Trump. "The new US administration has been forced to confirm Iran's loyalty to the deal twice within the past six months and it has had no other option as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in various reports has clearly expressed Iran's compliance with its commitments," Araghchi said.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has ordered a probe after three journalists were reported to have been mistreated by federal agents at a hospital in Islamabad.



Two reporters from local TV stations were pushed around and prevented from taking photographs of a man under custody brought in for treatment last week by the Federal Investigation Agency. The two were also briefly detained.



A third reporter was said to have been beaten up and clothes torn when he tried to verbally defend his colleagues. The Pakistani journalists' union has protested over the incident.



Minister Khan has asked for a full report on the incident. Police official Mohammad Arshad said on Tuesday that the journalists had filed a complaint against maltreatment.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has ordered a probe after three journalists were reported to have been mistreated by federal agents at a hospital in Islamabad. Two reporters from local TV stations were pushed around and prevented from taking photographs of a man under custody brought in for treatment last week by the Federal Investigation Agency. The two were also briefly detained. A third reporter was said to have been beaten up and clothes torn when he tried to verbally defend his colleagues. The Pakistani journalists' union has protested over the incident. Minister Khan has asked for a full report on the incident. Police official Mohammad Arshad said on Tuesday that the journalists had filed a complaint against maltreatment.
The Butler Did It par Read more [...]
By AFP

PARIS: French police are regularly using pepper spray against migrants in Calais, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today, an accusation denied by authorities.

In a report entitled "Like living in hell" the use of pepper spray against migrants massed in the northern coastal city is described as "routine".

"Police use of pepper spray in Calais is so common that many asylum seekers and migrants had difficulty recalling precisely how many times they had been sprayed," the report said.

Of 61 migrants questioned by the prominent international human rights group between the end of June and the beginning of July, 55 said they had been sprayed during the two weeks before the interview, and some said they had been sprayed every day, the author of the report, Michael Garcia Bochenek, told AFP.

"The 55 were sprayed while they slept," he said, adding that he had talked to groups of varying nationalities in different locations, but the similarity of their stories "shows there is a serious problem".

"These are practices that have become routine, without there being any consequences, and that is when they become serious abuses," HRW France Director Benedicte Jeannerod told AFP.

For more than a decade France's northern coast has been a magnet for refugees and migrants trying to reach Britain.

In October last year Calais' notorious makeshift camp, nicknamed "the Jungle", where thousands lived in the hope of climbing aboard trucks or trains to get across the Channel, was dismantled.

But HRW said hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants, mostly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Afghans, are still living on the streets and in wooded areas in and around the port city.

"Every day, the police chase us. They use spray. They kick us. This is our life every day," said Waysira L, a 16year-old boy from the Oromo community, an ethnic group in east Africa.

Fabien Sudry, prefect for the Pas-de-Calais region, "categorically denied the false and defamatory allegations" in the report, which he said "have no evidential basis".

"Police of course operate in Calais respecting the rules of law, with the sole objective of ensuring public order and security," Sudry added.

"This is a prosecution case," said David Michaux, national delegate for the UNSA police union.

PARIS: French police are regularly using pepper spray against migrants in Calais, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today, an accusation denied by authorities. In a report entitled "Like living in hell" the use of pepper spray against migrants massed in the northern coastal city is described as "routine". "Police use of pepper spray in Calais is so common that many asylum seekers and migrants had difficulty recalling precisely how many times they had been sprayed," the report said. Of 61 migrants questioned by the prominent international human rights group between the end of June and the beginning of July, 55 said they had been sprayed during the two weeks before the interview, and some said they had been sprayed every day, the author of the report, Michael Garcia Bochenek, told AFP. "The 55 were sprayed while they slept," he said, adding that he had talked to groups of varying nationalities in different locations, but the similarity of their stories "shows there is a serious problem". "These are practices that have become routine, without there being any consequences, and that is when they become serious abuses," HRW France Director Benedicte Jeannerod told AFP. For more than a decade France's northern coast has been a magnet for refugees and migrants trying to reach Britain. In October last year Calais' notorious makeshift camp, nicknamed "the Jungle", where thousands lived in the hope of climbing aboard trucks or trains to get across the Channel, was dismantled. But HRW said hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants, mostly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Afghans, are still living on the streets and in wooded areas in and around the port city. "Every day, the police chase us. They use spray. They kick us. This is our life every day," said Waysira L, a 16year-old boy from the Oromo community, an ethnic group in east Africa. Fabien Sudry, prefect for the Pas-de-Calais region, "categorically denied the false and defamatory allegations" in the report, which he said "have no evidential basis". "Police of course operate in Calais respecting the rules of law, with the sole objective of ensuring public order and security," Sudry added. "This is a prosecution case," said David Michaux, national delegate for the UNSA police union.
By Associated Press

MANILA: Human rights groups asked the Philippine president Wednesday to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime."

Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Women's Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country's south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.

Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a road gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.

In a televised news conference he called late Monday shortly after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said that the insurgents were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under rebel control without government permits.

"Get out of there, I'm telling the Lumads now. I'll have those bombed, including your structures," Duterte said. "I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. I'll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government."

Carlos Conde of the Human Rights Watch said that Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, "is directing the military to commit war crimes."

Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits government to support the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.

Duterte ascended to the presidency last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown, and his continuing popularity and the ineffective opposition have apparently emboldened him.

On Monday night, Duterte also called for abolishing the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman  an anti-graft prosecutor  route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations.

Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, "then do not investigate my army and police."

Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. that runs indigenous schools in the south, said that Duterte's threats have heightened fear among the Lumad people already feeling the brunt of attacks by the military and security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining. The military has denied involvement.

"The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools," said Magbanua.

Magbanua is among 300 teachers, students and parents who have traveled to Manila days before Duterte's speech in Congress to protest and file complaints before the Commission on Human Rights for alleged shootings and military encampments in indigenous schools.

She said there are around 200 Lumad schools in the southern Philippines, with around 4,000 students and 88 teachers. One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she added.

Magbanua said the indigenous schools follow government's curriculum, but have added a subject called ancestral land to teach students to value their home region. She denied they teach students to become communist rebels.

"We only hold chalk, ballpen and paper," she said. "If (Duterte) wants to find out, he should come to our school and observe."

Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating children's right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since July last year.

MANILA: Human rights groups asked the Philippine president Wednesday to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law "prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes," adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, "is also a war crime." Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Women's Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country's south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years. Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a road gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers. In a televised news conference he called late Monday shortly after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said that the insurgents were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under rebel control without government permits. "Get out of there, I'm telling the Lumads now. I'll have those bombed, including your structures," Duterte said. "I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. I'll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government." Carlos Conde of the Human Rights Watch said that Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, "is directing the military to commit war crimes." Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits government to support the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict. Duterte ascended to the presidency last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown, and his continuing popularity and the ineffective opposition have apparently emboldened him. On Monday night, Duterte also called for abolishing the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman  an anti-graft prosecutor  route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations. Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, "then do not investigate my army and police." Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. that runs indigenous schools in the south, said that Duterte's threats have heightened fear among the Lumad people already feeling the brunt of attacks by the military and security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining. The military has denied involvement. "The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools," said Magbanua. Magbanua is among 300 teachers, students and parents who have traveled to Manila days before Duterte's speech in Congress to protest and file complaints before the Commission on Human Rights for alleged shootings and military encampments in indigenous schools. She said there are around 200 Lumad schools in the southern Philippines, with around 4,000 students and 88 teachers. One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she added. Magbanua said the indigenous schools follow government's curriculum, but have added a subject called ancestral land to teach students to value their home region. She denied they teach students to become communist rebels. "We only hold chalk, ballpen and paper," she said. "If (Duterte) wants to find out, he should come to our school and observe." Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating children's right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since July last year.
By IANS

BRUSSELS: The European Union's top court on Wednesday annulled a court ruling to remove the Hamas militant group from the EU terror blacklist. The court, however, removed Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the 28-member bloc's terror list, BBC reported.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on an appeal lodged by the Council of the EU after the European General Court (EGC) decided to scrap Palestinian Islamist group's retention on the terror list in 2014.

The Luxembourg-based CJEU overturned the judgment and said "the council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing".

"Only the initial entry of a person or entity on the list must be based on a national decision by a competent authority," it added.

Hamas, whose political wing governs the Gaza Strip Palestinian territory, denounced the ruling and said its leaders were preparing an official response.

Despite the EGC ruling, Hamas had been retained on the blacklist in anticipation of an appeal and to facilitate the freezing of assets should the decision be overturned.

In a parallel ruling, the CJEU upheld the EGC's decision to remove the LTTE, who fought in the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009), from the terror list.

The council had challenged this ruling, too, but the judges at the CJEU ruled that it had brought insufficient evidence to suggest that the LTTE intended to continue its terror activities, considering its heavy military defeat.

The EU's terrorist list was drawn up after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. The list was last updated in January and now included 13 individuals and 22 organisations.



BRUSSELS: The European Union's top court on Wednesday annulled a court ruling to remove the Hamas militant group from the EU terror blacklist. The court, however, removed Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the 28-member bloc's terror list, BBC reported. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on an appeal lodged by the Council of the EU after the European General Court (EGC) decided to scrap Palestinian Islamist group's retention on the terror list in 2014. The Luxembourg-based CJEU overturned the judgment and said "the council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing". "Only the initial entry of a person or entity on the list must be based on a national decision by a competent authority," it added. Hamas, whose political wing governs the Gaza Strip Palestinian territory, denounced the ruling and said its leaders were preparing an official response. Despite the EGC ruling, Hamas had been retained on the blacklist in anticipation of an appeal and to facilitate the freezing of assets should the decision be overturned. In a parallel ruling, the CJEU upheld the EGC's decision to remove the LTTE, who fought in the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009), from the terror list. The council had challenged this ruling, too, but the judges at the CJEU ruled that it had brought insufficient evidence to suggest that the LTTE intended to continue its terror activities, considering its heavy military defeat. The EU's terrorist list was drawn up after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. The list was last updated in January and now included 13 individuals and 22 organisations.
By PTI

DAKAR (SENEGAL): The United Nations says Congo military "elements" are responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces following clashes with alleged militia members in recent months.

The UN human rights office in Congo says in a new report it is concerned about the alarming deterioration of human rights in the region due to the "brutal and disproportionate repression against the Kamuina Nsapu militia by the Congolese defense forces."

The office says Congolese soldiers have killed more than 428 people, including at least 140 children, in the region this year. It says the militia has killed at least 37. The UN today appointed a team of experts to investigate the Kasai violence, including reports of sexual Nations and the use of child soldiers. Congo's government hasn't commented.



DAKAR (SENEGAL): The United Nations says Congo military "elements" are responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces following clashes with alleged militia members in recent months. The UN human rights office in Congo says in a new report it is concerned about the alarming deterioration of human rights in the region due to the "brutal and disproportionate repression against the Kamuina Nsapu militia by the Congolese defense forces." The office says Congolese soldiers have killed more than 428 people, including at least 140 children, in the region this year. It says the militia has killed at least 37. The UN today appointed a team of experts to investigate the Kasai violence, including reports of sexual Nations and the use of child soldiers. Congo's government hasn't commented.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 13 current or former senior Venezuelan officials, piling the pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro to abandon plans for a weekend vote to elect a body to rewrite the constitution.

"As President Trump has made clear, the United States will not ignore the Maduro regime's ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom, and the rule of law," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the sanctions.

Among those targeted are the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, and former vice president Elias Jaua, who is leading the presidential commissions organizing Sunday's vote for a so-called constituent assembly.



WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 13 current or former senior Venezuelan officials, piling the pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro to abandon plans for a weekend vote to elect a body to rewrite the constitution. "As President Trump has made clear, the United States will not ignore the Maduro regime's ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom, and the rule of law," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the sanctions. Among those targeted are the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, and former vice president Elias Jaua, who is leading the presidential commissions organizing Sunday's vote for a so-called constituent assembly.
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine.

Perry spoke to the pair about the Paris Climate Accord and the possibility of using pig manure as a power source in his 22-minute conversation with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. The entire phone call was posted online by Russian news site Vesti .

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the authenticity of the call to The Washington Post , saying the duo targets high level officials and celebrities "who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine."

Other victims of past pranks by the pair known as Vovan and Lexus include Rep. Maxine Waters and Republican Sen. John McCain.

WASHINGTON: Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine. Perry spoke to the pair about the Paris Climate Accord and the possibility of using pig manure as a power source in his 22-minute conversation with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. The entire phone call was posted online by Russian news site Vesti . Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the authenticity of the call to The Washington Post , saying the duo targets high level officials and celebrities "who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine." Other victims of past pranks by the pair known as Vovan and Lexus include Rep. Maxine Waters and Republican Sen. John McCain.
By ANI

WASHINGTON DC: A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an armed Iranian patrol boat on Tuesday, in the northern end of the Persian Gulf after the latter came within 150 yards of the vessel.

Citing two US defense officials, the CNN reported that the Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The officials said the Iranian boat approached and came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, a US Navy patrol ship.

The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by the USS Vella Gulf, which is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and two other US Coast guard vessels at the time.

According to the report, the Iranians did not respond to any warnings from the US ship, including radio calls, firing of flares and five short blasts from the US Navy ship's whistle. Following this the Navy ship then fired warning shots into the water over concerns about the possibility of a collision.

Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard is claiming that it "foiled the US warship's provocative move against an Iranian Navy patrol boat in the Persian Gulf," according to a statement published by Iran's official news agency IRNA.

The statement alleged that the US warship aimed to instigate and frighten the Iranian boat by firing two warning shots.

This isn't the first time two sides have had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf.

In June, the US military labeled the actions of an Iranian vessel "unsafe and unprofessional" after it trained a laser on a US helicopter that was accompanying a formation of American ships transiting the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis previously told reporters that there had been 35 incidents of unsafe or unprofessional behavior by Iranian vessels in 2016.

WASHINGTON DC: A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an armed Iranian patrol boat on Tuesday, in the northern end of the Persian Gulf after the latter came within 150 yards of the vessel. Citing two US defense officials, the CNN reported that the Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The officials said the Iranian boat approached and came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, a US Navy patrol ship. The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by the USS Vella Gulf, which is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and two other US Coast guard vessels at the time. According to the report, the Iranians did not respond to any warnings from the US ship, including radio calls, firing of flares and five short blasts from the US Navy ship's whistle. Following this the Navy ship then fired warning shots into the water over concerns about the possibility of a collision. Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard is claiming that it "foiled the US warship's provocative move against an Iranian Navy patrol boat in the Persian Gulf," according to a statement published by Iran's official news agency IRNA. The statement alleged that the US warship aimed to instigate and frighten the Iranian boat by firing two warning shots. This isn't the first time two sides have had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf. In June, the US military labeled the actions of an Iranian vessel "unsafe and unprofessional" after it trained a laser on a US helicopter that was accompanying a formation of American ships transiting the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz. Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis previously told reporters that there had been 35 incidents of unsafe or unprofessional behavior by Iranian vessels in 2016.
By PTI

BEIJING: China today reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area and said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Doklam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Doklam, saying that the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops' withdrawal.

"I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into Chinas territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said.

The Doklam issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - on July 27-28.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Doklam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops.

But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff

BEIJING: China today reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area and said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue. Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Doklam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area. "The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing. Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Doklam, saying that the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry. He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops' withdrawal. "I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into Chinas territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said. The Doklam issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - on July 27-28. Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Doklam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area. China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops. But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff
By PTI

LUXEMBOURG: The European Union stepped up pressure today on rebellious eastern states to take in their fair share of refugees under mandatory quotas adopted at the height of the migrant crisis.

Hungary and Slovakia looked set to see their appeal against the plan rejected after the advisor to the EU's top court said the quotas were a fair way of easing the pressure on Greece and Italy.

The European Commission meanwhile took its landmark legal action against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the next level over their refusal to take in any asylum-seekers under the system.

Judges also upheld the bloc's rules saying that asylum claims must be dealt with by the country where refugees first land. They said Croatia must accept migrants deported back from Austria and Slovenia.

A wave of people fleeing the war in Syria and conflict and poverty in other Middle Eastern and African countries in 2015 triggered Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos called on the bloc to complete the plan to relocate 1,60,000 refugees from frontline Mediterranean states. But only 24,000 have been taken in by other member states for processing since the plan was agreed in 2015.

"What we need now is a final push to achieve our common goal of relocating the vast majority of the asylum seekers present and eligible in Greece and Italy by September," he said.

Avramopoulos said a record number of 3,000 refugees had been relocated in June. But he warned that pressure was building, especially on Italy which has called for special assistance after a surge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

He said Brussels was now taking forward legal steps against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland "for failing to meet their legal obligations on relocation" after they failed to meet a one-month deadline to respond to the EU's concerns.

The three countries could be hauled up before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and eventually fined. The Greek commissioner meanwhile hailed the advice given today by the ECJ's advocate general, or top legal official, which says that Hungary and Slovakia's appeal against the scheme should be struck down.

"He confirms that the relocation decisions are proportionate measures to alleviate the burden on Italy and Greece," Avramopoulos said. Slovakia and Hungary filed lawsuits with the European Court of Justice in 2015 shortly after the bloc's leaders pushed through the mandatory quotas over their objections.

Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view before the court makes a final ruling. The court often but not always follows them.

In a separate case, the ECJ dismissed an appeal by a group of asylum-seekers against a decision by Austria and Slovenia to deport them back to Croatia. They argued that the migration crisis had created exceptional circumstances, in effect suspending the EU's Dublin rules on where refugees must claim asylum, given that

Germany had opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of migrants. But the court backed Austria and Slovenia's decision to send the asylum seekers back to Croatia.

The migrant crisis has fuelled a split in the EU between frontline states like Italy and Greece and mostly eastern European countries that are opposed to migration and rejected mandatory quotas.

LUXEMBOURG: The European Union stepped up pressure today on rebellious eastern states to take in their fair share of refugees under mandatory quotas adopted at the height of the migrant crisis. Hungary and Slovakia looked set to see their appeal against the plan rejected after the advisor to the EU's top court said the quotas were a fair way of easing the pressure on Greece and Italy. The European Commission meanwhile took its landmark legal action against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the next level over their refusal to take in any asylum-seekers under the system. Judges also upheld the bloc's rules saying that asylum claims must be dealt with by the country where refugees first land. They said Croatia must accept migrants deported back from Austria and Slovenia. A wave of people fleeing the war in Syria and conflict and poverty in other Middle Eastern and African countries in 2015 triggered Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II. EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos called on the bloc to complete the plan to relocate 1,60,000 refugees from frontline Mediterranean states. But only 24,000 have been taken in by other member states for processing since the plan was agreed in 2015. "What we need now is a final push to achieve our common goal of relocating the vast majority of the asylum seekers present and eligible in Greece and Italy by September," he said. Avramopoulos said a record number of 3,000 refugees had been relocated in June. But he warned that pressure was building, especially on Italy which has called for special assistance after a surge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean. He said Brussels was now taking forward legal steps against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland "for failing to meet their legal obligations on relocation" after they failed to meet a one-month deadline to respond to the EU's concerns. The three countries could be hauled up before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and eventually fined. The Greek commissioner meanwhile hailed the advice given today by the ECJ's advocate general, or top legal official, which says that Hungary and Slovakia's appeal against the scheme should be struck down. "He confirms that the relocation decisions are proportionate measures to alleviate the burden on Italy and Greece," Avramopoulos said. Slovakia and Hungary filed lawsuits with the European Court of Justice in 2015 shortly after the bloc's leaders pushed through the mandatory quotas over their objections. Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view before the court makes a final ruling. The court often but not always follows them. In a separate case, the ECJ dismissed an appeal by a group of asylum-seekers against a decision by Austria and Slovenia to deport them back to Croatia. They argued that the migration crisis had created exceptional circumstances, in effect suspending the EU's Dublin rules on where refugees must claim asylum, given that Germany had opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of migrants. But the court backed Austria and Slovenia's decision to send the asylum seekers back to Croatia. The migrant crisis has fuelled a split in the EU between frontline states like Italy and Greece and mostly eastern European countries that are opposed to migration and rejected mandatory quotas.
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
Trump must be kept away from children ....He would like nothing more than to start his own version of brainwashed Hitler Youth to salute him where ever he goes....Do you want your children influenced by this man's lack of morals and education?
Scientists and healthcare providers who have demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurship by leveraging endocrine research to improve patient care can now apply for the inaugural John D. Baxter Prize for Entrepreneurship, the Endocrine Society announced today.

The $50,000 Baxter Prize will be awarded biennially to candidates who demonstrate entrepreneurship through successful business ventures, technology transfer, partnerships with government agencies, or cooperation with mission-based organizations or foundations. The first Baxter Prize will be awarded in 2018 at the 100th anniversary of ENDO, the Society's annual meeting.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Individuals and teams of scientists or clinicians are eligible to apply. If a team decides to enter, then one team member must be designated as the lead nominee. Being a member of the Endocrine Society is not required, although membership is strongly encouraged. To apply, or for more information, visit https://www.endocrine.org/awards/baxter-prize. The deadline for entries is September 15, 2017.

The award was established in memory of Endocrine Society Past President John D. Baxter, M.D., who was a world-renowned scientist known for being the first to clone the human growth hormone gene. During his career, he made many fundamental medical discoveries and translated them into clinical therapies that had far-reaching implications in the fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering, benefiting the health and welfare of patients worldwide. He passed away in 2011.

"In a fitting tribute to Dr. Baxter's legacy, this award will pave the way for innovative thinkers to improve the lives of people who have hormone health conditions," said Endocrine Society President Lynnette K. Nieman, M.D. "The Baxter Prize will provide support for deserving entrepreneurs who are changing the endocrinology field."

The Endocrine Society and Baxter's wife, the Hon. Lee D. Baxter, San Francisco Superior Court (ret.), announced the creation of the new award at ENDO 2016 in Boston, Mass.
Benjamin L. Prosser, PhD, an assistant professor of Physiology, in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received the Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the American Heart Association's (AHA) Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences, one of its scientific divisions.

Prosser's award was based on his research to date and the "originality, quality and impact" of an oral abstract he presented at the Council's 2017 Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) meeting, held earlier this month in Portland, Oregon. The presentation focused on the Prosser lab discovery that clinicians and researchers, working together, might improve the beating strength of heart cells from patients with heart failure by "softening" the internal cytoskeleton (the network of protein filaments and microtubules) of those cells.

Last year, in a paper published in Science, Prosser and his colleagues described advanced imaging techniques to explore microtubule behavior in beating heart-muscle cells from rodents. They discovered that healthy microtubules -- long believed to be stiff -- instead "buckle" with each contraction and then return to their original configuration. This process provides mechanical resistance for the beating of the heart, enabling the microtubules to serve as what Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, called "molecular shock absorbers" in a blog about the findings. But, Prosser and his colleagues found that manipulating heart cells to increase microtubule stiffness impeded contraction, impairing cardiac function. A tentative conclusion is that microtubules provide sufficient, but not excessive resistance in healthy heart muscle.

The visual evidence produced by the Prosser team was a major advance, since it is technically difficult to see parts of heart muscle in operation in real time. Together, the findings and visual documentation have potentially powerful implications for better understanding how microtubules affect the mechanics of the beating heart and what happens when the process goes wrong. Prosser is now examining whether specific drugs can make diseased heart cells isolated from patients with heart failure beat stronger by enabling the microtubules to slide back and forth more smoothly. This would allow the heart to pump blood more efficiently with each contraction. Promising early studies from patient cells were presented at this year's BCVS meeting.

Prosser received his BS degree in health and exercise science from Wake Forest University and his PhD in molecular medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Under the AHA's criteria, "early career investigators are PhDs and/or MDs who are still in training (e.g., residency, fellowship) or have completed training within the last four years; or PhDs and/or MDs who are within in the first four years after their first faculty appointment as of the award application date."
In a study including 150 military veterans with chronic low back pain, researcher Dr. Erik J. Groessl and his team from the VA San Diego Healthcare System found that veterans who completed a 12-week yoga program had better scores on a disability questionnaire, improved pain intensity scores, and a decline in opioid use.

Groessl is a researcher with the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on July 20, 2017.

The study shows promise for non-drug treatment of chronic low back pain, said Groessl.

"To be able to reduce the reliance upon opioids and other medications with side effects, it is crucial to establish evidence showing mind-body practices like yoga provide benefit in both veterans and non-veterans with chronic pain," he said.

Veterans in the study who were randomized to the yoga group attended a 12-week yoga program immediately after randomization. Comparison participants were invited to attend the yoga intervention only after six months.

The 12-week yoga intervention consisted of two 60-minute instructor-led yoga sessions per week, with home practice sessions encouraged. The intervention was based on hatha yoga, which involves yoga postures and movement sequences, along with regulated breathing and mindfulness meditation.

Outcomes were assessed at the baseline, six weeks, 12 weeks and six months.

Both study groups had reductions in disability scores after 12 weeks. However, notable differences emerged at the six-month assessment, with scores continuing to drop in the yoga group but increasing in the delayed-treatment group.

Along with those improvements, pain intensity decreased in the yoga group at all three time periods, while the delayed-treatment group had negligible changes.

There was also a 20 percent drop in opioid pain medication use at 12 weeks in both groups as determined through self-report questionnaires and a review of medical records.

Notably, reductions in disability and pain intensity were found despite the reductions in opioid use and other medical and self-help pain treatments at six months.

The trial confirms the findings of two prior randomized controlled trials with non-veterans showing that yoga is safe and can reduce pain and disability among adults with chronic low back pain.

The study is one of the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of yoga specifically in military veterans, a population that faces more health challenges and may be harder to treat than non-VA populations, say the researchers. They point out that as with other non-drug treatments for chronic low back pain, yoga may not help everyone or may not completely eliminate chronic low back pain, but reduced pain and disability can often be maintained long-term with ongoing yoga home practice.

Military veterans and active duty military personnel have higher rates of chronic pain than the general U.S. population, and the back is the area of the body that is most commonly affected. In addition to pain, those with the condition also report increased disability, psychological symptoms, and reduced quality of life. In the U.S., chronic low back pain is the leading cause of lost productivity and the second most common cause for physician visits. Billions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. on health care related to back pain.

The team says that given the results of their study, VA facilities nationwide may want to consider developing and expanding formal yoga programs to help veterans with back pain. Many VA facilities already do offer yoga classes, along with other complementary and integrative health programs.
Smokers who undergo a CT scan of their lungs are more likely to quit than those who dont, concludes a trial led by Cardiff University.

The findings of the study, looking at the effect of CT screening on smokers at high-risk of developing lung cancer, dispute the belief that a negative screening result offers a license to smoke and reveal that engaging with lung screening can give smokers an opportunity to access smoking cessation support, at a time when they are likely to be receptive to offers of help.

Dr. Kate Brain, Reader at Cardiff Universitys Division of Population Medicine, said:

Our trial shows that CT lung cancer screening offers a teachable moment for smoking cessation among high-risk groups in the UK. We now need evidence about the best ways of integrating lung cancer screening with stop-smoking support, so that services are designed to deliver the maximum health benefits for current and future generations.

The trial, led by researchers at Cardiff University working with the University of Liverpool, Kings College London and Queen Mary University, involved 4,055 participants aged 50-75 years who were randomized either to a group who underwent low-dose CT screening for early detection of lung cancer, or to a control group who did not undergo screening.

Of the smokers who took part in the screening, 10% had successfully quit after two weeks, and 15% had quit at two years  both higher than rates in the control group.

The UK Lung Cancer Screening (UKLS) pilot trial is the first to assess the feasibility, cost-effectiveness and behavioral impact of lung cancer screening, using a single low-dose CT screen on a high-risk population in the UK.
Aaron Albaugh peered out from under the brim of his cowboy hat, surveying the acres of hayfields in front of him. The fourth-generation rancher has raised about 450 cattle this year, in this remote corner of Lassen County, Calif.

His closest neighbor lives a half-mile away. And thats my brother, Albaugh said.

If I want to go see a movie, its 70 miles, round-trip, he added. If I want to go bowling, thats 100 miles, round-trip.

Living a half-days drive from civilization, you learn to do without, he explained. If your refrigerator breaks, you put your food on ice until the weekend when you can go buy a new one. With health care, its the same thing.

Put a Band-Aid on it, Albaugh said. I was raised: You dont need to cry and Suck it up, buttercup. Thats the way I still live, and I try to treat my kids the same way.

For people who were already used to doing without health coverage, it was quite a culture shock when the Affordable Care Act came along and they were told they had to buy it. Residents complained that the premiums and deductibles were too high  and with only two insurers selling plans in their area, there wasn't enough competition to bring down prices.

Many in this Republican corner of California are looking to the GOP majority in Congress to bring some relief. But for most of them, prices would jump even more under the main proposals the party has served up so far, and fewer services would be covered, according to analyses by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

Being told you have to have insurance you cant afford, and then that doesnt cover what you need? You are stuck, said Modoc County resident Althia Cline, who decided to forgo Obamacare coverage  and a surgery she needs to help with her asthma  when she couldnt find a health plan that her doctors accepted.

Just like the movie theater and the bowling alley, most medical specialists are miles away. In Modoc County, theres no hospital or birthing center where a woman can have a baby. Tessa Anklin, who lives in Canby, Calif., gave birth to her son and daughter over the border in Oregon, an hour and a half from home.

Anklin makes about $33,000 a year as a dental receptionist. Her husband does seasonal work baling hay and herding cattle at local ranches. While their kids are covered by Medi-Cal, neither parent gets health insurance through work, and before the Affordable Care Act passed, Anklin and her husband did without coverage for a while.

Two years ago, they bought a plan through Covered California. Their monthly premium was just $2 a month after the ACA subsidy, but their annual deductible was $10,000.

We paid for all of our medical services and our prescriptions, she said. We had no help until we reached the $10,000 deductible. So really, we had nothing.

Then, last year, their monthly premium jumped to $600. Anklin said shes not sure what happened. Its possible a technical glitch caused them to lose their subsidy. All she knew was that the plan was the same, their household income was the same, and they still faced the same hour-and-a-half drive to see doctors they almost never needed.

Anklin thought of all the other ways they could spend that money.

It makes the car payment. Almost your mortgage payment. Groceries for at least four months, she said. Thats a big difference, when you think about how little you actually use the health coverage.

Thats the reason they decided to cancel their health plan this year and go without insurance. But theyll still have to pay a penalty when the next tax season comes around.

It basically penalizes us one way or the other because we cant afford the coverage, she said. So, thats kind of difficult  to be that middle-class person.

Anklin said shed be happy to see Republicans get rid of Obamacare.

To me, its no good, if you have to force people to pay yet another something out of their paycheck, she said, when theyre already trying to survive with what they have.

But the Republican repeal and replace plan wouldnt make things much better for Anklin and her neighbors. Average premiums in California would double under the U.S. Senate plan, according to a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Anklin could end up paying roughly $2,000 more per year for the cheapest individual plan than under Obamacare, according to Kaisers county-by-county projections.

Thats not the kind of fix she had in mind.

Id love that insurance could be more affordable for families that need it, for families that work hard for it, Anklin said.

With Republican health care plans in flux, Democrats have been more willing to admit to Obamacares flaws. The Dems agree that the rising costs of marketplace plans are the chief complaint they hear about, too.

Democrats have also said if the Republican repeal effort fails, theyd be willing to work together on solutions. But its not clear the parties could agree on one that would help people like Anklin.

If they cant, Anklin said, she has no choice but to continue to go without coverage. Financially, it makes sense in the short term, but she still worries about an unforeseen surgery, serious illness or accident.

If I ever have a problem, she said, I know I will be paying for the rest of my life.
Researchers are rewriting the yeast genome from scratch as part of a controversial project aiming to create custom-made chunks of DNA codes.

One goal of the project is to create codes that can be inserted into cells to alter their function or even improve drug development. For example, mammalian cells or microbes could be created that are better at pumping out medications or new vaccines.

Recreating the yeast genome is a mammoth task. New York University researcher Jef Boeke is heading a team of scientists from 11 labs across four continents who are dividing up the work to rewrite the chain of 12 million nucleobases (A, C, G and T). This will involve the addition, deletion or alteration of more than a million nucleobases.

Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Rewritten DNA has already been incorporated into viruses and bacteria. Australian researchers have recently constructed the Zika virus genome in the hope of better understanding potential treatments and at Harvard University, scientists are trying to create a harmless salmonella strain that could be used as a vaccine against salmonella food poisoning.

Although yeast has a larger and more complex genome than the microbes investigated so far, researchers understand the yeast genome well and they know it will exchange man-made DNA for its own. So far, Boeke and colleagues have built about one-third of the genome, which they hope will be completed by the end of the year.

However, the idea of redesigning DNA is disconcerting to some people who are concerned about making microbes with properties that cannot necessarily be fully understood. Lauries Zoloth of Northwestern University also points out how disturbing such research is to people who worry that reconstructing life from scratch would put humans in a position of unwarranted power. Such projects are not just about science, she says: "It is an ethical and moral and theological proposal of significant proportions."

Last year, Boeke and colleagues also announced the launch of a separate project called Genome Project-write, which is aimed at reducing the cost of constructing and testing large genomes, including human ones. The research still requires funding, but in the meantime, project leaders are discussing the ethical, legal and social aspects involved in the sensitive issue of reconstructing the human genome.

"The notion that we could actually write a human genome is simultaneously thrilling to some and not so thrilling to others," Boeke said. "So we recognize this is going to take a lot of discussion."
A team of scientists are to pool their expertise to tackle one of the biggest health challenges facing society - the ability of common infections to resist drug treatment.

A newly created research facility is to bring together scientists from a range of disciplines to address the problem, which is estimated to cause 700,000 deaths each year.

A 411,000 award from the Garfield Weston Foundation will support the creation of the lab, to be housed in the refurbished Darwin Building at the University's King's Buildings campus.

The development takes place as many bacterial, parasite and viral infections evolve to fight against drugs, making conventional treatments ineffective. The problem is caused by a number of factors that enable and encourage microbes to develop resistance to commonly used drugs and, if it continues unchecked, common infections could become deadly.

Scientists in the facility, which will be part of a flagship building redevelopment at the University of Edinburgh, will seek to better understand the ways in which bacteria, parasites and viruses are developing resistance to treatments, and how best to address this.

Dozens of researchers, and their collaborators around the world, will work to aid scientific knowledge and understanding of resistance to antibiotic or antiviral treatments - collectively known as antimicrobial resistance - in people and animals.

They will aim to help develop fast diagnostic tests for infection, to improve how drugs are prescribed. The team will also seek to support development of vaccines and alternative treatments for infection.

Researchers will aim to build on the University's first class capabilities in biology, medicine and veterinary medicine, and its links with top researchers and clinicians around the world.

The Darwin Building upgrade at the University's science and engineering campus will feature nine floors of labs, including the antimicrobial facility, and suites of analytical equipment. Its open plan aspects are designed to foster collaboration.

The University's historic post of Professor of Natural History, which was established in 1770, will be reintroduced as head of the lab dedicated to antimicrobial resistance.

Professor Keith Matthews, of the School of Biological Sciences, said: "Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest challenges facing society today, both in terms of human health and wellbeing, and in the stability of our livestock farming. This support from the Garfield Weston Foundation ensures that Edinburgh will remain at the forefront of the fight against AMR research for years to come."

Philippa Charles, Director of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: "We are delighted to be able to support the important and innovative work on antimicrobial resistance at the University of Edinburgh. This kind of cutting-edge scientific research, with tangible societal benefit, is exactly the kind of initiative which the Garfield Weston Foundation aims to encourage. AMR is a huge threat to all of us and we are proud to be able to support the University in tackling this, and other global challenges, through their 'Building a New Biology' project."
Siemens Healthineers announced today its strategic alliance with Relaymed to bring customers secure, cloud-based connectivity for Siemens DCA Vantage Analyzer and CLINITEK Status point-of-care (POC) instruments. With Relaymed integration, patient test results are automatically and instantly sent from the POC instruments to physician-office electronic health record (EHR) systems, reducing the likelihood of human error by eliminating the manual input step. Through its collaboration with Relaymed, Siemens Healthineers aims to enable healthcare providers to meet their current challenges and excel in their respective environments.

Our exclusive agreement with Relaymed means an extension of our connectivity offerings for Siemens Healthineers point-of-care instruments to meet the needs of healthcare facilities burdened with excessive administrative tasks that interrupt patient care, said Michael Sampson, Senior Vice President, Point of Care Diagnostics, North America, Siemens Healthineers. Relaymed is a complement to our existing industry leading POC Informatics portfolio and will specifically address needs for the physician office market. By enabling the delivery of patient results directly to EHR systems, we address a variety of manual-input challenges that trouble our customers, including discrepancies in reporting that ultimately can affect reimbursement.

"We were finding our testing procedure to be time consuming and inefficient so we sought out a device connectivity solution, said Christy Vedia, Senior Director of Operations and Compliance Officer for MD Medical Group. Since we implemented the service, we now have it live on 120 devices across 30 locations. We also find the data analytics tool incredibly useful as it has helped us to understand how we can cut down on reagent waste."

Relaymeds seamless integration ensures all tests are saved into the EHR, reducing the potential for revenue loss resulting from unbilled tests. Further, the systems total data capture eliminates errors from manual data-entry transcription and ensures accuracy from instrument to EHR. Relaymed automatically captures all quality control samples run and provides data analytics for CLIA compliance. Relaymed is HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-assured, using the latest industry standard security measures, for peace of mind patient data is in safe hands.

We're delighted to partner with Siemens Healthineers, the leaders in POC. This partnership ensures our clients benefit from our close collaboration with optimized efficiency, so they can provide better care. As the physician office market continues to consolidate, healthcare systems face overwhelming pressure to grow revenue and increase efficiency. Relaymed is the affordable solution that helps them address this, whilst also ensuring data integrity across their system," said Neil Farish, CEO at Relaymed.

Source: https://usa.healthcare.siemens.com/press/pressreleases/healthcare-news-2017-05-18-1
University of Leicester research team receives grant from Cancer Research UK to explore adolescent use of e-cigarettes

"A great deal of controversy surrounds the extent to which e-cigarettes might act as a 'gateway' to smoking, and might be exploited by tobacco companies as a new means of recruiting a generation of nicotine dependents. However, equally, e-cigarettes might offer a way for young smokers to switch to a safer source of nicotine or to stop entirely" - Professor Jason Hughes, University of Leicester.

A research team led by the University of Leicester will be exploring how young people use e-cigarettes or 'vape' as part of a new project funded by Cancer Research UK.

Professor Jason Hughes, of the University of Leicester's College of Social Science, Arts and Humanities, is supported by Dr Michelle O'Reilly, in collaboration with other researchers from the Universities of Leicester (John Goodwin, Khalid Karim and Grace Sykes) and Leeds (Kahryn Hughes) on the project, which has a total value of 278,000.

The project entitled 'Adolescent Vaping Careers' will explore aspects of the ascendancy of e-cigarette use or 'vaping'.

Professor Hughes said:

A great deal of controversy surrounds the extent to which e-cigarettes might act as a 'gateway' to smoking, and might be exploited by tobacco companies as a new means of recruiting a generation of nicotine dependents. However, equally, e-cigarettes might offer a way for young smokers to switch to a safer source of nicotine or to stop entirely. The study focuses on the social and material conditions under which some users might switch from vaping to smoking, or indeed from smoking to vaping, or perhaps even towards full cessation. It explores the interaction between social learning, media influences, peer networks, and a range of socio-economic factors in influencing the different usage trajectories of adolescent vapers.

Through an exploration of young people's understandings, uses and experiences of e-cigarettes, the project will examine the relationship between vaping and smoking, particularly how this shifts over time and in relation to a range of different influences.

The research team hope to offer a more adequate evidential base from which to inform harm reduction and tobacco control strategies which target this particularly vulnerable age group.

Professor Jason Hughes's first book, Learning to Smoke, was winner of the 2006 Norbert Elias prize and explored the socio-legal regulation as well as the processes of 'self-regulation' in relation to smoking.

Source: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2017/july/adolescent-vapers-university-of-leicester-researchers-to-explore-the-use-of-e-cigarettes-by-young-people
Daimler's supervisory board will meet on Wednesday to discuss allegations that German carmakers were involved in anti-competitive behaviour, sources familiar with the matter said. The European Union and German antitrust regulators are investigating whether BMW, VW, Porsche, Audi and Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler held meetings to discuss suppliers, prices and standards to the disadvantage of foreign carmakers.The U.S. Justice Departments Antitrust Division is aware of the press reports, a source close to the department said.The division, along with antitrust enforcers in other countries, has had a long-running criminal probe into price-fixing in the auto parts industry that has led to dozens of companies paying criminal fines.While carmaker associations commonly discuss how to implement new emissions standards and technologies, the question being probed by regulators is whether talks among the German manufacturers constituted anti-competitive behaviour.German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday that German carmakers colluded to fix the prices of diesel emissions treatment systems using industry committees. Companies found guilty of breaching EU cartel rules face fines of as much as 10 percent of their global revenue.A person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday that Daimler first raised the issue of collusion with cartel authorities, a move that could earn it immunity.Under EU rules, a company blowing the whistle on wrongful collusion usually escapes penalties. VW's MAN trucks division was spared any fines last year after disclosing price fixing with Daimler and other truckmakers prior to 2011.Should wrongdoing be found, VW could be treated leniently too if, as reported by Der Spiegel, it also provided early evidence to cartel authorities.VW and Daimler declined comment on Tuesday.VW, Europe's largest automaker, will also hold a supervisory board meeting on Wednesday about the alleged collusion.The auto industry committees allegedly used to fix prices operated outside of the official industry association VDA, which counts foreign suppliers and foreign-owned carmakers like Opel among its members.In a statement, VDA said compliance policies for members preclude anti-competitive behaviour, adding the issues being probed by regulators "relate to a format which was not part of the VDA and its work"."A couple of months ago manufacturers approached VDA, to integrate further development, standard setting and norm setting activities into VDA," the association said, adding existing members were being consulted about how to deal with the matter.
For almost a month, Meals on Wheels of Fremont was not delivering meals.

The programs clients, about 35 people, had to find a new way to get a noon meal each weekday.

But on Monday its volunteer drivers hit the road again. All say the meals are bigger and better than ever.

Im very pleased that they started this again, Joyce Ball, 89, said. It makes my life a lot easier.

Treat America Food Services in Omaha caters the meals to Providence Place, an assisted living center on 32nd Street in north Fremont. Sandee Camp, who has been working with Meals on Wheels of Fremont for 22 years, puts the meals in coolers and handles any issues.

I know that everybody that got a meal said how nice and hot it was, Camp said. Its a good amount of food.

Each meal now costs $5.50 for the client.

We had to go up 50 cents, but it was worth it, Camp said.

Camps hospitalization caused the program to come to a halt. Previously, Premier Estates cooked the meals, but the nursing home told Meals on Wheels of Fremont it would stop cooking the meals in August. Because of this, the search for a replacement was on before meal delivery stopped.

Seishon Stecher, Providence Place executive chef, was upset when she heard about Meals on Wheels of Fremonts stop.

I saw it in the paper (the Fremont Tribune), Stecher said. I was very upset about it, so I posted it on Facebook.

The Providence Place staff decided to make something happen.

I felt bad for all the people who didnt get meals, cause Ive been doing food service for 22 years, Stecher said. I felt heartful, and Im like Oh my gosh, what can we do? So then I hurried up and tried to get a hold of people to get this going. These people are relying on this.

Providence Place doesnt do much other than lend a space to Meals on Wheels of Fremont, but it was an important step to get the program back up and running. The nonprofit must use a state-approved kitchen.

I asked her how much she would charge, and it was nothing, director Deanna Freitag said. Just a little (space) is all we need.

Freitag said she received many calls offering help while Meals on Wheels of Fremont was not delivering. All clients and volunteer drivers have rejoined the program. In fact, a few more clients and drivers joined since the interruption in service.

Freitag said Providence Place offered to cook the meals, but they opted to cater the meals.

Theres nothing about it that isnt better, Freitag said. We have a menu; they know what theyre going to have every day of the month. The portions are bigger and the cooking is superior. Im very pleased with it and so is everybody else Ive talked to.

Meals on Wheels of Fremont is funded by the clients and donations from charities and churches. The nonprofit group should not be confused with Meals on Wheels of America programs, which take federal funding, Freitag said. Meals on Wheels of Fremont does not receive any federal or state funding.

Anyone interested in receiving meals or becoming a volunteer can reach Freitag at (402) 721-4444.
New Delhi: State-owned Central Bank of India (CBI) on Wednesday said a downgrade rating by Moody's Investor Service on the lender has been "unsolicited" as the former didn't approach for any such rating.



Earlier this week on Monday, the global rating agency Moody's had downgraded ratings on Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) to Ba3 from Ba1, while affirming ratings on nine peer banks including Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank, at Baa3/Prime-3.



Central Bank said there is no diminution in government support to the bank post the ratings downgrade.



"We would like to inform that the bank also came to know the news from releases/media reports. We inform that the captioned rating was unsolicited and Central Bank of India has not approached Moody's Investor Service for any such rating," the bank said in a regulatory filing.



The stock exchanges had sought clarity from the bank and few of its peers yesterday on the said news item.



"We do not see any diminution in government support as apprehended in the rating report, on account on which the rating has been downgraded," it said further.



Central Bank of India said it has been fully complying with applicable provisions of the Regulation 30 of Sebi on listing and disclosure requirements in its true letter and spirit.



"All events, information, developments which have bearing on the performance/operations of the bank as well as price sensitive information are submitted forthwith to stock exchanges, " it said in the filing.



Stock of the bank closed 0.16 per cent up at Rs 91.65 on BSE.
Global Times, Chinas English daily, has put out aggressive and sometimes offensive commentary on the border standoff with India at Doklam trijunction. Beyond the diplomatic arguments, a war or words is raging in the comment section of the stories where India has been criticized with tens of users, with seemingly Indian names, hitting out at Beijing.Sample an article titled Military conflicts to escalate if India refuses to withdraw troops, which invited sharp reactions from seemingly Indian users. Global Times does not have the guts to even post comments without sensoring, wrote one Harish Kumar.China shame on you. Every day you are eating land of other countries still you are hungry. Your hunger will end up with war but India is ready this time and your PLA is a Paper Tiger India army Just cross the border your grave is waiting on the other side, wrote one Abhishek Thakur.Such comments have led to some users with Chinese names reacting equally boorishly. When one user named Sharma Ji wrote a response to the opinion piece titled Time for a second lesson for forgetful India, The most rubbish article on a dispute.Only idiots can have this kind of thinking and only Global Times can publish such a bullsh*t article. He soon got a reply from a Chinese user named SH: Indias argument or excuse for its mistake is far more rubbish and pathetic, lol.Another Indian user dared Beijing to start the war. If I continue to read Global Times for another one month, I will surely be in mental hospital. It would be better if you people please, I request you, start the WAR. Every Indian wants to see good fireworks over Himalaya. Teach a lesson at once. So that you people go along with us to mass grave.Not all are, however, baying for war. Some argued that India and China should forget their differences and form an all-powerful Asian bloc. India-China have many common thoughts and values among their people. The unity of India-China force can show tremendous power to the world, wrote one Viresh Janani.The piece which drew the sharpest, most vitriolic responses was an opinion piece titled Hindu nationalism risks pushing India into war with China. The comments ranged from reminding China that they dont live in 1962 anymore, to calling the Chinese media cowards. Defending India, one user said, Muslims are safer in India than in your China or in Pakistan. In your China no one has Freedom. Very pathetic and look who is talking about India.Hitting back, a Chinese users said, You are wrong  China is helping its Xinjiang Muslims to come out of their insular shells and become one with the nation by restricting the pagan practices being followed.
New Delhi: A wholesale trader of grocery items allegedly committed suicide in a village in Birbhum district of West Bengal and held the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as directly responsible in a suicide note.



According to a Press Trust of India report, Pinaki Dutta (45) of Narayanpur village was found dead in his room on Monday night. Police said he had consumed poison.



A suicide note was found near the body where it was written: Amar mrityur jonne keu dayi noy... kebalmatro GST dayi (no one is responsible for my death... only GST is responsible).



"We have found a suicide note near the body. It is true that the letters GST are written in the note. But, we are not jumping to conclusions till our investigation is complete," said Birbhum Superintendent of Police N Sudheer Kumar.



A relative of Dutta said the trader was known in the village as a good person, but was worried for the last couple of days over his business. The note has evoked much curiosity in the village and adjoining localities,



An autopsy was conducted on the body at Rampurhat Hospital and was later handed over to the family of the deceased.
DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)! https://t.co/gpkZVKFcOu  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 26, 2017

No harm. The super carriers from the Gulf that we love to frequent carry more Arabic newspapers than English ones. Offer people a choice  https://t.co/YAS5RXWV1G  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 26, 2017

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a directive to airlines, asking them to carry an equal number of Hindi and English magazines and newspapers.In a letter dated July 17, the civil aviation regulator asked all Indian carriers to ensure that the directive is followed. Airlines should carry Hindi and English publications in equal quantities.Indian flights either dont carry Hindi newspapers and magazines or they carry them in limited numbers. This goes against the official language policy of India, it said.Hitting out at the DGCA, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted: DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)!Congress national spokesperson Sanjay Jha, too, opposed the directive and said, Why has this become an issue? Have the passengers asked for Hindi newspapers and magazines?Former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah dismissed the matter and claimed that the carriers from the Gulf countries carry more Arabic newspapers than the English ones. Offer people a choice, he added.The DGCA directive is likely to fuel the war of words over the alleged imposition of Hindi after signboards at Bengaluru Metro stations were covered up.
Kochi: Police in Kerala have questioned actress Kavya Madhavan, wife of arrested actor Dileep, in connection with the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent South Indian actress.



The Special Investigation Team questioned Kavya on Tuesday at Dileep's house near Kochi. Sources said she was questioned whether chief accused Sunil Kumar visited her boutique Lakshya after the crime and whether they handed over to her a memory card containing visuals of the assault.



Police sources said CCTV footage from nearby showed Sunil visiting the boutique run by Kavya's mother, while video from cameras at Lakshya on the three days after the crime were apparently deleted.



Kavya, a state-award winning actress who has worked in over 76 Malayalam films, married Dileep in 2015 following his divorce from his first wife Manju Warrier. Dileep is now in judicial custody under charges of conspiracy, abduction and sexual assault.



The popular south Indian actress was abducted and sexually assaulted in Kochi on February 17 while she was on her way back from a shooting location.



A group of men who stopped her car after a chase, sexually assaulted her in the moving vehicle for about two hours. They also allegedly took pictures and videos of the crime before dropping her off by the roadside.



The police case is that a supari of Rs 1.5 crore was offered for the attack, and that Rs 2 lakh in cash which was missing from Kavya's boutique was in fact given to Sunil.



Personal enmity is suspected to be the reason for the crime , with police saying that Dileep had a bitter falling out with the actress who is a good friend of his first wife Manju.
New Delhi: During the height of the Kargil crisis in 1999, an Indian Air Force fighter pilot mistakenly put a Pakistani military base in its sights and was ready to bomb it, but was pulled back by his superiors, ex-senior officials of the IAF said.



The June 24, 1999, incident had the potential of triggering an all-out war between the two nuclear armed neighbours as, according to Pakistani media, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and then Pakistan Army Chief Pervez Musharraf were present at the base or were in the vicinity.



According to IAF officials who were then holding senior positions in the IAF's Western Air Command, a flight commander was tasked to bomb Point 4388 in Kargil but he instead ended up aiming at a Pakistani military base in Gulteri through a cockpit laser designation system (CLDS).



The incident was first reported today by The Indian Express newspaper. Under protocol, a Jaguar pilot first "lased over" the area using the CLDS while a second Jaguar was to drop the bomb on the target coming in the pre-designated path identified by the first one. "Lasing" refers to locking in on the coordinates of a target.



Such a protocol of using two fighter jets was used then as only trainer Jaguars had the CLDS system.



The Pakistani media had reported on June 25, 1999, that Sharif was in Gulteri where in an address to the troops he had called for a dialogue with India to defuse the war-like situation along the Line of Control.



The Indian Express said both Sharif and Musharraf were present at the base when it became the focus of the IAF jet's target, even though the government -- then headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- had not allowed the IAF to cross over the LoC.



When contacted, an IAF spokesperson said he would not comment on operational issues. Retired Air Marshal A K Singh, who was a senior officer in the Western Air Command then, said he was also airborne when the two Jaguars went for the operation.



He said the pilot of the first aircraft called him and told him that the target was a big military camp and that he had it on the CLDS.



"The time was around 8.45 AM. I was airborne in the area. When he told me about the target, I told him not to fire." At the time, Retired Air Marshal Vinod Patney was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command, and was overseeing IAF's operation in Kargil.



When contacted he told PTI that when the pilot of the first aircraft had a doubt about the target, he told the pilot of the second jet not to fire.



Both Air Marshal Singh and Air Marshal Patney said they were not aware of the presence of Sharif and Musharraf at the Gulteri military base that day and the matter was never discussed in official meetings.
Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led tributes to martyrs of the 1999 Kargil war to mark Kargil Vijay Diwas on Wednesday.Taking to Twitter, PM Modi hailed Indias military prowess and remembered the sacrifices made by the armed forces in the war against Pakistan.Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated across India on July 26 every year to commemorate the emphatic victory in the Kargil War against Pakistan and honour the war heroes.The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights.It was on this day in 1999 that the Indian Army successfully took control of the posts in the extremely difficult and treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain.The Central Command of the Indian Army will celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas on Wednesday through a series of functions.Functions to pay homage to the gallant martyrs would be held in all stations across the seven states under the area of responsibility of the Central Command.These will be followed by felicitation of participants of Kargil War, veer naris, parents of martyrs, veterans and widows.In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would pay homage to the martyrs at 'Smritika' War Memorial in presence of senior serving and retired military officers, junior commissioned officers and other ranks.Major General Vinod Sharma, General Officer Commanding, Madhya Uttar Pradesh Sub Area, will lay the wreath and felicitate the war heroes and the families of martyrs.(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday arrested Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah in connection with a money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing.



Officials said Shah was arrested in Srinagar and is expected to be brought to Delhi on Wednesday. He would be produced in a court here.



The Enforcement Directorate had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central investigating agency. A Delhi court had earlier this month issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the separatist leader.



"The warrant has been executed," a senior official said. The agency had issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case, wherein the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.



Shah in the past had told PTI that the ED case against him was "politically motivated". The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.



Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.



During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission.



Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments over the past year.



The ED, sources said, wants to probe the "proceeds of crime" of alleged terror financing in this case.



(With PTI inputs)




Jaipur: Mount Abu Tehsil in Rajasthan recorded the highest ever rainfall of 77 cm in the last 24 hours, MeT officials said on Monday.



The State Disaster Management and Relief Department has declared a red alert in Jalore, Barmer, Pali and Jodhpur districts for the next 24 hours in view of heavy rainfall predicted in the areas.



Rescue operation was on in several areas of Jalore district where situation was critical.



The Indian Army's Battle Axe Division personnel rescued 31 people from flood-affected areas in Pali district's Pawata village and distributed food and medicines to aid the flood victims, a defence spokesperson said.



The team mobilised several columns of troops along with specialised equipment and trained manpower to boost the ongoing rescue and relief work in the worst flood-affected district after receiving a requisition from the Rajasthan government.



Additional columns of the Army were also moved for deployment in Jalore and Sanchor to assist the state authorities in relief work, he said.



"Indian Air Force choppers were pressed into service to rescue people stuck in the affected areas, but they could not fly due to the bad weather condition," secretary, state disaster and relief department, Hemant Gera said.



He said that seven people including five minors had taken shelter on a tree in Siyana area of Jalore district and teams were trying to take them out to a safe place. In Sirohi district, 1,300 persons have been rescued and three persons were airlifted in Pali district.



Gera said that rainfall this year was 33 percent above normal whereas there was rain deficit in Baran, Bundi, Dausa and Dholpur districts.



According to MeT department, in East Rajasthan, Mount Abu Tehsil in Sirohi district recorded 77 cm of rainfall, Mount Abu (district Sirohi) 73 cm, Reodar (district Sirohi) 40 cm, Sirohi (district Sirohi) 38 cm, Pindwara (district Sirohi) 30 cm, and Abu Road (district Sirohi) 27 cm in the last 24 hours.



In West Rajasthan, Bhinmal (district Jalore) recorded 26 cm rains, Sumerpur (district Pali) 23 cm, Erinpura/Jawai Dam (district Pali) 23 cm, Sanchore (district Jalore) 14 cm, Bali (district Pali) 14 cm, and Sayla (district Jalore) 14 cm in the last 24 hours.



From 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, 24.3 mm rainfall was recorded in Jodhpur and 11.7 mm in Ajmer. The MeT department has predicted that heavy to very heavy rainfall was likely to occur at South-East Rajasthan and heavy to very heavy at isolated places in South-West Rajasthan during the next 24 hours.



Meanwhile, the North-West Railways have cancelled two trains. Two trains were diverted and two other trains were partially terminated.
Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap was arrested on Wednesday by Mumbai Police and was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and endangering lives of others, after a four-storey building collapsed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar, killing 17 people.Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, said that initial reports suggest that the accused was carrying out illegal renovation in the building. "An investigation to this effect is underway."Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry into the matter. This came after residents of the building had alleged that tragedy struck due to renovation work being carried out in a nursing home on the ground floor, owned by Shitap."There was a renovation work being carried out in the building. There was a nursing home, named Shitap Nursing Home, on the ground floor of the building which is owned by Sunil Shitap. A meeting of residents was also called on Monday night opposing this renovation work," news agency ANI quoted a resident as saying.Fadnavis visited the collapse site on Tuesday evening. Police are investigating the matter and BMC will also investigate and submit its report within 15 days. The government will take stringent action against culprits, he said.Civic officials said that four women and an infant were among those killed. (Photo: Manish Dubey/ Network18)Congress leader Praveen Chheda, the former MLA from this constituency, has said that the onus of compensating for the mishap lies on Shitap.Property belongs to Shitap. He was running a hospital on the ground floor and was now going to run a guest house. The onus lies on him, he said.BMC officials are yet to ascertain the reason of collapse, though.Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant told CNN-News18 that he didn't know what exactly happened, calling the incident saddening. When told about the allegations that the tragedy befell the building because of the renovation work on the ground floor, he said: "We cannot leave anyone... it's a heinous offence. An inquiry has to be set up." He further added that Shitap had never been an office bearer in the party.Civic officials said that four women and an infant were among those killed. Eleven people were injured and 30 have been extricated from the rubble so far. The injured have been admitted to various hospitals in the neighbourhood, said Mahesh Narvekar, the chief of BMCs Disaster Management cell.The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been pressed into service to rescue those trapped under the rubble. The Mumbai Police cordoned off the area while traffic was blocked on the Lal Bhadur Shastri road to provide a 'green corridor' to rush those rescued to hospitals.The structure, which came down on Tuesday morning at Ghatkopar's Damodar Park area, housed around 15 families. About 75 per cent of the debris has been removed and a search operation is underway to find if anyone is still trapped under the rubble, said officials.Eleven people were injured and 30 have been extricated from the rubble so far. (Photo: Manish Dubey/ Network18)The civic body's control room had received a call around 10.45 am about the accident, a BMC official said. Fire engines, a rescue van and ambulances were rushed to the spot immediately.According to a local, it was a 35-year-old structure. The city and its suburbs received heavy rains over the last several days. The building was not listed among those in dangerous category, as per local residents.In the morning, eyewitnesses said, they heard a loud sound, similar to that of lightning as the building came down in a massive heap of rubble. When I came out of my building, I found a lot of dust and cries of people seeking help. I saw parts of the building collapse, an eyewitness said.According to a written reply by the government in the assembly about unsafe buildings in the metropolis, a survey by the BMC earlier this year had identified 617 such structures. These buildings were termed as "dilapidated" in the survey report. The BMC has initiated action on the report under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.In all, 112 such buildings were vacated, while 42 were referred to the technical advisory committee to decide their fate.The BMC has also submitted an affidavit in the Bombay High Court regarding 45 buildings identified as dangerous for habitation where people continue to live. 
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited newly-elected Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga to visit India. The move is seen as a subtle message to China since Battulga is a vocal critic of China who advocated greater economic independence from Beijing during his election campaign.



This comes amidst Indias outreach to Mongolia and a border standoff with China at the Bhutan trijunction.



Nearly 70% of Mongolias foreign trade is with China alone. Moreover, 90% of its exports are to China. During the 2017 Mongolian Presidential elections, Battulga had said, rail and transportation for any country is both a national security and an economic issue. In a 2014 interview, he had said that a depletion of resources would mean there will definitely be conflict between the Mongolians and the Chinese.



Ties between China and its northern neighbor hit a low last year when the Buddhist-majority Mongolia had invited Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to visit. China had reportedly closed off a crucial border crossing after this visit, which had left several Mongolian truck drivers stranded at the border. This had led to Mongolia cracking under pressure and it promised never to invite the Dalai Lama again.



After Battulgas electoral victory, former President Pranab Mukherjee had extended his wishes to him even as the Indian Ambassador to Mongolia was one of the first to meet him.



In 2015, Modi had visited Ulaanbaataras part of his outreach and promised to extend a $1 billion credit line to the country, which is nestled between Russia and China. This is expected to find favour with President Battulga, who advocates lesser economic ties with China.
New Delhi: The Union government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that privacy is more of a social notion than a jural concept.



No need to recognise an independent right to privacy. It is more a sociological notion than jural concept, Attorney General K K Venugopal told the SC.



The government said defining contours of privacy isn't possible. Privacy is as good a notion as pursuit of happiness, the AG said.



A nine-member SC bench is examining whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not.



Earlier in the day, four non-BJP ruled states, including Karnataka and West Bengal, moved the apex court seeking to intervene in the ongoing hearing on the issue of Right to Privacy.



Besides Karnataka and West Bengal, two Congress-led states of Punjab and Puducherry took a stand opposite to the Central government which had said that Right to Privacy is a common law right and not a Fundamental Right.



Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the four states, initiated his arguments before a nine-judge

Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar and said that in the light of technological advancement, the court is needed to take a fresh look on the Right to Privacy and its contours in the modern day.



Privacy cannot be an absolute right. But it is a Fundamental Right. This court needs to strike a balance, he submitted before the bench also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.



The apex court had on July 18 set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench by a five-judge bench.



The petitioners had claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the Aadhaar scheme, was a breach of the fundamental Right to Privacy.



The Centre had on July 19 submitted in the apex court that Right to Privacy cannot fall in the bracket of

fundamental rights as there are binding decisions of larger benches that it is only a common law right evolved through judicial pronouncements.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Central government that right to privacy was neither all about Aadhaar nor was this an elitist concept but that it also concerned the little poor man of this country.



Not everything is Aadhaar-centric think about the little poor man too. Dont forget his right to privacy, a nine-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar told Attorney General K K Venugopal.



The observation came during the daylong hearing as the AG sought to put across the point that only upper middle class and upper class were concerned about the right to privacy in a country where 270 million people required assistance of the State for their basic needs such as food, shelter and clothes.



Venugopal was categorical that privacy at best could be premised upon right to personal liberty but it has to give way to right to life of 270 million people who can access basic necessities through Aadhaar.



The right to life transcends the right to privacy...nobody can be heard to say my right to personal liberty, which may be claimed as repository of right to privacy is absolute. Even the right to life is not absolute. State can take it away through procedure established by law. That's why you have death sentence which take away your right to life, and you have incarceration, which curtails your liberty, he contended.



Venugopal added that something as amorphous as privacy cannot be assigned the status of a fundamental right.



Privacy is a heterogeneous concept. It will have many shades, many instances and manifestations in the form of sub-species. Privacy is in fact an umbrella term for several claims. How will you propound a generalised right to privacy? It cant be absolute and has to be qualified. This will have to be decided on a case by case basis. Some claims may qualify as a violation of right to privacy, some may not. Every single claim of privacy, irrespective of context, extent and manifestation, cannot automatically and ipso facto be elevated to being a fundamental right, maintained Venugopal.



The AG then went on to state that privacy was in fact more like a sociological notion, derived of something like a pursuit of happiness, but it lacked the jural concept.



Privacy is a concept meant more for developed countries but not for a country like India...The upper middle class is very happy. They look after themselves. What about poverty? he said.



But Justices Rohinton F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud retorted that privacy cannot be dismissed as an elitist concept.



Privacy isnt an elitist conceptthis will affect large masses. State can't get a blanket sanction to do whatever it wants Can State say we will compel slum dwellers to undergo sterlisation since it may control population? Can you force poor women suffering from cervical cancer to take experimental drugs? asked Justice Chandrachud.



As Venugopal pressed that something as socially beneficial as Aadhaar cannot be debunked on a group accusing it of violating their right to privacy, Justice Chandrachud referred to certain instances from the 1975 Emergency to buttress that privacy affects the poor equally and the might of the State may not always be the perfect example.



You may argue that the States interest is legitimate but you cannot deny there is no rightforces sterilisations were done during the emergency. Eugenic sterilization was followed. Do we want to justify them all? he questioned the AG. Justice Nariman also intervened, saying the governments arguments was a classic case of throwing the baby with the bath water.



At this, CJI Khahar asked Venugopal to describe what according to him the worth of right to privacy was. Venugopal responded that privacy may have certain aspect of a fundamental right but it cannot be classed as such. The CJI replied that that if the government was conceding that privacy was a fundamental right, the case did not require to be heard any further and proceedings could come to an end by recording the AGs statement.



Venugopal, however, clarified that he never meant to say that privacy, as a term, could be declared to be a fundamental right. There is a fundamental right to privacy but it is wholly qualified right. Since right to privacy consists of diverse aspects and it is a sub-specie of liberty, every aspect of the sub-species will not qualify as a fundamental right, he clarified.



The AG added the government was willing to go back to a 3-judge or a 5-judge bench to show how Aadhaar did not come under the ambit of violation of any of the fundamental rights. It will be preposterous to say that Aadhaar will turn India into a totalitarian State, said Venugopal.



As the AG made conditional statements, Justice Nariman said that the nine-judge bench would rather appreciate all the arguments and come up with a judgment for conceptual clarity of the nation on the issue.



The arguments over the right to privacy, which has arisen in the wake of controversies surrounding alleged breach under the Aadhaar scheme, will resume tomorrow.
Male: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accused India of "undermining" the spirit of the SAARC by "casting shadows" of bilateral issues on the multilateral forum for regional cooperation.



In a joint press conference with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen here, Sharif on Tuesday said that the last Islamabad SAARC summit was not the first time that India caused harm to the SAARC by seeking its postponement.



"It had done so on four occasions," he claimed.



After holding talks with Yameen, Sharif said Pakistan and Maldives have agreed to work together to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a vibrant organisation and a vehicle to realise their shared dreams for a peaceful and prosperous region.



"India undermined and violated the spirit of SAARC Charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).



"We, however, remain grateful for President Yameen's support regarding the SAARC summit in Islamabad," he added.



Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue.



India pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad last year citing increased "cross-border" attacks after heightened tension with Pakistan over Uri terror attack.



Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.



Sharif, who is here on a three-day official visit on an invitation of President Yameen, attended the island nation's 52nd Independence Day celebrations as the chief guest.



The two countries have agreed to further enhance their bilateral ties in various fields, overcome common challenges and work jointly to make SAARC a vibrant organisation. Sharif also briefed Yameen on Pakistan's efforts to fight the scourge of terrorism.



"We have launched successful operations against terrorists and have won important victories," he said.



The two countries signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, trade, education, capacity building of civil servants and training for diplomats.
Kolkata: Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant permission to 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, to visit the state.



Any such visit to the by the Tibetan leader living in exile in India is likely to anger China. This comes at a time when the two countries are engaged in a standoff in Doklam plateau in the Sikkim sector.



In 2016, the Centre had lifted restrictions on Dorjes movement within India after five years. Following this, he visited Arunachal Pradesh, an area claimed by China.



I also invited the Prime Minister to visit Sikkim after the rainy season came to an end this year, which he agreed and promised to make a trip soon, Chamling told the media after his meeting with Modi.



China has time and again expressed discontent about India sheltering Dorje and had warned that such act might complicate the boundary dispute between both the countries.



Beside Karmapa issue, Sikkim CM also requested PM Modi to intervene in to reservation of Assembly seats for the Limboo and Tamang Scheduled Tribes communities. Over the years, Sikkim has witnessed several protests from Limboo and Tamang community who are demanding to increase the number of seats at Sikkim Legislative Assembly.



On the Darjeeling unrest issue, he said, I apprised our PM about the latest situation in Darjeeling Hills, resulting in shortage of essential food and other commodities, compounded further by landsides, heavy rainfall, hardships, risk to life and property of the people of Sikkim, in their movement on NH-10. I requested our PM that the central forces should be deployed at New Jalpaiguri, Siliguri and other crucial points upto Rangpo to give protection to life, property and food commodities meant for the people of Sikkim.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said there is no proof that the 39 Indians missing from Iraqs Mosul are dead.



Swaraj said she will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without concrete evidence. I will inform the House if I get any concrete evidence. Opposition is alleging that I'm misleading the House. It is a sin to declare someone dead without any evidence. I will not do that sin, she said.



Swaraj, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, said the government will leave no stone unturned to trace the missing Indians.



This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence, she added.



The minister refuted the oppositions allegation that she has misled the families of the missing citizens. I have never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government get by misleading the people on the issue, she said.
Morena: Another person accused in the Vyapam scam allegedly committed suicide at his home in Madhya Pradeshs Morena district, yet another death in a spate of fatalities linked to the multi-crore scandal.



Pravin Yadav, who hung himself, was under stress after being repeatedly questioned by the police and the CBI, his family has alleged. Regular appearances at the Madhya Pradesh High Court also took their toll, they said.



Yadav had cleared Pre-Medical Test in 2008-09 and was named as an accused by a Special Task Force which was investigating the scam in 2012-13.



According to his family, he had turned a recluse in the last few days and unemployment added to his problems.



Maintaining that Yadav was innocent, one of his family members said, Pravin was a bright scholar and got into PMT on his own without any help. He was maliciously framed in the scam.



A case has been registered and an investigation has been launched, an officer from Civil Lines Police Station said.



Close to 45 people connected in some capacity to the scam have died mysteriously since the scam unfolded in 2013. In July 2015, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under pressure from Congress, recommended a CBI probe into the case.



The scam pertains to massive irregularities in admission and recruitment in the Professional Examination Board of MP, known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam. Hundreds of candidates were allegedly extended unfair benefits in entrance tests by Vyapam officers, and aided by politicians and middlemen.
New Delhi: Bulky case files placed comfortably on shiny new computer monitors -- If there is one sight which can best describe the status of digitisation and use of computer technology in the Supreme Court of India, this may be it.



On May 10, Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had launched the ambitious scheme for complete digitisation of all courts in the country, with the Supreme Court promising to start its paperless filing from July 3.



When the court reopened on July 3 after a seven-week-long summer break, the judges looked upbeat about the new computer monitors replacing their wooden desks. An hour later, these computer monitors were doing exactly what the wooden desks used to do -- held weighty paper books for judges to read. A few judges, however, were careful enough to move the monitors aside as they returned to wooden desks and paper books.



The manner in which digital technology is sought to be promoted among the judges in the top court also presents an intriguing situation.



All Supreme Court judges get Apple MacBook laptops as soon as they assume offices. Recently, taking a cue from the Delhi High Court where judges were given Apple iPad tablets, the Supreme Court judges were also given Samsung Galaxy tabs. With the digitisation plan setting in, two desktop monitors - one in the court room and one for the residential office, are also allotted to every judge now.



CNN-News18 spoke to a few judges in the Supreme Court and also in the Delhi High Court, which had begun its e-court exercise almost seven years ago.



The judges were bewildered why there are three operating platforms for three different devices. Each device works upon a different operating system -- iOS, Android and Windows, respectively.



"When digitisation is the ultimate goal for upgradation and convenience, one would question why was this not contemplated that judges should have the same working platform in all their devices? The issues of compatibility and seamless integrity are bound to come up when you work on three different technological platforms," said a judge. He pointed out that case file formats are distinct and sharing files among the devices itself is a pain at times since what you transfer from your one device to another doesn't open, or can't be accessed in the formatted version.



Another judge said it would have been perhaps more prudent if judges were handed over iPads instead of huge computer desktops. "This would have taken care of not just the compatibility issue but also cost effectiveness. Instead of installing two desktops, giving one iPad to judges would have served the purpose more efficaciously. One iPad can be easily carried to courts from residence and thus, the judges will have their work saved on the same device and on the same operating platform," he emphasised.



Stating that judges belonged to a generation when computer technology was itself at a nascent stage, he underlined the painstaking exercise the judges have to currently undertake to first understand the functions of the three devices and then their different methods of working.



Meanwhile, sources said that it will take at least eight months more for the three crore records in the Supreme Court to get digitalised. It can be anyone's guess that if the top court will need this much time for having its records in electronic form, how long will 24 high courts require to do so. The proposal of filing only grounds of appeal in the Supreme Court, as expounded by Justice Khehar, can become reality only when the records from the high courts are digitally transferred to the top court.



In March, CJI Khehar had declared in the open court that the "Supreme Court will become paperless in six to seven months".



On July 3, the first day of what was supposed to be the "paperless" court, the CJI had remarked about use of computers: "See, its not very difficult."



But the last 20-odd days have witnessed the difficulties that judges and courts in the Supreme Court will need to tide over for leading with example for subordinate judiciary.



Besides, not many judges in the apex court were in the loop when digitisation was planned even as Justice Khehar led from the front. Wider consultation might have also helped the good intentioned-plan in its deft transition.
A new public bathing area on a Paris canal that has been helping residents keep cool during the summer was temporarily closed on Monday due to pollution concerns just a week after opening.



The City of Paris tweeted that three floating pools on the Canal de l'Ourcq were closed because the water quality was "unsatisfactory".



The authorities said the site would remain closed until the situation returned to normal.



The cause of the pollution was not clear.



French radio said heavy rainfall over the weekend had led to higher than normal levels of enterococci, a bacteria found in fecal matter.



The pools, which can take up to 300 bathers at a time, are the culmination of a 10-year effort by the City of Paris to purify the canal water so that those who cannot afford a seaside holiday can still take the plunge.



With temperatures last week rising well above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), they proved an instant hit as hundreds of people queued on the first day for a dip.



Inaugurating the facility, Mayor Anne Hidalgo called it "a dream come true".



But for most Parisians, being able to swim in the Seine river, past the Eiffel Tower, represents the ultimate prize.



Hidalgo has set a target of 2024, when the city hopes to host the summer Olympics, to have bathers bobbing in the Seine.
Ever since he was appointed as the chief of Censor Board of Film Certification, Pahlaj Nihalani has been making headlines for his decisions and opinions that have clearly not gone down well with many. CNN-News18's Bhupendra Chaubey spoke to Central Board of Film Certification chairman Pahlaj Nihalani regarding the criticism against the board for unreasonable cuts and the controversies emanating from it. Excerpts from the interview



You have been a member of the industry, but why are you considered as the biggest threat to them?



Everyone has their own way of doing things. Being a president of the association for 22 years, I have got a chance to interact with almost every filmmaker, whether senior or new, but if something falls out of someone's pocket, the person will have a problem.



Does this mean you take out something from people's pocket?



I am giving you an example of pocket. All the objectionable things from the movie will be removed and obviously, the director of the movie will not appreciate it. Those people who love my work will not object to my decisions. But there are people who will raise objections just to gain popularity. They do these things to create obstacles between me and my work.





You are perceived to hold some grudges against the industry. You've had some issues with Anurag Kashyap and now something is going on between you and Madhur Bhandarkar, who were assumed to be your friends.



When Anurag Kashyap used to meet me for work, he used to tell me that he has grown up watching my movies. But when his work was not done according to him, he got angry. His movie NH10 was passed by me. Whatever is objectionable will obviously be removed.



Is it that the people have not understood the work you do or you have failed to understand the changes which are happening in the Indian society? In the age of Internet don't you think time has come to replace censorship with certification?



From the last 12 years, I have not seen any chairman working in Mumbai, they were used to sit in Chennai or Delhi. Bombay was in the hand of the staffs who took bribes from the producers to give a certificate.



That is a serious allegation you are giving, you are saying all your predecessors were taking money?



You can check the records and I am not putting allegations on anybody, but I am in the industry for so long and have seen them taking money.



If I am making a film do I also have to pay money for censorship certificate?



There were people like Rishi da, Anupam Kher, Asha Parekh who used to sit in the office, devoted their time and had control on people to do the work with honesty and transparency. But if you don't handle the office and become a 'rubber stamp' chairman, the ones who got certificates by paying money will have an advantage. All these things have been happening for a long time. Every producer has gone through everything. The ones who are raising objections have somehow got their films cleared by paying money. There's a recent case in CBI wherein the CEO and middlemen have made money by unlawful means. But today all these things have been eliminated from CBFC. Those producers who make good films have no issues.



This is the serious point you are making that if you wouldn't have been there, then the producers and filmmakers will pay money for the clearance?



Definitely, everyone does that.



Are you targeting Anurag Kashyap too?



Why to name one person, I am not taking any names. There are many producers who paid for early clearance for their films I am industry insider, have often gone to censor board. Nothing is hidden from me. There was no corruption during my days. Everything used to be honest and transparent.



Do you mean to say that because you were being the crusader of corruption, people projected you as the killer of creativity?





Last year out of 2500 films only 125 went to the revising commitee. Even in those 125 many films were part of the conversion category from 'A' to 'UA' certification for television premiere. We only refused 60 films because we don't have an act to recensor films, yet. However, we had already given them certificate for theatrical release. Infact in my tenure only 5 films have not been issued a clearance certificate.



Are you planning to step down from your post?



I have been given a responsibility. I didn't ask for it. Till the time I'm holding the position, I'll do it with utmost honesty and transperency. CBFC has been reformed to its maximum potential under me.



Now that there's a new broadcasting minister, Smriti Irani. Do you feel your critic will have an easy equation with her?



I respect Smriti Irani a lot. She knows me and my work. I've known her long before she joined politics. The fact that she is from our industry makes me even happier for her successes. Nobody should run from their responsibilities. As long as I hold the responsibility for this work, I will do my job and not quit. Today, I can proudly say that CBFC is corruption free, there is a new system of online certification, and nothing is pending.



You are saying there was corruption in the industry. Give me an example - Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Vipul Shah, were they engaged in it too?



Dont take names. It didnt happen during my tenure. As an industry person, I am aware about the corrupt practices. Everything was rated - if the director wanted to release the promo he was asked to pay Rs 25,000. But CBFC is now corruption free. Since 1967, I've been associated with censor board. People are seeing my work. The name has changed from censor board to certificate board but people don't know that there are acts that are attached to it. The acts clearly state whatever content will be shown in public needs a certificate. TV industry shows more violence and that kind of violence will not be allowed to show on movies. We are so liberal. Bahubali 2 got U/A certificate but in the UK it got a 15A certificate because of the violence.



TV is meant for family content. There has to be a certain division when it comes to public exhibition on Cinema and on television. Adult content, child labour can't be broadcasted. There is no monitoring system in TV and digital content should also come under the radar of censorship.



Everything is available on the internet. So why is there a need of censorship?



Thats what I'm saying digital content should be reviewed. If an11-year-old child doesnt know the meaning of something like intercourse, he will Google it. Sex education is meant for children over 13 years of age. You have to understand the law which has been framed by the government. If there's a change in the law, producers should to be ready for that. In India we just have three rating as opposed to six worldwide. Despite that the films we've passed with U/A certificate have got 15A ratings in countries like UK.



In the garb of rating, are you peddling a political agenda? This is your criticism. That you are not just attempting to clean the system. But you are supporting cultural nationalism.



Everyone should have love their own country and culture. Patriotism should be inculcated in every person. Kyunki desh hai toh hum hai, hum hai toh desh hai If we won't ask the youth to love their country, how will they inculcate the same feeling in future generation.



What was your objection to Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar?



Ive seen an emergency. It was a black spot on the democracy. So if you are putting a disclaimer and you haven't taken any names, not Congress not Sanjay Gandhi. We are only removing the content which heads towards the wrong direction. You can't dwindle between reality and fiction- you can't take one name and ignore the other in the name of fiction. And now that the makers have made it a complete fiction, we have passed it with fewer cuts.



Today the media and producers have criticised me, made CBFC a platform for publicity and marketing. So it's only negative that sells in media. However, no one has criticised me from the ministry.



Why did IIFA irk you?



It's a simple thing, they are not promoting real talent or Indias culture. You are just ridiculing your country's board and its chairperson in a foreign land for nothing. They take money from India and are just increasing other countrys TRP and tourism. They are not helping Indian Cinema but instead making money for themselves.




Patna: After resigning from the post of chief minister, JD (U) Nitish Kumars big challenge is to keep his own party united as few leaders have been critical of his intention to join hands with BJP.



In a recently held meeting to discuss the issue of Tejashwi Yadav, against whom CBI has filed an FIR in a land graft case, many party leaders voiced their concerns amid opposition of other fellow party men.



Bijendra Yadav, MLA and commerce minister in, warned Nitish against going with the BJP and said, "Nitish ji people of Bihar have elected you and Lalu both. Any attempt to scuttle the alliance would have serious repercussions."



Even on Wednesday, just before Nitish was to meet his legislatures, one of the MLA, Poonam Devi who is from Yadav community, openly said that she would defend Tejashwi in the meeting.



Like Bijendra and Poonam, 18 out of 71 JD(U)'s MLAs are Muslims or Yadavs, a constituency which always supported Lalu Prasad.



Senior leader Uday Narayan Chaudhary, who was assembly speaker, also opposed Nitish and stressed to continue alliance with the RJD.



But all eyes are now on Sharad Yadav who has been against the breaking of the alliance. News18 tried to contact him after Nitish tendered resignation but he refused to comment over the issue.



Very recently, when Nitish met Sharad in Delhi, the later conveyed his compulsion to support Lalu citing 'social compulsions'. A senior leader, privy to the conversation, told News18 that he was referring to Yadav vote bank.



It is learnt that Party Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, M Birendra Kumar, and Sharad are on the page. Birendra went against Nitish's move to support NDA's presidential nominee and voted in favour of Congress backed candidate Meira Kumar.



It would be interesting to see how JD (U) Anil Hegde will react. He is authorised to conduct party's organisational election and he is very close to Sharad.



Since Nitish is national president of the party, It is important to have supporting numbers in other states where Sharad is considered more influential.



Despite the anti-defection law, the JD (U) has not been a rock solid unit. History goes back to Nineties when Nitish was heading the Samata Party. Even during his second stint as chief minister, Nitish saw Jeetan Ram Manjhi, Brishan Patel, Nitish Mishra, Shahid Ali Khan and few others leave JD(U) in a hurry.


New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani will contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, the party announced on Wednesday.



Shah, currently and MLA in Gujarat assembly, will be making his debut in Parliament once he is elected. Given the numbers the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party enjoys in the state assembly, the election of BJP President will encounter little resistance.



Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has been re-nominated for the other seat.



The announcements were made by Union Minister J.P. Nadda after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board on Wednesday evening.



Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the state.



(With inputs from IANS)
New Delhi: Nitish Kumar has resigned as Bihar Chief Minister following his standoff with ally Lalu Prasad Yadav. Reacting very quickly to the development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a sharp political message welcoming him to join the fight against corruption.

The BJP has offered unconditional support to Kumar for forming a government without the RJD and Congress.

As it happened.

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
Patna: The rift between the JD(U) and the RJD has taken its toll on the Mahagathbandhan with the alliance deciding against holding a joint meeting of its MLAs ahead of the Assemblys Monsoon Session.



Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will instead hold a separate meeting of JD(U) Legislature Party, advancing the meeting with MLAs from Friday to Wednesday.



At the meeting, Nitish may spell out his next move on deputy Tejashwi Yadav who has been booked by the CBI on corruption charges.



The all-important Legislature Party meeting comes two days before the Monsoon Session of the Assembly on Friday. JD(U) leaders believe sitting with Tejashwi in the Assembly will send wrong signals within the party.



JD(U) chief whip Shravan Kumar has directed all MLAs to be present at the Legislature Party meeting in which, sources said, Nitish is expected to spell out his next course of action.



The JD(U) has pushed for Tejashwis resignation  a demand rejected by his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, and the Congress.



Nitish had tried to get ally Congress on board during his meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in Delhi last week, but was reportedly told that mere filing of FIR cant be grounds to seek resignation.



With the Congress backing the RJD, pressure is mounting on Nitish to act in order to save his clean image. The opposition BJP has said it will not let the House function if Tejashwi does not resign.



Nitish avoided a Cabinet meeting this week which usually meets on Tuesdays. As he was in Delhi that day, it was expected that he would hold the meeting on Wednesday, but the CM has instead called a Legislature Party meeting of the JD(U).



The RJD and the Congress, too, will hold separate Legislature Party meetings.



After the last Cabinet meeting, Tejashwi had gone straight to Nitishs official chamber and tried to present his case, but the latter reportedly dismissed it, saying it was not enough to give him a clean chit.



Nitish Kumar, who is quiet media savvy, has avoided speaking to reporters since the CBI booked ally Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi in a corruption case and conducted raids.



Nitish even cancelled planned events like the Jan Samvad after which he usually interacts with the media.



JD(U) spokespersons have also been advised to keep mum on Tejashwi. As one party spokesperson said on condition of anonymity, the next decision will come from Nitish himself. "Ye toofaan se pehle ki shanti hai (this is the calm before the storm)", he said.
New Delhi: A day after a change of guard at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, President Ram Nath Kovind's maiden speech has become the latest friction point between the Congress and government.



Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, objected to the omission of any mention of Jawaharlal Nehru in the President's speech at the Central Hall of Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.



Raising the issue, Sharma said: "Every country and society respects nation builders, so has been the culture in India; like Gandhi is respected and has the highest stature in the nation. Along with him was Jawaharlal Nehru who even went to jail.



The Congress also objected to Mahatma Gandhi's comparison to Jan Sangh founder and RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay.



It would perhaps be the first instance in the history of Indian parliamentary democracy that speech of the apolitial head of the state has drawn political ire of the Opposition in less than 24 hours of the change of guard.



Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, replying to points raised by Sharma, objected to any references being made to the constitutional authority. Requesting the Chair to expunge Sharma's statement. Jaitley said, "The Chair must be guided by a principle that you can't have a Zero Hour run only for the benefit of TV cameras.... That is something that is happening here.



Launching a counter attack, Jaitley accused the Congress of diverting the attention of the House as the principle opposition party didn't want the Bofors issue to be raised in House."



It is for the second day in succession that the Congress has sought to criticise the new President. The issue was raised earlier by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.



Addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of Parliament, Kovind, who was sworn-in as the 14th President of India, said, "I am aware that I am following in the footsteps of stalwarts such as Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. S Radhakrishnan, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, and my immediate predecessor, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, whom we address out of affection as Pranab da."



In his speech, he further remembered Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as patriotic freedom fighters.



BSP chief Mayawati, in a statement released after the swearing-in ceremony, had said that President Kovind should have gone to pay tribute to Ambedkar's statue.
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday upped the ante against NDAs Vice Presidential nominee Venkaiah Naidu, alleging that he had been involved in some questionable deals possibly amounting to corruption. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Wednesday gave a detailed list of allegations against the veteran BJP leader and posed four questions on behalf of the Congress.



On 24th July, 2017; Congress Party raised important issues of Probity in Public Life as also Accountability & Transparency asking the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi as also BJP President, Shri Amit Shah to come forward and reply in the context of repeated rhetoric of Zero Tolerance for Corruption & Wrongdoing. 48 hours have passed without a reply from either of them. As always, Prime Minister and BJP President have chosen to keep mum, a Congress statement on Wednesday read.



Special favour to Naidus daughters NGO?



The Congress alleged that Venkaiah Naidus daughter Deepa Venkat, who runs an NGO, received a special favour from the Telangana government. The NGO Swarna Bharat Trust, Congress alleged, was given an exemption from paying development charges to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).



Telangana government and Shri Venkaiah Naidu have admitted that Swarna Bharat Trust of Ms Deepa Venkat (Shri Naidus daughter) was given exemption from paying various developmental charges amounting to Rs.2,46,00,000 (Rs. 2.46 Crore) to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. Shri Naidu has sought to justify this unilateral waiver by saying that 16 more trusts were given exemption, Surjewala said.



The Congress further asked, What the Telangana government and Shri Naidu did not tell, as to why similar exemption was not granted to hundreds of other NGOs by the government? What were the criteria for grant of exemption in payment of government charges of Rs.2.46 crore to Swarna Bharat Trust in absence of any policy or rationale?



According to the Congress, Swarna Bharat Trust was also served a notice under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA). Is it also not a fact that Swarna Bharat Trust has been issued a notice under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. A copy of the notice dated 8th July, 2017 is attached as Annexure A-1 where name of Swarna Bharat Trust appears as Sr.No. 5892. Is it fair to grant exemption in payment of public charges to a trust that is facing FCRA proceedings?



Naidus sons car dealership under the scanner



The Grand Old Party raised a red flag over a recent order placed by Telangana government from Harsha Toyota, a car dealership owned by Naidus son Harshvardhan Naidu. The allegation is that the order was placed from this dealership despite another dealer being the successful tender. As qua supply of vehicles by Harsha Toyota (owned by son of Shri Naidu) to Telangana government without any tender, Telangana government has accepted that 350 Toyota vehicles were purchased directly from Harsha Toyota. Interestingly, as per government, the 350 vehicles purchased from Harsha Toyota were supposedly purchased under DGS&D rates, while the next lot of 350 vehicles were purchased through tender in which another dealer i.e. Radha Krishna Motors became a successful tenderer, it said.



Congress then posed the question, Why were both the lots of vehicles not purchased through tender in the first instance? Was the conditionality of tender violated in the purchase of first lot of vehicles from Harsha Toyota? What is the price at which the two lots of vehicles i.e. the first lot supplied by Harsha Toyota and second lot supplied by Radha Krishna Motors were purchased? Was the price of vehicles purchased from Harsha Toyota higher than the vehicles purchased through tender from Radha Krishna Motors?



Naidus own trust under suspicion



Venkaiah Naidu himself, the Congress indicated, may not be in the clear. The party alleged that the Kushabhau Thakre Trust, of which Naidu was Chairman in 2004, received 20 acres of prime land in Bhopal at throwaway prices. In this case, the Congress asked, In case, Shri Venkaiah Naidu is dismissing these strictures by blaming the BJP for securing illegal allocation of land and attempting to distance himself on account of his official capacity as BJP National President, will the BJP come forward to answer the question?



Questionable land deal in Andhra Pradesh



According to the Congress, the BJPs VP candidate acquired land meant for the poor and destitute in Andhra Pradesh. Shri Venkaiah Naidu has not denied that he had secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the Poor & the Destitute. Is it not a fact that he was forced to return the land as the same was illegally allocated to him? Does it absolve him of his culpability? Congress asked Naidu.
Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav once again ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi from the post of deputy chief minister and maintained that all is well in the Bihar Mahagathbandhan.



Lalu, who addressed a press conference with wife Rabri Devi, accused the media of inventing cracks in the RJD-JD(U)-Congress Grand Alliance.



We made the alliance and accepted him (Nitish Kumar) as the Chief Minister. We have no problem with that. But if he decides not to carry on with this responsibility, then it is his choice, Lalu said.



Lalu, Rabri and Tejashwi have been booked by the CBI in a corruption case that dates back to 2005 when the RJD chief was the Union Railway Minister.



The case has dealt a big blow to the Bihar Mahagathbandhan with Nitishs JD(U) insisting on Tejashwis resignation and the RJD and Congress opposed to the move.



Lalu, however, denied that Nitish had demanded Tejashwis resignation. It is the media which is trying to create a rift. I am in touch with him (Nitish). In fact, I talked to him last night as well," he said.



Minutes later, Tejashwi echoed his fathers statements. This is a conspiracy not just against me and the party, but against the people of Bihar. The Mahagathbandhan continues to be strong. The people will answer the BJP, the deputy CM told CNN-News18.



The BJP is trying to destabilise governments in non-BJP states. The Mahagathbandhan is strong and will continue to be so, he said. Rejecting demands for his resignation, Tejashwi indirectly questioned Nitishs zero-tolerance policy on corruption. When the Grand Alliance was formed, then too there were cases against my father. But such cases are politically motivated, he said.


New Delhi: With Nitish Kumar resigning as Bihar's Chief Minister, the state is now looking at three possible scenarios  first, and most likely, Kumar's JD (U) can align with the BJP and the two can together form a working coalition government. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tweet supporting his resignation, this appears most likely.



Second, he can demand dissolution of the Assembly in which case the state will be looking at fresh elections.



In the third scenario, in case a working coalition to form government cannot be forged, the governor can recommend President's rule in the state.



At the moment though the first scenario seems most likely for Bihar. There are enough visible hints of JD (U) and BJP warming up to each other. In his address to the press right outside governor's residence in Patna, Nitish said, "Whatever happens will be for the betterment and development of Bihar."



And Nitish's resignation was followed immediately by a tweet from Modi, who said, "For joining the war against corruption I congratulate Nitish Kumar. A 125 crore strong India is welcoming and supporting this move."



This tweet was followed by another tweet, For the country, and particularly for Bihar, rising from petty party differences is what the present time and the nation demands.



Interestingly, Nitish Kumar had, after announcing his resignation to Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, dropped three hints which further showed his tilt towards the BJP.



First point was that the Opposition cant just play a reactive role in a democracy where criticism happens for the sake of it, second was his reminder that he supported demonetisation drive by Prime Minister Narendra Modi because it was against corruption and black money, third was his statement that he supported President Ram Nath Kovinds candidature because he is a good leader from a humble background.



Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said now that Nitish Kumars resignation was accepted the first option before the governor is to ask different political parties to stake their claim to form the government.



The governor had an option to not accept Nitish's resignation and ask him to continue till alternative arrangements are made. But now that he has accepted the resignation, the governor will now have to ask different political parties and combinations to stake their claim to form the government."



Kashyap added that it also remains to be seen whether Nitish has recommended dissolution of the House and fresh elections in the state.



"The governor has to, by default, try and not force elections on people. But if the House is dissolved then he will have no option but to prepare the state for fresh elections. But elections should be the last resort," Kashyap added.
 ,                    ,        Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

All JDU MLAs caged in CM house since evening. Why so mch insecurity?Just cuz MLAs realise tht they are elected against BJP's divisive agenda  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 26, 2017

: Nitish Kumar is set to be sworn in Thursday for a second time as Bihar chief minister - this time with BJP help - after he resigned and dumped his Mahagatbandhan allies Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress.Kumar sealed the deal with his former rivals shortly after his resignation on Wednesday evening, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcoming him to join the fight against corruption and BJP MLAs faxing their letter to support to Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi.The JD(U) leader, who for the best part of the last two years looked the most likely Opposition face against PM Narendra Modi in 2019, will take oath as head of an NDA government, along with at least 14 ministers from the BJP.Kumar met the governor in the evening shortly after ally Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi Yadav over a corruption scam and dared the CM to leave the alliance. I have quit in the best interests of Bihar, Kumar told reporters, adding that it was getting difficult to work with the RJD.Lalu hit back saying what he did was a slap in the face of the people of Bihar as he had come to power in 2015 as part of a grand anti-BJP alliance.Shortly after Kumar submitted his resignation, PM Modi tweeted, For the bright future of India, and particularly Bihar, it is imperative that one goes beyond political differences and fights corruption. Within minutes BJP MLAs of BJP rushed to meet the CM, prompting Lalu to call the whole resignation a well-orchestrated drama.Reacting strongly to Nitish Kumar's resignation, Lalu Prasad said that if Nitish is citing corruption allegations as the reason for his resignation, then he must remember that when we entered the alliance in 2015, corruption charges against me were already there.Nitish had always maintained that he will die but won't join hands with the BJP, RJD supremo said, we spoke last night for forty minutes. "He never asked for Tejashwi's resignation. I don't feel the need for any explanation to Janata Dal (United) leaders," he said."Nitish Kumar is hand in gloves with BJP and RSS. What is this drama? Prime Minister Modi tweeted immediately after Nitish's resignation. He even congratulated him," Lalu Yadav said."There was no need for Tejashwi's resignation as CBI action was politically motivated and orchestrated by BJP central leadership," he said. Lalu even showed some papers, alleging Nitish Kumar was facing a murder case dated August 31, 2009.Lalu also alluded to a case in which corruption charges were levelled against Nitish Kumar. He asked: "How come Nitish is sitting in Chief Minister's chair now." Lalu said that Nitish is facing charges under "arms act".Late night, Lalu Prasad once again tweeted, alleging that all the MLA had been "caged in CM house". "Why so much insecurity? Just because MLAs realise that they are elected against BJP's divisive politics," Lalu Wrote on Twitter.After tendering his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar addressed a meeting, attended by JD(U) and BJP MLAs.Dark clouds had been looming large over the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar for quite some time. The two leaders, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, were arch rivals in Bihar before they put their differences aside in a battle fixated on curtailing BJP's remarkable run, riding on Modi wave, in national politics. Congress had repeatedly tried to defuse the fire, but even the 125-year-old party couldn't help as the Mahagathbandhan come down crashing.Nitish Kumar and Bihar BJP chief Sushil Modi talk to each other after BJP said it will support a Nitish-led government in Bihar.Bihar BJP Chief Sushil Modi said that he communicated to Nitish Kumar via telephone that he will support him. "We have decided to support the Nitish-led government and we will convey our message to the Governor of Bihar as soon as possible.""We have told him that we accept him as our leader and he is ready for it," Sushil said, adding, "we will support the government formed under him."After resigning from the post of chief minister, Nitish Kumar has a big challenge at his hands; to keep his own party united as a few leaders have been critical of his intention to join hands with BJP.Bijendra Yadav, MLA and commerce minister in the Nitish cabinet, warned Nitish against going with the BJP, saying, "Nitish ji, people of Bihar have elected you and Lalu both. Any attempt to scuttle the alliance would have serious repercussions."Even on Wednesday, just before Nitish was to meet his legislators, one of the MLA Poonam Devi, who is from Yadav community, openly said that she would defend Tejashwi in the meeting.Like Bijendra and Poonam, 18 out of 71 JD(U)'s MLAs are Muslims or Yadavs, a constituency that has always supported Lalu Prasad.
Patna: Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister following a standoff with ally Rashtriya Janata Dal throwing into tatters the anti-BJP Grand Alliance which came to power with an overwhelming majority in 2015.



Kumar met Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi at Raj Bhawan and submitted the resignation of his government hours after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out the resignation of his son and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav over a corruption scam.



"I have resigned in the interests of Bihar," Kumar told reporters after coming out of Raj Bhawan. "I had no other options."



Kumar said he tried everything to save the Mahagathbandhan but everything went in vain. "We spoke to Rahul Gandhi too, but nothing was working out. The situation was becoming very difficult for us to work."



He also clarified that he had never demanded Tejashwi's resignation but only asked for explanation on the CBI cases against him.



Kumar's meeting with Governor comes after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav again ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi from the post of deputy chief minister and maintained that all is well in the Bihar Mahagathbandhan.



Lalu, who addressed a press conference with wife Rabri Devi, accused the media of inventing cracks in the RJD-JD(U)-Congress Grand Alliance.



"We made the alliance and accepted him (Nitish Kumar) as the Chief Minister. We have no problem with that. But if he decides not to carry on with this responsibility, then it is his choice," Lalu said.



Lalu, Rabri and Tejashwi have been booked by the CBI in a corruption case that dates back to 2005 when the RJD chief was the Union Railway Minister.



The case has dealt a big blow to the Bihar Mahagathbandhan with Nitish JD(U) insisting on Tejashwis resignation and the RJD and Congress opposed to the move.







Lalu, however, denied that Nitish had demanded Tejashwi's resignation. It is the media which is trying to create a rift. I am in touch with him (Nitish). In fact, I talked to him last night as well," he said.



Minutes later, Tejashwi echoed his father's statements. "This is a conspiracy not just against me and the party, but against the people of Bihar. The Mahagathbandhan continues to be strong. The people will answer the BJP," the deputy CM told CNN-News18.



"The BJP is trying to destabilise governments in non-BJP states. The Mahagathbandhan is strong and will continue to be so," he said. Rejecting demands for his resignation, Tejashwi indirectly questioned Nitish's zero-tolerance policy on corruption. "When the Grand Alliance was formed, then too there were cases against my father. But such cases are politically motivated," he said.
Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister following a standoff with ally Rashtriya Janata Dal throwing into tatters the anti-BJP Grand Alliance which came to power with an overwhelming majority in 2015.



The following incidents indicated that his bonhomie with RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav will not last for a long time.



1) In Nov 2016, broke ranks with opposition leaders and supported Modi's demonetisation gamble.



2) In Jan 2017, invited Bihar BJP leaders for Makar Sankranti lunch - for the first time since Nitish walked out of the NDA in 2013.



3) In March this year, JD (U) did not field candidates in UP polls, possibly signaling that he did not want to split BJP votes.



4) In May, he skipped Cong president Sonia Gandhi's luncheon meeting in New Delhi to attend a lunch hosted by PM Modi in honour of the visiting Mauritius PM Jugnauth.



5) In April 2017, JD(U) entered into an alliance with NCP in Gujarat. Experts say it will help in splitting anti-incumbency votes.



6) Backs BJP presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, disrupts Oppositipon's unity.



7) Broke ranks with opposition and sent his emissary to attend the midnight session in Parliament on GST rollout



8) JD(U) decided to skip RJD's BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao, rally in Patna
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is also the political secretary of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat on Wednesday.



Patel's nomination assumes significance in the backdrop of 11 Congress MLAs from the state voting against the Congress candidate during the Presidential elections that concluded recently.



Speaking after filing his nomination Patel expressed confidence of easily winning the Rajya Sabha seat. "I have been elected to the Rajya Sabha five times consecutively and expect to win the sixth time too I do not see any possibility of cross-voting by Congress MLAs," he said.



Replying to a question by News18 that he could have chosen a safer seat, perhaps from another state, in the wake of the recent rebellion by MLAs who support Shankersinh Vaghela, Patel said, No, there is no scope for that. I have always contested from Gujarat and will always contest only from Gujarat.



Patel requires 46 votes to make it to the Rajya Sabha. The Congress has 57 MLAs and also enjoys the support of two NCP and one JD-U MLA. The Rajya Sabha election on August 8 has become interesting in the wake of the cross-voting in the presidential election.



However, the Rajya Sabha election is quite different from the Presidential polls. MLAs who are found to have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections are liable to be disqualified for 6 years. This effectively means that those Congress MLAs who do not vote for Patel will not be able to contest both the 2017 as well as the 2022 Gujarat Assembly Elections. I do not see any cross-voting taking place in the Rajya Sabha elections. No MLA would risk getting disqualified for 6 years, GPCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki said.



In an interesting development, Patel met Shankersinh Vaghela for over a couple of hours on Tuesday night. Vaghela is understood to have assured Patel that he will ensure all Congress MLAs vote for him in the Rajya Sabha polls. Speaking about the meeting Patel said, I had a meeting with Vaghela and he has assured support of all Congress MLAs.



Meanwhile, Vaghela says he will vote for Patel in the Rajya Sabha election, but on one condition, Ashok Gehlot must withdraw his remark that Vaghela quit the Congress to escape the CBI case filed against him.



I am appealing to Gehlot. Please stay in your limits. There is no point in making personal attack. Let there be as many raids by CBI as it pleases. They found absolutely nothing... Im asking Gehlot, go and open all CBI cases, but control your tongue. If you dont withdraw your statement, I will resign as MLA even before the Rajya Sabha voting, said Vaghela.



Confirming his Tuesday night meeting with A Patel, Bapu, as he is fondly addressed, said. I've been a friend of Ahmedbhai for several years. He asked me to become Rajya Sabha MP. I declined saying I am already an MLA.
New Delhi: Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister following a standoff with ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) throwing into tatters the anti-BJP Grand Alliance in which came to power with an overwhelming majority in 2015.



CNN News18 was the first report that the mahagathbandhan was in turmoil, and has been exhaustively reporting on the same.



Just 10 days ago, CNN News18 had reported that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, according to sources, was ready to seek fresh mandate in case Tejashwi Yadav, who has been booked by the CBI in a corruption case, fails to give convincing answers to the charge against him.



According to JDU sources, the chief Minister had told his aides 'loktantra loklaj se chalta hai', which is an indirect reference to the bad name that the government seems to be getting in the Tejashwi Yadav case. In political circles, it was being read as a direct message to Tejashwi to come clean or quit.



Nitish Kumar was also not very happy with Congress' offer to mediate, JDU sources had told CNN-News18. This was confirmed with Nitish, on Wednesday, confirming that meetings with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had not directed him to an appropriate solution.



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. Apart from Tejashwi, his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi have also been booked.



Nitish has carefully cultivated a clean image and this controversy was causing a huge dent to his image perception.



Similar to Lalu's statement early on Wednesday, his party had earlier, too, ruled out Tejashwi's 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.



The JD(U) has 71 MLAs, RJD 81 and the other alliance partner Congress has 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has claimed that Mumbais non-Marathi Hindus didnt vote for the party during the BMC Elections 2017 as they did not acknowledge that the party saved their lives during the 1993 riots. He further claimed that the Sainiks (Shiv Sena cadre) may not protect every Hindu the same way again.



Speaking to the partys mouthpiece, Saamana, Thackeray said, The Marathi manoos stood behind the Shiv Sena but we faced defeat in non-Marathi wards. Till now, these wards were with the BJP, so we never interfered with them. Obviously, the voter there  may it be Gujarati or North Indian, feels connected to the party.



It is not a good tendency to electorally defeat those who saved your life (during the 1993 riots). If a similar situation arises in the future, will my Shiv Sainiks protect all the Hindus with the same zeal now? I am not sure. And why should I ask them to do that? said the 56-year-old.



Thackeray further claimed that the Shiv Sena has had to face troubles because they saved Hindus, but the people that they saved did not even thank them. We dont expect their thank you, but they should at least remember who saved them, said Thackeray.



The leader trained his guns on to BJP and said that achhe din (the slogan of the BJP for the 2014 general election) could only be seen in advertisements.



Do we have true democracy in the country if everything is going to be run as per the Prime Ministers wishes? He is centralising power and taking away the independence of the states.



15 lakh people have lost their jobs due to demonetisation. This means, 60 lakh people have been directly affected by it. How will the government balance between Start-up India, Make in India and such colossal job losses?



The Shiv Sena also attacked the Goods & Services Tax (GST) and said, While China is instigating Muslims for violence, the lack of check on octroi nakas are a grave security threat. And how much of peoples earning is going into taxes? Are people getting their hard earned money?



Small traders have hit the streets in Gujarat. The government there beat them up.
New Delhi: In the last week of April this year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flew into Delhi and drove straight into 10, Janpath. In a hurriedly called meeting, he had a one-on-one chat with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.



The meeting though was said to have been held in the backdrop of the impending Presidential polls, but it had set the cat among the pigeons in the BJP camp.



There were speculations that the meeting was to chart out the future course of action at the national level, to build an alternative front at the Centre to take on the NDA.



Nitish Kumar, in the opposition ranks, was perhaps the only leader who had credibility, and most importantly, who also evoked hope in the ranks of ramshackle opposition line up. He was someone whose personal integrity was un-assailable. He had the credentials to take on Narendra Modi.



But exactly three months after that meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar has walked out of the alliance with the RJD and Congress. With it comes to an end one of the most ambitious experiments in coalition politics of our times.



But most importantly, the Bihar breakup lends a severe blow to any opposition's attempts to put up a fight against Narendra Modi in 2019.



Congress may have been a minor player in the state politics, but it still was that critical glue which held together the two disparate groups in alliance. It was the big brother on which rested the onus of drawing the contours of a Mahagathbandhan at the national level.



Failure of the Bihar experiment will also be seen as Congress' growing inability to lead an alternative front at the Centre.



Amid all this manthan, it is the Modi-Shah duo who would appropriate the most sought after byproduct or amrit in this political churning. With less than two years to go for the elections, the Bihar breakup leaves the opposition in tatters. It strengthens the NDA.



It is a sweet revenge of sorts for the duo. Bihar was the first big loss for Modi and Shah ever since the two came together in Gujarat. Delhi was a minor blip. But Bihar loss, had it not been wrested in UP, could have triggered a chain effect.



As for Nitish Kumar, he's been the chief minister of one of the largest and politically most influential states of the country. The next pedestal that he could possibly aim for was that of the Prime Minister of India.



BJP, in its current position of strength, would obviously have not offered him that job.



Nitish Kumar could have emerged as the choice of the alternative front. The announcement to that effect did not come for a very long time. Or was the Bihar CM, in his calculations convinced that with or without him, 2019 would be a tough battle to win. A really tough battle indeed.
New Delhi: Within months of Narendra Modi moving in into Prime Ministers residence in Delhi, his most trusted aide was the party president. And once again, just three months after another emphatic victory - in UP assembly polls - Amit Shah has well and truly made that final transition to national politics.



BJP, with its current strength in the state Assembly, is assured of two out of three Rajya Sabha seats up for grab in the biennial elections slated next month. Party Central Election Committee on Wednesday nominated Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani for the two vacancies in Gujarat.



This will be the first time Shah would be contesting an election for Parliament. For more than two decades now hes been representing Sarkhej Assembly segment in Ahmedabad.



After the Lok Sabha victory, Prime Minister praised Shah as the architect of the triumph scripted in UP. Shah was the general secretary in-charge of the state where BJP, along with its allies, secured more than 90% seats.



In the last three years, there have been a couple of blips in Shahs presidency. Delhi loss to Arvind Kejriwal was the first one. The second in Bihar was the major reversal Modi-Shah combine duo had to endure. With Nitishs ghar-wapsi, the last credible challenge to NDA before 2019 has been dealt a body blow.



Shahs nomination to contest RS polls also firmly puts a lid on recurring stories in the media about his return to state politics. In Vijay Rupani, hes got a man of his own choice as the state Chief Minister.



The current dispensation has been successful in installing their hand-picked people to lead the government in BJP ruled states - from Haryana to Maharashtra its a long list.



After UP polls, Shah has taken up one of the most ambitious expansion plans for the party organisation. The idea is to expand partys footprint to areas where BJP has been traditionally weak.



Under Shah, BJP is a party in election mode - 24x7.



Politically speaking, in three years, Shah has disrupted the pecking order to recreate the Modi-Shah binary of Gandhinagar here at the Centre.
Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab has launched its free version of antivirus software 'Kaspersky Free' to "secure the whole world", a media report said. "We believe that everyone has the right to be free of cyber security fears," Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky lab said on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Xinhua news agency reported. In announcing the release via a blog post, the company founder said they have been working on it for a good year and a half, and the software would roll out globally across the next few months.Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the US, Canada and several Asia Pacific countries on the heels of being piloted in 2016 in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China and also in the Nordic countries. The company said this free software would "positively affect the quality of protection of all users," since an increase of installations would bring more numbers to big-data bases for better machine learning. According to the company's website, over 400 million users are protected by its technologies and they help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them.
Beijing: China on Wednesday slammed Botswana for going ahead with the Dalai Lama's visit despite its strong objection, saying it will not accept foreign countries' interference in China's internal affairs and harming Beijing's interests.



"We noted relevant reports. China has stated clearly its position on the Dalai Lama's visits to relevant countries. I want to stress that Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) related issues concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will require relevant countries earnestly respect China's core interests and make correct decisions on relevant issues" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.



"China will not interfere in other countries affairs, we will not accept other countries to do things that harm the interest of China", he said.



On July 14, Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had firmly opposed to Botswana for permitting the Dalai Lama visit and asked it to "accommodate China's core interests".



The 82-year-old Tibetan leader is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19.



Earlier, reports from Botswana said President Ian Khama will be meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader.



Botswana confirmed yesterday that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country next month as "a foreign dignitary" and that the trip was a "purely private visit".



On China's objections, Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told lawmakers that "the principle of non-interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of China's foreign policy".



"We therefore expect... China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter," the Minister said and expressed hope that the visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader will not affect the strong bonds of friendship between the two countries.



China is a big investor in Africa and has built coal-fired power plants besides road networks and bridges in Botswana.
We cherish veterans in Nebraska. Whether its raising money to help those who fought in Vietnam fly to Washington for an Honor Flight or working to build lasting monuments across our state to remember those who served, we recognize our duty to highlight the honor, courage, and sacrifice of our veterans. Nebraskans also understand the value of having veterans tell their stories. We know that young people can learn from the passed-down knowledge offered by those who served, along with those who supported them. This learning can help the next generation carry on the freedoms and traditions our former warfighters bravely defended.

Historians often say that the past is a prologue. Studying our history can help us better understand the problems of today or tomorrow. We often tackle the challenges of the present by learning the lessons of the past.

I couldnt agree more with this sentiment, especially when the lessons come from those who risked their lives protecting our way of life. If we want to have a strong military and a more peaceful world in the future, we should employ the study of history to learn from the experiences of our brave veterans who fought in war, along with those who helped them do it. Preserving their stories is not just a way to show our respect, its also a guide for future success. The memory of what our veterans did has helped protect our country long after they left the battlefields.

Congress agrees, and in 2000 it created the Veterans History Project (VHP). Operated by the Library of Congress (LOC), this program promotes the collection of firsthand accounts from wartime veterans and the civilians who supported them. These war narratives range from veterans who served in World War I to those who fought in the Iraq War.

Nebraskans must be part of this collection. We have a proud history of military service, and with the VHP, the experiences of our veterans can be preserved and distributed to a larger audience. Through in-person interviews, written journals, and photos, our veterans have shared their experiences with their fellow Nebraskans. With the VHP, they will be sharing them with the American people.

Recently, I continued my efforts to preserve the legacy of Nebraskas vets by donating to the VHP. My office has been collecting these accounts for several years because I have always believed in the importance of recording tales from those who defended our country. We provided the LOC with 20 interviews from Nebraska veterans and people close to them. It was truly an honor to present these extraordinary accounts of courage, service, and comradery to the worlds largest library to be archived. I know that the LOC will be able to preserve these recordings so that visitors from all over the world will be able to get perspectives about war from Nebraskans.

You dont have to be a senator to contribute to the LOC. Anyone who uses the librarys field kit, which can be downloaded on the VHPs website, can interview a veteran and submit the material to the LOC. If you know a veteran who fought in war, or someone who supported them during wartime, I encourage you to take the time to interview them for the VHP. Their invaluable stories will not only be archived for their posterity, but they will also serve as a source of inspiration for generations to come.

Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.
Amsterdam: The Netherlands' highest court on Wednesday told the government it must fund an Islamic school in Amsterdam that authorities had tried to ban, tapping into a divisive debate about the role of Muslim culture in Dutch society.



Deputy Education Minister Sander Dekker withheld funding for the school in 2014, shortly after a member of its board expressed support for militant group Islamic State in a Facebook post.



But the Council of State reversed that decision, concluding there were "no valid grounds" to refuse funding as the person in question had since left the board, which had publicly condemned the posting.



Dekker said the government had no choice but to comply, even though the school "does not equate to what I believe is socially desirable."



The public secondary school will offer Dutch-language education with a focus on Islam to approximately 180 students. It will be the second school of its kind in the Netherlands, it said on its website.



Another Dutch Islamic school was closed in 2010 after the national schools inspectorate ruled the education it provided was sub-standard.



The court ordered Amsterdam's city council to provide a building for the new school, which is now expected to open in September.



Dekker said he continued to have no confidence in the school's management and had asked the inspectorate to immediately monitor if it met quality requirements.



"We need to do all that we can to ensure that children have access to the education they deserve and that they learn what it means to be part of our Dutch society," he wrote in a statement following the ruling.



Roughly 5 percent of the Dutch population of 17 million are Muslim, and the country has integrated hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Morocco and Turkey since the 1970s.



But a debate about the benefits and drawbacks of immigration has become increasingly polarised with the arrival of migrants in greater numbers from other Muslim-majority countries.



One of the country's highest-profile figures is anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party finished second to Prime Minister Marc Rutte's conservative VVD Party in national elections in March.



Amsterdam council also still had concerns about the school's board, a spokesman said earlier.



Under Dutch law, city authorities provide school buildings while the national government is responsible for education funding.
Doha: Journalists and human rights activists on Wednesday denounced "threats" by Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatari media organisations, including satellite news broadcaster Al-Jazeera.



Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeera's closure.



At the end on Wednesday of a two-day conference on "freedom of expression", organised by Qatar and attended by representatives of international organisations, rights groups and academics, a statement condemned "threats" by Saudi Arabia and its allies.



"The conference condemns unequivocally the threats by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the kingdom of Bahrain demanding the closing down of Al-Jazeera and other media outlets," it said.



Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth had opened the conference on Tuesday saying: "Political freedom and especially free expressions are very much at the heart of the crisis facing Qatar today."



He called the conference "an important sign of commitment on Qatar's part to engage in some of the reforms that will enable them to maintain their moral high ground.



"This country is no more a democracy than the other Gulf countries," Roth said, calling on Doha "to become a genuine regional leader in human rights".



Seamus Dooley, the acting secretary general of the National Union of Journalists for the UK and Ireland, said journalists "are not pawns in a political game".



He said he and others had had to "think twice" before accepting Qatar's invitation to the conference over Doha's "fundamental issues" with the rights of women, minorities and freedom of expression.



The head of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, Ali Bin Samikh al-Amarri, thanked delegates for "defending" Al-Jazeera, saying it was tantamount to "defending freedom of expression and the right to information".



Closing Al-Jazeera is one of 13 wide-ranging demands by Riyadh and its allies before a boycott of Doha and a "blockade" on the energy-rich Gulf emirate can end.



On Wednesday, they upped the pressure on Qatar, unveiling a "terrorist" blacklist of 18 organisations and individuals suspected of links with Islamist extremists that they say had ties with Doha.
Beirut: Iran will reciprocate if the United States imposes new sanctions on it, president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday according to state media, casting further doubt over the outlook for the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.



The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea, although it was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.



State media quoted Rouhani as citing a verse from the Koran saying: "If the enemy puts part of their promises underfoot then we will also put part of it underfoot. And if they put all of their promises underfoot then we will put promises underfoot."



But he added: "The Koran also advises that if enemies are really pursuing peace and want to put enmity aside and act appropriately toward you, then you should do the same."



He said that parliament would take the initial steps in responding to any US moves and that any necessary further steps would also be pursued.



On Tuesday, Trump issued a veiled threat against Iran, warning it to adhere to the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed together with world powers or else face "big, big problems."



A week after certifying Iran as complying with the agreement negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, Trump has made it clear that he remains extremely wary of Tehran.



The Iranian side appears equally wary of Washington, with a senior Revolutionary Guards commander issuing a similar threat in return on Wednesday.



"The Trump government, more than before, should be cautious and precise with their military approach in the Islamic revolution environment," Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces was quoted by the Tasnim news site as saying on Wednesday.



"We will confront any American mischief with a response that will make them sorry," he said.



The head of the Guards was quoted as saying last week that Washington should move its bases and avoid "miscalculations" over new sanctions against Tehran. The United States has bases in Qatar and Kuwait across the Gulf from Iran, while the US Fifth Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain.
Lisbon, Portugal: Judges in Portugal were guilty of sexual discrimination in a medical compensation case when they decided that the importance of sex diminished with the age of a woman, Europe's human rights court ruled in a judgment published Tuesday.



Maria Morais, a 50-year-old Portuguese woman with two children, claimed that medical negligence during botched gynecological surgery at a Portuguese hospital in 1995 left her unable to have normal sexual relations. She won her compensation case for physical and mental suffering, but the hospital then won a 2013 appeal that cut the payout by around one-third.



Justifying the cut, judges in Lisbon argued sex was not as important because of her age. The three-judge panel  made up of two men and a woman  were all over 50, according to Morais's lawyer, Vitor Ribeiro. The case triggered a storm of protest in Portugal, where one female lawmaker described the ruling as "Taliban jurisprudence."



The France-based European Court of Human Rights sided with Morais, saying Portuguese judges were guilty of "prejudices" and had violated the right to respect for private and family life. It ordered Portugal to pay Morais 3,250 euros ($3,790) in damages and 2,460 euros for costs and expenses.



The Portuguese court's decision "ignored the physical and psychological importance of sexuality for women's self-fulfillment and other dimensions of women's sexuality," the European court said.



"The (Lisbon court) decision had moreover been based on the general assumption that sexuality was not as important for a 50-year-old woman and mother of two children as for someone of a younger age. In the (European) court's view, those considerations showed the prejudices prevailing in the judiciary in Portugal," it added.



There was no immediate reaction from Portuguese authorities.



The European court noted two other judgments in Portugal, in 2008 and 2014, concerning medical malpractice complaints by two male patients. In those cases, Portugal's Supreme Court found that the fact that the men could no longer have normal sexual relations had affected their self-esteem and brought "tremendous or strong mental shock," regardless of their age or whether they had had children or not.
Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that he is not planning to sack Attorney General Jeff Sessions, even as he reiterated his "disappointed" over the latter's position on the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential polls.



"Well, I don't think I am doing that. But I am disappointed in the attorney general," Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether he would be firing Sessions after he went against him on twitter.



Trump was addressing a news conference at the White House with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.



Earlier in the day, Trump accused Sessions of being "very weak" in the investigation into former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails.



"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" he said in a tweet, expressing anger against the man who was the first US senator to endorse his candidacy.



Over the last few days, Trump had gone public in expressing dissatisfaction over Sessions' position on investigations related to Russian interference in the American presidential elections last year.



Sessions has recused himself from the government's probe of Russian meddling in the US election.



"He (Sessions) should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. If he was going to recuse himself, he should've told me prior to taking office and I would've, quite simply, picked somebody else," the president told the news conference.



The president called it a a bad thing not for the president, but for the presidency.



"I think it's unfair to the presidency. And that's the way I feel," he said.



The attorney general has said that he would stay in the position as long as it is appropriate.



Responding to another question, Trump said he wants Sessions to be much tougher when it comes to leaks of classified material.



"I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen," he said.



"You know many of my views in addition to that, but I think that's one of the very important things that they have to get on with. I told you before I'm very disappointed with the attorney general. But we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell," Trump said.
Washington: US Senate Republicans narrowly agreed on Tuesday to open debate on a bill to end Obamacare, but the party's seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law still faces significant hurdles.



The Senate deadlocked 50-50 on moving forward with the healthcare debate, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote.



Senator John McCain, who was diagnosed this month with brain cancer and has been recovering from surgery at home in Arizona, made a dramatic return to the US Capitol to cast a crucial vote in favor of proceeding.



The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the party's campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Minutes after the vote, Trump called it "a big step".



But the narrow victory on a simple procedural matter raised questions about whether Republicans can muster the votes necessary to pass any of the various approaches to repeal.



Moderates are worried repeal will cost millions of low-income Americans their insurance and conservatives are angry the proposed bills do not go far enough to gut Obamacare, which they consider government overreach.



In a first vote of the many likely to come this week, the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare that Senate Republicans have been working on for months failed to get the 60 votes needed for approval on Tuesday night. The vote was 43 in favor and 57 against.



Nine Republicans, ranging from moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine to conservatives such as Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, which would have made deep cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, and reduced Obamacare subsidies to lower-income people to help them defray the cost of health insurance.



Earlier McCain, 80, received an ovation from his fellow senators when he entered the chamber to cast a vote to open debate. After that vote, he decried growing partisanship in the Senate and urged members to learn how "to trust each other again."



Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski were the only Republicans to oppose the measure to open debate, and with Republicans controlling the Senate by a 52-48 majority, those were the only votes the party leadership could afford to lose. Democrats were united in opposition to the motion to proceed.



Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who cast the last and deciding vote to open debate, engaged in a heated discussion with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before casting his vote and ending the suspense.



Insurers, Hospitals Worried



A loss on the vote to open debate on Tuesday could have been a death blow for Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and cast doubt on Trump's prospects to achieve any of his other top legislative agenda items, including tax reform.



"We have a duty to act," McConnell told senators before the vote, reminding Republicans they had promised to repeal Obamacare in four straight elections. "We can't let this moment slip by."



Republicans have found it difficult to fulfill their campaign promises to repeal Obamacare, which enabled 20 million more Americans to get health insurance.



Polls show Obamacare is now far more popular than the Republican alternatives. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the Senate's replacement bill could lead to as many as 22 million fewer Americans being insured.



The health industry has watched the debate nervously, and after the vote some groups urged the Senate to reconsider its approach.



America's Essential Hospitals, a group representing safety-net hospitals, said in a statement it strongly opposed all the Republican plans and feared the big cuts in Medicaid in the bills "would jeopardize the health and financial security of millions of working people and families."



Shares in health insurer Centene Corp turned sharply lower after the Senate vote. Earlier on Tuesday, the company had reported a better than expected profit as it benefits from a strong Obamacare business.



'Kill The Bill'



As the debate vote opened, more than two dozen protesters in the Senate chamber chanted "kill the bill" before they were removed.



Senators said several approaches have been discussed, including a straight repeal of Obamacare with no replacement plan, or repealing and replacing the law while also overhauling Medicaid.



Senate Republicans also could consider a shortened version of repeal, called a "skinny repeal," which would end the mandates in Obamacare on individuals and employers to obtain or provide health insurance, and a medical device tax, a Senate aide and a lobbyist said.



"Some of us want clean repeal, some of us want the Senate leadership bill, theyre both going to get a vote early on and I think thats a fair way to do it," Republican Senator Rand Paul said. "If either one of them fails and another one succeeds, maybe we can find something in between that actually succeeds."



Republican Senator Bob Corker said the goal was to gain enough votes to get a bill through the Senate and send it to the House of Representatives, which passed its own bill to replace Obamacare in May, for negotiations.



"Everybody understands this is just a first step," he said.



Several of the Democrats opposing the motion for debate were from conservative states that backed Trump in 2016 and face tough re-election bids next year, including Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana.



"We have a good chance to beat this," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the vote.



Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, praised Collins and Murkowski for taking a principled stand against the Republican move to open debate.



"That wasn't easy," Durbin said. "That was an act of political courage on their part; I'm sure they were under tremendous pressure."
Melbourne: Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell arrived at a court in his native Australia on Wednesday for his first appearance to face historical sex charges as the most senior Roman Catholic official to face such accusations.



Pell, 76, a top adviser to Pope Francis, was escorted into Melbourne Magistrates' Court by police through a large crowd of media, protesters and supporters.



Australian police charged Pell last month with "historical sexual offences" from multiple complainants.



Pell has previously said he was looking forward to his day in court to fight charges he said are false.



Protesters shouted as Pell climbed the steps of the courthouse. He did not speak to waiting media.



Pell's appearance in court was expected to be brief as prosecutors formally file the charges against him. Australian court rules do not require him to enter a formal plea. A full trial was expected at a later date.



Pell is on a leave of absence from his Vatican role as Francis' economy minister, which he started in 2014.



In testimony to an Australian government-backed inquiry into child abuse last year, Pell said the Church had made "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish, and relying too heavily on the counsel of priests to solve the problem.
A Lynchburg man faces charges in connection with the theft of a car and two hit-and-run incidents in Virginia Beach, police said.

Christopher Lance Houston, 38, is charged with grand larceny and two counts of hit-and-run, the Lynchburg Police Department said in a news release.

Police went to Auto Connection at 2123 Lakeside Drive at 8:53 a.m. Tuesday in reference to a burglary and stolen vehicle. Employees found the front glass door broken and keys for a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu were gone.

Around 2:38 p.m., Virginia Beach police told Lynchburg police the stolen car was involved in a hit-and-run there. The man driving it fled, stole another vehicle and was in another hit-and-run before he was arrested, police said.

Virginia Beach police identified Houston as the driver of both vehicles. He was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, treated and released.

Police said more charges are pending.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Officer F. Muffaletto at (434) 455-6060, ext. 632, or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900. Visit the Crime Stoppers website at or text CVCS plus a tip to 274637.
Airports Council International announced that global passenger traffic rose a robust 6.2% in May year over year, in line with the year to date growth of 6.5%. The main growth driver remained international passenger traffic, which reached 8.1% year over year.

At the regional level, Europe and Asia-Pacific posted the highest passenger traffic increases at 8.2% and 7.9% respectively. Europe's main growth driver, as with the global market, was the increase in international passengers at 9% year over year compared to its domestic component at 6.1%. The Russian Federation, Portugal and the Netherlands contributed significantly to this growth, posting rates of 21.3%, 16.8% and 9% respectively.

Asia-Pacific's growth was distributed more evenly between international (7.7%) and domestic (7.9%) passenger traffic. Indian and Chinese airports continued to contribute to the region's sustained expansion despite Beijing (PEK), the largest airport in the region, experiencing slower growth. The Middle East experienced a significant slowdown in May 2017 compared to a year prior, posting a 4.1% increase in May 2017 versus 11.4% in May 2016. The ban on personal electronic devices on flights from Middle Eastern and Northern countries, in place between March and July, may have hindered traffic gains in the affected States.

After a period of economic uncertainty regarding the United States trade policy and risks related to the United Kingdom's vote to withdraw from the European Union, global commerce is no longer sidelined. The rise in business confidence translated into a robust recovery in air freight volumes in 2017, increasing by 11.1% year over year in May. All regions demonstrated high growth during that period, but Europe and North America presented the highest increases, with growth rates of 12% and 11.9% respectively.

Freight traffic numbers in North America were boosted by their largest freight hubs. Four of their top five airports in terms of cargo volume, representing 43.2% of total cargo in 2016, posted double digit growth. Anchorage (ANC), Louisville (SDF), Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX) all experienced increases between 11% and 13%. Memphis (MEM), the largest freight hub of the region, grew 1.3%. Domestic freight played an important role in that increase, surging 9.1% in May after a period of stunted growth, illustrated by the 1.7% year to date results.

In Europe, Istanbul (IST) continued on its recovery, posting 21.1% increase in total freight traffic. Other freight hubs such as Amsterdam (AMS), London-Heathrow (LHR), and Leipzig (LEJ) also showed high growth at 12.3%, 10.6% and 9.1% respectively.
Airlines for America (A4A) urged Senators to oppose the unreleased Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee effort to increase the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) tax. While the Committee has not made the bill language public, airport sources indicate that the Subcommittee voted today to increase and nearly double the PFC tax from $4.50 to $8.50 which would result in a massive $3.2 billion tax hike on every air traveler who takes to the skies.

Airline passengers already pay over $20 billion a year in taxes for the tickets they purchase. Adding another $3.2 billion tax hike on American travelers simply cannot be justified. The truth of the matter is that airports are flush with cash. It is disingenuous at best for Congress to repeatedly saddle traveling families and businesses with tax-hike after tax-hike while airports are sitting on billions in unused funds. Congress has access to over $7 billion in unobligated tax revenue sitting idle in the aviation trust fund that could be used instead of raising taxes. Choosing to increase this tax is a completely unnecessary poke in the eye and wallet of air travelers. We urge Senators on both sides of the aisle to stand with the 2.4 million people who fly every day by sending a message that tax hikes simply wont fly, said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio.

If enacted, raising the Airport Tax from $4.50 to $8.50 means:

Travelers who fly will be hit with an additional $3.2 billion in taxes.

The tax bite on an average $300 round-trip ticket would increase to $78, or 26 percent (up from $63, or 21 percent they pay today).

An extra $64 for a family of four taking a round-trip connecting flight.

Congress has repeatedly rejected raising airport taxes because there is no basis to support such an increase.

Our industry works hand-in-hand with airports. More than $100 billion of capital projects have been completed, are underway or have been approved at the nations 30 largest airports since 2008, from Washington Dulles to Chicago OHare, Los Angeles and LaGuardia. Development is also robust at the nations smaller airports, including locations like Des Moines, Nashville and Reno-Tahoe.

Asked at a Congressional hearing to supply a list of projects to support an increase, airports have been unable to point to a single project that has not proceeded because of a lack of funding.

According to financial reports filed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airport revenues are at record levels. Airports collected over $27 billion in 2015, including record high airline rents and fees as well as non-airline rents and fees (i.e. parking, food and beverage, retail and duty free).

Airports collected $3.2 billion through the PFC in 2016, breaking the record set in 2015. 2017 is on track to be another record-breaker.

Passengers pay another tax to fund the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), which supports airport improvement projects across the country. The balance of that fund is nearly $7 billion, which is the highest level since 2001. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the fund will eclipse $7 billion by the end of the 2017 Fiscal Year.

Airports have almost $12.7 billion in unrestricted cash and investments. They also have access to the bond market and historically low interest rates, given airports investment-grade ratings.

This tax increase must be rejected.
A Better Deal is not the worst slogan Ive ever heard, but its far from the best. The Democratic Party has overwhelming support from the creatives on Madison Avenue and the marketing geniuses in Hollywood. Why are Republicans so much better at coming up with pithy phrases that pack a punch?

It was not always thus. John F. Kennedys New Frontier and Lyndon Johnsons Great Society were aspirational in a reach-for-the-stars kind of way; Barack Obamas Yes, We Can invited Americans to feel good about themselves and their collective potential. A Better Deal leans in the right direction, but betterness is relative. Why cede rhetorical absolutism  Make America Great Again  to Donald Trump, on his way toward being remembered as the least-great president in our history?

Of course, the slogan is less important than the policies behind it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., acknowledged Sunday that the party failed last year to get a clear message across. When you lose an election with someone who has, say, 40 percent popularity, you look in the mirror and say, what did we do wrong? And the No. 1 thing that we did wrong is we didnt have  we didnt tell people what we stood for, Schumer said on ABCs This Week.

At a kickoff event Monday in Berryville, Virginia, Democratic party leaders announced three initial policy priorities: Creating 10 million new jobs over five years, with new apprenticeship programs and a tax credit for employers who provide on-the-job training; cracking down on the monopolies and big corporate mergers that harm consumers, workers and competition, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a Washington Post op-ed; and concrete action to lower the cost of prescription drugs, a big factor in rising health care costs.

All of which is fine. But somehow I dont see Republican spinmeisters quaking in their Ferragamo loafers.

A Better Deal plays off the title of President Trumps first and best-known book, The Art of the Deal. It is true that Trump has so far shown himself to be one of the worst dealmakers ever to reside in the White House, unable even to get his own party to agree on something it has been promising for seven years, the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. It is also true that Trump has reneged on all of his populist promises, instead following the standard GOP game plan of tax cuts for the rich and entitlement cuts for everyone else.

But if there is one lesson Democrats should have learned from 2016, it is that opposition to Trump is not by itself enough to win elections. I predict this will still be the case when the 2018 midterms roll around.

Yes, the Republican Party looks to be in trouble. Trump is sowing intraparty rancor and division, not unity. The base has remained loyal thus far, but independents and crossover Democrats have been given no reason to stick with the GOP.

It is possible that the stars might align next year to produce conditions for a pro-Democratic, anti-Republican wave election. But that has not happened yet. In the Senate, the Democratic caucus has 25 seats up for grabs next year, while Republicans have only eight seats at risk. And in the House, the GOP holds a 46-seat majority that will be difficult to reverse because of gerrymandering.

At the launch event Monday, Schumer promised a strong, bold economic agenda. He pledged that Democrats will show the country we are the party on the side of working people.

Schumer told a story of having recently gone to a Yankees game and sat next to two Teamsters, both wearing Proud to be Deplorable T-shirts. He said the two men had especially liked Trumps pledge to spend $1 trillion improving the nations infrastructure, including the potholed roads over which the Teamsters have to drive. But the men now worry, Schumer said, that Trump will be unable to deliver on his promise.

Such infrastructure spending has long been a Democratic Party priority, however. Trump managed to communicate it in a way that Hillary Clinton did not.

Im still waiting to hear the bold solutions that Democrats promise. I can think of one possibility: Why not propose some version of truly universal single-payer health care?

Yes, that would be risky. But it might generate real excitement among the Democratic base  and also grab the attention of some of the GOPs working-class supporters. Incrementalism is not the answer. Democrats need to go big or go home.

Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post. Email him at eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
Endstation Theatre Company will end its current American history-focused season with a distinctly familiar topic: the American Civil War.

But Matthew Lopezs acclaimed play The Whipping Man, which opens for a four-night run in the Aviary at Miller Park on Thursday, has a distinctly different take on the War Between the States than is often seen in the area.

The implications, potentially, of doing a show like this in Lynchburg are not lost on us, says Walter Kmiec, Endstations artistic director.  It essentially presents you with truths that are not very comfortable. It gives you things that are unexpected  things that are inherent in the play that I'm sure are going to be inherently challenging to this community.

Set in April of 1865, The Whipping Man follows Caleb DeLeon, a wounded Jewish Confederate soldier who returns to his home in Richmond only to find the town devastated by war and abandoned. The last inhabitants left are Simon and John, two of his family's former slaves who have just been freed through emancipation and have taken up residence in the once grand DeLeon house.

While recovering from his injuries, Caleb joins Simon and John as they celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover. Over the course of the ritual, family secrets come to light, which threaten to disrupt the tenuous peace the men have created in light of their new stations.

Its not just about renegotiating the power dynamic, who gets to make decisions now, says Mace Archer, the productions director. But theyre all sort of using each other to get what they need. By the end of the play, all the secrets are revealed and it splinters the group.

***

During a break from rehearsals last week, The Burg sat down with Archer and the cast to discuss the play, its themes and the whipping man himself.

This interview has been condensed and edited for space.

The Burg: What can you tell us about the play?

Director Mace Archer:  In some ways, its a family drama. Because these people all grew up together. Although two of them were owned and [were] servants, they still have this deep history that feels as much like family as you can have when you own people.

***

Quickly, the conversation turns to the idea of Jewish slave owners.

Archer: Thats a fascinating element to the play and, actually, I think thats ultimately what makes it special. You can tell this story about the end of the war, but I dont think a lot of us realize that there were these Jewish slave owners in the South. And certainly, they were a minority, but this isnt the only family, Jewish family, owning slaves. Theres a great faith in the play, and there are Jewish rituals in the play. The interesting part of it is slave owners would have just passed on their religious beliefs to their slaves.

The Burg: This takes place over Passover. How much did that affect the story?

Archer: Quite a lot because the Passover story, of course, is the celebration  of the Jewish people  having been freed from the Pharaoh. So the play is making a direct correlation between the freeing of the slaves in Egypt and the freeing of the American slaves. These black men, who are practicing Jews, are acknowledging that and they feel more incorporated into the ritual. They identify with that, that remembrance, in a way they never could before. They used to celebrate it in the house, but when they talk about the freeing of the slaves in ancient times, Im sure that landed differently than it does today, on the day they celebrate it and theyre free.

***

Each of the actors discusses their characters at length (which has been eliminated here to avoid spoilers). Eventually, the conversation moves to the plays complex themes: slavery, faith, honesty and family.

Jonathan West (Simon, one of the two slaves): All the tension boils down to the secrets and why theyre kept and then we see why people have abandoned certain principles and why people stick to their guns because of their faith throughout the piece.

Audrey Tchoukoua (John, one of the two slaves): As Mace said, this is definitely a family piece. Its so easy to walk into a slave tale thinking, Oh yeah, Im in for the discord, for the distance between slaver and slave. But by the end of the play you actually see that these folks have way more in common  because of the circumstances of their upbringing. They basically lived together, and it wasnt like a huge plantation with acres and acres of land. It was just this house and maybe the yard and the cabin. Thats it, thats the family, so the integration was much, much easier between slave and slaver.

Daniel Bush (Caleb, the wounded soldier): I agree that honesty is a huge thing and I also think it discusses a lot about Southern family dynamics. How theres so much swept under the rug and pretty faces are put on.  Its a play of juxtapositions: the rich or poor, the enslaved or free.

Archer: It sort of is. [Simon] has that wonderful thematic statement about, What are yall slaves to? Even though youre all free now, youre still slaves.

Bush: Its also a play about how people respond in the wake of huge events. How people respond when their lives are shaken up. People go back to  a survival instinct that kicks in.

The Burg: I want to go back to juxtapositions, since youve all agreed its a play about juxtapositions.

Bush (Caleb): Its definitely a play about juxtapositions and how people  not adjust to those juxtapositions, because I dont think theyre aware.

Archer: But the authors certainly doing it. Hes juxtaposing faith against lack of faith. One of the great ironies in the play is these two black men are practicing, and Caleb comes in and basically says he no longer believes because of what hes seen. Theres age, youth versus age and perspective, in this story. And the big one that you said, Caleb, is being free versus enslaved, coming to realize theyre all free, but they might be more slaves than they had been before because of the choices they made.

The Burg: What is the line about slavery?

West (Simon): Theres more than one way a man can be a slave.

The Burg: So, what are your characters slaves to although they are now all free men?

Tchoukoua (John): The drinking for John, hes a slave to the bottle. For almost the entirety of the show, he has a bottle with him onstage. He cant let go of that.

Bush (Caleb): I think Calebs a slave to his past.

West (Simon): I dont want to cop out of this one, but it almost feels like Simon embodies freedom in a sense. If I absolutely had to give an answer, his faith because its rock solid throughout.

The Burg: But you could argue that clinging so close to something is being a slave to it.

West (Simon): Exactly. Because he gets blindsided by things.

***

The conversation then moves to the state of the country today.

Archer: This did not happen recently  this separation of cultures in America. Audrey and I were talking when I first cast him, like, I see this play and this isnt where it started, but I can draw the lines from the action of this play to Black Lives Matter. Its not that when we ended the Civil War and slaves were freed that we had any systems in place that were going to make that go smoothly. Its been a fight and a struggle ever since to say were equal, and what is freedom if you dont have access to the things free people have always entertained and been able to access?

 Like so many communities, not just in Lynchburg  theres this stratification and the way we tell our stories and the unwillingness of other folks to hear the story of the other side is breathtaking. Were just not hearing what other people are saying and its on both sides. ... You tell the story if it happened to you because you dont want people to forget. If you are the one who perpetrated the story  [his thought trails off].

The Burg: Theres an interesting component to this because of the national uptick in both overt racism and anti-Semitism in the U.S. What are your thoughts about working with a play that deals with these two hot-button concepts?

West (Simon): I love it. I love every moment. Im so happy to have been brought on board with this.  Were halfway through and Im already drained every day. I just want to go and cry after this just because Mace is pushing us to these spots. To be able to share this story with other people and like Mace just said, kick-start a [expletive] conversation, just to have people talking about it. Some powerful things happen when were uncomfortable and hopefully we can share that with people.

Bush (Caleb):  I think this play is a very cathartic play. Its one of those plays, like you come and walk out a different person. Hopefully. You should come out [gives a huge, heaving sigh]. Its almost like our contemporary form of Greek tragedy. The play is like a meta-truth. It represents something greater than what it is saying directly.

***

Finally, the conversation turns to the whipping man himself  a figure that, although he does not physically appear onstage, is ever-present in the action of the play and the dialogue.

The Burg: Why is the play called The Whipping Man?

Bush (Caleb): I think if you ask that question, you have to ask what does the whipping man represent in the play? What does he represent to each of us differently? And for [Caleb], I think the whipping man represents the hard truth of [his] life, the truth Caleb doesnt want to confront.

Tchoukoua (John): I, Audrey, was born in Cameroon, so Im African and its a great honor to be able to tell the story of African American slaves. Its one of the greatest honors of my career that I could ever have. And I feel like growing up in Cameroon  I came here [to] the states when I was 15 years old  and up until then, I had never had a moment of realization that I looked different than other people. Everybodys the same color as me in Cameroon.  There wasnt as much separation.

I wasnt treated or looked at a certain way because of how I looked until I came to the U.S.  I feel like every black man at some point in their lives has a moment of awakening, when theyre like, Oh, [expletive] Im a black man. Oh, [expletive] Im being treated a different way because of the way I look. That didnt happen to me until I came to the U.S. I feel like the whipping man  the first time John is taken to the whipping man, that is his moment of awakening. Yes, hed been a slave his entire life, but he had never been whipped before like slaves are.

Archer: The whipping man metaphorically is the thing that keeps us all in fear and keeps us stuck where we are. One of the questions I ask is since the whipping man is not actually in the play  which one of these three guys is actually the whipping man? And the conclusion is its not that simple. Theyre all their own whipping men because we do it to ourselves.
Getting to know them

Jared and Melanie took a break from the heat of their kitchens to answer some palate cleanser questions:

Their earliest food memories:

Jared: The one thats popping into my head is when my grandfather, in this high-rise apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland, did steamed clams, and everybody said they tasted like a belly button. And I could just remember [thinking], Why in the hell do you know what a belly button tastes like?  Is that why I love clams so much, now? But I can see him at his dining room table popping them open after they steamed.

Melanie: My fathers mother, she kept two kitchens in her house, one on the main floor and she kept one in the basement. And she always had a ham in the basement that she didnt keep in the fridge. It was always covered with this towel, which I now have  a dishtowel that I now have in my house. And I swear, it doesnt matter how much you wash it, it still smells like country ham.

Their biggest motto in the kitchen:

Jared: Youre only as good as your last service but tomorrow is a new day. So if you have a really [expletive] service, terrible customers, its a full moon and everybodys like barking at [you], freaking out  you have a new day to start over.  Youve got to look to tomorrow, you can start again. You can put yourself down a peg and build yourself back up.

The one meal they would want to eat for the rest of their lives (if they had to pick):

Jared: Roasted chicken, crisp skin, butter and a side of mashed potatoes. Perfectly roasted chicken.

Melanie: I was going to say mashed potatoes, green beans  Id say that for savory. Thats a big thing in our house. But if it were pastry, mine would be an almond croissant till the day I die.
DALEVILLE  A clean energy developer hopes to start construction of a wind farm in Botetourt County by years end, even as it continues to search for a power company to purchase electricity generated by the giant turbines.

Apex Clean Energy is working diligently to begin work on the site by November or December, development manager Charlie Johnson told the county board of supervisors Tuesday.

Johnson said the company is confident of meeting its deadline if all the pieces fall into place.

One of the pieces yet to fall into place is an agreement with a utility to purchase electricity from the 80-megawatt project, which Apex says would be capable of powering up to 20,000 homes as a green energy source.

Although no deal has been signed, Johnson said there has been strong interest in the wind farm from utilities at a time when Virginia is seeing rapid growth in the renewable energy market.

Were in the right place at the right time with this project, he told the board.

Following the meeting, Johnson said Apex would prefer to have a power purchase agreement in place before it begins work on the site atop North Mountain. Apex wants to build up to 25 power-generating turbines  each one as tall as 550 feet, or about the height of the Washington Monument  on the remote ridgeline about five miles northeast of Eagle Rock.

In January 2016, the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors approved a special exception permit for the facility, which is poised to become the first commercial wind farm in Virginia.

At the time, Apex said it planned to start construction by the end of 2016. That goal was pushed back a year as the company sought approval from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which evaluated the turbines impact on natural resources, and the Federal Aviation Administration, which studied their effect on passing aircraft.

Both agencies have since approved the project.

Still, some critics contend the wind doesnt blow strong or long enough atop North Mountain to make the project viable.

Wind turbines in the Alleghany Mountains do not produce much power and especially during the times of peak energy needs in the summer, Steve Neas of Virginians for Responsible Energy wrote in a recent email.

Neas group is based in Rockbridge County, which shares a boundary with Botetourt that is within a short distance from the proposed wind farm.

Opponents have contended that Apex is most interested in collecting federal subsidies that come with the wind farm and that the farms low electrical output could be the reason the company has yet to secure a purchaser.

Johnson countered that the company has done extensive research and is confident that it has found a prime location for its wind farm. The wind up there is definitely feasible, he said.

Under a permit approved by DEQ, Apex could start work on grading and road development no sooner than Nov. 15, a date selected to minimize the projects impact on the environment.

Construction of the turbines would likely begin next summer, Johnson said, with the project expected to go online by the end of 2018.

In other action Tuesday, the board:

Heard an update on plans for the next phase of the Greenfield industrial park, which will soon see the addition of an automotive parts factory by Eldor Corp. and an East Coast brewery and distribution center by Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits .

Its not premature to plan for the eventual build-out of the 923-acre complex, which has about 400 acres of developable land remaining, economic development director Ken McFadyen told the board.

Delayed action on a proposed cell phone tower at Blue Ridge Park after a finding from the National Park Service that it would have an adverse effect on the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway. The applicant, Blue Ridge Towers Inc., is working on plans to lower the height of the tower from 199 feet to no higher than 130 feet to lessen its visual impact.

Approved a rezoning request that will allow the addition of up to 44 lots to the Walnut Manor subdivision off Blacksburg Road southwest of Fincastle.
Dominion Energy, facing a wave of determined opposition from local government, a pair of state lawmakers and residents over a planned 230-kilovolt Prince William County transmission line and associated infrastructure intended to power an Amazon data center expansion, on Monday asked state regulators for a 60-day pause in the process.

The next day, the State Corporation Commission, which is considering requests from opponents of the project to reconsider its approval of the transmission line between Gainesville and Haymarket, said Dominion will get the additional time to attempt to iron out what seem intractable differences with county officials over the latest proposed route for the project.

However, it will also have to respond to filings by the Coalition to Protect Prince William County and the Somerset Crossing Homeowners Association, who contend that representatives from Amazon have acknowledged the data center expansion and accompanying load requirements that spawned the transmission line project may never materialize.

Both groups and other opponents have argued that the need for the roughly five-mile line and the 112-foot-tall towers that will carry it has not been proven. They want Dominion to bury the line along a route that parallels Interstate 66 if it must be built and say Amazon, which has yet to publicly acknowledge its role in the thorny project, should pay a major portion of the cost, not Dominion's ratepayers.

Amazon has not responded to numerous requests for comment from the Times-Dispatch.

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, and state Sen. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, sent a letter to the commission earlier this month, requesting that it revoke the certificate of need and public convenience it issued for the project.

"Amazon/VADATA admitted through their own attorneys on March 8, 2017, they do not currently and will not in the foreseeable future (if ever) generate the power requirement listed in Dominion's application. Why doesn't this public admission alone invalidate Dominions application?" they wrote.

Dominion spokesman Chuck Penn said that characterization is inaccurate. The company has said in addition to serving the data center, the line will meet a broad need in an area it contends is developing rapidly and will soon require power infrastructure upgrades.

"There's nothing that we have been told or learned about that changes the fact that this project is needed," Penn said.

The latest phase in the fight over the project involves the Carver Road route, one of five considered by the commission, which regulates public utilities, and the SCC's second choice. The commission directed Dominion to come to terms with the county over its preferred "railroad route," which ran along a Norfolk-Southern rail line and would have fewer impacts to residences than other alternatives.

But the Prince William Board of County Supervisors accepted a conveyance of property in the path of the railroad route from the Somerset Crossing homeowners group, a move that was explicitly made to block the project. The commission, which rejected the underground option as too expensive, ruled that if Dominion and the county could not agree on the railroad route, the Carver route would also be acceptable. In June, the supervisors rejected Dominion's request to cross the railroad route easement.

As the proposed route has shifted to their neighborhood, Carver Road residents have marshaled opposition, including securing a $30,000 commitment from the county last week to fund a legal challenge to the transmission line.

And in a letter Monday to Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, a conservative firebrand and former GOP gubernatorial candidate who has openly blasted Dominion and came within a hair's breadth of upsetting Ed Gillespie in the Republican primary, Dominion now says it has identified properties along the Carver route that would require county approval to cross.

"We will make a formal request for that crossing shortly -- which we anticipate being denied -- but wanted to first provide context for how we reached this point and what a workable path forward could look like," wrote Bob McGuire, Dominion's director of electric transmission project development.

McGuire's letter says business expansion and development in the county means delaying the project "puts economic growth and reliable electrical service in Prince William at risk" and that the county's decision to block the railroad option amounts to pitting different parts of the county against each other.

"It would appear the county is working to obstruct, at all costs, the needed power to reach project which it was instrumental in luring," McGuire wrote of the data center.

Dominion says there are two viable options for common ground for the county and utility: Allow the line to be built along the railroad route or "compromise and work together" on an overhead route along I-66, "which, while it does have impacts, maximizes use of an existing public transportation corridor."

Stewart, who is now running for U.S. Senate, said that unless Dominion agrees to the I-66 hybrid route, the option that involves burying the lines along I-66, there's nothing to talk about.

"Prince William County will not allow Dominion to cut up communities in the county," Stewart said. "We've said this to them probably a dozen times. We've said it from the beginning. We're not changing our position. ... If they want to sit down and negotiate, there's nothing to negotiate."

He also bristled at a letter sent by Dominion this week to people in the Carver Road area, which blamed the county government's blockage of the railroad route for the project shifting to their area.

"We wouldn't be talking about this transmission project, let alone a transmission line route, if it were not for the economic development that occurred under the Prince William Board of County Supervisors' watch," the utility wrote to residents. "However, the reality is, there are increased power demands in your area and Dominion Energy Virginia is obligated to meet them. "

Stewart said the company's "arrogance is off the charts."

"Theyve been trying to play the communities against each other. Theyve been trying to play the county against the community," he said, adding that county officials are also questioning the need for the transmission line. "There's a real lack of trust that we have in Dominion and frankly their behavior has been reprehensible."

Both Dominion and the SCC have said that the only route Prince William will agree to, the hybrid I-66 route, is too expensive. It would cost nearly $100 million more than other options such as Carver Road, which is estimated at about $62 million, according to Penn, the Dominion spokesman.

"That's not our problem," Stewart said.
Round one went to the U.S. grocery newcomer Lidl in its battle with the grocery giant Kroger over similar-looking logos for premium store brands.

A federal judge in Richmond on Tuesday denied Krogers request to prohibit Lidl from selling Lidls own store brand Preferred Selection products.

Kroger maintains that Lidl copied the logo of Krogers Private Selection store brand and infringed on Krogers trademark. Kroger filed suit June 30 seeking to stop Lidl from using the Preferred Selection logo.

After a day of testimony in which both sides presented expert witnesses who surveyed consumers to gauge confusion over the product logos, U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. denied Krogers request for a preliminary injunction and set the case for a bench trial Jan. 11.

I think the public interest lies in competition, Gibney said in considering whether an injunction was merited.

The logos look somewhat alike, he said.

I dont find they have an identical or similar meaning, he added, noting that the words private and preferred have different meanings.

Germany-based Lidl, which has more than 10,000 stores in Europe, has so far opened 17 stores in the U.S. Lidls first four stores planned for the Richmond area open Thursday.

Lidls U.S. headquarters is in Arlington County. The company plans to have more than 100 stores open by summer 2018.

Cincinnati-based Kroger operates 2,800 supermarkets in the U.S. under 24 banners, including Kroger, Harris Teeter and Ralphs.

In testimony Tuesday, Brendan Proctor, Lidls U.S. president and CEO, said the Preferred Selection label is on about 160 items of about 3,000 items carried by a typical Lidl store in the U.S. About 90 percent of Lidls products are store brands. Many of the Preferred Selection items are imported and carry the national flag of the country or origin.

We wanted each product to look individual and to stand out from the market, Proctor said.

Gil Phipps, vice president of corporate brands for Kroger, said the companys Private Selection label is used on more than 1,000 products.

You make a brand promise to a customer  you have to deliver every time, Phipps said.

According to testimony, Kroger officials first voiced concerns to Lidl about the similarity in the logos last year when Lidl filed a trademark application.
Lynchburg isnt the only city with a booming downtown.

Thats what Virginia Secretary of Commerce Todd Haymore told the roughly 10 participants on a walking tour of downtown Lynchburg on Tuesday.

The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance hosted Haymore as well as other businesses for a one-hour tour of Main Street as well as the Bluffwalk, where they explored places like El Jefe, Bootleggers and Altus Chocolate.

Haymores visit is part of what the Alliance does to bring attention, awareness and interest in all the region has to offer, said Christine Kennedy, executive vice president of the business alliance, a group of about 850 companies.

Downtown revitalization is so great to see here in Lynchburg, Haymore said. The river is right behind us. Theres so much activity, so much going on with construction, which is creating jobs and revenue.

Haymore, a native of Danville, said Virginia is seeing downtown revitalization across the state, especially in places like Richmond, Danville, Lynchburg and Norfolk.

Richmond had a lot of potential, especially in Shockoe Bottom, which has been redeveloped in the last 20 years, he said. More and more of that is happening here.

Kennedy said Lynchburg has a story to tell that includes the downtown area.

Through industry tours and meetings with regional business and economic development leaders, Secretary Haymore got a glimpse into who we are and what we have to offer, she said. Our role is to showcase our region and to work with our partners and state officials to ensure we have an economic climate that fosters economic and business growth. Today, we did just that.

Jim Richards, chairman of the alliance board, said he likes to show off downtown because of all that is happening there.

Its such a wonderful showcase for Lynchburg, he said. We want to impress people no matter where they relocate. This is a great focal point for them, and its a really neat place.

Richards said he hopes Haymore will see Lynchburg and pitch the citys assets to business connections.

A lot of the leads we get are from the state, and from his capacity, he will know [businesses] looking and will have seen for himself and can say, Hey, have you thought of Lynchburg? he said. We want to expose him and as many people in Richmond to whats going on in this area.

Haymore said he likes the renaissance of downtowns in Virginia.

Were starting to see the beginning of it, he said. People will look at Lynchburg and follow that model for whats going on now, and other cities can do the same thing. Success breeds success.

For the past several decades, people and businesses have moved away from downtowns, according to Haymore, but that trend is shifting.

Downtown has always been a fabric of the community, and in the past, weve seen people and businesses moving away from downtown, and its changing now; people want to come work, live and play downtown, he said.

He said the success of downtown areas wont always be linear, and there will be bumps along the way, but in the end, its worthwhile.

If you look at Richmond and Danville and Norfolk, its happening, and I think Lynchburg is doing it at the right time to recruit new businesses and people to live and work here, he said.
The SeaLink Travel Group will commence operation of the Barangaroo Fast Ferry, the first ever direct ferry service from Manly, Sydneys premier beach resort, to Barangaroo from early September 2017.

Barangaroo is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the north-western edge of the Sydney central business district and the southern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The service will operate daily between Manly Hotel Wharf No 3, and King Street Wharf 1, Barangaroo. It will depart every 30 minutes during peak hours Monday to Friday commencing 6:45am. Weekends the service will operate regularly from 9:30 through to 6pm.

Barangaroo Fast Ferry prices will start from $8.90 one way, with an 11-trip travel pass available from only $7.50 per trip.

According to Anthony Haworth, Captain Cook Cruises, General Manager, the Barangaroo Fast Ferry service would not have been possible without the support of the NSW Government, Transport Minister Andrew Constance and Local Member for Manly, James Griffin MP.

SeaLink are excited to be starting the Barangaroo Fast Ferry. It will provide the first direct service for commuters from Manly to Barangaroo.

This service will cut commuter travel time from Manly to Barangaroo and surrounding city locations significantly and will enhance the use of Sydney Harbour as Sydneys blue highway, says Mr Haworth.

We would like to thank the local member James Griffin, who has been an advocate for this service and active in working alongside Captain Cook Cruises since his term in office, to ensure the Barangaroo Fast Ferry came to fruition. Continues Mr Haworth.

Local Member for Manly James Griffin said Providing more public transport options is something I said I do during the election campaign, so I am proud to be able to deliver on that promise.

This new Manly to Barangaroo service will make life easier for commuters and Ill continue to work hard to make sure we get the public transport we need.

Barangaroo is an amazing precinct, this service will open up a new way to get to and from work for many people and provide another convenient option for weekend travel to the city.

SeaLinks announcement comes after Andrew Constance, Minister for Transport and Infrastructure recently announced commercial ferry operators will be allowed to provide direct services between Manly and Darling Harbour without needing a passenger service contract with Transport for NSW.

Further information on the ferry service will be released via Barangaroo Fast Ferry social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Lessons from the mas

The band then numbered around 275 youngsters which included sponsored sections from The St Marys Childrens Home.

So very emotional about this unplanned retirement was Gabriel, that it took nearly six months for her to sit for this interview.

She admits: Giving up was hard but couldnt be helped.

Speaking about it was also traumatic. The often asked question has been why did Gabriel retire? After all, the 2017 presentation was already designed and production had started. I was feeling unwell after a bout of Zika which affected my knees coming to the end of 2016, and walking was very difficult, says the tireless producer of childrens mas.

From 2005 to 2009 she was on the board of the National Carnival Bands Association, and for the past two years has been a member of the Junior Committee of the National Carnival Commission (NCC), and also president of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Bands Association.

However, fate intervened and this very placid woman was invited by the Ministry of Culture to be a mentor in its fifth annual three-month Mentoring By The Masters programme on the topic of childrens mas.

This was heaven-sent, says Gabriel. Twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5pm  7.30pm, this very successful mas producer who has won Band of the Year about 17 times, conducts a programme for 15 students at the St James Youth Facility. She tutors on everything that is needed to become a successful bandleader.

One or two of her students already have bands and others are schoolteachers wanting to improve the schools programmes.

A pensive Gabriel spoke of some of the pluses the band added to her life. One of the great things are the people I have met over the years with this band. I might have never met them otherwise and have become very close to a great deal of these people and will remain close to them whether I have another band or not. They have become like family. I have also had to learn to deal with all different personalities walking up your steps, to manage the staff of about ten in the camp and a large network outside of the camp.

Some other life lessons the band has taught me are organisation skills, which could be one of the best lessons, because you have to produce 12 sections and individuals in a specified period of time, and juggle this with family life which consists of a husband, three children and ten grandchildren (ages 22 to ten). In the early years the band was produced from my home, until my adult children started to court and when the time came for engagements I had to clean up the mas camp so decided sometime in 1994 I was going to give up. That would have been Gabriels first attempt to retire but she explained: A good friend Pascal Ramkissoon of the Minshall camp found the present location at 26 OConnor Street in Woodbrook and together with my husband, Norman, of nearly 50 years, they rented it and handed me the key because they both didnt want to see me give up what they knew I loved so much.

I didnt give up willingly this time, its just that my knees wouldnt carry me where I wanted to go. My mind never gave it up because I love it so much.

It was never about fame for me, Rosalind Gabriel, I was doing it for love of the country. Also trying in some small way to keep that title we owned as The Greatest Show on Earth, in the days of the icons, and have tried to keep that costuming trend in my Carnival productions. It was never about business, it was just a passion for junior Carnival, best described as Like a fire burning in my chest really. Who knows what the future will bring as the mas camp remains in tact at this moment, nothing has been dismantled or gotten rid of.

In the beginning every time I went I cried, but its a little better now....

While ill this year, I still produced a school band for Tobago as had been done for the two years prior to that and plan to do it again in 2018, says this very humble woman who is insistent that there is no way I can claim all the praise which is lavished on me. No one person can produce this band  there are all the artisans, decorators, dressmakers, designers, every single person who helps.

Then there are people who work in the camp and would cut out hundreds of decorations over and over that adorn the costumes because we try to make as much as we can so instead of going to buy an applique, we cut out to keep the craft in Carnival. Everybody who pitches in deserves the praise that is associated with the success of the band over the years.

Another important lesson I learned was never to burn my bridges.

Sometimes you are dissatisfied with what is produced by a supplier, I would pay for the work and remain friends with the people I have worked with for 40 years. So that there is no enemy that I have in Carnival. Gabriel freely and willingly gives advice and encouragement to younger bandleaders because she says: Carnival does not belong to any one person and all of us involved love its culture and creativity so we have to invest in it for the good of the country. We have to be the caretakers who will keep the original costuming in Carnival so as to maintain what the icons like George Bailey, Edmund Hart, Peter Minshall and Wayne Berkley created, thereby ensuring that the tradition and spectacle are carried on into the future. Some years ago, Gabriel added an adult band in an effort to create a family atmosphere by parents and children enjoying quality time together, but rules were introduced which didnt allow this to materialise.

This pioneering woman took childrens and adult bands up the islands as far as Miami Carnival. We would box and ship costumes, some requested a theme others would send what they were looking for and we would produce.

This extra work was in an effort to keep the mas camp afloat outside of our Carnival, as I really couldnt add a rental charge to the childrens costumes, this also gave my staff work throughout the year. On the subject of beads, bikinis and feathers, with a great deal of objectivity, she says: I do appreciate that Carnival has evolved into something rather than portrayal mas as we knew it in the early days, but we must still see a need to keep the traditional intermingled with todays mas for those who want that kind of portrayal.

This is so necessary because if you look in all the stands there are no spectators. Why? People dont want to come out to see naked bodies all day long. I truly hope for a day in the near future when there will be a mixture of original and modern designs to bring balance back into the two days of Carnival.
Rotary aid for heart patients

Of that figure, he said, 549 of those medical cases were attended to between July 2016 and July 2017, under the banner of the clubs two flagship projects: the Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) and Heart Beat International Trinidad and Tobago (HBITT ).

While both projects sourced pacemakers from manufacturers across the globe at no cost, the Heart Beat International initiative also secured the services of surgeons pro-bono, said a media release. Williams recently disclosed this success at the 49th Handing Over Ceremony to mark the 2017-2018 Rotary term at the Teaching and Learning Centre, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

From inception in 1985 to 2017 altogether 1,500 lives have been saved in TT alone; whilst another 1,594 devices have been distributed to other HBI Heart Centres around the world in places like India, Philippines, Paraguay, Honduras and Dominican Republic. In effect our Rotary Club has saved 3,094 lives from 1985 to 2017, Williams said while reporting on his 2016-2017 stewardship.

The Heart Beat International initiative was a joint project with other organisations, inclusive of other Rotary Clubs. Williams, who has taken up the post of assistant district governor with responsibility for four clubs in east Trinidad, as well as those in Tobago.

During the Rotary year 2016-2017, he said, the club combined with the individual efforts of members made donations to the Rotary Foundation estimated at more than US$9,000.

Locally, donations were made to several causes including The Dyslexia Association the sponsoring of a teacher to become certified in diagnosing dyslexia.

In the aftermath of tropical Storm Bret which caused flooding in several parts of Trinidad, the club rallied its members to assist the affected citizens in Caparo.

The club then partnered with insurer Sagicor and the Rotary Club of Piarco to provide similar relief to the Piarco/St Helena community, and assisted similar efforts in south.

In addressing the clubs future, Williams noted new members were being recruited through the Interact and Rotaract systems.

Since 2003, the club has been sponsoring and supporting the Rotaract Club of St Augustine which caters for people ages 18- 30.

In 2014, the club began supporting the Interact Club of St Augustine Girls High School which recruits members ages 12-18.
Prisons Association head calls for Dillons removal

Richards made the call on Monday at a press briefing on the grounds of the Golden Grove Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, where he and members of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) raised issues pertaining to the state of security within the prison system.

Richards said he was concerned by the ministers failure to address issues of safety and security within the nations prisons and urged Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to revoke Dillons ministerial portfolio.

While we do understand that he is very busy, he is busy doing nothing, Richards said.

We have been calling for a meeting with him for almost ten months now and we have yet to see or hear from him.

These issues need to be addressed especially within a prison environment where every action can result in either life or death. Richards also questioned the allocation of funds within the Prison Service and called on the prime minister, who also serves as head of the National Security Council, to investigate reports of financial mismanagement.

When national security allocates $6 billion every year and there is $2.5 billion in recurrent expenditure for wages, salaries and general upkeep, where does the difference go? We dont have a judicial space at Golden Grove although that has been touted for years.

We dont have, in our biggest most volatile prison, an alarm system.

I heard the prime minister talking about various crime prevention programmes, but I want him to know that at the heart of any successful crime initiative lies an efficient prisons service. Newsday attempted to contact Dillon for comment but was unsuccessful.
Fired CL exec wants back his job

Holders attorneys on Monday filed an emergency application which came up for hearing before Justice Frank Seepersad in the Port of Spain High Court yesterday.

Holder is seeking to be reinstated and have the court grant several injunctions against CLF and its government-appointed directors to ensure they do not impede his return to duty.

He said it is urgent his application be granted because of Governments petition to wind up the company and for the appointment of provisional liquidators.

Holder said the move to have the company wound up was not being resisted by CLFs attorneys whom, he said, were taking instructions from the governments directors on the board, despite a clear conflict of interest and duty. Holder said his return to the job was also in the interest of employees whose salaries cannot be paid at the end of July without his participation.

At yesterdays hearing, Seepersad adjourned the matter to September 18 in order to receive submissions from CLFs attorneys considering the complex and unorthodox relationship between CLF and the Government borne out from bailout measures which were agreed to in 2009.

Senior Counsel Elton Prescott, who appeared for CLF, said Holder was terminated from his positions on all CLFs subsidiary companies, except for Angostura and an undertaking was given that the former managing director will be given an Angostura ipad and access to emails.

In his application, Holder is also seeking an order that CLF and its Government-appointed directors not hold any board meetings, take any decision on the management of the company or issue instructions to attorneys in relation to the petition for the winding up of CLF until he has resumed duties.

Holder, who held the position at CLF from March 1, 2010, said his employment was terminated on June 28 by the Government-appointed directors and accused of engaging auditing firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) to produce a proposed business plan (Project Rebirth) for the exit from the shareholders agreement signed with the government subsequent to the 2009 bailout.

Holder has denied he engaged PwC, saying it was the chairman of the board (who is government-appointed) and one of the CLFs shareholders.

He was also accused of facilitating the write off of inter-company debt without board approval and caused dividends from Angostura to be transferred to CLF without prior notification to the board.

According to court documents filed by his attorneys Jerome Rajcoomar and Theresa Hadad on Monday, Holder said he was accused of taking out a number of substantial unsecured loans from its Scottish Subsidiary CLWB.

He was asked to return the companys ipad, laptop and office keys.

His CLF email account was disconnected.

Holder said his removal as managing director and group CEO was illegal and against the companys bye laws. He also said he did not believe that the Government-appointed directors had the power to remove him.
Grenada group demands CLF $$

This will come as no surprise to the authorities in Grenada and to the authorities in Trinidad and Tobago, said the policyholders group representative and Grenadas Ambassador to TT Dr Patrick Antoine.

Speaking at a CLF/Clico symposium on Sunday at St Marys College, Antoine said two preaction protocol letters have been issued by the group. British American Insurance Company and Clico were subsidiaries of CLF. Government pumped billions into CL Financial following its collapse in 2009. Appealing to Caricom to find a regional solution to the issue, Antoine said, as policyholders who had been following the issue over the years, they are convinced that CL Financial has sufficient assets to cover the liabilities of all policy holders and creditors.

We are prepared, failing that, to continue in the legal path that we have taken two years now and which have been accelerated in light of recent developments, he said. The group, he said, believes that a definitive intervention is long overdue after the Heads of Government failed to come up with a proper resolution for the problem. Grenadas Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell raised the issue earlier this month with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at the last Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Grenada. Representing some 400 policy holders in Grenada amounting to EC$600 million in executive and flexible annuity payments, Antoine said, 90 percent have not received a cent.

This was despite commitments given to a regional entity from a country that was aspiring to become the financial capital of the region, and a Caricom Revised Treaty that provided for non-discrimination, he said. In discussions on CLF which has been under Governments control since 2009, he said, the Duprey faction has admitted that significant funds from the Eastern Caribbean flowed into TT from the Eastern Caribbean.

He said that a Trinidadian taking out an insurance policy in Grenada was compensated, but he as a Grenadian taking out a policy in TT was not compensated.

That affects, he said, the core of our morality as a Caribbean people. Civil society advocate, Afra Raymond in his presentation said, the assets of CLF and its liabilities grew because of financial contributions from policy holders from TT and across the region, except for Jamaica.

The shareholders agreement and the memorandum of understanding signed between Government and CLF in 2009 excluded repayment to anybody outside of TT. Philosophically, as Caribbean people, he questioned whether the agreement was legitimate, equitable and fair to all concerned.
I met with officers who are a part of the team which is purpotedly presiding over Itai Dzamara's abduction and disapperance 'investigations'. The team comprises of representatives from the CID, CIO, Office of the President, military, prisons, our lawyers and myself.

I was informed that the reason they summoned me for a meeting was for them to find out if i have any new information about Itai. I laughed out loud and asked them to buy sadza for us to eat together other than pretending and killing time.





I told them that I found it ludicrous and curious for the purpoted 'investigators' to think that I can do their job better than them or that I should be doing their job. I was actually looking forward to getting an update from them not for me to give them an update.





After all was said and done, I insisted on them getting me sadza so as to at least make the visit worthwhile.

I have never minced my words from the onset that the so called investigations are a mere facade. All security departments know what transpired to Itai and I wish to reiterate for the umpteenth time that the military intelligence is responsible for Itai's abduction.





Itai's birthday is on the 7th of August and on that day I shall give a comprehensive report regarding what is and what is not based on what we have gathered thus far.

For some strange reasons, word doing the rounds in certain circles is that I was summoned to the police over an indecent assult charge for fondling a 15 year old girl. That is not only a malicious lie, it's mischievous.

My heart goes out to everyone who has stood with us through the twists and turns of Itai's saga. Thank you.

The truth shall come out. A new and better Zimbabwe is possible in our lifetime.




South African power utility, Eskom has threatened to switch off ZESA Holdings by the end of this month if it fails to adhere to the agreed payment plan.





The government through ZESA Holdings agreed to pay US$10 million monthly to Eskom as part of settling power arrears which had reached US$43 million dollars.





Owing to inadequate foreign currency, sources say part payment was made this month which did not satisfy the South African power utility, hence the threats to switch off ZESA Holdings by the end of this month if payments are not made.





Sources could not be drawn into stating how much the government has paid to Eskom this month.





In a bid to save the country from darkness, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dr Samuel Undenge said negotiations are underway with officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to pay outstanding amounts.





Zimbabwe has been relying on power imports from South Africa and HCB of Mozambique to boost power supplies as a way of promoting production in the economy.

The country currently needs all available and uninterrupted power considering the high agricultural activities at the Grain Marketing (GMB) depots and the irrigation of the wheat crop.
No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
The good news: Martin J. Romero-Clark and Andrew Lillibridge probably got some awesome shots. The bad news: The two photographers were arrested early Tuesday after climbing the Ben Franklin Bridge, which spans the Delaware River to connect Philadelphia and New Jersey. Their 250-foot climb to the top of a tower got the bridge closed for 103 minutes and mass transit shut down, Philly.com reports. Authorities say it's the first time anyone has climbed the bridge. Police were alerted after alarms and security cameras were triggered and someone called in to report a suspected jumper; seven rescuers from Delaware River Port Authority brought the men down, with photo equipment in their bags. They face felony charges including criminal mischief, interference with transportation, and causing or risking widespread damage. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
A couple in Tennessee is facing life in prisonor even the death penaltyafter authorities say they left their 2-year-old son alone in a car overnight and he died, WATE reports. Jade Phillips called 911 around 2pm July 14. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, authorities say her son Kipp had been left in the car overnight and into the afternoon, when temperatures were nearing 90 degrees. The child was dead when police officers and paramedics arrived, the Sevier News Messenger reports. "They were distraught," Gatlinburg Police Chief Randall Brackins tells the News Sentinel. "They just couldn't believe it was happening."

Jade Phillips and her husband, Anthony Phillips, were arrested this week and charged with first-degree murder following an investigation. They've also been charged with aggravated child neglect and aggravated child abuse. Police say it appears the couple left their son in the car on accident, and the district attorney says he doesn't believe they were trying to kill the boy. A criminal law professor says it may be the first time someone in Tennessee has been charged with murder after a child died in a hot car. The car in which Kipp died was parked at a home belonging to Jerry Kirkman, Jade Phillips' father. Kirkman is the mayor of Westmoreland, a small town located a few hundred miles from Gatlinburg. (Read more child dies in hot car stories.)
The Republican-led House has decisively approved legislation that hits Russia with additional financial sanctions, the AP reports. The new penalties are aimed at rebuking Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. Lawmakers voted 419-3 to pass the bill, which prevents President Trump from waiving the sanctions against Russia without first securing permission from Congress.

The measure now heads to the Senate for action. The bill could be sent to Trump before Congress begins its August recess. The legislation also would slap penalties on Iran and North Korea. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Sunday the president would sign the sanctions bill. But on Monday, Sanders said Trump is "going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like." (Read more Russia stories.)
At least one of the 10 people who died while crammed into a tractor-trailer outside a Texas Walmart grew up in America and was making the dangerous journey to be reunited with his relatives. Frank Fuentes, 20, was brought to the US as a toddler and graduated from JEB Stuart High School in Fairfax, Va., in 2015, BuzzFeed reports. Guatemalan officials say Fuentes was a "DREAMer" who joined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but was deported to Guatemala in March of this year because he had a criminal record. He was convicted of assault and battery by a mob and was suspected of having ties to the MS-13 gang, reports the Washington Post.

Friends deny that Fuentes had gang ties. They say he had learned from his mistakes, but a "broken immigration system" denied him the chance to start over. Kelly Barrios-Mazariegos tells the Post that when she spoke to Fuentes a month ago, he was having a tough time in Guatemala. "He's been here forever," she says. "He doesn't know what Guatemala was. His home is here, his friends are here, his family is here." Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Fuentes, one of three Guatemalans found in the overheated truck, was brought to the US before he was three years old, CNN reports. He was arrested in July 2016 and a final deportation order was issued in February. (The driver charged in the case has a long criminal record.)
Bad news for Rick Perry: The promising new biofuel made from pig manure and homebrewed alcohol he wants to learn more about isn't realand the person who told him about it wasn't Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The energy secretary's 22-minute phone call July 19 with the man he thought was the Ukrainian leader was a call placed by Russian phone pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, the Cut reports. Perry also discussed issues such as America's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and cyberattacks on the power grid with the pranksters.

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed that Perry had been pranked by the duo, who are known as the "Jerky Boys of Russia," the Guardian reports. "These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their [government's]. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine," Hynes said. The Washington Post reports that the pranksters took advantage of timing to fool Perry, arranging the call three weeks after Perry hosted Groysman and other Ukrainians at the Department of Energy. (Their other victims include Elton John, who thought Vladimir Putin had invited him to a gay pride parade.)
A man was arrested on federal smuggling charges Tuesday after customs officers intercepted a shipment with three live king cobras hidden inside potato chip canisters that were being mailed to his California home, US prosecutors say. Rodrigo Franco, 34, faces a felony count of illegally importing merchandise into the US, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, the Pasadena Star-News reports. The three king cobra snakeseach about two feet longwere found in March when Customs and Border Protection officers inspected a package that was mailed from Hong Kong, prosecutors say. There were also three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles in the package.

Federal agents removed the cobras but delivered the turtles to Franco's home in Monterey Park. The agents later served a search warrant there and found tanks with a live baby Morelet's crocodile, alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle, and five diamond back terrapins, the AP reports. Prosecutors say all of the reptiles are protected under US law. Franco admitted to an agent from the US Fish and Wildlife Service that he had previously received 20 king cobras in two other shipments, but he said they all died in transit, according to court documents. Federal agents, however, found messages on Franco's phone in which he said he had previously received live cobras. (Read more smuggling stories.)
A newborn was in critical but stable condition Tuesday after his teenage father abandoned him in a Northern California strip-mall parking lot, police say. The father, Daniel Mitchell, 18, drove into the lot in Suisun City on Monday, removed a car seat holding the 16-day-old boy, put it on the ground, and left, police said after viewing surveillance video and interviewing witnesses. Two employees from a barbershop noticed the child's car seat sitting unattended, and on closer inspection they found a baby in it and called police, the AP reports. Police were able to get the vehicle's license plate from surveillance video and identify Mitchell.

Mitchell was involved in a hit-and-run crash and hospitalized later Monday in nearby Fairfield. Police say officers found him there and confirmed he was the father. Police arrested Mitchell on suspicion of child endangerment, child abandonment, committing a felony while free on bail, and possession of suspected cocaine. The baby was airlifted to a children's hospital. Police said they've found and interviewed the boy's mother, but she is not considered a suspect. "She is cooperative with the investigation," Suisun City Police Cmdr. Andrew White told reporters. "To our knowledge, at this time, she did not know that this had occurred, that it was being planned to occur, or anything like that." (Read more child endangerment stories.)
North Dakota prisons chief Leann Bertsch is one tough cookie, but an October 2015 trip to Norway really rattled her. In Mother Jones, Dashka Slater explains what brought the former major with the National Guard/ex-state prosecutor to tears: her realization that "we're hurting people." It came after a day touring Halden, a maximum-security facility that's upheld as exceedingly "humane." Bertsch had thought the four adult prisons under her purview were pretty humane themselves, but the "cagelike setting" her state offered stood in stark contrast to Halden's private rooms with en suite bathrooms. But she didn't just moan about the reality: She changed it. Previously, solitary confinement (called the seg unit) was where inmates landed if they committed any number of small infractions, even ones involving untucked shirts.

Now, seg is only used in cases where an inmate puts someone in danger; guards there must have two chats per inmate, per shift. After learning in Norway that the more distant home is for an inmate, the fewer visitors he gets (with studies indicating having frequent visitors lowers the recidivism rate), Bertsch scrapped plans to deal with overcrowding by moving some men to Colorado. Instead, she leased a "man camp" erected for oil workers that has real mattresses, no fences, and doors with locksand inmates have the keys. Those who've been sentenced for minor crimes or are nearing release are placed here. Slater explains Bertsch had a few things going for her in making these changes, among them the "relatively homogeneous" makeup of the state, which means race-based prison gangs aren't much of an issue. Read the full story, which explains how Bertsch ended up in Norway to begin with. (Read more Longform stories.)
President Trump scored a victory Tuesday when a motion to proceed on the healthcare debate passed the Senate 51-50, but that doesn't mean he's willing to overlook the two votes from Republicans in opposition. In a tweet Wednesday, Trump singled out Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaskawho cast an opposing vote alongside Sen. Susan Collins of Maineclaiming she "really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!" Asked about the 51-50 vote on Tuesday, Trump said Murkowski and Collins' votes were "very sadfor them," reports the Week.

Murkowski's vote "raised eyebrows among some Republicans" because she voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2015, per Politico. But while Murkowski says she believes the Affordable Care Act needs revising, she wanted "to give the Senate another chance to take this to the committee process. I still believe that's the best route." Murkowskiwho was also among nine GOP senators to reject a motion to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act later Tuesdaytells the Alaska Dispatch News that Sen. John McCain told her she "did the right thing." McCain voted "yes." (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
He was considered one of the best, if not the best, safety divers in the world, and Stephen Keenan died after coming to the rescue of a fellow diver. The 39-year-old Dublin native died over the weekend at the dangerous Dahab Blue Hole in Egypt, reports Deeper Blue. Keenan was an expert at free divingmeaning no breathing equipmentand Outside magazine notes that he he'd gained a reputation as the "most accomplished and beloved" safety diver in the sport. That is, he provided essential backup to other divers in case they got into trouble. On Saturday, he was trailing Italian free diver Alessia Zecchini as she attempted to navigate a notorious 85-foot-long tunnel at a depth of 184 feet at the Dahab site.

It appears that after Zecchini became disoriented at about 165 feet, Keenan dove down to assist and began guiding her back to the surface. She made it back, but Keenan himself apparently blacked out in the last 30 feet of the ascent and couldn't be revived upon being rescued. Because of the risks involved (almost always during ascent), the sport has a regimented safety protocol, per Outside. One only diver has died in competition, in 2013, and Keenan's death is believed to be the first of any safety diver. "He was a hero to the end," wrote the professional dive team Vertical Blue on Facebook, one of the many tributes popping up to Keenan. (Read more diver stories.)
Ben & Jerry's: non-GMO, fair trade, made with "caring dairy" and cage-free eggs, concerned with the environment ... and containing herbicide? The popular ice cream brand is under fire after the Organic Consumers Association released Tuesday a list of food brands found to contain traces of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. On that list: 10 of the 11 samples of Ben & Jerry's ice cream that were tested, the New York Times reports. The paper notes that the levels were "far below" the EPA's limits, but Ronnie Cummins, the OCA's international director, notes: "Would you want to be eating this stuff at all?" Business Insider reports social media backlash soon followed, with some consumers calling for a brand boycott. In a press release, the OCA calls for Ben & Jerry's to go completely organic, labeling its current claims of being "all-natural" and "sustainable" as "fraudulent" marketing.

It calls for consumers to sign a petition or stage a protest for a boycott until the brand goes 100% organic. Cummins and Rob Michalak, a company global director, tell the Times the glyphosate in its ice cream likely comes from "add-ins" like peanut butter or cookie dough; ingredients such as wheat, oats, and peanuts are often dried out by being sprayed with herbicide. Michalak notes while Ben & Jerry's plant-based ingredients are non-GMO, the company is still working to use only dairy from farms with non-GMO feed, as well as ridding GMOs from its supply chain. (Fox Business explains Vermont's GMO labeling law allows dairy and egg suppliers to use GMO grains in their feed.) "We need to better understand where the glyphosate they're finding is coming from," Michalak says. The Times has more on how concerning glyphosate may or may not be. (Read more Ben & Jerry's stories.)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has fired an IT staffer following his arrest on a bank fraud charge at a Virginia airport where he was attempting to fly to Pakistan. A rep for Wasserman Schultz says Irman Awan was fired by the Florida Democrat on Tuesday, reports the AP. Awan's attorney, Chris Gowen, confirmed his client was arrested at Dulles Airport on Monday. The 37-year-old Awan of Lorton, Va., is accused of defrauding the Congressional Federal Credit Union to obtain a $165,000 home equity loan. Politico reports he allegedly transferred the funds to two people in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Awanwho was cleared to travel and had informed the House of his plans to visit his family before the scheduled tripwas arraigned Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. He pleaded not guilty and was released pursuant to a high-intensity supervision program, including the restriction that he not travel beyond a 50-mile radius of his home, according to the court. Gowen says the case is motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry and he's confident Awan "will soon be able to clear his name and get on with his life." A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21, per Gowen. (Read more bank fraud stories.)
The parents of critically ill infant Charlie Gard conceded Wednesday that he will die in a hospice and not at home as they had previously wished, the AP reports. Connie Yates, the mother of the baby at the center of an international medical and legal battle, returned to London's High Court for a hearing where a judge was expected to rule on where Charlie would spend the last days of his life. Instead, Yates requested a medical team of her choosing that would work to keep her son alive for a week under hospice care rather than the few hours he was expected to survive once his ventilator was removed. The request indicated that the parents have backed away from their earlier expressed wish to take Charlie home for "a few days of tranquility" before his ventilator was disconnected and he was allowed to "slip away."

Great Ormond Street Hospital said it was not practical to provide life-support treatment for days at the couple's home. Nurses from the hospital have nonetheless volunteered to care for him in his final hours. The discussions marked the final stages of a legal and medical case that has continued for months. After dozens of court proceedings, Gard's parents on Monday withdrew their attempt to force a hospital to let them take their son to the United States for experimental treatment. The case then evolved into whether they would be allowed to take the 11-month-old home to die. Judge Nicholas Francis, who has presided over the case, has said the sensitive issues cried out "for mediation"not for the ruling of a judge. But so far attempts to find agreement have failed. President Trump and the pope, among others, have weighed in. (Read more Charlie Gard stories.)
An exhibit of some items from the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz are going on a tour of Europe and North America to bring its tragic truth about the Holocaust to a wider audience, the AP reports. The exhibitcalled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away"will be the first-ever traveling show done by the museum and will include 600 original items. Most of them will come from the Auschwitz museum, but also from other collections, like Israel's Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and from survivors. "Today, when the world is moving in uncertain directions," the exhibition can be a "great warning cry for us all" against building a "future on hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, and bottomless contempt for another human being," museum chief Piotr MA Cywinski said.

The exhibit aims to tell victims' stories through their personal items. It will also show an original barrack from the Auschwitz-Monowitz part of the camp and a German freight train wagon that the Nazis used to bring inmates to the camp. Some items, like an SS military belt buckle, are linked to the perpetrators, the German SS- men who built and operated the camp in occupied Poland during World War II. The project will visit seven cities in Europe, starting in Madrid later this year, and seven in North America. The names of the cities in North America have not been released yet. The state museum was established in 1947 to preserve the memory of the 1.1 million people who were killed in the camp's gas chambers or died of hunger, disease, and hard labor during World War II, and be a warning to future generations. (Read more Auschwitz stories.)
The world's tiniest violin might not be enough to express one man's loss, allegedly at the hands of his ex-wife. The Japan Times reports 34-year-old Midori Kawamiya was arrested Tuesday, accused of destroying her ex-husband's $950,000 violin collection in 2014 as the two were divorcing. Authorities say Kawamiya admitted to breaking into Daniel Olsen Chen's apartment in Nagoya but denied destroying his collection, which the BBC reports was comprised of 54 violins and 70 bows.

Kawamiya, a Chinese national, was arrested this weekmore than three years after the alleged crimewhen she returned to Japan from China. The 62-year-old Chen, who both collects and builds violins, says it will probably take him the rest of his life to repair his collection, the Violin Channel reports. The most valuable of the destroyed violinssaid to be worth nearly $450,000 on its ownis believed to have been a Nicola Amati instrument from Italy. (The saga of a Stradivarius stolen in 1980s ends on a high note.)
Wednesday marked the third day in a row in which President Trump publicly attacked Jeff Sessions, who was once one of his closest allies, Politico reports. In a series of tweets, the president criticized his attorney general for not replacing Andrew McCabe as acting FBI director, calling McCabe "a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton." PolitiFact has called these claims "mostly false." Jill McCabe got a donation from a PAC associated with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a friend of the Clintons; Andrew McCabe was made deputy FBI director months after his wife's campaign ended; and Trump himself can designate numerous officials as acting FBI director without Sessions being involved.

While Trump and Sessions are reportedly not on speaking termsABC News notes Sessions was at the White House for a meeting Wednesday, but Trump was not expected to attendtheir relationship may be about to improve. CNN reports Trump has recently criticized Sessions for not being "tougher on the leaks." Now, Sessions is reportedly set to make an announcement in the next week that he is stepping up his investigation into ongoing intelligence leaks. The Trump-Sessions feud started last week when Trump implied he regretted appointing Sessions over his recusal in the Russia investigation. On Tuesday, Trump said "time will tell" if Sessions resigns. But on Wednesday, Sessions' chief of staff reportedly told the White House that Sessions isn't going anywhere. (Read more Jeff Sessions stories.)
Sorry!

This content is not available in your region
New Delhi:

As the much talked about abduction case of Malayalam actress is getting murkier with every passing day, actor Dileep's wife Kavya Madhavan too has been interrogated by the officials in the matter.



According to the media reports, the investigation team interrogated Kavya at Dileep's ancestoral house after the prime accused in the abduction case Pulsar Suni hinted of an 'indirect' link with the actress.



Reportedly, Pulsar had told the officials that post the incident, he had escaped to an online marketing firm run by Kavya - 'Lakshya' - at Kakkanad in Kochi. It was after his statement that the Kerala olice also conducted a raid at Lakshya.

Also Read | Malayalam Actor Dileep refused bail, sent to judicial custody till July 25



On the other hand, Dileep has been facing conspiracy charges in the abduction and molestation case. He was not just expelled from Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), but was also sent to 14-day judicial custody.



While the actor had applied for a bail, the plea was rejected by the Kerala High Court on the grounds that the actor could possibly influence the witnesses in the case.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Kajol and Dhanush starrer Lalkar aka VIP 2(Velaiilla Pattadhari 2), the trailer of which has released. Th two-and-a half-minute trailer seems amazing and the action sequences will take your breath away.

In the trailer, Raghuvaran(Dhanush) who is a graduate and looking for a job, whereas Kajol is playing the role of a rich business woman. One-liners by Dhanush and the face-off between the two stars will be the main attraction of the film. The Tamil version of the trailer, which was released last month received mostly positive reviews from the audience.

Kajol who will be making her comeback in Tamil industry nearly after 20 years, was last seen in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dilwale.

Watch here:

Dhanush has already signaled to make the third installment, which will feature Kajol in pivotal role. Directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth and produced by Kalaipuli S, thanu, the movie is set to release on July 28.
New Delhi:

India is celebrating 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas on Wednesday. On this day Indian Armed Forces declared victory over Pakistani troops and militants in the Kargil war on 26 July, 1999..

Kargil Vijay Diwas is named after the success of Operation Vijay. Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 26 July every year in honour of the Kargil War's Heroes. This day is celebrated in the Kargil - Dras sector and the national capital New Delhi, where the Prime Minister of India, pays homage to the soldiers at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate every year. Functions are also organized all over the country to commemorate the contribution of the Armed forces.

Here are 10 facts about this day:

1. On 26 July, 1999. It was 60 day long war resulting loss of lives on both sides and resulted in India gaining the reign over the Kargil sector.

2. The Kargil war was fought in 1999 between India and Pakistan in Kargil, Ladakh which was initially Baltistan district, separated by the LOC after the first Kashmir war.

3. Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government was in power at the time of this war.

4. India launched 'Operation Vijay' to clear the Kargil sector of infiltration by Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

See pics: In Pics | Kargil Vijay Diwas 2017: What was Kargil War and why it was fought?

5. The war took place despite the two nations signing the Shimla Agreement that stated that no armed conflict shall take place on the said boundary.

6. Safed Sagar, the Indian Air Force's operation, was a major part of the Kargil war. It used air power at the height of 32,000 feet for the first time.

7. The operation was officially declared closed on July 26, 1999 by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

8. India lost more than 500 military men on the Kargil territory while reports from Pakistan claimed that more than 3000 of their soldiers, mujahideens and infiltrates died.

9. Kargil is one of the most recent and infamous examples of high-altitude warfare i.e wars that are fought on mountainous terrain.

10. It was also the first war between the two countries widely covered in the media.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
A lawsuit challenging the legality of Iowas school funding formula has been dismissed in District Court. The ruling highlights remaining questions as to whether education is a basic right in the state.

Former and current students of the Davenport Community School District brought the lawsuit in December, which argued the states funding formula creates inequities in school funding across the state.

The formula allows for some school districts to spend as much as $175 more per student. Those extra dollars can mean additional hundreds of thousands for districts general funds, which are used to pay for staff and curriculum needs.

On June 29, a District Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, partly because plaintiffs asserted the formula violates a fundamental right to a public education.

Whether the right to education is a fundamental right remains an open question in Iowa, the ruling states. ... Iowa Courts do not currently recognize the right to education as a fundamental right.

Chase Cartee of the Cartee Law Firm in Davenport, which represented the plaintiffs, said they are considering an appeal.

I think this case is probably destined to go the Iowa Supreme Court at some point, Cartee said. Its for them to decide if education is a fundamental right in Iowa or not. ... Theyve never really ruled on it, (and) this might be the one.

When it was created in the early 1970s, Iowas funding formula for schools sought to create more equitable funding among the states school districts, Iowa Department of Education spokeswoman Staci Hupp said. Before a statewide formula was created, funding varied widely among districts.

In the early 70s, we moved toward a school funding formula that increased state aid substantially, Hupp said. The change there was driven by two goals  to make sure funding was more equitable across school districts  and to protect property taxpayers.

The state sets a funding level for all school districts  $6,591 per pupil in fiscal year 2017  but districts that were spending more per student when the formula was created still are authorized to spend at those higher levels.

The Davenport Community School District, for example, was authorized only to spend $6,591 per student, while its neighboring districts of Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley were authorized to spend $6,665 and $6,724, respectively.

The Cedar Rapids, College Community, Mount Vernon and Solon school districts also are authorized to spend only at the $6,591 per pupil level. Other districts are authorized to spend more per student: Marion Independent, $6,693; Clear Creek Amana, $6,627; Iowa City, $6,608; Linn-Mar, $6,592.

The Davenport lawsuit had named the state of Iowa, the general assembly, former Gov. Terry Branstad and the Iowa Department of Education as defendants.

The Davenport Community School District had no involvement whatsoever with the lawsuit, Superintendent Art Tate said in an email. He declined to comment further.

A spokeswoman for the school district, Dawn Saul, said the district will move forward despite the gap between its funding and other schools.

Theres an inequality in the school funding formula in Iowa, Saul said. ... Davenport and many other districts, probably about half around the state, have said, Hey, we, too, would like equal funding.

Were the Davenport school district authorized to spend at the highest rate allowed in the state, it would have added about $863,000 to its budget in fiscal year 2017.

The Iowa Department of Education filed an ethics complaint against Superintendent Tate in December, Department spokeswoman Hupp said. The Quad-City Times reported that he has dipped into the districts reserve funds to make up that difference. The newspaper said that complaint came less than 24 hours after Tate appeared before the states School Budget Review Committee.

The Board of Educational Examiners, which handles such complaints and has the authority to revoke educators licenses, declined a request from The Gazette for comment on the status or existence of a complaint or investigation, citing confidentiality.
New Delhi:

The CPI-Maoists, a banned left-wing extremist outfit, killed 94 civilians in the first six month of the year, informed Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir to Rajya Sabha.

"94 civilians have been killed in 2017 (till June) by the Maoists," Ahir said in a written reply to a question.

He added that the people killed were tribals and were branded as police informers by the left-wing extremist.

The method of killings include multiple beatings, hacking with sharp weapons and shooting, said the Minister.

Also Read: Maoist ambush attack in Odisha kills 1 SOG jawan, 10 others injured

Also Read: CRPF recruits 743 candidates from Bastar region to counter Naxals in the area

The CPI (Maoist) including its arms wing People's Liberation Guerilla Army will be observing Martyrs Week from July 28 to August 3. During the week the extremist outfit hold meetings and spread their propaganda among the villagers. The Maoist also target security forces and government during the week.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

On the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War", Modi said in a series of tweets.

Read more: 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas: 10 things you should know about the War

"Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe", he added.

The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights.

It took about three months for the the Indian forces to recapture the posts.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday in connection with over a decade-old money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing.

Officials said Shah was arrested in Srinagar and is expected to be brought to Delhi on Wednesday. He would be produced in a court.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central investigating agency.

A Delhi court had earlier this month issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the separatist leader.

The warrant has been executed, a senior official said.

The agency had issued several summons to Shah over the

last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case, wherein the Delhi Polices Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

Shah in the past had told PTI that the ED case against him was politically motivated.

Also Read: Separatist leaders, JKLF Chief Yasin Malik restrained to avoid unrest ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.

Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through hawala channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.

During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission.

Also Read | Crackdown on Kashmir separatists: NIA registers FIR against Geelani, Saeed; ED issues summons to Shabir Shah

Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments over the past year.

The ED, sources said, wants to probe the proceeds of crime of alleged terror financing in this case.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Congress blaming the Mumbais civic body responsible for the collapse of a four-storey building in suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai killing 17 on Wednesday and said that the both Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who run the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai must be held accounted for the accident.

Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam talking to Shiv Sena said that Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap, owner of at least three flats on the ground floor of the collapsed building, should be booked for culpable homicide for the collapse.

He further added that the Shiv Sena and BJP should apologise to the people of Mumbai for the accident which led to killing of 17 innocents.

Also Read: Mumbai woman biker tries to avoid pothole, gets crushed by truck

"The CM is saying that they are going to take action, this is absolutely rubbish, added Nirupam.

He demanded arrest of officers responsible for the collapse

Case should be registered for non unintentional murder. All these things are happening due to the misgovernance of BJP and Shiv Sena in BMC," he added.

Also Read: Former Doordarshan anchor dies in Mumbai after coconut tree falls on her, CCTV captures incident

The Congress leader added that Municipal Corporation is responsible for taking care of the buildings in bad conditions.

Nirupam added, This building was 40 years old and even after protest of local residents, a leader of Shiv Sena started constructing pillar for the construction of the hospital.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Centre on Wednesday conceded in the Supreme Court that right to privacy may be considered as a fundamental right under the Constitution, but many facets relating to it cannot be put under the fundamental rights category.

The contentitious issue as to whether right to privacy was a fundamental right or not was referred to a larger bench in 2015 after the Centre had underlined the issue of two judgements delivered in 1950 and 1962 by the apex court that had held it was not a fundamental right.

Right to privacy could be a fundamental right, but it could not be absolute, Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted before a nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

There may be a fundamental right to privacy and it has to be a qualified right since it covers diverse aspects and a sub-species of the Right to Liberty. Every aspect or sub- species cannot qualify to be a fundamental right, he said.

Right to privacy cant be one homogenious right. Its not absolute and is rather qualified to be elevated to the level of fundamental right. Privacy will be one species which comes under right to liberty, he said.

The Centres assertion came when the bench posed a pointed query to the attorney general as to what was the stand of the government on the question whether right to privacy was a fundamental right or not.

Also Read: Attorney General says 'right to privacy is not an absolute right'

You are the responsible government officer. Its okay to may a statement. We will take your statement on record and close the case if you accept that right to privacy is a fundamental right, the bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer, said.

During the day-long hearing, Venugopal asserted that right to privacy could not be bundled as a single right in a developing country like India where a few persons, claiming right to privacy, override the fundamental rights of 60-70 million people, who did not have access to basic amenities like food and shelter.

We are a poor country. In Kalahandi, a mother is forced to sell her girl child for Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 who will eventually be taken to a brothel where her privacy and bodily integrity will be taken away, he said.

Venugopal contended, Under the MNREGA scheme, the government is giving money for the work done by people through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into their bank accounts. The money now goes directly into their bank accounts after being linked to Aadhaar which they never got earlier.

Even the World Bank has appreciated the effort and said that this model should be adopted by other countries.

The bench then said, You want to make the DBT to reach the beneficiaries. Its all right as that can be the legitimate interest of the government.

Justice Nariman said, Dont forget the little mans right to privacy. Everything is not Aadhaar-centric. We are going to consider all aspects and give you a comprehensive judgement for conceptual clarity of the nation. Venugopal referred to the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing four non-BJP ruled states of Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherry, that right to privacy could not be an absolute right.

Also Read: NCTE notification for giving weightage to TET marks not mandatory: SC

In the forenoon, Sibal had argued these four states supported the contention that right to privacy be held as fundamental right in the age of technological advancements.

When the top law officer was seeking the courts intervention to distinguish as to what sub-species of the right to privacy would qualify for being considered as fundamental right while keeping in mind the rights of poor and marginalised section ofsociety, the court intervened and referred to the sterilisation campaign undertaken during the Emergency.

Sterilisation was the worst experiment ever done on the poor people of the country, the bench said.

Venugopal termed the Emergency as the most unfortunate incident in the life of the country and said, We all hope that it will never occur again.He said that during the Emergency, the fundamental rights of the citizens were taken away and even politicians like former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi had to bear hardships.

The attorney general then referred to the consequence suffered by the then ruling party for imposition of the Emergency and said that in Tamil Nadu it never came back to power.

He took serious objection to the earlier statements made by the lawyers for right to privacy that making Aadhaar mandatory has converted India into a totalitarian state.

It is not justified at all. Much stronger words have been used. Right to privacy cannot be used to deprive the basic necessities of life to the poor, he said.The bench, however, asked him to restrict his argument to the question of right to privacy and its place in the Constitution.The apex court observed that the state can seek information like a woman can be asked to give details about the number of her children and simulatenously she cannot be forced to answer as to how many abortions she has had.

Also Read: Shikshamitra recruitment: SC grants two opportunities to clear it

Similarly, one can be asked about her mother and fathers name but no one can be asked about being born from first marriage or second marriage, the bench said.The court asked Venugopal as to what is difference if right to privacy is considered as a common law right or a fundamental right.He responded by saying that the common law right can be enforced by filing civil law suit and if it is considered as a fundamental right then the court can enforce it like any other writ.

Sibal sought intervention on behalf of the four states and said that right to privacy be declared as a fundamental right with some qualification.The technology today was advanced and the todays issues were not before the court when the judgements in question were passed declaring that right to privacy was not a fundamental right, he said.

Giving the example of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Sibal said that the movement of person can be tracked and misused by the state as well as non-state actors.The arguments in the case remained inconclusive and the attorney general would resume advancing his submissions on Thursday.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Amid the present acrimony between ruling JD(U) and RJD of the grand alliance, BJP on Sunday said it does not favour snap polls in Bihar.

The party also extended support to Nitish Kumars stand that deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav must come clean on corruption charges against him.

We are not in favour of mid-term polls in Bihar. Such a situation should not arise in the state, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters Patna.

BJP sought to steer clear of the acrimony between the two ruling allies saying it is not going to extend inside or outside support if JD(U) severs ties with RJD.

BJP does not believe in breaking the alliance government, but wants it to complete its term. Partys parliamentary board will decide the issue depending on the political situation, the BJP leader said.

Sushil Modi, the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council, said Kumar has on several occasions supported BJP and the Centre on various issues.

An intense check and mate game is going on between the two warring allies, but both are wary of losing power, the BJP leader said expressing hope that the situation will be resolved at the earliest.

The JD(U) has asked its key ally RJD to come clean on the issue of corruption charges levelled against its legislature party leader Tejashwi Yadav.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad has, however, said Tejashwi will not resign merely on the ground that the CBI has lodged an FIR against him in the land-for-railways hotels case.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has not asked for Tejashwis resignation. Lalu said that Grand Alliance is intact and Nitish Kumar will remain leader of the same.

"Nitish Kumar is leader of grand alliance. We will not tolerate any disrespect towards him," Lalu Yadav said.

He further said,"We have formed the grand alliance, made Nitish CM. Why will we break the alliance?"

RJD had called a meeting of its MLAs as the Assembly is going to kick off from July 28. JD(U) has also called a meeting in the evening to discuss the fate of the alliance.

A few days back, two senior RJD leaders had targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of cosying up to the BJP, as the war of words had intensified between the ruling allies in Bihar, JD(U) and RJD, over graft allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav.

Nitish Kumar is leader of grand alliance. We will not tolerate any disrespect towards him: Lalu Yadav pic.twitter.com/2VqO1NXS9V  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

"Is Nitish Kumar bathed in milk ? He is with BJP in the night and with RJD during day time," RJD Araria MP Mohammad Taslimuddin had said as he defended Tejaswi, who has been named as an accused by CBI in the land-for-hotels case.

Also Read | JD(U)-RJD rift: Sharad Yadav not in favour of breaking grand alliance despite Nitish's reservation on Tejashwi's continuance

.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday attacked BJP-RSS for making all attempts to break grand alliance in the state. He said that people can see through the conspiracy of BJP-RSS.

"I was never asked to resign. Its RSS-BJP which wants to break the grand alliance, people can see through their conspiracy," said Tejashwi.

Tejashwi said that Sushil Modi is not even a Bihari and he is an outsider, so these people don't care about Bihar's development or its people.

Tejashwi added that Amit Shah had said he wants to see BJP in power in every state, so they are trying all means to break us.

Earlier in the day, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has not asked for Tejashwis resignation. Lalu said that Grand Alliance is intact and Nitish Kumar will remain leader of the same.

"Nitish Kumar is leader of grand alliance. We will not tolerate any disrespect towards him," Lalu Yadav said.

He further said, "We have formed the grand alliance, made Nitish CM. Why will we break the alliance?"

RJD had called a meeting of its MLAs as the Assembly is going to kick off from July 28. JD(U) has also called a meeting in the evening to discuss the fate of the alliance.

A few days back, two senior RJD leaders had targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of cosying up to the BJP, as the war of words had intensified between the ruling allies in Bihar, JD(U) and RJD, over graft allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Also read: RJD-JD(U) rift: Lalu says Nitish didn't ask for Tejashwi's resignation, grand alliance is intact in Bihar

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Twentysix Afghan soldiers were killed and 13 others suffered injuries in Tuesday-night Taliban attack on a military base in southern Kandahar province, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Afghanistan Ministry of Defence spokesperson General Dawlat Waziri said, The militants attacked an army camp in Karzali area of Kjakrez district of Kandahar last night. Our soldiers bravely resisted the strike, killing more than 80 insurgents.

Ministry said that that they have learnt that 30-strong convoy of Taliban militants attacked the army base camp from all directions.

Also Read: Taliban militants kill 10 Afghan soldiers at Army base in southern province of Kandahar

Also Read: US forces kill head of ISIS Afghan branch in a strike on terror groups headquarters

The Taliban militants have carried out more complex attacks against the government troops in 2017.

Earlier in April at least 135 soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack at Mazar-i-Sharif army base.

The Taliban gunmen disguised as doctors stormed Sardar Daun Khan hospital in Kabul killing at least dozen in March.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Jerusalem:

Israel removed metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site on Tuesday after their installation triggered deadly violence, but Muslim worshippers suspicious over what would come next and so their leaders have called to continue boycotting the sacred compound for now.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas also said he will maintain a freeze on coordination with Israel despite the removal of the metal detectors. Israel's move came in the face of intensive international diplomacy seeking to prevent the dispute over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, from sparking wider Palestinian unrest.

The government said it would introduce subtler measures to secure the compound housing the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock following a July 14 deadly attack on Israeli police nearby. Crews removed the metal detectors early today, and cameras installed in recent days were also gone.

But suspicions over what the new measures would entail resulted in the boycott continuing. Several hundred worshippers prayed outside the gates inthe streets in the summer heat, as they have done since the metal detectors were installed more than a week ago. "What we want and what we demand is for everything toreturn how it was before July 14," said Mohammed Hijazi, who came from Acre in northern Israel to join the protests. "When that happens we are ready to return to enter the Al-Aqsa mosque to pray to God Almighty."

Israel's security cabinet announced the decision to remove the detectors early today. They decided "to change the inspection with metal detectors to a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Details of the advanced technologies envisaged were not immediately clear.

A statement from the Waqf, the Islamic endowments organisation which administers the compound, said there should be "no entry into Al-Aqsa mosque until after an assessment bya Waqf technical committee and the return of the situation to how it was before the 14th of this month".

Abbas froze contacts with Israel last week over thedispute, including security coordination, and said today itwould continue "unless all measures go back to what they were before July 14". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all Muslims to visit Jerusalem to protect the holy places.

"Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem,Al-Aqsa mosque," Erdogan said in Ankara. "Come, let's all protect Jerusalem." Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the compound after the July 14 attack nearby killed two policemen. Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site and refused to enter the compound.

Israeli authorities said the detectors were needed because the attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to shoot the officers. The decision to remove the detectors followed talks between Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II, who demanded that they be taken away. Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and is one of only two Arab governments to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.

It also came after one of US President Donald Trump's to paides, Jason Greenblatt, arrived in Israel for talks on the crisis and with UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warningof the risks of escalation. "We are not over this crisis yet," Mladenov said today. "I hope that the steps being taken by Israel will enable a return to relative calm, and we all hope this will happen inthe next days."

A diplomatic standoff between Israel and Jordan may have helped push negotiations on the metal detectors along. On Sunday night in Amman, an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead a Jordanian who attacked him with a screw driver, according to Israeli officials. A second Jordanian was also killed, apparently by accident. Israel had insisted the security guard had diplomatic immunity and rejected Jordanian demands to question him. But last night, the guard and other diplomats arrived home after a deal also involving the mosque compound. "Amman authorised the Israeli diplomat to leave the country after hearing his account of the incident and after reaching an understanding with the (Israeli) government onAl-Aqsa," a Jordanian government source said.

Today, thousands of Jordanians chanted "Death to Israel"at the funeral of the 17-year-old said to have attacked theguard. Mourners accompanied Mohammed Jawawdeh's coffin from Wihdat city, home to a large Palestinian refugee camp. Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers in Jerusalem -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa brought the dispute toa boil.

Clashes erupted between Israeli security forces andPalestinians in Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank,leaving three Palestinians dead. Friday evening also saw a Palestinian break into a homein a Jewish settlement in the West Bank during a Sabbath dinner and stab four Israelis, killing three. Clashes continued on Saturday, leaving two more Palestinians dead. The mosque compound has served as a rallying cry forPalestinians. In 2000, a visit to it by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, oruprising.

It lies in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community. Considered the third-holiest site in Islam, it is themost sacred for Jews.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voiced her opposition Wednesday to President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender individuals won't be allowed to serve in the military.

Ernst's office said that the senator thinks "Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity."

The president took to Twitter Wednesday morning and, in a series of messages, said: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

The Obama administration had decided to allow transgender people to serve. There are various estimates of how many transgender people are in the military. A Rand study last year put the number at 2,500 on active duty, out of 1.3 million overall. A 2014 study by the Williams Institute estimated the number at 15,000 who are on active duty, in the Reserves or National Guard.

Ernst, who is a veteran, doesn't think taxpayers should pay for gender reassignment surgery, her office said in an email, but added that "what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life."

On a conference call Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would defer on the question to military officials and to Ernst.

Told of Ernst's response, he said, "I have respect for what she has to say." He said he would study the issue further.
Melbourne:

A Sikh man in Australia was asked to take off his kirpan and "get out" of a bus when a passenger called police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said on Wednesday.

Police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland on Tuesday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.

"We looked out the window and we could see and the policecar behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand andsaid to the guy, 'Get your hands up so we can see them and getout of the bus'," New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.

The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing aturban and had a long, curved "sword-like" kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed,said the witness.

A police spokes woman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan. She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed. "Police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh."

"He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in NewZealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken," the report said .

The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated. A baptised Sikh has five articles of faith and the kirpanis one of them. The other four articles of faith are - kesh(uncut long hair), kanga (a comb), kara (an iron bracelet) andkachehra (under shorts). Sikhism is a small but growing minority religion in Australia that can trace its origins in the nation to the 1830s.

Australia is home to more than 72,000 Sikh, a population that is expected to rise in this year's census.



For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
London:

Sister Niveditas family home in London, where she lived before moving to India in 1898 to set up a girls school and help the poor, is to be commemorated with a special plaque on her 150th birth anniversary.

Sister Nivedita, the educationalist and campaigner for Indian Independence, is the inscription confirmed by English Heritage for the blue plaque to be unveiled on October 28.

The London Blue Plaque Scheme, run by English Heritage, celebrates the link between important historical figures and the buildings in which they lived or worked. Founded in 1866, it is believed to be the oldest scheme of its kind.

The Scottish-Irish social worker and disciple of Swami Vivekananda began her professional life as a school teacher in southwest London and set up the Ruskin School in the area.

The school was to later become the inspiration for her girls school in Kolkata, then Calcutta, she set up in 1898 after accompanying Swami Vivekananda to India that year.

Suggested Read: Queen Elizabeth II pays tribute to inspirational unsung heroes

Born Margaret Elizabeth Noble, the name Nivedita or the dedicated one, was given to her by Swami Vivekananda.

In India,?she served the poor in Bengal during the times of flood, plague and famine and was a very vocal?campaigner against the partition of Bengal proposed by the British in 1905.

We are happy that English Heritage is recognising her contribution in the areas of education and as a campaigner of Indian Independence on her 150th birth anniversary for the first time on English soil, said Sarada Sarkar, a London-based teacher who led the campaign for installing the plaque.

Later, Sister Nivedita briefly travelled back to London with Swami Vivekananda, arriving at the 21 High Street in Wimbledon on July 31, 1899. He stayed there for a couple of days while Sister Niveditas family found him an accommodation nearby.

The house remained Sister Niveditas family home until January 1902, though she had permanently moved to India.

The Ramakrishna Mission and Sister Niveditas followers have invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to deliver the keynote address at the unveiling of the plaque.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
CEDAR RAPIDS | Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Jim Trainor issued his first citation for texting while driving three days after the ban took effect.

It was on Blairs Ferry Road, a busy east-west arterial in northern Cedar Rapids and she was right beside me texting, the trooper said. I buzzed my horn at her, but she didnt notice, so I pulled her over.

More motorists on Iowa roads will be taking notice of the texting ban as the patrol steps up enforcement efforts of the distracted driving law in new and creative ways.

The law, which took effect July 1, bans reading, writing and sending electronic messages while driving. Violators can be fined $30.

On Interstate 80 near the Quad Cities, one enforcement action had troopers patrolling in a recreational vehicle, which gave them a higher vantage point to see texting drivers, said Lt. Brian Votroubek of Post 12 in Stockton.

Although not many citations have been issued, Votroubek said the enforcement actions have been successful.

It helps get the word out that were doing it, he said. Were just trying to keep people safe and keep the roadway open.

Post 11, which includes Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Poweshiek and Tama counties, is using more informal enforcement actions, Trainor said. In some cases, troopers are driving unmarked cars while looking for texting drivers as well as motorists violating speed and seat belt laws.

Votroubek expects Post 12 will continue enforcements in short bursts. Its hard to do longer enforcements because troopers get other service calls. In two cases, Votroubek said, troopers have been called away from enforcement actions to respond to traffic crashes.

An enforcement action Tuesday by Post 11 was interrupted when troopers had to respond to fatal crashes, Trainor said.

In another enforcement action, Department of Natural Resource officers relayed sightings of texting drivers to troopers, Trooper Alex Dinkla said.

Driving through a construction zone? The man or woman on the side of the road in construction gear might just be a trooper, he added.

Drivers have been surprised when pulled over for distracted driving because they assume theyre being pulled over for something else, Votroubek said.

When we talk to them, they understand theyre not supposed to be doing it, he added.

Troopers do get blowback from drivers saying they were not texting but instead using a GPS app, which is permitted along with making phone calls, Trainor said.

But it you see them holding the phone and their thumbs are moving, its pretty obvious, Trainor said.

One common misconception is that texting is permitted at stop signs and stop lights. But unless a vehicle is off the traveled portion of the road and in park, thats illegal, Trainor said.

Drivers have been stopped not only texting but playing video games and watching YouTube videos, Votroubek said.

In some cases, Trainor said, troopers are issuing warnings rather than citations. Some also have handed out cellphone sleeves. When a phone is placed in the sleeve, conductive fabric lining blocks radio frequencies from reaching it.
MASON CITY | Phil Chodur's dealings with the city date back to 2013 when he, through his company, G8 Development, proposed to build a Hilton hotel in the parking lot west of City Hall.

That deal fell through when Hilton corporate personnel declined to go through with it.

In 2014, Chodur approached the city with a new proposal, this time to build a Marriott hotel on the same site as where the Hilton was planned.

The city incorporated Chodur's plan into a $36 million downtown redevelopment proposal called River City Renaissance and applied for state funding to help leverage it through the Iowa Reinvestment Act. The hotel was a critical part of the application because it fulfilled a state requirement of $10 million in private investment.

Chodur has many downtown plans MASON CITY | Philip Chodur is well known in Mason City as the man behind the proposed buildi

In 2016, when Chodur failed to meet three separate deadlines to start construction, the city found him in default of his development agreement and put out requests for new proposals for a hotel.

Chodur submitted a proposal as did Gatehouse Capital, a hotel developer headquartered in Texas.

The City Council chose to go with Gatehouse's proposal, which is to build a hotel in the south parking lot of Southbridge Mall and connect to The Music Man Square via a skywalk and to build a conference center/ballroom in The Music Man Square.

The city has now submitted Gatehouse's plan in its application for state funds.

Mason City has been pre-approved for funding and is awaiting potential final approval.

Chodur buys property, pledges to build Marriott within feet of Gatehouse Mason City hotel site MASON CITY | A San Diego developer says he will keep his word to build a hotel in downtown M

Chodur in March 2017 told the Globe Gazette he planned to build a Marriott hotel feet from Gatehouse's proposed hotel site. Chodur had purchased property on contract on the South Federal Avenue loop, along Willow Creek.

He also has plans to build a mixed-use retail and residential building, brewery and beer garden in the former Marshall & Swift building and an internet cafe on the plaza near Lorado's, Chodur said in November 2016.
An Osaka-based restaurant chain operator and its top manager were fined Wednesday for making foreign student employees work longer hours than legally permitted.

The Osaka Summary Court fined Ichimonkai, the operator of the Kushikatsu Daruma restaurant chain, 500,000 and 38-year-old Shohei Yabuguchi, who is the chief manager for all the stores, 300,000 as demanded by prosecutors for violating the immigration law.

At the restaurant chain, which serves kushikatsu deep-fried meat and vegetables skewers, 11 foreign students work beyond the 28 hours a week allowed under their visas at several outlets in the city of Osaka between last September and November, according to the ruling.

The defendants admitted to the charges during the court's first hearing last month.
MASON CITY | A San Diego developer who failed to build a downtown hotel has filed suit against Mason City and the Chamber of Commerce Foundation, claiming the city was in breach of contract.

The petition for the civil suit was filed in Cerro Gordo County District Court July 18, along with "Exhibit A," G8 Development's agreement with the city.

The petition names Chamber Director Robin Anderson and her alleged role in the interference. Anderson was unaware of the filing and limited her comments to the Our River City Renaissance Project.

Mason City Administrator Brent Trout said Wednesday he wasn't aware of the lawsuit as the city has not been served.

The city is seeking up to $10 million in state funds through the Iowa Reinvestment Act for the project. That money would leverage a $36 million plan that includes a hotel, an ice arena/multipurpose center and a music pavilion. The hotel is a critical factor because it fulfills a state requirement of $10 million in private investment in the overall project.

In the lawsuit, Philip Chodur of G8 Development makes several claims against the city and the chamber, including a claim that the chamber intentionally interfered with the contract. His agreement with the city fell through late last year when he failed to meet deadlines for starting construction.

The City Council approved May 11 a pre-development agreement with Gatehouse Capital to build the hotel for the project. There will be a public vote Nov. 7 to allow or prevent the city from entering into a lease agreement with Southbridge Mall to build the arena and lease it to the city for 20 years for an amount not to exceed $18 million.

If rejected, it will kill the plan.

'Secret' meetings

Upon information and belief, the Chamber intentionally and improperly interfered with the Development Contract by, among other things, Robin Anderson, in her capacity as Director of the Chamber, having secret meetings with certain members of the City Council and encouraging them to terminate the G8 Development Contract in favor of another proposal being offered by an entity known as Gatehouse Capital," the petition states.

G8 Development claims that the interference and alleged secret meetings caused the city to terminate the development contract, affecting the company's ability to perform and complete its obligations under the contract.

As a member of the Chamber of Commerce, G8 Development said the organization should have been following its mission, working for the success of its members.

Anderson said she couldn't comment on the lawsuit, but told the Globe Gazette she was surprised to hear that the chamber was listed as a defendant.

Background: G8 Development's proposed projects for Mason City MASON CITY | Phil Chodur's dealings with the city date back to 2013 when he, through his com

"Its not really our practice to say 'no comment' because we want to work with the media, but we are completely unaware of this," Anderson said Wednesday. She said the chamber was a "cheerleader" for G8 Development's project and does not "support one member over another."

The chamber has supported the Renaissance Project throughout the process. In March, board members heard proposals from Gatehouse and G8 but limited the chamber's support to the project and not a specific developer.

After the city terminated its deal with G8, Anderson said she met with three developers who contacted the chamber. Anderson said she also made a similar pitch to a "consultant representing G8s lender."

When (G8 Development's) contract was terminated, any hotelier who contacted us, we tried to sell them on Mason City, and referred them to Brent Trout, Anderson said.

She said the chamber encouraged the city to consider hotels with a request for qualification offering a 500-plus meeting space to fill the gap since the Clarion Inn was demolished.

Breach of contract

In its claims of the city's breach of contract, the developer lists several demands the city imposed that it claims were not part of the contract.

During the negotiation and pendency of the Development Contract, the City continually sought to impose upon G8 artificial and extra-contractual obligations that were not in good faith and that were not part of the Development Contract, the petition states.

Court documents show the obligations include:

Altering the long-expected scope of the project to satisfy the requests the city had to meet to receive state grant funding, including as related to a mixed-use requirement imposed by the state.

Requiring requests for proposals, that the city suggested to G8 Development were only perfunctory, and that would not affect the company's rights under the eventual development contract.

Imposing arbitrary deadlines related to the submission of construction drawings.

Imposing arbitrary deadlines related to construction lending and loan commitments.

Arbitrarily delaying G8 Development's ability to meet its obligations under the development contract by misplatting the site, requiring G8s architects and engineers to rearrange its site plan on the existing lot lines.

Requiring the City Architectural Review committee to approve new site plans.

G8 Development claims that the obligations shortened the timelines within the development contract and hindered performance, making it impossible to complete its project.

When the city terminated the development contract, G8 Development claims the termination was not in good faith. At that time, the city said the developer had defaulted on the project.

It was the artificial and extra-contractual obligations the City imposed upon G8 that were responsible for the delays, the petition says.

Similar lawsuit

Chodur filed a similar lawsuit alleging the city of Vista, California, breached its contract with him on a condominium, commercial and office space project, according to an article published in the San Diego Union Tribune in October 2015. The suit claimed the city changed agreements for the project.

The project was to include 80 condos and 31,000 square feet of commercial and office space, according to a 2008 development agreement.

After six years and "no work visible at the property," the council canceled the agreement, the Union Tribune reported, saying Chodur had "moved too slowly and was unable to answer questions about financing for the project."

Chodur buys property, pledges to build Marriott within feet of Gatehouse Mason City hotel site MASON CITY | A San Diego developer says he will keep his word to build a hotel in downtown M

Chodur filed a claim with the city for $3 million, which was rejected. He then filed a suit for breach of contract, which is still pending.

The property was since been sold to another developer in December 2015, according to the Union Tribune, who planned to build a five-story building with shops, apartments and underground parking.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Greenwich native Julio Rivera may have stepped away from software engineering to forge a new career path and lifestyle, but traces of his tech background remain in his navigation of the entrepreneurial landscape.

After realizing his original concept to host mindfulness events in New York City under his brand Zen Compass wasnt best suited to his skills and goals, he pivoted. He dropped the vowels  mostly made a new website and refined his strategy. I realized I didnt want to do event production, Rivera said of Zen Compass. Ive been playing with this idea for a couple months and now Im forming more of an online community.

Under the name ZnCo, Rivera still plans to host events, but theyll be smaller, more intimate and he will lead the meditation and mindfulness practices.

In addition, ZnCo will be grounded in holding online events that people can attend virtually. Im reaching out to teachers from around the country to lead practices and people will be able to learn meditation from them at their convenience, Rivera said. I want to make teachers more accessible to people anywhere.

His intentions for Zen Compass were always rooted in forming a supportive community for people to learn about meditation and encourage each other in their practices. After holding several events around New York City, he realized an online community may serve this purpose better since location will no longer limit attendance, he said.

To launch his restructured community, Rivera is planning a Meditation and Mindfulness event at the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich on Aug. 10. Im planning on using this as a way to gauge interest from people around here in ZnCo, he said. The event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. with refreshments at the beginning and question and answer period about meditation included. These sorts of events and the online ones are free for now, Rivera said, as hes focusing on creating value with his brand first.

Hes working with several Greenwich businesses that promote a healthy lifestyle on potentially sponsoring his kickoff event, he said.

I know there will be some hiccups as I learn what Im doing as I go, he said. But I think Ive got it now.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter@Macaela_
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BROOKFIELD  A Danbury man was charged with several driving offenses after he slammed into the back of a Connecticut State Trooper vehicle.

Brian Glasser, 38, of Danbury, was charged with distracted driving, following too closely, first-degree reckless endangerment, reckless driving and third-degree assault, state police said.

A state trooper was investigating a motor vehicle accident in the left lane of Route 7 northbound, shortly after exit 12, state police said. An additional state trooper arrived, parked a significant distance behind the other trooper and turned on her emergency lights, state police said.

State police said there was a clear view of sight for over 1,700 feet approaching the troopers vehicle, but Glasser remained in the left lane without reducing speed and collided with the troopers vehicle.

Both Glassers vehicle and the state troopers cruiser sustained extensive damage, state police said. The cruiser was pushed about 70 feet from its initial parked position, state police said.

Glasser declined medical attention, state police said. But the state trooper was transported to Danbury Hospital to be treated for injuries sustained in the accident.

State police said the trooper remains out of work at this time due to her injuries.

Glasser told state police he was distracted, looking for an address on his GPS, and did not see the troopers vehicle.

The incident occurred on Jan. 23, 2017, state police said, and Glasser turned himself in on an active warrant Wednesday.

State police said Glasser was released on bond. He is scheduled to appear in Danbury Superior Court on August 8.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  Senate Democrats had hoped to derail the repeal and replace Obamacare effort once and for all  but 50 of 52 Republicans voted on the so-called motion to proceed, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, were the only two Republicans to vote no Tuesday.

So, despite the GOP vote to advance the debate, there is still no guarantee the fractured majority on Capitol Hill will be able to agree on what exactly replaces the Affordable Care Act.

The vote today mocked the democratic process because it was a vote to proceed to a slogan, not a bill, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal in an interview. Nevertheless, it was clearly a step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and shredding health care for millions of Americans, including thousands in Connecticut.

Both Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Murphy voted against starting debate on the bill. But the 48 votes of Senate Democrats and two independents was not enough to stop Republicans, who have called for the downfall of Obamacare from the day it won approval in 2010.

The GOP version most likely to emerge in the Senate would be cataclysmic for Connecticut, Murphy said in an interview, with billions lost to the state treasury, and hundreds of thousands losing health care.

The Republican effort resembles the zombie apocalypse, Murphy said. Every time you think its dead, it rises up.

The appearance on the Senate floor of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., marked an emotional highlight. With cheers from both sides, McCain appeared after surgery and a diagnosis of a brain tumor.

McCain criticized the GOP Senate plan, suggesting he could not support it without amendments. But he voted with fellow Republicans to proceed to debate, which includes allowing amendments to be considered and voted on.

At the White House, President Donald Trump hailed the Senate vote as the beginning of the end for the disaster known as Obamacare. Republicans would now come up with a plan thats going to be really, really wonderful for the American people, he said.

Murphy called Trumps description of Obamacare a lie, citing Congressional Budget Office assessments of the various Republican health care measures showing 20 million or more would not have health care coverage over the next decade, compared to Obamacare staying in place.

Although the events of Tuesday appeared momentous, the difficult calculus of winning Senate approval remains unchanged.

A Senate bill that caps Medicaid or allows insurers to offer stripped-down plans  compromising the risk pool that helps older and sicker policyholders  will almost certainly draw opposition from Collins, Murkowski and a host of other more moderate Republicans including Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and McCain.

Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can afford to lose no more than two GOP votes to win passage.

On the other side, a Senate bill that fails to repeal all of Obamacare and essentially return the health care system to its pre-2010 condition would likely lose the support of conservatives, including Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Trump seemed to acknowledge the uphill climb, saying of the process now unfolding in the Senate: You have to weave a very, very narrow path, like a quarter-inch wide, right down the middle. Too much to the left alienates the right and vice versa, he said.

Blumenthal agreed that the final act of this long-playing Capitol Hill drama has no foregone conclusion.

The fundamentals have not changed, but it is still a serious step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act, he said. These next few days will determine what the math actually is.

dan@hearstdc.com
Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have loosened their guidelines on testing for the mosquito-borne virus Zika, the state Department of Public Health maintained that people still need to be vigilant about the disease.

While the CDC has issued new guidelines, the basic warning, especially for pregnant women and their sexual partners remains: avoid travelling to areas where the Zika virus is present, but if travel is unavoidable, protect yourself from mosquito bites and use condoms for the duration of the pregnancy, said DPH Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino in a news release.

Though Zika causes mild or no symptoms in most people, in pregnant women it has been linked to several birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which a baby is born with a small head, or the head stops growing after birth.

In Connecticut, DPH began surveillance for the Zika virus on Feb. 15, 2016. No locally acquired cases have been reported  every positive case in the state has been related to travel.

As of July 25, 1,805 people have been tested for Zika virus in Connecticut. Of those, 118 patients, including eight pregnant women, have tested positive for Zika. An additional 61 patients, including 47 pregnant woman, have tested positive for Flavivirus, a related class of viruses that include Zika, dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile virus. Of the 179 total Zika or Flavivirus positive patients, the majority contracted the virus while in Puerto Rico (47), the Dominican Republic (38), Jamaica (17), Guatemala (11) and Haiti (10).

The health department will also continue to monitor the pregnancy outcomes of women who tested positive for Zika or Flavivirus, along with any babies with birth defects born to Zika-exposed mothers. The state health department is already following four babies born with birth defects potentially associated with Zika virus to mothers who tested positive for the illness.

The new CDC guidelines, announced Monday, take into account the decline in new Zika cases in areas previously affected by the disease and the increased likelihood of false positive test results among women who were exposed to the virus but never developed symptoms.

Previously, the CDC advised that health care providers should ask all pregnant women about recent travel and that women who traveled to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission during pregnancy should be evaluated for Zika virus infection and tested in accordance with CDC guidance.

Under the new guidelines, doctors are still advised to ask pregnant women about possible Zika exposure at every prenatal visit, but the CDC only recommends that pregnant women recently exposed to and showing symptoms of Zika virus be tested.

Pregnant women who have been exposed to Zika, through travel or sexual exposure, but who do not have any symptoms are not recommended to have Zika virus testing

Connecticut State Public Health Laboratory will continue conducting Zika virus testing for pregnant Connecticut women.
CHARLES CITY | Three men have been charged with felony first-degree burglary following a home invasion in Charles City Tuesday night, police say.

The Charles City Police Department said it received a 911 call of armed intruders inside a house in the 400 block of B Street around 9:27 p.m.

The caller was hiding inside a closet, police said in a news release on their Facebook page. Two residents were able to leave the home and go to a local business, where police say one was transported to the hospital for medical care.

Court documents say several people were assaulted in the break-in, with at least one person requiring stitches to the head.

Michael Jackson, 19; DeAngelo Hawkins, 20; and Andre Johnson, 29, were charged with first-degree burglary and interference with official acts. They are being held at the Floyd County Jail.

Police say they want to assure the public that the residence was not chosen at random.

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office and Nora Springs Police Department provided assistance.

Jackson, Hawkins and Johnson are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Floyd County District Court at 11 a.m. Aug. 2. They are seeking public defenders, court documents indicate.

 Ashley Miller
NEW HAVEN  Nury Chavarria, who was on the verge of being deported for a decade back to Guatemala last week, has now been granted an emergency stay of that order.

It has been an emotional roller coaster for the 43-year-old undocumented immigrant, who had gotten stays for multiple years based on humanitarian grounds, but was told in the last month to buy a one-way ticket to a country she has not seen in 24 years.

Today, reason and compassion have prevailed, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a release. There was never a rational justification for Nury Chavarria to have been threatened with deportation and separated from her children, and I applaud this decision by ICE and the court to allow her to continue living and working in the United States with her family.

Members of the community had their voices heard, and I am glad that we could work with federal and local officials and advocates to achieve this outcome. Immigrants are vital to the fabric of our nation. Rather than focusing on those living peacefully within our borders, our attention should be on those who do harm to others, Malloy said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also in a statement, said Justice and reason have prevailed and Nury will be allowed to temporarily return to her home in Norwalk as we continue to fight for long-term relief.

The facts in this case are clear and compelling, and I am hopeful that once granted her day in court Nury will be awarded the legal status she deserves. I remain in close contact with Nury, her legal team and advocates to provide all support possible to resolve this humanitarian nightmare. Nurys plight is the direct result of an immigration system that has lost all sense of humanitya betrayal of fundamental American values. As we fight for Nury and her family, I remain committed to comprehensive immigration reform to bring lasting justice to this badly broken system, Blumenthal said.

Chavarria had decided she could not leave her four U.S. citizen children behind and took up sanctuary in Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal in Fair Haven a week ago with her youngest, nine-year-old, Hayley Chavarria.

What was going to be another rally Wednesday demonstrating continuing local support for her and similarly situated immigrants, turned into a celebration with friends, officials and church leaders joining Chavarria.

Since she started living in the church, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had characterized Chavarria as a fugitive.

But Chavarria by last weekend seemed to have found some peace of mind as she spoke to a reporter in the Fair Haven church with her youngest child nearby.

We have a lot more friends now, she said with a tired little smile that day. I feel better when I have a lot of people around for me and my family.

On Sunday, more than 200 people came to her new home at the church to bring a message from the outside world: She is loved, supported and the fight has just begun.

Approximately midway through a planned vigil on a hill beside the church, an emotional Chavarria briefly addressed the crowd in Spanish from behind a fence guarded by volunteers, thanking the community for being there and for supporting her.

I commend ICE and the federal court on this decision, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said in a release. For years, Ms. Chavarria has abided by the requirements set forth by immigration officials in order to stay in this country, raise her children, go to work, and support her family. Im grateful to the many advocates and the church community that took a brave stand to protect her, to fight for her, and to call attention to a situation that, if allowed to proceed unchecked, would not have furthered our national security interests. I hope Ms. Chavarria and her family are able to move past this traumatic situation and get back to their lives.
BRAMPTON, ON, July 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L) ("Loblaw" or the "Company") today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 17, 2017. The Company's 2017 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca and will be filed with SEDAR and available at sedar.com.

"In a quarter characterized by continued price deflation, we delivered solid sales metrics and are pleased with our financial performance," said Galen G. Weston, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Loblaw Companies Limited.

"We plan to intensify our focus on cost reductions in this highly competitive market given incremental external pressures on our industry."

2017 SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The following highlights include the impacts of the consolidation of franchises, as set out in "Other Retail Business Matters."

Revenue was $11,079 million , an increase of $348 million , or 3.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, an increase of , or 3.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Retail segment sales were $10,827 million , an increase of $333 million , or 3.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, an increase of , or 3.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Same-store sales were positively impacted by the timing of Easter.



Food retail (Loblaw) same-store sales growth was 1.0%, excluding gas bar. Excluding the favourable impact of the timing of Easter, Food retail same-store sales were relatively flat.



Drug retail (Shoppers Drug Mart) same-store sales growth was 3.7%, with pharmacy same-store sales growth of 2.9% and front store same-store sales growth of 4.5%. Excluding the favourable impact of the timing of Easter, Drug retail same-store sales growth was approximately 2.9%, with pharmacy same-store sales growth of approximately 3.5% and front store same-store sales growth of approximately 2.3%.

Operating Income was $626 million , an increase of $109 million , or 21.1%, compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, an increase of , or 21.1%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA (2) was $985 million , an increase of $61 million , or 6.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2016.

was , an increase of , or 6.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company were $358 million , an increase of $200 million , or 126.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Diluted net earnings per common share were $0.89 , an increase of $0.50 , or 128.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Diluted net earnings per common share growth is higher than adjusted diluted net earnings per common share (2) growth primarily due to the impacts of the fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability and restructuring charges included in the prior year.

, an increase of , or 126.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Diluted net earnings per common share were , an increase of , or 128.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Diluted net earnings per common share growth is higher than adjusted diluted net earnings per common share growth primarily due to the impacts of the fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability and restructuring charges included in the prior year. Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company (2) were $445 million , an increase of $33 million , or 8.0%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share (2) were $1.11 , an increase of $0.10 , or 9.9%, compared to the second quarter of 2016.

were , an increase of , or 8.0%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share were , an increase of , or 9.9%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. The Company repurchased 3.4 million common shares at a cost of $260 million .

See "News Release Endnotes" at the end of this News Release.

CONSOLIDATED RESULTS OF OPERATIONS























For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016





2017 2016





(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue $ 11,079 $ 10,731 $ 348 3.2% $ 21,480 $ 21,112 $ 368 1.7% Operating Income

626

517

109 21.1%

1,118

953

165 17.3% Adjusted EBITDA(2)

985

924

61 6.6%

1,850

1,753

97 5.5% Adjusted EBITDA margin(2)

8.9%

8.6%







8.6%

8.3%





Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company $ 361 $ 161 $ 200 124.2% $ 594 $ 357 $ 237 66.4% Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(i)

358

158

200 126.6%

588

351

237 67.5% Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(2)

445

412

33 8.0%

809

750

59 7.9% Diluted net earnings per common share ($) $ 0.89 $ 0.39 $ 0.50 128.2% $ 1.47 $ 0.85 $ 0.62 72.9% Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share(2) ($)

1.11

1.01

0.10 9.9%

2.02

1.82

0.20 11.0% Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding (millions)

400.3

409.9







401.3

411.5





































(i) Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company are net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company net of dividends declared on the Company's Second Preferred Shares, Series B.

Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company in the second quarter of 2017 were $358 million ($0.89 per common share), an increase of $200 million ($0.50 per common share) compared to the second quarter of 2016. The increase in net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company was driven by improvements in underlying operating performance of $33 million and the favourable year-over-year net impact of adjusting items totaling $167 million, as described below:

improvements in underlying operating performance of $33 million ( $0.07 per common share), were primarily due to the following:

( per common share), were primarily due to the following: the Retail segment (excluding the impact of the consolidation of franchises), driven by higher sales and an increase in adjusted gross profit percentage (2) , partially offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses ("SG&A") and depreciation and amortization;

, partially offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses ("SG&A") and depreciation and amortization;

the Choice Properties segment, primarily resulting from expansion of the property portfolio through development of third-party properties and an increase in base rent from existing properties; and



the favourable impact of a decrease in the adjusted income tax rate (2) primarily attributable to a decrease in certain non-deductible items.

primarily attributable to a decrease in certain non-deductible items. the favourable year-over-year net impact of adjusting items totaling $167 million ( $0.40 per common share) was primarily due to the following:

( per common share) was primarily due to the following: the change in fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability of $109 million ( $0.26 per common share);

( per common share);

prior year restructuring and other related charges of $40 million ( $0.10 per common share);

( per common share);

prior year charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray impacted by wildfires of $9 million ( $0.02 per common share); and

impacted by wildfires of ( per common share); and

the change in fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts of $8 million ( $0.02 per common share).

( per common share). diluted net earnings per common share were also impacted by the favourable impact of the repurchase of common shares ( $0.03 per common share).

Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(2) in the second quarter of 2017 were $445 million ($1.11 per common share), an increase of $33 million ($0.10 per common share) compared to the second quarter of 2016, due to the improvements in underlying operating performance and the favourable impact of the repurchase of common shares, as described above.

REPORTABLE OPERATING SEGMENTS

The Company has three reportable operating segments with all material operations carried out in Canada:

The Retail segment consists primarily of corporate and franchise-owned retail food and Associate-owned drug stores, and includes in-store pharmacies and other health and beauty products, gas bars and apparel and other general merchandise. This segment is comprised of several operating segments that are aggregated primarily due to similarities in the nature of products and services offered for sale in the retail operations and the customer base;

The Financial Services segment provides credit card services, loyalty programs, insurance brokerage services, personal banking services provided by a major Canadian chartered bank, deposit taking services and telecommunication services; and

The Choice Properties segment owns, manages and develops retail and commercial properties across Canada . The Choice Properties segment information presented below reflects the accounting policies of Choice Properties, which may differ from those of the consolidated Company. Differences in policies are eliminated in Consolidation and Eliminations.

Retail Segment























For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016





2017 2016





(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Sales $ 10,827 $ 10,494 $ 333 3.2% $ 20,993 $ 20,648 $ 345 1.7% Operating Income

578

475

103 21.7%

1,024

868

156 18.0% Adjusted gross profit(2)

3,007

2,826

181 6.4%

5,851

5,603

248 4.4% Adjusted gross profit %(2)

27.8%

26.9%







27.9%

27.1%





Adjusted EBITDA(2) $ 930 $ 875 $ 55 6.3% $ 1,741 $ 1,655 $ 86 5.2% Adjusted EBITDA margin(2)

8.6%

8.3%







8.3%

8.0%





Depreciation and amortization $ 353 $ 339 $ 14 4.1% $ 705 $ 701 $ 4 0.6%

























































For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016



2017



2016



2017



2016 (millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)



(12 weeks)



(12 weeks)



(24 weeks)



(24 weeks)

Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Food retail $ 7,944 1.2% $ 7,718 0.4% $ 15,337 0.0% $ 15,108 1.2% Drug retail

2,883 3.7%

2,776 4.0%

5,656 2.4%

5,540 5.1%

Pharmacy

1,377 2.9%

1,324 3.6%

2,720 2.1%

2,637 3.9%

Front Store

1,506 4.5%

1,452 4.3%

2,936 2.5%

2,903 6.3%





























Sales, operating income, adjusted gross profit(2), adjusted gross profit percentage(2), adjusted EBITDA(2) and adjusted EBITDA margin(2) included the impacts of the consolidation of franchises, as set out in "Other Retail Business Matters" for the periods ended as indicated.

Sales Retail segment sales in the second quarter of 2017 were $10,827 million, an increase of $333 million, or 3.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2016. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, Retail segment sales increased by $253 million, or 2.4%, primarily driven by the following factors:

Food retail same-store sales growth was 1.0% (2016  0.7%) for the quarter, after excluding the gas bar increase of 0.2% (2016  decline of 0.3%). Excluding the favourable impact of the timing of Easter, Food retail same-store sales were relatively flat. Including gas bar, Food retail same-store sales growth was 1.2% (2016  0.4%).

The Company's Food retail average quarterly internal food price index declined and was marginally higher than (2016  slightly lower than) the average quarterly national food price deflation of 1.4% (2016  inflation of 1.8%), as measured by The Consumer Price Index for Food Purchased from Stores ("CPI"). CPI does not necessarily reflect the effect of inflation on the specific mix of goods sold in the Company's stores.

Drug retail same-store sales growth was 3.7% (2016  4.0%) and was comprised of pharmacy same-store sales growth of 2.9% (2016  3.6%) and front store same-store sales growth of 4.5% (2016  4.3%). Excluding the favourable impact of the timing of Easter, Drug retail same-store sales growth was approximately 2.9%, with pharmacy same-store sales growth of approximately 3.5% and front store same-store sales growth of approximately 2.3%. Pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by one less selling day due to the Easter statutory holiday.

32 food and drug stores were opened and 18 food and drug stores were closed in the last 12 months, resulting in a net increase in Retail square footage of 0.5 million square feet, or 0.7%.

Operating Income Operating Income in the second quarter of 2017 was $578 million, an increase of $103 million compared to the second quarter of 2016. The increase in operating income was driven by improvements in underlying operating performance of $39 million and the favourable year-over-year net impact of adjusting items totaling $64 million as described below:

the improvements in underlying operating performance of $39 million were driven by higher sales and an increase in adjusted gross profit percentage (2) , partially offset by higher SG&A and depreciation and amortization. The improvements in underlying operating performance also included the positive contribution from the consolidation of franchises; and

were driven by higher sales and an increase in adjusted gross profit percentage , partially offset by higher SG&A and depreciation and amortization. The improvements in underlying operating performance also included the positive contribution from the consolidation of franchises; and the favourable year-over-year net impact of adjusting items totaling $64 million was primarily due to the following:

was primarily due to the following: prior year restructuring and other related charges of $43 million ;

;

prior year charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray impacted by wildfires of $12 million ; and

impacted by wildfires of ; and

the change in fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts of $11 million .

Adjusted Gross Profit(2) Adjusted gross profit(2) in the second quarter of 2017 was $3,007 million, an increase of $181 million compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted gross profit percentage(2) of 27.8% increased by 90 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2016. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, adjusted gross profit(2) increased by $96 million. Adjusted gross profit percentage(2), excluding the consolidation of franchises, was 26.7%, an increase of 30 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2016. The increase in adjusted gross profit percentage(2) was mainly driven by improvements in Food retail shrink partially offset by lower Drug retail margins.

Adjusted EBITDA(2) Adjusted EBITDA(2) in the second quarter of 2017 was $930 million, an increase of $55 million, compared to the second quarter of 2016 driven by an increase in adjusted gross profit(2) as described above, partially offset by an increase in SG&A of $126 million. SG&A as a percentage of sales was 19.2%, an increase of 60 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2016. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, SG&A increased $54 million. SG&A as a percentage of sales, excluding the consolidation of franchises, was 18.1%, an unfavourable increase of 10 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2016 mainly driven by certain one-time costs.

Depreciation and Amortization Depreciation and amortization in the second quarter of 2017 was $353 million, an increase of $14 million compared to the second quarter of 2016 primarily driven by the consolidation of franchises and an increase in information technology ("IT") assets. Included in depreciation and amortization is the amortization of intangible assets related to the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation of $121 million (2016  $123 million).

Other Retail Business Matters

Gas Bar Network On July 17, 2017, the Company sold its gas bar operations, for proceeds of approximately $540 million, to Brookfield Business Partners L.P. ("Brookfield"). As a result of the transaction, Brookfield has become a strategic partner to the Company and will continue to offer the Company's PC Plus loyalty program at the gas bars. Consistent with the first quarter of 2017, the Company has classified $78 million of fixed assets and $10 million of inventory, related to the gas bar operations, as assets held for sale as at June 17, 2017. In addition, the Company has classified $54 million of related accounts payable and accrued liabilities that will be assumed by the purchaser as liabilities held for sale as at June 17, 2017. In 2016, the gas bar operations sold approximately 1,700 million litres of gas and contributed approximately $1,500 million to sales. After taking into account the earnings associated with the gas bar operations and the ongoing commitment of the Company to fund certain loyalty program costs, the expected annual impact will be a reduction in adjusted EBITDA(2) of approximately $80 million, based on 2016 information. The Company expects to use the proceeds from the sale for general corporate activities.

Consolidation of Franchises The Company has more than 500 franchise food retail stores in its network. As at the end of the second quarter of 2017, 241 of these stores were consolidated for accounting purposes under a new, simplified franchise agreement ("Franchise Agreement") implemented in 2015.

The Company will convert franchises to the Franchise Agreement as existing agreements expire, at the end of which all franchises will be consolidated. The following table provides the total impact of the consolidation of franchises included in the consolidated results of the Company.













For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016

2017 2016 2017 2016 (millions of Canadian dollars unless where otherwise indicated)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Number of Consolidated Franchise stores, beginning of period



225

115

200

85 Add: Net number of Consolidated Franchise stores in the period



16

17

41

47 Number of Consolidated Franchise stores, end of period



241

132

241

132 Sales

$ 155 $ 75 $ 296 $ 139 Adjusted gross profit(2)



160

75

299

134 Adjusted EBITDA(2)



12

(1)

19

(7) Depreciation and amortization



10

4

19

8 Operating income (loss)



2

(5)



(15) Net income (loss) attributable to Non-Controlling Interests



3

(5)

2

(14)





















Operating income (loss) included in the table above does not significantly impact net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company as the related income (loss) is largely attributable to Non-Controlling Interests.

Financial Services Segment(3)





















For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017

2016



2017 2016



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks)

(12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue $ 225

$ 214 $ 11 5.1% $ 435 $ 421 $ 14 3.3% Earnings before income taxes

26



29

(3) (10.3)%

51

57

(6) (10.5)%













































As at As at



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) June 17, 2017 June 18, 2016 $ Change % Change Average quarterly net credit card receivables $ 2,841 $ 2,717 $ 124 4.6% Credit card receivables

2,908

2,767

141 5.1% Allowance for credit card receivables

48

52

(4) (7.7)% Annualized yield on average quarterly gross credit card receivables

13.3%

13.6%





Annualized credit loss rate on average quarterly gross credit card receivables

4.0%

4.5%























Earnings Before Income Taxes Earnings before income taxes in the second quarter of 2017 were $26 million, a decrease of $3 million compared to the second quarter of 2016, primarily driven by:

higher operating costs and costs associated with the Financial Services' loyalty program; partially offset by

higher interest and net interchange income attributable to the growth in the credit card portfolio;

higher sales attributable to The Mobile Shop; and

lower credit losses due to the strong credit performance of the portfolio.

Credit Card Receivables As at June 17, 2017, credit card receivables were $2,908 million, an increase of $141 million compared to June 18, 2016. This increase was primarily driven by growth in the active customer base as a result of continued investments in customer acquisition, marketing and product initiatives. As at June 17, 2017, the allowance for credit card receivables was $48 million, a decrease of $4 million compared to June 18, 2016 due to the strong credit performance of the portfolio.

Choice Properties Segment(3)



















For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016



2017 2016



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue $ 209 $ 198 $ 11 5.6% $ 412 $ 390 $ 22 5.6% Net interest expense and other financing charges(i)

98

671

(573) (85.4)%

311

939

(628) (66.9)% Net income (loss)(ii)

42

(560)

602 107.5%

66

(692)

758 109.5% Funds from operations(2)

108

102

6 5.9%

217

205

12 5.9%































(i) Net interest expense and other financing charges includes a fair value adjustment on Class B Limited Partnership units. (ii) Choice Properties qualifies as a "mutual fund trust" under the Income Tax Act (Canada) and therefore net income (loss) is equal to earnings before income taxes.

Net income (loss) Net income in the second quarter of 2017 was $42 million, an increase of $602 million compared to the second quarter of 2016. The increase was primarily driven by:

the change in fair value adjustment on Class B Limited Partnership units;

the change in fair value adjustment on investment properties;

additional net operating income generated from acquisitions and tenant openings in newly developed leasable space; and

an increase in base rent from existing properties.

Funds from Operations(2) Funds from Operations(2) in the second quarter of 2017 were $108 million, an increase of $6 million compared to the second quarter of 2016, primarily driven by higher contributions from property operations, partially offset by an increase in interest expense due to higher drawings on credit facilities.

DECLARATION OF DIVIDENDS

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter of 2017, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend on Common Shares and Second Preferred Shares, Series B.

Common Shares $0.27 per common share, payable on October 1, 2017 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2017



Second Preferred Shares, Series B $0.33125 per share, payable on September 30, 2017 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2017

OUTLOOK(4)

Loblaw's outlook for 2017 remains unchanged. Loblaw remains focused on its strategic framework, delivering the best in food, best in health and beauty, operational excellence and growth. This framework is supported by our financial plan of maintaining a stable trading environment that targets positive same-store sales and stable gross margin, surfacing efficiencies to deliver operating leverage, and returning capital to shareholders.

In 2017, on a full-year comparative basis, despite the current deflationary environment, the Company expects to:

deliver positive same-store sales and stable gross margin in its Retail segment in a highly competitive grocery market, with continued negative pressure from healthcare reform;

grow adjusted net earnings;

invest approximately $1.3 billion in capital expenditures, including $1.0 billion in its Retail segment; and

in capital expenditures, including in its Retail segment; and return capital to shareholders by allocating a significant portion of free cash flow to share repurchases.

Beyond 2017, the recent announcements of minimum wage increases in Ontario and Alberta and further healthcare reform in Quebec will negatively impact the Company's net earnings. The expected incremental impact of minimum wage increases on labour expenses is approximately $190 million in 2018. In addition, the recently announced healthcare reform in Quebec will result in a more significant incremental impact in 2018 than in prior years. The Company is currently assessing how to mitigate these impacts.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

The Company uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: Retail segment gross profit; Retail segment adjusted gross profit; Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage; adjusted earnings before income taxes, net interest expense and other financing charges and depreciation and amortization ("adjusted EBITDA"); adjusted EBITDA margin; adjusted operating income; adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges; adjusted income taxes; adjusted income tax rate; adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders; adjusted diluted net earnings per common share; and with respect to Choice Properties: funds from operations. The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors in measuring the financial performance and financial condition of the Company for the reasons outlined below.

Management uses these and other non-GAAP financial measures to exclude the impact of certain expenses and income that must be recognized under GAAP when analyzing underlying consolidated and segment operating performance, as the excluded items are not necessarily reflective of the Company's underlying operating performance and make comparisons of underlying financial performance between periods difficult. The Company excludes additional items if it believes doing so would result in a more effective analysis of underlying operating performance. The exclusion of certain items does not imply that they are non-recurring.

These measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and therefore they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies and should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP.

For details on the nature of items excluded in the calculation of any of the non-GAAP financial measures detailed below see the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of the Company's 2017 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders.

Retail Segment Gross Profit, Retail Segment Adjusted Gross Profit and Retail Segment Adjusted Gross Profit Percentage The following tables reconcile adjusted gross profit by segment to gross profit by segment, which is reconciled to GAAP revenue and cost of merchandise inventories sold measures reported in the condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended as indicated. The Company believes that Retail segment gross profit and Retail segment adjusted gross profit are useful in assessing the Retail segment's underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of the business.

Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage is calculated as Retail segment adjusted gross profit divided by Retail segment revenue.

































2017







2016









(12 weeks)







(12 weeks) For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016



















(millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Total Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Total Revenue $ 10,827 $ 225 $ 209 $ (182) $ 11,079 $ 10,494 $ 214 $ 198 $ (175) $ 10,731 Cost of Merchandise Inventories Sold

7,820

22





7,842

7,683

18





7,701 Gross Profit $ 3,007 $ 203 $ 209 $ (182) $ 3,237 $ 2,811 $ 196 $ 198 $ (175) $ 3,030 Add impact of the following:









































Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray











9







9

Net impairment (impairment reversals) related to Drug retail ancillary assets











4







4

Restructuring and other related costs











2







2 Adjusted Gross Profit $ 3,007 $ 203 $ 209 $ (182) $ 3,237 $ 2,826 $ 196 $ 198 $ (175) $ 3,045

































































































2017







2016









(24 weeks)







(24 weeks) For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016



















(millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Total Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Total Revenue $ 20,993 $ 435 $ 412 $ (360) $ 21,480 $ 20,648 $ 421 $ 390 $ (347) $ 21,112 Cost of Merchandise Inventories Sold

15,142

40





15,182

15,061

34





15,095 Gross Profit $ 5,851 $ 395 $ 412 $ (360) $ 6,298 $ 5,587 $ 387 $ 390 $ (347) $ 6,017 Add impact of the following:









































Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray











9







9

Net impairment (impairment reversals) related to Drug retail ancillary assets











4







4

Restructuring and other related costs











3







3 Adjusted Gross Profit $ 5,851 $ 395 $ 412 $ (360) $ 6,298 $ 5,603 $ 387 $ 390 $ (347) $ 6,033











































Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin The following tables reconcile adjusted operating income and adjusted EBITDA to GAAP operating income, which is reconciled to GAAP net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company reported in the condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended as indicated. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA is useful in assessing the performance of its ongoing operations and its ability to generate cash flows to fund its cash requirements, including the Company's capital investment program.

Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated as adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue.

































2017







2016









(12 weeks)







(12 weeks) For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016



















(millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Consolidated Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation & Eliminations Consolidated Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company















$ 361















$ 161 Add (deduct) impact of the following:









































Non-Controlling Interests















3















(5)

Net interest expense and other financing charges















127















236

Income taxes















135















125 Operating income $ 578 $ 39 $ 140 $ (131) $ 626 $ 475 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 517









































Add (deduct) impact of the following:









































Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart $ 121 $  $  $  $ 121 $ 123 $  $  $  $ 123

Fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts (1)    (1) 10    10

Restructuring and other related costs      43    43

Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray      12    12

Net impairment (impairment reversals) related to Drug retail ancillary assets      (4)    (4) Adjusting Items $ 120 $  $  $  $ 120 $ 184 $  $  $  $ 184 Adjusted operating income $ 698 $ 39 $ 140 $ (131) $ 746 $ 659 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 701 Depreciation and amortization 353 2  5 360 339 3  4 346 Less: Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart (121)    (121) (123)    (123) Adjusted EBITDA $ 930 $ 41 $ 140 $ (126) $ 985 $ 875 $ 44 $ 111 $ (106) $ 924

































































































2017







2016









(24 weeks)







(24 weeks) For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016



















(millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Consolidated Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations Consolidated Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company















$ 594















$ 357 Add (deduct) impact of the following:









































Non-Controlling Interests















2















(14)

Net interest expense and other financing charges















288















393

Income taxes















234















217 Operating income $ 1,024 $ 78 $ 377 $ (361) 1,118 $ 868 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) 953









































Add (deduct) impact of the following:









































Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart $ 242 $  $  $  $ 242 $ 247 $  $  $  $ 247

Pension annuities and buy-outs 7    7 2    2

Fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts 5    5 20    20

Restructuring and other related costs      44    44

Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray      12    12

Prior year land transfer tax assessment      10    10

Asset impairments, net of recoveries      2    2

Net impairment (impairment reversals) related to Drug retail ancillary assets      (4)    (4) Adjusting Items $ 254 $  $  $  $ 254 $ 333 $  $  $  $ 333 Adjusted operating income $ 1,278 $ 78 $ 377 $ (361) $ 1,372 $ 1,201 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 1,286 Depreciation and amortization 705 5  10 720 701 6  7 714 Less: Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart (242)    (242) (247)    (247) Adjusted EBITDA $ 1,741 $ 83 $ 377 $ (351) $ 1,850 $ 1,655 $ 88 $ 247 $ (237) $ 1,753











































Adjusted Net Interest Expense and Other Financing Charges The following table reconciles adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges to GAAP net interest expense and other financing charges reported in the condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended as indicated. The Company believes that adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges is useful in assessing the Company's underlying financial performance and in making decisions regarding the financial operations of the business.













For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016

2017 2016 2017 2016 (millions of Canadian dollars)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Net interest expense and other financing charges

$ 127 $ 236 $ 288 $ 393 Add (deduct) impact of the following:



















Fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability

1 (108) (35) (140) Adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges

$ 128 $ 128 $ 253 $ 253





















Adjusted Income Taxes and Adjusted Income Tax Rate The following table reconciles adjusted income taxes to GAAP income taxes reported in the condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended as indicated. The Company believes that adjusted income taxes is useful in assessing the Company's underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of its business.

Adjusted income tax rate is calculated as adjusted income taxes divided by the sum of adjusted operating income less adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges.











For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016 2017 2016 (millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Adjusted operating income(i) $ 746 $ 701 $ 1,372 $ 1,286 Adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges(i) 128 128 253 253 Adjusted earnings before taxes $ 618 $ 573 $ 1,119 $ 1,033 Income taxes $ 135 $ 125 $ 234 $ 217 Add (deduct) impact of the following:

















Tax impact of items included in adjusted earnings before taxes(ii) 32 38 68 77

Statutory corporate income tax rate change    (3) Adjusted income taxes $ 167 $ 163 $ 302 $ 291 Effective tax rate 27.1% 44.5% 28.2% 38.8% Adjusted income tax rate 27.0% 28.4% 27.0% 28.2%











(i) See reconciliations of adjusted operating income and adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges in the tables above. (ii) See the adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin table and the adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges table above for a complete list of items included in adjusted earnings before taxes.

Adjusted Net Earnings Available to Common Shareholders and Adjusted Diluted Net Earnings Per Common Share The following table reconciles adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company and adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company to net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company and then to net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company for the periods ended as indicated. The Company believes that adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders and adjusted diluted net earnings per common share are useful in assessing the Company's underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of its business.











For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016 2017 2016 (millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company $ 361 $ 161 $ 594 $ 357 Prescribed dividends on preferred shares in share capital (3) (3) (6) (6) Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company $ 358 $ 158 $ 588 $ 351 Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company $ 361 $ 161 $ 594 $ 357 Adjusting items (refer to the following table) 87 254 221 399 Adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company $ 448 $ 415 $ 815 $ 756 Prescribed dividends on preferred shares in share capital (3) (3) (6) (6) Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company $ 445 $ 412 $ 809 $ 750 Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding (millions) 400.3 409.9 401.3 411.5











The following table reconciles adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company and adjusted diluted net earnings per common share to net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company and diluted net earnings per common share for the periods ended as indicated.























2017

2016

2017

2016



(12 weeks)

(12 weeks)

(24 weeks)

(24 weeks) For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 Net Earnings

Available to

Common

Shareholders

of the

Company Diluted Net

Earnings

Per

Common

Share Net Earnings

Available to

Common

Shareholders

of the

Company Diluted Net

Earnings

Per

Common

Share Net Earnings

Available to

Common

Shareholders

of the

Company Diluted Net

Earnings

Per

Common

Share Net Earnings

Available to

Common

Shareholders

of the

Company Diluted Net

Earnings

Per

Common

Share (millions of Canadian dollars/Canadian dollars) As reported $ 358 $ 0.89 $ 158 $ 0.39 $ 588 $ 1.47 $ 351 $ 0.85 Add (deduct) impact of the following:

































Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart $ 88 $ 0.22 $ 92 $ 0.23 $ 177 $ 0.44 $ 183 $ 0.45

Fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability(i) (1)  108 0.26 35 0.09 140 0.34

Pension annuities and buy-outs     5 0.01 2 

Fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts   8 0.02 4 0.01 15 0.04

Restructuring and other related costs   40 0.10   41 0.10

Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray   9 0.02   9 0.02

Prior year land transfer tax assessment       7 0.02

Statutory corporate income tax rate change       3 0.01

Asset impairments, net of recoveries       2 

Net impairment (impairment reversals) related to Drug retail ancillary assets   (3) (0.01)   (3) (0.01) Adjusting items $ 87 $ 0.22 $ 254 $ 0.62 $ 221 $ 0.55 $ 399 $ 0.97 Adjusted $ 445 $ 1.11 $ 412 $ 1.01 $ 809 $ 2.02 $ 750 $ 1.82



































(i) Gains or losses related to the fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability are not subject to tax.

Choice Properties' Funds from Operations(3) In the first quarter of 2017, Choice Properties discontinued the use of Adjusted Funds from Operations. Choice Properties continues the use of Funds from Operations as its non-GAAP earnings metric. Choice Properties calculates Funds from Operations in accordance with the Real Property Association of Canada's White Paper on Funds from Operations and Adjusted Funds from Operations for IFRS issued in February 2017.

The following table reconciles Choice Properties' Funds from Operations to GAAP net income (loss) for the periods ended as indicated. Choice Properties considers Funds from Operations to be a useful measure of operating performance as it adjusts for items included in net income (or net loss) that do not arise from operating activities or do not necessarily provide an accurate depiction of the Trust's performance.











For the periods ended June 17, 2017 and June 18, 2016 2017 2016 2017 2016 (millions of Canadian dollars) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Net income (loss) $ 42 $ (560) $ 66 $ (692) Add (deduct) impact of the following:

















Fair value adjustments on Class B Limited Partnership units  580 118 761

Fair value adjustments on investment properties 8 23 (85) 37

Fair value adjustments on unit-based compensation  4 1 5

Fair value adjustments of investment property held in equity









accounted joint venture   1 (14)

Distributions on Class B Limited Partnership units 58 53 115 106

Internal expenses for leasing  2 1 2 Funds from Operations $ 108 $ 102 $ 217 $ 205



















SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Company has three reportable operating segments with all material operations carried out in Canada. The Company's chief operating decision maker evaluates segment performance on the basis of adjusted EBITDA(2) and adjusted operating income(2), as reported to internal management, on a periodic basis.

Information for each reportable operating segment is included below:































June 17, 2017





June 18, 2016









(12 weeks)







(12 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations(i) Total Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations(i) Total Revenue(ii) $ 10,827 $ 225 $ 209 $ (182) $ 11,079 $ 10,494 $ 214 $ 198 $ (175) $ 10,731 Operating Income $ 578 $ 39 $ 140 $ (131) $ 626 $ 475 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 517 Net interest expense and other financing charges 73 13 98 (57) 127 79 12 671 (526) 236 Earnings before Income Taxes $ 505 $ 26 $ 42 $ (74) $ 499 $ 396 $ 29 $ (560) $ 416 $ 281









































Operating Income $ 578 $ 39 $ 140 $ (131) $ 626 $ 475 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 517 Depreciation and Amortization 353 2  5 360 339 3  4 346 Adjusting items(iii) 120    120 184    184 Less: amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart (121)    (121) (123)    (123) Adjusted EBITDA(iii) $ 930 $ 41 $ 140 $ (126) $ 985 $ 875 $ 44 $ 111 $ (106) $ 924 Depreciation and Amortization(iv) 232 2  5 239 216 3  4 223 Adjusted Operating Income $ 698 $ 39 $ 140 $ (131) $ 746 $ 659 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 701











































(i) Consolidation and Eliminations includes the following items:

 Revenue includes the elimination of $133 million (2016  $129 million) of rental revenue and $49 million (2016  $46 million) of cost recovery recognized by Choice Properties, generated from the Retail segment.

 Adjusted operating income includes the elimination of the $133 million (2016  $129 million) impact of rental revenue described above; the elimination of a $8 million loss (2016  $23 million loss) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties, which are classified as Fixed Assets, Assets Held For Sale or Investment Properties by the Company and measured at cost, the recognition of $5 million (2016  $4 million) of depreciation expense for certain investment properties recorded by Choice Properties; and the elimination of intercompany charges of $1 million in 2017.

 Net interest expense and other financing charges includes the elimination of $69 million (2016  $65 million) of interest expense included in Choice Properties related to debt owing to the Company and a fair value loss of $580 million in 2016 recognized by Choice Properties on Class B Limited Partnership units held by the Company. Net interest and other financing charges also includes Unit distributions to external unitholders of $13 million (2016  $11 million), which excludes distributions paid to the Company and a $1 million fair value gain (2016  loss of $108 million) on the Company's Trust Unit Liability. (ii) Included in Financial Services revenue is $95 million (2016  $93 million) of interest income. (iii) Certain items are excluded from operating income to derive adjusted EBITDA(2). Adjusted EBITDA(2) is used internally by management when analyzing segment underlying performance. (iv) Depreciation and amortization for the calculation of adjusted EBITDA(2) excludes $121 million (2016  $123 million) of amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart.































June 17, 2017





June 18, 2016









(24 weeks)







(24 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars) Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations(i) Total Retail Financial

Services(3) Choice

Properties(3) Consolidation

& Eliminations(i) Total Revenue(ii) $ 20,993 $ 435 $ 412 $ (360) $ 21,480 $ 20,648 $ 421 $ 390 $ (347) $ 21,112 Operating Income $ 1,024 $ 78 $ 377 $ (361) $ 1,118 $ 868 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 953 Net interest expense and other financing charges 145 27 311 (195) 288 157 25 939 (728) 393 Earnings before Income Taxes $ 879 $ 51 $ 66 $ (166) $ 830 $ 711 $ 57 $ (692) $ 484 $ 560









































Operating Income $ 1,024 $ 78 $ 377 $ (361) $ 1,118 $ 868 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 953 Depreciation and Amortization 705 5  10 720 701 6  7 714 Adjusting items(iii) 254    254 333    333 Less: amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart (242)    (242) (247)    (247) Adjusted EBITDA(iii) $ 1,741 $ 83 $ 377 $ (351) $ 1,850 $ 1,655 $ 88 $ 247 $ (237) $ 1,753 Depreciation and Amortization(iv) 463 5  10 478 454 6  7 467 Adjusted Operating Income $ 1,278 $ 78 $ 377 $ (361) $ 1,372 $ 1,201 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 1,286











































(i) Consolidation and Eliminations includes the following items:

 Revenue includes the elimination of $266 million (2016  $257 million) of rental revenue and $94 million (2016  $90 million) of cost recovery recognized by Choice Properties, generated from the Retail segment.

 Adjusted operating income includes the elimination of the $266 million (2016  $257 million) impact of rental revenue described above; the elimination of a $85 million gain (2016  $37 million loss) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties, which are classified as Fixed Assets, Assets Held For Sale or Investment Properties by the Company and measured at cost, the elimination of a $1 million loss (2016  $14 million gain) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties in the joint venture; the recognition of $10 million (2016  $7 million) of depreciation expense for certain investment properties recorded by Choice Properties; and the elimination of intercompany charges of $1 million (2016  $3 million).

 Net interest expense and other financing charges includes the elimination of $138 million (2016  $130 million) of interest expense included in Choice Properties related to debt owing to the Company and a $118 million fair value loss (2016  loss of $761 million) recognized by Choice Properties on Class B Limited Partnership units held by the Company. Net interest and other financing charges also includes Unit distributions to external unitholders of $26 million (2016  $23 million), which excludes distributions paid to the Company and a $35 million fair value loss (2016  loss of $140 million) on the Company's Trust Unit Liability. (ii) Included in Financial Services revenue is $192 million (2016  $189 million) of interest income. (iii) Certain items are excluded from operating income to derive adjusted EBITDA(2). Adjusted EBITDA(2) is used internally by management when analyzing segment underlying performance. (iv) Depreciation and amortization for the calculation of adjusted EBITDA(2) excludes $242 million (2016  $247 million) of amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This News Release contains forward-looking statements about the Company's objectives, plans, goals, aspirations, strategies, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, performance, prospects, opportunities and legal and regulatory matters. Specific forward-looking statements in this News Release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's anticipated future results, events and plans, strategic initiatives, regulatory changes including minimum wage increases and further healthcare reform, future liquidity, planned capital investments, and the status and impact of IT systems implementations. These specific forward-looking statements are contained throughout this News Release including, without limitation, in the "Outlook" section of this News Release. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "estimate", "goal", "intend", "plan", "seek", "strive", "will", "may" and "should" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company and its management.

Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on management's perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. The Company's expectation of operating and financial performance in 2017 is based on certain assumptions including assumptions about anticipated cost savings, operating efficiencies and continued growth from current initiatives. The Company's estimates, beliefs and assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and other uncertainties and contingencies regarding future events, and as such, are subject to change. The Company can give no assurance that such estimates, beliefs and assumptions will prove to be correct.

Numerous risks and uncertainties could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed, implied or projected in the forward-looking statements, including those described in Section 12 "Enterprise Risks and Risk Management" of the Management Discussion and Analysis in the 2016 Annual Report  Financial Review ("2016 Annual Report") and the Company's 2016 Annual Information Form ("AIF") (for the year ended December 31, 2016). Such risks and uncertainties include:

changes to the regulation of generic prescription drug prices, the reduction of reimbursements under public drug benefit plans and the elimination or reduction of professional allowances paid by drug manufacturers;

failure to effectively manage the Company's loyalty programs;

the inability of the Company's IT infrastructure to support the requirements of the Company's business, or the occurrence of any internal or external security breaches, denial of service attacks, viruses, worms and other known or unknown cyber security or data breaches;

failure to realize benefits from investments in the Company's new IT systems;

failure to effectively respond to consumer trends or heightened competition, whether from current competitors or new entrants to the marketplace;

public health events including those related to food and drug safety;

changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations or policies applicable to the Company's business;

failure to merchandise effectively, to execute the Company's e-commerce initiative or to adapt its business model to the shifts in the retail landscape caused by digital advances;

failure to realize the anticipated benefits, including revenue growth, anticipated cost savings or operating efficiencies, associated with the Company's investment in major initiatives that support its strategic priorities;

changes in economic conditions, including economic recession or changes in the rate of inflation or deflation, employment rates and household debt, interest rates, currency exchange rates or derivative and commodity prices;

failure to achieve desired results in labour negotiations, including the terms of future collective bargaining agreements;

adverse outcomes of legal and regulatory proceedings and related matters;

reliance on the performance and retention of third party service providers, including those associated with the Company's supply chain and apparel business, including issues with vendors in both advanced and developing markets; and

the inability of the Company to manage inventory to minimize the impact of obsolete or excess inventory and to control shrink.

This is not an exhaustive list of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in its forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities ("securities regulators") from time to time, including, without limitation, the section entitled "Risks" in the Company's 2016 AIF (for the year ended December 31, 2016). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's expectations only as of the date of this News Release. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CORPORATE PROFILE

2016 Annual Report and 2017 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders

The Company's 2016 Annual Report and 2017 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders are available in the "Investors" section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca and on sedar.com.

Additional financial information has been filed electronically with various securities regulators in Canada through the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) as the primary regulator for the Company's subsidiary, President's Choice Bank. The Company holds an analyst call shortly following the release of its quarterly results. These calls are archived in the "Investors" section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca.

Conference Call and Webcast

Loblaw Companies Limited will host a conference call as well as an audio webcast on July 26, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

To access via tele-conference, please dial (647) 427-7450 or (888) 231-8191. The playback will be made available approximately three hours after the event at (416) 849-0833 or (855) 859-2056, access code: 41420556. To access via audio webcast, please go to the "Investors" section of loblaw.ca. Pre-registration will be available.

Full details about the conference call and webcast are available on the Loblaw Companies Limited website at loblaw.ca.



News Release Endnotes (1) This News Release contains forward-looking information. See "Forward-Looking Statements" section of this News Release for a discussion of material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forecasts and projections herein and of the material factors and assumptions that were used when making these statements. This News Release should be read in conjunction with Loblaw Companies Limited's filings with securities regulators made from time to time, all of which can be found at sedar.com and at loblaw.ca. (2) See "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this News Release, which includes the reconciliation of such non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. (3) The results for the Financial Services and Choice Properties segments are for the period ended June 30, consistent with the segments' fiscal calendars. Adjustments to align Financial Services' and Choice Properties' results to the Company's fiscal calendar are included in Consolidation and Eliminations. See the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and the "Segment Information" sections of this News Release. (4) To be read in conjunction with the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of this News Release.





SOURCE Loblaw Companies Limited

For further information: Investor Relations: Investor inquiries, contact: Roy MacDonald, Vice President, Investor Relations, (905) 861-2243, [email protected]; Media inquiries, contact: Kevin Groh, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communication, (905) 861-2437, [email protected]
TORONTO, July 25, 2017 /CNW/ - LSC Lithium Corporation ("LSC" or together with its subsidiaries, the "Company") (TSXV:LSC) announced today that it has accepted the resignation of Wayne Richardson, as the Company's Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"). Mr. Richardson was instrumental in establishing a strong footing for LSC to operate in Argentina and has been a strategic asset during the growth stage of the Company. Mr. Richardson has resigned to focus on the continued growth and advancement of Enirgi Group Corporation ("Enirgi Group") and it's portfolio of global projects and technologies, including Enirgi Group's proprietary Direct Xtraction Processing Technology, which has successfully been deployed at Enirgi Group's DXP Plant on their wholly-owned Salar del Rincon in Salta, Argentina. Enirgi Group's technology is a key element of the strategic relationship agreement between LSC and Enirgi Group. LSC will continue to benefit from Mr. Richardson's leadership as the Chairman of LSC.

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Mr. Carlos Galli, LSC's Chief Operating Officer, will act as the interim CEO until a new Chief Executive Officer is appointed. The appointment of Mr. Galli as CEO is subject to certain conditions. Mr. Galli has been working with ADY since 2010, first as Industrial Manager and then as General Manager of Operations. Mr. Galli has participated in the construction and management of a lithium carbonate plant operation in the Puna plateau of Argentina, which delivered product to 5 countries. Among his past work experiences, he was an Industrial Segments Manager in SKF Latin America, and a Process Technology Business Manager in Alfa Laval.

The Board of LSC is very pleased to have Mr. Galli in this new role. With an Argentinian exploration focus, Carlos' professional knowledge, exploration experience and enthusiasm is a key to driving the accelerated and expanded exploration program. This change also benefits LSC as Enirgi Group will be focused on delivery of QP sign-off of their DXP Plant and funding for the final 50,000 tonne per year lithium carbonate commercial plant, which once successfully delivered, will be of demonstrable benefit to LSC.

Exploration Update

LSC has recently initiated a major exploration program on its Salar de Pozuelos property ("Pozuelos"), following up on the success of its initial exploration (see LSC press release dated April 10, 2017) and the closing of the acquisition of LitheA which owned 100% of Pozuelos.

The current program incorporates 15 holes to test all depths of Pozuelos and collect brine and relative Brine Release Capacity (RBRC) samples. Drilling for the current program commenced the week of July 14 in the south end of Pozuelos. The first hole drilled, SP-2017-15, intersected highly fractured halite to 35 m depth, followed by fractured halite with intercalated clays and very coarse gravels to 81.5 m. The hole was stopped at 81.5 m, cased with filters and brine samples obtained by air-lift tests. The brine density exceeded 1.2 kg/L. Brine assays are expected within the next two weeks. The second hole, SP-2017-11, had advanced to 45 m as of July 20. It encountered an initial 5 m interval of organic material followed by 35 m of highly fractured halite intercalated with some clay and significant coarse gravel. The hole is planned to advance to 60 m with the collection of brine samples at selected intervals. LSC is encouraged by the drilling results to date, which indicate the potential for high porosity formations.

A drilling program on LSC's tenements on nearby Salar Pastos Grandes is scheduled to start as soon as permits are received, which are expected by the beginning of August. This program will complement the work on Pozuelos. Other exploration programs are scheduled to start in early August on LSC's projects at Salar Rio Grande and Salar Jama. In addition, LSC anticipates receiving permits to undertake initial exploration work on its Salar Salinas Grandes tenements in Salta Province in late Q3/17 following a successful community relations engagement program.

Qualified Person/Data Verification

The scientific and technical information included in this press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Donald H. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC and Lithea.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the "Lithium Triangle," an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the world's most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the following: LSC's intentions regarding its exploration programs, funding to undertake intended activities and the timing and ability to advance the Pozuelos Property to feasibility study level. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to availability of funding on acceptable terms, exploration and the establishment of resources and reserves on the Pozuelos Property or other LSC properties; the application and future licensing of new technologies; the risks around timing, permitting, funding and construction of a regional processing facility at the Salar del Rincon by Enirgi Group and the ability of LSC to fast-track production from its own properties by supplying brine to such a facility; risks relating to proposed acquisitions; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSC's share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

SOURCE LSC Lithium Corporation

For further information: LSC Lithium Corporation, Jessica Helm, VP, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Suite 3001, 1 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V9, (416) 867 9298, Email: [email protected], Web: lsclithium.com
TORONTO, July 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. (the "Company") (TSX: HLP.U) will release its fiscal 2017 second quarter results on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 after markets close. Management of the Company will hold a conference call at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 to review the financial results.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS:

DATE: Wednesday, August 9, 2017



TIME: 10:00 a.m. ET



DIAL IN NUMBER: 647-427-7450 1-888-231-8191



CONFERENCE ID: 59530467



WEBCAST: Available at www.mainstreethealthinvestments.com/investor-events-and-presentations. Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to join the webcast. The webcast will be archived on the Company's website following the call date.



TAPED REPLAY: 416-849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 Available from 1:00 p.m. ET on August 9, 2017 until midnight on August 17, 2017



REFERENCE NUMBER: 59530467

About Mainstreet Health Investments Inc.

Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. is a North American health care real estate company with a growing portfolio of high-quality properties located in the United States and Canada and operated by best-in-class senior living and care operators primarily under long-term leases. Its mission is to create long-term shareholder value while providing an investment opportunity that matters. For more information, visit www.mainstreethealthinvestments.com.

SOURCE Mainstreet Health Investments Inc.

For further information: Investor Relations, 1-317-582-6971, [email protected]
MASON CITY | Mason Citys process for approving administrative raises has recently been under scrutiny by School Board members, according to emails obtained by the Globe Gazette.

The 686 emails the Globe Gazette received through an open records request detail a number of board conversations regarding the salary of former business manager John Berg, whose contracts show he received nearly a 27 percent pay increase during his two years in the position.

Berg was placed on administrative leave in June and subsequently not issued a contract for the coming year, which began July 1. Both Berg and district officials had been publicly silent since then about the administrative leave and dismissal.

Berg, who said he wants to be able to move on with his professional career, told the Globe Gazette there were very few discussions with me for the non-issuance of a contract.

The feeling I got was that the board was not happy with my communication with them on issues that I believed the superintendent should have communicated with them, he said.

As for the state audit of district finances that has been pending for about a year, Berg said he didnt believe it would reveal improper or illegal practices.

That audit is examining vacation pay given to two retiring administrators in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, and depending on initial findings, could expand to other years. The results of that audit havent been released yet.

Berg said he thought the audit may result in "some clarifications of policies but no ethical issues."

Inconsistent redactions

The emails the Globe Gazette received are considered a public record  as they discuss district business  and can be obtained through Iowas open records law, which was established to keep government transparent and accountable to the public.

Forty-two of the emails released to the Globe Gazette were redacted by the districts Des Moines-based law firm, Ahlers & Cooney PC. Attorneys didnt initially provide an itemized list citing the reasons for the redactions, but did so upon the Globe Gazettes request.

All but six of the redacted emails contained information attorneys considered to be part of a personnel record, which is confidential under state law. The remainder was redacted due to attorney-client privilege or personal, non-school related matters, the firm said.

A number of the emails were duplicates, and some that were redacted were also available in an unaltered state.

One of those emails stated Bergs contract would not be renewed in 2017-18, according to a June 9 message sent by then-interim Superintendent Mike Penca to undisclosed recipients, presumably board members. The email was available in redacted and unredacted versions.

In the email, Penca says with guidance from district attorney Jim Hanks and board President Janna Arndt, Berg had been provided with formal written notice of the recommendation to not renew his contract for 2017-18. Berg had up to five days to address the board in what likely would have been a closed session.

Bergs salary was questioned in several emails, including one from board member Jodi Draper on May 23 that was provided in several copies  some unaltered, some redacted. It was sent to other board members as well as Penca, Draper said in the email.

Steep pay increases

Berg, previously an accountant for the district, was initially paid $65,000 when promoted to business manager in 2015, according to his contract.

His 2016-17 contract stipulated a salary of $82,250, nearly a 27 percent increase from when he began the position a year prior.

He received a $10,000 raise in January 2016 and another $7,250 in June 2016, his contracts state.

Arndts electronic signature stamp is on the two contracts, but Arndt denied signing either contract. She said the board discovered the raises during salary discussions in May.

Most of the time it is not a huge issue, whatever approved at the board meeting is assumed to be on those contracts, Arndt said. The (contract) in January 2016, the board did not know at all. We had never been told John was getting a raise.

I was out of the country at the time it was signed, she said.

As for Bergs contract in June 2016, Arndt said the board had approved a 3 percent raise for administrators.

That one is not a straight 3 percent contract, she said.

The district is following new guidelines for 2017-18 contracts, Superintendent Dave Versteeg told the Globe Gazette. Contracts are now hand-signed by the board president, rather than stamped with an electronic signature.

Versteeg confirmed the board secretary, who is generally the districts business manager, maintains the facsimile stamp of the board president. It is used for contracts, payroll, diplomas and other warrants.

The district doesnt keep a record of when the stamp is used, according to Versteeg.

The rubber stamp

As for Bergs raises, there seems to be discrepancies on how they were approved.

If the documents appear that the Finance Director took about an $18,000.00 (raise) knowing policy, being educated-transparency, and being told as head of finance he has to be able to say no, this needs to go to board etc., I will exercise my voice to request his contract not be renewed, Draper said in her May 23 email.

The portion of the email where this statement occurred was redacted on some of the copies provided to the Globe Gazette. The redaction was cited as containing information part of a personnel report.

Both of Bergs raises were approved by former Superintendent Anita Micich or Penca, Berg said, noting other administrators also received raises during those time periods.

No contract was issued without their approval, he said.

Im not aware of the conversation that goes on between the superintendent and the board, he said. Im not involved but know they take place.

On his most recent contract, Berg said his understanding was discussions had taken place between Penca and board members.

He (Penca) authorized the raises that the contracts were issued on, Berg said, noting Penca said he had spoken with the board president.

During his tenure, Berg said it was common practice for the raises to be discussed and approved by the board, then finished by the superintendent.

The superintendent would then disperse the money by drawing up new contracts, which would be signed with the board presidents stamp in the business office.

Penca offered a similar explanation to the Globe Gazette. As acting superintendent, he was involved in board meetings regarding June 2016 salary proposals for non-bargaining employees like Berg.

In the instance of a percentage increase or flat dollar amount, Penca said the superintendent had the authority to distribute those funds to those people.

In the past, the process was that the board took action, superintendent did that work and contracts were distributed, Penca said. It didnt come back to the board with the individual amounts; thats how I understood and implemented the process last year.

Compared to people in similar roles across the state  in districts similar to Mason Citys size  Bergs last contract would still be low, the lowest in that comparison group, Penca said.

Draper's May 23 email claims Penca had said Arndt and board Vice President Lorrie Lala authorized him to give beyond the percentage raise approved by the board.

Janna and Lorrie can not give permission to give out such raises, we have to do that as a Board, Draper wrote. Janna and Lorrie both deny stating any of that to Mike together and or separately.

Arndt and Lala supported Drapers statement during interviews with the Globe Gazette.

Lala said board members dont have authority on their own, only as a collective group.

Superintendents are aware the board only has authority as a whole and not as individuals, she said.

Miscommunication

In her two years on the board, Lala said she has experienced communication issues with both superintendents. As an example, she cited a February 2017 discussion on contract language for sharing agreements with Clear Lake.

I would also like to point out that I am only one of seven, she said. I would never overstep my bounds as a board member.

Penca, who is now superintendent of Flagstaff Unified School District in Arizona, said he was proud of how he improved superintendent-board communication during his year as Mason Citys interim leader.

I had good, open-door communication with the board as a whole, he said.

As for Bergs raises, Draper said she thought they should be brought to the board. She later told the Globe Gazette, as a board member, she felt it was not a correct or best practice to approve raises in that manner.

It was never brought up to the board as it should be, as stated in attached policy, 303.4, Draper wrote in her email May 23. The policy says the board has complete discretion to set the salaries of administrators.

Draper said she was concerned about transparency with the taxpayers dollars.

The Board was not given the chance to vote on this as directed by policy, but more importantly the tax payer was not given the right to address the board, or even given the information, Draper wrote.

With that said, I will not allow this behavior again to be kept on the hush, I have a duty to the people who chose to put their faith in me and vote for me, to be transparent, Draper said in the email. I will request that the community be made aware.

Upper-level turnover

Draper said she wanted to request Bergs and Jodie Andersons contracts be pulled from the increase this year and possibly discussed in closed session with those individuals, according to the email.

Anderson, who resigned in July after two years as the districts HR director, received about a 10 percent raise, or a $7,750 increase, her 2016-17 contract indicates, bringing her total salary to $87,750.

Board members this month approved hiring her back on a part-time, temporary basis as they seek a replacement.

In addition to Berg and Anderson, nearly all of the top administrators  five others in total  have left Mason City in recent years, either due to early retirements, job opportunities or settlement agreements.

As a business manager, Berg was an at-will, nonunion employee who was issued a contract on an annual basis.

The contract states it can be terminated at any time by either party, for any reason or for no reason at all, with or without notice to the other party.

It didnt make a lot of sense to me, Berg said regarding the non-renewal of his contract. I disagree with their (boards) actions.

Its difficult enough to lose a job that I enjoy, he said. I didnt want to make it a big spectacle.

In his time as a district employee, Berg said he had not done anything considered inappropriate or in violation of law.

No, absolutely no, he said.

In reply to Drapers email May 24, Lala said the boards problem is self-correcting.

The board identified problems with our administration and we have dealt with those problems by hiring an outside Sup. We have addressed the problem already, Lala wrote.

Lala didnt elaborate what the problems were.

Versteeg will have a chance to evaluate all of his Director team while on board, Lala said in the email.

Lala told the Globe Gazette she was going to let the email speak for itself.

I'm not sure I can expand on this without evaluating an employee in public, which is not appropriate, she said.
Projects will advance gender equality and engage local women leaders in pan-Canadian network

WINNIPEG, July 25, 2017 /CNW/ - As Canada marks the 150th anniversary of Confederation, it is important to reflect on our legacy for the future. Despite the important milestones witnessed in these 150 years, women, girls, and gender-non-conforming people still face hardships. A lot more work remains for gender equality to become a reality in Canada. By investing in a strong and thriving women's movement today, we are laying the foundation for gender equality tomorrow.

Today, Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Status of Women and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, on behalf of the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of Status of Women, announced Government of Canada funding for five projects that will help advance gender equality in Canada.

Five organizations in Winnipeg are receiving funding of almost $2 million for a range of projects that will challenge barriers to gender equality:

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

Southern Chiefs' Organization

Ending Violence Across Manitoba Inc.

West Central Women's Resource Centre

Willow Place Inc.

Projects by these organizations will work on several fronts to improve the status of women and girls in the province, from addressing gender-based violence, to exploring challenges related to housing, to improving the participation of women in the all sectors of the economy, including the skilled trades.

These initiatives are part of an investment of over $18 million by the federal government. Its purpose is to support grassroots organizations and engage 150 women leaders across the country who will work together as part of a pan-Canadian network to support feminist action for gender equality at the national level. The network is being convened by the Canadian Women's Foundation.

As a digital partner with Status of Women Canada for this event, Instagram offered participants at the event a learning session on social media best practices to create communities and maximize audiences.

Quotes

"Strong, dynamic women are the heart of the women's movement and their leadership is key to achieving gender equality. Our Government's initiative will bring them together, at the national level, with the goal of facilitating the exchange of experiences and best practices. This strong, vibrant, and coordinated women's movement will lead the way to equality, for the next 150 years and beyond."

The Honourable Maryam Monsef, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Status of Women

"When women and girls are empowered to succeed, we all benefit. This community is doing outstanding work to address barriers facing women and girls and move us all closer to gender equality. I am proud to be part of a government that supports these efforts and look forward to seeing the results of these projects. Together, we can make our Manitoba and our country an inclusive place where everyone's contribution is valued and respected. This is the only way our society, our economy, can reach its full potential."

Terry Duguid

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Status of Women

"The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Women's Council is leading the way to promote the representation of First Nations women in the trades. This will be done by empowering women's voice in the development of tools for change and building partnerships with employers and training institutions for collaborative action. It is essential women re-occupy a sacred place in our families, communities and Nations. It is also an opportunity to forge a new relationship based on mutual respect, recognition and reconciliation."

Chief Viola Eastman

First Nations Women's Council

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

"Indigenous women who have been incarcerated face a number of challenges when they are released  from finding housing to accessing banking services. This project will address those challenges and engage partners in developing an action plan for more effective and culturally-appropriate services for these women as they reintegrate into society."

Pamela Davis

Violence Prevention & Safety Coordinator

Southern Chiefs' Organization

"When it comes to domestic violence, it is important to have a strong, coordinated approach for responding to survivors  particularly for high-risk cases. Through this project we will identify gaps in services and work with our partners to pilot promising practices. By collaborating with other agencies doing similar work across the province, we can improve support for women and girls no matter where they live. "

Mary Lobson

Executive Director

Ending Violence Across Manitoba Inc.

"Women and the trans community experience homelessness differently and are often more vulnerable during transition points in their lives. Alongside Winnipeg's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, our project will develop a gender-based housing strategy that addresses the unique, gendered pathways into homelessness, which include transitioning out of correctional institutions, violence against women shelters and involvement with other systems and institutions."

Lorie English

Executive Director

West Central Women's Resource Centre

"Women and children affected by gender-based violence need specialized support when they seek help. We are proud to work with the Government of Canada on this project to improve Manitoba's family services and justice system practices and ensure that they better respond to survivors of violence. Working with our partners, we will recommend ways to modify existing policies, pilot promising practices and share the results with others working in the sector."

Lesley Lindberg

Executive Director

Willow Place Inc.

Quick Facts

In October 2016 , Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across Canada . As of June 2017 , some 50 projects have been approved for over $18 million in Funding to Advance Gender Equality . with the goal of empowering great Canadian women and enabling their good work to set the stage for the next 150 years . This is the most funding to ever be approved through a Status of Women Canada call for proposals. Approved projects will take place over a period of three years.

, Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across . As of , some 50 projects have been approved for over in with the goal of empowering great Canadian women and enabling their good work to set the stage for the next 150 years This is the most funding to ever be approved through a Status of Women Canada call for proposals. Approved projects will take place over a period of three years. The Women's Program at Status of Women Canada supports eligible organizations to carry out projects to advance equality by addressing systemic barriers that contribute to gender inequality in Canada .

Related Product

Backgrounder

Associated Links

Ce texte est egalement disponible en francais.

For news releases and information on Status of Women Canada, go to women.gc.ca.

Follow us on Twitter: @Women Canada

Like us on Facebook: Women in Canada

Follow us on Instagram: women_canada

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadaSWC

Backgrounder

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs - $382,283

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is receiving $382,283 for a three-year project to increase the participation of First Nations women in the skilled trades in Manitoba. Women leaders will work in the community to identify and address barriers to employment in the trades. These include but are not limited to the lack of transportation, family responsibilities and discrimination. The project will also work with employers and training institutions to adapt education programs and apprenticeships to the needs of Indigenous women.

Southern Chiefs' Organization - $384,002

The Southern Chiefs' Organization is receiving $384,002 for a three-year project to address the barriers faced by Indigenous women who are incarcerated as they reintegrate into society in Winnipeg and southern Manitoba. Such barriers include accessing services like housing and banking. Working with partners, the organization will develop an action plan to change policies, services and procedures so that they provide more flexible, accessible and culturally appropriate services for Indigenous women.

Ending Violence Across Manitoba Inc. - $400,000

Ending Violence Across Manitoba Inc. is receiving $400,000 for a three-year project to improve services for survivors of high risk domestic violence cases. The organization will identify gaps in existing resources. It will also develop an action plan that addresses the specific needs of Manitoba residents. It will work with partner agencies to test promising practices and share the results with others working in the sector to ensure a coordinated response to survivors throughout the province.

West Central Women's Resource Centre - $400,000

West Central Women's Resource Centre is receiving $400,000 for a three-year project to address the systemic barriers faced by women exiting homelessness in Winnipeg. As part of Winnipeg's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, the organization will develop a gender-based housing strategy and will establish referral protocol for shelters, correction facilities and other institutions to help them address the complex needs of women in their care. The results of the project will be shared broadly among stakeholders to strengthen coordination and uptake of the gender-based housing approach.

Willow Place Inc. - $400,000

Willow Place Inc. is receiving $400,000 for a three-year project to improve Manitoba's family services and justice system practices for women and children fleeing domestic violence. The organization will work with partners to recommend ways to modify existing policies, structures and practices and will pilot promising practices. The results will be shared with government policy-makers and sector leaders.

Call for proposals: Funding to Advance Gender Equality in Canada  Over $18 million

In October 2016, Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across Canada. As of June 2017, some 50 projects have been approved for over $18 million in Funding to Advance Gender Equality.

Over the course of 36-months, the projects will address systemic barriers in Status of Women Canada's three areas of focus: increasing women's economic security and prosperity, encouraging women and girls to be better represented in leadership and decision-making roles, and ending violence against women and girls.

The Canadian Women's Foundation will convene a strong, independent, pan-Canadian network of women leaders to support feminist action for gender equality at the national level. These leaders have been chosen for their remarkable efforts at the local level to advance gender equality with women, girls and gender non-conforming people. By creating a network of visionary women, we will broaden the reach of their efforts beyond their communities  inspiring others from across the country to add their voices and contribute their ideas towards achieving real progress.

SOURCE Status of Women Canada

For further information: Philippe Charlebois, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Status of Women, 613-618-8546; Leonie Roux, Public Affairs Officer, Status of Women Canada, 819-420-6821

Related Links

https://www.canada.ca


OTTAWA, July 26, 2017 /CNW/ - The territories generally fall behind the Canadian average on a number of measures of equity and social cohesion, yet outperform the rest of the country in some areas, according to The Conference Board of Canada's How Canada Performs: Social Outcomes in the Territories. Scores are below average on indicators such as poverty, crime rates, and income distribution, but the territories perform relatively well on life satisfaction and for the most part racial wage gaps disappear between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals that have post-secondary education.

"When assessing outcomes in the territories, we need to consider the context that helps explain why average territorial performance is distinct from and, in many cases, lower than the provincial averages. The territories' geographic isolation, low educational attainment, differences in the availability of social services, and infrastructure gaps all have significant effects on several of the society indicators in our report and help explain why they fall behind the Canadian average on social outcomes," said Adam Fiser, Senior Research Associate, The Conference Board of Canada.

"In order to improve social outcomes in the territories, efforts must be made to improve education attainment and access to health care, including mental health services, as well as investing in poverty reduction strategies."

Highlights

The territories' geographic isolation, low educational attainment, differences in the availability of social services, and infrastructure gaps help explain their lower social outcomes.

Policy actions to improve educational outcomes and access to health care, as well as investing in poverty reduction strategies could help improve social outcomes in the territories.

Culturally specific measures of social cohesionsuch as access to informal networks of emotional, social, and material supportare vital to understanding social cohesion in the territories and especially in remote Northern Indigenous communities.

Yukon

Yukon is the best performing territory on the How Canada Performs: Society report card. It performs better than the Canadian average on a number of measures. In 2016, Yukon had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 5.6 per cent (national rate in 2016 was 7.0 per cent). However, unemployment rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals differ substantially. Yukon's unemployment rate for Indigenous individuals with a high-school diploma was 17.3 per cent in 2011, compared to 7.4 per cent for their non-Indigenous counterparts. Compared with the Canadian average of 8 per cent, Yukon has a low proportion of families who fall under the low income measure, with only 4 per cent of couple families considered low income. This could be due in part to the strong employment rate and the relatively high number of individuals employed in public administration. Yukon's gender wage gap of 8 per cent is much lower than the national average of 19 per cent and its proportion of youth who are not working or going to school is comparable to the national average. The territory also has a life satisfaction score on par with the Canadian average.

However, when it comes to the racial wage gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals with a high-school diploma, the gap in Yukon, like much of Canada, is substantial. Indigenous men earned 38.7 per cent less than non-Indigenous men in Yukon, compared to 19.2 per cent across Canada. Higher education helps to equalize earnings. Indeed, Indigenous men with a university degree earned 24.6 per cent more than their non-Indigenous counterparts in 2011.

Crime is a concern for people living in the territories and Yukon is no exception. Yukon's three-year average homicide rate of 3.6 deaths per 100,000 people is elevated and comparable to Manitoba, which had the highest average homicide rate among the provinces. It is important to note, however, that this report looks at rates and not the actual number of incidents. Thus, despite having a relatively low number of actual homicides, a territory with a small population can have a higher homicide rate. In this case, Yukon's homicide rate is due in part to a high rate in 2014, while in 2013 there were no recorded homicides. Burglaries in Yukon are roughly 1.5 times higher than the Canadian average, but the number of actual burglaries ranged from 212 to 300 between 2013-2015.

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories generally falls just behind, or at, the Canadian average on most social measures. However, its gender gap, unemployment rate, share of jobless youth, homicide, burglaries and suicide rates are higher than the national average.

N.W.T.'s gender wage gap of 23 per cent is higher than the national average of 19 per cent, while the gaps in the other two territories are significantly lower. N.W.T.'s unemployment rate was 7.4 per cent in 2016 and nearly a quarter of youth in N.W.T. (23.8 per cent) are not in school or working. The N.W.T. has an average homicide rate of 7.6 deaths per 100,00 population (between 2 to 5 deaths)roughly five times higher than the Canadian average. The N.W.T. had an average of 1,207 reported burglaries per 100,000 population, approximately 2.8 times more than the Canadian average. These elevated crime rates, however, partly reflect the small population.

Participation in traditional activitiesan important measure of social cohesion for Indigenous groupsis high across the territories. In the N.W.T., 57 per cent of Indigenous youth (aged 15 to 24) participate in traditional activities compared to 37.9 per cent across Canada.

When it comes to average incomes, 42 per cent of the N.W.T.'s residents occupy the top two Canadian income deciles. While at first glance the average income in the N.W.T. appears to be higher than the national average, it does not factor in the cost of living and goods, which can be significantly higher in Canada's North. The income disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals is also cause for concern. About 24 per cent of Indigenous individuals in the N.W.T. fall in low income groups, compared to 16 per cent of the total N.W.T. population. However, Indigenous men and women with a university degree earn more than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

While the N.W.T.'s percentage of couple families that are considered low income is the same as the Canadian average (8 per cent), its share of single-parent families who are low income is higher, 41 per cent compared to 32 per cent across Canada.

Nunavut

Nunavut lags the Canadian average on most of the measures used to assess social outcomes. Nunavut's unemployment rate, prevalence of low-income families, percentage of youth who are not working or going to school, and burglary, homicide and suicide rates are significantly higher than the national average. That said, Nunavut has only a 2 per cent gender wage gap, compared to the 19 per cent Canadian average.

Nunavut's substantial Indigenous population faces distinct historical, cultural, and socio-economic challenges, including the impacts of residential schools, which contribute to the social outcomes seen here.

Despite Nunavut's relatively elevated unemployment, crime, and poverty rates compared with the Canadian average, self-reported life satisfaction scores in Nunavut are high. Nunavummiut report close family and other kinship ties, as well as high levels of participation in traditional activities, which may contribute to the territory's performance in this measure. Culturally specific measures of social cohesion, like traditional activities, are vital to understanding social cohesion in the territory. And like the N.W.T., the Nunavut population experience a very high level of participation in traditional activities across age groups.

How Canada Performs is an ongoing research program at The Conference Board of Canada to help leaders identify relative strengths and weaknesses in Canada's socio-economic performance. Six performance domains are assessed: Economy, Education and Skills, Innovation, Environment, Health, and Society.

Follow The Conference Board of Canada on Twitter.

A copy of the report is provided for reporting purposes only. Please do not redistribute it or post it online in any form.

For those interested in broadcast-quality interviews for your station, network, or online site, The Conference Board of Canada has a studio capable of double-ender interviews (line fees apply), or we can send you pre-taped clips upon request.

If you would like to be removed from our distribution list, please e-mail [email protected].

SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

For further information: Yvonne Squires, Media Relations, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613- 526-3090 ext. 221, E-mail: [email protected]; Juline Ranger, Director of Communications, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613- 526-3090 ext. 431, E-mail: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.conferenceboard.ca


"This collaboration benefits both countries as they engage in vital research and development to improve the technology of icebreaking ships," said Iain Stewart, President of the NRC. "Our knowledge of how ships and offshore structures can operate in harsh environmental conditions combined with our world-class research facilities and expertise positions Canada as a strategic partner in providing safety and efficiency to the new U.S. polar icebreakers."

The testing is assessing the models' maneuverability in ice and icebreaking resistance, building baseline requirements for new U.S. heavy polar icebreakers, and expanding the current design and operational knowledge. The Canadian and U.S. governments are also working on the long-term management of the polar icebreaker's hull integrity, which they will assess through field trials.

"Model testing activities enable us to examine critical design elements and make informed design decisions early in the acquisition process," said Rear Admiral Michael Haycock, U.S. Coast Guard Assistant Commandant for Acquisition and Chief Acquisition Officer. "The data we gather from model testing at the NRC is going to be a major driver of our heavy polar icebreaker acquisition program's success and will be critical to our efforts to effectively manage costs, mitigate risks, and maintain an accelerated program schedule."

This partnership was formalized through the Critical Infrastructure Protection and Border Security (CIPABS) Agreement, managed by the Defence Research and Development Canada's Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS), an Agency of the Department of National Defence, on behalf of the Government of Canada, alongside DHS S&T who manages it on behalf of the U.S. Government. The results of this partnership will boost the knowledge and expertise of both the United States and Canada in icebreaking ship technologies.

"This is a wonderful example of international and cross-component collaboration," said DHS Under Secretary (Acting) for Science and Technology William N. Bryan. "Supporting the operational mission of DHS is why Science & Technology exists. In this case, I am particularly proud that S&T is able to work with our neighbours to the north and bring their expertise to bear on supporting the mission of the Coast Guard."

Associated Links

SOURCE National Research Council Canada

For further information: Media Relations Team, National Research Council of Canada, 1-855-282-1637 (in Canada), 1-613-991-1431 (elsewhere in North America), 001-613-991-1431 (International), [email protected], Twitter: @nrc_cnrc; Media Relations, Science & Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20528, 202-254-2385 (office), 202-527-3625 (mobile), [email protected], http://scitech.dhs.gov, Twitter @dhsscitech; Brian Olexy, Communication Manager, U.S. Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20593, 202-475-3069 (office), [email protected], Twitter: @USCG

Related Links

www.nrc.gc.ca


Wawanesa among the first insurers on the ground helping and supporting people affected by wildfires

WINNIPEG and VANCOUVER, July 25, 2017 /CNW/ - The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company ("Wawanesa") today announced it will donate $25,000 towards the Canadian Red Cross as it helps people affected by the British Columbia wildfires. This contribution will enable additional support in critical areas, and help families and communities most severely affected by this disaster.

The safety and well-being of residents in the areas affected by the wildfires is Wawanesa's utmost concern. Wawanesa has deployed its entire National Catastrophe Team to provide personal assistance and is making a corporate donation to the Canadian Red Cross BC Fires to support relief efforts.

"Our thoughts are with the people in British Columbia as the wildfire situation continues to unfold," said Wawanesa's Vice-President of British Columbia, Brenda Gibson. "We hope our donation and deployment of experienced team members will help expedite the relief that is so desperately needed during this difficult time."

Adjusters from the company's National Catastrophe Team were among the first on the ground as evacuation orders were issued in early July, and have set up temporary claims centres in Kamloops (Landsdowne Village Unit #211, 420 Lansdowne Street) and Prince George (Prince George Secondary School  2901 Griffiths Avenue and Pine Centre Mall  3055 Massey Drive). Wawanesa is tracking the development of these wildfires, and managing resources to ensure policyholders' needs are being addressed.

Policyholders can contact Wawanesa team members 24/7 at 1-844-WAWANESA (929-2637) or through our dedicated email address [email protected]. Wawanesa is continuing to provide resources and information through its dedicated BC wildfires webpage (wawanesa.com/bcwildfire), and is regularly posting updates on the company's social media channels.

About The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company

Wawanesa Mutual Insurance is one of the largest property and casualty insurers in Canada with $3 billion in annual revenues and assets of more than $9 billion. With over 3,000 employees, Wawanesa proudly serves over two million policyholders through nine regional offices and 41 service offices in Canada and the United States. Wawanesa actively gives back to organizations that strengthen communities where it operates, donating well above internationally recognized benchmarks for excellence in corporate philanthropy. Wawanesa Mutual, founded in 1896 with executive offices in Winnipeg, is the parent company of Wawanesa General, which offers property and casualty insurance in California and Oregon, and Wawanesa Life, which distributes life insurance products and services throughout Canada.

SOURCE Wawanesa Insurance

For further information: Information (for journalists only): Selena Hinds, Communications & Community Affairs, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, 1-844-946-6282, [email protected]




The Yoruba Council of Elders (Igbimo Agba Yoruba) has advised the Federal Government of Nigeria to adopt the 1963 constitution and the report of the 2014 National dialogue as template for Nigerias political development.The group while urging the FG to discard the 1999 constitution, expressed its full support for restructuring.YCE gave this advice on Wednesday in a communique signed by its President General, Chief Idowu Sofola (MON) and Secretary-General Dr. Kunle Olajide at the end of its 19th national executive meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.At the meeting were Chief Ayo Ojebode, Mr Abraham Akinleye Akinremi, Prince Samuel Akinleye Agbede, Chief (Mrs) Bola Doherty and its Matron, Professor Mrs Adetoun Ogunseye.The group urged the Federal and State governments to make the payment of pensioners a priority.The 1999 constitution which in fact is the old military decree 24, is a pseudo Federal Constitution, (a unitary constitution in disguise), it cannot work in a multi ethnic country like Nigeria.A constitution that virtually neutralises the Local Government system which is nearest to the people has invariably consigned the people to irrelevance and put development at the grassroot in reverse gear.A constitution and system of government that continues to exploit natural resources to enrich the ruling class at the expense of the people cannot endure. This constitution compels corruption.Our dear country is currently confronted with dauting challenges of increasing youth/ graduate unemployment fuelling insecurity, kidnapping, armed robbery and separatist agitations. These challenges clearly show that Nigerias problems are foundational and structural, therefore constitution. Unending piecemeal amendments of the1999 constitution cannot work, it will merely be postponing the doomsday.The constitution must be discarded, and the 1963 constitution with the resolutions of the 2014 National conference should be used as a template for the groundnoin which will be submitted to the people in a referendum.The group further congratulated the South West Government of Ogun, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states on the successful outcome of their meeting held at Abeokuta on Monday.The YCE further commended the governors commitment to regional integration on agricultural, economy, education, security.They also expressed their satisfaction with the regions decision to compel the teaching of Yoruba values and ethics.YCE applaud the setting up of a committee to advance the Yoruba ethics and values as instrument of Yoruba uniqueness for strengthening the regions identity.The Igbimo Agba assures the governors of the Igbimos unwavering support for their efforts to improve the living standard of our people, it added.On the irregularities in the payment of pension and ill treatment of pensioners in Nigeria, YCE said the benefits and pensions of these elderly people who spent the better part of their lives in the service of their fatherland are not paid as at when due.To God belongs the Kingdom of Heaven and the Earth, He creates what He wills,  Verily Allah is all knower and able to do all things
MASON CITY | Ralph "Red" Johnson of Mason City is pretty good at telling old war stories.

The World War II Army veteran who earned a Purple Heart serving under Gen. George Patton, is likely to share a story or two Saturday in an open house honoring his 100th birthday. It is from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Mason City VFW.

His birthday is Aug. 7. The celebration is being held Saturday because it is a time when many of his relatives can get together with him.

Johnson, an infantry man in World War II, was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.

Five years ago, he had a special time on his 95th birthday, when he was one of the guests on an Honor Flight for Purple Heart veterans to Washington D.C.

Johnson was a young enlistee stationed in Monterey, California, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. In a 1998 interview with the Globe Gazette, he recalled he was on a weekend pass and was in a bar drinking beer with a couple of buddies.

He said an M.P. officer came in and told them to go back to their company, because Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Johnson said he and his companions said "yes, sir" but did not leave right away.

"The M.P. came back a while later and arrested us," he said. Johnson said they spent the next four days digging in the foothills of San Francisco near the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was three years later, fighting in France, that he was wounded.
The Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Segun Oni, has disclosed that the Federal Government led by Pr...

The Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Segun Oni, has disclosed that the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has put in place plans to clear salary arrears nationwide.

Oni, who described the visit of the UK MP as homecoming, said told her that although a bulk of salary arrears owed workers in some states have been paid through bailout funds provided by the Buhari administration, the government is not relenting in its effort to totally eliminate all arrears owed workers and pensioners

He said: We are doing something which people have not recognised as a cardinal signature of the progressives.

We are trying to eradicate salary arrears. Past governments, particularly at the state levels owed salaries.

This government has been trying to help them (states) pay the arrears and very soon we are going to have a check on how much is left everywhere to be paid. But substantially, a bulk of salary arrears is paid now.

The people who are owed salaries are mostly the downtrodden and when they are owed, you compound the poverty equation. We are working towards ensuring that in no distant future, arrears will be eliminated.

The only way we can do it is through the bailout funds to states. Because we cannot control what the governor would do because he is chief executive, but when there are bailout funds, we believe that they will apply it to settle salary arrears.

In her remarks, MP Osamor said that her Party  the Labour Party  was ready to share its experiences, good practices and work with the APC.

We are very happy to share our experiences with you. Because it shows that no party is standstill. At points the party may feel that it is going through a difficult phase, how do we get out of it? But we are going through that and we assist the party so we will obviously work together and share good practice. She said.

Also present at the meeting were the APC National Youth Leader, Dasuki Ibrahim Jalo; Chief of Staff to the APC National Chairman, Edwin Ikhinmwin; and, Country Representative, Westminister Foundation for Democracy, Adebowale Olorunmola.
President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, on Wednesday announced that his government will no longer permit transgender indiv...

President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, on Wednesday announced that his government will no longer permit transgender individuals to serve in the US military.

The president said this in a series of tweets on Wednesday, adding that the decision is coming after due consultation with the countries military Generals and experts.

According to him, After consultation with my Generals and military experts please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.

Former Defence Secretary, Ash Carter had a year ago, announced a lift on the Pentagons ban on transgender people serving openly.

Trumps latest announcement said the military, cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.

Trump campaigned heavily for LGBT support during the campaign, promising, to fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs, he had said.

Trump also opposed North Carolinas law, forcing transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender assigned at birth during his campaign, saying the law should have been left the way it was.
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has said that the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi ...

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has said that the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, is now exhibiting symptoms of the Villa curse'.

Fani-Kayode was reacting to Adesinas remarks explaining why a video of the President addressing Nigerians formally has not been recorded.

He wrote on his Twitter page on Wednesday: Stop complaining about Buhari, nobody forced you to vote for him- Femi Adesina.

Femi is now exhibiting symptoms of the Villa curse.

Adesina had said: It is a matter of personal style, there is no style that you can call the style. The style of our president is what you have seen on display and by now two years after he came, I am sure that we should understand him.

We should know the kind of person he is, we should know how he prefers to do things and that is how the President is.

That just tells you that that is the way our President is, we elected him willingly and we have seen that this is the way he is.
The special Adviser on Niger Delta to the President and Co-ordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programmes Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh yesterd...

The special Adviser on Niger Delta to the President and Co-ordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programmes Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh yesterday said about N34 billion was spent in the last three years on overseas training for Niger Delta youths.Gen. Boroh added that following his presentation last week at the United Nations, the body urged the Presidential Amnesty Programme to extend its programme to Cote d Voire.He spoke at the opening of the Third Quarterly Meeting of Ministers of Niger Delta Affairs, Petroleum Resources, Niger Delta governors, as well as oil and gas companies at the Office of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, in Abuja.A Draft Report on a Work Plan for the region covering 2017 to 2019 was unveiled.Gen. Boroh said: Most of last week, I was at the United Nations headquarters, New York City in the United States of America for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and I showed them what we have being doing in the Niger Delta.By the time I finished and gave them our compendium, they were amazed. They were happy and they asked us to be on standby to help in resolving the militancy in Cote dIvoire. That means the world is aware of what we are doing to achieve stability and development in Niger Delta.Cote dIvoire government is going to contact the Nigerian government and they will call on us to tell them the platform which we put in place towards achieving peace in the region.It is an expensive programme, no doubt about it. Peace is expensive. It is better imagined, we will do everything to ensure we achieve that to prevent conflict. I have seen conflict, violent conflict for that matter, and I dont want to see it again in our country.Let us do all we can to achieve peace by ensuring that meetings of this nature are attended with open mind and discuss objectively on how best we can resolve our differences. Let me just give an instance of what Federal Government has spent on the area of education on the Presidential Amnesty Programme. The least amount in the last three years is about N34 billion.That is why you hear of graduation in the United Kingdom, graduation in USA, graduation in Philistine, South Africa. It is huge. This year alone, the Federal Government has graduated 177 beneficiaries from the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the United States, and 140 beneficiaries from United Kingdom.Calculate that in pounds sterling and U.S. dollars, it is expensive. Please, let us appreciate the Federal Government for what it is doing towards ensuring peace and stability and development of Niger Delta.Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Pastor Usani Uguru Usani said: But today, we are able to see a draft report of the 2017 to 2019 work plan. We are not saying action plan or master plan, we are saying work plan.That means by this plan, our work will be guided. So we are not just formulating what we will do, we are now talking about how we will do it, where we will do it, who will do it. That is why its called a work plan for one and half years-between 2017 and 2019.Here, we have established input from the party doing development, helping us to carry out careful analysis on which oil company is taking action where, which party is acting where to be able to align our interests and make sure we eliminate all forms of duplication.So, first choice is tied to the interest of the organisation in carrying out development, which is going to be put up in tabular form so that in this regard we can know exactly what or which company is doing well.On our agenda, we are also domesticating oil and gas business in the region. By that, I want you to have confidence. We have several complaints oil companies not carrying out businesses in their location of operation.
Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has said he was shocked when he saw President Muhammadu Buhari in London on Sunday.

He said the president has lost weight.The governor, who along with some All Progressives Congress leaders visited the President on Sunday, said his surprise was because of the rumours and conspiracy theories that had made the rounds regarding President Buharis health.Since May 7 when the President flew to London for medical treatment, he hasnt been seen in public many people claiming his health had declined.Governor Okorocha explained during an appearance on Channels Televisions Politics Today that in Buharis absence, there was a lot of confusion and speculations about his health and it took the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who visited the President on July 11, to reassure Nigerians that the President was in good spirits.Even then, most people didnt believe it. But to my greatest shock, when I arrived in London with the Party Chairman and the governors of Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and the Minister of Transport, we saw a man that was full of humour as usual and we were wondering whether it is the same person that they are talking about, he said.All I can say is that Mr President is in good health, he is not on life support and he will soon be back. And he is not in the hospital. I was thinking I was going to see him in the hospital, but he is not even in the hospital. He was at home relaxing and having a good time.The governor said considering how healthy the President looked, he was surprised he had not already returned to Nigeria.He said, When I made enquiries as to why he is still waiting, why he is still not back home, all I got as an answer is that he is just taking some vitamins to increase his appetite to regain his lost weight.But I think the man is in good spirits and I think the prayers of Nigerians have worked to a great extent and President Buhari is coming back in full force to resume his work. What Nigerians should be talking about now is what should be his next line of action.Asked when the President was likely to return, he said, The Buhari I saw two days ago will be back to Nigeria as soon as possible. I dont think that he will stay longer than necessary, unless for some other reasons. I saw a man that was quite healthy, in high spirits and very sound  except for the fact that he has lost a bit of weight.
For the first time since he returned to London in May on medical vacation, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday spoke on his health.

For the first time since he returned to London in May on medical vacation, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday spoke on his health.He said he was making good progress and would soon return to my duties.His message is contained in a letter to Guinean President Alpha Conde. In the letter, Buhari thanked Conde for last weeks nationwide prayers held in Guinea for his recovery and good health.The July 24 letter, which was given to reporters in Abuja yesterday by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, is a follow-up to President Buharis phone call to Conde, who is the Chairman of the Assemblies of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).The President wrote: I thank you for your kind and thoughtful action in organising nationwide prayers for my good health. It is a gesture that I will forever cherish and treasure.Your Excellency will be pleased to hear that I am making good progress and as soon as doctors advise, I shall return to my duties and continue serving the Nigerian people who elected me and are daily praying for my recovery.In an earlier letter, President Buhari accepted his nomination as leader of the 2018 AU Theme on the Fight Against Corruption. He was nominated by the African leaders at the 29th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 4.Thanking Conde for his kind words and the nomination, the President wrote: I wish to express my readiness to accept this new important role and to reiterate my commitment to contribute towards our collective efforts to strengthen good governance and development on the continent. I, therefore, look forward to working closely with you in the realisation of this objective.Also yesterday, Adesina and the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, explained why another set of governors will meet with the President in London today. With them at the briefing was the SSA on Media and Publicity to the Acting President, Mr Laolu Akande.A delegation of party leaders and governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met with the President at the Nigerian House in London on Sunday.Adesina said: You know that on Sunday there was a major development about the health of Mr. President in which we had pictures from London and details from one of those who saw him, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha.Shehu said the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman and Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari is the leader of the governors delegation.In the delegation are Governors Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Umar Ganduje (Kano), Kassim Shettima (Borno), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).They will leave by tonight (last night) and arrive in the United Kingdom (UK) early tomorrow (today). They will have a 3pm meeting tomorrow (today) with the president, he said.He said Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, who has been vocal on the issue, was not part of the delegation becauase the selection was made by the governors forum and you will see that the delegation is headed by Governor Yari, who is chairman of that forum. So that question should go to the forum.On the need for another delegation after the APC delegation said the president was recuperating fast and would soon return home, Adesina said: It should be the other way. Instead of being curious it should be the right time for the visit. When somebody has recovered or something or the other happened, it is in our culture for us to visit such a person.So, this is the right time because the news is that he is recovering and recovering well. Im sure you are aware of the letter he just wrote to the African Union Chairman when he told him that he is making very good progress. So, this is the proper time for him to receive delegations rather than when he was indisposed, he said.He said ministers-designate would soon be sworn in.Adesina insisted that he could not give a timeline on the Presidents return. The information at our disposal is that the President will return as soon as his doctors give him the go ahead.In terms of whether there will be a cabinet shake-up, the President is the head of the government and it is his prerogative, so nobody can speak for him on that.Asked why the President didnt make a broadcast to Nigerians, Adesina said: It is a question of what he prefers and this is what he prefers for now. He would rather receive that delegation and that is what is happening. If the President opts for address option, he will do it.Shehu added: The visit is a goodwill visit and there is nothing more than that. I believe Nigerians in various positions have been yearning to go and meet the President at some point, this obviously was not permitted.But given the change in circumstances, you can see that is coming from London itself and from the President. As a cultural people, we visit people leaving hospital and Im sure the President himself will be delighted to see people from the six geo-political zones coming to convey the goodwill of Nigerians.On why the Presidents media team was not part of the delegation, Shehu said presidential cameraman Bayo Omoboriwo was on the trip which is more important than me being there.They say a picture conveys more than a thousand words, Bayo will be there and I think it will be more beneficial to Nigerians than if the Special Adviser was on that trip without a cameraman, he said, adding, as to who is sponsoring, I dont have any information on that.
Monaco vice-president, Vadim Vasilyev, has told Arsenal that midfielder Thomas Lemar is not for sale.The Gunners have been chasing the player all summer, but the Ligue 1 champions have made it clear he will not leave before the end of the summer transfer window.I will address speculation relating to the case of Thomas Lemar. He is staying with us, Vasilyev said.He is an immense talent and is essential for the team.We have kept all of the key players that we intended to keep.Vasilyev also addressed speculation regarding the future of Fabinho, who had been linked with Manchester United earlier in the transfer window.Fabinho stays, he is an essential player in the midfield, he said.
A man accused of raping and getting an 11-year-old girl pregnant claims she may have sexually assaulted him by having sex with him when he was asleep.Justin Armstrong is accused of abusing the girl for 18 months before she eventually confided in one of her mothers friends.The 38-year-old man was arrested Friday, two weeks after tests showed the youngster was four months pregnant.Prosecutors at Springfield District Court said Armstrong repeatedly told the victim he would be arrested if she told anyone, but she finally broke down and told of the alleged abuse.The pregnancy was aborted five days later and a DNA examination was carried out on the foetal tissue, but testing has not been completed.Defense lawyer, Anna-Marie Puryear, said the case hinges on the outcome of the DNA test results.When the defendant was told the youngster was pregnant, he claimed she may have raped him while he slept, Assistant District Attorney Jill OConnor said.Armstrong, of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, denied having sex with the girl and told police she claimed a younger relative had been sexually abusing her for years, according to the Republican newspaper.The defedndant has voluntarily submitted a DNA sample and is cooperating with police, his lawyer, Anna-Marie Puryear, told the court.Judge Robert Murphy set bail at $50,000.Armstrong is due to appear in court again on August 24.
Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole have neutralised about eight suspected female suicide bombers in the last one week, Deputy Director, Arm...

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole have neutralised about eight suspected female suicide bombers in the last one week, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Lt.-Col. Kingsley Samuel said yesterday.In a statement, Col. Samuel said the bombers were unleashed by remnants of desperate Boko Haram terrorists trying to cause mayhem in the region.The statement reads: Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, in the past few days, intensified efforts towards checkmating suicide bombings in Borno State.The troops succeeded in foiling suicide bomb attacks by neutralising not less than eight female bombers who were unleashed by remnants of desperate insurgents.Col. Samuel said one of the suspects was neutralised last Sunday by troops of 251 Battalion, 7 Division Garrison, while trying to infiltrate the Dalori Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.The bomber, who was sighted by vigilant sentries, refused several warnings to halt when challenged. Subsequently, she was neutralised, which detonated her explosive vest, killing only her.The blast, however, left a hole on the camps fence, he added.The spokesman said troops were maintaining strict vigilance in the state to forestall any breach of security.According to him, on July 16, two suspected female suicide bombers trying to infiltrate military locations at Mammanti village, about 10.15pm, were neutralised.One suspected female suicide bomber, who attempted to infiltrate a location between Cimari and No-Mans-Land, was neutralised about 2am on July 17.On July 18, about 10pm, vigilant troops neutralised a suspected suicide bomber who was attempting to infiltrate a location at Dala village, along Maiduguri/Damboa road.On July 22, troops neutralised three female suicide bombers in Kawuri, Konduga Local Government of Borno State, he added.Col. Samuel attributed the successes to active collaboration with other security agencies.The successes were made possible with the active collaboration of the police, Department of State Services (DSS), the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), vigilantes and other security agencies.
Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has denied suggestions a deal has been agreed with Real Madrid or any side for Kylian Mbappe.The 18-year-old striker is in hot demand following his stunning breakthrough season in France.Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have all been linked with Mbappe.But Madrid has appeared his most likely destination should he leave Monaco this summer.Bernardo Silva and Tiemoue Bakayoko have already left for City and Chelsea respectively, and Benjamin Mendy has also departed for the Etihad.However, Monaco are holding firm on their other stars.Reports in Spain this week claimed Madrid had agreed a 161million deal for Mbappe.And Pep Guardiola has refused to rule out City's interest in signing the teenager.But Vasilyev says contract talks are now underway as they look to tie down Mbappe and stave off interest."I will answer only one question," Vasilyev said."I read stuff in the press. I assure you that today we have no agreement with Real Madrid or any other club."We remain on the same objective."We are discussing an extension, which must be in the economic model of our club. I hope we can get there."This is an important decision, especially for Kylian. Do not rush. If he does not prolong, must he go? No."He is a player that everyone wants, but if he stays next season, everyone will still be interested. There is no link."
TERRACE, British Columbia, July 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After years of growing opposition and pending legal challenges, todays announcement from Petronas not to move forward with their Pacific Northwest (PNW) LNG facility on Lelu Island is a great victory for the Skeenas wild salmon, and BCs commitment to meet the challenge of climate change.



When we have something in common like wild salmon, it binds all the peoples of the Skeena together to protect salmon for everyone, especially future generations, said Chief Namoks of the Wetsuweten.

For Petronas to pull out and walk away, it makes their investors realize the futility of such a disastrous proposed project. Wild salmon is the glue that holds all of us together in commonality.

Dr. Jim Pojar, one of Canadas greatest naturalists added, From the outset, PNW LNG has been the poster child for everything thats wrong with Canadas environmental review process.

The provincial and federal governments inability to effectively review massive resource projects like PNW LNG, and the pending lawsuits, shine a spotlight on the inadequacies of CEAA 2012 and why it needs to be overhauled and replaced with strengthened environmental assessments, supported by sound, independent science.

The project was doomed from the beginning due to the lack of up front consultations with affected Indigenous communities and by selecting the worst possible location for a project of this magnitude, said Greg Knox, Executive Director of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust.

This proves how broken Canadas environment assessment process is and why it is imperative that the federal government honours its election promise to institute an environmental review process that is based on peer reviewed evidence and independent science and replace CEAA 2012 immediately, Knox said.

Although this is a welcome announcement, SkeenaWild remains fully committed to pursuing our legal challenge of PNW LNG to ensure the flawed federal approval of the project is quashed.
Founder of Kings of Kings Deliverance Ministry, Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi has claimed that God revealed to him that the Acting President, Y...

Founder of Kings of Kings Deliverance Ministry, Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi has claimed that God revealed to him that the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo will soon be sworn-in as the substantive President of Nigeria.

Chukwudi, who made the disclosure while addressing journalists in Ulepa Ntezi, Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi State said Osinbajo can only last till 2019 as he would face serious battle from dark forces who will ensure he leaves office.

The prophet maintained that Osinbajos swearing-in will be soon.

He also claimed that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has been anointed to take over from Osinbajo in 2019.

According to Chukwudi, I saw Buhari saying that he is no more in charge. Then I saw Osinbajo being sworn in. But the opposition is just too much.

He can only last till 2019. He should battle very well not to be removed from office before then. This is not the first time I am saying that Buhari will not pilot Nigeria into 2019, and this is not the first time I am being shown Atiku as the next president.

Its over three years now that Atiku was first reveled to me.

Buhari has handed over power spiritually to Osinbajo. He cannot return to power, in case anyone is expecting him. So says the Lord, Onye Ruo Uka Ohu Nanya.

This is coming at the time when Buhari, who has been on medical vacation in London, yesterday disclosed that he is making good progress health wise and would return to the country when he was cleared by his doctors.
A team of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force from Force Headquarters, Abuja, have arrested the Paramount Ruler...

A team of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force from Force Headquarters, Abuja, have arrested the Paramount Ruler of Yakurr local government area and the Obol Lopon of Ugep, Obol Ofem Ubana.

It was gathered that SARS team stormed the palace of the Obol Lopon on Tuesday at about 12 noon and arrested Obol Ofem Ubana. This led to a temporary face-off between the youths and the Policemen who had attempted to stop the arrest.

The suspect was consequently taken to Abuja, but a source from the Police Headquarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar denied that the Monarch was taken to Abuja but was taken to the Police Headquarters Diamond Calabar.

He is being kept at the Police Headquarters, Diamond Hill Calabar, Cross River State, the source told DAILY POST in Calabar. The Obol Lopons arrest and questioning, our investigations revealed were not unconnected with the recent gangster activities in the community.

It would be recalled that the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on prosecution, Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla had petitioned the Inspector General of Police and other relevant authorities over the killing of his nephew, Jude Iroegbu in a cult war in the area. The suspect who killed Ireoegbu was alleged to have been arrested on Monday in Akwa Ibom state.

One of the youths who pleaded that his name should not be mentioned said that Police came to invite Obol Lopon to Abuja for investigation over the death of Barrister Okoi Obono-Oblas nephew who died as a Viking cult member.

Ojor of Ijom ward that shot Obono-Oblas nephew was arrested yesterday in a bank in Akwa Ibom. So what does he still want from our Obol Lopon? We must not allow them to arrest our Obol Lopon.

They should have stopped their brother from being a cult member when he was alive. All we need now is peace in our dear Ugep land, our new yam festival is at hand, he said.

It was be recalled that Ugep started boiling earlier in the year when the Black Axe confraternity accused the Vikings confraternity of killing its member.

The Vikings later claimed to have visited a voodoo priest who said that the Black Axe had killed and hidden the corpse of their member during an initiation but upon reaching the gate of the palace of the Obol Lopon to tell him their findings, they were engaged in a melee with Obol Lopons bodyguards whom they accused of been members of the black Axe confraternity.

The melee degenerated into a gangster war which led to the killing of Mr. Jude with Mr. Obla listing the names of suspected gangsters who killed and are accomplices to the murder of his nephew, Mr. Jude.

The Obols cabinet were unhappy with Mr. Oblas activities and asked him to apologise, but he refused. Obol Ofem had earlier in the year declared war on gangstars and said that his leadership will not condone any form of gangstarism.

When DAILY POST contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Ms Irene Ugbo, she confirmed the arrest of the Paramount Ruler and Obol Lopon of Ugep, Obol Ofem Ubana, explaining that the Monarch was arrested in connection with cult activities in Ugep, in Yakurr local government area of the state.

She said the suspect was still in Calabar as investigations continues, If any matter is going to Abuja, it must pass through the state headquarters of the Nigeria Police and if there is any need to take it to Abuja we shall look into it in that perspective but for now the suspect is with us.

Speaking further, she said that the suspect was alleged to have been engineering cult practices in Ugep axis of Yakurr local government area of the state. He was said to have given arms and ammunition to youths to embarked on cult activities. However, she noted that investigations was on going and shortly, he will be charge to court on conclusion of investigations, but for now, he is with us, she stated.
The United States of America has given the details of how a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, alleged...

The United States of America has given the details of how a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly laundered about $144m, using part of the funds to purchase a yacht, landed properties, furniture and artworks.According to the US, while she held sway as the Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani, who was otherwise known as the Madam or Madam D, led a lavish and privileged lifestyle, spending more than one million dollars on furniture, artwork, and other furnishings purchased within the Southern District of Texas, and shipped, in part, to London and Abuja, Nigeria.These were contained in a 91-page verified complaint filed by the US Government before the US District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where it is seeking an order to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m linked to Diezani.The US, in the verified complaint signed by a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Elizabeth Crispino, said Diezani allegedly acquired the assets with kickbacks from an international conspiracy to obtain lucrative business opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.The assets, the US stated, were acquired between April 2010 and May 2015 when Diezani was overseeing Nigerias state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.Among the properties, which the US now seeks to be forfeited, are a 65-metre motor yacht, named M/Y Galactica Star; two properties known as 807 and 815 Cima Del Mundo Road, Montecito, Calif; as well as funds in a couple of companies.The US stated that Diezani, with the help of and in conspiracy with two Nigerian businessmen, Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, laundered the proceeds of the illicit business opportunities into and through the United States.In the court processes obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the US detailed, using tables, the living and lifestyle expenses for Alison-Madueke.One table, tagged, Rental Payments, showed how Aluko and his company, Tracon Investments Limited, helped Diezani to make a total of at least 537,922 in rental payments for two central London residences both located at 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, where Diezani and her mother stayed between August 2011 and January 2014.Another table, tagged, Transportation Services, showed how Aluko and his beneficially-owned company, TENKA, helped Diezani to make at least 393,274.32 in payments to a car hire company, the Chauffeur Company, while Omokore and his own company, Energy Property Development Ltd., also paid at least 4,424.40 to the Chauffeur Company to convey Diezani and her family about the UK between December 2012 through at least July 2014.The FBI agent, Crispino, stated, Upon information and belief, the above payments were made corruptly by, on behalf of, or at the direction of Aluko and Omokore for the benefit of Alison-Madueke and/or her family, in return for Alison-Maduekes having improperly influenced the award of the Forcados SAAs to AEDC and in anticipation of or in return for her improperly influencing the award of the Brass SAA.In particular, the director of the Chauffeur Company has stated that in or around June 2014, he was assaulted in the hallway outside of Alison-Maduekes known residence at Flat 19, 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, by two men known by the director to be Alison-Maduekes associates.This assault occurred as the director of the Chauffeur Company was attempting to deliver a letter concerning approximately 224,000 in unpaid services provided by his company to Alison-Madueke.The director of the Chauffeur Company has further stated that, upon hearing the commotion, Alison-Madueke herself appeared and instructed her associates to settle the unpaid bill.As the preceding table indicates, roughly one month after the hallway assault, TENKA paid a total of 135,361.48 to the Chauffeur Company.Crispino said Diezanis assets were liable to being forfeited under 18 U.S.C.   981(a)(1)(A) and 981(a)(1)(C), as they were derived from, or traceable to the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, as that term is defined in 18 U.S.C.  1956(c)(7), or a conspiracy to commit specified unlawful activity, and as property involved in money laundering violations of 18 U.S.C.  1956 and 1957.Crispino stated that Section 1956(a)(2) prohibits transferring funds known to be the proceeds of unlawful activity from a place outside the United States to a place in the United States, with knowledge that the transfer is designed in whole or in part to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, including the proceeds of an offense against a foreign nation involving bribery of a public official, or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds by or for the benefit of a public official.
Chairman Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, has advocated, stiff punishment for counsel, parti...

Chairman Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, has advocated, stiff punishment for counsel, particularly Senior Advocates, who have turned obstruction and frustration of proceedings on high-profile corruption cases into an art.

Sagay said such punishment for SANs must include denial of right of appearance in such high profile and grand corruption cases.

Sagay said this on Wednesday at Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)s latest media roundtable titled: Strategies and Approaches for the Successful Completion and Effective Prosecution of Abandoned and Unresolved High Profile Cases of Corruption in Nigeria; Combating Grand Corruption and Impunity in Nigeria.

In his paper, Sagay also urged prosecuting counsel in grand corruption cases to apply to reinstate any case struck out for want of prosecution. In cases requiring appeal, the authorities must apply for leave to appeal out of time, and prepare evidence and legal arguments thoroughly, including by inviting consultants to advise.





According to Sagay, prosecuting authorities must Insist on full application of Sections 306 and 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, namely: No stay of proceedings under any circumstances  S. 306. Any preliminary objection must be taken together with the substantive issue  S. 396(2), and hearings shall be on a daily basis, but in exceptional cases, adjournments not to be in excess of 14 working day, may be granted. Such adjournments not to exceed 5 in any proceedings  S. 396 (3) and (4).

Sagay also recommended that, A High Court Judge who is elevated whilst presiding over a criminal case, should be allowed to conclude the case without any effect on his new status. The Head of various Courts, namely Chief Justice of Nigeria; President, Court of Appeal; Chief Judge of the Federal High Court; and Chief Judges of State High Courts, should be sensitized about the very critical nature of the fight against high-level official corruption to Nigerias development and the welfare of its peoples.

Pending the establishment of a Special Crimes Court for the whole country, Criminal Divisions should be created in the Federal and State High Courts. Specially vetted and selected Judges, known for integrity and self-discipline should be posted to man such Courts.





It is very important to deploy the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee and Civil Society Groups to monitor all high profile corruption cases on a day to day basis (i) to ensure that corruption cases are heard speedily and in full compliance with Sections 306 and 396 of the ACJA, (ii) to report non-compliance by any Judge to the National Judicial Council (NJC).

All suspected proceeds of crime should be placed under temporary forfeiture during the trial of a high-profile person. Prosecuting authorities should resort to Non-Conviction Based Asset forfeiture, where proof beyond reasonable doubt is difficult to achieve because of technicalities. Prosecuting authorities should also consider resorting frequently to the Plea Bargaining Provisions of ACJA in order to save time and state resources.

Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Ogun State Mr. Olumide Ayeni who chaired the event said, Any person who loves this society will welcome and attend events of this nature. It is a very important subject we are here to discuss, to find ways of addressing the cankerworm that has evaded our society.





Mr. G.K Latona Head of Legal, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) representing EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu said, We are not working at cross purposes with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation; we are cooperating with them. We have a wide range of corruption cases in concert with state agencies.

The Attorney General Office has the right to initiate new high-profile corruption cases and investigate it themselves without waiting for cases initiated by the EFCC. We are also working on best practices manuals for the prosecutors and investigators If you want a corrupt free society, we must all work towards it.
Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, has advised governors in the country to stop pilfering from the public treasury with the aim of accumulati...

Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, has advised governors in the country to stop pilfering from the public treasury with the aim of accumulating wealth.Instead, he urged them to focus on enhancing the well-being of the masses.The governor gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2017 graduation of Internally Displaced Girls under the Organisation of Female Students Scholarship Scheme.The 73 graduating girls were sponsored by the Girl Child Concern (GCC), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the Borno Government, and were selected in from secondary schools in five Northern states.The most important yard stick has to do with the quality of governance; there is more to leadership than primitive capital accumulation.No matter how much you accumulate beyond a certain point, its just a number, the governor said.He said that unless something was done fast to address the plight of the common man, what awaits the country will be worse than the Boko Haram insurgency.According to him, this is violence that cannot be separated from poverty, and a hopeless, jobless, ill-educated and ill-paid young man is the most dangerous.Shettima stated that it was the responsibility of governors to enthrone good governance by wearing their thinking caps and working for the people.He, therefore, stressed the need for governors to create more jobs, invest in education and create work space and work stations for the next generation of youths.He said that there was nothing special about oil as it would soon go into extinction, noting that human resources was the most important and should be developed.The governor, however, said that there was need for Nigerians to unite to fight the countrys common challenges.He noted that women and children bore the brunt of insurgency, adding that the Boko Haram sect had so far created 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans in the state.This, he said, was according to World Bank, European Union and the Presidencys official figures.These are official figures, probably the unofficial figure may be twice this number.The truth is that we either take care of these orphans or 10 years to fifteen years from now, they will be the monsters that will drive us out of this land, he said.According to the governor, some elite and political bigwigs are already afraid of visiting rural areas to meet with common men for fear of being molested.He added that there was presently a palpable content against the elite glaring on the faces of most common men.He decried the state of public schools in the country, particularly in the North, saying that security and feeding in most of the schools was nothing to write home about.Shettima stressed that unless the countrys leadership began to think toward improving the lot of the common man and working for the people, the situation would deteriorate.Earlier, Dr Mairo Mandara, Executive Director of the GCC, said the girls were another success story of the countrys fight against insurgency.This, she said, was so because the girls dared where others failed and got what others were abducted for.Mandara described the girls as a cohort of brave, fearless, active and informed girl mentors empowered with life skills who would encourage others to remain in school.She added that the centre had concluded plans to establish a Girls Academy in Borno with learning activities taking off in September, 2017.Mandara said that GCC was also setting up a skills acquisition centre for teaching construction skills in collaboration with King Muhammad VI of Morocco.She said that Borno Government had already provided a land for the project, adding that discussions for the setting up of the centre had reached advanced stage.Most of the girls who spoke to NAN expressed happiness on their freedom and graduation and prayed to God to bless the GCC and Borno Government.(NAN)
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has said that there are no killer antimalarial medicines in circulation in the country.NAFDACs Acting Director-General, Dr. Yetunde Oni, at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, also urged Nigerians not to panic over the news of banned anti-malarial drugs been sold in the country.The Senate had launched a probe into the sale of 42 banned antimalarials in the country last week, a development that has caused panic among Nigerians.Oni, who said the public should disregard what she called the misinformation, stated that the approved malaria treatment in the country were the artemisinin combination therapy.We want to correct the news that 42 banned anti-malarial medicines are still circulating in the country. The allegedly banned antimalarial medicines are oral immunotherapies containing single active pharmaceutical ingredients that have been banned since 2005, she stated.She, however, noted that the anti-malarial medications that Nigerians needed to avoid were those that had no authentication system.Oni said, We recommend that you do not buy any anti-malarial drug that does not have the scratch and text technique. Every antimalarial should have an authentication system so that consumers can confirm if they have bought a genuine drug or not.She added that the agency had deployed a mobile application on medicine packages that would allow users to check the status of their products on their phones.Meanwhile, the Federal Government has also backed the Senates probe of banned antimalarials by the European Union, as sold in the country.The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said this during an interview with one of our correspondents on Tuesday.Adewole said though the Federal Government had placed a ban on all monotherapy antimalarials , some unscrupulous businessmen might devise means of importing them into the country, hence the need to be proactive.He said, We have actually placed those drugs on ban for many years because they are monotheraphies that are no longer relevant in the treatment of malaria. They are not being sold legally to the best of my knowledge but that does not mean they cannot be smuggled in. They are not approved.We have also said no to chloroquine. We will not give approval for such drugs to be imported into Nigeria and if NAFDAC sees such, they will be seized. So, we have no problem. The Senate is reinforcing what we are doing and we welcome their support.The minister, however, urged Nigerians to be discerning when buying malaria drugs as some generic drugs like Halfan have both monotherapy and combination formulas.
The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impose tough new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, a move that ...

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impose tough new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, a move that will antagonize the Kremlin as well as European nations fearing economic ramifications.The bill, which passed 419 to three, is a sanctions package that tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe, House Speaker Paul Ryan said after the vote.The measure now heads to the Senate, where there is support for sanctions but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.The legislation is the result of a congressional compromise reached last weekend and is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and Russias annexation of Crimea.Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has invaded its neighbor Ukraine, seizing its territory and destabilizing its government, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said in applauding passage.Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression.But the bill could end up penalizing European firms that contribute to the development of Russias energy sector.New sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests, are also included in the bill.Key among the provisions is one that handcuffs the US president by complicating any of the leaders unilateral efforts to ease penalties against Moscow in the future  effectively placing him under Congresss watch.Trump has faced accusations that his administration had sought to reassure Moscow that sanctions imposed near the end of the Obama administration could be lifted under a President Trump.Initially, Trump resisted the legislation. But faced with near-total consensus among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the White House blinked, but did not say directly that the billionaire president would sign it into law.Hes going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday on Air Force One. Veto likely not effective In mid-June, the Senate voted 98-2 in favor of tough sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, but the text stalled in the House.With the North Korea sanctions now included, the new measure would need to be passed by the Senate before heading to the presidents desk, likely before summer break begins in mid-August.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he wants the new measure passed and sent to Trumps desk without delay.US lawmakers, including Republican leaders, have remained wary of the intentions of the billionaire businessman-turned-president  who has called for better relations with Moscow  regarding a relaxation of pressure on Putin.But even if Trump were to veto the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two-thirds majority in each chamber. Russia calls sanctions counterproductive The Kremlin warned that fresh sanctions on Russia would adversely affect both sides.We consider such a continuation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive and harmful to the interests of both countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.From Paris to Berlin, the sanctions bill was seen as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupts a carefully crafted order.To date, sanctions against Moscow have been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic, to maintain a united front.European Union member states were due to meet Wednesday and discuss the issue  and a possible response.Several European nations, including Germany, are livid because the new law would allow punishing companies working on pipelines from Russia, for example by limiting their access to US banks.The provision could theoretically pave the way for sanctions against European partners in Nord Stream 2, a project to build a pipeline carrying Russian gas across the Baltic that could boost supplies to Germany from 2019.To date, Washington and Brussels had agreed that sanctions would not affect Europes gas supply.In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.
Lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Shehu Sani, has opined that agitations across the country would go into e...

Lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Shehu Sani, has opined that agitations across the country would go into extinction when states improve on their Internally Generated Revenues, IGR, and depend less on the monthly Federal allocations.

Sani, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign debts, said this on Tuesday when some State Commissioners of Finance came before his committee.

The Commissioner for Finance appeared before Sani-led committee to defend their various loan facilities which they seek to obtain from some international finance agencies like the World Bank and the Islamic Bank.

According to Sani, We need to sit up in terms of knowing fully that there is a cloud gathering in the sky, the agitations going in some states should tell us that we need to brace ourselves to what is ahead

If we reach the point Where IGR in some state gets to One billion most of these issues will disappear

Sani also frowned at a situation where the, healthiness in some States is attached to what comes from Abuja.

The Kaduna-born lawmaker also lamented the failure of some states to repay foreign loans they obtained.
Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima has begged governors in the country to stop milking the public treasury dry.

Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima has begged governors in the country to stop milking the public treasury dry.

The governor gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2017 graduation of Internally Displaced Girls under the Organisation of Female Students Scholarship Scheme.

The most important yard stick has to do with the quality of governance; there is more to leadership than primitive capital accumulation.

No matter how much you accumulate beyond a certain point, its just a number, the governor said.

According to him, violence cannot be separated from poverty, and a hopeless, jobless, ill-educated and ill-paid young man is the most dangerous.

Shettima stated that it was the responsibility of governors to enthrone good governance by wearing their thinking caps and working for the people.

He, therefore, stressed the need for governors to create more jobs, invest in education and create work space and work stations for the next generation of youths.

He noted that women and children bore the brunt of insurgency, adding that the Boko Haram sect had so far created 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans in the state.

These are official figures, probably the unofficial figure may be twice this number.

The truth is that we either take care of these orphans or 10 years to fifteen years from now, they will be the monsters that will drive us out of this land, he said.

According to the governor, some elite and political bigwigs were already afraid of visiting rural areas to meet with common men for fear of being molested.
The Presidency, on Tuesday, said President Muhammadu Buhari had initially barred politicians and other individuals from visiting him in London, the United Kingdom, where he has been receiving medical attention since May 7.It attributed the Presidents change of mind to what it called the change in circumstances.It said this was the proper time for him to receive delegations rather than when he was indisposed.READ: Buhari, govs breakfast photograph fake, says Fani-KayodeThe Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, disclosed this to State House correspondents at a press conference at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.They addressed journalists alongside the Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande.They had confirmed The PUNCHs Tuesday lead story that some state governors, drawn from both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, would visit Buhari in London.When asked specifically to give the mission of the state governors, who will be meeting with Buhari on Wednesday (today), Shehu said, The visit is a goodwill visit and there is nothing more than that.I believe Nigerians in various positions have yearned to go and meet the President and at some point, this obviously has not been permitted.But given the change in circumstances, you can see that it is coming from London itself and the President is welcoming it.It is a goodwill visit. As a cultural people, we visit people leaving hospital and I am sure the President himself will be delighted to see people coming from the six geopolitical zones to convey the goodwill of Nigerians.Shehu said the visiting team would be led by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and the Zamfara State Governor, Abdulazeez Yari.He listed other members of the delegation to include Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Umar Ganduje (Kano); Kashim Shettima (Borno); Samuel Ortom (Benue); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).The presidential spokesman said the delegation would leave Nigeria on Tuesday night, arrive in London early on Wednesday (today) and meet the President by 3pm.When asked why the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, a strong critic of Buhari, was not included in the delegation, Adesina said the question should be directed to the NGF that did the selection.When also asked why the President preferred such visits to broadcasting a message to Nigerians, Adesina said that was Buharis choice.It is a question of what he (the President) prefers and this is what he prefers for now. He would rather receive that delegation and that is what is happening. If the President opts for address, he will do it, he said.When asked why members of the Presidents Media team were not part of the delegation, Shehu said the Presidents Personal Photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, would be part of the delegation.They say a picture conveys more than a thousand words. Bayo will be there and I think it will be more beneficial to Nigerians than if the Special Adviser was on that trip without a cameraman, he stated.When again asked why this delegation will be going when those who met with the President on Sunday were state governors, Shehu said, You will notice that those that went at the weekend are members of the All Progressives Congress.So, those who are going now are on a broader platform, which is the Nigeria Governors Forum. As to who is sponsoring, I dont have any information on that, he said.Adesina also justified the visits at a time when the President is said to be recuperating.He said, It is the right time for the visit like Mallam Garba said earlier. When somebody has recovered or something or the other happened, it is in our culture for us to visit such a person.So, this is the right time because the news is that he is recovering and recovering well.When again asked the specific time Buhari would return and if there would be cabinet reshuffle on his return, Adesina said, That (the Presidents date) already is in public domain. He will come back when the doctors certify.It is in the letter he wrote to the AU chairman which was made public this afternoon. He said he was just waiting for his doctors to tell him all is well and then he will return home.In terms of whether there will be a shake-up of government or not, the President is the head of the government and is his prerogative; so nobody can speak for him on that.
Las Vegas, NV, July 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- South American Gold Corp (OTC: SAGD), is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of the subscription based automotive buyers education program ASK A.B.E.. ASK A.B.E. will be part of the companies to be spun off by SAGD whereby each SAGD shareholder will also receive shares in the new spin off.



ASK A.B.E. is a subscription based automotive buyer education program to educate consumers on consumer rights, legal terms, Federal and State laws, financing rights, and optional automotive products. ASK A.B.E. was developed on the basis that the automotive dealers spend thousands of dollars per year on the training of its staff to create the highest gross profits on its sales while attempting to stay State and Federally compliant. ASK A.B.E. is set to be the mirror image of these dealership training programs. ASK A.B.E. shall provide consumers with this same training via web modules to better educate them on the real rights and laws of automotive consumer purchases.



Ask A.B.E., will launch into the market as a subscription based automotive educational program marketed via both web and television infomercials, while growing from just a consumer application to a complete consumer and dealer portal. The goal of the project is to create an authorized dealer network, allowing consumers to receive ongoing discounts at authorized dealers within their area, once the education course is completed. Ask A.B.Es authorized dealer network will generate revenue through referrals, advertising, and data base marketing for automotive dealers, credit monitoring companies, and finance companies; in specified geographical marketing areas.



The automotive market is nothing new to the companys management team, especially to the President of the Company, David Reeves. Mr. Reeves career is full of successful positions within the automotive industry, and it is the plan of the company to utilize his connections to start the ground work for the authorized dealer network. Mr. Reeves, connections both personally and professionally, include some of the largest automotive dealers and management at the factory level.



The creator of ASK A.B.E., Jay Matthews, has an extensive automotive career, consisting of Retail Management experience and as a consultant for Retail Development at the factory level. Mr. Matthews connects will assist in the growth and value of the dealer network.



This acquisition also includes the web domain, CarRights.com, to launch this product and to provide a one-stop educational web portal for consumers to utilize prior to their next automotive purchase. The company has assembled a team of automotive professional to provide growth of ASK A.B.E. and CarRights.com. Phase 1 of CarRights.com is live and the fully interactive automotive site is in development for launch.



About South American Gold Corp:



South American Gold Corp is a publicly traded company on the OTC under the symbol SAGD, focused on enhancing shareholder value by acquiring and operating undervalued assets.



For more information:



Corporate Website: www.sagdcorp.co



Media contact: info@sagdcorp.co



General contact: info@sagdcorp.co



Disclaimer: This release contains forward-looking statements that are based on beliefs of South American Gold Corp. management and reflect South American Gold Corp.'s current expectations as contemplated under section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. When we use in this release the words "estimate," "project," "looks," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "plan," "predict," "may," "should," "will," "can," the negative of these words, or such other variations thereon, or comparable terminology, are all intended to identify forward looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of South America Gold Corp. with respect to future events based on currently available information and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, risks and uncertainties pertaining to development of mining properties, changes in economic conditions and other risks, uncertainties and factors, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievement expressed or implied by such forward looking statements to differ materially from the forward looking statements. The information contained in this press release is historical in nature, has not been updated, and is current only to the date shown in this press release. This information may no longer be accurate and therefore you should not rely on the information contained in this press release. To the extent permitted by law, South American Gold Corp. and its employees, agents and consultants exclude all liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of, or reliance on, any such information, whether or not caused by any negligent act or omission. This press release may incorporate by reference the Company's reports and other filings. Investors are encouraged to review all filings. There is no assurance South American Gold Corp. will identify projects of merit or if it will have sufficient financing to implement its business plan. There is no assurance that the Company's due diligence on the potential projects and/or acquisitions will be favorable nor that definitive terms can be negotiated. Investors should consult their financial advisor before making an investment in a company.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has declared that the bad governance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has left the country div...

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has declared that the bad governance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has left the country divided. Speaking while launching the reconstruction/rehabilitation of Abuloma, Fimie, Ozuboko and Amadi-Ama community roads in Port Harcourt yesterday, Wike said: Nigeria is divided because of the APC leadership style.Wherever you go today in this country, there is one problem or the other. Is that how Nigerians want it? Certainly not. We need people who will promote peace through quality leadership.The change they said they are bringing is fake change. No person resident in Rivers State who sees what we are suffering from the APC Federal Government will ever support APC.But responding, APCs State Publicity Secretary Chris Finebone said Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in the state were confused.Finebone said:  The bravado you see in Wike and PDP leaders will pale into insignificance as 2019 approaches. Their sins will seal their lips before Nigerians. They will be free but unable to talk; they will be free but unable to campaign. The wrong they have done will go after them.The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) not to honour Governor Nyesom Wikes invitation to inaugurate projects in Rivers State tomorrow.It noted that Wike is capitalising on Prof. Osinbajos joke during his earlier visit to Rivers to inaugurate projects when he referred to the governor as Mr. Project, to castigate, taunt, ridicule, insult and abuse leaders and members of the ruling APC.Rivers APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, yesterday in Port Harcourt, declared that Wike and his government did not deserve the Acting Presidents attention.The main opposition APC in Rivers said: The feedback we are getting from our numerous members in Rivers State is that Wike has invited the Acting President to commission some low-profile projects, just to score cheap political points.Of concern to us is the fact that the projects are manifestly demeaning for a President to travel more than a thousand kilometres to inaugurate.We are of the strong opinion that the Acting President should either reject or decline the invitation. Wike cannot always resort to using APC leaders to ridicule APC members in Rivers State.The reference to the Rivers governor as Mr. Project, jokingly made by the Acting President the last time he was in Rivers State is still being used by Wike to taunt, ridicule and insult APC and its members in Rivers State to this day.We cannot encourage him (Wike) with further materials to continue his anti-APC propaganda against us, in addition to many of our members being gruesomely killed and beheaded in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area and other councils in Rivers State by the killer gangs that Wike activated for the 2015 elections.The Rivers governor, at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Monday, while receiving Anglican bishops of Province of the Niger Delta, said Prof. Osinbajo would inaugurate on Thursday, key projects executed by his administration.The projects, according to Wike, include Chokocho-Umuechem-Ozuzu Road in Etche LGA, IgboEtche-Chokocho-Rumuokwurusi Interchange Road, Rukpokwu Market Junction to Aluu Road in Obio/Akpor council, Rumuokoro Market and Park in Obio/Akpor council and Ogbunabali Internal Roads in Port Harcourt City council.Wike said: As far as God has given us the opportunity to serve the state, we must continue to partner the church. It is by Gods grace that we are here. We will do everything to support the church.Archbishop of Anglican Niger Delta Province, Most Rev. Ignatius Kattey, earlier in his remarks, stated that the Rivers governor had laid the foundation for the continuous development of Rivers State.Kattey urged other leaders to come to Rivers to witness the rapid development taking place under Wikes leadership.
English French Dutch

Today Ageas announces it has reached an agreement with BNP Paribas Cardif to sell its 50% + 1 share in the share capital of Cargeas Assicurazioni (CARGEAS), its Italian Non-Life operations.

The divestment of the Italian activities, where Ageas only had a limited market share in a mature market, is in line with Ageas's strategy to concentrate its efforts on further developing businesses where it holds stronger positions or where growth prospects are better. The sale also offered an opportunity to crystallise the value that has been created in the past years.

Ageas entered the Italian Non-Life insurance market in 2009, in partnership with BNP Paribas Cardif, acquiring 50%+1 share of UBI Assicurazioni (UBIA) from UBI Banca, while establishing a long term distribution agreement with UBI Banca.

In 2014, Ageas and BNP Paribas Cardif acquired UBI Banca's remaining 50% - 1 share in the share capital of UBIA, with Ageas holding 50% + 1 share, and BNP Paribas Cardif 50% - 1 share in the new joint venture.

The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close before the end of 2017. The divestment is expected to generate a capital gain of approximately EUR 75 million for Ageas.

Commenting on the transaction, Bart De Smet, CEO of Ageas, says: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the management team, staff, and our partners for their hard work and valuable contribution over the past 8 years. We believe CARGEAS will be in good hands to pursue its activities to the benefit of all its stakeholders."

Ageas is a listed international insurance Group with a heritage spanning 190 years. It offers Retail and Business customers Life and Non-Life insurance products designed to suit their specific needs, today and tomorrow. As one of Europe's larger insurance companies, Ageas concentrates its activities in Europe and Asia, which together make up the major part of the global insurance market. It operates successful insurance businesses in Belgium, the UK, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, China, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, and the Philippines through a combination of wholly owned subsidiaries and long term partnerships with strong financial institutions and key distributors. Ageas ranks among the market leaders in the countries in which it operates. It represents a staff force of over 40,000 people and reported annual inflows close to EUR 32 billion in 2016 (all figures at 100%).
English French

Artemis has entered into an agreement for the disposal of its stake in Fnac Darty to CECONOMY

Artemis has today entered into an agreement for the sale to CECONOMY of its 6,451,845 ordinary shares corresponding to a stake of approx. 24.33% as of 30 June 2017, in the share capital of Fnac Darty.

After being supported by Artemis since its initial public offering in 2013, Fnac Darty's management team will benefit from CECONOMY's support as its reference shareholder to continue deploying its strategy.

The closing of the transaction, which is, in particular, subject to regulatory conditions, is currently expected to occur by the end of August 2017.

CECONOMY will have the possibility to propose to the Board of Directors of Fnac Darty the appointment of three directors.

***

Jacques Veyrat, Chairman of the Board of Fnac Darty: "On behalf of all of the Fnac Darty staff, I would like to thank the Pinault family for their unwavering support to our brands, and especially to Fnac for many years. Without them, our Group would not be what it has become today. I also welcome the arrival of our new shareholder CECONOMY, who will be a reinforcement for the development of our Group."

Enrique Martinez, Chief Executive Officer of Fnac Darty: "At a time when Fnac Darty has laid the foundations for its new Group, with solid governance in place, and rapidly progressing results and integration, we welcome the arrival of CECONOMY - a new shareholder willing to support and accompany the strategy set out by our Group and the teams who execute it."

Francois-Henri Pinault, Chairman of the Board of Artemis: "Over the last years, Artemis has been continuously supportive of Fnac Darty, transforming its business model to become a major player in the industry and to take a leading role in Europe in the coming years. Fnac Darty has never been stronger and together with the teams and the other shareholders we are proud to have been part of its repositioning and development. With the backing of a new renowned strategic partner, the Group is forging ahead with strengthened means to accelerate the implementation of its growth strategy."

Pieter Haas, Chief Executive Officer of CECONOMY: "The financial investment in Fnac Darty is a great opportunity for CECONOMY for two reasons - first, we gain exposure to the highly attractive French market and its particularly strong consumer electronics segment; and, second, it delivers on our ambition to further strengthen our position as the leading European platform for Consumer Electronics-related businesses, brands and concepts. This move marks a dream start of CECONOMY as an independent company after the demerger of the METRO GROUP. The management team of Fnac Darty, led by Enrique Martinez and Matthieu Malige, have successfully integrated Fnac and Darty to a strong player that is greatly appreciated by consumers in Europe. Our investment in the Group will enable us to be part of Fnac Darty's success story going forward."

CONTACTS


Muttenz, July 26, 2017 - Clariant is part of an ongoing competition law investigation by the European Commission into the ethylene purchasing market. The company is assisting the relevant authorities and cannot comment further on the details of an ongoing investigation.

Corporate Media Relations



Investor Relations



Jochen Dubiel



Phone +41 61 469 63 63

jochen.dubiel@clariant.com Anja Pomrehn



Phone +41 61 469 63 73

anja.pomrehn@clariant.com Thijs Bouwens



Phone +41 61 469 63 63

thijs.bouwens@clariant.com Maria Ivek



Phone +41 61 469 63 73

maria.ivek@clariant.com

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn.

www.clariant.com

Clariant is a globally leading specialty chemicals company, based in Muttenz near Basel/Switzerland. On 31 December 2016 the company employed a total workforce of 17 442. In the financial year 2016, Clariant recorded sales of CHF 5.847 billion for its continuing businesses. The company reports in four business areas: Care Chemicals, Catalysis, Natural Resources, and Plastics & Coatings. Clariant's corporate strategy is based on five pillars: focus on innovation through R&D, add value with sustainability, reposition portfolio, intensify growth, and increase profitability.
Receiving an award for any type of outstanding achievement brings pride, but being honored for fighting courageously against cancer has an even deeper meaning.

Melanie Ryan, Pharmacy Director at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital, was chosen as a 2015 Spirit of Courage Honoree after battling rectal cancer in 2013.

Two years after receiving this honor, Melanie continues to feel grateful for that experience. She also appreciates how the funds raised by the Spirit of Courage event are helping current patients.

Melanie likes to remind people that not only does the Spirit of Courage recognize individuals for taking cancer on; it also raises necessary funds to help those who do not have the means to fight it.

Through her job in the MJEH Pharmacy, Melanie has encountered patients who cant afford to pay the co-pay or full price for cancer medicines that are not fully covered by health insurance. Sometimes these patients will skip doses, cut pills in half to make their medications last longer, or even forego the medications altogether.

The Spirit of Courage Charitable Patient Care Fund helps ease the financial burden by subsidizing prescription costs for such patients.

To be honored feels great, but to honor others by helping them feels even better, and that is how Melanie continues to give back to the Spirit of Courage.

For more information on the Spirit of Courage, contact the Jennie Edmundson Foundation at 712-396-6040 or visit jehfoundation.org.
A jury found a Council Bluffs man  who was found guilty earlier this year of charges including sex abuse and pimping  to be a habitual offender on Tuesday, which will affect his future sentence.

Cedric Whitmire, 39, was found guilty by a jury on May 19 of abusing his ex-girlfriend, including willful injury and domestic abuse assault. In court Tuesday, Whitmire put his fate in the hands of another jury to see if his past convictions in Missouri and Kansas would label him as a habitual offender.

Whitmire was arrested last November after a woman told police he was her pimp when authorities found her injured at an Omaha hotel after she called 911.

Whitmire transported the woman, against her will, to Omaha to sell her for prostitution, authorities said.

During the trial, Assistant Pottawattamie County Attorney Shelly Sudmann said Whitmires previous convictions for felony drug possession in Kansas and another felony in Missouri meant he should be given the status of a habitual offender.

Sudmann called on several witnesses to provide information that Whitmire was the same man who was convicted of those crimes.

Several times throughout the trial, Whitmires attorney Drew Kouris objected to the foundation of the evidence and witness testimony.

There are flaws, errors and mistakes in the records youll be reviewing, Kouris told the jury.

Fingerprint analysis, audio recordings Whitmire made while being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail and other evidence  including how Whitmires name is spelled  were constantly called into question by Kouris.

In one phone call recording, Whitmire discussed with a woman his prior convictions, both felonies.

Whitmire testified on his own behalf that his drug possession charge in 1999 in Missouri was no reason for his sentence to be enhanced.

My mother raised me to say the truth and the truth will set me free, he told the jury.

He called the possibility of an enhanced sentence unfair.

I got charged with possession of a controlled substance for half a gram of cocaine in 1999. Its not worth getting 15 more years added to my sentence, he said. Its cruel and unusual that someone would recommend this.

After the verdict, Sudmann said the status of habitual offender meant Whitmire is looking at serving a minimum of 15 years. His total sentence will be decided Aug. 17 in court.

Attempts to reach Kouris for comment after the verdict were not successful.
Organizers have started the fundraising effort for the Dream Playground Re-Imagined renovation and expansion effort, with help coming from the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

The supervisors unanimously approved giving the project $5,000 from its gaming fund, with the playground project committee set to go before the board again early next year to ask for another $5,000.

It was great to have them get behind the project, said Barry Cleaveland, a member of the project committee.

The volunteer effort is being led by a five-person core committee of Lori Shields of the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, Lynne Branigan, Barry Cleaveland, Council Bluffs Fire Chief Justin James and Pottawattamie County Supervisor Justin Schultz. Many were part of the original Dream Playground project in one way or another.

Cleaveland was joined by Branigan at the supervisors meeting, along with fundraising committee member Ron Tekippe.

The effort will renovate the existing Dream Playground at Lake Manawa State Park while also expanding the facility, and in the process, increase handicap accessibility.

The playground redesign was made after organizers received input from more than 1,700 Council Bluffs children and will highlight important area historical points like trains and the numerous trails that came through here guiding pioneers westward. New York-based Play by Design has done planning work and provided the committee a 3-D schematic late last week, Branigan said.

Like with the original Dream Playground, volunteers will gather to renovate the existing pieces and build the new portions. The build days will be held in two parts, a total of six days, in May of 2018.

Supervisors voted 3-0 to approve the funding, with Schultz abstaining because of his involvement with the project. Supervisor Marilyn Jo Drake was absent because shes attending the National Association of Counties conference.

This is going to be more than building a playground, Schultz said, noting the area is popular throughout the county and the new work could help be an economic driver. $5,000 is a lot, but its money well spent.

The Dream Playground Re-Imagined project will cost about $650,000, Branigan said. Organizers will also raise money for an endowment fund to provide maintenance.

Fundraising efforts began in earnest recently, and Branigan said the core committee and fundraising committee will be venturing out into the community to give a number of presentations on the project in the coming weeks and months.

For more information on the effort, go to the Dream Playground Re-Imagined Facebook page.

Early donations came from the Cindy and Jerry Mathiasen Family Fund and Southwest Iowa Association of Realtors. The contribution from the supervisors more than doubled the current amount raised, which was at just under $4,000, according to Branigan.

We really appreciate their support and recognition of what an important playground this has been to the area for 25 years, the committee member said.

 Nonpareil reporter Tim Rohwer contributed to this story.
From The Associated Press:

The tractor-trailer was pitch-black inside, crammed with maybe 90 immigrants or more, and already hot when it left the Texas border town of Laredo for the 150-mile trip north to San Antonio.

It wasnt long before the passengers, sweating profusely in the rising oven-like heat, started crying and pleading for water. Children whimpered. People took turns breathing through a single hole in the wall. They pounded on the sides of the truck and yelled to try to get the drivers attention. Then they began passing out.

By the time police showed up at a Walmart in San Antonio around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and looked in the back of the truck, eight passengers were dead and two more would soon die in an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone tragically awry.

The AP noted that the details of the journey were recounted Monday by a survivor who spoke to a reporter and in a federal criminal complaint against the driver of the semi, James Matthew Bradley, who could face the death penalty over the 10 lives lost.

In addition to the dead, nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heat stroke.

After an hour I heard ... people crying and asking for water. I, too, was sweating and people were despairing. Thats when I lost consciousness, Adan Lara Vega, 27, told The AP from his hospital bed. When he came to, he was in the hospital, where his ID bracelet identified him by the last name Lalravega. Mexican consulate and U.S. officials later told The AP the correct spelling was Lara Vega.

This is a tragedy that provides a stark reminder that similar transports happen every day as people try to enter the U.S from Mexico and beyond.

With all the talk of a border wall, it appears getting our enforcement house in order on human trafficking would be a better use of our time and energy. And the tragedy is a reminder that immigration policy in the U.S. needs fixing. Something should be done to give a path to citizenship that prevents people from being so desperate theyd pack into a hot semi trailer with little air ventilation just for a chance to step on American soil.

And something should be done to stop the people on both sides of the border that are preying on human desperation and exposing men, women and children to conditions that no person should have to endure.

The U.S. has a history of inaction after tragedy, and immigration is a complicated issue that has no silver-bullet solution.

But we hope dead people in semi trailers will lead to action, and at the very least compassion.
English French

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

26 July 2017

RECOMMENDED ACQUISITION

OF

BERENDSEN PLC

BY

ELIS SA

TO CREATE A PAN-EUROPEAN TEXTILE, HYGIENE AND FACILITY SERVICES LEADER

Update on antitrust and regulatory approvals

Further to the announcement on 12 June 2017 pursuant to Rule 2.7 of the Code (the "Rule 2.7 Announcement") that the boards of Elis and Berendsen had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Elis of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Berendsen (the "Transaction"), Elis and Berendsen confirm that:

the FCA approval for the Transaction, and the merger control clearances for the Transaction in Germany and Poland, have been received by Elis; and



based on the expected timetable of the Transaction, it is not expected that merger control clearance for the Transaction in Austria will be required.

The expected timetable of principal events for the Transaction will be set out in the Scheme Document, which will be posted to Berendsen Shareholders no later than 31 July 2017.

A further announcement will be made when the Scheme Document is posted to Berendsen Shareholders.

Capitalised terms used and not defined in this announcement have the meanings given to them in the Rule 2.7 Announcement.

Enquiries:

Elis

Nicolas Buron Tel: +33 (0) 1 75 49 98 30

Brunswick - Public Relations Adviser to Elis

Jonathan Glass / Tom Burns Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Thomas Kamm / Aurelia de Lapeyrouse Tel: +33 (0) 1 53 96 83 83

Lazard & Co., Limited - Financial Adviser to Elis

William Rucker / William Lawes / Tel: +44 (0) 20 7187 2000

Vasco Litchfield / Eugene Schreider

Pierre Tattevin / Charles Duhamel Tel: +33 (0) 1 44 13 01 11

Zaoui & Co Ltd - Financial Adviser to Elis

Yoel Zaoui / Michael Zaoui / Serge Mouracade Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 5580

Deutsche Bank - Financial Adviser and Corporate Broker to Elis

Neil Collingridge / Chris Raff / Simon Hollingsworth Tel: +44 (0) 20 7545 8000

Berendsen

Pete Young Tel: +44 (0) 7825 297 198

Credit Suisse - Financial adviser to Berendsen

Jonathan Grundy / Joe Hannon / Vasyl Dutchak Tel: +44 (0) 20 7888 8888

J.P. Morgan Cazenove - Financial adviser and joint corporate broker to Berendsen

Robert Constant / Dwayne Lysaght / Richard Walsh Tel: +44 (0) 20 7742 4000

HSBC Bank plc - Financial adviser and joint corporate broker to Berendsen

Mark Dickenson / Philip Noblet / Keith Welch Tel: +44 (0) 20 7991 8888

FTI Consulting

Richard Mountain Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1374

Further information

Lazard & Co., Limited ("Lazard"), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority, is acting exclusively as financial adviser to Elis and no one else in connection with the Transaction and will not be responsible to anyone other than Elis for providing the protections afforded to clients of Lazard & Co., Limited nor for providing advice in relation to the Transaction and matters referred to in this Announcement. Neither Lazard & Co., Limited nor any of its affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Lazard & Co., Limited in connection with the Transaction, this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

Zaoui & Co Ltd ("Zaoui & Co") is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. Zaoui & Co is acting exclusively as financial adviser for Elis and no one else in connection with the matters set out in this Announcement and will not regard any other person as its client in relation to the matters in this Announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Elis for providing the protections afforded to clients of Zaoui & Co, nor for providing advice in relation to any matter referred to herein.

Deutsche Bank AG is authorised under German Banking Law (competent authority: European Central Bank) and, in France, by the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution. It is subject to supervision by the European Central Bank and by BaFin, Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, and is subject to limited regulation in France by the AMF. Details about the extent of its authorisation and regulation by BaFin, the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution and the AMF are available on request. Deutsche Bank is acting as financial adviser and corporate broker to Elis and no one else in connection with the Transaction or the contents of this Announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Elis for providing the protections afforded to clients of Deutsche Bank or for providing advice in relation to the Transaction or any other matters referred to herein.

Credit Suisse International ("Credit Suisse"), which is authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and the PRA in the United Kingdom, is acting as financial adviser exclusively for Berendsen and no one else in connection with the matters set out in this announcement and will not be responsible to any person other than Berendsen for providing the protections afforded to clients of Credit Suisse, nor for providing advice in relation to the content of this announcement or any matter referred to herein. Neither Credit Suisse nor any of its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Credit Suisse in connection with this announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

J.P. Morgan Limited, which conducts its UK investment banking business as J.P. Morgan Cazenove ("J.P. Morgan Cazenove"), is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. J.P. Morgan Cazenove is acting exclusively as financial adviser to Berendsen and no one else in connection with the matters set out in this announcement and will not regard any other person as its client in relation to the matters set out in this announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Berendsen for providing the protections afforded to clients of J.P. Morgan Cazenove or its affiliates, or for providing advice in relation to the contents of this announcement or any other matter referred to herein.

HSBC Bank plc ("HSBC"), which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated in the United Kingdom by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority, is acting as financial adviser to Berendsen and for no one else in connection with the contents of this announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Berendsen for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the contents of this announcement or any other matters referred to in this announcement.

Notice to US Investors

The New Elis Shares proposed to be allotted and issued to holders of Berendsen Shares in connection with the Transaction have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act or under the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Accordingly, the New Elis Shares may not be offered, sold, resold, delivered, distributed or otherwise transferred, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act or an exemption therefrom. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the New Elis Shares in the United States or in any state of the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to qualification under the securities laws of any such state. The New Elis Shares are expected to be issued in the United States in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act provided by Section 3(a)(10) thereof. Berendsen Shareholders (whether or not US persons) who are or will be affiliates (within the meaning of the US Securities Act) of Elis prior to or after the date on which the Transaction becomes effective will be subject to certain restrictions on transfers of the New Elis Shares received pursuant to the Transaction. Otherwise, the New Elis Shares generally should not be treated as "restricted securities" within the meaning of Rule 144(a)(3) under the US Securities Act and persons who receive securities under the Transaction (other than "affiliates" thereunder) may resell them without restriction under the US Securities Act.

None of the New Elis Shares have been approved or disapproved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission in the United States or any other US regulatory authority, nor have such authorities passed upon or determined the fairness or merits of such securities or upon the adequacy or accuracy of the information contained in this document. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States.

Disclosure requirements of the Code

Under Rule 8.3(a) of the Code, any person who is interested in 1 per cent. or more of any class of relevant securities of an offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror (being any offeror other than an offeror in respect of which it has been announced that its offer is, or is likely to be, solely in cash) must make an Opening Position Disclosure following the commencement of the offer period and, if later, following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. An Opening Position Disclosure must contain details of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s). An Opening Position Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(a) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the commencement of the offer period and, if appropriate, by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. Relevant persons who deal in the relevant securities of the offeree company or of a securities exchange offeror prior to the deadline for making an Opening Position Disclosure must instead make a Dealing Disclosure.

Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Code, any person who is, or becomes, interested in 1 per cent. or more of any class of relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror must make a Dealing Disclosure if the person deals in any relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror. A Dealing Disclosure must contain details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s), save to the extent that these details have previously been disclosed under Rule 8. A Dealing Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the business day following the date of the relevant dealing.

If two or more persons act together pursuant to an agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, to acquire or control an interest in relevant securities of an offeree company or a securities exchange offeror, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3.

Opening Position Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company and by any offeror and Dealing Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company, by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with any of them (see Rules 8.1, 8.2 and 8.4).

Details of the offeree and offeror companies in respect of whose relevant securities Opening Position Disclosures and Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Takeover Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk , including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. You should contact the Panel's Market Surveillance Unit on +44 (0)20 7638 0129 if you are in any doubt as to whether you are required to make an Opening Position Disclosure or a Dealing Disclosure.

Publication on website
MELVILLE, N.Y., July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, June 30, 2017, a lone gunman opened fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx, NY, killing one, wounding five and spreading terror and mayhem before taking his own life.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/25c38b41-bafb-4886-a9e5-c3ba2f073124

North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA) serves as the official provider of anesthesia services at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Once the incident began, the anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists and administrative staff that comprise the anesthesia department sprang into action. As one victim after another was brought into the OR for emergency surgery, NAPAs staff was there, working with the entire Bronx Lebanon team to save lives  despite the fact that their own lives were in imminent danger.

One week later, on Friday, July 7, 2017 a press conference was held at Bronx Lebanon to tell the human side of this tragedy  stories of bravery, teamwork and compassion. Everyone working at the hospital that day instinctively came together to comfort the wounded, help families and visitors to safety, and without hesitation or concern for their own well-being, save the lives of five individuals.

The code was called when the incident began around 2:45  we were in the ED [Emergency Department], when the patients started coming in, said NAPA physician Dave Livingstone, MD, Chief of Anesthesia at Bronx Lebanon. The first two [victims] arrived in bad condition. We intubated them and got them up to the OR quickly, and then in short order the rest of the victims were brought in, so we had five ORs running simultaneously.

Professionalism, grace under pressure, extreme bravery  that truly describes Dr. Livingstone and his team on that that terrible day, said NAPA CEO John Di Capua, MD. The entire staff at Bronx Lebanon  administration, clinicians and staff  demonstrated laser-like focus and complete dedication to the task at hand, despite the obvious threat to themselves. We are proud to be partnered with such an incredible team of medical professionals.

Learn more about the heroism of the NAPA anesthesia team and its leader, Dr. Dave Livingstone, by clicking here: https://napaanesthesia.com/videos-general/

About North American Partners in Anesthesia

As a clinician-led organization, North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA) is redefining healthcare, delivering unsurpassed excellence to its partners and patients every day. In three decades, NAPA has grown to become the nations leading single-specialty anesthesia and perioperative management company, serving more than one million patients annually in more than 200 healthcare facilities throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Southeast. Our highly skilled teams of clinicians participate in groundbreaking leadership development and customer service training programs to deliver optimal results to patients, surgeons, healthcare administrators and staff. Through our exceptional perioperative leadership, research, innovations and state-of-the-art technologies, NAPA offers real solutions driven by evidence-based outcomes to dramatically accelerate operational efficiencies, increase satisfaction ratings and enhance safety and profitability. For more information, please visit NAPAanesthesia.com.
RESTON, Va., July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



WHAT:

Carahsoft will be joined by 44 solutions providers in its partner pavilion at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference. Hosted annually by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Chief Information Officer (CIO), the conference presents a unique opportunity to directly engage with senior leaders from the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense and IT industry about the complexities and challenges impacting the mission user.

This years DoDIIS Worldwide Conference will focus on Dominating Cyberspace Against Consistent Threats, emphasizing cybersecurity and the need to develop proactive responses to threats. The solutions showcased in Carahsofts partner pavilion will support agencies priorities in the areas of cybersecurity, cloud computing, mobility, big data, citizen engagement, geospatial, open source and virtualization within the Intelligence Community.

In addition to hearing from Government and Industry Leaders, participants will have the opportunity to attend breakout sessions focusing on data-driven responses to threats, community-wide practices to minimize hostile actors, agile deployment of cybersecurity software and development of risk models.

WHO:

Carahsofts partner pavilion (#431) is located between rows 300-600 of the Exhibit Hall. Here, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with Carahsofts world-class technology partners. Carahsoft will be hosting a networking reception at the Marriott St. Louis Grand on August 14 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. in the Landmark Ballroom.

This year's conference will feature more than 2,000 participants and 300 exhibits from across the globe, including a wide range of government, civilian, military and industry partners. The following Carahsoft solutions providers are participating:

 Accellion  #436  MongoDB  #434  Atlassian  #439  OSIsoft  #329  Axway  #425  OutSystems  #339  Carahsoft Adobe Solutions  #427  Pivotal Software  #325  CA Technologies  #526  Polaris - Booze Allen  #540  Cloudera  #525  Proofpoint  #443  CollabNet  #432  Rubrik  #331  CyberArk  #535  Red Hat  #423  Cylance  #343  SafeNet AT  #527  F5 Networks  #529  Sailfish - Booze Allen  #538  Fidelis Security  #447  ServiceNow  #424  FireEye  #541  Sonatype | Nexus  #335  FRAME  #333  Splunk  #422  Gigamon  #323  Tableau  #428  Google Cloud  #531  Tintri  #440  Haystax  #341  Tripwire  #539  Hootsuite  #441  Venafi  #337  HPE Software  #522  Veritone  #430  HyTrust  #542  Veritas  #438  Infoblox  #426  Virtual Instruments  #327  K2  #533  VMware  #524  Lookout  #537

WHEN:

Sunday-Wednesday, August 13-16, 2017

WHERE:

America's Center

701 Convention Plaza

St. Louis, MO 63101

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

For more information on Carahsoft's Partner Pavilion, contact Alicia Puccio at (703) 230-7574 or DoDIIS@carahsoft.com.

DoD Employees (Active Military/Civilian) and Federal Government employees (Non-DoD) can register for free online here. Registration guidelines for other participants can be found here.

About Carahsoft

Carahsoft Technology Corp. is the trusted Government IT solutions provider. As a top-performing GSA Schedule and SEWP contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the master government aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators, and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value.

The company's dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver VMware, Symantec, Veritas, Dell EMC, Adobe, F5 Networks, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Open Source, HPE Software, SAP, Salesforce, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer, and is listed annually among the industry's fastest growing and largest firms by CRN, Inc., Forbes, Washington Technology, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and SmartCEO. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com.
The anticipation grows with each passing day that brings the North Platte area closer to the total solar eclipse Aug. 21.

Muriel Clark, assistant director of the North Platte/Lincoln County Visitors Bureau, says there is nothing like preparation.

The estimated numbers of people who might be coming to the area are basically about the same  100,000 to 150,000, Clark said. But I think the frenzy of activity is just starting to get us a little bit on edge.

She said the bureau has had a plethora of inquiries about the event.

Every person in the door, every phone call we answer, every email we answer, every Facebook comment is all eclipse, eclipse, eclipse, Clark said. So were just starting to get  I dont want to say overwhelmed, but were whelmed.

One concern, Clark said, is people who might trespass on private property.

We are sharing on Facebook that if property owners dont want people on their property, they better post no-trespassing signs and make them very visible and post them very often, Clark said. Enforcement could be difficult, and I think thats what has the ranchers so on edge is that it is going to be hard.

Clark emphasized there are plenty of viewing opportunities that are safe and visitors just need to contact the bureau to find the sites.

Ive answered a lot of email questions and questions online, Clark said. People are looking on Google Earth and theyre seeing all this wide open space and theyre assuming they can just pop right in there and make camp.

She said the Stapleton and Tryon areas are ready and offer a great place to experience the eclipse.

So many of those people around the Stapleton, Tryon area have opened their areas up for camping, Clark said. Down here we have Feather River Vineyard, Pals Brewing Co., the Buffalo Bill Ranch, Sutherland is doing something amazing, Maxwell is having a viewing event.

Numerous local sites and events are posted on Facebook at facebook.com/2017TotalSolarEclipse.

If you check on the Events on Facebook, Steven Benell, who lives near the Logan-Lincoln County line, has opened 20 acres up for camping and viewing, Clark said.

She said the cost for the viewing areas is $10 to $20 per person.

So whats that compared to trespassing, putting yourself in danger, putting other people in danger, possibly starting a prairie fire, Clark said. Lets just use some sense here.

Clark also cautions local businesses to be prepared for the influx of people over that weekend.

Yes, our hotels are full nearly every night of the week during the summertime, Clark said. But thats generally people who are doing a quick overnight here and then heading off down the road.

People who are coming for the eclipse will be staying in the area for several days, Clark said.

So its imperative that all of our restaurants staff to the fullest from Friday night through Tuesday morning, Clark said. We dont want these visitors to come away from their experience in North Platte saying we were not ready at all  that we had to wait so long for our food and it wasnt prepared properly. So restaurants especially really need to stock up and staff up.

She also suggested it is important for service stations to schedule extra staff.

Finally, she offered a list of suggestions for locals to prepare ahead of time for practical things.

The crowds will be concentrated into a short window of time and things could get very congested, Clark said. The Nebraska Eclipse Coalition in partnership with the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Tourism Commission has put together a list of preparations to make to ensure your safety and convenience during this time.

The list:

 Get your grocery shopping done a week or more ahead of time. Not only will you beat the crowds, but this gives stores time to restock.

 Pick up your prescriptions or medical supplies early.

 Get doctor/dentist appointments out of the way. It will start getting crowded the Thursday before the eclipse and could remain busy until the following Wednesday.

 Conserve water by not watering your lawn or using extra water during the weekend.

 Be prepared for slow (or non-existent) internet as bandwidth will be heavily used.

 Be prepared for cellphones to be busy (or service unavailable).

 Conserve energy by unplugging appliances you are not using and do laundry, use dishwashers, etc., at low peak hours.

 Fill your gas tanks  all of them.

 Get cash (ATMs will experience heavy usage or be hindered by slow internet).

 Overall, supplies will be limited and high demand may mean you cant get all the things you need or want.

 Traffic will be heavy, and lines for food and in stores will be long, so exercise patience.

Show the visitors your best Canteen spirit hospitality,  Clark said. Help these new visitors enjoy our town and encourage them to return.
Tensions are high after Sandhills landowners and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist planned to meet about a proposed power transmission line, and the Nebraska Public Power District objected.

Later, a power districts contractor took pictures of vehicle license plates outside the privately organized meeting.

The meeting was in reference to the power districts proposed R-Project, a 345,000-volt transmission line that would extend from Sutherland to Holt County, about 225 miles long. Members of the public have expressed concern that the line will cause harm to historic sites, wildlife and habitat in the Sandhills.

Biologist Robert Harms said he was asked to meet with landowners and answer questions regarding the USFWS environmental impact study. Released in May, the document is more than 1,000 pages long.

Barbara Welch, who lives on Brush Creek Ranch near Thedford, said she had been looking forward to hearing Harms answers. After days working on the ranch, she and her husband had tried to read 100 pages of the document each night, she said.

We couldnt even do 10 pages a night, she said.

When Welch and her husband had attended public hearings, she said, she felt intimidated by strict time limits to speak as well as by the attitudes of officials at the hearings.

So when the opportunity arose to ask Harms questions related to the document, members of the Facebook group Preserve the Sandhills posted about it on their public page, telling residents to bring friends and saying that the USFWS is a key to stopping the R-Project.

In the Sandhills, word of the meeting took off, and with 66 RSVPs, it was ultimately moved from the ranch to Thedfords Cowpoke Cafe, said Welch, the rancher.

When NPPD officials saw the post, they grew concerned. Harms is in charge of granting or denying permits, and meeting with the group could be a conflict of interest, said Mark Becker, an NPPD spokesman.

Harms disagreed that the meeting was a conflict of interest, rather calling it part of the process. As a public servant, his job is to hear concerns and answer questions, he said.

With his office near Alda  8 miles from Grand Island  I dont know that country like Sandhillers know that country, he said.

NPPD officials contacted the USFWS office in Lakewood, Colorado. Harms said had the power district contacted him, he would have put fears to rest that he wasnt meeting to take a side but rather to explain the environmental impact study.

But Becker said, Thats who we deal with is the Denver level.

The power district sent two of its own contractors to Thedford too, to take notes on what Harms would say. But when they arrived and stood in the back, attendees at the meeting had news: That Harms had to back out, and that this meeting was not open to the power district.

Harms was at a gas station just before the meeting when his supervisor called.

Dont go, he was told. Becker said that despite reporting the meeting, NPPD officials didnt ban Harms from going.

It was up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to make a determination of what they wanted to do, he said.

So Harms headed back to Alda. The group still met  some attendees came from more than two hours away  and when they learned the power district officials also came, they asked them to leave.

Because the meeting was posted on a public group, the contractors thought they could attend, Becker said. When Welch was asked about the wording  we need you to be here; bring a neighbor  and that the contractors could have been someones neighbors, she calmly responded, But they werent, were they?

Becker said contractors left when they were asked. Welch said they left after she asked four times.

Multiple people later reported that the men in suits took pictures of license plates. Only one contractor took the pictures, Becker said.

He took it on his own to do that, he said, adding that higher-ups at the power district expressed no interest in the pictures and dont want them.

We have expressed our concerns to our contractors, he said.

Becker said the power district is devoted to working with landowners and the proposed route remains, though some power lines may move slightly. If private land is damaged during the construction, officials will work with landowners to restore it, though it wont be overnight.

Theres less environmentally damaging routes that are out there, Harms, the biologist, said. NPPD wont leave their current one.

Harms said he doesnt know whether the USFWS will issue the permits pertaining to protected species in the area, which he said includes eagles nests, meadows and migratory birds paths.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative later said that although other routes were analyzed as part of the draft Environmental Impact Statement, they were "ultimately determined to be infeasible for technical, economic or environmental reasons."

In an email, Steve Segin, public affairs officers for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the permit for the R-Project will be issued if NPPD meets the criteria.

"The Service will evaluate public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement, draft Habitat Conservation Plan, draft Migratory Bird Conservation Plan, and the draft Restoration Management Plan," the email said. "The Service uses public input to insure that we have conducted a comprehensive analysis and considered all factors."

Editor's note: This story has been revised to add comment from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
We cherish veterans in Nebraska. Whether its raising money to help those who fought in Vietnam fly to Washington for an Honor Flight or working to build lasting monuments across our state to remember those who served, we recognize our duty to highlight the honor, courage and sacrifice of our veterans. Nebraskans also understand the value of having veterans tell their stories. We know that young people can learn from the passed-down knowledge offered by those who served, along with those who supported them. This learning can help the next generation carry on the freedoms and traditions our former warfighters bravely defended.

Historians often say that the past is a prologue. Studying our history can help us better understand the problems of today or tomorrow. We often tackle the challenges of the present by learning the lessons of the past.

I couldnt agree more with this sentiment, especially when the lessons come from those who risked their lives protecting our way of life. If we want to have a strong military and a more peaceful world in the future, we should employ the study of history to learn from the experiences of our brave veterans who fought in war, along with those who helped them do it. Preserving their stories is not just a way to show our respect, its also a guide for future success. The memory of what our veterans did has helped protect our country long after they left the battlefields.

Congress agrees, and in 2000, it created the Veterans History Project. Operated by the Library of Congress, this program promotes the collection of firsthand accounts from wartime veterans and the civilians who supported them. These war narratives range from veterans who served in World War I to those who fought in the Iraq War.

Nebraskans must be part of this collection. We have a proud history of military service, and with the Veterans History Project, the experiences of our veterans can be preserved and distributed to a larger audience. Through in-person interviews, written journals and photos, our veterans have shared their experiences with their fellow Nebraskans. With the Veterans History Project, they will be sharing them with the American people.

Recently, I continued my efforts to preserve the legacy of Nebraskas vets by donating to the Veterans History Project. My office has been collecting these accounts for several years because I have always believed in the importance of recording tales from those who defended our country. We provided the Library of Congress with 20 interviews from Nebraska veterans and people close to them. It was truly an honor to present these extraordinary accounts of courage, service and comradery to the worlds largest library to be archived. I know that the Library of Congress will be able to preserve these recordings so that visitors from all over the world will be able to get perspectives about war from Nebraskans.

You dont have to be a senator to contribute to the Library of Congress. Anyone who uses the librarys field kit, which can be downloaded on the Veterans History Project website loc.gov/vets), can interview a veteran and submit the material to the library. If you know a veteran who fought in war, or someone who supported them during wartime, I encourage you to take the time to interview them for the Veterans History Project. Their invaluable stories will not only be archived for their posterity, but they will also serve as a source of inspiration for generations to come.
Great Lakes steel production rose to 677,000 tons last week, an increase of nearly 1.2 percent.

Steel mills in the Great Lakes region cranked out 669,000 tons of metal the previous week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Most of the steel made in the Great Lakes region is produced in Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana.

So far this year, U.S. steelmakers have produced 50.3 million tons of steel, about 2.5 percent more than they did during the same period in 2016. Steel mills have been running at a capacity of 74.5 percent so far this year, up from 72.4 percent through the same time last year.

Domestic steelmakers used about 76.1 percent of their steelmaking capacity in the week that ended July 22, up from 75.6 percent the previous week and 71.3 percent at the same time a year earlier, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Some analysts say 90 percent would be considered healthy for the industry.

Steelmaking capacity utilization was just 72.4 percent during the same time period in 2016.

Overall, U.S. national steel output rose by 10,000 tons last week to 1.773 million tons, a 0.56 percent increase, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Production in the Southern District, nearly always the country's second-largest steel-producing region, which spans mini-mills across the South, dipped to 637,000 tons last week, down from 639,000 tons the previous week.
HAMMOND  Four Bishop Noll classmates finished their senior year doing what they did throughout their four years of high school  helping others.

For their final theology project, Jailynn Thomas and Tiffany Daniel, both of Gary, Rachel Tredway, of Hammond, and Brittany Anderson, of East Chicago, made and delivered gift bags to cancer patients at Community Hospital in Munster.

Tredway, who will start Purdue University Northwest this fall, said, We were given an assignment to create our own service project. We chose that we wanted to help those who were sick.

She most enjoyed seeing the impact they made on the patients.

They realized that someone was there for them and that people were thinking about them. Some of the patients were very sick and I know us being there at least put a smile on their face."

This wasnt the first time she took part in a service project and said they are an important part of a Bishop Noll education. They have impacted my life severely. It is so rewarding knowing the smallest act of kindness can make a persons day  this was one of the best things that I have done throughout my high school years and it was a great way to end my senior year. I would not trade what we did, for anything.

Thomas, who will attend Barton College in Wilson, N.C., this fall, said they made 30 gift bags that included a water bottle, candy, lotion, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a word search book, cheese and crackers, pretzels, hand sanitizer, a small notebook, socks, juice boxes, a pen, a granola bar, tissue and lip balm. Each bag had a gift tag around the handle that included the name of one or two donors.

The patients were overjoyed to receive the surprise gifts, she said, and some shared stories with the teens.

One of the elderly gentlemen there not only expressed his heartfelt appreciation for our generosity, but he also stated that he didn't often have visitors so seeing new faces made his day. His statement I seriously can't thank you girls enough nearly brought us to tears. His reaction as well as the joy of the other patients really capture the essence of why this project and service projects in general are important.

Thomas said the experience taught her and her classmates that sharing a small token of love and kindness was needed more than they thought.

Daniel, who will attend Indiana University-Bloomington this fall, said her group raised money for the gift bags through donations from friends, family and strangers.

I enjoyed making the gift bags with my friends and also being able to deliver, see, and hear the patients faces and stories after giving them the bags," said Daniel.
CROWN POINT  Mark Gianfermi has been named principal of Col. John Wheeler Middle School.

The announcement was made Wednesday by Teresa A. Eineman, Crown Point Community School Corp. superintendent.

Gianfermi has been in education for 25 years. Prior to joining the administrative team at Crown Point High School, Gianfermi served as principal at North Newton Jr./Sr. High School from 2002-2007. For the past 10 years, Gianfermi has served as the freshman principal at Crown Point High School. During his time at CPHS, Gianfermi has been instrumental in developing innovative programming that supports the freshmen transition and success of all students.

Gianfermis start in education began as a middle school teacher and his involvement with both CPCSCs middle schools has continued throughout his career at CPHS. Gianfermis role in helping middle school students successfully transition to CPHS has afforded him the opportunity to actively work with middle school teachers, students and parents.

Gianfermi and his wife, Raquel, have raised their two sons in Crown Point and are active community members. Gianfermis said he has been blessed to work with so many amazing students, teachers and parents.

I am inspired to be the principal of Colonel John Wheeler Middle School and look forward to continuing to serve this great community," he said.
CROWN POINT  Clad in red Lake County Jail attire and shackled, the 15-year-old girl charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of her mother in February made her first appearance Tuesday before Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell.

Chastinea Reeves was charged July 18 in Lake Criminal Court with murder, alleging she fatally stabbed Jamie M. Garnett, 34, on Feb. 13 at the family's Gary home in the 4400 block of West 23rd Place.

Reeves first went missing about 2 a.m. Feb. 13, according to police reports, and was considered in extreme danger when last seen in the area of the 2000 block of Maine Street. Police reports indicate she went to that location after her mother was the victim of a crime.

Police found Garnetts body inside her home at about 2:10 a.m. that day. The Lake County coroners office confirmed the womans cause and manner of death were stab wounds in a homicide.

An Amber Alert was issued and Gary police located Reeves during the afternoon of Feb. 14. The Lake County prosecutor's office filed a petition of delinquency Feb. 15 alleging Reeves committed the murder, and prosecutors requested the girl stand trial as an adult.

She was detained at the Lake County Juvenile Detention facility.

Juvenile Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. considered arguments on the prosecutors request during several hearings and waived Reeves from juvenile to adult court July 18.

Reeves made her formal appearance in Boswells courtroom represented by court-appointed attorney John Cantrell. The defense attorney entered a plea of not guilty on Reeves behalf.

Cantrell told Boswell he was waiting for documents from the juvenile court. He also asked that a bail hearing be slated with a court magistrate.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Judith Massa made a motion allowing court officials to take a buccal, or mouth swab, from Reeves to test for DNA, which Boswell granted.

How old are you? Boswell asked, and seemed surprised when Reeves replied, 15.

The judge continued chatting with Reeves during the hearing, asking where she had attended school, what grade she was in and about her scholastic achievements.

I went to Lighthouse (Preparatory Academy in Gary), ninth grade. I made As and Bs and one C, Reeves told Boswell.

A C? What did you get a C in? the judge asked.

Speech, replied Reeves.

Speech! Now I know you know how to speak, Boswell said.

Reeves will return to court for an omnibus hearing Sept. 12.
Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With its fifth distribution of ecologically-friendly, free bamboo bikes in Amasu, in Dormaa Central Municipal District, in Central Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region, today, the African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF), a U.S.-based 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has now distributed 140 Eco-Ride, Ghanaian-made bikes to transport-dependent students, teachers, small farmers and healthcare workers, in Ghana.

Today's event, attended by more than 400 local residents, students, school officials and community leaders, was highlighted by a welcoming address by Nana Barima Dei Kusi Gyabaah, Ankobeahene of Dormaa Traditional Area; by remarks from the CEO and Founder of Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative (GBBI), which manufactures the bamboo bikes, in Kumasi; and by GBBI Development Officer Solomon Owusu-Amankwaah; by speeches from Mr. Armstrong Asante, (surrogate of Mr. Isaac Nsiah Edwards, Municipal Director of Education); and Mr. Iddrissa Quattara, Municipal Chief Executive, Dormaa Central Municipality.

Previously, since September of last year, ABCF has provided free bicycles, produced by GBBI, in Sekyere Afram Plains District, in the Ashanti Region; in Koforidua; in Kumasi and in Accra.

Today's event, wherein an additional 35 under-resourced, transport-dependent students, small farmers, teachers and healthcare workers received free bamboo bikes made in their own country, was hosted on behalf of African Bicycle Contribution Foundation by its Kumasi-based partners, GBBI and Bright Generation Community Foundation (GBCF).

ABCF plans to distribute a total of 2500 free bamboo bikes, in primarily rural areas of Ghana, over a five-year period.

As part of that overall plan, ABCF has invited Ms. Dapaah to visit the U.S., in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C., in late September, to participate in a three-city awareness, economic development and fundraising tour, to meet with public- and private-sector leaders, and to make presentations to university business school students and faculty, to entrepreneurial audiences, and to Ghanaian business organizations, in the U.S.

During today's event, in Central Ghana, Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Owusu offered remarks on behalf of ABCF's chairman, A. Bruce Crawley, and its executive director, Patricia Marshall Harris. In their remarks, both GBBI leaders emphasized how the ABCF program has been designed to improve school attendance, punctuality and academic achievement for students, to contribute to greater operating efficiency for rural farmers, and to facilitate higher levels of timely accessibility to those in need, for Ghana's healthcare workers.

Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Owusu also mentioned that an additional benefit of the ABCF program will be a greater demand for GBBI's bicycles, overseas, and a related, expanded effort to create new trade relationships between Accra and Philadelphia, in support of the export of Eco-Ride bicycles to the U.S. Such relationships should lead to increased employment opportunities at GBBI's manufacturing facilities, in Ghana, and to the creation of bicycle assembly jobs, in the U.S.

To date, the ABCF program has been well received by bicycle recipients, and by community and public-sector leaders, in Ghana. In fact, former Ghanaian President John Kufuor, in his current capacity as United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change, participated in the re-branding announcement of the Eco-Ride bamboo bicycles, and the initial ABCF bike distribution event, in Accra, last year, together with Ms. Dapaah and ABCF Executive Director Patricia Marshall Harris.

Who Is ABCF?

The African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF) is a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation whose mission is to generate funding to underwrite the distribution of bicycles to needy students, families and transport-dependent small business owners on the African continent. The Corporation has made a commitment to finance the free distribution of 2,500 bicycles, in Ghana, over its first five years of operation.

ABCF works in partnership, in Ghana, with the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, Bright Generation Community Foundation, The Respect Alliance, and the U.S.-Ghana Chamber of Commerce. Included among the foundation's corporate and charitable nonprofit sponsors are Independence Blue Cross and the Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

For further information about ABCF, please contact the ABCF office: info@africanbike.org .

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f46f3f21-a0a6-4b57-8b36-2acd43950e90

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fc82579a-1b72-47f3-a95a-9dcfafcf11ba

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e1c92d79-1980-4c12-8c1d-d39773dd6c45
CROWN POINT  Calvin D. Poston, 17, made his first appearance Wednesday before Lake Criminal Court Judge Samuel L. Cappas after being waived July 10 from juvenile court.

The Gary teen is charged with murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery and rape in the death of Gary resident Carolyn Rimpson, a 61-year-old mentally challenged woman in September 2015.

Her brother, Nathan Rimpson, reported her missing Sept. 24, 2015, from her home near East 40th Avenue and Connecticut Street. Carolyn Rimpsons body was found Sept. 29, 2015, in tall weeds and grass outside an abandoned house in the 4000 block of Broadway, several blocks from her home.

She was wearing the same clothes she had on the day she disappeared, and she died from blunt force trauma to the head, police said.

Carolyn Rimpson was mentally challenged, but she went to work every day, went bowling on Mondays and attended church Wednesdays, Nathan Rimpson told The Times in 2015.

"She never messed with anyone," he said. "She was just a good girl."

The day she disappeared, she arrived home on a church bus and later walked down the block talking on her cellphone, her brother said.

Poston also faces felony level 3 charges of attempted rape and battery of a female described in court documents in November 2016 as an endangered adult."

He made his formal appearance in Cappas courtroom represented by court-appointed attorney Matthew LaTulip. The defense attorney entered pleas of not guilty on Postons behalf in both cases.

Although court documents list a $55,000 bail amount for the felony level 3 charges, Poston is being held without bail in the Lake County Jail on the murder charge.

According to a news release from the Lake County prosecutors office, Carolyn Rimpsons homicide became a cold case until Hobart police Detective Jeremy Ogden joined the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit this past January and took another look at her death.

Poston will return to court for an omnibus hearing Sept. 20.
INDIANAPOLIS  The worst-kept secret in Hoosier politics was made official Wednesday: U.S. Rep. Luke Messer, R-Greensburg, is running for Indiana's Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

For the past several months, the three-term congressman and former state representative has not-so-quietly been organizing a Senate campaign staff and fundraising team, led by the brother of Vice President Mike Pence.

Confirmation that Messer was entering what may turn out to be the most expensive primary and general election contests in Indiana history came via a midday message posted to Messer's campaign Twitter account.

We're in!! he said, alongside a campaign logo featuring an outline of Indiana and the motto, "I Like Luke."

Messer, who was in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, did not issue a statement detailing why he wants to challenge U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., to represent Hoosiers in the U.S. Senate.

A biography on Messer's new campaign website describes the man ranked fifth in House Republican leadership as someone who has battled the establishment to deliver reform.

Messer likely will have to defeat former Indiana Secretary of State and four-term U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Brownsburg, to claim the GOP nomination.

While the Munster native has yet to officially declare his Senate bid, Rokita likewise has publicly been building a finance team, led by former state Rep. Dan Dumezich, R-Schererville, in anticipation of a run.

Rokita did not immediately comment on Messer's campaign announcement.

Both congressmen describe themselves as conservatives and have similar voting records that follow the Republican Party line on most issues.

Messer recently was rated by the Lugar Center as the Indiana Republican least likely to work with House Democrats to advance legislation.

The think tank founded by former U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., scored Rokita as the second-least likely Republican Indiana congressman to engage in bipartisan lawmaking.

Donnelly campaign manager Peter Hanscom said Hoosiers know that Donnelly is the only candidate in the Senate race with a proven track record of working across party lines.

Joe Donnelly has been an independent voice for Indiana in the U.S. Senate, Hanscom said. Hoosiers know that Joe will always put them first  not party bosses, corporate lobbyists or special interests in Washington."

Three additional Republicans, so far, also are running for Indiana's GOP U.S. Senate nomination: Hamilton County businessman Terry Henderson; Kokomo attorney Mark Hurt; and Floyds Knobs educator Andrew Takami.
CROWN POINT  A good hard rain is enough to remind us that much of Lake County was built on wetlands.

Lake County has expended a lot of money and effort to keep storm surges at bay, but it never seems to be enough.

Earlier this month, Schererville residents gathered at the town's plan commission meeting to complain of past flooding of their backyards and basements  and question whether a 78-lot development planned nearby will bring a fresh deluge.

Schererville Town Council President Michael Troxell said new construction typically worries nearby residents who have experienced prior flooding issues, because their older subdivisions weren't designed for stormwater management, or the infrastructure has failed over the years.

Lake County's legal drains Bailey Ditch is north of Schneider Beaver Dam Ditch drains points south of St. John and north of Cedar Lake, runs through Crown Point north to Turkey Creek Brown Levee Ditch runs parallel to Kankakee in Eagle Creek Township, forming the northern boundary of the Grand Kankakee Marsh Park. Brown Ditch runs southwest across Eagle, Cedar and West Creek townships parallel to Singleton in the north and Kankakee to the south. M. J. Brown Ditch runs west from Hebron across Eagle Creek Township Bruce Ditch is west of Lowell, north of Schneider Cady Marsh Ditch is 7.25 miles long, draining 17 square miles west through unincorporated Calumet Township, Griffith, Highland and Munster Cedar Creek runs south from Cedar Lake across Lowell to Singleton Ditch Ernie Niemeyer Creek is 10 miles long, draining 15 square miles of West Creek Township, runs parallel to Kankakee River Founders Creek is east of Cedar Lake Fuller Ditch runs southwest across Cedar and West Creek south of Brown Ditch and north of Ernie Niemeyer Creek. Griesel Ditch is south of Lowell Hart Ditch is 2.58 miles long, draining 45 square miles, running north from Dyer through Briar Ridge Country Club and Munster Kaiser Ditch runs north through Merrillville McConnell Ditch is south of Cedar Lake, north of Lowell Niles Ditch runs north from Leroy and Winfield to Beaver Dam Ditch Plum Creek is in Schererville Singleton Ditch is 14 miles long, draining 25 square miles of rural south county Spring Street Ditch drains flood-prone confluence of Griffith, Highland, Munster and Schererville Spring Run Ditch is east of Lowell Sprout Ditch runs alongside the Green Acres subdivision in Hobart Stony Run East Branch is 12 miles long, draining Lake Holiday in Lakes of the Four Seasons and points west and south to M. J. Brown Ditch Stony Run Middle Branch is 2 miles long, draining rural southeast county Turkey Creek is 8.84 miles long, draining 38 square miles of the confluence of Griffith, Schererville, Merrillville east to Lake George West Creek is 19 miles long, draining 55 square miles in rural southwest Lake County and Illinois Cedar Creek is 12 miles long, draining 31 square miles of rural south central county

Troxell said Schererville's current subdivision ordinances are written to retain runoff within the new subdivision and channel it into the town's larger drainage system.

Elsewhere, however, rain regularly has been overwhelming stormwater retention systems. This happens often, for instance, in residential areas around 133rd and Ind. 55, a rural area south of Crown Point, flooding both the highway and local subdivision streets.

The problem doesn't involve any of Lake's regulated drains, and county drainage officials in the past have avoided meddling on private property.

But Lake County Surveyor Bill Emerson Jr. and the county drainage board recently took the unprecedented step of declaring Guy Addison's farm to be an obstruction to public drainage and will hire an excavating firm to open what Emerson says is a silted-in waterway across its 90 acres.

Addison asked the drainage board last month why they are blaming him and risking his property's resale value.

"That highway has been flooding for the last 50 years, and the problem has been compounded by (residential) construction on 133rd Avenue," Addison said.

"How much water is coming from that subdivision? Don't go in and devalue my property, because you want to drain a problem that was created by a subdivision."

Emerson said last month he respects Addison's concerns, but must balance them against the interests of Addison's neighbors.

Water, water everywhere

The U.S. Field and Wildlife Service has designated 8 percent of Lake, 10 percent of Porter and 9 percent of LaPorte counties as wetlands, but it used to be much more.

The state's surveyors reported in 1816, the year Indiana became a state, that about half the surface area of Northwest Indiana ponded during six months of the year, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

John Bacone, a DNR division director, said prehistoric glaciers carved out a landform with few outlets for water to flow out, creating one of the largest interior wetland complexes in the country.

"It was one of the last parts of the state to be settled, because it was so wet. But once settlers figured out how to drain and plow the prairie, it became super-productive," he said.

The state sponsored the dredging and straightening of the Kankakee River as well as lesser waterways and drained its flooded landscape into open ditches and underground field tile networks to make agriculture possible.

In recent decades, however, farm fields have given way to roofed buildings, streets and other impervious surfaces that quickly concentrate stormwater into the lowest grounds.

Dan Repay, executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, said much of the Little Calumet River watershed in the northern third of the county was swamp until Gary, Griffith, Highland, Hammond and Munster built homes and streets over it.

"Now we look at the Little Calumet as the big storm sewer," Repay said.

Building levees, trapping beavers

Taxpayers recently were tapped for a quarter of a billion dollars to construct miles of levees to keep its high water away from more than thousands of businesses and homes.

Those levees were incomplete in September 2008 when a 200-year rain event caused the Little Calumet to crest at 20.16 feet. The Calumet Avenue and Interstate 80/94 interchange became a shallow lake, and surge waters caused millions of dollars in damage to more than 15,200 homes and businesses in Munster, Hammond, Schererville, Merrillville, Hobart, Lake Station and Gary.

Repay said the Little Calumet commission is now engaged in acquiring low-lying areas near and within the watershed to serve as detention preserves, like park and recreation acreage, that could hold stormwater outside the main channel until it could be released after the peak flow period.

County officials spend more than $1 million a year to maintain a century-old 600-mile system of waterways known as legal drains to channel flood waters away, largely from the suburbs and farmland of unincorporated south county.

That includes dredging out silt, removing fallen trees and relocating beavers and breaking up their dams.

Quote "Beavers clog up the streams. You have the wind knocking down trees. Communities and the county require retention ponds initially, but after the development is done, who watches it? If you don't ensure it works properly, you didn't solve anything."  Dan Repay, executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission

Repay said, "Beavers clog up the streams. You have the wind knocking down trees. Communities and the county require retention ponds initially, but after the development is done, who watches it? If you don't ensure it works properly, you didn't solve anything."

St. John Town Manager Steve Kil said the complaints swell after heavy weather floods streets in his community and others.

"They get afraid when the detention basin near their house starts to fill up. But that is good news, because that is what it is designed to do  fill up and drain out slowly. I haven't seen one fail yet," Kil said.

Jeff Huet, Schererville public works director, said, "Streets are designed and shaped to hold water. If somebody calls us and says their street is flooding, I will ask if the water is threatening their house. They typically say no."

Milan Dakich, of Ross Township, is a 10-year veteran of the county drainage advisory committee, which hears complaints from landowners outside city and town limits who sometimes blame their municipal neighbors for overflowing waterways.

Quote "A lot of our developments are large, so we look at stormwater management on a regional level and work with the Lake County surveyor on future proposals. I hope we can jointly take care of problems that aren't necessarily within our community, but around the community as well."  St. John Town Manager Steve Kil

"Somehow, these communities really don't do a good job in planning," Dakich said. "They lay out a subdivision that is high, and they really don't have any accountability of where that water goes. So someone who has built a home at a lower level gets flooded."

Kil said of St. John officials, "We are intimately tuned in to drainage concerns and how they affect our downstream neighbors.

"A lot of our developments are large, so we look at stormwater management on a regional level and work with the Lake County surveyor on future proposals," he said. "I hope we can jointly take care of problems that aren't necessarily within our community, but around the community as well."
VALPARAISO  A national search for a new head of Porter County's 911 and emergency management departments led officials right back home and resulted in the hiring of Valparaiso Police Chief Michael Brickner on Tuesday night.

The hiring was confirmed when the Porter County Council agreed to increase the pay for the position from $68,500 to $90,000.

"I really look at this as an opportunity to take a good organization and take it to the next level," Brickner said.

Brickner was appointed police chief just more than 13 years ago by then-newly elected Mayor Jon Costas and made an unsuccessful run as a Republican for sheriff in 2014 against Democrat Dave Reynolds.

"I'm passionate about public safety," Brickner said.

It will be up to Costas to name a new police chief.

"We have people within the department ready to step in, Brickner said.

The current 911 director, C.J. Wittmer, has submitted his resignation and will leave Aug. 13, according to Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North.

Brickner will take over Aug. 21.

The change comes four months after a county committee began evaluating concerns involving management at the 911 department. The committee was responding to complaints from police and fire departments that rely on the vital emergency service, Biggs said at the time.

The replacement of the 911 director is part of a wider restructuring of the department that brings the county's emergency management agency under its control, Biggs said.

The director of that department, Russell Shirley, remains in his post, but Biggs said the department will be reviewed and changes will be coming.

The problem with the 911 department has been a lack of communication between it and the emergency management agency, the commissioners and other first responder agencies around the county, Biggs said. He said the communications ranged from poor to in some cases, "deplorable."

The increased pay for Brickner's position, which was approved unanimously by the council, was pursued because of the additional responsibilities he will have in taking on the emergency management agency as well, Biggs said.

The reconfigured entity is being called the Porter County Emergency Communications and Public Safety Department, he said.

The change is similar to the recent restructuring and expansion of the county's plan commission into the Department of Development & Storm Water Management.

Biggs lauded Wittmer's response to the changes.

"He has been very gracious in offering his assistance to make a smooth transition," Biggs said.

Biggs said while Wittmer's heart is in public safety and emergency communication, the commissioners felt it best to bring in someone new to take over the fresh slate. Brickner also offers a more complete skill set, he said.

The county is also in the process of investing millions on upgrading its emergency radio network to 800 megahertz. The work includes the construction of new towers and working with local communities to purchase new radios.

The new 800 MHZ system will not only improve local communication, but will also bring the county into compliance with upcoming federal standards.

The problems with the 911 department are not financial, Biggs has said. They stem back to when Valparaiso (2007) and Portage (2009) consolidated their 911 systems with the county.

"Since that occurred, it has caused all kinds of operational problems in 911," he has said.
CEDAR LAKE  Making a difference and realizing potential arent just words on a piece of paper, but rather a guiding principal in the life of Denise Cordrey, assistant principal at Hanover Central Middle School.

Cordrey attended the annual American Legion Auxiliary Hooiser Girls State program at Trine University in Anglola recently, as did four delegates from Hanover Central High School including Julianna Bartoszek, Angela Gonzalez, Faith Evers and Aubrey Lindsey. They joined about 600 other Indiana students and ALA members for the program which was open to high school juniors who finished the year in the top half of their class and are sponsored by local ALA organizations.

I was lucky enough to attend ALA Hoosier Girls State as a high school student myself and found it to be a life-changing week, Cordrey said.

A Hanover graduate, she has fond memories of the experience.

I came home with a sense of confidence that I could compete with girls from throughout the state and that my Hanover education was just as good, and in most cases better, than others in attendance, she said.

The week-long program immerses young women in the duties, privileges, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It is a week of living and learning the political system of Indiana through a mythical city, county and state on the Trine campus.

Participants become citizens of ALA Hoosier Girls State and are assigned to one of two political parties, Federalist and Nationalist. As citizens of the ALS Hoosier Girls State, they learn about the structure of political parties and campaign for office and, once elected, they serve in that office. The goal of the program however, is less about becoming a politician and more about becoming a good citizen. Young women attending learn how they can realize their own potential and make a difference in their community. The competition for electied office is the means to an end, not the goal.

The ALA Hoosier Girls State offers scholarship opportunities as well as participation in its own band, choir, as a cheerleader for the two-party political rally held Wednesday and more. Pride in the community and a better understanding of what it takes to be a good community member is emphasized and assisted by the publishing of a daily newspaper that describes events and opportunities. Cordrey has served on the staff of ALA Hoosier Girls State for the past nine years, this year serving as editor of the newspaper.
Party in the Park planned

CHESTERTON  The Duneland Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the 12th annual Party in the Park event from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 12 in Thomas Centennial Park. Party in the Park will feature local food vendors with food for purchase. A DJ will host the evenings music and dancing. Bounce houses will be hosted by Road to Life Church, and additional childrens games and activities will be provided by local nonprofit and chamber member organizations. Call 219-926-5513.

Annual Greekfest planned

The 37th annual Greekfest is Aug. 25-27 at the Porter County Expo Center. Hours are 4 to 11 p.m. Aug. 25; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug. 26 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 27.

The Crawpuppies will perform Friday and Together will perform Saturday. On Sunday, enjoy the Greek food including lamb, fresh sausage and pastries. There also will be a raffle with grand prize of $12,500. Tickets can be purchased through the church office at 219-462-4052. All the events will be held indoors,.

Annual Oktoberfest

SCHERERVILLE  Schererville Central Lions Club will host its 18th annual Oktoberfest from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at the St. John Township Center, 1515 W. Lincoln Highway. Cost is $10 for one chop or $14 for two. There will be a cash bar and raffles. Call 219-688-8233. Proceeds benefit the Schererville Community.

Lunch with the league

MICHIGAN CITY  For their August Lunch with the League, the League of Women Voters of LaPorte County will present Steve Bernth, director of the Youth Service Bureau, a nonprofit organization serving LaPorte County. YSB has recently developed an informational program on human trafficking in LaPorte County and Northwest Indiana and Steve will provide an update. The presentation begins at noon Aug. 8 at Patricks Grille, 4125 S. Franklin St. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. and orders will be taken as the tables fill up. Arrive by noon for the presentation. Email the league at LWVLaPorte@gmail.com.

Bike Run and Benefit for Shawn Nicola

BURNS HARBOR  The Mill Bar and Grill will be hosting a Poker Run and Benefit for Shawn Nicola on Saturday at 295 Melton Road. Registration will begin at 10 a.m. with the first bike out at 11 and last one in at 4:30 pm. Cost is $10 per person, $15 per couple. Participants must be 21 years of age or older. Nicola is a lifelong resident of Chesterton though he spent much of his life at the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis. He was diagnosed as an infant with X-linked juvenile retinoschisis, a rare genetic disorder, affecting only 1 in 10,000 people. The rare mutation affects a protein which is vital to the development and maintenance of the retina. This affects the center vision and is neither curable nor treatable. Experimental treatments, including 15 surgeries before the age of 10 have had no affect on his vision. He will never be able to drive or work. As is typical of the disease, His eyesight has remained at 2400/2700 since adolescence. Shawn will never live a whole life without the benefit of eSight, an experimental treatment.

Kemil Beach Campfire Program at National Lakeshore

BEVERLY SHORES  Join a ranger for a sunset and campfire program from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Kemil Beach. The program will start at the Kemil Beach parking lot, followed by a short walk to the beach. If you arrive late, please walk to the beach to join the event. Bring a blanket or beach chair to sit on. Call 219-395-1882.
MUNSTER  The Munster Police Department and Choice Community Council of Munster invite all residents to participate in Munster's 22nd annual National Night Out Against Crime Celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Munster Community Pool, 8837 Calumet Ave. This event, which is held to promote police and community partnerships, will include a fireworks show sponsored by Krazy Kaplan's, free swimming for Munster residents (state or school ID please), kids games and bounce houses, door prizes, K-9 and self defense demonstrations, crime prevention information, emergency vehicle displays, a magic show, almost 70 booth participants, a police helicopter landing, concessions, music, a blood drive in memory of fallen Indiana police officers, and more. Residents are encouraged to turn on their porch lights in support of the event. For more information, contact Officer James Ghrist at 219-836-6639.
ST.JOHN  At St. John's 24th annual Fest 5k, more than 80 participants came out for the run. The St. John Evangelist School eagle mascot made a special appearance to get runners pumped up. The run coincides with the St. John Fest every year and it's a great family event for adults and youths. Members from St. John Evangelists running club participated. The York family from Cedar Lake had an impressive presence at the 5k with both Michael York as the first place finisher and top overall for adults as well as Ryan York as the top male finisher for youths. Krista Kulacz was the top female youth finisher.
The Chesterton-Porter Rotary Club will host the 3rd annual Babapaloosa music festival from 1 to 9 p.m. Aug. 6 at Sunset Hill Park. Funds from the event support the efforts of both the Rotary Club and the See Change Foundation, an initiative founded by Chesterton native Eric Bouchard that works to provide children in rural Nepal with education and other essentials.

Bands at this year's concert include The All Good Things Band at 1 p.m.; Jerica Paliga, at 2:30 p.m.; Township Train Wreck, 4 p.m.; Visions of Santana, 5:30 p.m. and Corey Dennison Band, 7 p.m..

People can enjoy a full weekend of arts events in Chesterton on Aug. 5 and 6 by purchasing a combination tickets to the Chesterton Art Fair and Babapaloosa.

Enjoy a 20 percent discount to both events when you purchase a combo ticket. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite for a discount in advance until Sunday. Kids 12 and under are free. For complete ticket information please visit: www.Baba2017.eventbrite.com.

For more event information or to volunteer, visit dunelandrotary.com or contact Chris Fickel, Babapaloosa event chair, 219-309-7634.
CHICAGO, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customers Bank, a community-based, full-service bank that is a subsidiary of Customers Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:CUBI) with assets of approximately $9.9 billion, announced today that it is expanding its Private and Commercial Banking division into the Chicago metropolitan area. Leveraging the success of its high-tech, high-touch, single-point-of-contact model, the Bank will establish a limited-purpose office in downtown Chicago, subject to regulatory approval.



Jay Sidhu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, We are pleased to make the high-tech, high-touch, single-point-of-contact model, which has been so well-received in New York, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia, available to private and commercial customers in Chicago.

Lifelong Chicago resident and banking veteran John R. Ross has been appointed Senior Vice President and Banking Group Head of the Chicago group. Prior to joining Customers Bank, Ross most recently served as Senior Vice President and Team Leader of Chicagos Associated Bank. Ross began his career in finance in 1984, and has served in various management and producer roles at Chicago banks including The Private Bank, US Bank, Cole Taylor Bank, LaSalle Bank, and others.

I am privileged to be part of such a dynamic and forward-thinking institution, and to lead Customers Banks effort in Chicago, said Ross. The high-tech, high-touch, single-point-of-contact model differentiates Customers Bank from all the other banks, and will resonate well with customers in the Chicago metro area.

John Ross is one of Chicagos most highly regarded banking professionals, and we are pleased that he has joined our banking family to lead our entry into one of the USs great cities, said George Maroulis, Managing Director, Executive Vice President and Head of Customers Banks Private and Commercial Banking Division. Customers Bank is dedicated to providing exceptional customer service and the products and services that businesses need. We look forward to serving this community, and to becoming active members of it as well.



About Customers Bank

Customers Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company located in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania engaged in banking and related businesses through its bank subsidiary, Customers Bank. Customers Bank is a community-based, full-service bank with assets of approximately $9.9 billion that was named by Forbes magazine as the 35th Best Bank in America (there are over 5,700 banks in the United States). A member of the Federal Reserve System with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Customers Bank is an equal opportunity lender that provides a range of banking services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, individuals and families through offices in Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. Committed to fostering customer loyalty, Customers Bank uses a High Tech/High Touch strategy that includes use of industry-leading technology to provide customers better access to their money, as well as Concierge Banking by appointment at customers' homes or offices 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers Bank offers a continually expanding portfolio of loans to small businesses, multi-family projects, mortgage companies and consumers.

Customers Bancorp, Inc. voting common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CUBI. Additional information about Customers Bancorp, Inc. can be found on the Company's website, www.customersbank.com.
As Ive traveled Indiana these past weeks, many of you have asked me about the federal health care debate. You want to know how legislation may affect us, especially those who rely on Medicaid, our HIP 2.0 program or the federal insurance exchange.

Youve asked about the potential gaps that could be created by reduced federal funding.

Last week, we saw two separate publicly reported estimates about the impacts of Senate legislation that were $5 billion apart. By tomorrow, there could be other reports with completely different numbers. As I write this, there are rumblings of a potential vote this week.

The point is, no one yet knows what the final legislation will contain or whether there will even be agreement to bring a bill to a vote at all.

Heres what I do know.

We cannot continue to ignore the problems with our nations current health care system.

Medicaid and Medicare are shattering our federal budget, and the national debt has skyrocketed to $20 trillion. Obamacare is crumbling under its own weight. In Indiana, as many as 60 counties will be left with just one choice for insurance coverage under the Obamacare marketplace beginning in 2018. Premiums are rising, our Hoosier neighbors are losing access and employers are frustrated.

Despite this dysfunction, Indiana found a way to bring health insurance coverage to more than 400,000 low-income Hoosiers through our consumer driven program known as the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP 2.0). HIP does more than just provide insurance coverage: It encourages people to make wise decisions about their own health and health care.

In June, when two insurance providers announced they would pull out of the Indiana Obamacare insurance exchange completely in 2018, we learned that Decatur, Jackson, Grant and Wayne counties would be left without any provider options on the federal exchange.

Weve been working since then to secure another option for Hoosiers in these counties, and Im confident we will find one. This is another example of how states are best-positioned to solve problems for their citizens.

Indiana will not wait for Congress to resolve the ongoing national health care crisis. We have proven we will find solutions to meet Hoosier needs.

At the same time, we will work with federal leaders to find real reform that addresses the deeper problems with health care delivery and cost, not just insurance coverage.

As governor of Indianas 6.6 million citizens, heres what our federal partners could do to be helpful:

First, give us greater control of federal health care dollars being spent in Indiana.

Next, work closely with our state to provide the flexibility we need to efficiently deliver services to our citizens. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year issued a call to the states to come to them with innovative plans and requests for flexibility. That is precisely what we are doing.

Finally, provide additional support to help us address our states opioid crisis. Ive been encouraged to hear that federal legislation could include significant funding to help states address the drug epidemic.

Health care will not be reformed by maintaining the status quo.

I urge the Senate to continue the important work of repealing and replacing Obamacare. Fixing the root problems in our system will be difficult, but Indiana is well positioned to lead the way with solutions.
Repeatedly expressing her Tiger pride Tuesday with War Eagle references, Gov. Kay Ivey returned to the city of her college alma mater and spoke to Auburn teachers, business leaders and government officials during her Listen, Learn, Help, & Lead Tour, a multi-stop initiative her administration has embraced while visiting and inquiring about the needs of Alabama communities.

Talking with the media during one of her stops at the soon-to-open Auburn High School, Ivey said the city of Auburn appears to be thriving and contributing to the overall well-being of the state. The governor also noted how she was impressed by various innovations in the area, which she regarded as having academic, employment and economic benefits.

Such innovations ranged from advanced manufacturing at GE Aviation and pharmacy research applications at Auburn University to the establishment of the citys newest school that will employ more than 100 faculty members and serve about 1,900 students.

Youve got a brand-new building, great facilities, state-of-the-art labs, Ivey said. Yall seem to be doing great here in Lee County.

Praising education efforts

Earlier in the day, the governor visited Ogletree Elementary School and addressed a roomful of incoming Auburn city school teachers. A former high school teacher, Ivey assured the teachers she was well-aware of the hard work, the dedication and the sacrifice thats required for one to make ones self an effective teacher.

Being an effective teacher is truly a calling, the governor said, and I understand that, and I appreciate you all responding so beautifully to that.

Highlighting the importance of a strong educational foundation, Ivey expressed her appreciation of the states pre-k program.

The governor likewise praised the leadership of Auburn Mayor Bill Ham, Superintendent Karen Delano and Tracie West, president of the Auburn City Schools Board of Education. She likewise commended the Auburn city school system, remarking about how many families from Montgomery have moved to the area so their children can attend the schools.

Thats a testimony and a compliment to all of you who make these schools very successful, Ivey said. And what youre doing is helping students learn and comprehend at higher levels. Thats the bottom line of what we want to do. And I just know that one of the best investments we can make in economic development is investing in education.

Ivey, too, emphasized the importance of having a qualified, well-trained workforce to help attract high-ranking companies to the state.

Education is the heartbeat of our state, in fact, and that means we should invest more in teachers and be sure that you have all the resources you need to help students learn so they can achieve at high levels, the governor said.

Ivey said she aims to free teachers from unneeded regulations that hinder their teaching capabilities.

I want to free you up so that you can spend the time thats needed with individual students and help them learn, she said.

Praising the roles teachers have in students lives, Ivey told those in the room that students, administrators, legislators, herself and others were thankful.

What you do is a great and noble task, the governor said. Our children are our future. You mold our children. Thus, you mold our future.

Made an impression

Being addressed by the governor during orientation made an impression on incoming teachers, including 23-year-old Jacksonville State University graduate Nadia Shri Turner, who will begin her first year of teaching as a kindergarten teacher at Cary Woods Elementary School.

That was very exciting, Turner said. It makes me see that you can always further your education and strive for greatness.

Matthew McVay, 29, who previously taught biology at Southern Union State Community College in Wadley and will soon begin his first year as an eighth-grade physical science teacher at Auburn Junior High School, appreciated the governors visit.

It definitely emphasizes the importance of education in this city, McVay said. Its encouraging to see the validation of this high-achieving school system.

Alexandra Allie Black, 24, will be starting her second year as a teacher, having taught in Nashville last year. Beginning the year at Wrights Mill Road Elementary School, she expressed similar sentiments as Turner and McVay about the governors visit.

It was just amazing to hear her support and that shes behind all our educational ideas, Black said.
New Orleans celebrates the life, legacy and music of its most famous native son, Louis Armstrong, with Satchmo SummerFest, a festival happening August 2-4 at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Produced by the same folks who bring you the French Quarter Festival, this annual event is now in its 19th year. Admission to the festival is $6 this year.

The festival takes place during the first full weekend in August, commemorating Armstrongs birthday on August 4. Read on to get the full scoop on what to expect at this years Satchmo SummerFest.

Satchmo SummerFest in New Orleans

Music

Youd expect music to take center stage at any event celebrating the life of world famous trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and it certainly does. Satchmo SummerFest features three stages of live music, with a focus on local brass bands, as well as contemporary and traditional jazz performers.

On Friday, check out Preservation Hall Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers, Cyril Nevilles Swamp Funk, Charmaine Neville, and more. On Saturday, tune in for Robin Barnes & the Fiyabirds, Shannon Powell, and other top-notch local acts. Sunday finishes out the fest with Jeremy Davenport, Tonya Boyd-Cannon, and a Trumpet Tribute to Louis Armstrong, among others.

Food

Its a New Orleans festival, so youd better believe theres bound to be plenty of great food to choose from, and Satchmo SummerFest is no exception. The event features a wide variety of great New Orleans food, including red beans & rice, shrimp remoulade, crawfish pie, and jambalaya. The fest also includes some unique food options, like deep fried seafood stuffed bell peppers, crawfish mac and cheese in a bread cone, and belly of the beast tacos with garlic ginger slaw.

Lagniappe

Music history buffs and festival attendees looking for an escape from the heat should head to the third floor of the Jazz Museum for a series of special events. From 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., participate in discussions with renowned Armstrong Scholars at the Hilton Satchmo Legacy Stage.

Satchmo SummerFest offers a little something for everyone, including children. Head inside the museum for kids crafts and activities from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.

The annual Jazz Mass saluting Satchmo is Sunday, August 4 at 10 a.m. at St. Augustine Catholic Church. Immediately following the mass at 11 a.m. is the second line parade, making its way from the church to Armstrong Park to Esplanade Avenue, and ending at the festival.
Filmmakers usually strive to make their productions as entertaining and engaging as possible, but the people behind Baa Baa Land, an epic 8-hour movie scheduled for release this September, set out to do just the opposite. With no dialogue, no plot and no human actors, just lots and lots of sheep, the so-called worlds dullest movie was designed to put viewers to sleep.

Produced by Calm, a company that produces mindfulness meditation products, Baa Baa Land is being advertised as the ultimate insomnia cure and better than a sleeping pill. It was filmed in Essex, England, and consists of slow motion shots of sheep in a field. Basically, nothing happens for eight hours, but that was the whole the whole point. Producer Peter Freedman, said that he believed it could be the dullest film ever made, adding: We hope that audiences will, too.

Photo: Calm.com

In a world of constant stress and information overload, of anxious days and restless nights  comes the chance at last  to pause  to breathe  to calm our racing minds and fretful souls to sit and stare  at sheep, a narrator says in the 86-second trailer for the slow film. Baa Baa Land is the first screen epic entirely starring sheep. A cast of hundreds all of them sheep. Count them if you can  but dont stress if you cant. Sit back, wind down, drift off  to sheep.

Its a reaction to films like The Bourne Supremacy, which have an average shot length of two seconds, Peter Freedman told iNews. We wanted something more relaxing, soothing and calming. Everyone is stressed and anxious and having trouble sleeping, and its a chance to pause and breathe, to wind down a bit.

Photo: Calm.com

The American-financed, British-made film will premiere at the Prince Charles Cinema in Londons West End this September. Were in discussion about U.S. and wider distribution and in talks with an American TV channel, Calm co-founder, Michael Acton Smith, said. We dont expect it to break box-office records but believe there is at least a niche audience for it.

The makers of Baa Baa Land are hopeful that the movie will get a cult following, and claim that there is every possibility for a sequel. Maybe have even more sheep for even longer? Freedman jokingly said. Wed have to bend our minds on how to make it even duller, which would definitely be a challenge. Were not ruling it out that it may even be 16 hours. Maybe even 24. Who knows?

While Baa Baa Land definitely sounds like it could be the dullest movie ever, it does have a very serious competition in Paint Drying, a 10.5 hour movie about drying paint. I guess youll have to watch them both to see which is more boring.
FTI Consulting handled UK-based Sage Groups $850M deal to acquire Silicon Valleys Intacct Corp., provider of cloud-based accounting software company.

Stephen Kelly, CEO of Sage, called the deal another major step forward in winning new customers at scale and supporting his cloud-first acquisitions strategy.

Charles Palmer (L) & Dwight Burden

Intacct opens up huge opportunities in the North American market, representing over half of our total addressable market, he said.

With the completion of the deal, Intacct will be recast as Sage Intacct and led by current CEO Robert Reid.

The company has an 11,000 customer base. It recorded $67M in revenues for the fiscal 2016 ended June and a $23M pretax loss.

Byron Deeter, an investor and former board member, told TechCrunch: Intacct is at the scale where they could be a public company today, but instead chose to partner with Sage given the nature of the deal, and the opportunity to have a broader impact together.

FTIs Charles Palmer and Dwight Burden guided Sages takeover of Intacct.
Robert Ardelt, managing director of APCO Worldwide in Germany, has been named co-leader of the Washington, D.C.-based firm's global crisis management and litigation communications practice.

Robert Ardelt

Ardelt, whos filled the managing director post at the independent global communication agency for more than seven years, will now co-lead APCOs crisis and litigation communication practice, which operates in more than 80 local markets worldwide.

Ardelt will lead a team of crisis and litigation consultants alongside executive director Kent Jarrell, who is based in Washington.

Prior to joining APCO, Ardelt was a marketing and communications manager at global strategy consulting firm Booz & Company (now PwCs Strategy&). He was previously a senior associate at Burson-Marsteller, where he led the WPP units crisis communications practice in Germany.
Georgia Waitress Outraged After Man Hands Her Menu With Swastika Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

The waitress also allegedly heard someone use the n-word.

Shelley Sidney, a waitress at Atlantas Antica Posta was outraged when a man drew a hate symbol on a menu and handed it to her while she was working. In a report from WSB-TV, the incident occurred during a private party for David Irving, a Holocaust denier who was having a speaking event at the restaurant.

I get to the last person in the party, and they give me a menu that has a swastika drawn it, Sidney said. She then showed the menu to her boss, Marco Betti, and wanted him to remove the guest. But instead, Betti cited freedom of speech and allowed the guest to stay at the restaurant.

READ: Black Familys Garage Burned, Painted With Racist Graffiti In Upstate NY

I was hurt and frustrated, Sidney said. I was really in tears when I was overhearing the conversations, the private conversations of just how horrible black people are, immigrants are, gay people are.

However, according to Bettis attorney, Manny Arora, Betti asked Sidney if she didnt want to serve the group anymore and reassigned somebody else to the table. Betti was also unaware that the event was being hosted by Irving.

You dont check into peoples backgrounds or their political beliefs before you agree to a reservation, Arora said.

Sidney said her boss has asked her not to come to work for the last two days but Arora said she is still employed at the restaurant.

Source: wsbtv.com
We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today
As the Fertile Ground mural in north downtown continued to get a touch-up Tuesday, a girl depicted in the giant artwork rose to the occasion.

Emma Hartnett, 12, rode a hydraulic lift to pose for a photo next to an image of herself as a 2-year-old.

And then she fearlessly had the operator take her higher  nearly eight stories above 13th Street to the top of the mural, where she touched the image of a soaring bird.

I like heights, she said back on terra firma, not the least bit terra-fied at what she had done. I like climbing and trying to get on top of everything.

Emma is a gymnast who also plays piano and will be a sixth-grader at Grandview Middle School in the Elkhorn district. She is one of 46 local people, living and dead, painted into the mural by Philadelphia artist Meg Saligman, who completed the project in 2009.

We call her The Girl in the Red Shoes,  Saligman said. When I first saw her, I wanted to paint those red shoes and flower pants.

Saligman, who has painted murals in four countries and countless cities, returned to Omaha because a clear protective coat over the mural had become ... unclear.

The once-bright colors had become clouded.

She arrived last week and has directed a crew of eight in power-washing the 70-by-465-foot mural, trying to remove the clear coat. Technically, how is that done?

Its not very technical, Saligman said. If you use a chemical to get the clear coat, you also get the paint. We try power-washing to just get the layer of clear coat.

The work began last week. In some spots, the old coat couldnt be removed. Those areas will require repainting.

A different kind of protective coating will be applied, and its not expected to get cloudy. The restoration will be finished in mid-August.

The mural, on a wall of the NRG Energy building near TD Ameritrade Park, was funded by the Peter Kiewit Foundation, which is also paying for the restoration.

Emmas mother, Michelle Hartnett, worked for the foundation when the mural was painted, but no inside influence got the girls image on the mural. It was about the shoes.

A brochure says the little girl represents impressionable youngsters who are the future of Omaha.

Among other images are landmarks and neighborhoods, a young businessman and a 60-foot-tall image of a woman representing Omahas emerging generation of young leaders.

Also depicted are landscapes, wildlife, a train, a musician, dancers, books and a flywheel symbolic of agriculture and industry.

Sandy Aquila, founder and director of the Omaha Healing Arts Center, was the model for a woman whose bold stride symbolizes the confidence of Nebraskans.

Someday it might be fun to hold a reunion of people depicted in the mural. For now, the goal is a return to vibrant colors.

The 32,550-square-foot mural, managed by the Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts, is the citys largest and the second-largest by Saligman. It was eclipsed recently by her mural in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

She began painting murals as part of an anti-graffiti campaign in Philadelphia. Now she is renowned.

For some reason, she said, the bigger I paint, the better I paint. I love working with people, being outside and painting, so its perfect for me.

She said she is glad to be back in Omaha, restoring Fertile Ground, removing the murals cloudiness and vividly depicting the areas extraordinary depth.
Value and growth are warring camps. Thats the traditional view in investing. But sometimes you can find both value and growth characteristic in the same stock.

And often, it pays. Beginning in 2001, Ive written 11 columns on stocks displaying both value and growth characteristics. The average 12-month return on my recommendations in this series is 18.0 percent, compared to 10.3 percent for the Standard & Poors 500 Index.

Eight of my 11 columns on this subject have beaten the index, and 10 out of 11 have shown a profit.

Bear in mind that my column recommendations are theoretical and dont reflect actual trades, trading costs or taxes. Their results shouldnt be confused with the performance of portfolios I manage for clients. And past performance doesnt predict future results.

Last years column was profitable, but didnt beat the index, rising 5.7 percent while the S&P 500 returned 17.0 percent. My only pick that distinguished itself was Skechers USA Inc., up 24.6 percent. The stinker was Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., down 18.1 percent

Jumping hurdles

For purposes of this series, my definition of value is that a stock must sell for 15 times earnings or less. My definition of growth is that the stock must show average annual growth of 12 percent or better in both earnings and revenue during the past five years.

Of nearly 4,100 U.S.-traded stocks with a market value of $250 million or more, 461 currently can jump my value hurdle. And 278 stocks meet the growth criterion. But only 40 stocks right now can jump both hurdles.

In this column, I will recommend five of them.

American Outdoor

American Outdoor Brands Corp. (AOBC) of Springfield, Massachusetts, was formerly called Smith & Wesson, and still gets about 85 percent of its revenue from that firearms subsidiary. It is diversifying into camping and outdoor equipment to avoid exclusive dependence on a single, controversial product line.

At this moment, I see no sign that the handgun or rifle market is saturated; nor does restrictive gun ownership legislation seem likely.

In the past four quarters, American Outdoor earned a sparkling return on equity, almost 36 percent. In the past five years, earnings have grown at an average pace of 38 percent. At nine times earnings, I think the stock is an excellent value.

There are ethical issues to be wrestled with here (just as there are with alcohol, gambling or tobacco stocks). Investors must make their own decisions. But the numbers look handsome.

Argan

Barely covered by Wall Street analysts, Argan Inc. (AGX) builds electric power plants. Most are powered by natural gas, some by biodiesel and other forms of renewable energy.

Despite an enviable growth record, the stock sells for only 12 times earnings. I think investors worry that additional power plants will be unnecessary. I disagree. I think Americans will continue to demand more juice to power their computers, air conditioners and mobile devices.

I like obscure stocks and I like debt-free stocks. Argan is both.

D.R. Horton

I am sweet on the homebuilding industry. Following a harrowing decline in 2007-09, it has come back about halfway to the glory days of 2004-06. I think there is room for further gains.

Thats one reason I like D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI). Its revenue should hit $14 billion this year, up from $6 billion in 2013. Yet its not too pricey, at 14 times recent earnings.

Horton was on this list a year ago, and rose 15.5 percent in 12 months, a little less than the S&P 500. I see no reason not to go with it again.

Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Partners LP (SEP), based in Houston, transports natural gas and oil, and operates natural-gas storage depots. It is structured as a master limited partnership (which can complicate your tax return).

The stock seems to me to be a fairly conservative play on recovery of the energy industry. The dividend looks lavish at 6.2 percent, but be aware there is some danger it could be cut.

TPG Specialty

TPG Specialty Lending Inc. (TSLX), based in San Francisco, is an affiliate of TPG Group Holdings, one of largest private-equity investors in the U.S. Its specialty is lending to middle-market firms, ones that the company says might not otherwise have access to capital.

The company just squeaked through on my eligibility criteria. I recommend it because I think the TPG organization has a deep talent pool, and will make sure there is an able hand on the rudder.

Disclosure: I own Argan and Taro Pharmaceutical shares for some of my clients.

John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments LLC in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, and a syndicated columnist. His firm or clients may own or trade securities discussed in this column. He can be reached at jdorfman@dorfmanvalue.com.
The video was graphic, the decision historic.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced Wednesday that he is charging two of the officers involved in attempts to subdue Zachary Bearheels  the mentally ill Oklahoma man who died after being shocked repeatedly with a Taser on June 5.

Kleine made the announcement as he stood by a big screen displaying a cruiser-camera video of the dramatic events that ended with Bearheels death.

When the video showed images of Bearheels being dragged by his ponytail and his belt to a cruiser, Winnebago activist Frank LaMere called out: Charge em all!

Kleine charged the two his office determined to be the primary aggressors in the melee:

 Scotty Payne, a five-year officer, faces second-degree assault charges for shocking Bearheels 12 times with a Taser.

 Ryan McClarty, a second-year officer, faces third-degree assault charges for punching Bearheels 13 times after Bearheels ripped his hand free from a handcuff.

McClarty will receive a ticket for the misdemeanor count. Payne will turn himself in Friday and make his first court appearance. Both have been fired and are appealing their terminations.

Charges against an Omaha police officer in a case involving a citizens death are rare.

Paynes felony charge is one of only three that have been filed against Omaha police officers in on-duty deaths in the past 30 years. The two others, against Police Officers Todd Sears and Jerad Kruse in 1997 and 2000, were short-lived cases that were thrown out by judges and never fully prosecuted.

Kleine said he considered charging Payne with manslaughter but was hamstrung by a coroner physicians determination that she couldnt connect Bearheels death specifically to being shocked by a Taser.

Kleine emphasized that if Payne is convicted of second-degree assault, he faces the same punishment as manslaughter: up to 20 years in prison.

Police officers are placed in very difficult situations in the job they do to keep the peace, Kleine said. Its a daunting task in todays society.

Yet, the prosecutor said, Bearheels had committed no crime.

Zachary Bearheels was simply a human being suffering from a severe mental illness that was quite obvious to anyone who came in contact with him, Kleine said. Our laws should protect those who are most vulnerable, particularly those who suffer from mental illness.

Representatives of the former Omaha officers criticized Kleine for Monday morning quarterbacking the officers heat-of-the-moment decisions.

The Omaha police union blasted Kleine for bypassing a grand jury and issuing charges on his own.

Sgt. John Wells released a two-page statement saying the union was disappointed that (Kleine) and his office succumbed to the pressure. The union wrote that defensive-tactic experts have found that the officers actions (fall) within accepted police standards and (are) not excessive in nature.

The officers actions are not to be judged by 20/20 hindsight but based upon the reasonable perspective of an officer on the scene, the union wrote. These officers are entitled to a grand jury process and the ability to present a defense that includes all facts and evidence, not those cherry-picked for a press conference when the politics and pressure become too much to bear.

Kleine called the unions contention that he caved to pressure nonsense. Under Nebraska Supreme Court rulings, Kleine noted, a grand jury or prosecuting agency can file charges. Kleine said he has a duty to file charges any time he has evidence to prove a law violation.

We didnt rush this, Kleine said. We took our time. We didnt cherry-pick anything.

Kleines announcement in a first-floor courthouse jury room was an emotionally charged affair. A peace activist sat among journalists and asked Kleine whether he was investigating the mental health of the officer who shocked Bearheels 12 times. A woman wept as she told a story of her own mentally ill son. A handful of Native Americans groaned as they watched Bearheels treatment on video.

Kleine said he showed relevant parts of the cruiser-camera video because theres a lot of emotions in this case.

I think its important for people to view facts and evidence, he said.

The video shows Bearheels standing outside the Buckys convenience store at 60th and Center Streets. Police and security officers had been called to the area a couple of times that day after Bearheels was seen wandering and acting erratically.

Bearheels had been visiting relatives in South Dakota and was returning by bus to his home in Oklahoma. A driver kicked him off in Omaha.

At one point that day, he refused Omaha police officers offer to take him to a shelter. At another point, he licked the windows of a midtown business.

Later, at the Buckys, he lingered and refused to leave. An employee called 911.

Officers Jennifer Strudl and James Mosby arrived and approached Bearheels.

Bearheels wiggled a little, as if dancing, then began whispering.

You use meth tonight? Strudl asked. You use meth?

Bearheels mumbled.

You dont have to whisper, Strudl said.

As they asked questions, both officers were able to handcuff Bearheels and place him in the back of Strudls cruiser.

Kleine said Strudl and officers then spent several minutes speaking by phone to Bearheels mother, Renita Chalepah. Chalepah informed officers that Bearheels was bipolar and schizophrenic  and may have stopped taking his medications.

The officers devised a plan to transport Bearheels to a bus depot downtown to send him to Oklahoma. In doing so, officers  acting on the instructions of Sgt. Erik Forehead  declined to seek a mental health commitment at a hospital. Under state law, police can seek a commitment if a person is mentally ill and poses a danger to himself or others.

Strudl then opened the back door of her cruiser to try to fasten Bearheels seat belt.

Bearheels sat sideways in the backseat, his back to the rear door.

We have to put your seat belt on, Strudl said as she opened the door.

Head cocked back and to the side, Bearheels slid his right leg out and pivoted out of the cruiser.

No-no-no-no, Strudl said rapidly. Stay in the car!

Bearheels continued, his hands still cuffed behind him.

No-no-no-no, Strudl said, backing up.

From there, several events occur out of camera view.

Payne, who had just arrived, and Officer Makyla Mead joined Strudl in attempting to subdue Bearheels. The three officers pinned him against a set of cases of bottled water outside the store.

However, they were unable to get him back to the cruiser. They requested assistance.

McClarty arrived and joined in. He, Payne, Mead and Strudl attempted to carry Bearheels to the cruiser but Bearheels broke free.

Payne loudly announced Taser, Taser, Taser and used his Taser on Bearheels multiple times. The probes went into Bearheels abdomen and thigh.

The melee then came back into the view of the cruiser camera.

The four officers dragged Bearheels face down  two of them lifting him by his elbows.

As they got close to the rear of the cruiser, Bearheels slumped, his head drooping to the ground. McClarty grabbed his ponytail, whipping his head back. The officers set him down near the rear tire.

Bearheels sat up, his legs splayed. At that point, Kleine said, he had been shocked about five times.

Come on, Strudl said, why cant you just get in the car?

Youre gonna get it again, Payne said, referring to the Taser.

Bearheels leaned back against the rear tire.

Are you going to get into the car? a female officer asked. No?

Twenty seconds later, Payne pulled the trigger of the Taser  sending 50,000 volts into Bearheels.

Bearheels legs jerked for a couple of seconds.

Get up, an officer said.

Bearheels then ripped his left hand free from his handcuffs and tried to flee.

Thats when McClarty jumped on him, punching him 13 times in 16 seconds.

The Taser probes remained attached, Kleine said. At one point, Kleine said, Payne held the trigger of the Taser, shocking Bearheels for 18 seconds.

I dont know that theres any justification for that use of force, Kleine said.

Kleines choice of charges drew outrage on both sides  from victim advocates and representatives of the police officers.

Paynes attorney, Steve Lefler, called scrutiny of the officers actions Monday morning quarterbacking. McClartys attorney didnt return phone calls.

I want the community to know that Mr. Payne is not just a good guy, hes a great guy, Lefler said. Ive talked to older officers who have said that hes one of the best recruits theyve had in years.

He did not become a police officer to hurt anybody, to kill anybody. He feels terrible that this happened.

While the Omaha police union wanted no charges, others wanted more. LaMere, a Winnebago leader, questioned why Kleine didnt charge everyone from the commanders to the other officers at the scene. Strudl and Mead have been placed on administrative leave.

That day, June 5, no one needed to be served more than Zachary Bearheels, LaMere said. Nobody in this community needed to be protected more than Zachary Bearheels. He died at the hands of the Omaha Police Department.

Theres a lot of issues we need to address with mental health  not just victims but those who work in the public trust. Something went awry that day  terribly awry.

A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the last time an officer was charged in connection with an in-custody death.
LINCOLN -- A visitor may have slipped contraband to a prison inmate who was found unresponsive six days later and died from a drug overdose, according to a report released Wednesday.

But Inspector General of Corrections Doug Koebernick, who issued the report, said his investigation could not pin down whether the events were linked.

Theres a lot of questions still, he said. I couldnt find any proof one way or another.

Nor does the report provide answers about why staff did not respond to early-morning attempts to get help for the inmate.

Daelan LaMere, 22, died at a Lincoln hospital the evening of June 6 after being found unresponsive in his Tecumseh State Prison cell the morning of May 27.

He tested positive for MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, and methamphetamine. His official death certificate listed a combined overdose of the two drugs as the cause of his death.

A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said department Director Scott Frakes was not available to comment on the report Wednesday afternoon.

According to a summary of the inspector generals investigation:

LaMere had a visitor at the Tecumseh prison on May 21. When the visitor left, prison staff did a strip search of LaMere.

One staff member saw a lump in LaMeres cheek. Upon further investigation, the staff member saw a blue pouch in LaMeres mouth and told him to spit it out. LaMere instead appeared to swallow the pouch.

He was taken to an observation cell in the prisons nursing area and kept until the next day, but no evidence of contraband was found.

LaMeres visits were suspended after that incident.

According to the investigation, LaMeres cellmate awoke six days later at about 3:15 a.m. to find that LaMere was struggling to breathe, had vomited and was unresponsive.

The cellmate and an inmate in the next cell pushed the response buttons in their cells to call for help but got no response.

Koebernick said his investigation found one person who said the volume on the response buttons had been turned down.

He said he could not verify that information, however. Video from the housing unit does not have sound on it.

The video does show staff doing cell checks in the early-morning hours. LaMeres cellmate said he remembered a cell check at 5:03 a.m., but at that point, LaMere seemed to be doing better so he did not say anything.

LaMere did not get help until 6:18 a.m., after the cell doors opened at 6:15 a.m. and his cellmate alerted staff.

In the report, Koebernick concluded that LaMeres death appeared to be the result of unwise actions taken by himself.

However, there are lessons to be learned in this case, he said.

He recommended reviewing the staffs ability to turn down the volume on the inmate response buttons. He also recommended a drug awareness campaign and steps to strengthen efforts to keep out drugs and alcohol.

Because LaMere died in state custody, a grand jury investigation must be conducted. The State Patrol also launched an investigation.

LaMere was the fourth inmate from the Tecumseh prison to die this year. He had been serving a 6- to 11-year sentence for robbing a convenience store and using a firearm to commit a felony.

* * * * *

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the inmate died six days after possibly receiving the contraband.
It's the 40th anniversary of one of NYC's most infamous summers: 1977, when the blackout and the Son of Sam dominated headlines. The serial killer, who was originally dubbed "the .44 Caliber Killer" before the "Son of Sam" moniker stuck, was targeting young couples in NYC, and was particularly attracted to "women with long, dark, wavy hair." So naturally, on-air reporters took to the streets and approached attractive young women, asking, "Do you feel personally threatened because you have long brown hair?" Please watch the :17-second mark when the reporter literally sneaks up on a woman from behind in 1977 when a serial killer was on the loose:

This footage is from the Smithsonian Channel's upcoming hour-long special, The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam, which premieres Sunday July 30th. The documentary, which exclusively features old footage, focuses on David Berkowitz and the media frenzy that the murders created. "Viewers get to relive these shocking U.S. moments as eyewitnesses," a rep for the channel says, explaining they only used "rare, newly discovered news and home video/audio footage from that time period, with no narration or new interviews." From the press release:

Berkowitz had already struck five times before the police were able to confirm that the bizarre shootings were all committed by the same individual, and the documentary features rare press conference footage of Police Commissioner Michael J. Dodd announcing publicly that the murders were connected and carried out using a .44 caliber Charter Arms Bulldog pistol. It wasnt until Berkowitz struck for the sixth time on April 17, 1977 that he left a note promising to continue killing as the Son of Sam. The media ran with the new name, and New York, a city already plagued by a brutal crime wave, was now living in total fear. The Son of Sam began sending letters to newspapers describing the bizarre details and motives behind his attacks, and the headlines and notoriety surrounding the Son of Sam murders only fueled the flame for an unstable, violent killer.



Berkowitzs method of stalking the streets at night, murdering brazenly, was incredibly difficult to track, and the NYPD formed a 200-person task force, Operation Omega, to bring him to justice. Attacking young couples in different sections of the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn meant that no neighborhood was safe during his rampage, and police and the public had no idea when or where the Son of Sam would strike again.

The NYPD eventually got a tip from Cacilia Davis, a resident of Bath Beach, who told them about a suspicious man on her street the night of the Moskowitz-Violante murders; the police had ticketed his car moments before he walked by her, giving her an uneasy feeling. They checked every parking ticket issued that night and eventually hit Berkowitz's 1970 yellow Ford Galaxie. The tip led them to 35 Pine Street in Yonkers, where they found his car, stuffed with ammunition, maps of his previous crime scenes, and a letter to Inspector Timothy Dowd of the Omega Task Force, who was leading the manhunt.

The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam premieres on the Smithsonian Chennel Sunday, July 30th at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Jerry Jaerzino Romeo Adjiwanou had moved to the United States from Africa eight months before his death this spring.

Now, about two months later, his funeral has been scheduled, thanks to the more than 100 donors who supported a GoFundMe effort to cover funeral expenses, including recording the funeral to share with his mother and father in Africa.

As of Tuesday, $5,420 had been raised by 107 donors. Donations ranged from $10 to $300, from families, individuals and anonymous supporters, with condolences in both English and French.

Adjiwanou, 23, was found unconscious in his Camelot Village apartment complex pool on May 28. A witness performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital.

He was born June 25, 1993.

A wake will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Kremer Funeral Home, 6302 Maple Street.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Mission Church, 3401 Patrick Ave. Burial will follow at Mt. Hope Cemetery. A luncheon will be held at 7575 Crown Point Ave.

Adjiwanou is survived by his father, Sidney Graziani S. Adjiwanou; his mother, Afissetou Tchassama; along with brothers, sisters and cousins.
A slow-moving cold front pushed into eastern Nebraska and western Iowa today, and its precipitation could impact the region into early Thursday.

Forecasters said many locations across the region, including the Omaha area, could see up to one inch of rainfall through tonight, with localized amounts of two to three inches possible.

The National Weather Service office in Valley said there is a slight chance of severe storms across southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa today and tonight. The weather service issued a flash flood watch for today and tonight for most of the southern half of Iowa, including some parts of southwest Iowa, and two counties in southeast Nebraska - Richardson and Nemaha.

Cooler conditions and dry weather are likely for Thursday and Friday.

The weather apparently led to power outages overnight in eastern Nebraska.

OPPD had a total of about 3,400 customers without power around 9:15 a.m. today.

Around noon, OPPD said it was down to about 30 scattered outages as work crews made final repairs from this morning's storms.

In the Omaha area today, expect showers and thunderstorms and a high temperature around 85. Tonight, there is a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1 a.m., and a low in the upper 60s.

Pretty decent changes in our weather will be showing up, said Ryan McPike, a KMTV meteorologist. Its really going to do a number on our temperatures and humidity.

We need the rain, McPike said.

He said the Omaha area could receive up to almost one inch of rainfall through tonight. McPike also said todays rainfall will be off and on, with this mornings precipitation breaking up late and then additional rain late this afternoon into tonight.

Omaha has officially received .66 inches of rainfall at Eppley Airfield this month through Tuesday, 2.42 inches under the norm by July 25.

Thursday through Tuesday in the Omaha area is forecast to be mostly sunny and dry with highs in the lower to mid-80s and overnight lows in the mid-60s, the weather service said.

Omaha's high temperature Tuesday was 97 degrees, the 16th day this month that the high has topped 90. The normal high for Omaha in July is 87.

The rain may have been responsible for a number of commuter crashes this morning, too: 15 crashes involving 25 vehicles between 5:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. in the Omaha area.

Area rainfall totals in inches for the 24 hours ending at 7:30 a.m. today: Albion, 1.45; Beatrice, .22; Blair, 1.02; Columbus, 1.48; Fremont, .88; Lincoln, .35; Nebraska City, .39; Norfolk, 1.20; Offutt Air Force Base, .58; Eppley Airfield, .20; Florence, .43; Millard, .72; Tekamah, .48; Valley, .73; Wahoo, .79; Wayne, .66; Council Bluffs, .17; Harlan, .09.
Alexis Bonogofsky flew in overnight from Billings, Montana, to tell Nebraskans on Wednesday that oil pipelines do rupture and can harm farm and ranch operations.

Bonogofsky, a rancher and employee of the National Wildlife Federation, fought back tears as she described the rupture of an Exxon Mobil pipeline below the Yellowstone River in July of 2011 that flooded oil-contaminated water across pastures used to graze sheep and goats.

The equivalent of about 1,500 55-gallon barrels of oil were spilled, leaving her pastures a weedy mess that still havent fully recovered. Damage, overall, was estimated at $135 million for a 30-minute spill.

You dont clean up oil from moving water, Bonogofsky said.

Several in the audience of about 180 people gave her a standing ovation following her testimony at a public meeting over the proposal to route the Keystone XL pipeline across Nebraska.

But there were also many at the Ralston Arena speaking in support of the pipeline, including a man who grew up servicing wells and pipelines in oil fields in the Kimball, Nebraska, area.

People out there understand the oil industry, said Dallen Juelfs, now of Lincoln. They understand the risks, they understand the benefits, and theres a lot more benefits than risks.

And so it went over eight hours during the last meeting held by the Nebraska Public Service Commission to gather public input about the recently revived pipeline, which would transport oil from Canadas oil sands region to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast set up to handle the thick crude.

The PSC will hold a formal, court-like hearing Aug. 7 through 11 on the proposed 275-mile route of the pipeline across Nebraska. The five-member commission has until Nov. 23 to decide whether the path  the same one approved by state environmental regulators in 2013  is in the states public interest.

The state pipeline-siting law bars the commission from considering safety issues, including the risk or impact of spills or leaks from the pipeline. But that didnt prevent most of the 99 people who testified Wednesday from voicing opinions about its relative safety or risks.

Proponents, who included two current and two former state senators, said oil pipelines were 400 times safer in transporting oil than railcars or trucks. Supporters also said that construction of the $8 billion pipeline would bring 4,000 to 5,000 well-paying, though temporary, construction jobs to the state.

I have a family to feed. All I ask is, will you put me to work? said Kenny Spencer of Omaha, an apprentice union heavy machinery operator, whos hoping to work on the Keystone XL.

But opponents said theres no question that the pipeline will eventually leak and harm farm and ranch operations, and that the Keystone XL would create perhaps no more than 20 full-time jobs in the state. No eminent domain for private gain was the mantra from foes.

Leading pipeline opponent Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska also said that while there might be more frequent oil spills from rail shipments, leaks from pipelines involve much more oil and become much more damaging.

TransCanada has said it hopes to begin construction of the pipeline as early as next year, but opponents have pledged to file lawsuits and contest the taking of private land through eminent domain, thus delaying the project.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Eager to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 election, the House on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed a new package of sanctions against Moscow that prohibits President Donald Trump from waiving the penalties without first getting permission from Congress.

Lawmakers passed the legislation, 419-3, clearing the far-reaching measure for action by the Senate. If senators move quickly, the bill could be ready for Trump's signature before Congress exits Washington for its regular August recess. The Senate, like the House, is expected to pass the legislation by a veto-proof margin. The bill also slaps Iran and North Korea with sanctions.

The 184-page measure serves as a rebuke of the Kremlin's military aggression in Ukraine and Syria, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed President Bashar Assad. It aims to hit Putin and the oligarchs close to him by targeting Russian corruption, human rights abusers, and crucial sectors of the Russian economy, including weapons sales and energy exports.

"It is well past time that we forcibly respond," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Trump hasn't threatened to reject the bill even though Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other senior administration officials had objected to a mandated congressional review should the president attempt to ease or lift the sanctions on Russia. They've argued it would infringe on the president's executive authority and tie his hands as he explores avenues of communication and cooperation between the two former Cold War foes.

But Trump's persistent overtures to Russia are what pushed lawmakers to include the sanctions review. Many lawmakers view Russia as the nation's top strategic adversary and believe more sanctions, not less, put the U.S. in a position of strength in any negotiations with Moscow.

Trump's "rhetoric toward the Russians has been far too accommodating and conciliatory, up to this point," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.

"Russian behavior has been atrocious," Dent said. "They deserve these enhanced sanctions. Relations with Russia will improve when Russian behavior changes and they start to fall back into the family of nations."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Congress "is uncomfortable with any rapprochement with Moscow without getting some things for it." But he said the legislation isn't intended to be a message to Trump.

"We're sending a message to Moscow," Kinzinger said. "But if the president had any intention of trying to give Vladimir Putin what he wants on certain areas, I think he'll think twice about it."

Heavy support for the bill from Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate has effectively scuttled the potential for Trump to derail the legislation. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Sunday that the president would sign the sanctions bill. But on Monday, Sanders said Trump is "going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like."

Signing a bill that penalizes Russia's election interference would mark a significant shift for Trump. He's repeatedly cast doubt on the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to tip the election in his favor. He's blasted as a "witch hunt" investigations into the extent of Russia's interference and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

According to the bill, Trump is required to send Congress a report explaining why he wants to suspend or terminate a particular set of the sanctions on Russia. Lawmakers would then have 30 days to decide whether to allow the move or reject it.

"There'll be no side deals or turning a blind eye to (Russia's) actions," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

The North Korea-related sanctions bar ships owned by the reclusive nation or by countries that refuse to comply with U.N. resolutions against Pyongyang from operating in American waters or docking at U.S. ports. Goods produced by North Korea's forced labor would be prohibited from entering the United States.

The sanctions package also imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo. Democrats said the new sanctions on Iran don't conflict with the Iran nuclear deal

A version of the sanctions legislation that only addressed Russia and Iran cleared the Senate nearly six weeks ago with 98 votes. Lawmakers have questioned whether the bill may hit a hurdle in the Senate, which hasn't yet fully considered the North Korea section of the bill. But Royce said he made specific procedural tweaks to get the bill passed and to Trump before Congress leaves town for a month.

"We cannot afford any more delay," he said.

The three House members who voted against the bill are Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Justin Amash of Michigan and John Duncan of Tennessee.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trumps public criticism of Jeff Sessions, which continued Wednesday morning on Twitter, suggests an effort to pressure the attorney general into resigning.

Firing or forcing out Sessions could set off a frenzied  and confusing  chain reaction.

Removing Sessions would allow Trump to replace him, which would be key to ultimately removing Robert Mueller from his job investigating potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign before last years presidential election.

But Trump, infuriated by Sessions own recusal from the probe, would need to find a new ally in the Justice Department willing to remove Mueller  which may not be easy.

Potential scenarios:

The ordinary succession plan

If Trump follows Justice Department protocol and his own executive order outlining a succession plan, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would immediately become acting attorney general until a permanent successor is nominated and confirmed by the Senate.

That would leave the president, at least immediately, with another attorney general of whom he has been sharply critical. Rosenstein would continue to oversee Muellers investigation, and there is no time limit on how long he could serve in an acting capacity.

Elevating the deputy

Trump could choose Rosenstein to be attorney general. But Rosenstein, the point person for Muellers probe within the Justice Department, has not been spared from Trumps ire.

Trump lashed out at him in a New York Times interview last week, suggesting he couldnt be a loyal Republican if hes from Baltimore (which he isnt) and claimed that he had a conflict in the case since he wrote a memo that preceded the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Rosenstein has steadfastly said he would not fire Mueller unless there were legitimate grounds to do so. He has said he wont follow any orders he doesnt believe are lawful or appropriate, suggesting that hed be prepared to resign if Trump demanded that he fire Mueller.

Unlike Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump, Rosenstein and Trump had no pre-existing relationship and theres no reason to think the president would rather have him lead the Justice Department.

Rosenstein, who cultivated an image as a straight-arrow prosecutor who served under presidents of both political parties, also may see standing up to the president as a chance to salvage a reputation hobbled by his role in Comeys firing.

Under the departments line of succession, if Sessions and Rosenstein were to both leave, the acting attorney general slot would then be filled by Rachel Brand, the No. 3 official and the associate attorney general.

A different pick

Trump could invoke his authority under the federal Vacancies Reform Act to select someone other than Rosenstein to lead the department on an interim basis provided that person is already Senate-confirmed, which could include a Cabinet member or a top Justice Department official.

Such appointments have 210-day limits, and its not clear that law can be used when the previous officeholder is fired. A person picked under the act could not also be named as a permanent successor, according to Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas national security law professor.

If Trump opts for someone other than Rosenstein, that selection would have enormous import because the pick  barring a conflict similar to the one Sessions had, which involved his advocacy for Trump during the campaign  would assume oversight of Muellers investigation. Theres nothing in the regulations that set up Muellers appointment that would seem to bar an acting attorney general from firing a special counsel for misconduct, conflict of interest or dereliction of duty.

Whoever is acting as attorney general has the authority to fire Mueller, said Josh Blackman, a South Texas College of Law professor.

A recess appointment

If the Senate formally recesses for 10 days or more, Trump can appoint someone of his choosing to be attorney general until the end of the next Senate session in January 2019, Vladeck said. And Trumps pick wouldnt need Senate confirmation to step into the role, theoretically allowing the president to select someone amenable to firing Mueller.

The length of this Augusts recess remains up in the air.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate minority leader, vowed to fight any such recess appointment.

Many Americans must be wondering if the president is trying to pry open the office of attorney general to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire Mueller and shut down the Russia investigation, Schumer said Tuesday. Before this scheme gains wings, Democrats will never go along with a recess appointment. If that situation arises, we have some tools in our toolbox to stymie such action.

Democrats could filibuster the Senate recess and try to force Republicans to conduct short, pro forma sessions with no business conducted once every three days. That would bar the president from making recess appointments.
 U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, disagreed with Trumps ban. She served in the military alongside members from different backgrounds and parts of the county, her spokeswoman said.

She believes what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life, Brook Hougesen said. While she believes taxpayers shouldnt cover the costs associated with a gender reassignment surgery, Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity.

 U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said she wants to know more about the new policy.

Im familiar with the questions that have been raised about the costs of gender reassignment surgery, but the presidents comments are much broader, Fischer said in a statement. Id like to hear more details about what exactly is being proposed, and have an opportunity to hear from the Secretary and the service chiefs about how they would implement any new policy.

 Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, praised Trump for moving decisively on the issue.

I wish hed have gotten that done last week, but Im glad he did it. King said. He made it really clear, really definitive.

As for troops serving now and whether they should be pushed out of uniform?

Well, lets do what the commander-in-chief wants to do, but as I read that tweet, that would say that there will be hopefully a graceful way for them to leave the service, King said. Thats how it would read to me.

Its a pretty simple equation, King said.

I know of no successful army in history that has recruited transgenders, given them surgery and sent them off into battle and thought that they had a crack fighting force, King said. It was a social experiment of Barack Obama and Ash Carter and we ought to put that in the ash heap of history.

 Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said: As of now we have only seen tweets and no details regarding the policy, including what happens to transgendered service members already openly serving or undergoing treatment. We must also look at the readiness of those serving to deploy and engage at a moments notice as certain medical treatments can hinder that ability. In fact, every year thousands of patriotic and otherwise qualified Americans are barred from military service for readiness concerns. I look forward to hearing from the President and Department of Defense about how this policy will be implemented.

 The American Legion, among the largest veterans advocacy groups, hasnt developed a policy on transgender service, according to a statement from Charles E. Schmidt, the national commander.

Schmidt said the Legion favors a single mental and physical standard for all personnel regardless of age or gender, and that the military should strive for maximum readiness.

Any requirement that disqualifies an able-bodied person from serving in our armed forces should be based solely upon its proven adverse effect on readiness, and nothing else, he said.

James Costello, the newly installed department commander for the Legion in Nebraska, hadnt heard about Trumps tweets until he was contacted by a reporter. He said he rarely hears about the issue of transgender service when he talks with veterans around the state.

I dont think its a forefront topic, Costello said.

 Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, said any qualified American who is willing and physically able to effectively and honorably serve in the defense of their nation should be able to serve in that capacity. What I do not support  and am on the record as voting against  is taxpayer funding of gender reassignment procedures through the armed forces. Defense funding should be spent on creating the strongest, most effective and ready military possible.

 Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said whether transgender individuals should be allowed to serve is a hard question that he will leave to the military to work out.

But he reiterated his opposition to funding their surgeries, saying that there is a high suicide rate among those who receive the procedure.

He said he just received information that those surgeries could potentially cost taxpayers $1.3 billion over time. And he said theres a fundamental issue of fairness of people with flat feet or bad teeth not being able to join the military.

Now were looking at a policy that would cost us billions? he said of taxpayers paying for those surgeries. We ought not do this.

 Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said in a statement: We stand with Americas transgender military members who protect our freedom every day. When Trump attacks one, he attacks us all.

 Carla Cecilia Ruiz, 53, of Omaha, called the presidents announcement on Twitter devastating.

Ruiz, a former crew chief on KC-135 tanker jets, served in the Air Force Reserve and then the Nebraska Air National from 1989 to 1998 before she transitioned to female in 2011.

All the work weve done the past year to build this new policy  to have this tweet come out and demolish that, its beyond devastating, said Ruiz, former president of the River City Gender Alliance. Its hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.

 Rep Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he agreed that taxpayer dollars should not be used for gender reassignment surgeries in the military, noting he recently supported an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have prohibited such funding.

The American people elected President Trump as commander-in-chief, and though personnel decisions are often difficult to make, the president conferred with military leaders on todays announcement.

 Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hasnt studied military leaders view on the transgender issue.

I would give deference to military people, Grassley said. And Id give deference to things that Sen. Ernst would say since shes been in the military and I never have.

 Nebraska State Sens. Carol Blood, Sue Crawford, Matt Hansen, Burke Harr, Sara Howard, John S. McCollister, Mike McDonnell, Adam Morfeld, Patty Pansing Brooks, Tony Vargas, and Anna Wishart: We, as your elected officials, are grateful to all Americans, including the LGBTQ community, who selflessly protect and defend the United States through their military service. We recognize your bravery, your courage, and your sacrifices, and we will continue to support you.

Compiled by World-Herald staff writers Joseph Morton and Steve Liewer.
WASHINGTON  A Democratic congressman from California is headed to Omaha for events targeting young people.

Rep. Eric Swalwell is chairman of the Future Forum, an effort by Democrats to connect on issues important to millennials, from rising student loan debt to a decline in entrepreneurship.

The goal is to just understand the challenges that young people are facing, Swalwell told The World-Herald. He said the effort is about gathering information and taking it back to Washington to inform policy decisions.

Former Rep. Brad Ashford, D-Neb., will participate in the Millennial Town Hall, which will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 10 at Kaneko, 1111 Jones St.

Swalwell, who represents parts of Silicon Valley, said Ashford told him he needed to check out the innovation economy that has been growing in Omaha.

Despite being some decades removed from young people today, the 67-year-old Ashford is millennial-minded Swalwell said.

Ashford, who is seeking his old seat this election cycle, said the event is an opportunity to connect with young people on issues ranging from health care to hurdles in starting a new business. It seems right now that government is so disconnected from the real problems of that age group.

Kara Eastman, Ashfords opponent in the Democratic primary, plans to attend the event with her 16-year-old daughter and Central High Schools senior class president. The issue that I hear millennials talk about most are their student loans. They are drowning in debt.
KIRLAMPUDI: Tension is building up in Kirlampudi village in Andhra Pradesh, the native village of Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham, after police put him under house arrest this morning.The detention was to foil Padmanabhams march on Amaravati to press for inclusion of Kapus in the Backward Class list. Police said there was no permission for the rally.Padmanabham was supposed to begin his march this morning from Kirlampudi. Since there were indications that the march would be stopped, his supporters massed in the village last night though all roads to the village were barricaded.

With activists arriving in droves, police are determined not allow anyone into the village. Police chief N Sambasiva Rao has warned youngsters against taking part in the rally as an arrest would mar their future.Police said Padmanabham will be under house arrest for 24 hours.Padmanabham dared police to arrest him and put him in jail. But police told him they had orders only to keep him under house arrest.In the upcoming capital of Amaravati, all vehicles were being checked. All roads that lead to the Secretariat at Velagapudi are being thoroughly checked while the road on Krishna embankment that runs past chief minister's N Chandrababu Naidu's residence has been closed to traffic.
Jaitley has cheated us

The central government employees are of the view that they had been cheated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He had promised them that the minimum pay would be hiked beyond Rs 18,000 a day after the 7th Pay Commission recommendations were cleared by the Cabinet. Jaitley had said after the meeting that "the minimum pay of central government employees Rs 18,000 was made on recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. But government will consider hiking it after discussions with all stakeholders" However this never happened the employees' union has alleged.

He told a big lie

Despite Jaitley's promise of hiking the minimum pay, he never did it. The employees ask why he made such a promise when it he could not keep up his word. Employees feel that he was trying to cover up the matter relating to the allowances. The employees had waited for good news on allowances and felt that arrears would be paid from July 2016 onwards. However after the Cabinet meeting the employees were left disappointed as the allowances were being rolled out from July 2017 onwards.

Retain existing percentage of 30, 20 and 10

The Central Government Employees are dissatisfied by the decision taken by the Government not to revised the HRA percentage recommended by the pay panel.The demand of the Staff Side is reiterated for retaining the existing percentage of 30%, 20% and 10%. The low paid employees who were getting Transport Allowance @ Rs.3600 + DA a on 1.1.2016 is subject to huge financial loss since their Transport Allowance has been reduced to Rs.1300+DA. This injustice should be rectified. Official Side agreed for a review.

Main demand is on allowances

Even though the demand of the Staff Side is that, Allowances should also be revised from the date of revision of pay i.e.1.1.2016, at least Government should have given the same from the date of notification of 7th Pay Commission as was done during the previous pay commissions.

The Official Side is requested to consider this demand. The Staff Side also drew the attention of the Official Side towards the Awards given by the Board of Arbitration in favour of the employees in the past in the regard.
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Bihars Mahagathbandhan in shambles? Nitish, Lalu to hold separate meeting with MLAs

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Patna, July 26: It is just a matter of time when Bihar's Mahagathbandhan or Grand Coalition would break apart. But before that, the coalition partners-- Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) (JD-U)--are taking their own sweet time to decide on the future course of action.

According to reports, both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar are going to host separate meetings with their respective MLAs on Wednesday.

The two meetings of MLAs of both the parties are coming just ahead of the monsoon session of the Bihar assembly. If things were fine between the coalition partners, the two meetings would have been clubbed into one.

As the friction between the alliance partners has reached the zenith over the resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, it looks like both Lalu and Nitish would decide with their MLAs their future course of action during the meetings.

While JD (U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish wants his deputy to resign over corruption allegations, the RJD chief Lalu once again stated recently that Tejashwi, his son, won't leave the post.

The MLAs of the Congress, also part of the coalition government in the state, will be part of the meeting hosted by the RJD.

The monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly is slated from Friday onwards. Thus, Nitish and his men don't want Tejashwi, who has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on corruption charges, to join them in the Assembly as it would dent the CM's "clean image".

Nitish and his party are in tremendous pressure from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar to remove tainted deputy CM from the cabinet.

However, the RJD and the Congress are in no mood to allow Tejashwi to leave his coveted post. Recently, Nitish met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to discuss the issue of resignation of Tejashwi.

While Nitish clearly stated that his deputy must leave the cabinet, Rahul, on his part, reportedly stated mere filing of FIR can't be grounds to seek resignation.

Recently, Tejashwi met his 'big boss' to present his case. Reports say that Nitish is not going to rest till his deputy leaves the cabinet.

Amid all these developments, Nitish has asked JD (U) MLAs not to talk to the media regarding Tejashwi's resignation.

Sources say, Wednesday's meetings, scheduled in the evening, are likely to clear the picture regarding the fate of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 12:33 [IST]
Tourists stranded as Mt Abu cut off from rest of the state

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Around 2,000 tourists were stranded and contact with 104 villages cut off due to the falling of boulder on Abu Road, leading to hill station Mount Abu as incessant rains lash Rajasthan.

Mount Abu reportedly received the heaviest rainfall in over 300 years in the last 24 hours, reports said.

Rajasthan: Abu Road, leading to Mount Abu, blocked due to falling of boulder; contact with 104 villages cut off, around 2000 tourists stuck pic.twitter.com/h6L7HdoXhU  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Mount Abu is a popular hill station in the Aravalli Range in Sirohi district of Rajasthan state in western India, near the border with Gujarat. The hill station received an unprecedented 770 mm of rain in 24 hours. Statistics show that until 2010, the 100-year record for a single-day of rain in Mt Abu was 653 mm in 1992, The Hindu reports.

Yesterday, the MeT department has issued warning for heavy to very heavy rainfall in south-western and south-eastern, which covers Jodhpur and Udaipur division, during the next 24 hours.

Some areas in this region are already facing flood-like situation.

Mount Abu in Sirohi recorded 733.6 mm rains followed by Jalore, Barmer, Phalodi (Jodhpur), Jodhpur city and Dabok where the rainfall measurement was 43, 41.6, 27.6, 26 and 18.7 mm rains.

(With agency inputs)
Great tolerance, the CBI is sitting idle in Goa says its SP

CBI arrives at some 'conclusion' in case against P Chidambaram's relative

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The CBI said that it had arrived at some conclusion in the case alleging that a lady related to former Union minister, P Chidambaram had grabbed a hotel in Tamil Nadu. A plea had sought action against the lady who grabbed a hotel in TN with the help of officials of a public sector bank.

The agency, however, sought time before the Delhi High Court to file in response on the ground that the complaint on the issue was of 2007 and some clarifications had to come from Chennai.

The Central Bureau of Investigation's standing counsel Rajdeepa Behura submitted that the agency has sought the clarifications from the CBI's unit there as the case related to that state.

"The agency has arrived at some conclusion. We are only waiting for the clarifications from Chennai. Once these come to us, we will incorporate the same and file our status report in the court," the agency's counsel told Justice Vinod Goel.

Behura, however, did not elaborate as to what "some conclusion" the CBI had arrived at.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on December 8.

The CBI's response came on the petition filed by K Kathirvel, a doctor by profession who was running the hotel in partnership with his associates, including Padmini, sister of Chidambaram's wife Nalini, accused of grabbing the property in collusion with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) officials.

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the CBI and had sought a status report with regard to the complaint lodged by Kathirve.l

The court had asked the probe agency to inform it about the action taken so far.

Kathirvel has alleged in his plea that he had filed a complaint with the CBI in September 2016 against Chidambaram, his family members and top officials of the IOB for allegedly grabbing his hotel, but the agency had not yet taken any step.

The petitioner has said he had filed the complaint with the CBI director after the CBI's Tamil Nadu unit showed reluctance to entertain it.

According to his complaint, in 2007, the 'Comfort Inn' hotel in Tirupur, in which he was a partner, was grabbed by them with the help of the top management of the IOB.

Arguing for Kathirvel, his counsel Yatinder Chaudhary, had said that this was a clear case of abuse of power by the former Union minister's family using banks to grab the properties.

He had contended that even after clearing the dues, the bank went on with a "mock auction" to allot the hotel to Padmini.

The hotel was worth more than Rs 10 crore and had a loan due of Rs 2.5 crore with the IOB which had declared the loan as a non-performing asset and announced an auction, the complaint has said.

Kathirvel has said he had approached the Madras High Court and later the Debt Recovery Tribunal, besides paying Rs 64 lakh ($96,000) to the IOB to avoid auction.

After receiving the amount, the bank had promised cancellation of the auction, he has claimed. He has alleged that the bank cheated him and conducted a "farce auction" and allotted the hotel to Padmini at a very "cheap" price of Rs 4.5 crore.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 6:44 [IST]
Cooperation to fight terror high on Doval's agenda during BRICS meet

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will call for greater cooperation to combat terrorism during the BRICS summit to be held in China. Doval who will be on a two visit to China starting Thursday would focus on greater cooperation to fight terrorists and also deny them access to weapons and finances.

Doval will call upon his counterparts from the BRICS nations to strive to expand counterterrorism cooperation within the bloc to include measures for denying terrorists access to finance and terror-hardware, such as equipment, arms and ammunition.

He would also emphasise on the need for a global legal regime to deal with the problem of terrorism. Terrorism would need to be combated in all its manifestation without making a distinction between good and bad terrorists, Doval would further state.

The visit is a much watched one considering India and China are at a standoff in Doklam. He is expected to raise the issue with his counterpart. Both India and China hope that there would be a thaw in tensions following this visit.

The meeting will also be attended by the National Security Advisors of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. State Councillor of China Yang Jiechi will host the meeting of BRICS High Representatives, responsible for national security, in Beijing on Thursday and Friday.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 6:13 [IST]
Cop in Delhi booked for indecent exposure in front of female colleagues

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

A constable in Delhi has been booked and suspended for allegedly masturbating in front his women colleagues and also inappropriately touching them. An FIR was lodged against the cop after the women complained to their superiors about the indecent incident.

Delhi Police sources told the Hindustan Times that the cop had also inappropriately touched two women constables during dinner. He was allegedly reeking of alcohol when he entered the dining mess.

They threatened to inform superiors if he didn't apologise. An hour later, another woman constable alleged that the cop stripped and masturbated in front of her.

Preliminary investigation revealed the policeman went to a room and drank more alcohol after being warned by the two women in the mess. He then went to the terrace and stripped, the HT report also stated.

The constable, attached to the training college for the past two years, allegedly exposed his genitals towards an officer in the women's hostel close by.

She immediately informed seniors and officers conducted an informal identification parade in which the complainant identified the cop, the sources said.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:50 [IST]
With Yechury being denied RS ticket, is CPM heading for a split

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The CPM has decided against sending its leader Sitaram Yechury to the Rajya Sabha for the third time. The highest decision making body of the CPM- central committee decided against nominating Yechury for a third consecutive term. Yechury's second term in the Rajya Sabha ends in August. Elections to the 6 RS seats from West Bengal including the one represented by Yechury will be held on August 8.

The committee which was divided over the issue took the decision after a vote by raising hands. The committee decided to follow the party's norm that no CPM leader can represent the party in the Rajya Sabja more than twice.

Apart from the party's norm, the Kerala unit of the CPM was opposed to the idea of seeking the Congress' help to get Yechury elected to the upper house of Parliament.

The proposal for a third term was moved by the West Bengal unit of the party. However this move was opposed by the units of the party in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The central committee members also spoke with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who had opposed Yechury's third nomination to the RS in an interview.

OneIndia News
Knew it in September itself: Sheilas Dikshits son on dismal Congress show in Delhi

FIR against Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit for comments against Army Chief

India

oi-Madhuri

An FIR registered against Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit in Hussainganj police station in Lucknow for comments against Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.

Dikshit had stoked a controversy after he likened Army Chief General Bipin Rawat to a sadak ka goonda.

''Ours is not a mafia army like the Pakistani army which makes statements like the goons on the street. It looks bad when our Army chief gives a statement like a 'sadak ka goonda' (goon on the street)," the former Congress MP had said.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi had objected to this, and said that this is absolutely wrong and there is no need for political leaders to comment about the Army chief. While, BJP had lashed out at Sandeep saying that such hurtful statements will be 'democratically rejected'.

Dikshit also took to Twitter and posted an apology. He wrote: "I have reservations about a comment by Army chief but I should have chosen appropriate words. I apologise."

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 10:45 [IST]
Mamata Banerjee on 3-day visit to Darjeeling to attend swearing-in ceremony of GTA members

Gorkhaland agitation to continue? Modi govt maintains wait and watch policy

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 26: It looks like the Centre is in no mood to look into the demand of the Gorkhas, residing in the hills of West Bengal, for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre made it clear that there was no proposal to constitute a committee to look into the separate state demand of the Gorkhas in Darjeeling and its adjoining areas.

The Narendra Modi government revealed its stand in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

"There is no proposal to appoint a committee to look into the merits and demerits of the demands of the Gorkhas, Adivasis and others," Union minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in a written reply to a question in the Lower House of Parliament.

The statement clearly indicated that as of now the Centre wants to maintain a "wait and watch policy" as far as the Gorkhaland issue is concerned.

The hills in North Bengal have been witnessing an indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland, since June 12.

The indefinite bandh called by the pro-Gorkhaland supporters entered its 42nd day on Wednesday.

"Violence and damage to public property have been reported during the agitations," said Ahir.

He added that according to the Constitution, the states were primarily responsible for the maintenance of law-and-order.

The Centre, on a request from a state government, provided assistance by sending Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel, said the minister.

Similarly, CAPF battalions were provided to the West Bengal government as well for the maintenance of law-and-order in the Darjeeling hills, he added.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 8:20 [IST]
Gujarat floods: PM announces Rs 500-crore aid, Ahmedabad airport runway damaged

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Ahmedabad, July 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Rs 500 crore for Gujarat for rescue work after an aerial survey of the flooded areas and Rs 2 lakh compensation to the kin of the 83 people who have died and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

Modi, who flew over Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Patan districts of North Gujarat, said a team of the union Urban Development and Rural Development Ministries would visit the state to assess the extent of damage and suggest short-term as well as long-term measures.

Modi told reporters at the Ahmedabad airport: "In such situations, it is the farmers who suffer the most. Insurance companies may be advised to quickly organise assessment of damage to crops and assets of farmers and initiate immediate steps to settle the claims."

Modi was accompanied by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel during the aerial survey.

Ahmedabad airport runway damaged

Due to the torrential rains which have caused major floods in Gujarat, the runway of the Ahmedabad airport has been damaged, resulting in two Air India flights being diverted on Wednesday.

Delhi-Ahmedabad and Bombay-Ahmedabad have been diverted to Mumabi following the runway not functioning.

23 dams full

The north Gujarat districts of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Patan have been flooded after incessant rains during the last 36 hours. Twenty-three dams in Saurashtra, four in Kutch, four in central Gujarat and one dam in south Gujarat were full to the brim.

Tharad town has received maximum rainfall of 24 inches, followed by Dhanera 20 inches, Dantiwada 18, Palanpur 15, Deesa and Diyodar 13 inches each, Patan 12 inches and Vadgam about 11 inches.

The region has got 95 percent of its seasonal average of 659 mm. In all, entire Gujarat has registered 534 mm of rain, which is 66 percent of its total usual seasonal average of 810 mm. As must as 1.10 lakh cusecs of water has been released from the dam.

The Army and Air Force reached the flood-hit Deesa of Banaskantha district for rescue operations. The Army, IAF, NDRF and local teams have intensified rescue and relief operations as several parts of the two districts were inundated with flood water.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 10:22 [IST]
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar Chief Minister

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar's Chief Minister, ending the two-year-long Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance which included his party, RJD and the Congress. The decision to quit was taken by Kumar at a meeting of JDU MLAs on Wednesday evening.

The MLAs reportedly endorsed his decision to quit. This development will only widen the rift between the two parties. Talking to media after his resignation, Kumar said his decision to step down is in the interest of Bihar. Kumar went to Raj Bhawan and tendered resignation Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

"I asked him many times to explain on charges against him. We tried our best to carry forward the Grand alliance. But, the situation deteriorated so much that i could not continue," he told media after resigning.

"My commitment is towards people and that cannot be fulfilled under present circumstances," he added.

The situation had become increasingly difficult for Nitish to continue after Tajashwi, who is facing graft charges, refused to step down.

Reports suggest that BJP is set to hold a meeting on Wednesday evening and may lend outside support to Nitish. JD (U) has 71 seats and BJP has 53 seats in the Bihar Assembly. If BJP decides to support Nitish then they will have 124 seats in the 243 seat Bihar Assembly.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had earlier on Wednesday said that Nitish never asked for Tejashwi's resignation, claiming that there is no crisis in Bihar's grand alliance.

Reports, however, suggested that Lalu was in fact worried that Tejashwi Yadav could be sacked by Nitish Kumar.

The RJD chief earlier brushed aside reports of break up in the current alliance with the JD (U). He told media, "We have formed the grand alliance, made Nitish CM. Why will we break the alliance?"

As the friction between the alliance partners has reached the zenith over the resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, it looks like both Lalu and Nitish would decide with their MLAs their future course of action during the meetings.

While JD (U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish wants his deputy to resign over corruption allegations, the RJD chief Lalu once again stated recently that Tejashwi, his son, won't leave the post. The MLAs of the Congress, also part of the coalition government in the state, will be part of the meeting hosted by the RJD.

OneIndia News
Kanpur ISIS case: Two arrested for waging war against state

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Investigation Agency has arrested two persons in connection with the Kanpur Islamic State case. Asif Iqbal and Mohammad Atif were arrested after evidence of a criminal conspiracy against them cropped up.

Both these persons are from Uttar Pradesh and the NIA says that they were setting up a module of the ISIS in Kanpur along with several others. The NIA accuses them of being involved in a conspiracy of planning terrorist acts to wage war against the state. Three accused persons Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan and Md Azhar were earlier arrested by the NIA in the case.

Accused Asif Iqbal became a member of the proscribed organisation and took oath of allegiance and associated himself with other accused in the furtherance of the conspiracy. Accused Mohammad Atif supplied arms and ammunitions to the accused persons and associated himself with the other accused in the conspiracy, the NIA says.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:48 [IST]
Meet Major DP Singh, a living example of the phoenix that a soldier truly is

India always views war as last resort, but... : PM Modi to armed forces in Kargil

Kargil Vijay Diwas: Modi remembers bravery of armed forces

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured Kargil martyrs on Wednesday morning through a series of tweets.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation and the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," he wrote on Twitter.

Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on July 26 every year to commemorate India's victory in the 1999 Kargil War against Pakistan as it was on this day that the Indian Army had taken control of posts across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, after fighting for 60 days.

According to news agency IANS, the Army will pay homage to the martyrs through events held in all stations across the seven states under the area of responsibility of the Central Command of the Indian Army. These functions will be followed by felicitation of participants of Kargil War, 'veer naris', parents of martyrs, veterans and widows.

On Tuesday, BJP chief Amit Shah paid floral tributes to Kargil martyrs on the even of Kargil Vijay Diwas and felicitated war veterans at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

OneIndia News
Kashmir terror funding: Next on NIA's radar are Geelani, Malik, Mirwaiz

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Following the arrest and subsequent interrogation of 7 separatists from Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency is set to summon Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani among others in the terror funding case. The NIA has learnt that all these persons controlled the stone pelters who were used to create the unrest in the Valley while using funds from Pakistan, NIA officers said.

The NIA which secured the custody of the 7 Hurriyat leaders for ten days is now in the process of establishing the financial chain. The NIA says that it had ample evidence to show that the money moved into the Valley from Pakistan through hawala channels and also through hawala channels.

Top separatists such as Malik, Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq are alleged to be the main beneficiaries. It was they who the handlers from Pakistan were in direct contact with, the NIA said. These persons then deployed several persons under them to further the unrest.

The NIA is in possession of call records which suggest that the separatists remote controlled the stone pelters. They were called in systematically to pelt stones at the security forces. An NIA officer told OneIndia that the incidents of stone pelting were never sporadic in nature, but controlled by the separatists.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:45 [IST]
Let us discuss JNUs research work than Army tank issue: Union Minister

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Mahendra Nath Pandey dubbed the controversy over demand to place a decommissioned tank in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) premises as "meaningless".

"It is better if you discuss the good research works that come out of JNU. These discussions are meaningless," Pandey told media persons here on the sidelines of an Assocham event.

JNU vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar had on Monday said that "presence of an Army tank will constantly remind students of the great sacrifice and the valour of Indian Army and defence forces".

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 10:17 [IST]
Why is Parliament being cut-short so often asks Derek O'Brien

Monsoon session day 8: Congress MPs behaviour 'unparliamentary': Ananth Kumar

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 26: First week of Monsoon session of Parliament was full of slug-fest between a united opposition and ruling government and day eight is expected to be no less different.

Sources say, that CPM's popular leader Sitaram Yechury might not return to Rajya Sabha for his third term. The seventh day was marked with the swearing-in ceremony of President Ram Nath Kovind.

Meanwhile, the issue of suspension of six Congress MPs is likely to be raised in the Lok Sabha.

Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha urged "kind-hearted" Mahajan to revoke the suspension of six MPs. Mahajan, however, said she didn't want to comment on the issue immediately.

In Lok Sabha

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar criticised the Congress party for creating an uproar in the Lok Sabha, calling their behaviour 'unparliamentary.' The monsoon session in the Lower House will resume on Thursday.

Lok Sabha is adjourned without taking the Bill for division.

The IIIT Bill is taken up for voting. Congress MPs protest. "You walked out when we had a discussion on agrarian crisis," says Ananth Kumar.

Prakash Javadekar replies to the debate on IIIT Bill. Congress MPs continue with sloganeering. The House will then take up the Bill for voting.

Rahul Shwale, Shiv Sena, while supporting the Bill in Lok Sabha urges the government to bring an IIIT in Maharashtra too.

Ladu Kishore Swain, BJD, Odisha, said that the 15 Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) should be declared as institutions of national importance.

Lok Sabha considers The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

After Sushma Swaraj made a statement in LS over missing Indians in Iraq for about 10 minutes, Lok Sabha was adjourned till 02.15 PM

Lok Sabha adjourns till 12:45 pm as Opposition creates ruckus and do not allow Sushma to speak.

Sushma Swaraj speaks on issue of 39 Indians missing in Iraq in Lok Sabha.

Question Hour continues amid sloganeering. Questions on new industrial training centres.

After a four-storey residential building collapsed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar, killing at least 17 people, MP Milind Deora urged MPs from Maharashtra to rise above party lines and raise the issue in Parliament.

Urge MPs from Mumbai to rise above party lines and raise Mumbai issues in Parliament. City has collapsed. People are dying pic.twitter.com/mhA56MAEnk  Milind Deora (@milinddeora) July 26, 2017

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi asked the minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi whether the government planned to grant constitutional status to the minorities rights commission.

RJD leader moves adjournment motion on poor quality food served in trains.

Progress of renovation of 141 railway stations taken up in Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha proceedings begin. Congress MPs want question hour to be suspended. They also request the Speaker to revoke suspension of MPs. The Speaker rejects their demands. Opposition MPs shout "Bandh Karo, Bandh Karo".

In Rajya Sabha

RS passes The Collection of Statistics Bill.Census is in the Union list. The rights of Kashmiris are not infringed through this Bill, he says. Union Minister Sadananda Gowda says the data collected from Jammu and Kashmir will be used for the development of the region.

We had sent a cabinet note regarding the Bill to the Kashmir government. But they haven't responded to it, says Gowda.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad requested the Parliamentary affairs ministry to keep the decision on The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017 pending. Since the amendment will include Jammu and Kashmir, he said that it is a sensitive issue. Azad asked the Parliament to address the sensitivity and assured that the Opposition would extend support in passing the bill in state.

Most ministers were of the opinion that the law could not be enacted without the approval of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. A common concern was that the bill would overiding Article 370 of the Constitution.

Rajya Sabha begins hearing on The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Rajya Sabha adjourns till 2PM.

Chairman of Rajya Sabha has convened an all party meeting regarding Motor Vehicle Bill in Parliament at 3 pm today to resolve the deadlock over the bill.

Ten minutes into the proceedings, there is no sign of Question Hour in Rajya Sabha. Ansari adjourns the House for 10 minutes.

Rajya Sabha reconvenes. Ghulam Nabi Azad wants Jaitley's remarks be expunged from the proceedings. "We know the television is in favour of the ruling party," he says.

Rajya Sabha adjourns till 12:00 pm after Opposition creates ruckus.

Tiruchi Siva speaks in favour of Congress MPs. He objects Jaitley's television remarks. Jaitley refutes his allegation. Please do not provide an alibi for them, he says.

"Most of the issues raised are neither Point of Order nor Rule 267. The Rule 267 is grossly misused. We can't allow Zero Hour run just for television camera," says Arun Jaitley.

The finance minister slammed INC's Anand Sharma for "dragging" Mahatma Gandhi into the zero hour. He then urged the deputy chairman to expunge Sharma's speech for being irrelevant.

Rules and interpretation of rules cause commotion in Rajya Sabha. Certain MPs move Rule 267, suspension of day's business. Senior MPs move Point of Order. Everything is costing the time of Zero Hour, complain some MPs.

Zero Hour proceedings begin in Rajya Sabha. Naresh Agrawal raises point of Order. He urges the government to stop printing Rs. 2000 currency notes. Deputy Chairman rejects it saying it is the prerogative of RBI. Rajya Sabha pays respect to departed former MP Shabir Ahmed Salaria.

Today's agenda

As day eight of the Monsoon Session begins on Wednesday, Rajya Sabha will focus on the businesses which were listed for Tuesday and which remained incomplete, while the Lok Sabha will take up four bills for further consideration, which were introduced earlier during the Monsoon Session.

Following bills will be taken up for further consideration in the Lok Sabha: The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017, The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017, The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley will once again move to pass the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Saugata Roy of the All India Trinamool Congress will move a statutory resolution to disapprove the ordinance that the bill seeks to replace.

In Rajya Sabha, four Bills also listed: Collection of Statistics (A) Bill,National Institutes of Technology, Science Edu and Research (A) Bill and Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, and National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill.

H1-B visa issue, delay in residential projects and women security are some of the issues that will be raised in the Question Hour.

OneIndia News
Blacklisting Mahmood blocked by China: The man who raised funds under garb of religion in India

Mysuru court convicts Pakistani terrorist

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A terrorist from Pakistan was convicted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in Mysuru. The Principal City Civil and Sessions court, Mysuru sentenced Mohammed Fahad Hai to seven years rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000.

The court also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate cash worth Rs 44,174 along with the interest accrued, totalling Rs 90,470, from him.

In 2006, two persons were arrested on the charge that they were planning high-profile attacks in Mysuru. When the duo were intercepted by the police one of them tried to escape and even fired at the police officers.

Upon interrogation, they identified themselves as Pakistani nationals. The police say that Mohammed Ali Hussain and Mohammed Fahad Hai alias Mohammed Koya alias Neduthani were illegally residing in Rajiv Nagar in Mysuru.

Enquiry revealed that the duo were active members of the banned Al-Badr organisation and had entered India without valid travel documents. They possessed an AK 47 rifle, pistol and live bullets without any license. They also had mobile and satellite phones.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:58 [IST]
Gujarat Assembly polls: Saurashtra region, with 48 of 182 seats, is the piece everyone's eyeing

Naroda Patiya massacre: Two convicts who jumped parole arrested

India

oi-PTI

Ahmedabad, July 26: Two convicts in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case, who had jumped parole, were arrested by the city police's special operations group (SOG).

Pintu Jadeja and Dinesh Barge were released on parole in May and June respectively, the SOG said in a statement.

They were nabbed yesterday from different areas in Ahmedabad, the statement said.

With their arrest, three of four convicts who jumped parole in the case have been caught.

The Sabarmati central jail authorities had lodged a case when the four did not return after their parole ended, following which the police launched a search.

On Sunday, the police arrested Prakash Chhara, one of the four who was absconding. Police is on the look out for the fourth convict, Shasikant Kadam.

All four were awarded were sentenced to life in prison by a special SIT court on August 30, 2012 for their role in the Naroda Patiya massacre.

As many as 32 accused, including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani, had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.

Their appeals challenging the sentence are being heard by the Gujarat High Court.

A day after the Godhra train burning incident in which 59 kar sevaks were killed, 97 people belonging to the minority community were killed in a riot in Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 9:12 [IST]
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Nitish comes a full circle: Back in the NDA fold

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Nitish Kumar is back in the BJP fold and it can be said that the JD-U leader has come a full circle since parting ways with the saffron party in 2014.

With Nitish's departure from the Grand Alliance, the Congress' plan to forge a pan-India front to take on the BJP juggernaut was dealt a major blow. Even before the Congress could intervene and try to prevent the shattering of Mahagathbandhan, Nitish had resigned and BJP wasted no time in extending its support to the former NDA man.

Soon after Nitish resigned, Union Minister and BJP leader from Bihar Ravi Shankar Prasad said that RJD-JD (U) alliance was a mismatch and that the tie-up had no ideological grounds. BJP had in 2015 also warned Nitish against joining hands with graft-tainted Lalu, and now it seems, that they were right.

What eventually became the reason for Nitish to break away from the alliance, indeed turned out to be corruption charges against Lalu's son Tejashwi, who was Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. Nitish has always projected himself as an honest politician who wanted to free Bihar from the clutches of corruption.

For Nitish to live up to his reputation, it had become necessary for him severe ties with Lalu, who was repeatedly giving statements to defend his son. As Nitish said after resigning that situation had become unbearable and walking out was the only way out. The BJP grabbed the opportunity with both hands and rushed to welcome Nitish back to the NDA.

A timeline of Nitish's relationship with BJP:

In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government between 1998-99, Nitish was, briefly, the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture.

In August 1999, he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster, taking the responsibility of the mishap as Minister of Railways.

From 2001 to May 2004, he was the Union Minister for Railways again in the Vajpayee government.

In 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he won from Nalanda, but NDA was voted out of power at the Centre.

Nitish remained a part of NDA but focused on Bihar politics.

In 2010, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) swept back to power along with its ally BJP.

On 26 November 2010, Nitish Kumar took oath as a Chief Minister of Bihar.

In the meantime, some differences crept between the BJP and JD (U), but Nitish continued to remain as the CM.

In 2014, following BJP's thumping victory in Lok Sabha elections, Nitish resigned as CM taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor performance.

Jitan Ram Manjhi was instilled as Bihar CM in his place.

On 22 February 2015, Nitish returned as Bihar CM which left Manjhi fuming.

For the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, Nitish severed ties with the BJP and forged an alliance with the RJD and the Congress.

The grand alliance won the Assembly election by a huge margin of 178 seats against 58 seats of the BJP and its allies.

The RJD emerged as the largest party and Nitish was made the CM and Lalu's son Tejashwi, the Deputy CM.

The cracks began to appear in JD(U)-RJD ties after the CBI FIR against Tejashwi Yadav in the land-for-hotels scandal.

Speculations were rife that Nitish may ask for Tejashwi's resignation, but instead, Nitish himself resigned after Lalu made it clear that his son will not step down.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 0:19 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Bihar: Over 200 students sick, claim they saw 'dead lizard' in mid-day meal

Nitish never asked for Tejashwi's resignation: Lalu

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Claiming that there is no crisis in Bihar's grand alliance, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday asserted that his son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will not step down, as the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar never asked him to.

Lalu issued the statement after holding a separate meeting with his party legislators on the agenda of whether his son, Tejashwi, should quit as Deputy Chief Minister because of corruption charges.

Nitish Kumar did not ask for Tejashwi's resignation: Lalu Prasad Yadav pic.twitter.com/qaMDv01Jr1  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Former Union Minister came out in support of his son amid reports of 'Mahagathbandhan' or Grand calition would break apart today.

He brushed aside reports of break up in the current alliance with the JD (U). He told media, 'We have formed the grand alliance, made Nitish CM. Why will we break the alliance?

Also, showing good relation with coalition partner, he said, 'Nitish Kumar is leader of grand alliance. We will not tolerate any disrespect towards him'.

The two meetings of MLAs of both the parties were held ahead of the monsoon session of the Bihar assembly. If things were fine between the coalition partners, the two meetings would have been clubbed into one.

Lalu Prasad on Friday had said that his son Tejashwi Yadav will not resign as the deputy chief minister of Bihar over corruption charges.

"The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign," Lalu told ANI.

The CBI registered a case against Lalu Prasad and his family members for allegedly favouring a company during the award of Railway hotel contracts during his tenure as Railway minister.

OneIndia News
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Bihar: Fire breaks out amid Chhath Puja celebrations in Aurangabad; many critical

Bihar: Over 200 students sick, claim they saw 'dead lizard' in mid-day meal

Nitish to return as Bihar CM with BJP's support

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

After getting BJP's support, Nitish Kumar, who had resigned from Chief Minister's post on Wednesday, will be sworn-in as state's CM at 5 pm on Thursday.

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi earlier today confirmed that they would support Nitish. The alliance was formalised after BJP MLAs and JD-U MLAs held a meeting at Nitish's residence on Wednesday evening.

Reports say that Sushil Modi may take up the post of Deputy Chief Minister. BJP has submitted a letter to Bihar Governor K N Tripathi expressing their interest to support JD-U.

Nitish's decision to walk out of the Mahagathbandhan or the Grand alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress has dealt a major blow to Congress' plans of pan-India anti-BJP front.

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister after a standoff with RJD over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

No party has a majority in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. Kumar's JD-U) has 71 seats, while RJD has 80 lawmakers and the BJP 53.

BJP-JD (U) combine has 124 seats which is above the needed halfway mark.

OneIndia News
No proof that missing Indians in Mosul dead, says Sushma Swaraj

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today made a statement in Parliament on 39 Indians missing in Iraq and clarified she did not mislead the nation on the issue since the government cannot declare anybody dead without evidence.

"Declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and I won't commit a sin," Swaraj said in the Lok Sabha, responding to allegations that she was "misleading the house" on whether the Indians were alive.

"I will inform the House if I get any concrete evidence. Opposition is alleging that I'm misleading the House. It is a sin to declare someone is dead without any evidence. I will not do that sin, said Sushma Swaraj.

"I had asked the Embassy to collect evidence. We didn't get any evidence of mass killing. So we started to search for Indians," she added.

I am still calling them as "missing persons," will continue to search for them, she reiterated.

Further adding she siad, "One Harjeet Massi informed the government that 40 Indians have been captured by the Islamic State. They have killed all of them. I was the only one who managed to escape, he said."

When one person says they have been killed, six sources said they are alive. What should I do? asked Swaraj.

I don't have evidence to say they are alive, but I don't have proof to say they are dead. So we are continuing with the search operation. Also, Iraq has never said the missing Indians are dead, Swaraj said.

I have spoken to my Turkey counterpart. They are helping us in tracing the missing Indians. Other countries are also willing to help, she added.

Uproar in Lok Sabha

Earlier, there was a massive uproar in Lok Sabha on Wednesday after External Minister Sushma Swaraj began to make a statement on 39 missing Indians in Iraq, the opposition MPs continued to interrupt her speech.

"I am ready to speak as the matter is serious. I can't give a statement in such uproar. They must not storm the Well," the external affairs minister said in Lok Sabha.

"Haven't misled anyone. I will speak for 20-22 minutes. Let me finish my statement and then do whatever you want to do. I will not speak unless there is silence," she stressed.

Senior Opposition leader Mallikarjuna Kharge said that we were as much concerned as the government on this issue. He insisted debates on lynchings and agrarian crisis.

"Don't you want to know what is happening to Indians in Mosul, asks Sumitra Mahajan, requesting MPs to go back to the seat. We will allot time for this. Right now, allow her to speak," said Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

But, in barely a few minutes, the Lok Sabha was adjourned.

A full three years have passed since 39 Indian construction workers, most of them from Punjab, were abducted by the Islamic State terror organisation from their job site in Mosul, Iraq.

Recently, Sushma met the relatives of the missing Indians and said they might be imprisoned in Badush region of northwest Mosul. However, a media report claimed that the prison was reduced to a rubble during the fighting between the Iraqi coalition forces and Islamic State.

OneIndia News
Govt offices, schools and colleges in Bhubaneswar to remain shut after 1pm tomorrow for Prez visit

Odisha: BJP requests ECI to cancel Naveen's assembly membership

India

oi-PTI

Bhubaneswar, July 26: Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) with a request to cancel Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's assembly membership for allegedly misusing government machinery.

A BJP delegation, led by the party's state vice-president Samir Mohanty, met Odisha's Chief Electoral Officer DN Gupta and also demanded that Patnaik be barred from contesting polls for three years.

Yesterday, Ganjam district collector Prem Chand Chaudhary moved Orissa High Court to seek the recall of the notice issued by it to the election commission last week to disclose the poll expenses of Patnaik.

The HC had issued a notice to the election commission following a writ petition filed by an RTI activist last year praying that the EC take action against alleged financial irregularities committed by Patnaik.

"The case by the Ganjam district collector violates the Representation of the People Act," Mohanty told the reporters today.

The BJD rejected the allegation and in turn, accused the BJP of attempting to tarnish Patnaik's image.

"The man who was defeated in the election in 2014 from Hinjili assembly segment did not make any such complaint. Now after three-and-half years of the elections, the BJP has been making allegations," BJD spokesperson, PK Deb said.

On Ganjam collector moving the High Court, Deb said the petitioner had named him as a party in the poll expenditure case.

"The collector, therefore, made the move and there has been no misuse of government machinery as alleged," he said.

Over the ruling BJD's "controversial" bank account and Patnaik's alleged false statements of poll expenses to ECI various political parties in the state are engaged in a fierce slugfest.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 9:52 [IST]
Political strife and inclement weather- double trouble for Darjeeling Hills

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling: It is double trouble for the Hills of North Bengal. Already engulfed in a political strife, it is now inclement weather that has added to the woes. Incessant rainfall coupled with cyclonic winds disrupted electricity, telephone and cellular services, throwing hill life out of gear since Monday night.

With the town plunged in darkness and cellular services disappearing since Monday night there was panic in Darjeeling that both electricity and cellular services had suffered the same fate as internet services. The District Administration has clampdown on internet services by owing to the political strife.

Rumor mills worked overtime declaring that the Government had clamped down on cellular services as well as electricity. Rumors claimed that owing to the agitators forcefully shutting down the hydel projects in the Hills, the Government had cut down the electric supply to the Hills.

"Owing to the cyclonic winds and the rain, electricity has been disrupted. This has affected cellular services also as the cellular towers are without power. However agitators have been damaging fiber optic cables which has multiplied the problem. Work is on to restore both electricity and cellular connectivity" stated Joyoshi Das Gupta, District Magistrate, Darjeeling.

By evening electricity had been restored in certain parts of the town. Though connectivity was irregular cellular services also resumed.

The ongoing indefinite bandh that hit the 41 day mark on Tuesday has hampered restoration work. West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited sources stated that they were facing difficulties in restoring electricity as most of the skilled workers had left for the plains owing to the bandh. They were having to make do with local workers instead.

The Relief department under the State Government which distributes relief material in case of natural calamities has not been able to function fully owing to the permanent staff staying away. The Gorkha Janmukti Mocrha has issued a diktat asking Government employees not to attend office as part of the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation.

"Only the officers are present along with a few temporary staff. Shortage of staff is a problem in running this emergency service. We have alerted the police patrol parties to report landslides. We have some relief materials like tarpaulins. However stocks are steadily depleting" added the District Magistrate.

"Though there were reports of multiple land slips of minor intensity, no major landslide occurred" added Das Gupta.

With the weather forecast predicting more rains a cloud of uncertainty has enshrouded the Hills. "Normalcy needs to be restored including internet services for any eventuality to be combated competently. The Hills are highly vulnerable to the rains and communication is an important component for combating such eventualities" stated Wing Commander (Retd.) Prafulla Roa of Save the Hills (STH.)

STH is a Kalimpong based NGO working towards raising awareness about landslides in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas. This region is one of the most landslide prone areas of the world.

Kalimpong on Monday night had witnessed 77mm of rainfall in three hours. "More than the amount of rainfall, the intensity of rainfall matters a lot in the Hills. In 24 hours Bankura in South Bengal witnessed 226 mm of rainfall which caused a flood and destruction on Tuesday. However there was no loss of life. In 2015, Darjeeling had witnessed 227 mm of rainfall in 6 hours which had left 41 persons dead in the Hills owing to landslides" added Rao.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:55 [IST]
Qasmani bombed Samjautha Express with al-Qaeda help, but govt looked the other way

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Arif Qasmani was named by the United States of America as the man behind the Samjautha Express blast. His name cropped up on the basis of intelligence and investigations conducted by the US authorities.

Following the blasts, India probed both the SIMI and Lashkar-e-Tayiba angle to the blasts. Meanwhile the information that was coming in from the intelligence agencies suggested that Qasmani, a Lashkar operative was a financier for the outfit. The US which had him under the radar as he was providing support to the al-Qaeda as well found that he was involved in the Samjautha Express blast.

It was found that the al-Qaeda had provided Qasmani with operatives to carry out not just the Samjautha blasts, but also the Mumbai train bombings of 2006.

Both the US treasury as well as the UNSC maintained that Qasmani with the help of al-Qaeda operatives had carried out both the blasts.

When the NIA took over the probe, it had sought information from the agencies about the role played by Qasmani. It even went into the narco analysis conducted on SIMI chief Safdar Nagori who claimed that some of his operatives were involved in both the bombings. However no information was provided and the then Home Minister P Chidambaram had said that the role of Qasmani was not brought to his attention. Even in the files of the Haryana police which registered the first case, Qasmani's name did not figure.

Following this the case took a major u-turn and the role of some Hindu outfits was probed. The NIA has been working with the agencies in the US to get more information on Qasmani. The NIA said that the probe continues and a lot of would depend on fresh evidence. Meanwhile the NIA court has summoned 13 witnesses from Pakistan to testify before it.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 7:16 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Bihar: Over 200 students sick, claim they saw 'dead lizard' in mid-day meal

RJD to stake claim to form government, Tejashwi says some JD(U) MLAs will back them

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

In yet another twist in the political developments in Bihar, the RJD on Wednesday said that the Governor should invite them to form the government as they the largest party.

RJD's Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter and said that they will get the support of JD-U MLAs who do not wish to join hands with the BJP.

Recommended Video

Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as CM, Sushil Modi as deputy CM | Oneindia News

"We asked for time to meet the Governor. Will stake acclaim as the largest party. JD-U MLAs who opposed BJP will support us," his tweet read.

               BJP            Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

RJD has 80 seats and the Congress has 27 seats which takes them to 107 seats. At least 122 seats are needed to form a government in 243 member Bihar Assembly. The BJP-JD (U) combine, on the other hand, has 124 seats which is two seats above the majority figure.

The Governor KN Tripathi will meet Tejashwi on Thursday morning.

After getting BJP's support, Nitish Kumar, who had resigned from Chief Minister's post on Wednesday, will be sworn-in as state's CM at 5 pm on Thursday.

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi earlier today confirmed that they would support Nitish. The alliance was formalised after BJP MLAs and JD-U MLAs held a meeting at Nitish's residence on Wednesday evening.

Reports say that Sushil Modi may take up the post of Deputy Chief Minister. BJP has submitted a letter to Bihar Governor K N Tripathi expressing their interest to support JD-U.

Oneindia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 0:58 [IST]
Settle Rs 2 crore dues, Jethmalani tells Kejriwal while quitting as his counsel

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Senior advocate, Ram Jethmalani has asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to settle his dues of Rs 2 crore. The demand was made in a letter written to Kejriwal following which Jethmalani quit as his counsel in the Arun Jaitley defamation case.

The letter was shot off after Kejriwal denied having instructed Jethmalani to use offensive language against Jaitley. Jethmalani wrote in the letter that Kejriwal had in fact used more offensive languages against Jaitley in the private meetings.

During the proceedings, Jaitley had asked Jethmalani if the offensive words against him were being used on the instructions of Kejriwal. To this Jethmalani responded in the affirmative, following which Jaitley filed another Rs 10 crore defamation against Kejriwal.

Kejriwal then filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court and also wrote to Jethmalani stating that he had not instructed him to use an offensive words. In the affidavit, Kejriwal said it was inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words". "Neither the defendant (Kejriwal) nor the counsel (Anupam Srivastava) briefing the senior counsel (Jethmalani) gave instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words on May 17, 2017.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 7:20 [IST]
The joy of our lives: Sushma Swaraj's husband warm birthday wishes for late leader

Remembering Sushma Swaraj on her death anniversary: Facts about Iron Lady of India

Sushma Swaraj wins hearts with red carpet welcome to Indian daughters, daughters-in-law from Pak

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 26: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj never fails to win hearts of millions with her humane gesture and equally sensitive tweets on matter of importance.

At a time when India-Pakistan relationship is witnessing heightened tensions, once again, Swaraj reminds that political differences between nations should not stop us from helping each other.

A late night tweet on Tuesday by the senior BJP leader stating that "Indian daughters and daughters-in-law from Pakistan or any other country are always welcome", reiterated the commitment on part of the union minister to help people in distress.

Swaraj's statement on "daughters and daughters-in-law" was in reply to an 'SOS' by a Mumbai man married to a Pakistani woman. The Mumbaikar requested the minister to help him get "visa".

Hi mam,I am frm mum I got married to pakistani girl last yr in April2016,Mam I need ur help plzz kindly help me to get visa.@SushmaSwaraj  BEING YASAR (@being_yasar) March 27, 2017

In reply, Swaraj tweeted:

Indian daughters and daughters in law from Pakistan or any other country are always welcome. https://t.co/5jTCKSX0sp  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 25, 2017

Since the time she joined the Narendra Modi cabinet in 2014, Swaraj has always been quick to respond to people facing difficult situation in various corners of the world.

Not only the senior leader replies to all tweets raising requests or concerns, but she makes sure that help reaches the "distressed" person or community at the earliest.

Recently, Swaraj granted medical visa to a Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) resident Osama Ali, who was diagnosed with tumour and wanted to come to Delhi for his treatment.

"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," she tweeted after granting visa to the POK resident.

The minister also granted medical visa to a four-month-old toddler from Pakistan, who came to India for a heart surgery in June. Thanks to Swaraj, the kid had a successful surgery at a Noida-based hospital in Uttar Pradesh.

The "grateful" parents of the Pakistani kid hailed Swaraj as a "fantastic" human and leader.

We hope all leaders share similar sensitivity displayed by Swaraj to make the world a better place to live in. While giving such warm welcome to Indian daughters and daughters-in-law, the minister proved herself to be the "best" daughter of India.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 9:32 [IST]
Uttar Pradesh: 450 communal incidents in three years

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 26: Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha informed that altogether 450 incidents of communal violence have taken place in Uttar Pradesh in the last three years. Of which 162 were reported in 2016.

Rijiju said that in Uttar Pradesh, 155 such incidents took place in 2015 and 133 in 2014.

In Maharashtra, 270 communal incidents were reported in the last three years, 68 of which took place in 2016, 105 in 2015 and 97 in 2014, he said in a written reply.

Madhya Pradesh reported 205 communal incidents in the last three years of which 57 took place in 2016, 92 in 2015 and 56 in 2014. In Rajasthan, 200 such incidents were reported in the last three years, of which 63 took place in 2016, 65 in 2015 and 72 incidents in 2014, he said.

PTI
What to expect from NSA Ajit Doval's China visit?

India

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

It's been more than a month now since the tensions between India and China at the border started. And the armies of both nations continue to be locked in a stand off in the Doklam region at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.

And such a failure to resolve the issue so far is what gives the visit of National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, to China starting on 27 July even more importance.

Though his trip is to take part in the meeting with his counterparts from Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa, i.e., the BRICS grouping, the aim of the visit, to resolve the issue on the border, is not hidden.

The specifics of the current dispute and the history between the two countries, which include a war more than half a century ago, complicate the matter even more.

Accusations leveled by and actions of both in the Doklam area, which is a disputed territory between China and Bhutan, include attempts to construct a road in the area by the Chinese, which was stopped by Indian soldiers. In retaliation, they have been accused of destroying two bunkers of the Indian Army.

These led to claims and counter claims from both sides. India has justified its intervention based on what it called China's attempt to change the accepted status quo in the area unilaterally, to defend its strategic interests and to honour its agreement with Bhutan to safeguard the kingdoms' sovereignty. China, on the other hand, has blamed India of challenging its territorial sovereignty and interfering in a bilateral issue.

Such matters are seldom easily solved and Doval will have his hands full dealing with them, as these have the potential of keeping on burning or taking unexpected turns. Hence the visit can potentially have one of three eventualities, which are the possible logical outcomes of such a stand off.

The issue gets resolved

Given his standing in the administration, the second most powerful person in the country related to foreign affairs especially in India's neighbourhood second only to the Prime Minister, Doval will have the mandate to take serious decisions on the matter. Such authority makes it possible in face-to-face meetings to negotiate in a manner that might finally bring down the tension on the border before extinguishing them.

The best possible outcome from the visit, for both countries, will be the ideal solution of a return to the status as was almost five weeks ago, when the current standoff began. With the countries deciding to look at and resolving longstanding issues related to the border arising out of unclear demarcation of it.

This would mean the mutual and simultaneous retreat of both the armies from the area to the positions held by them earlier. Though the Chinese media will have everyone believe that this is not an option, and the Indian media has thought of it as a loss of face.

Instead, it would be a show of maturity of both nations along with their understanding of the impact of a continuation of the problem could have on each of them and their relationship, losses of which would not only be human, but economic and strategic too.

Even though such diplomatic solutions feel difficult to fathom, given all the hostility but in order to achieve this, it would have to be done. Given the history of similar disputes where a long standoff was ended following a political solution it is the most likely of the outcomes possible and would be most fruitful for everyone involved. That is, the leaders of both countries, their people and finally and most importantly, the soldiers that are a part of the heightened tension at the border.

No breakthrough

The proposition that the trip, which is the most high profile attempt at solving the issue till now being unable to yield any results, would in all probability lead to a dangerous reality with considerable volatility in the near future.

As this would witness two of the largest armies in the world pitted against one another. Even though a full deployment of forces has not been initiated by either side, things could easily get out of hand and lead to a worsening of the situation. Given that Line of Actual Control between them is around 3500 kilometre, any misstep in any different sectors or contentious points could escalate the dispute into a conflict.

Above that, if no result comes out of the talks held by Doval, it will be considered a failure on part of both sides. This would heighten tensions even more, given the stature and scale of the high-level talks. It would be seen as a failure of diplomacy leaving only a few other options such as armed conflict, aggressive strategic steps to counter each other on the international stage, trade wars etc., in case things escalate further.

While such an outcome might hurt China's economic interest heavily, it would create strategic issues for India too. Since a long standoff might lead to Pakistan increasing its cross border activity of helping terrorist to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, putting more strain on the country's military resources.

A continuation of the current situation would also put Modi's trip to China to take part in the BRICS conclave at risk and give rise to an uncomfortable situation.

Further escalation of the situation

The last but the most undesirable result of Doval's visit can be the rise in tensions with an escalation in military action from both sides. It is an outcome neither country can afford given the geopolitical, strategic and economic cost that it would entail. Adding to it would be the fact that both the countries are nuclear powers.

This though is also the most unlikely of all outcomes given what is at stake. The tension between two Asian giants hold in the balance not only the stability of two countries in the south of the continent but also has the potential of destabilising the entire world. As any conflict may divide it into camps given the standing of the two countries.

In this possible outcome too, the potential conflict cannot be seen in isolation. India's tense relationship with Pakistan will also be required to be taken into account. The beginning of any conflict with China would in all probability also see Pakistan launching an offensive, either direct or indirect. This would be a difficult situation for India and could cause major loss.

As for China such an outcome would undermine its ambitions of challenging US' status of a superpower and the country's economic interests all over the world as well as its ambitious project like One Belt One Road, which it sees as the modern day Silk Route through which it wants to be the Trade hub of the world.

An all out conflict with a country like India, with its own military and economic might, as well as it being situated in the area where its projects and plans are based out of would jeopardise such goals of China.

Strategic realities, not the media will decide the outcome

Based on the reporting on the current stand off seen in both countries, state owned or supported media in China and private channels in India, if it was up to the media both the countries would be at war by now.

The media of both the nations have levelled accusations and counter accusations at the other country for overstepping the previously held position on the matter and have been egged on by rash statements by those in power in both countries.

These have included sharp comments by Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley, who reminded the Chinese that India had changed from the time of the 1962 war between the two nations that witnessed India suffer a loss. This was countered in a similar tone by the other side which, even accusing India's External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, of lying when she talked about the issue in Parliament.

It is not hard to imagine that such a slinging match must not have helped whatever diplomatic channels might be working in the background to end the situation at the border till now. All such claims and counter claims will have to be put aside and the rhetoric would need to be cut down. Only then can such a resolution be attained.

Doval's decisions would need to be based on ground realities of what a possible conflict would mean and cost, and it would be worth the result, no matter what the media and the public of the country want.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 7:00 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Why so much hurry Mr. Honest: Tejashwi asks Nitish

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

RJD's Tejashwi Yadav fumed over the time of Nitish Kumar's swearing-in on Thursday morning which is before his scheduled meeting with Governor KN Tripathi.

Reports had earlier claimed that swearing-in ceremony would be held at 5 pm on Thursday but BJP's Sushil Modi, after meeting the Governor along with Nitish, told media persons that Nitish Kumar would be sworn-in at 10 am.

"Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?" Tejashwi tweeted.

"If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values & honesty, He would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for govt. Honest man doesn't fear," he said in another tweet.

Recommended Video

Bihar crisis: Lalu Yadav says, Nitish Kumar main accused in murder case | Oneindia News

Sushil Modi said that they have the support of 132 MLAs and a letter claiming the same has been submitted to the Governor.

"We have submitted a letter with support of 132 MLAs. We have been given the time of 10 am, today, for swearing in," Modi said.

RJD has 80 seats and the Congress has 27 seats which takes them to 107 seats. At least 122 seats are needed to form a government in 243 member Bihar Assembly. The BJP-JD (U) combine, on the other hand, has 124 seats which is two seats above the majority figure.

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi earlier today confirmed that they would support Nitish. The alliance was formalised after BJP MLAs and JD-U MLAs held a meeting at Nitish's residence on Wednesday evening.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 1:51 [IST]
Why the arrest of Kashmir separatist Shabir Shah is important

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The arrest of Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah is expected to give the Enforcement Directorate vital clues about how funding takes place in the Valley. Shah's arrest took place after he dodged summons issued to him 8 times.

The Enforcement Directorate obtained a non-bailable warrant against him. He has been accused of allegedly receiving money from Pakistan through hawala channels.

The ED sought for a non-bailable warrant after he dodged summons on 8 occasions. An officer with the ED said that he had been given enough opportunities to appear before the agency and put forth his case.

Shah has been accused of acquiring property in and around Delhi. It was found that the property was acquired with unaccounted money. When he was asked to join the probe to explain the source of money, he refused to turn up.

The Delhi Police had in 2005 filed a case against Shah following the arrest of a hawala dealer. The dealer had told the police that the Rs 63 lakh seized from him was to be delivered to Shah in Srinagar.

OneIndia News
Basit Kalam Siddiqui arrested from Varanasi in Islamic State Voice of Hind case

32,000 girls converted to Islam and sold as ISIS slaves: This is The Kerala Story

How Zahran Hashim converted the radical Islamists of South into violent Jihadists

A bayath, a massive suicide bombing, the Coimbatore blast was in the making for a year

Afghanistan: Eight IS militants killed in Nangarhar province

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Kabul, July 26: At least eight Islamic State militants were killed on Wednesday when security forces pounded the outfit's positions in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The forces on Tuesday targeted militant hideouts in Achin district, Xinhua news agency quoted police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashirqwal as saying.

A cache of arms and ammunition has also been destroyed, he said.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State group who are active in parts of the eastern Nangarhar province are yet to make comment.

IANS


Doval in China: Mixed signals only add to the confusion

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Chinese media is sending out mixed signals ahead of the visit by India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. India's NSA, Doval would be in China on Thursday and Friday to take part in the BRICS summit. He is expected to raise the Doklam issue where India and China are locked in a standoff for the past 5 weeks.

While on one hand the Chinese media says that Doval would be key to the resolution of the conflict, on the other it has accused him of being the main schemer at Doklam.

In its editorial, 'It's never too late for India to mend its way', the China Daily pressed for exploring ways to avoid confrontation. The Global Times editorial, 'Doval visit won't sway China over border standoff', said Beijing would not talk until Indian troops were withdrawn.

The military standoff began on June 16 after the Chinese army tried to build a road near the Bhutan trijunction. India has protested the construction of the road, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

"There are still hopes that the deadlock+ can be resolved peacefully, which serves both countries' best interests," the China Daily said.

"The two sides need to explore ways to avoid confrontation. It would be damaging to both countries and regional stability if India cannot use its reason and wisdom to avoid the military collision both countries are currently on course for," it said.

But The Global Times, part of the Communist Party's publication group, said in its editorial that Beijing will not "talk" until Indian troops were withdrawn.

"As Doval is believed to be one of the main schemers behind the current border standoff between Chinese and Indian troops, the Indian media is pinning high hopes on the trip to settle the ongoing dispute," the daily said.

"New Delhi should give up its illusions, and Doval's Beijing visit is most certainly not an opportunity to settle the standoff in accordance with India's will," it said.

It added that India should not take lightly yesterday's comments by the Chinese Defence ministry that New Delhi should not "harbour any illusions"+ and withdraw troops.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 6:20 [IST]
The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success

Explained: Why has US removed India from its currency monitoring list

India 'undermining' spirit of SAARC: Nawaz Sharif

International

pti-PTI

Male, Jul 26: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lashed out at India and accused New Delhi of "undermining" the spirit of the SAARC by "casting shadows" of bilateral issues on the multilateral forum for regional cooperation.

In a joint press conference with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen, Sharif on Tuesday said that the last Islamabad SAARC summit was not the first time that India caused harm to the SAARC by seeking its postponement.

"It had done so on four occasions," he claimed.

After holding talks with Yameen, Sharif said Pakistan and Maldives have agreed to work together to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a vibrant organisation and a vehicle to realise their shared dreams for a peaceful and prosperous region.

"India undermined and violated the spirit of SAARC Charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

"We, however, remain grateful for President Yameen's support regarding the SAARC summit in Islamabad," he added.

Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue. India pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad last year citing increased "cross-border" attacks after heightened tension with Pakistan over Uri terror attack. Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.

Sharif, who is here on a three-day official visit on an invitation of President Yameen, attended the island nation's 52nd Independence Day celebrations as the chief guest. The two countries have agreed to further enhance their bilateral ties in various fields, overcome common challenges and work jointly to make SAARC a vibrant organisation.

Sharif also briefed Yameen on Pakistan's efforts to fight the scourge of terrorism.

"We have launched successful operations against terrorists and have won important victories," he said.

The two countries signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, trade, education, capacity building of civil servants and training for diplomats.

PTI
North Korea poised to launch another missile, says official

International

oi-PTI

North Korea appears to be preparing to carry out another missile launch, US and South Korean military officials have said, warning the test could be of another intercontinental ballistic missile.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that if the test goes ahead, it would "probably" occur on July 27, which is the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

The date is a public holiday in the nuclear-armed North and celebrated as Victory Day.

The official said the test would be of either an intermediate-range missile or North Korea's ICBM known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14.

That would be the second time Pyongyang has tested an ICBM, after its July 4 rocket launch that caused global alarm.

Experts assessed it could have put Alaska in range, bringing Pyongyang's long-held dream of a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States within reach, and presenting President Donald Trump with a stark challenge.

South Korea's news agency Yonhap quoted a government source as saying Seoul had seen North Korea moving transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province.

"They're setting up for something," a second US defense official told AFP.

After North Korea's July 4 test, the United States launched a push at the United Nations for tougher measures against Pyongyang.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday cited progress in talks with China on imposing what she termed as "pretty serious" new UN sanctions.

The United States has been locked in negotiations with China for nearly three weeks on a new raft of measures, and Haley said China was negotiating with Russia separately on possible tougher sanctions.

"I think we are making progress," Haley said.

"It's not as fast as I would like but these are pretty serious sanctions and so I think that there is a lot of thought going into this."

Haley told the UN Security Council after the test that she hoped to present new measures in a few days, such as cutting off oil supplies, banning North Korean guest workers or imposing new air and maritime restrictions on North Korea.

In all, six sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but two resolutions adopted last year significantly toughened the sanctions regime.

Haley said the true test will be Russia's role. Moscow maintains the July 4 launch was not an ICBM, citing its defense ministry's assessment.

Moscow has also argued that sanctions are not the answer to rein in North Korea, and that talks, as advocated by Beijing, were needed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the July 4 launch, described it as a gift to the "American bastards."

CNN cited a US defense official saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment were seen arriving at Kusong in North Pyongan last Friday.

Kusong has been the scene of past tests, including in May when an intermediate-range ballistic missile traveled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).The North last week refused to respond to the South's offer to open dialogue to ease tension.

Reports say that the US and China are making headway in talks in new sanctions against North Korea after its last missile launch may also provide Mr Kim with a reason to conduct another show of strength.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 11:29 [IST]
The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success

Explained: Why has US removed India from its currency monitoring list

Indias first privately built rocket to be launched on Nov 15

India has become center point to world's desires, says PM Modi

Pak accepts High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit's request for early retirement

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, July 26: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accepted the early retirement request of Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit.

Basit, who was set to retire from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April 2018, had "submitted an application to Prime Minister Sharif for his early retirement which was accepted," Geo News reported, citing sources.

The senior Pakistani diplomat has already completed his three-year tenure in New Delhi.

Basit would be replaced by Sohail Mahmood who is expected to take up his responsibilities as the High Commissioner to India next month, the channel reported.

Mahmood, 55, currently Pakistan's envoy in Turkey, is a career diplomat who joined the Foreign Service in 1985.

The channel did not give any reason for Basit s premature retirement but foreign office sources earlier told PTI that he was unhappy over the appointment of current foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua, who is junior to Basit.

Basit joined the Foreign Service in 1982 and held several diplomatic assignments at Pakistani missions abroad.

Basit had served as Pakistan's Ambassador to Germany from May 2012 till March 2014 prior to his appointment as the High Commissioner to India in 2014.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 10:21 [IST]
At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

Republican senator McCain to return to US Senate as health vote teeters

International

oi-PTI

Washington, July 26: In order to take key votes on repealing Obamacare and passing sanctions on Russia, US Senator John McCain returns to Washington on Wednesday for the first time since being diagnosed with brain cancer.

"Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defence Authorisation Act and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea," a statement read late yesterday.

The 80-year-old McCain, recuperating after surgery in his home state of Arizona, tweeted a similar message, announcing he would be back in action in the Senate tomorrow.

His aides announced last week that he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye, and tests confirmed discovery of a brain tumour known as a glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive cancer.

His vote on health care is seen to be crucial.

Republicans hold 52 of the Senate's 100 seats. With all Democrats opposed, President Donald Trump can afford just two defectors on the health care reform vote.

Republicans are threading the needle on the bill, as three of the party's senators said last week they would vote no on the motion to proceed.

McCain has told reporters in the past that he would likely vote yes on the so-called motion to proceed, the step that allows lawmakers to begin debate on legislation.

Republican leadership and Trump himself are leaning heavily on lawmakers to agree to vote on the procedural step that allows the Senate to begin debating -- and amending -- the bill.

A vote is also expected tomorrow in the House of Representatives on a sanctions bill that will likely quickly come to the Senate.

The bill would impose tough new sanctions on Russia for its alleged meddling in the US presidential election last year and Moscow's annexation of Crimea. It would also punish Iran and North Korea for recent ballistic missile tests.

McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has been showered with tributes from all sides as an American original since he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 9:19 [IST]
Who was Banda Singh Bahadur? Remembering the first Sikh ruler on his death anniversary

Sikh-Americans want women to sing hymns at Golden Temple

International

oi-PTI

Washington, July 27: To recognise the important role played by women in strengthening the Sikh faith, the Sikh-Americans have proposed that women should be allowed to sing shabads or hymns at the Golden Temple.

About 120 young Sikhs between the age group of seven and 17 from across the United States and Canada, gathered in a Maryland suburb of Washington, raised the question of why Sikh women are not performing kirtan at Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple).

"It is clear from the many other historical references that Sikh women were crucial to the success of the 5th largest religion and it is extremely important that we give them their deserving role in Sikh affairs, especially being able to sing shabads or hymns at the very heart of Sikhism, in Darbar Sahib, the Golden Temple," Rajwant Singh, one of the Sikh Americans who taught the campers said.

The Sikh youth camp was organised by the Washington-based Guru Gobind Singh Foundation.

Sehejneet Kaur, one of the counselors who is pursuing dentistry, said that this Panth would not be where it is today without the actions of Sikh women, so we should recognise their contributions.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 13:28 [IST]
US Senate opens debate on Obamacare repeal and replace

International

pti-PTI

Washington, Jul 26: The US Senate on wednesday has voted to floor debate on their efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, a major step forward for President Donald Trump.

The Republican-majority Senate voted by a slim 51-50 vote margin yesterday, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie, to start deliberations on The American Health Care Act. While the Trump administration still has a long way to go before it can achieve one of the toughest goal that it has set for itself in repealing and replacing Obamacare, the president, who had made scrapping the policy a key campaign pledge, said the Senate voting to start the debate is a "big step".

Obamacare was signed into law by former President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. About 20 million Americans gained healthcare coverage under the healthcare programme, but Republicans viewed it as an overreach of the federal government and said patients had less choice and higher premiums.

Republicans say the new bill will lower premiums and deductibles and give consumers more control over their health care. But an array of opponents, including many consumer and patient advocacy groups, say this bill could leave millions facing higher healthcare bills and less coverage.

Reacting to the passage, Trump said, "I'm very happy to announce that, with zero of the Democrats' votes, the motion to proceed on healthcare has just passed, and now we move forward towards truly great health care for the American people. We look forward to that. This was a big step." To vote for the legislation, Republican Senator John McCaain returned to the Capitol Hill for the first time after being diagnosed with brain cancer to cast a decisive "yes" vote.

Trump thanked McCain for making a "tough trip" to Washington DC and vote and called him a "very brave man" "We passed it without one Democrat vote. And that's a shame, but that's the way it is. It is very unfortunate. But I want to congratulate American people, because we're going to give you great healthcare," Trump told reporters at the White House.

He said that Obamacare should have been terminated long ago as it has been a "disaster" for the American people. "Our healthcare insurance system is a mess. We all know it, those who support Obamacare and those who oppose it Something has to be done," McCain said in his remarks on the Senate floor. "We Republicans have looked for a way to end it and replace it with something else without paying a terrible political price. We haven't found it yet, and I'm not sure we will. All we've managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn't very popular when we started trying to get rid of it," he said.

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that anyone who voted to move to proceed and certainly anyone who votes to send this bill to conference is virtually voting to kick millions off healthcare, to make it much harder to get coverage if one has a pre-existing condition. "...To slash Medicaid and to give a huge amount of tax cuts to the rich. We're going to do everything we can in this chamber, and the so many groups outside the chamber to make sure that this does not pass the Senate at the end of the day," he said.

Independent Women's Voice (IWV) policy director Hadley Heath Manning applauded the senators for moving to proceed to debate on health reform legislation. "By opening up debate, Senators have the opportunity to consider a variety of ideas that will undo the harms of ObamaCare," she said.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that the Senate vote will have very real and disastrous consequences for millions of Americans. "The only question is how many people will be harmed, since Senate Republicans voted to move forward on a bill no one has yet seen but which we already know will raise costs and kick millions off their health insurance, including millions of children, elderly and disabled Americans who depend on Medicaid," he said.

PTI
Sky News 12 Nov 2022

Ukraine's president has praised his people's resilience as parts of the Kherson region were liberated from Russian occupation - and..
 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd.

All rights reserved.

One News is a registered trademark

of One News Page Ltd.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan, or Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer with its headquarters in Tucheng, New Taipei City, Taiwan, established in 1974. In 2021, the Group's annual revenue reached NT$5.99 trillion and was ranked 22nd in the 2021 Fortune Global 500. It is the world's largest technology manufacturer and service provider. While headquartered in Taiwan, the company is the largest private employer in the People's Republic of China and one of the largest employers worldwide. Terry Gou is the company founder and former chairman.
Rumble 16 Feb 2022

Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on a sanctions package for Russia as its invasion of Ukraine seems more likely. Plus, the..
NewsChannel 5 Nashville 02 Feb 2021

A combat veteran said safeguards need to be set in stone after President Biden lifted the transgender military ban.
LifeMinute.tv 12 Nov 2022

From parades to ceremonies, November is filled with events to honor those who have served. But the new 'CVN Military 101 Survey'..
Music executive, Soso Soberekon, has offered a reward of up to one million naira to anyone who returns or helps find his phone.

Soberekon revealed that he lost the phone at the wedding reception of Davidos aide, Isreal Afeare, on Saturday in Benin.

He said, I misplaced my iPhone yesterday in Benin at the marriage reception #isrealdmw. Pls, a 500,000 to 1m naira reward will be given to anyone that will return or help in getting the phone. The work contents in the phone is very important please.
Suspected political thugs at the weekend attacked the campaign train of the Lagos state governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Azeez Olajide Adediran-JANDOR while returning from visitation to members of the party at the Ikoga Junction area of Badagry Local Government.

The attack led to injuries of several members of Jandors entourage and press men, with one of the injured journalists who is in critical condition in an undisclosed hospital while those injured are being treated.

READ ALSO: Funke Akindele to Alimosho market traders, Jandor will undo obnoxious policies

In a statement by the Lagos state PDP Publicity Secretary and Chairman, Media and Publicity Team for JandorFunke 2023 Campaign Council, Hon. Hakeem Amode, the party raised concern over the threat to use APC sponsored thugs to attack the campaign programs of our gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran-JANDOR.

We would like to state categorically that this will not deter the determination of our candidate to campaign for the next election and win the election come March 29, 2023.

We would like to call on the Commissioner of Police of Lagos state and the Area Commander of Police in the Badagry division to do everything possible to fish out those behind the attack and necessary disciplinary actions taken against them to forestall such occurrences in the future and to instill confidence in our members that they will be protected during this campaign period.

We would also strongly warn those that are hell bent on causing trouble or planning to disrupt the campaign and elections that we would not fold our arms and watch as we will resist all forms of intimidation.
Spread the love

Wireless headphones, like Apples popular AirPods, could be dangerous to human health, according to a petition signed by 250 scientists.

The petition to the United Nations (U.N.), led by the International Electromagnetic Field Alliance takes aim at nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which are used by AirPods and other Bluetooth devices, as well as cellphones and Wi-Fi, which emit radiofrequency radiation (RFR).

The devices, which include not only AirPods but also other wireless Bluetooth headphones, communicate with one another by sending a magnetic field through your brain.

One scientist who signed the petition believes the use of earbuds is akin to a giant experiment and could increase your risk of neurological disorders.

Wireless headphones, like Apples popular AirPods, could be dangerous to human health, according to a petition signed by 250 scientists.

The devices, which include not only AirPods but also other wireless Bluetooth headphones, bring a new level of function and convenience to those looking to listen to music, podcasts, audiobooks and more while on the go.

Since their introduction, more than 44 million AirPods have been sold, with another 55 million predicted to be sold in 2019 alone. Forecasts were that 80 million would be sold in 2020, but when the final tally came in, they actually hit over 100 million.

Its an undeniably alluring bit of technology  one that was further made into a necessity of sorts when Apple removed the headphone jack from its iPhone 7  but its one that may come at a steep price.

READ ALSO: Rights Group wins case against FCC on safety guidelines for 5G and wireless

The petition to the United Nations (U.N.), led by the International Electromagnetic Field Alliance, takes aim at both nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which are used by AirPods and other Bluetooth devices, as well as cellphones and Wi-Fi, which emit radiofrequency radiation.

The petition, which was originally released in 2015 and updated in 2019, is an international appeal from scientists who work closely in the study of the health effects of nonionizing EMF.

Based upon peer-reviewed, published research, we have serious concerns regarding the ubiquitous and increasing exposure to EMF generated by electric and wireless devices.

These include  but are not limited to  radiofrequency radiation (RFR) emitting devices, such as cellular and cordless phones and their base stations, Wi-Fi, broadcast antennas, smart meters and baby monitors as well as electric devices and infrastructures used in the delivery of electricity that generate extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF).

Advertisement



Noting the International Agency for Research on Cancers classification of EMF as a possible human carcinogen, they also stated numerous scientific publications show EMF affects organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines.

Bluetooth technology like that used by AirPods is typically low intensity, but its the close proximity to your brain that could make earbuds particularly dangerous, especially since they tend to be used for longer periods.

Moskowitz said the technology could open the blood-brain barrier, which evolved to keep large molecules out of the brain.

He believes that with earbuds, exposure leading to neurological disorders and diseases may be more likely than cancer.

READ ALSO: Drivers who make calls with earpiece risk six months in jail

From a precautionary standpoint, I would argue you shouldnt experiment with your brain like this by keeping these kinds of wireless headphones on your head or in your ears, Moskowitz said in a news release.

Like Moskowitz, Pall believes consequences of chronic EMF exposure to the brain can include neurological changes leading to anxiety, depression, autism and Alzheimers disease.

In their petition to the U.N., the scientists state there are inadequate nonionizing EMF guidelines on an international level, and the agencies responsible have failed to create and impose sufficient guidelines and safety standards to protect public health and populations that may be especially vulnerable to EMF, such as children.

Theyre calling for the United Nations Environmental Programme to fund an independent multidisciplinary committee to figure out ways to lower human exposure to RFR and ELF, noting that while industry should cooperate in this process, they should not be allowed to bias the findings.

Studies have even shown that MMWs may invoke stress protein changes in plants such as wheat shoots, while low levels of nonionizing radiation have been linked to disturbances and health problems in birds and bees.
Spread the love

A team of 14 scientists at Boston Universitys National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) developed a new strain of COVID-19 that killed 80% of the mice infected with the virus in a laboratory setting, according to a preprint study published Oct. 14.

Following the announcement, numerous news stories about the studys results focused on the fatality rate observed in the laboratory mice used in the study.

However, behind the headlines, some scientists and others raised concerns about the nature of the research and the fact that it was partially funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The research was conducted using what some scientists called gain-of-function research, raising concerns that this type of research  which some theorize led to the creation and escape of the original Wuhan strain of COVID-19  is still being done, despite concerns that it could lead to more lab escapes and more pandemics.

Gain of function refers to the manipulation of pathogens to make them more dangerous, in the hope of getting ahead of a future outbreak.

READ ALSO: Investigation reveals Faucis calendar of secret manipulation of facts of COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines deals

Commenting on the researchers announcement, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Childrens Health Defense chairman of the board and chief legal counsel, remarked on the potential danger of such research  and its federal funding:

What could be more insane than Anthony Fauci funding more of his gain of function experiments to soup up coronavirus lethality in the middle of a pandemic caused by a juiced-up coronavirus that has killed millions?

Rachel Lapal Cavallario, Boston Universitys associate vice president for public relations and social media, told the media the research conducted was not gain-of-function research and that, In fact, this research made the virus [replication] less dangerous.

However, others disputed that claim.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a doctor, said the research involved lethal gain of function virus research that creates the potential to kill more people than any singular nuclear weapon.

Viruses have managed to escape even the most secure labs, Marshall said, adding that this type of research must stop immediately while the risks and benefits can be investigated.

The research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), which consists of scientists as well as local community members. The Boston Public Health Commission also approved the research.

Advertisement



Furthermore, this research mirrors and reinforces the findings of other, similar research performed by other organizations, including the FDA. Ultimately, this research will provide a public benefit by leading to better, targeted therapeutic interventions to help fight against future pandemics.

However, this particular research took place under BSL-3 precautions, although according to STAT, There is no evidence the work  was conducted improperly or unsafely, noting that an internal biosafety review committee and the Boston Public Health Commission approved the work.

University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle, J.D., Ph.D., said the dangers of BSL-4 facilities have long been known, which is why he participated in efforts to stop the construction of the NEIDL facility.

READ ALSO: Uproar over $220.5m funding of COVID experiments to hide human manipulation of laboratory-created super viruses

Boyle said the federal government doesnt rein in or prosecute scientists working on such projects, because the federal government is paying for this type of Nazi biowarfare death science dirty work.

Such research, and the facilities in which it is performed, also pose a risk to surrounding communities and the world at large, Boyle said, suggesting a Wuhan-like leak could occur at any similar facility in the U.S.:

Following the publication of the preprint study  and the controversy that ensued  the NIAID appeared to distance itself from the research. According to STAT, The research team did not clear the work with the NIAID, leading the agency to look for some answers as to why it first learned of the work through media reports.

According to the MetroUK, The scientists also infected human cells with the hybrid variant and found it was five times more infectious than Omicron.

In the preprint, the researchers wrote: We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant.
/* custom css */

.tdi_59.td-a-rec{ text-align: center; }.tdi_59 .td-element-style{ z-index: -1; }.tdi_59.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_59.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; }@media (max-width: 767px) { .tdi_59.td-a-rec-img { text-align: center; } }

Advertisement

The National Mandate Group (NMG), a support team of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has carpeted Rivers States Governor Nyesom Wike for meddling in Lagos politics by openly endorsing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for a second term.

Vexed by Wikes declaration, the Lagos State Coordinator of the National Mandate Group (NMG), Alhaji Wahab Sadiq, described the Rivers Governor as a meddlesome interloper.

Wike, who visited Lagos as a special guest at an event organised by the wife of the states Governor, had described Sanwo-Olu as a performer who deserved a second term and whose re-election would be a walkover.

/* custom css */

.tdi_58.td-a-rec{ text-align: center; }.tdi_58 .td-element-style{ z-index: -1; }.tdi_58.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_58.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; }@media (max-width: 767px) { .tdi_58.td-a-rec-img { text-align: center; } }



Expressing aversion to the PDP Rivers Governors action, however, the Lagos NMG Coordinator, said: What Wike came to do in Lagos is clearly anti-party and a sacrilege. It amounts to an act of gross indiscipline from someone we have always regarded as a strong pillar in PDP.

Wike presented himself as a meddlesome interloper in Lagos. What has Wike got to do with Lagos politics? What has he contributed to Lagos PDP in the past? Lagos PDP has never benefitted from him nor relied on him during elections. We never needed his endorsement in Lagos State. APC will use and dump him and his eyes will become clear.

Sadiq said that the victory of PDP in Lagos was a foregone conclusion because Lagosians had decided to reject the mediocrity they had suffered since 1999, when the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, first became Governor and turned himself into the Alpha and Omega in the state.

The Lagos NMG Coordinator said: We restate our commitment to the victory of the esteemed PDP Governorship Candidate, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, also known as JANDOR, and his beautiful Running Mate, Ms. Funke Akindele-Bello, alias Jenifa.

JANDOR is coming and 1,000 Wikes cannot save Sanwo-Olu. Let Sanwo-Olu and Wike take that to the bank.

The truth is that Lagosians want a change. This is an oppressive government and people want to be free of 22 years of the rule of one man, using all the instruments of coercion, oppression and electoral rigging to capture and treat Lagos like a conquered territory.

The level of dehumanisation is frightening. At every segment, from traffic to market, from transportation to education, this APC regime has dehumanised the citizens. Lagos has lost its soul. It reached its peak with the unprovoked killing of peaceful #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on 20th October 2020. But enough is enough.

People remember that under President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP, they enjoyed freedom. They could protest, they would be heard and their complaints would receive immediate attention. They earnestly yearn for those days and will use this election to bring about the change.

We are committed to PDPs victory from top to bottom; PDP will take Lagos from its current bottom position to the top. At the national level, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will put together a powerful team of selfless patriots ready to take Nigeria from this bottomless pit of despair to the greatest heights of development and achievements.

Nigerians remember the good old days of PDP rule. Although they fell for the satanic allure of APC propaganda, people have seen the truth, oju ti la. Nigerians will willingly put PDP back into government.
PDFConverters has released their six major updated software products

http://www.pdfconverters.net

PDFConvertersnet has announced that they have updated six of their software products. They are All PDF Converter, PDFtoWord Converter, PDFtoImage Converter, WordtoPDF Converter, PDFtoTxt Converter, PDF Compressor V3. Now, they are all available for users to download.Detailed update informationAll PDF Converter is an all-in-one PDF conversion solution for users. You can use our software to convert PDF files to Word, Excel, Html, XML, Images, Epub, which are the seven formats you can use frequently.All PDF Converter supports multiple languages. You can choose English, Chinese, German, French and Russian. We have optimized the language options in version 2.5.6. When you have chosen French as your product language, All PDF Converter can remember your option and there is no need for you to choose it again when you open this product next time.We have also fixed some bugs and improve the user experience in the new version. Know more information about All PDF Converter 2.5.6, please go to here. Try the new version, please click here.PDFtoWord Converter: updated from 3.1.1 to 3.3.1PDFtoWord Converter provides you with powerful features that you can convert your PDF files to Word with original layout and text format. You can choose to convert your PDF files to doc as well as docx.Changes in new version 3.3.1- New Logo and UI design.- New registration module has been applied.- Use experience has been improved and the product has become more reliable and efficient- You can converter your PDF files to word 10 times for free.- Bug fixedPDFtoImage Converter: updated from 2.1.1 to 3.1.1PDFtoImage Converter can help you convert your PDF files to JPG with high quality. It comes with support for batch conversion so that there is no need for you to process the conversion one by one.Changes in new version 3.1.1- New Logo and UI design.- New registration module has been applied.- Use experience has been improved and the product has become more reliable and efficient- You can converter your PDF files to word 10 times for free.- Bug fixedWordtoPDF Converter: updated from 2.1.1 to 3.1.1WordtoPDF Converter is an alternative choice for you when you are working with Word files and trying to convert them to PDF files with the possibility of carrying out batch tasks in order to save time. You can just drag and drop your multiple PDF files and process the conversion instead of opening Office Word to convert Word files one by one. For the security of your newly created PDF files, you can choose to set open password or owner password from unauthorized access. For higher protection level, WordtoPDF Converter can also help you convert your Word files to JPGs to prevent your PDF files from content copying or editing.Changes in new version 3.1.1- New Logo and UI design.- New registration module has been applied.- Use experience has been improved and the product has become more reliable and efficient- You can converter your PDF files to word 10 times for free.- Bug fixedPDFtoTxt Converter: updated from 2.1.1 to 3.1.1If you want to extract text from PDF documents and save it to Txt files, PDFtoTxt Converter is the simple and straightforward software deserves your trying. The conversion process is reliable, fast and no stumbling upon errors.Changes in new version 3.1.1- New Logo and UI design.- New registration module has been applied.- Use experience has been improved and the product has become more reliable and efficient- You can converter your PDF files to word 10 times for free.- Bug fixedPDF Compressor V3: updated from 3.1.1 to 3.3.1PDF Compressor V3 will help you reduce the size of PDF files by adjusting the quality of embedded images. In advanced setting dialog, you can choose the quality level. Furthermore, you can just delete all images from the source documents. Attachments, annotations and bookmarks could also be removed if you want to reduce the size further or for security consideration.Changes in new version 3.1.1- New Logo and UI design.- New registration module has been applied.- Use experience has been improved and the product has become more reliable and efficient- You can converter your PDF files to word 10 times for free.How to download those updated software products.For the users who have interested in trying these updated software, they can got to the official website:and find the download link on the product page of each program.AboutPDFConverters.Net is a professional software company. We take a very strict process from developing products to putting into the market. We have released flagship products like All PDF Converter, PDFtoTxt Converter, PDFtoImage Converter, PDFtoWord Converter, WordtoPDF Convert, PDF Comprssor. We have got thousands of customers from all around the world. We will continue to provide software that is useful and superior in performance!- Press ContactJeanne G. McGeheeMarketing Manager5-2-6# People South Road 3002BaoAn District, Shenzhen, Guangdong,ChinaPhone: +86 15397504838Email: support@pdfconverters.net
LOVE CUSTOM ART ANNOUNCES ITS NEW PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN

Love Custom Art

https://www.lovecustomart.com/

Glendale, CA. (July 21, 2017) - Love Custom Art the industry leader in the field of photo to painting services, announces its new promotional campaign, offering an astounding store wide 25% discount on all its products.It's been quite a while since Love Custom Art announced the last discount for its custom products. This time, the photo to painting provider comes up with a brand-new discount deal; the company is offering all it's customers an unprecedented opportunity to save 25% when they order hand-painted artwork and all other custom-made products like Custom logo mats for example. The company has experts in painting pictures of the highest quality from clients photographs.Steven Freeman, the Director of Love Custom Art commented we are offering 25% discount on all our products to help more people to turn their photos into very unique and beautiful artworks 100% hand-painted by a professional photo painter. You can order now and get the best service from us."Such a rarely seen discount level to get the best hand-painted artwork from the best photo painters at Love Custom Art should be very enticing as you can acquire such a high end top-quality gift at a discounted rate. Given the fact that Love Custom Art is an expert and leading player in this field, it's really hard to shy away from a huge offer like this.For further information, please contact:US Office +1 218 389 8815UK Office +44 20 3239 8963Website:About Love Custom Art:Love Custom Art is an expert in offering high-quality gifts from photo to painting. It utilizes talented master artists painting pictures on 100% linen canvases. They offer a simple order process for an easy upload of your photos, all from the comfort of the clients own home or office. Users can upload their favourite photos on the website and get a beautiful piece of artwork in approximately two weeks. Delivered to their door FREE of charge to most jurisdictions in the world and a FREE gift-wrapping service, so your bespoke gift arrives at it's destination on occasions like birthdays and Christmas gift-wrapped.LoveCustomArt1125 E Broadway #756GlendaleCA 91205UNITED STATES
GiftsbyMeeta introduces personalized rakhi Gifts Online for Raksha Bandhan 2017

https://www.giftsbymeeta.com/rakhi-same-day-delivery

https://www.giftsbymeeta.com/rakhi-personalized-gifts

The pioneering online gifting website, GiftsbyMeeta has presented a fresh accumulation of online personalized rakhi gifts. The company has established a different delivery shell that will handle the orders required on the same day basis, although the personalized rakhi will be only available in Delhi NCR location.A pioneering gifting firm in India, GiftsbyMeeta has presented a new accumulation of online personalized rakhi gifts for the upcoming event of Rakshabandhan 2017. Global gifting services provider, GiftsbyMeeta has already proven its expertise in offering a great accumulation of customized rakhi. The gifting store located in New Delhi, India has become the largest rakhi gifting website in India. The latest accumulation made live on the website aimed to increase the number from of sales from those customers who often appreciates the personalized gifting articles from this store. In addition, the company has given special one same day rakhi delivery in India () by establishing a special delivery shell for the Rakshabandhan occasion.The company has made special arrangement before the Rakshabandhan 2017 occasion that will ensure the quick processing of personalized orders, although the personalized rakhi () will be delivered on the same day basis only in Delhi, NCR area. The various gifting articles, which are frequently customized at this store, have already been made available in the warehouse and the personalization of these articles will be happening on the priority basis. The personalized rakhi, as well as the Rakhi in combination with many of the customized articles, will be delivered in India not for the internationals destination on the same day basis.Talking about the latest episode at this gifting firm, the product manager at GiftsbyMeeta told the media personals:GiftsbyMeeta is steadily and consistently moving towards its goal to the double the sales revenue on this Rakshabandhan 2017 and this fresh move will provide a big boost to the numbers as there is the huge number of customers who love the personalized gifts from this store. The online personalized rakhi has made available at reasonably fair prices and the initial responses from the customers are truly amazing. The gifting website is heading towards a very successful Rakshabandhan festival from the sales point of view. The online Rakhi delivery, the customized rakhi, international delivery, the age, and personality special gifting arrangements and so forth like special arrangement will help the company to fulfill its sales target set for the year 2017.GiftsbyMeeta, Indias leading gifting portal started its operation in the year 2013 and in the year 2017, it has become the largest Rakhi store in India with national and international delivery services. GiftsbyMeeta provides complete gifting solutions for all the occasions based on the city, country, and the recipients age, taste and inclinations. GiftsbyMeeta also provides the corporate gifting arrangement of both personalized and non-personalized gifts.Gifts By Meeta 10MG Road, 1st Floor, New Delhi Opp. Metro Pillar No. 47, Near to Sultanpur Metro Station, New Delhi
Water Treatment Chemicals

Water Treatment Chemicals

http://www.water-chemicals.com/

Water treatment is a process for treating sewage or modern wastewater and converting it into more acceptable form for a specific end-use. The end utilization of this treated water might be drinking, mechanical water supply, water system, waterway stream support, water diversion or numerous different uses, including being securely returned to nature. Water treatment expels contaminants and undesirable parts, or diminishes their fixation with the goal that the water ends up noticeably fit for its coveted end-utilize. WATER TREATMENT includes four fundamental procedures which are boiler water treatment, cooling water treatment, water purification and treatment of wastewater effluent. This operation involves both physical and chemical modification of waste water. The chemicals which are employed for treating waste water are termed as waste water chemicals. Water Treatment Chemicals have been classified mainly on the basis of their application areas:-Boiler Water ChemicalsIndustrial boilers and steam raising plant are used extensively in many commercial, manufacturing and industrial processes. The main objective of boiler treatment chemicals is maintenance of boiler systems so that it functions appropriately. The main factors hindering boiler operation are scale formation, metallic corrosion, boiler water carryover and sludge deposition. Boiler water chemicals provide holistic solution to these problems. These include single-shot multifunctional treatment products, scale and corrosion inhibitors, oxygen scavengers, alkalinity builders, sludge conditioners, condensate line treatments and more.Cooling Water Treatment ChemicalsWater is utilized broadly as an exceptionally proficient coolant in numerous industries where cooling is required. To guarantee such cooling frameworks are effectively kept up and work at ideal proficiency it is essential that the right cooling water conditions are set up and after that kept up constantly. The chemicals which help in accomplishing these conditions are termed as cooling tower chemicals. Chemicals for cooling water treatment includes highly effective biodispersants, corrosion inhibitors for both hard and soft water, and advanced multi-functional scale and corrosion inhibitor formulations, oxidizing and non-oxidizing biocide to control microbial growth and alagae blooms in re-circulating water.Reverse Osmosis ChemicalsReverse osmosis, regularly abbreviated as RO is a membrane filtration process that is used extensively for the desalination and purification of water. RO chemicals make sure that reverse osmosis plants and desalination plants are operated at peak execution. Advanced formulations of RO chemicals helps in upgrading operational efficiency of RO membrane. It has turned out to be beneficial in optimizing membrane life expectancy and in reducing total costs. RO membrane cleaners and detergents, scale inhibitors and antiscalants, corrosion inhibitors, biocides, antifoulants, de-chlorinators and flocculants are the chemicals listed under RO chemicals products.Wastewater Treatment ChemicalsWaste water treatment chemicals mainly include coagulants and flocculants. Coagulants basically work for essential settling of suspended solids in effluent water and flocculants cause secondary setlling of particles. Alum (Ferric/Non-Ferric), Ferrous Sulfate, Ferric Chloride, PAC (Poly Aluminum Chloride) is mainly used as coagulants. Flocculation is accomplished with Polyelectrolytes, for example, Polyacrylamides (Anionic, Cationic and Non-ionic), Polyamine, PolyDADMAC and so on. Coagulants Flocullants are used for clarification,floatation and sludge dewatering of pharma and biotech wastes.Chemtex Speciality Limited is one of the largest water treatment chemicals manufacturers in India covering a vast expanse of advance and high performing water treatment chemical products ranging from RO membrane cleaning, cooling tower chemicals, boiler treatment chemicals, waste water and sanitation for use in commercial, municipal and industrial process environments enhancing productivity, performance, and reducing equipment costs.Water-Chemicals86A Topsia Road (S), Haute Street BuildingKolkata 700046 WB India
Data Center Colocation Market - Forecasts from 2017 to 2022 | Research Report

https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/products/data-center-colocation-market-forecasts-from-2017-to-2022

https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/products/data-center-colocation-market-forecasts-from-2017-to-2022

www.knowledge-sourcing.com

The data center colocation industry provides customers with rent specific spaces for securing their servers in a common physical location. Also, colocation offers the benefit of upscaling or downscaling the technology as per the requirements.With global businesses rising exponentially, companies are curating larger amounts of data and are exploring creative, and cost-effective approaches to achieve this objective. With reducing IT budgets and high cost involved in owning large data centers, colocation has become a viable cost-effective solution for the enterprises with a limited budget.Major forces driving the data center colocation market are the need for reliability, safekeeping and measurability of IT infrastructure, growing complexities of data centers facilities and declining IT budgets.Over the past few years, colocation has emerged as cost-effective and efficient data management solution for small, mid-sized and even large businesses around the globe. Data Center Colocation market is estimated to reach a total market size of $62.32 billion by 2022.Retail and wholesale are the major solution types being offered by colocation service providers. Retail colocation is witnessing increased adoption over the forecast period, however, wholesale colocation will dominate over the forecast period, though with declining market share. The line between these two-major colocation solution types has started blurring due to small scale deals being offered by wholesale colocation providers. Hybrid colocation is emerging as an important alternative to the existing colocation models and is witnessing moderate implementation by enterprises trying to incorporate best features out of retail and wholesale colocation solutions.The report provides a detailed outlook of the Data Center Colocation market during the forecast period, its major segments, driving forces, challenges and trends, and an analysis of the combined impact of these factors on the future developmental prospects of the market.To get details on this report, please visit:The report provides detailed segmentation of the industry on basis of colocation model, end users, and industry verticals. Under major colocation model type retail and wholesale colocation, models have been covered, while by end users this market has been segmented into small, medium and large enterprises.Key industries opting for data center colocation solutions are banking and financial services, communication and technology, healthcare and government among others. The report provides detailed market share and forecast for these industry verticals over the next five years have also been provided.Make an Enquiry:Important regions for vendors in terms of market size is covered through detailed geographical segmentation with country level analysis. Geographical regions covered are Americas (North and South America), Europe Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific.Key industry participants which have been profiled as part of this section are Equinix, SoftLayer, CenturyLink, Coresite Realty Corporation, Colt and Telehouse along with several other players.For sales and report inquiries, email us at:For any report inquiry: info@knowledge-sourcing.comFor any sales inquiry: sales@knowledge-sourcing.comKnowledge Sourcing Intelligence is a market research and consulting firm based out of India. Driven by industry experts, the company provides syndicated reports, custom research, and consulting services. Our proprietary data analytics model blended with quality primary and secondary research data assists in generating quality reports providing crucial insights to managers and decision makers. The services offered by us help companies to gain required competitive edge. Our expertise across 10 industries such as ICT, Chemicals, Semiconductors, Healthcare among others caters to diverse client needs.Knowledge Sourcing IntelligenceAscent Business CenterH-38, Sector 63NOIDA, IndiaContact: +1-866-714-4587
IQ4I Research published a new report on Urology Devices Global Market-Forecast to 2023

Urology Devices Global Market estimated to be worth $33,966.5 million by 2023

Urology is a branch of medicine that focuses on diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of diseases associated with urinary tract and male & female reproductive systems. The main function of urogenital system is to eliminate wastes from the body, regulate blood volume and blood pressure, control levels of electrolytes and metabolites, regulate blood pH and reproduction. Abnormalities, improper function or congenital or acquired dysfunction of urogenital system leads to various urology diseases like kidney disease, urinary stones, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, urological cancer and erectile dysfunction etc. These urology diseases are diagnosed and treated through biochemical blood tests, urinalysis, pharmaceutical medications and traditional open and minimally invasive surgical methods.Minimally invasive surgical methods using various devices like endoscopy, urodynamic systems, dialysis devices, lithotripsy etc is gaining momentum in recent times, since, these devices eliminate the need of traditional open surgeries with various advantages like minimal incisions, low healthcare costs, quick recovery times and shorter hospital stays.According to IQ4I analysis, the Urology devices global market is expected to grow at mid single digit CAGR to reach $33,966.5 million by 2023. Increase in aging population and subsequent rise in incidence of kidney and urology diseases and increased demand for minimal invasive surgical procedures are some of the factors driving the urology devices market growth. Favorable reimbursement policies, rising awareness of urology device due to faster recovery time and reduced treatment care and market expansion opportunities in emerging countries are few opportunities for the urology devices market. However, patient safety risks due to chances of infections and other complications while using urology device and lack of skilled professionals in handling urology devices are expected to hamper the market growth.The Urology devices market is segmented based on their products, applications, end-users, and geography. The products segment is further segmented into urology endoscopes, dialysis devices, stone management devices, urodynamic systems, benign prostatic hyperplasia devices, incontinence care devices, erectile dysfunction devices, nephrostomy devices and urology screeners. Dialysis devices segment accounted largest share, due to technological advancements, increasing awareness, increased demand etc.Based on applications, the urology device market is segmented into kidney disease, urinary stones, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, urological cancer, erectile dysfunction and others. Kidney disease accounts the largest share, due to miniaturization of device and fast turn-around time for analysis.Based on the end-users type, the market is segmented into hospitals, home healthcare, clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, academic and diagnostic laboratories and others. Hospitals segment occupied the largest share due to rising incidence of urology disorders in aging population and increasing demand for technically advanced products by the end-users.Based on geography the urology devices global market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the world. Europe region commanded the largest market share. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest due to rising awareness, higher economic growth, large patient pool and rising aged population.Technological advancements in urology devices market includes lithotripsy devices, robotic assisted and laser associated urology devices. Present trend in this market is performing minimally invasive laparoscopic surgeries for easy visualization of intricate organs and performing surgeries with fewer incisions in accurate and precise manner. For instance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.) are currently working in development of new video processing system which has the ability in identifying and recording different stages of laparoscopic surgeries assisting urologists and researchers to understand and carry out relevant studies. In May 2017, Intuitive Surgical Inc (U.S.) received FDA clearance for its Da Vinci X robotic surgical system which enables in performing optimized, focused-quadrant surgery procedures like prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy and benign hysterectomy. The system features flexible port placement, 3D digital optics with set-up technology that uses voice and laser guidance, drape design for simplifying surgery procedure.The Urology devices global market is fragmented and is growing at a moderate rate, key players like Fresenius Kabi (Germany), Baxter International Inc (U.S.), Nipro Corporation (Japan) and Olympus Corporation (Japan) occupied major share. Companies in this market are coming up with innovative technologies and devices for entering or maintaining their leadership position in different sectors of urology device market. In March 2017, Signostics (U.S.) introduced Uscan device in U.S. market which uses cutting-edge, hand-held ultrasound technology for bladder and kidney care through providing industry leading accuracy in the measurement of bladder volume residual.Major players in Urology devices market are B Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), Cook Medical (U.S.), Coloplast (Denmark), Nipro Corporation (Japan), Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), Baxter International, Inc. (U.S.), C.R. Bard (Inc U.S.), Olympus Corporation (Japan) and KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG (Germany).Some of the other companies operating in Urology devices are Richard WOLF GmbH (Germany), Dornier Medtech GmbH (Germany), Escad Medical (Germany), Maxer (Germany), Laborie (Canada), Dantec Medical (U.K.), Albyn Medical (U.K.), Medical Measurement Systems B.V. (Netherlands), NxStage Medical Inc (U.S.), Dialife S.A. (Switzerland), Allmed Medical (London), China Chengdu Wesley Biotech Co., Ltd (China), Outset Medical (U.S.), etc.IQ4I (Intelligence Quotient for Innovation) Research and Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. is a global strategy, consulting and a leading market research company. Our clients include leading businesses, investment banks, researchers and government agencies.We are a team of highly qualified consultants and market researchers, committed to help clients make strategic decisions by providing relevant and firmly reliable market intelligence support. We enable our clients to identify the market opportunities with best-in-class market intelligence reports.With world-class research capabilities, we deliver high-level strategically analyzed consulting and custom research assignments to our clients at a reasonable cost and time frame. With fact-based insights and accurate market forecasts, we enable our clients to understand and respond to the market dynamics with an edge over their competitors.IQ4I Research & Consultancy Pvt. LtdNo.11, Industrial Suburb, Rajajinagar,Bengaluru-560010, Karnataka,India
Sixty Attracts 26 million NOK Investment to Fund Future Growth and Product Portfolio Development

www.sixty.no

www.sixty.no

BERGEN, Norway  24 July, 2017  Sixty the broadcast and OTT graphics experts, today announced that it recently raised 26 million NOK in total from Alden AS, Vanguard Invest AS and Mowinckel Management AS.Sixty will use the investment to further develop its product portfolio and to fund expansion in geographical reach and personnel to meet the global interest for Ease Live, Ease TV and other Sixty solutions and services.Our goal is to enable broadcasters to engage with their end viewers in new ways. We will use this investment to move further towards this aim by meeting the high level of global interest in our solution portfolio as well ensuring we continue to develop products that remain well ahead of the technology curve, says Kjetil Horneland, CEO, Sixty.We are building products that enable broadcasters and operators to offer consumer services that maximise user enjoyment and interactivity and ensure that customers stay longer and return sooner. In a future of increased competition for viewer attention, we provide products that help our customers win the battle for consumer loyalty, concluded Horneland.Developed by a unique team of graphic, broadcast design professionals and developers, Sixty enables the easy implementation of interactive TV, and allows users to quickly design and launch television experiences across any platform or device including linear, web, mobile phones, and tablets. Sixty solutions include:Ease Live, a flexible solution that unifies the linear and online TV experience with a consistent brand and design, providing on-screen graphics that come to life in the hands of the audience by making them viewer clickable across all devices. The product can be used by any broadcast system or online video platform and integrates seamlessly into current workflows.Ease TV, a user interface framework for operators looking to enhance their set-top-box offering. Sixty built the new Altibox set-top box solution using Ease TV technology, in close cooperation with Altibox and Huawei. This solution was deployed with consumers earlier this year.# # #About SixtySixty () empowers broadcasters, operators and content owners to stand out in the rapidly changing, competitive world of multi-platform TV with solutions that make TV look good and feel right to demanding global audiences. Developed by teams of graphic, broadcast design professionals and developers  a talent pool unique to our industry  Sixty wraps content in a compelling look and feel to drive viewers to broadcasters programming. Sixty enables easy implementation of interactive TV, and allows users to quickly design and launch television experiences across any platform or device including linear, web, mobile phones, and tablets. Based in Norway, Sixty innovation creates the Future of Television by delivering rich TV Experiences that make a critical first impression on all-important viewers.Sixty Press Contact:David BramleyPlatformTel: +44 207 486 4900Email: david@platformpr.comSixty Media Contact:Henriette S. StherChief Commercial OfficerTel: +47 976 02 236E-mail: henriette@sixty.noAbout SixtySixty () empowers broadcasters, operators and content owners to stand out in the rapidly changing, competitive world of multi-platform TV with solutions that make TV look good and feel right to demanding global audiences. Developed by teams of graphic, broadcast design professionals and developers  a talent pool unique to our industry  Sixty wraps content in a compelling look and feel to drive viewers to broadcasters programming. Sixty enables easy implementation of interactive TV, and allows users to quickly design and launch television experiences across any platform or device including linear, web, mobile phones, and tablets. Based in Norway, Sixty innovation creates the Future of Television by delivering rich TV Experiences that make a critical first impression on all-important viewers.C. Sundts gate 375004 BergenNORWAY
Infotecs At The Forefront Of Quantum Cryptography

www.infotecs.biz

www.facebook.com/pages/Infotecs-Gmbh_english/400720220013566

Infotecs, an internationally known IT security and threat intelligence provider, is developing quantum encryption technology to exchange encryption keys at very high data volumes.Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize modern computing by attaining computing speeds previously thought impossible. However, computing that is significantly faster would also make it easy to break many of todays encryption techniques. One reason for this is that if encryption keys are used too frequently, attackers can find statistical patterns that allow decryption of the data. The solution to that problem is to change keys very frequentlysometimes as much as several times per second.Infotecs has invested roughly 4.8 million dollars over three years in the development of a post-quantum cryptography (PQK) technology that manages key exchange. Infotecs, in cooperation with international scientific institutions, is working to develop a marketable, efficient, but affordable solution for the construction of a secure quantum data network."The IT security sector is facing an extremely difficult challenge because of increasingly high-performance computer systems," comments Aleksandr Tkachev, General Manager of Infotecs Americas. "Our cryptographers have been working intensively since autumn 2016 on the development of a post-quantum cryptography solution to provide our customers with a market-ready encryption technology that meets the changing future requirements for secure, encrypted communication."About InfotecsA leading international security solutions provider and pioneer of software-based VPN solutions since 1991, Infotecs developed its Peer-to-Peer ViPNet technology to deliver greater security, flexibility, and throughput than other solutions on the market. The Infotecs ViPNet Security and Threat Intelligence Platform provides complete multi-layer security in one cost-effective solution. ViPNet is the only solution that supports true endpoint-to-endpoint security and delivers robust security which is scalable, flexible, easy to deploy, manage and maintain. The ViPNet solutions seamlessly integrate into existing networks enabling customers to achieve the right balance of high security with low complexity and low risk. More than 1,000,000 clients, offices, and servers have been securely connected with ViPNet solutions, backed up by an unparalleled world-class support, development, and technical team as well as a strong network of partners. For additional information on the company please visit:ContactInfotecs GmbHAnja MuellerMarketing & CommunicationsOberwallstrasse 2410117 Berlin, GermanyPhone: +49 30 206 43 66-52anja.mueller@infotecs.bizTwitter: twitter.com/InfotecsEnglishFacebook:
Secretary Villar to Discuss Infrastructure Development at the World Trade Center

In its mandate to prosper trade and investment, the World Trade Center Metro Manila (WTCMM) conducts networking luncheons, trade seminars, and cocktail events, where the latter aims to feature eminent personalities that influence Philippine business up close and personal. These events present timely and relevant topics that affect foreign and local businesses as well as talks by government officials on programs significant to doing business.Infrastructure development in the Philippines is of critical importance to regain and sustain high economic growth, improve the social living standards of the people and remove the impediments to international trade and investment. The Duterte administration recognizes the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as an approach to invest resources for adequate road infrastructure, especially recognizing that government has less resources to invest on expressways.In light of this, WTCMM presents Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark A. Villar as the next distinguished speaker of Up Close and Personal. The said Networking Forum and Cocktails is scheduled on Thursday, July 27, 2017 and will tackle the significant role of infrastructure development in Philippine business and the economy.The Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWHP) will share his plans and programs outlining the different infrastructure projects under the Build! Build! Build! Program of the current administration.The Manila WTC Club provides this forum to serve as an avenue to discuss the direction of DPWH in creating a more conducive environment for private businesses and generating more bankable projects.A member of the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) of New York, World Trade Center Metro Manila (WTCMM) is the first exhibition venue in the Philippines listed by the Union des Foires Internationales or UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry. WTCMM has more than 30,760 sqm of gross floor area, consisting of 13,560 sqm of indoor space 11,300 sqm of contiguous indoor space at ground level, and over 17,000 sqm outdoor space. Visit http://www.wtcmanila.com.ph/X2/F WTCMM Building Gil Puyat Avenue Extension corner Diosdado Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City 1300, MNLwtcclub@wtcmanila.com.ph
More German Investments Mean More German Translations

www.teck-translations.com

www.teck-translations.com

Why Language Continues to be an Obstacle for Investing in GermanyGermany is one of the prime markets for foreign investments, with an estimated 4% of global direct investment making its way into the country. In fact, the worlds second richest man, Warren Buffett, who is only beaten to the top spot on the financial leaderboard by Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, believes Germany to be a great market, and confirms the holding of a number of investments in the country.Benefits of Investing in GermanyWith solid regulatory and legal frameworks, high levels of productivity, and pretty decent purchasing power, there are plenty of advantages to choosing to invest in German businesses. However, there is one additional advantage which is somewhat of a gray area: language. Klaus Jankowski of First Law International Germany says that it is a big advantage that business people and representatives of public authorities are able to communicate in English  and it is! Its true that the use of English in Germany is very, very good. It is elsewhere, too, with English being the most widely spoken second language in Europe. However, it is irresponsible to use this skill as a technique for attracting foreign investors.Despite the countrys widespread use of English, and the ability of many residents  particularly younger people who learn English as part of their school curriculum  to understand the language, it is simply not possible to invest in Germany while conducting day-to-day business wholly in English. Why? Here are three primary reasons that are worth taking into consideration:Legal AspectsRecent language-based news has focused upon the increase in the number of companies around the world adopting English as a corporate language. In some places, such as Japan, this technique is proving to be successful. However, it is not a method that is becoming particularly common in Germany. The German language is already remarkably anglicized, and the Germans arent exactly thrilled with this. In fact, in one survey, 39 percent of Germans questioned claimed that they did not like anglicisms at all. The German Language Association is doing more to prevent German from becoming a peripheral language, which means that many German businesses are choosing not to adopt a foreign corporate language. For investors, this means a lack of availability of bilingual documents, with founding documents, bank statements, business plans, and more paperwork likely to be available in the German language only.Marketing AspectsThere is a very common misconception that English is key for successful marketing in Germany. It is often said that borrowed words and phrases appeal to Germanys younger generation, and can help a business to appear trendy. However, this couldnt be further from the truth. In fact, because some English phrases cannot be directly translated, and because meaning can easily be lost during direct translation, this marketing method could actually be doing more harm than good. Reports show that only one quarter of English slogans used in Germany are understood by their target audience, highlighting the fact that foreign slogans are not having the desired effect. A prime example is Mitsubishi's Drive@Earth tagline, which has been described as clumsy, while Audis native Vorsprung durch Technik has become one of the worlds most instantly recognized slogans and, some may say, a true symbol of Germany.Respectful AspectsFinally, if we boil all this down to its most basic, its about respect for a historic language, and for those who speak it. After all, you wouldnt walk into someones home and tell them what to do, would you? So why go into someones country and tell them how to speak? The German language has a very rich and vibrant history, and is understood to have developed around 2000 BCE. Derived from Latin, German was originally spoken by Roman settlers, and it has undergone massive transformations to get to where it is today. From Old High German to New High German, via Middle High and Early New High, the language has successfully evolved over the years to meet the demands of society. It is an important language that deserves to be kept alive, and the German Language Association is determined to achieve their goals.English-German TranslationsThe above helps to establish the importance of translations for investors, and highlights the need to understand that if youre planning to invest in Germany you should be prepared to conduct business  at least to some extent  in the German language. Its an obstacle, but its one that can easily be overcome through translation. The quickest way, of course, is through digital tools such as Google Translate, but its essential to realize that these solutions could significantly damage your investments.Machine translations may well be the perfect option if you want to translate a restaurant menu, or you want to get a vague idea of web content written in another language, but in terms of conducting business, a computer just isnt going to cut it. These translators work on a word-by-word basis and dont account for the meaning or overall context of the content. The damage created by poor translations is likely to be much bigger than the money saved by not opting for professional German translations (a quick Google search will show you just how much damage the Drive@Earth tagline has already done to Mitsubishis reputation!) If youre looking for professional, high quality translation, choose Teck. Teck Language Solutions provides you with reliable German translations in several fields such as marketing, legal, technical, and more, ensuring you always reach your target audience, no matter where they are.--Teck Language Solutions Inc. with seat in Miami, FL, offers professional translations in numerous language combinations, including all languages of the EU and all major languages. More information:Teck Language Solutions, Inc.444 Brickell Avenue, Suite 51132Miami, FL 33131, USAWeb:press contact:info@teck-translations.comphone: (786) 408-5672
Streamaxia has radically improved live streaming SDK prices

http://streamaxia.com

http://www.streamaxia.com

Streamaxia, a leading provider of live video streaming broadcast technologies for iOS, Android and WebRTC developer ecosystems, radically improved the prices of live streaming SDK tools, activating a new pricing scheme. Besides the fact that Android Open Player license is completely free when purchased in a bundle, developers are having the opportunity to engage in a one-time payment plan. This option is available for both iOS and Android platforms at $500/lifetime. Benefit from lifetime OpenSDK iOS&Android Bundles at $900/lifetime and Source Code OpenSDK licenses for $15,000!Streamaxia OpenSDK is a powerful live video streaming broadcast library that can be integrated within minutes into mobile apps. This gives brands the freedom to distribute their live streaming services to in-house departments without any third party involvement. You can find all about the new prices and advantages here!Additionally, as stated by Mihai Motocu, Streamaxias co-founder and CEO, (the company) is now open to rewarding loyal and long-lasting clients through various benefits, over time. All mobile apps powered by Streamaxia OpenSDK allow users to broadcast their live video streaming content to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitch, Twitter Periscope, Microsoft Azure, Akamai, Red5, DaCast, Kaltura, Wowza and other live video broadcast networks. Streamaxia OpenSDK is the worlds first multi-channel broadcast toolkit specifically made for mobile app developers, but not limited to them. Moreover, the recent Internet study conducted by Cisco attests for the fact that live video will grow 15-fold from 2016 to 2021, highlighting the importance of live streaming services in the years to come.About Streamaxia: it helps developers embed mobile and web applications with innovative live video stream broadcasting toolkits to accelerate their development time and, ultimately, assist developers capitalize on the exponential growth forecasted for mobile live video streaming broadcast and WebRTC technologies. Streamaxia customers include BenQ, Bosch, EE-BT Group UK, Microsoft, Sony and more. Streamaxia is also a member of the Application Developers Alliance. For more information about Streamaxia, go toand follow us on social media @streamaxia.Contact InformationName: Mihai Motocu, co-founder and CEO of StreamaxiaAddress: Augustin Doinas Street, 3/2, Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaEmail: contact@streamaxia.comWebsite:Phone: (+40) 749/247.123
2017 - 2021 : NIPT Test Market & Forecast

www.dpiresearch.com/report-details.php?P_ID=93

http://www.dpiresearch.com/report-details.php?P_ID=93

http://www.dpiresearch.com/

The Potential Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing(NIPT) Market is expected to reach more than USD 4 Billion across the 15 major markets(15MM) by the year end of 2021.Buy Now @:Longterm Growth Projection:More than 2.5 Million tests will be conducted by the 11 major NIPT test by the year end of 2021.Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) market size was valued at nearly USD 1 Billion in 2016 and market is expected to grow at the CAGR of XX% during 2017-2021.Market growth can be attributed to factors such as high incidence rate of babies born with Down syndrome, no risk of miscarriage with NIPT and shifting trend towards child bearing at advanced maternal age (35 years or older). With increased patient access to NIPT test, the NIPT test market is anticipated to have a positive outlook in the coming years. High test cost, strict regulatory requirements and ethical hurdles is restraining the growth of NIPT test market.NIPT Test Market: Testwise OutlookNatera Panorama test will lead the NIPT test market with the market share of more than 25% by the year end of 2021.MaterniT21 Plus and Bambini test have shown its potential to become 2nd and 3rd popular NIPT test. Harmony test is the fourth leading test in the NIPT test market. NIFTY and Verifi test hold the fifth and sixth highest share of the NIPT test market. Other emerging tests such as Prena, IONA, VisibiliT, Veracity and informaseq NIPT test which is likely to affect the market share during the forecast period.NIPT Test Market: Countrywise Outlook:United States is the most attractive market with market share of more than 50% in 2016. China will be the second largest market for NIPT test which is expected to grow at a CAGR of XX% by 2021. United Kingdom is expected to be third largest NIPT test market being followed by Germany by the end of the forecasted period.This is the 3rd edition report on NIPT Test Market by DPI Research.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industryvalidated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, country wise actual and potential market, NIPT test analysis with volume and market revenue and competitive landscape. The report also covers market growth drivers, challenges, current and upcoming trends of the NIPT test marketGLOBAL NON-INVASIVE PRENATAL TESTING (NIPT) MARKET SEGMENTATIONGlobal Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Market  By Test Type1. MaterniT21 PLUS2. Harmony3. NIFTY4. Verifi5. Panorama6. PrenaTest7. BambniTest8. informaSeq9. VisibiliT10. Veracity11. IONA TestBrowse the full report @:Global Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Market  By Country1. United States2. United Kingdom3. Germany4. Italy5. Spain6. France7. Switzerland8. Sweden9. Belgium10. Australia11. New Zealand12. Japan13. China14. India15. BrazilContact Info:Name: Maria Rai,Sales ManagerEmail: sales@dpiresearch.comOrganization: DPI ResearchPhone: + 91 728-994-9987DPI Research is a business solutions firm which offer bespoke syndicated research reports, custom research solutions, marketing services and social research across multi geographies and industry verticals. We deliver wide range of cutting-edge research solutions that helps organizations in making better decisions of the business to business needs.Vasant Kunj, New Delhi - 110070Email: sales@dpiresearch.comOrganization: DPI ResearchPhone: + 91 728-994-9987
Bosss Cabin New Office Furniture Collection

https://www.bossescabin.com/

Bosss Cabin is a leading office furniture company in India. A one-stop shop to buy modern, custom and quality furniture at affordable prices. With the vast collection of new furniture in different colors, styles, designs, and materials, you can surely highlight the decor of your office. Having served the community since 2006, you can rest assured of receiving durable furniture and exceptional customer service.Items offered at Bosss Cabin Online Furniture Store:1. Office TablesThe furniture store showcases a full range of new tables and desks for your office. You can choose from small to medium and large tables with side cabinet, side return, side credenza, pedestal and built in wire box. You can also buy L-shaped office tables, tables in classic style, desks with black glass, tables in rich veneer and much more.2. Office SeatingCustomers can choose from a spectacular selection of new office seating to personalize their workspace. The store offers various office chairs including mesh chairs, leather chairs, lounge chairs, cafeteria chairs, etc. With such stylish and classy furniture, your employees working time will be a lot more pleasant.3. Storage CabinetsYou can buy modern filing cabinets, bookcases & credenzas with glass doors at Bosss Cabin online furniture store. Choose from an immense storage collection that does not just serve a functional need but blend with the aesthetics of your work environment. You can also purchase a range of matching furniture to create a complete office.4. WorkstationsLet your employees work in dream zone with new creative, versatile and customized workstation furniture offered at the Bosss Cabin store. An extensive range of E-half, Easy, Linz, Smart, Link, Vera, Spark and Ode workstations and modular desking systems are available for you to buy online. You can also buy beautiful accessories to complement your office space.To know more about the new products offered at Bosss Cabin, you can visit their online store at. You can also call +91 9840713201 or email at info@bossescabin.com.Boss's Cabin is premium office furniture company and an online store, Bosss Cabin is your most trusted partner in helping you create world class work environments. Our objective is two-fold. Firstly, to bring to our discerning customers the highest grade of office furniture products with an emphasis on cutting edge design, technology, functionality and style.Bosss Cabin436, Anna SalaiNandanamChennai  600035Phone: +91 44 42040568, 42040569Fax: +91 44 42030742
INKASTRANS Ltd. Appoints a New General Manager

www.inkastrans.com

www.inkas.ca

Lagos, Nigeria  July 24, 2017  INKASTRANS Ltd. has designated Haresh Jethmalanito as the General Manager in Lagos, Nigeria, effective July 20 2017. Mr. Haresh is replacing Mr. Boris Vasin who moves to manage INKAS aftersales division in Europe.We are very pleased to have Mr. Haresh on board with his proven loyalty and excellence expertise that he gained over the years at INKASTRANS, said David Khazanski, President, INKAS Group of Companies. Mr. Haresh brings an outstanding record of accomplishments, and I am confident that he will be able to support and strengthen INKASTRANS leadership positions in the armored vehicle industry. This management change is a part of our global corporate strategy aimed at developing our operations, including introducing new products and services to the market.Mr. Haresh has been with the company for almost 10 years. Since 2013, he has been serving as a business development manager. Mr. Haresh has excelled his leadership skills and gained sufficient experience within the industry that makes him an ideal candidate for the assigned role. His new responsibilities will include overseeing company growth and profitability along with continual improvement and aftersales support for INKASTRANS customers in Lagos.Nigerian market has always been a top priority for INKAS. Since 2008, the company has been offering a wide range of high quality armored vehicles, full cycle aftersales support and professional training to its valued clients. Its satisfied customers include North-East Joint Task Force, the Nigeria Police Force, major oil and gas companies, financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals.INKASTRANS invites everyone to visit its modern show room located at 22 Elsie Femi Pearse St, Victoria Island, Lagos, featuring a wide range of armored vehicles available for the test drive. Please make an appointment prior to visiting.I am very excited about these new opportunities and responsibilities, and I look forward to evolving INKASTRANS operational excellence to the new level along with strengthening its positions in the global market, said Mr. Haresh.For more information, please contact:INKAS Group of CompaniesTel: +1 416 744 3322Email: info@inkas.caAbout INKASTRANS Ltd.INKASTRANS Ltd. is a joint venture organization between INKAS Group of Companies of Canada, and Sapid Holdings of Nigeria. Based in Victoria Island, Lagos, INKASTRANS Ltd. is a showroom, sales office, as well as, an after sales support center of security solutions for Western Africa clients. For more information, please visitAbout INKAS Group of CompaniesINKAS Group of Companies is an international corporation with presence in a multitude of industries and geographies headquartered in Toronto, Canada. For over two decades, INKAS has been offering integrated security solutions for retailers, government agencies, financial institutions, global corporations and high-profile individuals all over the world. The company started its operations in October 1993 in Toronto, Canada. To date, INKAS has grown to employ over 350 highly skilled and specialized team members who produce the highest value products and services in the industry.For more information about the company, please visit3605 Weston Road, Toronto ON, Canada M9L 1V7
Increased transparency and security through re-certification of DIAMOS' data processing center and Federal Data Protection Act verification

www.diamos.com

The DIAMOS data processing center has been re-certified to current ISAE 3402 type 2 standards by a renowned auditor. Directly following on from this, a re-certification of the order data processing took place in accordance with the German Data Protection Act ( 11 BDSG). Both certifications, which have to be renewed annually, were attained successfully and without objections.Content of the ISAE 3402-certification is the confirmation of an existing internal control system and its effectiveness. It was thus documented that all current regulatory and procedural requirements for financial applications in DIAMOS' Managed Services are compliant. The basis for this excellent result is the ongoing development by DIAMOS in the face of constantly changing requirements regarding compliance and security that need to be taken into consideration in the operation of Managed Services. In addition to the specifications and recommendations of the German Federal Office for Information Technology Security (BSI) and international standards, DIAMOS maintains close contact with customers and industry-specific auditing firms."Our managed services offer our customers the opportunity to process their system operations via the DIAMOS data center in a secure, time-saving and cost-efficient manner. Naturally, the 'K-Fall' (K-case) security is also included in our service package, so that the DIAMOS data center satisfies the specific high requirements of the financial sector", emphasizes Stefan Markwitz, Managing Director at DIAMOS AG.Equally, a regular review of existing internal control systems relating to data security with respect to order data processing was carried out and resulted in no objections. The established processes and controls comply with the defined specifications. As such, the existing technical and organisational measures for compliance with paragraph 11 of the German Federal Data Protection Act ( 11 BDGS) are valid and effective.DIAMOSDIAMOS is a leading provider of standard software and services and has been providing the investment management industry with solutions since 1984. Effectively combining long-standing expertise with state of the art, future-proof technologies, DIAMOS provides a new generation of flexible and scalable software solutions: Integrated and modular solutions which support the whole value chain for efficient and convenient administration of funds, alternative investment products, retail investment accounts and ownership participations. The portfolio includes products for fund accounting, investment compliance, order management, fee and commission management, reconciliation and transfer agency. DIAMOS also provides expert technical and functional consulting and support services to ensure clients receive maximum operational benefit from DIAMOS solutions. Operations can also be streamlined through the use of professional SaaS/ASP services which are available in combination with the DIAMOS ISAE 3402 type 2 certified data processing center. Leading financial institutions rely on DIAMOS products and services. The company is headquartered in Germany with subsidiaries in Luxembourg and SwitzerlandDIAMOS AGAm Limespark 2D-65843 SulzbachPhone:+49 61 96 65 06-0Fax:+49 61 96 65 06-100E-Mail:presse@diamos.comWeb:
Campus Consortium Appoints New Executive Director

Campus Consortium, the largest global education association of schools, colleges and universities announced the appointment of Dennis Thibeault as Executive Director. Dennis assumed the role beginning July, 2017.Dennis will continue evolving Campus Consortiums mission to encourage educators, students and aspiring leaders worldwide by engaging members of its community to seek and revolutionize the future of education. His core responsibilities at the consortium will be to engage with the education community through programs, services and capabilities. This will involve thorough planning, assessment, thought leadership, research, statistical analysis and relationship management.Prior to the Consortium, Dennis has over 20 years in the education sphere where his work helped to aid student development on campus through the innovative use of technology. He served as the Chief Information Officer for Curry College located in Milton, MA and was responsible for key technological advancement and strategic planning at Curry College.We are excited to welcome Dennis to the consortium who is a strong leader in the education community said Anjli Jain. All through his career, Dennis has shown commendable dedication at helping students succeed. With his experience and collaborative approach, Dennis will ensure that the consortium continues to deliver information that can help not only educators but, policy-makers to improve student success in the education sphere."I am thrilled to be joining Campus Consortium," said Dennis Thibeault, who comes to the organization with over 22 years of experience in education advocacy. I can think of no better place to continue the effort to advocate for the academic, engagement and social success of students  while at the same time, bringing along the true spirit of the consortiums mission to educational institutions."Campus Consortium is the largest global education association of schools, colleges and universities that helps make IT manageable, affordable and accessible to small/mid-sized institutions. Campus Consortium offers Grant Programs towards a variety of products and services. These Education Grants were created to give Institutions with a smaller IT Budget a chance to implement new technology services and reap the benefits.For more information, please visit campusconsortium.org or contact Annie Hugh125 South Clark Street, 17th Floor, Chicago, IL 60603, USA
Miller & Wynn Hires Brittany Hulsey Smith

www.MillerWynnLaw.com

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. (July 3, 2017)  Miller & Wynn, Attorneys at Law, announces that Brittany Hulsey Smith has joined the practice as a paralegal. The Douglas County native will be based in the Douglasville office of Miller & Wynn, a law firm specializing in personal injury, criminal defense, family law and probate estates.Were excited to welcome Brittany to the Miller & Wynn team, said Mike Miller, founder of Miller & Wynn law firm. Having worked in the county for more than a decade, her expertise and credibility are an asset to our firm.Smith has 13 years of experience working with Clerk of Superior Court Office in Douglas County, Douglas County District Attorneys Office and Superior Court Clerks Office. She attained her Paralegal Certification from the University of Georgia Continuing Education Program in 2014.This has been a year of growth for the firm, as they recently announced a partnership with attorney Patricia Roy to expand their domestic law practice.Miller & Wynn has offices in Douglasville and Carrollton. For more information about the firm or if you find yourself in need of legal assistance, please contact Michael Miller or Christopher Wynn at 404-857-2960 or visit##500 Bishop St NWAtlanta, Ga 30318
Global Sodium Chloride Market Industry, Trends & Forecast.

MRRSE

http://www.mrrse.com/sample/2190

http://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/2190

http://www.mrrse.com/sodium-chloride-market

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109558601025749677847/posts

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mrrse

https://twitter.com/MRRSEmrrse

Sodium chloride (NaCl) is commonly known as salt. It occurs in the form of crystals that is used in large quantities across various industrial and consumer applications. Sodium chloride is an ionic compound with sodium and chloride ions in the ratio of 1:1. It is obtained by evaporation of sea water or brine by solar and vacuum evaporation methods. It is additionally produced by mining of salt halites, which is known as rock salt. Sodium chloride is largely used in applications such as chemical intermediates, deicing, flavoring and food preservatives, water treatment, and animal feed additive.Request For Sample Report :Sodium chloride is used in the manufacture of chlor-alkali products such as chlorine, soda ash, and caustic soda. These chlor-alkali products are used in the manufacture of various end-use products such as PVC, detergents, glass, dyes, and soaps. Hence, rising demand for sodium chloride from chemical intermediates is anticipated to drive the sodium chloride market. Sodium chloride is increasingly used as food preservative and flavoring agent as it offers properties such as color, distinct flavor, taste enhancer, and pleasant aroma. Food application is likely to be the fastest growing application segment. However, fluctuations in the snowfall is expected to hamper the growth of sodium chloride market during the forecast period.Global Sodium Chloride Market: Scope of the ReportThis report analyzes and forecasts the market for sodium chloride at the global, regional and country level. The market has been forecast based on volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) from 2016 to 2024, considering 2015 as the base year. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global sodium chloride market. It also covers impact of these drivers and restraints on demand for sodium chloride during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the market.The report includes detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive view of the global sodium chlroide market. Porters Five Forces model has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.Global Sodium Chloride Market: SegmentationThe study provides a comprehensive view of the global sodium chloride market by segmenting it in terms of grades as: solar salt, rock salt and others (vacuum salt) and application such as chemical intermediate, deicing, flavoring agent & food preservative, water treatment, animal feed additive and others (including pharmaceuticals, etc). These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand for sodium chlroide in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.Send An Enquiry :The global market size of sodium chloride has been provided in terms of volume and revenue. Market volume has been defined in kilo tons, while market revenue is in US$ Mn. Market numbers have been estimated based on key applications of sodium chloride across each region.In order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represented the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, Internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases such as ICIS, Hoovers, oneSOURCE, Factiva and Bloomberg, national government documents, statistical databases, trade journals, market reports, news articles, press releases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market.We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators to validate data and analysis. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Global Sodium Chloride Market: Competitive DynamicsThe report comprises profiles of major companies operating in the global sodium chlroide market and competition matrix of major players. Companies such as Cargill Incorporated, K+S AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, Akzo Nobel N.V., Tata Chemicals Ltd., Dampier Salts, China National Salt Industry Corporation, Compass Minerals International, Inc., Wacker Chemie AG, Sudwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG, INEOS Salts, Swiss Salt Works AG, and Cheetham Salt are few leading players in the sodium chloride market. Market players have been profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, SWOT analysis and recent developments.Browse Full Report With TOC :The report segments the global sodium chloride market as follows:Sodium Chloride Market - Grade AnalysisSolar SaltRock SaltOthers (Vacuum Salt, etc.)Sodium Chloride Market - Application AnalysisChemical IntermediateDeicingFlavoring Agent & Food PreservativeWater TreatmentAnimal Feed AdditiveOthers (Pharmaceuticals, etc.)Sodium Chloride Market - Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaS.CanadaEuropeFranceK.RussiaGermanyItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)GCCEgyptSouth AfricaRest of MEAMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comGoogle+:Linked in:Twitter:
Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market for the period 20142024

MRRSE

http://www.mrrse.com/sample/2189

http://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/2189

http://www.mrrse.com/europe-specialty-printing-consumables-market

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109558601025749677847/posts

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mrrse

https://twitter.com/MRRSEmrrse

The Specialty Printing Consumables Market report provides analysis of Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market for the period 20142024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year. The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the specialty printing consumables markets growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the markets growth in terms of revenue (in US$ Bn), across different printing processes, products and application segments.Request For Sample Report :The market overview section of the report showcases the markets dynamics and trends such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies of the key players in Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market: SegmentationThe report segments Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market on the basis of various printing process such as lithographic printing, flexographic printing, rotogravure printing and digital printing. By different product types, the market is classified into toner, ink, specialty substrate and chemicals. By application, Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market is categorized into office and professional application, commercial printing and publishing application and other application. Thus, the report provides in-depth cross-segment analysis for the specialty printing consumables product market for different printing processes and applications mentioned above, thereby providing valuable insights on macro as well as micro level.Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also provides the competitive landscape for the specialty printing consumables market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their presence in Europe (EU5), market attractiveness and recent key developments. This is identified as a crucial step for getting the full overview of the market through key market leaders and the strategies adopted by them. The complete Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables markets growth.Send An Enquiry :Canon Inc., Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA, Flint Group, Nazdar Ink Technologies (Thrall Enterprises Inc.), Marabu GmbH & Co KG, Sun Chemical Corporation, and Saati S.p.A. are the major players which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been provided as a part of company profiles.Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables market has been segmented as below:Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market, By Printing ProcessLithographic PrintingFlexographic PrintingRotogravure PrintingDigital PrintingEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market Analysis, By ProductTonerInkSpecialty SubstrateChemicalsEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market Analysis, By ApplicationOffice And Professional ApplicationCommercial Printing And Publishing ApplicationOther ApplicationEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Toner) Market, By Printing ProcessLithographic PrintingFlexographic PrintingRotogravure PrintingDigital PrintingBrowse Full Report With TOC :Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Ink) Market, By Printing ProcessLithographic PrintingFlexographic PrintingRotogravure PrintingDigital PrintingEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Specialty Substrate) Market, By Printing ProcessLithographic PrintingFlexographic PrintingRotogravure PrintingDigital PrintingEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Chemicals) Market, By Printing ProcessLithographic PrintingFlexographic PrintingRotogravure PrintingDigital PrintingEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Toner) Market, By ApplicationOffice and Professional ApplicationCommercial Printing and Publishing ApplicationOther ApplicationEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Ink) Market, By ApplicationOffice and Professional ApplicationCommercial Printing and Publishing ApplicationOther ApplicationEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Specialty Substrate) Market, By ApplicationOffice and Professional ApplicationCommercial Printing and Publishing ApplicationOther ApplicationEurope (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Chemicals) Market, By ApplicationOffice and Professional ApplicationCommercial Printing and Publishing ApplicationOther ApplicationMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consultingState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comGoogle+:Linked in:Twitter:
Commodity Chemicals Market to Witness Widespread Expansion by 2020

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/commodity-chemicals-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2787http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2787

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/2787

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Commodity chemicals (bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale and act as intermediates to produce other chemicals, which, in turn are used to produce a extensive range of end-user products including construction materials, adhesives, plastics, apparel and tires. Commodity chemicals are the largest sub-segment of the chemical industry. Commodity chemicals are commonly traded under broad categories such as organics, inorganics, plastics resins, synthetic rubbers, fibers, films, explosives and petrochemicals. These broad categories include chemicals such as, acetic acid, acetone, acrylate esters, adipic acid, acrylonitrate, benzene, bisphenol, butadiene, butanediol, butyl acetate, hexane, melamine, polyvinyl chloride, propylene, methanol, methyl, glycol and glycerines. These chemical are very low in product differentiation, and hence making price the dominant economic factor in purchasing decisions for the end users.To access full report @The commodity chemical industry is highly fragmented and served with large number of local or regional players. Asia Pacific is by far the largest market for commodity chemicals accounting almost half of the total market. It is followed by North America and Europe. The growth prospective is still high in Asia Pacific attributed to the growing economy and ongoing trend and support for manufacturing sector in the developing countries such as India, China, and Indonesia. Bulk availability of crude oil and natural gas from gulf countries such as Saudi Arabian, Iran, Iraq and Syria is helping the commodity chemical industries in Asia Pacific.A sample of this report is available upon request @Commodity chemicals serve a wide range of industries ranging from personal care products to aerospace industries. It has its application either directly or indirectly in almost all manufacturing industries. The economy growth and increasing Gross domestic product (GDP) of developed and developing countries around the world is boosting the overall market of commodity chemicals. However the stiff regulation of the governments around the world regarding the health and environment side effect of chemicals and fluctuating prices of crude oil and natural gas are posing significant challenge for the industry.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major players in commodity chemicals market include, BASF SE, Bayer AG, The Dow Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, PPG industries, Linde Group, Akzo Nobel, LyondellBasell Industries, Asahi Kasei, Sumitomo chemicals, Evonik Industries, INEOS Group Holding and Chem China.Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)The report covers geographic segmentationNorth AmericaEuropeAsiaRoWThe report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the marketThe report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Vertical Disc Grinding Machine Market 2017- 600 Group, ACETI MACCHINE , ANG International, CHEVALIER - Falcon Machine Tools

https://goo.gl/hmyNtt

http://qyresearch.us/report/global-vertical-disc-grinding-machine-market-2017/40960/

http://qyresearch.us/

http://xbox360asylum.ca/

http://askthereporter24.com/

The Global Vertical Disc Grinding Machine Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Vertical Disc Grinding Machine growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Vertical Disc Grinding Machine Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Vertical Disc Grinding Machine market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Vertical Disc Grinding Machine market. The competitive view of the Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Vertical Disc Grinding Machine market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Vertical Disc Grinding Machine Market According to the Key Vendors:1 600 Group2 ACETI MACCHINE3 ANG International4 CHEVALIER - Falcon Machine Tools5 DELTA6 DISKUS WERKE Schleiftechnik GmbH7 GER Maquinas Herramienta S. L. U.8 Huracan Maquinarias S.L9 KMT Precision Grinding10 ROSA ERMANDO11 Top Work Industry Co. Ltd.12 VISCAT FULGORThe Vertical Disc Grinding Machine report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry like supply chain analysis, Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Vertical Disc Grinding Machine industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Vertical Disc Grinding Machine report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Vertical Disc Grinding Machine Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Vertical Disc Grinding Machine market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-News Network:-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Technological Advancements and Rising Demand for Automation, IoT to Put Global Smart Factory Market on Growth Track

MRRSE

http://www.mrrse.com/sample/1586

http://www.mrrse.com/smart-factory-market

http://www.mrrse.com/

The growing awareness about the benefits of smart factories is fuelling the growth of the global smart factory market. The smart factories ensure more advanced, safer, and more efficient approaches than conventional factories. The emergence of smart factories is largely influenced by the sweeping shift towards automation, advanced microprocessors, and resources with local intelligence. They have the ability to connect every process and component across the value chain by integrating cyber physical system with the forefront of manufacturing flow. The rising focus on saving energy and manufacturing of various products through the implementation of IoT is anticipated to bolster the growth of the global smart factory market.Request for sample report:Enhanced Factory Vision Technology to Play Pivotal Role in Development of Smart Factory MarketThe demand for factory vision from a distinct location is likely to foster the growth of the global smart factory market. Recent technological advancements in the factory vision technology such as smart cameras is likely to increase the adoption of smart factories. Moreover, the maintenance of smart factories is easier than that of conventional factories, which attracts more factory owners to switch to the former.Another feature of smart factories that ensures promising growth of this market is the use of collaborative robots. Robots such as Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) and articulated robots effectively enhance the production. Furthermore, the government regulations on energy saving and minimal hazardous emissions is likely to propel the growth of the global smart factory market.Shortage of Skilled Workforce to Hamper Growth of Smart Factory MarketTo run a smart factory, the requirements for skilled and educated labor are high. There are shortages of such workforce, especially in the developing nations. This factor is expected to adversely affect the growth of the global smart factory market. Moreover, the adoption rate of these factories is very low owing to the fact that switching from traditional factories to smart factories require a lot of capital investment, which is not possible for capital-conscious factory owners. Furthermore, the lack of standardization in equipment is likely to pose a challenge to the growth of the global smart factory market.Automotive and Transportation Industries to Maintain Lead Owing to Growing Capital InvestmentsThe valuation of the global smart factory market was US$ 51.9 Bn in 2014 and is anticipated to expand at an impressive CAGR of 13.3% between 2015 and 2025. The market has been segmented using four criteria: market structure, component, region, and manufacturing vertical. Based on market structure, the global smart factory market is categorized into to connect, to collect, to analyze, and to control. The to analyze segment will expand at a CAGR of 15.2% during the same period. The to control segment dominated the global smart factory market by revenue in 2014 and is expected to retain leadership by 2025.Browse Full Report with TOC:Based on manufacturing vertical, the automotive and transportation segment was the leading segment in terms of revenue in 2014 and will maintain its position by the end of 2025. The growth of this segment can be attributed to the increasing penetration of automation and increasing capital investment in this industry. Geographically, the APAC region was the leading segment in 2014 in terms of value and represented a share of 39.0% of the global smart factory market. However, the Middle East and Africa will emerge as the fastest-growing segment owing to rapid infrastructural development in this region.About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 - ISS, Trane, Avon, Belfor

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1249967&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-residential-air-quality-control-services-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

This report studies the global Residential Air Quality Control Services market, analyzes and researches the Residential Air Quality Control Services development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAden ServicesAir Duct CleanDuracleanISSTraneAnago Cleaning SystemsAvonBelforHarvard MaintenanceMillikenServProSunrise Integrated FacilityV FIX Facility Management ServicesMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaFill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Market segment by Type, Residential Air Quality Control Services can be split intoMaintenanceCleaningOtherMarket segment by Application, Residential Air Quality Control Services can be split intoApartmentsStandalone Housesable of ContentsGlobal Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Residential Air Quality Control Services1.1 Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Overview1.1.1 Residential Air Quality Control Services Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook4 Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Residential Air Quality Control Services in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Residential Air Quality Control Services5 United States Residential Air Quality Control Services Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @6 EU Residential Air Quality Control Services Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Residential Air Quality Control Services Product ScopeFigure Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Residential Air Quality Control Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
IT Outsourcing 2017 Global Key Players- Infosys, iGate, HCL, Cognizant, CGI, Capgemini, Wipro, Unisys, TCS and ITC Infotech 2022 Market Analysis, Demand And Forecast

IT Outsourcing

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/353795-it-outsourcing-global-market-outlook-2015-2022

www.wiseguyreports.com

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

The Global IT Outsourcing Market Research Report provides detailed analysis of the key regional market status of the IT Outsourcing Industry.According to Stratistics MRC, the Global IT Outsourcing Market is accounted for $314.92 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $481.37 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period.Improved company focus, gaining access to exceptional capabilities and reduced costs are some of the major factors driving the market. Whereas, factors such as loss of control and reduced employee morale are hindering the growth of IT Outsourcing market. New market opportunities and trends with cloud computing and new business models are prompting the IT infrastructure outsourcing services market. Asia pacific and Latin America are expected to witness prospective growth due to expansion by multinationals into these regions.Some of the key players in the global IT Outsourcing Market areInfosys, iGate, HCL, Cognizant, CGI, Capgemini, Wipro, Unisys, TCS and ITC Infotech.Sample Copy @Security Types covered: Gain sharing Outtasking Co-SourcingEnd Users covered: Small and Medium enterprises Large EnterprisesApplications covered: Telecom and IT Retail Manufacturing Healthcare Government and Public Utilities Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Aerospace, Defense and Intelligence OthersRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsMajor Points in Table Of Content2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions10 Company Profiling10.1 Infosys10.2 iGate10.3 HCL10.4 Cognizant10.5 CGI10.6 Capgemini10.7 Wipro10.8 Unisys10.9 TCS10.10 ITC Infotech...CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Pune, India
Aloe Vera Gel 2017 Global Key Players  Forever Living, Natural Republic, Marykay, Shiseido, Watsons, GNC, P & G, Unilever, L'Oreal, Patanjali Ayurved Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Aloe Vera Gel Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1632806-global-aloe-vera-gel-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1632806-global-aloe-vera-gel-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1632806

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

Aloe Vera Gel Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Aloe Vera Gel Market-Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:In this report, the global Aloe Vera Gel market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Aloe Vera Gel for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Aloe Vera Gel market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Aloe Vera Gel sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingForever LivingNatural RepublicMarykayShiseidoWatsonsGNCP & GUnileverL'OrealLVMHPatanjali AyurvedPechoinBase Formula Ltd..Request for Sample Report@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFood GradePharmaceutical GradeOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Aloe Vera Gel for each application, includingCosmeticsMedicineFoodEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Aloe Vera Gel Sales Market Report 20171 Aloe Vera Gel Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Aloe Vera Gel1.2 Classification of Aloe Vera Gel by Product Category1.2.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Food Grade1.2.4 Pharmaceutical Grade1.3 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Cosmetics1.3.3 Medicine1.3.4 Food1.4 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market by Region1.4.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Aloe Vera Gel Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Aloe Vera Gel (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Aloe Vera Gel (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Aloe Vera Gel Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Aloe Vera Gel Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Aloe Vera Gel (Volume) by Application9 Global Aloe Vera Gel Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data9.1 Forever Living9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Forever Living Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Natural Republic9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Natural Republic Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 Marykay9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 Marykay Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.4 Shiseido9.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.4.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.4.2.1 Product A9.4.2.2 Product B9.4.3 Shiseido Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.5 Watsons9.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.5.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.5.2.1 Product A9.5.2.2 Product B9.5.3 Watsons Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.6 GNC9.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.6.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.6.2.1 Product A9.6.2.2 Product B9.6.3 GNC Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.7 P & G9.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.7.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.7.2.1 Product A9.7.2.2 Product B9.7.3 P & G Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.8 Unilever9.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.8.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.8.2.1 Product A9.8.2.2 Product B9.8.3 Unilever Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.9 L'Oreal9.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.9.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.9.2.1 Product A9.9.2.2 Product B9.9.3 L'Oreal Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.10 LVMH9.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.10.2 Aloe Vera Gel Product Category, Application and Specification9.10.2.1 Product A9.10.2.2 Product B9.10.3 LVMH Aloe Vera Gel Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.11 Patanjali Ayurved9.12 Pechoin9.13 Base Formula LtdContinued..Buy now @For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check:For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check:Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Global Baby Monitor Market 2017 Key Players, Share, Supply, Demand, Growth, Application, Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Baby Monitor Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1180591-global-baby-monitor-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1180591-global-baby-monitor-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1180591

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

www.wiseguyreports.com

Global Baby Monitor Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Baby Monitor Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:In this report, the global Baby Monitor market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Baby Monitor for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanKoreaTaiwanRequest Sample Report Here @...Global Baby Monitor market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Baby Monitor sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingSafety 1stMotorolaSummer InfantSamsungInfant OpticsLevanaAngelcareWiFi BabyLorexPhilipsWithingsiBabyBabyPingMobiSnuzaVtechMCDevicesFoscamSi Bao JianOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoInternet viewable cameras and monitorsAudio MonitorsVideo and Audio Monitors CombinedMovement Detection MonitorsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Baby Monitor for each application, includingHomeHospitalOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Enquiry Before Buying @Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of ContentsGlobal Baby Monitor Sales Market Report 20171 Baby Monitor Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Baby Monitor1.2 Classification of Baby Monitor by Product Category1.2.1 Global Baby Monitor Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Baby Monitor Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Internet viewable cameras and monitors1.2.4 Audio Monitors1.2.5 Video and Audio Monitors Combined1.2.6 Movement Detection Monitors1.3 Global Baby Monitor Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Baby Monitor Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Home1.3.3 Hospital1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Baby Monitor Market by Region1.4.1 Global Baby Monitor Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Korea Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Taiwan Baby Monitor Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Baby Monitor (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Baby Monitor Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Baby Monitor Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Baby Monitor Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Baby Monitor Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Baby Monitor Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Baby Monitor Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Baby Monitor (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Baby Monitor Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Baby Monitor Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Baby Monitor (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Baby Monitor Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Baby Monitor Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Baby Monitor (Volume) by Application3 United States Baby Monitor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Baby Monitor Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Baby Monitor Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Baby Monitor Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Baby Monitor Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Baby Monitor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Baby Monitor Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Baby Monitor Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Baby Monitor Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Baby Monitor Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Baby Monitor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Baby Monitor Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Baby Monitor Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Baby Monitor Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Baby Monitor Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan Baby Monitor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Baby Monitor Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan Baby Monitor Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan Baby Monitor Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan Baby Monitor Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan Baby Monitor Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Baby MonitorFigure Global Baby Monitor Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2012-2022)Figure Global Baby Monitor Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Figure Internet viewable cameras and monitors Product PictureFigure Audio Monitors Product PictureFigure Video and Audio Monitors Combined Product PictureFigure Movement Detection Monitors Product PictureFigure Global Baby Monitor Sales Comparison (K Units) by Application (2012-2022)Figure Global Sales Market Share of Baby Monitor by Application in 2016Figure Home ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in HomeFigure Hospital ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in HospitalFigure Other ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in OtherFigure Global Baby Monitor Market Size (Million USD) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure United States Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Korea Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Taiwan Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Baby Monitor Sales Volume (K Units) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Baby Monitor Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Market Major Players Baby Monitor Sales Volume (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Baby Monitor Sales (K Units) of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)Table Global Baby Monitor Sales Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)CONTINUEDPurchase Report @For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
Yeast Extract Global Market : key Vendors, Trends, Analysis, Segmentation, Forecast to 2017-2022

Yeast Extract Industry

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1628752-global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1628752-global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

Press Release: Pune, India- 25th July , 2017Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Yeast Extract Market 2017 Forecast to 2022Description:Yeast extracts refer to the beneficial components of yeast extracted by autolysis. As principal ingredients, they contain amino acids, nucleotides, minerals, and vitamins and are used as food ingredients and microbial culture media.For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Yeast Extract in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAngelLesaffreABF GroupDSM Food SpecialtiesLallemandAlltech FerminMC Food SpecialtiesYeastockKOHJIN Life SciencesSavoury Systems InternationalKerryLeiberSensient BioNutrientsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversYeast Extract PowderYeast Extract PasteMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoMeat ProductsInstant NoodlesSoy SauceBiscuitsOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Yeast Extract market.Chapter 1, to describe Yeast Extract Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Yeast Extract, with sales, revenue, and price of Yeast Extract, 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 Yeast Extract, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, 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, Yeast Extract market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Yeast Extract sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor any Enquiry write us @Table of Content1 Market Overview1.1 Yeast Extract Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Yeast Extract Powder1.2.2 Yeast Extract Paste1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Meat Products1.3.2 Instant Noodles1.3.3 Soy Sauce1.3.4 Biscuits1.3.5 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)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 Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Angel2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Yeast Extract Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Angel Yeast Extract Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Lesaffre2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Yeast Extract Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Lesaffre Yeast Extract Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 ABF Group2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Yeast Extract Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 ABF Group Yeast Extract Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 DSM Food Specialties2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Yeast Extract Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 DSM Food Specialties Yeast Extract Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Lallemand2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Yeast Extract Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Lallemand Yeast Extract Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
E Liquid 2017 Top Key Players - Alchem International, Altria Group, Inc., Atom Vapes Plc, Ballantyne Brands, Llc., British American Tobacco Plc, Dongguan Boluvaper Technology. Co. Ltd. 2022 Market Analysis, Demand And Forecast

E Liquid

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/562679-e-liquid-global-market-outlook-2015-2022

www.wiseguyreports.com

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

The Global E Liquid Market Research Report provides detailed analysis of the key regional market status of the E Liquid Industry.According to Stratistics MRC, E liquid Market is expected to grow from $XX billion in 2015 to $XX billion by 2022 with a CAGR of XX%. E liquid market is being driven on multiple promising factors such as slighter harmful ingredients compared to traditional cigarettes, cost-effectiveness, product customizations and presence of established brands. However, compatibility issues and tentative regulatory framework are the factors restraining the market growth.In 2015, prefilled E liquids segment has dominant share in global E liquid products market by accounting for more than XX% of share in total market. Furthermore, the distribution channels for e-cigarette and e-liquid are growing at a rapid pace, with the emergence of dedicated vape shops among other retail outlets. Europe ruling the global E liquid market due to the presence of multiple distribution channels across the region. The growth rate will increase considerably, with noteworthy revenue creation from developing markets of the Russia, Germany, and U.K.Some of the key players in global E liquid market includeAlchem International, Altria Group, Inc., Atom Vapes Plc, Ballantyne Brands, Llc., British American Tobacco Plc, Dongguan Boluvaper Technology. Co. Ltd., Electronic Cigarettes International Group, Feellife Bioscience International Co. Ltd, Fontem Ventures, Gamucci Electronic Cigarettes, Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, International Vapor Group Inc., Japan Tobacco, Inc., Litejoy International Private Limited, Nicoventures Ltd., Njoy Inc., Pacific Smoke International, Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI), Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), Shenzhen First Union Technology Co. Ltd, and Totally Wicked Inc.Sample Copy @Product Types Covered: Pre-Filled E-Liquid Bottled E-LiquidDistribution Channels Covered: Online Distribution Channelo Online Resellerso Online Websites Retailo Vape Shopso Convenience Stores (C-Stores)o Other Distribution ChannelsRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsMajor Points in Table Of Content1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints3.4 Opportunities3.5 Threats3.6 Product Analysis3.7 Emerging Markets4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes4.4 Threat of new entrants4.5 Competitive rivalry5 Global E-Liquid Market, By Product Type5.1 Introduction5.2 Pre-Filled E-Liquid5.3 Bottled E-Liquid9 Company Profiling9.1 Alchem International9.2 Altria Group, Inc.9.3 Atom Vapes Plc9.4 Ballantyne Brands, Llc.9.5 British American Tobacco Plc9.6 Dongguan Boluvaper Technology. Co. Ltd.9.7 Electronic Cigarettes International Group9.8 Feellife Bioscience International Co. Ltd9.9 Fontem Ventures9.10 Gamucci Electronic Cigarettes9.11 Imperial Tobacco Group Plc9.12 International Vapor Group, Inc.9.13 Japan Tobacco, Inc.9.14 Litejoy International Private Limited9.15 Nicoventures Ltd.9.16 Njoy, Inc.9.17 Pacific Smoke International9.18 Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI)9.19 Reynolds American Inc. (RAI)9.20 Shenzhen First Union Technology Co. Ltd9.21 Totally Wicked IncCONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Pune, India
Global Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market Overview 2017-2022 Aibotix, DJI, AeroVironment, BAE Systems

Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market

http://bit.ly/2gZL3Qr

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-electric-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market Research ReportA market study  Global Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market  examines the performance of the Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market 2017 report includes Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market Size, Revenue, market Share, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles industry volume, market Trends, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market 2017:AibotixDJIAeroVironmentBAE SystemsIsrael Aerospace IndustriesLockheed MartinAeronauticsElbit SystemsProx DynamicsProspera IsraelAgribotixElectric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market : Type AnalysisFixed-wing UAVRotary-wing UAVElectric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market : Application AnalysisAgricultureMilitaryFirstly, the report covers the top Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles industry, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market revenue worldwide.Finally, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Compound Feed Market Overview 2017-2022 Charoen Pokphand, Cargill Inc, Land O Lakes Purina, Alltech Inc

Compound Feed Market

http://bit.ly/2uU1svs

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-compound-feed-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Compound Feed Market Research ReportA market study  Global Compound Feed Market  examines the performance of the Compound Feed market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Compound Feed market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Compound Feed market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Compound Feed Market 2017 report includes Compound Feed market Size, Revenue, market Share, Compound Feed industry volume, market Trends, Compound Feed Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Compound Feed Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Compound Feed Market 2017:Charoen Pokphand (Thailand)Cargill Inc. (U.S.)Land O Lakes Purina (U.S.)Alltech Inc. (U.S.)Archer Daniels Midland (U.S.)New Hope Group (China)Wens Group (China)ForFarmers (The Netherlands)Miratorg Agribusiness Holding (Russia)Kyodo Shiryo Company (Japan)Sodrugestvo Group (Russia)DeKalb Feeds (U.S.)De Hues (The Netherlands)Ballance Agri-Nutrients (New Zealand)Heiskell & Co. (U.S.)Kent Feeds (U.S.)Weston Milling Animal Nutrition (Australia)Zheng DA International Group (China)Ewos Group (Norway)Nutreco NV (The Netherlands)Compound Feed Market : Type AnalysisAntibiotics SupplementsVitamins SupplementsAntioxidants SupplementsAmino Acids SupplementsFeed Enzymes SupplementsFeed Acidifiers SupplementsAntibiotics SupplementsVitamins SupplementsAntioxidants SupplementsAmino Acids SupplementsFeed Enzymes SupplementsFeed Acidifiers SupplementsCompound Feed Market : Application AnalysisRuminant FeedSwine FeedPoultry FeedFish FeedFirstly, the report covers the top Compound Feed manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Compound Feed report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Compound Feed industry, Compound Feed industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Compound Feed Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Compound Feed research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Compound Feed market revenue worldwide.Finally, Compound Feed market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Conductive Polymers Market Overview 2017-2022 Dow, Agfa-Gevaert, Celanese, 3M Company, SABIC

Conductive Polymers Market

http://bit.ly/2gZJXUE

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-conductive-polymers-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Conductive Polymers Market Research ReportA market study  Global Conductive Polymers Market  examines the performance of the Conductive Polymers market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Conductive Polymers market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Conductive Polymers market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Conductive Polymers Market 2017 report includes Conductive Polymers market Size, Revenue, market Share, Conductive Polymers industry volume, market Trends, Conductive Polymers Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Conductive Polymers Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Conductive Polymers Market 2017:1. Dow2. Agfa-Gevaert3. Celanese4. 3M Company5. SABIC6. Solvay7. Crosslink Technology8. Enthone Electronics9. Henkel10. Kemet11. Polyone Corporation12. Kenner Material & System13. Heraeus Deutschland14. Lubrizol Advanced Materials15. Parker Hannifin16. Voltaic CoatingsConductive Polymers Market : Type AnalysisPolythiophenePolyanilinePolypyrroleConductive Polymers Market : Application AnalysisAntistatic CoatingsOrganic Solar CellsSolid Electrolyte CapacitorsOLED Displays and LightingsPrinted ElectronicsFirstly, the report covers the top Conductive Polymers manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Conductive Polymers report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Conductive Polymers industry, Conductive Polymers industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Conductive Polymers Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Conductive Polymers research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Conductive Polymers market revenue worldwide.Finally, Conductive Polymers market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Cosmetic White Oil Market Overview 2017-2022 ExxonMobil, Sonneborn, Shell, BP, TOTAL

Cosmetic White Oil Market

http://bit.ly/2eKJoND

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-cosmetic-white-oil-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Cosmetic White Oil Market Research ReportA market study  Global Cosmetic White Oil Market  examines the performance of the Cosmetic White Oil market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Cosmetic White Oil market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Cosmetic White Oil market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Cosmetic White Oil Market 2017 report includes Cosmetic White Oil market Size, Revenue, market Share, Cosmetic White Oil industry volume, market Trends, Cosmetic White Oil Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Cosmetic White Oil Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Cosmetic White Oil Market 2017:1. ExxonMobil2. Sonneborn3. Shell4. BP5. TOTAL6. Chevron7. FUCHS8. Lubline9. SK10. Zhonghai NanlianCosmetic White Oil Market : Type AnalysisLiquid TypeSolid TypeCosmetic White Oil Market : Application AnalysisSkin CareFirstly, the report covers the top Cosmetic White Oil manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Cosmetic White Oil report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Cosmetic White Oil industry, Cosmetic White Oil industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Cosmetic White Oil Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Cosmetic White Oil research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Cosmetic White Oil market revenue worldwide.Finally, Cosmetic White Oil market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Ceramic Sinks Market Overview 2017-2022 TOTO, Blanco, Kohler, America Standerd, Duravit

Ceramic Sinks Market

http://bit.ly/2uxhAQM

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-ceramic-sinks-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Ceramic Sinks Market Research ReportA market study  Global Ceramic Sinks Market  examines the performance of the Ceramic Sinks market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Ceramic Sinks market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Ceramic Sinks market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Ceramic Sinks Market 2017 report includes Ceramic Sinks market Size, Revenue, market Share, Ceramic Sinks industry volume, market Trends, Ceramic Sinks Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Ceramic Sinks Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Ceramic Sinks Market 2017:1. TOTO2. Blanco3. Kohler4. America Standerd5. Duravit6. Oulin7. Teka8. JOMOO9. Roca10. Moen11. Huida12. Artisan13. Primy14. Just Manufacturing15. Sonata16. MorningCeramic Sinks Market : Type AnalysisSingle-bowlDouble-bowlThree-bowlsCeramic Sinks Market : Application AnalysisBathroom SinksKitchen SinksFirstly, the report covers the top Ceramic Sinks manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Ceramic Sinks report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Ceramic Sinks industry, Ceramic Sinks industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Ceramic Sinks Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Ceramic Sinks research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Ceramic Sinks market revenue worldwide.Finally, Ceramic Sinks market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Calcium Nitrate Market Overview 2017-2022 Yara, Sasol, Haifa Chemicals, RLF, Uralchem

Calcium Nitrate Market

http://bit.ly/2vFu4WV

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-calcium-nitrate-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Calcium Nitrate Market Research ReportA market study  Global Calcium Nitrate Market  examines the performance of the Calcium Nitrate market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Calcium Nitrate market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Calcium Nitrate market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Calcium Nitrate Market 2017 report includes Calcium Nitrate market Size, Revenue, market Share, Calcium Nitrate industry volume, market Trends, Calcium Nitrate Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Calcium Nitrate Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Calcium Nitrate Market 2017:1. Yara2. Sasol3. Haifa Chemicals4. RLF5. Uralchem6. Airedale Chemical7. Jiaocheng Chemicals8. Yunli Chemical9. Tianlong Chemical10. Dongxing Chemical11. Leixin ChemicalCalcium Nitrate Market : Type AnalysisAgricultural GradeIndustrial GradeCalcium Nitrate Market : Application AnalysisFertilizerRefrigerantRubber LatexFirstly, the report covers the top Calcium Nitrate manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Calcium Nitrate report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Calcium Nitrate industry, Calcium Nitrate industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Calcium Nitrate Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Calcium Nitrate research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Calcium Nitrate market revenue worldwide.Finally, Calcium Nitrate market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market Overview 2017-2022 Bell, Schuberth, Nolan, OGK Kabuto, Shoei

Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market

http://bit.ly/2uTNsBL

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-premium-motorcycle-helmets-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market Research ReportA market study  Global Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market  examines the performance of the Premium Motorcycle Helmets market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Premium Motorcycle Helmets market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Premium Motorcycle Helmets market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market 2017 report includes Premium Motorcycle Helmets market Size, Revenue, market Share, Premium Motorcycle Helmets industry volume, market Trends, Premium Motorcycle Helmets Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Premium Motorcycle Helmets Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market 2017:1. Bell2. Schuberth3. Nolan4. OGK Kabuto5. Shoei6. Suomy7. HJC8. AGV9. Arai10. Shark11. Airoh12. LAZERPremium Motorcycle Helmets Market : Type AnalysisFull Face HelmetOpen Face HelmetPremium Motorcycle Helmets Market : Application AnalysisMotorcycleScooterStep-ThroughFirstly, the report covers the top Premium Motorcycle Helmets manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Premium Motorcycle Helmets report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Premium Motorcycle Helmets industry, Premium Motorcycle Helmets industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Premium Motorcycle Helmets Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Premium Motorcycle Helmets research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Premium Motorcycle Helmets market revenue worldwide.Finally, Premium Motorcycle Helmets market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Domestic Refrigerator Market Overview 2017-2022 Whirlpool, Samsung, LG, GE, Amana, Frigidaire

Domestic Refrigerator Market

http://bit.ly/2tzY6ts

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-domestic-refrigerator-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Domestic Refrigerator Market Research ReportA market study  Global Domestic Refrigerator Market  examines the performance of the Domestic Refrigerator market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Domestic Refrigerator market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Domestic Refrigerator market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Domestic Refrigerator Market 2017 report includes Domestic Refrigerator market Size, Revenue, market Share, Domestic Refrigerator industry volume, market Trends, Domestic Refrigerator Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Domestic Refrigerator Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Domestic Refrigerator Market 2017:1. Whirlpool2. Samsung3. LG4. GE5. Amana6. Frigidaire7. Kitchenaid8. Bosch9. Haier10. Kenmore11. Panasonic12. Vinotemp13. Electrolux14. Siemens15. MIDEADomestic Refrigerator Market : Type AnalysisBottom Freezer FridgesSide-by-Side RefrigeratorsFrench DoorsDomestic Refrigerator Market : Application AnalysisHouseholdOfficeFirstly, the report covers the top Domestic Refrigerator manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Domestic Refrigerator report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Domestic Refrigerator industry, Domestic Refrigerator industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Domestic Refrigerator Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Domestic Refrigerator research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Domestic Refrigerator market revenue worldwide.Finally, Domestic Refrigerator market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market Overview 2017-2022 Maytronics, Aqua Products, Zodiac, Hayward

Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market

http://bit.ly/2tWtORi

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-automatic-pressure-cleaners-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market Research ReportA market study  Global Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market  examines the performance of the Automatic Pressure Cleaners market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Automatic Pressure Cleaners market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Automatic Pressure Cleaners market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Request For Sample Report:The Global Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market 2017 report includes Automatic Pressure Cleaners market Size, Revenue, market Share, Automatic Pressure Cleaners industry volume, market Trends, Automatic Pressure Cleaners Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Automatic Pressure Cleaners Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market 2017:1. Maytronics2. Aqua Products3. Zodiac4. Hayward5. Pentair6. iRobot7. Desjoyaux8. SmartPoolAutomatic Pressure Cleaners Market : Type AnalysisCrawler DriveWheel DriveAutomatic Pressure Cleaners Market : Application AnalysisResidential PoolCommercial PoolFirstly, the report covers the top Automatic Pressure Cleaners manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Browse Complete Report:Further, the Automatic Pressure Cleaners report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Automatic Pressure Cleaners industry, Automatic Pressure Cleaners industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Automatic Pressure Cleaners Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Automatic Pressure Cleaners research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Automatic Pressure Cleaners market revenue worldwide.Finally, Automatic Pressure Cleaners market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Surge protector devices market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% during the forecast period 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2773

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/surge-protection-devices-market-2773

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2773

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on Surge Protection Devices Market, Surge protector devices market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% during the forecast periodGlobal Surge Protection Devices Market Information Report by Type (Plugin Surge Protection Devices, Hard Wired, Line cord, Power control device), by Application (Residential, Industrial and Commercial), by voltage types (Low voltage, high voltage) and by Regions - Global Forecast To 2023A surge protection device is one of the primary components of electrical installation protection systems used in the electrical power supply networks, communication and telephone networks. They are primarily the most efficient type of overvoltage protection. The surge protector limits the voltage supply to an electric device by blocking or shorting the excess voltage. The market for surge protection devices is witnessing significant growth because of the rise in alternative energy implementations, increase in demand for protection of electronic devices and the power quality issues faced.Get a sample copy of this report atProtection devices are segmented on the basis of the types of voltage they operate upon, such as high and low voltage systems. Furthermore, they are classified based on the application types such as residential, industrial and commercial applications. The hard-wired surge protection devices are expected to grow the fastest and they are installed in dwellings with the risk of lightning strikes and damage to the power control and distribution boards. The market is dominated by North America and Europe, where there is an increased investment in protecting urbanized infrastructure development. The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow the largest during the forecast period.The surge protector devices market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% during the forecast period.Study Objectives of Global Surge Protection Devices MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global surge protection devices market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global surge protection devices market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Force Analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by material type, product, application and region To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the surge protection devices marketRegional AnalysisGlobal Surge Protection Devices marketThere is a global demand for protecting electrical appliances from sudden voltage hike and power quality issues that may result in frequent equipment failures. Furthermore there is an increased power production from alternative energy systems around the world, which drives the need for surge protection devices. With increased urbanisation projects, the Europe and the North America region is expected to dominate the market. Also the plan to digitally transform the automobile, industrial and IT manufacturing industries, is driving the market. A similar trend is witnessed in the Asia-Pacific regions where there is an increase in infrastructure projects and manufacturing, especially in countries such as China and India. The region is expected to witness an increased growth rate during the forecast period.Complete Report Available atKey PlayersThe key players of global surge protection devices Markets are Siemens AG (Germany), Eaton Corporation Plc. (Ireland), Littelfuse, Inc. (U.S.), ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland) , Schneider Electric SE (France), General Electric (U.S.), Vertiv(U.S), and HAKEL spol. s r. o (Czech Republic).The report for Global surge protection devices market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Make an Inquiry atTable of Content1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope of the Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Research2.3 Market size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis4 Global Surge Protection Devices Market, By Type4.1 Introduction4.2 Plugin surge protection4.3 Hard wired4.4 Line cord4.5 Power control devices5 Global Surge Protection Devices Market, By Application5.1 Introduction5.2. Residential5.3. Industrial5.4 Commercial6 Global Surge Protection Devices Market, By Voltage Type6.1 Introduction6.2 Low Voltage6.3 High Voltage7 Regional Market Analysis7.1 Introduction7.2 North America7.2.1 U.S.7.2.2 Canada7.3 Europe7.3.1 U.K.7.3.2 France7.3.3 Germany7.3.4 Rest of Europe7.4 Asia-Pacific7.4.1 China7.4.2 Japan7.4.3 India7.4.4 Rest of Asia-Pacific7.5 Rest of the World8 Competitive Analysis8.1 Introduction8.2 Competitive Scenario8.2.1 Market Share Analysis8.2.2 Market Development Analysis8.2.3 Voltage type/Service Benchmarking8.3 Siemens AG (Germany)8.3.1 Overview8.3.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.3.3 Strategy8.4 Eaton Corporation Plc. (Ireland)8.4.1 Overview8.4.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.4.3 Strategy8.5 Littelfuse, Inc. (U.S.)8.5.1 Overview8.5.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.5.3 Strategy8.6 ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland)8.6.1 Overview8.6.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.6.3 Strategy8.7 Schneider Electric SE (France)8.7.1 Overview8.7.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.7.3 Strategy8.8 General Electric (U.S.)8.8.1 Overview8.8.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.8.3 Strategy8.9 Vertiv.(U.S)8.9.1 Overview8.9.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.9.3 Strategy8.10 HAKEL spol. s r. o (Czech)8.10.1 Overview8.10.2 Voltage type/Service Offering8.10.3 StrategyAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Worldwide Baked Foods Market - Strategy Resources, Vendors ,Supply and Forecasts 2027

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1598

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/baked-foods-market

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Global Baked Foods Market Information-by Type (Pastries, Cereals, Pies, Cakes, Cookies, Biscuits, Scones, Milk and Pizza), by source (Dairy, Non-Dairy, Sweet, whole grain and Savoury), by Application (confectionery, bakery products, dairy products) and by Region - Forecast to 2027Globally, the market for baked foods has been increasing due to urbanization and changing consumption patterns, traction towards convenience foods. Key drivers for the market are increasing demand from the RTE foods and also increased preferences of consumers towards natural baked foods and organic products.Get a sample copy of this report atStudy Objectives of Global Baked Foods MarketDeep-dive analysis for individual segments and sub-segments for Baked Foods To estimate market size by type, source, application and region To understand the market dynamics including supply and demand To provide region level market analysis and future outlook for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countries Competitive landscaping for the baked foods market evaluating key strategies taken by top players in the market Company profiling of major players in the market Value chain analysis and supply chain analysis of baked foods Analysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements related to Baked Foods market.Complete Report Available atThe market for global baked foods market is segmented on the basis of by type, source and application. By type, the baked foods market is segmented as pastries, cereals, pies, cakes, cookies, biscuits, scones, milk and pizza. By source, the baked foods market is segmented as dairy, non-dairy, sweet, whole grain and savoury. The baked foods find its applications in confectionery, bakery products and dairy products.The key players profiled in Global Baked Foods Market report include- Puratos Grupo Bimbo Britannia Industries Ltd. Nestle Chile Interstate Brands Corporation George Weston Ltd. Sara Lee Bakery Group Flowers Food Lewis Brothers Hostess Brands LLC.Stakeholders Food & Beverage Manufacturers Bakery product manufacturers Confectionery product manufacturers Dairy product Manufacturers Traders, Importers and exportersReasons to buyThis report includes in-depth study and analysis of Baked Foods segments and sub-segments. It encompasses market segmentation of Baked Foods by Type, source, and applications. It helps in identifying key Baked Foods suppliers and consumers globally. The report will help in investments for the baked food and allied companies providing details on the fast growing segments and regions. In addition, it will provide the baked food companies to improve profitability by using supply chain strategies, cost effectiveness of various products mentioned in the report.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Application Lifecycle Management Software 2017 Global Key Players - HP, Atlassian, Techexcel, IBM, Microsoft, Rocket Software, Enalean Market Analysis The Global Application Lifecycle Management Software Market Research Report provides detailed analysis of the key regional market status of the Application Lifecycle Management Software Industry.

Application lifecycle management is the process of managing an apps development, from design to final release, and establishing a framework for managing changes. The typical application lifecycle starts with the design of a new app or feature. The app is planned based on requirements analysis and specifications. Next, the app is implemented per the specifications and then tested. The new app is staged for final testing before it gets deployed to production. This cycle repeats for every new app or feature. Its also used for app maintenance, such as when features are enhanced or bugs are fixed. A governance and change management framework directs the development process. In summary, ALM is a set of pre-defined processes that start somewhere in the business as an idea, a need, a challenge or a risk and then pass through different development phases such as Requirements definition, design, development, testing, deployment, release and maintenance spanning across an entire lifecycle of a product. Throughout the ALM process, each of these steps is closely monitored and controlled, followed by proper tracking and documentation of any changes to the application.

Vendors mentioned as follows:

HP

Atlassian

Techexcel

IBM

Microsoft

Rocket Software

Enalean

Sample Copy @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1630831-global-application-lifecycle-management-alm-software-market-research-report-2011-2023

The global Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Software market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 with CAGR xx% from 2018-2023. The objective of report is to define, segment, and project the market on the basis of product type, application, and region, and to describe the content about the factors influencing market dynamics, policy, economic, technology and market entry etc.

Based on products type, the report describes major products type share of regional market. Products mentioned as follows:

Small-Sized battery

Large-Sized battery

Leading vendors in the market are included based on profile, business performance etc.

Based on Application, the report describes major application share of regional market. Application mentioned as follows:

IT and Telecom

Aerospace and Defense

Energy and Utilities

Others

Based on region, the report describes major regions market by products and application. Regions mentioned as follows:

Asia-Pacific

North America

Europe

South America

Middle East & Africa

Major Points in Table Of Content

1 Market Overview

1.1 Objectives of Research

1.1.1 Definition

1.1.2 Specifications

1.2 Market Segment

1.2.1 Upstream

1.2.2 Downstream

1.2 Market Segment

1.2.1 by Type

1.2.1. Small-Sized battery

1.2.1. Large-Sized battery

1.2.2 by Application

1.2.2. IT and Telecom

1.2.2. Aerospace and Defense

1.2.2. Energy and Utilities

1.2.2. Others

1.2.3 by Regions

2 Industry Chain

2.1 Industry Chain Structure

2.2 Upstream

2.3 Market

2.3.1 SWOT

2.3.2 Dynamics

3 Environmental Analysis

3.1 Policy

3.2 Economic

3.3 Technology

3.4 Market Entry

4 Market Segmentation by Type

4.1 Market Size

4.1. Small-Sized battery Market, 2011-2016

4.1. Large-Sized battery Market, 2011-2016

4.2 Market Forecast

4.2. Small-Sized battery Market Forecast, 2017-2022

4.2. Large-Sized battery Market Forecast, 2017-2022

5 Market Segmentation by Application

5.1 Market Size

5.1. IT and Telecom Market, 2011-2016

5.1. Aerospace and Defense Market, 2011-2016

5.1. Energy and Utilities Market, 2011-2016

5.1. Others Market, 2011-2016

5.2 Market Forecast

5.2. IT and Telecom Market Forecast, 2017-2022

5.2. Aerospace and Defense Market Forecast, 2017-2022

5.2. Energy and Utilities Market Forecast, 2017-2022

5.2. Others Market Forecast, 2017-2022

8 Major Vendors

8. HP

8.1.2 Profile

8.1.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. Atlassian

8.2.1 Profile

8.2.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. Techexcel

8.3.1 Profile

8.3.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. IBM

8.4.1 Profile

8.4.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. Microsoft

8.5.1 Profile

8.5.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. Rocket Software

8.6.1 Profile

8.6.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin)

8. Enalean

8.7.1 Profile

8.7.2 Business Performance (Sales Revenue, Cost, Gross Margin) 

CONTACT US:

NORAH TRENT

Partner Relations & Marketing Manager

sales@wiseguyreports.com

www.wiseguyreports.com

Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US)

Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)

For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences



For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :



https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars



Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.



Pune, India



This release was published on openPR.



Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release.
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017

https://www.qyresearcheurope.com/

http://www.qyresearchglobal.com/

The Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN).Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.EMEA Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) sales volume (K Liters), price (USD/Liter), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingItronCiscoABBHoneywellSchneider ElectricSilver Spring NetworksELOAlstomS&T AGToshibaFujitsuMotorola Mobility HoldingsControl4......Ask a complete & professional report sample, please send message to tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Overview2 EMEA Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application3 Europe Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application4 Middle East Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application5 Africa Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application6 EMEA Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data7 Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10 Market Effect Factors Analysis11 EMEA Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Forecast (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017Europe Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017China Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017USA Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017Korea Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017India Smart Grid Home Area Network (HAN) Market Report 2017Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersEmail: tinaning@qyresearch.com Tel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Web:QYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017

https://www.qyresearcheurope.com/

http://www.qyresearchglobal.com/

The Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1).Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.EMEA Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) sales volume (K Liters), price (USD/Liter), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingHubei Xingfa ChemicalsJiangsu Kangxiang IndustrialSigma-AldrichTCI ChemicalsNew-Tech ChemicalsJiangsu LianxiongLianxing ChemicalFuerxin Medicine ChemicalDemand ChemicalSuzhou Lianxiong Superfine Chemical......Ask a complete & professional report sample, please send message to tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Overview2 EMEA Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application3 Europe Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application4 Middle East Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application5 Africa Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application6 EMEA Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data7 Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10 Market Effect Factors Analysis11 EMEA Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Forecast (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017Europe Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017China Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017USA Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017Korea Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017India Tetrakis Hydroxymethyl Phosphonium Chloride (124-64-1) Market Report 2017Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersEmail: tinaning@qyresearch.com Tel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Web:QYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District
Global Tractor Engines Market 2017- Caterpillar, Perkins, John Deere, Mahindra?Mahindra Ltd

https://goo.gl/crBAMU

http://qyresearch.us/report/global-tractor-engines-market-2017/42847/

http://qyresearch.us/

http://xbox360asylum.ca/

http://askthereporter24.com/

The Global Tractor Engines Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Tractor Engines industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Tractor Engines growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Tractor Engines industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Tractor Engines Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Tractor Engines market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Tractor Engines market. The competitive view of the Tractor Engines industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Tractor Engines market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Tractor Engines Market According to the Key Vendors:1 Caterpillar2 Perkins3 John Deere4 Mahindra?Mahindra Ltd5 Kubota6 V.S.T Tillers Tractors7 John Deere8 Cummins9 DEUTZ10 Weichai11 Yuchai12 Case New Holland13 Massey FergusonThe Tractor Engines report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Tractor Engines industry like supply chain analysis, Tractor Engines industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Tractor Engines industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Tractor Engines report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Tractor Engines Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Tractor Engines market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-News Network:-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Global Trunnion Spherical Bearings Market 2017- GE(US), Pratt & Whitney(US), Rockwell(US), KHI(Japan)

https://goo.gl/d7gPyP

http://qyresearch.us/report/global-trunnion-spherical-bearings-market-2017/42849/

http://qyresearch.us/

http://xbox360asylum.ca/

http://askthereporter24.com/

The Global Trunnion Spherical Bearings Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Trunnion Spherical Bearings growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Trunnion Spherical Bearings Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Trunnion Spherical Bearings market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Trunnion Spherical Bearings market. The competitive view of the Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Trunnion Spherical Bearings market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Trunnion Spherical Bearings Market According to the Key Vendors:1 GE(US)2 Pratt & Whitney(US)3 Rockwell(US)4 KHI(Japan)5 Safran(French)6 Avio Aero(Italy)7 IHI Corporation(Japan)8 AST Bearings LLC(US)9 Thomson(US)10 NTN(Japan)11 NSK(Japan)12 Schaeffler(Germany)13 SKF(Sweden)14 ILJIN(Korea)15 JTEKT(Japan)16 TIMKEN(USA)17 GMB Corporation(Japan)The Trunnion Spherical Bearings report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry like supply chain analysis, Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Trunnion Spherical Bearings industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Trunnion Spherical Bearings report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Trunnion Spherical Bearings Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Trunnion Spherical Bearings market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-News Network:-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Global A4 Laser Printer Market : Brother, Samsung, Fuji Xerox and Ricoh

https://goo.gl/gsGBFt

https://goo.gl/UDbYCt

https://market.biz/

http://emarketresearch.us/

Global A4 Laser Printer research report provides the complete and precise view of the market during the forecast period from 2017-2022. The A4 Laser Printer market Report enlists the different factors which can help the readers in transforming their knowledge into vital business decisions. To start with the A4 Laser Printer report analyses the market development based on market gains, extensive product applications, dominant market regions and the companies within these regions.At an initial stage, the report offers the A4 Laser Printer market structure, business outline, product view, technical advancements and pioneering market plans along with the factors that can restrain the progress of A4 Laser Printer market.Do Inquiry Before Accessing Global A4 Laser Printer Report:Remarkable Assets of the Global A4 Laser Printer Market Report: Breakdown of the report by key market segments will exhibit the market growth scenario based on regions. With the knowledge of dominant key players, the vital business choices can be made. Easy to understandable view of the global A4 Laser Printer market will be provided by segment-wise and region-wise analysis. Testimonials to the company will validate the accuracy of the data to have better market overview.A4 Laser Printer Market Breakdown:Global A4 Laser Printer Market Study Based On Key Players:HPCanonBrotherRicohFuji XeroxSamsungLexmarkDELLOKIEpsonKYOCERAKonica-MinoltaSindohLenovoPantumGlobal A4 Laser Printer Market Study Based On Product Applications:SOHOSMBCorporateGlobal A4 Laser Printer Market Study Based On Product Types:Single Function A4 Laser PrinterMultifunction A4 Laser PrinterGlobal A4 Laser Printer Market Study Based On Geographical Realms: Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia) South America (The Middle East and Africa) North America (The USA, Canada and Mexico) Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia)To Acquire A4 Laser Printer Report Sample With Complete TOC atThe subsequent portions depict the A4 Laser Printer market globally:Portion 1, states the aim of A4 Laser Printer market along with the basic market introduction, product pictures, growth aspects and dominance of A4 Laser Printer market across different regions;Portion 2, analyses the A4 Laser Printer market players, their sales margin, market gains and their market share in 2016 and 2017;Portion 3, competitive landscape outlook of the A4 Laser Printer market differentiated by key players based on revenue generated from sales;Portion 4, elaborates the region-based study of the A4 Laser Printer market and the sales volume in each region and the market gains from 2012 to 2017;Portion 5,6,7,8 and 9 shows the major countries in these regions with their market revenue in 2017;Portion 10 and 11 investigates the A4 Laser Printer market stating different product types, variety of applications, market progress based on market statistics from 2012 to 2017;Portion 12 shows the futuristic market plans from during the span of 2017 to 2022 which varies according to zones, product categories and applications;Portion 13, 14, 15 enlists the marketing channels, A4 Laser Printer market retailers, market facts and figures, vital conclusions, appendix and data collection sources;To conclude with the A4 Laser Printer Report has done the exhaustive study of the market during the projected span of 2017 to 2022 which will help them to make right decisions at right time to see the growth of their industryAbout Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Market.Biz has access to the worlds most comprehensive and up-to-date databases in your business sector, including countless market reports that can provide you with valuable data relating to your business. We understand the needs of our clients, and keep our reports updated as market requirement changes.Contact Us:James JohnsonS. no. 51/14 First Floor,Office No. 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, Pune.Tel: +1(857)2390696Email: inquiry@market.bizWebsite:Blog:
Global Carbomer Market : Evonik, Newman Fine Chemical, SNF Floerger and Tinci Materials

https://goo.gl/ajvVnP

https://goo.gl/NsBY8T

https://market.biz/

http://emarketresearch.us/

Global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 research report provides the complete and precise view of the market during the forecast period from 2017-2022. The Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market Report enlists the different factors which can help the readers in transforming their knowledge into vital business decisions. To start with the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 report analyses the market development based on market gains, extensive product applications, dominant market regions and the companies within these regions.Global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 MarketAt an initial stage, the report offers the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market structure, business outline, product view, technical advancements and pioneering market plans along with the factors that can restrain the progress of Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market.Do Inquiry Before Accessing Global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Report:Remarkable Assets of the Global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Report: Breakdown of the report by key market segments will exhibit the market growth scenario based on regions. With the knowledge of dominant key players, the vital business choices can be made. Easy to understandable view of the global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market will be provided by segment-wise and region-wise analysis. Testimonials to the company will validate the accuracy of the data to have better market overview.Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Breakdown:Global Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Study Based On Key Players:BoschQualcommTexas InstrumentsWiTricityFulton InnovationGlobal Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Study Based On Product Applications:Passenger vehiclesCommercial vehiclesGlobal Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Study Based On Product Types:Electromagnetic inductionMagnetic resonanceGlobal Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Market Study Based On Geographical Realms: Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia) South America (The Middle East and Africa) North America (The USA, Canada and Mexico) Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia)To Acquire Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Report Sample With Complete TOC atThe subsequent portions depict the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market globally:Portion 1, states the aim of Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market along with the basic market introduction, product pictures, growth aspects and dominance of Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market across different regions;Portion 2, analyses the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market players, their sales margin, market gains and their market share in 2016 and 2017;Portion 3, competitive landscape outlook of the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market differentiated by key players based on revenue generated from sales;Portion 4, elaborates the region-based study of the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market and the sales volume in each region and the market gains from 2012 to 2017;Portion 5,6,7,8 and 9 shows the major countries in these regions with their market revenue in 2017;Portion 10 and 11 investigates the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market stating different product types, variety of applications, market progress based on market statistics from 2012 to 2017;Portion 12 shows the futuristic market plans from during the span of 2017 to 2022 which varies according to zones, product categories and applications;Portion 13, 14, 15 enlists the marketing channels, Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 market retailers, market facts and figures, vital conclusions, appendix and data collection sources;To conclude with the Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems Industry 2016 Report has done the exhaustive study of the market during the projected span of 2017 to 2022 which will help them to make right decisions at right time to see the growth of their industry.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Market.Biz has access to the worlds most comprehensive and up-to-date databases in your business sector, including countless market reports that can provide you with valuable data relating to your business. We understand the needs of our clients, and keep our reports updated as market requirement changes.Contact Us:James JohnsonS. no. 51/14 First Floor,Office No. 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, Pune.Tel: +1(857)2390696Email: inquiry@market.bizWebsite:Blog:
2017-2022 Global Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market Analysis : Amdocs, Oracle Corporation, CGI Group, Ericsson, Netcracker Technology

Global Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market

http://bit.ly/2reNFgL

https://market.biz/report/global-telecom-cloud-billing-services-market-2017/73559/

https://market.biz/

http://firstnewshawk.com/

The Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market 2017 Research Report investigates a thorough and complete study on Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Telecom Cloud Billing Services Growth aspects, wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity and Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry Price during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022The research report labeled Global Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market 2017 presents the penetrating study of Telecom Cloud Billing Services market globally, concentrating on complete analysis of the present and past historical details of Telecom Cloud Billing Services market. The competitive landscape view of the Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry is also covered in this research document.Request Report Sample Here:Competitive Study of Global Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market 2017 Based on Key Vendors:1 Amdocs2 Oracle Corporation3 CGI Group4 Ericsson5 Netcracker Technology6 Computer Sciences Corporation7 Huawei8 Redknee Solutions9 Asiainfo10 Cerillion11 Tech MahindraThe report organizes the Telecom Cloud Billing Services market across the globe into distinct portion based on industry standards. It also distinguishes the market based on geographical regions. The Telecom Cloud Billing Services report mainly throws light on dominant players in the regions of (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added accordingly.Discrete aspects of the Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry like value chain analysis, Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry rules and policies, the factors driving the growth of the market and the constraints hampering the growth are explained.In next section, the Telecom Cloud Billing Services report mentions the products that are currently available in the market along with their cost structures, manufacturing volume, requirement and supply analysis, import/export scenario and their overall contribution to the Telecom Cloud Billing Services market revenue globally.Buy Complete Report Here (To Get Instant access):Further, the report global Telecom Cloud Billing Services market 2017 analyzes the feasibility of investment, investment return analysis and shows a complete picture of market development scope and business strategies followed by leading Telecom Cloud Billing Services industry players along with their company profile, market share and contact information.Lastly, the Telecom Cloud Billing Services report enlists the vital conclusions that will assist all individuals who have a keen interest in Telecom Cloud Billing Services Market.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
2017-2022 Global Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market Analysis : Medtronic, Biosense Webster, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific Corporation, CONMED Corporation

Global Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market

http://bit.ly/2scTrww

https://market.biz/report/global-temperature-controlled-rf-ablation-market-2017/73561/

https://market.biz/

http://firstnewshawk.com/

The Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market 2017 Research Report investigates a thorough and complete study on Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Growth aspects, wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity and Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry Price during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022The research report labeled Global Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market 2017 presents the penetrating study of Temperature-controlled RF Ablation market globally, concentrating on complete analysis of the present and past historical details of Temperature-controlled RF Ablation market. The competitive landscape view of the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry is also covered in this research document.Request Report Sample Here:Competitive Study of Global Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market 2017 Based on Key Vendors:1 Medtronic2 Biosense Webster3 St. Jude Medical4 Boston Scientific Corporation5 CONMED Corporation6 AngioDynamics7 AtriCure8 Smith & Nephew9 Olympus Corporation10 Galil Medical11 CONMED Corporation?The report organizes the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation market across the globe into distinct portion based on industry standards. It also distinguishes the market based on geographical regions. The Temperature-controlled RF Ablation report mainly throws light on dominant players in the regions of (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added accordingly.Discrete aspects of the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry like value chain analysis, Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry rules and policies, the factors driving the growth of the market and the constraints hampering the growth are explained.In next section, the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation report mentions the products that are currently available in the market along with their cost structures, manufacturing volume, requirement and supply analysis, import/export scenario and their overall contribution to the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation market revenue globally.Buy Complete Report Here (To Get Instant access):Further, the report global Temperature-controlled RF Ablation market 2017 analyzes the feasibility of investment, investment return analysis and shows a complete picture of market development scope and business strategies followed by leading Temperature-controlled RF Ablation industry players along with their company profile, market share and contact information.Lastly, the Temperature-controlled RF Ablation report enlists the vital conclusions that will assist all individuals who have a keen interest in Temperature-controlled RF Ablation Market.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Global Mobile Encryption Market 2017 Analysis by Players - Symantec Corp, Dell, IBM, Huawei Technologies, Mobileiron

https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/83786/request-sample

https://goo.gl/p3CtVe

www.fiormarkets.com

www.albaniantimes.com

The report titled Mobile Encryption is an in-depth and a professional document that provides a comprehensive overview of the global Mobile Encryption market.The report provides an executive-level blueprint of the Mobile Encryption market beginning with the definition of the market dynamics. The analysis classifies the Mobile Encryption market in terms of products, application, and key geographic regions. Presenting a detailed value chain analysis, the study evaluates the set of region-specific approaches forged by the industry. To determine the market potential for Mobile Encryption in the international scenario, the study delves into the competitive landscape and development landscape exhibited by the key geographic regions.Download Free Sample Report @The reports analysis is based on technical data and industry figures sourced from the most reputable databases. Other aspects that will prove especially beneficial to readers of the report are: investment feasibility analysis, recommendations for growth, investment return analysis, trends analysis, opportunity analysis, and SWOT analyses of competing companies. With the help of inputs and insights from technical and marketing experts, the report presents an objective assessment of the Mobile Encryption market.This report also presents product specification, manufacturing process, and product cost structure etc. Production is separated by regions, technology and applications. Analysis also covers upstream raw materials, equipment, Downstream client survey, Marketing channels, Industry development trend and proposals. In the end, the report includes Mobile Encryption new project SWOT analysis, Investment feasibility analysis, Investment return analysis, and Development trend analysis. In conclusion, it is a deep research report on Global Mobile Encryption industry. Here, we express our thanks for the support and assistance from Mobile Encryption industry chain related technical experts and marketing engineers during Research Teams survey and interviews.Access Full Report @Other important aspects that have been meticulously studied in the Mobile Encryption market report are: Demand and supply dynamics, import and export scenario, industry processes and cost structures, and major R&D initiatives. The new opportunities they present to market players have been mentioned in the report.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerOffice-102, Sanskriti AspirationsBaner Road, Pune,MH 411045IndiaPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Global Internet of Things (IoT) Integration Market 2017 Analysis by Players - Capgemini SE, ATOS SE, Wipro, Intel, IBM, Softdel

https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/83785/request-sample

https://goo.gl/worqks

www.fiormarkets.com

www.albaniantimes.com

The report titled Internet of Things (IoT) Integration is an in-depth and a professional document that provides a comprehensive overview of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Integration market.The report provides an executive-level blueprint of the Internet of Things (IoT) Integration market beginning with the definition of the market dynamics. The analysis classifies the Internet of Things (IoT) Integration market in terms of products, application, and key geographic regions. Presenting a detailed value chain analysis, the study evaluates the set of region-specific approaches forged by the industry. To determine the market potential for Internet of Things (IoT) Integration in the international scenario, the study delves into the competitive landscape and development landscape exhibited by the key geographic regions.Download Free Sample Report @The reports analysis is based on technical data and industry figures sourced from the most reputable databases. Other aspects that will prove especially beneficial to readers of the report are: investment feasibility analysis, recommendations for growth, investment return analysis, trends analysis, opportunity analysis, and SWOT analyses of competing companies. With the help of inputs and insights from technical and marketing experts, the report presents an objective assessment of the Internet of Things (IoT) Integration market.This report also presents product specification, manufacturing process, and product cost structure etc. Production is separated by regions, technology and applications. Analysis also covers upstream raw materials, equipment, Downstream client survey, Marketing channels, Industry development trend and proposals. In the end, the report includes Internet of Things (IoT) Integration new project SWOT analysis, Investment feasibility analysis, Investment return analysis, and Development trend analysis. In conclusion, it is a deep research report on Global Internet of Things (IoT) Integration industry. Here, we express our thanks for the support and assistance from Internet of Things (IoT) Integration industry chain related technical experts and marketing engineers during Research Teams survey and interviews.Access Full Report @Other important aspects that have been meticulously studied in the Internet of Things (IoT) Integration market report are: Demand and supply dynamics, import and export scenario, industry processes and cost structures, and major R&D initiatives. The new opportunities they present to market players have been mentioned in the report.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerOffice-102, Sanskriti AspirationsBaner Road, Pune,MH 411045IndiaPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Welding Materials Market - Thriving Growth In Industrial Application Segments By 2024

Welding Materials Market

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/welding-materials-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21566

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

http://marketresearchreports2017.blogspot.in

The global welding materials market is growing on account of the thriving growth of application segments such as transportation, building and construction, marine, and automobiles. The growing urbanization in developing nations will drive the growth of this market. The increasing infrastructure development in Asia Pacific will also fuel the growth of the welding materials market. The technological advancements in the automobile industry will also aid the growth of this market. The automotive industry makes use of welding materials in various processes, including the manufacturing of the high quality, light-weight, and fuel efficient components.One of the latest trends in the global welding materials market is the use of new materials, which results in reduced weight of the overall finished products. This will drive the welding materials market. The manufacturing of new welding equipment and materials will push the growth of this market. On the other hand, the use of welding products can pose safety and health issues among operators and this will restrict the growth of the market as regulatory bodies impose restriction on their use. The American National Standards (ANSI) has stated that welding can be a potential threat for operators as it may cause injury and illness.Browse Market Research Report @The market is characterized by the supremacy of large players. As this market is capital intensive, new entrants and local vendors face a tough challenge surviving in the market. Large players offer quality, functionality, and good services and give competition to local players.Welding Materials Market: OverviewWelding materials market may be mature owing to their use ever since industrial revolution, however, the market is still experiencing technological advancements, which is ensuring a continued growth of this industry. Welding processes are used extensively across various end-use industries such as automobiles, manufacturing, marine, offshore, and building and construction. This is leading to a growth in the global welding materials market. The process of welding makes use of coalescence to join metals or thermoplastics. The welding materials market primarily comprises welding equipment, accessories, and welding consumables. Some of the materials used for welding process, include solid wires, stick electrodes, SAW wires and fluxes, flux-cored wired, and gases.The report is a comprehensive analysis of key driving factors and obstacles faced by players in the global welding materials market. It is collated by expert analysts who make predictions based on the historical and present state and size of the market. The report segments the market on the basis of key criteria and gives information such as leading, declining, and fastest growing segments. Information regarding the degree of competition, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and bargaining power of suppliers has been included in the report. Thus, the report is enriched with key information which proves to be very fruitful for companies wishing to invest in the welding materials market.Enter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @Welding Materials Market: Trends and OpportunitiesWhile the arc welding segment has been leading in the market, other technologies such as laser beam and resistant welding are also gaining popularity for specific applications for their ability to perform deep weld penetration and owing to their minimal size. The demand for welding materials is expected to continue to grow as welding is the only joining technique that can be used for applications such as space and underwater. For instance, welding is essential for repairing ships, pipelines, and offshore oil platforms. In marine applications, underwater welding is an emerging application. Additionally, it is used by end-user industries in repair and maintenance operations. Welding joints provide fatigue and corrosion resistance, and strength, boosting the welding materials market. The transportation and automobile industry is one of the biggest consumers of welding materials, thus driving the market.Market: Geographical AnalysisBy geography, the market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and the Rest of the World. Asia Pacific is expected to continue to lead in the welding materials market with countries such as China and India as leading markets in the region. A surge in construction activities, including residential and non residential projects is one of the reasons behind the growth of the Asia Pacific welding materials market. The growing transportation sector and support from government to promote the manufacturing sector are some of the other factors boosting the Chinese and Indian welding materials market. The European and North American markets have a lack of skilled labor in the welding industry and thus experiencing sluggish growth.Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the key manufacturers of welding materials are: The Linde Group, Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc., Ador Welding Limited, Colfax Corporation, Illinois Tools Works Inc., Praxair Incorporated, ESAB, Air Liquide S.A., and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. The report gives a detailed analysis of each of the companys recent developments and strategic business moves for business expansion. The business and financial overview of companies and the challenges faced by them are a part of the competitive landscape section of the report.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insights for decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, TMR employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog:
Thin Film Materials Market - China Accounted For Largest Demand, Research By 2024

Thin Film Materials Market

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/thin-film-materials-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21527

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

http://marketresearchreports2017.blogspot.in

Thanks to the increasing demand from existing and emerging applications, the global market for thin films is witnessing significant growth. The increased need efficacy in operations, high demand for miniaturization of products, continual advancements in technology, and the rising implementation of government rules and policies and subsidies across the world are fueling the demand for thin film materials across the world and are anticipated to continue the proliferation in this market over the next few years.On the other hand, the low conversion efficacy and the need for a massive amount in investments to increase the research activities for the development of the technology may restrict this market from rising steadily in the years to come. Nonetheless, with extensive application of thin film materials in photovoltaic solar cells, electrical, semiconductor, MEMS, and optical coating, the market is anticipated to overcome these glitches easily in the near future.The high growth of the solar photovoltaic cell and the MEMS industry is likely to present lucrative opportunities for growth to market players over the forthcoming years, especially in Asia Pacific and Europe. China is projected to emerge as the leading domestic market for thin films materials across the world in future.Obtain Report Details @A thin film is a layer of material ranging from a nanometer to micrometers in thickness. Optical coatings and electronic semiconductors are the primary applications of thin film materials. Additionally, thin film materials are used in the manufacture of household mirrors. These films are widely used for high density and high frequency applications. They are used in photovoltaic solar cells, among others.Increase in technological miniaturization is expected to be the prime driver of the thin materials market during the forecast period. Rising awareness regarding the usage of solar energy is also anticipated to boost the thin film material market during the forecast period. Industrial applications of thin film materials such as optical coatings and semiconductors coupled with domestic applications are estimated to drive the demand for thin film materials over the next few years. Furthermore, companies manufacturing thin films rely on the government for funding and subsidies. Thus, government funding provided to thin film material industries may open up new avenues for the market. This is projected to propel the demand for these materials in the near future. However, volatility in the availability of raw materials may hamper the market over the next few years. Research is being carried out on a new class of thin-film inorganic oxide materials called amorphous heavy-metal cation multicomponent oxides. These could be used to manufacture transparent transistors that are inexpensive, stable, and environment-friendly.Thin film materials are divided into amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide. Technologies include chemical process and physical process. Thin film materials are used in various applications such as solar cells, micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS), semiconductor, and electrical and optical coating.In terms of demand, Asia Pacific was the leading region in the thin film materials market in 2013. China accounted for the largest demand for thin film materials in Asia Pacific owing to high demand in the coatings industry in 2013. However, other countries such as India, Japan, and South Korea are likely to exhibit higher demand for thin film materials in the near future. Rising population and changing lifestyles of consumers have been directly or indirectly driving the market. This trend is projected to continue in the next few years. Furthermore, growing awareness regarding exhaustible resources is expected to boost market growth. Asia Pacific has experienced dynamic economic growth in the past decade. This trend is anticipated to continue in the next fewyears. Asia Pacific was followed by North America.Enter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @The U.S. accounted for the largest demand for thin film materials in the past decade. Demand for thin film materials was high owing to increasing demand in various applications. Europe held the third largest share of the thin film materials market. Increasing demand for thin film materials in the automobile industry is driving the thin film materials market in Europe. Countries such as Germany and the U.K. were the major consumers of thin film materials in Europe. However, stringent environmental regulations associated with the Paints and coatings industry in the European Union can act as a major restraint for the market in the near future. The Rest of the World is anticipated to experience stable demand for thin film materials in the near future. Latin America is one of the largest markets for thin film materials in the Rest of the World.The thin film materials market is highly competitive. It is an oligopolistic market, wherein a few players dominate the market. First Solar is the major player that holds monopoly in the Cadmium telluride CdTe) market. Other players include Hanergy Holding Group Limited, Kaneka Corporation, Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., Anwell Solar, Suntech Power Co. Ltd., and Moser Baer India Limited.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insights for decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, TMR employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog:
Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) Systems Market Expected to Reach $1,195 Million, Globally, by 2022

Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) Systems Market- Allied Market Research

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1947

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/1947

www.alliedmarketresearch.com

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled; "Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) Systems Market by Type, by Light Source, Equipment, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2022," the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) systems market was valued at $650 million in 2015 and is projected to reach $1,195 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 9.2% from 2016 to 2022. The laser-produced plasmas segment held major share in the total market in 2015.Early buyers will receive 20% customization on this report research.Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is a modern process for fabricating microprocessors, which are hundred times more efficient than the current ones available in the market. This technology allows storage of more information. EUVL replaces other optical lithography techniques, currently used to fabricate microcircuits, which we use in our devices.Factors that assist the market growth include ability of the EUVL system to offer enhanced resolving power and high productivity. However, EUVL is a complex technology that requires all new step-and-scan systems for production of semiconductors, which restricts the market growth. Reduction in size of transistors and electronic circuits within microprocessors increases the density and power of these systems, expected to provide lucrative opportunity for the market growth.Sample Report Research at:Based on light source, laser-produced plasmas contributed the largest revenue share in the market in 2015. Owing to their advantages such as short-pulse and high average power laser beam than other sources. However, over the next few years, vacuum spark segment is anticipated to be one of the fastest growing light source in terms of revenue in the global extreme ultraviolet lithography system market.Memory segment dominated with more than 40% share in EUVL systems market, in 2015. The other optical lithography techniques, which are currently prevalent have several limitations, such as storage space constraint, large size, and low data transmission speed. Advent of EUVL systems have removed these limitations. The new systems feature very high speed and large storage space. The rise in sale of electronic devices and increase in trend of internet of things (IoT), which require large space, are anticipated to create a huge demand in EUVL system market for big storage systems.Do purchase inquiry at:Key Findings of the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) Systems Market In terms of revenue, laser-produced plasmas held over 45% of the share in EUVL systems market. In 2015, the light source dominated with over 50% share in the market and is expected to be one of the fastest growing segments in the market. In 2015, memory application held over 40% of share in EUVL systems market which was the highest among all the applications. Asia-Pacific is estimated to continue dominating the market in the coming years. In 2015, the region accounted for about 60% share across all the geographical regions.In 2015, Asia-Pacific accounted for over half of the total EUVL systems market and is expected to retain its dominant position owing to the presence of several emerging nations with high share in the consumer electronics market, well-established semiconductor industry, and presence of key market players.The major companies profiled in the report include ASML, Canon Inc., Intel Corporation, Nikon Corporation, NuFlare Technology Inc., Samsung Corporation, SUSS Microtec AG, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), Ultratech Inc., and Vistec Semiconductor Systems.About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Rahul Thakur5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1 (800) 792-5285 (U.S. & Canada)Fax: +1 (855) 550-5975E-mail: sales@alliedmarketresearch.comWebsite:
Legal Marijuana Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player 2020 SUMMARY



WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Legal Marijuana Market.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, belongs to a family of plants called Cannabaceae. There are over 700 varieties of cannabis, which have been described till date. Based on characteristics such as shape, color, height, smell, it is usually recognized by two main types: Cannabis Sativa, which originated in the Western hemisphere and Cannabis Indica, which originated in Central and South Asia.



The report Marijuana Market provides an in-depth analysis of the US and Canada market on the basis of its segments. The major trends, growth drivers as well as issues being faced by the industry are being presented in this report. The key players in the industry, American Cannabis Company, mCig, Inc., GreenGro Technologies, Inc. and Mentor Capital Inc. are being profiled.



GET SAMPLE REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1615837-legal-marijuana-market-medical-recreational-with-focus-on-us-canada-industry



The key factors driving the growth of the marijuana/cannabis market are technological advancement, premium pricing due to high energy consumption in marijuana production, rising social acceptance of marijuana and growing business opportunities, increasing business sophistication, large base of potential cannabis consumers, medical cannabis on the rise, growing popular support in cannabis market and the growth of the vaporizer industry. Some of the noteworthy trends and developments of this industry are national expansion & brand growth, emergence of large grow, banking & financial services, cannabis as healthcare treatment and innovative product development. However, the expansion of marijuana/cannabis market is hindered by legal issues.



In addition to the legalization of medical marijuana, there are states which have also legalized the recreational use of this drug for adults who are 21 years old or older. So far, four states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use, and 23 states allow marijuana use for medical purposes. These changes in state laws have helped the growth of the cannabis industry. The new and revised laws show that people are finally starting to realize that this drug can have legitimate uses.

Table of Contents



1. Marijuana Market Overview

1.1 Cannabis Ingestion Methods

1.2 Uses of Marijuana/Cannabis

1.3 Medical Indications and Benefits

1.4 Adverse Effects of Marijuana/Cannabis

1.5 Overview of Marijuana Legalization Models

1.6 Overview of Cannabis Testing Technologies



..CONTINUED



List of Charts



Cannabis Industry Segments

Cannabis Ingestion Methods

Overview of Marijuana Legalization Models

The US Legal Marijuana Market Forecast by Value (2015-2020)

The US Legal Marijuana Market Forecast - Medical and Recreational (2015-2020)

The US Cannabis Industry - Total Economic Impact Forecast (2015-2020)

The US Prevalence Rate of Marijuana by Age Group (2015)

The US Prevalence Rate of Marijuana by Gender (2015)



..CONTINUED



List of Tables



Medical Indications and Benefits

Overview of Cannabis Testing Technologies

Cannabis Legalized States and the District of Columbia

Cannabis Limited Use States and 3 Decriminalized States

Financial Comparison of Key Players (2015)



..CONTINUED



For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check



https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences



For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check



https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars



Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.



WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTD

Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers

Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar

Pune - 411028

Maharashtra, India

Ph: +91 841 198 5042



This release was published on openPR.



Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release.
Animal Healthcare Market CAGR Projected to Grow at 5.1% Through 2020

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-431

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-431

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Revenues generated through sales of animal healthcare products and services are expected to reach $35 billion by the end of 2016, according to a report, "Animal Healthcare Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2020" by Future Market Insights (FMI). Growing pet humanisation trend and focus on preventive healthcare are expected to drive demand for animal healthcare products, such as feed additives, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines.Production Animal Segment Accounts for Higher DemandFMIs report has broadly segmented the animal healthcare market into production animal and companion animal. Between these, demand for healthcare products and services is higher from the production animal segment. Production animal healthcare revenues totalled nearly $21.8 billion in 2015 vis-a-vis $11.7 billion of companion animals.Feed Additives Segment Worth $15.7 Billion in 2015The key product categories that account for bulk of the revenues in the animal healthcare market are feed additives, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. Among these, demand for feed additives is the highest, with global revenues totalling $15.7 billion in 2015. By 2020, feed additives are forecasted to account for nearly 48% revenues of the global animal healthcare market.Request For Sample@US, China, and France Among the Largest MarketsFMIs report has analysed the animal healthcare market in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa.North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific account for nearly 88% revenues of the global market. The US, China, Japan, France, Germany, and the U.K. are among the most lucrative markets for companies operating in the animal healthcare landscape.The North America animal healthcare market was valued at $11.3 billion in 2015, of which the U.S. accounted for nearly $9.2 billion. FMIs report forecasts the market to increase at 4.5% CAGR through 2020 to reach $14.1 billion in revenues.The Europe animal healthcare market was valued at $9.6 billion in 2015; it is estimated to expand at 4.7% CAGR through 2020 and total $12.2 billion in revenues. France is the largest market for animal healthcare products and services in Europe, accounting for $1.9 billion in revenues in 2015. FMIs report forecasts Turkey to be the fastest growing country in the Europe animal healthcare market.The Asia Pacific animal healthcare market was valued at $8.3 billion in 2015, and FMI estimates it to expand at 6.2% CAGR through 2020. China is the most lucrative country in the Asia Pacific animal healthcare market, and is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR in Asia Pacific. By 2020, China is expected to represent nearly 62% market share.Send An Enquiry@Animal Healthcare Market: Key PlayersSome of the leading players operating in the pharmaceutical & vaccine segment of animal healthcare market include Bayer Healthcare AG, Merck & Co., Inc. (Intervet), Virbac S.A, Eli Lilly and Company (Elanco/Novartis), Vetoquinol SA, Zoetis, Inc. (Pfizer), Ceva Sante Animale, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Nutreco N.V. and Sanofi S.A. (MERIAL Limited).Major animal feed additive manufacturers include Cargill Inc. (Provimi), Koninklijke DSM N.V., ADM Alliance Nutrition, and Evonik Industries AG.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Innovation On Global Blood Bank Market Professional Survey Report 2017

http://globalqyresearch.com/download-sample/246542

http://globalqyresearch.com/checkout-form/0/246542

http://globalqyresearch.com/

This report studies Blood Bank in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringPanasonic BiomedicalDometicThermo Fisher ScientificVestfrost SolutionsFollettHelmer ScientificNorlake scientificGEM ScientificTelstarSummitSO-LOWDulasKIRSCHIndrelLabcoldLec MedicalFiocchettiLabrepcoMigali ScientificEVERmed (Everlasting Group)HaierZhongke Meiling CryogenicsAucmaShenyang Medical EquipmentFuyilianBy types, the market can be split intoBlood (Whole Blood)PlateletsPlasmaDouble Red CellsClick Here Download Sample Report Copy from:By Application, the market can be split intoHospitalsLaboratoriesBlood CentersOthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents :Global Blood Bank Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Blood Bank1.1 Definition and Specifications of Blood Bank1.1.1 Definition of Blood Bank1.1.2 Specifications of Blood Bank1.2 Classification of Blood Bank1.2.1 Blood (Whole Blood)1.2.2 Platelets1.2.3 Plasma1.2.4 Double Red Cells1.3 Applications of Blood Bank1.3.1 Hospitals1.3.2 Laboratories1.3.3 Blood Centers1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Blood Bank2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Blood Bank2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Blood Bank2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Blood Bank3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Blood Bank3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Blood Bank Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Blood Bank Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Blood Bank Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Blood Bank Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Blood Bank Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Blood Bank Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Blood Bank Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Blood Bank Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Blood Bank Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Blood Bank Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Blood Bank Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Blood Bank Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Blood Bank Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis5.2 China Blood Bank Market Analysis5.2.1 China Blood Bank Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Blood Bank Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Blood Bank Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Blood Bank Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Blood Bank Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Blood Bank Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Blood Bank Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis5.6 India Blood Bank Market Analysis5.6.1 India Blood Bank Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Blood Bank Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Blood Bank Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Blood Bank Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Blood Bank Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Blood Bank Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Blood Bank Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 Blood (Whole Blood) of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Platelets of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.3 Plasma of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.4 Double Red Cells of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Blood Bank Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Blood Bank Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Blood Bank Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Blood Bank Product Driving Factors Analysis7.3.1 Hospitals of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.2 Laboratories of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.3 Blood Centers of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.4 Others of Blood Bank Growth Driving Factor Analysis8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Blood Bank8.1 Panasonic Biomedical8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Panasonic Biomedical 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Panasonic Biomedical 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Dometic8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Dometic 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Dometic 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Thermo Fisher Scientific8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Thermo Fisher Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Thermo Fisher Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Vestfrost Solutions8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Vestfrost Solutions 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Vestfrost Solutions 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Follett8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Follett 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Follett 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Helmer Scientific8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Helmer Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Helmer Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Norlake scientific8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Norlake scientific 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Norlake scientific 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 GEM Scientific8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 GEM Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 GEM Scientific 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Telstar8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Telstar 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Telstar 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Summit8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Summit 2016 Blood Bank Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Summit 2016 Blood Bank Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 SO-LOW8.12 Dulas8.13 KIRSCH8.14 Indrel8.15 Labcold8.16 Lec Medical8.17 Fiocchetti8.18 Labrepco8.19 Migali Scientific8.20 EVERmed (Everlasting Group)8.21 Haier8.22 Zhongke Meiling Cryogenics8.23 Aucma8.24 Shenyang Medical Equipment8.25 Fuyilian9 Development Trend of Analysis of Blood Bank Market9.1 Global Blood Bank Market Trend Analysis9.1.1 Global 2017-2022 Blood Bank Market Size (Volume and Value) Forecast9.1.2 Global 2017-2022 Blood Bank Sales Price Forecast9.2 Blood Bank Regional Market Trend9.2.1 North America 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.2.2 China 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.2.3 Europe 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.2.4 Southeast Asia 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.2.5 Japan 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.2.6 India 2017-2022 Blood Bank Consumption Forecast9.3 Blood Bank Market Trend (Product Type)9.4 Blood Bank Market Trend (Application)10 Blood Bank Marketing Type Analysis10.1 Blood Bank Regional Marketing Type Analysis10.2 Blood Bank International Trade Type Analysis10.3 Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of Blood Bank by Region10.4 Blood Bank Supply Chain Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Blood Bank11.1 Consumer 1 Analysis11.2 Consumer 2 Analysis11.3 Consumer 3 Analysis11.4 Consumer 4 Analysis12 Conclusion of the Global Blood Bank Market Professional Survey Report 2017MethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceBuy This Report from Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QYResearch holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Cleveland Road
Nuclear Fuel Market for Marine Propulsion Systems Global Industry Analysis Forecast 2016 - 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/nuclear-fuel-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13121

Marine industry is anticipated to grow during the forecast period as it is one of the largest means of transportation. This will increase the consumption of marine fuels. Combustible fuel is the primary means of powering a shop across the globe. However, harmful effects of unburnt fuel and air pollution are concerning factors for maritime. This is expected to increase the demand for nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems.Obtain Report Details @:Maritime transport accounts for approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and this is a major contributor to contamination close to ports and coastal areas, many researching organizations have been conducting research on alternative fuel for ships. Nuclear propulsion is proved to be a more efficient compared to other alternative fuels to combat the reliance on combustible fuel.Nuclear Fuel Market for Marine Propulsion Systems: Key Growth EnablersNuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems is becoming increasingly popular due to its negligible emission through nuclear propulsion. Factors such as installation, maintenance, safety concerns for the crew and disposal cost were obstructing the use of nuclear as a fuel for marine propulsion system, however these hurdles are slowly being overshadowed, as more funds are being invested by many countries for marine industry worldwide. The nuclear reactor produces heat on the ship, which is used to generate steam that is used to power turbines.Nuclear fuel can be used in two ways for propulsion such as in combination with conventional marine fuels and an only fuel on the tanker. The percentage of conventional fuel substituted with nuclear fuel will have a direct impact on the vessels emissions including greenhouse gases. For marine propulsion nuclear fuel can be of different type depending on the fusion capability such as thorium, uranium and plutonium.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @:Nuclear Fuel Market for Marine Propulsion Systems: SegmentationThe global nuclear fuel market for marine propulsion systems can be segmented on the basis of different types of propulsion used on ships and vessels that need to be self supporting for extended periods without refueling such as ultra large crude carriers (ULCC) and very large crude carriers (VLCC). The U.S. was the pioneers of nuclear fuel as marine propulsion in 1940 and after the success of the research; first nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus began its voyage in 1955. Later on this technology was similarly implemented for cargo and other vessels. Britain, France and Germany in Europe are spending on R&D to use nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems. China has also initiated research on the use of nuclear energy for marine propulsion. The Russian fleet known as ice-breaker is one example, where nuclear power is fully adapted operating in the northern sea route.Environmental concerns, stringent emission norms, availability of fossil fuels, cost of conventional fuels and energy security are some of the factors driving the global nuclear fuel market for marine propulsion systems. Some of the regions that are likely to provide lucrative opportunity for nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems includes North Sea, the Baltic, Sea of Marmara, Hong Kong, parts of the coastline of Guangdong in China and a zone extending 200 nautical miles from the coastline of North America due to stringent emission norms.Some of the key players for nuclear propulsion retrofitting and new installation are China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, General Electric and Babcock International Corporation.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207
Recently Research in Japan and Korea Market For Glass Paper (Sales) Industry 2016

http://globalqyresearch.com/download-sample/29478

http://globalqyresearch.com/checkout-form/0/29478

http://globalqyresearch.com/

The recently published report titled Japan & Korea Glass Paper Industry 2016 Market Research Report is an in depth study providing complete analysis of the industry for the period 2016 a 2021. It provides complete overview of Japan & Korea Glass Paper market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The Japan & Korea Glass Paper Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the Japan & Korea Glass Paper market. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on Japan & Korea Glass Paper market provides analysis of China market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in China market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on Japan & Korea Glass Paper market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.With tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Reasons to Buy this ReportThe research report will enrich your decision-making capability by helping you to aClick Here Download Sample Report Copy from:Design and improve your product development and sales strategies and enhancing your marketing activitiesDevelop business strategies by understanding the market dynamics and developments driving the Japan & Korea Glass Paper marketDevelop market-entry strategies and effective ways to sustain competitionCreate merger and acquisition opportunities by identifying the market players with the most innovative pipelinesIdentify the regional market potential which would further help in designing regional market strategiesUnderstand the competitive scenario in the Japan & Korea Glass Paper marketTake more informed business decisions by relying on the insightful opinions from industry expertsWhy Global QY Research ?Technically acclaimed Analysts with complete industry knowhowRobust research methodology followed by our publishers to arrive at market estimatesFocus on technology trendsExtensive repository of market research reports to meet our clientas needsBased on extensive research, we provide clear view of real market scenario and help clients with making informed business decisionsTable of Contents :1 Industry Overview1.1 Definition and Specifications of Glass Paper1.2 Classification of Glass Paper1.3 Applications of Glass Paper1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Glass Paper1.5 Industry Overview of Glass Paper1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Glass Paper1.7 Industry News Analysis of Glass Paper2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Glass Paper2.1 Bill of Materials (BOM) of Glass Paper2.2 BOM Price Analysis of Glass Paper2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Glass Paper2.4 Depreciation Cost Analysis of Glass Paper2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Glass Paper2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Glass Paper2.7 Japan & Korea Price, Cost and Gross of Glass Paper 2011-20163 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Japan & Korea Key Manufacturers in 20153.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Japan & Korea Key Glass Paper Manufacturers in 20153.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Japan & Korea Glass Paper Key Manufacturers in 20153.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Japan & Korea Glass Paper Key Manufacturers in 20154 Production Analysis of Glass Paper by Regions, Type, and Applications4.1 Japan & Korea Production of Glass Paper by Regions 2011-20164.2 Japan & Korea Production of Glass Paper by Type 2011-20164.3 Japan & Korea Sales of Glass Paper by Applications 2011-20164.4 Price Analysis of Japan & Korea Glass Paper Key Manufacturers in 20154.5 Japan & Korea Capacity, Production, Import, Export, Sales, Price, Cost and Revenue of Glass Paper 2011-20165 Consumption Volume and Consumption Value Analysis of Glass Paper by Regions5.1 Japan & Korea Consumption Volume of Glass Paper by Regions 2011-20165.2 Japan & Korea Consumption Value of Glass Paper by Regions 2011-20165.3 Japan & Korea Consumption Price Analysis of Glass Paper by Regions 2011-20166 Analysis of Glass Paper Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2011-20166.1 Capacity, Production, Sales, and Revenue of Glass Paper 2011-20166.2 Production Market Share and Sales Market Share Analysis of Glass Paper 2014-20156.3 Sales Overview of Glass Paper 2011-20166.4 Supply, Consumption and Gap of Glass Paper 2011-20166.5 Import, Export and Consumption of Glass Paper 2011-20166.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of Glass Paper 2011-20167 Analysis of Glass Paper Industry Key Manufacturers7.1 Norton Abrasives7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specification7.1.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.1.4 Norton Abrasives SWOT Analysis7.2 Deerfos7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specification7.2.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.2.4 Deerfos SWOT Analysis7.3 Lishan Abrasive7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specification7.3.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.3.4 Lishan Abrasive SWOT Analysis...8 Price and Gross Margin Analysis8.1 Analysis of Price8.2 Gross Margin Analysis8.3 Price Comparison by Regions8.4 Price Analysis of Different Glass Paper Product Types8.5 Market Share Analysis of Different Glass Paper Price Levels8.6 Gross Margin Analysis of Different Glass Paper Applications9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Glass Paper9.1 Marketing Channels Status of Glass Paper9.2 Traders or Distributors of Glass Paper with Contact Information9.3 Ex-work Price, Channel Price and End Buyer Price Analysis of Glass Paper9.4 Japan & Korea Import, Export and Trade Analysis of Glass Paper10 Development Trend of Glass Paper Industry 2016-202110.1 Capacity and Production Overview of Glass Paper 2016-202110.2 Production Market Share by Product Types of Glass Paper 2016-202110.3 Sales and Sales Revenue Overview of Glass Paper 2016-202110.4 Japan & Korea Sales of Glass Paper by Applications 2016-202110.5 Import, Export and Consumption of Glass Paper 2016-202110.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of Glass Paper 2016-202111 Industry Chain Suppliers of Glass Paper with Contact Information11.1 Major Raw Materials Suppliers of Glass Paper with Contact Information11.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers of Glass Paper with Contact Information11.3 Major Players of Glass Paper with Contact Information11.4 Key Consumers of Glass Paper with Contact Information11.5 Supply Chain Relationship Analysis of Glass Paper12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Glass Paper12.1 New Project SWOT Analysis of Glass Paper12.2 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Glass Paper13 Conclusion of the Japan & Korea Glass Paper Industry 2016 Market Research ReportBuy This Report from Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QYResearch holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Cleveland Road
Industrial Air Compressor Market- Detailed Analysis by Regions, Type, Application and Key Players KAESER , DOOSAN, Gardner Denver , BOGE , Kobelco Forecast to 2022

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/603211-global-industrial-air-compressor-detailed-analysis-report

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=603211

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/request-discount/603211-global-industrial-air-compressor-detailed-analysis-report

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/603211-global-industrial-air-compressor-detailed-analysis-report

A new research document with title 'Global Industrial Air Compressor Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Europe, United States, China, Japan, India and important players/vendors such as KAESER , DOOSAN, Gardner Denver , BOGE , Kobelco................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022Request a sample report @SummaryThis report mainly introduces volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Industrial Air Compressor industry.This report splits Industrial Air Compressor market by Product Mechanism, by Product Seal Type, by Product Maximum Pressure, which covers the history data information from 2012 to 2016 and forecast from 2017 to 2022.This report focus Global market, it covers details as following:Major CompaniesMajor CompaniesAtlas Copco (Swedish)Ingersoll Rand (U.S)Sullair (U.S)KAESER (U.S)DOOSAN (South Korea)Gardner Denver (U.S)BOGE (German)Kobelco (U.S)Elgi (India)Fusheng (China)KAISHAN (China)Hongwuhuan (China)HANBELL (China)Main RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandPolandOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersBuy this report @Main Product TypeIndustrial Air Compressor Market, by Product MechanismPositive DisplacementDynamicIndustrial Air Compressor Market, by Product Seal TypeOil-ImmersedOil FreeIndustrial Air Compressor Market, by Product Maximum Pressure0-20 Bar20-100 BarAbove 100 BarMain ApplicationsManufacturingPower GenerationOil & GasFood & BeveragesChemicals & PetrochemicalsGet customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsChapter One Industrial Air Compressor Market Overview1.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20221.2 Industrial Air Compressor, by Product Mechanism 2012-20221.2.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Market Share by Product Mechanism 2012-20221.2.2 Global Industrial Air Compressor Revenue Market Share by Product Mechanism 2012-20221.2.3 Global Industrial Air Compressor Price by Product Mechanism 2012-20221.2.4 Positive Displacement1.2.5 Dynamic1.3 Industrial Air Compressor, by Product Seal Type 2012-20221.3.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Market Share by Product Seal Type 2012-20221.3.2 Global Industrial Air Compressor Revenue Market Share by Product Seal Type 2012-20221.3.3 Global Industrial Air Compressor Price by Product Seal Type 2012-20221.3.4 Oil-Immersed1.3.5 Oil Free1.4 Industrial Air Compressor, by Product Maximum Pressure 2012-20221.4.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Market Share by Product Maximum Pressure 2012-20221.4.2 Global Industrial Air Compressor Revenue Market Share by Product Maximum Pressure 2012-20221.4.3 Global Industrial Air Compressor Price by Product Maximum Pressure 2012-20221.4.4 0-20 Bar1.4.5 20-100 Bar1.4.6 Above 100 BarChapter Two, Industrial Air Compressor by Regions 2012-20222.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.2 Global Industrial Air Compressor Revenue Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.3 Global Industrial Air Compressor Price by Regions 2012-20222.4 United States2.5 Europe2.5.1 Germany2.5.2 United Kingdom2.5.3 France2.5.4 Italy2.5.5 Spain2.5.6 Russia2.5.7 Netherland2.5.8 Poland2.5.9 Others in Europe2.6 China2.7 Japan2.8 India2.9 Southeast Asia2.10 OthersChapter Three, Industrial Air Compressor by Brands 2012-20223.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Volume Market Share by Brands 2012-20223.2 Global Industrial Air Compressor Revenue Share by Brands 2012-20223.3 Global Top Brands Industrial Air Compressor Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Top Brands Industrial Air Compressor Key Target Consumers and Market PerformanceChapter Four, Industrial Air Compressor by Consumer 2012-20224.1 Global Industrial Air Compressor Sales Market Share by Consumer 2012-20224.2 Manufacturing4.3 Power Generation4.4 Oil & Gas4.5 Food & Beverages4.6 Chemicals & Petrochemicals4.7 Consuming Habit and Preference....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
New Technology Comes For Global Flight Planning Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022

http://globalqyresearch.com/download-sample/245970

http://globalqyresearch.com/checkout-form/0/245970

http://globalqyresearch.com/

This report studies the global Flight Planning Software market, analyzes and researches the Flight Planning Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAdecs Airinfra?Aibotix?Airbox Aerospace?Cgx?Copperchase Limited?Dynon Avionics, Inc.?Embention?Gmv?Ids Ingegneria Dei Sistemi Spa?Kongsberg Geospatial?Lehmann Aviation?Ltb400 Aviation Software Gmbh?M-Click.Aero?Mavinci Ug?Mavtech?Mikrokopter?Navblue?Navcanatm?Net Display Systems?Next Ingegneria Dei Sistemi Spa?Resa Airport Data Systems?Rockwell Collins?Sita?Skydemon?Topsystem Systemhaus Gmbh?Vniira?ZamarMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaClick Here Download Sample Report Copy from:Market segment by Type, Flight Planning Software can be split intoBy FunctionBy Softwear SystemMarket segment by Application, Flight Planning Software can be split intoSmartphonesTablet ComputersOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents :Global Flight Planning Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Flight Planning Software1.1 Flight Planning Software Market Overview1.1.1 Flight Planning Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Flight Planning Software Market by Type1.3.1 By Function1.3.2 By Softwear System1.4 Flight Planning Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Smartphones1.4.2 Tablet Computers1.4.3 Other2 Global Flight Planning Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Flight Planning Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Adecs Airinfra?3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Aibotix?3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Airbox Aerospace?3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Cgx?3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Copperchase Limited?3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Dynon Avionics, Inc.?3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Embention?3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Gmv?3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Ids Ingegneria Dei Sistemi Spa?3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Kongsberg Geospatial?3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Flight Planning Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 Lehmann Aviation?3.12 Ltb400 Aviation Software Gmbh?3.13 M-Click.Aero?3.14 Mavinci Ug?3.15 Mavtech?3.16 Mikrokopter?3.17 Navblue?3.18 Navcanatm?3.19 Net Display Systems?3.20 Next Ingegneria Dei Sistemi Spa?3.21 Resa Airport Data Systems?3.22 Rockwell Collins?3.23 Sita?3.24 Skydemon?3.25 Topsystem Systemhaus Gmbh?3.26 Vniira?3.27 Zamar4 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Flight Planning Software in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Flight Planning Software5 United States Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)7 Japan Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)7.2 Japan Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)8 China Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)8.2 China Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)9 India Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)9.2 India Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)10 Southeast Asia Flight Planning Software Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Flight Planning Software Market Size (2012-2017)10.2 Southeast Asia Flight Planning Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)11.1 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size (Value) by Regions (2017-2022)11.1.1 United States Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.2 EU Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.3 Japan Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.4 China Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.5 India Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.6 Southeast Asia Flight Planning Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.2 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size (Value) by Type (2017-2022)11.3 Global Flight Planning Software Market Size by Application (2017-2022)12 Flight Planning Software Market Dynamics12.1 Flight Planning Software Market Opportunities12.2 Flight Planning Software Challenge and Risk12.2.1 Competition from Opponents12.2.2 Downside Risks of Economy12.3 Flight Planning Software Market Constraints and Threat12.3.1 Threat from Substitute12.3.2 Government Policy12.3.3 Technology Risks12.4 Flight Planning Software Market Driving Force12.4.1 Growing Demand from Emerging Markets12.4.2 Potential Application13 Market Effect Factors Analysis13.1 Technology Progress/Risk13.1.1 Substitutes13.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry13.2 Consumer Needs Trend/Customer Preference13.3 External Environmental Change13.3.1 Economic Fluctuations13.3.2 Other Risk Factors14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixMethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceBuy This Report from Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QYResearch holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Unit 1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London,E182AN, United Kingdom
Tamper Evident Packaging Market Shares, Strategies and Forecast Worldwide, 2016 to 2026

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2198

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2198

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Packaging in todays world calls for a multi-functional approach of the designing of the product. With the race to reduce the overall cost of production, manufacturers have innovated with the packaging design. This has led to a shift to flexible packaging, low use of material, low cost of storage and low transport cost. In this day and age another functionality that manufacturers need to take into account is safety. With the on the go lifestyle settling in, people expect the products they have purchased to be safe to consume.The rising awareness among consumers and stringent regulations laid down by national and international authorities on the safety of product packaging has led to a shift in design. Deliberate or unintentional tampering of food products has been witnessed in the past leading to catastrophic events which required a more careful approach to packaging. This has led to the advent of tamper evident packaging.Request Report Sample@Tamper evident packaging allows for the observer to identify whether the package has been tampered with or not. The indicators are either visual or audible. The indicators are usually mentioned on the packaging for the observers convenience. Tamper evident packaging is now also being adopted by the food and beverages, cosmetics industry, and the healthcare industry.Tamper evident packaging Market- Market Segmentation:Based on the product type, the tamper evident packaging market is segmented into:Shrink sleevesInduction sealFilm wrappersBlister or strip packsBubble packsOthers (Pouches, bottle mouth inner seals, tape seals)Based on the end use, the tamper evident packaging market is segmented into:VacuumPharmaceuticalFood and beveragesCosmeticsothersBased on the Material type, the tamper evident packaging market is segmented into:plasticsglasspaper lidsmetalothersTamper evident packaging Market- Market Dynamics:With the scare from the Tylenol scandal in 1982 that led to the death of 7 people due to poisoning the Food and Drug Administration has strictly enforced tamper evident packaging for pharmaceutical manufacturers. With the exponential growth witnessed by the pharmaceutical industry, tamper evident packaging market is pegged for steady growth throughout the forecast period of 2016  2024. Food and beverages industry and the cosmetics industry have also picked up on tamper evident packaging due to the rising safety concerns. The ever growing food and beverage industry will positively impact the tamper evident packaging market. However, the stringent regulations specifically in the pharmaceutical industry call for the testing of tamper evident packaging and the adherence of the packaging to guidelines that have been laid down. This is likely to negatively impact the tamper evident packaging market growth.Tamper evident packaging Market- Regional Outlook:In terms of geography, the tamper evident packaging market has been divided in to five key regions; North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. The tamper evident packaging market is expected to exhibit an above average CAGR during the forecast period. Asia pacific market is expected to witness a raise in demand in the region. As a result, tamper evident packaging is pegged to witness a growth in demand in the forecasted period.Visit For TOC@Tamper evident packaging Market- Major Players:Some of the key players in the tamper evident packaging market are DuPont, Schreiner Group, Ampac Holding LLC., Baker & McKenzie LLP, Placon, Dynacorp, Enercon industries Corporation, Traco Manufacturing, Inc., Interpack Ltd., Seal King Europe, Harcor.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Craft Bags Market, 2017-2027 by Segmentation Based on Product, Application and Region

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2615

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2615

www.futuremarketinsights.com

A craft made from wood fiber offers maximum strength and natural beauty. Craft bags are prepared through paper produced from chemical pulp during the craft process. Primarily plan craft bags are used for packaging of grocery items. Generally, two type of craft bags are available in market that are white and brown. Craft bags are used mostly for carrying light weight products such as fresh vegetable and fruits. Craft bags can also utilize for many different purposes such as grocery product, medicine and electronic goods. Craft bags are easily handled and are convenient for use which in turn, led the demand to grow among consumers. Global market for craft bags are expected to grow at significant rate in near future. Craft bags are degradable and are cost effective which led the manufactures to invest in craft bags production. Light weight and easy handling property of craft bags are attracting the interest of consumer towards the use of craft bagsGlobal Craft Bags Market: DynamicsCraft Bags are cheap and easy to use also easily recyclable which make craft bags packaging to grab the attention of manufacturers as well as consumers. Increasing demand for ecofriendly packaging is boosting the consumption of broad range of product, with the successive rise in demand for the paper based packaging for product. Increasing demand for convenient, smaller pack sizes, and rising grocery and personal care product in market is fueling the demand for craft bags across the globe. It is estimated that the demand for craft bags will exceed supply in coming years owing to increasing consciousness about nature safety. Also paper industries are expected to invest in craft bags packaging due to rise in demand among consumer. On the back drop of paper industry packaging industry is focusing towards large consumer base market such as cosmetic and fresh good market. The demand for craft bags are also increasing among cement manufacturers.Request Report Sample@Global Craft Bags Market: SegmentationThe global Craft Bags market can be segmented on the basis of product type, application and region. On the basis of product type global craft bags market can be segmented into block bottom craft bags, paper carry bags, checkout craft bags, confectionery craft bags, and others. On the basis of application global craft bags market can be segmented into grocery, food, pharmaceutical, customer goods, stationary and confectionary, cosmetic & personal use product, home care product and others. Among application fresh vegetable and bakery product are ideal for craft bags packaging. Craft bags are ideal for grocery product packaging. On the basis of region global craft bags market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East and Africa.Global Craft Bags Market: Regional OverviewNorth America is expected to gain significant market share in craft bags owing to increasing demand for ecofriendly packaging product. Demand for craft bags will continue to grow, due to the manufacturing economies of China and other emerging countries. In fact, the overall market for craft bags will grow at a significant CAGR in forecast years. Craft bags packaging represents the largest market for paper industry. Major portion of produced paper in the U.S is acquired for manufacturing of craft bags. Among these produced paper some are exported to China and the rest are used to produce other craft bags such as boxboard, which includes folding boxes.Visit For TOC@Global Craft Bags Market: Key PlayersThe main player of global craft bags market are international papers,Stanpac, Kent paper, Biopac, Genpak, Bemis Company Incorporated, Berry Plastics Corporation, Novolex and Linpac Packaging Limited.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaCONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales Market 2017 : Hyundai, Champion, Lifan, Honda

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1089185&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-portable-inverter-generator-sales-market-report-2017.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The research report Portable Inverter Generator comprises precise facts of the market in order to allow a user to formulate an analytical plan of action that takes into account the reports detailed descriptions of the significant features that govern the global Portable Inverter Generator market. The report is replete with classifications, definitions, key characteristic descriptions for the global Portable Inverter Generator market. The knowledge and analysis of these factors will be advantageous to the reader when understanding their potential role in the various segments of the global Portable Inverter Generator market, along with the regional perspective given.The report discovers the crucial tendencies that have so far directed the global Portable Inverter Generator market, and offers a predictive analytics of the trends that will continue to influence it over the given forecast period. This is important for the examination of the global Portable Inverter Generator markets growth trajectory.Global Portable Inverter Generator market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Portable Inverter Generator sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingHyundaiChampionLifanHondaYamahaGeneracKiporGet sample report @The regional analysis of the global Portable Inverter Generator market allows the readers of this report to observe the changes in a market as an when it crosses diversities in demand and supply between different types of clients, cultures, and regions. The report examines the viability of each region that the global Portable Inverter Generator market is currently developing in, while expounding on the fruitful policies that have so far benefitted players in these regions.The research methods utilized in the global Portable Inverter Generator markets research report incorporate tools that give proportionate weightage to the macro and micro aspects of the market. The report come complete with analyst opinions that are supported with substance, along with detailed analysis of the key players that operate in the global Portable Inverter Generator market.Table of ContentsGlobal Portable Inverter Generator Sales Market Report 20171 Portable Inverter Generator Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Portable Inverter Generator1.2 Classification of Portable Inverter Generator by Product Category1.2.1 Global Portable Inverter Generator Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Portable Inverter Generator Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.4.3 China Portable Inverter Generator Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Portable Inverter Generator Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Portable Inverter Generator Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Portable Inverter Generator Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Portable Inverter Generator (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Portable Inverter Generator Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Portable Inverter Generator Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Portable Inverter Generator (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Portable Inverter Generator (Volume and Value) by Region3 United States Portable Inverter Generator (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Portable Inverter Generator Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 China Portable Inverter Generator (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Portable Inverter Generator Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5 Europe Portable Inverter Generator (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Portable Inverter GeneratorFigure Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2012-2022)Figure Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Figure Under 1000 Watt Product PictureFigure 1000-2000 Watt Product PictureFigure 2000-3000 Watt Product PictureFigure Over 3000 Watt Product PictureFigure Global Portable Inverter Generator Sales Comparison (K Units) by Application (2012-2022)Figure Global Sales Market Share of Portable Inverter Generator by Application in 2016About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Global Phase Shifting Transformers Market Research Report- Industry Analysis, Share, Growth and Forecast To 2022:

Phase Shifting Transformers

http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/248632

http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/global-phase-shifting-transformers-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248632

http://www.globalinforeports.com/send-an-enquiry/248632

http://www.globalinforeports.com

http://www.globalinforeports.com/blog

A trending newest report published by Global Info Reports titles, Global Phase Shifting Transformers Market, estimates that the Phase Shifting Transformers market size is predicted to mature at a substantial Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the forecast period, and this is credited to the increase in need for this product across the globe accompanied by new market inventions.Book Your Sample Copy of the Report here Why Purchase this Report you ask?Because, this market research report gives a thorough analysis of the global Phase Shifting Transformers Market by product segmentation, application, geographic and end user market. The report includes the current market size of this industry. The future outlooks and existing overall market summary of this sector have been greatly analyzed in this report. Also, key market manufacturers of Phase Shifting Transformers are assessed on several factors such as company overview, product portfolio, sales analysis and revenue generation during the forecast period. Additionally, the complete market potential is described in this report coupled with various countries across the globe.Report Magnitude:This report centers on the Phase Shifting Transformers Market, predominantly 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.To Grab the Complete Report, Please Visit:Market Segment based on key Manufacturers, this report covers the topmost manufacturers of Intra-aortic Balloon Pump (IABP): Siemens ABB Tamini Baoding Tianwei Baobian ElectricRequest For Discount Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Phase Shifting Transformers Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Below 400 M VA1.2.2 400 MVA-800 MVA1.2.3 Over 800 MVA1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.4 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 Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Siemens2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Phase Shifting Transformers Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 2For more help Speak to our Experts -About 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-
Impact of Existing and Emerging Glue Machine Market Trends And Forecast 2017-2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2620

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2620

www.futuremarketinsights.com

The primary function of glue is to join parts together and glue machines accomplish this objective with material which is applied to the surfaces of different parts to join them permanently by gluing process. Glue machine are used for packaging which is consumed every day in large quantities by all type of commercial and industrial organizations. Glue machine helps in effective packaging solutions that provides all the features which are related to high durability during transportation & storage and provide moisture and shielding protection for sensitive products and components. Glue machine also used in construction purposes which are preferred for a wide range of applications in the construction industry due to their diverse properties. Globally, glue machine has legitimately strong power which is used in almost every manufacturing sector starting from flexible, rigid packaging to textiles and have grew extensive popularity across sectors auto, aviation, construction, FMCG, healthcare amongst others.Glue Machine Market- Market Segmentation:The global glue machine market can be segmented on the basis of product type, machinery type, end use type and by region. On the basis of product type glue machine can be segmented into PVA glue, hide glue, EPOXY, cyanoacrylate glue, polyurethane glue. On the basis of machinery type glue machine can be segmented into hot melt machinery, adhesives, and cold glue equipment. On the basis of end use type glue machine can be segmented into food & beverage industry, health care industry, industrial goods, automotive industry, household products, electronics industry and other manufacturing industry. On the basis of region, we have segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa.Request Report Sample@Glue Machine Market - Market Dynamics:Growth in demand for glue machine market is expected to grow strongly for several reasons. As an effect of the growth in consumer focus on convenience and sustainability, the glue machine market has been one of the fastest growing market in the last five years, and it is likely to continue to grow over the forecast period as well. Other important factors contributing towards the growth of glue machine market are population growth, increasing middle class world-wide, demand for safe food & clean water, and advancement and safety. On the other side, the high initial cost, government regulations for packaging is considered as restraining factor towards the growth of glue machine market.Glue Machines Market - Regional Outlook:Geographically, the global In-mold label market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The global glue machines market is expected to witness a stable CAGR over the forecast period of 2016-2024. Entering new markets like Asia, Russia and South America would be larger opportunities for glue machines market. Moreover, North America is expected to witness a high growth of glue machines market due to the rising consumption of food and beverage products. The demand of the glue machines market is expected to witness an above average growth in Europe as well, due to the higher adoption of glue machines for automotive and industrial use.Visit For TOC@Glue Machines Market - Major Players:Some of the major players identified across the globe in the glue machines market are Chicago Glue Machine & Supply Company, Inc., Ellsworth Adhesives, DELUMPER Div., Franklin Miller Inc., Winder, Valco Melton, Econocorp, Inc., Gluefast Co., Inc., McGuckin & Pyle, Inc., The Union Tool Corp, Inline Filling Systems, Apacks, Capital Adhesives, InLine Solutions, Inc., Indemax, Inc., Proquip, Inc., Universal Systems SE, Inc., Sonic Corp.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Kitchen Hood Market Forecasts 2017 Whirlpool, Nortek, Samsung, Miele, FABER, ROBAM

Kitchen Hood

http://bit.ly/2tsI3k8

http://bit.ly/2uAma0H

Global Kitchen Hood Market ResearchThe Global Kitchen Hood Market 2017 Industry Research Report is a in-depth study and professional analysis on the current state of the Kitchen Hood market.Firstly, Worldwide Kitchen Hood Market report provides a basic overview of the Kitchen Hood industry including classification, definitions, Key vendors, Growth Drivers, Competitive Landscape, Regional Analysis and Kitchen Hood industry chain structure.Request For Sample Report:Major Companies covered in this Research Report are:-1. Whirlpool2. Electrolux3. ELICA4. Bosch Group5. Nortek6. Samsung7. Miele8. FABER9. ROBAM10. FOTILE11. VATTI12. Midea13. Haier14. SACON15. SAKURA16. DE&E17. Macro18. Vanward...Global Kitchen Hood Market analysis is provided for the international industry including company development history, Kitchen Hood market competitive landscape, Regional analysis and major regions development status on industry Market scenario.Secondly, Kitchen Hood Market report includes, development policies and plans are discussed, manufacturing processes and cost structures. This Kitchen Hood Industry report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, Global Kitchen Hood Market revenue and gross margin by regions (South East Asia, India, North America, Europe, Japan and China) and also other can be added.Inquiry For Buying:Then, the report pay attention on worldwide major leading market players (in Kitchen Hood industry area) with information such as Company Profile, Sales Volume, Price, Gross Margin and contact information. Global Kitchen Hood Industry report also includes Upstream & downstream consumers analysis, raw materials.All above Company Profile, Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption covered in Kitchen Hood industry report.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
North America Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Market Analysis- Size, Share, Growth, Forecast, Segment, Application Analysis 2022

Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)

http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/248652

http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-dye-sensitized-solar-cells-dssc-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248652

http://www.globalinforeports.com/send-an-enquiry/248652

http://www.globalinforeports.com

http://www.globalinforeports.com/blog

A trending newest report published by Global Info Reports titles, Global Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)Market, estimates that the Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)market size is predicted to mature at a substantial Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the forecast period, and this is credited to the increase in need for this product across the globe accompanied by new market inventions.Book Your Sample Copy of the Report here Why Purchase this Report you ask?Because, this market research report gives a thorough analysis of the global Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)Market by product segmentation, application, geographic and end user market. The report includes the current market size of this industry. The future outlooks and existing overall market summary of this sector have been greatly analyzed in this report. Also, key market manufacturers of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)are assessed on several factors such as company overview, product portfolio, sales analysis and revenue generation during the forecast period. Additionally, the complete market potential is described in this report coupled with various countries across the globe.Report Magnitude:This report centers on the Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)Market, predominantly 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.To Grab the Complete Report, Please Visit:Market Segment based on key Manufacturers, this report covers the topmost manufacturers of Intra-aortic Balloon Pump (IABP): GRENE OPV Tech 3G Solar Fujikura G24 Power Nissha Exeger Oxford Photovoltaics Solaronix Peccell SolarPrint Dyesol Solaris Nanosciences Jintex Everlight ChemicalRequest For Discount Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Type 11.2.2 Type 21.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Portable Charging1.3.2 BIPV/BAPV1.3.3 Embedded Electronics1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 GRENE2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 GRENE Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 GRENE News2.2 OPV Tech2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 OPV Tech Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 OPV Tech News2.3 3G Solar2.3.1 ProfileFor more help Speak to our Experts -About 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-
High Abuse Shrink Bags Market to register a healthy CAGR for the forecast period, 2017-2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2632

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2632

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Shelf life acts as an essential factor among meat packaging manufacturers while choosing packaging bags and films. High-abuse shrink bags are one such solution to extend the shelf life of fresh meat products by offering advanced innovative and patented technology. High abuse shrink bags are designed for surface pasteurization of meat products inside of the packaging. Nowadays, meat packaging manufacturers are more focusing on the designs of packaging in order to sell their products differently as it is highly dependent on the purchasing decision for a positive impact. Further, this led to the specific requirement of packaging films for meat packaging applications.Raw materials play a major role in packaging films in order to gain popularity among meat packaging manufacturers and retailers in the future. For instance, material like Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol (EVOH), which is highly used in high abuse shrink bags has properties such as high gas barrier, amazing strength and environmentally friendly as compared to other raw materials.Request Report Sample@High Abuse Shrink Bags Market: Drivers and RestraintsAccording to the U.S Food and drug administration, sales of fresh meat majorly accounts for about 65% of the overall food sales thus creating ample opportunities for high abuse shrink bags consumption, which in turn driving high abuse shrink bags market. Moreover, the food sector coupled with food service restaurants have shown a promising growth in the recent past years which is fueling the growth of meat packaging as well as the high abuse shrink bags market.Food packaging acts majorly driving the growth of the high abuse shrink bags market as flexible packaging accounts for nearly 50% of the total food packaging market. The rise in prices of meat products can be a major challenge to the global high abuse shrink bags market.High Abuse Shrink Bags Market: Region wise OutlookIn terms of geography, the global high abuse shrink bags market is divided into majorly five regions namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Among these regions, North America and Europe are expected to collectively dominate the global high abuse shrink bags market throughout 2016 to 2024. North America, being the largest producer of meat packaging which is attributed to the huge usage of high abuse shrink bags in the developed countries of North America. However, the trend is gradually picking up the pace in developed markets for the global high abuse shrink bags market. Furthermore, Asia Pacific is expected to be primarily driven mainly by china, Japan and India in the global high abuse shrink bags market. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to witness steady growth over the forecast period. In Latin America, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico are expected to create market opportunities for companies involved in the high abuse shrink bags market.High Abuse Shrink Bags Market: SegmentationOn the basis of material type, the global high abuse shrink bags market is segmented intoEthylene Vinyl Alcohol (EVOH)Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA)PolyolefinPolyethylene (PE)Polypropylene (PP)Polyester (PET)Polyamide (PA)Polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC)On the basis of application type, the global high abuse shrink bags market is segmented intoFresh MeatFrozen Fish and Sea FoodNon gassing CheeseNon-ripening cheeseOthersOn the basis of meat type, the global high abuse shrink bags market is segmented intoBeefVealLambPorkOthersVisit For TOC@High Abuse Shrink Bags Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global high abuse shrink bags market includes Bemis Krehalon UK Ltd., Flexopack, Krehalon Industries B.V., EPACKAGING LLC., TDI PACKSYS LLC, Apex Packaging Corporation, Printpack, Fortune Plastics, Novolex, and Berry Plastics Group Incorporated, Fuji Seal International Incorporated, Inteplast Group Limited and many more.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size, Status and Analysis 2022: T-Biotechnology, Arthrex, Terumo BCT, EmCyte Corporation, DePuy Synthes

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1240821&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-platelet-rich-plasma-prp-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is influenced by a variety of factors, an elaborate assessment of which is covered in the report. The report on Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) offers in-depth insights into the key market dynamics, notable trends, emerging opportunities, strategic dynamics of major players, and recent technological advancements impacting the growth of the market in various regions. The study is a reliable source of qualitative and quantitative analysis of current and emerging business risks likely to shape the competitive dynamics. The evaluation, made with the help of inputs from a wide spectrum of credible secondary sources and various primary sources, offers participants a clear picture of the trajectory of the market over the forecast period [2017  2022]. The findings will help stakeholders identify key factors fuelling the growth of prominent segments along the forecast period.This report studies the global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) market, analyzes and researches the Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeT-BiotechnologyArthrexTerumo BCTEmCyte CorporationDePuy SynthesZimmer BiometStrykerGlofinn OYDr. PRP AmericaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study covers recent advances in technology and major changes in governmental policies affecting the growth of the Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) in various regions. A number of emerging players and new entrants in Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) are expected to increasingly benefit from these insights. The regulatory landscape in major countries help market players identify lucrative growth avenues and imminent investment pockets. The analysis further bases its findings on the recent forecasts made by several prominent public and non-profit organizations and credit rating agencies. The report also highlights recent product development initiatives of major players and takes a closer look at their investment profile. In addition, the study zeroes in on the strategies of service providers and evaluates the impact of emergence of lucrative models of delivery of these services.Table of ContentsGlobal Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)1.1 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Overview1.1.1 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.3 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market by Type1.3.1 Pure PRP1.3.2 Leukocyte Rich PRP1.3.3 Leukocyte Rich Fibrin1.4 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Orthopedics1.4.2 Cosmetic Surgery and Dermatology1.4.3 Ophthalmic Surgery2 Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in FutureBrowse full table of contents and data tables of Report @3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 T-Biotechnology3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Arthrex3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments4 Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)5 United States Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Product ScopeFigure Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Cheese Ingredients Market Driven by Changing Living Styles & the Increasing Demand for Conventional Foods

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cheese-ingredients-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=18023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Cheese Ingredients Market: SnapshotThe highly complex nature of cheese, owing to the manufacturing process that involves a number of microbiological, chemical, and biochemical processes, requires the proper set of ingredients for the end-product to be as expected in terms of flavor, aroma, texture, and color. From markets mostly limited to certain established regions in the past to witnessing demand across several non-traditional markets in the recent past, the global market for cheese has flourished over the years and has also leveraged the market for cheese ingredients in terms of growth prospects and revenue generation.Browse Market Research Report @A number of factors have catalyzed the growth prospects of the global cheese ingredients market, which are largely related to the growth drivers of the global cheese market, including the rising availability of several varieties of cheese across prominent retail outlets, especially across emerging economies with the rising population of higher middle class and affluent consumers. The rising preference to Western food habits is also massively contributing to the steadily expanding market for cheese ingredients in emerging economies. In established regional markets, rising consumption of conventional foods is driving the global cheese ingredients market.The market is, however, projected to face restraints owing to stringent regulations associated with food and beverages and commonly used additives. These factors could limit the growth of the market or some ingredients across some regional markets. Nevertheless, massive growth opportunities in a number of regional markets with thriving economies could help the market set sail with a steady pace.Global Cheese Ingredients Market: OverviewCheese is often considered as one of the most complex dairy products, as it includes chemical, biochemical, and microbiological processes. Milk coagulation, storage, and acidification and packaging are the chief stages in making cheese. In this report, Transparency Market Research (TMR) aims at identifying the growth opportunities and the potential threats for the global cheese ingredients market.For more information on this report, fill the form @It is compiled with the intent of helping readers as well as stakeholders gain a better perspective of the global cheese ingredients market. The report therefore includes a comprehensive market overview covering growth drivers, key restraints, investment feasibility, supply chain analysis, manufacturing cost structure, and other exhaustive data. The report also studies the impact of Porters five forces in detail.Global Cheese Ingredients Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThere are nearly 400 varieties of cheese that can be created by different milk sources. The global cheese ingredients market is exhibiting strong growth over the last few years. The demand from cheese has shown significant growth since 1990s, post which again in the beginning of 2000, the market witnessed spiked demand. The changing living styles and the increasing demand for conventional foods are the chief factors driving the global cheese ingredients market. These ingredients find attractive markets in various countries, as they meet taste patterns of diverse sections of the population.On the flip side, the market faces tough challenge from certain stringent regulations. For instance, the ban imposed on using condensed milk in cheese has created a few bottlenecks for the market. Besides this, the market players are also struggling with bans on the use of additives, coupled with the increase in the production of natural cheese. Nevertheless, with the abolition of milk quotas, the demand from the cheese ingredients market is projected to increase, thereby creating significant opportunities for its growth in the forthcoming years.In terms of cheese type, the global cheese ingredients market can be bifurcated into natural cheese and processed cheese. Among these, the manufacturers are more inclined towards the production of processed cheese. However in the near future, the focus is likely to shift towards natural cheese ingredients, as governments implement stringent regulations to curb the use of synthetic ingredients in food items.Global Cheese Ingredients Market: Regional OutlookRegionally, the global cheese ingredients market can be segmented into Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Rest of the World. Among these, North America held a significant share in the overall market and is expected to continue exhibiting increasing opportunities through the forecast period. Besides this, Asia Pacific and Europe also demonstrated positive growth opportunities, among which TMR expects Asia Pacific to exhibit the strongest CAGR.The increasing demand from China, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan is aiding growth of the cheese ingredients market in Asia Pacific. In addition, the market is gaining from favorable government initiatives and economic improvement. The rapid expansion of the cheese market in Asia Pacific is also ascribable to proliferation of fast food businesses across the region. The change in eating pattern and lifestyle, has been creative lucrative opportunities for the cheese market and thus boosting the cheese ingredients market.Global Cheese Ingredients Market: Vendor LandscapeTo study the prevailing vendor landscape, the report profiles some of the leading market players, which also include companies such as CSK Food Enrichment, Chr. Hansen Holdings A/S, Fonterra Co-Operative Group Limited, Alpura, E. I. du Pont De Nemours and Company, Arla Foods, Saputo Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Koninklijke Dsm N.V., and Almarai. Using SWOT analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of the companies profiled are identified. The same analysis also presents insights into the threats and opportunities that these companies might face over the course of the forecast period.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
International Wholesale Carriers - New Business Models & Growth Drivers in the Digital Transformation Era

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1068413

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1068413/international-wholesale-carriers-new-business-models-growth-drivers-in-the-digital-transformation-era-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiryBuy/1068413

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

MarketResearchReports.Biz presents this most up-to-date research on "International Wholesale Carriers - New Business Models & Growth Drivers in the Digital Transformation Era".Request For Sample Report @"International Wholesale Carriers - New Business Models & Growth Drivers in the Digital Transformation Era", a thematic research report by GlobalData, examines the changing dynamics, the new growth drivers and business models of the global international wholesale industry. It lays out, for international carriers, the critical considerations and strategic options for taking the journey to the wholesaler of the future, from the business model drivers to the necessary portolio evolution requirements.Complete Report Details @Data and insights are derived through a mix of secondary research, qualitative primary research and GlobalDatas industry databases and expert analysis.The report is structured as follows -- Market Context: Winds of Change in the Global Telecoms Industry. This section provides an analysis of the current and future dynamics shaping the telecom industry, from data traffic explosion to IoT, cloud and virtualized networks.- The Evolving Global Wholesale Market. Here we examine the impact of the changing telecom industry dynamics on the global wholesale market, in terms of revenues, margins, traffic and growth drivers. We also look at the evolving nature of demand for wholesale services.- Positioning for a Wholesale Future: An Assessment of Strategic Options. This section defines the different wholesale carrier strategic groups - based on their portfolio breadth, network depth and business purpose - then assesses and lays down the different strategic options - in terms of business models and strategic actions- available to each group to position itself successfully for a wholesale future.- The Changing Nature of Wholesale Service Portfolios. Along with the strategic positioning options detailed in section 3, here, we give an overview of how wholesale portfolios should evolve and expand to meet the new demand dynamics coming from traditional and new customers.- Case studies: Telco approaches to digital transformation. We continue with a review of the strategies, positioning and product portfolio of a number of carriers that have started their journey to the wholesaler of the future, along with others that urgently need to.- Key findings and recommendations. We conclude the report with a set of key findings and recommendations on the international wholesale industrys evolving dynamics, new growth drivers and business models, and we also provide strategic recommendations for international carriers to position themselves for growth.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Scope- The global telecoms industry is in a state of transition, retail telco providers are seeing their models disrupted by a series of systemic threats and new digital opportunities. These winds of change are impacting global wholesale providers, as traffic fundamentals and traditional economics get upended and as the nature of the wholesale demand changes. Global wholesalers need to evolve towards new business models and service portfolio in order to unlock the new wholesale growth drivers in the digital transformation era.- Traditional wholesale voice traffic margins have been in persistent decline over the past three years, this has put substantial pressure on carriers to accelerate their rollout of new services. The explosion of data traffic, by contrast, is breathing new life into the wholesale business. Network services and managed services segments have become strategically vital to the outlook of many players.- Wholesale providers face sustained demand from traditional customers whose requirements are rising in complexity (e.g. pay-as-you go billing, dynamic bandwidth allocation). There is also the emergence of new demand channels from retail providers of various stripes (Cloud providers, MVNOs, OTTs, MNCs).- As they seek to transform, the strategic options available to wholesale providers are a function of each individual players strategic position in the wholesale market, the depth of their product portfolio, the reach and depth of their network - and most critically, their overall business purpose.- Depending on the wholesale carrier group, the strategic options may include actions such as portfolio expansion, M&As, reducing exposure to voice, targeted investments, units combination, new pricing structures. These are thoroughly detailed in the report.Reasons to buy- The report examines the changing dynamics, the new growth drivers and business models of the global international wholesale industry.- The report provides valuable insights and recommendations for international carriers on the critical considerations and strategic options for taking the journey to the wholesaler of the future and position for growth.- The reports case studies provide real examples of market approaches, postitionning, product portfolios and strategies being employed by a number of carriers that have started their journey to the wholesaler of the future, along with others that urgently need to.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
North America Sorghum Seed Market Size, Share, Analysis - Global Industry Growth and Forecast 2022

Sorghum Seed

http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/248678

http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-sorghum-seed-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022-d-61

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248678

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248678

http://www.globalinforeports.com

http://www.globalinforeports.com/blog

Sorghum is the fifth largest cereal grain in the world. Sorghum plantation is increasing continuously as the crop is gaining importance as a versatile plant that can tolerate drought, soil toxicities, a wide range of temperatures and high altitudes. Sorghum seed is reproducing system of sorghum, it plays an important role for the continuation of species.Get a Sample of Sorghum Seed Market research report from Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Sorghum Seed 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 Sorghum Seed Market:NufarmDupont PioneerChromatinDyna-Gro SeedProlineHeritage SeedsAllied SeedSustainable Seed CompanyBlue River HybridsSafal Seeds & BiotechSeed Co LimitedAnd Many OthersScope of the Sorghum Seed Industry on the basis of region:United StatesCanadaMexicoBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Sorghum Seed Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversForage Sorghum SeedGrain Sorghum SeedSweet Sorghum SeedMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSorghum PlantingSorghum BreedingThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Sorghum Seed market.Chapter 1, to describe Sorghum Seed Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Sorghum Seed, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Sorghum Seed, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the segment market in United States, Canada and Mexico, by manufacturers, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 10, Sorghum Seed market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 12, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 13, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 14 and 15, to describe Sorghum Seed Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Sorghum Seed Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Forage Sorghum Seed1.2.2 Grain Sorghum Seed1.2.3 Sweet Sorghum Seed1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Sorghum Planting1.3.2 Sorghum Breeding1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Advanta Seeds2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Sorghum Seed Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Advanta Seeds Sorghum Seed Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Advanta Seeds News2.2 Monsanto2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Sorghum Seed Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 2ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @About 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-
Diabetic Retinopathy Market is Projected To be Around $2.6 Billion By 2025

Crystal Market Research

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/diabetic-retinopathy-market

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/HC0622

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/send-an-enquiry/HC0622

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/customization/HC0622

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/diabetic-macular-edema-market

https://blog.crystalmarketresearch.com

http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com

A research study titled, Diabetic Retinopathy Market by Type, Treatment, and End User - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025 published by Crystal Market Research, states that the diabetic retinopathy market is projected to be around $2.6 billion by 2025.Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a condition that occurs in individuals suffering from diabetes. It is a severe sight-threatening problem of diabetes which progressively damages the light-sensitive lining at the back of the eye i.e. retina. This condition occurs when blood vessels leak blood. Therefore, the retinal tissue swells leading to blurred vision. If DR is not treated on time, it can cause blindness. According to a study conducted by American Diabetes Association, 415 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes and diabetes related complications as of 2015, and this number is expected to reach 642 million by 2040. Prevalence of diabetes retinopathy is higher in people suffering from type-1 diabetes for prolonged period.Such high incidence of diabetic retinopathy can be attributed to rise in chronic conditions such as hyperglycemia, rise in obesity rate, rise in hypertension, and genetic factors of individuals.Browse full research report with TOC on Diabetic Retinopathy Market by Type, Treatment, and End User - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025 at:Diabetic macular edema market is expected to witness high growth during forecast period. This can be attributed to number of factors such as rise in prevalence of diabetic retinopathy, growing aging population and the changing lifestyle. Anti-VEGF treatment segment accounted for the largest share due to more usage of these medicines for quicker recovery of patients. However, laser surgery segment is expected to witness high growth rate during the forecast period.North America dominated the global diabetic retinopathy market in 2016. This can be attributed to number of factors such as increasing prevalence of diabetes, high adoption of advanced products, and favorable reimbursement policies. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness high growth rate, due to high patient population, increasing healthcare spending, and increased focus of international players on emerging markets owing to growing preference for advanced healthcare facilities and rising disposable income of people.Diabetic retinopathy market is highly competitive in nature with the presence of large number of players such as Bayer AG, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Allergan plc, Alimera Sciences, Novartis International AG, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ampio Pharmaceuticals., Abbott Laboratories, and Valeant Pharmaceutical.Request a sample copy of Diabetic Retinopathy Market Research Report @Key Findings of the Research Study: Laser surgery segment occupied more than two-fifth of the global market in 2016, due to high adoption of this technique for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Proliferative retinopathy occupied largest share of the global diabetic retinopathy market in 2016, due to rising geriatric population rapidly moving towards proliferative stage of retinopathy. U.S. dominated the NorthAmerica market in 2016, due to high market penetration of drugs such as Avastinand Eylea. Europe occupied the second largest share of the global market in 2016. This can be attributed to rise in diabetic population, high adoption of technologically advanced products, and rise in demand for early screening techniques. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness high growth rate during the forecast period due to large diabetic population base and increasing awareness about diabetes and availability of treatment options.Inquire more about this report at:Diabetic Retinopathy Market is segmented as follows By Type: Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy Diabetic Macular EdemaBy Management: Anti VEGF Drugs Steroid Implants Laser Surgeries VitrectomyBy Region: North Americao U.So Canadao Mexico 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 Turkeyo United Arab Emirateso OthersGet Customization in the Report At:Related Reports:Diabetic Macular Edema Market by Indication Type, Treatment Type End Users - 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:
It could soon be cheaper for inmates at Montana jails and prisons to call their families, after the Montana Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to move toward capping rates.

Some families are paying more for a few moments of contact with a loved one behind bars than they do cellphone services for an entire month, Chairman Brad Johnson, R-East Helena, said in a press release.

The commission said "there is a wide variance between calling rates at different detention facilities. In some places, inmates or their families pay nearly $15 for a 15-minute phone call. Jails typically earn a commission off of the revenue earned by the companies providing inmate calling services."

The current proposal suggests prices should be capped at $0.25 per minute for collect calls, which is $3.75 for 15 minutes, and $0.21 per minute for calls placed using a pre-paid phone card. Calls at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge already are capped at $0.14 per minute by contract.

The commission will accept public comment on the proposed policy until Sept. 18, then hold a public hearing before making a final decision.

In March, Gov. Steve Bullock signed House Bill 258 into law after the Legislature approved it with a 50-0 vote in the Senate and 78-21 vote in the House.

The bill, carried by Rep. Ellie Hill-Smith, D-Missoula, allows jail inmates to place free calls to their attorneys. Beyond protecting a person's Sixth Amendment right to counsel, Smith said it will save the state public defender's office about $35,000 a year in collect calls.
Crayfish Market Achieving Healthy Growth due to Changing Consumer Preference and Growing Demand

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/crayfish-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=19415

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Crayfish Market: SnapshotThe global market for crayfish has fostered a surging growth in the past few years as an increasing number of consumers are willing to shell out money for the fish and its preparations. The market is witnessing expansion at an extraordinary pace, with the fish being grown in a number of non-traditional regions as well. A large number of companies breeding and serving the fish are pouring into the global crayfish market and global imports and exports are hitting all-time highs.Browse Market Research Report @Demand is rising in Asia, especially in China, where the crayfish market has become worth billions of dollars and a massive creator of jobs for millions of people. Hundreds of thousands tonnes of the fish is being regularly consumed in the country and demand from young consumers is highly promising. With rapid advancements witnessed in the fields of packaging and storing, non-traditional markets are also being increasingly tapped.The booming global crayfish market is increasingly witnessing the entry of a number of new companies and the vendor landscape of the market is becoming increasingly fragmented and competitive. The market is highly unorganized in several regional markets and is expected to continue to remain so over the next few years as well, leading to intense price wars among companies. The market is, however, expected to become more orderly and consolidated in the near future, squeezing out low-quality and non-competitive business ventures out of the market.Crayfish also known as crawdads, crawfish, mountain lobsters, freshwater lobsters, yabbies, or mudbugs Crayfish are the member of superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea lives in freshwater crustaceans like small lobsters. The global crayfish market is expected to have significant growth rate, attributed to growing food industry and increasing demand for seafood. North America and Western Europe has substantial growth in the global crayfish market, owing to growing population, and increasing food service sector.Make an Enquiry @Global Crayfish Market Dynamics:The growth of the global crayfish market is driven by growing demand for processed food, growing seafood market, and increasing pet industry. Macroeconomic factors such as growing economy, increasing per capita income, rapid rate of urbanization, and employment rate driving the global crayfish market. However, stringent regulations over the distribution and farming of crayfish is expected to retain the global crayfish market. Factors trending the global crayfish market include the merger and acquisition among the crayfish manufacturers and end-use industries and high demand for seafood across the globe. The company operates in the crayfish market have significantly high opportunity in regions such as Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America attributed to the significantly growing economy.Global Crayfish Market Segmentation:The global crayfish market is segmented on the basis of source, application, end-user, and region. On the basis of source, the global crayfish market is segmented as the wild fishery and aquaculture, wherein aquaculture segment have significant revenue share and is expected to have substantial growth rate, owing to rapidly growing aquaculture industry across the globe. On the basis of application, the global crayfish market is segmented as food, pets, and bait. Among application segment, the food segment is expected to have a substantial growth rate in crayfish market, owing to high demand for seafood across the globe. On the basis of end-user, the global crayfish market is segmented as food services, retailers, primary wholesalers, and consumers, wherein consumers segment have significant revenue share, whereas food service segment is expected to have substantial growth rate, owing to changing lifestyle and increasing per capita income of the consumers across the globe.Based on source, the global crayfish market is segmented into:AquacultureWild FisheryBased on application, the global crayfish market is segmented into:FoodPetsBaitBased on end-user, the global crayfish market is segmented into:Food ServicesRetailersPrimary WholesalersConsumersGlobal Crayfish Market Regional Outlook:Based on the geographies, the global crayfish market is fragmented into seven regions -- North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific except Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the regions, North America accounts for a significant share of the global crayfish market, attributed to rising demand for seafood and high availability of crayfish across the region. Western Europe revenue share is followed by North America region in the global crayfish market, owing to the high rate of employment and increasing disposable income of the consumer in the region. The Asia-Pacific except Japan region accounts for substantial high share in the global crayfish market with significant growth rate, owing to high availability of crayfish in the countries such as Australia and New Zealand and high demand for seafood across these countries. Eastern Europe and Japan accounts for moderate value share in the global crayfish market. The developing economy such as Middle East Africa and Latin America have a substantial growth in the global crayfish market. Overall, the outlook for the global crayfish market will have a positive growth over the forecast period.Global Crayfish Market Player:Few players in the global crayfish market include Aker Seafoods ASA, American Pride Seafoods, Albion Fisheries Ltd., HB Grandi, Fishing Worker Agency, Domstein ASA, Day Boat Seafood, and Corpesca SA.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Glass Curtain Wall Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Application, Forecast to 2022 - Yuanda China,JiangHong Group, Permasteelisa, Schuco, Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1196817&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-glass-curtain-wall-market-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Glass Curtain Wall Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.This research report on the global Glass Curtain Wall market has been compiled by industry experts on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of this market, considering its segmentation and the important market verticals. An in-depth assessment of the industrial chain, supporting this market has been presented in this report, which incorporates statistical information about each and every aspect of the Glass Curtain Wall market in the global arena such as production chain, manufacturing capacity, sales volume, and revenue.The research report studies the worldwide market for Glass Curtain Wall on the basis of the products and their application. The production volume, product pricing, supply chain dynamics, and the policies and regulation, influencing the production are described at length in this market study.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversYuanda China,JiangHong Group, Permasteelisa, Schuco, Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, China Aviation Sanxin Co.,Ltd., Vitra Scrl, Kawneer, Aluk Group, China Fangda Group, Zhongshan Shengxing, G.James Glass & Aluminium, Shenzhen King Fa?ade Decoration Engineering, Toro Glasswall, Alumil NYC Glass, Hwarrior Curtain Wall Engineering, Bertrand, Guangzhou Leadsea Industry Co.,Ltd.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @The global Glass Curtain Wall market has also been evaluated on the basis of its spread across various regions across the world, presenting an analysis of the performance of each of the regional markets in this study. The market dynamics between the industrial chain and every application is studied in connection with each of the regional markets to provide a better understanding their performance and functioning.Researchers have utilized several analytical tools, such as market attractiveness assessment, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis to present a descriptive study of the market for Glass Curtain Wall across the world. Porters five forces and SWOT analysis has also been performed in order to evaluate the key market participants in this report.The research report has been aimed at providing a complete picture of the global Glass Curtain Wall market and assisting market players in creating profitable strategies for their business expansion, gaining a competitive edge over peers.Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 Glass Curtain Wall Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 51.2.1 Double Glazed Type 61.2.2 Three Glazed Type 61.2.3 Single Glazed Type 71.3 Market Analysis by Applications 71.3.1 Commercial Building 81.3.2 Public Building 91.3.3 Residential Building 91.4 Market Analysis by Regions 101.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) 102 Manufacturers Profiles 162.1 Yuanda China 162.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Contact Information 162.1.2 Glass Curtain Wall Product Picture and Features 172.1.3 Yuanda China Glass Curtain Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2016 and 2017) 202.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview 212.2 JiangHong Group 222.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Contact Information 222.2.2 Glass Curtain Wall Product Picture and Features 232.2.3 JiangHong Group Glass Curtain Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2016 and 2017) 242.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview 252.3 Permasteelisa 253 Global Glass Curtain Wall Market Competition, by Manufacturer 853.1 Global Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer 853.2 Global Glass Curtain Wall Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer 883.3 Market Concentration Rate 923.3.1 Top 3 Glass Curtain Wall Manufacturer Market Share 923.3.2 Top 6 Glass Curtain Wall Manufacturer Market Share 933.4 Market Competition Trend 93Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global Glass Curtain Wall Market Analysis by Regions 944.1 Global Glass Curtain Wall Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions 944.1.1 Global Glass Curtain Wall Sales by Regions (2012-2017) 954.1.2 Global Glass Curtain Wall Revenue by Regions (2012-2017) 954.2 North America Glass Curtain Wall Sales (K Sq.m.) and Growth (2012-2017) 964.3 Europe Glass Curtain Wall Sales (K Sq.m.) and Growth (2012-2017) 974.4 Asia-Pacific Glass Curtain Wall Sales (K Sq.m.) and Growth (2012-2017) 984.5 Latin America, Middle East and Africa Glass Curtain Wall Sales (K Sq.m.) and Growth (2012-2017) 995 North America Glass Curtain Wall by Countries 1005.1 North America Glass Curtain Wall Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries 1005.1.1 North America Glass Curtain Wall Sales by Countries (2012-2017) 1005.1.2 North America Glass Curtain Wall Revenue by Countries (2012-2017) 1015.2 USA Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Growth (2012-2017) 1025.3 Canada Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Growth (2012-2017) 1035.4 Mexico Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Growth (2012-2017) 1046 Europe Glass Curtain Wall by Countries 1056.1 Europe Glass Curtain Wall Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries 1056.1.1 Europe Glass Curtain Wall Sales by Countries (2012-2017) 1056.1.2 Europe Glass Curtain Wall Revenue by Countries (2012-2017) 1066.2 Germany Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Growth (2012-2017) 1076.3 UK Glass Curtain Wall Sales and Growth (2012-2017) 1086.4 France Glass CurtainFigure Glass Curtain Wall Picture 1Table Specification of Glass Curtain Wall 2Figure Global Sales Market Share of Glass Curtain Wall by Types in 2016 5Table Classification of Glass Curtain Wall 5Figure Double Glazed Type Picture 6Figure Three Glazed Type Picture 6Figure Single Glazed Type Picture 7Figure Glass Curtain Wall Sales Market Share by Applications in 2016 7Figure Commercial Building Picture 8Figure Public Building Picture 9About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Market  Industry Analysis and Top Brand Profile NTN, NSK, Schaeffler, SKF Outlook to 2022

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/603206-global-and-europe-automotive-wheel-bearing-market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/request-discount/603206-global-and-europe-automotive-wheel-bearing-market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=603206

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/603206-global-and-europe-automotive-wheel-bearing-market

A new research document with title 'Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Market - Analysis and Outlook to 2022' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Europe, United States, China, Japan, India and important players/vendors such as NTN, NSK, Schaeffler, SKF ................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022Request a sample report @SummaryThis report presents a comprehensive overview of the Automotive Wheel Bearing market in Europe. This shares the history data information from 2012 to 2016, and forecast from 2017 to 2022.This report provides a detailed analysis of the market, its dynamics, structure, characteristics, main players, growth and demand drivers, etc. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Automotive Wheel Bearing industry.This report focus Global and Europe market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Key PlayersNTNNSKSchaefflerSKFILJINJTEKTWanxiangHubei New TorchNachi-FujikoshiTIMKENGMB CorporationHarbin BearingCU GroupWafangdian BearingChangzhou GuangyangXiangyang Auto BearingXiangyang XinghuoFKG BearingShaoguan SoutheastGKNChangjiang BearingPFIKey RegionsEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandPolandOthersUnited StatesChinaJapanIndiaOthersKey Product Typeby Product TypesGen.1Gen.2Gen.3OthersKey ApplicationsPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleGet customization & check discount for report @Table of Contents1 Market Outline1.1 Research Methodology1.1.1 Methodology/Research ApproachResearch Programs/DesignMarket Size EstimationMarket Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.1.2 Data SourceSecondary SourcesPrimary Sources1.1.3 Disclaimer1.2Regulatory Factors1.3 End-User Analysis1.4 Strategic Benchmarking1.5 Industry Chain and Supply Chain1.5.1 Automotive Wheel Bearing Industry Chain Structure1.5.1.1 R&D1.5.1.2 Raw Materials (Components)1.5.1.3 Manufacturing Plants1.5.1.4 Regional Trading (Import Export and Local Sales)1.5.1.5 Online Sales Channel1.5.1.6 Offline Channel1.5.1.7 End Users1.5.2 Automotive Wheel Bearing Manufacturing1.5.2.1 Key Components1.5.2.2 Assembly Manufacturing1.5.3 Consumer Preference1.5.4 Behavioral Habits1.5.5 Marketing Environment1.6 SWOT Analysis1.7 Feasibility Analysis1.8 Development Trend and Research Conclusion1.8.1 Development Trend1.8.2 Research Conclusion2 Automotive Wheel Bearing Product Overview2.1 Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20222.2 Automotive Wheel Bearing, by Product Types 2012-20222.2.1 Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Market Share by Product Types 2012-20222.2.2 Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Revenue Market Share by Product Types 2012-20222.2.3 Global and Europe Automotive Wheel Bearing Price by Product Types 2012-20222.2.4 Gen.12.2.5 Gen.22.2.6 Gen.32.2.7 OthersBuy this report @3 Automotive Wheel Bearing Top 30 Brands Profile3.1 NTN3.1.1 NTN Company Details and Competitors3.1.2 NTN Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.1.3 NTN Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.1.4 NTN Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.2 NSK3.2.1 NSK Company Details and Competitors3.2.2 NSK Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.2.3 NSK Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.2.4 NSK Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.3 Schaeffler3.3.1 Schaeffler Company Details and Competitors3.3.2 Schaeffler Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.3.3 Schaeffler Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.3.4 Schaeffler Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.4 SKF3.4.1 SKF Company Details and Competitors3.4.2 SKF Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.4.3 SKF Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.4.4 SKF Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.5 ILJIN3.5.1 ILJIN Company Details and Competitors3.5.2 ILJIN Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.5.3 ILJIN Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.5.4 ILJIN Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.6 JTEKT3.6.1 JTEKT Company Details and Competitors3.6.2 JTEKT Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.6.3 JTEKT Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.6.4 JTEKT Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.7 Wanxiang3.7.1 Wanxiang Company Details and Competitors3.7.2 Wanxiang Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.7.3 Wanxiang Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.7.4 Wanxiang Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.8 Hubei New Torch3.8.1 Hubei New Torch Company Details and Competitors3.8.2 Hubei New Torch Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.8.3 Hubei New Torch Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.8.4 Hubei New Torch Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.9 Nachi-Fujikoshi3.9.1 Nachi-Fujikoshi Company Details and Competitors3.9.2 Nachi-Fujikoshi Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.9.3 Nachi-Fujikoshi Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.9.4 Nachi-Fujikoshi Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.10 TIMKEN3.10.1 TIMKEN Company Details and Competitors3.10.2 TIMKEN Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.10.3 TIMKEN Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.10.4 TIMKEN Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.11 GMB Corporation3.11.1 GMB Corporation Company Details and Competitors3.11.2 GMB Corporation Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.11.3 GMB Corporation Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.11.4 GMB Corporation Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.12 Harbin Bearing3.12.1 Harbin Bearing Company Details and Competitors3.12.2 Harbin Bearing Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.12.3 Harbin Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.12.4 Harbin Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.13 CU Group3.13.1 CU Group Company Details and Competitors3.13.2 CU Group Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.13.3 CU Group Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.13.4 CU Group Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.14 Wafangdian Bearing3.14.1 Wafangdian Bearing Company Details and Competitors3.14.2 Wafangdian Bearing Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.14.3 Wafangdian Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.14.4 Wafangdian Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.15 Changzhou Guangyang3.15.1 Changzhou Guangyang Company Details and Competitors3.15.2 Changzhou Guangyang Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.15.3 Changzhou Guangyang Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.15.4 Changzhou Guangyang Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.16 Xiangyang Auto Bearing3.16.1 Xiangyang Auto Bearing Company Details and Competitors3.16.2 Xiangyang Auto Bearing Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.16.3 Xiangyang Auto Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.16.4 Xiangyang Auto Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.17 Xiangyang Xinghuo3.17.1 Xiangyang Xinghuo Company Details and Competitors3.17.2 Xiangyang Xinghuo Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.17.3 Xiangyang Xinghuo Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.17.4 Xiangyang Xinghuo Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.18 FKG Bearing3.18.1 FKG Bearing Company Details and Competitors3.18.2 FKG Bearing Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.18.3 FKG Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.18.4 FKG Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.19 Shaoguan Southeast3.19.1 Shaoguan Southeast Company Details and Competitors3.19.2 Shaoguan Southeast Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.19.3 Shaoguan Southeast Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.19.4 Shaoguan Southeast Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.20 GKN3.20.1 GKN Company Details and Competitors3.20.2 GKN Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.20.3 GKN Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.20.4 GKN Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.21 Changjiang Bearing3.21.1 Changjiang Bearing Company Details and Competitors3.21.2 Changjiang Bearing Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.21.3 Changjiang Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.21.4 Changjiang Bearing Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin3.22 PFI3.22.1 PFI Company Details and Competitors3.22.2 PFI Key Automotive Wheel Bearing Models and Performance3.22.3 PFI Automotive Wheel Bearing Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast3.22.4 PFI Automotive Wheel Bearing Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin....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
North America Biomassfired Heating Plant Market Analysis, Market Size, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies And Forecasts, 2022

Biomassfired Heating Plant

http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/248646

http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-biomassfired-heating-plant-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248646

http://www.globalinforeports.com/send-an-enquiry/248646

http://www.globalinforeports.com

http://www.globalinforeports.com/blog

"A biomass-fired power plant produces electricity and heat by burning biomass in a boiler.The most common types of boilers are hot water boilers and steam boilers. Wood chips, residues and other types of biomass are used in the boilers, in the same way as coal, natural gas and oil.Get a Sample of Biomassfired Heating Plant Market research report from Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Biomassfired Heating Plant 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 Biomassfired Heating Plant Market:EONDong EnergyDrax GroupAalborgComsaAbantiaAker GroupFortum KeilaniemiEidsiva FjernvarmeSuezStatkraftEHPVATTENFALLZE PAKMGT PowerAnd Many OthersScope of the Biomassfired Heating Plant Industry on the basis of region:United StatesCanadaMexicoBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Biomassfired Heating Plant Market Report @Market Segment by Type, covers5 MW10~20 MWOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPower GenerationHeat DistributionThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Biomassfired Heating Plant market.Chapter 1, to describe Biomassfired Heating Plant Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Biomassfired Heating Plant, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Biomassfired Heating Plant, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the segment market in United States, Canada and Mexico, by manufacturers, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 10, Biomassfired Heating Plant market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 12, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 13, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 14 and 15, to describe Biomassfired Heating Plant Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Biomassfired Heating Plant Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 5 MW1.2.2 10~20 MW1.2.3 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Power Generation1.3.2 Heat Distribution1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 EON2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Biomassfired Heating Plant Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 EON Biomassfired Heating Plant Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 EON News2.2 Dong Energy2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Biomassfired Heating Plant Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Dong Energy Biomassfired Heating Plant Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Dong Energy News2.3 Drax Group2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Biomassfired Heating Plant Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 1ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @About 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-
Packaged Soup Market Sees a Steady Growth Ahead

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/packaged-soup-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=18197

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Packaged Soup Market: SnapshotThe global market for packaged soup, one of the most promising arms of the global packaged food and beverages industry, has emerged as one of the most popular food products across the globe in the past few years. Several factors are contributing to the immense rise in demand for packaged soup across the globe, including rapid urbanization, busy lifestyles, and a massive rise in demand for packaged and ready-to-consumer food products from the urban population.Browse Market Research Report @In the recent past, growth opportunities have massively increased and a number of food and beverages and FMCG companies have entered the market to exploit the vast growth opportunities that it offers. Availability of several product varieties in terms of ways of preparation, ingredient, and flavors, clubbed with the rapidly expanding chains of supermarkets and hypermarkets across a number of emerging economies are also catalyzing market growth. These factors are expected to remain the key growth propellers for the market in the next few years as well, allowing it to tap a larger consumer base across a number of regional markets.The market is expected to witness the entry of a number of new, small-scale players in the next few years, making it intensely competitive. Emerging economies are expected be host to several regional and domestic vendors that target consumers with customized product varieties suiting their taste preferences. However, international brands also hold promising growth opportunities as the thriving e-commerce sector and an increased exposure through social media sources and internet drive younger consumers to world brands.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Global Packaged Soup Market: OverviewThe global packaged soup market is poised to grow at a steady pace in the near future. The rapid urbanization is translating into the greater inclination of consumers towards convenience foods that need less time and energy for preparation and yet are healthy. The increasing investments by international players in start-ups dealing with packaged food items are providing a tremendous boost to the growth of the market.However, the growing awareness regarding the hazardous effects of preservatives that are used for longer shelf life is dissuading consumers from consuming packaged soups and thus impeding the growth of the packaged food market. Based on product type, the market can be divided into microwavable and ready-to-drink soups. The common channels of distribution of packaged soups are cash and carry store, convenience store, and supermarket and hypermarket.This research report aims to estimate the market size and growth potential in the foreseeable future, by methodically examining the current scenario and the historic data pertaining to the global packaged soup market. For a lucid analysis, the report segments the market on the basis of various criteria including geography, product type, and distribution channel. Factors influencing the growth and the extent to which they impact the market are also covered in the report. The report includes information about the key players in the global packaged food market along with their latest developments, business strategies, and revenue structures.Global Packaged Soup Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global packaged soup market is likely to witness a surge in the demand for microwavable soup in the foreseeable future. The increasing population of working class across the globe along with the changing lifestyles is encouraging consumers to seek healthy food options that require a minimum time for preparation, thereby driving the demand for microwavable soup products.Supermarkets and hypermarkets will continue to remain the primary channel for the distribution of packaged soup products over the forecast horizon. The robust growth of the retail sector in developed and developing countries is providing a fillip to the market. Moreover, the rapid urbanization and the growing popularity of the hypermarket and supermarket retail format owing to the convenience offered by them are leading to the greater number of these outlets in developing countries.Global Packaged Soup Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key regions meticulously examined in the research report are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America will be a prominent market throughout the forecast period. The increasing hectic lifestyles of people is prompting them to shift towards convenience products that can be consumed directly without any preparation. Rapid urbanization and the high spending power of consumers are also propelling the growth of the region. The growth of Europe can be attributed to the changing lifestyles of the populace.Asia Pacific will exhibit a strong growth during the same span owing to the growing population of working professionals. The increasing urbanization and rising disposable income are stimulating the sales of packaged food items, thereby augmenting the market.Global Packaged Soup Market: Competitive LandscapeThe continuous efforts of manufacturers to experiment with the taste and flavors of their offerings are making the global packaged soup market a highly competitive and dynamic arena. Innovative packaging and marketing activities form successful growth strategies for the majority of the players to consolidate their position in this highly fragmented marketplace. Some of the key players in the global packaged soup market are ConAgra Foods, Campbell Soup Company, Greencore, General Mills, Baxters Food Group, Hain Celestial Group, and Pacific Foods.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Military Imaging System Market Trends with Worldwide Industry Analysis to 2023

Military Imaging System Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3888

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/military-imaging-system-market-3888

Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on the global military imaging system market. The global military imaging system market is expected to witness a significant growth, during the forecast period 2017 to 2023.Market Highlights:The military imaging system is able to provide high-resolution 3-D images from longer distances than conventional optical systems. It is used to improve the visibility and enhance the clarity of objects even in dark environmental conditions. Increasing the use of these systems in border patrolling and for border security would significantly drive the market. Moreover, the introduction of high definition imaging technologies such as the thermal imaging systems also boosts the market. However, their efficiency during extreme weather conditions and the increased usage of smokescreen technologies are factors that can hamper the growth of the market.On the basis of platform, the global military imaging system market is segmented as man portable and vehicle mounted. Military imaging system is mounted on the vehicles such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground vehicles, and others. It is expected that the market for man portable military imaging systems would grow at a faster pace during the forecast period.Therefore, the global military imaging system market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Military Imaging System Market: FLIR Systems, Inc. (US) Teledyne Technologies Inc. (US) L3 Technologies, Inc. (US) Lockheed Martin Corporation (US) Thales Group (France) BAE Systems (US) Raytheon Company (US) Harris Corporation (US) General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc. (US) Leonardo DRS (US)Market Research Analysis:On the basis of type, the global military imaging system market has been segmented as thermal imaging, hyper spectral imaging, and multispectral imaging. These imaging systems are being increasingly used for surveillance by the airborne, maritime, and land forces. Thermal imaging segment dominates the global military imaging system market. Hyper spectral imaging, and multispectral imaging type is expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period.Scope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global military imaging system market, tracking two market segments across three geographic regions. The report studies the key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global military imaging system market as type and platform.Global Military Imaging System Market, By Type Thermal Imaging Hyper spectral Imaging Multispectral ImagingGlobal Military Imaging System Market, By Platform Man Portable Vehicle MountedAccess Report Details @Brief TOC:1 Executive Summary2 Introduction2.1 Report Description2.2 Research Objective3 Research Methodology3.1 Scope of the Study3.1.1 Definition3.1.2 Research Objective3.1.3 Assumptions3.1.4 Limitations3.2 Research Materials3.2.1 Primary Research3.2.2 Secondary Research3.3 Market size Estimation3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Dynamics4.1 Market Drivers4.2 Market Inhibitors4.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis4.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis5 Global Military Imaging System Market, By Type5.1 Introduction5.2 Thermal Imaging5.3 Hyperspectral Imaging5.4 Multispectral ImagingContinueAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Future Business Opportunities in Corn Gluten Meal Market

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/corn-gluten-meal-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21044

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Corn Gluten Meal Market: SnapshotCorn gluten meal (CGM) is one of the useful byproducts obtained from the corn milling industry which has a variety of applications in the industries such as the food and beverages and agriculture. Owing to its high-protein content, corn gluten meal has been traditionally used as supplement in the hog feed industry and typically doesnt contain gluten. Recently, it has been popularly used as a cost-effective aquaculture feed, in making corn-based snack products, and in various common food and feed products. In recent years, there have been widespread interest in the usage of corn-gluten meal as a pre-emergent herbicide due to its weed-inhibiting properties. There is soaring popularity among agriculturists world over, especially in developed nations, for exploring the application of CGM as an organic alternative to common chemically-derived herbicides.Browse Market Research Report @The scope has been highly debated in recent years and several studies and field trials in the U.S. majorly investigate the effectiveness of corn gluten meal as natural pre-emergent herbicide in controlling a variety of weeds and their superiority over chemical-based pesticides. Typically containing 10% nitrogen by weight, corn gluten meal released into the atmosphere over a period of three to four months. It prevents seeds from forming roots during germinating, and when already germinated, CGM can only act as a fertilizer for the weeds. In addition, unarguably, corn gluten meal is not helpful in providing post-emergent weed control. The timing of the application is also critical. Moreover, the failure to apply an adequate weed removal method prior to its application may actually act as counter-effective by boosting the growth of the weed.Corn Gluten Meal: Market OverviewCorn gluten meal is a byproduct of corn milling process and is a natural substitute for synthetic herbicides as it also prevents grass and weed seeds from sprouting without hurting existing plant. It has high value in pet food industry due to its natural high-protein content, it is used in aquaculture feed too as it is cost-effective than the fish meal. Corn gluten meal is a high source of carbohydrates, iron, and phosphorus. One of the major use of corn gluten meal is to add texture and taste to the product. Corn gluten meal is produced in different forms like dry-loose, dry-pellets and wet. Corn gluten meal contains 10% nitrogen by weight, which makes it a good fertilizer for plants with well-established roots. Corn gluten meal offers non-toxic weed and feed product which is more effective than traditional or chemical based weed and feed product.Enter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @Corn Gluten Meal: Market Trends and DriversThe corn gluten meal market is primarily driven by the rise in demand for corn based snack products as well as gluten free products. Where current trend leads to continuous product innovation and development in terms of ingredients and product variants which is essential for the sustainability in the industry. Growing demand for the corn flour by snacks manufacturers worldwide is also responsible for driving the market growth. Due to long-term ecological effects of synthetic chemicals consumers are shifting towards the natural weed and feed control products which includes corn gluten meal. Also, in Ontario pesticides are banned due to unnecessary risk to human health which increased the demand for the corn gluten meal. One of the key driver for the increase in demand for the corn gluten meal is use of ethanol as a fuel is increasing worldwide which is obtained from corn gluten meal.Corn Gluten Meal: Market SegmentationCorn gluten meal can be segmented on the basis of its forms as, unprocessed corn gluten meal, granulated corn gluten meal and pelletized corn gluten meal. Unprocessed corn gluten meal have powder structure and is applied directly on the plantings, granulated form is a spreader which is mixed with water for use and pelletized can be broadcast by hand.Corn gluten meal is segmented on the basis of application as herbicides in lawns for feed and weed purposes. Corn gluten meal is used as animal/ pet feed and as taste enhancer. Also, it can be used as animal or pet food as it is source of proteins, energy and pigments. Corn gluten meal is typically used for poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed and aqua feeds.Corn gluten meal is segmented on the basis of process as wet-milling process and dry-milling process. Wet-milling process is done to remove high value corn-oil and the remains are used as an animal feed. It has high processing cost but can produce variety of products. Dry-milling is less versatile and used in the ethanol production process, the end product for this process is ethanol and low-value animal feed.Corn Gluten Meal: Market by GeographyCorn gluten meal market can be segmented on the basis of regions as, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. China is growing rapidly in the consumption of corn gluten meal using it as a crap feed, also China is largest producer of corn gluten meal as it owns large corn starch processing sector.Corn Gluten Meal: Key PlayersCorn gluten meal market is dominated by the some of the key players like Cargill, Ingredion Incorporated, A.D.M. Engineering, Tate & Lyle plc., Sodrugestvo Group S.a., Agridient Inc., Pawar Agro Industries, Paramesu Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Meihua Holdings Group Co., Ltd., Zhucheng Xingmao Corn Developing Co. Ltd., Zhucheng Dongxiao Biotechnology Co. Ltd. etc. among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Cross journal Industry Worldwide Growth, Analysis and Trends To 2017

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-automotive-cross-journal-industry-situation-and-prospects-research-report-2017

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001739280/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001739280/buying

In 2016, the world economy expanded by just 2.2 per cent, the slowest rate of growth since the Great Recession of 2009. Underpinning the sluggish global economy are the feeble pace of global investment, dwindling world trade growth, flagCross journalg productivity growth and high levels of debt. World gross product is forecast to expand by 2.7 per cent in 2017 and 2.9 per cent in 2018, with this modest recovery more an indication of economic stabilization than a signal of a robust and sustained revival of global demand.Given the close Cross journals between demand, investment, trade and productivity, the extended episode of weak global growth may prove self-perpetuating in the absence of concerted policy efforts to revive investment and foster a recovery in productivity. This would impede progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , particularly the goals of eradicating extreme poverty and creating decent work for all.For More Information About This Report:Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Automotive Cross journal market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions' development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross marAutomotive Cross journal by regions (United States, EU, China, India and Japan) , and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Automotive Cross journal industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Request Sample Copy At:Table of Content2 Industry market structure analysis2.1 Supply & Consumption Analysis 2012-20172.1.1 North America2.1.2 Europe2.1.3 Japan2.1.4 India2.1.5 China3 Industry market environment analysis3.1 Industry requirements for resources and technology3.2 Industry technology development trend3.3 The impact of national macro policy on Industry3.4 Other influencing factors4 Competitive pattern analysis4.1 Industry competitive structure analysis by Region 2012-2017 344.2 Industry competitive structure analysis by Manufacture 2012-20174.3 Market barriers to entry analysis4.4 Threat of substitutesInquire For This Report At:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Content Analytics Market Demand, Supply and Forecast Report 2025

The Insight Partners

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000251

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPTE100000251

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/content-analytics-market

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000251

The Insight Partners, Global Content Analytics Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Content Analytics industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Content Analytics market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Content Analytics market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Content Analytics players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Request Sample Copy atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Content Analytics market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Content Analytics market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire for Discount Copy atAlso, key Content Analytics market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Key Company Profiles- Google Inc.- SAP SE- SAS Institute, Inc.- Interactive Intelligence Group, Inc.- Microsoft Corporation- Adobe Systems, Inc.- TIBCO Software Inc.- Idio Inc.- ITyX Solutions AG- EverteamView Complete Report atReason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Content Analytics market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Flexible Display Market Trend, Research Approach, Data Analysis and Forecast to 2025

The Insight Partners

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000259

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPTE100000259

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/flexible-display-market

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000259

The Insight Partners, Global Flexible Display Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Flexible Display industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Flexible Display market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Flexible Display market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Flexible Display players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Request Sample Copy atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Flexible Display market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Flexible Display market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire for Discount Copy atAlso, key Flexible Display market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Key Company Profiles- AU Optronics Corp.- Dupont Display- Atmel Corporation- Kent Displays Inc.- Sony Corporation.- Universal Display Corporation- LG Display Co. Ltd.- Corning Incorporated- Novaled AG- Flexible Display Center (Asu)View Complete Report atReason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Flexible Display market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Montana's senators split on the motion Tuesday to begin debate on a health care bill that would do away with the Affordable Care Act, and split again on the first vote on the senate's version of the health care bill.

While Democratic Sen. Jon Tester's opposition was not a surprise, the "yes" vote from Daines was the first time he had taken a stance on the Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act.

Daines called the first vote Tuesday a step forward in a long-promised repeal of something his party has opposed for years, while Tester said the day was one of his worst in the Senate.

"I just dont think this is a great day in Montana, and its certainly not making America great again, Tester said after voting against the motion. Tester was referencing President Donald Trumps campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.

Trump and Republicans around the country ran on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obamas signature health care law sometimes called Obamacare.

Daines said his vote to move forward fulfills a campaign promise hes made going back seven years.

This is an important first step, he said. Montanans have said we do not want to see Washington, D.C., solutions. We want to see Montanans back in charge of their health care and thats what were going to be debating here.

Senators will be picking up the House version of the bill, which will be debated and see many amendments. There will be a vote on one of three options  a repeal, a repeal and replacement, or a skinny repeal option that abolishes just some mandates of the Affordable Care Act. The House could then pass the Senates version of the bill or have a conference committee with the Senate to resolve differences; then each body would vote on the bill again.

Tester called Tuesdays first vote totally irresponsible and said it will severely and negatively affect rural health care. He doesnt believe any efforts by the Senate to amend the bill will make it more palatable.

Its going to hurt rural hospitals, its going to make health care more expensive. Theres no replacement plan out there that will work. Everything that has been brought up in the Senate is a total train wreck. What we did has the forefathers rolling over.

A report prepared by Manatt Health for the Montana Health Care Foundation estimated the House and Senate versions of the bill would all have a huge impact on rural health care by increasing costs to buy coverage in those parts of the state and eliminating Medicaid expansion, which has covered many in rural areas and generally lowered the amount of charity care rural hospitals provide.

Rural hospitals have told me it could potentially close their facilities or definitely change the way they deliver health care, Tester said. Its not good for rural America. Its about as irresponsible as anything Ive ever seen.

Daines reiterated what hes said before: he believes Obamacare is broken and something has to be done. He cited increases in premiums and people losing access to their existing health care plans and access to doctors as reasons he considers the law failed.

Tester said he and Daines talked some time ago about pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps and making sure we didn't do silly stuff with Medicaid that would hurt Montanans.

He just doesnt see eye to eye with me on these issues, I think its fair to say, Tester said.

Daines has long opposed Medicaid expansion, which has provided coverage to nearly 80,000 working poor in the state. He wants the program to return to covering only children, people with disabilities, pregnant women and others who are medically needy.

Montana voted to expand coverage to the working poor and nearly 80,000 have signed up since 2016. But the law sunsets without legislative approval in 2019, and under both the House and Senate versions of replacement bills the amount of federal funding for the program drops so severely the state could not continue it.

Its on an unsustainable path, Daines said. Is it fair for the federal government to pay 100 percent for able-bodied people? Thats a fundamental fairness question.

The Republican senator said he would support switching Medicaid to being administered by states through block grants or per-capita funding, something Democrats say will ultimately reduce the amount of money available and bring on cuts in the program.

Tester has been an outspoken opponent of any effort to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act, but has called for strategic improvements, something he says isn't possible under the current situation.

Take a look at the bills that were put up, Tester said. As for possible changes to come on the Senate floor, he said it does not matter what amendments we put on. In the end its going to be a bill thats going to do what they all were going to do: give tax breaks to the rich, block-grant Medicaid, eliminate Medicaid expansion, not take care of the folks that hit lifetime caps.

Daines had not taken a stance on any bill before Tuesday's vote, but said to get his support legislation would have to lower premiums, lower the cost of health care, cover those with pre-existing conditions and protect Medicaid for those traditionally covered.

To lower costs, he advocated for a proposal that would allow insurance companies to sell policies that do not meet all the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, arguing a young person may need a less expensive plan that offers less coverage than a 60-year-old.

Daines also said he will offer an amendment on the Senate floor that would require the government to reimburse everyone who paid a fine for not having health insurance, something that was mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

When asked how he and Tester can have such opposite views of the bill, Daines offered the states support of Trump as reason his views aligned more closely with Montanans.

Montana overwhelmingly voted for President Trump, and President Trump campaigned strongly on the promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare. The American people have spoken loud and clear. Montanans have spoken loud and clear, electing Donald Trump by more than 20 points last year."

Tester, meanwhile, said he's struggling to see how actions Tuesday could mean anything but trouble for Montanans.

This is one of the lower-level days Ive had in the U.S. Senate. You cant make this bill work for rural America. Its all about removing access and affordability, which is just the opposite direction we should be going in, especially for rural areas that have facilities that are at real risk of closing.
North America Zinc Sulfide Market Market Size, Share, Analysis - Global Industry Growth and Forecast 2022

Zinc Sulfide

http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/248688

http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-zinc-sulfide-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/248688

http://www.globalinforeports.com/send-an-enquiry/248688

http://www.globalinforeports.com

Global America Zinc Sulfide Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022A new and latest research report proposed by Global Info Reports renders a market summary of the America Zinc Sulfide Market industry. This widespread analysis comprises of market potentials and challenges, scope of product, sales volume, market revenue, estimates and rate of growth. The report also digs into all the major market players across the globe.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @Chemical industry segment has a crucial role in accomplishing daily requirements of the common man. It is one of the most former industries which attributes substantially to not just economic but industrial growth as well. Nearly, each and every industry segment such as oil and gas, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and many others, depends heavily on the chemical industry. In the recent years, the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry has experienced an astonishing change structure-wise such as enhancements in technology, increasing raw material costs, manufacturing base been channeled to Asian countries,novel promising growth markets, etc.The report highlights crucial dynamics and in-depth analysis of the market segment with concentrating on factual data, present industry activities, growth opportunities, new product inventions, and market forecast for the anticipated frame of time along with leading market players, market study based on several regions, and extensive product. The Epoxy Active Diluent Market report assists in determining the projection in this meticulous industry by rendering precise potential demand prognoses. These prognoses will aid the market players to take vital decisions and take hold of the untapped regions and new entrants.This research report incorporates the current market size of this industry. It also distinguishes and assesses complex value chains across the globe such as primary factors, market growth restrains, and propelling strategies. This latest market report examines the Epoxy Active Diluent Market by several segments such as regions, applications, companies, and for the proposed time frame. The report gives a complete insight of this industry consisting the qualitative and quantitative analysis provided for this market industry along with prime development trends, competitive analysis, and vital factors that are predominant in the Concrete Seale Market.Market Scope:Various aspects are considered in this all-inclusive market research report and it inspects the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry from an all axis perspective. It gives in-depth information on the future viewpoint, key developments, market dynamics and growth, latest trends in the market, and potential investment segment.Browse complete summary of this report @The report furnishes: An in-depth widespread market analysis of the global America Zinc Sulfide Market Analysis of global market trends, forecasts for 2017, and predictions of CAGRs through proposed time frame. Thorough analysis of applications Mentioning of market players with their complete profile description Researches the vital market trends and novel developments technologically in the America Zinc Sulfide MarketThe research report comprises of markets comprehensive analysis geographically on several important regions such as:1. North America (Mexico, USA, and Canada)2. Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia)3. Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia)4. Africa, South America, and the Middle EastThe leading industry players across the globe are explored in detail in this report. It demonstrates product overview, company summary, and manufacturing cost, capacity, and market shares for most of the participants. The report portrays the complete overview of America Zinc Sulfide Market across the world including its cost/profit, demand/supply, import/export, capacity, production value, etc. The research report also prognosticates trends in the development of this industrys market. It cloaks current market analysis dynamically, downstream requirements as well as the upstream raw materials. Lastly, the report also segregates vital market figures which represent the market condition of America Zinc Sulfide Market manufacturers. The report can function as an assistive reference point for helping individuals as well as businesses from this segment.Get Discount on This Report @Some Point From TOC:1 Market Overview1.1 Zinc Sulfide Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Purity99.99%1.2.2 Purity99.9%1.2.3 Purity97.0%1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Pigment1.3.2 Optical material1.3.3 Luminescent material1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Dow2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Zinc Sulfide Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Dow Zinc Sulfide Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Dow News2.2 Weifang Sunny2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Zinc Sulfide Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 2Enquiry Before Buying @About Us: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-Connect with us: Twitter | Facebook
Global Vaccine Adjuvants Market Research Report 2017 - CSL Limited, SEPPIC, Agenus, Novavax, SPI Pharma, Invivogen

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=978555&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-vaccine-adjuvants-market-research-report-2017.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Vaccine Adjuvants Market Research Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.Vaccine Adjuvants is a comprehensive report on the trends and opportunities in global Vaccine Adjuvants and offers an extensive evaluation of the key drivers and restraints, emerging and prominent trends, lucrative opportunities, and competitive landscape. The study takes a closer look at various elements of regulatory landscape influencing the growth strategies of players of all sizes. The assessment of the Vaccine Adjuvants includes in-depth evaluation of various types of operational and tactical risks, investment trends, and research and development activities of major players. The report covers recent changes in governmental policies expected to influence market dynamics and key strategic moves of established players. Various market participants can glean through the study to gain a reliable and up-to-date information on mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and partnerships, and contracts made in various regional markets.focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringBrenntag BiosectorCSL LimitedSEPPICAgenusNovavaxSPI PharmaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The insights presented in the study uses an assortment of industry tools to establish the level of competition and fragmentation across various product segments. The evidence-based findings offered in the report is a treasure trove for market data for a number of new entrant and emerging players. The key strategies adopted by leading players to retain their dominance are highlighted, which helps emerging small and medium players, to tap lucrative growth avenues. Furthermore, major changes in nature of consumer demand help these players to identify unexplored areas to fuel their growth in the global Vaccine Adjuvants market. The study is prepared with the help of inputs from a variety of trusted secondary sources and a wide range of primary sources. Various risks and challenges affecting the growth of key segments in the coming years are also highlighted. This will enable stakeholders to make informed and impactful investment strategies.Table of Contents1 Vaccine Adjuvants Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Vaccine Adjuvants1.2 Vaccine Adjuvants Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Vaccine Adjuvants by Type in 20152 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Vaccine Adjuvants Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.4 North America Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)4.1 Global Vaccine Adjuvants Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Vaccine Adjuvants Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure North America Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Vaccine Adjuvants Revenue (Million UDS) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Table Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)Table Global Vaccine Adjuvants Production Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Ketoprofen Market Global Research 2017 Zhejiang Jiuzhou, SANOFI-Aventis, Hubei Xunda, Boehringer-Ingelheim

Ketoprofen

http://bit.ly/2eNfsR8

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-ketoprofen-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Ketoprofen Market Research 2017A market study  Global Ketoprofen Market  examines the performance of the Ketoprofen market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Ketoprofen market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Ketoprofen market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Ketoprofen Market 2017 report includes Ketoprofen market Revenue, market Share, Ketoprofen industry volume, market Trends, Ketoprofen Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Ketoprofen Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Ketoprofen Market 2017 :SANOFI-AventisBoehringer-IngelheimBECZhejiang JiuzhouHubei XundaKetoprofen Market : By ApplicationKetoprofen TabletsKetoprofen CapsulesKetoprofen GelFirstly, the report covers the top Ketoprofen manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Ketoprofen report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Ketoprofen industry, Ketoprofen industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Ketoprofen Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Ketoprofen research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Ketoprofen market revenue worldwide.Finally, Ketoprofen market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Chandeliers Market Global Research 2017 Wranovsky, Versailles Lamps, Kichler Lighting, Dolan Designs

Chandeliers

http://bit.ly/2eMEJe4

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-chandeliers-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Chandeliers Market Research 2017A market study  Global Chandeliers Market  examines the performance of the Chandeliers market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Chandeliers market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Chandeliers market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Chandeliers Market 2017 report includes Chandeliers market Revenue, market Share, Chandeliers industry volume, market Trends, Chandeliers Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Chandeliers Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Chandeliers Market 2017 :1. James R. Moder2. Kichler Lighting3. DE MAJO Iiluminazione4. Wilkinson5. Kenroy Home6. Feiss7. Gemini Cut Glass Company8. Kurt Faustig9. Pataviumart10. American Brass and Crystal11. Savoy House lighting12. Wranovsky13. Dolan Designs14. Elegant Lighting15. Myran Allan Chandelier16. Kamable Lighting17. Versailles Lamps18. Kaiyan Lighting19. East Lighting20. WENHANG LANTERN-ORNAMENTChandeliers Market : By Application Commercial HomeChandeliers Market : By Type Uplight Chandeliers Downlight Chandeliers Cluster Chandeliers Pendant Chandeliers Pendant Bowl ChandeliersFirstly, the report covers the top Chandeliers manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Chandeliers report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Chandeliers industry, Chandeliers industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Chandeliers Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Chandeliers research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Chandeliers market revenue worldwide.Finally, Chandeliers market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Savory Snacks Market 2016-2026 Set for Rapid Growth And Trend

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2077

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2077

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Changing attitudes of the customers towards snacks and healthy food has heavily influenced the global savory snacks market. On account of growing popularity of healthy snacks, the global savory snacks have been witnessing a strong growth over the past few years. Younger generation tends to get energy in between meals while older generations see snacking as more of a treat. The growing awareness of health and wellness among the customers has forced manufacturers and producers to deliver to this demand, by offering various low calorie, low fat, and gluten-free products. The savory snacks are enjoyed by all age groups across Europe as they consume it in various occasions. For instance, in Germany people eat savory snacks as a part of a meal or on social occasions with family and friends. In the UK these savory snacks are eaten for a quick energy boost on the go during the day. Among European region UK is the largest market for savory snacks.Availability of a large number of existing flavors along with increasing research and development by key market players to innovate new flavors is further anticipated to drive the market over the forecast period. In some regions the consumers growing inclination towards the organic foods is compelling the manufacturers to innovate their products for company retention. From the past few years, potato chips segment is on the lead, and this trend is likely to continue over the forecast period. Manufacturers have not only changed their manufacturing methods but also altered some contents in their snacks because of the increasing health concerns among the consumers.Request Report Sample@Based on the segment type the global savory snacks market is segmented into:Potato ChipsProcessed SnacksPopcornNutsOthersBased on the distribution channel the global savory snacks market is segmented into:Supermarkets/ HypermarketsIndependent RetailersConvenience StoresService StationsSpecialistOthersIn terms of geography, the global savory snacks market has been divided in to five key regions including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa.The global savory snacks market is expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. North America is anticipated to be the dominant market for global savory snacks market followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. The UK is the largest market for savory snacks in Europe, however, the per capita consumption of savory snacks is more in countries like Netherlands, Spain, and Norway. The savory snacks market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at highest CAGR over the forecast period.Request For TOC@Key playersSome of the key players in the global savory snacks market are PepsiCo., Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, CALBEE, Diamond Foods, General Mills, Intersnack Group GmbH, Lorenz Bahlsen, Kellogg company, and Orkla ASA etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email:press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Tamarind Extract Market 2016-2026 size in terms of volume and value

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2127

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2127

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Tamarind extract is used in a variety of food products to enhance flavor and health benefits. Traditionally, tamarind extracts were used in juices due to its coolant property and were excessively consumed in the Middle Eastern region. It is a regularly used food ingredient in Asia and Latin America regions. Tamarind extract is used for manufacturing of tamarind concentrate, which is used in the preparation of blends for fruit juice, sauces, pickles etc. Tamarind extracts are used as natural preservatives, owing to its antifungal, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. The other health benefits of tamarind extract are that it acts as an antioxidant. It is used to cure digestive problems, conjunctivitis, common cold, fever etc. Tamarind extracts are also used in cosmetic products. It acts as a bleaching and skin hydrating agent in cosmetic products. The fragrance oils made from tamarind extract has a sour and sweet essence. It is incorporated as a fragrance ingredient in a variety of products such as soaps, candles, air fresheners, bath oils, aromatherapy products, incense sticks, laundry products etc.Tamarind Extract Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe use of tamarind extract in the rapidly growing food industry is expected to be a major driver for the growth global tamarind extract market. Tamarind extracts are as an alternative for chemical preservatives such as lactic, acetic, benzoic acids etc. The increasing consumer awareness regarding food safety and health benefits of natural preservatives is anticipated to boost global tamarind extract market. The rise in demand and production of processed food and adoption of natural processing techniques by the food industry is expected to drive global tamarind extract market growth. Tamarind extract is an important ingredient in cosmetic and fragrance industry. The upsurge in consumer demand for organic food and ayurvedic medicines is expected to propel the growth of global tamarind extract market.Request Report Sample@Tamarind Extract Market: SegmentationOn the basis of application,the global tamarind extract market can be segmented as follows:-FoodSaucesJuice blendsCondimentsPreservativesSeasoningsCosmeticsHealthcareHealth drinkSyrupsFragranceSoapsCandlesAir freshenersIncense sticksBath oilsAromatherapy productsTamarind Extract Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global tamarind extract market can be divided into five regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). APAC holds major share in global tamarind extract market. India is the major manufacturer and exporter of tamarind extract. The tamarind extracts are exported to MEA and Europe regions. Thailand holds the second position in manufacturing tamarind extracts. The increasing investment in the healthcare industry and adoption of ayurveda is expected to drive tamarind extract market growth in the region. North America and Europe accounts for a significant share in global tamarind extract market. This is attributed to the mature food processing industries in these regions. Europe holds the major share in the fragrance industry, which is expected to boost the growth of tamarind extract in this region. MEA is expected to register high CAGR during the forecast period. North Africa accounts for a significant share in the production of tamarind. Tamarind extract is used as a major ingredient in fruit juices in the desert regions of the Middle Eastern region due to its cooling effect. Latin America is anticipated to register moderate CAGR over the forecast period due to the extensive use of tamarind extract in the food industry.Request For TOC@Tamarind Extract Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global tamarind extract market are as follows:Magma FoodsKanegrade LimitedShimlahillsMoonLiteXi'an Victory Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd.Abc InternationalBAAECO V FOODJADLI FOODS (INDIA) PVT. LTD.Abdullabhai Abdul KaderREVATA FOOD PRODUCTS PVT.LTD.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email:press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Cellular M2M Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 - Vodafone Group, Amdocs, Sprint, Telefonica

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1220256&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-cellular-m2m-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Cellular M2M Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Cellular M2M has been highly dynamic in the last few years. This research study on the worldwide Cellular M2M market attempts to assess the changes this market has gone through and presents a complete overview of this market. It provides important information and statistics of this market such as growth drivers, restraining factors, future prospects, and trends and opportunities.The research report studies the global Cellular M2M market on the basis of the qualitative as well as quantitative assessment of various market verticals. The regional markets for Cellular M2M has also been evaluated based on their performances during the period from 2017 to 2022 The dynamics of the manufacturing and supply chain and the significant government norms and policies in this market has been discussed in details in this market report. The global market for Cellular M2M has also been assessed in terms of the production chain of the products, their pricing, and the revenue generated by them.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Analysts have carried out multiple analyses to determine the volume of production and efficiency of the global Cellular M2M market, considering the performances of its regional Cellular M2M markets. The demand and supply statistics for Cellular M2M in the global arena has also been discussed in this market report.This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAT&T (U.S.)Verizon Communications (U.S.)Vodafone Group (UK)Sprint (U.S.)Amdocs (U.S.)Conclusively, the study make use of various analytical tools on major participants including investment return analyses, feasibility analysis, and SWOT analysis to identify the market hierarchy prevailing in the worldwide Cellular M2M market.This study is aimed at providing a complete and unbiased picture of the global Cellular M2M market and assist companies, consultants, and stakeholders operating in this market to make winning strategies for the further expansion of their businesses.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Cellular M2M1.1 Cellular M2M Market Overview1.1.1 Cellular M2M Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook2 Global Cellular M2M Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Cellular M2M Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 AT&T (U.S.)3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Cellular M2M Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent DevelopmentsBrowse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global Cellular M2M Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Cellular M2M Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Cellular M2M Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Cellular M2M in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Cellular M2MList of Tables and FiguresFigure EU Cellular M2M Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Cellular M2M Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Cellular M2M Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India Cellular M2M Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia Cellular M2M Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Cellular M2M Market Share by Type in 2016Figure Professional Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)Figure Managed Services Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)Figure Global Cellular M2M Market Share by Application in 2016Table Key Downstream Customer in Small and Medium EnterprisesAbout UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Travel Services Market in India to grow at a CAGR of 18.46% during 2017-2021 - Cox & Kings, MakeMyTrip, SOTC, Thomas Cook, Yatra

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1180498

http://www.researchmoz.us/professional-service-mobile-robots-market-in-apac-2017-2021-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Travel services are categorized in to public and private services that provides travel and tourism related services to the public. Based on the services offered, the travel services market is segmented into six: hotel accommodation, domestic flight, rail ticket, domestic bus, taxi or cab, and holiday package. On the basis of the mode of booking, the travel services market is segmented as online mode and offline mode.The travel services market in India to grow at a CAGR of 18.46% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the travel services market in India for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the travel services delivered by various service providers.Click to get sample PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, Travel Services Market in India 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.Browse more details at:Key vendors- Cox & Kings- MakeMyTrip- SOTC- Thomas Cook- YatraOther prominent vendors- Airbnb- Busindia.com- Cleartrip- Expedia- IRCTC- Meru- Ola- OYO Rooms- Treebo- UberMarket driver- Strategic alliances such as mergers and acquisitions- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Lack of adequate infrastructure- 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?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Global SMS Firewall Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 - Cellusys, Symsoft, BICS, Tyntec, Twilio

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1220267&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-sms-firewall-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global SMS Firewall Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.The global SMS Firewall market research report has been recently added in the large database of reports on different markets. The report is titled, SMS Firewall and discusses the overview of the market including the application, production, functionalities, and classification. The key segments of the overall SMS Firewall market have been discussed in in-depth detail. Along with this, the leading, declining, and fastest growing regional segments are pointed out. Also given are the factors associated with the growth or decline of the market. Thus, the report is extremely valuable.The research report discussed all the main factors fueling the growth of the SMS Firewall market. The challenging factors are also discussed in detail so that potential investors can get a better insight into the market and analyze the few challenges which they will face in the years to come. This way, readers equip themselves to fight against all the challenging issues and be prepared for it much in advance. The study also investigates key market opportunities which are anticipated to drive the growth prospects of the global SMS Firewall market. The recent trends in the SMS Firewall industry which are shaping the market are also studied in the report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeCellusys (Ireland)Symsoft (Sweden)Route Mobile (India)ANAM Technologies (Ireland)BICS (Belgium)Tyntec (UK)Key players in the SMS Firewall market across the globe are profiled in the report for the purpose of study. This includes the recent developments by key players, the business and financial overview of the players and the strategies adopted by them. This enables investors to correctly invest in the market, thereby making profits.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of SMS Firewall1.1 SMS Firewall Market Overview1.1.1 SMS Firewall Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook2 Global SMS Firewall Competition Analysis by Players2.1 SMS Firewall Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Cellusys (Ireland)3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 SMS Firewall Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent DevelopmentsBrowse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global SMS Firewall Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global SMS Firewall Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global SMS Firewall Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of SMS Firewall in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of SMS FirewallList of Tables and FiguresFigure United States SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia SMS Firewall Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global SMS Firewall Market Share by Type in 2016Figure By SMS Type Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)Figure By Messaging Platform Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
2017 Market Research Report on Global Slot Machine Industry - IGT, Aristocrat Leisure, Scientific Games, Novomatic

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1196797&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/2017-market-research-report-on-global-slot-machine-industry-for-the-global-market-status-and-outlook-from-2012-to-2022.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2017 Market Research Report on Global Slot Machine Industry to its huge collection of research reports.This report is a key analysis of all the factors boosting the growth of the global Slot Machine market. The factors hampering or restricting the growth of this market have also been studied in detail, thus helping readers to equip themselves better for facing the many challenges and competition in the global Slot Machine industry. The report takes into account the present market figures and also the historical data, for predicting the future forecast of the Slot Machine market. The trends in the Slot Machine market have been discussed in detail. The key opportunities lying ahead in the global Slot Machine industry have also been disclosed. Thus, the report is a valuable asset for new entrants as well as those established.This report studies Slot Machine in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan and Australia, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringIGTAristocrat LeisureScientific GamesNovomaticTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report is an analysis of the degree of competition, the bargaining supplier power, and bargaining buyer powers have been included in the report. The threat of new substitutes has been discussed in detail. The threat of new entrants is also given in this report. Thus, the report contains valuable data which will help companies and potential investors to clearly understand and comprehend which segment to invest on and why. The segments and sub segments of the global Slot Machine market have also been included in the report. The report predicts the segment which is most likely to expand at the fastest CAGR as well as the segment which will lead in the years to come. Similarly, the segment witnessing the most sluggish growth is also pointed out. Key players are studied in the report along with their useful data such as business and financial overview and business strategies adopted.Table of Contents1 Slot Machine Market Overview 11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Slot Machine 11.2 Slot Machine Segment by Types (Product Category) 11.2.1 Global Slot Machine Production a by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022) 21.2.2 Global Slot Machine Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016 32 Global Slot Machines Market Competition by Manufacturers 122.1 Global Slot Machines Sales and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017) 122.2 Global Slot Machines Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017) 142.3 Global Slot Machines Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017) 152.4 Slot Machines Market Competitive Situation and Trends 173 Global Slot Machines Sales, Revenue (Value) by Regions (2012-2017) 193.1 Global Slot Machines Sales and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017) 193.2 Global Slot Machines Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017) 203.3 Global Slot Machines Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017) 223.4 North America Slot Machines Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017) 23Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global Slot Machines Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017) 264.1 Global Slot Machines Production by Regions (2012-2017) 264.2 North America Slot Machines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017) 274.3 Europe Slot Machines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017) 284.4 China Slot Machines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017) 28Tables and FiguresFigure Global Slot Machine Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022) 5Figure Global Slot Machine Consumption (Sales) Market Share by Applications in 2016 6Figure Global Slot Machines Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 7Figure North America Slot Machines Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 8Figure China Slot Machines Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 8Figure Europe Slot Machines Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 9Figure Japan Slot Machines Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 10Figure Australia Slot Machines Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 11Figure Global Slot Machines Sales (K Units) Status and Outlook (2012-2022) 11Table Global Slot Machines Sales of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017) 12About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
An evacuation order in place since Friday for some Garfield County property owners threatened by the Lodgepole Complex fire was lifted on Tuesday afternoon.

"So far it sounds like things are continuing to go well today on the firefighting front," said Tim Engrav, public information officer for Rick Connell's Western Montana Type 2 Incident Management team, speaking at around 4 p.m. "So it just seemed like the right time to be able to do that and figure out what impacts have been on those parts of the fire, where it's safe to do so."

The evacuation order spanned an area north of Highway 200 from the western Garfield County line across to Edwards Road and north to the Fort Peck reservoir, Engrav said.

Despite the evacuation order being lifted for property owners, Engrav said the area is "not generally wide open for everybody to go around," and that there's still "a lot of activity," related to the fire.

The Garfield County Sheriff's Office lifted the order, "for property owners in the firezone area," according to a press release posted to the Garfield County office of Disaster and Emergency Services Facebook page.

"The region is open to local ONLY traffic and drivers need to be advised of livestock & heavy fire traffic on roads," the release says. Landowners are "urged" to report losses to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office by emailing gcsheriff@midrivers.com in order to "begin the documentation and needs assessment process," according to the release.

Information needed includes physical address, structures and structure types, confirmed livestock loss, pasture loss, hay loss and fence loss, according to the release.

So far, 16 homes have been confirmed destroyed by the fire. A Tuesday night press release noted "numerous secondary structures," have been destroyed, along with "an unspecificed but significant amount of fencing and haystacks," and also 50 power poles belonging to McCone Electric.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday the Lodgepole Complex was estimated at 270,000 acres and 34 percent contained, according to Lucinda Nolan, a public information officer assigned to the fire.

GPS-assisted helicopter mapping was done of the fire Tuesday.

Burnout operations to deprive the fire of fuels could have an effect on the fire's size, he said. "We're not expecting any large acreage increase due to active fire," he said.

The 20,000 increase in acreage by Tuesday night was primarily the result of more accurate mapping, burnout operations, and fuels igniting within the interior of the fire, Nolan said. "They had some very successful burnout operations along the east side of the Bridge Coulee and the Barker," she said.

"It was a really good day out there today."
Prescription/Rx Sunglass Market is Set to Garner Staggering Revenues by 2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/prescriptionrx-sunglass-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/7544

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/7544

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Prescription sunglasses are used for the protection of eyes from the harmful ultraviolet radiations which can cause permanent damage to the eyes. The prescription sunglasses are an effective way of limiting exposure of eyes to safe levels along with the dropping glare levels. These sunglasses are available in a wide range of sizes and styles for the people suffering from myopia, hypermetropia, presbyopia, and astigmatism. The features like comfort, modern design, style and adjustable frame, among others are making these sunglasses extremely appealing to the customers.Get access to full summary @:The rising penetration of superior optics with high strength properties and ultra-light weight is expected to fuel the demand of prescription sunglass market over the forecast period. The growth is further supported by the growing adoption of e-commerce solutions which is encouraging the online purchase of these products. In addition, increasing focus for vision care due to new healthcare initiatives is fueling the demand for these products to provide effective eye care to people.Furthermore, the modern technological advancements in terms of high quality lens design and material composition is expected to drive the global market in the future as well. Moreover, the worldwide increasing population and growing cases of vision deficiency is providing ample opportunities to the prescription sunglass market retailers and manufacturers to expand their global reach in this market.Additionally, the increasing digitization in the field of production and development is anticipated to have a positive impact on the market. This is owing to the growing advancements in the sectors of plastics, metallurgy, optics, and other areas. Additionally, the growing public awareness about the risks associated with the ultraviolet radiation is accelerating the market growth tremendously.A sample of this report is available upon request @However, the rising acceptance of other vision corrective alternatives namely optical surgeries along with the growing contact lenses popularity is expected to restrict the market growth throughout the forecast period. Similarly, the high cost and strict eye-test regulations are one of the major factors which are inhibiting the growth of Prescription/Rx Sunglass market worldwide.The global prescription/Rx sunglass market has been segmented on the basis of lens material and geographical regions. Based on the type of lens material used, the market can be classified into CR-39, polyurethane, polycarbonate, and glass, among others. On the basis of various geographical regions, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America.In Asia Pacific, the demand for these products is mainly generating due to manufacturing of CR-39 (lens material) in countries such as India, China and Japan. This will lower the prices of prescription sunglasses in these regions resulting in creating more demand for the market. The demand in Europe is primarily driven by the availability of high-end brands in the region.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major players in the Prescription/Rx Sunglass market include Bausch & Lomb, Charmant Group, Carl Zeiss, CooperVision, CIBA Vision, Luxottica Group S.p.A., Hoya Corporation, Essilor International S.A., Fielmann AG, Safilo Group S.p.A., Johnson & Johnson, Marchon Eyewear, Bolle Safety, De Rigo SpA, SEE and Seiko Corp., among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
At a CAGR 2.9% Gaucher Disease Market - Opportunity Analysis and Forecast to 2024

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/600193

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/600193/opportunityanalyzer-gaucher-disease-opportunity-analysis-and-forecast-to-2024-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/600193

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

"The Latest Research Report OpportunityAnalyzer: Gaucher Disease - Opportunity Analysis and Forecast to 2024 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Gaucher Disease MarketGlobalData estimated the 2014 sales for the Gaucher Disease (GD) market at approximately $875m across the 7MM (US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and Israel). The US market contributed the majority of these sales, generating an estimated $482m. By the end of the forecast period in 2024, GD sales are expected to increase to $1.16 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.9%. The majority of these sales will continue to come from the US, which will represent approximately 56.2% of the GD market in the 7MM in 2024. GlobalData forecasts an increase in the number of diagnosed prevalent cases of GD, and therefore, an increase in the treated GD population. Improved diagnosis will be driven by increasing physician education and awareness of GD and its signs and symptoms. Despite the anticipated increase in the number of diagnosed prevalent cases of GD over the forecast period, it is expected that a large portion of the GD population will remain undiagnosed. This is due to continued late diagnosis and misdiagnosis of GD as a result of the heterogeneous manifestations of the disease. The sparsely populated GD pipeline, with no drugs in late-stage development, will further hinder the growth of the GD market.Get Sample copy of this Report @HighlightsKey Questions AnsweredAlthough the use of enzyme replacement therapies (ERTs) and substrate reduction therapies (SRTs) has significantly changed the natural history of GD, with a marked decrease in morbidity, especially in Type 1 GD patients, GD market is still marked by the presence of a number of unmet needs in current treatments. What are the main unmet needs in this market? Will the drugs under development fulfil the unmet needs of the GD market?The late-stage GD pipeline is very sparsely populated and there no drugs in late-stage development. Nevertheless, the GD market will experience substantial growth. What are the main drivers of this growth during 2014-2024? Which of the marketed drugs will have the highest peak sales at the highest CAGR, and why?Key FindingsGlobalData forecasts an increase in the number of diagnosed prevalent cases of GD, and therefore, an increase in the treated GD population. Improved diagnosis will be driven by increasing physician education and awareness of GD and its signs and symptoms. This is largely attributable to Genzymes and Shires continued efforts to raise awareness of rare diseases through organized events and established websites, and by sponsoring patient registries.Genzymes recently approved oral substrate reduction therapy (SRT), Cerdelga (eliglustat), is more effective and safer than the other oral SRT, Zavesca (miglustat), and therefore will be used more commonly as an oral alternative to IV ERT in adult Type 1 GD patients. As Cerdelga is more expensive than the other GD therapies, it is expected to drive the growth of the GD market.None of the therapies fulfilled the greatest unmet need in GD treatment need for the drugs that can treat the neurological manifestations of the disease. One of the main R&D strategies in the GD space is the focus on the development of new SRT formulations and pharmacological chaperones (PCs) that can cross the blood brain barrier and thereby improve the neurological manifestations of GD.View Report @ScopeOverview of GD, including epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment guidelines.Annualized GD therapeutics market revenue, annual cost of therapy and treatment usage pattern data from 2014 and forecast for ten years to 2024.Key topics covered include strategic competitor assessment, market characterization, unmet needs, clinical trial mapping and implications for the GD therapeutics market.Pipeline analysis: comprehensive data split across different phases, emerging novel trends under development, and detailed analysis of late-stage pipeline drugs.Analysis of the current and future market competition in the global GD therapeutics market. Insightful review of the key industry drivers, restraints and challenges. Each trend is independently researched to provide qualitative analysis of its implications.Reasons to buyThe report will enable you to -Develop and design your in-licensing and out-licensing strategies through a review of pipeline products and technologies, and by identifying the companies with the most robust pipeline. Additionally a list of acquisition targets included in the pipeline product company list.Develop business strategies by understanding the trends shaping and driving the GD therapeutics market.Drive revenues by understanding the key trends, innovative products and technologies, market segments, and companies likely to impact the GD therapeutics market in future.Formulate effective sales and marketing strategies by understanding the competitive landscape and by analysing the performance of various competitors.Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolios and create effective counter-strategies to gain a competitive advantage.Track drug sales in the 7MM GD therapeutics market from 2014-2024.Organize your sales and marketing efforts by identifying the market categories and segments that present maximum opportunities for consolidations, investments and strategic partnerships.Send An Enquiry Request @Table of Contents1 Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 101.1 List of Tables 141.2 List of Figures 172 Introduction 182.1 Catalyst 182.2 Related Reports 193 Disease Overview 203.1 Etiology and Pathophysiology 233.1.1 Etiology 233.1.2 Pathophysiology 263.2 Symptoms 273.3 Prognosis 313.4 Quality of Life 324 Epidemiology 334.1 Disease Background 334.2 Risk Factors and Comorbidities 344.3 Global Trends 354.3.1 US 354.3.2 5EU 364.3.3 Israel 364.4 Forecast Methodology 374.4.1 Sources Used 374.4.2 Sources Not Used 384.4.3 Forecast Assumptions and Methods 394.5 Epidemiological Forecast for Gaucher Disease (2014-2024) 404.5.1 Total Prevalent Cases of Type 1 Gaucher Disease 404.5.2 Age-Specific Total Prevalent Cases of Type 1 Gaucher Disease 424.5.3 Sex-Specific Total Prevalent Cases of Type 1 Gaucher Disease 444.5.4 Age-Standardized Total Prevalence of Type 1 Gaucher Disease 464.5.5 Total Prevalent Cases of Type 2 Gaucher Disease 474.5.6 Sex-Specific Total Prevalent Cases of Type 2 Gaucher Disease 504.5.7 Total Prevalent Cases of Type 3 Gaucher Disease 504.5.8 Age-Specific Total Prevalent Cases of Type 3 Gaucher Disease 524.5.9 Sex-Specific Total Prevalent Cases of Type 3 Gaucher Disease 544.5.10 Age-Standardized Total Prevalence of Type 3 Gaucher Disease 554.6 Discussion 564.6.1 Epidemiological Forecast Insight 564.6.2 Limitations of the Analysis 574.6.3 Strengths of the Analysis 585 Current Treatment Options 595.1 Overview 595.1.1 Enzyme Replacement Therapy 595.1.2 Substrate Reduction Therapy 625.1.3 ERT Dosing Issues 645.1.4 Treatment Guidelines 705.2 Product Profiles 735.2.1 Enzyme Replacement Therapies 735.2.2 Substrate Reduction Therapies 1026 Unmet Needs Assessment and Oppportunity Analysis 1306.1 Overview 1306.2 Treatment of the Neurological Manifestations of Gaucher Disease 1326.2.1 Unmet Needs 1326.2.2 Gap Analysis 1346.2.3 Opportunity 1366.3 Earlier Gaucher Disease Diagnosis and Disease Severity Assessment 1386.3.1 Unmet Needs 1386.3.2 Gap Analysis 1456.3.3 Opportunity 1496.4 Lower Cost of Gaucher Disease Treatment 1526.4.1 Unmet Needs 1526.4.2 Gap Analysis 1536.4.3 Opportunity 1566.5 Improved Route of Administration 1586.5.1 Unmet Needs 1586.5.2 Gap Analysis 1596.5.3 Opportunity 161MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Market Research Report 2017 - Ericsson, Internap, Chinacache

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=948320&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-mobile-content-delivery-network-market-research-report-2017.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Market Research Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The lengthy assessment provided by the report on the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market offers readers a fresh perspective and unique insight into the various trends that influence it and the current dynamics that identify it. The research study has been compiled by experts from the industry and is created with the aim of being a crucial document for all readers looking to make successful business decisions.The research publication on the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market provides a birds eye view of the market from 2017 to 2022 by evaluating the impact of ongoing changes in investment patterns, recent technological advancements, and the presence or lack of government policies on its growth. The report also studies the different drivers and restraints in the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market, offering both quantitative and qualitative insights in terms of market performance.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Analysts compiling the report on the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market have utilized a number of industry-specific tools to fully assess its trajectory. This includes tools such as SWOT analysis to gauge the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the Mobile Content Delivery Network market. Porters Five Forces analysis model is also a key measurement of overall competitiveness and helps identify the threat posed by new entrants as well as substitute products and services to the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market. It also sheds light on the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and the overall scope of vendor rivalry.Another key feature is the attempt by experts within the industry to investigate the many export and import policies that have had or are likely to have an immediate impact on the global Mobile Content Delivery Network market. The report also includes a dedicated section on the competitive landscape, offering accurate and profitable insights into the main participants in the Mobile Content Delivery Network market. They have been elaborately profiled, keeping in mind aspects such as financial standing, investment plans, product portfolios, and key marketing and business strategies.Table of Contents1 Mobile Content Delivery Network Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Mobile Content Delivery Network1.2 Mobile Content Delivery Network Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Mobile Content Delivery Network by Type in 20151.2.2 Network Acceleration2 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Mobile Content Delivery Network Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.4 North America Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 Europe Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)4.1 Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Mobile Content Delivery Network Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure North America Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Revenue (Million UDS) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Table Global Mobile Content Delivery Network Production of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Digital Telepathology Market 2016-2026 Set for Rapid Growth And Trend

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2393

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2393

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Pathology is the study of diseases and one of the major fields in medicine & diagnosis. It is mainly concerned with the cause, origin and study of different diseases. It is done by examining bodily fluids, tissues, & organs. It is currently divided into eight main areas of study. With the advent of Information Technology and the digital age, a new field has sprung up  the digital telepathology market. As the name suggests, it is pathology with the help of telecommunications technology. As opposed to general pathology which is conducted at a short-range, digital telepathology is typically performed at distance. Pathology image-rich data is transferred great distances for the purpose of diagnoses, education or even research purposes. The term was coined by Dr Ronald S. Weinstein in 1986 and he also spoke about the potential of this in a journal publication back then. He is rightly known as the father of telepathology. The digital telepathology market is mainly focused on serving the need for medical research, education, subspecialty pathology, histopathology diagnoses, second opinion diagnosis, and also that of frozen section specimens.Digital Telepathology Market DriversOne of the main drivers of the digital telepathology market is bound to be the information technology wave sweeping across the world. Western countries already have a strong digital infrastructure, but Internet penetration is rapidly increasing in the developing world. This can enable pathologists to examine, study, and diagnose patients not only in remote locations within the country but also anywhere else in the world. A second factor is a flexibility and convenience offered to seek a second opinion. The digital telepathology market will enable pathologists in any part of the globe to consult their peers in other countries, which will ensure an appropriate diagnosis. According to the W.H.O, cancer cases are expected to increase by nearly 70% in the next twenty years with nearly 1.4 million of them being misdiagnosed. Thus, quick (and appropriate) diagnoses will be critical to saving millions of lives. The third driver is expected to be increasing digitisation in the field of research. Digital pathology is relevant in the field of medical education, histopathology and even for examining frozen section specimens. With the help of digital technology, pathologists could convert physical data into digital files, eliminating the need to physically store it. This would also help them drive down their cost and improve efficiency.Request Report Sample@Digital Telepathology Market RestraintsThere are a few challenges faced by the digital telepathology market, one of the biggest being cost. Digital telepathology equipment is very expensive which will almost certainly be a problem in developing countries. Government reimbursements are typically unavailable there which makes the initial investment quite difficult. Another issue is regulatory concerns. Digital telepathology walks a fine line between both medicine & technology so each country would have different laws concerning both. There can also be resistance from pathologists themselves. Few pathologists today can truly operate these systems and they might even be unwilling to trust the results. These are some of the reasons why the digital telepathology market is still a niche one at present.Digital Telepathology Market Key RegionsThe digital telepathology market serves the following main geographic regions  North America, the E.U., Asia-Pacific, MENA and the rest of the world. North America is the largest market and is anticipated to show moderate growth over the next decade. This is due to a strong healthcare system, regulations like the Affordable Care Act, the high prevalence of various cancers and an ageing population requiring medical assistance. It is also boosted by world-class medical education & research facilities, eager adoption of technology and government reimbursement being available in these critical fields. Europe is the second largest market but is expected to remain flat or post negative growth. However, the high prevalence of cancer in this region will ensure that there remains a strong future for the digital telepathology market there. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the market of the future mainly because of China, India and Japan.Request For TOC@Digital Telepathology Market Key Market PlayersSome companies involved in the digital telepathology market include Leica Biosystems, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., GE Healthcare, Olympus Corporation, Philips Healthcare, MikroSkan Technologies, Inc. and many others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email:press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Gas Hydrates Market Research Study for Forecast Period 2016 - 2026

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2469

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2469

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Gas hydrates are also known as methane hydrates and are cage-structured lattices of water molecules which contains methane, the foremost component of natural gas. Gas hydrates are crystalline, naturally occurring, ice-like substances which is poised of gas particles bonded in a cage-like arrangement. Gas hydrates are a rigorous arrangement of natural gas but are less concerted as compared to liquefied natural gas. Gas hydrates occur in beneath of the sediment outer continental margins in foremost regions of Siberia and Alaska. Gas hydrates occur in a modes of occurrence and varied range of geologic settings. These regions include host lithology, gas hydrate in abundance, and distribution inside the burial depth, sediment matrix, water depth, and several others. The key regulatory factor on where gas hydrate forms is availability of methane and lithology.Gas Hydrates Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe major factors driving the growth of gas hydrates market are growing demand of oil and gas across the world, gas hydrates end-user adaptability. Moreover, the market is seen as an opportunity in gas sector as most of the major gas & oil players across the world are doing an advanced research to drive methods for extraction of gas hydrates from ocean. Although, recently India and Japan, are launching aspiring projects to examine the feasibility of gas hydrates. These initiative projects from major countries will help to answer significant questions on the properties of the design of the production system, the host reservoir, and, the economics and costs of hydrate recovery. The geological survey performed by U.S. has a dynamic research program to certificate the geographic factors to measure the volume of gas stored gas hydrate accumulations in U.S and that regulate the occurrence of gas hydrates. The factor restraining the growth of gas hydrates market is climate warming, as enormous volumes of methane are stowed across the globe in the sea floor in the form of solid methane hydrates. Gas hydrates signify an abundant energy reserve for the world. But on other hand it cause climate warming, however, could cause the hydrates to unsettle. The gas hydrates is a greenhouse gas, which can emit without any usage into the atmosphere and also can quicken the climate change.Request For Report Sample:Gas Hydrates Market: Market SegmentationThe gas hydrates market is segmented into four parts based on the product type, application type, distribution channels, and geography.Based on the type the gas hydrates market is segmented into:Onshore gas hydratesOffshore/ Marine gas hydratesBased on the application type the gas hydrates market is segmented into:VehicleCommercialIndustrialOthersGas hydrates Market: Regional OutlookRegarding geography, gas hydrates market has been categorized into five key regions including North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Gas hydrates market is expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific represents the significantly high market share and grow with comparatively high CAGR in forecast period. North America is experiencing the rapid increase in the production capacity of gas hydrates as demand for oil and gas in the region is rising at faster pace. The gas hydrates market is projected to register healthy growth in coming five years due rising consumption of gas hydrates across globe in future. Gas hydrates market for Asia Pacific is also expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period primarily attributed to the growth of oil and gas industry, especially in China and India.Request For TOC:Gas Hydrates Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the upcoming prominent gas hydrates market are:-Global Oil & Gas AGPetroChinaRoyal Dutch ShellSinopecTotal SAValero EnergyOthersABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Clozapine Market Global Research 2017 Novartis, Wanbangde Pharm, Arevipharma, Jinan Jinda, Cambrex

Clozapine

http://bit.ly/2tBjf6C

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-clozapine-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Clozapine Market Research 2017A market study  Global Clozapine Market  examines the performance of the Clozapine market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Clozapine market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Clozapine market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Clozapine Market 2017 report includes Clozapine market Revenue, market Share, Clozapine industry volume, market Trends, Clozapine Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Clozapine Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Clozapine Market 2017 :NovartisCambrexArevipharmaMedichemShouguang Fukang PharmaceuticalTaizhou Xingming PharmaceuticalJinan JindaYunyang PharmWanbangde PharmHangzhou Longshine Bio-TechClozapine Market : By ApplicationHospitalClinicHome CareClozapine Market : By TypeTabletLiquidFirstly, the report covers the top Clozapine manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Clozapine report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Clozapine industry, Clozapine industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Clozapine Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Clozapine research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Clozapine market revenue worldwide.Finally, Clozapine market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Pet Insurance 2017 Global Market Key Players  Petplan UK (Allianz), Nationwide, Trupanion, Petplan NorthAmerica, Hartville Group (Allianz)  Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Pet Insurance Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1571107-global-pet-insurance-market-research-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1571107-global-pet-insurance-market-research-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1571107

Pet Insurance SWOT Analysis and Forecast to 2022Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Pet Insurance Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Report Details:Global Pet Insurance market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer;the top manufacturers/players including :Petplan UK (Allianz)NationwideTrupanionPetplan NorthAmerica(Allianz)Hartville GroupPethealthPetfirstEmbraceRoyal & Sun Alliance (RSA)Direct Line GroupAgriaPetsecurePetSureAnicom Holdingipet InsuranceJapan Animal ClubRequest a Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Pet Insurance in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy Insurance TypeComprehensive InsuranceMedical InsuranceBy Insurance TimeLifetime CoverNon-lifetime CoverAccident-onlyOtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Pet Insurance for each application, includingLifetime CoverNon-lifetime CoverAccident-onlyOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global Pet Insurance Market Research Report 20171 Pet Insurance Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Pet Insurance1.2 Pet Insurance Segment By Insurance Type1.2.1 Global Pet Insurance Production and CAGR (%) Comparison By Insurance Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Pet Insurance Production Market Share By Insurance Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Comprehensive Insurance1.2.4 Medical Insurance1.3 Pet Insurance Segment By Insurance Time1.3.1 Lifetime Cover1.3.2 Non-lifetime Cover1.3.3 Accident-only1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Pet Insurance Segment by Application1.4.1 Pet Insurance Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.4.2 Lifetime Cover1.4.3 Non-lifetime Cover1.4.4 Accident-only1.4.5 Other1.5 Global Pet Insurance Market by Region (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Pet Insurance Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.5.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.6 Global Market Size (Value) of Pet Insurance (2012-2022)1.6.1 Global Pet Insurance Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.6.2 Global Pet Insurance Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022).7 Global Pet Insurance Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Petplan UK (Allianz)7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Petplan UK (Allianz) Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Nationwide7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Nationwide Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Trupanion7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Trupanion Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Petplan NorthAmerica(Allianz)7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Petplan NorthAmerica(Allianz) Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Hartville Group7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Hartville Group Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Pethealth7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Pethealth Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Petfirst7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Petfirst Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Embrace7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Embrace Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA)7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Direct Line Group7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Pet Insurance Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Direct Line Group Pet Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Agria7.12 Petsecure7.13 PetSure7.14 Anicom Holding7.15 ipet Insurance7.16 Japan Animal ClubContinued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UKABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Water and Wastewater Pipe Market to be at Forefront by 2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/water-wastewater-pipe-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3542

www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3542

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Water pipe is a water supply pipe, while wastewater pipe flushes all the wastewater into sewers. Pipes are generally made of polyvinyl chloride, steel, cast iron, polypropylene and copper. Water and wastewater pipe can be segmented on the basis of product into plastic pipe, concrete pipe, steel pipe, ductile iron pipe and others.To view complete report @On the basis of application, water and wastewater pipe market is divided in five categories: sewer & drain pipe, sanitary sewer, potable water, transmission pipe and others. Plastic pipe segment is expected to show a strong growth in the forecasted period. Despite increased competition from plastics, concrete and ductile, iron pipe is expected to retain largest share of the sewer, drainage, and water transmission markets during the forecasted period.North America is the largest market for water and wastewater pipe, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing market. China and India hold the key for future market trends in water and wastewater market owing to increasing urban population, increase in living standards due to higher disposable income and high growth in the building and construction sector. Rising disposable income increase the living standard of customer and leads to more spending on houses, which indirectly drives the demand for water and wastewater pipe.A sample of this report is available upon request @According to the National Bureau of Statistics China, annual per capita disposable income of urban households in China increased from USD 2,271.0 in 2008 to USD 3408.5 in 2012. The overall annual disposable income in India medium household income increased from USD 1,366.2 billion in 2010 to USD 1,587.6 billion in 2013. Currently more than half of the population dwells in cities. The number is expected to increase to more than 60.0% by 2030. According to United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in 2013, largest urban population growth took place in Asian countries such as India and China. By 2050, India is expected to add 404 million urban dwellers while China 292 million. Urban population is more concerned about their water and wastewater system, this leads to increase in the demand for water and wastewater pipe.The market of water and wastewater pipe is expected to witness a double digit growth rate in the coming years. Some of the major drivers contributing the overall market growth of water and wastewater pipe include increased demand for housing in urban areas, increasing non-residential building construction and increasing municipal market. Governments and private sectors across the globe are investing in better infrastructure facilities. Construction of residential and non-residential buildings leads to the demand for water and wastewater pipe market. For infrastructure development, the U.K governments public sector investment is expected to rise by USD 4.9 billion to about USD 77.7 billion in 2013-14 over 2012-13. It is further expected to increase to about USD 83.0 billion in 2014-15. With the increase in infrastructure investment, demand for water and wastewater pipe will increase.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The major companies operating in the water and wastewater pipe market include CEMEX, Hanson Pipe, JM Eagle, Synalloy Corporation, Saint-Gobain, Tyco International Limited, Vianini Pipe Incorporated, Viega GmbH & Company KG, Westlake Chemical Corporation, Roscoe Incorporated and Pacific Corrugated Pipe Company.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Chocolate Market Trends, Size, Growth, Demands and Forecast 2017-2021 - Mars, Mondelz International, Nestle, Ferrero, THE HERSHEY COMPANY

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1180496

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-chocolate-market-2017-2021-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Chocolate is a form of food which is in the form of a paste or solid blocks made from cacao seeds usually sweetened and consumed as a confectionery. The global confectionary market includes products like chocolate confectionary, sugar confectionary, and gum confectionary. The retail chocolate confectionery market is growing steadily as specialist chocolate stores have become a key source of sales for many manufacturers.The global chocolate market to grow at a CAGR of 5.37% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global chocolate market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the retail selling price as the average selling price of the product..Click to get sample PDF with TOC:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEATechnavio's report, Global Chocolate 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.Browse more details at:Key vendors- Mars- Mondelz International- Nestle- Ferrero- THE HERSHEY COMPANY- Chocoladefabriken Lindt & SprngliOther prominent vendors- AUGUST STORCK KG- Blue Frog Chocolates- ChocOn- Gayle's Chocolates- GCMMF (Amul)- Gilbert Chocolates- Godiva- Guylian- Haigh's Chocolates- Lake Champlain Chocolates- Lotus Chocolate Company- Ludwig Schokolade- Patchi- Phillips Chocolate- RITTER SPORTMarket driver- Increasing demand for premium and seasonal chocolates- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Demand outstripping the supply of cocoa beans- 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?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
New Study Offers Detailed Insights on Egg and Egg Products Market

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-217

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-217

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Products which are obtained from different blends and components of eggs and are ready for human consumption are known as egg products. Egg products can partly be complemented by additives or some other food products. They can be found in different forms such as concentrated, crystallized, deep-frozen, liquid, solid, and frozen with a shelf life of three weeks.About 70% of the eggs are mainly produce in the economies of China, India, U.S., Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, and France. In which 36% of the eggs are produce in China and about 11% in Latin America. There are different types of eggs products available in the market which includes pasteurized liquid egg, pasteurized liquid yolk, pasteurized liquid white, dehydrated white, dehydrated egg, hardboiled egg, dehydrated yolk, and ready-cooked meals with egg as their main ingredient.Request For Report Sample@As egg and egg products offers a source of protein to the consumers with the slightest environment impact is the major factor driving the growth of the market. Technology changes, government regulations are some of the factors contributing to the growth of the market. As the industry is continuously changing due to rising demand, increasing consumption and production of egg and egg products and technology advancement the market has huge growth opportunities in future. But, the insignificant growth in the international trade with some exceptions can act as a restraint for the market.Visit For TOC@Some of the key players of the market are Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Land O'Lakes, Inc., Noble Foods Ltd, Tyson Foods, Inc., and Ningbo Jiangbei Dexi Foods Co. Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Clinical Trials Market Forecast and Analysis by Future Market Insights

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-384

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-384

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Clinical trials are research studies performed on humans to gain specific information about biomedical interventions such as novel vaccines, devices, treatments and drugs and thereby generating safety data. Clinical trials are regulated by health authorities and ethics committees.Documents required for performing clinical trials are investigators brochure (IB) which include current and relevant scientific information about the investigational product, United States Food and Drug (FDA) form 1572, protocol and amendments, inform consent, other written information for participants, recruitment advertisement, financial disclosure form (FDF), master clinical trial agreement (MCTA), institutional review board (IRB) approval, medical licensure, training records, laboratory accreditation, visit monitor reports, miscellaneous document, signature sheet and documentation of investigational drug destruction. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) brings together regulatory authorities of Europe, the United States, Japan and experts from pharmaceutical industry to frame and regulate the technical and scientific aspects of pharmaceutical product registration. The Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) states rules and standard guidelines for clinical trials. ICH guidelines are followed as law by several countries in the world.Request For Report Sample@Clinical trials are conducted in four phases namely, Phase I, II, III and IV. Phase I is conducted for safety, phase II is conducted for efficacy, phase III is conducted for final confirmation of safety and efficacy and phase IV is conducted for post sales studies. Risk to participants involved in clinical trials decreases from phase I to phase VI. Number of participants increases from phase I to phase IV resulting in increasing cost of trials. Based on the phases of clinical trials, global clinical trials market is segmented as follows:Phase IPhase IIPhase IIIPhase IVBased on indication, global clinical trials market is classified as follows:Blood disordersOphthalmologyAutoimmune diseasesCirculatory diseasesCancerGenitourinary diseasesCongenital diseasesMusculoskeletal diseasesCentral nervous system (CNS)InfectionsDermatologyMetabolic disordersCardio vascular system (CVS) diseasesGastrointestinal diseasesMental disordersOthersBeing relatively costly process, in order to reduce economic burden on company and shift focus on core business activities, many companies outsource their clinical trial activities to contract research organizations (CROs). Contract research organizations provide services such as clinical trial management, clinical research and preclinical research. Factors such as advancement in technology and increasing demand of innovative solutions in healthcare industry are driving the market of global clinical trials towards growth. On the other hand, factors such as high cost and stringent regulations are restraining the growth of clinical trials market globally. Geographically, the global clinical trials market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World.Visit For TOC@North America is the leading consumer of global clinical trials solutions, followed by Europe. Ample availability of funds to outsource clinical trials serves as the major growth driver for the North America clinical trials market. Asia-Pacific demonstrates impressive growth potential for clinical trials market and is expected to show the highest growth rate as compared to other regions in the world. Countries such as India are attractive markets due to advantages such as availability of skilled practitioners and availability government support in terms development of outsourcing hubs thus attracting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to outsource clinical trial activities to CROs in this region. Some of the market leaders contributing to the global clinical trials market include Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk A/S, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ltd., Sanofi Aventis A.S. and Roche Group.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Analysis and Assessment on Aircraft Washing Systems Market by Future Market Insights

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2855

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2855

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Over the years, more than dozens of people would be involved in washing an aircraft, which was not only immensely time consuming, but the eminence of work was also not up to international standards. On an average, a team of 17 to 20 people would take about 9 to 10 hours to clean one Jumbo (707) aircraft. Also, there are other issues to be considered, such as injuries caused by even a minor carelessness. Presently, in many countries aircraft washing and cleaning is assigned to manual labor. In India, Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi) will soon get washing robots to clean jumbo jets. According to DIAL (Delhi International Airport Limited), the technology will be imported from Sweden. Currently, apart from British airports, this technique is used by Qatar and Thai airways. The new aircraft washing systems will be entirely computerized and will comprise spray nozzles, cleaning brushes and mobile power units.In the Middle East region, the aviation industry is very keen on green practices. Airlines cannot afford spending extensive periods of time on cleaning activities. Therefore, a company named Clean Middle East developed a new aircraft washing technology known as dry wash. Dry wash is developed and produced by Rhoba-Chemie GmbH, (Germany) to clean aircrafts without water. This concept has a big edge over its counterpart since it inhibits corrosion, improves physical appearance, reduces chemically contaminated waste water and minimizes water consumption.As the use of airplanes has increased exponentially, commercial and private aircraft agencies spend billions of dollars every year in aircraft maintenance. Now, international standards of aviation safety and rules also mandate aircraft cleaning. Cleaning is done by both, private and in-house agencies. However, cleaning is not a secondary job and must be carried out with possible aircraft washing systems (equipment).Request For Report Sample:The commonly used aircraft washing equipment are:Carts used to clean the floor of an airplane are included in aircraft washing systemsCoatings used to add extra shine are included in aircraft washing systemsAero brushes used to remove dust from surface are included in aircraft washing systemsWax and buff balls used in the belly area are also included in aircraft washing systemsAircraft squeegee used to remove water and liquid from different areas are included in aircraft washing systemsWashing mops used to clean the surface are included in aircraft washing systemsAircraft washing systems companies such as Riveer (U.S.) have launched automated aircraft washing systems. Such aircraft washing systems take two minutes to clean the aircraft and the wash water is reclaimed and reused again.Aircraft Washing Systems: DynamicsThere is a never ending battle against corrosion in aircraft maintenance, particularly in rotary aircrafts operating over saltwater. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Defense has concluded on rinsing the aircrafts on a weekly or daily basis to combat this problem. Increase in these aircrafts and their running is forecasted to directly create demand and a large growth opportunity for the aircraft washing systems market.Aircraft Washing Systems: Segmentation by MethodWhen it comes to washing the exterior of an aircraft, there are two types of methods: dry and wet. The wet wash requires water and cleaning agent (soap) in three steps, i.e. scrub, rinse and dry. The major problem with this method is that the water needs to be clean and mineral-free. However, most water has some mineral content, which actually captures dirt and leaves deposits on the surface.Request For TOC:On the other hand, the dry wash method cleans and shines the surface in a single step and hence, is becoming a more popular choice. As compared to a wet wash, the cost of dry wash chemicals are expensive and much like waxing your car. This process involves a lot of elbow grease but end results are often less intrusive. With a dry wash interior cleaning and maintenance can be performed simultaneously.Aircraft washing systems: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global aircraft washing systems market identified across the value chain include:RiveerNordic Aerowash EquipmentHydro Engineered Inc.Cleaning Debrring Finishing Inc.JRI IndstriesStoelting Cleaning EqipmentUtrasonic Power CorporationJensen Fabricating Engineers Inc.Wanner Engineering Inc.Ransohoff CincinnatiEncon EvaporatorsDaimler Industries Inc.KMT Aqua Dyne Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market Trends, and Opportunity Analysis by Future Market Insights

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2876

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2876

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Electrically conductive adhesives are adhesives used in joining electrical or electronic components in order to complete a circuit and to maintain conductivity within the circuit. In short, adhesives which can conduct electricity and complete a circuit when applied over an electrical component. There are various types of electrically conductive adhesives available in the global market such as epoxy based adhesives and silicon based adhesives, among others. Generally, these adhesives contain filler material that enhances the characteristic properties of adhesives such as resistance to moisture, low shrinkage properties and strong bonds, among others. Electronically conductive adhesives need to be excellent adhesives in order to increase electromagnetic interference shielding. They are used for providing thermal stability, connecting electrical junctions and adding stability to the electrical component. Electrically conductive adhesives have manifested as a viable alternative for the soldering process in manufacturing of electrical components, along with multiple other processes and applications. Historically, these adhesives were not capable of providing strength when applied to certain metals or electrical components. In order to overcome this disadvantage, various companies modified their manufacturing process and changed the composition of adhesives so as to produce electrically conductive adhesives which were useful in advanced electronics equipment. Electrically conductive adhesives have distinct characteristic properties which allow for their application in an array of uses, such as in PV solar panels, LED/OLEDs, Touch Panel Screens and electronic devices, among others. Another application for these adhesives is in advanced electronics systems such as in the space operations.Global Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market Dynamics:Demand for electrically conductive adhesives is increasing due to rising demand from the electronics industry. Technological advancements in electronics products has resulted in an increase in the demand for advanced adhesive materials that offer strength, conductivity and compatibility with electronic circuits. Electrically conductive adhesives are a fairly suitable option to meet this niche demand that drives the market. Besides this, disposal of electronic and electrical wastage creates environmental issues and pollution hazards. There are various regulations laid down by governments in developed countries in order to minimize pollution. Owing to this, use of electrically conductive adhesives is regulated closely; which adversely affects the market and restricts demand. This is a major constraint in the global electrically conductive adhesives market.Request For Report Sample:Global Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market Segmentation:On the basis of type, global electrically conductive adhesives market are segmented into;Epoxy based adhesivePolyurethane based adhesiveSilicon based adhesivesAcrylate based adhesivesotherOn the basis of filler, global electrically conductive adhesives market are segmented into;silvercoppergraphitenickelotherOn the basis of End use, global electrically conductive adhesives market are segmented into;ElectricalElectronicsAutomotiveOthersRequest For TOC:Global Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market: Regional OutlookElectrically conductive adhesives market is mainly dominated by the Asia Pacific region owing to the presence of major electronics companies in the region. Also, growth of the electronics industry in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, among other countries is prompt. On account of this, the demand for electrically conductive adhesives is expected to increase and is expected to register healthy growth over the forecast period. Being major consumers and producers, China, followed by Taiwan and Korea are expected to dominate the electrically conductive adhesives market over the forecast period. Western Europe is expected to register stagnant growth over this time frame due to the economic slowdown in Europe. Demand for the electrically conductive adhesive market in North America is expected to increase owing to growth in the solar industry where these adhesives are most commonly used. Latin America and Middle East & Africa region are expected to register slow growth over the forecast period.Global Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market Player:Examples of some market participants in the global electrically conductive adhesives market, as identified across the value chain, include Panacol-Elosol GmbH, Msaterbond, The 3M Company , H.B. Fuller, Aremco Products, Inc., DOW Corning, Coatex Industries, Bacon Adhesives, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Permatex and Kemtron Ltd., among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Compounding Extruders Market Size 2017 Krauss Maffei Berstorff, Thermo Scientific, Cheng Yieu Machinery, Maris SpA Flli

Compounding Extruders

http://bit.ly/2vW7oku

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-compounding-extruders-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/

Compounding Extruders Market Research ReportA market study  Global Compounding Extruders Market  examines the performance of the Compounding Extruders market size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Compounding Extruders market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Compounding Extruders market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Compounding Extruders Market 2017 report includes Compounding Extruders market Size, Revenue, market Share, Compounding Extruders industry volume, market Trends, Compounding Extruders Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Compounding Extruders Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Compounding Extruders Market 2017:1. Krauss Maffei Berstorff2. Thermo Scientific3. Cheng Yieu Machinery4. Maris SpA Flli5. Brabender6. MSE Teknoloji7. Toshiba Machine8. Coperion9. ...Compounding Extruders Market: By Product Twin-Screw Single-ScrewCompounding Extruders Market: By Application For PC For PET For PP OthersFirstly, the report covers the top Compounding Extruders manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Compounding Extruders report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Compounding Extruders industry, Compounding Extruders industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Compounding Extruders Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report:The Compounding Extruders research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Compounding Extruders market revenue worldwide.Finally, Compounding Extruders market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Filter Bags Market Global Research 2017 Clarcor, BWF Envirotech, Donaldson Company, Babcock & Wilcox

Filter Bags

http://bit.ly/2v6tswc

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-filter-bags-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Filter Bags Market Research 2017A market study  Global Filter Bags Market  examines the performance of the Filter Bags market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Filter Bags market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Filter Bags market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Filter Bags Market 2017 report includes Filter Bags market Revenue, market Share, Filter Bags industry volume, market Trends, Filter Bags Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Filter Bags Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Filter Bags Market 2017 :Babcock & WilcoxPall CorporationThermax D LtdEaton CorporationMitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems LtdDonaldson CompanyFilter Concept Pvt Ltd.General ElectricCamfil Farr Inc.BWF EnvirotechW.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.Lenntech B.V.Rosedale Products Inc.Parker Hannifin CorporationClarcorFilter Bags Market : By ApplicationCement IndustrySteel IndustryAgrochemicalThermal Power GenerationFilter Bags Market : By TypeLiquid Filter BagsAir Filter BagsFirstly, the report covers the top Filter Bags manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Filter Bags report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Filter Bags industry, Filter Bags industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Filter Bags Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Filter Bags research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Filter Bags market revenue worldwide.Finally, Filter Bags market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Polymeric MDI Market Global Research 2017 Tosoh, Mitsui, WanHua, Kumho Mitsui, Huntsman, Basf

Polymeric MDI

http://bit.ly/2eMPsFy

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-polymeric-mdi-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Polymeric MDI Market Research 2017A market study  Global Polymeric MDI Market  examines the performance of the Polymeric MDI market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Polymeric MDI market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Polymeric MDI market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Polymeric MDI Market 2017 report includes Polymeric MDI market Revenue, market Share, Polymeric MDI industry volume, market Trends, Polymeric MDI Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Polymeric MDI Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Polymeric MDI Market 2017 :BayerWanHuaBasfHuntsmanDowTosohKumho MitsuiMitsuiPolymeric MDI Market : By ApplicationBuilding MaterialsHousehold AppliancesAutomotiveCoating and AdhesivePolymeric MDI Market : By TypeBrown LiquidLight Brown LiquidFirstly, the report covers the top Polymeric MDI manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Polymeric MDI report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Polymeric MDI industry, Polymeric MDI industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Polymeric MDI Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Polymeric MDI research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Polymeric MDI market revenue worldwide.Finally, Polymeric MDI market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market Analysis and Forecast Study for (2015 - 2025)

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-684

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-684

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Hard disk drives are also called as disk drives or hard drives. It is a mechanism which reads and writes data on a hard disk. It is a largest and main data storage hardware device in a computer. Global hard disk drive market includes types of hard disk drives, form factors of hard disk drive and application of hard disk drives.Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal hard disk drive market have witnessed slight growth in 2014, as shipment of hard disk drives increased by ~2% as compared to previous year. The main reason behind increase in sale and shipment of hard disk drive market is because of stabilization of the laptop market and growth of hard disk drives in cloud and other enterprise applications. Global hard disk drive market was facing challenge due to continuous declining of sales, till the second quarter of 2014. Main reason behind drastic decline in hard disk drive revenue is due to shift of many business users and home users from local hard disk drive and onsite server to centralized cloud server. Reduction in demand of desktop PCs and notebooks further restraints the growth of global hard disk drive market. Declining desktop PC demand is mainly because of increasing consumer preference towards smartphones and tablets.Request For Report Sample@Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market: SegmentationGlobal hard disk drive market can be segmented on the basis of type, form factors and application. By type the global hard disk drive market can be segmented into internal hard drives and external hard drives. External hard disk drive market is growing rapidly because of growing demand for portable storage backup and extra data storage at relatively lesser price. New slim and ultra slim external hard disk drives further encourages the external hard disk drive market growth because of consumer demand of appeal and style in system. Also external hard disk drive provides additional security for critical information as its can be easily disconnected from computer to avoid unauthorised access and also can be used with several systems without any special system requirements. However, those who require faster data transfer speeds may select an internal hard disk drive as it is always connected to the system.By form factor, the global hard disk drive market can be segmented into different ranges of form factor such as 3.5 inch, 2.5 inch and 1.8 inch. Form factor signifies the size of bays the drives rest in. Hard disk drive with 3.5 inch of form factor is prominently used in desktop computers, on the other hand 2.5 inch and 1.8 inch hard disk drive is more suitable for laptops and other gaming devicesBy application, the global hard disk drive market can be segmented into consumer electronics and enterprises. Consumer electronics application is further sub segmented into desktop PCs, portable PCs.Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market: Region wise outlookBy region, global hard disk drive market can be segmented into seven regions namely, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East & Africa. At Present, global hard disk drive market is dominated by North America due to the presence of various key manufacturers. Around the world countries such as U.S., China and Singapore dominates the global hard disk drive market.Visit For TOC@Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market: Key PlayersKey players of global hard disk drive market are Western Digital Technologies, Seagate Technology LLC, TOSHIBA CORPORATION. In 2014, Western Digital Technologies. Other prominent vendors in global hard disk drive marker are Buffalo Americas, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Dell, Lenovo and Transcend Information, Inc. etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Diagnostic Electrocardiography Devices Market to Surge at a Robust Pace in Terms of Revenue Over 2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/diagnostic-electrocardiography-devices-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/7993

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/7993

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Diagnostic Electrocardiography (ECG) Devices essentially work on the principle to sense the cardiac electrical signals through electrodes, which are recorded and transmitted into graphical images. Consequently, ECG interpretation is used for diagnosing cardiac diseases such as arrhythmia, myocardial infarction and other such conditions resulting from damage to the heart muscles, conductive tissue, which transmits cardiac electrical signals.Get access to full summary @:The market has been segmented based on device type, ECG data management systems, Resting ECG systems, Stress ECG Testing System, Ambulatory ECG devices, Holter ECG Monitors, ECG Recorder, Transmitter and PageWriter Cardiographs and Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry (MCOT) devices. The drivers for growth will be an increasing prevalence and higher predisposition for cardiac diseases due to global rise in obesity, along with sedentary and other lifestyle factors.According to American Heart Association (AHA) estimates, arrhythmia affects nearly 4 million U.S. with close to half million deaths due to arrhythmia citizens on an annual basis. Therefore, as a diagnostic tool ECG despite being established in the market for a long period will continue to grow with next generation ECG technology. Recently advances include loop recorders that can be implanted in patients body for recording cardiac rhythms for an extended duration.The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009 provides financial incentives for adoption of EMRs by 2015. This widespread adoption of electronic medical databases globally will act as an incentive for diagnostic ECG data management solutions because electrocardiograms are an important component of patients medical records. ECG data management solutions and telemetry provide beat-by-beat recording for post-operative management of coronary artery by-pass graft (CABG). However, they are incapable of monitoring patients during their mobility as they are fixed post-installation.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @To overcome these limitations, potable ECG event monitors penetrated the market for sub-acute cardiac rhythm monitoring for short durations. Similarly, Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry (MCOT) based on cellular capabilities is another technological advancement. CardioNet has established itself as a market leader through MCOT ECG solutions, which has witnessed an explosive growth in the market. Further, MCOT devices are now coupled with enhanced features e.g. expanded memory and light sensors. Thus, MCOS device technology is under constant innovation and has been the latest evolution in the diagnostic ECG device market.For instance, CardioSecur, is the first ECG device based on an iPhone. This segment is expected to grow rapidly because of higher precision and detection, enhanced patient compliance and post-operative care. Geographically, the demand for these devices will be shaped by sharp differences in market penetration based on the tradeoff between cost and technological aspects.There is a growing demand for ECG data management solutions in developed countries in North America and Europe for streamlining patient data management. Many vendors are therefore bundling technology by eliminating the need for stand-alone ECG devices in developed countries.Following on the demand for affordable ECG devices, GE Healthcare introduced portable MAC 800 ECG in the emerging markets. Certain other market players are using the strategy of combining two or more technology under a single diagnostic ECG device. The market for diagnostic ECG devices is undergoing rapid transformation in its landscape, as new market players are gaining entry through innovative products.To View TOC of this Report is Available Upon Request @Some of the key players operating in the diagnostic electrocardiography devices market include Aerotel Medical Systems (1988) Ltd., CardioComm Solutions, Inc. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., GE Healthcare, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp), Personal MedSystems GmbH, Philips Healthcare, Mortara Instrument, Inc., Schiller AG and Siemens Corporation among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Fire Doors Market Global Research 2017 Ahmarra, Avians, Howden Joinery, Clark Door, UK Fire Doors

Fire Doors

http://bit.ly/2tXGYxo

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-fire-doors-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Fire Doors Market Research 2017A market study  Global Fire Doors Market  examines the performance of the Fire Doors market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Fire Doors market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Fire Doors market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Fire Doors Market 2017 report includes Fire Doors market Revenue, market Share, Fire Doors industry volume, market Trends, Fire Doors Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Fire Doors Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Fire Doors Market 2017 :SanwaHrmannASSA ABLOYRapp MarineChase DoorsAgta recordMESKER DoorUK Fire DoorsEssexford JoineryHowden JoineryNihon FunenRepublic Doors and FramesBuyangWonlyNAFFCOBWF-CertifireClark DoorAhmarraVan DamASDMASandorAviansFire Doors Market : By ApplicationSchoolHospitalOfficeHotelApartment BuildingFire Doors Market : By TypeFire Resistant Timber DoorsetsFire Resistant Steel DoorsetsFire Resistant Timber Doorsets With Steel StructureOther Material Fire Resistant DoorsetsFirstly, the report covers the top Fire Doors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Fire Doors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Fire Doors industry, Fire Doors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Fire Doors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Fire Doors research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Fire Doors market revenue worldwide.Finally, Fire Doors market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Medical Disposables Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.11% during 2017-2021 - Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Smith & Nephew

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1180492

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-medical-disposables-market-2017-2021-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Medical disposables are single-use products that help to reduce HAIs. To improve patient care, many hospitals in developed and developing countries are using such products. To increase patient safety, end-users such as hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), clinics, home care centers, and physicians' offices are using medical disposable products. These products are cost-effective and reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), which, in turn, decreases prolonged hospital stay and reduces the cost burden on patients.The global medical disposables market to grow at a CAGR of 7.11% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global medical disposables market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from sales, volume and value of medical disposable products.Click to get sample PDF with TOC:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEATechnavio's report, Global Medical Disposables 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.Browse more details at:Key vendors- Johnson & Johnson- 3M- Smith & NephewOther prominent vendors- Acelity- Adenna- ADVENTA Health- Ahlstrom- Alpha Healthcare and Equipment- AMMEX- Ansell- Aspen Medical- Attends Healthcare Products- B. Braun- BD- Biovotec- BELDICO- Boston Scientific- Careplus- ConvaTec- Cardinal Health- Changzhou Hekang Medical InstrumentsKey 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?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Oddly in synch with the narrative strategy (though without the imposing visual panache) of Dunkirk, the other historical drama of the moment, director Kathryn Bigelows Detroit, is an artfully frazzled mosaic of suffering, putting the audience through the wringer in the name of truth, injustice and what many see, still, as the American way with police brutality.

At its best the movie, written by Mark Boal, Bigelows collaborator on The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, evokes a spirit of mournful provocation, as the bloody Detroit events of July 1967 unfold. There are significant limitations, however, with Bigelows latest film, and they prevent Detroit  a war chronicle no less than her masterworks The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty  from measuring up to those exceptional standards. In various, depressing ways, the film speaks to our present-day rage-fueled American divisions, clear echoes of where we were 50 years ago. Audiences are responding to Dunkirk because its a reassuring period piece, about grace under pressure and never giving up. Detroit is a tougher sell for a Friday night at the movies, because its about people who never had a chance at justice in the first place.

The events are well known in some circles, less so in others. On July 23, 1967, police raided an illegal after-hours bar (a blind pig) on Detroits Near West Side. This sparked riots that, as one character in the film notes, exceeded the destruction of the 1943 Detroit clashes between police and African-American citizens. In the movie Anthony Mackie plays a key supporting character, real-life Vietnam War veteran Robert Greene, caught up in the blind pig raid and the ensuing nightmare. He later described it as worse than anything he endured in Vietnam.

Some characters are pulled from the historical record; the key fictionalized character (for legal reasons), a venal, sociopathic police officer played by Will Poulter, is based on an officer found not guilty in court by an all-white jury. The excruciating centerpiece of Detroit concerns what happened at the Algiers Motel, an 11-dollar-a-night dive, home to hookers and johns and all kinds of transients. A group of officers, mistaking a starters pistol for sniper fire, turned against innocent suspects in a show of outlandish, illegal force. With the tacit cooperation of state police and the National Guard, the interrogation turned on a sick game of pretend-killings (pretend for a while, anyway) in a room adjoining the hallway where various, battered and abused suspects were being held while police searched for a snipers rifle that did not exist.

Its one hell of a difficult sequence to endure. Bigelow does not elide or cut out anything for the sake of going easy on the audience. The films audience surrogate, who remains watchful on the margins of this long scene, is real-life security guard Melvin Dismukes, played by John Boyega of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Hes a singular note of decency amid an indecently cruel scenario.

This protracted Algiers Motel nightmare, which recalls the urban warfare of The Battle of Algiers by more than name only, raises a question. Is there a way to dramatize a gut-grinding scene so that the audience stays rapt instead of checking out emotionally? Bigelow knows the answer is affirmative, but its extraordinarily tricky. Here she cannily cuts in and out of the scene for rhythmic variety, picking up other plot strands for a while, then returning.

But Poulter is miscast, and one-note, and it seriously hurts Detroit. As written and as acted, the vicious cop here called Krauss (whom we first see shooting a looter in the back) serves as the embodiment of all law enforcement evil, a scared, racist, paranoid bully acting with impunity, pulling his partners (one willing, the other reluctant) into the escalating carnage. Screenwriter Boal has done copious research and read through various accounts of the evening, as recalled by various parties, but the scene is missing something. What should be impossible to look away from grows too easy to tune out.

Bigelow and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd plow through Detroit with an aggressively destabilized camera, familiar if youve seen The Hurt Locker and, even more extreme in its hand-held, faux-war documentary tactic, Captain Phillips, both shot by Ackroyd. Its the logical aesthetic choice, but by now the conventional one. Striking and vivid in short bursts and its accumulation of outrages, Detroit mightve benefited from Bigelow working with a different director of photography, as well as a co-writer for Boal.

The casting, for the most part, seamlessly mixes relative newcomers with seasoned pros (Mackies Vietnam vet; Algee Smith as a member of the vocal group The Dramatics, whose big break is forestalled by the riots; cameos taken by John Krasinski and Jennifer Ehle). The movie interpolates archival footage (Michigan Gov. George Romney decrying hoodlumism) indicated by a narrow aspect ratio. A prologue written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., charts the Great Migration and subsequent economic disenfranchisement of countless African-Americans. Change was inevitable, one title card reads in the animated Detroit opener, using illustrator Jacob Lawrences paintings. Its a disarmingly folkloric way to introduce the blood-stained mosaic to come.

I watched Detroit with one eye on a movie yet to be made. If anyone is ever to take on a major piece of cinematic historical fiction dealing with Chicago in August 1968, Bigelows Detroit offers intriguing signposts about what might, and might not, work. A handful of films, from The Battle of Algiers to Paul Greengrass splendid Bloody Sunday, have met the challenge of dramatizing civil unrest and law enforcement outrages, memorably. Detroit comes close.



DETROIT

2.5 out of 4 stars

MPAA rating: R (for strong violence and pervasive language)

Running time: 2:23



2017 Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Global System Infrastructure Revenue Market to grow at a CAGR of 5.57% during 2017-2021 - AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1180489

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-system-infrastructure-revenue-market-2017-2021-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

The global system infrastructure revenue market includes cloud software solutions that help in increasing the efficiency of IT systems used by an organization. These solutions help an organization in performing the basic tasks and support the workflow of its business. These software packages do not perform activities directly related to the business but are crucial for the smooth functioning of the business operations.The global system infrastructure revenue market to grow at a CAGR of 5.57% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global system infrastructure revenue market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue of both the major and other prominent vendors.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAClick to get sample PDF with TOC:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEATechnavio's report, Global Medical Disposables 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.Browse more details at:Technavio's report, Global System Infrastructure Revenue 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- AWS- Google- IBM- Microsoft- OracleOther prominent vendors- Apprenda- Bungee Labs- CA- Engine Yard- Qlik- RACKSPACE- Red Hat- Salesforce.com- SAP- Telefnica- VMware- WiproKey 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?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Modular PLC Market Projected to Grow at Steady Rate through 2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3711

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3711

www.futuremarketinsights.com

PLCs or Programmable Logic Controllers are generally the commercial or industrial computers used to operate automated systems. From traffic lights on streets to roller coasters at parks, PLCs are seen everywhere. To make PLC work, three major components are required, namely, the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the power supply and rack, and the I/O section. The two main categories of PLC are fixed and modular PLCs. Modular PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) is preferred over fixed PLC owing to its capability to execute complex processes. Furthermore, modular PLCs are also called rack-mounted units, consisting of bases for installation of various I/O modules, which are easier to repair. Capability to store more information, greater number of available I/O modules, designed to expand and customize processes for continuous development and greater economic security for long-term are some of the benefits, which are expected to be the factors for the market growth. Based on product type, micro modular PLC is expected to dominate the global modular PLC market.Modular PLC Market: DriversThe modular PLC has the ability to complete the process while the other errors are being fixed. Moreover, the ease of troubleshooting the downtime of the modular PLC is lesser than the fixed PLC. Due to the aforementioned factors, global modular PLC is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. Furthermore, growing home and building automation market is expected to fuel the demand for modular PLC in the near future. Additionally, increasing requirement of automation solutions is projected to upsurge the demand for modular PLC during the forecast period.Request For Report Sample:Modular PLC Market: RestraintsHigher initial cost as compared to fixed PLC is expected to be one of the factors hindering the growth of global modular PLC market over the forecast period. Furthermore, decrease in space efficiency, high cost of diagnostic labour during failure, need of enclosure due to low IP ratings and more spare stock, which increases maintenance cost are the other factors hampering the growth of global modular PLC market during the forecast period.Modular PLC Market: SegmentationThe global modular PLC market can be segmented on the basis of product type, program memory size, offerings and end-use industry mainly. On the basis of product type, the global modular PLC market can be segmented into micro modular PLC and nano modular PLC. On the basis of program memory size, the market can be segmented into small size PLC (max two I/O module), medium size PLC (less than 100 I/O modules) and large size PLC (more than 100 I/O modules). On the basis of offerings, the modular PLC market can be segmented into hardware, software and services. On the basis of end use industry, the market can be further segmented into automotive, food and beverage, cement industry, home & building automation, metal & mining, pharmaceutical industry and others.Modular PLC Market: Regional OutlookBased on regions, North America is expected to dominate the global modular PLC market. The increasing demand for modular PLC from food and beverage, power and waste water treatment industries is expected to drive the growth of modular PLC market in North America. Asia Pacific, led by China and India, is projected to witness high growth during the forecast period. Rapid industrialization coupled with increasing manufacturing units in this region are projected to fuel the demand for modular PLC. Latin America and Europe are expected to witness positive growth during the forecast period. Japan, being the matured and developed market, is expected to witness stagnant growth in modular PLC market during the forecast period. Owing to growing industrialization and commercialization in Middle East & Africa, the modular PLC market is expected to exhibit significant growth during the forecast period.Request For TOC:Modular PLC Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of the prominent players identified in the global modular PLC market are as mentioned below:ABB LimitedB&R Industrial AutomationGeneral ElectricIDEC CorporationMitsubishi Electric CompanyOmron CorporationRockwell Automation Inc.Siemens AGSchneider Electric SERobert Bosch GmbHABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Precise Overview on ICT Investment Trends in Canada with Key Facts and Growing Enterprises Strategies

ICT Market Research Report

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1230652

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/ict-investment-trends-in-canada-digital-transformation-and-disruption-will-impact-ict-investment-strategies-report.html

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1230652

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Canada's information and communications technology (ICT) sector is an important part of the Canadian economy. As the global economy becomes gradually digital, demand for digital products and services will grow, including in areas of Canadian strength. At present, there are various business and IT objectives which the Canadian enterprises are aiming to achieve through their IT investment strategies. Considering this, Market Research Hub (MRH) has broadcasted a new study to its wide repository, with the title of ICT Investment Trends in Canada: Digital transformation and disruption will impact ICT investment strategies. This study presents the findings from a survey of 104 Canadian enterprises regarding their Information & Communications Technology investment trends.Request Free Sample Report:The research finds that Canada has hard strengths in communications technologies including (wireless and wired equipment, fibre optics & communications software), new media (e-gaming, animation and special effects) and microelectronics. Other areas of potential technology and market opportunity for the ICT sector include cloud computing, microsystems, e-health applications and software as a service (SaaS). The Internet of Things is a recent trend that is driving Canadas information and communications technologies sector. The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) anticipates the Canadian economy to grow by 2.4% in 2017 and expects to expand by 2.2% in 2018. This is mainly due to the growing need among Canadian enterprises to reduce their cost of ownership of software, together with the advantages of scalability and on-demand pricing is driving the adoption of SaaS.Initially, the study provides a brief overview of trends in ICT investment in the business sector for Canada, focusing on developments and digital transformation that will impact the investment strategies. The survey investigates how Canadian enterprises currently distribute their ICT budgets across the central areas of enterprise ICT expenditure: hardware, software, IT services, communications and consulting.Browse Full Report With TOC:Moreover, the research illustrates the core technologies that enterprises are investing in, including IoT, mobility management, business intelligence and cloud computing. As per the findings, enterprises are looking to increase their total ICT budget in 2017, as the Canadian economy has been witnessing stable economic growth and the ongoing expansion in the technological areas will provide much-needed push to the digital transformation of the economy. The research further analyzes that customer satisfaction is the most important business objective influencing IT investment strategy among Canadian enterprises.Later, the report aims to provide a better insight to ICT vendors and service providers in Canada along with enterprises distribution of their ICT budget across various segments within a technology category. Companies mentioned in this study are Apple Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., EMC Corporation, Bell Canada, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Dell Technologies Inc., Google Inc., Oracle Corporation, IBM, Microsoft Corporation and SAP SE.Make An Enquiry:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At:
Corrugated Packaging Market Is Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 5.78% By 2023

Corrugated Packaging Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1205

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/corrugated-packaging-market-1205

Market Highlights:Global corrugated packaging has very broad market in coming recent years. MRFR analysts has predicted that food & beverages and consumer goods industry are about to grow at a rapid pace, moreover, the speedy rising ecommerce business has also been a growth momentum which means more demand for these industries and in turn for corrugated packaging. The global corrugated packaging market has experienced a humongous growth over the past years and as per the estimation the global corrugated packaging market will grow more on a rapid pace during the forecast period. The rising population and growing per capita income are the major growth driver for this market. Along with this the growing applications segment such as food & beverages, personal care, Pharmaceuticals & healthcare, consumer goods, electronic goods have contributed a major role in the overall market growth.Request a Sample Copy @Regional Analysis:Geographically, North America is a major revenue generator to the global corrugated packaging market where the US market has become one of the most attractive place for the manufacturers owing to the rising ecommerce venture and shifting trends towards online shopping. Europe is the second leading region and Asia-Pacific has emerged as the fastest growing region.Rapid growth in the electronic sector is ultimately driving the demand of the corrugated packaging. Today consumer electronics is the top selling category due to increase in the number of online electronics models. The electronic sector is continuously evolving with new developments. Due to the increase in internet and mobile penetration, there have been increase in the acceptance of online payments and favourable demographics have given the companies in the electronic sector, an opportunity to connect with their customers.According to REED Electronic Research, a leading market information provider on the global electronics industry, in 2015, China has accounted for 38% of electronics equipment production in the global market.Developing countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mexico have the largest disposable income, due to which there is a significant growth in the manufacturing and service industries here. The higher disposable income in these developing countries, results in the increase in purchasing power. As a result, corrugated packaging market has been impacted, positively.Key Market Players:The key players in global corrugated packaging market report included are Mondi Group (U.S.), Smurfit Kappa Group (Ireland) , International Paper Company (Tennessee), Orora Packaging Australia Pty Ltd (Australia), WestRock (U.S.), Georgia-Pacific LLC (Atlanta), Archis Packaging (India) Pvt. Ltd., Europac Group (U.K.), KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (U.S.) and Nefab Group (Sweden).Access Report Details @Market Segmentation:The global corrugated packaging market has been segmented into types, wall construction, application and region.By Types Bliss / Rigid Boxes Self-Erecting Boxes Telescope boxes Slotted boxes OthersBy Wall Construction Single-wall Double-wall Triple-wallBy Application Food & beverages Electronic goods Personal care Pharmaceuticals & healthcare OthersBy Region North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global and United States Bio-Waste Containers Market Analysis by Players, Types and Applications, Forecast 2017-2022

Chemical-Industry Research Report

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1230797

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/2017-2022-bio-waste-containers-report-on-global-and-united-states-market-status-and-forecast-by-players-types-and-applications-report.html

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1230797

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Bio-waste containers are used by various end users for safe disposal of biohazardous waste material. Even the critical or dangerous liquids or supernatants and pathogens can be disposed, with an aim to prevent direct human exposure. To further analyze, Market Research Hub (MRH) has lastly added a study titled as 2017-2022 Bio-Waste Containers Report on Global and United States Market, Status, and Forecast, by Players, Types, and Applications to its vast report repository. The report predicts the global bio-waste containers market to multiply at a progressive CAGR between 2017 and 2022.Request Free Sample Report:The report commences with the methodology & data source followed by the bio-waste containers market overview. The methodology explains the research programs/design, market size estimation, market breakdown and data triangulation. Similarly, the data source explains the secondary sources and primary sources. Moreover, a brief about the biowaste containers is enclosed that includes the product overview and segments by type, application and region. This particular research holds the global and United States comparison for bio-waste containers sales, growth, market share, revenue and price for the year 2012 to 2017 and forecast for 2022. The product type explained in the study include plastic container, paper container, and steel container.In the next section, the report segregates and compare the application by sales & CAGR (2012, 2016 and 2022) and sales and market share (2012-2017). The prime applications include laboratory, industrial use, public services and other. On the geographical scale, the regions are featured with varying market factors. The major regions explained in the report are North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East & Africa and the United States. By analyzing at the global scale, the Asia-Pacific region seems to occupy for more market share in coming years, especially in China, followed by fast growing Indian and Southeast Asian regions. However, the United States will still play an important role in the global market with a major proportion of market size.Browse Full Report With TOC:The competition analysis by the global level bio-waste containers main players/manufacturers is wrapped in the study. The major manufacturers include Justrite, Dynalon, Covidien, Otto, McKesson, UltraTech, Bemis Healthcare, Eagle Manufacturing Company, and LB Medwaste. Lastly, the report explains the containers manufacturing cost, industrial chain, and downstream buyers. The manufacturing cost is analyzed by the key raw material analysis and further easily calculated by depicting the proportion of manufacturing cost structure. The study has further presented in brief the marketing channels, distributors in the United States, and market effect factors analysis. It concludes with the global and the United States bio-waste containers market forecast by various market effect factors for the period between 2017 and 2022.Make An Enquiry:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At:
U.S., India and Europe CBCT Dental Imaging Market is predictable to be worth USD 565.3 million in 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2539

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/usie-cbct-dental-imaging-market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2539

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/statistical-reports/americas-precision-medicine-market-3044

Market HighlightsMarket research future published a cooked research report on U.S., India & Europe CBCT Dental Imaging Market. The U.S., India & Europe CBCT Dental Imaging Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.8% during the period 2016 to 2023.Dental cone beam computed tomography (CT) is a special type of x-ray equipment used when regular dental or facial x-rays are not sufficient. The technology is used to produce three dimensional (3-D) images of the teeth, soft tissues, nerve pathways and bone in a single scan. The use of CBCT devices is on the rise due to the increasing number of dental specialty hospitals and laboratories in the Americas and Europe which led to the augmented adoption of CBCT in these regions. Companies like Danaher Corporation, Planmeca OY and Dentsply Sirona are the leading players in this market globally.Request a Sample Report @Major Key PlayersCarestream Health (US),Dentsply Sirona (US),FONA Dental,R.O.,Gendex,Imaging Sciences International, LLC (US),MORITA MFG.CORP. (Japan),KaVo Dental GmbH (Germany),NewTom,Planmeca OY,Prexion (US),Sinclair Dental/Dentaire (Canada),SOREDEX (Finland),Vatech Networks (Republic of Korea)The dental CBCT market by detector type is segmented into flat panel detectors, and image intensifier. The image intensifiers are those device which are capable of detecting and amplifying low-light-level images such as weak emissions or reflected light for bringing them into view as sharp contrast images. The Flat Panel Detectors (FPDs) are the next generation digital X-ray technology. The FPD technology accounts the largest market share which is majorly attributed to factors such as; improved ergonomics with better patient access, less image degradation and increasing use of CBCT imaging in dentistry while the major challenge to this market is the lack of awareness for the use of advanced technologies by the healthcare providers in developing countries.Test the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread over 93 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content (TOC) & market synopsis on U.S., India & Europe CBCT Dental Imaging Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023.Report Details @Regional Analysis:Depending on geographic region, CBCT dental imaging market is segmented into three key regions: U.S., Europe and India. U.S. is the largest market for CBCT dental imaging due to high adoption rate of new and advanced products and the government funding for improving the oral health in this region. Europe is the second-largest market for CBCT dental imaging. India region is expected to be fastest growing region in CBCT dental imaging market due to increasing healthcare expenditure.Segmentation:U.S., India & Europe CBCT dental imaging market has been segmented on the basis of type of detector which comprises flat panel detectors and image intensifier. On the basis of application the market is segmented into dental implants, endodontics, orthodontics and others. On the basis of end users the market is segmented into hospitals & dental clinics, academic & research institutes and others.Make an Enquiry @Table of Content1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of Study2.3 Research Objective2.4 Assumptions & Limitations2.4.1 Assumptions2.4.2 Limitations2.5 Market Structure3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research4 Market Dynamics4.1 Introduction4.2 DriversContinued.Browse Related Statistical ReportAmerica precision medicine market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10% during the forecasted period. Americas (especially the North America) dominated the precision medicine market with the largest market share accounting for $20.63 billion and is expected to grow over $49.37 billion by 2022.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact Info:Name: Akash AnandOrganization: Market Research FutureAddress: Market Research Future Office No. 524/528,Phone: +1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Digital Stethoscope Market : Key Growth Factors and Industry Analysis 2016-2026

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2524

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2524

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Digital stethoscope is a real time invention, which translates acoustic sound into an electrical signal, heart beats per minute (HBM) is displayed on LCD. Digital stethoscope also offers signal amplification and additional functions like storage, analysis and visual demonstration of sound signals. Sounds from multiple locations can be seized with the help of an electret microphone. The arrested sound is filtered and processed digitally by exhausting an adaptive frequency to obtain clearly audible and distinct heart sounds. An advanced digital stethoscope can wirelessly stream heart sounds to a smartphone. It also offers refined capabilities with audio recording and playback features. Digital stethoscope provides a new dais for potential computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). A digital stethoscope has various applications such as to assist doctors in examine and analyze cardiac signals in real time during auscultation. Digital stethoscopes are frequently favored by healthcare professionals for a physical examination. New edition of digital stethoscopes does have a learning curve, as its unique features with the integrated system for rapid diagnosing purposes is gaining more scope for the worldwide physicians. The upcoming advanced technology potential to revolutionize overall diagnosis by driving great innovation and enhancing the way healthcare services are administered throughout the globe successfully.Request Report Sample@Digital Stethoscope Market: Drivers and RestraintsDigital stethoscopes have cutting-edge features like audio recording, amplification of sound and eliminate other troublesome sounds for improved diagnosis. These digital stethoscopes are also fortified with software that allows doctors to generalize the readings for monitoring the heart rate of the patient. Substituting the linking cable with a wireless model may support lessen the potential risk and further agree to the propagation of the signals to different users for a checkup. Now physicians are capable to capture individuals heart and lung sounds and incorporate them into the electronic health record. This breakthrough signifies a revolutionary advancement in longitudinal patient care. Digital stethoscopes are gaining more popularity among dental practitioners that are seeking for more flexibility in overall functionality. In addition, increasing healthcare awareness and promotional campaigning by manufacturing companies is also fuelling the growth of the global digital stethoscopes market. Digital stethoscope manufacturers are converging on developing the devices with superior acoustics, better performance, and pioneering designs. Growing healthcare expenditure, increasing lifestyle, and the elderly population is expected to fuel the growth of digital stethoscope market. These stethoscopes offer advanced features with modern technology and have strongest growth potential in the overall stethoscope market. A lot of startup firms in the digital health space appear to launch their own manufactured products when FDA gave a green light to digital stethoscope. It may be too complex, time-consuming and too expensive to accept the new digital technology. Physicians have to gain more trust their medical devices work as stated. FDA approval system is one way of substantiating the upcoming digital device. This adoption of new technology by worldwide doctors is really a value based shift payment for digital stethoscope providers.Digital Stethoscope Market: SegmentationBy TechnologyIntegrated Chest-Piece SystemWireless Transmission System (Bluetooth)Integrated Receiver Head-Piece SystemNumerical Simulation and System IntegrationBy End UserHospitalsClinicsHealthcare Institutes & OrganizationsHome Care SettingsOthersDigital Stethoscope Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, the digital stethoscope market is segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). The global digital stethoscope market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR during the forecast period. North American region has a huge market owing to a large number of manufacturers, technological advancements with increasing population with and growing awareness about the upcoming devices and technology. Asian countries and Latin American countries are having more growth opportunities for digital stethoscope market players in the forecast period. North America leads the global digital stethoscope market due to rise in geriatric population and increasing concern of healthcare. Some of the key factors impacting digital stethoscope market in emerging countries are rising demand for healthcare medical devices for commercial and personal usage, growing healthcare expenditure and rising government initiatives in the field of digital market.Visit For TOC@Digital Stethoscope Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the global digital stethoscope market are FarmaSino Pharmaceuticals, Eko, Qinhuangdao Contec Medical Systems Co., Ltd., EXANOVO GROUP, Qufu Longercare Meditech Limited, and others. Digital stethoscope made by Eko Devices is also the first company to incorporate heart sounds directly with a patient's electronic health record (EHR).About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Automobile Carburetor Sales Market Report 2016 - Keihin, Nikki, Huihua, Ruixing, Dongfeng

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=805080&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-automobile-carburetor-sales-market-report-2016.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Automobile Carburetor Sales Market Report 2016 to its huge collection of research reports.This report is a key analysis of all the factors boosting the growth of the global Automobile Carburetor market. The factors hampering or restricting the growth of this market have also been studied in detail, thus helping readers to equip themselves better for facing the many challenges and competition in the global Automobile Carburetor industry. The report takes into account the present market figures and also the historical data, for predicting the future forecast of the Automobile Carburetor market. The trends in the Automobile Carburetor market have been discussed in detail. The key opportunities lying ahead in the global Automobile Carburetor industry have also been disclosed. Thus, the report is a valuable asset for new entrants as well as those established.top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringKeihinNikkiHuihuaRuixingDongfengTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report is an analysis of the degree of competition, the bargaining supplier power, and bargaining buyer powers have been included in the report. The threat of new substitutes has been discussed in detail. The threat of new entrants is also given in this report. Thus, the report contains valuable data which will help companies and potential investors to clearly understand and comprehend which segment to invest on and why. The segments and sub segments of the global Automobile Carburetor market have also been included in the report. The report predicts the segment which is most likely to expand at the fastest CAGR as well as the segment which will lead in the years to come. Similarly, the segment witnessing the most sluggish growth is also pointed out. Key players are studied in the report along with their useful data such as business and financial overview and business strategies adopted.Table of Contents1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Automobile Carburetor (2011-2021)1.5.1 Global Automobile Carburetor Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.2 Global Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Global Automobile Carburetor Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Automobile Carburetor Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Automobile Carburetor Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2011-2016)2.1.2 Global Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2011-2016)3 USA Automobile Carburetor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 USA Automobile Carburetor Sales and Value (2011-2016)3.1.1 USA Automobile Carburetor Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.2 USA Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.3 USA Automobile Carburetor Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)Browse Complete Report with TOC @4 China Automobile Carburetor (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Automobile Carburetor Sales and Value (2011-2016)4.1.1 China Automobile Carburetor Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.2 China Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.3 China Automobile Carburetor Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)List of Tables and FiguresFigure USA Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure China Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Europe Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Japan Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure India Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Southeast Asia Automobile Carburetor Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Global Automobile Carburetor Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Native Starches Global Market : Key Players, Growth, Analysis, 2017 to 2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3229

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3229

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Native starches is a carbohydrate which is obtained from cereals and tubers which is used for texturing various food products. Native starch is a fine white powder having natural taste and odor. Native starch is obtained by physical extraction, drying and purification of starch milk. Native starch have properties such as gelling and viscosity, water binding, bulking agent, feed texturization, shelf-life extension, extrusion aid, etc. Native starch is used in the preparation of dry soup mixes to control the viscosity and as a source of energy. Native starch has application in food industry, pharmaceutical industry, paper making industry, cosmetics industry etc. which has increased its demand globally. Native starch is obtained in its purest form with unaltered physical and chemical properties where in original properties are lost in modified starch.Market Segmentation:Native starches market is segmented on the basis of source as corn, wheat, rice, potato, cassava, and others. Corn native starch have varieties such as wild type, waxy and high amylose which are used in soups and other food applications for enhancing the taste and flavor of the food recipes. Cassava native starch is obtained in flake-shaped and irregular granules type which is used in baked products. Wheat native starch is obtained in disk shape granule form having application in cooking as a thickening agent in food sauces, desert puddings, and others.Request Report Sample@Native starch is segmented on the basis of type of native starch such as native maize starch, native waxy maize starch, native wheat starch, native potato starch, and others. These native starches are used in soups, sauces, canned vegetables, meat products, bakery products, convenience foods, snacks and confectioneries, etc.Native starch market is also segmented on the basis of its application in various industries such as food industry, cosmetics industry, pharmaceutical industry, and others. In food industry, it is used as a thickening agent as well as texturing the food products. Native starch is also used in confectionery, dairy and bakery products to provide consistency and texture to the final product. In cosmetics industry, native starch is used as an emulsion, decorative cosmetics or in powders. Native starch powder is a natural aesthetic which makes it useful in various cosmetics. In pharmaceutical industry, native starch is used in formulation of tablets.Market Regional Outlook:On the basis of regions, the Native starches market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the global native starches market while Asia Pacific is expected to show maximum growth over the forecast period. On the basis of consumption North America market is the leading market and expected to grow over the forecast period. Cosmetic industries are establishing in Western Europe which is increasing the demand for native starch various cosmetics in the region.Market Drivers and Trends:As a result of application of native starches in various industries such as food industry, cosmetic industry, pharmaceutical industry etc. is increasing demand for native starches in global market. Cosmetic industry is growing in global market and native starches is used in cosmetic hair and skin care products, which in turn increases global demand for native starches. Native starch is available in pure form which makes it popular in consumers inclining towards organic products.Visit For TOC@Native Starches Market Key Players:Some of the key players in the global native starches market include AGRANA Investment Corp., Cargill, Incorporated, Tereos Starch & Sweeteners, Tate & Lyle, Ingredion Incorporated, Gulshan Polyols Ltd., AMYLCO Group of Companies, UNIVERSAL BIOPOLYMERS, SPAC STARCH PRODUCTS (INDIA) LTD, Thai Flour Co.,Ltd., Honest Derivatives Pvt. Ltd., etc. are among these.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Pfenex CEO explores the future of biosimilars in North America

www.biosimilars-northamerica.com/openpr

www.biosimilars-northamerica.com/openpr

www.biosimilars-northamerica.com/openpr

http://www.smi-online.co.uk

SMi Group has announced that Mr Patrick Lucy, CEO of Pfenex, has joined the speaker line-up for the 4th annual Biosimilars North America conference which takes place on November 15 & 16 in New Jersey.Patrick will present a special keynote address giving an overview of the biosimilars market, including the key milsestones and hurdles the industry has overcome. He will also share some top tips on what to keep in mind moving forward.He joins a speaker line-up comprised of experts shaping up the biosimilars landscape in North America including representatives from Sandoz, Harvest Moon Pharmaceuticals, Momenta, FUJIFILM Diosynth, Oncobiologics, Adelio, Covance, Zuckerman & Spaeder and more.The full roster of speakers and their topics can be found onSMis Biosimilars North America conference will explore significant developmental topics within the sector including the impact of FDAs newly implemented biosimilar interchangeability guidelines, the US market access landscape, and biosimilars of orphan drugs.Registration is now live on the event website and there For more information visit:4th Biosimilars North AmericaNovember 15 & 16, 2017Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel, Iselin, NJ, USA--- END ---For delegate registration enquiries, contact Fateja Begum on fbegum@smi-online.co.uk. For media enquiries, contact Honey de Gracia at hdegracia@smi-online.co.uk.About SMi Group:Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at1 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7XW
Caterpillar, maker of heavy equipment, scored better second-quarter results on Tuesday, posting revenue of $11.33 billion in the period.

Four other stories you should see today are the Cardinals dedicating a new field in Hess Park, a youngster being hospitalized with burns, the U.S. Senate taking up health care again and pressure to pass school funding legislation.

CAT earnings report released

Caterpillar Inc. on Tuesday reported second-quarter profit of $802 million, beating Wall Street expectations.

The company's Decatur plant on North 27th Street makes the world's biggest off-road dump trucks. Caterpillar expects full-year earnings to be $5 per share, with revenue in the range of $42 billion to $44 billion. Shares have climbed 17 percent since the beginning of the year.

Dexter Fowler Field dedicated

St. Louis Cardinals team officials were in Decatur to dedicate Dexter Fowler Field in Hess Park. The team's Cardinals Care program invested in the project.

The field will house the Redbird Rookies program.

Rauner urged to approve school funding bill

Area school officials and community leaders on Tuesday urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to approve school funding legislation. Rauner on Monday ordered lawmakers to return to Springfield Wednesday for a special session.

Legislators have approved a plan to ensure the neediest school districts get money first. But it also requires the state to pay the employer portion of Chicago Public Schools' teacher pensions.

"Every child in Illinois deserves a high-quality education that gives them a fair shot at prosperity, said Paul Fregeau, superintendent of Decatur schools, in a statement. In my district, and in too many others, we face a situation where we cannot guarantee a full school year due to the vagaries of education funding. The only solution passed by our Legislature that meets the criteria of having an evidence based formula is SB1. This bill SB1 needs to become law so we can begin mending our public education funding system."

Child hospitalized with burns

A 9-year-old was taken to HSHS St. Mary's Hospital after being burned, fire officials said.

The incident was reported Monday night in the 1900 block of East North Street. Officials said they're not releasing details about how the burns happened.

Senate advances health care repeal

President Donald Trump praised the Senate for moving forward on health care repeal. He said a vote Tuesday to take up the Republican health care bill "was a big step."

The vote was 51-50 on Tuesday, a victory for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump. Last week, McConnell was forced to postpone the vote, lacking the support of conservatives and moderates.

The vote sets up days of debate and votes on repealing and replacing Barack Obama's health care law. Whatever the Senate approves still requires a vote in the House.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Baobab Powder Market Growth, Trends, Absolute Opportunity and Value Chain 2017-2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3333

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3333

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Baobab is also known as the Queen of Superfruits and its powder is obtained from the extraction of dried baobab fruit pulp by freeze drying method. Baobab powder contains various essential vitamins such as vitamin B and C and minerals such as calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and others. Baobab fruit is primarily found in Africa and some parts of Australia and India. Baobab powder helps in managing blood sugar level. Baobab powder is rich in antioxidants which help in eliminating the free radicals which contribute to diseases such as aging, cancer, and cardio-vascular disease. Baobab powder is a gluten free powder that can be consumed by gluten intolerant consumers. Baobab powder sales have been increased rapidly in the last few years as a result of increasing usage of baobab powder in various supplements. Many manufacturers are using baobab powder in a variety of beverages which is seen as a great opportunity for the manufacturers to expand their product portfolio. Baobab powder has a light and subtly tangy flavor which blends perfectly with other fruit flavors which can be used in the preparation of flavored waters, smoothies, sparkling beverages, and juices.Request Report Sample@Global Baobab Powder: Market SegmentationThe global baobab powder market is segmented on the basis of distribution channel, application and region. The baobab powder market is segmented on the basis of distribution channel such as online stores, supermarket/hypermarket, retail stores, and others. The global baobab powder market is segmented on the basis of application in which baobab powder is used in application such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food and beverage, and others. Baobab powder is used as an ingredient in various products such as supplement powder, smoothies, juices, flavored waters, meal replacement drinks, and cold-pressed juices. Hence, the global baobab Powder market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Global Baobab Powder Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global baobab powder industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Globally, among all regions, Middle East & Africa has developed as the dominant region in global baobab powder market followed by Asia Pacific. Increasing demand for baobab powder in various beverages, has strengthened the growth of global baobab powder market and hence is projected to significantly expand the revenue contribution of the market over the forecast period.Global Baobab Powder Market: Growth DriversThe global baobab powder market driving factors are increasing demand for baobab powder in various food products and as a specialty ingredient in various beverages worldwide. Increasing opportunities in bakery and cosmetics industries is also another factor in driving the global baobab powder market. Manufacturers are offering various flavored baobab drink mixes in many varieties such as pineapple-mint baobab, blueberry-baobab, and etc. which is responsible for increasing demand for baobab powder globally. Baobab Powder helps consumers in managing their blood sugar levels, which is another major factor for driving the baobab powder seed market worldwide. Growing population of gluten intolerance consumers is also a major factor which is driving the global baobab powder market. Hence, the global Baobab Powder market is expected to observe robust growth over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Global Baobab Powder Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global baobab powder market include Baobab Fruit Company Senegal, Baobab Foods, Organic Herb Trading, Eco Products, TheHealthyTree Company, BI Nutraceuticals, BioessenceTrade, Organic Africa, Rawsome Foods, B'Ayoba, Simpli Ingredients are among others. The companies are expected to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in global baobab Powder market. The companies are projected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global baobab powder market till 2027.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Vision Screener Market Global and Analysis and Forecast Study 2021

https://goo.gl/Fb4bhQ

https://goo.gl/ytxYmh

https://goo.gl/JVptz5

https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/global-vision-screener-research-report-forecast-2017-2021-market

https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/

Big Market Research has added a report, titled, Global Vision Screener Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2021Get Sample Enquiry @The report provides an extensive analysis of sales, revenue, growth rate, and key market players for the historic period, 20122017 and the forecast period, 20172021 Moreover, marketing channels, major distributors, and supply channels are discussed in the study. These insights are helpful for market players, investors, and new entrants to get full value from assets, understand risk factors, and determine investment suitability.The research offers a brief overview of the Global Vision Screener Market based on definition of the industry and types. Major market activities are highlighted in the industry along with similar industries. These insights are helpful for CEOs, VPs, stakeholders, and investors to save their time and gain overview of the industry. It helps them to weigh up opportunities and take necessary steps to gain strong position.Purchase Enquiry @Competitive landscape of the Global Vision Screener Market is provided based on key segments and regions. Regions analyzed in the study are the U.S., Europe, China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The report provides insights on revenue generated and revenue growth rate for the historic period as well as the forecast period. Moreover, sales and sales growth rate for aforementioned periods are outlined with the help of tabular representation. Revenue generated in aforementioned regions by major players is also explored for 2016. This information is valuable to gain excellent brand equity and unwavering geographical presence.Market share analysis of the Global Vision Screener Market is offered for production and revenue of market players. Moreover, production market share and revenue market share based on regions are analyzed for the historic period. These insights are helpful to devise strategies to gain impressive & recurring revenue growth. Supply chain analysis is offered based on raw material, production process, production cost structure, and end users.Check Discount @Key market players operating in the Global Fragmin Market are analyzed to outline competitive intensity. Details of a company, product information, and applications are highlighted. Moreover, insights on revenue, price, and operating profits are provided in a tabular format. Key market players analyzed in the study are Depisteo, Essilor, Takagi, WelchAllyn, Vistec, Plusoptix, Stereo Optical, Keystone, Honeywell Safety Products These insights are helpful to determine investment opportunities and collaborate with other market players to gain stronghold in the industry.Globalization and trade analysis are provided based on supply channels, marketing strategies, and barriers to entry. This information is helpful to gain improved profitability and strong revenue visibility across the world. Insights on major distributors and customers are enlisted based on regions. Moreover, detailed information on import, export, consumption, and consumption value for aforementioned countries is offered. This information is helpful to determine emerging economies and discover untapped geographies. Key success factors are outlined at the end of the research.Table of ContentsChapter 1 Vision Screener Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Vision Screener1.2 Vision Screener Market Segmentation by Type1.3 Vision Screener Market Segmentation by Application1.4 Vision Screener Market Segmentation by Regions1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Vision Screener (2012-2021)Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Vision Screener Industry2.1 Global Macroeconomic Environment Analysis2.2 Global Macroeconomic Environment Analysis by RegionsChapter 3 Global Vision Screener Market Competition by Manufacturers3.1 Global Vision Screener Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)3.2 Global Vision Screener Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)3.3 Global Vision Screener Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)3.4 Manufacturers Vision Screener Manufacturing Base Distribution, Production Area and Product Type3.5 Vision Screener Market Competitive Situation and TrendsChapter 4 Global Vision Screener Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter 5 Global Vision Screener Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)5.1 Global Vision Screener Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)5.2 North America Vision Screener Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)Chapter 6 Global Vision Screener Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6.1 Global Vision Screener Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)6.2 Global Vision Screener Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)6.3 Global Vision Screener Price by Type (2012-2017)6.4 Global Vision Screener Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)Chapter 7 Global Vision Screener Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Global Vision Screener Manufacturers AnalysisChapter 9 Vision Screener Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 10 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 11 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 12 Market Effect Factors Analysis12.1 Technology Progress/Risk12.1.1 Substitutes Threat12.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry12.2 Consumer Needs/Customer Preference ChangeCheck Complete TOC@About Us:Big Market Research uniqueness lies in its highly ethical reports at economical rates because we value your relationship and growth more than money. Your growth is our aim. With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect: +1-971-202-1575Toll Free No: +1-800-910-6452Email: help@bigmarketresearch.comWeb:
Sulfosuccinate Market size was valued over USD 284 million in 2015 and is forecast to experience 6% CAGR by 2024

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/841

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/sulfosuccinate-market

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/841

https://www.gminsights.com

https://gminsights.wordpress.com

Global sulfosuccinate market size is chiefly driven by the rising personal care product demand in the past few years. in 2013, the overall skincare industry generated approximately USD 100 million and is forecast touch USD 150 million over the projected timeframe. Furthermore, in 2013, the global hair care sector was valued at over USD 70 million and is projected to reach USD 100 million by 2024. Superior wetting, emulsifying and dispersing characteristics offered by the product makes it preferable to finds applications across personal care goods including baby shampoos, bubble baths and cleaners. Upgrading end-user lifestyles on account of increasing per capita disposable income is analyzed to boost the business growth by 2024.In 2013, household detergents industry size was close 30 kilo tons and shall mark 60 kilo tons by 2024. The product is widely used in detergents, as it is an anionic surfactant. The product is substantially used as cleaners for glass & floor, carpet shampoos and dry cleaning.Request for a sample of this research report @These are also used in the fir and leather industries. Rising wellbeing industry along with increasing awareness towards cleanliness, will ultimately drive the sulfosuccinate market size in the coming years.Petroleum-based alcohol ether sulfate (AES) can be replaced by bio-based AES in the detergents and the personal care industry, owing to their similar characteristics. This is likely to restrict the business growth. In addition, the product experiences stringent environmental legislations pertaining to its production and transportation. This may further hinder the global sulfosuccinate market share by 2024. However, upcoming product use across oil & gas industry as a surfactant in mature oil reserves has created growth prospects for the industry players.Key insights from the report include:Global sulfosuccinate market size is poised to attain USD 475.7 million in revenues by the end of 2024, with gains of more than 6% CAGR.In 2015, the sulfosuccinate market size for industrial cleaners accounted for about USD 30 million. The product is extensively used in office buildings, metal processing, restaurants and food processing plants. The growth for this segment is mainly propelled by growing consumer awareness for health and hygiene.Pharmaceuticals shall experience gains more than 5% CAGR by 2024. The product is used as a lubricant in tablet production and emulsifier in syrup production. Increasing health issues globally, has increased medicines demand, owing to subsequently boost the sulfosuccinate market size over the projected timeframe.Browse key industry insights spread across 110 pages with 74 market data tables & 14 figures & charts from the report Sulfosuccinate Market in detail along with the table of contents at:In 2015, North America, chiefly led by the U.S. sulfosuccinate market share generated revenue close to USD 55 million. Growing pharmaceutical sector in the region is analyzed to be one of the factor contributing to growth in the region.Europe dominated the global sulfosuccinate market share in 2015. Europe will retain its dominance by 2024, being the largest producer & consumer of personal care goods.Asia Pacific, dominated by China and India, will be the fastest growing region over the forecast timeframe, at over 6.5% growth. Rising disposable income has positively influenced the personal care and healthcare sector in the region, and is likely to boost industry growth in the region.Sulfosuccinate market share was highly competitive in 2015. The major industry contributors include The Dow Chemical Company, Huntsman Corporation, Stepan Company and MFG Chemicals. These companies have presence across several stages in the industry ecosystem, which the industry competitive.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Botanical Flavors Market Dynamics, Forecast, Analysis and Supply Demand 2017-2027

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4119

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4119

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Botanical flavors are extracts from fruits, leaves, flowers, seeds, barks, spices and from many other plant materials. Botanical flavors have wide application in food and beverage industry as it used to enhance the flavor, taste and richness of products including bakery, dairy, savory, confectionery, juices, drinks and alcoholic drinks. Increasing demand of health conscious consumers in the global level market regarding consumption of healthy and nature-based products are expected to drive the market growth of botanical flavors over the forecast period. Currently, the majority of demand for botanical flavors accounts to North American and European market.Botanical Flavors: Growth DriversSome of the key drivers which are influencing the demand for botanical flavors in the global level market are from the side of food and beverage manufacturers as they used these flavors as natural ingredients and functional ingredient in their food recipes. Botanical flavors have wide application in the beverage industry, companies are offering new beverages and using botanical flavors to make improvement in their existing products. Moreover, it has healthy attributes that help the companies to meet consumers demand related to healthy and organic food products. In the global level market, the beverage industry is facing tough competition due to innovation and formulation of nutritional beverages as companies are focusing on offering health benefit and flavored drinks.Request Report Sample@Usage of botanical flavors in food and beverage offers great taste and natural flavor and enriched the nutritional value of products. On the other side, the demand for botanical flavors is also increasing among the consumers who are seeking for enhanced health benefit and nature based products. Botanical flavors have nutritional value including protein, vitamin, and other minerals. Moreover, consumers are experiencing distinctive natural taste while eating and drinking.Botanical Flavors: Market SegmentationBotanical flavors market segment has been segmented on the basis of different segments. On the basis of extraction, the botanical flavor market is segmented by extraction which includes fruits, leaves, seeds, barks and others (herbs and roots). Among this segment, fruits and leaves segment are expected to show robust growth over the forecast period. Another segment is on the basis of form and it is segmented in form of solid, fluid and powdered form. The further botanical flavor market is also segmented on the basis of application which is segmented in food, beverage and personal care industry. On analyzing the demand for botanical flavor on graph, it shows that majority of the demand for botanical flavor is from food and beverage industry.Further market segment of the food industry is sub-segmented into the bakery, dairy, savory and confectionery products and beverages is sub-segmented into alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as in beverage industry it is used in preparing juices, tea, energy drinks, wines, beer etc. Using of botanical flavors in food and beverages is one of the natural ways to enhance the flavor and taste of food recipes. Further in the personal care industry, botanical flavors have application in cosmetics, hair care, and skin care products. Currently, in cosmetics and personal care product market, the demand for products which includes natural ingredient and flavor has increased due to skin care problems. Adding botanical flavors in personal care products, makes the quality of product better and offer benefits such as healthier hair and softer skin.Botanical Flavors: Regional OutlookOn the basis of regional segment, market of botanical flavors is segmented in five different regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, japan and Middle East and Africa. It is expected that North America and Europe account to highest growth in terms of both volume and value over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Botanical Flavors: Key PlayersSome of the key players that are operating in the botanical flavor market: Synergy Flavors, Bell Flavors & Fragrances GmbH, Parker Flavors, Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Kanegrade Limited, Carrubba Incorporated and Sapphire Flavors & Fragrances.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Xanthan Gum Market Size 2017, Forecast 2025 Production, Supply, Sales And Demand

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2222

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2222

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2222

Global Xanthan Gum Market: OverviewXanthan gum, refers to a polysaccharide made by fermenting corn sugar with a bacteria, xanthomonas campestris - the same bacteria that leads to the creation of black spots on vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli. The strain of xanthomonas campestris used for obtaining xanthan gum is non-toxic and non-pathogenic for humans and animals. It is therefore preferred over several other emulsifiers in food products. Xanthan gum is actually one of the worlds 30 most used popular products used in the food industry.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Xanthan Gum Market: Drivers and RestraintsDemand across the food and beverages industry is expected to continue to remain one of the key forces driving the global market for xanthan gum in the next few years. Of late, the increased global demand for packaged, ready-to-eat, and convenience foods has significantly increased the uptake of xanthan gum in the food and beverages industry. The food and beverages industry presently accounts for over half the global consumption of xanthan gum and the industry is expected to drive the market owing to high demand across food products such as salad dressings and sauces and dairy products such as ice creams.The inherent superiority of the product over other common hydrocolloids is also a key driver of the global xanthan gum market. However, the market is presently struggling to cope up with the reinforced policies regarding anti-dumping across a number of developed economies and restrictions on the import of xanthan gum from China and Austria. The rising mistrust regarding the quality of xanthan gum by suppliers in China, which is presently the leading producer of the product on the global front, is also expected to hamper the overall growth prospects of the market to a certain extent.Request TOC of the Report @Global Xanthan Gum Market: Market PotentialLooking at the significant rise in demand for xanthan gum from across the globe, key producers of the product are focusing on the expansion of their existing production sites, strengthening their distribution channels, and exploring new regional territories to add to their customer bases. In February 2013, CP Kelco, one of the worlds dominant producers of xanthan gum, announced the expansion of its production facility in San Diego by around 40% so as to meet the heightened demand owing to a clampdown by the U.S. government on imports by Chinese and Austrian companies owing to quality issues. The company announced its plans to build a new manufacturing plant in North America for the production of and specialty xanthan gum and gellan gum.Global Xanthan Gum Market: Regional OverviewThe global market for xanthan gum has been predominantly led by Asia Pacific. The region accounts for a significant share of the global market for xanthan gum and is expected to show growth at a promising pace over the next few years as well. The massive demand for xanthan gum from China is expected to help the Asia Pacific market for xanthan gum remain dominant from a geographical perspective. The thriving market for food and beverages in China and other emerging economies in the region such as India is leading to the high demand for xanthan gum in the region.North America is another promising market for xanthan gum and is expected to become a matured market in the next few years owing to the increased use of the product for a number of industrial applications. The demand for xanthan gum is expected to witness rise at a slower pace in regions such as Middle East and Africa and Latin America.Get a discount @Global Xanthan Gum Market: Competitive DynamicsThe global market for xanthan gum features a largely consolidated competitive landscape, with the leading few companies accounting for a massive share in the global market. Some of the leading vendors operating in the global xanthan gum market are Archer Daniels Midland Company, MeiHua Holdings Group Co., Ltd, Fufeng Group Company Limited, Hebei Xinhe Biochemical Co., The Aurora Chemical, CP Kelco, The Zoranoc Oilfield Chemical, DuPont-Danisco, Deosen, Jungbunzlauer Suisse AG, Ltd., Cargill, Inc., FMC BioPolymer, and Solvay S.A.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Market Trends Estimates High Demand By 2016  2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12787

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/oligonucleotide-therapeutics-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Oligonucleotides are short chain RNA or DNA which are usually manufactured by utilizing automated synthesizers. Purification of the oligonucleotide is done by anion exchange chromatography which is followed by desalting and freezing technique. For the synthesis of siRNA duplex oligonucleotide, an annealing step is carried out where two purified oligonucleotide strands are brought together in an equimolar ratio.Oligonucleotide therapeutics are different from conventional medicine as they can inhibit the expression of certain genes. This has given rise to innovative new oligonucleotides that can target specific genes and treat chronic diseases. The development of oligonucleotide therapeutics is done through chemically modified artificial nucleic acids. The artificial oligonucleotides are being developed which has improved in vivo stability and enhanced affinity to target mRNA.Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Market: DynamicsThe demand for oligonucleotides is expected to upsurge as there are very few approved molecules. This has offered oligonucleotide market players a wide scope to discover new molecular entities. Moreover, the technology upgrades of chemically synthesized oligonucleotides have led to the development of more stable and extended half-life molecules. There are around 135 oligonucleotide therapeutics currently in different stages of drug development, which may further add to the limited three approved drugs currently available in the oligonucleotide therapeutics market.Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Market: SegmentationOn the basis of application, the oligonucleotide therapeutics market can be segmented as:Infectious diseasesOncologyNeurodegenerative disordersCardiovascular diseasesKidney diseasesOthersThe area of treatment with oligonucleotides is wide and offers promising results. Oligonucleotides have a distinguishing feature as compared to small molecule and protein therapeutics in that it can directly affect the protein targets. Specific RNA interference at the cellular level and targeting malfunctioning gene to suppress, manipulate or silence can all be done via oligonucleotides therapeutics.On the basis of type, the oligonucleotide therapeutics market can be segmented as:AntisenseRibozymesAptamersmiRNACpG/ImmunostimulatoryRNAiThe number of oligonucleotides in the clinical pipeline is small compared to other therapeutic classes, but still, the clinical movement of these molecules is increasing. From 2012 to 2015, the biggest increase in oligonucleotides clinical phase was from Phase 1 to Phase 2. By mid-2015, the number of oligonucleotides in Phase 2 almost doubled than that in Phase 1, indicating that the pipeline is maturing.Request to View Tables of Content @Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Market: Region-wise OutlookThe presence of the main market leaders, market consolidation and commercialization of new molecules are all contributing towards the dominating position of North America in the oligonucleotides therapeutic market. Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. agreed to merge with Signal Genetics, Inc for an initial investment of USD 40 million. Through this merger both the companies expect to develop micro RNA-targeted oligonucleotide clinical products. New molecule application is also another strategy the market players are using to mark their presence in the oligonucleotide therapeutic market. Biogen recently received FDA approval for a new drug application for nusinersen. If approved, the antisense oligonucleotides molecule would be the first of its kind to be used for treating spinal muscular atrophy.Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region as several oligonucleotide therapeutics manufacturers are looking forward to establishing manufacturing facilities in this region. Moreover, research undertaking and funding in the synthesis of oligonucleotides are expected to add on to the increasing demand. Recently, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. announced its intention to open up a new company named Orphan Disease Treatment Institute Co., Ltd. to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy through its active ingredient ENA oligonucleotide. The company is a collaboration between Daiichi, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and looks forward to entering the oligonucleotide therapeutics market.Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Market: Market PlayersOne of the major trends driving the oligonucleotides therapeutic market is the increasing licensing and collaboration activities. Moreover, the demand for advanced technologies in oligonucleotide therapeutics such as gene silencing through RNAi is gaining importance due to its high efficiency, thereby propelling the oligonucleotide therapeutics market.Some of the key contributors to the oligonucleotide therapeutics market are PCI Biotech, SomaGenics, ContraVir, Alnylam, Regulus Therapeutics, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Gilead, Santaris, InteRNA, miRage, Biogen, Merck and Pfizer, among others.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market Size, Status and Forecast 2016  2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12790

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/breast-cancer-screening-tests-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Breast cancer is usually a form of tumor that can be visualized through x-ray or felt as a lump. The cancer can be either benign which results in the abnormal growth in the breast area or metastatic that can invade the distant areas of the body. Breast cancer screening is conducted to detect the signs & symptoms of breast cancer. Breast cancer screening does not prevent the disease. However, detection in early stage increases the chances of recovery from the disease. Breast cancer screening tests are offered to women aged between 50-70 years as they are more prone to the disease.Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market: SegmentationBreast cancer screening tests market can be segmented on the basis of various tests conducted on a patient to detect the disease, which include:Physical ExamLaboratory TestsImaging TestsMammogram or X-RayBreast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)Genetic TestsBreast cancer screening tests can be segmented on the basis of end users which is as follows:Research LabsCancer InstitutesDiagnostic CentersOthersBreast Cancer Screening Tests Market: DynamicsBreast Cancer Screening Tests Market is primarily driven by a few key factors such as the patient awareness regarding rising healthcare concerns, increasing research for detection of various types of cancers, and prevention of disease. In addition to this, Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market also observes significant growth due to different government initiatives and public awareness campaigns.Request to View Tables of Content @Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market, however, faces various challenges since patients going through biopsies spend a lot for early detections. Also, MRI scans are accurate however are time-consuming and expensive.Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market: Region-wise OutlookBased on geography, the Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa. At present, North America holds a leading position in the Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market followed by Europe. The major driving factors which have affected the growth of Breast Cancer Screening TestsMarket in this region is constantly increasing regulatory scenario monitored by various organizations, such as World Health Organization (WHO) for safety and health issues and pressure on healthcare institutions to reduce the number of deaths from breast cancers by early detection. Following North America, European countries are also anticipated to show steady growth in the Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market. Asia-Pacific region has improved its healthcare scenario by innovative campaigns on breast cancer awareness and has emerged as a major player in Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market. The factors which are expected to fuel the growth of Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market in Asia-Pacific are increased initiatives from various government & non-government organizations, rising healthcare concerns, and improving healthcare scenario of the region. Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market is also anticipated to evolve at a rapid rate across the regions. However, North America is expected to maintain its position in the overall Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market.Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market: Key PlayersBreast Cancer Screening Tests Market holds a huge number of players operating in the segment for years with expertise and experience. Some of the major players operating in the Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market are GE Healthcare, Hologic Inc., Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Allengers Infotech, Carestream Health., Philips Healthcare, Shimadzu Corporation, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Esaote, Agilent Technologies, Hitachi Medical Corporation (HMC) and many others. Breast Cancer Screening Tests Market has a presence of many regional players which have a huge market share in emerging countries.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Soundproof Curtains Market 2017 : GLT Products, Flexshield, Moondream, Acoustic Curtains, Quiet Curtains

Soundproof Curtains

http://bit.ly/2uYs3qF

http://bit.ly/2h1SWVy

QY Market Research published, Top Manufacturers Analysis Of Bidets Research Report. A market study based on the "Soundproof Curtains Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Soundproof Curtains Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Soundproof Curtains industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Soundproof Curtains market on the basis of this analysis.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :Top Manufacturers Analysis Of This ReportAcoustical Surfaces, Inc.Quiet CurtainsHOFAGLT ProductsFlexshieldMoondreamAcoustic CurtainsKinetics Noise Control, Inc.Sound SealSteel Guard Safety Corp.Envirotech Systems Pvt.The report studies the industry for Soundproof Curtains across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Soundproof Curtains market & dynamics of demand and supply of Soundproof Curtains into consideration. The 'Soundproof Curtains' research study covers each and every aspect of the Soundproof Curtains market globally, which starts from the definition of the Soundproof Curtains industry and develops towards Soundproof Curtains market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Soundproof Curtains market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Soundproof Curtains market. The geographical segmentation of the Soundproof Curtains industry has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Soundproof Curtains is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Soundproof Curtains market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Soundproof Curtains market worldwide.Enquire Here :The global Soundproof Curtains market 2017 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Soundproof Curtains production volume, data regarding demand and Soundproof Curtains supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Soundproof Curtains across the globe.About Us :Worldwide Industry are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Worldwide Industry, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries such as Automotive and Aerospace, Medical Devices, Technology, Machinery & Manufacturing.Contact Us :Worldwide IndustryUnited States
Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market Set to Surge Significantly During 2016  2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12793

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/isotope-labeled-excipients-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Isotopic labeling is a technique which identifies drug products and detects counterfeits. Over the globe, pharmaceutical companies face a major problem of drug counterfeit, and the adoption of isotope-labeled excipients helps in reducing such products which are either manufactured with no active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), wrong API, or an incorrect amount of API. Counterfeiting issues are a major concern in the pharmaceutical market owing to poor regulatory scenario, a high number of intermediaries, and lack of awareness among end users.Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market: OverviewIsotope-labeled excipients market is undergoing a tremendous transformation with the ever changing regulatory scenario. In U.S., an amendment in the US Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 (PDMA) states that wholesalers have to provide records before each wholesale distribution of prescription drugs. Such steps will regulate the healthcare system and strengthen the isotope-labeled excipients market. Anti-counterfeit technology utilizing isotope-labeled excipients possess a high level of security, high product applications, authentication, proven quality standards, easily identifiable, and legally compliant.U.S. Food & Drug Administration also recommends that industries should utilize periodically changing, multiple, authentic measures for each specific product which will further lead to growth in isotope-labeled excipients market.Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market: DynamicsIsotope-Labeled Excipients Market is primarily driven by a few key factors such as the substances being pharmacologically inactive, toxicologically inert which is in compliance with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulations. In addition to this, the isotope-labeled excipients market also observes significant growth due to the non-radioactive nature which is safe for humans. The isotope-labeled excipients market is well regulated by various government agencies. Isotope-labeled excipients market gains a significant drive from applications such as each batch of drug products can be differentiated with varying amount of isotopes which further assists in batch-specific identity. Isotope-labeled excipients market will also strengthen the packaging industry as pharmaceutical companies are moving towards innovative packaging technologies for product differentiation.Isotope-labeled excipients, however, require specialized facilities, rigorous R&D, which limits access to such excipients. Isotope-labeled excipients are associated with high cost and the isotope ratio mass spectrometry instrument which is required to quantify isotopes is expensive which restraints the growth of the isotope-labeled excipients market.Request to View Tables of Content @Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market: Region-wise OutlookBased on geography, the Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa. At present, North America holds a leading position in the Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market followed by Europe. The major factors which have driven the growth of the isotope-labeled excipients market in this region are the increase in regulations and oversight by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for safety and health issues, pressure on healthcare institutions to reduce costs and reduce drug counterfeiting. Following North America, European countries are also anticipated to show steady growth in the Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market. In the next few years, Asia-Pacific is expected to show remarkable growth in the Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market as it is developing at a very rapid pace and has shown the emergence of many regional players. The factors which would fuel the growth of Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market in Asia-Pacific are increased counterfeiting issues arising from the region which has led to health risks for patients, causing downstream expenses, and leading to limitation of resources. Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market would evolve at a rapid rate across the region. However, North America is anticipated to maintain its position in the overall Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market.Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market: Key PlayersIn the past decade, the isotope-labeled excipients market has witnessed a massive influx of players. Some of the major players operating in the Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market are Molecular Isotope Technologies LLC, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc., CIL Isotope Separations, LLC, Membrane Receptor Technologies, LLC, Marshall Isotopes Ltd., CortecNet, Medical Isotopes, Inc. and many others. Isotope-Labeled Excipients Market has presence of many regional players which have a huge market share in emerging countries.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Easy Open Packaging Market Analysis and Value Forecast Snapshot by End-use Industry 2016-2026

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2124

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2124

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Easy open packaging is a kind of flexible packaging which is design in the way that it can be is easy to open for everyone with any extra physical strength. Easy open packaging is valuable to the flexible packaging industry due to its easy tear capabilities and convenient that enable the way the consumer can access the product.The world is a busy place, and consumers are looking for products that are easy to use, and re-use, that won't impede their lifestyle. Easy open packaging provides convenience to a consumer by utilizing easy-open and/or resealable packaging. Easy open packaging offers easy and directional controlled opening of the packed product with ease and convenient.Easy Open Packaging Market: Market DynamicsThe major factors which are driving the growth of easy open packaging market are growing flexible packaging industry and technological advancement in packaging, and rising disposable income. The competition in the easy open packaging market is growing significantly due to the increasing demand from several end user industries including cosmetics & toiletries, healthcare, food & beverages, chemical and many others. In addition, with increasing aged people and a population living independently into old age, its more beneficial that packaging is easy to open for everyone, including older people who tend to have reduced physical strength. The growth in the easy open packaging market is primarily attributed to the consumer convenience, as consumers are looking for the packed products which they can use/consume in the most easiest and convenient way possible.Request Report Sample@Nowadays, brand owners are focusing on a goal to create a package which gives you easy and quick access to the contents of the product, as consumers are more comfortable with the convenience and lightweight portability primarily of single use flexible formats with easy-open and reclose features and also the environmental advantages of flexibles.Easy open packaging has a huge effect on consumers satisfaction and it also effects the brand image of the end product. Consumer easy-open solutions and convenience are now more essential when the selection of products in the shop shelves by consumers increases and the competition in the packaging market gets tougher. Also, easy open packaging market will grow rapidly in coming years, as the consumers being even more comfort loving and they are nowadays looking for convenience in the product packaging. On the other hand, repetitive opening of the easy open packed product can affect the product quality, and can be easily opened by children which can harm them if the product contain any medicine or chemical.Easy Open Packaging Market: Market SegmentationThe global easy open packaging market is segmented into four parts based on the material type, product type, application, and geography.Based on the material type the easy open packaging market is segmented into:CardboardPlasticSteelBased on the product type of easy open packaging market is segmented into:Twist capsTear upShrink WrapOthersBased on the type of application the easy open packaging market is segmented into:Food & BeveragesCosmeticsHealthcareOthersEasy Open Packaging Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the easy open packaging market has been categorized into five key regions including Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. The easy open packaging market is expected to grow at significant CAGR during the forecast period. North America easy open packaging market is experiencing the rapid increase due rising flexible packaging industry, and changing consumers life-style. The Europe easy open packaging market is projected to register healthy growth as consumer demand for flexible packaging is rising rapidly. Moreover, In Europe, the demand for the easy open packaging market is very high in Germany and the UK due to growing flexible packaging, and technology advanced in easy open packaging such as bubble in the seal technologies to easily open flexible packages.Easy open packaging market for Asia Pacific is also expected to witness high growth during the forecast period primarily attributed to the growth of packaging market, especially in China and India.Visit For TOC@Easy Open Packaging Market: Key playersSome of the few players global easy open packaging market are Youpeng packaging, BSI Group, Crown Holdings, Inc., FlexPak Services, Sealstrip Corporation, and many others. The easy open packaging manufacturer are focusing on the convenience of consumers and offering them advanced flexible packaging with easily open feature in the packing of any consumer products.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
DECATUR  With the start of school less than a month away, Decatur-area educators pleaded Tuesday with state lawmakers to come to an agreement about how to fund public education.

Without school funding, Decatur Public Schools have enough money to operate until mid-November, said Superintendent Paul Fregeau. Still, he and other Macon County education leaders weren't anxious to start the year with state funding in limbo. They urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign Senate Bill 1, the school funding legislation lawmakers passed in May but that Rauner has said he would not approve as written.

Our schools need certainty and stability if theyre going to run, Fregeau said. I hope that we make some headway in the next couple of days ... and hopefully we can get some movement on SB1 and we can get the money released for Decatur and schools across the state.

The news conference at Stephen Decatur Middle School came on the eve of the General Assembly's second special session this month, as Rauner said Monday that he was calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to deal with the issue.

The $36.5 billion state budget passed earlier this month includes $350 million for public schools, but it requires that money be distributed to schools through an "evidence-based" funding formula, like the one lawmakers approved with passage of SB 1.

The funding model would steer money to schools based on local property wealth and distinct student-population needs, while also ensuring that none of the state's 850 school districts receives less than it got this year. But Rauner suggested he would veto the bill, prompting the Senate not to send it to his desk and the governor to call a special session.

The Illinois State Board of Education said the funding plan must be approved by Aug. 3 for schools to receive payments on time.

Tuesdays event also included Jessica Handy, Government Affairs Director at Stand for Children Illinois; Kathleen Horath, director of special education at Macon-Piatt Special Education District; Lindsey Kocher, special education administrator Macon-Piatt Special Education District; Brian Minsker, President of the Illinois PTA; and Debra Ryan, school psychologist at Macon-Piatt Special Education District.

The governor previously has said he approves of 90 percent of the school funding bill. But during a stop at Mount Zion Junior High on July 17, he said he plans an amendatory veto to cut the provision that uses state money to pay part of pensions for Chicago school employees.

Rauner has repeatedly called the idea a Chicago bailout, while supporters say the measure is simply putting Chicago in line with the rest of Illinois schools, for which the state pays part of pension costs.

Rauner has also touted the amount he says various school districts would gain under his plan.

For example, during his Mount Zion stop, he said that school's district would receive an additional $230,000 on top of the $192,699 gain it would receive under the bill as written. Decatur would receive an additional $1.6 million per year on top of the $2.7 million it would already gain under the legislation, according to a website created by the governor's office.

Rauner said the additional funding figures came from his administration, in conjunction with lawmakers and school officials, but said he would not provide details about the language of his amendatory veto.

Fregeau said it was not clear if anyone has vetted the numbers provided by the governor. Senate Bill 1 is the only concrete thing Ive seen thats been vetted by a variety of channels, he said.

Another issue: If Rauner issues an amendatory veto, lawmakers' potential attempts to override it could cause more delays, Horath said.

A straight approval would guarantee we get the funds on time, she said. If theres an amendatory veto, the Senate has 15 days to consider what to do with it, then itll go to the House for another 15 days. ... Theres a real sense of urgency to just get this done.

SB1 was approved 60-52 in the House and 35-22 in the Senate, both below the three-fifths majorities necessary to override any veto. Despite final approval on May 31, Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, used a procedural move to hold the bill without sending it to the governor.

Rauner criticized the move as an attempt by Democrats to hold school funding hostage to secure money for the Chicago teacher pension fund. Democrats said it was meant to create a cool down period and prevent a hasty veto.

State Sen. Andy Manar, the Democrat from Bunker Hill who is sponsoring the funding legislation, on Monday called the special session "a wasteful gimmick," saying Rauner had refused to negotiate in good faith.

The governor has been making trips across the state, telling reporters that some school officials publicly supporting SB1 do so only due to a fear of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, who supports the bill.

Fregeau said Central Illinois educators are not afraid of political influences, but they are worried that they will not receive money before the school year starts. I dont think there is a fear factor involved with anyone Ive talked to among other superintendents or school officials in the area about any particular lawmaker, he said.

In a statement Tuesday, Madigan said the governor is creating a crisis by refusing to negotiate with lawmakers on what he wants in the school funding bill. He also noted the bill is a senate bill and is currently being held there, not the House.

Instead of simply paying lip service to how desperately Illinois schools, educators, students and property taxpayers need education funding reform, he can put aside his veto threats and sign a bill he is on record as supporting 90 percent of, Madigan said. Instead of playing political games with our childrens education, he can agree to sign a bill that fixes one the most inequitable funding formulas in the country.

Fregeau said after Tuesdays conference that there is no firm Plan B in place in case there is no state funds, with his focus on state lawmakers coming through this month.

Its important to get certainty in place, Fregeau said. We need some statesmanship, some collaboration and some cooperation to find a common denominator here. Hopefully they can come together in the next couple of days.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Building Automation System Market - Future Scope Detailed Analysis to 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2228

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2228

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2228

Global Building Automation System Market: OverviewWith escalating population and rapid urbanization across the world, the need to conserve energy is paramount. It is estimated that buildings consumer nearly 40% of the Worlds energy consumption. In this scenario, new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) has paved a way for building automation system, with which energy consuming facilities including heating, lighting, air conditioning, and ventilation can be efficiently managed. The concept of building automation system is application not only for the new constructions but for the existing residential buildings too, and promises to prove as a highly useful concept for commercial buildings as well as revolutionize the healthcare sector. Consequently, the demand in the global building automation system is anticipated to increment at a healthy growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Building Automation System Market: Key TrendsOne of the primary property of building automation system is that they can be customized according to the need of the end-user, which can be either cost-efficiency with minimal automation or premium automation with a long-term goal. This factor is expected to augment the demand in the global building automation system market. In addition to that, several governments in developed as well as developing economies are offering lucrative subsidies for processes that conserve energy, and thereby encouraging the residential and commercial building owners to choose for these system. For instance, with building automation system, residential buildings can monitor and control security, HVAC, and lighting. Conversely, high implementation cost, long duration of return of investment, and lack of awareness among the consumers are some of the key factors challenging the market for building automation system from achieving its full potential.Global Building Automation System Market: Market PotentialIncrease in the use of personnel assistant in residential buildings, growing use of the Internet of Things, rising popularity of LED lights, and increased reliance on wireless technologies are some of the key factors favoring the global market for building automation system. In addition to that, growing security concerns is escalating the need to add strength to security, control personnel access, and monitor activity. With IoT, building automation system can also provide real-time medical help, which is opening various new opportunities for the players in this market. On the other hand, commercial applications such as shopping complexes, public transport areas such as airports and railway stations, and corporate office buildings are other targetable avenues for the participants of the global building automation system market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Building Automation System Market: Regional OutlookDeveloped countries such as the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, and Germany currently offer most of the demand for building automation system and makes North America and Europe as the most lucrative regions. However, Asia Pacific resides several emerging economies such as India, Japan, China, South Korea, and Malaysia. These countries are investing heavily towards improving their infrastructure and consequently, the construction industry is thriving. Increasing disposable income among the urban population in Asia Pacific region is adding to the demand for secure and efficient residential and commercial environment and hence is expected to expand the demand at most robust rate during the forecast period.Get a discount @Global Building Automation System Market: Competitive LandscapeDue to the presence a large number of players who operate at regional or international level, the global market for building automation system is fragmented in nature with high degree of competition. However, as the demand to conserve energy escalates across the world, there is enough fodder for everyone. Some of the leading players in the global building automation system market are Automated Logic, Honeywell, Johnson Controls International, and Schneider Electric, whereas other prominent vendors including Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH, Dwyer, Emerson Electric, Beckhoff Automation, ABB, DELTA CONTROLS, CONTROL4, Distech Controls, Evon Technologies, Itron, and Legrand.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market is predicted to grow at over 6% by 2024.

Global Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market, By Voltage, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1182

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/power-transmission-lines-and-towers-market

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1182

Power transmission lines & towers market from ultra high tension is set to witness growth over 9% by 2024. Rising investments to transmit generated electricity over long distance will embellish business growth.Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market size is set to exceed USD 25 billion by 2024, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.Growing investments towards renovation and modernization of electric grid coupled with increasing demand for safe and reliable electricity supply will stimulate the power transmission lines & towers market share over the forecast timeframe. In 2017, U.S. based PJM Interconnection electricity utility announced the spend USD 1.5 billion to upgrade aging gridline between Midwest to Northeast with advance security systems. European countries including UK, Russia, France and Germany are also making significant investments towards the upgradation of their conventional electric grid architecture.Growing adoption of clean energy including solar, wind, and small hydro has significantly increased the demand for microgrid networks which in turn will positively influence the power transmission lines & towers market. In 2015, Government of India has announced to fund over USD 6 billion for the development of separate lines for transmitting green electricity to end consumer.Request for a sample of this research report @In 2016, Government of China announced spend over USD 85 billion towards the development of new UHT structures over the next four years.HVDC power transmission lines & towers market for 2015 was valued over USD 2 billion. Growing concern towards the enhancement of grid reliability and security will positively impact the industry landscape.Browse key industry insights spread across 160 pages with 214 market data tables & 10 figures & charts from the report, Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market Size, By Product (High Tension (HT), Extra High Tension (EHT), Ultra High Tension (UHT)), By Voltage Level (132 kV, 220 kV, 440 kV, 660 kV,  765 kV), By Current Level (HVDC, HVAC), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Peru), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:U.S. power transmission lines & towers market size is anticipated to exceed over USD 1 billion by 2024. Federal government initiatives towards enhancement of security features to the grid architecture will stimulate the industry growth.For Europe, France power transmission lines & towers market size for 2015 was valued over USD 450 million. Government measures towards to reduce the curtailment rates will augment the business outlook. In 2016, the country has initiated the construction of 150 miles undersea network which is considered as one of the largest undersea project across the region.China power transmission lines & towers market size is anticipated to rise over 8% over forecast timeline. In 2015, Government of China had released the new reform plan pertaining to transmission grid construction under which they are planning to invest USD 280 billion for the upgradation of UHV and EHV networks. India was valued over USD 1 billion for 2015. Growing measures to deal with blackouts coupled with initiatives to interconnect all the state and central grid network will complement the business outlook.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Brazil power transmission lines & towers market size is anticipated to expand over USD 1 billion by 2024. Increasing investments by foreign utilities including State Grid Corp. of China. May positively favor the growth.Key industry players includes Nanjing Daji Iron Tower Manufacturing, Sumitomo Electric, General Electric, Kalpataru, ABB, KEC International, Southwire Company, ShanDong DingChang Tower Company, General Cable Technologies, Siemens, Prysmian, Zhejiang Shengda Steel Tower, Nexans and others.About Global Market Insights, Inc.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.29L Atlantic Avenue, Suite L 105Ocean View Delaware 19970 United StatesEmail: sales@gminsights.com
Electric Power Distribution Automation Market Extensive Growth Opportunities to be Witnessed by 2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/electric-power-distribution-automation-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10795

www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10795

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Distribution Automation System refers to a set of intelligent processors, communication technologies and sensors the enables to coordinate and monitor the distribution assets of electric power. Electric power distribution automation system is important part of smart grid systems. Distribution automation system provides benefits of efficient and reliable operations within the grid.To view complete report @The Electric power distribution automation market across the globe is expected to show a substantial growth with a double digit increase in CAGR by the year 2019. Some of the key factors driving the market are need for automation and intelligent systems in electric power distribution. Some of the factors inhibiting the market growth are less technologies availability in electric power system and implementation of the system. The market is having opportunities in residential market and in geographies such as Asia Pacific including India, Australia and many more.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Electric Power Distribution Automation market is segmented on the basis of end users, technology and geography. By end users the market can be segmented into manufacturers, commercial, information technology, telecom and many others. On the basis of technology the market is segmented into communication, sensors, monitoring devices, advanced power electronic technologies and many more. By geography the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of world.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the key players in the market are ABB Ltd., Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, GE Corp., S&C Electric Co., Atlantic City Electric Co., including many others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Gas Turbine Market is set to exceed 120GW by 2024.

Global Gas Turbine Market, By Application, 2013 - 2024 (MW)

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1181

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/gas-turbine-market

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1181

U.S. gas turbine market share is anticipated to expand over 8% by 2024. Regulations to enhance the safety of existing gas fired stations coupled with the deployment of new high capacity generation plants to cater the growing demand will augment the industry growth.Gas Turbine Market size will exceed USD 23 billion by 2024, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc.Replacement of conventional coal fired generation systems with sustainable gas fired technology will stimulate the global gas turbine market size over the forecast timeframe. Stringent emission reduction targets to reduce impact of greenhouse gases will boost the industry growth. In 2015, Government of France passed Energy Transition for Green Growth legislation with the aim to reduce emission level by 40% and increase the renewable energy consumption to 32% by 2030.Growing demand for the reliable, clean and affordable electricity for better economic and social development will embellish in global gas turbine market size from 2016 to 2024. Countries including the U.S. and UK have introduced various action plans to meet their growing electricity demand with the clean energy sources. U.S. federal government is targeting increase the energy mix from the gas fired station to 30% by 2025.Request for a sample of this research report @Aeroderivative gas turbine market share is anticipated to expand significantly over 9% by 2024. Increasing investments towards the strengthening of maritime forces will positively impact the business landscape. In 2016, GE supplied 20 LM2500 aeroderivative technology to the U.S. navy under Austal USA LCS program.Power generation applications are set to exceed 57 GW by 2024. Ongoing capacity addition with expansion of existing generating stations by countries including China, India and South Africa will positively impact industry growth.Browse key industry insights spread across 160 pages with 507 market data tables & 11 figures & charts from the report, Gas Turbine Market Size By Product (Heavy Duty, Aeroderivative), By Capacity, By Technology (Open Cycle, Combined Cycle), By Application (Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Industrial, Marine, Aviation), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Russia, Italy, Germany, France, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, Brazil, Argentina), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:For Europe, UK gas turbine market size for 2015 was valued over USD 180 million. Growing investments towards the replacement of existing coal fired stations with new clean energy systems will complement the industry outlook. The Government of UK is targeting to shut down all the coal fired power plants by 2025 in line of fulfilling its clean energy commitment.China gas turbine market is set to exceed 12 GW by 2024. Electrification programs including China Township Electrification Program for supplying reliable power to end consumers will augment the countrys business landscape.India gas turbine market is predicted to witness strong growth of over 12% by 2024. Rising private investments to enhance the power generation capability will complement the industry outlook.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Saudi Arabia gas turbine market revenue was valued over USD 1 billion in 2015. Rising onshore and offshore drilling and exploration will add to the revenue over the forecast timeline. Argentina is predicted to exceed 1.5 GW by 2024. Growing investments towards the enhancement of marine and aviation industry will boost the business growth.Key industry participants include Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, General Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Siemens, Vericor Power Systems, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Ansaldo Energia, Solar Turbines, Man Diesel & Turbo, Capstone Turbine, Harbin Electric, Cryostar, NPO Saturn, Opra Turbines, Zorya-Mashproekt and others.About Global Market Insights, Inc.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.29L Atlantic Avenue, Suite L 105Ocean View Delaware 19970 United StatesEmail: sales@gminsights.com
Nanotechnology Drug Delivery Market is Expected to Witness Highest Growth During 2015 - 2023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/nanotechnology-drug-delivery.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1822

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Nanotechnology drug delivery is a growing field and is witnessing increasing acceptance in health care applications. Nanotechnology drug delivery is widely used in the health care industry in applications such as neurology, anti-infective, cardiovascular disorders, and others. One important and active application area of nanotechnology drug delivery systems is to transport drugs to the final location of therapeutic intervention within the body. The nanotechnology drug delivery market is witnessing rapid growth due to increase in research and development activities in nanotechnology to develop novel nano-medicine. According to Eurostat comprehensive data, the nano-medicine industry in the EU includes 97 startups, 64 SMEs, and 38 large pharmaceutical or medical device companies. Furthermore, technological advancements and rising interest of key companies to invest in nanotechnology boost market growth. For instance, in 20112012, Pfizer, Inc., Amgen, Inc., and AstraZeneca signed agreements to collaborate with BIND Therapeutics to develop nano-medicines. These initiatives are expected to fuel the growth of the nanotechnology drug delivery market in the near future. However, stringent regulatory scenario and high development cost of medicines through nanotechnology are likely to hamper market growth during the forecast period. The global nanotechnology drug delivery market was valued at US$ 41,062.5 Mn in 2014 and is projected to reach US$ 118,527.2 Mn by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 12.5% from 2015 to 2023.This 120 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the nanotechnology drug delivery market. Browse through 12 data tables and 45 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:Based on technology, the global nanotechnology drug delivery market has been segmented into nanocrystals, nanoparticles, liposomes, micelles, nanotubes, and others. The nanoparticles segment dominated the global nanotechnology drug delivery market in 2014. The segment dominated the market as key nanoparticles such as dendrimers, gold nanoparticles, and fullerenes are used in pharmaceutical drug delivery. The nanotubes segment is expected to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period from 2015 to 2023.Based on application, the market has been segmented into neurology, oncology, cardiovascular/physiology, anti-inflammatory/immunology, anti-infective, and others. Anti-infective was the largest application segment of the nanotechnology drug delivery market due to rising prevalence of community-based and hospital-based infections.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving nanotechnology drug delivery market during 2015 - 2023:Geographically, North America dominated the global nanotechnology drug delivery market in 2014. Rising incidence of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes in the region fueled the growth of the nanotechnology drug delivery market in North America. Europe accounted for the second largest share of the market in 2014 owing to the favorable growth conditions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers due to affordability for branded nanotechnology products by consumers. However, the market in Latin America is estimated to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. High market growth in this region is due to increasing interest of leading companies such as Novartis and Johnson & Johnson to establish their presence in countries in Latin America such as Brazil and Mexico.Key players having presence in the global nanotechnology drug delivery market are AbbVie, Inc., Amgen, Inc., Celgene Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc., and Novartis International AG, among others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Dry Eye Disease Market 2017-2025 Industry Size, Shares, Research Trends

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/dry-eye-disease-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=26096

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Dry eye disease is a disorder of the tear film that occurs when the eyes are incapable to produce tears, which are required to maintain lubrication and moisture on the surfaces of the eyes. It is commonly known as dry eye syndrome or dry eye. Major symptoms include irritation, blurred vision, and burning sensation. If left untreated, it leads to pain, ulcers, and loss of some vision. Complete loss of vision is uncommon with the dry eye disease. Alternative medical terms which are used to describe the dry eye disease include keratoconjunctivitis sicca (affects cornea and conjunctiva), keratitis sicca (dryness and inflammation of the cornea), and dysfunctional tear syndrome (inadequate quality of tears). The two types of the disease are aqueous tear-deficient dry eye and evaporative dry eye. In aqueous tear-deficient dry eye, the lacrimal glands fail to produce ample of the aqueous component of tears to uphold a healthy eye surface. Evaporative dry eye may result from inflammation of the meibomian glands. These glands make the lipid part of tears that slow down evaporation and keep the tears stable. Globally, the dry eye disease affects approximately 60 million people. This disorder can affect individuals of any age, but it is most common in elderly people (prevalence of about 5%-30% above the age of 60 years). It affects primarily women as compared to men due to hormonal changes. Use of certain medications such as antihistamines, analgesics, and antidepressants increases the risk of developing the dry eye disease. People with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid problems are more likely to have symptoms of the disease.Obtain Report Details:The dry eye disease has been recognized as an inflammatory process. The primary approach to treat the disease includes adding tears using over-the-counter artificial tear solutions, increasing tear production (omega-3 fatty acid), and treating the inflammation (topical cyclosporine and topical corticosteroids). Drug manufacturing companies such as Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. are focused on new treatment strategies, targeting potential targets such as glucocorticoid receptor which can improve the current standard of care. Additionally, the dry eye disease has become a target for device development (Oculeve neurostimulator device) which addresses different and innovative ways to treat the disease. As of 2017, the clinical pipeline of the disease consists of 50 drug molecules, out of which 44% are small molecules, 2% are small molecules, 21% are peptides, and 33% are others. Increased in research and development expenditure, development of new treatment strategies, growth in patient awareness about the treatment are factors fueling the dry eye disease market. However, increase in use of self-medication such as over-the-counter medications or home remedies acts as a key restraint for the growth of the dry eye disease market.The global dry eye disease market has been segmented by product type and geography. Based on product type, the market has been divided into small molecules, biologics, and others. The small molecules segment is expected to grow as compared to other therapeutic segments because the majority of pipeline molecules for the treatment of dry eye disease are small molecules.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Geographically, the global market is classified into five regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. The Europe and North America markets are expected to grow as compared to the Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa markets due to higher prevalence rate, increase in the use of other medications such as antihistamine, and rise in geriatric population. Asia Pacific is likely to be an emerging market in the next few years due to the developing health care infrastructure, rising government expenditure in the health care industry, increasing use of effective diagnostic tools, and growing prevalence rate of the disease. However, lack of proper treatment and poor patient awareness are restraining the growth of the market in regions such as Middle East & Africa and Latin America.Major players operating in the dry eye disease market include Novartis International AG, Ocular Therapeutix, Inc., Allergan Plc., LTT Bio-Pharma, RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Alcon Research, Ltd., Xigen SA., Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Novaliq GmbH.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Healthcare Information Systems Market is Expected to Rise at a Remarkable CAGR During 2016 - 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/healthcare-information-system.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1457

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Despite a consolidated vendor landscape of the global healthcare information systems market, top players, namely Cerner Corporation, All Scripts, and McKesson held a moderate 26% of the market in 2015, says Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new report. The diversified portfolio of these players is the key factor helping them maintain their dominant position. Mergers and acquisitions for expanding their geographical presence and for revenue gains indirectly is also the focus of several companies in this market, notes the report.As per the research report, the healthcare information systems market is anticipated to be worth US$448 bn by 2024 increasing from US$192 bn in 2015 at a CAGR of 10.1% between 2016 and 2024.North America to Continue Command in MarketThis 226 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the healthcare information systems market. Browse through 48 data tables and 69 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The global healthcare information systems market is studied on the basis of component, application, end-user, deployment, and geography. By component, software is expected to continue to account for the leading share in the market. The increasing popularity of mobile applications for communication between patients and physicians is boosting the growth of software segment of the market. However, the hardware component segment is estimated to register a notable CAGR between 2016 and 2024.In terms of end user, hospitals, diagnostics centers, and academic and research institutions are the segments of the healthcare information systems market. The segment of hospitals is expected to continue its lead until 2024 rising at a CAGR of 11.1% between 2016 and 2024. The need to store vast amounts of data and make them accessible to patients account for hospitals to display tremendous demand for healthcare information systems.North America will continue to command accounting for 36.6% of the revenue of the healthcare information systems market by the end of the forecast period in 2024. The growing geriatric population combined with increasing incidence of chronic diseases are the key factors behind the growth of this regional market. Moreover, governments in the region are focused on healthcare reforms and allocating substantial budgets for implementing them.North America is closely followed by Europe with Western Europe contributing the major revenue in the region. The soaring demand for improved healthcare and the need to integrate healthcare systems are driving the healthcare information systems market in this region. The rising awareness regarding the accuracy and reliability of technology-driven healthcare services is providing momentum to this regional market.On the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to register the leading CAGR over other regions during the review period. The rising geriatric population base susceptible to chronic diseases is leading to the increased adoption of modern healthcare systems for easy access to patient information. Improving healthcare infrastructure combined with increasing investments by healthcare IT companies is further bolstering the growth of this regional market.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving healthcare information systems market during 2016 - 2024:Need for Reliable Patient Record Keeping Drives Swift Uptake of Healthcare Information SystemsSeveral governments across the world are taking initiatives to digitize healthcare systems leading to the adoption of healthcare information systems. This is because patient records in digital format is easy to transfer for improved healthcare.High cost involved in the purchase and installation of healthcare information systems and cost of training technicians to use these systems is discouraging several end users from adoption them.The review presented is based on the findings of Transparency Market Research report, titled HealthCare Information Systems Market (Application - Hospital Information Systems (Electronic Health Record, Electronic Medical Record, Real-time Healthcare, Patient Engagement Solutions, and Population Health Management), Pharmacy Information Systems (Prescription Management, Automated Dispensing Systems, and Inventory Management), Laboratory Information Systems, Medical Imaging Information System (Radiology Information Systems, Monitoring Analysis Software, and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems), and Revenue Cycle Management; Deployment - Web-based, On Premise, and Cloud-based; Component - Software, Hardware, and Services; End User - Hospitals, Diagnostics Centre, and Academic and Research Institution) - Global & North America Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Hospital-Treated Gram-Negative Infections Market Expecting Worldwide Growth by 2016  2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12910

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/hospital-treated-gram-negative-infections-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Gram-negative bacteria are non-pathogenic in person with the normal immune system. However, in person with a weak immune system having gram negative bacteria can behave as significant pathogens. The ability to prevent the effect of such micro-organisms is significantly hampered by the resistance of antimicrobials. The above is the reason for the introduction, and continuous research on combination antibiotics and physicians are now concentrating on selecting an appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy for treating the nosocomial infection. Furthermore, the multidrug-resistant gram-negative organisms have come out to be an accountable threat to the patients and are responsible for rising in mortality rate from 30 to 70% in infections category. Inappropriate use of broad-spectrum antibiotics abundantly and regularly is highly contributing to the emergence of MDRGNs. The advent and propagation of these highly resistant gram-negative organisms are a matter of concern due to the limited number of currently available antimicrobial agents or in the pipeline drug combat these organisms.Gram-negative bacteria are pathogens and carriers of many diseases that affected the flora found living naturally in the human gut. There are numerous reasons involved where such bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics from, which they have been sensitive to in the past. As a result, the traditional antibiotics are no longer effective in treating the diseases and infections caused due to these microorganisms.Rising prevalence of various rare disease globally is expected to support the criteria of hospital-treated gram-negative infections market. There has been rising need for newer drugs for getting the appropriate effect on the micro-organisms. The increasing number of strains of the bacteria and growing resistance towards the previously existing pathogens are expected to favor the market for drugs used hospital-treated gram-negative infections. The world is running out of drugs for infections caused due to gram-negative bacteria. However, companies are laying efforts in drug discoveries by spending more and more in research and development. Furthermore, among all of the bacterial resistance problems, gram-negative pathogens are particularly troublesome and a reason for major worry in physician community as they are getting resistant to maximum currently available drugs. The most common gram-negative infections include the pathogens such as Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter. Major challenges are rising for the treatment of patient suffering from pan-resistant or nearly pan-resistant gram-negative microorganisms.The global market for hospital-treated gram-negative Infections market is segmented on the basis of drug class, indication, application, and distribution channel:Segmentation by TherapyCephalosporin, AminoglycosideAmpicillin/sulbactam, Carbapenem, Colistin or RifampinAminoglycoside, Carbapenem, Colistin, Fosfomycin, Rifampin, or TigecyclineCeftolozane/TazobactamCeftazidime/AvibactamOthersSegmentation by Pathogen typeKlebsiellaAcinetobacterColicepaciaPseudomonasSerratiaEnterobacterOthersPowerful and frequent administration of antibiotics is becoming a standard-of-care treatment for gram-negative infections, specifically for those diseases acquired in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities. As a result of frequently acquired infections, the rise in antimicrobial resistance rates has forced an immediate need to introduce novel antibiotic therapies with activity against multidrug-resistant gram-negative pathogens. As a result, various commercial opportunities falls particularly in the healthcare facilities, for latest brands defining clinical efficacy in patients with resistant infections, and precisely in those associated with high mortality rate. Nevertheless, the hospitals need to take perfect steps to prevent such infections such as basic cleanliness acquired by the patients in the hospitals and other medical facilities, use of disinfected instruments for treatment and making the people aware of the consequences of overusing antibiotics.Request to View Tables of Content @Although, the reasons mentioned above may further act as an impediment for the market for the drugs used in hospital-treated gram-negative infections somehow is expected to maintain the traction for currently existing antibiotics. Shown improvements over presently available gram negative infection agents are expected to be key during reimbursement and pricing negotiations among the government and the pharmaceutical companies. The provision of positioning gram-negative infections antibiotics in the hospital formulary is also expected to be a key driver of market access in the hospital-treated gram-negative infections drugs market. Furthermore, hospital-treated GNI market is being dominated by generics available in the market as most of the infections can be treated effectively with older agents present in the generic form, which in turn is expected to impede the hospital-treated gram-negative infections drugs market. Novel and recently approved antibiotics are typically reserved for future prospected in the case where the older antibiotics are strongly resisting by gram-negative bacteria.On the basis of region presence, hospital-treated gram-negative infections market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Presently, North America dominates the global market for hospital-treated gram-negative infections due to existing large number of facilities for research and development. However, growth in Asia-Pacific region is significant in terms of CAGR over the forecast period due to rising in resistance due to improper scheduled of antibiotics administration. The U.S. Hospital-treated gram-negative infections market is expected to dominate in terms of market share with significant share among all the regions.Some player exists in this group that are Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Abbott, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Istituto lusofarmaco ditalia spa, Adelco S.A, Zhejiang yuntao biotechnology co., Ltd, Alcon Laboratories, Inc.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Offshore Support Vessel Market to Discern Steadfast Expansion During 2016 - 2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/offshore-support-vessel-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11302

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/11302

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Offshore Support Vessels are the ships that are designed to transport liquid cargo, stores, materials and equipment and personnel to offshore oil platform that functions deep in the oceans. These vessels include services such as drilling rigs, offshore pipe laying, and oil production platforms utilized in exploration and production activities. These vessels undertake variety of tasks in the supply chain.Offshore Support Vessels are fundamental components for oil & gas industry. There are many types of offshore support vessel that have different properties and functions as per the type of operation. The Asia-Pacific regions such as China, Australia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia require more volume of offshore support vessels. As a result, it provides a great opportunity to the manufacturers of offshore support vesselsTo view complete report @Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: SegmentationGlobal Offshore Support Vessel market is segmented into type and region. The global Offshore Support Vessel market can be segmented on the basis of types such as Anchor Handling Towing and Supply (AHTS) vessels, Platform Supply Vessels (PSV), Diving Support Vessels, Remote Operating Vessels (ROV) Support, Multi-Purpose Service Vessel (MPSV), Cable & Pipe Laying Vessels, Standby and Rescue Vessel, Seismic Survey Vessels, Well Stimulation Vessel, Fast Supply Intervention Vessels (FSIV). Region wise, global Offshore Support Vessel market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA).Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global offshore support vessel market is projected to witness a significant growth in terms of CAGR from 2015 to 2025. North America region is expected to witness significant growth during the forecasted period. Middle East is expected to be one of the leading market for offshore support vessels for the coming years. According to FMI forecasts, the market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at highest CAGR over the forecast period.Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: DriversOffshore Support Vessel Market is being driven by rising offshore exploration and production activities. Moreover, increasing capital expenditure on offshore oil exploration will also lead to offshore developments. Offshore Support Vessel Market is expected to grow at a higher rate for the forecast period supported by increasing demand of oil & gas.The drivers for this market are increased demand for offshore rig, marine logistics, & others. All these factors together drive the Offshore Support Vessel market during the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: RestraintsCertain restraints that are hampering the growth of global offshore support vessel market to some extent include high maintenance and replacement cost, regulations and environmental effects.Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players in the global offshore support vessel market focus on Developments, investments, expansion, mergers & acquisition, agreements and contracts, new technologies developments, in order to expand their reach and penetrate into the market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Offshore Support Vessel Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players identified in the global Offshore Support Vessel market are Edison Chouest Offshore, Abdon Callais Offshore, Havila Shipping ASA, Farstad Shipping ASA, Gulfmark Offshore Inc., Bourbon Offshore Marine services, Island Offshore Management AS, & others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Circuit Breakers Market is forecast to grow at over 7.0% CAGR by 2024.

Global Circuit Breakers Market, By Technology, 2014  2024 (USD Billion)

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1172

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/circuit-breakers-market

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1172

U.S. circuit breakers market share is anticipated to expand over 7%. Government programs to enhance the safety of existing T&D grid infrastructure coupled with the deployment of new HVDC lines for long distance power transmission will augment the industry growth.Circuit Breakers Market size will exceed USD 13.5 billion by 2024, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc.Growing demand for the modular and packaged substation primarily across commercial and industrial end users will stimulate the global circuit breakers market share during the forecast timeframe. In 2016, Qatar had awarded USD 12.4 million contract to Siemens for the supply of integrated E-House substations for Hamad Port megaproject.Development of numerous green corridors projects for exporting electricity generated from renewable energy sources to national grids will positively impact the industry landscape. In 2014, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) had announced the investment of over USD 7 billion to facilitate the integration of clean energy plants with the national and state grids.Request for a sample of this research report @Rising investments towards the renovation of conventional transmission grid infrastructure by utilities and other private participants will augment global circuit breakers market revenue. In 2015, Government of China announced a USD 315 billion investment towards the refurbishment of power grid infrastructure over the next five years. Rural electrification programs designed by countries including China, India, South Africa, and Nigeria will further influence the business outlook.LV circuit breakers market was valued over USD 1 billion for 2015. Strong investment outlook towards deployment of new low voltage substations across remote areas will augment the industry size. SF6 is expected to witness significant growth of over 10%, owing to its high dielectric strength and efficient arc quenching properties.Browse key industry insights spread across 150 pages with 232 market data tables & 11 figures & charts from the report, Circuit Breakers Market Size, By Technology (Air, Vacuum, Oil, SF6), By Voltage Level (LV, MV, HV), By End-Use (Power Transmission, Power Distribution), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Peru), Application Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:For Europe circuit breakers market, UK 2015 revenue was in excess of USD 140 million. Investment for the development of new smart grid infrastructures will complement the industry outlook. China circuit breakers market looks set to exceed USD 2 billion by 2024. Numerous programs including China Township Electrification Program and China Village Electrification Program for providing renewable electricity to household consumers will enhance the countrys business landscape.India circuit breakers market is expected to witness significant growth of over 8% over the forecast timeframe. Initiatives including One Nation, One Grid, One Price will enhance business size. 2015 Saudi Arabia revenue was over USD 100 million, rising demand for modular and packaged substations across the remote onshore oil and gas drilling areas will favor the industry demand.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Brazil circuit breakers market size is predicted to exceed USD 450 million by 2024. Integration renewable energy generation sources with the state and national grid will boost the demand over the forecast timeframe.Key industry players include GE Alstom, Powell Industries, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, BEL Fuse Inc., Schneider Electric, Toshiba, Siemens, Eaton Corporation, TE Connectivity and ABB.About Global Market Insights, Inc.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.29L Atlantic Avenue, Suite L 105Ocean View Delaware 19970 United StatesEmail: sales@gminsights.com
Enterprise WLAN Market - Detailed Analysis and Forecast by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2243

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2243

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2243

Global Enterprise WLAN Market: OverviewWith a continuously rising adoption of mobility and the growing demand among people across the world to be connected to the internet regardless of their location, wireless networks are gaining popularity. A wireless LAN (WLAN) controller combines multiple access point protocols to manage them in large through network operations centers or network administrators. The controller has the ability to automatically handle the configuration of wireless access points. Enterprise WLAN helps maintain organizations seamless workflow and security. The different types of verticals where these networks are used, include telecom and IT, healthcare, banking, education, retail, hospitality, and logistics.Global Enterprise WLAN Market: Key TrendsThe emergence of cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is providing a fillip to the global enterprise WLAN market. IoT and cloud solutions provide an edge to enterprise wireless networks by improving their efficiency and reliability. Moreover, the growing trend of bring your own device (BYOD) is stoking the growth of the market. The proliferation of smartphones and devices is also augmenting the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @On the flip side, the lack of awareness and dearth of workforce with high technical acumen are keeping the market from realizing its utmost potential. However, technological advancements are estimated to increase WLAN applications across numerous industry sectors, which will work in favor of the market.Global Enterprise WLAN Market: Market PotentialRecent trends in the global enterprise WLAN market indicate that the market participants are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to improve their offerings. The introduction of advanced technologies is rendering the market highly lucrative. In September 2016, Extreme Networks announced the acquisition of Zebra Technologies Wireless LAN (WLAN) business unit. The deal was worth US$55 mn. With this acquisition, the company announced that the combination will work towards delivering superior Enterprise Asset Intelligence solutions, that will provide customers with real-time visibility into their operations. Similarly, Hewlett-Packard acquired Aruba Networks in May 2015 for US$3 bn in an attempt to enhance its role in the WLAN market.Request TOC of the Report @Several players are also involved in expanding their outreach in emerging regions. They are pouring funds into research and development to introduce innovative and disruptive solutions for end to end networking requirements of enterprises. For instance, AXILSPOT, in December 2016, flagged off its operations in Indias enterprise wireless marketplace by launching Rscan range of products.Global Enterprise WLAN Market: Geographical SegmentationOn the basis of geography, the segments reviewed in the report are Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America will be a prominent market for enterprise WLAN. The high consumer awareness regarding the merits of these networks and early introduction of advanced technologies due to the presence of many key players are driving the growth of the region.Asia Pacific, on the other hand, will offer numerous promising prospects to global vendors. The widening pool of working population and emerging technology hubs is largely benefiting the market in the region. The escalating development and adoption of cloud-based services and growing investments in the IT and telecommunication sector are fuelling the growth of the region.Get a discount @Global Enterprise WLAN Market: Competitive LandscapeThe majority of players in the global WLAN enterprise market are focusing towards technological advancements and product innovation to enhance their visibility in the market. Key players are looking upon mergers and partnerships as viable growth strategies to stay ahead in the market. Some of the prominent vendors in the market are Cisco Systems, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprises, Extreme Network, Dell Inc., ZTE Corporation, Ruckus, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Huawei, and Juniper Networks.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market Set to Witness an Uptick During 2017  2025

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/13042

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/clinical-communications-and-collaboration-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The role of IT in healthcare has changed the face of the entire industry. The induction of IT in healthcare has added pace in the growth of the healthcare industry and it has also given it a wider spectrum of growth. The marriage of IT and healthcare will have a long-standing effect on the entire healthcare industry. The global healthcare industry is standing at a crucial juncture and it is combating with some of the most deadly diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The rise in the aged population is also creating a challenging climate in front of the healthcare industry. IT is playing a pivotal role in the evolution of healthcare and it is adding fuel to the growth of the research and development. The incorporation of the advanced IT solutions has changed the definition of the patient care and it has also addressed some of the core issues of healthcare such as clinical communication and collaboration. The IT has provided a better and robust platform to healthcare which they are using to enhance their patient outreach. A slew of tools and apps have bridged the gap between patients and physicians. A new wave of funding in healthcare has expedited the growth of the IT in healthcare and ushered in significant changes in the industry through clinical communication and collaboration. Clinical communication and collaboration are playing an important role in the healthcare industry. The emergence of smartphones has also impacted the lives of millions of doctors and medical professionals. The staggering rise in the smartphone use amongst physicians in the last few years have established a strong channel of communication between patients and doctors. The doctors have changed their approach towards Clinical communication and collaboration. Today mobile is a prime source of communication for doctors. The mobiles have successfully toppled the emails and cemented its place in the Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market. The clinical communications are completely dependent upon pace and accuracy which a mobile phone can provide properly. The doctors can not only communicate with team present at the hospital and can fetch timely and regular updates on the patients condition. Can consult a peer doctor and can earn his or her perspective on a particular case.Request to View Tables of Content @Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market DriversThe Clinical Communication and Collaboration are playing a pivotal role in mass health management. It is not only creating a considerable difference in the healthcare standards, but it is also reforming the set rules of healthcare. There has been a massive boom in the android mobile market which is opening a new window of opportunity of in front of the Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market. The doctors and hospitals are spending a slice of their budget to gear up the mobile communication within the organisation. The use of tablets and mobile phones within hospitals and clinics has increased manifold in the last few years. The surging market of the mobile friendly community apps and multiple social media platforms has widened the scope of clinical communication and collaboration market. The rocketing rose in healthcare friendly apps has made things easier for the healthcare fraternity. The exceptional approach of the healthcare industry towards better communication is also acting as a catalyst for growth for the clinical communication and collaboration market.Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market Restraints:Though the rocketing android based mobile market has created a proper ground for the development of the Clinical Communication and Collaboration market. But there are certain congruent issues which are stalling the organic rise of the Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market. Though the private stakeholders of the healthcare industry are promoting clinical communication and collaboration, but because of budget restraints, most of the government healthcare facilities are ducking this new procedure of enhanced communication. Though the North American market is flooded with android enabled phones and backed by a robust telecommunication but the regions such as Africa, and some parts of South East Asia is still staying away from the global mobile boom. Thus the market growth of the clinical communication and collaboration is limited in these regions of the world.Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market Key RegionsThe clinical collaboration and communication market depends on the overall growth of the healthcare market. The evergreen region for healthcare is North America which will call the shots in this segment as well, but apart from this the regions such as APEJ which is an emerging market for IT and healthcare will show promising growth trends. Backed by massive funding the MEA region might soon confirm its place amongst the big league.Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market Key Market PlayersThe clinical communication and collaboration market is populated with several companies which are contributing in the growth of the market. Doctors and clinicians present around the world use several apps and software to create a strong communication channel with the patients and the medical facilities. Here is a list of the apps such as Epocrates, Doximity, DynaMed Mobile, Isabel which are a part of the extensive Clinical Communications and Collaboration Market.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Fiberglass Market 2017 - Jushi Group Co. Ltd (China), AGY Holding Corp. (U.S.), Saint-Gobain Vetrotex (Europe)

Fiberglass Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3196

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/fiberglass-market-3196

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3196

Synopsis of Fiberglass Market:The Global Fiberglass Market is expected to witness a significant growth of USD ~ 20.32 billion by 2023 with CAGR of ~9.2% between 2016 and 2023.Fiberglass which is also known as spun glass, glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) or Glasfaserverstarkter Kunststof (GFK) is a reinforced plastic material containing glass fibers in a resin matrix. It has lightweight, moderate tensile and compressive strength and is easy to handle and machine, and excellent electrical properties.Request a Sample Report @Fiberglass is used in a varied range of industrial applications and is the most easily available and cheapest composite fabric. Fiberglass has found in various end use industry such as aerospace, automotive, construction, electrical, pharmaceutical, industrial, and others. The growing automotive and electrical industry on account of developing domestic as well as commercial market particularly in Asia-Pacific and North America has boosted the global fiberglass market over the forecasted period. On the other hand, environment & health related issues and unstable prices of raw materials are major restraining factors of the fiberglass market which can hamper the growth of global fiberglass market.Key Players:Key players of the Global Fiberglass Market are Jushi Group Co. Ltd (China), AGY Holding Corp. (U.S.), Saint-Gobain Vetrotex (Europe), PPG Industries Inc. (US), Owens Corning (US), Taiwan Glass Industry Corporation (Taiwan), Taishan Fiberglass Inc (China), PFG FIBER GLASS CORPORATION (Taiwan), Fiber Glass Industries Inc (US), W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc (US), and Others.Study Objectives of Fiberglass Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Fiberglass Market. To understand the supply and demand dynamics including supply and consumption concentration mapping. To provide region level market analysis and future outlook for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countries. To provide competitor positioning of the market. To provide company profiling of major players in the market along with their production and capacity. To provide regional trade analysis. To evaluate historical market trends, patents and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements that are relevant to the market.Browse Full Report in Detail @Segmentation:The Global Fiberglass Market is majorly segmented on the basis of types, end users and region. Based on types of fiberglass the market is segmented into A-glass, C-glass, D-glass, E-glass, R-glass, S-glass, and others (AR-glass, ECR-glass, etc.). By application, global fiberglass market is segmented into composites and insulation. Based on end user the market segmented into aerospace, automotive, construction, electrical, pharmaceutical, industrial, and others(wind energy, petrochemicals, etc.) and based on region market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, Middle East & Africa.Key Points from Table of Content:12. Company Profiles12.1 Jushi Group Co. Ltd12.1.1 Company Overview12.1.2 Product/Business Segment Overview12.1.3 Financial Updates12.1.4 Key Developments12.2 AGY Holding Corp12.2.1 Company Overview12.2.2 Product/Business Segment Overview12.2.3 Financial Updates12.2.4 Key Developments12.3 Saint-Gobain Vetrotex12.3.1 Company Overview12.3.2 Product/Business Segment Overview12.3.3 Financial Updates12.3.4 Key Developments12.4 PPG Industries Inc.12.4.1 Company Overview12.4.2 Product/Business Segment Overview12.4.3 Financial Updates12.4.4 Key DevelopmentsMake an Enquiry before buying @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Multiwall Bags Market is driven by the Increasing Growth of Real Estate Industry in the Developing Countries

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17501

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/multiwall-bags-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Multiwall bags Market: IntroductionOver the past few years the packaging industry has witnessed significant growth with the massive sales of multiwall bags. The need for multiwall bags is gaining traction across various end users such as fertilizer, textile, cement manufacturers etc. Moreover, people are becoming aware regarding environment that in turn bolstered the demand of multiwall bags. Multiple bags are prepared of various layers of kraft paper. The inner layer of the multiwall bags is specially coated and laminated to prevent from the contamination. Multiwall paper bags are becoming popular owing to the customization of the product for promotional purposes.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Multiwall bags: Market DynamicsMultiwall bags market is driven by the increasing growth of real estate industry in the developing countries as well as in the developed economies. Mainly multiwall bags are widely used in the cement packaging. The sales of multiwall bags gets fueled by the increasing urbanization in the developing countries of Asia Pacific. Increasing per capita disposable income along with the changing life styles of the people is expected to fuel the demand of multiwall bags during the forecast period. Meanwhile, the chemical aids in driving significant demand for multiwall bags market. Moreover, increasing growth of organized retail such as super markets, hyper markets is also propelling the growth of multiwall bags market during the forecast period because many companies do not consider normal plastic for the packaging.In addition, steadily rising demand for grain crop is generating the huge demand for fertilizers particularly in the developing countries which in turn creating the demand for multiwall bags. Moreover, increasing growth of horticulture can create a massive impact in the multiwall bags market. Increasing awareness regarding ecofriendly product is also expected to accelerate the sales of multiwall paper bags in the upcoming decade. Also, government regulations regarding plastic can positively influencing the multiwall bags.Browse Market Research Report @Multiwall bags: Market SegmentationThe global multiwall bags market is segmented on the basis of application, material typeBased on the application the global multiwall bags market is segmented into:ConstructionFoodTextilesFertilizersChemicalBased on the material type global multiwall bags market is segmented into:PlasticPaperMultiwall bags Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global multiwall bags market has been divided in to five key regions including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. Asia pacific region is expected to remain its dominance in the global multiwall bags market throughout the forecast period. Mainly China, India and other south East Asian countries are enhancing the sales of multiwall bags owing to the rising growth of real estate industry. North America is also a lucrative market for multiwall bags manufacturer owing to the impressive growth in organized retail sector. Europe is also anticipated to register moderate growth during the forecast period owing to the mature market. Latin America can also be considered a beneficial destination for the manufacturers of multiwall bags because Argentina and Brazil are developed in agriculture as well as in the horticulture.Multiwall bags Market: Key playersSome of the key players in the global multiwall bags market are Global-Pak Inc., Bemis company inc, Hood packaging corporation, Dairyland Packaging USA, LLC, LC Packaging, El Dorado Packaging, Lincon Polymers etc. Key players also emphasizing for mergers and acquisitions with the local players to increase the product portfolio and also to penetrate their business into emerging countries.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Recreational Vehicles Market in North America Size to Accelerate at a Rapid CAGR of 7% by 2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/north-america-recreational-vehicles-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3520

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/north-america-recreational-vehicles-market/toc

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

In a recently published market outlook titled Recreational Vehicle Market: North America Industry Analysis and Forecast 2016 to 2024," Persistence Market Research delivers key insights into the critical factors expected to impact the market growth over the next few years. The report also provides country-wise and segmental analysis estimated for an eight-year forecast period, 2016-2024.North America sales of recreational vehicle are projected to reach US$ 26.19 Bn by 2024 end, expanding at a CAGR of over 7%. In terms of consumption volume, recreational vehicles will possibly exceed 465,000 units within the first half of the assessed period i.e. by 2020 end.Revenue sales of recreational vehicle across North America will be highly impacted by demographics, consumer behavior, and purchasing power. Eco-friendly and lightweight recreational vehicle highlight a current growing trend, whereas hybrid/battery-operated recreational vehicles have recently emerged as a promising trend. Rental market for recreational vehicle is witnessing significant growth. Growing preference for online shopping will also benefit RV promotion and sales, Persistence Market Research comments on the most influential trends in North Americas recreational vehicle market.Rising consumer inclination toward entertaining outdoors and adventure travel will remain the key drivers to North America market for recreational vehicles. Recent style and design innovations fuel the market growth further.Developing outdoor recreational infrastructure and growing preference for sustainable tourism against mass tourism will collectively create revenue generation channels for RV manufacturers.Baby Boomers have always been the largest consumer cluster for recreational vehicle. However, several manufacturers are increasingly targeting young consumers through emphasis on new, cost-effective product launches based on advanced technology. Thor Industries recently (2016) introduced smaller Class C and Class A motorhomes, specifically targeting younger generation consumers.U.S. based manufactures are likely to encounter with attractive opportunities in developing Asian countries, including Japan, China, and South Korea. For existing network expansion, various small manufacturers are consolidating with established players. Vendors are also offering multiple financing options on RV purchase.Browse Complete Report @A few more factors that will continue to favor the growth of recreational vehicle market include initiatives by governments. States rising investments in specialized roadways specifically designed for recreational vehicle prompt at lucrative opportunities in near future.Geographical analysis of North America recreational vehicle market bifurcates the market into the U.S. and Canada. While the U.S. is anticipated to take a leap over US$ 22 Bn by 2024 end, Canada market will possibly represent a total incremental opportunity of US$ 1,552.2 Mn between 2016 and 2024.U.S. currently accounts for over 87% share of the North American market; however, Canada is identified to be a growing market driven by relatively higher growth opportunities.Aluminum segment, with roughly 40% value share, currently leads the market. Persistence Market Research expected this segment to surpass US$ 10 Bn in 2024, closely followed by fiberglass. The latter is likely to demonstrate the highest growth at a CAGR of over 9%, gaining around 320 BPS over the next eight years. This growth is due to surging demand for eco-friendly, lightweight vehicles.A sample of this report is available upon request @Although large motorhomes, especially those equipped with solar and wireless technologies are experiencing higher traction, travel trailers and campers will remain dominant throughout the forecast period. Travel trailers and campers segment currently holds a dominant share of nearly 61%, followed by motor homes segment with around 37% share of the entire market revenues. Over the forecast period, travel trailers and campers segment will reach US$ 14.59 Bn gaining around 570 BPS.Class A and class B motorhome segments reflect higher growth potential, attributed to affordability and user-friendliness. Class A vehicle will continue to represent the largest motorhomes sub-segment, followed by class C. Whereas, motor homes segment will witness the fastest growth at over 9% CAGR over 2016-2024.Some of the most dominant players active in North America recreational vehicle market, include Thor Industries, Inc., Forest River, Inc., Winnebago Industries, Inc., Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc., REV Group, Inc., Triple E Recreational Vehicle, and Winnebago Industries, Inc. A majority vendors are strengthening their market positions through new product launches, while others are focusing on strategic acquisitions.Request to view table of content @Winnebago Industries, Inc. acquired Grand Design RV, LLC. More recently, the company launched a new class B motorhome model (2016)Thor Industries, Inc. announced production capacity expansion and purchased an additional production facility (2016)Forest River brought in a new lineup of class A and class B diesel motorhomes (2016)REV Group, Inc. introduced rubber shackle airless suspension system on a class A Ford F-53 chassis (2016)Nexus RV LLC. recently partnered with The RV Factory. More recently, the company launched an additional lineup to its class B Viper 25V motorhomes (2016)Triple E Recreational Vehicle brought in a new wonder lineup to its class C and class B+ motorhomes. Earlier in 2016, the company announced collaboration with Truma in a bid to feature water heating system to one of its product lineups.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Heat Exchanger Market 2017  Challenges, Key Vendors, Drivers and Trends by Forecast 2023

Heat Exchanger Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2963

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/heat-exchanger-market-2963

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2963

Market Synopsis of Heat Exchanger Market:Market Scenario:The Heat Exchanger Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period.Heat Exchanger are devices whose primary responsibility is the transfer or exchange of heat from one medium to another. Heat Exchanger are not only used in heating applications but are also used in cooling applications such as refrigerators and air conditioners.Increase in demand for Heat Exchangers owing to power requirement for commercial and non-commercial purposes, increase in population and economic growth in the developing nations are some of the factors which driving the market growth. Moreover, technological development in Heat Exchanger and growth in HVACR (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning and Refrigeration) process equipments are pushing the market towards growth. Recent trends shows that emerging trends have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry such as development of waste heat recovery heat exchangers and introduction of exhaust gas re-circulation coolers.Whereas, fluctuating prices of raw material acting as major barrier for the growth of the Heat Exchanger Market.Request a Sample Report @Key Players:The major player operating in the market of global heat exchanger are Alfa Laval AB (Sweden), Kelvion Holdings Gmbh (Germany), Southern Heat Exchanger (U.S.) Danfoss A/S (Denmark), SPX Corporation (U.S.), Xylem Inc. (U.S.), API Heat Transfer Inc. (U.S), Gunter AG & Co. KG (Germany), Sierra S.p.A (Italy), and Hamon & Cie International SA (Belgium).Study Objectives of Heat Exchanger Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Heat Exchanger Market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the heat exchanger market based Porters Five Force Analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, application and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the heat exchanger market.Browse Full Report in Detail @Key Points from Table of Content:7 Competitive Analysis7.1 Introduction7.2 Competitive Scenario7.2.1 Market Share Analysis7.2.2 Market Development Analysis7.2.3 Product/Service Benchmarking7.3 Alfa Laval AB7.3.1 Overview7.3.2 Product/Service Offering7.3.3 Strategy7.4 Kelvion Holdings Gmbh7.4.1 Overview7.4.2 Product/Service Offering7.4.3 Strategy7.5 Southern Heat Exchanger7.5.1 Overview7.5.2 Product/Service Offering7.5.3 StrategyMake an Enquiry before buying @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Clinical Microbiology Market Analysis, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1199

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1199

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1199

Global Clinical Microbiology Market: SnapshotClinical microbiology, the adaptation of microbiological techniques to analyze the etiological agents that lead to the development of infectious disease, is the medical sub-specialty that explores the nature of the infectious condition and studies the ability of antibiotics to kill or inhibit the isolated microorganisms. The sector is gaining increased focus across the globe owing chiefly to the vast rise in infectious conditions, the alarming adaptability of microbes to changing environments, and the rising threat of contracting bacterial pathogens that are resistant to commonly used antibiotics.The rising number of diseases caused by pathogenic infections is fueling research and development activities in the field of clinical microbiology. The trend is expected to remain strong over the next few years as well, with an increasing number of medicine companies already entering or willing to enter the field with the help of their clinical solutions for use across numerous sectors of clinical microbiology. Automation is increasingly gaining a larger and more prominent role in the sector and is expected to help reduce the time required to undertake a number of processes and improve the efficiency of results.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Technological advancements in monitoring equipment are allowing more exhaustive analysis of microbes and leading the field of clinical microbiology towards a healthy growth path. This report includes the most current market data related to clinical diagnosis of animal and human infections and the present and potential future role of laboratories in both the management of infectious diseases and analysis of the epidemiology of infections.Global Clinical Microbiology Market: OverviewThe intercontinental clinical microbiology market is envisioned to be pampered by a wide spectrum of opportunities in different applications such as the identification of diseases caused by pathogens with the help of laboratory services. Class A carbapenemase, a group of causative agents of clinical infections, is proliferating rapidly and has augmented the need for determining carbapenemase genes through clinical microbiology. In order to address this need, Cepheid, Inc. introduced Xpert Carba-R, a diagnostic assay, which was sanctioned by the U.S. FDA in 2016.The global clinical microbiology market could be segmented considering disease, application, and product as significant parameters. With the rise in targeted diseases and swelling geriatric population, the disease segment could see a handsome growth.Request TOC of the Report @This report on the world clinical microbiology market can be used as a guideline to operate in the industry as a winning player. Vital aspects of the market such as opportunities, restraints, and growth factors are analyzed in a radical manner to help gain a paramount insight into the clinical microbiology industry.Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe world clinical microbiology market could acquire growth at a stallion pace in the wake of the need to keep a tight rein on human errors during the manual processing of samples in research projects. In this regard, the automation of clinical systems could be demanded at a brisk rate. This demand is foretold to also gain increased support from the need to maintain constancy in manual processing.Having pulled in a kings share in the global clinical microbiology market in 2015, reagents are foreseen to earn more revenue while riding on the hike in purchases and aggravating penetration due to the demand from therapeutic and analytic research projects.The towering degree of the prevalence of respiratory maladies in emerging as well as developed nations could intensify the demand in the international clinical microbiology market. This can be attributed to the soaring levels of air pollution because of meteoric industrialization.Get a discount @Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Regional OutlookThe North America clinical microbiology market is prognosticated to get help from the existence of leviathan companies and hard and fast regulatory structures. An interesting part of the geographical analysis is the expectation on the part of the Europe market to maintain a close proximity with North America in terms of growth. However, North America secured a stupendous share in the global clinical microbiology market in 2015. The region is anticipated to stimulate high adoption of clinical microbial methodologies with the higher development of healthcare and industrial domains in countries such as the U.S.Besides China, Japan is expected to promise a faster growth in the Asia Pacific clinical microbiology market on the back of aggressive microbial testing application in a variety of fields. The august technological buildout in Japan cannot be sidelined when considering this market on the basis of demand. A countable number of top companies in the market are looking to relocate their major manufacturing outlets to Asia Pacific. This is due to the quantum leaps in building sophisticated manufacturing infrastructure and large availability of skilled labor at low cost in the region.Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Companies MentionedAs a result of their pacey progress in research and development and introduction of automated laboratory systems, the giant players in the international clinical microbiology market have won the trump card of being the first movers. There are only a few names competing at worldwide level, viz. Bruker Corporation, Danaher Corporation, Cepheid Inc., and bioMerieux S.A. Howbeit, the contest is predicted to be escalated by the entry of new faces in the global market. Of these are Hologic Inc., Becton Dickinson & Company, Alere Inc., and Roche Diagnostics.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Distribution Feeder Protection System Market 2017: Trends, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast 2023

Distribution Feeder Protection System Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3678

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/distribution-feeder-protection-system-market-3678

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3678

Market Scenario:The Global Distribution Feeder Protection System Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period.Distribution feeder protection system is a device normally used in an electric distribution system (substations & transformer) that safeguards the expensive components and systems from potential threats such as lightening causing flash-over, blackout, strong wind blowing tree branches into electric lines, transmission line tower flash-over, transformer failure and generator failure. A Distribution Feeder Protection System consists of fuses, sensors and interconnections. Distribution Feeder Protection Systems are highly responsive to fault conditions, reliable and selective in isolating minimum amount of system and interrupt service to fewest customer with minimizing system & apparatus damage.Request a Sample Report @Distribution feeder protection system protects the distribution system from directional overcurrent, non-directional overcurrent, time overcurrent and breaker failure element. The Distribution Feeder Protection system reduces equipment damage and power interruptions, as well as it improves power quality and system safety. These distribution feeder protection systems are widely used in power plants, industrial plants and conventional electric utility companies. The constant need for electricity and the unstable electricity supply situation in most developing countries will aid in the growth of the Distribution Feeder Protection System Market over the forecast period. The expensive power distribution system and its infrastructure needs protection from potential hazard, which is provided by the distribution feeder protection system. However, the high price of feeder protection system and high maintenance cost of Distribution Feeder Protection System will restrain the market to some extent.Key Players:The key players of Global Distribution Feeder Protection System Market are ABB Group (Switzerland), Siemens Ltd. (Germany), General Electric Company (USA), Crompton Greaves Ltd. (India), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), Basler Electric Company. (USA), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (USA), Littelfuse, Inc. (USA), Schneider Electric SA (France), Fanox Electronic, S.L. (Spain) and Eaton Co. Plc. (Ireland) among others.Study Objectives of Global Distribution Feeder Protection System Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Distribution Feeder Protection System. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Global Distribution Feeder Protection System Market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Forces Analysis. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by material type, product, application and region. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the distribution feeder protection system market.Browse Full Report in Detail @Key Points from Table of Content:7 Competitive Analysis7.1 Introduction7.2 Competitive Scenario7.2.1 Market Share Analysis7.2.2 Market Development Analysis7.2.3 Insulation Type/Service Benchmarking7.3 ABB Group (Switzerland)7.3.1 Overview7.3.2 Insulation Type/Service Offering7.3.3 Strategy7.4 Siemens Ltd. (Germany)7.4.1 Overview7.4.2 Insulation Type/Service Offering7.4.3 Strategy7.5 General Electric Company (USA)7.5.1 Overview7.5.2 Insulation Type/Service Offering7.5.3 StrategyMake an Enquiry before buying @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Busbar Trunking System Market 2017 - ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland), ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland), Schneider Electric (France). Eaton Corporation

Busbar Trunking System Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3147

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/busbar-trunking-system-market-3147

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3147

Market Scenario:Global Busbar Trunking System Market is predicted to grow at approximately 6.5% by 2023.Busbar Trunking is a System consisting of prefabricated electrical distribution system covered in a highly protective enclosure, which basically includes components such as fittings, devices, straight lengths, elbows and accessories. They have wide applications in many industrial and commercial firms to offer ideal, safe, secure and efficient distribution network system. Various industries and multi facilities infrastructure focus towards efficient use of electricity due to stringent government rules and regulations. Also, technical advancement and operational efficiency are the major attracting factors for the end-users, which influences the Busbar Trunking System Market.Request a Sample Report @The latest advancement in the technology and wide use of Busbar Trunking System in various data centers across the world is the major growth factor of this market. The increase in number of data centers in recent times and the expected exponential growth in near future will certainly boost the Busbar Trunking System Market. As observed, since last decade, the sudden growth in industrialization, urbanizations and mechanization has led to the development of various business sectors, customer relationship and end user satisfaction factors, henceforth driving the growth of Busbar Trunking System Market.Key Players:The key players of Global Busbar Trunking System Markets are ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland), ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland), Schneider Electric (France). Eaton Corporation, Plc (Ireland), Larsen & Toubro (India), Siemens AG (Germany), General Electric (U.S.), C&S Electric Limited (India), Legrand SA (France), Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited (India), Busbar Services (South Africa) and DBTS Industries SDN. BHD. (Malaysia).Study Objectives of Global Busbar Trunking System Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Busbar Trunking System. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Global Busbar Trunking System Market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Forces Analysis. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by material type, product, application and region. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Busbar Trunking System Market.Browse Full Report in Detail @Key Points from Table of Content:9 Competitive Analysis9.1 Introduction9.2 Competitive Scenario9.2.1 Market Share Analysis9.2.2 Market Development Analysis9.2.3 CONDUCTOR/Service Benchmarking9.3 ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland)9.3.1 Overview9.3.2 Busbar Trunking System Type/Service Offering9.3.3 Strategy9.4 Schneider Electric (France)9.4.1 Overview9.4.2 Busbar Trunking System Type/Service Offering9.4.3 Strategy9.5 Eaton Corporation, Plc (Ireland)9.5.1 Overview9.5.2 Busbar Trunking System Type/Service Offering9.5.3 StrategyMake an Enquiry before buying @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Hexacomb Packaging Market is Expected to Witness High Growth in North America

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17387

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/hexacomb-packaging-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Hexacomb packaging made stable progress over the last five years, and forecasted to grow at a high rate. A hexacomb packaging is a heavy paperboard which enables the safe transportation and storage of different type of products such as electronics, furniture, FMCG products etc. Hexacomb packaging is mainly used for protective packaging. The hexacomb packaging boxes can be of various sizes, shapes and can used for various application. Hexacomb packaging is easy to design and model according to the brand owners need. Nowadays, growing ecommerce industry is accelerating the demand of hexacomb packaging. The packaging product which is used in ecommerce industry are designed in a way to protect the products from external environment, shock, vibration, and from other damaging effects during shipping and handling. Hexacomb packaging products are one of the effective packaging solutions that provide all the features related to high durability during transportation & storage and provide moisture, corrosion and shielding protection for sensitive products and components.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Hexacomb Packaging Market - Market Segmentation:The global hexacomb packaging market can be segmented on the basis of product type, function type, end use, and by region. On the basis of product type, hexacomb packaging market can be segmented into the container, cartons, boxes and others. On the basis of application type hexacomb packaging market can be segmented food & beverages, automotive goods, furniture, consumer goods, industrial goods and others. On the basis of function type hexacomb packaging can be segmented into cushioning, blocking & bracing, void-fill, insulation, and wrapping. On the basis of region, hexacomb packaging market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa.Hexacomb Packaging Market - Market Dynamics:The fulfillment of online sales will be the major driver of growth for hexacomb packaging market. There are other factors also which are supporting in healthy expansions of hexacomb packaging products such as protective mailers, air pillows, and bubble packaging. Among these air pillows will be the fastest growing hexacomb packaging products. Moreover, void-fill materials benefiting the hexacomb packaging market to gain advantages over other fill materials regarding cost-effectiveness and less material usage. Government regulation towards the use of plastic is expected to hamper the growth of hexacomb packaging market. Also, the high initial cost of hexacomb packaging material is considered as another restraining factor towards the growth of hexacomb packaging market.Browse Market Research Report @Hexacomb Packaging Market - Regional Outlook:Geographically, the global hexacomb market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The global hexacomb packaging market is expected to witness a stable CAGR over the forecast period of 2016-2024. Entering new markets like Asia, Russia, and South America would be larger opportunities for hexacomb packaging market. Moreover, North America is expected to witness a high growth of hexacomb packaging market due to the rising consumption of food and beverage products. The demand of the hexacomb packaging market is projected to witness an above average growth in Europe as well due to the higher adoption of hexacomb packaging for automotive and commercial use.Hexacomb Packaging Market - Major Players:Some of the major players identified across the globe in the hexacomb packaging market are DS Smith Plc, Sealed Air Corporation, Sonoco Products Company, Green Packaging Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Boyang Packaging Technology Co. Ltd., ACH Foam Technologies LLC, BASF SE, Bayer AG, NEFAB GROUP, Pregis North America, Smurfit Kappa Group Plc, RockTenn Company, Cascades, Huhtamaki OYJ, Packaging Corporation of America, Zhejiang Kaipei Packaging Co., Ltd. and Linyi Guosheng Color Printing & Packing Co. Ltd.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
TAYLORVILLE  An 18-year-old Pana man pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday during a hearing that revealed more details about allegations that he beat a man to death.

Quinton L. Morrissey Jr. requested a jury trial after a Christian County judge found there was sufficient evidence to try him for the murder of Stephen Presnell, 59, also of Pana.

Presnell was found dead at his home on Lake Pana on May 30. An autopsy report said he had suffered blunt force trauma, including a skull fracture and lacerated liver.

During the preliminary hearing, Illinois State Police Investigator Larry Piotrowski testified that the incident took place while Morrissey, Presnell and several others, including a juvenile, were having a party at Presnell's home.

A woman told others at the party that Presnell had held a gun to her head, demanding the return of marijuana he said was was missing, Piotrowski testified. Witnesses told police that Morrissey struck Presnell with what they described as a knockout blow and kicked the body, he said.

The woman later told police she had lied about being threatened with a gun in hopes of getting someone to return the marijuana, Piotrowski said.

Representing Morrissey, Christian County Public Defender Greg Grigsby raised questions about how many blows the witnesses had seen, given the extent of Prsenell's injuries. Piotrowski testified that the witnesses consistently said Morrissey delivered three or four blows.

Grigsby also questioned how Presnell's body was found in a bathroom if witnesses said that he was attacked on the deck. Piotrowski did not have an explanation for the body's location.

Morrissey will next appear in court on Oct. 23. If convicted, he faces 20 to 60 years imprisonment.
Curdlan Market Expecting Worldwide Growth by 2017  2025

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/16942

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/curdlan-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Curdlan is a kind of lined beta-1,3-glucan, which is a high molecular mass polymer of glucose. Curdlan contains of -(1,3) linked glucose deposits along with forming elastic gels when heated in aqueous solutions. It is also produced by non-pathogenic bacteria called as Agrobacterium biobar. Hence, the production of this curdlan by Alcaligenes faecalis bacteria is being produced to be used in gel production and other substances. Curdlan is a kind of neutral beta glucan polymer having few intra or interlinked chains which produces an exopolysaccharide by the help of soil bacteria. There are presence of various genes which are required for the production of curdlan that have been identified which produces curdlan in very large amounts for various applications. A membrane which is bounded by phosphatidlyserine synthase which is also necessary for the production of large amounts of curdlan having very high molecular mass which is used in various end use applications. Curdlan is used as a kind of gelling agents in various applications such as in a variety of food products, pharmaceuticals, building materials and is also has been approved as a food additive by the U.S. Food and Administration Department.Global Curdlan: Market SegmentationThe global curdlan market is segmented on the basis of form, application and region. The curdlan market is segmented on the basis of forms such as gum, powder, liquid, and others. The global Curdlan market is segmented on the basis of application in which Curdlan is used in application such as pharmaceuticals as a gelling agent in medicines and drugs, in savory dishes such as soups, sauerkraut, sauces, toppings, pickles and salads. Curdlan is widely used as a stabilizing and thickening agent for various bakery products such as biscuits, cakes, rye breads, meat dishes. Hence, the global Curdlan market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Request to View Tables of Content @Global Curdlan Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global curdlan industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Asia Pacific has developed as the dominant region in global Curdlan market followed by Europe. Increasing demand for curdlan as a thickening agent in various end use applications, has strengthened the growth of global Curdlan market and hence is projected to significantly expand the revenue contribution of the market over the forecast period.Global Curdlan Market: Growth DriversThe global Curdlan market driving factors are increasing demand for ready-to-eat snack foods coupled with the convenience of foods. Increasing opportunities in bakery industry is also another factor in driving the Curdlan market along with rising in production of Curdlan as a result of stabilizing agents used in various food applications. Manufacturers are focusing on providing healthier product offerings. Curdlan helps in improving various savory products thickening and is used by various manufacturers worldwide. Curdlan is also used as a stabilizing agent in various pharmaceutical drugs and medicines. Curdlan consists of physical properties which is helpful in improving batter aeration, better dough plasticity along with improved resistance to staling in bakery products. Hence, the global Curdlan market is expected to observe robust growth over the forecast period.Global Curdlan Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global curdlan market include Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., Shandong Zhongke Biological Technology, Shanghai Trustin Chemical Co.Ltd., Carbomer, Sigma-Aldrich, Haihang Industry Co., Ltd., and others . The companies are expected to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in global curdlan market. The companies are projected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global curdlan market till 2025.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Curdlan Market SegmentsCurdlan Market DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2015  2016 for Global Curdlan MarketCurdlan Market Size & Forecast 2017 to 2025Supply & Demand Value ChainCurdlan Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involved in Global Curdlan MarketTechnologyValue ChainGlobal Curdlan Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for Curdlan Market includes:North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific & JapanThe Middle East and AfricaReport Highlights:Shifting Industry dynamicsIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected industry size recent industry trendsKey competition landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceTo view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Automotive Pumps Market Analysis & Forecast 2022 Profiling Seiki, Denso Corporation, Johnson Electric, Robert Bosch

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/242598/?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/242598/

https://www.whatech.com/market-research/companies/market-study-report

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/2017-top-5-automotive-wire-manufacturers-in-north-america-europe-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa/?utm_source=RR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/

Market Study Report adds Global Automotive Pumps Sales Market Report 2017 provides an essential information and statistically evaluated data about the Automotive Pumps. The research report provides a detailed study of the Automotive Pumps, enlightening the major areas such as future market scenario, market growth factors, market growth restraints, and others.In this report, the global Automotive Pumps market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Automotive Pumps Sales Market Report 2017 delivers a comprehensive analysis of the overall Automotive Pumps sales industry in terms of the geographies participating in the business space and major drivers positively impacting the growth graph of the overall market. The report Neon Lamp, Medical Field, Refrigerant across various end-use sectors. An exhaustive insight into the competitive landscape has also been provided in the report, with the names of the major industry behemoths partaking in the overall Automotive Pumps sales market. Presenting the key deliverables including the drivers, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to this business space, the report focusses on the commercialization potential of this market over 2017-2022.Request Simple for Global Automotive Pumps Market Research Report @The product categorization is one of the most important segmentations of this industry that has been outlined in the report, given that it focusses mainly on the projected revenue of the market that can be achieved via extensive product sales. Transmission Pump, Fuel Pump, Oil Pump, Steering Pump, Water Pump, Windshield Pump principally constitute the product landscape of Automotive Pumps sales market. The report details a summary of the sales of individual products and their contribution toward the overall industry share in terms of volume (K MT) and revenue (million USD).The report outlines the contribution of key industry giants toward the revenue generation of Automotive Pumps sales market. Some of the vital participants accumulating a major share of this industry have been enlisted as Seiki, Denso Corporation, Johnson Electric, Robert Bosch, Magna International, SHW AG.Request Discount for Automotive Pumps Market Research Report @Global Automotive Pumps sales market report 2017 also encompasses the major geographies that contribute toward the development of the overall Automotive Pumps sales industry. Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Europe, and the United States are the regions that hold a major share of this business space. The report thus outlines the changing dynamics of Automotive Pumps sales market pertaining to the revenue (million USD), individual market share, growth rate, and the overall sales (K MT) pertaining to these geographies.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -2017 Top 5 Automotive Wire Manufacturers in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and AfricaThe Global Automotive Wire market size will be XX million (USD) in 2022, from the XX million (USD) in 2016, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) XX% from 2016 to 2022.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Clinical Trials Consumables Market in EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa)

https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=132446

https://www.researchnreports.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=132446

https://www.researchnreports.com/checkout?id=132446

www.researchnreports.com

This EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Clinical Trials Consumables Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Clinical Trials Consumables Market Report 2017- Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.For more Download PDF Sample@Data integration and capabilities are analyzed to support the findings and study the predicted geographical segmentations. Various key variables and regression models were considered to calculate the trajectory of EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Clinical Trials Consumables market. Detailed analysis is explained and given importance to with best working models.Geographically, the segmentation is done into several key regions like Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux in Europe, Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran in Middle East, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria in Africa. The production, consumption, revenue, shares in Mill UDS, growth rate of EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Clinical Trials Consumables market during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 is well explained.Enquire for more Details@The ongoing market trends of EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Clinical Trials Consumables market and the key factors impacting the growth prospects are elucidated. With the increase in the trend, the factors affecting the trend are mentioned with perfect reasons. Top manufacturers, price, revenue, market share are explained to give a depth of idea on the competitive side.Each and every segment type and their sub types are well elaborated to give a better idea about this market during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 respectively.End users, applications, product type, regions and many such segmentations are studied and researched upon using primary and secondary research sources.Purchase Premium Report at Discounted Prices@About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Asia-Pacific competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Immunohematology Market: Industry Research and Forecast Analysis 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1214

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1214

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1214

Global Immunohematology Market: SnapshotImmunohematology helps in examining the Rh factor, plasma, white blood cells components, and antigens in the blood of the donor. This process is commonly known as blood banking and deals with the preparation of blood cells for transfusions. Immunohematology helps in reducing the threats related to blood transfusions such as thalassemia and HIV.The global immunohematology market is anticipated to observe substantial growth owing to the development of new technologies for blood scanning and the launch of new products. However, expensive immunohematology products and low awareness among people are signaled to be some of the factors restraining the progress of the global immunohematology market, specifically in the emerging economies. There have been rising attempts to spread awareness about blood donations and its benefits all across the world. Moreover, the diagnostic labs and hospitals are also giving preference to automated instruments and integrating multiple functions on a single platform, thus supplementing market growth in return. It has also been projected that many leading companies will try their luck in the market in the coming years. Such large participation is expected to give rise to mergers and acquisitions, thus leading to an enhanced product portfolio and an expanded global market presence.Request Sample Copy of the Report @On the regional front, North America is expected to emerge as one of the leading regions contributing to the growth of the market. The growing number of blood banks and trauma center facilities play a key role in boosting the demand for immunohematology products in the region.Global Immunohematology Market: OverviewThe growing preference of automated technology and the rising demand for advanced technology are some of the important factors that are predicted to augment global immunohematology market in the next few years. A significant rise in the number of players is likely to supplement the growth of the overall market in the near future. The latest trends and lucrative opportunities in the global immunohematology market have been discussed at length in the research study. Moreover, a thorough overview of the global market, key segmentation, and the competitive scenario have been presented in order to guide the new as well as existing market players.Request TOC of the Report @Global Immunohematology Market: Drivers and RestraintsAccording to the research study, the global immunohematology market is expected to grow substantially in the next few years. The research study has highlighted the key factors that are responsible for the robust development in the last few years. The emergence of new and technologically-advanced products is considered as one of the major factors encouraging the growth of the global market. In addition, the tremendously rising rate of trauma injuries across the globe is projected to supplement the growth of the market in the near future.On the flip side, the high cost of products is one of the key factors that is estimated to restrict the growth of the global immunohematology market throughout the forecast period. In addition, the lack of awareness among consumers, especially in under-developed and developing economies regarding the availability of these products is expected to hamper the growth of the market. Nevertheless, the growing prevalence of target diseases and the growing demand from hospitals and diagnostic laboratories is anticipated to accelerate the growth of the global immunohematology market in the near future.Global Immunohematology Market: Region-wise OutlookFrom a geographical viewpoint, North America is anticipated to hold a key share of the global immunohematology market and maintain a leading position throughout the forecast period. The high growth of this region can be attributed to the increasing number of blood bank facilities and trauma centers. In addition, the rising demand for immunohematology products is another major factor estimated to encourage the growth of the North America market in the near future.Get a discount @Furthermore, Europe is projected to witness a significant growth in the next few years, thanks to the presence of a large number of players operating in this region. The rising number of advanced and innovative immunohematology products is likely to fuel the growth of the Europe market in the coming few years. The Asia Pacific market for immunohematology is anticipated to grow at a robust rate and offer several opportunities to the market players in the next few years. The research study has included the market share and predicted growth size of each regional segment to offer a clear understanding to readers and players.Key Players Mentioned in the Research Report are:The global market for immunohematology is expected to grow at a rapid rate, owing to which a large number of players are predicted to participate in the market across the forecast period. The prominent players operating in the market are focusing on mergers and acquisitions in order to enhance their product portfolio and market presence across the globe. In addition, the growing focus on research and development activities is estimated to generate promising growth opportunities for the new players in the global immunohematology market.Some of the key players mentioned in the research study are Grifols, BD (Becton Dickinson), Beckman Coulter, Inc., Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Immucor, Abbott, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, ThermoFisher, Hologic, Inc., and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. To provide a thorough analysis of the global market, the research study talks about the competitive landscape, focusing on the company profiles, financial status, product portfolio, business policies, and the latest developments.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Waterjet Cutting Machines Market Size to Accelerate at a Rapid CAGR of 8.3% by 2024

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/waterjet-cutting-machines-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12139

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/waterjet-cutting-machines-market/toc

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The report also reveals that North America will be the largest market for waterjet cutting machines. With more than 35% share in global revenues, North Americas waterjet cutting machine market will dominate the global market throughout the forecast period. US-based companies such as WARDJet, International Waterjet Machines, OMAX Corporation, Semyx, LLC, Plasma Automation Inc. (VICON), Hypertherm Inc. (Accustream), Hornet Cutting Systems, Koike Aronson, Inc., KMT Waterjet, and Jet Edge, Inc. are profiled among the markets key players in the report.Considering the fact that cutting will remain a crucial operation across various industrial verticals, companies are compelled to adopt the most efficient machines that will serve this purpose. Waterjet cutting machines are likely to be at the top of this list, and are widely used for cutting wide range of materials without the use of abrasives. Persistence Market Research projects that towards the end of 2024, the value of global waterjet cutting machine market is likely to get doubled, reflecting a raise from US$ 1.37 Bn in 2016 to US$ 2.7 Bn.Browse Complete Report @During this forecast period, the global market for waterjet cutting machines will exhibit a value CAGR of 8.9%. According to Persistence Market Researchs report, titled Waterjet Cutting Machine Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024, the global waterjet cutting machine market will also witness sizeable growth in terms of sales. In 2016, the global sales of waterjet cutting machines surpassed 13,600 units. By the end of 2024, the global market for waterjet cutting machine is anticipated to record sales of 25,872 units, registering a volume CAGR of 8.3%.A sample of this report is available upon request @With over 15% share in global waterjet cutting machine market value, Europe is also expected to be at the forefront of market expansion. Caretta Technology s.r.l., TrennTek GmbH, CMS Industries, Water Jet Sweden, Metronics Technologies S.L., PTV, spol. s r.o., and STM Stein-Moser GmbH are European companies actively participating in the growth of global waterjet cutting machine market. However, North America and Europes presence in the global waterjet cutting machine market will witness marginal dip towards the end of the forecast period. Meanwhile, the waterjet cutting machine market in Asia-Pacific (APAC) region will record fastest revenue growth at 10% CAGR. The report has also assessed that waterjet cutting machines are available at the lowest price across the APAC countries. This is certainly expected to boost the sales for companies such as Sugino Machine Limited, DARDI International Corporation, Foshan Yongshengda Machinery Co., Ltd., TECHNI Waterjet, and A Innovative International Ltd., which are also major contributors to the markets overall growth.Request to view table of content @The global waterjet cutting machine market is also anticipated to witness rampant sales of intensifier pumps. Since intensifier pumps will be observed as top-selling products in the global waterjet cutting machine market, they are likely to showcase revenue growth at 8.9% CAGR during the assessment period. In 2017 and beyond, a little over 55% of the markets revenues will be accounted by application of waterjet cutting machines in two-dimensional cutting. In 2016, more than 6,500 waterjet cutting machines were sold across the world for 2D cutting applications. Likewise, over 70% of waterjet cutting machine sales will be attributed by high demand for machines with a pressure range of up to 4200 Bar. Metal fabrication and automotive are expected to be recognized as largest end-user industries for waterjet cutting machines. Revenues arising from these two end-users are predicted to showcase CAGRs of 9% and above.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Business Cloud Storage Global Market 2017 Zoolz, OpenDrive, JustCloud, MozyPro, Egnyte, CrashPlan, Dropbox, Carbonite, Hightail, Box

https://goo.gl/G7kBcH

https://www.1marketresearch.com/market-reports/business-cloud-storage-market-37744/

www.1MarketResearch.com

Global Business Cloud Storage Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 provides Market information about Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application.This Business Cloud Storage Industry report also states Company Profile, sales, Business Cloud Storage Market revenue and price, market share, market growth and gross margin by regions.The following summary will give an overview of the causes, processes, and possible effects of the market research proposal.Sample copy of report @Top Manufacturers/Key Players:-ZoolzOpenDriveJustCloudMozyProEgnyteCrashPlanDropboxCarboniteHightailBoxThe Global Business Cloud Storage report gives a thorough situation of the present and gauge Business Cloud Storage showcase procedures, improvement methodologies and development openings. Starting a discussion on the contemporary condition of Business Cloud Storage showcase, the report extra dissects the market powerful moving each area begun in it.Browse Report @The report additionally concentrates the Business Cloud Storage bits of knowledge of the organizations and suggestions that will help the perusers to have progressive learning of the Business Cloud Storage showcase.A principal diagram of the Business Cloud Storage market is introduced to the perusers with the assistance of market definition, order, different applications, and production network examination. The Business Cloud Storage report covers the investigation of conventional and the developing markets. The report more expresses the Business Cloud Storage showcase rivals, their business profiles, freshest news, their piece of the overall industry, developing arrangements and methodologies, client volume and creating strategies.In next part, the Business Cloud Storage Report assesses the gross edge examination of various locales i. e. (US, EU, China and Japan). Different areas can be included according to the prerequisite.All in all, it is an exhaustive research report which will help perusers to break down the possibility of interest in Business Cloud Storage advertise.About Us:1MarketResearch is a global business market research providing syndicated research Report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.We host more than 500,000 Industry research products.Contact US:1MarketResearch304, S. Jones Blvd, #3299,Las Vegas, NV  89107USA : +1 702-425-8599Email : Sales@1MarketResearch.comWeb :
Europe SaaS Based HRM Market 2017 - Key Players : Sage Group plc, IBM Corporation, ADP, LLC, SAP & Oracle

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1109486

http://www.researchmoz.us/saas-based-hrm-market-europe-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

Albany, New York, July 26, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "SaaS Based HRM Market - Europe Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.This report on the SaaS based HRM market provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints opportunities, and trends expected to influence the Europe SaaS based HRM market growth during the said period. Trends that are playing a major role in the driving the Europe SaaS based HRM market have also been covered in the study. The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the forecast period from 2017 to 2025 in terms of revenue (value) estimates (in US$ Mn), across different countries.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Software as a service (SaaS) based human resource management (HRM) alludes to the HR software carry out in cloud computing environment. SaaS based HRM solution enables to control and manage aspects of HR actions to maintain entirely employees details from the date of joining to the date of retirement. Moreover, SaaS based HRM solution incorporate HR activities such as directory management, application tracking, time & attendance management, electronic forms processing and others for instance payroll management and leave management. SaaS based HRM solution enables to develop the productivity of HR staff by providing self-service web interfaces.Europe SaaS HRM Market: Segmentation AnalysisThe Europe SaaS based HRM has been segmented on the basis of enterprise size, solution and industry. Based on enterprise size, the market has been further classified into small and medium enterprise and large enterprise. By solution, the market is further classified into Time and Attendance Management, HR and Payroll, Workforce Management, Integrated Solutions, Others (Scheduling, Hiring, etc.). By industry, the market is further classified into Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Healthcare, IT and Telecom, Manufacturing, Others (Government, Logistics, etc.).Geographically, the report classifies the Europe SaaS based market into Germany, France, The U.K., Italy, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, and Rest of Europe. Countries are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. Furthermore, the study also includes quantitative analysis of the competitive scenario for country wise.Europe SaaS HRM Market: Research MethodologiesThe report also includes key industry developments in the SaaS based HRM. Porter Five Force analysis is also included in the report. Ecosystem analysis which identifies the process of distribution between SaaS vendors and end users in the SaaS based HRM is also covered in the report. The report also covers segment wise, market attractiveness analysis and market share analysis, comparison matrix, market positioning of the companies for all countries covered in the scope of study. This report shows market attractiveness analysis for all the segments and for all the countries in the scope of study which identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.The report also includes competition landscape which include competition matrix, market share analysis of major players in the Europe SaaS based HRM based on their 2016 revenues. Competition matrix benchmarks leading players on the basis of their capabilities and potential to grow. Factors including market position, offerings are attributed to companys capabilities. Factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities and future outlook are attributed to companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:The key players of SaaS based HRM market have been profiled with a focus on competitive details such as company and financial overview, business strategies, and their recent developments. The company profile of major players that have been incorporated in this report include as The Sage Group plc, IBM Corporation, ADP, LLC, SAP (SuccessFactor, Inc.), Oracle (Taleo Corporation), Rexx systems GmbH, SD Worx, Perbit Software GmbH, Jobvite Inc., Persis GmbH,.The Europe SaaS based HRM is segmented as below:Europe SaaS based HRM, By Enterprise SizeSmall and Medium EnterpriseLarge EnterpriseMake an Enquiry about TOC @Europe SaaS based HRM, By SolutionTime and Attendance ManagementHR and PayrollWorkforce ManagementIntegrated SolutionsOthers (Scheduling, Hiring, etc.)Europe SaaS based HRM, By IndustryBanking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)HealthcareIT and TelecomManufacturingOthers (Government, Logistics, etc.)Europe SaaS based HRM, By CountryGermanyFranceThe UKItalyThe NetherlandsScandinaviaPolandRest of EuropeResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Proton Exchange Membrane Market- Detailed Analysis by Regions, Type, Application and Key Players DuPont, The Chemours Company, Dongyue Group, W. L. Gore & Associates Forecast to 2022

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/182468-global-proton-exchange-membrane-market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/182468-global-proton-exchange-membrane-market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/182468-global-proton-exchange-membrane-market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=182468

HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 116 pages on title 'Global Proton Exchange Membrane Market by Product Type, Market, Players and Regions-Forecast to 2021' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes USA, Europe, Japan, China, India, South East Asia and important players such as DuPont, The Chemours Company, Dongyue Group, W. L. Gore & Associates ...........Request a sample report @SummaryThe Proton Exchange Membrane market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, Analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.Global Proton Exchange Membrane Market: Product Segment AnalysisNafion PEMOthersGlobal Proton Exchange Membrane Market: Application Segment AnalysisElectric VehiclesCar charging stationsOthersGlobal Proton Exchange Membrane Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSouth East AsiaThe Players mentioned in our reportDuPontThe Chemours CompanyDongyue GroupW. L. Gore & AssociatesMake an enquiry before buying this Report @Table of ContentChapter 1 About the Proton Exchange Membrane Industry1.1 Industry Definition1.1.1 Types of Proton Exchange Membrane industry1.1.1.1 Nafion PEM1.1.1.2 Others1.2 Main Market Activities1.3 Similar Industries1.4 Industry at a GlanceRead Detailed Table of Content @Chapter 2 World Market Competition Landscape2.1 Proton Exchange Membrane Markets by Regions2.1.1 USAMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.1.2 EuropeMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.1.3 ChinaMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.1.4 IndiaMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.1.5 JapanMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.1.6 South East AsiaMarket Revenue (M USD) by Types, Through 2021Market OverviewMajor Players Revenue (M USD) in 20152.2 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market by TypesNafion PEMOthers2.3 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market by ApplicationsElectric VehiclesCar charging stationsOthers2.4 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market Analysis2.4.1 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market Revenue and Growth Rate 2011-20162.4.2 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market Consumption and Growth rate 2011-20162.4.3 World Proton Exchange Membrane Market Price Analysis 2011-2016Buy this report @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 Organic Milk Products Market Professional Survey Report 2017 : Thise Dairy, Avalon, Bruton Dairy

Market Research Reports

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1171775&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-organic-milk-products-market-professional-survey-report-2017.htm

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Organic Milk Products Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The report is a detailed and professional overview of the Organic Milk Products market and has been compiled by industry experts. The research presents an overview of the various elements of the market, deals with the historical statistics and makes projections about the future state of the market on the basis of a detailed and professional analysis of the data gathered with the help of a number of primary and secondary research methodologies.The report analyzes the important geographic subdivisions of the global Organic Milk Products market and also analyzes in great details the major national markets within these regional markets. A detailed overview of regulatory framework in the key regional and national markets allows the reader a clear understanding of the rules, regulations, plans, and policies in these regions that may have an impact on a number of decisions.The report covers the global Organic Milk Products market from the ground up, beginning with the industry-specific definitions of market entities, and progressing to the various criteria on the basis of which the market is segmented. The report presents an analysis of the market through the analysis of the industry chain, manufacturing chain, cost structure, a detailed look into the variety of products in the market, etc.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringHorizon OrganicArlaOrganic ValleyEmmiAurora Organic DairyYeo ValleyAndechser Molkerei ScheitzThise DairyAvalonBruton DairyYiliMengniuShengmu Organic MilkBy types, the market can be split intoWholeSkimSemi-skimThe regional markets are analyzed by examining their product pricing and profits, supply and demand dynamics, production capacity and the efficiency in its utilization, and the growth rate of the Organic Milk Products market in the region in past years. A detailed analysis of the markets competitive landscape has also been provided in the reportBrowse Press Release of this Research Report:Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Organic Milk Products1.1 Definition and Specifications of Organic Milk Products1.1.1 Definition of Organic Milk Products1.1.2 Specifications of Organic Milk Products1.2 Classification of Organic Milk Products1.3 Applications of Organic Milk Products1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Organic Milk Products2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Organic Milk Products2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Organic Milk Products2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Organic Milk Products3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Organic Milk Products3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Organic Milk Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Organic Milk Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Organic Milk Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Organic Milk Products Major Manufacturers in 20168 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Organic Milk Products8.1 Horizon Organic8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Horizon Organic 2016 Organic Milk Products Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Horizon Organic 2016 Organic Milk Products Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Arla8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Arla 2016 Organic Milk Products Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Arla 2016 Organic Milk Products Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Organic Valley8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Organic Valley 2016 Organic Milk Products Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Organic Valley 2016 Organic Milk Products Business Region Distribution AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Organic Milk ProductsTable Product Specifications of Organic Milk ProductsTable Classification of Organic Milk ProductsFigure Global Production Market Share of Organic Milk Products by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Organic Milk Products by Application in 2016Figure North America Organic Milk Products Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure China Organic Milk Products Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure Europe Organic Milk Products Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Organic Milk Products Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Medical Copper Tubing Market Deep Research Study with Forecast by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1217

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1217

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1217

Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: SnapshotMedical copper tubing material is generally utilized for supplying medical gases such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrous oxide, and nitrogen. The basic fact that copper is beneficial for human health is the primary driving factor for the development of medical copper tubing market. The market is also driven by the factor that use of copper tubing allows free-flowing gas delivery without any hindrances caused by bacterial infection and corrosion of tubes. Copper tubes are favored in the medical domain because it offers significant advantage over traditional gas delivery systems in terms of uninterrupted supply of gas. The copper tubing products are expected to comply with the regulatory norms such as ASTM B819 and CSA. The ASTM B819 regulatory standard defines the conditions for the range of wall thickness of different types of medical copper tubes that are satisfactory for medical gas systems. Thus, complying with such marketing specifications and manufacturing standards for copper tubes is anticipated to boost the market growth.The process of manufacturing medical copper tubing is examined in detail with respect to three points. Those aspects are equipment suppliers and raw materials used, different costs associated with manufacturing such as labor cost and material cost among others, and the actual manufacturing process. Increased investments in developing better infrastructure and improvements in manufacturing output across the globe are projected to surge the growth of the global medical copper tubing market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: OverviewMedical copper tubing equipment is used for the supply of medical gas, which includes oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide. The burgeoning opportunity for medical copper tubing manufacturers relies on the basic fact that copper is good for health.The global medical copper tubing market can be analyzed by application, end-use, type, and geography.The report on the global medical copper tubing market is a credible source of information for a telescopic view of the current status of the market. The research report includes a diligent analysis of the competitive landscape of the market including a detailed profile of key vendors in this market.Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global medical copper tubing market is driven by the increasing demand for copper tubing for gas delivery owing to its corrosion-resistant and antibacterial properties. Copper tubing are easy to install and long lasting. However, copper tubing products should satisfy the regulatory standards such as CSA and ASTM B819. Manufacturing and marketing standards and specifications compliances met by product manufacturers are expected to fuel the markets growth.Request TOC of the Report @The type K segment led the overall industry by revenue in the recent past. The rising demand and high price factor of products account for the large share of type K segment. The oxygen application segment is expected to account for a significant share in the overall industry in the coming years. This is mainly due to the presence of a large number of individuals with respiratory disorders and an increasing number of patients that need emergency treatment. Medical vacuum, on the other hand, is expected to display the highest growth rate due to the rising use of copper tubing for the secure and adequate flow of medical vacuum at required pressure levels to gas outlets.The hospital end-use segment accounted for the highest revenue contribution to the global medical copper tubing market in the recent past. Copper tubing is preferred for medical gas delivery in hospitals due to its benefits as compared to traditional systems. Copper tubing products are particularly advantageous for critical care patients in ICU, CCU, and OT for an uninterrupted supply of gases. However, outpatient facilities is expected to display the fastest growth rate in the medical copper tubing market. This is mainly due to the increasing use of copper tubing products for diagnostics and laboratory tests.Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Regional OutlookThe global medical copper tubing market can be analyzed with respect to the regional markets of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Amongst these, North America is the leading regional market for medical copper tubing.Get a discount @Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Competitive OutlookSome leading companies in the global medical copper tubing market include Mueller Industries, Inc., J & D Tube Benders, Inc., Cambridge-Lee Industries LLC Cerro Flow Products LLC, Beacon Medaes, , Samuel, Son & Co., C&H Medical (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., Limited, KME Germany GmbH & Co KG, Wieland Copper Products LLC, The Lawton Tube Co. Ltd, UACJ Corp., and Amico Group of Companies.Key players in the market are focused on strategic collaborations and joint ventures to stay competitive in this market. In addition, companies in the medical copper tubing market are also focused on product improvement and expand their distribution channels to strengthen their position and maximize revenue share in the market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Protesting new sanitary regulations imposed by the Eurasian Economic Union, around forty merchants from surrounding villages today blocked the road leading to the Armenian border crossing at Bagratashen leading into Georgia.

The merchants say the new regulations, in effect as of July 1, allowing only up to five kilograms of various perishable products to be imported from Georgia, have bankrupted them.

Their ire was particularly directed at the large freight trucks crossing the border into Armenia.

How long will this situation continue? asked Karineh Abrahamyan, a Bagratashen resident. Ordinary merchants are only allowed to transport seven watermelons. We see the truck drivers paying 20,000 AMD, after which theyre allowed to pass.

Satik Yayilyan, another local merchant, heaped scorn on Armenian customs officials, accusing them of lacking any moral scruples.

The newly-appointed head of the Bagratashen customs house, Hovhannes Haroutyunyan, told Hetq that the merchants are merely interested in increasing the volume of goods they trade across the border without paying the legally prescribed fees.

Merchant Karineh Abrahamyan said that officials in Armenia must take the economic plight of its citizens into account and draft laws accordingly.

All of them are busy thinking of ways to enrich themselves, and dont give a hoot about the common folk. They only remember us at election time, Abrahamyan told Hetq.

Saying that he understood the economic plight of the merchants, Haroutyunyan nevertheless said that the customs agency isnt a social assistance center.

Its up to the community mayors and the Tavoush Provincial Governor to inform the government about the problem. Were working overtime as it is, said Haroutyunyan.

Police arrived and dispersed the protestors. The irate merchants said they would organize more such actions.
Pediatric Ultrasound Market : Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1238

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1238

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1238

Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: SnapshotUltrasound imaging, or sonography, makes use of sound waves in high frequencies to take a look inside the body. It is a noninvasive diagnostic procedure that can be used to capture images of the human anatomy in real time. Their real time imaging capabilities also allow them to display internal organ movements, including blood flow and blood vessel formations. The advantage of ultrasound over similar imaging technologies such as X-ray imaging, is that the former does not expose patients to harmful rays. This forms the core principle of using ultrasound imaging in pediatric care.Ultrasound technologies are designed to be safe and painless for patients while still being able to produce accurate images of the anatomy. Pediatric ultrasound can therefore be a significantly better method of generating images of a childs abdomen for the sake of examination. Common body parts that can be diagnosed using ultrasound include the kidneys, stomach, appendix, uterus, spleen, and pancreas. Pediatric ultrasound imaging can therefore help a doctor check the child for deformities or the cause of pain in their abdomen. Ultrasound technologies are also highly advantageous when providing guidance for surgeons attempting to operate on the child. While it is uncommon, abdominal buildup of fluids can occur in children, and needs to be taken care of immediately. Pediatric ultrasound imaging comes handy in situations such as there.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: OverviewPediatric ultrasound imaging, also called pediatric sonography, is one of the standard imaging techniques used across a variety of healthcare facilities to scan different parts of body of children to diagnose and treat a number of medical conditions. The noninvasive and safe nature of the imaging technique is significantly used to evaluate and examine a variety of conditions and is witnessing a steady rise in demand across the globe owing to a significant rise in several diseases affecting children.This report on the global pediatric ultrasound market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and an analytical overview of the key factors expected to exert a significant impact on the overall development of the market over the period 2017-2025.Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Trends and OpportunitiesA host of factors are leading to the increased demand for pediatric ultrasound devices in the global market, including the significant rise in prevalence of a number of pediatric diseases, the resultant rise in demand for increased number of diagnostic procedures, and the increased consciousness among parents about the need for early diagnosis of pediatric diseases. The low threat of exposure to harmful radiations as compared to other popular imaging techniques and technological advancements in the field of pediatric ultrasound are also expected to drive the market.Request TOC of the Report @Additionally, vast untapped growth opportunities in developing and less-developed economies are also expected to drive the market for pediatric ultrasounds in the next few years. However, the markets growth is expected to be restrained to a certain extent owing to the thriving industry of refurbished medical devices, limited availability of skilled resources, and some inherent limitations of the ultrasound technology that restrict their scope of use.Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Geographical AnalysisFrom a geographical perspective, the report examines the global pediatric ultrasound market across regions such as Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, the markets across developed regions such as North America and Europe are amongst the top revenue-grossers for the global market. The high prevalence of pediatric chronic heart diseases, high awareness among parents about children health, and technologically advanced healthcare infrastructures in these regions are the key factors driving the pediatric ultrasound market.Over the reports forecast period, however, the market for pediatric ultrasound in Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit growth at the most promising pace, chiefly owing to the increased focus of government bodies on modernization of healthcare infrastructures and rising expenditure on healthcare and fitness. With the presence of some of the worlds leading medical device manufacturers such as Hitachi and Toshiba, Japan dominates the Asia Pacific pediatric ultrasound market.Get a discount @Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Competitive OverviewThe vendor landscape of the global pediatric ultrasound market features intense competition in terms of product pricing and product features. The rising demand for portable and handheld systems has compelled leading vendors to focus on this niche segment of the market to reap sustainable returns. Futuristic technologies such as 3D and 4D ultrasound devices are also gaining increasing acceptance across developed regional markets as well as developing regional markets, a trend that could result in excellent growth opportunities for vendors wanting to venture into the pediatric ultrasound market.Some of the leading companies contributing to the development of the global pediatric ultrasound market are Toshiba Medical System Corporation, Boston Scientific, Agfa-Gevaert NV, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Esaote SpA, General Electric Company, Fujifilm Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Samsung Medison Co. Ltd., Mindray Medical International Limited, GE Healthcare, and Siemens Healthcare.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Regional Aircraft Market- Detailed Analysis by Regions, Type, Application and Key Players Bombardier, Embraer, Boeing, Dassault Forecast to 2022

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/603199-global-regional-aircraft-detailed-analysis-report

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/request-discount/603199-global-regional-aircraft-detailed-analysis-report

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=603199

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/603199-global-regional-aircraft-detailed-analysis-report

A new research document with title 'Global Regional Aircraft Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022 ' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Europe, United States, China, Japan, India and important players/vendors such as Bombardier, Embraer, Boeing, Dassault................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022SummaryThis report splits Regional Aircraft By Aircraft Types, By Passenger Numbers. This shares the history data information from 2012 to 2016, and forecast from 2017 to 2022.And this report mainly introduces volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Regional Aircraft industry.Request a sample report @This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Major CompaniesBombardier(Canada)Embraer(Brazil)Boeing (US)Dassault(US)Piaggio(US)Airbus(French)OAK(Russia)Main RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandPolandOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersMain Product TypeRegional Aircraft Market, By Aircraft TypesTurboprop EnginesJet EnginesOtherRegional Aircraft Market, By Passenger Numbers50 Seats80 Seats120 SeatsOtherMain ApplicationsCommercial AircraftMilitary AircraftOtherGet customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsChapter One Regional Aircraft Market Overview1.1Global Regional Aircraft Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20221.2 Regional Aircraft, By Aircraft Types 2012-20221.2.1 Global Regional Aircraft Sales Market Share By Aircraft Types 2012-20221.2.2 Global Regional Aircraft Revenue Market Share By Aircraft Types 2012-20221.2.3 Global Regional Aircraft Price By Aircraft Types 2012-20221.2.4 Turboprop Engines1.2.5 Jet Engines1.2.6 Other1.3 Regional Aircraft, By Passenger Numbers 2012-20221.3.1 Global Regional Aircraft Sales Market Share By Passenger Numbers 2012-20221.3.2 Global Regional Aircraft Revenue Market Share By Passenger Numbers 2012-20221.3.3 Global Regional Aircraft Price By Passenger Numbers 2012-20221.3.4 50 Seats1.3.5 80 Seats1.3.6 120 Seats1.3.7 OtherChapter Two, Regional Aircraft by Regions 2012-20222.1 Global Regional Aircraft Sales Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.2 Global Regional Aircraft Revenue Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.3 Global Regional Aircraft Price by Regions 2012-20222.4 United States2.5 Europe2.5.1 Germany2.5.2 United Kingdom2.5.3 France2.5.4 Italy2.5.5 Spain2.5.6 Russia2.5.7 Others in Europe2.6 China2.7 Japan2.8 India2.9 Southeast Asia2.10 OthersBuy this report @Chapter Three, Regional Aircraft by Brands 2012-20223.1 Global Regional Aircraft Sales Volume Market Share by Brands 2012-20223.2 Global Regional Aircraft Revenue Share by Brands 2012-20223.3 Global Top Brands Regional Aircraft Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Top Brands Regional Aircraft Key Target Consumers and Market PerformanceChapter Four, Regional Aircraft by Consumer 2012-20224.1 Global Regional Aircraft Sales Market Share by Consumer 2012-20224.2 Commercial Aircraft4.3 Military Aircraft4.4 Other4.5 Consuming Habit and Preference....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
Biometric System Market Global Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2023

Biometric System Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3754

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/biometric-system-market-3754

Market Highlights:Biometric system refers to biological data used by technology to identify the person. This system enables organization to provide statistical analysis of physical and behavioral characteristics of people. In short, biometric authentication states that each individual is unique and can be identified by his or her distinct behavioral and physical traits.The factors driving Biometric System Market includes, unique and easy operation of biometric system, growing terror attacks and increasing crimes are fueling the market growth. By authentication type segment, fingerprint recognition technology accounts for high market share in biometric system market. High implementation of fingerprint recognition technology in e-passports, travel and immigration, e-visas and driving license is fueling the biometric system market. According to the study, by application segment, travel and immigration sector acquires largest market share, owing to high adoption of biometric system in travelling and immigration industry by UK and US region. The requirement for compliance for regulatory purpose and internal investigation is forcing enterprises to adopt biometric system services.The biometric system market is expected to grow at approximately USD 33 Billion by 2023, at 15% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: SA (France) NEC Corporation (Japan) Fujitsu Ltd. (Japan) BIO-Key International, Inc. (U.S.) Precise Biometrics AB (Sweden) Secunet Security Networks AG (Germany) Thales SA (France) Aware, Inc. (U.S.) Cognitec Systems GmbH (Germany) Cross Match Technologies (U.S.)Biometric System Market Segmentation:The biometric system market has been segmented on the basis of application that includes healthcare, military and defense, BFSI, consumer electronics and others. By application segment, healthcare and travels and immigration accounts for highest market share. Biometrics system enables hospital authority by providing efficient identification system that supports fingerprint, palm, vein, iris and face recognition. It offers numerous benefits to healthcare organization that includes elimination of identity fraud, reduces patient risk, enhance patient privacy and overcome issues related with cultural naming convention.Market Research Analysis:The biometric system market in North America region is growing due to high adoption of biometrics solutions by enterprise and need to improve information governance in organizations. According to the study, the biometric system market will show considerable growth in Europe region. Asia-Pacific market is estimated to be one of the fastest growing market as it is continuously investing into research and development of biometric system market and increasing terror attacks to directly address the security of citizens.Increasing population, and growing IT landscape is boosting the market in the region. The region is witnessing high adoption of biometric system software by enterprises. Developing countries such as India and China are adopting biometric system software at a large scale owing to increase population, growing crime rate and robust industrialization is boosting the market in the region. By vertical segment, BFSI and retail sector is driving the biometric system market.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 30 market data tables and figures spread over 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Biometric System Market -Forecast to 2023.Biometric System Market (MRFR) Research Analysis:By authentication type segment, biometric system market consists of iris recognition and palm print recognition. Iris recognition system implemented in organization offers information of each employee iris. Iris recognition system is most beneficial to organization who are dealing with large database. This system enable organization by providing strong security solution and minimizes operational cost. The factors that hamper the market of iris recognition system that includes environment and system usage can affect measurement, it does not provide accurate information and requires additional hardware implementation.By region, MRFR analysis shows that North America region accounts for largest market share in biometric system market owing to growing adoption of biometric system solution by enterprises in logistics sector.Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of biometric system market is being studied for region such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America region is expected to account for largest market share in biometric system market owing to high implementation of biometrics system by government and security agencies and wide adoption of fingerprint recognition by US region.Asia-Pacific region is growing at highest CAGR rate owing to increased adoption of this system by government in security of national heritage, airports and e-passport verification.Browse Full Report Details @Intended Audience: Investors and consultants System Integrators Government Organizations Research/Consultancy firms Technology solution providers IT Solution Providers Original Equipment ManufacturersTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Type2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Biometric System Market, By ComponentTable 2 Biometric System Market, By Authentication TypeTable 3 Biometric System Market, By FunctionContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research TypeFigure 2 Biometric System Market: By Component (%)Figure 3 Biometric System Market: By Authentication Type (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Kaolin Market Research Report 2017 Share, Size, Growth Status by Top Players : I-Minerals, Burgess

Market Research Reports

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=929800&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-kaolin-market-research-report-2017.htm

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Kaolin Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The dynamics of the global market Kaolin is influenced by a variety of trends and drivers. The report on the Kaolin market offers a comprehensive overview of the current status, current drivers and restraints, key imperatives for growth, regulatory landscape, recent technological advancements, and imminent investment pockets. The study takes a closer look on the recent product and development initiatives and its influence on the recently observed major strategic shifts. Gleaning through the report, emerging and established players will get a fair idea of the evolving competitive dynamics and the trends that are likely to intensify the competition in the market.This report studies Kaolin in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringImerysQuarzwerke GruppeThiele Kaolin CompanySibelcoKaMin and CADAMLB MineralsDaleco ResourcesI-MineralsBurgessBright IndustrialBASFEnter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @The study tracks recent research and development activities related to a host of promising technologies and major collaborations and partnerships made in recent years. In order to make a comprehensive assessment of various types of business risks, the report tracks recent changes in regulatory policies in major regions. The analysis also zeroes in on the scope of the governmental funding boosting the growth of various segments. Tracking key private investment trends, pricing and information technology strategies of major players, the study assists market participants in identifying lucrative segments. The report evaluates the impact of major technological innovations expected to disrupt the Kaolin market over the forecast period [2017  2022]. Using the Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis, the report findings help interested vendors assess the market attractiveness. Furthermore, the report analyzes the key strategies adopted by market players to consolidate their shares across various regions.Get more information from Research Report Press Release:Table of Contents1 Kaolin Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Kaolin1.2 Kaolin Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Kaolin by Type in 20151.3 Kaolin Segment by Application1.4 Kaolin Market by Region1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Kaolin (2012-2022)2 Global Kaolin Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Kaolin Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Kaolin Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Kaolin Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Kaolin Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Kaolin Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Kaolin Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Kaolin Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion7 Global Kaolin Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Imerys7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Its Competitors7.1.2 Kaolin Product Type, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Water-washed Kaolin7.1.2.2 Calcined Kaolin7.1.3 Imerys Kaolin Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Quarzwerke Gruppe7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Its Competitors7.2.2 Kaolin Product Type, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Water-washed Kaolin7.2.2.2 Calcined Kaolin7.2.3 Quarzwerke Gruppe Kaolin Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Thiele Kaolin Company7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Its Competitors7.3.2 Kaolin Product Type, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Water-washed Kaolin7.3.2.2 Calcined Kaolin7.3.3 Thiele Kaolin Company Kaolin Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Kaolin Manufacturing Cost Analysis8.1 Kaolin Key Raw Materials Analysis8.1.1 Key Raw Materials8.1.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials8.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials8.1.4 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure8.2.1 Raw Materials8.2.2 Labor Cost8.2.3 Manufacturing Expenses8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Kaolin12 Global Kaolin Market Forecast (2017-2022)12.1 Global Kaolin Capacity, Production, Revenue Forecast (2017-2022)12.2 Global Kaolin Production, Consumption , Import and Export Forecast by Regions (2017-2022)12.3 Global Kaolin Production, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2017-2022)12.4 Global Kaolin Consumption Forecast by Application (2017-2022)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales Market Report 2017 Size, Analysis, Growth & Overview : QYResearchReports

Market Research Reports

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=945454&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-olmesartan-medoxomil-sales-market-report-2017.htm

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The investigation report here talks around a couple of points of view having a place with the overall Olmesartan Medoxomil publicize which verbalizes the present-day information and future discoveries with reference to the dynamic forces at play. The prime purpose of the investigation report is to offer the supporter with a broad layout and make available the helpful facts and records. The measurable looking over investigation also executes information on issues, for instance, drivers, shackles, and projections to gage the result of the overall Olmesartan Medoxomil promote through the traverse of the said gage period in the examination report. The report similarly passes on a brief and first class record of the predefined showcase, which includes a couple of instances of the genuine points at work which are assessed to trigger development in the market or may cause any negative impact.This report studies sales (consumption) of Olmesartan Medoxomil in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringDaiichi Sankyo CompanyZydus CadilaRanbaxy Laboratories LimitedMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Olmesartan Medoxomil in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaFor more information on this report, fill the form @This report furthermore stations into the overall Olmesartan Medoxomil promote by demandingly surveying the produce and industrialized chain of the reliable market. This is predicted to furthermore help in conveying legitimate data and digits on compound segments of the germane market, for instance, material identifying with methods of the lawmaking body in the normal and overall strata, deliver and transmission structure, creation constrain, mass sold, and benefits gotten for the contributed aggregate.The report uses a couple of showed showcase examination and sum mechanical assemblies. They allow the examination amass pass on a bare essential appraisal of the overall Olmesartan Medoxomil market and help endorser and market troupes to be taught as for speculation and business judgments. The extensive game plan of the examination gives a market position on a distinguishable and moment scale. It assembles basic and discretionary research procedures consequently. The researchers have thought the recorded bits of knowledge and stood out it from the momentum showcase situation to diagram a method for the overall Olmesartan Medoxomil publicize in the years ahead.Browse Market Research Report @Table of Contents1 Olmesartan Medoxomil Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Olmesartan Medoxomil1.2 Classification of Olmesartan Medoxomil1.3 Application of Olmesartan Medoxomil1.4 Olmesartan Medoxomil Market by Regions1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Olmesartan Medoxomil (2012-2022)2 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil (Volume and Value) by Type2.3 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil (Volume and Value) by Regions2.4 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil (Volume) by Application9 Global Olmesartan Medoxomil Manufacturers Analysis9.1 Daiichi Sankyo Company9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Olmesartan Medoxomil Product Type, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Daiichi Sankyo Company Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Zydus Cadila9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Olmesartan Medoxomil Product Type, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Zydus Cadila Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Olmesartan Medoxomil Product Type, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited Olmesartan Medoxomil Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business OverviewList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Olmesartan MedoxomilTable Classification of Olmesartan MedoxomilFigure Global Sales Market Share of Olmesartan Medoxomil by Type in 2015Figure Global Sales Market Share of Olmesartan Medoxomil by Application in 2015Figure United States Olmesartan Medoxomil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Olmesartan Medoxomil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Olmesartan Medoxomil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Olmesartan Medoxomil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Dehydrated Food Market Snapshot by 2015  2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/5933

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/dehydrated-food-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Drying or dehydration is a process through which moisture or water content is removed from the food. Removing of water content from food makes them lighter and smaller. It helps in preservation of food for longer period of time. Dehydrated food do not require any refrigeration while preserving at home or at the time of consumption. Moreover, dehydrated food is ideal for preserving seasonal fruits and vegetables. Dehydrated food offer high nutritional value, easy storage properties and availability at low price, which is driving the demand of dehydrate food across the globe.Dehydrated food market can be segmented on the basis of technology which includes spray dried, freeze dried, vacuum dried, sun dried, hot air dried and others. Traditionally among all these segments sun dried process of dehydration was the major segment in terms of usage by food manufacturers followed by hot air dried process. However due to the introduction of new technology spray dried is expected to account for largest share in terms of market revenue contribution, followed by freeze dried during the forecast period. Vacuum dried segment is expected to show a consistent growth as compared to others. Limited usage in food products is expected to be the restraining factor for the growth of vacuum dried technology in dehydrated food market in the near future.Furthermore, dehydrated food market can also be segmented on the basis of types. This includes dehydrated dairy products, dehydrated fruits, dehydrated meat products, dehydrated vegetables and others. Among all these segment meat products is expected to account for largest market share followed by dairy products. Increasing demand for enhanced year around availability of processed and canned meat products among the manufacturers is expected to support the demand of dehydrated meat products in the near future. Moreover the dehydrated fruits and dehydrated vegetables segments respectively are expected show a favorable growth during the forecast period. This is attributed to rising demand of seasonal fruits and vegetables.Request to View Tables of Content @Dehydrated food market can also be segmented on the basis of region. Globally, North America is expected to account for the major market share. In North American region the U.S is expected to be the major contributor in terms of revenue followed by Canada. Increased consumption of meat products in North America is expected to support the demand of dehydrated food products across the region. Europe is also expected to be one of the prominent contributor in dehydrated food products market in terms of revenue followed by Asia Pacific. Among all the countries in the European region United Kingdom is expected to contribute the highest during the forecast period. Moreover in terms of production of dehydrated food China is expected to be one of the prominent producer of dehydrated food products. In addition, China is one of the largest meat products producer along with prime producer of various seasonal fruits and vegetables. This is expected to contribute towards significant growth in the country.Rising demand of food products with longer shelf life coupled with the increasing demand of seasonal products across the year is supporting the growth of dehydrated food market during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing demand of food manufacturers for preserving food product for longer period so that they could use it as an ingredient in their final product is also fuelling the demand of dehydrated food market during the forecast period.Some of the international players operating in dehydrated food market are General Mills Inc., Ting Hsin International Group, Unilever China Ltd, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., House Foods Corp, Nissin Food Holdings Co. Ltd. and Kraft Foods Inc, among others.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Protein Hydrolysate Ingredients Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2015  2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/6191

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/protein-hydrolysate-ingredients-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Protein hydrolysate ingredients are the group of peptides derived from proteins. Protein hydrolysate are rich in protein content and are absorbed more quickly in comparison to other proteins. The different type of protein hydrolysate ingredients include milk protein hydrolysate and meat protein hydrolysate. These protein hydrolysate ingredients have relatively low antigenic properties. Protein hydrolysates ingredients enhance the digestibility and reduces the protein allergy especially in infants.There are various form of protein hydrolysate ingredients available in the market. Protein Hydrolysate ingredients market can be segmented on the basis of ingredients, application and region. Based on ingredient type, the segmentation includes milk protein hydrolysate and meat protein hydrolysate. Milk protein hydrolysates are type of peptides derived from milk proteins. There are two main sources of milk protein hydrolysates that includes whey protein hydrolysates and casein hydrolysates. The protein hydrolysates ingredients most commonly used in nutritional products are casein, whey protein and soy protein. These ingredients are the type of peptides that possess high nutritional properties and are comparatively absorbed quickly than other types of protein or amino acids. In Protein hydrolysates market, milk hydrolysate is anticipated to exhibit robust growth in the next four to five years. This is due to the comparatively less preference of consumers for meat hydrolysates ingredients.Request to View Tables of Content @On the basis of application protein hydrolysate ingredient market is segmented into infant formula, clinical nutrition and sport and slimming food. Among all the segments infant formula is the fastest growing segment, which is anticipated to witness double digit growth over the forecasted period, followed by the sport nutrition and clinical nutrition. The protein hydrolysates market is studied across various regions that includes North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East and Africa.Protein hydrolysate Ingredients Market demand is anticipated to increase globally owing to the increasing number of health conscious consumers. Protein hydrolysate ingredients market is expected to exhibit strong growth in North America due to the increasing number of high affluent class people coupled with rising awareness of consumers regarding the health .In North America, U.S. is the most dominating market, followed by other European countries. There is increasing demand of Protein Hydrolysate Ingredients Market in U.S. due the increasing disposable income of consumers and also rising number of health conscious consumers. Furthermore, Europe is expected to exhibit consistent growth due to increasing production of milk in the European regions. However, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market in the forthcoming years due the increasing investment of companies to launch new ingredients especially in infant formula segment. This trend is especially witnessed in China due to the increasing consumer interest in specialist nutrition. Protein hydrolysate ingredients market is growing drastically in China due to the increasing upper middle class population that supports the growth of protein hydrolysate ingredient rich products, which are higher in price.Protein hydrolysate ingredients market is witnessing healthy growth. This is due the increasing demand for protein hydrolysate ingredients by consumers owing to the health benefits coupled with nutritional benefits associated with it across developed regions. However, various factors that restrict the growth of protein hydrolysate ingredients market include less awareness among consumers regarding the health benefits associated with the consumption of protein hydrolysate ingredients in emerging economies.Major Players that operate in protein hydrolysate ingredients market include Abbott Laboratories, Danone S.A., Davisco Foods International, Inc. Arla Foods Ingredients Group P/S, Kerry Group plc, Carbery Group.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Market for Hand Tools will Showcase a Moderate growth of CAGR of 3.9% by 2027 end

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1114

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1114

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Competitive advantage of adopting power tools has lowered the adoption of hand tools. Multiple industrial operations are being equipped with power tools to benefit from their cost-effectiveness, lesser labour-induced work and higher efficiency. Furthermore, advancements in existing power tools are swiftly outpacing the upgrades done on conventional hand tools. In the long run, there is a possibility that hand tools might lose their applicability to power tools. Future Market Insights projects that during the forecast period 2017-2027, the global market for hand tools will showcase a moderate growth, registering a CAGR of 3.9%.Future Market Insights recently published report, titled Hand Tools Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2017-2027, estimates the global hand tools market to reach US$ 15.6 Bn value by end of 2017. In the ten-year forecast period, the global demand for hand tools is likely to witness a downtrend, bringing in just over US$ 22.3 Bn in revenues towards the end of 2027. Factors impacting the growth of global hand tools market are compiled in the report, which include:There has been a rise in the number of major manufacturing plants and industries in the world, wherein hand tools are widely used for maintenance purposesRequest For Report Sample@Automotive repair & maintenance sector is presently a lucrative industrial vertical for application of hand toolsAlthough, the global demand for hand tools is predicted to decline due to rising prices of raw materials such as iron ore and aluminiumIncreasing prevalence of DIY activities and rising employment opportunities for technical jobs are observed as key trends of the global hand tools market. The report further reveals that a majority of hand tools sold in the world will be used for industrial purposes. In 2017, industrial application of hand tools is expected to net global revenues worth over US$ 9.3 Bn. Key findings in the report also indicate that metal cutting tools will be observed as top-selling products, registering a steady revenue growth at 4.9% CAGR. Also, throughout the forecast period, over 40% of global hand tool sales will be accounted by retail distribution channels. Online distribution of hand tools is also expected to gain traction towards the latter half of forecast period.Send an Enquiry @North America is estimated to remain as the most-lucrative region for growth of hand tools market. Consistently procuring one-third share on global revenues, North America will remain the dominant region in the global hand tools market through 2027. On the other hand, the hand tools market in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will register fastest revenue growth, exhibiting 6% CAGR over the forecast period. Companies such as Channellock, Inc., Akar Tools, Ltd., Apex Tools Group, Wera Tools, Snap-On, Stanley Back Decker, Kennametal Inc., Klein Tools, and JK Files (India) Limited are profiled in the report as key manufacturers of hand tools in the world.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Glass Packaging Market: Industry Analysis, Future Growth, Business Prospects and Global Forecast to 2021

Glass Packaging Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1258

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/glass-packaging-market-1258

Market Scenario:Globally there is an increase in demand for alcoholic beverages and beer which has augmented the market for glass packaging. The non-reactive nature of glass makes it a suitable packaging material in pharmaceutical and alcoholic beverages industry. This is backed by the increased awareness for eco-friendly packaging and increase in investments by packaging companies which has led to the growth of the global glass packaging market.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Glass Packaging Market: Owens Illinois Inc. Saint-Gobain Ardagh Group Gerresheimer AG, and Vetropack Holding AG Amcor Ltd, Nihon Yamamura Glass Co. Ltd Tamron Co., Ltd. Piramal Glass Limited Hindustan National Glass & Industries Ltd Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass Co., Ltd.Study Objectives of Global Glass Packaging Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of various segments and sub-segments of the global glass packaging market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global glass packaging Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by application and region. To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global glass packaging marketSegments:Global glass packaging market is segmented on the basis of Application and Region. On the basis of application it is segmented as alcoholic beverages, food & beverages, pharmaceuticals and others. Additionally on the basis of region, it is segmented as North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Regional Analysis of Global Packaging Machinery Market:APAC dominates the global glass packaging market with its fast growing market worldwide. The region is expected to grow in coming years due to increasing glass packaging consumption, particularly in China and India. The demand is dominated by the alcoholic beverages and pharmaceuticals industry.Access Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Technologies and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash AnandMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
SaaS-Based HRM Market During 2017 - 2025: Demand for Engaging User Interfaces Ups Revenue Earnings in Europe

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1109486

http://www.researchmoz.us/saas-based-hrm-market-europe-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "SaaS-Based HRM Market During 2017 - 2025: Demand for Engaging User Interfaces Ups Revenue Earnings in Europe" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the SaaS based HRM market provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints opportunities, and trends expected to influence the Europe SaaS based HRM market growth during the said period. Trends that are playing a major role in the driving the Europe SaaS based HRM market have also been covered in the study. The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the forecast period from 2017 to 2025 in terms of revenue (value) estimates (in US$ Mn), across different countries.Software as a service (SaaS) based human resource management (HRM) alludes to the HR software carry out in cloud computing environment. SaaS based HRM solution enables to control and manage aspects of HR actions to maintain entirely employees details from the date of joining to the date of retirement. Moreover, SaaS based HRM solution incorporate HR activities such as directory management, application tracking, time & attendance management, electronic forms processing and others for instance payroll management and leave management. SaaS based HRM solution enables to develop the productivity of HR staff by providing self-service web interfaces.Europe SaaS HRM Market: Segmentation AnalysisThe Europe SaaS based HRM has been segmented on the basis of enterprise size, solution and industry. Based on enterprise size, the market has been further classified into small and medium enterprise and large enterprise. By solution, the market is further classified into Time and Attendance Management, HR and Payroll, Workforce Management, Integrated Solutions, Others (Scheduling, Hiring, etc.). By industry, the market is further classified into Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Healthcare, IT and Telecom, Manufacturing, Others (Government, Logistics, etc.).Geographically, the report classifies the Europe SaaS based market into Germany, France, The U.K., Italy, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, and Rest of Europe. Countries are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. Furthermore, the study also includes quantitative analysis of the competitive scenario for country wise.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Europe SaaS HRM Market: Research MethodologiesThe report also includes key industry developments in the SaaS based HRM. Porter Five Force analysis is also included in the report. Ecosystem analysis which identifies the process of distribution between SaaS vendors and end users in the SaaS based HRM is also covered in the report. The report also covers segment wise, market attractiveness analysis and market share analysis, comparison matrix, market positioning of the companies for all countries covered in the scope of study. This report shows market attractiveness analysis for all the segments and for all the countries in the scope of study which identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.The report also includes competition landscape which include competition matrix, market share analysis of major players in the Europe SaaS based HRM based on their 2016 revenues. Competition matrix benchmarks leading players on the basis of their capabilities and potential to grow. Factors including market position, offerings are attributed to companys capabilities. Factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities and future outlook are attributed to companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:The key players of SaaS based HRM market have been profiled with a focus on competitive details such as company and financial overview, business strategies, and their recent developments. The company profile of major players that have been incorporated in this report include as The Sage Group plc, IBM Corporation, ADP, LLC, SAP (SuccessFactor, Inc.), Oracle (Taleo Corporation), Rexx systems GmbH, SD Worx, Perbit Software GmbH, Jobvite Inc., Persis GmbH,.The Europe SaaS based HRM is segmented as below:Europe SaaS based HRM, By Enterprise SizeSmall and Medium EnterpriseLarge EnterpriseEurope SaaS based HRM, By SolutionTime and Attendance ManagementHR and PayrollWorkforce ManagementIntegrated SolutionsOthers (Scheduling, Hiring, etc.)Europe SaaS based HRM, By IndustryBanking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)HealthcareIT and TelecomManufacturingOthers (Government, Logistics, etc.)Europe SaaS based HRM, By CountryGermanyFranceThe UKItalyThe NetherlandsScandinaviaPolandRest of EuropeBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Residents of Artvi, a village in Armenias Lori Province, took to the streets today to voice their opposition to a planned mining project in their backyard.

They have blocked the road leading to the village in an attempt turn back a delegation from Miram LLC, the company that wants to launch exploratory operations at the site.

The Miram representatives are slated to visit the village to attend a public hearing on the mine.

Protestors carried signs declaring: Our gold is our history, Stay away from Artvi, and Artvi is an Armenian shrine.

Andranik Kirakosyan, the municipal accountant, told Hetq that the mining company wants to take over 140 hectares of the villages 566 hectares of land for exploratory purposes.

We have springs and cemeteries there. Our history is there. We have nothing to give them, said a Artvi resident.

The public hearing had been scheduled for noon, but as of 1:30 p.m., none of the company representatives had yet arrived.

The ranks of the protesters were buoyed by the arrival of environmentalists from Yerevan and Yelk Alliance MP Gevorg Georgisyan.

Officials from the environment ministry, perhaps startled by the protesters, remained in their car. They said they were willing to listen to all arguments, pro or con, at the designated site of the public hearing; the Artvi municipal building

A police official tried to convince the protesters that blocking the road doesnt serve their cause, but they stood their ground, saying the road was open to all except the Miram officials.

Miram LLC has already filed a preliminary environmental impact assessment with the environmental ministry.

Update: Representatives from Miram LLC arrived at the village some two hours later but never got out of their car. They never heard the concerns of residents regarding the companys plans to launch exploratory operations at the Shekaghbyur mine. Resident Artak Kirakosyan took us on a tour of the site, where two springs providing water to the village are located, in addition to an old cemetery and the Hovhan of Odzoun Church.
Worldwide System on Chip (SoC) Market From 2017 - 2025: Strong Demand Across Smart Consumer Electronics to Remain Key to Growth

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1109483

http://www.researchmoz.us/system-on-chip-soc-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Worldwide System on Chip (SoC) Market From 2017 - 2025: Strong Demand Across Smart Consumer Electronics to Remain Key to Growth" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides analysis of the System-on-Chip (SoC) market globally, during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The scope of this report includes competitive analysis of various market segments based on the types and applications. Analysis of SoCs with its applications in different industry verticals along with in-depth scrutiny of the SoC market across different geographic segments has also been considered under the scope of this report. A SoC is similar to a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer. However it is much smaller in size and all the components such as microprocessor, memory and peripherals among others are packaged together onto the chip.The components of a SoC vary depending on the device it is to be used in. Generally SoC consists of a graphic processing unit (GPU), microprocessor, timing sources, memory, analog interfaces, peripherals, external interfaces, power management circuits and voltage regulators among others. The small form factor combined with computing power of SoCs has led to its integration into various devices such as smart phones, smart washing machines, tablets, smart air-conditioners, smart television, set-top boxes, industrial automation applications and electrocardiogram telemetry devices among others. Thus SoC contains everything that is present within the motherboard of a computer but consumes much lesser space and power while giving similar or better performance that has resulted in growing applications across different industries.Global System on Chip (SoC) Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing number of smart electronic devices has been steadily rising over the years. It is seen that the growing number of smartphones, laptops and smart wearable devices has led to the rising demand for SoC globally. In addition to this, technological advancement has also led to inclusion of more features within SoC that has acted as a major driver for this market. Moreover, it is also the growing functionalities within a single IC that has allowed lowering of costs for these SoCs further boosting the market. Cost effectiveness in advanced SoCs does not affect the overall resistivity and capacitance of IC that has also been another important driver for this market.Considering all these drivers there are certain restraints that negatively affects this market. One such restraint being the high costs associated with the application of these SoCs. Another important restraint being the overlapping of functionalities in a SoC that may occur because of fixing all chips within a single substrate. With all these drivers and restraints it is the reduction in the overall cyclical time that is likely to provide huge growth opportunities for this market in the coming years.Global System on Chip (SoC) Market: SegmentationThe global SoC on the basis of different types has been segmented into digital, analog, mixed signal and others. Telecommunication, consumer electronics, automotive and others are the various application segments on the basis of which this market is segmented. Regions that are considered under this report comprises of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Revenue has been provided in USD billion for this market along with the CAGR for the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report also includes competitive profiling of leading players in the industry and their market share to aid in strategic decision making. The market attractiveness analysis along with company market share analysis included in this report provides insight into various market dynamics, industry competition and strategies adopted by market leaders. This report also provides breakdown as well as assessment of various factors impacting the market growth, which includes the drivers, restraints and opportunities. These factors helps in determining various trends and their likely impact on the overall market growth. Post consideration of all these factors affecting the SoC market, this report also includes a holistic analysis and growth estimation of the global SoC market for the forecast period 2017 to 2025.Companies mentioned in the reportSome of the leading players in the global SoC market are Apple Inc. (The U.S.), Broadcom Limited (Singapore), Infineon Technologies (The U.S.), Intel Corporation (The U.S.), Qualcomm Inc. (The U.S.), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), Toshiba Corporation (Japan) and MediaTek Inc. (Taiwan) among others.The market has been segmented as follows:?Global SoC Market - By Type:DigitalAnalogMixed SignalOthers?Global SoC Market - By Application:TelecommunicationConsumer ElectronicsAutomotiveOthers?Global SoC Market - By Region:North AmericaThe U.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeThe UKGermanyFranceItalyRest Of EuropeBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Asia Pacific's Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market From 2016 - 2024: Increase in Government Initiative to Promote Safe Injection Practices to Drive Growth

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1109482

http://www.researchmoz.us/retractable-needle-safety-syringes-market-asia-pacific-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2016-2024-report.html

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Asia Pacific's Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market From 2016 - 2024: Increase in Government Initiative to Promote Safe Injection Practices to Drive Growth" to its huge collection of research reports.Retractable needle safety syringes are the type of safety syringes which offer real safety for healthcare workers, significantly reducing the number of needlestick injuries and prevention of accidental infection of patients through accidental re-use of injecting equipment. Retractable needle syringes are used for several diseases such as diabetes, cancer, vaccination etc. The report consists of an executive summary that provides information about the products, its segments along with a market snapshot and comparative analysis by geography, in terms of revenue %, for 2015.A detailed overview of market dynamics, including the drivers, restraints, and opportunities of the retractable needle safety syringes market, along with porters analysis, value chain analysis, of the Asia pacific market, has been provided in this report. Market revenue analysis for all the above mentioned segments has been provided for the forecast period of 2016-2024, considering 2015 as the base year, and 2014 as the historical year, along with compound annual growth rate (CAGR %), for the forecast period of 2016-2024. Market share estimations were based on in-depth analysis and study of products, and their features etc.Asia Pacific Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market: Scope of the ReportThis report provides in-depth analysis of the retractable needle safety syringes market. The stakeholders for this report include companies involved in the manufacturing of retractable needle safety syringes. Executive summary section is included snapshot on stakeholders in this report, which summarizes the market size, trends and competition in different regions. Market players and Market share analysis is analyzed to signify percentage share of the major players operating in the retractable needle safety syringes market.The research methodology is a combination of primary and secondary research. Primary research includes information collected via e-mails, and telephonic interviews of key opinion leaders (KOL), and forms the bulk of our research. Secondary research includes information collected from various sources, by study of company websites, annual reports, stock analysis presentations, press releases, and various national and international databases.Asia Pacific Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market: SegmentationBased on product type, the retractable needle safety syringes market has been segmented into Manual retractable needle safety syringes. Automated retractable needle safety syringes segment is growing at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2016 to 2014 due to it several advantages and application. Based on end users, the market is segmented as hospitals, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and others segment which includes homecare settings, diagnostic centers and research institutes. Based on country, the market is segmented into Japan, China, India, Australia & New Zealand, ASEAN countries and Rest of Asia Pacific.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Companies Mentioned in the ReportThe report also comprises list of major players in the market, their SWOT analysis, market share of these players in the retractable needle safety syringes market, key business strategies, product portfolios, and recent developments. Key market players profiled in this report include, Retractable Technologies, Inc., Axel Bio Corporation, Sol-Millennium, DMC Medical Limited, UltiMed, Inc., Medigard Limited , Becton, Dickinson and Company ,Medtronic plc , Smiths Medical , Globe Medical Tech, Inc. , Medigard Limited among others.The Retractable Needle Safety Syringes market has been segmented as follows:Asia Pacific Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market, by ProductManual Retractable Needle Safety SyringesAutomated Retractable Needle Safety SyringesVacuum OperatedSpring OperatedAsia Pacific Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Market, by End-usersHospitalsClinicsAmbulatory Surgery CentersOthers (Homecare settings, Diagnostic centers, Research institutes etc.)Asia Pacific Retractable Needle Safety Syringes Diagnostics Market, by CountryJapanChinaIndiaAustralia & New ZealandASEAN CountriesRest of Asia PacificBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Serial Server Market Analysis & Forecast 2022 Profiling Rohde & Schwarz (Germany), Willtek Communications GmbH (Germany), Fluke Corporation (US)

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/474867/?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/474867/

https://www.whatech.com/market-research/companies/market-study-report

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/applicant-tracking-systems-market-in-the-us-2017-2021/?utm_source=RR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/

Market Study Report adds Global Serial Server Market Research Report 2017 new report to its research database. The report spread across 109 pages with 122 table and figures in it. The report provides information on Industry Trends, Demand, Top Manufacturers, product, Material and Application.In this report, the global Serial Server market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Serial Server Market Research Report 2017 estimates the drivers, restraints, and opportunities pertaining to the global Serial Server market over the timeframe of 2017-2022. Delivering the key insights pertaining to this industry, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, present and future business scenario, market size and share, and commercialization potential of the Serial Server industry over the coming five years.Request Simple for Global Serial Server Market Research Report @The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.In terms of end-user or applications, the report is Building Automation System, Bank, Industry. A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.The product landscape of the Single Serial Port, Dual Serial Port, Four Serial Port. Each product has been analyzed in terms of its production, capacity, and consumption. The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request Discount for Global Serial Server Market Research Report @The regional segmentation of the report includes North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Detailing the consumption and production rate of Serial Servers in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2017-2022.The competitive landscape of the Serial Server market profiles the top players participating in the global business space. These are Rohde & Schwarz (Germany), Willtek Communications GmbH (Germany), Advantest Corporation (Japan), Fluke Corporation (US). The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Applicant Tracking Systems Market in the US 2017-2021An applicant tracking system (ATS) collects and stores r?sum?s in a database. It scans and indexes the r?sum?s while giving recruiters an online view of the job seekers. Most organizations use some form of ATSs to handle job applications and manage their large volume of r?sum? data. The data is either collected from internal applications via ATSs or extracted from social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Surgical Sealants and Adhesives Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends & Forecast, 2017 - 2021

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1180533

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-surgical-sealants-and-adhesives-market-2017-2021-report.html

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Surgical Sealants and Adhesives Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends & Forecast, 2017 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Surgical sealants and adhesives are advanced wound closure devices, used post-surgery, to minimize blood loss and ensure closure of wounds. These devices can be used as adjuncts to sutures to prevent liquid and air leakages. They have the potential to completely replace conventional wound closure devices such as sutures and staples as they involve minimal blood loss, faster implementation, and a less painful procedure without the need for removal.Technavios analysts forecast the global surgical sealants and adhesives market to grow at a CAGR of 9.26% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global surgical sealants and adhesives market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of surgical sealants and adhesives to end-users.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Surgical Sealants and Adhesives 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 vendorsBaxterCohera MedicalC.R.BardCryoLifeCSL BehringEthiconTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Other prominent vendorsAdhesys MedicalAdvanced Medical SolutionsB. Braun MelsungenBISCOChemence MedicalGluStitchHualan Biological EngineeringIntegra LifeSciencesKaketsukenKuraray AmericaLifeBondMedtronicMEYER-HAAKE Medical InnovationsOCULAR THERAPEUTIXSea Run HoldingsSealantisShanghai RAAS blood productsSTB Lifesaving TechnologiesThe Medicines CompanyTissuemedVivostatMarket driverIncrease in volume of surgeriesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigh cost of surgical sealants and adhesivesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendGrowing demand for biological surgical sealantsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat 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?Browse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Electric Vehicle Harness Global Market For 2017: By Product Type - Wire to Wire Connector & Wire to Board Connector

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1249742

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-electric-vehicle-harness-market-research-report-2017-report.html

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Electric Vehicle Harness Global Market For 2017: By Product Type - Wire to Wire Connector & Wire to Board Connector" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Electric Vehicle Harness market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Electric Vehicle Harness in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesEUChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaGlobal Electric Vehicle Harness market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingYazakiSumitomo ElectricDelphiLEONILearYuraFurukawa ElectricCoficabPKC GroupKyungshinBeijing ForceFujikuraCoroplastGeneral CableShanghai ShenglongBeijing S.P.LOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoWire to Wire ConnectorWire to Board ConnectorOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Electric Vehicle Harness for each application, includingEVBEVPHEVTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsGlobal Electric Vehicle Harness Market Research Report 20171 Electric Vehicle Harness Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Electric Vehicle Harness1.2 Electric Vehicle Harness Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Wire to Wire Connector1.2.4 Wire to Board Connector1.3 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Segment by Application1.3.1 Electric Vehicle Harness Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 EV1.3.3 BEV1.3.4 PHEV1.4 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 EU Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)2 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Harness Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Browse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Xanthan Gum Market Perceive Robust Expansion by 2021

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/xanthan-gum-market.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4843

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4843

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide used as a thickener in several industries such as food and beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical. It is also known by other names such as bacterial polysaccharide, and corn sugar gum. Xanthan gum is manufactured by fermenting corn sugar with a bacterium named Xanthomonas Campestris. After the consumption of food containing xanthan gum, it swells in the intestine and stimulates the digestive tract. Xanthan gum also slows the absorption of sugar in the digestive tract and functions like saliva to lubricate the mouth of people who have Sjogrens syndrome. Xanthan gums are also used in drilling activities in the oil and gas sector. Food and beverage is the key end-use industry for xanthan gum and the bakery and confectionary industry accounts for the largest demand.To access full report @The growth of end user industries is the key driver for the global xanthan gums market. Rising disposable income is propelling the demand for food and cosmetics, which is consequently boosting the demand for xanthan gums. The consumption of convenience foods that contain xanthan gums has also increased significantly in the recent past. The increasing population and a growing economically-active population in Asia Pacific is further increasing demand for on-the-go foods. Increasing government investment in healthcare is also boosting pharmaceutical sales across the globe, which is driving the xanthan gums market.A sample of this report is available upon request @A mounting demand for gluten-free foods is also driving the xanthan gum market. Xanthan gum is used in the gluten-free baking process for several products such as cookies, cakes and pancakes, muffins and quick breads, breads, pizza dough, and salad dressings. Among these, xanthan gum is used in large quantities in the preparation of pizza dough. The nutritional characteristic of xanthan gum further increases its acceptability, as it contains carbohydrates and fiber. One of the greatest restraints for the xanthan gum market is the availability of guar gum as a substitute. However, guar gum is mostly used in ice cream and pastry fillings, whereas xanthan gum finds its largest use in the manufacturing of bakery products. Another restraint for the xanthan gum market is that it is not suitable for people with certain allergies.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Asia Pacific dominated the global xanthan gum market in 2014 owing to increasing demand for bakery and confectionary products from countries such as China, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Europe also has a large share in the xanthan gum market thanks to its large bakery and confectionary industries. Key players in the global xanthan gum market include Danisco, Cargill, Pfizer Inc, Jungbunzlauer, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), CP Kelco, and Fufeng Group Company Ltd.Key geographies evaluated in this report are:North AmericaU.SCanadaEuropeFrance, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UKEastern EuropeCISAPACChinaIndiaJapanAustraliaOthersLatin AmericaArgentinaBrazilOthersKey features of this reportDrivers, restraints, and challenges shaping the Xanthan Gum market dynamicsLatest innovations and key events in the industryAnalysis of business strategies of the top playersXanthan Gum market estimates and forecasts(2015 -2021)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Nutrunner Market Trends and Industry Analysis Report 2017

ReportsMonitor.com has added Global Nutrunner Market Professional Survey Report 2017 to its database of market research reports.

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request-sample/?post=244273

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/global-nutrunner-market-professional-survey-report-2017/

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request-sample/?post=244273

http://www.reportsmonitor.com

ReportsMonitor.com has added Global Nutrunner Market Professional Survey Report 2017 to its database of market research reports.This report studies Nutrunner in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.Get a Free Sample Report @This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAIMCOalkitronic alki TECHNIK GmbHArmstrong ToolsAtlas Copco Industrial TechniqueBosch Production ToolsDesoutter Industrial ToolsDino Paoli SrlEstic CorporationFEC Automation SystemsFIAM Utensili Pneumatici SpaIngersoll RandKUKENMannesmann Demag DrucklufttechnikMaschinenfabrik WagnerMilwaukeeRami Yokota B.V.STANLEY Engineered FasteningView Entire Report @By types, the market can be split intoElectric NutrunnerPneumatic NutrunnerHydraulic NutrunnerBy Application, the market can be split intoAutomobile IndustryMechanicalEquipment RepairOtherGet a Free Sample Report @By Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaAbout UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Heavy Construction Equipments 2017 Global Key Players  Caterpillar Inc., AB Volvo, Rockland, Liebherr Group, Atlas Copco Market Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Heavy Construction Equipments Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1633202-global-heavy-construction-equipments-market-professional-survey-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1633202-global-heavy-construction-equipments-market-professional-survey-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1633202

Heavy Construction Equipments SWOT Analysis and Forecast to 2022Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Heavy Construction Equipments Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report studies Heavy Construction Equipments in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringCaterpillar Inc.AB VolvoRocklandLiebherr GroupCNH Industrial N.V.Komatsu Ltd.Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd.JC Bamford Excavators Ltd.Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd.Atlas CopcoTerex CorporationLiugong Dressta MachineryCaterpillar IncRequest a Sample Report @By types, the market can be split intoHeavy EarthmovingLifting & Material HandlingHeavy Construction VehiclesOthersBy Application, the market can be split intoInfrastructureConstructionMiningManufacturingOil & GasOthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:1 Industry Overview of Heavy Construction Equipments1.1 Definition and Specifications of Heavy Construction Equipments1.1.1 Definition of Heavy Construction Equipments1.1.2 Specifications of Heavy Construction Equipments1.2 Classification of Heavy Construction Equipments1.2.1 Heavy Earthmoving1.2.2 Lifting & Material Handling1.2.3 Heavy Construction Vehicles1.2.4 Others1.3 Applications of Heavy Construction Equipments1.3.1 Infrastructure1.3.2 Construction1.3.3 Mining1.3.4 Manufacturing1.3.5 Oil & Gas1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India..4 Global Heavy Construction Equipments Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Heavy Construction Equipments Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Heavy Construction Equipments Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Heavy Construction Equipments Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment).8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Heavy Construction Equipments8.1 Caterpillar Inc.8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Caterpillar Inc. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Caterpillar Inc. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 AB Volvo8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 AB Volvo 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 AB Volvo 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Rockland8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Rockland 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Rockland 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Liebherr Group8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Liebherr Group 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Liebherr Group 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 CNH Industrial N.V.8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 CNH Industrial N.V. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 CNH Industrial N.V. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Komatsu Ltd.8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Komatsu Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Komatsu Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd.8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 JC Bamford Excavators Ltd.8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd.8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd. 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Atlas Copco8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Atlas Copco 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Atlas Copco 2016 Heavy Construction Equipments Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 Terex Corporation8.12 Liugong Dressta Machinery8.13 Caterpillar IncContinued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
APAC Expanded Perlite Market to prominently drive the global landscape by 2024

www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/829

www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/829

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/expanded-perlite-market

www.gminsights.com/

A report by Global Market Insights, Inc., claims the Expanded Perlite Market to exceed a revenue of USD 1 billion by 2024. It is also forecast to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% over the period of 2016-2024.Robust growth in the construction industry worldwide has left a palpable impact on expanded perlite markets growth trajectory. As per estimates, global construction industry in 2015 was around USD 8 trillion and is slated to exceed a revenue of USD 13 trillion by the end of 2024, projecting a proportional influence on expanded perlite market demand as well.Request for a sample pages from this research@It is estimated that the overall market from construction applications will grow substantially at an annual rate of 3% over the coming seven years. Alongside, increasing consumer inclination toward green buildings is enabling further penetration of this industry, providing lucrative opportunities in terms of growth prospects. Key players of the construction sector are readily using expanded perlites in the manufacturing of cinder blocks as an insulating ingredient.Asia Pacific has established strong grounds enhancing the regional expanded perlite market growth. With China as a major revenue pocket, APAC dominated the global landscape in 2015. China alone accounted for almost one-fifth of global infrastructural spending in that particular year. The regions expansive constructional industry is considered to be the prime factor propelling the market demand. Another factor that will cater the regional market growth in the next seven years is the growing awareness about horticulture products such as vegetables, fruits, decorative plants, and seeds.The noticeable expansion of the industry in a comparatively shorter span is quite evident from the products wide adoption across diversified sectors. Oil and gas sector being one of the prominent application domains, have significantly augmented expanded perlite markets growth curve.Make an Inquiry for Purchasing this report@Global horticulture produces which accounts for 22% to 26% of the total food and animal product trade, also ensures a sustained growth track for expanded perlite market outlook.North America driven by U.S. expanded perlite market will witness a remarkable growth from oil and gas applications owing to increasing shale gas exploration in the U.S. North America expanded perlite market collected a revenue of USD 160 million in 2015, and is expected to register substantial growth over the coming seven years.Another strong factor that is highly influencing expanded perlite market trend is the notable growth in the beer industry worldwide. Global beer production which was reported 190 gigalitres in 2015, is anticipated to have a sharp slope reaching almost 210 gigalitres by 2024. This will further favor expanded perlite market dynamics.Expanded perlite market is highly fragmented with presence of a large number of competitors at a global level. Although product substitute threat leaves a negative impact on the industry expansion, yet increasing constructional spending, especially across Asia Pacific and MEA is expected to thrive the global market demand. Some of the prominent names in expanded perlite industry include Cornerstone Industrial, Perlite-Hellas, Supreme Perlite Company, and Aegean Perlites SA.Source Report:About Global Market Insights, Inc.:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Therapeutics Market : Analysis, Applications, Size, Share, Overview To 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1187

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1187

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1187

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1187

Global Human Immunodeficiency Virus Therapeutics Market: SnapshotWith the noticeable surge in the incidence rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection, the market for HIV therapeutics market is gaining remarkable momentum across the world. The rate of demise from HIV-1 infection, however, is much higher than its occurrence rate. The number of people coming in contact with HIV is increasing at a fast pace, with emerging and under developed economies being severely hit as they lack adequate treatment facilities and prevention measures.Hitherto, no cure to HIV infections has been discovered. However, with appropriate medical intervention and therapeutics, their severity on infected humans can be controlled, providing new life lease to patients. Entry and fusion inhibitors, NRTIs, Non-NRTIs, integrase inhibitors, coreceptor antagonists, and protease inhibitors are the main drug classes of the therapeutics for HIV. With a large number of anti-retro viral drugs, the NRTIs segment has emerged as the most prominent drug class in human immunodeficiency virus therapeutics.Request Sample Copy of the Report @NRTIs slow down reverse transcriptase activities and eventually apprehend viral replication, which helps in reducing the effects of the infection on the human body. In general, the anti-retroviral regimen, used for the treatment of HIV patients, has a combination of anti-retroviral agents from diverse drug classes. Currently, over twenty FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of HIV are commercially available across the world.Global Human Immunodeficiency Virus Therapeutics Market: OverviewAIDS is perhaps the greatest threat posed by infectious diseases to human health in history. As this disease remains incurable at the moment, the development of anti- HIV therapies is crucial to slow down the progression of the virus. Therefore, the global market for HIV therapeutics will witness tremendous growth during the forthcoming period.Request TOC of the Report @Almost 36.7 million people were suffering from this deadly disease towards the end of 2015, according to the findings of World Health Organization (WHO). As the incidence of AIDS is not likely to reduce anytime soon, the global HIV therapeutics market is expected to exhibit a positive trajectory in the forthcoming yearsThe report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) discusses the trends, catalysts, opportunities, and deterrents of the global human immunodeficiency virus therapeutics market. The major vendors are studies in-depth, wherein their key business strategies, market shares, and product portfolios have been discussed. The market attractiveness, competitive landscape, market projections, supply and demand dynamics, and value chain analysis have also been revealed along with relevant statistical data.Request TOC of the Report @Global Human Immunodeficiency Virus Therapeutics Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe increasing prevalence of HIV infections, particularly amongst the youth worldwide owing to unprotected sexual activities, lack of awareness about the risk of transmission, and the usage of contaminated needles and syringes have been the most prominent growth drivers boosting the global HIV therapeutics market. The growing healthcare expenditures of governments and the gradual spread of awareness about the availability of anti-HIV therapies are also contributing towards market growth.Research conducted in novel scientific arenas such as pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics have been backing up the expansion of the market. The most awaited advent of personalized treatments wherein medications are optimized for every single patient considering the individual's genetic makeup has raised the hopes of HIV positive patients. Several community groups, national research groups, regulatory bodies, pharmaceutical companies and patients have joined forces against HIV, working towards the development of effective HIV therapies. All this has triggered the growth of the global HIV therapeutics market. Moreover, as several drugs are constantly being developed and are entering clinical investigation each day, it is likely that they will be easily available in near future, promoting the expansion of the market substantially.Get Discount @Global Human Immunodeficiency Virus Therapeutics Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global human immunodeficiency virus therapeutics market can be segmented into Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and North America.Escalating incidence of this infection has been observed in Russia, Latin America, and several parts of Caribbean. Therefore, these regions are expected to display considerable demand over the coming period. The continents of Asia and Africa are plagued by this viral infection, with countries such as China, India, and Nigeria with high incidence of HIV infections. According to the WHO, 1 out of 25 people are suffering from HIV infection in the Sub-Saharan Africa, making up almost 70% of the entire global HIV population.Steps taken by governments to improve access to HIV therapies in these emerging economies are likely to boost the demand for HIV therapeutics in these regions. Moreover, numerous national and international initiatives across the globe by institutions such as the HIVNAT (The Netherlands, Australia, and Thailand) Network, Harvard AIDS Institute, and MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) have also been guiding growth.Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the major companies operating in the global human immunodeficiency virus therapeutics market are ViiV Healthcare, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Merck & Co., Cipla, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and AbbVie, Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Grisha Balasanyan

The demographic picture for Sevkar (Black Rock), a village in Armenias Tavoush Province, isnt promising.

People are leaving the village, mainly due to a lack of jobs.

Enrollment at the village school has dropped from 450 to 315 over the past few years.

Sevkar, located six kilometers from the Azerbaijani border, shows traces of gunfire. The road signs are riddled with bullet holes.

Naira Tamanyan, the school principal, says that gunfire from the Azerbaijani side isnt uncommon, and that the village was shelled last September. One shell fell close to the school. Luckily, no one was injured.

Not much has changed in Sevkar. The cultural center and roads need repair, and the Saint Boghos and Bedros Church lies in ruins. Theres no money to reconstruct it.

Sevkar Mayor Tatoul Teloyan wasnt at his desk when Hetq visited. When we reached him by phone, he said he was too busy to answer our questions. Residents were also tight-lipped about the issues facing Sevkar, arguing they didnt want to speak ill of anyone.

School Principal Tamanyan believes people wouldnt leave the village if they had jobs. Theyve gotten used to the periodic Azerbaijani gunfire, she says, but they want to live better lives.

Tamanyan says the government has granted various tax and tuition breaks to residents since Sevkar is a border village.

But such inducements arent sufficient to keep people in the village, she says.

Her solution is to create small factories (fruit processing, lumber) in the village to provide work.

If theres work, people will not leave their native village, says Tamanyan.

The school principal believes that support must be given to farming and animal husbandry, the two main developed sectors in Sevkar, otherwise, the village will vanish.

Photos: Davit Banuchyan
Washing Machine Market to Record Sturdy Growth by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1229

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1229

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1229

Washing Machine Market: SnapshotThe growing demand for products which bring convenience to consumers is a key factor fueling the demand for washing machines. The growing changes in lifestyles, increasing disposable income, and the availability of advanced technology are also boosting the growth of the global washing machines market. One of the trends seen in the washing machine market in recent times is the use of technology that reduces the use of water for washing. The growing scarcity of water worldwide and the realization that water is a limited natural resource have compelled manufacturers to devise a technology that minimizes the use of water. In addition to this, smart washing machines have also gained traction in recent times on account of the increasing penetration of IoT and smartphones. The convenience offered by smart washing machines such as ability to operate remotely, control functions of the washing machine by using smartphones, and receive notifications is expected to increase the popularity of these machines in the future.The washing machines with higher capacity load are witnessing more demand in the last few years. In addition to this, consumers are increasingly transiting from semi-automatic washing machines to fully automatic washing machines. Technological advancements will continue to drive the growth of this market. Increasing replacements made from conventional washing machines to advanced and latest machines will ensure a growth of the market in developed nations. The increasing population and improvement in economy will drive the growth of this market in the developing nations.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Washing Machine Market: OverviewThe world washing machine market is prognosticated to rake in ample amount of demand from the residential sector as consumers find a heated inclination toward smart and connected products. Vendors in the market are taking to products which can be managed and controlled with a few touches on the consumers smartphone. Commercial dryers could gain traction as manufacturers introduce heat pump technology in the wake of energy consumption rising to an alarming level. Moreover, government initiatives to support controlled energy consumption, digitalization, and a large demand in developing economies are expected to add to the growth of the market.The segmentation part of the report presented here could include an expert analysis on the basis of important classification groups such as capacity, technology, product, application, and end use. Commercial laundry equipment are envisaged to appeal to government, hospital, and hospitality sectors with outsourcing deemed as a powerful trend of growth.Request TOC of the Report @The publication compiled on the global washing machine market sheds light on the critical factors of growth, market opportunities, restraints, market value chain, and more aspects to help analyze the industry at a professional level. Report buyers can access a customized evaluation of the global market to take confident strides toward a realistic growth.Global Washing Machine Market: Trends and OpportunitiesAs a result of the advent of innovative solutions in the laundry sector, the commercial washing machine market is expected to accept a transition. This could push the need for increased automation in laundry services, which is foreseen to prepare a fine ground for the global washing machine market to build on a robust growth. One of the notable revolutions in the laundry sector is the shift from coin laundries to card-based or digital laundry payment services. As a favorable consequence, the demand for smart connected washing machines is foretold to intensify even more with swiftly changing lifestyle of consumers and mushrooming preference for convenience.For the forecast period, the international washing machine market could invite an optimistic impact as newer technologies take precedence to address the demand for water and power efficient, next generation products. In order to control the consumption of energy, governments especially in North America are asking consumers to prefer energy-efficient appliances with smart grids. This is foreseen to aggravate the manufacturing efforts to develop technologically sophisticated products.Get Discount @Global Washing Machine Market: Regional OutlookThe regional demand in the international washing machine market is predicted to augment with the rising preference for smart connected and fully automatic products in the developing countries of Vietnam, India, and Indonesia. The demand is anticipated to swell further as the populations in these countries falling under the middle-income bracket see a rise. The washing machine market in China could experience a high level of penetration of different types of products, thus allowing the market to increase its growth. In 2015, Asia Pacific took hold of a whopping share in the global washing machine market.North America is forecasted to not fall behind by much distance from Asia Pacific, owing to the rising want for smart washing machine to replace their traditional counterparts. In the U.S., the demand has grown dramatically with the elevating awareness of products bearing the ENERGY STAR certification.Global Washing Machine Market: Companies MentionedMost manufacturers in the world washing machine market are counting on the formulation of holistic distribution mediums with a view to widen their clientele base. Some of the interesting strategies adopted by the top vendors in the global market are substantial focus on supply chain management through vital investments and improvement of product assortments. Among others, Electrolux AB, LG Electronics Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Whirlpool Corporation are deemed to be the leading players in the market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Security Labels Market Analysis, Trends and Global Forecast to 2021

Security Labels Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1289

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/security-labels-market-1289

Market Scenario:The market for Security Labels globally is driven by the growth of food & beverage sector. The high demand for packaged foods induces demand for security labels. In addition to this, the surge in demand for pharmaceutical products has also contributed to the growth of security label market. This is further backed by the increased investment in the packaging industries by company to bring in better technology.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Security Labels Market: 3M Company Avery Dennison Corporation Data Label Inc. UPM Raflatac Polylabel CCL Industries Inc. Tesa SE RR Donnelley & sons Co. UPM Intertronix Seiko Holdings Corporation Honeywell International IncSegments:Global security labels market is segmented on the basis of Identification method, Type, Form, Composition, Application and Region. On the basis of Identification method it is segmented as radio frequency, bar code, Holographic, and others. On the basis of type it is segmented as Identification, Branding and Information. On the basis of application it is segmented as food & beverages, pharmaceuticals and others. Additionally on the basis of region, it is segmented as North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Study Objectives of Global Security Labels Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of various segments and sub-segments of the global security labels market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global security labels market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Identification method, type, application and by region. To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global security labels marketRegional Analysis of Global Security Labels MarketAPAC dominates the global security labels market with its fast growing market worldwide. The growing regions of China and India will drive the market for security labels in the region. The factors such as rising population, increased purchasing power and economic developments are augmenting the growth of security labels market.Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
2017-2022 Global PET Preforms Market Analysis: Hon Chuan Group, Resilux NV, Zhuhai Zhongfu Enterprise, Seda de Barcelona

https://goo.gl/PgucZX

https://market.biz/report/global-pet-preforms-market-2017/65398/

https://market.biz

http://ereports.market/

https://market.biz/reports/

The Global PET Preforms Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of PET Preforms industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, PET Preforms growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and PET Preforms industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global PET Preforms Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of PET Preforms market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of PET Preforms market. The competitive view of the PET Preforms industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global PET Preforms market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of PET Preforms Market According to the Key Vendors:1 RETAL2 Plastipak3 Hon Chuan Group4 Resilux NV5 Zhuhai Zhongfu Enterprise6 Seda de Barcelona7 Amraz Group8 Zijiang Enterprise9 SGT10 Rawasy Al Khaleej Plastic11 Gatronova12 Alpla13 Koksan14 Eskapet15 INTERGULF ? EMPOL16 Esterform17 Manjushree18 Indorama Ventures Public Company19 GTX HANEX Plastic20 Ultrapak21 Nuovaplast22 Sunrise23 Putoksnis24 Constar Plastics25 Caiba26 ETALON27 SNJ Synthetics28 EcoPack29 Yaobang30 Ahimsa Industries LimitedThe PET Preforms report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the PET Preforms industry like supply chain analysis, PET Preforms industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of PET Preforms industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the PET Preforms report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global PET Preforms Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall PET Preforms market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Health and Wellness Food 2017 Global Key Players  Danone, Nestle, General Mills, Kellogg, Arbonne International Market Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Health and Wellness Food Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1632196-global-health-and-wellness-food-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1632196-global-health-and-wellness-food-sales-market-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1632196

Health and Wellness Food SWOT Analysis and Forecast to 2022Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Health and Wellness Food Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Report Details:Global Health and Wellness Food market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Health and Wellness Food sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player;The top Key manufacturers/players including:DanoneNestleGeneral MillsKelloggFifty 50 FoodsArbonne InternationalAbbott NutritionGlanbiaArla FoodAmy's KitchenBy-healthRequest a Sample Report @Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Health and Wellness Food for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoLiquidCapsulePowderOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Health and Wellness Food for each application, includingCure of diseaseKeep FitLose WeightOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global Health and Wellness Food Sales Market Report 20171 Health and Wellness Food Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Health and Wellness Food1.2 Classification of Health and Wellness Food by Product Category1.2.1 Global Health and Wellness Food Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Health and Wellness Food Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Liquid1.2.4 Capsule1.2.5 Powder1.2.6 Others1.3 Global Health and Wellness Food Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Health and Wellness Food Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Cure of disease1.3.3 Keep Fit1.3.4 Lose Weight1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Health and Wellness Food Market by Region1.4.1 Global Health and Wellness Food Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Health and Wellness Food Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Health and Wellness Food (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Health and Wellness Food Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Health and Wellness Food Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)..9 Global Health and Wellness Food Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data9.1 Danone9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Danone Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Nestle9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Nestle Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 General Mills9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 General Mills Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.4 Kellogg9.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.4.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.4.2.1 Product A9.4.2.2 Product B9.4.3 Kellogg Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.5 Fifty 50 Foods9.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.5.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.5.2.1 Product A9.5.2.2 Product B9.5.3 Fifty 50 Foods Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.6 Arbonne International9.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.6.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.6.2.1 Product A9.6.2.2 Product B9.6.3 Arbonne International Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.7 Abbott Nutrition9.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.7.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.7.2.1 Product A9.7.2.2 Product B9.7.3 Abbott Nutrition Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.8 Glanbia9.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.8.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.8.2.1 Product A9.8.2.2 Product B9.8.3 Glanbia Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.9 Arla Food9.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.9.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.9.2.1 Product A9.9.2.2 Product B9.9.3 Arla Food Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.10 Amy's Kitchen9.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.10.2 Health and Wellness Food Product Category, Application and Specification9.10.2.1 Product A9.10.2.2 Product B9.10.3 Amy's Kitchen Health and Wellness Food Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.11 By-healthContinued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Analysis of Construction in Portugal - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020 including Regulation, Cost Management, Funding & Pricing

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=849535

http://www.researchmoz.us/construction-in-portugal-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2020-report.html

Albany, New York, July 26, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of " Construction in Portugal : Insights, Development, Research and Forecast 2017 " globally.After average annual growth of -7.7% during 20082014, the Portuguese construction industry finally rebounded in 2015, and registered a growth rate of 2.7% in real terms. The recovery is expected to persist over the forecast period (20162020), with investments in infrastructure construction, the manufacturing industry, educational and healthcare facilities, and housing projects continuing to drive growth.Investments in the Portugal 2020 operational program will also support growth in the industry over the forecast period.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The government aims to develop the countrys infrastructure with help of international banks. In 2015, the European Investment Bank (EIB) sanctioned a loan of EUR70.0 million (US$77.8 million) to develop energy and water infrastructure in the Lisbon area.In real terms, the industrys output value is forecast to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.28% over the forecast period, up from -8.52% during the review period (20112015).SummaryTimetrics Construction in Portugal Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Portuguese construction industry, including:The Portuguese construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activityAnalysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in PortugalCritical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Portuguese construction industryProfiles of the leading operators in the Portuguese construction industryData highlights of the largest construction projects in PortugalScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Portugal It provides:Historical (2011-2015) and forecast (2016-2020) valuations of the construction industry in Portugal using construction output and value-add methodsSegmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project typeBreakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricingDetailed profiles of the leading construction companies in PortugalReasons To BuyIdentify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.Understand the latest industry and market trends.Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key HighlightsThe construction industry is expected to benefit from the government plan to develop the countrys infrastructure under the Partnership Agreement with European Commission (EC) for 20142020. Under this agreement, the EC allocated EUR21.5 billion (US$28.5 billion) in 2015 to develop rural areas of the country, and invest in youth employment initiatives by 2020.The government aims to develop state of the art freight transport infrastructure in the country. Accordingly, it plans to invest EUR2.7 billion (US$3.6 billion) on the expansion of a rail network across the country by 2020. Government investments in freight transport infrastructure are expected to drive growth in the infrastructure construction market over the forecast period.Make an Enquiry about TOC @The governments aim to increase the share of renewable energy in the countrys total energy mix is expected to drive growth in the energy and utilities construction market over the forecast period. Under the PNAER, the government aims to generate 31.0% of the countrys total energy demand through renewable sources by 2020.To support economic development and growth, the government is expanding the broadband network across the country. Under the National Broadband Strategy 2020, the government aims to equip all households with 30Mbps internet speed, and it aims to provide 100Mbps internet speed to 50% of total population by 2020. This will support construction activity in the telecommunications category.The governments focus on providing affordable houses via social housing programs is expected to drive growth in the residential construction market over the forecast period. In 2015, the government launched O program Reabilitar para Arrendar Habitao Acessvel, a rental rehabilitation program, with an investment of EUR50.0 million (US$55.5 million). The government will provide financial assistance to both public and private developers of affordable houses, with an aim to increase the number of affordable houses in the country by 2018.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Construction in the US : Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities 2017

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=849533

http://www.researchmoz.us/construction-in-the-us-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2020-report.html

Albany, New York, July 26, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Construction in the US - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020" globally.Following contraction since 2006, the US construction industry finally recovered in 2012 and registered a growth rate of 3.5% in real terms. The recovery has continued through to 2015, and is expected to remain in place over the forecast period (20162020), with investment in infrastructure construction, healthcare, manufacturing, educational facilities and housing projects continuing to drive growth.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Growth will also be driven by the Presidents Climate Action Plan, through which the government aims to increase the share of renewable energy from 10% of total consumption in 2015 to 20% by 2020.Through the America 2050 program, the government plans to develop the countrys deteriorating infrastructure to provide a sustainable mobility system to the growing population. It includes the construction of California high-speed rail phase-1, and new intercity rail operations between Merced and the San Fernando Valley by 2022.Through affordable housing programs such as the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), the US Department of Agriculture Housing Assistance program, the Neighbourhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and the Housing Choice Voucher Program, the government aims to build affordable houses for low- and middle-income people.The industrys output value in real terms is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.34% over the forecast period, up from 3.12% during the review period (20112015).SummaryTimetrics Construction in the US Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the US construction industry, including:The US construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activityAnalysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in the USCritical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the US construction industryProfiles of the leading operators in the US construction industryData highlights of the largest construction projects in the USScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in the US It provides:Historical (2011-2015) and forecast (2016-2020) valuations of the construction industry in the US using construction output and value-add methodsSegmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project typeBreakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricingDetailed profiles of the leading construction companies in the USReasons To BuyIdentify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.Understand the latest industry and market trends.Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Key HighlightsIn terms of the number of building permits and their total value, there is clear evidence of improvement in residential construction, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau. The total number of building permits issued in the country grew by 12.4% from 1.1 million in 2014 to 1.2 million in 2015. This was preceded by annual growths of 6.2%, 19.4% and 32.9% in 2014, 2013 and 2012 respectively.In 2015, the government announced plans to spend US$305.0 billion on developing highways and other connecting roads in the country. In addition, the government plans to invest US$10.0 billion on Amtrak and other rail programs, US$12.0 billion on mass transit system and US$1.0 billion on road safety programs. The government also encourages research and innovation in transport infrastructure for rural and urban areas where the construction of a standard transport system is difficult.The governments plan to expand and upgrade runways, terminals, taxiways and passenger amenities at the countrys airports is expected to support growth in the infrastructure construction market over the forecast period. Accordingly, the government plans to increase the capacity of Honolulu International Airport with an investment of US$2.7 billion by 2025.The government focuses on the construction of low and affordable houses to meet demand and supply of affordable houses in the country. Under the Home, NSP, CDBG, Housing Choice Voucher Program Section-8 and Project-based Rental Assistance Program, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides financial support for the construction of social housing. Accordingly, the government increased total spending on HUD programs by 4.0% from US$47.0 billion in 20152016 to US$48.9 billion in 20162017.Energy and utilities construction market growth will be driven by government plans to increase the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption, encouraging investment in renewable energy infrastructure. The government aims to increase renewable energys share of total energy consumption from 10% in 2015 to 20% by 2020.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Egypt: 4G Rollout and Issuance of Virtual Fixed Licenses to Significantly Boost Competition

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1157585/egypt-4g-rollout-and-issuance-of-virtual-fixed-licenses-to-significantly-boost-competition-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1157585

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiryBuy/1157585

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "Egypt: 4G Rollout and Issuance of Virtual Fixed Licenses to Significantly Boost Competition" to its database."Egypt: 4G Rollout and Issuance of Virtual Fixed Licenses to Significantly Boost Competition" is a new Country Intelligence Report by GlobalData, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Egypt today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, and mobile, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.Complete Report Details @The telecom service revenue in Egypt is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% during 2016-2021, due to growth in mobile data, fixed Internet and pay-TV segments. Mobile data and fixed Internet growth will be driven by launch and expansion of 4G services and fiber expansion, respectively. Pay-TV operators are expected to face stiff competition from OTT players over the coming years. Vodafone Egypt will continue its dominance during the forecast period. Vendors and investors have an opportunity to benefit from the grant of unified license to all major operators, which now enable them to compete evenly in the fixed and mobile segments.Download Sample copy of this Report @The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following -- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Egypt compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Egypt.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, and mobile data markets.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2016 to 2021.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, and mobile data services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Egypt's telecommunications markets.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Scope- The overall telecom service revenue in Egypt will grow at a CAGR of 4.3% during 2016-2021, mainly driven by growth in mobile data, fixed broadband and pay-TV segments.- Mobile revenue will account for 84.6% of the total telecom revenue in 2021; mobile data will witness a CAGR of 6.8% during 2016-2021.- The top two operators, Orange Egypt and Vodafone Egypt, accounted for 57.7% share of overall service revenue in 2016. We expect competition to intensify as operators acquire unified licenses from the NTRA, which allows them to offer both mobile and fixed-line services.- Operators will focus on improved service offerings at competitve prices to maintain their market position.Reasons to buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Egypt's telecommunications markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying GlobalDatas Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Egypt's mobile communications, fixed telephony, broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Egypt's telecommunications markets.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Egypt.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Offshore Wind Energy Market - Analysis By Region & Country: Opportunities and Forecast 2017-2021

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1064492

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-offshore-wind-energy-market-report.html

Albany, New York, July 26, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Offshore Wind Energy Market - Analysis By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2016-2021) - By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, ROW); By Country (US, Canada, Germany, U.K., Sweden, Netherland, Belgium, Denmark,, China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil)" globally.A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Offshore Wind Energy Market on the basis of By Region (Europe, Asia pacific), By Country (U.S., Belgium, Denmark, Sweden , U.K., Netherland, Germany, China, Japan, Brazil and South Korea).Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Over the recent years, the global offshore wind energy industry has been growing rapidly as the global total installed capacity has been witnessing rapid growth. Globally, the growth in the offshore wind energy market is driven by increasing demand of clean energy, larger coastal regions, abundant resource of energy and low cost from the other technology like nuclear plant and coal plants.According to Azoth Analytics research report, Global Offshore Wind Energy Market  Analysis By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2016-2021)  By Region (Europe, Asia Pacific, North America); By Country (U.S., Belgium, Denmark, Sweden , U.K., Netherland, Germany, China, Japan, Brazil, South Korea), global market is projected to display a robust growth represented by a CAGR of 25.47% during 2016  2021, chiefly driven by increasing demand of clean energy, governments regulatory frameworks and advancements in new technologies.Among the regions, North America is predicted to advance at the highest rate, mainly driven by government subsidies, financial support from European banks and wind energy associations. Among the countries, Germany in Europe and South Korea in Asia are predicted to advance at the highest rate driven by higher investments by native companies and government subsidies.The report titled, Global Offshore Wind Energy Market  Analysis By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2016-2021)  By Region (Europe, Asia Pacific, North America); By Country (U.S., Belgium, Denmark, Sweden , U.K., Netherland, Germany, China, Japan, Brazil, South Korea), has covered and analysed the potential of Global Offshore Wind energy Market and provides statistics and information on market size, shares and growth factors. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global food service equipment market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Scope of the ReportGlobal Market (Actual Period: 2011-2015, Forecast Period: 2016-2021)Offshore Wind Energy MarketMake an Enquiry about TOC @Regional Markets Europe, Asia-Pacific (Actual Period: 2011-2015, Forecast Period: 2016-2021)Offshore wind Energy MarketCountry Analysis  U.S., UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherland, Sweden, Belgium ,Japan, China, Brazil, South Korea (Actual Period: 2011-2015, Forecast Period: 2016-2021)Offshore wind Energy MarketOther Report HighlightsMarket Dynamics  Trends, Drivers, ChallengesPolicy and RegulationCompany Analysis  Siemens, Vestas, Vattenfall, General Electric, Suzlon, Vestas, Dong Energy, Samsung Heavy Industries, Nordex, ABB Group, SenvionResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Guinea-Bissau: 4G Launch and Value-Added Services to Support Mobile Data Growth

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1230769

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1230769/guinea-bissau-4g-launch-and-value-added-services-to-support-mobile-data-growth-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiryBuy/1230769

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "Guinea-Bissau: 4G Launch and Value-Added Services to Support Mobile Data Growth" to its database."Guinea-Bissau: 4G Launch and Value-Added Services to Support Mobile Data Growth", a new Country Intelligence Report by GlobalData, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Guinea-Bissau today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2022. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband and mobile sectors, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.Download Sample copy of this Report @The telecom services revenue in Guinea-Bissau is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% during 2017-2022, driven mainly by the mobile segment, as operators increase their focus on expanding network coverage and on improving quality of service to foster mobile services penetration of the population and mobile data services adoption.Complete Report Details @Going forward, operators should continue to focus on network investments and upgrades, particularly expanding 3G and 4G networks in order to seize opportunities arising from growth in the mobile data segment. Operators mobile network expansion and the governments ICT infrastructure development plans will present significant opportunities for vendors and investors.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following -- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Guinea-Bissau compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Guinea-Bissau.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to numbering plans, national broadband plans and more.- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice and data from 2017 to 2022.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Guinea-Bissau's telecommunications market.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Scope- Overall telecom service revenue in Guinea-Bissau is estimated to generate $68.7m in 2017 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% during 2017-2022, mainly driven by the mobile data segment.- Operators are focusing on modernizing the existing networks and new service offerings such as value-added services to increase revenue.- Mobile revenue will account for 97.2% of total telecom revenue in 2022; mobile data will be the fastest-growing segment over 2017-2022.- The Guinea-Bissau telecom market will be dominated by MTN Bissau and Orange Bissau. Operators will focus on offering VAS and improving network infrastructure to improve their market position.Reasons to buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Guinea-Bissau's telecommunication market, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying GlobalDatas Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Guinea-Bissau's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Guinea-Bissau's telecommunications market.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Guinea-Bissau.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Health & Beauty Retailing in Germany Market will grow by 2.0% CAGR to 56.79 billion by 2021

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1177552

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1177552/health-beauty-retailing-in-germany-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiryBuy/1177552

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

Latest industry research report on: Health & Beauty Retailing in Germany Market : Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, Forecasts"Health & Beauty Retailing in Germany, Market Shares, Summary and Forecasts to 2021" provides data for historic and forecast retail sales, and also includes information on the business environment and country risk related to German retail environment. In addition, it analyzes the key consumer trends influencing German health and beauty industry.Download Sample copy of this Report @Germans spending on health beauty will grow by 2.0% CAGR to 56.79 billion by 2021. As the population ages, and all consumers become more health conscious, the health segment is growing much faster than beauty. In beauty the development of low priced beauty, skincare and cosmetic products is giving consumers more choice at lower prices, keeping growth down. Online remains as the fastest growing channel with the availability of wide range of beauty products online, however, specialist retailers dominate the sector; dm and Rossmann lead the market with 27.5% share.Complete Report Details @What else does this report offer?- In-depth analysis of the latest trends in consumer shopping, covering the factors driving shopping, consumer insights, market dynamics (covering 26 product categories),- The report also details major retailers in each category group with their product proposition analysis and market positioning in 2016 along with recent key developments- Market insights based on consumer trends, changing economic and demographic factors, technology innovations, and other macroeconomic factors- Qualitative and quantitative insights of changing retail dynamics across various channelsHave Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Scope- Germans spending on health beauty will grow by 2.0% CAGR to 56.79 billion by 2021.- Online remains as the fastest growing channel with CAGR of 12.3% over the five year period- dm and Rossmann lead the market with an estimated market share of 27.5%Reasons to buy- Gain a comprehensive knowledge on health and beauty sector in the German retail market and develop a competitive advantage from the start of your supply chain- Investigate current and forecast behavior trends in health and beauty category to identify the best opportunities to exploit- Analysis of key international and domestic players operating in the health and beauty market- Explore novel opportunities that will allow you to align your product offerings and strategies to meet demand by analyzing the vital economic and population trends, key consumer and technology trends influencing the health and beauty marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Still Drinks Market Witness Healthy Growth Opportunities in Beverage Industries

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/still-drinks.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=880

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Still Drinks Market: OverviewAs sales of carbonated and aerated drinks report a gradual but sure deceleration, the scales are now tipping in favor of still drinks. A rapidly expanding base of health conscious consumers is stirring up new consumption trends in the global beverage industry. Although carbonated, sugar-sweetened drinks currently hold a massive portion of both sales and value in the global beverage industry, growth is expected to be the fastest in the still drinks and natural drinks category. Options such as flavored water, non-aerated soft drinks, and juices are gaining more favor among consumers, creating a highly fertile ground on which the global still drinks market will grow in the coming years.Obtain Report Details @Although the still drinks market currently has sizeable volume sales coming from densely populated countries such as India and China, value gains are substantial in developed markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, and Russia. With these trends poised for a change in the coming years, the report forecasts the growth of the global and key regional markets in terms of value and volume. The projected value growth of the market has been expressed in US$ Mn.This report assesses the different kinds of still drinks available in the market currently and recommends strategies to fill white spaces in the market. Leading end-use segments have been studied in the report to understand which of these would hold the maximum potential in terms of revenue and volume growth. Likewise, the regional markets are analyzed at length for the period ranging from 2015 to 2024 to create a holistic perspective of where the future opportunities like.For more information on this report, fill the form @Still Drinks Market: Trends, Opportunities, and RestraintsThe most evident opportunity in the global still drinks market lies in cultivating consumers in the new urban areas in Asian, Latin American, and East European countries. The underdeveloped still drinks market in these countries means that an appreciable number of unharnessed opportunities still exist in key markets within these regions. However, even as companies do so, the focus needs to remain firmly on availability and affordability. Retail channels across several emerging countries still need to be developed to suit the distribution plans of beverage manufacturers and the competitive prices of sparking and aerated drinks continue to be a roadblock in the growth of the still drinks market.With beverage industry data showing a continued increase in per-capita consumption of soft drinks in countries such as India, new opportunities are likely to emerge in the coming years. Moreover, countries with a large young population represent a target market for still drink brands. Currently, the fruit juice segment accounts for nearly 30% of the global still drinks market. Growth in the Asia Pacific still drinks market is expected to outshine that of other regions.Still Drinks Market: Competitive OverviewGiven that numerous growth opportunities lie for the global still drinks market between conventional category lines, companies are now investing both time and money in launching innovative still beverages. As sales figures show telltale signs of consumers inclination toward non-carbonated drinks, the competition in the still drinks space is also expected to become fierce in the long term. Tropicana (PepsiCo) and Minute Maid (The Coca-Cola Company) are the two leading brands in the global still drinks market. The other key companies in the global still drinks market are: Nestle, Unilever, Asahi Soft Drinks Co. Ltd., Yakult, Calpis Co. Ltd., and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
To grow at the Highest CAGR Increasing Demand of Global Tracking-as-a-service Market Forecasts Report By 2021

https://marketsizeforecasters.com/enquire-for-discount/188348/?utm_source=opr-PSR

https://marketsizeforecasters.com/get-sample/188348/?utm_source=opr-PSR

https://marketsizeforecasters.com/global-tracking-as-a-service-market

https://marketsizeforecasters.com/global-student-rfid-tracking-market

http://marketsizeforecasters.com/

https://marketsizeforecasters.com/news

Market Research Report on Tracking-as-a-service Market is a professional and in-depth research report. The Report include basic information like definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview, industry policies and plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures and so on.Tracking-as-a-service platforms are cloud-based IT solutions that are used in the supply chain and logistics systems to track inventories, assets, and vehicles. Tracking as a service platform solution is implemented by enterprises for remote monitoring purpose. Cloud-based tracking systems have gained popularity as the data can be transmitted more quickly in a cloud-based ICT infrastructure.The Research analysts forecast the global tracking as a service to grow at a CAGR of 27.58% during the period 2017-2021.Get Discount on this Report:Global Tracking as A Service 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.The study provides a decisive view on the Tracking-as-a-service market by segmenting based on geography:Americas, APAC, EMEAKey vendors: Digicore Holdings (Inseego) Trimble Verizon Enterprise Solutions ZebraOther prominent vendors: AssetTrackr Asset Panda AT&T Ekahau Geotab Globalstar Honeywell I.D. SystemsGet Sample Copy on this Report:The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global tracking as a service 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.Market driver: Need to improve fleet operator efficiency For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge: Limited control given to customers For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend: Upsurge in use of mobile technology 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?For More Details on this Report:Related Report:Global Student RFID Tracking Market 2017-2021The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global student RFID tracking market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of the RFID tracking technology in the global educational market.Company Overview:MarketSizeForecasters.com, a Skyline Market Research LLP brand, is an online aggregator of market research reports. MarketSizeForecasters.com offers a comprehensive collection of full length reports on global and regional markets in 100+ industry verticals. We have partnered with some of the leading business and market research publishing houses and regularly update our online library to offer wide range of reports to our customers.Contact Us:Market size forecastersThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketsizeforecasters.comWebsite:News:
Hospital Beds Market Dynamics 2017: Opportunities, Risks and Driving Factors to 2022

Reports Monitor

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request-sample/?post=243551

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/united-states-hospital-beds-market-report-2017-2/

http://www.reportsmonitor.com

ReportsMonitor.com has added a new report to its database United States Hospital Beds Market Report 2017.This report identifies the Hospital Beds market size for the years 2012-2017, and forecast of the same till the year 2022. It also highlights the market drivers, restraints, growth indicators, challenges, and other key aspects with respect to the Hospital Beds market.Hospital Beds Market tracks the major market events including product launches, technological developments, mergers and acquisitions, and the innovative business strategies opted by key market players. Along with strategically analyzing the key micro markets, the report also focuses on industry-specific drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges in the Copper Strips market. This research report offers in-depth analysis of the market size (revenue), market share, major market segments, and different geographic regions, forecast for the next five years, key market players, and premium industry trends. It also focuses on the key drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges.For Requesting a Sample Copy of This Report, Please Visit @This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringParamount BedHill-RomStrykerLinet GroupStiegelmeyerJoernsArjoHuntleighFrance BedPardoGuldmannSjzManyouHbYangguangBjKangtuoHaohanMerivaaraMed-MizerBazhou GreatwallThe competitive landscape of the global market for Hospital Beds is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Hospital Beds markets production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Hospital Beds market worldwide.This report segments the Hospital Beds marketABS BedStainless Steel BedAlloy BedOtherBy FunctionManual Hospital BedElectric Hospital BedSemi Electric Hospital BedOn the basis of application:PsychiatricInfectious DiseasesTuberculosisLong-term CareBirthingGeneralOtherFor comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the Hospital Beds market is analyzed across key geographies namely:The WestSouthwestThe Middle AtlanticNew EnglandThe SouthThe MidwestEach of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.Some points from TOC:United States Hospital Beds Market Report 20171 Hospital Beds Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Hospital Beds1.2 Classification of Hospital Beds by Product Category1.2.1 United States Hospital Beds Market Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)7 Hospital Beds Manufacturing Cost Analysis7.1 Hospital Beds Key Raw Materials Analysis7.1.1 Key Raw Materials7.1.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials7.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials7.1.4 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials7.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure7.2.1 Raw Materials7.2.2 Labor Cost7.2.3 Manufacturing Expenses7.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Hospital Beds9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders9.1 Marketing Channel9.1.1 Direct Marketing9.1.2 Indirect Marketing9.1.3 Marketing Channel Development Trend9.2 Market Positioning9.2.1 Pricing Strategy9.2.2 Brand Strategy9.2.3 Target Client9.3 Distributors/Traders List10 Market Effect Factors Analysis10.1 Technology Progress/Risk10.1.1 Substitutes Threat10.1.2 Technology Progress in Related IndustryBrowse Full Table of Contents and Report Description @Reports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform to meet the market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.008, Mihir Co-operative,Above Bharat Suzuki showroom,Fatima Nagar,Pune,Maharashtra,IndiaIndia: +91 2069535353Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Land Mobile Radio Market : Dynamics, Segments and Supply Demand 2017-2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2261

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2261

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2261

Global Land Mobile Radio Market: OverviewLand mobile radio systems (LMRS) are wireless communication system used by terrestrial users in vehicles or on foot. These systems can be hand portable or mobile. The technologies that are implemented in LMRS are analog and digital. Some of common applications of these systems are retail, transportation, mining, home security, and military and defense. These systems are used by dispatched services, public works organization, and first responder organizations such as fire, ambulance services, and police.Global Land Mobile Radio Market: Key TrendsOne of the primary drivers for the global land mobile radio (LMR) market is the gradual shift from analog to digital LMR. Merits such as high standards of performance, less power consumption, log display, high bandwidth, and better quality coverage are prompting manufacturers and users to shift towards digital LMR. The pressing need for efficient critical communication operations is also stirring up the demand for LMR. Moreover, these radios find application in various industries, such as transportation and military and defense. Thus, the robust growth of these sectors is positively impacting the growth of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @On the other hand, the limitation pertaining to the spectrum bandwidth of LMR is restricting the market from realizing its utmost potential. Moreover, the high capital required for developing LMR is inhibiting the growth of the market. The emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) coupled with the proliferation of IoT devices is emerging as a major challenge for players in the global land mobile radio market.Global Land Mobile Radio Market: Market PotentailWith the birthing of alternative communication systems, the much of the attention is on technological advancements for the global land mobile radio market to thrive. Market players are pouring funds into research and development activities to introduce products that are innovative and advanced and help them in sustaining. For instance, in June 2015, Icom America introduced a new transceiver, IC-F5122DD/IC-F6122DD, that oprates as a data modem and enables remote system management and field monitoring. The radio offers superior solutions to sectors such as transportation and utilities. It can be used for communication to one or multiple units with individual, groups, and all calls.Request TOC of the Report @Global Land Mobile Radio Market: Geographical SegmentationThe regions studied in the research report are Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America will account for a substantial share in the global market. The extensive research and development activities in the field of radio communication and the high demand for technologically advanced land mobile radios are bolstering the growth of the region. The presence of a large number of key players and research institutes in countries such as the U.S. and Canada is providing an edge to North America over other regions.Global Land Mobile Radio Market: Competitive LandscapeThe majority of players in the global land mobile radio market are focusing towards technological advancements and product innovation to enhance their visibility in the market. Key players are looking upon mergers and partnerships as viable growth strategies to stay ahead in the market. Some of the prominent participants in the global LMR market are Motorola Solutions Inc., Harris Corporation, JVCKENWOOD Corporation, Raytheon Company, Thales SA, Hytera Communications Corporation Limited, RELM Wireless Corporation, and Sepura PLC..Get Discount @About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Blood Bags Market Size, Industry Analysis & Forecast Report 2017

Reports Monitor

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request-sample/?post=243603

https://www.reportsmonitor.com/united-states-blood-bags-market-report-2017/

http://www.reportsmonitor.com

ReportsMonitor.com has added a new report to its database United States Blood Bags Market Report 2017.This report identifies the Blood Bags market size for the years 2012-2017, and forecast of the same till the year 2022. It also highlights the market drivers, restraints, growth indicators, challenges, and other key aspects with respect to the Blood Bags market.Blood Bags Market tracks the major market events including product launches, technological developments, mergers and acquisitions, and the innovative business strategies opted by key market players. Along with strategically analyzing the key micro markets, the report also focuses on industry-specific drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges in the Copper Strips market. This research report offers in-depth analysis of the market size (revenue), market share, major market segments, and different geographic regions, forecast for the next five years, key market players, and premium industry trends. It also focuses on the key drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges.For Requesting a Sample Copy of This Report, Please Visit @This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringTERUMOWegoFreseniusGrifolsHaemoneticsMacopharmaJMSNeomedicSTTAdvaCareThe competitive landscape of the global market for Blood Bags is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Blood Bags markets production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Blood Bags market worldwide.This report segments the Blood Bags marketSingleDoubleTripleQuadrupleOtherOn the basis of application:Blood BanksHospitalOtherFor comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the Blood Bags market is analyzed across key geographies namely:The WestSouthwestThe Middle AtlanticNew EnglandThe SouthThe MidwestEach of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.Some points from TOC:United States Blood Bags Market Report 20171 Blood Bags Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Blood Bags1.2 Classification of Blood Bags by Product Category1.2.1 United States Blood Bags Market Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)7 Blood Bags Manufacturing Cost Analysis7.1 Blood Bags Key Raw Materials Analysis7.1.1 Key Raw Materials7.1.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials7.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials7.1.4 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials7.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure7.2.1 Raw Materials7.2.2 Labor Cost7.2.3 Manufacturing Expenses7.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Blood Bags8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers8.1 Blood Bags Industrial Chain Analysis8.2 Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing8.3 Raw Materials Sources of Blood Bags Major Manufacturers in 20168.4 Downstream BuyersBrowse Full Table of Contents and Report Description @Reports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform to meet the market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Medical Aesthetics Market Analysis & Forecast 2022 Profiling Syneron Medical, Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical, Inc

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/474888/?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/474888/

https://www.whatech.com/market-research/companies/market-study-report

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-gastrointestinal-stent-market-professional-survey-report-2017/?utm_source=RR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/

The growing Medical Devices industry has provided a major boost to the Global Medical Aesthetics Market as more people are shifting their preferences to compact and lightweight Medical Aesthetics carrying options. The Market is expected to keep rising at a high CAGR and reach values of high millions by the end of the forecast period of 2017 up to 2022. The Global Medical Aesthetics Market report covers every aspect of the Market including statistics and key insights for the customers.In this report, the global Medical Aesthetics market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Medical Aesthetics Market Research Report 2017 estimates the drivers, restraints, and opportunities pertaining to the global Medical Aesthetics market over the timeframe of 2017-2022. Delivering the key insights pertaining to this industry, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, present and future business scenario, market size and share, and commercialization potential of the Medical Aesthetics industry over the coming five years.Request Simple for Global Medical Aesthetics Market Research Report @The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.In terms of end-user or applications, the report is Beauty Centres, Dermatology Clinics, Hospitals. A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.The product landscape of the Aesthetic Laser and Energy Devices, Skin Tightening and Body Contouring Devices, Aesthetic Implants, Facial Aesthetic Devices. Each product has been analyzed in terms of its production, capacity, and consumption. The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request Discount for Global Medical Aesthetics Market Research Report @The regional segmentation of the report includes North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Detailing the consumption and production rate of Medical Aestheticss in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2017-2022.The competitive landscape of the Medical Aesthetics market profiles the top players participating in the global business space. These are Syneron Medical, Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical, Inc., Allergan, Galderma S.A. The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Gastrointestinal Stent Market Professional Survey Report 2017This report studies Gastrointestinal Stent in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Film Thickness Measuring System Global Market : key Vendors ,Trends ,Analysis, Segmentation, Forecast to 2017-2022

Film Thickness Measuring System Industry

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1328244-global-film-thickness-measuring-system-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1328244-global-film-thickness-measuring-system-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

Press Release: Pune, India- 26th July , 2017Global Film Thickness Measuring System Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Report ScenarioThis report gives In-depth information :Production of Film Thickness Measuring Systems across Global according to Market SegmentsConsumption of Film Thickness Measuring Systems across Global according to Industry Use.Competition of Film Thickness Measuring Systems across Global by top manufacturers.Revenue Analysis of Film Thickness Measuring Systems .Description:"Film Thickness Measuring Systems can measure and analysis of single layer and/or multilayer films in less than a second. The optical properties are obtained from reflection and thickness is measured by detecting the sinusoidal fringe pattern from the samples specular reflectance.Thin film measurement instrumentation has evolved from complex, difficult to use systems to todays compact, practical tools that provide a simple but powerful and flexible interface."For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Film Thickness Measuring System in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSCREEN Holdings Co., LtdKLA-Tencor CorporationOtsuka ElectronicsFilmetricsIncNanometrics IncorporatedToho Technology Inc.Rudolph Technologies, Inc.LumetricsBrukerOcean MedicalSemiconSoft, IncStellarNetInc.Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversThickness MonitorSpectrum EllipsometerMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSemiconductorsDisplaysMedicalOthersFor any Enquiry write us @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Film Thickness Measuring System market.Chapter 1, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Film Thickness Measuring System, with sales, revenue, and price of Film Thickness Measuring System, 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 Film Thickness Measuring System, 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, Film Thickness Measuring System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Film Thickness Measuring System Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Thickness Monitor1.2.2 Spectrum Ellipsometer1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Semiconductors1.3.2 Displays1.3.3 Medical1.3.4 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)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 Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Film Thickness Measuring System Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd Film Thickness Measuring System Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 KLA-Tencor Corporation2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Film Thickness Measuring System Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 KLA-Tencor Corporation Film Thickness Measuring System Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Otsuka Electronics2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Film Thickness Measuring System Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Otsuka Electronics Film Thickness Measuring System Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 FilmetricsInc2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Film Thickness Measuring System Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 FilmetricsInc Film Thickness Measuring System Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Nanometrics Incorporated2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Film Thickness Measuring System Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Nanometrics Incorporated Film Thickness Measuring System Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support Market 2022 Major Landscapes  Cardiac Science Corporation, General Electric Company, Physio-Control Inc., Michigan Instruments

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/711

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/advanced-cardiovascular-life-support-market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/711

Market Research Future adds new report of Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2024 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentAbout Advanced Cardiovascular life support market (ACLS):Advanced cardiovascular life support is a set of clinical interventions for the urgent treatment of cardiac arrest, stroke and other life-threatening medical emergencies. ACLS entails airway management, accessing veins, interpretation of ECG, applications of emergency pharmacology and early defibrillation with automated external defibrillators. Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support provides the theoretical background to resuscitation as well as explaining the essential resuscitation skills required to manage an adult cardiac arrest from the time it occurs until subsequent transfer to the ICU.Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support also discusses ethical and legal issues, record keeping, dealing with bereavement, audit, equipment and training providing an essential quick reference tool for nurses and health care professionals.Request a Sample Report @Advanced cardiovascular life support market segmentation:The ACLS can be segmented into algorithm, techniques, instruments, applications and end-users. ACLS market by algorithm: Cardiac arrest, Acute Coronary Syndromes, PEA/Asystole, VF/Pulseless VT, Bradycardia, Tachycardia, and Suspected Stroke algorithms. ACLs market by techniques: Airway management, non-invasive airway, endotracheal intubation, Electrical Therapy and Lethal Arrhythmias. ACLs market by instruments: Device and Accessories. ACLS market by applications: Medical Training Centers, Hospitals, Clinics And Cardiac Catheterization Labs. ACLS market by end-users: paramedics, doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists.Advanced cardiovascular life support market major players: Cardiac Science Corporation (U.S.) CPR Medical Devices Inc. (Canada) General Electric Company (U.S.) Michigan Instruments (U.S.) Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands) Physio-Control Inc. (U.S.), St. Jude Medical Inc. (U.S.) ZOLL Medical Corporation (Now part of Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan))Browse Report Details @Advanced cardiovascular life support market Application:Medical personal, such as paramedics, doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists must take a certification class to learn ACLS procedures prior to administering them. The algorithms are complex and should only be carried out by trained medical providers. Classes to become certified in ACLS are offered through hospitals, colleges, and private organizations. Managing the airway, analyzing various cardiac rhythms, and understanding what medications should be given are included in the classes.Advanced cardiovascular life support market growth influencer:The market growth drivers of ACLS market are: the rising prevalence of a number of cardiovascular diseases related to cerebrovascular, valvular, rheumatic, coronary artery, and peripheral vascular conditions. The raising preference for minimally invasive treatment methods, continuous up gradation and modification of products, rising population of obese and aged people across the globe, and busy modern lifestyles are also driving the advanced cardiovascular life support market. The less availability of trained personnel is the restraint of the market.Advanced cardiovascular life support market regional analysis:The regional analysis comprises of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and rest of the world.North America:The ACLS market is dominated by North America due to growing aging population, rising of various cardiovascular diseases, and increasing healthcare infrastructure facilities in the region, followed by Europe. With the advancement of technology, there is an increased demand for minimally and non-invasive invasive devices, which are now being targeted by both the existing as well as new players.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Asia:Asia is showing an emerging growth in ACLS market in upcoming years. Cardiovascular disease is common in Asia, where it is a leading cause of death in countries from Japan to India to China. Of the 17.3 million deaths caused by cardiovascular disease each year, nearly 60 percent occur in Asia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These numbers are likely to rise in the near future.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Polymeric Surfactants Market 2023 Major Players  Kao Corporation, BASF SE, Huntsman International LLC, Akzo Nobel N.V, Evonik Industries AG

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3901

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/polymeric-surfactants-market-3901

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3901

Market Research Future adds new report of Global Polymeric Surfactants Market Research Report- Forecast till 2023 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentPolymeric surfactants or surface active polymers are produced with the combination of one or more macromolecular structure which possess hydrophilic and lipophilic monomer unit. Block and Graft are the two main configurations of polymeric surfactant. Orientation of hydrophilic and lipophilic monomer results in the desired graft or block type polymeric surfactant. In pharmaceuticals industry, polymeric surfactant is used in the formation of biodegradable nanoparticles used in targeted drug delivery. It is used to stabilize nano-emulsions in cosmetic and personal care industry due to its stabilizing properties. Continuous progress in these sectors has encouraged the polymeric surfactant manufactures to spend more on the R&D innovations.On the basis of region, polymeric surfactant market segmentation includes the current and estimated demand of dispersants, wetting agents, and resins in emulsion polymerization in North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America and Middle East& Africa. Regionally, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region owing to the rising demand from personal care and home care products. Polymeric surfactant is growing at a significant rate and ongoing enhanced oil recovery projects in India and China are expected to drive the market in Asia Pacific region.Request a Sample Report @Market Segmentation:The global polymeric surfactant market is segmented on the basis of types, configuration, application, end use, and region. Based on the Type, the market is bifurcated into synthetic and natural Based on the Configuration, the market is bifurcated into block and graft Based on Application, market is segmented into oilfield chemicals, ceramics and detergent, emulsions, dyestuffs, paper coating, inks Based on End Use, the market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care, paints & coatings, agrochemicals, food, oil & gas, Based on Region, this market is segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & AfricaIntended Audience Polymeric Surfactant manufacturers Traders and distributors of polymeric surfactant Production process industries Potential investors Raw material suppliers Nationalized laboratoryBrowse Report Details @Study Objectives: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next seven years of various segments and sub-segments of the global acrylates copolymers market. To understand the supply and demand dynamics including supply and consumption concentration mapping To provide region level market analysis and future outlook for regions like North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and their countries To provide competitor positioning of the market To provide company profiling of major players in the market along with their production and capacity To provide regional trade analysis To evaluate historical market trends, patents and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements that are relevant to the marketKey PlayersKey market players operating in the global polymeric surfactant market include Kao Corporation (Japan) BASF SE (Germany) Huntsman International LLC (USA) Akzo Nobel N.V (Netherlands) Evonik Industries AG (Germany) Croda International Plc. (UK) Stepan Company (USA) DAI-ICHI (Japan) Unitop Chemicals Pvt. Ltd (India) Dow Chemical Company (U.S.)Request Table of Contents for this Report @Regional AnalysisAsia Pacific is set to witness exponential growth over the next seven years due to increasing polymeric surfactant demand from oil & gas industry. Moreover, the rising usage of dispersants in agrochemicals, paints and pigments industries is anticipated to positively influence the demand. The regional market witnessed prolific growth in consumption of polymeric surfactant over the last few years. Growth in urban population, along with rising consumer awareness regarding health & hygiene will remain key driving factors for Asia Pacific market growth.Geographical AnalysisThe report covers brief analysis of geographical regions such as North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America and Middle East& Africa.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Small Cell Power Amplifier Market to Cross USD ~ 5.5 Billion, At ~ 21% of CAGR By 2022

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2552

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/small-cell-power-amplifier-market-2552

Market Research Future published a Cooked research Global Small Cell Power Amplifier Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022 - Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast up to 2022Small Cell Power Amplifier Global Market  OverviewAccording to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Small Cell Power Amplifier is projected to gain prominence over the forecast period owing to its applications for different spectrums to upgrade 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. The Market is forecasted to witness a phenomenal growth by 2022; with a striking CAGR during forecast period 2016-2022. The global Small Cell Power Amplifier market is expected to grow at USD ~5.5 Billion by 2022, at ~21 % of CAGR between 2016 and 2022.Technological advancement and increasing demand for effective and advance technology-based products is anticipated to boost the market size of Small Cell Power Amplifier.Small Cell Power Amplifier is used in specific region to enhance the signal strength in that particular region. This device compatible for different spectrums so that 3G, 4G, 5G networks can be upgraded due to which the data transmission rate in this region is enhanced. Recently due to the growing consequences of data congestion network coverage, speed and quality have been hindered.The ever increasing percentage of network penetration has created a large demand for small cell power amplifiers. The large number of internet users across the globe especially in cities has resulted in increased data traffic. The study indicates that data traffic is a key driver for the Small Cell Power Amplifier market. It has been observed that the street canyons are increasing tremendously due to urbanization which has resulted as a hindrance for smooth transmission of signals. This has led to the higher adoption of small cell technology. Higher the number of small cell base station higher is the adoption of Small Cell Power Amplifier. Additionally, the growth in demand for mobile network traffic and increase in internet penetration across the globe leads to intricate network congestion. However, increase in focus of users on network quality, customer feedback, and telecom improvements has forced the telecommunication companies to provide a heterogeneous and upgraded network, which holds a very high scope of use of small cells and small cell power amplifiers. Apart from this the study indicates that installation of macro cell base stations would be a restraining factor for the Small Cell Power Amplifier market.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Small Cell Power Amplifier Global Market- Major Key Players Texas Instrument (U.S.) NXP Semiconductor (Netherlands) Qorvo Inc. (U.S.) Anadigics Inc. (U.S.) RFHIC Corporation (U.S.) Broadcom Corporation (U.S.) TekTelic Communications Inc. (U.S.)Small Cell Power Amplifier Global Market  Competitive AnalysisCharacterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global Market of Small Cell Power Amplifier appears to be highly fragmented and competitive. Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and technology launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. The Key players operating in the market compete based on pricing, product launch, technology launch, reputation and services. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position. These Manufactures strive to develop products with the adept technologies, unrivalled design and features. International players are entering in the emerging markets of developing economies such as India/China market to tap the growing opportunity.Small Cell Power Amplifier Global Market  SegmentsThe Small Cell Power Amplifier Market is segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation By Gain In Amplifier: Comprises 27.5 dB, 5 dB, 32 dB, 33 dB, 34 dB, 36 dB, 38 dB, 38.5 dB, 41.5 dB and other.Segmentation By End Users: Comprises Customer Premises Equipment, Power Amplifier Driver, Wideband Instrumentation, Small Cell Base Stations, Data cards with Terminals and Others.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Browse Full Report Details @Small Cell Power Amplifier Market  Regional AnalysisThe regional analysis of Small Cell Power Amplifier is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America region is dominated in Small Cell Power Amplifier market followed by Europe. Asia  Pacific countries like China, India and Japan would grow in the Small Cell Power Amplifier market by the forecast period due to the increasing penetration of mobile data network. Countries like India and China with high population results in increasing number of internet users which gives a booster to the use of Small Cell Power Amplifier.Asia-Pacific is the dominant region and is estimated to be the highest in terms of revenue till the end of the forecast period, with a high involvement in the electronic manufacturing and telecommunication industry.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactAkashAnand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
Positioning 5G Telco Case Studies-Eighteen profiles of leading mobile data operators worldwide as they prepare for 5G

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/positioning-5g-telco-case-studies-eighteen-profiles-of-leading-mobile-data-operators-worldwide-as-they-prepare-for-5g

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001881555/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001881555/buying

ReportsWeb.com published Positioning 5G Telco Case Studies Market from its database. 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."Positioning 5G Telco Case Studies" a thematic research report by Publisher delves into 5G technology and applications as applicable to 18 major telecoms service providers around the world. It examines their strategic motivations and network milestones with specific focus on South Korea Japan the US China and Europe. 5G will for the first time go beyond increased bandwidth and capacity as was the focus of previous wireless generations adding low latency high density and high reliability.Data and insights for this report were derived through a mix of desk-based secondary research and qualitative primary research. Primary research involves in-depth interviews with market players and the secondary research effort includes obtaining relevant data and intelligence through publicly available sources regulatory authority publications trade associations specialist databases and company financial reports presentations and press releases.For more information about this report atThe report is structured as follows-- Operator Case Studies This section begins with an overview and compiles profiles of eighteen of the world's mobile operators that are more advanced in mobile data. They include four operators in the US nine in Asia Pacific four in Europe and one in the Middle East. The profiles provide a broad overview of network milestones encompassing both developments in 4G and announced plans for 5G and examine the motivations and opportunities for different operators en route to 5G.- Key findings and recommendations We conclude the report with a summary of the opportunities challenges and success factors in deploying 5G as well as recommendations for network operators and vendors.Scope- 5G goes beyond previous wireless generations with additional capabilities beyond increased bandwidths and capacities resulting in new opportunities but also additional challenges in complexity.- 5G is gaining momentum given that standardization timelines have been brought forward. As a result in Japan South Korea and USA all the major operators are planning to launch IMT 2020 based services during 2019. Important events such as Olympics are an additional driver in a number of countries.- The 28GHz frequency band is enjoying the most initial focus and will support early services in South Korea and US although it is not available in all regions. The 3.5GHz frequency band has by some way the broadest support across key regions including US where it is to become available as shared spectrum. Many other high frequency bands are also being considered notably 2.5GHz 4GHz and 39GHz; these will be complemented by low frequency bands also including 600MHz 700MHz and 1.3GHz.- The 5G business case for operators depends very much on small cell deployment and the associated availability of high capacity backhaul.Request a sample copy atReasons to buy- This report provides a global view of the network milestones and envisaged opportunities in deploying 5G and growth trends for eighteen of the world's most advanced providers of mobile telephony.- This analysis is useful for telecom executives to evaluate their position vis-a-vis the major growth opportunities in 5G and make informed decisions about strategic investments value proposition and growth strategies to rapidly grow their 5G networks.- The report provides valuable insights about variety of approaches operators are taking with the evolution of the 5G family of technologies.- The report allows comparison of network readiness and 5G roll out progression among operators in different countries.Table of ContentList of exhibits 4Executive summary 6Section 1 Operator Case StudiesOverview of Operator Case Studies 8AT&T 9Verizon 11T-Mobile USA 13Sprint 14EE 15Deutsche Telekom 16Vodafone 17Orange 19Etisalat 21KT 23SK Telecom 26LGU+ 28China Mobile 29China Unicom 31China Telecom 32NTT DoCoMo 33KDDI 35Softbank 36Section 2 Key Findings and RecommendationsKey Findings 38Recommendations 39Appendix 40Acronyms and definitions 41Companies mentioned 42About the authors 43Contact information 44Inquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Airborne ISR Market Dynamics, Top Manufacturers Analysis, Trend And Demand, Forecast To 2021

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1334

Market Research Future published a research report on Global Airborne ISR Market Research Report - Forecast to 2021 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2021.Global Airborne ISR Market by Systems (AEWC, Sensor, Electronic Warfare, Maritime Patrol), by Purpose (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and by Geography- Forecast To 2021Market Synopsis of Airborne ISR MarketThe global Airborne ISR market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 4% during 2016-2021. This growth is driven due to growing demand of unmanned aerial vehicle, investments on ISR payloads, and procurement of multirole UAV remote sensors.The need for UAV remote sensors emerged from the changes in military security missions, such as, shift to Net-centric warfare (NCW), increasing Low intensity conflicts (LIC), need for persistence, and reduced tolerance to casualties.The Americas is the dominant player with 55% of the market share and is likely to be the leading region in the forecast period. Whereas, with the growing defense spending and procurement of airborne systems, APAC region will grow significantly at a CAGR of around 9% during the forecast period.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players BAE Systems L-3 Communication Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman UTC Aerospace Systems Boeing General Dynamics Raytheon Rockwell Collins ThalesStudy Objectives of Airborne ISR Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Airborne ISR Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyse the Global Airborne ISR Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country-level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country-level analysis of the market for segment by systems and purpose To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Airborne ISR MarketThe market report for Airborne ISR of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Airborne ISR Market Research Report - Forecast to 2021 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Cervical Dystonia Market Size, Top Manufactures, Market Trends, Market Growth, Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1416

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cervical-dystonia-market

Market Research Future published a research report on Global Cervical Dystonia Market Research Report Forecast to 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Cervical Dystonia Market Research Report, By Type (Torticollis, Retrocollis, Laterocollis and others), By Treatment (Oral Therapy, Intravenous, Surgery and other), on End User (Hospital, Clinics and other) - Forecast till 2023Market Scenario:Cervical dystonia is a rare disease also known as spasmodic torticollis. It is one of the painful chronic neurological movement disorder causing the neck to turn involuntary to any of the direction. It is a rare disease. The major driving factors for the market for cervical dystonia is increasing aging population across the globe. Females are more likely to be get affected by cervical dystonia. Beside this increasing number of treatment for cervical Dystonia and improvement in infrastructure has provided fuel for the growth of the market. On other hand success rate of the treatment and increasing cost of the treatment is the major cause for restraining the growth of cervical Dystonia market.Global cervical dystonia market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% during forecasted period 2017-2023.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key players for global cervical dystonia market ALLERGAN (Ireland) Solstice Neurosciences LLC Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (France) Merz Inc (US) Addex Therapeutics (Switzerland) Revance Therapeutics Inc. (US)Study Objectives global cervical dystonia market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the cervical dystonia market Detail information about the factors affecting the growth of the global cervical dystonia market. Detail analysis of global cervical dystonia market with respect to all the possible segmentation of the market. Detail analysis of emerging key players for the market with their effective strategies and factors that influences the market on global scale. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global cervical dystonia market. Analysis of the market of the different factors like- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. Detail information on the possible segments and sub segments of the market. And regional analysis of the market- North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is blooming and to also identify the regions that are still untapped Detail information on trends and the opportunities in various regions.Intended Audience Pharmaceutical companies working in cervical dystonia Research and Development (R&D) Companies Government and Independent Research Laboratories Contract Research Organizations (CROs) Medical Research Laboratories Academic Medical Institutes and UniversitiesSegmentationGlobal cervical dystonia market has been segmented on the basis of type which includes torticollis, retrocollis, laterocollis and others. On the basis of treatment they are segmented into oral therapy, intravenous, surgery and other. On the basis of end user they are segmented into hospital, clinics and other.Browse Full Report Details @Regional AnalysisOn regional basis, global cervical dystonia market is dominated by North America which is followed by Europe. Increasing prevalence of cervical dystonia and increasing aging population is the major factor for growth of this market in this region. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for the cervical dystonia market. While due to less development in pharmaceutical and medical sector Middle East and Africa contribute least in cervical dystonia market.The report for global cervical dystonia market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Cervical Dystonia Market Research Report Forecast to 2023 related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Dental Carpule Market Insights, Competitor Analysis, Forthcoming Developments, Business Opportunities & Future Investments to 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/721

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/dental-carpule-market

Market Research Future published a research report on Global Dental Carpule Market Research Report- Forecast To 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Dental Carpule Information, by material (glass, plastic, metal and others), by end users (Hospitals, Dental Clinics, Home care and others) - Forecast to 2023Market Scenario:Carpule is a type of ampule or cartridge containing liquid medicine to be inserted using a syringe. It has a puncturable cap and one end and a sliding plug on the other end. In dental profession, dental cartridges are known as carpules.Carpule is a registered trade name for dental cartridge prepared by Cook-Waite Laboratories which was introduced in 1920. These are either made of glass or plastics. Recently, most of the local anesthesia manufacturers have started manufacturing plastic cartridges. They have a number of disadvantages over glass cartridges such as force required to be applied to the plunger of the syringe, leakage of solution during injection and the plunger does do glide down the plastic cartridge as it does in the glass cartridge. Prefilled dental carpule consists of four parts namely cylindrical glass tube, stopper (plunger), aluminum cap and diaphragm. The colour of cartridge band differs according to the solution filled in it.Globally Dental Carpule market are been driven by need of safe administration of injectable drugs to the patients having dental problems thus improving the quality of care provide.The global market of Dental Carpule market due to increase in awareness of dental health among the people and increase in dental health problems. The global market of dental carpules is expected to reach US$ 20 million in 2023 from US$ 11 million in 2016 with a CAGR of approximately 4.9%.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for Dental Carpule Market: GlaxoSmithKline AstraZeneca Gilead Sanofi Genzyme Merck Roche Pfizer NovartisStudy Objectives of Dental Carpule Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next six years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Dental Carpule market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Dental Carpule market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to three main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by type, by end users and its sub-segments To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Dental Carpule market.Browse Full Report Details @Segments:Global Dental Carpule market has been segmented on the basis of material consisting of glass, plastic metal and others, on the basis of end users which consists of Hospitals, Dental Clinics, Home care and others and by regions consisting of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa.Regional Analysis of Dental Carpule Market:Globally North America is the largest market for Dental Carpule. Europe generates highest revenue in dental caruple market. This is due to increase in demand and awareness for dental cosmetics and dental health in this region. North America is the largest market for Dental Carpule which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% and is expected to reach at US$ 9.2 million. Demand for dental caruples is increasing North America because patients have recognized the importance of safe administration of anesthetics required for any dental procedure. Demand for dental caruples is increasing in North America because patients have recognized the importance of safe administration of injectable drugs required for any dental procedure. Product innovation and technological advancement are responsible for increase in demand of cartridges. Rapid development of dental industries in North America is also another contributing factor for the growth of this market. Europe is the second-largest market for Dental Carpule. Dental procedure are affordable in European countries as compared to other regions. The Europe market for Dental Carpule is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.7 % and is expected to reach at US$ 3.1 million by the end of the forecasted period. Whereas Asia pacific is expected to be a growing market for Dental Carpule market. India, China and Japan have contributed for the growth of this market in Asia-Pacific.The report for Dental Carpule market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Dental Carpule Market Research Report- Forecast To 2023 related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Worldwide Tubeless Tire Market is Expected to Reach at 6.2% CAGR after 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3846

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/3846

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3846

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Global Tubeless Tire Market Information Report by Tire Type (Radial and Bias), Vehicle Type (Passenger car, commercial Vehicles, and Others), by Distribution Channel (OEM and Aftermarket), and by Region - Global Forecast to 2023Over the last decade, the tubeless tire has gained an important role in automobile manufacturing. There has been a drastic change in the need and preferences of automotive users for installation of tubeless tires. Owing to these factors, the global tubeless tire market has held a rapid pace in the global market. The rise in preference of tubeless tires, is one of the major driving factors. The excellent mechanical properties and functions have also boosted the demand across the globe. Tubeless tires are expecting major growth in the coming years due to the increasing number of vehicles and other drivers such as more comfort as compared to conventional tires, better bumper absorption and others. Moreover, government initiatives towards vehicles safety and road accidents, has increased the demand for tubeless tires.Get a sample report atThe global tubeless tire market by region has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Among the stated regions, Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the largest market of tubeless tire market during the forecast period due to rise in the vehicle production in countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Moreover, increase in passenger cars and high adoption in Asia-Pacific, are expected to drive the growth of the market. The other factors that are responsible for the growth of the market in APAC are rise in the vehicle life span, and increase in miles travelled by a vehicle. North America is the second leading market in terms of revenue followed by Europe.Scope of the ReportThis study provides an overview of the global tubeless tire market, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global automotive tubeless tire market by its tire type, by vehicle type, by distribution channel and by region.By Tire Type Radial BiasBy Vehicle Type Passenger car Commercial Vehicles OthersBy Distribution Channel OEM AftermarketBy Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the WorldKey Players Bridgestone Corporation (Japan) The Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company (U.S.) Continental AG (Germany) MICHELIN (France) Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. (Italy) Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (Japan) Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. (South Korea) Yokohama Tire Corporation (Japan) Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. (Japan) CEAT Ltd (India)Get a discount atStudy Objectives of Global Tubeless Tire Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global tubeless tyre market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyse the global tubeless tyre market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Forces Analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by tire type, vehicle type, by distribution channel, and by region To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global tubeless tyre marketThe report for Tubeless Tire Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Make an InquiryTable of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope of the Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Research2.3 Market size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis4 Global Tubeless Tire Market, By Tire Type4.1 Introduction4.2 Radial4.3 Bias5 Global Tubeless Tire Market, By Vehicle Type5.1 Introduction5.2 Passenger car5.3 Commercial Vehicles5.4 Others6 Global Tubeless Tire Market, By Distribution Channel6.1 Introduction6.2 OEM6.3 Aftermarket7 Regional Market Analysis7.1 Introduction7.2 North America7.2.1 U.S.7.2.2 Canada7.3 Europe7.3.1 U.K7.3.2 France7.3.3 Germany7.3.4 Spain7.3.5 Rest of Europe7.4 Asia-Pacific7.4.1 China7.4.2 Japan7.4.3 India7.4.4 Rest of Asia-Pacific7.5 Rest of the World8 Competitive Analysis8.1 Introduction8.2 Bridgestone Corporation8.2.1 Market Share Analysis8.2.2 Market Development Analysis8.2.3 Material/Service Benchmarking8.3 The Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company8.3.1 Overview8.3.2 Material/Service Offering8.3.3 Strategy8.4 Continental AG8.4.1 Overview8.4.2 Material/Service Offering8.4.3 Strategy8.5 Michelin8.5.1 Overview8.5.2 Material/Service Offering8.5.3 Strategy8.6 Pirelli Tyre S.p.A8.6.1 Overview8.6.2 Material/Service Offering8.6.3 Strategy8.7 Sumitomo Rubber Industries8.7.1 Overview8.7.2 Material/Service Offering8.7.3 Strategy8.8 Hankook Tire Co. Ltd8.8.1 Overview8.8.2 Material/Service Offering8.8.3 Strategy8.9 Yokohama Tire Corporation8.9.1 Overview8.9.2 Material/Service Offering8.9.3 Strategy8.10 Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd8.10.1 Overview8.10.2 Material/Service Offering8.10.3 Strategy8.11 CEAT Ltd8.11.1 Overview8.11.2 Material/Service Offering8.11.3 StrategyAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Worldwide Sustainability Management Software Industry is Projected to Reach USD 900 Million by 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3856

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/sustainability-management-software-market-3856

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/3856

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on Sustainability Management Software Market, which is Expected to Reach Approximately USD 900 Million by 2023Sustainability Management Software Market, By Component (Software, Service), By Software (Collaboration and Communication Systems), By Service (Implementation Service, Consulting Service), By Deployment (Cloud Based, On-Premise) - Forecast 2023On the basis of regional analysis the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. North America region is generating highest market share in the sustainability management software market owing to better network infrastructure, digitization and higher technology implementation. Digitization in North America is mainly due to the invention of advanced technology and economies benefitting from it. North America region is leading due to presence of major players from the region in the sustainability management software market. The implementation of sustainability management software solution by both small and medium enterprises is increasing rapidly, especially one into IT sector. The sustainability management software is gaining demand as organization seek to improve their business growth by shifting from on-premise to cloud based. The initial low cost, saving amount spent on infrastructure, automatic software upgrading and seamless integration is driving the market of cloud based sustainability management software market. Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 30 market data tables and figures spread over 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on The Sustainability Management Software Market Research Report -Forecast to 2023.Get a sample report atThe sustainability management software market has been segmented on the basis of deployment, solution and service. The cloud based sustainability management software solution provides search filters in terms of data management and reporting. Cloud solution enable organization by accelerating project performance and deliver program management of selected CSR initiatives is boosting the sustainable cloud software market. The study indicates that growing demand of digitally stored data and cloud computing is driving the on-premise deployment service.The prominent players in the sustainability management software market are- Schneider Electric (France) IBM Corporation (U.S.) SAP SE (Germany) CA Technologies (U.S.) Verisae, Inc. (U.S.) Thinkstep (Germany) Urjanet Inc (U.S.) Accuvio (Ireland) Ecova Inc. (U.S.) Figbytes Inc. (Canada)The sustainability management software market in North America region is growing due to high adoption of cloud solutions by enterprise and need to improve information governance in organizations. According to the study, the Europe region is the prominent player sustainability management software market .Asia-Pacific market is estimated to be one of the fastest growing market as it is continuously investing into research and development of sustainability management software market and growing e-commerce trends to attract more customers is driving sustainability management software market in the region. Increasing population, and growing IT landscape is boosting the market in the region. The region is witnessing high adoption of sustainability management software tools by enterprises. Developing countries such as India and China are adopting sustainability management software at a large scale owing to increasing e-commerce industries, competitive advantage, growing retail sector is boosting the market in the region. By vertical segment, IT and telecommunication and manufacturing sector is driving the sustainability management software market. The region is witnessing high growth in sustainability management software market due to growing technological advancement in cloud, analytics and mobile technologies.Browse complete report atStudy Objectives of Sustainability Management Software Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the sustainability management software market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the sustainability management software market based porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment on the basis of component, deployment and vertical. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the sustainability management software market.Segments:Sustainability management software market is segmented on the basis of component, deployment and vertical.Sustainability Management Software Market by Component: Software Sustainability Performance and Project Management Software Sustainable Component Development Software Collaboration and Communication Systems Infrastructure Management Software Corporate Social Responsibility Data Management Software Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Software Others Service Implementation Service Consulting Service Outsourcing and Support ServiceSustainability Management Software Market by Deployment: On-Cloud On-PremiseRequest for discount atRegional Analysis:The regional analysis of sustainability management software market is being studied for region such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading player in the sustainability management software market owing to major sustainability management software manufacturers present in the region followed by Europe. According to the study, Europe region is expected to dominate the market in the future. Asia-Pacific region is fastest growing region in the sustainability management market owing to increased awareness among enterprises of sustainable softwares and developing IT infrastructure is boosting the market in the region.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
3D Printing Powder Market:Global Industry Analysis,Trends and Forecast 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/3d-printing-powder-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=14501

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global 3D Printing Powder Market. The study, titled 3D Printing Powder Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Global 3D Printing Powder Market: Brief Description3D printing powder is used in additive manufacturing process where a three-dimensional component is built up from digital data. Several materials are used to create a 3D printed object. Successive layers of 3D printing powder are used under digital control to make a three-dimensional object. Various materials that are used as 3D printing powder include stainless steel, tool steel, aluminum alloys, copper alloys, titanium alloys, diamond catalyst alloys, super alloys of chromium and nickel, and pure metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. 3D printing powder has characteristic morphology and packing density that ensure good flow and uniformity in 3D printing. Size and shape of powder differ broadly depending on the processing technology and end-user requirement. 3D printing materials are mostly available in spherical shape with particle size ranging between 50 m and 150 m.Browse Market Research Report @Global 3D Printing Powder Market: Major Trends3D printing powder is also known as additive manufacturing material or rapid prototyping material. Several techniques are used to produce 3D printing powder. These include water atomization, gas atomization, plasma atomization, and centrifugal atomization. 3D printing powder has extensive usage in numerous industries such as aerospace & defense, medical, automotive, and architecture. The aerospace & defense industry is the major consumer of 3D printing powder. Aircraft and spacecraft used in commercial and military purposes, airbus, missiles, engine components, etc., are principal applications of 3D printing powder in the aerospace industry. Usage of this powder ensures excellent durability and toughness in products along with weight reduction. 3D printing powder is used in orthopedic implants in the medical industry.They are used to manufacture standard and custom implants in a cost-effective manner. They are also implemented in the drug discovery process. 3D printing powder is used to manufacture dental crowns, bridges, removable dentures, etc., in the dental industry. On the other hand, usage of 3D printing powder in the automotive industry helps design automotive components with excellent mechanical strength and amended functionalities. 3D printing powder is used in prototyping and tooling by automotive manufacturers owing to improved robustness. 3D printing powder is used in architectural components. It is also consumed in the production of several consumer goods such as watch, belts, cosmetics, jewelry, and footwear.Global 3D Printing Powder Market: Regional OutlookThe global market for 3D printing powder has witnessed significant growth in the past few years. North America was the largest market for 3D printing powder in the past few years followed by Europe and Asia Pacific in 2014. Growth in the aerospace & defense industry favored the progress of 3D printing powder market in North America. Developed countries such as the U.S. and Canada generated strong demand for 3D printing powder in the past few years. Europe also held substantial share of the global 3D printing powder market in 2014. However, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing market in the next few years. Potential market growth is anticipated in this region during the forecast period. Increasing presence of aerospace and automotive manufacturers in developing countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea boosts the market growth in this region. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are also anticipated to be lucrative markets for 3D printing powder in the next few years.Rising demand for lightweight aircraft components with superior functionality is principally driving demand for 3D printing powder. Increasing demand for jet engine components propels significant demand for 3D printing powder. Furthermore, rising demand for medical implants in the elderly population boosts the 3D printing powder market. However, lack of awareness and economic barriers are anticipated to hinder growth in the 3D printing powder market. Enhanced research and innovation programs are being carried out to bring in technological development in the 3D printing powder market. Such initiatives are projected to create emerging opportunities in the market, enabling accessibility of 3D printing powder to small- and medium-scale manufacturers.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the 3D Printing Powder market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Global 3D Printing Powder Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportKey manufacturers of 3D printing powder include Arcam AB, Arkema S.A., Carpenter Technology Corporation, Erasteel Kloster AB, Metalysis, Praxair Technology, Inc., and Sandvik AB.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Contract Drilling Industry: Global Survey, Trends, Outlook,Forecast by 2023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/contract-drilling-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7724

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Contract Drilling Market. The study, titled Contract Drilling Market - Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023, is available for sale on the firms website.The Global increase in the drilling activities in order to cater the energy requirements of industrial and nonindustrial sectors has direct implications on the global contract drilling market. Rapid growth in population of different countries has further created an additional pressure on governments to supply the life line energy. Requirement of high capital expenditure and technical capabilities for the purpose of maintaining and purchasing the drilling equipments has augmented the market for contract drilling services. The service provider companies carry out all the drilling operations on the behalf of principal company as per the terms of contract. Movement towards the offshore drilling activities that require special expertise to carry out the drilling operations has further given a boost to such companies that are specialized in providing drilling services on a contract basis.Browse Market Research Report @Segmentation of the contract drilling market can be done on the basis of service type, contract length, terrain types and geographies. Sometimes the principal companies require only a particular type of service that forms only a part of the drilling process. Depending upon the tenure of the project contract drilling market can be classified into short term and long term contract drilling market. Contract length for such product depends upon the size of the project or the number of wells that are to be drilled. Contract drilling services can be used to serve both the onshore and offshore drilling operations. Onshore contract drilling companies are taking advantage of the investments by principal companies to exploit unconventional shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane reservoirs. Advancement in drilling technologies has led to a shift of contract drilling companies towards the offshore areas in search of oil and gas reservoirs. Companies are willing to invest in exploring the shallow as well as the untapped deep and ultra deep water areas.Geographical segmentation of the contract drilling market can be done by identifying the major oil and gas producing countries. Major countries include the United States, Canada and Mexico in North America; Russia and Offshore areas of the United Kingdom and Norway in the North Sea. Middle East and African segment include major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Angola Libya and Nigeria. Surge in the development of oil and gas industry in the African continent is expected to be beneficial for the contract drilling companies willing to invest in the African market. The Latin America segment includes countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Colombia. Increased drilling operations in the offshore areas of Brazil coupled with the surge in drilling activities to tap the shale gas reserves of Argentina has the potential to attract the contract drilling companies.Rising energy demands, increase in the onshore and offshore drilling activities, advancement in drilling technologies and the movement towards development of unconventional sources of energy are the major drivers for the contract drilling market. High capital requirement for purchase and maintenance of drilling equipments is the major restraint to the contract drilling market. Untapped hydrocarbon reserves of North African nations can act as the opportunities for the contract drilling market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Contract Drilling market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the key players of the contract drilling market include companies such as Schlumberger Limited, Basic Energy Services, Sidewinder Drilling, Inc., Baker Hughes Incorporated and Halliburton.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Oil and Gas Logistics Market by Key Players, Growth, Regions and Forecast to 2023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/oil-and-gas-logistics-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7721

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Oil and Gas Logistics Market. The study, titled Oil and Gas Logistics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023, is available for sale on the firms website.Oil and Gas logistics refers to the transportation of drilling equipments, extracted crude oil and natural gas and transportation of refined products from one place to another. Petroleum logistics covers entire phases from upstream to downstream. Oil and gas logistics synchronizes with all kinds of equipments from multiple origins to the areas that are difficult to access with the continual concern for manpower and environment.With the advent of shale oil boom, significant opportunities are created for the railroads as a means to transport equipment, people and oil. Railroads are being used to haul the special sand called as frac sand, acids, pipes and other chemicals required in the shale extraction process. Once the extraction process is carried out, rail is being used to carry away shale oil and gas and waste products.Browse Market Research Report @Optimum utilization of rail has created a surge in the demand for cars that can carry crude oil. New production sites, which do not have pipeline network utilizes rail cars, for transporting crude oil and natural gas from the exploration site to the refineries. Pipelines are costly and time consuming to build and are often subject to construction delays as it requires numerous permits. Rail car companies are reaping the benefits, experiencing a backlog of orders for petroleum carrying cars and are reporting strong financial results.Railway has to build additional infrastructure to keep up with demand in some shale producing regions. The Bakken shale field in North Dakota is the best example. In the year 2013, Bakken oil output hit a record of 727,149 barrels per day and majority of the oil was carried out by trains. Rail has become the most favored mode of transport in the area as it is cheaper than trucking and is more flexible than pipeline.Oil and gas logistics takes place in various phases such as upstream logistics, midstream logistics and downstream logistics. Upstream logistics includes transportation of all the drilling equipments such as drilling rigs, Christmas tree and blowout preventer to the exploration location. Midstream logistics involves transportation of extracted crude oil and natural gas from drilling location to the storage location. Once the crude oil and natural gas has been stored in tanks and terminals, then it is transported through various means to the refinery for further refining processes. Crude oil and natural gas once refined into varied petroleum products, they are transported through pipelines, ships and trucks to the end users. Oil and gas logistics comprises of all the activities such as air and sea chartering, hazardous material handling, customs brokerage, supply order management, purchase order management and offshore supply base management.Some of the key drivers of the oil and gas logistics market are new discoveries of oil and gas fields and growing economies. However, oversized equipments and remote location of drilling can hamper the growth of the market. Ample opportunities are there for oil and gas logistics market as demand for petroleum products is rising at a healthy rate.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Oil and Gas Logistics market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the key players in the business of oil and gas logistics are Gulf Agency Company Ltd, Agility Project Logistics Inc, Kuehne + Nagel Company, BDP International, DB Schenker, Crown Logistics, Neovia Logistics, A.Hartrodt GmbH, SGS Logistics, SDV International Logistics and Bollore Africa Logistics Ltd among others.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Solar Encapsulation Industry Trends and key Insights by 2023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/solar-encapsulation-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=6023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Solar Encapsulation Market. The study, titled Solar Encapsulation Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2015 - 2023, is available for sale on the firms website.Encapsulation of solar cells is done between the solar module glass cover and the glass cover of the solar cell located inside the module. Encapsulations are usually done in order to extend the useful life of such PV installations. Materials selected for encapsulations usually possess corrosion resistant, flame retardant or hard wearing properties. Generally such encapsulation cannot be easily automated and requires significant energy and material resources. The use of such encapsulants is growing steadily in multiple industries such as construction and automotive among others. Encapsulation ensures safe working of solar PV modules which enables consumers to reduce the maintenance costs. The construction industry is one the largest consumers of this segment. The growth of construction industry in the future will encourage companies to invest in R&D activities associated with solar encapsulation technology. The market for solar encapsulation is anticipated to grow at a substantial rate in the future owing to increased adoption of solar PV modules. Currently, there are no substitutes available for solar encapsulation technology, thus the growth of PV modules will directly enhance the growth rate of this technology.Browse Market Research Report @Growing awareness towards renewable energy resources and increased adoption of solar as a viable form of energy is bolstering the demand for solar PV modules. Many government agencies in developed counties have set targets to ensure maximum adoption of solar technology. Such government initiatives and growing demand of solar PV modules will encourage investment in solar encapsulation market. Other driving factors include growing energy requirements and immense technological proliferation in the solar PV module industry resulting in plummeting prices. Even though the market is at a nascent stage of development, growing acceptance and negligible product substitutes will ensure steady growth of the market in future. Constant R&D initiatives by existing PV module manufacturers will drive down encapsulation prices in the future as well as develop newer encapsulants for future PV technologies. The development of organic solar technology in the future will attract further investment in solar encapsulation market.The encapsulants can be segmented on the basis of technology and materials used. Segmentation on the basis of technology can be done as polycrystalline silicon solar technology and thin film solar technology. On the basis of material used for encapsulation, segmentation may be done as Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA), Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) and Ionomers among others. The material to be used for construction of solar encapsulation depends on the requirements of the consumer.Asia is emerging to be the market leader in terms of adoption of such encapsulation technologies. This is mostly due to aggressive renewable energy targets and growing energy requirements of the Asian economies. Countries such as India and China have intensively invested in this technology. Significant adoption is also observed in both North America and Europe. The national governments in these regions have announced several tax benefits to encourage adoption of solar technology which positively impacts the solar encapsulation market. Rest of the World has a comparatively lower market share in the overall installation market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Solar Encapsulation market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the key players competing in solar encapsulation market include Bridgestone, STR Holdings Inc., DuPont, First Solar GmBH, Dow Corning Corporation, KURARAY EUROPE GMBH and Hangzhou First PV Material Co. Ltd. among others.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Subsea Switchgear Market: Latest Trends,Analysis & Insights 2023

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/subsea-switchgear-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7712

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Subsea Switchgear Market. The study, titled Subsea Switchgear Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2015 - 2023, is available for sale on the firms website.Increasing investment in offshore reserves by exploration and production companies to meet energy demand has resulted in increasing offshore production activities. There are various methods to produce oil and gas from offshore reserves including FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) vessels and subsea production. The subsea switchgear market is driven by the growth of the subsea installations market. Subsea production units are expected to be more favorable due to its various advantages over other offshore production systems. Subsea systems are capable of operating in harsh environmental conditions such as the Arctic. These systems will eliminate the need of an offshore production facility and will also provide cost benefits when compared with a huge production platform which results in huge operating cost. This also eliminates the need of long power lines ultimately results in less expenditure. The first ever subsea power distribution system to go into operation was the Ormen Lange pilot in Egersund Norway.Browse Market Research Report @Subsea units will use high voltage distribution equipment to operate the subsea systems. The earlier subsea facility was powered from the surface making it reliable but very costly. In order to reduce the operational cost, companies started to place the electricity distribution system on the seabed. This resulted in cost reduction but the reliability was not hampered. Thus the electrical equipment are now located near the electricity generation facility which is a common practice in onshore facilities. Improved and reliable technology is required to overcome the subsea installation constraints such as high pressure and presence of salt water. System aspects plays an important role in selecting the individual devices in order to be sure that the devices are fit for all operating conditions. The switchgear is an important component for subsea power grid.The subsea switchgear market can be segmented on the basis of voltage into extreme high voltage (EHV), ultra high voltage (UHV), high voltage (HV), medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV). Subsea high and low voltage switchgear is a key enabling component for subsea processing units. The majority of connections between different equipments are made by using the low voltage switchgear cubicles. In order to reduce the length of HV busbar and its support system, the HV equipment are placed together. The transformers are installed between HV circuit breakers and LV cubicles making it a symmetrical installation.Rising oil prices are boosting the confidence of oil companies to invest such amount in deepwater drilling and production facilities. This investment is expected to increase in the near future with the increasing energy demand and depleting onshore oil reserves. Increasing deep and ultra deep water drilling activity is increasing the demand of subsea production facilities which ultimately drive the subsea switchgear market. An enormous opportunity lies with the vast number of unexplored deep and ultra deep reserves across the globe which will require subsea installation. The Golden Triangle constituting of GOM (the gulf of Mexico), Brazil and West Africa is expected to be the most attractive region for offshore oil and gas production during the forecast period.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Subsea Switchgear market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the key players in subsea switchgear market include ABB Limited, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, Inc., Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Aker Solutions, Pelamis Wave Power Ltd., Cameron International Corporation, General Electric Company and FMC Technologies, Inc. among others.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Wafer Coating Equipment Market Competitive Dynamics & Global Outlook 2025

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wafer-coating-equipment-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21944

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

A coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, usually referred to as the substrate. Wafer coating equipment primarily helps in the deposition of functional layers of materials on wafers.The wafer coating equipment market has been segmented into by coating process which includes vapor deposition, roll-to-roll coating process, chemical and electrochemical techniques among others. The market has been segmented into by end use industry semiconductor and electronics and research and development facilities.The semiconductor and electronics is furthermore segmented into solar panels, IC applications, sensors, display panels, among others. The market for wafer coating equipment by region has been segmented into, Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, MEA (Middle East and Africa) and South America.Obtain Report Details:The market for wafer coating equipment has been segmented into by coating process which includes vapor deposition, roll-to-roll coating process, chemical and electrochemical techniques among others. Vapor deposition is one the leading segment in the market for wafer coating equipment.Wafer coating adds a new property which includes electrical conductivity or magnetic response and forms an essential part of the end product. Coating process primarily helps in chemical and water resistance, abrasion and temperature resistance.Vapor deposition primarily refers to any process in which materials in a vapor state are condensed through chemical reaction, condensation, or conversion to form a solid material.These processes are applied to form coatings to alter the electrical, mechanical, thermal, corrosion resistance, optical and wear properties of the substrates. Roll-to-roll coating is practiced for production of flexible and high-volume printed electronics. Spin coating, spraying, dip coatings are some of the other type of wafer coating process.The prime end use industry of wafer coating equipment market includes semiconductor and electronics and research and development facilities. Semiconductor and electronics is furthermore segmented into IC applications, solar panels, display panels, sensors among others.Semiconductor and electronics is a major end use segment for wafer coating owing to its potential capabilities in emerging semiconductor and energy conversion technologies. Major companies focus on providing researchers a wide array of cutting-edge and high end equipment through which they can concentrate on research activities related to novel thin film coating technologies from inception to commercialization.The major attributes of electronic and semiconductor devices are flexibility, functionality, and printability. Apart from these, one most important requirement is encapsulation. Many of the materials used in organic or printed electronic displays are chemically sensitive and generally reacts with many environmental components such as moisture and oxygen.Wafer coating is generally used to encapsulate the devices against oxygen, impurities, and moisture, thereby ensuring long and failure-free operation, which is one of the major reasons behind the growing application of wafer coating equipment.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Wafer Coating Equipment Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.In 2016, Asia Pacific held the largest market share for wafer coating equipment in terms of revenue. China is leading the wafer coating equipment market in Asia Pacific.Increasing growth of semiconductor industry across Asia Pacific due to the presence of cheap skilled labor, land and government subsidies are is simultaneously boosting the usage of wafer coating equipment in this region. In North America, growing application of wafer coating equipment in industrial set ups, electronics, automotives, medical centers, and semiconductor are contributing to the positive growth of this market in North America. U.S. and Canada is leading the market for wafer coating equipment in North America. In Europe, U.K., Germany, France, Italy are holding a prominent position in the wafer coating equipment market. Brazil, Argentina are expected to witness positive growth over the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. In Middle East and Africa,There has been considerable advancement and development in the field of wafer coating equipment due to the growing demands of the semiconductor industry as well as the usage of coating equipment in the research labs.Aixtron SE (Germany), Thomas Publishing Company LLC (The U.S.), ASM International N.V. (The Netherlands), Entegris, Inc.(The U.S.), Arradiance, Inc.(The U.S.), Veeco Instruments, Inc. (The U.S.),Applied Materials, Inc. (The U.S.), Oxford Instruments Plc (U.K.), SENTECH Instruments GmbH (Germany), S-Cubed (The U.S.), CVD Equipment Corporation (The U.S.), Encapsulix (France), Picosun Oy (Finland), NOVO Engineering (The U.S.), Ultratech Inc. (The U.S) among others are some of the major players operating in the wafer coating equipment market globally.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Underfloor Heating Market - Global Industry Volume and Region Analysis | 2022

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/underfloor-heating-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7129

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://cmeindustrytresearchreports.blogspot.in/

A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Underfloor Heating Market. The study, titled Underfloor Heating Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2022, is available for sale on the firms website.An underfloor heating system is a form of radiant heating that allows heat to pass from a moderately hot element which, in turn, controls the indoor climate. This provides thermal comfort, thereby avoiding the need of radiators. The moderately hot element includes floor, wall, or overheated panel. The underfloor heating system is most preferred heating system owing to the benefits associated such as no or minimal maintenance required, provides thermal comfort, flexible control through single thermostat, and absence of radiators that ensures safety.Browse Market Research Report @Underfloor heating market is segmented on the basis of type, application and geography. On the basis of type, the underfloor heating market is categorized into hydronic systems and electric underfloor heating systems. In hydronic underfloor heating system, heated water is forced from a boiler through a link of tubing underneath the floor. The heat conducted through the surface of the floor by hot water emits radiant energy to the room. An electric underfloor heating system requires electricity for its operation and uses non-corrosive, flexible heating elements and less number of components than hydronic underfloor heating. The global market for electric underfloor heating systems is expected to witness increased demand over the forecast period owing to its low installation cost.These systems can be easily fitted into a single room, in wireless prone area i.e.which do not require digging wall channels. Based on the applications, the underfloor heating market is segmented into commercial (transportation & logistics, hospitality, healthcare, academia and institutional, and retail), industrial, and residential (single-family houses and apartments). Furthermore, based on geography, the underfloor heating market is segmented into five major regions including North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.Increasing awareness about energy efficiency and renewable energy technology has significant impact on future demand for underfloor heating systems. These energy and heating solutions can achieve significant carbon savings, and help to meet renewable energy targets. Growing quality of new building techniques such as insulation and controls, is stimulating the underfloor heating systems market across the globe. The underfloor heating system market is expected to witness increased demand owing to growing usage of these systems in residential sector. The refurbishment activity carried out in developed regions such as the U.S and Germany, is also anticipated to thrust the market growth. The rising demand for high level comfort and flexibility is the key factor driving the market revenue of underfloor heating systems across the globe. However, slow response time of underfloor heating is one of the factors that are limiting the growth of underfloor heating systems.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Underfloor Heating market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the key players in this market include Schneider Electric SE (France), Uponor Corporation (Finland), Danfoss A/S (Denmark), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.),, Pentair PLC (U.K.), Mitsubishi Electric (Tokyo), and Robert Bosch (Germany), Nexans S.A. (France), among others.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Panama: 4G Network Expansion and Governments National Broadband Plan to Drive Data Revenue Growth

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/928294

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/928294

In 2016, Panama was the third largest telecom services market in Central America, behind Guatemala and Costa Rica, with estimated revenue of $1.3bn or 2.4% of GDP. This represents a 2.4% increase relative to 2015, mainly driven by fixed broadband, pay-TV and mobile data segments.Key FindingsThe fixed/mobile revenue split will continue to be inclined toward the mobile segment throughout the forecast period. Nevertheless, fixed services revenue share will increase, driven by governments national Internet network initiative for expanding Internet penetration in the country and attractive double and triple play services from operators such as Cable &Wireless Panama (CWP) and Cable Onda.The top two operators, CWP which provides fixed, mobile and pay-TV services and Digicel Panama, which provide mobile services, accounted for 57.7% of overall service revenue in 2016. CWP will continue to lead the Panamanian telecom market, throughout the forecast period, supported by strong investments in 4G network expansion and network modernization of its fixed infrastructure.LTE network expansion along with the rising demand for high-speed mobile data and increased availability of LTE-enabled smartphones will boost LTE subscriptions in Panama over the forecast period.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report :SynopsisPanama: 4G Network Expansion and Governments National Broadband Plan to Drive Data Revenue Growth a new Country Intelligence Report, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Panama today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile and pay-TV sectors, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following:Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Panama compared with other countries in the region.Economic, demographic and political context in Panama.The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony (including VoIP), broadband, mobile voice, mobile data and pay-TV markets.Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed/pay-TV and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2016 to 2021.The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, mobile data and pay-TV services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets.Send an enquiry :Reasons To BuyThis Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.Accompanying Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Panamas mobile communications, fixed telephony/VoIP, broadband and pay-TV markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets.The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Panama.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Corneal Neovascularization Market | Industry Insights, Trends and Forecast up to 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/corneal-neovascularization-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17270

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Corneal Neovascularization Market: OutlookCorneal neovascularization is a disorder of the eyes, which is mainly characterized by the incursion of novel blood vessels into the cornea of the individuals suffering from the disease. This disorder is majorly caused due to disruption of the balance between the factors that protects and maintain the corneal transparency. The two factors that need to be balanced include angiogenic and antiangiogenic factors. The incursion of new blood vessels, which are relatively immature, hence can cause lipid exudation as well. Other major symptoms include scarring in eyes, persistent inflammation, which leads to diminishing corneal transparency and visual perception. The corneal neovascularization disorders if left untreated it may lead to high growth of new blood vessels that may reach visual axis to permanently threat the vision of the affected individual. Presently, several patients suffering from various eye problems, many a times undergo corneal grafts; corneal neovascularization may lead to rejection of such grafts as well. Thus, timely and proper treatment (may include surgical intervention and therapeutic drugs) of corneal neovascularization is necessary for effective management of the disease to ensure proper eye vision.Global Corneal Neovascularization Market: Drivers and RestraintsMajor driving factors for the growth of corneal neovascularization market include increasing incidences of ophthalmic disorders, rising number of corneal grafts, aging population, increasing obesity rate, increasing number of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension and increasing demand for advanced treatment options. Ophthalmic disorders are one of the leading disorders that affect very large population globally; several eye related disorders require ophthalmic interventions that may increase the risk of developing corneal neovascularization, hence accompanied by graft rejections. Increasing geriatric population will also contribute towards the growth of this market as aged individuals are more prone to several disorders and hence, tend to suffer from ophthalmic disorders. Increasing obesity rates are also adding to various eye related disorders mainly the lipid deposition increase the chances of developing corneal neovascularization, hence will contribute towards the growth of this market. Several diseases like diabetes, hypertension and others also lead to ophthalmic diseases, in turn require diagnostics and therapeutics from this market, thus will contribute towards the growth of corneal neovascularization market. Several pharmaceutical companies are having many therapeutic drugs for the effective treatment of this disorder in different phases of clinical trials, which will soon hit the market.View Report Global Corneal Neovascularization Market: Regional AnalysisGeographically, North America and Europe are expected to dominate the corneal neovascularization market. Major factors responsible for their expected dominance in the corneal neovascularization market are high prevalence of ophthalmic disorders in the region, aging population, rising overweight as well obese population, and high awareness levels of the population. However, emerging economies like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and Malaysia among others from Asia-Pacific, LATAM, Middle East and other regions will present tremendous opportunities towards the growth of this market. Major factors responsible for the growth of the corneal neovascularization market in these regions are availability of high patient population, high prevalence of diseases like diabetes and hypertension, increasing healthcare awareness in these regions and increasing purchasing power of the people in APAC and RoW.Global Corneal Neovascularization Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the major players operating in this market include, Amakem NV, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., GTx, Inc., and Sirnaomics, Inc. that have their drugs in different phases of clinical trials, which will soon be commercialized in the global corneal neovascularization market.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Corneal Neovascularization Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Electroceuticals/Bioelectric Medicine Market | Key Trends and Opportunity Analysis 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/electroceuticals-bioelectric-medicine-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17426

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Electroceuticals are medical devices that affect changes in body functions by utilizing electrical impulses. Electroceuticals act as an alternative to drug-based remedies, and are expected to be the future gold standard of treatment of various diseases. Unlike other stimulators of the muscles or tissues, electroceuticals act on the basis of neurostimulation, which is the modulation of the nervous systems using electrical impulses. Current treatment options in several neurological disorders and other disease states depend upon drug-based medications, which are associated with considerable side effects and promises of delivery of results are not yet totally fulfilled. Electroceuticals have found applications in various diseases and disorders and are effective in treatment of these conditions in both invasive and non-invasive methods. These are considered a genuine replacement of drug-based medications in future.The global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market is segmented based on product, device type, end-user, application, and region. In terms of product, the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market is segmented into cardiac pacemakers, deep brain stimulators, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, cochlear implants, spinal cord stimulators, vagus nerve stimulators, and others. The implantable cardioverter defibrillators segment accounted for the largest share of the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market. Based on end-user, the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, home care settings, and others. In terms of device type, the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market is segmented into non-invasive electroceuticals and implantable electroceuticals. The implantable electroceuticals segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market. However, the non-invasive electroceuticals segment is projected to expand at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Based on application, the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market is segmented into arrhythmias, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease, spinal cord disorders, and other applications.View Report Increasing global geriatric population, rising cost pressures of drug based medicines, growing interest from major pharmaceutical players in the electroceuticals segment, and increasing incidence and prevalence of neurological disorders and chronic diseases across the world are some of the factors likely to boost the growth of the global electroceuticals market during the forecast period. Major players such as GlaxoSmithKline plc have made significant investments in the electroceuticals segment and other organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. have shown great interest in the field of electroceuticals. Increasing incidence of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinsons diseases, and other chronic diseases are expected to augment the electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024.In terms of region, the global electroceuticals/biomedicine market is segmented into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period due to higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hearing loss due to rapidly increasing geriatric population in China, Japan, and India, increasing incidence of neurological disorders, and rising adoption of neurostimulation techniques. North America dominated the global electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market in 2015 owing to factors such as increasing adoption of neurostimulation techniques, new and technologically advanced products being introduced, rising awareness about electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine, and increasing neurological and chronic diseases.Key players in the electroceuticals/bioelectric medicine market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Cochlear Limited, Medtronic plc, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Biotronik, Sonova Holding AG, LivaNova plc, ElectroCore LLC, Nevro Corporation, and Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. Other pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline plc have invested in the electroceuticals market, with increased focus on bringing new miniaturized electroceutical devices in the market.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Electroceuticals/Bioelectric Medicine Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Oils and Fats Global Market Trend, Research Approach, Data Analysis and Forecast to 2022

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-oils-and-fats-market-outlook-2014-2022

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW000114588/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW000114588/buying

The Global Oils and Fats market is poised to reach $177.2 billion in 2014 growing at a CAGR of 5.87% to reach $279.7 billion by 2022. Financial rise in the upcoming markets, low oil prices due to intensified competition, High-class Oils and End user knowledge in fitness are the important drivers for the enlargement of the market. Health causes due to overload expenditure, Security issues in case of food, Cost of materials are the key factors restraining the market growth. The demand lies in growth of disposable income of the consumers.For more information about this report:Global oils and fats market is segmented by type, by application and by geography. Based on type, market is segregated into animal fats and vegetable oils. Animal fats are further categorized into tallow, butter, lard and other animal fats. Vegetable oils are further categorized into olive, palm, sunflower, canola, soybean and other vegetable oils. Based on application, market is classified into bakery, snacks & savory, spreads, confectionery, salad dressing and other applications. Market by geography is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world. Asia-pacific is about to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period.The Key players in the market include, Cargill, Incorporated, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Unilever PLC, Conagra Foods, Inc., Associated British Foods PLC, United Plantations Berhad, Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Wilmar International Limited and Bunge Limited.Request Sample Copy atWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements1 Executive Summary2 Preface3 Market Trend Analysis4 Porters Five Force Analysis5 Global Oils and Fats Market, By Type6 Global Oils and Fats Market, By Application7 Global Oils and Fats Market, By Geography8 Key Developments9 Company Profiling9.1 Cargill, Incorporated9.2 Archer Daniels Midland Company9.3 Unilever PLC9.4 Conagra Foods, Inc.9.5 Associated British Foods PLC9.6 United Plantations Berhad9.7 Ajinomoto Co., Inc.9.8 Wilmar International Limited9.9 Bunge LimitedInquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Prescription Narcotic Cough Preparations and Expectorants Market : Size, Emerging Trends and Foresight Report to 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/prescription-narcotic-cough-preparations-expectorants-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=14951

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Cough is a sudden and commonly repeatedly occurring voluntary or involuntary reflex to clear any foreign material from the lungs or upper respiratory tract. Frequent coughing is often a symptom for various respiratory diseases, viral and bacterial infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), allergy and cancer. Incessant coughing by a host helps the bacteria and the viruses to benefit progressively in spreading the disease to new hosts. A cough lasting for less than three weeks is an acute cough, while a cough lasting from three to eight weeks but improving by the end of that period, is a subacute cough. A consistent cough that lasts more than eight weeks is a chronic cough. When a host coughs up blood it is known as barking cough. Infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia can cause acute cough or a chronic cough.View Report @A respiratory tract infection (cold or flu) is the most common cause of a cough while smoking being the second most common cause while Asthma is the most common cause of coughing in children. Some medications rarely as a side effect cause coughing among the hosts consuming such medication. Zestril and Vasotec, common brands of Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, commonly used to treat high blood pressure and heart conditions, often cause coughing. Though, the coughing eventually stops when the medication is discontinued. While chronic coughing is not a disease in itself, but rather a system of an underlying condition, treatment is considered in light of other consequences. Drinking lots of water, inhaling steam and using cough lozenges are also advised to treat a chronic cough. If cough is caused by bacteria, oral antibiotics are likely to be prescribed. Depending on the symptoms specific cough suppressant or cough expectorant is usually prescribed. Expectorants function by thinning mucous which causes congestion in the respiratory tract, while suppressants block bodys reflex which causes coughing. Long term prolonged use of narcotic drugs for treatment of cough may make patients habitual to these drugs.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Prescription Narcotic Cough Preparations and Expectorants Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Narcotic antitussives such as codeine, dihydrocodeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone. Tussiden, Zutripro, Robitussin-AC, Duraganidin, Guaifenesin, Cheratussin, and Hydrostat among others are some brands prescribed for cough treatment. As narcotic drugs target the nervous system of the body and may have serious side effects, these are usually not prescribed to children. In spite of such warnings, physicians are found prescribing narcotic preparations to treat cough to children below the age of 10 years. According to an article published in CNN Health in April 2014, around eight billion prescriptions of codeine are written each year in the U.S. alone. Narcotics may cause side effects such as rashes, vomiting, constipation and allergy. The market for narcotic drugs for cough treatment is a much matured market, with a strong generic drugs base. Wide prevalence and ample supply has made the market commoditized and highly competitive. Higher prevalence of diseases and allergies due to widespread unhygienic conditions coupled with a strong market base for generics, has made India with a soaring population of 1,250 Mn, a prime focus for the market.Prescription Narcotic Cough Preparations and Expectorants Market Key PlayersFranklin Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Lyka Hetero Healthcare Limited, Ciron Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., Pans Laboratories, Klar Sehen Pvt. Ltd., Biomedica International, Synokem Pharmaceuticals Ltd. are some of the key players in the market.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Vision Disorders Market: Industry Research and Forecast Analysis 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/vision-disorders-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=14972

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Although there are significant progress in preventing and curing visual impairment in many countries since last twenty years, according to World Health Organization (WHO) around 285 million (In the year 2013) people are still visually impaired across the world. It is a matter of great concern. The reasons may be varied. However, we cannot deny the fact that there is still a lot to be done to save the people from going blind.View Report @Any disturbance in the normal sense of vision can be termed as vision disorders. Myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, conjunctivitis, cataract, corneal abrasion, entropion and glaucoma are some of the vision disorders, affecting majority of the population across the world. Improper nutrition, various infections, traumatic eye injury, insertion of foreign objects and growing age are major causes for majority of the vision disorders.Vision disorders: Control and preventionAccording WHO, 80 percent of visually impaired people can be cured by using simple eye examinations like abnormality in a frequency of blinking, size of pupil and color of the eye. The disorders can be confirmed by suitable clinical and retinal tests such as corneal topography, keratometry, pachymetry, fluorescein angiography, Indocyanine Green study (ICG) dye test and other related tests. However, ignorance and negligence are leading severe eye complications or permanent vision loss.The report published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealed that approximately 14 million Americans above age of twelve are affected by various vision disorders in 2004. All these reports are alarming towards the need of immediate treatment for vision disorders across the world. This precisely a reason that the market for visual disorders may continue to grow in future.There are many companies which are involved in extensive research and development activities associated with these disorders such as United States based National Eye Institute working on clinical trials for nutritional supplements for age related cataract. Alcon Research is working on small incision cataract surgery. AqueSys, Inc. evaluating safety of AqueSys XEN 45 glaucoma implant in refractory glaucoma. Apart from this, University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with local NGOs is working on ancillary therapy of different eye infections.In case of region wise achievements in fighting against the visual disorders, Brazil has been providing eye care service through the national social security system since last decade. While, Morocco has launched a public effort to control glaucoma, China has invested over 100 million dollars in cataract surgeries since 2009. Oman has completely integrated eye care service provision in the primary health care framework over the last decade and India since 1995 has made available funds for eye care service provision for the poorest at district level.To reduce the burden of chronic eye diseases WHO is also coordinating a global research efforts to map services and policies for controlling diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age related macular degeneration and refractive errors. To support comprehensive eye care systems, WHO continues to provide epidemiologic and public health technical support to its member states.Vision Disorders Market SegmentationComing towards market point of view, the market for vision disorders can be segmented according to different perspectives such as regional geography and types of disorder. It can be segmented in four regions namely North American, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Out of all these segments North America region have highest contribution in terms of value because of large number of population within the reach of treatment, high awareness and better reimbursement policies.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Vision Disorders Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Followed by this Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World respectively are major segments of the market. The market can also be segmented among disorders such as cataract, glaucoma, eye infections and refractive errors. Along with this, the market for visual disorders can be categorized into drugs and devices available for the treatment.Currently various established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are catering the needs of visual disorders by providing drugs and lenses. Pfizer, Alcon, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and GlaxoSmithKline are leading contributors in drug therapy, while Novartis and Bausch & Lomb are major players in lenses.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
eDiscovery Market: Industry Analysis, Opportunity Assessment with Forecast upto 2022

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ediscovery-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=198

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The amount of electronically stored data for businesses of all sizes  from small startups to top conglomerates  is increasing at a very fast pace. Most companies make high volume usage of social networking portals, emails, internal communications systems, and cloud computing services and platforms. In fact, it is estimated that the volume of ESI for each organization is increased at more than 65% per year. This is a very significant marker from where clients derive their ever-growing need for eDiscovery platforms and services.The use of social media inside corporates, especially, has bolstered the need for eDiscovery platforms and services. Companies are making an increasing usage of social media tools including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to make the most of the online communities, which also makes it a high priority source of evidence for civil litigation.There is, however, the high costs of eDiscovery processes that companies need to bear. The total amount spent on not just asset deployment, but also services, consultations, and deployment of internal staff, can become a severe hindrance for the adoption of eDiscovery services by small-scale companies.With the above factors in effect, the global market for eDiscovery services and platforms is expected to expand at a CAGR of 16.2% from 2014 to 2022 on the basis of revenue. This revenue is expected to reach US$8.31 bn by the end of 2016 and approximately US$21.08 bn by 2022.Obtain Report Details @Till recently, a majority of the market share in eDiscovery services was taken up by North America. By the end of 2022, North America is expected to generate a revenue of US$10.71 bn in eDiscovery platforms and services. Although this is a relative fall in percentage shares, North America still holds the leading share among all key regions. The drop in percentage is due to the extremely fast growing demand for eDiscovery platforms in Asia Pacific, where the rapid industrial evolution of India and China is making way for a well-developed IT infrastructure.The need for eDiscovery solutions is much more in North America and Europe than other regions, owing to the government regulations that require an organization to preserve company data for sake of eDiscovery itself. This has created a staggering rise in the ESI volumes in the regions, further boosting the need for eDiscovery platforms and services.Make an Enquiry@On-premise eDiscovery solutions were highly sought after due to the greater simplicity and higher safety that they offered. They trumped off-premise eDiscovery solutions primarily due to the high concerns over data integrity and security. This is expected to change in the immediate future, as off-premise eDiscovery solutions are not only becoming capable of providing high level security, but also platforms and services of eDiscovery at considerably lesser costs than on-premise providers. By the end of 2022, a high difference in market values between on-premise and off-premise eDiscovery platforms is expected to be seen, with off-premise eDiscovery solutions taking up an estimated US$4.83 bn.The key providers of eDiscovery solutions from a global standpoint include HP Autonomy, IBM Corporation, Daegis, Inc., EMC Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Guidance Software, Inc., Epiq Systems, Inc., FTI Consulting, Inc., Integreon Managed Solutions, Inc., Catalyst Repository Systems, Inc., and Navigant Consulting, Inc.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Mode Locker Market Report Growth and Forecast 2022

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-mode-locker-market-professional-survey-report-2017

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001888703/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001888703/discount

http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001888703/buy/3500

ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Global Mode Locker Market Professional Survey Report 2017 The report focuses on global major leading players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification.This report studies Mode Locker in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringMaster LockLUMICSGooch & HousegoSintec Optronics Pte Ltd...By types, the market can be split intoActive TypePassive Typemore information about this report atBy Application, the market can be split intoAerospace and DefenseLife Science and Scientific ResearchMedicalIndustrialTelecomSemiconductor and ElectronicsOil and GasBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaRequest a sample copy atTable of Content1 Industry Overview of Mode Locker2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Mode Locker3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Mode Locker4 Global Mode Locker Overall Market Overview5 Mode Locker Regional Market Analysis6 Global 2011-2017E Mode Locker Segment Market Analysis (by Type)7 Global 2011-2017E Mode Locker Segment Market Analysis (by Application)8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Mode Locker8.1 Master Lock8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Master Lock 2016 Mode Locker Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Master Lock 2016 Mode Locker Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 LUMICS8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 LUMICS 2016 Mode Locker Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 LUMICS 2016 Mode Locker Business Region Distribution AnalysisDiscount on report purchase at9 Development Trend of Analysis of Mode Locker Market10 Mode Locker Marketing Type Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Mode Locker12 Conclusion of the Global Mode Locker Market Professional Survey Report 2017Purchase Complete Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Dashboard Camera Market: Opportunity Analysis, Regional Segmentation and Industry Forecast upto 2020

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/dashboard-cameras-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3625

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Dashboard cameras are onboard devices used in private cars, law enforcement vehicles, and rental and other commercial vehicles to record real-time videos both inside and outside of the vehicle. The global dashboard camera market is expected to see a significant growth through the forecast period. The factors boosting the demand for dashboard cameras include introduction of government initiatives encouraging installation of these cameras and insurance companies offering the benefits of paying lesser premium for vehicle owners those who have equipped their car with these camera. Use of dashboard camera is legal throughout the globe except some European countries including Austria, Portugal and Belgium.Demand for dashboard cameras is highly dependent upon the cost of the equipment, ease of installation and maintenance, and robustness, and other durability parameters. Dashboard cameras for various classes of vehicles are available at a wide range of costs and video quality. The price of these cameras typically range from US$ 20 to over US$ 400 and are available in different configurations namely, front-view, rear-view, and dual-view cameras, thus increasing the affordability for nearly all classes of vehicles.Obtain Report Details @The global dashboard cameras market is segmented on the basis of type (functionality) into basic, advanced, and smart dashboard cameras. Basic dashboard cameras are affordable (typically from US$ 20 to US$ 100) and usually have limited features compared to other dashboard cameras. Basic dashboard cameras are in-vehicle cameras with built-in or removable storage media that constantly record driving with no additional feature. In addition to basic features of dashboard camera, advanced cameras provide features such as audio recording, GPS logging, speed sensors, accelerometers and uninterruptable power supply. In 2013, basic dashboard cameras accounted for largest revenue share in the global dashboard camera market. Smart dashboard cameras are expected to see the fastest growth through the forecast period.Make an Enquiry@On the basis of geography, the global dashboard cameras market is segmented into four broad regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). The report also includes country level analysis for major market in Europe and Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific represents the largest regional market due to growing popularity of dashboard cameras among private as well as commercial vehicle owners. China is the largest market for dashboard cameras in Asia Pacific as well as in the global dashcams market.North America accounts for the low market share due to less popularity, stringent traffic regulations and traffic discipline. However, with the US governments initiatives to improve pedestrian safety in order to reduce causalities, the demand for these cameras is expected to increase substantially during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is predicted to see fastest-growth in terms of both revenue and volume through the forecast period. This is majorly due to the rising demand for these cameras in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Australia.The global dashboard camera market is highly fragmented and comprises large number of small size players particularly from South East Asia. Industry competition is expected to increase through the forecast period as prominent digital camera manufacturers and automotive equipment manufacturers are continuously enhancing their expertise to gain significant market share in this emerging market. The major companies in the dashboard cameras market include Delphi Automotive Systems Pvt Ltd, Papago Inc., Harman International Inc, Garmin International Inc, Qrontech Co., Ltd. (Lukas), Pittasoft Co. Ltd. (BlackVue), DCS Systems Ltd. (RoadHawk UK), and others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Gov. Rick Snyder has opened a Disaster and Emergency Contingency Fund to provide financial assistance to Bay, Isabella, Gladwin and Midland counties after severe flooding caused significant and widespread damages on June 22-23.

"While great progress has been made, many of the counties' resources have been depleted," Snyder said. "Money from this fund will help cover some of the costs incurred while responding to and recovering from this disaster."

Eligible local governments affected by the flooding can apply for assistance grants for up to $100,000 or 10 percent of the previous year's operating budget, whichever is less.

The Disaster and Emergency Contingency Fund is used when communities demonstrate an exhaustion of local resources during a disaster or emergency. The money can be applied toward the immediate prevention, response and recovery of a disaster or emergency, as well as cover overtime for public employees, contracts used during the response, shelter supplies, gasoline used during the response and repair of public buildings and infrastructure.

The Michigan State Police's Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division will administer the grant program and assist local governments with applying for the funds.

Separately, Midland County residents may also receive assistance for those items damaged during the flood, such as water heaters, washing machines, clothes dryers, furnaces, or mattresses, may receive assistance for replacing these items.

"Due to the overwhelming support of our neighbors and community partners, some help is now available for those who have been impacted by the recent flood -- regardless of income," stated County Emergency Management Coordinator Jenefier Boyer in an email.

Residents must dial 2-1-1 by Monday, July 31 to register for this assistance.

"We are grateful to be part of a community where our residents help each other in times of need," Boyer said. "Thank you to all who have made donations and volunteered their time thus far to assist in flood recovery efforts."

Midland County is hopeful to hear an announcement soon from President Donald Trump about the availability of federal assistance programs following Snyder's request for assistance on Friday.

Due to the severity and magnitude of the incident, Snyder requested supplementary federal aid to help Michigan residents in recovery efforts. The request did not include assistance for costs incurred by state and local governments due to uninsured damage to public facilities and infrastructures, as those costs did not meet the federal threshold for assistance. The request came at the conclusion of an in-depth assessment of damage to the area.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame.

Monday, July 24

12:47 a.m. -- A deputy was sent to a report of a man lying on the side of a Greendale Township roadway. The man, 39, of Honolulu, was having medical problems and was taken to the emergency room by paramedics.

10:04 a.m. -- A Sanford business reported a 22-year-old Edenville Township woman wrote $754.56 in bad checks. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for review.

10:04 a.m. -- A Mount Haley Township man, 57, reported finding fraudulent charges found on his credit report as well as receiving letters from three companies thanking him for applying for jobs that he hadn't applied for. The case is being investigated.

10:10 a.m. -- A Porter Township man, 29, was arrested in Geneva Township for driving while license suspended and cited for speeding.

1:10 p.m. -- Police were sent to the 2800 block of Ashman Street for a retail fraud.

3:07 p.m. -- A $4,500 trailer sign was stolen from West Pine River Road near West Redstone Road in Jasper Township.

7:27 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Isabella Street and Currie Parkway for second-offense driving while license suspended and driving without insurance.

7:33 p.m. -- Police investigated a hit and run traffic crash that occurred in the 2800 block of East Monroe Road.

8:35 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at West Wackerly Street and Sturgeon Road for driving on a suspended license.

10:10 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to South Nine Mile and West Bradford roads for a report of a truck with people in the back doing burnouts in the road. The truck was not found.

11:07 p.m. -- A Fenton man, 54, was arrested for third-offense drunken driving after driving into a Lee Township ditch.

11:30 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to Saginaw and Stark roads to investigate a hit and run crash.

Sunday, July 23

2:01 a.m. -- A deputy was sent to check a report of a loud party in Warren Township.

2:49 a.m. -- Police responded to the 800 block of Waldo Avenue for a report of a loud party.

4:12 a.m. -- Police investigated a suspicious situation in the 3800 block of Bay City Road, and a police dog was used to search a building and follow a track.

3:33 p.m. -- Deputies were sent to a report of a disorderly teen at an Edenville Township home. The teen was calm when officials arrived.

7:45 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested in the 4000 block of East Ellsworth Street for driving while license suspended.

8:51 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at East Pine and Townsend street for drunken driving.

9:42 p.m. -- Two 29-year-old inmates damaged property at the jail. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for review.

Saturday, July 22

12:14 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Jerome and West Larkin streets for drunken driving.

1:56 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Cronkright and East Buttles streets for drunken driving.

2:13 a.m. -- Officers were sent to the 2200 block of Eastlawn Drive for a report of a loud party.

4:04 a.m. -- A Lapeer woman, 19, was arrested in Greendale Township for driving while license suspended.

11:24 a.m. -- Deputies were sent to Homer Township to investigate the theft of a vehicle. It was later discovered that the vehicle had been repossessed.

1:23 p.m. -- A Midland Township man, 65, reported two dogs entered his livestock pen and killed his goat. The man does not know who owns the dogs.

2:10 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to a Coleman apartment to assist Child Protective Services with a report of drug abuse. No drug use was found.

2:38 p.m. -- A 68-year-old man failed to verify his address as required by the state's sex offender registry. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for review.

7:50 p.m. -- A deputy investigated a report of trespassing at a Midland Township home.

10:37 p.m. -- A Mount Haley Township man, 25, was arrested for second-offense drunken driving with a high blood alcohol content after a crash in Jasper Township. He was taken to the jail without trouble.

Friday, July 21

2:59 p.m. -- An Ingersoll Township woman, 25, reported a window screen at her home appeared to have been moved. There was no indication that anyone had entered the home.

4:28 p.m. -- A Lee Township man, 24, reported someone damaged his mailbox and turfed his lawn.

5:49 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to Larkin Township to remove a dead deer from a ditch at the request of a 77-year-old woman whose dogs were interested in the carcass. The deputy removed the deer.

11:13 p.m. -- A deputy investigated a personal protection order violation in Midland Township.

11:24 p.m. -- A Lee Township man, 45, was arrested in that township for drunken driving, driving while his license was suspended and on two warrants. He was cited for driving without insurance, and driving an unregistered vehicle.
This summer, I have been working hard to make sure Michigan's priorities move forward in Congress. This includes protecting the Great Lakes, improving our infrastructure, strengthening our national security and helping our veterans. As the only Michigan member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have oversight of federal departments and agencies. Here is an update on some issues of concern to all Michigan residents.

For the Great Lakes, I have fought to ensure that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is fully funded for next year. The Appropriations Committee agreed and next year the GLRI will be funded at $300 million. The GLRI protects not only the Great Lakes, but also the lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands that flow into them.

Of course, the threat of Asian carp must also be stopped, to protect the ecosystem and the thousands of Michigan jobs that depend on tourism, fishing and boating. That is why the committee passed legislation calling for the Army Corps of Engineers to release the Brandon Road Lock report about stopping Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. This report is already complete and it has been paid for by the taxpayers. It should be released promptly.

My work on the Appropriations Committee also included fighting for improvements to our country's infrastructure. The Soo Locks are vital to our country, and they are due for an upgrade. Unfortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the Locks, uses an obsolete formula to study their significance and determine if they should receive funding. I fought to change this and successfully directed the Corps to use a new formula that includes the real, true value of the goods that pass through the Locks.

Michigan's rural communities also have infrastructure concerns and I voted for legislation that will make loans and grants available for rural water infrastructure. The legislation also helps these communities with similar funding so they can connect to broadband Internet.

I also voted on the committee for legislation that increases defense spending and includes a well-deserved pay raise for our troops. This bill addresses the vital needs of our military men and women around the world as they work to keep our country safe. It funds the equipment and resources they need to defeat our enemies and keeps us ahead of terrorist groups and rogue countries like Iran and North Korea.

Finally, in a time when it seems our politics are so bitterly divided, there was strong bipartisan support for critical reforms at the Veterans Administration. The legislation I voted for will help Michigan's more than 600,000 veterans with greater accountability and an increase in funding to quickly process disability claims that are stuck in an unacceptable national backlog.

All of this legislation advances important priorities for Michigan residents: beautiful Great Lakes, modern infrastructure, strong national security and accountability for those who take care of the men and women who served in defense of our country. I will continue to fight for these solutions in the weeks and months ahead.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, represents Michigan's Fourth Congressional District which is made up of Clare, Clinton, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Midland, Missaukee, Ogemaw, Osceola, Roscommon, Shiawassee, and Wexford counties, and parts of Montcalm and Saginaw counties.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Workers on a production line at the Foxconn complex in Shenzhen, China, in 2012.
Videos

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Take a survey of your home, and consider all the spots where you have old photos.

Perhaps you'll find baby pictures in albums in the living room, vacation snaps in tattered envelopes tucked into a bookshelf, milestone moments in old frames, and older relatives' fading photos in dusty boxes in the basement or attic.

"They're memories and treasures for us, but they take up a lot of space, and over the years they keep growing," says Stephanie Sisco, home editor for Real Simple magazine. "When you decide you want to organize these photos, you're doing yourself a favor, as well as the people who will inherit those from you."

You can organize your photos and preserve your personal history either digitally, in photo-safe boxes or both ways. And if you discard the originals after going digital, you'll free up storage space around the house, which is always a good thing.

Getting organized can feel overwhelming, especially if you're staring down hundreds or thousands of loose, unorganized photos. And reliving memories through photos can take a heavy toll, especially if you're working on the project during an already emotional time like moving, helping a parent downsize or dealing with an estate.

"It's one of the most challenging projects that people undertake in their organizational lives because, unless you're starting from a really organized place, it's difficult to even know where to begin," Sisco said.

Prints are the most common photographic item that people have  and have many of  in their homes.

Sisco recommends spending an hour a day going through them. Organize the prints by decade, and then narrow them further by year, or by person or special event like a wedding.

One of the hardest parts is throwing photos away. Sisco advises tossing photos that are blurry, unflattering or duplicates. "You don't have to feel this obligation to keep them just because they were printed," she said.

Over time, remember that sunlight and humidity can cause photos to deteriorate. "If they're exposed to sunlight, each layer of color eventually fades off," said Toni Greetis, lab manager at Phototronics, an independent camera shop in Winnetka, Illinois.

In basements, photos can be damaged by flooding, humidity, mold and mildew. In attics, heat and humidity can cause problems.

For these reasons, a digital archive is the best way to safely store photos and slides, Greetis said. Having all images on a disk or thumb drive also makes it convenient to find and share images in person and online.

"You can take it with you to Grandma's house rather than carrying eight boxes filled with photo albums," Greetis said. "And there's less risk of damage to a small thumb drive than there is to photo albums or boxes of photos in your basement or attic."

She recommends getting a duplicate of the drive or disk and keeping it somewhere secure, like in a safety deposit box or fireproof safe.

If you digitize photos, you can scan them into the computer yourself, pay for the service at a camera shop or go through an online company like the one Sisco recommends, www.ScanMyPhotos.com .

At Phototronics, which digitizes photos, slides, VCR tapes and movies recorded in earlier formats, the question of whether to keep the originals after digitizing is a common one. Greetis says it's a personal choice.

"If you keep them, you actually have the tactile object that you can look at, which has its own nostalgia," she said. "You can pass those to other family members or just simply to have as the backup if something happens to the digital copies. The downside is it takes up space."

If you keep the original photo prints, Sisco recommends storing them in clearly marked, archival storage boxes. Greetis recommends placing those acid-free boxes inside a Rubbermaid container to keep out moisture. Store them somewhere dry, dark and cool, like a closet.

Despite the hundreds of photos in basements and attics, albums and boxes, Greetis knows one thing for certain.
BLOOMINGTON  A lawsuit filed by Enbridge Pipeline against three landowners who challenged a now-completed, 167-mile oil pipeline has been returned to McLean County court by the 4th District Appellate Court for another hearing.

The appellate court ruled that Carla S. Temple, Terry Andreon, both trustees for land trusts, and the JPR Family Partnership are entitled to at least one more hearing related to their claims challenging whether the pipeline is a public necessity.

A 2014 ruling by Judge Paul Lawrence denied the property owners "their only opportunity to challenge" the authority of the Illinois Commerce Commission to condemn portions of their 18 parcels of land for pipeline easements, the appellate court ruled in its July 6 decision.

The lawsuit was among dozens filed by Enbridge against landowners who declined the company's financial offers for easement rights to construct and maintain the pipeline.

Lawrence and judges in DeWitt, Livingston and several other counties approved settlements without a trial.

Tom Pliura, lawyer for the landowners, argued that experts hired by owners should be allowed to testify on the potential risks posed by pipelines. The judge barred that testimony and awarded landowners a total of $45,000 for easement rights.

Pilura said Monday, "We are optimistic we're going to at least get our day in court" and an opportunity to present arguments that the pipeline is a private rather than public project.

Enbridge spokeswoman Jennifer Smith said the company was pleased that the appellate court approved of the compensation paid to acquire the 53 parcels involved in the litigation.

Enbridge is confident that "the trial courts will determine that the respective properties acquired for this project are primarily for the benefit, use or enjoyment of the public and necessary for a public purpose," said Smith.

A hearing date has not been set.

In a separate ruling related to the pipeline, the appellate court upheld Lawrence's decision to approve settlements in 17 other Enbridge cases.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois legislators have adjourned a second day of a special session on school funding after just minutes.

The House and Senate met briefly Thursday, but didn't take up any action.

Gov. Bruce Rauner summoned lawmakers with the task of resolving a fight over a new funding calculation. Both chambers have approved a plan, but the Senate has refused to send it to Rauner, who says he'll rewrite it over objections to money that Chicago will get.

Senate President John Cullerton says he'll send the bill Monday. Rauner reiterated his call at a Thursday news conference for Cullerton to send it immediately.

If lawmakers want to override, they'll need a three-fifths majority vote. If they don't have the votes, the plan dies and questions remain about when schools will get funding.

Most of Wednesday was spent with Rauner and Democratic leaders pointing fingers over who's hindered progress, a familiar scenario in a state that only recently ended an unprecedented two-year budget impasse.

Rauner summoned the Democrat-majority Legislature to Springfield after it failed to meet his deadline to send him a plan that rewrites how Illinois doles out school funds. Rauner has threatened to rewrite and send back the plan over objections to additional money for Chicago Public Schools, but refused to detail his changes. Both chambers approved the proposal but the Senate hasn't sent it to Rauner.

Cullerton said he wanted to meet with Rauner to negotiate because there's no backup and the plan dies if lawmakers are unable to override Rauner's changes, which requires a three-fifths majority vote. He said Rauner has refused to meet.

Cullerton also questioned Rauner's "mental state" after lawmakers, including Republicans, defied Rauner and voted in favor of a budget with an income tax increase earlier this month. Since then, at least 20 members of Rauner's administration have either been fired or resigned.

"I'm afraid he's acting out of anger," Cullerton said. "He's having a bad month."

Rauner, in two Capitol news conferences, demanded Cullerton send him the bill immediately and called the delay "unconscionable." He accused Cullerton of refusing to meet until Monday and blamed House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving House speaker in the country who's been the source of much of Rauner's criticism. Rauner claimed Democrats are manufacturing a school funding crisis.

"This has been vicious manipulation of the democratic process for political gain for a political machine," Rauner told reporters.

Meanwhile, Madigan said Rauner is failing to negotiate.

"The governor has adopted a no-compromise position to keep the state in chaos for several weeks at once," he said.

Both chambers adjourned without taking up any action. Attendance was noticeably low with dozens absent. Two House Democrats boycotted to work on a service project for children.

"We have nothing to do in this chamber," House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie said on the floor.

A school funding overhaul is required because the budget lawmakers approved says schools must get funding through an "evidence-based model." Both parties agree the current, decades-old calculation is unfair, but they've clashed over proposed changes.

The first state payment to schools is due Aug. 10. While most districts say they have reserves to open on time, questions remain about how long they can operate without state funds.

The proposal in question funnels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring no district receives less money than last school year. The plan includes additional pension help for Chicago, the only Illinois district that picks up the employer's portion of teacher pension costs.

Also Wednesday, Rauner signed a plan that halts automatic increases of lawmaker cost-of-living pay adjustments, mileage reimbursement and other costs. The move means the price tag of the costly special session  roughly $48,000 for a single day  remains the same.

Rauner called the new law an important step for taxpayers. He said he justified the special session cost because "children come first."
The Normal Town Council on Monday will consider an ordinance for the 2022 property tax levy estimated to be $13,381,652, which is the same as last year's levy.
100 years ago

July 26, 1917: Judge James C. Riley is keeping an eye on his car. It is rumored the government could requisition private autos at any time, and the judges license number is 258. Thats also the top number in the draft. Rileys taking a lot of kidding for it around the courthouse.

75 years ago

July 26, 1942: The circus is in town and Mayor Mark Hayes is planning to take 60 boys and girls as his guests. All will be from Victory Hall, the Booker T. Washington home or the Lucy Orme Morgan home for girls. Theres talk the kids will have to wash behind their ears first.

50 years ago

July 26, 1967: The University Foundation at ISU has bought the 117-year-old house at 607 N. Main St. in Normal for temporary use by new president Samuel Braden. The price was $36,000. ISU will eventually buy the house from the foundation.

25 years ago

July 26, 1992: Alvin Alexander was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the 1988 S&S Liquors murders. He is the second defendant to go to prison. The first, Glen Wilson, is on death row. In Alexanders case the jury was split on whether he should get the death penalty.
BLOOMINGTON  You are warned: Law enforcement agencies across the state  and in your community are joining forces Wednesday to enforce posted speed limits.

Local, county and state agencies are taking the aggressive approach to promote safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists through the Speed Awareness Day campaign, said Illinois State Trooper Ross Green.

Several local agencies, including Bloomington, Normal, LeRoy and, others, have posted notices on social media sites about Wednesdays campaign.

In Illinois during 2015, speed was the reason given for 34.2 percent of all traffic fatalities, according to the ISP, adding the number of deaths totaled 348  or one life every 25 hours.

These lives can be easily saved by being aware of our speed and understanding how speeding impacts a crash, said Green.

He said that, on interstates, the probability of death or debilitating injury grows with higher speed at impact. Such consequences double for every 10 mph over 50 mph.

Also, according to the ISP, when a vehicle crashes, it undergoes a rapid change in speed, but the occupants keep moving at the vehicles previous speed until they are stopped, either by hitting an object, or by being restrained by a safety belt or airbag.

The effectiveness of restraint devices like airbags, safety belts, crumple zones, and side beams decline as impact speed increases, said ISP.

Speeding also extends the distance required to stop a vehicle in emergency situations while crash severity increases with the speed of the vehicle at impact.

For more information about Illinois Speed Awareness Day, visit www.illinoisspeedawarenessday.org.
BLOOMINGTON  After Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to begin debating their replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Illinois' Democratic senators and McLean County progressive activists criticized the vote as a step to take health insurance away from millions of Americans.

But Central Illinois' GOP congressmen said the ACA, also known as Obamacare, has resulted in skyrocketing premiums and needs to be fixed.

The Senate vote was 51 to 50 with only Republican votes in favor and Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie.

It's unknown what will be in a replacement bill but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that several previously offered GOP bills would cause more than 20 million people to become uninsured by 2026 by eliminating tax penalties for people not buying insurance, cutting Medicaid and providing smaller health care subsidies for consumers.

"Today, Senate Republicans voted to start debate on ... a bill so secret that the Republicans don't even know what's in it," said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield.

"What we do know is that all of their proposals so far would take health insurance away from tens of millions of Americans, increase premium costs for working families, restrict access to care ... and undermine protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions," he said. "All to give wealthy corporations, millionaires and billionaires a tax break."

Durbin said he would work "to fight this disastrous health care repeal proposal."

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates, said, "The American people have rejected every version of Trumpcare that has been presented so it's absolutely stunning that Senate Republicans voted to move forward with a process that could rob as many as 32 million Americans of their health insurance."

Duckworth said she hoped that both political parties can work together to fix the ACA.

But U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, a Republican from Dunlap, said the ACA has not delivered on its promises.

"We have seen skyrocketing premiums and unreasonable deductibles, despite claims that the ACA would lower these costs," LaHood said. "The Senate's procedural move today brings us another step closer to fixing this mess."

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican from Taylorville, said the ACA replacement bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last spring would help Illinoisans who have seen their health care premiums increase and their insurance choices dwindle while shoring up "an unsustainable Medicaid program" and protecting people with pre-existing conditions.

"Now the Senate must do the same," Davis said. "It's disappointing that our senators from Illinois have chosen not to be part of the process and voted against even allowing debate."

Linda Unterman of Bloomington, representing Stand Up for Social Justice, said: "Less than 20 percent of the American people are in favor of any of the announced Senate plans to take health care away from U.S. citizens, and we will hold the Senate and the House accountable in the next election. We can see through their real goal: giving the rich tax benefits using our health savings."

Jodie Slothower of Normal, representing Voices of Reason, said the Senate vote reveals that GOP senators "care more about their party loyalty and money than they do about Americans who need and deserve decent, fair, affordable health care. ... The Republicans' health care plan is extremely unpopular and they know it. They need to listen and vote for what the people actually want."

Susan Cortesi of Bloomington, representing Indivisible IL 18, said "With 22 million set to lose their health care, we cannot afford this bill to go forward."
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is accusing Gov. Bruce Rauner of a "no compromise" position on a school funding bill that's the source of the latest gridlock at the state Capitol.

The Chicago Democrat says the proposal is fair to all schools. The Republican governor has vowed to change it through his amendatory veto powers. Rauner says Chicago Public Schools receive a "bailout" in the bill, but he hasn't detailed what he'd change in it.

Madigan spoke to reporters on the first day of a special session, where attendance was noticeably light.

At issue is a plan the Democrat-majority Legislature approved that changes how Illinois distributes school money. However, the Senate isn't sending the bill to Rauner until Monday.

The special session is expected to continue through Friday and then again on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Rauner signed a measure that will halt increases of lawmaker cost-of-living pay adjustments, mileage reimbursement and other costs.

The Republican signed the plan into law at the Capitol at the start of a special session, calling it an important step for taxpayers. The measure received wide and bipartisan support.

Rauner called lawmakers back to Springfield in an attempt to resolve a school funding fight. He told reporters at the bill signing that he justifies the cost of a special session because "children come first."

Special session can run about $48,000 for a single day. The new law keeps that rate the same. It'll freeze legislator per diem at $111, instead of jumping to $142. It'll also keep mileage reimbursement at 39 cents per mile, instead of about 54 cents.

Rauner summoned the Democrat-majority Legislature to Springfield after they failed to meet his deadline to send him a plan that rewrites how Illinois doles out school funds. Rauner has threatened to veto and rewrite the plan over objections to additional money for Chicago Public Schools. Both houses of the Legislature approved the plan but the Senate has not yet sent it to Rauner for his consideration.

The overhaul is required because the budget lawmakers approved this month after a two-year stalemate says schools must get funding through an "evidence-based model." Both parties agree Illinois' decades-old school funding calculation is unfair, but they've clashed for years over how to change it.

To override Rauner's changes, lawmakers will need a three-fifths majority, including Republican votes. Lawmakers could also craft a new plan.

The back-and-forth is the latest clash between Democrats and the first-term governor. Illinois' unprecedented budget stalemate  which began when Rauner took office in 2015  ended this month during a separate special session called by Rauner. He vetoed a spending plan lawmakers sent him that included an income tax increase, but lawmakers overruled him, including Republicans.

In the school fight, both sides accused the other of playing politics.

"The Democrats in the majority are playing political games with our children's education," Rauner told reporters this week. "They seem to be intent on holding up school funding until August when schools need to open."

Democratic leaders say the issue should be addressed by legislative leaders meeting the governor and two House lawmakers vowed to boycott Wednesday's gathering to hold a service day for students. House Speaker Michael Madigan accused Rauner of "political theater," and blasted him for refusing to detail his proposed changes.

"By calling a special session while he refuses to negotiate and even says 'there's nothing to discuss,' the governor is continuing to create a crisis that pits one child against another," Madigan said in a Tuesday statement.

The first state payment to schools is due Aug. 10. While most school districts say they have reserves to open on time, questions remain about how long they can operate without state funds.

The proposal in question funnels money to the neediest school districts first after ensuring no district receives less money than last school year. That includes additional pension help for Chicago, the only Illinois district that picks up the employer's portion of teacher pension costs.
The night from July 25 to 26 marks the 73rd anniversary of the launching of Operation Most (bridge) III, in which Polish intelligence arranged for the transport of German V-2 missile parts to Britain, allowing Allied forces to examine Germany's latest weapon.



The V-2 missile, which landed in a field near central Poland's Blizna during German tests, was recovered by soldiers of the Polish Home Army anti-German resistance (AK, see: NOTE 1) helped by local peasants, who sought out and gathered the missile's fragments.

Subsequently, Polish intelligence arranged for the missile's transport to Britain on board a Dakota plane in what became known as Operation Most (bridge) III (25-26 July, 1944). Also, on the plane were Polish intelligence agents, including Jozef Retinger (see: NOTE 2), a Polish political adviser and later co-founder of the EU and the Bilderberg Group (see: NOTE 3). AK-intercepted V-2 parts arrived in London two days later.

The Home Army managed to alert the British to the dangers posed by the V-2 missiles, which resulted in their raised attention to the production of bombs and launching sites, thus helping lessen their destructive impact. Britain's Operation Hydra bombing raid on the V-2 production site in Peenemunde based on the AK's intelligence, and delayed the V-2 launch by six to eight weeks, saving lives of many civilians.

The Most III operation, among others, is presented in 'The Battle of the V-1' - a 1958 British war film starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight and Christopher Lee. It is based on the novel "They Saved London" (1955) by Bernard Newman.

The film became a hit and was advertised on posters as "the Epic Film Tribute to the RAF and Polish Resistance".

It tells the real story of a wartime Polish Home Army resistance movement (AK) (see: NOTE 1) and its special unit, which in 1943 gathers intel on Peenemunde plant manufacturing mainly London-bound German 'Wunderwaffe' V-2 flying bombs (the film's title erroneously refers to the V-2's predecessor, the V-1, as the story mostly concerns the former).

The history-based film shows how intelligence gathered by the Polish AK, mainly from Polish forced labourers in the Peenemunde plant, enabled allied bombers to destroy the factory's (V-1 and) V-2 production lines.

However, it is not the last time AK's intel on German production sites proves fundamental in navigating British bombing raids, as 'Battle of the V1' then goes on to depict the aforementioned Most III mission.

A different Wunderwaffe-related AK operation, codenamed Synteza (synthesis), enabled the location of a German fuel factory in Police (Germ. Hydrierwerke Politz), which manufactured synthetic fuel for the V-1 and V-2 rockets (as well as U-boats - PAP), and the depots in which it was stored. In effect the Allies successfully bombed the installations. Working with the French resistance movement, AK teams also helped locate 162 V-1 launching installation in France. (PAP)

mb/

NOTE 1: Founded in 1942, the Home Army was the largest underground resistance force in German-occupied Europe, with up to half a million soldiers fighting in its ranks. In his book 'God's Playground. A History of Poland', historian Norman Davies said that "the Home Army could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance [organisations]".

Along with various combat activities, the AK was also widely involved in rescuing fellow citizens of Jewish descent, among others through the famous 1942-founded Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom) codenamed 'Zegota' - the only organisation in Europe and the world established to defend and provide help to Jewish people in ghettos and outside.

After the war many Home Army soldiers refused to lay down their arms and continued fighting against Poland's Soviet-imposed communist regime, winning the name "Enduring Soldiers".

The Enduring Soldiers, also called "cursed" for having been treated by communist authorities as outlaws and at best sentenced to oblivion, battled the Soviet-imposed regime well into the 1950s. The last known "enduring soldier", Jozef Franczak, nome de guerre "Lalek" died in an ambush as late as 1963.

However, on June 13, 2017, in the village Poplawy-Rogale in southeast Poland's Lublin province, the teams from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) unearthed remains believed to belong to Antoni Dolega, a member of the post-World War II anticommunist resistance said to have remained in hiding until his death in 1982.

NOTE 2: Jozef Retinger (April 17 1888  June 12 1960) was a Polish political adviser who co-founded the European Movement that led to the establishment of the European Union, and was involved in founding the Bilderberg Group.

Retinger was born in Krakow, south Poland as the youngest of four children. His father, Jozef Stanislaw Retinger, was the personal legal counsel and adviser to Count Wladyslaw Zamoyski, a prominent Polish aristocrat who took the young Retinger into his care when his father died.

In 1906 Retinger enrolled in the Sorbonne and was the youngest person to earn a Ph.D. there (at age twenty). He moved to England in 1911, where he befriended the Polish-English writer Joseph Conrad. Retinger wrote about Conrad in his 1943 book Conrad and His Contemporaries.

During World War II Retinger advised the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile, General Wladyslaw Sikorski (see: NOTE 4). In 1944 he parachuted into occupied Poland in the so-called Operation Salamander to meet leading political figures and deliver funds to the Polish underground. He survived an unsuccessful assassination attempt by the Home Army, whose commanders were mistrustful of his secret mission into Poland.

In July 1944 Retinger took part in in the famous "Most III" (Polish for 'Bridge III' - PAP) mission, whose goal was the delivery of Home Army-seized elements of the world's first modern ballistic missile, Germany's 'Wunderwaffe' V-2 rocket, to British intelligence. Jozef Retinger was on the plane that smuggled the V-2 parts out of Poland. Towards the end of the war V-2 missiles terrified London and other British cities with hundreds of hits resulting in major infrastructure destruction and the death of many citizens.

During the war Retinger was also known for his ample financial contributions to aid the Polish underground, to which he is said to have transferred millions of dollars on behalf of U.S. and the Great Britain.

After the war Retinger was exiled from Poland by its communist government and became a leading advocate of European unity. He helped found both the European Movement (see: NOTE 5 - PAP) and the Council of Europe, and in later years served as the European Movement's Honorary Secretary General. In 1954 Retinger also initiated the Bilderberg conferences which led to the foundation of the Bilderberg Club, whose secretary he remained until his 1960 death from lung cancer.

Retinger is buried at North Sheen Cemetery.

NOTE 3: The Bilderberg Group, which Jozef Retinger helped co-initiate, also known as the Bilderberg conference, Bilderberg meetings or Bilderberg Club, is a 1954-established annual private conference of 120 to 150 people from the European and North American political elite and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media. The first Bilderberg conference, among others, initiated by Retinger, was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, from May 29 to 31 1954. It has operated to date.

NOTE 4: General Sikorski, whom Retinger advised during World War Two, was the first prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile formed in the aftermath of the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and their subsequent occupation of the country.

Despite Poland's occupation by the two hostile powers, the government-in-exile exerted considerable influence in Poland during the war through the structures of the Polish Underground State and its military arm, the Home Army. Under the authority of the government-in-exile Polish military units that had escaped the occupation fought under their own commanders as part of Allied forces in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

In July 1943 Sikorski was killed in an air accident when a plane carrying him and several other persons plunged into the sea immediately after the take-off from Gibraltar, killing all on board except the pilot. The exact circumstances of the crash have been disputed, giving rise to a number of conspiracy theories surrounding his death. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exile government and his death was a major setback for the Polish cause during World War II.

NOTE 5: The European Movement International co-founded by Jozef Retinger is a lobbying association coordinating the efforts of associations and national councils to promote European integration. Its origins date to July 1947, when European unity was being promoted in the form of the Anglo-French United European Movement. The UEM was a co-ordinating platform for European organisations created in the wake of World War II.

The European Movement was formally initiated on October 25 1948, with Duncan Sandys as its President and Leon Blum, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak as Honorary Presidents. The first major achievement of the European Movement was the May 1949 establishment of the Council of Europe, the Movement was also responsible for the creation of the College of Europe in Bruges and the European Centre of Culture in Geneva. From the 1950s to the 1990s one of its major functions was setting up think tanks and a network of discussion groups across Europe, both in democratic and Communist countries. (PAP)
Ahlstrom-Munksjo to Increase Production Capacity of Manufacturing Plant in Turin

July 26, 2017 (Press Release) - Ahlstrom-Munksjo will release additional capacity at its Turin plant in Italy to meet the growing demand for engine and industrial filtration media.

Fulvio Capussotti, Executive Vice President of Business Area Filtration and Performance, states: This capacity increase aims at improving our current service level but also, more strategically, enables us to offer to our customer an industrial platform on which they can build on to further grow their business. The plan will include investments on selected assets, re organization of planning practices and additional staffing. This capacity release will be concluded at the beginning of 2018 and will significantly increase our ability to answer the current and future needs of our filtration customers.

The Turin plant is located in the Northern part of Italy, employs around 550 people and manufactures both filtration media and release papers for silicone coating.

The investment for increased capacity is included in the estimate for capital expenditure in 2017, as communicated in Ahlstrom-Munksjo's half-year report, published on July 25, 2017.

Ahlstrom-Munksjo is a global leader in fiber-based materials, supplying innovative and sustainable solutions to customers worldwide. The company's offerings include decor paper, filter media, release liners, abrasive backings, nonwovens, electrotechnical paper, glass fiber materials, food packaging and labeling, tape, medical fiber materials and solutions for diagnostics. To learn more, please visit: www.ahlstrom-munksjo.com .

SOURCE: Ahlstrom-Munksjo
Sen. Tammy Baldwin and other farm-state senators succeeded in reversing President Trumps cuts in rural programs. They are now advancing a bipartisan agriculture appropriations bill that renews the federal commitment to robust rural investment. PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patently Apple began reporting on a possible investment in the U.S. by Foxconn back on December 06, 2016 when Softbank's Masayoshi Son alongside President Elect Trump showed the press a presentation sheet he used to make his pitch to create jobs in the U.S. Foxconn was noted on the presentation sheet as noted above. On December 07 Foxconn confirmed they were in preliminary talks about an expansion plan in the U.S. As noted at the bottom of our report, Patently Apple has followed-up on this subject seven more times to keep on top of these developments. Today Bloomberg is stating that the first Foxconn plant will be going to Wisconsin as we reported on back in June. CNBC is reporting that the announcement will come from the White House at 3 pm EST or 5 pm PST, as noted in the video report below. Will that come to be? I checked it out on Fox News at 2:14 pm PST and they show the podium set for the announcement on Jobs. So it appears that it's going to happen later this afternoon as sources have claimed.



The new factory appears to be politically slanted to award Wisconsin for voting for Trump in a tight election and a state that just happens to be where House Speaker Paul Ryan and White House Chief of staff Reince Prebus are from. Then again, that's what politics has always been about. Candidate Trump ran on delivering jobs for American workers and this is what this first plant delivers. Foxconn's 'Flying Eagle' project does however include additional plans for other plants, so this is just the beginning.

According to Bloomberg, "Foxconn chairman Terry Gou plans to join Trump, Ryan, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House to make the announcement.

Foxconn is expected to receive a sizable tax incentive package to assist in the construction of the factory, though the details of that agreement have not yet been made public. It's also unclear what mix of local, state, and federal tax incentives would be used. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has reported that the incentives package could total as much as $3 billion." For more on this, read the full Bloomberg report here.

Yesterday we posted a report titled "Three Big, Big, Big U.S. Apple Plants are on the Drawing Board." At this time we have no idea if any of the Apple plants have any connection to future Foxconn announcements or if President Trump is planning to hold a similar kind of formal announcement at a later date for Apple. But if Foxconn gets a formal announcement, you could be sure that when Apple is ready, it's going to a big day as well.



Foxconn Investment Related Reports

July 24: Decision Time for Foxconn's Announcements Regarding Multiple U.S. Plants Draws Nigh

June 22: Foxconn's 'Flying Eagle' Project worth Billions in U.S. Investment Could Cover Displays, Semiconductor Packaging and more

June 14: Foxconn is closer to Announcing their new U.S. Plant Location and it just might be Wisconsin

May 08: A new Supply Chain report Claims that Foxconn is likely to announce a Next-Gen Display Plant in the U.S.

April 29: Foxconn to make 'Capital Intensive' Investment in the U.S. that will be revealed at a Special Event this Summer

April 27: Foxconn's Chairman Terry Gou and President Trump are set to Meet Next Thursday

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
It's being reported by the Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump told them that Apple is moving forward with three big U.S. factories in an interview published Today. Apple CEO Tim Cook called Trump to share that the iPhone-maker would do more manufacturing domestically, Trump told the Journal. "I spoke to [Mr. Cook], he's promised me three big plants -- big, big, big," Trump reportedly said.

Apple has already said that it would start a $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States. The company was not immediately available to comment on the report and did not comment to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Without details about the natue of Apple's three-plant plan, it's difficult to interpret what President Trump was trying to convey in the WSJ interview. Are the plants in tune with the multiple plants that Foxconn is about to announce or completely new Apple-centric plants? Nice appetizer but as the old Wendy's ad used to say: Where's the beef?

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
Patna: In a move that no one saw coming, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, after battling his conscience for the past three weeks in the aftermath of CBI raid on Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members' properties, resigned from his post saying he could not go against his conscience that has always been against corruption in the system.

"I did my best to save the alliance but ultimately had to take this drastic step because I was left with no other option. I held talks with both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav asking them to explain corruption charges against my Deputy Chief Minister but that explanation never came. I never asked for anyone's resignation but given the circumstances, I cannot continue to be the Chief Minister of Bihar. My government's chapter in Bihar ends today," Kumar reportedly said in his resignation letter that he personally handed over to the Governor of Bihar Keshari Nath Tripathi.

Known for his political jujitsu that has earned him the moniker of the Chanakya of Bihar, the beleaguered ex-Chief Minister further said that he was accused by people from all sides of being a hypocrite in view of 'Benami' properties but he kept doing his work while also safeguarding the interest of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

"How could I work under these circumstances? I could not support someone in my own government who was accused of acquiring benami properties. When my request for an explanation went unheeded, I had no choice but quit from my position," he said.

Kumar's resignation was accepted by the Governor who has reportedly asked him to remain in his post until an alternative is found.

As reported earlier, following a meeting of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders, party President Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out the resignation of his son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav in light of corruption charges against him.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kumar for 'fighting against corruption'.

"125 crore citizens support and welcome the fight against corruption," he wrote.

Reaction on Kumar's melodramatic move by the RJD leaders was as expected.

"Nitish Kumar is an accused in a murder case, he knows that. We knew it all along he was colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the RSS. Since the RJD is the largest party in the state, it should be given a chance to form the new government in Bihar," Yadav, who is out of jail on bail on various corruption charges, said just minutes after Kumar's resignation.
Patna: Things between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal  U, the 'bade bhai' and the 'chhotey bhai' of Bihar - went from bad to worse in a matter of hours as leaders from both parties, forgetting past 20 months of scratching each other's back, began hurling insults at each other just minutes after Nitish Kumar, in a politically-charged environment, tendered his resignation from the Chief Minister's post on Wednesday evening.

{gallery}newsimages2017/july/072617{/gallery}Fire was first shot by none other than the Bade Bhai and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who wasted no time in calling Nitish a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stooge who was also 'facing murder charges'.

"He (Nitish Kumar) is facing cases under the murder and Arms Act which is a lot serious than corruption charges. We had known about it for quite some time but felt no need to disclose it until now. This whole thing was planned by the BJP and the RSS that has succeeded in brainwashing the JD-U leader," Yadav, a former Bihar Chief Minister and Union Railway Minister, said.

Senior Janata Dal  U leader and a mouthpiece of Nitish Kumar K. C. Tyagi, in a stunning mea culpa, admitted breaking away from the NDA in 2013 and joining hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav was the biggest mistake his party had made.

"It is shameful. We regret our decision to run the government with a person like Lalu Prasad Yadav for the past 20 months and it is no one but us to be blamed for that. We allowed the RJD MLA count to go from 22 to 80 and for this, we are ready to launch a repentance campaign," Tyagi said ruling out any chance of making up with the RJD.

"How can we patch up with them (RJD) after some senior allegations made against our leader," he said.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders in Patna met with Nitish Kumar at his official residence and offered to support to him in forming a new government in Bihar which was reportedly accepted by Kumar and his party leaders.

Modi, who is part of a three-member committee earlier formed by the central leadership to keep an eye on political developments in Bihar, said the BJP was ready to join Nitish as a partner in forming a new government in the state.

"We are ready to support the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar as we have full confidence in his leadership. The decision has been conveyed to him which he has accepted," Modi said following a meeting of the legislature party of both JD-U and BJP on Wednesday night.
Trump Warns Iran Faces 'Big Problems' If Doesn't Keep Honoring Nuclear Deal

07/26/17

Source: RFE/RL

U.S. President Donald Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump issued another warning to Iran late on July 25, saying Tehran must honor its nuclear deal with world powers or face "big, big problems."



"World's reaction to Trump's decisions"

cartoon by Atefeh Madani, Iranian daily Ghanoon



It was the latest in a series of high-level warnings exchanged between Washington and Tehran and came after the U.S. Navy announced on July 25 that it fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf.



Trump last week certified that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, which requires it to curb nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.



But Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally in the U.S. state of Ohio that he remains wary of Tehran.



"If that deal doesn't conform to what it's supposed to conform to, it's going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me," he said.



Rather than be grateful for the sanctions relief granted by the deal, Trump said Iran has become more aggressive.



"You would have thought they would have said, 'Thank you, United States. We really love you very much.' Instead, they've become emboldened. That won't take place much longer," he said.



Separately, Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on July 25 that he would be "surprised" if Iran is found in compliance with the nuclear deal when time for recertification comes up in three months.

Trump would be "surprised" if Iran complying w JCPOA in 3 mths-because he's doing everything to make sure it doesn't https://t.co/3nx8SEOXpC  Ariane Tabatabai (@ArianeTabatabai) July 26, 2017

Trump's harsh rhetoric against Iran, which was a feature of his campaign and has continued since he took office, recently has provoked equally harsh responses from Tehran.



Last week, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander warned that the United States should move its military bases in the Persian Gulf region and keep its forces at a 1,000-kilometer distance from Iran.



Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying that the United States would pay a "high price" for any "miscalculations" in the region.



On July 25, the U.S. military said a U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots at one of the IRGC's patrol boats because it came dangerously close to the American warship during exercises in international waters.



The Pentagon said the close encounter carried a "risk of collision," but it was averted after the Iranian boat veered off its collision course.



With reporting by AP, Reuters, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal
House OKs New Sanctions Against Iran as Tehran Flexes Military Muscle

07/26/17

By Mehdi Jedinia, VOA

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday in favor of imposing new sanctions on Iran, a move that most likely will further exacerbate tensions between Washington and Tehran.



"Mother Of All Sanctions"

Source: Iranian daily Vatan Emrooz





Related News:

Iranian president vows US bans will not go unanswered



U.S. officials said further sanctions were warranted as a result of Tehran's destabilizing influence in the Middle East and support for terrorist groups, as well as the Iranian government's continuing missile development program, in defiance of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the United States and other major powers.



The sanctions bill targets not only Iran, but also North Korea and Russia. It toughens sanctions on Russia because of its interference in the U.S. presidential election last year. North Korea was included as a result of its "provocative" missile tests and avowed intention to build an intercontinental nuclear weapons system.br />

The bill, which passed 419-3, was seen as a rebuff to President Donald Trump, whose administration had sought to weaken the bill by preventing Congress from blocking any subsequent presidential decision to lift the sanctions. The only "no" votes came from three members of the House Republican majority.



The House vote followed a similarly overwhelming vote on the new sanctions last month by the U.S. Senate.

Displays of advances

Some analysts have suggested that Tehran could respond to the sanctions by displaying more of the advances achieved by its missile development program. The agreement between Iran and the major powers - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as it is known formally - included restrictions on Iran's missile program as part of the overall goal of ensuring that Iran takes no action to develop nuclear weapons.



Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan announced this week that his country had made a "great achievement" by beginning production of Sayyad 3-missiles - rockets that can reach an altitude of almost 17 miles (27 kilometers) and travel up to about 75 miles (120 kilometers).





Related Article: Iran launches mass-production line for Sayyad-3 missiles



The Sayyad-3 missile is more of a psychological weapon than one with military significance, according to Farhad Rezaei, a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Washington.



Rezaei said Tehran's announcement about Sayyed-3 production was a message from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that additional sanctions from major powers would be met by the Iranian government with increased investment in its missile arsenal.



Military experts think Iran's new missile is akin to the SAM S-200, a surface-to-air missile designed to destroy aircraft or other missiles.



"This missile is supposed to tackle different types of threats, such as radar-evasive fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles," said Babak Taghvaee, a military expert based in Malta.

Moscow ban

Taghvaee said the Sayyed-3 is now part of the arsenal of the Iranian air defense force's HAWK-I SAM program, which was begun after Russia stopped supplying advanced S-300 missiles to Iran.



Russia froze the transfer of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran for several months in 2010, until Tehran reached an agreement with the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members over its nuclear program. Moscow later lifted the ban.



Iran's Press TV aired a report showing the new missile's precise targeting abilities. Some analysts said it was clear that Iran had accelerated the work of its missile program since Trump took over in Washington this year.



"Accelerating the country's missile program projects is a natural reaction by Tehran, toward an administration in Washington that challenges its existence," according to retired Iranian Admiral Houshang Aryanpour.



The U.S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis, infuriated Iran last month when he called for a change of government in Tehran during an interview. In addition, the recent $110 billion military deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia, announced during Trump's visit to Riyadh two months ago, was seen as threatening by Iran.



"The level of insecurity Tehran feels from Washington has increased, and after the deal with the Saudis that the Trump administration cut," Aryanpour said. "Decision-makers in Tehran pushed for a greater effort to show off their missile capabilities, as a means of deterrence."
A local funeral home director has been charged with three counts of possession of child pornography.

Steve Mitchell, 51, of Mauston, was charged on July 19. Mitchell owns the Thompson Funeral Home in the village of Wonewoc. If convicted of the charges, Mitchell could be fined $100,000, face a 25-year prison sentence, on each count, or both. Mitchell may also have to pay the court a $500 surcharge for each illegal image seized by police during the search of his property.

According to a criminal complaint:

The Juneau County Sheriffs Office began investigating Mitchell after receiving a Cyber Tip regarding a Chatstep account which allegedly contained an image of child pornography. After receiving an additional tip, detectives obtained a search warrant to investigate Thompson Funeral Home.

In early May, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) served a subpoena to CenturyLink, the funeral homes internet provider, to obtain the suspicious images. In June, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also received a tip from Chatstep that Mitchell was uploading pornographic images of children.

On July 19, detectives from Juneau County, a digital forensics examiner from DCI and the Wonewoc Police Department, searched the funeral home for evidence. Several items were taken including a hard drive which allegedly contained a file with several photos of child pornography.

Mitchell was contacted by detectives and agreed to meet with them in Mauston. Mitchell will have an initial appearance Aug. 9 at 9 a.m. at the Juneau County Justice Center. He signed a $25,000 signature bond July 25 and was released from custody.
The President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, is in Ghana together with her spouse to strengthen bilateral relations and enhance economic cooperation between the two nations.



Ghana and Malta hope to introduce products and services in each others economies.



The Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia on Monday received and welcomed the President of the Republic of Malta and his spouse into the country when they touched down at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.



The Malta President and her Spouse attended a church service at Holy Spirit Cathedral in Adabraka and later met President Nana Akufo-Addo at the Flag Staff House on Tuesday.



As part of their 3-day visit, the Malta President will lead delegation of companies in Malta who represent a range of business interests to explore opportunities emerging in Africa and invest in these opportunities.



They will also tour Kumasi and Cape Coast, where they will call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II at the Manhyia Palace and visit the HopeXChange Medical Centre respectively.



The Government of Malta contributed to the setting up of the HopeXchange, an 80-bed hospital in Kumasi whilst other several Maltese initiatives are underway in various parts of Africa, including orphanages and water engineering and capacity-building projects in IT.



Ghana is the first country in recent history to have invited a sitting Maltese Head of State and also the first sub-Saharan country to establish a High Commission in Malta.



The Vice President, Monday received the President of the Republic of Malta and his spouse into the country

Source: myjoyonline.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
Barring any last-minute hitches, the Attorney General (AG) and the Minister of Justice, is today expected to orally examine National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, over the GH51.2 million judgement debt he received from the State.



This follows the dismissal of an application filed by lawyers of the embattled businessman at Supreme Court last week seeking to temporarily halt the examination.



The three-member panel of judges presided over by Justice William Atuguba had held that the matter before the court had been settled by CI 98, 2016, insisting that the motion was misconceived.



Woyome had filed a writ at the Supreme Court seeking to reverse a ruling by a judge of the apex court  Justice A.A. Benin  who granted an application by the Attorney General, to cross-examine Woyome orally in connection with attempts by the State to retrieve the money.



The embattled NDC financier argued that Article 134 (b) of the 1992 Constitution gives him the opportunity to apply for a stay of Justice Benins decision by asking that a panel of three justices vary, discharge and or reverse the order.



However, a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, argued that the provision cited by Woyome upon which he filed the application does not apply since the State is merely attempting to enforce an earlier judgement of the same court.



Mr Yeboah Dame, who led a team of state prosecutors to the court, welcomed the ruling of the court, saying that Woyomes frivolous applications were aimed at frustrating the retrieval of the money he fraudulently received.



Order



Justice Benin had also placed an embargo on the shares owned by the businessman in 11 companies, following his indebtedness to the state.



Shares affected include those in Anator Holding Company Limited, AAW Management Consulting Services Limited, Green Township Security Services Company Limited, Anator Construction Company Limited, Woyome Brothers International Limited and Stewise Anator Company Limited.



The rest are Stewise Shopping Company Limited, Green Townships and Industrial Parks Development Company Limited, Anator Power Company Limited, Green Townships (Gh) Company Limited and Special Economic Zone International Trading Company Limited.



Per the order, Mr. Woyome was also to appear before the court to explain why the embargo should not be made permanent.



AGs Motion



It followed a motion filed by the Attorney General on May 17, 2017, praying the court to impose a charging order on all the shares owned by the businessman in the 11 companies.



The order also followed a motion filed by the AG on June 2, 2017, praying the court to be given the opportunity to orally examine the businessman.



The oral examination, the court ordered, would border on whether Mr. Woyome owed the state any debt and whether he had any property for satisfying the judgement of the court, dated July 29, 2014.



Also, the oral examination, according to the court, would be premised on whether the businessman has any means of satisfying the judgement of this court, dated July 29, 2014 and the manner in which he used the money paid to him by the Republic of Ghana.



Day Of Reckoning



At a recent media interaction at the Flagstaff House, President Akufo-Addo said the day of reckoning for Woyome was in sight to retrieve the fraudulently acquired GH51.2 million from him.



Woyomes money is a subject of all kinds of legal processes; those legal processes some day will come to an end. I know there will come a day for reckoning on that matter, the president told journalists.

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
Embattled businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome is not broke, his spokesperson Reginald Seth Dogbe has said.



Mr Woyome is being orally examined by Deputy Attorney General Godfred Dame at the Supreme Court as part of efforts by the state to retrieve some GHS51.2million paid to him as judgment debt in 2010.



According to a Daily Guide publication, Ken Anku, lawyer for Mr Woyome told the Supreme Court his client had no money when the Deputy AG prayed the sole judge, Justice A. A. Benin, to award a cost of GHc20,000 against Mr Woyome in a related case in which he (Woyome) had filed an application to stay his oral examination.



But speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 26 July 2017, Mr Dogbe debunked assertions and reports that Mr Woyome was broke.



He told show host Moro Awudu that Mr Woyome has not said anywhere that he is broke. I dont know where you heard that one . . . I have never heard Woyome say hes broke. Ive been in court every day and I stand with him everywhere and Ive not heard him say that. How can a Christian, somebody filled with Christ be broke? No, Mr Dogbe said.



Mr. Woyome was paid the GHc51.2million after he claimed he helped Ghana raise funds to construct stadia for the hosting of the 2008 African Cup of Nations.



However, an Auditor Generals report released in 2010 held that the amount was paid illegally to him. Subsequently, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money to the state but he has not complied.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Ghana and Malta have pledged to strengthen the ties of co-operation that exist between the two countries, as well as collaborate further and provide mutual support for each other at both bilateral and multilateral levels.



This was the outcome of a roundtable discussion held between the ministerial teams of Ghana and Malta, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, as part of events marking the 3-day State Visit to Ghana by the President of Malta, Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.



Describing the visit to Ghana by President Marie-Louise Preca as a landmark one, as it is the first time a sitting President from the Republic of Malta is paying a State Visit to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo, in his remarks at a joint press conference with the Maltese President, stated that their discussions bordered on several issues of importance to both countries.



These issues, he stated, included the improvement in the volumes of trade between Ghana and Malta; mutual support for candidates from the two countries vying for positions with international organisations; issues of migration; and the deepening of political consultations on matters of mutual interest to the two countries, amongst others.



President Akufo-Addo noted that his Maltese counterpart and her team have resolved to give voice to Ghanas cause and interests at the European Union. Ghana, on the other hand, the President stressed will also help to facilitate the provision of a platform for enhanced economic engagement between Malta and the member countries of ECOWAS.



This, according to President Akufo-Addo, should boost the trade volumes, and help bring prosperity to the peoples of Ghana and Malta.



On the matter of reforms of the global political order, President Akufo-Addo made it clear that the inability of the United Nations to undertake the reforms of its institutions that will reflect the realities of our times, and not the realities of the post-war world, represents a manifest injustice against the peoples of Africa.



The Ghanaian team, according to President Akufo-Addo, stressed the importance it attaches to the process of UN Reform, especially of the UN Security Council, as set out in Africas Common Position on UN Reform, based on the Ezulwini Consensus, and solicited the support of Malta for this position.



It is time to correct the longstanding injustice that the current structure and composition of the UN Security Council represent for the nations of Africa. Her Excellency and her delegation shared this sentiment and expressed its desire to collaborate with Ghana to this end, he added.



It was also agreed that Ghana and Malta extend support to candidates from their respective countries vying for positions in international organisations.



Ghana has, therefore, given support to Malta's bid for membership of the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) elections, which take place later this year. Malta, on the other hand, will support Ghana's bid for a Non-Permanent Seat at the UN Security Council from 2020 to 2021, the President said.



He continued, This support mechanism has also been to the candidature of Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, as a Judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). An MOU, to this end, would be signed after this session by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries.



Migration



On the issue of migration, President Akufo-Addo bemoaned the high numbers of young Africans taking distressing risks across the Sahara and around the Mediterranean, trying to reach a better life.



Whilst we strive to provide youths with the right environment in Africa, which would enable them enhance their skills, receive appropriate training, and have access to digital technology and enhanced economic opportunities, Her Excellency the President and her delegation have reiterated their commitment to champion the need for humane treatment of illegal migrants as well as the protection of their human rights in accordance with international law, both at home and on EU platforms, he added



President Akufo-Addo revealed that Ghana has been included in the list of beneficiary countries of the EUs Emergency Migration Fund  a Fund designed to assist in the return and re-integration of our citizens into society.

Government, President Akufo-Addo assured, will collaborate with Malta and EU member stated to help find solutions to the factors that trigger illegal migration.



Our deliberations also centered driving investment opportunities, domestic and foreign, in our two countries, and the need for enhanced co-operation and partnership in our development efforts.



A Business Forum between our two Chambers of Commerce, as well as with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), has been scheduled to take place at the Accra International Conference Centre tomorrow, July 27, 2017, to identify the trade and business opportunities that exist and would be mutually beneficial to our two countries, he added.



It was the hope of President Akufo-Addo that as we shape the future of Ghana, and position Ghanaian enterprises to compete effectively in the global market space, we have friends, such as the Republic of Malta, to support us in this objective.

Source: 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.

Featured Video
Audio Attachment: Listen to Allotey Jacobs

NDC Central Regional Chairman, Allotey Jacobs has cautioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to exercise discretion on the petition filed against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Allotey Jacobs believed there may be some forces from the NPP government pushing for the removal of the EC Chairperson.



To him, if the President doesn't cautiously scrutinize the petition and therefore goes ahead to perhaps set the EC Boss and her Deputies aside as widely supported by some critics; his decision may degenerate into chaos.



According to Allotey Jacobs, "nobody is perfect on this earth. No human being is perfect. No institution is perfect. No law is perfect and so he would call for investigations into the issue rather than removing the Commissioners from office because of the feud existing among them.



Allotey Jacobs further noted that should the President take such a decision, he may open himself up for the opposition NDC to read meanings into it and lead people to protest on the streets.



He feared the street demonstrations may brew violence in the country.



He therefore advised President Akufo-Addo saying "he should be cautious of the petition filed to him because its a bomb that has been placed on his doorstep. Its a bomb that when exploded, youll see thousands of dead bodies on the street. You take it for a joke. You see, when youre in power, youre so incensed that theres nothing and so I wont listen to advice.

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.

Featured Video
MCMPR is Australias preeminent Brand Amplification agency with over 20 years experience in communications, digital sphere and customer experience. Theyre looking for a Senior Account Manager (SYD) to join their team in managing our growing fashion, lifestyle, retail and luxury ecommerce portfolio. You will be ace at communications with a proven track record and established relationships with media. Youll know your way around a computer with skills across Microsoft Office and Photoshop. Sound like you? Apply right now.

The Intrepid Group brands (Intrepid, Peregrine, Geckos and ATA) are the gold standard in group travel across Australia and New Zealand. They need a Graphic Designer (MELB) to be responsible for the delivery of design collateral across all marketing activity. You will have a strong passion for creativity and actively think outside the box to come out with great campaign ideas. A digital design expert, you will have communications skills that are off chops and love working collaboratively. Ticking all your boxes? Get on it here.

Sparro is on the hunt for a Digital Content Writer (SYD). The successful applicant will be developing and researching content ideas, writing blog and site content, maintaining client content style guides and communicating with clients regarding objectives and results. This is a hands-on role, with all training providing and great working environment encouraged. Ready to jump right in? Hit them up right here.

Small sentence, big jobs. In 140 characters or less, here are more of todays faves.

Valiant are looking for a Residential Property Stylist (MELB) to join their team in a casual role. Find out more here.

Marimekko need an Assistant Store Manager (SYD) to assist with the day-to-day running of the store. Sound like you? Apply here.

Uncommon Collective are on the hunt for a part time Junior Digital Marketer (MELB). Interested? Apply here.

Need to beef up your skills? Check out the great internships below:

Looking to break into fashion styling? Gingham & Heels want to help train you up as their Fashion Stylist and Social Media Intern (SYD). Get all the details here.





Your SocialChef wants to teach you all the fundamentals of social media marketing as their Social Media Intern (SYD). Youll be directly mentored by their CEO and theyll even cover your lunch! Find out more here.

Dont let your dream job slip you by  Love your work!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and get yourself signed up to our Daily Job Alerts.
Protesters and sexual abuse survivors gathered outside a Melbourne court this morning as Cardinal George Pell arrived to face historical sex offence charges.

The cardinal was flanked by police and his legal team, including top criminal barrister Robert Richter QC. He was described by reporters on the ground as incredibly pale.

Im at court and George #Pell just walked past, flanked by police. He looks incredibly pale. Someone shouted truth, he remained silent.  Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) July 25, 2017

Prior to his arrival, crowds had swelled outside the magistrates court to the point where police were forced to close off a lane off William Street.

Police brief ahead of Cardinal #Pell arrival at court 100 media here already. Public and press spilled out onto busy William St. pic.twitter.com/Dmw7wHkWxw  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) July 25, 2017

Abuse survivors now arriving and realise they have no chance of seeing todays court hearing. They are devastated. #Pell  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) July 25, 2017

Police have now closed off a lane of William St, because of huge presence outside court. #Pell  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) July 25, 2017

George Pell was surrounded by police as he entered the court @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/aDPr6AZUfN  Melina Sarris (@MelinaSarris7) July 25, 2017

The ABC reports that upon entering the building, was a smattering of applause for Pell from a small crowd inside.

The magistrates court opened another court room to deal with the large numbers of people, which quickly filled up.

Court 2 @MagCourtVic is now full. Largely media, some clergy abuse victims and supporters including Chrissie Foster. Hearing at 10. #Pell  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) July 25, 2017

Details of the allegations against Pell have not been made public, except that he was charged by Victoria Police last month with offences involving multiple complaints.

Todays hearing is expected to be brief, with dates set for his next appearance. Pell will face court at 10am.

Photo: Darrian Traynor / Getty.
Racist posters which popped up on power poles, walls and buildings in Newmarket in inner northwest Brisbane have been taken down and torn up by residents, according to an ABC report.

The posters which cry Diversity is white genocide were apparently posted up by members of the Australian alt-right community The Dingoes, who are all objectively awful and wrong. Dont @ me.

These are young men who like to talk to Mark Latham on their podcasts, because they apparently respect his opinion. No one should respect Mark Lathams opinion. On their website, they co-opt both the language of Indigenous rights (dispossession, self-determination) and the fictional good ol days (cobber, larrikin, etc) to speak about just how hard it is to be a middle-class white man, living in multicultural Australia. Its almost like they control the political class and the media.

Anywho, turns out Newmarket locals dont agree with their politics either  since the posters started being pasted up on Monday, many, if not most, have been defaced or ripped down.

Stuart, a local, told the ABC:

I think theyre very short-sighted, not very well thought out. The message seems to be something about weve had these immigrants increase in population and trying to depict it as a downside, without looking at the whole picture.

Where would we be if those people hadnt arrived? What do the poster people know about who those immigrants are, where they fit in society? Theyre not all on the dole, Im sure of that. Theres many educated people who are contributing to our society and enriching it.

The news arrives just one day after media reports of racist posters stuck up in Melbourne universities, written in very clumsy  lets be honest, probably Google Translated  Chinese. The posters said that Chinese people would not be allowed into the building or they would be deported. Clever.

Earlier this month racist posters popped up in Sydney, attacking people of colour, as well as public figures like Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Waleed Aly and Sarah Hanson-Young.

Two other groups are allegedly responsible for the posters in Melbourne and Sydney.

Some people have been calling the removal of the posters a form of censorship, to which we respond:

Just want to clarify: open racism & bigotry is ok and any objection is censorship?  Upulie Divisekera (@upulie) July 26, 2017

Why cave in to the Right like this? Its absurd  Upulie Divisekera (@upulie) July 26, 2017

In conclusion, if you get goats to remove hateful, racist posters, its not censorship pic.twitter.com/bBsLCMnnPA  Upulie Divisekera (@upulie) July 26, 2017

Source & Photo: ABC.
Adobe is finally planning to lay its deeply hated Flash platform to rest and the internet is bloody cheering.

Flash has been a staple of internet browsing since the 90s and was required to run internet cartoons and games like those found on Newgrounds.com. Im sure we all remember the horrors of Salad Fingers, no?

As the platform became more complicated, it allowed users to do more with it, but it also became a colossal pain in the ass. It was the easiest way for hackers to get all up inside your computer and was responsible for countless crashes and other issues. Laptop users will also be aware of how viscously draining it was to battery life.

Apple hasnt used the platform for ages because of how tremendously broken it is and Google banned it from Chrome about a year ago. Finally, Adobe has accepted that Flash is nothing more than a corpse that needs to be buried. Not right away, though, it will support the platform up until 2020.

The company praised the accomplishments achieved by Flash in their release before announcing its impending dismissal.

Over time, weve seen helper apps evolve to become plugins, and more recently, have seen many of these plugin capabilities get incorporated into open web standards. Today, most browser vendors are integrating capabilities once provided by plugins directly into browsers and deprecating plugins. Given this progress, and in collaboration with several of our technology partners  including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla  Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.

Good riddance, Flash. You were once great, but now just in the way.

Photo: David Firth / Salad Fingers.
A forest fire rages on a hillside in the outskirts of La Londe-les-Maures on the French Riviera, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities ordered the evacuation of 10,000 people as fires hopscotched around the Riviera for a third day Wednesday, tearing through the forest of La Londe-les-Maures. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2016 file photo, federal police put items seized from the Federal Senate Legislative Police headquarters into a vehicle as part of an investigation into the Car Wash operation in Brasilia, Brazil. BrazilAos Attorney-GeneralAos office decided on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 to triple its 2018 budget dedicated to the corruption probe engulfing political and business leaders across Latin America. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
This Tuesday, July 25, 2017 patrol car dashboard camera image released by the Maine State Police shows a man strolling down a street in Hollis, Maine, who police said was wearing a clown mask with a machete taped to his amputated arm. Police said the man, Corey Berry, 31, of Hollis, was arrested and charged with criminal threatening. He was released after posting bail. (Maine State Police via AP)
The pandemic brought a technological revolution to schools. Is that a good thing?

Regardless of the path, by necessity, most educators agree the pandemic electrified the use of technology in the classroom.
America's biggest oil port the LOOP to be a two-way street



Bloomberg/

Eddie Seal

LOOP may be able to load crude onto supertankers by early 2018. Cost to ship U.S. crude to Asia seen lower from LOOP

NEW YORK

Petroleumworld 07 26 2017

The biggest U.S. oil-import hub wants to grab a piece of surging North American crude exports.

Louisiana Offshore Oil Port , the only terminal along the U.S. Gulf Coast able to handle a fully laden supertanker, is gauging interest from shippers in sending crude overseas on the world's biggest ships by early next year. The port would continue to take in foreign oil, LOOP LLC said in an emailed statement Monday.

Ports are competing to fill the needs of domestic oil producers looking for outlets for their growing supply. At the same time, the boom from U.S. shale fields and Canadian oil-sands mines has reduced refiners' need for imported oil. LOOP's ability to handle tankers capable of carrying 2 million barrels in their holds would reduce shipping costs for companies looking to send crude to refiners in Asia.

LOOP is the most obvious place for U.S. crude exports since as a deepwater port it makes it more manageable to load up a large ship such as a VLCC, Sandy Fielden, director of commodities and energy research at Morningstar Inc., said by phone from Austin, Texas. It makes huge sense from a logistical perspective as it will allow for more efficient cargo shipments.

Currently, shippers have to load oil onto smaller tankers in ports such as Houston or Corpus Christi, Texas, that then transfer their cargoes onto Very Large Crude Carriers sitting offshore. That adds cost and time to the shipments. While Corpus Christi received its first VLCC at the end of May, the port's channel isn't deep enough for a ship that size to load a full cargo.

Click here for more on growing U.S. crude exportst

Nigerian and Saudi Arabian oil will continue being unloaded from massive supertankers at LOOP's marine terminal 17 miles offshore and pumped into storage caverns one-third of a mile under its Clovelly Hub in Louisiana, as it has for over 30 years. But LOOP is turning some of its operations around as exports surge after restrictions were lifted at the end of 2015.

Today, customers are seeking the optionality to safely and efficiently load or offload, which is a natural request for a port," LOOP President Tom Shaw said in the statement. "This service offers our customers the scalability to fully load a VLCC."

LOOP will be competing with Corpus Christi, which in 2017 became the top oil-export hub for the U.S. Canadian producers are looking for more options for selling their crude to higher-priced markets around the world, lessening their dependence on U.S. refiners.

In recent years, shipping oil overseas has become more economical, thanks to low-cost drilling methods unlocking vast deposits in West Texas and other areas. U.S. production reached 9.6 million barrels a day in April 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Rising Output

Daily U.S. output is hovering at more than 9 million barrels, much of which is lighter than what local refineries are configured to process. The excess is heading overseas, boosting American exports above those from OPEC members Qatar, Libya, Ecuador and Gabon. VLCC shipments to Asia are expected to jump 52-fold this year, shipping analysts at McQuilling Partners Inc. said in a note. That makes a port able to load the huge ships attractive to traders.

The additional capacity at LOOP could add another 300,000 barrels a day of U.S. exports, according to Fielden.

"Professional exporters will be drawn to this as they will want to export more regularly."






Physicians can now sign up to join Pennsylvania's medical marijuana effort.

"Any M.D. or D.O. who treats patients with any of 17 qualifying conditions should register with the state," Rachel Levine, the state's acting secretary of health, said Wednesday as she announced the official start of doctor participation in the program.

The success of the marijuana program, which is set to begin in early 2018, will depend on getting physicians involved quickly. In New York and New Jersey, patient access to medical marijuana and cannabis-derived medicines has been tightly restricted because relatively few doctors are participating. About 900 of New York's 96,000 physicians have signed up.

In Pennsylvania, only doctors will be permitted to write recommendations for medical marijuana. They cannot write prescriptions because the federal government maintains marijuana has no legitimate medical use.

Physicians will be required to take a four-hour course either online or in person to do that. The course, which will cost about $500, will qualify for continuing education credits. Levine said the state had approved two providers to teach the class, the Answer Page and Extra Step Assurance, but added that other educational services could be announced shortly.

State regulations prohibit doctors from advertising their services to write cannabis recommendations. Physicians also may not hold a direct economic interest in a growing operation or a dispensary. They may not write recommendations for themselves or family members.

Qualifying conditions include ALS, autism, cancer, Crohn's disease, chronic neuropathic pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/ AIDS, Huntington's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, intractable seizures, MS, neuropathies, Parkinson's disease, PTSD, sickle cell anemia, and spinal cord damage resulting in intractable spasticity.

The Inquirer spoke with Levine on Wednesday.

Q: What are the incentives for physicians to join?

Levine: The incentive for providers is to be able to provide excellent care for their patients. We surveyed 191 physicians, and 75 percent said they were interested in the program and wanted to participate. There's no financial incentive for them to do it, but if patients are asking for (medical marijuana), it may cause them to take the course.

Q: Should all doctors take the classes whether or not they intend to participate, and who is best suited to take it?

Levine: It's not essential they all take the classes. But we want physicians to have an open mind about medical marijuana. They'll learn about the benefits, and any potential risks, through the continuing medical education course. It may not be necessary for every family physician if they don't treat the qualifying conditions. But the conditions are broad and serious enough so that many will want to be involved.

Physicians I know who are pediatric neurologists can best benefit. For children with intractable seizures that can't be treated with traditional medicines, there's evidence that medical marijuana compounds that contain cannabidiol (CBD) can be helpful.

Q: How many doctors will be required to ensure the program's success?

Levine: I don't have a specific number, but we want a good geographic distribution.

Q: What steps should an interested doctor take to join?

Levine: Physicians should apply to the department to register, They'll need to demonstrate that by training or expertise they can treat the conditions, complete the four-hour course, and they must hold a valid and unsuspended license.

Q: How do patients find a participating doctor?

Levine: There will be a database on the Department of Health website with a list of approved physicians.

Q: Will the way this is set up require patients to nudge their doctors to participate?

Levine: I don't know if nudge is the word. Patients asking for it will provide a need. It's important to emphasize that medical marijuana is another tool for physicians to use to treat these conditions. It will come down to a conversation between the patient and doctor. It's the sacred relationship between the two which is the crux of all medicine.

Q: Not every state has a physician registry. States that don't include Michigan, Maine, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. How will Pennsylvania avoid a New York-styled bottleneck?

Levine: Over the next six months, we'll recruit physicians to participate. By starting now, we'll be more successful. Already, Pennsylvania doctors have provided 282 safe-harbor letters for children to go to other states for their medical marijuana before it becomes available here.

Q: Would you consider eliminating the registry eventually?

Levine: I don't see a time we would do that. I think it's very important we have the registry and that physicians take the course. This is a topic not traditionally taught in medical school. But it's also what the law requires. I don't see us going to the legislature to ask to change that. It's an important component and ensures that physicians have the information to make a determination to see if the patient will benefit.

Q: You've spoken about using medical marijuana to help alleviate the opioid epidemic. How would that work?

Levine: One of the qualifying conditions is chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin, or pain where conventional therapy isn't working. States that have medical marijuana programs have a lower incidence of opioid use and a lower overdose rate. But this is not going to fix the opioid epidemic. It's just one tool in the toolbox for physicians to treat chronic pain without opioids.

As part of our expanded prescribing guidelines for opioids, we'll include a new section on treating chronic pain. So that will include other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, treatments like occupational therapy and osteopathic manipulation, complementary treatments like acupuncture, and we will have a small section about medical marijuana. It's the biggest health crisis we have, and we need to bend the curve to reduce the number of opioids that are being prescribed.

Q: After a doctor registers and writes a recommendation, what does the patient need to do?

Levine: The patient takes the recommendation and applies to the Department of Health for a medical marijuana identification card. The ID card, which will have the patient's picture on it, can be carried in their wallet. They'll be in our database. The patient regulations, which will detail the process, are being drafted and expected to be released within the next few months.

Q: Can the doctor make a determination that medical marijuana is not working or is no longer needed?

Levin: Yes. If the physician determines that the patient no longer needs it or if the patient is no longer under their care, the doctor can alert the state.

Q: How much say does the doctor have in what cannabis medicine the patient consumes?

Levine: The doctor can suggest the form of the medical marijuana product. In Pennsylvania, only refined oils, creams, tinctures, and vape cartridges will be dispensed. Doctors can suggest doses and the ratio of THC to CBD. The ultimate decision on dose and ratio, though, will be determined between patient and the medical professional at the dispensary.

Q: Are there any elements of the program that keep you up at night?

Levine: There's nothing that keeps me up at night. It's a very high-quality program.

Q: Synthetic THC products such as Marinol have been for sale for decades. They're legal and approved for sale by the FDA. Will those products be available at dispensaries?

Levine: (Marinol) is not a great drug. It's not been shown to be helpful for these conditions. So, no. And these dispensaries are not pharmacies. Anything sold at the dispensary, by law, has to be generated by a Pennsylvania grower-processor and has to have been tested by state-approved laboratories.

Q: Should medical marijuana be considered a first line solution or only as a last resort?

Levine: I'm not here to get involved in the sacred patient-doctor relationship, so that's a decision to made between them.

Q: The Department of Justice will likely issue a report about cannabis on Thursday that could have serious repercussions for medical marijuana programs across the country. Do you foresee it putting a chill on the Pennsylvania program and could it cause doctors to think twice about signing up?

Levine: It's hard for me to predict what the federal government will do from one day to the next. We'll see what they do and act accordingly. However, we're optimistic. Pennsylvania's program has bipartisan support and will continue to move forward. I really don't want to comment about what the Attorney General might do.

Q: Is there any mechanism in place to protect doctors from federal prosecution?

Levine: We only have jurisdiction over Pennsylvania law. Doctors are licensed by the individual states. A physician cannot be prosecuted under Pennsylvania law for being part of the program.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Attorney Nancy K. Raynor, of Raynor & Associates, at her law offices in Malvern in 2015. Read more

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has let stand a $45,000 sanction against insurance defense lawyer Nancy Raynor for seeking to intimidate a witness in a medical-malpractice case by warning the witness's employer, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, that it might be sued over her testimony.

The sanction was imposed by a trial court judge and upheld by a Superior Court panel late last year. The panel concluded that Raynor had attempted to pressure Dr. Stephanie Porges, who had testified against Raynor's client in the medical-malpractice case, into changing her testimony.

In a separate action, the Superior Court had overturned an earlier $1 million sanction against Raynor for allegedly permitting a witness to introduce precluded testimony during a trial. On appeal, the Supreme Court allowed that decision to stand.
Staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Southern city in China. Read more

MADISON, Wis.  Foxconn Technology Group will announce at the White House on Wednesday its plans to bring jobs to Wisconsin.

The deal will "bring jobs and billions of dollars in investments to our country," according to a White House spokesman.

Joining President Trump at the event will be Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, state Senate President Roger Roth, and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

Foxconn's plant is expected to be located in Racine County or Kenosha County, which are both in Ryan's district, south of Milwaukee.

Plans to bring the manufacturer of iPhones and flat-panel TV screens to Wisconsin will cost $1 billion to $3 billion in local, state, and federal incentives over coming years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday.

Bloomberg Politics reported on Wednesday the Wisconsin facility would initially employ about 3,000 people.

The move comes as Trump has promised to bring manufacturing jobs that have been lost in recent decades back to the United States.

Trump is to make the announcement alongside Wisconsin officials Wednesday afternoon. Walker highlighted the plan on Twitter, calling it a "major jobs announcement."

A follow-up event will be held Thursday at the Milwaukee Art Museum, according to sources.

Foxconn chairman and CEO Terry Gou will be in Milwaukee Thursday for meetings related to the company's Wisconsin plans but may not appear at the event planned at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a source said.

Foxconn is huge. In China, its manufacturing base, the company employs some 700,000 people. The firm's revenue last year totaled about $135 billion. That's roughly equivalent to Amazon.com Inc., which ranked 12th on the Fortune 500 list.

An incentive package that reaches into the billions would be unlike anything Wisconsin has offered in the past and would require approval from state lawmakers. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican, has said he hoped to get bipartisan support for the package.

Fitzgerald did not provide details on the terms of the package, but sources said it would likely top $1 billion and could close in on $3 billion.

Company officials have talked about a massive investment in the United States that would create thousands of jobs. They have visited Wisconsin and other states in recent weeks as they consider their options.

Reeling in the company would take big bucks. One source said Wisconsin's offer would come in at $1 billion. Three others said it would be closer to $3 billion. A fifth source said the deal at one point was expected to be worth $3 billion but had come down since then.

Two of those citing the $3 billion price tag said the package would be paid over 15 years.

If the deal cost $1 billion and the company created 10,000 jobs, the government would spend $100,000 per job. And a $3 billion deal with that many jobs would cost $300,000 per job.

Steve Deller, a professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said a $3 billion deal over 15 years is likely "too pricey in terms of potential economic benefit back to the state."

"Throwing money into incentive makes a slippery slope," he said. "(People) get so wrapped up in the winning game, in the headline of 'we got it' that they lose sight in a pretty steep price. Hard to say because we don't know what the package looks like."

Supporters say such an investment would be worthwhile because Foxconn would also draw numerous suppliers that would create their own jobs and energize Wisconsin's economy.

It was unclear how the funding for the deal would be spread among the state, federal and local governments. Incentives take many different forms and can include cash outlays, infrastructure investments, loans or tax breaks.

Also unknown is how many jobs Foxconn would deliver with its plant and how much workers would be paid. Those will be crucial issues as lawmakers consider whether to sign off on any incentive package.

Bringing the company to Wisconsin would be a win for Walker and Ryan. It would also be a victory for Trump, who was the first Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff writer Lillian Price contributed to this article.
In the opening moments of Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron emerges naked from an ice bath, takes a couple of cubes with her, plops them into a glass along with some vodka, and contemplates herself in a mirror.

You can read the thoughts of Theron fans worldwide: Make mine a double.

They may be less enthralled by the strange cocktail offered up here by director David Leitch (the two John Wick movies), which plays at being be an ambitious espionage thriller  it's set in 1989 Berlin as the wall is about to fall  but is happy to drop everything to watch Theron indulge in the brutal black comedy of violent beat-downs.

It's as if John le Carre were hired to write something for Schwarzenegger: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Badass.

Why, we even have Toby Jones, playing virtually the same MI6 bureaucrat he played in the 2011 iteration Tinker, this time debriefing British agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) who returns, bruised and bloody, from her Berlin mission to recount her adventures, forming the flashback spine of the movie.

Broughton goes to Germany to assist David Percival (James McAvoy), British Intelligence's man in Berlin, assigned to rescue an East German defector (Eddie Marsan as Spyglass) who's memorized a list of covert British operatives. The list also exists in physical from, inside a watch, which ends up in the hands of a rogue KGB agent.

Somewhere on that list is the name of a highly placed Soviet double agent, and it becomes clear that the agent could be anyone: Broughton, Percival, even the high-ranking MI6 administrator and CIA officer Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) who listen to Broughton's self-serving story.

It's also clear that Leitch isn't interested in the narrative of betrayal, which would require him to invest in the characters so that the viewer has a reason to care, to feel the sting of deceit and double-cross.

Leitch is more interested in opportunities for over-the-top action, and he finds it just about anywhere. Broughton wanders around East and West Berlin, occasionally bumping into East German police (she defeats a dozen in one sequence with an extension cord), and KGB agents in punk attire (the music-drenched movie concludes with the Clash but includes mostly period pop, including one clever sequence scored to 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry").

Leitch outdoes himself in a sequence that has Broughton protecting the East German defector with one hand and fighting off a group of Soviet assassins with another  rolling out of an apartment and into a staircase in a choreographed ballet of escalating brutality that appears to have been shot in one impressive take.

In John Wick Chapter 2, Leitch referenced Buster Keaton, as if to signal to us that his grisly action stunts are all in fun. OK, but what's fun about seeing a KGB thug beat a guy to death with a skateboard in a scene that doesn't have much to do with the plot?

Here, his more pretentious reference is to Tarkovsky (Broughton fights a bunch of henchmen at a screening of Stalker), and there is the suggestion that collapsing, nightmare-ish East Berlin has become like Stalker's zone: a lawless, borderless place that allows people to live out their desires, to find their true selves  for better or for worse.

It's a high bar that the movie doesn't clear. Instead, the fall of the wall becomes an occasion for glib cynicism, a mere prop in another gruesome, R-rated romp. Atomic Blonde is what fans of the Clash used to call a poser.
Sienna Ward was supposed to attend dance camp this summer.

Instead, she's been learning to do simple things again, such as sitting up on her own without support. Last week, she practiced lying on a floor doing sit-ups and managed to do six in a row. Small victories but significant considering that a few weeks ago, doctors weren't even sure the 11-year-old was going to make it.

Sienna had been playing with friends after an early dismissal from school June 7 when a slow-moving CSX freight train attracted their attention. The girls began tossing rocks at it and trying to touch it. Childhood antics quickly turned to tragedy when somehow Sienna lost her footing and reached to grab on to a pole on the train. Her legs got tangled beneath the train as it continued westbound, dragging her about 500 feet.

One leg was lost immediately. In the ensuing weeks, Sienna was in and out of surgery multiple times as doctors battled to stave off a life-threatening infection and also save her remaining leg. In the end, they made a gut-wrenching decision to remove it as well.

I'm happy to report that more than a month after the accident, Sienna is much improved. She's not scheduled for any more surgeries and has been moved out of the intensive care unit. Sienna is mostly off feeding tubes and eating on her own, asking for food from Taco Bell and Popeyes. Her left thigh, where she had a skin graft, is still painful but healing. She's back to being "Sassy Cee Cee," as her mother jokingly calls her.

She's using Snapchat and Instagram to stay in touch with friends and staying up late nights watching the CW show The Vampire Diaries. But the best news of all is that she's due to be released from the hospital this week and moved into the Seashore House, CHOP's 18-bed rehabilitation facility. The timing couldn't be better  with her 12th birthday on Friday.

"She's coming along nicely," said her mother, Natasha Ward, who was shopping in South Philly for birthday gifts when I caught up with her on Thursday.

So what does she want? Sienna has asked for sneakers. She loves Nike Huaraches, customized Converse, and throwback Adidas. If she were my kid, I'd get her every single pair in the store.

Relatives intend to go all out for Sienna's big day. They plan to set up a candy buffet in a hospital conference room and get balloons in Sienna's favorite colors of teal and gold. They also are hoping that maybe players from either the Sixers or the Eagles (hint, hint) might decide to make a surprise visit and encourage Sienna to keep pushing and overcoming obstacles. Because as much progress as has been made, Sienna still has a long way to go. The goal is for her to be fitted with prosthetic devices so she can move around independently again.

Plans are underway to renovate the Ward family home to make it handicapped-accessible so it will be ready when Sienna finally comes home. They've been ripping up carpets and making plans to add a wheelchair lift and create a first-floor bathroom, among other adjustments. Trevor Mackins, Landmark Group, was so moved by Sienna's situation that he offered to provide free labor for the rehab and also help locate a sponsor for the materials.

It's been like that for the Wards. After we shared her story in June, donations from Inquirer and Daily News readers poured in. The family is grateful for the many donations readers have made to Sienna's GoFundMe. People have been very generous. At last count, the crowd fund-raising account had nearly $30,000. An additional $1,000 arrived in the mail from a male reader who asked to remain anonymous.

Here is the address if you care to contribute: P.O. Box 22344, Philadelphia, PA 19110

"I cannot believe that so many people are coming and helping her," said Tina Miller, Sienna's aunt.

It's been something to see. I've been awed by all the emails I've gotten from readers offering everything from money and prayers to even a spare wheelchair for Sienna.

It's touching how in a city, where so many tragic things happen every single day, so many people still have space in their hearts to care about a little girl whose biggest goal is just to dance again.
Astronaut Bluford Guion Jr. (second from left) applaused at the Mann Center, before Philadelphia Orchestra musicians, at the debut of Hold Fast to Dreams by Nolan Williams Jr. (left). Read more

From Richard Strauss to Haydn, John Williams to Puccini, and with a stop at a lovely new commission, Tuesday night's Philadelphia Orchestra concert moved fast. But then again, space travel is like that.

The concert, dubbed A Space Odyssey, was this summer's centerpiece artistic statement at the Mann Center. Composer Nolan Williams Jr. was commissioned by the Mann to write a new piece honoring astronaut Guion Bluford Jr.  Philadelphia-born and the first African American in space.

Bluford took the stage briefly, telling the Mann crowd that "it was an honor to be back, and I take a great deal of pride in being a Philadelphian." More moving perhaps were the moments of localized spontaneous applause at intermission as the astronaut walked up the aisle through the house.

If the Mann and Williams succeeded in anything Tuesday night, it was in creating a vibe of warmth and quiet awe. Something about the vastness of space brings people close  perhaps a visceral sense of existential perspective. Footage from Bluford's Space Shuttle missions reminded us of the feats of science and technology in space, while the music, at various points, made hearts leap at the more poetic implications of humans' moving through the cosmos. Williams, who's also the Mann's festival artistic director, surrounded his new song cycle with orchestral works  all led by conductor Cristian Macelaru  that referenced, to one extent or another, some celestial element.

Musically, it was a bit of a jumble. The move from "Dawn," from Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (known to many for its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey), to Haydn's "The Heavens Are Telling" from The Creation might have made sense on paper, but in practice, it was jarring. Works did sometimes speak to one another in unexpected ways, though. Would we have noticed the sly Strauss references in "Adventures on Earth," an astonishingly colorful swath from John Williams' score to E.T., had the concert not begun with Strauss' famously bright sun rays of brass?

You didn't need to understand the text about the "silvery moon in the velvet night" in Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka: It was all right there in the silvery orchestrations, and in the velvet soprano voice of Elena Perroni. She was joined by the light tenor of Marco Cammarota in the "Balcony Scene" duet from Bernstein's West Side Story.

Less subtle were the images of planets, moons, and solar flares projected on the big screen as the orchestra played the "Jupiter" movement from Holst's The Planets. It was all too literal, and distracting.

The evening's best moments were the ones that got at some emotion, and there were several that went right to the heart. Even now, 35 years later, John Williams' music from E.T. startles with its beauty and directness. It brings propulsive energy and sparkly space dust, with stretches of tenderness and deep humanity. The orchestra played with a great polish that journeyed from heroic to introspective and back again.

Nolan Williams Jr. had big forces at his disposal for Hold Fast to Dreams: the Mann Festival Choir drawn from local groups, two excellent soloists  soprano Leah Hawkins and bass-baritone Frank B. Mitchell 3d  plus the clarion narration of Franklin Institute astronomer Derrick Pitts. With various texts, including some from Bluford, the piece's four movements mixed and matched forces in canny ways to explore dreams  dreams stirred and realized, and dreams dashed.

Williams has a musical language all his own. It brims with vernacular American optimism, but is always in service to the text. Pitts' narration over a jazz band cool breeze in the second movement caught Langston Hughes' sense of language perfectly, with Williams' giving a "broken-winged bird" more hope than the poetry itself by assigning the image an oboe figure that persisted in trying to take flight.

Williams' gift for warmth glowed in the last song. In "Hope Renewed: Child of the Universe," Hawkins took on the tone of maternal authority, assuring, with Max Ehrmann's words, that the "world is beautiful still." Williams' dreamily upbeat piece left no other choice than to believe it so.
Dane County and much of Wisconsin could get a transformative economic boost if Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn brings thousands of manufacturing jobs to the state.

But building a plant in the state also spurs questions about whether Wisconsin can supply the number of workers Foxconn may need  and whether taxpayers can shoulder the cost to land the company that may run in the billions.

Foxconn is likely to speak publicly this week about its potential plans in Wisconsin, though it remains unclear what sort of commitment to the state it will make, if any.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported Foxconn was nearing a decision to invest in Wisconsin and could announce its plans this week in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trumps Wednesday schedule shows he will make a job-related announcement at 4 p.m.

Foxconn is reportedly eyeing sites in the states southeast corner, in Racine and Kenosha counties. But if Foxconn locates anywhere in the state, virtually all corners would benefit, said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

If Foxconn plants a flag in Wisconsin, it could be a game-changer to the states economy, Still said.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is a contract manufacturer for electronic products such as iPhones and iPads. Reports say its eyeing Wisconsin to manufacture flat screens for a range of devices, from phones to TVs.

Such a facility or facilities, even if located in southeast Wisconsin, could create myriad economic opportunities in Dane County, said Still and Paul Jadin, president of the Madison Region Economic Partnership. Jadin said there would be potential links for local medical-device manufacturers and for UW-Madison.

Certainly there would be opportunities for our supply chain. We also would be a very significant player in research and development at UW-Madison, Jadin said.

Others say state officials must not promise Foxconn too much from taxpayers.

Stills estimate of what it may cost Wisconsin to land Foxconn, based on comparable offers by other states to lure other companies, was between $2 billion and $3 billion over a period of decades.

Such a sum might not be outweighed by the economic benefits of landing Foxconn, said Steven Deller, a UW-Madison economist.

If its in the billions in terms of incentives, I think thats going to be a bad deal for Wisconsin, Deller said.

State Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said Monday that Gov. Scott Walkers administration and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. officials are spearheading negotiations on the states behalf. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has said lawmakers may have to pass a bill with incentives for Foxconn.

Some questioned if Wisconsin, with its modest population and low unemployment rate, could supply the workers Foxconn needs. State Assembly Republicans, in a recently released memo, said Foxconn has indicated its desire to locate in southeastern Wisconsin with up to 10,000 jobs.

Thats where Illinois may come in. The sites reportedly being eyed by the company are within commuting distance from at least part of the Chicago metro area.

Weve got to be in position to partner with Illinois to supply workers, Jadin said.

But if a sizable number of Foxconn workers and suppliers are from Illinois, that could dilute its economic impact on Wisconsin, Deller said.

Wisconsin isnt the only state in the running for Foxconn. In June, a Foxconn executive said other states being considered were Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

That means state-to-state competition for Foxconn will be fierce, Still and Deller said.

If I was a shareholder of Foxconn, I would expect management to be playing these states off each other, Deller said. Theyre in the drivers seat.

State Journal reporter Molly Beck contributed to this report.
Eli Kulp, partner at High Street Hospitality, speaks at the Live Your Dreams conference at the Free Library. Read more

For Eli Kulp, partner at the acclaimed restaurants Fork, High Street on Market, and New York's High Street on Hudson, speaking at an industry conference with the theme "Live Your Dreams" was no simple endeavor.

"For me, I was living my dream," he said Tuesday. "I had one dream in my life: I was a successful chef. We had three restaurants, going on four, and then this happened." That is, the May 12, 2015, Amtrak derailment that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

"It dawned on me, sometimes your dreams have to change a little bit, too."

The conference was staged by Journee, a leadership-development organization for restaurant professionals, and hosted by the Free Library's Culinary Literacy Center. It was the first public speaking engagement for Kulp since the crash, and a day filled with stories of chefs clawing their way back from rock bottom.

Cristina Martinez of South Philly Barbacoa, an outspoken advocate for the undocumented immigrants that power the city's kitchens, spoke about working through fears of deportation and the loss of her son, Isaias Berriozabal-Martinez, in January.

And Michael Franco, the owner of Baril, spoke about overcoming not one, but two personal crises with support from his colleagues.

First, there was a drug habit that turned into addiction. "For four years, no one knew. It's a pretty easy thing to hide," said Franco, 37.

Finally, he came clean to his friends, and his manager.

"If I was at a desk job, they would've fired me. These guys just supported me," he said. They helped him land a job at Le Bec-Fin, where he rose to general manager.

"The structure, the professionalism of that job  it saved my life," he said.

Then, he faced an even more devastating crisis after opening Crow & the Pitcher, the two-bell Rittenhouse Square restaurant, with chef Alex Capasso. One day, about a year in, Capasso had called out of work when a bartender texted Franco a photo of the day's newspaper: Capasso had been arrested on child-pornography charges.

"I thought I was done. My business is going to close. My dream is gone," he said. "But within 24 hours, I had chefs calling me, asking: 'How can I help you? Do you need me to take you to the produce market? Do you need me to pick up fish for you?' "

His staff and customers stuck with him, too, and the restaurant survived  though, these days, under a new name, Baril, and under Franco's sole ownership.

Fellow chefs also rallied around Kulp, raising $130,000 for his recovery. But for Kulp, whose imposing, 6-foot-4 frame once earned him the nickname "the Viking" in his kitchens, that help wasn't so easy to accept.

"I'd become angry at the industry, actually," said Kulp, 39, who now navigates with a motorized wheelchair. "I turned my back on food, cuisine, restaurants. I blamed that for me not being able to walk again or use my hands again. I felt like my ambition had put me on that train."

Slowly, he said, he's found his way back to it.

"But it's not the same. I can't get in there physically and touch the food, cook the food, jump on the line, expedite service," he said.

Before, Ellen Yin, his business partner, managed the restaurants and he ran the kitchen. Now, he's working hard to find his place on the business side of the operation. He's still living in New York, and spending much of his time at High Street on Hudson  which, in 2016, was named one of Food & Wine's restaurants of the year.

"My journey and my rebirth, so to speak, is just really beginning. I don't have the answers," he said. "I don't have the ride-off-to-the-sunset dream yet, because, as I was living it, it was interrupted."
Solorah Singleton speaks with nurse practitioner Caroline Cylkowski during an exam at Mazzoni Center, a care facility for LGBTQ health and well-being in Philadelphia. Read more

Solorah Singleton has been waiting years for breast augmentation. She doesn't want to jinx it now, but the Philadelphia resident thinks it's finally within reach.

Singleton, 36, was born male but identifies as female. For seven years, she has had regular hormone therapy, never seeing surgery as an option. She previously didn't have health insurance and didn't think she could cover the cost of the procedure out-of-pocket.

Now, that's changed. Last summer, Pennsylvania updated its Medicaid policy to spell out coverage of care related to gender transitioning  including surgery. Soon after, employees at a local health clinic signed Singleton up. She has since received medical approval for surgery and hopes to get it done soon.

"It's a blessing," she said. "I'll feel at home in my own skin."

Her experience aligns with a larger trend that could soon lose steam. Spurred in part by antidiscrimination rules in the 2010 health law, Pennsylvania  along with 13 other states plus the District of Columbia  rewrote its Medicaid policy to clarify how it covers transition-related care. Montana, the most recent adoptee, posted its change in May. Because Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people, covers a disproportionately high number of transgender people compared with the general population, the potential change could heap hardship on an already-embattled population.

The ACA's nondiscrimination portion, known as Section 1557, says federally funded programs that provide health care, coverage, or related services cannot discriminate based on sex. The provision has been in effect since the law's enactment and helped fuel a federal push to protect transgender people from discrimination in receiving health-care services. In 2016, the Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services issued the final rule crystallizing that policy.

Before the ACA, Medicaid operated under its own antidiscrimination requirements. However, many state programs were vague in describing gender-transition benefits. This made it difficult for people like Singleton to understand what Medicaid covered. It also made it easier for plans to question the medical necessity of treatments and to issue denials.

By making it clear that state Medicaid programs could not refuse to pay for a health-care service simply because the beneficiary is transgender, and suggesting greater federal attention to the matter, the Section 1557 rule pushed states to be more upfront about coverage specifics.

That regulation is back in play as the Department of Health and Human Services appears to be walking back from its directive and coverage protections.

In a Texas case in which faith-affiliated health-care providers argued Section 1557 required they act against their religious beliefs  which "will not allow them to perform medical transition procedures that can be deeply harmful to their patients"  a federal judge issued an injunction at the end of 2016 to block the transgender protections. HHS responded by asking the court to remand the case and stay further proceedings while it rewrites the rule. Earlier this week, the judge obliged. In the meantime, that portion of Section 1557 will not be enforced.

The rewrite is part of the administration's overarching executive effort. HHS Secretary Tom Price and President Trump have vowed to use administrative power to mitigate the health law's policy changes, specifically those that created "regulatory or economic burdens" or that don't match up with the current White House agenda.

"Any time the federal government says, 'We're not going to take civil rights seriously'  this is a huge concern," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University.

An HHS spokeswoman declined to answer what impact rewriting the rule could have or how likely it is the department would scale back transgender protections, citing laws that limit disclosing "nonpublic information regarding rule-making."

But if the federal government isn't asserting a certain coverage standard for publicly funded programs, health plans can find leeway to deny claims and argue a transition-related service is not medically necessary, noted Katie Keith, an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University. She also runs Out2Enroll, an advocacy group that connects LGBTQ people with health-insurance options.

The consequences can be serious. Singleton said she has known many people who want hormone therapy but have long felt uncomfortable seeking it at health clinics, because of poor experiences with insurance coverage. Their alternative: buying the drugs through illicit channels, where it's hard to know if they're of good quality, or even safe to use.

"If they're trying to get themselves comfortable with their look, they'll go to any extreme measures," she said.

Coverage changes that, she added. "It will definitely improve health situations."

Even with Medicaid policies explicitly guaranteeing coverage, beneficiaries still navigate plenty of red tape, said Amy Nelson, who directs patient legal services at Whitman-Walker Health, a clinic in Washington that specializes in LGBTQ care. It has staff whose entire job is navigating insurance hurdles for people seeking transition-related care.

States that have already rewritten Medicaid policies are unlikely to rescind them, Keith said. But if HHS waters down federal protections, others may be reluctant to hop on. "It makes the state-level work much more important," she said.

Already, lower courts are offering one path. In Minnesota, a 64-year-old resident sued the state when its Medicaid program wouldn't cover a transition-related double mastectomy. A county judge held that denying coverage for this procedure violated the state constitution. Advocates have found similar success through legal action in Pennsylvania and New York.

A growing body of research suggests that paying for gender transition doesn't cost state Medicaid programs much when compared with potential savings down the line that would result from preventing health issues such as long-term psychological distress. Private insurance has also moved in this direction. In 2014, Medicare  the federal program covering older people  lifted some restrictions on covering gender transition.

Another complicating factor: the ongoing Obamacare repeal efforts on Capitol Hill. Current GOP health plans don't address these antidiscrimination regulations because they can include only provisions that qualify for fast-track consideration. Republicans tend to support stepping back from the law's expansion of Medicaid, which made millions of Americans newly eligible for the program. "It's great to have 1557 [protections], but if no one can get a health-insurance plan or get Medicaid, it doesn't matter much," Keith said.

Plus, those lawmakers want to restructure Medicaid, giving states more control but also limiting its funding. Experts say the change could create cost pressures that would drive states to restrict who is eligible for the program, stop covering particular services, or both.

"Transgender people could be vulnerable," said Harper Jean Tobin, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy group. "That is more likely if the administration is sending the message to states  that it's OK to discriminate against transgender people."

For patients like the ones Nelson sees at Whitman-Walker, the impact would be grim. Some, she recalled, have waited as long as 40 years to get treatment that, without Medicaid benefits, was simply unaffordable.

"They've been suffering silently," she said. "Folks are thrilled to have access. But to offer it and then pull it back would be devastating."

Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Jose Colon at the train tracks at Sedgley and Castor Avenues on Monday, July 24, 2017. His teenage stepson lost a leg last week in an accident on the tracks. Read more

Two children, three severed legs. In less than two months.

In both instances, trains struck Philadelphia kids. Babies, really. Each had been hanging around tracks when passing railcars caught their attention and they somehow wound up beneath them, bloodied and mangled. Scarred forever. Lucky to be alive. Both will need prosthetic devices just to walk again.

How does something like that happen? And not once, but twice in the same city in such a short span of time? I've written about an aspiring dancer struck by a train June 7 in Southwest Philadelphia. Sienna Ward, now 12, lost one leg in the accident and the other after infection set in. After she started feeling better, I moved on.

Then I heard last week about Mustafa Elmitwalli's accident. My first thought was: "Not again!"

The 14-year-old had been with his cousin and only about 100 yards from his cousin's house when he was hit last week. Mustafa's mother, Elizabeth Colon, had been chatting with him by phone only moments earlier. The family had plans to go to the movies, but shortly after Colon hung up, they got word that Mustafa had been hit by a train.

After his leg was severed, Mustafa reportedly got up and hopped on one leg to safety, and passersby hastily fashioned a tourniquet that helped slow his bleeding. Doctors at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children were unable to reattach his leg.

I met with Mustafa's stepfather on Monday at Castor and Sedgley Avenues in Frankford, near where the accident happened. Jose Colon pointed out a concrete ledge jutting out from an overpass that can serve as steps to the tracks. He jumped up on it to show me just how easy it is to scale.

Colon pointed out that barbed wire could prevent pedestrians from crawling on the ledge up to the tracks. Judging from all the trash and drug paraphernalia, a lot of people do that. Once you've climbed up there, you're secluded from the street. You can look out over the traffic passing underneath. Nearby trees offer a little respite from the hot concrete. And then, there's the allure of watching trains go by.

Mustafa, who just finished the eighth grade at Baldi Middle School, doesn't recall the moments before the accident.

"He's doing fine. He's actually doing fine. He's a fighter," Colon told me. "They changed the bandage today. He's fine. And everything looks good."

Just then, a train went by. Colon paused and watched for a moment before telling me that the enormity of what happened hasn't completely registered with Mustafa.

"I think what's going to happen is when he gets home and it hits him  and he sees everybody outside riding bikes and popping wheelies," Colon said. "He's going to have to sit on the porch on the sidelines for now."

He needs another surgery to close the wound, followed by rehabilitation therapy that could last a couple of months. According to Operation Lifesaver, about every three hours a person or vehicle is hit by a train. Many of these accidents are preventable. But a lot of times, kids don't know the hazards. Or that playing on train tracks is considered trespassing.

Parents, remind your kids to stay away from railroad tracks. If you have to grip them by the neck so they get the message, do it.

It could save a life  or a leg.
President Donald Trump listens as Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks in the Oval Office after being sworn into office in February. Read more

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday, questioning on Twitter why the top U.S. law enforcement official had not replaced the acting FBI director  a move that Trump himself has the authority to do.

Trump has for days been attacking his attorney general, and he has similarly been critical of McCabe, who took over as the acting director of the FBI after Trump fired James B. Comey. But his latest attack is curious.

Sessions was not the attorney general during the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. And the president himself could remove McCabe without Sessions. Administration officials actually contemplated doing so after Comey's firing. Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein met with four other candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, though the administration ultimately stuck with McCabe.

The others interviewed were Michael Anderson, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago division; Adam Lee, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond division; Paul Abbate, the executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch; and William "Bill" Evanina, the national counterintelligence executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The FBI also declined to comment.

In recent days, Trump has talked with advisers about replacing Sessions as his attorney general, and he has simultaneously criticized him in public. At a news conference Tuesday, he said he was "disappointed" in Sessions and declined to say exactly what his future was.

"We will see what happens," Trump said. "Time will well. Time will tell."

Congressional Republicans have come to the defense of Sessions, publicly urging Trump to back off his criticism of the attorney general.

In a brief interview Wednesday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reiterated his public support for Sessions, which came Tuesday when McConnell praised Sessions' job performance and voiced support for the attorney general's recusal of the Russian investigation.

McConnell declined to say if he directly raised the issue with Trump but made clear that he has voiced that support for Sessions to high-level officials.

"I've conveyed that to the public and to others," McConnell said.

A person familiar with internal White House discussions about Sessions said Trump's attacks on Sessions are a public airing of what the president has been saying for months privately  that he blames Sessions's recusal for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible ties to Russia. But the person cautioned that neither the president nor his advisers have articulated a plan for replacing Sessions with someone else, and the angry words are primarily a venting of the president's anger, rather than a calculated effort to drive the attorney general out of office.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily.

In a recent conversation, Sessions's chief of staff, Jody Hunt, told White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that the attorney general had no intention of stepping down. Hunt, according to people familiar with the conversation, made it clear to Priebus that Sessions "plans to move forward with his agenda in the department, and he has no plans for resigning." Priebus, for his part, did not say Trump planned to fire Sessions if he did not leave, these people said.

Trump has also shown some ire for McCabe, who seemed to put himself at odds with the Trump in May when, during an appearance before Congress, he rejected the White House's characterization of the Russian meddling probe as a low priority and delivered a passionate defense of Comey.

Trump's latest line of attack refers to an issue that emerged late in the 2016 presidential campaign, when it was revealed that the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the 2015 state senate campaign of McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe. The Virginia Democratic Party, over which McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to McCabe's campaign in the form of mailers, according to state campaign records.

Andrew McCabe was a senior FBI official at the time of that 2015 election, which Jill McCabe lost. After that election, Andrew McCabe was promoted to the No. 2 position at FBI headquarters under then-FBI director Comey. As deputy director, McCabe was part of the senior leadership team overseeing the Clinton email investigation, and a stalled probe involving the Clinton Foundation. Within the FBI, some agents were concerned about McCabe's involvement in those cases, given the previous campaign donations, but FBI ethics officials told McCabe it was not a conflict of interest to be involved with those cases. The issue is now being investigated by the Justice Department's inspector general.

When the president fired Comey in May, McCabe became acting director of the FBI, and even had a White House interview to take the job on a permanent basis. Since Comey's firing, many inside the agency and the larger federal law-enforcement workforce have rallied to support McCabe, who is generally regarded internally as trying to maintain and defend the agency's independence in the face of criticism from Trump.

Trump himself has the power to replace McCabe as the interim FBI director. When officials were considering doing so months ago, they were relying on the Vacancies Reform Act, which says only the president can do so. Officials said at the time that if McCabe were to have been replaced, he would have returned to his role in the No. 2 spot.
In the moments before a yoga teacher was fatally shot by Minneapolis police, a woman slapped the officers' patrol car while it drove through an alley, according to a search warrant application filed this week.

Though the information in the warrant is vague, it could explain the "loud sound" that reportedly startled Officers Matthew Harrity, the cruiser's driver, and Officer Mohamed Noor, who was in the front passenger seat, just before Noor shot 40-year-old Justine Damond. Harrity described the noise to investigators.

The warrant to search the area near the incident, obtained by several local media outlets, does not specify whether the woman who reportedly slapped the car was also the shooting victim, 40-year-old Australian native Damond.

Damond, who moved to Minneapolis in 2015 to be with her fiancee, was killed just before midnight on July 15  an incident still shrouded in mystery because the investigating agency, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, has released few details and it was not captured on camera.

"Upon police arrival, a female 'slaps' the back of the patrol squad," according to the search warrant filed by the BCA, reported MPR News. "After that, it is unknown to BCA agents what exactly happened, but the female became deceased in the alley."

The two had responded to 911 calls from Damond at around 11:30 p.m. reporting a possible sexual assault in the alley behind the woman's home in a nice Minneapolis neighborhood. Damond, according to the 911 transcripts, called when she heard a woman either having sex or being raped, the Washington Post previously reported.

"I think she just yelled out 'help,' but it's difficult," Damond said, according to a police transcript of the call.

Damond called again eight minutes later when authorities still hadn't arrived, worried they had gone to the wrong address.

It's unclear what exactly happened next, but Harrity told BCA investigators that Damond approached his side of the vehicle right after the loud noise. Noor, sitting in the passenger seat, fired his gun across his partner's body and through the driver's side window, striking Damond in the abdomen.

The officers attempted CPR, but 20 minutes after she called 911, Damond was dead.

Authorities found no weapons at the scene.

There has been international outcry in the weeks since, prompting rallies in Minnesota, beachside vigils from Damond's family in Australia and the resignation of the Minneapolis police chief over concerns that her officers  including Noor and Harrity  had not been properly trained.

Noor has declined to speak with BCA investigators, but an attorney for Harrity, Fred Bruno, hinted in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week that the officers may have believed they were being ambushed.

"It's certainly reasonable to assume that any police officer would be concerned about a possible ambush under these circumstances," Bruno told the Star Tribune.

Last weekend, several bright orange metal signs appeared in the Minneapolis region, bolted to already existing street signs with a message mocking Harrity's "startled" comment: "WARNING: TWIN CITIES POLICE EASILY STARTLED."

The signs featured a cartoon police officer with guns in both hands, firing in opposite directions. The signs were later removed.

The signs were just one of several acts of protest in the weeks since Damond's death. The day after she died, hundreds of neighbors, community members, political candidates and police reform advocates gathered outside Damond's home to celebrate her life and demand transparency from police.

Officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, were quick to condemn the lack of video evidence from the shooting. Both officers wore body cameras but never turned them on, and the dash camera on the patrol did not capture the incident.

That fueled outrage from community members and groups like Black Lives Matter, which advocated for police body cameras to prevent the mystery that often accompanies officer-involved shootings with conflicting narratives. The Twin Cities region was already jarred by two other fatal police shootings of black men from the area, Philando Castile and Jamar Clark.

In his first interview since Damond was killed, Don Damond, the man she was to marry in August, told the New York Times last week that he initially thought it was the alleged rapist who had shot her. Justine had called him that night when she heard the screams outside. From inside a casino in Las Vegas, he told her to call 911.

Once police arrived, they hung up, Don Damond told the Times. He told her to call him back, but the rest of the night his texts went unanswered.

"I have played this over in my head over and over," Damond told the Times. "Why didn't I stay on the phone with her?"
No boogie boarding for Tavella sisters, Bianca, 10, and Giovanna, 5, after all of Ventnor's beaches were closed due to elevated bacteria levels. Read more

Heavy rains in recent days and weeks have washed polluted runoff water into streams, rivers, and bays, leading to high bacteria levels that on Wednesday forced New Jersey officials to close 15 beaches, including ones in Atlantic City and Ventnor.

No need to panic yet. The vast majority of ocean beaches along the coast are fine. The other closed beaches are either river or bay beaches, including one in Somers Point, according to the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

What is the cause? Probably animal waste, said Larry Hajna, a DEP spokesman. Geese, gulls, and other popular shore birds are eating, resting, and leaving their messes. It's hard to predict where the flocks will land or the amount of rainfall that could raise bacterial levels.

For those looking for a more scientific explanation, the DEP's website states: "The New Jersey State Sanitary Code requires that the concentration of bacteria not exceed 104 colonies of Enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters of sample. Enterococci is a type of bacteria that is an indicator of possible contamination within bathing waters."

Vacationers expressed concern about Wednesday's closures that prohibit swimming, but allow people to use the beach.

"It's a bummer," said Susan Tavella, whose granddaughters, Bianca, 10, and Giovanna, 5, could not use their new boogie boards near Dorset Avenue in Ventnor. But after learning why the beach closed, she said, "We don't want to swim in that."

Nearby, Michelle Asatone was making the best of the situation while her sons, Tom, 7, and Nicky, 9, were engrossed in their books (Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Enemy Above).

The day was cloudy anyway, she said. "We're making good use of the time. It's still cool today, but kind of gross."

Ventnor Mayor Beth Holtzman said elevated levels were found in beaches from Jackson to Wissahickon Avenues, but she made the decision to close all the beaches Wednesday to "err on the side of safety."

"Hopefully the levels will go back to normal," she said, "the sooner, the better."

There was no word on when the beaches would reopen, but testing is done daily. Hajna was hopeful that the waters would clear up soon, possibly Thursday or Friday.

In some areas, the levels spiked so quickly that officials issued immediate closures.

"River beaches went straight to closure, which is unusual," Hajna said. Typically, the beaches would have advisory warnings first, he said.

On Wednesday, only four beaches had advisories, down from 31 the day before.

"We rarely see an ocean beach close," Hajna said. "If we get more rain, it could be a problem."

Mother Nature may not cooperate as the National Weather Service is predicting heavy rain Thursday and Friday in Atlantic City and nearby locations.

The beaches closed in Atlantic City are Bartram, Georgia, Annapolis Avenue, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Montgomery Avenue.

All beaches were closed in Ventnor after 1 p.m. Wednesday, after Austin Avenue, Dorset, New Haven and Washington were ordered closed initially. Washington was closed as a precaution due to the the closures of surrounding beaches.

The Atlantic City and Ventnor beaches had been under advisories on Tuesday, but were closed after testing Wednesday.

Staff writer Amy S. Rosenberg contributed to this article.
State senators will return to the Pennsylvania Capitol on Wednesday, hoping their votes will help break the budget logjam. Read more

HARRISBURG  Back to Plan A.

The full Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol on Wednesday for a two-day stay, and could begin voting on bills to raise new revenue for the state's cash-strapped coffers through a mix of borrowing and some new taxes.

That was the plan being discussed among budget negotiators before talks were upended last week, when the House's top Republican tried  and failed  to push an alternative proposal at the eleventh hour.

If the Republican-controlled Senate goes through with votes this week, it would set the stage for a political showdown  not with the Democratic Gov. Wolf, but with Republican Party colleagues who hold a commanding majority in the House.

The House would be forced to either grit its teeth and pass a proposal that its top leader, Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny), has derided, or put off dealing with the issue until its summer break ends in September, prolonging the impasse over how to complete the state budget.

Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, said Tuesday that GOP leaders in her chamber have for months discussed "a menu of options" to pay for the nearly $32 billion spending plan that Wolf allowed to become law without his signature.

"We've now gotten to the point where we are going to order from that menu," she said, adding that Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) has warned repeatedly that the decision will not be easy.

The legislature, with hours to spare before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, passed a nearly $32 billion spending plan  but without a corresponding plan to pay for it.

At the time, Wolf said he was confident lawmakers would resolve the issue quickly. But nearly a month later, negotiators have not been able to agree.

Negotiators have discussed borrowing up to $1.5 billion to cover a gaping shortfall in last fiscal year's budget, using proceeds that flow annually into the state's tobacco settlement fund.

But they've wrangled over ways to raise an additional $700 million to cover a projected deficit in this year's spending blueprint.

Senate Republicans, along with Wolf and a number of Democrats, appear open to raising new dollars through increased or new taxes. Among other items, they have discussed reinstating a tax on natural gas consumers (about half the state's households use natural gas) and extending the state sales tax to basic cable service.

Democrats, along with some moderate Republicans, have also pushed for a new tax on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Though Pennsylvania is the only major energy-producing state that doesn't tax extraction, GOP legislative leaders have historically been averse to it. (The state currently charges a per-well "impact fee.")

It is unclear whether any of those items will make the final cut this week, should the Senate decide to go forward with a vote on a revenue package.

But a number of House Republicans, led by Turzai, have been virulently opposed to any tax increases.

It was that opposition that drove Turzai to take a gamble last weekend: He called the chamber to the Capitol for a rare summer weekend session, pushing a no-tax plan that would have relied on straight borrowing and siphoning money from special funds that subsidize everything from farmland preservation to 911 call centers.

The gamble blew up within a matter of hours. House members went home without even taking up Turzai's plan in committee, let alone on the floor.

Turzai, a fiscal conservative from Western Pennsylvania, has since become something of a target.

On Tuesday, a few dozen demonstrators from the activist group Pittsburgh United, unions, and other groups gathered outside his district office near Pittsburgh, arguing that his no-tax plan would put the state in further debt and threaten social services, while protecting corporate interests.

"I am embarrassed and dismayed that my representative, Mike Turzai, is pretty much single-handedly responsible for this delay," said constituent Linda Bishop.

Emily McConville, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, contributed to this article.
The price of bitcoin has more than tripled in the past six months. (Dreamstime/TNS) Read more

Depending on whom you believe, Ted Price of Hatfield is either one of the most audacious cybercriminals to hit the internet in almost a decade or a drug-addled fabulist with delusions of grandeur.

Federal investigators  and the unemployed 30-year-old himself  say he pulled off one of the largest bitcoin thefts in the short history of the supposedly fraud-proof virtual currency, stealing the equivalent of nearly $50 million.

He also claimed, during a rambling confession to Homeland Security investigators July 12, to have developed hacking exploits for use by foreign governments and to have plotted his escape with the use of a fake passport and a private jet.

But his lawyer and family contend that the jet-setting expert hacker described in the story Price spun for investigators bears no resemblance to the man they know  a jobless addict who they say still relies on his parents for gas money, and who was high on oxycodone and other opioids at the time of those damning admissions.

More details are expected to emerge Thursday, when both sides will ask a federal judge to weigh in on the likelihood that Price's claims are true at a probable cause hearing in Philadelphia. The judge's decision on the strength of the evidence will determine the future of what could be one of the most significant cybercrime prosecutions in years  one that already has drawn interest from cybersecurity experts.

"If this guy actually did what he said he did, that's breathtaking," said Edward McAndrew, a former federal cybercrimes prosecutor who now helps to lead Ballard Spahr's privacy and data security group. "If he could actually pick the bitcoin wallets of this many people, that really calls into question the security of the system."

Yet there is reason for doubt, his lawyer Catherine C. Henry said at a hearing in federal court in Philadelphia last week  chiefly, that the man who contends he has access to currency worth millions and a private jet to aid his escape initially came to the attention of authorities as a suspect in a string of petty thefts.

A review of Price's history in various online forums for bitcoin enthusiasts and hackers reveals that his screen name, cited in court filings, had relatively little activity in those worlds prior to this spring. It is possible that he used other online monikers in the past.

"If he is a millionaire and has a private jet, then of course he's a flight risk," Henry said in court last week while arguing for her client's release. "But if that's made up and if, on the other hand, he has no income, lives with his parents, and has a 7-year-old child, then these are just grandiose statements."

Police in Northampton Township, Bucks County, began probing Price's background this month after the parents of an ex-girlfriend accused him of stealing two laptops and a gold necklace from their home.

Officers later recovered the missing items from various resale shops where Price had sold them, according to the arrest affidavit filed in his case. His ex-girlfriend discovered the evidence of his alleged cybercrimes  including 105 printed pages listing strings of alphanumeric code later identified as bitcoin keys  in two laptop bags she retrieved from Price's family condo when she went to confront him, the affidavit said.

Authorities concede that they're not yet sure whether Price has the ability to access the bitcoins he claims to have stolen.

Although they initially charged him July 13 with one federal count tied to his alleged bitcoin thefts, they later withdrew the charge and refiled the case based on charges tied to dozens of stolen credit-card numbers  also found in Price's laptop bag  that he said he'd bought from hackers on the dark web.

Investigators say they have been unable to verify Price's story in other ways, including locating the fake passport Price claimed he obtained to flee the country under the name of Jeremy Renner, an actor he says he admired after seeing him in the 2012 Marvel movie The Avengers.

And yet, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Bonney, the investigation continues and additional charges could be added by the time Price's case goes before a grand jury.

"Most people don't carry around hundreds of pages of bitcoin keys with them," she said at a court hearing July 19.

Bitcoin, a decentralized, virtual currency existing entirely on the internet, quickly drew adherents after its debut in 2009 because it enables anonymous transactions untethered to third-party banks.

The system relies on what experts have described as a fraud-proof public ledger, known as a blockchain, that records every confirmed bitcoin transaction and provides a foolproof way to track currency assigned to the bitcoin wallets of users.

A user accesses his or her bitcoin with two strings of complex alphanumeric codes  a public key, similar to a bank account number, and a private key, akin to a password or signature that allows the money to be spent or exchanged to a physical form of currency. At the current exchange rate, one bitcoin is worth about $2,600.

But the same qualities that make bitcoin attractive to users have made it a prime target for scammers. Unlike major banks or credit cards, nearly all of which offer some form of fraud protection, bitcoin transactions are irreversible. And although victims of theft might be able to track their stolen funds through the public ledger of the blockchain, the anonymity built into the system makes it nearly impossible to identify the thief.

Price, according to court filings, told investigators this month that he developed a malware program that would surreptitiously divert bitcoins into his own wallet by disrupting the transactions of other users. With the program substituting his own bitcoin keys for those on either end of an exchange, he managed to funnel between $40 million and $50 million into bitcoin wallets under his control, he said.

"Because the bitcoin wallet address [was] a legitimate address, the user [did] not realize that bitcoin transaction [was] being diverted into a wallet other than theirs," wrote Emily J. Evans, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, in the affidavit drafted for Price's arrest.

Yet now, two weeks after investigators took Price into custody, even his family seems uncertain what to believe. Most of his close relatives either did not respond or declined to respond to requests for comment.

But during a brief conversation outside the condo where he lived with his son, Price's father, Samuel Sr., appeared conflicted.

"It's all hearsay," he said when approached by a reporter. "The truth will all come out in open court."

Then the elder Price paused.

"Did he do what they said, as far as those bitcoins? Probably," he said. "But I guess they're still trying to figure it all out."
Shown is the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg. Read more

After a while  and by "a while," I mean decades  you've got to wonder why we need a state legislature.

Here we are (again) awaiting some action on a constitutionally mandated annual balanced state budget that's (again) overdue and will be, I guarantee, nowhere near balanced when finally done.

See, balanced means no debt. We have debt like Noah had rain.

But even if somebody strapped on the cojones to litigate the offense, no state court would rule against the legislature (and complicit governors) for their unconstitutional ways, since the legislature approves court budgets.

Then, you might ask, why do we need a state budget?

We didn't have one for nearly nine months in 2015-16. We don't have one now.

But tax revenues still come in, state services and benefits continue, employees get paid, lawmakers get paid (though they shouldn't), state parks are open, etc.

The most evident downside is lower bond ratings, which means more debt, but since neither the legislature nor complicit governors seem to care much about debt well, you get the idea.

And yet, annual budget battles rage in the Capital City, consume the attention of lawmakers, and serve as cover for not enacting needed reforms to improve the process.

Speaking of which, let's see where the process stands.

As a reminder, the legislature half-passed a budget June 30 (you can drop the "p" for greater accuracy) and Gov. Wolf, for reasons only he and tarot cards know, let it become law with no way to pay for it.

Since then, the Republican House blames the Republican Senate. The Republican Senate blames the Republican House. And two announced Republican candidates seeking to oppose Wolf next year ask, "Where's Wolf?"  which strikes me as wordplay suggesting werewolf.

(This is ironic given my view, to be expressed shortly.)

Now, the state House is MIA after coming in for a one-day session Saturday to do nothing  except, of course, collect per diem expenses (no receipts required, thank you very much).

House Speaker Mike Turzai then left for a four-day meeting in Atlanta of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, a national group "dedicated exclusively to electing more Republicans to state legislatures."

Turzai went because he's current chairman of the group and, I imagine, to demonstrate his first priority is what's best for the people of Pennsylvania.

Back home, the Senate, a.k.a. the Pennsylvania legislature's less crazy chamber, is scheduled back in session Wednesday and Thursday, probably to pass some sort of revenue legislation that the House won't like.

Meanwhile, a resolution to the budget "crisis" is being publicly pushed and urged by Wolf with all the ferocity of Little Bo Peep.

Asked during a Pittsburgh radio station interview Tuesday about the budget progress, Wolf said: "I'm hoping to get good news."

This either could mean he's hoping his Powerball numbers hit. Or that Turzai stays in Georgia.

Wolf, to his credit, canceled a planned trip to a four-day National Governors Association meeting last week in Rhode Island, and a planned vacation to Quebec.

(He probably thought of the legislature and said, "Thanks, ya hosers!")

All this degradation of democracy, dereliction of duty, and abandonment of fiscal and constitutional responsibility could be avoided.

Enact, with monetary penalties, timelines for House and Senate action on budget bills. Don't pay lawmakers' (or executive office) salaries or expenses during any budget impasse exceeding the June 30 fiscal-year deadline. And don't pay them retroactively once a budget is done.

Wishful thinking, I know.

But you'd think at some point some collection of public servants, regardless of party, would come together, say enough is enough, and restore at least a measure of confidence in government, and relevancy to Harrisburg.
President DonaldTrump, front left, gestures as former boys scouts, Ryan Zinke, left, Secretary of Interior, Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy, right, at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean,W. Va., Monday, July 24, 2017. Read more

On Monday night, Justine Moore logged onto Facebook and watched clips from the Boy Scouts' National Jamboree with growing unease. The Norristown scoutmaster had sent two scouts  her 14-year-old son and a friend  to the West Virginia campground where President Trump was addressing a gathering of 40,000.

As Trump boasted of his electoral victory and the crowd booed Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, Moore stopped watching. "I was disgusted," she said. "That's not what scouting is supposed to be  it's not supposed to be politically affiliated at all."

Moore wasn't alone. On Monday night, the Boy Scouts of America was denounced on social media for hosting a speech in which Trump pushed the Republican healthcare plan, told a long story about a party in New York with "the hottest people there," and decried the media  in short, an address straight out of a Trump rally. Progressive parents and former scouts bristled.

"I was rage-tweeting the whole time," said Christine, a South Jersey mother whose 16-year-old son is four merit badges and a service project away from an Eagle Scout ceremony, and who asked that her last name be withheld because she didn't want to hurt her son's chances at the honor. "If he'd stayed to the scripted parts, it might have been a typical 'Yay Scouts' type of speech," she said. "But Trump's gotta Trump."

Her son has been at the Jamboree all week, she said, where he spotted more than a few "Make America Great Again" hats, and had been alarmed to hear scattered "Build the Wall" chants during the president's speech. She was disappointed in the BSA for issuing a statement that explained the speech is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies," but did not explicitly condemn Trump's tone.

"My kid has been having a great time down here, the whole week," she said. "I'm hoping that doesn't ruin it."

Presidents are always invited to attend the Jamboree, held every four years, but their speeches typically focus on the merits of scouting. In his remarks, Trump gleefully pointed out that Obama never attended a Jamboree, but the former president did speak to scouts from time to time.

"Scouting teaches us to be responsible members of society  that you should vote, that it's your right and your duty to participate in the world around you," said A.J. Garrigus, a former scout from Lansdale who served as a troop leader for several years. "Obama's speeches to the scouts focused on elements like that."

He said he was concerned to hear the crowd's cheers during the speech's more political moments. "It actually evoked a similar feeling from last year, watching the rallies and the votes for Trump coming in  like, I knew this was a thing, that there are a lot of very pro-Trump and very conservative people out there," he said, "and it was still kind of shocking to see just how many of them there are."

Moore has run her sons' Norristown troop for the last five years  a racially and socioeconomically diverse group of kids not yet reflected in the overall makeup of the larger organization, she said.

She's taught them about the importance of respect, but also about the efficacy of civil disobedience. Her scouts tried to skip the speech, but weren't allowed, she said. "As long as you are being civil, you are allowed to disagree," she said she told her son. The group of scouts he was sitting with mostly scoffed at the address, she said.

Still, in Facebook groups where parents and scoutmasters gather to post pictures from the Jamboree, some parents said they were tired of the political debates. "My three boys were proud and impressed by the president," a woman from Brick, N.J. wrote. "They listened intently and politely, and will look back on this experience of seeing a sitting president as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Paula Neira wanted to stay in the Navy.

It was 1991, and the Jersey City, N.J., native had been in the service for 10 years, fought in combat in the first Gulf War, and risen to the rank of lieutenant. But for years, she had wrestled with the growing knowledge that she was transgender  and she knew that in an era when the military was actively seeking to weed out LGBT service members, to tell anyone would cost her the job she had treated like a calling.

To live authentically, she said, she would have to leave.

In the years since she left the service, Neira got a nursing degree and then a law degree. She got the military to change her name on her service records to Paula  the first Navy veteran to do so. She stepped to the forefront of activists working to end the military's restrictions on LGBT service members, and the Department of Defense's decision in 2016 to allow transgender people to serve in the military, was "a great joy," she recalled.

On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted that he would reverse that policy, barring transgender people from serving in the military. He was met with widespread condemnation from elected officials and veterans in the Philadelphia region, who accused the president of targeting the transgender community and weakening the military.

Jennifer Long, 52, a transgender veteran from Kearny, N.J., called the decision "a major setback." She served in the Army for nearly three decades and was stationed in Afghanistan and other countries. "We've worked so hard and put our lives and our stories out there," she said.

Long went by her birth name, Edward, and identified, at least publicly, as a man in the Army. She eventually started taking hormones around 2010 to reduce testosterone levels and introduce estrogen into her body, and in 2012 she retired and changed her name. (You couldn't be openly transgender in the military until former Defense Secretary Ash Carter changed the guidelines.)

Transgender people can serve with distinction just like anyone else, Long said, expressing doubt about Trump's claim that having transgender military members will result in "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

The medical costs Trump was referring to are unclear. A 2016 study commissioned by the Department of Defense estimated it would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually to provide gender transitionrelated health-care coverage to the 2,500 to 7,000 transgender service members in the active-duty military. The military spends five times that amount on Viagra, according to an analysis by the Military Times.

Being transgender means identifying with a gender different from the one with which you were born. Although some people opt for surgery to make a transition, it isn't required, and neither is hormone therapy, which would result in a more gradual process.

Conservative groups praised Trump's move: Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, a religious organization that has frequently advocated against LGBT rights, applauded on Twitter an end to "the social experimentation that's crippled our military."

Those arguments, and Trump's talk of trans service members "disrupting" the military, smacked of past arguments over who gets to serve, advocates said.

"The same argument was made with lesbians and gay men serving in the military, and that's also made with regard to women as well," said Heath Fogg Davis, a Temple University political science professor who serves on the Mayor's Commission for LGBT Affairs. "I think it's just driven by a kind of conservative ethos of maintaining the status quo for the status quo's sake."

Elected officials on both sides of the aisle criticized Trump's decision.

"Removing thousands of men and women from admirably and honorably serving is counterintuitive to strengthening our military," said U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R., N.J.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R, Pa.) said Toomey believes "every person should be judged based on his or her merits."

And U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who was born in Camden and represents Mercer County, called the news "shameful" and retweeted a 2016 tweet from Trump saying he would fight for the LGBT community.

State Rep. Brian Sims, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said Trump "doesn't know one thing about military prowess, strategy, or strength" in response to a Facebook post by Philly.com about Trump's decision.

"We're strongly opposed to President Trump's actions," said Sean Laughlin, the communications coordinator at the Mazzoni Center, the Center City LGBT health-care organization. "Trans troops serve with honor and distinction  fighting to remove them from service undermines our military."

Selisse Berry, the CEO of the workplace-equality group Out and Equal Workplace Advocates, said Trump's decision was "unabashed workplace discrimination." The Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs also slammed the move on Facebook.

"He's turning everything backward," said John Grant, 70, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Plymouth Meeting and is former president of Philadelphia Veterans For Peace.

The president tweeted that after consulting with "generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

Trump did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of gender transitioning or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

Before the long-standing policy was changed in 2016, Neira served with three former generals and several other members of the military on a commission studying transgender military service run by the Palm Center, a think tank that studies LGBT military service.

"Many, many trans service personnel have deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq," she said. "We have 18 allies who allow transgender people in the military, and some of those countries have deployed trans troops to the combat zones right alongside our forces."

Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

This month, the House narrowly defeated an amendment to the defense spending bill that would have banned the military from funding gender confirmation surgeries, with 24 Republicans, including LoBiondo, voting against it. Foreign Policy reported Tuesday that Vice President Pence was pushing behind the scenes to get a similar amendment passed.

Rep. Pat Meehan, a Republican who voted for the ban on funding gender transition surgery, said he didn't think the cost of the surgery was one taxpayers should bear. But he said anyone who can meet military requirements should be allowed to serve.

"I hope this decision was truly made with the military's needs in mind rather than political considerations," he said.

Trump occasionally addressed LGBT issues on the campaign trail last year, but often framed his support for the LGBT community around his pledges to limit immigration and fight terrorism. "I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," he tweeted shortly after the shooting that killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Neira said activists and veterans were saddened but determined on Wednesday.

"Today is a day where, yeah, there's anger. But there's also resolve," she said. "When you have faith in our values, when you have faith in our country, no matter how difficult it is at the moment, you know someday we will get back to the progress we were making because that's who we are as members of the profession of arms. That's what our values call us to do."

This article contains information from the Associated Press.
A man steals a Jeep Wrangler battery on the 2000 block of Lombard Street June 20. Read more

An energized bandit has been stealing batteries from Jeeps in Center City and other neighborhoods, police said Tuesday.

Over the last couple of months, 26 vehicle batteries have been stolen, 22 of them from Jeeps, and most of those from Jeep Wranglers, Lt. Martin Bernard of the Major Crimes Unit said.

"The problem with the Jeeps is they don't have a locking mechanism" on the hood, Bernard said. "It's kind of like leaving your diamond ring on a table in the restaurant."

Surveillance video captured one theft June 20 on the 2000 block of Lombard Street.

The thief, described as a white or Hispanic man about 6 feet tall, slim, with salt-and-pepper sideburns and a goatee, is seen in the video exiting a Honda Civic, then walking to a Jeep Wrangler. He lifts the hood, removes the battery, and walks back to the Honda, placing the battery inside, police said.

Based on other surveillance video, police believe the same man is committing all the battery thefts.

Besides Center City, the thefts have taken place in the Kensington area, parts of South Philadelphia, and other neighborhoods.

"I don't see the value of it," Bernard said. "You're not going to make a living off of it. He's probably selling them to a junkyard for scrap."

A dealership would have no interest in a used battery, he said.

Jeep owners could buy a locking mechanism to be installed by a dealership to prevent theft, Bernard said.

In addition to the battery thefts, Bernard said, four Jeep Wranglers have been stolen since June. Those thefts occurred in University City, Center City, and Port Richmond, he said. Police say there could be a link between the vehicle and battery thefts.

Tipsters should call the Major Crimes Unit at 215-685-9130 or the police tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477). Tips, which can be anonymous, can also be submitted online.
President Donald Trump waves to the crowd of scouts at the 2017 National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit in Glen Jean,W. Va., on Monday. Read more

Trump unworthy of scouts

Trustworthy. Loyal. Helpful. Friendly. Courteous. Kind. Obedient. Cheerful. Thrifty. Brave. Clean. Reverent.

How many of these qualities sound like attributes of President Trump?

I trust that today's Boy Scouts of America will be able to discern the difference between the real deal and yet another self-aggrandizing performance ("Trump's Scout speech sparks a backlash," Wednesday).

 Janice Ciampa, Swarthmore, ciampaa@comcast.net

Evidence of voter fraud

Columnist E.J. Dionne believes that voter fraud does not exist ("Voting panel lacks integrity," Tuesday). Here's another view.

As a teacher at Philadelphia's John Bartram High School, I know two colleagues who have encountered voter fraud. One teacher whose mother lived near the school would take her to the polls, where they both voted. Then, that teacher would drive home to New Jersey, go to the polls with her husband, and vote again. She did this until her mother passed.

Another teacher described his experience of voting after graduating from Penn State. He went to the polls and, when presented with the register to sign, found that someone had signed for him in the previous two elections, while he was away at college.

So much for "zero, zilch, nada" evidence of voter fraud.

 Philip J. Donohue, Republican candidate, Third District, N.J. Assembly, Alloway, phildonohue@comcast.net

Tax gas, sell State Stores

Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery) urges a vote on her House Bill 1624, which would create a shale severance tax, to help balance the state budget ("Call a vote on shale severance tax," Tuesday). She is correct that reasonable taxes are not dirty words. They are, however, oxymorons in Harrisburg.

Dean also was correct in deriding House Speaker Mike Turzai's proposal to borrow from the tobacco settlement again, since borrowing merely shifts debt and raiding restricted accounts is taking money from Peter to pay Paul.

Bob Dick, a senior policy analyst with the Commonwealth Foundation, advocates getting out of the booze business as a short-term budget assist. He claims reforms on the table could raise $l million to more than $300 million, and full privatization could raise more. The tax on liquor profits from private stores, with state income tax from their employees, could create a permanent source of income benefiting schools and infrastructure.

In the meantime, Dean's call for a vote on her bill should be heeded. Her request is simple and sensible: "Negotiate a responsible revenue plan we can be proud of."

 Ralph D. Bloch, Rydal, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com

Pa. needs nuclear power

The commentary, "Pa. should resist entreaties to bail out nuclear industry" (Monday) is wrong about the role of government in economic development. If nuclear leaves the state, and natural gas fills the gap, Pennsylvania will lose 16,000 jobs. It would also make us highly dependent on one source of energy, where we now have a diverse mix.

The government can and must prevent this. When I was the head of the Governor's Action Team under Tom Ridge, I saw the lasting positive impact of collective approaches to economic development. The Navy Yard in Philadelphia was on its last leg in the late 1990s, but it was saved through a collaborative effort involving government and private enterprises. It now employs thousands.

The government should prevent the loss of nuclear power. Doing so will balance the needs of the job creators with the public interest.

 Steve Kohler, Washington

Open Devils Pool to all

I read with shame the story about Devil's Pool in Wissahickon Valley Park ("'Attractive nuisance,'" July 4). I grew up in the park and must have walked every inch of Cresheim Creek.

Devil's Pool is not a nuisance, as characterized by Maura McCarthy, executive director of Friends of the Wissahickon, of which I am a member. I am ashamed of my former neighbors, who complained that the streets are being misused by people coming from outside the neighborhood.

My mother and I worked tirelessly to make West Mount Airy an inclusive neighborhood. In the late 1940s, my mother went door to door to encourage people to accept people from poor neighborhoods looking for better. I was president of the West Mount Airy Neighbors, whose mission was to make the neighborhood all-inclusive.

If my former neighbors don't like visitors parking on the street, let them lobby the city and the Philadelphia Parking Authority to provide parking. Let them lobby for trails into the park.

 Jerome R. Balka, Bala Cynwyd
People wave flags and plastic flowers as a float with model missiles and rockets  and the words For Peace and Stability in the World  is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, in April. Read more

July 27 marks the 64th anniversary of the truce that ended fighting in Korea. What a bloody and unanticipated war, with more than 37,000 U.S. soldiers dying in three years. Yet most Americans know nothing about this war.

North Korea invaded the South in June, 1950. Seoul, the capital, exchanged hands five times in less than a year. The war was almost lost in the first three weeks  saved by a last-minute stand at the Pusan peninsula. Following the brilliant tactical invasion at Inchon, orchestrated by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the American troops pushed the North Korean army to the Chinese border. Victory seemed assured.

But, according to David Halberstam in his classic book, The Coldest Winter, as brilliant as MacArthur's invasion at Incheon was, his stubbornness, bravado, and outright racist views of the Chinese led to dark days for American fighting men.

Despite warnings by intelligence that Chinese troops were on the border, MacArthur ordered the thinly disbursed American troops to the Yalu River between Korea and China. In October, 1950, 270,000 Chinese soldiers crossed the border. For the next two months, the Chinese army pushed the American troops back to the 38th parallel, a "retreat" that included the famous Chosin Reservoir battle.

The First Marine Division, significantly outnumbered, fought its way in sub-zero weather out of the trap set by the enemy. The battle included the famous Marine Corps words: "Retreat Hell we're just attacking in another direction."

And survive they did, bringing their dead, saving their equipment, and "retreating" with morale high  in the process killing and wounding 37,000 Chinese troops. Still, Chosen was a stunning defeat and some would argue the first from which the United States did not recover to win total victory.

One can understand the entire war by reading Halberstam's book, but suffice to say the following events took place after Chosen: the firing of MacArthur by President Harry Truman; the courageous leadership of Gen. Matthew Ridgeway who restructured the American forces (and years later was praised by Colin Powell as the man to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for there even being a South Korea); the truce negotiation beginning in July, 1951; the long stalemate in fighting along the 38th parallel. Finally, negotiations culminated on July 27, 1953, encouraged with a veiled threat by President Dwight Eisenhower that he would use nuclear weapons.

And here we are again  but now it is North Korea threatening nuclear warfare. In a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, "The Worse Problem on the Earth," Mark Bowden, the former Inquirer reporter, indicates there are no good options. He examines four approaches: prevention, decapitation, turning the screws, and acceptance. There are serious problems with all  and none is full proof. Furthermore, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal, echoed the same basic view but with more emphasis  "First: there are simply no good military options for attacking North Korea, the sheer destruction of an all-out war takes that idea off the table; and second: China is the key no matter how you slice it."

His approach would deal with China first and make these proposals: The United States would recognize North Korea and forswear no regime change; sign a formal peace treaty with North Korea; and dramatically change the military structure and forces in South Korea. In return North Korea must freeze its nuclear program, and keep delivery systems to a very short range  all actions to be enforced by the international community and China. Gates argues that it would be a nonstarter for the North to give up their nuclear weapons entirely.

Gates also suggests that if China would not accept these proposals, the United States would take steps that Beijing wouldn't like, such as heavily populating Asia with missile defense; declaring it would shoot down anything "that looks like a launch of an intercontinental missile  and take whatever means to contain the regime." Gates argues that the United States could take these steps in the absence of a negotiated settlement.

Gates offers gives and takes for both sides. And certainly nothing else has worked. But one thing is clear: We need to be aggressive now in pursuing a solution.

Richard F. Keevey is a former deputy undersecretary of defense and is currently a senior policy fellow at the School of Planning and Policy at Rutgers University and a lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. rkeevey@princeton.edu
On Feb. 22, 1900, 611 dignitaries assembled at Philadelphia's Horticultural Hall for a remarkable turn-of-the-century dinner. The event  scheduled to coincide with Washington's birthday  was the Bar Dinner celebrating the opening of the new quarters of the University of Pennsylvania's law school at 34th and Chestnut Streets.

On hand for the gala  sponsored by the Law Association of Philadelphia (the predecessor to the Philadelphia Bar Association), the Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association  were hundreds of the nation's most prominent lawyers, jurists, and law professors. The host was university provost Charles Harrison, who gathered no fewer than 29 college presidents and chancellors, and the deans of 16 law faculties, including Harvard's James Barr Ames, perhaps the most accomplished legal scholar of the day.

The guest of honor was U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, who was joined by seven justices of state supreme courts and president judges from 34 of Pennsylvania's county Courts of Common Pleas. Also attending were the attorney general and the solicitor general of the United States and the president of the American Bar Association. Some of the guests, already well-known, would rise to greater heights: George Wharton Pepper of Philadelphia, for example, would become the senator from Pennsylvania 22 years later. As they feasted on blue point oysters and roast loin of mutton, washed down with copious amounts of Chateau Lucerne and champagne, few could have imagined that the lawyer representing Ohio, former state Circuit Justice William Howard Taft, would in eight years be elected president of the United States, and later become the chief justice of the United States.

Most of the seating in the massive hall was at seven long tables accommodating 77 diners each, with only 32 guests  clearly the most prominent  sitting at the head table, allowing them to view all the attendees. Ambassador Wu Ting Fang of China, who gave the keynote address at the law school's dedication ceremony earlier that day, sat next to Harrison and Harlan.

Two men, each 58 years old, sat nine places from each other at the head table, and one wonders if they knew each other or otherwise got the chance to meet. One was Oliver Wendell Holmes, representing Massachusetts as a justice of that state's Supreme Court. The other was John G. Johnson, the prodigious Philadelphia lawyer who represented the city's great companies of the time, including John Wanamaker and the Stetson Hat Co. Just as one could not have predicted what lay ahead for Taft, little could anyone know that, in four years, Holmes and Johnson would be in a courtroom together for one of the most famous cases in American history  the Northern Securities case, with Holmes sitting as a newly appointed associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and, representing the trusts, Johnson, who, remarkably, argued 168 Supreme Court cases. President Theodore Roosevelt was determined to break the trusts, and he appointed Holmes to the court under the impression that he would cast a sympathetic vote.

Although the case went as Roosevelt wanted, with Johnson on the losing side, the president was dismayed to find Holmes a dissenting voice. In his dissent, Holmes wrote, "Great cases, like hard cases, make bad law," one of the most famous lines in American jurisprudence. Though we don't know if Holmes and Johnson met at the Bar Dinner, we do have a pictorial record of their meeting during the Northern Securities case: a lithograph of Johnson's argument hangs in the law offices of Saul Ewing in Philadelphia.

Holmes would serve on the Supreme Court for 30 years, nine of them with Chief Justice Taft. Johnson, who had already started to amass the great collection of European art now housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, continued to practice law at the highest levels for the next 17 years. When he died in 1917, the New York Times wrote that Johnson "was the greatest lawyer in the English-speaking world."

It's not surprising that in Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia, E. Digby Baltzell, the great Penn sociologist, characterized the intellectual Holmes, the brahmin son of a scholar, and the industrious, practical Johnson, whose father was a blacksmith, as the very men who best personified 19th-century Boston and Philadelphia, respectively. Both, of course, knew that they were in great company that night in Horticultural Hall, but it's doubtful that either could imagine he and his dinner companion would meet again, so very soon, in much different and historic circumstances.

Frederick Strober is a partner at Saul Ewing in Philadelphia, which traces its roots to John G. Johnson. FStrober@saul.com.
Jacksonville K-9 officer Jeremy Mason was shot in the face during the pursuit of a bank robbery suspect. The suspect was killed in a subsequent shootout. Mason is in stable condition at a local hospital. (Photo: Jacksonville SO)

A veteran Jacksonville, FL, K-9 officer is in stable condition after he was shot in the face during the Tuesday afternoon pursuit of a bank robbery suspect. The suspect was killed in a shootout with the wounded officer and a detective.

Despite being shot in the chin area during the pursuit, 11-year veteran officer Jeremy Mason continued to follow 28-year-old suspect Michael Joseph Harris until a crash stopped it all at Buttercup Street, Sheriff Mike Williams said at a late Tuesday news conference.

After the crash, Harris came out of his car with the gun and was shot dead by Mason and detective Brad Hurst, who had joined the pursuit, Williams said. Harris, a three-time felon, had fired at them from a car as a woman drove him down Old Middleburg with police in pursuit, the sheriff told Jacksonville.com.

He is stable, but he has a long road back, Williams said of Mason.  You have an officer who is shot during the pursuit. He continues that pursuit and puts himself between the suspect, who is an incredibly violent felon, and the community and ultimately winds up stopping him from endangering the entire community.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimels Justice Department last month quietly agreed to a $50,000 fine for a large feedlot that polluted drinking water and streams in 2014 and 2015.

Stahl Brothers Dairy is in Kewaunee County, where more than 30 percent of tested drinking water wells have been found tainted by hazardous bacteria, most of it from the large dairy operations the state has permitted on one of the regions most vulnerable aquifers.

The concentrated animal feeding operations house thousands of cows that produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure, which the operators spread on farm fields.

Improperly spread manure seeps through the areas thin soil and fractured bedrock or runs off into surface water.

In a 2014 violation that was part of the Stahl Brothers fine, the owner of a well near where the dairy spread manure had drinking water that was still odorous and had a milky yellow color a week after tests showed it was tainted with bacteria, the Justice Department said in court documents.

Unlike his most recent predecessor, Schimel doesnt issue press releases when his department settles environmental enforcement actions against businesses, but the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project on Tuesday distributed court documents it obtained from the agency under the state open records law.

After the State Journal published a story online about the fine, Schimel sent out an announcement saying that in the first half of 2017 the agency obtained 22 environmental enforcement judgments totaling more than $486,000, including the Stahl Brothers case and air pollution violations.

Schimels statement said Stahl Brothers was paying a total of $100,000 over five years, including $50,000 in supplemental environmental projects.

Stahl Brothers also agreed to limit manure runoff through training of contract manure spreaders, use of a qualified nutrient management planner, installation of about 10 acres of filter strips in fields, and planting of cover crops on at least 100 acres, Schimel said.

The Department of Justice continues to actively enforce the states environmental laws, and remains committed to working with the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, and the regulated community to ensure compliance with the law, Schimel said in a statement.

Scott Dye, regional representative for SRAP, called the Kewaunee dairy case the tip of the iceberg for industrial dairy violations that deserve penalties and sanction from the State of Wisconsin.

State records tell the tale and its a harsh fact of life for Kewaunee County residents, Dye said. The Stahl Brothers Dairy has long been a repeat offender with an abysmal history of violations dating back nearly 30 years.

Stahl Brothers didnt respond to a request for comment. The business was fined $55,000 in 2011 for a 2009 manure spill.

Dye said state records show that half of Kewaunee Countys 16 large animal feedlots have been cited 15 times by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources since April 2014.

Since 2013, only Stahl Brothers paid fines after being referred to the Justice Department for enforcement action in court, Dye said.

After Republicans took over state government in 2011, environmental enforcement has waned. Schimel settled one air pollution case last year with no fine at all. His spokesman said the department is proud of the court settlement because it required 3M Co. to spend an estimated $665,000 on pollution-control equipment that failed repeatedly at two plants in Wausau.

Top environmental regulators said they werent aware of another case in the last 25 years in which a Wisconsin attorney general took a polluter to court without winning a penalty.

The DNR is currently working on rules that would restrict spreading manure in areas with especially vulnerable ground water.

In 2014, six organizations petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for emergency action to ensure safe drinking water for Kewaunee County. The DNR and EPA convened work groups in 2015, and last year the groups made a series of recommendations, including tighter manure restrictions.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Democrats scored their first win of the Senate health care battle by denying the Republican version of Obamacare repeal and replace the 60 votes that it needed for passage.

The Cruz bill failed as nine Republicans voted no. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Bob Corker (R-TN), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dean Heller (R-NV), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted no with the Democrats. The Cruz plan didnt get the required 60 votes and was DOA.

The Cruz amendment had been blasted by health insurers as, simply unworkable in any form and would undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions, increase premiums and lead to widespread terminations of coverage for people currently enrolled in the individual market.

To the surprise of no one, the least popular man in the Senate offered a terrible idea that was immediately shot down by Democrats. The vote tonight was the first of three scheduled votes on health care between 9:25 PM ET on Tuesday and 2:15 PM Wednesday.

Republicans are voting on everything and hoping that something sticks. The real threat remains the skinny Obamacare repeal bill that would double premiums and throw 15 million Americans off of their health care.

Democrats scored one win but keeping calling your Senators because the fight has just begun.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

By Amanda Becker and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a bill that would slap new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, potentially complicating President Donald Trumps hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow.

The bipartisan measure aims to punish Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The measures fate in the Senate is uncertain after a key senator said the deal announced over the weekend may not be final.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that negotiators had a very good weekend but any announcement seemed somewhat premature.

Were about there, theres still some procedural issues were discussing but, you know, I think it worked out very, very well. Weve still got a couple of things to talk about on North Korea, Corker said.

If the Republican-led Senate passes the measure, Trump will need to decide whether to sign the bill or veto it. Rejecting it would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers.

The Trump administration has objected to a provision in the sanctions bill that the president obtain congressional approval before easing any sanctions on Moscow.

Hes going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday, when asked whether Trump would support it.

An earlier version of the bill, including sanctions on Russia and Iran, passed the Senate by 98-2 on June 15. A North Korea sanctions bill passed the House by 419-1 in May and House lawmakers were becoming increasingly impatient with the Senates failure to take up that legislation.

House members saw the Iran and Russia sanctions bill as a chance to finally get the North Korea measure through the Senate.

Trumps relationship with Russia has been an issue during the first six months of his presidency as investigations continue into whether his associates colluded with Russian hackers to influence the election on his behalf.

Russia denies interfering in the U.S. election. Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow, calling the probes politically motivated and repeatedly criticizing them.

In a series of tweets early on Tuesday, Trump lashed out at both U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Andrew McCabe, acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Without offering evidence, Trump cited Ukrainian efforts to sabotage his presidential campaign in order to aid his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and senior White House adviser, will visit Capitol Hill for a second straight day to be interviewed about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and the presidential transition.

Trump on Tuesday praised Kushner, saying he had done very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Susan Heavey; Editing by Peter Cooney and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

(Reuters)  President Donald Trump could trigger a political and legal backlash if he escalates his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions into an attempted purge of U.S. law enforcement officials, lawmakers and legal experts said on Tuesday.

In lashing out against an investigation of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia, Trump is slamming Sessions, prompting speculation that the president wants to oust the attorney general.

If Robert Mueller, the special counsel running the Russia investigation, is Trumps ultimate target and he moves to fire Mueller, a legal and political showdown could ensue.

Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, told CNN on Tuesday that he expected fellow lawmakers would not tolerate any effort by Trump to replace Sessions with a loyalist, especially if it appeared aimed at undermining Muellers investigation.

The senators are going to be very skeptical about this, said King, who normally votes with Democrats. My expectation is youd see a special prosecutor pass by veto-proof majorities in both houses. And the investigation would continue.

Trump, who dismissed James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it was looking into possible Russian connections, was asked about Sessions at a news conference on Tuesday and said, Time will tell. Time will tell. These remarks followed Twitter messages by Trump in which he described Sessions as weak and beleaguered.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in a Capitol hallway on Tuesday that Sessions is doing a fine job.

Republican Richard Shelby told reporters Sessions, formerly his fellow senator from Alabama, is not the presidents lawyer; he is the attorney general of the United States.

Here are basics on the law covering dismissal of Justice Department officials, including Mueller, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because Sessions is recused from matters dealing with the Russia investigation.

On what grounds could Mueller be fired?

Justice Department regulations say a special counsel can only be removed for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for any other good cause.

Do Trumps claims that Mueller is on a witch hunt and that he is conflicted constitute good cause?

Probably not. No court has ever interpreted the meaning of good cause in this context. But Mueller has a sterling reputation and there is no indication he has exceeded the scope of his mandate, said Andrew Wright, former associate counsel in the Obama White House and professor at Savannah Law School.

Campaign donations from members of Muellers team to Democrats do not pose a conflict of interest, Wright said.

Could Trump directly fire Mueller?

Probably not. Department of Justice rules say the special counsel can only be fired by the attorney general or the acting attorney general. Trump has criticized Rosenstein for appointing Mueller and due to Sessions recusal, Rosenstein has sole authority to fire Mueller.

But a few constitutional lawyers have said that Trump might be able to lawfully fire Mueller directly. Saikrishna Prakash of the University of Virginia Law School said the special counsel regulations may interfere with the presidents broad power under the Constitution to remove executive branch officials. I dont know if that regulation is constitutional, he said.

If Trump fires Sessions or Sessions quits, could Trump handpick an attorney general who would fire Mueller?

Normally, the president nominates an attorney general who must win Senate confirmation. If Trump followed this course, the Senate would likely press any nominee on his or her intentions on terminating Mueller, Prakash said.

The Senate is going to want promises that this person will be independent of the White House and not be a toady, he said.

How else could Trump name an attorney general who he believes would fire Mueller?

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, Trump could appoint an interim attorney general, but only someone previously confirmed by the Senate. The law can only be invoked to replace officials who die, resign or are otherwise unable to do their job.

If Trump invoked the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to replace Sessions, a court may rule that Trump overstepped, Josh Chafetz, a professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School, said.

What about a recess appointment?

Trump could try replacing Sessions while the Senate is on summer recess, expected to begin Aug. 11. The constitution grants the president such authority, said Stephen Vladeck, constitutional law professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 the president cannot make a recess appointment during recesses of less than 10 days. The Senate calendar is controlled by Trumps fellow Republicans.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Democrats would use every tool at their disposal to block a recess appointment of a Sessions replacement.

If Mueller were fired, could he mount a court challenge?

Unclear. Vladeck said the special counsel regulations do not address this question. If he brought a lawsuit, Mueller likely would argue the rules would be pointless if there was no way to enforce them, Vladeck said.

(Reporting Jan Wolfe and Andrew Chung in New York; Yasmeen Abutaleb, Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott)
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

The Trump White House is defending their transgender military ban as a move that will put Democrats on the defensive in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. However, Democrats are welcoming the debate and cant wait to discuss the issue.

Jonathan Swan of Axios tweeted the White Houses rationale:

Just spoke to a Trump administration official about the transgender military decision. Here's what they said pic.twitter.com/eOWdvlxTfd  Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 26, 2017

Meredith Kelly of the DCCC responded to the White House, President Trumps attack on Americans who want to step up and make incredible sacrifice to serve our country is disgusting, and its made worse by the political calculation behind it. Every Republican should speak out against it. President Trump is a draft dodger and if he wants to talk about 2018, weve got dozens of veteran candidates who have already shown what it looks like to step up and serve our country to keep us safe, and are ready to do it again in Congress.

Democrats have already won this fight once. They will be ecstatic to fight the culture war again because this time the vast majority of Americans are on their side. Whether it is health care or the transgender military ban, the Trump White House keeps handing issues to Democrats that they will use to beat them in 2018.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Watchdog and Public Service reporter

Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
"After work I would typically have an afternoon snack, but I skipped the snack today to save room for dinner. I was lucky enough to be meeting family at Wild Olive on Johns Island for dinner." Read moreDaily Digest: Always save extra room for dinner when visiting Wild Olive
Sheri Swokowski of DeForest remembers how hard it was keeping her true self secret while serving as an infantry colonel in the decades before the Pentagons 2016 decision to lift its prohibition on transgender service members.

It was a rough road to do that and still remain viable and focused on your job, Swokowski said in an interview Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced he was reinstating the ban. I would have lost my job if I had transitioned.

Swokowski said duty always came first during her long career, but it was painful to hide her identity. She waited until after she retired from the military 13 years ago before making her gender transition.

Im very disappointed and surprised that the leader of our military would say that transgender military personnel were not capable of defending this country, something theyve been doing since the 1700s, Swokowski said.

The Manitowoc native accomplished much in her nearly 35 years as a full-time officer in the Wisconsin National Guard, but she wondered if she would have achieved even more without the burden of deeply suppressing the truth about herself.

A post-retirement job as a civilian contractor teaching courses at the Army Force Management School at Fort Belvoir, Va., ended abruptly in 2007 when she made her change.

I decided I needed to live authentically, so it got toward the end of the year and I took six weeks off, came back physically as Sheri, and was immediately fired for my efforts, Swokowski said.

The next year, the Pentagon hired her as a civilian senior analyst. She said many people would assume it would have been a conservative workplace that posed difficulties, but she said she had a very rewarding two years there.

If we can do that on the civilian side of the house, it can be done on the military side, too, Skowkowski said.

Darla Lannert, of Oregon, was a Navy gunners mate on a guided missile destroyer that was hit by artillery fire that killed one shipmate and wounded several others in Haiphong Harbor during the Vietnam war.

We went dead in the water and it was really scary, said Lannert, who said she had been transitioning all her life. She left the Navy in 1973, worked as a truck driver for many years, and changed her name in 2014.

Her 114 days of combat also included a harrowing mission up the Cua Viet river to rescue dozens of besieged Marines.

The fear foremost on her mind Wednesday, though, was over the prospect that Trumps ban could be a first step toward harsher measures aimed at transgender people, including military personnel and veterans.

Despite a widely cited RAND Corp. study last year that found transgender military personnel serving openly would have little or no impact on readiness or medical costs, Trump said he was acting to prevent disruption and tremendous medical costs.

With the decisions that were made today were not progressing as a country, were going backward, Lannert said. Its just pure discrimination and certainly doesnt have anything to do with cost.

Lannert said she began receiving hormone replacement therapy at a Veterans Administration facility in 2009. The cost was minuscule compared to treatment she received this year after suffering a heart attack, which involved two weeks in the hospital and open heart surgery through the VA, she said.

Steve Starkey, executive director of OutReach in Madison, said multiple studies indicate there is no downside to the military accepting gay and transgender people.

Trump campaigned on being an LGBT-friendly president, Starkey said. He stood on stage with a big rainbow flag and vowed to be an LGBT-friendly president, and hes done exactly the opposite.
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
WASHINGTON  Eventually, everyone in this town seems to wind up with the word poor in front of his or her name.

Such a fate is especially likely if one has associated with Donald Trump. As in, Poor Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He is latest to the firing line that has included such formerlys as FBI Director James Comey, national security adviser Michael Flynn and acting-Attorney General Sally Yates, as well as the voluntarily resigned  press secretary Sean Spicer, and Communications Director Michael Dubke.

Trump has begun making inquiries about firing Sessions, barring a resignation prompted by the presidents tweeted attempts at shaming him into resigning. His crime? A perceived lack of loyalty. Having recused himself from involvement in the FBIs Trump-Russia investigation  and, therefore, from defending the president, as Trump sees it  Sessions is no longer useful. (For the record, Sessions did reportedly offer to resign at one point.)

Speaking of loyalty, Trump offers little of what he expects from others. Way back in early 2016, when few were willing to sidle up to the Republican front-runner, Sessions bet the farm on this reality-show celebrity. He was the first sitting senator to endorse Trump, trading his legacy for the near-certain promise of a top position in the new administration.

Whatever Sessions hopes for the job, Trump apparently assumed that the attorney general would serve at his pleasure, regardless of what inconvenient ethics might preclude Sessions from also acting as the presidents personal defense attorney  that is, should any preemptive measures prove inadequate to thwart unwanted scrutiny.

Sessions recusal wasnt only correct but probably unavoidable. It was revealed the day before his announcement that he had twice met with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in July and September of 2016, despite having said during his confirmation hearing that he hadnt. Like so many others who joined the Trump White House, Sessions seemed to have forgotten the meetings. Kislyak must be one forgettable fellow. Everyone he meets from Trump World suffers amnesia, recalling not so much as a handshake. Though Ive not had the pleasure, Kislyak looks like a jovial sort who enjoys a hearty chuckle. His sides must be splitting these days as Trump repeals and replaces officials who are investigating Russia or who deny knowing any Russians.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee of which he previously was a member, Sessions has said that his meetings with Kislyak, come to think of it, were routine and part of his activities as senator, not as campaign operative. Except for the fact that Sessions was part of the campaign at the time of those meetings, theres no reason to doubt him.

Trump seems less bothered that Sessions, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner all have contradicted his claims that none of his campaign people had ever met with any Russians associated with the government than by the realization that Sessions isnt protecting his backside. To the nations chief executive, the latter spells kaputzkah. In recent tweets, the president called the attorney general beleaguered, accused him of being very weak on Hillary Clinton (why now?), and questioned his competence, saying: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign  quietly working to boost Clinton. So where is the investigation A.G. (Say this for Trump: He has resisted servitude to punctuation and grammar.)

Sure, Trump must know Sessions vowed during his confirmation hearing that, if confirmed, he would recuse himself from any matters concerning Hillary Clinton. After all, the hearing was televised. But why mention Clinton in this episode of Trumps reality presidency? Because when the heat is on, Trump always sprinkles a little Clinton in the mix. How better to turn his supporters against Sessions and create momentum for him to resign than to remind Republican voters that Sessions let Clinton get away with (fill in the blank).

In the latest in his series of off-the-cuff true confessions, Trump last week told The New York Times that he never would have nominated Sessions as attorney general had he known hed recuse himself. Recall that he also said he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Nobody ever accused the president of subtlety. The question now is, whos next?

Well know soon enough, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price might want to keep his medical license current. As the Senate was preparing to vote again on the Obamacare repeal bill, Trump gave a rousing speech, saying he knew Price, who formerly sat on the Senate Health Committee, would get out there and get those votes.

If not, Trump quipped, Youre fired!

Poor Price.
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
Im not sure what I was expecting when my colleagues and I kept urging the Legislature to let the state inspector general take a look under the hoods of South Carolina's school districts, but it wasnt what we got from the first such investigation. Read moreScoppe: Inspector general puts SC school districts on notice of new scrutiny to come
A report indicating a Rochester City Council member violated the city's code of ethics is headed to the city council.

Rochester's Ethical Practices Board solidified its opinion that council member Michael Wojcik acted improperly when repeatedly asking for an early draft of a master plan for public art, which was commissioned by the Greater Rochester Arts and Cultural Trust.

A Feb. 17 complaint filed by Trust CEO Bari Amadio alleged Wojcik used his status in an attempt to intimidate her into turning over the report, which was completed with a $15,000 city contribution and matching private donations.

While Wojcik continues to state he believes the report was a public document in its early stages, City Attorney Terry Adkins had indicated it was not since no official contract with the city existed.

Findings

ADVERTISEMENT

Board members determined Wojcik's continued request for the document indicated a lack of cooperation required by the city's code of ethics, but their report sought to show limits in defining "cooperation."

"I think one of the things we need to be careful about is how we use these terms," said Lin Gentling, who was serving as acting chairwoman after board Chairwoman Kay Batchelder and Vice Chairwoman Regina Mustafa recused themselves from considering the complaint.

Gentling said she didn't want the board's decision to dissuade other officials from stating conflicting opinions.

Justin Templin, an attorney with Eden Prairie-based Hoff Barry, P.A., said that was his assumption when preparing a draft of the document for the board.

"I don't think the board or the city want to turn this into a general civility code," he said, noting requiring cooperation shouldn't limit appropriate give-and-take found in government.

In addition to finding that Wojcik failed to "work in full cooperation with other public officials and employees" as required under the city's ethics code, the board agreed that his actions demonstrated a conflict of interest with an attempt to use his position to secure special privileges.

During the board's first hearing last week, Wojcik argued against the conflict-of-interest charge, which is defined in the code as using "public position to secure special privileges or exemptions for the person or for others."

"To keep it simple, I did not secure anything; even Bari agrees with this," he said . "As such there can be no violation of this section."

ADVERTISEMENT

The board's findings, however, state the code can be violated, even if the desired results are not achieved. It states the attempted actions "demonstrate a failure by Mr. Wojcik to recognize and accept the obligations imposed upon public officials and employees by the code of ethics."

The five board members eligible to vote unanimously agreed to send their findings to the city council, which will determine whether further action will be considered.

Continued discussion

The board's discussion of the case may not be over. Based on board comments, Adkins suggested members may want to review the section of the code that calls for "full cooperation with other public officials and employees" to determine whether changes are needed.

Board member Faye Harris said the issue could cause conflict with the First Amendment if it keeps officials from voicing opposing opinions.

"We want transparency," she said. "Transparency means seeing ugly sides of how we get things done."

She said voters ultimately decide whether an elected official's actions go too far in the direction of being uncivil.

Mustafa also noted previous board members have discussed changes, but the board has decided against it.

ADVERTISEMENT

"We've gone into a lot of talk about how we cannot be the city's moral police," she said.

Adkins said he wasn't suggesting a direction, but noted the board's final document seeks to narrow the impact of the "cooperation" language.

"I think we defined that in a sense in saying we don't want to create a civility code," Gentling said.

The board could discuss the issue at its next meeting, which is at 1:15 p.m. Aug. 30 in room 104 of City Hall. The board is also expected to review a second complaint against Wojcik, in which Rochester resident Mark Bransford claims the council member should have recused himself from a vote on the Alatus apartment project on Second Street Southwest between 14th Avenue and 15th Avenue.
ALBERT LEA  First District Congressman Tim Walz is calling on Mayo Clinic Health System to do a better job working with residents to address their concerns about plans to move most inpatient hospital services from its Albert Lea campus to its Austin hospital.

"If they are not feeling how frustrated this community is or how frustrated we are, then they are really tone deaf to something that is really, really important," Walz said in an interview Tuesday with the Post Bulletin.

The Mankato Democrat said he plans to travel to Albert Lea on Monday to meet with local officials, union leaders and members of the Save Our Hospital group. Last month, Mayo Health System announced plans to move most inpatient hospital services, including ICU, inpatient surgeries and childbirth, from Albert Lea to Austin. The first transition is set to happen in October, when the ICU will move to Austin.

Mayo Clinic Health System leaders have said the consolidation is necessary because the Austin and Albert Lea campuses have lost millions of dollars in recent years, and it also is becoming more difficult to attract quality staff. But Albert Lea leaders say they were blindsided by the clinic's move and are pushing back. The Albert Lea City Council passed a resolution on Monday asking the clinic to delay its plans to move the ICU to Austin until Jan. 1.

No notice

ADVERTISEMENT

Walz said he has worked hard to establish good communication with Mayo Clinic during his time in Congress, but he said he was not given any advance notice of Mayo's plans.

"They have no legal requirement to tell me or the community any of their decisions. I understand that. But I also understand that there is a potential for huge blowback when you go it alone and you don't include your neighbors in some of these big decisions," Walz said.

Asked if he would like to see Mayo drop its consolidation plans, Walz said, "I'd like to see them do that, but I also oftentimes watch the decision-making of the Mayo Clinic, and they are pretty decisive on how they do things."

He said he is sure Mayo examined lots of data when making the consolidation decision. But he said Mayo's failure to engage Albert Lea citizens about the situation and attempt to get community buy-in for its actions has created tremendous fallout.

Mayo Clinic Health System leaders previously have said they do not plan to delay the timeline for consolidation. In a statement, Mayo Clinic Health System spokeswoman Mandie Siems said efforts are underway to address the Albert Lea community's concerns.

"Mayo Clinic Health System leaders in Albert Lea have met with city officials and Congressman Walz's staff recently and have had very productive and candid dialogues. We have assured the congressman and community leaders that, as we move forward, we are committed to engaging with the community around the shared challenges impacting rural health care," Siems said.

Test case?

Mariah Lynne, co-chairwoman of the Save Our Hospital Steering Committee, said she is pleased Walz is traveling to Albert Lea to hear residents' concerns. She said the city needs to make sure the medical needs of its residents are being met. If Mayo Clinic Health System is unwilling to meet those needs, the group wants to see another provider come to the city.

ADVERTISEMENT

She said, to her knowledge, Albert Lea is the largest community in Minnesota faced with having most of its inpatient hospital services moved.

"I really do truly, in my opinion, believe that we are a test case. That's what we are. Can we do it at this size? Can we do it at this community level? We want a clear picture back to them, 'No, you cannot.' Not just for us in Albert Lea, Minn., but for other communities of our size across the great state of Minnesota that are going to have this happen to them next if no one puts their foot down," Lynne said.

Walz said as the $6 billion Destination Medical Center initiative advances in Rochester, it is going to be even more critical for Mayo Clinic to do a better job communicating with citizens in the communities the clinic serves  including Albert Lea.

Walz added, "The entire district and state are watching how this is playing out, and I would make a plea that coming back and working together as neighbors and partners is a better way to do it."
Ive discussed how President Trumps collaboration with Russia in Syria is helping Iran. Marc Thiessen shows that it is also inadvertently aiding al Qaeda.

Thiessen cites the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the American Enterprise Institutes Critical Threats Project (CTP). They find that current U.S. strategy empowers al-Qaeda, which has an army in Syria, is preparing to replace ISIS,. . . [and] is more dangerous than ISIS.

How so? Because Sunnis see the United States as working with their mortal enemies, Russia, the Assad regime, and Iran. Al-Qaeda is taking advantage of this perception to build support among Sunni tribes, portraying itself as the defender of Sunni Arabs against a U.S.-Russo-Iranian axis intent on subjugating and destroying them.

Thiessen explains:

Right now, al-Qaeda has established itself as the tip of the spear in the fight against the Assad regime, so many Sunnis who do not share al-Qaedas ideology are flocking to al-Qaeda because it is the only game in town for fighting Assad. Al-Qaedas goal is to take charge of the anti-Assad uprising and slowly transform it into a global jihad against Iran, Russia and the United States. [Note: ISIS used a similar strategy during its rise after President Obama pulled the U.S. out of Iraq.] Instead of undermining these efforts, we are helping them, by focusing almost exclusively on the Islamic State and driving the Sunni population to ally itself with al-Qaeda.

In addition, Thiessen reminds us, the Trump administration told most of the pro-American Sunnis who want to fight with us that we would arm and train them only if they signed a pledge promising not to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has massacred their families with mortars and poison gas. Then, as a concession to Putin, it cancelled the covert CIA program that allowed a small number of rebels to fight Assad.

The effect, says Thiessen, will be to drive many of the fighters into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda, which promises to help them against Assad. Meanwhile, the cease fire Trump negotiated as part of the deal that cancelled the CIA program create[s] an al-Qaeda haven in southern Syria. . .where the terrorist network behind 9/11 is free to operate without fear of U.S. attack.

Thiessen concludes:

We need to restore the CIAs covert train-and-equip program and lift the Defense Departments restrictions preventing Sunnis who join us from fighting the Assad regime. We must then facilitate the emergence of a Sunni Arab partner force in southern Syria that will fight alongside U.S. forces to expel not just the Islamic State but al-Qaeda as well, while helping stop Iran from imposing Persian-backed domination by the Alawite minority against the Sunni majority. As the ISW-CTP report puts it, We must stop attacking the Sunni Arab community from the outside through proxies, and instead embed ourselves within that population as its defenders.

None of this will happen as long as President Trump collaborates in Syria with Vladimir Putin.
A group of children (as activist lawyers call their clients) filed a federal lawsuit a while ago claiming that a right to a stable climate should be enforced by judicial decree as a postulate of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, and the federal district court judge in Oregon (figures) denied a motion to dismiss. This lawsuit is so silly I didnt bother to make note of it here. If the plaintiffs actually won this case, it would essentially mean the end of the Constitution. Are we really supposed to think that federal judges should supervise climate policy? It has worked so well in the case of public schools. More likely it is intended as a way of prying open the doors for trial lawyers to extract tobacco-settlement style exactions from the energy industry.

Guess who else thinks it is silly? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which yesterday issued a stay on further proceedings at the trial court level pending review by the appeals court. If even the famously flaky 9th Circuit thinks youre going too far. . .
President Trumps latest attack on Jeff Sessions is perhaps his most stupid. Here is what Trump told the Wall Street Journal:

When they say he endorsed me, I went to Alabama. I had 40,000 people. He was a senator from Alabama. I won the state by a lot, massive numbers. A lot of the states I won by massive numbers. But he was a senator, he looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, What do I have to lose? And he endorsed me. So its not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement. But Im very disappointed in Jeff Sessions.

Trumps statement is self-refuting. He had big crowds almost everywhere he went and, as he boasts, won a lot of states by massive numbers. Yet, Sessions was the only Senator to endorse him early.

Moreover, Sessions seat is safe. Massive numbers or not, Sessions didnt need Trump.

Trump reportedly is looking for a new Attorney General. The same reports say he has asked advisers how hardcore conservatives will react to Sessions dismissal. This concern may cause him to lean towards selecting a strong conservative replacement for Sessions.

That makes sense. But if Trump is concerned about hardcore conservatives, he and his team need to focus not just on conservatism, but also on immigration. The conservatives I know who are most upset about the prospect of Sessions removal fear that Trump will replace him with a soft-liner on immigration. They dont trust Trump on immigration anymore, and they trust the New Yorkers who increasingly surround him even less.

They see Sessions as a bulwark against the immigration squishes. (I see him, in addition, as a bulwark against leniency for criminals, another attitude with potential appeal to the president and his non-conservative associates.)

Theres irony here. In my opinion, Sessions endorsed Trump, not because of those massive numbers, but primarily because Trump took the strongest, most nationalistic line against immigration. Now, Sessions demise could usher in a new softness on immigration under Trump.

If Sessions falls, and I hope he will not, the hardcore conservatives I know will want a replacement who has consistently taken a line on immigration similar to that of Jeff Sessions. And they will want the replacement to continue the strong enforcement policies Sessions has instituted.

But even if they get this, the bad taste will linger. Moreover, a new AG will not be confirmed for quite some time. Without the leadership of a strong, Senate-confirmed AG, its likely that immigration enforcement will falter.

To the delight, perhaps, of some of the New Yorkers who have the presidents ear.
The WWE is very good at making the fans believe theyre getting what they want.

I cant tell you how many times Ive seen or read people wishing The Shield gets back together. I mean, the opportunity is there. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose are all on the same brand currently, and all are seemingly a face or a tweener. But I don't think it's the route WWE should or will go.

Over the last two weeks, Ambrose and Rollins are back together. Or so it seems.

This isnt the typical let-bygones-be-bygones storyline weve seen several times over the years. How many times did Shawn Michaels and Triple H get back together? How about The Undertaker and Kane?

Ambrose and Rollins didnt just go, hey, we dont like The Miz right now. Lets be buddies again.

There is reluctance on Ambroses part. Why should he trust and forgive Rollins, the very same man, who more than three years ago, took a steel chair and turned on his brothers. (Wow, it still feels like last year. I actually had to look up that date because I didnt think it happened that long ago.)

This is the story to tell, and WWE is doing it proper.

Two weeks ago, Rollins came out to offer his help to Ambrose deal with The Miz and his Miztourage. Rollins called Ambrose brother and asked him if he will stand in his way or by his side when he deals with The Miz.

Brother was the trigger for Ambrose.

Im sorry but did you say brother? Brother, I aint your brother. My brothers were in The Shield. My brothers fought with me in the trenches. I trusted my brothers. My brothers had my back. My brothers stood for something. You I dont know you. I mean I knew a guy who looked a lot like you once. He was a liar, a cheater, the kind of guy who would stab his brothers in the back. In fact, that guy took a chair just like this once and stabbed it right through my back and right through my heart.

And for the first time in three years, Rollins said he was sorry. And he had forgiven Ambrose for all the things he did to him since. He then offered up his back in return for Ambrose to attack, but the Lunatic threw the chair in disgust.

Unfortunately, this led to The Miztourage beating down Ambrose and Rollins. But this past Monday, the two got their revenge by winnings a 2-on-3 handicap match against The Miz, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. After the match, the celebrated, they embraced, but then Rollins offered his fist, a symbol of The Shield. Ambrose looked and left him hanging. Maybe not yet.

What does this lead to? Certainly Rollins and Ambrose are above being a tag team. Maybe they do get back together. Maybe they do capture some tag team gold against a heel group like Sheamus and Cesaro.

But also maybe its Ambroses turn to betray Rollins.

If there is one thing we know about Ambrose, the Lunatic Fringe, is that we dont know what hes thinking. This would also be the right time to turn him heel and have him finally be that person fans have wanted him to be for the last two years.

Ambrose as a face is stale. He seems like only half the time hes motivated into creating a great program while the other half of the time hes not taking things seriously.

Long before he was in WWE, he was John Moxley. I wasnt around for his CZW days, but the fans who were said his heel work there was top notch. I believe it. I know its in there. And I would love to see a WWE version of that.

Is that the road were headed toward? Hopefully it is. Because Im not ready for The Shield to reunite just yet.

Quick hits

SummerSlam is already taking shape to be one helluva super show. As I wrote over the last two weeks, I wanted to see Brock Lesnar defend his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns , Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman . Were getting that. I do not tire of seeing beef upon beef slam into each other. This is going to be an awesome spectacle of a match.

defend his Universal Championship against , and . Were getting that. I do not tire of seeing beef upon beef slam into each other. This is going to be an awesome spectacle of a match. It feels like the Great Khali appearance Sunday was more of a one-off than a full-time return.

appearance Sunday was more of a one-off than a full-time return. Im glad WWE is going the one-on-one route with both of its womens championships. Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss should hopefully be the match it can be. And wow, Natalya with a SummerSlam title match against Naomi . What a pleasant surprise. No one deserves it more than she does.

vs. should hopefully be the match it can be. And wow, with a SummerSlam title match against . What a pleasant surprise. No one deserves it more than she does. Were totally getting at least one cash-in at SummerSlam, and it feels like its going to be Baron Corbin .

. The reason I feel Corbin is cashing in is because hes going to do it right after Shinsuke Nakamura pins Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship.

pins for the WWE Championship. I think John Cena vs Nakamura next week is finally going to be the match everyone has been waiting for our of the King of Strong Style. People feel we havent gotten all of his potential yet. Cena will get it out of him.

vs Nakamura next week is finally going to be the match everyone has been waiting for our of the King of Strong Style. People feel we havent gotten all of his potential yet. Cena will get it out of him. Akira Tozawa is really, really good. His one weakness is his English, but he overcomes that with his emotion and his passion. Fans are starting to latch onto him.

is really, really good. His one weakness is his English, but he overcomes that with his emotion and his passion. Fans are starting to latch onto him. Im rooting so hard for The Brian Kendrick in his feud with Jack Gallagher . Its not that I dont like Gallagher, but man is Kendrick right in everything he says.

in his feud with . Its not that I dont like Gallagher, but man is Kendrick right in everything he says. Im calling it now. SAnitY is the group that has been attacking Breezango.

Power rankings

The top superstars on WWEs four major shows

Monday Night Raw (July 24)

Brock Lesnar (1) Braun Strowman (2) Roman Reigns (3) Samoa Joe (4) Bray Wyatt (5) Sheamus & Cesaro (6) Seth Rollins (8) Dean Ambrose (UR) The Miz (7) Alexa Bliss (10)

Out: Finn Balor (9)

On the bubble: Bayley, Finn Balor, The Revival.

SmackDown Live (July 25)

Jinder Mahal (1) A.J. Styles (3) John Cena (UR) Shinsuke Nakamura (5) Baron Corbin (4) Randy Orton (2) Kevin Owens (6) The New Day (9) The Usos (7) Naomi (10)

Out: Rusev (8)

On the bubble: Carmella, Tye Dillinger.

NXT (July 19)

Bobby Roode (1) Asuka (2) Authors of Pain (3) Drew McIntyre (5) Aleister Black (4) Eric Young (7) Ember Moon (UR) Killian Dane (6) Hideo Itami (8) Kassius Ohno (10)

Out: Roderick Strong (9)

On the bubble: Nikki Cross, No Way Jose.

205 Live (July 25)

Neville (1) Akira Tozawa (2) TJP (4) Rich Swann (3) The Brian Kendrick (5) Tony Nese (7) Ariya Daivari (10) Mustafa Ali (6) Cedric Alexander (8) Jack Gallagher (9)

On the bubble: Noam Darr, Drew Gulak.
I have learned the hard way not to put my personal life on the Internet. But suffice it to say that, God willing, things should be pretty much back to norm...

4 weeks ago
Traveling as the co-chapter leader of a medical mission organization in Nicaragua, Maddie learned that gifting her gifts not only impacted the recipients life, but also hers. As Miss America, Maddie will promote volunteerism on a national platform to build a stronger generation of serving individuals. She has reached out to local Childrens Miracle Network hospitals to compile a national database of approved patients stories that will be brought into schools nationwide. These unique stories will be presented as they collaborate to design a Gifting Game Plan. This unifying effort will have an unfathomable outcome that will inspire youth to gift their gift.
Miss America Savvy Shields made a quick one day trip to the Atlantic City area, her last before the 2018 Miss America competition begins at Boardwalk Hall.

Shields toured the AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute in Egg Harbor Township, visiting with staff and patients.

The reigning Miss America, whose platform focuses on improving the mindset of people and encouraging lifestyle changes to improve health, recorded a public service announcement about cancer prevention and detection with Dr. James Wurzer, medical director, department of Radiation Oncology with AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.

In a video posted to her Miss America Twitter account, Shields spoke about the realization that the next time she would be in Atlantic City, she would be giving up her crown to the next woman to fill the role as Miss America 2018.

Leaving Atlantic City today and realized the next time I'll be back to crown the next Miss America... #feels pic.twitter.com/bhF6277zDl  Savvy Janine Shields (@SavvyJanine) July 24, 2017

Also on Monday, The Miss America Organization announced Chris Harrison and Sage Steele will return to the host the competition, which will air live on ABC networks on Sunday, Sept. 10.
My Defining Moment: Last summer, I wrote a blog post that described my feelings about my adoption story. After posting it, people from all across the country began sharing their stories with me. I realized that adoption isnt talked about as openly or as often as it should be and I knew that the Miss America Organization would be the perfect place for me to continue sharing my story and the stories of other adoptive families.
New Jersey is on track for a physician shortage, but mental and behavioral health providers know all too well what its like to struggle with a limited number of professionals and a growing demand for services.

South Jersey counties have some of the highest ratios of patients per mental health providers in the state, and legislators say providing an incentive such as tuition reimbursement for psychiatrists who work in underserved areas may address the regional shortages.

Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday approved a statewide tuition-reimbursement program that would pay for a portion of medical school tuition for psychiatrists who agree to provide full-time mental health services in designated shortage areas for one to four years.

The states health commissioner will determine, based on health status and economic indicators, geographic areas that have these shortages.

In some of those areas, the demand for services far outpaces the supply.

The decrease in mental health centers in the state has left a void in care for New Jersey residents who rely on these services, Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex, Morris, said in a statement. Mostly low-income urban and rural communities are without access to these services.

In Cumberland County, there was only one mental health provider for every 1,380 residents in 2016, the second highest gap in the state, according to data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.

Eligible participants for the tuition program would have to be state residents and New Jersey-licensed physicians who have completed all educational and residency training requirements to practice psychiatry.

Cindy Herdman Ivins, president and CEO of Family Service Association, a United Way nonprofit based in Egg Harbor Township, said shes hopeful this incentive will attract more psychiatrists to South Jersey, particularly ones who specialize in children.

Whenever weve had to search for a child psychiatrist to come on to the team, it can take months, she said. We once went a whole year without someone, because its that great of a challenge.

Ivins said there are a number of things contributing to a rise in the number of people seeking mental and behavioral services, including less stigma associated with getting care, younger generations being more open to seeking help and parity insurance coverage for mental health services.

But the number of psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, therapists and other professionals in the area has not risen at the same rate, experts said.

I have colleagues in the central and northern parts of the state, or closer to Philly, who sometimes have an easier time securing psychiatrists, including advanced practice nurses with psychiatry specialty, Ivins said. We do need more people down here, especially in those rural areas.

Reports show large cities may attract more professionals with offers of higher salaries. Philadelphia has one mental health provider per 490 residents, and New York City has one provider per 140 residents, according to the RWJ Foundation report.

Gail Dembin, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Atlantic-Cape May, said one of the most common concerns she hears from parents and families is about trying to find a mental health provider without a long wait.

It is common for people seeking mental and behavioral health services to wait weeks or months before getting an appointment with a provider. In the meantime, their condition could worsen, Dembin said.

Phil Lubitz, associate director of NAMI New Jersey, said getting more psychiatrists and other professionals to work in the area is essential to providing the best possible treatment.

The shortage has not been for a lack of trying, he said.

Hospitals, nonprofits and other providers have developed mental health education and support programs, temporary treatment services, tapped into telepsychiatry and formed relationships with medical programs at Stockton University, Rutgers University and Rowan University to bring people in.

The reimbursement program would be another initiative that may benefit patients, including children, in South Jersey, Lubitz said.

Its definitely worth the effort, he said.
President Donald Trumps tweets barring transgender people from serving in the military were called into question by local officials on both sides of the po-litical aisle Wednesday afternoon.

Trumps announcement on Twitter barred transgender individuals from participating in the military in any capacity, citing tremendous medical costs and disruption. Trump did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

U.S. Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, R-2nd, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Trumps statement concerned him.

Removing thousands of men and women from admirably and honorably serving is counterintuitive to strengthening our military. I have serious concerns about what this new directive means for current active duty and reserve transgender members of our Armed Forces and National Guard. I expect Defense Secretary Mattis to provide clarity on this issue and determine what is in the best interest of military readiness to protect our nation, LoBiondo said in a statement Wednesday.

From Trumps own Republican Party, to an independent transgender activist, the response was met with frustration.

Mico Lucide, of Mays Landing, a member of the Green Party in Atlantic County and a 2nd District Assembly candidate with a history of transgender activism, said he wasnt shocked by Trumps tweets.

However, Lucide said he was frustrated for the transgender community  and specifically a transgender person he knows at Stockton University in Galloway Township whose dream was to go into the Navy.

Now I dont know if that person can fulfill their life dream, Lucide said.

The president tweeted that after consulting with Generals and military experts, the government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he added.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagons personnel system.

Already, there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagons personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corp. study estimated there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Lucide said Trump citing health care costs as the reason for barring transgender individuals was baffling and frustrating.

Thats an absurd thing to say about anybody to declare anyone is a burden because of their health, Lucide said.

But some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nations military.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Trumps supporters will be happy to hear it. We dont need to be experimenting with the military. Plus, theres no reason to take on that kind of financial burden.

Lucide said the way to make change is in a three-pronged system: education, action and elections. This will involve having knowledge of the situation, protesting much like the womens march in January and electing transgender officials, he said.

When a community does not have a voice in the house where change can be made, then that community is continued to be glossed over with policies. Its easy to ignore something you dont see on a day-to-day basis, but it seems like thats how our politicians work, Lucide said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Mays Landing Lightning 8-and-under All-Star Softball Team earned a spot in the Babe Ruth 8U World Series in Jensen, Florida.

They just needed a little help getting there.

Over the past few days, the team got the support it needed and more.

The Lightning raised enough funds to pay for its trip and will leave Thursday for Florida. The World Series starts Saturday.

Its been absolutely overwhelming, Lightning manager Paul Brown said Tuesday. Its not just our town. This entire county has gotten behind us.

The team faced the prospect of not being able to participate in the World Series, because it couldnt afford to. But a story in The Press last week attracted attention to the Lightnings plight.

Donations came in over the weekend and Monday from South Jersey Gas, Ron Jaworskis Jaws Youth Playbook and the Chapman Ford auto dealership. The team also received many contributions through a GoFundMe page it set up.

I read this story and felt compelled to help, Jaworski said in an email Tuesday. This team fought hard all season to get to the World Series. Not being able to make it to Florida due to money is just heartbreaking. The power of community is amazing, and I am glad to see everyone rally around them to help them make it to the series.

The Lightning is affiliated with the Mays Landing Babe Ruth recreation program. All players live in Mays Landing. Most of the team has been together since they were 6.

Were all like sisters, said Browns 9-year-old daughter, Trinity, who pitches, plays shortstop and catches. Sometimes we get ice cream. We have pool parties.

The Lightning qualified by finishing second to Hamilton (Mercer County) at the state tournament in Egg Harbor Township earlier this month.

The Lightning began All Star play in June. The team advanced to the state tournament by finishing second to Vineland in the Southern New Jersey District 3 tournament in Vineland. The top two teams in the state tournament advanced to the World Series. The Lightning also competed in the Mid-Atlantic Region Tournament in Audubon, Pennsylvania, from July 5 to 12. Most of the Lightnings games have been decided by one or two runs.

The team last week was about $5,000 short of the money it needed to make the trip.

The players solicited donations outside local stores. They held car washes. A Chinese auction Sunday at the Masonic Lodge in Mays Landing raised $2,000.

With the donations and fundraising projects, the Lightning raised a bit more than $5,000  the bare minimum it needed to make the trip.

When we first started, we were just trying to make sure we had our hotels covered, Brown said. We were going to survive on everything else. But now our hotel, travel all of our food and our tournament fees will be covered.

The extra money will allow the team to concentrate fully on its games.

The kids are out of their minds right now, Brown said. Theyre so excited.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
New Jerseys system for funding public schools isnt stable, fair, fiscally sound or good for schools and their students. The only beneficiaries of its dysfunction are special interests, politicians and advocacy groups who get a piece of the action in the annual school funding fight.

Many school districts dont find out until the last minute whether their state aid will be less than they need or more than they deserve. They know that a year later, it could switch from one to the other. That makes it impossible to efficiently plan and develop education programs and facilities.

This year seemed worse than most, which is saying something.

Gov. Chris Christie started the yearlong fiasco with a proposal to more evenly distribute aid, instead of sending outsized amounts to what he called failed urban schools. That would provide property-tax relief for most towns but give some of the neediest and lowest-income school districts the hard choice of making drastic budget cuts or jacking up property taxes. His Fairness Formula had no chance of acceptance by the courts and the Democrat-controlled Legislature, but it appealed to underfunded districts and overburdened taxpayers.

Proposals to reform school aid came and went for months, each with different winners and losers, none with broad support.

Then as the state budget deadline at the end of June neared, Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney reached the compromise that set this years aid. Aid was increased by $150 million, including $25 million each for expanded preschool and special education, and $31 million was redistributed between districts to reduce imbalances.

An extra $150 million is far from enough to make everyone happy. Growth districts got significant increases, such as 3.6 percent for Egg Harbor Township schools. Those that are shrinking, including most in Cape May County, had their state aid cut by 2 percent. The Education Law Center says many of those districts are still spending below what the state considers adequate and so shouldnt lose aid.

The Legislature gave aid-losing districts the option to borrow from an emergency fund to offset the cuts, then Christie changed the budget to allow the possibility that the state might change the loans to grants. Less than two weeks ago, districts getting increased aid were told they could use it to reduce property-tax rates that had already been set for the coming year  if they hurried and the municipality could accommodate them. Districts that lost aid must either seek emergency funds or cut their budgets by Aug. 1.

Since New Jersey already is spending more than its nation-leading tax burden can sustain, it didnt have even that $150 million to increase aid. Its Atlantic City-style solution was a two-month delay in reimbursing towns for $145 million in Homestead property tax credits  pushing the cost into the year-ahead budget to deal with later.

Phew! Surely theres a better way.

Some academic experts suggest simply updating the aid-distribution formula to reflect shifting population, still giving poor urban districts outsized aid to satisfy the courts regardless of its effectiveness.

Educators and advocates want to increase aid by the billion dollars or so lost to the 2 percent property tax cap and state aid cuts, even though N.J. property taxes remain the highest in the nation.

The Education Law Center has suggested compelling towns getting a break under the formula to raise taxes to fund schools.

The centers founder, retired Rutgers University professor Paul Tractenberg, in January called the current system an existential threat that required major surgery. He proposed funding schools fully or mostly through statewide taxes and greatly reducing the 599 school districts to as few as the states 21 counties.

A change of such magnitude looks necessary. New Jersey officials should start thinking about it now and get to work immediately after the November election.
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market is projected to register an impressive expansion at 7.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2025, according to a recent study by Persistence Market Research (PMR). PMR's study estimates the market to increase from revenues worth US$ 5,216.1 Mn in 2017 to reach US$ 9,162.2 Mn by 2025-end.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438683LOGO )



Limited Insurance or Government Intervention Provides Smooth Flow to the Market Growth in APAC

Asia Pacific (APAC) will continue to be the most lucrative region in the global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient market, with sales exhibiting the second highest CAGR through 2025. APAC has remained one of the largest API suppliers, at affordable costs. Governments across APAC have been making investments and focusing on local manufacturing facilities of APIs. Favorable policies offered by these governments have been shifting the focus of API manufacturers in moving their production bases to APAC countries, such as India and China. In addition, limited insurance or government intervention provides smooth flow to market growth in these regions.

Browse 222 Pages Global Research Report on Global Animal Health APIs Market@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market.asp

However, animal health API products manufactured in APAC countries do not meet regulatory standards, and there has been increasing concerns pertaining to the quality of APIs, especially those produced in China and India. Western regulatory bodies are becoming stricter in the inspection of APIs produced in these regions. Manufacturers are further facing challenges in bridging the gap between the cost and quality of APIs. These factors will inhibit growth of the market in APAC.

Europe to Remain the Second Largest Market for Animal Health APIs

Europe will remain the second largest market for animal health active pharmaceutical ingredients. Leading healthcare companies are located in the Europe, which in turn has boosted requirement for veterinary APIs in the region. Consumption of veterinary drugs in Europe has surged substantially over the past few years. Spain has been witnessed to be the largest consumer of veterinary antimicrobial APIs in the EU. In addition, rising improvements in the animal productivity has driven growth of the animal health industry in this region. These incidences are expected to augment growth of the animal health API market in Europe.

However, the pharmaceutical industry in Europe has been concerned with potential short-term impacts of REACH regulations. This is likely to result in decreased supply of materials, or reagents, which are not preregistered by EU suppliers. In addition, dynamic changes in Europe's macro-economic environment, such as the Brexit, has been impacting the intra-European trade and overall pharmaceutical sector. These factors might curb growth of the animal health API market in Europe.

View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and Tables@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market/toc

Antiparasitics to Remain the Largest Adopted APIs in the Market

Antiparasitics will continue to be the largest adopted API in the market, followed by anti-infectives. Sales of Antiparasitics are expected to register the fastest expansion, to account for the largest revenues by 2025-end. In contrast, revenues from sales of anesthetics and NSAIDs will remain comparatively lower than antiparasitics and anti-infectives.

Key market players profiled in PMR's report include

Glenmark Pharmaceutical Ltd.

Zoetis Inc.

Eli Lilly & Co.

Sanofi Winthrop Industrie (CEPiA)

Indukern, S.A.

Ofichem BV

P&R SpA (Olon SpA)

Lonza Group AG

Huvepharma

ouro fino saude animal

Blanver Farmoquimica E Farmaceutica S.A.

Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd

Changzhou Yabang-Qh Pharmachem Co., Ltd.

Shanghai Pharmtech Co. Ltd.

Ningxia Tairui Pharma CO. Ltd.

Shaanxi Hanjiang Pharmaceutical Group Co.,Ltd.

Sequent Scientific Ltd.

NGL Fine Chem Ltd.

Omkar Speciality Chemicals Limited

Excel Industries Ltd.

"To Buy Full Report for Single User@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/16972"

Persistence Market Research Overview

Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.

To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.

Connect with us on LinkedIn@ https://www.linkedin.com/company/persistence-market-research-&-consulting

Queries regarding these research findings can be addressed to Persistence Market Research's analysts at media@persistencemarketresearch.com

Contact

Persistence Market Research

U.S. Sales Office:

305 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York City, NY 10007

+1-646-568-7751

United States

USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353

Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com



SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Mounting research from around the world suggests marijuana's potential to treat multiple medical conditions ranging from chronic pain to cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, anxiety and more. Predicted to reach $55.8 billion by 20251, the global medical marijuana industry presents to investors a wide array of investment opportunities, driven by increasing demand for therapeutic applications of the drug. In turn, funds raised through the public market give marijuana companies the chance to raise capital to build stronger portfolios, increase their market reach and revenue, and offer cannabis-based alternatives to traditional medicine. Companies such as ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTC: CIIX) (Profile: CIIX), Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC: MJNA), CV Sciences, Inc. (OTC: CVSI), Terra Tech Corp. (OTC: TRTC), and Marijuana Company of America, Inc. (OTC: MCOA) are operating in the medical marijuana scene and are steadily building a strong reputation as leading providers of cannabis-based health and wellness products and services.

Created as a premier source of financial information for Chinese-speaking investors, ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX) is carving for itself a hefty portion of the cannabis market through diversified entry points. Adding to its current operations, CIIX earlier this week announced (http://nnw.fm/3nlZM) its entry into China's skincare industry though the impending launch of a new line of cannabidiol-based skincare products.

"Although ancient Chinese recognized the medicinal properties of the cannabis plant, CBD extract appears to be largely unrecognized in China today for its benefits, including but not limited to, its potential benefits to the largest visible human organ, the skin. The effects of increased air pollution on the human body are a growing concern for many in China. With regard to our skin, toxins in air pollution promote the production of free radicals, causing premature aging including coarse wrinkles and dark spots. However, some dermatologists believe that the anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory agents in CBD can potentially have anti-aging effects on the skin," the company stated in the press release.

The opportunity here is significant, as you look at the broader market. China is currently the second largest consumer of skincare products, generating annual retail sales of more than $29.6 billion2. Research from ReportLinker estimates that Chinese skincare product retail sales will reach $36.3 billion this year.

The CBD Magic Hemp Series, to be launched by early September by CIIX's wholly-owned CBD Biotechnology Co. Ltd. subsidiary (http://nnw.fm/VC7oZ), will position CIIX as a first mover in this previously untapped sector of the Chinese skincare industry. CIIX has filed a record of the product line with the Chinese Food and Drug Administration, and the company anticipates capturing, "100% of China's market share in this novel skin care products category," since, to its knowledge, other manufacturers have not yet entered the cannabis skincare product market in China.

Again targeting an untapped niche of the marijuana market, CIIX operates the first Chinese-language online store selling cannabidiol (CBD) products. In December 2016, CIIX launched www.ChineseCBDoil.com in Shanghai, catering to a growing audience of Chinese people interested in the benefits of CBD-based products for the treatment of various medical conditions such as stress, anxiety, Alzheimer's disease, and others. In conjunction with the launch of the website, CIIX introduced the first Yelp-style social media app in Chinese. The app, approved by the Apple store, is a platform for reviews and discussions about cannabis products and provides a comprehensive database of dispensaries and marijuana strains, all in the Chinese language.

CIIX is also getting ready to open its first retail store, primarily targeting the Chinese community in San Gabriel, California. The store will sell the company's new OptHemp product line, launched by subsidiary ChineseHempOil.com, Inc., to treat pain and inflammation. In July, CIIX announced (http://nnw.fm/6ThNn) that www.ChineseHempOil.com will accept bitcoin payments for its health products, food and beverages.

Another recognizable marijuana company focused on market firsts is Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC: MJNA). MJNA was the first publicly-traded marijuana company in the United States; the first to make cannabidiol available domestically and abroad; and the first to establish a global CBD pipeline that made beneficial cannabinoid products available to people all over the world. In addition to establishing an international CBD pipeline, providing support services to the cannabis industry and working to develop new markets, MJNA is focusing on the development and distribution of CBD hemp oil health products such as HempMeds and Kannaway, in addition to developing cannabis medication via subsidiaries AXIM Biotechnologies, Kannalife Sciences, and HempMeds. The companies are looking into different delivery methods for marijuana-based therapies and are targeting a wide range of conditions including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, chronic pain and more.

Medical marijuana player CV Sciences (OTCQB: CVSI) operates its corner of the market via two different business segments: pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Its pharmaceutical division is developing synthetic CBD-based medicines for various medical conditions, with approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Its pipeline currently includes a CBD-based product designed to support cessation of tobacco addiction. The consumer products division manufactures and distributes plant-based CBD products designed to enhance quality of life. CVSI's flagship consumer products, PlusCBD Oil and Purified Liquids vaping blends, are already distributed nationwide via health care providers, health food stores and online.

Terra Tech (OTCQX: TRTC) is a vertically-integrated cannabis agriculture company that owns multiple subsidiaries in the medical marijuana space. One of these subsidiaries is Blum, a retail medical cannabis company that provides medical cannabis as an alternative treatment for patients with chronic conditions. Also offering cannabis to the adult-use market in Nevada, where the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes is legal, Blum offers recreational and medicinal consumer products such as flowers and concentrates produced according to the highest standards of potency and purity. Terra Tech is committed to cultivating only high-quality medical marijuana and providing it to qualified and registered medical marijuana establishments throughout the United States. At the same time, the company is continuing research to cultivate and cross-breed medical marijuana strains for the treatment of many different medical conditions.

As demand for medical marijuana grows, so does the need for grow space. Marijuana Company of America (OTC: MCOA) is primarily focused on the marketing and distribution of hemp via a diverse portfolio of companies, brands, joint ventures and investments such as hempSMART, Club Harmoneous, GateC Research, Bougainville and MoneyTrac Technology. The company earlier this month said it has received financing that it will use to develop a state-of-the-art 30,000-square-foot greenhouse grow facility in Oroville, Washington, with joint-venture partner Bougainville Ventures, Inc. At full capacity, the facility is expected to accommodate cannabis production and processing of its tenant, a Tier 3, I-502 licensed grower. MCOA said it plans to replicate this business model to build its real estate portfolio and increase revenues.

These public companies, expanding their market reach and brand recognition in their respective niches of the medical marijuana market, provide ample opportunities for investors looking for an entrance into the booming medical marijuana market. Proponents of marijuana for medical purposes point to a growing number of studies that confirm the health benefits of cannabis, setting the industry on track to continue its strong performance and become a key industry and engine of economic growth.

NNW Editorial Sources:

Grand View Research, Inc. (http://nnw.fm/dYk5q) ReportLinker (http://nnw.fm/C9Hw9

For more information on ChineseInvestors.com, please visit: ChineseInvestors.com (CIIX)

About NetworkNewsWire

NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is an information service that provides to users (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) enhanced press release services, and (3) a full array of social communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, NNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. NNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, NNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. NNW is where news, content and information converge.

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

Office: 212-418-1217

Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the NetworkNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by NNW, wherever published or re-published: http://NNW.fm/Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with NNW or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by NNW are solely those of NNW and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable NNW and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. NNW and FNM and their respective affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT registered broker-dealers/analysts/investment advisers, hold no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.

The Article and content related to the profiled company represent the personal and subjective views of the Author, and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in the Article and the content has been obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of the Author, NNW, FNM, or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment.

NNW & FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and NNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements.

Media Contact e-mail:

FN Media Group, LLC

editor@financialnewsmedia.com

+1(954)345-0611



SOURCE NetworkNewsWire
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "The best boards are rethinking their assumptions about everything they know  from what business they are in, to how their corporate culture defines their company, to what needs disrupting and what doesn't," said Susan Stautberg, CEO and chairman of the WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation (WCD). "This has major implications for strategy discussions in the boardroom."

At the recent WCD Global Institute in New York, top global board leaders, CEOs, and governance experts from companies including GE, AT&T, Alaska Air, News Corp., The Coca-Cola Company, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC, Intel Capital, Tata Communications, and more gathered to discuss changes for boards in today's disruption frenzy. The panels and roundtables revealed the top issues on boardroom agendas today:

10 Issues Topping Board Agendas in 2017

Disruption must meet a need. Disruption is certainly the lodestar for companies, but boards can help guide management to make the investments where they are really needed. Vinod Kumar , CEO of Tata Communications, explained: "When we think about disruption, we also need to ask, is there a genuine need? We need to be intellectually honest with ourselves in that discussion." He does believe that telecom is a sector that fits this need. "We as an industry offer services to our customers that operate 99.99 percent of the time, and we think we're really cool. But I asked my team: what if your car only worked 99.99 percent of the time? Our customers don't change their water supply or their energy provider every year, but they very often change their telecom service provider every year." And disruption isn't just about tech, he said: "The definition of disruption needs to go beyond technology and reevaluate the business model and business processes. It has to be centered, most importantly, on the evolving needs of the customer." Shareholder activists can offer real value. The long-held resistance to activist investors is softening in boardrooms. Julianne Canavaggio , head of Central America & Caribbean for Lazard and a director at Conservatorio and Inversiones Malemar, observed that activism "is going to help independent directors" in challenging the status quo in companies on whose boards they sit. "Having shareholder activists participate will make these boards really question what they're doing. In considering an acquisition, for example, they will ask: Do we have specific, well-articulated value creation ideas going into the acquisition? Is this really going to work? Is there a strategic logic to the deal?" Consumers and younger employees are creating a horizontal power balance. "With both consumers and younger employees, there has been a massive leveling of power," said Laurie Ann Goldman , director at ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc., andFrancesca's Holding Corporation. "It's a newly horizontal world; information flows in all directions. It really wasn't all that long ago when the relationship between provider and consumer was the same as it had been for generations: The providers talked. The consumers listened. The providers offered a selection. The consumers picked from what they were offered. Technology, of course, changed all that with its power to inform, explain, and  most important of all  share. Humans have the control that we all strive for. And today they have life-and-death power over the future of a brand. I see the same thing on the boards on which I sit. It used to be that board information flowed one way  the more experienced educating the less experienced. Today, information flows both ways. Younger people in the organization expect to share their thoughts and ideas. All boards must be open to that. The education process has become collaborative." Innovation culture requires conscious cultivation. "This is perhaps the seminal, critical issue: how do you get stakeholders  employees, governments, share owners, boards, communities, and academia  to really understand that disruption is absolutely taking place at quite a rapid pace?" remarked Susan Peters , SVP of Human Resources at GE. "From the perspective of the employee population, you have to lean into it. It's not something that's going to happen naturally. At GE, we're creating a culture that allows people to constantly reinvent themselves, to be looking for the new. How do we become a company that understands how to be a startup within a big company? We invest in small ideas, let them grow, get feedback, and pivot if it's not the right thing." Workforce transformation supplants workforce replacement. A major question employers face is how the current employee base is brought along with significant changes in operations. "If you have 200,000 employees, do you say, 'I'm going to replace those 200,000 employees,' or am I smart enough to allow people to raise their hands and say, 'I want to travel with you to this new place'?" said Joyce Roche, a director at AT&T, Macy's, Inc., and Tupperware Brands Corporation. "Rather than think that we can replace that number of individuals, we think about how to acquire a new skill set. We focus on employee transformation, and letting people be able to move along with us as opposed to thinking about replacement." Innovative partnerships create new opportunities for growth. Companies have much to learn from new kinds of partnerships globally, said Maggie Hanson-Muse , Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, ASEAN, of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A prime example is with Singapore , Asia's leading financial technology center, where a business-friendly environment and a forward-thinking regulator have led to its becoming a haven for start-up companies working in areas from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity to "smart cities." "A fintech start-up company will come into the country, hire Singaporeans, and work with them side by side. The Singaporean gains the experience in a kind of on-the-job training, and becomes part of the company. When the fintech owners go back to their home country, the company now has an entity in Singapore  an overseas branch. This is a truly global way of establishing a market, training a workforce, and maintaining a new overseas operation." Basics can get lost in organizational complexity. The high complexity of businesses today can sometimes crowd out a focus on the basics. Alaska Air CEO and president Brad Tilden used his own business as an example: "In the airline business, there are a lot of complicated decisions, from which airplanes to buy, to how you're scheduling flights, to how you're building new software applications. But I actually think in our business success is very simple: If you've got a team of good people, who are empowered and who want to make your airline great, you've got a great chance of being successful. When people say, 'I didn't like that airline or that flight,' it's typically not the complicated stuff that we get wrong. It's the simple stuff." Crises demand decision-making with limited information. The importance of timing, and being able to get out in front of issues, becomes more critical every day. Diane de Saint Victor , general counsel and company secretary of Swiss-based ABB, Ltd., one of the world's largest conglomerates, commented: "The world is moving faster and faster, and boardrooms need to act even more swiftly. In a crisis, it's a matter of hours  there is an element of urgency and a need for speed in the boardroom. We've got to make decisions in a situation where we don't necessarily know 100 percent of what we would want to know, but, somehow, we've got to move on and do the best we can with whatever is available. Sometimes that has to be good enough." Cybercrime puts accountability on the full board  not just the experts. "In the last 10 years, the question of who a cybercriminal is has changed completely," said Nicole Friedlander , special counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell and former Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York . "It used to be that cybercriminals were a very small group of people who stole money or credit cards. If you weren't a company that kept customers' money or credit card numbers, you didn't have to worry that much. But what we've seen is the emergence of cybercrime-as-a-service. Cybercriminals are now service providers for all kinds of other criminals and get paid to steal data that other criminals need." Friedlander emphasized that all board members, even those without cybercrime expertise, should ask questions about the risks. "If your company is breached, this discussion will help protect it, because regulators and private litigants have been challenging boards about what they did ahead of time to assess and mitigate cybersecurity risk." Path to board consensus shifts with gender diversity. As boards increasingly examine their processes and how their decision-making holds up under scrutiny, does having women on a board open up the discussion for tougher questions? Walgreens and Bank of Montreal director Jan Babiak recalled an experience on a previous board: "There were a whole lot of male CEOs and they wouldn't ask questions that they wouldn't want to be asked themselves in their own boardroom. In this kind of situation, directors are more likely to have consensus and collaboration, but they also think alike. Women may ask questions in a different way, and the very fact that we're asking a question rocks the boat and sometimes makes people uncomfortable with us. But it's very important that we disagree without being disagreeable. A woman director kind of has to be the 'velvet hammer' in that she really has to make her point, but do it in a consensus-building way."

All of these issues demand a serious look at board composition moving forward. Says Kapila Anand, director of Extended Stay America, Inc., and lead director of WCD: "As disruptive forces, innovation, and workforce dynamics  coupled with the volatile regulatory environment  occupy more of the board agenda, the value of a diverse board with relevant skills has become even more critical."

For more information, please contact Suzanne Oaks Brownstein or Trang Mar of Temin and Company at 212-588-8788 or [email protected].

About WomenCorporateDirectors Education and Development Foundation, Inc.

The WomenCorporateDirectors Education and Development Foundation, Inc. (WCD Foundation) is the only global membership organization and community of women corporate directors. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, the WCD Foundation has 77 chapters around the world. The aggregate market capitalization of public companies on whose boards WCD Foundation members serve is over $8 trillion. In addition, WCD Foundation members serve on numerous boards of large private and family-run companies globally. For more information visit www.womencorporatedirectors.org or follow us on Twitter @WomenCorpDirs, #WCDboards.

Upcoming WCD Institutes include:

ASPAC Institute  September 27-28, 2017 ; Hong Kong

 ; EMEA Institute  October 24-25, 2017 ; Madrid

 ; Americas Institute  March 7-8, 2018 ; Miami

 ; Global Institute  May 8-10, 2018 ; New York

SOURCE WomenCorporateDirectors Education and Development Foundation, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.womencorporatedirectors.org


WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AiNET has been awarded a contract by Prince George's County to run dark fiber to the County Public Safety Communications radio system, including improved connections to critical transit locations.

Prince George's County Public Safety Communications operates a digital radio network comprised of many above ground tower sites, as well as three WMATA (Metro) sites that service Prince George's County portions of the underground sections of the Metrorail system at Largo Town Center, Suitland and College Park stations. AiNET will provide redundancy to the existing microwave radio connections to these sites, allowing Prince George's County Public Safety Communications to build a fault tolerant solution to the Metro sites, as part of a larger initiative to implement an MPLS solution across the county's entire LMR (Land Mobile Radio) system.

"We have been a technology partner of the County for many years. They know AiNET can build, connect and maintain these optical fiber networks in a more cost-efficient way than any other regional network provider," says Deepak Jain, CEO at AiNET. "They know we stand behind them 100%, and are just as committed to the success of the project as they are."

AiNET is a CATS II Master Contractor for Prince George's County with a long history of telecommunications excellence. PG County will benefit from the experience AiNET brings to complex fiber deployments. AiNET's unique service offerings encompassing fiber-connected data centers, cloud and fiber networks allow them to deliver success on all aspects of IT projects.

About AiNET

For 25 years, AiNET has been delivering clients a holistic, innovative approach to meeting business goals using information technology solutions. AiNET implements and maintains complex managed data center services, hybrid cloud environments and highly-secure networks for dynamic, evolving companies with mission-critical IT functions.

Clients turn to AiNET to fill gaps, guarantee compliance activities and mitigate security risks. AiNET's suite of technologies helps to streamline the vendor mix, guarantees availability through end-to-end SLAs, and takes invested IT dollars to their greatest potential.

AiNET's clients come from a variety of high-tech industries including government, finance, healthcare and technology, as well as many commercial industries.

Note: This release takes precedence over the prior "AiNET Brings Dark Fiber to D.C. Metro System." This is a Prince George's County project, not procured through WMATA

CONTACT: Jonathan Eaton, (301) 931-6574 x 246, [email protected]

SOURCE AiNET

Related Links

http://ai.net


FRANKENMUTH, Mich., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Advantage, an Internet Service Provider serving the Thumb and Southeast Michigan, announced today that litigation between the Company and the United States government has ended and the parties' claims against each other have been dismissed.

The United States brought a suit against Air Advantage in March 2016 regarding an amount of funds owed by the company to the government. Air Advantage responded with its own claim against the United States in August 2016 disputing the amount of funds properly owed by Air Advantage. After months of negotiation, a settlement has been reached.

"We're thrilled to have found a fair and amicable resolution for both parties and to put this matter behind us," said Scott Zimmer, Air Advantage co-founder. "Despite the distraction, over the past several years, Air Advantage has substantially upgraded its network services, and is now eager to return our full attention to providing fast, reliable internet services to our business and residential customers."

Since 2002, Air Advantage has been providing internet and data services to schools, hospitals, libraries, government agencies, businesses and homes in both rural and metro areas throughout the Thumb and Southeast Michigan. The Company's proprietary network includes 450-miles of optic-fiber plus more than 150 strategically-located transmission towers offering broadband wireless. This network is then interconnected to other regional, state and national providers giving Air Advantage customers fast, reliable service across a state of the art network.

According to Zimmer, Air Advantage is experiencing a sharp rise in demand for its fiber services throughout the Thumb and in Saginaw and Bay Counties. The Company has also recently upgraded 20% of its transmission towers to enhance broadband wireless performance and coverage area. Additional upgrades are planned in the near future.

"Litigation is always challenging, so we're glad it's behind us. We're appreciative of our customers, both new and old, for their patience as this matter was resolved. Providing affordable commercial-grade internet service to business and residential customers throughout our region has always been our goal and our promise. It's a responsibility we take very seriously," said Zimmer.

For more information on Air Advantage, visit online at www.airadvantage.net or like us on Facebook.

SOURCE Air Advantage

Related Links

http://airadvantage.net


SEATTLE, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Financial Highlights:

Reported net income for the second quarter under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") of $296 million or $2.38 per diluted share, compared to net income of $260 million , or $2.10 per diluted share in 2016. As the acquisition of Virgin America Inc. ("Virgin America") closed on Dec. 14, 2016 , second quarter 2017 information reflects the results of Virgin America, including the impacts associated with purchase accounting. Second quarter 2016 results do not include Virgin America.

or per diluted share, compared to net income of , or per diluted share in 2016. As the acquisition of Virgin America Inc. ("Virgin America") closed on , second quarter 2017 information reflects the results of Virgin America, including the impacts associated with purchase accounting. Second quarter 2016 results do not include Virgin America. Reported second quarter net income, excluding merger-related costs and mark-to-market fuel hedging adjustments, of $312 million , compared to $263 million in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $2.51 , compared to $2.12 in the second quarter of 2016. This quarter's results were in line with First Call analyst consensus estimate of $2.52 per share.

, compared to in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were , compared to in the second quarter of 2016. This quarter's results were in line with First Call analyst consensus estimate of per share. Paid $0.30 per-share quarterly cash dividend in the second quarter, a 9% increase over the dividend paid in the second quarter of 2016.

per-share quarterly cash dividend in the second quarter, a 9% increase over the dividend paid in the second quarter of 2016. Generated approximately $1.1 billion of operating cash flow and used approximately $512 million for capital expenditures, resulting in $572 million of free cash flow in the second quarter of 2017.

of operating cash flow and used approximately for capital expenditures, resulting in of free cash flow in the second quarter of 2017. Held $1.9 billion in unrestricted cash and marketable securities as of June 30, 2017 .

Operational Highlights:

Launched nine new routes during the quarter and announced 10 new routes, including obtaining final approval from the Department of Transportation for three routes to Mexico City .

. Took delivery of two of five Airbus A321neos scheduled for delivery in 2017, becoming the first airline to operate this aircraft.

Began jet service at Horizon with the first flights of the new Embraer 175 jets after taking delivery of the first six of 33 aircraft scheduled for delivery over the next two years.

Entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to amend the eight-year contract with Horizon's pilots, providing Horizon the ability to attract and retain the best pilots in the regional industry.

Added Finnair as a global Mileage Plan partner.

Recognition and Awards

Ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers" in 2017 by J.D. Power for the 10 th year in a row.

year in a row. Virgin America: Rated Best Domestic Airline in Travel + Leisure "World's Best Awards" for 10 years in a row.

Rated "Best Airline Staff in North America " and "Best Regional Airline in North America " by Skytrax World Airline Awards.

" and "Best Regional Airline in " by Skytrax World Airline Awards. Awarded TripAdvisor's 2017 Travelers' Choice Award for second-best midsize and low-cost airlines in North America and one of the top 10 best airlines in the world.

and one of the top 10 best airlines in the world. Ranked among Forbes' 2017 "America's Best Employers" for the third year in a row.

Certified as a great workplace by Great Place to Work, the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures.

Received 16 th Diamond Award of Excellence from the Federal Aviation Administration, recognizing both Alaska and Horizon's aircraft technicians for their commitment to training.

Diamond Award of Excellence from the Federal Aviation Administration, recognizing both and Horizon's aircraft technicians for their commitment to training. Received the 2017 Visionary Award for Leadership and Governance of a Public Company, presented by the Women Corporate Directors Global Institute, recognizing diversity among our directors.

Ranked among the Fortune 500 for the fourth year in a row.

Alaska Air Group Inc., (NYSE: ALK) today reported second quarter 2017 GAAP net income of $296 million, or $2.38 per diluted share, compared to $260 million, or $2.10 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2016. Excluding the impact of merger-related costs and mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments, the company reported adjusted net income of $312 million, or $2.51 per diluted share, compared to $263 million, or $2.12 per diluted share, in 2016.

"We had a very solid quarter, driven by a growing customer base and strong revenue performance," said CEO Brad Tilden. "Although we're dealing with a number of operational challenges, our employees continue to deliver excellent service. We are delighted that Alaska and Virgin America received top honors from J.D. Power* and Travel + Leisure* respectively, each for the 10th consecutive year. I want to congratulate our team for receiving these prestigious awards."

The following table reconciles the company's reported GAAP net income and earnings per diluted share ("diluted EPS") for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017, and 2016 to adjusted amounts:



Three Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016 (in millions, except per-share amounts) Dollars

Diluted EPS

Dollars

Diluted EPS Reported GAAP net income $ 296



$ 2.38



$ 260



$ 2.10

Mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments 2



0.02



(10)



(0.08)

Special itemsmerger-related costs 24



0.19



14



0.11

Income tax effect on special items and fuel hedge adjustments (10)



(0.08)



(1)



(0.01)

Non-GAAP adjusted net income and per-share amounts $ 312



$ 2.51



$ 263



$ 2.12







Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

Dollars

Diluted EPS

Dollars

Diluted EPS Reported GAAP net income and diluted EPS $ 395



$ 3.17



$ 444



$ 3.56

Mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments 12



0.10



(12)



(0.10)

Special itemsmerger-related costs 64



0.51



14



0.12

Income tax effect on special items and fuel hedge adjustments (28)



(0.22)



(1)



(0.01)

Non-GAAP adjusted net income and diluted EPS $ 443



$ 3.56



$ 445



$ 3.57



* Alaska Airlines: highest in airline customer satisfaction among traditional carriers in the J.D. Power 2008-2017 North America Airline Satisfaction Study. Virgin America: "Top Domestic Airline" 2017 in Travel + Leisure "World's Best Awards".

Statistical data, as well as a reconciliation of the reported non-GAAP financial measures, can be found in the accompanying tables. A glossary of financial terms can be found on the last page of this release.

A conference call regarding the second quarter results will be simulcast online at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time on July 26, 2017. It can be accessed through the company's website at www.alaskaair.com/investors. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available after the conclusion of the call.

References in this news release to "Air Group," "company," "we," "us" and "our" refer to Alaska Air Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries, unless otherwise specified. Alaska Airlines, Inc., Horizon Air Industries, Inc., and Virgin America Inc. are referred to as "Alaska," "Horizon," and "Virgin America" respectively, and together as our "airlines."

This news release may contain forward-looking statements subject to the safe harbor protection provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual outcomes to be materially different from those indicated by any forward-looking statements. For a comprehensive discussion of potential risk factors, see Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, as well as in other documents filed by the Company with the SEC after the date thereof. Some of these risks include general economic conditions, increases in operating costs including fuel, competition, labor costs and relations, our indebtedness, inability to meet cost reduction goals, seasonal fluctuations in our financial results, an aircraft accident, changes in laws and regulations and risks inherent in the achievement of anticipated synergies and the timing thereof in connection with the acquisition of Virgin America. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the risk factors discussed therein. We operate in a continually changing business environment, and new risk factors emerge from time to time. Management cannot predict such new risk factors, nor can it assess the impact, if any, of such new risk factors on our business or events described in any forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this report to conform them to actual results. Over time, our actual results, performance or achievements will likely differ from the anticipated results, performance, or achievements that are expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements, and such differences might be significant and materially adverse.

Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 40 million guests a year to 118 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners , guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Satisfaction Study for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017. Alaska Mileage Plan ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Airline Loyalty Rewards Programs" in the J.D. Power 2016 Airline Loyalty/Rewards Program Satisfaction Report for the last three consecutive years. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service and unmatched reliability at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (unaudited) Alaska Air Group, Inc.























As the acquisition closed on December 14, 2016, amounts presented below include Virgin America results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 but not for the prior periods.

























Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions, except per-share amounts) 2017

2016

Change(a)

2017

2016

Change(a) Operating Revenues:





















Passenger





















Mainline $ 1,556



$ 1,036



50 %

$ 2,828



$ 1,963



44 % Regional 251



227



11 %

463



433



7 % Total passenger revenue 1,807



1,263



43 %

3,291



2,396



37 % Freight and mail 32



27



19 %

56



51



10 % Othernet 263



204



29 %

504



394



28 % Total Operating Revenues 2,102



1,494



41 %

3,851



2,841



36 %























Operating Expenses:





















Wages and benefits 469



332



41 %

917



668



37 % Variable incentive pay 27



32



(16) %

58



64



(9) % Aircraft fuel, including hedging gains and losses 344



201



71 %

683



368



86 % Aircraft maintenance 96



65



48 %

183



133



38 % Aircraft rent 69



26



165 %

134



55



144 % Landing fees and other rentals 99



63



57 %

214



143



50 % Contracted services 77



60



28 %

158



120



32 % Selling expenses 97



55



76 %

178



104



71 % Depreciation and amortization 90



92



(2) %

180



180



 % Food and beverage service 50



31



61 %

95



62



53 % Third-party regional carrier expense 27



24



13 %

54



47



15 % Special itemsmerger-related costs 24



14



71 %

64



14



357 % Other 140



81



73 %

274



175



57 % Total Operating Expenses 1,609



1,076



50 %

3,192



2,133



50 % Operating Income 493



418



18 %

659



708



(7) %























Nonoperating Income (Expense):





















Interest income 9



7







16



13





Interest expense (26)



(9)







(51)



(22)





Interest capitalized 4



7







8



15





Othernet (1)



(3)







(1)



(2)





Total Nonoperating Income (Expense) (14)



2







(28)



4





Income Before Income Tax 479



420







631



712





Income tax expense 183



160







236



268





Net Income $ 296



$ 260







$ 395



$ 444





























Basic Earnings Per Share: $ 2.40



$ 2.11







$ 3.19



$ 3.58





Diluted Earnings Per Share: $ 2.38



$ 2.10







$ 3.17



$ 3.56





























Shares Used for Computation:





















Basic 123.573



123.250







123.534



123.900





Diluted 124.332



123.988







124.374



124.715





























Cash dividend declared per share: $ 0.300



$ 0.275







$ 0.600



$ 0.550











(a) See Combined Comparative information in the accompanying pages for year-over-year comparisons including Virgin America.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (unaudited)





Alaska Air Group, Inc.













(in millions) June 30, 2017

December 31, 2016 Cash and marketable securities $ 1,922



$ 1,580









Total current assets 2,425



2,050

Property and equipmentnet 6,002



5,666

Goodwill 1,940



1,934

Intangible assets 137



143

Other assets 216



169

Total assets 10,720



9,962









Air traffic liability 1,255



849

Current portion of long-term debt 337



319

Other current liabilities 1,382



1,367

Current liabilities 2,974



2,535

Long-term debt 2,469



2,645

Other liabilities and credits 2,013



1,851

Shareholders' equity 3,264



2,931

Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 10,720



$ 9,962









Debt-to-capitalization ratio, adjusted for operating leases(a) 55 %

59 %







Number of common shares outstanding 123.521



123.328







(a) Calculated using the present value of remaining aircraft lease payments.

OPERATING STATISTICS SUMMARY (unaudited) Alaska Air Group, Inc.























As the acquisition closed on December 14, 2016, Consolidated and Mainline amounts presented below include Virgin America results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 but not for the prior periods.

























Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

Change(e)

2017

2016

Change(e) Consolidated Operating Statistics:(a)





















Revenue passengers (000) 11,400

8,647

31.8%

21,417

16,482

29.9% RPMs (000,000) "traffic" 13,554

9,397

44.2%

25,262

17,968

40.6% ASMs (000,000) "capacity" 15,612

11,062

41.1%

30,006

21,515

39.5% Load factor 86.8%

84.9%

1.9 pts

84.2%

83.5%

0.7 pts Yield 13.33

13.44

(0.8)%

13.03

13.34

(2.3)% PRASM 11.57

11.42

1.3%

10.97

11.14

(1.5)% RASM 13.46

13.51

(0.4)%

12.83

13.21

(2.9)% CASMex(b) 7.94

7.78

2.1%

8.15

8.14

0.1% Economic fuel cost per gallon(c) $1.71

$1.53

11.8%

$1.75

$1.41

24.1% Fuel gallons (000,000) 201

138

45.7%

385

270

42.6% ASM's per gallon 77.7

80.2

(3.1)%

77.9

79.7

(2.3)% Average number of full-time equivalent employees (FTE) 19,745

14,470

36.5%

19,214

14,414

33.3%























Mainline Operating Statistics:





















Revenue passengers (000) 8,950

6,282

42.5%

16,733

11,925

40.3% RPMs (000,000) "traffic" 12,525

8,456

48.1%

23,352

16,172

44.4% ASMs (000,000) "capacity" 14,341

9,875

45.2%

27,602

19,229

43.5% Load factor 87.3%

85.6%

1.7 pts

84.6%

84.1%

0.5 pts Yield 12.42

12.25

1.4%

12.11

12.14

(0.2)% PRASM 10.85

10.49

3.4%

10.25

10.21

0.4% RASM 12.76

12.61

1.2%

12.13

12.31

(1.5)% CASMex(b) 7.15

6.88

3.9%

7.33

7.18

2.1% Economic fuel cost per gallon(c) $1.70

$1.52

11.8%

$1.74

$1.40

24.3% Fuel gallons (000,000) 179

118

51.7%

343

231

48.5% ASM's per gallon 80.3

83.7

(4.1)%

80.5

83.2

(3.2)% Average number of FTE's 15,447

11,261

37.2%

15,227

11,192

36.1% Aircraft utilization 11.4

10.8

5.6%

11.1

10.7

3.7% Average aircraft stage length 1,294

1,177

9.9%

1,295

1,195

8.4% Operating fleet 221

152

69 a/c

221

152

69 a/c























Regional Operating Statistics:(d)





















Revenue passengers (000) 2,450

2,365

3.6%

4,685

4,558

2.8% RPMs (000,000) "traffic" 1,030

941

9.5%

1,910

1,796

6.3% ASMs (000,000) "capacity" 1,270

1,187

7.0%

2,404

2,287

5.1% Load factor 81.1%

79.3%

1.8 pts

79.4%

78.5%

0.9 pts Yield 24.30

24.17

0.5%

24.22

24.13

0.4% PRASM 19.70

19.16

2.8%

19.24

18.95

1.5% Operating fleet 78

69

9 a/c

78

69

9 a/c





(a) Except for full-time equivalent employees, data includes information related to third-party regional capacity purchase flying arrangements. (b) See a reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure and Note A for a discussion of potential importance of this measure to investors in the accompanying pages. (c) See a reconciliation of economic fuel cost in the accompanying pages. (d) Data presented includes information related to flights operated by Horizon Air and third-party carriers. (e) See Combined Comparative information in the accompanying pages for year-over-year comparisons including Virgin America.

SUPPLEMENTARY COMBINED COMPARATIVE FINANCIAL AND OPERATING INFORMATION (unaudited)

We believe that analysis of specific financial and operational results on a combined basis provides more meaningful year-over-year comparisons. The table below provides "Combined Comparative" results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, determined as the sum of the historical consolidated results of Air Group and of Virgin America. Virgin America's financial information has been conformed to reflect Air Group's historical financial statement presentation for each period presented. This information does not purport to reflect what our financial and operational results would have been had the acquisition been consummated at the beginning of the periods presented.



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017 2016





2017

2016





As Reported

Combined(a)

Change

As Reported

Combined(a)

Change Combined Comparative Operating Results Passenger revenue $ 1,807



$ 1,647



10%

$ 3,291



$ 3,109



6% Other revenue 295



272



8%

560



520



8% Total Operating Revenues 2,102



1,919



10%

3,851



3,629



6% Non-fuel operating expense 1,265



1,152



10%

2,509



2,302



9% Fuel expense 344



278



24%

683



516



32% Total Operating Expenses 1,609



1,430



13%

3,192



2,818



13% Operating Income 493



489



1%

659



811



(19)% Nonoperating income (expense) (14)



(3)



367%

(28)



(5)



460% Income Before Tax 479



486



(1)%

631



806



(22)% Special itemsmerger-related costs 24



18



33%

64



20



220% Mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments 2



(11)



(118)%

12



(14)



(186)% Adjusted Income Before Tax $ 505



$ 493



2%

$ 707



$ 812



(13)%























Combined Comparative Operating Statistics Revenue passengers (000) 11,400



10,734



6.2%

21,417



20,336



5.3% RPMs (000,000) 13,554



12,562



7.9%

25,262



23,748



6.4% ASMs (000,000) 15,612



14,751



5.8%

30,006



28,470



5.4% Load Factor 86.8 %

85.2 %

1.6 pts

84.2 %

83.4 %

0.8 pts PRASM 11.57 

11.16 

3.7%

10.97 

10.92 

0.5% RASM 13.46 

13.01 

3.5%

12.83 

12.75 

0.6% CASMex 7.94 

7.69 

3.3%

8.15 

8.01 

1.7%





(a) Refer to our Investor Update issued on April 12, 2017 on Form 8-K for further details of the calculation of the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 combined data.

2016 Combined Comparative Operating Results and StatisticsOther Quarters

Refer to our Investor Update issued on April 12, 2017 on Form 8-K for combined comparative operating results and statistics for each of the quarters and full year 2016.

OPERATING SEGMENTS (unaudited) Alaska Air Group, Inc.





















































As the acquisition closed on December 14, 2016, Consolidated and Mainline amounts presented below include Virgin America results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 but not for the prior periods.





























Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 (in millions) Mainline

Regional

Horizon

Consolidating

& Other

Air Group

Adjusted(a)

Special

Items(b)

Consolidated Operating revenues

























Passenger

























Mainline $ 1,556



$ 



$ 



$ 



$ 1,556



$ 



$ 1,556

Regional 



251











251







251

Total passenger revenues 1,556



251











1,807







1,807

CPA revenues 







108



(108)













Freight and mail 31



1











32







32

Othernet 244



19



1



(1)



263







263

Total operating revenues 1,831



271



109



(109)



2,102







2,102

Operating expenses

























Operating expenses, excluding fuel 1,026



206



116



(107)



1,241



24



1,265

Economic fuel 304



39







(1)



342



2



344

Total operating expenses 1,330



245



116



(108)



1,583



26



1,609

Nonoperating income (expense)

























Interest income 9















9







9

Interest expense (23)







(3)







(26)







(26)

Other 3







1



(1)



3







3

Total Nonoperating income (expense) (11)







(2)



(1)



(14)







(14)

Income (loss) before income tax $ 490



$ 26



$ (9)



$ (2)



$ 505



$ (26)



$ 479







Three Months Ended June 30, 2016 (in millions) Mainline

Regional

Horizon

Consolidating

Air Group

Adjusted(a)

Special

Items(b)

Consolidated Operating revenues

























Passenger

























Mainline $ 1,036



$ 



$ 



$ 



$ 1,036



$ 



$ 1,036

Regional 



227











227







227

Total passenger revenues 1,036



227











1,263







1,263

CPA revenues 







110



(110)













Freight and mail 26



1











27







27

Othernet 184



19



1







204







204

Total operating revenues 1,246



247



111



(110)



1,494







1,494

Operating expenses

























Operating expenses, excluding fuel 679



192



101



(111)



861



14



875

Economic fuel 180



31











211



(10)



201

Total operating expenses 859



223



101



(111)



1,072



4



1,076

Nonoperating income (expense)

























Interest income 6







1







7







7

Interest expense (4)







(4)



(1)



(9)







(9)

Other 3











1



4







4

Total Nonoperating income (expense) 5







(3)







2







2

Income (loss) before income tax $ 392



$ 24



$ 7



$ 1



$ 424



$ (4)



$ 420







(a) The Air Group Adjusted column represents the financial information that is reviewed by management to assess performance of operations and determine capital allocation and does not include certain charges. See Note A in the accompanying pages for further information. (b) Includes merger-related costs and mark-to-market fuel hedge accounting adjustments.



Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 (in millions) Mainline

Regional

Horizon

Consolidating

Air Group

Adjusted(a)

Special

Items(b)

Consolidated Operating revenues

























Passenger

























Mainline 2,828















2,828







2,828

Regional 



463











463







463

Total passenger revenues 2,828



463











3,291







3,291

Revenue from CPA with Alaska 







205



(205)













Freight and mail 54



2











56







56

Othernet 466



36



2







504







504

Total operating revenues 3,348



501



207



(205)



3,851







3,851

Operating expenses

























Operating expenses, excluding fuel 2,024



406



219



(204)



2,445



64



2,509

Economic fuel 596



75











671



12



683

Total operating expenses 2,620



481



219



(204)



3,116



76



3,192

Nonoperating income (expense)

























Interest income 16















16







16

Interest expense (45)







(5)



(1)



(51)







(51)

Other 6







1







7







7

Total Nonoperating income (expense) (23)







(4)



(1)



(28)







(28)

Income (loss) before income tax 705



20



(16)



(2)



707



(76)



631







Six Months Ended June 30, 2016 (in millions) Mainline

Regional

Horizon

Consolidating

Air Group

Adjusted(a)

Special

Items(b)

Consolidated Operating revenues

























Passenger

























Mainline 1,963















1,963







1,963

Regional 



433











433







433

Total passenger revenues 1,963



433











2,396







2,396

Revenue from CPA with Alaska 







213



(213)













Freight and mail 49



2











51







51

Othernet 356



36



2







394







394

Total operating revenues 2,368



471



215



(213)



2,841







2,841

Operating expenses

























Operating expenses, excluding fuel 1,380



378



206



(213)



1,751



14



1,765

Economic fuel 324



56











380



(12)



368

Total operating expenses 1,704



434



206



(213)



2,131



2



2,133

Nonoperating income (expense)

























Interest income 12







1







13







13

Interest expense (16)







(5)



(1)



(22)







(22)

Other 10











3



13







13

Total Nonoperating income (expense) 6







(4)



2



4







4

Income (loss) before income tax 670



37



5



2



714



(2)



712







(a) The Air Group Adjusted column represents the financial information that is reviewed by management to assess performance of operations and determine capital allocation and does not include certain charges. See Note A in the accompanying pages for further information. (b) Includes merger-related costs and mark-to-market fuel hedge accounting adjustments.

GAAP TO NON-GAAP RECONCILIATIONS (unaudited) Alaska Air Group, Inc.





























As the acquisition closed on December 14, 2016, amounts presented below include Virgin America results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 but not for the prior period.















CASM Excluding Fuel and Special Items Reconciliation









Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Consolidated:













CASM 10.31 

9.73 

10.64 

9.91  Less the following components:













Aircraft fuel, including hedging gains and losses 2.21



1.82



2.28



1.71

Special itemsmerger-related costs 0.16



0.13



0.21



0.06

CASM excluding fuel and special items 7.94 

7.78 

8.15 

8.14 















Mainline:













CASM 9.45 

8.74 

9.77 

8.87  Less the following components:













Aircraft fuel, including hedging gains and losses 2.13



1.72



2.20



1.62

Special itemsmerger-related costs 0.17



0.14



0.23



0.07

CASM excluding fuel and special items 7.15 

6.88 

7.33 

7.18 



Fuel Reconciliation

Three Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016 (in millions, except for per-gallon amounts) Dollars

Cost/Gallon

Dollars

Cost/Gallon Raw or "into-plane" fuel cost $ 337



$ 1.69



$ 207



$ 1.50

Losses on settled hedges 5



0.02



4



0.03

Consolidated economic fuel expense 342



1.71



211



1.53

Mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustment 2



0.01



(10)



(0.07)

GAAP fuel expense $ 344



$ 1.72



$ 201



$ 1.46

Fuel gallons 201







138























Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016 (in millions, except for per gallon amounts) Dollars

Cost/Gallon

Dollars

Cost/Gallon Raw or "into-plane" fuel cost $ 663



$ 1.73



$ 372



$ 1.38

Losses on settled hedges 8



0.02



8



0.03

Consolidated economic fuel expense $ 671



$ 1.75



$ 380



$ 1.41

Mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustment 12



0.03



(12)



(0.04)

GAAP fuel expense $ 683



$ 1.78



$ 368



$ 1.37

Fuel gallons 385







270







Note A: Pursuant to Regulation G, we are providing reconciliations of reported non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable financial measures reported on a GAAP basis. We believe that consideration of these non-GAAP financial measures may be important to investors for the following reasons:

By eliminating fuel expense and certain special items (including merger-related costs) from our unit metrics, we believe that we have better visibility into the results of operations and our non-fuel cost-reduction initiatives. Our industry is highly competitive and is characterized by high fixed costs, so even a small reduction in non-fuel operating costs can result in a significant improvement in operating results. In addition, we believe that all domestic carriers are similarly impacted by changes in jet fuel costs over the long run, so it is important for management (and thus investors) to understand the impact of (and trends in) company-specific cost drivers such as labor rates and productivity, airport costs, maintenance costs, etc., which are more controllable by management.

Cost per ASM (CASM) excluding fuel and certain special items, such as merger-related costs, is one of the most important measures used by management and by the Air Group Board of Directors in assessing quarterly and annual cost performance.

Adjusted income before income tax and CASM excluding fuel (and other items as specified in our plan documents) are important metrics for the employee incentive plan, which covers the majority of Air Group employees.

CASM excluding fuel and certain special items is a measure commonly used by industry analysts, and we believe it is the basis by which they compare our airlines to others in the industry. The measure is also the subject of frequent questions from investors.

Disclosure of the individual impact of certain noted items provides investors the ability to measure and monitor performance both with and without these special items. We believe that disclosing the impact of certain items, such as merger-related costs and mark-to-market hedging adjustments, is important because it provides information on significant items that are not necessarily indicative of future performance. Industry analysts and investors consistently measure our performance without these items for better comparability between periods and among other airlines.

Although we disclose our passenger unit revenues, we do not (nor are we able to) evaluate unit revenues excluding the impact that changes in fuel costs have had on ticket prices. Fuel expense represents a large percentage of our total operating expenses. Fluctuations in fuel prices often drive changes in unit revenues in the mid-to-long term. Although we believe it is useful to evaluate non-fuel unit costs for the reasons noted above, we would caution readers of these financial statements not to place undue reliance on unit costs excluding fuel as a measure or predictor of future profitability because of the significant impact of fuel costs on our business.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Aircraft Utilization - block hours per day; this represents the average number of hours per day our aircraft are in transit

Aircraft Stage Length - represents the average miles flown per aircraft departure

ASMs - available seat miles, or "capacity"; represents total seats available across the fleet multiplied by the number of miles flown

CASM - operating costs per ASM, or "unit cost"; represents all operating expenses including fuel and special items

CASMex - operating costs excluding fuel and special items per ASM; this metric is used to help track progress toward reduction of non-fuel operating costs since fuel is largely out of our control

Debt-to-capitalization ratio - represents adjusted debt (long-term debt plus the present value of future operating lease payments) divided by total equity plus adjusted debt

Diluted Earnings per Share - represents earnings per share ("EPS") using fully diluted shares outstanding

Diluted Shares - represents the total number of shares that would be outstanding if all possible sources of conversion, such as stock options, were exercised

Economic Fuel - best estimate of the cash cost of fuel, net of the impact of our fuel-hedging program

Free Cash Flow - total operating cash flow generated less cash paid for capital expenditures

Load Factor - RPMs as a percentage of ASMs; represents the number of available seats that were filled with paying passengers

Mainline - represents flying Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 family jets and all associated revenues and costs

PRASM - passenger revenue per ASM; commonly called "passenger unit revenue"

Productivity - number of revenue passengers per full-time equivalent employee

RASM - operating revenue per ASMs, or "unit revenue"; operating revenue includes all passenger revenue, freight & mail, Mileage Plan and other ancillary revenue; represents the average total revenue for flying one seat one mile

Regional - represents capacity purchased by Alaska from Horizon, SkyWest and PenAir. In this segment, Regional records actual on-board passenger revenue, less costs such as fuel, distribution costs, and payments made to Horizon, SkyWest and PenAir under the respective capacity purchased arrangement (CPAs). Additionally, Regional includes an allocation of corporate overhead such as IT, finance, other administrative costs incurred by Alaska and on behalf of Horizon.

RPMs - revenue passenger miles, or "traffic"; represents the number of seats that were filled with paying passengers; one passenger traveling one mile is one RPM

Yield - passenger revenue per RPM; represents the average revenue for flying one passenger one mile

SOURCE Alaska Air Group Inc.

Related Links

https://www.alaskaair.com/


"We thank Congressmen Bilirakis and Cuellar for working to serve those who serve our country by providing veterans with sufficient numbers of service dogs, rigorously trained using the first set of national standards developed by top experts from across the country," said American Humane President and CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert. "The Pups for Patriots Act will get more healing leashes into the hands of America's veterans in greatest need."

As co-founders and co-chairs of the Caucus for the Humane Bond, Congressmen Bilirakis and Cuellar are committed to promoting life-changing and life-saving interactions between humans and animals, in particular between veterans and service dogs.

Every day 20 veterans take their own lives. Vast anecdotal evidence and a growing body of scientific research show that specialized service dogs offer support to affected veterans in managing the symptoms of PTS and TBI. However, there are obstacles standing in the way for veterans in need of service dogs. Waiting lists are unconscionably long at 18 to 24 months, and the training process is time-consuming and expensive, costing as much as $30,000 per dog.

"We must supply a greater number of better-trained service dogs more quickly to America's veterans grappling with Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury," said Dr. Ganzert. "The Pups for Patriots Act is a vital step forward in helping protect those who have given so much to protect us and our freedom."

"Our veterans are some of the bravest men and women alive today," said Congressman Cuellar. "It is our duty as Americans to provide these heroes with the support necessary to aid their adjustment back into everyday life. I thank Congressman Bilirakis for his support in helping to introduce this bill."

"The benefits of service dog therapy can in some ways go beyond anything that comes in a pill bottle," said Congressman Bilirakis. "Our legislation would help support service dog therapy as an alternative treatment by connecting the VA to the many qualified nonprofits nationwide who train and provide service dogs. Many of us have known the unconditional love dogs bring to our lives. This bond can do wonders to help our nation's heroes as they deal with their invisible wounds."

About American Humane

American Humane is the country's first national humane organization, founded in 1877. American Humane began working with the U.S. military more than 100 years ago when they deployed to the battlefields of World War I Europe to rescue more than 68,000 wounded war horses every month. Following World War II they advanced the field of animal-assisted therapy to help returning veterans cope with the invisible wounds of war, and aided children of military families during their parents' deployments. Recently, American Humane worked with lawmakers to strengthen U.S. law to ensure we bring our military working dogs home to U.S. soil when their service to our country is finished. They also work to reunite these four-footed warriors with their former handlers, and provide them with free specialized healthcare so they can enjoy the happy and healthy retirement they deserve. For more information, please visit www.AmericanHumane.org.

SOURCE American Humane

Related Links

http://www.americanhumane.org


BOCA RATON, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Amzak Living is pleased to announce the acquisition of Bainbridge 3200, a 228 unit luxury apartment community located in Suffolk, Virginia.

Built in 2016, the three story property features one, two and three bedrooms. Amenities include a resort style pool, outdoor club room and a fitness center. Interiors feature spacious layouts, modern kitchens and wood flooring.

"Amzak living focuses on Class A properties in the Southeast region. We are excited to enter into the Virginia market and look forward to expanding our portfolio," said Luis Espinal, Vice President for the firm.

Amzak Living is a real estate division of Amzak Capital Management.

About Amzak Capital Management

Amzak Capital Management is a private investment firm owned by the Kazma family. Amzak's current portfolio is comprised primarily of direct equity investments, fixed income securities, and real estate projects. Amzak's real estate practice seeks to invest between $5 million to $20 million per transaction in the form of common equity, preferred equity, or bridge loans. Currently, Amzak's real estate platform is comprised of over 50 properties and over 14,000 units, primarily located in the Southeast US.

SOURCE Amzak Capital Management
MIAMI, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Settlements have been reached in a class action lawsuit alleging that consumers sustained economic losses because they purchased or leased vehicles from various auto companies that manufactured, distributed, or sold vehicles containing allegedly defective airbags manufactured by Takata Corporation and its affiliates. The Settlements include certain vehicles made by BMW, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota (the "Subject Vehicles"). BMW, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota deny any and all allegations of wrongdoing and the Court has not decided who is right.

Owners or lessees of Subject Vehicles who have already received a separate recall notice for their BMW, Mazda, Subaru, or Toyota vehicle requesting that they bring it to their local retailer to have the Takata airbags repaired and have not yet done so, should contact their local retailer to make an appointment for this repair as soon as possible . Some vehicles will be recalled for repair at a later date, and some vehicles may not be recalled. When recalled Takata airbags deploy, they may spray metal debris toward vehicle occupants and may cause serious injury. Please see the original recall notices and www.AirBagRecall.com for further details.

The Settlements include the following persons and entities:

Owners or lessees, as of June 9, 2017 , of a Subject Vehicle that was distributed for sale or lease in the United States or any of its territories or possessions, and

, of a Subject Vehicle that was distributed for sale or lease in or any of its territories or possessions, and Former owners or lessees of a Subject Vehicle that was distributed for sale or lease in the United States or any of its territories or possessions, who, between April 11, 2013 and June 9, 2017 , sold or returned pursuant to a lease, a Subject Vehicle that was recalled before June 9, 2017 .

A full list of the Subject Vehicles can be found at www.AutoAirbagSettlement.com. The Settlements do not involve claims of personal injury or property damage to any property other than the Subject Vehicles.

BMW, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota have agreed to Settlements with a combined value of approximately $553 million, including a 10% credit for Rental Car/Loaner Programs. The Settlement Funds will be used to pay for Settlement benefits and cover the costs of the Settlements over an approximately four-year period.

The Settlements offer several benefits for Class Members, including, (1) payments for certain out-of-pocket expenses incurred related to a Takata airbag recall of a Subject Vehicle, (2) a Rental Car/Loaner Program while certain Subject Vehicles are awaiting repair, (3) an Outreach Program to maximize completion of the recall remedy, (4) additional cash payments to Class Members from residual settlement funds, if any remain, and (5) a Customer Support Program to help with repairs associated with affected Takata airbag inflators and their replacements. The Settlement website explains each of these benefits in detail.

Class Members must file a claim to receive a payment during the first four years of the Settlements. If a Class Member still owns or leases a Subject Vehicle, they must also bring it to an authorized dealership for the recall remedy, as directed by a recall notice, if they have not already done so. Class Members can visit www.AutoAirbagSettlement.com and file a claim online or download one and file by mail. The deadline to file a claim will be at least one year from the date the Settlements are finalized and will be posted on the website when it's known.

Class Members who do not want to be legally bound by the Settlements, must exclude themselves by September 25, 2017. If Class Members do not exclude themselves, they will release any claims they may have against BMW, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota, in exchange for certain settlement benefits. The potential available benefits are more fully described in the Settlements, available at the settlement website. Class Members may object to the Settlements by September 25, 2017. Class Members cannot both exclude themselves from, and object to, the Settlements. The Long Form Notices for each Settlement available on www.AutoAirbagSettlement.com explains how to exclude or object. The Court will hold a fairness hearing on October 25, 2017 to consider whether to finally approve the Settlements and a request for attorneys' fees of up to 30% of the total Settlement Amount and incentive awards of $5,000 for each of the Class Representatives. Class Members may appear at the fairness hearing, either by themselves or through an attorney, but don't have to. For more information, including the relief, eligibility and release of claims (excluding certain personal injury or property damage claims) , in English or Spanish, call 1-888-735-5596 or visit www.AutoAirbagSettlement.com.

SOURCE United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
HERNDON, Va., July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Artel, LLC, has been awarded a contract to procure European telecommunications circuits in support of the Defense Information Systems Network. This order was issued under the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Global Network Services (GNS) contract vehicle, of which Artel is one of only eight prime awardees. Artel will use full-duplex Layer 3 circuits to deliver mission-critical backbone service in support of customer requirements.

Since 1986, Artel has offered a full portfolio of satellite and terrestrial network communications and infrastructure, systems integration, cyber security, risk management and IT solutions. Artel partners with Government and other industry leaders to enable customers all over the world to securely access and deliver content across all their networks and IT infrastructuresin every domain and environment. Effective July 1, 2017, please visit our new website at artelllc.com for additional information.

Contact:

Chelsea Royall

703-953-2060

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE Artel, LLC

Related Links

http://www.artelllc.com


After months of internal R&D, this new search engine will allow an arithmetic boost to Artprice's audience numbers on five continents much in the same way that similar improvements have substantially boosted the reach and revenue of internet majors like Amazon, Airbnb and of course Google. These groups have experienced massive audience increases by ensuring that spelling and syntax no longer represent an insurmountable barrier.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539452/Artprice_com_CEO.jpg )



(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539451/Artprice_com_Logo.jpg )



...Obviously the Art world, from the amateur to the professional, wants efficient intuitive search results. There is nothing more frustrating than failing to obtain information on an artist or his/her work because of a spelling or syntax error. Most searches involve proper names and/or artwork titles in more than 90 languages. Our search engine satisfies a fundamental requirement in the art market that no-one has so far responded to. It is what some would call "a killer application".

As world leader in Art Market information, Artprice is a BPI-certified "Innovative Company" investing 80% of its annual resources in R&D.

Artprice can therefore exploit its billions of users' connections in strict compliance with laws in the USA and Europe (including French domestic law) to enrich highly sophisticated searches involving thousands of names, a hundred or so languages and more than 120 million artwork titles that Artprice already has in its databanks.

Deployed in beta-testing yesterday, our initial analysis of the results on real-time searches was very positive indeed.

Last week, a complex query involving successive "input errors" yielded fewer than ten results. Today, the same search would generate over 80 responses on Artprice.

Artprice's R&D has found a way to integrate all keyword issues and combinations in order to satisfy the user by significantly increasing the number of highly relevant results.

To achieve this, Artprice has set up a multiple-server infrastructure exclusively dedicated to its home-built search engine, all based on IPR protected proprietary programming and arborescence.

A Version 2 will be deployed late August to coincide with the Art Market's autumn reopening. This version will provide results not just from the several billion search combinations on Artprice databanks, but also from a number of external resources (e.g. academic research, state documentation, etc.) and future internal R&D resources - Artprice Blockchain and OTC Artmarket .

You may now test our new search engine on: https://www.artprice.com/lots

http://www.artprice.com

Copyright thierry Ehrmann 1987/2017

About Artprice:

Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.

Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 657,000 artists. Artprice Images(R) gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians.

Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world's principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label).

Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2016 published last March 2017: http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/rama2016_en.pdf

Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2016 - free access at https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2016

The text presented hereafter is a translation of Arte Creative's online presentation: ARTE: A gigantic Christmas tree in the guise of a butt plug, a machine that defecates five-star meals, an icon immersed in urine and staged corpses - subversive, trash, provocative or insulting? Thierry Ehrmann, the man behind The Abode of Chaos dixit "The New York Times", an artist and the founder of Artprice, is the mouthpiece for scandal and discloses the workings of the most striking controversies in contemporary art. And scandal sells. 9 episodes are online: http://www.arte.tv/guide/en/weekly-highlight

Artprice's press releases: http://serveur.serveur.com/press_release/pressreleaseEN.htm and https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom

News Artmarket:

http://twitter.com/artpricedotcom https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom

https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom

https://plus.google.com/+Artpricedotcom/posts

http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/

Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video , which headquarters are the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos http://goo.gl/zJssd https://vimeo.com/124643720

The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999

The Abode of Chaos/Demeure du Chaos Contemporary Art Museum by thierry Ehrmann,author, sculptor, artist, photograph https://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_chaos/sets/72157676803169034

Contact: thierry Ehrmann, e-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Artprice.com
MAUI, Hawaii, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The ancients feared eclipses. Should we?

Not if today's astrologers have anything to say about it.

A total solar eclipse traverses the U.S. coast to coast on Aug. 21. The Global Eclipse Meditation Series

"Anyone who's ever witnessed an eclipse in person raves about the feelings of awe and transcendence it generates. It's a moment of cosmic connection people remember for the rest of their lives," explains Amanda Walsh, founder and CEO of Astrology Hub, a website dedicated to deepening the public's understanding of astrology. "This awe is the stuff that inspires astrology too."

"Since ancient times, astrology has been a tool for deepening our sense meaning and purpose  a spiritual vision I think the world needs especially now," Walsh explains. "It's not just about what might happen to you; it gives us strategies for how to gracefully co-create with the world."

To tap into this transformative power, Astrology Hub will host a global meditation over the two weeks preceding the eclipse. Each day between Aug. 7 and 21 during the free, live online event, some of the world's top spiritual teachers and astrologers will offer a guided meditation on how to anchor love on a personal and collective level.

Meditation guides include George Mumford, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Hawaiian Kahuna Auntie Mahealani Kuamo'o-Henry, Hank Wesselman, Divine Harmony, Donna Woodwell, Adam Gainsburg, Anita Briggs and Achintya Devi.

All profits from Global Eclipse Meditation recording sales will be donated to the Ivy Child Foundation. Ivy Child's mission is to provide universal mindfulness education to children and communities, prioritizing urban populations and their multicultural needs.

"We know the August solar eclipse will likely become the most-watched cosmic event in human history," says Walsh. "We want to put our collective intention behind planting the seeds of a future we want to live in."

Throughout history and in many parts of the world, eclipses have been viewed with dread, or as ill omens. But they've also been viewed as moments of change and opportunity.

"You bet astrologers are excited. It's no surprise that eclipses have inspired artists and poets for millennia. Eclipse images are found in alchemical texts, in sacred geometry and ancient monuments," said Donna Woodwell, a professional astrologer and Astrology Hub's managing editor.

"In a sense, eclipses have become a symbol for the evolution of the world soul. They represent the union of polarities  of male and female, heaven and Earth, the spirit and the soul. This is nothing short of the alchemical 'Great Work' written in the sky," says Woodwell. "It's an opportunity for us to choose what we want to create."

According to professional astrologers, this is a major eclipse for the U.S. in more ways than one.

"Our nation is literally being eclipsed," says Kathy Biehl, a New York City area astrologer. "Astrologically speaking, it heralds the beginning of some major shifts in the American psyche and culture."

"The eclipse on August 21 is the 'Great American Eclipse' on so many levels. It's not just that it's visible across the country. It's also linked to the U.S. birth chart, as well as to other eclipses preceding pivotal moments in our nation's history, such as the bombing of Hiroshima and the assassination of JFK," explains Biehl.

"And, if the birth information we have for President Trump is correct, it's also occurring at a pivotal place in his own birth chart as well. He can expect some big changes in his own life over the coming months."

"If change is in the stars, let's make the best of it," adds Biehl.

Media Contact:

Donna Woodwell

[email protected]

5126595494

SOURCE Astrology Hub

Related Links

http://www.astrologyhub.com


Founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, Belk has kept family and community involvement at the top of its core values for its more than 125 years, which has instilled an unmistakable loyalty amongst customers.

"We really want to be an asset to the communities in which we operate," said Lisa Harper, Belk CEO. "Our goal  and really, our hope  is to build lasting relationships with our customers and associates."

The first of the new stores opening on October 11, 2017 are:

Evans, Georgia  located in the Mullins Colony shopping center at 4263 Washington Rd, Evans, Georgia 30809; and

 located in the Mullins Colony shopping center at 4263 Washington Rd, 30809; and Bowling Green, Kentucky  anchoring the Greenwood Mall at 2625 Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green, Kentucky 42104.

One additional store will open in 2018 in:

Hagerstown, Maryland  located in the Valley Mall at 17301 Valley Mall Rd, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740.

Belk's intense focus on the customer experience will come to life in the new stores through a variety of ways, including a "buy online, pick up in store" service, phone charging stations and a service desk at the store entrance for quick, convenient access to services such as gift wrapping, returns and Belk Rewards Card payments.

In 2017, Belk also plans to remodel 12 existing stores across their 16-state footprint, an investment of nearly $10 million. An additional $15 million in funding will be used for capital improvements such as parking lots, paint and roofing.

The remodels, capital improvements and new stores continue Belk's commitment to provide a premiere shopping experience to their customers.

Like all of the existing 292 Belk stores, the new locations and remodeled stores will offer a full range of national brands and private label fashion apparel  including Crown and Ivy, Kaari Blue, and New Directions  shoes and accessories for the entire family along with top name cosmetics, a wedding registry and a large selection of quality merchandise for the home.

"We've been successful in making a personal connection between our brand and our customers," said Harper. "Our customers truly believe they know us and we are a part of their community; and they feel Belk is their store. We want to provide that level of personal connection in every community we enter."

About Belk, Inc.

Belk, Inc., a private department store company based in Charlotte, N.C., is where Southern customers shop for their perfect Sunday dress, the Saturday night outfit, and where family and community matter most. But Belk is more than shopping  it's where you find your own unique way to express who you are. It's where Southern style lives. Shop Belk in 16 Southern states and on www.belk.com to find an assortment of national brands and private-label fashion, shoes and accessories for the entire family, along with top-name cosmetics, a wedding registry and southern style for the home.

SOURCE Belk

Related Links

http://www.belk.com


NEW ORLEANS, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc., a leading education technology company for teaching, learning and student engagement, continues to deliver new features and enhancements across its teaching and learning portfolio, helping learners, teachers and administrators achieve better outcomes through a seamless and unified user experience. The company's solutions show continued momentum around the world, with institutions, businesses and government entities recognizing the importance of providing a holistic solution to the educational needs of their learners. The announcement was made at BbWorld 2017, Blackboard's annual conference focused on helping institutions meet the needs of their learners, taking place July 25-27 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"We continue to focus our resources and investments to drive innovation across our entire portfolio, and bring our clients the solutions they need today and tomorrow," said Phillip Miller, Vice President of Teaching and Learning at Blackboard. "This is why we are proud to showcase all the new features and capabilities we have delivered to improve the educational experience."

Over the past 12 months, Blackboard has released enhancements for its teaching and learning solutions and in particular for Blackboard Learn, Moodlerooms, the Blackboard app for students and Blackboard Collaborate. It has also launched Blackboard Ally, the accessibility solution that helps make course content more accessible for all learners, and Blackboard Instructor, a mobile app for instructors to manage courses, view content, and interact with students.

Blackboard Learn

Thanks to a regular release of new features, enhancements and quality checks delivered in the last 12 months, Blackboard Learn is the most complete and robust Learning Management System (LMS) available on the market. With three deployment methods  self-hosted, managed hosted and Software as a Service (SaaS)  and two user experiences  Original and Ultra Experience  Blackboard Learn offers unmatched flexibility, enabling clients to adapt the LMS to their specific requirements and support academic success. Key new features include:

Blackboard Ally integration

Enhanced responsiveness and mobile optimization

Additional drag and drop options and workflow enhancements

Certification for IMS LTI 2.0

During the last year, Blackboard has also expanded the availability of the SaaS delivery mode and the optional Ultra experience beyond the United States. These options are now also available in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Moodlerooms

Moodlerooms 3.2 is the latest version of Blackboard's cloud solution dedicated to institutions and organizations leveraging the open source Moodle platform. Released at the beginning of July, it includes all the recent updates available with Moodle 3.2.3 and Mahara 16.10. Key new features include:

Blackboard Ally integration

New media player with improved accessibility

Learning Tools Interoperability 2 (LTI 2) compliance

SmartEvidence (preview) and IntelliBoard 4.7 support

Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally is the accessibility solution that integrates with the LMS and helps make course content more accessible for all learners. Launched in May, Blackboard Ally is now available in U.S. and UK English, Spanish and Dutch, and it seamlessly integrates with Blackboard Learn, Moodlerooms and Canvas LMS platforms, enabling more institutions to meet the needs of students with different learning abilities. Blackboard Ally key functionalities include:

Automatic check of content materials and creation of more accessible alternatives

Feedback to instructors on accessibility of their online course content

Institutional and course level reports

Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard's virtual collaborative learning solution has been the first to implement the Ultra experience, winning clients' favor thanks to high-fidelity audio and video capabilities, ease of use and a sleek design. Completely browser-based, Blackboard Collaborate has been further enriched in past months with new capabilities including:

Polling

Breakout groups

Persistent content for multiple sessions use

Private chat

Sessions scale to 500 participants

Blackboard app for students

Formerly known as Bb Student, the Blackboard app for students is a persona-based mobile app that integrates Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate, enabling students to stay up-to-date on their academic progress and requirements. Some of the latest enhancements include:

Additional languages, including Arabic and Hebrew

Integration with Dropbox and Google

Calculated grade totals

Blackboard Instructor

The Blackboard Instructor app is designed around core instructor workflows and delivers a user-friendly mobile interface that helps educators increase efficiency, amplify student engagement and quickly complete critical activities inside and outside of the classroom. Key functionalities include:

Access to courses, content and discussion boards

Ability to create, review and send out announcements to students

Ability to join or host Blackboard Collaborate sessions

The Blackboard app for students and Blackboard Instructor are proof points of Blackboard's "mobile first" product strategy. Over the past year, the company has also delivered improved design responsiveness for its solutions and is further investing to bring education right into the hands of teachers and learners.

About Blackboard

Our mission is to partner with the global education community to enable learner and institutional success, leveraging innovative technologies and services. With an unmatched understanding of the world of the learner, the most comprehensive student-success solutions, and the greatest capacity for innovation, Blackboard is education's partner in change.

CONTACT

Massimo Morigi, Blackboard Inc.

202-303-9314 or [email protected]

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.

Related Links

http://www.blackboard.com


CHICAGO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

GAAP EPS of $2.89 and core EPS (non-GAAP)* of $2.55 on solid execution across the company

and core EPS (non-GAAP)* of on solid execution across the company Strong operating cash flow of $5.0 billion ; repurchased 13.6 million shares for $2.5 billion

; repurchased 13.6 million shares for Revenue of $22.7 billion reflecting 226 commercial and defense aircraft deliveries and services

reflecting 226 commercial and defense aircraft deliveries and services Backlog grew to $482 billion , including $27 billion of net orders during the quarter

, including of net orders during the quarter Increased guidance for GAAP EPS $0.75 and core EPS (non-GAAP)* $0.60 on improved performance and tax

and core EPS (non-GAAP)* on improved performance and tax Raised operating cash flow guidance by $1.5 billion and lowered capital expenditures guidance by $300 million































Table 1. Summary Financial Results

Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions, except per share data)

2017 2016 2017 2016











Revenues



$22,739



$24,755



$43,715



$47,387













GAAP









Earnings/(Loss) From Operations



$2,535



($419)



$4,559



$1,369

Operating Margin

11.1%

(1.7)%

10.4%

2.9%

Net Earnings/(Loss)



$1,761



($234)



$3,212



$985

Earnings/(Loss) Per Share



$2.89



($0.37)



$5.22



$1.51

Operating Cash Flow



$4,950



$3,190



$7,044



$4,465

Non-GAAP*









Core Operating Earnings/(Loss)



$2,212



($488)



$3,921



$1,206

Core Operating Margin

9.7%

(2.0)%

9.0%

2.5%

Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share



$2.55



($0.44)



$4.55



$1.35





* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 6, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] reported strong earnings and operating cash flow in the second quarter of 2017, driven by improved operating performance (Table 1). Second-quarter GAAP earnings per share increased to $2.89 and core earnings per share (non-GAAP)* increased to $2.55. Revenue was $22.7 billion, reflecting planned production rates and timing of commercial and defense aircraft deliveries.

For the full year, GAAP earnings per share guidance increased to between $11.10 and $11.30 from $10.35 and $10.55 and core earnings per share (non-GAAP)* guidance increased to between $9.80 and $10.00 from $9.20 and $9.40, primarily driven by improved performance across the company and a lower-than-expected tax rate. Operating cash flow guidance increased by $1.5 billion to $12.25 billion on solid execution and a cash tax benefit from accelerating pension funding in the third quarter of 2017. Additionally, capital expenditures guidance decreased by $300 million to $2.0 billion.

"Our teams are delivering better performance in every segment of the business, which is reflected in our strong second-quarter results and improved 2017 outlook," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg. "Our robust cash flow enabled us to return more value to shareholders, invest in future growth and in our people, including a plan to accelerate pension funding that also reduces risk and cyclicality in our business."

"In the second quarter, we added to our large and diverse order backlog with key wins in commercial airplanes, defense, space and services, while achieving important milestones such as delivering the first 737 MAX airplane, flying the second production-ready T-X trainer aircraft, and conducting a successful Ground-based Midcourse Defense intercept test."

"As we look to the second half of the year, our teams are focused on accelerating productivity, quality and safety improvements across the company, while completing key development efforts and delivering better capabilities and economics to our customers."































Table 2. Cash Flow

Second Quarter First Half (Millions)

2017 2016 2017 2016 Operating Cash Flow



$4,950



$3,190



$7,044



$4,465

Less Additions to Property, Plant & Equipment



($439)



($671)



($905)



($1,419)

Free Cash Flow*



$4,511



$2,519



$6,139



$3,046





* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 6, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Operating cash flow in the quarter of $5.0 billion was driven by strong operating performance and favorable timing of receipts and expenditures (Table 2). During the quarter, the company repurchased 13.6 million shares for $2.5 billion, leaving $9.0 billion remaining under the current repurchase authorization. The company also paid $0.9 billion in dividends in the quarter, reflecting a 30 percent increase in dividends per share compared to the same period of the prior year.



















Table 3. Cash, Marketable Securities and Debt Balances

Quarter-End (Billions)

Q2 17 Q1 17 Cash



$8.7



$8.2

Marketable Securities1



$1.6



$1.0

Total



$10.3



$9.2

Debt Balances:





The Boeing Company, net of intercompany loans to BCC



$7.8



$7.7

Boeing Capital, including intercompany loans



$3.0



$3.1

Total Consolidated Debt



$10.8



$10.8





1 Marketable securities consists primarily of time deposits due within one year classified as "short-term investments."

Cash and investments in marketable securities totaled $10.3 billion, up from $9.2 billion at the beginning of the quarter (Table 3). Debt was $10.8 billion, unchanged from the beginning of the quarter.

Total company backlog at quarter-end was $482 billion, up from $480 billion at the beginning of the quarter, and included net orders for the quarter of $27 billion.

Segment Results

Commercial Airplanes









































Table 4. Commercial Airplanes

Second Quarter

First Half



(Dollars in Millions)

2017 2016 Change 2017 2016

Change

















Commercial Airplanes Deliveries

183

199

(8)%

352

375



(6)%



















Revenues



$15,713



$17,456

(10)%



$30,018



$31,855



(6)%

Earnings/(Loss) from Operations



$1,567



($973)

NM



$2,782



$60



NM

Operating Margin

10.0%

(5.6)%

15.6 Pts

9.3%

0.2%



9.1 Pts



Commercial Airplanes second-quarter revenue was $15.7 billion on planned production rates and timing of deliveries (Table 4). Second-quarter operating margin was 10.0 percent, reflecting solid execution.

During the quarter, Commercial Airplanes delivered the first 737 MAX 8 aircraft and announced the launch of the 737 MAX 10. Demand continues to be healthy with 571 incremental orders and commitments announced at the Paris Air Show, including 56 for widebody aircraft and 361 for the launch of the 737 MAX 10. Also at the Paris Air Show, a number of commercial service agreements were announced that provide further growth opportunity for Boeing Global Services.

Commercial Airplanes booked 183 net orders during the quarter. Backlog remains robust with more than 5,700 airplanes valued at $424 billion.

Defense, Space & Security









































Table 5. Defense, Space & Security

Second Quarter

First Half



(Dollars in Millions)

2017 2016 Change 2017 2016

Change Revenues















Boeing Military Aircraft



$2,904



$2,979

(3)%



$5,540



$6,638



(17)%

Network & Space Systems



$1,674



$1,810

(8)%



$3,238



$3,545



(9)%

Global Services & Support



$2,308



$2,385

(3)%



$4,640



$4,947



(6)%

Total BDS Revenues



$6,886



$7,174

(4)%



$13,418



$15,130



(11)%

Earnings from Operations















Boeing Military Aircraft



$382



$175

NM



$703



$509



NM

Network & Space Systems



$152



$153

(1)%



$250



$301



(17)%

Global Services & Support



$356



$265

34%



$674



$605



11%

Total BDS Earnings from Operations



$890



$593

50%



$1,627



$1,415



15%

Operating Margin

12.9%

8.3%

4.6 Pts

12.1%

9.4%



2.7 Pts



Defense, Space & Security second-quarter revenue was $6.9 billion (Table 5). Second-quarter operating margin increased to 12.9 percent, reflecting increased productivity in all three segments.

Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) second-quarter revenue was $2.9 billion, reflecting lower planned C-17 deliveries, and operating margin increased to 13.2 percent on improved performance. During the quarter, BMA was awarded a contract for the remanufacture of 38 AH-64E Apache helicopters for the United Kingdom, and the second production-ready T-X aircraft completed first flight.

Network & Space Systems (N&SS) second-quarter revenue was $1.7 billion, reflecting timing of satellite volume. Operating margin increased to 9.1 percent reflecting improved performance. During the quarter, N&SS was awarded a contract from the Missile Defense Agency for Redesigned Kill Vehicle Development.

Global Services & Support (GS&S) second-quarter revenue was $2.3 billion, reflecting timing of contracts. Operating margin increased to 15.4 percent reflecting strong performance. During the quarter, GS&S was awarded a contract from the Defense Logistics Agency to support the F-15 fleet, which will be carried out by Boeing Global Services.

Backlog at Defense, Space & Security was $58 billion, of which 37 percent represents orders from international customers.

Additional Financial Information































Table 6. Additional Financial Information

Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions)

2017 2016 2017 2016 Revenues









Boeing Capital



$72



$84



$164



$148

Unallocated items, eliminations and other



$68



$41



$115



$254

Earnings from Operations









Boeing Capital



$25



$18



$64



$23

Unallocated pension/postretirement



$323



$69



$638



$163

Other unallocated items and eliminations



($270)



($126)



($552)



($292)

Other income, net



$27



$13



$49



$39

Interest and debt expense



($93)



($73)



($180)



($146)

Effective tax rate

28.7%

51.1%

27.5%

21.9%



At quarter-end, Boeing Capital's net portfolio balance was $3.9 billion. Total pension expense for the second quarter was $100 million, down from $463 million in the same period of the prior year. Other unallocated items and eliminations earnings decreased primarily due to timing of expense allocations. The effective tax rate for the second quarter was 28.7 percent reflecting higher-than-expected tax benefits related to share-based compensation.

Accelerated Pension Funding

In addition to the $500 million pension contribution originally planned for 2017, the company will accelerate approximately four years of pension funding by making a discretionary contribution of $3.5 billion of Boeing common shares in the third quarter of this year. Subsequently, the company expects to utilize its strong cash position and increase its 2017 planned share repurchases by $3.5 billion to a total of approximately $10 billion for the full year. It is expected that this contribution will nearly eliminate all future mandatory pension funding through 2021 based on existing assumptions for asset returns and discount rates. "Over the past several years, we have taken meaningful actions to retire risk and reduce cyclicality, and today's actions are another step forward," said Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Enterprise Performance & Strategy.

The company expects approximately $700 million cash tax savings from the accelerated pension funding in 2017, which is reflected in the updated cash flow guidance. Boeing continues to anticipate cash flows to grow annually through the end of the decade and remains committed to returning free cash flow to shareholders.

Outlook

The company's 2017 updated guidance (Table 7) reflects the impact of improved performance across the company and a lower-than-expected tax rate.











Table 7. 2017 Financial Outlook Current

Prior (Dollars in Billions, except per share data) Guidance

Guidance







The Boeing Company





Revenue $90.5 - 92.5

$90.5 - 92.5







GAAP Earnings Per Share $11.10 - 11.30

$10.35 - 10.55 Core Earnings Per Share* $9.80 - 10.00

$9.20 - 9.40







Operating Cash Flow ~$12.25

~$10.75







Commercial Airplanes





Deliveries 760 - 765

760 - 765 Revenue $62.5 - 63.5

$62.5 - 63.5 Operating Margin >10.0%

9.5% - 10.0







Defense, Space & Security





Revenue





Boeing Military Aircraft ~$11.5

~$11.5 Network & Space Systems ~$7.0

~$7.0 Global Services & Support ~$10.0

~$10.0







Total BDS Revenue $28.0 - 29.0

$28.0 - 29.0







Operating Margin





Boeing Military Aircraft >12.0%

~12.0% Network & Space Systems ~8.0%

~9.0% Global Services & Support >13.5%

>12.5%







Total BDS Operating Margin >11.5%

~11.5%







Boeing Capital





Portfolio Size Stable

Stable Revenue ~$0.3

~$0.3 Pre-Tax Earnings ~$0.08

~$0.05







Research & Development ~ $3.6

~ $3.6 Capital Expenditures ~ $2.0

~ $2.3 Pension Expense 1 ~ $0.6

~ $0.7 Effective Tax Rate ~ 29.0%

~ 31.0%



1 Approximately ($1.0) billion is expected to be recorded in unallocated items and eliminations * Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 6, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures

We supplement the reporting of our financial information determined under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America (GAAP) with certain non-GAAP financial information. The non-GAAP financial information presented excludes certain significant items that may not be indicative of, or are unrelated to, results from our ongoing business operations. We believe that these non-GAAP measures provide investors with additional insight into the company's ongoing business performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures, and other companies may define such measures differently. We encourage investors to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. The following definitions are provided:

Core Operating Earnings/(Loss), Core Operating Margin and Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

Core operating earnings/(loss) is defined as GAAP earnings/(loss) from operations excluding unallocated pension and other postretirement benefit expense. Core operating margin is defined as core operating earnings/(loss) expressed as a percentage of revenue. Core earnings/(loss) per share is defined as GAAP diluted earnings/(loss) per share excluding the net earnings per share impact of unallocated pension and other postretirement benefit expense. Unallocated pension and other postretirement benefit expense represents the portion of pension and other post-retirement costs that are not recognized by business segments for segment reporting purposes. Pension costs, comprising service and prior service costs computed in accordance with GAAP are allocated to Commercial Airplanes. Pension costs allocated to BDS segments are computed in accordance with U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), which employ different actuarial assumptions and accounting conventions than GAAP. CAS costs are allocable to government contracts. Other postretirement benefit costs are allocated to all business segments based on CAS, which is generally based on benefits paid. Management uses core operating earnings/(loss), core operating margin and core earnings/(loss) per share for purposes of evaluating and forecasting underlying business performance. Management believes these core earnings measures provide investors additional insights into operational performance as they exclude unallocated pension and post-retirement costs, which primarily represent costs driven by market factors and costs not allocable to government contracts. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided on page 13.

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is defined as GAAP operating cash flow without capital expenditures for property, plant and equipment additions. Management believes free cash flow provides investors with an important perspective on the cash available for shareholders, debt repayment, and acquisitions after making the capital investments required to support ongoing business operations and long term value creation. Free cash flow does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures as it excludes certain mandatory expenditures such as repayment of maturing debt. Management uses free cash flow as a measure to assess both business performance and overall liquidity. Table 2 provides a reconciliation between GAAP operating cash flow and free cash flow.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "should," "expects," "intends," "projects," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "targets," "anticipates," and similar expressions generally identify these forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements relating to our future financial condition and operating results, as well as any other statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations and assumptions that we believe to be reasonable when made, but that may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from these forward-looking statements. Among these factors are risks related to: (1) general conditions in the economy and our industry, including those due to regulatory changes; (2) our reliance on our commercial airline customers; (3) the overall health of our aircraft production system, planned production rate increases across multiple commercial airline programs, our commercial development and derivative aircraft programs, and our aircraft being subject to stringent performance and reliability standards; (4) changing budget and appropriation levels and acquisition priorities of the U.S. government; (5) our dependence on U.S. government contracts; (6) our reliance on fixed-price contracts; (7) our reliance on cost-type contracts; (8) uncertainties concerning contracts that include in-orbit incentive payments; (9) our dependence on our subcontractors and suppliers, as well as the availability of raw materials, (10) changes in accounting estimates; (11) changes in the competitive landscape in our markets; (12) our non-U.S. operations, including sales to non-U.S. customers; (13) potential adverse developments in new or pending litigation and/or government investigations; (14) customer and aircraft concentration in Boeing Capital's customer financing portfolio; (15) changes in our ability to obtain debt on commercially reasonable terms and at competitive rates in order to fund our operations and contractual commitments; (16) realizing the anticipated benefits of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures/strategic alliances or divestitures; (17) the adequacy of our insurance coverage to cover significant risk exposures; (18) potential business disruptions, including those related to physical security threats, information technology or cyber-attacks, epidemics, sanctions or natural disasters; (19) work stoppages or other labor disruptions; (20) significant changes in discount rates and actual investment return on pension assets; (21) potential environmental liabilities; and (22) threats to the security of our or our customers' information.

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contact:











Investor Relations:

Troy Lahr or Ben Hackman (312) 544-2140 Communications:

Bernard Choi (312) 544-2002

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)





























Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions, except per share data) 2017

2016

2017

2016

Sales of products

$38,659



$42,069



$20,147



$22,184

Sales of services 5,056

5,318

2,592

2,571

Total revenues 43,715

47,387

22,739

24,755











Cost of products (31,806)

(37,210)

(16,443)

(20,265)

Cost of services (3,820)

(4,180)

(1,932)

(2,044)

Boeing Capital interest expense (26)

(32)

(13)

(16)

Total costs and expenses (35,652)

(41,422)

(18,388)

(22,325)



8,063

5,965

4,351

2,430

Income from operating investments, net 120

151

39

97

General and administrative expense (1,973)

(1,694)

(1,040)

(806)

Research and development expense, net (1,651)

(3,044)

(813)

(2,127)

Loss on dispositions, net



(9)

(2)

(13)

Earnings/(loss) from operations 4,559

1,369

2,535

(419)

Other income, net 49

39

27

13

Interest and debt expense (180)

(146)

(93)

(73)

Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 4,428

1,262

2,469

(479)

Income tax (expense)/benefit (1,216)

(277)

(708)

245

Net earnings/(loss)

$3,212



$985



$1,761



($234)











Basic earnings/(loss) per share

$5.28



$1.52



$2.93



($0.37)











Diluted earnings/(loss) per share

$5.22



$1.51



$2.89



($0.37)











Cash dividends paid per share

$2.84



$2.18



$1.42



$1.09











Weighted average diluted shares (millions) 615.3

654.9

609.6

636.3



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited)















(Dollars in millions, except per share data) June 30

2017

December 31

2016

Assets



Cash and cash equivalents

$8,737



$8,801

Short-term and other investments 1,589

1,228

Accounts receivable, net 9,503

8,832

Current portion of customer financing, net 549

428

Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 42,453

43,199

Total current assets 62,831

62,488

Customer financing, net 3,398

3,773

Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $17,380 and $16,883 12,820

12,807

Goodwill 5,347

5,324

Acquired intangible assets, net 2,567

2,540

Deferred income taxes 325

332

Investments 1,278

1,317

Other assets, net of accumulated amortization of $484 and $497 1,470

1,416

Total assets

$90,036



$89,997

Liabilities and equity



Accounts payable

$12,093



$11,190

Accrued liabilities 14,294

14,691

Advances and billings in excess of related costs 25,802

23,869

Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt 720

384

Total current liabilities 52,909

50,134

Deferred income taxes 1,415

1,338

Accrued retiree health care 5,856

5,916

Accrued pension plan liability, net 19,651

19,943

Other long-term liabilities 2,128

2,221

Long-term debt 10,055

9,568

Shareholders' equity:



Common stock, par value $5.00  1,200,000,000 shares authorized; 1,012,261,159 shares issued 5,061

5,061

Additional paid-in capital 4,644

4,762

Treasury stock, at cost - 419,062,607 and 395,109,568 shares (40,730)

(36,097)

Retained earnings 42,222

40,714

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (13,234)

(13,623)

Total shareholders' equity (2,037)

817

Noncontrolling interests 59

60

Total equity (1,978)

877

Total liabilities and equity

$90,036



$89,997



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)

















Six months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2017

2016

Cash flows  operating activities:



Net earnings

$3,212



$985

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities:



Non-cash items 



Share-based plans expense 98

97

Depreciation and amortization 965

890

Investment/asset impairment charges, net 46

50

Customer financing valuation expense/(benefit) 5

(4)

Loss on dispositions, net



9

Other charges and credits, net 129

141

Changes in assets and liabilities 



Accounts receivable (912)

(503)

Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 877

3,004

Accounts payable 419

1,221

Accrued liabilities (680)

(269)

Advances and billings in excess of related costs 1,934

(954)

Income taxes receivable, payable and deferred 712

(494)

Other long-term liabilities (18)

(103)

Pension and other postretirement plans 13

181

Customer financing, net 343

275

Other (99)

(61)

Net cash provided by operating activities 7,044

4,465

Cash flows  investing activities:



Property, plant and equipment additions (905)

(1,419)

Property, plant and equipment reductions 25

13

Contributions to investments (1,820)

(657)

Proceeds from investments 1,441

705

Purchase of distribution rights (131)



Other 4

8

Net cash used by investing activities (1,386)

(1,350)

Cash flows  financing activities:



New borrowings 874

1,323

Debt repayments (56)

(267)

Repayments of distribution rights and other asset financing



(24)

Stock options exercised 240

147

Employee taxes on certain share-based payment arrangements (112)

(79)

Common shares repurchased (5,000)

(5,501)

Dividends paid (1,720)

(1,408)

Net cash used by financing activities (5,774)

(5,809)

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 52

(3)

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (64)

(2,697)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 8,801

11,302

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$8,737



$8,605



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Summary of Business Segment Data (Unaudited)





























Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016

Revenues:







Commercial Airplanes

$30,018



$31,855



$15,713



$17,456

Defense, Space & Security:







Boeing Military Aircraft 5,540

6,638

2,904

2,979

Network & Space Systems 3,238

3,545

1,674

1,810

Global Services & Support 4,640

4,947

2,308

2,385

Total Defense, Space & Security 13,418

15,130

6,886

7,174

Boeing Capital 164

148

72

84

Unallocated items, eliminations and other 115

254

68

41

Total revenues

$43,715



$47,387



$22,739



$24,755

Earnings/(loss) from operations:







Commercial Airplanes

$2,782



$60



$1,567



($973)

Defense, Space & Security:







Boeing Military Aircraft 703

509

382

175

Network & Space Systems 250

301

152

153

Global Services & Support 674

605

356

265

Total Defense, Space & Security 1,627

1,415

890

593

Boeing Capital 64

23

25

18

Segment operating profit 4,473

1,498

2,482

(362)

Unallocated items, eliminations and other 86

(129)

53

(57)

Earnings/(loss) from operations 4,559

1,369

2,535

(419)

Other income, net 49

39

27

13

Interest and debt expense (180)

(146)

(93)

(73)

Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 4,428

1,262

2,469

(479)

Income tax (expense)/benefit (1,216)

(277)

(708)

245

Net earnings/(loss)

$3,212



$985



$1,761



($234)











Research and development expense, net:







Commercial Airplanes

$1,238



$2,548



$602



$1,877

Defense, Space & Security 435

521

222

263

Other (22)

(25)

(11)

(13)

Total research and development expense, net

$1,651



$3,044



$813



$2,127











Unallocated items, eliminations and other







Share-based plans

($46)



($41)



($25)



($18)

Deferred compensation (96)

(5)

(46)

(21)

Amortization of previously capitalized interest (51)

(48)

(20)

(18)

Eliminations and other unallocated items (359)

(198)

(179)

(69)

Sub-total (included in core operating earnings) (552)

(292)

(270)

(126)

Pension 533

79

278

34

Postretirement 105

84

45

35

Total unallocated items, eliminations and other

$86



($129)



$53



($57)



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Operating and Financial Data (Unaudited)



Deliveries

Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 Commercial Airplanes

2017

2016

2017

2016

737

236

248

123

127

747

4 (1) 3

3

2

767

5

5

3

4

777

42

51

21

28

787

65

68

33

38

Total

352

375

183

199

Note: Deliveries under operating lease are identified by parentheses.











Defense, Space & Security









Boeing Military Aircraft









AH-64 Apache (New)

5

15

2

8

AH-64 Apache (Remanufactured)

28

18

15

7

C-17 Globemaster III



4





1

CH-47 Chinook (New)

4

10

1

7

CH-47 Chinook (Renewed)

19

16

10

7

F-15 Models

7

7

4

3

F/A-18 Models

12

14

6

6

P-8 Models

9

9

5

5













Network & Space Systems









Commercial and Civil Satellites

3

1

2



Military Satellites



1



1













































Contractual backlog (Dollars in billions)



June 30

2017

March 31

2017

December 31

2016 Commercial Airplanes



$423.4

$415.1

$416.2 Defense, Space & Security:









Boeing Military Aircraft



22.4

23.4

21.4 Network & Space Systems



4.5

6.0

5.1 Global Services & Support



17.3

17.0

15.6 Total Defense, Space & Security



44.2

46.4

42.1 Total contractual backlog



$467.6

$461.5

$458.3 Unobligated backlog



$14.6

$18.0

$15.2 Total backlog



$482.2

$479.5

$473.5 Workforce



144,000

147,000

150,500

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures

(Unaudited)

The tables provided below reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures core operating earnings/(loss), core operating margin, and core earnings/(loss) per share with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, earnings from operations/(loss), operating margin, and diluted earnings/(loss) per share. See page 6 of this release for additional information on the use of these non-GAAP financial measures.































(Dollars in millions, except per share data) Second Quarter First Half Guidance

2017 2016 2017 2016 2017 Revenues

$22,739



$24,755



$43,715



$47,387















GAAP Earnings/(Loss) From Operations

$2,535



($419)



$4,559



$1,369















Unallocated Pension Income

($278)



($34)



($533)



($79)



Unallocated Other Postretirement Benefit Income

($45)



($35)



($105)



($84)



Unallocated Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Income

($323)



($69)



($638)



($163)

~($1,220) Core Operating Earnings/(Loss) (non-GAAP)

$2,212



($488)



$3,921



$1,206























GAAP Diluted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

$2.89



($0.37)



$5.22



$1.51

$11.10 - $11.30 Unallocated Pension Income

($0.46)



($0.05)



($0.86)



($0.12)



Unallocated Postretirement Benefit Income

($0.07)



($0.06)



($0.17)



($0.13)

($1.30) Provision for deferred income taxes on adjustments (1)

$0.19



$0.04



$0.36



$0.09



Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share (non-GAAP)

$2.55



($0.44)



$4.55



$1.35

$9.80 - $10.00











Weighted Average Diluted Shares (millions) 609.6

636.3

615.3

654.9

~ 610













(1) The income tax impact is calculated using the tax rate in effect for the non-GAAP adjustments.

SOURCE Boeing
CHICAGO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Students Maddie An and Theo Keonig, Year 13 students from the British International School of Chicago, South Loop (BISC South Loop), a Nord Anglia Education school, presented solutions to address the Global Goals at a special side event of the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York on July 14. The event was co-hosted by the governments of Malaysia, Argentina and Bulgaria, together with UNICEF, Project Everyone and Nord Anglia Education. An and Keonig were part of a student delegation that addressed representatives of governments, the UN, UNICEF, the President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Peter Thomson, and Executive Director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake.

As part of the challenge, students pitched solutions for Goals 2 and 3 -- Zero Hunger and Good Health and Well-Being respectively. The action plan that An and Koenig developed focused efforts on ending hunger in Chicago by redistributing food that is nearing the sell-by date from areas of plentiful supply to areas of need. Along with each pack of recovered food, students designed a leaflet that describes the importance of making healthy food choices.

Students will work with Top Box Foods, a non-profit that produces healthy and affordable grocery boxes for people living in food-insecure neighborhoods. They also contacted other local organizations to help identify potential food recovery locations and partner agencies. Once food recovery begins, the students will volunteer with Top Box Foods to add leaflets to food packs that describe the importance of healthy eating.

"Through the Global Challenge and the World's Largest Lesson, Nord Anglia Education aims to develop an awareness within the student body about the world in which they live as well as inspiring us to take a bigger role in helping the communities around us," said Koenig in the video proposal presented to UNICEF.

Headmaster Mike Horton said, "We are delighted to see students imagine and implement meaningful change for people in our community. The Global Challenge is providing a fantastic opportunity to take positive action right here in Chicago, with guidance from a global organization focused on humanitarian efforts."

The Global Challenge to raise awareness of the Global Goals launched in February 2017. Students from Nord Anglia's 44 international schools around the world helped to bring their communities one step closer to ending extreme poverty, inequality and climate change using the World's Largest Lesson, an initiative co-led by UNICEF.

About British International School Chicago, South Loop

BISC South Loop is an international school that delivers personalized and international curriculum to students ages 3 to 18. As a Nord Anglia Education school, BISC South Loop empowers students to achieve beyond what they may have thought possible  academically, socially and personally, offering unique programs with The Juilliard School, MIT and the Global Campus. For more information, visit www.bischicagosl.org.

For further information, please contact:

Courtney Cebula

Director of Communications

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (773) 599-2472

SOURCE Nord Anglia Education, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nordangliaeducation.com


BOCA RATON, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Campus Management Corp. continues to enable colleges and universities to transform their operational efficiency, academic delivery and student success to meet future challenges through its innovative CampusNexus suite of solutions and services. Building on its continued momentum during the recent fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, Campus Management was once again named a leading SIS vendor in 2016 by The Tambellini Group, a third-party market research and advisory firm for higher education. Client institutions of every size and mission continue to achieve measurable results and improve student outcomes leveraging Campus Management's highly flexible and extensible solutions.

"Campus Management has a vision for the future of higher education that includes integrating innovative and continually evolving technology to drive operational efficiency, student success and academic delivery at today's institutions. With market-leading partners as well as employees who average 11 years of education technology experience, we bring unmatched expertise to institutions of every size, mission and student demographic," said Jim Milton, Campus Management Chief Executive Officer. "In FY17 we had the pleasure of working with institutions that are excited about meeting the academic and career needs of current and future generations of students. We look forward to helping these institutions turn their challenges into opportunities to drive even greater student and institutional success."

Trending statistics in recent years show Campus Management to be a dominant software provider to career colleges, as well as the solution-of-choice for a growing number of private and public nonprofit institutions.

FY2017 Operational Highlights:

Growth and Expansion Achieved Across Operating Footprint

58 new CampusNexus clients in the U.S.



8 global institutions selected Campus Management solutions to meet increasingly critical business objectives.

CampusNexus Cloud Continued Demand and Growth

34 of Campus Management's clients in the U.S. selected the cloud solution.



Campus Management currently hosts a total of 140 higher education clients in the cloud.

Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey

In the Campus Management 2017 Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the National Business Research Institute, the company achieved an unprecedented satisfaction score.

Recent Technology and Partnership Highlights:

Campus Management Launched CampusNexus Cloud on Microsoft Azure

CampusNexus Cloud delivers Campus Management solutions as SaaS.



CampusNexus Cloud gives clients options to select and flex the right size cloud for their needs.

Campus Management Partnered with Burning Glass Technologies

The partnership delivers actionable job market analytics using the CampusNexus Student dashboard.



Students receive job data required to make essential decisions about career opportunities and course planning.

"After seeing the past year's SIS selections and reviewing the market as a whole, our research shows that Campus Management has seen great success in continuing to rank as the leading SIS vendor in the private, for-profit sector of higher education," said Vicki Tambellini, The Tambellini Group President and Chief Executive Officer. "Campus Management is establishing stronger representation in the private, not-for-profit and public segments of the market."

Campus Management's market position was recently validated by The Tambellini Group's "2017: Student Information Systems: U.S. Higher Education Market Share, Trends and Leaders Report1 (2017 SIS Report)," which recognized that Campus Management sold more student information systems in calendar year 2016 than any other vendor.

The company's growth has been driven by its CampusNexus solution suite, which includes CampusNexus Student, CampusNexus CRM, and CampusNexus Finance, HR & Payroll, all built upon the Microsoft technology stack and offered in the CampusNexus Cloud.

About Campus Management Corp.

Campus Management is a leading provider of technology solutions and services that transform higher education institutions. Its next-generation suite, CampusNexus, includes enterprise-wide Student, CRM, and Finance, HR & Payroll solutions. Today, more than 2,000 campuses in 20 countries partner with Campus Management to transform academic delivery, student success and operational efficiency.

About The Tambellini Group:

The Tambellini Group is the only independent research and analyst firm dedicated exclusively to higher education. With a database of the technology selections of more than 18,900 global institutions, and a team of analysts and researchers who have decades of higher education expertise, The Tambellini Group offers unbiased analysis and objective insight on education technology and market trends with verifiable data. The organization helps higher education executives, business leaders and the investment community make fact-based technology decisions to achieve their key strategic goals. Founded in 2001, The Tambellini Group is a woman-owned business headquartered in Irvington, Virginia.

1The Tambellini Group 2017 U.S. Higher Education Student Information Systems Market, Trends and Leaders Report by Vicki Tambellini, Mary Beth Cahill, June 2017.

TTG does not recommend or endorse any vendor solutions for higher education. TTG is an independent research firm without sponsors or ties to vendors. TTG provides selected information about vendors based on research. TTG makes every effort to validate all of the information presented in this report and performs all research in good faith.

Media Contact:

Ashley Prince

Media Relations

Campus Management Corp.

954-249-1124

[email protected]

SOURCE Campus Management Corporation

Related Links

http://www.campusmgmt.com


This expansion builds on the momentum of Catalant's recent Series D funding announcement of $41 million in new financing from its existing investors including Highland Capital Partners and General Catalyst. It also builds on the talent strategy of adding seasoned executives including Kylie Wright-Ford, who joined as an advisor in January 2017 and previously served as Co-Head of Global Operations at GLG and Chief Operating and Strategy Officer at World 50, Inc. Wright-Ford oversees public relations and event campaigns.

"We continue to see leading companies like GE fundamentally rethink their approach to talent," said Rob Biederman, Co-CEO and Co-Founder. "We realize, though, that we are leading a broad transformation wave in reimagining work. We are thrilled to have seasoned executives like Kylie and Bill joining us to help communicate to enterprises why this approach is becoming a strategic imperative," Biederman said.

Macaitis has spent over 20 years in go-to-market leadership roles and has achieved multiple exits through both IPO and acquisitions. Macaitis crafted his skills on the B2C side building a 175M audience at IGN & Fox websites and then switched to B2B where he powered growth for 3 of the 5 fastest ever growing SaaS companies. At Slack, he served as CRO, building the marketing, sales, success and support teams. Slack became the fastest company ever to achieve $100M in ARR in just 2.5 years. At Zendesk, he served as CMO and took the company through a successful $1.7B IPO and at Salesforce, he served as SVP Marketing helping scale revenues from $1B to $3B.

Wright-Ford was most recently the Chief Operating and Strategy Officer for Atlanta-based World 50, which builds and manages executive C-suite communities. She sits on multiple boards, including Source Media, Venture Atlanta and Knock Inc. Her leadership positions have spanned operational, strategic and sales roles in Australia, New York and London including spending seven years with global expert network firm GLG. She is an experienced leader of talent, strategy, financial transactions and growth initiatives and has recently co-authored a book on leading in the new world of work  The Leadership Mind Switch.

About Catalant

Catalant connects companies to talent and knowledge in real time. Catalant has built a global network of more than 40,000 experienced and independent consultants and boutique firms available to work with clients on a variety of business needs including research, strategy, marketing, finance, sales, operations and product initiatives. These experts combine with clients' internal talent to form dynamic talent pools accessed via a suite of software products. By serving enterprise clients when they need on-demand talent for a specific initiative, or to close a longer-term talent gap, Catalant is changing the way the world finds the best people for their company's needs, faster. Catalant leverages a blend of machine learning and human oversight for its matching process, ensuring clients are matched with people with the right skills, availability, and budget in mind. Based in Boston, Catalant serves thousands of global clients, including nearly one quarter of the Fortune 100. For more information, visit www.GoCatalant.com

SOURCE Catalant Technologies

Related Links

http://www.gocatalant.com


FREMONT, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Foxit Software, a leading software provider of fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions, today announced that the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana have selected the company's PhantomPDF solution to provide PDF functionality to all 1,600 government workers on staff. With a combined population of approximately 182,000, the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County selected PhantomPDF for its ability to improve productivity and provide the district with the intelligent solution it needs to collaborate with its citizens and businesses.

Before the transition to Foxit and PhantomPDF, the city relied on Adobe Acrobat for its PDF needs. Because of the prohibitive costs associated with the solution, employees were limited to just 40 installations of the software, leaving the majority of the workforce unable to utilize the intelligent functionality needed to foster the innovative spirit the city desired.

"With Foxit, we were able to extend editing capability and the ability to generate new forms to a much wider number of our employees," said Mark Uhrin, Chief Information Officer for the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County. "During our trial, Foxit offered us everything we needed in terms of functionality and our staff came back with an overwhelmingly positive response. With its lower cost and rich feature set, switching form Acrobat to Foxit was an easy decision."

The transition to PhantomPDF to its entire workforce provided the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County with many critical benefits, including:

Improved functionality and the ability to cover all 1,600 employees

Seamless onboarding and transition with access to industry best support services

Critical vulnerability detection

Ability to create smart forms and leverage PDF to better collaborate with citizens and businesses.

"Perhaps what most impressed me with Foxit was the smooth, no hassle on-boarding process," said Uhrin. "From the start, we got everything we needed from Foxit support, and we were able to build the install and run it right away without any issues. In today's complex business environment, you expect bumps during the transition and I can honestly say we really haven't had any."

Foxit PhantomPDF transforms how organizations modify and manage documents. PhantomPDF provides a cost-effective solution for business professionals to work securely with PDF documents and forms. It provides a full-featured platform to view, create, edit, collaborate, share, organize, export, secure and sign PDF documents. There are over 100,000 customers and 425 million users of PhantomPDF.

About Foxit Software

Foxit is a leading software provider of fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions. Foxit addresses the needs of three distinct market segments. For End-User Productivity, Foxit delivers easy to use desktop software, mobile apps, and cloud services to make knowledge workers more productive. ConnectedPDF leading edge technology that powers document management, security, and collaboration services for PDF files. For Enterprise Automation, Foxit provides server software for large scale PDF document management and data capture. Foxit's Developer Solutions enable developers to incorporate powerful PDF technology into their applications.

Foxit has over 425 million users and has sold to over 100,000 customers located in more than 200 countries. The company has offices all over the world, including locations in the US, Asia, Europe, and Australia. For more information, please visit https://www.foxitsoftware.com.

SOURCE Foxit Software

Related Links

http://www.foxitsoftware.com


WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Public Safety has partnered with The Last Mile Works (TLM Works), a tech startup operating out of California's San Quentin State Prison, to make second chances a reality. The fruit of its partnership is a redesigned website developed by men incarcerated at San Quentin and a short video chronicling TLM Works' venture with the Coalition.

Statistics show that two out of three people released from prison will return within three years, but this unique project is a collective effort to fight recidivism by equipping people with the tech and entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed in the startup economy. Individuals like Steve Lacerda, a successful graduate of The Last Mile who was formerly incarcerated at San Quentin, now walks free with a valuable skill set, which can use to reimagine and rechart his future and positively contribute to society.

Steven Hawkins, president of the Coalition for Public Safety, commented: "This redesign is not only providing the Coalition a chance to partner with emerging developers to transform the Coalition's website, it is also giving those very same developers the chance to transform their lives. Thanks to an unlikely partnership between private sector investors and public sector agencies, the men incarcerated at San Quentin have the opportunity to develop a skill set that is in high demand across Silicon Valley and the rest of the country. In some cases, coding and entrepreneurship are opening incredible opportunities for people even before they are released from prison. As the largest national bipartisan justice reform organization, we're fighting for second chances as a critical piece of our bipartisan commitment to justice reform. We urge anyone interested in bolstering second chances, investing in people, and transforming the justice system to visit our new website and sign up for more information."

Launched in 2016, The Last Mile Works (TLM Works) is a software development company developed under the umbrella of parent organization The Last Mile (TLM). TLM was founded in 2010 by Chris Redlitz and his wife and business partner Beverly Parenti, venture capitalists from Silicon Valley. It is their direct response to the problem of mass incarceration in the United States.

"After seeing for myself the potential in these men, I thought maybe we could take on this overwhelming issue of pervasive recidivism by helping them to fulfill that potential," Redlitz said. "Returning to prison doesn't have to be inevitable if we can prepare our incarcerated population to meet the needs of society, if we can give them a second chance to contribute through meaningful work."

TLM Works employs incarcerated men who have graduated from a training program created by TLM in partnership with the California Industry Prison Authority and the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. With more than 2000 hours of coding experience under their belts, TLM graduates interview for employment with TLM Works, where they are paid fair industry wages, build real-world job experience, and provide custom development solutions for clients like the Coalition for Public Safety.

"We are very happy to see TLM Works partnering with the Coalition for Public Safety," Parenti commented. "It's opportunities like this website redesign that give us hope that the footprint of mass incarceration can be reduced through local innovation."

To learn more about the Coalition for Public Safety, visit the new website , share the amazing video journey, and share #WalkTheTalk on social media.

About The Coalition for Public Safety

The Coalition for Public Safety is the largest national bipartisan effort working to make our criminal justice system smarter, fairer, and more cost effective at the federal, state and local levels. The Coalition has brought together the most prominent organizations from across the political spectrum to pursue comprehensive reforms, including: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans for Tax Reform, the Center for American Progress, the Faith & Freedom Coalition, FreedomWorks, the Leadership Conference Education Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Right on Crime. Together, these organizations represent tens of millions of Americans seeking commonsense criminal justice reforms. Our key supporters are Laura and John Arnold, Koch Industries, Inc., the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Learn more about the Coalition at www.coalitionforpublicsafety.org.

SOURCE Coalition for Public Safety

Related Links

http://www.coalitionforpublicsafety.org


With the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, people with a Cochlear Nucleus Implant can now stream sound directly from a compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch directly to their sound processor.4,5* They will also be able to control, monitor and customize their hearing on their iPhone or iPod touch through the Nucleus Smart App available to download for free from the App Store.

There are 360 million people living with disabling hearing loss worldwide, and this figure is set to more than triple to 1.2 billion by 2050.6,7 According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 72 million people who could potentially benefit from the use of a hearing device including a cochlear implant or hearing aid.8

Chris Smith, Cochlear Chief Executive Officer and President, welcomes the FDA approval of the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, explaining that Cochlear is proud to give people with moderate to profound hearing loss access to mobile technology like never before.

"The approval of the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is a turning point for people with hearing loss, opening the door for them to make phone calls, listen to music in high-quality stereo sound, watch videos and have FaceTime calls streamed directly to their cochlear implant," explains Smith. "This new sound processor builds on our long-standing commitment to help more people with hearing loss connect with others and live a full life."

The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor offers a range of features with the Nucleus Smart App, exclusively available for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. The new Hearing Tracker feature records coil-offs time (each time the sound processor coil does not detect the implant coil, such as if it has fallen off a child's head) and time in speech (which measures the amount of time spent in speech environments in hours, including FM and streaming).5 The Find My Processor feature of the Nucleus Smart App helps locate a lost sound processor by using Location Services to determine the last place the sound processor was connected to the paired iPhone or iPod touch, whether it has been lost on the playground, in the house or in the car.

"Technology that offers greater connectivity seeks to make life easier for people with hearing loss," said Laurel Mahoney, Clinical Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at the NYU Langone Health. "The advancements provided by the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor give parents more control and allow them to better monitor their child's hearing while adults and teenagers will be able to stream music and make FaceTime calls just like their hearing friends and family."

With the commercial availability of the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, Cochlear is also offering the first Made for iPhone Smart Bimodal Solution (the combination of a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other), enabling both hearing solutions to provide synchronized streaming to both ears from a compatible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.4 The Nucleus 7 Bimodal Solution is delivered by using a Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, a compatible ReSound hearing aid and a paired iPhone or iPod touch to control functionality for both hearing devices.4

"The ability to control both hearing solutions through an iPhone or iPod touch and provide a seamless hearing experience between them is a remarkable technological step forward," said Jan Janssen, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Cochlear. "At Cochlear, we design devices to give recipients greater flexibility to personalize their settings and manage their hearing loss on a daily basis, and these new solutions offer that experience like never before."

The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is 25 percent smaller and 24 percent lighter than the previous generation Nucleus 6 Sound Processor.3 It also features Cochlear's industry-leading SmartSound iQ with SCAN** and dual microphone technology, helping people to hear more clearly in any environment.9 From a busy restaurant to outdoors in blustering wind, the technology prioritizes voices over background sounds in a noisy environment. A new processing chip also delivers more efficient processing without compromising battery life, meaning users may enjoy up to 50 percent longer battery life than the previous generation behind-the-ear sound processor.10

Commercial availability for the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is expected in September 2017 in the United States and Canada for those who are looking to receive a cochlear implant. The Nucleus 7 Bimodal Solution is expected in September 2017 only in the United States for those who are looking to receive a cochlear implant. In the United States and Canada, the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor will be available as an upgrade in October 2017 for current recipients with the following internal cochlear implants: Nucleus CI24RE, CI500 and Profile Series Implants.

Today more than 450,000 people around the world can hear thanks to Cochlear's technology.11 The company's cochlear implants are the most reliable in the industry, which is one of many reasons why more people choose a Cochlear hearing solution than any other brand.12

For more information about the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, visit www.cochlear.com/US/Nucleus7.

This media release is only intended for audiences in the United States and Canada. Not all products are available in all countries. Please contact your local Cochlear representative for more information: www.cochlear.com.

About the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor

The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor works by detecting sounds which are then turned into electrical signals by the receiver-stimulator and sent to the brain by the electrode placed in the inner ear (cochlea).

A study of cochlear implant recipients participating in a trial of the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor found:

100 percent of users reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor and its components 13

94 percent reported the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor as comfortable or very comfortable to wear 13

87 percent reported they found it easier to control/monitor the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor with the Nucleus Smart App than with a remote control 13

85 percent reported listening to music to be enjoyable or very enjoyable with the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor13

The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor will include the Cochlear True Wireless technology, providing access to the range of wireless accessories currently available. Customers can also swim with their Nucleus 7 Sound Processor using the waterproof Nucleus Aqua+ accessory.***

Please seek advice from your medical practitioner or health professional about treatments for hearing loss. They will be able to advise on a suitable solution for the hearing loss condition. All products should be used only as directed by your medical practitioner or health professional.

About Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)

Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions. The company has a global workforce of more than 3,500 people and invests more than AUD$120 million a year in research and development. Products include hearing systems for cochlear implants, bone conduction and acoustic implants, which are designed to treat a range of moderate to profound types of hearing loss.

Over 450,000 people of all ages, across more than 100 countries, now hear because of Cochlear.

www.cochlear.com/us

References

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. P970051-S151 and P130016-S022 and P000015-S016_Supplement Approval Order - APPR2017. 13 June; Data on file. Apple Inc. 'Compatible hearing devices' [Internet]. Apple support. 2017 [cited April 2017 ]. Available from: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201466#compatible Cochlear Limited. D1190805. CP1000 Processor Size Comparison. 2017, Mar; Data on file. Cochlear Limited. 592753. Nucleus 7 Sound Processor User Guide 2017. Data on file. Cochlear Limited. D719021. Nucleus Smart App User Guide 2017. Data on file. World Health Organization. Deafness and Hearing Loss Factsheet [Internet]. Updated February 2017 [cited June 2017 ]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/ . Lin FR and Kramer SE. Hearing Well to train your brain. The Amplifon Centre for Research & Studies (CRS), Milan, Italy 2013. Available from: http://www.crsamplifon.com/documents/76453/79343/Consensus+Paper+2013+HEARING+WELL+TO+TRAIN+YOUR+BRAIN.pdf/5ad3e484-7e23-4d29-a0d8-961b1ace4f9b World Health Organization. 10 Facts on Deafness [Internet]. Updated April 2017 [cited June 2017 ]. Available from: http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/deafness/en/ Mauger SJ, Warren C, Knight M, Goorevich M, Nel E. Clinical evaluation of the Nucleus 6 cochlear implant system: performance improvements with SmartSound iQ. International Journey of Audiology. 2014, Aug; 53(8): 564-576. [Sponsored by Cochlear]. Cochlear Limited. D1140877. Battery Life and Power Consumption Comparison between CP1000, CP900 Series and CP810 Sound Processors. 2017, Mar; Data on file. Cochlear Limited 2016. Cochlear 2016 Annual Report Innovation for Life. Available at: http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/intl/about/investor/annual-reports Cochlear Limited. Cochlear Nucleus Implant Reliability Report, Volume 15, January 2017 . 2017, Mar. [Latest generation of cochlear implants commercially available as at 30 January 2017 .] Available at: http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/intl/home/discover/cochlear-implants/nucleus-6/nucleus-implant-portfolio/reliability-report Cochlear Limited. D1182081. CLTD 5620 Clinical Evaluation of Nucleus 7 Cochlear Implant System. 2017, Mar; Data on file.

* The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone SE, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPad Pro (12.9-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2, iPad mini, iPad (4th generation) and iPod touch (6th generation) using iOS 10.0 or later. The Nucleus Smart App is compatible with iPhone 5 (or later) and iPod 6th generation devices (or later) running iOS 10.0 or later.

** SNR-WR, WNR and SCAN are approved for use with any recipient ages 6 years and older, who is able to: 1) complete objective speech perception testing in quiet and in noise in order to determine and document performance: and 2) report a preference for different program settings.

*** The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor with Aqua+ is water resistant to level IP68 of the International Standard IEC60529. This water protection rating means that the sound processor with the Aqua+ can be continuously submerged under water to a depth of 3 meters (9 feet and 9 inches) for up to 2 hours. This water protection only applies when you use a Cochlear Standard Rechargeable Battery Module or Cochlear Compact Rechargeable Battery Module.

2017. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and FaceTime are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

ReSound is a trademark of GN Hearing A/S.

Cochlear Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Cochlear, Hear now. And always, Nucleus and the elliptical logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Cochlear Limited.

SOURCE Cochlear Limited

Related Links

http://www.Cochlear.com/US


HONG KONG, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cogobuy Group ("Cogobuy" or the "Company", stock code: 400.HK; with its subsidiaries (the ''Group'')), the largest e-commerce platform serving the electronics manufacturing industry in China, is pleased to announce the launch of the AI Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance (the "Alliance"), directed by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, initiated on July 23, 2017 in Beijing, under joint advocacy from Cogobuy, other tech company giants, renowned educational Institutions, and AI startups.

It is the first alliance founded to support artificial intelligence technologies, and to build upon a guideline for the development of AI ("The Guideline") issued by The State Council on July 20. According to the Guideline, AI development is now a part of the national strategy. Anticipating an opportunity, Cogobuy launched the Kepler System ("K-System") to provide an open platform for the democratization of AI technologies. The K-System has achieved breakthroughs in Smart Home technologies and is expected to become a market leader, benefiting from the expected trillion-RMB cross-industry output created by AI in the future.

As Joint Secretary-General of the Alliance, Dr. Shipeng Li, Chief Technology Officer of Cogobuy and IngDan, and a renowned AI expert, has outlined three areas for his future plan, namely establishing a talent hub, consolidating channels for international knowledge exchange, and founding an AI research institution and innovation platform. The Alliance will play an important role in promoting AI applications across various industries, in turn supporting greater development and commercialization of AI technologies. Apart from Cogobuy, the Alliance is jointly advocated by well-known tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei; it is also backed by renowned institutions such as Peking University and Tsinghua University.

As with the the State of Council's announcement of the Guideline, boosting AI development is part of the national strategy to stimulate various markets. Cogobuy's K-System, launched early this month, demonstrates the Company's leadership in AI. Powered by the latest Microsoft AI services and Allwinner's AI chipset, the K-System is capable of providing end-to-end, easily-customizable AI solutions to unleash industry potential. Recently, the K-System established a Smart Home ecosystem which is eligible to provide support in hardware, software and cloud computing. The K-System aims at strengthening its presence in the medical, smart car, and national security sectors, to align with the Guideline's highlighted industries.

Chief Technology Officer of Cogobuy and IngDan, Dr. Shipeng Li, said: "As part of our nation's policy, AI will become the new engine for multi-industry upgrades and transformation. According to the Guideline, China's core AI-driven output is expected to hit RMB 150 billion in 2020. The prospect of China's AI development is blooming, with new AI theories, technologies, and applications that will lead the globe by 2030, nurturing AI-driven output surpassing RMB 1 trillion in value.

Our K-System enables the quick adoption of AI technologies in vertical applications for both domestic and industry scenarios to popularize AI development. Cogobuy will utilize our edge and opportunities to consolidate a more influential ecosystem and industry chain, generating new revenue streams at this inflection point in the AI revolution."

 End 

About Cogobuy Group

Cogobuy Group is the largest e-commerce service platform serving the electronics manufacturing industry in China. Through the e-commerce platform, which includes a direct sales platform, an online marketplace, and a dedicated team of technical consultants and professional sales representatives, the Company provides customers with comprehensive online and offline services across pre-sale, sale, and post-sale stages. The Company serves mainly SME electronics manufacturers.

For further information, please refer to the Company's website at http://www.cogobuy.com/

About INGDAN.com

INGDAN.com is a platform dedicated to connecting global intelligent hardware entrepreneurs and China-based supply chain resources. The platform provides information on hardware innovation, supply chain data and supply chain demand docking for global IoT innovators and entrepreneurs. It is a one-stop hardware innovation business platform with its core being the "supply chain."

For further information, please refer to the Company's website at http://www.ingdan.com/

About AI Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliances

AI Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance is evolved from former AVS Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance under the guidance of Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Directed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Chinese Academy of Engineering, it is launched with the new generation of AI project  a state key technology research initiative. The Alliance is jointly advocated by Cogobuy, Peking University and Zhongguancun AVS Industry Alliance, with support from tech company giants like Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Huawei and iFLYTEK together with engagement from AI unicorns namely SenseTime Technology, Megvii (Face++) Technology, Horizon Technology and renowned educational institutions such as Peking University, Tsinghua University and Beihang University.

Prof. Pan Yun-he, as the advocate of the Guideline is appointed as the Honorary Chairman supervising the Committee of Experts. Prof. Gao Wen, expertise in developing core AI, serves as Chairman of the Board. The Guideline drafter, Prof. Huang Tie-jun takes the role as the Secretary-General. Dr. Shipeng Li, Chief Technology Officer of Cogobuy and IngDan, a renowned AI expert, is appointed as the Joint Secretary-General.

About Kepler System

Kepler System ("K-System") is an open AI platform developed by IngDan Labs, and backed by the latest Microsoft's AI services and Allwinner's AI chipset. K-System is capable of providing end-to-end easily-customizable AI turn-key solution to traditional enterprises and startup. It allows those developers with little AI/IoT/Hardware experience to quickly prototype their AI-based products, and through the hardware, software and cloud services, helps them to solve the pressing problems that hinder wide adoption of AI technologies.

SOURCE Cogobuy Group

Related Links

http://www.cogobuy.com/


DENVER, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Colleen Birdnow Brown, founder and owner of Denver-based online reputation management firm Marca Global, was honored in the 2017 NACD Directorship 100 list, which was announced in Washington D.C. on July 19.

In its fourth decade, the award recognizes corporate leaders, policymakers and influencers delivering significant impact to boardroom performance and corporate governance. "I'm honored to receive this award alongside so many other accomplished leaders," stated Brown.

Colleen Birdnow Brown

NACD Directorship 100 honorees are evaluated by an independent committee on the basis of four primary traits: integrity, confidence, judgment and high performance standards. "Our corporations  indeed our very system of capitalism  is improved by the integrity and commitment to excellence represented by these individuals," said NACD President and CEO Peter Gleason.

"My goal is to translate my corporate leadership and governance experience into developing the start-up technology community in Colorado," stated Brown. Under her leadership, Marca Global has attained year over year revenue growth of approximately 30 percent and recently announced the launch of Clickadilly, a new monitoring software designed for online privacy concerns.

For more information about Marca Global, contact [email protected] or visit www.nacdonline.org/directorship100/2017honorees for a full description of the NACD Directorship 100 and list of honorees.

About Colleen Birdnow Brown: Brown is the Founding Principal of Marca Global, which owns InternetReputation.com, Massive Peak and Clickadilly. She is an advisor or board member to public and private companies and speaks nationally on media, technology and leadership issues. Brown is best known for founding the Mobile 500 Alliance and previously serving as Chairman of the Board for American Apparel (APP) during its reorganization. She was CEO of Fisher Communications (FSCI), and in the C-suite at Belo (BLC), Lee Enterprises (LEE) and a senior executive at Gannett (GCI).

About Marca Global: Marca Global exists to give individuals and businesses the ability to define and defend their online reputations. The firm provides Online Reputation Management, Monitoring and Removal services to thousands of clients across the globe. Marca Global and incorporated brands are accredited with the Better Business Bureau of Colorado and have received awards from Inc. 5000, ColoradoBiz, Top SEO Rankers and more. Marca Global seeks to continually uphold its values of integrity, innovation and service. For more information, visit MarcaGlobal.us or call 720-552-8057.

About NACD: The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) empowers more than 17,000 directors to lead with confidence in the boardroom. As the recognized authority on leading boardroom practices, NACD helps boards strengthen investor trust and public confidence by ensuring that today's directors are well prepared for tomorrow's challenges. World-class boards join NACD to elevate performance, gain foresight, and instill confidence. Fostering collaboration among directors, investors, and corporate governance stakeholders, NACD has been setting the standard for responsible board leadership for 40 years. To learn more about NACD, visit www.NACDonline.org.

Media Contact:

Anna Hoglund

Phone: 720-975-8683

E-mail: [email protected]

Related Images

image1.png

image2.jpg

image3.png

Related Links

Marca Global website

SOURCE Marca Global

Related Links

https://www.marcagloballlc.com


OTTAWA, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Conversant Wireless Licensing S.a r.l., a subsidiary of Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc., announced today that it has filed a patent infringement case against Huawei Technologies and ZTE in the Patents Court of the High Court of Justice in London, United Kingdom. In its complaint, Conversant Wireless is asking the Court to declare that Conversant has made a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) offer to license its standard essential patent (SEP) portfolio to each defendant, or alternatively to determine the FRAND terms for such a license to each defendant. Conversant also alleges that each defendant's mobile handsets infringe four of Conversant's SEPs, European Patent (UK) No. 1,031,192, No. 0,978,210, No. 1,797,659, and No. 1,878,177.

Conversant Wireless licenses its worldwide portfolio of wireless patents and patent applications that cover technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services, such as handsets, cameras, tablets, and laptops. The Conversant Wireless portfolio includes many declared SEPs that Conversant seeks to license on FRAND terms.

"Conversant Wireless has been negotiating for years with both defendants," said Boris Teksler, President and CEO of Conversant. "We have repeatedly explained to each of the defendants how they are using our SEPs and made clear Conversant's willingness to negotiate and conclude a FRAND portfolio license in accordance with our FRAND undertakings. But neither Huawei nor ZTE has accepted any of Conversant's offers or made a FRAND counter-offer, leaving Conversant no choice but to enforce our patent rights in court."

"Conversant Wireless always prefers negotiating with willing licensees towards fair agreements without the need to litigate," Teksler continued. "But for companies who are not willing to engage in the FRAND licensing process, Conversant Wireless stands ready to enforce our patent rights when required. In fact, Conversant successfully enforced its portfolio in the United States courts in 2016, where three separate juries found Conversant Wireless patents valid and infringed by Apple and LG Electronics smartphones, handsets, and tablets that are compliant with wireless communications standards. In one case the court later awarded enhanced damages against a resistant defendant, recognizing the importance of engaging in serious, good-faith license negotiations and being willing to take a FRAND license where appropriate. These results show both the value of the Conversant Wireless portfolio and the necessity of good-faith participation in SEP license negotiations. Unfortunately, more and more companies prefer to efficiently infringe rather than pay fair value. With this UK case against Huawei and ZTE, we look forward to solidifying not only our SEP portfolio but also the FRAND licensing offers and framework."

About Conversant

Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. is a global intellectual property management company known for its principled approach to patent licensing. With a portfolio of thousands of patents and patent applications under management, Conversant has special expertise in semiconductors and communications technology. For more information, please visit www.conversantip.com. Conversant Wireless Licensing S.a r.l. is a subsidiary of Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. that is focused on licensing a major portfolio of about 1,000 wireless patents and patent applications covering technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services. Conversant Wireless' former name was Core Wireless. For more information, please visit www.conversant-wireless.com/.

SOURCE Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc

Related Links

Www.conversantip.com


BEACHWOOD, Ohio, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DDR Corp. (NYSE: DDR) today announced operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

"Our second quarter results were characterized by strong financial and operational execution. We made progress reducing leverage and lengthening our average debt maturity by selling assets and accessing the capital markets. Our operations were ahead of plan and we completed our portfolio review and strategic planning process over a compressed time-period. I am excited about continuing to execute on these plans, which should position the company for strong future growth," commented David R. Lukes, president and chief executive officer.

Financial Highlights

Second quarter net income attributable to common shareholders was $23 .2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, as compared to net income of $35 .5 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, in the year ago-period. The year-over-year decline in net income attributable to common shareholders is primarily attributable to impairment charges aggregating $28.1 million recorded on one shopping center and two parcels of undeveloped land.

.2 million, or per diluted share, as compared to net income of .5 million, or per diluted share, in the year ago-period. The year-over-year decline in net income attributable to common shareholders is primarily attributable to impairment charges aggregating recorded on one shopping center and two parcels of undeveloped land. Second quarter operating funds from operations attributable to common shareholders ("Operating FFO" or "OFFO") was $108 .8 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, compared to $122 .4 million, or $0.33 per diluted share in the year ago-period. The year-over-year decrease in OFFO is primarily attributable to the dilutive impact of deleveraging asset sales.

Significant Second Quarter Activity

Asset Sales

Generated total asset sales and loan repayment proceeds of $237.5 million , totaling $225 .7 million at DDR's share

, totaling .7 million at DDR's share Sold two shopping centers in Puerto Rico for an aggregate sales price of $57.3 million

for an aggregate sales price of Sold nine shopping centers in the U.S. for an aggregate sales price of $149.2 million , totaling $137.5 million at DDR's share

Capital Markets and Investments

Issued $450 million aggregate principal amount of 4.700% senior unsecured notes due 2027

aggregate principal amount of 4.700% senior unsecured notes due 2027 Issued $175 million aggregate principal amount of 6.375% Class A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares

aggregate principal amount of 6.375% Class A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares Repaid in July 2017 , $300 million 4.75% senior unsecured notes due April 2018

, 4.75% senior unsecured notes due Recapitalized the DDR Domestic Retail Fund I joint venture which included a new $707 million mortgage loan on 52 assets to repay all of the joint venture's outstanding mortgage debt

Key Operating Results

Reported a decrease in same store net operating income, including Puerto Rico , of -0.1% on a pro rata basis; and excluding Puerto Rico , same store net operating income was flat on a pro rata basis; presentation has been adjusted to include bad debt expense on a comparable basis

, of -0.1% on a pro rata basis; and excluding , same store net operating income was flat on a pro rata basis; presentation has been adjusted to include bad debt expense on a comparable basis Executed 258 new leases and renewals for 1.9 million square feet

Generated new leasing spreads of 10.0% and renewal leasing spreads of 5.7%, both on a pro rata basis and including Puerto Rico for the quarter, and new leasing spreads of 10.4% and renewal leasing spreads of 6.5%, both on a pro rata basis and including Puerto Rico for the trailing twelve-month period

for the quarter, and new leasing spreads of 10.4% and renewal leasing spreads of 6.5%, both on a pro rata basis and including for the trailing twelve-month period Reported a portfolio leased rate of 93.7% at June 30, 2017, compared to 96.1% at June 30, 2016, on a pro rata basis

Annualized base rent per occupied square foot on a pro rata basis was $16.09 at June 30, 2017, compared to $14.92 at June 30, 2016

Other Significant Activity

Completed the previously announced portfolio review and strategic planning process.

As a result of a full portfolio review and subsequent decision on asset sales, the Company recorded impairment charges on one shopping center and two parcels of undeveloped land aggregating $28.1 million in the second quarter.

Guidance

The Company's 2017 operating assumptions remain as follows:

Expected annual growth in same store net operating income range as follows:



DDR Share U.S. Portfolio (1.0%)  0.5% Total Portfolio (1.5%)  0.0%

Expected leased rate at year end of 93.0% to 93.5%

Expected General and Administrative expenses of $72 million to $75 million

Expected Fee income of $30 million to $33 million

Expected Interest income of $26 million to $29 million

Expected redevelopment activity placed in service of $80 million (approximately $40 million of incremental same store NOI) weighted towards the second half of the year at high single-digit yields

About DDR Corp.

DDR is an owner and manager of 298 value-oriented shopping centers representing 100 million square feet in 34 states and Puerto Rico. The Company owns a high-quality portfolio of open-air shopping centers in major metropolitan areas that provide a highly-compelling shopping experience and merchandise mix for retail partners and consumers. The Company actively manages its assets with a focus on creating long-term shareholder value. DDR is a self-administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DDR. Additional information about the Company is available at www.ddr.com.

Conference Call and Supplemental Information

The Company will hold its quarterly conference call today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. To participate with access to the slide presentation, please visit the Investors portion of DDR's website, www.ddr.com/events, or for audio only, dial 877-249-1119 (U.S.), 855-669-9657 (Canada) or 412-542-4143 (international) at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call. A replay of the conference call will also be available at www.ddr.com/events for one year after the call. A copy of the Company's Supplemental package is available on the Company's website at www.ddr.com.

Non-GAAP Measures

FFO is a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure used as a standard in the real estate industry and is a widely accepted measure of real estate investment trust ("REIT") performance. Management believes that both FFO and Operating FFO provide additional indicators of the financial performance of a REIT. The Company also believes that FFO and Operating FFO more appropriately measure the core operations of the Company and provide benchmarks to its peer group.

FFO is generally defined and calculated by the Company as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: (i) preferred share dividends, (ii) gains and losses from disposition of depreciable real estate property and related investments, which are presented net of taxes, (iii) impairment charges on depreciable real estate property and related investments and (iv) certain non-cash items. These non-cash items principally include real property depreciation and amortization of intangibles, equity income (loss) from joint ventures and equity income (loss) from non-controlling interests and adding the Company's proportionate share of FFO from its unconsolidated joint ventures and non-controlling interests, determined on a consistent basis. The Company's calculation of FFO is consistent with the NAREIT definition. The Company calculates Operating FFO by excluding certain non-operating charges and gains. Operating FFO is useful to investors as the Company removes non-comparable charges and gains to analyze the results of its operations and assess performance of the core operating real estate portfolio. Other real estate companies may calculate FFO and Operating FFO in a different manner.

The Company also uses net operating income ("NOI"), a non-GAAP financial measure, as a supplemental performance measure. NOI is calculated as property revenues less property-related expenses. The Company believes NOI provides useful information to investors regarding the Company's financial condition and results of operations because it reflects only those income and expense items that are incurred at the property level and, when compared across periods, reflects the impact on operations from trends in occupancy rates, rental rates, operating costs and acquisition and disposition activity on an unleveraged basis.

The Company presents NOI information herein on a same store basis or "SSNOI." The Company defines SSNOI as property revenues less property-related expenses, which exclude straight-line rental income and expenses, lease termination income, management fee expense, fair market value of leases and expense recovery adjustments. The Company presents SSNOI both with and without provisions for uncollectible amounts and/or recoveries thereof. In addition, the Company presents SSNOI both with and without the results of its Puerto Rico portfolio. SSNOI also excludes activity associated with development and major redevelopment and single tenant assets and includes assets owned in comparable periods (15 months for quarter comparisons). SSNOI excludes all non-property and corporate level revenue and expenses. Other real estate companies may calculate NOI and SSNOI in a different manner. The Company believes SSNOI provides investors with additional information regarding the operating performances of comparable assets because it excludes certain non-cash and non-comparable items as noted above.

FFO, Operating FFO, NOI and SSNOI do not represent cash generated from operating activities in accordance with GAAP, are not necessarily indicative of cash available to fund cash needs and should not be considered as alternatives to net income computed in accordance with GAAP as indicators of the Company's operating performance or as alternatives to cash flow as a measure of liquidity. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in this release and the accompanying financial supplement.

Safe Harbor

DDR Corp. considers portions of the information in this press release to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, both as amended, with respect to the Company's expectation for future periods. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including, among other factors, local conditions such as supply of space or a reduction in demand for real estate in the area; competition from other available space; dependence on rental income from real property; the loss of, significant downsizing of or bankruptcy of a major tenant; redevelopment and construction activities may not achieve a desired return on investment; our ability to buy or sell assets on commercially reasonable terms; our ability to complete acquisitions or dispositions of assets under contract; our ability to secure equity or debt financing on commercially acceptable terms or at all; our ability to enter into definitive agreements with regard to our financing and joint venture arrangements or our failure to satisfy conditions to the completion of these arrangements; the success of our deleveraging strategy; any impact or results from the Company's portfolio transition or any change in strategy; and the finalization of the financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2017. For additional factors that could cause the results of the Company to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.



DDR Corp.

Income Statement: Consolidated Interests











$ in thousands, except per share









2Q17

2Q16

6M17

6M16

Revenues:















Minimum rents (1) $164,623

$178,064

$331,852

$355,431

Percentage rent 1,823

1,654

3,522

3,590

Recoveries 55,633

61,376

113,109

122,975

Other property revenues (2) 5,321

4,762

9,899

10,105



227,400

245,856

458,382

492,101

Expenses (3):















Operating and maintenance 32,150

35,330

65,141

72,588

Real estate taxes 33,744

36,534

68,073

72,318



65,894

71,864

133,214

144,906



















Net operating income 161,506

173,992

325,168

347,195



















Other income (expense):















Fee income 8,787

11,465

18,226

19,643

Interest income 7,166

9,446

15,558

18,496

Interest expense (48,908)

(54,012)

(100,735)

(111,909)

Depreciation and amortization (90,276)

(97,698)

(181,160)

(194,600)

General and administrative (4) (22,756)

(18,499)

(53,828)

(36,375)

Other income (expense), net (954)

2,081

(958)

3,854

Impairment charges (28,096)

0

(50,069)

0

(Loss) income before earnings from JVs and other (13,531)

26,775

(27,798)

46,304



















Equity in net (loss) income of JVs (717)

1,117

(2,382)

15,538

Reserve of preferred equity interests 0

0

(76,000)

0

Tax expense (473)

(245)

(696)

(703)

Gain on disposition of real estate, net 44,599

13,721

82,726

26,102

Net income (loss) 29,878

41,368

(24,150)

87,241

Non-controlling interests (267)

(310)

(480)

(610)

Net income (loss) DDR 29,611

41,058

(24,630)

86,631

Preferred dividends (6,399)

(5,594)

(11,993)

(11,188)

Net income (loss) Common Shareholders $23,212

$35,464

($36,623)

$75,443



















Weighted average shares  Basic  EPS 366,987

364,976

366,710

364,834

Assumed conversion of dilutive securities 43

342

0

346

Weighted average shares  Diluted  EPS 367,030

365,318

366,710

365,180



















Earnings per common share  Basic & Diluted $0.06

$0.10

($0.10)

$0.21



















Revenue items:













(1) Ground lease revenue $10,796

$10,240

$21,688

$20,340 (2) Lease termination fees 630

216

808

1,445

















(3) Operating expenses:















Recoverable expenses (60,237)

(65,031)

(122,354)

(131,147)

Non-recoverable expenses (5,325)

(5,633)

(9,604)

(11,532)

Bad debt expense (332)

(1,200)

(1,256)

(2,227)

















(4) General and administrative expenses:















Separation charges (5,081)

0

(16,552)

0

Internal leasing expenses (1,258)

(1,979)

(2,850)

(4,061)

Construction administrative costs (capitalized) 1,830

1,948

4,218

3,900























































DDR Corp.

Reconciliation: Net Income (Loss) to FFO and Operating FFO

and Other Financial Information

$ in thousands, except per share









2Q17

2Q16

6M17

6M16

Net income (loss) attributable to Common Shareholders $23,212

$35,464

($36,623)

$75,443

Depreciation and amortization of real estate 88,423

95,626

177,073

190,480

Equity in net loss (income) of JVs 717

(1,117)

2,382

(15,538)

JVs' FFO 6,212

6,426

12,794

12,576

Non-controlling interests 76

76

152

152

Impairment of depreciable real estate 19,010

0

40,982

0

Gain on disposition of depreciable real estate, net (44,525)

(16,154)

(81,423)

(28,250)

FFO attributable to Common Shareholders $93,125

$120,321

$115,337

$234,863



















Reserve of preferred equity interests 0

0

76,000

0

Impairment charges 9,086

0

9,086

0

Separation charges 5,081

0

16,552

0

Transaction, debt extinguishment, other, net 948

(333)

947

(361)

Joint ventures - debt extinguishment, transaction, other 604

20

684

20

(Gain) loss on disposition of non-depreciable real estate, net (74)

2,433

(1,303)

2,148

Total non-operating items, net 15,645

2,120

101,966

1,807

Operating FFO attributable to Common Shareholders $108,770

$122,441

$217,303

$236,670



















Weighted average shares and units  Basic  FFO & OFFO 367,482

365,851

367,231

365,774

Assumed conversion of dilutive securities 43

341

66

346

Weighted average shares and units  Diluted  FFO & OFFO 367,525

366,192

367,297

366,120



















FFO per share  Basic & Diluted $0.25

$0.33

$0.31

$0.64

Operating FFO per share  Basic & Diluted $0.30

$0.33

$0.59

$0.65

Common stock dividends declared, per share $0.19

$0.19

$0.38

$0.38



















Certain non-cash items (DDR share):















Straight-line rent, net $223

$1,298

$657

$2,653

Amortization of (above)/below-market rent, net 4,383

1,159

8,233

1,556

Straight-line ground rent income (expense) (53)

(182)

216

(276)

Debt fair value and loan cost amortization (1,131)

(561)

(2,118)

(1,288)

Capitalized interest expense 478

703

876

1,947

Stock compensation expense (1,584)

(1,690)

(3,492)

(3,298)

Non-real estate depreciation expense (1,807)

(2,024)

(3,942)

(4,025)

Non-cash interest income 0

1,954

1,283

3,899



















Capital expenditures (DDR share):















Development and redevelopment costs 14,041

26,415

29,965

50,887

Maintenance capital expenditures 3,200

6,031

4,024

7,048

Tenant allowances and landlord work 7,007

6,635

19,083

14,091

Leasing commissions 739

1,251

1,377

2,155























































DDR Corp.

Balance Sheet: Consolidated Interests



















$ in thousands

























At Period End











2Q17

4Q16

Assets:















Land







$1,938,589

$1,990,406

Buildings







6,193,366

6,412,532

Fixtures and tenant improvements







726,721

735,685











8,858,676

9,138,623

Depreciation







(2,001,376)

(1,996,176)











6,857,300

7,142,447

Construction in progress and land







113,543

105,435

Real estate, net







6,970,843

7,247,882



















Investments in JVs







117,304

60,793

Receivable  preferred equity interests, net







318,181

393,338

Cash







414,074

30,430

Restricted cash







61,462

8,795

Notes receivable, net







19,590

49,503

Receivables, net (1)







114,449

121,367

Intangible assets, net







216,602

241,598

Other assets, net







37,533

43,812

Total Assets







8,270,038

8,197,518



















Liabilities and Equity:















Unsecured debt







3,060,345

2,913,217

Unsecured term loan







398,316

398,399

Secured debt







1,108,005

1,182,352











4,566,666

4,493,968

Dividends payable







76,744

75,245

Other liabilities (2)







368,412

382,293

Total Liabilities







5,011,822

4,951,506



















Preferred shares







525,000

350,000

Common shares







36,715

36,630

Paid-in capital







5,499,103

5,487,212

Distributions in excess of net income







(2,809,110)

(2,632,327)

Deferred compensation







10,254

15,149

Other comprehensive income







(2,632)

(4,192)

Common shares in treasury at cost







(9,816)

(14,957)

Non-controlling interests







8,702

8,497

Total Equity







3,258,216

3,246,012



















Total Liabilities and Equity







$8,270,038

$8,197,518

















(1) Straight-line rents receivable, net







$63,209

$65,072

















(2) Below-market leases, net







136,638

147,941























































DDR Corp.

Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to DDR to Same Store NOI (1)



















$ in thousands

























At DDR Share (Non-GAAP)



2Q17

2Q16

2Q17

2Q16

GAAP Reconciliation:















Net income attributable to DDR $29,611

$41,058

$29,611

$41,058

Fee income (8,787)

(11,465)

(8,787)

(11,465)

Interest income (7,166)

(9,446)

(7,166)

(9,446)

Interest expense 48,908

54,012

48,908

54,012

Depreciation and amortization 90,276

97,698

90,276

97,698

General and administrative 22,756

18,499

22,756

18,499

Other expense 954

(2,081)

954

(2,081)

Impairment charges 28,096

0

28,096

0

Equity in net loss (income) of joint ventures 717

(1,117)

717

(1,117)

Reserve of preferred equity interests 0

0

0

0

Tax expense 473

245

473

245

Gain on disposition of real estate (44,599)

(13,721)

(44,599)

(13,721)

Income from non-controlling interests 267

310

267

310

Consolidated NOI 161,506

173,992

161,506

173,992

DDR's consolidated JV 0

0

(396)

(454)

Consolidated NOI, net of non-controlling interests 161,506

173,992

161,110

173,538



















Net (loss) income from unconsolidated joint ventures (33,702)

(4,933)

(1,163)

714

Interest expense 29,004

33,319

4,606

5,278

Depreciation and amortization 47,589

49,021

5,747

5,635

Impairment charges 27,850

0

1,392

0

Preferred share expense 8,239

8,305

412

415

Other expense, net 9,054

6,319

1,611

1,011

Loss (gain) on disposition of real estate, net 803

(114)

40

(22)

Unconsolidated NOI 88,837

91,917

12,645

13,031



















Total Consolidated + Unconsolidated NOI 250,343

265,909

173,755

186,569

Less: Non-Same Store NOI adjustments (16,787)

(32,167)

(16,533)

(29,157)

Total SSNOI (including Puerto Rico and bad debt expense) $233,556

$233,742

$157,222

$157,412



















Less: Puerto Rico Same Store NOI (20,562)

(20,776)

(20,562)

(20,776)

Total SSNOI excluding Puerto Rico (including bad debt expense) $212,994

$212,966

$136,660

$136,636



















Add: bad debt expense 1,262

1,729

856

1,250

Total SSNOI (excluding bad debt expense) $234,818

$235,471

$158,078

$158,662



















SSNOI % Change (including Puerto Rico and bad debt expense) (0.1%)





(0.1%)





SSNOI % Change excluding Puerto Rico 0.0%





0.0%





SSNOI % Change (excluding bad debt expense) (0.3%)





(0.4%)























(1) Excludes major redevelopment activity; see Investments section for additional detail. See calculation definition in the Non-GAAP Measures section.

SOURCE DDR Corp.

Related Links

http://www.ddr.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Demotech, Inc. recently affirmed the Financial Stability Ratings (FSRs) assigned to seven self-funded public entity pools. Demotech reviews and rates more than 415 insurers, writing every line of Property & Casualty insurance in the US, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Self-funded public entity pools are one of the many clienteles served by Demotech.

Public Entity Pool Financial Stability Rating (Pool) American Public Entity Excess Pool (APEEP) AAA Illinois Parks Association Risk Services (IPARKS) AAA Illinois Public Risk Fund (The Fund) AAA The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP) AAA Ohio Township Association Risk Management Authority (OTARMA) AAA Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (PIRMA) AAA Public Entities Pool of Ohio (PEP) AAA

American Public Entity Excess Pool (APEEP)

American Public Entity Excess Pool (APEEP) was established in 1987 to provide the advantages of pooling on a casualty reinsurance basis. In 1997, APEEP expanded its scope to provide those same pooling advantages on property reinsurance. Both programs provide broad coverage to meet the unique needs of public entities and serve as a layer of insulation from the cycles of the commercial reinsurance marketplace. The result is a stable, cost-effective risk-financing mechanism for APEEP members, which currently consist of five public entity risk pools, IPARKS, ICAP, OTARMA, PIRMA, and PEP.

Administrator: York Risk Pooling Services, Inc.

Auditor: Plante Moran

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1987

Illinois Parks Association Risk Services (IPARKS)

Illinois Parks Association Risk Services (IPARKS) is a local government risk pool that offers comprehensive liability and property coverage specially tailored to address the wide variety of recreational programs offered by Illinois park districts and recreation agencies and provides an alternative to traditional insurance programs. IPARKS differs from traditional insurers in that IPARKS is owned by its members and serves only its members' interests.

Administrator: York Risk Pooling Services, Inc.

Auditor: Plante Moran

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1987

Illinois Public Risk Fund (The Fund)

The Illinois Public Risk Fund (The Fund) is an Illinois general nonprofit corporation whose charter was issued on January 3, 1986. The Fund was established and operates to protect its members against liability or loss in the areas of worker's compensation and related employer's liability under Illinois law. The Fund has approximately 700 members, all of which are public agencies, local public entities, school districts, or other local governmental bodies existing under Illinois law. The Fund is not an insurance company subject to state regulation, because it is organized and qualifies as an intergovernmental risk management association or a joint selfinsurance pool within the meaning of the Illinois Worker's Compensation Act and the Illinois Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.

The Fund essentially functions as a mutual company where its members have joined together by contract to establish a cooperative program of risk management and loss coverage for governmental operations. The Fund's members may participate in the return of surplus contributions or dividends based upon the experience of the Fund and the individual members. Returns of net assets or dividends and other related programs are determined by the board.

Administrator: Boyle, Flagg and Seaman

Auditor: Clifton Gunderson

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1993

The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP)

The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP) is a local government risk pool that offers comprehensive liability and property coverage specially tailored to meet the needs of Iowa public entities and provides an alternative to traditional insurance. ICAP differs from traditional insurance programs in that ICAP is owned by its members and serves only its members' interests.

Administrator: York Risk Pooling Services, Inc.

Auditor: Plante Moran

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1987

Ohio Township Association Risk Management Authority (OTARMA)

Ohio Township Association Risk Management Authority (OTARMA) is a local government risk pool that offers comprehensive liability and property coverages specifically tailored to meet the needs of townships throughout the state of Ohio and provides an alternative to traditional insurance. OTARMA differs from traditional insurance programs in that OTARMA is owned by its members and serves only its members' interests.

Administrator: York Risk Pooling Services, Inc.

Auditor: Plante Moran

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1987

Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (PIRMA)

Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (PIRMA) is a local government risk pool that offers comprehensive liability and property coverages specially tailored to meet the needs of governmental entities throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and provides an alternative to traditional insurance. PIRMA differs from traditional insurance programs in that PIRMA is owned by its members and serves only its members' interests.

Administrator: York Risk Pooling Services, Inc.

Auditor: Plante Moran

Current Financial Stability Rating: AAA

Financial Stability Rating initially assigned: 1987

SOURCE Demotech, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.demotech.com


WASHINGTON, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED) released new data indicating that, during the 2016 federal election cycle, business corporations did not participate in campaign finance activities to the extent that many anticipated. Among the findings, business corporations made up six percent of Super PAC receipts. The data comes amid the changed campaign finance environment that resulted from Citizens United. The landmark Supreme Court decision allows Super PACs to raise unlimited sums of money from not only business corporations, but also unions.

The report, The Landscape of Campaign Contributions, also includes election spending data from the 2014 cycle and the early stages of the 2016 cycle, which CED featured in a separate analysis last year.

Findings from the report include the following:

No major business corporation or publicly held company spent money independently in support of a candidate in 2014 or 2016  even though the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision affirmed a company's right to do so. Only a few private companies made independent expenditures and spent relatively minor amounts.

decision affirmed a company's right to do so. Only a few private companies made independent expenditures and spent relatively minor amounts. Individual donors were the primary contributors to Super PACs, making up 60 percent ( $299 million ) of total receipts in 2014, and 68% ( $1.1 billion ) in 2016.

) of total receipts in 2014, and 68% ( ) in 2016. Although business corporations made up just five percent of Super PAC receipts in 2014 and six percent in 2016, the $95 million in 2016 corporate contributions significantly surpassed the $25 million contributed in 2014.

in 2016 corporate contributions significantly surpassed the contributed in 2014. Trade associations gave $11 million to Super PACs during the 2014 election and $12 million in the 2016 election, making up only two percent and less than one percent of receipts, respectively.

to Super PACs during the 2014 election and in the 2016 election, making up only two percent and less than one percent of receipts, respectively. Although labor unions have provided only a small share of Super PAC funding, they have played a larger role than the business community. In the past two election cycles, labor unions have contributed $32 million more to Super PACs than all business and trade associations combined.

more to Super PACs than all business and trade associations combined. Interest groups also constituted a minor source of funding. In both the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, interest groups were responsible for less than five percent of Super PAC receipts, donating $15 million in 2014 and $70 million in 2016.

"These data refute many of the purported consequences that would result from Citizens United," said Bob Kueppers, retired Deputy CEO of Deloitte, and Co-Chair of CED's Money in Politics Subcommittee. "Still, the rules governing campaign finance remain flawed and warrant substantive reform."

"When you look at total spending in the 2016 election cycle, it is clear that businesses largely sat on the sidelines," said Nathan Rosenberg, Founding Partner of Insigniam, and Co-Chair of CED's Money in Politics Subcommittee. "Still, business leaders must use their voice and clout to advocate for needed reforms, in particular encouraging citizen participation in the process, along with transparency and disclosure in reporting."

For close to 50 years, CED has examined the problems associated with campaign finance and has advocated solutions to improve the means by which America's elections are funded in order to restore public confidence in the system.

About the Committee for Economic Development

Founded in 1942, the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led public policy organization that delivers well-researched analysis and reasoned solutions to our nation's most critical issues. CED's work is grounded on seven core principles: sustainable capitalism, long-term economic growth, efficient fiscal and regulatory policy, competitive and open markets, a globally competitive workforce, equal economic opportunity, and nonpartisanship in the nation's interest. www.ced.org.

Media Contact: Joseph DiBlasi

[email protected]; 202.469.7824

SOURCE Committee for Economic Development

Related Links

http://www.ced.org


PINEHURST, Texas, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Wild Horse Freedom Federation, Inc. (WHFF), today released its white paper, "Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse & Burro Program, with a Focus on Problems Related to Holding Facilities." America's wild horses and burros  long a national treasure and symbol of freedom  are endangered and being pushed towards extinction, despite the Trump administration's promise to uphold the rule of law.

The comprehensive white paper cites taxpayer waste and multitudes of inconsistencies in documentation presented to both the American public and Congress. These alleged offenses continue to occur under the direction of Trump-appointed Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI), Ryan Zinke.

WHFF's document notes current and historical violations that include evidence of misrepresentation, wasting taxpayer funds, and lack of scientific accounting for the wild horses and burros -- in absolute defiance of the Congressional statute that provides for the safety of the iconic wild herds.

The five-year investigation culminating in the document has uncovered a consistent pattern of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) releasing misinformation thought to confuse and mislead the American taxpaying public and legislators.

For years, the BLM has taken healthy wild horses and burros from their legally protected lands in the American West at the expense of taxpayers. Notably, on those lands, the cost to taxpayers was nothing, yet the BLM roundups have continued, taking tens of thousands of wild horses into captivity. Despite the reported number of horses in captivity (46,000) to date, large numbers of horses have mysteriously disappeared from the holding pens or during transports where they never arrived. And it appears that taxpayer money has been wasted by the BLM, at the expense of the wild horses and burros they are supposed to protect.

WHFF's FOIA obtained documentation on this topic, many of which have never been reviewed by Congress or the public, appear to verify that BLM statements are filled with inaccuracies and poor math. The beneficiaries of this systemic misrepresentation have been ranching and corporate energy interests, both of whom, not surprisingly, are major donors to politicians who cover the areas where the most wild horses and burros are found.

Despite a strident outcry from American taxpayers who want, as the law requires, the horses and burros protected and returned to their rightful place on public lands, the BLM has repeatedly asserted to America that the wild horses and burros need to be under its care. In the last century, the wild horse population has gone from two million to less than 36,000 under BLM management. Less than two out of 100 wild horses that were present then remain in 2017.

WHFF's white paper details multiple examples of mishandling of taxpayer funds, but the upshot is simple: alleged false assurances have been offered up to taxpayers while private and special interests have had their way with the use of public lands. In another words, the BLM is the fox that guards the henhouse, seemingly unwilling to enforce the laws that obligate them to protect wild horses and burros.

"The DOI and the BLM have undertaken a long term 'Fake News' campaign to spread misinformation to confuse the issue. They want the wild horses and burros slaughtered, gone, full stop. Americans are not going to stand for that," says Wild Horse Freedom Federation's President R.T. Fitch. "It appears that President Trump appointed a long time horse slaughter proponent to oversee the DOI and his first major act could be to kill tens of thousands of wild horses and burros making this White Paper a timely must read for all Americans." he continued.

This is paramount in importance right now for the wild horses and burros and American taxpayers. In the coming days the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the Interior appropriations bill, which includes the Wild Horse and Burro Program with the threat of killing wild horses and burros touted as a budgetary necessity. Without intervention, for the rising generations of America, wild horses and burros will be gone forever.

To read the WHFF white paper and for more information go to:

http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/

Wild Horse Freedom Federation(WHFF) is a Texas non-profit corporation with federal 501c3 status. WHFF is the voice of not only those animals that cannot speak for themselves but also, most effectively, for the majority of the American public which has repeatedly expressed the desire to stop the unnecessary removal of wild horses and burros from public lands where they should remain, and the proper, legal management of the Wild Horse & Burro Program.

WHFF is funded exclusively through the generosity of the American public.

SOURCE Wild Horse Freedom Federation, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.wildhorsefreedom.org


BETHESDA, Md., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DiamondRock Hospitality Company (the "Company") (NYSE: DRH) announced today that it will release financial results for the second quarter of 2017 after the market closes on Monday, August 7. The release, which had been originally scheduled for pre-market open on Tuesday, August 8, has been rescheduled in light of several other earnings announcements in the hospitality sector scheduled for August 8. There has been no change in the scheduling of the earnings conference call, which will be held on Tuesday, August 8 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET). The information to be discussed on the call will be contained in the Company's earnings release, which will be available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.drhc.com.

The conference call will be accessible by telephone and through the internet. Interested individuals are invited to listen to the call by telephone at 844-287-6622. International callers may dial 530-379-4559. The conference ID is 47618518. To participate on the webcast, log on to www.drhc.com 15 minutes before the call to download the necessary software.

For those unable to listen to the call live, a taped rebroadcast will be available two hours after completion of the live call through August 15, 2017. To access the rebroadcast, dial 855-859-2056, or internationally at 404-537-3406, and use conference ID 47618518. A replay of the call will also be available on the Internet at www.drhc.com for one week.

About the Company

DiamondRock Hospitality Company is a self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT) that is an owner of a leading portfolio of geographically diversified hotels concentrated in top gateway markets and destination resort locations. The Company, as of the date herein, owns 28 premium quality hotels with over 9,600 rooms. The Company has strategically positioned its hotels to be operated both under leading global brands such as Hilton, Marriott, and Westin and boutique hotels in the lifestyle segment. For further information on the Company and its portfolio, please visit DiamondRock Hospitality Company's website at www.drhc.com.

SOURCE DiamondRock Hospitality Company

Related Links

https://drhc.com


MIAMI, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DigitalEra Group, LLC announced the appointment of two new members to its Board of Directors, James C. Cason and Jose E. Gonzalez.

"These two individuals personify leadership in IT and cybersecurity, and bring a trove of security innovation, global business and government agency expertise to the table. We're honored to have them by our side as we expand our advanced cybersecurity products and services offering for protecting organizations throughout the southeast US and Latin America," said Patrick Dyer, DigitalEra President and CEO.

James "Jim" Cason recently retired after his third term as Mayor of Coral Gables, Florida. He has a wealth of experience in building business and government relationships, and promoting safety and protection. Prior to becoming Mayor, Cason spent 38 years as a Foreign Service Officer for the US State Department, serving in 12 countries. He's been the Ambassador to Paraguay and Chief of Mission in Havana, Cuba. Cason has received numerous awards from State, Defense, the White House and the intelligence community.

"Cybersecurity affects everyone across the globe and plays an increasing role in our everyday lives, from devices we use, to enterprise level programs and government agency systems," Cason said. "I'm proud to be part of DigitalEra's board and share their commitment in helping organizations keep systems, data and people safe."

Cason holds a master's degree in International Relations and Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS, studied Military Strategic Studies at the National Defense College and has an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.

Jose Gonzalez is the Chief Executive Officer of Trapezoid, Inc., a firmware and IoT protection firm headquartered in Miami, FL. Trapezoid produces Trapezoid FIVE, an advanced integrity monitoring solution that helps organizations detect, alert and remediate attacks affecting BIOS and firmware, while also meeting critical NIST SP 800-53 and 53A controls.

Gonzalez has invested a large portion of his career in technology. Prior to Trapezoid, he served as Chief Legal Officer and SVP of Business Affairs at Terremark Worldwide, Inc., and has held key legal roles at Sunbeam Corp, Blockbuster Ent. Grp (Viacom, Inc. subsidiary) and American Express. Gonzalez received his JD from Fordham School of Law and BA from Fordham University, and is a member of the NY Bar.

"I'm excited to join Ambassador Cason on this board and play a role in DigitalEra's mission of bringing innovative security technologies and services to the southeast and Latin America," Gonzalez said.

DigitalEra is a premier IT security technology distributor and services provider. We help organizations protect data, systems and people. We solve complex security challenges and implement comprehensive security strategies and solutions. DigitalEra represents an impressive collection of the world's most powerful security technologies, including Cylance, Cyphort, FireEye, LogRhythm, McAfee, Symantec Tanium, Tenable, Trapezoid and more. DigitalEra serves businesses, government agencies, education and nonprofits throughout the southeast US, Texas, Caribbean and Latin America. Read more about DigitalEra http://www.digitaleragroup.com, or call (786) 621-8600

SOURCE DigitalEra Group, LLC

Related Links

http://www.digitaleragroup.com


200-plus artists come from 34 states and Canada and represent a wide variety of artistic categories. All 12 of the Best in Show winners from 2016 will return for this year's festival. See the full list here: http://parkcitykimballartsfestival.org/artists/visual-arts-categories .

Lindsie Smith, Executive Director of the KAC, said, "The Park City Kimball Arts Festival is the culmination of our year-long work to inspire the Utah community through art. This huge celebration provides vital cultural and economic value to Park City, but art is always the center of the celebration. This art-focused event is also well-rounded with outstanding yoga, film, food, and live music programming."

Festival goers will also have access to the Kids' Art Area, Food Truck Round-Up, Park City Gallery Association's Festival Gallery Stroll, Yoga Fest and outdoor dining decks. The Kimball Arts Festival, presented by Zions Bank, is the KAC's largest public fundraiser.

Discounted lodging options are available through official providers, Deer Valley Resort and Stay Park City.

ABOUT THE KIMBALL ART CENTER

For more than 40 years, the Kimball Art Center has inspired and connected the Park City community through art. The nonprofit center provides art education, free exhibitions and a variety of events to the public, including the annual Park City Kimball Arts Festival that attracts more than 50,000 people to Park City's Historic Main Street. For more information on the KAC and its numerous community offerings and programs, please visit www.kimballartcenter.org. Art Starts Here

Media Contact:

Katie Eldridge

(435) 640-2554

SOURCE The Kimball Art Center

Related Links

http://kimballartcenter.org


CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A total of 36 electric power outlets will help trucks at the Merchants Distributors, LLC (MDI) distribution center in Hickory cut costs and lower air emissions as part of a Duke Energy $320,000 electrification project.

Instead of running engines to keep cargo cold, transport refrigeration units (TRUs) at MDI will be able to plug into power outlets at the facility. The practice will help lower exhaust emissions, and is cheaper than the practice of running the TRUs on diesel fuel. Shorepower Technologies will install the power outlets.

"Most trucks can use electricity to keep cargo cold when not driving," said Melisa Johns, Duke Energy's vice president, business development. "This project will make that technology available to trucks at MDI's facility  providing cost savings and an environmental benefit to the local community."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, long-duration truck idling results in more than 1 billion gallons of wasted fuel and 11 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. On average, an hour of idling uses a gallon of fuel.

"MDI has invested in yard management software that will help maximize the use of the new power outlets," said Brent Vaughan, MDI's director, facility engineering. "This capability enables us to keep product cold using electricity, which is estimated to reduce fuel consumption by up to 31,000 gallons per year. In addition to fuel savings and reduced emissions, this project will also reduce noise and air pollution for our team and neighbors."

Construction is currently underway at the Hickory installation. The project should be operational by this fall.

"Shorepower is proud to be a part of this project with Duke Energy and MDI," said Jeff Kim, president, Shorepower Technologies. "MDI is a world-class facility with the latest energy-saving technologies. This project will further its efficiency goals and help reduce its carbon footprint."

This is Duke Energy's second project in North Carolina using electricity to power trucks instead of idling engines. In May, the company announced a 24-unit project at Big Boy's Truck Stop in the Johnston County town of Kenly. IdleAir is handling that installation. It should be operational in August.

The Duke Energy programs are part of a 2015 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups.

About Duke Energy

Duke Energy is a Fortune 125 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com.

The Duke Energy News Center serves as a multimedia resource for journalists and features news releases, helpful links, photos and videos. Hosted by Duke Energy, illumination is an online destination for stories about people, innovations, and community and environmental topics. It also offers glimpses into the past and insights into the future of energy.

Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

About Merchants Distributors, LLC

Founded in 1931, Merchants Distributors (MDI) is a privately owned wholesale grocery store distributor headquartered in Hickory, NC. MDI supplies over 600 retail food stores with food and non-food items in N.C., S.C., Ga., Tenn., Va., Ala., W.Va., Ohio, Fla., Pa., Md., and Ky. MDI also exports to over 20 countries. Merchants Distributors, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alex Lee, Inc. The company has a strong customer focus and offers a variety of services to help their customers succeed.

For more information, please visit merchantsdistributors.com

About Shorepower

Shorepower Technologies designs, builds, installs, and operates electrified parking spaces at truck stops, rest areas, travel plazas, warehouses, truck depots, terminals, shopping malls, businesses and other types of parking areas. Since 2004, Shorepower has electrified over 2,000 parking spaces throughout North America including 62 truck stops in 30 states. Shorepower maintains offices in New York, Oregon and Virginia. shorepower.com.

Duke Energy media contact: Randy Wheeless

Office: 704.382.8379

24-Hour: 800.559.3853

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @DE_RandyW

Shorepower Technologies: Jeff Kim, President and CEO

(503) 686-8844

SOURCE Duke Energy

Related Links

http://www.duke-energy.com


IRVINE, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW), the global leader in patient-focused innovations for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Second Quarter and Recent Highlights:

Sales grew 11 percent to $842 million ; underlying 1 sales increased 15 percent to $864 million

; underlying sales increased 15 percent to Global THVT sales grew 16 percent to $488 million ; underlying sales increased 23 percent

; underlying sales increased 23 percent U.S. THVT sales grew 28 percent to $316 million

EPS was $0.86 , an increase of 48 percent; adjusted 2 EPS grew 42 percent to $1.08

, an increase of 48 percent; adjusted EPS grew 42 percent to 2017 adjusted EPS guidance increased to $3.65 to $3.85 , from $3.43 to $3.55

, from to Recent FDA approvals of SAPIEN 3 valve-in-valve, INSPIRIS RESILIA and HemoSphere

"We are pleased to report another quarter of strong performance, which continued the trend of robust growth driven by long term investments in innovative therapies," said Michael A. Mussallem, chairman and CEO. "Strong demand for TAVR therapy resulted in total sales growth of 15 percent on an underlying basis, which also reflected strength in all three of our product lines across all regions. And our transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve technologies continue to represent exciting opportunities for breakthrough therapies for patients in need."

Second Quarter 2017 Results

Sales for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 were $841.8 million, up 10.9 percent. Including the consumption of $22.5 million of stocking inventory in Germany, on an underlying basis sales grew 15.3 percent over the second quarter last year. Net income for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 was $186.1 million, or $0.86 per share. Adjusted earnings per share grew 42.1 percent to $1.08. Both reported and adjusted earnings per share include a $0.13 favorable impact from the company's excess tax benefit related to employee stock-based compensation compared to last year.

For the quarter, the company reported Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy (THVT) sales of $487.5 million, a 16.5 percent growth rate over the second quarter last year, or 23.3 percent on an underlying basis. Growth was led by continued strong therapy adoption across all geographies.

As a reminder, in the first quarter customers in Germany purchased a net $61.8 million of SAPIEN 3 valves as additional inventory in anticipation of a potential supply interruption resulting from intellectual property litigation in that country. The company included these stocking sales in its reported results, but excluded them from the adjusted results reported in the first quarter, and will add them back to the adjusted results in subsequent quarters as this inventory is consumed to better reflect actual hospital usage.

In the U.S., THVT sales for the quarter were $316.3 million, a 28.4 percent growth rate over the second quarter last year. "Therapy adoption continued to be strong, and our SAPIEN 3 valve has sustained its excellent clinical performance across large and small valve centers," said Mussallem.

Surgical Heart Valve Therapy sales for the quarter were $207.1 million, up 4.2 percent compared to the second quarter last year, or up 5.7 percent on an underlying basis. This growth benefitted from the recovery of the 2016 mitral valve supply interruption that lowered sales last year. Also lifting growth was continued strong demand of the EDWARDS INTUITY Elite valve system, which more than offset a shift of surgical aortic valve procedures to TAVR in the U.S.

Critical Care sales were $147.2 million for the quarter, representing an increase of 3.7 percent versus last year, or 5.1 percent on an underlying basis. Strong performance was driven by double-digit growth in the company's Enhanced Surgical Recovery program, particularly in the U.S. and Asia Pacific.

For the quarter, the company's gross profit margin was 74.9 percent, compared to 73.3 percent in the same period last year. This increase was driven primarily by a more profitable product mix, led by growing sales of transcatheter valves.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to $243.8 million for the quarter, compared to $228.8 million in the prior year quarter. This increase was driven primarily by sales and marketing expenses related to transcatheter valves.

Research and development investments for the second quarter increased to $134.4 million, compared to $112.5 million in the prior year period. This increase was primarily the result of continued investments in transcatheter valve development programs.

Cash flow from operating activities for the second quarter was $197.7 million. After capital spending of $58.0 million, free cash flow was $139.7 million.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $1.13 billion at June 30, 2017. Total debt was $1.02 billion.

During the second quarter, the company repurchased 0.8 million shares for $73.8 million. Average diluted shares outstanding during the quarter were 215.7 million.

Outlook

For the full year 2017, given the strong first half results, the company's full year sales estimate is now at the high end of its previous $3.2 to $3.4 billion guidance. The company is also raising its estimate for 2017 adjusted earnings per share to $3.65 to $3.85, from $3.43 to $3.55.

For the third quarter of 2017, the company projects underlying sales, adjusting for the impact of Germany stocking sales consumption, to be between $810 and $850 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.80 to $0.90.

"As we reflect on our first half results, we are very pleased with the performance achieved across all of our product lines and believe our future remains bright," said Mussallem. "We are confident our valuable innovations will result in a continued strong outlook as we deliver important solutions for the patients we serve."

About Edwards Lifesciences

Edwards Lifesciences, based in Irvine, Calif., is the global leader in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, as well as critical care and surgical monitoring. Driven by a passion to help patients, the company collaborates with the world's leading clinicians and researchers to address unmet healthcare needs, working to improve patient outcomes and enhance lives. For more information, visit www.Edwards.com and follow us on Twitter @EdwardsLifesci.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

Edwards Lifesciences will be hosting a conference call today at 2:00 p.m. PT to discuss its second quarter results. To participate in the conference call, dial (877) 704-2848 or (201) 389-0893. For 72 hours following the call, an audio replay can be accessed by dialing (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415 and using conference number 13665308. The call will also be available via live or archived webcast on the "Investor Relations" section of the Edwards web site at ir.edwards.com or www.edwards.com. A live stream and archived replay can also be accessed via mobile devices by downloading Edwards' IR App for iPhone and iPad or Android.

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements can sometimes be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "project," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "guidance," "outlook," "optimistic," "aspire," "confident" or other forms of these words or similar expressions and include, but are not limited to, statements made by Mr. Mussallem, third quarter and full year 2017 financial guidance, and information in the Outlook section. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management of the company and are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of the statement. If the company does update or correct one or more of these statements, investors and others should not conclude that the company will make additional updates or corrections.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include uncertainties associated with the effectiveness and timing of new product launches, competitive dynamics and therapy adoption, particularly for THVT; the timing and scope of regulatory approvals and reimbursement levels for our products; the company's success in developing new products and avoiding manufacturing and quality issues; the impact of currency exchange rates; the timing or results of research and development, pending or future clinical milestones and clinical trials; unanticipated actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies; unexpected litigation impacts or expenses, particularly in our THVT patent litigation; and other risks detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. These filings, along with important safety information about our products, may be found at edwards.com.

Edwards, Edwards Lifesciences, the stylized E logo, EDWARDS INTUITY, EDWARDS INTUITY Elite, Edwards SAPIEN, Edwards SAPIEN 3, Enhanced Surgical Recovery program, HemoSphere, INSPIRIS, INSPIRIS RESILIA, RESILIA, SAPIEN, SAPIEN 3, and Valtech Cardio are trademarks of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.









[1] "Underlying" amounts are non-GAAP items and in this press release exclude foreign exchange fluctuations, sales return reserves associated with THVT product upgrades, and impacts of THVT stocking sales and consumption in Germany. See the Non-GAAP Financial Information page and reconciliation tables below. [2] Adjusted earnings per share is a non-GAAP item computed on a diluted basis and in this press release excludes impairment of long-lived assets, intellectual property litigation expenses, amortization of intellectual property, fair value adjustments to contingent consideration liabilities arising from acquisitions, and the impact of THVT stocking sales and consumption in Germany. See the Non-GAAP Financial Information page and reconciliation tables below.

EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations (in millions, except per share data)



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Net sales $ 841.8



$ 759.3



$ 1,725.3



$ 1,456.6

Cost of sales 211.1



202.5



426.7



382.8

















Gross profit 630.7



556.8



1,298.6



1,073.8

















Selling, general, and administrative expenses 243.8



228.8



473.4



441.5

Research and development expenses 134.4



112.5



263.1



214.3

Intellectual property litigation expenses 7.7



9.1



17.9



21.3

Change in fair value of contingent consideration liabilities 3.1



0.4



4.2



1.0

Special charges 31.2



34.5



31.2



34.5

Interest expense, net 1.4



2.4



3.8



4.8

Other expense, net 3.5



0.1



5.8



4.1

















Income before provision for income taxes 205.6



169.0



499.2



352.3

















Provision for income taxes 19.5



42.4



82.9



82.7

















Net income $ 186.1



$ 126.6



$ 416.3



$ 269.6

















Earnings per share:













Basic $ 0.88



$ 0.60



$ 1.97



$ 1.27

Diluted $ 0.86



$ 0.58



$ 1.93



$ 1.24

















Weighted-average common shares outstanding:













Basic 210.5



212.2



210.8



212.6

Diluted 215.7



217.3



216.1



217.6

















Operating statistics













As a percentage of net sales:













Gross profit 74.9 %

73.3 %

75.3 %

73.7 % Selling, general, and administrative expenses 29.0 %

30.1 %

27.4 %

30.3 % Research and development expenses 16.0 %

14.8 %

15.2 %

14.7 % Income before provision for income taxes 24.4 %

22.3 %

28.9 %

24.2 % Net income 22.1 %

16.7 %

24.1 %

18.5 %















Effective tax rate 9.5 %

25.1 %

16.6 %

23.5 %









Note: Numbers may not calculate due to rounding.

EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION Unaudited Balance Sheets (in millions)



June 30, 2017

December 31, 2016 ASSETS













Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents $ 508.2



$ 930.1

Short-term investments 623.6



341.0

Accounts and other receivables, net 510.7



414.6

Inventories, net 491.6



396.6

Prepaid expenses 54.1



45.9

Other current assets 95.2



111.8

Total current assets 2,283.4



2,240.0









Long-term investments 551.5



532.1

Property, plant, and equipment, net 627.9



580.0

Goodwill 965.1



626.1

Other intangible assets, net 408.6



204.8

Deferred income taxes 185.2



203.8

Other assets 116.8



123.2









Total assets $ 5,138.5



$ 4,510.0









LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY













Current liabilities





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 562.5



$ 532.5









Long-term debt 1,016.8



822.3

Contingent consideration liabilities 198.7



31.6

Other long-term liabilities 420.9



504.6









Stockholders' equity





Common stock 244.7



242.6

Additional paid-in capital 1,267.0



1,167.8

Retained earnings 4,331.9



3,906.3

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (157.8)



(198.4)

Treasury stock, at cost (2,746.2)



(2,499.3)

Total stockholders' equity 2,939.6



2,619.0









Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 5,138.5



$ 4,510.0



EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION

Non-GAAP Financial Information

To supplement the consolidated financial results prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), the Company uses non-GAAP historical financial measures. Management makes adjustments to the GAAP measures for items (both charges and gains) that (a) do not reflect the core operational activities of the Company, (b) are commonly adjusted within the Company's industry to enhance comparability of the Company's financial results with those of its peer group, or (c) are inconsistent in amount or frequency between periods (albeit such items are monitored and controlled with equal diligence relative to core operations). The Company uses the term "underlying" when referring to non-GAAP sales information, which excludes foreign exchange fluctuations, adjustments for discontinued and acquired products, sales return reserves associated with transcatheter heart valve therapy ("THVT") product upgrades, and the impact of THVT stocking sales and consumption in Germany. The Company uses the term "adjusted" to also exclude intellectual property litigation expenses, amortization of intellectual property, fair value adjustments to contingent consideration liabilities arising from acquisitions, gains and losses from significant investments, impairments, litigation, the impact of THVT stocking sales and consumption in Germany, and business development transactions. Fluctuations in exchange rates impact the comparative results and sales growth rates of the Company's underlying business. Management believes that excluding the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuations from its sales growth provides investors a more useful comparison to historical financial results. The impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuations has been detailed in the "Reconciliation of Sales by Product Group and Region."

Guidance for sales and sales growth rates is provided on an "underlying basis," and projections for diluted earnings per share, net income and growth, gross profit margin, taxes, and free cash flow are also provided on a non-GAAP basis as adjusted for the items identified below due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting such items. The Company is not able to provide a reconciliation of the non-GAAP guidance to comparable GAAP measures due to the unknown effect, timing, and potential significance of special charges or gains, and management's inability to forecast charges associated with future transactions and initiatives.

Management considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure which provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by business operations, after deducting payments for capital expenditures, which can then be used for strategic opportunities or other business purposes including, among others, investing in the Company's business, making strategic acquisitions, strengthening the balance sheet, and repurchasing stock.

Management uses non-GAAP financial measures internally for strategic decision making, forecasting future results, and evaluating current performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP and reflect an additional way of viewing aspects of the Company's operations by investors that, when viewed with its GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting the Company's business and facilitate comparability to historical periods.

Non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP; therefore, the information is not necessarily comparable to other companies and should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, the corresponding measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP historical financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is provided in the tables below.

The items described below are adjustments to the GAAP financial results in the reconciliations that follow:

THVT Germany Stocking Sales - In the first quarter of 2017, the Company recorded $61.8 million in net stocking sales ($48.0 million, net of related costs) to customers in Germany, as these customers elected to purchase additional inventory in anticipation of a potential supply interruption resulting from recent intellectual property litigation. In the second quarter of 2017, these customers consumed on a net basis $22.5 million of their stocking inventory ($17.9 million, net of related costs).

THVT Sales Return Reserve and Related Costs - In the first quarter of 2016, the Company recorded a $1.7 million reversal of its sales return reserve ($1.5 million, net of related costs) upon delivery of the next-generation THVT products in the United States. In addition, in the first quarter of 2016, the Company recorded inventory reserves of $1.6 million related to estimated excess THVT inventory expected upon introduction of next-generation THVT products in Japan.

Intellectual Property Litigation Expenses - The Company incurred intellectual property litigation expenses of $10.2 million and $12.2 million in the first quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively, and $7.7 million and $9.1 million in the second quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Amortization of Intellectual Property - The Company recorded amortization expense of $2.1 million and $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively, and $2.0 million and $1.9 million in the second quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively, related to intellectual property.

Change in Fair Value of Contingent Consideration Liabilities - The Company recorded expenses of $1.1 million and $0.6 million in the first quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively, and $3.1 million and $0.4 million in the second quarter of 2017 and 2016, respectively, related to changes in the fair value of its contingent consideration liabilities arising from acquisitions.

Impairment of Long-lived Assets - The Company recorded a $31.2 million charge in the second quarter of 2017 related to the other-than-temporary impairment of one of its cost method investments and an associated long-term asset related to the Company's option to acquire this investee.

Purchased In-process Research and Development - The Company recorded a $34.5 million charge in the second quarter of 2016 related to the acquisition of technology for use in its transcatheter heart valve programs.

EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Information (in millions, except per share data)

RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO ADJUSTED NET INCOME





Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,



2017

2016

2017

2016 GAAP Net Income

$ 186.1



$ 126.6



$ 416.3



$ 269.6

Growth Rate %

47.0 %





54.4 %





















Non-GAAP adjustments: (A)















THVT Germany stocking sales

17.9







(30.1)





THVT sales return reserve and related costs













0.1

Intellectual property litigation expenses

7.7



9.1



17.9



21.3

Amortization of intellectual property

2.0



1.9



4.1



3.6

Change in fair value of contingent consideration liabilities

3.1



0.4



4.2



1.0

Impairment of long-lived assets

31.2







31.2





Purchased in-process research and development





34.5







34.5



















Provision for income taxes















Tax effect on reconciling items (B)

(15.7)



(7.5)



(8.8)



(10.9)

Adjusted Net Income

$ 232.3



$ 165.0



$ 434.8



$ 319.2

Growth Rate %

40.8 %





36.2 %





RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO ADJUSTED DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE

GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share

$ 0.86



$ 0.58



$ 1.93



$ 1.24

Growth Rate %

48.3 %





55.6 %





















Non-GAAP adjustments: (A), (C)















THVT Germany stocking sales

0.06







(0.11)





Intellectual property litigation expenses

0.03



0.03



0.06



0.07

Amortization of intellectual property

0.01



0.01



0.01



0.01

Change in fair value of contingent consideration liabilities

0.02







0.02



0.01

Impairment of long-lived assets

0.10







0.10





Purchased in-process research and development





0.14







0.14

Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share

$ 1.08



$ 0.76



$ 2.01



$ 1.47

Growth Rate %

42.1 %





36.7 %

















Note: Numbers may not calculate due to rounding.



(A) See description of non-GAAP adjustments on the "Non-GAAP Financial Information" page.



(B) The tax effect on non-GAAP adjustments is calculated based upon the impact of the relevant tax jurisdictions' statutory tax rates on the Company's estimated annual effective tax rate, or discrete rate in the quarter, as applicable. The tax effect on the THVT Germany stocking sales adjustment is calculated using the global effective tax rate.



(C) All amounts are tax effected, calculated based upon the impact of the relevant tax jurisdictions' statutory tax rates on the Company's estimated annual effective tax rate, or discrete rate in the quarter, as applicable.

EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Information ($ in millions)

THVT OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES UNDERLYING SALES GROWTH





Three Months Ended

June 30, (in millions)

2017

2016 GAAP THVT Outside the United States Sales

$ 171.2



$ 172.2

Adjustment for THVT Germany stocking sales

22.5





Foreign exchange impact





(4.9)

THVT Outside the United States Underlying Sales

$ 193.7



$ 167.3

Underlying Growth Rate %

15.8 %





EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Information ($ in millions)

RECONCILIATION OF SALES BY PRODUCT GROUP AND REGION





















2017 Adjusted

2016 Adjusted



Sales by Product Group (QTD)

2Q 2017

2Q 2016

Change

GAAP

Growth

Rate*

Germany

Stocking

2Q 2017

Underlying

Sales

Sales Return

Reserve

FX Impact

2Q 2016

Underlying

Sales

Underlying

Growth

Rate * Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy

$ 487.5



$ 418.6



$ 68.9



16.5 %

$ 22.5



$ 510.0



$ 



$ (4.9)



$ 413.7



23.3 % Surgical Heart Valve Therapy

207.1



198.7



8.4



4.2 %





207.1







(2.8)



195.9



5.7 % Critical Care

147.2



142.0



5.2



3.7 %





147.2







(2.0)



140.0



5.1 % Total

$ 841.8



$ 759.3



$ 82.5



10.9 %

$ 22.5



$ 864.3



$ 



$ (9.7)



$ 749.6



15.3 %





















2017 Adjusted

2016 Adjusted



Sales by Product Group (YTD)

YTD

2Q 2017

YTD

2Q 2016

Change

GAAP

Growth

Rate*

Germany

Stocking

YTD 2Q

2017

Underlying

Sales

Sales Return

Reserve

FX Impact

YTD 2Q

2016

Underlying

Sales

Underlying

Growth

Rate * Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy

$ 1,026.7



$ 786.4



$ 240.3



30.6 %

$ (39.3)



$ 987.4



$ (1.7)



$ (8.9)



$ 775.8



27.3 % Surgical Heart Valve Therapy

406.6



394.6



12.0



3.0 %





406.6







(4.2)



390.4



4.1 % Critical Care

292.0



275.6



16.4



6.0 %





292.0







(2.2)



273.4



6.8 % Total

$ 1,725.3



$ 1,456.6



$ 268.7



18.4 %

$ (39.3)



$ 1,686.0



$ (1.7)



$ (15.3)



$ 1,439.6



17.1 %





























































2017 Adjusted

2016 Adjusted



Sales by Region (QTD)

2Q 2017

2Q 2016

Change

GAAP

Growth

Rate*

Germany

Stocking

2Q 2017

Underlying

Sales

Sales Return

Reserve

FX Impact

2Q 2016

Underlying

Sales

Underlying

Growth

Rate * United States

$ 478.9



$ 401.5



$ 77.4



19.3 %

$ 



$ 478.9



$ 



$ 



$ 401.5



19.3 % Europe

183.7



203.6



(19.9)



(9.7) %

22.5



206.2







(6.5)



197.1



4.6 % Japan

90.5



79.9



10.6



13.2 %





90.5







(2.1)



77.8



16.3 % Rest of World

88.7



74.3



14.4



19.6 %





88.7







(1.1)



73.2



21.2 % International

362.9



357.8



5.1



1.5 %

22.5



385.4







(9.7)



348.1



10.7 % Total

$ 841.8



$ 759.3



$ 82.5



10.9 %

$ 22.5



$ 864.3



$ 



$ (9.7)



$ 749.6



15.3 %





















2017 Adjusted

2016 Adjusted



Sales by Region (YTD)

YTD

2Q 2017

YTD

2Q 2016

Change

GAAP

Growth

Rate*

Germany

Stocking

YTD 2Q

2017

Underlying

Sales

Sales Return

Reserve

FX Impact

YTD 2Q

2016

Underlying

Sales

Underlying

Growth

Rate * United States

$ 943.5



$ 777.1



$ 166.4



21.4 %

$ 



$ 943.5



$ (1.7)



$ 



$ 775.4



21.7 % Europe

444.7



392.1



52.6



13.4 %

(39.3)



405.4







(14.7)



377.4



7.4 % Japan

169.8



146.5



23.3



15.9 %





169.8







(1.3)



145.2



16.9 % Rest of World

167.3



140.9



26.4



18.7 %





167.3







0.7



141.6



18.1 % International

781.8



679.5



102.3



15.1 %

(39.3)



742.5







(15.3)



664.2



11.8 % Total

$ 1,725.3



$ 1,456.6



$ 268.7



18.4 %

$ (39.3)



$ 1,686.0



$ (1.7)



$ (15.3)



$ 1,439.6



17.1 %



















































* Numbers may not calculate due to rounding.

SOURCE Edwards Lifesciences Corporation

Related Links

http://www.edwards.com


CHANTILLY, Va., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AppGuard LLC, maker of intelligent prevention endpoint protection software, announced its official launch at Black Hat USA. This is the result of a recent $50 million investment made by an investor group led by ANA Holdings and six other Japanese companies into AppGuard's parent company, Blue Planet-works, Inc., a Tokyo, Japan-based company. This allows AppGuard LLC to focus on its flagship security software, AppGuard, for the connected world.

"Hackers are generating new malware at record speed  1 million per day or more  and, unfortunately, traditional detection based security solutions that employ a 'find and destroy' approach as well as emerging technologies such as AI/machine learning have not been able to keep up," said Mike Fumai, President and COO of AppGuard LLC. "AppGuard is the only solution that blocks both known and unknown malware without introducing added complexities or hidden costs. With AppGuard, we're able to stop  and did stop -- attacks, like WannaCry and Petya, at the initial stages and beyond without requiring explicit detection of the attack, disrupting the user experience, or degrading system performance."

AppGuard is based on patented dynamic isolation technology. It prevents all endpoint breaches while allowing applications and the computer systems to operate correctly. It is simple for ordinary computer administrators to manage because it is not complex. AppGuard is only 1MB in size -- other vendor products are more than 100 times larger.

Unlike traditional detection based technologies requiring threat intelligence databases such as signature/pattern matching, behavioral analytics, AI/machine learning, AppGuard does not require updates or continuous Internet access for new algorithms or threat information from the cloud. AppGuard protection does not rely on knowing what vulnerability exploits and malware looks like. It simply ensures that endpoints operate and function correctly. Its small foot print, high performance, and set-and-forget features are ideal for PCs, servers, IoT, connected-vehicles, and smartphones.

With the news of its launch, AppGuard also officially announced that Hirokazu Higuma, former President of Symantec Japan, and Hirotaka Sakajiri, former regional CTO of Symantec, have joined Blue Planet-works. Higuma brings over 24 years of IT and High Technology experience working at Symantec, Microsoft and Altera (now part of Intel). Sakajiri brings over 30 years of IT and High Technology experience working at Symantec, Verisign (acquired by Symantec), Orange Business Services and Toshiba.

AppGuard has been recognized by prominent industry analysts as a leading product for next generation isolation and containment endpoint protection. It is also a repeat winner for Best-Anti-Malware product in the marketplace for 2014, 2015 and 2016 from GSN Homeland Security Awards and won a Homeland Security Award from American Security Today in 2016.

For more information about AppGuard, visit: www.appguard.us

If you're attending Black Hat this year, stop by Booth #1972 to learn more about how AppGuard solutions can protect your enterprise systems. To schedule a full demo and 1-on-1 meeting ahead of time please click here.

About AppGuard LLC

Chantilly, Va.-based AppGuard, LLC is a subsidiary of Blue Planet-works, Inc, a Japan-based Global Cyber Security Company. AppGuard provides award-winning endpoint cybersecurity protection for individuals, small business and enterprises. Its patented runtime prevention through dynamic isolation solution focuses on isolation and containment, memory protection, malware execution prevention, and application control. For more information, visit: www.appguard.us

About Blue Planet-works, Inc.

Blue Planet-works, Inc. is a Tokyo, Japan based Global Cyber Security Company.

Delivering more than Security, the company offers "Safety ", "Trust" and "Privacy protection" with its innovative patented solutions for all connected systems. The innovative AppGuard Security framework provides "Security to Safety" for PCs, Servers, Connected Vehicles, Smart Phones, and IoT devices. For more information, please visit our website http://www.blueplanet-works.com/ or contact us at [email protected].

SOURCE AppGuard LLC

Related Links

http://www.appguard.us


PEMBROKE PINES, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), the only trade association representing the mutual interests between the cruise industry and destinations and stakeholders in the Caribbean and Latin America, is proud to announce its 2017 Seatrade Europe Partners: Belize Tourism Board, Chukka Caribbean Adventures, Dominican Republic Tourism Board, Guatemala Institute of Tourism (INGUAT), Port St. Maarten, Ports of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Blue Planet Tours, and Aquila Cruise Excellence.

Together with the FCCA and a joint initiative with Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the Partners will target cruise executives from European ocean and river lines, along with the other 5,000 Seatrade Europe attendees, through private meetings, networking receptions, trade show space and more.

"I am thankful to CLIA and our Seatrade Europe Partners and excited to seize this opportunity together," said Michele Paige, President, FCCA. "The FCCA's core mission is built on mutual success, and this new initiative will continue connecting the world of cruising for both us and our partners by developing invaluable relationships in and understanding of a key market."

"With the increasingly global nature of the industry, bilateral partnerships abroad are becoming even more valuable," said Adam Goldstein, President and COO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and Chairman, FCCA. "The FCCA has a long history of developing these partnerships, and its new initiative at Seatrade Europe offers a proven way for its Caribbean and Latin American partners to get closer to European cruise lines, stakeholders and source markets."

In the spirit of its mission to build mutual relationships and business, the FCCA has committed to making its first-ever participation in Seatrade Europe equally valuable for its partners by setting aside booth space at its trade show pavilion (#702) for the eight Seatrade Europe Partners to individualize and showcase their products to the attendees and host private meetings.

These efforts will be strengthened through an expansion of the FCCA's long-standing partnership with Seatrade and sister association, CLIA. Together, CLIA and the FCCA will work to connect the Partners with local stakeholders and the 270 executives from European ocean and river cruise lines by coordinating one-on-one meetings and networking events.

One such event, the co-hosted CLIA/FCCA Presidents' Reception, is expected to gather 40-50 cruise executives, along with select local stakeholders, in a casual setting to foster the development of relationships and business.

"Creating opportunities for dialogue between cruise lines and the port and destinations community is critically important for our industry's growth," said Cindy D'Aoust, president and CEO, CLIA. "Seatrade Europe has always been an important event for CLIA, and I am looking forward to sharing this experience with our friends at FCCA."

The Seatrade Europe initiative will be one of the many ways the FCCA and CLIA continue to work together to further project the industry's One Voice and help its partners optimize the global industry, with plans already in the works for Seatrade Cruise Med, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal from September 19-20, 2018.

About the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA)

Created in 1972, the FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization that provides a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issues and builds bilateral relationships with destinations' private and public sectors. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA works with governments, ports and private sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, crew and cruise line spending, as well as enhance the destination experience and increase the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors. For more information, visit F-CCA.com, the FCCA on Facebook, and @FCCAupdates on Twitter.

Contact: Michael Hicks, 561-655-3836, [email protected]

SOURCE Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA)
Bekker has an extensive background in tourism and aviation, specifically in the areas of sales and revenue management. He most recently lent his expertise to South African Airways in North America, where he led the regional sales team. Bekker amassed valuable experience, progressing through the ranks from marketing to business development, and later on to sales.

Mr. Bekker began his career in aviation at Spirit Airlines in Fort Lauderdale with their Revenue Management Department. Prior to this, he spent a number of years working for a tour operator promoting Africa. He holds a master's degree in international business.

Fiji Airways Executive General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Mr. Andrew Stanbury, said of the appointment: "We're delighted to have such a capable individual to lead the American sales team. America is a significant region for us with direct services from three gateway cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu. Last year we signed a strengthened codeshare partnership with American Airlines, which gives us greater reach to a further 38 cities in the United States, as well as London. We continue to look for more opportunities to develop this market, and Stroebel's experience in the region will surely be of great value."

Fiji Airways serves Los Angeles daily, San Francisco twice a week, and Honolulu three times a week. The airline recently extended its San Francisco services from seasonal to year-round.

About Fiji Airways: Founded in 1951, Fiji Airways Group comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline and its subsidiaries: Fiji Link, its domestic and regional carrier, Pacific Call Comm Ltd, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island, Nadi. From its hubs at Nadi and Suva International Airports, Fiji Airways and Fiji Link serve 69 destinations in 15 countries (including code-share). Destinations include Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Fiji Airways Group brings in 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, employs over 1000 employees, and earns revenues of over FJD$815 million (USD $390m). Fiji Airways rebranded from Air Pacific in June 2013. Visit www.fijiairways.com for more information.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Erin Mullaney

Publicist

Myriad Marketing for Fiji Airways

[email protected]

1-310-649-7700

SOURCE Fiji Airways

Related Links

https://www.fijiairways.com/


On July 17 2015, in collaboration with NASA, Flirtey conducted the first-ever FAA-approved drone delivery when it delivered multiple packages of urgent prescription medication to the Remote Area Medical health clinic in Wise, Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly unanimously passed House Joint Resolution 232 commending Flirtey for the achievement.

Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny, Senator Mark Warner and Governor Terry McAuliffe hailed the event the "Kitty Hawk" moment for the drone delivery industry, and Flirtey's historic delivery drone was accepted into the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which displays the Wright Flyer, the Space Shuttle Discovery, and the first aircraft operated by FedEx.

The following year, on July 22 2016, Flirtey made history again by completing the first autonomous drone delivery to a customer home in collaboration with 7-Eleven, the world's largest convenience retailer, by delivering over-the-counter medicines, food and drinks.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said at the time, "I congratulate Nevada-based company Flirtey on making history yet again  this time by collaborating with the world's largest convenience retailer to complete the first store-to-home drone delivery in Reno, Nevada."

Flirtey continues to pioneer the drone delivery industry, having since launched the world's first commercial pizza-by-drone delivery model in partnership with Domino's Pizza Enterprises, and conducting over a month of regular commercial deliveries to customer homes in the U.S.

"Flirtey's mission is to save lives and change lifestyles by making delivery instant," said Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny. "Flirtey continues to pioneer drone delivery  when no other company has managed to secure approvals for regular operations, Flirtey has conducted hundreds of approved drone deliveries to customer homes. Every one of these milestones takes us one step closer to drone delivery to your home."

With more regulatory approvals, partner announcements and customer deliveries coming soon, Flirtey is set to make regular drone deliveries commonplace in the U.S. and around the world.

Footage of deliveries available upon request, photos available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t49h8xm7kbt92n9/AABfwYvd4CqlamFCrCLndj6Ta?dl=0

About Flirtey

Flirtey is the world's leading drone delivery service, with a mission to save lives and change lifestyles by making delivery instant. The startup has worked with NASA and top universities to create the technology and logistics systems for a mass-market drone delivery network. Learn more at www.flirtey.com. The company's landmark achievements have been recognized by New Zealand's Museum of Transport and Technology, as well as the Smithsonian Institution for display at its Air and Space Museum.

Media Contact:

Molly Livingston

[email protected]

510.898.8220

SOURCE Flirtey

Related Links

http://www.flirtey.com


STATESBORO, Ga., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FM Capital continues to expand their student housing portfolio with the recent acquisition of Campus Evolution Villages at Statesboro, a 528-bed (132 units) student-life community near Georgia Southern University. "We capitalized on this opportunity and recognized the quality of this asset. With the growth of GSU, we knew it was the ideal fit for our portfolio approach and value-add strategy," says Joe Fishman, VP Acquisitions, FM Capital.

FM Capital plans to rebrand the property, The Vault at Statesboro. An exclusive, well-located, and amenity-rich place for students to call home. FM Capital has many exciting enhancements in the works, including a new clubhouse/game room featuring game-viewing lounge seating, cafe seating, ping-pong and billiards tables. In addition, a full improvement will be made to the outdoor amenities, including a new hot tub, cabanas, fire pits, and grill stations by the pool. A new dog park will be added to the property as well. To suit student's active lifestyle, a new fitness center overlooking the pool, with on-demand exercise video software, will be completed by 2018. Lastly, to help students excel in their studies, a computer room and two private-study rooms will be built adjacent to the clubhouse.

FM Capital is actively acquiring student housing properties, in strong markets near and adjacent to universities with growing student populations.

For all inquiries and leads, please contact:

Joe Fishman, VP of Acquisitions

[email protected]

(305) 722 - 6182

About FM Capital

FM Capital, LLC is a full service vertically-integrated Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment firm, headquartered in New York and South Florida. FM Capital invests in commercial real estate and debt strategies. FM Capital has a proven track record. Since their inception in 2007, they've acquired and disposed of more than $1 Billion in assets, over 15,000 multifamily units, and over 3,000 student beds. By utilizing a value-investing philosophy and hands-on investment management approach, they continue to prove this successful track record. Their commitment to their clients and investors has fueled their continuous growth.

SOURCE FM Capital

Related Links

http://fmcapital.com


"It was Francis's instinct and creativity that first brought wine-in-a-can to the forefront of the wine industry with the introduction of the Sofia Mini cans more than a decade ago," says Corey Beck, Francis Ford Coppola Winery's President and Director of Winemaking. "For a category that's accelerated so rapidly over the years, consumers are still loyal to the Coppola brands they trust and admire, because they know we will deliver the same premium quality, consistency, and authenticity they know and love in a bottle, into a can."

In 2002, the winery began producing canned wine, and in 2004 they single-handedly launched the canned wine category with the debut of the stylish Sofia Minis (187ml mini aluminum cans filled with Sofia Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine), in an effort to make premium wine more accessible. Over the years, the canned phenomenon grew rapidly as other producers entered the category and consumers flocked to the single-serve options for their convenience and portability.

Known for being a trusted leader in the premium wine category, the canned category, and the alternative packaging and innovation category, it's a natural evolution for Francis Ford Coppola Winery to expand the ever-growing Diamond Collection into cans. The bold move redefines the canned still wine category by bringing an elevated level of superior quality and authenticity to the segment. The Coppola winery differentiates itself from canned competitors through its uncompromised brand integrity and consistent signature flavor profiles portrayed in the can, which embraces the distinct award-winning, critically-acclaimed wines that consumers recognize. The winery is repeatedly awarded top honors from prestigious wine industry competitions  receiving coveted Winery of the Year and Producer of the Year accolades multiple times  earning the reputation as one of the world's most impressive, top-tier, premium wine producers.

The Diamond cans will be highlighted on August 4 at Francis Ford Coppola Winery's Shine, Splash, Shindig mid-summer pool party event, taking place from 7 -10 p.m. Admission is $75 ($65 Wine Family). The evening swimming pool soiree is an ideal location to showcase Diamond cans' versatility for all things related to summer. To purchase tickets: www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com/en/visit/winery-events/.

The 250ml cans are available in a portable and lightweight 4-pack that's environmentally friendly and recyclable. The SRP is $19.99, making them the perfect accessory to all of life's adventures. Diamond Collection Cans may be purchased at the winery's tasting room and online at https://www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com/en/shop/ffcw/p/diamond-collection-4-pack-cans, and at select restaurants and retailers. To join The Family Coppola's adventure, visit www.DiamondAdventure.com or follow on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, @coppolawine, using #DiamondAdventure and #CoppolaWine.

About The Family Coppola

The Family Coppola encompasses all of the things Francis loves most  cinema, wine, food, resorts, and adventure  and embraces quality, authenticity and pleasure as a backbone to each of these vibrant business endeavors. Anchored in Sonoma County, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, known for the superior level of quality and integrity, is, as Francis puts it, "a wine wonderland, a park of pleasure where people of all ages can enjoy all the best things in life: food, wine, music, dancing, games, swimming and performances of all types. A place to celebrate the love of life." Coppola's second foray into Sonoma County came in 2015 with the launch of Virginia Dare Winery, American wines since 1835, ushering in a new era of elevated quality and vineyard-specific wines. The Family Coppola Hideaways are a collection of unique properties where adventure meets serenity. Drawing upon inspiration from his film career and travels around the globe to the far reaching corners of the world, Francis created each resort embracing its off-the-beaten-track location, making it an ideal destination for exploring the natural wonders of the area while relaxing in tranquil surroundings. Additionally, The Family Coppola operates a venerable film production company, American Zoetrope; the award-winning all-literary magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story; Cafe Zoetrope in San Francisco's iconic Sentinel Building in North Beach; and Mammarella Foods, an authentic line of premium organic pastas and sauces. www.TheFamilyCoppola.com.

Media Contact:

Anna Miller

42West

[email protected]

SOURCE Coppola Winery

Related Links

http://www.TheFamilyCoppola.com


Fast configuration of complex products and systems suggesting best-fitting solutions

Development of country- and role-specific proposals after taking product variations into account based on local laws and regulations, in multiple currencies and languages

Automated solution optimization for selected result aspects, like price, durability, or weight

Integration with computer-aided design systems for engineering with configured products

Integration with customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and product lifecycle management systems to facilitate data transfer

"Tacton CPQ minimizes the need for costly and time-consuming customization with its constraint-based configuration, as it imposes far fewer rules," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Brendan Read. "The solution considers all variables simultaneously, resulting in error-free, valid, and consistent configurations. Additionally, it facilitates tasks for sales personnel by enabling guided selling, collaborative quoting tools, built-in commercial and technical approval workflows, and automated branded proposal and supporting document generation."

Tacton CPQ's stateless configuration engine handles complex models and high user loads. Its Professional and Enterprise market-tailored editions are available as hosted-on-the-cloud and on-premises solutions. Cloud/hosting on a multitenant platform lowers up-front investment and system maintenance costs for users. More than 250 customers have benefitted from Tacton's solutions in various ways.

Importantly, Tacton keeps its product updated and relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace. For instance, it launched its new CPQ platform in late 2016 with the following features:

Sales engineering process automation through fully integrated CAD functionality

Native live 3-D product visualization as products are being configured

Order entry to ERP systems, with feedback to the CPQ application on order status

A new intuitive user interface with responsive design

Tacton Salesforce has also released an extension for Salesforce CPQ, which is built and hosted on the App Cloud. Furthermore, it has added apps for iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch.

"The company is looking to expand in markets outside of Europe, particularly in North America," noted Read. "In line with this goal, it is laying emphasis on growth through a series of strategic partnership with companies such as Salesforce, Birlasoft, CirrusCPQ, and also through acquisitions like Lumo Graphics. Overall, Tacton has positioned itself very strongly with its Tacton CPQ, serving a wide array of applications and diverse needs for quality, functionality, and price/performance value."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality and that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it supports.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Tacton

Tacton Systems is a world leader in advanced product configuration. Tacton's technology redefines how product configuration is managed, making it radically simpler to configure, design and sell complex products. Tacton's solutions integrate easily with surrounding systems and have standard integrations for many leading e-commerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, PLM, and CAD systems. Tacton is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with customers and resellers across the globe.

Frederic Laziou, CEO, P: +46 709 564312 E: [email protected]

Anders Ekman, CMO, P: +46 739 202412 E: [email protected]

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.247.2426

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP alerts investors in TechnipFMC plc (NYSE: FTI) to the firm's investigation into possible securities law violations related to the Company's recent admission that financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 should no longer be relied on.

If you purchased or otherwise acquired securities of FTI before July 24, 2017 and suffered losses contact Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. For more information visit:

https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/FTI

or contact Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm's investigation, by calling 510-725-3000 or emailing [email protected].

On July 24, 2017, FTI announced in its Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would restate certain unaudited interim condensed consolidated U.S. GAAP financial statements. Specifically, FTI determined that it would restate financial statements for March 31, 2017, and for the three months ended March 31, 2017, included in the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q, previously filed with the SEC on May 4, 2017. The Company explained such financial statements should no longer be relied upon because of material errors.

More specifically, "net income attributable to the Company in the quarter ending March 31, 2017 was overstated by $209.5 million ($0.45 per share)."

This news drove the price of FTI shares down on unusually heavy volume during intra-day trading on July 25, 2017.

"We're focused on the magnitude of management's improper accounting that, when corrected, appear to wipe out FTI's previously reported Q1 2017 net income," said Hagens Berman partner Reed Kathrein.

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding FTI should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new SEC whistleblower program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email [email protected].

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a national investor-rights law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices in 10 cities. The Firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the Firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw.

Contact:

Reed Kathrein, 510-725-3000

SOURCE Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP

Related Links

https://www.hbsslaw.com


FALLS CHURCH, Va., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Operating earnings up 2.8% to $1.1 billion

Operating margin of 13.8%, a 60 basis-point improvement

Earnings from continuing operations up 4.9% to $749 million

Diluted earnings per share up 6.5% to $2.45

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) today reported second-quarter 2017 diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.45 compared to $2.30 in the year-ago quarter, a 6.5 percent increase. Net earnings were $749 million, on revenue of $7.7 billion.

"General Dynamics' strong second quarter performance reflects our focus on operations and executing on our programs," said Phebe N. Novakovic, chairman and chief executive officer. "We are confident in our outlook for the future, built on a solid defense backlog and continued good order activity across the portfolio of Gulfstream business jets."

Margin

With three of the company's four business groups expanding margins over the year-ago period, company-wide operating margin for the second quarter of 2017 was 13.8 percent, a 60 basis-point increase when compared to 13.2 percent in second-quarter 2016.

Cash

Net cash provided by operating activities in the quarter totaled $477 million, up 21 percent from the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow from operations, defined as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures, was $386 million.

Capital Deployment

The company repurchased 2.7 million of its outstanding shares in the second quarter. Year-to-date, the company has repurchased 4.6 million outstanding shares.

Backlog

General Dynamics' total backlog at the end of second-quarter 2017 was $58.6 billion. There was order activity across the Gulfstream product portfolio and strong demand for defense products, including another quarter of a book-to-bill ratio (orders divided by revenue) greater than one-to-one in the Information Systems and Technology group. The estimated potential contract value, representing management's estimate of value in unfunded indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts and unexercised options, was $24.4 billion. Total potential contract value, the sum of all backlog components, was $83 billion at the end of the quarter.

Guidance

The company is increasing its full-year EPS guidance from $9.50 - $9.55 to $9.70 - $9.75.

About General Dynamics

Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; C4ISR and IT solutions; and shipbuilding. The company's 2016 revenue was $30.6 billion. More information is available at www.generaldynamics.com.

Certain statements made in this press release, including any statements as to future results of operations and financial projections, may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. Additional information regarding these factors is contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

WEBCAST INFORMATION: General Dynamics will webcast its second-quarter 2017 financial results conference call at 9 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. The webcast will be a listen-only audio event, available at www.generaldynamics.com. An on-demand replay of the webcast will be available by 12 p.m. on July 26 and will continue for 12 months. To hear a recording of the conference call by telephone, please call 877-344-7529 (international: 412-317-0088); passcode 10110468. The phone replay will be available from July 26 through August 3, 2017.

EXHIBIT A

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS































Three Months Ended

Variance

July 2, 2017

July 3, 2016*

$

% Revenue $ 7,675



$ 7,774



$ (99)



(1.3) % Operating costs and expenses 6,619



6,747



(128)





Operating earnings 1,056



1,027



29



2.8 % Interest, net (24)



(23)



(1)





Other, net 



1



(1)





Earnings before income tax 1,032



1,005



27



2.7 % Provision for income tax, net 283



291



(8)





Net earnings $ 749



$ 714



$ 35



4.9 % Earnings per sharebasic

$ 2.50



$ 2.35



$ 0.15



6.4 % Basic weighted average shares outstanding 299.8



304.5













Earnings per sharediluted $ 2.45



$ 2.30



$ 0.15



6.5 % Diluted weighted average shares outstanding 305.3



310.2













* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-09, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which we adopted in the second quarter of 2016, and Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT B

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS































Six Months Ended

Variance

July 2, 2017

July 3, 2016*

$

% Revenue $ 15,116



$ 15,250



$ (134)



(0.9) % Operating costs and expenses 13,025



13,299



(274)





Operating earnings 2,091



1,951



140



7.2 % Interest, net (49)



(45)



(4)





Other, net 



11



(11)





Earnings from continuing operations before income tax 2,042



1,917



125



6.5 % Provision for income tax, net 530



549



(19)





Earnings from continuing operations 1,512



1,368



144



10.5 % Discontinued operations 



(13)



13





Net earnings $ 1,512



$ 1,355



$ 157



11.6 % Earnings per sharebasic













Continuing operations $ 5.03



$ 4.47



$ 0.56



12.5 % Discontinued operations 



(0.04)



0.04





Net earnings $ 5.03



$ 4.43



$ 0.60



13.5 % Basic weighted average shares outstanding 300.8



306.2









Earnings per sharediluted













Continuing operations $ 4.94



$ 4.39



$ 0.55



12.5 % Discontinued operations 



(0.04)



0.04





Net earnings $ 4.94



$ 4.35



$ 0.59



13.6 % Diluted weighted average shares outstanding 306.3



311.8













* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT C

REVENUE AND OPERATING EARNINGS BY SEGMENT - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS































Three Months Ended

Variance

July 2, 2017

July 3, 2016*

$

% Revenue:













Aerospace $ 2,078



$ 2,284



$ (206)



(9.0) % Combat Systems 1,414



1,297



117



9.0 % Information Systems and Technology 2,104



2,215



(111)



(5.0) % Marine Systems 2,079



1,978



101



5.1 % Total $ 7,675



$ 7,774



$ (99)



(1.3) % Operating earnings:













Aerospace $ 425



$ 424



$ 1



0.2 % Combat Systems 225



205



20



9.8 % Information Systems and Technology 240



234



6



2.6 % Marine Systems 178



172



6



3.5 % Corporate (12)



(8)



(4)



(50.0) % Total $ 1,056



$ 1,027



$ 29



2.8 % Operating margin:













Aerospace 20.5 %

18.6 %







Combat Systems 15.9 %

15.8 %







Information Systems and Technology 11.4 %

10.6 %







Marine Systems 8.6 %

8.7 %







Total 13.8 %

13.2 %











* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT D

REVENUE AND OPERATING EARNINGS BY SEGMENT - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS































Six Months Ended

Variance

July 2, 2017

July 3, 2016*

$

% Revenue:













Aerospace $ 4,152



$ 4,065



$ 87



2.1 % Combat Systems 2,701



2,542



159



6.3 % Information Systems and Technology 4,250



4,543



(293)



(6.4) % Marine Systems 4,013



4,100



(87)



(2.1) % Total $ 15,116



$ 15,250



$ (134)



(0.9) % Operating earnings:













Aerospace $ 868



$ 756



$ 112



14.8 % Combat Systems 430



392



38



9.7 % Information Systems and Technology 476



471



5



1.1 % Marine Systems 339



356



(17)



(4.8) % Corporate (22)



(24)



2



8.3 % Total $ 2,091



$ 1,951



$ 140



7.2 % Operating margin:













Aerospace 20.9 %

18.6 %







Combat Systems 15.9 %

15.4 %







Information Systems and Technology 11.2 %

10.4 %







Marine Systems 8.4 %

8.7 %







Total 13.8 %

12.8 %











* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT E

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

















July 2, 2017

December 31, 2016* ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and equivalents $ 1,856



$ 2,334

Accounts receivable 3,690



3,399

Unbilled receivables 5,045



4,212

Inventories 5,839



5,817

Other current assets 696



772

Total current assets 17,126



16,534

Noncurrent assets:





Property, plant and equipment, net 3,424



3,477

Intangible assets, net 685



678

Goodwill 11,679



11,445

Other assets 879



1,038

Total noncurrent assets 16,667



16,638

Total assets $ 33,793



$ 33,172

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt $ 989



$ 900

Accounts payable 2,620



2,538

Customer advances and deposits 6,822



6,827

Other current liabilities 3,072



3,185

Total current liabilities 13,503



13,450

Noncurrent liabilities:





Long-term debt 2,989



2,988

Other liabilities 6,349



6,433

Total noncurrent liabilities 9,338



9,421

Shareholders' equity:





Common stock 482



482

Surplus 2,796



2,819

Retained earnings 25,546



24,543

Treasury stock (14,950)



(14,156)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (2,922)



(3,387)

Total shareholders' equity 10,952



10,301

Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 33,793



$ 33,172





* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASU 2015-17, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes, and ASC Topic 606, both of which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT F

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

















Six Months Ended

July 2, 2017

July 3, 2016* Cash flows from operating activitiescontinuing operations:





Net earnings $ 1,512



$ 1,355

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities:





Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 182



181

Amortization of intangible assets 38



50

Equity-based compensation expense 49



51

Deferred income tax provision 93



10

Discontinued operations 



13

(Increase) decrease in assets, net of effects of business acquisitions:





Accounts receivable (291)



(38)

Unbilled receivables (815)



(523)

Inventories (14)



(84)

Increase (decrease) in liabilities, net of effects of business acquisitions:





Accounts payable 82



157

Customer advances and deposits (29)



(455)

Other, net 203



156

Net cash provided by operating activities 1,010



873

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (153)



(134)

Other, net (42)



(51)

Net cash used by investing activities (195)



(185)

Cash flows from financing activities:





Purchases of common stock (901)



(1,189)

Dividends paid (483)



(447)

Other, net 108



96

Net cash used by financing activities (1,276)



(1,540)

Net cash used by discontinued operations (17)



(34)

Net decrease in cash and equivalents (478)



(886)

Cash and equivalents at beginning of period 2,334



2,785

Cash and equivalents at end of period $ 1,856



$ 1,899





* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT G

PRELIMINARY FINANCIAL INFORMATION - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS

































2017





2016 (a)





Second Quarter





Second Quarter



Other Financial Information:













Debt-to-equity (b) 36.3 %





32.5 %



Debt-to-capital (c) 26.6 %





24.5 %



Book value per share (d) $ 36.57







$ 34.65





Total income tax payments $ 332







$ 439





Company-sponsored research and development (e) $ 134







$ 121





Shares outstanding 299,461,802







305,278,868





















Non-GAAP Financial Measures:















2017

2016

Second Quarter

Six Months

Second Quarter

Six Months Free cash flow from operations:













Net cash provided by operating activities $ 477



$ 1,010



$ 393



$ 873

Capital expenditures (91)



(153)



(69)



(134)

Free cash flow from operations (f) $ 386



$ 857



$ 324



$ 739



(a) Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.



(b) Debt-to-equity ratio is calculated as total debt divided by total equity as of the end of the period.



(c) Debt-to-capital ratio is calculated as total debt divided by the sum of total debt plus total equity as of the end of the period.



(d) Book value per share is calculated as total equity divided by total outstanding shares as of the end of the period.



(e) Includes independent research and development and Aerospace product-development costs.



(f) We believe free cash flow from operations is a useful measure for investors because it portrays our ability to generate cash from our businesses for purposes such as repaying maturing debt, funding business acquisitions, repurchasing our common stock and paying dividends. We use free cash flow from operations to assess the quality of our earnings and as a performance measure in evaluating management. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to free cash flow from operations is net cash provided by operating activities.

EXHIBIT H

BACKLOG - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS













































Funded

Unfunded

Total

Backlog

Estimated

Potential

Contract Value (a)

Total Potential

Contract

Value Second Quarter 2017:



















Aerospace

$ 12,116



$ 120



$ 12,236



$ 1,911



$ 14,147

Combat Systems

16,749



281



17,030



4,845



21,875

Information Systems and Technology

6,809



2,085



8,894



14,389



23,283

Marine Systems

16,033



4,374



20,407



3,282



23,689

Total

$ 51,707



$ 6,860



$ 58,567



$ 24,427



$ 82,994

First Quarter 2017:



















Aerospace

$ 12,446



$ 133



$ 12,579



$ 1,929



$ 14,508

Combat Systems

17,058



523



17,581



4,970



22,551

Information Systems and Technology

6,682



2,038



8,720



13,994



22,714

Marine Systems

17,071



4,413



21,484



3,756



25,240

Total

$ 53,257



$ 7,107



$ 60,364



$ 24,649



$ 85,013

Second Quarter 2016 (b):



















Aerospace

$ 13,418



$ 126



$ 13,544



$ 2,221



$ 15,765

Combat Systems

18,094



478



18,572



4,812



23,384

Information Systems and Technology

7,509



2,292



9,801



14,560



24,361

Marine Systems

15,868



7,260



23,128



4,237



27,365

Total

$ 54,889



$ 10,156



$ 65,045



$ 25,830



$ 90,875



(a) The estimated potential contract value includes work awarded on unfunded indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts and unexercised options associated with existing firm contracts, including options to purchase new aircraft and long-term agreements with fleet customers. The actual amount of funding received in the future may be higher or lower than our estimate of potential contract value. We recognize options in backlog when the customer exercises the option and establishes a firm order.



(b) Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.

EXHIBIT I

SECOND QUARTER 2017 SIGNIFICANT ORDERS - (UNAUDITED) DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

We received the following significant orders during the second quarter of 2017:

Combat Systems:



 $110 to provide munitions to a customer in the Middle East.



 $75 to provide munitions to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army.



 $45 from the Army in support of the Stryker wheeled combat vehicle program, including the production of vehicles with a 30-millimeter cannon.



 $40 to produce gun systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.



 $30 to continue the conversion of M1A2 tanks to the M1A2S configuration for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and for engineering and logistics support services for the U.S. Army's Abrams family of vehicles.

Information Systems and Technology:



 $165 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for contact center services.



 $125 from the Army for ruggedized computing equipment under the Common Hardware Systems-4 (CHS-4) program.



 $105 from the U.S. Navy for combat and seaframe control systems on an Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Options for the systems on three additional ships added $270 to the group's estimated potential contract value.



 $60 to provide support for live and virtual operations under the Warfighter Field Operations Customer Support (FOCUS) program.



 $50 to provide engineering, manufacturing and development in support of the Navy's Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) program.



 $40 from the Navy to provide training and training-related program support services for the Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS). This contract has a potential value of approximately $245 over five years.



 $40 from the U.S. Coast Guard to provide system sustainment support for the Rescue 21 program.



 $35 from the Army to provide continued software support and engineering for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 program.



 $35 from the U.S. Geological Survey to perform hardware and software upgrades for the Landsat 8 satellite program.

Marine Systems:



 $565 from the Navy for design work on the Columbia-class submarine program and Advanced Nuclear Plant Studies (ANPS) in support of the program.



 $110 from the Navy to procure long-lead materials for two Virginia-class submarines under Block V of the program.



 $105 from the Navy for maintenance, modernization and repair work on the USS Makin Island, an LHD-class amphibious assault ship.



 $55 for initial design and construction work for the second ship in the TAO-205 next-generation fleet oiler program.



 $45 from the Navy to provide maintenance, modernization and repair services for submarines located at Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut.



 $35 from the Navy for on-board repair parts for two Virginia-class submarines under Block IV of the program.



EXHIBIT J

AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENTAL DATA - (UNAUDITED)





























Second Quarter

Six Months



2017

2016*

2017

2016* Gulfstream Aircraft Deliveries (units):















Large-cabin aircraft

23



29



46



49

Mid-cabin aircraft

7



7



14



15

Total

30



36



60



64

Pre-owned Deliveries (units):

2



4



3



5





* Prior-period information has been restated for the adoption of ASC Topic 606, which we adopted on January 1, 2017.





SOURCE General Dynamics

Related Links

http://www.generaldynamics.com


DALLAS, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Generational Equity, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce the sale of its client, Instrument Technology Inc. of Westfield, Massachusetts, to Transom Shields Group of Wilmington, Delaware. The acquisition closed January 3, 2017. Details were not disclosed.

Founded in 1967, Instrument Technology Inc. manufactures optical viewing instruments including borescopes, fiberscopes, videoscopes and endoscopes for inspection and observation into inaccessible or hostile environments. Their products are sold in the medical, industrial and law enforcement industries, and all products are made in compliance with ISO 9001. The company prides itself on its superior team of engineering specialists.

A U.S. Veteran owned company, Transom Shields Group, with offices in the U.S. and Shanghai, China, owns Transom Scopes. Transom Scopes manufactures and trades instruments in a number of similar industries and more. Instrument Technology Inc. offered complementary products and additional industries to Transom Scopes.

Generational Equity Executive Managing Director Edward Weber established the relationship with Instrument Technology and Generational Equity Managing Director Doug Smith and his team, headed by trusted affiliate George Nova, and Vice Presidents Musa Jagne and Ryan Johnson, led the deal to a successful close.

According to George Nova, "While there were many bumps in the road, working with a client that was always available and a buyer that understood the process was the primary reason for a successful closing."

About Generational Equity

Generational Equity, part of the Generational Group headquartered in Dallas with over 200 professionals located throughout North America, helps business owners release the wealth of their business by providing merger, acquisition and strategic growth advisory services. Their four-step approach features exit planning education, business valuation, value enhancement strategies, and M&A transactional services. The M&A Advisor recently named the company its 2016 Investment Banking Firm of the Year. For more, visit http://www.genequityco.com and http://www.gecpress.com.

For more information:

Carl Doerksen

972-232-1125

[email protected]

SOURCE Generational Equity

Related Links

http://www.genequityco.com


DUBLIN, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Cervical Cancer Test Market & Screening Population Analysis, By Screening Type (Pap Smear, HPV DNA, VIA) - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

Cervical cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer affecting women all over the world. In most cases, the disease is attributed to genital Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection. As cervical cancer is a disease with long latent period, early detection and treatment of precancerous lesions is known to be highly effective in women who regularly participate in screening programs. The death rate due to cervical cancer has dropped in many developed countries, thus indicating the growing adoption of screening procedures, such as Pap test and HPV testing.

The cervical cancer test market is driven by growth in aging female population and rising prevalence rate of cervical cancer, high incidence rate of HPV infections, rising incidences of teenage sexual cases, increasing number of awareness programs for cervical cancer screening, introduction of low cost VIA test and government initiatives and funding. However, lack of healthcare infrastructure and awareness regarding cervical cancer screening are the major restraints for cervical cancer testing market.

Key Highlights of the Report



- Cervical cancer is amongst one of the most common causes of deaths in the U.S. women. United States alone captured over 40 percent share of the global cervical cancer test market.

- Pap test held a majority share of the cervical cancer screening market on account of the high efficiency of this test, however, HPV test is steadily gaining prominence.

- VIA is the best screening option where access to Pap smear tests and HPV test is not available.

- Cervical cancer incidence rate in Europe is estimated at 10.6 per 100,000 women population.

- Asia Pacific and North American region are competing closely with each other to grab maximum share of the cervical cancer test population.

- Indonesia, China, India and Japan captures highest share of the Asian cervical cancer test population.

- North America captures highest share of the global cervical cancer test market followed by the European region.

- Germany, United Kingdom and France are the other top three leaders in cervical cancer test market.

- China and India are the top contributor to the VIA test market.

- Australia's National Cervical Cancer Screening Program will change from December 2017.

The 20 Countries covered in the report have been analyzed from 4 View Points:



1. Cervical Cancer Test Population (2007 - 2022)



- Pap Smear Test Population (2007 - 2022)

- HPV DNA Test population (2007 - 2022)

- VIA Test Population (2007 - 2022)



2. Cervical Cancer Mortality



3. Cervical Cancer Test Market (2007 - 2022)



- Pap Smear Test Market (2007 - 2022)

- HPV DNA Test Market (2007 - 2022)

- VIA Test Market (2007 - 2022)



4. Global Cervical Cancer Test Market - Driving Factors and Challenges



Key Topics Covered:



Executive Summary Global Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Population & Forecast (2007 - 2022) Global Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Market & Forecast (2007 - 2022) Global Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Market & Forecast (2007 - 2022) - By Segment Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Population Share & Forecast (2007 - 2022) Global Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Market Share & Forecast (2007 - 2022) Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Market - Driving Factors Cervical Cancer Test (Screening) Market - Challenges

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kldwzk/cervical_cancer

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


DUBLIN, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Hydrogen Peroxide Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global hydrogen peroxide market to grow at a CAGR of 6.27% during the period 2017-2021.

The report, Global Hydrogen Peroxide 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.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is innovative use of hydrogen peroxide. Technological innovations have brought improvements in production volumes of the hydrogen peroxide manufacturers. However, higher production volumes have also resulted in an increase in the primary source of applications. The primary reason for the increase in the application is due to increase in population and increase in different usage techniques. Developing innovative methods can increase better usage of hydrogen peroxide to a large extent.



According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is Increasing demand from the pulp and paper industry. The demand for paper in countries such as India, China, and Malaysia is expected to drive the global hydrogen peroxide market. This is due to the booming literacy rate, which helps in increasing the use of printing technology. For instance, the Indian government is leaning toward the manufacturing of various paper products is expected to boost the demand for hydrogen peroxide for the pulp and paper industry.



Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is Pricing strategy for hydrogen peroxide by manufacturers. The manufacturers of hydrogen peroxide in North America and Europe have increased the prices as the market conditions are expected to remain tight with growth in the pulp and paper and electronic markets. This is due to the increase in the capacity utilization, which is expected to be high during the forecast period. The increase in price is necessary to support top companies to continue investing in North America and Europe.

Key vendors



Arkema

Akzo Nobel

Evonik

Kemira

Solvay



Other prominent vendors



Aditya Birla Chemicals

Ciner Resources

Ecolab

Guangdong Zhongcheng Chemicals

Khimprom

Merck

Mitsibushi Gas Chemical Company

National Peroxide

Taekwang Industrial



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by end-user



PART 07: Geographical segmentation



PART 08: Key leading countries



PART 09: Decision framework



PART 10: Drivers and challenges



PART 11: Market trends



PART 12: Vendor landscape



PART 13: Key vendor analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5rxl6x/global_hydrogen

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Findings from Future Market Insights' recently published report indicate a steady rise in the global demand for talent acquisition and staffing technology. Cloud-based platforms for hiring best talents are gaining prominence in talent acquisition businesses. Moreover, growing impact of social media technology on workforce recruitment industry has boosted the market's growth. In the report, titled "Talent Acquisition and Staffing Technology & Services Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2017) & Forecast (2017-2027)," social platforms are expected to gain traction, registering a global market value share of little over 46% by the end of 2017.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161020/430874LOGO )



Key highlights from the report on global market for talent acquisition and staffing technology & services include:

Global talent acquisition & staffing technology & services market is projected to expand at a value CAGR of 5.9% during the forecast period, 2017-2027

By the end of 2017, the market will be valued over US$ 87 Bn

Social media platforms is estimated to be valued at US$ 40.2 Bn in 2017, and is expected to grow at a significantly high CAGR during the forecast period

in 2017, and is expected to grow at a significantly high CAGR during the forecast period Towards the end of 2027, nearly US$ 154 Bn worth of revenues will be amassed in the global market

Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3300

Impetus on recruitment marketing and hiring culture is gaining traction across global corporate settings. Employee engagement and brand building are being closely associated with each other as employment of credible individuals is enhancing a company's operation efficiency as well as reputation. Creating positive candidate experience through transparent communication is a prominent trend observed in the global market for talent acquisition and staffing technology & services. In 2017 and beyond, proliferation of analytical tools and social media platforms will be viewed profitable for the market's growth. Surging adoption of Big Data and other data-driven solution for decision making in talent acquisition business is also expected to impact the dynamic growth of the market.

However, the market is pegged to witness restraints from improper sourcing and low investments. Sourcing the right candidate continues to be a major challenge for talent acquisition and staffing technology & services. Moreover, participants in the market are observed low investment; companies are failing to garner sizeable investment for offering global recruitment services. The report has profiled key participants in the global market for talent acquisition and staffing technology & services, which include International Business Machine Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Randstad Holding NV, LinkedIn Corporation, PeopleFluent, Inc, CareerBuilder,LLC , CornerStone OnDemand, Inc., Saba Software,Inc., Paycom Software, Inc., The Adecco Group, ADP, LLC., Workday,Inc., Krones Incorporated, Ultimate Software Group, Inc., Skillsoft Corporation, Lumesse, Inc., Acendre, Infor, BambooHR, LLC.

Preview Analysis on Global Talent Acquisition & Staffing Technology & Services Market Segmentation - By Platform Type - Social Platform, Other Internet Platform, Internet Referrals; By Category Type - Marketing & Advertising, Technologies (Integrated ATS, Standalone ATS, Point Solution), Services (RPO, Contingent Staffing Services, Background Screening); By Industry - Education, Manufacturing, BFSI, Healthcare, IT and Telecommunication, Energy, Resources and Utilities, Retail & Consumer Goods, Transportation and Logistics: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/talent-acquisition-and-staffing-technology-market

The report predicts that demand for services will be higher, and will account for 67.2% share on global market value by the end of 2017. Throughout the forecast period, North America will be viewed as dominant region, accounting for more than one-fourth of value of the global market for talent acquisition and staffing technology & services. Japan, on the other hand will showcase fastest growth as its talent acquisition and staffing technology & services market is predicted to soar at 8.8% CAGR through 2027. The report also reveals that talent acquisition and staffing technology & services in the Middle East & Africa region will exhibit a nascent growth, and will be valued at US$ 4.5 Bn by 2027-end.

More from FMI's Cutting-edge Intelligence:

Enterprise Asset Management Market Analysis and Forecast by Solution - Analytics, Mobile, Cloud-Based; By Services - Consulting, Implementation, Training and Support, Outsourcing; By Vertical - Public Sector, Manufacturing, Oil And Gas, Healthcare And Pharmaceuticals, Energy and Utility, Transportation, Wholesale And Distribution, Food And Beverages, Paper And Packaging, Chemical Process Industry, Mining, And Services Industry: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-enterprise-asset-management-market

Analysis and Forecast by Solution - Analytics, Mobile, Cloud-Based; By Services - Consulting, Implementation, Training and Support, Outsourcing; By Vertical - Public Sector, Manufacturing, Oil And Gas, Healthcare And Pharmaceuticals, Energy and Utility, Transportation, Wholesale And Distribution, Food And Beverages, Paper And Packaging, Chemical Process Industry, Mining, And Services Industry: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-enterprise-asset-management-market Tablet Market Segmentation By Product Type - Detachable, and Slate Tablet; By Operating System - Android, iOS, Windows; By Screen Size - Below 8 inch, 8 inch and above; By End-Use - Consumer, and Commercial: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/tablet-market

Segmentation By Product Type - Detachable, and Slate Tablet; By Operating System - Android, iOS, Windows; By Screen Size - Below 8 inch, 8 inch and above; By End-Use - Consumer, and Commercial: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/tablet-market Programmatic Display Advertising Market Segmentation By Ad Format - Online Display, Online Video, Mobile Display, and Mobile Video; By Sales Channel - Real-Time Bidding, Private Marketplaces, and Automated Guaranteed: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/programmatic-display-advertising-market

About Us

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.

Browse More Electronics, Semiconductors, and ICT Market Insights

Contact Us:

616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,

Valley Cottage, NY 10989,

United States

T: +1-347-918-3531

F: +1-845-579-5705

T (UK): +44(0)20-7692-8790

Sales: [email protected]

Press Office: [email protected]



FMI Blog:http://www.fmiblog.com/

Website: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com



SOURCE Future Market Insights
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Persistence Market Research's new study on global market for quantum computing emphasizes the monumental impact of rising need for high-level computing on the market's growth. In 2017, the global quantum computing market is anticipated to be valued at US$ 2.7 Bn. Governments of developed and developing countries are investing in quantum computing to accelerate their research operations, while commercialization of quantum computing is also gaining traction. On the grounds of such drivers, more than US$ 23 Bn revenues are anticipated to be reaped through adoption of quantum computing across the globe by the end of 2025. During this decadal forecast period, the global market for quantum computing is expected to expand exponentially at a stellar CAGR of 30.9%.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438683logo )

Optimization and management of information, harvested within an organization or from different parts of the world entails, entails the employment of efficient computing processes to handle ever-expanding data workloads. To achieve this, enterprises or government-backed organizations are adopting quantum computing, and processing data in qubits. Through quantum computing, companies can search files across large databases instantaneously, assessing data quicker than conventional computing.

For More Details - A sample of this report is available upon [email protected] http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14758

Global Quantum Computing Market - Forecast Highlights

The study on global quantum computing market has analyzed the market on the basis of components - hardware the demand for effective quantum computing hardware is also expected to witness lucrative boost, although manufacturers will be put to test while developing hardware with flexible computing abilities.and software. With development of cloud-enabled quantum computing platform, new software are expected to transform the market's expansion even further.

While sales of quantum computing hardware are presently dominating the market with more than 90%, their global revenue share is expected to drop to 84% by the end of 2025

The significant decline in quantum computing hardware will be balanced by surging adoption of quantum computing software, revenues from which are anticipated to reflect fastest CAGR of 42.3%

View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and [email protected] http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/quantum-computing-market/toc

Top Players in Global Quantum Computing Market

According to the study, the competitive landscape of global quantum computing market is divided into two tiers of computing vendors. With more than 90% share, tier 1 quantum computing vendors are companies developing hardware, while the remaining 10% of the market is governed by developers of quantum computing software applications.

The top five players in the global quantum computing market are profiled below:

Intel Corporation,

Microsoft Corporation,

Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.),

D-Wave Systems Inc., and

IBM Corporation

Companies such as 1QB Information Technologies Inc., QC Ware Corp., and QbitLogic are observed to be leading developers of quantum computing software applications.

Other key players in the global quantum computing market include Rigetti Computing., Anyon Systems Inc., Cambridge Quantum Computing Ltd., IDQ, IonQ Inc., Quantum Circuits, Inc., Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Nokia Bell Labs, Hewlett Packard, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Toshiba Research Europe Ltd., USC Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center, QuantumCTek Co., Ltd, SeeQC, SPARROW QUANTUM A/S, QxBranch, and Qubitekk, Tokyo Quantum Computing.

To Buy Full Report for Single [email protected] http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/14758

Persistence Market Research Overview

Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.

To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.

Connect with us on [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/company/persistence-market-research-&-consulting

Queries regarding these research findings can be addressed to Persistence Market Research's analysts at [email protected].

Contact

Persistence Market Research

U.S. Sales Office:

305 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York City, NY 10007

+1-646-568-7751

United States

USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marco's Pizza, the nation's fastest growing pizza company, is targeting the greater Raleigh-Durham area for expansion. The newest location is set to open in Chapel Hill as the brand continues to develop throughout the market. To celebrate the grand opening and also educate community members about ownership opportunities, an event will be held, free and open to the public, on Sunday, August 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. at 141 Chatham Downs Ste. 201.

The Chapel Hill location opens under the ownership of local residents and Marco's Pizza Area Representatives, Tim and Cindy Larson. The grand opening celebration event will include free pizza, live music, carnival games, face painting and a raffle for free pizza for a year. Additionally, attendees will have an opportunity to meet with the Larsons, who are multi-unit owners heading up the Raleigh-Durham development efforts, to learn more about ownership opportunities and the immense potential for the brand in the area.

"Pizza lovers in Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas will quickly find out that we're substantially different than your typical pizza chain," said Tim Larson. "We were attracted to the Marco's brand because it was founded on Italian freshness and quality standards, making it stand out from all other well-known brands. Ingredients are genuinely fresh and truly craveable. We're proud to open a Marco's Pizza and offer such a quality product to the people of Chapel Hill."

As the only national franchise chain founded by a native Italian, Marco's Pizza has carved out a niche in the industry as the expert in authentic Italian pizza, known for its fresh dough made daily on site, a proprietary cheese blend that is fresh never-frozen and a secret pizza sauce recipe. Focusing on franchisee support, product quality and high regard for vendors and employees, Marco's Pizza more than doubled in size in less than five years. With plans to open more than 100 new stores in 2017 (averaging one every three days), the company is on track to exceed 900 locations by year's end.

Marco's Pizza has recently been recognized as a 2017 recipient of NRN's Golden Chain Award. Celebrating the best in the restaurant business, the Golden Chain Awards recognize restaurant executives for outstanding leadership, strong company performance, career achievements, and contributions to the industry and communities served  further validating the company's mission to be the premier pizza of choice, employer of choice and community partner of choice as it expands its footprint in markets nationwide.

For more information on Marco's Pizza and franchising opportunities, visit www.marcos.com; marcosfranchising.com or call 1-800-836-2074.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA:

Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza company in the United States. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian born, Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives by making Italian Pizza with fresh ingredients. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate more than 800 stores in over 30 states and four countries. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked by consumers as America's Favorite Pizza Chain through Market Force Information surveys. Other recent accolades include landing No.38 on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list, No. 2 on Forbes' Top 10 Franchises to Invest In in the medium investment range, No. 3 on the Military Times Best For Vets list and No. 4 on the Franchise Times Fast and Serious list. To inquire about franchise opportunities with Marco's Pizza visit marcosfranchising.com.

SOURCE Marcos Pizza

Related Links

http://www.marcos.com


WESTON, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fayr, the groundbreaking parenting app that simplifies everyday matters for divorced parents, was featured on the July 25th episode of Apple Music's new reality tech series, "Planet of the Apps," and secured Academy Award-winning actress and successful entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow as a mentor/advisor.

Fayr was conceptualized by South Florida homebuilder and divorced dad, Michael Daniels, who was looking for a more effective way to manage family life. The app creates a joint family calendar to track activities and time-sharing, and generates digital records of expenses and real-time location check-ins. It also offers in-app texting to simplify communication between parents and exportable, as well as PDF reports for transparent documentation.

"My favorite thing about Fayr is that it was created with the whole family in mind. Separating is a challenging transition for any couple. When children are involved, it's especially tender and worrisome," Paltrow says. "Fayr removes unnecessary stresses and tension so parents can collaborate to create calm and stability for their children."

Daniels, 37, says he was inspired to create Fayr when the expenses and challenges of co-parenting began to overwhelm his everyday life. The Weston, Fla. resident shares custody of his two grade-school-aged children with his ex-wife, who lives in Miami.

After one particularly trying day, Daniels began thinking about how he and his former wife could prevent small mix-ups from escalating into major problems.

"That kind of anxiety kept me up at night. I've got these two amazing kids and I just didn't want to waste time in life on ridiculous things," Daniels said.

Parents using Fayr can drop a geo-pin upon arrival at a location. The other parent receives a notification instantly.

"There's an indisputable record that you are there, so there's no reason to contact lawyers," Daniels said.

Fayr also seamlessly streamlines all the bookkeeping for family expenses and creates a transparent audit trail, eliminating the need to hunt down receipts or dig through accounting archives. Court-ready documents can be exported with just one touch.

The app's time-sharing calendar enables parents to easily adjust their schedules, trading days if needed while keeping track of their children's time and activities.

Fayr has already been endorsed by several family law practitioners who say the app will spare countless families tremendous pain and depletion of financial resources.

Fayr debuted in beta mode several months ago and quickly attracted the attention of television executives who thought it would be perfect for "Planet of The Apps"  Apple Music's new reality series that provides a competitive platform for aspiring app developers.

Working with entrepreneur advisors Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Will.i.am, developers and their concepts endure an intense incubation period and then a high-stakes pitch. New episodes debut every Tuesday on Apple Music.

Oscar-winning actress Paltrow, who agreed to be Daniels' mentor-advisor during the July 25th episode, is the founder of lifestyle brand Goop and is well known for her amicable co-parenting arrangements with ex-husband Chris Martin, frontman of U.K. rock band Coldplay.

"Children deserve to live with parents who are able to be the best versions of themselves," Daniels said. "I knew that when I was in an argument with my ex-wife I wasn't able to do that. With Fayr you can show your children by example how to live peacefully and equitably."

Fayr is available on iOS with a monthly subscription of $4.99. It will be available for Android at the end of 2017. To learn more, visit www.fayr.com.





SOURCE Fayr LLC

Related Links

http://www.fayr.com


MEXICO CITY, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Financiero Interacciones, S.A. de C.V., (BMV: GFINTERO), ("Grupo Financiero Interacciones" or "GFI"), the largest specialized Mexican financial group with a business model focused on providing financing, risk management and financial advisory services mainly to the Mexican public sector, today announced results for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2017.

Executive Summary: Simplified Financial Information ("SFI")

Disclaimer: As a result of the uniqueness of our business model, we simplified GFIs financial information in an effort to make it more efficient to market participants to analyze our financial group. Simplified Financial Information ("SFI") is adjusted for valuations effects, non-recurring items and includes reclassifications of regulatory financial statements.

Fundamentals

As part of GFIs fundamentals during the quarter, states and municipalities exercised cautiousness before the publication of their indebtedness ranges within the Financial Discipline Laws alert system that were disclosed on June the 30th. This, coupled with an excess liquidity of 6.9% and an annual six month federal transfer growth of 15.7%, explain a sequential 2.59% loan portfolio contraction in line with GFIs business model seasonality. YoY GFIs loan portfolio expanded 11.82%.

Simplified Financial Statements

Simplified Financial Information ("SFI") 2Q17 1Q17 2Q16 Var.vs

6M17 6M16 Var.vs 1Q17 2Q16

6M16 Bank - Interest Income 2,952 2,679 1,810 10.19% 63.09%

5,631 3,500 60.89% Bank - Interest Expense -2,281 -2,038 -1,265 11.92% 80.32%

-4,319 -2,372 82.08% Banks Financial Margin 670 642 545 4.36% 22.94%

1,312 1,128 16.31% Provisions for Loan Losses -90 45 -82 -300.00% 9.76%

-45 187 -124.06% Net Commissions 740 377 782 96.29% -5.37%

1,117 1,004 11.25% Business Commissions 475 327 552 45.26% -13.95%

802 984 -18.50% Temporary Commissions 266 49 229 442.86% 16.16%

315 19 1557.89% Income from Brokerage Activities 241 99 80 143.43% 201.25%

340 139 144.60% Other Operating Income (Expenses) -75 16 -77 -568.75% -2.60%

-59 -184 -67.93% IPAB -123 -120 -101 2.50% 21.78%

-243 -199 22.11% Administrative and Promotional Expenses -548 -433 -413 26.56% 32.69%

-981 -757 29.59% Banks Income before Income Taxes 815 626 734 30.19% 11.04%

1,441 1,318 9.33% Brokerage Units Income before Income Taxes 117 153 72 -23.53% 62.50%

270 133 103.01% Insurance Units Income before Income Taxes 20 -37 9 154.05% 122.22%

-17 17 -200.00% Other Subsidiary Results 4 -13 -5 130.77% -180.00%

-9 -9 0.00% Taxes -144 -111 -198 29.73% -27.27%

-255 -339 -24.78% Net Income 813 618 612 31.55% 32.84%

1,431 1,120 27.77% *Millions of pesos

















*Simplified Financial Information ("SFI") is adjusted for valuations effects, non-recurring items and includes reclassifications of regulatory financial statements



Main Indicators - Simplified Financial Information ("SFI") 2Q17 1Q17 2Q16 Var.vs

6M17 6M16 Var. vs

6M16 1Q17 2Q16

Main Financial Ratios

















Bank - Loan Portafolio Financial Margin 2.55% 2.32% 2.42% 23bp 13bp

2.67% 2.59% 8bp ROE - Bank 20.33% 15.20% 18.23% 512bp 209bp

18.21% 16.92% 129bp ROE - GFI 20.46% 15.44% 16.57% 502bp 389bp

18.39% 15.45% 294bp Banks Efficiency Ratio 42.57% 48.77% 38.64% -619bp 393bp

45.16% 45.81% -65bp NPL Ratio 0.05% 0.06% 0.09% -1bp -4bp

0.05% 0.09% -4bp Coverage Ratio 27.55x 23.34x 16.47x 4.21x 11.08x

27.55x 16.47x 11.08x *Millions of pesos

















*Simplified Financial Information ("SFI") is adjusted for valuations effects, non-recurring items and includes reclassifications of regulatory financial statements



The Banks financial margin for 2Q17 increased 22.94% YoY and 4.36% QoQ. The YoY change was driven by an 11.82% YoY loan growth that reflects GFIs successful execution of opportunities stemming from the Financial Discipline Law. The QoQ change is explained by a sequential increase in interest income relative to interest expense as a result of interest rate increases, in spite of a sequential contraction in the loan portfolio.





for 2Q17 increased 22.94% YoY and 4.36% QoQ. The YoY change was driven by an 11.82% YoY loan growth that reflects GFIs successful execution of opportunities stemming from the Financial Discipline Law. The QoQ change is explained by a sequential increase in interest income relative to interest expense as a result of interest rate increases, in spite of a sequential contraction in the loan portfolio. In 2Q17, GFI reserved Ps.90 million in provisions , mainly as a result of the change in the credit profile of GFIs clients during both time periods, as per regulatory guidelines.





, mainly as a result of the change in the credit profile of GFIs clients during both time periods, as per regulatory guidelines. Net Commissions decreased 5.37% YoY and increased 96.29% QoQ. The YoY change resulted from the structuring of higher complexity projects during 2Q16, as well as from the fundamental dynamics mentioned above at the Government Business unit, in spite of strong business commission growth of 42.18%, 258.33% and 500.00% in the Infrastructure, SME and Leasing units respectively.

The QoQ change reflects commissions stemming from advising on hedging solutions in the Government Business Unit, in addition to a strong business commission growth of 63.28%, 437.50% and 500.00% in the Infrastructure, SME and Leasing units respectively. Its important to note that advisory commissions on hedging solutions for GFIs clients are registered in the "Income from Brokerage Activities" line as per accounting guidelines on regulatory financial statements.

Income from Brokerage Activities increased 201.25% YoY and 143.43% QoQ as a result from the widening of spreads, as well as from successful trading operations.





increased 201.25% YoY and 143.43% QoQ as a result from the widening of spreads, as well as from successful trading operations. Other Operating Income (Expenses) amounted to a Ps.75 million expense in 2Q17, compared to expenses of Ps.77 million in 2Q16 and to other operating income of Ps.16 million in 1Q17. This line includes changes in Other Real Estate Owned ("OREO") and OREO discount adjustments, among others.





amounted to a Ps.75 million expense in 2Q17, compared to expenses of Ps.77 million in 2Q16 and to other operating income of Ps.16 million in 1Q17. This line includes changes in Other Real Estate Owned ("OREO") and OREO discount adjustments, among others. Administrative and Promotional Expenses increased 32.69% YoY and 26.56% QoQ mainly driven by an increase in the information technology infrastructure and processes, as well as by an expansion of GFIs leasing and corporate banking teams.





increased 32.69% YoY and 26.56% QoQ mainly driven by an increase in the information technology infrastructure and processes, as well as by an expansion of GFIs leasing and corporate banking teams. The Brokerage Unit reported income before taxes of Ps.117 million in 2Q17, increasing 62.50% YoY and decreasing 23.53% QoQ. The YoY change reflects an increase in revenue from trading activities. The QoQ change is explained by a decrease in the balance of the repo portfolio, in spite of a 7 basis point spread increase in its operations, as well as lower commissions.





reported income before taxes of Ps.117 million in 2Q17, increasing 62.50% YoY and decreasing 23.53% QoQ. The YoY change reflects an increase in revenue from trading activities. The QoQ change is explained by a decrease in the balance of the repo portfolio, in spite of a 7 basis point spread increase in its operations, as well as lower commissions. Aseguradora Interacciones , the Insurance unit, reported income before taxes of Ps.20 million in 2Q17 increasing 122.22% YoY and improving 154.05% QoQ, both changes result from the implementation of its new strategy, aligning its costs to revenues and releasing technical reserves, as well as from this quarters lower claims.





, the Insurance unit, reported income before taxes of Ps.20 million in 2Q17 increasing 122.22% YoY and improving 154.05% QoQ, both changes result from the implementation of its new strategy, aligning its costs to revenues and releasing technical reserves, as well as from this quarters lower claims. Grupo Financiero Interacciones reported net income of Ps.813 million in 2Q17, representing an increase of 32.84% YoY and 31.55% QoQ. The YoY change is explained by an increase of 22.94% in the Banks financial margin, as well as by 201.25% higher trading income, which more than offset the 5.37% decrease in net commissions. The QoQ change reflects a 96.29% increase in net commissions, in addition to a 4.36% increase in the Banks financial margin.

REGULATORY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - Income Statement

Main Indicators - Regulatory Income Statement 2Q17 1Q17 2Q16 Var.vs

6M17 6M16 Var. vs

6M16 1Q17 2Q16

Main Financial Ratios

















NIM 0.93% 0.21% 1.50% 72bp -57bp

0.56% 1.41% -85bp ROE - Bank 20.33% 15.20% 18.23% 513bp 210bp

18.21% 16.92% 129bp ROE -GFI 20.46% 15.44% 16.57% 502bp 389bp

18.39% 15.45% 294bp Banks Efficiency Ratio 43.54% 46.99% 41.30% -345bp 224bp

45.00% 42.08% 292bp Efficiency Ratio - GFI 45.36% 49.48% 46.09% -412bp -73bp

47.16% 47.12% 4bp NPL Ratio 0.05% 0.06% 0.09% -1bp -4bp

0.05% 0.09% -4bp Coverage Ratio 27.55x 23.34x 16.47x 4.21x 11.08x

27.55x 16.47x 11.08x *Millions of pesos



















Grupo Financiero Interacciones

















Regulatory Income Statement 2Q17 1Q17 2Q16 Var.vs

6M17 6M16 Var.vs 1Q17 2Q16

6M16 Interest Income 4,535 4,256 2,931 6.56% 54.73%

8,791 5,625 56.28% Premium Income (Net) 8 10 72 -20.00% -88.89%

18 146 -87.67% Interest Expense -4,013 -4,134 -2,184 -2.93% 83.75%

-8,147 -4,245 91.92% Net Increase in Technical Reserves -3 -3 -3 0.00% 0.00%

-6 -7 14.29% Damages, Claims and Other Obligations (Net) - -8 -37 100.00% 100.00%

-8 -71 -88.73% Financial Margin 527 121 779 335.54% -32.35%

648 1,448 -55.25% Provisions for Loan Losses -55 - 1 100.00% 5600.00%

-55 -1 5400.00% Financial Margin Adjusted for Credit Risk 472 121 780 290.08% -39.49%

593 1,447 -59.02% Commissions and Fees Charged 839 806 1,431 4.09% -41.37%

1,645 2,201 -25.26% Commissions and Fees Paid -192 -208 -585 -7.69% -67.18%

-400 -866 -53.81% Commissions (Net) 647 598 846 8.19% -23.52%

1,245 1,335 -6.74% Income from Brokerage Actiities 686 769 6 -10.79% 11333.33%

1,455 148 883.11% Other Operating Income (Expenses) -8 -45 -136 82.22% 94.12%

-53 -174 69.54% Administrative and Promotional Expenses -840 -714 -689 17.65% 21.92%

-1,554 -1,299 19.63% Operating Income 957 729 807 31.28% 18.59%

1,686 1,457 15.72% Equity in Results of Non-Consolidated Subsidiaries and Associates - - 3 0.00% -100.00%

- 2 -100.00% Income before Income Taxes 957 729 810 31.28% 18.15%

1,686 1,459 15.56% Income Taxes -217 -100 -273 117.00% -20.51%

-317 -299 6.02% Deferred Income Taxes 73 -11 75 763.64% -2.67%

62 -40 255.00% Income Before Discontinued Operations 813 618 612 31.55% 32.84%

1,431 1,120 27.77% Discontinued Operations - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Net Income 813 618 612 31.55% 32.84%

1,431 1,120 27.77% Non-Controlling Interest - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Total Net Income 813 618 612 31.55% 32.84%

1,431 1,120 27.77%

REGULATORY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - Balance Sheet

Grupo Financiero Interacciones

















Regulatory Balance Sheet 2Q17 1Q17 2Q16 Var.vs

6M17 6M16 Var.vs 1Q17 2Q16

6M16 Cash and Due from Banks 11,355 19,539 14,350 -41.89% -20.87%

11,355 14,350 -20.87% Margin Accounts - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Investment in Securities 113,531 96,390 98,289 17.78% 15.51%

113,531 98,289 15.51% Debtors Under Sale and Repurchase Agreements - 4 - -100.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Derivatives 237 274 5 -13.50% 4640.00%

237 5 4640.00% Total Loan Portoflio (Net) 102,326 105,173 91,429 -2.71% 11.92%

102,326 91,429 11.92% Loan Portfolio 103,841 106,597 92,862 -2.59% 11.82%

103,841 92,862 11.82% Performing Loan Portfolio 103,786 106,536 92,775 -2.58% 11.87%

103,786 92,775 11.87% Commercial Loans 103,626 106,368 92,512 -2.58% 12.01%

103,626 92,512 12.01% Commercial or Business Activity 24,821 24,540 21,373 1.15% 16.13%

24,821 21,373 16.13% Financial Entities 348 608 1,459 -42.76% -76.15%

348 1,459 -76.15% Government Entities 78,457 81,220 69,680 -3.40% 12.60%

78,457 69,680 12.60% Consumer Loans 20 20 24 0.00% -16.67%

20 24 -16.67% Mortgages 140 148 239 -5.41% -41.42%

140 239 -41.42% Non-Performing Loan Portfolio 55 61 87 -9.84% -36.78%

55 87 -36.78% Commercial Non-Performing Loans 50 50 82 0.00% -39.02%

50 82 -39.02% Commercial or Business Activity 50 50 55 0.00% -9.09%

50 55 -9.09% Government Entities - - 27 0.00% -100.00%

- 27 -100.00% Non-Performing Mortgages 5 11 5 -54.55% 0.00%

5 5 0.00% Allowances for Loan Losses -1,515 -1,424 -1,433 6.39% 5.72%

-1,515 -1,433 5.72% Accounts Receivables Loan Derivatives, Discounts and Credits (Net) 3 3 3 0.00% 0.00%

3 3 0.00% Premium Debtors (Net) 47 59 98 -20.34% -52.04%

47 98 -52.04% Accounts Receivables from Reinsurers and Re-guarantee Companies (Net) 633 804 1,487 -21.27% -57.43%

633 1,487 -57.43% Accounts Receivables (Net) 5,626 6,572 4,126 -14.39% 36.35%

5,626 4,126 36.35% Foreclosed Assets (Net) 157 164 197 -4.27% -20.30%

157 197 -20.30% Real Estate, Furniture & Equipment (Net) 743 752 150 -1.20% 395.33%

743 150 395.33% Investment in Subsidiaries 63 61 53 3.28% 18.87%

63 53 18.87% Deferred Taxes (Net) 886 812 763 9.11% 16.12%

886 763 16.12% Other Assets 806 1,829 1,067 -55.93% -24.46%

806 1,067 -24.46% Total Assets 236,413 232,436 212,017 1.71% 11.51%

236,413 212,017 11.51% Traditional Funding 109,403 112,410 89,928 -2.68% 21.66%

109,403 89,928 21.66% Demand Deposits 63,232 55,101 42,621 14.76% 48.36%

63,232 42,621 48.36% Term Deposits 26,221 36,731 31,380 -28.61% -16.44%

26,221 31,380 -16.44% Credit Instruments Issued 19,950 20,578 15,927 -3.05% 25.26%

19,950 15,927 25.26% Bank Loans 15,623 16,877 16,593 -7.43% -5.85%

15,623 16,593 -5.85% Instant Loans Flexibility - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Short Term 5,053 6,271 5,762 -19.42% -12.30%

5,053 5,762 -12.30% Long Term 10,570 10,606 10,831 -0.34% -2.41%

10,570 10,831 -2.41% Assigned Values For Liquidity - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Technical Reserves 1,063 1,222 1,988 -13.01% -46.53%

1,063 1,988 -46.53% Creditors For Repurchase / Resale Agreements 85,763 76,508 80,670 12.10% 6.31%

85,763 80,670 6.31% Collateral Sold - 457 - -100.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Derivatives 116 - 76 100.00% 52.63%

116 76 52.63% Valuation Ajustment For Financial Coverage Of Liabilities - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Accounts Payables To Reinsurers And Re-Guarantee Companies 32 79 80 -59.49% -60.00%

32 80 -60.00% Outstanding Debt In Securitization Transactions - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Other Payables 4,907 4,503 3,796 8.97% 29.27%

4,907 3,796 29.27% Outstanding Subordinated Debt 3,562 3,559 3,560 0.08% 0.06%

3,562 3,560 0.06% Deferred Taxes And Employee Profits Sharing (Net) 29 15 - 93.33% 100.00%

29 - 100.00% Deferred Credits And Advanced Collections 472 454 297 3.96% 58.92%

472 297 58.92% Total Liabilities 220,970 216,084 196,988 2.26% 12.17%

220,970 196,988 12.17% Paid-In Capital 4,208 4,231 4,158 -0.54% 1.20%

4,208 4,158 1.20% Capital Stock 2,345 2,345 2,343 0.00% 0.09%

2,345 2,343 0.09% Share Subscription Premiums 1,863 1,886 1,815 -1.22% 2.64%

1,863 1,815 2.64% Subscribed Capital 11,235 12,121 10,871 -7.31% 3.35%

11,235 10,871 3.35% Capital Reserves 801 671 671 19.37% 19.37%

801 671 19.37% Retained Earnings 8,722 10,515 8,705 -17.05% 0.20%

8,722 8,705 0.20% Surplus (deficit) from Mark-to-Market of Securities Available for Sale 278 315 373 -11.75% -25.47%

278 373 -25.47% Foreign currency translation adjustment 4 5 4 -20.00% 0.00%

4 4 0.00% Results from Non-monetary Assets -1 -3 -2 -66.67% -50.00%

-1 -2 -50.00% Net Income with Participation of Subsidiaries 1,431 618 1,120 131.55% 27.77%

1,431 1,120 27.77% Not Holding Interest - - - 0.00% 0.00%

- - 0.00% Shareholders' Equity 15,443 16,352 15,029 -5.56% 2.75%

15,443 15,029 2.75% * Millions of pesos



















RELEVANT EVENTS

On May 9 th , 2017 Grupo Financiero Interacciones paid a dividend of Ps.4.27 per share, which is equivalent to Ps.1,154 million.

, 2017 Grupo Financiero Interacciones paid a dividend of Ps.4.27 per share, which is equivalent to Ps.1,154 million. As per the Financial Discipline Laws indebtedness ranges publication disclosed on June 30 th :

: Only one state was classified within the high indebtedness range vs. seven in the original proposal.



The "Public Debt and Obligations over Free Disposal Income" (Debt over Income) indicator for the medium and high indebtedness range increased from 100% to 200%, this increase provides a potential market of Ps.915 billion for GFI vs. Ps.420 billion in the original proposal.

On July the 11th, 2017 BBVA Bancomer initiated coverage of Grupo Financiero Interacciones (GFINTER O MM) with a target price of Ps.108.1.

To obtain the full text of this earnings release, please visit

http://www.investorsinteracciones.com/images/media/quartelyResults/2017/2Q17/2Q17-Earnings-Release-Ingles-v24-VF.pdf

2Q17 EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

Date: Thursday, July 27, 2017

Time: 9:00 am CT (Mexico), 10:00 am ET

The conference call can be accessed by dialing +1-844-824-3835 (U.S. / Canada), 001-855-817-7630 (Mexico), or +1-412-317-5160 (Other International) and asking to be joined into the Grupo Financiero Interacciones call. The earnings release for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017 will be issued after the close of the U.S. market on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.

A simultaneous webcast of the conference call can be accessed by clicking the following link:

https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1449/21787

A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available after 12:00pm on July 28, 2017 on GFI's Investor Relations website at www.investorsinteracciones.com.

About Grupo Financiero Interacciones

Grupo Financiero Interacciones, S.A. de C.V. ("Grupo Financiero Interacciones" or "GFI"), is the largest specialized Mexican financial group with a business model focused on providing financing, risk management and financial advisory services mainly to the Mexican public sector, which includes federal, state and municipal governments, quasi-government entities and government suppliers. Grupo Financiero Interacciones conducts its business mainly through Banco Interacciones, its banking subsidiary, and through Interacciones Casa de Bolsa, its broker-dealer subsidiary, and Aseguradora Interacciones, its insurance company subsidiary. Grupo Financiero Interacciones is listed on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores under the symbol "GFINTERO". For more information, please visit http://www.investorsinteracciones.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. By their very nature, forward-looking statements and such information involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or will differ from actual results. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected or intended. Grupo Interacciones assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release.

Contact:

Adolfo Werner Fritz Rubio, Corporate Development Officer & Head of Investor Relations

Telephone: +52 55 53 26 86 00 Ext: 6825

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Grupo Financiero Interacciones, S.A. de C.V.

Related Links

http://www.grupofinancierointeracciones.mx/


ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Halyard Health, Inc. (NYSE: HYH) will webcast its conference call discussing financial results and business highlights for the second quarter 2017 on Wednesday, Aug. 2 at 9 a.m. ET. The company will issue a news release detailing its results before the market opens that same day.

The conference call will be hosted by Robert Abernathy, chairman; Joe Woody, chief executive officer; and Steve Voskuil, chief financial officer.

To join the live conference call, dial 877-240-5772 in the United States. A simultaneous webcast of the call and a related presentation will be accessible via the Investors section of the Halyard Health website, https://halyardhealth.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be available Aug. 2 at noon ET by dialing 877-344-7529 in the United States and entering passcode 10110225. It will be available for one week. A replay of the webcast also will be accessible in the Investors section of the website, approximately one hour following the completion of the conference call.

About Halyard Health:

Halyard Health (NYSE: HYH) is a medical technology company focused on eliminating pain, speeding recovery and preventing infection for healthcare providers and their patients. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, Halyard is committed to addressing some of today's most important healthcare needs, such as reducing the use of opioids while helping patients move from surgery to recovery and preventing healthcare-associated infections. Halyard's business segments - Medical Devices and Surgical and Infection Prevention (S&IP) - develop, manufacture and market clinically superior solutions that improve medical outcomes and business performance in more than 100 countries. For more information, visit www.halyardhealth.com.

SOURCE Halyard Health, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.halyardhealth.com


ORLANDO, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hard Rock International  owner of one of the world's most-recognizable and iconic brands  has appointed Antonio Bautista as Senior Vice President of Company Cafe Operations. In this new role, Bautista, who has been with the company for more than 20 years, will lead the Cafe Operations team, including overseeing the brand's Area Vice Presidents, Facilities team and Retail Operations. Bautista will report directly to President of Cafe Operations of Hard Rock International, Stephen Judge.

Antonio Bautista, Senior Vice President of Company Cafe Operations for Hard Rock International

"Antonio's dedication and long-standing history with the brand, combined with his valuable experience in the franchise and development space make him the perfect executive to be at the forefront of the cafe business," said Stephen Judge, President of Cafe Operations of Hard Rock International. "We look forward to seeing Antonio excel in this position to oversee all corporate cafe operations worldwide, and assist with the growth and expansion of the organization."

Bautista first joined Hard Rock International in 1994 and has continued his career growth within the company, from Restaurant Manager to General Manager at Hard Rock Cafe, to various roles within the Franchise Operations group, where he doubled the franchise portfolio and oversaw 70 new cafe openings. In his most recent position as Senior Vice President of Franchise Operations and Development, Bautista expanded the comprehensive, global development programs at franchise cafes in 74 countries.

Internationally-recognized as a world-class restaurant and hospitality brand, Hard Rock operates cafes across the world that are visited by more than 79 million guests each year. Its first cafe opened in London, England, and from there the brand has expanded to major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo, and exotic settings such as Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Malta. Hard Rock Cafe offers a one-of-a-kind dining experience with a commitment to serving fresh, high-quality ingredients. To satisfy the consumer's ever-changing palate, Hard Rock continually updates its menu with limited-time offerings including burger pairings, innovative cocktails and more. For more information on Hard Rock Cafe, please visit www.hardrock.com/cafes.

About Hard Rock International

With venues in 75 countries, including 176 cafes, 23 hotels and 10 casinos, Hard Rock International (HRI) is one of the most globally recognized companies. Beginning with an Eric Clapton guitar, Hard Rock owns the world's greatest collection of music memorabilia, which is displayed at its locations around the globe. Hard Rock is also known for its collectible fashion and music-related merchandise, Hard Rock Live performance venues and an award-winning website. HRI owns the global trademark for all Hard Rock brands. The company owns, operates and franchises Cafes in iconic cities including London, New York, San Francisco, Sydney and Dubai. HRI also owns, licenses and/or manages hotel/casino properties worldwide. Destinations include the company's two most successful Hotel and Casino properties in Tampa and Hollywood, Fl., both owned and operated by HRI parent company The Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as other exciting locations including Bali, Chicago, Cancun, Ibiza, Las Vegas, and San Diego. Upcoming new Hard Rock Cafe locations include Cairo, Innsbruck, Cape Town and Chengdu. New Hard Rock hotel, casino or hotel-casino projects include Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Berlin, Dubai, London, Los Cabos, New York City, Ottawa, and Shenzhen, Dalian and Haikou in China. For more information on Hard Rock International, visit www.hardrock.com.

SOURCE Hard Rock International

Related Links

http://www.hardrock.com


HARTFORD, Conn., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight hundred Hartford families in need will receive enough food to supplement meals for a week plus daily essentials, thanks to a partnership between PepsiCo and Feed the Children. The event kicks off at 11:00a.m. EST at Xfinity Theatre, 61 Savitt Way, Hartford, Ct.

This is the seventh year PepsiCo and Feed the Children have partnered to help feed families in Hartford, where more than 37 percent of the population lives below the poverty line[1]. This distribution event is part of a larger initiative between the two organizations to help feed communities in cities throughout the United States.

The receiving families have been identified and preselected by Community Renewal Team, a Hartford-based not-for-profit organization that helps individuals and families access resources that will help meet immediate and longer-term needs, improve job skills, maintain or increase their independence, stabilize living situations, and achieve educational goals.

"All of us at Community Renewal Team are thrilled to be able to help with this wonderful annual event sharing food and essentials with hundreds of families from throughout the Greater Hartford area," said Lena Rodriguez, President and CEO of Community Renewal Team. "We're proud to work with Feed the Children and PepsiCo to make this day a huge success."



"We're excited to partner with Feed the Children, Community Renewal Team and Price Rite helping our friends and neighbors in the Hartford community," said Victoria South, account manager, northeast region sales, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "Frito-Lay and PepsiCo are committed to giving back to our communities where we live and work, and providing enough food to supplement meals for a week is a small way we can help make a difference."

Each qualifying recipient at today's event will be given:

One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items

One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items One 15-pound box of personal-care items

One 15-pound box of personal-care items One box of AVON products

One box of products One 20-count bag of Frito-Lay Better-For-You snacks

One 20-count bag of Frito-Lay Better-For-You snacks PepsiCo beverages

PepsiCo beverages Fresh produce and non-perishable food from Price Rite

Fresh produce and non-perishable food from Price Rite Life Original Cereal

Life Original Cereal Standard Quaker Oats

Standard Quaker Oats Chewy Granola Bars

Volunteers from PepsiCo, Price Rite, Community Renewal Team and Feed the Children will be onsite serving families and assisting with distribution during today's event.

About Feed the Children

Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to defeat hunger. It is one of the largest U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education, essentials and disaster response. Domestically, it operates 5 distribution centers (located in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania).

In fiscal year 2016, through its domestic and international programs, Feed the Children distributed 105 million pounds of food and essentials worldwide with a total value of $415 million, working with partner agencies to benefit 5.9 million people globally. It is accredited by GuideStar Exchange and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

Visit www.feedthechildren.org for more information.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated approximately $63 billion in net revenue in 2016, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose  our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around us. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet and empowering people around the world is what enables PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

Editor's note: High-resolution photos will be available upon request.



[1] http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Hartford-Connecticut.html

SOURCE PepsiCo

Related Links

http://www.pepsico.com


TARAWA, Kiribati, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- An archaeological team from Florida-based History Flight, Inc. has turned over 24 sets of remains to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense, for official identification.

Private, non-profit History Flight recently recovered the remains of long-missing U.S. personnel from the Nov. 20-23, 1943 Battle of Tarawa and its aftermath on Betio Island. This is the second-largest single recovery of U.S. battlefield remains since the Korean War, topped only by History Flight's 2015 recovery of 35 sets of remains, including those of Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., also on Betio.

"We are immensely pleased to be able to deliver the two largest recoveries since the Korean War in a span of just over two years," says History Flight founder and director Mark Noah. "We're also grateful to have such an excellent public-private partnership with the DPAA. We feel that this recovery is an exemplar of the successful two-year, public-private partnership we have with the Department of Defense and is an indication that more success lies in the future."

Members of the DPAA, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific and History Flight held a Repatriation Ceremony of the remains at Tarawa's Bonriki International Airport on July 24, after which they were flown to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory.

"History Flight's recovery efforts of Marines lost during the Battle of Tarawa continue to be a model of success," said Fern Sumpter Winbush, acting director of DPAA. "The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation, and through our strategic partnership with History Flight we are confident that we will continue to have success."

More than 1,100 U.S. personnel were killed in the bloody, 76-hour Battle of Tarawa and its aftermath. Due to extreme environmental conditions in the equatorial Pacific, remains were hastily buried in trenches and individual graves on and around sandy, one-square-kilometer on Betio.

Teams from the U.S. Army Graves Registration Service returned after the war to exhume and repatriate the remains, but could not locate over 500 servicemen. In 1949, the Army Quartermaster General's Office declared the missing servicemen "unrecoverable," and informed hundreds of families that their loved ones had been "buried at sea" or as "unknowns" in Hawaii.

For over seven decades, few Americans  including families of the missing  were aware that over 500 Marines (and a small number of Navy and Army personnel) remained buried on or near Betio.

Since 2007, History Flight has been actively searching for and recovering remains nearly year-round on Betio.

"The investment of 10 years of work and $6.5 million has resulted in the recovery of extremely significant, but not yet to be disclosed, number of missing American service personnel," Noah says. "Our trans-disciplinary team  including many volunteers  of forensic anthropologists, geophysicists, historians, surveyors, anthropologists, forensic odontologists, unexploded ordnance specialists, medics and even a cadaver-dog handler have excelled in difficult conditions to produce spectacular results."

The remains, turned over on July 24, were discovered adjacent to the site of a memorial cemetery built after the war, but most were found outside its recorded boundaries.

"This is unwritten history that we are writing today," Noah says. "We've discovered that the official records were often wrong in many and multifaceted ways."

History Flight maintains a full-time Tarawa office as well as offices in Europe and the Philippines.

For more information visit www.historyflight.com or call 1-888-743-3311. Also, visit History Flight, and Tarawa MIA Families, on Facebook.

For photos and video, contact Cathy Kornfield, History Flight Public Relations, cell 717-615-6185 or [email protected].

For interviews with Mark Noah or Clay Bonnyman Evans, grandson of recovered Tarawa MIA 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., please contact Cathy Kornfield.

Related Links

History Flight Website

History Flight Facebook

SOURCE History Flight, Inc.

Related Links

http://historyflight.com


HOUSTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Peli Peli Restaurant Group, which includes South African fine-dining concept Peli Peli and Peli Peli Kitchen, a fast-casual offshoot, has signed a lease for the Mary Barden Keegan Center located at 2445 North Freeway. The 15,000-square-foot building includes 3,000 square feet of kitchen space and is familiar to Houston commuters because of the prominent "End Hunger" slogan on the side. Peli Peli will utilize the building as a commissary & catering kitchen for its multiple locations and allow the group to create South African-inspired product lines, including sauces and seasonings.

Peli Peli Kitchen owners Mary Barden Keegan Center End Hunger Building

Peli Peli opened its first location on April 13, 2009 in northwest Houston at the Vintage Park Shopping Center. Six years later, they were able to open a second location inside of the Houston Galleria Mall. This past year has seen additional fast casual locations, Peli Peli Kitchen and Peli Deli, open along with a new Peli Peli in Katy, Texas at the LaCenterra Shopping Center. The aggressive year of growth will culminate with a location in Austin, Texas - Peli Peli's first location outside of Houston. Both Peli Peli Galleria and Peli Peli Vintage Park are currently ranked in the top 10 in Houston by TripAdvisor & Yelp.



Peli Peli hopes that utilizing the commissary at the 'End Hunger" building will enable them to reduce food costs and food prep labor in addition to allowing for improved consistency in its food product. "It solves our short-term quality control issues and allows us to reduce our food and labor costs," says Michael Tran, partner and CEO of Peli Peli. "Hopefully this will allow us to pass some of our savings to the customers at a time when people are looking for better value."

Houston-based Virgata Property Company purchased the building in December 2016. In searching for the right tenant, Virgata wanted a hospitality group whose core values included service to the community. "The team at Peli Peli is as innovative a restaurant group as I have met in 32 years in the Houston real estate industry. In getting to know the team, it was clear that they have a corporate culture of service to their customers, employees and the community," states Scot Luther, founding partner of Virgata Property Company. "I had heard about Peli Peli and frankly, did not buy the hype until I had their food and met the team."

In 2016, the Peli Peli's Houston Restaurant Weeks' donations totaled over $76,000 and helped Peli Peli Galleria finish as the second biggest Houston Restaurant Weeks donor behind B&B Butchers & Restaurant. "I think it was meant to be that we ended up with the Mary Barden Keegan building, and we look forward to giving back to our community in creative and engaging ways," says Thomas Nguyen, a partner of Peli Peli. "Hiring individuals with a heart to serve and a passion for community service will be critical to our success in this building." Individuals interested in applying for open positions at Peli Peli's new commissary and catering kitchen can visit www.pelipeli.com/apply.

Virgata Property Company has been active in retail and medical development in the Houston area since 1998. The company is a long term holder of real estate, hand picking its tenants for continued viability, recognizing that a landlord is as successful as its tenants. Virgata owns numerous properties in Texas including Houston's CBD, West University and six properties in the Houston Heights.

For more information visit www.pelipeli.com or follow the restaurant on Facebook at www.facebook.com/peligalleria, Twitter at www.twitter.com/pelipeli or Instagram at www.instagram.com/peli_peli.

Media Contact:

Thomas Nguyen

Email: [email protected]

832-259-2448

SOURCE Peli Peli

Related Links

http://www.pelipeli.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HRG Group, Inc. ("HRG" or the "Company"; NYSE: HRG) announced today that on Friday, August 4, 2017 it will issue a press release reporting its results for the third fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2017. HRG makes available on its website a copy of its press releases and, from time to time, other supplemental financial information. Interested parties may review such materials by visiting HRG's website at http://www.HRGgroup.com under the Investor Relations section of the website.

About the Company:

HRG Group, Inc. is a holding company that conducts its operations through its operating subsidiaries. The Company's principal operating subsidiaries are: Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc., a global branded consumer products company; Fidelity & Guaranty Life, a life insurance and annuity products company; and Front Street Re (Delaware) Ltd., a long-term reinsurance company. HRG is headquartered in New York and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HRG. For more information on HRG, visit: www.HRGgroup.com.

For further information contact:

HRG Group, Inc.

Investor Relations

Tel: 212.906.8555

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE HRG Group, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hrggroup.com


PUNE, India, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Market Research Future published a cooked research report on "Global Human Insulin Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027"  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.

Biocon Ltd. (India), Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (China), Adocia (France.), Merck & Co. (U.S.), Julphar (UAE), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (U.K.), Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Israel), Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark), Pfizer, and Sanofi are some of the prominent players competing in the Global Human Insulin Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.

Human Insulin Global Market  Overview

The Human Insulin Market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the increasing prevalence of diabetic population. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global Human Insulin market is forecasted to gain prominence over the forthcoming years. The market is expected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period. The Human Insulin Market is projected to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking two-digit CAGR of 12.1% during the anticipated period (2016  2027).

The major factors contributing to the market growth are; increase in prevalence of diabetic population, rise in geriatric population, rising awareness of diabetes and rising prevalence of obesity. However, strict regulatory requirements for approval of insulin and high cost of analog are inhibiting the growth of the global human insulin market. Along with that, delayed onset of action, and various side effects of human insulin are also limiting the growth of this market across the globe.

Although insulin has been used in the treatment of diabetes for over 90 years, globally more than half of those who need insulin today still cannot afford it. Without insulin, people living with type 1 diabetes will die. Many more will suffer from diabetes-related complications, like blindness, amputation and kidney failure, and, ultimately, premature death. There are many complex issues that affect access to this life-saving medicine, creating inequity and inefficiency in the global insulin market. These issues include the global insulin market domination by three multinational manufacturers, import duties affecting the price insulin entering different countries, and mark-ups, taxes and other charges in the public and private sector supply chains that affect the final patient price.

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/849

Human Insulin Global Market  Competitive Analysis

The MRFR analysis comprises key players of the global insulin market such as insulin manufacturers as independent and licensed manufacturers, subsidiaries, and distributors of the global insulin market. Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global Market of Human Insulin appears to be highly competitive. Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position. Manufacturers invest heavily in to developing pipeline of innovative projects to address unmet patient needs. Investment activities in the Human Insulin Market are interpreted as capacity expansion plan and intensive R&D with an aim of obtaining vast growth opportunities.

Human Insulin Global Market  Segments

The Human Insulin Market can be segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;

Segmentation by Traditional Human Insulin: Comprises Short Acting Human Insulin, Intermediate Acting Human Insulin, and Premixed Human Insulin.

Segmentation by Modern Human Insulin: Comprises Long Acting Human Insulin, Rapid Acting Human Insulin and Premixed Human Insulin.

Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.

Based on the type, modern human insulin has the largest market share in the human insulin market

Human Insulin Global Market  Synopsis

With the worldwide increasing prevalence of diabetes, the insulin market is growing as well widening. Additionally, rising prevalence of obesity, and rise in geriatric population are major factors driving the growth of the human insulin market. While, strict regulatory requirements for approval of insulin and high cost of insulin analog constrains the growth of the human insulin market. Although the prevalence of diabetes is increasing globally and access to insulin continues to be a problem, it does not appear currently that the problem is lack of global supply.

Browse Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-human-insulin-market-849

Human Insulin Market  Regional Analysis

Geographically, North America has the largest share in global human insulin market; large share of this market is attributed to the growing prevalence of diabetes and obesity. North America is a prominent market for human insulin market and dominated the Global market share. It has been valued at $11,127.9 in 2015 million and is expected to grow over astronomical amounts by 2027. The North American market for human insulin is expected to grow at a significant rate of CAGR during the forecasted period. Europe is the second-largest market for human insulin, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 12.2% during the forecasted period. Asia Pacific has emerged as the fastest growing market which has been valued at US $6,298 million in 2015 and expected to reach to multimillions USD by the end of forecasted period with the CAGR of more than 13.2%.

Browse Related Report

Epsom Salt Market Segmentation- by Form Type (Granules, Powder, Crystal, Bath Bombs), by Application (Agriculture, Food Additives & Pharmaceutical, Personal Care & Home Care, Chemical & Industrial and others) by Distribution Channel (Store Based, Non-Store Based) and Region - Forecast to 2027

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/epsom-salt-market-2979

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

Contact

Akash Anand,

Market Research Future

+1 646 845 9312

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Market Research Future

Related Links

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com


"Even in one of the industry's most competitive classes, the Sonata continues to distinguish itself with dynamic style and luxury features at a best-in-class value," said Brandon Ramirez, senior group manager, product planning, Hyundai Motor America. "We strive to provide our customers with 'better' and Sonata delivers on this commitment by innovating and exciting drivers with each new release and customers are seeing that today as the 2018 Sonata is entering dealerships."

With multiple recognitions, including placements on the "10 Most Comfortable Cars Under $30,000" and "10 Best Sedans Under $25,000" lists by Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com, the Sonata and Hyundai have impressed in a wide range of categories.

HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.

For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com

Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

SOURCE Hyundai Motor America

Related Links

http://www.hyundainews.com


All dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.

Numbers in this news release have been rounded.

TSX: IMG

NYSE: IAG

TORONTO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD" or "the Company") today announced an updated Reserve and Resource estimate for its Rosebel Gold Mine ("Rosebel") in Suriname. This estimate is calculated as at June 30, 2017.

Highlights (Attributable Basis)

Proven and probable reserves increased by 80% to 3.5 million ounces.

Measured and indicated resources increased by 55% to 8.9 million ounces.

Inferred resources increased by 322% to 2.5 million ounces.

Average reserve grade remains unchanged at 1.0 g/t Au., but now includes dilution.

Increased reserves extend mine life to 2028.

Estimates are for the Rosebel concession only.

Saramacca initial resource estimate expected September 2017 .

Total estimated attributable proven and probable gold reserves at Rosebel increased by 80% to 3.5 million ounces at the end of June 2017 from 2.0 million ounces of gold at the end of 2016. The addition of 1.6 million ounces was due to the factors described below, and is partially offset by mining depletion at Rosebel during the first half of 2017. There was no change in the $1,200 per ounce gold price assumption for estimating Rosebel's reserves. Total attributable measured and indicated gold resources (inclusive of reserves) estimated for Rosebel increased by 55% or 3.1 million ounces to 8.9 million ounces at the end of June 2017, compared to the year-end 2016 estimate. There was also no change in the gold price assumption for estimating mineral resources at Rosebel ($1,500 per ounce). As at June 30, 2017, Rosebel also estimates an attributable inferred resource of 2.5 million ounces, representing an increase of 1.9 million ounces from the 2016 year-end estimate. The significant factors affecting the changes to the resource estimates are similar to the factors noted for the increased reserve estimate.

"Rosebel continues to transform, enhancing the value of this operation," said Steve Letwin, President and CEO of IAMGOLD. "With the 80% increase in reserves today at the Rosebel concession and a resource estimate for Saramacca to follow in September, a new lower-cost, longer-life mine is taking shape. The ounces we're adding today extend Rosebel's life to 2028. Most impressive is that the vast majority of the incremental 1.6 million ounces is due to mine planning optimization which has allowed us to economically access more ounces. Only a portion of the saddle zones is incorporated at this time, so we could see more upside potential from the remaining saddles. IAMGOLD's consolidated attributable reserves are up 69% from the end of 2016 as Rosebel adds to the increase we previously announced with the conversion of resources to reserves at Cote Gold. The anticipated positive impact of the Saramacca deposit will be better known once we complete an initial resource estimate, which is currently in progress."

Significant factors contributing to the revised reserve estimate include:

New resource models for all of the Rosebel orebodies, which incorporate information from both diamond drill and reverse circulation drill hole data, extensive geologic mapping completed in recent years and a comprehensive geostatistical review by internal and external experts. The new models incorporate some new ore in the saddle zones between existing pits; however, the amount from these zones is limited as the program was incomplete at the time of the cutoff date for the resource modeling exercise. Exploration of the saddle zones is still ongoing and additional data obtained from the drilling program will be incorporated into future reserve and resource estimates.

The positive impact of changes in the cost model for Rosebel, based on major cost improvements over the past couple of years due to significantly improved mine and mill productivity, reduced fuel prices, a favorable change in the local currency exchange rate, significantly reduced General and Administrative costs, and higher mill throughput for hard ore as a result of improvements and investments in the crushing and grinding circuit in the mill.

A revised mine planning approach based on a detailed pit phasing scheme complemented by an optimized mine sequencing algorithm to maximize the net present value of the mine schedule, including the use of variable cutoff grades over time. The Rosebel technical team was supported by external consultants in the development and validation of this revised approach.

Improved confidence in the current pit slope design angles, based on a detailed geotechnical review completed in prior years by a third party consultant.

The new mine reserve includes a waste dilution assumption of 8% for saprolite ore and 10% for both transition and fresh rock (hard) ore. Despite the applied dilution assumption, the average grade of the reserve remains unchanged at 1.0 g/t Au, as the new pit designs are mining deeper into higher grade ore zones of several of the orebodies.

Mineral Reserves and Resources Estimate



As at June 30, 2017 Rosebel Gold Mine Tonnes Grade Ounces

Contained Attributable (95%)

Contained Ounces

(000s) (000s) (g/t) (000s)











Proven Reserves 24,356 0.7 516 490

Probable Reserves 90,544 1.1 3,215 3,054

Proven and Probable Reserves 114,900 1.0 3,730 3,544

Measured Resources 31,402 0.7 676 642

Indicated Resources 275,710 1.0 8,649 8,216

Measured and Indicated Resources 307,112 0.9 9,325 8,859

Inferred Resources 84,866 1.0 2,667 2,534

(1) Measured and indicated resources are inclusive of proven and probable reserves. (2) In mining operations, measured and indicated resources that are not mineral reserves are considered uneconomic at the price used for reserve estimations but are deemed to have a reasonable prospect of economic extraction. (3) Although "measured resources", "indicated resources" and "inferred resources" are categories of mineralization that are recognized and required to be disclosed under Canadian regulations, the SEC (as defined below) does not recognize them. Disclosure of contained ounces is permitted under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC generally permits resources to be reported only as in place tonnage and grade. See "Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors". (4) Rosebel mineral reserves have been estimated as of June 30, 2017 using a $1,200/oz gold price and mineral resources have been estimated as of June 30, 2017 using a $1,500/oz gold price and have been estimated in accordance with NI 43-101 (as defined below).

The reserves and resources included in this estimate are from within the existing Rosebel mining concession only, and do not include any material from the highly prospective Saramacca exploration project. As previously announced, the Company expects to publish a maiden resource for Saramacca during the third quarter. Once that resource model is completed, the Rosebel team will complete project plans and mine designs to allow incorporation of the Saramacca feed into the overall Rosebel life of mine plan. This work should be completed sometime in the first half of 2018. We expect our ongoing exploration program at Saramacca will further enhance the value of Rosebel.

Compared to the previous mine plan, the significant increase in the reserves for Rosebel reported today extends the life of the mine to 2028. The total stripping ratio (waste:ore) increases from about 4:1 to 6:1. Because of the cost improvements noted above, and the detailed pit phasing design, the overall impact on production costs is marginal. The all-in sustaining costs for the first five years of the new plan are estimated to be about $40 per ounce higher than for the same period in the prior plan. Rosebel remains cash flow positive for all years in the new life of mine plan with the given assumptions. The Rosebel team continues to identify and implement new initiatives to reduce costs and these efforts represent a strong opportunity to improve the asset value beyond the current models. We also expect that Saramacca, once integrated into the mine plan, could have a positive impact on reducing costs.

It is important to note that Rosebel consistently encounters more ore than is identified by the resource model as some gold bearing zones are not picked up by wider spaced definition drilling, but are subsequently identified during tighter spaced grade control drilling. Over the past five years, Rosebel has experienced an average positive reconciliation in ore tonnes above cut-off of 20% versus the resource model.

On February 22, 2017, when the year end 2016 reserves and resources estimate at Rosebel was announced, it was noted that those reserves and resources were calculated using only a simple depletion model from the prior year's estimate. No material changes were made to the resources model in 2016, as the new estimation methodology effort was ongoing at that time.

The Company intends to file a new NI 43-101 technical report on SEDAR within 45 days in support of the updated Reserve and Resource estimates described in this release.

The updated resource and reserve estimate and the increase in the life of mine are considered to be an indicator for the reversal of a previous impairment loss on the Rosebel mine, and are expected to result in the reversal of all or part of the impairment loss recorded in 2013.

Notes to Investors Regarding the Use of Resources

Cautionary Note to Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured and Indicated Resources

This news release uses the terms "measured resources" and "indicated resources". We advise investors that while those terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") does not recognize them. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves.

Cautionary Note to Investors Concerning Estimates of Inferred Resources

This news release also uses the term "inferred resources". We advise investors that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the SEC does not recognize it. "Inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in rare cases. Investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

Scientific and Technical Disclosure

IAMGOLD is reporting mineral resource and reserve estimates in accordance with the CIM guidelines for the estimation, classification and reporting of resources and reserves.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors

The SEC limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. IAMGOLD uses certain terms in this news release, such as "measured," "indicated," or "inferred," which may not be consistent with the reserve definitions established by the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in the IAMGOLD Annual Reports on Forms 40-F. You can review and obtain copies of these filings from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml or by contacting the Investor Relations department.

The Canadian Securities Administrators' NI 43-101 requires mining companies to disclose reserves and resources using the subcategories of "proven" reserves, "probable" reserves, "measured" resources, "indicated" resources and "inferred" resources. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not demonstrate economic viability.

A mineral reserve is the economically mineable part of a measured or indicated mineral resource demonstrated by at least a preliminary feasibility study. This study must include adequate information on mining, processing, metallurgical, economic and other relevant factors that demonstrate, at the time of reporting, that economic extraction can be justified. A mineral reserve includes diluting materials and allows for losses that may occur when the material is mined. A proven mineral reserve is the economically mineable part of a measured mineral resource demonstrated by at least a preliminary feasibility study. A probable mineral reserve is the economically mineable part of an indicated, and in some circumstances, a measured mineral resource demonstrated by at least a preliminary feasibility study.

A mineral resource is a concentration or occurrence of natural, solid, inorganic material, or natural, solid fossilized organic material including base and precious metals in or on the Earth's crust in such form and quantity and of such a grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a mineral resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. A measured mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics are so well established that they can be estimated with confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support production planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough to confirm both geological and grade continuity. An indicated mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics can be estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough for geological and grade continuity to be reasonably assumed. An inferred mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. The estimate is based on limited information and sampling gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

A feasibility study is a comprehensive technical and economic study of the selected development option for a mineral project that includes appropriately detailed assessments of realistically assumed mining, processing, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental considerations together with any other relevant operational factors and detailed financial analysis, that are necessary to demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction is reasonably justified (economically mineable). The results of the study may reasonably serve as the basis for a final decision by a proponent or financial institution to proceed with, or finance, the development of the project. The confidence level of the study will be higher than that of a Pre-Feasibility Study.

A Pre-Feasibility Study is a comprehensive study of a range of options for the technical and economic viability of a mineral project that has advanced to a stage where a preferred mining method, in the case of underground mining, or the pit configuration, in the case of an open pit, is established and an effective method of mineral processing is determined. It includes a financial analysis based on reasonable assumptions on mining, processing, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental considerations and the evaluation of any other relevant factors which are sufficient for a qualified person, acting reasonably, to determine if all or part of the Mineral Resource may be classified as a Mineral Reserve.

Gold Technical Information and Qualified Person/Quality Control Notes

The mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The "Qualified Person" responsible for the preparation of this Rosebel resource estimate is Vincent Cardin-Tremblay, P.Geo. Vincent joined IAMGOLD in September 2011 and is currently Chief Geologist at the Rosebel Gold Mine. A practicing geologist for over nine years, he has been employed in various exploration positions in the mining industry in Canada, the United States and Suriname. The "Qualified Person" responsible for the preparation of this Rosebel reserve estimate is Adam Doucette, P.Eng. Adam joined IAMGOLD in November 2015 and is currently Chief Engineer at the Rosebel Gold Mine. He is a professional mining engineer who, for the past 12 years, has held various positions in the mining industry in Canada, Mexico and Suriname.

Mr. Cardin-Tremblay and Mr. Doucette are considered "Qualified Persons" for the purposes of NI 43-101 with respect to the mineralization being reported on. The technical information has been included herein with the consent and prior review of the above noted Qualified Persons. The Qualified persons have verified the data disclosed, and data underlying the information or opinions contained herein.

Data verification is part of established protocols that involves acquisition, input, interpretation, analysis and review by senior geologists and engineers at site, peer review by the IAMGOLD technical services group and external consultants on an as required basis, as well as regular reporting and site visits by senior management to review the status of ongoing operational plans and estimates.

The sampling and assay data from drilling programs that support resource and reserve estimates are monitored through the implementation of a quality assurance - quality control (QA-QC) program designed to follow industry best practice. Sampling and assay procedures as well as the resource and reserve estimates are audited or peer reviewed from time to time or as required by third party consultants.

CONFERENCE CALL

A conference call will be held on Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) for a discussion with management regarding the Reserve and Resource Update for Rosebel. A webcast of the conference call will also be available through IAMGOLD`s website - www.iamgold.com.

Conference Call Information: North America Toll-Free: 1-800-319-4610 or 1-604-638-5340.

A replay of this conference call will be accessible for one month following the call by dialing: North America toll-free: 1-800-319-6413 or 1-604-638-9010, passcode: 1607#.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding expected, estimated or planned gold production, all-in sustaining costs and other cost estimates, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, exploration results, life-of-mine estimates and potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "highly prospective", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned gold production, unexpected increases in all-in sustaining costs or other costs, unexpected increases in capital expenditures and exploration expenditures, variation in the mineral content within the material identified as mineral resources and mineral reserves from that predicted, changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets and other risks disclosed in IAMGOLD's most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD (www.iamgold.com) is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in North and South America and West Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise.

Please note:

This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through CNW Group's website at www.newswire.ca. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le http://www.iamgold.com/French/accueil/default.aspx

SOURCE IAMGOLD Corporation

Related Links

http://www.iamgold.com


"The vision of Andre Phillipe, has always been to eventually add high quality, fashion-forward offerings of ready-to-wear products to our portfolio," says Mr. Phillipe. "Along with our Co-Founder Jason Smith, we are partnering with Kathy, Tommy and the talented teams of I'M1 and Level Brands, allowing us to bring those products to life, as well as to capitalize on and utilize the distribution power, relationships and marketing prowess they bring to the table. With this partnership, we can impact more lives and inspire more people and to us, that's what matters. Dallas is the home of luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, which carries the stunning line of Ms. Ireland's Nourison-produced floor art, Kathleen Marie New York. Ms. Ireland is a fashion icon - from the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and SI Swimsuit issues, to multiple Forbes covers. These are among the multitude of reasons we recognize I'M1, Level Brands and kathy ireland  as leaders in fashion and in contemporary luxury goods. We're thrilled and honored to be a part of this significant endeavor."

Ms. Ireland, Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW) and also Chief Creative Officer for Level Brands, of which I'M1 is a subsidiary, added "We are very impressed that Andre Phillipe has so artfully recognized, adapted and led in both the bespoke and now, ready-to-wear manners in which the young men of today are identifying their own styles. Andre's designs are classic and timeless, with an added edge which appeals to Millennials who are on their way to establishing their careers. We are simply delighted to partner with Andre and Jason, on this great venture."

Mr. Tommy Meharey - Marine, Millennial, Father and Co-Founder of I'M1 with Kathy Ireland adds, "When Andre and Jason designed and built suits for me, there was no question. Cutting edge styling. Sexy. Crisp. Fashion for guys at any age, who take care of ourselves and have a young attitude. Launching into the custom and ready-to-wear menswear arenas with Andre Phillipe, is a blast. These suits are for ballers. The trend-setting, award-winning reputation Andre's designs have earned makes Andre Phillipe the perfect partner for us to launch into the menswear space with. We look forward to collaborating with Andre in designing and establishing individualistic fashion looks for our clientele of young men on the fast track to success," he adds.

I'M1 Suits by Andre Phillipe are available this Fall, and include custom suiting, trousers, jackets, and other luxury menswear items.

About Andre Phillipe:

Launched in 2013, the Dallas-based design firm has won several "Best of" awards for its menswear. The brand personifies itself as "Frank Sinatra with tattoos" for its timeless style, but with a refined edge. Our mantra is "We are here to inspire people, and God has just given us menswear as the vehicle."

About kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW):

kiWW is listed as one of the most powerful brands in the world by License Global Magazine. According to Fairchild Publications, Kathy Ireland is one of the 50 Most Influential People in Fashion. Kathy graces the cover of Forbes Magazine domestically twice (2012, 2016), to date, and will speak at Forbes Centennial in Hong Kong, 2017. Kathy and kiWW support many non-profits including: YWCA Greater Los Angeles for which she is an Ambassador, Dream Foundation, Providence Educational Foundation, 911 for Kids/AEF, and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Kathy is an Ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Kathyireland.com

About Level Brands:

Level Brands, Inc. is based in Charlotte, N.C. and is the parent company of men's brand I'M1. I'M1 was co-founded by Tommy Meharey and Kathy Ireland, who serves as Chief Creative Officer for I'M1 and Level Brands. Levelbrands.com

SOURCE Andre Phillipe
A limited production model, the ultra-premium Roadmaster Elite features custom-inspired two-tone candy paint that takes 30 hours to complete and is finished by hand, with real 23K gold leaf badging on the tank and lowers. Starting at $36,999, the Roadmaster Elite comes standard with a large number of premium amenities, including the industry-leading Ride Command system, a 300-watt premium audio system, passenger armrests, billet aluminum passenger and driver floorboards, a premium touring console, and stylish pinnacle mirrors.

Joining the Roadmaster Elite in 2018 is the Springfield Dark Horse  a blacked-out, toughed-up bagger, starting at $20,999. Similar to other Dark Horse models, the Springfield Dark Horse features matte black paint with gloss black details. The Springfield Dark Horse features an open fender to showcase the new 19" ten-spoke, blacked-out front wheel. Its quick-release windshield features a blacked-out bracket. The stylish windshield protects riders from the elements, or can be easily removed to give a more mean, slimmed down look.

"The Roadmaster Elite and Springfield Dark Horse are two fantastic motorcycles, with two different attitudes. The Roadmaster Elite packs all the bells and whistles perfect for riders looking for the best of the best, while the Dark Horse brings blacked-out style to the Springfield line," said Reid Wilson, Marketing Director  Indian Motorcycle. "Beyond these two offerings, we have elevated each and every model  listening to our consumers to bring new features and colors they have asked for."

Continuing through the 2018 Indian lineup, the Chieftain platform receives notable upgrades  adding a Chieftain Classic model, starting at $23,999, that will feature the brand's iconic valanced front fender and genuine leather seat with fringe, available in three colors, including Indian Motorcycle Red, Thunder Black Pearl and Star Silver Smoke. The Chieftain Limited, starting at $24,499, remains at the head of the pack and adds three new color, including Thunder Black Pearl, Blue Fire and Bronze Smoke. The Chieftain, available in Steel Gray, receives a lowered price of $21,499, and also receives a 19" blacked-out ten spoke wheel and open fender as standard.

For those looking to add a more modern style, the 10-spoke 19" wheel, in both black and contrast cut, along with an open front fender, are available as an accessory for the Roadmaster, Roadmaster Classic, Chieftain, and Springfield motorcycles. The wheel and open fender will fit those models from model year 2014 onwards.

The Indian Chief Classic also receives upgrades, now available with white wall tires, wire wheels, and full chrome hand controls. Available starting at $19,499, it is available with gorgeous Burgundy Metallic paint.

Indian's iconic Chief Vintage line receives new offerings for 2018, starting at $19,999. Thunder Black and Star Silver over Thunder Black will for the first time ever feature black genuine leather saddlebags and seats to add to its beautiful styling.

Joining Indian's recently announced Scout Bobber in the 2018 lineup is the Scout Sixty and Scout. The Scout Sixty, starting at $8,999, receives two new colors, including Polished Bronze and Thunder Black over Titanium Metallic. Meanwhile, the Scout, starting at $11,499, receives a new look and improved performance. Now standard are a cartridge fork front suspension and Pirelli tires, along with passenger accommodations, including a genuine leather passenger pillion and pegs. Scout receives two new colors for 2018, Metallic Jade and Willow Green over Ivory Cream.

Indian's 2018 model lineup will be available at dealers in the U.S. and Canada starting in September. You can be the first to see and demo the entire 2018 line-up by visiting the Indian Motorcycle display at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally from August 5-13. Learn more about Indian Motorcycle by visiting IndianMotorcycle.com and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media channels.

ABOUT INDIAN MOTORCYCLE

Indian Motorcycle is America's First Motorcycle Company. Founded in 1901, Indian Motorcycle has won the hearts of motorcyclists around the world and earned distinction as one of America's most legendary and iconic brands through unrivaled racing dominance, engineering prowess and countless innovations and industry firsts. Today that heritage and passion is reignited under new brand stewardship. To learn more, please visit www.indianmotorcycle.com.

SOURCE Indian Motorcycle

Related Links

http://www.indianmotorcycle.com


MECHANICSBURG, Pa., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BeneCard PBF, a leader in providing clinical solutions that address the crisis of rising drug costs, has taken a step toward more efficient, personalized clinical care for members through its BenePrecise Pharmacogenetics program. Pharmacogenetics allows prescribers and pharmacists to understand how medications react differently in the body based on an individual's metabolism. BenePrecise applies the results of a fast and easy-to-administer pharmacogenetics test to enhance member safety, improve treatment outcomes and prevent wasteful drug spending.

BenePrecise utilizes precision medicine, which evaluates and considers a patient's metabolism, environment and lifestyle, to develop effective, individualized treatment plans. Through BenePrecise, BeneCard PBF's pharmacists work with members and their prescribers to coordinate changes in drug therapies, as indicated by pharmacogenetic testing. This ensures that members receive the most clinically appropriate and effective medications. By proactively identifying which drug therapies will not work, or are likely to cause severe adverse reactions, clients and their members can avoid unnecessary risks and expenses.

"We are excited to offer our BenePrecise program," says Jennifer Fuhrmann, PharmD and Vice President of Clinical Services for BeneCard PBF. "Pharmacogenetic testing can have a measurable positive impact for members who live with chronic health challenges such as diabetes or high cholesterol. Our pharmacists can help them move quickly onto the most appropriate drug therapy and improve their health with fewer side effects and less risk, based on their unique metabolism."

There are no doctor's visits required to administer the test. Members can collect and submit the sample from home using a simple cheek swab. The markers identified by pharmacogenetic testing do not change over a member's lifetime, so repeat tests are not required.

BenePrecise enables a personalized approach to care aimed at reducing costs, improving treatment efficacy and preventing adverse drug reactions.

About BeneCard PBF

Through pharmacogenetics and proactive clinical programs, BeneCard PBF enhances patient outcomes while lowering prescription drug costs. With offices in Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, BeneCard PBF administers fixed-rate and self-funded prescription benefit programs. The company offers innovative solutions to control costs while providing the highest quality service available in prescription benefit management.

SOURCE BeneCard PBF
GENOA, Nev., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A new book from Jin Lan McCann, a new Chinese immigrant to the United States, offers a first-hand perspective on modern Chinese history, censorship, and her non-traditional education at Wellesley College, which turned her into a force for change. "Powered by Wellesley" (ISBN: 978-0998989990) chronicles McCann's life story through China's Cultural Revolution, economic reform, and subsequent development. Before immigrating, and without a college education, she built a successful business career and became one of the first group of millionaires in China. However, she spent her wealth saving her ex-boyfriend from a death sentence.

By Jin Lan McCann

"I was born in Chongqing during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and I've spent many years studying modern Chinese social history," said McCann. "The book unravels how a largely agrarian, peasant economy leapt into the 21st century as a leader in numerous fields. I'm fascinated with China's integration with the West but also concerned about its impact to the western democracy due to its penetration in every level of western governments and private sectors. The threat is absolutely not illusion."

McCann also shares her experiences with censorship. Her blog on sina.com, developed over eight years with 100,000 readers, was shut down by the Chinese government in 2012. After these events, she realized that she had never been truly free. "I am a woman who wants to make a difference in the world, and the book shares my passion for fundamental human rights, democracy, and freedom of the press. Wellesley College enabled me to understand and tell the truth. I hope my experiences with both liberty and oppression can be a small window into China's soul."

"Powered by Wellesley" (ISBN: 978-0998989990) is now available as a paperback and a hardback at McCann's website: www.poweredbywellesley.org; also as an e-book and a paperback on online book stores like amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Please check out and follow her at Powered By [email protected] on Twitter. A second volume is already underway; publication is expected in the Fall of 2017.

About the Author

Jin Lan McCann is a new immigrant from Chongqing, China. McCann received her B.A. degree in economics from Wellesley College and A.A. degree in general studies from the University of Nevada, summa cum laude. Before immigrating to the United States, and without a college education, she became one of the first group of millionaires in China in the early 90s. She is a proud graduate of Wellesley College's Davis Scholar Program for women beyond traditional student age. She resides in Genoa, Nevada with her husband William D. McCann, a lawyer.

Related Links

Author

Editor

SOURCE Jin Lan McCann
NEW YORK, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City announces it is investigating Amec Foster Wheeler plc. (NYSE: AMFW)("Amec Foster" or the "Company") for possible violations of federal securities laws.

The investigation is based on whether Amec Foster and its executives violated federal securities law by misleading investors by making false and/or misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies.

On July 11, 2017, Amec advised investors that the Company was under investigation by the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office ("SFO"). In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Amec disclosed that the SFO's investigation "focuses on the past use of third parties and possible bribery and corruption and related offences." When this information was announced, shares of Amec fell in value.

Mr. Monteverde would like to personally discuss with you how to potentially recover your monetary losses.

Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/securities/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm committed that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates PC lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave, Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2017 Monteverde & Associates PC. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com


FARMERS BRANCH, Texas, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation (OTCQB: ICPW), the recognized leader in high-performance task-specific work gloves, announced today that it has further postponed its 2017 Annual Meeting of Stockholders which was scheduled to be held on July 26, 2017.

The new Annual Meeting date is Wednesday, August 23, 2017. The Annual Meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. Central Time at the Company's offices, located at 1920 Hutton Court, Suite 300, Farmers Branch, TX 75234. The record date for the Annual Meeting will remain May 4, 2017.

As disclosed in the Company's current report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 6, 2017, Ironclad's Audit Committee concluded that disclosure should be made and action taken to prevent further reliance on its financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, and as of and for the fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2017 and March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2016. The Audit Committee based its conclusion on the preliminary results of an investigation commenced during the second quarter of fiscal 2017, after the Company received anonymous reports regarding potential accounting irregularities relating to certain sale transactions.

In light of the foregoing, the resignation of Jeffrey D. Cordes as Ironclad's Chief Executive Officer and a member of its Board of Directors, and the resignation of William Aisenberg as its Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, the Board postponed the Annual Meeting to Wednesday, August 23, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time, to provide stockholders with additional time to consider and vote on a revised slate of nominees for election to the Board which excludes Mr. Cordes but includes the other four individuals previously nominated by the Board (namely Michael A. DiGregorio, David Jacobs, Emmett M. Murphy and Robert J. Steckler).

Ironclad's Board also withdrew its recommendation that stockholders vote in favor of the non-binding resolution approving executive compensation as disclosed in the proxy statement previously distributed for the Annual Meeting, and in place thereof makes no recommendation regarding such proposal as the Audit Committee has not concluded its investigation regarding the matters underlying the Audit Committee's determination that action should be taken to prevent further reliance on the financial statements listed above.

Ironclad will distribute to its stockholders of record as of May 4, 2017, a supplement to its proxy statement for the Annual Meeting and a new proxy card appointing Geoffrey Greulich, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, and James McAlister, the Company's Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, as proxies for signatories to the new proxy card. Such stockholders are encouraged to complete, sign, date and return the new proxy card once received to ensure that their shares are represented at the Annual Meeting. Any proxy cards previously received by the Company will be disregarded for purposes of determining the number of votes cast for each proposal described in the proxy statement and supplemental proxy materials. Furthermore, stockholders will need to submit the new proxy card even if their vote has not changed with respect to the proposals submitted to a vote of stockholders at the Annual Meeting.

About Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation

Ironclad Performance Wear is a leader in high-performance task-specific work gloves. It created the performance work glove category in 1998, and continues to leverage its leadership position in the safety, construction and industrial markets through the design, development and distribution of specialized task-specific gloves for industries such as oil & gas extraction; automotive; and police, fire, first-responder and military. Ironclad engineers and manufactures its products with a focus on innovation, design, advanced material science and durability. Ironclad's gloves are available through industrial suppliers, hardware stores, home centers, lumber yards, and sporting goods retailers nationwide; and through authorized distributors in North America, Europe, Australia, Middle East, Asia and South America.

Contact

James McAlister, CFO

(972) 996-5664

SOURCE Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation
SAO PAULO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (B3: ITUB4 and ITUB3 andNYSE: ITUB) is pleased to invite you to participate in our conference calls about the 2017 - 2nd quarter result.

To join the event on the internet, please visit: www.itau.com.br/investor-relations. The audio webcast works with Internet Explorer 9 or above and the new versions of Chrome, Firefox and mobile devices (IOS 8, or superior, and Android 3.0, or superior).

In order to better serve our investors and shareholders, as of this quarter, we will request the identification of those who join our conference calls on the internet.

Time

English

09:00 AM (EDT)

10:00 AM (Brasilia Time)

(1-866) 262 - 4553 (toll free from USA)

(55-11) 2820 - 4001 or (55-11) 3193 - 1001 (in Brazil)

(1-412) 317 - 6029 (other countries)

Portuguese

10:30 AM (EDT)

11:30 AM (Brasilia Time)

(55-11) 2820 - 4001

(55-11) 3193 - 1001



Presentation

Candido Bracher

Executive President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

Caio Ibrahim David

Executive Vice President, CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and CRO (Chief Risk Officer)

Macelo Kopel

Investor Relations Officer



The conference calls will also be archived in audio format on the same website. To access an audio replay of the conference calls, which will be available until August 8, 2017, dial (55 11) 3193-1012 or (55 11) 2820-4012. Access codes: 2886528# (call in Portuguese) and 4283325# (call in English). On the morning of the conference call, the slide presentation will be available for viewing and downloading. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Doris Pompeuat GlobalRI, at (55 11) 5042-6700 or [email protected].

Access code: Itau Unibanco

www.itau.com.br/investor-relations

SOURCE Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.

Related Links

http://www.itau.com.br/investor-relations


"These appointments are significant steps on the path towards leadership excellence and operational excellence. Both Phil and Kevin are highly respected experts in their fields," said Alan Turfe, Chairman and CEO, J M Smith Corporation. "Their passion for our organization and their vision for moving it forward are impressive. I am looking forward to working with them in their expanded roles.

"The Board of Directors and I also greatly appreciate the years of service Jimmy Wilson has given to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement," stated Turfe. "Jimmy will continue in his role on the J M Smith Foundation Board, and he and his wife Judy will continue their volunteer work in the community. Not only are Judy and Jimmy pillars in our community, but they have become dear friends to me and my family. Their kind, giving spirits are an inspiration to us all."

"For the past 30 years, Jimmy Wilson has been integral to the success of J M Smith Corporation," said Paula Harper Bethea, Governance Committee Chair, J M Smith Corporation Board of Directors. "His intellect, insights and character have been invaluable to the company and to those of us who have served with him and learned from him. He is a remarkable gentleman and we shall all miss him greatly."

As CFO, Ryan has direct responsibility for the finance arenas of each of our business units as well as the corporation as a whole. The Vice Presidents of Finance for each of the business units will report to him. Ryan joined J M Smith Corporation in 2011, following a successful career with Sealed Air Corporation. During his tenure at J M Smith Corporation, he has been a key member of the team that handled the acquisitions of Radiate in Charleston, SC; Integra in Anacortes, WA; and Burlington Drug Company in Milton, VT. He holds a BS from Lehigh University, an MBA from New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Welch, who will maintain his role as President of Integra LTC Solutions, will also assume the role of Chief Technology Officer for all of J M Smith Corporation. In the CTO role, he will oversee the development of new technology within the J M Smith Corporation, streamlining the process of bringing technology to market. Welch became part of J M Smith Corporation with the acquisition of the company he founded in 1997, Integra. Welch holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research and Engineering Management from Stanford University and has served in senior positions at Genentech, Symantec and Microsoft. During his career he has designed and developed many industry leading software applications and systems.

"J M Smith Corporation has a long history of providing innovative technology to the market," said Welch. "The role of a CTO is to ensure that we are positioned to continue to have a technological edge. I am looking forward to this new challenge."

ABOUT J M SMITH CORPORATION

J M Smith Corporation, headquartered in Spartanburg, is South Carolina's third-largest privately owned company. Today, the corporation is focused in the areas of health care and technology, and operates through multiple business units, including Smith Drug Company, QS/1, Integral Solutions Group, RxMedic Systems, Integra LTC Solutions and Burlington Drug Company. For more information, visit www.JMSmithCorp.com.

SOURCE J M Smith Corporation

Related Links

http://www.jmsmithcorp.com


SANFORD, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- After 7 years of building, Masjid al Hayy, an Arabic title meaning "Everliving Mosque," will finally open its doors to welcome followers in the US on Aug. 4 and 5. The day of the Grand Opening also correlates to the Islamic birthday of Imam Reza A.S., a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. and the eighth Shia Imam who was born in 776 AD.

Nearly 1,000 people from around the world will attend the invite-only ceremony scheduled for the 43,000 sq. ft. mosque. Led by prominent speakers, they will gather to witness this historic opening, which celebrates faith, religion, and peace. International interior designers, architects, and hundreds of craftsmen made their goal a reality after thousands of man hours. With the upcoming opening ceremony, the Jaffer family is proud to establish Masjid al Hayy as a landmark for people of any race, religion, or ethnicity to visit. The completion of the mosque comes at a fortunate time and presents a place of hope and unity.

Standing at the entrance of Masjid al Hayy, a feeling of serenity envelops newcomers as they walk by the pristinely white Thassos marble walls and enter through the towering mahogany doors. The intricacy of the Middle Eastern hand-carved work inside takes a minute to seep in. Splashes of marine blue, salmon pink, lemon yellow, and many others adorn every inch of the walls. Painstaking efforts were taken to build the entire mosque with the same white Thassos marble that composes the flooring of the Holy Kaaba located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Outside, the sunset further illuminates the surreal beauty of Masjid al Hayy and presents a silhouette defined by the large dome and 130 ft. tall minaret.

Established in 2008, the Jaffer Reachout Foundation is a charitable, nonprofit organization focused on the construction and support of Masjid al Hayy. For more information on the Jaffer Reachout Foundation or Masjid al Hayy, please contact Sakina by phone at 610-504-9802 or by email at [email protected]

SOURCE Jaffer Reachout Foundation
PITTSBURGH, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- JDog Junk Removal & Hauling (JDog), a national franchise organization dedicated to providing business ownership opportunities to veterans and relatives of veterans, announced today plans to enter the Pittsburgh area. The brand is actively seeking franchise owners to open up to 10 locations, which will create nearly 100 jobs for local military veterans.

Based in Pennsylvania, JDog has already dominated the Philadelphia market through the presence of 16 successful franchises, which further validates the brand's ability to succeed moving into Pittsburgh. Strategic development in Pittsburgh is a key element in the brand's overall growth plan as it works toward its goal to open 75 new franchises by the end of the year. Last year, the franchise debuted in 20 new states, including Oklahoma, New York, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Georgia. The Pittsburgh market is ripe for development and has ideal demographics, making it the ultimate development market for JDog.

"JDog's franchise system is made up of a tightly-knit community of owners who want to join our brand because they see how passionate we are about providing business ownership and employment opportunities to veterans," said Jerry Flanagan, CEO and Founder of JDog. "We are searching for people in the Pittsburgh area who are looking to provide the same level of service to their community, while putting veterans to work."

At JDog, military values guide all operations: Respect, integrity and trust. The franchise opportunity offers a low barrier to entry, high profit margins, and simple-to-operate model with significant support from a team of veterans and experienced business executives.

JDog franchisees operate easily recognizable, camouflage vehicles and trailers, and recycles or repurposes a substantial amount of the collected material. The Philadelphia-based company works closely with local and national organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, and local schools, churches and hospitals to donate useful items to those in need.

In addition to offering business ownership opportunities to veterans, JDog has established an important partnership with the VA's therapeutic Veterans' employment program, Compensated Work Therapy (CWT), to provide additional work opportunities for veterans. The brand was also selected as a Veteran-Owned Small Business by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

For more information about JDog Junk Removal and Hauling, including details about the brand's franchise opportunities, visit http://jdogfranchises.com/.

About JDog Junk Removal & Hauling

JDog Junk Removal & Hauling is a national company that awards franchises exclusively to military veterans and veteran family members  people who understand the notion of service to our country, hard work, and dedication. The company is committed to offering its proven operating model to veterans and military family members, enabling them to realize the American dream of business ownership. JDog has awarded more than 200 territories operating in 35 states and is actively looking for qualified franchisees to join the JDog movement nationwide. For more information on JDog Junk Removal & Hauling, please visit www.jdog.com.

Media Contact: Danielle Naccarato, Fishman PR, [email protected] or 847-945-1300

SOURCE JDog Junk Removal & Hauling

Related Links

http://jdogjunkremoval.com


Named for its proximity to the TRAX S-line light rail, MODA S-Line is a beautiful, 32-unit contemporary community that has everything potential tenants would hope for. Residents will have an attached 2 car garage, high-end finishes, smart home technology, and their choice of large two or three bedroom units ranging from 1,365 to 1,426 square feet. This project, totaling 62,000 square feet, was completed by the general contractor, Strategic Builders, in less than 12 months.

"The MODA S-line was 'on-time' and 'on-budget' thanks to the team of construction professionals. With partners like JF Capital, I continue to be bullish on the demand-side of housing in the Salt Lake City market. Utah's job growth is almost 2.5x the national rate and Utah's population growth is about 2.25x the national average. All things being equal, job growth multiplies population growth -- two key drivers to GDP growth -- and in real terms, this is why Utah continues to be the fastest growing state today." Randy Norton, Green Mesa Capital.

With companies like Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, Overstock, and Goldman Sachs increasing their employee headcounts, Salt Lake City is an attractive option for those heading into the workforce. Amidst this strong rental market, MODA S-Line provides an inviting location that gives residents easy access to public transit, shopping, and recreational activities.

"We are excited about being part of this emerging market and look forward to providing a boutique style property for residents looking for an exceptional home in a smaller community setting." Glenn Girsberger, J. Fisher Companies

Green Mesa Capital is privately owned and independently operated as a single-family office. Headquartered in Nevada, the Company was founded in 2014 specializing in traditional and alternative investments. The investment mandate is heavily weighted towards a multi-strategy single-sector focus: institutional real estate in North America and Western Europe. A real estate and alternative investment portfolio consists of four asset classes: (i) venture; (ii) private debt; (iii) private equity; and (iv) marketable securities. For more information visit www.GreenMesaCapital.com.

JF Capital is a Utah-based real estate investment management and development firm dedicated to delivering superior, risk-adjusted returns to its investors. This S-line project marks over 800 completed units for JF Capital with an additional 500 units upcoming this year. To date, JF Capital has completed an impressive spectrum of services to investors and boasts over $800 million in real estate acquisition and development. The MODA S-Line property is located at 2250 South 400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information about this project, or other J. Fisher Company projects, visit www.JFcapital.com.

SOURCE JF Capital

Related Links

http://www.jfcapital.com/


MINNEAPOLIS, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Braun Intertec, a premier engineering, consulting and testing firm with offices throughout Texas, is pleased to announce Keith Linton, CHMM, BCES, has joined the Austin, Texas office as Senior Environmental Consultant. Linton brings decades of environmental site assessment and remediation experience working with refinery clients, oil and gas clients operating in the Eagle Ford shale, oilfield service companies, chemical manufacturers as well as power clients.

"I'm incredibly pleased to welcome Keith to the team," says Braun Intertec CEO, Jon Carlson. "His impressive environmental project background and strong reputation within the Texas energy industry will further enhance our ability to deliver quality services to the Houston and Austin metropolitan areas."

During the past 20 years, Linton developed significant experience performing risk-based assessments on Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Superfund, Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) and other corrective action sites. With his technical skill set including human health and ecological risk assessments, as well as deep regulatory knowledge, Linton brings immense value to clients by developing and implementing strategies to successfully achieve site closure. He has managed large, complex remediation projects for energy clients, including one most recently that successfully received approval for an extensive cleanup at a former refinery site.

Linton holds a Master of Science degree in environmental science from the University of Texas Health Science Center, with an emphasis on toxicology and human health risk assessment. He also holds the Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) credential and is a Board Certified Environmental Scientist (BCES) through the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists in the specialty of Environmental Toxicology.

About Braun Intertec

Based in Minneapolis, employee-owned Braun Intertec (www.braunintertec.com) is a premier engineering, environmental consulting and testing firm with nearly 1,000 employees located in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. Braun Intertec subsidiaries include Agile Frameworks, LLC; and Braun Intertec Geothermal, LLC; both based in Minneapolis.

SOURCE Braun Intertec

Related Links

http://www.braunintertec.com


Inspired by a Kiehl's icon  the motorcycle  a spirit of adventure and philanthropic heritage, the eighth annual LifeRide continues the brand's mission to heighten awareness and raise funds for amfAR. This year the multi-city charity ride takes place over 8 days, from July 31-Aug. 7, 2017, beginning in Minneapolis and ending in Nashville.

Rallying with the public at nine store stops along the route, Kiehl's will donate a total of $100,000 over the course of the ride. At each stop, the public can meet the riders, social media influencers, learn more about amfAR and contribute to the non-profit. At the conclusion of this year's ride, Kiehl's LifeRide for amfAR will have ridden more than 11,500 miles since 2010, and raised more than $1.7 million, funding nine cure-related research projects.

Chris Salgardo, President, Kiehl's USA and Kevin Robert Frost, CEO, amfAR will lead this year's riders:

Ian Bohen, actor, Teen Wolf

JR Bourne, actor, Somewhere Between

Anthony Carrino, co-host, Kitchen Cousins

Gilles Marini, actor, Switched at Birth

Grant Reynolds, host/producer, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Luke Wessman, tattoo artist, Miami/NY Ink

Tyler Posey, actor, Teen Wolf

Key partners for the ride include Cadillac, Delta Air Lines, and Hedon helmets.

JOIN THE RIDE!

Kiehl's and amfAR invite all to be a part of the ride: Press and public are welcome at the following stops:

MONDAY, JULY 31MINNEAPOLIS

Kiehl's Since 1851 , Mall of America, 8100 24 th Ave., Bloomington , MN, 11 AM- 12 PM

, Mall of America, 8100 24 Ave., , MN, 11 AM-

Kiehl's at Macy's , Ridgedale Center, 12411 Wayzata Blvd., Minnetonka, MN , 12:30-1:30 PM



, Ridgedale Center, 12411 Wayzata Blvd., , WEDNESDAY, AUG. 2CHICAGOLAND

Kiehl's at Von Maur , Yorktown Center, 145 Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, IL , 1:30-2:30 PM

, Yorktown Center, 145 Yorktown Shopping Center, ,

Kiehl's at Bloomingdale's , 900 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL , 4:30-5:30 PM



900 North Michigan Ave., , THURSDAY, AUG. 3CHICAGOLAND

Kiehl's Since 1851 , The Shops at North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL , 11 AM-12 PM



, The Shops at North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave., , FRIDAY, AUG. 4INDIANAPOLIS

Kiehl's Since 1851, The Fashion Mall at Keystone, 8702 Keystone Crossing, Indianapolis, IN , 12-1 PM



The Fashion Mall at Keystone, 8702 Keystone Crossing, , 12-1 PM SATURDAY, AUG. 5LEXINGTON

Kiehl's at Dillard's, Fayette Mall, 3625 Nicholasville Rd., Lexington, KY , 11:30 AM-12:30 PM



Fayette Mall, 3625 Nicholasville Rd., , MONDAY, AUG. 7NASHVILLE

Kiehl's at Dillard's, CoolSprings Galleria, 1796 Galleria Blvd., Franklin, TN , 11AM-12PM

CoolSprings Galleria, 1796 Galleria Blvd., ,

LIFERIDE FINALE! Kiehl's Since 1851, The Mall at Green Hills, 2126 Abbott Martin Road, Nashville, TN , 12:30-1:30 PM

In celebration, every customer attending one of the events at the Kiehl's retail stores will receive a 15% discount on all purchases, with the exception of charitable products and value sets.

Kiehl's will also offer a nationwide fundraising discount of 15% off all purchases with the exception of charitable products and value sets at remaining Kiehl's retail stores nationwide and Kiehls.com, Aug. 4 through Aug. 7.

Kiehl's will donate that 15% difference to amfAR, up to the $100,000 total donation

#THECUREISINOURHANDS

Kiehl's customers nationwide can join LifeRide and the fight against HIV/AIDS:

Share a selfie with a heart made from your hands , tag @Kiehls, @amfAR and hashtag #LifeRide8. Kiehl's will donate $1 for every Instagram post, up to $25,000 , to amfAR.



, tag @Kiehls, @amfAR and hashtag #LifeRide8. Kiehl's will donate for every Instagram post, up to , to amfAR. Share the amfAR PSA featuring Charli XCX! Help continue the conversation about HIV/AIDS and amfAR's work to find a cure. View the full PSA at KiehlsNYC on YouTube.



Help continue the conversation about HIV/AIDS and amfAR's work to find a cure. View the full PSA at KiehlsNYC on YouTube. Limited Edition Ultimate Strength Hand Salve benefits amfAR: 100% of purchase price from the sale of this product, up to $25,000 , will benefit amfAR. The Limited Edition Ultimate Strength Hand Salve is $28.50 at all Kiehl's retail stores, Kiehls.com and specialty stores nationwide.



100% of purchase price from the sale of this product, up to , will benefit amfAR. The Limited Edition Ultimate Strength Hand Salve is at all Kiehl's retail stores, Kiehls.com and specialty stores nationwide. Donate in-store. Kiehl's retail stores nationwide will accept donations for amfAR. Find your closest store with the store locator on Kiehls.com.

Together, from these elements, and with the help of our friends, customers and riders, by the end of the eight annual Kiehl's LifeRide for amfAR, Kiehl's will have raised more than $150,000 in 2017, and more than $1,700,000 in total or amfAR via motorcycle rides and event donations since 2010. Join us on LifeRidehelp amfAR make AIDS history.

NINTH CURE-RELATED GRANT

The proceeds from the 2017 Kiehl's LifeRide for amfAR will fund a specific grant to aid the research of Dr. Daniela Fera. Dr. Fera received a grant under the Mathilde Krim Fellowships in Basic Biomedical Research, an annual research initiative created to support bright young scientists seeking innovative solutions to HIV/AIDS. She will study the structure of a small number of antibodies that are able to "see" through HIV's defensive shield via holes in its sugar, or glycan, coat by using long, finger-like extensions called CDR3. She will assess the significance of CD3 in targeting HIV as a potential tool in designing a better vaccine. Dr. Fera is an accomplished scientist and teacher who has won several awards for her work in structural biology during her postdoctoral training at Boston Children's Hospital. For more, visit http://www.amfar.org/krim2016/

#LifeRide8

To find out more about LifeRide and get involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, please visit www.kiehls.com/liferide2017

#LifeRide8 #Kiehls #TheCureIsInOurHands

Like @KiehlsUS on Facebook

Tweet @Kiehls

Tag @Kiehls on Instagram

Snap @kiehls

Subscribe to KiehlsNYC on YouTube

Press Contact: Rachael Kelley

Phone: 917-606-2757

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Kiehl's Since 1851

Related Links

http://www.kiehls.com


With a strong love of nature playing an integral role in each company's roots, Klean Kanteen and Subaru continue their history of partnering with organizations and non-profits, such as Leave No Trace, that share their core values and align with Subaru's environmentally-focused platform, Subaru Loves the Earth. Through these successful endeavors, Klean Kanteen and Subaru encourage responsible recreation and exploration of Earth's natural wonders. The two companies have committed their ongoing support of the National Park Services' Zero- Landfill Initiatives at Yosemite, Denali and Grand Teton National Parks, in an effort to significantly reduce waste going into landfills from all national parks.

"At Klean, we're proud to be family-owned, a B-Corp and a 1% for the Planet Member," says Jim Osgood, president & CEO at Klean Kanteen. "We run our business differently than most, and are committed to a triple bottom line approach to create positive impact in the world. For us, the partnerships we keep are incredibly importantthey feed our mission to inspire awareness around reusable solutions and reduce single use waste. Working with likeminded brands like Subaru who share our core values allows us to do just that."

"Subaru strongly believes in cherishing and protecting the environment so that generations to come can enjoy all of Earth's natural wonders," said Thomas J. Doll, president and COO, Subaru of America, Inc. "We are thrilled to team up with Klean Kanteen to support our shared mission of environmental stewardship, by encouraging and educating communities across the country on how they can do their part to help the planet."

As part of the partnership, Klean Kanteen will continue to support Subaru-sponsored events throughout the U.S. for the next two years, through infrastructure, water stations, custom product and onsite education. In addition, Klean and Subaru will continue to collaborate on developing custom product for all major Subaru launches.

"We've been working closely with Subaru on events for several years, and formalizing and extending the partnership to other areas of business is a natural and exciting step for both teams," said Melissa McClary, field marketing manager, Klean Kanteen. "We love how Subaru's values and mission align perfectly with oursworking together, we are committed to programs, events and initiatives that help make a positive impact."

To learn more about Subaru Loves the Earth and the environmental work Subaru does, visit: https://www.subaru.com/csr/environment.html; To learn more about Klean, visit www.kleankanteen.com.

About Subaru of America, Inc.

Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Cherry Hill, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of more than 620 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise, which is the company's vision to show love and respect to everyone, and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA has donated more than $120 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged more than 40,000 volunteer hours. As a company, Subaru believes it is important to do its part in making a positive impact in the world because it is the right thing to do.

For additional information visit media.subaru.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Klean Kanteen

A leader in BPA-free, stainless steel drinkware and food transport, Klean Kanteen is family owned and operated, with distribution in 40-plus countries worldwide. With environmental stewardship and fair labor central to the company's philosophy, Klean Kanteen is in Business for Good. A 1% for the Planet member, Klean is committed to donating at least 1% of net revenue to qualified nonprofit organizations focused on environmental work, and has donated over $1.5 million to date. In 2012, Klean Kanteen proudly became a B Corporation, certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. For more information, please visit www.kleankanteen.com.

Contact: Jen Burn, Backbone Media

Tel. 970-963-4873 ext. 145

Email: [email protected]

Contact: Diane Anton, Subaru of America, Inc.

Tel. 856-488-5093

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Subaru of America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.subaru.com


Kumon, the world's largest after-school math and reading program, understands the importance of advanced study and discovering the true potential of children. As a learning program based on ability rather than age or grade, it is common to see children in Kumon Centers studying math and/or reading material two to three years above their school grade level.

Out of thousands of high-achieving Kumon Students from the United States and Canada, 25 were selected to attend the first ever student conference at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida on July 20th. The 25 students were selected from over 3,200 applicants who are currently studying at least three years above their grade level at their respective Kumon Centers.

"Our founder believed that by developing a child's ability through the Kumon Method, he or she will grow into a kind and responsible citizen, and that when those individuals work together, it will benefit the greater good of society," said Dominique Ciccarelli, Ed. M., education expert for Kumon North America. "The purpose of the conference was to inspire and challenge students to follow their dreams, and what better place to do that than where 'dreams come true.'"

The student conference built upon Kumon's vision by encouraging students to pursue "J by 6" or the study of advanced algebra and critical reading (Level J in Kumon) before the end of sixth grade. Many of the students selected to attend have already reached this goal, while the rest are well on their way. The ultimate goal of completing the Kumon Math and Reading Programs make students well prepared for the study of high school material.

During the conference, students had the chance to learn from each other through a variety of group discussions, team building activities and critical thinking sessions. They also received the unique opportunity to hear from inspirational Kumon Program Completers.

Discover how Kumon is unlocking the potential of every child through self-learning and advanced study.

About Kumon Math & Reading Centers:

Kumon is an after-school math and reading enrichment program that unlocks the potential of children, so they can achieve more on their own. The learning method uses an individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Through daily practice and mastery of materials, students increase confidence, improve concentration, and develop better study skills. Kumon has over four million students enrolled in nearly 25,000 learning centers in 50 countries and regions.

SOURCE Kumon North America, Inc.
SANTA ANA, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Labor Commissioner's Office has cited two California towing companies in Anaheim and Oakland $4,874,661 for multiple wage theft violations affecting 187 workers including tow truck drivers, dispatchers and mechanics.

The Labor Commissioner's Office last December launched an investigation into Irvine Auto Towing, Inc. dba Pride Towing and Recovery in Anaheim, and Yaco Investments Inc. dba Stride Towing and Recovery in Oakland, after a former worker at Pride Towing filed a wage claim and reported labor law violations. Noel Yaqo and his son Aram Yaco own and operate both towing companies through their corporations, Irvine Auto Towing, Inc. and Yaco Investments Inc.

Employees generally worked 12-hour shifts with no meal or rest breaks, and some worked seven days a week. Pride Towing typically paid workers $110 per day, resulting in an underpayment of regular wages, and Stride Towing failed to pay workers for all overtime hours worked. Drivers and mechanics also incurred unlawful deductions and were charged for uniforms and for any accidents or damages incurred while working in the field.

"This is an egregious case of wage theft affecting a large group of workers who were denied a just day's pay and forced to work without meal or rest breaks," said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. "My office enforces California's labor laws to prevent employers from cheating workers as a means to gain an unfair advantage over their law-abiding competitors."

The Labor Commissioner's Office issued citations to Irvine Auto Towing, Inc. and Yaco Investments Inc. for violations of minimum wage, overtime and meal and rest period provisions for 129 workers at Pride Towing from June 15, 2014 to February 16, 2017, and for 58 workers at Stride Towing from August 15, 2015 to February 16, 2017. The citations include liquidated damages and waiting time penalties, as well as itemized wage statement violations. Both employers have appealed the citations.

When workers are paid less than minimum wage, they are entitled to liquidated damages that equal the amount of underpaid wages plus interest. Waiting time penalties are imposed when the employer fails to provide workers their final paycheck after separation. This penalty is calculated by taking the employee's daily rate of pay and multiplying it by the number of days the employee was not paid, up to a maximum of 30 days.

The Labor Commissioner's Office, officially known as the Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, inspects workplaces for wage and hour violations, adjudicates wage claims, investigates retaliation complaints, issues licenses and registrations for businesses, enforces prevailing wage rates and apprenticeship standards in public works projects, and educates the public on labor laws.

In 2014, Labor Commissioner Julie Su launched the Wage Theft is a Crime multilingual public awareness campaign. The campaign defines wage theft and informs workers of their rights and the resources available to them to recover unpaid wages or report other labor law violations. Employees with work-related questions or complaints may contact DIR's Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734).

Members of the press may contact Paola Laverde or Peter Melton at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR's press releases or other departmental updates.

The California Department of Industrial Relations, established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. For general inquiries, contact DIR's Communications Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department.

SOURCE California Department of Industrial Relations

Related Links

http://www.dir.ca.gov/


AUSTIN, Texas, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumesse, an international talent management software specialist, today announced the latest version of ETWeb Empower, a talent management suite designed to overcome today's most-pressing talent-related challenges: disengagement and attrition.

With employee attrition on the rise, and a startling one-third of employees leaving within the first six months, it is crucial to treat your employees like customers and continuously nurture them in positive and productive ways that go beyond typical rewards and compensation. These alternative benefits include L&D and career navigation and advancement opportunities, as well as cross-departmental opportunities to broaden the employee's versatility and get them on the right individual career path.

"If opportunities aren't made available to them, if they feel disengaged or their career is stagnating, they will seek opportunities outside the organization," says Diane Palmquist, Lumesse U.S. company manager. "Lumesse ETWeb Empower provides employees with transparency into corporate goals, continuous feedback toward expectations, and access to interactive learning and development and collaborative projects so your people can direct their own paths."

A software as a service (SaaS) solution, ETWeb Empower equips organizations with the easy-to-deploy, easy-to-use tools and framework to engage, develop and motivate employees in alignment with career and company goals.

An "engaged workforce" is logically and statistically a more productive one and Lumesse facilitates this correlation by providing the environment in which to ensure continuous performance management and feedback, as well as stimulate dialogue, collaboration and self-directed learning and development (L&D).

Changing Workforce Requires Modern, More Inclusive Approach

A number of digital age factors have contributed toward employee attrition including social networking and easier visibility into outside job opportunities. Meanwhile, the gig economy and Millennial mind-set have made it more fashionable for employees to switch jobs every couple of years. Traditional performance management practices, such as annual review and compensation, can no longer adequately address these costly talent-attrition threats, and a number of prominent Fortune 500 firms and analysts have discarded or cast scepticism on these approaches.

Continuous performance management, including embedded continuous feedback, has taken over as a better way to retain, encourage and mobilize talent toward company success.

ETWeb Empower links your employee and contractor database, employee portal, L&D programs, performance management system, succession plans and rewards and compensation to the corporate plan, all within an integrated toolset. This allows employees and their managers to continuously track status and make progress toward career development and corporate goals.

The new release bolsters ETWeb Empower's already strong performance management features of goal tracking and alignment so managers and employees can collaborate on a regular basis to supplement or replace the more traditional quarterly or annual performance management process, which by itself doesn't support the interaction today's workforces need. ETWeb Empower's Career Navigator feature gives the employee transparency into what career paths within the company exist, and what he or she needs to learn or develop for that role. Meanwhile, HR can view employee preferences and search specific talent pools to find and select the best candidate who fits the position.

ETWeb Empower offers access to mobile tools and familiar social networking techniques with which employees can access information and best practices and collaborate on projects. A mobile centric UI integrates the characteristics of today's consumer tools, apps and games to create further engagement, enabling employees to acknowledge each other, provide feedback and encouragement, and earn merits and badges.

Hundreds of organizations across the world use Lumesse ETWeb to meet their talent management needs, while approximately 20 customers, including Rheinmetall, Dohler, Citycon and BIA Group, have already adopted the latest version, ETWeb Empower.

"The knowledge, skills and direction your people need is out there," explains Carsten Busch, general manager for Lumesse talent management,"and they should not have to wait for scheduled quarterly performance assessments or infrequent training sessions to access this feedback and learning. ETWeb Empower provides an integrated digital talent management and learning toolset that teams can use to continuously evaluate and optimize skill and contribution."

About Lumesse

Lumesse is a leading international provider of SaaS talent management and talent acquisition solutions. Lumesse balances extensive multi-national and multi-industry coverage and experience with local expertise to solve your recruitment, talent management and learning and development challenges anywhere in the world. We help global organizations to implement successful local talent management initiatives that identify, nurture and develop the right people, in the right place, at the right time. Our multi-cultural background and presence means we understand how to deliver talent solutions that work the way our customers work, as individuals and as teams, because no two people, organisations or cultures are the same. More than 1,500 of the biggest and best brands in the world work with us in over 70 countries and 50 languages because they recognize that commitment, innovation and value only come from people. We help customers to unlock and inspire that human potential in their businesses by providing a seamless and engaging experience for your recruitment, talent management and learning users, regardless of time, location or device type.

For more information visit www.lumesse.com

Press contacts:

Lumesse

Greg Latson

[email protected]

Phone: 1 512.961.6160

SOURCE Lumesse

Related Links

http://www.lumesse.com


COSTA MESA, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LG ranks highest in customer satisfaction in seven of the 11 kitchen and laundry appliance segments, according to the J.D. Power 2017 Kitchen Appliance Satisfaction StudySM and the J.D. Power 2017 Laundry Appliance Satisfaction Study,SM both released today.

According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), the major appliance industry was up 3% in 2016 and is up 7% in June 2017 year to date. Aggressive pricing and promotions pushed this increase over the past 18 months as manufacturers and retailers battled for market share. Additionally, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI), the consumer market for major household appliances is expected to reach $25.3 billion in 2017 and $28.1 billion by 2021.

"Major appliance companies continue to be at the forefront of the industry with innovative products, features and styles. LG has clearly delivered on all of these measures this year, delighting their customers," said Greg Truex, senior director of the at-home practice at J.D. Power. "Competition in the market is extremely fierce, and LG and Samsung are really pushing the industry by adding features that appeal to the needs of consumers."

In recognition of the omnichannel strategies being pursued by the top appliance manufacturers in conjunction with their retail partners, this year's studies have been enhanced with pathway-to-purchase questions to better identify where consumers are shopping and how the customer experience is affected by the different paths they take to purchase.

Brand Rankings and Performance

LG: Seven Awards

LG ranks highest in all three laundry segmentsfront-load washer (861 on a 1,000-point scale), top-load washer (845) and clothes dryer (868)as well as highest in the dishwasher segment (850), freestanding range segment (864), French door refrigerator segment (850) and top-mount freezer refrigerator segment (809).

LG performs particularly well in four important factors: performance and reliability; ease of use; features; and styling and appearance.

Bosch: Three Awards

Bosch ranks highest in two of the cooking appliancescooktops (838) and wall ovens (840)and shares the top rank in over-the-range microwaves (833).

Bosch performs particularly well in the features, warranty and price factors across the three appliances.

Kitchen Appliance Satisfaction Study

Side-by-Side Refrigerators

Samsung (848) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with side-by-side refrigerators and performs particularly well in two factors: performance and reliability and styling and appearance. Samsung is followed in the rankings by KitchenAid and LG (839 each). KitchenAid performs particularly well in warranty while LG performs particularly well in features.

French Door Refrigerators

LG (850) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with French door refrigerators, performing particularly well in three factors: ease of use; performance and reliability; and styling and appearance. Samsung (846) follows in the rankings and performs particularly well in features and warranty.

Top-Mount Freezer Refrigerators

LG (809) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with top-mount freezer refrigerators and performs particularly well in two factors: ease of use and performance and reliability. Following LG in the rankings is Maytag (804).

Dishwashers

LG (850) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with dishwashers and performs particularly well in two factors: features and styling and appearance. Maytag (849) follows in the rankings and performs particularly well in performance and reliability and styling and appearance.

Freestanding Ranges

LG (864) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with freestanding ranges and performs particularly well in four factors: features; performance and reliability; price; and styling and appearance. Following LG in the rankings is Maytag (855).

Cooktops

Bosch (838) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with cooktops for a third consecutive year and performs particularly well in two factors: features and warranty. Following Bosch in the rankings is GE Appliances and Kenmore (832 each).

Wall Ovens

Bosch (840) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with wall ovens and performs particularly well in three factors: performance and reliability; price; and warranty. KitchenAid (834) follows in the rankings and performs particularly well in ease of use and styling and appearance.

Over-the-Range Microwaves

Bosch and KitchenAid (833 each) rank highest in customer satisfaction with over-the-range microwaves. Bosch performs particularly well in two factorsprice and warrantywhile KitchenAid performs particularly well in three factors: ease of use; features; and performance and reliability. Following Bosch and KitchenAid in the rankings is Kenmore (832).

Laundry Appliance Satisfaction Study

Top-Load Washers

LG (845) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with top-load washers, performing particularly well in three factors: features; performance and reliability; and styling and appearance. LG is followed in the rankings by Samsung (841).

Front-Load Washers

LG (861) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with front-load washers, performing particularly well in four factors: ease of use; features; performance and reliability; and styling and appearance. LG is followed in the rankings by Samsung (851).

Clothes Dryers

LG (868) ranks highest in customer satisfaction with clothes dryers, performing particularly well in ease of use; features; and performance and reliability. Following LG in the rankings is Samsung (857).

About the Studies

The Laundry Appliance Satisfaction Study and the Kitchen Appliance Satisfaction Study, now in their 12th and 13th years, respectively, measure customer satisfaction in 11 segments of major home appliances: clothes washers (front-load washers and top-load washers are measured separately); clothes dryers; dishwashers; cooking appliances (cooktops, freestanding ranges and wall ovens are measured separately); over-the-range microwaves; and refrigerators (French door refrigerators, side-by-side refrigerators and top-mount freezer refrigerators are measured separately).

The 2017 Laundry Appliance Satisfaction Study is based on more than 6,240 evaluations from customers who purchased clothes washers and/or clothes dryers during the past 12 months. The study was fielded in February through March 2017.

The 2017 Kitchen Appliance Satisfaction Study is based on more than 2,300 evaluations from customers who purchased dishwashers; more than 4,300 evaluations from customers who purchased cooking appliances; more than 2,225 evaluations from customers who purchased over-the-range microwaves; and more than 5,875 evaluations from customers who purchased refrigerators during the past 12 months. The study was fielded in February through March 2017.

For more information about J.D. Power solutions for the home improvement industry, visit http://www.jdpower.com/industry/home-improvement.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2017109.

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices serving North/South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. J.D. Power is a portfolio company of XIO Group, a global alternative investments and private equity firm headquartered in London, and is led by its four founders: Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer.

Media Relations Contacts

Jillian Breska; Costa Mesa, Calif.; 714-481-9115; [email protected]

John Roderick; St. James, N.Y.; 631-584-2200; [email protected]

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules www.jdpower.com/about-us/press-release-info

Study Rankings

Overall Customer Satisfaction Ranking JDPower.com Power Circle Ratings (Based on a 1,000-point scale) For Consumers

Dishwasher Segment

LG 850 5 Maytag 849 5 KitchenAid 846 5 Electrolux 842 4 Kenmore Elite 838 4 Bosch 837 4 Kenmore 836 4 Dishwashers Average 825 3 Bosch Ascenta 822 3 Samsung 822 3 Amana 815 3 Frigidaire Gallery 811 2 Whirlpool 811 2 GE Appliances 804 2 Frigidaire 795 2

Freestanding Ranges Segment

LG 864 5 Maytag 855 4 Kenmore Elite 848 4 Samsung 845 4 Bosch 833 3 Freestanding Ranges Average 833 3 Frigidaire 830 3 KitchenAid 830 3 Frigidaire Gallery 828 3 Whirlpool 828 3 Kenmore 822 3 GE Appliances 821 2 Amana 805 2

Cooktops Segment

Bosch 838 5 GE Appliances 832 3 Kenmore 832 3 KitchenAid 831 3 Whirlpool 831 3 Cooktops Average 830 3 Frigidaire 810 2

Wall Ovens Segment

Bosch 840 5 KitchenAid 834 4 Whirlpool 830 4 Wall Ovens Average 825 3 Frigidaire 820 3 GE Appliances 819 3 Kenmore 799 2

Over-the-Range Microwaves

Bosch 833 5 KitchenAid 833 5 Kenmore 832 5 LG 831 5 Frigidaire 830 5 Samsung 830 5 Frigidaire Gallery 828 4 Over-the-Range Microwaves Average 822 3 Whirlpool 821 3 Maytag 819 3 Amana 810 2 GE Appliances 808 2 Kenmore Elite 792 2

Side-by-Side Refrigerators Segment

Samsung 848 5 KitchenAid 839 4 LG 839 4 GE Appliances 834 4 Maytag 827 3 Kenmore Elite 825 3 Amana 823 3 Kenmore 823 3 Side-by-Side



Refrigerators Average 823 3 Frigidaire Gallery 810 2 Frigidaire 808 2 Whirlpool 806 2

French Door Refrigerators Segment

LG 850 5 Samsung 846 4 Maytag 842 3 Kenmore 840 3 French Door



Refrigerators Average 839 3 Kenmore Elite 838 3 GE Appliances 835 3 KitchenAid 833 3 Whirlpool 825 2 Frigidaire Gallery 812 2

Top-Mount Freezer Refrigerators Segment

LG 809 5 Maytag 804 4 Frigidaire Gallery 802 4 Top-Mount Freezer Refrigerators Average 775 3 Kenmore 774 3 Whirlpool 773 3 Frigidaire 768 3 GE Appliances 765 2

Front-Load Washers Segment

LG 861 5 Samsung 851 4 Kenmore Elite 849 3 Whirlpool 849 3 Front-Load Washers Average 846 3 Electrolux 844 3 GE Appliances 840 3 Kenmore 825 2 Maytag 824 2 Amana 818 2

Top-Load Washers Segment

LG 845 5 Samsung 841 5 Kenmore Elite 840 4 Maytag 831 4 Top-Load Washers Average 825 3 Whirlpool 822 3 Kenmore 817 3 Amana 808 2 Frigidaire 804 2 GE Appliances 803 2

Clothes Dryers Segment

LG 868 5 Samsung 857 4 Maytag 853 4 Kenmore Elite 848 3 Whirlpool 847 3 Clothes Dryers Average 845 3 Electrolux 841 3 Kenmore 832 2 GE Appliances 821 2 Amana 814 2 Frigidaire 812 2

Power Circle Ratings Legend 5  Among the best 4  Better than most 3  About average 2  The rest

Award-Eligible Kitchen and Laundry Appliance Brands Included in the Study Company Key Executive Company Location Amana Jeff Fettig Benton Harbor, Mich. Bosch Christofer von Nagle Irvine, Calif. Bosch Ascenta Christofer von Nagle Irvine, Calif. Electrolux Alan Shaw Charlotte, N.C. Frigidaire Alan Shaw Charlotte, N.C. Frigidaire Gallery Alan Shaw Charlotte, N.C. GE Appliances Kevin Nolan Louisville, Ky. Kenmore Edward Lampert Hoffman Estates, Ill. Kenmore Elite Edward Lampert Hoffman Estates, Ill. KitchenAid Jeff Fettig Benton Harbor, Mich. LG William Cho Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Maytag Jeff Fettig Benton Harbor, Mich. Samsung Tim Baxter Ridgefield Park, N.J. Whirlpool Jeff Fettig Benton Harbor, Mich.

SOURCE J.D. Power

Related Links

http://www.jdpower.com


"Conversations around National Lipstick Day have traditionally been focused on best-sellers and general lipstick facts," says Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle, SVP of Marketing, L'Oreal Paris USA . "As a brand that has supported the individual beauty and intrinsic worth of all people for over forty years, we wanted to participate in and elevate the conversation by not only celebrating our newest Colour Riche lip launch but even more importantly, people's powerful words. The Colour Riche Matte Lipstick are ultra-rich, ultra-comfortable and available in a spectrum of 16 gorgeous matte shades, allowing everyone to find a favorite shade and help make their lips bold in more ways than one."

The brand's powerhouse roster of celebrity spokeswomen, along with brand experts and social influencers, will come together on National Lipstick Day to show off their favorite lip shade and share empowering messages on social media. Everyone can easily join the campaign by uploading photos or videos of themselves wearing a bold lip color and sharing why their lips are bold in more ways than one  whether helping to advance an important message, championing a cause or sharing an inspirational quote. To participate, posts should tag @lorealmakeup using #ReadMyLips and #lorealparis.

By using the #ReadMyLips and #lorealparis hashtags, posts will be aggregated to create a global platform where people's voices can be seen, heard and shared. Additionally, L'Oreal Paris will further elevate select posts on their own global social channels and showcase both the bold looks and meaningful sentiments people are expressing, helping to inspire and encourage others.

About L'Oreal Paris:

The L'Oreal Paris division of L'Oreal USA, Inc. is a total beauty care brand dedicated to empowering women by offering the most luxurious and innovative products and services available in the mass market. The brand's signature tagline, "Because I'm Worth It," was born in the United States in 1971 to celebrate the beauty and intrinsic self-worth of women, and for more than 100 years, L'Oreal Paris has been providing women around the world with products in four major beauty categories: hair color, haircare, skincare and cosmetics. With L'Oreal's invention of hair color in 1909, the brand continues to serve as the leading innovator of hair products across color, care, and styling with brands such as Superior Preference, Feria, Excellence Creme, Advanced Haircare, the Ever Collection, Advanced Hairstyle, and Elnett Satin Hairspray. As the #1 Skin Expert brand worldwide, L'Oreal Paris provides scientifically-advanced skincare products that are clinically proven to address individual skin concerns through its renowned brands Revitalift, Hydra Genius, Age Perfect, and Sublime Bronze. L'Oreal Paris' iconic cosmetics collections include Infallible, True Match, Colour Riche, Voluminous, and Visible Lift. For more information about L'Oreal Paris and to receive personalized advice, expert tips, and exclusive content , please visit www.lorealparisusa.com or follow on Instagram (@lorealmakeup, @lorealhair, @lorealskin, @lorealmen), Snapchat (@LOrealMakeup), Twitter (@@LorealParisUSA), Facebook (@LorealParisUSA) and Pinterest (@LorealParisUSA).

About L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Matte Lipstick:

Colour Riche Matte is L'Oreal Paris' first matte lipstick collection. The products are formulated with pure-color pigments to create intense color, while blurring gels and mattifying ingredients creates a soft-focus and matte effect on lips. Formulated with jojoba oil for smooth comfort, lips are left feeling soft, smooth and wrapped in rich on-trend color and finish. The collection is available in a spectrum of 16 gorgeous shades.

Contact:

Jacqueline Glasner, Alison Brod Marketing + Communications, [email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539345/LOREAL_PARIS_National_Lipstick_Day.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539346/LOREAL_PARIS_Lipstick_Day_Join_Us.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/467870/LOreal_Paris_Logo.jpg

SOURCE L'Oreal Paris
"Every day is National Lipstick Day for me," shares Lucy. "I've always loved experimenting with lipstick. Whether I'm going for high-impact color or something way more subtle, a single swipe of Avon color instantly defines my look  from a pale pink to a bold red shade."

Kelsey Deenihan, Avon Celebrity Makeup Artist, agrees: "Lipstick is an incredibly important part of every look. With Avon, you don't have to sacrifice a comfortable, wearable formula for bold color. The brand offers dozens of shades in different finishes, allowing women to find their perfect red, nude, pink or berry."

From sheer and light to dark and bright, there's an Avon True Color shade that's perfect for each and every woman across the country. Avon lipstick by the facts:

An Avon lipstick is sold every 15 seconds in the U.S.

lipstick is sold every The most popular shade is Cherry Jubilee . To see a breakdown of top trending shades across the country, click here

To see a breakdown of top trending shades across the country, click here Avon sells more than two million lipsticks every year in the U.S., which means that if each lipstick were a mile, Avon could span the earth more than 500 times.

Avon True Color Technology ensures the color you buy is the color you apply. Each lipstick is blended with rich pigments that guarantee your color stays true all day. Avon True Color Lipsticks are available in the following formulas:

Avon True Color Lipstick  The brand's hero formula comes in over 40 gorgeous shades with two finishes: satin and shimmer.

 The brand's hero formula comes in over 40 gorgeous shades with two finishes: satin and shimmer. Avon True Color Nourishing Lipstick  Ten shades of lasting color and conditioning care in one lipstick, infused with nourishing jojoba oil, vitamin E, collagen and lanolin.

 Ten shades of lasting color and conditioning care in one lipstick, infused with nourishing jojoba oil, vitamin E, collagen and lanolin. Avon True Color Bold Lipstick  This full-coverage formula is packed with pigment-loading technology in eight shades.

 This full-coverage formula is packed with pigment-loading technology in eight shades. Avon True Color Perfectly Matte Lipstick  Twelve matte shades that never cake, crack or compromise color.

Join Avon in celebrating National Lipstick Day this Saturday, July 29 and enter for a chance to win all 40 shades of Avon True Color Lipstick. Enter our Truly Kissable Sweepstakes now: http://avon4.me/2upGpQp

No purchase necessary. Sweepstakes ends 11:59 pm ET 7/29/17.

For more about Avon lipsticks visit our blog https://www.avon.com/blog/beauty/10-lipstick-facts-you-did-not-know.

Avon True Color Lipsticks are available for $8 each exclusively through Avon Representatives or online at www.avon.com. To locate an Avon Representative call 1-800-FOR-AVON or visit www.avon.com.

About New Avon LLC

New Avon LLC ("Avon") is the leading social selling beauty company in North America, with independent sales Representatives throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Avon's product portfolio includes award-winning skincare, color cosmetics, fragrance and personal care products, featuring iconic brands such as ANEW, Avon Color, mark., and Skin So Soft, as well as fashion and accessories. Avon has a 130 year history of empowering women through economic opportunity, and supporting the causes that matter most to women. Together, Avon and the Avon Foundation for Women have contributed over $1 billion globally toward eradicating breast cancer and domestic violence. Learn more about Avon and its products at www.avon.com.

Contacts

Elizabeth Bergman

Avon

212.282.6133

[email protected]

Lauren Donner

Tractenberg & Co.

212-929-7979

[email protected]

SOURCE New Avon LLC

Related Links

http://avon.com


WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center says, "We are urging any type of lung cancer victim to call us if they had heavy exposure to asbestos at an industrial workplace or while serving in the US Navy. The compensation for these types of individuals can be in the tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially if they are a nonsmoker." Victims of any type of lung cancer who were exposed to asbestos at work, or have been diagnosed with mesothelioma are urged to contact the Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center anytime at 800-714-0303. http://LungCancerAsbestosVictimsCenter.Com

Industrial Workers Asbestos Warning Sign

According to the Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center, "We are trying to help what we estimate to be about 20,000 US citizens this year obtain what could be a substantial financial compensation, if they have any type of lung cancer, provided they had significant exposure to asbestos at an industrial workplace or while serving in the US Navy. The potential compensation amounts could vary, but we could be talking about tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we need family members to help us get these lung cancer victims identified." If a victim of any type of lung cancer had long term exposure to asbestos in their workplace such as the US Navy, a power plant, a factory, an oil refinery or a shipyard they are urged to call us anytime at 800-714-0303."

Upon hearing from a lung cancer victim, the Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center will direct the them, or family members to a very capable law firm, that has an established record of achieving superior results for their clients. For more information, a lung cancer victim or their family members are urged to call the Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center at 800-714-0303. http://LungCancerAsbestosVictimsCenter.Com

Important Note from The Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center: "According to the American Cancer Society, "For nonsmokers who have been exposed to asbestos at their workplace, the risk of lung cancer is five times that of unexposed workers." According to the US Centers for Disease Control the following US states have the highest incidence of lung cancer, "Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont." http://LungCancerasbestosVictimsCenter.Com

From the Veterans Administration: Health problems associated with exposure to asbestos

Breathing asbestos mainly causes problems in the lungs and the membrane that surrounds the lungs, including:

Asbestosis  Scarring of lung tissue that causes breathing problems, usually in workers exposed to asbestos in workplaces before the Federal government began regulating asbestos use (mid-1970s).

Pleural plaques  Scarring in the inner surface of the ribcage and area surrounding the lungs that can cause breathing problems, though usually not as serious as asbestosis. People living in areas with high environmental levels of asbestos, as well as workers, can develop pleural plaques.

Cancer  The two types of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos are lung cancer and mesothelioma. http://LungCancerAsbestosVictimsCenter.Com

For more information about asbestos exposure and cancer please visit the National Cancer Institute's website on this topic: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/asbestos/asbestos-fact-sheet

Contact:

Michael Thomas

800-714-0303

[email protected]

SOURCE Lung Cancer Asbestos Victims Center

Related Links

http://LungCancerAsbestosVictimsCenter.Com


RENO, Nevada, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) ("Magellan" or "the Company"), a U.S. based mining and exploration enterprise focused on silver and gold, today announced that on July 24, 2017, the Company received a letter from OTC Market Groups Inc. ("OTC Markets") advising that OTC Markets had become aware of promotional email news letters touting Magellan and its common stock traded on the OTCQB Marketplace. OTC Markets expressed concern that unusual trading activity in Magellan stock beginning on or about July 18, 2017 appeared to be related to distribution of the materials.

The Company was not previously aware of the promotional materials, did not authorize them and does not condone them. The Company does not know whether the promotional materials impacted the trading of Megellan's stock. The Company encourages investors to rely only on its SEC filings and material available on its website in making investment decisions.

This press release is in response to OTC Markets' request that the Company issue a press release addressing a number of questions related to the promotional materials. These questions center on whether Company insiders or related parties had been involved in creating or distributing the materials.

The Company responds as follows to questions raised by OTC Markets:

The Company became aware of the promotional activities on July 24, 2017 , upon receipt of the OTC Markets letter.

, upon receipt of the OTC Markets letter. The Company was not previously aware of the promotional activities and has no understanding of their effect on the trading activities of the Company's securities.

After inquiry of management, officers, directors, controlling shareholders and third-party service providers, the Company is not aware that any of them have been involved in any way with the creation and distribution of the promotional materials.

After inquiry of management, officers, directors, control persons and third-party service providers, the Company is not aware of any sales or purchases of the Company's securities by any of them within the last 90 days except for sales by an officer as disclosed on a Form 4 filed with the SEC.

Third-party providers currently engaged by the Company to provide investor relations, public relations, and marketing and related services include Intuitive Australia Pty Ltd, Mining Clips, LLC, and Bright Star International, Inc. The Company appropriately disclosed these engagements by filing Current Reports on Form 8-K with the SEC.

The Company has issued stock at prices constituting a discount to the market rate at the time of issuance. In 2016, the Company issued 4,875,000 shares in connection with an equity raise. In April 2017 , the Company issued a total of 5.0 million shares in connection with conversion of amounts owed under a Convertible Promissory Note. The Company currently has no other convertible instruments outstanding. The transactions listed were appropriately disclosed in Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC.

, the Company issued a total of 5.0 million shares in connection with conversion of amounts owed under a Convertible Promissory Note. The Company currently has no other convertible instruments outstanding. The transactions listed were appropriately disclosed in Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC. The Company reviewed the promotional materials, a portion of which was excerpted from a Company press release dated July 18, 2017 . The Company believes that the excerpt is not materially false or misleading but cannot comment on the remainder of the promotional materials.

The letter of July 24, 2017 from OTC Markets advised that it is reviewing the Company's eligibility to continue trading on the OTC Marketplace pursuant to Section 4.2 of the OTCQB Standards. The Company will cooperate in every way possible to facilitate the review.

About Magellan Gold Corporation

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) is a US public enterprise focused on the exploration and development of precious metals. The Company has obtained an option to acquire the SDA flotation plant in the State of Nayarit, Mexico, and controls two precious metals exploration properties located in Arizona and in Peru.

The 100% owned Silver District Property in southwest Arizona comprises over 2,000 acres covering the heart of the historic Silver District. The property contains a near-surface historical drilled resource of 16 million ounces of silver and exhibits exploration promise for significant expansion. The Ninobamba Silver-Gold Property in central Peru, on which the Company has the right to earn a 50% interest, covers 9,027 acres and demonstrates potential for a large, bulk tonnage, silver-gold deposit.

To learn more about Magellan Gold Corporation, visit http://www.magellangoldcorp.com.

Cautionary Statement

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can legally extract or produce. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves. Currently we have not delineated "reserves" on any of our properties. We cannot be certain that any deposits at our properties will ever be confirmed or converted into SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant "reserves." Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of any "resource" estimates will ever be confirmed or converted into reserves or that they can be economically or legally extracted.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that Magellan Gold Corporation believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated are discussed in Magellan Gold Corporation's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contacts:

Magellan Gold Corporation

Pierce Carson (505)463-9223

John Power (707)884-3766



SOURCE Magellan Gold Corporation
TEL AVIV, Israel, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Maniv Mobility LP, the first Israel-based venture fund dedicated exclusively to mobility tech, announced today that it has raised its first fund, in excess of $40 million, twice its target. Limited Partners in Maniv include equity crowdfunding pioneer OurCrowd, InMotion Ventures, a subsidiary of Jaguar Land Rover, and the $14 billion French Tier One supplier, Valeo, as well as hedge funds and family offices.

An affiliate of the 20-year-old Maniv Investments, Maniv Mobility invests primarily at the seed and Series A stage and already boasts a portfolio of 15 mobility technology startups, mostly in Israel with some in the US. Over the last several years, and especially since Intel announced the acquisition of Mobileye for over $15 billion in March, the global automotive industry has increasingly been looking to Israel for the technology building-blocks that will be the center of its future value chain.

Maniv Founder, Michael Granoff has been involved in transportation technology for nearly 15 years, beginning with a role in the creation of the Washington, DC-based energy security policy group, Securing America's Future Energy. He also participated in the electric vehicle infrastructure and services start-up, Better Place, which raised nearly a billion dollars before shuttering in 2013.

"The move in locomotion from gasoline to electric, while being a crucial step, I now realize will also someday be seen as an historical footnote," said Granoff. "The true headline of the coming era in transportation is the switch from manual vehicles to automated ones. Automated vehicles will be electric - breaking oil's stranglehold, and giving us cleaner air. But these vehicles will do so much more: save lives and time through accident avoidance, expand mobility to the young, the old, the infirm, allow us to reclaim precious real estate from idle vehicles, and more."

"We're honoured to be participating in Maniv Mobility's first fund," said Sebastian Peck, Managing Director at InMotion Ventures. "Some hugely promising businesses are being built in Israel, so expanding our reach here has been an important objective. InMotion's mission is to support the best mobility startups all over the world, and this partnership with Maniv will form an integral part of that."

"OurCrowd is excited to be a major investor in Maniv Mobility, which is focusing on the next generation of transportation technology," said Jon Medved, CEO of Limited Partner OurCrowd. "Now that Israel is recognized as a world leader in this sector, there will increased global attention to Maniv's portfolio companies, many of whom are already pioneers in emerging new technologies, ranging from automotive data to advanced sensors, simulation to robotics, and automotive security to inter-vehicle communication."

"Valeo is happy to join Maniv Mobility as Limited Partner, which is a pioneer in the automotive tech area in Israel," said Jacques Aschenbroich, CEO of Valeo. "We can see in the current portfolio that Israel is becoming a major player in several technologies driving the coming revolution of mobility, be it driverless, connected or digital."

"We've had the privilege to meet amazing Founders as they're looking to enter the automotive sector and we are able to help them sharpen their strategy and make key introductions to accelerate their business," said Olaf Sakkers, who has been promoted to the role of Partner at Maniv Mobility. "Success in venture capital is driven by network effects and we're seeing a strong positive feedback loop between the network of relationships we've built in the global automotive and tech industry, public policy sector, and within our portfolio of top-tier startups: each relationship we form gives us the ability to strengthen the others while affording us privileged access to the granular information that moves through such networks."

Maniv is particularly proud that three Founder/CEOs of the portfolio companies asked to become Limited Partners in the fund. "We have terrific relationships with the management of our portfolio companies," said Granoff. "We eat, breath and sleep mobility, so we are able to support them as they strategize and chart their course."

Ben Volkow, Co-founder and CEO of portfolio company otonomo, which recently completed a $25 million Series B, said, "It has been a pleasure to work with Maniv Mobility over the past few years. Michael and Olaf have added real strategic value based on their experience in the transportation industry. I am really impressed by the portfolio they have built and the direction in which they are moving in and am looking forward to being a part of this journey both as a Founder and as an LP in the fund."

"In this sector, we see both a tremendous opportunity to deliver outsized returns to our investors, and a unique chance to help companies make transportation safer, cleaner, more efficient, less expensive and much more versatile," said Maniv Founder, Michael Granoff. "When it comes to the contributions of Israeli entrepreneurs in mobility, Waze and Mobileye were the tip of the iceberg. On their heels are companies like Cognata which is building highly realistic 3D-simulation engine to train and validate autonomous systems, Upstream Security which is developing cloud-based cybersecurity for vehicle fleets and OryxVision, a vision sensor that will allow superior range, resolution and function over current lidar solutions while costing less. All three are in Israel and all three are in our portfolio. We're seeking out the companies that are creating technologies that will accelerate the arrival of our autonomous future, but that have sustainable businesses even if that future takes several years to materialize."

About Maniv Mobility

Maniv Mobility invests in innovative early stage companies in the New Mobility sector - including advanced vehicle systems, enabling technology for vehicle autonomy, business model innovation and more. Maniv's portfolio includes companies in Israel and the United States that share the goal of enabling shared, connected, electric, autonomous transportation. (http://www.maniv.com)

Media Contact:

Aaron Kliner

Headline Media

+1-516-595-1843

[email protected]



SOURCE Maniv Mobility
PORTLAND, Maine, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Martin's Point Health Care, a progressive, not-for-profit health care organization, once again received accolades from Great Place to Work, the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Martin's Point was credited with providing not only a great work environment but also a company culture of contributing to their community. As employers continue to seek qualified candidates, Martin's Point has remained an "employer of choice" and continues to attract and retain top talent. In fact, employee satisfaction numbers have increased exponentially with an impressive 4-point jump (83% to 87%) since 2016.

Martin's Point has been a Great Place to Work certified organization since 2015 which means they have met the highest standard of workplace excellence. Based on 695 employee surveys, questions assessed coworkers' feelings on camaraderie and pride on the job, as well as other workplace issues including management, communication, work-life balance, and compensation. Employees praised Martin's Point for providing a great working atmosphere, rewards and top management. 93% of employees also cited that when you join the company, you are made to feel welcome. An impressive 87% of Martin's Point employees participated in the survey which underscores the passion they feel for the company and validates the results.

Given Maine's aging population and ongoing decreases in the labor pool, the Maine health care industry is facing current and ongoing labor shortages. According to a 2016 Maine Department of Labor report, this trend is expected to continue through 2024. Healthcare organizations in Maine are competing for top candidates and need to provide not only competitive compensation but great work environments.

"Martin's Point continually strives to provide employees with a workplace environment that is both professionally and personally rewarding. This translates to employee retention, helps attract new talent and provides our patients and healthcare plan members with best in class offerings," said Teresa Nizza, Chief Human Resources Officer at Martin's Point. "As the healthcare labor market continues to decrease, we want to ensure the very best talent at Martin's Point. Our results demonstrate that Martin's Point is well-positioned in the rapidly changing healthcare labor market."

The Great Place to Work Martin's Point review can be found here:

http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/martin-s-point-health-care

About Martin's Point

Martin's Point Health Care is a progressive, not-for-profit health care organization, unique in the region in that it provides both direct primary/specialty care and health insurance plans. Martin's Point owns and operates seven health care centers in southern Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with providers accepting most major insurance plans. They also administer two health plans: Generations Advantage, the largest Medicare Advantage plan in Maine, and the US Family Health Plan, a TRICARE Prime plan for military families and retirees throughout northern New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.MartinsPoint.org

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists, including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industries. Great Place to Work provides executive advisory and culture consulting services to businesses, non-profits, and government agencies in over 50 countries across six continents.

SOURCE Martin's Point Health Care

Related Links

http://www.martinspoint.org


PITTSBURGH, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mastech Digital, Inc. (NYSE MKT: MHH), a leading provider of digital transformation services, announced today its financial results for the second quarter of 2017.

http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/531268/Mastech_Digital_Logo

Second Quarter 2017 Highlights:

Revenues totaled $35.1 million , an increase of $1.5 million over last year's top-line results and $2.0 million over first quarter 2017's results;

, an increase of over last year's top-line results and over first quarter 2017's results; Billable consultants at June 30, 2017 totaled 968 compared to 916-consultants at June 30, 2016 ; during the quarter the Company increased its billable consultant headcount by 75-consultants or by 8.4%;

totaled 968 compared to 916-consultants at ; during the quarter the Company increased its billable consultant headcount by 75-consultants or by 8.4%; GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.15 versus $0.21 in the 2016 second quarter; and

versus in the 2016 second quarter; and Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.23 versus $0.25 in the 2016 second quarter as the Company continued to invest for future growth;

versus in the 2016 second quarter as the Company continued to invest for future growth; On July 13, 2017 , we closed the acquisition of the services division of InfoTrellis, Inc. under the terms and conditions as previously announced on July 7, 2017 .

Second Quarter Results:

Revenues for the second quarter of 2017 totaled $35.1 million compared to $33.6 million during the corresponding quarter last year. Gross profit in the second quarter of 2017 was $7.1 million, compared to $6.9 million in the second quarter of 2016. GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2017 totaled $696,000 or $0.15 per diluted share, compared to $945,000 or $0.21 per diluted share during the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $1.1 million or $0.23 per diluted share, compared to $1.1 million or $0.25 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2016.

Demand for the Company's services increased during the second quarter of 2017 from the previous quarter. Accordingly, the Company was able to expand its billable consultant-base in the quarter by over 8% - the Company's largest quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2010.

Commenting on the second quarter results, Vivek Gupta, Mastech Digital's Chief Executive Officer stated, "I am pleased to see the continuation of higher levels of activity during the quarter and delighted with our 8% growth in consultants-on-billing. We are clearly seeing tangible payback from the investment in our sales and recruitment organizations during the first half of 2017. We are excited to be entering the third quarter with strong momentum and the InfoTrellis acquisition completed as planned."

Commenting on the Company's financial position, Jack Cronin, Mastech Digital's Chief Financial Officer, stated, "At June 30, 2017, we had bank debt, net of cash balances on hand, of $9.0 million, a decline of $3.4 million during the quarter. With the completion of our new PNC credit facility to support our recent acquisition, we believe that we have adequate liquidity to continue to invest in our businesses in the second half of 2017 and beyond."

In conjunction with its second quarter earnings release, Mastech Digital will host a conference call at 9:00 A.M. ET on July 26, 2017 to discuss these results and to answer questions. A live webcast of this conference call will be available on the Company's website, www.mastechdigital.com. Simply click on the Investor section and follow the links to the live webcast. The webcast will remain available for replay through August 2, 2017.

About Mastech Digital, Inc.:

Mastech Digital (NYSE MKT: MHH) is a leading provider of IT services focused on solving its customers' digital transformation challenges. The Company's digital transformation services include Data Management and Analytics, Salesforce.com, SAP HANA, and Digital Learning services while its IT staffing services span across Digital and Mainstream technologies. A minority-owned enterprise, Mastech Digital is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA with offices across the U.S. and India. For more information, visit www.mastechdigital.com.

Use of non-GAAP Measures:

This press release contains non-GAAP financial measures to supplement our financial results presented on a GAAP basis. The presentation of these financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their comparable GAAP measures are included in the attached financial tables.

We believe that providing non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share offers investors useful supplemental information about the financial performance of our business, enables comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independent of business performance, and allows for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business. Additionally, management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in evaluating the Company's performance.

Specifically, the non-GAAP financial measures contained herein exclude the following expense items:

Amortization of acquired intangible assets: We amortize intangible assets acquired in connection with our June 2015 acquisition of Hudson IT. We exclude these amortization expenses in our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe it allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates a helpful comparison of our results with other periods.

Stock-based compensation expenses: We incur material recurring expense related to non-cash, stock-based compensation. We exclude these expenses in our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that it provides investors with meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance. In particular, because of varying available valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types that companies can use under ASC 718, we believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude these expenses allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates comparison of our results with other periods.

Severance charges: From time to time, we incur severance expense related to the termination by the Company of leadership personnel. While it is probable that these expenses will occur in the future, we believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude these expenses are useful for investors to understand the effects of these items on our total operating expenses and facilitate comparison of our results with other periods.

Acquisition related transaction expenses: We incurred significant expenses in connection with our acquisition of the services division of InfoTrellis, Inc. which we would not have otherwise incurred in the periods presented as part of our continuing operations. These transaction expenses included investment banking fees, legal expenses, audit charges related to our acquired companies and various advisor costs. We believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude these expenses allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates a helpful comparison of our results with other periods.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to (i) projections of revenues, earnings, and cash flow, and (ii) the expected benefits to Mastech Digital from completing the acquisition of the services division of InfoTrellis, Inc. and the PNC credit facility and the expected performance of Mastech Digital following completion of these transactions. These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and it assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements as circumstances change. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation, the level of market demand for its services, the highly-competitive market for the types of services offered by the Company, the impact of competitive factors on profit margins, market conditions that could cause the Company's customers to reduce their spending for its services, and the Company's ability to create, acquire and build new lines of business, to attract and retain qualified personnel, reduce costs and conserve cash, and other risks that are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.

For more information, contact:

Donna Kijowski

Manager, Investor Relations

Mastech Digitial, Inc.

+1-888-330-5497



MASTECH DIGITAL, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Amounts in thousands)

(Unaudited)

















June 30,

December 31,





2017

2016













ASSETS









Current assets:









Cash and cash equivalents

$ 633

$ 829

Accounts receivable, net

22,536

21,102

Prepaid and other current assets

1,504

753

Total current assets

24,673

22,684













Equipment, enterprise software and

leasehold improvements, net

852

558













Deferred income taxes

226

254













Deferred financing costs, net

40

59













Non-current deposits

185

170













Goodwill

8,427

8,427













Intangible assets, net

6,906

7,313

Total assets

$ 41,309

$ 39,465













LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY









Current liabilities:









Current portion of long-term debt

$ 1,800

$ 1,800

Accounts payable

3,240

1,963

Accrued payroll and related costs

7,726

7,645

Deferred revenue and other liabilities

497

849

Total current liabilities

13,263

12,257













Long-term liabilities:









Long-term debt, less current portion

7,793

8,136

Total liabilities

21,056

20,393













Shareholders' equity:









Common stock, par value $0.01 per share

54

53

Additional paid-in capital

14,146

13,863

Retained earnings

10,194

9,297

Accumulated other comprehensive (loss)

-

(7)

Treasury stock, at cost

(4,141)

(4,134)

Total shareholders' equity

20,253

19,072

Total liabilities and shareholders' equity

$ 41,309

$ 39,465

MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Amounts in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)

Three Months ended June 30,

Six Months ended June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016















Revenues $ 35,086

$ 33,629

$ 68,186

$ 65,343















Cost of revenues 28,009

26,740

54,900

52,341















Gross profit 7,077

6,889

13,286

13,002















Selling, general and administrative expenses 6,095

5,225

11,901

11,203















Income from operations 982

1,664

1,385

1,799















Other income/(expense), net (106)

(139)

(187)

(257)















Income before income taxes 876

1,525

1,198

1,542















Income tax expense 180

580

301

586 Net income $ 696

$ 945

$ 897

$ 956































Earnings per share:













Basic $ 0.15

$ 0.22

$ 0.20

$ 0.22 Diluted $ 0.15

$ 0.21

$ 0.20

$ 0.21















Weighted average common shares outstanding:













Basic 4,536

4,354

4,517

4,353 Diluted 4,576

4,451

4,563

4,450

































MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. RECONCILIATION OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (Amounts in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)

















Three Months ended June 30,

Six Months ended June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016















GAAP Net Income $ 696

$ 945

$ 897

$ 956















Adjustments:













Amortization of acquired intangible assets 204

203

407

406 Stock-based compensation 108

70

215

185 Acquisition transaction expenses 265

-

265

- Severance expenses -

-

-

780 Income taxes adjustments (220)

(104)

(337)

(521) Non-GAAP Net Income $ 1,053

$ 1,114

$ 1,447

$ 1,806































GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share $ 0.15

$ 0.21

$ 0.20

$ 0.21 Non-GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share $ 0.23

$ 0.25

$ 0.32

$ 0.41































Weighted average common shares outstanding:













GAAP Diluted Shares 4,576

4,451

4,563

4,450 Non-GAAP Diluted Shares 4,576

4,451

4,563

4,450

SOURCE Mastech Digital, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mastechdigital.com


WILSONVILLE, Ore., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced an update to its market-leading embedded product portfolio with broad coverage for the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZCU102 Evaluation Kit. This release provides developers with support for the unique combination of multicore processors on the MPSoC development platform with Mentor Embedded Linux, Nucleus RTOS, Mentor Embedded Hypervisor, Code Sourcery tools and Android support. With this release, Mentor Embedded multicore solutions provide the industry's most comprehensive support for the MPSoC to facilitate the development of complex heterogeneous multicore systems.

The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC represents the next generation of multicore platforms for compute-intensive, safety and security systems. Mentor's embedded software and tools portfolio provides MPSoC developers with a one-stop-shop for all their software needs.

"This update to the Mentor embedded portfolio delivers comprehensive runtime and tools that allow MPSoC developers to more easily unlock the potential of Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoCs," stated Simon George, director, product marketing, Embedded Software at Xilinx. "The unique combination of cores on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC requires advanced runtime solutions and development tools that support the complex heterogeneous systems, which is exactly what Mentor delivered."

Mentor Embedded Linux (MEL) is a commercially supported, extensible Linux platform based on the industry standard Yocto Project. Running in over 3 billion devices, the Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) is a proven, highly-scalable real-time operating system designed to meet the most rigorous performance metrics. Both MEL and the Nucleus RTOS can run natively on the MPSoC Cortex-A53 cores in Asymmetric Multi-Processing (AMP) mode, across all Cortex-A53 cores in Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) mode, or as a guest OS on Mentor Embedded Hypervisor.

The Mentor Embedded Multicore Framework (MEMF) allows developers to configure and deploy multiple operating systems across heterogeneous Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC processors with or without a hypervisor. The framework supports seamless inter-process communication between MEL, Nucleus RTOS, and bare metal. With the Mentor Embedded Multicore Framework, MEL as the master operating system can boot and shut-down other MEL instances running on Cortex-A53 cores, and Nucleus RTOS or bit manipulation engine (BME)-based applications running on Cortex-A53 or Cortex-R5 cores.

The Mentor Embedded Hypervisor (MEHV) is small-footprint, type 1 hypervisor designed to meet the design requirements for open source flexibility, real-time performance, and adherence to industry standards. The framework of MEHV supports Cortex-A53 multicore processor architectures in AMP, SMP or a combination of both. The product portfolio includes Sourcery Codebench to provide a single development environment for all the MPSoC cores and runtimes based on GCC/G++ tools. Sourcery CodeBench with integrated Sourcery Analyzer provides developers with a development environment to create and optimize embedded Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ Linux, RTOS, hypervisor, and bare metal based applications.

"Early on we recognized the potential of the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and the opportunity to leverage our market leading heterogeneous technology to enable developers with a comprehensive solution," stated Scot Morrison, general manager, Platforms Business Unit, Mentor Embedded Systems Division. "While presenting opportunities for system consolidation, heterogeneous multicore solutions present unique complexities that can more easily be overcome with a single source solution so developers can realize a faster time for both development and system optimization while reducing risk."

Product Availability

The new Mentor Embedded technologies supporting the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZCU102 Evaluation Kit are available now. For more information, visit the website: https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/semiconductors/xilinx/.

About Mentor Embedded

The Mentor Embedded Systems Division enables embedded development for a variety of applications in numerous market segments including IoT, automotive, industrial, medical, smart energy, and consumer electronics. Embedded developers can create systems with the latest processors and micro-controllers with commercially supported and customizable Linux-based solutions including the industry-leading Sourcery CodeBench and Mentor Embedded Linux products. For real-time systems, developers can take advantage of the highly scalable, safety-certifiable Nucleus RTOS. For more information, visit www.mentor.com/embedded.

Contact for journalists

Larry Toda

Phone: 503-685-1664; E-mail: [email protected]

Mentor Graphics Corporation, a Siemens business, is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services, and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronic, semiconductor, and systems companies. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. Web site: http://www.mentor.com.

Mentor Graphics, Mentor and Nucleus are registered trademarks and Sourcery is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owner.

The registered trademark Linux is used pursuant to a sublicense from LMI, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a world-wide basis.

SOURCE Mentor, a Siemens business

Related Links

http://www.mentor.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which is sustaining and integrating open source technologies to orchestrate containers as part of a microservices architecture, today announced that Microsoft has joined the CNCF as a platinum member to help further enterprise adoption of cloud native technologies and practices.

"Microsoft is committed to helping organizations of all sizes achieve more, and we see cloud native technologies and open development as a way to enable this," said Corey Sanders, Partner Director, Microsoft Corp. "We have contributed across many cloud native projects, including Kubernetes, Helm, containerd, and gRPC, and plan to expand our involvement in the future. Joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation is another natural step on our open source journey, and we look forward to learning and engaging with the community on a deeper level as a CNCF member."

Containers are quickly changing the way companies build and deploy their applications. CNCF membership is part of a series of events that mark Microsoft's growing support for Kubernetes. Following Microsoft's hire of Brandon Burns, a former Google engineer who co-founded Kubernetes and grew it into one of the most popular open source projects ever, the Kubernetes 1.4 release became a part of Azure Container Service (ACS) in late 2016.

More recently Microsoft deepened its container expertise with the acquisition of Deis and the release of open source project Draft, a process for developing a new application for Kubernetes. Today, in addition to Burns, another dozen Microsoft developers contribute code to Kubernetes. For enterprises hoping to leverage cloud native technologies, Microsoft's support ensures maximum flexibility and choice to Azure users.

"We are honored to have Microsoft, widely recognized as one of the most important enterprise technology and cloud providers in the world, join CNCF as a platinum member," said Dan Kohn, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. "Their membership, along with other global cloud providers that also belong to CNCF, is a testament to the importance and growth of cloud native technologies. We believe Microsoft's increasing commitment to open source infrastructure will be a significant asset to the CNCF."

As part of Microsoft's Platinum membership, Gabe Monroy, Lead PM for Containers on Microsoft Azure and former Deis CTO, will join CNCF's Governing Board.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has become one of the biggest open source contributors. The company is currently a leading open source contributor on GitHub, open sourced .NET Core 1.0 and its software development kit, partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10, and works with CNCF member companies like Red Hat, SUSE and others to support their solutions in its products. Microsoft became a platinum member of the Linux Foundation in 2016 and contributes to a number of other Linux Foundation projects, including Node.js Foundation, OpenDaylight, the Open Container Initiative, the R Consortium, and the Open API Initiative.

Additional Resources

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing uses an open source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container, and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of those software stacks including Kubernetes, Fluentd, Linkerd, Prometheus, OpenTracing, gRPC, CoreDNS, containerd, rkt and CNI; brings together the industry's top developers, end users and vendors; and serves as a neutral home for collaboration. CNCF is part of The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about CNCF, please visit: https://cncf.io/.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact

Natasha Woods

The Linux Foundation

(415) 312-5289

[email protected]

SOURCE CNCF

Related Links

https://www.cncf.io


CAMERON, Texas, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Milam County has joined a growing number of Texas jurisdictions replacing aging voting equipment this summer, allowing plenty of time for training and implementation before the Nov. 7 constitutional election. Milam County Commissioners voted to purchase Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting, an all-new system that impressed staff with demonstrations at election seminars.

The new Verity Touch electronic voting system from Hart InterCivic makes voting straightforward with an easy to read touchscreen. The compact, lightweight devices save cost and effort for storage, transport and setup.

"We knew it was time to study replacements, and when my assistants saw Verity at a recent seminar, they came back saying we need to look hard at what Hart has come up with," said County Clerk Barbara Vansa. "The decision was easier because Hart's customer service is awesome. We've been so pleased with our relationship since 2005. Hart has earned our confidence."

Vansa is especially looking forward to the Verity features for voters who require assistance. The touchscreen tablet includes a portable option that makes voting more convenient for voters with mobility issues, allowing them to vote curbside while preserving their privacy.

Verity also includes accessibility features to allow independent voting by all, more innovations that Vansa praised. Voters can switch between available ballot languages at any point in the voting process, adjust the font size and/or contrast on the screen, and control both the speed and the volume of the audio if they are using Verity's headphones.

The new touchscreen tablet is easy for voters to use and for poll workers to learn. "Our new equipment is already in house, and just the thought of new equipment is exciting. My election clerks will attend the Texas Secretary of State Election Law Seminar next week and meet with Hart to schedule training," Vansa said.

"Milam County is moving forward at the right time, and we appreciate their confidence in Hart," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of election experience. "We are pleased to provide the best election system available for Milam County voters."

Verity is the only all-new, federally-certified system that provides an integrated platform for all voting types. Since the Texas Secretary of State certified the latest release of Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting system in mid-December, 16 Texas counties have purchased the state-of-the-art system. Federally certified in 2015, the secure and efficient system is also in use in numerous counties throughout the U.S.

Other Texas jurisdictions are considering Verity purchases, and Braithwaite expects more Texas announcements in the coming weeks. Vansa has a few words of advice for those thinking about Verity: "Go for it! We've been so happy with Hart."

Learn more about Verity in Texas: http://www.hartintercivic.com/texas4verity.

About Hart InterCivic, Inc.



Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, certified voting system with both electronic and paper options.

SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hartintercivic.com/


JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Morgan & Morgan, the nation's leading plaintiffs' firm, is immensely proud to announce its successful recovery of a $2,228,679 jury verdict on behalf of a client who seriously injured her back after a trip-and-fall in an apartment complex.

Attorney Tim Moran, assisted by attorney Ashley Winstead, represented the client, Rosetta Harris, who struggled with a pre-existing medical condition that caused her back pain for over seven years prior to the accident. Ms. Harris's pre-existing condition was greatly exacerbated by the painful trip-and-fall down a poorly-maintained set of stairs in the apartment complex, according to the complaint.

In the aftermath of her accident, her injuries required a visit to the Emergency Room, as well as costly long-term medical treatments such as chiropractic care and pain management.

Despite the high cost of her medical treatment, Ms. Harris's insurance company initially offered her nothing, blaming her serious back injury on her pre-existing condition, rather than the trip-and-fall that only occurred due to the negligent conditions of the apartment complex building's stairway.

The defense's highest pre-trial offer  $50,000  did not even begin to cover Ms. Harris's prior medical expenses caused by her accident, let alone future treatment. That's why Moran took the fight to court to get his client the fair verdict she deserved to heal from her injuries.

The jury disagreed with the insurance company's assessment of Ms. Harris's injuries, and instead sided with Moran's winning argument. As a result, the jurors awarded a jury verdict of $2.28M to compensate the client for her pain and suffering, past and future medical bills, and other damages.

Furthermore, the jury found the apartment complex where the Ms. Harris's accident took place to be 100 percent at-fault for the injuries she suffered due to negligence on the property.

"Ms. Harris was seriously injured as a result of falling down the apartment complex's negligently maintained steps, and it was apparent that no one at the apartment complex took her injuries seriously," said Moran. "I am so glad the jury took her case seriously, and returned a fair and just verdict, which will allow Ms. Harris to obtain the future medical care she will require, as well as compensate her for the effects the injuries from the fall have had on her life."

The case is Rosetta Harris vs. PBH Mayport, Llc, d/b/a Promenade at Mayport and B H Management Services, LLC, case number 16-2015-CA-2989, in the Circuit Court, Fourth Judicial Circuit, in and for Duval County, Florida.

ABOUT MORGAN & MORGAN

Morgan & Morgan, a national plaintiff's law firm fighting for the people, not the powerful, has recovered more than $4 billion for more than 200,000 clients. The firm has more than 350 attorneys in about 40 offices in 11 states. With the support of nearly 2,000 employees, the firm's attorneys represent clients in a wide range of practice areas  from personal injury, workers' compensation, and medical malpractice cases to labor and employment, mesothelioma, and product liability lawsuits to national mass torts and class actions.

For more information, contact:

Karine Lim / Erika Nedwell

Morgan & Morgan, P.A

[email protected] / [email protected]

212-738-6265 / 212-738-6254

SOURCE Morgan & Morgan

Related Links

http://www.forthepeople.com/


ROCKVILLE, Md., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Indonesia offers compelling opportunities for companies targeting healthcare markets in Southeast Asia. The number of people with household expenditure exceeding $200 per month is expected to reach 141 million by 2020 (from 74 million in 2013). Life expectancy has also gone up and child mortality rates have declined significantly. The country is seeing a fundamental demographic shift in terms of increasing young, working population. The government declared Universal healthcare coverage (UHC) program that intends to cover 100% of its population by 2019. Kalorama details the market in its report, Indonesia IVD Market Analysis.

"To begin with, the country's 260 million plus population is too big to ignore," said Dr. Syamala Ariyanchira of Kulal Lumpur-based AcuBiz, who authored the study for Kalorama. "GDP of the country is increasing year to year since 2014. The country has a fast growing middle class population. And then the new government plan was instrumental in generating a new wave of investments in both government sector and private sector."

The government is investing heavily to equip Community Health Centres (CHCs, which are locally known as Puskesmas) with advanced healthcare facilities. Budget allocated by the government for IVDs in government hospitals and CHCs has increased significantly. Many CHCs are being converted into small hospitals with inpatient facilities. The government focus on improving healthcare status of the country is offering tremendous opportunities for several healthcare industry segments including pharmaceutical, medical devices, diagnostics, and healthcare services industries. This is also influencing the demand for in vitro diagnostics (IVD) positively. Indonesia's demand for IVD is estimated to be around $233 million in 2017. This is expected to grow at a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6% to reach $353 million by 2022. Leading market segments within IVD market are Microbiology, Hematology, Clinical chemistry, and point-of-care (POC) diagnostics.

Along with disposable income of the population and rising number of young people opting for corporate jobs, incidence and prevalence of life style diseases such as cancer and cardiac diseases have increased. Indonesia also has high prevalence of infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, typhoid, HIV, and TB. Due to high prevalence of diabetes, associated health conditions are also a major concern. Fast and accurate diagnosis of various medical conditions is vital, but unfortunately it is yet to become accessible and affordable for majority of Indonesian population. Many CHCs in urban areas are currently able to offer diagnosis using clinical chemistry, immunoassay, hematology and POC instruments. Demand for POC devices, in particular, is expected to grow as they are more affordable and easy to use. There is an acute gap in the number of skilled healthcare professionals capable of conducting advanced IVD tests and interpreting results.

Unit shipments are expected to grow at faster pace than revenues in Indonesia's IVD market. One of the key limiting factors for revenue growth is the government's policy to replace tender-based bulk purchases by government institutions with E-procurement system.

"E-procurement of IVD products is done through the e-catalogue, where all products registered with Indonesia's MOH need to be listed," Ariyanchira said. "E-catalogue prices need to be the lowest for a particular product in the country. No company can sell their product at lower prices than the price registered for the product in the E-catalogue price, as it is mandatory for all government organizations to purchase through e-catalogue."

Kalorama notes that this is not all downside for international market participants; the move is a major step towards controlling corruption in tender processes, manufacturers and distributors are concerned about making prices public. E-catalogue prices have become the starting point for negotiation for private sector even though they are not allowed to use e-catalogue for their purchases. This impacts revenues and overall profit margins for vendors. As a result, even though demand by volume is growing in double digits, revenue growth is relatively slower.

Kalorama Information's report, Indonesia IVD Market Analysis contains segment markets for various types of testing products sold in Indonesian Markets, and discusses company performance in this important region. The report can be found at: https://www.kaloramainformation.com/Indonesia-IVD-11000705/.

About Kalorama Information

Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased through Kalorama's website and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com.

We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog on our company website.

Please link any media or news references to our reports or data to http://www.kaloramainformation.com/.

Press Contact:

Bruce Carlson

212 807 2262

[email protected]

SOURCE Kalorama Information

Related Links

http://www.kaloramainformation.com/


BEDFORD, Mass., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EnterpriseDB (EDB), the database platform company for digital business, today announced the release of EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7. Part of the EDB Postgres Platform, EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 provides an easy to use web client with capabilities that make it more efficient to control and manage large numbers of Postgres databases.

"Today's administrators require greater flexibility in monitoring, managing, and optimizing database performance across a wider spectrum of global installations in their organizations," said Marc Linster, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Product Development and Services, EDB. "EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 is the most complete management tool in the marketplace for Postgres deployments."

EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 is a component of the EDB Postgres Platform. The tool provides a single graphical user interface where database administrators and developers can easily administer, monitor, and tune large Postgres deployments. EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager also integrates with failover and disaster recovery toolsrequired for creating highly available, mission-critical database architecturesand features a rich set of APIs and alerts for management and monitoring.

The newest version is based on a flexible architecture that enables it to be deployed as a web application, making it easier to use. EnterpriseDB engineers developed the new architecture for the pgAdmin open source project, with contributions from the community. EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager extends capabilities of the open source tool to include monitoring and alerting capabilities that are critical for digital business solutions that must meet stringent SLAs and performance requirements.

The key capabilities provided by EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 include:

Web Client: The new web client adds greater flexibility for DBAs, and provides a responsive layout with dockable panels, partial page loading, and grid-based layouts with inline editing. The client also provides real-time database monitoring and management of database objects. The client further provides a key feature for developersa feature-rich, performant, and flexible query tool and debugger.

The new web client adds greater flexibility for DBAs, and provides a responsive layout with dockable panels, partial page loading, and grid-based layouts with inline editing. The client also provides real-time database monitoring and management of database objects. The client further provides a key feature for developersa feature-rich, performant, and flexible query tool and debugger. Precision Management: An extensive series of wizards, dashboards, and probes simplify the maintenance, monitoring, and administration tasks of database administration. This includes status monitoring, auditing, log analysis, replication configuration, capacity planning, forecasting, and more. A SQL Profiler assists with identifying and optimizing poor performing queries. With more than 225 preconfigured alerts, the tool is highly customizable with dashboards and charts to summarize and display trend information. Developer tools provide query tuning and index recommendations, and enable execution of DDL and DML commands. Custom probes, dashboards, charts, and alerts also support developers with standardized monitoring.

An extensive series of wizards, dashboards, and probes simplify the maintenance, monitoring, and administration tasks of database administration. This includes status monitoring, auditing, log analysis, replication configuration, capacity planning, forecasting, and more. A SQL Profiler assists with identifying and optimizing poor performing queries. With more than 225 preconfigured alerts, the tool is highly customizable with dashboards and charts to summarize and display trend information. Developer tools provide query tuning and index recommendations, and enable execution of DDL and DML commands. Custom probes, dashboards, charts, and alerts also support developers with standardized monitoring. REST API for Deeper Ecosystem Integration: The API enables DBAs to create, update, and retrieve probes and alerts; retrieve historical statistics and metrics; and manage configurations of EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager.

For more information about EDB Postgres, contact [email protected].

About EnterpriseDB Corporation

EnterpriseDB (EDB), the database platform company for digital business, delivers the premier open source-based data platform for new applications, cloud re-platforming, application modernization, and legacy migration. EnterpriseDB integrates with enterprise technologies and infrastructures for hybrid cloud management, data integration, and data warehousing. Our customers benefit from the highest performing, most reliable, flexible, open, and cost-effective data management platform available. EnterpriseDB is based in Bedford, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.EnterpriseDB.com.

EnterpriseDB is a registered trademark of EnterpriseDB Corporation. EDB and EDB Postgres are trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Cairbre Sugrue

Sugrue Communications

+44 (0)1932 429 779

[email protected]

SOURCE EnterpriseDB

Related Links

http://www.enterprisedb.com


TORONTO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - New Gold Inc. ("New Gold") (TSX:NGD) (NYSE American:NGD) today announces new appointments to its senior management team as the company looks forward to the Rainy River project's scheduled transition from construction into operation beginning in September. New Gold is also pleased to announce the addition of a new director to its Board.

Highlights

Paula Myson will join New Gold as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

will join New Gold as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Woodhouse will join New Gold as Vice President, Projects

will join New Gold as Vice President, Projects Barry O'Shea has been appointed Vice President, Business Development

has been appointed Vice President, Business Development Marilyn Schonberner has been appointed to the Board of Directors

has been appointed to the Board of Directors Brian Penny , New Gold's current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will remain with the company until the end of October to support the transition

, New Gold's current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will remain with the company until the end of October to support the transition Raymond Threlkeld's interim management role will conclude on September 1 st and he will remain on New Gold's Board of Directors

As Hannes Portmann, New Gold's President and Chief Executive Officer, builds out the company's leadership team, and with Rainy River scheduled to transition into operation beginning in September, Paula Myson will join New Gold in late August to lead the company's financial team as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Peter Woodhouse will join New Gold in mid-August as the Vice President, Projects.

Ms. Myson has over 25 years of experience in finance, treasury, corporate development, investor relations and risk management in public companies. During her 23 years working with the Sherritt International group of companies, Ms. Myson held multiple senior roles, including: CFO Oil and Gas, Corporate Treasurer, CFO Power, and Director, Corporate Development. Most recently, she was Vice President, Finance at Callidus Capital Corporation, a specialty lender.

Mr. Woodhouse has over 30 years of experience in engineering and project management, dedicated primarily to the development of mining infrastructure. Over his career, he has been responsible for all aspects of project management, team development and project execution, through all project phases, from scoping study through commissioning. Most recently, he was Vice President, Projects at Centerra Gold where he was responsible for overall capital projects development. From 1997 to 2014, Mr. Woodhouse was the principal of Technology Management Group Inc., an engineering and project management company. Mr. Woodhouse has also held senior project management roles for Canada Lithium, Hatch, SNC Lavalin, and Xstrata Nickel.

"We are delighted to welcome Paula and Peter to our team. Paula's extensive experience in mining and her strong financial and executional skillset will both complement and enhance the capabilities of New Gold's leadership team," stated Mr. Portmann. "In addition, Peter's engineering and project management experience will be a great asset for the company as he leads the advancement of our various organic growth initiatives, including the Blackwater project and the C-zone at New Afton."

In connection with these management changes, Barry O'Shea, the Vice President, Finance of the company, has been appointed Vice President, Business Development. In his new role, Mr. O'Shea will take on responsibility for corporate development, investor relations and strategic capital allocation, and he will also support Ms. Myson's transition into the Chief Financial Officer role.

New Gold is also pleased to announce the appointment of Marilyn Schonberner to its Board of Directors. Marilyn is the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, and an Executive Director, of Nexen Energy ULC. In that role, she is responsible for the overall financial management of Nexen, including accounting, audit, tax, planning, treasury and insurance. Ms. Schonberner joined Nexen in 1997 and since that time has held positions of increasing responsibility including General Manager of Human Resources Services, Director of Corporate Audit, Director of Business Services U.K., and Treasurer and Vice President of Corporate Planning. Prior to joining Nexen, she spent over 15 years in finance, strategic planning and organization development in the energy sector and as a consultant.

"We are pleased to welcome Marilyn to the Board," stated Ian Pearce, Chair of the Board. "She is highly qualified, with a strong background in finance, accounting, tax and treasury. We believe that Marilyn will add considerable value and strength to our Board."

Brian Penny, New Gold's current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will remain with New Gold until October 31, in order to support a smooth transition of responsibilities to Ms. Myson. Mr. Penny has been the Chief Financial Officer of New Gold since its business combination with Western Goldfields in 2009. In that time, he has played a leadership role in numerous successful transactions, including the company's sale of the El Morro stream, successful equity offering and bond refinancing, and credit facility extension earlier this year, which have positioned the company well to fund the remaining capital expenditures at the Rainy River project.

With the addition of Mr. Woodhouse in mid-August and the planned start-up of Rainy River in September, Raymond Threlkeld will step away from his interim daily management responsibilities, which primarily focused on supporting Rainy River's development, effective September 1, 2017. Mr. Threlkeld will remain on the Board and continue to provide his support and knowledge to the operations and projects teams going forward.

"I would like to thank Brian for all that he has done to contribute to New Gold's success over the last eight years. He has been a wonderful business partner and friend over many years and we wish him nothing but success in his future endeavours," stated Mr. Portmann. "On behalf of our team, I would also like to thank Ray for stepping into the Interim Chief Operating Officer role at a critical time in the development of Rainy River."

About New Gold Inc.

New Gold is an intermediate gold mining company. The company has a portfolio of four producing assets and two significant development projects. The New Afton Mine in Canada, the Mesquite Mine in the United States, the Peak Mines in Australia and the Cerro San Pedro Mine in Mexico (which transitioned to residual leaching in 2016), provide the company with its current production base. In addition, New Gold owns 100% of the Rainy River and Blackwater projects located in Canada. New Gold's objective is to be the leading intermediate gold producer, focused on the environment and social responsibility. For further information on the company, please visit www.newgold.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this news release, including any information relating to New Gold's future financial or operating performance are "forward looking". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, which address events, results, outcomes or developments that New Gold expects to occur are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "targeted", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "projects", "potential", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to the funding and timing for start-up of the Rainy River project and the timing of senior management joining or leaving the company or changing roles.

All forward-looking statements in this news release are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond New Gold's ability to control or predict. The forward-looking statements in this news release are based on certain key assumptions, including without limitation, the assumption that the cost estimates and development schedule for the Rainy River project will be accurate. Certain other material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release, New Gold's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A"), its Annual Information Form and its Technical Reports filed at www. sedar.com.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation: significant capital requirements and the availability and management of capital resources; additional funding requirements; price volatility in the spot and forward markets for metals and other commodities; fluctuations in the international currency markets and in the rates of exchange of the currencies of Canada, the United States, Australia and Mexico; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, between actual and estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources and between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; fluctuation in treatment and refining charges; changes in national and local government legislation in Canada, the United States, Australia and Mexico or any other country in which New Gold currently or may in the future carry on business; taxation; controls, regulations and political or economic developments in the countries in which New Gold does or may carry on business; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining and maintaining the validity and enforceability of the necessary licenses and permits and complying with the permitting requirements of each jurisdiction in which New Gold operates, including, but not limited to: in Canada, obtaining the necessary permits for the Rainy River project; the lack of certainty with respect to foreign legal systems, which may not be immune from the influence of political pressure, corruption or other factors that are inconsistent with the rule of law; the uncertainties inherent to current and future legal challenges New Gold is or may become a party to; diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves and mineral resources; competition; inherent uncertainties with cost estimates and estimated schedule for the construction and commencement of production at Rainy River as contemplated; loss of key employees; rising costs of labour, supplies, fuel and equipment; actual results of current exploration or reclamation activities; uncertainties inherent to mining economic studies including the feasibility studies for the Rainy River project; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents; labour disputes; defective title to mineral claims or property or contests over claims to mineral properties; unexpected delays and costs inherent to consulting and accommodating rights of Indigenous groups; risks, uncertainties and unanticipated delays associated with obtaining and maintaining necessary licenses, permits and authorizations and complying with permitting requirements, including those associated with the amendment to Schedule 2 of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations for the Rainy River project. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining, including environmental events and hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion losses and risks associated with the start of production of a mine, such as Rainy River, (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks) as well as "Risk Factors" included in New Gold's Annual Information Form, MD&A and other disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. New Gold expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE New Gold Inc.

Related Links

www.newgold.com


ARLINGTON, Va., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the Retail Industry Leaders Association's (RILA) (R)Tech Center for Innovation, released findings of the cultural challenges and solutions retailers need to navigate the rapidly evolving market landscape.

"Retail is in a period of disruption. There is no better time for companies to build strong cultures of innovation than right now," said Adam Siegel, senior vice president of sustainability and innovation for RILA. "If retailers want to remain relevant, innovation must be a vital part of a company's culture, enforcing a sense of purpose with employees, and enabling the organization to rapidly experiment, learn, and adapt in an ever-changing environment."

The report, "Building an (R)Tech Culture," explores the four elements necessary to embedding innovation within retail companies. Purpose, leadership, customer empathy and empowering the retail workforce are the keys to creating and fostering innovation throughout the retail ecosystem. Findings were based on in-depth secondary research on practices that drive innovation in corporate cultures, especially in retail and consumer brand companies.

The report also found that the "Leadership Trifecta" consisting of the CEO, CFO and General Counsel, is integral to implementing a culture of change in retail companies. The CEO leads by example, providing a vision, support, and guidance to others, the CFO invests in the business's future and the general counsel provides frameworks that promote measured risk-taking.

The (R)Tech Center for Innovation was created with these needs in mind and is partnering with universities, incubators and accelerators, policymakers, and thought leaders to pave the way for retail's new path driving the 21st Century economy.

To view a full copy of the report visit http://rtech.org/reports/. And learn more about the (R)Tech Center at http://www.rtech.org

SOURCE Retail Industry Leaders Association

Related Links

http://www.rila.org


JUNO BEACH, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) has posted its second-quarter 2017 financial results in a news release available on the partnership's website by accessing the following link: www.NextEraEnergyPartners.com/Earnings.

Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy Partners, John Ketchum, chief financial officer of NextEra Energy Partners, and other members of the senior management team will discuss the second-quarter 2017 financial results during an investor presentation to be webcast live, beginning at 9 a.m. ET today. The listen-only webcast will be available on the website of NextEra Energy Partners by accessing the following link: www.NextEraEnergyPartners.com/Earnings. Also discussed during the investor presentation will be financial results for NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE). A replay will be available for 90 days by accessing the same link as listed above.

NextEra Energy Partners, LP

NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) is a growth-oriented limited partnership formed by NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) to acquire, manage and own contracted clean energy projects with stable, long-term cash flows. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, NextEra Energy Partners owns interests in wind and solar projects in North America, as well as natural gas infrastructure assets in Texas. The renewable energy projects are fully contracted, use industry-leading technology and are located in regions that are favorable for generating energy from the wind and sun. The seven natural gas pipelines in the portfolio are all strategically located, serving power producers and municipalities in South Texas, processing plants and producers in the Eagle Ford Shale, and commercial and industrial customers in the Houston area. The NET Mexico Pipeline, the largest pipeline in the portfolio, provides a critical source of natural gas transportation for low-cost, U.S.-sourced shale gas to Mexico. For more information about NextEra Energy Partners, please visit: www.NextEraEnergyPartners.com.

SOURCE NextEra Energy Partners, LP
HUNTINGTON, Ind., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc., (OTCQB: NIDB), the parent company of First Federal Savings Bank, has announced that the Corporation will pay a cash dividend of $0.22 per common share. The dividend will be payable on August 22, 2017 to shareholders of record on August 8, 2017.

The book value of NIDB's stock was $29.15 per common share as of June 30, 2017. The last reported trade of stock at the close of business on July 25, 2017 was $32.79 per common share and the number of outstanding shares was 1,214,879 as of the same date. The annualized dividend yield is currently 2.7% when annualizing the current quarter cash dividend of $0.22 per common share against the July 25, 2017 closing price of $32.79 per common share.

Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc. is headquartered at 648 N. Jefferson Street, Huntington, Indiana. The company offers a full array of banking and financial brokerage services to its customers through its main office in Huntington and five full-service Indiana offices in Huntington (2), Warsaw and Fort Wayne(2). The Company is traded on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. (www.otcmarkets.com) utilizing the OTCQB platform under the symbol "NIDB". Our web site address is www.firstfedindiana.bank.

SOURCE Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.firstfedindiana.bank


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The legacy of the American immigration experience will be spotlighted as Orchestra Moderne NYC makes its Carnegie Hall debut October 7, 2017 with The Journey to America: From Repression to Freedom.

Ellis Island: The Dream of America Amy Andersson, Conductor and Music Director

Orchestra Moderne NYC is the new, diverse ensemble comprised of New York's top musicians and founded earlier this year by internationally renowned conductor Amy Andersson to create musical experiences that celebrate humanity and are connected to important social issues, resonate with diverse audiences of music lovers, and provide inclusive opportunities for all composers and performers especially women and minorities.

The concert will feature Peter Boyer's Grammy-nominated Ellis Island: The Dream of America, one of the most-performed American orchestral works composed in the last 15 years. This beautiful tribute to historic American immigration features seven actors reading stories chosen from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, accompanied by an emotional orchestral score, and projected photos from the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

"I wanted to create a game-changing orchestra that would perform music that taps into social issues and has cultural relevance and meaning for all of us," said Ms. Andersson, who is music director and conductor for the concert. "Music resonates in our minds, bodies, hearts, and instruments, and as such remains one of our most profound and significant human experiences. I am thrilled to showcase these themes by presenting this concert. "

The program also features the U.S. premiere of Emmy Award-winning composer Lolita Ritmanis's Overture to Light, a symphonic work created with inspiration from her parents and the generations of Latvians that fled Communism during World War II.

The concert will include the world premiere of Steven Lebetkin's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Lebetkin is a musical disciple of the late Jewish composer Karol Rathaus, a leading early 20th century film and classical composer who immigrated to America during the Third Reich. The second movement, written in memory of Rathaus, will be performed by violinist and Juilliard student Momo Wong in her Carnegie Hall debut.

Orchestra Moderne NYC

Orchestra Moderne NYC is a new ensemble, founded in early 2017 by internationally renowned conductor Amy Andersson. Comprised of New York's top musicians, the orchestra's mission is to create musical experiences that celebrate humanity, are connected to important social issues, resonate with diverse audiences of music lovers, and provide inclusive opportunities for all composers and performers especially women and minorities. www.orchestramoderne-nyc.com

Music Resonates, Inc.

Music Resonates, Inc., a non-profit 501c3 organization that operates with the philosophy that music can speak to the changes we want to see in the world. By supporting Orchestra Moderne NYC, Music Resonates will commission works of emerging and established composers and provide inclusive opportunities for all composers and performers including women and minorities.

Contacts:

Portia Badham

BadWyn Communications

201.963.8630(o) 917.902.8202(m)

[email protected]

SOURCE Orchestra Moderne NYC

Related Links

http://www.orchestramoderne-nyc.com


"At Aflac, we have long believed that who we are as a company says as much as the products and services we provide ," said Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos. "Our studies as well as validated, third-party data show that consumers, shareholders and the community at large increasingly expect and even demand that companies conduct business the right way, with integrity and values. Through this report, we are pleased to provide a window into how Aflac strives to meet those expectations every day."

In the report, Aflac employees and independent sales agents who have embodied this year's theme, "Everyone has the power to do good," share stories about their work, bringing to life Aflac's ethical business practices, a productive and diverse workplace, philanthropic efforts and environmental sustainability initiatives.

These "CSR Heroes" went above and beyond by:

Coordinating a 12-person team to host fundraising events supporting childhood cancer research and treatment, helping Aflac reach its philanthropic goal of raising $110 million through its Duckprints Initiative;

through its Duckprints Initiative; Kick-starting personal passion projects across the country, including a family emergency shelter and meal program called "The Breakfast Crew"; fundraising for Camp Hope, a summer camp for children with cancer; and volunteering at Arnold Palmer Children's hospital.

Promoting diversity in the workplace and opportunities for women in the U.S. and Japan through mentorship and employee engagement programs;

Ensuring transparency and honesty are woven into the fabric of each department; and

Championing companywide participation in recycling efforts through a supply swap that has saved Aflac more than $50,000 ;

; Coaching employees to reach new heights in their careers through career counseling services at Aflac's Career Success Centers, leading to the promotion and/or positive career movement of more than 1,200 employees over the past three years.

Employee stories introduce each chapter of the report: Governance, Workplace, Philanthropy, Environmental Sustainability and Aflac Japan. This outline and content within are based on key CSR dimensions, as defined by Reputation Institute, considered the gold standard in reputation tracking.

The 2016 Aflac Corporate Social Responsibility Report marks the company's second year working toward adherence to the criteria of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world's most widely used sustainability reporting framework. Disclosures that fulfill GRI G4 Core, the latest guidelines, are noted throughout.

The report is available online at www.aflac.com/csrreport.

About Aflac

When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For more than six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leading provider of voluntary insurance at the worksite. Through its trailblazing One Day PaySM initiative, Aflac U.S. can receive, process, approve and disburse payment for eligible claims in one business day. In Japan, Aflac is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance, and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac individual and group insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For 11 consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2017, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the 19th consecutive year and included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 16th time. In 2015, Aflac's contact centers were recognized by J.D. Power by providing "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience" for the Live Phone Channel. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac and One Day PaySM, visit aflac.com or espanol.aflac.com.

Aflac herein means American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York.

Media contact  Darcy Brito, 706.320.2358 or [email protected]

Analyst and investor contact  David A. Young, 706.596.3264 or 800.235.2667, FAX 706.324.6330, or [email protected]

SOURCE Aflac

Related Links

http://www.aflac.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pembrook Capital Management LLC ("Pembrook") today announced a new program offering financial grants to public schools located in neighborhoods where Pembrook does business. Pembrook is an investment manager focused on providing loans and other financing for the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing, as well as office, retail, and industrial properties, in underserved areas on a national basis. Contributions under the new program are initially targeted to total up to 3% of Pembrook's annual profits.

Pembrook's founder and chief executive, Stuart J. Boesky, has commenced the program by directing contributions to the local school systems in Compton, CA and Visalia, CA. The Compton grant provides the template for the future of the program  a real estate financing transaction accompanied by a school contribution in the same neighborhood. Pembrook recently provided an $7.57 million first mortgage loan to complete the development of Alondra Villas in Compton, a partially completed 29-unit townhouse development located at 950 West Alondra Boulevard. The Pembrook loan will allow the sponsor, Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County (NHS), to complete construction of the project and sell apartment units to a mix of buyers at different income levels. At the same time, Pembrook has already provided a grant to the City's school system for the purchase of needed student supplies.

"The current administration in Washington, D.C. has a stated purpose of promoting public/private partnership. In addition, they have adopted policies and a proposed budget that would reduce the amount of public funding available to public schools," Mr. Boesky noted. "With these policies in mind, Pembrook has decided to provide grants to public schools located in the neighborhoods where we do business. We have long believed that investment in education is vital to the future competitiveness of the American workforce, and we believe this new program is an appropriate way for us to manifest our support, in tandem with our business of providing financing for affordable housing and other properties in underserved areas. Moreover, we believe that everything we do to improve the communities in which we do business will directly and positively impact our investment performance."

Pembrook is a real estate investment manager that provides financing throughout the capital structure. The firm has originated or participated in investments totaling over $1 billion since it began investing in 2007.

About Pembrook Capital Management, LLC

Founded in 2006 by Stuart J. Boesky, Pembrook Capital Management invests in and originates commercial real estate debt to finance all parts of a capital structure including first mortgages, mezzanine, bridge loans, note financings, and preferred equity across the United States. The firm invests in most commercial real estate property categories, including multifamily, office, retail and industrial. http://www.pembrookgroup.com/

Media Contact

Great Ink Communications, (212) 741-2977

Tom Nolan ([email protected])

Eric Waters ([email protected])

SOURCE Pembrook Capital Management, LLC

Related Links

http://www.pembrookgroup.com


JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to the continued growth in revenue and personnel, PetFirst Pet Insurance is moving its headquarters in August to Water Tower Square in Jeffersonville, IN. Recognized as Business First's #1 fastest growing company in 2010, PetFirst continues to represent one of Kentuckiana's fastest-growing businesses.

"We have worked diligently to design an innovative, relaxed, and pet-friendly work space that will meet the needs of our growing business and represent the fun culture PetFirst is known for," said Katie Blakeley, CEO of PetFirst, "While PetFirst is a national company, we are excited to invest locally in Indiana."

PetFirst has outgrown its current facility located at Quartermaster Station in Jeffersonville, IN. The company moved into its current location in 2008 and expanded its headquarters in 2010.

"The time is right for us to increase our office space and invest further in our collaborative culture," Blakeley said. "Our entire organization is committed to serving the needs of dog and cat parents across the U.S. This new space will foster more collaboration and unity among our team members."

PetFirst's new facility will offer an open environment for creativity and collaboration, include various meeting rooms and break-out spaces, and work-life amenities like a lounge area and cafe.

PetFirst's growth reflects the growth of the overall pet health insurance industry, which is on pace to exceed $1 billion in premium in 2017.

PetFirst was founded in 2004 with just two employees and now has more than fifty associates. The company offers pet insurance coverage to dog and cat owners through a variety of distribution channels including animal welfare organizations; employers that offer the insurance as a voluntary benefit; retailers; and direct-to-consumer through PetFirst.com.

About PetFirst Pet Insurance

PetFirst Pet Insurance is the most recommended pet insurance company among new pet owners in the United States. PetFirst has an easy enrollment process, the shortest waiting periods in the industry and a plan with few exclusions. PetFirst's comprehensive coverage is unique in the industry providing simplified policies with coverage for hereditary, chronic, and breed-specific conditions with no per-incident limits. PetFirst Healthcare, LLC is the program administrator authorized to underwrite and administer pet health insurance policies and claims on behalf of AIG and Allianz. For more information about PetFirst, visit www.petfirst.com or call 855-270-7387.

Media Contact:

Clint Lawrence

VP of Sales & Marketing

(w) 812-206-9617

[email protected]

SOURCE PetFirst Pet Insurance

Related Links

https://www.petfirst.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free! Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform

EXPERT ALERTS

Ensuring Timely, Accessible Care for Veterans

Benefits of Self-Funding Employee Healthcare Plans

What Are the Five Keys to Healthcare Reform?

MEDIA JOBS

Senior Staff Writer  Columbia Journalism Review (NY)

News Reporter  Global Competition Review (DC)

Managing Editor  Risk and Insurance (PA)

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

Capturing Results Through Successful Social Media Headlines

5 Tips to Take Your Portrait Photography to the Next Level

Blog Profiles: Running Blogs, Part 2

-------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERT ALERTS:

Ensuring Timely, Accessible Care for Veterans

David R. Nelson

CEO

Veterans Accountable Care Group

"Secretary Shulkin and the entire Veterans Health Administration (VHA) efforts to deliver the right care at the right time in the right setting are admirable, whether that care is delivered inside or outside the VHA traditional delivery model. VACG/VACO looks to support the VHA's efforts to ensure timely access to needed healthcare services for our nation's heroes."

Nelson is available to discuss the current state of the VA health system; how we can ensure timely, accessible care for the nation's 23 million veterans; and the current and new future options. He is an 11-year Navy veteran and serial entrepreneur who's led the formation of VACO and VACG, Sierra Military Healthcare Services, and xG Health Solutions, among others.

Website: http://www.vacgroup.org/home.html

Contact: Aileen Kantor, [email protected]





Benefits of Self-Funding Employee Healthcare Plans

Brady Bizarro

Consulting Attorney

The Phia Group, LLC, Boston

"Self-funding an employee health plan remains one of the most effective cost-containment strategies for employers with a relatively healthy workforce and a willingness to customize a plan."

Bizarro is available to discuss the House and Senate healthcare bills, the ongoing efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, healthcare policy, ethics and fiduciary duties, and the benefits of self-funding. He is the author of numerous articles that have been featured in trade publications, including "As Employer-Sponsored Plans Multiply, Self-Funding Remains an Attractive Option" (America's Benefit Specialist, February 2017) and "How to Avoid Common Pitfalls When Managing a Self-Funded Health Plan" (Benefits Pro, October 2016).

ProfNet Connect: http://www.profnetconnect.com/bradybizarro

Website: https://www.phiagroup.com

Contact: Matthew Painten, [email protected]





What Are the Five Keys to Healthcare Reform?

Dr. Elaina George

"The healthcare reform impasse is a distraction. Whether you are for free market or single payer, the status quo is designed to keep you locked in the maze where promises of winning at all costs or fixing the broken system is the cheese that everyone is chasing after. Over the past eight years, there has been one constant, no matter who is in power -- our healthcare system continues to get worse. Since the passage of the ACA, healthcare costs have gone up, choice of doctors has gone down, access has narrowed, and our healthcare system is now last among the developed countries for delivering efficient, cost effective quality medical care. Many physicians have left the practice of medicine, and a growing number of RNs have left clinical practice to join the ranks of administrators as case managers."

Based in Atlanta, Dr. George is a board-certified otolaryngologist and author of "Big Medicine: The Cost Of Corporate Control And How Doctors And Patients Working Together Can Rebuild A Better System." She also hosts her own radio show, "Medicine On Call," and is a keynote speaker for many organizations.

Contact: Ryan McCormick, [email protected]





****************

MEDIA JOBS:

Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/

Senior Staff Writer  Columbia Journalism Review (NY)

News Reporter  Global Competition Review (DC)

Managing Editor  Risk and Insurance (PA)

*****************

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line.

CAPTURING RESULTS FROM SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA HEADLINES. You've written your story and now it's time to promote it, but drawing in eyeballs to your content will require strategy. Much like a traditional news story, it all starts with a headline. Politico's social media editor, Trevor Eischen , recently shared insightful advice on how to craft social posts to drive site traffic and increase engagement: http://bit.ly/2vmxBZR





, recently shared insightful advice on how to craft social posts to drive site traffic and increase engagement: http://bit.ly/2vmxBZR 5 TIPS TO TAKE YOUR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE NEXT LEVEL. A headshot is essential for anyone with a professional online presence. However, the person behind the camera should be just as prepared to ensure a great experience from beginning to end, whether you're taking headshots for someone's personal brand or shooting portraits for your stories. If you're looking for ways to enhance your photography in this space, here are our top five tips for your next one-on-one photo session: http://bit.ly/2vFdBBd





BLOG PROFILES: RUNNING BLOGS, PART 2. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Relations team selects an industry/subject and profiles a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at more running blogs: http://bit.ly/2uXBzuO

****************

PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

SOURCE ProfNet

Related Links

http://www.profnet.com


OAKLAND, Calif. and RENTON, Wash., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Providence St. Joseph Health, a faith-based not-for-profit parent organization to a diverse family of 50 hospitals, 829 clinics and hundreds of programs and services offered across the Western United States, and Well Being Trust, a new national foundation focused on innovation and improvement for mental health and wellness outcomes in the U.S., jointly announce the first round of $10 million in grants and contracts to mental health and wellness initiatives that will help vulnerable Californians. Selected initiatives are far-reaching, supporting preschoolers to seniors, the homeless and those struggling with addiction.

When Providence Health & Services and St. Joseph Health came together last year, the new organization promised to transform the way care is delivered and address the greatest health needs in its communities  especially for the neediest patients facing the greatest risk. For Providence St. Joseph Health, the grants help actualize the organization's mission to serve the health care needs of its communities and a commitment made in 2016 to address California's mental health needs. Providence St. Joseph Health has committed $30 million in total to mental health and wellness across the state, with the initial $10 million signifying the first round of grants fulfilling the promise.

"There is an urgent need for health care organizations to step up and address the mental health crisis affecting communities across California. None of us can meet this challenge alone  we must work together and leverage our resources to help those most in need," said Rod Hochman, MD, CEO, Providence St. Joseph Health. "We must make a substantial commitment to improving care and awareness, and also create deep partnerships with community organizations and social service advocates. These grants and initiatives are a crucial first step toward improving the state's overall mental, physical and spiritual health."

PSJH's partner in administering the grants is Well Being Trust, which was formed when the health system made a $100 million commitment to mental health across the entire service area. Well Being Trust is dedicated to advancing mental, social and spiritual health in the nation and partners with other health systems and philanthropies to identify and implement strategies that address: critical mental health challenges; promote resilience in children; teens and families; and lead to human and community well-being. Part of Providence's $30 million California commitment will continue to support the Trust's efforts in the state, which focus on creating a data and technology platform, monitoring and evaluation, communications and engagement and community and coalition building.

"Nearly one in six Californians live with mental health challenges, and we know that roughly half of adults and two-thirds of children are not receiving the care they need. That burdens families across the community and the state," said Tyler Norris, MDiv, chief executive, Well Being Trust. "Significant gaps remain and, through these early grants, we are working with our partners to bridge these gaps to provide for California's most vulnerable populations facing mental health, substance use and related challenges."

In selecting the California slate of grants, Well Being Trust worked with Providence St. Joseph Health and community partners to identify the most significant areas of need and the programs that would have the greatest impact. The first round of grants is, in part, focused on new and existing Providence St. Joseph Health programs that are working in communities across the state to address health and wellness challenges such as mental health, addiction and homelessness. Some of these initiatives include:

Northern California

Committee on the Shelterless - Sonoma County Coordinated Health, Wellness, and Housing Initiative - The grant will support a pilot program serving nearly 1,000 people who are homeless, many of whom struggle with mental health and or substance use disorders. Services provided include assessments, stabilization, necessary health and preparation for placement into permanent supportive housing.

- The grant will support a pilot program serving nearly 1,000 people who are homeless, many of whom struggle with mental health and or substance use disorders. Services provided include assessments, stabilization, necessary health and preparation for placement into permanent supportive housing. Addressing Mental Health, Addictions and Homelessness - In collaboration with Napa County Health and Human Services and other partners, the program will expand tele-psychiatry available in the emergency department and hospital, add CARE Network staff to facilitate access to mental health and substance abuse interventions, and establish new mental health crisis stabilization services, detoxification services, respite care and housing.

and other partners, the program will expand tele-psychiatry available in the emergency department and hospital, add CARE Network staff to facilitate access to mental health and substance abuse interventions, and establish new mental health crisis stabilization services, detoxification services, respite care and housing. Humboldt County Mental Health and Wellness Initiative - This initiative will address the issue of co-occurring mental health and substance abuse by: (1) creating Waterfront Recovery Services, the first and only dual-diagnosis, medical detoxification and residential treatment facility in the county; and (2) establishing Humboldt ACH, a rural Accountable Community for Health. This program is administered by St. Joseph Health's Humboldt County Mental Health and Wellness Initiative (HCMHWI).

Southern California

School-Based Adolescent Mental Health System  This initiative will equip teachers, parents and high school students within the Anaheim Union High School District in Orange County with the tools to address mental health issues, including the train-the-trainer and peer-to-peer models. The program is administered by the Promotion, Prevention and Intervention Mental Health Network at St. Joseph Hoag Health.

 This initiative will equip teachers, parents and high school students within the Anaheim Union High School District in with the tools to address mental health issues, including the train-the-trainer and peer-to-peer models. The program is administered by the Promotion, Prevention and Intervention Mental Health Network at St. Joseph Hoag Health. Outpatient Crisis Stabilization  This Los Angeles County -focused initiative will support the start-up phase of the Providence Outpatient Center for Crisis Stabilization (POCCS) at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center. Crisis stabilization is an outpatient service designed to address immediate psychiatric emergencies, many of which can be resolved in less than 24 hours.

This -focused initiative will support the start-up phase of the Providence Outpatient Center for Crisis Stabilization (POCCS) at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center. Crisis stabilization is an outpatient service designed to address immediate psychiatric emergencies, many of which can be resolved in less than 24 hours. Safety Net Integration Program  Strengthening the support system for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in the San Fernando Valley, this initiative increases vulnerable populations' access to health and wellness services at Providence Holy Cross, Mission Hills . Patient navigators will assess patients; tele-psychiatry services will be implemented; and a program manager will coordinate monthly case conference meetings with members of the care team.

 Strengthening the support system for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in the San Fernando Valley, this initiative increases vulnerable populations' access to health and wellness services at Providence Holy Cross, . Patient navigators will assess patients; tele-psychiatry services will be implemented; and a program manager will coordinate monthly case conference meetings with members of the care team. Mental Health Community Partnership  The Community Mental Health Partnership initiative addresses homelessness and substance abuse by contracting with community agencies to expand services led by Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank . A mental health advocate will conduct initial mental health and social care intervention for emergency department patients and those inpatients recommended by clinical social workers and physicians. In addition, the grant will help provide shelter to homeless patients.

 The Community Mental Health Partnership initiative addresses homelessness and substance abuse by contracting with community agencies to expand services led by Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in . A mental health advocate will conduct initial mental health and social care intervention for emergency department patients and those inpatients recommended by clinical social workers and physicians. In addition, the grant will help provide shelter to homeless patients. Mental Health Navigation  Licensed clinical social workers at Providence Saint John's Health Center will provide a coordinated, culturally and linguistically appropriate case management approach for Medi-Cal and Medicare patients who need to connect with mental health providers in the community.

For a complete list of programs across California that will be supported by these grants, click here.

About Providence St. Joseph Health

Providence St. Joseph Health is committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, especially those who are poor and vulnerable. With 50 hospitals, 829 physician clinics, senior services, supportive housing and many other health and educational services, the health system and its partners employ more than 111,000 caregivers (employees) serving communities across seven states  Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Formed in 2016, the Providence St. Joseph Health family includes the founding organizations, and in: Texas, Covenant Health and Covenant Medical Group; California, Facey Medical Group, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare; Washington, Kadlec Regional Medical Center, Pacific Medical Centers and Swedish Health Services.

About Well Being Trust

Founded in late 2016 with a $100 million endowment from Providence St. Joseph Health, Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing mental, social and spiritual health. Created to include participation from organizations across sectors and perspectives, Well Being Trust is committed to innovating and addressing the most critical mental health challenges facing America, and transforming individual and community wellness. www.wellbeingtrust.org

SOURCE Providence St. Joseph Health

Related Links

http://www.psjhealth.org


(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 112 Market Data Tables and 53 Figures spread through 160 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Release Liners Market - Global Forecast to 2022"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/release-liner-market-240148061.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The market is driven by the increased demand for release liners from various application segments, such as labels, pressure-sensitive tapes, hygiene, industrial, graphic arts, medical, and others.

Speak to Analyst @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=240148061

Labels is estimated to be the largest application segment of the global release liners market

Among the various applications, the labels segment is estimated to be the largest application segment of the global release liners market. Release liners are used in the automotive industry, particularly in gaskets and accessories. Properties such as durability and high strength of release liners make them preferred in the automotive industry.

Silicone is projected to be the fastest-growing material type in the global release liners market

Silicone release liners has many important consumer and industrial applications such as postage stamps, envelopes, and bar code labels. Silicone as additives help provide resistance to slip, moisture, and abrasion, improved adhesion, anti-blocking properties, gloss, foam control, and many other benefits. The demand for silicone release liners is growing due to their increased usage in the graphic arts, medical, and packaging industries.

Rising demand for release liners in Asia Pacific contributes to the high growth of this market

Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share of the global release liners market in 2016. Currently, China is the largest market for release liners in the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to continue the same during the forecast period. In China and India, the demand for release liners is expected to increase due to the growing packaging industry and rapid economic expansion. In addition, growing population in these countries serves as a huge customer base for the manufacturers of release liners.

Request for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=240148061

Key companies profiled in the global Release Liners Market research report include The 3M Company (US), Mondi Group (Austria), Sappi Limited (South Africa), Ahlstrom-Munksjo (Sweden), LINTEC Corporation (Japan), Polyplex Corporation Ltd. (India), Eastman Chemical Company (US), Gascogne (France), UPM (Finland), and Loparex (US).

Browse Related Reports:

Release Coatings Market by Material (Silicone, Non-Silicone), Formulation (Solvent-Based, Water-Based, Oil Emulsions), Application (Labels, Tapes, Hygiene, Industrial, Medical, Food & Bakery), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/release-coating-market-200854410.html

Release Agents Market by Composition (Emulsifiers, Vegetable Oils, Wax & Wax Esters, Antioxidants), Application (Bakery & Confectionery, Meat, and Processed Food), Type (Fluid, Solid, and Others), and by Region - Global Trends & Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/release-agents-market-168821608.html

Subscribe Reports from Chemicals & Materials Domain http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Rohan

MarketsandMarkets

701 Pike Street

Suite 2175, Seattle,

WA 98101, United States

Tel: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
"First and foremost, Road Scholar is an educational organization and we always encourage our participants to continue to learn, whether it's on a Road Scholar educational adventure or learning a new language or technology," said Kristin Moore, senior vice president of communications and marketing at Road Scholar. "Our participants love sharing their experiences with others already, and we believe with a little encouragement and assistance, they will join the 500 million monthly active users on Instagram."

We invite you to celebrate aging with us. Click here to learn more about Road Scholar's #ageadventurously campaign. https://www.roadscholar.org/collections/ageadventurously/.

About Road Scholar

Road Scholar is the nation's largest educational travel organization for adults  a true university of the world. This not-for-profit educational organization offers 5,500 extraordinary learning adventures in 150 countries and 50 states. Road Scholars are immersed in a variety of educational activities, enlisting renowned faculty and experts who offer insider access not available to most individuals. Dedicated to making educational travel available to everyone, Road Scholar offers financial aid for those who otherwise could not participate in its programs.

Road Scholar educational adventures are created by Elderhostel, the not-for-profit world leader in educational travel for adults since 1975. To learn more, please visit www.roadscholar.org/press or check our blog at https://discussion.roadscholar.org/b/blog.

SOURCE Road Scholar

Related Links

http://www.roadscholar.org


The lawsuits were filed in Loudoun County, on behalf of Kyle Hogan and Patrick Moore. Both Plaintiffs were exposed to, and sickened by norovirus. Both sought and received medical treatment for their illnesses and are recovering.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Again Linked to a Food Poisoning Outbreak - Chipotle Identifies Sick Employee As Source

Between July 13 and 15, 2017, at least 135 patrons of the Chipotle Mexican Grill were sickened after consuming various Chipotle food products. At least two patrons have now tested positive for norovirus, which according to the CDC is passed through consumption of human feces.

The restaurant was temporarily closed. During the closure multiple teams performed complete sanitization of all surfaces, according to Chipotle CEO Steve Ells. Ells also stated that Chipotle believes a sick employee was the source of the outbreak. The restaurant is now open, but the investigation is ongoing.

Attorney Ron Simon Issues Statement, Sets up Norovirus Claim Center

Lead attorney Ron Simon, who represents the Plaintiffs in this lawsuit, issued the following statement today: "This is the sixth Chipotle food poisoning outbreak my firm has handled in the last three years. Through these lawsuits we will make sure that Chipotle learns to put the safety of its customers first."

Mr. Simon and his law firm have established a Chipotle Food Poisoning Claim Center to assist victims in the outbreak. The Claims Center can be reached toll-free at 1-888-335-4901.

About Ron Simon

Over the last 20 years, Ron Simon and his colleagues have prosecuted thousands of communicable disease cases for victims across the United States. His work has resulted in numerous improvements in sanitation and good manufacturing standards in Fortune 500 companies and in legislation designed to protect consumers from dangerous communicable pathogens.

Mr. Simon and his clients have been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and virtually all other major television networks and print media. He regularly publishes articles about communicable diseases and food safety at www.foodpoisoningnews.com which are read by viewers in over 180 countries.

Through litigation, media commentary, and his many presentations and publications, Mr. Simon relentlessly challenges institutions, manufacturers, distributors, and restaurants to do a better job in keeping the public safe.

For media inquiries or more information on this most recent Chipotle food borne illness outbreak and ongoing litigation, please contact Ron Simon directly at (713) 819-8116 or [email protected].

SOURCE Ron Simon & Associates
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP ("Scott+Scott"), a national shareholder and consumer rights litigation firm, announces the commencement of an investigation into Blue Apron Holdings Inc. ("Blue Apron" or the "Company") (NYSE: APRN) related to potential violations of federal securities laws. If you are a Blue Apron shareholder who bought in the Initial Public Offering, you are encouraged to contact Scott+Scott for additional information.

Blue Apron is a holding company focused on providing recipes and fresh ingredients for making home cooking accessible.

On June 29, 2017, Blue Apron conducted a public offering during which it sold 300 million shares at $10 per share. As of market close on July 24, 2017, Blue Apron's stock had lost over 25% of its value.

Scott+Scott is investigating whether Blue Apron's offering documents were false or misleading.

What You Can Do

If you purchased or acquired Blue Apron shares on or after June 29, 2017 and you wish to discuss this lawsuit, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew at (844) 818-6982 or at [email protected].

About Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Connecticut, California, and Ohio.

CONTACT:

Joe Pettigrew

Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

(844) 818-6982

[email protected]

SOURCE Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

Related Links

http://scott-scott.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SecondMuse, the global innovation agency with clients like NASA, Nike, World Bank Group and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), announced today that they are hiring Greg Spielberg as Director of Strategy, Cities. Spielberg previously served as founder of NYC-based Imagination in Space, a storytelling agency and a close SecondMuse collaborator. He will continue to help spearhead SecondMuse's work on FutureworksNYC, part of NYCEDC's portfolio of advanced manufacturing projects.

SecondMuse

"Over the last decade SecondMuse has helped a couple hundred businesses go to market through our community-centric approach to incubation. We have had the opportunity to partner and co-create with incredible organizations and are excited to grow our world-class team," says SecondMuse partner Todd Khozein. "Cities, for us, represent a unique and particularly powerful platform within which to help grow early and mid-stage businesses because of the strength of community ties. Being a part of NYC's manufacturing renaissance has been as inspiring as it has been validating of our approach, especially as we build community-sourced incubators in other cities around the world."

Spielberg joins the rapidly growing SecondMuse team as they expanded their portfolio of city-based incubators. Known for designing and implementing projects to tackle the world's complex social and environmental problems, SecondMuse collaborates with a variety of partners, including Nike, Inc., NASA, Intel, USAID, the World Bank Group, and NYCEDC.

"I've had the opportunity to collaborate with hundreds of brands, organizations and entrepreneurs over the past six years. SecondMuse is peerless in their understanding that economic and innovation development require the ongoing cultivation of diverse, powerful local ecosystems. I'm excited to join the team and help an already-global company deepen engagement in New York City and beyond," said Spielberg.

Over the past three years, Spielberg has partnered with SecondMuse initially to develop a tour of making and manufacturing in New York as part of New York's Next Top Makers. As the partnership with SecondMuse deepened, Spielberg took the lead on developing the community-storytelling approach to Next Top Makers, now known as Futureworks Incubator, and collaborated to develop Futureworks Shops to open up access to prototyping and fabrication equipment throughout NYC.

"Greg has an incredible ability to capture stories and get to the root of what brings people together. He has expanded the quality of our work and has deepened our understanding of how to build community-sourced programming in a fun, thoughtful way," said Katey Metzroth, Director of Cities at SecondMuse.

Spielberg brings 15 years of experience in journalism, creative retail and community-based economic development to SecondMuse. He started his career in the Rocky Mountains as a copy editor and reporter at the Vail Daily. After cutting his teeth as a journalist for Bloomberg, Businessweek, Harvard's Nieman Lab and Amsterdam-based The Intelligent Optimist magazine, Spielberg helped spark the city's pop up retail ecosystem with Openhouse Gallery. As managing director, he drove 30 percent year-over-year revenue growth, expanded the company's real estate footprint and built creative retail experiences covered by the Associated Press, Mashable, New York Times, NPR, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal and WWD.

In 2013, he founded Imagination in Space to advance new economic ecosystems and community-based storytelling through deep collaboration. Working in New York, Shanghai and London, Imagination in Space worked with brands like Adidas, Bank of America, New Balance, Techstars Internet of Things, We Are Pop Up and WPP's Brand Union.

SecondMuse

SecondMuse is a certified B Corporation, a pioneering innovation and collaboration company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Since 2009, SecondMuse has teamed up with high-impact partners and brands, including NASA, Intel, Google, NIKE, Inc., IKEA, USAID, the World Bank Group, and the Australian Aid program, and reached across six continents, to screen more than 30,000 solutions, 13,000 entrepreneurs and prototypes and to accelerate 200+ companies. In addition, SecondMuse's cutting edge storytelling campaigns empower people to tell authentic stories that ignite connections and inspire action. Discover additional information about SecondMuse through the company's digital magazine Issuu and at www.secondmuse.com. Follow SecondMuse on Twitter @SecondMuse and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Secondmuse.

Media Contact: Matt Scott / [email protected]

SOURCE SecondMuse

Related Links

http://www.secondmuse.com


SEATTLE, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 19, 2017, a joint venture between Security Properties and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. purchased Canyon Creek, a 440-unit property built in 1984 and located in Phoenix, AZ; Stillwater, a 516-unit property built in 1984 and located in Glendale, AZ; and Off Broadway, a 320-unit property built in 1986 and located in Mesa, AZ. Security Properties now owns a total of eight assets in the Phoenix marketplace.

Off Broadway Apartments Stillwater Apartments

Metropolitan Phoenix is one of the nation's fastest-growing regions, consistently recognized for strong job growth and an entrepreneurial environment. Affordability and a uniquely deep labor pool of applicable human capital continue to drive significant corporate investment in the market. Metropolitan Phoenix is forecasted to be in the top three major metropolitan areas in employment growth over the next two years. From 2017-2018, job growth is projected at 2.8% annually or roughly 112,000 jobs over the next two years. Metro Phoenix is also ranked #1 among major western markets for population growth through 2019[1].

The portfolio represents a value-add investment. The joint venture plans to upgrade 100% of the units with a consistent renovation spec. The new spec will include a black appliance package, sprayed countertops, new flooring as well as updated lighting and plumbing fixtures. Additionally, 236 units will receive washer/ dryers. Capital will also be focused on the upgrading of resident common areas/amenity space and addressing miscellaneous deferred maintenance items.

According to Davis Vaughn, Director at Security Properties, the acquisition was made because, "We are big believers in workforce housing, especially in metros with substantial job growth. The affordability of Phoenix relative to other west coast markets continues to attract renters and jobs to the area and this is why we are scaling up there. Once our renovation is complete, we will be able to offer competitive units to the market while still maintaining a basis significantly below replacement cost."

The property will be managed by Security Properties-affiliate Security Properties Residential.

About Security Properties

Security Properties is a national real estate investment, development, and operating company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For more than 48 years, Security Properties has provided quality housing to its residents as well as excellent financial performance for its investors. Since its founding, Security Properties has acquired or developed over 83,000 residential units at a cost of over $5.7 billion. Security Properties maintains a focused multi-family strategy supported by integrated teams of professional acquisition, development, construction, investment, and property management specialists. For more information, visit www.securityproperties.com

About Security Properties Residential

Security Properties Residential is the affiliated property management firm of Security Properties, created to increase the value of its real estate holdings by more closely managing its assets. Operating throughout the Western U.S., Security Properties Residential is committed to delivering exceptional service to its apartment communities and residents. Services include property, construction and compliance management services that create positive living environments for residents and build value for clients.

About Oaktree

Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with $100 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2017. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in distressed debt, corporate debt (including high yield debt and senior loans), control investing, convertible securities, real estate and listed equities. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm has over 900 employees and offices in 18 cities worldwide. For additional information, please visit Oaktree's website at http://www.oaktreecapital.com/.

[1] CBRE Economic Advisors

News media contact:

Ed McGovern, 206.622.9900

[email protected]

SOURCE Security Properties

Related Links

http://www.securityproperties.com


HOUSTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), the largest provider of deathcare products and services in North America, reported results for the second quarter of 2017. Our unaudited consolidated financial statements can be found at the end of this press release. The table below summarizes our key financial results:

(In millions, except for per share amounts) Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended June

30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Revenue $ 773.2



$ 751.4



$ 1,551.0



$ 1,500.6

Operating income $ 143.6



$ 94.5



$ 283.2



$ 218.2

Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 68.5



$ 15.6



$ 243.2



$ 63.1

Diluted earnings per share $ 0.36



$ 0.08



$ 1.26



$ 0.32

Earnings excluding special items(1) $ 67.5



$ 55.8



$ 140.5



$ 111.1

Diluted earnings per share excluding special items(1) $ 0.35



$ 0.28



$ 0.73



$ 0.56

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding 192.1



196.7



192.5



197.5

Net cash provided by operating activities $ 35.8



$ 40.8



$ 224.2



$ 225.5

Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items(1) $ 76.3



$ 68.7



$ 264.7



$ 258.6







(1) Earnings excluding special items, diluted earnings per share excluding special items, and net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items are non-GAAP financial measures. These items are also referred to as "adjusted earnings per share" and "adjusted operating cash flow". A reconciliation from net income attributable to common stockholders, diluted earnings per share, and net cash provided by operating activities computed in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) can be found later in this press release under the headings "Cash Flow and Capital Spending" and "Non-GAAP Financial Measures".

Quarterly Highlights:

Diluted earnings per share were $0.36 in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $0.08 in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter of 2016 was negatively impacted by losses on business dispositions and losses on the early extinguishment of debt. Diluted earnings per share excluding special items was $0.35 in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $0.28 in the second quarter of 2016. The increase in diluted earnings per share excluding special items was primarily driven by higher operating profits led by a double-digit increase in cemetery revenue. These results were also bolstered by effective cost management, a lower tax rate, and fewer shares outstanding resulting from our ongoing share repurchase program.

in the second quarter of 2017 compared to in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter of 2016 was negatively impacted by losses on business dispositions and losses on the early extinguishment of debt. Diluted earnings per share excluding special items was in the second quarter of 2017 compared to in the second quarter of 2016. The increase in diluted earnings per share excluding special items was primarily driven by higher operating profits led by a double-digit increase in cemetery revenue. These results were also bolstered by effective cost management, a lower tax rate, and fewer shares outstanding resulting from our ongoing share repurchase program. Net cash provided by operating activities was $35.8 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $40.8 million in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter of 2016 was impacted by system transition costs and excess tax benefits from share-based awards, and premiums paid on early extinguishment which reduced cash provided by operating activities. The second quarter of 2017 was impacted by an IRS tax settlement payment and a pension settlement payment. Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items in both periods as noted above was $76.3 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $68.7 million in the prior year quarter. The cash flow generated from earnings growth in the second quarter of 2017 was partially offset by higher expected recurring cash tax payments.

in the second quarter of 2017 compared to in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter of 2016 was impacted by system transition costs and excess tax benefits from share-based awards, and premiums paid on early extinguishment which reduced cash provided by operating activities. The second quarter of 2017 was impacted by an IRS tax settlement payment and a pension settlement payment. Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items in both periods as noted above was in the second quarter of 2017 compared to in the prior year quarter. The cash flow generated from earnings growth in the second quarter of 2017 was partially offset by higher expected recurring cash tax payments. During the second quarter, we returned $64.7 million to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividends and deployed $22.1 million of capital primarily to accretive acquisitions and the construction of new funeral homes.

Tom Ryan, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the second quarter of 2017:

"We are pleased to deliver another solid quarter reporting a 25% increase in adjusted earnings per share and an 11% increase in adjusted operating cash flow. Growth in cemetery revenue, effective funeral and cemetery cost management and a lower tax rate were the primary drivers of our double-digit adjusted EPS growth in the quarter. As a result of our strong performance in the first half of 2017, we are increasing our full year guidance for both adjusted earnings per share and adjusted operating cash flow to $1.42 to $1.52 per share and $480 million to $520 million, respectively. I would like to thank all 23,000 associates as these results could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of our entire team. In the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on growing our revenues by remaining relevant with the consumer, driving future market share by growing our preneed sales, continuing to leverage our increasing scale and deploying capital to enhance shareholder value."

OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Our revised outlook for Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items is anticipated to exceed our expected long-term growth framework of 8%-12% after special items in 2016 and also includes an additional two cent benefit in the back half of the year from tax benefits recognized on the anticipated settlement of employee share-based awards. Additionally, our updated outlook for Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items reflects expected cash tax payments of $140 million to $145 million, which is approximately $10 million lower than our original expectations.

Our revised outlook for potential earnings and cash flow in 2017 is as follows:

(In millions, except per share amounts) Original 2017

Outlook

Revised 2017

Outlook Diluted earnings per share excluding special items (Adjusted EPS)(1) $1.29 to $1.43

$1.42 to $1.52 Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items (Adjusted Operating Cash Flow)(1) $465 to $505

$480 to $520 Capital improvements at existing facilities and cemetery development expenditures Approximately $180

Approximately $180





(1) Diluted earnings per share excluding special items and Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items are non-GAAP financial measures. We normally reconcile these non-GAAP financial measures from diluted earnings per share and net cash provided by operating activities; however, diluted earnings per share and net cash provided by operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP are not currently accessible on a forward-looking basis. Our outlook for 2017 excludes the following because this information is not currently available for 2017: Gains or losses associated with asset divestitures, gains or losses associated with the early extinguishment of debt, potential tax reserve adjustments and IRS settlement payments, acquisition and integration costs, system implementation and transition costs, and potential costs associated with settlements of litigation or the recognition of receivables for insurance recoveries associated with litigation. The foregoing items, especially gains or losses associated with asset divestitures and potential tax reserve adjustments, could materially impact our forward-looking diluted EPS and/or our net cash provided by operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP, consistent with the historical disclosures found in this press release under the headings "Cash Flow and Capital Spending" and "Non-GAAP Financial Measures".

REVIEW OF RESULTS FOR SECOND QUARTER 2017

Consolidated Segment Results (See definitions of revenue line items later in this earnings release.)

(In millions, except funeral services performed and average revenue per service) Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Funeral:













Atneed revenue $ 249.1



$ 260.4



$ 520.9



$ 537.9

Matured preneed revenue 138.3



130.8



290.1



270.2

Core revenue 387.4



391.2



811.0



808.1

Non-funeral home revenue 11.7



10.7



24.0



22.1

Recognized preneed revenue 30.2



29.3



62.2



58.3

Other revenue 29.6



35.9



60.4



70.8

Total revenue $ 458.9



$ 467.1



$ 957.6



$ 959.3

















Operating profit $ 92.1



$ 89.4



$ 204.7



$ 196.6

Operating margin percentage 20.1 %

19.1 %

21.4 %

20.5 %















Funeral services performed 75,566



75,638



158,484



157,836

Average revenue per service 5,281



$ 5,313



5,269



5,260

















Cemetery:













Atneed revenue $ 80.5



$ 79.1



$ 162.1



$ 156.7

Recognized preneed revenue 208.2



179.8



386.1



333.2

Core revenue 288.7



258.9



548.2



489.9

Other revenue 25.7



25.4



45.1



51.4

Total revenue $ 314.4



$ 284.3



$ 593.3



$ 541.3

















Operating profit $ 91.4



$ 72.6



$ 155.9



$ 128.3

Operating margin percentage 29.1 %

25.5 %

26.3 %

23.7 %

Comparable Funeral Results

The table below details comparable funeral results of operations ("same store") for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016. We consider comparable operations to be those owned for the entire period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending June 30, 2017.

(Dollars in millions, except average revenue per service and average revenue per contract sold)

Three Months Ended June 30,



2017

2016

$

% Comparable revenue:















Atneed revenue(1)

$ 244.1



$ 253.9



$ (9.8)



(3.9) % Matured preneed revenue(2)

136.2



128.2



8.0



6.2 % Core revenue(3)

380.3



382.1



(1.8)



(0.5) % Non-funeral home revenue(4)

11.7



10.7



1.0



9.3 % Recognized preneed revenue(5)

30.2



29.1



1.1



3.8 % Other revenue(6)

29.5



34.5



(5.0)



(14.5) % Total comparable revenue

$ 451.7



$ 456.4



$ (4.7)



(1.0) %

















Comparable operating profit

$ 91.9



$ 88.5



$ 3.4



3.8 % Comparable operating margin percentage

20.3 %

19.4 %

0.9 %

4.6 %

















Comparable funeral services performed:















Atneed

41,930



42,841



(911)



(2.1) % Matured preneed

22,917



21,937



980



4.5 % Total core

64,847



64,778



69



0.1 % Non-funeral home

9,669



9,440



229



2.4 % Total comparable funeral services performed

74,516



74,218



298



0.4 % Core cremation rate

46.7 %

45.6 %

1.1 %

2.4 % Total comparable cremation rate

53.5 %

52.3 %

1.2 %

2.3 %

















Comparable average revenue per service:















Atneed

$ 5,822



$ 5,927



$ (105)



(1.8) % Matured preneed

5,943



5,844



99



1.7 % Total core

5,865



5,899



(34)



(0.6) % Non-funeral home

1,210



1,133



77



6.8 % Total comparable average revenue per service

$ 5,261



$ 5,293



$ (32)



(0.6) %

















Comparable preneed sales production:















Total preneed sales

$ 212.1



$ 218.2



$ (6.1)



(2.8) % Core contracts sold

28,035



29,304



(1,269)



(4.3) % Non-funeral home contracts sold

17,640



17,576



64



0.4 % Core revenue per contract sold

$ 6,053



$ 6,092



$ (39)



(0.6) % Non-funeral home revenue per contract sold

$ 2,402



$ 2,256



$ 146



6.5 %





(1) Atneed revenue represents merchandise and services sold and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (2) Matured preneed revenue represents merchandise and services sold on a preneed contract through our core funeral homes and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (3) Core revenue represents the sum of merchandise and services sold on an atneed contract or preneed contract and delivered or performed once death has occurred through our core funeral homes. (4) Non-funeral home revenue represents services sold on a preneed or atneed contract through one of our non-funeral home sales channels (e.g. SCI Direct) and performed once death has occurred. (5) Recognized preneed revenue represents merchandise and travel protection sold on a preneed contract and delivered before death has occurred. (6) Other revenue primarily comprises general agency revenue, which is commissions we receive from third-party insurance companies for life insurance policies sold to preneed customers for the purpose of funding preneed arrangements.

Total comparable funeral revenue decreased by $4.7 million , or 1.0%, in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period of 2016, primarily due to the decrease in general agency revenue driven by lower preneed funeral insurance production.

, or 1.0%, in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period of 2016, primarily due to the decrease in general agency revenue driven by lower preneed funeral insurance production. The $1.8 million core revenue decrease was primarily the result of a 0.1% increase in core services performed being offset by a 0.6% decrease in core average revenue per service. Organic sales average growth of 0.3% was offset by a 110 basis point increase in the core cremation mix to 46.7%.

core revenue decrease was primarily the result of a 0.1% increase in core services performed being offset by a 0.6% decrease in core average revenue per service. Organic sales average growth of 0.3% was offset by a 110 basis point increase in the core cremation mix to 46.7%. Recognized preneed revenue increased $1.1 million , or 3.8%, primarily driven by an increase in both the number of contracts sold through our non-funeral home sales channel and the average price per contract.

, or 3.8%, primarily driven by an increase in both the number of contracts sold through our non-funeral home sales channel and the average price per contract. Comparable funeral operating profit increased $3.4 million to $91.9 million and the operating margin percentage increased 90 basis points to 20.3%, which is primarily the result of lower selling costs on lower preneed sales production coupled with effective cost management.

to and the operating margin percentage increased 90 basis points to 20.3%, which is primarily the result of lower selling costs on lower preneed sales production coupled with effective cost management. Comparable preneed funeral sales production decreased $6.1 million , or 2.8%, in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 2016. The decline in comparable preneed funeral sales production was primarily due to a $15.7 million decrease in core preneed funeral insurance production offset by a $7.8 million increase in core preneed funeral trust production. This resulted primarily from sales counselor productivity metrics being introduced into our sales personnel compensation plans, which resulted in a more acute emphasis on preneed cemetery property sales as well as terminally imminent preneed funeral trust sales.

Comparable Cemetery Results

The table below details comparable cemetery results of operations ("same store") for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016. We consider comparable operations to be those owned for the entire period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending June 30, 2017.

(Dollars in millions)

Three Months Ended June 30,



2017

2016

$

% Comparable revenue:















Atneed revenue(1)

$ 80.0



$ 79.1



$ 0.9



1.1 % Recognized preneed revenue(2)

207.4



179.8



27.6



15.4 % Core revenue(3)

287.4



258.9



28.5



11.0 % Other revenue(4)

25.6



25.4



0.2



0.8 % Total comparable revenue

$ 313.0



$ 284.3



$ 28.7



10.1 %

















Comparable operating profit

$ 91.5



$ 72.8



$ 18.7



25.7 % Comparable operating margin percentage

29.2 %

25.6 %

3.6 %

14.1 %

















Comparable preneed and atneed sales production:















Property

$ 173.1



$ 166.0



$ 7.1



4.3 % Merchandise and services

140.8



136.9



3.9



2.8 % Other

(0.5)



(1.9)



1.4



73.7 % Preneed and atneed sales production

$ 313.4



$ 301.0



$ 12.4



4.1 % Preneed property production

$ 150.3



$ 144.6



$ 5.7



3.9 %

















Recognition rate(5)

91.7 %

86.0 %













(1) Atneed revenue represents property, merchandise, and services sold and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (2) Recognized preneed revenue represents property, merchandise, and services sold on a preneed contract that have been delivered or performed and includes the related merchandise and service trust fund income. (3) Core revenue represents the sum of property, merchandise, and services that have been delivered or performed as well as the related merchandise and service trust fund income. (4) Other revenue is primarily related to endowment care trust fund income, royalty income, and interest and finance charges earned from customer receivables on preneed installment contracts. (5) Represents the ratio of current period core revenue recognition stated as a percentage of current period preneed and atneed sales production.

Comparable cemetery revenue grew $28.7 million , or 10.1%, in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 2016, led by an increase in recognized preneed revenue of $27.6 million , or 15.4%. The growth over the prior year quarter is primarily due to increases in both the sales and recognition of cemetery property, as well as increases in cemetery merchandise delivered during the quarter.

, or 10.1%, in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 2016, led by an increase in recognized preneed revenue of , or 15.4%. The growth over the prior year quarter is primarily due to increases in both the sales and recognition of cemetery property, as well as increases in cemetery merchandise delivered during the quarter. Comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased $12.1 million , or 5.5%, quarter over quarter. The growth over the prior year quarter is due primarily to our continued momentum in large cemetery property sales.

, or 5.5%, quarter over quarter. The growth over the prior year quarter is due primarily to our continued momentum in large cemetery property sales. Comparable cemetery operating profit increased $18.7 million to $91.5 million and the operating margin percentage increased 360 basis points to 29.2%. The $18.7 million increase in comparable cemetery operating profit was primarily the result of high margin core revenue growth when taking into account our fixed cost structure.

Other Financial Results

General and administrative expenses increased $3.8 million to $40.6 million in the second quarter of 2017. The current quarter includes an increase of $1.1 million due to certain pension termination settlements. The prior year quarter included $4.9 million of system transition costs primarily related to our 2016 implementation of a new general ledger system. Excluding these costs in both periods, general and administrative expenses increased $7.5 million compared to the prior year quarter due to higher insurance claims and increased costs related to the company's long-term incentive compensation program primarily tied to improvements in total shareholder return.

to in the second quarter of 2017. The current quarter includes an increase of due to certain pension termination settlements. The prior year quarter included of system transition costs primarily related to our 2016 implementation of a new general ledger system. Excluding these costs in both periods, general and administrative expenses increased compared to the prior year quarter due to higher insurance claims and increased costs related to the company's long-term incentive compensation program primarily tied to improvements in total shareholder return. The effective income tax rate for the second quarter of 2017 was 32.5%, down from the prior year second quarter rate of 51.3% for 2016. The higher effective tax rate for the prior year quarter was the result of non-deductible goodwill related to funeral home divestitures. Our adjusted effective income tax rate was 33.6% in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 37.7% in the prior year quarter. The reduction in our adjusted effective income tax rate was primarily the result of tax benefits recognized during the quarter on the settlement of employee share-based awards in accordance with a revised accounting standard for share-based compensation (A).

Footnotes (A) In the first quarter of 2017, as required, the Company adopted ASU No. 2016-09, "Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718) - Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting," which recognizes the tax effect related to the settlement of share-based awards in income tax benefit or expense in the statements of earnings rather than in additional paid-in-capital. This ASU guidance also eliminates the requirement to reclassify excess tax benefits from operating activities to financing activities within the statement of cash flows. The impact of the restricted stock deliveries and option exercises in the second quarter of 2017 was a reduction to our adjusted provision for income taxes of $2.9 million, which had the effect of increasing our diluted earnings per share excluding special items by approximately $0.02 per share. The impact of the restricted stock deliveries and option exercises in the first half of 2017 was a reduction to our adjusted provision for income taxes of $9.3 million, which had the effect of increasing our diluted earnings per share excluding special items by approximately $0.05 per share.

Cash Flow and Capital Spending

Set forth below is a reconciliation of our reported net cash provided by operating activities prepared in accordance with GAAP to net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items (or sometimes referred to as adjusted operating cash flow). We do not intend for this information to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for other measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

(In millions) Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Net cash provided by operating activities, as reported $ 35.8



$ 40.8



$ 224.2



$ 225.5

Add: Pension Settlement 6.3







6.3





Add: Premiums paid on early extinguishment of debt 



20.5







20.5

Add: System and process transition costs 



5.4







8.3

Add: Excess tax benefits from share based awards 



2.0







4.3

Add: IRS tax settlement payments 34.2







34.2





Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items $ 76.3



$ 68.7



$ 264.7



$ 258.6

Cash taxes included in net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items $ 64.3



$ 54.1



$ 83.3



$ 61.2



Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items was $76.3 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $68.7 million in the prior year quarter. We experienced growth in our cash flows generated from increased earnings in the quarter, which was partially offset by an expected increase in recurring cash taxes of $10.2 million and other working capital uses.

A summary of our capital expenditures is set forth below:

(In millions) Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Capital improvements at existing locations $ 24.9



$ 22.3



$ 42.4



$ 41.4

Development of cemetery property 15.9



15.3



33.0



34.9

Subtotal 40.8



37.6



75.4



76.3

Construction of new funeral home facilities 4.4



3.9



10.0



6.9

Total capital expenditures $ 45.2



$ 41.5



$ 85.4



$ 83.2



Total capital expenditures increased in the current quarter by $3.7 million as we spent more on infrastructure improvements to remain relevant and on accretive new funeral home construction opportunities.

TRUST FUND RETURNS

Total trust fund returns include realized and unrealized gains and losses, interest, and dividends. A summary of our consolidated trust fund returns for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 is set forth below:





Three Months

Six Months Preneed funeral

3.5%

8.1% Preneed cemetery

3.4%

8.4% Cemetery perpetual care

1.8%

4.4% Combined trust funds

2.9%

6.9%

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Earnings excluding special items and diluted earnings per share excluding special items shown above are non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide a consistent basis for comparison between quarters and better reflect the performance of our core operations, as they are not influenced by certain income or expense items not affecting continuing operations. We also believe these measures help facilitate comparisons to our competitors' operating results.

Set forth below is a reconciliation of our reported net income attributable to common stockholders to earnings excluding special items and our GAAP diluted earnings per share to diluted earnings per share excluding special items. We do not intend for this information to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for other measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

(In millions, except diluted EPS) Three Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS Net income attributable to common stockholders, as reported $ 68.5



$ 0.36



$ 15.6



$ 0.08

Pre-tax reconciling items:













(Gains) losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net (0.8)



(0.01)



30.6



0.16

Losses on early extinguishment of debt 







21.9



0.11

System transition costs 







4.9



0.02

Pension termination settlements 1.1



0.01









Tax reconciling items:













Tax benefit from special items noted above 







(18.7)



(0.10)

Change in certain tax reserves and other (1) (1.3)



(0.01)



1.5



0.01

Earnings excluding special items and diluted earnings per share excluding special items $ 67.5



$ 0.35



$ 55.8



$ 0.28

















Diluted weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)



192,138







196,718









































(In millions, except diluted EPS) Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS Net income attributable to common stockholders, as reported $ 243.2



$ 1.26



$ 63.1



$ 0.32

Pre-tax reconciling items:













(Gains) losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net (5.7)



(0.03)



31.0



0.16

Losses on early extinguishment of debt 







22.5



0.11

Acquisition and integration costs 







5.5



0.03

System transition costs 







9.0



0.05

Pension termination settlements 12.8



0.07









Tax reconciling items:













Tax benefit from special items noted above (2.6)



(0.01)



(22.7)



(0.12)

Change in certain tax reserves and other (1) (107.2)



(0.56)



2.7



0.01

Earnings excluding special items and diluted earnings per share excluding special items $ 140.5



$ 0.73



$ 111.1



$ 0.56

















Diluted weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)



192,511







197,463







(1) 2017 is primarily impacted by the settlement of IRS tax audits related to tax years 1999-2005. Please see our Form 8-K filed on March 6, 2017 for more information.

Conference Call and Webcast

We will host a conference call on Thursday, July 27, 2017, at 8:00 a.m. Central Time. A question and answer session will follow a brief presentation made by management. The conference call dial-in number is (847) 619-6396 with the passcode of 45285085. The conference call will also be broadcast live via the Internet and can be accessed through our website at www.sci-corp.com . A replay of the conference call will be available through August 3, 2017 and can be accessed at (630) 652-3042 with the passcode of 45285085#. Additionally, a replay of the conference call will be available on our website for approximately two weeks.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are made in reliance on the "safe harbor" protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be accompanied by words such as "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect," "anticipate," or "predict" that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements are based on assumptions that we believe are reasonable; however, many important factors could cause our actual results in the future to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein and in any other documents or oral presentations made by us, or on our behalf. Important factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

Our affiliated funeral and cemetery trust funds own investments in equity securities, fixed income securities, and mutual funds, which are affected by market conditions that are beyond our control.

We may be required to replenish our affiliated funeral and cemetery trust funds to meet minimum funding requirements, which would have a negative effect on our earnings and cash flow.

Our ability to execute our strategic plan depends on many factors, some of which are beyond our control.

Our credit agreements contain covenants that may prevent us from engaging in certain transactions.

If we lost the ability to use surety bonding to support our preneed funeral and preneed cemetery activities, we may be required to make material cash payments to fund certain trust funds.

The funeral and cemetery industry is competitive.

Increasing death benefits related to preneed contracts funded through life insurance contracts may not cover future increases in the cost of providing a price-guaranteed service.

The financial condition of third-party insurance companies that fund our preneed funeral contracts may impact our future revenue.

Unfavorable results of litigation could have a material adverse impact on our financial statements.

Unfavorable publicity could affect our reputation and business.

If the number of deaths in our markets declines, our cash flows and revenue may decrease.

If we are not able to respond effectively to changing consumer preferences, our market share, revenue, and profitability could decrease.

The continuing upward trend in the number of cremations performed in North America could result in lower revenue, gross profit, and cash flows.

could result in lower revenue, gross profit, and cash flows. Our funeral home and cemetery businesses are high fixed-cost businesses.

Regulation and compliance could have a material adverse impact on our financial results.

Cemetery burial practice legal claims could have a material adverse impact on our financial results.

We use a combination of insurance, self-insurance, and large deductibles in managing our exposure to certain inherent risks; as such, we could be exposed to unexpected costs that could negatively affect our financial performance.

A number of years elapse before particular tax matters, for which we have established accruals, are audited and finally resolved.

Declines in overall economic conditions beyond our control could reduce future potential earnings and cash flows and could result in future impairments to goodwill and/or other intangible assets.

Any failure to maintain the security of the information relating to our customers, their loved ones, our associates, and our vendors could damage our reputation, could cause us to incur substantial additional costs and to become subject to litigation, and could adversely affect our operating results.

Our Canadian business exposes us to operational, economic, and currency risks.

Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry, and may prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our indebtedness.

We rely extensively on information technology systems, some of which are managed or provided by third-party service providers, to analyze, process, store, manage, and protect transactions and data.

Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our results of operations, investor confidence, and our stock price.

The application of unclaimed property laws by certain states to our preneed funeral and cemetery backlog could have a material adverse impact on our liquidity, cash flows, and our financial results.

For further information on these and other risks and uncertainties, see our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Copies of this document as well as other SEC filings can be obtained from our website at www.sci-corp.com. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made herein or any other forward-looking statements made by us, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information on these and other risks and uncertainties, see our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K/A and as updated in our Form 10-Q filings. Copies of this document as well as other SEC filings can be obtained from our website at www.sci-corp.com. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made herein or any other forward-looking statements made by us, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Service Corporation International

Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is North America's leading provider of deathcare products and services. At June 30, 2017, we owned and operated 1,502 funeral homes and 475 cemeteries (of which 286 are combination locations) in 45 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Through our businesses, we market the Dignity Memorial brand, which offers assurance of quality, value, caring service, and exceptional customer satisfaction. For more information about Service Corporation International, please visit our website at www.sci-corp.com . For more information about Dignity Memorial, please visit www.dignitymemorial.com .

For additional information contact:



Investors:

Debbie Young - Director / Investor Relations

(713) 525-9088 Media:

Jay Andrew - Managing Director / Corporate Communications

(713) 525-5235

SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

(In thousands, except per share amounts) Revenue $ 773,242



$ 751,396



$ 1,550,952



$ 1,500,615

Costs and expenses (589,797)



(589,407)



(1,190,342)



(1,175,703)

Operating profit 183,445



161,989



360,610



324,912

General and administrative expenses (40,590)



(36,849)



(83,094)



(75,753)

Gains (losses) on divestitures and impairment charges, net 753



(30,641)



5,688



(30,988)

Operating income 143,608



94,499



283,204



218,171

Interest expense (42,083)



(39,398)



(82,719)



(82,480)

Loss on early extinguishment of debt 



(21,898)







(22,479)

Other expense, net (7)



(564)



(441)



(806)

Income before income taxes 101,518



32,639



200,044



112,406

(Provision for) benefit from income taxes (32,956)



(16,746)



43,267



(49,059)

Net income 68,562



15,893



243,311



63,347

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests (81)



(273)



(128)



(282)

Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 68,481



$ 15,620



$ 243,183



$ 63,065

Basic earnings per share:













Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 0.37



$ 0.08



$ 1.29



$ 0.32

Basic weighted average number of shares 187,597



193,806



187,927



194,366

Diluted earnings per share:













Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 0.36



$ 0.08



$ 1.26



$ 0.32

Diluted weighted average number of shares 192,138



196,718



192,511



197,463

Dividends declared per share $ 0.15



$ 0.13



$ 0.28



$ 0.25



SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET



June 30, 2017

December 31, 2016

(In thousands, except share amounts) ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 224,889



$ 194,986

Receivables, net 72,251



98,455

Inventories 27,333



26,431

Other 30,396



34,524

Total current assets 354,869



354,396









Preneed receivables, net and trust investments 4,572,522



4,305,165

Cemetery property 1,784,585



1,776,935

Property and equipment, net 1,828,532



1,827,587

Goodwill 1,804,493



1,799,081

Deferred charges and other assets 577,720



567,520

Cemetery perpetual care trust investments 1,465,563



1,407,465

Total assets $ 12,388,284



$ 12,038,149









LIABILITIES & EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 441,396



$ 439,936

Current maturities of long-term debt 70,725



89,974

Income taxes payable 12,228



7,960

Total current liabilities 524,349



537,870

Long-term debt 3,290,944



3,196,616

Deferred revenue 1,777,828



1,731,417

Deferred tax liability 442,528



454,638

Other liabilities 372,790



510,322

Deferred preneed receipts held in trust 3,308,548



3,103,796

Care trusts' corpus 1,466,313



1,408,243

Commitments and contingencies (Note 9)





Equity:





Common stock, $1 per share par value, 500,000,000 shares authorized, 197,283,056 and 195,403,644 shares issued, respectively, and 187,315,112 and 189,405,244 shares outstanding, respectively 187,315



189,405

Capital in excess of par value 958,434



990,203

Retained earnings (accumulated deficit) 28,858



(103,387)

Accumulated other comprehensive income 30,090



16,492

Total common stockholders' equity 1,204,697



1,092,713

Noncontrolling interests 287



2,534

Total equity 1,204,984



1,095,247

Total liabilities and equity $ 12,388,284



$ 12,038,149



SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands, except share amounts)



Six Months Ended June 30,

2017

2016 Cash flows from operating activities:





Net income $ 243,311



$ 63,347

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:





Loss on early extinguishment of debt 



22,479

Premiums paid on early extinguishment of debt 



(20,500)

Depreciation and amortization 75,455



72,522

Amortization of intangibles 14,051



15,392

Amortization of cemetery property 30,596



27,837

Amortization of loan costs 2,881



3,004

Provision for doubtful accounts 4,544



1,854

Benefit from deferred income taxes (153,112)



(2,856)

(Gains) losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net (5,688)



30,988

Share-based compensation 7,645



6,574

Excess tax benefits from share-based awards 



(4,269)

Change in assets and liabilities, net of effects from acquisitions and divestitures:





Decrease in receivables 20,441



10,201

Increase in other assets (6,081)



(1,572)

Increase (decrease) in payables and other liabilities 14,815



(1,169)

Effect of preneed sales production and maturities:





Increase in preneed receivables, net and trust investments (64,860)



(45,511)

Increase in deferred revenue 36,345



50,916

Increase (decrease) in deferred receipts held in trust 3,880



(3,709)

Net cash provided by operating activities 224,223



225,528

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (85,324)



(83,189)

Acquisitions (24,044)



(52,844)

Proceeds from divestitures and sales of property and equipment 7,431



11,422

Net withdrawals of restricted funds and other 175



5,120

Net cash used in investing activities (101,762)



(119,491)

Cash flows from financing activities:





Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt 110,000



960,000

Debt issuance costs 



(5,232)

Payments of debt (17,570)



(18,835)

Early extinguishment of debt 



(875,001)

Principal payments on capital leases (30,419)



(16,907)

Proceeds from exercise of stock options 20,601



8,872

Excess tax benefits from share-based awards 



4,269

Purchase of Company common stock (120,064)



(81,477)

Payments of dividends (52,529)



(48,506)

Purchase of noncontrolling interest (4,580)



(42)

Bank overdrafts and other (2,065)



(1,424)

Net cash used in financing activities (96,626)



(74,283)

Effect of foreign currency on cash and cash equivalents 4,068



5,435

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 29,903



37,189

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 194,986



134,599

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 224,889



$ 171,788



SOURCE Service Corporation International

Related Links

http://www.sci-corp.com


Sherpa will be hosting its second annual Sherpa Summer Seminar on August 10 from 2-6 pm at its headquarters in San Diego. The company's President, Mark Paiz says, "With a significant number of our clients planning larger clinical trials in the EU, we are seeing a growing desire to better understand potential implications for their clinical trials as Brexit's launch date of March 2019 approaches."

The expert panel on Brexit will consist of: Elisabeth Lackner, CEO and Qualified Person (QP) of ABF/GBA Pharma; John Shillingford, independent consultant; Sascha Sonnenberg, VP Commercial Operations Americas and EMEA, Marken, and Mark Paiz.

"With Brexit necessitating the move of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from the UK to an EU member country by March 2019, it is near inevitable that there will be a period of frustration for the global clinical research community trying to conduct clinical trials in the EU as the EMA looks to re-establish systems," says Shillingford.

Sonnenberg, who has closely evaluated the potential outcome of Brexit negotiations on the European market says, "Non-EU countries must keep a close watch on Brexit to determine if the UK will continue to be a viable entry point into the EU clinical trials market. If negotiations break down and the UK is not included in the EU's planned one portal clinical trial assessment and approval system (EU Regulation 536/2014), non-EU countries (such as the US) that currently import their clinical supplies into the UK in order to be distributed throughout the EU will definitely need to reconsider their clinical import strategy."

One area of major concern is the impact of Brexit on the Qualified Person (QP) process. This is the process that all investigative products must pass in order to enter the EU for clinical trials. "While we don't expect any changes to the QP process during the negotiation period that will end in March 2019" says Lackner, "effective immediately after Brexit, if the UK and the EU do not have mutual recognition agreements in order, it will be imperative for non-EU pharmaceutical companies to work with an EU-based QP as opposed to a UK-based QP."

Life sciences companies interested in attending the Sherpa Summer seminar event to learn more about the impact of Brexit on the clinical research community should register here.

About Sherpa Clinical Packaging

Sherpa Clinical Packaging provides clinical trial material management services for clinical studies phases I-IV, including packaging, labeling, distribution, storage, and returns and destruction services. To learn more visit www.SherpaClinical.com, or call us at 858-997-1490.

SOURCE Sherpa Clinical Packaging

Related Links

http://www.sherpaclinical.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Digital economy training company Simplilearn and cyber security leader EC-Council announced their partnership to bridge the growing skill gap in cyber security, one of the fastest-growing careers in the U.S. and globally. Simplilearn now offers the same EC-Council 'Certified Ethical Hacking' course used by many of the U.S. Government's military and security agencies.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535442/Simplilearn_Logo.jpg )

A report by Frost & Sullivan predicts that there will be a global shortage of 1.5 million cyber security professionals by 2020. In the U.S. alone, over 40,000 information security analyst jobs go unfilled every year and employers are challenged to fill 200,000 other cyber security related roles, according to cybersecurity data tool Cyber Seek . To bridge this shortage in skills, employers must not only increase their hiring of certified and skilled professionals for these lucrative and high-demand security jobs but also train existing employees from within to meet these strategic goals.

"EC-Council has always been a thought leader in equipping Government and Corporate organizations globally with real, tactical hands-on vendor agnostic offensive and defensive cyber security skills to really secure their cybersecurity posture. Having programs like Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Hacking and Forensics Investigator (CHFI) and many others, in the portfolio, that are mapped to NIST framework and endorsed by Department of Defense USA (DOD 8570), CNSS and other key organisations, EC-Council certified professionals have become one of the most sought after by employers worldwide. A partnership with Simplilearn would allow these programs to be accessible to the masses who are currently pursuing a lucrative career in Cybersecurity and looking to attain the highest quality skills and accreditation," said EC-Council Executive Director Danish Arshad.

Speaking on the partnership, Anand Narayanan, Chief Product Officer at Simplilearn said, "Every day, organizations of all sizes are victims of data breaches. The increasing number of cyber threats across industries has led to companies losing out on revenues and reputations. This is largely because the demand for skilled cyber security experts currently surpasses the supply. By partnering with an industry leader like EC-Council, our aim is to provide our learners with access to the highest quality cyber security training and help them become employable in one of the hottest and most lucrative fields, while helping organizations reduce their security risks."

The course is available through online self learning as well as live virtual classrooms where individuals can learn from global instructors. This partnership further provides flexible training access to attend multiple live classes for all learners who enrol by August 31st. EC-Council's in-depth training in cyber security is augmented by Simplilearn's high touch learning model which allows learners to access community forums, projects, teaching assistance, study plans, and reminders. Upon completing the courses, learners will be certified by EC-Council that will help them prepare for IT security job roles across industries.

About EC-Council

The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a member-based organization that certifies individuals in various e-business and security skills. EC-Council is the owner and developer of the world-famous E-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (C|HFI), Certified Network Defender (CND), Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), License Penetration Tester (LPT) programs, Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO) and various others offered in 150 countries around the globe. EC-Council has certified over 200,000 information security professionals globally.

EC-Council certification programs are recognized worldwide and have received endorsements from various government agencies including the US Federal Government via the Montgomery GI Bill, the US.

Government National Security Agency (NSA), the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) certifying EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH), Network Security Administrator (ENSA), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI), Disaster Recovery Professional (EDRP), Certified Security Analyst (E|CSA), Licensed Penetration Tester (LPT) program for meeting the 4011, 4012, 4013A, 4014, 4015 and 4016 training standards for information security professionals and most recently EC-Council has received accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

https://www.eccouncil.org/

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn's mission is to help professionals around the world acquire the skills they need to succeed in today's digital economy. The company provides online training in disciplines such as Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Project Management, Digital Marketing, Data Science and other emerging technologies. Based in San Francisco, California and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn has helped more than 500,000 professionals and companies across 150+ countries get trained, acquire certifications and upskill their employees. Its training courses are designed and updated by renowned industry experts. Simplilearn's blended learning approach combines online classes, instructor-led live virtual classrooms, relevant, applied projects and 24/7 teaching assistance. Leading global training organizations have recognized Simplilearn as an official provider of certification training. The company has been named the 8th most influential education brand in the world by LinkedIn. For more information, visit https://www.simplilearn.com

Media Contact:

Rushitha Samavedam

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: +91-9538207070

SOURCE Simplilearn
DUBLIN, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Soil Conditioners Market - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The soil conditioners market was valued at USD 4.90 Billion in 2016 and is projected to be valued at USD 7.83 Billion by 2022 with a CAGR of 8.16%. Soil conditioners find wide applications in agricultural and industrial sectors. Factors such as advanced farming practices and the need for better soil management practices have fueled the growth of this market.

On the basis of type, the global soil conditioners market is segmented into natural and synthetic types. Natural soil conditioners are used as a soil amendment to alleviate its poor properties and to increase its productivity. It is further segmented into polysaccharide derivatives and others such as animal dung, compost, sewage sludge, crop residues, and other organic amendments such as peat and tree bark. The ease of availability of materials is the key factor that driving the market of the natural soil conditioners. Synthetic soil conditioners are light-colored, water-soluble, and hygroscopic moisture absorber, comprising complex, long chain of molecules that are used for conditioning the soil.

The soil conditioners market, on the basis of application, is segmented into agricultural and industrial applications. The demand for soil conditioners is forecasted to increase in the next few years due to increasing awareness about soil management practices, to have better yield of crops. The oilseeds & pulses segment accounted for the largest market share in 2016.

The extent and causes of physical, chemical, and biological degradation of soil and soil loss have been largely observed in many European countries. The European Union, in June 2009, under the Commission Decision 2009/427/EC, formed the Expert Group for Technical Advice on Organic Production (EGTOP) which would provide assistance related to organic farming. The group also drafted the template for the dossier mentioned in Art. 16(3) (b) of Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007 in relation to fertilizers and soil conditioners such as hydrolyzed proteins, leonardite, chitin, and sapropel.

Low level of awareness about the benefits of soil conditioning materials among the farmers is the key restraint for the growth of the market. Market players' efforts in creating awareness and making availability of soil conditioning materials (especially synthetic products) will aid the market to witness significant growth in the projected period.

Companies Mentioned



Adeka Corporation

Akzo Nobel N.V.

Basf Se

Clariant International Ag

Croda International Plc

Eastman Chemical Company

Evonik Industries Ag

Novozymes A/S

Solvay S.A.

Syngenta Ag

The Dow Chemical Company

Vantage Specialty Chemicals, Inc.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview



6 Soil Conditioners Market, By Type

7 Global Soil Conditioners Market, By Application



8 Soil Conditioners Market, By Solubility



9 Soil Conditioners Market, By Crop Type



10 Soil Conditioners Market, By Soil Type



11 Soil Conditioners Market, By Region



12 Competitive Landscape



13 Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3khzpt/soil_conditioners

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Systemax Inc. (NYSE: SYX) today announced that it will release financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 after U.S. market hours.

Management will provide pre-recorded remarks on the Company's second quarter 2017 results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on August 1st. To access the remarks please dial (412-717-9224) ten minutes prior to the start time. The pre-recorded remarks will also be available via webcast on the Company's website at www.systemax.com in the investor relations section.

If you cannot listen to the call at its scheduled time, the webcast will be archived on www.systemax.com for approximately 90 days.

About Systemax Inc.

Systemax Inc. (www.systemax.com) is a provider of industrial products in North America and technology products in France, going to market through a system of branded e-Commerce websites and relationship marketers. The primary brands are Global Industrial and Inmac Wstore.

Investor/Media Contact:

Mike Smargiassi/ William Metzger

Brainerd Communicators, Inc.

212-986-6667

[email protected] / [email protected]

SOURCE Systemax Inc.

Related Links

http://www.systemax.com


"Sanya is a noted tourist resort with natural beauty and a favorable climate. The average temperature is from 22 degrees to 26 degrees Celsius (71F to 78F), which attracts large numbers of visitors from both home and abroad every year," said Deng Zhong, the Honorary President of Sanya People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

The celebration was held at popular UTAMA shopping center. It included a photo exhibition of Sanya city, a food show, virtual reality (VR) technology-based visual experiences of the local natural scenery and a culture display of the local Li nationality among other attractions.

During the display, a virtual seaside scene with beach, beach umbrella and swim ring were set up on the site, offering visitors a real experience of traveling to the coastal city. In addition, local women of Li nationality showcased their brilliant arts, dance and weaving talents, winning wide applause from the crowds.

"It's fantastic to watch and experience the colorful folk culture of Sanya. Now I can't wait to travel to Sanya and explore by myself," said Gillian Tee Yin Ming, from Malaysia.

Commenting on the tourism preference in Malaysia, Deng Zhong added that although Sanya city is located geographically near Malaysia and the two regions share cultural similarities, there are also quite a number of differences between them.

"Sanya has beautiful seaside and the unique culture of Li and Miao minorities. Also, food there is special and attractive. These all can bring amazing experiences for tourists from Malaysia."

This year, Sanya signed a memorandum with Malaysia's Penang on establishing a friendly city relationship and opened 19 international routes, such as Sanya-Penang-Kuala Lumpur, which laid a solid foundation for exchanges between Sanya and Malaysia.

After the roadshow in Malaysia on July 25, the Sanya government will continue the global promotion campaign of the "Celebration" to other nations. The next stop is Indonesia on July 27.

About Sanya

Located at the southernmost point of China's Hainan island, Sanya is an international coastal destination. The city has been praised by global visitors as the only Chinese seaside vacation destination because of its stunning coastline and profound cultural heritage.

For more information about Sanya, please visit: http://english.sanya.gov.cn/publicfiles//business/htmlfiles/englishsite/tourism/index.html

SOURCE Sanya Municipal Government
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Galien Foundation announced today the 2017 11th Annual Prix Galien USA Award Nominees. Counted among the global health innovation industry's most prized honors, the Prix Galien Award recognizes outstanding biomedical and technology product achievement that improves the human condition.

To qualify, each candidate must be U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for market within the last five years and demonstrate tremendous potential to impact human health. Sales data are not considered by the nominating committee in their award nominee selection; only science and health impact.

"The 2017 nominees are working each day to ensure a healthier future for the next generation," said Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, chairman, Prix Galien USA Awards Committee, and prior recipient of the Pro Bono Humanum Award. "The selection committee appreciates the unwavering devotion by the teams of researchers, scientists and innovators that have dedicated their lives to such a worthy cause, and we are honored to recognize their achievements."

The Prix Galien USA 2017 nominees include in-market products evaluated in the following categories: "Best Biotechnology Product"  15 nominees; "Best Pharmaceutical Agent"  34 nominees, and "Best Medical Technology"  11 nominees.

Best Biotechnology Product (Nominees)

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Kanuma Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Strensiq Amgen Inc. IMLYGIC Amgen Inc. Repatha Biogen & Ionis Pharmaceuticals SPINRAZA Boehringer Ingelheim Praxbind Eli Lilly and Company CYRAMZA Eli Lilly and Company LARTRUVO Genentech, a Member of the Roche Group Kadcyla GlaxoSmithKline plc Benlysta Merck & Co., Inc. Zinplava Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. & Amgen Inc. Blincyto Pfizer Inc. Trumenba Regeneron and sanofi PRALUENT Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. EXONDYS 51

Best Pharmaceutical Agent (Nominees)

AbbVie Inc. Duopa AbbVie Inc. Technivie AbbVie Inc. Venclexta ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. NUPLAZID Allergan, Inc. Dalvance Allergan, Inc. Kybella Allergan, Inc. Viberzi Astellas Cresemba AstraZeneca Lynparza AstraZeneca Tagrisso Boehringer Ingelheim Jardiance Boehringer Ingelheim OFEV Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Daklinza Eisai Inc. Halaven Eisai Inc. Lenvima Endoceutics, Inc. Intrarosa Genentech, a Member of the Roche Group Alecensa Genentech, a Member of the Roche Group Esbriet Gilead Harvoni Helsinn Therapeutics Inc. & Eisai Inc. Akynzeo Iroko Pharmaceuticals, LLC Vivlodex Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies DARZALEX Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies YONDELIS Jazz Pharmaceuticals Defitelio LEO Pharma Inc. Enstilar Merck & Co., Inc. Zepatier Novartis ZYKADIA Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Rexulti Pfizer Inc. XELJANZ Pfizer Inc. and Astellas Xtandi Shire plc Xiidra The Medicines Company Orbactiv UCB, Inc. Briviact Valeant Jublia

Best Medical Technology (Nominees)

Abbott CardioMEMS HF System Allergan, Inc. Juvederm Volbella XC Biosense Webster The THERMOCOOL SMARTTOUCH, THERMOCOOL

SMARTTOUCH Surround Flow Catheters and The CARTO

SMARTTOUCH Software Module Boston Scientific SpyGlass DS Direct Visualization System Boston Scientific WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device BrainScope Company, Inc. BrainScope One INSIGHTEC Exablate Neuro Integra LifeSciences Omnigraft Dermal Regeneration Matrix Johnson & Johnson - DePuy Synthes ATTUNE Knee System Johnson & Johnson - Ethicon EVARREST Fibrin Sealant Patch Koning Corporation Koning Breast CT 1000

"As the realm of scientific discovery and medical innovation shuttles forward, we were thrilled to see so many high-caliber submissions this year," said Bruno Cohen, chairman of the Galien Foundation. "Our Foundation is continually impressed by the achievement of the Prix Galien candidates each year, but 2017 has become a benchmark for future years."

The Prix Galien USA Committee is comprised of thirteen renowned leaders from the biomedical industry and academia, including four Nobel Laureates, responsible for evaluating nominees. Winners will be announced during the Prix Galien USA Awards Ceremony on October 26, 2017, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Registration to attend the 2017 Prix Galien USA Awards Ceremony can be accessed here.

Prix Galien Awards Committee 2017

Pr Richard AXEL,

M.D. Nobel Laureate, Co-director, the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University Medical Center, New York

Pr Michael S. BROWN,

M.D. Nobel Laureate, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine, UT, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Pr Susan DESMOND-HELLMANN,

M.D., M.Ph. Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA

Pr Laurie GLIMCHER,

M.D. Chief Executive Officer and President, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Pr Joseph GOLDSTEIN,

M.D. Nobel Laureate, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine, UT, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Pr Robert S. LANGER,

M.D. David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT

Pr Cato T. LAURENCIN,

M.D., Ph.D. University Professor, University of Connecticut, CT

Pr Paul A. MARKS,

M.D. Laboratory Head of Cell Biology Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New-York. President Emeritus, MSKCC

Pr Rebecca RICHARDS-KORTUM,

Ph.D. Professor of Bioengineering, Malcolm Gillis University, Houston, TX

Pr Michael ROSENBLATT,

M.D. Chief Medical Officer of Flagship Ventures, Cambridge, MA

Pr Bengt SAMUELSSON, M.D., Ph.D. Nobel Laureate, Former President of Karolinska Institute and Former Chairman of the Nobel Foundation

Pr Marc TESSIER-LAVIGNE,

Ph.D. President, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Pr P. Roy VAGELOS,

M.D. Retired Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc. Chairman of the Board, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Committee Chairman

About The Galien Foundation

The Galien Foundation fosters, recognizes and rewards excellence in scientific innovation to improve the state of human health. Our vision is to be the catalyst for the development of the next generation of innovative treatment and technologies that will impact human health and save lives.

The Foundation oversees and directs activities in the USA for the Prix Galien, an international award that recognizes outstanding achievements in improving the human condition through the development of innovative therapies. The Prix Galien was created in France in 1970 in honor of Galen, the father of medical science and modern pharmacology. Worldwide, the Prix Galien is regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in biopharmaceutical and medical technology research.

For more information, visit www.galienfoundation.org.

Galien Foundation Media Contact:

Giana Gregga

Finn Partners

312-329-3910

[email protected]

SOURCE The Galien Foundation

Related Links

http://www.galienfoundation.org


TAMPA, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc., the world's premier fondue restaurant and a leading polished casual dining franchise, announced today the signing of its largest development agreement in the brand's 42-year history  a 17-unit deal to expand the brand's presence in Mexico. GINgroup, one of the largest privately held companies in Mexico, will develop 17 new Melting Pot restaurant franchises throughout the country over the next seven years. Additionally, GINgroup has reached a separate agreement to purchase the three Melting Pot franchises currently operating in Mexico City. GINgroup's next restaurant will be located outside of Mexico City, in a yet to be determined market, and is slated to open in 2018.

"The Melting Pot is a prestigious restaurant concept in the U.S. and abroad, and GINgroup is excited to partner with the brand to expand its presence in Mexico," said Raul Beyruti Sanchez, chief executive officer of GINgroup. "This agreement is a strong pairing of American flavor with Mexican culture, which will enrich the culinary offerings available at The Melting Pot Mexico restaurants. We're also proud to strengthen our commitment to our local communities throughout the country by creating employment opportunities. There's no doubt this is a union of two companies committed to hard work and success."

Founded in 1980, the GINgroup provides a myriad of businesses with comprehensive, state-of-the-art human capital management solutions with more than 50 offices located throughout Mexico. The group's restaurant division is comprised of 58 restaurants including franchise concepts such as Carl's Jr., Texas Ribs and Rustic Kitchen. Following the first opening in 2018, GINgroup plans to open 16 additional Melting Pots throughout Mexico, from coast to coast, including restaurants in Mexico City, Monterrey, Queretaro, Puebla, Guadalajara, Cancun and Metepec.

"We're thrilled about this agreement and the tremendous growth GINgroup has committed to over the next seven years," said Dan Stone, chief business & people development officer at Front Burner, the management company of The Melting Pot. "The Melting Pot is already a proven concept that enjoys a strong reputation in Mexico, as demonstrated by the tremendous guest loyalty and positive social media commentary about the three existing locations in Interlomas, Satelite and Pedregal. Teaming up with GINgroup, an established franchise partner that not only has the experience and infrastructure, but also shares our corporate values and principles, will help us to further grow and accelerate the development of The Melting Pot brand throughout the country."

A nod to its name, The Melting Pot is known worldwide for providing a blend of traditional and modern fondue  incorporating both global and local flavors. While each restaurant will be similar to U.S. locations and offer the brand's core base menu items, The Melting Pot's new Mexico locations will feature recipes infused with local flavors and ingredients, such as Manchego cheese from Queretaro and chocolate from Puebla.

The Melting Pot operates more than 120 restaurants across 35 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The concept is known for offering an assortment of flavorful fondue cooking styles and a variety of unique entrees served with signature dipping sauces. The menu features a variety of a la carte selections, highlighting customizable options that invite guests to enjoy one, two, three or more courses as they select any combination of individually-priced cheese fondues, salads, entrees and chocolate fondues.

To learn more about ownership opportunities with The Melting Pot, contact Christina Hobbs, director of franchise development for The Melting Pot, at [email protected], or call 800-783-0867 ext. 109.

About The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc.

Founded in 1975, The Melting Pot has offered a unique fondue dining experience for more than 40 years. As the premier fondue restaurant franchise, The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc. has more than 120 restaurants in 35 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A leading polished casual dining franchise, The Melting Pot was recognized as the No. 2 casual dining restaurant in the Nation's Restaurant News 2016 Consumer Picks report. Known for offering a choice of fondue cooking styles and a variety of unique entrees, The Melting Pot's menu also features cheese fondues, salads, fine wines and chocolate fondue desserts. Fondue fans can join The Melting Pot's Club Fondue for exclusive promotions, special events and advance holiday reservation privileges. The Melting Pot is an affiliate of Front Burner, a restaurant management company headquartered in Tampa, Florida. For more information, visit www.meltingpot.com. To learn more about franchise opportunities with The Melting Pot, please visit www.meltingpotfranchise.com.

About Front Burner

Front Burner is a franchise management company headquartered in Tampa, Florida. It is affiliated with the corporate owners of and its management services extended to The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc., founded in 1975 with more than 120 restaurants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. For more information, visit http://www.frontburnerbrands.com.

Contact:

Alexya Williams

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.meltingpot.com


ST. JOHN'S, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Today, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) hosted dignitaries from the United States Coast Guard (USCG), United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate, and United States (U.S.) Navy to discuss and showcase progress made on the testing and evaluation of design models for the U.S. heavy polar icebreaker acquisition program. During this phase, the NRC is conducting environmental characterization of ice conditions using physical modelling from its ice tank.

"This collaboration benefits both countries as they engage in vital research and development to improve the technology of icebreaking ships," said Iain Stewart, President of the NRC. "Our knowledge of how ships and offshore structures can operate in harsh environmental conditions combined with our world-class research facilities and expertise positions Canada as a strategic partner in providing safety and efficiency to the new U.S. polar icebreakers."

The testing is assessing the models' maneuverability in ice and icebreaking resistance, building baseline requirements for new U.S. heavy polar icebreakers, and expanding the current design and operational knowledge. The Canadian and U.S. governments are also working on the long-term management of the polar icebreaker's hull integrity, which they will assess through field trials.

"Model testing activities enable us to examine critical design elements and make informed design decisions early in the acquisition process," said Rear Admiral Michael Haycock, U.S. Coast Guard Assistant Commandant for Acquisition and Chief Acquisition Officer. "The data we gather from model testing at the NRC is going to be a major driver of our heavy polar icebreaker acquisition program's success and will be critical to our efforts to effectively manage costs, mitigate risks, and maintain an accelerated program schedule."

This partnership was formalized through the Critical Infrastructure Protection and Border Security (CIPABS) Agreement, managed by the Defence Research and Development Canada's Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS), an Agency of the Department of National Defence, on behalf of the Government of Canada, alongside DHS S&T who manages it on behalf of the U.S. Government. The results of this partnership will boost the knowledge and expertise of both the United States and Canada in icebreaking ship technologies.

"This is a wonderful example of international and cross-component collaboration," said DHS Under Secretary (Acting) for Science and Technology William N. Bryan. "Supporting the operational mission of DHS is why Science & Technology exists. In this case, I am particularly proud that S&T is able to work with our neighbours to the north and bring their expertise to bear on supporting the mission of the Coast Guard."

Associated Links

SOURCE National Research Council Canada

Related Links

www.nrc.gc.ca


LONDON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The University of Law (ULaw), the UK's premier specialist provider of legal education, has been chosen as the sole provider of legal training for international law firm RPC from September 2017, continuing to boost its links with leading global law firms.

As part of the partnership, future trainees at RPC will benefit from ULaw's established Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), Legal Practice Course (LPC) and MSc in Law, Business and Management, which all combine academic rigour with practical legal skills. RPC's future trainees are due to start their courses with ULaw at its London Moorgate centre in September 2017.

Throughout their studies, future trainees will be supported by expert tutors who are all qualified lawyers and bring extensive practical experience to their teaching. This embodies ULaw's commitment to providing the highest quality of education, which was recognised by the recent gold ranking awarded to the university in the government-led Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

RPC offers both legal and consultancy advice to a range of sectors. The law firm is made up of 79 all equity partners, over 300 other lawyers and more than 600 people in total. Headquartered in London, RPC has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bristol.

In addition, ULaw will work closely with RPC to design a new insurance law elective in response to changes introduced by the UK Insurance Act 2015. This high-quality module will equip future lawyers with a comprehensive range of practical and theoretical skills aligned to both the legal and insurance business challenges of today's market.

Professor Andrea Nollent, Vice-Chancellor and CEO at The University of Law, said: "We are very much looking forward to beginning our new partnership with RPC. We are confident that our existing legal education programmes combined with the development of a new insurance law elective will play a pivotal part in training the future workforce of RPC and provide them with the skills needed to succeed in a highly competitive market."

Simon Hart, Partner and Training Principal at RPC, said: "We are very enthusiastic about the prospects for our new partnership with ULaw. As RPC continues to respond to the rapidly changing legal market, as well as the forthcoming radical reforms to legal education, we were looking for a partner in the education sector who reflected our own desire to be progressive and forward thinking. With ULaw, we believe we have found that partner. ULaw has demonstrated an impressive commitment to understanding our needs and working with us to develop our future legal talent."

ULaw has strong relationships with leading law firms, including partnerships with Linklaters, DLA Piper, CMS, Ashurst, and Berwin Leighton Paisner, offering high quality, practical training to their students. It also provides a new paralegal apprenticeship scheme to global law firms Freshfields and Hogan Lovells.



About The University of Law

The University of Law is the UK's longest-established specialist provider of legal education and training in the UK, with centres in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Guildford, Manchester and Leeds, as well as at The University of Exeter and The University of Reading. Previously The College of Law, it was granted university status in November 2012.

The University of Law's market-leading Employability Service gives students access to work experience and pro bono opportunities and legal vacancies as soon as they accept their place. The result is excellent employability statistics: 96% of its full-time Legal Practice Course (LPC) students gained employment in 2016 after finishing their course while 91% of undergraduate students achieved the same.

The University of Law ranked 1st for student satisfaction in the UK in the National Student Survey 2016. In 2017, The University of Law was awarded a gold ranking in the Government-led Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

For more information, visit www.law.ac.uk.

About RPC

RPC is a broad based professional services firm offering both legal and consultancy advice to a range of sectors.

The law firm is made up of 79 all equity partners, over 300 other lawyers and more than 600 people in total. Headquartered in a state of the art site at Tower Bridge in the City of London, RPC has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bristol.

RPC Consulting is a management consultancy service comprising five partners and more than 40 other people including consultants and quant developers. RPC Consulting is an alternative and independent insurance consultancy with deep sector expertise and an exclusive insurance industry focus. RPC Consulting is a part of RPC. It is based in London and has offices in Cambridge and Paris.

RPC is a member of TerraLex, the worldwide network of independent law firms.

RPC has been accredited in Legal Week's annual Best Legal Adviser Report eight years in a row, including coming first overall out of all law firms benchmarked in both 2015 and 2013.

RPC was named Law Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards in 2015, The Lawyer Awards in 2014 and The Halsbury Legal Awards also in 2014.

RPC won Competition Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards in 2015.

RPC was runner up in The Lawyer's Law Firm of the Year 2013 and was shortlisted for Law Firm of the Year at both Legal Week's British Legal Awards 2013 and the Legal Business Awards in 2013 and 2014.

SOURCE The University of Law (ULaw)
HOUSTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sophomore students Aanya Bhandari, (age 16), and Rahul Agarwal, (age 16), from The Village School, a Nord Anglia Education school, presented their solutions to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a side event of the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York, 14 July. The students joined a group of 87 Nord Anglia student ambassadors who presented their solutions from their local communities to representatives of governments, the UN, UNICEF, President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Peter Thomson and Executive Director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake.

To accomplish their goals, Bhandari and Agarwal developed the S.E.E.D Project (Sustain Empower Embolden and Develop), which aims to help individuals who are acutely malnourished in India. Collaborating with their peers locally, the students developed an international solution to address the factors that the World Health Organization says contributes to hunger: low productivity, post-harvest loss, and lack of nutritious food.

The ambitious three-pronged approach hopes to solve these problems by focusing on educating smaller farmers through a Skills Development Program, empowering women through a Work for Pay methodology, and bridging the gap between smaller farmers and the access of seeds.

The students plan to pilot the system in India and have designed the program so that it can easily be expanded to different countries that have different needs. Their plan will ultimately provide a replicable, scalable, and sustainable solution for world hunger.

"When traveling to India, it is hard to ignore the wealth disparity and prevalent malnutrition. You see the prominent issues when you view side by side those who suffer from both poverty and severe undernourishment along with those who are very well off. This cause hits home to us, and we are determined to develop an appropriate action plan to combat this problem," said Rahul Agarwal.

"We are so honored to be able to work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals to give our students the opportunity to experience first-hand how to engage in the kind of active citizenship that will most certainly lead to a better world in the future," said Gabriella Rowe, Head of The Village School.

Watch an overview of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHLkOfjmM48

About The Village School

The Village School, founded in 1966, has a tradition of rigorous and highly personalized learning paired with hands-on innovative methods of teaching. Located in the energy corridor of Houston, Village offers an American educational experience to its diverse and international student body who represent six continents and more than 60 countries. The Village School is known for its excellence in math and science, and recently announced a new collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which will enhance its widely-recognized STEAM curriculum. The Village School is a proud member of the Nord Anglia Education family of schools.

For further information, please contact:

Paige Harris

Senior Director of Marketing, PR and Communications

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (281) 496-7900

SOURCE Nord Anglia Education, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nordangliaeducation.com


WALTHAM, Mass., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, today reported its financial results for the second quarter ended July 1, 2017.

Second Quarter 2017 Highlights

Reported revenue of $4.99 billion .

. Reported GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.56 .

Reported adjusted EPS of $2.30 .

. Reported adjusted EPS of . Strengthened innovation leadership, highlighted by a new Q Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometer to advance protein research, the new SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer for a range of sequencing applications, and FDA clearance of our B.R.A.H.M.S. PCT assay to support antibiotic stewardship.

Made significant progress in precision medicine initiatives, including receiving FDA pre-market approval for our Oncomine Dx Target Test  the first next-generation sequencing-based companion diagnostic for non-small cell lung cancer.

Opened Center of Excellence for electron microscopy in Saudi Arabia to enable scientific collaboration in the region and continue to increase our presence in fast-growing emerging markets.

to enable scientific collaboration in the region and continue to increase our presence in fast-growing emerging markets. Announced agreement to acquire Patheon for $7.2 billion , gaining entry into the attractive contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market and significantly enhancing our value proposition for pharma and biotech customers.

Adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin and free cash flow are non-GAAP measures that exclude certain items detailed later in this press release under the heading "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

"We are pleased to deliver another excellent quarter," said Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Our operational discipline continues to drive strong profitability while we successfully execute our growth strategy to create long-term value.

"We continued to raise the bar in innovation, launching new high-impact products during the quarter to advance life sciences and diagnostics. In Asia-Pacific and emerging markets, our leading presence generated strong results, with double-digit growth in China and India.

"We are also very excited about our pending acquisition of Patheon. This is another great example of how we effectively put our capital to work to create value for our customers and our shareholders."

Casper concluded, "With a successful first half behind us, we are right on track to achieve our growth goals for the year."

Second Quarter 2017

Revenue for the quarter grew 10% to $4.99 billion in 2017, versus $4.54 billion in the second quarter of 2016. Organic revenue growth was 4%; acquisitions increased revenue by 8% and currency translation reduced revenue by 1%. The components of revenue growth do not sum due to rounding.

GAAP Earnings Results

GAAP diluted EPS in the second quarter increased 20% to $1.56, versus $1.30 in the same quarter last year. GAAP operating income for the second quarter of 2017 grew to $752 million, compared with $638 million in the second quarter of 2016. GAAP operating margin increased to 15.1%, compared with 14.1% in the second quarter last year.

Non-GAAP Earnings Results

Adjusted EPS in the second quarter of 2017 rose 13% to $2.30, versus $2.03 in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted operating income for the second quarter of 2017 also grew 13% compared with the same quarter last year. Adjusted operating margin expanded 50 basis points to 23.3%, compared with 22.8% in the second quarter of 2016.

2017 Guidance Update

Thermo Fisher is raising its 2017 guidance to reflect strong second quarter operational performance and a less adverse foreign exchange environment, partially offset by increased interest expense from the recently completed bond offering. The company is raising its revenue guidance to a new range of $19.71 to $19.89 billion versus its previous guidance of $19.51 to $19.71 billion. This would result in 8 to 9 percent revenue growth over the previous year. The company is raising its adjusted EPS guidance to a new range of $9.15 to $9.28, versus the $9.12 to $9.28 previously communicated, for 11 to 12 percent growth over 2016.

Segment Results

Management uses adjusted operating results to monitor and evaluate performance of the company's four business segments, as highlighted below. Since these results are used for this purpose, they are also considered to be prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Life Sciences Solutions Segment

In the second quarter of 2017, Life Sciences Solutions Segment revenue grew 3% to $1.40 billion, compared with revenue of $1.37 billion in the second quarter of 2016. Segment adjusted operating margin increased to 31.9%, versus 28.5% in the 2016 quarter.

Analytical Instruments Segment

Analytical Instruments Segment results reflect the acquisition of FEI Company in September 2016. Revenue for the segment grew 47% to $1.17 billion in the second quarter of 2017, compared with revenue of $794 million in the second quarter of 2016. Segment adjusted operating margin increased to 20.0%, versus 18.3% in the 2016 quarter.

Specialty Diagnostics Segment

Specialty Diagnostics Segment revenue grew 1% to $862 million in the second quarter of 2017, compared with revenue of $851 million in the second quarter of 2016. Segment adjusted operating margin was 27.3%, versus 27.9% in the 2016 quarter.

Laboratory Products and Services Segment

In the second quarter of 2017, Laboratory Products and Services Segment revenue grew 4% to $1.79 billion, compared with revenue of $1.72 billion in the second quarter of 2016. Segment adjusted operating margin was 13.8%, versus 15.1% in the 2016 quarter.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin, which exclude certain acquisition-related costs, including charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and significant transaction costs; restructuring and other costs/income; and amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. Adjusted EPS also excludes certain other gains and losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability, tax provisions/benefits related to the previous items, benefits from tax credit carryforwards, the impact of significant tax audits or events and the results of discontinued operations. We exclude the above items because they are outside of our normal operations and/or, in certain cases, are difficult to forecast accurately for future periods. We also use a non-GAAP measure, free cash flow, which is operating cash flow, net of capital expenditures, and also excludes operating cash flows from discontinued operations to provide a view of the continuing operations' ability to generate cash for use in acquisitions and other investing and financing activities. We believe that the use of non-GAAP measures helps investors to gain a better understanding of our core operating results and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts the company's performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods or forecasts.

For example:

We exclude costs and tax effects associated with restructuring activities, such as reducing overhead and consolidating facilities. We believe that the costs related to these restructuring activities are not indicative of our normal operating costs.

We exclude certain acquisition-related costs, including charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and significant transaction costs. We exclude these costs because we do not believe they are indicative of our normal operating costs.

We exclude the expense and tax effects associated with the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets because a significant portion of the purchase price for acquisitions may be allocated to intangible assets that have lives of 5 to 20 years. In 2017, based on acquisitions closed through the end of the second quarter of 2017, our adjusted EPS will exclude approximately $2.64 of expense for the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. Exclusion of the amortization expense allows comparisons of operating results that are consistent over time for both our newly acquired and long-held businesses and with both acquisitive and non-acquisitive peer companies.

We also exclude certain gains/losses and related tax effects, benefits from tax credit carryforwards and the impact of significant tax audits or events (such as the effect on deferred tax balances of enacted changes in tax rates), which are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability and that we believe are not indicative of our normal operating gains and losses. For example, we exclude gains/losses from items such as the sale of a business or real estate, gains or losses on significant litigation-related matters, gains on curtailments of pension plans, the early retirement of debt and discontinued operations.

We also report free cash flow, which is operating cash flow, net of capital expenditures, and also excludes operating cash flows from discontinued operations to provide a view of the continuing operations' ability to generate cash for use in acquisitions and other investing and financing activities.

Thermo Fisher's management uses these non-GAAP measures, in addition to GAAP financial measures, as the basis for measuring the company's core operating performance and comparing such performance to that of prior periods and to the performance of our competitors. Such measures are also used by management in their financial and operating decision-making and for compensation purposes.

The non-GAAP financial measures of Thermo Fisher's results of operations and cash flows included in this press release are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for Thermo Fisher's results of operations prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are set forth in the accompanying tables. Thermo Fisher does not provide GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis because we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty and without unreasonable effort items such as the timing and amount of future restructuring actions and acquisition-related charges as well as gains or losses from sales of real estate and businesses, the early retirement of debt and the outcome of legal proceedings. The timing and amount of these items are uncertain and could be material to Thermo Fisher's results computed in accordance with GAAP.

Conference Call

Thermo Fisher Scientific will hold its earnings conference call today, July 26, 2017, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. To listen, dial (877) 201-0168 within the U.S. or (647) 788-4901 outside the U.S. You may also listen to the call live on our website, www.thermofisher.com, by clicking on "Investors." You will find this press release, including the accompanying reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures and related information, in that section of our website under "Financial Results." An audio archive of the call will be available under "Webcasts and Presentations" through Friday, August 4, 2017.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $18 billion and more than 55,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

The following constitutes a "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving growth; general economic conditions and related uncertainties; dependence on customers' capital spending policies and government funding policies; the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations; use and protection of intellectual property; the effect of changes in governmental regulations; and the effect of laws and regulations governing government contracts, as well as the possibility that expected benefits related to recent or pending acquisitions may not materialize as expected. Additional important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 1, 2017, which is on file with the SEC and available in the "Investors" section of our website under the heading "SEC Filings." While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if estimates change and, therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today.

Media Contact Information:

Karen Kirkwood

Phone: 781-622-1306

E-mail: [email protected]

Investor Contact Information:

Ken Apicerno

Phone: 781-622-1294

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.thermofisher.com

Consolidated Statement of Income (unaudited) (a)(b)



















Three Months Ended



July 1,

% of

July 2,

% of (In millions except per share amounts)

2017

Revenues

2016

Revenues

















Revenues

$ 4,990.0







$ 4,535.2





Costs and Operating Expenses:















Cost of revenues (c)

2,578.3



51.7 %

2,349.4



51.8 % Selling, general and administrative expenses (d)

1,035.2



20.7 %

992.4



21.9 % Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

380.9



7.6 %

338.0



7.4 % Research and development expenses

221.6



4.4 %

182.4



4.0 % Restructuring and other costs, net (e)

22.5



0.5 %

35.4



0.8 %



4,238.5



84.9 %

3,897.6



85.9 %

















Operating Income

751.5



15.1 %

637.6



14.1 % Interest Income

17.8







13.2





Interest Expense

(133.6)







(118.8)





Other Expense, Net (f)

(10.1)







(10.9)























Income Before Income Taxes

625.6







521.1





Provision for Income Taxes (g)

(13.4)







(4.3)























Income from Continuing Operations

612.2







516.8























Loss from Discontinued Operations

(0.6)







(0.2)























Net Income

$ 611.6



12.3 %

$ 516.6



11.4 %

















Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations:















Basic

$ 1.57







$ 1.31





Diluted

$ 1.56







$ 1.30























Earnings per Share:















Basic

$ 1.57







$ 1.31





Diluted

$ 1.56







$ 1.30























Weighted Average Shares:















Basic

390.0







393.9





Diluted

393.3







396.7









































Reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Operating Margin















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 751.5



15.1 %

$ 637.6



14.1 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

0.7



0.0 %

17.4



0.4 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

6.8



0.1 %

3.8



0.1 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

22.5



0.5 %

35.4



0.8 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

380.9



7.6 %

338.0



7.4 %

















Adjusted Operating Income (b)

$ 1,162.4



23.3 %

$ 1,032.2



22.8 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Income















GAAP Net Income (a)

$ 611.6



12.3 %

$ 516.6



11.4 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

0.7



0.0 %

17.4



0.4 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

6.8



0.1 %

3.8



0.1 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

22.5



0.5 %

35.4



0.8 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

380.9



7.6 %

338.0



7.4 % Other Expense, Net (f)

2.8



0.1 %

16.8



0.4 % Provision for Income Taxes (g)

(123.1)



-2.5 %

(121.7)



-2.7 % Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax

0.6



0.0 %

0.2



0.0 %

















Adjusted Net Income (b)

$ 902.8



18.1 %

$ 806.5



17.8 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Earnings per Share















GAAP EPS (a)

$ 1.56







$ 1.30





Cost of Revenues Charges, Net of Tax (c)









0.03





Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net of Tax (d)

0.01







0.01





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net of Tax (e)

0.04







0.06





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets, Net of Tax

0.68







0.60





Other Expense, Net of Tax (f)

0.01







0.03





Provision for Income Taxes (g)















Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax

































Adjusted EPS (b)

$ 2.30







$ 2.03























Reconciliation of Free Cash Flow















GAAP Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (a)

$ 848.4







$ 913.6





Net Cash Used in Discontinued Operations

0.2







0.4





Purchases of Property, Plant and Equipment

(88.0)







(114.8)





Proceeds from Sale of Property, Plant and Equipment

1.2







15.7























Free Cash Flow

$ 761.8







$ 814.9







Segment Data

Three Months Ended



July 1,

% of

July 2,

% of (In millions)

2017

Revenues

2016

Revenues

















Revenues















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 1,404.6



28.1 %

$ 1,367.9



30.2 % Analytical Instruments

1,165.8



23.4 %

793.9



17.5 % Specialty Diagnostics

861.8



17.3 %

851.3



18.8 % Laboratory Products and Services

1,792.5



35.9 %

1,719.7



37.9 % Eliminations

(234.7)



-4.7 %

(197.6)



-4.4 %

















Consolidated Revenues

$ 4,990.0



100.0 %

$ 4,535.2



100.0 %

















Operating Income and Operating Margin















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 448.1



31.9 %

$ 389.6



28.5 % Analytical Instruments

232.6



20.0 %

144.9



18.3 % Specialty Diagnostics

235.0



27.3 %

237.9



27.9 % Laboratory Products and Services

246.7



13.8 %

259.8



15.1 %

















Subtotal Reportable Segments

1,162.4



23.3 %

1,032.2



22.8 %

















Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

(0.7)



0.0 %

(17.4)



-0.4 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

(6.8)



-0.1 %

(3.8)



-0.1 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

(22.5)



-0.5 %

(35.4)



-0.8 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

(380.9)



-7.6 %

(338.0)



-7.4 %

















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 751.5



15.1 %

$ 637.6



14.1 %



































(a) "GAAP" (reported) results were determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

(b) Adjusted results are non-GAAP measures and, for income measures, exclude certain charges to cost of revenues (see note (c) for details); certain credits/charges to selling, general and administrative expenses (see note (d) for details); amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets; restructuring and other costs, net (see note (e) for details); certain other gains or losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability (see note (f) for details); and the tax consequences of the preceding items and certain other tax items (see note (g) for details).

(c) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include i) $0.3 and $16.2, respectively, of charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and ii) $0.4 and $1.7, respectively, of accelerated depreciation on manufacturing assets to be abandoned due to facility consolidations. Reported results in 2016 include other credits of $0.5.

(d) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include i) $6.4 and $3.1, respectively, of third-party transaction/integration costs primarily related to the pending acquisition of Patheon and other recently completed acquisitions; and ii) $0.4 and $2.5, respectively, of accelerated depreciation on fixed assets to be abandoned due to integration synergies. Reported results in 2016 also include $1.8 of credits from changes in estimates of contingent acquisition consideration.

(e) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include restructuring and other costs, net, consisting principally of severance, abandoned facility and other expenses of headcount reductions within several businesses and real estate consolidations. Reported results in 2017 include $1.8 of charges for the settlement of retirement plans. Reported results in 2016 include $7.8 of charges for litigation at acquired businesses, $6.8 of environmental remediation costs and $2.1 of gains on sales of real estate and settlement of a retirement plan.

(f) Reported results in 2017 include a $3.4 charge related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the pending acquisition of Patheon and $0.7 of losses on the early extinguishment of debt, offset in part by $1.3 of net gains on investments. Reported results in 2016 include $10.0 of charges related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the acquisition of FEI, $6.2 of losses on the early extinguishment of debt and $0.6 of amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets of the company's equity-method investments.

(g) Reported provision for income taxes includes i) $124.1 and $121.5 of incremental tax benefit in 2017 and 2016, respectively, for the pre-tax reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income; ii) $1.0 of incremental tax provision in 2017 due to an audit settlement; and iii) $0.2 of incremental tax benefit in 2016 from adjusting the company's deferred tax balances as a result of tax rate changes.

Notes: Consolidated depreciation expense is $97.3 and $97.1 in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Consolidated equity compensation expense included in both reported and adjusted results is $38.2 and $33.7 in 2017 and 2016, respectively.



Consolidated Statement of Income (unaudited) (a)(b)



















Six Months Ended



July 1,

% of

July 2,

% of (In millions except per share amounts)

2017

Revenues

2016

Revenues

















Revenues

$ 9,755.0







$ 8,830.0





Costs and Operating Expenses:















Cost of revenues (c)

5,025.5



51.5 %

4,585.3



51.9 % Selling, general and administrative expenses (d)

2,124.2



21.8 %

1,984.3



22.5 % Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

748.4



7.7 %

660.0



7.5 % Research and development expenses

437.0



4.5 %

358.9



4.1 % Restructuring and other costs, net (e)

46.0



0.4 %

86.0



1.0 %



8,381.1



85.9 %

7,674.5



86.9 %

















Operating Income

1,373.9



14.1 %

1,155.5



13.1 % Interest Income

36.3







24.0





Interest Expense

(269.0)







(225.0)





Other Expense, Net (f)

(12.7)







(10.4)























Income Before Income Taxes

1,128.5







944.1





Benefit from (Provision for) Income Taxes (g)

35.1







(25.0)























Income from Continuing Operations

1,163.6







919.1























Loss from Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax

(0.6)







(0.3)























Net Income

$ 1,163.0



11.9 %

$ 918.8



10.4 %

















Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations:















Basic

$ 2.98







$ 2.33





Diluted

$ 2.96







$ 2.31























Earnings per Share:















Basic

$ 2.98







$ 2.33





Diluted

$ 2.95







$ 2.31























Weighted Average Shares:















Basic

390.5







394.9





Diluted

393.7







397.7









































Reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Operating Margin















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 1,373.9



14.1 %

$ 1,155.5



13.1 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

31.6



0.3 %

28.0



0.3 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

38.3



0.4 %

32.7



0.3 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

46.0



0.4 %

86.0



1.0 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

748.4



7.7 %

660.0



7.5 %

















Adjusted Operating Income (b)

$ 2,238.2



22.9 %

$ 1,962.2



22.2 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Income















GAAP Net Income (a)

$ 1,163.0



11.9 %

$ 918.8



10.4 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

31.6



0.3 %

28.0



0.3 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

38.3



0.4 %

32.7



0.3 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

46.0



0.4 %

86.0



1.0 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

748.4



7.7 %

660.0



7.5 % Other Expense, Net (f)

0.2



0.0 %

15.5



0.2 % Provision for Income Taxes (g)

(305.1)



-3.1 %

(217.7)



-2.4 % Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax

0.6



0.1 %

0.3



0.0 %

















Adjusted Net Income (b)

$ 1,723.0



17.7 %

$ 1,523.6



17.3 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Earnings per Share















GAAP EPS (a)

$ 2.95







$ 2.31





Cost of Revenues Charges, Net of Tax (c)

0.05







0.05





Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net of Tax (d)

0.07







0.06





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net of Tax (e)

0.08







0.15





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets, Net of Tax

1.38







1.21





Other Expense, Net of Tax (f)









0.03





(Benefit from) Provision for Income Taxes (g)

(0.15)







0.02





Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax

































Adjusted EPS (b)

$ 4.38







$ 3.83























Reconciliation of Free Cash Flow















GAAP Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (a)

$ 1,209.9







$ 1,248.3





Net Cash Used in Discontinued Operations

1.1







1.9





Purchases of Property, Plant and Equipment

(181.4)







(229.9)





Proceeds from Sale of Property, Plant and Equipment

2.3







21.7























Free Cash Flow

$ 1,031.9







$ 1,042.0







Segment Data

Six Months Ended



July 1,

% of

July 2,

% of (In millions)

2017

Revenues

2016

Revenues

















Revenues















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 2,768.1



28.4 %

$ 2,585.6



29.3 % Analytical Instruments

2,217.8



22.7 %

1,553.2



17.6 % Specialty Diagnostics

1,728.2



17.7 %

1,705.9



19.3 % Laboratory Products and Services

3,491.5



35.8 %

3,368.5



38.1 % Eliminations

(450.6)



-4.6 %

(383.2)



-4.3 %

















Consolidated Revenues

$ 9,755.0



100.0 %

$ 8,830.0



100.0 %

















Operating Income and Operating Margin















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 882.0



31.9 %

$ 740.9



28.7 % Analytical Instruments

424.4



19.1 %

256.6



16.5 % Specialty Diagnostics

468.9



27.1 %

468.0



27.4 % Laboratory Products and Services

462.9



13.3 %

496.7



14.7 %

















Subtotal Reportable Segments

2,238.2



22.9 %

1,962.2



22.2 %

















Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

(31.6)



-0.3 %

(28.0)



-0.3 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

(38.3)



-0.4 %

(32.7)



-0.3 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

(46.0)



-0.4 %

(86.0)



-1.0 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

(748.4)



-7.7 %

(660.0)



-7.5 %

















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 1,373.9



14.1 %

$ 1,155.5



13.1 %



































(a) "GAAP" (reported) results were determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

(b) Adjusted results are non-GAAP measures and, for income measures, exclude certain charges to cost of revenues (see note (c) for details); certain credits/charges to selling, general and administrative expenses (see note (d) for details); amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets; restructuring and other costs, net (see note (e) for details); certain other gains or losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability (see note (f) for details); and the tax consequences of the preceding items and certain other tax items (see note (g) for details).

(c) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include i) $31.0 and $22.4, respectively, of charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and ii) $0.6 and $1.7, respectively, of accelerated depreciation on manufacturing assets to be abandoned due to facility consolidations. Reported results in 2016 also include charges of $3.9 to conform the accounting policies of Affymetrix with the company's accounting policies.

(d) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include i) $11.9 and $26.7, respectively, of third-party transaction/integration costs primarily related to recently completed acquisitions and the pending acquisition of Patheon; ii) $25.4 and $(1.9), respectively, of charges/(credits) from changes in estimates of contingent acquisition consideration; and iii) $1.0 and $7.9, respectively, of accelerated depreciation on fixed assets to be abandoned due to integration synergies.

(e) Reported results in 2017 and 2016 include restructuring and other costs, net, consisting principally of severance, abandoned facility and other expenses of headcount reductions within several businesses and real estate consolidations. Reported results in 2017 include $3.5 of litigation charges and $1.8 of charges for the settlement of retirement plans. Reported results in 2016 include $6.8 of environment remediation costs, $5.5 of net gains on litigation at acquired businesses and $5.0 of gains on sales of real estate and settlement of a retirement plan.

(f) Reported results in 2017 include a $3.4 charge related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the pending acquisition of Patheon and $3.9 of losses on extinguishment of debt, offset in part by $7.1 of net gains from investments. Reported results in 2016 include $10.0 of charges related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the acquisition of FEI, $6.2 of losses on the early extinguishment of debt and $1.1 of amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets of the company's equity-method investments, offset in part by $1.8 of net gains from investments.

(g) Reported provision for income taxes includes i) $243.3 and $226.5 of incremental tax benefit in 2017 and 2016, respectively, for the pre-tax reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income; ii) $62.8 and $(8.8) of incremental tax benefit (provision) in 2017 and 2016, respectively, from adjusting the company's deferred tax balances as a result of tax rate changes and iii) $1.0 of incremental tax provision in 2017 due to an audit settlement.

Notes: Consolidated depreciation expense is $194.3 and $191.2 in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Consolidated equity compensation expense included in both reported and adjusted results is $71.2 and $67.1 in 2017 and 2016, respectively.



Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet (unaudited)





















July 1,

December 31, (In millions)

2017

2016









Assets







Current Assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 611.0



$ 786.2

Accounts receivable, net

3,258.3



3,048.5

Inventories

2,422.2



2,213.3

Other current assets

1,161.0



973.0











Total current assets

7,452.5



7,021.0











Property, Plant and Equipment, Net

2,599.7



2,577.8











Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

13,575.6



13,969.0











Other Assets

1,040.4



1,011.9











Goodwill

21,845.5



21,327.8











Total Assets

$ 46,513.7



$ 45,907.5





















Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity







Current Liabilities:







Short-term obligations and current maturities of long-term obligations

$ 1,540.4



$ 1,255.5

Other current liabilities

3,535.4



3,610.3











Total current liabilities

5,075.8



4,865.8











Other Long-term Liabilities

3,790.6



4,130.0











Long-term Obligations

15,255.7



15,372.4











Total Shareholders' Equity

22,391.6



21,539.3











Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity

$ 46,513.7



$ 45,907.5



Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (unaudited)





















Six Months Ended



July 1,

July 2, (In millions)

2017

2016









Operating Activities







Net income

$ 1,163.0



$ 918.8

Loss from discontinued operations

0.6



0.3

Income from continuing operations

1,163.6



919.1











Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

942.7



851.2

Change in deferred income taxes

(298.8)



(304.5)

Other non-cash expenses, net

147.6



121.2

Changes in assets and liabilities, excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions

(744.1)



(336.8)











Net cash provided by continuing operations

1,211.0



1,250.2

Net cash used in discontinued operations

(1.1)



(1.9)











Net cash provided by operating activities

1,209.9



1,248.3











Investing Activities







Acquisitions, net of cash acquired

(307.0)



(1,033.0)

Purchases of property, plant and equipment

(181.4)



(229.9)

Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

2.3



21.7

Other investing activities, net

8.8



5.9











Net cash used in investing activities

(477.3)



(1,235.3)











Financing Activities







Net proceeds from issuance of debt

518.9



1,985.6

Repayment of debt

(1,328.9)



(1,638.0)

Net proceeds from issuance of commercial paper

4,487.1



3,509.5

Repayment of commercial paper

(3,990.7)



(2,573.4)

Purchases of company common stock

(750.0)



(1,000.0)

Dividends paid

(117.8)



(119.4)

Net proceeds from issuance of company common stock under employee stock plans

99.1



78.4

Other financing activities, net





(13.6)











Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

(1,082.3)



229.1











Exchange Rate Effect on Cash

168.2



(18.6)











(Decrease) Increase in Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash

(181.5)



223.5

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash at Beginning of Period

810.8



466.3











Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash at End of Period

$ 629.3



$ 689.8





















Free Cash Flow (a)

$ 1,031.9



$ 1,042.0





















(a) Free cash flow is net cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations less net purchases of property, plant and equipment.



SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com


VAN NUYS, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The rise in education standards across the globe and ever-changing tutoring segment that is expected to surpass $102 Billion by 2018 are driving worldwide growth for prominent brands including Tutor Doctor, the leader in one-on-one in-home private tutoring.

Serving more than 270,000 students in 16 different countries, the private tutoring franchise that focuses on relationship building between the tutor and pupil and identifying each student's needs through careful preparation and thought surpassed the 500-territory plateau at the end of 2016 and is projected to finish 2017 near 600. Through the first two quarters of the year, Tutor Doctor has opened 35 new franchised territories with another 65 on the way to close 2017.

With each new opening comes educational assistance, positive reinforcement and new career opportunities.

"Our growth is a direct result of worldwide demand for academic success, quality tutors within our system and a terrific network of franchisees who are given the chance to maximize their reach in multiple cities," said Frank Milner, President of Tutor Doctor. "By purchasing territories, our franchisees are given the freedom to build a strong base of students in many towns in a specific region. They are able to do so and also keep them coming back thanks to our outstanding educators  now at more than 17,000  and the evolving challenges of school systems."

As the calendar year turns to the latter half of 2017, Tutor Doctor now has its sites on continued expansion throughout the United States, including major metropolitan cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia, as well as the states of Florida, California, Oregon and Washington. In addition, the company is expecting further growth in the United Kingdom, Australia and Latin America.

"Although we are seeing rapid expansion in many major markets there is still plenty of room for growth," Milner said. "Our franchisees are a mix of individuals from a variety of different backgrounds, including former teachers, corporate executives, attorneys and veterans."

Tutor Doctor recently announced a $5,000 discount off its regional franchise fees for veterans and is actively recruiting people to help the company provide academic services to students all over the world. Tutors will also range in experience, from Ph.D. candidates, Master's and Bachelor's students, working professionals and current teachers, all of whom work well with students and are confident communicators and educators.

Tutor Doctor specializes in programs such as X-Skills, where tutors act as guides and help students generate game plans for achieving academic goals, assists in the development of tailored and stylized systems for students. Game plans consist of 11 X-Skills, featuring task initiation and follow through, working memory, sustained attention and inhibition of impulses, among other items. Students who perfect these skills early on will not only have an easier time figuring out strategies for mastering STEM courses but also for meeting goals in life.

For more information on Tutor Doctor and its franchise opportunity, visit www.tutordoctor.com or www.tutordoctoropportunity.com.

About Tutor Doctor

With more than 500 territories in 16 countries, Tutor Doctor was named the No. 1 In-Home Tutoring Franchise by Entrepreneur.com in 2016. Founded as an alternative to the "one-to-many" teaching model most extra-curricular learning centers offer, Tutor Doctor provides a personalized one-to-one, in-home tutoring service to students of all ages. Now with offices internationally, the Tutor Doctor vision is becoming a reality, positively impacting students and their families worldwide. With the belief that all students can achieve academic success through two components  academic foundation building and academic discipline  Tutor Doctor will continue to lead the private tutoring industry. For more information on Tutor Doctor, please visit www.tutordoctor.com. To find out about franchise opportunities, please visit, www.tutordoctoropportunity.com.

SOURCE Tutor Doctor

Related Links

http://www.tutordoctor.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of real estate auction company Tranzon received two of the highest honors attainable in the auction profession at the National Auctioneers Association's (NAA) annual Conference & Show this month.

Tim Mast of Tranzon Asset Advisors in Selmer, TN was elected NAA Vice President. This is the highest elected office in the association, as it is the NAA's custom for its vice president to take up the office of president the following term. Mast, an 18-year auction veteran, served on the NAA Board of Directors. He also served as president and as a director for the Tennessee Auctioneers Association (TAA), and in 2013, was the youngest inductee to the TAA Hall of Fame.

"I'm humbled by the confidence that has been placed in me by the auction community," says Mast, "and I'm grateful for this opportunity. I've been overwhelmed by the support and friendship of so many outstanding individuals."

Thomas Saturley of Tranzon Auction Properties in Portland, ME was recognized for a lifetime of service to the auction industry and his community by being inducted into the NAA Hall of Fame. Saturley served on the NAA Board of Directors from 2002 to 2005 and as a presidential appointee in 2011 and 2012 before being elected vice president in 2013. He served as president the following year and, most recently, board chairman.

"There is no greater reward then to be honored by one's peers," Saturley says of the recognition. "The men and women who have been inducted into the NAA Hall of Fame are legends within the auction profession, and I am humbled to be included within that storied class."

Saturley was inducted by friend and fellow Hall-of-Famer, Sandy Alderfer of Tranzon Alderfer, who was himself honored with the Sapphire Pin for his contributions to the National Auctioneers Foundation.

Tranzon was a pioneer of real estate accelerated marketing and early adopter of online auctions, but Saturley says these recent honors highlight the company's greatest asset.

"Technologies and methodologies continually change, and business changes with them. But I am gratified to see Tranzon receive acknowledgement for the integrity and reputation of its people, because that is where our true strength lies."

Saturley's induction and Mast's victory came only a week after the Tranzon community was grieved by the death of its CEO, Scott King. "These honors were timely in a way, and sad in another," says Saturley. "Scott would've loved to share these moments with us, and we all wanted him to be there. But one of his aims was to make this company's strengths more visible, so this recognition also seems like a fitting tip of the hat to his vision and heart for Tranzon."

Tranzon is a nationwide real estate auction company built by a collaborative team of experienced auctioneers with a common mission to help each of their clients sell their real estate on their own terms.

Contact:

Liz Wood

Tranzon, LLC

256-413-2902

[email protected]

SOURCE Tranzon Auction Properties

Related Links

http://www.tranzon.com


KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Health Realty Income Trust (NYSE:UHT) announced today that for the three-month period ended June 30, 2017, reported net income was $4.0 million, or $.30 per diluted share, as compared to $4.5 million, or $.34 per diluted share, during the second quarter of 2016.

As calculated on the Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule"), our funds from operations ("FFO"), which excludes the impact of depreciation and amortization expense incurred by us and our unconsolidated affiliates, was $10.5 million, or $.77 per diluted share, during the second quarter of 2017, as compared to $10.4 million, or $.78 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2016.

Consolidated Results of Operations - Six-Month Periods Ended June 30, 2017 and 2016:

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2017, reported net income was $35.6 million, or $2.62 per diluted share, as compared to $9.0 million, or $.67 per diluted share, during the first six months of 2016.

As reflected on the attached Supplemental Schedule, our financial results for the first six months of 2017 include a gain of $27.2 million, or $2.00 per diluted share, recorded in connection with the March, 2017, Arlington Medical Properties LLC/St. Mary's Professional Office Building transaction, as discussed below. After neutralizing the impact of the gain from the financial results for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017, our adjusted net income was $8.4 million, or $.62 per diluted share, during the first six months of 2017, as compared to $9.0 million, or $.67 per diluted share, during the first six months of 2016.

As calculated on the Supplemental Schedule, our FFO, which excludes the impact of the gain and depreciation and amortization expense incurred by us and our unconsolidated affiliates, increased to $21.3 million, or $1.57 per diluted share, during the first six months of 2017, as compared to $20.6 million, or $1.54 per diluted share during the first six months of 2016.

Dividend Information:

The second quarter dividend of $.66 per share was paid on June 30, 2017.

Capital Resources Information:

At June 30, 2017, we had $182.9 million of borrowings outstanding pursuant to the terms of our $250 million revolving credit agreement and $65.1 million of available borrowing capacity, net of outstanding borrowings and letters of credit.

Summary of March, 2017 Divestiture, July, 2017 Acquisition, Previously Announced 2016 Acquisitions and Other Potential 2017 Acquisition in Connection With Planned Like-Kind Exchange Transactions Pursuant to Section 1031 of the IRS Code:

As discussed below, during 2016 and 2017, as part of a series of planned tax deferred like-kind exchange transactions pursuant to Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, we: (i) divested in March, 2017, the St. Mary's Professional Office Building; (ii) acquired during 2016, two medical office buildings located in Nevada and Maryland; (iii) acquired in July, 2017, the Health Center of Hamburg, and; (iv) may complete one other potential acquisition in 2017.

The two 2016 acquisitions, as well as the 2017 acquisition, were planned and executed in accordance with the provisions of Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Therefore, we believe they qualify as tax deferred like-kind exchange transactions in connection with the above-mentioned divestiture of St. Mary's in March, 2017.

Divestiture of St. Mary's Professional Office Building in March, 2017:

As previously, disclosed, during March, 2017, Arlington Medical Properties LLC, a formerly jointly-owned limited liability company in which we held an 85% noncontrolling ownership interest, sold the real estate assets of St. Mary's Professional Office Building ("St. Mary's") located in Reno, Nevada. A third-party member owned the remaining 15% of Arlington Medical Properties LLC which we acquired prior to the divestiture of St. Mary's.

In connection with the divestiture of St. Mary's, we are entitled to an aggregate of approximately $57.3 million of net cash proceeds. These proceeds, which are net of closing costs and the purchase price paid for the minority member's ownership interest in the LLC, include repayment to us of a $21.4 million member loan formerly extended to Arlington Medical Properties LLC. As of June 30, 2017, approximately $11.3 million of the net sale proceeds due to us are being held by a qualified 1031 exchange intermediary in connection with the July, 2017 acquisition, and another potential 2017 acquisition, as outlined below. Our results of operations for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017 include a net gain of $27.2 million (net of related transaction costs) recorded in connection with this transaction.

Acquisitions Previously Completed in 2016:

As previously announced during 2016, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $39.6 million, we paid approximately $32.5 million in cash, and assumed approximately $7.1 million of third-party debt that is non-recourse to us, to acquire:

2704 North Tenaya Way located in Las Vegas , Nevada. This medical office building, which consists of 45,000 rentable square feet, was acquired in November, 2016 for a total purchase price of approximately $15.3 million , including the assumption of approximately $7.1 million of third-party debt that is non-recourse to us.

, Nevada. This medical office building, which consists of 45,000 rentable square feet, was acquired in November, 2016 for a total purchase price of approximately , including the assumption of approximately of third-party debt that is non-recourse to us. Frederick Crestwood Medical Office Building located in Frederick, Maryland . This medical office building, which consists of approximately 62,300 rentable square feet, was acquired in September, 2016 for a purchase price of approximately $24.3 million .

Acquisition Completed in July, 2017:

In July, 2017, we acquired The Health Center at Hamburg located in Hamburg, Pennsylvania for a purchase price of approximately $4.7 million. This medical office building, which consists of approximately 15,400 rentable square feet, is 100% leased under the terms of a triple net lease and has a remaining lease term of approximately 8.5 years.

Other Potential 2017 Acquisition:

As part of the planned tax deferred like-kind exchange transactions under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code in connection with the divestiture of St. Mary's, in addition to the above-mentioned 2016 and 2017 acquisitions, we may purchase one additional property during 2017. However, we can provide no assurance that we will complete an additional acquisition during 2017, and any additional acquisition completed during 2017 would need to be finalized by mid-September in order to qualify as tax-deferred like-kind exchange transactions under the provisions of Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code in connection with the divestiture of St. Mary's.

General Information, Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors and Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

Universal Health Realty Income Trust, a real estate investment trust, invests in healthcare and human service related facilities including acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, sub-acute care facilities, medical/office buildings, free-standing emergency departments and childcare centers. We have investments in sixty-seven properties located in twenty states.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current management expectations. Numerous factors, including those disclosed herein, those related to healthcare and healthcare real estate industry trends and those detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (as set forth in Item 1A - Risk Factors and in Item 7-Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and in Item 2  Forward-Looking Statements and Certain Risk Factors in our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2017), may cause the results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Many of the factors that will determine our future results are beyond our capability to control or predict. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and therefore actual results may differ materially. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements which reflect management's view only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

We believe that adjusted net income and adjusted net income per diluted share (as reflected on the attached Supplemental Schedules), which are non-GAAP financial measures ("GAAP" is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America), are helpful to our investors as measures of our operating performance. In addition, we believe that, when applicable, comparing and discussing our financial results based on these measures, as calculated, is helpful to our investors since it neutralizes the effect in each year of material items that are nonrecurring or non-operational in nature including items such as, but not limited to, gains on transactions.

Funds from operations ("FFO") is a widely recognized measure of performance for Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs"). We believe that FFO and FFO per diluted share, which are non-GAAP financial measures, are helpful to our investors as measures of our operating performance. We compute FFO, as reflected on the attached Supplemental Schedules, in accordance with standards established by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT"), which may not be comparable to FFO reported by other REITs that do not compute FFO in accordance with the NAREIT definition, or that interpret the NAREIT definition differently than we interpret the definition. FFO adjusts for the effects of gains, such as gains on transactions that occurred during the periods presented. FFO does not represent cash generated from operating activities in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered to be an alternative to net income determined in accordance with GAAP. In addition, FFO should not be used as: (i) an indication of our financial performance determined in accordance with GAAP; (ii) an alternative to cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with GAAP; (iii) a measure of our liquidity, or; (iv) an indicator of funds available for our cash needs, including our ability to make cash distributions to shareholders. A reconciliation of our reported net income to FFO is reflected on the Supplemental Schedules included below.

To obtain a complete understanding of our financial performance these measures should be examined in connection with net income, determined in accordance with GAAP, as presented in the condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto in this report or in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and our report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2017. Since the items included or excluded from these measures are significant components in understanding and assessing financial performance under GAAP, these measures should not be considered to be alternatives to net income as a measure of our operating performance or profitability. Since these measures, as presented, are not determined in accordance with GAAP and are thus susceptible to varying calculations, they may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. Investors are encouraged to use GAAP measures when evaluating our financial performance.

(more)

Universal Health Realty Income Trust Consolidated Statements of Income For the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 (amounts in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2017



2016



2017



2016

Revenues:































Base rental - UHS facilities

$ 4,303



$ 4,079



$ 8,383



$ 8,160

Base rental - Non-related parties



10,116





9,030





20,086





17,845

Bonus rental - UHS facilities



1,242





1,193





2,530





2,439

Tenant reimbursements and other - Non-related parties



2,239





1,943





4,432





3,816

Tenant reimbursements and other - UHS facilities



245





216





464





427







18,145





16,461





35,895





32,687

Expenses:































Depreciation and amortization



6,295





5,543





12,440





10,979

Advisory fees to UHS



874





781





1,740





1,548

Other operating expenses



4,923





4,540





9,628





8,940

Transaction costs



56





64





126





146







12,148





10,928





23,934





21,613

Income before equity in income of unconsolidated limited

liability companies ("LLCs"), interest expense and gain



5,997





5,533





11,961





11,074

Equity in income of unconsolidated LLCs



498





1,227





1,575





2,286

Gain on fair value recognition resulting from purchase of minority interest in majority-owned LLC, net



-





-





27,196





-

Interest expense, net



(2,462)





(2,237)





(5,137)





(4,409)

Net income

$ 4,033



$ 4,523



$ 35,595



$ 8,951

Basic earnings per share

$ 0.30



$ 0.34



$ 2.62



$ 0.67

Diluted earnings per share

$ 0.30



$ 0.34



$ 2.62



$ 0.67



































Weighted average number of shares outstanding - Basic



13,583





13,397





13,581





13,352

Weighted average number of share equivalents



-





7





-





7

Weighted average number of shares and equivalents outstanding - Diluted



13,583





13,404





13,581





13,359



Universal Health Realty Income Trust Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule") For the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)

Calculation of Adjusted Net Income





Three Months Ended



Three Months Ended





June 30, 2017



June 30, 2016





Amount



Per Diluted Share



Amount



Per Diluted Share

Net income

$ 4,033



$ 0.30



$ 4,523



$ 0.34

Adjusted net income

$ 4,033



$ 0.30



$ 4,523



$ 0.34



Calculation of Funds From Operations ("FFO")

















Three Months Ended



Three Months Ended





June 30, 2017



June 30, 2016





Amount



Per Diluted Share



Amount



Per Diluted Share

Net income

$ 4,033



$ 0.30



$ 4,523



$ 0.34

Plus: Depreciation and amortization expense:































Consolidated investments



6,167





0.45





5,435





0.40

Unconsolidated affiliates



253





0.02





465





0.04

FFO

$ 10,453



$ 0.77



$ 10,423



$ 0.78



































Dividend paid per share









$ 0.660











$ 0.650



Universal Health Realty Income Trust Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule") For the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)

Calculation of Adjusted Net Income





Six Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30, 2017



June 30, 2016





Amount



Per Diluted Share



Amount



Per Diluted Share

Net income

$ 35,595



$ 2.62



$ 8,951



$ 0.67

Adjustment:































Less: Gain on fair value recognition resulting from

purchase of minority interest in majority-owned LLC, net



(27,196)





(2.00)





-





-

Adjusted net income

$ 8,399



$ 0.62



$ 8,951



$ 0.67



Calculation of Funds From Operations ("FFO")





Six Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30, 2017



June 30, 2016





Amount



Per Diluted Share



Amount



Per Diluted Share

Net income

$ 35,595



$ 2.62



$ 8,951



$ 0.67

Plus: Depreciation and amortization expense:































Consolidated investments



12,189





0.90





10,768





0.80

Unconsolidated affiliates



679





0.05





915





0.07

Less: Gain on fair value recognition resulting from purchase

of minority interest in majority-owned LLC, net



(27,196)





(2.00)





-





-

FFO

$ 21,267



$ 1.57



$ 20,634



$ 1.54



































Dividend paid per share









$ 1.315











$ 1.295



Universal Health Realty Income Trust Consolidated Balance Sheets (dollar amounts in thousands) (unaudited)





June 30,



December 31,





2017



2016

Assets:















Real Estate Investments:















Buildings and improvements and construction in progress

$ 539,729



$ 534,190

Accumulated depreciation



(148,279)





(138,588)







391,450





395,602

Land



51,645





51,638

Net Real Estate Investments



443,095





447,240

Investments in and advances to limited liability companies ("LLCs")



4,718





35,593

Other Assets:















Cash and cash equivalents



4,109





3,930

Restricted cash



11,253





-

Base and bonus rent and other receivables from UHS



3,630





2,321

Rent receivable - other



5,697





5,291

Intangible assets (net of accumulated amortization of $28.4 million and

$27.1 million at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively)



21,460





23,815

Deferred charges and other assets, net



5,863





6,560

Total Assets

$ 499,825



$ 524,750

Liabilities:















Line of credit borrowings

$ 182,850



$ 201,500

Mortgage notes payable, non-recourse to us, net



90,649





114,217

Accrued interest



564





626

Accrued expenses and other liabilities



10,283





11,809

Tenant reserves, deposits and prepaid rents



6,432





5,321

Total Liabilities



290,778





333,473

Equity:















Preferred shares of beneficial interest,

$.01 par value; 5,000,000 shares authorized;

none issued and outstanding



-





-

Common shares, $.01 par value;

95,000,000 shares authorized; issued and outstanding: 2017 - 13,606,889;

2016 - 13,599,055



136





136

Capital in excess of par value



255,811





255,656

Cumulative net income



608,096





572,501

Cumulative dividends



(655,008)





(637,121)

Accumulated other comprehensive income



12





105

Total Equity



209,047





191,277

Total Liabilities and Equity

$ 499,825



$ 524,750



SOURCE Universal Health Realty Income Trust
NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance ("Alliance") today announced the launch of its expanded network of impact investing leaders dedicated to advancing this growing market.

The Alliance was founded last year by representatives from philanthropy, business and finance to champion the potential of impact investing by increasing awareness of impact investing in the U.S., fostering deployment of and demand for impact capital across asset classes globally, and by partnering with policymakers and other stakeholders to build the impact investing ecosystem.

The Alliance is introduced today with a broadened mandate that includes advocating for a favorable policy environment, catalyzing the flow of impact capital and growing the movement of impact investing in the U.S. and globally.

"Our vision is to catalyze a movement that will transform finance by putting measurable social and environmental impact, alongside risk and financial return, at the core of investment decisions," said Fran Seegull, Executive Director of the Alliance and formerly the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of ImpactAssets, a non-profit impact investing firm.

The Alliance's 11-member board comprises leading practitioners from across the impact investing community, including private investors, foundations, intermediaries and asset managers.

Darren Walker , President, Ford Foundation; Chair, Alliance

, President, Ford Foundation; Chair, Alliance Tracy Palandjian , CEO & Co-Founder, Social Finance; Vice-Chair, Alliance

, CEO & Co-Founder, Social Finance; Vice-Chair, Alliance Matt Bannick , President, Omidyar Network

, President, Omidyar Network Ray Chambers , President, MCJ Amelior Foundation

, President, MCJ Amelior Foundation Clara Miller , President, Heron Foundation

, President, Heron Foundation Nancy Pfund , Managing Partner & Founder, DBL Partners

, Managing Partner & Founder, DBL Partners Rip Rapson, President & CEO, Kresge Foundation

Andy Sieg , Head, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

, Head, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Ian Simmons , Principal & Co-Founder, Blue Haven Initiative

, Principal & Co-Founder, Blue Haven Initiative Jim Sorenson , Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation

, Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation Julia Stasch , President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

"The impact investing movement is a growing force in driving social and environmental change in the U.S. and around the world," said Walker. "In philanthropy, we are moved to lead this effort, but ultimately it is about engaging with everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can accomplish more in partnership than we ever could achieve on our own."

"This movement is built upon the dedication and collaboration of so many, and this moment is made possible by their tireless efforts over the years," said Palandjian. "Through the Alliance, we have an opportunity to bridge the gaps that remain, inspiring actors across all sectors to think deeply about impact."

The Alliance traces its roots back to the June 2013 G8 meeting, where an international effort was undertaken to explore the possibilities for impact investing to accelerate economic growth and to address some of society's most pressing issues. Under the auspices of that effort, the U.S. National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (NAB), the precursor organization to the Alliance, was formed with a mandate to identify and help reduce domestic policy barriers to impact investing.

While the Alliance will focus on the U.S. market, it is also part of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing (GSG), which was established to promote a unified view of impact investment across the world, facilitate knowledge exchange and encourage policy change in national markets. Its members include 15 countries plus the EU, as well as active observers from government and from global network organizations supportive of impact investing.

The Alliance also convenes and administers the Presidents' Council on Impact Investing, which comprises leaders from 20 private foundations, with a combined $60 billion in endowed assets, who are engaged in impact investing.

Today the Alliance is also launching an Industry Advisory Council of leading impact investing network organizations. Together these organizations represent over 800 members representing trillions of dollars of assets under management. The Industry Advisory Council is led by:

Dana Lanza , CEO, Confluence Philanthropy

, CEO, Confluence Philanthropy Amit Bouri, CEO, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

Abigail Noble , CEO, The ImPact

, CEO, The ImPact Georges Dyer , Principal, Intentional Endowments Network (IEN)

, Principal, Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) Bonny Moellenbrock , Executive Director, Investors' Circle

, Executive Director, Investors' Circle Matt Onek , CEO, Mission Investors Exchange (MIE)

, CEO, Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) Adam Bendell , CEO, Toniic

, CEO, Toniic Lisa Woll , CEO, The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF)

"Investors are increasingly interested in aligning their investments with their values, so it is important the field continues to grow and evolve to meet that demand," added Sieg.

To learn more about the Alliance, please visit www.impinvalliance.org.

About the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance

The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance is dedicated to championing the power of impact investing through increasing awareness of impact investing in the United States, fostering deployment of and demand for impact capital across asset classes globally, and partnering with stakeholders, including government, to build the impact investing ecosystem. Members of the Alliance include leaders from across the impact investing community, including investors, foundations, financial intermediaries, asset managers and service providers. For more information, please visit www.impinvalliance.org.

Media Contact

Prosek Partners

Dmitriy Ioselevich

[email protected]

212-279-3115, ext. 243

SOURCE U.S. Impact Investing Alliance

Related Links

http://www.impinvalliance.org


ORLANDO, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) received an $86.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy and Air Force for Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) production.

The contract marks the first production award for the air-launched variant of LRASM, and includes 23 missiles and engineering support. Low-rate initial production Lot 1 is the first of several expected annual production lots that will deliver next-generation anti-ship missiles to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

"This first production lot of LRASM brings a new level of capability to both the U.S. Air Force and the Navy," said Mike Fleming, LRASM director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "LRASM enables our warfighters to prosecute even the most advanced enemy ships."

LRASM is designed to detect and destroy specific targets within groups of ships by employing advanced technologies that reduce dependence on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, network links and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. LRASM will play a significant role in ensuring military access to operate in open ocean/blue waters, owing to its enhanced ability to discriminate and conduct tactical engagements from extended ranges.

LRASM is a precision-guided, anti-ship standoff missile based on the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range (JASSM-ER). It is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force Warfighters in contested environments. The air-launched variant provides an early operational capability for the U.S. Navy's offensive anti-surface warfare Increment I requirement to be integrated onboard the U.S. Air Force's B-1B in 2018 and on the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2019.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


PALO ALTO, Calif., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announced that the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven) in Belgium, have ordered the new Halcyon treatment system. Scheduled to be installed in September 2017, the new system provides the opportunity for UZ Leuven to deliver high quality Halcyon treatments while improving patient comfort and expanding the availability of advanced cancer care.

The Halcyon system is engineered to revolutionize clinical workflow by simplifying and enhancing virtually every aspect of image-guided volumetric intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). With its streamlined workflow, Halcyon only requires nine steps from the start to the end of treatment compared to up to more than 30 steps with older technologies nearing end of life. Halcyon is well suited to handle the majority of cancer patients, offering advanced treatments for prostate, breast, head & neck, and many other forms of cancer.

"We are excited about the opportunity to add the Halcyon system to our radiation oncology department," said professor Karin Haustermans, MD, chair of the department, UZ Leuven. "The system will be easier to operate for our therapists, and its human-centered design allows for a much closer connection between the patient and therapist."

"The goal with Halcyon was to design a treatment system that expands the availability of high quality cancer care globally and help save the lives of millions more cancer patients," said Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "We are pleased UZ Leuven is one of the first centers to order this new system, and that they will be able to take advantage of its many features to continue to deliver high quality care to their patients."

For more information on Halcyon visit www.varian.com/halcyon.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems focuses energy on saving lives and is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating and managing cancer. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Varian employs approximately 6,600 people around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com and follow @VarianMedSys on Twitter.

Press Contact

Mark Plungy

Varian Medical Systems

+1 (650) 424-5630

[email protected]

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems

Related Links

http://www.varian.com


WAYNE, N.J., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In a merger of two banks with a similar focus on personal service and community involvement, Valley National Bancorp ("Valley") (NYSE: VLY) announced today that it is expanding its Florida presence and moving into Alabama by acquiring USAmeriBancorp, Inc. ("USAB") (OTC Pink: USAB).

The companies have entered into a merger agreement in which the common shareholders of USAB will receive 6.1 shares of Valley common stock for each USAB share they own, subject to adjustment in the event Valley's volume-weighted average stock price falls below $11.50 or rises above $13.00 prior to closing. The transaction is valued at an estimated $816 million, based on Valley's closing stock price on July 25, 2017.

Valley, and its wholly-own subsidiary, Valley National Bank, has approximately $23.4 billion in assets, $17.8 billion in loans, $17.3 billion in deposits and 209 branches in New Jersey, New York and Florida.

USAB, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, USAmeriBank, headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, has approximately $4.4 billion in assets, $3.6 billion in loans, $3.5 billion in deposits, and maintains a branch network of 30 offices.

The acquisition represents a significant addition to Valley's Florida franchise, and will meaningfully enhance its presence in the Tampa Bay market, which is Florida's second largest metropolitan area by population. The acquisition will also bring Valley to the Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tallapoosa areas in Alabama, where USAmeriBank maintains 15 offices contributing approximately $1.1 billion of deposits and $520 million in loans.

Gerald H. Lipkin, Chairman & CEO commented that, "This will be our third acquisition in Florida since 2014 and is consistent with our goal to expand our franchise in the high growth markets of Florida. USAB has a strong record of profitability and growth. We are excited about our collaboration with Joseph V. Chillura, CEO of USAB, who will join Valley as a key member of our executive team."

Valley has consistently prioritized the retention of key individuals from acquisitions in order to service key clients of an acquired bank and remains committed to this effort. Key leaders from USAB's team will join Valley to help drive continued growth efforts in the Florida and Alabama markets. Additionally, USAB Chairman Jennifer W. Steans is expected to join Valley's board of directors.

"We are fortunate to have found a partner that shares the same quality corporate culture and focus on personal service as USAmeriBank," said Jennifer Steans, Chairman of the Board of USAmeriBancorp. "Valley is a strong regional bank focused on helping its customers succeed, so this is a win-win for our employees, customers, and shareholders."

"We are excited to join the Valley team," said Joseph V. Chillura, CEO of USAmeriBancorp, who will stay on as Regional President of the Florida West Coast (Tampa to Naples) and Alabama Division after the merger is complete. "Together we will be better able to serve, and expand, our customer relationships in the Tampa Bay and central Alabama areas. Valley has demonstrated professionalism throughout this process, and has remained focused on continuity. We are extremely proud of everyone at USAmeriBank for building a terrific bank and I am convinced this partnership will significantly benefit our stakeholders, banking customers and the communities we serve."

Valley anticipates that the merger with USAB, which will involve changing USAmeriBank's name to Valley National Bank in its Florida and Alabama locations, will be a non-taxable transaction. The combined company is expected to have approximately $28 billion in assets, $21 billion in loans, $21 billion in deposits, and 239 branches across New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Alabama.

The Boards of Directors of both companies, after extensive review and due diligence, have unanimously approved the transaction. The acquisition is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2018, subject to standard regulatory approvals, shareholder approvals from Valley and USAB, as well as other customary conditions.

In connection with this announcement, Valley has commenced a preferred stock offering of approximately $75 million. Inclusive of this offering, Valley anticipates this transaction will be accretive to Valley's per share earnings within 12 months from closing.

Combination of Strong and Well-Capitalized Banks

The transaction with USAB has similar characteristics to prior whole-bank acquisitions undertaken by Valley. Valley has a track record of integrating mergers designed to minimize customer disruption, and deliver profitable growth while maintaining strong credit quality and a well-capitalized balance sheet. Selected data for the combined entity, on a pro-forma basis as of June 30, 2017, include:

Approximately $28 billion in assets

in assets Nearly $21 billion in loans

in loans 239 branches, including 140 in northern and central New Jersey , 38 in Manhattan , Brooklyn , Queens and Long Island , 46 in Florida , and 15 in Alabama

, 38 in , , and , 46 in , and 15 in All regulatory capital ratios will be above the fully phased in Basel III minimum levels including the capital conservation buffer.

Transaction Summary

Under the terms of the definitive agreement signed by the companies, each USAB shareholder will receive 6.1 shares of Valley common stock for each share of USAB common stock if Valley's volume-weighted average closing price during the 30 day trading ending 5 days prior to closing is between $11.50 and $13.00. In the event that the volume-weighted average closing price is less than $11.50, then the exchange ratio shall be $69.00 divided by the volume-weighted average closing price. If Valley's volume-weighted average closing price is greater than $13.00, then the exchange ratio shall be $79.30 divided by the volume-weighted average closing price. Both Valley and USAB have walkaway rights if the volume-weighted average closing price is below $11.00 and USAB has a walkaway right if the volume-weighted average closing price is above $13.50.

Following are selected terms and metrics associated with the transaction based upon current projections, including the impact of the proposed preferred stock offering:

Purchase price represents a fixed 6.1x for 1 exchange ratio (subject to adjustment)

Total transaction value of approximately $816 million

Price to LTM EPS of 16.4x

Price to 2018 EPS + Cost Savings of 11.4x

Price to tangible book value of 2.38x

Tangible book value dilution of 5.5% with an earn-back period of approximately 4.7 years

Anticipated to be accretive to earnings in 2018, including preferred stock issuance

Core deposit premium of 18.2%

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 preferred stock in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Any offering of the preferred stock is being made only by means of a written prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Valley was advised by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., a Stifel Company, MG Advisors, Inc. and the law firm of Day Pitney LLP. USAB was advised by the investment banking firm of Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., Hovde Group, LLC and the law firm of Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP.

Investor Conference Call

Executives from Valley and USAB will host a conference call with investors and the financial community at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time, today to discuss this transaction. Those wishing to participate in the call may dial toll-free (800) 230-1766. Investor presentation materials on this transaction will be made available prior to the conference call at www.valleynationalbank.com.

About Valley

Valley National Bancorp is a regional bank holding company headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey with approximately $23 billion in assets. Its principal subsidiary, Valley National Bank, currently operates over 200 branch locations in northern and central New Jersey, the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, and Florida. Valley National Bank is one of the largest commercial banks headquartered in New Jersey with executive offices in Manhattan and West Palm Beach. Helping communities grow and prosper is the heart of Valley's corporate citizenship philosophy. For more information about Valley National Bank and its products and services, please visit a convenient branch location, www.valleynationalbank.com or call our Customer Service Team at 800-522-4100.

About USAmeriBank

USAmeriBank is an independent, non-public bank based in Clearwater, Florida, that has established itself as an outstanding middle-market financial institution. The bank serves the needs of individuals and businesses in the Tampa Bay area in Florida, and in the Birmingham, Montgomery and Tallapoosa areas in Alabama, by providing a high-level of personalized service and attention to a targeted customer base. USAmeriBank's parent company is USAmeriBancorp, Inc. More information is available at www.USAmeriBank.com.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. In connection with the proposed merger, Valley intends to file a joint proxy statement/prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE ADVISED TO READ THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE, BECAUSE IT WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of the registration statement (when available) and other documents filed by Valley with the Commission at the Commission's website at www.sec.gov. These documents may be accessed and downloaded for free at Valley's website at http://www.valleynationalbank.com/filings.html or by directing a request to Dianne M. Grenz, Senior Executive Vice President, Valley National Bancorp, at 1455 Valley Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07470, telephone (973) 305-3380.

Participants in the Solicitation

This communication is not a solicitation of a proxy from any security holder of Valley or USAB. However, Valley, USAB, their respective directors and executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from USAB's shareholders in respect of the proposed transaction. Information regarding the directors and executive officers of Valley may be found in its definitive proxy statement relating to its 2017 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was filed with the Commission on March 17, 2017 and can be obtained free of charge from Valley's website. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

Forward Looking Statements

The foregoing contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are not historical facts and include expressions about management's confidence and strategies and management's expectations about new and existing programs and products, relationships, opportunities, taxation, technology and market conditions. These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as "expect," "believe," "view," "opportunity," "allow," "continues," "reflects," "typically," "usually," "anticipate," or similar statements or variations of such terms. Such forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: failure to obtain shareholder or regulatory approval for the merger of USAB with Valley or to satisfy other conditions to the merger on the proposed terms and within the proposed timeframe; delays in closing the merger; the inability to realize expected cost savings and synergies from the merger of USAB with Valley in the amounts or in the timeframe anticipated; changes in the estimate of non-recurring charges; the diversion of management's time on issues relating to the merger; costs or difficulties relating to integration matters might be greater than expected; material adverse changes in Valley's or USAB's operations or earnings; an increase or decrease in the stock price of Valley during the 30 day pricing period prior to the closing of the merger which could cause an adjustment to the exchange ratio or give either Valley or USAB the right to terminate the merger agreement under certain circumstances; the inability to retain USAB's customers and employees; or weakness or a decline in the economy, mainly in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Alabama, as well as the risk factors set forth in Valley's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. Valley assumes no obligation for updating any such forward-looking statement at any time.

SOURCE Valley National Bancorp

Related Links

https://www.valleynationalbank.com


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Valpak, a leader in local print and digital coupons, announced today that its Western Washington West territory was acquired by local entrepreneurs Abrann and Sharon Harris. The Valpak franchise has been serving local businesses and residents in the west Washington state area since 1997, and includes Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties. The Harris' plan to mail their first Valpak Blue Envelope of savings in August to approximately 120,000 households.

As a 19-year-old freshman at Central Washington University, Abrann took a side job as a loan officer for a local mortgage company. He assisted in launching the company's new insurance department, kicking off his career in insurance that would span over 20 years. By the time he graduated with his bachelor's in business administration, Abrann owned his own agency. He went on to work for Liberty Mutual and advanced quickly through the ranks and became the company's youngest branch manager. Abrann has successfully led sales and development teams over his tenure in the insurance industry, making him a strong candidate for Valpak franchise ownership. He will be operating the business along with his wife, Sharon.

"Spending my entire professional career in insurance, it has always been my focus to take care of others and the things they love. I plan to utilize my past experience, and translate it to helping local businesses grow and neighborhoods thrive," said Harris. "Valpak provided my wife and I with a turnkey business opportunity, and we are excited to start this next chapter of our lives and build something together."

A leader in cooperative direct mail, Valpak mails coupons to nearly 37 million demographically targeted households per month in 47 states and three Canadian provinces. In addition to its flagship Blue Envelope, Valpak offers its business customers an impressive portfolio of digital advertising products including valpak.com, Smartphone apps, Google partnerships, website development, mobile web optimization, and reputation management.

"Abrann possesses a true entrepreneurial spirit and drive that I know will propel his success in the Western Washington West territory," said Shak Turner, director of franchise sales for Valpak. "We're thrilled to have him and Sharon join Valpak, and expand our presence in the Northwest."

With more than 25 million Americans using couponing apps each month, Valpak's digital offerings have been a big draw for new franchisees. Digital coupon use is on the rise, and ample gains are projected in 2017. In the past year, Valpak's print offerings have also expanded with on-envelope advertising and circulars.

Ideal candidates for Valpak franchise ownership should possess a desire to join a trusted, industry-leading brand, work within a proven franchise system, develop relationships with local businesses and have a comfort level with selling new, digital technologies. Franchisees should also have a minimum liquidity of $75,000, and a minimum net worth of $150,000.

For more information on Valpak franchise opportunities, please contact Shak Turner at [email protected] or 727-399-3091 or visit www.valpakfranchising.com.

About Valpak

Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Valpak is one of the leading direct marketing companies in the U.S. and Canada. We provide print and digital advertising through a network of 150 local franchises. From mailbox to mobile phone, Valpak brings exciting local business offers and opportunities to millions of consumers. Each month, our well-known Blue Envelope of savings is mailed to nearly 37 million demographically targeted households in 47 states and in three Canadian provinces. Our digital suite of products, including valpak.com, reaches more than 110 million users.

CONTACT:

Dave Williams

Valpak

727-319-5443

[email protected]

Caitlin Willard

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE Valpak

Related Links

https://www.valpak.com


ATLANTA, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Venture Atlanta announced today that it will partner with Techstars Atlanta for its 10th Annual Venture Atlanta Conference. With Cox Enterprises as the headline sponsor, the conference will incorporate the Techstars Atlanta Demo Day, featuring presentations from the program's 2017 class of 10 startups.

"We were very pleased with the success of our partnership with Venture Atlanta in 2016," said Techstars Atlanta Managing Director and Venture Atlanta Board Member Michael Cohn. "This collaboration allows investors to see even more startups, increasing the entrepreneurs' opportunities for visibility and growth."

More than 900 tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, premiere investors and key executives from across the country are expected to join the 2017 Venture Atlanta Conference. This year, the event is particularly notable as it marks Venture Atlanta's 10-year anniversary.

"Venture Atlanta and Techstars share a common vision and goal - both are dedicated to fueling our region's most promising tech companies and connecting them with the people and capital they need to be successful," said Allyson Eman, executive director of Venture Atlanta. "Our collaboration last year was a terrific addition to Venture Atlanta, and we are thrilled to once again integrate Techstars Atlanta Demo Day in 2017."

Cox Enterprises is one of Atlanta's leading companies and is a strong supporter of the region's startup community. In addition to Techstars Atlanta, Cox is partnering with other corporations, universities and government organizations to bolster innovation through Engage, The Bridge and Endeavor Atlanta. The company also sponsors ATL Tech Gives Back, an initiative to connect the tech community with each other through volunteerism.

For more information on Venture Atlanta, visit http://www.ventureatlanta.org/.

About Venture Atlanta:

With the shared goal of bringing the premier venture capital event to the state of Georgia each year the Atlanta CEO Council, Metro Atlanta Chamber and Technology Association of Georgia joined forces in 2008 to create the annual nonprofit event, Venture Atlanta. Building off 15 years of success and sold-out crowds, Venture Atlanta, a leading national technology conference and the largest investor showcase in the Southeast. Venture Atlanta is where the region's most promising tech companies meet the country's top-tier investors. Venture Atlanta connects local entrepreneurs with local and national venture capitalists, bankers, angel investors and others who can help them raise the capital they need to grow their businesses. For more information, visit www.ventureatlanta.org.

About Techstars:

Located at Ponce City Market, Techstars Atlanta is presented in partnership with Cox Enterprises, a leading communications, media and automotive services company. Techstars is a global ecosystem that empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market wherever they choose to live. With dozens of mentorship-driven accelerator programs and thousands of community programs worldwide, Techstars exists to support the world's most promising entrepreneurs throughout their lifelong journey, from inspiration to IPO. Techstars provides access to tens of thousands of community leaders, founders, mentors, investors, and corporate partners, allowing entrepreneurs to accelerate the pace of innovation and do more faster. Techstars supports every stage of the entrepreneurial journey  from early stage grassroots community development to more formal opportunities that provide education, experience, acceleration, funding, and beyond.

About Cox Enterprises:

Cox Enterprises is a leading communications, media and automotive services company. With revenues exceeding $20 billion and approximately 60,000 employees, the company's major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications (cable television distribution, high-speed internet access, telephone, home security and automation, commercial telecommunications and advertising solutions); Cox Automotive (automotive-related auctions, financial services, media and software solutions); and Cox Media Group (television and radio stations, digital media, newspapers and advertising sales rep firms). The company's major national brands include Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book and Manheim. Through Cox Automotive, the company's international operations stretch across Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America.

SOURCE Venture Atlanta
LOS ANGELES, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Very Engaging launches its Kickstarter campaign today! This playful and romantic conversation guidebook for couples is the first of its kind. The book set, which includes two complementary books (one for each partner), guides couples through relationship-defining conversation topics with confidence and humor. Today marks the chance for couples worldwide to pre-order their copy and embark on a fun, interactive, and romantic exploration of their relationship!

Navigating big conversation topics can be a challenge for couples at any stage in their relationship. Conversations about relationship-defining topics such money, family, and sex can be difficult to initiate and navigate as they often end in conflict. The Very Engaging book set provides a fresh perspective on how to approach those conversations with a playful tone and design. What makes Very Engaging unique is its ability to 'gamify' deep questions that arise in most romantic relationships with fun, interactive conversation prompts, including drawing activities, fill-in-the-blanks, and guessing games.

The conversation guidebooks are structured into 12 chapters, guiding couples through critical topics such as money, family, and sex. Couples are encouraged to sit down together (with pencils in hand!) and play through a chapter at a time. Every page's purpose is to create a fun and constructive discussion. Very Engaging proves it's never too late to learn something new about yourself, your partner, and your relationship.

"The idea for this book first came to fruition when Les and I were co-workers. At the time, Les was recently married, and I had just gotten engaged. Between our conversations about getting to know our partners, as well as hearing from other friends and co-workers about their pre-marital counseling experiences, we all found common ground in the fact that initiating these big conversations with our partners could be daunting, intimidating, and downright awkward at times. We wanted to create a fun, approachable way for couples to stimulate meaningful and fruitful conversations," said Charly Ligety, Co-Author of Very Engaging.

"The $50 billion wedding industry is largely focused on that one day, and often geared toward females. We wanted to provide something that also spoke to men and harnessed the same fun energy as the wedding day, while helping couples really navigate the nuances and challenges of marriage beyond saying 'I do.' We also noticed there was a lack of meaningful engagement gifts on the market. You get items like candles and picture frames, but nothing that is actually going to help you become a better partner," said Les Starck, Co-Author of Very Engaging.

Charly and Les have been researching and writing Very Engaging since early 2016. Charly and Les have worked alongside several marriage and family therapists and dozens of couples in all stages of relationships in developing the conversation activities. Every page has been tested and reiterated hundreds of times to ensure every conversation activity successfully creates a playful and romantic experience.

The Kickstarter is live today and running for the next month through August 27th, 2017. This is a unique opportunity to be part of the Very Engaging movement and be one of the first backers of this innovative take on an age-old problem. Very Engaging can benefit couples in all stages of relationships and makes for a great engagement, wedding, or anniversary gift. The book set is available in standard packaging and special gift packaging. In addition to pre-ordering the book set, 12 lucky backers will have the opportunity to have their name written into one of the book's conversation activities. You can learn more about the exciting ways to support this project by visiting Very Engaging on Kickstarter.com.

About Very Engaging:

Very Engaging is a playful and romantic conversation guidebook for dating, engaged, & recently married couples. Authors Charly Ligety and Les Starck have been working on the book since early 2016. While the inception of Very Engaging derives from their own personal relationship experiences, the content of the books has been developed and honed alongside several marriage and family therapists and in-depth interviews with dozens of dating, engaged, and recently married couples from around the country. Many of those couple's stories of challenging conversations, funny quirks, and romantic moments have greatly influenced the overall structure and narrative of the books. For more information, visit www.VeryEngaging.com, email [email protected], or follow Very Engaging on Instagram at @veryengaging. To pre-order your copy, visit Kickstarter.com.

About the Authors:

Charly Ligety is currently a graduate student at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business where he is focusing bringing innovative and meaningful products to market. Prior to writing Very Engaging and going to business school, Charly worked in commercial real estate finance in Los Angeles, CA. Charly lives in Santa Monica with his wonderful wife, Carley, who has been patient enough to play through many iterations of the book over the past year. A native of Park City, UT, Charly received his BA from Dartmouth College in 2009.

Les Starck currently works for a national bank as a private banker. Prior to his current role, Les and Charly worked together in the same commercial real estate office in Los Angeles, CA. Les lives in Los Angeles with his supportive wife, Ashley, who has been generous enough to lend out her husband for many late nights writing the book with Charly. A native of Reston, VA, Les received his BA from University of Southern California in 2009.

PR Contact:

Jennifer Buonantony

Press Pass LA for Very Engaging

[email protected]

323-496-1976

Related Links

Very Engaging Website

Kickstarter Campaign

SOURCE Very Engaging

Related Links

https://www.veryengaging.com


"There is nothing more beautiful than wearing something that makes you feel like you, and that's what WallFlower makes me feel like. So comfortably and fashionably me!" says Auli'i Cravalho. "WallFlower caters to many different styles, tastes, shapes and sizes and I appreciate it because I'm changing, and I am so grateful that the brand changes as well."

The Fall'17 collection places an emphasis on "Buy Now, Wear Now" and "curating your own closet." The newest offering includes a line of denim with adjustable hems, giving customers the ability to alternate their own denim lengths. These adjustable ankle lengths create versatility between seasons, allowing customers to transition the same pair of jeans from Fall to Spring. Other key design elements for Fall 2017 include unique hem treatments, embellishments, destructed denim and velvet and plush sleeved jackets. Additional offerings for Fall include tops, dresses, footwear, hosiery, handbags, jewelry, intimates, and sleepwear, as well as cold weather accessories. Swimwear will be added for Spring 2018.

"These new offerings are a direct result from the brand's commitment to listening to our customers," says Nathan C. Mamiye, President of WallFlower Jeans. "We're always striving to improve our brand and will continue to evolve to provide more; more accessibility, more affordability and more quality. With that said, we are very excited to be working with Auli'i as her drive and strong-will is very synergistic with the brand."

The Fall campaign continues to capture the exuberance of the coming of age and transformation in style that is at the heart of the WallFlower brand. Launching with a Back-to-School sweepstakes celebrating Auli'i as the new brand ambassador, #FeelingIt will encourage consumers to find their own style. Inspiration from coveted fashion influencers on how to style key WallFlower pieces will also be shared on brand social platforms.

Follow WallFlower Jeans and Auli'i on social media as she encourages fans to push beyond their limits through fashion and creativity. To stay up to date on the latest news and get fashion inspiration, follow @wallflower on Instagram and @WallFlowerJeans on Facebook and Twitter.

WallFlower is available online at www.wallflowerjeans.com and most department stores, and specialty stores across the U.S. such as Kohl's, Meijer, Fred Meyer, Bon-Ton, Shopko, Stage Stores, JCPenney and Von Maur.

ABOUT WALLFLOWER JEANS:

WallFlower Jeans, a division of Mamiye Brothers, is a lifestyle brand that provides stylish looks from head-to-toe at an exceptional value. The brand offers fits from Classic and Curvy, from size 0 to Plus Size in a variety of washes. In addition to denim, they offer tops, dresses, outerwear, loungewear, sleepwear and intimate apparel and jewelry. The brand is rooted in quality and comfort while delivering fresh, fun styles through a culture of innovation. WallFlower Jeans is available at most major department and specialty stores as well as online at www.wallflowerjeans.com. Previous WallFlower girls have included the likes of Katherine McNamara, MyLifeAsEva, Oliva Holt, Bella Thorne and Sarah Hyland.

ABOUT MAMIYE BROTHERS:

Mamiye Brothers is America's premier designer, manufacturer and marketer of Children's, Junior, and Missy fashion apparel brands. Established in 1947, Mamiye is known for its outstanding reputation for product quality and consistency, corporate integrity, fashion sense and keen management. Supported by a team of skilled professionals, Mamiye Brothers manages a comprehensive portfolio of the most renowned and sought after evergreen global brands. A complete list of brands and company overview can be found at www.mamiye.com.

ABOUT AULI'I CRAVALHO:

Auli'i Cravalho first garnered notoriety with her breakout role as "Moana" in Walt Disney Animation Studios' hit feature MOANA. The 16-year-old native Hawaiian is the voice of the determined and fearless lead character in the animated comedy adventure, which is directed by animation greats John Musker and Ron Clements ("The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "The Princess and the Frog"). Right off the success of the hit feature film, Auli'i continued to impress audiences around the world with her show-stopping performance at the 2017 Oscars, where she took the stage alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda to perform "How Far I'll Go," her signature song from "Moana."

Auli'i is going to be one of the stars of primetime television's newest series, "RISE," from Jason Katims and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller airing mid-season on NBC.

SOURCE The Mamiye Group

Related Links

http://www.mamiye.com


Mumbai, July 24 : Healthy quarterly results, coupled with intense buying activity witnessed in index heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL), ITC and Infosys, lifted the key Indian equity indices -- the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty -- to record highs on Monday.

The wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 51.15 points, or 0.52 per cent, to close at a fresh high of 9,966.40 points, after it touched a record high of 9,982.05 points during intra-day trade.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, too, closed at a new high of 32,245.87 points -- up 216.98 points, or 0.68 per cent. It touched a record intra-day high of 32,320.86 points.

However, the BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,413 declines and 1,303 advances.

In terms of the broader markets, the BSE mid-cap and small-cap index both rose by 0.27 per cent.

"Markets began the week on a positive note as it surged higher to close at new highs despite softness in Europe. The gains in the Nifty were supported by impressive gains in index pivotals HDFC Bank, RIL, ITC and Infosys," Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"A latest report from the International Monetary Fund, in which it projected India's growth at 7.7 per cent in 2018 helped sentiments. The reported comments by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya that India is likely to clock a 7.5 per cent economic growth in FY2018 also helped," Jasani added.

On the currency front, the rupee strengthened by nine paise to 64.34-35 to a US dollar from its previous close at 64.43-44.

In investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold scrips worth Rs 366.84 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 668.87 crore.

According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, the benchmark indices settled the day on record closing highs as investors remained optimistic on June corporate results.

"Markets also shrugged off the global weakness with Asian markets ending mixed. Nifty50 index closed at less than 50 points away from hitting the crucial 10,000-mark," Desai said.

"The rally was broad-based as more than 100 stocks on the BSE surged to fresh 52-week highs on the BSE which include names like Sundaram Finance, RIL, HCL Technologies, Saregama, Wipro, Hindalco, Tinplate, Manappuram Finance, and Jindal Saw, among others."

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE banking index rose by 138.56 points, the IT index by 107.96 points and the FMCG index by 96.36 points.

On the other hand, the S&P BSE metal index fell by 70.28 points, the healthcare index by 62.75 points and the realty index by 4.01 points.

Major Sensex gainers on Monday were: Bharti Airtel, up 2.20 per cent at Rs 420.20; RIL, up 1.89 per cent at Rs 1,616.10; Wipro, up 1.89 per cent at Rs 291.80; HDFC Bank, up 1.83 per cent at Rs 1,734.55; and Tata Consultancy Services, up 1.68 per cent at Rs 2,532.65.

Major Sensex losers were: Dr. Reddy's Lab, down 2.44 per cent at Rs 2,692.40; Axis Bank, down 1.09 per cent at Rs 534.30; Tata Steel, down 0.93 per cent at Rs 547.45; Sun Pharma, down 0.92 per cent at Rs 571.30; and ONGC, down 0.82 per cent at Rs 163.20.
Cartagena (Colombia), July 24 : He's known as the Father of Trees. He's a Franciscan missionary and believes in practising what he preaches.

His roots are in Germany but he has been planting trees in Kenya for the past three decades. In fact, he has planted himself firmly in a small Kenyan district by growing more than one million trees.

These trees, in the Subukia Valley in the mid-western Nakuru county, are now fully grown and have helped not only in reviving local precipitation and natural water channels but have also stopped the migration of the locals.

Meet Hermann Borg, the founder of Mother Earth Network -- a group that is aiming to strengthen environmental conservation issues in Kenya by creating awareness, capacity building and conservation through tree planting.

"I have invested just 50,000 dollars in planting one million saplings in the past 30 years. These trees are now worth more than five million dollars," Borg told this visiting IANS correspondent.

He was honoured by the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) at the inaugural of its five-day 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2017) for forest conservation and community empowerment in Kenya.

With more than 2,000 conservation professionals and students gathered here, ICCB 2017 is the major networking event in conservation of biodiversity.

Recounting his achievements that started by involving local communities in 1983 in Subukia, which was once a barren rocky land with no tree cover, the elated missionary said: "Now I can say proudly that after 30 years of planting trees, the situation is different."

"The hills are green again with trees growing bigger and taller. Natural water channels are back as precipitation has spiked -- almost doubled. So is the noticeable increase in groundwater."

According to him, for the livestock there is sufficient fodder to feed. Crop production has revived. Annual precipitation in the area has doubled to over 500 mm from the earlier 250 mm.

"And this happens only by involving the local communities, who were encouraged to mitigate climate change impacts by planting trees," he added.

Borg, who is known by his nickname 'Baba Miti' in the local dialect, meaning 'Father of Trees', said that when he came to Subukia there was no school and locals were migrating to other areas owing to the barren land.

"Now the migration is almost negligible. Now Subukia has a secondary school too. In fact, those people who have migrated earlier have now come back and they are prosperous owing to the good crop yield. Locals are earning from timber," he said.

Still, the locals are planting 30,000 saplings every year around schools and in slum areas.

"The sapling survival rate is more than 90 per cent. The only reason for such a high survival rate is that the locals themselves are nurturing each and every sapling they are planting," he said.

A jovial Borg believes climate change is the real threat globally and efforts are needed to mitigate and adapt to its effects.

His Mother Earth Network has plans to expand tree planting and conservation initiatives to the neighbouring countries of Uganda and Tanzania.

(Vishal Gulati is in Cartagena for the Internews' Earth Journalism Network Biodiversity Fellowship Programme at the International Congress for Conservation Biology. He can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
New Delhi : An ambitious plan to reduce the dependence of India's coal-fired power plants on freshwater has stalled in its starting blocks. The policy for some plants to use treated sewage water, introduced last year, is impractical and economically non-viable, according to a recent report.

A severe drought in 2016 forced several coal plants to shut down, causing the loss of nearly 11 billion units (kWH) of power -- and an estimated potential revenue of $560 million -- between January and July 2016. The energy ministry, through a government notification in January 2016, made it mandatory for all thermal power within 50 kilometres of a sewage treatment plant to use treated wastewater in their operations.

Only eight per cent of all coal plants in India are able to completely meet their water needs in this way, according to the Greenpeace report, "Pipe Dreams". Some five per cent of plants can partially satisfy their water needs through treated sewage, but a staggering 87 per cent of India's 200 gigawatt coal power plants cannot follow the policy because they have no access to treated sewage water. The report also states that less than 11 per cent of total treated sewage water can be used by thermal power plants.

India relies heavily on conventional sources of energy, with thermal power contributing a major proportion of all the electricity produced in the country. Acute shortages of water around power plants impacts the power output. The country intends to generate as much as 56.5 per cent of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2027.

Coal-fired power plants are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. They use water to run turbines and for cooling, which account for 80 per cent of the total consumption. Some 3.5 litres of water are needed to produce one unit of energy and, across India, coal power plants use an estimated 4.6 billion cubic metres of freshwater per year, enough to meet the basic needs of 250 million people.

Using treated wastewater -- rather than untreated or saline water that can corrode turbines or generate biological growths that clog the machinery -- would be one way for the coal industry to decrease its use of precious freshwater reserves. But sewage treatment facilities are mostly built in urban areas, away from power plants. The states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, for example, jointly produce 77 gigawatts of coal power but can only supply enough treated sewage water to generate 1.5 gigawatts.

"To claim that the use of sewage would solve coal power's water problem would be like claiming a drop of water will save a man dying of thirst," said Jai Krishna, researcher and author of the report.

In addition to the billions needed to invest in treatment facility infrastructure, the report claims that coal plants that can viably use wastewater will see water costs soar by at least 300 per cent -- a financial burden that would be passed on to customers. Taking treated sewage water out of the local ecosystem is also detrimental to downstream water flows.

In addition, states the Greenpeace report, the use of sewage to meet coal power plants' cooling needs will not resolve the conflict over water between thermal power plants and farmers and urban communities.

In March 2016, the 1,700 MW Raichur thermal power station in the Krishna River basin was closed for several days due to water shortages. Farmers in the region and the neighbouring Mahbubnagar district protested when water was provided to the plant at the cost of drinking water for downstream populations.

The effect of low water levels was felt dramatically when the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), India's largest power generation company, stopped production at its 2,100 megawatt Farakka plant in West Bengal. Water levels from the Farakka feeder canal (originating from the Ganga) to the power plant declined to such an extent that the plant was forced to switch off its 500-megawatt sixth unit, the only one still producing electricity up to the beginning of March.

The report concludes that switching from freshwater to treated sewage water will not reduce the impact of coal power plants on India's water scarcity.

"A more effective solution to the water conflict would be to phase out old, inefficient power plants, which tend to consume the most water and emit the most pollutants, while also halting permits for new coal power plants," Krishna said.

(In arrangement with thethirdpole.net. Views expressed are those of the web site. Feedback at information@thethirdpole.net)
New Delhi, July 25 : In their quest to become digital, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) need to adopt strong tech-enabled business models and processes to make them more efficient and achieve global competitiveness, says a top SAP India executive.

At a time when large corporates as well as MSMEs are seeking to accelerate their digital growth journeys, these firms have to excel in three areas: access, enablement and affordability.

The SME sector is the fastest growth driver for SAP globally. From over 8,800 SAP customers in the subcontinent, over 6,700 companies are SMEs.

"To help MSMEs transform digitally, we have signed a MoU with the Ministry of MSME to launch "Bharat ERP", a programme to empower MSMEs with next-generation technologies," Deb Deep Sengupta, President and Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent, told IANS.

In this programme, MSMEs will receive training and enablement courses on SAP 'Business One' solution -- an all-in-one enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

MSMEs will have access to cutting edge, next-generation technology from SAP that can streamline and integrate key processes such as financials, sales, inventory and more -- with a single business software.

"Bharat ERP initiative aims to empower 30,000 MSMEs and youth in three years," Sengupta added.

Started in 1996, SAP India with over 11,000 employees is the second-largest subsidiary and one of the fastest-growing companies within SAP worldwide.

Headquartered in Germany, the multinational software corporation -- that develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations -- has a presence in eight Indian cities and spends over 13.8 per cent of its total revenue on research and development.

SAP has more than 600 partners in various geographies, including Global Service Partners like Wipro, TCS, HCL, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Larson and Toubro.

Ranked 11th in India's 'Best Companies to Work in 2017' by Great Places to Work Institute, Sap India recently launched a 'Code Unnati' programme to bridge the digital skill gap in the country.

"Our ability to tap into the digital opportunity can get impeded by a shortfall in skill development and employment creation. SAP's 'Code Unnati' initiative is envisioned to bridge this digital skill gap and assist the government in achieving its vision for digital literacy," Sengupta noted.

'Code Unnati' is designed to serve as a collaborative platform for the private sector to join forces and work towards enabling India's youth for New Age jobs, thereby increasing their employability.

SAP's role is to provide technology infrastructure, expertise on course curriculum, delivery mechanisms and educators.

"Our aim is to accelerate India's digital plan of enabling 60 million citizens on digital technologies by 2019," Sengupta said.

With the GST rollout, a major hurdle is crossed. "The impact of GST has resulted in a strong push towards India becoming a formalised economy. We believe that GST adoption is not a tax problem but rather an opportunity to digitise by embracing technology," the executive told IANS.

Toward this, SAP India has launched 'GST in a Box' and 'Digital Compliance Service for GST,' which is a Cloud-based online application.

According to Sengupta, the effects of GST on organisations will be in three stages. In stage one, the compliance, transparency and leakages will be avoided.

"In stage two, there will be improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain. These two stages will then lead to the third stage, that is, improvement in customer experiences because at the end of the day, that's the real impact which most companies are looking for," Sengupta emphasised.

Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning in a Cloud-based environment is the key today.

"A great example of this is the recently launched 'SAP Leonardo', a digital innovation system and enablement network that helps organisations integrate and leverage emerging technologies such as IoT, blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data," Sengupta said.

When it comes to data security, SAP India believes companies should codify and protect their intellectual property (IP) and core competencies.

SAP closely follows and complies with the German Federal Data Protection Act.

"We have an excellent track record of safeguarding businesses against the evolving IT threat landscape. Our customers are assured that their mission-critical data is well-protected from all types of attacks -- whether it is stored on-premise or on the SAP Cloud," Sengupta added.

(Nishant Arora can be contatced at nishant.a@ians.in)
New Delhi : Indian household savings patterns have been witnessing some massive structural shifts of late. Households in India have historically been quite risk-averse and wary of investing their savings into risky assets. A pursuit of safe bets has always driven India towards making investments in unproductive assets like gold. This pattern is slowly changing over time, especially since demonetisation in November 2016.

In the last decade and a half ending March 2016, as the GDP grew from Rs 0.23 lakh crore to Rs 1.36 lakh crore, household savings as a ratio of GDP had fallen from 22 percent to 19 percent. At the same time, financial savings as a percentage of household savings has fallen from 45 to 40 percent. Thus, not only had household savings been falling, the rate of financial savings as a proportion of overall savings was also coming down. The allure of physical assets had been increasing.

However, post demonetisation, a non-linear shift towards savings in financial assets has been noticed for Indian households. This is evident from the market performance between October 2016 and January 2017 after foreign investors had withdrawn Rs 39,979 crore from Indian equities. Such a significant withdrawal a few years ago would have resulted in a market rout. But this time, the stock markets barely saw a dip of one percent in the four-month period. This is because as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) exited Indian markets, domestic institutions stepped in to compensate with matching purchases of Rs 39,823 crores.

Mutual funds have been the highest contributory factor to this trend of a domestic move towards higher savings in financial assets. According to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) data, net inflows in 2016-17 have reached Rs 3.43 trillion, which is an astounding 155 percent rise from Rs 1.33 trillion in 2015-16 and the highest ever for the mutual funds industry in India. Interestingly, retail investors have driven this expansion as much as conventional corporate treasuries. This implies a growing proportion of household savings being diverted into mutual funds.

One of the major driving force behind the rising clout of mutual fund has been the growing popularity of systematic investment plans (SIPs). AMFI data shows that monthly inflow though SIPs in April 2017 was Rs 4,269 crores as compared to Rs 980 crores per month in 2012. SIPs allow investors to make regular investments in small amounts that go into equities instead of making lump sum investments at various points in time. Post-demonetisation, this seems to be an appealing alternative than holding cash or investing in assets like gold and real estate for the risk-averse households across India.

The shift in preferences of Indian households towards financial assets is bound to have a few positive outcomes for the Indian economy. First, as already witnessed, higher domestic investment is making Indian equity markets less vulnerable to foreign fund flows. With mutual funds owning more than 10 percent of the freely tradable shares by value and insurers another 8-9 per cent, domestic institutions command more than half the market clout of foreign investors, who own about 40 per cent of the shares. This makes Indian markets highly resilient to sudden pull-outs by the latter.

Second, the growing popularity of instruments like SIP is bringing stability in domestic investment patterns as well. Since SIP allows investors to instruct banks to invest a fixed amount each month, the short-termism in investor behaviour has been eliminated. It takes away the temptation to closely watch markets and impulsively react to its ups and downs. This also leaves domestic mutual fund managers with funds to spare at all times in a significant break from the past.

When markets depended on lump sum investments, these investors were usually flush with cash during bull runs and short of it in bad times. They would, thus, be left with no option but to buy at highs and sell at lows adding adversely to the market frenzy. Therefore, market stability is ensured in two ways with a growing preference for financial assets; by acting as a cushion to the volatility of foreign investments and by bringing in maturity in domestic investment patterns.

However, mutual funds are far from being the go-to investment option for Indians. In FY16, MFs accounted for merely 2 percent of the gross financial savings while bank accounts stood at 44 percent and provident funds and insurance at 36 percent. Thus, the potential for growth of financial assets in India is massive. But, that growth will depend on the pace of growing affluence of Indian households since individuals living at subsistence level cannot be expected to invest in risky assets. Nevertheless, the changing pattern of money flows in the Indian equity markets point to a promising future for domestic investors. As John Maynard Keynes famously said: "The importance of money flows is a link between the present and the future."

(Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Chirag Yadav has researcher, Institute for Competitiveness, India has contributed to the article.)
Dehradun, July 26 : Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat led the hill state on Wednesday in paying rich tributes to the Kargil martyrs on Vijay Diwas here.

Accompanied by state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt, legislator Khajan Das, Mayor Vinod Chamoli and retired Army officials, Rawat paid homage at the Kargil Martyrs Memorial at Gandhi Park here.

The day, also marked as Shaurya Diwas, commemorates the soldiers who laid their lives during the Kargil War.

Rawat remembered their bravery and sacrifice, and said in very tough and testing terrain the Indian Army had kept the Tricolor flying high.

Many from Uttarakhand had also lost their lives in the line of duty during the Kargil War.

The Army had also organised an event at the Lal Gate at Garhi Cantt on the occasion of the Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Many senior Army officials paid tributes to their men, who were martyred during the Kargil War. Families of these martyrs were also honoured on the occasion.
New Delhi, July 26 : A court here on Wednesday sent Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, arrested on charges of money laundering, to seven days custody with the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the agency to quiz Shah for a week. Shah, arrested on Tuesday by the ED in the Kashmir Valley, was then flown to New Delhi on Wednesday.

Police sources said ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court.

Shah was shifted from his uptown Sant Nagar residence in Srinagar to a police station in Badgam district on Tuesday evening after his arrest.

"The arrest followed disclosures by hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani, who admitted having passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah," an informed source said.

Seven other separatist leaders, arrested on Monday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), were produced before the designated NIA court in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The court remanded them in NIA custody for 10 days for interrogation over allegations that they got funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley.
New Delhi, July 26 : The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Shabir Shah -- one of the founders of Kashmiri separatism -- as part of the government's crack-down on separatists for allegedly receiving money from Pakistan to finance terror activities in the Kashmir Valley.

Shah, who was taken into custody on money laundering charges on Tuesday evening from his residence in upscale Sanat Nagar neighbourhood in Srinagar, was brought on Wednesday afternoon to Delhi where a court allowed the Enforcement Directorate to question him for seven days in its custody.

Police sources in Srinagar said ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court.

The arrest followed disclosures by hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani that he had passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah, officials said.

Shah, 64, the founding chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), was earlier associated with the Jammu and Kashmir People's League -- a political outfit that seeks Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

He broke ranks with the League in the late 1990s to form the Democratic Freedom Party that fights for right to self-determination.

Shah's DFP is also part of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Shabir Shah is considered one of the masterminds of anti-India Kashmir separatist war and has spent much of his life behind the bars even before militancy erupted in the state in the late 1980s.

He went underground in 1988 and 1989 and was accused of giving directions to the Kashmir secessionist movement before he was arrested in August 1989. He was also accused of stoking the 2008 Amarnath land agitation and the 2010 Kashmir unrest.

Over the past 29 years of separatist campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah has often been accused of accumulating huge wealth through various sources, including the hawala channels.

The freshh allegations relate to an August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested Wani, an alleged hawala dealer.

Wani has admitted that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against both.

The arrest is part of the wider crackdown against Kashmiri separatists.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also arrested seven other leaders. They have been remanded in NIA custody for 10 days for interrogation over allegations that they got funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley.
New Delhi, July 26 : The suspense over the 39 missing Indians in Iraq continued on Wednesday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asserting that it was "sin" to presume without any proof that they were dead.

"Declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and I won't commit that sin," Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha, after Opposition members accused her of "misleading the House" on the missing Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab.

The Indians labourers were reported missing in June 2014 in Mosul, an Islamic State-held territory that was liberated recently by Iraqi forces. The abducted workers were working in a construction company near Mosul when militants captured the Iraqi city.

Some relatives of the missing people in Amritsar have said they received phone calls from some of the workers five days after Mosul was captured.

Sushma Swaraj said she has asked the Iraq government to give India an update with evidence on what happened to the missing Indians.

She said Harjit Masih, who was part of the group abducted by Islamic State militants but had escaped, claimed that the Indians were shot dead in a forest in Mosul, but no bodies or evidence had so far been found.

"After listening to the story, I told the (Indian) embassy to search the whole of Mosul, and around, you will find the 39 bodies somewhere, or blood stains would be there. I also said the ISIS has a habit of issuing lists if they kill many people of a country.

"We did not find any bodies, list, video or any photo. I thought we should at least search for them," she said.

The Minister said that while Masih has said they were dead, at least "six sources" have maintained that they may be alive.

She said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.

The Minister said that all the information was culled from different sources and there was no evidence to support any of the claims.

Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the Minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians.

She, however, said that in all her meetings with the families of the missing people, she has always made it clear that there was no evidence about their being alive, just as there was no evidence that they were dead.

"I have suggested that the prison warden (of Badush jail) should be contacted, they may have a list. Otherwise, there will be bodies, are the bodies in shape to carry out a DNA test," she said.

The Minister said that in a war there are four categories of people -- the Prisoners of War, the missing, those killed and those believed to be killed. She said there have been cases of people who were believed to be killed but were found alive several years later.

"The file will not be closed till there is concrete evidence," the Minister added.

Earlier, Sushma Swaraj faced ruckus in the House from opposition members, mostly from the Congress, as she was about to speak.
New Delhi, July 26 : India on Wednesday described as "ambiguous" the "sources" of a report from international NGO Reporters Without Borders that ranks India 136th in global media freedom index, three points down from last year.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir also told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the report's sampling was "random".

The Paris-based body ranked 180 countries according to the level of freedom available to journalists.

"The Press Council of India and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have taken note of the report of Reporters Without Borders and found out that (its) sources in India are ambiguous and the sampling is quite random in nature which does not portray a proper and comprehensive picture of freedom of the press in India," Ahir said.

The report blamed the rise of Hindu nationalism for the three notch drop in India's ranking.

"With Hindu nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of anti-national thought from the national debate, self-censorship is growing in the mainstream media," the report said.

It said that journalists were "increasingly the targets of online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals".

It said it was increasingly difficult for journalists to report from sensitive zones, such as Kashmir, where reporters were targets of violence from both sides of the conflict.

On providing compensation to journalists who are victims of violence, the minister said the employers were "competent to give compensation to their employees".

Ahir said the responsibility to maintain law and order and protect life and property of citizens "including journalists" rested primarily with state governments.
Kolkata : Kolkata July 26 (IANS) Claiming that the lower catchment areas of her state are inundated every year by the water released from dams, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged the central government to revamp the Damodar Valley Corporation by cleaning and dredging its barrages.

"We are repeatedly asking the central government to clean and dredge the old barrages of DVC since 2012. The capacity of these barrages have reduced due to sedimentation. Therefore, the dams that should be able to contain another two lakh cusecs of water, are not able to do so. I think the central government should take initiatives to revamp the DVC," Banerjee said.

"If the lands get waterlogged due to rainfall the it can be attributed to natural calamity. But our some parts of our state gets further inundated due to the water released from some barrages every year," she added.

Expressing alarm about the current situation in various parts in the state that are waterlogged since the last few days, Banerjee said at least two to three districts might go underwater due to the massive amount of water released from the dams.

"Nearly one lakh cusecs water has been released today from different dams in the state, starting from Telipara bridge, Durgapur barrage to DVC. Two to three districts would go under water because of this. Parts of Howrah, Hoogly, West Midnapore and Birbhum will be further inundated," she said.

She claimed that the central government should start the dredging at places like Farraka barrage and ports of Kolkata and Haldia to stop this flooding every year.

"Farraka is not dredged. As a result Bihar faces problems when the water there overflows. No dredging is done in Kolkata port, Haldia port and Ganga river bed either. If this was done, the state would not have suffered every year like this," she added.

The DVC has released two lakh cusec water in the last three days from its Panchet dam and has issued a flood warning report on Wednesday.

Claiming that the water pressure to have increased in the dam due to the massive rainfall in Jharkhand, a DVC official said it has no alternative but to release water.

"Water has been released from Galudi and Tenughat dams following heavy rainfall in Jharkhand. As a result of it, pressure on Panchet dam keep on increasing and once the maximum capacity of the dam exceeds, there was no alternative but to release water," a DVC spokesperson told IANS.

Refuting the Bengal government's allegation that DVC is not adhering to its proposal of not releasing the water from the dams for the next few days, the official said the decisions are taken by Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC) that has central government as well as the state government representatives.

"The commission comprises representatives from central government, West Bengal and Jharkhand government and also from DVC. The commission takes the decision of releasing of water depending on the situation. The DVC has no role in releasing water," he said.
Cairo, July 26 : The Egyptian government has welcomed the ceasefire and other steps towards a political solution in war-torn Libya agreed by its rival governments at a meeting in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting between Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, a powerful military strongman based in the east, was "an additional step towards reaching a comprehensive solution in Libya", Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Egypt "also lauded" the two rival Libyan leaders' "commitment to preserving Libya's unity and territorial integrity and to counter-terrorism", the ministry stated.

"Egypt, in cooperation with friendly countries, will continue its efforts in support of the political solution in Libya... to fulfil the aspiration of the Libyan people in restoring stability and starting the reconstruction phase," the statement concluded.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and most of French military back Haftar, who has shown little commitment to power sharing and his forces of been accused of human rights violations.

Besides the truce, Sarraj and Haftar agreed on Tuesday to hold elections next year on an unspecified date and to refrain from any use of armed force other than for counter-terrorism. They also committed to "building the rule of law" in the chaos-wracked country where a myriad of armed groups have tried to fill a vacuum left by the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Tuesday's joint statement and the call for fresh elections signals that Sarraj's Government of National Accord has failed to unify the country since it was established in 2015 and appears to offer more to Haftar than Serraj, who has been unable to impose his authority in Libya, according to observers.

The talks, convened by Macron and chaired by the new UN envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, have caused some consternation in Italy, which has previously seen oil-rich Libya -- a former Italian colony -- as its diplomatic preserve.

It was the second time in three months that Sarraj and Haftar met after they held talks in Abu Dhabi in May but failed to agree on a joint statement.
New Delhi, July 26 : Dissatisfied with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh's reply on a discussion on the agrarian crisis and farmers' suicides in the country, the entire opposition on Wednesday walked out of the Rajya Sabha.

The opposition members, mainly Congress member Digvijaya Singh and Nationalist Congress Party member Praful Patel, accused the minister of just giving out statistics that were already in the public domain and skirting the main issue.

After Radha Mohan Singh started talking about various schemes, the opposition members asked him to speak about the ongoing farmers' suicides in the country.

The Rajya Sabha had been discussing the agrarian crisis and farmers' distress in the country since Tuesday.

After listing positive results that various schemes yielded, the Agriculture Minister said the National Crime Record Bureau's report showed that farmers' suicide constituted just 8-10 per cent of the total suicide cases in the country.

Subsequently, Digvijaya Singh asked the minister: "Your schemes are very good and you have allotted enough funds. We know it. But tell us why farmers are agitating? Why are they committing suicides?"

Even Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked Radha Mohan Singh several times during his long-winded reply -- that went on for over an hour -- to conclude as the Upper House had to take up other listed business.

However, the minister did not pay heed to the Chair's repeated reminders and continued with his reply.

"How much more time (do) you want to take? Please conclude," Kurien repeatedly told the minister.

The opposition walked out in protest even as the minister continued with his reply.

At the end of the minister's reply, Digvijaya Singh, who had initiated the short discussion on the agrarian crisis, dared Radha Mohan Singh to go and give the same speech in front of the farmers protesting at Jantar Mantar here.
New Delhi, July 26 : Nitish Kumar, who on Wednesday resigned as Bihar Chief Minister and dumped the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, will be sworn-in again as new Chief Minister on Thursday, informed sources said.

They said that Nitish Kumar will take oath with at least 27 ministers at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

BJP sources also said Union Minister J.P. Nadda and BJP General Secretary Anil Jain will visit Patna on Thursday as observers to attend the BJP legislature party meeting.

Nitish Kumar, whose resignation was immediately accepted by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday in which Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as Deputy Chief Minister.

Sources said that the NDA and JD-U will have 14 ministers each in the new government.
Kolkata : Kolkata July 26 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded the central government immediately "revamp" the Damodar Valley Corporation, holding it responsible for the flood-like situation in her rain-hit state.

The DVC however held that it has "no role" in releasing water as the decision is made by Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC) that has central government as well as the state government representatives.

"We are repeatedly asking the central government to clean and dredge the old barrages of DVC since 2012. The capacity of these barrages have reduced due to sedimentation. Therefore, the dams that should be able to contain another two lakh cusecs of water, are not able to do so. I think the central government should take initiatives to revamp the DVC.

"If the lands get waterlogged due to rainfall the it can be attributed to natural calamity. But our some parts of our state gets further inundated due to the water released from some barrages every year," Banerjee said.

Expressing alarm about the current situation in various parts in the state that are waterlogged since the last few days, she said at least two to three districts might go underwater due to the massive amount of water released from the dams.

She demanded the central government should start dredging at places like Farraka barrage and ports of Kolkata and Haldia to stop this flooding every year.

"Farraka is not dredged. As a result Bihar faces problems when the water there overflows. No dredging is done in Kolkata port, Haldia port and Ganga river bed either. If this was done, the state would not have suffered every year like this," she added.

The DVC has released two lakh cusec water in the last three days from its Panchet dam and has issued a flood warning report on Wednesday.

Claiming that the water pressure to have increased in the dam due to the massive rainfall in Jharkhand, a DVC official told IANS that it has no alternative but to release water.

Refuting the Bengal government's allegation that DVC is not adhering to its proposal of not releasing the water from the dams for the next few days, the official said the decisions are taken by the DVRRC which has both central and state government representatives.

The official said as on 9.13 pm on Wednesday, cumulatively, total water released from Panchet dam was 2, 25,000 cusecs.

"Additional 1,05,000 cusecs water was released today (Wednesday)," a DVC official said.

Bengal Irrigation Minister Rajib Banerjee said: "We have been requesting the Tenughat barrage authority to gradually bring down the level of water from June. Water released from Jharkhand is aggravating the situation here. We had submitted a detailed project report for the flood management in the lower Damodar catchment area to the Centre in 2015 but not a single penny was received by us.a Birbhum, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Bankura and Howrah are the worst affected districts.

The minister also informed the situation in districts like Bankura is improving whereas the condition in districts like Hooghly could worsen if DVC doesn't pay heed to the state's requests. He said around 200 families are trapped in Murshidabad's Bharatpur and the process of distributing relief and food has been initiated.

State Agriculture Minister Purnendu Bose toured some of the flood-hit areas to assess the damage to crops.
Rome, July 26 : Italian police on Wednesday arrested an alleged Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta boss accused of ordering bomb attacks on police in Reggio Calabria in 1994 that killed one officer and gravely injured two others.

Police said the arrest of Rocco Santo Filippone shed new light on the mafia's deadly bombing campaign against the state during the 1990s.

Filipponi, the alleged head of the 'Ndrangheta's Filippone clan was held together with jailed Sicilian mafia boss Giuseppe Graviano, who received an arrest warrant in prison. Both men are accused of ordering the three bomb attacks in Reggio Calabria on January 18, February 1 and December 1, 1994.

Filipponi's arrest, carried out on the orders of anti-mafia prosecutors amid a "vast" police operation involving raids across the country on Wednesday, showed the 'Ndrangheta was involved in the series of bombings that shook Italy in the early-to- mid-1990s, police said.

Previously, Italian authorities had pinned sole responsibility for the attacks on the Sicilian mafia, claiming it was an attempt to stop politicians meddling in its business affairs.

The bombing campaign began with the high-profile 1992 murders of Sicilian anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and with them eight police officers. Ten people were killed the following year in mainland bombings in Rome, Milan and Florence.

A controversial trial is currently ongoing over an alleged pact between the Italian state and the Sicilian mafia under which the crime syndicate agreed to halt the deadly 1990s bombing campaign in exchange for cushier prison conditions for jailed mafia members.
New Delhi, July 27 : Hours after resigning as Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar late on Wednesday met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with the support of the BJP.

Meanwhile, RJD has sought time to meet Governor to stake claim to form government saying that they were the largest single party and had support of some JD-U MLAs also.

Sources said that Governor has asked the RJD leaders to meet him at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

"Sought time to meet Governor. Being the single largest party in the assembly will claim to form government. We have also support of some JD-U MLAs who won elections against BJP," Tejashwi Yadav tweeted.

After holding a meeting of NDA and JD-U legislators at his official residence, Nitish Kumar and senior BJP leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi went to meet the Governor to stake claim to form the government.

Before leaving for Raj Bhavan, senior BJP leader, Nand Kishore Yadav said, "We are going to meet the Governor to stake claim to form government."

Ending a 20-month-long coalition of the Grand Alliance that defeated the BJP in 2015, Nitish Kumar met the Governor in the evening and handed his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav -- son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

In the 243-member assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the JD-U 71 and Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs and its allies LJP 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1. There are four independents and four MLAs belong to the CPI-ML.

The JD-U and BJP together make up for 124 seats and with BJP allies the total could go up to 129, clearly crossing the half-way mark.
Patna, July 27 : Less than a day after resigning as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar would take oath at 10 a.m. on Thursday as the head of the government that would include BJP and its allies.

Kumar met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with support of 132 MLAs.

Talking to the reporters after meeting the Governor, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that Nitish Kumar had been invited to take oath at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

"We gave letters of support of 132 MLAs," he said.

Sushil Modi said they had requested the trust vote should take place at the earliest.

Asked if meeting the Governor in late hours reflected a fear that some MLAs could leave and join the RJD-Congress alliance, Sushil Modi said "others may have fear, not us."

Sushil Modi said the letter of support had been given of MLAs belonging to JD-U, BJP, LJP, RLSP, HAM and two independents.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai told reporters that Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi will take oath on Thursday.

Meanwhile, RJD, which had sought time to meet Governor to stake claim to form government and was asked to meet him at 11 a.m., questioned the rationale of asking Nitish Kumar to take oath at 10 a.m.

"Governor gave us time of 11 a.m. and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10 a.m. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?" Tejashwi Yadav tweeted.

He said the Governor had initially asked Nitish Kumar to take oath at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

"Why is the Governor changing his decision in the night. The swearing is taking place at 10 a.m. instead of 5 p.m. We are going to Raj Bhavan. We are going to Governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.

"A Governor should act as custodian of constitution, not as Centre's stooge. He can't ignore single largest party and largest pre-poll alliance," Tejashwi said.

He alleged that Nitish Kumar had gone to Raj Bhavan at midnight as half of JD-U MLAs were "in our touch", he added.

"If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values and honesty, he would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for government. Honest man does not fear," the RJD leader said.

In dramatic and fast-paced developments in Bihar, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday evening resigned as Chief Minister dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him and said it will join it too.

Nitish Kumar ended a 20-month-long grand alliance coalition that defeated the BJP in 2015 and gave his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav -- son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
New York, July 27 : An Indian citizen has been jailed for 30 months by a federal court in Louisiana in the US for illegally selling gun silencers and planning to smuggle more of them disguised as auto parts.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, who is from Pitampura in New Delhi and was sentenced on Tuesday, admitted before federal Judge Elizabeth E. Foote in April that he had dealt with firearms without a license.

Alexander C. Van Hook, the acting federal prosecutor for Western Louisiana, said on Wednesday that Chauhan was contacted by someone who wanted to buy silencers and he discussed by email and phone manufacturing silencers for the client.

The silencers were to be imported as "auto parts" to evade customs, Hook said.

Chauhan brought silencer parts to the Louisiana city of Shreveport in December to show the buyer, according to the prosecutor.

When they met in restaurant in Bossier City to discuss the sale, federal agents recorded their conversation, leading to his prosecution, Hook said.

Chauhan lacked a licence to deal in firearms and the parts had been brought illegally into the US. His customer was not publicly identified.
Dr. Johnson O. Akinleye

Johnson O. Akinleye, Ph.D., who has served as interim chancellor of North Carolina Central University since January 2017, has been elected to the position on a permanent basis by the Board of Governors of the 17-campus University of North Carolina.

UNC System President Margaret Spellings formally nominated Dr. Akinleye during a special meeting of the board held in Chapel Hill.



Dr. Akinleye is a strategic thinker and no-nonsense leader, said President Spellings. His distinguished career includes extensive experience in senior administrative leadership roles at public, private and church-affiliated institutions. He sees building a relationship with the campus and community leaders as a priority and he understands the need to maximize the full value of being in the Research Triangle. Ive had the benefit of watching Dr. Akinleye lead on an interim basis during a challenging period at N.C. Central, Im confident that he will build on the proud traditions and storied history of the institution while continuing the legacy of great leaders before him  most notably the late Dr. Debra Saunders-White.



At NCCU, Dr. Akinleye worked to expand the universitys academic partnerships, including new agreements with community colleges, as well as introduced to the campus a robust online, distance-education program, NCCU Online. He also created K-12 initiatives and implemented a security strategy to increase safety for campus constituents. Before his appointment as interim chancellor, he was named acting chancellor from August 2016 to January 2017. Prior to that role, Akinleye was named acting chancellor NCCUs provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, where his responsibilities included faculty development, academic planning and assessment, enrollment management, and academic oversight of NCCUs seven schools and colleges.



I accept the awesome responsibility as the 12th Chancellor for North Carolina Central University with humility, said Chancellor Akinleye. I look forward to leading NCCU in a manner that honors our mission and to working closely with UNC General Administration to fulfill the universitys system-wide mission and goals that accrue to the benefit of the citizens of the great state of North Carolina. Moreover, I will continue to assess, evaluate and transform the university to increase efficiencies, sustain shared resources, expand its academic portfolio, enhance its brand and reputation, as well as excel in the competitive global marketplace and evolving higher education landscape.



Prior to joining NCCUs leadership team, Akinleye served as associate vice chancellor for academic programs at UNC Wilmington, where he was involved in leading online and distance education programs, increasing academic offerings, and leading the development and formation of the College of Allied Health. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership posts at Edward Waters College and Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. He began his academic career as a faculty member at Bowie State University in Maryland.



Akinleye received an undergraduate degree in telecommunications and a masters degree in media technology from Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University. He earned his Ph.D. in human communications studies from Howard University.



The chancellor search process, which originally began in January 2017, was first led by NCCU Board of Trustees chairman George Hamilton. The North Carolina Central University Chancellor Search Committee sought candidates that embodied effective executive, administrative and academic leadership.



I am excited about the selection of Dr. Johnson O. Akinleye as the 12th chancellor of our great institution, said Chairman Hamilton. Dr. Akinleye has a keen understanding of the landscape of higher education in North Carolina and nationally. Having served as both provost and interim chancellor at NCCU, Dr. Akinleye has demonstrated the skills and competencies necessary to ensure the institutions future success. He knows our strengths and growth potential, and, as an added plus, he will hit the ground running on day one!"



ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY

North Carolina Central University is a constituent institution of the UNC System and prepares students to succeed in the global marketplace. Selected as 2016 HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest, NCCU offers flagship programs in the sciences, technology, nursing, education, law, business and the arts. Founded in 1910 as a liberal arts college for African-Americans, NCCU remains committed to diversity in higher education. Our alumni excel in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. Visit http://www.nccu.edu.



ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

The oldest public university in the nation, the University of North Carolina enrolls more than 225,000 students and encompasses all 16 of North Carolinas public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nations first public residential high school for academically gifted students. UNC campuses support a broad array of distinguished liberal-arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, 11 nursing programs, 15 schools of education, five schools of engineering, and a renowned arts conservatory. The UNC Center for Public Television, with its 12-station statewide broadcast network, is also under the University umbrella. http://northcarolina.edu/
On July 20, 2017, North American Psychic Investigations launched a donation-based campaign to fund their efforts to help clients hoping to find missing loved ones or bring closure to an unsolved murder. Donations can made through Indiegogo here: https://igg.me/at/4x2D0A-dIJw.

Psychic detectives like Psychic Medium Troy Griffin are overwhelmed and swamped from requests by family and friends who have reached the end of their rope, unable to get the police attention they hoped for and needing someone who cares on their side. Griffin and his peers work on missing people and unsolved murder cases pro bono, paying for the travel out of money they make holding private readings.

Its not enough. The phone rings daily with distraught family members and friends desperately seeking help, searching endlessly for their missing loved ones or answers to an unsolved murder. To say its hard to say no to them is an understatement, and now North American Psychic Investigations are opening themselves to the world by using crowdfunding to raise funds for their 501(C)(3) nonprofit designation and to cover expenses so more cases can be taken on and more families helped.

The North American Psychic Investigation group is a professional organization created to provide a voice for those who no longer have one or are unable to be heard. The psychic detectives assist in providing clues and information to family, law enforcement, and communities locally, nationally, and internationally. They help those who are searching for answers, clues, or closure on both past and present cases.

As professional Intuitive Mediums, the detectives are guided through core values for a higher good. North American Psychic Investigations upholds the highest standards of integrity, responsibility, and discretion and strives to provide clients with honest and accurate information in a confidential, professional manner.

Troy and Leslie are available for questions or interviews upon request.

Contact: Troy Griffin or Leslie Simmons

TLGriffin LLC

303-317-6220 / tlgriffin(at)tlgriffinllc(dot)com / http://www.northamericanpsychicinvestigations.com
With regular skills practice, the children will pass their exams.

Socialpreneur can help, for example, community building program which provides computer classes for 1,800 Ghana children, as part of socialpreneurship corporate social responsible (CSR) program.

Children who go to schools in poor and rural areas of Ghana are failing their exams because they do not have hands on computer experience. Working with local chain of libraries, the program organizer has successfully introduced mobile libraries which equipped with solar powered charging stations that provide fully charged laptop and tablet computers to schools. The new project will provide 1,800 school children with the opportunity to develop vital computer skills.

In Ghana, computer and internet skills are compulsory subjects for Junior High School children (ages 11-16). However, many schools do not have computers, internet connections or electricity, so the children cannot practice. Children fail their computer exams and cannot progress to secondary school. The cost of failure for children of poor families in Ghana is high - their parents take them out of school. Without skills, they are unable to compete in the job market, and the cycle of poverty continues.

The program came with four mobile libraries equipped with solar panels, laptop and tablet computers, and teaching aids like whiteboards, will each visit three schools every week, reaching 1,800 children. Working with teachers and headmasters, librarians will provide the children with hands on computer classes. With regular skills practice, the children will pass their exams.

Angel investor & socialpreneurship activist Tey Por Yee, together with Gomif Partners, is launching the Accelerator17 2.0, a seed capital investment program for socially responsible businesses. The first part of the program shall start with road show from New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and ends in Singapore.

Tey Por Yee (Larry) is a venture capitalist investing in businesses with socially responsible business initiatives. Gomif Partners, co-led by Larry, shows the tech-savvy start-ups on Johannesburg Cyber Workshop, how easy to contribute to society by using the Internet, besides making a profit from the business.

Gomif will pick up an equity stake in qualified startups as part of the program. Interested candidates can visit http://www.gomif.com and submit business plans online. The Accelerator17 2.0 program started on 17 July 2017 and targets to ends on 18 December 2017.

About Gomif Partners

Gomif Partners (GP) is an early stage investment network joint lead by socialpreneur Larry Tey Por Yee and several private venture partners. GPs investors invest in and work with information technology companies at any stage but they are primarily focused on seed and early stage investments. GP is interested in socially responsible business models, especially renewable, retail, manufacturing, software, and services surrounding this concept. Visit http://www.gomif.com
Media iQ, the leading global analytics and technology company, announced today that it will co-host The Drums Digital Trading Awards USA business breakfast on Wednesday, July 26. The panel topic of this years networking breakfast is The role of an agency in a programmatic era.

Media iQs EVP of Strategy Joe Kowan will deliver the event introduction and participate in the panel discussion led by Wayne Blodwell, founder and CEO of the Programmatic Advisory and chairman of the judging panel.

The role of the agency and especially the media planner has dramatically changed with the advent of programmatic buying, says Kowan. This event will provide a timely look at agency relationships and other emerging issues, and were delighted to be hosting this breakfast with our colleagues at The Drum.

The panelists will discuss how they engage agencies to meet their programmatic needs; how and why they use in-house, hybrid, or outside agencies; and the pros and cons of these approaches. The panel will also tackle the rise of header bidding and the evolving supply landscape, programmatic TV, and more.

The breakfast will take place at Pulsepoints offices at 360 Madison Avenue.

For more information or to register for the breakfast, click here.

About Media iQ

Media iQ is a leading global analytics technology company that uses its superior analytical platform AiQ to unlock insights from data to drive business growth. AiQ collects, stores and processes over one trillion data points per day, providing customers with valuable insights.

Media iQ has a clear vision for clients - to inspire through insights. Its expertise is ingesting large amounts of data, modelling data to convert into insights and then actioning these insights through a variety of products and services. In short, Media iQ makes data valuable, insightful, and intelligent, which helps clients engage customers, grow sales and unlock new revenue opportunities.

Founded in 2010, Media iQ has more than 400 staff in 12 offices globally, serves more than 650 clients, and enjoys a 92% client retention rate globally. Headquartered in the UK, it has offices across North America, Europe and Asia.
KH logo 2016

Kaufman Hall, a leading provider of management consulting services, and enterprise performance management and decision support software, announced that its Axiom Healthcare Suite has again been awarded the Peer Reviewed by HFMA designation from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) in their mid-term evaluation.

HFMA's Peer Review process provides healthcare financial managers with an objective, third-party evaluation of business solutions used in the healthcare workplace. Only one-third of all applicants receive the Peer Reviewed designation, which is based on an evaluation of effectiveness, quality, usability, price, value, and customer and technical support. The rigorous, 11-step process includes review by a panel comprised of current customers, prospects who have not made a purchase, and industry experts. Axiom Healthcare Suite first received this special designation in 2015.

We are proud that the HFMA continues to recognize the value of our software solutions, said Tom Walsh, CEO of Kaufman Hall Software. This is a true reflection of our continued commitment to delivering best-in-class software solutions and customer service that enable our customers to optimize their business planning to stay competitive in the ever-changing healthcare market.

Were pleased to have Kaufman Hall renew their HFMA Peer Reviewed designation, says HFMA President and CEO Joseph J. Fifer, FHFMA, CPA. The HFMA Peer Review process assures our members, through a rigorous evaluation, that the reviewed healthcare business solution meets an objective, third-party assessment of overall effectiveness, quality, and value."

Kaufman Hall's Axiom Healthcare Suite empowers financial professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. The suite includes a variety of solutions, including budgeting and forecasting, long-range planning, capital planning and management, performance reporting, and decision support and analytics. All solutions are delivered through the unified Axiom platform.

The Axiom Healthcare Suite is based on nearly three decades of experience helping healthcare leaders address a wide range of strategic and financial concerns to ensure long-term success for their organizations. Leaders at more than 1,800 organizations rely on Axiom software to help manage their operations and quantify the financial impact of the decisions they make.

Kaufman Hall Software experienced record software sales over the past 12 months, a testament to the strong market demand and robust solutions designed to address industry challenges. In addition to receiving the HFMA Peer Reviewed designation, Kaufman Hall was recently selected for Beckers Hospital Review 150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare 2017.

About HFMA

With more than 40,000 members, the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) is the nation's premier membership organization for healthcare finance leaders. HFMA builds and supports coalitions with other healthcare associations and industry groups to achieve consensus on solutions for the challenges the U.S. healthcare system faces today. Working with a broad cross-section of stakeholders, HFMA identifies gaps throughout the healthcare delivery system and bridges them through the establishment and sharing of knowledge and best practices. We help healthcare stakeholders achieve optimal results by creating and providing education, analysis, and practical tools and solutions. Our mission is to lead the financial management of health care. hfma.org.

About Kaufman Hall

Kaufman Hall provides management consulting and software to help organizations realize sustained success amid changing market conditions. Since 1985, Kaufman Hall has been a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, helping them incorporate proven methods into their strategic planning and financial management processes, and quantify the financial impact of their plans and strategic decisions to consistently achieve their goals.

Kaufman Hall services use a rigorous, disciplined, and structured approach that is based on the principles of corporate finance. The breadth and integration of Kaufman Hall advisory services are unparalleled, encompassing strategy; financial and capital planning; cost transformation; treasury and capital markets management; and mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures.

Kaufman Hall software includes the Axiom Healthcare Suite, providing sophisticated, flexible performance management solutions that empower finance professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. Solutions for long-range planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting, capital planning, and cost accounting deliver decision support, reporting, and analytics within an integrated software platform. Kaufman Halls Peak Software empowers healthcare organizations with clinical benchmarks, data, and analytics to provide a higher quality of care for optimized performance and improved patient outcomes.

###
July, 2017 saw more changes to the purchase and sales contract for the State of North Carolina. Andy May, COO, AAFMAA Mortgage Services (AMS) still maintains that Military families need to be diligently informed regarding due diligence and earnest money checks that must be written prior to closing (see AAFMAA Mortgage Services website blog). These costs are real, and all military families should consult with a state licensed loan officer to review prior to making an offer. Don't sign anything until the military home buyer understands all contracts.

There are approximately 20 new changes in the North Carolina purchase and sales contract. The most interesting is the display and formatting of the contract - which now includes boxes. The authors of the contract believe buyers and sellers should focus attention (boxes are highlighted throughout the contract) in boxed areas.

Here, AMS reviews what the top five changes are for military home buyers. The first significant reinforcement is, "in the event of a dispute between Seller and Buyer over the disposition of Earnest Money Deposit" - the Realtor must obtain a written release from both parties, or until a disbursement is ordered by a court. If the military family is light on down-payment cash, a problem with the inspections or appraisal can cause the earnest money to go side-ways and sit in an escrow account until resolved. This may put the military family on the sidelines for buying a new home, and certainly needs to be considered prior to making an offer to purchase a home (see page two of the new contract).

The second change that military families should consider is to use an attorney. AMS recommends the use of an attorney when purchasing a home. Page three of the contract has a warning to use a state-licensed Realtor, and a state-licensed attorney to close on residential real estate (AMS provides state-licensed loan officers). When consummating a real estate transaction it is important to have impartial third party opinions, which state-licensed loan officers, Realtors and attorneys may provide.

The third area of significance is that the contingency for obtaining a mortgage loan has been watered down (page four and page five). If the military family can't obtain a mortgage, there is a high likelihood that all earnest money and due diligence monies may be lost. Speak with a state-licensed loan officer to learn the facts before signing a purchase and sales contract.

The fourth area is that the military family acknowledges that the property is being sold in its current condition. This is important. Military families need to know that negotiating repairs must be done and completed within the time-frame of the earnest money check going "hard" (hard means put at risk, and is usually 21 days after the offer to purchase is made). If the seller fails to complete repairs within the time period specified within the contract (the closing date), the entire transaction may be put in jeopardy. North Carolina purchase and sales contracts often afford a 14 day period after the closing date to resolve issues. Most home buyers and sellers may not be aware of this extra two week resolution period.

The fifth change to the purchase and sales contract (page 10 of 13) is that Realtors (Real Estate Brokers) are not allowed to make changes (addendums) to the contract. This is significant. Although this practice may have been in place, page 10 specifically forces the military family to engage an attorney if an addendum is made to the contract.

Purchase and sales contracts are important to understand. Military families should consider hiring state-licensed professionals to obtain the highest level of fiduciary statndards possible. AMS has written extensively on the risks to the military home buyer on the AMS blog.

Competitive, accurate, honest, transparent, and member-owned. Experience the difference at AAFMAA Mortgage Services. AAFMAA Mortgage Services LLC is licensed in 13 states - for a complete list and complete disclosures please visit http://www.aafmaa.com/mortgage (NMLS: 1423968). The team operates from 639 Executive Place, Suite 203, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28305. Call 844-422-3622 (844-4-AAFMAA), email mortgage(at)aafmaa.com. Equal Housing Opportunity. NMLS: 1423968. 103418 Loan Officer number for Andy May.
As more and more businesses turn to the convenience and flexibility provided by mobile point-of-sale solutions, its smart business for Sterling to offer secure solutions, such as ROAMpay X5

Sterling Payment Technologies, a leading provider of secure payment processing, today announced it is supporting ROAMpay X5, Ingenico Groups EMV-enabled mobile point of sale application for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Sterlings adoption of ROAMpay X5 strengthens its partnership with Ingenico Group to provide EMV-enabled, PCI-compliant payment solutions that are cost-effective, feature rich, and flexible.

ROAMpay X5 supports all electronic payment transaction types and acceptance methods, including EMV chip & PIN and chip & sign, magstripe, and NFC/contactless, such as Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Sterling offers two ROAMpay X5-compatible card reader options for merchants. The Moby/3000, designed to offer EMV acceptance at a price similar to magstripe-only card readers, connects wirelessly through Bluetooth to any iOS or Android device. The RP450c card reader accepts EMV, magstripe and NFC/contactless payments, and has two connection options, including audio jack and Bluetooth. Both card readers feature point-to-point encryption (P2PE).

Security is a top priority for Sterling. As more and more businesses turn to the convenience and flexibility provided by mobile point-of-sale solutions, its smart business for Sterling to offer secure solutions, such as ROAMpay X5, that are EMV compliant with the added security of point-to-point encryption, said Jim Raftice, President U.S. and Canada, EVO Payments International, parent company of Sterling Technologies.

EMV is smart chip technology that stands for Europay/MasterCard/Visa. The standard was adopted in the U.S. on October 1, 2015, when in-store fraud liability shifted from financial institutions that have invested in chip technology to merchants who have not upgraded to EMV. For merchants, using the proper EMV technology protects their businesses and customers from fraud.

Were proud that Sterling is offering our ROAMpay X5 mobile application and compatible card readers, said Russell Harty, senior vice president, US Sales for Ingenico Group. Our mobile card readers provide smaller businesses with a secure, low-cost, convenient way to access EMV technology using the most popular smartphones and tablets, creating a better, more secure payment experience for their customers.

Sterling Payment Technologies is dedicated to providing fast, affordable and secure payment processing to merchants throughout the U.S. Sterling excels at easy payment integrations that include EMV solutions, P2PE, tokenization, out-of-scope solutions, mobile solutions, and cloud-based POS reporting platforms. The companys focus on technology and service allows Sterling to provide superior customer support and a broad range of advanced solutions to its customers.

To learn more, contact Sterling Payment Technologies at (800) 383-0561, visit http://www.sterlingpayment.com, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Sterling Payment Technologies:

Sterling Payment Technologies, a division of EVO Payments International, is one of the most innovative, customer-focused payment processors in the industry. Founded in 2001, the company processes payment transactions for all major card brands including Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Sterling is committed to providing POS resellers, software application developers, and merchants with the most advanced payment solutions in the marketplace, including a complete range of electronic payment processing services, such as credit, debit, PIN debit, EMV, fleet, gift card, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT). The company has been recognized by Business Solutions Magazine as Best Channel Vendor for nine consecutive years, ranking Sterling's payment processing among the nation's best. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Sterling is represented in communities throughout North America, Central America and Europe by point-of-sale equipment dealers and software developers, independent sales offices, banks, and an internal sales team.

Contact:

Anton Wurr, Executive Director of Marketing

Sterling Payment Technologies

800-383-0561

anton(dot)wurr(at)sterlingpayment(dot)com

###
Im thrilled to welcome each of these new Advisory Board members  all of whom bring powerful expertise and a crucial regional perspective on the sectors that make up the global wellness industry.

The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), an invitation-only conference for the $3.7 trillion global wellness industry, today announced the appointment of three new members to its Advisory Board. They include Omer K. Isvan, president of Turkey-based Servotel Corporation; Tony de Leede, the owner and founder of Australias Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat; and Yoriko Soma, president and CEO of Japan-based Conceptasia.

Im thrilled to welcome each of these new Advisory Board members  all of whom bring powerful expertise and a crucial regional perspective on the sectors that make up the global wellness industry, said Susie Ellis, Chairman and CEO of the Global Wellness Summit. With these appointments, the Summit expands its representation in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.

Isvan is a powerhouse in tourism and hospitality investment with a career spanning 30 years, and projects in over 40 countries. He currently leads Servotel Corporation, which is widely recognized as one of the leading advisers in the investment and development of hotels, resorts and integrated mixed-use developments worldwide.

''I look forward to working closely with members of this pioneering board, and furthering the development of the Global Wellness Summit by bringing to it my experience of integrating wellness into travel, hospitality and real estate development, said Isvan.

De Leede is an extraordinarily successful fitness pioneer, having built Australias biggest fitness empire, Fitness First, and is now a renowned wellness resort entrepreneur who co-owns a range of wellness hospitality businesses, including not only the award-winning Gwinganna but also the very on-trend surf wellness brand, Komune.

Having been involved in the fitness business for nearly forty years and more directly in the wellness/spa business for the last twelve, I hope to bring a fresh perspective on how the two industries are becoming more intertwined, said Tony de Leede. Being part of a board whose sole focus is to introduce more people to the benefits of health, fitness and wellness is an honor!

Soma began her career at the Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong, focusing on the luxury consumer market and has participated in multiple resort, destination and day spa projects in Asia. She now runs a major investment fund for Asian spa and wellness businesses.

The wellness market in Asia is the fastest growing globally, and Im thrilled to be part of the Summits Advisory Board to provide guidance and insight on the Pan-Asian and Japanese wellness industries, said Yoriko Soma. This appointment is made more gratifying by the fact that Ive participated in each and every GWS since the inaugural event held in New York in 2007.

The three new members are part of a 13-person advisory board to the Summit that includes wellness experts from across the globe. The full advisory board can be seen here.

The ten sectors that make up the $3.7 trillion global wellness industry, as outlined by the Global Wellness Institutes research report, the 2017 Global Wellness Economy Monitor:



Beauty & Anti-Aging ($999 billion)

Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss ($648 billion)

Wellness Tourism ($563 billion)

Fitness & Mind-Body ($542 billion)

Preventative & Personalized Medicine and Public Health ($534 billion)

Complementary & Alternative Medicine ($199 billion)

Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate ($119 billion)

Spa Industry ($99 billion)

Thermal/Mineral Springs ($51 billion)

Workplace Wellness ($43 billion)

The Summit is a gathering for senior industry executives and leaders; for information about attending, click here.

About the Global Wellness Summit: The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) is an invitation-only international gathering that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $3.7 trillion global wellness economy. Held in a different location each year, Summits have taken place in the U.S., Switzerland, Turkey, Bali, India, Morocco, Mexico and Austria. The next will be held at The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida from Oct. 9-11, 2017.
ProProfs Live Chat Software I'm inspired by the possibilities that exist ahead. Were committed to growing and expanding ProProfs Chats features to truly make it a next gen app.

ProProfs announced today that it has rebranded Live2Support live chat software as ProProfs Chat. Live2Support, a technology driven Live Chat Software Company, was established in 2003 and served businesses worldwide. It was acquired by ProProfs in 2016. Live2Support live chat app is used by more than 10,000 businesses worldwide in a myriad of different ways including support and sales. The acquisition will provide customers with new opportunities for blending a live chat software with other tools like Training Maker, Project and Knowledge Base.

With over 1.2 million businesses & users around the globe using ProProfs delightfully smart tools, Live2Support was a natural fit for us, said Sameer Bhatia, CEO of ProProfs. ProProfs Chat offers endless sales and support opportunities for businesses when combined with companion products. Live chat operators can exchange text messages, documents, webpages, and knowledge base articles with visitors to resolve their queries, both proactively and reactively.

ProProfs Chat enables businesses to offer real-time chat assistance to their website visitors. It offers an advanced operator dashboard with real time visitor monitoring, allowing website owners to instantly connect with their visitors and monitor their activities on the site in real time. Customers prefer it because its much faster than any other online support channel.

ProProfs has promised to continue development of the chat software to add even better features and support functionality. I'm inspired by the possibilities that exist ahead. Were committed to growing and expanding ProProfs Chats features to truly make it a next gen app. Im also excited about the opportunity to extend ProProfs mission towards creating customer delight with our next-generation support tools, says Sameer Bhatia.

An essential part of ProProfs customer support and service software suite, ProProfs Live Chat software integrates seamlessly with other knowledge management, learning management, and contact center applications in the suite. It offers limitless support and sales opportunities when combined with these companion products.

Leading companies across the world trust ProProfs for their web collaboration requirements and the Live Chat Software continues the legacy. Learn more about ProProfs Live Chat Software features.

About ProProfs

ProProfs' delightfully smart tools are used by millions of users each month. The site hosts more than 1,000,000 pages of content in 70+ languages, and is a leading platform for online training and assessment with the world's largest library of professional tests & quizzes. ProProfs products, including Knowledge Base, Live Chat, Project Management, Quiz, Survey and Training tools are used by many Fortune 500 companies such as Sony & Dell, along with users from leading educational institutes like Harvard & Yale. ProProfs empowers users with a valuable platform to apply knowledge, helping them increase productivity, efficiency and profitability.

ProProfs is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and was founded by Sameer Bhatia with the mission to make the world smarter!

Head Office and Mailing Address:

6800 Altamor Drive,

Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA

Phone: (855) 776-7763

http://www.proprofs.com/chat/
HCV Treatment Path App

BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy (BioPlus), one of the nations leading innovative specialty pharmacies, has released an updated version of the HCV Treatment Path app (version 4.4.0) to keep health care providers informed with the latest guidelines for treating chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. All of the latest HCV medications are included in this app, including Vosevi (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir) from Gilead Sciences that was approved by the FDA on July 18, 2017.

This updated edition of the HCV Treatment Path app offers prescribers guidelines and tools to streamline the selection of the hepatitis C treatment that is best-suited to individual patients, based on criteria from experts such as the FDA and the AASLD (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases). This newly released version app addresses major changes to AASLD guidelines for both treatment naive and treatment-experienced patients. In addition, the latest treatment options are included, such as the FDAs recent approval of Vosevi which is a once-daily pill used as salvage therapy in failed initial treatment of HCV genotypes 1-6.

Were pleased to get this latest revamped version of the app into the hands of prescribers to guide their decision process for hepatitis C therapy. The treatment landscape for this disease is under continual change and this app keeps the latest information easily accessible, says Elvin Montanez, Pharm.D., Chief Operations Officer at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy. With so many medications available to providers, each with different guidelines and criteria, it is helpful to have one app to review all the latest information when designing an appropriate treatment plan for each patient.

Learn more about the HCV Treatment Path App here.

About BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy

BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy is a leading independent, national specialty pharmacy and the first and only specialty pharmacy to offer a two-hour turnaround from referral to patient acceptance. Our company celebrates 28 years of innovative excellence in specialty pharmacy, working closely with payers and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as with prescribers to get prompt treatment for patients, and directly supporting our patients nationwide to achieve optimal health outcomes. We provide a complete range of specialty services, including for hepatitis C, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other complex, chronic conditions. BioPlus, a privately-held, pharmacist-owned company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, is accredited by URAC, VIPPS, and ACHC with a Distinction in Oncology.

For information: http://www.bioplusrx.com or

Contact: info(at)bioplusrx(dot)com

Phone: 1-888-292-0744

###
ServerPronto has slashed the prices of 4 popular servers by as much as $50/mo.

This month, dedicated server Host ServerPronto serviced it's 40,000th dedicated server customer. This includes customers in over over 99 countries and dozens of industries.

ServerPronto has been a leader in dedicated server hosting since 1999 and their bare-metal, Infrastructure as a Service offering powers business-critical applications for thousands of satisfied customers.

ServerPronto hosts all dedicated servers in an SSAE16 / SAS70 certified data center, located in Miami, FL. All servers include fixed lifetime pricing, 100% uptime guarantees and free setup/cancellation. These benefits no doubt contributed to them reaching this important milestone.

Dedicated Servers range in use and size supporting mail servers, web sites, game servers and more. ServerPronto sells servers ranging in size from dual core CPUs with 2GB RAM to 48 core CPUs with 384 GB RAM.

In a recent article on HostingAdvice, Alexandra Leslie stated, "It's encouraging to find a host so focused on delivering quality-meets-affordability to customers. This team cut into a dense market with an offering that would resonate with the cost-conscious, performance-minded hosting user by owning their own datacenter, doing their own IT, and being the first to license cutting-edge instant IP migration technology. We at HostingAdvice applaud ServerPronto for delivering incredible value to dedicated and cloud hosting customers."

To celebrate this important milestone, ServerPronto has slashed the prices of 4 popular servers, the "Standard", "Power", "Pro Plus v4", and "Professional" plans. These have been discounted as much as $50/mo.

The "Standard" dedicated server features an Intel Xeon X3220 Quad-Core CPU, 8GB RAM, a 500GB SATA drive, and 10TB traffic. The sale price for said server is $59.95. This is an excellent option for those looking to host multiple websites/apps. It's also a great server for virtualization like ESKI.

The "Power" dedicated server features an Intel E3-1230 V2 Quad-Core CPU, 16GB RAM, 500GB Sata drive, and 20TB traffic. This server's sale price is $89.95, and it's perfect for CPU intensive applications such as streaming and VOIP.

The next server on sale is the "Professional". With a sale price of $129.95, this server features an Intel Xeon E5530 Dual Quad-Core CPU. 32GB RAM, two 1TB SATA drives, and 20TB traffic. This server is perfect for big data and database solutions.

The "Pro Plus v4" is an ultra fast server that features 12 cores. During this sale, the price of this server is down to $149.95. The dedicated server includes an Intel Xeon E5-1650 v4 Hexa-Core CPU, 64GB RAM, two 500GB SSD drives, and 20TB traffic.

More about ServerPronto:

ServerPronto offers fast, reliable, and affordable dedicated server and cloud hosting. Dedicated servers start at just $39.95 with 500GB of storage, 5 terabytes of traffic, a variety of operating systems and more. Learn more about ServerPronto Dedicated Servers.
Producers of Success Files an award-winning series developed for public television recently announced that in an upcoming segment host Rob Lowe will introduce new content that will spotlight solutions for back and neck pain.

The future segment will feature medical professionals who will detail some solutions to an issue that affects millions of Americans. Studies show that 85% of the U.S. population will suffer from neck or back pain at some point in their lives. Worldwide, low pain back is reported as the leading cause of disability and 45% of todays workers are affected by neck pain. In the upcoming segment, the "Success Files" team sets out to explore a variety of solutions for addressing these widespread issues and bringing relief to those who suffer from them.

The 'Success Files" creative and production team work with content producers to explore a variety of industries and topics through short-form and long-form documentary presentation. The program is acclaimed for its ability to deliver educational and informational content in a format that keeps audiences engaged, inspired, and educated. "Success Files" is created specifically for distribution to Public Television stations throughout the United States., and famed actor Rob Lowe serves as host. For more information, visit the program's website.

(Sources: http://www.bax-u.com/back-neck-pain-statistics/)
Atlanta is ready to demonstrate to the world why it is a premier cybersecurity hub

Baker Donelson and the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) today announced the addition of five events to the Atlanta Cyber Week schedule. The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and Georgia State University are sponsoring the newly-added events that will supplement Atlanta Cyber Weeks anchor conferences, Cybercon and the National Technology Security Council (NTSC) CISO Policy Conference.

Baker Donelson today also announced the call for applications for Cybercons emerging growth cybersecurity product pitch competition. Growth stage cybersecurity companies from around the world are encouraged to apply for the rare opportunity to present their products directly to chief information security officers and other security professionals from companies representing the southeastern United States. Applications must be submitted by no later than Aug. 23. Click here to apply.

Atlanta is ready to demonstrate to the world why it is a premier cybersecurity hub, said Justin Daniels, a Baker Donelson shareholder, co-founder of its cybersecurity accelerator and the leader of the Atlanta Cyber Week effort. We are looking forward to engaging CISOs, startups, and other cybersecurity stakeholders for a week of compelling networking, learning and business development opportunities that set Atlanta Cyber Week apart from traditional security conferences.

New events during Atlanta Cyber Week include:

Monday, Oct. 2



Startups & CISOs @ ATDC: Georgia Techs Advanced Technology Development Center will host a mixer and discussion session for early-stage companies to speak with seasoned leaders, seek their advice, and tap into their expertise. Location: Hodges Room, Suite 335, 75 Fifth St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30308. Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. No RSVP required.

Tuesday, Oct. 3



CISO Meetup: The CISO Meetup is an opportunity to learn and discuss cybersecurity concerns with CISO's from large enterprises located in Atlanta in the Fintech and other industries. Selected companies will have a chance for one on one meetings with CISO's while all attendees will have the chance to network and learn about the Atlanta metro region's cybersecurity ecosystem through the Baker Donelson Cybersecurity Accelerator opportunity. Location: Baker Donelson Cybersecurity Accelerator, 3414 Peachtree Rd., NE, 14th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30326. Time: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Register here.

Friday, Oct. 6



ATDC Cybersecurity Lecture Series: Georgia Techs Cybersecurity Lecture Series features Dr. Raheem Beyah from the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering for Out of Control: the expanded attack surface of control systems. Location: 75 Fifth St. NW, Suite 2000, Atlanta, GA 30308. Time: Noon  1 p.m. Register here.

Georgia State University Presents: Capture the Flag: The competition will use the Facebook Capture the Flag Competition framework based on the board game Risk. Each country on the map will unveil a problem with easy, medium, and expert challenges available in six topic areas. Location: Georgia State University. RSVP: (http://www.cybercon.us/atlanta-cyber-week-october-2-6/)

TEDxPeachtree: The ninth annual TEDxPeachtree features 18 of Georgias most innovative thinkers and doers who will each go beyond the headlines to share ideas that drive the future, help spark change and that celebrate human ingenuity. TEDxPeachtree 2017 speaker Justin Daniels will be sharing how persistent and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats affect the way companies and countries operate, and the profound changes that must be made to overcome these threats. Location: Rialto Theatre - 80 Forsyth St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303. Time: All Day. Registration: http://tedxpeachtree.com/

Atlanta Cyber Week is a public-private collaboration that highlights the pillars of Atlantas burgeoning cybersecurity ecosystem, exposing domestic and international audiences to the world class cyber workforce and resources unique to the Metro Atlanta region. Additionally, Atlanta Cyber Week will provide multiple opportunities for high-growth cybersecurity companies to interact in intimate ways not offered at major industry events with security decision makers from Atlantas abundance of Fortune 1000 enterprises. At the same time, CIOs, CISOs and chief technology officers will be afforded opportunities to have meaningful engagement with select cybersecurity firms, both domestic and international, to learn about product offerings most relevant to their needs.

For more information on Atlanta Cyber Week and the complete schedule of events, visit http://www.atlcyberweek.com and follow @ATLCyberWeek on Twitter. For complimentary media registration, email evan(at)arpr.com.

About Baker Donelson

Baker Donelson has 800 attorneys and public policy advisors representing more than 30 practice areas connected across 24 offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C. The firm is routinely recognized by FORTUNE magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."

About the Metro Atlanta Chamber

The Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) serves as a catalyst for a more prosperous and vibrant region. To advance economic growth and improve metro Atlanta's quality of place, MAC is focused on starting, growing and recruiting companies to the 29-county metro Atlanta region. The Chamber is also focused on expanding the region's innovation economy by promoting and strengthening connections to drive Atlanta's innovation and entrepreneurial culture. MAC is committed to being an active voice for the business community, serving as an advocate for a competitive business climate and telling Atlanta's story. For more information, visit http://www.metroatlantachamber.com

About Atlanta Cyber Week

Atlanta Cyber Week is a public-private collaboration led by Baker Donelson and Metro Atlanta Chamber that will host multiple events during the week of October 2-6, 2017 to highlight the pillars of the region's burgeoning cybersecurity ecosystem. Each event will be structured to facilitate meaningful discussion on important cybersecurity topics and foster customer development between high-growth cybersecurity companies and the citys unrivaled density of Fortune 1000s.

###
Educating advocates, financial institutions and social services agencies about policy needs is essential to combating the problem of elder financial abuse.

The Huguette Clark Family Fund for Protection of Elders announced today that it has awarded a $30,000 grant to fund the launch of an Elder Justice Advocates Academy. A project of the California Elder Justice Coalition, the Advocates Academy will support state and national efforts to combat elder financial abuse and provide relief to its victims. This includes engaging financial institutions and educating stakeholders about the Victims of Crime Act and other programs and resources for victims.

Commenting on the grant, Ian Clark Devine, an advisor to the Fund, said: Educating advocates, financial institutions and social services agencies about policy needs is essential to combating the problem of elder financial abuse. The California Elder Justice Coalition (CEJC) has extensive experience in this area and is well positioned to take the lead in developing strategies that can be applied nationwide.

The Elder Justice Advocates Academy is an important first step in promoting exchange among state elder justice programs about how theyre being affected by federal developments and how theyre responding, said Lisa Nerenberg, executive director of the CEJC. It will build upon our state program by sharing the information, strategies, and materials CEJC has produced and providing technical assistance to help other communities implement promising practices. We also plan to alert federal policy makers and advocates about states needs.

The grant to launch the Elder Justice Academy is the Funds fifth since its inception in 2013. Its earlier grants provided financial support for programs to train Adult Protective Service workers; help banks implement federal guidelines for sharing customer information with investigatory agencies in cases of suspected financial exploitation of the elderly; convene a roundtable of national specialists to formulate specific proposals to prevent elder abuse; and develop model civil statutes to help victims of financial exploitation seek justice, recover assets and rebuild their lives.

About the California Elder Justice Coalition

The CEJC was formed in 2008 to provide a voice from the field in elder justice policy. It emerged in response to gaps in services, coordination, and leadership that led to a fragmented and poorly coordinated response to elder abuse, neglect, and the violation of older adults rights. Today the CEJC has 72 members, including state organizations, coalitions, prosecutors offices, departments of aging and adult services, local agencies, researchers, and individuals.

About the Huguette Clark Family Fund for Protection of Elders

Established in 2013, the Huguette Clark Family Fund for Protection of Elders is a donor-advised fund created by members of the Clark family to honor their late aunt, Huguette Clark, who was victimized by her caregivers and advisors for more than two decades. The Fund supports innovative organizations and programs to fight the financial abuse of elders, addressing immediate needs overlooked by traditional programs as well as innovative models that can be replicated nationwide.

The familys strategy has been to make targeted grants to develop pilot programs that could be scaled or replicated later for broader impact. Grants are related to the abuse that Huguette Clark herself suffered, specifically the prevention of undue influence, manipulation and financial abuse by institutions, professionals and caregivers.

Grants made by the Fund have supported programs in three general areas: developing better tools and training for those who are fighting elder abuse; encouraging meaningful collaboration of experts to make their work more effective; and providing services for victims.

1. The Funds first grant in December 2013 developed online training modules for Adult Protective Service (APS) workers to help them recognize and report financial exploitation and undue influence. While APS workers are on the front lines of fighting elder abuse, standards for these positions vary dramatically by state and are often inadequate to todays challenges. The grant to San Diego State University created two one-hour, online training modules that are available nationally.

2. The Funds second grant responded to the reluctance of banks to share information when they suspect financial abuse. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 permits financial institutions to disclose customer information to authorities in cases of suspected elder financial abuse. But unclear about their legal liability, banks routinely ignored requests for this information. The Funds grant helped the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging and the National Adult Protective Services Association develop a standardized form and protocols for financial institutions and APS agencies to facilitate the sharing of information. The form has been credited with getting several banks to release records to APS workers for the first time. The program received a 2016 Aging Achievement Award in the Elder Abuse Prevention category from the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

3. Many specialists in aging have devoted their lives to the fight against elder abuse. To improve communication and coordination among them, the Fund sponsored a roundtable of experts in Washington, DC. Hosted by the National Center for Victims of Crime, the roundtable identified and prioritized unmet needs in the realm of elder financial exploitation, and produced a white paper with five practical recommendations for action.

4. A significant and fundamental gap in the justice system is the lack of effective civil remedies for preventing elder abuse and recovering losses. Civil attorneys lack incentives to take cases as recoveries are low and cases are labor intensive. The National Center for Victims of Crime and the American Bar Association (ABA) shared the Funds fourth grant to develop model civil statute provisions that allow for attorneys fees and treble damages, as well as provisions for burden shifting, extending the statute of limitations, and other victim-centered and protective mechanisms. The model civil provisions were presented at a plenary session of the ABAs National Conference on Aging and Law in October 2016.
Terri Maxwell, CEO of Share On Purpose, Named the 2017 Outlive Yourself Awards Honoree Terri was selected, not because she is an extraordinary business woman and leader in her industry, but because of how she treats others.

Share on Purpose, which creates, launches, and invests in companies with innovative solutions, today announces its CEO, Terri Maxwell, is selected as an honoree for the 2017 Outlive Yourself Awards by non-profit, Taylors Gift Foundation.

Created in 2015, the Outlive Yourself Awards celebrates outstanding individuals who selflessly live by focusing on others and leave a positive and lasting impact in lives to create a legacy. An independent awards committee looks for people who stand out by living and selflessly giving to others.

Terri was selected, not because she is an extraordinary business woman and leader in her industry, but because of how she treats others, says Tara Storch, co-founder at Taylors Gift Foundation. She is a humble leader with a servants heart. Her focus is about helping others find their purpose in life, and along the way, she helps them live purposefully. Everyone that works with Terri adores her. She is an outstanding person and we are honored to celebrate her.

Maxwell, a self-described serial entrepreneur, builds businesses that she hopes improve the world. Her first company, Succeed On Purpose, assists professionals in finding meaningful work and living more successful lives. From there, she built Promote On Purpose, which assists companies in making the transition to authentic marketing (versus advertising), as well as IGNITE On Purpose, which helps entrepreneurs scale their business through a pay-for-performance program. This year, she launched Talent On Purpose, which helps corporations build a performance culture by training leaders to be authentic, and building a culture focused on authenticity, trust and performance. In each of these businesses, Maxwell says it is the people who work in the brands that are the ones making the difference.

I am honored to receive this award, although it seems premature, says Terri Maxwell, CEO of Share on Purpose, I certainly believe in trying to make the world better through my life and my work, yet I dont feel as if Ive outlived myself, yet. That will certainly come, but its hard to see right now. For me, being authentic is about living your purpose every day, at work and in the community. I simply want to inspire the potential of every person I meet, including through the brands we launch and the clients we serve. Helping others achieve their dreams is where I focus my energy.

The 3rd annual Outlive Yourself Awards event by Taylors Gift Foundation will be held Thursday, September 28, 2017 at Union Station in Dallas, Texas.



About the Outlive Yourself Awards:

The Outlive Yourself Awards celebrate incredible individuals who make an extraordinary impact in their community and truly embody the Outlive Yourself spirit by giving back to others. Proceeds raised at the event will benefit Taylors Gift Foundations Legacy Gift program, established to provide financial assistance to individuals and families touched by organ donation. Assisting with needs such as burial expenses, utilities, rent, and more, Taylors Gift Foundation works to help those who are facing immediate need. For more information, visit http://www.TaylorsGift.org.

About Share On Purpose:

Share On Purpose creates, launches and invests in companies with innovative solutions that make the world better. Using The Share Cultivator, we launch purposeful companies that transform industries and positively impact communities. Our culture supports leaders as they grow professionally and personally in the pursuit of success and meaning. Through our state-of-the-art training program, we train team members to work in and run these brands, while fulfilling their own career aspirations. To learn more, visit http://www.shareonpurpose.com.
North American Veterinary Heart Center, Jupiter Florida After five years of thoughtful planning and research, I am honored to offer Dr. Pelosis unparalleled capabilities to our clients. Giovanni Di Stadio, President & CEO

A global center of excellence specializing in cardiac care for dogs and cats has opened in Jupiter. The state of the art center will provide advanced surgical care (heart surgery), management of cardiac patients (cardiology) and class leading treatments with a goal of providing heart patients longer lives.

North American Veterinary Heart Center, the Heart Center, will also serve as an incubator for research and innovation for procedures, pharmacology and medical device creation for the growing global pet care industry.

Dr. Augusta Pelosi, the worlds only double-board-certified specialist in veterinary cardiology and veterinary surgery with a specialization in cardiac surgery, is the Heart Centers medical director and co-founder. Pelosis medical prowess will be complemented by her co-founding partner, Giovanni Di Stadio, the Centers President and CEO.

After five years of thoughtful planning and research, I am honored to offer Dr. Pelosis unparalleled capabilities to our clients, said Mr. Di Stadio, who met Dr. Pelosi while researching cardiac care for his family pet, Bella. I found Dr. Pelosi too late for our Bella, but Dr. Pelosi and I shared a common vision and goal to create a center which would help families searching for cardiac solutions for their pets. This shared vision set us on the path to establish our partnership with a goal to create a center with the outcomes and reputation of the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic, bringing the latest technology, surgical skills, and equipment which until now, was not available in the Americas. Our goal is to give people and their pets the best possible outcome.

Dr. Pelosi is widely regarded as one of the worlds preeminent leaders in veterinary cardiac surgery. She brings to the center decades of surgical and research expertise.

The Heart Center  built as one of the most advanced cardiac care facilities in the world  will serve pet owners, service animals and military and law enforcement canines from around the globe. Its located at 1680 S. Central Blvd. Suite 112, Jupiter.

Our entire focus is on improved quality of life, said Dr. Pelosi. Some cardiac disease is successfully managed with medication. Certain other conditions  PDA, or mitral valve disease, for example require surgical intervention, including open-heart surgery.

The Heart Center concierge team assists domestic and international patients with the logistical stresses of travel, including transportation, lodging, childcare, pet care and emotional support. This is an intensely sensitive time for family members. It is important to meet their needs as best we can while simultaneously caring for their companions. Dr. Pelosi said. When we look at all the factors that go into successful outcomes, we cannot overlook care and consideration for our patients family members.

The choice of Jupiter was strategically important as Jupiter serves as one of Floridas bio-medical innovation hubs. Home to Scripps Research Institute-Florida, MaxPlanck Florida Institute for Neuroscience and Jupiter Medical Center, the NAVHC adds to Palm Beach Countys growing scientific community. Ideally situated in close proximity to an international airport, the Heart Center is easily accessible to patients and scientific research collaborators.

For more information on North American Veterinary Heart Center (NAVHC), visit navetheart.com or call 561-250-6580. Follow NAVHC on FaceBook @navetheart or on LinkedIn at North American Veterinary Heart Center

For media inquiries, telephone Jack E. Lighton at 1-561-386-8606.

More about Dr. Pelosi: The worlds only dual board certified veterinary specialist in Veterinary Cardiology and Surgery, Dr. Augusta Pelosi was born and raised in Italy. Dr. Pelosi attended the College of Veterinary Medicine at Universita di Pisa and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Erasmus program) and earned her DVM degree from the Universita di Pisa.

Upon moving to the U.S. in 2001, she has obtained the ECFVG certification. Dr. Pelosi has completed a small animal rotating internship at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She has continued her education with a surgery and cardiology residency at Michigan State University where she has remained as a professor in cardiology until 2016.

Dr. Pelosi is a Diplomate of both the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Cardiology) (ACVIM) and Surgery (ACVS). She has taught veterinary students, interns and residents for over 15 years, she has contributed to research advancement in cardiac surgery and has being actively involved in several academic leadership positions. Dr. Pelosi has also created and directed the Michigan State University  Veterinary Open Heart Team.

She is actively involved in several committees within ACVIM and ACVS. She has worked as both a surgeon and cardiologist consultant for several companies. She has authored several publications and book chapters. Outside of work, she is a certified yoga instructor.

###
Step Planters NYC

The New York Department of Transportation (DOT) in collaboration with the NYC Plaza Program, along with Baruch College in NYC, and the Los Angeles City Planning Commission launched independent projects to transform community spaces utilizing innovative resin based planters. Designed by Florida-based TerraCast Products, an American owned and operated company; the planters are manufactured in the United States from a durable resin blend that resists sun and salt as well as the abuses of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The lightweight material allows for easy relocation during events or with seasonal changes.

"Areas all over the country are utilizing tactical urbanism for emerging public spaces, such as pedestrian plazas, streetscapes and parklets," said Brad Goldring, TerraCast Products CEO. "We are incredibly excited to have worked with NYDOT, many colleges, business improvement districts and the LA City Planning Commission to help design these new sites. We hope they highlight distinct approaches to public space management, and that these projects initiate other entities to succeed in creating thriving public spaces in their communities."

Successful public spaces require modernization, acceptance and maintenance: These projects implement all three. Under NYDOT and the NYC Plaza Program, Union Square, Madison Square and Times Square all feature TerraCast planters, which adhere to New York Citys exacting design requirements while ensuring the areas to be energetic centers of activity.

Baruch College introduced TerraCast commercial planters to convert a road located between two of their campus buildings into a student plaza. The planters were chosen as decorative barriers which best met the needs of the college because they are maintenance free and durable. The LA City Planning Commission accomplished something similar at Sunset Triangle Plaza when they renovated a street in Silver Lake into a pedestrian plaza utilizing TerraCast Products step planters. These planters separated Sunset Boulevard from people walking and dining outside.

In the last decade, these initiatives have breathed new life into the spaces within these cities, stated Lou Blondin, TerraCast Products CMO. In collaboration with these organizations, we are reimagining public spaces in a more pioneering and comprehensive way, and our products align with these concepts.

TerraCast Products modern resin planters contribute to this new approach to city building that integrates the reinforcing benefits of vibrant public spaces with tactical urbanism. TerraCast Planters last longer than products made from other materials, and they are cost-effective for project budgets. Constructed to not require any maintenance, TerraCast planters can withstand a variety of weather, including intense heat and harsh winter climates. The lightweight planters can be moved and loaded by hand, which allow for easy shipping and transporting on the job site.

Community organizations and cities are invited to find more information about TerraCast Products at http://www.terracastproducts.com.

About TerraCast Products

Robert Grossman founded TerraCast, originally RotoCast, in 1969. As an American owned and operated company, their focus is on creating an innovative and socially conscious business that balances eco-friendly practices with green materials. After recognizing the demand for cost-effective and quality manufacturing of environmentally sound products, TerraCast produced a unique resin-blend that they use to create their sustainable products. As the leading manufacturer and vendor of Roto-Molded planter pots and the only manufacturer of a proprietary, truly composite PolySteel lamp posts in the world, they are committed to the health and well being of the economy, the planet and the future.

For more information regarding TerraCast Products please contact them at (844) 837-7222 or email them at info(at)terracastproducts(dot)com.
Continued education directly ties to salary increases and advancement for most educators, which makes online programs appealing; they are minimally disruptive to working teachers, many of whom also have families.

BestColleges.com, a leading provider of independent higher education rankings and college planning guides, today announced a new collection of rankings focused on degree opportunities in the Education sector.

The collection of rankings now covers over 30 online degrees and specializations in the field of education. Some of the highlights include rankings on in-demand subjects like math and science education, early childhood education, special education and educational technology. A set of five doctoral program overviews also explore the benefits of getting an online EdD, what schools offer the programs and career outcomes for graduates.

Our collection of rankings are intended to showcase the substance and breadth online higher education can provide a student interested in a career in education, said Stephanie Snider, General Manager of BestColleges.com. If weve seen anything while compiling these rankings, its that the Education sector is vast and complex with exciting and challenging opportunities. Never has there been better access, or more options, for students wanting to enter the field. Continued education directly ties to salary increases and advancement for most educators, which makes online programs appealing; they are minimally disruptive to working teachers, many of whom also have families.

To view the complete collection of education rankings, please visit: http://bit.ly/2vBX7KG

Highlights of the five most popular education rankings:

Top five schools from each list of twenty-five shown

Bachelor's in Education:

1. University of Georgia

2. East Carolina University

3. Appalachian State University

4. University of North Carolina Wilmington

5. Liberty University

To view the rest of the ranking visit: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-online-teaching-programs/

Masters in Education

1. Johns Hopkins University

2. University of Georgia

3. University of Central Florida

4. Michigan State University

5. University of South Carolina-Columbia

To view the rest of the ranking visit: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-online-masters-education-programs/

Masters in Early Childhood Education

1. University of Dayton

2. University of Colorado Denver

3. University of North Dakota

4. Erikson Institute

5. West Chester University of Pennsylvania

To view the rest of the ranking visit: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-masters-in-early-childhood-education-online-programs

Masters in Educational Administration

1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2. Texas A&M University

3. Columbia International University

4. University of South Carolina-Columbia

5. Stony Brook University

To view the rest of the ranking visit: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-online-programs-masters-in-educational-administration/

Masters in Special Education

1. University of Florida

2. George Washington University

3. Texas A & M University-College Station

4. George Mason University

5. University of South Florida-Main Campus

To view the rest of the ranking visit: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-online-masters-in-special-education-programs/

Rankings Methodology:

The methodology behind BestColleges.coms rankings is grounded in statistical data and a few consistently applied guiding principles. The 2017 rankings reflect the most recent data compiled from IPEDS and the College Navigator, both of which are hosted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Their goal is to objectively assess relative quality based on academic outcomes, affordability, and the breadth and depth of online learning opportunities.

About BestColleges.com:

BestColleges.com helps prospective students find the school that best meets their needs through proprietary research, user-friendly guides, and hundreds of unique college rankings. They also provide a wide array of college planning, financial aid, and career resources to help all students get the most from their education and prepare them for the world after college.
HNTB Corporation released a new aviation media kit highlighting the firms perspective on airport funding and trends, including the importance of customer experience and ground transportation connections. The kit also provides information about the firms aviation experts, links to HNTB aviation thought leadership resources and more.

Additional material includes a look at the need for sustainable airport funding to match projected increases in passenger enplanements over the next 20 years, including public-private partnerships as a viable solution. The kit also provides insights into enhanced customer experience and connections to ground transportation, both key desires of air travelers that were revealed by a recent HNTB America THINKS survey, Airport Terminals-2017.

HNTB has other timely resources available covering:

Connected and automated vehicles

America THINKS Survey Series

Tolling

Transit and Rail

Surface Transportation Funding

Accelerated Bridge Construction

HNTB experts are available to comment on these and many other infrastructure trends and topics.

About HNTB

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving public and private owners and contractors. With more than a century of service in the United States, HNTB understands the life cycle of infrastructure and addresses clients most complex technical, financial and operational challenges. Professionals nationwide deliver a full range of infrastructure-related services, including award-winning planning, design, program management and construction management. For more information, visit http://www.hntb.com.
This transaction was emblematic of the way we at Ziegler help our clients achieve their goals in an increasingly complex healthcare environment...

Ziegler, a specialty investment bank, is pleased to announce its role in advising Med Fusion in its recent sale to Quest Diagnostics. The transaction allowed Quest Diagnostics to acquire Med Fusion, creating a base in the southwestern United States for providing precision medicine diagnostics to aid cancer treatment and care.



Headquartered in Lewisville, Texas, Med Fusion is an advanced diagnostics laboratory business providing support to a wide range of healthcare providers. The company is positioned to introduce more targeted precision medicine diagnostics for oncology and help enhance healthcare delivery system efficiencies.

In connection with the transaction, Quest is now a preferred provider to several organizations that were formerly owners of Med Fusion. These organizations include The US Oncology Network (The Network), Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH), Texas Oncology and Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories. The Network is the largest of its kind, consisting of more than 400 locations across the United States and over 1,400 independent, community-based physicians, including Texas Oncology. BSWH is the largest not-for-profit health care system in the state of Texas, with 12 hospitals in North Texas. Additional terms were not disclosed.

Kirk Kaminsky, President, The US Oncology Network and Practice Management, said, We are excited to team up with Quest as a way to further enhance our ability to support The Network physicians and their patients. The development of evidence-based diagnostic pathways will complement other aspects of our value-based care models and contribute to our efforts to keep cutting-edge cancer treatment available to all. Ziegler was instrumental in facilitating the process that led to a mutually beneficial conclusion.

Dermot Shorten, Senior Vice President, Strategy, M&A and Ventures at Quest Diagnostics, added, Ziegler was an important advisor in helping us to understand the full complexity of the two co-located laboratories and the various interrelationships with each owner-entity. This was a complicated transaction and Ziegler was up to the task of helping each party navigate their way to a successful result.

Ernie Sims, Executive Director of Texas Oncology, concluded, Ziegler was critical to the success of this process, in part because of their ability to help balance all the various concerns of a very diverse group of owners.

Grant Chamberlain, Managing Director in Ziegler's Corporate Finance Healthcare practice, commented, This transaction was emblematic of the way we at Ziegler help our clients achieve their goals in an increasingly complex healthcare environment. I believe the entity and partnerships we have built between Quest and the original founders will help improve the care of cancer patients. Mr. Chamberlain was assisted in this transaction by Patrick Walsh, Adam Heller, Kari OBrien and Jenny Poth.

Ziegler's Corporate Finance practice is focused on delivering best-in-class advisory and financing solutions for companies and organizations across the healthcare industry. In our core practice areas of healthcare services, information technology, hospitals and senior living, Ziegler is one of the most active M&A firms offering innovative sell-side, buy-side, recapitalization/restructuring, equity private placement and strategic partnering services.

For more information about Ziegler, please visit us at http://www.Ziegler.com.

About Med Fusion:

Headquartered in Lewisville, Texas, Med Fusion is an advanced diagnostics laboratory organization providing support to a wide range of healthcare providers. The company is positioned to introduce more precision medicine diagnostics for oncology and help enhance healthcare delivery system efficiencies. from its nearly 200,000-square foot facility. For more information, please visit http://www.medfusionservices.com.

About Ziegler:

Ziegler is a privately held investment bank, capital markets, wealth management and proprietary investments firm, celebrating its 115th anniversary this year. Ziegler is ranked No. 1 in the country in healthcare/senior living underwriters by issuance and No. 4 by par amount (Thomson Reuters, 2016), and is ranked in the top 20 municipal underwriters in the country by volume (Bloomberg, 2016). Specializing in the healthcare, senior living, education and religion sectors, as well as general municipal and structured finance, enables Ziegler to generate a positive impact on the communities it serves. Headquartered in Chicago with regional and branch offices throughout the United States, Ziegler provides its clients with capital raising, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed income sales & trading, wealth management and research. To learn more, visit http://www.Ziegler.com.

Certain comments in this news release represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This clients experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients, nor is it indicative of future performance or success. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the overall financial health of the securities industry, the strength of the healthcare sector of the U.S. economy and the municipal securities marketplace, the ability of the Company to underwrite and distribute securities, the market value of mutual fund portfolios and separate account portfolios advised by the Company, the volume of sales by its retail brokers, the outcome of pending litigation, and the ability to attract and retain qualified employees.

# # #
GammaTech 30Th Anniversary With 30 years in the mobility space and a focus on rugged computing solutions, GammaTech is a company our customers and partners can trust. Tom Wang, President, GammaTech

GammaTech Computer Corporation is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month. Founded in 1987, GammaTech is the North American branch of Twinhead International Corporation. Best known for its DURABOOK brand of rugged laptops, tablets, and all-in-one computers, the company has a long history in the U.S. mobile device market.

The devices our customer's purchase are critical to the success of their missions, said Tom Wang, President, GammaTech. When it comes to government, law enforcement and the support of critical infrastructure, businesses want to partner with a company that has extensive market expertise and delivers on reliability and performance, but also one that will be around if they need assistance. With 30 years in the mobility space and a focus on rugged computing solutions designed to operate in environments where failure is not an option, GammaTech is a company our customers and partners can trust. We look forward to the next 30 years of partnership, and innovation.

Early Years

GammaTech distributed its lines of laptop computers, including the Slimnote, Superlap, Supernote, and Efio brands, and also manufactured devices for well-known consumer brands. This practice spanned from the 1980s into the new millennium, at which point the company realized shifts in the market would require it to forge a new path.

Due to increasing commoditization in the PC industry, GammaTech adjusted its business model to focus on industrial and application-specific systems like those used by the military, public safety, oil & gas and field service organizations. This move allowed the company to leverage its expertise in designing, manufacturing and supporting mobility solutions, in a more differentiated and less crowded market.

Rugged Beginnings

In 2000, the company manufactured its first military-grade rugged notebook, the N1400, which was designed to meet MIL-STD-810F specifications for drop and vibration, and featured an Intel Pentium 4 processor running Windows XP.

DURABOOK Introduction

In 2002, the company launched its line of DURABOOK rugged notebooks. The DURABOOK N15RI featured a magnesium alloy case, a spill proof keyboard, and shock resistant LCD and hard drive mounts. The device was powered by an Intel Pentium M processor, ran Windows XP and was designed to meet MIL-STD-810F specifications for drop and vibration.

The DURABOOK line quickly expanded  now featuring ruggedized laptops, tablets, and all-in-one computers  to meet the demands of customers in a broad range of markets that require rugged mobility solutions. Known for reliability, performance and attractive acquisition costs, the DURABOOK brand now has a loyal customer base around the globe, including most branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, public safety agencies across the country, numerous field service organizations, as well as companies in oil & gas, logistics, healthcare, utilities and automotive markets.

Not only does the company create its rugged solutions, it is also a sought-after ODM, creating military-grade mobile computers for defense contractors and other device suppliers.

Besides offering the DURABOOK line of rugged computers, tablets, and all-in-one computers, GammaTech partners with AETools, Data911, and others to create market-specific solutions for areas like service diagnostics and public safety.

Service diagnostics and programming is a demanding market for any mobile device, said Joey Hendrich, CEO, AETools & Computers. Our customers need a solution that combines enterprise-leading software on a device that can be treated like any other one of the technician's tools. For 13 years weve used Durabook devices to meet this need. With GammaTech as a partner, we get the best rugged devices, service, and support we could ask for.

GammaTech also partners with respected installers to deliver valuable solutions to its target markets.

"Customers in markets like public safety, utilities, energy, field service, transportation, and government have unique and demanding needs," said Reuben Powell General Manager and Director of Operations at Precision Mounting Technologies Ltd. "By designing, manufacturing and assembling mounting systems in-house, we can maintain rigorous quality control and deliver world-class solutions. We only partner with companies that have the same dedication to excellence. We've worked with GammaTech for four years and have found their DURABOOK products and support team to be exceptional. We deliver a great solution together and hope to maintain our partnership well into the future."

GammaTech Timeline & Milestones



1987: GammaTech USA established as the North American branch of Twinhead International Corporation

1980s: ODM for top-tier laptop computer brands

1991: Introduced the Supernote and Slimnote laptops, both 386sx devices with VGA screens for under $3,500

1990s: Introduced its Superlap, and Efio laptop brands

2000: ODMd first rugged MIL-STD-810E device, 8.4 tablet running Windows XP tablet PC edition

2000: Companys first military-grade rugged computer, the N1400

2002: First DURABOOK branded semi-rugged laptop, the DURABOOK D14RI

2008: Companys first fully rugged medical tablet PC (MCA) based on Intel reference architecture, the MT10

2009: ODMd its first rugged MIL-STD-810F device, 13.3 fully rugged laptop running Windows Vista Business or Windows XP

2013: Introduced a 10.1 semi-rugged Windows tablet, the DURABOOK CA10

2013: Introduced the 14 semi-rugged Windows laptop, the DURABOOK SA14

2014: Introduced its fully-rugged laptopan evolution of a product it ODMd for a major defense contractorthe DURABOOK R8300

2014: Introduced its first all-in-one (AIO) medical-grade device, the DURABOOK P24

2014: Introduced fully rugged 11 Windows tablet, the DURABOOK R11

2015: Introduced its latest semi-rugged laptop, the DURABOOK S15AB

30th Anniversary Rebate Program

From September 1, 2017, through October 31, 2017, GammaTech will celebrate its 30th Anniversary with a special rebate offer on its SA14 and S15AB models. Resellers can find program details at the DURABOOK partner portal. Interested customers can visit the Where to Buy section of the GammaTech website to locate an Authorized DURABOOK reseller.

GammaTech Support Services

To help its customers address the challenges and complexity of deploying and managing their mobility solutions, GammaTech offers a wide range of support services, including device customization, consulting, disk imaging, deployment assistance, installation, extended and no-fault warranty options, warranty depot repair center with 48 hour turn-around-time, live call center, device retirement, and an online support center for drivers and manuals.

Availability

DURABOOK rugged computers are available from authorized resellers. All products include a standard three-year warranty. Sales inquiries for DURABOOK products should be directed to sales(at)gammatechusa(dot)com or 800-995-8946.

About GammaTech Computer Corporation

GammaTech Computer Corporation is the North American branch of Twinhead International Corporation, a leading manufacturer and customizer of rugged computing solutions, including the globally acclaimed DURABOOK brand. Driven to meet customer needs, DURABOOK devices are designed, manufactured and tested in-house to assure maximum quality and reliability. These cost-effective ruggedized laptops, tablets, and all-in-one PCs are high-performance solutions that increase productivity, drive a clear return on investment and deliver a low total cost of ownership for government and enterprise customers in markets like oil & gas, power & utilities, field service, military, and public safety.

GammaTech Computer Corporation, headquartered in Fremont, California, provides final assembly, inventory, services, and technical support. For more information on GammaTech and the DURABOOK product line, visit http://www.GammaTechUSA.com.

All products/services and trademarks mentioned in this release are the properties of their respective companies.

2017 GammaTech Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.
Home Care Assist Home Care Assist is the middle ground between expensive in-home care agencies and a do it yourself mentality involving word-of-mouth searches. Were excited to bring a trustworthy, affordable option for in-home care to Georgia families.

Home Care Assist, a unique online compatibility matching service for in-home care, recently launched in Georgia with a focus on the Atlanta market. The user-friendly online platform is revolutionizing the way people connect within the home care industry by connecting people seeking in-home care with private-duty caregivers based on personal interests  an industry first  in addition to conventional criteria such as location, experience and skill sets.

While traditional methods of finding in-home care can be effective, they can also be expensive, time consuming or shift control of care to a third party, said Brian VanHook, co-founder and CEO of Home Care Assist. Home Care Assist is the middle ground between expensive in-home care agencies and a do it yourself mentality involving word-of-mouth searches. Were excited to bring a trustworthy, affordable option for in-home care to Georgia families.

For careseekers, Home Care Assist is a personalized option that generates a curated list of screened, compatible caregivers, allowing careseekers to retain control of in-home care while being connected to safe, qualified caregivers with common interests. The service fosters meaningful relationships between caregivers and careseekers and can be used as a valuable supplement to existing care in instances where family caregivers need respite.

For private-duty caregivers, the Home Care Assist online platform works for them to fill schedules with rewarding relationships and meaningful work. Instead of constant job hunts and mismatched clients, Home Care Assist gives private-duty caregivers freedom to enjoy their career with well-matched clients that seek them.

All schedule and payment negotiations take place directly between caregivers and careseekers. The direct connection between those giving and receiving care encourages caregivers to earn approximately 25 to 40 percent more while reducing careseeker cost when compared to traditional agency fees.

To establish connections through Home Care Assist, visit HomeCareAssist.com and click on For Caregivers or For Careseekers. Caregivers are prompted to create a free profile and complete registration. Careseekers can trial the service with a free 5-day pass. Other options for careseekers include a 15-day pass for $59, a 30-day subscription for $79, and a 90-day subscription for $159. In addition to standard questions to capture careseeker needs and caregiver skills, both groups can anticipate questions like, Do you like to read?, Are you interested in history? and, Do you enjoy playing board games? All caregivers must pass a background screening to be connected to careseekers.

Home Care Assist is actively engaging both caregivers and careseekers in Atlanta and throughout Georgia with intentions of launching in additional markets throughout the Southeast in 2017.

Editors Note: Home Care Assist CEO Brian VanHook is available for interviews. Please contact Stephanie Llorente at sllorente(at)prepcomm(dot)com or 919-271-6491 for information.

About Home Care Assist

Home Care Assist is improving the way people connect within the home care industry. As a trusted, affordable compatibility matching service for in-home care, HCAs user-friendly online platform connects careseekers and private-duty caregivers to offer a personalized alternative to traditional home care agencies. Home Care Assist's network of qualified caregivers provide care for a variety of in-home needs such as elder care, rehab assistance and new parent support. It is the first online service for in-home care to connect caregivers and careseekers based on personality and skill sets for mutual compatibility. Home Care Assist is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C.

Friend and follow Home Care Assist on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+ or visit HomeCareAssist.com for additional information.

Media Contact: Stephanie Llorente

Prep Communications

919-271-6491

sllorente(at)prepcomm(dot)com
Date aired: July 10th, 2017

Guest: Anders Nilsson. Ph.D., Department of Physics, Stockholm University & Stanford University, http:http://www.su.se/English/profiles/andersn-1.186733

Anders Nilsson is a well known physicist who calls two countries homeSweden and the United States. In his native Sweden, Nilsson is Professor of Chemical Physics at Stockholm University; in California he is Professor of Photon Science at Stanford University. With science pedigrees like these, it is somewhat unusual to find that Professor Nilsson is also a well known and respected spiritual writer. His 2014 The Gentle Way of the Heart, which received a silver medal in the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards, urges readers to consider holistic approaches to personal and societal health. The medical profession knows how to treat many illness, said Nillson, but it has largely given up the noble pursuit of finding cures.

Water advocate Sharon Kleyne agrees and was thrilled to welcome Nilsson as a guest to her radio show, the nationally syndicated The Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water, Global Climate Change and Your Health on VoiceAmerica sponsored by Natures Tears EyeMist. Like Nilsson, Kleyne is an internationally respected researcher who believes in holistic care, she is a believer in health practices such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong. She has also long lobbied politicians and others to fund research seeking cures for diseases.

For twenty years, Nilsson has also studied the fundamental properties and structure of liquid water and chemical energy transformations on surfaces that are, for instance, related to artificial photosynthesis. The author and co-author of more than 300 scientific papers published in journals such as Science and Nature, Nilsson was one of the scientists featured in the 2014 television production about the oceans, Through the Wormhole by Morgan Freeman.

Thats why its so important that we make water our number one infrastructure priority, said Kleyne. Water should also be our number one research priority, Kleyne added. Nilsson agreed but sounded this caution: water is a very controversial subject, Nilsson said. Both agreed that water is not grant-money-friendly, especially in the U.S. That is why Nilsson had to return to Sweden part of the year, so that he could continue his water research.

Nilsson and Kleyne said that new water infrastructure is critical because we are in danger of losing the life-giving water on earth. Kleyne and Nilsson blamed politicians for putting their own limited self-interest above education, research and infrastructure and both wished that they would learn the lessons of history. Ancient civilizations like the Incas, like Rome, said Nilsson, built roads not so that people could get around, but so that they could get water to the cities and towns.

If you missed the program and would like to listen to it, you can tune in here: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/100129/the-sharon-kleyne-hour Would you like to share your thoughts? If you do, wed like very much to hear from you! Sharon(at)biologicaquaresearch(dot)com 800-367-6478 ~ Fax 541-474-2123 http://www.naturestears.com or on Twitter at @sharonkleynehr
Wholesale Property Depot (http://www.paycash4houses.net) is pleased to offer no-obligation quotes for homeowners in Jacksonville, Florida.

We know that sometimes homeowners simply need a quote so they can make an informed decision between selling the home to a home buyer for cash, or risking the sale in the traditional real estate market, said company spokesperson, Veronica Hernandez. Wholesale Property Depot is happy to offer a quote without any pressure or obligation to the homeowner to sell.

Getting a quote from Wholesale Property Depot is fast and easy. Simply fill out an online form or contact the company by phone. If the home fits the required investment criteria, a walk-through is scheduled and a quote is provided. If the homeowner accepts the price, Wholesale Property Depot takes care of the paperwork for the title transfer and they get money quickly upon the closing of the sale.

We actually prefer homes that need repairs, says Hernandez. This gives homeowners a chance to sell without doing any repair or renovations. Closing a sale only takes 2-3 weeks, but if the homeowner is in a hurry, we can close in three days. The homeowner doesnt have to worry about any fees or commissions taken out the sale either. We are homebuyers, not realtors, so the price we quote is the full price the homeowner gets.

To get a quote on a home in Jacksonville, Florida, fill out the form at http://paycash4houses.net/get-cash-offer today, or call 904-531-3113. Remember, there is never any obligation to accept the quote.

About Wholesale Property Depot

Wholesale Property Depot buys houses in Jacksonville, Florida, and we pay you for your house in cash! This means you can get a quick sale no matter what condition the house is in. Free yourself from the nightmare of cleaning, renovating and staging your home, and simply go the new and progressive way to sell your house in Jacksonville  fast, for cash.

Contact Details:

Veronica Hernandez

6001-21 Argyle Forest Blvd. #32244

Jacksonville, FL 32244

Phone: 904-531-3113

Source: Wholesale Property Depot

###
Isodiol We have developed product lines and brands which will generate revenues and profitability and now were positioned to begin exploring additional expansion opportunities.

Isodiol International Inc. (CSE: ISOL) (OTC: LAGBF) (Frankfurt: LB6A.F) (the Company or Isodiol) a global cannabis innovator, specializing in the development of pharmaceutical and consumer products, announces the operational numbers of its wholly-owned subsidiary for the period from April 1, 2017 to June 30, 2017. Iso International LLC recorded unaudited fiscal Q1 profits of $897,596 based on revenues of $4,919,693 CAD.

Marcos Agramont CEO of Isodiol stated, Demonstrating Q1 profitability is a major milestone for our company and our investors. The cannabis industry on a whole will be legitimized by demonstrating successful commercialization and operating in an environment which promotes the cannabis movement. We have developed product lines and brands which will generate revenues and profitability and now were positioned to begin exploring additional expansion opportunities. Vertical integration, expanding product distribution channels and out-of-state manufacturing and processing are all opportunities we will aggressively develop and execute.

About Isodiol International Inc.

Isodiol International, Inc. is the market leader in pharmaceutical grade cannabis compounds and the industry leader in manufacturing and development of consumer products. Isodiol's nutraceutical division is the pioneer of many firsts for Hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD), including 99% pure crystalline isolate, micro-encapsulation, and nano technology for the highest quality consumable and topical skin care products.

Isodiol's growth strategy includes the development of over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs, seeking joint ventures and acquisitions to expand its portfolio of brands and subsidiaries and will aggressively continue International expansion into Latin America, Asia and Europe.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Marcos Agramont CEO & Director

CORPORATE MEDIA:

ir(at)isodiol(dot)com

http://www.isodiol.com

Join Us On Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/isodiol/

Twitter: @isodiol

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Companys business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.
Jim Spavins There has never been a more exciting time to leverage astonishing scientific advances in disease understanding with optimum delivery technology.

The Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute today announced that Mr. Jim Spavins, a veteran pharmaceutical industry executive, has joined the Institutes Advisory Board. Mr. Spavins brings over 36 years of industry and academic experience to the Institute, having previously worked at all levels of research and development, reaching the position of Senior Vice President of Pfizer's Global Pharma Therapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences group before starting his own consulting business, Spavins Consulting LLC.

I look forward to working with the CADDI Board to help rapidly advance innovative drug delivery solutions to patients, Mr. Spavins commented. There has never been a more exciting time to leverage astonishing scientific advances in disease understanding with optimum delivery technology.

Im very pleased to welcome Jim to the Institute, added Dr. Cornell Stamoran, Founder of the Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute and Catalents VP Strategy. He brings us a wealth of scientific and leadership experience, front line exposure to translational drug delivery, and a strong passion to enhance patient focus during drug development.

Mr. Spavins has worked across large and small R&D groups within all the technical disciplines of chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) development, as well as regulatory, quality, clinical supply, commercial manufacture, and economic analysis. His successful development projects have included in-house discovery programs, as well as working with small start-ups to bring licensed or acquired programs through development. In addition, Mr. Spavins has broad experience with of a wide network of contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and other partners to advance programs.

Mr. Spavins holds a bachelors degree in chemistry from Queens College, New York, as well as a Master of Arts degree in analytical chemistry, and a Master of Science degree in chemical engineering, both from University of Buffalo, New York.

Notes for Editors

About Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute

Catalents Applied Drug Delivery Institute was founded to serve as a link between industry and academia, advance education and training in drug delivery in academia and the industry, accelerate adoption of applied drug delivery technologies to develop better treatments, and foster industry collaboration on major issues pertaining to drug development, formulation, and delivery. It is pursuing a multi-tiered approach of research, strategic counsel, and educational programs to advance the adoption of emerging technologies.

For more details on the Catalent Institute, visit http://www.drugdeliveryinstitute.com and follow the Catalent Institute on Twitter: @DrugDeliveryIns

About Catalent

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products. With over 80 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs approximately 10,000 people, including over 1,400 scientists, at more than 30 facilities across five continents, and in fiscal 2016 generated $1.85 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information, visit http://www.catalent.com

More products. Better treatments. Reliably supplied.
Elmira's Northstar

Elmira Stove Works, an independently owned and operated Canadian appliance manufacturer based in Elmira, Ontario, is celebrating Canadas 150th birthday by partnering with craft brewers across the country to host a real Canadian Story competition where consumers submit a story and enter into a chance to receive a new red refrigerator.

The Canadian Story Competition will be held from Canada Day which is July 1st through Monday, October 9th, and consumers are encouraged to submit their Real Canadian Story to Elmira. The person who submits the most compelling story will be awarded a special edition 18 cubic foot CANADA 150 Northstar fridge, complete with draft system and Proudly Made in Canada slogan.

Elmira is all about Canadiana and nostalgia, says Tony Dowling, vice president of marketing for Elmira Stove Works. We trace our roots back to a wood burning cookstove first manufactured in Canada in 1908, and that we acquired the rights to in 1975."

Stories will be judged based on:



Nostalgic value

Relevance to refrigerators

Relevance to beer (especially Canadian beer)

Entertainment and / or human interest value

Relevance to Canada

Stories must not exceed 500 words or depict or represent illegal or unethical activities. One entry per person is allowed. Entry must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on October 9, 2017. Creativity is encouraged and appreciated! Entries should be submitted to media@elmirastoveworks.com, or mailed to Elmira Stove Works at the following address:

285 Union Street

Elmira, ON CANADA N3B 3P1

The person receiving the award will be selected and notified during the week of October 16, 2017.

Elmiras Northstar brand offers six retro fridge models  ranging from a compact 11 cubic foot all-fridge to a mega 25 cubic foot French door model, which are all available with or without a factory-installed draft beer system.

About Elmira Stove Works:

Elmira Stove Works has been manufacturing vintage-styled ranges since 1975, and offers full lines of circa-1850 and retro 1950s appliances, including ranges, refrigerators, microwaves, wall ovens, range hoods, splashbacks and wood-burning cookstoves. Elmira appliances are sold through dealers across North America. To learn more about Elmira Stove Works and its products, visit http://www.elmirastoveworks.com or call 800.295.8498.
Total Dental Care in Germantown, MD Our practice is unique because we have specialist dentists available to provide comprehensive care, from sedation dentistry to orthodontics.

Total Dental Care is excited to launch its new Hybrid-Responsive Website at: http://www.totaldentalcaremd.com.

According to Dr. Mary Alexander, DDS, DMSC, a periodontist at Total Dental Care, Patients want a way to learn about our practice from an ultra responsive website. Our practice is unique because we have specialist dentists available to provide comprehensive care, from sedation dentistry to orthodontics. With the new website, new patients can take a virtual tour of our office, read through patient testimonials, and find out about the backgrounds of our dental team without having to schedule an appointment first.

Dr. Mary Alexander attended Harvard University to earn her clinical specialty in periodontics and a medical science doctorate, where she studied bone function and metabolic disease. Shes an extensively trained periodontist with experience in dental implantology, periodontal plastic surgery, and bone regenerative procedures. She utilizes all of this training to provide the highest quality periodontic care to her patients.

Dr. Alexander is just one of the eight dentists on staff. Each dentist or orthodontist contributes their unique specialty to the practice to provide the most comprehensive care in the Maryland area. Dr. Duane Erickson, DDS is an orthodontic specialist who has been named as one of the best orthodontics by his dental peers and patients in Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Consumers Checkbook. Dr. Josephine Amigo is a pediatric dentist with more than 22 years of experience providing dental care to children, teens, and adults.

In addition, the practice also has an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon on staff, Dr. Sivakumar Sreenivasan, DMD, MDS. Dr. Sreenivasan provides patients with a wide range of oral surgery options, including jaw surgery, wisdom teeth removal, and placement of immediate implants following extraction. He also performs Teeth in a Day procedures along with the restorative team of dentists in the office, Drs. Mistry, Narendra and Patterson. In addition, Dr. Sreenivasan treats patients with TMJ disorders and sleep apnea. He is a fellow of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology.

Together, these dental professionals provide comprehensive and specialty care to patients in Germantown, all as one practice. According to Dr. Alexander, For first time patients, we hope the website can provide clarification about the different services we offer in a streamlined way. Now, they can access information on their mobile phones and on the go.

About Total Dental Care

Total Dental Care is a comprehensive dental office in Germantown, MD. With general dentists, pediatric dentists, orthodontists, an oral surgeon, and a periodontist on staff, Total Dental Care can take care of every patient dental care need. To learn more or to request an appointment, call (240) 813-9111 or visit the office at 20680 Seneca Meadows Parkway, Suite #218, Germantown, MD 20876 or go to https://www.totaldentalcaremd.com.
Chuck Poulin

Chuck Poulin has over 21 years of mortgage banking experience in both sales and management. He has personally overseen several billion dollars in originations at the retail level and continues to focus on providing an outstanding experience for his customers and business partners. As a branch manager, he will be responsible for the recruiting and development of mortgage sales professionals in the Orland Park area. Outside of origination, Chuck Poulin is the radio show host on AM 560s RealEstateRevealed, which airs Sundays from 8 am to 9 am Central Time. He also serves as a board member of the Midlothian Chamber of Commerce.

I recently joined Inlanta because of the people and their passion for doing what is right for the borrowers. We offer industry leading rates with superior technology and marketing. Mix this with a great group of mortgage industry professionals that have a passion for making a difference, it was an honor to join Team Inlanta, Chuck Poulin said.

He continued, After meeting and working with all departments at Inlanta, it was an easy decision to be part of something great.

Inlanta Mortgage Regional Vice President Brian Jensen said, We are excited to welcome Chuck to Team Inlanta. He offers his clients the honesty, candor, and respect they deserve. He has been a top achiever in all of his career endeavors. All of these qualities align with Inlantas mission and culture, so we are confident he will be a great fit here.

In addition to Chuck Poulin, Barbara Sim joins the office as a Loan Originator and Damon Nazar as a Loan Officer Assistant. Chuck Poulin can be reached at 630-816-4669 or chuckpoulin@inlanta.com. The Orland Park office is located at 9999 West 143rd Street, Suite A, Orland Park, IL 60462

About Inlanta Mortgage

Headquartered in Pewaukee, WI, Inlanta Mortgage was established in 1993. The company has grown to over 40 branches in 20 states and over 250 employees. Inlanta Mortgages mission is to be the home financing partner that you trust to serve your family, friends, and community. Their team of dedicated mortgage professionals is committed to delivering an exceptional experience using honest and ethical lending practices.

Inlanta Mortgage was named a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Inlanta has been consistently recognized as one of the 50 Best Mortgage Companies to Work For by Mortgage Executive Magazine and one of the countrys Top Mortgage Employers by National Mortgage Professional.

Inlanta Mortgage continually seeks branch managers and loan officers who want to grow their business. To learn about growth opportunities, please contact David Williams (Colorado and Texas) at davidwilliams(at)inlanta.com or 303-947-1960; Brian Jensen (Midwest) at brianjensen(at)inlanta.com or 630-927-0380; or Kevin Laffey (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa) at kevinlaffey@inlanta.com or 913-645-4647. To learn about opportunities in other locations, visit http://www.inlantapartners.com, call 262-439-4260, or email partners(at)inlanta.com.

Inlanta Mortgage, Inc. NMLS#1016. Chuck Poulin, NMLS # 210058. Barbara Sim, NMLS#755989.
TAWANI Foundation has made a $1 million major gift and a $1 million challenge grant to support the $25 million comprehensive restorations of Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple in Oak Park.

The restoration of Unity Temple was completed in early June, just in time to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wrights birth. It has left almost nothing untouched in this National Historic Landmark and one of Frank Lloyd Wrights most notable public buildings. It is considered by many architects to be the first modern building in the world.

Ms. Pritzker, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard and TAWANI Foundations president and founder is a prominent entrepreneur and celebrated philanthropist. One of the TAWANI Foundations primary interests is community-based restoration projects and it provides support for preserving unique sites of significance to American and military history.

The Unity Temple has been an important part of Oak Park for decades, and were thrilled that our gift has succeeded in returning one of Frank Lloyd Wrights most iconic buildings in history to its original beauty and grandeur, said Colonel Pritzker. TAWANI Foundation takes seriously its responsibility to preserve and restore unique, historic sites that reclaim celebrated landmarks in our communities. This project underscores that commitment.

Unity Templewhich Wright himself called my contribution to modern architecture was constructed from 1906-1908, and while some restoration and minor repairs have been done to the building over the years, this is the first comprehensive restoration and includes work on both the exterior and interior. The project began in spring 2015.

Unity Temple Restoration Foundation (UTRF) is responsible for the fundraising campaign.

We could not be more honored than to have Colonel Pritzkers philanthropic commitment, especially because of her long-standing interest, enthusiasm and investment in preserving historic structures of national and international architectural significance. That she has selected Unity Temple as the recipient of her generosity, is an imprimatur that will hopefully inspire others to make gifts that will be matched dollar for dollar by the TAWANI Foundation and help us fulfill the financial obligations still pending for the restoration of this iconic building, said Heather Hutchison, executive director of UTRF.

Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple is an architectural masterpiece, embodying the bold elegance, visionary experimentation and functional integrity that characterize modern architecture. Wright designed the building to house two distinct spaces: Unity Temple, a four-level cubic auditorium (sanctuary and worship space) in the north wing, and Unity House, for the congregations social, cultural and educational gatherings in the south wing. Both feature geometric forms and muted earth tones, expressing natural simplicity, warmth and order. Unity Temple is one of few Wright buildings designed for public use and one of even fewer buildings that continues to serve its original purpose as a place of worship. The design was so different from traditional churches, including those near it in Oak Park that the congregation called the new building a temple.

The restoration of Unity Temple was launched with a $10 million grant from the Alphawood Foundation in 2013. The Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist congregation, which calls the building its spiritual home, also contributed more than $1.75 million to the project. Additional contributions have been received by Unity Temple Restoration Foundation including a $200,000 grant from the Getty Foundations Keeping It Modern Initiative and other philanthropic individuals and foundations. The campaign to raise the remaining dollars will continue after the doors to Unity Temple open to the public.

Given successful completion of the TAWANI Foundation challenge by private individuals and foundations, the TAWANI Foundation will have inspired $3 million in charitable gifts, bringing the funds needed to be raised for the project to just under $9 million.

To make a donation to the restoration of Unity Temple, call the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation at 708-338-8873 or visit the Foundations website at http://www.utrf.org.

About Unity Temple:

Unity Temple Restoration Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois. The purpose of the Foundation is to: a) Facilitate the restoration and preservation of Unity Temple; b) Develop financial resources for the restoration, preservation, endowment, annual operating and maintenance expenses; and c) Develop and manage tour and educational programs at Unity Temple. For more information: http://www.utrf.org.

About TAWANI Enterprises:

TAWANI Enterprises, headquartered in Chicago, is an investment group specializing in the development, investment, management and preservation of real estate properties in the Chicago area. The company represents a diversified portfolio of iconic brands, such as Stone Heritage Properties, a luxury collection of historic Bed & Breakfast properties and unique event spaces, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the TAWANI Foundation and the Pritzker Military Foundation. Properties under the Stone Heritage Properties luxury collection include Stone Terrace, Stone Porch by the Lake, Lang House, The Emil Bach House and The Lincoln Way Inn. For more information, visit http://www.tawanienterprises.com or @pritzkerlibrary.
According to the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Elisabeth Afoley Quaye, other countries are ready to take Ghanas place on the European market if the right things are not done to escape sanctions from the European Union (EU).

READ ALSO: The sad story behind the collapse of fruit juice factories in Ghana

Speaking on Accra-based Class FM, she said: if we dont do proper fishing, other countries that are in trade with us will stop doing business with us.

Most of our fishes go to the European market, and, so, if we dont liaise with them to help us fight illegal fishing, a time may come that they will stop doing business with us. This is the time that we need to do the right thing, so we dont lose the European market to other countries, she added.

She said this has caused the government to embark on a project to ensure fishermen do not engage in illegal fishing activities.
Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The service, Kaspersky Free, includes antivirus scanning and protection for your files, emails, and web usage, as well as automatic updates and a quarantine service to safely contain malicious computer bugs.

Usually, certain features that are key for effective protection, like automatic updates, don't come with free antivirus services. But Kaspersky Free still isn't the full-fat service you'd get with the paid service, which costs $50 a year for a single device. Missing in Kaspersky Free are features like a virtual private network to protect your privacy, extra security for online shopping and financial transactions, and parental controls.

Still, Kaspersky Free seemingly provides the protection most people need to protect themselves from cyberthreats. And it won't come with ads, which you'll often find on free antivirus software.

Kaspersky Lab said it would roll out Kaspersky Free globally over four months, with the US being one of the first countries to receive it.

It's incredibly important to have security against malicious attacks on your computer, as threats come hand in hand with owning a computer connected to the internet.

Kaspersky's move comes amid increasing scrutiny of its software and its base in Russia. The US government recently removed the company from its list of approved vendors because of a vulnerability in Kaspersky's antivirus software that could provide the Russian government access to US government systems that use the software, The Washington Post reported. According to The Post, Kaspersky has "strongly denied" any ties with the Russian government, and it has offered to cooperate with federal investigations.
The traders argued that they previously paid GHS500 but are now taxed GHS1, 300. They argue that the new rate is too high and that is why they cant pay.

READ ALSO: Cabinet approves implementation of cash waterfall mechanism

Osei explained that at a meeting held on July 12, he together with all the heads of the small and medium taxpayers unit in the Ashanti Region agreed that the shops be unlocked due to the complaints from the traders.

However, the Krofrom or Ashtown small taxpayer office went again to lock up the shops which nearly resulted in demonstrations across Kumasi.

Adding the 2017 tax assessment figures are abnormal and totally unacceptable, he added.

He said the taxpayers may fail to pay the taxes because they think it is pure concoction of inefficiency, incompetence and corruption and this government will not sanction such an astronomical increase in taxes.

The Minister, therefore, asked that the shops are unlocked for the traders to go about their normal duties.
The NCBC is a subsidiary of Vodafone Ghana.

The payment was confirmed by the Head of Task Force division of GRA Henry Bradford Sam to Accra-based Citi FM.

He said that the National Communications Backbone Company raised issues concerning the tax audit that was conducted and in conformity with the tax law, they were required to pay 30% of the liability. Per our calculation, the thirty percent by amounts to about 9 million Ghana cedis. They have honoured the 30%.

He added that they are now at the next phase to reconcile and indicate the specific amount the NCBC is expected to pay.

We have moved to the next phase which is to reconcile with them the issue concerning the capital allowance and withholding taxes that occasion the liability. When the review is done, we will then have to inform them of our tax decision. The amount may go up or it may come down or even remain the same, but not until we are able to consider all our issues during the review.

READ ALSO: Minister orders GRA to unlock shops of traders

The GRA earlier served notice that it will sell off the assets of NCBC when the company was defaulting in taxes.

The NCBC is reported to have defaulted in capital gains tax to the tune of GH9,018,000. The Ghana Revenue Authority also issued a distress order on Tuesday, June 20th, 2017.
This is based on the prerequisite that he or she can go to school and receive an appropriate education, though the facility and motivated teachers alone are not enough.

READ ALSO: Ghanaian actress to pay fees for needy students

It is worrying to note that a structure in the school allocated for a library facility now serves as a store room and a place for eating, Kumasi-based Luv FM reports.

The headmaster of the school, Francis Samuel Kattah, complained that rooms and teaching materials such as books and computers are not enough.

Class Three teacher, Christopher Agyei Antwi, is disturbed about the situation, noting that it impacts negatively on teaching and learning.

Good quality education, according to the Sustainable Development Goals, must hinge on literacy and numeracy.

READ ALSO: Why the first year of university is so important

Yet under these bad conditions, the objective that by 2030, all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women achieve literacy and numeracy can hardly be reached.

Many children either read badly or cannot read at all because schools lack basic infrastructure and materials for effective teaching and learning.
D-Black and Wanlov in 2016 made headlines after engaging in a short but memorable lyrical battle.

In Wanlov's diss song titled "All Well" which was directed at D-Black, he levelled several allegations against D-Black.

One of the allegations that caught the eyes of the public was when Wanlov claimed D-Black duped Nigerian star, Davido during a concert in Tamale.

Addressing the issue on Pulse.com.gh live Facebook chat, D-Black denied duping Davido and gave a detailed account of how the whole issue happened.

Narrating the incident, the "Vera" hitmaker said:

In 2014, there was a show Salafest in Tamale. They (organisers) booked myself and Davido after our Carry Go music video shoot. Davido didnt show up so the promoter was very upset.

It was a weekend show but Davido had left Nigeria to London and said he was going to come to Ghana after London.

But, on the day he was supposed to leave he called me and said he left his Nigerian passport back in Nigeria so he can't make it to Ghana. So, he asked me to talk to the promoter. So, we postponed the show to two weeks after.

But, mind you, thats not Sala anymore  the festival was over.

Davido came two weeks later. It was hectic getting to Tamale. And when we got to Tamale, the promoter had booked the stadium and was expecting 30,000 people.

Now, when we got to the show, only half that number showed up. After the show, around 3 am, the promoter went to Davido and asked him to refund all his money.

It became a long argument and the promoter cancelled all the flights back to Accra. He insisted he wont let Davido leave until he gets all his money back.

We never really spoke about it  we kept it under wraps, he concluded.

D-Black is set to release a comeback song titled "Bottles" featuring Medikal on Friday, July 28.

The video for the song will premiere on Pulse.com.gh Facebook page at 10 am.
The purpose of the visit was to express their condolences over the loss of the music veteran and to also reassure the Yankson family of their full cooperation and assistance.

Officials present at this meeting included Alhaji Sidiku Buari (former MUSIGA president), Bessa Simon (1st vice Chairman, GHAMRO), Ahuma Ocansey Bosco (Dir. Of Communication and special projects, MUSIGA), Rev Fiifi Khan (Administrator, MUSIGA), Ras Caleb Adjetey (Greater Accra Chairman MUSIGA), Alex Odoi (Welfare Chairman, MUSIGA), Rev. Ghansah and Mr Henry Paa Kwasi Smith (Scratch studios).

The family said the customary one week after passing will be observed on August 4 after which other funeral arrangements will be announced to the general public.

READ ALSO: Gurrumul singer dies at 46

The Highlife artiste has given Ghanaians a slew of hits like "Yaaba", "Show Your Love","Abaayi", "Tenamenkyen", "Wo yeri anaa wo maame" and a lot more.
She was granted a bail today and is said to be cooperating with the authorities.

Although bail was granted, the Malafaka star is expected to report to the Police Station for further interrogation.

Inspector Dapaah confirmed the bail and hinted that she may be charged with indecent exposure.

Rashida became the centre of discussion when the social media sensation was thrown into the spotlight with the release of a video reigning insults on her ex.

Rashida Black Beauty has made headlines on several social media platforms after her nude video went viral.

READ ALSO: A-Plus attacks men of God
The suspects included two women and 11 men, with ages ranging from 19 to 50.

The Monday dawn operation was led by the Deputy Regional Commander ACP Doku who reports: Weve picked up intelligence that, some suspected criminals have invaded the area, so we sent a team led my deputy and supported by the crime officer to swoop the place.

READ ALSO: 3 teenagers arrested over Salafest shooting

Briefing the media on Tuesday, the Regional Police Commander, ACP Nana Asomah Hinneh said sharp devices such as knives, scissors were found on the suspects, who are going to be screened and, if culpable, prosecuted.
Narrating how the incident occurred, one of the colleagues of the deceased told Accra-based Class FM: I returned from a trip after I carried a load for someone. Upon arrival, I asked one of the colleagues of the whereabouts of Rahi, she did not reply. Some minutes later she also asked me the same question. I assumed Rahi had carried a load of a customer and was not yet back. Later in the day, one of the attendants here went into the shop to pick a bag of rice and noticed someone was on the floor with heavy bags of rice on her. He screamed and called for help. The guys at the nearby shops came around, lifted the bags and quickly rushed her to the hospital.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the Party Gbe rapper said that he will give the president 8.5.

In an exclusive interview with Pulse TV, D-Black said the presidents removal of unwanted taxes and some of his bold decisions won him the rating.

As a resident of Ghana, I would say that a few things have changed. I know that its not easy being a CEO of a company, how much more the president of a nation. And to change all the things that he has promised to change, Ive seen a few happen.

"I know that there are plans for everything to fall in place. I know that hes paid the huge debt that Ghana owed Nigeria of the energy sector. I know that he has dropped a lot of taxes, removed VAT from certain things like domestic airlines and bringing in spare parts. I know that the free SHS is about to take off.

The thing is that the layman, the Ghanaian sitting at home is expecting money in their pockets ASAP, but I know it is impossible and its an expectation. And I hope that the economy will grow enough for people to be able to live better lives in Ghana, he said.
Ms Charlotte Osei said the money estimated at over 2.5 million is in the ECs bank account at GCB Bank.

She said the failure of the EC to have captured the amount in its financial statement for 2017 was an oversight.

The EC boss was served a summon last week by Parliament following an urgent question filed by the member of parliament for Subin, Eugene Antwi over some discrepancies in the Commissions 2017 financial statement.

READ ALSO: EC boss summoned to Parliament

The MP said that the EC did not capture the monies it raised during the 2016 elections.

Journalists were asked by the EC to pay an amount of GHS10 for accreditation to enable them to have access to polling stations.

The EC in a statement ahead of the polls said: Accreditation tags will be given to only those who have formally applied for it and for a fee to be determined by the Commission.

Many disagreed with the move as they felt that funds were earmarked by the government to the EC to conduct the elections.

READ ALSO: Accreditation fee case thrown out

Nevertheless, the monies accrued did not find expression in the ECs financial statement submitted to the government and this did not go down well with the Subin MP resulting in him filing the question for clarification.

But the EC boss said the discrepancy was also an oversight, adding that she will liaise with the Director of Budget at the Finance Ministry to correct the error.
Some concerned staff at the commission petitioned the president last week to remove the Chairperson, Charlotte Osei over claims that she had engaged in some fraudulent activities.

READ ALSO: Workers petition Nana Addo to remove Charlotte Osei

Among some of the things listed were that she single-handedly dished out contracts to the tune of $21,999,592 without recourse to the Public Procurement Act. She was also accused of spending over GHS4 million on her residence.

Madam Osei has since denied the claims made by the petitioners.

READ ALSO: Charlotte Osei accuses her deputies of insubordination

She further accused her deputies of gross insubordination, corruption, and arrogance. They are: Deputy in Charge of Operations, Amadu Sulley, Corporate Services, Georgina Opoku Amankwaa; and Finance and Administration, Dr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah.

Many believe that these backs and forth so far between the EC boss and her petitioners are clearly an attack on the integrity of the EC as presently constituted.

The petition has, however, been referred by the president to the Chief Justice who shall conduct a preliminary investigation and decide whether there is a prima facie case to continue with the impeachment of the Chairperson of the Commission.

But even before the investigations, the three Commissioners have been summoned by Parliament to attempt finding a solution to the matter as criminal investigations continue at the Economic and Organised Crime Office.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu is part of the leaders of Parliament meeting the three leaders at the Commission, and he believes that the three must step aside for now.

When I contributed to the affairs of the EC in March, I said that looking at the signs on the wall I thought that the issue was salvageable, if we had people sit down with them and deal with it. But now given where we have travelled to I think we should allow an in-depth inquiry into the conduct of business at the EC, he told Accra-based Joy FM.

Given the heat that the three of them have succeeded in generating, I think it will be better if they step aside for a proper investigation to be conducted.
They are usually unable to cope with the regular hard economy that mostly exists on the continent.

Italy is one of the top migration destinations for Ghanaians.

According to William Hanna, the European Union Ambassador to Ghana there were 5,636 Ghanaians who arrived in Italy by boat in 2016.

This figure was 27 per cent higher than that of 2015.

Mr Hanna, who announced this at a handing over ceremony of equipment by the International Organisation of Migration to the Ghana Immigration Service, in Accra.

More sadly, these figures do not account for the number of young Ghanaians, Ghanaian women and men who have died between the Northern border of Ghana and the Southern border of Europe, he stated.

The EU Ambassador to Ghana explains that the top priority of the European Union is to save the lives of migrants. The mobility of people could benefit both Europe and Africa, but it must happen legally and safely, and by not turning the Mediterranean and the Sahara into mass graves.

This is the core message since the Valletta Summit, and the basis of our partnership with Africa and with Ghana .
We will be very supportive throughout the process, the funeral [and] everything, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said when he visited the family of the late No. 49195 General Constable Daniel Owusu to sympathise with them.

At a meeting held at the Tesano Community Policing Center, Dr Bawumia sent warm greetings from the President to the family and said that he [Nana Akufo-Addo] was saddened by the news of the death of the officer.

READ ALSO: One police officer confirmed dead

"We cannot explain why things like this happen, I know your pain is very deep [but] the state is not going to forget about you," the vice president added.
He insisted that Charlotte Osei is ''stupid'' and has brought scandals to the EC more than any of her predecessor.

Some staff of the EC on July 19 filed a petition against the Chairperson calling for a full-scale investigation into alleged misconduct and abuse of office on her part.

READ MORE: Charlotte Osei faces Parliament

She was also accused by her staff for financial malfeasance.

The concerned staff in their petition claim her decision to cancel a contract awarded to Superlock Technologies Limited (STL), a company contracted to supply and manage Biometric Voter Registration machines (BVRs) and the Biometric Voter Devices (BVDs), as well as her directive for the payment of $76,000 to IT firm, Dream Oval, were fraudulent and hence she should be removed from office.

They have petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for her removal as well as sent a similar to the Economic and Organised Crime Office asking for investigations into Mrs Osei's stewardship.

In her response, she denied any acts of fraud or financial malfeasance on her part and counter-alleged fraud and corruption against her accusers.

But Hassan Ayariga speaking on the development on Accra-based Onua FM said "I still stand by my earlier claim that Madam Charlotte Osei is stupid and I would even add that she is ignorant to manage the EC office."

He said "I have said it and will continue to repeat it at any given opportunity that Madam Charlotte Osei is not fit to run that office."

"She has brought more scandals to the EC more than any of her predecessor. She is with speed, destroying the legacies of those who went ahead of her. After her appointment, I said she cannot handle it and I am being vindicated."

He added that thorough investigations must be conducted into the matters bothering on abuse of office and corruption.
Fox News "had a man on this morning who was a Democrat his whole life, he voted as a Democrat, but he voted for  I say 'us,' I don't say 'me'  he voted for us in the last election 2016," Trump told supporters at the packed Covelli Centre. "And they said to him, 'So if the election were held now again, what would you do?'"

"And he effectively said, 'Man, would I vote for Trump again even faster,'" Trump said.

Trump then introduced Geno DiFabio, an Ohio voter who said he had sided with the Republican Party for the first time. DiFabio appeared on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" earlier Tuesday, where he said he "couldn't be happier" with his vote.

Wearing a shirt with "Trump won" in all caps with a bold, red font, DiFabio thanked the president as he spoke with the crowd for several minutes.

"This guy's got something  he's the real deal," DiFabio said while pointing to Trump. "Everybody else came and they says: 'Oh, we're gonna fight for you. We're fighting for you.' Well this is Youngstown, Mr. President. But this is also the steel valley. Every one of these people love you, sir."

DiFabio also applauded Trump for his Supreme Court pick: "Thank-you for Justice Gorsuch on the Supreme Court," DiFabio said. "That started it all."

"Thank-you for Melania," DiFabio continued. "Could we have a more outstanding first lady? I'm probably gonna be in trouble with my wife, but God bless that woman."

"Thank-you, sir, for keeping the promises that you've made to these 12,000 people and to the country."
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona criticized Trump for announcing the ban via Twitter, where it immediately prompted confusion and backlash.

He said in a statement that the Pentagon had already decided to allow transgender active-duty service members to continue serving and was conducting a study on the medical obligations and effects of allowing transgender people to serve.

McCain said Trump's tweets were "unclear" and that he did not believe new policy decisions were appropriate until the study has been completed and reviewed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, military leadership, and Congress.

Other senators echoed McCain's assessment.

"We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so  and should be treated as the patriots they are," McCain said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that the date of Trump's announcement coincided with the anniversary of President Harry S. Truman desegregating the military in 1948.

"Sixty-nine years later, President Trump has chosen this day to unleash a vile and hateful agenda that will blindside thousands of patriotic Americans already serving with honor and bravery," Pelosi said. "This disgusting ban will weaken our military and the nation it defends."

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama was told of Trump's announcement during a CNN interview. He said he wanted to read the policy's wording but was sure the Senate would hold hearings on the matter. "You ought to treat everybody fairly, and you ought to give everybody a chance to serve," he said.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Iraq War veteran who lost her legs in combat, called the ban "discriminatory and counterproductive to our national security."

"When my Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq, I didn't care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender, or anything else. All that mattered was they didn't leave me behind," Duckworth said in a statement. "If you are willing to risk your life for our country and you can do the job, you should be able to serve  no matter your gender identity, sexual orientation, or race."

Some lawmakers spoke out in favor of the ban, however, including Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri.

"Pleased to hear that [Trump] shares my readiness and cost concerns, & will be changing this costly and damaging policy," Hartzler tweeted.

"We need to invest every defense dollar to meet the threat that we're facing right now as a nation," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer later on Wednesday, arguing that the Obama administration's decision to allow transgender people to serve would cost $1.35 billion over a decade just for sex-reassignment surgeries.

Blitzer disputed that estimate, noting that the RAND Corporation estimated in 2016 that between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members were on active duty, and that only 29 to 129 of those service members were likely to seek gender-transition-related treatment each year. Furthermore, transition-related treatment does not necessarily include surgery.

When Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was asked whether he stood with the state's transgender community, Hatch tweeted that he did. He then released a longer statement, saying, "I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone."

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said in a statement that the military "should not turn away anyone who is willing and able to serve this country and help keep Americans safe."

The ban is "discrimination, plain and simple," Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California tweeted.
Exactly which healthcare bill they'll be voting on as a final product remains very much up in the air.

The Senate late Tuesday evening failed to advance the latest version of their long-marinating plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the law better known as Obamacare.

Among the other options are the Senate's plan to strictly repeal Obamacare. There's also the chance of a "skinny repeal" bill, which would repeal certain aspects of the ACA and, if passed, lead to the House and Senate working together to compromise on one final bill.

Here's a rough outline of where the process has been and goes from here:

10 p.m. - The Senate just held a procedural vote on the revised repeal and replace bill. It didn't pass.

The bill, introduced earlier in the night, required 60 votes to pass. In a vote Tuesday, the bill wasn't able to get 60 "yes" votes, with 57 voting against it and 43 in favor. In total, nine Republican senators voted against the bill: Susan Collins, Rand Paul, Bob Corker, Tom Cotton, Dean Heller, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran, Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham.

Procedural votes are used to gauge whether the legislation complies with the budget act under which it's trying to pass. But it gives a glimpse of what the vote would look like if the bill came up for the vote for final passage.

8:30 p.m. - The Senate has another version of its repeal and replace bill.

The Senate will be voting on this version of the BCRA, which includes an amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz, titled the "Consumer Freedom Amendment." Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon nicknamed this version "Trumpcare 3.0."

The bill includes an amendment from Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, which sets up $100 billion in new funding to stabilize states. It does this by increasing funding from $19.2 billion a year to $30.2 billion. Portman has expressed concerns about the BCRA before for not providing enough funding for Medicaid tackling the opioid crisis.

It also makes some changes to a section that would have made out-of-pocket maximums technically higher than what's allowed by the law.

This version of the bill would need 60 votes to pass.

6:40 p.m.  The Senate is expected to vote on a repeal/replace plan at 8 p.m.  but it likely won't pass.

The Senate clerk is still reading through the BCRA, but there's already talk of a first vote on a modified repeal and replace plan coming at 8 p.m.

Politico's Jennifer Haberkorn reports that the vote won't likely be successful.

5:50 p.m. - Democrats have asked Senate clerks to read through the BCRA.

The most recent draft of this bill is 164 pages long.

The latest draft of this bill includes more funds to tackle the opioid crisis, and a change to allow people to pay for premiums using health savings accounts. The bill also still includes deep cuts to Medicaid, with an estimated $756 billion cuts by 2026 according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But notably absent was the amendment from Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee that critics said could make plans with adequate coverageunaffordable to those who have certain medical conditions.

5:30 p.m. - Democrats kick off the debate period.

Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii got the debate on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon. Brown, using presentation boards, gave a impassioned speech that involved pointing in the direction of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office and mentioning Wall Street and pharmaceutical company lobbyists that have been around McConnell's office.

Brown also expressed his concerns about the healthcare bills' approach to the opioid epidemic. A revised version of the BCRA allocated $45 billion for the public health issue. Tpregnant women, single parents

3:40 p.m. - Trump calls out Republican senators who voted against the motion to proceed.

"We had two Republicans that went against us, which is very sad, I think, very very said, for them," Trump said in a press conference. "But I'm very, very happy with the result."

3:30 p.m. - Senate starts by reading the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act (repeal-only bill)

The Senate is currently reading through the ORRA, the straight repeal bill. Inearly identical

3:15 p.m. - Senator John McCain returns to vote on the motion.

McCain, who is recovering from brain surgery, was recently diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. McCain said in his speech that he will not vote for the bill as it is today. He pushed for the bill to have input from both parties.

"What do we have to lose to try and work together to find those solutions?" McCain said in a speech Tuesday.

McCain said he'll stay in DC for a few days before returning to Arizona for treatment.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
That's almost never what actually happened, at least from a medical perspective. Aging in and of itself is not a cause of death. When most of us say that someone died of old age, we usually mean they succumbed to an illness that a younger, healthy person would likely have survived, such as pneumonia or a heart attack.

In humans, the probability that one of these events will happen increases as we age. This is what we mean when we talk about mortality.

But not all animals get more likely to die as they get older, according to the book " target="_blank"Cracking the Aging Code: The New Science of Growing Old and What it Means for Staying Young," by theoretical biologist Josh Mitteldorf and ecological philosopher Dorion Sagan. The authors write that some creatures, such as the desert tortoise, actually get less and less likely to succumb to mortality the older they get, while others enter a period of aging and then come out of it.

All of this suggests that aging is genetic, write Mitteldorf and Sagan. That means that in order to counter aging, we need to rethink how we live.

Cracking the aging code: There are no constraints

"Aging is not [always] a relentless process that leads to death," Michael R. Rose, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Irvine, told Business Insider in 2015.

Indeed for some organisms, aging simply "is a transitional phase of life between being amazingly healthy and stabilizing," Rose said. In other words, the period in which they're most at risk of death doesn't necessarily coincide with their later years.

Although Rose disagrees with Mitteldorf and Sagan on many other points, they all appear to agree that humans may not be obligated to experience aging the way we currently do.

Mitteldorf and Sagan point to a study published in the journal Nature that compares how 46 different species live and die. Some organisms, the research found, don't age  their mortality rates stay constant from around the time they're born until the time they die. Other creatures enter a period of aging  when they are the most likely to die  and then come out of it, continuing their lives.

Here's a chart from that study comparing what aging looks like in a modern-day human, a human living in the 1800s, and other organisms. (Mortality rates are in red, fertility rates are in blue.)

See that sharp rise in the modern Japanese person's thin red line? Humans have an incredibly long aging period.

But lots of other creatures' life spans look nothing like this, as illustrated by the chart below. The "immortal" hydra, a tiny freshwater animal that lives to be 1,400 years old (left arrow), is just as likely to die at age 10 as it is at age 1,000.

The desert tortoise (right arrow) has a high rate of mortality in early life, but that rate actually declines as it ages. This means that the critters lucky enough to survive their early years will likely live out their remaining (healthy) years. Biology determines how many of those years they have.

If we could figure out how and why humans begin to age  something Mitteldorf and Sagan believe will require a much deeper understanding of our genetics  we might be able to change how we experience aging.
The accused was docked on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, contrary to Section 18 (2) of the Child Rights Law of Niger State, 2010.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Aliyu Malami, had told the court that one Dawudu Ahmadu of Nasko Road, Minna in Niger reported the matter at the station on July 8.

Malami said the complainant alleged that on the same day at about 2:00p.m., the accused lured his daughter into his room and forcefully had the carnal knowledge of her.

The prosecutor, thereafter, told the court that investigation was still ongoing into the incestuous act and asked for an adjournment.

He, however, objected to admitting the accused to bail, arguing that it would jeopardise police investigation.
The Chronicle named the ladies as Sandra Ncube, 21, Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, 23 and 25-year-old Mongiwe Mpofu who all reside at the same house in the suburb.

It was gathered that the Pastor had gone to the house to demand the money one of them owed him when one of the ladies led him into the house with Ncube starting the assault by holding him by the waist and fondling his private part.

The prosecutor, Petros Shoko told the Western Commonage Court presided by Magistrate Lungile Ncube, that they were being charged with aggravated indecent assault.

On July 14, 2017, at around 7 pm, the complainant went to the three accused persons residence to collect his money from Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, which she owed him.

They forced him to lie on the bed and undressed him. Ncube sat on his chest and he tried to push her away. However, Mlauzi, who was in the same room, held his legs together and sat on top, pressing him against the bed, Shoko began.

Continuing, the prosecutor said:

"Mpofu, who was in another room, allegedly brought condoms and placed one on the complainants manhood. She then allegedly assisted in holding the complainant down as he was resisting.

Ncube had sexual intercourse with the complainant once, without his consent. The rest of the ladies also took turns to have intercourse with the man without his consent.

When the charge was read to the accused, they all denied molesting the victim as they claimed they were only playing around, though they admitted indecently assaulting him.

We were just playing around, Your Worship. I did not think that he would take it seriously, said Ncube.

Mpofu distanced herself from the incident and said she had only been called to bring condoms.

I was not part of it. They just called me to bring condoms. We keep condoms around the house and there were some in my room, so I just brought them.

In her evidence, Mlauzi said she wanted to 'fix' the pastor, whom she accused of having a tendency of walking in on her when she was bathing.

He always walks in on me bathing and claims to be unmoved as a man of God. I just wanted to see if he was going to be aroused or not. I did not plan to execute the whole rape thing, Your Worship.

I wanted him to see that he was not special and was not immune to sexual arousal. When I touched him, he immediately got aroused. And that is all we wanted to see, she said.
It is believed in some quarters that Efunsetan Aniwura was born in the 1790s. There is no concrete evidence to back this up. Aniwura was said to be a friend and rival to Madam Tinubu who was born in 1805 according to history. If Madam Tinubu's year of birth is correct it would mean that Efunsetan Aniwura was indeed born in the 1790s for them to have been friends.

Madam Tinubu was then regarded as the richest woman in the Yoruba kingdom. If so, Efunsetan Aniwura was regarded as the most powerful. Born to an Egba father, Ogunrin who hailed from Egba Oke-Ona.

There are really no accounts of how she rose to power but we do know at a certain time (most likely) in the 1860s she became the Iyalode of Ibadan.

History does have it that she had up to 2000 slaves who worked on her farms. Apart from investing in the flourishing agriculture scene in Yoruba land during this period, she dealt in arms and ammunition. She influenced politics, was a stakeholder in talks on peace and war. Efunsetan had warriors of her own and lent them regularly to Ibadan during military expeditions. It is also claimed that she also had military training and took part in some campaigns.

Her farms produced cash crops which led her to do business up north and as far as Ghana. She even exported her crops to Europe which was already in the industrial revolution era.

"It is not unlikely that Efunsetan was the richest person in the whole of the Yoruba interior in about the late 1870s," wrote Prof Banji Akintoye wrote about the Amazon.

The legend of Efunsetan Aniwura takes a dark turn. Oral history (depending on the one you listen to) says her only daughter died during childbirth. This tragedy would make the business tycoon become evil. It was said she whipped and starved her slaves.

She also ordered that her slaves not to get married or have sex. One of her female workers broke the law and became pregnant. Efunsetan Aniwura didn't think twice and killed the slave. This act was said to have brought her into direct confrontation with the establishment in Ibadan.

Her dastardly act led to her downfall. There are two accounts on how she died. The first one was that she committed suicide by drinking hemlock when the king's men came to her house and told her she had been summoned by the king.

The other account was that she was murdered by two of her slaves during her sleep. The gruesome act was said to be orchestrated by the Aare Ona Kakanfo Latoosa with help from Efunsetan's adopted son.

Latoosa and Efunsetan had a cordial relationship but things turned sour between them over a failed arms deal. It is believed by some that Efunsetan Aniwura did not commit suicide but was killed by her slaves who were doing Latoosa's bidding.

In this version of events, Egba chiefs were annoyed at Efunsetan's death. They came to Ibadan and demanded an inquiry. After investigations, the slaves were killed and Efunsetan's adopted son was removed as the head of her family.

Some historians believe Efunsetan Aniwura has been distorted by patriarchy who have tried to demonise her and make her look like an evil woman.
Read her story here:

"My name is Funke, a 28-year-old lady. I am heart broken at the moment and I swear I will do something stupid if care is not taken.

Imagine dating a man for four years and planning for your marriage for six months only for the man to get married to another woman two weeks to your supposed wedding.

This is what happened to me and now, I want to take the laws into my hands and deal with Dele and his new wife for putting me through such shame and disgrace.

I met Dele during my service year in Ogun State. I had just come out of a very bad relationship and was not ready to go into another one but after Dele kept assuring me that he would be there for me, I had to give him a chance.

In truth, he was very patient with me, doing all he could to get my mind off the pains I was going through when Alex dumped me for another woman.

Dele worked in Abuja and only came to see me once a month but the relationship soon became very strong and he introduced me to his family members and his friends who all seemed to accept me.

I also introduced him to my family as my fiance and my parents were very happy that I would soon settle down. After I finished my service and got a job in Lagos, Dele proposed to me and I could not have been happier.

But the only draw back was that he did not want me to move over to Abuja because he felt the cost of living in the Federal Capital was astronomical. He said when we got married, I would move to Abuja.

I visited him as much as I could manage and he often came to Lagos whenever he had the chance. All the time I visited him, I never noticed him with any woman and I never suspected he could be cheating on me.

Then in December of 2016, we fixed our wedding for May and we began planning for it in earnest. My parents were beside themselves with joy and mother made sure it would be the wedding of the century as she bought 'Aso Ebi' for all her friends and club members.

In April, our wedding invitation cards were out. My friends too did not spare any expense as they wanted the wedding to be one in town. I began noticing that Dele was becoming withdrawn and his visits reduced drastically.

He blamed this on the pressure of work and tight schedules but since we would soon get married, I did not mind his infrequent visits.

But after he had stayed away for two months and was always evasive when I called, I became worried. Two weeks to our wedding, Dele had not come and there were still things to do.

I decided to go to Abuja so that we could put finishing touches to the preparations. I did not tell him I was coming because I was very angry at him and had prepared to give him a piece of my mind.

I took the last flight from Lagos and got to Abuja at about 6:30 pm and took an airport taxi to his house. I knew he would be home by then. I was still boiling when I banged on his door but to my shock, the door was opened by a pregnant woman.

I thought I was in the wrong place and told the woman I was there to see Dele. The woman just looked at me with disdain and went back inside. Shortly after, Dele came out and was also surprised to see me.

Before I could say anything, he asked what I was doing there and why I did not call him to say I was coming. I asked him if it was a crime to visit my husband without calling him.

That was when the woman came out again and asked who was my husband. I was confused and looked at Dele for an explanation but he told me I should go to a hotel and spend the night and he would come the next day to explain everything to him.

I told him I wanted an explanation there but it was the woman who spoke out that they got married at a registry just a week earlier and showed the ring on her finger as well as the pregnancy.

It was when Dele began to tell me how sorry he was that I fainted only to wake up in a hospital later.

It is now two months since the incident and while my family and friends have been trying all they can to help me get over the heart break, I will not rest until I avenge myself.

Dele and his stupid wife will surely suffer for what they have done to me, I swear on my life.

Funke."

How Nigeria voted:

Funke should make sure Dele pay dearly for the betrayal - 14%

Funke should forgive Dele and move on with her life - 14%

Funke should hand over vengeance to God - 45%

Funke should be happy that God revealed who Dele is on time - 28%
Monitor UG reports that the lady identified as Rose Nakimuli, 27, was raped by unknown men after which they murdered her and inserted a stick in her private parts.

According to reports, the discovery of Nakimuli's body came three days after a 17- year-old girl, Norah Wayana, was also discovered killed in the same manner and her body dumped in a banana plantation near her parents home in the same area.

Nakimuli thus becomes the fifth woman to be murdered in the same gruesome manner in what is seen as increasing cases of serial murders in the area.

The deceased's husband, Anatori Ndyabajeera, said his wife had been missing since Sunday, July 23, 2017, and a search party discovered her lifeless body the following day.

I was with my wife on Sunday at 5 pm, after which I left for my home in Kawafu zone. Later, I called her phone at 7 pm to check on her and we chatted for some good minutes.

However, this morning, I tried to call her but she wasnt answering her phone and I was saddened to hear that she had been found dead.

Speaking to journalist on the sad development, the Entebbe District Police Commander, Godfrey Ninsiima, said so far, nine people have been arrested in connection with the serial murders.

We already have suspects in custody. Some are already in Kigo Prison. Its an organized group with ill intentions targeting women, he said.

Ninsiima added that a 10 pm curfew has been imposed in Entebbe Town and the neighboring Katabi Town Council as a measure to curb the ongoing murders.

The Kampala Metropolitan South Regional Police Commander, ACP Siraje Bakaleke, has also called on women to avoid moving alone at night and warned that bars that would be found operating beyond 10 pm would be closed.
Investing in the health of Somalias children is critical, and is an investment in the future of Somalia."

WHO, UNICEF and health partners are working closely to curb the spread of measles in the country, WHO Representative in Somalia, Ghulam Popal, said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

According to WHO, about 14,000 suspected cases of measles have been reported this year alone as of July 23 compared to between 5,000 to 10,000 total cases per year since 2014.

More than 80 per cent of all those affected by the current outbreak are children below the age of 10 years.

The drive will require 14 million dollars of which the UN health agency requires seven million dollars.

This strong partnership provides continuous support to national health authorities to increase vaccination coverage for vulnerable children across the country."

We can only succeed in reaching every child if we have enough funding, Popal said.

In January, WHO, UNICEF and partners vaccinated 596,328 children aged six months to five years for measles across select hotspots.

According to the agencies, although the campaigns helped delay immediate transmission, measles cases are on the rise due to mass displacement and overcrowding in temporary settlements as a result of drought.
The oil workers were ambushed by the militants at Magumeri in Gubio Local Government area of the state, on Tuesday, July 25, The Cable cited a senior military source.

The victims were said to be returning from Borno Yeso area of Magumeri when they were attacked.

According to the source, ten vehicles conveyed the workers to Magumeri but only one returned.

He did not specify the number of workers and security operatives unaccounted for.

The source said, "Five persons who escaped the ambush attack are currently receiving medical attention at the Borno State Specialist Hospital.

"Many are believed to have been killed."

It was not also clear if the oil workers were staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)or private companies.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2016 directed the management of NNPC to speed up oil exploration in the north, with focus on the Chad Basin and Kolmani river.

ALSO READ: Army arrests 4 fleeing Boko Haram terrorists in Yobe

The Army could not immediately confirm the incident.

In the past weeks, Boko Haram has consistently launched attacks in Maiduguri and its environs.

On Monday, five suicide bombers attacked two Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Borno, leaving seven persons dead.
According to Buhari's spokesmen, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, this is "due to change in circumstances."

The Presidential aides, who spoke to State House correspondents at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, July 25, said Buhari is healthier now.

On the mission of state Governors who will be visiting the President on Wednesday, Shehu said it is nothing more than a goodwill visit.

He said, "The visit is a goodwill visit and there is nothing more than that.

"I believe Nigerians in various positions have yearned to go and meet the President and at some point, this obviously has not been permitted.

"But given the change in circumstances, you can see that it is coming from London itself and the President is welcoming it.

"It is a goodwill visit. As a cultural people, we visit people leaving hospital and I am sure the President himself will be delighted to see people coming from the six geopolitical zones to convey the goodwill of Nigerians."

ALSO READ: Buhari meets APC Governors in London (Photo)

When asked why Buhari has refused to speak to Nigerians via a broadcast medium, Adesina said the choice is up to the President.

"It is a question of what he (the President) prefers and this is what he prefers for now. He would rather receive that delegation and that is what is happening. If the President opts for address, he will do it," he said.

"You will notice that those that went at the weekend are members of the All Progressives Congress.

"So, those who are going now are on a broader platform, which is the Nigeria Governors Forum. As to who is sponsoring, I dont have any information on that," Adesina added.
A statement issued by Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, the Director Army Public Relations on Wednesday, said that Buratai noted with great appreciation Shettimas consistent support to the army overtime.

Buratai described the commencement of renovation of the barracks as timely.

He noted that that it would provide a more conducive environment for the troops to settle and discharge their duties of providing security for the entire Bama community and environs.

The army chief particularly thanked the governor for his unrelenting support to Operation Lafiya Dole which he said had assisted in the defeat of Boko Haram terrorists.
According to the 91-page "verified complaint" filed by the US Government before the US District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, Diezani spent "more than one million dollars on furniture, artwork, and other furnishings purchased within the Southern District of Texas, and shipped, in part, to London and Abuja, Nigeria."

She acquired the bulk of these assets between April 2010 and May 2015 when she was Nigeria's Minister of Petroleum Resources during which time she was, "overseeing Nigerias state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation."

The United States is seeking an order in court to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m that the former minister acquired as part of "an international conspiracy to obtain lucrative business opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector."

Diezani looted from the country's treasury, colluding with two associates, Kolawole Aluko and Jide Omokore who helped helped to launder "the proceeds of the illicit business opportunities into and through the United States."

In the detailed reports, some of the assets under review to be seized includes a 65-metre motor yacht named M/Y Galactica Star, two properties known as 807 and 815 Cima Del Mundo Road, Montecito, Calif, as well as funds in a couple of companies.

In the court processes obtained by The Punch, one table, tagged, 'Rental Payments', showed how Aluko and his company, Tracon Investments Limited, helped Diezani to make a total of at least 537,922 in rental payments for two central London residences both located at 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, where Diezani and her mother stayed between August 2011 and January 2014.

Another one, tagged, 'Transportation Services', showed how Aluko and his beneficially-owned company, TENKA, helped Diezani to make at least 393,274.32 in payments to a car hire company, the "Chauffeur Company".

In the same table, Omokore and his own company, Energy Property Development Ltd., also paid at least 4,424.40 to the "Chauffeur Company" to convey Diezani and her family about the United Kingdom between December 2012 through at least July 2014.

The complaint was signed by a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Elizabeth Crispino, who stated, "Upon information and belief, the above payments were made corruptly by, on behalf of, or at the direction of Aluko and Omokore for the benefit of Alison-Madueke and/or her family, in return for Alison-Madueke's having improperly influenced the award of the Forcados SAAs to AEDC and in anticipation of or in return for her improperly influencing the award of the Brass SAA.

"In particular, the director of the Chauffeur Company has stated that in or around June 2014, he was assaulted in the hallway outside of Alison-Madueke's known residence at Flat 19, 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, by two men known by the director to be Alison-Madueke's associates.

"This assault occurred as the director of the Chauffeur Company was attempting to deliver a letter concerning approximately 224,000 in unpaid services provided by his company to Alison-Madueke.

"The director of the Chauffeur Company has further stated that, upon hearing the commotion, Alison-Madueke herself appeared and instructed her associates to settle the unpaid bill.

"As the preceding table indicates, roughly one month after the hallway assault, TENKA paid a total of 135,361.48 to the Chauffeur Company."

Speaking on the authorities' bid to seize the assets, Crispino said, "Section 1956(a)(2) prohibits transferring funds known to be the proceeds of unlawful activity from a place outside the United States to a place in the United States, with knowledge that the transfer is designed in whole or in part to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, including the proceeds of an offense against a foreign nation involving bribery of a public official, or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds by or for the benefit of a public official."

On Wednesday, July 19, Justice Chuka Obiozor of a Lagos state Federal High Court ordered the interim forfeiture of the embattled former minister's Banana Island estate property in Lagos.
Ali announced this in a statement by the Service Public Relations Officer, Mr Joseph Attah, on Wednesday in Abuja.

The CGC reminded all commands that any check point mounted outside 40 kilometers(KM) to the land border is illegal while information patrols beyond the 40KM limit should not last more than 24 hours at any given time.

The 40KM radius applies to land borders while no check point should be erected within the port areas, Attah said.

He said that Ali had directed all Zonal Coordinators, Customs Area Controllers and Operatives of Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) to ensure strict compliance.
A Presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, announced this in his twitter handle late Tuesday night, July 25, 2017 and said that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo would perform the ceremony.

Ag. President Osinbajo would be swearing in the two new ministers already confirmed by the Senate tomorrow morning at the start of the Federal Executive Council meeting, he said.

Ocheni and Hassan were confirmed by the Senate in May.

Ocheni replaces the late Minister of State for Labour, Mr James Ocholi, who died in a ghastly auto-crash along Kaduna-Abuja highway in 2016, while Hassan takes the place of Amina Mohammed.
The Security Council President for the month of July, Liu Jieyi, in a statement, expressed the bodys concern over the threat of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin.

Liu condemned all terrorist attacks in the West African sub-region, especially in Northern and Central Mali and the Lake Chad Basin by Islamic State in Iraq and Boko Haram respectively.

He expressed concern over attacks on civilians, the primary victims of terrorist violence and urged a holistic approach to degrade and defeat the terrorists in compliance with international law.

The Security Council encourages member states and multilateral partners to lend their support to the MNJTF to ensure its full operationalisation.

This includes the provision of modalities to increase the timely and effective exchange of intelligence to further the regions collective efforts to combat Boko Haram, whenever possible and appropriate, Liu said.

He expressed the commitment of the Council to work through the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) to strengthen cooperation in addressing cross-border security threats and curbing the spread of terrorism.

The Security Council notes the collaboration undertaken between UNOWAS and the Peace-building Commission and encourages continued close and effective cooperation in support of sustainable peace in the region, Liu said.

He said the Council noted the dire humanitarian situation caused by the terrorists activities in the Lake Chad Basin.

He called on the international community to immediately support the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the people most affected by the crisis in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

Liu said support to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for Boko Haram victims included honouring the UN appeal for the Lake Chad Basin region.
A statement issued by Farhan Haq, Guterress deputy spokesperson, said the UN scribe expressed concern over the terrorist acts.

The statement was made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.

On Monday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the death of four IDPs after suicide bombers attacked IDPs camps at Dalori in Maiduguri.

It said that a female suicide bomber was shot by security men when she attempted to cross the perimeter fence of the second IDP camp.

Guterres expressed concern that the attacks were targeted at people who had already fled their homes as a result of Boko Haram violence.

The Secretary-General extended his condolences to the people and Government of Nigeria for the loss of lives.

He wished the wounded persons quick recovery and called for those responsible for the heinous act to be swiftly brought to justice.
This is evident in the president's latest photo with some state governors at the Abuja House in London.

Seven governors departed Nigeria on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, to see the President in London.

Governors on the delegation include; Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Kashim Shettima (Borno).

President Buhari had met with state governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday, July 23, 2017 at the Abuja House in London.

The presidency, in a tweet said:The President sends his best wishes to all Nigerians. He will be back to Nigeria as soon as his doctors give the go-ahead.

The meeting and Buhari's first photo was greeted with mixed reactions as most Nigerians demanded a video of the President who left the country 80-days ago.

Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina in a reaction however described President Buhari's failure to address Nigerians as 'his style and way of doing things'.
Mr Clement Oha, INEC Administrative Secretary in Bayelsa, told newsmen in Yenagoa that the commission had also handled 1,057 cases of transferred registration in the state as at July 20.

In Southern-Ijaw, being the largest local government area in the state, we recorded the highest registration of 14, 110 eligible voters, with the least number of 2,724 recorded in Brass.

The first phase of the exercise was smooth and successful in the 8 local government areas of the state, said the INEC official.

Oha said that the commission was able to overcome logistics and equipment challenges which made it possible to register people in the riverine communities of the state.

We know the terrain already; at the flag-off of the exercise in April, we started with nine registration centres, but at the later stage, we got additional 10 centres, making it 19.

Preparation has started for the commencement of the second phase on July 31 and as I am talking to you, some of our staff are in the ICT centre for consolidation, Oha said.
While leaving the country in May, the president wrote a letter to the Senate to explain his absence and, in a move that generated heated debates, noted that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo would "coordinate the activities of the government" while hes gone.

The wording of the president's letter instantly brought Osinbajo's authority into question as many wondered if Buhari wanted him to be Acting President in name and deed.

This undoubtedly led to the Acting President having to deal with questions about the legitimacy of his role, especially in the early weeks of Buhari's departure.

Due to initial fears over Buhari's state of health, with some fearing he might be incapacitated to continue as president, the northern part of the country slowly started to grumble that Osinbajo had to know that he couldn't contest in the 2019 presidential elections if Buhari couldn't, because the next president has to emerge from the north to replace him.

These misguided rumblings were nothing compared to the internal confusions that has sometimes plagued his reign as President Buhari's aides have contradicted the Acting President on occasions.

The most embarrassing episode was in May when Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, said the 2017 budget would be signed by the absent president.

While speaking on Channels TV, Enang said, "The 2017 budget will be transmitted to Mr. President and the President will assent to the budget."

Hours before Osinbajo signed the bill on June 12, Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed that the Acting President had been instructed by the President to sign it, despite the fact that he already had that authority vested in his office.

These were interpreted by many as a ploy to undermine Osinbajo's growing influence as the nation's leader.

Rumours of plots to sabotage the Acting President has grown toxic over time that the military high command has had to release statements a couple of times to deny that it was planning any coup.

Against this tumultuous backdrop, the Acting President notably signed the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law.

After receiving the bill from parliament on May 19, the Acting President studied it for weeks before he signed the N7.44 trillion Budget of Economic Recovery and Growth.

However, it wasn't the only piece of legislation he's had to sign in the 80 days he's filled the seat of the commander in chief.

On May 18, he signed three executive orders that effectively helped to ease business, fast-track budget submissions and to promote Made in Nigeria products.

He also signed the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 (otherwise known as Collateral Registry Act) and the Credit Reporting Act, 2017.

In June, he signed an executive order to implement Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), a tax amnesty programme.

The scheme is an attempt by the government to increase the country's tax base with at least an additional four million taxpayers expected to boost the numbers.

In May, under his stewardship, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the setting up of a National Forest Trust Fund meant to ensure sustainable forest development and boost revenue generation in the country.

In harmony with Buhari's war against corruption, Osinbajo has toed the line by speaking out staunchly against the illicit acquisition of wealth by public office holders.

In a letter he sent to the G20 summit in Germany, his main focus was eradicating the scourge of corruption from the African continent.

He challenged world leaders to put their money where their mouth is by "delivering game-changing EU anti-money laundering regulations that prevent the criminal and corrupt from hiding behind anonymity and stealing Africas future from its people.

During his Democracy Day address on May 29, Osinbajo said the government was planning to set up specific courts to try corruption cases.

While admitting in June that the fight against corruption has not been as successful as expected, the Acting President said, "I must say that we are permitted to ensure that we will continue to fight against corruption despite whatever obstacles are involved."

To preserve the administration's war on corruption, the Acting President recently had a very public clash with the country's lawmakers when they dismissed his request to confirm a federal appointment after the presidency had ignored the Senate's decision to reject Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

The Senate felt that its powers were being willfully ignored by the presidency, a feeling that escalated after the Acting President said the appointment of Magu did not require legislative approval based on Section 171 of the Nigerian constitution.

It led to a frosty couple of weeks between the executive and legislative arm of government, with observers at some point accusing the Senate of trying to overthrow Osinbajo and install Senate President, Bukola Saraki, as Acting President.

Osinbajo's measured response to a wave of ethnically-motivated divisive rants in the country's many regions has been one of the high points of his reign.

In early June, a coalition of northern youths released a public declaration threatening all Igbo residents in the north to leave the region before October 1, 2017, or face dire consequences.

Agitating South East groups also fired back and the country plunged into a wave of hate speeches that polluted the air.

In response to the clearly divided polity, Osinbajo organized a series of consultations with Leaders of Thought from the Northern and Eastern regions of the country, stressing to them the need to curb hate speeches from their regions to stop history from repeating itself.

In one of his most well-reasoned speeches, the Acting President had noted the importance of unity while speaking at a conference themed: Memory and Nation Building - Biafra: 50 Years After...A Sober Reflection. The event was acommemoration of the Nigerian Civil War.

During the address in May, Osinbajo said, "Instead of trying to flee into the lazy comfort of homogeneity every time we're faced with the frustrations of living together as countrymen and women, the more beneficial way for us individually and collectively is actually to apply the effort and the patience to understand one another and to progressively aspire to create one nation bound in freedom, in peace and in unity.

"That, in a sense, should be the Nigerian Dream - the enthusiasm to create a country that provides reasons for its citizens to believe in it, a country that does not discriminate, or marginalize in any way. We are not there yet, but I believe we have a strong chance to advance in that direction."

Much like his media team have themselves touted, President Buhari adopts a very reticent approach when it comes to responding to issues of national interest. Osinbajo has been quite the opposite.

In fact, one of the Acting President's endearing qualities during his reign has been his vocal nature in publicly addressing topical issues.

He has openly addressed communal clashes in Cross River, Taraba, and Kaduna states, as well as the June abduction of female police officers by terrorist group, Boko Haram.

Days ago, he assured parents and guardians of the six kidnapped Lagos schoolboys of the safe return of their children, saying that the Federal Government was collaborating with the state's authorities to ensure their freedom.

Even if only as a superficial gesture, these are some of the touches of concern for the concerns of the Nigerian population that previous leaders have largely failed at.

In what remains one of the blots on his tenure, for unexplained reasons, the Acting President has failed to inaugurate Stephen Ocheni and Suleiman Hassan as Minister of State for Employment, Labour and Productivity and Minister of Environment respectively after the two were confirmed by the Senate on May 3.

It was finally announced that the minister designates will be inaugurated before the FEC meeting today, July 26, but it goes without saying that it could have been more properly handled.

However, this does not put any significant dents on Osinbajo's commendable leadership skills that has steered the country remarkably during a very turbulent time.

Whether it's making a surprise stop in Garki Market in Abuja to have a conversation with traders, or defying a terrorist attack to inaugurate the distribution of 30,000 metric tonnes of grains to victims of Boko Haram in the North East, it's incredibly hard to fault the reign of Osinbajo as a placeholder for the country's highest office.

Two weeks ago, after months of reported communications on the phone, Osinbajo flew to London to meet ailing President Buhari at the Abuja House.

On his return, he said, "He (Buhari) is recuperating very quickly and hes doing very well. I think we should really expect him back very shortly."
Okonkwo made the call on Wednesday after collecting the expression of interest and nomination forms at the partys secretariat in Awka.

According to him, only a hitch-free primary will rekindle the confidence of party faithful and electorate that the party has come to stay in the state.

It has always been our word that once the primary is credible, free and fair, we will strongly support whoever wins the primaries.

Money will not play any role in the primary; those who bribe their way will be punished by not even going near winning the primaries.

He described the attitude of some aspirants, who insist on going to Abuja to collect expression of interest and nomination forms as a show of shame.

According to him, the forms should have been picked in the state since it is the governorship of the state and not that of Abuja.

We have a strong party in the state. I am the first person to have insisted that the form should be collected in the state.

This is to show that we are ready to serve the people and engage the process, Okonkwo said.

He expressed confidence that the party would win the election in the state, but further urged the partys leadership not to pervert the process by selecting a candidate of their choice.

In an interview, the state Chairman of APC, Mr Emeka Ibe, said that 12 aspirants had so far picked the nomination and expression of interest forms for the governorship election.
A lot has happened at the National Assembly within this period.

brings you a timeline of activities that has happened at both the Senate and House of Representatives 80 days since President Buhari left for London.

1.Sarakis acquittal at CCT

After prolong trials for false asset declaration, Senate President Bukola Saraki was discharged and acquitted at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). Sarakis victory was sequel to a no-case-submission by his lawyers.

In a ruling on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, CCT chairman, Umar Danladi said the prosecution failed to prove the case of false asset declaration against Saraki.

Umar dismissed all 13-count charge against Saraki.

Sarakis victory at the CCT, however, did not go down well with Prof Itse Sagay, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption who described the victory as a shock.

Sagay said the federal government would appeal Sarakis acquittal, a move the Senate President described as an exercise in futility.

2. Dino Melayes recall

While President Buhari was away, Senator Dino Melayes constituents kicked-off the process to recall the outspoken lawmaker from the red chamber.

Melaye accused the Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello for 'sponsoring' his recall.

Signatures were collated and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja by his constituents.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu while speaking at plenary also described the recall process as a waste of time. A view which was further expressed by the Senate President.

INEC also released a timetable for Melaye's recall.

For Melaye to be recalled, the constituents also have to convince the lawmakers that the Kogi West Senator has failed to represent his constituency.

For this set of lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber, it may be difficult to sell this idea to them.

Melaye got court injunction to stop INEC from continuing the process for his recall.

3. Plot to impeach Osinbajo

Before President Buhari left Nigeria, he met leaders of both chambers of the National Assembly  Saraki and Dogara  to intimate them of his planned trip.

Since Buharis departure, the National Assembly has feigned ignorance to several calls for Buharis impeachment until Acting President left Nigeria for Ethiopia for the 29th Ordinary Session of the African Union.

Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe moved at plenary on Tuesday, July 4, 2017, that Saraki should take over as acting president since Osinbajo and Buhari were away from the country.

I simply want to bring to the attention of this chamber and all Nigerians and to ask the question. The acting president is the person who is at the head of government now, but we have a serious problem in Nigeria today. We have nobody in Nigeria who is at the head of the government, Abaribe said.

He added that; The law and the procedure and all the laws in Nigeria states that you cannot have a vacuum. Today, the acting president is outside the country and so there is a vacuum.

Citing Order 54 (4) of the Senate Standing Rules, Senator Kabiru Marafa said; The constitution is very clear, if the president is out of the country, the constitution is clear as to who is the head of government. If the acting president is out of the country, the senate president is the next in the line of succession, he added.

Marafa cautioned lawmakers from playing on the intelligence of Nigerians with such inciting comments.

Saraki then ruled Abaribe out of order having brought the motion at the wrong time.

4. 8 RECs confirmed

The Senate confirmed the appointment of eight of the 12 remaining Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, July 20, 2017.

The Senate Committee on INEC had presented its reports on the nominees at plenary on Wednesday.

The commissioners that were confirmed at plenary on Thursday are: Asmau Sani Maikudi (Katsina), Sam Olugbadebo Olumekun (Ondo), Mahmuda Isah (Kebbi), Riskuwa Shehu (Sokoto), Kasim Gana Geidam (Yobe), Jibrin Ibrahim Zarewa (Kano), Abdulganiyu Olayinka Raji (Oyo) and Samuel Egwu (Kogi).

5. NFIU Bill

Following Nigerias suspension from the EGMONT Group, the Senate moved to separate the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The bill for the establishment of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency scaled second reading on Tuesday, July 25, 2017.

6. Hembes Sack

Within the last 80 days of Buharis absence, the Supreme Court sacked a certain Herman Hembe, the lawmaker representing Vandekiya/Konshisha federal constituency of Benue state.

Hembe was also ordered to return all salaries and allowances received by him within this period.

The court also ordered that Dorathy Mato be sworn in as Hembes replacement.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara has however failed to obey this order as against Hembe who many refer to as his boy.

7. Passage of the Whistleblowers Bill

The Senate on Thursday, July 20, 2017 passed the Whistleblowers bill which seeks to facilitate and encourage the disclosure of improper conduct by persons, public officers and corporate bodies, private and public.

The bill would ensure that matters disclosed were properly investigated and handled appropriately in accordance with the law.

It would further ensure adequate protection of whistle blowers from reprisals, victimisation, isolation and humiliation, which were some of the consequences of whistle-blowing.

8. Peace Corps Bill

The Senate on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, also passed into law the bill seeking to establish Peace Corps as a para-military organization in Nigeria.

After the Presidential accent, the Peace Corps of Nigeria is expected to create job for Nigeria's unemployed youths.

9. Sarakis Recall

Just like Melaye, Sarakis constituents indicated plans to recall him. This was disclosed by a certain Kwara Must Change group which is spear-heading this move.

Saraki, however, seems unfazed about this move.

10. Bukar's sex scandal

Within this period, online platform SaharaReporters released an x-rated video of Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim dressing up after allegedly having sex with two young ladies.
The incident occurred earlier this month in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan, investigators told AFP.

"A jirga (village council) had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her brother had raped a 12-year-old," said Allah Baksh, a local police official.

He said the village council was approached by a man who complained that his 12-year-old sister had been raped by their cousin.

The council then ordered the complainant to rape the sister of the accused in return, Baksh said -- an order which was duly carried out.

The allegations were confirmed by Rashid Taheem, the police officer heading the investigation.

"Both the parties had filed cases of rape against each other at the local police station after the incident that happened last week," he told AFP.

"We have arrested 14 people of the village council so far," he said, adding that the "main accused" -- the man who raped the 12-year-old -- was still at large.

Jirgas, or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.

But such councils are illegal and have been under fire for their controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

A jirga was involved in one of South Asia's most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. Her attackers walked free but she went on to become a high-profile women's rights activist.
The drug is sold only to people who have officially registered with a licensed pharmacy, and with a monthly limit of 40 grams.

The Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA) said the number of registered applicants leapt from 4,959 last week to 7,343 this week, a 48 percent increase.

The spike in demand meant that the 16 pharmacies that have enrolled in the groundbreaking scheme have been forced to restock several times since sales began on July 19.

Many pharmacies had been unwilling to participate in the scheme because of concerns about security and doubts that the small market of registered users was worth the trouble.

Only two companies are authorized to produce marijuana for pharmacies -- under military protection, and with no public access.

Walk-in sales at pharmacies are not allowed under the law, and only residents of Uruguay can register to buy pot -- thereby preventing marijuana tourism.

The drug can also be grown by private citizens in conditions monitored by the authorities for compliance in the quantity and quality of the plants.

The system -- the first time ever that a state has put itself in charge of the production and distribution of marijuana -- is designed to undercut lucrative and illegal drugs trafficking.

Pharmacy sales are the last of three phases set out under the 2013 law.

Under the early phases, nearly 7,000 people registered to grow weed at home, and more than 60 smokers' clubs were authorized.
Thousands of them, many hauling overloaded suitcases, can be seen passing in both directions: some to seek refuge in the neighboring country, others returning after filling up on food and basic supplies missing in Venezuela.

Under the shade of a tree, Maria de losAngeles Pichardo, 29, was resting after crossing over at the Villa del Rosario frontier post with her husband and their four-year-old son.

"We had to move our trip forward because of the elections on Sunday. Honestly, we don't know what's going to happen, so to be safe we prefer to leave," she said, adding that their ultimate destination was in Peru.

The anxiety was triggered by an election called by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to choose members of a Constituent Assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

That plan, though, has been met with strikes and mass protests in Venezuela, opposition resistance and international alarm.

There are fears that deadly violence from four months of anti-Maduro protests and police repression, which have seen more than 100 killed, could surge.

There are also concerns that the US could make good on its threat to impose economic sanctions if the vote happens -- a devastating step for a country already in economic crisis and, some say, on the brink of civil war.

Plan ready for exodus

The head of Colombia's migration service, Christian Krueger, told AFP that his country's authorities had a "contingency plan" ready for various possible scenarios, including a massive exodus of Venezuelans.

Definitive emigration, Pichardo said, was the only solution for her family. "There's no food to be found, you can't go to work with all the strikes, and there is no security," she said.

The outflow is already evident in the Colombian border town of Cucuta, where more and more spots have opened up selling Venezuelan food and hundreds of workers looking for under-the-table jobs mill in the squares.

While many Venezuelans see their neighbor as a stepping stone to other countries, Krueger said an estimated 300,000-350,000 already live in Colombia, most without proper residency papers.

William Galvis, a 45-year-old vendor who was born in Colombia but spent the past 23 years living in Venezuela, most recently with his Venezuelan wife and their eight-year-old daughter, said he saw no option but to bring them back to his birth country.

The inability to find medicine needed by his wife was the trigger for them to pack what they could in four suitcases and cross the border.

"Given that Maduro doesn't want to budge, unfortunately all we can do is come back here," he said.

"Most of the Venezuelans who came over with us are going on to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Colombia because they can no longer take the situation," he said.

'Critical' situation

According to Colombia's migration officials, this week has seen a spike in the number of Venezuelans crossing over to buy food, especially as Monday was a holiday in Venezuela.

But a new nationwide strike the opposition has called for Wednesday and Thursday also spurred the flow of people.

The officials said around 25,000 Venezuelans enter Colombia each day, with around the same number leaving.

Many are doing round trips to pick up essential supplies unavailable in Venezuela, like rice, sugar, pasta and personal hygiene products. Some come looking for work.

One of those finding a job was Hengember Castillo, who was selling bus tickets.

"The situation we're living under in Venezuela is critical," the 40-year-old said.

"It's not easy to support a family. People look for a solution in coming and going to buy food here and take it back to their families."

In his case, he was desperate to find full-time employment in Colombia, despite its high unemployment rate, to take his wife and daughter to Bogota, where his mother and sister were already living.

Colombia's authorities say the Venezuelan crisis is a regional problem needing a regional solution. It has held meetings on the issue with various countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
The package, which targets Russia, Iran and North Korea, "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," House Speaker Paul Ryan said after it passed on Tuesday by 419 votes to three.

It now heads to the Senate before Trump faces the tricky choice of whether to veto the bill, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.

While Moscow and Tehran raised the prospect of retaliation over any fresh punitive measures, the EU also warned it was "ready to act to protect European interests" if the legislation hit dealings with the Russian energy sector.

The US bill was the result of a congressional compromise aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and intervening in Ukraine.

Key among the provisions is one that handcuffs Trump by complicating any unilateral efforts to ease santions against Moscow in future -- effectively placing him under Congress's watch.

"Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression," House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said, applauding the bill's backing.

Sanctions 'will not go unanswered'

Despite initially opposing the bill, Trump appears to have few options in the face of near-total consensus in Congress, with a decision likely due by mid-August.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House was still "reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk".

But even if Trump were to veto the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

Moscow responded angrily to the vote, with deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov insisting Washington had been warned "dozens of times" that any new sanctions would "not go unanswered".

"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities for normalising relations with Russia," he told state-run TASS news agency.

Ties between Moscow and Washington have been at their lowest point since the Cold War since the US began slapping sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Trump repeatedly pledged to improve relations during his campaign, raising the prospect that he could roll back the Obama-era punishments.

Since then, accusations from US intelligence that the Kremlin meddled in the vote to get Trump elected have made any softening of the stance on Russia politically toxic.

The bill also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests, are also included.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would respond in kind to any breach by the US of the 2015 nuclear deal after the vote.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

European 'concerns'

In a rare feat, the US vote has also managed to upset European Union nations worried that it could damage their energy interests.

European commissioners, the EU executive's top officials, "expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill's possible impact on EU energy independence," the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on Wednesday.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels worries that the fresh wave of measures could end up penalising European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector.

"Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe," including those transiting through Ukraine, the EU said in a statement.

Brussels also decried the sanctions bill as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupted previous close cooperation on measures against Russia, which took a toll on its economy.

The EU and US imposed the punishment after Russia's annexation of Crimea, before Moscow was later accused of backing a separatist insurgency to halt Ukraine's pivot to the West.
The woman whose nationality has not been revealed, was detained at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport while in transit from the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Police said a luggage scanner revealed her suitcase "contained 11 pieces of rhino horn weighing approximately 20 kilogrammes."

She has been charged with contravening laws that protect endangered species.

South Africa is battling a scourge of rhino poaching fuelled by insatiable demand for their horn in Asia, where its powdered form is mistakenly believed to have medicinal powers that could cure cancer or act as an aphrodisiac.

Roughly a quarter of the world rhino population has been killed in South Africa, home to 80 percent of those remaining, in the last eight years.
CHICAGO (AP)  A former suburban Chicago police detective who pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing drugs from his department's evidence room has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

The Chicago Tribune reports that 44-year-old Gregory Salvi was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Chicago.

In April, Salvi pleaded guilty to felony counts of possession of more than 500 grams of cocaine with intent to deliver and using a gun in a drug trafficking crime.

Salvi was arrested after FBI surveillance revealed that he'd picked up narcotics at the Melrose Park Police station where he worked and showed up to a storage facility to sell them to an informant he believed to be a drug dealer.
MOLINE  Kraemer North America LLC has won a $82 million contract for work on the new Interstate 74 bridge.

Company officials in Plain, Wis., on Tuesday confirmed Kraemer had been selected by the Illinois Department of Transportation for project work from the Mississippi River to 7th Avenue in Moline. Kraemer plans to begin staging for the I-74 project within the next few weeks, according to a company spokesman.

Established in 1911, Kraemer was a major participant in development of the interstate highway system in the 1960s. Two years ago, the firm was the contractor for the U.S. 6 project in Denver that  eight months ahead of projections  replaced six bridges and added six new bridges adjacent to live traffic of up to 10,000 vehicles per hour.

Ground was officially broken for the new I-74 span on June 26. Since then, Lunda Construction Co., of Black River Falls, Wis., has positioned a giant crane on a barge in the river between the current bridge and the Celebration Belle in Moline. Moline also is working to complete infrastructure projects before work on the new bridge begins.

The new bridge will be built east of the existing one, with two spans of four lanes and full shoulders. A recreation trail and an overlook also are part of the design. The new bridge is expected to open in 2020, with the current bridge scheduled to be demolished in 2021.

The total bridge project is expected to cost $1.2 billion. Lunda was awarded the contract to build the three main components of the bridge  the Iowa and Illinois approach spans and the portion that crosses the river  for $322 million. Another bid letting is planned in September for work from 7th Avenue to Avenue of the Cities in Moline.

Workers will begin building the new span's framework this summer. The current bridge will remain open as the new bridge is built. Project officials say the old bridge is expected to be demolished in 2021 after traffic begins using the new span.
DAVENPORT  The sleek, stylish Current Iowa hotel, 215 Main St., is as much a sprawling modern-art gallery as it is the area's newest travel and culinary destination.

The $35-million yearlong transformation of the 1912 Putnam Building (designed by famed architect Daniel Burnham)  featuring the area's first rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking the Mississippi  was done by the owners of Hotel Blackhawk, 200 E. 3rd St., Davenport. The 1915 Blackhawk reopened in late 2010 after a $46-million renovation and addition by Restoration St. Louis (RSL), and the nine-story Current Iowa opened Wednesday.

"The Current is far more than just a hotel name," said Harry Lunt, senior vice president for sales and marketing for Innkeeper Hospitality Services, a division of RSL. "It embodies the buzzy energy that imbues every square foot of the building, captures the hotel's focus on providing a contemporary and exciting guest experience and reflects the literal movement of the nearby majestic Mississippi River."

Current Iowa and Hotel Blackhawk are part of Marriott's luxury/lifestyle division called The Autograph Collection. The division has 55 locations nationwide, but the Davenport hotels are its only ones in Iowa.

"The Autograph tag line is perfect for both our hotels, which is 'Exactly Like Nothing Else,'" Mr. Lunt said. Marriott says the division handpicks and celebrates "the worlds most unique boutique hotels." Mr. Lunt said Marriott officials worked with Current Iowa's designers over the past year -- part of St. Louis-based Checkmate Design, led by RSL co-owner and CEO Amy Gill.

Ms. Gill's husband Amrit said recently that the focus on displaying lots of regional art (including Q-C, Iowa and St. Louis artists) was intentional.

"We talked for a long time about how East Coast and West Coast artists get all the attention. Midwestern artists get no attention...This hotel showcases flyover country artists," he said. Compared to the grand, warm Blackhawk lobby and Gold Room, the Current is cooler, hip and modern, with a black-and-white themed lobby filled with distinctive artwork (sculpture, paintings and photos) and lighting.

"It had to have a modern feel because the artists we showcase are alive, contemporary artists," Mr. Gill said. Being close to the Figge Art Museum, "one of the premier art museums in the country, the art was natural to migrate to," he said.

Among artists featured are Nancy Purington of Iowa City, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, the chair of Augustana College's art department, and many colorful pieces by the Davenport-based nonprofit Hot Glass (there are many pieces on one ceiling on the ground floor, and a Hot Glass piece is highlighted in every one of the 78 guest rooms, with a description of the group's mission).

Hot Glass -- which teaches art and life skills to veterans and underprivileged youth -- "is a fabulous charity," Mr. Gill said. "They're underprivileged kids, and this gives them a sense of self-worth and teaches them to collaborate. Even the smallest piece of glass, you have to have a helper."

By the hotel showcasing the art, "we feel we're furthering the mission," he said. "We feel it's very worthy; it's wonderful for the entire Quad-Cities. This hotel, we take an artful approach to every guest experience."

Guests can buy the Hot Glass piece in their room (ranging from $35 to $75), and all proceeds go to the organization.

The Autograph Collection slogan also applies in every room being unique, and not cookie-cutter design, Mr. Gill said. Different artwork is in each room, including a whimsical animal sculpture, Mr. Lunt said.

A bright painting by Jennifer Hayes of St. Louis is on each landing off the elevator and every elevator features artwork. A first-floor tequila tasting room (for private events) includes black-and-white photos of veterans by Jerry Tovo of St. Louis, who's been exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Lunt said. Art will rotate in that room.

With rates starting at $219 a night, the Current features 30 suites, as well as 14 apartments on the top two floors, similar to what the 11-story Blackhawk has on its top floors. The nine one-bedroom executive and three two-bedroom suites in the center section of the second floor, between the Putnam and Parker buildings, are designed for extended stays (with washer/dryers and full kitchens). The two-bedrooms are around 2,700 square feet., Mr. Lunt said.

As part of its state-of-the-art technology, the Current features Toto Washlets (combination toilet/bidet) in each guest room, the first U.S. hotel to have this, Mr. Lunt said. Some hotels offer them in suites  and the washlets feature heated seats, a rear cleanse, front cleanse, dryer, and low-flow flush.

The hotel's commitment to green energy includes using 114 solar panels, a cooling system that's 50 percent more energy-efficient than normal, LED lighting, and being part of Marriott's Green Global Program  which each hotel quantifies, reduces and reports on their environmental footprint from all aspects of operations.

The Current -- which has 140 employees  has more than 5,000 square feet of meeting space, a second-floor private club room, three meeting rooms, grotto-style indoor pool, oversized hot tub, a full spa, two fitness centers, private dining room options, a main lobby Baja/Mexican restaurant called Viva, and the Up rooftop restaurant featuring small plates, indoor and outdoor seating.

Viva (11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week) has a menu where everything is made fresh to order, "a wide variety of simple, yet flavorful dishes at an affordable price," Mr. Lunt said of the Mexican offerings.

The club lounge is for gold and platinum members, with coffee, espresso, light snacks and beverages throughout the day (including wine and spirits), for a cost typically $50 extra per day, he said, noting the hotel's in-house bakery will bake fresh every morning.

The rooftop bar/restaurant, Up, is open to the public 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., then 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. every day except Sunday (which may close earlier), and available for private functions. It's open for dinner and cocktails in a lounge-like setting, accommodating 88 patrons inside and 188 outside, Mr. Lunt said.

"We think the views here are amazing," he said, noting the large outdoor umbrellas over the tables can withstand winds up to 55 mph.

The hotel -- across 2nd Street from River Music Experience (in the historic Redstone building) is on the site of the first hotel in the Q-C, Antoine LeClaire's rooming house and saloon. "The hospitality roots go very deep," Mr. Gill said. "From the outside, the building is a piece of historic art."

Architect Daniel Burnham (1846-1912) also designed the iconic Flatiron Building in Manhattan, the Field Museum in Chicago, and Union Station in Washington, D.C. RSL maintained some of the Putnam lobby's marble floor and the original marble staircase.

Mr. Gill said there's a need for 500 rooms for downtown Davenport to thrive, including serving needs of the RiverCenter to attract major conventions and other events. Between the Blackhawk and Radisson, there are about 330 rooms, and the Current pushes the total over 400, Mr. Gill said.

"To be honest, we often disappoint travelers as the Hotel Blackhawk is often sold out during the week," Mr. Lunt said, noting that was the case over the week of the John Deere Classic.

For more details, visit thecurrentiowa.com.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Oh, that dreaded open microphone!

Republican Sen. Susan Collins got caught Tuesday at the end of a hearing with a microphone that was still hot  and captured her ripping President Donald Trump and making fun of a fellow lawmaker who had been critical of her on health care.

Collins, a moderate from Maine, can be overheard complaining about Trump and his proposed 2018 budget, which slashes spending with deep cuts to domestic agencies, food stamps, Medicaid, highway funding and medical research.

"Whenever there was a grant, they just X-ed it out, with no metric, no thinking about it, no nothing," she tells Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. "It's just incredibly irresponsible."

"I think he's crazy," Reed says. And Collins adds, "I'm worried."

Collins was also snagged making unflattering remarks about Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, a day after he blamed "some female senators from the Northeast" for blocking health care legislation. He said he wished he could challenge them to a duel "Aaron Burr-style."

"Did you see the one who challenged me to a duel?" Collins asks.

"I know," Reed replies. "Trust me. Do you know why he challenged you to a duel? 'Cause you could beat the s--- out of him."

Collins continues, "I don't mean to be unkind but he's so unattractive it's unbelievable."

Collins then mentions a widely circulated picture of Farenthold wearing baby blue pajamas with yellow ducks on them as he poses in the photo with a big grin next to a scantily clad young woman.

The audio followed a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Collins is the chairman of the committee and Reed is the ranking Democrat on the panel.

Farenthold's office declined to comment, but Collins said she had received an apology from the congressman, and offered one in return.

"Neither weapons nor inappropriate words are the right way to resolve legislative disputes," Collins said in a statement. "I received a handwritten apology from Rep. Farenthold late this morning. I accept his apology, and I offer him mine."

Reed's office said he was just "letting Sen. Collins know he's in her corner."

He has said it publicly and privately, Reed's spokesman, Chip Unruh, said in a statement: "the Trump administration is behaving erratically and irresponsibly. For the good of the country, the president needs to start focusing on the budget."
Celebrating Our Service Members

Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day, when we honor and show gratitude to all members of our Armed Forces  those currently serving, those who...

Transit Equity Starts With QueensLink

For decades Queens has seen a disinvestment in the necessary transit infrastructure the borough needs to promote equity and sustainability. Most of the time, transformative...
Released as part of IAs Reform Series, Corridor Protection: Planning and investing for the long term shows that protection and early acquisition of just seven key corridors, could save Australian taxpayers close to $A 11bn ($US 8.7bn) in land purchase and construction costs.

Five of the corridors identified are dedicated rail corridors with the mooted East Coast High Speed Rail top of the list. The others are a proposed Western Sydney Airport passenger link, along with rail freight corridors in Western Sydney and the Hunter Valley, and a link to the Port of Brisbane.

Infrastructure Australia chairman Mr Mark Birrell says meeting Australias future growth challenges will require a long-term vision. As our cities and regions undergo a period of considerable change, strategically important infrastructure corridors need to be preserved early in their planning, says Birrell. If we protect infrastructure corridors we will reduce costs, especially minimising the need for underground tunnelling.

IA research indicates that placing a transport project in a tunnel can multiply its cost per kilometre by between five and 10 times. It found that recent tunnelled-highway proposals are expected to cost around $A 100m per lane kilometre to build.

IA is recommending that a national framework for corridor protection be put in place to guide action by all levels of government with the aim of seeing tangible results over the next 3-5 years.

In its latest update of identified national priorities IA has added the Sydney Metro City & Southwest to its Infrastructure Priority List as a key project.

Sydney Metro City & Southwest is an important step in ensuring that Sydney remains a competitive, global city, says Infrastructure Australia chief executive Mr Philip Davies. The strategic merit of this project lies not just in its ability to increase Sydney's productivity and rail network capacity, but its potential to reshape the urban profile of the city.
Before 22 July 2016, when an 18-year-old shot and killed nine people at the Olympia Shopping Centre in Munich, many people may not have imagined that firearms and ammunition could be so easily purchased illegally on the so-called dark web. In fact, many people might not have been aware of this global underground network where weapons are illegally bought and sold anonymously with the click of a mouse.

The majority of dark web firearms come from the US and the market in Europe is thriving. This market is open to anyone with the financial means, and the technical knowhow, to connect to the dark web. Terrorists, criminals, even children can conduct these illegal transactions protected by the veil of anonymity offered by the dark web, from the safety of their homes, and without requiring any prior connections to suppliers.

While the Munich shooting remains to date the only confirmed case where a weapon purchased from the dark web was used to perpetuate an attack, the dark web reportedly played a role in arming the terrorist cell that conducted the 2015 Paris attack with assault rifles. That same year, Liam Lyburd, a teenager who was planning an attack on Newcastle College using a pistol and hollow-point expanding ammunition reportedly purchased on the dark web, boasted that getting a gun from the internet was as easy as buying a chocolate bar. More recently, four men were charged in Atlanta with selling guns they acquired legally in the US to people in over a dozen countries through the dark web

The remainder of this commentary is available on prospectmagazine.co.uk.

Giacomo Persi Paoli is a research leader at RAND Europe and the lead author of 'Behind the Curtain: the illicit trade of firearms, explosives and ammunition on the dark web.'

This commentary originally appeared on Prospect Magazine on July 25, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
HRW, July 19, 2017

By Patricia Gossman

Many more women are being killed and injured in Afghanistan today than a year ago, according to the United Nations latest civilian casualty report. They are casualties of an intensifying armed conflict that is also claiming more children as victims every year.

As news outlets focus on increases in US troop numbers and policy shifts in Afghanistan, its easy to forget the terrible toll the war has on Afghan civilians.



An injured woman recovers in hospital, one day after an attack by ISIS claimed dozens of lives at the Kabul Military Hospital, March 9, 2017. (Photo: Omar Sobhani/Reuters) An injured woman recovers in hospital, one day after an attack by ISIS claimed dozens of lives at the Kabul Military Hospital, March 9, 2017. (Photo: Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

The mid-year 2017 report from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) says casualties among women leapt 23 percent to 174 deaths and 462 injuries over the same period in 2016. The report, released earlier this week, tallies casualties between January 1 and June 30, 2017.

Many of these women were civil servants killed or injured when the Taliban or other insurgents launched deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on government institutions  like when a bomb exploded on a shuttle bus taking female staff to work at Kabuls Water Supply Department in May, killing two and injuring four, including a child. Or the February suicide attack targeting the Afghan Supreme Courts staff, which left nine women dead and seven injured. The list goes on.

Following the trend of previous reports, in which every year brings higher casualties than the last, UNAMA documented a total of 1,662 war-related civilian deaths, and 3,581 injuries for the first half of 2017, roughly the same as the record set last year. An appalling number of those casualties continue to be children, with 436 deaths and 1,141 injuries  a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

The Taliban and groups linked to the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) were responsible for 67 percent of all civilian casualties during the period. Many of these were the result of deliberate attacks on civilians, which are war crimes.

The good news is that civilian deaths and injuries by pro-government forces and their allies during ground engagements have declined since 2016. However, aerial operations by government and international forces were another story, as civilian casualties from air attacks jumped 43 percent from a year ago to 95 deaths and 117 injuries. There is a need for the government to better address fundamental weaknesses in training these forces, in tracking and addressing civilian harm, and paying compensation for wrongdoing in order to minimize such losses in the future.
Al Jazeera, July 24, 2017

At least 35 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded after a suicide car bomb targeted a bus carrying ministry staff in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, officials said.

Intelligence officials told Al Jazeera that the bus was carrying staff of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum when it came under attack on Monday.

The attack happened just before 7am local time (02:30 GMT) and took place close to the house of the deputy government Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqi, said officials.



Afghan men are treated in a hospital after being injured in a car-bomb attack in Kabul on July 24, 2017. (Photo: AFP) Afghan men are treated in a hospital after being injured in a car-bomb attack in Kabul on July 24, 2017. (Photo: AFP)

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.

The bus was destroyed, along with three other cars and several shops in the area, said Kabul's police chief spokesman, Basir Mujahed, adding children were among the wounded.

Najib Danish, an acting interior ministry spokesman, added that the casualty toll could rise.

"It was a very loud blast, and my shop is completely destroyed," Baqi Mohammadi told Al Jazeera.

"The Taliban has attacked innocent people. Who has ever benefited from killing innocent people?"

Spokesman Mujahed said the "bomber struck at one of the busiest times of the day".

"There were traffic jams with people going to work and to the university and schools. Many of the shops had just opened," said Mujahed.

Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said the Hazara community had called a demonstration for Monday to commemorate a suicide bombing that killed 84 in the same area on July 23 last year.

The Hazaras are one of Afghanistan's largest ethnic minorities, accounting for up to 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million inhabitants.

The demonstration was postponed because of security risks.

"Security has been very tight in Kabul," she said. "This morning, new barrier gates went up that limit the height of trucks coming into the city."

Hazaras are often the target of sectarian violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One-year anniversary



Shopkeepers survey the damage done to their businesses after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on 24 July 2017. (Photo: Reuters) Shopkeepers survey the damage done to their businesses after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on 24 July 2017. (Photo: Reuters)

On Monday, Kabul's Hazara community was due to mark the one-year anniversary of an attack in the capital that killed 84 and wounded more than 300 people, mostly members of the ethnic minority.

That attack was the first in Afghanistan claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, which has since carried out multiple attacks targeting the country's Shia minority.

The latest suicide bombing adds to the unrelenting violence in Afghanistan, where at least 1,662 civilians were killed in the first half of the year.

Kabul is regularly rocked by suicide bombs and attacks. A recent UN report showed that attacks on the capital accounted for nearly one-fifth of all Afghan civilian casualties in the first half of 2017.

Many died in a single devastating attack in Kabul in late May when a truck bomb exploded, also during the morning rush hour, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan put the civilian death toll at 92, saying it was the deadliest incident to hit the country since 2001.

NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan ended three years ago, handing sole responsibility to the country's security forces, which have also suffered casualties as they try to beat back the Taliban and contain the growing threat from the ISIL group.

Kabul has accounted for at least 20 percent of all civilian casualties this year, including at least 150 people killed in the massive truck bomb attack at the end of May, according to UN figures.
TOLOnews.com, July 26, 2017

An Afghan diplomat who reportedly beat his wife so badly that she required medical care at a hospital won't face legal consequences for his action as he has diplomatic immunity, police told the New York Post.

The report said that Mohammad Yama Aini allegedly assaulted his wife Mezhgan Aini, 30, at their home in New York city at 12:30 a.m Saturday, police sources said.

At some point, Aini then drove his wife to Flushing Hospital, where she eventually told workers he had pulled her hair, slapped her and punched her in the face, leaving her with swelling, pain and redness on her right eye, reported the New York Post.

Hospital workers called the police, who arrived at the medical facility at 4:30 p.m Saturday, sources said.

But Mohammad, 46, could not be charged because of he is a counselor to the Afghan Mission to the UN, which gives him diplomatic immunity, sources said.Mohammad on Sunday denied to The Post that he hit his wife.

"I think you have it wrong," he said over the intercom at the building where he and his family live. "Nothing happened. The hospital is saying nothing happened, and the doctors and my wife say that nothing happened between us."

When a New York Post reporter asked to speak to his wife, he said she was not at home.
The U.S. Congress is close to passing a resolution increasing sanctions on Russia, along with Iran and North Korea, and its likely that President Donald Trump will approve it. The bill passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming and bipartisan support, revised primarily to give some leeway to energy companies involved in joint ventures with Russia. The bill takes authority away from the president to suspend sanctions except in specific cases. Since any rapprochement with Russia would have to include a suspension of sanctions, this effectively takes a great deal of control over U.S.-Russian relations out of the hands of the president and shifts it to Congress. This is not unprecedented; Congress did something similar over Iran during Barack Obamas presidency.

The new sanctions primarily tighten existing ones and extend them to joint energy ventures. It should be remembered that sanctions on Russia were put in place in 2014 in response to Russias annexation of Crimea in Ukraine. At the time, there were demands that the West take some sort of military action in Ukraine to block Russia. Sanctions were adopted as a more modest alternative. In some sense they were merely a gesture, sanctioning individuals and particular companies rather than Russia as a whole. The view in the West was that this signaled the Wests will. What it signaled to Russia was a lack of will. Neither side budged, and the sanctions went from interim step to permanent reality. What this new sanctions bill does, as far as the United States is concerned, is cement them into place, addressing the most sensitive pressure point in Russia: its energy industry.

The Russians did not see Ukraine as an isolated affair. They saw the various color revolutions in the former Soviet Union as an orchestrated attempt by the West, and particularly the United States, to surround Russia with hostile governments. They saw the U.S. government acting through nongovernmental organizations to stage political movements under the cover of democratization, with the goal of undermining Russian national security. For Moscow, Ukraine was where the most important U.S. and European intrusion into Russias sphere of influence was taking place. The Russians alleged that these NGOs were rigging elections and the political systems in target countries.

The Russians didnt capitulate to the sanctions  doing so would have only emboldened the United States. Instead, they decided to do what they accused the West of doing in their sphere: They attacked Western political processes. The Russians lacked the ability to organize pro-Russian NGOs of any substance in the West. They chose to respond in a very different way, using social media, hacking and more conventional misinformation campaigns. The goal, as in all such campaigns, was to influence the target political system, or failing that, to destabilize it.

The Russians would of course deny this, just as the West would deny that it was using NGOs for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, when you step back and see how the Russians regarded the Wests behavior in Ukraine, and consider that they would have to respond to that and the sanctions, the destabilization and disinformation campaign was the logical outcome.

Sowing Chaos

This sort of campaign has deep roots in Soviet history under the rubric of agitation and propaganda, or agitprop. The Soviets would send agents to recruit notable figures who would then set in motion organizations consisting of what Lenin called useful idiots  people who actually believed the propaganda. Through this they hoped to shape the political discourse  and with luck, governments  in the direction they wanted. Failing that, they hoped to create tension and even chaos in some countries.

Vladimir Putin read the primarily U.S. support of human rights and democratic forces as the American version of agitprop. He had to respond, but his response was not traditional. It involved agitation on the internet, theft and forgery of electronic documents, and the quiet recruitment of operatives. We should remember that one of the Soviet Unions cutest tricks was to create a framework that made it appear that someone wanting nothing to do with them was actually working for them, leaving the victim discredited.

Was Trump or any of his staff linked to this operation? I dont know, but I do know that it is both possible that some were, and possible that the Russians have made it appear that they were. Western destabilization campaigns built on NGOs, whose members are oblivious to the strategic purpose they are serving, completely and sincerely focused on their moral quest. Russian operations create a vast realm of uncertainty as to what the truth is. On the internet, they created a world of confusion and enveloped the political system with a similar uncertainty.

It is difficult to imagine that they had control over Trump, because if they had sufficient information to control him, they would have protected him from any hint of connection to Russia. There are too many trails leading from the Russians to Trump to believe they had him. Phone calls and meetings would not have taken place, and contact with his staff would not have existed. But perhaps the Russians are getting clumsy, and perhaps they were seeking to discredit an American president. At the very least they hoped to generate a movement in the United States that saw Russia as an ally, and end American pressure on them. They didnt care who was elected, so long as that person was crippled from the start  Clinton through hacked emails, Trump through random contacts by members of his staff with the Russians. In agitprop, real influence is desirable, but sometimes its enough to create mistrust within the target country. What matters for Russia is whether the outcome helps it achieve its foreign policy goals.

The Reset Button

It is possible the Russians wanted Trump to become president, anticipating he would usher in a softer stance on Russia. Or it may be that they wanted to destabilize the U.S. by making it appear that they were instrumental in making him president. In this maze of mirrors, who can tell? But whatever they were doing, it had an obvious end. First, the Russians wanted the sanctions lifted to eliminate some small part of their economic problems. Second, they wanted the U.S. to stop supporting color revolutions in the former Soviet Union and not even fantasize about staging one in Russia. Finally, they wanted the United States and the West to recognize a Russian sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union, or at least most of it.

They managed to create distrust. But with the passage of this bill, there is the first indication that they have failed not only in permanently destabilizing the United States but also in achieving their foreign policy goals. Instead, they generated a massive systemic backlash, with the House voting overwhelmingly for the bill and Trump having no choice but to sign it. The Democrats supported it because it took power over U.S.-Russia relations away from the president and gave Congress a degree of control. The Republicans voted for it because they could not appear to be soft on the Russians. The president will sign it because all the investigations of Russian-generated chaos raised the question of his complicity with Russia, and vetoing would be politically untenable.

The bill leaves Russia in a worse position than before. The sanctions extend themselves to Russias most vulnerable point: They make American participation in Russian energy projects  and in finance  more difficult. As important, because congressional approval is required to remove them, they are mostly locked in place. The U.S. has not eliminated the NGOs on Russias periphery, and it has certainly conceded nothing to the Russians concerning a sphere of influence.

Most important, the bill brought everyone together on the one thing the Russians didnt want: suspicion of and hostility toward Russia. It isnt fair to say this gambit has blown up in Putins face, but it has evaporated major support in the U.S. for a rapprochement with Russia. The group in the Democratic Party that supports entente with other nations excepts Russia. The faction in the Republican Party that wants an understanding with Russia has its hands tied and lives in an air of suspicion. Russia, having played its hand, must now return to reconsider the economic situation in its country, a far grimmer reality than manipulating the world.

Those who believe in vast conspiracies miss the truth, which is that manipulating and controlling millions of people is difficult. People are unruly, and even if they dont see through you, they tend to go in unexpected directions. Agitprop is better at destabilizing the target than in creating a stable client state or ally. The endless mirrors of the spy novel tend to confuse the spies as much as the targets. In the end, no one knows exactly what is going on, and frequently the engineers of manipulation forget their original point. Whatever the intent of all the propaganda on the internet, all the hacks and all the meetings, the Russians are back where they started, except that getting out is harder now than before. Their effort will leave a long-lasting scar on American society and tarnish its president, but the republic will survive.

Now it is the Russians move. Whether they see these developments as a failure is unclear. Whether they hold Putin responsible is similarly uncertain. And whether anyone in the U.S. wants to touch the third rail that Russia has become is doubtful. The Germans have expressed concern with the U.S. sanctions, but they are embattled with Britain to the west, Poland to the east and the United States all over. The next play might be Germany and Russia aligning, but that is a huge step for Germany with very unclear benefits. In the meantime, Russia must consider the frost coming from outside and especially from within.
It was not long after U.S. President Trumps disastrous trip to Europe in May that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made his own journey to Brussels. Recently, Beijing has taken actions to strengthen its trading relationship with the European Union and to cooperate with Brussels on other issues, including climate change. The timing of these endeavors is not a coincidence. China appears to be looking to exploit the growing rift in the Transatlantic relationship to forge closer ties with Europe and to improve its own status on the world stage -- a triangular strategy of diplomacy.

At the moment, there remains apprehension and skepticism in Europe regarding closer ties with China, and trade disagreements between Beijing and Brussels probably will not disappear anytime soon. Nonetheless, the United States should pay attention to Chinas rhetoric and actions regarding Europe. President Trumps America First principle is not resonating with Europeans, and China is attempting to present an alternative message that appeals to Europes trade and climate agendas. If Beijing and Brussels forge a closer relationship, it would inevitably be at the expense of the United States.



The European Union is Chinas largest trading partner, with roughly $1.6 billion of goods and services moving between the two mega-economies every day. This trading relationship has been contentious at times. A dispute over whether or not China should be granted market economy status by the World Trade Organization plagued the recent EU-China summit, as did accusations of steel dumping. China, however, remains persistent. Over the years, Beijing has strengthened its economic bonds on the Continent, most notably in Central and Eastern Europe through its controversial Belt and Road Initiative and with 35 billion euros of foreign direct investment heavily concentrated in Western Europe. Disagreements between Europe and China will not reverse this trend, nor will they dismantle the growing interdependency between the two economies.



China is also capitalizing on the protectionist rhetoric emerging from the United States to paint itself as a defender of global free trade, a message that resonates in Brussels. President Xi Jinpings January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos was praised for condemning protectionism and promoting globalization. In similar remarks at the Silk Road Forum in May, Xi added, [i]n a world of growing interdependency and challenges, no country can tackle the challenges, also the world's problems, on its own." China is marketing itself not only as a fierce advocate for global trade, but also as a multilateralist -- exactly what Europeans are looking for in the age of America First.



From the European perspective, the United States is isolating itself from the global trade regime and international order it built and defended for decades. Multilateralism is at the heart of the European project and is the European Unions primary tool for pursuing its priorities on the world stage. The fact that China hosts the worlds largest population and is the worlds second-largest economy, in addition to the countrys growing influence in geopolitics, make it an attractive partner.



The same Trump administration policies that are driving a wedge in the Transatlantic relationship are also creating space for greater cooperation between Europe and China. During a recent trip to China, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said [i]n times in which others pivot to nationalist isolation and advance protectionist tendencies ... China and Europe stand for an open global trade order and for multilateralism. After President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in June, EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said, "No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward. While this rhetoric could be purely reactionary, it should worry Washington.



The United States can ill afford to lose Europe to China. America has already strengthened Chinas geostrategic position in Asia by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and giving Beijing the opportunity to pursue its own trade deal in the Pacific region. The last thing the United States should do is facilitate Chinas endeavors in Europe. While Americas increasing isolation is largely self-inflicted, it will be accelerated and exacerbated by partnerships forged in its absence. Historically, Europe has been instrumental in advancing Americas political, economic, and security interests abroad. If Beijings courtship of Brussels is successful, however, Europe may hesitate to support U.S. actions that could damage its burgeoning ties with China. America will need the backing of its traditional European partners in possible future crises, such as a trade war with China or a conflict in the South China Sea. Yet a Europe that is less inclined to act in favor of U.S. interests will make America weaker and more isolated and could encourage a more confident and stronger China on the global stage.


The new President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, is less than three months into his term. By most accounts Moon has taken a measured approach in the early days of his administration, but he should take careful note of the direction in which the South Korean economy is heading. He should be mindful of how economic instability can be used by both opponents and enemies alike.

The South Korean economy is overbalanced in favor of its huge family-owned conglomerates, known as chaebols. Like them or not, they are the backbone of the economy. In fact one chaebol, Samsung, accounts for more than 20 percent of the entire South Korean economy.

Imagine if one of the top Forbes Fortune 500 companies, Walmart, accounted for one-fifth of the U.S. economy. It would have to book sales of $3.7 trillion -- nearly 7 1/2 times more than their global revenue of nearly $500 billion a year -- to come anywhere near that level of influence and power. That number is astounding and it shows how vital is Samsungs success to the larger Korean economy.

Samsungs leader-in-waiting, Jay Y. Lee, was arrested in February and is still in jail awaiting trial. Lee was arrested in conjunction with the same set of events that led to the impeachment and jailing of former President Park Geun-hye, who also awaits her turn before the countrys judicial system. (Under South Korean law, those awaiting trial cannot be released, even on bail.)

The turmoil at the head of Koreas largest economic driver has created real concern about what a weakened economy might mean for the country, and about how Samsung can continue to succeed absent strong leadership. Lack of leadership at any organization, let alone one whose success is woven hand-in-hand with the countrys, can enhance vulnerabilities and open the door for enterprising competitors and opponents.

A leadership vacuum at Samsung can only slow Korean innovation and reduce its hard-earned competitive edge over rivals such as Apple and a number of fast-growing Chinese companies. With Apple ready to roll out its next generation of iPhones and Chinas strong growth in the smartphone market, even a short-term stumble can hit hard. The tech space moves fast, and winners and losers are determined within one or two product cycles. For an example, take Japans tech giants of the 1990s and 2000s. They failed to see the changes in the market and in consumer habits -- one or two cycles without success and now we relegate Sony Walkmans and Panasonic TVs to the tech graveyard in favor of iPhones and tablets that fit in the palm of our hand. Sonys rapid decline stemmed from a leadership vacuum, and right now that should scare Samsungs investors.

Because Samsungs performance has such a tectonic effect on South Koreas economy that even short-term stumbles due to lack of leadership in the C-suite could have effects on other powerhouse divisions in Samsung such as their DRAM chip operation. DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chips are used in virtually every electronic device on the planet. Samsung owns just short of 50 percent of that market. The goalposts for DRAM chips are speed and density, and any stumble in innovation can be devastating to the entire division.

It doesnt take long for waves of change to usher in dramatic shifts in the global markets. And it takes even less time for geopolitical crises to happen. South Korea faces challenges both to its economy and its national security. President Moon can and should focus on ensuring stability and smart reforms while letting Koreas economic drivers like Samsung focus on helping him keep the economy moving as it has for nearly two decades. The reality is that companies like Samsung are integral to Moons success. The symbiotic relationship between the chaebols and government in modern Korea is an outgrowth of policies and of Confucian culture. Moon cannot jettison a cultural dynamic that has existed for centuries without endangering the system that has helped Korea prosper over the last 50 years. Moon would be more prudent to persuade chaebol leaders to join him in reforms that will make not only these large companies more agile and innovative but smaller companies as well. Discrete reforms aimed at particular challenges offer a better course than upending the entire system.

Moon and officials in his administration certainly understand this. He has yet to lay out in detail what he proposes to do that will create private sector jobs while also curtailing the reach of the chaebols and clipping their ties to the government. Recommendations seen as too ambitious or aggressive would likely face stiff opposition from Korean lawmakers, many of them conservative proponents of the countrys unique system. Deliberate and thoughtful actions on tax policy and regulations, along with more transparency, would likely be better received by policymakers and corporate leaders alike. Moon has a chance to use the system to improve the system, and by thus doing to help all Korean citizens and business stakeholders.
Journalists and activists in Eastern Europe have been fighting modern propaganda for years. It is time to deploy the lessons of those battles to newsrooms in Washington and beyond.

Ive been exposing organized lies professionally for years now. It started when propaganda took over the Russian-state newsroom in Moscow I was managing in 2013. When I left for Ukraine the same year, I wrongly thought disinformation would be contained in Russia. A year later, propaganda was fueling a brutal war in eastern Ukraine. Thats when disinformation went global.

That was 2014. These days I dont have to convince anyone that disinformation is a global phenomenon. In the United States, Congress and an independent probe are investigating possible cooperation between the Trump campaign and a state-funded army of Russian social media bots. Eastern Europe was a test ground for the same sort of interference three years ago. UAE reportedly orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites to provoke a regional crisis? Eastern Europe, three years ago. Poland uses state-run broadcasting to manufacture propaganda in the pursuit of installing an illiberal democracy? Been there, done that three years ago.

The main lesson weve learned, and its one that many journalists dont seem to understand, is that disinformation exploits and thrives on the weaknesses of modern journalism. The creators of modern propaganda appreciate good storytelling, bringing light to untold stories and finding global trends in local stories, which creates strong bonds of trust with the audience. These are the same things that make real journalism socially valuable. But these days it is replaced by the much cheaper substitutes of opinion and aggregation. In the end, the sad irony is that modern propaganda uses the building blocks of journalism far better than real journalists.

So, here are three tips that can flip the trends and enable the United States to start winning.

First, be passionate about storytelling. The journalists who work in Russian state-owned newsrooms are. We often see propagandists as fake journalists doing an evil job. But they are not just paid, robotic monkeys. Yes, they support organized lies and some do evil stuff, but theyre passionate about the product. Why arent we, who are standing on the right side of history, equally passionate about our stories?

An important corollary is that we often ignore the psychological effect propaganda has on people dealing with it, including journalists. Writers like to think of themselves as completely immune and always able to suss out the truth. But lies are toxic. The more you deal with them, the more they poison you. On the frontline, fighting disinformation battles face-to-face often brutalizes victims and forces them into adopting similar strategies, like banning websites and censoring media. In the end, we become obsessed with propaganda, spending too much time reacting to it, countering it, and debunking fakes. Instead, we should be focused on the power of storytelling. Verifying and fact-checking are crucial parts of newsroom activities. But most audiences arent all that interested in the news if it is not told within a moving and powerful story. Lead with powerful reports, instead of following propaganda narratives.

Second, counterpropaganda may do as much damage as propaganda.

Im coming from a region scorched by decades of state-created propaganda, often disguised as counterpropaganda to capitalism. Ukrainians know first-hand what happens when one allows the government to fight disinformation. When a bureaucrat gets to decide what is propaganda and what is news, at some point they may start to abuse this power and blur the line between fighting propaganda and fighting dissenting voices. Thats how Ukraines ruling party ended up pushing for a bill that can easily be used to label government critics as techno-terrorists. Any state must have the right to defend itself from foreign propaganda, but the state should do it in court, not through unaccountable ways of penalizing media. After working in the harsh newsrooms of Eastern Europe for fifteen years, I can say with conviction that propaganda wins not when your guards are weak, but when the state sabotages independent newsrooms.

Third, amplify voices of independent journalists.

Why is propaganda so effective? People love it because it is fascinating, no matter how unbelievable. But in the last three years, I unearthed or helped produce hundreds of no less exciting stories that propaganda ignores: Russians fighting against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gay pogroms in Chechnya, and an expose on Russian troops in covert military operations abroad.

The only reason why these stories remain underreported is that the newsrooms telling them lack the ability to make them travel far. Frustratingly, important stories usually get ten to twenty times less online shares than fake ones.

Of course, this is not the first time in history we are dealing with propaganda, and we know that people will eventually get tired of lies. Propaganda is aggressive, negative, and nasty, and the psychological response to this barrage is exhaustion. And when it happens, the audience will reach for something real. Thats the important moment. Media outlets must be ready with high-quality storytelling and slick, digestible content for all possible platforms, and if they arent, this is where propaganda will deliver its biggest win. We are so busy debunking fakes that weve forgotten what journalism is all about.

If we cannot get the story right, how can we put adequate policies in place to fight the creeping world order of organized lies?
Property details:

This is a fantastic opportunity to own 20+ beautiful acres of buildable land in Mountainair, New Mexico. This property comes with gorgeous, expansive mountain views in a private, gated subdivision, developed with luxurious homes in mind. This property offers everything youll want in a reasonably priced package, with underground electricity and shared well access, located in a secluded area approximately 60 minutes from Albuquerque and 90 minutes from Santa Fe. Deer Canyon Preserve has 11,500 ...

Price: $ 19,900 Zip/Postal Code: 87036 Property Address: 1263 Deer Canyon Trail Seller State of Residence: Michigan Zoning: Residential City: Mountainair State/Province: New Mexico Type: Homesite, Lot Location: 495**, Grand Rapids, Michigan

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby Homesite, Lot
Property details:

NO RESERVE!!! THIS AUCTION IS FOR A FULL WARRANTY DEED TO THE PROPERTYWINNING BIDDER WILL BE 100% OWNER TO THE PROPERTY WE ENCOURAGE ALL BIDDERS TO READ THE ENTIRE LISTING BEFORE BIDDING ON OUR AUCTION DO NOT WAIT UNTIL AFTER YOU BID TO ASK QUESTIONS ! ASK ALL QUESTIONS BEFORE BIDDING !!! ALL NON-PAYING WINNING BIDDERS WILL BE CHARGE A $35.00 RELISTING FEE BIDDERS WITH UNDER 15 FEEDBACK MUST ASK TO BE VERIFIED PRIOR TO BIDDING 2.09 ACRESPOLK CITY, FLORIDA PARCEL INFORMATION Size: 2.09 acresCity:...

Price: $ 670 City: Polk City State/Province: Florida Seller State of Residence: Florida Type: Recreational, Acreage Zoning: Mixed Location: , Polk City, Fl

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby Mixed
Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada.

Search Real Estate
Property details:

Please ask all questions and reading closing and payment instructions BEFORE BIDDING!!!!! WORLDMARK BY WYNDHAM TIMESHARE FOR SALE ANNUAL 13,000 CREDITS OWN this PREMIER Timeshare membership NOW at a fraction of the original price: This is for 13,000 Annual WorldMark by Wyndham credits--this allows you to make reservations at any of the WorldMark by Wyndham resort properties. The anniversary month for this membership is OCT. Buyer will receive 13,000 credits IN OCT 2017 for this use year; The mai...

Price: $ 3,000 Seller State of Residence: Texas State/Province: Florida Location: 347**, Kissimmee, Florida

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby Florida
,



We're sorry, this article is not currently available
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/25/2017



ADVERTISEMENT

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

host Chris Harrison apparently believes Rachel Lindsay narrowed down her field of 31 bachelors to the best possible choices."Honestly, if you go back to [ Dean Unglert ], Final 4, I told her -- I was like, 'You can't do any wrong. If you end up with either of these men, you've done well,'" Chris Harrison revealed to E! News.After Rachel, a 32-year-old attorney from Dallas, TX, eliminated Dean, she was left with Eric Bigger Bryan Abasolo and Peter Kraus in the running for her heart.Not only did Eric, Bryan and Peter meet her family, but they also flew to Spain with her for a round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates."So now it's a matter of who fits into her life? Who fits into her family? Who has the same goals and ideas as she does?" Chris said of the man Rachel picks at the end of Season 13 "She has narrowed it down to obviously a wonderful man. She is happy; She is engaged."Rachel's three remaining bachelors could not be more different from one another.Eric -- who grew up on the tough streets of Baltimore, MD -- never brought a woman home prior to dating Rachel and also revealed he had never been in love before. His romance with Rachel was a slow burn on but fun and energetic nonetheless.Bryan was open and vulnerable with his feelings from the start of the competition. Not only did the Miami native charm Rachel and confess his love to her, but he laid it on so thick her family wondered if he was even genuine. Bryan and Rachel also had an intense physical connection.And then there was Peter, who remained guarded and careful throughout process. Peter held his cards close to his chest and only confessed he was "falling in love" with Rachel in the moments leading up to her family visit in Dallas.While Eric and Bryan felt ready to propose by the time everyone traveled to Spain, Peter just wasn't there yet, and the Wisconsin native wondered if he ever would get to that point."They are three very different men and their relationships [with Rachel] are in three very different stages," Chris explained."Eric needs to catch up a little bit, but I know she loves and adores him. Peter, is he going to commit? Is he there? Because she's not there for a boyfriend? And then you have Bryan, who seems to do and say the right thing all the time. She's a lawyer, so she sees right through that and she needs to see, 'Is this for real?'"Chris said that because Rachel had "issues with all of them" but also loved all of them, it's going to make for "a very interesting finale" next month.
Gone are the days when good grades and landing a few leadership positions in clubs were good enough to get you a job after graduation. With jo
The Coimbatore suburb is growing significantly due to strong economic policies, says Naveen Nandwani.

IMAGE: Thanks to IT-driven growth, Peelamedu has gone from being viewed as a laid-back location to a highly-developed property hotbed with very good infrastructure.

Representational photograph: Savita Kirloskar/Reuters.

Coimbatore's real estate market provides a plethora of options for home buyers and investors to choose from, with various localities developing as catchment areas for housing and commercial real estate. One of these is Peelamedu, which is among the fastest-growing locations and a very favourable destination for property buyers.

Located in Coimbatore, which is being seen as the 'next Silicon Valley' in South India, Peelamedu has been growing significantly due to strong economic policies driving development in this region. It is one of the rapidly evolving and important localities, connecting major information technology-driven growth corridors in the city. This progress has contributed to various infrastructure improvements, making Peelamedu a major commercial and residential hub of the city.

The area extends from Nava India to Coimbatore International Airport, near the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), covering major education institutes, hospitals and industries.

Its geographical advantages in terms of connectivity to other parts of the city are remarkable.

The locality has well-developed social infrastructure. It is home to major hospitals such as PSG Hospital, Medical College Hospital, Aravind Eye Hospital and the Kovai Medical Center.

Peelamedu also has many retail establishments, with the largest being Fun Republic.

A key factor driving social and physical infrastructure development in this location is demand from property buyers employed in the IT industry and returning non-resident Indians looking for both homes and office spaces. This has accelerated the demand for quality properties and spurred interest from both residential and commercial property developers.

Investment in commercial properties in Peelamedu is a popular option because of the healthy return on investment.

Peelamedu houses the TIDEL Park Coimbatore, an IT park that is driving the growth of IT in other districts of Tamil Nadu and hosts several leading multinational IT companies. In fact, TIDEL Park is India's largest single-building IT park in terms of built-up area. The CODISSIA trade fair complex is also a key attraction attracting exhibitors for organising expositions and conventions.

The Peelamedu property market has undergone a complete transformation, with the area going from being viewed as a very laid-back location to a highly-developed property hotbed with very good infrastructure.

The residential market here has evolved, with old bungalows giving way to high-rises and contributing to a taller skyline. It is now a full-fledged business district providing a variety of commercial and retail space options. As a result, the Peelamedu real estate market has witnessed a massive face-lift when compared to other old localities of Coimbatore.

Favourable location and easy connectivity have fostered the growth of residential projects here with several apartment buildings and complexes by renowned developers already in place and coming up. Property rates in Peelamedu range from 3,769-10,000 a sq ft depending on the project's location, completion status and amenities being provided by the developer.

Naveen Nandwani is managing director, Bangalore and Kochi, JLL India.
'Russian diplomacy is presumably at work.'

'The ground is slippery, because "territorial sovereignty" is a hugely sensitive issue,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

Through the month-long India-China standoff in Doklam near the Sikkim border, Moscow has not spoken.

Russian diplomacy is presumably at work. The ground is slippery, because 'territorial sovereignty' is a hugely sensitive issue.

Meanwhile, top Kremlin official Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council and a close aide to President Vladimir Putin, is travelling to Beijing on July 26 ahead of the 7th meeting of BRICS High Representatives for Security Issues (July 27-28).

Patrushev is traveling a day in advance at the invitation of Meng Jianzhu, member of the politburo of the CPC central committee and secretary of the committee of the political and legal affairs under the CPC central committee, and State Councilor Yang Jiechi to attend the 4th meeting of the China-Russia law-enforcement and security cooperation mechanism and the 13th round of China-Russia strategic security consultation respectively.

Strictly speaking, a China-Russia 'bilateral' focusing on 'strategic security cooperation' precedes the BRICS event.

The cascading regional tensions in South Asia would have a bearing on international security.

And Russia cannot but feel perturbed that relations between India and China, its two key Asian partners, have reached a flashpoint.

Moscow's big worry will be that Washington may try to fish in troubled waters.

There are incipient signs already.

A defense analyst in the RAND Corporation, Pentagon's think-tank, has expounded a bizarre thesis that Russia is paranoid about the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's growing stature as a security organisation and it is a platform for China to expand its influence in Central Asia.

Therefore, in the RAND analyst's opinion, Moscow will be quietly pleased that India is about to checkmate China within the SCO.

The underlying schadenfreude is not at all surprising.

As Winston Churchill once said about the Bolshevik Revolution, SCO is a regional organisation that the US wanted to throttle in its very cradle.

The worst strategic nightmare for the US has been that the SCO (and BRICS) might gain traction, bringing together three Asian giants under a single canopy. (Its no coincidence that 'pro-American' lobbyists in India happen to be the most trenchant critics of SCO and BRICS.) Where the RAND analyst badly fumbled is in his naivete that Russia stands to gain if SCO gets paralysed.

On the contrary, given the deep chill in US-Russia relations, Moscow's need for strategic depth is greater today than ever before.

Having said that, the RAND analyst estimates correctly that India-China tensions may slow down SCO's functioning. Chinese commentators also voice disquiet on this score.

A top Chinese think-tanker Xiao Bin, deputy secretary-general of the SCO Research Centre affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote:

'Given the tensions over China-India relations, India will bring its mentality of counterbalancing China to the SCO, and thwart initiatives favouring China.'

'India's membership at the SCO creates a structural quagmire for the organisation.'

'Soon after joining the SCO, India frequently caused friction over its border with China. For this reason, the SCO is likely to enter a strategic standstill. India's participation in the SCO will do more harm than good in the short and medium term.'

Beijing sees SCO as a key platform to address security issues affecting Xinjiang.

To quote Xiao, 'At present, Xinjiang is at a critical stage in terms of stability and growth.'

'In recent years, security coordination in the SCO has been largely related to Xinjiang... However, China and India have disagreements on anti-terrorism.'

Russia and China would have a convergence insofar as it is a matter of time before the US wades into India-China tensions. (Alas, many war mongers in India are easily identifiable as people owing fealty to US interests.)

Washington will wait for tensions to aggravate so that it is seen as responding to India's plea for help.

A commentary in the Global Times newspaper on Tuesday, July 25, took note of this:

'There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves.'

'Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes... In fact, neither China nor India wants a war.'

'China has addressed most of its boundary issues with its neighbours through negotiations.'

The big question is how National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who joins Yang and Patrushev in Beijing on Thursday, will apprise the 'co-relation of forces'.

The good part is that Doval is an old familiar face to the Russian security establishment.

The known unknown, therefore, will be what role Patrushev might play in Beijing between July 26 and 28 to ease the India-China standoff.

IMAGE: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi in Beijing, April 21, 2016. Photograph: PTI
'Some people make the vulgar argument that a lot of Indians speak Hindi.'

'But where exactly? Is that not relevant?'

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

A few of those who attended music maestro A R Rahman's concert in London took to Twitter to express their displeasure because the Chennai-born Rahman played Tamil tracks alongside Hindi ones.

Some in the audience felt this was a 'disgrace' since it was 'Hindi music that brought him international fame'.

This comes at a time when activists have expressed concern about imposing Hindi in south Indian states.

In Tamil Nadu, English script is being erased on the milestones along National Highways and replaced with Hindi, a language the majority there don't speak.

Actor (Madras Cafe, Talvar, Airlift) and activist Prakash Belawadi speaks to Nikita Puri about why this imposition of Hindi needs to stop.

Select fans who attended A R Rahman's London concert are miffed because they felt that the Oscar-winning music composer didn't play enough Hindi songs during the event.

Do you think this grouse is justified?

It's the right of anybody in the audience to leave a performance if s/he stops enjoying it. But to make an issue of the item, or demand a refund for that reason, is stupid.

The reason for their dissatisfaction is shameful and ridiculous.

It's amazing that these are Indians in England. Seems they never really left their small towns.

(The title of the concert was Netru Indru Nalai, Tamil for 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow', and the set list had 16 Hindi tracks, 12 Tamil ones and a medley of both.)

Bengaluru has recently been seeing a wave of protests at the introduction of Hindi signboards on metro stations.

Hindi has now come to present a cultural identity.

Do you believe that these protests weren't just about a signboard, but an outcry against the imposition of certain identities?

The protests are not against the Hindi language, but the casual sense of entitlement that informs the move.

Notice how Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu justified it on the false ground that Hindi is our 'national language'.

The truth is that a Hindi implementation officer visited Namma Metro in 2016, demanded Hindi on the signage and the then chief secretary of Karnataka wrote an official objection to it arguing that Namma Metro was a state project.

Even if the Union government had made a financial contribution to the Namma Metro project, nothing in the official agreement warranted the use of Hindi.

Instead of replying to that letter, the Hindi panel of the urban development ministry simply issued a direction that metro signage in all non-Hindi states should include Hindi.

Why?

Some people make the vulgar majoritarian argument that a lot of Indians speak Hindi.

But where exactly? Is that not relevant?

This is an imposition. It needs to stop.

Our political representatives often mistake Hindi, one of India's official languages, for a national one.

Venkaiah Naidu recently referred to Hindi as our 'rashtra bhasha'.

Soon after, the Union government announced the move to issue bilingual passports, with personal details printed in English and Hindi.

What do you think of this move?

All of India's languages are important to India and to the linguistic states, in particular.

But, in the past 70 years, governments in Delhi have become used to giving one regional language -- Hindi -- precedence over all the others.

This imposition has led to violent protests in the past, but it seems governments never learn.

(The first of the anti-Hindi imposition protests date back to 1937 in the Madras Presidency, when it was announced that teaching Hindi would be compulsory in schools.)

Many, including economist Amartya Sen, believe that though the role of Hindi can be understood, imposing Hindi to enhance unity and integrity in the country is too simplistic an approach. Do you agree?

It's obvious. Of course, I agree.

Also there is a troubling demographic shift taking place in the country.

Highly populated northern states with high population growth rates and poor economic growth rates are seeing migration of labour in large numbers to southern states.

These migrations, of labour from the north to south, are in the hope of finding better livelihoods.

I think we will see more conflicts in the future if this trend is not arrested.

In your opinion, why are linguistic identities playing such a strong role in the nation's politics?

Can diversity be a threat to authoritarian rule?

Diversity certainly resists centralising totalitarian tendencies.

And, today, politicians and ministers pander to an authoritarian leadership.

It is not just linguistic, but many other identities of culture, religion, caste and ethnicity that beg the idea of an inclusive India.

The answer to the current issue could be in finding a uniform, broader and more inclusive language policy that enables usage of regional and even sub-regional languages.

Technology makes this all possible.

Yet, what comes in the way of development are petty and regressive mindsets.
Nitish Kumars decision to resign as the state chief minister was as dramatic as the time he decided to tie up with old foe Lalu in 2015. Heres the ups and downs of their relationship

An electrical engineer-turned politician, Nitish Kumar gave a shock to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday in circumstances as dramatic as in 2015 when he surprisingly joined hands with his arch rival to become chief minister of Bihar for a fifth term.

Often referred to as Chanakya of Bihar politics, Kumar, 66, quit on Wednesday as the head of the coalition government in the politically crucial state that could have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar led the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that comprised his Janata Dal-United, the RJD and the Congress to a stunning victory few thought possible after being bruised and bloodied in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Kumar, who first became chief minister on November 24, 2005, was sworn in for a fifth term on November 20, 2015.

For the cool, suave and workaholic Nitish, he knew his association with 69-year-old Prasad, whom he called his Bade Bhai (big brother), would be the main point the Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition could always score off, but he had always found a counter: an answer to anything and everything thrown at him.

Soft-spoken, sharp and articulate, Kumar, who speaks in a measured tone, had an answer ready with a subtle fact that he himself had been with BJP too but never been coloured, and in any case Lalu is and remains a socialist.

Persuasive, sometimes adamant, Kumar is known to carry strong likes and dislikes and never forgets a slight -- a trait for which Prasad described him as having aant mein daant (teeth in his belly).

Working with his new tactician Prashant Kishor, a key BJP strategist for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kumar worked a carefully crafted soft campaign template for Bihar in the 2015 assembly elections.

He invoked only his work, the potential of the next government with him, the slights to Bihar and his own self, strident appeals to Bihars asmita(pride) and speaking for himself as the lone Bihari against the Bahari (outsider), a veiled reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Even Sushil Kumar Modi, the tallest BJP leader from Bihar and once his deputy and friend, acknowledges Kumar to be a visionary who changed Bihar.

His breakaway from the BJP in June 2013 stunned the nation, as did his resignation from the chief ministers post after the JD-Us massive Lok Sabha defeat in May 2014 and the elevation of his protege Jitan Ram Manjhi as chief minister and then pulling the latter down to assume power again in February 2015 for a fourth term.

Kumar is also widely known as the Sushashan Babu (good governance man) and Vikas Purush, whom even critics credit with turning Bihar around.

Following the age-old proverb enemys enemy is friend, the JD-U leader whose party won just two of the states 40 seats in the Lok Sabha poll, joined hands with Prasad to halt bete noire Narendra Modis juggernaut in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls.

Prasad and Nitish, friend-turned-foe in state politics, sank their differences to revive an alliance that began over 40 years ago with the students agitation, which soon turned into a pan-India movement led by veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.

Though Prasad got lucky in his very first outing in the electoral arena, winning Lok Sabha poll in 1977, it took Kumar, an electrical engineer from NIT Patna, then known as Bihar College of Engineering, eight more years to get elected to the state assembly for the first time in 1985, after having lost twice.

Though as different as chalk and cheese, Kumar backed Prasad in bagging the chair of the Leader of Opposition in the assembly in 1989 and again when he challenged Ram Sundar Das and Raghunath Jha, nominees of Prime Minister V P Singh and Chandra Shekhar respectively, for the chief ministers post after Janata Dal came to power in Bihar in 1990.

Kumar, who won the 1989 Lok Sabha polls from Barh, shifted his focus to Delhi, getting elected to the lower house in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. He became Minister of State for Agriculture in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and then briefly the Railway Minister in 1999. He resigned after the train tragedy at Gaisal in West Bengal in 1999 in which nearly 300 people were killed.

Kumar again became Railway Minister in 2001 and continued till 2004 during which period he was credited with introducing several reforms in the public sector behemoth like internet ticket booking and Tatkal system of instant booking. The Godhra train burning incident in February 2002, which provided the spark that led to communal riots in Gujarat, occurred during his tenure at Rail Bhavan

The JD-U stalwart reworked his social engineering strategy and made a rainbow coalition of OBCs, EBCs, Mahadalits and minorities that helped him sweep Bihar in November 2005 elections, thereby uprooting 15 years of uninterrupted Lalu-Rabri rule.

Bihar became a completely dry state last year banning sale and consumption of all kinds of liquor in a move seen as fulfilment of a poll promise to women by Kumar.

Kumars passionate pitch for prohibition citing the adverse affects of domestic violence and broken families besides economic and health costs had earned overwhelming support from women for the ruling JD-U in the 2015 assembly polls. He reiterated his commitment while announcing the ban.

Kumars backing to BJP presidential candidate and former Bihar Governor R N Kovind by breaking ranks with the opposition and his support of the Modi governments demonetisation drive had triggered speculation that he was warming up to the saffron party.
The ongoing structural change on the ground floor of the Ghatkopar building appears to have led to its collapse on Wednesday in which 17 people were killed, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the assembly on Wednesday.

He informed the House that besides the police probe, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been directed to investigate the incident and submit report with the government within 15 days.

The chief minister said the nursing home on the ground floor of the building was being converted into some other facility for which permission from the BMC had been sought.

According to residents of Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society, the pillars of the building got weakened due to ongoing renovation of the nursing home.

Sunil Shitap, a local Shiv Sena worker, reportedly owned the ground floor and has been arrested by the police.

The ground plus four storey building had a total nine flats with 46 occupants. The nursing home on the ground floor was to be closed and it had obtained the necessary permission from the BMC for the same.

As per the available information and photographs taken by the fire brigade department, it appears that the ongoing work was damaging the beam and the column of the building. There are marks as well on the beams, which could have led to

collapse of the building. The inquiry is still on, Fadnavis told the House.

Congress leaders Naseem Khan and Sanjay Nirupam had on Tuesday night alleged that the BMC had failed to act on the complaint of the residents of the building about ongoing alterations in the nursing home.

The chief minister told the House that no resident of the ill-fated building had filed any complaint about the ongoing structural change on the ground floor with either the BMC or any other authorities.

Sunit Shitap had sought the permission for running a nursing home on the ground floor (of the building) on July 18, 2009. The permission was valid till July 17 this year. The permission was sought under the name Sunil Shitap and Others for setting up the nursing home. Later, Shitap filed an application with the BMC to close the nursing home and necessary permission was given in July this year. Shitap had

plans to use the facility for some other purpose, he said.

Though the civil work was going on, as per the available information, no resident of the same building had filed any complaint with the BMC, Fadnavis said.

I have directed the commissioner of the BMC to investigate (the collapse) and submit a report within 15 days, he said.

After the building crumbled, some 14 fire engines and 300 workers rushed to the spot and undertook rescue work. The officials rescued 31 residents, while 17 have died and 12 are injured in the accident, he added.

Fadnavas said the state government has set up an inquiry committee. The BMC commissioner, deputy commissioner, and chief civil engineer will be members of the committee.

As per the demand of the Opposition leaders and other members of the House, a senior-level IAS officer will also be appointed in this committee to bring more transparency, the CM said.
The BJP and JD-U will form the new government after the latter partys chief resigned saying in the circumstances it became difficult to run the grand alliance government.

On a day of dramatic developments, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned today, dumping Rashtriya Janata Dal over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a new government.

Citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejashwi, son of Lalu Prasad, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supremo rejected outright the demand for his sons ouster.

Kumars resignation capped days of stand-off between his party the Janata Dal-United and the RJD with the former insisting that Tejashwi defend himself against the allegations.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government, Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

BJP quickly seized upon the opportunity to reunite with its old ally, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising Kumar for joining the fight against corruption, saying the entire nation supports his honesty.

Senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was Kumars deputy when the two parties ran a coalition government, said his party has decided to back the JD-U leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

Legislators of NDA constituents and JD-U met to elect Nitish as their leader and it was decided that Nitish would take the oath of office on Thursday at 5 pm.

In the 243-member Bihar assembly, JD-U has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53.

The two parties together have 124 MLAs, marginally ahead of the half-way mark.

Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP (2) and RLSP (2).

Earlier, Kumar, when asked about the chances of his forming a government with BJPs support, said, Whatever will be in the interest of Bihar will be done. Wait for the future to unfold. Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next. Kumar said his resignation was accepted by the governor who asked him to continue as CM till an alternative arrangement has been made.

I tried to work it out.... I did not ask for anybodys resignation... I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption, he said.

Lalu hits back at Nitish

After the CM made the announcement, Lalu broached the idea of forming an alternative government without Kumar or Tejashwi heading it. He said since the peoples mandate to the grand alliance was for a five-year term, it should be respected.

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

Cong disappointed over Nitishs resignation The Congress expressed disappointment over the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister and said it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the grand alliance.



Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the grand alliance was given a mandate for five years and the Congress will strive to respect that. We are deeply disappointed by the news of resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. We, in the Congress party, particularly Congress president and party vice president have great respect and affection for Nitish Kumar, he said. The Congress leader said the Mahagathbandhan was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on the policies, principles and cumulative leadership that was presented. It was also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who challenged the honour of Bihar, he said. Responsibility lies on each one of us to respect this mandate. The Congress party will do everything within its means (to see to it) that this mandate is honoured, he said. Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion, he said.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Lalu gave a new twist to Kumars resignation, saying a pending case against him and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejashwi was at the root the the JD-U leaders resignation drama.

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a man named Sitaram Singh was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish Kumar is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

He claimed a court in Barh had taken cognisance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna high court.

Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejashwi issue a ruse to exit before that happens, the RJD boss claimed.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejashwi over graft charges against him, saying We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?

There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this. Nitish has slapped the people of Bihar and now people like Sushil Modi (a top state BJP leader and former deputy chief minister) are eager to form government with JD-U, he said.

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the grand alliance government for love of his son.

We were the largest party in the grand alliance. Tejashwi got the post of the deputy chief minister. We had the mandate of the people, he said.
China on Wednesday reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it unconditionally withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area and said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijings position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Doklam impasse, on Tuesday claimed that India admitted to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should conscientiously withdraw its troops from the area.

The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I dont have anything to explain, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Doklam, saying that the question should be referred to the Chinese defence ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops withdrawal.

I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into Chinas territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries, Lu said.

The Doklam issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - on July 27-28.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off in Doklam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops.

But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.

Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters
The proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Wednesday by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.

The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day around 3.45 pm.

For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply), tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship), jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste) and Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai.

On the suspension of six Congress MPs, the members, including K C Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice). At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamool Congress.

Amidst the day-long slogan-shouting by Congress and other opposition members with many of them in the Well, the House took up the Question Hour, proceeded partially with the Zero Hour and then debated and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the days agenda. This bill has been listed for discussion since last week.

As the din continued, Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government has several times requested the Congress members to sit and participate in the discussions but they are not ready to listen.

We are ready to debate any issue but they are not ready, he said, adding that during the discussion on agrarian crisis, the Congress members had walked out.

Why is Congress doing a walk in, walk out...they will be walked out (sic) from all over, Kumar said while criticising the Congress members for throwing papers towards the Chair.

It is highly condemnable. They should have apologised. This is against democracy... this is anti-tradition and anti-democracy, he added.

Earlier in the day, Congress members raised slogans, also accusing the government of adopting a dictatorial attitude. But the proceedings continued amid disturbances.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism. But Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said he would not be allowed to raise any issue during the Question Hour.

After the Question Hour, the Congress members continued to protest and sought to raise various issues ranging from lynchings in the name of protecting cows to the agrarian crisis and the farmers plight.

As External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj rose to make a statement on the Indians missing in Mosul city of Iraq, Congress members were unrelenting and Kharge was heard saying that they wanted to raise issues relating to mob lynching and farmers.

However, the Speaker adjourned the House first till noon and then till 12.45 pm as noisy scenes prevailed.

RAJYA SABHA

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha witnessed acrimonious scenes over Leader of the House Arun Jaitleys remarks that adjournment notices were being grossly abused for publicity.

Trouble started soon after the House met for the day at 11 am when Congress leader Anand Sharma wanted to raise an issue under Rule 267, which prescribes suspension of business to take up a matter.

Several members had given notices under Rule 267.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien did not allow several of these notices but asked Sharma to spell out his matter.

The Congress leader said the National Democratic Alliance government was making efforts to undermine the stature of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Kurien disallowed this notice but Defence and Finance Minister Jaitley, objected to Sharmas remarks, saying adjournment notices were being grossly abused for publicity.

This led to vociferous protests by the Congress members.

Amid the protests, Jaitley went on to say, In every case, we have found these are not issues under the motion of Rule 267 and therefore, it is a practice which is being grossly abused. Therefore, the Chair must also be guided by a principle that you cant have a Zero Hour for the benefit of TV cameras. That is what something which is happening today. ... This has all been enacted.

He demanded that Sharmas remarks be expunged.

He said some other members have also given notices and the Chair must protect their rights.

He was apparently referring to a notice given by BJP member Subramanian Swamy to raise the issue of Samjhauta Express blast of 2005, regarding which some media reports have suggested that some crucial evidence had been ignored.

Jaitley also insisted that rules do not allow references being made in the House to those who have held high Constitutional positions.

Sharma, however, said he had not referred to any high dignity. To this, Jaitley said, we know the spirit of what you are saying.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government was trying to insult leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru who had fought for Indias independence.

The centenary of those people are being observed who had no connection with the freedom struggle. They are doing pick and choose, he alleged.

Kurien said all notices under Rule 267 were being rejected but the Chair has to first listen to the member to take a decision.

Dravida Munnetra Kazagham member Thiruchi Siva said he was hurt by Jaitleys remarks that issues were being raised for TV publicity.

To this, Jaitley said, Every day what is not point of order is raised as point of order knowing fully that you are violating the rule.

None of us were born today that we dont realise each others games. We know this noise is being created only because some members want to raise the issue of Samjhauta case. We know that. Dont provide an alibi. I know they are your ally parties. Dont provide an alibi.

He said if members want to raise the issue of Samjhauta, they should be allowed. Dont deflect the issue, he noted.

Congress members then entered the Well, raising slogans and forcing a brief adjournment of the House till noon.

When the House re-assembled for Question Hour, the Opposition members demanded expunction of Jaitleys remarks that adjournment notices were being misused for publicity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the high-level session, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN.

According to the first provisional list of speakers for the General Debate of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, Swaraj will address the high-level session on the morning of September 23. She had addressed the General Debate last year as well.

The General Debate will open on September 19 and run through September 25. All eyes will be on United States President Donald Trump, who will deliver his first address to global leaders from the General Assembly hall's iconic green podium on September 19. The US is traditionally the second speaker on the opening day of the General Debate, after Brazil.

According to the list of speakers, Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address global leaders on September 21.

Modi had visited Washington late last month for his first bilateral meeting with Trump.

Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014.

In 2015, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when the world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.

He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation. The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.
Very few in India have heard of Taksing.

It is the last village on the Tibet (China)-Arunachal Pradesh border, and the first village likely to be invaded if Beijing retaliates.

Scarily, it takes jawans THREE days of walking to reach Taksing.

In all the noise surrounding the Doklam confrontation, Claude Arpi focuses on a crucial issue that has hardly been covered -- the construction of roads for the armed forces and the local population to reach the most remote border posts.

IMAGE: Soldiers from China's People's Liberation Army.

Beijing has a tendency to believe in the principle that it is better to first take 'possession' and then start talking.

Photograph: Reuters

Very few incidents have triggered so many comments as the confrontation at the tri-junction between Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim.

On June 16, 2017, Chinese troops entered a stretch of land at the southern tip of the Chumbi Valley to build a road on Bhutanese territory. They were stopped by the Indian Army.

Beijing's response was sharp, probably due to the surprise; China did not expect Delhi to militarily defend Thimphu.

The tri-junction is a strategic hotspot for Delhi, and by occupying it, the Chinese would have a 'view' not only of the Chumbi Valley, but also the Siliguri corridor, which is India's main strategic weakness in case of a military conflict.

On June 30, the ministry of external affairs in Delhi affirmed that in 2012 India and China had agreed that the status quo would be maintained in this area: 'The two governments had in 2012 reached an agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries.'

Probably getting upset with the delay in finding a solution, Beijing decided to take the matter in its own hands, as it had done earlier in the South China Sea.

Beijing has a tendency to believe in the principle that it is better to first take 'possession' and then start talking.

IMAGE: On April 6, 2017, the Border Roads Organisation opened a new section connecting Tame Chung Chung and Nacho.

The road was to be opened in 2009.

The last Indian military outpost before the border is still some 35 km away from the newly opened section.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Border Roads Organisation

The infrastructure to the frontiers

In all of this, one issue -- though crucial for the defence of the borders -- has hardly been covered by the Indian media: It is the construction of a decent infrastructure for the Indo-Tibet Border Police Force (ITBP), army and the local population to reach the most remote border posts.

On July 18, it was announced in Parliament that some 73 roads were being built along the Sino-India border.

According to the Press Trust of India, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha: 'The government has decided to undertake construction of 73 roads of operational significance along Indo-China border. Out of these, 73 roads, 46 are being constructed by the Ministry of Defence and 27 by the Ministry of Home Affairs.'

The minister said 30 roads had been completed so far though all the roads had been scheduled to be completed by 2012-2013.

According to the government, the main reasons for the delay were: Limited working season, logistical issues due to high altitude, rugged and difficult terrain, natural calamities, delay in land acquisition and forest/wildlife clearances.

The last justification was surprising as the Narendra D Modi government had decided in 2014 to do away with the environmental clearance for road projects located within 100 km of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China.

This raises another issue: Why can't the private sector be involved, especially at a time when the Modi Sarkar is trying its best to invite private players into the defence sector?

IMAGE: The difficult path to Taksing. Photographs: Kind courtesy Hiwak Chader

The most difficult road of all

< class="rbig"p>Very few in India have heard of Taksing.

It is the last village on the border with Tibet (China) in Upper Subansiri of Arunachal Pradesh.

It is certainly the first village susceptible to be invaded in case the People's Liberation Army decides to retaliate after the confrontation in Sikkim.

Here the villagers believe that it will take at least five to 10 years to see a road.

It is not that nothing is happening.

On April 6, 2017, the Border Roads Organisation managed to open a new section connecting Tame Chung Chung and Nacho.

The inhabitants living in the vicinity of Tame Chung Chung (locally known as 'The Land of Snakes') had dreamed of seeing this road for decades, but like many other things for the border population, it had remained a dream.

A BRO communique explained: 'The area is located in an extremely remote area with rugged terrains, thick vegetation and inhospitable weather. The place has remained inaccessible since 2009.'

In fact, the road was to be opened in 2009.

The same report noted: 'The persistent efforts of BRO engineers have finally changed the scenario. The road comes under Project Arunank, run by the Indian Army in five districts of Arunachal Pradesh.'

'The Nacho-TCC section of the road is strategically vital due to the Chinese presence nearby. The road does not reach the LAC as yet, but the completion of this portion marks a major step towards Taksing, the last border village in Arunachal.'

In October 2014, the Deccan Chronicle reported that the PLA had been focusing on the Taksing area: 'After the recent Ladakh incursions, frequent intrusions by China's PLA in Arunachal Pradesh's Taksing region have come to the notice of the security agencies...'

'Security sources also confirmed this incursion had come to their notice about a month back, but the PLA had gone back after a brief stay.'

Around the same time, The Times of India noted: 'Both armies undertake regular patrols to lay claim to 8-10 disputed areas like Asaphila, a remote 100 sq km.'

The PLA's 'heightened activity' had been witnessed in Asaphila area for months.

'The PLA troops, with vehicles and other equipment, then tried to build a road till Point 2445. They were then stopped from doing so by our soldiers,' a source told the newspaper.

At that time, some local villagers had managed to shoot a short video on their phones of the PLA 'visiting' their village.

The last Indian military outpost before the border is still some 35 km away from the newly-opened section, but the construction will hopefully be easier: 'Due to the exceptionally hard rock and treacherous terrain, this portion of the road took many more years than expected,' said the BRO statement.

It added that Tame Chung Chung is situated near the confluence of the Subansiri and Tsari Chu river valleys and 'acts as a gateway to both the valleys, and its connectivity was essential for further development of the area.'

The army organisation admitted that a large number of personnel suffered severe injuries during the construction work and equipment worth crores of rupees was lost in landslides.

The question remains: Have the central and Arunachal authorities finally decided to undertake the construction of roads in border areas on a 'war footing'?

It is not sure. The work is frighteningly slow.

IMAGE: The urgency and importance of constructing roads from Daporijo to the border settlements of Lower Na (Taksing) and Migytun (Maja) was emphasised as early as 1957.

Already in the 1950s

Already in the 1950s, there was a crying need for a road.

In 1957, Captain L R Sailo, then assistant political officer in Taliha of Subansiri Frontier Division (NEFA), reached the administrative camp in Limeking and wrote a superb account titled 'Report on an Exploratory Tour Undertaken in the Upper Subansiri Area and the Tsari Chu Valley.'

'The location of Limeking vis-a-vis the international border has been determined,' he wrote. 'The exploration of the Subansiri westwards of Limeking up to the international border has been completed, and the confluence of the Subansiri and the Yume Chu has also been ascertained (Taksing); the determination of the precise location of the confluence of the Subansiri and the Tsari Chu; the Tsari Chu valley has been explored up to the international border with Migyitun settlements (in Tibet); a sketch map of the area has been prepared with estimate of the locations of villages or settlements, the courses of rivers, mountains, and important routes.'

Captain Sailo's conclusions were clear: 'The urgency and importance of constructing roads from Daporijo to the border settlements of Lower Na (Taksing) and Migytun (Maja) cannot be over-emphasised.'

Of course, for 60 years, babus from the MHA or the state government have never set a foot in these areas.

IMAGE: Locals believe they have been sentinels of the country for decades, but they have only received government apathy in return. Photograph: Kind courtesy Hiwak Chader

The present situation

Unfortunately, not much has been done during the following 50 years -- a real tragedy for the defence of India and the border populations.

A few months ago, I received a message from Hiwak Chader, who lives in Taksing; he explained the difficult situation for the local population.

After saying that he felt extremely proud to be an Indian, he noted: 'During these 69 years, our country has made tremendous progress in the field of science and technologies; we also joined the elite club of few selected country to have achieved a fate of sending the mission to Mars which raise our stature in international level.'

'On the other hand, people of Taksing Village are deprived of all those developmental activities; still local peoples have to resort tiresome and risky three-day trek to reach nearest motorable road.'

'We have been sentinels of the country since time immortal, but in return what we are get, underdevelopment and apathy attitude of the government.'

He blamed both the central and state governments: 'Taksing is a frontier village located at an advance position for the defence agencies near Indo-China border. When there is disruption in transportation, electricity and communication in capital complex for a single day, the people get irritated like anything, just think about the magnitude of hardship which dwellers of Taksing renders in a so called 21st century.'

Chader concluded that Taksing, which is naturally richly endowed in varieties of vegetable and fruits: 'Can easily feed the entire population of Upper Subansiri district at least for one session. However, in absence of road product perishes.'

He does not mention the hardship of the CRPF jawans and the army who have to man the frontier.

Though there is a helipad for emergencies, it takes some three days for a jawan to walk from Tame Chung Chung to Taksing (while a local porter can make it in two days).

It is extremely doubtful that Taksing will see a road in the next 5 years; let us hope that it won't be too late.

It is not that there is no solution.

One would be to involve the private sector, or even 'friendly' foreign countries like Japan in the road construction.

Also, the BRO or any other contractor should give better salaries to the local workers to insure continuity in the laying of the road.

More camps for road workers could be created en route between Tame Chung Chung and Taksing, etc.

But the main issue remains: Is there the will to reach the frontier at any cost?

Does India need to be invaded to wake up?

Let us pray not.

Don't miss: More insights into the India-China standoff
'India's military posture has become significantly stronger than China's on the 3,500-kilometre Line of Actual Control.'

'This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides,' points out Ajai Shukla.

IMAGE: Indian and Chinese soldiers attend the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at the India-China border, about 41 km from Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, October 1, 2009. Photograph: Utpal Baruah/Reuters

What motives underlie the month-long standoff between Indian Army troops and Chinese border guards in the Doklam bowl, on the Sino-Indian border in Sikkim?

What is at stake there for India and China?

How could this play out, and is there a real threat of war?

The confrontation began in mid-June, when the Chinese entered the Doklam bowl, a picturesque, 89 square kilometre series of meadows near the Nathu La border crossing between Sikkim and Tibet's Chumbi Valley.

Doklam is claimed by both China and Bhutan; while China, India and Bhutan do not agree where their borders meet.

The Chinese and Bhutanese armies send occasional patrols to Doklam in summer, while graziers from both sides herd their yaks here -- traditional ways of staking claim to Himalayan territory -- but the patrols and graziers are only temporary visitors.

Last month, however, Chinese road construction crews, escorted by border guards, disturbed this delicate status quo by attempting to consolidate permanent facts on the ground.

Barging into Doklam, they began extending a mud-surface road they had partly built more than a decade ago.

This rough track would connect Doklam to Highway S-204, a blacktop Chinese road in the Chumbi Valley, theoretically allowing Chinese troops to drive directly from the Tibetan city of Shigatse, through Yadong, across the border into Doklam, and then south to China's claimed border line at Gyemochen (which the Chinese call Mount Gipmochi).

A Chinese road in this disputed territory would add weight to Beijing's claim over it.

Since India does not claim the Doklam bowl, China's entry placed the ball squarely in Bhutan's court.

Thimphu had not objected forcefully when China had encroached into the Doklam bowl in 2003-2007, and it was -- understandably, given Bhutan's power differential with China -- reluctant to intervene now.

Consequently, Indian troops in the vicinity, acting in accordance with New Delhi's foreign policy coordination treaty with Thimphu, crossed on June 16 into Bhutanese-claimed territory and physically blocked the movement of Chinese border guards.

India also positioned two bulldozers in the Doklam bowl to undo any road construction by the Chinese.

Since then, several hundred Indian soldiers and as many Chinese border guards (since their army does not guard the border) have come face to face in Doklam in a testy stalemate.

Backing up their soldiers on the ground, foreign ministry spokespersons in Beijing, Thimphu and New Delhi have rationalised their positions.

On June 26, Beijing invoked an 1890 agreement between China and Great Britain that specified Mount Gipmochi as the border junction.

Three days later, Thimphu cited agreements in 1988 and 1989 not to disturb the status quo.

The next day, New Delhi pointed out that Beijing had agreed in 2012 to finalise the border tri-junction consultatively and that 'unilaterally determin[ing] tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding.'

Threat to the Siliguri corridor?

Indian commentators have claimed that New Delhi's unusual resoluteness in this confrontation stems from a threat to the Siliguri corridor -- a 23 kilometre-wide funnel of Indian territory that squeezes between Nepal and Bangladesh, giving India access to its seven north eastern states.

Siliguri is just 80 kilometres from the current border. It is argued that allowing China to shift the border to Mount Gipmochi would bring the threat even closer.

In fact, this danger is dramatically overblown.

A Chinese advance to Siliguri would require the mobilisation of large numbers of People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops from around Lhasa, and Mainland China.

Dennis Blasko, a leading expert on the Chinese military, says the PLA's ongoing reorganisation aims to increase the 'new-type combat forces', which are capable of being used anywhere in China or its borders, but there are not enough of these forces in Tibet to break through India's forward defences in Sikkim.

Bringing in sufficient numbers and acclimatising them to Tibet's high altitudes would take the PLA weeks, losing strategic surprise and allowing India to comfortably reinforce its defences in Sikkim.

IMAGE: An Indian Army truck drives along the Tezpur-Tawang highway, which runs to the Chinese border, in Arunachal Pradesh. Photograph: Frank Jack Daniel/Reuters

If moving appropriate troops into the Chumbi Valley is a logistical challenge, shielding them from Indian artillery, air and ground attacks in that bottleneck would be even more difficult.

Thereafter, the PLA would have to break through formidable Indian defences, attacking mainly uphill, and then advance southward to Siliguri across thickly forested hills, harried all the way by numerically superior Indian forces.

Such an advance, carried out cross-country, would inevitably leave behind artillery and logistic support, rendering Chinese infantry spearheads sitting ducks for Indian forces.

If, miraculously, the Chinese still reach Siliguri, they would be decimated in massed attacks from Indian reserves that could be built up steadily.

"Sikkim is where India attacks China, not the other way around," say typically blunt planners in New Delhi.

Lieutenant General S L Narasimhan (retired), who has commanded a brigade and a division in Sikkim and now serves on India's National Security Advisory Board, has written that concerns about Siliguri are overblown.

The Bhutan factor

With Siliguri not a major concern, New Delhi's purposefulness at Doklam stems, more likely, from the belief that Beijing is testing India's commitment to Bhutan.

China has always been galled by this close relationship which has withstood sustained Chinese pressure to divide it.

At Doklam, military pressure and Beijing's unprecedented rhetoric have been reinforced by diatribes from Chinese and China-friendly media, alleging India's colonial exploitation of Bhutan.

Neville Maxwell, as always in lockstep with Chinese propaganda, writes in the South China Morning Post: 'The Indian attempt to depict this confrontation as tripartite should be disregarded. Bhutan is not an independent actor (but) rather an Indian glove-puppet.'

Maxwell makes the outrageous assertion that New Delhi keeps Thimphu in line by permanently stationing an army brigade group (3,500 to 5,000 troops) in Bhutan.

Numerous Indian and international commentators too have incorrectly cited similar numbers.

In fact, India's military presence in Bhutan is restricted to 800 trainers for the Royal Bhutan Army, and about 100 soldiers with the Border Roads Organisation, which builds and maintains several Bhutanese roads, using civilian hired labour.

New Delhi understands that backing off would amount to throwing Bhutan under the Chinese bus, allowing Beijing to dictate a border settlement with Thimphu.

On the other hand, Beijing understands that allowing India to intervene militarily on behalf of Bhutan would send an undesirable message to other regional States that China seeks to keep divided and mindful of its status as the next global superpower.

New Delhi remains firm about its support to Bhutan.

Says former national security advisor, Shivshankar Menon, in a media interview: 'We have a certain relationship and certain obligations to Bhutan. In this case, China's actions have disturbed the status quo, and that needs to be addressed.'

How much of a flashpoint?

The Doklam confrontation does not yet appear a flashpoint that could trigger open hostilities.

No shots have been exchanged in contrast to the 1967 gun battles at Nathu La and Cho La, just kilometres from Doklam, in which 88 Indian soldiers were killed and 163 wounded; and an estimated 340 Chinese soldiers died and 450 were wounded.

Nor is this the longest or most tense faceoff ever.

That dubious distinction goes to the 1986-1987 crisis on the Sumdorong Chu (rivulet) near Tawang, after China occupied the disputed Wangdung grazing ground and the Indian Army responded with a months-long build-up of tens of thousands of troops along the McMahon Line.

Beijing quickly understood that New Delhi had abandoned its post-1962 defensive mindset and the crisis was resolved, leading on to the Peace and Tranquillity Agreement of 1993 and the Confidence Building Measures of 1996 that have kept the peace on the border ever since.

But this equilibrium has now been disturbed, and both sides have played roles in it.

American Sinologist John Garver, writing in the South China Morning Post, says a rising and assertive China, looking to be the paramount power in Asia, wants to serve up a public lesson to India -- which it sees as the weakest link in a chain of States, including the US, Japan and Australia, that are trying to contain China.

Supporting this rationale for Beijing's shrill aggression over Doklam, other commentators have pointed to China's opposition to India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, its blocking of a UN resolution to declare Pakistan-based Masood Azhar a global terrorist, New Delhi's unapologetic backing of the Dalai Lama, including a government-sponsored visit to Tawang, and the Indian government's forthright rejection of China's flagship Belt and Road Initiative.

IMAGE: A ceremonial reception for China's President Xi Jinping at Rashtrapati Bhavan, September 18, 2014. Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters

In the Indian Ocean too New Delhi is lining up more visibly against China, with its navy cooperating and training regularly with the American and Japanese navies in exercises like the recently concluded Exercise Malabar.

While deteriorating Sino-Indian relations are a reality, there is insufficient recognition of the fact that border incidents are increasingly triggered by India's increasing military strength and an increasingly assertive posture on the border.

Over the last decade, India has strengthened its defences in Arunachal Pradesh by adding two divisions (35,000 to 40,000 troops), and is raising a mountain strike corps (60,000 troops) that can operate in Ladakh, Sikkim or Arunachal Pradesh.

Besides these, India has moved more than two brigades (7,000 to 10,000 troops) from Kashmir to Ladakh and strengthened defences further with the induction of tank and armoured infantry units.

The little-known upshot is that India's military posture has become significantly stronger than China's on the 3,500-kilometre Line of Actual Control.

This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides.

For decades, India maintained an insignificant military presence in Daulet Beg Oldi, in Ladakh, ceding the run of the place to China.

But when India's thickening troop presence blocked Chinese patrols into the area, a prolonged confrontation ensued in 2013.

One general involved in that standoff says: "The Chinese demanded to know why we were blocking them now, when they had been patrolling that area for years."

A similar confrontation took place in Chumar, in Ladakh, in 2014.

Now, in Doklam, Chinese anger stems from being blocked in 2017, after facing no resistance between 2003 and 2007, when they tested the waters by building the existing track.

Furthermore, a more active media in both countries is bringing confrontations to public attention, forcing both governments into harder-line stances and depicting as surrender the give-and-take that must necessarily accompany the resolution of each incident.

Don't miss: More insights into the India-China standoff
How did the newly-anointed heritage city bag the title and is it ready for the expected rush of tourists?

IMAGE: One of Ahmedabad's magnificent pols or old-fashioned housing clusters in the walled city. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Tarkik Patel/Wikimedia Commons.

UNESCO recently declared the 600-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad as a world heritage city.

With this, Ahmedabad has joined Paris, Vienna, Cairo, Brussels, Rome, Melaka (Malacca, Malaysia) and Edinburgh as one of the 287 world heritage cities.

IMAGE: A panoramic view of a yesteryear lane in the old city of Ahmedabad. Do please CLICK on the picture above to get a much larger view and scroll -- you will feel like you actually are in the heritage city. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Pranshu Dubey/Wikimedia Commons.

There are only two other cities in the Indian subcontinent which enjoy the same status: Bhaktapur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka.

IMAGE: Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, permanent representative of India to UNESCO till recently, had much to do with seeing that Ahmedabad made the list of 287 UNESCO world heritage cities. Photograph: Kind Courtesy @RuchiraKamboj/Twitter.

The nomination of Ahmedabad was supported by about 20 countries. Indias team at UNESCO, led by the feisty Ruchira Kamboj, a 1987 batch IFS officer, lobbied successfully for Ahmedabads candidature.

IMAGE: An 1866 photograph of Ahmedabad's walled city from Architecture at Ahmedabad, the Capital of Goozerat by British civil servant Theodore Cracraft Hope, who was in charge of Ahmedabad district and published three books on its archeological monuments. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Colonel Thomas Biggs/British Library.

The citys journey towards branding itself as a heritage destination began in 1984.

IMAGE: The front view of Bhadra Fort, Ahmedabad, one of the gates of the walled city. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Aviral Mediratta/Wikimedia Commons.

Ford Foundation instituted a study for conserving heritage structures in Ahmedabad that year. The goal came closer in 2010 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, proffered a dossier on the status of heritage structures in Ahmedabad to UNESCO.

IMAGE: Pol comes from the Sanskrit, from pratoli. It is believed that the city founder Ahmed Shah also once lived in a pol. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Tarkik Patel/Wikimedia Commons.

In March 2011, Ahmedabad made it to UNESCOs 'tentative' list.

In January 2016, it was chosen over Delhi and Mumbai as Indias entry.

IMAGE: An 1855 map of Ahmedabad from the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency by James M. Campbell. Photograph: Kind Courtesy/British Library.

Ahmedabad was founded by Ahmed Shah in 1411 AD. It has 26 ASI-protected structures, 360 pols and tens of puras (distinctive neighbourhoods) that capture the unique community living of the walled city.

IMAGE: The walled city that Ahmed Shah built in 1411 AD had 12, or some say, 16 or 21 gates. This is Astodiya Gate by night. With three stone arches and once three guns, it is made from iron-plated timber. It stands 17 feet wide and 25 feet high. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Manishjogi/Wikimedia Commons.

The pols are an exuberant riot of beautiful wooden facades, lovely wooden brackets, lovingly carved fenestrated windows, magical balconies, chabutaras (bird feeders) and other architectural elements. And these densely packed clusters of rows upon rows of houses, joined by labyrinthine streets are where Indian architectural traditions live on. This is what prompted the UNESCO tag.

Many believe that the numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived in the city from 1915 to 1930 helped win the deal.



What are the benefits of being branded a heritage city?
'From my childhood I believe your good deeds is your true religion.'

'When the building collapsed, I knew I won't die.'

Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore meets Rajesh Doshi who was buried under debris for more than 14 hours, but survived.

IMAGE: Rajesh Shantilal Doshi had the presence of mind to call his son Darshan despite being buried under the debris for more than six hours, July 25. Photograph: Sahil Salvi

When the four-storeyed Siddhi Sai Apartment in Ghatkopar, north Mumbai, began trembling and collapsed within 15 seconds, Rajesh Shantilal Doshi was speaking to his son Darshan on the phone.

The phone went dead and the 57-year-old diabetic found himself surrounded by debris unable to speak to his son because there was no network.

He kept trying, but it wasn't until 4 pm on July 25 when he finally got Darshan on the line.

"I was speaking with my son when the building collapsed. In about 15 seconds it was down completely," Doshi says, recuperating in Shantiniketan Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

IMAGE: The building was reduced to rubble allegedly because building resident Shiv Sena leader Sunil Sitap tampered with its beams and pillars while renovating his hospital on the ground floor. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

"My cot saved me from death. The ceiling collapsed on me, but I somehow got some space to breathe. I was trapped for 14 hours," he adds, recounting his horrific ordeal.

This was Doshi's second visit to the same hospital in as many months. His right leg was operated on for diabetes treatment by Dr Praful Lokhande who runs the hospital, which is located about 100 metres from the ill-fated building.

Doshi says he is made of sterner stuff and his optimism about life kept him going.

He had suffered many hardships after his father passed away at 14, but he never felt defeated.

He worked his way through all the difficulties and made his life. The same optimism helped him overcome those 14 hours when he lay buried under the rubble.

"From my childhood I believe in karm se dharm (your good deeds is your true religion). In the morning (when the building collapsed) I knew I won't die," says Doshi.

***

IMAGE: During the interview Mr Doshi requested Dr Priyanka Lokhande to permit him to remove the oxygen-supplying tubes to speak with this correspondent. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

Perhaps, it is Doshi's karm se dharm motto that saw his wife and son stay away from harm's way.

Doshi's wife Rita visits a Jain Derasar (temple) every morning and her son Darshan goes to drop her.

"My wife goes to the temple at 9.30 am everyday. My son goes to drop her to the temple. That's why they were saved," says Doshi.

"As soon as I got through to my son, I told him I was alive. I asked him to do whatever he could (to get me out)" even as he heard people walking on the debris above him where he was trapped.

IMAGE: Dr Praful Lokhande, his wife Dr Priya Lokhande and Shantiniketan Hospital's staff administered medical assistance to those injured in the building collapse. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

"The fire brigade came to my rescue at 9 pm. They gave me four biscuits, one banana and four small water bottles. They gave me an insulin injection too."

***

IMAGE: Fireman Ganesh Thangde, according to Dr Lokhande, is being treated for an injury to his left leg and for inhaling toxic gas during the rescue operation. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

Doshi is not too keen on discussing Sunil Shitap, the Shiv Sena leader whose alleged tampering of the beams and pillars while renovating a hospital he owned in Siddhi Sai Apartment's ground floor, probably led to the building's collapse.

"What can I tell Sunil Sitap? 17 people have died; I did not die. I only wish god gives him the sense and he mends his ways. He will realise the loss and pain that many are suffering today if one of his near ones were to die in this building collapse," Doshi says.

IMAGE: Damaged cabinets, furniture, cylinder and a television set are the only signs at Ground Zero bearing testimony to the lives that were saved and lost. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

"There is no point in talking about it now. Those who had to die have died. 17 people have already died; they will never come back," Doshi says and then quickly adds, "I understand one thing: Money doesn't help one achieve good karma; your honour is more important."

***

SEE: Rajesh Doshi narrates how he was saved because of God, the hardworking firemen, his belief in himself and his son's efforts. Video: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com

According to Doshi, each time the society members went to Sitap to request him to stop fiddling with the building's structural stability, he would insult them.

"Whatever he (Sitap) says was the law. Woh jo bole wohi karna padta hai (we had to do whatever he dictated). He never listened to our pleas. He would never talk properly to us," says Doshi.

"We will all speak (about our woes)," says Doshi, "but I know the government gives nothing. Bol bachchan hai (Mumbai slang for 'the government makes only empty promises')."

SEE: A day after 17 people died in the building collapse, JCB machines were busy removing the debris. Video: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com

"What crime did the three-month-old girl (Renuka Lalit Thak who along with her mother Amruta and grandmother Pramila died when they hurried down after the building began trembling. Lalit survived as he was standing in the balcony when that part of their house caved on the outer side) commit?"

"Why should she have died? People like you and I will talk about it for some days and then it will be all lost."
Kazakhstan: Twentieth known 2017 criminal conviction

Publisher Forum 18 Publication Date 25 July 2017 Cite as Forum 18, Kazakhstan: Twentieth known 2017 criminal conviction, 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5978413a4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Sunni Muslim Dmitry Tsilenko, jailed for three years for alleged membership of banned Muslim missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat, is the 20th individual known to have been criminally convicted in 2017 for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Imam Abdukhalil Abduzhabbarov's trial began on 25 July.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
The refugee scandal unfolding in Uganda

Publisher IRIN Author Samuel Okiror Publication Date 25 July 2017 Cite as IRIN, The refugee scandal unfolding in Uganda, 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59784da14.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Uganda, the country with the world's fastest growing refugee burden, is failing to secure the help it needs to care for those forced across the border from South Sudan by war and hunger.

Close to one million South Sudanese refugees, 86 percent of them women and children, have settled in northern Uganda as a result of the crisis. On average, 2,000 people arrive each day.

The unprecedented mass influx is putting enormous strain on Uganda's already limited public services, and fragile local resources like land, firewood, and water. That, in turn, is fanning tensions between the refugees and host communities.

The international community is struggling to respond to a crisis of this scale. In June, Uganda and the UN appealed for $2 billion to support the country's total refugee caseload of 1.3 million for the next four years. Just $350 million has been raised.

That same month the World Food Programme cut its rations to refugees by 50 percent and warned of further cuts to come. WFP needs $117 million for the next six months, but has a $65 million funding gap.

Until fleeing to Uganda, Ben Lam was the county administrator for the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Magwi County, and a man of substance.

Now he is just another refugee in Arua district's Imprevi settlement; dependent - like his wife, six biological children, and five additional kids he took in - on an unreliable supply of aid.

His list of needs is long, but "whether we have something to eat or not, at least here is safe. We can sleep and move. A better time will come, provided that we are alive."

Test Case

Uganda has been praised for its progressive refugee hosting policy. Refugees do not live in camps but looser settlements, and have the right to work and access social services.

The country was chosen as one of the key testing grounds for a new global compact - the "Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework". The initiative is meant to ease the pressure on host countries, but the disappointing level of funding suggests it's not off to a flying start.

"Unless new funding is received in the coming weeks, WFP will not have enough cereals, maize meal, and beans to meet the full food needs of refugees in Uganda," said Lydia Wamala, a WFP spokeswoman in Kampala.

A UN report noted that Uganda spent over $323 million in 2016/17 on the protection and management of refugees, and on the provision of essential services. That is equivalent to 46 percent of the country's annual education budget and 62 percent of its health expenditure.

But there are shortages across the board for the refugees encamped in five vast northern settlements - from shelter to healthcare and sanitation.

"Ugandan host communities in the north have shown exceptional generosity by welcoming refugees with open arms," said Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency. "However, this is not something Uganda can tackle alone."

Western public opinion is not only opposed to taking a greater share of the refugee burden, but it's also against "their government's spending money to help refugees where they currently find themselves," said Phil Clark, a Great Lakes expert at SOAS, University of London. "This leaves refugee populations extremely vulnerable."

Shortages

Bidi Bidi is one of the largest refugee settlements in the world. As just one example of the needs, some 55,000 children are crammed into 12 overcrowded schools lacking teachers and learning materials.

"Our refugee children are studying in temporary structures," said Robert Baryamwesiga, the settlement commandant for Bidi Bidi. "They are supposed to [last for only] three months. Now we are going to a year and still using them."

According to Baryamwesiga, 50 percent of refugee children do not attend school. "Many of them are unaccompanied or separated children," he noted.

Save the Children has warned of an education emergency. "There is a real and present danger that an entire generation of refugee children will be deprived of the education they need to rebuild their lives," the agency said in a recent report.

Thousands more children are suffering from trauma and are not receiving the mental health support they need. "It is vital these children receive dedicated, professional help," said Henry Makiwa, spokesman for the development agency World Vision UK.

To draw attention to the plight of the estimated 700 traumatised children that arrive in Uganda each week, World Vision has launched a #BearsOnStairs campaign. It will culminate with an event on the steps of London's Saint Paul's Cathedral on Thursday.

Rising tensions

In theory, the refugees could be an asset rather than a burden to the host communities. Their presence should attract donor-funded development like roads and schools - part of the bargain the CRRF envisaged.

But a USAID report released in May warned that tension is rising between host communities and refugees over access to services and local resources.

"The fact that refugees can access food but not the host communities is not going down well with some community members," the report said. "Rising social tension between refugees and host communities has the potential to degenerate into secondary conflict."

In some cases, locals have already threatened refugees with violence, said Dennis Mbaguta, settlement commandant for Impevi.

"We compete for resources like land and water, which don't expand," he told IRIN. "There are concerns over the environment as trees are being cut [down] and not replaced.'

According to Clark at SOAS, "the growing perception in many host communities is that the state is privileging refugees over its own citizens."

Lino Ogora, a peace activist based in the northern town of Gulu, argues that the resentment of the host communities "is an indicator of the poor facilities and services provided by the government to its own people".

The refugees should not be blamed for this, "but rather the government should be the one to put its house in order."

The longer-term solution to the refugee crisis in Uganda lies in an end to the conflict in South Sudan. There, fighting since 2013 has internally displaced close to two million people and left 5.8 million in need of aid. But regional and international peace efforts have stalled and the violence shows no sign of abating.
Title Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors : Third Evaluation Round - Second Addendum to the Second Compliance Report on Azerbaijan

Publication Date 28 June 2017

Country Azerbaijan

Citation / Document Symbol GrecoRC3(2017)4

Other Languages / Attachments Azerbaijani | French

Cite as Council of Europe: Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors : Third Evaluation Round - Second Addendum to the Second Compliance Report on Azerbaijan, 28 June 2017, GrecoRC3(2017)4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597852c54.html [accessed 12 November 2022]

Comments Adopted by GRECO at its 75th Plenary Meeting (Strasbourg, 20-24 March 2017).
Search Refworld

and / or country All countries Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau (Special Administrative Region of China) Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-Leste (East Timor) Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkiye Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Territory Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Basamat: Empowering Women

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Mohammed Ibrahim Publication Date 3 July 2017 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Basamat: Empowering Women, 3 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597859184.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Basamat social centre recently opened its fourth sewing workshop in Idlib as part of an effort to boost vocational training in the city.

With many families experiencing financial difficulties, the intention is to empower women to produce clothes and sell them in the neighbourhood in order to help support their families.

This latest workshop, which aims to train 25 participants, is part of a series in which women have been offered the opportunity to learn how to cut and style hair, apply makeup and sew and decorate clothes.

The Basamat social centre in Idlib is one of a number spread throughout Syria and the neighbouring countries. Last year, 1,200 women took courses and workshops at these centres, graduating with a certificate intended to help them find work.

Amina Loul, 26, studied English at the Basamat centre.

"It was a very useful course in which we learnt the basics and principles of English, like grammar and speech," she said. "I am able to read and write sentences in English and I will continue to acquire knowledge. I love English even more, thanks to the centre."

For a long time, there were no training centres for women in Idlib. In any case, women were deterred from accessing services for fear of having to pass through regime checkpoints.

Since the opposition took control of Idlib, several women's centres have been opened, including Basamat.

Ahed al-Haj Hassan, the director of the Bassamat centre, noted that it was one of several located in other areas of Idlib, Aleppo, the Damascus countryside and neighbouring countries.

"Our centre has worked on professional and cognitive empowerment, such as having Arabic and English classes, political empowerment, human rights seminars and psychological support sessions, as well as training in nursing and physical therapy," she said. "The centre has a safe playground which allows every woman who attends our courses to take her children with her so that there is no reason to prevent her from attending while the children can stay in the playground."

Hassan continued, "The war has forced every woman to be a nurse, a teacher and a worker in her own home. In particular, many women have lost their breadwinners, like their husbands or fathers. Most found themselves in a situation where they have to work and they need all kinds of empowerment so that's what the centre offers."

Wadad Rahhal, 47, is an administrative assistant at the Basamat centre in Idlib and a trainer in political empowerment.

"This year we are looking forward to organising four workshops on political empowerment, which aim to familiarise women working in women's centres and organizations with their rights and duties," she said. "We finished the first session a short time ago, which included the definition of women's political empowerment and topics on the principles of human, women's and children's rights."

Rahhal continued, "We have adapted these sessions to suit the traditions of Syrian society and the local environment. The last session of political empowerment was very popular among women because it was a process in which we widened their horizons to discuss real-life situations."

Hassan said they planned to train 1,600 women in 2017 in various fields.

"Between the Basamat centre and other women's centres lies a great hope," she said. "A huge burden is placed on Syrian women and we need to help and empower them so they can give back something in return."

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Idlib's Ancient Glass Industry

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Sonia al-Ali Publication Date 4 July 2017 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Idlib's Ancient Glass Industry, 4 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5978596e4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

According to legend, the city of Armanaz is where the Canaanites founded the glass industry many thousands of years ago. Glass production, decorated with inscriptions, is considered to be one of Idlib's oldest handicrafts.

But the war has left its mark on the industry and led to its decline, according to Abu Khaled, who owns an Armanaz glass factory.

"I have been working in this business for 20 years, I inherited it from my parents and grandparents," he said. "Our work was based on the manufacture and export of handmade oriental vessels to the world, but today we are limited to the local market. The power cuts have also affected our work and the prices of fuel and basic raw materials have reached an unprecedented level, as well as the migration of skilled labour."

But Abu Khaled maintains that this industry is the pride of Syrians and part of their country's identity and history. He is committed, together with his fellow glass producers, to carry on manufacturing and improving their goods so that Idlib remains the leader in this industry.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Peace is the 'bedrock' for women's development and human rights UN deputy chief says in DR Congo

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 25 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Peace is the 'bedrock' for women's development and human rights UN deputy chief says in DR Congo, 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597859fd4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The importance of reversing the tragedies of violence, particularly against women and children, and ensuring that women's and girl's voices are heard in all aspects of society are at the core of the second leg of a high-level United Nations-African Union (AU) mission to Africa, which today visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Peace is the bedrock  the foundation  to allow us to develop our full potentials, but also to ensure that human rights are respected. Here we see that women's rights, which are human rights, are not respected and we have a long way to go, said Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed during a press encounter following her meeting with Leonard She Okitundu, Vice-Prime Minister of the DRC, emphasizing that so much more can be done.

Ms. Mohammed commended the Government's efforts to combat gender-based sexual violence, noting that having a woman in charge was probably the reason for the progress, but what we really want to see is zero.

We hear what the DRC cannot do. We are here to discuss what [the country] can do with its women and young people, she stressed, adding that while the rights and aspirations of women are far from being attained, it was the job of the UN and AU to support closing the gap.

Ms. Mohammed explained the aim of bringing women leaders into the conversation and engaging with women to find the opportunities to overcome the challenges, to change the narrative of victims to survivors and aspirations achieved within the 2030 Agenda.

This call came as Ms. Mohammed leads a first-ever joint AU-UN high-level mission to Africa, seeking to highlight the role of women in achieving sustainable peace and development. She has been accompanied by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, and the Special Envoy of the AU on Women, Peace and Security, Bineta Diop.

Over the past two days, the delegation met with key members of the Congolese Government, the donor community, as well as women leaders from the civil society. Briefing reporters in the country's capital of Kinshasa, the Deputy Secretary-General said their discussions revolved around a focus on women, and how we can see women's empowerment, address women's human rights, and women with their rights to the electoral process.

More broadly, while stressing the need to respect everyone's abilities, she said there is no one size that fits all, and added that women's every day rights must be addressed contextually. Indeed: There is no aircraft that flies anywhere, or bird that flies anywhere, on half a wing, she underscored, echoing her refrain from other stops on the trip that a critical step towards sustainable development for all is to ensure that women and girls  half the world's population  receive the investments, opportunities, access and protection they require.

Ms. Mohammed went on to say that the UN and the African Union (AU) have each begun another era with new leadership, reforms and frameworks  respectively the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) and the 2063 Agenda, both of which have placed women at the core.
Amid rising tensions in Jerusalem, UN envoy warns of 'grave risk' of escalation in Middle East

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 25 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Amid rising tensions in Jerusalem, UN envoy warns of 'grave risk' of escalation in Middle East, 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59785a5f4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The United Nations envoy on Middle East peace has warned that developments over the past 11 days at holy sites in the Old City in Jerusalem have demonstrated the grave risk that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could become a religious conflict that could ultimately engulf the rest of the region.

While recognizing that Israelis and Palestinians fortunately have not succumbed to the torrent of violent upheaval that has engulfed the region in recent years, Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, nevertheless told an open debate in the UN Security Council that: For nearly a century, despite myriad peace efforts, one conflict has evaded solution.

His briefing highlighted the latest clashes and rising tensions over the past two weeks in the Old City in Jerusalem. Violence has resulted in deaths on both sides.

These developments demonstrated the grave risk of dangerous escalation that exists, a risk of turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one and dragging both sides into the vortex of violence with the rest of the region, Mr. Mladenov said, stressing the need for all parties to show restraint and promptly end this crisis.

Noting that the final status issue concerning Jerusalem needs to be negotiated and decided by the two sides, he urged Israel to fulfill the responsibility to uphold its obligations under international human rights law and humanitarian law. He also urged Palestinian leaders to avoid provocative statements that further aggravate an already tense environment.

The latest incidents have taken place against a backdrop of other developments, the envoy stressed.

Throughout the month, Israel continued to advance its plans to construct settlements in East Jerusalem. I must once again emphasize that settlement activity in occupied territory is illegal under international law, and undermines the chances for the establishment of a viable, contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, he warned.

Palestinians and Israelis must return to an environment conductive to negotiations

On a positive note, an interim power purchasing agreement between the two sides was signed on 10 July, which set the stage to negotiate a more comprehensive power purchasing agreement towards Palestinian energy independence. In addition, an agreement was reached to increase water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Turning to the situation in Gaza, he reiterated that the political standoff between two Palestinian factions  Fatah and Hamas  has taken the two million people living in the tiny enclave hostage.

Since violently seizing control of Gaza, Hamas has tightened its grip on power and suppressed dissent, he explained.

The punishing measures taken against Hamas, including electricity cuts, have worsened the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Whatever the political differences between the Palestinian factions, it is not the people of Gaza who should pay the price, Mr. Mladenov underscored, calling on Palestinian leaders to address the destructive consequences of the split.

Finally, he said recent events are a reminder of how easy it could be to reach a dangerous escalation, and he, expressed hope that Israel's agreement with Jordan and positive engagement with religious authorities would result in actions that would circumvent violence in the future.

We must not lose focus on the need to restore a political perspective, on the need to bring Palestinians and Israelis back into an environment that is conductive to negotiations on a final status arrangement and avoids turning the national Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one, he emphasized.
Majority of children fleeing to Europe just want to get away, UNICEF reports

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 25 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Majority of children fleeing to Europe just want to get away, UNICEF reports, 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59785abc4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Facing violence and trauma in Libya and other countries, thousands of children decided to flee by themselves, seeking to get away but not necessarily aiming for Europe, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today reported.

A new study of push-pull factors on child marriage showed that 75 per cent of children on the move decided to leave unaccompanied and that initially, they had no intention to come to Europe, UNICEF spokesperson Sarah Crowe told journalists in Geneva.

What was striking in the new findings was that there were far more push factors, pushing children away from home  conflicts or violence at home  than there were pull factors [that lure them to Europe], and this went against the current narrative, Ms. Crowe said.

She noted that of the children who arrived in Libya, 63 per cent of young people left the country because of the generalized violence and trauma they suffered or witnessed, making them more willing to take terrifying sea journeys.

As one young Gambian boy said, 'if you have a lion behind your back and a sea in front of you, you take the sea,' said Ms. Crowe.

Among girls interviewed, one in five left because of forced child marriage at home.

For the first six months of the year, a total of 12,239 children had arrived to Italy, and 93 per cent were travelling alone  the majority of them teenage boys, according to UNICEF figures.

In Greece, however, the majority of children were actually being sent on the voyage by their parents, or were accompanied by their parents.

UNICEF said the study is important for policymakers to understand why the children are making the voyage and how best to help them once they arrive in Europe.

Deadly voyages increasingly expensive

Voyages through the so-called Eastern Mediterranean route and into the European Union now cost $5,000 or more, according to the UN Migration Agency (IOM).

With increased border controls, it has become harder to reach Europe, noted Livia Styp-Rekowska, IOM's Border Management Specialist in Vienna. One constant, however, is the increase in sums demanded.

She noted new data released today that shows the cost of getting into Europe has increased significantly when compared to 2016, the routes have changed, and different countries of destination are being prioritized.

People arriving from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan are charged the most, according to IOM.

The most popular destination up to June 2016 was overwhelmingly Germany, but migrants now seek to get to France, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Austria and Denmark as well, with Greece used as a popular transit country.
Can Moscow Benefit From the Unfolding 'Russia-Gate' in Washington?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Pavel K. Baev Publication Date 24 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Can Moscow Benefit From the Unfolding 'Russia-Gate' in Washington?, 24 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5978620a4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Investigations of Russia's interference in the 2016 United States presidential election and the impediment this scandal creates for accomplishing any significant policy-making by the US government resonate loudly in Washington, DC, and beyond. As such, the applicability of the term "Russia-gate" is pretty much no longer in doubt. Indeed, Donald Trump's administration has had to concentrate more attention on minimizing damage from this scandal that on any other macro-political matter, from the repeal of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") to the North Korean nuclear program. Appointments to key positions, particularly in the State Department, are badly delayed; some loyalists are threatened with sackings while others opt to resign (Kommersant, July 22). This extraordinary confusion should logically play into the hands of the power that launched the attack on American democracy though remains in denial of any wrongdoing-Russia (New Times, July 19). And yet, Moscow has had few achievements it could plausibly attribute to this bold offensive, while the damage to Russia's international reputation is severe. Meanwhile, the prospects for cultivating a "beautiful friendship" with a maverick US president has, to all intents and purposes, been destroyed (Gazeta.ru, July 17).

Russia could have harvested the richest crop from Trump's troubles in Europe, particularly due to his repeated misgivings about the costs and benefits of the Transatlantic alliance. Trump is indeed greatly unpopular in Europe, particularly in Germany; but French President Emmanuel Macron apparently managed to convince him of the high value of old allies (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 14). The persistent demand from Washington to increase defense expenditures irks many Europeans but still contributes to them taking military matters more seriously. This denies Russia opportunities to exploit its position of strength (Carnegie.ru, July 20). The European Union is concerned about the new sanctions legislation moving ahead in the US Congress, insisting that such heavy-impact steps should be taken only after proper consultations with all parties to the sanctions regime, and not unilaterally (Newsru.com, July 23). At the same time, Germany is roiling from a scandal involving four gas turbines, manufactured in cooperation with Siemens, that have ended up in Crimea, in violation of President Vladimir Putin's explicit promises to the contrary. So the German company has been compelled to introduce its own sanctions against further joint ventures in Russia (RBC, July 21).

Moscow may have expected that the disarray in Washington would diminish support for Ukraine, which has never been high on Trump's list of priorities. However, there is no evidence the US is dropping the ball on this issue; and the appointment of Russia-hawk Kurt Volker as Special Representative for Ukraine, as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent visit to Kyiv have not given any hope to the Kremlin that it might gain more ground in the deadlocked Minsk ceasefire process (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 17).

In Moscow, there are also expectations that growing tensions in US-China relations will make Russia a more valuable partner for the increasingly assertive Beijing. Trade negotiations between the two economic giants are indeed facing complications, but Trump has shown all due respect to China's ambitious leader, Xi Jinping. Russia can have but a limited impact on setting any sort of economic or security agenda for the Asia-Pacific (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 20). The crisis triggered and escalated by North Korea's ballistic missile tests constitutes a direct threat to Russia's security; yet, Moscow has failed to make any contribution to its management, except for following China's lead (Russian Council, July 6).

It is in the Middle East that Moscow is looking most eagerly for opportunities created by US strategic confusion, and Russian commentators are trumpeting every interwoven intrigue as a major success (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 21). The ceasefire in the southwestern corner of war-torn Syria indeed fits far better with Russian plans than US missile strikes. And yet, this minor deal, agreed by Trump and Putin at their controversial meeting in Hamburg, could easily unravel because neither Israel nor Iran are satisfied with it (Carnegie.ru, July 18). Trump may want to brag about and build on this achievement, but there is clear understanding in Washington that Russia is not a reliable partner in managing the mutating conflicts in Syria (Kommersant, July 21). One particular consequence of the US's misjudgment of complex quarrels in the region was the eruption of the crisis around Qatar. But Russia has been unable to profit from it and cannot present itself as a reliable mediator, because it is not trusted by Saudi Arabia or Iran or even Turkey (Moskovsky Komsomolets, July 19).

Washington created many complications for itself on the international arena-for instance by withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. But Russia has gained nothing from this self-undermining of US global leadership. Disappearing US interest in arms control, for that matter, denies Moscow one of the most important channels of strategic communication with Washington, while the arrogant "reminders" about Russia's readiness to use nuclear weapons from Chechnya's despotic ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov, discredit the much-valued nuclear status (RBC, July 18). Whatever Trump and Putin later discussed one-on-one (in the presence of a Russian translator) over dinner in Hamburg, Russia is nonetheless defined as the most important source of threat to US security. And this risk assessment translates into a sequence of practical steps aimed at countering this threat (RBC, July 23).

The Russian foreign ministry's hysterical demands that Washington return access to its two diplomatic "dachas" on US soil (confiscated by the Barack Obama administration last year, in retaliation for Russia's meddling in the election) appear to be going nowhere (Novaya Gazeta, July 18). Whereas, the appointment of the experienced and independent-minded Jon Huntsman as the new US ambassador to Russia will not provide Moscow with much opportunity to establish a special channel to the White House (Kommersant, July 19). Anatoly Antonov, Russia's newly designated ambassador to Washington, meanwhile, is already known for his confrontational and truculent nature (New Times, July 7).

Though Russia is consistently in the headlines in the US, this excessive attention is hardly helpful to upholding Moscow's international position. The more dubious details of the workings of Russian corruption permeate the US media. The lower Russia's reputation sinks and the less the Trump administration is able to cope with this onslaught of accusations, the harder it will be for Moscow to sustain its denials. The Kremlin is typically adept at exploiting Western divisions and internal confusion; presently, however, this mess-making is backfiring. Russia is incurring penalties rather than bonuses for its efforts at managing the severe crisis in relations with the leaderless West.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Making Sense of China's Caribbean Policy

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Jared Ward Publication Date 21 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 10 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Making Sense of China's Caribbean Policy, 21 July 2017, China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 10, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597862ae4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

While the world's attention focuses on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) connecting China with Eurasia and Africa, China is also making major investments in the Caribbean. In September 2016 the China Harbor Engineering Company () agreed to build a mega-port in Jamaica that would make the small island-nation a hub for mammoth Chinese ships soon crossing through an expanded Panama Canal (Jamaica Gleaner, September 24, 2016). Valued at $1.5 billion, the port will become China's largest in a region that has become a growing target for Chinese aid and diplomatic overtures. Barbados, a small island in the Lesser Antilles, has received millions from Chinese companies to restore historical landmarks and provide free medical care. In March of this year, a visa waiver program was created, aimed at opening the Caribbean paradise to an untapped market of 20-million Chinese tourists. Chinese funds have restored the Baha Mar luxury resort in the Bahamas. In Guyana, Chinese companies have developed the timber, oil, and gold industries.

China's short and long-term interests in the region appear to be not only motivated by economics but also aimed at connecting nations in America's backyard to a Maritime Silk Road under Chinese influence. Recent developments in Sino-American relations have magnified the importance of border seas and the Caribbean, like the South China Sea, is likely to become a stage for clashing Chinese and American visions of global politics.

Chinese promises of aid to the Caribbean are consistent with a pattern elsewhere in the developing world. Beijing touts its own success as a developing nation; a rags to riches story of a non-Western power rising to global prominence. Caribbean officials generally view China's checkbook diplomacy in a positive light. Generous loan terms and willingness to undertake badly needed infrastructure projects have helped offset drying up funds from Western institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The influx of capital and projects bring promises of badly needed jobs for locals and training programs to teach transferable skills that last. However, on the ground, these promises are much more complicated, leaving locals wondering, as one Jamaican official did: "What does China want from us? That's the big question that everyone has about this: Why?" (Global Post, April 22, 2011).

China's Increased Caribbean Footprint

In late 2016, the PRC released its first White Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, laying out guidelines for China's engagement in the region (FMPRC, November 24, 2016). Xi Jinping's 2014 visit to Trinidad and Tobago elevated interest in the region. The White Paper lays out broad principles such as noninterference in political affairs (), mutually beneficial relationships (), and infrastructure and turnkey projects aimed at creating immediate improvements in the local economies. According to Beijing, this focus on addressing local problems is what makes their worldview different from America in the Caribbean. These lofty policy goals and carefully worded political statements are left to Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOE) and lending banks to be put into practice.

China's main arms in the Caribbean are a combination of lending banks, individual Chinese investors, and State Owned Enterprises. Chinese financial institutes such as the Chinese Export-Import Bank () make funds available to lend to SOE's that bid on contracts to complete projects. The massive Baha Mar Bahama resort, valued at $2.4 billion, was built by the China Communications Construction Company (). Chinese officials have also made clear that funds made available for nations involved in the BRI will also include Caribbean nations. Zhu Qingqao (), head of the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Department () of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) made clear it clear that the Caribbean is part of Maritime Silk Road. In an interview in June with Cuban newspaper Granma, Zhu said that China put investments in Caribbean nations on par with projects receiving more focus in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (Granma, June 2). Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness expressed his country's interest in formally joining BRI; calling it a "noble expression," that promoted cooperation and inclusiveness across the developing world (Jamaica Gleaner, June 22).

While China's invitation for Caribbean nations to join BRI is tempting, Chinese SOE's in the Caribbean have become embroiled in controversy and unveil a much more complicated reality where Chinese visions of development have mixed results and receptions. Accusations against Chinese companies range from flouting local labor laws to providing job and contracts exclusively to Chinese nationals, to an exploitation of natural resources (NACLA, June 26, 2013). This double-edged sword of Chinese aid to the Caribbean is on display in Guyana, China's oldest CARICOM ally from the English-speaking Caribbean. Guyanese politicians continue to praise China as an invaluable partner and a potential model to follow to their own successful rise from poverty. In practice, Chinese promises of jobs, housing, and electricity have a mixed legacy that is often more gilded than gold.

Sino-Guyanese Relations: A Case Study in China's Caribbean Policy

Guyana reluctantly embraces a paradox common to many developing states: rich in natural resources with poor economies. Besides its vast tracts of rain forest rich in lumber harvest, the discovery of an offshore oil and gas field earlier this year may make the small nation a major oil producer in the region (NYTimes, January 13). While China has shown a recent interest in these natural resources, Sino-Guyanese relations trace back to Guyana's first Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. In 1972, Guyana went against Cold War currents and became the first former colony of former British West Indies to grant Beijing, not Taipei, diplomatic recognition. In the early years of the relationship, China would use Guyana as a laboratory of sorts and the site of its first foreign aid project in the Western Hemisphere-the Bel Lu Clay Brick Factory. The brick factory promised to make 10-million bricks a year; however, due to mismanagement and a lack of Chinese enthusiasm to step back in, the factory closed in the early 1990s and is now overgrown. Guyana has remained one of China's most consistent CARICOM partners and in recent years has received millions in medical, military, and technical assistance. Other projects have improved telecommunications and built infrastructure aimed at making Guyana's natural resources more accessible and further integrating its economy with its neighbors.

However, China has also been the target of criticisms common to its efforts elsewhere in the developing world. Local companies are often shut out of projects; all contracts are awarded to Chinese companies through a secretive bidding process. Furthermore, Chinese job creation promises often fall short and rely primarily on Chinese nationals. Baishanlin (), a recent acquisition of Long Jian Forest Industries, a state-owned enterprise (SOE), has been at the center of a growing controversy and an example of how China's development program can potentially sour bilateral relations.

Baishanlin arrived in Guyana over a decade ago and made promises familiar to many Caribbean nations. It would be given access to millions of acres of timber reserves in exchange for creating 10,000 local jobs and leaving behind a wood processing plant for the development of Guyana's forest industry. Job creation has fallen short and those who do work for the SOE have filed grievances over inadequate pay, long hours, and exploitation of natural resources (Stabroek News, July 26, 2016). Additionally, Baishanlin's promise to build a wood processing plant, a requirement for it to receive tax breaks has not been met, leading the Guyana Forest Commission to seize Chinese owned logging equipment and other assets (Demerara Waves, September 7, 2016). Most recently, the Chinese Development Bank has asked the Guyana government to hold off reallocating Baishanlin owned lands while it gathers the capital to recapitalize the loans owned by the company. (Demerarawaves, April, 19). As for now, the failed promises of Baishanlin remains a grim reminder for those in the region debating whether to widen their relations with Beijing.

Sympathetic Partner or Neo-Colonialist? Making Sense of China's Caribbean Policy:

Guyana shows the double-edged sword of Chinese investment but also provides insights into China's foreign policy toward the region as a whole. The entire Caribbean region has only 41-million people and there is little indication Chinese tourists are willing to make the around-the-world trip for vacation. What then is China's interest in pouring billions of dollars into a region that can promise little in return? One possibility is that China's policy is directed at Taiwan. The Caribbean is one of the last bastions for Taipei's dwindling diplomatic alliances. The Dominican Republic, Belize, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent still recognize Taipei-not Beijing. This frames China's checkbook diplomacy as a carrot to draw away Taiwan's allies and isolate Taipei further politically. While the "One-China" policy does remain significant in all of China's relations, this only explains a charm offensive toward nations like Panama, which until recently retained relations with Taiwan. China's largest partners in the region-Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and Barbados-have recognized Beijing exclusively since the 1970s.

China's push for closer relations with these Caribbean nations was part of a pivot toward the 'Third World' in the waning years of the Mao Zedong Era (1949-1976). In the early 1970s, nations like Guyana and Jamaica became part of a Third World bloc that helped push the PRC's final bid for UN membership. China's initial interest in the Caribbean coincided with the beginning stages of Sino-American rapprochement when security anxieties about growing Sino-Soviet hostilities brought China from the recluses of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The Caribbean became part a vast Third World that included Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America in which Mao envisioned China more fit to lead than the industrialized, white, Soviet Union or America. The Caribbean has always been unable to offer Beijing the same natural resources or strategic military alliances with countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. However, geopolitically the region provides economic and symbolic incentives for China's investments. Many of China's largest infrastructure projects, like ports in the Bahamas and Jamaica, will be used to accommodate larger volumes of cargo coming from China for transshipment throughout the Western Hemisphere. According to a proposal presented by Baishanlin, the driving force for the China National Development Bank Program's investment in Guyana is its access to 277-million consumers, a $130-billion export market, and over $2-trillion in buying power. [2] Furthermore, in small Caribbean nations, China's aid can make a greater impact for less investment; setting Beijing up to better compete with Western companies.

Conclusion

Beyond market access, China's increased presence in Caribbean affairs can be understood as a subtle jab at American Western Hemisphere dominance at a time when Washington is pushing Beijing in the South China Sea. Xi Jinping, when he was still Vice President of China, visited Jamaica in 2009 and 2013 (Xinhua, February 14, 2009). Xi's 2013 visit to Trinidad was one of his earliest trips abroad. In an interview before the trip Xi lauded Trinidad and China's long cultural ties and common paths of development. In both 2009 as VP and later as President he described Sino-Caribbean relations according to an old Chinese saying which says "close friends stay close at heart though thousands of miles apart." At a time when Washington is accusing China of bullying smaller countries in the South China Sea, Beijing has repeatedly held the Caribbean up as an of America's history of big-power chauvinism. A Global Times editorial that lashed out against ramped up tensions caused by the US and reminding Washington "The South China Sea is not the Caribbean. It is not a place for the US to behave recklessly." (Global Times, February 23). Just as China views the South China Sea as a core national interest, Washington views the Caribbean as naturally within its sphere of influence. Success in connecting America's backyard to the Belt and Road Initiative presents a way for Xi to position China to challenge America in its own hemisphere.

Jared Ward is a Ph.D. Candidate and Associate Lecturer at the University of Akron in the Department of History. His dissertation and research focuses on China's foreign relations with the Caribbean during the Cold War.

Notes

Peter J. Meyer "US Foreign Assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean: FY 2016. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44113.pdf. January 7, 2016, Congressional Budget Office Author's Private Collection

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
ZhuravkaMillerovo Rail Bypass: A Threat to Ukraine's National Security?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sergey Sukhankin Publication Date 25 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 98 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, ZhuravkaMillerovo Rail Bypass: A Threat to Ukraine's National Security?, 25 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 98, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597865f84.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Russian media announced, on July 14, that the new (122.5-kilometer) railway connection between the southwestern Russian towns of Zhuravka and Millerovo will be completed by mid-August (Rzdp.ru, July 14). Originally, these two cities were linked by a Soviet-era railroad that, in part, crosses eastern Ukraine. But following Russia's invasion of Donbas in early 2014, Kyiv shut down this portion of the border, thus severing the rail line. Aiming to bypass Ukraine, Moscow launched the new ZhuravkaMillerovo rail project in November 2014. Aside from the railway itself, the project envisages the creation of 98 new infrastructure elements, including bridges, highways and seven brand new railroad stations along the way (Uvzd.rzd.ru, January 19).

Initially, few Western observers paid significant attention to the project. Those who did, however, expressed doubts that the initiative would be completed as planned due to issues with funding, notorious Russian corruption and lack of discipline (see EDM, October 5, 2015; November 25, 2014). Perhaps those predictions would have proven correct if the project was driven solely by civilian considerations. But judging by the pace of work, the sum of the allocated funds, the political determination and the devoted manpower, it seems that the initiative occupies a much more prominent place in Moscow's strategic and military thinking than heretofore recognized.

Notably, when the project was first introduced, the deadline was set for 2018, with the main bulk of construction work to be carried out by Russian Railways (RZD) (RIA Novosti January 29). Yet, starting from 2016, the level of involvement of the Russian military forces increased exponentially. On April 20, 2016, Russia's First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov admitted the Army was involved, noting that "if required, the Railway Troops could assist RZD to an even greater extent" (Tvzvezda.ru, April 20, 2016). On November 26, Russian Deputy Defense Minister General Dmitry Bulgakov bestowed awards to 23 members of the Railway Troops for their "high personal input in the construction of the railway bypassing Ukraine." Lieutenant Colonel Valery Efremov was awarded with the Order of Honor and Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Mishurin received the Order for Military Merit. The rest received medals For Merit to the Fatherland (Second Class) and Medals of Suvorov. During the ceremony, General Bulgakov emphasized that the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces (President Vladimir Putin) and the minister of defense (Sergei Shoigu) "highly appreciate your professionalism and determination in building the ZhuravkaMillerovo railway, which is of instrumental importance for Russia" (Interfax, November 26, 2016).

Subsequently, on May 30, 2017, during the official inspection of the construction area, Bulgakov stated that "at this point, 97 percent of grading work has been completed." He also underscored that more than 1,000 Railway Troops and 500 units of special equipment were involved in the construction (Vpk.name, May 30). Similarly, representatives of RZD claimed that the project currently involves 2,500 civilian construction workers, supplemented by 1,500 pieces of technical equipment (Interfax, January 28). Impressive as it might seem, this could still be just a small fraction of the total forces potentially diverted to the needs of this railroad. Recent information suggests that the ZhuravkaMillerovo bypass is merely part of bigger project aimed at completely renovating the railroad connection between the Privolzhsky region (western-central Russia) and the Azov/Black Sea basin, with the deadline set for 2019 (Gudok.ru, February 12).

In spite of Moscow's official claims that the ZhuravkaMillerovo bypass had to be built to reconnect internal portions of Russia cut off since 2014 due to the aggravated relations between Moscow and Kyiv and the outbreak of the military conflict in Donbas, many experts are increasingly questioning the railroad's true strategic objective. For instance, Olga Aivazovska, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Minsk peace talks (since 2016), linked the railroad to other anti-Ukrainian measures recently introduced by Moscow, such as the Russian government's recognition of passports presented by the Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics." According to the expert, Russia's goal is to develop "economic, logistical and political connections that will (if not integrate this territory into Russia) allow the area to neither perish nor fully return under Ukrainian sovereignty" (Tvzvezda.ru, February 28).

Prominent Russian military expert and analyst Pavel Felgenhauer ascribed the construction of this railroad to Russia's broader military goals in the region. At this juncture, the construction of the bypass is indispensable for the Russian side to be able to transport troops to the Ukrainian border. According to the expert, this could mean that the Kremlin is creating a solid foundation for a potential military offensive against Ukraine. Given the fact that Russia has already established four military bases in Briansk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov oblast, infrastructure-related issues in this area are gaining pivotal importance. However, Felgenhauer suggested that the finalization of the construction work in August would not necessarily imply an imminent outbreak of heavy hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Rather, the completion of the railroad bypass should mainly be seen as "preparation of the theater for future conflict" (Fakty.ictv.ua, March 2).

Once the ZhuravkaMillerovo rail bypass is complete, it is highly probable that the two reconnected areas of Rostov Oblast that border Ukrainian Luhansk will find themselves completely cut from the outside worldprompting locals to abandon the region en masse. The local media attempted to highlight this issue back in 2015, but the discussion was immediately hushed up by the authorities (Aif.ru, May 20, 2015). The prospect of this Russian border area turning into some sort of no man's land almost completely devoid of a civilian population does not appear to worry Moscow, however. This appears odd, unless of course that is in fact part of the Russian government's plan for the region.

In recent days, international observers reported seeing increased concentrations of Russian heavy military equipment in Novoazovsk, close to the ChisinauRostov highway (Hromadske.ua, July 22). Such news bolsters the case that the ZhuravkaMillerovo railroad bypass in fact constitutes a tangible threat to Ukraine's national security. Once it completes this transit line, Russia will be in a position to link the Azov/Black Sea with other parts of Russia, connecting the Western and Southern Military Districts. This enhancement of Russia's internal transportation network in the southwest will allow Moscow to more quickly and easily create a springboard for a potential major military offensive against Ukraine and threaten the entire Black Sea region as a whole. For many Black Sea littoral statesUkraine first and foremostthese developments look particularly worrisome considering the upcoming large-scale Zapad 2017 military exercise, which will be held in western Russia this September.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Inter-Ethnic Land Conflicts Threaten Borders in North Caucasus

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Paul Goble Publication Date 25 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 98 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Inter-Ethnic Land Conflicts Threaten Borders in North Caucasus , 25 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 98, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597866e14.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Since the end of the Soviet system, the greatest source of conflicts in the North Caucasus has been neither Islamism nor nationalism but rather propertyover who controls this or that piece of land. The collapse of industry in the cities only intensified this problem in recent decades: many people in the region were either forced to flee or to return to the countryside, even as the situation there was exacerbated by fast population growth and differences in the relative sizes of the local nationalities and ethnic groups over time. All this was further magnified by the use of such developing conflicts by ethnic engineers who sought to mobilize support for themselves and their causes by playing up the ethnic grievances of those who already felt discriminated against when it comes to property.

Until now, such conflicts were typically small and isolated. They tended to involve groups that few beyond the borders of the North Caucasus knew much about, and they seldom attracted much attention in the Russian media or among Western analysts. But today, this is almost certainly about to change because regional conflicts over land, already long ago invested with ethnic meaning, are threatening to spark new demands for adjustments to the borders of the republics of the North Caucasus. Understandably, the Kremlin fears such border changes will add to its problems there and could even threaten its control of the North Caucasus in the future.

Notably, Makhachkala's recent mishandling of the Nogay crisis has led members of that group and other nations residing in the republic to talk about pulling out of Dagestan altogether. Sometimes these nationalities have acted with the support of outsiders, like Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and sometimes independently (see EDM, July 11). Indeed, this situation has reached such a tense point that local observers are now calling the current political season in Dagestan "a hot summer" (Nazaccent.ru, July 22; windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com, June 19).

Then in mid-July, two territorial disputesone between Stavropol krai and Dagestan and a second between Stavropol krai and Karachaevo-Cherkessiahave apparently come to a head. The first involves a long-simmering quarrel between Stavropol and Makhachkala over the fate of 50,000 hectares of land in the predominantly ethnic-Russian krai that most Dagestanis believe they should have control over as a historic right. The second is more immediately serious because Moscow has decided to side with the ethnic-Russian-majority region to oppose the demands of the leaders of Karachaevo-Cherkessia (Capost.media, July 24; Kavpolit.com, July 21). In particular, the second dispute involves control of a reservoir on the border between the two federal subjects. In Soviet times, the Eshkakon reservoir belonged to the Karachais and Cherkess; but since the early 1990s, it has been the property of the federal government in Moscow, which is thus in a position to control how its water is used by the local authorities in Stavropol and Cherkessk. As such, this is a powerful lever that the Russian government has repeatedly utilized in the pastakin to how Moscow exploited its supervision of water rights in Central Asia, in Soviet times.

At a meeting, on July 15, in Stavropol, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council, and Lev Kuznetsov, Russia's minister for North Caucasus affairs, called for keeping the federal government's current ownership but giving Stavropol de facto control of the water use from Eshkakon. The justification given for such a decision was that the other littoral political unit, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, had supposedly allowed the reservoir to decline to what they described as "a catastrophic state." Not surprisingly, the head of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Rashid Temrezov, dissented. He declared that the reservoir "must never 'be handed over' to Starvopol under any conditions." Temrezov's tough stance was no surprise: last month, his republic's parliament voted to take control of the reservoir from Moscow (Capost.media, July 24; Kavpolit.com, July 21).

This exchange sets the stage for new conflicts, with each side staking out public positions and even taking actions that will make it more difficult for either to back down. The likely outcome is thus going to be a serious challenge to existing borders in the region. Any change in local administrative borders, however, could generate additional pressure in favor of splitting up the still-existing binational North Caucasus republics, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria, which join together Turkic peoples with Circassians. In addition, it could open the way for the restoration of a Greater Circassia, and for demands by republic leaders across the region for border changes to incorporate into their own territories lands they see as ethnic irredentas improperly handed over to others, such as Chechen areas presently included in Dagestan.

Despite the mythology that has arisen about the enduring borders in the former Soviet Union, a mythology driven by current concerns, in fact the Communist government frequently modified the borders of union republics and even more frequently redrew the borders of the non-Russian republics within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the predecessor of today's Russian Federation (Paul Goble, "Can Republic Borders Be Changed?" RFE/RL Report on the USSR, September 28, 1990). Since Mikhail Gorbachev's time, Moscow has been allergic to any change, fearful that it could trigger uncontrollable disintegration. Indeed, to date, the only border that changed in the North Caucasus was the one that was established when Chechnya and Ingushetia broke apart in 1990. But the latest regional developments suggest that status quo is far from permanent, and the growing pressure for altering borders in the North Caucasus could very much undermine Moscow's interests.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Baltic Cyber-Defense 'Tigers' Lock out Web Criminals

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Olevs Nikers Publication Date 24 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Baltic Cyber-Defense 'Tigers' Lock out Web Criminals , 24 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597867e44.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

In late June 2017, for the second time in the previous two months, Europe experienced a massive wave of cyberattacks, which also spread to the United States. Initially, the attacksfrom a virus known as "Petya"targeted Ukrainian and Russian companies, but then propagated to hit vulnerable businesses and public services in Eastern and Western Europe (Tvnet.lv, June 27). Only medium-sized chain stores suffered from these attacks in Latvia (DB.lv, June 28). A number of cases of computers infected with the Petya virus were also reported in Lithuania (Delfi.lv, June 27).

Ukraine suspects Russia's security services of being involved in the massive cyberattack, which locked up personal and business computers around the world. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) issued a statement, on July 1, pointing out the similarities between Petya and previous attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, which had also been linked to Russian intelligence services (Tvnet.lv, July 1).

Late last year, Swedish intelligence identified Russian spies as the main source of cyberattacks against Sweden. Major General Gunnar Carlson revealed that these activities involve the "dissemination of false information, distortion of the truth, [and] highlighting of some arguments at the expense of others, making it difficult to obtain a clear picture of what is happening." Carslon added, "[Russian cyber special operations] are a serious threat, as they may penetrate the very foundations of democracy in various ways and influence the adoption of democratic decisions" (Diena.lv, December 12, 2016).

Overall, the number of cyberattacks against Western countries is steadily growing. In 2016, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) registered about 500 attacks on its networks, which was 60 percent more than the year before. "Cyberattacks create a very high potential hazard, as they can break up, for example, energy supply or medical care and damage other critical infrastructure," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Therefore, in case of a large-scale cyberattack, Article 5 of the Alliance Treaty on Collective Security may be invoked, warned Stoltenberg (Tvnet.lv, January 19).

Colonel (ret.) Zdzislaw Sliwa (PhD), of the Baltic Defense College, has researched the threat of the enemy hacking into and hijacking so-called Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) (Baltdefcol.org, Accessed July 17). "Today, hackers can already try to attack and disrupt electronic systems by electronic warfare equipment. Such assets are relatively cheap and could be exploited by people possessing specific knowledge." Radio-electronic warfare and cyberwar assets are able to isolate or deny use of UGVs, which could have significant impact on operations if suitable defensive countermeasures are not available.

According to statistics provided by the National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT.lv) of Latvia, the number of cyberattacks and related incidents in the small Baltic country rose to more than 50,000 cases in the second quarter of this year (Cert.lv, AprilJune 2017). CERT.lv is a national body responsible for preventing and countering offensive behavior in cyber space. A similar institution (CERT.lt) also operates in Lithuania. In the fall of 2016, Lithuania launched the National Cyber-Security Center, thus ramping up its cyber-defenses. Whereas, the previous year, in 2015, Latvia created a special cyber-defense and IT security unit within the all-volunteer National Guard (Zemessardze). These Latvian "cyber guards," many of whom are students, have already participated in several NATO training exercises and routinely work together with professional soldiers and IT specialists.

Nonetheless, Estonia may be the most dedicated Baltic State when it comes to cyber security. After the massive cyber-hacks of 2007, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCD COE) was established in Tallinn, in May 2008. The Center aims to improve cyber defense interoperability within the NATO Network Enabled Capability environment. Moreover, it is tasked with designing the Alliance's cyber doctrine and concept development along with their validation. Finally, the CCD COE was launched to enhance information security and cyber defense education, awareness and training; to provide cyber defense support for experimentation (including on-site); and to analyze the legal aspects of cyber defense for NATO members and partner countries (Ccdcoe.org, accessed July 17).

Another important Estonian cyber-defense institution, the National Cyber Defense League, was created in 2010 within the Estonian Defense Leaguethe country's a unified, voluntary paramilitary organization. Spearheaded by informatics scientist Ulo Jaaksoo, the National Cyber Defense League focuses on protecting the Estonian state and private telecommunications infrastructure from outside-derived cyberattacks. It mostly employs volunteers from the professional IT sector (Npr.org, accessed July 17).

Last April, the CCD COE staged the world's largest international cyber-defense training exerciseLocked Shields 2017in collaboration with several NATO and partner countries as well as IT companies (Leta.lv, April 19). Altogether, some 800 people from 25 countries took part in the exercise, which was held from April 24 to 28. The scale of the exercise this year, as well as the number of technology platforms, networks and devices involved, was significantly bigger than in previous years. The annual scenario-based real-time exercise is designed to train security experts responsible for the daily safety of national IT systems. In Locked Shields 2017, the task of the blue-flag team was to maintain the network and computer services of an imaginary military aviation base that undergoes simulated severe attacks on its power supply system, unmanned aerial vehicles based there, the facility's military control-and-command systems, and other infrastructure units.

In addition to the usual drills pertaining to IT infrastructure protection, this year the exercise included training on a number of specialized IT systems, reflecting current threats. Notably, Locked Shields 2017 included a SCADA system for controlling large power-grid networks, an AirC2 system used for military airspace planning, military surveillance drones and programmable logic controllers, which provide fuel to aviation bases. In total, more than 3,000 virtualized systems and more than 2,500 different attacks were activated during the course of this year's Locked Shields scenario (Cert.lv, April 26).

The Baltic States are working to ensure they will not be easy targets for hackers and cyberattackers. Indeed, the fact that the Baltics escaped largely unscathed from the recent cyberattacks that overwhelmed Europe this summer suggests these countries may have valuable cyber-security lessons to teach their other NATO allies.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Strategic Advances and Economic Hopes of Belarus-China Relations

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Yauheni Preiherman Publication Date 24 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Strategic Advances and Economic Hopes of Belarus-China Relations, 24 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 97, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597868a04.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Belarus hosted a joint counter-terrorism exercise with China called United Shield 2017, on July 1118 (Belta, July 18). It took place at a training field bear Barysau and brought together a rapid response unit of the Interior Troops of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Hunting Falcon special operations unit of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force. According to the scenario of the exercise, terrorists captured a town and took hostages, and the special forces, mixed in groups of two and three, had to liberate them. The exercises were relatively widely covered by the Belarusian state media. According to state-news reports, plans for future exercises are already underway (Tvr.by, July 18).

This is not the first time Belarus and China jointly held anti-terrorism drills. For example, two years ago in June, Dashing Eagle 2015 took place on the premises of the 38th independent mobile brigade, in Brest region (Belta, June 24, 2015). Before that, Belarusian special forces units participated in training in China under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Indeed, the two countries have taken part in various military and anti-terrorism exercises together every year since 2011 (Eurasia.expert, July 13).

The growing intensity of cooperation between their militaries and special forces reflects the overall state of Belarus-China relations: both sides assess them as reaching the highest political level. Besides joint drills and anti-terrorism activities, Beijing is particularly interested in cooperation in the military-industrial area, where Minsk has the most to offer.

In September 2016, during President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's visit to China, a cooperation agreement (road map) between the State Military and Industrial Committee of Belarus and the Chinese Corporation of Aerospace Science and Technology (CASC) was signed (Belta, September 29, 2016). The agreement is supposed to give a stronger boost to the already existing collaboration, which resulted, for example, in the production of the Palanez multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) in 2015 (Bsbblog.info, June 30, 2015). The news about the Palanez quickly resonated across the media and policy circles, not only because of the advanced nature of cooperation between Minsk and Beijing, but also because Belarus once again demonstrated that it can develop serious projects in the military-industrial realm with countries other than just Russia (the latter has been increasingly reluctant in recent years to provide Belarus with advanced weapons). The capabilities of the new MLRS, which many see as a significantly more advanced substitute for the Russian-produced Smerch MLRS, also look impressive (Naviny.by, April 3, 2016). The Palanez can reportedly hit eight targets simultaneously, at a distance of more than 200 kilometers. President Lukashenka called it "a present" for the whole country (Tut.by, June 22, 2016). Moreover, at the recently held Milex-2017 exhibition of defense equipment, Belarus presented its own tactical ballistic missile to be used by the Palanez. Shooting tests have to still be carried out; but apparently the new missile will make it possible to deliver a 560-kilogram payload as far as 300 km (Belarus Digest, May 30). Some observers assume that the new Belarusian MLRS projectile might also have resulted from collaboration with China.

Military-to-military cooperation is emerging as the most successful and promising area of Belarusian-Chinese relations. At the same time, the Belarusian authorities hold high expectations for economic ties at large, especially within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative and various grand logistical and infrastructure projects it foresees. The overall calculation by Minsk can be summarized by the formula "China has the funding, Belarus has access"meaning the latter country's membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and geographic proximity to the European Union (see EDM, September 14, 2015). However, these expectations have yet to materialize. First of all, Russia and Kazakhstan are, by default, more logical points of entry to the EEU market for Chinese goods. Furthermore, Moscow makes it clear that it will complicate Chinese investments in Belarus's economy if the interests of Russian companies are at stake (Onliner.by, January 5, 2012). Lingering uncertainties regarding exemptions from the free movement of goods, services, capital and human resources regime within the EEU do not improve the attractiveness of investing in Belarus either.

Finally, Minsk finds it difficult to compete with other Central and Eastern European countries for the status of the gateway to the EU. Most of those countries are already EU members or, at least, have advanced trading regimes with the bloc. Belarus, in turn, does not even have a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in place. One was signed back in 1995 but was never ratified on the EU side (Liberalclub.biz, August 10, 2015). This is another reason for Minsk to raise the issue of a bilateral agreement with the EU and join various regional fora, for example the "16+1 format," to find a potentially more lucrative place in China's economic projects (Minsk Dialogue, March 17). The joint Belarusian-Chinese "Great Stone" industrial park, which is being built on the outskirts of Minsk, can make a significant contribution as well, but its success will also depend on the conditions Belarus can offer to its prospective residents, as well as the legal and institutional frameworks it will have with the EU and EEU.

At the moment, all potential notwithstanding, economic relations with China remain highly imbalanced and deficit-generating for Belarus. It is telling that, in August 2015, Lukashenka signed a directive on the development of bilateral relations with China (President.gov.by, August 31, 2015). Among other things, the document foresaw the introduction of electronic quality certificates and enlarging the number of specialists involved in relations with China with a view to boosting Belarus's gains. The issue was recently addressed at a big meeting on the foreign policy priorities of Belarus (President.gov.by, July 11).

Overall, relations with China can be seen as another example of the logic of strategic hedging in Belarus's foreign policy (see EDM, June 29). In a nutshell, it aims to minimize security risks, maximize economic opportunities, and diversify its strategic options. China's geo-economic might is not the only factor essential for this strategy. Importantly, Beijing is not part of the binary geopolitical tensions in Europe's East (between Russia and the West), which pose a fundamental challenge to Belarus's sovereignty and diplomatic maneuverability. Moreover, China can be instrumental in advancing Minsk's relations with third countries. This, as some analysts observe, has been the case with Pakistan (Belarus Digest, September 14, 2015).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
20,000 Li Over the Sea: China Sends Troops to First Permanent Base in Djibouti

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Peter Wood Publication Date 21 July 2017 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, 20,000 Li Over the Sea: China Sends Troops to First Permanent Base in Djibouti, 21 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597869d24.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

In Chinese, the term wan li (; 10,000 li) is frequently used to indicate "a long way away". On July 11, China's first unit to be stationed abroad at a Chinese-owned base departed Southern China for Djibouti, a journey of roughly 20,000 li (10,000 kilometers) across the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. In the early 2000s, Chinese naval port calls far from China were rare. Whereas today, Chinese ships regularly visit foreign ports, and China has dispatched 26 escort taskforces to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden-and to stretch the PLA Navy's capabilities.

The PLAN will now have its first permanent support base () overseas to resupply and repair Chinese ships operating in the region. The small detachment, composed of the Jinggangshan (), a type 071 amphibious assault ship, and the Donghaidao (), semi-submersible support ship (), left the dock at Zhanjiang, the home of China's Southern Fleet (SSF) to great fanfare. PLAN Commander ADM Shen Jinlong (), formerly Deputy Commander of the Southern Theater Command and Commander of the SSF, presented the detachment's commander with a PLA banner. The PLAN's top Commissar, Miao Hua (), also gave remarks.

The unit's departure represents the culmination of several years of careful diplomacy. In 2014, Central Military Commission member and Minister of Defense GEN Chang Wanquan () signed a ten-year agreement with Djibouti's Minister of Defense Hassan Darar Houffaneh (Xinhua, February 26, 2014). In the run-up to the establishment of the port, China has invested heavily in Djibouti. Their bilateral trade is $2 billion and imports of Chinese goods make up 54 percent of Djibouti's total (FMPRC, July 2016; OEC, 2015).

In late 2016, CMC Vice-Chairman GEN Fan Changlong () and inspected the Djibouti facility during a port visit for resupply from the PLAN's 24th Escort Taskforce (CCTV, November 27, 2016). Addressing the taskforce, GEN Fan urged them to "improve coordination, speed-up construction [of the base] [] and provide strong support for military operations to carry out overseas missions."

China's obvious interest in Djibouti raised alarm in the United States due to the presence of Camp Lemonier, a U.S. UAV and Special Forces base that played an important role in the Global War on Terror. Even Japan, which has had a presence in the small country since 2011, in 2016 decided to expand its base, apparently in response to China (Sina, October 14, 2016).

China has built overseas bases () or stations () before-it maintains a space monitoring facility in the deserts outside Neuquen, Argentina (China Brief, October 2, 2015; Sohu, May 26, 2016). But Djibouti is the first overt and explicitly military-related outpost. Chinese naval ships already visit the port an average of four times a year, and this will only increase as China expands its far-seas maritime operations.

In the lead-up to the establishment of the base, Chinese media was careful to insist it had limited use and, until recently, was described as Support Facilities () rather than a Support Base (). [1] Although China has downplayed the military implications of the base, within China "Support Base" has a specific definition, and only Chinese officers of a certain grade (Corps Deputy Leader) are able to command them. Key naval facilities such as those at Lushun, (), Qingdao and Sanya, for example, are described as Support Bases, or for larger facilities Comprehensive Support Bases (). Six Joint Logistics Support Bases () form the backbone of China's internal military logistics system. Building bases abroad then need to be understood as an expansion of China's preexisting military logistics organization.

Logistics has been a major failing of the PLA by its own assessment: it is seen as holding back China's drive for an effective military (China Brief, May 9, 2013). The General Logistics Department was plagued with corruption scandals. GEN. Gu Junshan () and Zhou Guotai (), both senior leaders in the organization, were felled by corruption investigations. Major reforms in 2012 and in 2015 streamlined logistics and refocused them on joint operations. [2]

Some hints about how Chinese support bases would function in a wartime scenario can be found in authoritative textbooks. In the 2006 edition of the Science of Campaigns, descriptions of offensive campaigns against coral reefs (i.e., in the South China Sea) explicitly included the use of Advanced Support Bases () and Seaborne mobile support () to aid operations. Bases like Djibouti and ships like the Donghaidao () semi-submersible support ship could be used in these types of operations.

The Djibouti support base is likely just the first of many as China improves its ability to protect the trade routes that form the vital arteries of its economy. This base, and those that follow should be viewed in the same light as the infrastructure projects China is driving across Asia, connecting it through an expanding web of pipelines, highways and railways to the rest of the global economy.

Peter Wood is the Editor of China Brief. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterWood_PDW

Notes:

Mattieu Duchatel noted that the term used has shifted, as it was originally Support Infrastructure (). Nan Li, "The People's Liberation Army Navy as an Evolving Organization," in The PLA as Organization 2.0, Kevin Pollpeter and Ken Allen, Eds. p. 316.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
The PLA Air Force's "Silver-Bullet" Bomber Force

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Andreas Rupprecht Publication Date 21 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 10 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, The PLA Air Force's "Silver-Bullet" Bomber Force, 21 July 2017, China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 10, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59786a584.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Although China is widely seen in the West as a major future opponent and rival in terms of global economics and political influence, its current force structure and its evolving joint operational doctrine is still largely consistent with a defensive orientation (Defense White Paper, May 25, 2015). However, China's rising ambitions have led to dramatic reforms in recent years, which mean for the first time in its history, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will shift its focus from primarily territorial air defense to the ability to conduct offensive and defensive operations as well. [1] Most attention has focused on the introduction of new modern multirole combat fighters (J-10B/C, J-15 and J-16) and the development of next generation aircraft (J-20 and FC-31 stealth aircraft, Y-20 indigenous transport aircraft).

China has strengthened its air and naval power projection capabilities dramatically in the past 10 years, but, in general, the PLAAF has still a defensive composition. A majority of its aircraft are fighters and only a very small percentage are offensive or multirole-capable types. Specifically, compared to the other services, the PLAAF still lacks a real ability to project power far from its borders-its strategic airlift, aerial refueling and modern strategic bombers all lag behind in development. China's small bomber fleet consists of three Bomber Divisions (8th, 10th and 36th) with six Regiments operating a variety of H-6 bomber variants. The H-6 itself is a venerable aircraft derived from the Soviet-era Tu-16, which was first delivered to China in 1958. At best, this force represents a sort of 'Silver Bullet', capable of striking targets beyond the reach of the PLAAF's regular assets, but they are in no way a strategic force.

Compared to recent Chinese fighter developments, the development of strategic bombers is surely less impressive. It will take several years for the remaining older H-6 variants to be replaced with the latest H-6K armed with KD-20 air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs). However, the oldest versions urgently need to be retired. Even the updated H-6K bombers will need a replacement within a foreseeable time frame (likely 5-8 years). Consequently, observers and enthusiasts alike are speculating when a new long-range-and probably even true strategic-bomber will appear.

PLAAF Officially Confirms Development of New Heavy Bomber

On September 1, 2016 during an interview given at the "2016's PLAAF open day" in Changchun, Chinese Air Force Commander General Ma Xiaotian confirmed to the media that development of a new long range bomber is underway (Global Times, September 3, 2016). While presenting the latest H-6K to the public he announced that "the Chinese air force has now entered a phase of transition, we want to build a powerful Air Force both defensive and offensive." Pointing to the H-6K he added: "Our long range strike capability has much improved compared to the past, and an even bigger improvement is coming. We are developing a new generation of long bomber" (Weibo, September 2, 2016).

The relative openness is surprising as is the fact that it has been discussed in other media. Though it largely went unnoticed by the Western media, China Daily reported on July 2015 that, according to Chinese military officials, a new strategic bomber should be capable of striking targets beyond the second island chain without aerial refueling, while carrying a payload of at least 10 metric tons. [2]

Nearly two years later, reports are becoming more frequent and reliable. Many interpret this openness as a hint of an imminent unveiling. Two reports give additional credence to this. In December 2016 China Central Television (CCTV) displayed a notional rendering of a future bomber-surely fan-art only as a placeholder-but in itself some sort of confirmation. Later, Retired Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, director of the PLA Navy's Expert Consultation Committee and also a regular media commentator on Chinese military developments for CCTV, noted when asked on when the next-generation strategic bomber will make its debut, "we should have some patience." Though his statement does not reveal any specifics, it is typical of the way China discloses such major programs to its public. In 2009, for example, Lieutenant General He Weirong, announced that "a Chinese fourth generation (by Chinese definition) fighter (referring to the J-20) will fly soon and be operational between 2017 and 2019," a timeline which has been borne out by events.

Also widely admitted to the public is that the current bomber-force is no longer adequate and that China has never developed such a large-tonnage and long-range strategic bomber before. Consequently, the development issues are technically demanding. Another frequently-cited military expert Li Li added that "the aircraft's aerodynamic configuration will be quite different from that of a supersonic bomber. It may be a more realistic solution to select from the stealth capability and supersonic penetration." Finally, most reports point out that "having a strategic bomber will become one of the symbols of China's air force as a strategic service" (ChinaMil, February 17).

Program Status

Although many facts are still unclear, some information is available regarding this program:

The primary contractor for the new bomber is the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation (also known as the Xi'an Aircraft Company Limited) XAC and its affiliated no. 603 Institute.

For certain areas like the wing geometry, the S-shaped dorsal engine intakes and the engine's exhaust as well as the flight control system of the new bomber is said to have gained assistance for technical solutions from Shenyang's SAC and its experience on the Sharp Sword UCAV.

The Chinese aviation industry seems generally confident that through the J-20' and Y-20's development (as well as via international cooperation) AVIC has gained enough expertise to overcome any eventual technical difficulties including engine location, air intake design, material selection and stealth technology.

The new strategic long-range bomber-officially known so far only as the "strategic project"-will probably be designated H-20 and has been under development since the late 1990s, or more likely, the early 2000s.

The PLAAF was reportedly undecided for some time about the requirement and what type of bomber would fit this best. Consequently-and similar to the alleged new tactical- or regional-bomber design under development at SAC-various configurations were studied ranging from supersonic configurations thru conventional and even quite innovative designs: one is said featuring a delta wing geometry and canards while others were more conventional to finally a subsonic stealthy flying wing design (Chinese Military Aviation Blog, February 12). [3]

Given the great secrecy of this program and the urgency of the Y-20 program, it was reported that the H-20-project only gained full momentum after the successful flight of latter in late 2012 or early 2013. Besides General Ma Xiaotian's public confirmation in 2016, a first hint of the H-X's progress was a news-report from December 2015 within the AVIC group reported about a digital 3D-mock-up of a "major project" being completed and currently the design is in the phase / stage of detailed design / engineering (AVIC, December 16, 2015). This was again noted in early 2017 by this consistently reliable source, and complemented by the information, that also a quality control system/platform for this 3D-mock-up-now called prototype-has now been established (Weibo, February 10). Also noted again was that:

"China's next generation bomber has entered the detailed design / engineering stage and the program's name is at least until its unveiling 'new type long range combat aircraft'"

Consequently, it is assumed that individual parts of a prototype are already under construction since 2016 (some sources say since March) at XAC. And finally, from June 2017, a PLAAF Spokesman noted:

"The PLAAF has reached the threshold of having a strategic air force and has made historic progress in the field of aeronautics. The PLAAF will.. enhance its broader ability to carry out a variety of missions" (MOD, June 21).

Following these reports, several scaled-down models were built and test-flown so that by 2011 a four-engined flying wing design similar in configuration to the US B-2 or even B-21 was chosen. Concerning other technical details, one can only speculate but the engines are most likely modified, afterburner-less WS-10A as an interim solution to the WS-15-derivative later. Academic concept papers published after November 2015 indicate that the H-X most likely features engines buried deep within the main wing's structure to further reduce the radar cross signature (how stealth it is) and twin dorsal S-shaped engine intakes with saw tooth lips similar to those of the B-2 (AVIC, November 2015). The paper it was featured in also mentioned that development work on the 'cockpit section' and 'intake configuration' was finished by a joint R&D-team from Xi'an and Hanzhong's 012 Base.

Range and Capabilities

Subsequent reports assess the new bomber to be a stealthy design in order to evade modern air defense systems and penetrate deep into the enemy's territory (ChinaMil, February 17). Its range has to be dramatically longer than the current H-6K's (range of more than 10,000 km, and combat radius of over 5,000 km and in-flight refueling-capable) while able to carry a heavy weapons load (smaller load than the B-2A's 23 tons, but larger than H-6K) for both nuclear and conventional ordnance (China Brief, July 6). The few images published so far suggest a single center weapons-bay-albeit there are artworks depicting two bays-capable of carrying at least six KD-20 ALCMs or any other precision strike munition on a rotary launcher.

Consequently, the new bomber is expected to feature a modern avionics system built around an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar with conformal antennas again similar to the U.S. AN/APQ-181 LPI radar. Additionally, it is said to feature a modern electronic warfare-capability and to be also capable acting as a C4ISR node to interact with other sensor platforms like UAVs, AEW- and strategic reconnaissance aircraft to share information and target data (data fusion).

The PLAAF can currently reach with its H-6-bombers, at least 5,000-5,500 km (from the bomber base at Anqing) can be assumed. This range covers the South China Sea, the all-important first and the second Islands chains, Japan, up to the northern part of the Australia, and including Guam. However if one looks a bit further, the next major important U.S. base in a position to support the second line is Hawaii (and Australia). The dominance of U.S. forces in the Pacific region depends heavily these two points. Therefore, a range in excess of 8,500-9000km is likely a minimum requirement for the new bomber (EastPendulum, September 2, 2016).

Timeline for Development

The Chinese internet community is eagerly expecting the unveiling of the new bomber and are anticipating a maiden flight within the next two years. If a more reasonable timeline is used by assuming a similar development-cycle and timeframe comparable to the China's indigenously-produced Y-20 transport aircraft-a roll out can be expected earliest around late 2019 and the first prototype could fly as early as 2020. [4]

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part Two)

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 25 July 2017 Related Document(s) Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part One) Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part Two), 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59786ae4d.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Moldova's new electoral legislation"Law for Amending and Completing Certain Legislative Acts [i.e. the Electoral Code]"is the outcome of a bargain between the country's de facto leader Vladimir Plahotniuc, who controls the state apparatus, and the pro forma head of state, Igor Dodon, whose party tops all opinion surveys and is likely to take first place in any free elections. The legislation just enacted sets the stage for a post-election power-sharing agreement between Plahotniuc's Democratic Party and Dodon's Socialist Party (see Part One).

The new legislation transforms Moldova's proportional system of voting by party lists into a mixed system: country-wide party lists (proportional) and territorial single-mandate constituencies (uninominal system), where individual candidates compete for one parliamentary seat. Each voter will cast two ballots: one for a party list and one for an individual candidate in the uninominal constituency.

Moldova used the proportional system from 1994 until now. The entire country formed a single electoral territory (circumscription), within which the parties competed for the parliament's 101 seats. Under the new legislation, the country-wide proportional contest by party lists will adjudicate only 50 of the parliament's seats.

This change correspondingly reduces the pro-Western parties' chances to establish themselves in parliament (while they have practically no chance in the uninominal constituenciessee below). The new law, moreover, practically invites Transnistria's residents to vote (see below), thus further diminishing the share of pro-Western parties in the proportional contest by party lists.

The threshold for parliamentary representation remains 6 percent: a high threshold, favoring the large parties of Dodon and Plahotniuc in the proportional redistribution of votes cast for parties that failed to pass the threshold.

Under the new legislation, 51 parliamentary seats shall be filled by the winners in 51 uninominal electoral constituencies. In each of them, the first-placed candidate wins. This places Sandu's and Nastase's small, under-resourced parties at a severe disadvantage vis-a-vis the big-party candidates or wealthy independent candidates. As several candidates will be running for one deputy's mandate in each constituency, a candidate can (and probably will, in most cases) be elected deputy with less than 50 percent of the votes cast.

Remarkably, there will be only one round of voting in the uninominal constituencies. This deprives small parties of the chance to coalesce in the runoff against a big party that took first place in the first round. This amounts to a free pass for the first-round winner. Dodon's Socialist Party is the main beneficiary, enjoying at least 40 percent support versus Plahotniuc's Democratic Party with less than 10 percent in all public opinion polls. However, Plahotniuc's control of administrative, media and financial resources can redress that balance for Plahotniuc's candidates, who will run as "independents." Dodon insisted and Plahotniuc accepted that there would be no runoffs (see Part One).

Candidates may run either as independents or under party banners in the uninominal constituencies. Only area-native candidates are allowed to compete in each uninominal constituency, including those reserved for Transnistria (see below).

Under the law's final (but, in fact, still incomplete) version, the 51 uninominal constituencies are yet to be delineated on the electoral map. The text of the law seems to imply that approximately 35 of those are to be delineated on Moldova's government-controlled territory (right bank of the Dniester River), with 55,000 to 60,000 registered eligible voters per uninominal constituency.

Several uninominal constituencies (within the overall number of 51) are to be created specially for Transnistria (left bank). Its residents shall be entitled to elect area-native deputies to Moldova's parliament. Based on the same ratio of one Transnistrian deputy per 55,000 to 60,000 Transnistrian voters, this seems intended to work out to five parliamentary seats reserved for Transnistrians. The residents of Transnistria are also entitled (equally with the right-bank's residents) to vote at the same time in the country-wide elections by party lists.

The Transnistrian candidates' pre-election registration, as well as the residents' voting on election day, would take place on government-controlled territory, under the oversight of Moldova's electoral commissions. Transnistrian voters will cast their ballots in "special" polling stations on the right bank, separately from local right-bank residents, presumably enabling Transnistrian bosses to watch over their subjects as they vote. Meanwhile, there is no way for right-bank Moldovan parties and candidates to campaign on the left bank.

Several uninominal constituencies (still within the overall number of 51) shall be allocated to Moldova's diaspora in Russia, Western Europe, and various other countries, proportionately to the numbers of potential voters in those diaspora communities. Dodon's Socialists successfully insisted on such proportionality because Moldova's largest diaspora is in Russia.

The new law merely provides a framework for the eventual allocation of diaspora constituencies, just as it does for the final delineation of uninominal constituencies on Moldova's own map. The final decisions on allocation and delineation of uninominal constituencies will significantly influence the outcome of elections in advance. Those final decisions are delegated to an "independent commission," whose composition shall (despite its nominal independence) be established by the government, and its decisions subject to the government's approval. A wide range of political players and governmental institutions are invited to participate in this commission (Parliament.md, July 20; Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova, July 21). The real bargaining, however, is likely to take place again between Plahotniuc and Dodon.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part One)

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 25 July 2017 Related Document(s) Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part Two) Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Moldova's New Electoral Law Could Be Fatal to Pro-Western Parties (Part One), 25 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59786b6b4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

On July 20, Moldova's parliament changed the country's Electoral Code, with an eye to the 2018 parliamentary elections. The new legislationthe "Law for Amending and Completing Certain Legislative Acts [i.e. the Electoral Code]"also applies to future presidential elections and future referendums (Moldpres, July 20, 21; Parliament.md, July 20; Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova, July 21).

The debate thus far concentrates on the impact of the new law on electoral procedures and the chances of various political parties. Most observers seem to overlook another set of implications of the new law: it establishes ethnic voting and ethno-political electoral territories for the first time in Moldova.

The changes are illustrative of the informal political cartel operated by the billionaire Vladimir Plahotniuc and pro-Russia head of state Igor Dodon, leaders of the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party, respectively. Plahotniuc's and Dodon's teams negotiated the terms of the new electoral system during the last two months, and propagandized the change in parallel. Their parties ensured the passage of this legislation in the final reading, as an organic law, by 74 votes in the 101-seat parliament. Dodon promulgated the legislation on the same day.

Technically, the new legislation transforms Moldova's system of parliamentary elections from a proportional system with party lists into a mixed system: proportional (country-wide voting by party lists) and uninominal system (single-mandate territorial constituencies, where individual candidates compete for one parliamentary seat) (see Part Two).

Politically, however, these changes are designed to crush and marginalize Plahotniuc's and Dodon's common rival: the pro-Western, extra-parliamentary alliance led by Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase, which in 2016 unexpectedly came close to winning the presidential election against the Dodon-Plahotniuc cartel. Sandu and Nastase had to conduct personality-based campaigns, with merely symbolic party organizations backing them (see EDM, November 14, 2016; December 14, 16, 2016). Their fledgling organizationsthe Solidarity Action Party and the Dignity and Truth Platformwill face insurmountable disadvantages under the changed electoral law.

The introduction of the uninominal system, as well as the allocation of parliamentary seats to Transnistria and to the Moldovan diaspora in Russia, dramatically reduce the number of parliamentary seats that Moldova's pro-Western parties can realistically aim for. Simply put, these parties appear left with only a few fair shots at parliamentary seats. The system is so organized as to marginalize Maia Sandu's and Andrei Nastase's parties. This is a major result of the informal partnership between Vladimir Plahotniuc and Igor Dodon.

Uninominal constituencies inherently favor the largest parties in parliamentary elections in all systems. In the post-Soviet context, moreover, single-mandate constituencies are a propitious environment for abuse of "administrative resources," non-transparent campaign financing, bribing of impoverished voters, or fake candidacies to splinter the opposition parties' vote.

It is widely anticipated that the billionaire and "Coordinator of the Parliamentary Majority" (de facto ruler) Plahotniuc will select and support local figures to run as "independents" in those constituencies. They will avoid using the unpopular "Plahotniuc" and "Democratic Party" brands. Once elected, however, they will likely coalesce as another faction beholden to Plahotniuc in the new parliament. Conversely, it is anticipated that Socialist Party candidates will capitalize on their own brand's and President Dodon's popularity.

Remarkably (see Part Two), there will be no runoffs, but only one round of elections in the uninominal constituencies (right-bank, left-bank, diaspora). It was generally assumed in the early stage of the public debate that one-round elections in split fields of candidates would enable Plahotniuc's "independent" proteges to take first place, even with less than 50 percent of the vote cast. They will not have to face combinations of other parties' supporters in a second round. With Plahotniuc's Democratic Party controlling about one half of Moldova's district ("raion") councils and fully one half of all mayoralties, his designated "independent" candidates should handily win the one-round elections in most uninominal constituencies.

However, as Moldovan pundit Andrei Popov suggests (Ziarul National, July 19), multi-candidate election rounds can equally favor the Socialists. In the 2016 presidential election, Dodon won the multi-candidate round (first round) with pluralities of at least 40 percent of the vote in approximately 20 administrative-territorial units (out of 36 such units in right-bank Moldova). Dodon went on to narrowly win the presidential runoff with Plahotniuc's support. Thus, judging from first-round Socialist support in that election, Socialist candidates are also strongly placed to win one-round, split-field elections with less than 50 percent of the vote in single-mandate constituencies. At present, the Socialists top the public opinion polls with at least 40 percent of voter preferences.

The new law's stipulations on Transnistria can further tip the political balance toward pro-Russia forces in right-bank Moldova. This can occur on two levels: Transnistrian voters participating in the election by party lists, and Transnistrian area-native deputies being elected to Moldova's parliament from the left bank. The allocation of (apparently) five single-mandate constituencies for the left bank amounts, in practice, to a reserved quota of Transnistrian seats in Moldova's parliament.

The voting by Transnistrian residents for Transnistrian candidates would take place on the right bank, under the oversight of Moldova's electoral authorities (see Part Two). This legal formality, however, makes little difference. Politically, any significant Transnistrian involvement in Moldova's elections would undoubtedly result in net gains for pro-Russia forces.

The new law guarantees two or, more likely, three Gagauz seats in the Moldovan parliament, according to this law's numerical and geographical criteria. The number of registered eligible voters in the Gagauz autonomous territory would correspond more closely to three parliamentary seats. Token Gagauz candidates would additionally be elected to parliament on Plahotniuc's and Dodon's party lists (Gagauzinfo.md, July 1921; RTR Moldova, July 21). Deputies elected directly from this staunchly pro-Russia enclave would contribute to tipping the balance against pro-Western groups in Moldova's parliament. The Bulgarian-populated district of Taraclia and the "Russian-speaking" city of Balti are also entitled to one parliamentary seat each, by the criteria of this law.

Organizing the Moldovan diaspora's vote can become a double-edged sword. Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase reached out successfully and effectively to the diaspora in Europe during the 2016 presidential election. Moldova's authorities, therefore, prevaricated on authorizing more polling stations and more ballot papers at Moldovan missions in Europe. The electoral legislation enacted on July 20 performs a flight forward, authorizing single-mandate constituencies for the 2018 parliamentary elections in the Moldovan diaspora in Europe and Russia, proportionate to those communities' numbers (see Part Two).

The Moldovan government will undoubtedly attempt to use its resources to upstage the pro-Western parties in the diaspora in Europe. For his part, President Dodon has promised a mass-mobilization of the Moldovan diaspora in Russia to vote Socialist in Moldova's next parliamentary elections. If the Kremlin cooperates in that endeavor, it can sway the elections in the Socialist Party's favor.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Kazakhstan: Space for Civil Society Shrinking?

Publisher EurasiaNet Author Joanna Lillis Publication Date 26 July 2017 Other Languages / Attachments Russian Cite as EurasiaNet, Kazakhstan: Space for Civil Society Shrinking?, 26 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59786f334.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

First, there was a media report hinting at shadowy links between foreign-funded charities and terrorism in Kazakhstan. Then, the taxman came knocking.



The tax inspections served as a prelude to legal action against two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - action that some civil society campaigners see as evidence that their space to operate is quickly shrinking.



On June 21, the International Legal Initiative (ILI), an NGO promoting the rule of law, lost an appeal against an earlier ruling ordering it to pay corporate income tax. It created a legal precedent that the organization's president, Aina Shormanbayeva, deemed a reprisal for its advocacy.



"We directly link this to our human rights work," she told EurasiaNet.org.



The ruling raises questions about the financing of Kazakhstan's civil society sector, and campaigners fear it could be used to drum independent groups out of existence.



The case dates back to a year ago, when news site Nur.kz published a report entitled "How much do foreign foundations spend on training activists in Kazakhstan?"



A reasonable question, but the report made tenuous connections between foreign-funded NGOs and terrorism, narco-trafficking and arms-trading, before posing a theoretical question: "Are we in a position to resist the proverbial attempts to destabilize the situation from outside?"



The alarmist report was published against a backdrop of two unconnected events that had just rocked Kazakhstan: demonstrations against land reforms in May 2016 that ended in mass arrests; and a fatal armed attack in the city of Aktobe in June.



The Nur.kz report singled out several foreign donors with supposedly suspect intentions, including the Open Society Foundations, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Equal Rights Trust. All are Western-based organizations that promote liberal values and equal opportunities, and have nothing to do with terrorism.



Among the hundreds of Kazakhstani NGOs receiving foreign funding, Nur.kz mentioned only three comparatively tiny organizations: ILI, Liberty, which promotes human rights, and Kadyr-Kasiyet, which monitors the security of rights activists.



After that, a spot tax audit was ordered when the Nur.kz report prompted a purportedly concerned citizen to demand checks on these groups' funding. Kadyr-Kasiyet was exonerated, but the other two were prosecuted for tax evasion.



This January, a court ruled that foreign grants received by ILI and Liberty were subject to corporate income tax, prompting expressions of concern from international human rights groups, which accused Astana of harassing NGOs.



ILI was ordered to cough up 1.3 million tenge ($4,000) and Liberty, whose appeal is still pending, 2.5 million tenge ($7,700). The sums appear paltry, but they are significant to these small groups - and the principle of their charitable status is at stake.



"Naturally, we do not agree with this, because we are a non-commercial organization. We do not gain a profit from our activity. We work for socially useful goals, for the advancement and protection of human rights in Kazakhstan," Shormanbayeva said.



The ruling, Liberty's director Galym Ageleuov told EurasiaNet.org, means that "our grants are not grants," which "is basically nonsense."



They believe their NGOs are being singled out for discriminatory treatment because they have rankled the administration of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, which professes to welcome and wholeheartedly support civil society.



Other NGOs receive grants from the same donors, including embassies, the European Commission, USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House. So, said Shormanbayeva, "if the state does not now impose on these organizations the same taxes on money received from the same donors as us, it is an open acknowledgement that it is precisely our organization that is being hounded for our human rights work."



ILI and Liberty have one important thing in common. Both were active during last year's land protests, monitoring the number of detainees and the conditions under which they were held, and, in ILI's case, providing legal support. Both were vocal in their claims that human rights violations had been committed during the crackdown on protesters. Government officials deny those claims.



Officially, the audit was launched at the instigation of a "concerned" citizen, but Ageleuov does not believe that to be true. "It's clear it's linked to our country's power structures, which bluntly gave orders simply to finish us off, to deprive us of the opportunity of working."



ILI had already needled the government by lobbying aggressively against a law governing the charitable sector. That law was adopted in 2015 in the teeth of fierce opposition from activists, and Shormanbayeva believes its advocacy activities during the land protests served as "the last straw."



That law established a state body - called the "single operator" - for channeling government funding to NGOs, which critics said effectively gave the state veto power over which groups receive funding, and for what kind of activities, allowing cash to be funneled to government-loyal groups and government-instigated groups - known in the trade as GONGOs, which stands for government-organized, non-governmental organizations.



Astana argued that the law intended to "usher in a new level of transparency" into the distribution of grants in order to help Kazakhstan build a robust civil society. It was passed despite an appeal from 60 NGOs to Nazarbayev to veto it.



In 2016, additional regulations governing NGO funding were adopted, requiring non-profits to report all foreign grants to the government within 10 days of agreeing to them, and to report again on their use after spending the money.



The rules went into force last October, again in the face of opposition from campaigners who deem them burdensome and bureaucratic. The government countered that the rules were designed merely to increase transparency and are "simple and clear" to fulfill.



International rights campaigners see the lawsuits against ILI and Liberty, along with the new NGO legislation, as links in a chain that also includes last year's jailing of civil society campaigners Maks Bokayev and Talgat Ayan for their involvement in the land protest movement and the imprisonment of trade union leaders on spurious charges this year.



"The government's increasing intolerance for outspoken and critical civil society activism is highly worrying, and Kazakh authorities should immediately reverse their repressive course," Mihra Rittman of Human Rights Watch told EurasiaNet.org.



As Liberty awaits its appeal against the tax payments, Ageleuov offered a stark conclusion: "Active independent organizations are simply being choked financially."

Copyright notice: All EurasiaNet material  Open Society Institute
Tajikistan: Authorities Go After Relatives of Opposition

Publisher EurasiaNet Publication Date 19 July 2017 Other Languages / Attachments Russian Cite as EurasiaNet, Tajikistan: Authorities Go After Relatives of Opposition, 19 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597871054.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A crackdown in Tajikistan that began in 2015 has forced large swaths of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan membership into self-imposed exile, with many resettling in Poland and Germany.



In early July, IRPT members - along with representative from other Tajik organizations critical of the government, including Group-24, Vatandor and the Congress of Constructive Forces of Tajikistan - held their first-ever congress outside the country, in the German city of Dortmund. While the attendees pondered ways to bring about change at home, authorities in Dushanbe watched from afar and took notes.



IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri told EurasiaNet.org that threats to relatives back in Tajikistan began before the congress had even opened.



"They summoned family members [for questioning] and put pressure on them through local authorities. Groups of female and youth [pro-government] activists tried to intimidate relatives into heaping abuse on their family overseas, and demanded that they help put a stop to their political activities," he said.



But the trouble really started on July 10, when Saifullo Safarov, the deputy head of the presidential Center for Strategic Studies, warned at a talk that the coalescing of the opposition posed a danger to Tajikistan's security. All Tajiks should be vigilant and resist the undertakings of the opposition, he said, and the authorities should act to quash the opposition's efforts.



Safarov's remarks served as the starting pistol.



Threatening the relatives of suspect individuals has become a preferred tactic for authorities as they work to keep a lid on opposition activity abroad. One incident involved the relatives of opposition activist Bobojon Kayumzoda, who is from the city of Kulob in southern Tajikistan. Kabiri said local officials warned Kayumzoda's parents that if they did not intervene to stop their son from getting involved in politics, their home could be confiscated. The parents were filmed as they were verbally warned that they should take every effort to get their son to return to Tajikistan.



The same thing happened to IRPT activist Jannatullo Komil's family in the town of Dangara. Family members were also told they face confiscation of their house and banishing from the area.



"Even in Dushanbe, they summoned a gathering of activists and called in an 80-year old relative of mine and demanded that he apologize to the nation and smear me. Of course, he refused to do it, and that has not made his life easier," Kabiri said.



All such actions are, as a rule, conducted informally and cannot be confirmed by officials.



Another method has hallmarks of the public humiliation "struggle sessions" that characterized the darkest years of the rule of Mao Zedong in China. IRPT spokesperson Mahmudjon Faizrakhmonov said agents from the State Committee for National Security, the successor agency to the KGB, summoned a village council in Qumsangir, near the border with Afghanistan, so that they could publicly criticize him in front of his mother.



"They put psychological pressure on her, and nobody gave any thought to the fact that my mother suffers from a weak heart. They dressed her down before the villagers as though she was a little girl. And it is not the first time this happens. Last time, the neighbors began to spurn our family. My little brother is going through a hard time because nobody wants to make friends with him at school and everyone is wary of him, as if he were a criminal," Faizrakhmonov said.



Following on from the arrest of almost the entire IRPT leadership in late 2015, authorities also went after their lawyer, Buzurgmehr Yorov, who is now serving lengthy jail terms on trumped-up charges. His brother Jamshed managed to leave the country, but his wife is stuck in Tajikistan.



"They threatened my wife and demanded that she forsake me, that she get a divorce. If my wife or any other relatives get in touch with me, they will have criminal charges filed against them. They are threatening to confiscate businesses belonging to my wife's family. But that isn't all, they are even threatening children. My 15-year old daughter. They have warned her she will be raped or otherwise physically harmed," Jamshed told EurasiaNet.org.



Even small children do not appear to be deemed off-limits.



Last September, for example, a group of young men singled out the Kulob home of Shabnam Khudoydodova, an activist who caused Tajikistan considerable irritation after managing to defy an international arrest warrant. The mob pelted the house, where Khudoydodova's mother and nine-year-old daughter still lived, with rocks. The young girl faced yet more harassment at school.



Relatives are often unable to leave the country because they have had their passports confiscated.



Watchdog groups assail the practice of holding those in Tajikistan responsible for the actions of relatives abroad.



"The vicious campaign of violent attacks, detentions, public shaming, confiscation of passports and property, and bans on leaving the country against dissidents' relatives are part of an escalating pattern of government-led retaliation in Tajikistan," said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at HRW.



The intensity of the backlash may reflect the Tajik government's distress at the evolving strategy of the opposition. Speaking at the congress in Dortmund, Kabiri insisted that blame for the situation in Tajikistan should not be placed on all officials, but instead on a limited circle of elite insiders. "Those individuals committing crimes against their own people are no more than 20 in number. It is against those people that we must fight," said Kabiri, alluding to President Emomali Rahmon and his close associates.



To that end, Kabiri and his allies, as well as international rights groups, have been lobbying with the European Union and the United States for the imposition of sanctions against people in that circle suspected of rights abuses.



But the IRPT leader is concerned that this may all be a race against time. He worries that frustration inside Tajikistan can boil over, with people willing to resort to more hardline means of resisting state pressure.



"By violating the rights of their citizens, humiliating them, using women and children as hostages  the authorities are only generating more bitterness and hatred. And not everybody's patience will hold out. And sadly, it is in this way that many could be drawn into armed radical groups," he said.

Copyright notice: All EurasiaNet material  Open Society Institute
Malaysia: Immediately investigate death threats against human rights defender Siti Kasim

Publisher Article 19 Publication Date 26 July 2017 Cite as Article 19, Malaysia: Immediately investigate death threats against human rights defender Siti Kasim, 26 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5978a75313.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

ARTICLE 19 urges the Malaysian authorities to immediately, independently and transparently investigate death threats leveled against Malaysian lawyer and human rights defender (HRD) Siti Kasim for her human rights work, including for LGBT people in Malaysia, and to put in place any measures necessary for her protection.

On 24 July 2017, Siti lodged a police report at Sentul police station in Kuala Lumpur after she was alerted to comments posted by a man on Facebook which called for Muslims to behead her. This prompted responses from other social media users calling for Siti to be raped and to be attacked with acid, with individuals exchanging phone numbers to discuss the issue further. ARTICLE 19 considers these posts to both constitute a direct threat against Siti's life, as well as a potential incitement to violence.

International human rights law requires the Malaysian authorities to protect HRDs from threats of violence. Such offences should also be considered particularly aggravated where they are designed to intimidate a person from exercising their fundamental rights, including to freedom of expression. ARTICLE 19 notes that women human rights defenders, in particular those who vocally support the rights of LGBT people, are particularly vulnerable to these forms of censorship.

We recall that international and regional freedom of expression mandates condemned "crimes against freedom of expression" in a 2012 Joint Declaration. It calls on authorities to condemn unequivocally attacks such as those experienced by Siti. The declaration sets out States' obligations to prevent and prohibit such attacks, to ensure protection for individuals likely to be targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression, to ensure independent, speedy and effective investigations as well as redress for victims.

This also finds support in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders., Article 20(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires States to prohibit advocacy of discriminatory hatred that constitutes incitement to hostility, discrimination or violence. The UN OHCHR-supported Rabat Plan of Action provides guidance to States on implementing this obligation, including to protect individuals from discriminatory violence while also complying with the right to freedom of expression. ARTICLE 19 considers that advocacy of hatred against a person on the basis of their gender, or on their perceived sexual orientation or connection to LGBT people, should be considered as seriously as other forms of advocacy of hatred.

Last month, ARTICLE 19 strongly condemned the criminal charges brought against Siti for "obstructing a public servant in discharge of his public functions" under Section 186 of the Penal Code in connection with a transgender event on 3 April 2016. The event was raided by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) based on allegations that it violated a 1996 fatwa prohibiting Muslim women from joining beauty pageants in Malaysia.

"Being vocal in the defence of human rights must not be met with violence. The authorities must immediately condemn the violent threats against Siti. It is deeply concerning that state-sponsored harassment in the form of criminal charges against Siti and other human rights defenders in Malaysia for their work have created an environment where non-state actors feel they can act with impunity with these kinds of threats and possible incitement,." said David Diaz Jogeix, Director of Programmes at ARTICLE 19.

Threats, including threats of beheadings, against human rights defenders are not new in Malaysia. Last year,death threats were made against BERSIH 2.0 Chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah, Maria's three children, former BERSIH 2.0 Chairperson Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan and BERSIH 2.0 Secretariat member Mandeep Singh.

ARTICLE 19 reiterates its call for an independent and transparent investigation on the basis of Siti's police report, to ensure accountability for those responsible and redress to Siti, and for the Malaysian government to undertake practical measures to protect Siti and all other human rights defenders in the country.

For more information:

Please contact Miss Nalini Elumalai, Malaysia Program Manager at 01136535927 or email: [email protected]

Footnotes

1. New Straits Times, - 'Lawyer Siti Kasim lodges police report after Netizens threaten to behead her'

https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2017/07/260149/lawyer-siti-kasim-lodges-police-report-after-netizens-threaten

2. ARTICLE 19 - 'Malaysia: Drop Criminal Charges Against Human Rights Defender Siti Kasim'

https://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/38812/en/malaysia:-drop-criminal-charges-against-human-rights-defender-siti-kasim

3. The Malay Mail Online - 'Bersih 2.0 chief, family gets second beheading threat'

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/bersih-2.0-chief-family-gets-second-beheading-threat

Copyright notice: Copyright ARTICLE 19
Dallas, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/26/2017 --WFNews1 Inc. "WFN1" (www.wfn1.com) and ClubsCorp Business Network "CCBN" (www.clubscorp.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of American Business Development Company, Inc. "ABDC" (www.ambusdev.com) are joining forces to enhance their respective audience and membership.



WFN1, Inc. will work to populate co-hosted luncheon events with CEOs interviewed on its radio and television simulcastand encourage its audience and the featured CEOs, all of whom have a success story to tell and a need for expansion capital, to become ClubsCorp Business Network member-subscribers. CCBN will thereby gain access to a significant market of CEOs with a story to tell and an investment opportunity to offer. Additionally, WFN1 and CCBN will develop a more industry-centric atmosphere at the luncheon meetings, providing an opportunity for companies in sectors such as aerospace, biotechnology, automotive, software and computer peripheral technology, among others, to meet with the full spectrum of the financial communityincluding those who may specialize in and have in-depth knowledge of specific industry sectors. This synergy will better enable the matching of money to opportunity offer. Moreover, this peer-to-peer approach will allow specialty companies to meet savvy investors who can better understand and measure the opportunity presented by the CEO. ClubsCorp will continue growing its membership of exclusive high-net-worth men, women and entrepreneurs.



"Having WFN1 as a media partner will enhance our membership growth exponentially and our overall membership subscription base, I believe, "said Ben Doherty, president, CCBN.



Don Cavett, CEO and director, ABDC, added: "I knew we had hit a homerun after our final meeting with the senior management of WFN1!"



About ClubsCorp Business Network

CCBN is a national membership business network and organizer of investment events focusing on the development of exclusive membership chapters within the national network. These chapters are comprised of qualified investors who are all CCBN members, such as individual accredited investors, executives of private and publicly traded companies, and other business professionals and small business owners who have made their money the old-fashioned way: working hard and playing by the rules. CCBN is an interactive platform allowing its member-investors to connect both online through their online social business connections as well as in person at more than 60 membership-chapter luncheons, all-day conferences, and international conferences and educational events. CCBN provides a unique platform that connects entrepreneurs seeking access to capital with registered, dues paying individual investors. CCBN hosts a variety of investment events in over 24 cities in the United States, including San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Quito, Ecuador. CCBN is the leading financial event host in the United States.



For further information on ABDC or ClubsCorp Business Network, visit www.ambusdev.com or www.clubscorp.com or contact Don Cavett, CEO at doncavett@yahoo.com; 972-849-3009. American Business Development, Inc. 5700 West Plano Parkway, Suite 3600 Plano TX 75093.



About WFN1

Founded by three industry experts in financial media servicesMichael Yorba, Todd Sonoga and Mervyn PriceWFN1 is committed to focusing on stories, people and their businesses that reflect positive financial outcomes, across multiple media outlets in real-time, allowing live user interaction. WFN1 Inc. will eventually be aired in five of the nation's largest demographics, to an audience of over four million, in Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. This existing audience has already been tested and rated as people who crave financial news daily. Using their proprietary database of investors who have opted-in for regular emails containing business and financial news, WFN1 Inc. will also drive yet more listeners and viewers to the shows, all of which will eventually be carried on multiple radio, TV, social media and Internet platforms. The WFN1 audience is made aware of new and interesting companies and industries that are inevitably both fascinating and rewarding. New and productive ideas provoke growth in the global economies and encourage prosperity and good health for all nations on our planet. WFN1 is at the forefront of this emerging new and global multimedia event.



For further information on WFN1, visit www.wfn1.com. WFNews1, Inc. Providence Towers East Tower Suite 400, 5001 Spring Valley Road, Dallas Texas 75244; Phone: 972-383-1212; Email: info@wfn1.com



Safe Harbor Statement

Matters discussed in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the sales of the company's identity protection software products into various channels and market sectors, the issuance of the company's pending patent application, and the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company.



Contact:

Todd D. Sonoga

WFNews1 Inc.

Phone 972-383-1212

info@wfn1.com

Providence Towers East Tower Suite 400

5001 Spring Valley Road, Dallas Texas 75244



Source: Uptick Newswire
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
Jailed political analyst Kim Sok on Wednesday demanded that Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen be made to testify at his defamation trial and refused to answer a judges questions during a hearing at a court in the capital Phnom Penh.



Kim Sok has been in jail since Feb. 17 after Hun Sen accused him of implying that his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) orchestrated the July 2016 murder of popular political pundit Kem Ley during an interview with RFAs Khmer Service, but Kim Sok has said he was simply repeating what many Cambodians believe.



At his first hearing at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday, Kim Sok called for Hun Sen to appear at his trial to explain why he filed the U.S. $500,000 criminal complaint against him for inciting social chaos, but Judge Ky Rithy denied his request.



The decision prompted Kim Sok and his lawyer, Choung Chou Ngy, to attempt to walk out of the court proceedings, but the judge ordered the defendant to remain for the entirety of the hearing.



After his lawyer left the courtroom, Kim Sok stuffed paper into his ears and refused to answer any questions from the judge, who adjourned the hearing and said a verdict in the trial would be announced on Aug. 10. Kim Sok faces up to two years in prison if convicted.



While waiting to be led away, Kim Sok called the proceedings part of a show trial  arranged for Hun Sens benefit.



The court is influenced by Hun Sen and acts in accordance with his evil instructions, he said, as guards prepared to escort him back to Prey Sar Prison.



Rights groups accuse Cambodias judiciary of lacking independence and say the government seeks to limit freedom of expression by using the courts to level defamation charges at reporters and critics of the ruling party.



Choung Chou Ngy later told reporters his client was under pressure because the court refused to let him be heard, and that this was the reason they had sought to boycott the hearing.



Hun Sens lawyer, Ky Tech, denied that Kim Sok had been pressured by the court and said his behavior at the hearing was inappropriate.



Kim Sok was very rude, even in the courtroom, so its no surprise that the court had ruled out his request for provisional release, he said, referring to a decision by Cambodias Appeals Court to deny the defendant bail in March.



The prime minister is not obligated to testify in court because he has a lawyer representing him, Ky Tech added.



A statue of Kem Ley on display in his hometown in Takeo province, Oct. 16, 2016. Credit: RFA Call for statue



Kem Ley was shot dead in broad daylight on July 10 when he stopped in a Star Mart convenience store beside a Caltex gas station in Phnom Penh.



Although authorities charged a former soldier, identified as Oueth Ang, with the murder, many in Cambodia dont believe the governments story that Kem Ley was killed by the man over a debt.



Just days before he was gunned down, Kem Ley had discussed on a RFA Khmer Service call-in show a report by London-based Global Witness detailing the extent of the wealth of the family of Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 31 years.



On Dec. 23 the Phnom Penh court quietly closed its investigation into the murder case without revealing its findings and in a final hearing on March 1, Oueth Ang confessed to killing Kem Ley.



As Kim Soks hearing was underway Wednesday, the Khmer Student Intelligent Association published an open letter to Cambodias Council of Ministers requesting permission to erect a statue of Kem Ley at the site of his killing, but the council immediately rejected the request, saying it has no jurisdiction over the privately-owned property.



The request from the Khmer Student Intelligent Association, who count themselves among Kem Leys followers, was also submitted to and rejected by the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Phnom Penh Municipal Government.



It came days after Hun Sen donated U.S. $60,000 to the late political commentators brother to cover expenses associated with the one-year anniversary of his death and the construction of a stupa in his honor.



Former prisoner Kong Raya, who in February was freed after serving a one year and six-month prison term for urging a popular uprising against the CPP in a Facebook posting, told RFA that Hun Sen should back the proposal for a Kem Ley statue to show that his donation for the funeral was genuine.



Tep Vanny at Cambodia's Supreme Court in Phnom Penh, Jan. 25, 2017. Credit: RFA Joint statement



Also on Wednesday, 27 domestic and international nongovernmental organizations issued a joint statement urging Cambodias Appeals Court to overturn the unjust conviction of land activist and rights campaigner Tep Vanny ahead of its review of her case on Thursday.



On Feb. 23, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Tep Vanny to two years and six months in prison on charges of aggravated intentional violence in connection with a 2013 protest she held in front of Hun Sens home that ended in violence.



While the protest occurred in 2013, the court prosecutor reactivated the case and charged Tep Vanny in August last year after she was arrested for participating in another demonstration.



Wednesdays statementsigned by London-based Amnesty International, New York-based Human Rights Watch, and Paris-based Federation of International Human Rights (FIDH)called her sentence draconian and a clear attempt to silence one of Cambodias most fearless and outspoken defenders of human rights ahead of national elections set for July next year.



The signatories, which also included domestic groups Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and ADHOC, said Tep Vannys February trial did not comply with international standards for fair trial rights, as no credible evidence was presented to justify the charges against her and no cross-examination of prosecution witnesses was possible, because they had only provided written statements.



Defense witnesses maintain that security forces launched an attack against Tep Vannys group in 2013, leaving some protesters wounded, knocked unconscious, or with lost teeth, while others suffered broken arms. Tep Vanny was also injured in the confrontation.



The re-opening of these charges appears to be a politically motivated attempt to restrict and punish Tep Vannys work as a land activist and human rights defender, as part of Cambodian authorities ongoing crackdown on dissenting voices, the statement said.



We call on the Court of Appeal to exercise its independence and rectify the injustice of Tep Vannys flawed trial by overturning her conviction and sentence.



Tep Vanny came to prominence as an activist fighting the Boeung Kak Lake land grab, when some 3,500 families were evicted from a neighborhood surrounding the urban lake in Phnom Penh. The lake was later filled with sand to make way for a development project with close ties to Hun Sen and the CPP.



Reported by Moniroth Morm and Thai Tha for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
China is continuing to extend its "soft power" around the world through a number of carefully planned strategies, an exiled Chinese writer has claimed.



Yu Jie, the U.S.-based author of a book about China's president titled "Chinese Godfather Xi Jinping," said that a key strand in wielding the influence of the ruling Chinese Communist Party on overseas university campuses is the more than half a million Chinese who study abroad.



Chinese students overseas, whose numbers are projected to swell still further in the next few years, are often members of the government-backed Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), which earlier this year slammed graduating student Yang Shuping for "insulting the motherland" in her commencement speech at the University of Maryland.



Influence is also wielded via the network of Confucius Institutes, which have sprung up at hundreds of universities and teaching institutions around the world in recent years.



Partnering with local academic centers, their aim is to teach people to speak Chinese, as well as broadening people's experience of Chinese culture in general.



But Yu said they also have considerable perks to offer foreigners who toe the party line.



"For example, if you say nice things about China, the Confucius Institute will invite you on a trip to China, in which you stay in a nice hotel, and maybe even meet some officials for a meeting or a meal," he said.



"If you criticize China, the Confucius Institute will make a collection of your comments or writings, and you will be put on a blacklist, and won't even be able to get a visa to visit China," Yu said.



Increasing media penetration

The Chinese government also regularly takes out four full pages of advertorial in The Washington Post newspaper, titled "China Watch," Yu said.



"Every couple of weeks there will be a four-page insert with the words "China Post" at the top of it, made to look exactly like a newspaper," Yu said. "It is inserted into the main newspaper, and it has the words "China Observer" at the masthead."



"If you don't look carefully, the words "China" and "Post" might seem to mean reports on mainland China, but right at the bottom of the page, there's some small print explaining that these pages have been supplied by the government of the People's Republic of China."



"This must earn millions of dollars a year for The Washington Post," he said.



Yu also cited a number of local newspapers in the Washington D.C. area that have been bought up by companies backed by Beijing.



"There are around 10 free Chinese-language newspapers in the D.C. area, where I live, that are now controlled by [Beijing], and which often reprint entire articles from the People's Daily," he said. "They are also starting to encroach on Western mainstream media territory, harming national security in the United States."



"There are experts in Washington who have revealed that even Hollywood movies have to be approved by Beijing's censors at the propaganda ministry before they can be shown," Yu added.



He cited the case of "soft power" being wielded via China's state-owned travel agencies to target any country that displeased Beijing.



"There was a story about a hotel manager who refused to supply a venue, saying that there were already too many Chinese tourists in his hotel," Yu said. "This really annoyed Beijing, and suddenly the supply of guests was just cut off."



Seoul's deployment of a U.S. missile defense shield in March sparked anti-Korean protests and the closure of many stores in the South Korean convenience chain Lotte across the country.



Chinese travel agencies, which fly Chinese tourists into South Korea on mass vacations arranged by state-owned enterprises, began boycotting the country as a destination.



Reported by Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Foreign workers sit in an open field following a raid by Malaysian immigration authorities at a construction site in Port Dickson, July 11, 2017.

Bangladeshis and Indonesians topped an updated list of detained undocumented workers as Malaysian authorities announced Wednesday that they had swept up more than 5,000 foreigners in a crackdown on illegal immigration since July 1.

Malaysia launched the nationwide raids a day after the governments deadline for foreign workers to register with immigration authorities expired.

A total of 17,955 people have been screened and, as a result, 5,065 illegal immigrants from various countries have been arrested, Mustafar Ali, director-general of the immigration department, told reporters.

The arrested immigrants include 1,520 from Bangladesh, 1,476 from Indonesia, 429 from Myanmar, 285 from Vietnam, 206 from Thailand and 261 from the Philippines, Mustafar said.

He said those raids also led to the arrest of 108 employers, while 367 people have been notified to appear in court.

Strict actions will be taken on employers and undocumented workers caught in this operation, he said.

Many of the detainees have been charged in courts and some have been sentenced to jail for several months, officials said. The arrested employers were charged in courts and allowed to post bail.

Malaysia, whose population is 32 million, has 2 million legally registered foreign workers and a similar number of undocumented immigrants, according to non-governmental organizations.

Those without valid papers mostly work in what locals describe as 3D  dangerous, difficult and dirty  jobs in construction, plantations and factories.

Southeast Asias third biggest economy after Indonesia and Thailand, Malaysia became a popular destination for migrant workers after it posted robust economic growth in the past few years.

As the country experienced a surge in illegal immigration, it implemented a law on July 1, 2016, requiring a monthly minimum wage of 1,000 ringgit (U.S. $233) in most cities and about 920 ringgit ($214) in Sabah and Sarawak  for local and foreign workers.

Meeting diplomatic officials

Immigration officials said they had taken steps to inform foreigners about the registration program by meeting with Bangladeshi, Indian, Indonesian and Nepalese embassy officials in recent weeks.

The initiative taken was to explain efforts being taken, including measures that should be taken by employers and workers after the end of the E-Card (Enforcement Card) registration, including the issuance of travel document and the completion of the rehiring process, Mustafar said.

The rehiring program is a government initiative for former undocumented workers to apply for work permits in order to meet demands in specific sectors.

Mustafar urged employers who had failed to meet the registration deadline to send their workers through the Voluntary Deportation Program to avoid legal action.

Through this program, illegal immigrants could head back to their country in an orderly manner and in accordance with the law, he said, adding that, since January, about 125,000 illegal immigrants had taken advantage of the program and returned to their home countries.

In response to Malaysias widespread immigration raids, Southeast Asian lawmakers issued a statement two weeks ago expressing concern about the crackdown and local reports that more than 100 people, mostly from Myanmar, had died in the past two years in Malaysian immigration detention centers.

The lawmakers belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said little had been done to alleviate the plight of detained immigrants despite Malaysias pledge to investigate reports of poor living conditions for detainees.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Men carry the body of Maung Nu, a Rohingya Muslim who was killed by a Buddhist mob, away from the crime scene in Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar's Rakhine state, July 4, 2017.

Myanmar police on Wednesday arrested a man in the stoning death of a Rohingya Muslim during an attack by a mob of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in the Rakhine state capital Sittwe earlier this month, the district police chief said.

The mob threw bricks at a group of Rohingya men and attacked a vehicle in which they were traveling in the Buddhist-majority Ywar Gyi Mrauk neighborhood on July 4, killing 55-year-old Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad. Six other Rohingya were injured.

We have been questioning many people, said Sittwe district police chief Lieutenant Colonel Win Naung. I cant remember the number of people we have questioned, but weve arrested one so far.

He gave no further details about the man who was arrested.

Win Naung also said authorities will take action against the police officers and others who escorted the Rohingya to Ywar Gyi Mrauk for breaking rules by transporting them so they could buy a boat.

Those who were attacked were among 10 Rohingya who had received permission to leave the Dapaing internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the citys outskirts to give statements at a criminal case in a Sittwe court, Myanmar state media reported at the time.

During a break in the trial, seven of the men asked police to escort them to a nearby dock where they discussed buying a boat from a local businessman.

An argument broke out on the boat jetty, attracting the attention of local residents who then attacked the men, state media said.

A police escort, who was not carrying a weapon, was unable to stop the angry mob from hurling bricks at the men, and he fled the scene unharmed, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported.

The men are among the 120,000 Rohingya who live in IDP camps in western Myanmars Rakhine state, where they were placed after deadly communal violence with Buddhists in 2012.

The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, though many have lived in the country for generations, and denies them citizenship and access to basic services.

About and 90,000 Rohingya in the northern part of Rakhine state fled to Bangladesh last year during a crackdown in which security forces reportedly committed indiscriminate killings, torture, arson, and rape.

The four-month operation was put in place after deadly attacks on three local border guard stations later blamed on an obscure group of Rohingya militants.

Though the crackdown ended in February, authorities recently put government soldiers and border guard police patrolling the area on high alert in the wake of a series of disappearances, murders, and other attacks on security forces.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Hundreds of followers of Tibets oldest spiritual tradition gathered this month in Tibets Chamdo prefecture to hold teachings and conduct rituals and dances important to their faith, Tibetan sources said.



The event drew participants from across Tibet who filled the hillsides outside Tengchen countys Tsedrup monastery from July 2 through July 23, and was led by senior lamas of the Bon tradition, a Bon follower in India told RFAs Tibetan Service.



The congregation was presided over by Yungdrung Nyima Rinpoche, Yungdrung Khen Rinpoche, and the Lobpon Lobsang Nyima, the source, named Yungdrung Lodroe, told RFA.



The events were all conducted according to Bon tradition, Lodroe said.



Bon, an indigenous Tibetan spiritual tradition, preceded the eighth century introduction of Indian Buddhism into Tibet and later developed alongside Tibets Buddhist schools, with the two faiths now sharing many influences.



Festival organizers conducted a large prayer gathering called Yarchoe Rigdzin Dupa from July 2 to July 7, and another group ritual from July 9 to July 18, Lodroe said, citing sources in Tibet.



Meanwhile, on the gatherings first day, the Bon lama Tenzin Woeser Rinpoche spoke to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Bon Higher Institute for Study and Practice, which now has branches across Tibet.



He emphasized the preservation of the Bon tradition and how unity should be maintained among its followers, Lodroe said, adding that a large debate on scriptural logic was then held, with over 1,000 people taking part.



Dancers in Tsedrup monastery portray the journey of the soul after death in an undated photo. Credit: social media Journey after death



A highlight of the gathering was the performance of a ritual lamas dance, Lodroe said.



This dance is performed at Tsedrup monastery every 12 years, and Bon followers consider it a very sacred event. Both monks and laypersons participated in the performance, with masked dancers portraying wrathful deities.



The dances major theme was the judging of souls after death, based on the deceased persons collection of white virtuous deeds and black negative deeds, with dancers also portraying other experiences of the souls journey in the afterlife, he said.



Traditional gatherings in Tibetan-populated regions of China have greatly increased in size in recent years, as thousands of Tibetans gather to assert their national identity in the face of Beijings cultural and political domination.



Though China in recent years has frequently allowed the holding of Tibetan festivals as a sign of stability and progress in Tibetan areas, security forces often monitor and sometimes close down events involving large crowds, fearing spontaneous protests against Chinese rule.



Reported by Lobsang for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.




UPDATED at 10:07 A.M. on 2017-07-28



One of the top leaders of a prominent Uyghur exile association was detained at the behest of Chinas government by a special unit of the Italian police while preparing to speak about restrictions his ethnic group faces at a press conference in Rome, he said following his release on Wednesday.



At around 11:45 a.m., general secretary of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress Dolkun Isa was approached by 15-20 plainclothes members of the Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali (DIGOS) while walking with colleagues to the Italian Senate, he told RFAs Uyghur Service.



The officers, who were holding a photo of Isa, stopped him at the gate of the senate building and asked him to accompany them for an identification check, he said.



Isa informed the officers that he was due to speak at a noon press conference at the senate building co-organized by his group the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and Italys Nonviolent Radical Party, and hosted by Italian Senator Luigi Compagna, but the officers loaded him into a car and took him to a nearby police station.



While en route to the station, Isa, who is a German national, informed his German lawyer and the German authorities of his detention by cellphone, he said.



The DIGOS police checked Isas ID, took his photo and fingerprints, and eventually released him after 3:00 p.m., saying they would run his information against a database with the International Police Organization (Interpol), an intergovernmental organization that facilitates global police cooperation.



When Isa demanded to know why he had been detained, the DIGOS officers informed him that they had acted on a request from China, which routinely objects to political activities by ethnic Uyghurs living in exile from their traditional homeland in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.



Interpol had issued an international alert on Isa several years ago based on what he called a politically motivated and baseless request by the Chinese government, and the alert was later rejected by German authorities, who viewed it as a political warrant, he told the DIGOS officers.



In November last year, Chinas Deputy Minister of Public Security Meng Hongwei was elected president of Interpol, Isa told the officers, and asking Interpol to run a check on his background is like asking the Chinese government to do so. The officers informed Isa that they intend to proceed with the Interpol check.



Isa told RFA after his release that he was treated well while in custody and expressed gratitude to the German government for its intervention in his detention. He also thanked members of the Italian Senate, the Nonviolent Radical Party, the UNPO and the WUC for their concern.



But he condemned what he called the nefarious influence of the Chinese government on democratic Europe and said it must stop.



[Nations of] the free world should not allow China to interfere in their internal affairs and let China use Interpol as an instrument to achieve its illegitimate objectives, he said.



China can never silence my voice or stop my peaceful human rights activism on behalf of the long-suffering Uyghur people in East Turkestan, he added, referring to the name of a short-lived Uyghur republic that the Chinese government now administers as Xinjiang.



I know China will continue to demonize me and attempt to prevent me from speaking out about its crimes committed against the peace-loving Uyghur people  but I will not stop until the Uyghurs can enjoy democracy and freedom.



UN expulsion



Isas detention came less than three months after he was removed from a United Nations forum in New York by security guards without explanation on April 26. Two days later, he was denied a new badge to be able to re-enter the forum, to which he had duly registered.



Isa told RFA at the time that he believed Chinese pressure on the U.N. had led to his removal.



In May, a coalition of human rights groups and organizations representing minority peoples around the world issued a letter condemning the incident, calling it an expression of domination by an unnamed U.N. member state.



It is very worrying to witness once again the domination exercised by states within the UN system, UNPO General Secretary Marino Busdachin said at the time, in an apparent reference to China, where Uyghurs in Xinjiang complain of pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression by the countrys ruling Communist Party.



Busdachin called Isas removal from an event organized by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) especially troubling, as the forum provides a space for indigenous peoples to voice their concerns and recommendations.



In their letter, the coalition of rights groups and minority organizations demanded that the UNPFII Secretariat provide a full account of the causes of this incident and insisted that the rights of indigenous peoples representatives to express themselves in this arena be unconditionally respected in the future.



Reported by and translated by Alim Seytoff for RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.



CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified a forum Dolkun Isa was denied reentry to as being hosted by the UNPO.


The historic buildings in Church Hill that for 45 years housed the now-closed 2300 Club might be turned into four more apartments.

The owners of the building on East Grace Street near North 23rd Street are seriously contemplating adding the apartment units on the first floor. Four apartments already exist on the second floor.

We are studying it. There have been no definite decisions, said David Branch, a Henrico County lawyer whose wife, Catherine, and her sister inherited the property in 2013. He serves as the trustee for the trust that oversees his sister-in-laws ownership of the property.

We invited neighbors in a two-block radius to come over in February, and we showed them some rough sketches of what we want to do downstairs, he said. There is no secret that we want to do it. We just have not finalized the plans. We are working toward that end.

No specific timetable has been set, but Branch said the hope is a decision will be made this year. The owners are in the process of engaging an architect to draw detailed plans, he said.

The buildings owners are moving forward now that the 2300 Club, a dining and social club that had operated at the 2218 E. Grace St. location since 1972, suspended operations in January after years of dwindling membership and increasing financial problems.

The membership voted in December 2013 to close the club. But Catherine Branch approached the clubs board and wanted to give it one last effort before giving up the ship, her husband said.

She became the clubs president and general manager and, for the past three years, she, along with a core of longtime members, tried to turn operations around, he said. The club hired a new chef (Michael Hall operated there for nearly two years before leaving to open his Spoonbread Bistro restaurant in the Fan District last year), added better wine and beer offerings, and raised monthly membership dues from $35 to $75.

Membership increased slightly. For instance, when the Bull & Bear Club closed in mid-2015, some of its members joined the 2300 Club. But the 2300 Club club couldnt reach the 150-member threshold needed in order to survive, Branch said.

The 2300 Club was founded in 1964  initially located at 2300 E. Broad St.  at a time when there were no restaurants in Church Hill and before liquor-by-the-drink laws were approved in Virginia.

It moved to 2218 E. Grace St. when Douglas Fleet, a philanthropist who helped restore Church Hill, bought the property and renovated it.

The property is actually four row houses that were built in the late 1800s. The houses were connected inside to allow for the club.

Branch, whose father-in-law bought the property in 1996, said the highest and best use of the building is for four apartments on the first floor.

Four apartments have existed for years on the second floor, and the owners upgraded the kitchens in 2014 and 2015. And a Richmond zoning administrator sent Branch a confirmation letter saying that the four first-floor apartments are allowed under current zoning laws.

We cant let the building stay vacant, Branch said. There are not so many uses that you can make for the building.
A citywide boil order in Petersburg has been lifted except for one apartment complex on the city's south side, according to city officials.

The boil order remains in effect for the Woodmere Apartments near the Walnut Hill neighborhood.

The city issued an emergency warning at 2:19 a.m. Wednesday informing residents of the water issue. The main break on South Crater Road was repaired about four hours later, according to a release from the city.
You didnt have to travel to one of the states western extremes, Bath County  site of the Ed Gillespie-Ralph Northam debate  to appreciate that the center is vanishing from Virginia politics.

It wasnt too long ago a campaign for governor was about the Virginia Way, that politics  once the state discarded segregation and the parsimony required to enforce it  was about the practical: sound schools, a reliable workforce, dependable transportation, safe streets and a clean environment.

But as Virginia grows and diversifies and its electorate increasingly reflects the nation as a whole  read: polarized  the practical is subsumed to the partisan. Democrat Northam and Republican Gillespie, both innately practical fellows, played to this before the Virginia Bar Association on Saturday, talking to their voters  but not the rest of us.

Gillespie and Northam, whether they wanted to or not, had a lot to say about Donald Trump, health care, immigration and federal spending  individuals and issues that preoccupy the hard kernel of their parties but over which the next governor will have little control.

A 90-minute debate with questions selected by the moderator  a network newscaster whose beat is Washington, not Richmond  isnt the best setting for getting into the weeds about state aid to local schools, the outdated tax system, tuition creep at public colleges, an unevenly financed road network, and the opioid scourge of the countryside.

These are matters that affect Virginians daily, more often than not complicating their lives, and yet when Northam and Gillespie touched on them, they usually did so in sweeping terms and often pairing them with feigned disbelief or a gratuitous swipe at the other guy. Ouch moments, if you will.

For Gillespie, Trump is an anvil around his neck, one he cant shake even if he could. Gillespie needs Trump voters, every single one of them. His attempt at distancing himself from the president  but not really  threatens to hurt him with Republicans who demand he stand with Trump and independents who expect him to stand apart.

Time and again, Gillespies frustration over Trump was evident. About the best Gillespie, a pay-to-say communicator of the K Street kind, could do in reconciling the competing pressures on his candidacy: I dont agree with everything the president says or tweets and Ive made that clear. My focus is on Virginia.

Northam depicted his opponent as a partisan menace who, as a national Republican apparatchik, guided his partys gerrymandering to perpetuate at state capitols and the U.S. Capitol GOP majorities that neutered Democrats even in states, such as Virginia, that tip blue in statewide elections.

When Gillespie, who once boasted of his role in rigging legislative boundaries for his party, interjected that it is difficult to de-politicize politics, Northam, usually a model of Old South decorum, replied with the equivalent of a rolled newspaper to the snout, I havent been interrupting you; so Id appreciate the common courtesy.

Selling themselves for governor, the candidates salesmanship couldnt be more dissimilar. Theres an authenticity to both men, and flashes of it were evident in a format supposedly designed to demand brief answers and briefer rebuttals, neither of which either man obliged.

Gillespie finds humor in politics  if only because it is a human pursuit  and he is capable of great bellowing laughter; for instance, delighting at a chance to catalogue his differences with Gov. Terry McAuliffe when the questioner meant to refer to Trump.

Gillespie has always been a disciplined rhetorician, artful in his choice of words and attune to an audiences fleeting patience. Northam, shamed into improving as a debater during the primary fight with Tom Perriello, still has an aw-shucks speaking style that, nonetheless, allows to drive in the shiv  sometimes without his opponent noticing.

Northam and Gillespie are products of the once-vast political center, where problems  many of them bitterly fought  were ultimately solved with a measure of comity. But in an era of tribal politics, both men are penalized by members of their own parties for views that, these days, are considered disloyal.

Northam has to explain having twice voted for Bush II  it was before he got into politics, never mind that doctors supposedly are default Republicans. Gillespie wont mention his bromance with McAuliffe, the origin of which was their cheerful smack-downs on the Sunday chat shows as chairmen of their national political parties.

Even in a setting as gracious as The Homestead resort, Gillespie and Northam served up red meat for the masses watching the debate in real time online or soaking up the tweet storms of true believers. The candidates sop to everyone else was to periodically sheath in coded language views tailored for the base.

Gillespie dared not talk about Trumps Muslim ban for the perceived xenophobic spasm that it is. Instead, its a pause, he said, to assert control over American borders during a period of peril  a point on which he leaves little to the imagination in for-your-eyes-only, online advertisements that feature immigration police leading people away in handcuffs.

Northam is almost mechanical in underscoring his support for abortion rights, an article of faith among many women voters. But at the debate, he cast restrictions on abortion  some of them written by women in the heavily male Republican legislative caucus  as intended to shame a woman.

It was an ouch moment in a campaign that is being built on them.
Republican Congressman Dave Brat expressed support Wednesday for embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying he acted in the highest ethical manner by recusing himself from the investigation of President Donald Trump's alleged campaign collusion with Russia.

He did not mention Trumps recent criticism of Sessions recusal, instead blaming Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media for trying to stir the pot.

One thing is for sure: when AG Sessions erred on the side of caution by recusing himself, he never could have foreseen the 24/7 full-throated obsession over Russia by the mainstream media, stated Brat, whose 7th District includes all or parts of Culpeper, Orange and Spotsylvania counties. The medias attacks have only escalated since Trumps inauguration. Fake news dominates.

He closed the statement by encouraging Sessions to stay the course.

Trump told The New York Times last Wednesday that he would have not appointed Sessions had he known the attorney general would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, calling the decision very unfair to the president. He also unleashed a Twitter tirade this week in which he accused Sessions of taking a VERY weak position on alleged crimes by Hillary Clinton.

In his lengthy statement, Brat said Trump is frustrated with those who have called for his impeachment since day one. Those critics, he said, "refuse to honor the outcome of the election.

Brat also took aim at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who he said rushed to appoint former FBI Director Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation when there remains no publicly-available evidence of any crimes committed. Not only that, but Rosenstein gave Robert Mueller broad investigative authority through the inclusion of a catch-all phrase when authorizing the scope of the investigation, stated Brat, who went on to question Muellers appointment of people with clear political bias.

Meanwhile, Brat said Sessions is dutifully following the presidents orders and deserves our praise for having the guts and the backbone to fight for this great country.
If we judged everything by intentions rather than results, the world would be a strange place indeed. Steve never calls his mother on her birthday, but he always means to, so isnt he a wonderful son?

That goes for government as well: If we judged laws only according to what their sponsors intended, then every law and every program that has ever been enacted has been an unqualified success. After all, nobody intends for things to go wrong  right?

And yet things do go wrong. The news is full of examples.

Take civil asset forfeiture, one particularly dubious form of which Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reviving. The intention behind civil asset forfeiture  a practice in which the government seizes the property of suspected criminals  is brilliant: Confiscate the ill-gotten gains, auction them off, and then use the proceeds to finance investments in law enforcement. Using criminals own resources against them: Its law enforcement jiu-jitsu!

Its also an unmitigated disaster. In practice, giving police officers a financial incentive to seize peoples property without having to bring any criminal charges against them is a recipe for wanton abuse. Thousands of innocent Americans have been robbed at the hands of the very people who are supposed to be protecting them. The problem has grown beyond repeated congressional efforts to contain it. It has even grown so bad that two of the originators behind the idea have called for an end to forfeiture because government self-interest corrupted a crime-fighting tool into an evil.

Not every case is quite so extreme. But many are still bad enough. Consider a Kentucky program aimed at reviving poor rural areas by retraining workers to become computer programmers. The effort to breathe new life into the coalfields was part of President Obamas TechHire Initiative, and was conducted in concert with the Appalachian Regional Commission.

According to a report from The Daily Signal, the job-training program was intended to turn out 200 skilled workers who could write code for smartphone apps and similar high-tech ventures. But the effort has fallen short: After $1.6 million, only 17 program participants have landed tech jobs. Some are quite happy with where they landed, but others who went through the program are not: I am now in a job that has absolutely nothing to do with programming, says one.

A spokesman for the company contracted to provide the training says the company isnt to blame: There were more challenges than expected when it came to personal development and growth, she said, citing a lack of basic business environment skills such as personal attire and communication.

But once you set aside the question of whether former coal miners clean up nicely, theres still the grim fact that a federal program to help communities partake in the 21st century economy could scare up fewer than 20 jobs. Thats swell for the individuals, but its not going to bring an entire geographic region back to life. Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam  who has his own plans for reviving rural Virginia with new-collar jobs  might want to take note.

The Trump administration, which has proposed shutting down the Appalachian Regional Commission, also recently announced that it would be cutting $100 million in grants for teen pregnancy prevention. This promptly led to an epidemic of pearl-clutching at media outlets that think the surest cure for any problem is a tractor-trailer full of somebody elses money.

But as The Federalists Mollie Hemingway pointed out, the programs funded by the grants are remarkably ineffective. The Department of Health and Human Services own analysis found that many of them either (a) did not reduce rates of teenage sexual activity, unprotected sex, sex without birth control, or pregnancy or (b) reduced the rates only for a short while. In one case, girls who went through the funded program actually reported becoming pregnant at a higher rate than girls in a different program.

If the programs are not doing what they are being funded to do, then why continue to fund them?

Granted: Some  maybe even many  government programs do exactly what they are supposed to, and they do it well. But that is far from universally true. Two years ago, for instance, the Department of Labor released an analysis of the Re-Integration of Ex-Offenders (RExO) program, which is supposed to help former prison inmates rejoin society. The analysis found no effect on recidivism, mental health, substance abuse, housing, or child support. And the effects on employment, while statistically significant, were quite small in practical terms.

So Washington canceled the program, right?
The merits and demerits of a publicly owned utility are debatable. But the same cant be said about Richmonds infamous PILOT charge, which officials are considering whether to kill off.

The PILOT acronym stands for payment in lieu of taxes. Its a levy the Department of Public Utilities imposes on water, wastewater, and gas customers, revenue from which it then turns over to the citys general fund. The amount reached about $27 million this year.

The citys charter requires the utilities to hand over taxes not actually accruing but which would have accrued had the utility not been municipally owned. Which is a bit like charging the Richmond Public Library taxes that it would have to pay if it were a private bookseller, even though its not.
West Salem will get a new credit union branch in 2020.

Blue Eagle Credit Union said Wednesday it plans to renovate a recently purchased former BB&T Bank building on West Main Street for future operations. Blue Eagle plans a new branch at the location in January 2020, said Laurissa Grubb, marketing director said.

The credit union may use its $330,000 purchase for other operations before then, Grubb said.

Blue Eagle Credit Union opened in 1949 to postal service employees and their families. More than 15,000 account holders exist today, about 2,000 more than at this time last year, Grubb said.

Formerly the Roanoke Postal Employees Federal Credit Union, the institution no longer serves only post office-affiliated people but includes anybody in the Roanoke region.

There are four locations in the Roanoke area and two in Lynchburg.

The new spot sits across the street from the longtime home of Kemba Roanoke Federal Credit Union.

CEO Carolyn Morris said Kemba, with more than 5,000 members, said various financial institutions ha ve occupied the nearby address for years.

Kemba began as a credit union for Kroger workers, but today is open to anyone in Virginia.
Our Founding Fathers helped create a nation of ice cream addicts. Going back to George Washington, they spared no expense or hardship in making and serving frozen treats. While many 18th-century foods have fallen into obscurity (eel pie, anyone?), ice cream remains a dominant force.

Even in times of political strife, Americans are united in their ice cream fixation. The average American devours 45 pints per year, which equates to about $10 billion.

We can thank Washington for Americas early interest in the treat. Renowned for his sweet tooth, Washington was hooked when he got his first taste of ice cream in the late 18th century. Its believed Washington may have been introduced to ice cream by Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt, who was the royal governor of Virginia between 1768 and 1770. The first couple bought pricey ice cream-making equipment and fancy dishes and served it at soirees in New York City and Philadelphia. A detailed list of ice cream paraphernalia  such as a 309-piece service that included 2 Iceries Complete, 12 ice plates, and 36 ice pots from the estate at Mount Vernon  reads like a prototype of a Williams-Sonoma catalogue.

During the early years of our country, though, ice cream was for the elite. Most Americans had never even heard of it. But food trends had a way of catching on, even centuries before Instagram. Thomas Jefferson, who first tasted it in France, helped popularize ice cream by recording the first recipe for it in the United States. The ingredients were simple enough  six egg yolks, a half-pound of sugar, two bottles of good cream, and one vanilla bean  but cooks had to go through an arduous, 18-step process and use a little muscle. The ice cream maker hadnt yet been invented; Jefferson recommended making it in a primitive sorbetiere, which consisted of a covered pail with a handle, and churning it by hand in the ice for 10 minutes before sticking it in a mold to set. Jefferson had ice houses built at Monticello in 1802 to preserve perishable foods such as butter, and he liked to have plenty on hand to make ice cream.

Lest you think modern-day chefs are the first to churn the likes of fish sauce and foie gras into ice cream, know that first lady Dolley Madison had a taste for more extreme flavors two centuries ago. One of her favorites was ice cream made with fresh Potomac oysters. She toned things down a bit for her husbands second inaugural ball by serving plain ice cream with strawberries.

There were, of course, the inevitable gaffes when dealing with a new food item. Assuming that a pyramid of cake was made out of ice cream, a White House guest of President Martin Van Buren cut away at it vigorously with a spoon. In the process, he overthrew the whole structure, according to Anne Cooper Funderburg in Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla.

Unfortunately, eating milky desserts could be dangerous in the days before pasteurization. Historians still argue about whether President Zachary Taylor died after gorging on ice milk and frozen cherries during a Fourth of July party in 1850.

But thankfully, a few inventions made ice cream safer and more convenient in the early 20th century. Better refrigeration meant less spoilage. And the truck replaced the horse-drawn wagon as a means of distribution. Another new ice cream delivery system, the waffle cone, hit the scene at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904, although theres still a raging debate about who should get credit for it.

Ice cream even became a rite of passage for newcomers to the United States. Immigrants who landed on Ellis Island were often given a scoop during their first meal in the States to help them get acclimated, but sometimes this gesture of goodwill backfired. In 1902, several arrivals from Italy, waylaid on the island during the Easter holiday, were alarmed by the strange temperature and texture of this unfamiliar foodstuff and asked for it to be warmed up, according to The New York Times.

Passion for ice cream reached a new intensity during Prohibition when bibulous men were urged to visit the soda fountain instead of the saloon. In the process, they successfully substituted one vice for another; in 1920, our nations first year without (legal) booze, consumers wolfed down 260 million gallons of ice cream.

The modern era only increased our national fervor for frozen treats  and American presidents continued to do their part. In 1969, while en route to a historical meeting with South Vietnams President Nguyen Van Thieu, President Richard M. Nixon visited Hawaii, where he became obsessed with macadamia nut ice cream. Nixon asked to have a 3-gallon pack sent by air to the White House. He had another 3-gallon pack sent from Hawaii 10 months later when he went to award the Apollo 13 astronauts the Medal of Freedom. The flavor was available only on the West Coast and Hawaii, so the manager of the now-defunct Alpha Beta supermarket in San Clemente, California, used to get a heads-up when Nixon was coming to town so he would have a supply of the flavor on hand.

In the following years, the Cold War lingered, and so did the presidential preoccupation with frozen desserts. In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream month. The same year he joked he was outlawing Russia forever, he said in his proclamation that ice cream is a nutritious and wholesome food, enjoyed by over 90 percent of the people in the United States.

Three decades later, Vice President Joe Biden seemed to have taken that proclamation to heart and made ice cream eating a patriotic duty. Biden, who famously ate ice cream with Jimmy Fallon, recently had a flavor named after him at Cornell University. Biden dubbed himself the ice cream guy and has enjoyed a cone at many small-town shops across the country. He proudly declared his addiction to the owners of Penny Creamery in Santa Cruz, California, in 2010. I am a genuine lover of ice cream. I dont drink. I dont smoke. But I eat a lot of ice cream.

Theres even a proven tie-in between political parties and flavors. Republicans favor chocolate, and Democrats like vanilla, according to a 2011 Harris Poll.

Although its probably never a good idea to discuss politics while eating  even eating ice cream  in these heated political times, cooling down with a cone has never been a better idea. This summer we may agree on little else.

Ettinger is the author of Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America (Dutton, 2017).
A Franklin County High School teacher has been formally charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor.

Renae Stone Lambert, of Rocky Mount, was indicted July 10.

Lambert, a Spanish teacher , has been placed on administrative leave, Superintendent Mark Church said in an email. Church said he could not comment further, because the matter involves personnel.

The indictment says the incident took place on or about April 14 to April 15. Franklin County schools were on spring break for the week of April 10-14.

Rocky Mount police handled the investigation, but directed questions to Commonwealths Attorney A.J. Dudley. Dudley did not respond to multiple messages left at his office.

An Oct. 3 trial has been set, according to online court records.
Christine LeClaire said physical reactions to her new rental home in Christiansburg began right away. Symptoms included itchy eyes, a runny nose, a scratchy throat, a frightful headache and worse, she said.

The very first day I had a nosebleed, LeClaire said.

On June 16, LeClaire, 50, moved into a 1,716-square-foot house at 2324 Plateau Drive. She said she leased the place, sight-unseen, before moving from the dry climate of Las Vegas to the New River Valley to start a doctoral program at Virginia Tech in business, with a concentration in hospitality and tourism management.

She said she noticed a sour smell when first entering the house. Two days later, LeClaire said, she found evidence of water damage beneath the kitchen sink. Such damage can trigger the growth of potentially noxious indoor mold and LeClaire said portions of the cabinet were black.

LeClaire focused then on learning about the potential health impacts of indoor mold. In addition to reams of information from sources that included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she found a fact sheet about mold published by the Virginia Cooperative Extension. From this source, authored by Kathleen Parrott, a professor of housing at Virginia Tech, LeClaire learned that different people have different sensitivity to molds and that exposure to mold can cause irritation to eyes, nose and upper airways.

She researched state law to try to determine landlords obligations when mold is detected in rental properties. She wondered what most landlords in this humid climate know about indoor mold  a fungus that reproduces by spores, which are microscopic cells, that are released into the air  and about related responsibilities to tenants.

On June 19, LeClaire said, she phoned Ryan Marquart, a mold inspector for Green Home Solutions. He agreed to perform a visual inspection of the house.

Marquart confirmed during a phone interview Tuesday that he found mold during his inspection. He said he did not try to determine the extent or type of mold growth.

LeClaire said that she then alerted TNT Flinchum Property Management, the New River Valley company that was her landlord, that there was mold in the house. Tax records show the Plateau Drive house is owned by Flinchum Family LLC.

They were very quick to release me from the lease, LeClaire said. She said TNT Flinchum also agreed to refund her rent and security deposit.

On June 22, LeClaire said, Dave Bittle, a specialist with 1-800-Water-Damage, a company whose services include mold remediation, inspected the house for TNT Flinchum. He declined to share his findings when contacted July 25.

Im not going to release any information, Bittle said. All my business is with the owners of the property.

After being released from her lease, LeClaire began preparations to move again.

Extensive water damage

Then, on June 23, after respiratory and other symptoms worsened, LeClaire said, she sought medical help from the emergency room of the LewisGale Hospital in Montgomery County. A record of that visit shows that LeClaires symptoms were attributed to mold exposure. She was advised not to stay in the rental house.

She said she paid for a hotel room and spent five days and four nights there. On June 27, she moved into a townhouse leased from a different landlord.

LeClaire said TNT Flinchum hasnt returned her calls since June 19 and has not yet provided a copy of a walk-through inspection that occurred after she elected to move. She feels the company should have been aware there could be mold in the house because of clear evidence of water damage.

On June 26, in response to a complaint from LeClaire, the Montgomery County Department of Building Inspections visited the Plateau Drive house. A report from that inspection shows that it found four code violations. Among them: Bottom of kitchen sink cabinet has rotted away, due to extensive water damage. Sink plumbing must be repaired or replaced. The inspection also found that the dishwasher has been leaking.

LeClaire believes TNT Flinchum should reimburse her for her hotel stay, the costs of moving a second time, the visit to the emergency room and the expense of cleaning furnishings she said exhibited evidence of growing mold while still in the Plateau Drive house. LeClaire has met with a lawyer in Roanoke but said she doesnt have the money yet to retain him.

Theresa Flinchum of TNT Flinchum referred questions about LeClaires tenancy to the firms attorney, John Robertson. He declined to comment about her specific complaints, though he noted that TNT Flinchum took action as soon as the potential presence of mold was brought to the companys attention by releasing LeClaire from her lease and refunding her rent and deposit money.

Robertson said he would neither confirm nor deny that inspection of the house found mold because he said he had not seen any related report.

He said the overarching message is that TNT Flinchum is aware of its obligations under state law to respond to situations when visible mold is detected in a rental property and that he helps ensure that the company complies with those regulations.

The Better Business Bureau of Western Virginias rating for TNT Flinchum is B+. The company has been accredited with the bureau since 1991.

Julie Wheeler, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia, said the BBBs ratings are based on measures that include the length of time a company has been in business, the size of the business, the number of consumer complaints and the companys response to consumer complaints communicated to the business by the BBB. The ratings do not reflect verified consumer reviews of the company posted on the bureaus business profile of the company.

Wheeler said TNT Flinchum responded to all 12 complaints filed with the BBB. She said responses by businesses dont always fully please the consumer who files a complaint or the business involved but typically offer some resolution.

Visible mold

State law holds that if there is visible evidence of mold in a residential dwelling unit at the time of a move-in inspection the landlord or managing agents responsibilities including performing mold remediation in accordance with professional standards. In addition, where a mold condition in the dwelling unit materially affects the health or safety of any tenant or authorized occupant, the landlord may require the tenant to temporarily vacate the dwelling unit in order for the landlord to perform mold remediation.

The landlord might be obligated to provide an alternative dwelling, which could include a hotel room, during remediation.

LeClaire completed her own move-in inspection, a practice embraced by TNT Flinchum, but said she was told that being released from her lease meant she no longer had to turn it in.

A man with extensive experience with mold inspection and remediation said about 40 percent of the mold inspections he performs are in rental properties. Because his clients have included property management companies in the region, though not TNT Flinchum, he asked to remain anonymous. He said landlords who might own a property or two are sometimes unfamiliar with state laws regarding mold. But he said most property management companies know what their responsibilities are.

Patrick McCloud, CEO of the Virginia Apartment Management Association, said the organizations members tend to be companies that manage more than just a few properties. He agreed that most are aware of what sort of response to visible mold state law requires. He said members receive training every year in provisions of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which includes regulations about mold.

He said the associations guidance to property management companies notes that a move-in inspection report should include a provision as to whether or not there is visible evidence of mold. If the move-in inspection does not identify visible evidence of mold and the tenant does not discover visible mold or report visible mold in five days, the landlord might be immune from any recovery from the tenant for alleged damages, according to state law.

One hitch can be the laws specification that the mold be visible, said the mold inspector.

The property management firms seem to be very aware of the [laws] limitations to visible mold and work within that boundary to mitigate visible mold,  he said. But the problems with tenant exposure are the concealed mold and insufficient responses to water loss incidents generally driven by the bottom line. Remediation is expensive and a vacant unit does not make money.

McCloud said the specification that the mold be visible is a fair standard.

Its an unrealistic expectation for anyone to identify mold if it cant be seen, he said.

Controlling moisture

The Virginia Cooperative Extensions fact sheet notes that when building materials get wet, mold can become extensive within 24 to 48 hours. It reports that to control mold growth in homes we must control excess moisture and water.

McCloud said a key point the association stresses to members is that mold growth requires moisture.

The EPA notes that molds are part of the natural environment and can be found both indoors and outdoors. The agency notes: Mold is not usually a problem, unless it begins growing indoors. The best way to control mold growth is to control moisture.

Molds can produce allergens; some molds also produce potentially toxic substances known as mycotoxins, the EPA reports.

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, a Maryland-based physician and author renowned for his focus on mold, suggests that mold illness is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome that can develop after exposure to toxigenic organisms that can reside inside water-damaged buildings. The World Health Organizations 2009 Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality reported that excess moisture on almost all indoor materials can foster the growth of mold, fungi and bacteria whose related effects on indoor air can impact health.

Meanwhile, McCloud said mold in rental dwelling units has generally become less of a hot-button issue in the last decade because property management companies now have protocols in place to respond.

For LeClaire, mold became a hot-button issue when she moved from a dry climate to a region of high humidity and learned more about indoor mold than shed ever anticipated.

She said she hopes her saga might help inform other tenants and landlords in the region about the subject.

My approach to life is that youre always learning something, she said.
A Maryland woman is accused of throwing a bottle of mouthwash at a fellow motorist and other offenses during a road rage incident that stopped traffic on U.S. 301 in King George County, authorities said.

Sheriffs spokeswoman Kecia Wharton said the incident began about 5 p.m. Friday at the toll lanes at the Harry Nice Memorial Bridge that leads from Maryland into King George. The victim reported that a red Ford Focus struck her SUV while trying to merge back into traffic.

As both vehicles continued south, witnesses said the Focus driver threw a bottle out of her window, striking the SUV. The Focus then bumped the SUV a second time before both vehicles stopped on U.S. 301 in the area of the Verizon store in Dahlgren.

Wharton said the victim and her passenger remained in the SUV while the driver of the Focus jumped on her bumper and tried to rip off her side-view mirror. The victim reported that as she was calling 911, the woman opened her door and tried to take the phone from her.

Southbound traffic was blocked by the vehicles and by the woman carrying on in the roadway, Wharton said.

The victim, also a Maryland resident, closed her door and struggled to keep it closed while the woman kept trying to get inside. The SUV passenger recorded part of the attack on her cellphone, Wharton said.

Deputies arrived and arrested 25-year-old Monique Janae Jones of Mechanicsville, Md., Wharton said. Jones was charged with throwing a missile at an occupied vehicle, reckless driving to endanger life and limb, two counts of assault and battery, trying to prevent a 911 call, disorderly conduct, destruction of property and possession of marijuana.

She was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail under a $6,000 bond.
Richmond police fatally shot a man wielding an ax and a large knife Tuesday after he had threatened people and attacked officers downtown, according to police and witnesses.

A Richmond officer also was injured when he was struck in the vest by friendly fire, authorities said. The 12-year department veteran was treated at a hospital and released.

The shooting unfolded shortly after 10 a.m. in the intersection of East Main and Third streets in downtown Richmond. The police had been receiving reports that the armed man  who was wearing a kilt, combat-style boots and no shirt  had been wandering in other parts of the city.

Police Chief Alfred Durham said that when officers encountered the man, they tried to de-escalate the situation and ordered him to drop his weapons. Police used a Taser, but when that was not effective, two officers fired their guns, Durham said.

Tiffany McCoy was waiting tables at 3rd Street Diner on Tuesday when a customer drew her attention outside.

She saw the man surrounded by five or six officers, their guns drawn. He was jumping around, screaming and swinging the weapons aggressively, she said. Then the man advanced toward police, and they opened fire.

It happened so quick, McCoy said. He went after them. He was Tased. It didnt faze him. He got within a few feet. They had no other option.

The two officers who fired their guns struck the man about the body, Durham said. He was pronounced dead at 10:31 a.m. at a hospital.

McCoy said she saw the man bleed out before her eyes. It was clear, McCoy and other witnesses said, that he died at the scene.

Ive never really witnessed anything like that, she said.

She was shaken up and took the rest of the day off from her job at the diner, where she is in her second week of waiting tables.

Her co-worker Taryn Kelly said she heard the officers telling the man to drop the weapons and stop moving toward them before they fired. She recounted the story between serving customers; the diner had closed after the shooting but reopened at 12:30 p.m.

It wasnt like a police brutality thing, she said. He was acting real crazy.

Investigators are reviewing body-worn camera videos taken by officers at the scene. Those videos will not be released immediately because of the ongoing investigation, police said.

Police said they will release the mans name once an identification has been made and his relatives have been notified.

They also did not name the officers who shot him. But in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, the department said that the names of the RPD officers involved in the shooting will be released once a threat assessment has been conducted.

I am sorry about the loss of life that occurred today, Durham said in the departments statement. I wish there had been a different outcome. But it is important to remember what my officers are dealing with at this time. They have been interviewed and placed on administrative leave. I will release their names once I am assured there is no threat of retaliation against them.

Police first received a report about 9:30 a.m. of a person armed with an ax and a long knife near Tredegar Iron Works, and a second report about 10 minutes later of the suspect threatening construction workers near South Fifth and Tredegar streets.

A construction worker said the man tried to walk across a bridge leading to Browns Island that was closed for maintenance. The witness said that another worker tried to stop the man, who responded by displaying the handle of a large knife and crossed the bridge.

It was a big, big knife, said the witness, who declined to give his name. He wasnt anybody youd want to stop.

Also before the shooting, police received reports of a person walking around with weapons at South Ninth and East Cary streets and at South 12th and East Canal streets near the Omni Richmond Hotel.

The chief said the department is conducting a routine investigation into the use of deadly force.

Officers involved in the shooting were being interviewed by investigators at police headquarters, Durham said.
Authorities on Wednesday identified Alexander Schoessel, 23, of the 1100 block of Rochelle Road in Chester, as the man police fatally shot one day earlier after they say he threatened people and attacked officers while wielding an ax and long knife in downtown Richmond.

Police said they tried to get Schoessel to drop the weapons and later fired a Taser to subdue him. After those efforts failed, two officers fired service weapons, striking Schoessel about the body, according to Police Chief Alfred Durham.

Schoessel was taken to an area hospital, where he later died.

The two officers who fired their service weapons were identified as Nicholas Pechstein, 28, and Joshua Sanborn, 24. Both were patrol officers with eight months of service, according to the department.

A 12-year veteran of the police department was wounded during the encounter after friendly gunfire struck his body armor vest. He was identified as John Rotondi, 43.

He suffered what police described as a non-life-threatening injury and was released from a hospital Tuesday.

The Force Investigation Team  a unit within the police department that investigates internal matters  has begun working on a report to be forwarded to the commonwealths attorneys office, which determines whether police-involved shootings are justified.

Forensic investigators collected evidence from the scene, several eyewitnesses were interviewed, and the officers involved in the incident gave statements at police headquarters in the aftermath of the shooting.

Investigators are also reviewing videos from body cameras worn by responding officers.

Schoessels death marks the second fatal police shooting in Richmond this year. The first occurred May 15 after an officer shot and killed a man during a traffic stop in South Richmond.

Police said the suspect, Jaison Fitzgerald, 29, of the 1900 block of Accommodation Street, drew a gun during the stop. He was pulled over for active warrants because of an incident earlier in the day when he allegedly shot at his girlfriends family member.

The chief has said the investigation into that incident would be finished Friday and sent to the commonwealth attorneys office for review.
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 26 (PTI) Two abducted diplomatic officials of Pakistans consulate in Afghanistan have been rescued, officials said today.

The officials, posted at Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad, were abducted on June 16 while travelling from Jalalabad province to Torkham border crossing, Foreign Office (FO) said.

"(Afghanistan) President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistans Charge dAffiares in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation," it said.

advertisement

The officials were handed over to the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They would be flown back to Pakistan to join their families as soon as possible, the FO said.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua talked to Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and conveyed Pakistans deep gratitude to the Afghan Government for safe recovery of the two abducted Pakistani diplomatic officials.

Jalalabad is the regional hub in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The Taliban and militants linked to the ISIS operate in eastern Afghanistan. PTI SH CPS

--- ENDS ---
By Mary E. Campagna

Campagna wrote Gainsboro: The Destruction of a Historic Community in 1995, published by Historic Gainsboro Preservation District.

Activist Martin Jeffery of the Dumas Hotel Legacy, Inc. (DHL) recently wrote to The Roanoke Times tracing one of the most painful parts of black history in Roanoke: the days when city officials began to take full advantage of the broad reach of eminent domain that urban renewal fostered to transfer wealth and property from black owners to the white power structure.(Dumas sale is watershed moment, May 18 commentary.)

Reimbursement figures have always been a joke; one can accurately say that the city took hundreds of acres of African-American land for a steal. That pattern has continued to rear its ugly head over the years. Millions of federal community block grant funds officially earmarked by the city for Gainsboro between 1968 and 1995 never went there. The latest insult to the black community occurred when Total Action for Progress (TAP) signed a purchase agreement on the historic Dumas Hotel to an anonymous buyer.

At the time of the sale, the Dumas Legacy group was in formal negotiations with TAP to purchase the Dumas. Indeed, the group had made a second offer for the building despite community concerns about a TAP- assigned September deadline. In its counter offer the DHL submitted a third offer; the group has raised more than $60,000 in a couple of weeks. It was well on their way to reaching the amount they offered to TAP.

Part of the historic legacy of the Dumas goes back to its owners, Mrs. Darthula Barlow Lash, her former husband Duke Law (son of Dr. and Mrs. Maynard Law), and her family.

The Law and Lash families had hoped to turn the Dumas into a cultural and community center which would attract various community groups. Vernice Law petitioned the city, saying that her family was willing to share the building with TAP for its meals programs and even with the City of Roanoke, if only the black community could retain a portion of it. But Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority bought the building for $25,000 and later handed it to TAP. A 1981 Gainsboro Project Area Committee (PAC) report detailed elaborate plans for the Gainsboro community (including the Dumas); plans designed by the black community to re-capture its dramatic historic significance and creative brilliance. The city decided to scrap the plans.

The Dumas, once an African-American musical and cultural center on Henry Street, a place graced by stars such as Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, would either face demolition or ownership by puppet agencies of the citys elite. The Lash family was forced to pay $5,000 to board up the building, while its offers to renovate the building or lease it back to the city were refused. The city wanted to employ a master lease that could be overseen by city officials to keep out what housing authority officials referred to as undesirable elements.

There were several plans for Henry Street/Gainsboro revitalization. However, all those that fully included input from the surrounding black community were abandoned. The city tossed the Dumas back and forth between the housing authority and TAP. The Lash familys first option to buy was obviously disregarded. The Gainsboro Neighborhood Plan adopted by Roanoke City Council in March of 2003, part of Vision 2001-2020, called Gainsboro a village center and spoke of the Roanoke Community Development Corporations (RNDCs) 1998 plan to revitalize Henry Street. The plan stated:

 The Gainsboro community continues to deal with the consequences of the urban renewal programs  that displaced families and businesses.  Urban renewal was something done to the community instead of with the community. One of the main purposes of this plan is to ensure that the community is involved in determining its own future. (GNP, Roanoke City Council, 2003)

Lost somewhere in this chain of deception lies the legacy of the Dumas. The week of July 10th, a hopeful Martin Jeffrey told a reporter from the Roanoke Tribune: Its not just about the building; its about hope itself.

Yet, the talk on the street today is that one of the anonymous buyers is African-American. If true, this will certainly come as a shock to DHL supporters. Perhaps it was done with the best of intentions, but as the old saying goes, The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

What remains to be seen is whether, or not the citys African-American community will accept another stab wound to its heart.
By PTI: Jammu, Jul 26 (PTI) A batch of 473 pilgrims today left Jammu for the 3,888-metre-high Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security.

Escorted by CRPF and police personnel, the smallest batch till now, comprising 327 males, 46 females along with 100 sadhus and sadhvis left in a convoy of 14 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base-camps of the shrine this morning, officials said.

advertisement

With todays batch, 67,307 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 26 batches since the yatra began from here on June 28.

The number of pilgrims this year has crossed last years figures. As many as 2,46,509 pilgrims have visited the cave shrine till last evening, a senior official said.

The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops including the police, the Army, the BSF and the CRPF.

The annual pilgrimage began amid a terror threat which prompted the authorities to mobilise the "highest level" of security, including satellite tracking system.

This years yatra will be eight days shorter than last years 48 days and will conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.

Situated in a narrow gorge at the farther end of Lidder Valley, Amarnath shrine is 46 km from Pahalgam and 14 km from Baltal. PTI AB NSD

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Ayodhya, Jul 26 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath today stressed that a peaceful solution to the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue should be found through bilateral talks.

Both parties must abide by the Supreme Courts advice regarding negotiations, said Adityanath who was on a visit here. He added that the government would take care of the sentiments of both Hindus as well as Muslims.

advertisement

In his speech, the chief minister referred to Indonesia and said it was the biggest Muslim country where Ramayana was celebrated.

Indonesians have accepted Islam as a way to worship God, but they are still very much attached to their old tradition of Ramayana, he said.

Adityanath also said that the Union government is thinking seriously to construct a Ram Sethu (Adam Bridge) connecting India to Lanka to give a full and final shape to Ramayana circuit.

He said the Ramayana circuit will connect all cultural and traditional centres mentioned in the epic, adding that the circuit would be extended to Rameshwaram.

The Centre as well as the state government are developing all spots which are traditionally and culturally connected with the Hindu religion, he said.

Development of ghaats along the rivers and cultural activities such as Ram Leela and Krishna Leela were also priorities, he said.

Adityanath was in Ayodhya to pay tributes toRam Mandir movement leader Ram Chandra Das Paramhans whose death anniversary falls today. Paramhans, one of the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, had died fourteen years ago.

This was Adityanaths second visit to Ayodhya in less than two months.

After becoming chief minister he had visited Ayodhya on 31 May to take part in the birthday celebration of VHP leader Nritya Gopal Das, president of the Ram Janambhoomi trust.

Yogi, had during his last visit to the temple town also offered prayers at the makeshift Ram temple here.

About a thousand people including sadhus and BJP leaders attended the chief ministers public meeting in a small place adjacent to Digambar Akahara.

Some persons including some sadhus expressed displeasure saying they were forcefully removed by the police as the chief minister was to arrive.

Faizabad district magistrate S K Rai however said "no one was removed forcefully but we requested some sadhus to go before the arrival of CM for security reasons". PTI CORR ADS

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain put a further nine entities based in Yemen and Libya and nine people from several Arab countries on the blacklist, saying all were associated with Qatar.

By Reuters: Qatar said on Wednesday a decision by four Arab states to add 18 groups and individuals allegedly linked to Doha to their "terrorist" lists was "a disappointing surprise" and that it was doing all it could to fight extremism.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain put a further nine entities based in Yemen and Libya and nine people from several Arab countries on the blacklist, saying all were associated with Qatar.

advertisement

"(The new list) comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed al-Thani, director of the Gulf kingdom's Government Communications Office, said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism. As we have previously stated, all individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted."

Sheikh Saif said Qatar constantly reviews its anti-terror laws to "remain on the front foot in the fight against extremism and terror financing".

The four countries severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the major gas-exporting Gulf state of financing terrorism, meddling in the affairs of Arab countries and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran.

They want Qatar to cut back ties with Iran, close down a Turkish military base in Qatar and shut the Al Jazeera TV channel, which they view as critical of their governments.

Qatar and Turkey have been important backers of the Muslim Brotherhood movement that has challenged entrenched Arab rulers. Qatar, however, said last month that charges of support for Islamist militancy "hold no foundation in fact".

Doha signed an agreement earlier this month with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson aimed at combating terrorism financing, part of a US effort to end the worst rift between Western-allied Arab states for years.

In Tuesday's statement, the four countries accused Qatari, Kuwaiti and Yemeni nationals of helping raise funds for al Qaeda militants. Their blacklist now include three Yemeni charities, three Libyan media outlets, two armed groups and a religious foundation, some of which are already subject to US sanctions.

Also Read:

Arab nations urge Qatar to accept 6 principles to combat extremism, terrorism

--- ENDS ---
Mandatory labeling of jewelry in Russia to begin in 2024 The deadline for mandatory application of physical marking on jewelry made of precious metals and precious stones in Russia has been postponed from March 2023 to March 2024. That resolution was signed by the Government of the Russian Federation. It is...

Northam Platinum mulls acquisition of remaining RBPlat shares Northam Platinum is planning to acquire all remaining shares in Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) at R172.70 a share. It currently controls a 34.52% stake in RBPlat and, together with call options and a right of first refusal secured with...

10th Annual Dubai Precious Metals Conference to explore impact of trade, tech and regulations on the industry DMCC has announced that the 10th edition of the annual Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC) will be held on 22 November 2022 at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai. This years edition will bring together a plethora of speakers and participants from...

New record HPHT diamond sample The largest and purest diamond in the world weighing 16.04 carats was synthesized in Russia. The world's largest white diamond "Champion" is cut from a diamond grown by the HPHT method by the Russian company Advanced Synthetic Research...
Petra Diamonds said its output leaped 8 percent to 3.7 million carats for the fiscal year ended June 30 due to increased contribution from undiluted run of mine (ROM) ore and the inclusion of Kimberley Ekapa Mining JV for the full year.

However, production was below guidance of about 4.4 million carats mainly due to the delay bringing the new plant at Cullinan into full operation and the slower than expected ramp-up at Finsch in South Africa.

Record levels of production and revenue have been reached in FY 2017 and, whilst certain expansion programmes have taken longer than expected to ramp up, we have now attained the required production levels which will see production rise again substantially in FY 2018, said company chief executive Johan Dippenaar.

The improvement in ROM grades across our operations demonstrates the increasing contribution of undiluted ore from the new production areas.

He said fiscal 2018 would mark the first year where Petra wource source the majority of its underground tonnages from undiluted ore, leading to a further improvement in grades, product mix and consequent higher average value per carat, without the need for improved market conditions.

Dippenaar said the company expects production to reach between 4.8 million and 5 million carats in fiscal 2018.

Meanwhile, revenue across its operations in South Africa and Tanzania jumped 11 percent to $477 million for the year.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished


The country's gold imports more than doubled to $11.25 bn during the first quarter of this fiscal, driven by seasonal and festival demand. Gold imports stood at $4.90 bn in April-June 2016-17, according to the data of the Commerce Ministry.

Increase in the imports influences India's Current Account Deficit (CAD). In June this year, the imports of the precious metal had risen to $2.45 bn from $1.20 bn in the same month previous year. Surge in gold imports in June contributed to the widening of trade deficit to $12.96 bn as against $8.11 bn in June 2016. Silver imports in June, however, dipped by 28.6 per cent to $178 mn.

India is the world's second biggest gold consumer after China.

The imports mainly take care of demand by the jewellery industry.

At present, gold import attracts 10 per cent duty. The gems and jewellery industry along with the Commerce Ministry have time and again urged the Finance Ministry to consider a cut in the import duty.The surge in gold imports in June is on account of low base effect.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished


An illegal diamond miner was killed last week while three were seriously injured after they were shot by Zimbabwe Consolidation Diamond Company (ZCDC) guards in Marange, according to media reports.

ZCDC took over diamond mining in Marange after private companies were forced out by government last year.

The Herald newspaper reports that ZCDC security guards exchanged fire with 200 armed illegal diamond miners who broke into the companys premises around 3am on July 18.

Police confirmed the incident.

I cannot say much as our officers are still investigating the case, Manicaland provincial police spokesperson inspector Tavhiringwa Kakohwa.

ZCDC chief executive Moris Mpofu said that there was no security threat at the mine and the situation was under control.

He, however, said their security department was investigating the case together with police.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Lucapa Diamonds said an extensive 8,566 line km Time Domain Electromagnetic (TDEM) survey at Lulo Mine in Angola has identified 11 new electromagnetic (EM) conductive kimberlite exploration targets of up to 150 hectares with little or no previous magnetic signature.

Lucapa and its partners Endiama and Rosas & Petalas had been conducting a kimberlite exploration programme at Lulo, which seeks to locate the primary hard rock sources of the large and premium value Lulo alluvial diamonds.

The TDEM results had enabled the Lulo geological team to update the ongoing kimberlite drilling programme, said Lucapa.

Of the 11 new targets, five were located along drainage systems feeding into the Mining Block 8 area, which had been a regular source of large and premium-value, irregular shaped and jagged edged alluvial diamonds.

Lucapa said three of the new EM targets were located further south-east along the Cacuilo River near the L165-L170 kimberlite area.

This region, it said, was previously highlighted as an area of exploration interest due to favourable mineral chemistry results, including a micro-diamond and G10 garnets.

Meanwhile, Lucapa said kimberlite drilling at Lulo would continue for the remainder of 2017 with the aim of extracting core from the priority targets identified from the TDEM results.

This systematic drilling programme will also include a planned deep hole at the L259 target, when ground conditions permit, it said.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
Walgreens said it will bring nearly 500 jobs, including 191 new positions, to Chandler, Arizona as part of the relocation of its Tempe pharmacy operations support center. The current facility in Tempe will remain open as a pharmacy mail services support facility to allow for future growth.

In addition to the 191 new quality jobs that meet or exceed the Maricopa County 2017 median wage job, Walgreens will move 300 current positions from its Tempe facility to the new 60,000 square foot pharmacy operations support center in Chandler, located at 2225 S. Price Road.

The positions at the Chandler facility will include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and specialists including call center agents.

The new support center is expected to be operational by fall 2017.

The pharmacy mail services support facility in Tempe is operated by AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, a combined central specialty pharmacy and mail service company jointly owned by Walgreens and Prime Therapeutics.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Crude oil futures continued to rise Wednesday morning amid hopes that OPEC's determination to cut supplies will end the global supply glut.

WTI light sweet crude oil was up 43 cents at $48.32 a barrel, the highest in almost two months.

U.S. oil inventories dropped a stunning 10.23 million barrels at the end of last week, the American Petroleum Institute estimated on Tuesday. Analyts were expecting inventories to have dropped by only 3 million barrels.

The EIA is out with the government's inventories report.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced it would cut August exports to 6.6 million barrels a day. Nigeria will no longer by exempt from OPEC's supply quota deal with Russia.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
By PTI: ration

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Armed forces officials serving in forward bases will continue to get their free ration without any change while those posted in peace stations will be provided the benefit in cash, government sources said today.

The clarification came amid widespread anguish among Army officials serving in peace stations against a recommendation by the seventh pay commission to scrap free rations to them.

advertisement

A senior army official recently had even sent a legal notice to the defence secretary over the scrapping of free rations to those posted in peace stations.

The sources said the cash would be credited directly into the bank accounts of the officers and the decision will benefit nearly 43,000 officers.

The seventh pay commission in its recommendations on pay and allowances of the armed forces had said that the provision of free rations and the grant of ration money allowance to officers of defence forces posted in peace areas should be withdrawn.

However, the government while considering this recommendation took a different view, given the important role of the armed forces, the sources said.

"While those in forward stations, will continue to get their free ration without any change, officers posted in peace stations will be provided this benefit in cash.

There is no change in ration allowance for (JCOs) junior commissioned officers and PBORs (Personnel Below officer rank) numbering more than 9 lakh.

As far as an ongoing case in this regard in the tribunal is concerned, the government will give the rationale behind the decision, in the judicial process as and when a notice is received, said the sources. PTI MPB ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Congress MP Anand Sharma objected to President Ram Nath Kovind's speech in Parliament in which he compared Mahatma Gandhi to BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

By India Today Web Desk: The Rajya Sabha witnessed a massive showdown between Finance Minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley and Congress MP Anand Sharma after the latter objected to President Ram Nath Kovind's speech in Parliament on Tuesday in which he compared Mahatma Gandhi to BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

"Deen Dayal was never a freedom fighter nor had any role in the nation building. The BJP has every right to remember him, but he cannot be equated to Mahatma Gandhi," Sharma said in his speech. The Congress leader said the government is using Upadhyay's name in its advertisements, but it shouldn't be done.

advertisement

Sharma also questioned why Kovind did not name India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi in his speech. "It is disrespecting that he didn't take the name of Nehru. He was a freedom fighter of the country, also the first PM," he said.

Sharma was joined by fellow Congressman and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad in expressing their party's disappointment at Kovind's speech.

"He (Kovind) mentioned two of the then ministers (Patel and Ambedkar) in his speech, but failed to mention the name of Nehru. He is not the President of BJP, but now the President of the country," Azad said.

A furious Arun Jaitley slammed the Opposition for their politics over the President's speech and demanded that Sharma's speech be expunged from the records of the Rajya Sabha.

"How can a member raise questions about the speech of President in the name of point of order?" Jaitley asked.

WHAT KOVIND SAID ON TUESDAY

The inaugural speech of President Kovind, the first with RSS-BJP background to occupy the post, made references to icons held dear by the Sangh Parivar and was conspicuous by the absence of reference to Congress stalwarts barring a few appropriated by saffron forces.

Right in the beginning of his speech, Kovind recalls his predecessors and says: "I am conscious I am following in the footsteps of stalwarts such as Rajendra Prasad, S. Radhakrishnan and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and my immediate predecessor Pranab Mukherjee, whom we address out of affection as 'Pranab Da'."

In the next sentence, he refers to the Independence being the result of efforts by thousands of patriotic freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi.

"Later, Sardar Patel integrated our nation. Principal architect of our Constitution Bhimrao Ambedkar instilled in us the value of the republican ethic," he said, making no reference to first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru or any other Congress leader of that era.

Kovind ended his speech citing the vision of Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay. "We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyayji."

advertisement

"These are integral to our sense of humanism. This is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities. This will be the India of the 21st century," he said in an apparent reference to the concept of integral humanism propounded by Upadhyay at the Bharatiya Jana Sangh conference in 1965.

Also Read:

Full text: President Ram Nath Kovind's speech in Parliament

Ram Nath Kovind sworn in as India's 14th President; accept role with humility, he says

All you need to know about Ram Nath Kovind, 14th President of India

ALSO WATCH: From Paraunkh to Raisina: Ram Nath Kovind's journey to Rashtrapati Bhavan

WATCH VIDEO: Ram Nath Kovind takes oath as 14th President of India, says key to country's success is its diversity

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court today held as "unconstitutional" a 2004 legislation in Assam on parliamentary secretaries saying the then Congress-led government lacked the competence to enact it.

A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar allowed the plea challenging validity of the Assam Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004 on the ground that it violated the mandate under Article 164 (1A) which stipulates an upper limit of 15 per cent as the strength of the council of ministers.

advertisement

On January 1, 2004, the Constitution 91st Amendment Bill, 2003 was passed by both the Houses of the Parliament and after the Presidents assent, it became an act with modifications made to articles 75 and 164 of the Constitution.

Article 164(1A) of the Act stipulated that the size of the council of ministers in the state should not exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the assembly.

"We are of the opinion that the Legislature of Assam lacks the competence to make the impugned Act. In view of the above conclusion, we do not see it necessary to examine the various other issues identified by us earlier in this judgment.

"The writ petition is allowed. The impugned Act is declared unconstitutional," the bench, also comprising justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre, said.

The bench noted in its judgement that at the time of the coming into force of 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, the strength of the council of ministers in Assam was at 36 out of a total 126 members which amounted to 28.57 per cent of the strength of the Legislative Assembly.

It further noted that in view of the mandate contained in Article 164(1A), the strength of the council of ministers was to be brought down to 19 as per the 15 per cent ceiling.

The Assam Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, 2004 was promulgated on November 3, 2004 and on December 29, 2004, the Act was passed and published in Assams official gazette.

Thereafter, on May 30, 2005, eight parliamentary secretaries were appointed under the Act and they took oath of office, but were not assigned any ministry.

The petitioners had challenged the validity of the Act contending that the state was not competent to enact it and it was intended to "over-reach the mandate of the Constitution Amendment Act".

However, Assam government had contended before the apex court that it has the legislative competence to enact the Act and functions of parliamentary secretary were different from the functions of a minister and therefore neither the principle of collective responsibility nor the mandate of the Constitution was violated. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKS ZMN

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
The RJD today cleared that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign at any cost. After tendering his resignation, Nitish Kumar said, "I am quitting in the interest of Bihar."

By India Today Web Desk: The fate of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance (RJD, JD-U and Congress) hangs in balance after Nitish Kumar resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Bihar. Nitish resigned after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today. The chief minister had convened a meeting with party leaders before going to the governor.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Bihar Nityanand said that his party is ready to extend its support to Nitish-led government in the state. Senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi said, "Nityanand Raiji & I called Nitishji. The BJP has decided to support him, will support the government formed under him. We will inform governor also."

advertisement

After tendering his resignation, Nitish Kumar said, "I tried my best to save the alliance. I did not ask for anybody's resignation. Tejashwi met me. I only asked for an explanation on the charges against him. It became impossible to work in this environment. This is the call of my soul. I spoke to Rahul (Gandhi) ji. I wanted to save the alliance. There are questions about someone inside the government. I could not answer for him. There was no point in running this government. This is against my nature and the way I work."

"When I supported demonetisation, I insisted that the Central government must act on benami properties. So how could I continue with charges of benami properties against my own colleague? I have always been against financial impropriety," he said.

"I was criticised because I supported Ram Nath Kovind as Presidential candidate. Nitish Kumar after his resignation said, "I'm not blaming anyone, those who want to hold me responsible, are free to do so."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Nitish Kumar on Twitter after his resignation. "I congratulate Nitish Kumar for taking forward the fight against corruption."

?????????? ?? ??????? ????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ?? ????-???? ????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ???- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

??? ??, ????? ??? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?????????? ?? ??????? ?? ???? ?????,?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Soon after Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar Chief Minister, ally RJD's chief Lal Yadav said that he owed no explanations to anyone.

"I spoke to Nitish Kumar last night, and he said that he is not going to join hands with the BJP. He never asked for Tejashwi's resignation."

A defiant Lalu Yadav said, "Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused of section 302, one of India's CM is main accused in murder & arms case."

advertisement

TEJASHWI YADAV NOT TO RESIGN AT ANY COST: RJD

Earlier, Rashtriya Janata Dal met today at the residence of former chief minister Rabri Devi has decided that Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, against whom corruption charges have been slapped by the CBI, will not resign from this post. This was the second meeting of the legislative party which was held after the CBI raided RJD chief Lalu Prasad's residence on June 7.

Speaking exclusively to India Today, Rabri Devi, mother of Tejashwi said that there was no question of her son tendering his resignation over corruption charges which she said was false and baseless.

"There is no allegation on my son. All charges are baseless. Nitish Kumar has not sought his resignation. I have spoken to Bihar CM in this regard", said Rabri Devi, former Chief Minister and mother of Tejashwi.

Meanwhile, BJP is likely to discuss extending its support to Nitish Kumar in its Parliamentary board meeting which will take place in New Delhi.

Also read:

We made Nitish CM, won't walk out of grand alliance, says Lalu Prasad

Nitish Kumar calls meeting of JD-U MLAs, pressure mounts further on Tejashwi YadavWATCHNitish Kumar resigns as Bihar Chief Minister

advertisement

--- ENDS ---
Dear Editor

As of late, the Parliament unanimously agree to limit the incumbency of the Head of State for two five years term, only to backfire by the front door of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is now under public scrutiny while his very office is now centre-stage because people seem to take notice of double standards and the double speech by the politicians.

I do not pretend to know the ins and outs of Samoas Constitution but I am not a fan of one size fits all, reason being, we are rational beings, not robots.

In sense, the law that limits the terms of the Head of State, a role chosen by the Parliament, not by the people, should not always be applied to the Prime Minister because of his role as the head of the government.

However, I understand the frustration of the supporters on the other side of the aisle for not having their voices heard or not having significant roles within the government for almost twenty years.

In stating this, however, the question of limiting the terms of the Prime Minister is a valid question.

The sad thing about this push of limiting the terms of the Prime Minister is the way some people express their views. We can all disagree with almost everyone but let us see to disagree without being disagreeable at any level.

Samoa, the Prime Ministers citizenship alone deserves respect. If that is not enough, his office entitles him of respect, if not reverence, and that is what every decent human being does.

Now, in the subject of change.

Do we really want change? What kind of political change can we actually afford without digressing economically and socially? What specific political change is needed and how much change is worth risking?

Early this year, I saw the need to replace my alternator belt. While alternator belt replacement is an easy job, or so I thought, only to aggravate the whole system. The drasticality of my decision to change my alternator belt, without consulting my friend YouTube, affected my cars electrical system.

In car and in politics, change is needed but do we really know the end-result of our wish to change

Bear in mind that change gives us no assurance of progress, only an assurance of change, so careful consideration must be taken.

I do not just welcome any change just like I dont welcome just any one in the house. I only welcome real change that brings progress. Heck, I dont even mind a change that requires a step backwards so long I know I can move three steps forward.

One of my philosophies in life is this; I choose the animal I know rather than the one I dont.

If I am uncertain, I would rather deal with the person I already know than the person I dont knowlow risk, and yes low rewardthen spend some time to know the newbies.

Nevertheless, if there is a tad of certainty available, I will go with the new person with new ideas. I like change; I like innovation, I like creativity, and certainly, I like progress. If I know the person that will replace the PM will have a better chance of taking us further then I will go for it. But if I think its just a recycled politician with no proven records but only a known commodity by connection, by default, or worse, a TRAPO (traditional politician), then I would rather keep the incumbent. The desire to change should not be a biggie in a democratic country like Samoa, truth is, everything is possible because, we, the people, collectively hold the power of change.

The government is created by the people, for the people as famously coined by the great Abraham Lincoln.

On paper and in spirit, they, the political leaders work for us. Hence, political and government leaders can and will only have the political powers only if we, the people, say so through an election.

Political change has been the agenda of the government since. Fortunately, change over the year is mostly for good. I, for one, favours for switching where we drive; from the right to the left side of the road. And you can bet that I favour changing the dateline as well. It made sense then, it made sense now.

Once again, political change is upon us by the recent confirmation of the new Head of State. And certainly, no one knows when a major change, in this scale and importance, will take place if ever, including the Prime Minister terms in office.

In the subject of limiting the PMs term, pursuance of change in this magnitude must be led by people with cool minds.

Cool minds, in this pursuit, is not enough I reckon!

Can you and I, in real sense, let reason, not emotion, direct our decision for change? Mix this with human decency to act decently especially the subject of this cry is our Prime Ministerthe author of numerous developments in Samoa.

Every change, for good or ill, is an opportunity to move forward or backwards as a society depending on the kind of change.

Let us seek change peacefully, not by revolution, or by malice, nor by fear rather for the love of our people and the love of our beloved Samoa.

Samoa, we are the gods of our democratic society; we dont fear, we dont hunger for power and we dont tremble at the prospect of a decision to change our Constitution, so bring it on!

R.C.F.
Blood is thicker than water.

This was the message at the opening of the Sang-Yum Family Reunion 2017 recently held at the St. Therese Retreat in Leauvaa. An occasion held every three years bringing family members from across the globe together.

This year brought them all back to the beautiful shores of Samoa after four previous successful reunions in Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.

Like all family reunions, the hope is for every member to reminisce on old memories while creating new ones and cherishing the moments spent with one another.

It is also a time for the young generation to engage with elders and learn about their rich family history as this is an essential part of maintaining family treasures.

Kamuta Sang-Yum Ah Chin, migrated from China and served as an indentured labourer in Samoa under the German colonial rule in the 1900s.

He married Maria Ivoga Nielsen of Fusi, Safata, daughter of Matalena Scanlan and Kaisa Nielsen.

Many Chinese men fled their home country during the 1900s due to harsh conditions they were living in such as unemployment, overcrowding, famine & war and established a new life in Samoa.

Fast forward today and the Sang-Yum family has grown with family members residing in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa and Samoa.

This years reunion in Leauvaa started on the 8th - 10th then Savaii 11th - 13th of July. An enriching experience where the young ones were fully immersed in rich family history and the Samoan culture.

Samoa was the perfect location to have this years reunion as this is where the history of the Sang-Yum family was created. It has now been agreed upon that the next reunion will be held in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in the next three years.

The author Maria is the daughter of Saveatama Fata Osa Sang-Yum and Ana Lemisio Sang-Yum.
Relaxing by the pool at Tanoa Tusitala Hotel is where Samoa Observer met the Aussie trio of Kosara, Rolly Dimitrosky and their friend Harry Wilder.

They had become friends after witnessing other mutual friends wed a couple of days ago on the island and now were enjoying the rest of their holiday in tropical Samoa.

Eight days into their holiday all of them agree that their experiences so far have been so delightful and although theyre from different areas of Australia, they all have one thing in common  a connection to Samoa through the bride who is of Samoan descent .

Well Im a bit special because I married a quarter caste Samoan woman so we have always had a connection with the Samoans - our children and grandchildren will always be somewhat linked to this country, said Harry Wilder.

Harry reminisced of his last visit to Samoa in 2000 and the one thing that stands out as a point of change he said is that taxis used to be one tala anywhere around the island! But aside from that nothing much has changed including the people. The people are still wonderful.

Rolly Dimitrosky added that after circumnavigating both islands in the last week he agreed with Harry that he had the same positive experiences with the Samoan people saying to the Samoa Observer  We love the people, absolutely beautiful people  very easy going and polite. We havent come across a single negative experience here

Mrs. Dimitrosky chimes in from her sun chair by saying the weather has been glorious here. It has been kind to us and we will definitely be back and we will certainly take our positive experiences back with us and tell our friends about them, like everything else word of mouth is the best form of marketing and thats exactly how weve been guided here by following tips of other tourists and hotel staff recommendations

When asked about what they considered unique about Samoa, Rolly said The surprising thing that we find (and we spoke to a few locals last night) about how many churches there are here  even a little village would have so many different churches.

We were trying to understand how within that little village even though they are all Christians they would have so many different churches. We wanted to know how all these different denominations get along in such a small village, its really very interesting.

Well Mr Dimitrosky youll just have to find out on your next visit to the intriguing islands of Samoa.
The question now on everybody's mind is whether Bihar will see fresh elections or Nitish Kumar will stake claim to form a new government with the support of BJP. Here are the probabilities.

By India Today Web Desk: Over a rift with alliance partner and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar's resignation as Chief Minister has thrown Bihar in a state of fresh political crisis.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is the single-largest party in the 243-membered Bihar Assembly but has only 80 MLAs. Without the support of 71 MLAs of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) it looks impossible for Lalu to be a kingmaker.

advertisement

The BJP has 53 seats while the Congress has 27 in the fragmented Bihar Assembly.

Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has a key role to play in this situation. Since the 'Mahagathbandhan' government has fallen down, the Governor, in such situations, calls upon the largest party in the state to form the government with support of alliance partners. A floor test in the House will prove who can form the government.

Here are the four possibilities that can unfold in Bihar now:

Option 1:

The most likelihood scenario is that fresh elections will be announced soon in the state. Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi may chose to dissolve the Assembly since the existing composition of the House represents a fragmented mandate after the breakdown of the 'Mahagathbandhan' - JD-U, RJD and Congress.

Option 2:

Another possibility is that the BJP and JD(U) may form the government with support from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RSLP).

If a new alliance is formed, BJP's 53 MLAs, JD-U's 71, LJP and RSLP's 2 MLAs each will make it a total of 126, comfortably above the halfway mark in the 243-membered Assembly.

Any new alliance has to have the support of at least 123 MLAs to cross the halfway mark.

Nitish Kumar has not ruled out taking support from BJP for forming a new government. "Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next," Nitish Kumar quipped on the question of alliance with BJP.

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi has already said that if Nitish shows the courage to break the alliance with the RJD and Congress, the BJP can think of extending support to him for continuation of the government in the state.

PM Narendra Modi's tweet may also have a hidden message for the political future of Bihar. Praising Nitish's decision to break the alliance, he said Bihar needs to rise above political disagreements to fight corruption.

An increased bonhomie between the two - Modi and Nitish - has also caught attention in recent times.

advertisement

Option 3:

Lalu's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) may try to form the government with support of Congress, independents, HAM, CPI(ML). Mathematics show that the figure of 115 (80 + 27 + 4 + 3 + 1) will still be short of the halfway mark of 122.

However it is a likely proposition if some MLAs from the Opposition parties abstain from voting during the floor test in the House.

Lalu has stressed how his party has the largest majority in the state and should complete its five-year mandate. RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad said, "We are ready to do anything to prevent BJP to join the government in Bihar".

Option 4:

Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi may also choose to impose President's rule in the state if the political impasse is not resolved in the state.

Also read:

Nitish Kumar quits after Tejashwi does not, Bihar hangs in balance as BJP prepares to offer support

Lalu goes for the jugular, says murder-accused Nitish is BJP's puppet

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

Also watch:

Impossible to work under current circumstances: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after resignation

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
Phillip Cook of Auckland New Zealand is no stranger to Samoa.

On the island for business, he has been travelling back and forth for years.

The Dear Tourist caught up with Mr. Cook yesterday while he was walking on Beach Road heading back to Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel where he is staying.

Im only here for four days this time but Ill try and make the most of it, he said.

I have been travelling to Samoa so many times now and every time I come over the place is improving in so many ways.

The people are just beautiful and very friendly and we dont get that back home.

I always enjoy whenever I come here even if its just a short period of time.

Its different from home, the environment, the people and especially the weather.

At the moment its freezing and wet back home so its good to come to a place where its warm and the sun is shining.

Asked for his opinion on what needs to improve for Samoa to get more tourists, he said: Well, I guess Samoa needs to have more restaurants.

I know for a fact that all the tourists that come here have money and they will be looking for places to spend their money on so I recommend having more restaurants.

I also recommend Samoa to have craft beer like back home because that has become popular back home so I guess those two ideas will help with the economy and people will come and spend their money on.

My favourite beer is Vailima and I enjoy it every time I come here and I think its the only local beer I have tasted.

Its different from the beers back home because I usually drink Heineken and craft beer but they are expensive so coming here and enjoying the taste of Vailima is just good and saves money as well.

Mr. Cook went on to say that he will definitely recommend Samoa to his friends and families.

Im planning to bring my family for a holiday instead of business, he told the Dear Tourist.

I want to spend more days here and visit the other side of the island but I wanted to do it together with my family.

But there is nothing negative that I can say about Samoa because it is what it is and tourists enjoy it very much whenever they come here.
A resident of Fagalii is calling members of Parliament to spend a day with them so they understand how the cost of living is having a detrimental impact on their daily struggles.

Asueru Asueru says the cost of living has become so expensive its nearly unaffordable for folks like him.

This is making life miserable for families where no one works and even people on the minimum wage.

But it doesnt stop there.

The growing number of taxes is also a concern for Asueru.

I know this is not a new issue to many of our readers in the Samoa Observer but Im so thankful that I have this opportunity to raise my concerns, he said.

The fact is; most of our people dont understand the reality that were living now.

As a father this is really depressing news. We all know that many families are relying on the plantation for food, yet taro is rotten everywhere because we dont have enough overseas markets (to export to).

Yes, we hardly buy any two items for ten tala.

When we look at the high number of unemployment in Samoa, thats another story.

Asueru said jobs are hard to come by.

People are everywhere looking for jobs, and the government with their ministers just sit there not worrying about what people are going through.

He also raised concerns about the decision to tax pastors.

What is so funny, are the changes that the government has made after the general election this year.

First they taxed pastors, and the Prime Ministers view is because overseas countries are doing this as well. But thats not right; theyre desperately looking for money to pay millions of dollars we owe for our massive buildings.

Another big change is the Head of State.

Asueru believes what would win over the country is the government coming up with a very good solution to the many employees of Yazaki who will no longer be employed when that company closes next month.

Nowadays, we all need money to survive. That means we need jobs to survive  money talks.

This is why Asueru believes that government should refocus and reprioritize.

Put people first, he said. It should be about the people instead of wasting too much time on material developments such as infrastructure.

This is a call to the government especially the Prime Minister, please have mercy and hear us.

This is not just for the Prime Minister also but ministers, members of parliament and government ministriesset a time aside to visit us one day, and experience with us what many of us are going through.
There is so much to like and to learn from the story of Fiji Airways.

First of all they are still operating, having begun operations in 1952 trading as Air Pacific.

Secondl, despite a brand change they have managed to stay afloat in the often challenging world where many airlines have figuratively speaking, fallen out of the skies.

The brand change in 2012 to Fiji Airways was said to be a bid to raise its profile among holidaymakers as part of a wider turnaround strategy and whether or not that is the whole story, the fact remains that they have been around for 65 years.

Samoa, on the other hand took to the skies in 1959 because of the amazing vision of local businessmen under the proud banner of Polynesian Airlines but ceased to fly very far beyond our shores 35 years later in 1994.

The demise of our airline is well documented and a few words such as inexperienced leadership, poor purchasing, mismanagement, jobs for the boys, government interference and a bloated hierarchy should be enough to bring back the memories of those sad times.

Oh yes, and debt.

There was lots of that, much of which was written off.

But looking forward, we are now about to embark on what will hopefully be a new era. And the taxpayers will be hoping that this time around, our government will show it has learned from their past mistakes.

A good start would be to take heed of the words of the Chief Executive Officer of Fiji Airways, South African-born, Mr Andre Viljoen.

As a CEO with over 33 years of airline experience, much of it turning around the fortunes of ailing airlines, we should read his C.V. and take note of what he has to say.

In 2002, there was South African Airways which he restored to profitability. Then in just two short years from 2012 to 2014, Air Mauritius received the Viljoen treatment and was turned around in a programme known as the 7 Step Recovery Plan.

With Samoas track record, if any country needed a seven step recovery plan for their airline, that would be us.

This is why it is vital, we take note of some of the other important points Mr Viljoen willingly shared during his stay in Samoa.

He has a regional view evidenced in his words about the importance of economic growth and a more independent South Pacific. Note he said South Pacific, not just Fiji.This can be achieved with Pacific countries controlling and dominating the air space, he said.

He then spoke of the three key areas as being crucial to the success of Fiji Airways.

They could also provide a blueprint for Samoa Airways.

They include growing and improving the network of destinations and then expanding beyond there to feed back into the airlines country.

The second key area he said, was investing in the right aircraft.

And for those people who watched in continuing dismay as Polynesian Airlines bought and in some cases leased, unsuitable aircraft at greatly inflated prices, his words should resonate.

Finally he said the glue holding all of this together was staying focused, not getting distracted and having government support.

With all that advice, perhaps the one thing he missed out was, having a Mr Andre Viljoen at the helm is also a damn good idea.
Samoa Airways Chief Executive Officer, Seiuli Tupuivao Alvin Tuala has squashed rumours they are leasing an aircraft from Fiji Airways.

No we are leasing our own aircraft, were working with Fiji Airways for engine support, maintenance and other important aspects of the airline.

Our aircraft will be leased from a leasing company, said Seiuli Tupuivao.

He refused to reveal the companys identity noting the negotiations are not yet finalized.

It is a leasing company that leases aircraft, he further told the Samoa Observer.

On Monday, the partnership between Fiji Airways and Polynesian Airlines was formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by Seiuli Tupuivao and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fiji Airways, Andre Viljoen.

Seiuli Tupuivao pointed out the M.O.U. is not similar to the joint venture the government have with Virgin Australia, which will expire come 12 November 2017.

He explained the Samoa Government payment plan to the leasing company is nothing at all near what was paid to Virgin Australia. Seiuli Tupuivao said the lease negotiations are very good with the leasing company however he did not disclose how much.

All those thing are sensitive and its still in the works and we have not finalized everything yet, he said.

Furthermore the Samoa Airways C.E.O. made it clear the Samoa government has no monetary obligations to the Fiji Airways.

The signed M.O.U. is for assistance in getting Samoa Air on their feet with the airline operation.

We are not going to pay anything, we are actually partners working together and making money together.

Asked for a copy of the M.O.U. Seiuli Tupuivao said those are confidential documents between the airlines.

Meanwhile Minister of Public Enterprises Lautafi Selafi Purcell says while there are no guarantees there are always business and economic decisions the government needs to make.

And with every decision as I said before, there are always risks in everything.

But we have to manage risks as they come up, we have to preempt the risks and calculate those risks, but we dont know what the future holds.

We try. And one thing for certain is, that we cannot continue the way we are, we have to forge our own way as a nation; we need our own airline.

We have learned from the mistakes of the past and we are never going to repeat them again. Never ever! Thats what happened in the past and it will stay in the past. We will not be making those mistakes again, we are going to operate very efficiently, said the Minister.

Lautafi is adamant the government is heading in the right direction.
A man accused over a package intercepted by Customs Officers at the Fagalii Airport, which contained methamphetamine, has had his bail application denied yesterday in Supreme Court.

The decision over the application by defence counsel Arthur Lesa was delivered by Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu yesterday.

Scott Robert Barlow is one of the two men accused of importing ice however the other accused has already been granted bail.

The prosecutor was lawyer Ofisa Tagaloa of the Attorney Generals office.

During the bail hearing Mr. Tagaloa put to the court the three reasons why the prosecution was opposing bail.

The first one is the risk that the accused may fail to appear in the trial given that he has previous convictions, said Tagaloa.

The second risk is that the accused might tamper with evidence or interfere with the prosecution witnesses as our main witness is the taxi driver who is an employee of the accused.

The third risk is that the accused may reoffend given that he has previous convictions as well as he is still under supervision for three years and he has reoffended again.

However Defence Counsel Arthur Lesa made it clear in the court that the main witness for the prosecution is not an employee of the accused.

One of the main concerns of the prosecution is that one of their main witnesses is an employee of my client, Mr. Lesa told the court.

I have been informed by my client that the said witness is not his.

The witness is a taxi driver that the defendant and Mrs. Barlow occasionally contact to pick up their children from school from time to time but he is not an employee of the defendant.

However Chief Justice Patu, denied a bail application but set a hearing date for the matter.

Now having heard both counsels I have decided not to grant bail essentially because of this, he said.

There are three types of risks that the court has to consider when determining a bail application.

The first one is whether there is a real and significant risk that the accused will not appear at his trial, but will abscond.

Now with the evidence given by the prosecution I am not satisfied that risk has been made as a real significant risk.

The second risk is that the accused may tamper with the evidence or interfere with the prosecution witnesses.

Given what I have heard from counsel for the prosecution I am satisfied that there is a risk, a real and significant one that given your relationship with this key witness for the prosecution, there might be tampering or interference.

I am not saying that you are going to contact him and say to him please help me, no that is not what I am saying.

But what Im saying is that as long as there is a risk then the court has to be very careful about granting bail.

And then the third risk is whether there is a real and significant risk that the accused may reoffend while on bail and I am satisfied that there is a risk of that.

So Mr. Barlow Im afraid that I have to uphold the bail objections from the prosecution and not grant you bail.

But I direct that this case be set down for hearing on the week commencing the 4th of September.

The accused has already been in custody for some time and it will not be in the interests of justice that he remain in custody longer than necessary.
In the last 65 years, Fiji Airways has methodically climbed the right steps to building a successful and profitable airline.

And they are now ready and more than willing to help their Pacific neighbour reach the same heights.

Following the M.O.U. signing between Fiji Airways and Samoa Airways this week, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fiji Airways, Mr Andre Viljoen, spoke about the drive behind the alliance and the secret to running a lucrative airline.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Viljoen said the motive behind such an alliance is more than just economic gains for both countries; its also about creating a stronger and more independent South Pacific.

Very simply, the Pacific Rim where we live is ours. Not foreign airlines. It should be us controlling and dominating the airspace here and bringing the tourists in and Im very pleased that this is a step forward in the right direction.

Mr Viljoen has long held this view and looking back, he remembers the initial observations about the industry upon his appointment as the C.E.O. of Fiji Airways.

When I joined Fiji Airways the first thing I asked was why are all these foreign airlines here and why dont all these (Pacific) countries have their own airlines  it doesnt make any sense because having your own airline, is a strategic advantage

Mr Viljoen went on to stress how strategically valuable it is for a country to have its own airline and that if Samoa followed Fijis lead, Samoa Airways could very well be a significant income producer for the country.

Fiji Airways has successfully managed to direct foreign currency via tourists flowing directly into Fiji rather than leaving with foreign airlines.

So what is the secret to building and maintaining a successful national airline?

In the last 4 years, Fiji has gone through a transformation where three key areas were identified as being crucial to their success.

The first being the importance of growing and utilizing a network to increase prosperity, Mr Viljoen told Samoa Observer.

We took that network that we had accumulated and we improved it. Although we flew to 14 points, from there we were able to make connections beyond them so that nowadays we have many destinations that we serve. This was an important ingredient to create that worldwide market feeding into Fiji. 

Mr Viljoen, further elaborated on crucial aspects of investing in the right aircraft. He pointed to having a fleet of modern and fuel efficient aircraft, which is essential. He added that in addressing the right aircraft, you inadvertently address the right network.

The last ingredient, the glue that holds everything together is staying focused  not being distracted by nonsense and having the full support of your government which believes in the strategic value of supporting your institution, he said.

In response to those questioning the motives behinds Fijis extended hand in partnership, Mr Viljoen explained we must remember that in general ,the world has learned from past mistakes to form co-operative ventures and alliances.

"Its better to partner up than to fight; no one wins in a fight.

We can be competitors in the sense we can be co-operating commercially to the mutual benefit of both parties, Mr Viljoen told Samoa Observer.

Viljoen has confidence in his bilateral approach to business with Samoa and looks forward to a prosperous future with Samoa Airways.
The Attorney Generals office has yet to finalise the criminal charges against the 33 year old Romanian, alleged to have stolen money from an A.T.M. of a local bank.

Catalin Razvan Veverita is now represented by Leiataualesa Komisi Koria.

Initially he was represented by Leota Tima Leavai, however the changeover was approved yesterday by District Court Judge Alalatoa Rosella Viane Papalii.

The lawyer Vaisala Afoa is the prosecutor

Mr. Catalin this matter is further adjourned to next week Tuesday without you giving the court your plea, Judge Alalatoa told the accused.

The adjournment is for your lawyer to obtain the charges from the prosecution and for you to enter a plea.

Last month the Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili Egon Keil, told the media that that these types of incidents are growing in the Pacific.

I want to advise all the customers out there in the banking industry, to please check your bank accounts to make sure that theres no illegal or unauthorized A.T.M. money taken out, he said.

Check your A.T.M. cards and A.T.M. transactions to ensure that those A.T.M. transactions are yours.

If they are not yours, then please report the matter to your bank and also bring it to the attention of law enforcement so we can stop this transnational crime.

Its not just happening in Samoa, but all over the region.
Prospects for defeating HIV, once considered an invincible killer, look brighter with major advances against the AIDS-causing virus discussed at an international conference this week.

One of those pieces of good news comes from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. In collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, its researchers have generated broadly neutralizing antibodies that kill HIV using an unexpected source  cows.

The startling feat was announced in a study published in the journal Nature. It marks another milestone step toward the long-elusive aim of creating a vaccine against the virus, with the antibodies perhaps also leading to creation of new HIV drugs.

Advertisement

It takes humans years for the immune system to trigger formation and full production of broadly neutralizing antibodies. The cows solved it in a couple of months, said Dennis Burton, co-author of the new report and a longtime researcher of such antibodies at Scripps Research.

In other news at the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris, researchers highlighted the case of an HIV-infected child who has apparently been cured of the virus. They also announced success in using a long-lasting injection to suppress HIV levels.

Yet another study showed that certain HIV drugs were able to prevent transmission of the virus in hundreds of couples where at least one person was HIV-positive.

Despite the progress, HIV continues to spread and destroy lives, said Mark Feinberg, the vaccine initiatives president and CEO.

To me, the most significant thing is how the epidemic continues to ravage many countries and communities, and is still such a major threat to so many peoples lives, Feinberg said. While this disease may have receded from the headlines, it hasnt gone away. And unless things are really stepped up, its going to get worse rather than better. That is part of the discussion taking place in Paris.

In the United States, 1.2 million people are living with HIV. The worldwide number is 37 million, with many of the patients living in poor countries with inadequate health care. Mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, people cant get ready access to the drugs that have turned HIV from a virtual death sentence when it was discovered in the 1980s into todays manageable disease.

And a lack of awareness of how the virus is transmitted means more are infected all the time. About 2.1 million new infections occurred worldwide in 2015, according to the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Over the course of the HIV-AIDS epidemic, more than 70 million people have been infected with HIV, according to the World Health Organization. About 35 million of them have died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

During this time, numerous efforts have been launched to develop a vaccine against HIV. But none of those projects has demonstrated more than a modest benefit in reducing the rate of infection.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies have long been researched intensively for clues on making a better HIV vaccine. Its hard for the human immune system to produce these antibodies because HIV mutates prolifically, presenting a moving target. When these antibodies finally arrive, the virus is too well-established to eradicate from the patients body, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

But if the immune system could be trained with a vaccine to make these powerful antibodies before any infection occurs, the virus might be blocked from getting a foothold, Fauci said.

In the study from Scripps Research and the vaccine initiative, calves were injected with HIV fragments selected to provoke production of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Their quick response was remarkable, said Burton and study co-author Vaughn Smider, a Scripps Research colleague. Its thought that the bovine immune systems powers protect it from extensive exposure to microbes in its gut as it chews and rechews its cud.

This power may be conferred by a peculiarity of cows antibody structure.

Antibodies form a Y shape. At the ends of the two arms are loops of protein that latch onto the molecular target, called an antigen. These loops are called complementarity-determining regions, or CDRs. Their structure determines which antigens it can bind to.

An antibody region called CDR H3 is far longer in cows than in humans, which provides a greater reach to find the right molecular latching point, such as in a deep indentation that hides a vulnerable region. A broadly neutralizing human HIV antibody has an exceptionally long CDR H3 region, but is still much shorter than the one in cows.

Wide potential

Insights from how cows make these antibodies could help in several ways.

First, they could give guidance in devising an effective HIV vaccine that can quickly rev up the immune system to make these powerful antibodies, blocking HIV from getting a foot in the door, said Fauci, Burton and Smider.

In addition, the broadly neutralizing antibodies could be manufactured as HIV drugs to prevent or treat infection, they said. The antibodies would need to be altered to look more human so they dont provoke an immune reaction, but this has been done with other antibody drugs.

Finally, the study could provide a template for developing vaccines and therapies for other diseases, such as influenza.

While HIV and the flu virus are quite different, the general concept is the same. The most prominent targets on each mutate rapidly. Other parts, vital to the virus function, remain relatively constant but are concealed. The immune system must produce antibodies to the unchanging areas and not be distracted by areas of rapid change.

A lot of the tools developed for HIV are now being applied to flu, said Feinberg with the vaccine iniative. A vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, may be even closer at hand, he said.

RSV has been a pathogen which causes serious morbidity and mortality in young children and older people, Feinberg said. And its long been at the top of many lists for vaccine development, but for a variety of reasons has been challenging.

Im hopeful that these new approaches will actually crack the code on that and enable the development of an efficacious RSV vaccine  So it is a direct example where the work in HIV is having broad benefits to other areas as well, he added.

Immunity education

At Scripps Research, Burton and colleagues have been examining broadly neutralizing antibodies for decades, seeking evidence of a potential vaccine ingredient. The goal is to compress the years of educating the human immune system into months, through a series of vaccinations using fragments of HIV along with other substances to stimulate an immune response.

Complementary research carried out at the nearby La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has shown that certain other immune cells, called helper T cells, are made more abundantly by people whose bodies also generate broadly neutralizing antibodies. So a vaccine should ideally help stimulate production of both types of cells.

The broadly neutralizing antibodies were discovered in HIV-infected people over the years, at first one by one, then in increasing numbers as research expanded. In 2008, Scripps Research, working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, established the HIV Neutralizing Antibody Center on the Scripps La Jolla campus to collaborate on studying these antibodies.

Another part of this research is figuring out why the human immune system is so bad at fighting HIV, compared to other viruses, Fauci said. The cow antibody research is useful as a conceptual tool.

If we can figure out the way that (HIV) protein interacts with the cows immune system that allows the cow to make such great antibodies against HIV, and to do it so readily and quickly and in abundance, it may give us some insight into how we can develop an HIV vaccine in a human, Fauci said.

*

For further reading

Cow antibodies are super infection-fighters

Cow artist meets scientific journal

Study may enable better HIV vaccine

Broadly neutralizing antibodies and the search for an HIV-1 vaccine: the end of the beginning

Powerful anti-HIV antibody found

HIV vaccine approach nears human clinical trial

Scripps Research-led study may improve HIV, flu vaccines

HIV antibody curbs virus in clinical trial

Science Playlist  On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
Cost Plus World Market, a downtown store of imports, household goods and specialty retail items since 1985, is giving way to a $60 million, 168-unit apartment project by Foster City-based Legacy Partners.

The 20,000-square-foot store, previously a warehouse occupied by Great Western Fibre, has been cleared by the city to be demolished starting Aug. 1, followed by construction of the six-story project at Fourth Avenue and J Street. Completion is projected for the summer of 2019.

It may be the best location in all of San Diego, period, at least downtown, said Tim OBrien, Legacys senior managing director. I dont know of another opportunity in the Marina District, which is the nicest part of the downtown core.

Advertisement

Civic San Diego, the citys downtown review agency, agreed with OBriens assessment in 2015 when it approved the project.

While its character is largely established, Marina stands to improve significantly as new development proceeds, the staff planner, Aaron Hollister, said in a report to the CivicSD board. New views of the bay are to be captured, retail and other local-serving amenities are being enhanced and the waterfront itself will become more of a destination.

The project, according to updated figures, is to include 78 micro-units of about 415 square feet, 79 one-bedrooms of about 700 square feet and 11 two-bedrooms of 1,050 square feet. The top floor units will include loft spaces and ground floor apartments will open out on J Street and Third Avenue. The second floor will contain a fitness center, pool, spa and pet area. A barbecue and lounge area will occupy the roof. The ground floor also will include 1,230 square feet of retail space. The plans also call for two levels of parking with 174 spaces. The developers are choosing to pay an affordable housing fee of about $875,000 rather than include affordable units in the building.

Project architect Frank Landry of Carrier Johnson + Culture said the building will include various energy-efficiency features, such as electric charging stations, a cool roof reflecting heat back from the building and space for photovoltaic cell installations.

The combination of cantilevered and recessed balconies, as well as stepbacks, provides relief for the San Diego sunlight to form interesting play of shadow and light, the projects architectural narrative said in the submission to CivicSD.

A rendering shows a mural of a train at the Fourth and J corner and below a penthouse unit with a loft.

The transaction involved a ground lease that is rarely used in apartment development. But the owners, the Elisabeth Awes Separate Property Trust and the Williams Family Trust, wanted to retain the property because annual lease payments equate to a 5.25 percent annual return, said Kevin Nolen at Cushman & Wakefield, which handled the deal.

The land value was probably $12 million to $14 million, he said, but the typical return on such a property is typically no higher than 4.75 percent.

The only downside to a ground lease is the inability to convert the property to condo sales, Nolen said, but the owners might later agree to a land sale as part of such a conversion.

I think its a bonus for the city, Nolen said because the smaller units will carry lower rents starting at about $1,700 per month, which he characterized as relatively affordable downtown.

OBrien said Legacy has not built in San Diego for a decade or more, focusing instead on Los Angeles and Orange counties. In that period, the company has turned from a suburban to an urban focus.

Were developing a project that will attract millennials and we think that theres a demand for more units like this in downtown San Diego, he said.

Founded in 1968, the company has developed more than 65,000 apartments and currently manages 60 projects with more than 14,000 units, valued at $2 billion. The company typically builds its projects, leases them up and after several years sells them to investors.

Business

roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley
San Diego Gas & Electric officials want to build a new electrical substation servicing East Village and Barrio Logan, citing a 20 percent increase in energy demand in the downtown area since 2005.

But one potential location has drawn opposition from an advocacy group.

While SDG&E officials say no definitive site or solution has been identified at this time, Evelyn Heidelberg, an attorney representing Concerned Citizens for Environmental Quality, said the utility has its eye on a 5-acre tract on 1521 National Ave.

Advertisement

We have no dispute with SDG&E providing energy to a growing area of downtown, Heidelberg said but her group complains that putting a substation on National Avenue runs counter to the City of San Diegos Downtown Community Plan, aimed at re-integrating East Village and Barrio Logan as part of one of the most dynamic redevelopment areas of downtown.

Both the East Village and Barrio Logan are economically and racially diverse, Heidelberg said. So the location of a substation that would impact both of those communities seems to raise clear concerns about environmental justice.

Heidelberg says 1521 National Ave. is zoned for mixed-use, not for industrial use, and her group objects to the site being located near two schools  Perkins Elementary and the Monarch School, which serves homeless students from grades K-12 who live in San Diego County.

Its our understanding that (SDG&E is) likely to close on a deal to purchase the property within the next couple of weeks, Heidelberg said, but SDG&E officials flatly denied that.

We are not in talks to purchase this site at this time, SDG&E communications manager Allison Torres said in an email.

Torres said SDG&E fully supports the revitalization and growth of downtown neighborhoods such as East Village and Barrio Logan.

After careful analysis of the electric grid, we have determined that a new substation in the downtown area is needed to support and improve reliable energy service, Torres said.

In a letter sent to Heidelberg, an SDG&E attorney cited numbers from Civic San Diego that 1,450 downtown condominiums units, nearly 10,000 apartment units and more than 3,500 hotel rooms are either in construction, OKd for construction or pending construction approval.

The attorney also pointed at estimates from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) that 30,000 jobs will be added to the downtown area by 2050.

The substations servicing the downtown area will be reaching their capacity, and there is insufficient space to add new infrastructure at the existing substations, SDG&E senior counsel Elizabeth Cason said in the letter, resulting in the utility reviewing suitable locations which may or may not include the property at 1521 National Ave.

A substation takes high-voltage electricity from transmission lines and reduces the voltage to levels that can be carried over distribution power lines, eventually reaching homes and neighborhoods.

Torres emphasized that any proposed new substation in the area would not generate electricity.

Think of electricity traveling on a freeway, Torres said. A new substation in the downtown area will create an additional off ramp to serve the increased amount of growth we are expecting to see over the next few years.

Once SDG&E settles on a proposed site, it must apply for a permit with the California Public Utilities Commission for approval to construct a substation. The process includes public input and environmental reviews.

Earlier this month, Heidelberg sent a letter to the commission opposing any construction on the National Avenue site.

Were certainly not opposed to the location of a new substation if, as SDG&E has represented, theres a need for it, Heidelberg said in a telephone interview. But it needs to be suitably located, consistent with (the community) plan and other environmental considerations.

Torres said any proposed substation will create another means for energy to get from power lines to homes and businesses  all aspects to maintaining a reliable power grid.

SDG&E has 161 substations in use. The last time the utility built a new substation was in 2015 but Torres said modifications to transformers and circuit breakers occur every year.

Once a substation is approved, Torres said it can be constructed in 18 to 36 months, depending on local conditions and coordination.

Business

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

SDG&E says its ready for a long, hot summer

Beware of scammers claiming to be from SDG&E

SDG&E still having problems with some customers bills
The Division Bench of Bombay HC comprising Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sarang Kotwal has ordered Mumbai Police to record the statement of Pramila Nath Chopra in a forgery case, who happens to be the mother-in-law of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria within two weeks.

By Vidya : The Division Bench of Bombay HC comprising Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sarang Kotwal has ordered Mumbai Police to record the statement of Pramila Nath Chopra in a forgery case, who happens to be the mother-in-law of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria within two weeks.

Pramila is a witness in the case registered by Pydhonie Police Station at the insistence of a complainant named Rahul Visarias. Rahul's lawyer Nilesh Tribhuvann told the court that cops did not conduct any investigation in the case in the last seven months.

advertisement

"They do not even let the complainant put forth his views or inform him about the investigation in the case. The most crucial work of recording Chopra's statement was not being done just because she was the mother-in-law of one of the former seniormost cops. That is why we want the investigation to be handed over to the CID", said Tribhuvann.

The public prosecutor argued that a large part of the investigation in the case was over. However, the crucial part of the case was the verification of the signature which was taking time. Justice More asked the investigating agency how long it would take for the signature verification report to come. On being told that it would take at least a month, the Bench said that it was too long for an investigation and ordered that the recording of the statement be then done before that.

ALL ABOUT THE FIRM INVOLVED IN THE CASE

The case pertains to a company named Maurya Intermediaries Private Limited, which is a stock broking firm. Visaria is said to be the promoter and founding member of the company. Between July and October last year, Visaria had registered three complaints with the Mumbai Police, but it was only in January this year that the police registered an FIR. Visaria's allegations are that Chandrakant Ghelani, director of the company and another person Mihir Gehlani had spent over Rs 15 lakh belonging to the company. Apart from this, he also alleged that the Gehlanis forged his signatures to show that he had sold his shares worth crores in only Rs 50,00,000 to the Gehlanis and had pledged much more to Pramila Nath Chopra.

Due to Chopra's involvement in the case, Visaria believes that the accused in the case are well connected and highly influential because of which the Mumbai Police has not been investigating the matter. The petitioner had also told the court through his lawyer Tribhuvann that the perusal of bank accounts and the monetary transactions between the accused and Rakesh Maria's wife Preeti also showed that huge amounts of money had been transferred between them. This is why the petitioner appealed that the case be transferred to CID. The court, however, refused to do so.

advertisement

Also read | You are shielding someone: Bombay high court pulls up Byculla jail staff over Manjula Shettye death case

Also read | Bombay High Court issues notice to Wakf board over Ambani's residence

--- ENDS ---
More than 40 years of memories, good and bad, are being turned into rubble this week as the former Escondido Police headquarters building at 700 W. Grand Avenue is torn down to make way for a new apartment complex.

On Tuesday morning, three long-time police officers including Chief Craig Carter took one last tour of the dark hallways of the blighted building even as an excavator worked outside tearing down walls.

A lot of fun memories here, and a lot of other ones too, said Officer Lou Shaver, who has been with the department 17 years. People forget they had a shooting in front of the station and that a poor guy hung himself in this room here. And an officer had a heart attack here. You think about these things and its gone. Its history.

Advertisement

Carter, with the department for 27 years, said he remembers the meetings in the emergency operations center about how to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, all the major wildfires that threatened the city, and the Y2K computer fiasco that never came.

1 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. As the department grew the 2nd level was an built on addition to the original single level all concrete police department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator as the crew demolished the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 9 Demolition continues with the use of a large excavator operated by Adrian Botter as they demolish the 2nd level of the old Escondido Police Department. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

This is the room we took over for the Crowe investigation, he said. And later, this is where the gentleman committed suicide by lighting himself on fire. He came into the lobby where he wanted to make his last stand, if you will. .. That was in the late 80s.

Left vacant seven years ago when a much larger, $61 million police headquarters was constructed several miles to the north, the 43-year old building quickly fell into disrepair and became a haven for the homeless, drug users, rats and cockroaches.

A couple years ago the building was briefly rented out to a fitness business called the Warfighter Academy, with an elaborate paint ball obstacle course. That place closed late last year.

Since Monday, current and retired police officers have been stopping by to take pictures of the demolition work. Early Wednesday afternoon Mike Stein stopped by to take one last look.

Stein was with the department from 1964 to 1997, the last four as police chief.

I started at the old adobe building at 100 W. Valley Parkway and was a detective when we came over here, he said. I made sergeant, lieutenant, captain, assistant chief, and chief all in this building so I have fond remembrances of all the people I worked with here all those years and what it meant to all of us.

Stein said the department grew out of the building quickly and soon added a second floor. Even with the second story, he said, the 32,000 square foot structure was too crowded when he left, a full 13 years before it was shut down.

The city has been trying to sell the building and the 2.59-acre parcel it sits on for years. Located at the western entrance to downtown, where Valley Parkway and Grand Avenue intersect, it seemed a prime spot for multi-family housing because its located just across the street from the Escondido Transit Center.

Last year it was sold for $2.5 million to Integral Communities LLC of Encinitas. which plans to build 126 condominiums that will be rented out as apartments.

Demolition was to have begun in May but some last minute easement issues delayed things until this week. A spokesman for the company said they expect the condos to be built and ready for move in by early 2019.

The demolition work will also destroy a 50-foot-long Mosaic piece of art in front of the entrance, which is composed of small tiles made by elementary school kids in the 1970s.

A last minute effort was made by some to save the art, but in the end nothing could be done.

The condominium project will feature three buildings ranging in height from two to five-stories. The units  from 810 square feet to 2,090 square feet  will include one bedroom lofts, and two and three bedrooms town homes. Pedestrian crossings with traffic lights on both Grand and Valley Parkway.will be constructed to make access to the transit center safe for residents.

Plans call for an outdoor rooftop patio, a pool, spa, a fitness room, and a small ground-floor area for commercial development, possibly a coffee shop.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
The former finance director of Jazzercise was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for embezzling what authorities say was upwards of $1 million from the Carlsbad-based company and its owners, possibly to feed a gambling habit.

Sherri O. Potts  who spent nearly nine years as the corporate director of finance for the physical-fitness firm  was arrested in Carlsbad in October on 50 theft-related charges, including forgery, fraudulent appropriation and grand theft by an employee.

She pleaded guilty in March to one count of grand theft, three counts of forgery and one count of failing to report the stolen money on her tax returns. She also admitted that she stole more than $500,000.

Advertisement

Superior Court Judge Michael Washington sentenced the 60-year-old Fallbrook resident to seven years, eight months in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said Potts will be eligible for release after serving two years.

.. Most people would agree that someone who steals $1 million should be locked up for longer than two years, but this is the practical effect of the new laws that California voters have passed, said Winn, referring to recent changes that grant early release to nonviolent offenders.

A tearful Potts apologized in court to the companys owners, said her attorney Joel Bailey.

According to court documents, authorities suspected much of the stolen money was siphoned from petty cash funds, an average of $10,000 a month, for a few years. The company uncovered the embezzlement in 2014, after Potts was let go.

Winn said Potts routinely arranged for an average of $12,000 a month to be delivered into the companys petty cash fund. The companys actual petty cash needs were really around only $2,000 a month.

Carlsbad police investigators found that, from 2007 to 2013, Potts deposited more than $900,000 in cash and non-payroll checks into her accounts.

The investigation also revealed that 48 forged checks  more than $150,000  had been written from the personal accounts of Jazzercize owners Jack and Judi Sheppard Missett. The money went to pay for Potts personal expenses, including credit card payments.

The suspected thefts were uncovered after Potts was fired from Jazzercise, which boasts more than 7,800 instructors in 32 countries.

After she was let go, Potts contacted a former coworker to return $9,000 of petty cash in her possession. But it was more petty cash than she should have had, and that triggered the company to bring in forensic auditors.

According to court documents, police investigators learned that for many years Potts regularly gambled at Pala Casino, favoring slot machines in particular. From 2008 to 2013, police said, she gambled more than $900,000 a year in slots  and some years, it was more than $1 million. Casino records also show that she lost an average of $200,000 a year for most of those years.

Winn said that after the discovery of the theft, Potts cashed out her retirement account and turned over $250,000 to Jazzercise.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
Wildfires blazing across the south of France have forced the emergency evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists.

The French authorities said they had moved to safety around 12,000 people  most of whom are vacationing on its Mediterranean coast in camping sites and holiday homes  as flames swept through forests and firefighters struggled to stop them from spreading.

On Wednesday, French officials said that more than 4,000 firefighters were mobilized to tackle the fires as they raged around the Cote dAzur at the height of the tourist season.

Advertisement

Fires broke out along the popular seaside area on Monday, forcing a few scattered evacuations and causing a scare on the edges of the celebrated seaside resort of Saint Tropez. The latest and most serious conflagration started around the hillside town of Bormes-les-Mimosas on Tuesday and quickly spread across swathes of pine forest, aided by strong winds and dry ground conditions caused by an ongoing heatwave.

On Wednesday four tracker planes and several water-dumping aircraft were dispatched to the region as billowing black smoke filled the sky. By evening, the situation was still not under control.

Tourists and local residents used Twitter to share photos and videos from the region.

Emmanuelle Kremer of Bormes-les-Mimosas posted: Fire still going on since midnight...this seems endless.

Colonel Eric Martin of the local Var region firefighting unit told French television nearly 600 staff were trying to stop the blaze spreading. It has already destroyed more than 3,500 acres of forest in the region.

The evacuated were given temporary shelter in local town halls, gymnasiums and schools. Some tourists slept on sandy beaches.

The airport at Toulon, on the coast, was briefly closed Wednesday but has reopened.

Frances Mediterranean coastline is vulnerable to seasonal wildfires because of its inland forest fringe that becomes a tinderbox in the dry summers.

Local newspaper, the Var Martin, said several firefighters and police had been injured, but no residents or holidaymakers have been hurt.

Devastating summer fires also broke out on the island of Corsica, where nearly 5,000 acres of forest to the north of the holiday isle were consumed, and in Portugal and Albania. In Italy, fires have raged for several weeks.

Willsher is a special correspondent.

ALSO

For Charlie, its too late: Parents of British baby abandon legal fight to get treatment in U.S.

How an L.A. native learned to stop worrying and love  OK, tolerate  Indias monsoon

Another victim of Venezuelas unrest: Caracas once-renowned zoo

UPDATES:

11:35 a.m.: This article was updated with staff reporting and the latest figures on acreage burned and firefighters deployed.

This article was originally published at 6:25 a.m.
President Donald Trump has called for an end to open service of transgender troops, handing an apparent victory to conservatives fighting Obama-era changes to military social policy.

Trumps tweeted early Wednesday that Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

One estimate of the annual cost of medical care for transgender troops is roughly $8 million. The Pentagons annual budget tops $600 billion.

Advertisement

Welcome to The Intel, a blog examining the hot military news of the day

The announcement reverses a June 2016 policy change under then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that allowed open service of transgender troops already in uniform and called for accepting transgender recruits as of July 1.

The first steps toward todays move were signaled on June 30, when the Pentagon announced that it would delay by a year the planned July 1 start for new transgender troops. Officials said it was a response to recommendations from the military branches.

The question of what happens to transgender troops who are already out is unclear.

At the White House Wednesday afternoon, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Defense Department will take the lead on how it will work.

The implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and the Department of Defense have to work together to lawfully determine.

Sanders said that Trumps decision -- which is at odds with his campaign statements of support for transgender citizens  was fueled by a belief that transgender troops are expensive and erode unit cohesion.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Tobias Wolff said the presidents tweet doesnt immediately change policy.

A statement by a president is not the same thing as a formal rule or regulation. For now, the current policy of equal treatment for trans service members remains in effect, said Tobias Wolff, a constitutional law expert who advised the Barack Obama administration on LGBT policy.

If the current president insists on going backwards and Secretary of Defense (James) Mattis puts in place a policy of discrimination, then that policy could be challenged in the courts, Wolff told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

This morning, the Pentagon put out a statement saying that it is referring all questions to the White House.

A poll conducted Wednesday in the San Diego region showed that 64 percent of people surveyed disagree with the president, while 28 percent agree.

The SurveyUSA poll of 500 people also revealed that 69 percent think transgender troops now in uniform should continue to serve. Another 14 percent said they would be discharged and 12 percent said they should be transferred to different roles.

Congress can have a say, if the political will is there.

U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, filed an amendment on Wednesday to the national defense authorization bill that would block a change to transgender policy.

The proposed language says that no defense funds may be used to implement, enforce or observe in any way, any directive from the president of the United States that bars or restricts the ability of a person to serve in the armed forces because such person is transgender.

Some conservatives praised the presidents announcement.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, said this decision helps restore the American militarys warrior culture.

The presidents decision was the absolute right decision. National security should trump social experimentation, always, Hunter said in a statement to the Union-Tribune.

Early indications show that Republicans are not all behind Trump on this point.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trumps statements remain unclear and show that policy shouldnt be announced on Twitter.

On the issue, the senior Arizona Republican said, Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, issued a statement saying, I dont think we should be discriminating against anyone. Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.

The American Legion, the nations largest veterans organization, issued a carefully worded response.

Any requirement that disqualifies an able-bodied person from serving in our armed forces should be based solely upon its proven adverse effect on readiness, and nothing else, the groups national leader, Charles E. Schmidt, said in a statement sent to the Union-Tribune.

A spokesman for Veteran of Foreign Wars said his organization took no position on the Obama-era policy and wont take one on Trumps reversal.

Reaction from LGBT and civil-rights advocates was swift.

The American Civil Liberties Union called Trumps announcement an an outrageous and desperate action and signaled that there may a legal challenge ahead.

There is no basis for turning trans people away from our military and the ACLU is examining all of our options on how to fight this. For any trans service member affected by todays announcement: Please get in touch with us, because we want to hear from you, said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Unions LGBT & HIV Project, in a statement.

A retired Navy SEAL who is transgender issued a challenge to Trump on Wednesday.

Kristin Beck said through the publication Business Insider, Lets meet face to face and you tell me Im not worthy. Beck served 13 combat tours while an active-duty SEAL, including 12 years spent on Coronados SEAL Team 1.

The American Military Partner Association said, Transgender service members are risking their lives around the world, and President Trump literally just put a target on their backs, threatening to ruin their careers and kick them out of the military. This is unconscionable, and we are beyond outraged.

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, issued a statement noting that this announcement comes on the anniversary of President Harry Trumans order desegregating the armed forces.

President Trump is choosing to retreat in the march toward equality. This was a divisive political move that exposes the presidents lack of faith in the professionalism of our armed forces, Reed said. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, every American who is brave enough to serve their country should be free to do so.

The president of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America called the announcement ridiculous, dangerous and asinine.

Paul Rieckhoff, who served in Iraq as an Army officer added,Thousands of transgender troops already serve in our military. Whats he gonna do, drag them out of Afghanistan and kick them out?

U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, said transgender troops have already proved their courage.

The one thing this president needs to convey to our transgender service members and veterans is gratitude  gratitude that they stood up and raised their right hand and said, Send me, Davis said.

Between 6,000 and 14,000 transgender people are currently serving in uniform, out of a total of 1.3 million active-duty troops. Estimates are sparse on how many are waiting to join the armed forces, but it could be hundreds per year.

The Rand Corporation concluded in a study that between 30 and 140 existing transgender troops would seek hormone treatment, and 25 to 130 would seek surgery.

Two transgender cadets  one at the Air Force Academy and one at West Point  were reportedly allowed to graduate in May but have been denied an officers commission due to the Pentagons policy being unresolved.

Nineteen other nations allow open service of transgender troops, including the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia and Canada.

Military Videos  On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France  at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley
A gathering of mayors from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border launches Wednesday evening in San Diego, with one issue foremost on the agenda: the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The event, hosted jointly by the mayors of San Diego and Tijuana, aims to raise the profile of communities along the length of the 1,989-mile border at a critical juncture in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. The group plans a unified message in support of free trade, hoping it will be heard by the high-level federal negotiators leading the NAFTA talks.

This is a real opportunity to reinvigorate the cities roles, on an international stage, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a City Hall interview this week. It is my intent for our region to be a leader in these discussions.

Advertisement

This weeks gathering marks the sixth meeting of the U.S-Mexico Border Mayors Association since its founding in 2011 in El Paso. A total of 17 mayors had confirmed attendance as of Monday  five from Mexico, 12 from the United States  but organizers were counting on some late registrations.

Registered Mexican participants include the mayors of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua; Tecate, Baja California; and San Luis Rio Colorado,Sonora. Among the U.S. mayors are those from McAllen, Texas; San Luis, Arizona; and Sunland Park, New Mexico.

For the first time, the gathering will take place on both sides of the border, with Wednesdays inauguration and then a full day of meetings in San Diego, and the final day in Tijuana.

This binational summit of border mayors comes as President Donald Trumps calls for NAFTAs renegotiation and an expanded border wall have begun moving forward. Treaty negotiations are set to launch next month, and construction of border wall prototypes in San Diego are scheduled for completion in September.

Without a doubt, the focus of the Trump administration on immigration and trade issues raises the stakes for this meeting of border mayors, said Chris Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. There is more at stake for the border region now than there has been in decades.

During the meeting, mayors are planning to issue a resolution that will spell out the benefits of tri-national trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada. It would also call for a unified approach to border infrastructure and security. In addition, the mayors plan to stress in their joint statement that there is no single appropriate border barrier design, given the broad range of terrain.

Even though were in different states, we have similar views on the importance of our relationship with Mexico, Faulconer said. The fact is that the relationship is a strength, the fact is that if we are not telling our story of success in that relationship, nobodys going to tell it for us.

Both Faulconer and Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum have worked to highlight their cities interdependence as part of a cross-border mega-region. The two mayors were in Mexico City earlier this year as they joined of a delegation organized by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Both mayors plan to join the chambers lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. in September.

The more we are talking together, the stronger our relationship is, said Faulconer. And there is no substitute for being in the same room and sharing the same challenges and experience.

Along with trade, the mayors plan to highlight the importance of up-to-date border infrastructure to facilitate the efficient and secure passage of goods. Faulconer hopes to shine a spotlight on innovative local border crossing projects, such as the bridge between Otay Mesa and the Tijuanas airport, the Cross Border Xpress, and future crossing known as Otay East, a tolled vehicle border crossing being jointly planned by the United States and Mexico.

During Thursdays meeting in San Diego, the mayors are scheduled to hear from experts on U.S.-Mexico relations, NAFTA, border infrastructure, human health, and urban development at the border. Fridays meeting in Tijuana will feature panel discussions on economic development and tourism, as well as a mayors only craft beer tour.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
A witness who described herself as one of Robert Dursts closest, dearest friends testified Tuesday for the prosecution in his murder case, saying that she hoped he would be acquitted if innocent but that it would be wrong to judge a persons entire life by one act.

Emily Altman cried and sighed, occasionally looking over at her friend at the defense table in a Los Angeles courtroom. The New York real estate tycoon  who is charged with murdering another friend  listened with little expression.

Durst, 74, is accused of shooting Susan Berman in the back of her head inside her Benedict Canyon home in 2000  a killing, prosecutors say, meant to silence Berman for knowing too much about his past. Berman, one of Dursts best friends, had served as his spokeswoman to the media when his wife, Kathleen, disappeared in January 1982.

Advertisement

Infographic: Key characters you should know about in the Robert Durst case 

Altman testified that she was nervous. When a prosecutor asked whether she wanted Durst to be acquitted, she paused before responding.

I hope that if Bob did not do what youre accusing him of, she said, hes found not guilty.

If he did do what hes charged with, the prosecutor then asked, do you want him to be convicted?

Altman closed her eyes and bit her lip, as if to hold back tears. I guess if hes found guilty  then hes found guilty, she said, as her face reddened. She began to cry.

The prosecutor then asked whether Durst was one of her closest, dearest friends?

Yes, Altman responded, glancing over at Durst, who was looking at her blandly.

If Durst killed Berman, the prosecutor asked, would you question how well you ever knew him?

No, she responded. I dont think you can judge a persons entire life by one act.

She testified that it would be incredibly difficult for her to believe that her friend  the man who came to the hospital the day her son was born and later became his godfather  had committed murder. She testified that Durst once bought her and her husband a four-door Lexus and paid for the three of them to take a trip to Puerto Rico. Altman described Durst as having a biting wit, but struggling to show emotion.

She recalled getting a phone call from Durst in 1982, saying that Kathleen had gone missing. He seemed concerned and sounded really upset, Altman recalled. When a prosecutor asked if she remembered asking Durst during that phone call when hed last seen his wife, Altman said she did not remember. The prosecutor then asked a variation of that question, to which Altman again replied she couldnt recall.

Durst turned to his attorney and croaked: Its 36 years ago!

1 / 9 Robert Durst leaves federal court in an Orleans Parish sheriffs vehicle after his arraignment April 14 in New Orleans. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 2 / 9 Robert Durst is transported from district court to prison after his arraignment in New Orleans on Tuesday. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 3 / 9 Robert Durst is escorted into prison after his arraignment in New Orleans on Tuesday. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 4 / 9 Writer Susan Berman was killed in her home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Benedict Canyon. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 9 Robert Durst, far right, photographed through fencing, is escorted into Orleans Parish Criminal District Court through a tunnel entrance, in New Orleans. Durst waived extradition Monday and will be taken to Los Angeles to face a murder charge in the 2000 slaying of a writer and friend. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 6 / 9 Multi-millionaire murder defendant Robert Durst, right, is congratulated by his attorneys Dick DeGuerin, left, and Mike Ramsey after receiving a verdict of not guilty Nov. 11, 2003, in Galveston, Texas. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press) 7 / 9 Multi-millionaire murder defendant Robert Durst demonstrates how Morris Black handled a gun during testimony at his trial on Oct. 23, 2003, in Galveston, Texas. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press) 8 / 9 In this Aug. 18, 2003, file photo, Robert Durst, left, sits in a courtroom during a pretrial hearing at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Kevin Bartram / Associated Press) 9 / 9 Robert Durst, center, is escorted by Northampton County deputy sheriffs before a hearing advising Durst of his rights under extradition laws Dec. 3, 2001, in Easton, Pa. (Robert Fish / Associated Press)

Durst, whos unlikely to go to trial before 2018, has pleaded not guilty. A judge gave defense attorneys and prosecutors the go-ahead to collect early testimony from several witnesses, including Altman, 68.

Earlier in the week, attorneys argued whether it was proper for Altman to testify, considering that shes worked for many years as the sole employee in the law practice of husband Stewart, who has represented Durst over the years. Altman hired an attorney, who argued that her client should not have to testify about many conversations shed had with Durst.

A judge ruled that Altman had to take the stand but said attorneys could make objections if question veered into topics they think are protected by attorney-client privilege. Stewart Altman  Dursts high school classmate from Scarsdale, N.Y.  is expected to testify at another hearing in August.

Altman was the second witness to take the stand for the prosecution this week.

On Monday, Peter Schwartz testified that Durst kicked him in the eye at a party in January 1981. Durst, who was wearing cowboy boots, swung with such force, Schwartz said, that he ended up in the hospital with a fractured orbital bone.

After Altman  who will resume testifying after the lunch break Tuesday  finishes on the stand, prosecutors plan to question Paul Kaufman, who dated Berman and Richard Markey, one of the last people to see Berman alive.

At a similar hearing in February, Nicholas Chavin, who was a friend of both Dursts and Bermans, testified that the defendant had once confessed to killing Berman. And at another hearing in April, Bermans friend Miriam Barnes testified that Berman, who seemed anxious, once told her shed done a favor for Durst, but said she couldnt divulge any more details.

If anything ever happens to me, Barnes recalled Berman saying, Bobby did it.

The twists and turns of Robert Durst 

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber

ALSO

Im a professional liar, key witness against Robert Durst once told prosecutors in recorded call

Robert Durst confessed to killing Susan Berman, secret witness says in court

What Robert Durst said he meant when he told lawyers: I kill a lot

UPDATES:

5:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from Tuesdays testimony.

This article was originally published at 1:30 p.m.
The former treasurer of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society, a San Diego-based nonprofit that honors recipients of the elite aviation medal, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to embezzling $124,000 in charity funds for fund his personal lifestyle, including keeping a private stable of horses.

Anthony Ventura, a naval aviator in Vietnam who himself has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, began taking funds after filing for personal bankruptcy in 2014, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. He opened a secret credit union account and put $124,000 in society assets there to spend at his leisure. He spent more than $30,000 to operate his horses, Sovran Star Stables; $67,000 to buy stocks and bonds; and $25,600 in other personal living expenses.

To hide the theft, he created falsified quarterly financial reports for the nonprofits board of directors.

Advertisement

He also admitted to filing a false tax form on behalf of the charity, claiming the organization was worth $148,000 when its value had dwindled below $16,000.

Ventura, 71, of Lincoln, a town north of Sacramento, has a background in finance, including serving as a senior vice president at Wachovia Securities after his military career.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to pilots and aircrew across all five military branches for heroism or outstanding achievement in aviation, in times of war and peace.

The first medal was awarded to Charles A. Lindbergh for his solo transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. Other recipients include Amelia Earhart and the Wright brothers.

The society aims to preserve the medals history and helps educate youngsters about aviation lore. It also awards higher education scholarships to family members of medal recipients.

As part of his plea agreement, Ventura has agreed to forfeit the money and pay restitution.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
As the song goes, Schools out for summer, but for some students that time arrives a bit later than for others.

Students in Ramona High Schools Edgenuity program have most of the summer to re-take a course to try to improve their grade.

Thats designed specifically for credit recovery, said Mary Brumfield, secretary in Ramona Highs counseling office.

Advertisement

Students who didnt pass a class can take it online, choosing to either do it at home or at the school. The computer lab is open from 8 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until Aug. 10. How long it takes to complete the course depends on how dedicated the student is, noted Brumfield.

Parents and students have to sign a contract and all tests must be proctored, so students have to take the tests at the school. Among classes the program includes are different levels or grades of Spanish, Common Core English/Language Arts and Math, history, biology, chemistry, and physics.

Ramona High also offered Integrated Math I and Integrated Math II classes from June 12 through 30 for credit recovery. Brumfield explained that students who did not do well in the second semester of those classes could take the summer class and replace their grade.

Approximately 120 students were enrolled, about the same number as those enrolled in Ramona Elementary Schools Summer Academy that ended June 30. The academy brought students together from across the district in kindergarten through sixth grades for 12 days of intense reading, writing, and math on focused grade level standards where tests revealed a weakness.

As an example of the program, Ramona Elementary Principal Pixie Sulser said the Grade 3+ class reviewed concepts in math that test-wise shows the whole group could benefit.

The program is designed to help students be more successful in the grade they will be entering in August, when 2017-18 classes start. Instructors in the Summer Academy were teachers from Ramona, Mt. Woodson, and Hanson elementary schools.

The Summer Academy incorporates Next Generations Science Standards in which teachers may combine the reading standard with science information, according to Sulser. That can be done by reading an article on science.

Well read the non-fiction text based in science, said Sulser.

The teacher can use the science information to teach reading skills, such as having students pull out key details from the article, which can give it a more real world application, she explained.

Ramona Elementary also offers an extended school year for students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) who could do better without a long gap in instructional time, and for special education students.
San Diego will pay $150,000 to a man who spent two weeks in jail after being incorrectly charged in 2015 with two felony counts based on mistaken identity.

The City Council unanimously approved the settlement payment on Tuesday.

Fredrick Lee Washington is eight years younger than a man named Fred Washington who police say committed the crimes. The two men are not related.

Advertisement

The younger Washington sued the city for false arrest and civil right violations after U.S. Marshals arrested him in Chula Vista in June 2015 and he was then held in jail for two weeks.

He was arrested on a warrant and charged with child abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.

The warrant was based on a report filed by San Diego police in March 2015 on a domestic incident where the older Washington allegedly attacked his two daughters with a hammer.

The younger Washington proclaimed his innocence at the time he was arrested and told the U.S. Marshals they had the wrong Fred Washington.

But it wasnt until he was assigned a public defender that he was able to prove the wrong man was arrested.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A suspect in a deadly shooting in La Mesa was tracked to City Heights, where he was shot at by a La Mesa police detective and arrested Tuesday night, San Diego police said.

The 30-year-old suspect, identified as Derrick Henderson, was not struck by the gunfire.

Earlier in the day, two other arrests were made in the homicide case.

Advertisement

Henderson is suspected of fatally shooting 30-year-old Travis Lewis in the parking lot of a Burlington Coat Factory in La Mesa Friday, said San Diego police Lt. Todd Griffin of the homicide unit, which is investigating the officer-involved shooting.

Griffin said La Mesa police and a county law enforcement task force had Henderson under surveillance Tuesday night when he was spotted walking on Altadena Avenue south of El Cajon Boulevard about 7 p.m.

A La Mesa police detective got out of his car and told the man to get on the ground, Griffin said. Instead the man ran from the detective, who chased after him.

At some point, the two came face to face, and the officer shot at the suspect multiple times, Griffin said. The suspect wasnt hit.

The lieutenant would not say if the suspect had a weapon.

He ran for 30 seconds to a minute before other officers took him into custody two blocks west, on 50th Street, Griffin said. Henderson was later booked into jail on suspicion of murder.

San Diego police homicide investigators were called to investigate the shooting, which is protocol when an officer from another jurisdiction fires a gun in the city.

Hours earlier, about noon, two women also suspected in the killing were arrested. Kathryn Williams, 24, and Teishia Miller-Johnson, 32, were each booked on a murder charge. La Mesa police Lt. Chad Bell would not detail how the women were involved in the killing.

On Friday night, Lewis was shot and killed during a robbery in the parking lot of a strip mall on El Cajon Boulevard at Baltimore Drive in La Mesa, police said. On a GoFundMe page, Lewis was remembered as an amazing father, son and friend who treated all like family, with love and respect.

After the fatal shooting, witnesses saw a man and a companion, believed to be a woman, run away.

Investigators recovered a gun and a cellphone in the parking lot and looked at surveillance video from businesses in the strip mall, police said.

La Mesa police said there were no outstanding suspects in the killing.

Breaking News

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez

UPDATES:

12:05 a.m. on July 26: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 8:40 p.m. on July 25.
Nagaraj from Angeripalayam, Thiruppur was told by the dealer he bought his scooter from that it has not been registered because officials at the RTO wanted him to pay more than the registration fee.

By Pramod Madhav: A man, who was not able to pay bribe for registration of his new scooter, decided to leave his vehicle as payment at the RTO office in Thiruppur with a signboard explaining his decision.

Nagaraj from Angeripalayam, Thiruppur bought a two wheeler on June 30, and on the day it was delivered he found that the dealer had not registered the vehicle. When questioned, the dealer said it would be registered the next day.

advertisement

When Nagaraj, who owns a spectacle frame shop, went the next day, the dealer told him that officials at the RTO office were demanding a bribe for registration of the vehicle. An upset Nagaraj filed a complaint with RTO officer Sivagurunathan.

However, even after a month no action was taken on his complain, and he was unable to use the vehicle as it is illegal to ride it without a registration number.

Left with no other option, Nagaraj decided to surrender his vehicle to the RTO on July 25. But he also made sure that everybody knew the reason by hanging a board on his two wheeler with the words, "Unable to pay bribe to the RTO, the vehicle is being surrendered".

Appalled by Nagaraj's actions, RTO officials, who were left embarrassed after their corruption was exposed, refused to take the vehicle. Sivagurunathan summoned Nagaraj and told him that the vehicle cannot be surrendered for such a reason, and to take it back.

What Nagaraj did was seen as hilarious and bold, but it served its purpose in exposing the level of corruption in various government bodies, taking forward what actor Kamal Haasan had asked people to do, i.e., expose corruption.

WATCH | Tamil Nadu: Unable to pay bribe, man leaves new bike at RTO office in Tiruppur

--- ENDS ---
The president and founder of Reality Changers, a San Diego nonprofit group that works to get under-served students through college, is planning an independent organization-wide audit after several resignations from its board of directors.

In a letter to supporters this week, Christopher Yanov pledged to release audit results to show the charity is meeting its responsibilities to donors and the community.

We believe that it is important for a third party to confirm that Reality Changers has high-performing staff and volunteers, top-notch programs and strong financial accountability, Yanov wrote.

Advertisement

He also defended his decision to appoint six new members to the board as a way of diversifying charity leadership.

Their appointments reversed our boards long-standing unequal representation in terms of age, ethnicity, gender and the populations that Reality Changers serves, the letter added. My only regret is that I spent many years trying to convince the board about the importance of having balanced representation, but my prior efforts were unsuccessful.

The note to supporters was sent one day after The San Diego Union-Tribune printed a story saying that five board members left the charity following a dispute with Yanov over the direction of the organization.

Among other things, former board members said Yanov resisted their efforts to professionalize the charity and improperly stacked the board with friends and supporters who would cast votes as he directed.

As examples, they pointed to recent board votes to approve a budget that did not exist even in draft form, and to permit Yanov to take paid vacations in June and July without withdrawing the time from his official vacation balance.

Yanov said the budget process was routine and his vacation request was later rescinded because it was too vague.

His letter to supporters said the charity raised more than $3 million in the most recent fiscal year.

Thanks so much for continuing to make mighty all of those who might, he concluded.

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
A man was arrested this week after authorities intercepted a shipment of cobra snakes that were packed in potato chip cans and were being sent to his Monterey Park home from Hong Kong.

The three venomous snakes, which were 2-feet long, were discovered in the package in March along with three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles by Customs and Border Protection agents, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities seized the snakes but delivered the package to Rodrigo Franco, 34, who was taken into custody Tuesday after an investigation that included a search of his home. Several other protected species of reptiles were found there including a baby Morelet crocodile, five diamond back terrapins, alligator snapping turtles and more, authorities said.

Advertisement

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Franco admitted that he had previously received 20 king cobras from Hong Kong but that all of them had died in transit.

Authorities said that he had also tried to send six turtles wrapped in socks to someone in Hong Kong. That delivery was also intercepted.

Franco was arrested on federal smuggling charges and charged with illegally importing. The AP reported that if convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.

619-293-1710

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

twitter.com/Debbi_Baker
The tension between taxpayers and their government will always remain, but the scales  the delicate balance proclaimed in the Taxpayers Bill of Rights between the state and its citizens  have unquestionably been tipped in favor of the government.

In spite of bipartisan protest, the oxymoronic Taxpayer Fairness and Transparency Act of 2017 was approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

The lesson for all Californians should be that what the Legislature gives it can take away, rapidly, including property rights, individual rights and local representation, not to mention dollars previously bestowed, with little discussion.

Advertisement

Budget trailer bills, intended for small fixes to annual budgets, are more frequently being used to rewrite policy. In this case, two new bureaucracies were created and duly elected representatives were stripped of the statutory powers they use to assist individuals and businesses in navigating and complying with complex and often conflicting and arbitrary tax and fee policies.

The Board of Equalization, which was established in 1879 by constitutional amendment and launched the careers of numerous state treasurers, controllers and others, suddenly became plagued with scandal and the subject of multiple targeted audits, reviews and investigations. Admittedly there were long-term systemic issues with reporting, internal controls, policies and procedures.

But a quick review of the state auditors website shows that many of the problems we were actively working to correct are typical for a bureaucracy in California. Our tools for oversight were woefully inadequate, computer systems were antiquated, and policy manuals were either ignored or outdated, but the agencys annual report to the Legislature was glowing.

Related: Yee: Why I believe tax oversight agency reforms are due

A recent trailer bill transferred appellate authority from the five elected members of the Board of Equalization to unelected administrative law judges establishing the Office of Tax Appeals. It also restricted our access to any information, now held by the new Department of Taxes and Fee Administration that we previously used to assist you, our constituents, and legislators with inquiries and solutions to often complex tax rules and procedures.

Application of the law is based on facts. Facts are based on discovery. Under our purview, hearings were less formal and intimidating than judicial proceedings. Before or during the hearing, we often discovered new facts, or explored evidence that was previously ignored, and requested examination of data.

Hence, the process allowed us to inquire of both the taxpayer, who bore the burden of proof to dispute a tax agency with unlimited resources, and our agency staff pursuing the tax collection. Our process was open to the public and streamed live, and decisions were final.

Going forward, audits, tax and fee disputes, and refund claims will be under the purview of a new department charged with auditing, assessing and collecting revenue for over 30 taxes and fees, without elected accountability or incentive to respond.

While attorneys, CPAs and large corporations may actually like the new policies, most people establishing a business are simply trying to earn a living, not become tax experts. Many will not be able to afford the cost of a seasoned tax professional to handle their low-dollar disputes, or appeals under $100,000, which comprised much of our portfolio.

As for the day-to-day issues facing individuals and business owners, working with the agency we resolved over 500 disputes in two years. Problems ranged from releasing liens assisting apartment renters and escrow closings to helping firms qualify for tax exemptions and credits. We found unfair and unequal applications of tax law and referred cases to the agency for resolution.

We worked with agency staff to update and streamline tax regulations, and we collaborated with state agencies to provide education and outreach to help people avoid tax traps and misinformation. We provided technical assistance to small businesses to avoid penalties for noncompliance with complex rules.

Our office will continue to serve the 9.5 million southern Californians in the Board of Equalizations Fourth District by providing explanations and potential resolutions to vexing tax problems in plain language.

We will continue to partner with local and state agencies to provide workshops, seminars and tax credits, and establish communication protocols with the new departments, while perfecting our knowledge in property tax and assessments under our constitutional purview.

The Taxpayers Bill of Rights affirms: The Legislature finds and declares that taxes are the most sensitive point of contact between citizens and their government, and there is a delicate balance between revenue collection and freedom from government oppression. Thanks to budget trailer language, every business from a Fortune 500 company to a small family-owned restaurant will now be navigating a delicate new balance in California.

Harkey is chairwoman of the Board of Equalization.
It may sound ironic that the state board charged with ensuring property taxes are equitable throughout the state was doing just the opposite. Sadly, that discovery was just the tip of the iceberg.

The widespread problems at the California Board of Equalization (BOE), which collects more than $60 billion a year in revenue, have been well documented by several recent independent audits and reports.

Findings uncovered individual elected board members were overreaching into administrative activities and causing inconsistencies, breakdowns, and unscrupulous activities. For example, board members redirected civil service employees from their tax collection duties to their promotional public outreach activities.

Advertisement

A review by my team in the state controllers office found over $350 million in sales tax was temporarily misallocated to counties, among other pervasive accounting and administrative control deficiencies. One board member spent more than $118,000 on designer office furniture.

The culture was so dysfunctional that managers and civil service staff were afraid to properly do their jobs for fear of retaliation from board members. This unethical work environment created a concerning liability for the state.

Related: Harkey: Why I think agency overhaul weakens taxpayer protections

In response, I suggested we create a board governance policy to boost accountability. The board was unable or unwilling to self-govern and effectively fix its own internal problems. Additional BOE reviews are still pending including a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.

While the recent Board of Equalization revelations were alarming, the need to fundamentally change how California handles the administration of tax law and tax appeals has existed for decades.

A legislative analysis in 1949 critiqued BOEs inherent conflict of interest; elected board members have incompatible roles of providing taxpayer services and the quasi-judicial responsibility of deciding tax appeal cases.

In light of the recent investigation findings and recognizing the shortfalls of the current system, as an ex-officio board member, I proposed an overhaul of the agency and removal of board members from oversight of day-to-day operations. The legislature and the governor agreed with my urgent calls for reform, and the Taxpayer Transparency and Fairness Act of 2017 became law July 1 to address the endemic problems at BOE.

The new California Department of Tax and Fee Administration performs all the previous statutory tasks of BOE and serves as their administrative arm. This reorganization streamlines and depoliticizes the collection and distribution of sales, property, gasoline and other tax dollars, and ensures taxpayers receive equity and transparency in tax administration and appeals. The separation allows BOE staff to serve taxpayers fairly without undue influence by elected board members.

With the goal of rebuilding taxpayer trust, the much needed reforms uphold the 1988 Taxpayers Bill of Rights, ensuring that California continues to protect the rights, privacy and property of taxpayers during the assessment and collection of taxes and promote clarity and proper application of the law.

The improved system guarantees impartiality, consistency, and efficiency in tax appeals by establishing an independent Office of Tax Appeals on Jan. 1, 2018. Each appeal will be heard by a panel of three independent and objective administrative law judges with expertise in tax law  something that was not required of BOE members. The appeals panels will issue decisions in a transparent and timely fashion with open public access.

Under this restructuring, tax policies will be applied to Californians uniformly. Appeals panels will meet more frequently and in more locations across the state so taxpayers will have speedier resolution of their cases.

The significant changes preserve BOEs central mission while the board retains all core constitutional responsibilities and functions, thereby better aligning with the intent of the voters, current law, the California Constitution and other states.

California is the only state with an elected tax board deciding tax appeals. Without judicial responsibilities, board members can refocus on acting as taxpayer advocates, directly communicating with constituents and providing taxpayer education without conflict of interest.

From an outside perspective, moving employees and duties among state departments may not sound meaningful to our daily lives, but efficient tax collection is integral to the livelihood of citizens and the states economy. The state must pay for essential public services like education, transportation, health care and public safety.

Californians expect fairness and consistency when paying taxes and under the newly-reformed system, all taxpayers will be treated equally no matter their district, political connections or financial influence on board members.

Yee is California state controller, serving as the states chief financial officer, ex-officio member of the Board of Equalization and chair of the Franchise Tax Board.
Last week Claremont McKenna College suspended three students for a year and two for a semester and put two others on probation for their roles in preventing people from attending a speech earlier this year by Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Scores of protesters marched to the venue, removed some fencing and blocked entrances.

The case caught national attention in part because it came amid a wave of similar clashes at other colleges. In one, students at Middlebury College in Vermont prevented political scientist Charles Murray from speaking, and administrators punished 74 students for violating college policies  by slapping their wrists. None were suspended, although a few got letters in their permanent records. The horror!

Explaining its harsher penalties, Claremont McKenna wrote, Our students must master the skills of respectful dialogue across all barriers. Our community must protect the right to learn from others, especially those with whom we strongly disagree.

Advertisement

If that poses problems for a few students, it alerts far more that the best way to win an argument is not to silence speech but to defend everyones right to it.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
When President Obama prepared to give a message to school children, parents objected, afraid of what he might say.

He told them in essence to study hard, get a good education and be of service to their country.

Advertisement

Now we have a sitting president speaking to the Boy Scouts of America, using foul language, threatening Congress, telling the children not to believe the news media and still bringing up the elections.

Why did the Boy Scout officials who were responsible for these children not usher them out of harms way?

Pat Baldoni

El Cajon

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.
Regarding state regulators considering a proposal to shift charges away from heavy users (Low-tier utility rates to jump, Business, Feb. 7), the likely $120-a-year charge to all residential customers that the article mentions, however justified, has been successfully argued for by the state utilities as necessary to cover the costs of maintaining the electric distribution infrastructure. But in addition to that new charge, SDG&E now claims that its low-use customers have been paying far less than it costs to serve them.

If we are to believe this, show us the numbers. Certainly SDG&E is able to produce a four-column table that shows energy costs, generation and distribution costs and profit margin for each of the four tiers charged to its customers. Please also break out the costs for the faulty steam generators and the decommissioning of San Onofre, and the non-insurance-covered costs of the 2007 fires.

Thom Davies

Advertisement

S.D. City College professor, heating and solar

Escondido

The attempt by SDG&E to shift charges away from heavy users contradicts the previous call for conservation. In response to Californias urgency to conserve electricity, many residents invested in solar power. SDG&E soon proposed that solar-power users be charged increased rates to support the electrical grid, even though the solar users were using less power.

Now the recent SDG&E proposal rationalizes its recommendation by citing steadily increasing business expenses that have heaped costs disproportionately on heavy consumers of power.

It is intended to spread the cost rather than impose the additional rate charges where they belong: on those who consume the most power.

SDG&E explains that it will combine the low tier 1 and tier 2 rates as an average rate increase for all customers. If the proposal succeeds, are gas and water increases far behind?

Ron Ceyba

Oceanside

I got an email Feb. 7 from SDG&E asking me to reduce my use of electricity. Later that day I read in the U-T that SDG&E had applied for a rate structure revision that would raise rates for small users and decrease them for the larger consumers.

Talk about disincentives to conserve resources. Does our local utility know what its doing? Or is this a clever way to increase revenue? It beats me, and Im a retired electrical engineer from the nuclear power industry.

Martin Kantor

Point Loma

Regarding how our public utilities raise our rates whenever we conserve, its typical big business against the little guy, and we cant win  or can we?

SDG&E will never be happy just paying us wholesale for extra electricity that our solar panels produce. It also wants the power of control. There is a solution in this case: battery backup.

More expense, but it might be worth it to get off the grid completely. New construction people take note. This may be the future.

Duane Ericson

Oceanside

Dan McSwain, in his Feb. 9 column (Power alert exposes green-energy shortcomings), overlooked winds contribution to the Golden State.

When demand for electricity peaked during a recent cold snap, fuel prices went with it. Wind energy stepped in to help keep the lights on and electricity and natural gas prices in check. Because wind energys fuel is free, this important contribution to the grid acted as an immediate buffer against price spikes that would have otherwise been passed on to consumers.

All power plants require backup, as a recent shortage of natural gas made clear. A diverse resource portfolio, including wind, balances the various risks.

When we look at the facts, wind is working well in California.

Nancy Rader

Executive director

California Wind

Energy Association

Berkeley

Wynola and Julian residents are justifiably concerned about a proposal to built a solar farm on grazing land in Wynola.

Additionally, the energy generated by such a facility would need to get onto the electrical grid, and the project proponent would need to build a transmission line that leads from the nearest substation up to the proposed solar farm.

I am sure that will make the residents embrace this proposal even more so.

Michael Sampson

Kensington

So, if recent reports are correct, the Keystone Pipeline poses no threat to the environment. What, then, is the real reason its not being built?

Politics, maybe? Lets find out who the wealthy individuals or corporations are who own the trucks and railroads that currently transport this oil.

And lets find out which wealthy unions represent the truck drivers and railroad employees. Could it be that these folks are donating large sums of money to our elected politicians? Could that be the real reason?

Doug Swenson

Mission Beach

Regarding the recent op-ed by Dave Quast, Environmental activists not what they used to be, whats the rush if fracking is, as the writer claims, good for California?

Reasonable Californians want to ensure that our air, water and health are not put at risk, and that we dont undermine our progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Alarming news about major issues with fracking thats taking place across the U.S. makes us concerned that fracking cannot ensure this, even with strict regulations.

Given the potential risks, isnt it reasonable to want fracking to be fully vetted, as is being done in New York, before it goes forward? We have less than a year to wait to see what the science says.

Finally, forgive me if I remain a skeptic until the oil and gas industry advocates for closing the Halliburton Loophole that exempts fracking from the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

Nicola Peill-Moelter

Poway
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 26 (PTI) China today slammed Botswana for going ahead with the Dalai Lamas visit despite its strong objection, saying it will not accept foreign countries interference in Chinas internal affairs and harming Beijings interests.

"We noted relevant reports. China has stated clearly its position on the Dalai Lamas visits to relevant countries. I want to stress that Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) related issues concerning Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity will require relevant countries earnestly respect Chinas core interests and make correct decisions on relevant issues" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

advertisement

"China will not interfere in other countries affairs, we will not accept other countries to do things that harm the interest of China", he said.

On July 14, Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had firmly opposed to Botswana for permitting the Dalai Lama visit and asked it to "accommodate Chinas core interests".

The 82-year-old Tibetan leader is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswanas capital Gaborone on August 19.

Earlier, reports from Botswana said President Ian Khama will be meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Botswana confirmed yesterday that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country next month as "a foreign dignitary" and that the trip was a "purely private visit".

On Chinas objections, Botswana Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told lawmakers that "the principle of non- interference in the international affairs of other countries is at the core of Chinas foreign policy".

"We therefore expect... China to respect our sovereign decision on this matter," the Minister said and expressed hope that the visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader will not affect the strong bonds of friendship between the two countries.

China is a big investor in Africa and has built coal- fired power plants besides road networks and bridges in Botswana. PTI KJV MRJ

--- ENDS ---
President Donald Trump on Wednesday sparked a conversation about inclusion in the U.S. military by announcing on Twitter that transgender individuals will no longer be allowed to serve in any capacity.

In a series of tweets, Trump said the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender [individuals] in the military would entail.

The announcement drew strong reactions as well as questions about how and when such policy would be implemented and what it could mean for the thousands of transgender people who have served or are currently serving in the military.

Heres a breakdown of some questions that have surfaced since his announcement Wednesday morning:

How many transgender individuals are serving in the military?

A 2016 report by the well-respected Rand Corporation estimated there were 2,450 transgender service members on active duty, which is less than 1 percent of the 1.3 million active duty personnel, and some 1,510 in the reserves.

Have transgender individuals always been allowed to serve in the military?

The U.S. military had traditionally barred transgender individuals from serving in the military.

That all changed two years ago when Ash Carter, the secretary of defense under President Barack Obama , said such policy would change. Under the Obama administration, the Pentagon lifted the ban on transgender individuals last year with a new policy expected to have taken effect this summer.

This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force, Carter said last year. We cant allow barriers unrelated to a persons qualifications prevent us from recruiting and retaining those who can best accomplish the mission."

What are the medical costs for transgender individuals?

Gender transition-related treatment costs for transgender individuals in the military represents less than 1 percent of the total medical budget, according to a Rand Corporation report commissioned by the Pentagon.

Medical costs including treatment or surgery for transgender service members are estimated to range from $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, the report said. The total budget for the militarys medical expenses were $6.27 billion in 2014.

What impact do transgender individuals have on military operations?

The Rand report also found that integration efforts have little impact on force readiness, saying that such policies have little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness.

What happens to transgender people currently serving in the military?

It remained unclear Wednesday whether transgender individuals currently in the military would be immediately discharged or how and when that would happen.

For one, the White House left it unclear Wednesday as to how that would happen, saying only that it is working on it to be done so lawfully.

The Pentagon, however, said in a statement it would defer enlistments of transgender applicants until Jan. 1, 2018.

"The services will review their accession plans and provide input on the impact to the readiness and lethality of our forces, said Dana White, the Pentagons chief spokesperson.

How did President Trump reach his decision?

The president said he made his decision after consultation with my Generals and military experts, but he was not more specific. Sen. Tim Kaine , D-Virginia, who last year was Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons vice presidential nominee, even went so far as to question whether Trump did that.

It remains unclear who Trump consulted to make this decision or how he reached it, but there were some clues offered Wednesday morning.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had said in June that it would delay the Obama-era decision to accept transgender individuals into the military for another six months, The New York Times reported.

At the time, it was not believed to be a prelude to an outright ban, the Times reported, adding that the announcement caught Pentagon officials off guard.

Another clue comes from a Foreign Policy report on Tuesday saying that Vice President Mike Pence, an opponent of LGBT rights, had worked to defund gender reassignment procedures for transgender people in the military.

How has the Pentagon responded to Trumps announcement?

The Pentagon on Wednesday referred all questions to the White House, but in a statement said that it will provided revised guidance to the Department [of Defense] in the near future.

Wasnt Trump supportive of the LGBT community during his campaign?

Yes, during the campaign Trump expressed support for the LGBT community and even attracted supporters like Caitlyn Jenner and Peter Thiel .

In his speech at the Republican National Convention last year, Trump appealed to the gays and lesbians by citing the Orlando shooting as an attack on the LGBTQ community.

As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, he said in June 2016.

Anthony Scaramucci, his now-White House communication director, even touted Trump as the most pro-LGBTQ rights @POTUS in history in February and asked, Whys that story not written in mainstream media?

And just last month, his daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump tweeted support for her LGBTQ friends and LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy.

What are Trumps critics saying?

Trumps tweets set off a firestorm of criticism from those on the left and the right. Among the biggest critics of the presidents announcement was actor and gay activist George Takei who on Twitter put Trump on notice that he would regret it.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also offered support for transgender service members and said Trumps announcement was unclear.

The Presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter, McCain said.

What are Trumps supporters saying?

Those taking Trumps side included conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos who told The Washington Post that he was delighted with the presidents decision.

Anything else I should know to talk about this today?

By coincidence, Trumps announcement comes on the same date that President Harry Truman signed an order to desegregate the U.S. military in 1948.

Have some thoughts to share?

Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.
Light rain

Thunder and lightning greeted Ramona residents Monday morning, bringing a sprinkling of rain. The National Weather Service at Ramona Airport reported receiving .01 of an inch. Country Estates received .03 of an inch, Mt. Woodson .23 of an inch, and Warner Springs .32 of an inch, which helped firefighters contain the 255-acre Lost fire near Warner Springs.

ABC training class

Ramona Chamber of Commerce will host an Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) training class in its office, 960 Main St., on Thursday, July 27, at 6:30 p.m. The training is free, open to the public, and expected to last about 30 minutes. Early arrival is recommended and those planning to attend should call the chamber at 760-789-1311.

Those completing the class are eligible to volunteer at the upcoming Ramona Country Fair and other community events that serve alcohol.

National Night Out

The sheriffs Ramona station invites the community to visit its booth and participate in its activities at Ramona Library, 1275 Main St., during National Night Out Against Crime on Aug. 1.

From 4:30 to 6 p.m. members from the sheriffs station will be in the librarys parking lot and adults and children can meet deputies and check out their patrol cars, and see members of the volunteer mounted unit with their horses. Also on hand will be the sheriffs bomb/arson unit, sheriffs recruiting personnel, senior volunteer patrol, and crime prevention resources. Children will receive a junior deputy sticker and other items.

For more information, call 760-738-2425.

Labor Day campout

Ramona Trails Association is accepting reservations for its annual campout at Los Vaqueros Horse Camp in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park over Labor Day Weekend from Aug. 31 through Sept. 4.

The park offers more than 100 miles of riding, hiking, and biking trails as well as corrals, restrooms with hot showers, barbecue grills, picnic tables, and a group fire ring. Evenings will feature potluck dinners, campfire stories, and programs.

For details, contact Robin Campbell at 858-395-7999 or Deb Schott at 760-443-0809.

Unclaimed refunds

The county owes 1,360 residents and businesses $554,567 in tax refunds, which some of the recipients must claim by Sept. 8 or lose. The refunds range from $10 to $60,140 and fall into one of three categories: property tax refunds, money from various county departments, and Superior Court refunds.

The list of those who are owed a refund can be found at sdttc.com. Claims may be emailed to refunds@sdcounty.ca.gov, or claimants may call 877-829-4732 for assistance. State law allows unclaimed refunds to go into the county general fund.

Grief Share

The next 13-week session of Grief Share will begin Monday, Aug. 7, at 6:15 p.m. in Mountain View Community Church at 1191 Meadowlark Way off Ash Street and state Route 78. To register and for more information call 760-789-4798 or 760-789-1634.

Man About Town

Ramona Chamber of Commerce welcomes candidates for its Man About Town Contest. Votes are one penny each. The top vote-getter will hold the coveted title of 2017 Man About Town. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go to the charity of the contestants choice and 50 percent will go to the Chamber Scholarship and Education Grants programs.

To register as a candidate, call the chamber, 760-789-1311. The winner will be announced at the Ramona Country Fair on Aug. 26.

Gaona on deans list

Andrea Gaona of Ramona is on the Saint Marys College Deans List for the spring semester. To earn academic honors at Saint Marys, a student must achieve a GPA of at least 3.6 on a 4.0 scale and have at least 12 graded credit hours, no incompletes, and no grades lower than a C. Saint Marys College in Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, residential, womens liberal arts college offering five bachelors degrees, more than 30 major areas of study, and such as business, nursing, art, chemistry, and social work. It also offers two co-educational graduate degrees: a Master of Science and a Doctorate.
In case anyone hasnt heard about it, the County of San Diego is planning to take an action that will affect every animal owner in this community. Which means, it will affect all of us.

The county is considering closing its Department of Animal Services, laying off hundreds of employees, and outsourcing services to a third party provider (the San Diego Humane Society). The county has already terminated six animal services contracts with incorporated cities in the county  including the City of San Diego  effective next June.

However, despite what has been reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the county has not yet reached a decision about who will provide animal services in the unincorporated area of San Diego County. Which is us.

On Wednesday, July 19, the county held a meeting in Ramona, one of three community meetings planned for the entire unincorporated area, to answer questions and gather input about the proposed transition.

Didnt hear about it? Thats because the county gave two days notice for this meeting. (The Sentinel posted the information prominently on its webpage. Thank you!).

There was a decent turnout of angry people at Wednesdays meeting  but if the county had given even just a weeks notice, there would have been many more attendees. We were told it was due to a screw up and it would be impossible to reschedule the meeting. To me that just means somebody goofed and now you, Ramona, are screwed.

There are two more meetings  Thursday, July 27, from 6-7:30 p.m. in Fallbrook (good luck driving to Fallbrook at that hour!); and Thursday, Aug. 17, 6-7:30 p.m. in the Bonita library.

And, theres always our supervisor, Dianne Jacob  619-531-5522. Her staff has told me that she is not allowed to be involved in this outsourcing process  but she has a history of being responsive to Ramona and her staff is very nice so I would not hesitate to call her.

Eliminating the Department of Animal Services may save taxpayer dollars, but do you really think any of those dollars are going to make it back into your pocket? If this department is eliminated, it is gone forever  in favor of a private nonprofit known for low pay and high turnover; which is under absolutely no obligation to comply with the state Public Records Act, open-meetings laws or even to speak to any reporter (or citizen). So, goodbye accountability.

The result: A serious decline in the quality of animal services and emergency services available to our community  and an end to the countys relationship with the myriad rescue groups in this community. Brave new world indeed.

Katie Reid is a Ramona resident.
CRPF which is facing a dearth of bullet proof vehicles has taken inspiration from the Punjab Police and have created makeshift bullet proof vehicles that have come to the rescue of the security personnel in Kashmir.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: For CRPF personnel involved in counter terror operation in the valley, it is survival of the fittest. A Herbert Spencer phrase for the Darwanian evolution seems to be true for CRPF troopers.

With 47 battalions of CRPF involved in the counter terror operations in Kashmir valley alone, the CRPF faces a deficit of about 400 bullet proof vehicles. Facing a deficit in bullet proof vehicles, CRPF has discovered its own 'jugaad'.

advertisement

The mechanism consists putting on a panel, a metal sheet on one side and wood on another side. A concrete mix is poured into the hollow fixing the panel.

The troopers than put different shapes and sizes of the panel to the inside and outside of the vehicles. A mechanism CPRF DG RR Bhatnagar says " is working pretty well."

"We have told our troopers to procure the material locally in order to safeguard its personnel who are otherwise exposed to risk in a conflict region," he said.

The idea, however, is not original to CRPF. The idea was inspired from by Punjab Police who used a similar tactics during the 1980's, using a bullet proof tractor to plough down the fields where the Sikh terrorist hid.

INSPIRED BY PUNJAB POLICE

While the tractor is exposed from all sides, the Punjab Police held up similar panels that acted like shields, giving protection from incessant firing. Sources said that the idea was a brainchild of KPS Gill.

This novel idea saved lives of 8 CRPF personnel during the Panthachowk terror attack when the bus of the forces came under an ambush attack. "Unfortunately, we lost one sub inspector, but lives of 8 others were saved.

The jugaad has its own limitation, with problem areas being the doors and the corners of vehicles, but largely it is said to provide protection," said a senior officer posted in the Valley.

In the Valley, at least 60 per cent of CRPF vehicles from a fleet of around 600 vehicles are bullet proofed. Even now, a vast number of vehicles do not provide protection to the personnel exposing them to high risk. The scarcity is attributed to the number of years it takes for procurement.

Bullet proof tractor created by Punjab in the 80s.

The Minister of State (MOS) Hansraj Gangaram Ahir informed Lok Sabha recently that about 292 light bullet proof vehicles and 309 medium bullet, two vehicles are available for the units engaged in security and counter terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

advertisement

MHA has approved sanction for the purchase of 210 light bullet proof vehicles and 45 medium bullet proof vehicles. However, sources said that the actual number could be much higher.

The shortage of bullet proof vehicles was highlighted when SHO Feroz Ahmed and five other JK Police personnel were killed in an ambush by LET at Thujwara in Achabal area of south Kashmir last month.

One of the bulletproof vehicles owned by CRPF.

While the issue in contention was pertaining to JK Police, the CRPF too has suffered many causalities owing to ambush attack on its vehicles. " Providing safety mechanism to its foot soldiers is the least the government can do," said a senior officer posted in the Kashmir Valley.

The jugaad mechanism was fast-tracked after eight CRPF personnel were killed and 22 others were injured when two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist ambushed a bus carrying CRPF troopers at Pampore on June 26, 2016.

The mechanism has saved many lives, said a senior officer of force to India Today.

Also Read:

Jammu and Kashmir: CRPF kill 4 militants after they attacked camp in Bandipora

Anantnag: Soldiers offer sweets on Eid, CRPF jawan loses fingers in clashes with stone-pelters

advertisement

WATCH | Difference of treatment between CRPF and Army: CRPF jawan Jeet Singh

--- ENDS ---
CRPF plans to tackle terrorism in Valley is by raising two Kashmiriyat Battalions comprising youth from the hub of terrorists-ridden south Kashmir.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: CRPF's new proposal to tackle terrorism in Valley is by raising 2 Kashmiriyat Battalions comprising youth from the hub of terrorists-ridden south Kashmir. The land of Zakir Musa and erstwhile poster boy of Hizbul Mujahideen Burhan Wani will soon become the recruitment ground for the paramilitary force. Both Musa and Burhan are from Tral region. The other districts include Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian from where the recruitment is proposed.

advertisement

A senior officer from the force said, "Of course, we plan to recruit from both North, Central and South Kashmir, but we will concentrate on districts which are worst affected by terrorism."

The proposal is similar to that of Bastariya Battalion in which the Centre approved raising of a 'special battalion' of Central Reserve Police Forces that comprises only tribals. In its bid to bring down Maoists CRPF will recruit jawans and officers from four worse Maoist-affected areas, including Narayanpur, Bijapur, Sukhma and Dantewada.

The proposal, however, has been pending with Union Home Ministry for more than 6 months now. While the CRPF is ready with its action plan, they await the MHA's nod. The nodel ministry gives approval for 3-4 battalions to be raised every year. So, the proposal is quite in line with the aspirations of the internal security division.

There are 240 battalions in the country, with 47 of CRPF battalions deployed in Valley.

"There have been two battalions where there are Kashmiri youth who have been employed, but are named generic like any other battalion. This battalion will give impetus and opportunity to youth of the Valley. We have been getting several calls from youth across the Valley regarding recruitment, many of them are from South Kashmir." said an official.

ALSO READ:

CRPF draws inspiration from Punjab Police, builds its own bullet proof vehicles for Kashmir

After attack on Amarnath Yatra, drones add to security apparatus in Jammu and Kashmir

Restrictions, sporadic protests mark Burhan Wani death anniversary in Kashmir

--- ENDS ---
Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join

For more about Gay Haubners life in the North Country, read the other chapters in her serialized memoir. The Post will publish a new segment each week.

The August before fourth grade, when we returned from a back-to-school Minneapolis shopping trip, there was the letter from Congdon with my class assignments. You have Miss Ritchie again for fourth grade, reported my mother.

A miracle! In the age-old tradition of Congdon Elementary, teachers picked a grade and stuck with it. They taught the same grade in the same classroom until they retired or dropped in the harness. But I had a second year with Miss Ritchie, another year of being singled out for my excellent work and good behavior, of having my book reports and stories read aloud, my clumsy shoebox dioramas given pride of place.

Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive. Subscribe Today

Perhaps Miss Ritchie, with her seniority, had been allowed to cherry pick among the students. All the smartest kids were in her fourth grade class, and none of the unruly boys.

But the post-Sputnik changes in education finally began to creep into our 1930s style schooling, into those sickly green painted plaster and chalk boarded school walls.

Early in the school year, we were escorted one by one into the library, where a serious young woman administered IQ tests. I was thoroughly enjoying myself until we got to the section on spatial thinking. These questions had no words or numbers; they were a series of connected squares. The multiple choice answers were four shapes: pick the one the squares would make when put together. I got the first one, which was a plain six-sided cube, after that it was pure guesswork. It felt like there were hundreds of these stupid problems, pages and pages of squares becoming more and more complicated with ever more terrifying, hundred-sided completed shapes to choose from. I was sure that this stone-faced lady thought I was an idiot.

Our fourth grade classroom boasted the latest in educational technology: a brand new SRA Reading Lab and a box of color-coded cards (actually four-page booklets). As the smarty-pants class, we all started a few shades up from the bottom, assigned a color based on our Iowa Reading Test scores from the year before. During reading or whenever I had free time, I selected a card from my assigned color. I read the little story, or more often, fairly boring non-fiction article, and then answered questions about it. This measured my reading comprehension at each level. I tore through those booklets, heading for the twinkling silver category at the top. To my disappointment when I got there, the silver cards contained the dullest readings of all. I recall slogging through a biography of Roger Bannister, the man who broke the four-minute mile, and only slightly more interesting, an article about how the movies used subliminal advertising to get people to eat more popcorn.

Math was still done out of battered textbooks, long division and decimals solved on the blackboard and on smudged blue mimeographed worksheets. Social studies and science were also taught directly from the textbooks. Miss Ritchie was still not overly fond of either subject.

Our student teacher that year specialized in music appreciation. She took us through each section of the orchestra  strings, reeds, brass, and percussion  instrument by instrument. She had it easy; most of her lessons were playing records that featured different musical instruments and trying to get us to identify them. This request was met by shrugs from the male half of the classroom, who were disappointed that the lights remained on, unlike last years art studies, when they could misbehave in the dark until the looming shadow of Miss Ritchie rose from her desk to end their hijinks. For her final class, the student teacher finally got around to playing real music; she played Peter and the Wolf and Sorcerers Apprentice for us on Congdons crappy, tinny record player, urging us to name the instruments in our head while we listened.

In my ongoing role as biggest geek in Congdon, I was enthralled and decided I loved classical music. The soundtrack at home was non-stop Broadway show tunes; my father was a frustrated Robert Goulet. My sister and I marched around the house singing, The Rain in Spain and Seventy-Six Trombones. I had watched Music Man and Bye-Bye Birdie on TV, but the plots of the other Original Cast Albums I had to figure out from the one-paragraph synopsis on the back of the record sleeve. I was stunned when I finally saw My Fair Lady that I Could Have Danced All Night wasnt about Elizas night at the ball. One of the few Original Cast albums my father didnt have was Gypsy, which might have been too racy for his Catholic upbringing. When NBC in a daring move ran Gypsy on Saturday Night at the Movies, my sister and I, faithful weekly viewers unless it was a Western, were spellbound. For weeks after seeing Gypsy, Lani, who weighed about 40 pounds and vanished if she turned sideways, practiced stripping down to her panties in front of our bedroom mirror, while belting out Let Me Entertain You. My mother was amused, but I dont think she ever told our dad about these performances.

***

Around the same time I discovered classical music, my mothers best friend, Karin Luster, had her brush with fame, Duluth style. In those years, the touring company of the Metropolitan Opera made it all the way up to the high northern latitudes of Duluth to do two performances in the Denfeld High School auditorium. That year it was La Boheme, and the company was in need of a local poodle for Musette. Karin volunteered her chocolate toy poodle, named, of course, Fifi. Karin longed for stardom; she was always the first and the loudest at the piano bar. She was thrilled that Fifi would be appearing on stage with the Metropolitan Opera. Karin, my mom, and I went to the Friday night performance, my first exposure to opera. When Musette swanned on stage in Act I, ready to launch into her song, there was little Fifi towed behind her on a leash, frantically scrabbling away from the stage lights, and finally showing his displeasure at being there by peeing all over the floor. The next night Musette entered sans dog.

My mother was delighted to cater to my highbrow inclinations. I always wanted a daughter who played the harp, she sighed. She truly believed that behind the book, behind the glasses, there lurked inside me a germ of talent for something. I took piano lessons from a grey old lady whose house smelled of lavender and cat piss. I hated sitting next to her on the bench, her sticky, wobbly skin touching my arm, the metronome ominously ticking away, and I hated practicing at home even more. I managed to forget to go to enough lessons (which had to be paid for anyway) while showing so little improvement (never advancing beyond the first John Thompsons Modern Course for the Piano with its bright red cover and charming line illustrations) that I was finally allowed to quit.

I have vague memories of being dragged to dance lessons as a four-year-old in Hawaii with a bribe of shaved ice afterwards, and of quitting in a snit when a twelve-year-old was cast as Cinderella in the big recital, a part I thought belonged naturally to me. My mother did not give up hope that I could be taught to dance. A few years later she found yet another older, overweight spinster who once a week moved all the furniture in her living room aside and gave tap dance lessons. Again, I failed to thrive, having constant doubts about which was my right foot and which my left. The teacher believed that the solution was to stand next to me in the line of tiny dancers in black leotards, grab my upper arm in her iron claw, and shove me back and forth while howling either Shuf-fle STEP! Shuf-fle STEP! or WAY down UP-on the SWAN-ee RIV-er! I manage to soon escape that hell, although not without considerable bruising.

I was not going to be a talented wunderkind like Pamela Nishus, the pork-faced, noxious, same-age daughter of one of my mothers friends who went to Holy Rosary, thank goodness, so I heard about her a lot more than I had to actually see her. Pamela sang, Pamela danced, Pamela was always the star of any play or recital, her proud parents beaming in the front row. Didnt I want to go see Pammys show? No. Pammy could go to hell.

Despite my complete lack of talents, thanks to the student teachers who dropped down on us for a few weeks at Congdon, I became an art appreciator. I could identify the artists, name the instruments, recognize the composer. I liked going to museums and concerts; didnt performers need audiences? (With the exception of Pamela Nishus.)
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/26/2017 -- A new study, titled "Personal Accident and Health Insurance in China, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020" has been recently publicized to the wide repository of Market Research Hub (MRH). It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the Chinese personal accident and health insurance segment, and market forecasts to 2020. With a prime focus China, the study gives a detailed overview of the economy and demographics; and presents detailed information on the country's competitive landscape. The readers will gain insights into key regulations currently governing the Chinese insurance industry and their impact on companies and the industry's future outlook.



Request Free Sample Report : http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1224452



The research starts by presenting an executive summary along with segment outlook. Market outlook by category (health insurance and personal accident) includes premium, claims, profitability has been detailed further. As the name suggests, Personal Accident Car Insurance provides customers protection against the risk of death and disablement that can be caused by accidents and it is applicable anywhere in the world. This policy covers a number of eventualities, including train and road accidents, plane crashes, murder or even a slip in the bathroom. It has been analyzed that, in-patient coverage is the most basic and core component of any health care plan, and everyone should have it regardless of age, fitness and health history.



As per the key highlights of the study, in January 2017, the Chinese government issued a medical reform plan for the period 20162020, as a part of the 13th Five-Year Plan, with emphasis on insurance reforms and improvements. Also, at the end of 2016, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest insurance market, after the US.



Further, the various distribution channels in the Chinese personal accident and health insurance segment. Moreover, it provides detailed analysis of the market trends, drivers, challenges in the market. the study focuses on the state developments and finds that the Chinese state council issued a circular in October 2016, promulgating a series of regulations regarding critical illness insurance to cover more urban and rural residents.



Browse Full Report with TOC - http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/personal-accident-and-health-insurance-in-china-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2020-report.html



In the later part, the study profiles the top personal accident and health insurance companies in China and outlines the key regulations that are affecting them. Companies profiled in this study are China Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China, New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd., Ping An Life Insurance Company of China, Ltd., PICC Health, CPIC Life (China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd), Taikang Life Insurance Co., Ltd., PICC Life Insurance Company Ltd., Taping Life Insurance Co., Ltd., Hexie Health Insurance Co., Ltd., and Ping An Annuity Insurance. With the vital information present in the report, it acts as essential tools for the companies active across the China personal accident and health insurance value chain; and for the new players considering to enter in this market.



Make an Enquiry - http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1224452



About Market Research Hub

Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRH's expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.



MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.



Contact Us

90 State Street,

Albany, NY 12207,

United States

Toll Free : 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)

Tel : +1-518-621-2074

Email : press@marketresearchhub.com

Website : http://www.marketresearchhub.com/

Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/
Culture was once thought to be what distinguishes humans from other animals. However, research by a University of St Andrews-led team of scientists studying behavior of humpback whales and other animals tells a radically different story.

Adult male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce a long, complex, and stereotyped song on low-latitude breeding grounds. They also sing while migrating to and from these locations, and occasionally in high-latitude summer feeding areas.

All males within a population adhere to the current content and arrangement of the song.

The song is organized in a nested hierarchy: single sounds are termed units, a sequence of units is grouped into a phrase, phrases are repeated to form a theme, and a number of different themes are usually sung in a set order to form the song.

In an earlier study, Dr. Ellen Garland from the University of St Andrews School of Biology and co-authors discovered an extraordinary cultural phenomenon in the humpback whale songs.

Around Australia, some new songs would emerge and quickly become popular, being shared by all nearby whales.

This new song would then be transmitted eastwards across the South Pacific Ocean, traveling right across to French Polynesia over the next year.

In later years, more songs followed in this way, passing in waves across the ocean.

Now, the team has been able to track exactly how the change from old to new songs occurs, revealing details of how evolution works within such animal cultures.

The researchers investigated rare cases of song hybridization, found among thousands of hours of song from the South Pacific, where parts of an existing song were spliced with a new one, and likely prior to an individual whale totally adopting the new song.

Song unit sequences were extracted from over 9,300 phrases recorded during two song revolutions across the South Pacific Ocean, allowing fine-scale analysis of composition and sequencing, they explained.

The authors identified two different kinds of structural rules guiding song change.

In one, a whale sings some of the old and some of the new song, making a transition between them with a kind of short hybrid phrase.

In the other approach they may splice into their current song a whole theme from the new song others are beginning to sing.

These rare glimpses into the underlying learning mechanisms show that songs appear to be learnt as segments, reminiscent of the way children acquire language, Dr. Garland said.

Humpback whales provide a unique perspective for understanding of animal culture, the scientists said.

Their mammalian heritage also makes them particularly important to our understanding of structurally arranged vocal communication and the potential origins of human language.

In this study, by investigating rare cases of song hybridization, where parts of an existing song are spliced with a novel, revolutionary song, we have unearthed a number of underlying structural rules governing song change, including segmentation and transition/substitution of themes based on the similarity in sound sequences.

These rules likely assist humpback whales in rapidly learning their complex and ever-changing songs, and provide insights into the evolution of human language and culture, they concluded.

The findings appear in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The Extension of Biology through Culture, published this week.

_____

Ellen C. Garland et al. 2017. Song hybridization events during revolutionary song change provide insights into cultural transmission in humpback whales. PNAS 114 (30): 7822-7829; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1621072114
320 cases of swine flu have been reported in Delhi since January 2017, the AAP government has said.

By Priyanka Sharma: Taking cognisance of the MAIL TODAY report on the early outbreak of swine flu, the Delhi government on Tuesday admitted that about 320 cases of swine flu have been reported in the Capital since January 2017, and the virus has also claimed two lives.

Sources said two deaths were reported at Lok Nayak hospital and at a private hospital earlier this year.

advertisement

At a time the national Capital is grappling with vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria, Delhi is now staring at a fresh health crisis from the deadly H1N1 virus, say doctors at leading hospitals.

"In Delhi, the situation is normal. We have sufficient stocks for more than two months to deal with swine flu crisis," Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain told MAIL TODAY.

'READY TO DEAL WITH THE CRISIS'

Dr SM Raheja, additional D-G at directorate general of health services (DGHS) said, "We are ready to deal with the crisis. Surveillance has been increased and doctors at all major hospitals such as Lok Nayak, GTB, Ambedkar, DDU have been alerted. Dedicated isolation wards of H1N1 patients has been set up. Public awareness campaigns, hoarding have also been put up. There is nothing to worry about at present moment."

"Earlier, we were focusing on mosquito-borne diseases, but now we are working to deal with swine flu virus," he said.

According to the Union health ministry data, Maharashtra has the highest number of swine flu cases (2,783) with 303 deaths, followed by Karnataka with 2,480 cases and 15 deaths.

Kerala reported 1,187 infections and 67 deaths, Rajasthan 412 cases and 59 deaths and Gujarat 339 cases with 81 deaths. H1N1 is a human respiratory flu, which is commonly known as swine flu and was declared a pandemic in 2009 by the World Health Organisation.

Since then, Delhi and most of the country has been reporting swine flu cases, which is common during the winters. Health experts say that this year, the influenza virus is being reported in monsoon months which is quite uncommon.

H1N1 has all the signs of a conventional flu - fever, cough, sore throat, headache, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue and body ache - but, it also causes respiratory illness and pneumonia.

According to health ministry guidelines, to prevent and contain the outbreak of Influenza-A H1N1 virus, screening, testing and isolation of the patient is done at both government and private hospitals.

ALSO READ

advertisement

H1N1 virus hits Delhi-NCR early this year

2 more swine flu deaths, toll touches 5 in Uttarakhand

--- ENDS ---
Since 2014, two city police personnel have been suspended - on average - by the department every day for a variety of reasons, including misconduct, corruption, involvement in crime and indiscipline.

By Chayyanika Nigam: Bad cops don't get much worse than this. A 33-year-old Delhi Police constable has been suspended for touching two female constables inappropriately in an inebriated state and also stripping and masturbating in front of another female colleague minutes later.

The incident took place at southwest Delhi's police training camp on Saturday evening.

Since 2014, two city police personnel have been suspended - on average - by the department every day for a variety of reasons, including misconduct, corruption, involvement in crime and indiscipline.

advertisement

Speaking to this reporter, senior police officials requesting anonymity said, "In almost 10 per cent of the cases, the cops are suspended for misconduct on duty that includes misbehaviour with senior officers and inappropriate conduct with female staff or complainants."

DRUNK CONSTABLE MISBEHAVES

In the most recent incident, a constable in a drunken state went to two female constables hailing from Manipur at a dinner table of the mess in the Police Training College, Jharoda Kalan. He touched them inappropriately and when they objected, the constable apologised.

An hour later, he consumed more alcohol and climbed the terrace. He stripped in front of another female cop and masturbated. Senior police officials at the camp said the man has been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been ordered.

Delhi Police data in possession of MAIL TODAY shows that since January 2014 to July 10, 2017, as many as 2,026 personnel have been suspended by the vigilance department of the force.

This year, till July 10, as many as 294 policemen were suspended while four were terminated from duty.

The 294 cops include an assistant commissioner of police, five inspectors, 45 sub-inspectors, 65 assistant sub-nspectors, 62 head constables and 116 constables. Those whose services have been terminated include one sub-nspector and three constables.

294 COPS SUSPENDED, 75 BOOKED UNDER PCA

The statistics also reveal that this year, out of 294 cops who were suspended, 75 were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Among them were six inspectors, six assistant sub-inspectors, 22 head constables and 39 constables. Of these 75 corrupt cops, 69 were suspended while six were dismissed.

On July 13, two police personnel, including a sub-inspector, were arrested after the vigilance unit caught them taking a bribe of Rs 5,000 from an accused in a sexual harassment case inside the Hauz Qazi Himmatgarh police post in the central district.

Also, five traffic policemen were suspended on Thursday after they were found taking kickbacks from truck drivers.

In May, three policemen - one assistant sub-inspector and two constables - were suspended and sent to the district lines followed by a departmental inquiry after a businessman alleged that he was beaten up by them in Rohini.

advertisement

In January, five cops, including the station house officer of the Adarsh Nagar police station in northwest Delhi, were suspended and booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with the case of an alleged custodial death of a suspect in a theft case. The person died after falling off the fourth floor of the police station.

80,000 COMPLAINTS ON ANTI-CORRUPTION HELPLINE

This year, more than 80,000 complaints have been made against policemen on the anti-corruption helpline so far, compared to 1.09 lakh last year.

The data also shows that as many as 588 cops were suspended in 2014. The figure was 542 the next year and 602 in 2016. Delhi Police has around 85,000 personnel.

"In most of the cases, apart from misconduct the other reasons leading to the suspension of cops are habitual absence from duty, indiscipline especially in court monitoring. Serious charges against the cops include bad or inappropriate behaviour, involvement in crime, corruption, negligence in law and order situation or inaction in a case," said Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch).

Verma is also the spokesperson of Delhi Police. In January, the SHO of Mangolpuri police station was sent to the district police lines for allegedly turning up late for a hearing at the Delhi High Court.

advertisement

Another senior officer explained that in the committee review meeting, that takes place every month, the action or the time frame is decided. If the charges are serious and sensitive, a departmental enquiry is ordered and major action is taken, which could include termination -either removal or dismissal from duty. If the cop is removed from the services, he or she can join any other government job. But a person dismissed does not get that opportunity. Delhi Police have around 85,000 personnel.

ALSO READ

New Delhi: Junkyards of seized vehicles at police stations turning into mosquito breeding grounds

No ladies' night diktat about general security, not targeted at women: Delhi Police

--- ENDS ---
Directorate General of Civil Aviation today issued an advisory to airlines directing them to carry Hindi newspapers and magazines onboard.

By India Today Web Desk: Even as parts of the country is witnessing agitation against imposition of Hindi on signages, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today issued an advisory to airlines directing them to carry Hindi newspapers and magazines.

The notice has been issued to ensure that the passengers got reading material in both Hindi and English.

"Not providing Hindi reading material on board is against Indian government's policy for official language," Lalit Gupta, joint director general, DGCA, said in a letter to airlines.

advertisement

CONGRESS SLAMS MOVE

Following the decision by DGCA, Congress was quick to slam it. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and wrote, "DGCA now wants Hindi publications served on Indian flights (together with vegetarian meals?)!"

Earlier this month Air India raked up a controversy after it decided to stop serving non-vegetarian meals to its economy class passengers on domestic flights.

The move was seen by many as a bid to promote religious ideology, however, Air India asserted that the initiative was taken to cut costs.

Also Read:

Pro-Kannada activists get their way, Namma Metro to remove all Hindi signboards

Bengaluru: Pro-Kannada group demands removal of Hindi boards, threatens to blacken them

Bengaluru: Pro-Kannada group blacken Hindi sign boards at metro stations

Watch Video: Pro-Kannada organisation calls for formation of anti-Hindi front

--- ENDS ---
Dhanush took to Twitter to share the picture with Bollywood actor Kajol and Soundarya Rajinikanth.

By India Today Web Desk: Dhanush-Kajol's action entertainer Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 was supposed to release on July 28. Much to everyone's disappointment, the makers have pushed the release to August.

The Aadukalam actor, who recently wrapped the Hollywood film, is now rigorously promoting VIP 2 with Kajol and Soundarya Rajinikanth. In fact, Dhanush took to Twitter on Wednesday to share a candid picture with his co-star Kajol. It must be noted that Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 is releasing in Hindi as VIP 2 Lalkar.

advertisement

Interestingly, ravishing beauty Kajol is making her comeback in Tamil nearly after two decades. Speaking about her character Vasundara, Kajol told India Today, "I was 20 when I did (Minsara Kanavu) that character of a lover girl. I am 40 now and I can't play that character. But the most important thing is that Vasundhara is a complete woman; a woman who knows her mind, who knows where she is going, and how to get to there. That is really amazing about Vasundhara. She does not need anybody's advice about getting what she wants."

Bankrolled by Kalaipuli S Thanu, VIP 2 is written by Dhanush. Being directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth, the film also stars Amala Paul and Samuthirakani in pivotal roles.

Recently, Dhanush confirmed that he would be reuniting with Kajol for VIP 3.

ALSO READ: Hyderabad drug racket: Actress Charmme Kaur appears before SIT

ALSO READ: Kerala actress abduction case: Dileep's wife Kavya Madhavan questioned by SIT

ALSO READ: Vikram Vedha- Why Kollywood should be grateful to Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi

--- ENDS ---
Amid heightened rhetoric from China over the Doklam stand-off, Chinese State media have reported that former People's Liberation Army (PLA) veterans of the 1962 war are planning to hold a rare commemoration to mark the war's 55th anniversary this year.

By Ananth Krishnan: Amid the heightened rhetoric from China over the Doklam stand-off, Chinese State media have reported that former People's Liberation Army (PLA) veterans of the 1962 war are planning to hold a rare commemoration to mark the war's 55th anniversary this year.

As the Communist Party-run Global Times reported, in China, the history of the 1962 war "has been kept low-key", and unlike the Korean War, is rarely highlighted in State propaganda in China. The paper suggested one reason was the improving relations with India in recent decades.

advertisement

The newspaper, known for its hawkish views, appears to be advocating for a change in that approach. On Wednesday, it profiled a number of ex-PLA soldiers who fought in 1962 and said they were keen to hold a rare public event to mark its 55th anniversary later this year.

Chen Qungeng, director of the 1962 border war veterans association in southwestern Shaanxi province, told the Global Times that "the veterans are planning activities to mark the 55th anniversary of the war".

"Previously, they always kept a low profile. This year, they want to be different," the report said. The newspaper also interviewed 1962 veterans on the on-going stand-off. Chen, a 1962 veteran, told the paper that the incident "set off a wave of anger".

SUPPORT USE OF FORCE OVER DOKLAM IF DIPLOMACY FAILS: CHINESE WAR VETERAN

"If needed, we are willing to send our sons and grandsons to the frontline," Chen said. "If diplomacy can't settle, we support use of force."

"Once when I talked about my identity as the 1962 war veteran to some young civil servants, they were surprised, saying they never knew there was a war between India and China, except that a monk went to India to get Buddhist scriptures," he added, referring to the widely known history in China of the monk Xuan Zang (Hiuen Tsang).

The newspaper also quoted Fang Zhenjun, a researcher who has written about the war, as saying that he had finished the script for a 40-part television series about 1962. Chinese State media regularly broadcast documentaries and television dramas on the Japanese occupation and the war against Japan, but rarely publicly discuss 1962.

Since the June 16 stand-off, however, China has unleashed an unprecedented barrage of shrill rhetoric aimed at India, with State media regularly referring to the "lessons" of 1962 and even the PLA's official spokesperson telling India "to learn from historical lessons".

Also read | NSA Doval to meet China's Jinping as tension over Doklam peaks

Also read | China praises PM Modi, courts India on trade despite Doklam standoff

advertisement

Also read | Rights and wrongs clear, India must pull back to end Doklam standoff: China

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
The Port Canaveral program will operate on Norwegian Sun, following a drydock enhancement. Sailings start May 7 and feature a call at Key West, Florida on Tuesdays, followed by an early morning arrival to Havana on Wednesday for an overnight stay.

Norwegian offers a range of shore excursions designed to comply with US requirements for people-to-people travel.

Just prior to its arrival in Port Canaveral, Norwegian Sun will undergo a 2.5-week drydock in April 2018 as part of the 'Norwegian Edge' revitalization program.

All passengers sailing aboard one of Norwegian Suns Cuba or Bahamas cruises from Port Canaveral will get unlimited beverages included in their cruise fare.

Through Aug. 31, the 'Havana Nights' offer gives $50 on-board credit for 2017 and 2018 Cuba sailings (certain categories are not eligible). Passengers who book by Aug. 7 can take advantage of a reduced deposit of $50. The offer is applicable only to mini-suite and lower categories and for new bookings made more than 90 days before sailing date.
In a notice sent to its employees, Dayang Shipbuilding informed that the company has been struggling in adverse operation environment and bankruptcy is inevitable.

The shipyard, which constructs mainly dry bulk carriers, said it has earlier applied to the local court to restructure its debts and the court has approved its case on Monday and appointed an official assignee to administer the bankruptcy affairs.

The company notice added that no workers are required to report to work and the management will compensate the workers in accordance to the local laws. The notice highlighted that the workers salaries for June and July will be paid by end-August.

In the event that the company emerges from its bankruptcy, the company will prioritise the hiring of former workers, Dayang Shipbuilding stated.

Dayang Shipbuilding was once well-known for its inhouse proprietary design series, namely the Crown58 59,000-dwt supramax, Crown65 63,500-dwt ultramax, Crown121 121,000-dwt mini-capesize, and Crown MHI82 82,000-dwt bulk carrier jointly designed by Sinopacific and Japans Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

Troubles for Dayang Shipbuilding started in September 2015 when some of its subcontracted yard workers staged a protest over unpaid wages.

Privately-owned Sinopacific is not just witnessing the downfall of Dayang Shipbuilding, but also the shut down of its Shanghai ship design department in early last year and the bankruptcy of Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering (SOE).

Sinopacifics other subsidiary Zhejiang Shipyard, which constructs offshore vessels, is continuing with a restructuring after it was declared bankrupt in April 2016.
Although short on fighters, the Indian Air Force is prepared for a "full spectrum" - or a two-front war.

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen: As India explores diplomatic options to resolve the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam plateau in Bhutan, the Indian Air Force is ready for any eventuality.

Chief of Indian Air Force Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa in an exclusive interview to Indian Today said, "We are ready for any eventuality. The stand-off on the ground continues, diplomatic options are being explored".

advertisement

Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a face-off since June 6 when Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) moved into Doklam Plateau - claimed by both Bhutan and China - demolished bunkers and took away Bhutanese soldiers at gunpoint. India is treaty bound to help Bhutan. The Indian Army moved into Doklam to stop the Chinese from building a road through the disputed area.

Although short on fighters the Indian Air Force is prepared for a "full spectrum" - or a two-front war. "For a full-spectrum war we need a certain number of squadrons which we don't have immediately. The government," he said is "aware of the shortage."

India has recently bought fighter aircrafts from France and the shortfall is likely to be made up soon, he said. "There has never been a two-front war," Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said and added the point to ponder is whether the world will allow Pakistan to fight along with China and "world will permit it.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa was speaking to India Today to mark the 18th anniversary of Kargil war. The Kargil war - between India and Pakistan - came to end today in 1999. Then commanding a fighter squadron, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa flew several missions along the Line of Control - the de-facto border between India and Pakistan - destroying Pakistani ammunition dumps and strongholds.

Remembering the Kargil operations, the Air Chief said: "My worst moment was when Squadron Leader Ahuja was killed. Squadron leader Ahuja - who was bomb damage reconnaissance mission - was captured alive and shot dead by Pakistani forces when he ejected after being hit by a missile".

The IAF could have "knocked off" the Pakistani supply lines and neutralised the Pakistani artillery that was firing into India if the IAF was allowed to cross the LoC during the Kargil war, Air Chief Marhsal B S Dhanoa said.

He was, however, quick to add that "every war is fought to achieve a political motive. The political objective then was to throw out the Pakistani soldiers who had crossed into India. That political objective was achieved".

Besides, Pakistan was shown as belligerent country. Globally, India was able to take "moral high ground," he told India Today.

advertisement

Also read:

After Doklam, Chinese war veterans planning rare 1962 commemoration

NSA Doval to meet China's Jinping as tension over Doklam peaks

China praises PM Modi, courts India on trade despite Doklam standoff

Rights and wrongs clear, India must pull back to end Doklam standoff: China

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
The call-on is unlikely to provide a platform to discuss substantive issues, and is more a courtesy call. Xi Jinping had similarly met with the BRICS Foreign Ministers following their summit in Beijing last month.

By Ananth Krishnan: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and the other BRICS national security advisers will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday afternoon, officials said, following the BRICS NSA's summit in Beijing.

The five NSAs of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will call on the Chinese President at the Great Hall of the People, officials said, following the BRICS meeting on Friday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

advertisement

The call-on is unlikely to provide a platform to discuss substantive issues, and is more a courtesy call. Xi had similarly met with the BRICS Foreign Ministers following their summit in Beijing last month.

Officials said arrangements were also being made for a bilateral engagement between NSA Doval and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi. This may take place before the BRICS NSA's summit.

Yang and Doval are also Special Representatives on the India-China boundary negotiations.

"On bilateral meetings, I do not have the relevant information right now. As far as we know, in previous meetings, usually it is arranged for the heads of delegations to hold meetings to exchange views on bilateral relations and other international issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Monday.

Lu also stressed that in China's view, "meaningful dialogue" on the stand-off at Doklam was not possible until India withdrew. "China and India have a smooth diplomatic channel," he said. "The crux now is Indian border troops illegally stayed on China's territory. Once again we urge India to pull back to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress that this is precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides."

Also read:

Ahead of NSA Ajit Doval's visit, China says open to bilateral talks, but imposes a Doklam precondition

Now, China moves military equipment to Tibet. Should India be scared?

Moving a mountain easier than shaking PLA: China's army threatens India

While India-China tensions simmer, NSA Ajit Doval to visit Beijing for BRICS meet

Chinese strategic expert: After Doklam, China can intervene in J-K

Beyond Doka La: 10 irritants in India-China relation

India-China standoff: All you need to know about Doklam dispute

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 26 (PTI) Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived here today to attend BRICS top security officials meeting during which he is expected to hold talks with Chinas State Councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.

Doval arrived here to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing which is due to take place on July 27-28.

advertisement

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in Sikkim sector.

As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

The BRICS NSAs meeting is being hosted by Yang.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Yang to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Though China continued to maintain that there won?t be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

Both sides acknowledged talks through diplomatic channels to ease tensions.

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut Indias access to its northeastern states.

Ahead of Dovals visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area.

He also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijings position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.

advertisement

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I dont have anything to explain," Lu told a media briefing.

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops withdrawal.

"I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into China?s territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border stand. PTI KJV ZH

--- ENDS ---
Press Release

July 26, 2017 Transcript of Interview of Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon Drilon: The hearing showed that there's a cover-up. If anything, the hearing this morning proved that there's a cover-up on the liability of Marcos. Instead of being able to explain what happened, it is obvious from the hearing today that there's a deliberate cover-up to allow Marcos and his group to be reinstated and to allow Marcos and his group to be able to post bail. To me, what the hearing today confirms is a conspiracy to cover-up. Q: The DOJ standing by downgrading the case despite the NBI, the Senate earlier and DOJ resolution saying na it's murder, what do you make of that? Drilon: It's part of the cover-up, particularly in the case of USec. Orceo. Maliwanang naman na talagang nagkasabwatan para hindi mailabas ang katotohanan. Ang sinabi ng NBI, murder; ang sinabi ng Senate, murder; ang sabi ng Secretary of Justice sa Senado, murder; ang sabi ni Orcero, hindi ko narining lahat 'yan, wala sa record 'yan. Kaya maliwanag na may cover-up. Ang nangunguna rito siguro ang pinumo ng Department of Justice. Q: Your earlier question why SOJ is not here? Drilon: That's correct and we'll leave it to the chair and the committee why he did not attend. Maybe to avoid the difficult questions, where he agreed earlier that it was a premeditated killing. A first year law student would know that premeditation is a qualifying circumstance and therefore, a killing that is premeditated is murder. And yet, his undersecretary said it's homicide and I disregard the opinion of the secretary of justice. Q: Dapat bang ipatawag ulit si SOJ? Drilon: He should be. I would recommend that he should be compelled to attend. Q: May pananagutan ba si Orceo dahil hindi niya ma-explain yung reversal? Drilon: I am studying kung mayroon siyang pananagutan sa ilalim ng anti-graft law. We will still study that. I'm not coming into a conclusion, but if there's basis I would not hesitate to recommend to the committee that we file an anti-graft case against Orceo, at the very least, because, obviously, he's lying. His testimony is not credible at all. It's part of the cover-up. Q: Involved kaya si Secretary? Drilon: I don't know that. I don't want to jump into a conclusion. Q: You yourself said that you find it hard to believe na hindi niya kononsulta ang boss niya? Drilon: Yes. The statements of Orceo are not credible and therefore, there is obviously a basis to question this in the appropriate forum. Q: Sir, to cover up for what or the benefit of whom? Drilon: For the benefit of Marcos. Q: But why? Drilon: Because they do want to charge him with murder and they downgraded the charges. Obviously he was reinstated because of his finding that there was no premeditated killing, that there was no act committed, which would warrant dismissal. If the finding was murder, there could have been a dismissal from service. Because of the cover up, he would stay in service. Q: Yung sinabi ni Gen. Bato na based on the repeated statements daw ng Pangulo kaya ni-reinstate niya si Marcos? Legitimate ba yun? Drilon: I was not here when he said that. Q: Question inaudible Drilon: I do not want to make conclusions at this point. I am basing my assessment on the basis of what I've heard...Maniniwala ba kayo na ang ginawa ni Orceo ay walang basbas ng kaniyang sekretaryo? Maniniwala ba kayo that Orceo did this on his own? Is it credible? Q: Yung sinabi ni Senator Lacson, could it be reversed? Yung recommendation? Drilon: An appeal must be made from the resolution of the prosecutor. I don't know if that is still feasible. But the problem is, the NBI cannot do that, even if they're the complaining party, because the NBI is under the control and supervision of the DOJ secretary. Maybe the relatives of Yap and Espinosa can file a petition for review before our regular court system. Q: The PNP chief said that he reinstated Marcos and the others based on the action of the president, what do you say to that? Drilon: I was not here. Was there a testimony? Q: Yes. Drilon: I will go back there to confront Dela Rosa. Q: But what do you say to that kind of action that he did? Drilon: Hindi naman siguro siya robot. He should have his own assessment. He can say that I'm under the control and supervision of the president, but that is a matter that he should consider in relation to the existing laws.
EJERCITO LAUDS PASSAGE OF FREE IRRIGATION BILL

Senator JV Ejercito has lauded the passage of the Free Irrigation Bill on third and final reading yesterday that will subsidize irrigation service fees for agricultural workers.

"I'm hoping this bill would help improve the income of small farmers. Government support for irrigation services would surely encourage farmers to actively engage in or go back to the agriculture business," Ejercito as co-author of the Free Irrigation bill said.

Sen. Ejercito, as Committee on Agriculture and Food member, said that the Free Irrigation Bill is also sought to accelerate irrigation development nationwide.
Press Release

July 26, 2017 Koko backs Duterte's call for return of the "Bells of Balangiga" Saying that the "Bells of Balangiga" are a part of Filipino culture, Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III today expressed support on the call of President Duterte for the United States to return the centuries' old artifacts and other war booties taken by the US soldiers 116 years ago in Samar. The President called for the return of the Bells of Balangiga during his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday before a joint session of Congress at the full-house Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City. "The Bells of Balangiga are important to us because they are a part of our history," said Pimentel of the artifacts taken as war booties by American soldiers who were sent to cleanse the town of "rebel troops" fighting against US occupation in 1901. He said the war trophies from Balangiga included two church bells with the Franciscan Order emblems dated 1863 and 1889, respectively, and an English-made cannon dated 1557, now on display at the Trophy Park of the F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Pimentel said the fourth artifact, a small church bell with the Franciscan Order emblem dated 1896, is with the 9th US Infantry Regiment in Camp Red Club in South Korea. He said Filipinos are asking for the return of the Bells of Balangiga not for their commercial value, but for their cultural value and their ecclesiastical nature, adding that the artifacts are among those listed exempted from the spoils of war like other cultural objects. He said the passage of more than a century after the so-called "Balangiga Massacre" where US soldiers killed hundreds of civilians in a counterattack, should suffice to mute the anguish, ease the anger and dull the pain in the hearts of the heirs of the protagonists on both sides of the war. "And so we ask for the return of the Bells of Balangiga. For the return of the bells will help restore things to the status quo ante and help ease the hidden tensions that haunt the heirs of the Balangiga rebels and the American soldiers," said Pimentel. He said the much-sought American gesture would not only mean a closure of the wounds of Filipino-Amercian War but it would also herald a new era of peace and closer cooperation between the governments of the Philippines and of the United States. On September 28, 2011, Pimentel filed Senate Resolution No. 610, reiterating the call for the return by the United States of America of the Bells of Balangiga and other artifacts and war booties. Then Senate President Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. authored the first resolution passed by the Senate in 2002.
Press Release

July 26, 2017 Koko backs Duterte all-out war vs. irresponsible mining Backing President Rodrigo Duterte on his all-out war against irresponsible mining, Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III today said the crackdown should start with Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo town, Compostela province. He asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to probe the mining site "because the mercury being illegally scattered in Diwalwal has already reached the other water systems in Mindanao like the Agusan River." Some 18,000 artisanal miners in Diwalwal and other mining sites in Compostela are using mercury to separate gold particles from rocks almost every day, a very dangerous process that leads to highly toxic exposure and health risks. Pimentel asked DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu not to waste time but to quickly translate the President's stern warning against abusive gold miners into concrete actions to stop the destructive extraction of minerals in the country. He said the Philippines is a signatory to a United Nation's international treaty, banning the use of mercury in gold extraction, but gold miners in Compostela have refused to ditch their old methods. "Mercury and other deadly chemicals are poisoning not only residents of Compostela Valley but also nearby areas," said Pimentel, adding the DENR should stop the use of the banned metal to spare the lives of the people in Mindanao. Pimentel said he also backed the President's position to stop the extraction and exportation of mineral resources to other countries for processing abroad and importing them back to the Philippines as consumer goods at higher prices. He said mining companies should heed the President's invitation for them to establish manufacturing processing plants in the country so that the raw materials are transformed into finished products with higher sale values. Pimentel also asked the DENR to monitor the full compliance of mining firms in the quick clean-up, restoration and rehabilitation of all areas damaged by mining operations, especially in areas close to watersheds and forests. He said failure of these companies to heed the President's directive should prompt the DENR to impose the heaviest penalties to protect the people living near mining sites and the environment. Pimentel said the Senate would include in its priority agenda proposed amendments to the mining law to ensure the sustainable use of land and the protection and preservation of natural resources. A bill filed in Congress seeks to amend the Mining Act of 1995 which environmental advocates claimed as an "unfair law" that was skewed toward the mining sector and not the people.
Press Release

July 26, 2017 POE ASKS PALACE: CLARIFY TRAFFIC AGENDA Sen. Grace Poe today said Malacanang should clarify its position if it still interested in keenly pushing for the passage of the proposed emergency powers that would allow the Executive branch to implement key transportation projects and end traffic gridlocks gripping the metropolis and other urban areas in the country. This, after Poe--the main proponent of Senate Bill No. 1284 or the proposed Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act--was puzzled by the fact that President Rodrigo Duterte failed to mention the bill in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) and the leadership of both chambers did not include the emergency powers measure among the list of priorities. "Ako'y umaasa sana noong SONA na sasabihin ng Pangulo na priority itong emergency powers kasi yung sinasabi po niyang problema, ako ay nakikisimpatya, hindi lamang sa nagiging problema ng Pangulo sa paglutas ng traffic kung hindi lalung-lalo na yung ating mga kababayan na matagal na rin, pareho nating adbokasiya ito," said Poe in a radio interview on Wednesday. Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said the President's strong backing could pave the way for the swift approval of the bill--which would allow the speedy rollout of projects without the threat of any injunction by the lower courts-- just like the tax reform bill that House of Representatives already approved in May and now awaits Senate nod. But without the Palace certification, the bill could undergo a protracted process and its approval could be stalled now that the 2018 spending plan has been submitted to Congress. "Kaya nga po sabi ko sana nga pagalitan n'ya [Duterte] rin kami run sa Senado na 'uy bilisan na ninyo yan' kasi talagang malaking tulong sana ito," she said, adding that the emergency powers could help the administration's planned rollout of P8 trillion in infrastructure projects. The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, an advisory board to the President composed of lawmakers and Cabinet members, also has not listed the emergency powers bill in its priority bills released last month. Business groups, however, wanted the emergency powers to be passed immediately to address the nation's traffic and transportation woes. Poe said she will ask the Senate leadership, in particular Majority Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, to frontload the emergency powers measure now up for interpellations and pending second reading. Poe earlier said she wanted debates on the measure ended last March but there were a number of senators who wanted to interpellate. "Mayroon pa pong nakalista na nais magtanong pero hindi pa po nai-schedule...Para sa akin, sana nga ma-calendar na ito," she said. The emergency powers, if approved, shall be valid and effective until the next adjournment of Congress--or in June 2019--unless sooner withdrawn by Congress. In his second annual address to the nation, Duterte told lawmakers at the joint session that temporary restraining orders (TROs) are the "bane" of projects. "Tapos yung TRO na yan would delay the projects. I am asking Congress, find me a law wherein if there was regular bidding, the courts or somebody else should not be messing it up because it will delay the project which has been the case in the provinces," said Duterte. Poe said this is the reason for Congress to immediately churn out the emergency powers bill in the legislative mill. "Problema niya mga TRO hindi lamang sa traffic pati rin dito sa reproductive health, balakid talaga kapag mayroong mga proyekto tapos may magsasampa ng kaso, naaantala yung mga proyekto na iyan." "We hope to resume deliberations on the bill and as sponsor, I want this bill passed before the year ends. However, after the period of interpellations, the bill will still have to undergo amendments. I think the emergency powers bill is still considered a priority in the Senate but the question is--how is it doing in the House of Representatives?" she said.
The ECI has shortlisted nine Delhi University colleges from North Campus where registration booths will be set up, allowing students without a voter ID card to apply on July 27 and 28.

By Arpan Rai: According to the latest data released by the Election Commission of India, out of total 6,34,584 Delhi youth falling in the age group of 18-19, only 1,80,936 are enrolled as eligible voters.

That leaves almost one third of the first-time voters without the power to exercise his or her franchise in the elections.

To bridge this gap among students and potential voters, the ECI has decided to plunge into action and bring the process of becoming a voter to a Delhi University student's college.

advertisement

Among the swiftest drives, the exercise of offering registration as a voter by ECI is expected to attract first-year students fresh out of school and eligible to cast votes.

The ECI has shortlisted nine Delhi University colleges from North Campus where the registration booth will be set up, allowing students without a voter ID card to apply, on July 27 and 28.

The registration booths will be set up in Shri Ram College of Commerce, St Stephen's College, Miranda House, Hindu College, Ramjas College, SGTB Khalsa College, Hansraj College, Daulat Ram College and Kirori Mal College.

"We are conducting this to ensure students are not bereft of the opportunity to vote in the upcoming elections. This is an interesting pool of students aged between 18 and 21," said Padam Singh, district electoral officer.

The registration process is open for students above 18 years of age.

'DELIVERY WITHIN A MONTH OF APPLICATION'

"We will ensure the process is simplified for eligible voters by getting the registration stall to their campus. The voter ID cards will be delivered to these students within a month of application at the residential address mentioned by them," added the officer.

The students and unregistered voters from other colleges can also come and apply, added Singh, who will conduct the operations.

"You cannot expect a student coming out of school to have a voter ID card. It is a good exercise which is bound to inculcate citizenship in students. We easily expect 400-500 students to benefit from this drive," said R P Rustagi, principal at Shri Ram College of Commerce.

The students will have to carry a colour passport-size photo and a college identity card to register for a voter ID card. The students will be provided form 6 at the counters.

The figures released by the ECI, till June 28, are abysmal in gender-wise categorisation where 1,13,647 boys and 67,289 females are enrolled as voters.

ALSO READ

Sorry, lost your form: How this DU college tormented champion cricketer trying to secure admission

advertisement

As admission process comes to end, college seniors get ready to welcome juniors

--- ENDS ---
The same communities that fought for decades to protect Californias coast from offshore oil drilling have renewed their battle calls as the Trump administration considers opening 3,500 square miles of state waters to energy development.

Residents and local leaders from Santa Barbara to Mendocino, backed by Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris as well as Gov. Jerry Brown, are waging a statewide campaign to halt any downsizing of 11 national marine sanctuaries and monuments, including four in California.

At President Trumps order, the Department of Commerce is re-evaluating the sanctuary status of areas granted protection within the past decade under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.The review, part of a broader effort launched in April to open more of the ocean to oil and gas drilling, covers Californias recent sanctuary expansions near the Channel Islands, Big Sur and Sonoma and Mendocino counties  home to endangered whales, rare seabirds, ancient corals and other curious sea creatures.

To think about going backwards like this and opening up our coastlines is mind-blowing, said Kerry Fugett, executive director of Sonoma County Conservation Action, whose supporters stood behind the formation of Northern Californias Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in 1981 and two years ago endorsed it doubling in size. Its very sensitive for us when you talk about removing protections that we fought for. We cant even begin to let this happen.

Fugett is among many who have gone door-to-door, stood in front of county boards of supervisors or harnessed social media to build resistance to Trumps sanctuary review over the past month. A 30-day public comment period on the review ends Wednesday night.

Supporters of sanctuaries say their special protections have been vital for sea life, particularly in California where the wind-driven upwelling of deep, nutrient-rich water makes the coast one of the worlds most biologically productive regions. Giant kelp forests, storied crab and salmon fisheries, a massive population of white sharks and some three dozen species of mammals ply the states four sanctuaries, which include Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, Monterey Bay and Channel Islands.

Activities that pose a threat to marine life are prohibited at the sites, including oil and gas drilling, seabed mining and ocean dumping.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the division of the Commerce Department that is managing the sanctuary review, declined to answer questions from The Chronicle.

The executive order that directed the review, Trumps America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, says the goal is to determine the costs of managing the protected sites, evaluate public support for them and look at the opportunity costs of not exploring energy and mineral exploration.

In Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, where a robust research and tourist industry emerged with the 1992 designation of the Monterey Bay sanctuary, community leaders say they wont cede ground in their effort to make the region a destination for ocean enthusiasts.

You take the drive down Highway 1, or you take one of those whale-watching boats out on the bay, and you understand why people here feel a connection, said Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley.

Panetta was one of 65 Democrats in the House to sign a letter Tuesday urging Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to maintain sanctuary protections at the 11 sites under review, which span from New England to Hawaii. In a long shot bid to shut down the review entirely, Panetta put forth an amendment in a congressional budget bill this week to end funding for the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy order.

Its letting the administration know that were going to continue to fight to ensure the protection of our sanctuaries, our monuments, our oceans, Panetta said.

Californias two senators have also asked the Department of Commerce to preserve Californias sanctuaries, and the governors office confirmed it plans to do the same before Wednesdays comment deadline.

While some two dozen oil rigs currently operate off the coast of California, all in the southern half of the state, opposition has prevented any new drilling since the 1980s. But interest has emerged, particularly near the Channel Islands and off the coast of Mendocino County.

The fact that theyre targeting specific national marine sanctuaries tells me these are real drilling targets, said Richard Charter, a Bodega Bay resident and senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation who has fought offshore oil development for decades. Youre talking about opening Americas most sensitive treasures in the ocean to offshore drilling.

Even if sanctuary protections are lifted, though, it could be a long time before new drill bits hit the water. Undoing the special status would likely take years of required reviews, and thats if it doesnt meet a legal challenge. Many have questioned whether Trump has the power to undo the designations of past presidents.

Areas targeted for new drilling also would have to be added to the federal governments five-year plan for issuing new oil leases, which requires additional examination and time.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry trade group, said there is no immediate interest in drilling in Californias sanctuaries.

I am confident that our industry can produce energy safely no matter the environment, so it is understandable that the possibilities are being reviewed, she said in an email. However, I am not aware of any of our members chomping at the bit to pursue the opportunity in California.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: KAlexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
EU's top court ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU's terrorism list.

By Reuters: The European Union's top court kept Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist on Wednesday and removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels - the Tamil Tigers.

Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overruled the General Court's view of 2014 that the Council of the European Union, the 28-nation grouping, had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.

advertisement

The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than decisions by a "competent authority". But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing.

"The Council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing," the ECJ said. The EU needed to rely on more recent material than used in its initial decision, it said.

It said the General Court should now examine the facts and arguments it did not consider in its 2014 ruling.

In a parallel case, the top court did rule that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU's terrorism list.

The court said that EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009.

"The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of the continued freezing of the LTTE's funds," it said.

The EU terrorism list, created after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and last updated in January, includes 13 individuals and 22 organisations, such as the Communist Party of the Philippines and Peru's Maoist-inspired rebel group, Shining Path.

Hamas has been listed since 2003, its military wing since 2001. LTTE was added to the list in 2006.

Also read:

Sri Lanka limits China role in Hambantota port to ease Indian concerns

READ | Is China blackmailing Myanmar, like it did with Sri Lanka?

ALSO READ | Did Modi's Sri Lanka visit influence Colombo to reject China submarine request?

--- ENDS ---
An East Bay man indicted on terrorism-related charges last week told an undercover FBI agent he was planning to kill 10,000 people in the Bay Area with bombs and cocaine laced with rat poison before fleeing the country and joining the Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Amer Alhaggagi, 22, met with an undercover agent twice, pointing out potential targets while discussing plans to bomb the UC Berkeley campus, Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Waqar Hasib told a federal judge in Oakland during a Dec. 14 hearing, according to an audio recording unsealed this week.

But family members and an attorney for the defendant, who was indicted Friday, said his actions have been misconstrued. They characterized interactions between Alhaggagi and federal authorities as loose boasts and empty online chatter involving a peaceful and kind young man who loves his country.

I think it is a case of a young guy who is completely culturally American, and who loves the country, being curious and naive and immature, said defense attorney Mary McNamara.

Alhaggagi was born in Lodi, graduated from Berkeley High School and lived in West Oakland. He was a security guard with a California state license, but its unclear whether he was working in that field. He spent seven years of his childhood in his familys homeland of Yemen, according to the government.

Alhaggagi was charged Friday with attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, months after he was first arrested in November on identity-theft charges related to online orders of clothing.

According to prosecutors, Alhaggagi had communicated in chat rooms with an undercover agent over several days between July 24 and Nov. 29 of last year, detailing plans to attack San Francisco and Berkeley.

The whole Bay Area is going to be up in flames. My ideas are genius. Lmao, Alhaggagi allegedly wrote, using Internet slang for Laughing my ass off.

Authorities said Alhaggagis purported goal was to kill 10,000 people with bombs in San Franciscos Chinatown, downtown and Mission District. He focused on gay clubs in the city, Hasib said.

I live close to San Francisco, thats like the gay capital of the world, Hasib said in court, reading from Alhaggagis alleged chats. Im going to handle them right lol. Im going to place a bomb in a gay club. By God, Im going to tear up the city.

Prosecutors said they found a bomb-making manual on Alhaggagis computer with instructions in Arabic on how to construct crude explosives. Alhaggagi also said he was planning to mix strychnine with cocaine and distribute the lethal drugs in nightclubs in the Bay Area, officials said.

On the first day, Im pretty sure I can get up to 20, Alhaggagi allegedly wrote. On Halloween, I could get about 100 more, and then on New Years ... countless.

Prosecutors said Alhaggagi told the undercover agent online that he had applied to be a police officer in the Bay Area so he could acquire weapons for an attack, allowing the FBI to identify him from an application he submitted to the Oakland Police Department.

His final act, Alhaggagi told the undercover agent, would be to kill his non-Muslim friends before fleeing to Mexico and then on to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, Hasib said.

Do you think I should kill my non-believer friends? Alhaggagi allegedly asked. Thats like sending a statement that no one is safe. Ill just call them over, tie them up and execute them.

An undercover agent posing as an Islamic State sympathizer and bomb expert from Salt Lake City met with Alhaggagi on July 29 in Oakland, during which the defendant pointed out locations for terrorist attacks, Hasib said.

Alhaggagi said he planned to set fires in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley and pointed out buildings at the UC Berkeley campus where he would plant backpack bombs, officials said.

The two met again in mid-August, with Alhaggagi bringing three backpacks to a storage locker for later use in an attack, Hasib said.

Shortly after the last meeting, though, Alhaggagi broke off communications with the undercover agents. He remained under surveillance until he was arrested Nov. 28 for allegedly attempting to purchase clothing online with a fraudulent credit card and is being held without bail.

Alhaggagis family members, who declined interview requests, said in a statement they were shocked to learn of the accusations against the young man.

Amer is not and has never been radicalized in any way, the family said. He grew up in this country and loves it here. He is peaceful and kind. He was very young and immature when he got involved in the online conversations that are the basis for these accusations.

He did not think those conversation were serious, the statement said, and he never had any intent to harm anyone. We love him and continue to fully support him.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
San Francisco stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in Department of Justice grant funding designed to steer people away from drugs and out of jail after the Trump administration announced new rules designed to punish sanctuary cities.

But even as San Francisco leaders said Wednesday that they received $1.5 million last year from the program targeted by the administration, they said their pro-immigrant policies complied with federal law and could not be invoked to deny such aid.

According to the new guidelines for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program  the largest federal criminal justice funding program  local jurisdictions must allow agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, into their jails to meet with people thought to lack citizenship.

They must also notify ICE at least two days before releasing an inmate wanted for deportation, so that federal agents can pick them up, according to the rules. San Franciscos sanctuary laws limit the citys cooperation with immigration agents, and jail officials must only notify ICE about an inmates release if the persons rap sheet fits a strict criteria.

So-called sanctuary policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Sessions announced the changes to the grants requirements on Tuesday amid a barrage of criticism from President Trump over his decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in last years election.

San Francisco officials said the city was spending the grant funding it received last year to, among other things, fight drug addiction, divert people who are arrested into rehabilitation and try to keep people who serve jail and prison time from returning behind bars. They said they planned to apply for additional funds this year, but could not give a precise amount for the request.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said his office was reviewing the move by the Justice Department and did not anticipate it would be successful.

Attorney General Sessions is imposing new conditions on certain federal grants, without apparent authorization from Congress and in violation of the Constitution, said Herrera. We are reviewing these new grant documents, but we remain confident that San Franciscos sanctuary city policies comply with federal law and that San Francisco continues to be eligible for grant funding.

Foremost on the minds of city officials is that the guidelines were issued after U.S. District Judge William Orrick III of San Francisco rejected the Trump administrations request to reconsider the nationwide injunction he issued in April, blocking the threatened cutoffs of federal funds to sanctuary cities in response to lawsuits by San Francisco and Santa Clara County.

Orrick said Trumps effort to punish sanctuary cities in a bid to force changes, which came in a Jan. 25 executive order, exceeded the presidents constitutional authority.

Justice Department lawyers had argued that Sessions had eliminated the prospects of a wholesale takeaway of federal funding after he released a memo detailing how the executive order applied only to a limited number of federal grants.

It wasnt immediately clear that the new Department of Justice guidance violated the terms of the court injunction. But Annie Lai, a professor and expert in immigration law at the UC Irvine School of Law, said the judge had made statements that could bode poorly for the governments latest approach.

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.

The court affirmed that neither the president nor the DOJ have the power to place conditions of this type on federal funds unilaterally, she said.

Complicating the fight ahead is the fact that jails often cannot give 48-hour notice of an inmates release. A person whose charges are dropped, for example, would typically be released more quickly. San Francisco, like many other jurisdictions in the state, has decided that a request from ICE doesnt justify holding a person who otherwise would be freed.

The new rules could cause people to be held on the basis of an ICE detainer alone, which courts have held violate the Fourth Amendment, Lai said.

San Francisco has been a focus of the debate over sanctuary laws in part because of the July 2015 killing of Kate Steinle on Pier 14. The Mexican citizen accused in the shooting had been recently released from San Francisco jail rather than turned over to immigration agents under the citys sanctuary policies.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee noted Wednesday that this was not the first time the Trump administration had threatened to withhold money from the city.

What has not changed, despite each new threat, is our commitment to our residents. Sanctuary cities are stronger and safer cities, he said. We cannot have our residents living in the shadows, where they are fearful to go to work, enroll their children in schools or seek medical assistance.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz
San Jose Police Department

Police are seeking the publics help in tracking down suspects in an unsolved 2015 slaying of a San Jose teenager, releasing a sketch of one suspect and photo of a suspect vehicle Wednesday, officials said.

The victim, 19-year-old Christopher Keil, was standing and chatting with people in a driveway on the 1300 block of Sunbeam Circle when he was shot about 11:16 p.m. on July 25, 2015, according to the San Jose Police Department.
Big Tobacco has put up nearly $724,000 to repeal San Franciscos recently passed ban on flavored tobacco products  and, from the looks of things, it may already have collected enough signatures to put the matter before voters next June.

The repeal is being spearheaded by a group called Lets Be Real San Francisco, with major funding from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The group is also backed by the Arab American Grocers Association and the American Vaping Association.

Lets Be Real spokesman Jaime Rojas said the citys anti-flavored-tobacco ordinance, which was passed just last month by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors, was limiting freedom of choice for consumers.

Rojas said his group plans to use its resources  both financial and those on the ground  to begin educating the voters on what this ordinance is all about.

The group has until Aug. 7 to deliver the 19,040 valid signatures of San Francisco registered voters to City Hall to qualify the repeal effort for the ballot. And it appears to be close, if its not there already.

The firm hired to collect signatures put out word this week that it had reached its goal and stopped gathering names. Were told the signed petitions are now being verified before they are submitted to the San Francisco Department of Elections.

In the meantime, newly filed campaign statements filed by Lets Be Real show it has already spent $287,000, including $150,000 to a Sacramento political consulting firm called GOCO and $11,000 to a direct-mail outfit in Santa Ana. The group reported $448,000 cash on hand.

The repeal drive is in response to a law authored by Supervisor Malia Cohen that bans stores from selling flavored tobacco products, which critics say often come in packages designed to appeal to kids.

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.

The measure is not scheduled to take effect until April, giving merchants until then to sell off their remaining inventory.

Cohen wasted no time swinging back at the tobacco interests, calling the repeal bid a ridiculous effort to put profit over peoples health.

She said the tobacco industry was relying on the same multimillion-dollar formula that the soda industry used last year to try beat back a city ban on sugary drinks, without success.

We wont be able to match them dollar for dollar, Cohen said of the tobacco money. But we have a groundswell of support.
The Trump administration has abruptly slashed federal funding for programs to reduce teenage pregnancy rates, including three Bay Area projects that had been promised money under the Obama administration to operate through 2020.

The Bay Area programs were among 81 nationwide that learned this month that the five-year grants handed out by President Barack Obamas administration in 2015 were being canceled as of June 2018.

The Trump administration gave no explanation for the decision, which rescinded $213 million in grant awards. However, the official responsible for doling out the grant money  Valerie Huber of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health  has complained that Obamas anti-teenage-pregnancy programs did not focus on encouraging youths to abstain from sex.

At the same time it ended funding for the grants, Health and Human Services Department proposed sharply increasing funding for abstinence education.

The changes were contained in Trumps proposed fiscal 2018 budget, which still must go through Congress. But Health and Human Services alerted grant holders in recent weeks that their funding would disappear in June. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, sent a letter co-signed by 147 House colleagues to agency Secretary Tom Price on Tuesday, asking why the money had been pulled before Congress finalizes next years spending plan.

Many of the projects that receive money under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program are designed to reduce pregnancies among youths with limited access to medical care or sex education. One grant recipient, in San Francisco, drew up an education program for boys incarcerated in juvenile hall. A Contra Costa County health department program focused on underserved groups in poorer areas.

Researchers working on some of the projects said they were in the middle of trying to establish the effectiveness of their programs. That will be impossible with the funding cut off two years earlier than planned, they said.

To be told at the start of year three that it is your last year forces a lot of tough decisions, said Anthony Petrosino, director of the Justice and Prevention Research Center for WestEd, a research nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco.

WestEd was awarded $575,729 annually three years ago to start and measure the effectiveness of Healthy U, a computer program for male teenagers incarcerated in Oregon. The effort was aimed at 300 boys locked up by the Oregon Youth Authority who otherwise do not have access to sex education.

The goal, and I know it sounds altruistic, is to help young people, Petrosino said. The idea was, lets find out what works for them. This was a program with potential and promise. Theres not a lot of great options for the study now.

The U.S. birth rate among teenagers has plummeted since 1991, but it remains higher than that of many industrialized nations. About one-quarter of U.S. girls and young women become pregnant by age 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many of the projects funded by the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program were directed at understanding why the U.S. has a higher teen birth rate than other countries.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Under the Trump administration cuts, the Contra Costa County Health Services agency would lose $1.25 million that goes to programs in Pittsburg and West Contra Costa County aiming to reduce sexually transmitted infections and teen birth rates, and encourage open communication among parents and teens about sex. UCSF would lose $995,321 for a program to spread long-acting contraceptives such as intrauterine devices to young women in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles regions.

We have a lot of existing evidence that shows that these programs provide great return on the investment, said Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, a professor of medicine at UC Davis and a researcher in the UCSF study.

Any cuts are either an oversight or a sign of shortsighted thinking, Schwarz said. It means that the last couple of years we spent getting this program up and running will be wasted. It really reflects our current administrations lack of understanding of the ways science is part of the infrastructure needed to build and keep our community healthy.

UCSF also lost a bid to have the federal government renew $400,000 in annual funding for a research project that studied the effectiveness of contraceptive counseling. Money for that program ran out this year.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Price and other Trump appointees have framed funneling money into programs that advocate for birth control as a moral issue. Price has long spoken out against using federal money for contraceptive education, favoring an abstinence-only curriculum.

The administrations proposed budget for next year would earmark $277 million for abstinence education. Obama removed all funding for abstinence-only education last fiscal year.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants are run out of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health. The offices new chief, Huber, was formerly the head of Ascend, a group in Washington, D.C., that advocates for abstinence education.

In 2014, Huber wrote a paper critiquing the Obama administrations anti-teen-pregnancy efforts, saying its agenda was (and is) at least as much about destroying abstinence education as it is about supporting comprehensive sex education. ... The current Obama administration has used its fiscal scalpel to eliminate the growth of abstinence education within Americas school systems.

Cutting out scientific research that aims to lower the teenage pregnancy rate and focusing only on abstinence has far-reaching implications, said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a nonprofit in New York that works to protect access to contraception.

Its shocking when you consider how this funding is supposed to work, Miller said. But it is sadly not surprising given how many ways the Trump administration and Congress have sought to undermine reproductive health care and information over the last several months. We are in a truly new world now.

The House Appropriations Committee defeated a proposal last week to restore the grant funding. Advocates are holding out hope that the Senate will put the money back in, but its unclear whether Health and Human Services would let the grant recipients continue their work.

The letter signed by Lee and other House members asked Price to explain why his agency announced the grant funding cutoff before Congress has approved his agencys budget.

This decision ... would be a blow to bipartisan efforts to prevent unplanned teen pregnancies," the House members wrote. At a time when young people are most in need of information and education to protect their sexual and reproductive health, this administration is denying evidence and science.

Christine Dehlendorf, who was involved in both UCSF programs that lost funding, said she worries about how teenagers who need reproductive information will find it.

We arent going to be able to complete the project we spent the last two years doing, Dehlendorf said. In order to have a research program, you need stability and predictability. To have those things pulled without warning  that threatens the entire research enterprise and your ability to execute reliable and credible scientific results.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn
President Donald Trump hasn't exactly attracted many fans in Hollywood. And in the wake of his announcement Wednesday that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, he is facing a fresh wave of scathing criticism from a slew of celebrities who swiftly shared their outrage with vast audiences online.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump declared on Twitter. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
With barely a sound, the red and white International Harvester feed truck unloaded a mix of silage, barley and rice to a dozen pregnant cows, releasing a sour, grassy aroma into the foggy morning at Straus Family Creamery in Marshall. The all-electric feed truck is entirely powered by methane gas that was released by the farms 280 cows, or rather, their poop.

I like to say the cows are powering the truck that feeds them, said owner Albert Straus, whose organic dairy is perched on the edge of Tomales Bay in Marin County.

The truck, which went into service this month, had a timely debut. On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation extending cap-and-trade regulations, AB398, part of the states effort to cut greenhouse gases 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Methane gas heats up the atmosphere as much as 20 times as quickly as carbon dioxide, and a big source is cow manure and burps.

All of the electricity needed to run the Straus truck, several smaller vehicles and the entire dairy farm comes from a system fueled by methane gas from the cows manure. (The gas in bovine belches is harder to capture.) The truck serves only one of nine dairies that produce milk for Straus Family Creamery, so its just a start. But Straus, whose farm has been off the grid since he installed the methane-powered energy system in 2004, hopes it can be an example to other dairies in California, and, he said, the world.

What were trying to make here is a model of showing that farms can be part of the solution for climate change, said Straus, whose farm has a 20-year plan to sequester the equivalent of 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The United Nations estimates that livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of the planets greenhouse gas emissions.

Around 20 California dairies have methane digesters, including Straus neighbor Giacomini Ranch, but most are in the Central Valley. Hilarides Dairy in Lindsay (Tulare County), which has two, converts methane to compressed natural gas instead of electricity to run milk trucks and other vehicles.

Heres how the digester works at Straus: Workers clean out the dairy barns every night and flush the manure through a separator. Solids get dried as fertilizer for the nearby pasture where the cows graze, and liquids fill two lagoons. One is covered by a tarp that traps methane gas, which gets funneled into a combustion engine that fuels a generator. The system makes enough energy to run the farm, its smaller electric vehicles and now the truck. Plus, heat generated by the engine in turn warms the water used to clean the barn.

The electric truck is closing the loop, said Straus, who spent about $130,000 to convert the truck. A new diesel truck costs $65,000 to $100,000. However, he estimates that the truck will save the farm $10,000 a year in fuel and maintenance.

Methane digesters cost quite a bit more, at an estimated $1,000 per cow; Straus spent more than $300,000 when he first put one in. Some grants are available, but the funding is still not enough to make it affordable. Straus said hes been in talks with state lawmakers to create loans for farmers. He has also consulted with a company in Washington state that could potentially build and maintain methane digesters for dairies, so that dairy farmers can focus on their livestock.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Straus worked with a local mechanic to convert the farms 33,000-pound feed truck to electric. Unlike electric cars, theres no range anxiety: The truck doesnt need to go long distances because workers can plug it in between feed loads.

While large electric trucks are relatively new to farms, electric delivery trucks are used by companies like Coca-Cola, and Tesla Motors announced that it would debut an electric semi this fall.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A day after trading Eduardo Nunez to the Red Sox for two pitching prospects, general manager Bobby Evans was not ready to predict if more deals will come before Monday's nonwaiver trade deadline.

With so few teams in contention, Evans suggested he might hold onto players he is willing to deal until he can get more potential buyers involved over the winter

"It's hard to speculate on landing spots for any one guy," Evans said. "There would have to be something compelling to make something happen. The offer from Boston (for Nunez) was compelling."

The Giants got a 22-year-old right-hander named Shaun Anderson, the Sox's third-round draft pick last year, and will send him to Class A San Jose, where they plan to watch his innings a year out of college ball at Florida.

They also got a 17-year-old Dominican prospect named Gregory Santos, who has allowed three earned runs over 30 innings and making the Dominican Summer League all-star team this year. Santos is what's known in the business as a "lottery ticket" who has the look of a player who could hit it big, but is hard to project because of his youth.

Or, as Evans put it, Santos represents "a lot to dream on and a lot to work with."

Evans said Anderson has four "plus" pitches. Other evaluators have not been that effusive, saying Anderson projects as a middle- or back-end starter, or just as likely a reliever with two good pitches. He did relieve until Boston converted him to starting.

There is unanimity, though, that Anderson can be a big-league pitcher.

One long-time evaluator not connected with the Giants seemed a bit surprised the Giants snagged Anderson for a potential free agent in Nunez.

"It's a nice piece in return for a rental guy in this market," the evaluator said.

A longtime scout who is not familiar with either of the two pitchers the Giants received, said Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski is "not on a five-year plan. He is aggressive, so I bet the Giants got close to what they wanted."

So, what now for the Giants?

A third evaluator confirmed what I have heard, that the Giants are attracting a lot of interest in Jeff Samardzija, who is starting Wednesday's series-ender against the Pirates.

Buster Olney of ESPN reported the Giants are listening on Samardzija and Johnny Cueto. Efforts to trade Cueto are complicated by his blister issue and the potential opt-out in his contract.

Cueto is making progress on the finger front. He threw off the bullpen mound Wednesday for the first time since his trip to the disabled list, about 45 pitches, and is expected to ramp it up further Friday. Manager Bruce Bochy said Cueto could rejoin the rotation soon, as early as Monday night in Oakland - which is after the deadline.

But July 31 is not really a deadline for a Cueto deal. The possibility that he might NOT opt out of his contract, and be on the books for another four years at more than $85 million, surely would scare almost any team away from submitting a blocking claim in August for fear the Giants would say, "OK, he's yours."

If Cueto clears waivers in August the Giants can trade him anywhere, not just to the team that claimed him.

Hunter Strickland could be in play, too. Most contenders, even those with huge leads in their division, seek to bolster their bullpens.

I've had a lot of fans ask why Samardzija would be in demand given a 5.05 ERA and 21 homers allowed. Teams value his durability, he has great stuff and he would be under contract for three more years. He has a lot of money left on his deal, almost $60 million, so I imagine the Giants would have to pay a chunk of that to get any difference-making prospects, or take back a big contract along with prospects.

The Giants could remove a lot of money from the books by trading Samardzija, although Evans said he is not under orders to use trades to corral payroll.

Samardzija has to be considered part of the Giants' core. The front office has expressed seemingly contradictory views: that it wants to keep its core together, yet understands it might have to trade players with long-term contracts to acquire important rebuilding pieces.

I asked Evans about that contradiction. His response, in short:

"We believe in our core. We want to protect our core. But we also have a large core."

In other words, the Giants could trade a player or two whom they signed long-term and still keep the team largely intact.

"When you look at our core, you have to be realistic, but also optimistic with what they have accomplished. They've struggled this year, but there are things they can do to right themselves for next year. There are things they can do this year to reach the level of play we're accustomed to."

Lest anyone think the Giants plan to sacrifice long-term success and "go for it" in 2018, Evans said, "No one is saying this is going to be an overnight fix. It's going to take time. Hopefully we can shorten that time with what we do between now and spring training."

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: HSchulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman
Theres a question Ive always wanted to ask Al Gore about rising sea levels and climate change: Why does he, of all people, think it would be so terrible if Florida were to sink into the ocean?

Dont go there, Gore said. I carried Florida. I love Florida.

He has a point. The former vice president, and the winner of the popular vote in 2000, Gore lost one of the closest-ever presidential elections to George W. Bush. Or, if you look at it another way, he actually lost a Supreme Court decision, which prevented a recount of Floridas votes, which resulted in Bushs installment. In any case, after recovering from that setback, Gore has devoted himself to the climate crisis, traveling all over the world to warn people of the dangers of global warming.

Davis Guggenheims 2006 film adaptation of Gores slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Oscar for best documentary, and in 2007, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. A sequel to the 2006 film, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power will open in the Bay Area on Friday, Aug. 4.

He spoke in May, while at the Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto. At the time, he was reluctant to criticize President Trumps climate change policy  he believed there was a better than 50 percent chance Trump would keep the United States in the Paris accords. Since then, he has taken off the gloves: Removing the United States from the Paris Agreement is a reckless and indefensible action, he wrote in a statement. It undermines Americas standing in the world and threatens to damage humanitys ability to solve the climate crisis in time. But make no mistake: If President Trump wont lead, the American people will.

In person, Gore is notably genial and informal, careful with everyone as if acutely aware that most of the people he meets are in awe of him. He is also, he says, a big movie fan. I loved Hidden Figures a lot. Its kind of a Frank Capra movie for the 20th century. A little corny, I guess, but I loved it.

But the main thing that comes across when meeting Gore is that he is very, very smart  perhaps too smart to get elected president, or at least too smart to be elected by a significant enough margin for the result not to be contested. This became especially clear when transcribing the tape of the interview. Gore speaks in long, grammatically complicated sentences, which only a transcript can adequately convey.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Participant Media Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle Show More Show Less



Q: Did you ever think of this? If no one listens to you, and climate change turns out to be a disaster, youll be remembered as one of the great men of the century. But if people do listen to you, and we get through this, people will look back and think, Oh, they would have taken care of that problem one way or the other.

AG: Ill pick Door No. 2! One thing, back when I was VP, (President Bill) Clinton asked me to take up the response to the Y2K threat  you remember that? That is actually a case in point. I put together a terrific team who, unlike me, knew what they were doing with this stuff, and rode herd on them, and we really put a full court press on the deal. And we were able to 100 percent insulate the federal government from Y2K and to work with industry groups, and when it came, people said, See, that was nothing. So it would be so great  oh my God  if we can have an outcome like that.

Q: How bad can climate change get? Is the scenario in the movie The Day After Tomorrow actually possible, that parts of North America would actually freeze?

AG: When that movie came out, I remember being asked by journalists, Isnt this fiction? And I said, yes, it is, but its not as fictional as the current White Houses view on global warming. About six years ago, (scientists) started downplaying that scenario, but in the last couple of years, its come back again, because theyve started measuring a slowdown in the gulf stream. The truth is, they just dont know. There could be places that could get colder.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Q: How do you recover from a disappointment like 2000?

AG: Well, its only been 17 years. Im not sure if Im qualified to answer the question yet. Ill tell you one thing that was very important to me. I had been through worse. I had a child who was almost killed in 1989. And during that period that was so unbelievable  the story ends well. Hes made a full recovery and is the most wonderful guy youd ever want to meet  but during that time I was helped enormously by people who reached out to me, the majority of them I didnt even know. And I became acutely aware  and Im embarrassed to say that in emotional terms it was probably the first time I ever really sunk into this awareness  that if we go out here on the sidewalk and pass 50 people, there will be a significant percentage of them who are carrying tragedies and burdens that they dont really talk about, and there are millions of people who have gone through an experience infinitely worse than losing a Supreme Court decision and the Electoral College.

Q: George Washington said, It is among the evils, and perhaps is not the smallest, of democratical governments, that the people must feel, before they will see. It seems that the climate deniers have figured out a way to make a portion of the public feel something that closes them off to scientific argument. Does this make you pessimistic?

AG: I think todays neuroscientists or behavioral scientists would not be surprised by that insight from President Washington. And I think its broadly true. And to the extent that the forces of climate denial have been more effective in exploiting the dark arts of advertising and public relations, its because they have more money, and theyve had a longer head start.

But I have an idiosyncratic view of why we are in the communications space were in now. I think that weve been through three successive revolutions and were just now in the early stages of a third one. The print revolution, beginning 500 years ago, matured by the beginning of Americas founding into a fantastic new information ecosystem where individuals could use ideas and facts as determined by the collective wisdom of the literate masses as a substitute for force of arms. But then the revolution of electronic communication began to change that. The telegraph was the start, and then radio made a big difference in the 1920s. The addition of the picture led to a development in the early 1960s where television overtook print as the source of information for the majority. And that really gave an advantage to those who could pay the gatekeepers who all of a sudden charged for access to the public mind. Now the third revolution, the Internet, is beginning to replace electronic broadcasting/satellite/cable.

And so, it does not make me pessimistic. I do believe that the essential architecture of the information ecosystem defined by the Internet replicates the important features of the print ecosystem, in that individuals can now join the conversation very easily and can attract others with the power and clarity of their ideas. It makes it much easier to exercise the freedom of assembly. Every reform movement lives and breathes on the Internet now.

Scott Barbour/Getty Images for Paramount Pictu

Q: What would you say to someone whos on the fence about whether to see An Inconvenient Sequel?

AG: I believe this is the most important challenge humanity faces, and if you are among those who dont yet feel that way, wait a few years and Im betting you will. This movie will give you the answer to the three most important questions regarding the climate crisis. (1) Do we have to change? The consequences of not changing are severe, really unthinkable. But its not a depressing movie because the answers to the second question  can we change?  are really exciting. And the third question is Will we change? And Im convinced we must, we can, we will.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power

Al Gores latest film about the climate crisis, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, opens at Bay Area theaters on Friday, Aug. 4.

To see Al Gores appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on July 17: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojlcvn42rb0
It appears to be a peaceful summer afternoon in Oakland in the middle of July, but what greets anyone coming out of BARTs 19th Street/Oakland Station is a welter of picket signs and apparent chaos. However, because this is Oakland, a Bay Area hot spot for social-justice activism and protest, the sight of a crowd holding signs aloft is not so unusual.

But look closer. What are those big reflectors and cameras? What is that tent in back equipped with what looks like TV monitors? Why the mysterious totems costumed to look exactly like the protesters, many wearing Afro wigs with Coke cans stuck in them and blue T-shirts emblazoned with the words Shut em down?

There also is a man with a megaphone, directing the crowd.

This is a strike scene, says the man with the megaphone, writer-director Boots Riley, who is in downtown Oakland shooting Sorry to Bother You, his debut feature. Telemarketers have gone on strike and are facing private security who are breaking their strike line.

Producer Nina Yang Bongiovi adds, The last few days weve been shooting the riot scenes, and a lot of people who work around here, because theyre so used to people protesting or standing up or speaking out about things, they thought it was real.

Riley, 46, is best known as an activist and the frontman of the hip-hop groups the Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club, but before his musical career took off, there was film, which he studied at San Francisco State.

In 2016, he was among the directors chosen for the Sundance Directors Lab. Closer to home, Riley received a residency at the San Francisco Film Societys FilmHouse, and Sorry to Bother You is the recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

He also has put together an all-star cast, who have agreed to cut their usual fees for the modest production  including Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Omari Hardwick, Steven Yeun, Terry Crews, Jermaine Fowler and Armie Hammer. The film also has attracted a host of producers, including Significant Productions, the partnership between Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker that began when they came to the Bay Area to make Ryan Cooglers Fruitvale Station.

Riley worked as a telemarketer, so his story is grounded in that reality, but what Bongiovi describes as a hybrid of magical realism, dark comedy and political statement takes off from there. A black telemarketer with poor self-esteem stumbles upon an unusual key to success, but as he begins climbing the corporate ladder, labor unrest breaks out and he makes some shocking discoveries about the company.

With his headphones around his neck and megaphone in hand, ready to put the actors and extras through their paces, Riley looks completely at home on his set. This is day 15 of his 28-day shoot, day four of shooting this riot scene. In between takes, extras mill about, but stay close to their marks. Off to the side, an actor in full militarized riot gear as a member of the private security force practices with a baton, miming busting heads. Fowler, one of the familiar faces among the striking telemarketers, passes the time by jogging a short distance back and forth through the crowd.

Do we want smoke? a crew member calls out as Riley prepares to call action. Wisps of smoke duly appear as Fowler, Thompson and Yeun take their places, pinned down against a dumpster. Pandemonium erupts as the cameras start rolling, strikers and strikebreakers facing off. It is action repeated with variations over and over until a half-hour lunch break is called. Not that Riley will be eating. After he ambles over to talk to a reporter, it is off to a production meeting.

During filming of Sorry to Bother You, people on their way to Kaiser Permanente or other businesses near the shoot pass by and linger a few minutes, watching the action unfurl. At the same time, there is a desire to retain some mystery. Photography is strictly limited. The film and the actors roles are described in only the most general of terms. Riley is playing it close to the vest: no spoilers.

The proud Oaklander will allow, though, that location is key.

The story and my understanding of the world and everything springs out from this geographical spot.

Pam Grady is a San Francisco freelance journalist. Twitter: @cinepam
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 24 (PTI) Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today expressed concern over the blame game perpetrated by some elements in the US and Afghanistan to undermine his countrys role in war against terrorism.

Gen Bajwa met Gen John W Nicholson, Commander Resolute Support Mission (RSM) and US Forces in Afghanistan, at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and discussed the regional security situation and border management issues.

advertisement

"COAS raised concern over the blame game perpetrated by some quarters in Afghanistan and USA to undermine Pakistans contributions towards war on terror," the army said in a statement.

Gen Bajwa said its not a coincidence that this theme is being played at a time when policy review is being undertaken in the US.

"Despite provocations, Pakistan will continue to act positively as we consider defeat of terrorism as a national interest," the statement quoted him as saying.

It said the two generals "agreed on the need for continuous engagement and coordination for peace and stability in the region."

US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale was also present during the meeting.

The meeting took place on a day when more than 50 people were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan in two separate terror attacks. PTI SH ZH

--- ENDS ---
Any budding composers who came through school alongside the conductor Cristian Macelaru probably didnt take long to figure out that the simplest way to get their music performed was to ask him. Macelaru is, by his own admission, a soft touch.

I was always that guy in college that couldnt say no to anything, Macelaru said during a recent Skype interview. I feel like I have premiered or done new music my entire life, by any composer who was ever in school with me.

Now the Romanian-born maestro will be putting that practice to good use as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the annual two-week new music extravaganza beginning Friday, Aug. 4, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. On the agenda are orchestral works  many of them world or local premieres  by such composers as Karim Al-Zand, Clarice Assad, Gerald Barry and Jorg Widmann.

But the other part of the agenda for longtime patrons will be the question of the festivals coming artistic direction under its new leadership. Macelaru, 37, is stepping into the spot left by Marin Alsop, whose remarkable 25-year tenure at the festivals helm transformed it from a scrappy bastion of California experimentalism into a sleek international venue for a more well-behaved brand of contemporary music.

On paper, Macelarus plans dont seem to have diverged too far from the Alsop model; many of the composers on this years roster are familiar from past seasons. But clearly, the new guy is just starting to feel his way into the job.

At first I thought, Marin has been doing this for so many years  how do you program nothing but living composers? Ordinarily conductors will do an occasional premiere, but not a whole concert of them, and certainly not five concerts! Then I started making lists of composers. ... The problem now is how to thin out my list instead of beefing it up.

For six years, Macelaru has had a close association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, taking on a range of titles (assistant conductor, associate conductor, conductor-in-residence), and he has made a home in Philadelphia with his wife and two school-age children. Now hes hoping the Cabrillo appointment will give him a laboratory in which to build up a body of less familiar music for which he can proselytize elsewhere.

For a guest conductor to be able to bring a new piece with them is very rare, but being the head of a new music festival gives you credentials  and Im fully planning to take advantage of that.

Macelaru grew up in Timisoara, Romanias third-largest city, as the youngest of 10 children in a musical family. Economic and social conditions in the Romania of the 1960s and 70s were dire, and his father worked a factory job while leading a church orchestra with whatever musicians he had at his disposal.

He would make his own arrangements of the music, writing every note by hand. We had no Xerox machines in those days, so he would sit and copy all the parts. Thats how I remember him, every night and weekend.

The younger Macelaru took up the violin, serving as concertmaster in his fathers ensemble and in a high school orchestra. But his big break came at 17, when he was enlisted to serve as a translator and guide for a Michigan couple who were in Romania to adopt a teenager from one of the countrys orphanages.

He showed them around town for a couple of days and invited them to a concert at which he was playing, and the couple generously offered to buy him a plane ticket to Michigan so he could enroll in the renowned summer music camp at Interlochen.

The 18-page application seemed oddly long and detailed for a summer program, but Macelaru dutifully filled it out anyway. It wasnt until hed received an offer of a full scholarship for a year of boarding school that he realized Interlochen had sent him the wrong form.

I arrived for the first day of school, and I thought, I never want to go back home. I have found my place, and no one is taking it away from me.

I had never played in an orchestra that good. I had never seen a published score, and here was the greatest score library in North America.

From Interlochen, Macelaru went on to study at the University of Miami, knowing that he intended to trade his violin for a conductors baton but recognizing that the violin was my ticket to a full scholarship and paying jobs.

He spent that time, and the subsequent period as a masters student at Rice University in Houston, leading small pickup ensembles as much as he could  but also soaking up the knowledge of musical style and technique that would support him as a conductor.

The first time I conducted professionally was when I was 30. You know, so often conductors want to start when theyre 18 or 19. But my teacher, Larry Rachleff, said, You have to become a musician first. And its hard to become a musician on the podium.

Cabrillo promises to give him plenty of opportunities to expand his activities. One of the pieces in the opening season is an orchestral suite from Jake Heggies opera Moby-Dick, which Macelaru created when the composer proved too busy to do it himself. And he has other ambitious plans as well, including a recording initiative and an open door for composers to send him their work uninvited.

I want to open up a portal on the Internet where any composer can drop a score, and as long as it doesnt become overwhelming, Im happy to look at every piece. Weve got plenty of time to do whatever we want to do.

Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicles music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music: Aug. 4-12. $37-$65. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St., Santa Cruz. (831) 420-5260, www.cabrillomusic.org
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman who served in the U.S. military and was court-martialed under the Espionage Act, slammed President Trump on Twitter for his announcement that transgender people could not serve in the military in any capacity.

Manning tweeted that the presidents move sounds like cowardice and wrote that denying health care costs to transgender troops while supporting the $400 billion F-35 fighter jet program is further reason we should dismantle the bloated and dangerous military/intel/police state.

Her barrage of tweets came shortly after Trump took to Twitter to announce that after consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, he tweeted.

Manning, 29, was instantly attacked on Twitter for her comments on Trump. One user tweeted that she belongs in prison, to which she responded to, so not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after leaking classified government documents to Wikileaks, in one of the largest leaks in history.

She served seven years of her sentence at the military prison in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., before being pardoned by former President Barack Obama.

Manning, who came out as transgender one day before being sentenced, was released from jail on May 17.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
President Trump set off a bipartisan firestorm Wednesday morning by tweeting that the government will not allow transgender people to serve in the military in any capacity.

In a series of early morning tweets, Trump wrote, After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, he tweeted.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) quickly condemned Trumps decision.

This is discriminatory, and un-American, Harris tweeted. To the transgender servicemembers who defend our nation, I stand with you. We should honor the courage of Americans who volunteer to sacrifice for our nation, not turn them away.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called Trumps military transgender ban a vile and hateful agenda.

This disgusting ban will weaken our military and the nation it defends, Pelosi said in a statement. Once again, President Trump has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by raw prejudice. This is a dark day for thousands of heroes in our military and for our entire country.

Republicans also expressed disappointment and outrage at Trump for posting policy decisions on social media.

More for you Texas transgender activists dismayed by Trump's new ban

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trumps statement unclear and promised that the committee would conduct oversight on the issue of transgender people serving in the military.

There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity, McCain said in a statement. We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so  and should be treated as the patriots they are.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the presidents announcement is something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together on as implementation takes place.

Ill try to make this clear, this was a military decision. This was about military readiness, this was about unit cohesion, this was about resources within the military and nothing more, Huckabee Sanders said during a White House press briefing.

She eventually threatened to end the briefing after reporters repeatedly asked her questions regarding Trumps statements. If those are the only questions that we have, Im going to call it a day, she said.

When a reporter shouted a question about his Twitter announcement during a gathering on the White House lawn with the American Legion Auxiliary youth, Trump called the reporter, very rude.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) filed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill to block Trumps decision to ban transgender people from entering the military service. The amendment states that government funds for defense cant be used to implement, enforce, or observe any directive from the president that bars or restricts the ability of transgender persons to serve in the Armed Forces.

Trumps announcement comes on the 69th anniversary of President Harry Trumans executive order to desegregate the U.S. military. The order, signed by Truman on July 26, 1948, stated, It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.

Alberto Lammers, the director of communications for the San Francisco LGBT Center, said in a statement to The Chronicle, Mr. Trumps treatment of transgender service members is reprehensible and appalling. Its extremely disheartening to know that our military will be discharging highly trained service members on the basis of minimal medical costs instead of retaining and recruiting the best.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) also tweeted his condemnation and promised to fight against the presidents announcement.

Trump attack on #transgender soldiers makes me want to fight harder to support our trans brothers/sisters. Lets keep fighting for equality. Story of US is advancing civil rights, ending discrimination. Trump does opposite: ending civil rights, advancing discrimination. We #resist . Trump says transgender soldiers don't deserve healthcare. At least he's consistent since he also thinks 20M Americans should lose healthcare.

It is unclear how Trumps announcement will be implemented and how it will impact transgender people now serving in the military.

There are currently over 134,000 American veterans who are transgender and over 15,000 transgender people serving in the military, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research group, found that the costs of gender-transition related to health care treatment is relatively low.

The total cost of medical care for transgender troops would increase health care costs by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in health care expenditures.

Transgender reassignment surgery  which not every trans person chooses to undergo  can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to nearly $100,000, depending on how extensive it is, according to Courtney DAllaird, founding coordinator for the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center at the University of Albany in New York.

Werent we just last year christening the Harvey Milk vessel in the Navy? DAllaird said, referring to the 2016 naming of a Navy supply vessel after the gay rights pioneer from San Francisco.

And now this? But I have to say that Im shocked that people are shocked. This is not a surprise, said DAllaird, who is a trans man. Its a trend of this administration to specifically attack LGBT rights, to say something to make sure its known to everyone that there will be no attention or support for trans people.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a public policy think tank in San Francisco, said Trumps announcement would cause discrimination and ultimately harms military readiness.

This is a shocking and ignorant attack on our military and on transgender troops who have been serving honorably and effectively for the past year, Belkin said in a statement.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the the National Center for Transgender Equality, said Trumps announcement was indefensible.

This is worse than dont ask dont tell, this is dont serve, dont serve. This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science, Keisling said in a statement. The President wants to discard thousands of trained and skilled troops who are already serving honorably and done nothing but be honest about who they are.

Former Vice President Joe Biden also commented on the decision through Twitter, writing, Every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve. Full stop.

In June 2016, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that transgender individuals would be able to serve in the U.S. armed forces. The policy was to be phased in during a one-year period. It would allow service members to transition gender while serving, set standards for medical care and outlined responsibilities for military services and commanders to develop and implement guidance, training and other programs both in the near and long term.

Carter stated that at one year, the services will begin allowing transgender individuals to join the armed forces. A little over a year ago, the Department of Defense said the full policy must be completely implemented no later than July 1.

Trumps decision comes five days before the full implementation of the policy. In June, Gen. James Mattis, Trumps defense secretary, delayed Carters plan to accept transgender troops and to accommodate transgender service members medical needs by six months.

In February, Trump rescinded federal protections that were implemented for transgender students, allowing them to use bathrooms that coincided with their gender identity.

Trumps tweeted announcement comes about a year after he pledged in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention to protect the rights of LGBTQ people.

He made the remarks in the wake of the mass shooting a month earlier at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Fla., 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist, Trump said. This time, the terrorist targeted the LGBTQ community. No good, and were going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Kevin Fagan contributed to this report.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Slowly  but surely  we are learning that the near-catastrophic failure of Oroville Dams main spillway wasnt truly caused by weather, even though the state claims that in seeking federal aid for repairs.

Rather, it resulted from poor engineering and construction when the nations highest dam was rising more than a half-century ago as the centerpiece of the State Water Project, and poor maintenance since its completion.

The latest evidence is a huge report by a team of engineering experts, headed by Robert Bea and Tony Johnson of the University of Californias Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

It concluded that the dams fundamental flaws were compounded by decades of neglect by the state Department of Water Resources and Division of Safety of Dams.

The gated spillway was managed to failure by DWR and DSOD, the damning report declared.

One of the abysmal failures cited was the recently exposed existence of DSOD inspection reports dating back to 1989. For reasons yet to be fully determined, identified deficiencies were either ignored, treated as low priority, not acted upon or a combination thereof.

The 124-page report added that complacency, lack of industry standard level maintenance, and possibly pressure from internal DWR management and external State Water Contractors representatives to hold down maintenance costs were key contributors.

Finally, and most ominously, the study team suggested that Orovilles problems are not confined to the spillway, whose collapse last February led to the near-failure of an auxiliary spillway, a threat of failure in the dam itself, and widespread evacuations of those living along the Feather River north of Sacramento.

The Bea-Johnson report says the dam may be facing a breach danger from a serious and dangerous form of a slow-motion failure mode.

DWR has insisted all along that despite the spillway failure, the earthen-fill dam itself is sound and safe.

Shoddy engineering and design and neglectful maintenance are serious business. If what the other experts say is accurate, it may explain why state officials from Gov. Jerry Brown downward have been so closed-mouthed about what went wrong.

If it wasnt the weather, but human error, that created the problem, then the states plea for federal aid is bogus.

But theres an even more pertinent question raised by the Bea-Johnson study  whether the state is even capable of competently building and maintaining huge public works projects.

One recalls the more recent example of the Oakland Bay Bridge. It not only took a quarter-century to design and build the replacement, but costs wound up four times their original estimate and after it was completed, it was revealed that there were major construction flaws that the Department of Transportation didnt disclose but investigative journalism by the Sacramento Bee exposed. When asked about it, Brown infamously replied, S happens.

Meanwhile, Brown wants the state to build two more mega-projects  the delta tunnels and the bullet train. If Oroville Dam and the Bay Bridge set the standard, maybe those new projects are disasters waiting to happen.

Dan Walters is a columnist for CALmatters, a public interest journalism venture. Go to www.calmatters.org
Imagine settling in for your morning commute on BART when a man yells this at the top of his lungs: Im going to kill you.

Mike Hohndorf and dozens of other passengers got a body-shaking jolt, not unlike a train lurching out of a station, during their commute early Friday morning from a belligerent rider who terrorized a train car for seven stops  even though Hohndorf said the man first made threats at the North Concord/Martinez BART Station and that he told a BART police officer about the man at the station.

Im going to stab all of you, the man yelled as the passengers clustered waiting for the station gates to open. The officer allowed the man to board the train, where he continued to threaten passengers. Hohndorf and another passenger contacted BART officials to report the problem. BART told them they would mobilize at the 12th Street Station in Oakland  several stops later. By then, the man had gotten off.

Hohndorf, a BART rider for three decades, has seen a lot interesting episodes and characters on trains over the years  from bloody fist fights to naked people. But this was the first time he felt scared.

A recent spate of robberies and other incidents has some BART passengers riding on the edge of their seats. In this latest case, the man who threatened people got off the train instead of killing anyone.

Liz Hafalia / Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

What if he had really pulled a knife?

Hohndorf, 60, believes BART police failed to take the disturbance seriously.

BART officials told me there was little they could do. They said that train operators notified BART officers of the complaints by passengers  but that no one described an imminent threat. The officials said they could act only on information they receive.

If thats the case, then BART police and train operators need to ask more specific and probing questions when riders call authorities complaining about passenger behavior. Because a rider exhibiting volatile behavior should never be allowed to stay on a train.

Heres one question every BART employee should ask a rider who seeks help on BART: Do you feel safe?

Hohndorf arrives at the North Concord/Martinez BART Station at around 3:30 a.m. every weekday. When he parked there Friday morning, he noticed a BART police cruiser tailing a man flailing his arms.

Hohndorf said the officer talked to the guy for a few minutes before driving away. When Hohndorf joined about three dozen others waiting for the station gates to open, the guy returned and screamed at the sleepy-eyed commuters.

Im going to kill all of you, he said.

Hohndorf missed his train because he has a torn meniscus  the surgerys Wednesday  and walks slowly with a cane. As he waited for the next train, he saw another BART police officer walking behind the man on the platform.

I go, You need to remove this guy. Hes a danger to himself and hes a danger to others, Hohndorf recalled.

Hohndorf said the officer told him hed get to the bottom of it. The train arrived.

I look to the left, and Im watching the guy get on the train with the cop standing there, he said.

He found humor in the harrowing tale when we spoke Sunday morning before he and his wife went to brunch. Still, he wondered how a person shouting profanities and threatening to stab people couldve been allowed to board the train.

The screaming continued on the train, and people left the car. Hohndorf stayed. The man walked toward Hohndorf, who sat in a seat for people with disabilities. The man carried a black plastic bag. He put his hand in the bag and told Hohndorf he was going to stab him.

Hohndorf called the train operator using the cars intercom.

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.

He says to me, I know. Other people have already called it in. The police will be boarding the car at 12th Street, Hohndorf recalled.

BART officials told me another passenger called police at the Orinda Station and said a man was acting erratically on the train. Thats when dispatchers began coordinating to intercept the train at 12th Street Station, where the closest BART police officer was stationed, according to Lance Haight, BARTs deputy police chief.

But the man got off at the MacArthur Station.

We understand that when youre in a public space and youre riding BART, sometimes youre on a train with someone that makes you feel uncomfortable, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. That doesnt mean necessarily that we can prevent that person from boarding.

Haight said the first officer who spoke with the man at the North Concord/Martinez Station determined he wasnt a threat.

We can only take enforcement action when the person has either broken the law or if theyre a danger to themself or others, and that did not appear to be the case, based on what our officer saw in the parking lot, Haight said.

But what about the second officer that Hohndorf spoke to on the train platform before boarding? According to Trost, Hohndorf only told the officer that the man yelled  but didnt mention threats.

When he arrived at his office, Hohndorf called BART customer service to complain, and he was told hed get a call back. But the call back didnt happen until Tuesday morning, after The Chronicle had begun making inquiries.

Theres a lot going on in our system, and we all have to look out for each other, Trost said. Safety is clearly the top priority.

It has to be, because BART riders like Hohndorf shouldnt worry about being terrorized during their commute.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr
THURSDAY

The complete second season of HarmonQuest is available on Seeso today. Dan Harmon, creator and former showrunner of Community, created the animation/live-action show featuring fantasy role-playing. The new seasons guests include Kumail Nanjiani, Gillian Jacobs, Paul Scheer, Elizabeth Olsen, Patton Oswalt and Rob Corddry, among others.

Married at First Sight tosses the bouquet on season five with a two-hour show at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.

The sharks keep circling on the Discovery Channel, which airs the one-hour special Shark Exile, at 9 p.m., followed by Shark Storm at 10 p.m. and Shark After Dark at 11 p.m. with Charlize Theron and Andy Casagrande.

Season 15 of Mysteries at the Museum closes shop on the Travel Channel at 9 p.m.

The first season of American Boyband wraps on Viceland at 11:30 p.m.

Matt Bomer and Abby Elliott guest on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen at 11 p.m. on Bravo. Bomer stars as Monroe Stahr, the moody hero of Amazons adaptation of The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgeralds unfinished Hollywood novel, available Friday.

FRIDAY

Did I mention that the complete first season of The Last Tycoon is available on Amazon today? In addition to Bomer, the series stars Kelsey Grammer as studio chief Pat Brady and a dazzling Rosemarie DeWitt as Bradys long-suffering wife, Rose. The first half of the nine-episode season is quite good, but it begins to fall apart midway. Still, it looks great, and that counts for a lot.

Netflix offerings for the day include the complete fifth season of Puss in Boots, the complete first season of Daughter of Destiny and the film The Incredible Jessica James.

And more sharks on Discovery, as Shark Week swims toward shore with African Shark Safari at 9 p.m., followed by Lair of the Sawfish at 10.

The Duplass brothers are always worth watching, whether Mark is acting, or Mark and Jay are teaming up to develop new shows. Their latest is an anthology series called Room 104, premiering on HBO at 11:30 p.m. Each episode tells a different story, usually involving a kind of post-O. Henry-style ironic twist and many evoking shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The premiere episode is about a woman called in to babysit a sweet little boy named Ralph who is staying in Room 104 of the motel with his dad. Dad goes out on a date, leaving Ralph with the sitter. But he warns her to make sure she never goes in the bathroom because Ralphie is in there and hes a monster. Is Ralphie real or just a figment of a lonely little boys imagination? Youll wonder yourself, just as the sitter does.

SATURDAY

The History Channel gets Pumped Up: Summer Pawnin with a three-hour special on its series, Pawn $tars at 8:05 p.m.

Sharkmania takes a nibble out of the Saturday lineup on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m.

Robert Blake is the focus of a special broadcast of The Jury Speaks at 9 p.m. on Oxygen.

Reelz airs an episode of Scandal Made Me Famous at 9 p.m., spotlighting Monica Lewinsky.

Kitty Kelley, author of controversial biographies of celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra, opens her files on a new Reelz show called The Kitty Kelley Files, airing at 10 p.m., with a focus on actress Drew Barrymore.

If youre a fan of Still Star Crossed  there must be three or four of you  ABC is airing the series finale at 10 p.m. The show was canceled last month even before its first season was over. Now its over.

SUNDAY

TV networks seem to spend as much time saying goodbye to departing shows as they do telling us theyre on their way. Anyway, Teen Wolf is in its final season on MTV, and its been a great show. Tyler Posey, Dylan OBrien, Colton Haynes and so many others have not only contributed mightily to the show, but gained a good deal of very bankable attention.

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.

The sixth season summer premiere kicks off tonight with a howl at 8 on MTV, with a walk-up at 7:30 highlighting the top 10 moments from its six seasons.

But you get your choice of wolf versus shark at 8 p.m., because the Discovery Channel will air Shark School With Michael Phelps, who, as you know, lost his race with a computer generated shark earlier this week.

Season four of The Hunt With John Walsh starts at 8 p.m. on HLN.

BBC America spins off its lucrative Top Gear show with Top Gear: Made in America at 8 p.m.

The Smithsonian Channel, which is not available on some content platforms, including Comcast, premieres The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam at 9 p.m., which uses rare news footage, home video and police footage to document the Son of Sam killer. This is the 40th anniversary of the capture of the killer.

The fishiness continues with the premiere of the fourth season of Wicked Tuna at 10 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel, with an episode on a feeding frenzy on the Outer Banks.

Reza Farahan and Shervin Roohparvar guest on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen at 11 p.m. on Bravo.

The third season of the weird and wacky Rick & Morty show kicks off at 11:30 p.m. with an episode called Rickmancing the Stone on Adult Swim.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV
Replying to the discussion on the adjournment motion, CM Devendra Fadnavis announced Rs 2 lakh to the next of the kin of 17 people who died in Tuesday's building collapse.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: A day after the fatal building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, the ongoing monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature witnessed uproar with the Opposition demanding stern action. Replying to the discussion on the adjournment motion, CM Devendra Fadnavis announced Rs 2 lakh to the next of the kin of 17 people who died in Tuesday's building collapse.

advertisement

Immediately as the house convened, Opposition demanded adjournment motion on Ghatkopar building collapse that led to ruckus. Following pandemonium, the assembly was adjourned for 10 minutes. Before the discussion began on the mishap, the House was adjourned thrice.

"The pillar and beam of the building were altered leading to the tragedy. Strict action should be taken so that no such incident takes place in future," alleged NCP leader and former Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

Pointing at the role of Sunil Shitap, reportedly associated with the Shiv Sena, Pawar said, "The accused is associated with Shiv Sena. How did he get permission for renovation? Locals had complained, but it wasn't considered. There was political pressure put up by Shitap."

Even the BJP cornered Shiv Sena over Shitap.

Citing a report in a local newspaper, BJP MLA Raj Purohit alleged that Shitap had threatened the officials and residents at gunpoint.

"Ghatkoper building culprit Sitap had allegedly shown revolver to BMC officer to intimidate them while alteration works were going on in his nursing home," Purohit alleged, demanding action.

The Shiv Sena, however, was non-committal in taking action against the accused.

Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu said, "Our party will take action if Shitap is found guilty. But before that a thorough inquiry should take place. Whoever is guilty shall be severely dealt with regardless of the political party."

Replying to the discussion, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced compensation for the deceased.

"There was no complaint from anyone regarding the construction work on ground floor of the building. The photographs of the accident spot indicate that the beam and column of the building were fiddled with leading to the building collapse."

Chief Minister also assured the house that the collapsed structure would be rebuilt at the earliest. Fadnavis announced that the state government and the BMC would help in the redevelopment of the building. Assuring action Fadnavis said, "Those who are found guilty after the inquiry would be severely dealt with considering it as a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder."

ALSO READ:

Ghatkopar building collapse: 17 dead, 6 injured; man rescued after 15 hours

advertisement

Mumbai's Ghatkopar building collapse: Mega city, maximum apathy

--- ENDS ---
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 STF/Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Stephanie Maze/The Chronicle Show More Show Less



Travelers to San Francisco know theyre headed to a special place. But now theyll have more in store as they step off the plane: The domestic side of the airport will offer a lesson on diversity and tolerance mixed with hard history. That message will be encapsulated by the name of slain Supervisor Harvey Milk affixed to the sprawling terminals.

The memorializing of Milks name is a fitting way to honor his legacy as a gay political pioneer who was assassinated in 1978. The plan also fine-tunes a needlessly divisive idea to rename the entire airport after Milk. That suggestion, pushed by former Supervisor David Campos four years ago, went too far by running up an estimated $4 million bill and creating confusion and marketing uncertainty. Now, the familiar SFO luggage tag will stay and passengers will get an official reminder of the citys past and future spirit.
WASHINGTON  Amid all the confusion, division and near-death experiences of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, party leaders emerged this week with a narrow but visible path to fulfilling their seven-year vow to revoke the law they call Obamacare.

A razor-thin Senate vote Tuesday to begin the health care debate gave Republicans an opening to pass a stripped-down skinny repeal by the end of the week that would repeal mandates in the current law on individuals to buy insurance and most employers to provide it, and a tax on the sale of some medical devices.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price described the approach as finding the lowest common denominator of what Senate Republicans can pass with the 50 votes they need, along with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence. Such a bill, still not in written form as of Wednesday, would provide a legislative vehicle to enter negotiations with the House on a potentially much larger repeal bill, analysts said.

I think were in territory where millions of families are at risk of losing their health coverage, said Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator in the Obama administration of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that runs the governments health care programs.

In House and Senate negotiations, known as a conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could write a repeal bill that melds a House version that passed in May and whatever the Senate comes up with.

The final product then would have to be passed again by both chambers, with no amendments.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he was not certain the Senate could even pass a stripped-down bill. Well find out, Cornyn said. This is a high-wire act  the whole thing.

But given the pressure President Trump has put on Republicans to deliver on their campaign promise, many analysts believe that Republican lawmakers could ultimately take whatever comes out of the conference negotiations and deliver a version of the House bill to the White House.

The House legislation, the American Health Care Act, would slash Medicaid, cut subsidies for people buying insurance individually, strip protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions such as cancer or diabetes and cut taxes for wealthy people and the medical industry.

The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency that analyzes the effect of legislative proposals for Congress, said that bill would lead to 24 million people losing their insurance.

But first the Senate has to pass a bill, and the skinny repeal  which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called a Trojan Horse designed to get the House and Senate into conference  seems to be the preferred choice.

Health policy analysts said that option, should it become law, would make the problems in the current law that Republicans complain about  high premiums and a dearth of insurers  much worse.

Freed from the mandate, fewer young, healthy people would buy coverage, leaving sicker, costlier patients in the state insurance exchanges. Insurers would flee the markets, especially in rural areas, where there is already a dearth of offerings, and premiums would spike. Based on past estimates of similar legislation by the Congressional Budget Office, 15 million people would lose their insurance, and premiums would spike by 20 percent.

The mantra from Republicans throughout this debate has been to lower premiums, and a bill like this would do just the opposite, said Larry Levitt, a senior adviser at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care think tank.

But the skinny repeal is probably not the objective, analysts said.

The notion that skinny repeal itself is the end game is laughable, said Sam Berger, a former Obama administration health official now at the liberal Center for American Progress. The right way to look at this is a vote for skinny repeal is a vote for the House bill.

This is really about the House bill, Slavitt said.

On Thursday, the Senate will begin debate and a long series of votes on amendments from both parties that could continue into the early hours of Friday morning. The Senate is expected to cast its decisive vote on the stripped-down repeal bill sometime Friday afternoon.

If that passes, the door would be opened to the conference committee. Legislation that emerges from that would have to be passed by both chambers on an up-or-down vote with no amendments.

At that point, Slavitt said, pressure on Republicans would be intense. Trump has already exerted pressure on Republicans to deliver a bill to his desk.

You no longer have any leverage offering amendments, he said, and McConnell can cast it as, I hate the Affordable Care Act, or I love the Affordable Care Act. Which way do you go?

Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: CLochhead@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynlochhead
When Thomas Schnetz and Dona Savitsky opened Dona Tomas in 1999, they were pioneers in the culinary awakening of the Temescal district in Oakland. With their brand of locally sourced Mexican food, they lured people from far outside the neighborhood.

Last year the business partners split and Savitsky, who once was the chef at the now defunct Cafe Marimba in San Francisco, took sole ownership of the restaurant, which has a nicely worn patina and an expansive patio that makes it a prime destination on many days.

Ive been there a half-dozen times over the years and was impressed with the food. On my most recent visit, however, the service was lacking and the kitchen seemed in disarray.

I looked longingly at the tomato salad ($6) on the next table because a half hour after ordering we were still waiting for our drinks (let alone any of the food we had ordered)  and sitting in front of a plate of tortilla chip crumbs.

Finally the Bohemia ($5.50) and the Margarita de la Reyna ($12) with Tapatio Blanco Tequila Cointreau and lime arrived  it was worth the wait  and the waiter apologized by saying the bar was really backed up. She assured us she was following up on our food order. Five minutes later, the pickled vegetables ($5) arrived, but then we waited 15 more minutes before we saw the Little Gem salad with pumpkin seeds and lemon vinaigrette ($10) and the chicken soup ($9), which I remembered having been a strength of the kitchen. The salad was good, but the soup came across as one-dimensional, needing a little salt to balance the acid.

After 15 minutes more with empty plates before us, the waiter stopped by again to say that she was continuing to monitor the food but that the kitchen was backed up. She said she talked to the manager and they would remove a few things from the ticket (we got a $14 credit). It was a nice gesture, but looking around the room it seemed the food was slow in coming to everyone.

Finally the main courses arrived. The chicken enchiladas con mole rojo ($20) had a complex sauce with notes of chocolate and chile, but they were tepid as were the accompanying beans. The carnitas ($21) looked as if they were scraped from the bottom of the pan. They were dry and had a leftover taste. However, by placing them in the thin, light tortillas with salsa fresca and black beans, they made a fine taco.

By that time, it became obvious the tomatoes wed ordered and coveted from the other table were never going to appear  and I didnt want to ask. In another dereliction of duty, I decided that after two hours I couldnt wait for dessert, no matter how good the slice of tres leches cake ($8) looked as it passed by.

I may have been there on a particularly bad night, but the place seemed fully staffed and the restaurant was never completely full.

What I observed seemed to point to a mostly disorganized staff, both the front and the back of the house.

Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. Find his blog at http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com and his reviews on www.sfchronicle.com. E-mail: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1 Instagram: @michaelbauer1

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

 

Dona Tomas

Food:  

Service:  

Atmosphere:  

Price: $$$

Noise: Four Bells
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Courtesy San Jose Museum of Art Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy San Jose Museum of Art Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Diana Al-Hadids Nollis Orders is the centerpiece of Liquid City, her ongoing show at the San Jose Museum of Art. At first glance, the sculpture  which, along with the rest of the exhibition, will be up through Sept. 24  resembles stacked layers of melted wax running down the sides of veined, multicolored stones. It looks like a civilization in flux, like a city in ruins, or maybe like a city growing up from the ground itself.

Nollis Orders is a product of more than two years worth of meticulous work. But the eventual outcome, an ambitious, imposing sculpture standing over 10 feet tall, came as a surprise to even Al-Hadid herself.
Video of a confrontation between a street vendor and a man walking his dog in Los Angeles is circulating online and stirring public outrage.

The vendor, Benjamin Ramirez, told KTLA he began recording when the man, who spoke in Spanish, demanded, "Move the cart, or I'm going to move it myself."

The man then hands his dog's leash to a woman he was with and approaches Ramirez with something that looks like a stun gun. Ramirez reacts by throwing chili powder on the man, who then flips the food cart on its side, causing its contents to pour into the street.

Ramirez told reporters that the man, who said he was Argentinian, was upset with Mexican food vendors and has harassed him before.

As the man walks away, Ramirez assesses the damage on camera and says in Spanish, "I'm recording this because this racist ... threw my things," according to the Los Angeles Times.

More for you Fresno middle school forced to reprint yearbook after racist imagery discovered

The other man responds, "I'm not racist. I'm Argentinian."

While the confrontation happened on July 17, the video spread on social media Monday, quickly garnering millions of views. Activist groups like March & Rally Los Angeles are blaming racist attitudes for the attack.

A rally to support Ramirez and the legalization of street vending in Los Angeles is being planned for Thursday. More than 700 people have said they're attending the event on Facebook and another 3,500 have indicated they are interested.

A GoFundMe claiming to benefit Ramirez has already raised more than $4,000. The fundraising page's description reads in part: "Please donate so that we can replace and give Benjamin a new cart. Let's send a message that hate will not trump elotes!"

The LA Times reports that street vending is technically still illegal in Los Angeles, but the city council recently decriminalized the act to avoid an elevated risk of deportation for street vendors during the Trump administration.

Both men are due in civil court later this week, KNBC reports.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.
Filipa Ioannou / The Chronicle

A rollover crash on Niles Canyon Road east of Fremont Monday took the life of a woman fleeing a separate collision, police said Tuesday.

The crash occurred about 12:35 p.m. Monday, and Niles Canyon Road was closed more than six hours, according to police.
In October, AngelList, a company that helps tech startups raise money and hire employees, held an office retreat. In the Hollywood Hills, far from Silicon Valley, the firms mostly male staff mingled poolside with bikini-clad women.

Before the afternoon was over, Babak Nivi, a founder and board member at AngelList, said things that made Julie Ruvolo, a contractor, uncomfortable about working at the company. His comments included a suggestion that the women, who were not employees, warm up the pool by jumping in and rubbing their bodies together. The incident was described by two entrepreneurs who were told about it in the weeks after it occurred.

Precisely what occurred at the Hollywood Hills event and the details of the agreement are not publicly known. Several weeks after the party, each side signed a non-disparagement clause as part of a settlement, the two people said. And neither Ruvolo nor AngelList is permitted to talk about what happened that day.

As more harassment allegations come to light, employment lawyers say non-disparagement agreements have helped enable a culture of secrecy. In particular, the tech startup world has been roiled by accounts of workplace sexual harassment, and non-disparagement clauses have played a significant role in keeping those accusations secret. Harassers move on and harass again. Women have no way of knowing their history. Nor do future employers or business partners.

Non-disparagement clauses are not limited to legal settlements. They are increasingly found in standard employment contracts. Their use has become particularly widespread in Silicon Valley, from venture investment firms and startups to the biggest companies, including Google.

Google declined to comment on its use of non-disparagement agreements.

Non-disparagement clauses have become so common that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal discrimination laws, and the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that protects workers rights, have been studying whether they are having a chilling effect on workers speaking up about wrongdoing or filing lawsuits, said Orly Lobel, a law professor at the University of San Diego.

Employees increasingly have to give up their constitutional right to speak freely about their experiences if they want to be part of the workforce, said Nancy E. Smith, a partner at the law firm Smith Mullin. The silence sends a message: Mens jobs are more important than womens lives.

At Binary Capital, a venture capital firm in San Francisco that collapsed last month under the weight of multiple sexual harassment allegations, new hires signed an employment contract that included the clause that employee shall not disparage the company, according to a contract quoted in a lawsuit filed against the firm last month.

Ann Lai, a former employee, said in her lawsuit filed in San Mateo Superior Court in California that she had complained to her bosses about sexism, discrimination and inappropriate behavior in the workplace, and that Binary used the non-disparagement provision in her employment contract to threaten her.

The founders of Binary Capital, Justin Caldbeck and Jonathan Teo, did not respond to a request for comment. Chris Baker, an employment lawyer at the law firm Baker Curtis & Schwartz who represents Lai and has sued Google over broad nondisclosure provisions, declined to comment specifically on Lais case.

AngelList grappled with a harassment disclosure after the tech news site TechCrunch reported that AngelList was investigating whether a different partner had sexually harassed someone at a previous job. The company, based in San Francisco, confirmed that it had suspended an employee pending an investigation.

Nivi continued to serve on the companys board. The non-disparagement clause prevented potential employees and partners from knowing such allegations had been made.

Nivi said by email, these statements about me are not true.

Ruvolo says she wants to talk about her situation, but cannot. I asked AngelList to release me from the agreement, but they have declined, Ruvolo said. The company did not acknowledge a non-disparagement deal exists.

I wonder how I may have disserviced other women working in tech, including my female colleagues, with my silence, she said. I think we need to rethink what it means to ask for or grant silence as resolution.

AngelList said Nivi has no role at the company and is no longer a board member, but would not say when or why he left the board.

When we conduct investigations, individuals are removed from the workplace, given counseling if needed, and cant contact complainants, Graham Jenkin, AngelLists chief operating officer, said in a statement. Any implication that we would silence anyone or not pursue an issue is mistaken.

Jenkin disputed some of the details of the poolside incident, but would not provide clarification.

Ruvolo, who was a freelance writer for AngelList and whose contract was not renewed this year, said she could not comment on the event that led to her agreement or on the terms of the deal.

Companies wave the agreements around and use them to force a settlement and make the problem go away, said Karen Kessler, chief executive of the public relations firm Evergreen Partners. After that nobody is the wiser for it.

Katie Benner is a New York Times writer.
Even after Ghatkopar building collapse, more than 250 people living in a dilapidated building named Raj Kishore in Kandivli west are not willing to vacate it, even after BMC's request.

By Vidya : Even after Ghatkopar building collapse, more than 250 people living in a dilapidated building named Raj Kishore in Kandivli west are not willing to vacate it, even after BMC's request.

Each time BMC officials come here to tell them to move out, they have some or the other reason to justify and extend their stay in this dilapidated building which is covered with tarpauline to save the residents from rain.

advertisement

Raj Kishore Building is 32 years old and a structural audit was done in 2012, and it was found to be dilapidated. Since then, the BMC officials of the local ward have been coming here year after year during monsoon season to convince the residents to leave.

Ashok Khaire, deputy municipal commissioner zone seven, along with his team of officers has reached the building again on Wednesday to convince them to leave before they have to resort to evacuating the residents using force. Prior to this, the BMC officials had also disconnected water and electricity supply to the building to force people out, but after the residents pleaded, it was restored.

"These people just refuse to leave. They keep saying that we will leave in 15 days, but who has seen when a tragedy will strike. Lives of people are much more important than anything else, so we have year after year resorted to evacuating buildings which can just fall any time,"says Khaire.

Residents on the other hand have a list of problems which they cite to not leave the building.

"We have to look for another house in the area as children have to go to school and the rent is so high that many of us cannot afford a house here. If a builder comes in, then by the time he constructs at least during that time we will get rent, so we can survive around here," says Prityajit Kumar Shah, a resident of the building.

The residents say that a few years ago they had appointed a builder who backed out at the last minute. After this they got into agreement with another developer whose papers are still pending with another department of BMC which is not getting cleared.

The process mandates that the dilapidated society has to appoint a developer who in turn has to appoint an architect. The architect then submits a redevelopment proposal to the BMC. If all the documents are in order, then all proposal is accepted online and an intimation of disapproval (IOD) is issued. Then, the developer shifts the residents of the dilapidated building helping arrange for their stay in a transit location after which a commencement certificate or a (CC) is then issued. The residents of Raj Kishore Building say that BMC as yet has not issued an IOD so the redevelopment work has not started and because of that they cannot afford to go and live outside the premises. The BMC officials, on the other hand, say that the paper work brought forth by the society is not complete because of which the IOD has not been issued.

advertisement

Whatever said and done, this entire procedure does put the residents to risk.

Another resident Umesh Mehta says, "We have given a letter to the BMC that if anything happens to the building and any untoward happens then BMC is not responsible. We are living here at our own risk."

However, BMC refuses to let such residents to continue living so precariously. Sahebrao Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner , says, "Even if they give such notice, does this mean we will let them live here. We cannot let lives be lost because of this. We will make sure that the residents of these buildings leave this building right away."

BMC is planning to forcefully remove the residents on Thursday after which a seal would be put on this building. Just in this area, there are 64 such dilapidated buildings out of which the residents of at least 16 have managed to get a stay on their evacuation from court.

advertisement

ALSO READ:

Mumbai building collapse: 17 killed; Shiv Sena leader, who wanted to make hotel on ground floor, arrested

Ghatkopar building collapse: 17 dead, 6 injured; man rescued after 15 hours

--- ENDS ---
Takata, the Japanese auto parts maker hurt by air bag recalls, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and said it would sell its surviving operations to a Chinese-owned American rival, Key Safety Systems.

The deal seals the fate of the company at the center of the farthest-reaching auto safety crisis in history. Exploding Takata air bags have been linked to at least 14 deaths. Carmakers have recalled nearly 70 million of the companys air bags in the United States, in 42 million vehicles, as well as millions overseas.

Takata said it will sell its factories and other assets to Key Safety Systems, which makes air bags and other auto safety equipment. Key Safety Systems said it will buy Takatas factories and other assets for about $1.6 billion. Key is based in Michigan but is owned by Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. in China.

The deal effectively means the end of Takata, which was established in 1933 and is still controlled by its founding family.

CEO Shigehisa Takada said a court-supervised restructuring is the best way to ensure that Takata can keep supplying automakers.

A new corporate entity will take over Takatas production operations, which encompass seat belts and other equipment as well as air bags. Takata has held on to about 20 percent of the global air bag market, which is dominated by a handful of companies.

Takata will continue to exist on paper, working to pay off debts.

Takata owes billions of dollars to banks and automakers, which have been paying to replace tens of millions of potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators. And it has promised the U.S. government that it will pay $125 million in compensation to victims.

Takatas bankruptcy is thought to be the largest ever by a Japanese manufacturing company. Takata said it could not yet estimate the scale of the liabilities it would ultimately face. But the figure is expected to be about $10 billion.

Streaming video

Nielsen adds YouTube, Hulu

Ratings service Nielsen announced Tuesday that it will begin to tabulate how many people get their live TV from Hulu and YouTube, an effort to provide a more accurate picture of how many people now watch broadcast networks by streaming them, rather than watching them on traditional TV.

Hulu and YouTube have not revealed how many people have subscribed to their live TV services, introduced in the spring as a counter to cable TV.

Subscribers can stream channels live on laptops, smartphones and elsewhere. They can also record shows digitally or watch them on demand. Each service costs nearly $40 a month.

Media companies base the amount they charge advertisers on the number of people who are watching at a particular time, and want to insure that online viewers are also counted as more people shift to using online streaming services.

Real estate

Home prices

hit 6th high

Home prices reached a high in May for the sixth straight month, raising concern about another housing bubble roughly a decade after a previous one burst.

The S&P CoreLogic national home price index increased 5.6 percent in May, the latest data available. It is now 3.2 percent higher than its July 2006 peak.

Some analysts downplay the notion of a new bubble, and the unrelenting price increases may already be cooling sales. Other aspects of the last decades housing boom and bust, such as rapid sales increases and more home building, arent happening now.

Much of the price gain is being driven by San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore. All three cities have strong population growth and more rental properties than other U.S. cities, S&P said.

Economy

Consumers

more confident

Consumers gained confidence this month, with more Americans pleased by current conditions and more hopeful about the future.

The Conference Board, a New York business research group, says its consumer confidence index in July rose to 121.1, up from a revised reading of 117.3 in June. Views on current conditions hit the highest level since July 2001, while expectations for the future rebounded after a slight dip in June.

Economists say the readings are being bolstered by the 4.4 percent jobless rate in June.

Michael Pearce, a U.S. economist for Capital Economics, said the strong confidence readings are a sign that recent weakness in retail sales will prove to be temporary.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic growth.

The overall confidence reading of 121.1 was the highest since the confidence index hit 124.9 in March. Both of those readings were the highest since confidence stood at 128.6 in December 2000.

Federal Reserve

Trump weighs

appointment

President Trump said Tuesday that hes considering either renominating Janet Yellen for a second term as Fed chief or replacing her with someone else, possibly Gary Cohn, who leads his National Economic Council.

Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he has a lot of respect for Yellen and thinks she is serving capably. The president said hes still considering asking her to serve four more years after her term ends in February. But he said hes also looking at other candidates, including Cohn, who joined the administration after a 26-year career at Goldman Sachs.

Yellen has declined to say whether she wants to serve another term. She has said only that she is focused on doing her job and will remain in place through the end of her term Feb. 3.

Executives

Blue Apron

shakes up team

Blue Apron said Tuesday that it is revamping its leadership team.

The home delivery meal-kit company said that co-founder Matthew Wadiak would step down as chief operating officer to become a senior adviser.

Tim Smith, vice president of supply chain, has been named senior vice president and general manager of consumer products, a newly created role overseeing efforts to personalize and expand offerings for customers. He will report to CEO Matt Salzberg.

We believe this will enable us to cater to more households, and in turn expand our community of passionate home cooks, Smith said in a statement.

Blue Apron said Pablo Cussatti, a senior vice president of operations, would also now report to Salzberg.

Since its initial public offering in late June, Blue Apron has struggled to gain momentum.

Its shares opened at $10 and they have yet to finish a day trading above that price. They closed Tuesday at $7.50.

Monday, a handful of analysts at firms that underwrote the IPO began covering the stock with a buy rating.

Chronicle News Services
A New Jersey pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $280 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that it committed fraud by promoting a drug for leprosy and another therapy for unapproved cancer treatments, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The agreement settled claims made in Los Angeles federal court by a former sales manager, who said Celgene had submitted false claims to Medicare and health care programs in 28 states and the District of Columbia, which were all parties to the settlement.

Beverly Brown had worked as an immunology specialist who was trained to aggressively promote Thalomid and Revlimid drugs for cancer treatments that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Thalomid, another name for thalidomide, a drug prescribed for morning sickness in the 1950s and 1960s that caused severe birth defects, was approved in 1998 for treating about a fraction of the few hundred leprosy cases diagnosed in the United States each year, according to court filings. Revlimid is derived from thalidomide and was a successor to the earlier drug.

While the two drugs were later approved for limited cancer treatments, the company promoted them widely to doctors for multiple kinds of cancer years in advance of approvals, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit claimed that Celgene used false and misleading statements and paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe the drugs.

A judge threw out the kickbacks allegation but allowed the lawsuit to move forward.

Celgene denied wrongdoing and settled to avoid uncertainty, distraction and expensive litigation, the company said.

Brown, who brought the case in 2010 on behalf of the U.S. government under a federal whistle-blower law, could receive 25 to 30 percent of the settlement  as much as $84 million.

Im extremely pleased to have been a part of recouping this amount of money for the taxpayer, and for seeing our courageous client Beverly Brown vindicated in pursuing this matter, her lawyer, Thomas Bienert, said.

Brian Melley is an Associated Press writer.
Lyfts business has been booming as its primary competitor, Uber Technologies, has faced an executive exodus and a string of scandals.

Total revenue generated by Lyft drivers, or the companys gross bookings, grew about 25 percent to more than $1 billion in the second quarter, from more than $800 million in the previous period, according to people familiar with the matter. Thats a faster rate than Uber, which told investors this month that it expected gross bookings to increase in the midteens for the quarter.

Lyfts continued growth is a sign the company has seized on its competitors missteps. In a reversal, Uber has played catch-up to Lyft lately, finally embracing in-application tipping after years of resisting. In June, Uber started a campaign to win over drivers, many of whom say they prefer to work for Lyft.

Its not just drivers who have defected to Lyft: Uber saw more than 500,000 people delete the ride-hailing app in late January and early February after the company was accused of attempting to subvert a driver strike. That public unrest, rooted in Ubers decision to join an advisory council to President Trump, was the first of a number of incidents that humbled the company and ultimately forced CEO Travis Kalanick to resign.

Lyft has generally avoided much public gloating about its competitors fumbles, while at the same time seizing on its competitors vulnerability. Lyft made a $1 million donation to the American Civil Liberties Union just as Uber was under fire for its Trump ties.

Despite Ubers problems at its San Francisco headquarters, the companys business has continued to grow. Gross bookings surpassed $8.25 billion in the second quarter of this year, based on what the company told investors during a conference call this month. Lyft operates only in the U.S. Uber, in conjunction with partners, is a global business.

While losses for both companies remain significant, investors have continued to put billions into the ride-hailing companies. Uber lost $708 million in the first three months of the year. Lyft expected to lose about $130 million in the first quarter, according to financial documents prepared before the end of that period that have been reported by Bloomberg. Neither companys second-quarter losses have become public, though Uber told its investors that its losses were declining.

Lyft has achieved incredible growth this year and enters the second half of 2017 in a very strong position, Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts said in a statement. With Lyft available to nearly 80 percent of the U.S. population, we are well positioned to continue our growth in 2017 and beyond.

Uber has begun to publicly disclose its financial results. Lyft has been far more secretive about its results.

Gross bookings provide a rough estimate of the value of a ride-hailing companys business. Lyft and Uber generally take a 20 to 30 percent cut of gross bookings, meaning that $1 billion in bookings for Lyft this quarter could translate to anywhere between $200 million to $300 million in revenue.

Rides also grew significantly. Lyft passengers took about as many rides in the first half of this year as they did in all of 2016, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the numbers are private. In June, Lyft began facilitating 1 million rides a day.

Eric Newcomer is a Bloomberg writer. Email: enewcomer@bloomberg.net
Michael Kors has picked out some new shoes to go with its handbags.

On Tuesday, Michael Kors Holdings of New York said it had agreed to buy shoe company Jimmy Choo of London for about $1.2 billion, the latest push by a U.S. high-end fashion house to find new sources of growth and what its chief executive characterized as the first step in building a bigger international luxury group.

Many upscale brands like Michael Kors have faced plummeting sales and tepid profits. Mall traffic in North America has declined sharply, while shoppers who have traditionally been loyal to the middle market have gravitated toward brands at extremes of the style and price spectrum.

Jimmy Choo, which shot to prominence thanks to celebrity patrons like Princess Diana and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, could give Michael Kors a new avenue for growth.

Acquiring Jimmy Choo is the beginning of a strategy that we have for building a luxury group that really is focused on international fashion brands, John Idol, the chairman and chief executive officer of Michael Kors Holdings, said.

Though both Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo styles are red-carpet favorites, the brands appeal to different segments of the population.

Michael Kors, known for fashion-forward designs and competitive prices, is heavily reliant on outlets and department stores, where deep discounting is common. Leather purses sell for as little as $70 and handbags are available for $95.

Jimmy Choo products are more expensive. Open-toe slip-on sandals sell for $425, while crystal-encrusted shoes with the brands signature sky-high stiletto heels go for nearly $3,000. The brand brings Michael Kors not only a different range of customers, but also hefty profit margins and an upmarket aura.

After the sale, Michael Kors said, Jimmy Choo will continue with its current management team, including Pierre Denis, the CEO, and Sandra Choi, Choos niece. The shoemaker has more than 150 stores globally, as well as a presence in many of the worlds top department stores.

Michael Kors said it expects to open more Jimmy Choo retail stores and expand its fashion offerings. It also plans to develop Jimmy Choos online presence, part of a broader push by brands to win over fickle shoppers and fend off the threat posed by Amazon. Idol said Michael Kors wants to increase Jimmy Choos sales to $1 billion annually.

Elizabeth Paton and Chad Bray are New York Times writers.
SoftBank, the Japanese technology and media giant, is weighing an investment in Uber at a time when the San Francisco ride-hailing companys leadership is in flux, according to three people with knowledge of the talks.

SoftBanks investment interest in Uber is nascent and the two companies have held only preliminary meetings, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

But if a deal were to be reached, it would add to a convoluted web of investments in the ride-hailing industry, where competitors have become strange bedfellows through investors who have placed bets on multiple companies.

SoftBank holds a position in Ola, the dominant ride-hailing company in India, which is locked in a battle with Uber across the country. SoftBank has also invested in Didi Chuxing, which until last year was deadlocked with Uber for supremacy in Chinas transportation market. On Sunday, SoftBank also invested in Grab, a Singaporean ride-hailing company, in a $2.5 billion round that Didi Chuxing also participated in.

Uber and SoftBank declined to comment.

SoftBanks interest in Uber indicates it may be hedging its bets amid intense competition in the ride-hailing industry. Many ride-hailing companies have been forced to raise billions of dollars in private capital to fund expansion of their operations, which often involves subsidizing trips for riders in new markets. That intense spending has put strain on a number of ride-hailing startups.

Uber has been one of the companies that drove the cutthroat competition in the ride-hailing industry, by spending heavily and slashing costs for passengers. But that has begun to change in recent months as the company has dealt with turmoil in its executive suite.

Last month, Travis Kalanick, an Uber founder and longtime chief executive, resigned after an investor coup pushed him out of his top position at the company. Kalanick was considered a key proponent of spending heavily to expand into new markets. The ride-hailing company is now in the midst of its search for its next leader.

Uber has slowly begun to retrench on some of its more ambitious international expansion plans. Last year, the company sold its Chinese business to Didi for a stake in the Chinese company. This month, Uber sold off its business in Russia and Eastern Europe to Russias Yandex, again for a stake in a new, jointly operated company.

Mike Isaac is a New York Times writer.
The Trump administration is weighing whether to support online sales taxes that could give state governments greater flexibility in their budgets.

Testifying before a Senate panel on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House is looking very closely at this issue and that it intends to come out with a position shortly.

Mnuchin told members of the appropriations subcommittee that the policy could be an important way for states to fund infrastructure  an issue that President Trump has touted as a key part of his agenda with a $1 trillion spending plan.

Some analysts have questioned the feasibility of that plan because it would cut federal investments in infrastructure by tens of billions of dollars. But allowing states to require companies to collect and remit taxes on online sales could help make up some of the shortfall.

While Americans are technically expected to report taxes on online transactions, the rule is rarely followed or enforced. Companies may voluntarily collect online sales taxes on a states behalf, but they arent required unless they have a physical presence of some kind in the state.

A bill in Congress, the Marketplace Fairness Act, would make collection of online sales taxes mandatory for companies. The bipartisan proposal  co-sponsors include Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.  contains an exemption for small businesses. Broadly speaking, however, the bill could bring in tens of billions of dollars in additional revenue for state budgets.

During Wednesdays hearing, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told Mnuchin that collection of online sales taxes would be almost salvation to most of the states, especially rural states that dont have the expertise or the far-ranging ability to chase down all these Internet sales that are coming in. He said he hoped the administration would look at this seriously.

Huge online retailers such as Amazon were initially opposed to the bill years ago but have since come around. Amazon now collects sales taxes in 46 states and the District of Columbia. It increasingly operates physical warehouses in many states, and complying with a federal law would be less burdensome than working with a patchwork of state laws, some analysts say.

Yet Amazon, due to its sheer size, may be better equipped to collect sales taxes than its smaller rivals.

Even if the Trump administration comes out in support of online sales taxes, that wont necessarily mean the rapid passage of congressional legislation. Online sales taxes are distinct from taxes on Internet service, which Congress and President Barack Obama banned in 2016.

Brian Fung is a Washington Post writer.
Waymo claims Uber Technologies Inc. had an accomplice in the theft of invaluable driverless technology trade secrets  the ride-hailing giants own lawyers.

Uber relied heavily on attorneys at San Franciscos Morrison & Foerster to suss out and contain any proprietary information that may have been taken by one of Waymos lead engineers, Anthony Levandowski, when he abruptly quit last year. He later joined Uber, bringing with him other former engineers from Alphabets self-driving unit.

Waymo has alleged that the lawyers helped cover up the theft and said it wants to call them as witnesses. U.S. District Judge William Alsup indicated at a hearing Wednesday that he probably wont disqualify the firm from continuing to represent Uber, but he put it on notice that its role in the high-stakes drama will be an issue at trial in October.

MoFo is a character in the story to be told to the jury, Alsup said, using the firms nickname. MoFos name is going to come up time and time again.

Waymo wants jurors to learn about how the lawyers handled Ubers $680 million acquisition of Levandowskis company, Ottomotto, and the engineers move to the ride-hailing company. Waymo is aiming to use those details to buttress its claims Uber colluded with Levandowski to steal prized technology in the heated race to commercialize autonomous vehicles.

Arturo Gonzalez, a Morrison & Foerster partner representing Uber, said before Wednesdays hearing that Waymo is trying to knock his firm off the case out of desperation.

Having found no evidence to support their claims, they ask themselves What do we do? he said. And someone raises their hand and says, I know, lets try to disqualify their lawyer.

Uber contends Waymo is mischaracterizing the actions of its outside lawyers, who it says did the right thing by hiring cyberforensics firm Stroz Friedberg to quarantine any sensitive information Levandowski had from Waymo or Google  and wall it off from Uber  during the due-diligence vetting of the Ottomotto acquisition.

MoFo and Stroz were retained for the very purpose of preventing any violation of intellectual property rights in connection with Ubers acquisition of Ottomotto, and were contractually bound not to (and did not) disclose to Uber any confidential or proprietary Waymo information, Uber argued in a court filing.

Waymo claims the law firm trafficked in stolen files  or at least descriptions of stolen files  when its lawyers helped structure the Ottomotto acquisition. Thats why the lawyers should be required to testify and the firm as a whole should be disqualified from defending Uber, Waymo contends.

MoFo attorneys appear all over critical, relevant documents to this case, Waymo said in a court filing. Possession by MoFo of stolen documents, the circumstances under which it acquired those documents, and the treatment of those documents after acquisition by MoFo are all directly relevant to Waymos trade secret claims.

In recent weeks, lawyers at another firm representing Uber  Boies, Schiller & Flexner  have taken on a more prominent role drafting court filings and representing the company in hearings.

Waymo has also accused Stroz and Morrison of violating court orders to turn over proprietary information, including files from the law firms representation of Levandowski in arbitration proceedings brought by Google last year. A hearing on those claims is scheduled for Aug. 16.

In other Uber news, former CEO Travis Kalanick hired former San Francisco U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and one of her colleagues at Orrick to represent him in the suit.

Haag held her post as Northern Californias top prosecutor from 2010 to 2015 under President Barack Obama, leading one of the largest regional outposts of the Justice Department and one of the most active in white-collar prosecutions. The other attorney Kalanick retained from the San Francisco law firm, Walt Brown, also specializes in corporate criminal defense. Orrick confirmed the hiring while declining to comment further.

Joel Rosenblatt is a Bloomberg writer. Email: jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net
The accused Shiv Sena leader in the Ghatkopar building collapse case, Sunil Shitap was produced in the Vikhroli metropolitan magistrate's court on Wednesday.

By Divyesh Singh: The accused Shiv Sena leader in the Ghatkopar building collapse case, Sunil Shitap was produced in the Vikhroli metropolitan magistrate's court on Wednesday. The accused's lawyer advocate Sharif Shaikh argued that the charge under Section 304(2) of IPC doesn't stand against his client as he had no intent of causing any collapse or damage to the building.

Meanwhile, the rescue operations have been stopped after 32 hours.

advertisement

He also stated that Shitap had asked the residents of the ill-fated building Sai Damodar Park to carry out repairs as the building was in a bad state, but the residents refused. Advocate Shaikh also said that Shitap hadn't made any structural changes that could have led to the collapse so there is no need for him to be sent to police custody remand.

The public prosecutor Vaishali Agavane argued that Shitap needs to be sent to police custody remand for at least ten days as police have to probe role of other accused involved. The remand sought by police said that tools used in renovations work carried out in the ground floor premises have to be recovered, other accused in the case, like contractors, workers and architects are to be identified and arrested.

Agavane also claimed that Shitap wasn't cooperating and didn't reveal details about the contractors and workers he had employed for the renovation work.

Hearing arguments from both sides, the judge sent Shitap to police custody remand till August 2. The Parksite Police would interrogate Shitap to identify other accused involved in the case and would arrest them.

Meanwhile, proppings have been recovered from the collapse site which are suspected to be the ones used by Shitap in the ground floor premises where he ran his nursing home. Proppings are used only at sites where there are chances that the ceiling or upper floors might collapse which hints that Shitap and the contractors had an idea or suspected a collapse.

ALSO READ:

Mumbai building collapse: 17 killed; Shiv Sena leader, who wanted to make hotel on ground floor, arrested

Ghatkopar building collapse: 17 dead, 6 injured; man rescued after 15 hours

Mumbai's Ghatkopar building collapse: Mega city, maximum apathy

--- ENDS ---
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

San Franciscans love their food trucks. When the food is free, that's even better.

United Airlines is hoping to use that love to drum up interest in their new route from San Francisco to Munich.

Through August 13, United's food truck will be parked at one of three locations starting at 11 a.m. every day. You'll be able to find the truck in SoMa along Brannan Street, in the Financial District somewhere on Sansome Street, or in Mission Bay on Mission Bay Boulevard North.

The airline won't announce the food truck's exact location, so you'll have to be on the lookout in those neighborhoods if you're looking for a free bite to eat.

But don't come too hungry, the truck isn't serving up a full menu: They'll be handing out horseshoe almond and apple crumb cakes, to give people a taste of German desserts.

"It's a sweet way to give our customers a little insight into a cool destination, which will hopefully spark their interest to travel there," United spokesperson Maddie King told SFGATE.

San Francisco isn't the only place the airline is treating to free food. United also has a food truck roaming the streets of New York City. The truck there is serving rugelach and black and white cookies to promote a new route from Newark to Tel Aviv. That truck is also serving dulce de leche doughnuts and coconut cream pineapple doughnuts for a flight to Buenos Aires, and even more doughnuts (cherry and "yuzu" lemon zest flavors) celebrating the airline's flights to Tokyo, according to the Chicago Business Journal.

United's new seasonal route between SFO and Munich leaves daily on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and is the first time the airline has flown nonstop between the two cities.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

One day later, Giants manager Bruce Bochy offered no regrets for his second-inning ejection Monday night  and Bochy acknowledged his frustration stretched beyond discontent with Chris Conroys strike zone.

Put another way: This dreadful, miserable season spilled into the open, absolutely.

Youre going to have nights like that when you dont agree with the strike zone, Bochy said before Tuesday nights game against Pittsburgh. Chris does a good job back there. Its just frustration with how things are going here, too. You dont get a call, and then that same at-bat the ball leaves the park for a three-run homer.

Its just mounting up. Bottom line, we have to play better, we have to pitch better, we have to swing the bats better. The umpire had nothing to do with what happened last night.

The Giants made a roster move Tuesday, hoping to fortify their weary bullpen. They summoned Chris Stratton from Triple-A Sacramento; Tuesday was Strattons scheduled day to start for Sacramento, so hell be available in the bullpen for the Giants on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Ive got some guys who need a break down there, Bochy said.

The Giants created a roster spot for Stratton by sending outfielder Orlando Calixte back to Sacramento.

Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 (Photo by Marc Broussely/Redferns)/Redferns Show More Show Less 2 of 3 ANDY PHILLIPS/VIRGIN Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark may best be remembered for its John Hughes-era hits like If You Leave and So In Love. But since its 1980s heyday, the British synth pop duo (known simply as OMD) has continued pushing forward with its distinctive brand of electronic music.

The group is set to release its 13th full-length album, The Punishment of Luxury, in September and will preview it with a career-spanning show that touches on both its experimental roots and pop peaks. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys remain proudly uncool, but the musics dark beauty more than compensates for their lack of stage finesse. They perform at the Regency Ballroom on Friday, July 28.
OMAHA, Neb.  Two Omaha police officers will face assault charges in the death of a mentally ill man who was shocked with a stun gun a dozen times and repeatedly punched, even after he was on the ground, a Nebraska prosecutor said Wednesday.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine made the announcement while revealing police video that captured the altercation officers Scotty Payne and Ryan McClarty had with 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels at an Omaha convenience store. Kleine said he wouldnt file more serious charges against the officers because a coroner could not directly link their actions to the Oklahoma mans death.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman who served in the U.S. military and was court-martialed under the Espionage Act, slammed President Trump on Twitter for his announcement that transgender people could not serve in the military in any capacity.

Manning tweeted that the presidents move sounds like cowardice and wrote that denying health care costs to transgender troops while supporting the $400 billion F-35 fighter jet program is further reason we should dismantle the bloated and dangerous military/intel/police state.

Her barrage of tweets came shortly after Trump took to Twitter to announce that after consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, he tweeted.

More for you Trump tweets that transgender people cant serve in military

Manning, 29, was instantly attacked on Twitter for her comments on Trump. One user tweeted that she belongs in prison, to which she responded to, so not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after leaking classified government documents to Wikileaks, in one of the largest leaks in history.

She served seven years of her sentence at the military prison in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., before being pardoned by former President Barack Obama.

Manning, who came out as transgender one day before being sentenced, was released from jail on May 17.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
WASHINGTON  After seven years of emphatic campaign promises, Senate Republicans demonstrated Wednesday they dont have the stomach to repeal Obamacare when it really counts, as the Senate voted 55-45 to reject legislation undoing major portions of Barack Obamas law without replacing it.

Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting a measure by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky that would have repealed most of former President Obamas health care law, with a two-year delay but no replacement. Congress passed nearly identical legislation in 2015 and sent it to Obama, who unsurprisingly vetoed it.

Yet this time, with Republican President Trump in the White House itching to sign the bill, the measure failed on the Senate floor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing Obamas Affordable Care Act without replacing it would cost more than 30 million Americans their insurance coverage, and that was a key factor in driving away more Republican senators than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose in the closely divided Senate.

The result frustrated other GOP senators, some of whom expressed disbelief that their colleagues would flip-flop on legislation they had voted for only two years ago and long promised to voters. Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed the 2015 repeal bill.

Make no mistake: Todays vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal, said Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. We still have a long, long way to go  both in health policy and in honesty.

Yet the outcome was hardly a shock in a Senate thats already shown that unity is elusive when it comes to dealing with the Affordable Care Act. The real-world implications of repeal have proven sobering to GOP senators answering to voters whove come to rely on expanded insurance coverage under the law.

What the partys senators will end up agreeing on instead is far from clear. Yet they plunged forward with debate toward their unknown goal, pressured by an impatient president. By weeks end Republicans hope to reach agreement among themselves, and eventually with the House, on some kind of repeal and replacement for the Obama law they have reviled for so long.

We have to keep working hard, said McConnell, R-Ky. Were determined to do everything we can to succeed. We know our constituents are counting on us.

The days proceedings began with prodding from Trump, whos proved impatient and inconsistent throughout the health care debate and yet can claim some credit for resuscitating Senate talks after McConnell essentially declared them dead last week.

The president singled out Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had voted the day before against opening long-awaited debate on the legislation, and also opposed a wide-ranging McConnell amendment Tuesday that offered a replacement for Obamacare and went down to defeat.

Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote.

I dont really follow Twitter that much, Murkowski remarked to reporters later with a shrug.

Murkowski was also among the seven GOP senators who voted no Wednesday on the repeal-only bill. The others were Collins, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

While pressure and deal-making helped win over vacillating Republicans to begin debate, they remained fragmented over what to do next.

It seems the Republican majority is no clearer on what the end game is, because theres no good way out of this, said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Erica Werner and Alan Fram are Associated Press writers.
WASHINGTON  Two key members of President Trumps presidential campaign met Tuesday with congressional investigators probing Russias interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a closed-door conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.
WASHINGTON  Congress push to enact far-reaching sanctions against Russia appeared to overcome a final obstacle Wednesday after a key Senate Republican backed off concerns about a House bill  passed overwhelmingly one day earlier  that would also punish North Korea.

Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested he had reservations about taking up the House version of a bill that would punish Russia, Iran and North Korea. Last month, the Senate passed its own bill, but it was aimed only at Russia and Iran.

We expressed concerns about it, Corker said of the addition of North Korea to the House plan, citing a desire for greater Senate input.

But hours later, Corker said the Senate would move to approve the House version after all, but demanded that House leaders expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future.

The conflict over North Korea sanctions had been the latest detour in the legislations halting journey. As the Trump administration lobbied against a measure that would sharply limit the presidents ability to lift or suspend sanctions against Russia on his own, the bill languished in the House for weeks.

But after the House on Tuesday voted 419-3 to impose sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, supporters seemed confident that the legislation would reach President Trump in short order. It would force the president into an uncomfortable choice, beneath the cloud of Russia-flecked scandal: whether to sign a bill his team has opposed or to honor Moscows wishes by seeking to scuttle the efforts of a Republican-led Congress.

The Senate had seemed an unlikely source of another bottleneck, given its vote last month, 98-2, to punish Russia and Iran. But after House leaders from both parties and Senate Democrats cheered an agreement last weekend to break the House impasse  in part by including House-led sanctions against North Korea  Senate Republicans were more reserved.

Matt Flegenheimer is a New York Times writer.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating toll, incorporating additional details)

Gandhinagar, Jul 26 (PTI) At least 29 people, including 14 of a family, have died in the floods in Banaskantha district following torrential rains in Gujarat, officials said here today.

The death toll in the current monsoon season in the state stood at 123, they added.

Prior to these deaths, reported from Kankrej and Dhanera talukas of Banaskantha today, 94 people had lost their lives in various rain-related reasons in the state till yesterday, said Principal Secretary, Revenue, Pankaj Kumar.

advertisement

The toll now stood at 123, he added.

"The bodies of 17 people, including 14 of a family, were found at Kharia and a nearby village of the Kankrej taluka today. At Dhanera, the authorities found seven bodies in the early hours from Sihori village, while two more bodies were found later," Kumar told a press conference.

Besides, two persons lost their lives in Palanpur town of Banaskantha due to a wall collapse, while one more person died in a similar incident at a nearby village, he added.

The police found 25 bodies, while another body was found by the locals later.

"Seventeen bodies were found from Kharia village in the Kankrej tehsil and seven bodies were fished out from the neighbouring Sihori village. One more body was found from the interiors," said Assistant Superintendent of Police Akshayrajsinh Makwana.

"More bodies are likely to be found as the water recedes in over a dozen villages located along the banks of the Banas river," said A D Parmar, Inspector, Thara Police Station, under which Kharia falls.

Kharia and Sihori, both situated along the banks of the Banas, were severely inundated after water from the Dantiwada dam on the river was released the day before yesterday.

These two are among the worst-hit villages in the district.

Around 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released from the dam after heavy rains in neighbouring Rajasthan, which resulted in inundation of several villages situated along the banks of the river in the district.

"Kharia is one of around 14 villages in the taluka which are badly affected due to the flood. Due to a sudden surge of water in the Banas river, those living in these villages did not get a chance to relocate to a safe place," said Parmar.

Banaskantha and Patan are among the worst-hit districts in the state due to heavy rains and flooding of the Banas and Sipu rivers.

Revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the state had already received 555.02 mm of rain, which is around 68.52 per cent of the expected annual rainfall of Gujarat.

advertisement

Over the last 24 hours, 12 talukas, mostly in north Gujarat, received more than 100 mm of rainfall each, while 21 talukas across the state received between 51 mm and 100 mm of rains each, said a release from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).

The talukas which received such a high rainfall included Himmatnagar of Sabarkantha (219 mm), Amirgadh of Banaskantha (150 mm), Dhanera of Banaskantha (139 mm), Deesa of Banaskantha (119 mm), Modasa of Aravalli (113 mm), Prantij of Sabarkantha (111 mm) and Satlasana of Mehsana (110 mm).

"In the last two days, as many as 1,930 people have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Air Force, Army, BSF and our own administration in north Gujarat. Over the last one week, as many as 53,004 people were also shifted to safer locations," said Chudasama.

He added that over three lakh food packets had been distributed in Banaskantha, while 18,000 were distributed in Patan.

"Rescue operations are going on, despite a rough weather. We have deployed 18 teams of NDRF, 11 companies of SDRF and three columns of the Army. We are also taking the help of the Air Force, which has already deployed 10 helicopters for evacuation," said Chudasama.

advertisement

Due to the incessant rain and resultant flood, five national highways, 153 state highways and 674 internal roads across the state were still closed, he added.

Stepping up the efforts to airlift people from the inundated villages and distribute food packets among them, the Air Force today said it had pressed 16 helicopters into service in Banaskantha and Patan districts.

Similarly, the Army also stepped up its rescue-and-relief operations by sending two additional columns in the affected region today, taking the total strength to five columns, said a statement by the Defence PRO.

The Gujarat government today announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of the deceased, in addition to the Rs 2 lakh compensation announced by the Centre yesterday. PTI KA/PJT PD RMT RC

--- ENDS ---
WASHINGTON  President Trump cranked up the heat Tuesday on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, scorning him as very weak and refusing to say whether hell fire the nations top law enforcement officer and his onetime political ally. It was an extraordinary public rebuke, and even fellow Republicans pushed back forcefully.

All through a day of anything-but-subtle tweets and statements, Trump rued his decision to choose Sessions for his Cabinet and left the former senators future prospects dangling.

We will see what happens, Trump said. Time will tell. Time will tell.

His intensifying criticism has fueled speculation that the attorney general may step down even if the president stops short of firing him. But several people close to the former Alabama senator have said he does not plan to quit.

In private, Trump raged to confidants that Sessions had been disloyal in recusing himself from the federal investigation of Russias meddling in the presidential election and the possibility of collaboration with the Trump campaign. Sessions himself had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the election as a representative of the Trump campaign and thus stepped aside from the probe.

As he has previously, Trump said he would have quite simply picked someone else for the job if hed known Sessions would recuse himself. He called Sessions decision a bad thing for the presidency, changing a word from his previous comments that it had been bad for the president. He also said the attorney general ought to get cracking on stopping leaks from federal intelligence agencies.

The presidents first broadside of the day came in a tweet: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!

House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, took a hands-off approach, saying simply: The president gets to decide what his personnel is.

Some White House aides and Trump confidants have begun discussing how to move on beyond Sessions, while others have cautioned the president against firing a figure popular among conservatives  especially during the heat of the Russia probe.

Should Sessions depart, several scenarios could unfold. If Trump follows his own executive order outlining a succession plan, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general until a successor was nominated and confirmed. That would leave the president, at least initially, with another attorney general of whom he has been sharply critical for his handling of the Russia probe.

Jonathan Lemire and Sadie Gurman are Associated Press writers.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today warned Arvind Kejriwal against asking any "offensive and scandalous" questions to Arun Jaitley in the defamation cases by the Union finance minister and imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on him for not filing a reply in one of them.

The objectionable remarks were made during the cross- examination of Jaitley by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who had represented Kejriwal.

advertisement

Justice Manmohan held that such remarks were indecent, scandalous and abusive and sought an undertaking from senior counsel Anoop George Chaudhari, appearing for the chief minister, that no objectionable and offensive questions would be put to Jaitley during the cross-examination on August 28.

After objectionable remarks were made by Jethmalani, who had claimed that he had instruction from Kejriwal, another defamation suit was filed by Jaitley which was listed before Joint Registrar Pankaj Gupta.

The joint registrar took a strong view of Kejriwal not filing his reply to the second lawsuit and imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on him and posted the matter to September four.

The case before the joint registrar had come after the hearing before Justice Manmohan, who said, "I have never seen such scandalous words being used in any suit and it is uncalled for.

"This is not the way to conduct the cross-examination, they have to control themselves," the judge said.

"You have used some words... Do these fall under free speech? Are you aware that these are unparliamentary words?" the judge said, asking Kejriwals counsel Chaudhari to maintain decorum.

"No person who has invoked the jurisdiction of this court can be subjected to offensive, scandalous and/or abusive language in the garb of cross-examination," the judge said.

Justice Manmohan said the statement and the assurance given by the senior counsel for Kejriwal "is accepted by this court and the chief minister is held bound by the same."

The judge said that if the assurance furnished was breached, the aggrieved party would be given liberty to approach the court.

The court also said it was of the view that liberty of free expression could not be confused with the licence to make "unfounded, unwarranted and irresponsible aspersions".

Observing that such words were prohibited under the Evidence Act, the court said if there was even an "iota" of scandalous questions in future cross-examination, it would transfer the case from the joint registrar to a bench of the high court.

"However, as Kejriwal has now filed a reply accompanied by an affidavit stating that he had not instructed his senior counsel to use words like..., this court (with consent of senior counsel for Kejriwal) declares the said questions/ expressions... against the plaintiff (Jaitley) as indecent and scandalous in accordance with Section 151 of the Act," Justice Manmohan said in his order.

advertisement

During the proceedings, Chaudhari said, "No scandalous questions would be put at all and the questions would be in the ambit of the Evidence Act only."

He submitted that Kejriwal has already filed his response that he had never instructed Jethmalani to use any scandalous or abusive word against the Union minister.

The court took notice of Chaudharis statement and observed, "You (Kejriwal) are disowning him (Jethmalani), but your counsel made the remarks."

"All of you will have to help in the conduct of the cross-examination of the Union minister in a dignified manner," it said, adding that the problem was that because of the personalities involved, it was answerable to the public.

"We have to deal with the public. If we cannot control the constitutional authorities like you, the public will come and say you allow them to make such statements. We have to curb it with a heavy hand," it said.

advertisement

It, however, refrained from passing any order against Kejriwal after noting his earlier submission that he had not instructed Jethmalani to use any objectionable remark against Jaitley.

Senior counsel Rajiv Nayar, Sandeep Sethi and Manik Dogra, appearing for Jaitley, insisted on an affidavit from Jethmalani, saying one of them was "lying or making a wrong statement".

"My client (Jaitley) was insulted (during cross- examination), now both of them deny it. In every hearing would I be subjected to humiliation? There has to be some mechanism," said Nayar, asking that action be taken by the Bar Council of India (BCI) against Jethmalani as Kejriwal has filed an affidavit saying he did not ask him to use objectionable words against Jaitley.

The court, however, was of the view that it would not interfere as Jaitley has already initiated a second defamation suit on this issue.

It deferred the cross-examination of Jaitley from July 28 to August 28 as Kejriwals counsel sought time to go through the file which he received recently.

It also said that on the day of the cross-examination, only the counsel connected to the case would be allowed to enter the joint registrars room.

advertisement

The court also directed the joint registrar to expedite the recording of evidence in the civil defamation suit and disposed of the application filed by Jaitley in this regard.

Jaitley had filed an application to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner in the first Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for allegations of corruption made by them against him.

The application for expeditious hearing said that "numerous irrelevant and scandalous questions have been asked during the cross-examination" of the Union minister and that "abusive and defamatory statements have been made" on the instruction of Kejriwal. PTI PPS HMP RKS SC

--- ENDS ---
1 Sex abuse charges: The most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis is preparing to make his first court appearance in Australia. Cardinal George Pell is expected to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday. He is Australias highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis top financial adviser. Pell was charged last month with sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as historical sexual assault offenses. That generally means crimes that occurred years ago. He has vehemently denied the allegations against him.

2 American dies in Syria: The father of a former Marine says he was notified by the U.S. State Department that his son was killed in Syria while fighting for a Kurdish militia battling the Islamic State. David Taylor Sr. said Tuesday that his son David Taylor told only a high school friend about his plans to join the Kurdish group, and he swore his friend to secrecy. Taylors father says he didnt even know of his sons plans until after he had arrived in Syria earlier this year. A Kurdish militia group said Taylor was killed on July 16.
Under PM Narendra Modi, India has implemented an active foreign policy, a commentary released by the official Xinhua news agency said.

By Ananth Krishnan: China today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and India's "open foreign economic policy", in an unexpected break from the recently relentless and shrill rhetoric over the standoff in Doklam.

"India has been actively attracting foreign investment, has created a favourable investment climate and has been the largest destination for foreign direct investment in the world for the past two years," said a commentary issued by the official Xinhua news agency, which added that "strengthening of trade cooperation" between India and China and their "advocacy of open trade policy" would "definitely contribute to promoting open global trade and containing protectionism."

advertisement

The commentary added that "under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has implemented an active foreign policy, has reformed foreign investment policy and encourages domestic enterprises to go on the international market."

The Xinhua article was an unexpected exception to weeks of hard-line commentaries hitting out at India over the Doklam stand-off. This suggests Beijing's keenness to rally with India on issues its sees as in its self-interest, such as pushing reform of global financial institutions to give a greater voice to emerging nations, and opposing the anti-globalisation sentiment sweeping Western countries, even as it keeps a hardline and uncompromising stand on other matters.

The commentary said "India's open foreign economic policy is an important force for the current world where protectionism is on the rise." "The South Asian nation has adopted a positive and open foreign economic policy and has been an important supporter for the open foreign trade policy," it added, pointing out that "China-India cooperation can effectively improve openness of the world economy," and counter trade protectionism which is now largely led by the United States under the Donald Trump administration."

"The two developing countries share common views and stands on many international affairs. For example, India has cleared its commitment to developing green economy and is a champion of the Paris Climate Agreement," the commentary added.

The Xinhua article quoted the Chinese envoy in India Luo Zhaohui as saying "India's current reform and opening policies are very attractive."

This came amid a trade spat between the two countries over Chinese exports of photovoltaic cells, with India launching an anti-dumping investigation into imports from China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said India "should avoid abusing trade remedy measures" and "hoped the two countries can settle trade disputes through consultation."

ALSO READ:

Chinese media fires salvo, blames Hindu nationalism for Doklam standoff

China fires back at US accusations over aerial encounter

Rights and wrongs clear, India must pull back to end Doklam standoff: China foreign minister

WATCH: China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A veteran San Francisco police officer was arrested Wednesday on a child pornography charge in Contra Costa County, authorities said.

Joshua Enea, 37, of Antioch was charged with one count of possessing child or youth pornography, according to the Contra Costa County district attorneys office.

ALSO Family of Pittsburg man who died in scuffle with cops sues

The San Francisco Police Departments Internet crimes against children unit first discovered that Enea allegedly had been in possession of child pornography in February, San Francisco police officials said.

Investigators with the departments internal affairs unit began an immediate parallel investigation, police said, and removed Enea from direct contact with the public.

San Francisco officers took him into custody Wednesday, booking him into Contra Costa County jail. He has since been suspended without pay.

The publics trust is of the utmost importance to the members of the SFPD, department officials said in a statement. The department will continue to work hard with the community to build and maintain this trust. As the department has emphasized in the past, members will continue to hold each other accountable and will act swiftly to report any behavior that might bring dishonor to the Police Department and the city of San Francisco.

Enea, a 10-year veteran of the force, once ran a training program for city officers to help them recognize behavioral patterns of drunken subjects. He earned a total of $191,104.84 in 2016, according to Transparent California.

No arraignment date has been scheduled.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: VHo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Palestine today sought "greater role" by India for its cause but asserted that it was not worried over the growing Indo-Israel ties.

During an interaction with reporters here, Palestinian envoy Adnan Abu Alhaijaa said his President during a visit here was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Indias unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

advertisement

"India has been an old friend of Palestine and supported our cause and people for long. We are not worried about the growing ties between India and Israel as long its (New Delhis) attitude towards Palestine remains unchanged," he said, when asked what does Palestine expects from India in context of the crisis.

However, he added, India is a great country and it could play a "greater role" towards supporting the Palestinian cause.

Asked, if Palestine wanted India to play a role of an interlocutor to resolve its conflict with Israel, Alhaijaa did not give a direct answer and only said it expects India to continue to play a "positive role", without elaborating on it. PTI KND PYK NSD

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: With additional quotes of envoy)

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Palestine today sought "greater role" by India for its cause, even as it asserted that it was not worried over the growing Indo-Israel ties.

During an interaction with reporters here, Palestinian envoy Adnan Abu Alhaijaa said his president, during a visit to New Delhi, was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Indias unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

advertisement

To a question about Palestines expectations from India, he said, "What we are expecting is the government to continue to have a positive attitude for the Palestinian cause. And about the relationship between this government and Israel, I can say it could interfere in the situation."

However, when asked to elaborate as to what he meant by "interference", the envoy only said, "We expect India to always have a positive attitude."

"India has been an old friend of Palestine and supported our cause and people for long. We have a good relation.

"Our President Mahmoud Abbas visited India and met PM Modi before his (Modis) Israel visit. And, that is what we take as the official attitude of India towards Palestine," he said, adding Palestine is not concerned about what was reported by Israeli media.

Responding to a question on Modis recent visit and the growing ties between India and Israel, Alhaijaa said Palestine was "not worried" about it.

"Media of Israel blew up the situation about Modis visit. We are not worried about the growing ties between India and Israel as long as its (New Delhis) attitude towards Palestine remains unchanged," he said.

However, the envoy added, India is a great country, and it could play a "greater role" towards supporting the Palestinian cause.

Asked, if Palestine wanted India to play the role of an interlocutor to resolve its conflict with Israel, Alhaijaa did not give a direct answer and only said, we expect India to continue to play a "positive role".

Modi visited Israel from July 4-6, the first by an Indian Prime Minister to that country. However, he did not visit Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, as is common for many visiting foreign dignitaries.

In an interview on July 4, Modi had said, India believes in a two-state solution in which both Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist peacefully, adding he supported all efforts to find an acceptable solution to all the pending issues, including Jerusalem.

advertisement

The Palestinian envoy today addressed the mediapersons about the situation in East Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and said he was addressing in a state of "extreme duress".

"The issue at hand is the Israeli plan of Judaisation of East Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa Mosque in particular... The latest conflagration has happened because of additional physical hindrances put up by Israel at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, including electronic gates, metal detectors, cameras and barriers," he said.

Alhaijaa said despite "UNESCO declaring the mosque to be uniquely Muslim" the Israeli side have tried to impose their sovereignty over it and Jerusalem.

"We reject this imposition and we reject any desecration of Islamic and Christian religious sites," the envoy said.

He said, "Attempt towards Judaisation of Al Aqsa will be dealt with resistance."

Asked what he meant by "resistance", Alhaijaa said, "It means demonstration and reaching out to the international community and friends to exert pressure on Israel."

Referring to the conflict, he asserted that only sticking to norms can undo the "cycle of violence" and "attempts by Israels extreme right-wing to mobilise support to change the status quo in the city would drag the region into more violence."

advertisement

The status quo should be returned to what was before July 14, he said.

Two Israeli police officers and three Palestinian attackers were killed during an attack on July 14 in Jerusalem. PTI KND PYK NSD

--- ENDS ---
The highlight of the Rohit Bal's show on the first day of India Couture Week was actor Arjun Rampal who walked the ramp in a plain black creation.

By Radhika Bhalla/Mail Today: A standing ovation for couturier Rohit Bal at the end of his opening show for India Couture Week 2017 seemed a befitting tribute on Monday evening at Bikaner House.The effort and richness of inspiration was evident in the variety of motifs and embroidery that he had presented on the numerous ensembles in the collection.

The Kashmiri designer seemed to have moved away from his trademark lotus motif this time and looked both east and west of the state for his muses. Intricate flower patterns, which could have been taken from the hashia or decorative borders of Mughal miniature paintings, adorned sharply tailored achkans for men.

Photo : Mail Today

advertisement

Similarly, we saw painterly figures of men and women in the Iranian style of art - from Safavid and Qajar traditions - embroidered exquisitely onto white sherwanis. Mughal style flowers punctuated the empty spaces, rendered with careful threadwork that gave the designs a seamless gradation of tone.

There was even the embroidered image of a rooster on short capes for women, colourfully crafted where the detail of the eye and plumage was delightfully visible. Signifying the yang in Chinese art, the auspicious symbol was rendered to admirably.

Photo : Mail Today

Quite correctly, Bal had announced the previous day at a private sit-down that the collection "is an ode to the karigars who have made it". Each piece conveyed the skill, whether in the swarovski beadwork ferns on saris and velvet lehengas, or the floor-length sleeves on fiery red jackets for women.

Photo : Mail Today

"Every design has been trademarked and copyrighted, which means that no one can copy them," Bal had stated, making this the second time it has been done after designer Ritu Kumar. The patents mark a new move in Indian fashion, especially since Bal's works are openly copied by a number of young designers and sold at a much lower cost.

Coming back to the collection, the creations spelled elegant wedding wear in rich colours like ruby red, gold on black, and contrasting white.

Photo : Mail Today

Also Read: Disha Patani looks radiant on Manav Gangwani's runway at ICW 2017

Bal continued with his most-recognisable silhouette of structured anarkali jackets for women, worn over sweeping lehenga skirts that were both plain and embellished. The impact of grandeur was apparent more so with this range than the one he showcased last year, and the designer seemed to be moving towards a younger audience with the use of shinier workmanship and the occasional see-through sari.

Photo : Mail Today

Another unique element of the show was that real people had modeled for him. Influencers like Sunil Sethi, Simar Duggal, Mozez Singh, Kalyani Chawla, designer Raghavendra Rathore and Rakesh Thakore, Vivek Sahni and Madhu Verma walked the ramp for the designer.

Photo : Mail Today Photo : Mail Today

advertisement

Also Read: India Couture Week: Arjun Rampal's bandhgala has a cock on it

The highlight was actor Arjun Rampal who wore a plain black creation, with slip-ons that had gold roosters embroidered on the top. The simplicity of the look was a welcome change when it comes to showstoppers, and Rampal carried it with his confident style that could rightly be termed as 'swag'.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) India issued over 1.78 lakh medical visas in 2016, which is 45 per cent more than the figure in 2015, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

"More than 1.78 lakh medical visas, granted for medical treatment and follow-up treatment, were issued in 2016 as against 1.22 lakh medical visas in 2015," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply.

advertisement

He said it was an increase of about 45 per cent over the previous year.

"In order to further liberalise the visa regime, e- medical visa with triple entries and extendable up to six months has been introduced from April 1, 2017," he said. PTI ACB GVS

--- ENDS ---
India Today magazine cover for the latest issue on China and Pakistan's growing friendship has been selected as the 'The Cover of the Day' by The Society of Publication Designers (SPD), New York.

By India Today Web Desk: India Today magazine has always been associated with insightful and investigative journalism.

The magazine's cover photos and illustrations have consistently pushed the boundaries of creativity and never disappointed its readers.

India Today magazine cover for the latest issue (July 31, 2017) on China and Pakistan's growing friendship has been selected as the 'The Cover of the Day' by The Society of Publication Designers (SPD), New York.

advertisement

The SPD is dedicated to promoting and encouraging excellence in editorial design and has art directors, designers, photo editors and graphics professionals as its members.

India Today magazine's cover illustration with the headline 'China's New Chick' captures the nature of ties between China and Pakistan even as India remains cautious.

The selection by The Society of Publication Designers puts the magazine among the best in the world which have been featured by the organisation on its website for brilliance in cover design.

In the last four decades, India Today magazine covers have captured some of the most defining moments in the history that have remained etched in public memory.

Some of the recent covers on Baba Ramdev and the Pakistan Army chief have gone viral and created ripples across the border.

Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group, said, "Getting featured in SPD, New York, reflects on India Today's commitment to set international standards in journalism. Powerful take on pertinent issues is the hallmark of impactful reportage and insights. For India Today, we are happy that we have serviced the Thinking Indian well."

--- ENDS ---
By Disha Roy Choudhury: The recently prepared blueprint by the Ministry of Railways has betrayed a bitter truth. In its report for 2019-2020, the ministry projected how domestic airlines will supersede trains, making air travel the number one choice in the next three years.

Railways in India are not just a means of transport. Over the years, this mode of travel weaved itself into the history of Indian heritage and culture. But nostalgia aside, one is a little skeptical if the Indian Railways have actually been able to keep pace with the burgeoning and advanced landscape of travel.

advertisement

At a time when the overall traffic for travel is booming beyond expectation, the railways are still grappling with basic functioning issues like scheduled running and hygiene. This new blueprint projection may have baffled railway officials, but it hardly comes as a surprise to us. Here's why:

1. Convenience of travel

That air travel takes lesser time than train is a no-brainer. Especially in today's world, where the concept of luxury time has been truncated, to say the least. Interestingly, government statistics have revealed that 25 per cent of domestic air travel happens over inter-city distances within 500 km, an area that the railways used to dominate. When even smaller towns and cities are being connected by flights today, which can be availed at an affordable rate, why would one choose the railways anyway?

2. Optimisation of time and money

With new government schemes like UDAAN, that facilitates travel at Rs 2500 for an hour, with a promise of greater comfort and lesser time, for the same price, it is only natural for people opt for flights.

3. Hygiene

This stands out as a major point of comparison. There's no doubt that flights are way more hygienic than our trains--be it the food or toilets. And we have the recent CAG report to back the fact. Have we not already experienced the difference in the quality of food offered on these modes of travel? And now that the CAG report has exposed the truth about contaminated food on trains; blankets and linens that are not washed for months, who would want to travel on trains?

4. Better services offered by airlines

Yes, it is that one button on the top of your seat in a flight that makes the difference. Flight attendants at least try their best to cater to your needs.

5. The question of luggage and its security

How many times have you spent time negotiating with your fellow passenger in a train for that one extra inch of space to fit in your luggage? And how many times has the fear of losing your luggage interrupted your sleep? Flights can save you from this trouble at least.

advertisement

Also Read: Indian Railways' food has actually been declared unfit for your consumption

6. Scheduled arrival/departure is a major problem

We have all been victims of the ever-fluctuating running schedule of trains, which causes immense inconvenience. According to a CAG report, 95 per cent of the so-called 'fast-trains' are usually delayed. Not that there are no glitches in air travel, but at least you have the airport lounge to while your time away.

Yes, bullet trains, solar-powered trains, and those featuring latest technologies is all good, but perhaps the railway system is missing out on a major point--proper execution of services they promise. After all, sustainability is the key.

--- ENDS ---
The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), the first LGBT military unit, is all set to fight against the ISIS in Syria. Pronounced as tequila, the group seeks to smash the gender binary and advance the women's revolution as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution.

By India Today Web Desk: A new military unit is all set to fight against the ISIS in Syria to eradicate the terrorist group.

A group of international volunteers who were fighting along Kurdish forces in northern Syria, declared the creation of first LGBT military unit. The group is called "The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army" (TQILA) and pronounced as "tequila".

advertisement

The group comes under the umbrella of the International Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), an anarchist group. IRPGF announced the formation of TQILA through its Twitter page and the pictures show their logo which is an AK47 on a pink background.

FYI: IRPGF is a unit under the International Freedom Battalion, which is an armed group of leftist foreign fighters who came to northern Syria to battle ISIS alongside the Kurdish militia.

"Seek to smash the gender binary and advance the women's revolution as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution", this is what the group aims to do according to a statement posted on Twitter.

The formation of The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), a subgroup of the IRPGF. Queer Liberation! Death to Rainbow Capitalism! pic.twitter.com/Tp1x2PZ079- IRPGF (@IRPGF) July 24, 2017

Pictures posted on Twitter show masked soldiers wearing military uniforms and holding guns along with a banner that reads- These Faggots Kill Fascists, TGILA-IRPGF". Other soldiers in the background hold the rainbow flag.

For security reasons, Heval Rojhilat, spokesperson for TQILA, will not reveal how many people will be a part of the unit and out of them how many belong to the LGBT community, as reported by Newsweek.

TAKKO guerrilla & new IFB commander Heval Mahir is a dear friend of the IRPGF and supporter of Queer liberation. @RojavaTikko @ozgurgelecek4 pic.twitter.com/Ww6DW44O1Q- IRPGF (@IRPGF) July 25, 2017

"TQILA's members have watched in horror as fascist and extremist forces around the world have attacked the Queer community and murdered countless of our community members citing that they are 'ill,' 'sick,' and 'unnatural'", the statement read.

The group says that they could not "idly watch", "the images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by Daesh (ISIS)".

TQILA also blamed "Chrisian conservatives in the global northwest" who have attacked LGBT*QI +people "in an attempt to silence and erase their existence".

"Queer liberation! Death to rainbow capitalism! Shoot back! These faggots kill fascists!", the statement ends with these slogans.

ISIS has often released videos showing gay people being stoned to death or being pushed off buildings. The terrorist organisation has gone as far as going through the contact books of the captured suspected members of LGBTQ community so that the militant group can track down other people of the community.

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
By PTI: Los Angeles, Jul 26 (PTI) "The Company Men" helmer John Wells is returning to direction after seven years with Vietnam war drama "Khe Sanh".

The script is being written by Jason Horwitch, whose credits include "Luke Cage" and "Southland", reported Deadline.

The film tells the story of the last great, unsung battle of the 20th century, the Siege of Khe Sanh. Five thousand young Marines were surrounded and attacked by 20,000 battle- hardened North Vietnamese Army veterans for 77 nonstop days of rocket and mortar fire, as the world watched on TV.

advertisement

Wells and John Wells Productions president of features Claire Rudnick Polstein will produce the project with Andrew Levitas. PTI SSN SHD

--- ENDS ---
TOM BRENNER/NYT

President Trump has produced precious little of the law and order he promised in his American carnage inauguration speech. In fact, six long months later, Trump is openly attacking his own top law enforcer, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, contributing to a sense of lawlessness and disorder more palpable than any that existed before he took office.

Trumps displeasure stems from the attorney generals recusal from the investigation of the Trump campaigns relationship with Russia, which was Sessions most upstanding decision to date and, given his intimate involvement with the campaign, an ethically inevitable one. Trump, it seems, would rather use the Justice Department to hound his rival Hillary Clinton and plug leaks about the investigation of his campaign.
The Kannada Development Authority took it one step forward and said that even announcements cannot be made in Hindi.

By Nolan Pinto, Rohini Swamy: Namma Metro officials have finally relented, and said that Hindi signboards will be removed from all stations. The move comes after the Kannada Development Authority mandated the immediate removal.

The KDA took it one step forward and said that even announcements cannot be made in Hindi.

The managing director of Bangalore Metropolitan Rail Corporation (BMRCL) said that he would abide by the directions of the KDA.

advertisement

The KDA had also urged the state government to move a privilege motion against BMRCL. Non compliance of it would amount to beach of privilege.

There have been massive protests across the state saying that Hindi was just an official language of communication and not our national language. Campaigns such as #nammametrohindibeda has been made into a massive online and offline campaign.

In order to bring to focus that the central government was unnecessarily imposing Hindi on none Hindi speaking states, the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike had also called for a meeting of political parties including the DMK, MNS and TDP, who felt that there was a reason to oppose the imposition of Hindi and that they would make it a national campaign.

Also Read:

Bengaluru: Pro-Kannada group demands removal of Hindi boards, threatens to blacken them

Bengaluru: Pro-Kannada group blacken Hindi sign boards at metro stations

Watch Video: Pro-Kannada organisation calls for formation of anti-Hindi front

--- ENDS ---
NEW DELHI  At least 48 people have been killed as large swaths of western India have been lashed by heavy monsoon rains and flooding over the past week, officials said Wednesday.

In Rajasthan, home to a number of popular tourist destinations, the streets of at least four districts have been turned into virtual rivers, trapping tens of thousands of people on the upper floors of residential buildings. Rescue workers were scrambling to rescue thousands of others whose homes have been flooded or destroyed.

By Wednesday, the death toll in the state stood at 19.

In the neighboring state of Gujarat, at least 29 people have died amid torrential rains.

This weeks deaths have taken the toll to 83 since the start of the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

In both states, thousands of army and paramilitary rescue workers have joined local police to rescue thousands of people marooned as a result of the flooding. Military helicopters are also assisting in rescue efforts.

At least 60 people have died in northeastern Assam state due to flooding since the start of the monsoon season. Another 14 people died in the nearby state of Arunachal Pradesh last month after a mudslide swept through a village.

The deaths have mostly occurred due to drownings, electrocution and house collapses.

Indias Meteorological Department forecasts heavy rain over both states for the rest of the week.

Also Wednesday, Mumbai police arrested a man affiliated with a local political party, accusing him of making illegal alterations to the ground floor of a five-story building that caused it to collapse a day earlier, killing at least 17 people and injuring a dozen others.

Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of the Mumbai police, said charges of culpable homicide and endangering the lives of others had been filed against the man, Sunil Shitap. Bharti said police believed that Shitap had been making illegal alterations to the ground floor of the building, where he operated a nursing home, in Ghatkopar, an area east of the city center.

Rescuers continued Wednesday digging through the rubble of the building for any survivors. Bharti, the police commissioner, confirmed that 17 people had been killed and 12 injured, many of whom remained hospitalized.

The buildings collapse is reflective of a sadly familiar phenomenon in India. A severe housing shortage, lax regulation and political corruption have resulted in too many people crowded into old, weak and substandard structures. Politically connected people such as contractors and developers often circumvent safety rules with impunity until disaster strikes.
BEIJING  China is on track to lead the world in organ transplant surgeries by 2020 following its abandonment of the much-criticized practice of using organs from executed prisoners, the architect of the countrys transplant program said Wednesday.

Chairman of the China Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee Huang Jiefu said the voluntary civilian organ donations had risen from just 30 in 2010, the first year of a pilot program, to more than 5,500 this year.

That will allow around 15,000 people to receive transplants this year, Huang said. The U.S. currently leads the world in organ transplants, with about 28,000 people receiving them each year.

We anticipate according to the speed of the development of the organ donation in China, the momentum, in the year 2020, China will become the No. 1 country in the world to perform organ transplantation in an ethical way, Huang said in an interview at his office in an ancient courtyard house inside Beijings old city.

China is seeking to expand the number of willing organ donors, but it has run up against some cultural barriers: Family members are still able to block a donation, even if the giver is willing, and Chinese are averse to registering as donors by ticking a box on their drivers licenses, considering it to be tempting fate.

Instead, authorities are partnering with AliBaba, Chinas virtually ubiquitous online shopping and payment platform, to allow people to register in just 10 seconds, Huang said. Huang said more than 210,000 Chinese have expressed their willingness to become donors, although thats a drop in the bucket compared with the countrys population of 1.37 billion.

More qualified transplant coordinators and doctors are also needed, along with improved connections among the 173 hospitals certified to perform such operations, Huang said.

Its still a newborn baby, not yet a perfect system, Huang said.

Huang said China has adhered to a complete ban on the use of organs from executed prisoners that went into effect in 2015, although some in the field outside China have called for the country to allow independent scrutiny to ensure it is keeping to its pledge.

Critics have questioned Chinas claims of reform and suggested that the World Health Organization should be allowed to conduct surprise investigations and interview donor relatives. The U.N. health agency has no authority to enter countries without their permission.

Chinese officials say China shouldnt be singled out for such treatment while other countries are not.

Further moving on from the days when foreigners could fly to China with briefcases of cash to receive often risky, no-questions-asked transplant surgeries, China has also taken measures to stamp out organ trafficking and so-called transplant tourism, including by limiting transplants to Chinese citizens.

Christopher Bordeen is an Associated Press writer.
BRUSSELS  A top European Union legal adviser denounced Hungary and Slovakia on Wednesday for refusing to participate in a plan devised in 2015 to relocate migrants from Greece and Italy as the migration crisis reached its height.

The legal adviser, Yves Bot, an advocate general for the Court of Justice of the European Union, blamed Hungary and Slovakia for partial or total failure in the fair sharing of burdens in the crisis, according to a summary of his opinion.

A verdict is still to be issued in the case, but judges usually follow their advisers opinions; if they do so this time, Hungary and Slovakia could eventually be ordered to pay fines.

The case has highlighted the deep divide in the European Union over the question of migration. Many member states in Central and Eastern Europe are intensely opposed to a push to oblige them to accept quotas of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

The relocation rule was introduced to try to relieve the burden on Greece and Italy, where migrants  many of them fleeing the war in Syria  reached the European Union in huge numbers in 2015 and 2016.

The European Union was correct to adopt a provisional measure for the mandatory distribution between member states of persons in need of international protection because it was necessary to provide an effective response to the migration crisis, Bot wrote, according to the summary.

In a separate case that also underlined the tensions between Brussels and Central and East European states over migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for home affairs, warned the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for ignoring the relocation rules.

The commission began that case in June on the grounds that Hungary and Poland had taken no refugees, and that the Czech Republic had stopped participating in the program.

If these member states decide to change position, we are ready to work with them to address their concerns, Avramopoulos told a news conference in Brussels. We dont want to go on like this, he added.

The legal action could also eventually result in fines from the Court of Justice for the countries involved.

Avramopoulos said the pace of relocation had significantly increased this year, with more than 3,000 transfers in June from Italy and Greece to other member states, including Finland, France, Germany and Sweden.

That still leaves more than 25,000 people eligible for relocation, according to estimates by officials at the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. The program formally ends on Sept. 26, but migrants arriving in the European Union until that date can qualify.

James Kanter is a New York Times writer.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

ISLAMABAD  When a tanker truck overturned on a road in eastern Pakistan on Sunday, hundreds of people rushed toward the vehicle to collect the spilled and leaking fuel.

Using buckets, bottles and cans, they scooped up some of the 5,500 gallons of fuel that was gushing onto the road. For about an hour, men, women and children from nearby villages, as well as some passersby who pulled over in their cars and motorbikes, collected the windfall, despite attempts by police to warn them away from the scene.

Then, suddenly, the truck caught fire and exploded, killing at least 150 people and seriously injuring at least 100 others.

At least 73 motorbikes and several cars were destroyed in the blast, which occurred the day before Pakistan celebrates Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday at the end of Ramadan.

It is a horrible tragedy, said Makhdoom Syed Hassan Gillani, the parliamentary representative of Ahmedpur East, the small city in Punjab province where the disaster occurred. You can blame poverty 100 percent, he added with a heavy voice. It was poverty. It was greed. It was ignorance.

Fuel is a high-value commodity in Pakistan, so even for those aware of the risks, the prospect of obtaining it free was too powerful a lure to ignore. Ahmedpur East has long suffered from poverty, illiteracy and a lack of modern facilities, and residents have blamed the provincial government for spending money on urban areas at the expense of rural regions.

People brought bottles, pots, buckets and other home utensils, Gillani said. Many people made several rounds and urged others to do the same. He said people had planned to use the fuel for themselves and also to sell.

The devastation swept through several poor settlements near the crash site. In one house, all eight men of the family died due to the fire, Gillani said.

He denied reports that news of the spill had been broadcast over the loudspeaker of a local mosque, prompting many to go to the scene.

Authorities were investigating what had caused the driver to lose control, leading the tanker to overturn and creating the conditions for the inferno. One official suggested that a spark from a passing vehicle had probably caused the blast, but news reports quoted witnesses blaming a lit cigarette tossed by a passerby.

The tanker had been traveling from the southern port city of Karachi to Lahore, the provinces capital.

Muhammad Rizwan, a police official, said police had kept on telling people to leave the crash site, but people wouldnt listen and more kept coming.

We knew it was dangerous, he said, and if there were more cars and bikes, the casualties would have been much higher.

Salman Masood is a New York Times writer.
It turns out that sex after 50 has value after all.

That was the judgment of Europes top human rights court when it rejected a decision by Portuguese judges that reduced damages to a middle-aged woman who could not have sex after a botched operation

The surgery  which occurred in 1995, when she was 50  happened at an age when sex is not as important as in younger years, the judges ruled in 2014. Their decision provoked accusations of sexism and ageism at the time.

The woman, Maria Ivone Carvalho Pinto de Sousa Morais, now 72, challenged the decision, taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, France. On Tuesday, that court ruled, 5-2, in her favor.

The question at issue here is not considerations of age or sex as such, but rather the assumption that sexuality is not as important for a 50-year-old woman and mother of two children as for someone of a younger age, according to the majoritys ruling. That assumption reflects a traditional idea of female sexuality as being essentially linked to childbearing purposes and thus ignores its physical and psychological relevance for the self-fulfillment of women as people.

Morais lawyer, Vitor Manuel Parente Ribeiro, praised the ruling.

It is the international recognition of a personal injustice, he said. She is a very physically weakened woman, and feels that the injustice she suffered in Portugal has been attenuated.

He said the decision showed that, within Europe, there are clear differences between the states, some of which have more open-minded attitudes than others.

Morais was in her late 40s when she was given, in 1993, a diagnosis of a painful vaginal disease known as Bartholinitis. She underwent surgery in May 1995, the month she turned 50, at the gynecology department of what is now known as the Central Lisbon Hospital.

The operation left Morais with severe pain, depression and incontinence. She had trouble sitting and walking. She could no longer have sex.

She stopped visiting relatives and friends and going to the beach and the theater, and considered suicide. It turned out that one of her nerves had been injured during the surgery.

Morais sued, and in October 2013, a court ordered the hospital to pay about $93,000 in compensation for her physical and mental suffering, and about $18,000 for a maid to help her with daily chores.

Morais, her lawyer said, now plans to go back to the courts in Portugal to reopen the case and seek greater damages.

Sewell Chan is a New York Times writer.
After a search by hundreds of officers, Swiss police arrested and charged a 51-year-old man suspected of attacking health insurance employees last week with a chain saw, authorities said on Wednesday.

The suspect, Franz Wrousis, who had evaded the police for 36 hours, was detained late Tuesday in Thalwil, near Zurich, after a tip from a resident who recognized him from images released by authorities, said Ravi Landolt, a senior investigator for the regional police in Schaffhausen, where the attack took place.
PARIS  Thousands of people were evacuated from homes and vacation sites in southeastern France on Wednesday as strong winds fueled wildfires that had been raging across the region for days.

At least 10,000 people, including 3,000 campers, were evacuated overnight  some to beaches nearby  after a forest fire started near Bormes-les-Mimosas, a town on the Mediterranean coast, where the population surges with vacationers during the summer.

At least two homes were gutted and a firefighter suffered an injury battling the blaze, but so far there have been no reports of fatalities, officials said. The prefecture of Var, the region that includes Bormes-les-Mimosas, said in a statement that nearly 2,000 acres of a forest near the town had burned and that more than 500 firefighters had been deployed.

Thousands of acres have burned over the past few days in the region, including across the French Riviera and on the island of Corsica, prompting evacuations, cutting off highways and sending huge plumes of smoke into the skies.

Sylvie Houspic, a Var official, told the BFMTV news channel that the fire on Tuesday evening near Bormes-les-Mimosas had started in a trailer park at a camping spot in a densely populated area.

It quickly spread due to the gusts of wind, which continue to blow, Houspic said.

Robert Harris, a British writer vacationing in the area with his family, said in a phone interview: We simply grabbed whatever we could. Harris, 60, said he fled his house in Cap Benat, about 6 miles south of Bormes-les-Mimosas, at 2 a.m. with his wife and two children.

Summer fires are a common occurrence in the region and elsewhere in southern Europe, where blazes spread rapidly through forests and scrubland left parched by droughts.

More than 4,000 firefighters and soldiers have been deployed, according to a statement by the Interior Ministry.

Aurelien Breeden and Benoit Morenne are New York Times writers.
You hold in your hot little hands the latest and greatest iteration of SFRs annual Best of Santa Fe issuea veritable treasure trove of beloved local people, places, things and icons. Congrats to you, dear readers, for making your choices and skyrocketing the winners found herein into places of fame.

But for real, though, you seen that cover art? It's gorgeous and comes to us directly from the mind of one Nico Salazar, the founder of clothing/lifestyle line Future Fantasy Delight, a consummate Meow Wolfer and a native Santa Fean who told us the commission gig was "a dream come true."

Salazar was born here, but after his father joined the military he spent time in Hawaii and Southern California, where he would hone his anime-meets-pop-art signature style. He returned to Santa Fe in '97, where he excels at working in regional details.

"It was challenging because I wanted to do something really cool, but not super over-the-toplike, if you lived here, you'd recognize it but you don't have to live here," Salazar says of the piece. "I tried to use food since everyone loves food here, but it's ... not one culture; it comes from different cultures and everyone can enjoy it because it's not super-specific."

Salazar says the future holds potential sculpting gigs, a vinyl toy collaboration with a German builder and commission work for private collectors.

So read on, knowing you've helped choose the very best of Santa Fe, and warm your heart knowing you've supported local art.

Santa Fe Reporter
Eighteen years since Kargil War was fought, the lessons learnt from it continue to be relevant even today.

18 years after the Kargil War, India's relation with Pakistan continues to be tense. Photo: Reuters.

By India Today Web Desk: Eighteen years ago, the over 60-day Kargil war came to an end this day as India took command of the outposts taken over by Pakistani intruders.

On the 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas, named after Operation Vijay, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley remembered the martyrs of the Kargil War.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation and the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," said Narendra Modi on Twitter.

advertisement

Arun Jaitley also saluted the "valour of our soldiers" on Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Eighteen years since Kargil War was fought, the lessons learnt from it continue to be relevant even today.

1) IT IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT THE WAR

Kargil was called a low-intensity conflict and a 'limited war' but it highlighted deficiencies in India's intelligence and reinforced the need for a robust and forward-looking defence and logistics network.

Then Defence Minister George Fernandes at a conference on Asian security in January 2000 said that India has shown during the Kargil War that it can fight and win a limited war at a time and place chosen by the aggressor. The Kargil War lasted for more than 60 days.

Indian Army jawans prepare a meal near the Kargil battlefield in July 1999. Photo: Reuters

Nearly two decades later when India is engaged in a standoff with China on Doklam even as its relations with Pakistan continue to be fragile, the concerns about India's battle-readiness remain.

Going by a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), of the 152 types of ammunition identified as critical, stock for 61 of them is available for 10 days only.

The CAG report also observed that due to shortage of ammunition, the Army Headquarters imposed "restriction" on training.

At the ongoing Parliament session, Arun Jaitley, however, said that armed forces are sufficiently equipped and that the CAG report points to a certain period in time. "Subsequently thereafter, significant progress has been made," he said.

2) DIPLOMACY VS SECURITY

The Lahore Declaration in February 1999 was a step forward in improving the India-Pakistan relations. Months later, the Kargil War started in May.

The Kargil War showed that bilateral treaties and security don't always go together.

Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan in December 2015. A week later, Pathankot air base was attacked. Photo: PTI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover to Lahore in December 2015 while coming back from Afghanistan. The Prime Minister was received at the airport by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif with a warm hug.

advertisement

A week later, terrorists attacked the Pathankot Air Force station, in which seven security personnel and a civilian were killed.

3) PAKISTAN ARMY ALWAYS CALLS THE SHOT

While then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee engaged with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for bilateral talks, several analysts believed that the war was in the making ever since Pervez Musharraf took over as Pakistan Army chief in October 1998.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Nawaz Sharif at a Saarc summit in 1998. Photo: Reuters

While Nawaz Sharif's claims that he did not know about his army's plans are debatable, the realities on the ground have changed little in terms of the all-powerful army still calling the shots in Pakistan.

ALSO READ:

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess: PM Modi honours martyrs

How Israel helped India during the Kargil war

Doklam: When George Fernandes called China as threat no. 1 and how he stands vindicated

ALSO WATCH: Kargil Vijay Diwas: Arun Jaitley, Gen Bipin Rawat pay tribute to martyrs at Amar Jawan Jyoti

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
After hours at the Santa Fe Business Incubator on July 19, over a dozen local filmmakers sit attentively as guest speaker Steve Allrich flips through a script. Aldrich addresses one of the writers in the room, whose draft he holds in his hand. Usually, if theres a sound playing over a visual thats coming from the next scene, its called a pre-lap, Allrich says. That allows filmmakers to know exactly how that sound fits into the story.

The group, known as Santa Fe Filmmakers, meets once a month for these workshops. As Eric Streeper, its founder, explains, "I started putting talks and workshops on about seven months ago, because there weren't any active filmmaker groups I could find in town." Since then, the group, which primarily communicates through the online platform Meetup, has grown to over 200 local filmmakers and creatives, according to its webpage.

At this particular workshop, called First 5, writers received feedback on the first five pages of their script from Allrich, a writer and producer who worked on the 2015 Western drama The Timber. The subject matter varies greatly, from an Afro-badass female spy to a troublemaking elderly duo. Allrich, who one attendee jokes "looks a lot scarier than he actually is," delivers feedback in a critical but constructive manner. The result is a relaxed environment where writers feel comfortable engaging in conversation with Allrich and with their peers.

This level of camaraderie is the norm for the group. "What I really like is how supportive everybody is," says script editor and proofreader Diana Thatcher. "For example, this workshop was not what I was expectingAllrich was really gentle and supported everyone and helped them. I thought he would just rip into them." Writer Dean Balsamo agrees, saying, "I've gone to a number of groups like this, but this is the one that seems to gel."

It's encouraging to see such a cohesive, diverse and welcoming group of filmmakers, but it's not surprising given Streeper's upbeat personality. He explains with excitement that workshop turnouts have been getting better over the last few months. "Tonight's turnout was pretty good, but sometimes we'll have events where almost 30 people show up," Streeper says with a laugh.

Most events are a good mix of old and new faces, Streeper notes, and Steve Allrich is no exception to this trend. The pair's relationship began about a month ago over coffee. "I became involved with Santa Fe Filmmakers by just looking up Meetups in Santa Fe, since I was involved in a similar group up in Portland," Allrich tells SFR. "I found Eric's name and reached out to him for coffee."

After a few more caffeine-fueled discussions about film and one lecture, Allrich pitched his idea for a script workshop, which Streeper received enthusiastically. "After I did one of their talks last month about screenwriting, I realized that education is something that I want to get more involved in," Allrich says. "In a previous life, I was an artist, and I taught art for about 25 years, so I do have an enjoyment of teaching."

Aside from plans for another script workshop, the group has even more events coming up over the next few weeks. This Thursday, members are scheduled to appear at the Santa Fe Community College for a hands-on workshop. "They're going to have all kinds of equipment there," Streeper says, "but it's all going to be pretty common stuff, so you'll learn how to really shoot on a budget."

In August, Santa Fe Filmmakers aims to join forces with other organizations like the New Mexico Film Foundation and New Mexico Women in film for a mixer at The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company, which Streeper hopes will be an opportunity for local filmmakers to meet and make plans to collaborate on future projects.

For now, though, members are grateful for the commu nity theyve built within their ranks. For a group only seven months in the making, theyre proud the member commitment. The potential for growth is promising, Allrich tells SFR. Im open for whatever the future holds, however it evolves, he says. Im just enjoying being a part of the community. Theres a lot of interest in film here and screenwriting which is exciting. Santa Fe kind of has the feel of a small town, comparatively speaking, but theres a lot of interest relative to the city.



Cinematography for the Cost-Effective Filmmaker

6 pm Thursday July 27. Free.

Santa Fe Community College,

6401 Richards Ave,

428-1000







New Mexico Filmmixer

Time TBD Tuesday Aug. 8. Free.

The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company,

37 Fire Place,

557-6182







For updates, visit: meetup.com/Santa-Fe-Filmmakers.





Santa Fe Reporter
Santa Fe police say 24-year-old Anthony Benavidez was the first person to be injured or killed by the the department's SWAT team since it was formed in the 1970s.

Following an hour-long standoff last Wednesday morning, officers fired at least 15 shots into an apartment where Benavidez, who was living with schizophrenia, had allegedly stabbed a social worker earlier in the day.

SWAT callouts are relatively rare in Santa Fe, according to figures provided to SFR. During the past five years, SWAT has averaged five full deployments each year. And the team has been used, on average, 13 times a year to execute a search or arrest warrant.

Lt. Ben Valdez, who oversees the team and supervised the incident in which Benavidez was killed, writes in an email to SFR that the Santa Fe Police SWAT team is composed of two team leaders and 13 "operators." The department's tactical team also features medical services officers, crisis negotiators and explosives experts. All of them except the explosives team receive 40 hours of standard crisis intervention training from the Law Enforcement Academy, plus an additional 40 hours of training from the FBI in basic crisis negotiations.

On Tuesday, the Santa Fe police department released body camera video from more than a dozen officers who went to the apartment where Benavidez had holed up. It does not show what led police to fire at Benavidez in the moments leading up to the shooting, but it does confirm that officers were aware of his mental illness as the incident unfolded.

Uniformed Santa Fe police officers arrived at the Tuscany at St. Francis apartments near the intersection of St. Francis Drive and Siringo Road after a manager reported that Benavidez had broken into a unit from which he'd been evicted the day before. New Mexico state police have said Benavidez then stabbed a social worker at his front door. The worker had accompanied police to help coax him out. After the stabbing, the social worker was treated and released from a hospital.

State police also have said Benavidez threw two "improvised explosive devices" at officers, though neither appears to have detonated. That's when Santa Fe police sent in the SWAT team. One of the video clips shows officers discussing propane and chemicals such as ammonia and bleach being inside the apartment and wiring along the floor.

Police then chose to break through a back window, but it's not clear who ordered it. Lt. Valdez did not have his body camera switched on until after the shooting. A team of SWAT officers then moved to the back window. A sergeant shattered it before he and others commanded somebody inside to surrender, the videos show.

Without warning, Officer Jeremy Bisagna, a 10-year veteran of SFPD, fired multiple shots through the window with a handgun. Video does not show where the bullets struck. SFR counted at least 15 total shots. According to state police, Officer Luke Wakefield, who joined SFPD in 2014, also fired his weapon.

Before the shooting, Bisagna's camera captured another officer stating that a psychiatric nurse at the scene said Benavidez had schizophrenia. His camera goes dark just before officers began approaching the window. It did not capture the shots he fired, and the department did not provide any video from his camera that shows the shots he fired. Warning: Disturbing content.

Early in the encounter, uniformed officers tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with Benavidez, the videos show.

"Mr. Benavidez, do the right thing," one officer says. "We can't go anywhere. You know that. So you need to come out and talk to us, OK?"

But after the SWAT team arrived, the tone of police communications shifted.

Immediately before and during the shooting, a police voice that is either live or recorded can be heard demanding that Benavidez exit the apartment with his hands up. The message blared from a loudspeaker several times during the standoff.

After the gunfire subsides, SWAT officers ram through the front door and collect Benavidez' lifeless body.

The shootingand what led up to itillustrates one of the most hotly debated topics in American policing: how officers deal with people living with mental illness.

Peter Kraska, a frequently cited scholar of police militarization at Eastern Kentucky University, says Santa Fe's 40 hours of crisis intervention trainingwhich focuses, among other things, on how to approach a potentially volatile situation involving someone in the middle of a mental health crisis is typical nationwide, but is not enough.

"One of the reasons why this is becoming such a big issue is not only do you have a lack of training, you have a lot of things that compete against that training," Kraska tells SFR. "You have to be calm, and of course careful, but you have to de-escalate."

This past Saturday, the Santa Fe chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness held a public meeting at the Friendship Club for those who wished to discuss the incident.

"Some people asked, 'Are we going to get to the bottom of what happened?' [But] it's not the purpose of the meeting," says Betty Shover, president of the chapter. "It's just to be supportive, to gather around each other, because we're all traumatized and unnerved about these situations when they happen because it hits close to home."

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Benavidez' mother, Elizabeth Palma, said her son received a mental health evaluation at Christus St. Vincent Hospital last Tuesday, the day before the shooting, but hospital staff declined to keep him there.

Citing federal privacy laws, St. Vincent would not confirm to SFR whether Benavidez had been a patient there.

A few people at Saturday's meeting complained about the difficulty in accessing the behavioral health unit at Christus St. Vincent, Shover says. She cites the hospital's non-participation in a new program in which hospital directors and others can petition a district judge to mandate a person with mental illness submit to outpatient treatment, including medication.

Debbi Honey, chief medical nurse at Christus St. Vincent, tells SFR that people with mental health crises who go to the emergency room meet with a physician and a crisis counselor, who evaluate whether patients are a threat to themselves or others. Sometimes, she says, the hospital helps patients put together an outpatient treatment plan before they're discharged.

"Patients have rights, we cannot hold someone involuntarily," says Arturo Delgado, communications director for the hospital. "I think that's a critical patient right for anybody."

Benavidez was the second person to be killed by Santa Fe police this year. The first was Andrew Lucero, who was shot and killed on April 29 in Eldorado by Officer Leonardo Guzman. As with the Benavidez shooting, state police headed up the investigation into Lucero's death.

District Attorney Marco Serna says state police recently handed him investigative files pertaining to the Lucero shooting, which he passed off to the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys for an "independent review." A panel of five district attorneys is reviewing the evidence gathered by state police. That's a new practice for Santa Fe prosecutors; it comes after SFR exposed last year the inner workings of a highly unusual and secretive grand jury system that for decades rendered jurors powerless to charge officers criminally for on-duty shootings even if they wanted to.

"We'll review all the evidence that was collected, look at facts, read witness statements, view any audio and video, and if it's found in violation of the justified shooting for police statute, a further violation will be looked at," says San Juan County DA Rick Tedrow, one of the prosecutors on the panel. "If it's not against the statute, it will probably stop there."

Asked whether the panelists have discussed convening again for the Benavidez shooting, Tedrow says, "it's not even on the radar."

Santa Fe Reporter
SF deputies shoot at/shot at by armed robbery suspect

When Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies tried to stop a stolen pickup truck yesterday morning, police say the driver fired shots at them and took off, leading to a chase that ended in Algodonesin a hail of gunfire but without anyone getting hit by a bullet. The driver, Lane Reed, is a suspect in armed robberies from Denver to Raton to the Pecos River Station in San Juan, where yesterday's action began. The chase and shooting shut down I-25 and backed up traffic for miles.

Police release body cam video of SF shooting

Santa Fe police have released

of last week's shooting, in which officers fatally wounded 24-year-old Anthony Benavidez. The mentally ill man had stabbed a social worker earlier in the day and the video shows him lobbing what police determined were ineffective homemade bombs at them during a standoff. Police appear to have fired 17 shots during the encounter, 16 of them coming from one tactical officer.

Secretary of state tweaks campaign regulations

Seeking to pull back the curtain on spending by groups that don't have to disclose their donors, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has suggested new rules requiring dark money groups to reveal their donors if they choose to advertise in a campaign. Several conservative and libertarian groups have

, arguing it runs counter to federal law and curtails free speech. Toulouse Oliver has since suggested

before requiring disclosure.

Zinke expected in New Mexico for monument review

US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is expected to visit New Mexico this week as he reviews the

. The review, part of a Trump administration look at monuments created by the Obama administration, will take Zinke to Las Cruces and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, as well as to the Rio Grande Del Norte monument near Questa.

Los Alamos teen dies in cliff fall

White Rock Canyon is known for a cave in the canyon wall called Hell's Hole. It's a

, and over the weekend, 19-year-old Trevor Matuszak lost his footing and fell to his death. Rescue crews scrambled to the scene, but the teen succumbed to his injuries before they were able to rappel down to him.

Busy night for SF City Council

Councilors on Wednesday evening will

to bring back unmanned speeding ticket-issuing SUVs to the streets of Santa Fe. Police love it because, hey, free tickets (also, it often causes drivers who notice it to slow down). Others hate it, because, hey, do your own work. Also, Meow Wolf is looking to get approval of a $1.1 million

from the city and state. Councilors could also reconsider using ranked-choice voting in the next city election. All that stuff is on the 7 pm agenda.

Big rains coming

Santa Fe and other parts of Northern New Mexico could see

by the time the weekend arrives. It looks like we're headed for a

, too. But it shouldn't dampen the fun at the Railyard on Friday for the annual Best of Santa Fe party! Come by after work for fun, dunk-tank hijinks and a beer. The

hits newsstands today.

Thanks for reading! The Word has offered to sit in a dunk tank on Friday and endure endless tauntings.

Subscribe to the Morning Word at sfreporter.com/signup

Santa Fe Reporter
New Zealand reported a higher-than-expected monthly trade surplus of $242 million in June as exports were boosted by dairy sales, especially to China.

The annual deficit in the year to June was $3.7 billion versus $3.8 billion in the 12 months to May. Economists had expected a monthly surplus of $100 million and an annual deficit of $3.7 billion, according to the median in a Bloomberg poll. The June surplus was the fourth monthly surplus in a row.

Exports rose 11 percent on the year to $4.7 billion. Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the rise, up 45 percent to $1.2 billion and on an 11 percent increase in volume. The rise in dairy exports marked the ninth consecutive month-on-month increase as global dairy prices have continued to improve. Dairy exports to China jumped 102 percent in value and 63 percent in quantity to reach $373 million for the month, compared to June 2016.

"The milk powder, butter, and cheese group continues to be a key export commodity, and accounts for over a quarter of our total exports," international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said.

Exports of meat and edible offal, the country's second-largest commodity export, rose 4.9 percent to $616 million. This is the sixth consecutive month of rises for meat. Lamb led the increase, up $19 million in value or 8.9 percent. The exports of logs, wood and wood articles, the third-largest group, rose 7.1 percent to $388 million. Fruit exports, meanwhile, slipped 11.8 percent to $419 million. The fall was mainly driven by kiwifruit, Stats NZ said.

Overall exports to China were up 25.6 percent for the month of June against June last year to $1.0 billion while exports to Australia rose 0.9 percent to $672 million.

Imports from all sources rose 7.7 percent to $4.5 billion in June versus the same month a year ago. Car imports led the rise, jumping 31 percent to $505 million. New motor cars led this increase, up $86 million in value. This was 2,566 more new cars than in June 2016, Stats NZ said.

Imports from China rose 5.8 percent to $860 million in June versus the same month a year ago while imports from Australia fell 0.3 percent to $533 million. The biggest increase came from imports from Japan, up 35.2 percent on the year to $376 million.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

The Warehouse Group FY23 First Quarter Sales Update

PEB - Interim Financial Results to be Announced 24 November 2022

EROAD H1 FY23 Results and Conference Call Details

MFB - Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

HFL - Annual report for the year ended 31 August 2022

November 11th Morning Report

GMT - Customer demand supports strong first-half operating result

EVO - Embark Education announces Special Dividend

BLT - Strategy reset and revenue growth

Mainfreight Half Year Financial Results 30 September 2022


On the occasion of 18th Kargil Vijay Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the Indian armed forces for their sacrifices for the country and paid tribute to the 1999 war martyrs.

By India Today Web Desk: Honouring the Kargil martyrs today on 18th Vijay Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of tweets lauded the gallantry of Indian military and paid tribute to the valiant soldiers of 1999 war.

"Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe," the Prime Minister tweeted.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe.- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

advertisement

He added, "Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War."

The Central Command of the Indian Army will celebrate Vijay Diwas today through a series of functions, a defence spokesperson said on Monday.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and chief of all Indian armed forces paid their respects to the martyrs of Kargil War at the Amar Jyoti in the national capital.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with the state governor Ram Naik laid wreath on the war memorial for the Kargil heroes at the Smriti Vatika in Lucknow.

The wreath laying ceremony is underway at the Kargil War Memorial in Jammu and Kashmir's Dras sector.

J&K (Dras): Wreath laying ceremony held to pay tribute to soldiers who lost lives in Kargil War at Dras War Memorial on Kargil Vijay Diwas pic.twitter.com/UbpzaTwKTR- ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

It is one of the prime events that take place every year on the Vijay Diwas. Dignitaries from the armed forces, civil administration, gallantry award winners and families of martyrs pay their homage to the fallen soldiers.

The memorial located on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway was built by the army to pay respect to the 1999 war soldiers for their valour and supreme sacrifice.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated all over India on July 26 every year to commemorate the emphatic victory in the Kargil War against Pakistan and honour the war heroes.

It was on this day in 1999, the Indian Army successfully took control of posts in extremely difficult and treacherous high altitude and glaciated terrain across the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, after fighting for 60 days.

With inputs from agencies

Also read: JNU celebrates Kargil Vijay Diwas, Vice-Chancellor wants Army tank on campus

WATCH | Kargil Vijay Diwas: Arun Jaitley, Gen Bipin Rawat pay tribute to martyrs at Amar Jawan Jyoti

--- ENDS ---
Karnataka, which goes to polls next year, is one of the few states where the Congress is in power and the party will leave no stone unturned to ensure that it retains the state.

By Rohini Swamy: Karnataka, which goes to polls next year, is one of the few states where the Congress is in power and the party will leave no stone unturned to ensure that it retains the state.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has been a prominent party face in the state for over four decades and responsible for Congress' good show, exclusively spoke to India Today's Rohini Swamy on all the controversial issues - from demand for a separate state flag to the blackening of signages in Hindi outside metro stations in Bengaluru - that have of late hogged the headlines.

advertisement

EXCERPTS.

Q: Why does Karnataka need a flag at all?

A: Mr. Patil Puttappa is a very senior journalist and writer and has fought for the re-organisation of states and all that. He is the "Naduja" of Karnataka. He and others gave a petition and made a request because there is already a Kannada flag since 1966 in Karnataka. It is not decided as of now if we want to give an official seal to the flag and leave it to the committee to look into the matter legally. A report is awaited on all other aspects.

Q. But at the same time the state of Karnataka has its own anthem, is there a feeling that every state should have its own anthem? Are you setting a precedent?

A: Except Jammu and Kashmir, no other state has its own flag. But the Constitution does not prohibit any state from having its own flag. There is no prohibition in the Constitution. See, we have our own state anthem and there is a national anthem. Our state anthem does not override the national anthem. Likewise, if we have a state flag, I don't think it will be above the national flag. The law is very clear that there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits a state from having a flag of its choice. As a matter of fact, in America every state has its own flag. Ours is also union of states. We can have our own flag, legally as well as constitutionally.

Q. There are some people in the Congress who are opposing this.

A: No, Congress is not opposing it.

Q. Is there a consensus over this entire issue in the state of Karnataka?

A: Congress has not said anything on the issue, whether we should have or should not.

Q. But the Opposition is saying that this is an election stand. What do you think?

A: No. Let them say that Karnataka should not have a flag like this and that it is against the Constitution. Let them say whatever they want.

Q. Well, they come with a "One Nation One Flag" concept. BS Yeddyurappa especially has been saying that all about the national flag we all have to respect.

A: See, it looks like they haven't read the Constitution. They do not know the Constitution.

Q. What is your stand on the language issue? Do you oppose it?

A: No, I do not oppose it. Our officers have also put signages in Hindi along with Kannada and English. But Kannada activists are protesting against it. This because Tamil Nadu does not have three languages but only Tamil and English. Kerala has three languages. So now I have requested the concerned officers and ministers to look into the matter.

advertisement

Q. Does that mean you are not going to allow Hindi at all in the state of Karnataka?

A: We need not. There is no compulsion on the state government to allow Hindi also as one of the languages in addition to Kannada and English.

Q. Are you anti-Hindi?

A: No I am not anti-Hindi. I am not against any language as a matter of fact. But we have to respect the sentiments of the people, the people of Karnataka. So that is why what I said is that the Centre should not impose Hindi on non-Hindi states.

Q. But do you approve of the fact that there are certain organisations, pro-Kannada organisations that are calling meetings of various political parties who belong to non-Hindi speaking states and saying that they are going to go on a nationwide agitation?

A: No. I reiterate that the Government of India should not impose Hindi on any non-Hindi speaking states, be it Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana or Kerala. That is my stand, that is the stand of the state.

Q. Since Karnataka goes to polls in 2018, it is a crucial state. How do you plan to actually strategise to help the Congress retain power here because the BJP is also trying very hard to unseat the Congress. What about anti-incumbency?

advertisement

A: There is no anti-incumbency against our government. This was proved in the recent by-elections in Gundlupet and Nanjenagund after four years where we won convincingly. Where is the anti-incumbency, tell me.

Q. But the BJP also brought Mr. Yeddyurappa from national politics to state politics to pit its strong candidate against you. So it's going to be a Siddaramaiah vs Yeddyurappa contest, isn't it?

A: No, it's not Yeddyurapppa vs Siddaramaiah. That is how he campaigned, with this slogan - Siddaramaiah vs Yeddyurappa. What happened in election in Gundlepet? He campaigned for a month in both Gundlepet and Nanjenagund. But the BJP lost both these seats miserably.

Q. While you're talking about the grassroot level, another thing that is being said is that the dalit votes are what the Congress has been losing largely. And the Congress' loss is the BJP's gain. The BJP is cashing on the dalit vote. One reason why you had the national conference for BR Ambedkar here was to ensure that the dalit votebank remained with the Congress?

advertisement

A: No, that was not because we were keeping an eye on the dalit votes. See it is our commitment. The dalit votes cannot go with the BJP at all. BJP is anti-social justice, BJP is anti-secular, BJP is anti-democracy, BJP is anti-Constitution. How can the Supreme Court, backward classes and other minorities go with the BJP? They are not for social justice. There have been umpteen number of instances in the past where they opposed reservations and all that.

Q. On the issue of social justice, we have seen that there have been protests in Bidar by the Lingayat community asking for a special religious status. What is your stand on this?

A: No, it is not my stand or the government's stand. Some of the Lingayats have requested me to recommend to the Government of India that the Lingayat religion be made a separate one. So I asked all of them together to request and the government would consider recommending the same to the Centre.

Q. DIG D Roopa's controversial report has been in the news. What has been your stand on it?

A: No, immediately after she submitted the report, I have ordered for an inquiry by a senior IAS officer, the inquiry is going on.

Q. But there is enough evidence coming out to corroborate what she is saying?

A: No. We can't take any action merely on the basis of the report.

Q. But is there preferential treatment being given?

A: There should be a fair inquiry in accordance with the law. After the report comes, I will take action. We are not going to spare anybody.

Q. But you would have been well briefed. Do you think there was preferential treatment that was given by jail authorities?

A: No.

Q. But look at the luxurious manner in which Sasikala has been living in jail. If something has gone wrong, will you take action against the errant jail officials, be it a politician or an officer?

A: See, that is why I am waiting for the report. I will look into the matter if there are irregularities. If there is corruption, I will definitely take action in accordance with the law.

Q. The question is that the government was caught napping when it came to the pub issue and that it is the state government that should have done things fast?

A: We have written to the Government of India. As far as the state highways are concerned, they have been denotified. That is the state government's power. As far the national highways are concerned, they have to be denotified by the GoI. The Supreme Court did not say that the state government had the right to denotify. It is for the GoI to do it.

Q. Do you see a solution to the Cauvery issue?

A: See, Tamil Nadu is not agreeing to an out-of-court settlement. And for many times in the past, our previous governments have tried to negotiate, but they are not willing. Our advocates are doing their best. The arguments are on in court. This year is one of the worst years that we have faced. Last year at this time, we had 51 TMC of water, this year we have only 39 TMC. Whatever inflow we have, we are releasing 25 per cent. We have no option but to release water to Tamil Nadu as it is the court's order.

Q. The state is involved in a water war with Goa also on the issue of sharing the Mahadayi river water?

A: People of Goa are very adamant. The chairman of the Mahadayi tribunal suggested that all the states sit down and come to a compromise, but Goa did not attend the meeting. I have written two letters and to both the letters the reply has been that they are not ready for talks. Maharashtra is ready, not Goa.

Q. Why is Goa taking such a stand? Is it because they have support from the Centre?

A: I wouldn't say that is the case. But it is possible only if the Prime Minister intervenes and calls the chief ministers of all the three states and a collective decision is taken. BJP representatives need to put pressure on the PM, if they really are interested. I met the PM twice and even took an all-party delegation, but the BJP did not speak in front of the PM. Yeddyurappa and others did not speak at all. In the past Indira Gandhi did it, when it came to the issue of Telugu Ganga. If she could, why not Modi? He could intervene too. Goa and Maharashtra have BJP governments, why not impress upon them?

Q. What is the solution? Will this standoff continue?

A: Actually, settling the matter across the table is the best way to find a solution. Going to the tribunal or the Supreme Court takes time. That is why it is pending.

Q. It is said that the government is not being able to curb fringe elements as well as those who are Hindutva propogandists. will Mangaluru become another Kannur?

A: We will not allow people to take the law into their hands. The BJP has made South Canara their laboratory for Hindutva and that is what is creating problems. They are the ones behind the communal problems. We will not allow any communal organisation, be it the RSS, the SDPI, the KRV, or any other outfit to disturb the peace of the state. Stern action will be taken against them. A Kannur kind of situation does not exist in South Canara.

Q. Will your son Yathindra stand for elections?

A: It is for the Congress high command to decide. He is interested in contesting. If the party gives him a ticket, he will. After the death of my first son, I requested my younger son to join politics. he was never interested in the same. But now he has support, let's see.

Q. Are you absolutely confident that you will win this election?

A: I am absolutely confident. there is no doubt in my mind.

Q. Will you be changing your constituency to Chamundeshwari this time?

A: Yes, I am seriously thinking about it. I have won five times from that constituency and I am very attached to the place. During the by-election, this place gave me a second life and the next election will probably be the last for me. I want to contest from Chaundeshwari again as it will be my last attempt.

Also read | Karnataka: BJP flays Siddaramaiah for taking unilateral decision on state flag

Also read | Lingayats protest in Karnataka's Bidar seeking separate religious status

Also read | Row over Hindi in Namma Metro stations: Siddaramaiah to decide after knowing other states' policies

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
Superstar Dileep's wife and actress Kavya Madhavan was questioned by the SIT on Tuesday, say reports.

By India Today Web Desk: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday questioned Dileep's wife and actress Kavya Madhavan, in connection with the abduction and assault of a popular Malayalam actress. According to reports, Kavya Madhavan was questioned at Dileep's ancestral place in Aluva.

It must be noted that Kavya Madhavan's online boutique Laksyah was raided by the police after Pulsar Suni mentioned her name in his letter. The accused also told the police that he had deposited a memory card with photos of the kidnapped actress at Kavya's shop in Kakkanad.

advertisement

On Tuesday, Dileep's judicial custody was extended till August 8 by a court in Angamaly. The High Court on Monday rejected Dileep's bail plea.

As per police reports, Dileep, who was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy, is believed to be the mastermind behind the entire abduction and alleged molestation drama that unfolded on February 17 this year. The police have also revealed that they have enough evidence to nail superstar Dileep in the case.

The fiasco dates back to February this year when a popular Malayalam actress was abducted and molested by a gang, who took pictures of her to blackmail her. Pulsar Suni had confessed that it was Dileep who orchestrated the plan.

ALSO READ: Malayalam actress abduction case | Kerala HC rejects Dileep's bail plea

ALSO READ | Kerala actress abduction case: HC defers verdict on Dileep's bail plea

ALSO READ: Kerala actress abduction case- Dileep's official website hacked?

ALSO READ: Kerala actress abduction- Dileep's bail rejected, actor to be in judicial custody

ALSO READ: Is Dileep in possession of the phone used to record the actress's assault?

WATCH HERE: Kerala HC accepts Dileep's bail plea

--- ENDS ---
23 years ago, two friends became political foes and remained that way till politics brought them together again only to become rivals all over again.

By India Today Web Desk: Nitish Kumar today resigned as Bihar chief minister apparently miffed over the refusal of Tejashwi Yadav to quit as the state's deputy chief minister. Tejashwi, the second-eldest son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, is facing allegations of corruption after the CBI charged him, his father and other members of Yadav clan in a case of benami properties.

advertisement

While Nitish avoiding directly attacking Lalu Prasad Yadav, the RJD chief pulled no punches, digging up an old arms case against Nitish and essentially calling the now caretaker Bihar CM the Bharatiya Janata Party's puppet.

With this, Nitish and Lalu have come full circle, having been friends, then enemies and then friends again through their political careers, which began simultaneously, back in 1974.

FRIENDS

1974: Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar take part in Jayprakash Narayan's agitation as student leaders

1990: Janata Dal sweeps Bihar polls and Lalu Yadav becomes CM for the first time. Nitish is part of the pre-poll core team

FOES

1994: Nitish Kumar revolts against Lalu, quits Janata Dal and subsequently forms Samta Party with George Fernandes

1997: Lalu breaks away from Janata Dal and forms Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Lalu and Nitish are political rivals

2000: Lalu's RJD defeats Nitish Kumar's Samta Party in Bihar polls

2005: JD (U)-BJP combine wins Bihar polls and Nitish becomes CM for the first time

2010: Nitish Kumar becomes CM for the second time

2013: Nitish breaks away from NDA but remains CM with Congress support

2014: Nitish resigns as CM after JD (U) wins just two seats in Lok Sabha polls

FRIENDS

2015: The Nitish, Lalu and Congress mahagathbandhan wins Bihar elections and forms government

2016: Nitish and Lalu trade barbs over mafia don Shahabuddin after he comes out of jail

FOES

2017: Differences between Lalu and Nitish grow wider as Nitish is seen praising Modi more often

Lalu and family raided by CBI in corruption cases, Nitish seeks explanation

Quits as CM after Lalu's son refuses to quit as deputy CM in the government

ALSO READ:

What will happen in Bihar after Nitish Kumar's resignation? These are the 4 possibilities

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

What will happen in Bihar after Nitish Kumar's resignation? These are the 4 possibilities

ALSO WATCH | Nitish hand-in-glove with Modi, BJP: Lalu Yadav launches offensive

advertisement

--- ENDS ---
Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Chanda Yadav paid a paltry sum of Rs 5,000 to become one of the owners of a posh bungalow in Delhi's elite New Friends Colony.

By Atir Khan: Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Chanda Yadav paid a paltry sum of Rs 5,000 to become one of the owners of a posh bungalow in Delhi's elite New Friends Colony.

Her brother Tejaswi and Ragini were the other two owners.

An investigation by the Income Tax department into the alleged benami transactions of Lalu's children for buying properties in Delhi has revealed that AB Exports, the firm that purchased the bungalow for Rs 5 crore, was a shell company. This company in turn received funds from other five shell companies operating from Mumbai. The funds were used to buy the bungalow in its name (name of AB Exports). Later, the company was taken over by Lalu's relatives through share transfer.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW The company had received funds from Nakshatra Business Pvt. Ltd, Alka Diamonds, Olive Overseas Pvt. Ltd, Triangular Infocom and Yash V Jewells Ltd. When I-T sleuths checked the past records of these companies in Mumbai, they discovered that these were shell companies being operated by a person called Manish Jain and his associates. India Today has accessed the Income Tax report that clearly states that the source of funds received by these companies was found to be bogus. Inquiries in Mumbai revealed that these companies were involved in no serious business apart from converting black money into white on a commission basis. The loans were only given on papers. The report says, "The people working with these companies were not involved in any business. They were working as intermediaries to convert unaccounted cash into balance sheet capital, which could be further used to buy properties through a benami transaction by passing it off as a genuine one." The report says that on paper, A B Exports showed that it paid an interest of 9 per cent on the loans it got from five companies, but actually neither the interest was demanded by those companies nor was it paid. Interestingly, A B Exports was taken over by Lalu's kin at a price of merely Rs 4 lakh. During the course of the Income Tax investigation, even shareholders were questioned. They revealed that they merely acted as mediators and don't even know when the shares of the companies were bought or sold. Lalu and his kin have been saying that they have become victims of political vendetta.

advertisement

Also read | ED to seize Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti's Delhi farmhouse

Also read | Aviation Ministry withdraws special VIP privileges accorded to Lalu, Rabri at Patna airport

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: Lalu rubbishes corruption charges in railway hotel sale case, says it's a BJP conspiracy

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Colombo, Jul 26 (PTI) Sri Lanka today deployed army and police to restore fuel distribution after declaring petroleum supply an essential service as trade unions vowed to continue strike against what they describe as "selling out of state assets" to India and China.

The Sirisena government sent the army troops and police to provide security to vital fuel installations and restore fuel distribution crippled due the strike by workers at the state-run petroleum company.

advertisement

Constables and hundreds of troops were sent to man two main distribution points of the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) near Colombo, and have begun restoring supplies, police said.

"We have taken the first step of providing security to Kolonnawa and Muthurajawela oil installations," Military spokesman Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said, adding that troops are now working in distribution facilities to start fuel distribution with help from those who are not taking part in the strike.

The oil workers strike has triggered fuel crisis in the country with long queues of cars and trucks building up outside petrol stations.

The trade unions, who are striking since Monday night, today announced that they will not return to work until the government abandons plans to handover fuel storage tanks in the eastern port district of Trincomalee to India and the lease agreement to handover the Hambantota port to China.

They also called for the upgrading of oil refineries.

Petroleum trade unions dub both the agreements with India and China as "sell-off of state assets?.

President Maithripala Sirisena last night issued a gazette notice declaring fuel storage and distribution an essential service from today. The government asked the striking workers to return to work.

The government said that fuel distribution bowsers have been instructed to report to the respective fuel storage facilities in order to distribute fuel to the fuel stations.

"Those who do not report for duty today will be considered having vacated their posts," said a government statement.

The government points out that the people are facing an inconvenience due to the disruption of supply and distribution of fuel including petroleum products and gas in the country.

Under the proposed deal with Sri Lanka, India will jointly operate a strategic oil facility in the eastern port district of Trincomalee.

At least 73 of the 99 storage tanks of the World War II- era in Trincomalee is to be managed under a new equity arrangement between India and Lanka.

Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the fuel distribution should be normalised by this evening.

advertisement

Sri Lankas Cabinet yesterday approved a long-delayed agreement to sell to China a 70 per cent stake in a USD 1.2 billion Chinese-built port in the southern town of Hambantota.

State-owned China Merchants Port Holdings will have a majority stake in the strategically-located port. PTI CORR PMS

--- ENDS ---
Page Content





The meeting was held during the recently held CANTO conference in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The Minister also used the meeting to learn about what the technological advancements are at this time.





During the meeting, which included representatives of the Bureau Telecommunication & Post St. Maarten, Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB) Rolando Brison made a presentation about how STB envisions Huawei working with telecom companies locally and internationally like Huawei, underscored by STB's information about the most crucial needs that tourists have asked for over the years.





Huawei in turn offered advice on some of the ways they can work with local telecom providers and government to provide what the island needs as a tourism destination.





One of these needs is access to the outside world by cruise visitors via wifi connection. "The fact is the first thing most of todays cruise tourists look for when they come off the cruise ship is WiFi. We are encouraged to have them stay connected, as that opens the possibilities for them to share the great time they are having at real-time," Brison said.





"In this social media age of snap-chat-like applications and live streaming, its important we give them the access they need to be able to give us the free "word-of-social-media" advertising we want them to give us, which can prove to be much more valuable than any other form of advertising."





Should a cooperative approach be reached, Huawei would be asked to provide recommendations for implementation of wifi spots, financing and work with local providers in executing identified solutions. BTP would provide regulations guidance and support as well as act as liaison between parties. STB would provide the marketing effort, a financial injection, data collection and means of tourism conversion (from cruise to stayover).





Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Driven by a commitment to sound operations, ongoing innovation, and open collaboration, the company has established a competitive ICT portfolio of end-to-end solutions in telecom and enterprise networks, devices, and cloud technology and services. Its ICT solutions, products, and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions.





Minister responsible for Telecommunication Affairs Mellissa Arrindell Doncher recently met with officials from Huawei Technologies to explore possibilities of establishing wifi solutions for cruise visitors in collaboration with local providers. The meeting was strictly exploratory in nature, in which the Minister sought and Huawei offered advice.
By PTI: Colombo, Jul 25 (PTI) Sri Lankas Cabinet today approved the sale to a Chinese firm of a 70 per cent stake in the strategically-located Hambantota port, tweaking the deal after the initial agreement sparked protests.

Parliament will debate the USD 1.12 billion-deal on Friday and formally enter it over the weekend, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

State-owned China Merchants Port Holdings will have a majority stake in the port, he said.

advertisement

The Chinese will manage port operations and Sri Lanka will handle port security, the minister said, indicating that it should allay fears that the port could be misused by the Chinese.

"Security of the port will not be given to anyone else. It will be handled 100 per cent by Sri Lankans," Samarasinghe said.

His comments are being seen as an attempt to allay Indian concerns over the Chinese presence in the Hambantota port. India perceives it as a danger to its national security.

The Maithripala Sirisena government had earlier faced public protests over handing over 15,000 acres of land for a Chinese industrial park in Hambantota. There were violent protests in the area as the local people refused to part with their land.

Earlier, the Sri Lankan government had planned to offer an 80 per cent stake to the Chinese firm, media reports said.

In 2014, New Delhi had protested to Colombo when a Chinese submarine called at the Colombo Port where Sri Lanka is currently developing a financial centre on the Chinese assisted port city project.

Samarasinghe said no favours would be granted to China.

"We will not provide special treatment to any country. We want to maintain good relations with all and we dont want to antagonise anyone."

The announcement came as petroleum workers stopped work at midnight yesterday, opposing the deal at Hambantota and the proposed lease of oil storage tanks in the eastern district of Trincomalee to India.

Long queues were seen at fuel stations with fuel distribution coming to a halt. PTI Corr NSA BDS UZM

--- ENDS ---
The man, Basit Nazar, was apprehended today by troops from the Central Reserve Police Force, the Rashtriya Rifles, and the Special Operations Group (Sopore).

By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, Basit Nazar, was apprehended today by troops from the Central Reserve Police Force, the Rashtriya Rifles, and the Special Operations Group (Sopore) in Sopore in Kashmir's Baramulla district.

25-year-old Nazar is a resident of Sopore.

The troops recovered a pistol from the militant.

(More inputs are awaited)

ALSO READ

Srinagar police tried to stop NIA from flying arrested Kashmir separatists to New Delhi

advertisement

India Today impact: Kashmir separatist leader Shabir Shah arrested; NIA, ED to question

ALSO WATCH

Arrested Hurriyat leaders produced in Patiala House court, NIA demands 20-day custody

--- ENDS ---
By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent.

Agree
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The railway ministry today cancelled a caterers contract after a passenger found a dead lizard in his vegetable biryani served on a Delhi-bound train from Howrah, a ministry spokesperson said.

The passenger had ordered and eaten the dish without noticing the lizard but felt unwell later, a co-passenger, Meghna Sinha, said in a series of Tweets yesterday.

advertisement

"In view of the Railways zero tolerance policy towards poor quality and overcharging of food, the railway administration has terminated the contract of the catering contractor, R K Associates, for the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express," Railway Ministry spokesperson A K Saxena told PTI.

Sinha had shot a photograph of the biryani packet, uploaded it on Twitter and tagged the Indian Railways. In another Tweet, she tagged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The ministry tweeted today that the catering contract on Poorva Express was given to R K Associates on May 15, 2014, for five years.

The caterer was fined Rs 10 lakh last year and Rs 7.5 lakh, it said in another Tweet.

The passenger, who had asked for the biryani when the train was near Jhajha, Bihar, also uploaded a complaint on Twitter.

Responding to the complaint, the ministers office asked the traveller for travel details.

"Kindly share your PNR number," it tweeted and tagged the concerned catering department.

The passenger underwent a health check-up in Patna, Buxar and then again at Mughalsarai in UP, where senior rail officers were also present, officials said.

The spokesperson said in the last six months, the administration had terminated the contracts of eight catering units.

"It is unprecedented the number of contracts that we have terminated in the past six months. In the last year, 16 such contractors were also blacklisted. We have also financially penalised the offenders," Saxena said.

The incident comes days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed the railways for bad quality food, saying it was "unfit for human consumption".

Prabhu has also directed the administration to conduct special catering drives across the entire railway network starting today. Officials have been instructed to inspect pantries and base kitchens and take corrective measures wherever necessary.

R K Associates on its website said it had been catering for the Railways "for the past two decade". PTI ASG PYK ABN BDS

--- ENDS ---
The court suspended their punishment of life imprisonment, and also granted them bail in the case, related to the death of three civilians in the Kashmir Valley in 2010.

By Ajit Kumar Dubey: Five Army personnel convicted by a general court martial in the highly politicised Machhil "fake encounter" case secured a major victory as a military court suspended their punishment of life imprisonment.

The armed forces tribunal also granted them bail in the case related to the death of three civilians in Kashmir Valley in 2010 where the accused were dismissed from service and given jail terms allegedly under pressure from the then National Conference government in the state.

advertisement

Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devender Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar from 4 Rajput Regiment and rifleman Abas Hussain of the Territorial Army were convicted in 2014 for alleged human rights abuse.

"The armed forces tribunal bench headed by Justice VK Shali suspended the punishment awarded to these personnel and granted them bail in the case," Major Anand Kumar and Major SS Pandey, the two lawyers of five Army personnel in the case, told Mail Today.

"The suspension of punishment means that the troops would be out of jail while the court would continue to hear the case on the trial conducted by the force against them."

The Army investigation and order in the case also came under criticism as the force had "failed to establish the chain of evidences to confirm the circumstantial evidence which was relied upon by the Army court martial to convict the personnel."

PUBLIC OUTCRY

There was a public outcry after photographs of those killed in the alleged encounter were released, as relatives and neighbours of the slain persons claimed that the three men were framed and killed in a stage-managed gunfight and they were not connected with militancy in any way.

From the beginning of the case in 2010, the National Conference had been pressurising the central government to hold trial and punish the Army men in the case, observers say. All the five personnel have been languishing in different prisons across the country: Col Pathania is lodged in the Nahan jail in Himachal Pradesh while Captain Upendra is in a jail in Rajasthan's Ajmer city.

Two of the soldiers are in Meerut jail while Lance Naik Lakhmi is in the Bharatpur prison. Pointing to loopholes in the Army's investigations, Major Anand said that according to the police and Army theories, a person called Bashir was responsible for handing over the three deceased - Reyaz Ahmad, Mohammad Shafi and Shahzad Ahmad - to the 4 Rajput Rifles, but he was not even questioned by the court martial in its proceedings.

Asked for his reaction on the tribunal's ruling, Major SS Pandey, the lawyer of the remaining accused in the case, said the six Army personnel convicted were fighting for the nation but they were punished under pressure from the political parties there.

advertisement

Major Anand contended that the "trial was vitiated and the Army court did not do justice to its own personnel and it is gradually emerging that it was not a case of fake encounter but that of a fake trial." The Army had completed the trial in the case in December 2013 but it took almost two more years to confirm the sentence, in September 2015.

ALSO READ

India doesn't have ammunition for a long war, key concerns in CAG report explained

Wife of Army officer slaps junior officer's spouse during an event; matter reaches PMO

ALSO WATCH

As Doklam standoff continues, Pakistan turns up border heat

--- ENDS ---
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(0x5612eec376d0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efec39b0)', '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(0x5612eec376d0)') 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(0x5612efec39b0)') 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(0x5612efe99db0)') 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(0x5612efec39b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efec39b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612ee0be4f8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612efef3b08)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612efef3b08)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
What do the arts do for Australia? What is their contribution to society, the economy, people's health and well-being, education - and how do we understand, express and measure the value of such things? The Arts Value Forum examined such questions at the Canberra Theatre on Wednesday.

ACT arts advocacy body The Childers Group and the Cultural Facilities Corporation jointly convened the forum which attracted more than 100 people from the region and around Australia and presented 23 local and national speakers including Minister for the Arts and Community Events Gordon Ramsay, award-winning Canberra Indigenous artist Jenni Kemarre Martiniello and the director of Melbourne's Heide Museum of Modern Art, Natasha Cica.

Kate Fielding, board member of Australia Council for the Arts and Chair of Regional Arts Australia, and one of the speakers at the Arts Value Forum at the Canberra Theatre on Wednesday. Credit:Rohan Thomson

The keynote speaker was Kalgoorlie-Boulder based Kate Fielding, who is the chairwoman of Regional Arts Australia and a board member of the Australia Council of the Arts as well as a company director, writer and social change hairdresser - the last being someone who's trained to use hairdressing as a context "to have conversations about difficult topics". Fielding said she used it as a tool in remote areas of Australia to bring together people who normally wouldn't relate to each other such as police officers and recently released prisoners.

Speaking before her Arts Value Forum session, Fielding said she would talk about the value of arts and culture and some of the key pieces of evidence used to explain that value both in financial and other contexts.
A Canberra man appealed against a court-ordered animal ban on Wednesday that had barred him from owning dogs for five years.

On March 4, 2016, RSPCA inspectors seized a dog belonging to Shane Keir, alleging he failed to notice an infection after a chain had become tight around its neck.

It's not suggested Keir caused the dog's injury, but that he failed to notice it and take the dog to the vet. Credit:RSPCA ACT

Keir was charged and pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable steps to alleviate the animal's pain. He was convicted by a magistrate, handed a good behaviour order and ordered to make reparations of some $3000.

On Wednesday in the ACT Supreme Court, the man's lawyer Paul Edmonds argued the sentence should have stopped there. But the man had also been banned from owning dogs for five years, except for one working dog, and ordered to complete community service. He said these parts of the sentence were manifestly excessive.
Liberal Leader Alistair Coe has disclosed his wife's family's friendship and business links to the principal of Colliers International in Canberra, in another twist to the inquiry into the Land Development Agency's deals at Glebe Park and the lakefront.

As a parliamentary inquiry into the land deals began, committee member Mr Coe declared his family connections to the head of Colliers in Canberra and released advice he has received from the ACT parliament's ethics adviser about the links.

Liberal Leader Alistair Coe wrote to the ACT Public Service Standards Commissioner over the ACT government's support of the "yes" campaign ahead of the postal vote on same-sex marriage. Credit:Kirsten Lawson

Colliers International is one of the key valuers named in Auditor-General Maxine Cooper's report into the 2015 land purchases.

The firm provided the advice used by the Land Development Agency to justify paying $3.8 million for Glebe Park land. It provided a value for Pat Seears' paddle-boat lease of $438,000, plus compensation of $500,000, figures that Dr Cooper said lacked evidence, methodology and justification. Mr Seears was paid $1 million.
Three men bashed and kicked a fourth man in a vicious assault in June, leaving the man on the ground as they walked off.

The three attackers were part of a group of seven men seen in CCTV footage of the incident on Saturday, June 10, which ACT police are now seeking to identify.

A still from the assault showing four men walking away as the attacked man lies on the ground.

One of the men in the group ran back to break up the fight, but the men then left the attacked man on the ground suffering facial injuries.

Police were called to reports of a fight at the Canberra Centre in Civic at about 9:20pm.
Travellers on a troubled Qantas flight are finally on their way back to Sydney on Wednesday after a series of technical problems delayed their flight for almost two days.

Flight QF2 left London on schedule but was delayed in Dubai on Monday due to a fault with the A380's airconditioning system.

A Qantas A380 aircraft similar to the one that was delayed in Dubai.

Passengers complained about a lack of communication from the airline.
Brian Loughnane, former federal director of the Liberal Party, speaks with Anna Bligh, after her address to the National Press Club. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Pay gripes "So what is it that they're angry about? I think they feel that, sure, banks are important but they look at salaries and say are they really necessary? Are we really getting value for money?" Mr Costello said one explanation might be that the West generally is in the grip of populism. Australian Bankers Association chief executive Anna Bligh said she agreed with Mr Costello's comments on pay Credit:AAP

Alternatively you could argue that banks have not made their case for high salaries and sold it to the public. Or it could be that the public has legitimate concerns that banks need to identify and deal with. Mr Costello said he would leave it to others to draw the conclusion, but communication would always be part of the answer. I think they feel that, sure, banks are important but they look at salaries and say are they really necessary? Peter Costello "I do know one thing, if you want to change public opinion you need to work at it," he said. "Now you might say what I do know? Well I introduced a tax on everything, called GST, and boy did we have to work on that. It wasn't immediately popular, [this idea of] let's tax every good and service."

Four pillars Mr Costello said the advantage of big banks was stability and this was part of the reason Australia fared well during the GFC. He noted Canada, which had a Six Pillars policy based on Australia's Four Pillars policy, also did well during this turbulent time The Labor opposition has a policy of a Royal Commission into banking and financial services. FSC chief executive Sally Loane, who was moderating the question and answer session, noted that some Labor senators had already said that breaking up the big banks should be an outcome. Mr Costello noted you don't need a Royal Commission to do that.

"If you wanted to break up the banks, you don't need a Royal Commission to do that," he said. "You'd adjust the four pillars policy, or you'd make it easier for new entrants, or you could if you wanted to even order divestment. Westpac took over St George, CBA took over BankWest, and if you really wanted to go to extreme lengths [and reverse that], you don't need a Royal Commission. A Royal Commission is really where you suspect schematic illegality is going on." Mr Costello also took aim at the Turnbull government's superannuation reforms from the 2016 budget, which mostly came into effect on July 1 this year. "I don't see what's wrong with giving people a tax break to put money into super," he said. "The government gets it back eventually when you take them off the pension, but that theory seems to have fallen out of favour." Furious agreement

Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh said she was in "furious agreement" with Mr Costello on the need for bank chiefs to better explain their remuneration packages. "I think he's right - not only for banks, but for all of corporate Australia - that those who are earning very generous salary packages need to be able to demonstrate the value that they provide to the company and, in some cases, beyond the company's interests," she told the National Press Club. "Shareholders determine, ultimately - and shareholders approve - the remuneration packages of our senior executives. In doing so, boards are required to provide very extensive and detailed remuneration reports." Ms Bligh said that the manner in which salaries were determined for CEOs across corporate Australia was one of the most transparent in the world because shareholders had the chance to say yes or no to a package. "If you want to think about a different system for setting CEO salary than the one we currently have, I would suggest that's got to be something that should be considered right across all publicly listed companies. I don't see any reason to be singling out, again, one industry," she said.
This time it was meant to be different. McAleese, the logistics group, collapsed last August - less than three years after investors paid $166 million to list the business led by Melbourne businessman, Mark Rowsthorn.

It was seen as a personal victory when he managed to salvage most of the group - the viable part of the business - from administration in February this year.

End of a fairytale: McAleese chief Mark Rowsthorn had hoped to restore most of the transport group from administration. Credit:Cole Bennetts

But the latest fairytale did not last five months before administrators and receivers were called in to take over part of the "good business" which was still being run by Rowsthorn under the name Rivet Group.

And now 180 staff are losing their jobs after receivers announced that one of the businesses caught in the latest collapse, Australian Road Express (ARX), will be wound down as no buyer was found for it.
Queensland will grow faster than the rest of Australian next financial year on the back of tourism, but the state's major construction and engineering projects are still sliding off a cliff.

And we are yet to work out the impact on Queensland of China's declining interest in our thermal coal.

Tourism is one of the five positive drivers of the Queensland economy, according to a report. Credit:Rachel Clun

These facts are among five positive and five negative things about the Queensland economy that can be learnt from Deloitte Access Economics' latest study of the Australian economy.

The report measures the growth or decline in 1205 projects across Australia valued at $20 million or more.
The Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Caste commission has asked for an inquiry into allegations that a trauma centre inaugurated by a Dalit MLA was cleaned before Jyotiraditya Scindia visited the facility.

By Hemender Sharma: The Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Caste commission taking cognizance of reports of an alleged anti-Dalit act by Congress's Jyotiraditya Scindia, has directed the collector of Ashok Nagar to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Bhupendra Arya, the chairman of the SC commission, also plans to visit Ashok Nagar trauma centre that was inaugurated by a Dalit BJP MLA and which allegedly was cleaned with 'gangajal' before Scindia visited the facilty.

advertisement

Arya will visit the centre on July 29 in an attempt to determine the chain of events and to find out what happened during Scindia's visit.

Scindia, a Member of Parliament from Guna, has refuted the allegations and has also served the Madhya Pradesh BJP president Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan with a legal notice, threatening criminal action against him.

Scindia also raised the matter in Lok Sabha saying that those leveling such allegations against him should give up their legislative/parliamentary memberships if they could not prove their claims.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, on the other hand, has turned the issue into a full-blow political affair, with party members burning Scindia's effigy at all district headquarters in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress responded in kind, burning the BJP state president's effigy at district headquarters.

ALSO READ | Madhya Pradesh: Congress' internal feud out in open as Digvijaya takes a dig at Jyotiraditya Scindia

ALSO WATCH | Congress needs new ideas, says Jyotiraditya Scindia

--- ENDS ---
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe's has bemoaned sluggish wage growth. Credit:Tammy Law

We already know that many young Australians feel intimidated when it comes to voicing their concerns on the job, including because they're worried about future job prospects. For some, it is their vulnerability that leads them to take up these exploitative arrangements and they're loathe to speak up, not helped by the lack of whistleblower protection in Australia.

What's even more galling is the government will be giving a $1000 subsidy to employers for paying less than the minimum wage. In effect, they're incentivising employers to tear down our whole wage system.

This clearly illustrates Australia's employment law system is completely broken. I've previously described the PaTH program as a poisoned chalice, as it lures young Australians into internships with the promise of progression but delivers little in return. Indeed, it would be interesting to track how many of these internships result in permanent jobs  my concern is that more often than not, there will be no job at the end of the "training" period.

Along with the heated exchanges between business leaders and the Prime Minister at a private dinner in Sydney last week over tax and industrial relations reform, what PaTH disturbingly illustrates is the social contract between Australian employers and employees is broken.

You have to wonder how far down this path the federal government is willing to go and where it will stop.

It's quite ironic that following Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe's comments last month that wages growth "would be a good thing", Australia's peak business bodies and the Federal Government are looking to undermine the awards system.

Dr Lowe hoped that relative low unemployment in many developed economies would "energise" labour markets and workers into demanding higher wages. His comments echo those of former Goldman Sachs chief economist and Conservative Party Minister in the UK Government, Jim O'Neill who called for an end to wage stagnation globally.

Yet even with stagnant wage growth which has a direct effect on domestic consumption and economic growth, business and government feel the need to further prey on the vulnerable.

Loading

You have to wonder how far down this path the federal government is willing to go and where it will stop. At present it would seem there's no end point, which is bad news for young Australians.

Giri Sivaraman is head of Maurice Blackburn's Queensland employment law department based in Brisbane. He has been recognised as a preeminent lawyer for employees in the Doyles Guide. Follow Giri on Twitter at @GiriDSivaraman
While few people would be opposed to encouraging greater youth involvement in the political process, common sense suggests the ACT Green's proposal to drop the voting age in Territory elections to 16 is not a good way to go about it.

Party convener, Michael Mazengarb, has fleshed out the suggestion in a submission to an inquiry into the ACT election, the Electoral Act and whether the franchise should be extended to 16 and 17 year olds.

His party secured the parliamentary inquiry, which also saw him call for the Territory Government to be increased by another nine members ahead of the 2020 election, as part of their power sharing deal with Andrew Barr and Labor last year.

If they ever got up both of these initiatives would be of significant benefit to the Greens.
When my autistic son Sam was 14 I decided to send him to Africa. The objective of the journey was to take Sam out of his comfort zone and expose him to new experiences in the hope this would provide a boost to his communication and life skills and give him a shot in the arm of independence. His dad went with him.

Most autism intervention is focussed on the early childhood years, a time of peak neuroplasticity, when it's theorised the brain is most amenable to change. Yet there is "second spring" of neuronal development during adolescence, the potential of which has largely been neglected. Our family decided to grab the opportunity and embark on an autistic gap year to see what would unfold.

Sam Best in Africa, where he became more talkative, more independent, with a greater of sense of his place in the world.

Quite a few people have asked me how, as a mother, I could let Sam go. Wasn't I worried? I mean wasn't, as someone said, Africa a big, scary, dangerous place?

My answer to the first of these: I never stop worrying about Sam. I adore my three sons equally but there's a special piquancy to my love for Sam borne of his vulnerability.
The current conflict within the NSW Liberal Party over the party's rules about who votes in pre-selections has a much wider context.

Internal democracy is a huge issue in all political parties, trade unions, businesses and many non-government organisations because the constitutions and rules structure the contest over who holds the leading positions. The competition is fierce and competitors often try to manipulate the rules to their own advantage. Democracy is a rough and tumble sport within organisations.

There are various legitimate ways of electing leaders and standard-bearers, such as candidates in public elections. Political parties in Australia have swung between representative and participatory democracy as the basis for their internal processes. Participatory democracy has the edge currently and in all other states and territories Liberal pre-selection is conducted by plebiscites of members rather than by representative bodies.

Neither method is in principle more democratic than the other because each produces democratic outcomes while also being able to be manipulated in undemocratic ways like stacking. But on both the left and the right, representative democracy is in retreat as organisations experiment with ways of injecting wider participation into their processes. Insider politics is on the nose as traditional party membership numbers fall and new parties spring up.
The constitutional disqualification of members of the Commonwealth Parliament for holding dual citizenship has raised the questions of why this constitutional prohibition exists and what it was intended to achieve.

It can be traced back to Britain's Act of Settlement of 1701. It banned people born outside of the British Empire, unless born of English parents, from being a member of Parliament or a minister. Similar prohibitions were imposed upon legislatures established in British colonies. In 1842, for example, the Westminster Parliament enacted that if any Legislative Councillor of the colony of NSW shall take any oath or make any declaration or acknowledgment of allegiance, to any foreign prince or power or shall do any act whereby he may become a subject or citizen of any foreign state, his seat in the Legislative Council shall become vacant.

Interestingly, it only affected persons who attained their foreign allegiance after having been elected or appointed to the Legislative Council. This remains the case today under the NSW constitution. A member who holds dual citizenship can be elected to the NSW Parliament, but if a member obtains foreign citizenship after his or her election, then he or she is disqualified.

The Commonwealth constitution is stricter. It picks up the terminology of the 1842 Act, but extends it to prevent a person from being elected and sitting as a parliamentarian. The intention was to ensure that members of Parliament have a single allegiance. In those days, it was allegiance to the crown, so it included subjects of the queen in the United Kingdom and all dominions and colonies. In 1999 the High Court reinterpreted the provision, so that citizenship of the UK was treated as foreign citizenship, giving rise to disqualification.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

The world has gone mad. Just consider the events of the last couple of weeks.

Cardinal George Pell outside Melbourne Magistrates Court. Credit:Justin McManus

The world's third-most senior Catholic fronts an Australian court yesterday to answer sex charges.

The nation's most popular politician suffers a nervous breakdown, pending serious extortion and criminal charges.
Behind China's recent 6.9 per cent growth in GDP lies a bigger fact: between 2009 and 2030, the country will add 850 million to its middle class. I would call that a killer fact.

Nothing else on Canberra's agenda  talk about innovation, relations with India or tax cuts for business  competes with that statistic for its potential impact on Australian living standards. It is equivalent to a new continent emerging somewhere to Australia's north with 850 million more consumers asking Australia to fill its supermarkets, sell them places in our schools and universities, invest our expertise in aged and health care and let them come as tourists, investors and cashed-up migrants.

A killer fact that sweet deserves to be interrogated. To what extent can we trust it?

It was presented in a 2010 OECD working paper by Dr Homi Kharas, now co-director in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His prediction was that by 2030 Europe would add only 16 million to its middle class. Small stuff, and North America's middle class was set to shrink by 16 million. In this context, 850 million more middle-class Chinese dominate world economic prospects. That means the Chinese middle class will grow from 12 per cent of its population in 2009 to 73 per cent in 2030. By middle class, Kharas means household income equivalent to between $US16,000 ($20,254) and $US160,000 per year, a widely used definition.
Federal-state tensions over water issues have escalated with South Australia demanding Barnaby Joyce, the federal Water Minister, drop his nomination of an irrigation lobbyist to the Murray Darling Basin Authority's board.

South Australian Water Minister Ian Hunter this month wrote to Mr Joyce to complain about his nomination of Perin Davey to fill one of two openings on the board overseeing implementation of the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan.

At the time, Mr Hunter called the appointment "ill-advised" because of Ms Davey's record of "strongly advocating against the delivery of the plan".

Those concerns have been heightened by Ms Davey's apparent membership of a group of irrigation lobbyists given special briefings by Gavin Hanlon, a senior NSW water bureaucrat.
Australia's top spy has warned the Solomon Islands that a planned 4000 kilometre-long internet cable connecting the tiny Pacific nation to Sydney could be torpedoed after it signed up controversial Chinese firm Huawei to lay the cable, Fairfax Media understands.

The future of the communications cable project is now uncertain because of Australia's fears about the involvement of Huawei, the communications giant that was banned from working on the National Broadband Network on the advice of security agency ASIO.

Nick Warner, the head of the foreign intelligence agency the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, is understood to have warned Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of Australia's concern during a visit to capital Honiara last month to mark the end of the Australian military and police assistance mission to the country.

Fairfax Media understands that while Australia strongly supports the cable project because of the economic benefits it would bring to the struggling island nation, it has become concerned since the Solomons government abruptly abandoned previous plans to sign up a US-British firm to lay the cable and instead began pursuing an opaque deal with Huawei in mid-2016. The switch by Honiara also prompted the Asian Development Bank  which would have provided concessional financing  to withdraw support because of the lack of transparency, it is understood.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) Maharashtra Health Minister Dr Deepak Sawant today announced that a five-member committee will be formed in every municipal area to investigate deaths due to swine flu in private hospitals.

Sawant made the announcement after holding a review meeting with the health officials and MLAs from Thane, Pune and other areas.

"The committee will audit each case of swine flu death and all the other diseases or symptoms will be collectively assessed. Each municipal corporation and council will have such a committee, which will collect the data for analysis," Sawant said.

advertisement

The committee will find out the causes behind the death and confirm whether it was caused due to swine flu or any other reason, Sawant said.

In a bid to curb the swine flu deaths, which has seen a rise in some parts of the state, including Thane, Pune and Nashik, Sawant convened a meeting at the Vidhan Bhavan here.

Minister Vijay Deshmukh, MLA Sanjay Kelkar, Vijay Kale, principal secretary for health Pradeep Vyas and director Dr Satish Pawar were present.

In the state, 338 swine flu deaths were reported (so far this year). Out of the total number of deceased, five hailed from Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Out of the total, 37 deaths were reported in Nashik, followed by 31 from Pune city and 23 from rural. The H1N1 infection has claimed 24 deaths in Nagpur and Aurangabad, while 21 died in Thane.

The infection claimed four lives in Mira-Bhayandar and Vasai-Virar MC, while three died in Navi Mumbai. Of the five deaths, three patients were from Karnataka, while two others from Madhya Pradesh, Sawant said.

There are currently 3,181 people in the state who have been infected with swine flu. Of these, 2,036 cases were detected in June and July. As many as 108 deaths were reported in these months and 56 deaths are in Mumbai and Thane, said the health minister.

"The state government has taken necessary steps to prevent the spread of swine flu. In the past seven months, 31,000 people have been vaccinated," he said. PTI ND NP

--- ENDS ---
After losing his luggage, comparing the hongi - a traditional Maori greeting - to a headbutt and being upstaged by a rare lizard in New Zealand, Boris Johnson is pleased to be in Australia.

The British Foreign Secretary, who is a fan of wearing his tie long like President Trump, Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and hyperbole, touched down in Sydney on Tuesday night to little fanfare.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has a selfie with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop ahead of their bilateral meeting in Sydney. Credit:AP

"[It's] an unbelievable, mind-blowingly beautiful city," he said on Wednesday while standing in the bowels of the Opera House during a tour guided by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

The former London mayor, who was a leading Brexit campaigner, is on a three-day tour down under for the annual UK and Australian foreign and defence talks, in a bid to drum up trade and reassure Australians he wants to maintain a fluid immigration agreement between the two countries. Something he describes as a "very open and friendly regime."
Australia's major banks fear a royal commission will damage their reputation in global markets and hurt customers and investors, Australian Bankers' Association chief Anna Bligh has warned.

And if the Labor opposition wins the next election  a result on a "knife edge", according to Ms Bligh  then the banks will do everything in their power to fight for a decent hearing and fair terms of reference for the inquiry.

Ms Bligh, in her first address to the National Press Club since taking over as spokeswoman for Australia's banks, said the sector realised it urgently needed to rebuild trust with the community and outline what was being done to improve banks' governance.

She also conceded that banks needed to better explain why their chief executives received huge, multimillion-dollar salaries  backing similar comments from former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello  and promised the Australian Bankers' Association would fight state-based bank-specific taxes being weighed by South Australia and West Australia.
Matt Canavan discussed taking out Italian citizenship with his family in 2005 but says he never signed any documents or forms and believed the matter never progressed.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce on Wednesday defended the former resources minister as an "exemplary person" and said Senator Canavan's mother was "at her wits' end" that her son's promising political career had stalled.

Senator Canavan resigned from the Turnbull government ministry on Tuesday night after publicly declaring his mother signed him up for Italian citizenship without his knowledge.

Asked how that could happen given the rigorous application progress required to obtain Italian citizenship, Mr Joyce said: "Well, Senator Canavan has stated to me that he did not complete any forms, so it was a discussion the family had and he thought that's where it's rested. I think they've found the forms and they're unsigned."
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts is under mounting pressure to prove he's eligible to stay in Parliament but is refusing to provide evidence he renounced his British citizenship before last year's election.

Despite previously insisting he has only ever held Australian citizenship, Senator Roberts - who was born in India to a Welsh father, potentially making him a British national by birth - now says he is "no longer a British or Indian citizen" and has "renunciation documents".

Senator Roberts has signed a statutory declaration that he is "a citizen of Australia only", and holds neither British not Indian citizenship. It also says that prior to becoming a One Nation candidate he "investigated" his eligibility under section 44 of the constitution, which has already caught out three senators this month.
A potentially landmark ruling on Canavan's case raises major political and legal problems and underlines the case for a full audit of all 226 representatives.

Public confidence in the 45th Parliament, where the Turnbull government makes laws with the value of a one-seat majority, hangs in the balance.

As the Turnbull government reels from the shock loss of cabinet minister Matt Canavan, concerns mount about an unknown number of other representatives potentially in breach of a little-known prohibition against dual citizenship.

Yet neither side of politics embraces that probe for fear of what could be unearthed. This is a can of worms big enough to end more careers and even force a general election.

Senator Matt Canavan, the now ex-minister for resources and northern Australia, nominated for an Ernie for "blaming his mum". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Driving the fear is section 44 (i) of the Constitution, which is unnervingly clear on the threshold question of eligibility. It states inter alia, that "any person who is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power ... shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives".

It may be lumpy prose, but the important part here, is the final "or" clause.

Plainly, this suggests even a dormant form of dual citizenship disqualifies a hopeful MP. Thus, it may be of no consequence whether Canavan's mother informed him or not of her efforts to formalise his Italian citizenship. In essence, because that citizenship was already there, as an ordinary function of descent.
Italian Citizenship & Genealogy Services, a private service that helps people claim Italian citizenship, notes that members of a family can claim citizenship at the same time. "Applying with siblings and/or first cousins requires very little additional work and is a great way to divide up costs," the site says. "Another benefit of applying with other members of your family is that you need only ONE set of certificates for your entire family's application" Can a parent register a child for citizenship without their knowledge? According to Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, Canavan and his mother had discussed the issue of Italian citizenship but he did not know she had registered him. This idea has been greeted with much scepticism by those familiar with the process. On Wednesday ABC presenter Emma Alberici, who is an Italian citizen, visited the consulate in Sydney and asked about the application process. She was told that if you are over 18 you have to appear in person and fill out the relevant forms yourself. "A parent can't do that on your behalf," Alberici said.

Senator Matt Canavan says he became a citizen of Italy without his knowledge. David Bongiorno said it would be "highly irregular" and "extremely odd" for an adult to gain Italian citizenship without actively participating in the process. The Consulate General in Brisbane does not explicitly state that all applicants in a family must be present for an interview. It does say: "One appointment only must be booked for all members of the same family, living at the same address. However, one 'main applicant' must be chosen for the time of booking." Identification and proof of residency, though, are definitely needed for all applicants. Pressed for more details on how Canavan's mother was able to make an application on her son's behalf, Joyce said the High Court would look at those matters.

Where does this leave Matt Canavan? Former Victorian state Labor MP Carlo Carli - a dual Italian-Australian citizen - says that, when it comes to the Australian constitution, it appears to matter little whether Canavan knew he had been registered or not. "Under Italian law, you are considered an Italian, even if in practice it hasn't be realised," Carli says. "Italian law says if you are born to an Italian parent after 1948 you are an Italian by blood." This would throw Canavan's eligibility under section 44 of the constitution into serious doubt, particularly from the moment his mother became an Italian citizen. The High Court will have the final say when it rules on the matter and could have a more generous interpretation. Loading
Rebecca Judd's daughter Billie is only 3 years old, but is already showing worrying signs of having negative body image, the presenter and former model revealed during her weekly appearance on The 3pm Pick Up program on KIIS FM.

"All of a sudden [Billie] has started caring about her appearance so much. It's really scary," Judd said.

Judd and husband Chris Judd with their four children. Credit:Bec Judd/Instagram

"I don't know where it's come from because at home, I wear active wear pretty much, sneakers, chuck my hair up and barely put on any make-up."

Judd, who is also mother of four and married to AFL legend Chris Judd, said her daughter "hates" her curly hair and "screams at the mirror".
Former High Court judge Michael Kirby has questioned if gay and lesbian Australians can reach the highest levels of politics today, describing the fight against prejudice as a key to his professional success.

In an interview for a new web series The Thread, the retired openly gay judge and chair of the United Nations special committee on North Korean human rights violations says he might have considered a career in politics with a "wife and two children" but was not willing to spend his life pretending.

Former High Court judge Michael Kirby said the marriage debate "must be very painful" for Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Justin McManus

"You know, my whole life has been battling against one stereotype, my sexuality, and poofters are all weak and soft and lovely and window dressers and so on," he said.

"Well, I am not. I am a tough and highly trained experienced lawyer so get used to it."
Australia Post has confirmed the sale of one of Australia's most significant heritage buildings, the Sydney GPO, to two Singaporean billionaires, despite an outcry over heritage concerns and a secretive sales process.

The sale stands as one of the last acts of outgoing Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour who leaves the organisation on Friday, delivering a $150 million bump to the organisation's bottom line.

Sydney GPO has been sold in a secretive deal for $150 million. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Australia Post said Mr Fahour would not benefit from the sale, including from bonuses.

"Mr Fahour's compensation for FY2016/17 is unaffected by the sale of the GPO. His one month of employment in the new financial year (FY17/18) does not have a bonus attached to it," Australia Post said in a statement.
A 32-year-old man from Telangana murdered his whole family before committing suicide over a family dispute.

By India Today Web Desk: A family dispute took a horrific turn in Telangana's Khammam district.

S Saleem, a 32-year-old man, allegedly took law in his hands after a dispute surfaced in his family.

Saleem killed five of his family members before committing suicide.

He, allegedly pushed his parents, wife and two children into a canal and later jumped into the water. Both his children were aged below 10. The incident happened in Jillacheruvu village last night, a senior police official said.

advertisement

A suicide note was found in his house, written by Saleem, in which he referred to some family dispute.

"As per preliminary investigation, Saleem killed his family members and later committed suicide apparently over some family dispute," Khammam's Commissioner of Police Tafseer Iqbal. All the six bodies have been retrieved and sent for postmortem and the suicide note has been sent to a forensic science laboratory for verification.

(With inputs from PTI)

--- ENDS ---
Councillors would retain the ability to set the parameters for development in their local area, but would lose the ability to vote on individual projects under the system, which is already used by some local governments across the state.

Councillors across Sydney and in parts of NSW would lose the ability to vote on development applications, under a proposal to be represented to NSW cabinet on Thursday.

Following the May meeting, in which Gladys Berejiklian's government agreed on a range of other housing policies, the Premier and Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said they would consult further on the use of Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels.

The government has since consulted with developers, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and council representatives. Nevertheless the proposal, if adopted on Thursday, would likely continue to be resisted by some councillors and council representatives, already angered by the government's forced merger policy.

Concern about the negative reaction from councillors prompted former planning minster Rob Stokes to drop the idea of mandatory IHAPs in planning reforms proposed in January.

The Property Council, which has been pushing for greater use of IHAPs, wrote to cabinet ministers on Wednesday with the results of a survey it commissioned into community attitudes about planning processes.

Although only one in five home owners who responded to the survey said they had ever heard of planning panels, once the process was described, a majority agreed with general propositions about keeping politics and self-interest out of planning decisions.
Four young men on trial for gang raping a teenage girl at a NSW house party have been found not guilty.

A jury on Wednesday found Christian Dickens, 22, Aaron Jensen, 23, and two 21-year-old men not guilty of aggravated sexual assault in company at a Blue Mountains house in 2012 where a 15-year-old girl alleged she'd been attacked.

Judge Leonie Flannery discharged the jury at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court as the accused men's families applauded the verdicts.

The four co-accused smiled and hugged family members as they walked out of the dock.

Outside court, Dickens said he felt relieved.
NSW Greens upper house MP Mehreen Faruqi is preparing to nominate for Senate preselection, setting up a possible contest with controversial Senator Lee Rhiannon, whose term expires at the next federal election.

Fairfax Media understands that an announcement is imminent from Dr Faruqi, who in 2013 became Australia's first female Muslim parliamentarian.

Party insiders describe Dr Faruqi, a civil and environmental engineer who emigrated to Australia from Pakistan in 1992, as a candidate capable of unifying the party amid acrimony between the NSW division and the national body, the Australian Greens.

Senator Rhiannon recently said she was "disappointed" with Senator Richard Di Natale's leadership of the Australian Greens after being suspended from the federal party room.
A man who held police at bay for about 16 hours on Tuesday after refusing to leave his yacht on Lake Macquarie has been arrested.

The 55-year-old, who police said was armed with a knife, had allegedly threatened police at the jetty on Wharf Street, Toronto, before he set sail into the lake shortly before noon.

A man refuses to leave his yacht, which he has set alight on Lake Macquarie, police say. Credit:L.J.C. Photography/Supplied

Police had hoped to arrest the man over an outstanding warrant.

It is understood the vessel had been deemed unseaworthy by Roads and Maritime Services and was in the process of being impounded.
A man has been shot dead by police following a "confrontation" with officers at Central Station in Sydney's CBD.

In a statement, NSW Police said officers were called to Eddy Avenue just before 6.45pm on Wednesday "following reports of an armed robbery".

Witnesses said a man, identified as Danukul Mokmool, 30, was armed with what appeared to be scissors. He confronted the owner of a florist shop at the station, causing bystanders to call police.

When officers arrived, the man refused to put the scissors down, witnesses said. He was then shot several times at close range.
Homicide detectives have been called in to investigate the "suspicious" death of a man found in the back of an old minibus in Sydney's south.

A crime scene has been established at a car park off Garema Circuit in Kingsgrove after police discovered the man's body inside the vehicle just after 10am on Wednesday.

Forensic officers examined the ageing, blue minibus in the corner of the car park on Wednesday afternoon.

One local worker told AAP he'd only noticed the vehicle on Wednesday morning and did not believe it had been parked in the industrial car park for long.

Another nearby worker told News Corp there was a pool of blood at the scene.
Salim Mehajer has been charged with breaching the state's electoral funding disclosure laws, in the latest legal headache for the colourful property developer and former councillor.

The former deputy mayor of the now-defunct Auburn Council is accused of failing to lodge an annual disclosure of his political donations and expenses by the September deadline last year.

He was charged under the NSW Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act and the first steps were taken in his prosecution in the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.

If convicted, Mr Mehajer faces a maximum $4,400 fine.
More than $25 million has been spent on a new property levy to fund fire and emergency services that Premier Gladys Berejiklian deferred indefinitely and may dump altogether after an outcry over how much owners were set to pay.

Ms Berejiklian announced the NSW government's intention to proceed with the Fire and Emergency Levy (FESL) in December 2015.

From July 1 it was to replace a tax on insurance polices with a broad-based property tax to fund the NSW Fire and Rescue, the Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service.

But following outcry over the size of the levy for residential and business properties, Ms Berejiklian announced in late May that its introduction would be deferred and signalled it could be dumped altogether.
A possum has been blamed for the power outage that caused major delays across the south-east Queensland rail network on Thursday morning.

Queensland Rail warned delays were likely to continue throughout the morning peak hour, even after trains resumed about 6.30am.

Train commuters are warned to expect delays. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

A QR spokeswoman said a possum ran across the wires at busy Roma Street Station, tripping the power and knocking out all but two tracks.

"Between 5.30 and when it was fixed at 6.30 trains through the inner city were sharing those two tracks, which obviously caused a lot of congestion," she said.
Labor has pre-selected its candidate to take on Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls in Clayfield.

Fairfax Media can reveal Labor has formally endorsed 50-year-old solicitor Philip Anthony, who will take aim at the Liberal National Party over One Nation in the upper-crust inner-north electorate.

Labor candidate for Clayfield Philip Anthony outside Tim Nicholls's electorate office.

A Queensland Labor spokesman said the party believed Mr Nicholls was "quite vulnerable" in Clayfield over preferences with Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

"Labor will be running a well-coordinated grassroots campaign that will absolutely be putting Mr Nicholls under extreme pressure," he said.
The outspoken former Jammu and Kashmir CM described the arrest of eight separatist leaders for receiving funds from Pakistan to fan unrest in the Valley as a good move.

By Poulomi Saha: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today launched his biggest attack on incumbent Mehbooba Mufti yet accusing her of being hand-in-glove with Hurriyat.

"People's Democratic Party has won because of Hurriyat. Their stronghold lies in South Kashmir. There lies the answer. Ask the government to probe this," he said.

"She (Mehbooba) is hand-in-glove with Hurriyat. One of her ministers write the statements that (separatist leader Syed Ali Shah) Geelani give," Abdullah added.

advertisement

Talking to India Today, Farooq Abdullah said it was no surprise that reports suggested that the Jammu & Kashmir Police stalled the movement of arrested separatist leaders from Srinagar to Delhi on Monday evening. High drama is alleged to have played out at the airport, as the seven arrested were being moved by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), because the state government was upset it wasn't kept in the loop about the arrests. It was only after the Ministry of Home Affairs intervened that the NIA could carry forth with its job.

"You should hold the government of Kashmir and the chief minister responsible for this. The BJP should break up with them," said Farooq Abdullah.

The outspoken former Jammu and Kashmir CM described the arrest of eight separatist leaders for receiving funds from Pakistan to fan unrest in the Valley as a good move but expressed doubt that when the NIA goes after the big fish - Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik - they would find it easy.

"It is a very good development. We all we know where is the money coming from," Abdullah said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested top separatist leaders days after an India Today expose. India Today's investigation revealed how these Kashmiri separatists were receiving funds from Pakistan to trigger trouble in the region.

While seven separatist leaders were arrested on Monday , Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) president Shabir Shah was held late on Tuesday.

In May, the NIA had visited Srinagar to probe into the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned separatist leaders regarding their involvement in raising, collecting and transferring funds through Hawala and other channels for terror funding in Kashmir.

Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani are already under house arrest. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik is also under arrest.

ALSO READ:

India Today impact: Kashmir separatist leader Shabir Shah arrested; NIA, ED to question

NIA maintained top-level secrecy before arresting separatist leaders. The inside story

Caught on Camera: How Pakistan funds Kashmiri separatists to burn the Valley - India Today Exclusive

WATCH: Jammu and Kashmir Police arrests separatist leader Shabir Shah on money laundering charges

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
The mental health treatment given to a Brisbane tradesman is under review after he allegedly tried to kill a woman by setting her on fire.

Sigourney Leigh Coles, 28, was in the bedroom of her Bracken Ridge home, in the city's north, when Matt James Nolan, 27, allegedly doused her in accelerant and set her alight about 10.40am on Tuesday.

Sigourney Coles (pictured with a friend) was rushed to hospital with serious burns after Mr Nolan allegedly tried to murder her by setting her on fire.

She was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a serious condition with burns to her arms, chest and airway.

Mr Nolan, reportedly the woman's ex-boyfriend, cried in the Brisbane Magistrates Court dock on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he was charged with attempted murder and entering a dwelling with intent.
"They're killing our kids," a woman yelled from the crowd of protesters as they marched through Queen Street Mall on Wednesday night.

Hundreds took to Brisbane's CBD for almost two hours to protest the sentence handed down to the man who ran over 14-year-old Elijah Doughty in the West Australian town of Kalgoorlie.

Protesters at the Justice for Elijah march in Brisbane's CBD on Wednesday night. Credit:Jim Malo

In August last year the man was charged with manslaughter over the death of the Aboriginal teen, and on Friday the man was found guilty of the lesser charge of dangerous driving occasioning death and given a three-year sentence.

In Brisbane on Wednesday the protesters were peaceful, but they were loud, and many were clearly unhappy about the judge's decision.
An app-run bike share scheme that removes the needs for docks and allows riders to leave the bike wherever they finish is on the cards for Queensland.

On Wednesday, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate announced that he wanted to bring dockless bikes, that would be "better" than Brisbane's seven-year-old CityCycle scheme, to the Gold Coast.



Dockless bikes have been used overseas for several years, but more recently, in June dockless bike scheme oBike started in Melbourne and Reddy Go rolled out in Sydney in July.

Brisbane City Council rules out dockless bikes for Brisbane. Credit:Michelle Smith

Despite other capital cities and the Gold Coast embracing the scheme, the Brisbane City Council has ruled them out.

Dockless bikes are typically accessed through a mobile phone app.
The Google WiFi app, available for Android and iOS. Each Google WiFi hub features two Ethernet ports, letting you connect Ethernet-only devices like desktop computers, network printers and network drives so you don't need to run as many cables around your home. The WiFi coverage maps below compare Google WiFi with the coverage from a FritzBox 7490, in a narrow three-story house. It stacks up well against the Linksys Velop coverage maps, which was tested against a Telstra Frontier gateway. On the middle floor of a three-story home - LEFT: FritzBox 7490, MIDDLE: single Google WiFi hub, RIGHT: three Google WiFi hubs (blue hub is upstairs). Credit:Adam Turner The results are distorted by the fact that both Google WiFi and the FritzBox support bandsteering  automatically switching your devices between the 2.4 and 5GHz wireless bands in search of the best performance. To be fair, I don't think the maps quite do the FritzBox justice and perhaps it's more reluctant to shunt devices to the 2.4GHz network.

Also keep in mind, Google WiFi also supports beamforming which bends the wireless network towards your device to improve the signal strength  temporarily improving coverage in the furthest reaches of your home. You can also use the Google WiFi app to prioritise one wireless device in your home above all others. Top floor: LEFT: FritzBox 7490 downstairs, MIDDLE: single Google WiFi hub downstairs, RIGHT: three Google WiFi hubs on the right (blue hubs downstairs). Credit:Adam Turner Strike up the band Technically Google WiFi falls short of its mesh networking rivals because it's only a dual-band wireless system, not tri-band like its more expensive competitors. To be fair your average user wouldn't notice the difference, and it helps Google keep the price down. Bottom floor: LEFT: FritzBox 7490 upstairs, MIDDLE: single Google WiFi hub upstairs, RIGHT: two Google WiFi hubs upstairs (and a third two floors up). Credit:Adam Turner

Google WiFi hubs run 2.4 and 5GHz networks side-by-side, which appear as a single WiFi network to your devices. Meanwhile the Linksys and Netgear systems run an extra invisible 5GHz network, which the hubs use to talk among themselves and relay traffic back to the primary hub without choking the main WiFi network that your handheld devices rely upon. Without this separate dedicated 5GHz backhaul link, Google WiFi's 802.11ac wireless network is only rated AC1200  with theoretical maximum speeds of 1200 Mbps (more like 500 Mbps in real world conditions). Meanwhile the AC2200-rated Netgear and Linksys gear can theoretically double this performance, but realistically Google WiFi's AC1200 is sufficient in a country where you're lucky to have 100 Mbps broadband speeds. You'd only put Linksys and Netgear's extra speed to use when transferring data around your home. Keep it simple While Google WiFi is easy to configure and offers impressive coverage, unfortunately it sacrifices many advanced features in the pursuit of simplicity.

The parental features are very basic, although you have the advantage of being able to access them while away from home. Once you dive into the advanced network settings you can change the DNS settings but you can't configure Dynamic DNS. Likewise you can allocate static IP addresses for devices on your home network, but you're stuck with the default 192.168.86.x IP range. The real surprise with Google WiFi is that it doesn't support "Bridge Mode". This won't matter in some homes, but in others it's an instant deal breaker  especially if you're on the NBN. In a nutshell, Google WiFi insists on being the heart of your home network, plugged directly into your broadband modem so it can hand out IP addresses to all your devices and direct traffic around your home. Of course you might not want Google WiFi to handle all these tasks, especially if you've already invested in a high-end broadband router which lives at the heart of your network. Alternatively you might rely on your ISP-issued broadband router to run your NBN home phone. With Linksys Velop, Netgear Orbi or practically any other WiFi gear, you can select Bridge Mode so it runs your wireless network but still lets your broadband router play household traffic cop. In return you generally lose a few network management features built into the WiFi gear, like parental controls, but your broadband router might be able to handle those.

Hold the phone Google WiFi doesn't offer Bridge Mode when you've got more than one hub working as a mesh, which is an incredible oversight. This means you're faced with three options; replace your broadband router with Google WiFi, put your broadband router into Bridge Mode, or plug Google WiFi's primary hub into your broadband router. If you're on the NBN and you disconnect your ISP-issued broadband router, or put it into Bridge Mode, you'll probably lose your home phone  as most NBN-based home phone lines actually run over the broadband. Killing the phone service is obviously unacceptable in some homes. The only other option is to plug the primary Google WiFi hub into your broadband router and let them both play traffic cop. At this point you've cut your home in half. Wireless devices on your Google WiFi network, like your smartphone and notebook, can't talk to the devices connected to your broadband router via Ethernet  like your desktop computer, network printer and network attached storage drive. You can also encounter Double-NAT firewall issues which can screw up your port forwarding and online gaming.

This obviously isn't a problem in homes that run everything over WiFi and don't use the Ethernet ports on their broadband router. If you do use them, you'll need to plug those Ethernet devices into the Ethernet ports on the Google WiFi hubs to ensure they can talk to your wireless devices. So what's the verdict It's quite possible Google might add Bridge Mode in a firmware update down the track, Google tells me "this is just the start of the Wi-Fi product journey and we're always working on improving our products". In my experience, buying hardware in the hope that future firmware upgrades will come to your rescue is often a recipe for disappointment. Otherwise Google WiFi ticks a lot of boxes; it's easy to set up, the boost to your network is impressive and the price is right assuming you're satisfied with AC1200 wireless speeds.
I'm about to wrap up the blog now, but before I go, I'm putting in a blatant plug for a project I've been working on.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I'm a fan of puzzles and quizzes, and so developer Soren Frederiksen and I have decided to turn the census into a bit of a game show.

You can now test yourself on how well you know your area. Check out the interactive quiz here.
It's been a tough couple of months for Anna Bligh as head of the big banks' lobby group.

The former Queensland Labor premier was appointed chief executive of the Australian Bankers' Association earlier this year, to take over the unenviable job of trying to soothe the banking industry's hostile customer base after a series of financial scandals.

WA Premier Mark McGowan is considering a bank levy. Credit:Trevor Collens

Ms Bligh, who will address the National Press Club on Wednesday, has also had to bear the wrath of politicians, including those from the past.

Within weeks of Ms Bligh getting on board, the big four banks plus Macquarie were slugged with a levy in Treasurer Scott Morrison's May budget, something she and the banks fought with no luck.
Western Australia is one step closer to legalising euthanasia, after Mandurah MP David Templeman said a plan to establish a parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life legislation would be debated in August.

Mr Templeman, who is also the government minister responsible for which laws are debated, said the move could mean euthanasia legislation may be introduced as early as next year.

A motion to establish an inquiry into "end-of-life choices" was put on the notice paper in June by Morley MP Amber-Jade Sanderson.

It called for a committee to examine "the need for laws in Western Australia to allow citizens to make informed decisions regarding their own end-of-life choices".
Police have arrested a 23-year-old man over a drive-by shooting in which a Perth woman was hit while driving her car.

The 43-year-old woman was shot in the shoulder when a round of bullets hit the driver's door as she was reversing out of a driveway in Midvale, in Perth's north-east.

A woman was shot in the shoulder when a round of bullets hit the driver's door. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Glass showered over the woman and three passengers - including her teenage son and his friends - but no-one was killed in the December 14 shooting.

Witnesses saw a man running away from the car that the shots were fired from, suggesting the woman was an innocent victim.
A serial scammer has been jailed for eight years without parole after he defrauded 12 WA victims of almost $600,000 through a bogus furniture importation scheme.

Nathan Giles Barrett, 49, was sentenced in the WA District Court on Friday over what a judge described as a "most grave and unusual case".

Nathan Giles Barrett was jailed for eight years without parole after he defrauded 12 WA victims. Credit:Nic Walker

Barrett pleaded guilty to 38 counts of gaining benefit by fraud.

The court was told he obtained money from 12 victims on the false promise it would be used to fund a business venture, which involved importing furniture from Indonesia to supply retail businesses in WA.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 26 (PTI) The US state department has said that a military strategy may not "necessarily" yield results in Afghanistan and a permanent solution to the conflict can be found through peace talks with the Taliban and other parties involved.

Afghanistan has been battling insurgency for more a decade. The Taliban offensive against the West-backed government in the country increased this summer. Two days ago, a Taliban suicide bombing killed at least 26 people in Kabul.

advertisement

This was the third major attack in the last two months.

The comments by the state department came ahead of a review of the Afghan war strategy by the Trump administration.

On Monday, top US lawmakers criticised the administration for lacking a "compelling" strategy to fight terrorists in the region. Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was "disgraceful" that the US has no strategy to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

Reports have said that the United States could be exploring ways to harden its approach towards Pakistan-based militants who often launch attacks in war-torn Afghanistan.

State department spokesperson Heather Nauert said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "feels very strongly" about continuing the peace process. "That means actually sitting down and talking with members of the Taliban and starting to facilitate that kind of dialogue," Nauert said.

"Ultimately, like in many situations in many other countries, military options or our military strategy is not necessarily going to win those countries and put peace back together ...in the long run, you have to bring both sides to the table or multiple sides to the table together to determine their future," she told reporters yesterday.

But this does not mean discounting the military option, she said. "Of course, the military option is a piece of it."

The Taliban has become more dangerous and more deadly and has been involved in the kinds of attacks that perhaps previously they have not been involved with, she said.

Nauert said it is premature to say that the department is optimistic about the peace process with the Taliban. "Until then, we will continue to support our Afghan partners."

The state department spokesperson refuted reports that the Trump administration has shut the Office of the Special Representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Theres been a lot of reporting on that. Those functions will still remain here at the State Department," she said. PTI LKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
MARIGOT:---- Topes de Collantes, CubaOver 200 scientists, teachers and conservationists came together in Cuba this month at BirdsCaribbeans 21st International Conference. Held every two years, it is the only time when this far-flung community has a chance to work face-to-face to improve how birds are studied and protected. The event included nearly 150 presentations and workshops over five days.

St. Martin was represented by two members of the association Les Fruits de Mer. President Jenn Yerkes delivered a well-received presentation, The Human Element. She showed how the stories of people, like scientists and conservationists, can be used to interest people in birds and science. Mark Yokoyama hosted Reaching People, a writing workshop.

This years theme was Celebrating Caribbean Diversity, explained BirdsCaribbean Director Lisa Sorenson. We love the variety of birds here, but the diversity of our members is even more important. We brought people here from dozens of islands. We have different cultures and languages, but we all face similar challenges. The chance to share ideas improves our work all over the region.

BirdsCaribbean is the regions largest conservation group. Programs like the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival, which highlights birds found only in the region, reach over 100,000 people each year. At the conference, festival coordinators on different islands share ideas and activities. Others are inspired to launch festivals on their islands for the first time.

Researchers sharing their work give ideas that can help save birds. Members learn how birds recover after hurricanes or prosper when farmers plant shade trees over their coffee. Then they can bring bird-saving tools back to their own islands. This year, one highlight was the large number of Cuban scientists.

For almost 30 years, BirdsCaribbean has helped share the work of Cuban scientists with the rest of the world, said BirdsCaribbean President Andrew Dobson. Helping this collaboration has been a very rewarding part of our mission. It was also a joy to spend time with so many Cuban friends in one of the Caribbeans most beautiful nature reserves.

After five days of sharing stories and bird-sightings, members flew home to their islands. Each one brought back new skills and ideas. Tools developed on one island will soon be helping birds on others. Though many may do their
Great Bay:--- During the month of July 2017, St. Maarten joined other countries comprising the Dutch Kingdom, at the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York.

This United Nations event served as a central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

St. Maarten formed part of the Dutch kingdom delegation, headed by the Netherlands minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen.

During the forum, some forty-four UN member states presented their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of the 2030 Agenda on SDGs.

It was earlier decided that the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curacao, the Netherlands, and St. Maarten) would jointly draft a combined VNR report, wherein the state of implementation of the SDGs for the four countries are highlighted.

This VNR report of the Dutch kingdom has been presented to the UN secretary-general.

The full report is now online and can be found at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/16109Netherlands.pdf




PHILIPSBURG:--- This is the third year that Be The Change has granted educational scholarships to worthy students. The Erika Cannegieter DREAM BIG educational scholarship was initiated in memory of the founder of Be The Change, Erika Cannegieter- Smith. It is presented yearly on the occasion of her birthday, July 27.

This year Be The Change is pleased to announce two scholarship winners, James Brooks, and MIrian Pierce.

We received many applications and the choice was difficult but James and Marian represent two students who are dreaming big to further their education.

They both have worked hard and done well in school. They have shown themselves to be positive involved members of the community by volunteering in different organizations.

The awards were presented in a small ceremony at the Cultural Center.

James will be attending the University of St Maarten. James states I will use this scholarship award wisely to further my education, so I can be one step closer to my dream as a psychologist. He also states I just want to thank the Be The Change Foundation for assisting me and helping me be one step closer to my dreams.

Marian, who recently graduated from the University of St Maarten, will be attending Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia, Canada, in pursuit of her Bachelors degree.

Marian stated that The value of education is something that I have understood since a very young age. She thanked Be The Change and stated: Push yourself beyond everything you think will stand in the way of you, your goals and all your dreams, because no one else will do it for you.

Be The Change congratulates the winners and wishes them best luck in continuing their education and reaching their goals. As Nelson Mandela said, Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.
The result of class 10, 12 supplementary exams will be released by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) this week on the official website www.mpbse.nic.in

By India Today Web Desk: The result of class 10, 12 supplementary exams will be released by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) this week. All those students who had appeared for the same are required to keep a strict watch on the official website www.mpbse.nic.in

The results of class 10 and 12 annual exam were declared by the MP Board on their official website on May 12, 2017. The re-examination was conducted for those students who had failed in a few subjects. The supplementary exams were then conducted in June/July this year.

advertisement

As per News18 report, although there is no official confirmation on the website regarding the 10th and +2 supply results, if we go by last few years' trends then MPBSE has mostly published the MPBSE supply results in the last week of July or first week of August.

(Read: Kerala Plus 1 Second Supplementary Allotment 2017: Results to be out soon at hscap.kerala.gov.in)

How to check the result

Log on to the official website www.mpbse.nic.in

At the right hand side of the screen, click on the 'Results tab'

Click on the required link, e.g. '(HSSC) - 12th Class Supplementary Result - 2017'

In the provided fields, enter your roll number and other required details

Click on submit

Your result will be displayed on the screen

Download the same and take a printout for future reference

Read: Karnataka II PUC supplementary result 2017: 26.34 per cent students pass exam

Read: Tamil Nadu HSC Class 12 supply exam 2017: Results expected this week, check here

--- ENDS ---
Solar Novus Today Has Been Integrated

With Novus Light Technologies Today

Visit Novus Light Technologies Today to see all the cutting-edge stories and products that you have come to enjoy on Solar Novus Today. In addition, you will find more information on related light-based technologies.



Get the latest solar and renewable energy news delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Green Technologies newsletter





CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR GREEN TECHNOLOGIES NEWSLETTER






























By PTI: residence

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Some Youth Congress members were detained by the police today when they were marching towards the residence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan here to protest against suspension of six Congress MPs.

They started their march from the Congress headquarters, the 24 Akbar Road, and headed towards Mahajans residence nearby. They were stopped at a barricade and later on detained by the police.

advertisement

Indian Youth Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja dubbed the suspension of MPs as "insult" to democracy.

"It is disheartening to see how the government is openly acting like a tyrant and, even in Parliament, the Opposition is not being heard," he said.

The detained activists were taken to the Parliament Street police station and released later on, said Indian Youth Congress spokesman Amrish Ranjan.

He alleged the police used force to disperse the workers, some of whom got injured, a claim the police denied.

Earlier this week, six Congress MPs were suspended for five days from the ongoing session of the Lok Sabha by the Speaker.

They were suspended for causing "grave disorder" by storming the Well of the House, tearing papers and throwing them towards the Chair during their protest over incidents of "lynching by cow vigilantes".

"Our protest was not against any individual. It was aimed at strengthening democracy that is under attack in the present regime," Ranjan said. PTI VIT TIR

--- ENDS ---
Singleton spoke Thursday at the sentencing for Maurice Sumler, 23, of Detroit, who was ordered to serve 20 to 40 years after he was convicted of second-degree murder, reckless driving causing death and leaving the scene of a fatal at-fault...
Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Philadelphia
By Geeta Mohan: From demanding visa to visit Pakistan to meet their son Hamid Ansari who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for the past five years over espionage charges to now demanding his immediate release as he has completed his term, his distraught parents Fauzia and Nehal Ansari met with Pakistan High Commission officials and High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Wednesday to submit an application of remission seeking early release of their son.

advertisement

Speaking to India Today after the meeting, Hamid's mother Fauzia Ansari said that the top priority for the couple was to see their son return home safely rather than to go and see him in a Pakistani jail and then to return without him. "I don't know how I would be able to see him behind bars. How can I leave him and come back? If I go there, I want to return with Hamid. I can't leave him there", she said.

Focusing on Hamid's early release, the couple said that they emphatically put across to the Pakistani officials the fact that Hamid had completed his term and that the Pakistani government would have to decide on when to release him. Hamid's father Nehal Ansari said, "I think they are also working in this case. They assured us that they were doing their best. We hope for a positive result but can't say by when".

HOW HAMID ANSARI WENT MISSING AND ENTERED PAKISTAN

Hamid Ansari, a 32-year old engineer from Mumbai, had gone missing in November 2012. It later emerged that he had entered Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region illegally from Afghanistan to meet and marry a Pashtun girl he had befriended online. But the Pakistani military that took him into custody has convicted him on very serious charges of espionage. While he was given a three-year sentence, the decision to send him back lies with the military. The parents argue that he has already served the three-year sentence awarded to him and that he should now be set free. Despite the serious charges, the prerogative to release a person accused of espionage remains with the concerned government. The Indian mission in Islamabad has been seeking consular access to Hamid Ansari but to no avail. The court finally gave visitation rights to Ansari, which is why his lawyer hired by the parents visited him. The parents were informed that at present Hamid has been kept in a 'death cell' with no facilities.

Fauzia and Nehal have not lost hope, saying that at least Hamid should be permitted to speak to them and that there certainly would be justice for a boy who is innocent, who crossed over to the other side not to spy but for the sake of love. "Let us not be disappointed and lose hope. Justice has to be done. Though justice delayed is justice denied, I am sure justice will be done even though it may take time", she said.

advertisement

Also read | Pakistani envoy Basit meets Chinese, Bhutanese Ambassadors to India: Doklam discussed

Also read | Considering visa application of Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother, says Pakistan

ALSO WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
Local Shiv Sena leader Sunil Ramesh Shitap was today arrested after the collapse was linked to illegal repairs being carried out in the nursing home on ground floor owned by him.

By Saurabh Vaktania: At least 17 persons, including a 11 women and three-month old baby, were killed when a four-storied residential building crashed in Ghatkopar suburb of Mumbai on Tuesday morning.

Another 19 persons were rescued from the debris of the crashed Sai Darshan building in Damodar Park. So far 28 persons have been rescued but a few more were still feared trapped under the rubble.

advertisement

Around 12 families were believed to be living in the ill-fated structure which also housed a private nursing home on the ground floor.

Local Shiv Sena leader Sunil Ramesh Shitap was today arrested after the collapse was linked to renovation work being carried out in the nursing home on ground floor owned by him.

Shiv Sena leader Sunil Ramesh Shitap was arrested by the Mumbai police today. (Photo: Saurabh Vaktania)

FIR AGAINST RAMESH SHITAP

According to the FIR, three flats on the ground floor are owned by Sunil Shitap where the renovation work was going on. RCC, pillars and walls connecting the three flats were pulled down completely to make a huge hall type structure.

According to sources, Shitap wanted to make a hotel on the ground floor.

The sources also added that the building was very strong and would have lasted for several more years. However the base structure on the ground floor was completely removed by the contractor during renovation work and hence the building came down.

Shiv Sena leader Sunil Ramesh Shitap with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. (Photo: Saurabh Vaktania)

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in New Delhi, ordered an enquiry and asked Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to submit a report within 15 days.

According to eyewitnesses, around 10:43 am, the building suddenly collapsed amidst a thick cloud of dust and they heard screams and cries of help from the residents.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade, BMC rescue teams, NDRF and SDRF teams and others rushed to spot with 14 fire engines, rescue vans, ambulances, JCBs and metal cutters.

Shitap nursing home on the ground floor of the collapsed building.

According to officials, the building figured on the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation's list of dangerous buildings and had been served an evacuation notice six months ago.

According to the BMC Disaster Control, of those rescued, 11 have been admitted to various hospitals for treatment.

Two of the injured are firemen who were suffocated after inhaling fumes from a ruptured gas pipeline. The rest were discharged after treatment.

The deceased have been identified as a three-month old girl child Renuka Lalit Thakk, her mother Amruta Thakk, 31, Sulakshana Khanchandani, 80, and her relatives Kishore Khanchandani, 50, and Mikul Khanchandani, 30, Ranjana Shah, 62, Divya P. Ajmera, 48, Pandharinath Dongre, 75 and his relatives Manorama Dongre, 70, and Krishu Dongre, 13, and 85-year old Mansukh Gajjar.

advertisement

(with inputs from IANS)

Also read:

Ghatkopar building collapse: 17 dead, 6 injured; man rescued after 15 hours

Mumbai's Ghatkopar building collapse: Mega city, maximum apathy

WATCH | Ghatkopar building collapse in Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader arrested, CM Fadnavis orders enquiry

--- ENDS ---
Theresa White came from St. Helena Island to help several property owners in the Plantersville area. Her organization is hosting a free taxpayer workshop Saturday in the Beaufort area.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 77F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement
By Baishali Adak: Junkyards of seized vehicles at various police stations in the city are now turning into dangerous mosquito-breeding grounds. Domestic breeding checkers (DBCs) of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) recently discovered this while inspecting premises of the Tilak Marg police station near India Gate.

They found rainwater collected in old rusting jeeps, cars, autos and motorbikes, which were infested with mosquito larvae.

advertisement

Consequently, the chief medical officer, Dr RN Singh, issued the SHO a notice as well as a letter advising that he must keep his "premises clean" or "legal action may be taken," that is a challan would be imposed.

The national Capital has already recorded a sharp rise in vector-borne diseases with 128 registered cases of malaria, 98 cases of dengue and 127 of chikungunya since June. The first disease is caused by the anopheles mosquito which can breed in both fresh and muddy water, while the last two are spread by aedes agypti mosquito, which breeds in clear water only.

'FACTORY PRODUCING MOSQUITOES'

The issue of filthy police station complexes has been raised previously also with ex-police chief BS Bassi ordering them to be cleaned under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

As per some estimates, the 180-odd police stations of Delhi hold about 30,444 impounded vehicles worth Rs 600 crore. These are either towed away for traffic violations or seized in crimes like theft or murder.

They are hardly ever claimed and rot at police stations for years. A senior officer of NDMC's health department said, "It is not just the Tilak Marg PS. We have seen this problem at the Sarojini Nagar, Mandir Marg and Parliament Street police stations as well. These cars, bikes and autos are heaped one on top of the other and nobody cleans them of dust or rainwater."

A DBC inspector told MAILTODAY, "The police constables were complaining to us that 'we have a lot of mosquitoes here'. So we pointed to their scrapyard and said, 'if you have a factory producing mosquitoes in your plot, you will no doubt have dengue and malaria'."

The NDMC has issued 2,055 notices and 168 challans for mosquito breeding in offices, schools and colonies so far. Even the court caretakers, officers in charge of CRPF barracks have been warned for heavy breeding. Hospitals like RML, Safdarjung and AIIMS have also been served notices.

ALSO READ

H1N1 virus hits Delhi-NCR early this year

advertisement

New species of mosquitoes from UP bring killer malaria to capital

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 26 (PTI) Chinese police have detained nine persons from a tech firm which allegedly developed a malware programme that has infected more than 250 million computers outside China in one year.

This is the first case in Beijing involving the theft of data from overseas users, state-run Global Times quoted an police official as saying.

advertisement

China in the past denied allegation from US and EU that Chinese hackers carried out attacks on foreign tech companies to steal data.

The malware, called "fireball", developed by a Beijing- based tech company, infected more than 250 million computers outside China in one year, which generated 80 million yuan (USD 11.85 million) for the company, state-run The Beijing News reported.

Beijing however asserts that it too was a victim of cyberattacks and routinely dismisses such allegations as groundless saying that it firmly opposes and cracks down on all types of hackers.

"The nine-persons arrested are the key staff members of the company. They are all very young and have IT backgrounds. They also know something about counter-detection," said police in Haidian district of the city.

"Simply put, the malware is activated on the links they are hidden in, unknown to the user, to increase advertisement views and, therefore, advertisement charges," the police said based on the suspects confessions.

"The malware may take the user to certain sites against their will, which may collect their personal information. China, as a member of the international cyber community, is committed to cracking down of such crimes," Xie Jiangyong, associate professor at the Institute of Internet Governance and Law of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said.

"Fireball" was reported to the police by "Haidian Netizen" on June 3, who found an online report on "fireball" by a renowned overseas security lab.

By stimulating the infection process, the police got hold of the evidence and located the company. PTI KJV AMS

--- ENDS ---
Optimization

Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should?

Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools.
SPIEGEL: What drove you to become a climate change activist?

Bloomberg: I became interested in public health when I was chairman of the board of Johns Hopkins University. I started thinking, you know, it makes more sense to prevent than to cure. Other ways of looking at the environmental or climate change stuff is to frame it in the context that it is simultaneously a public health issue. One out of eight premature deaths worldwide happens because of air pollution. The worst power plant in America kills 278 people a year and causes 445 heart attacks. So, when we improve air quality we improve our lives, and at the same time we improve the climate as well. We must see climate policy from this perspective and not as an abstract threat that may threaten our survival in 100 years.

SPIEGEL: Why are people so obviously voting against their own interests? Why don't they recognize that protecting the climate protects them as well?

Bloomberg: People do that all the time. But when you do the polling in the U.S., it has gone from less than 50 percent who thought climate change was real to 70-odd percent. And if you listen to the Republicans in Congress, they used to say, "Oh, climate change doesn't exist." Then they switched to "Well, it exists, but it's not man-made," to "Well, I'm going to address the issue." Why? Because when they go home, the local constituent says, "Wait a second. What are you talking about? We just had a flood. We haven't had rain in a long time." They can't get away from it.

SPIEGEL: Still, within the Republican Party, there continue to be a lot of climate change deniers. Is that why you left the party?

Bloomberg: It had nothing to do with it. I at one point thought that I was going to run for president of the United States as an independent. I became a Republican because the Democrats wouldn't let me on the ballot for mayor of New York, but I'm not a partisan person. So, I left the party again.

SPIEGEL: You thought about running in 2016 as an independent candidate, but decided against it. Do you regret that you didn't?

Bloomberg: No. We convinced ourselves, I think fully, that an independent can't win in this country. The Constitution is structured for basically a two-party government, a two-party race.

SPIEGEL: Do you see Trump as a danger to American democracy?

Bloomberg: I hope not. I gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 and warned of Trump. America has survived for almost 250 years with its imperfect democracy, but, you know, maybe it's a better democracy than elsewhere. And I am sure American democracy will survive.

SPIEGEL: One main driver for people to vote for Trump was their resentment of the establishment, the elites. Where is that coming from in your opinion?

Bloomberg: A lot of the Trump voters thought: "The current stuff has not helped me. I want a change." Trump got elected partly because he had a message: "Vote for America." "Make America Great." "America" is a good word. "Great" is a good word. Hillary never came up with a message other than "Vote for me because I'm a woman." I make no secret of the fact that I was not a big Hillary Clinton supporter, but I thought in the two-way race between her and Donald Trump, that she should have been the president. But Trump promised a lot of things. And now he's six months in and hasn't passed a piece of legislation yet. Now, I personally have said we should help him. I didn't vote for him. I didn't think he was the right person. But once we have an election and he gets elected, then we have a responsibility as citizens to help him.

SPIEGEL: To help him? I thought you would have a very different opinion on basically everything?

Bloomberg: Absolutely, I still don't agree with him on most things. I disagree violently with a lot of things, for example regarding the elimination of Obamacare or cutting taxes. We need to have more taxes, not less, and we need the taxes we have, certainly, to provide services -- for defense and education and health care. We should not cut money here in order to cut taxes.
Nitish Kumar, who tendered his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, claimed that he can't work in the "current circumstances."

By India Today Web Desk: In an unanticipated move, Nitish Kumar today evening resigned as Bihar Chief Minister but he will be sworn-in again as the CM tomorrow with BJP's support at 5 PM in Patna.

Nitish Kumar, who tendered his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, claimed that he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.

advertisement

"I have been doing my best to provide good governance. But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the Governor and gave my resignation," he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan bringing to an end the 20-month-old coalition of the JD-U, RJD and Congress that defeated the BJP in 2015.

Ironically, with Nitish Kumar's resignation, the future of the Mahagatbandhan's future hangs in balance. Although, Congress was quick to lament Nitish Kumar resignation, the RJD accused him of cheating the people of Bihar.

HERE IS HOW THE DRAMA UNFOLDED Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar quits saying that he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government. After Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, within minutes Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him for "joining the fight against corruption" by quitting as Chief Minister of the coalition government of the JD-U, RJD and Congress. Meanwhile, just friend-turned-foe RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav held a press conference and called Nitish Kumar a murder-accused in a case dating back to 1990's. He said, " Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused of section 302, one of India's CM is main accused in murder & arms case." He went on to say that the entire resignation drama was master-minded by the BJP. "Nitish is playing into the hands of the BJP. After resigning as Chief Minister he did not rule out the possibility of joining hands with the BJP. Everyone knows that Nitish is aligned with Modi," he said. Acknowledging PM's praise, Nitish too said, " I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reacting to the decision I took." Interestingly, the BJP which was meeting for its parliamentary board meet in New Delhi announced that it will extend its support to a Nitish-led-government in Bihar. Senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi said, "Nityanand Raiji & I called Nitishji. The BJP has decided to support him, will support the government formed under him. We will inform governor also." The BJP and JDU MLAs are going to meet governor. The MLAs of the two parties will meet and elect Nitish Kumar as their leader. Sushil Modi, Nityanand Rai and other BJP MLAs meet Nitish Kumar at his residence in Patna. PM Modi may attend the oath taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar in Patna. JDU-BJP to stake claim to form government in Bihar. "Taking (a) letter of support to (the) Governor to stake a claim for forming government", says Prem Kumar, BJP.

WATCH: Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar Chief Minister

ALSO READ

Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bihar and the perfect storm of coincidences

Nitish dumps Lalu, UPA as BJP rushes to offer support to form NDA govt in Bihar

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar CM

What will happen in Bihar after Nitish Kumar's resignation? These are the 4 possibilities

After resignation, Modi-Nitish's Twitter bonhomie: PM approves, Bihar CM thanks

Lalu goes for the jugular, says murder-accused Nitish is BJP's puppet

Lalu and Nitish: Friends? Enemies? No, they are the ultimate frenemies

--- ENDS ---
Bir Lahlou, July 26, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary General of the frente POLISARIO, Brahim Gali, sends today a congratulatory message to his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro Ruz on the occasion of the 64nd anniversary of the heroic qssault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

Brahim Ghali, on behalf of the Government and People of the Saharawi Republic, in his letter to His Excellency Raul Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers, expressed his sincerest congratulations and best wishes for Cuba.

He reiterated the willingness of the Saharawi government to strengthen the solid ties of friendship that unite the Cuban people with its Saharawi brother.

The President of the Republic said that the heroic assault on the Moncada Barracks "was not only a victory for Cuba and its people, but for all oppressed peoples of the world, fighters for freedom, dignity and justice." SPS

125/090/TRA
Abuja, Nigeria, July 26th, 2017 (SPS) - Women Advancement for Economic & Leadership Empowerment in Africa (WAELE/ARCELFA) has strongly expressed its concern over the last unjust sentencing of Saharawi 23 political prisoners who are journalist and human right activists from Gdiem Izik by Court of Appeal in Sale, The Kingdom of Morocco on the 19th of July 2017 in letter to his Excellency, Mr. Antonio Guterres ,United Nation General Secretary.

WAELE has indicated in its letter that Morocco police obtained confession and statements by using inhuman treatments and torture during interrogation of the 23 political prisoners according to Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (CAAT), International Amnesty (IA), Robert F. Kennedy Center (RFK) and Human Right Watch (HRW)

The said African organization has called UNSG Antonio Guterres to intercede with Morocco Government on behalf of the 23 Saharawi political prisoners who have been leaving under Morocco inhuman occupation since 1975.

It should be recalled that Women Advancement for Economic & Leadership Empowerment in Africa (WAELE/ARCELFA)An international Non-Governmental Organization in 46 African countries & diaspora, which works on women emancipation, widows empowerment, Peace & conflict resolution and creating an enabling environment for achieving lasting PEACE in Africa. SPS

125/090
The new training session was announced on Tuesday 25 July during Farm Safety Week at the Royal Welsh Show. The courses will offer potentially life-saving advice to young farmers  a necessity when the latest HSE statistics, released this week, show agriculture has the poorest fatal injury rate of any other industry in Great Britain.

The free, informative Honda ATV maintenance training session will be offered to all of NFYFCs 624 Young Farmers Clubs from October to January and will cover topics such as:

How an ATV gearbox or engine works

What the tyre pressure should be and why its important

What should be checked regularly to ensure the machine is safe.

Steve Morris, Head of Power Products, Honda (UK), said:

These fun and informative sessions are aimed at educating members on ATV maintenance and safety and were delighted to be working with NFYFC on this project. Safety is very important to Honda and a properly maintained ATV is a step in the right direction to ensure safe usage.
Ahead of his first visit to the Royal Welsh Show, the Environment Secretary hailed the rapidly growing success of the sector, which now exports nearly 30,000 tonnes of lamb reared in the Welsh countryside to more than 40 countries around the world  with shipments going as far as Hong Kong, Canada and the UAE.

Speaking ahead of the Royal Welsh Show, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

We all care about where the food on our dinner plates has come from and its journey from farm to fork. Welsh lamb, with its unique heritage and character, has become a symbol of high quality and great taste around the world and I am thrilled to see this sector going from strength to strength.

Leaving the EU will provide this hugely successful industry with new opportunities to grow and flourish and I am looking forward to meeting farmers and producers today to hear their views on how we can drive the sector forward.

Global demand for Welsh lamb now means up to 40% of total produce is exported around the world. Total food and drink exports from Wales have risen by a fifth in the past year and are now worth more than 337 million.

The UK Government is committed to opening new markets for our lamb and just in March, Minister George Eustice secured a 15 million export deal to Kuwait.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Views from atop Ferris wheels, the smell of fried dough filling the air and the sound of children cheering as they see farm animals can only mean one thing -- Connecticut's country fair season is upon us.

Bring your appetite for fun and unique flavors. Fairs across the state offer a chance to indulge in drool-worthy foods and old-fashioned activities, like antique tractor pulls, livestock shows and pie-eating contests.

We have rounded up several of the state's "major" fairs, as designated by CTAgFairs.org. The fairs, which are slated for August, September and October, are some of the largest events in the state.

Click through the slideshow above for a look at some of the state's major country fairs, and here for the full list.

According to the Connecticut Office of Tourism website, the Orange Country Fair will feature "craft exhibits, antique cars, tractor pulls, children's games, country music, contests, flower and vegetable exhibits, carriage rally, and much more." The 44th annual event will be held September 15 and 16.

In its 67th year, the Bridgewater Country Fair is "a long standing tradition that preserves the character of the quintessential country fair," the state's tourism site said. Head to the fair between August 17-19.

While the largest fair in New England isn't located in Connecticut, it attracts residents from across the area. The Big E features 17 days of activities, including one specifically set to celebrate all things Connecticut. This year's Connecticut Day is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19.
The story zipped across the Internet this month on a sensational two-part premise. A historic mansion-turned museum in New Jersey recently discovered 25 bottles of rare and valuable Madeira wine in its cellar, their labels boasting an import date of 1796. This much is true. The second part fits the category of what might be labeled fake wine news: the Madeira found at the Liberty Hall house, it was breathlessly reported, had been ordered to celebrate the election of America's second president, John Adams.

"Some of the original Madeira stock was shipped to the second generation who lived at Liberty Hall, in anticipation of John Adams' presidency," read the NJ.com article on July 9. The story - which offered no evidence for the John Adams claim - nonetheless lit a fire under the media's viral click-makers.

The New York Post followed with two articles about the Madeira-Adams connection, citing NJ.com. "Decant be serious!" read one Post headline, its piece saying that the wine "had been shipped to the Hall" for an Adams victory party. NPR, Town & Country magazine's website, and CNN's HLN network also aired or wrote versions of the story. "They say some of the wine cases were in anticipation of celebrating America's second president, John Adams! Whoahhhh!" the on-air HLN reporter said during her segment.

But is that true? No, not likely, rare wine experts say.

The mansion's longtime owners don't know how or when their ancestors acquired the 1796 Madeira. They have not yet found any receipts or letters detailing the reasons the valuable wine was purchased. The whole idea that their forebears got the wine to celebrate Adams's victory in late 1796?

"That's a supposition," acknowledged John Kean, 87, a retired utility executive and president of the Liberty Hall Museum.

Kean suspects that his widowed great-great-great-grandmother, Susan Livingston Kean Niemcewicz, bought the bottles in late 1796, following Adams's victory over Thomas Jefferson in the nation's first contested presidential election. Kean thinks that maybe the newly elected president was even Niemcewicz's guest of honor. After all, her late husband, also named John Kean, who died in 1795, was a member of the Second Continental Congress. President George Washington's appointed him to run the Bank of the United States. The couple likely knew Adams quite well.

"Certainly a widow would not have ordered a whole bunch of wine for herself, unless she was a closet drunk, and I don't think that was the case," said Kean, laughing. "If [my great-great-great grandmother's] husband was still alive in 1796, maybe they would have drunk this together. But it's our [belief] she was going to entertain at her home in Philadelphia for Adams. President Adams was known as a Madeira drinker and she would have obviously ordered a lot of it for him. But for some reason, she eventually took the wine back to New Jersey, and that's how we ended up with it at Liberty Hall."

But it's just his guess. To understand the history of the wine, you have to know the family's history at Liberty Hall.

In 1800, Susan Kean married a Polish aristocrat, Julian Ursin Niemcewicz living in exile in America. But he returned to Europe nine years later, and never came back. In 1811, her son Peter Kean bought the property for her, and they became the first Keans to move into Liberty Hall, which was originally built by her uncle, William Livingston, New Jersey's first governor, according to the family's history on the Liberty Hall website. Niemcewicz outlived her son, who died in 1828, and remained in the house with his widow and her grandchildren. Even though her husband abandoned her, Niemcewicz actually renamed the estate in his honor: Ursino.

When Niemcewicz passed away in 1833, her grandson, Col. John Kean, inherited the house. Under his stewardship, Ursino grew from a 14-room country house to a 50-room mansion. Plenty of room for his 11 children, two of whom went into national politics. The oldest - a third John Kean - became a member of the House of Representatives, and later the Senate. His younger brother Hamilton Kean also became a senator from New Jersey.

By family custom, the property was always passed down to the firstborn son. But Sen. John Kean died without any children. So Sen. Hamilton Kean's son - a fourth John Kean! - inherited the house in 1932.

His wife, Mary Alice Barney, eventually scrapped Ursino and restored the original name, Liberty Hall. The property was named a National Historic Landmark in 1974.

When she died in 1995, her oldest son - the current Liberty Hall museum president, and fifth John Kean - inherited it. He'd grown up in the house before going off to boarding school, Harvard, and then the Marines. He ran a public utility in New Jersey until his retirement in 1995, and later set up a family foundation to run Liberty Hall as a museum, which officially opened in 2000. Kean's four children are scattered across the country and had no interest in modernizing their ancestral home and living there, he said. In 2007, the family finally sold the house and its 11 acres of land to Kean University, named for the Kean family and Robert Winthrop Kean, a Republican congressman in the mid-20th century.

Though he'd owned the house for decades, John Kean said he never wandered down into the cellar to peruse his family's age-old collection of wine, liquor and ale.

"I knew the wine cellar was there and used to watch my father go into the basement with a big key and open the door. But I never went in there by myself because it was scary place," he said. "It was dark and gloomy and filled with cobwebs and dust. It was always locked, and I am not sure anyone knew where the key was. But I knew because I remembered my father always getting it from the right-hand cabinet next to the fireplace in the dining room."

Last year, amid ongoing renovations, the museum staff finally decided to open the cellar. The stone walls were falling apart. They began taking out each bottle and cataloging everything, eventually discovering 600 bottles and 40 demi-johns of wine. They came across some unlabeled wooden crates, opened them up, and picked through the straw, out of which peaked several bottles whose corks were covered in red wax seal.

"LENOX MADEIRA," the label read. "Imported by the late Robert Lenox, Esq., via Philadelphia, in 1796. Bottled, Summer of 1798. Re-Bottled, June 1888."

It didn't take long for one of the nation's foremost experts on Madeira wine to get wind of Liberty Hall's Madeira stash. Mannie Berk, president of the San Francisco-based Rare Wine Co., called up the museum and arranged to tour the cellar with a fellow Madeira connoisseur.

Berk was bowled over. Liberty Hall's collection of 1796 Madeiras is a rare find. For one thing, it's hard to locate Madeira that had been imported to the U.S. in the 18th century, when Madeira reigned as the drink of choice for affluent Americans. Each bottle, Berk estimates, is worth a minimum of $10,000. And they're still drinkable. All anyone has to do open the bottles, and let the wine air out in a decanter for several weeks. The longer the wine breathes in the open air, the better it tastes, he said.

But when Berk began reading the news stories this month about the bottles having been purchased for John Adams' election victory, the expert was dumbfounded.

"I was scratching my head. Who came up with that?" he asked. "There's nothing to corroborate the John Adams story."

Many of the clues to the wine's history are right there on the bottle itself and the label, Berk noted.

The very first date on the label, 1796: That's the year the wine was imported from Madeira, south of Portugal and to the west of Morocco. The Madeira was likely shipped in a barrel, and imported by Robert Lenox, a prominent merchant in New York City who specialized in the brandy-fortified wine.

The label's second date, Summer of 1798: That's when Lenox finally drew the wine out of the cask and bottled it for his personal collection, hence the custom-made seal, "R. Lenox," on the hand-blown bottle above the tattered label.

"These types of bottles were made for the private use of owners," Berk explained.

After Lenox died in 1839, the Madeiras were likely sold out of his estate, but it's not known when or to whom. A second merchant, probably.

The label's third date, June 1888: That's the year the wine was removed from the bottles to air out and to rejuvenate its taste. The wine was then re-bottled in the original "R. Lenox" bottles, likely by the new merchant. Then, the merchant created labels in Lenox's honor, calling the wine "Lenox Madeira." Eventually, they were sold. It's not certain when the Keans obtained the Madeira bottles.

According to Berk, the earliest the Keans would have acquired the bottles would have been the year of their re-bottling in 1888. Ninety-two years after Adams's victory.
The string of coincidences in the turn of events in Bihar makes Nitish Kumar's resignation more interesting.

By India Today Web Desk: In a quick turn of events, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post and broke the 'Mahagathbandhan' with Congress and Lalu's RJD.

It was a perfect storm of unlikely coincidences that resulted in an equally unlikely outcome. What coincidence, you say? Look at these:

Coincidence 1: Nitish Kumar meets Lalu Yadav for 40 minutes but doesn't demand his son Tejashwi's resignation for corruption allegations which his party has been demanding for some days.

advertisement

Coincidence 2: The Governor in-charge of Bihar, Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is actually the full-time Governor of West Bengal, was more likely to be in Kolkata during the day. But for some reason he was in Patna when all the action happened and he even accepted the resignation immediately.

Coincidence 3: BJP's parliamentary board meeting was scheduled for the same evening and began only minutes after Nitish Kumar's resignation.

Coincidence 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Nitish Kumar almost immediately after his resignation was announced. Within an hour almost every BJP leader congratulated the JD(U) leader.

Coincidence 5: BJP reiterated that it was not in favour of a mid-term election and announced support to JD(U) as soon as the parliamentary board meet ended.

Coincidence 6: Lalu's MLAs have now been forced out of the government. They would be a worried lot wanting to speak to their leader. Surprisingly, Lalu can't be with them the morning after as he has to be in Ranchi for a CBI court hearing.

And by the way, all this happened just a day after Ram Nath Kovind, who was the Bihar Governor before his name was announced for presidential election, became the President of India with the support of Nitish Kumar who happens to in the camp opposing BJP.

Too good to be true? It is true - good or bad. And that's politics.

Also read:

Nitish Kumar quits after Tejashwi does not, Bihar hangs in balance as BJP prepares to offer support

Lalu goes for the jugular, says murder-accused Nitish is BJP's puppet

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

Also watch:

Impossible to work under current circumstances: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after resignation

--- ENDS ---
C hancellor Philip Hammond is a busy man. His lengthy to-do list includes cutting the deficit, fending off the spending demands of grasping Cabinet colleagues and avoiding a cliff-edge crash out of the EU.

But another thorny issue will soon hit the in-tray: what to do about the looming vacancy three miles down the road in Threadneedle Street?

Mark Carney is staying on for an extra year, until the end of June 2019, which seems like a long way off. But while the Canadian began work in July 2013, the announcement was more than seven months earlier.

On that timescale as we head into the summer, Hammond and his permanent secretary Tom Scholar have a year at most to take soundings to fill the position.

And that of course assumes Theresa Mays government stays the course; Labours John McDonnell could have very different ideas on the role.

A few of the candidates last time around, former deputy Governor Paul Tucker for example, are out of the picture.

Others, like the strongly pro-European Lord (Adair) Turner, nicknamed Red Adair, are unlikely to chance their arms again. And whereas overseas names were linked with the post last time  Fed vice-chair Stanley Fischer, Australian central banker Glenn Stevens and of course Carney himself  is now politically the time for a foreign appointment?

One former policymaker thinks not: I feel very strongly that we should appoint someone who is a UK national and has a deep understanding of and commitment to the UK economy... any overseas appointee would spend at least half of their term getting to grips with the UK economy, whereas you really need someone who can hit the ground running.

Achieving that in the immediate aftermath of Brexit might be more tricky than it seems in what could be the most difficult period for a Bank of England Governor since Lord King was throwing billions at the banks in 2008.

Assuming they want such a task, who are the likely candidates for the job?

Andrew Bailey

Bailey, a veteran of more than 30 years at the Bank of England, starts as the man to beat. He has plenty of supporters for the top job and has the broad sweep of experience from his time at the helm of the Prudential Regulation Authority and, latterly, bringing stability to the Financial Conduct Authority after a period of leadership turmoil.

Bailey was once jokingly referred to by Carney as the big sexy turtle after the slow deliberations of the PRA were compared with the lovemaking of Galapagos tortoises but in the enlarged Bank, there will be few with his experience of regulation and financial supervision.

Hes never sat on the Banks monetary policy committee, but hes held senior roles in the Banks monetary analysis division and one insider calls him an accomplished economist. But is he comfortable in the limelight?

Odds: 6/4

Ben Broadbent

Broadbent is the central banker who could have been a concert pianist after spending two years in Paris studying at the Ecole Normale Superieure de la Musique (hes also an excellent violinist) before settling on an economics career.

As deputy Governor for monetary policy, the former Fulbright scholar is fiercely intelligent and also has experience outside Threadneedle Street, including time at the Treasury and an 11-year stint at Goldman Sachs. Switching back to the Bank of England from the private sector appears to underline his ambitions in this arena, however.

On the minus side, hes less experienced in financial regulation, which is a much bigger part of the job; he also has a reputation within the bank for being slightly disorganised.

Odds: 2/1

Sam Woods

Baileys successor at the PRA is perfectly capable and will probably throw his cap in the ring for the job, according to one senior Bank watcher, but is he experienced enough? The precocious New Zealander is still only in his early forties but was in the thick of it during the financial crisis and set up UKFI, the body which managed the taxpayers stakes in bailed-out banks. Still, if youre good enough, youre old enough.

Woods sits on the Banks court, the financial policy committee, and the FCA board, as well as having previous experience at consultant McKinsey. Insiders say a lack of macroeconomics could count against him but he could be a good shout for the Governor after next.

Odds: 10/1

Sir John Kingman

The Bank has not turned to a candidate directly from the private sector since 1983 when Robin Leigh-Pemberton took over, so the appointment of Sir John would certainly go down well in some quarters.

One former senior Bank official says the search should take in a much wider range of private-sector candidates and the current chairman of Legal & General ticks that box.

The 48-year-old, a trustee of the Royal Opera House and the National Gallery, was instrumental in saving the banks in 2008 and more recently helped appoint Bailey and Woods while a senior official at the Treasury. But is he a strong enough economist?

Odds: 10/1

Sir John Vickers

The 59-year-old academic was in the running last time and might be a good all-round choice after a two-year stint as the Bank of Englands senior economist from 1998-2000. He is very smart, one peer says of the All Souls College warden, with considerable understatement. As chair of the Independent Commission on Banking, which recommended ringfencing retail banks, hes clearly across the financial sector as well.

Odds: 12/1

Sharon White

Charlotte Hoggs resignation this year removed a clear female candidate for the post, although one ex-Bank official intriguingly throws Whites name into the mix for the Governorship.

The 50-year-old studied economics to postgraduate level, before a broad career taking in the 10 Downing Street policy unit under Tony Blair, the World Bank and senior roles in the Treasury.

As chief executive of regulator Ofcom, shes already part of a Whitehall power couple: her husband is Office for Budget Responsibility chairman Robert Chote. An interesting one to watch.

Odds: 12/1

Andy Haldane

The Banks chief economist was a dark horse for the job last time but his musings  scrapping cash, for example, or pondering economics Michael Fish moment  have won him headlines at the expense of credibility.

One senior person who has had dealings with him says: Hes effectively ruled himself out by wanting to be the big thinker and an independent voice.

Another former colleague is even more cutting about his chances. I like him but hes too concerned about being mentioned in the media: hes not serious enough about the serious things. Unlikely, in short.

Odds: 16/1

Whoever gets the gig, one thing is certain: it wont be a job for the faint-hearted.
B rent Cross owner Hammerson today admitted fewer people were visiting its shopping centres in the UK and France, but managed to increase first-half rental income after signing a record number of new leases.

Chief executive David Atkins blamed softening consumer confidence for the 3.9% sales slide at its centres but said the broader picture for retailers was better than the numbers suggested.

People shop in a more targeted way. They do their research, pre-order and collect. Stores have a halo effect and are very much valued by retailers, he said on the rise of online shopping.

He added that retailers were prioritising the best sites and shopping centres, although some discussions over leases were taking longer to complete.

Hammerson pushed up net asset value by 4.3% in the first half. Rental income rose almost 10% to 184 million, with profits up 6% to 119.4 million.

The company expects to begin its Brent Cross extension and new Croydon shopping centre, which it is developing with Westfield, in 2018.

The property owner is also trialling technology that will ease the pain for reluctant shoppers. These include a chatbot that can answer customers questions and help them navigate around shopping centres.

Fashionistas have been using an app called Style Seeker, which lets them upload a picture of an item of clothing and can pinpoint stores in a centre that sell the same thing.
S tudent digs landlord Unite on Wednesday warned it could be forced to temporarily close a number of bedrooms and take a 3.5 million hit in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

The FTSE 250 property developer has been forced to make minor adjustments to six of its 132 properties which feature aluminium composite material cladding. These include buildings in Kings Cross and Wembley.

They did not meet the standards set out in an initial test for high-rise landlords after the June fire. The properties have now been deemed safe by experts.

However, Unite, which owns 49,000 bedrooms, said it is awaiting the results of a second phase of Government testing which is looking at the performance of different cladding systems.

If the cladding needs to be replaced, the number of beds it has available for the 2017/18 academic year could fall by as much as 600 while it does construction work.

That could result in lost earnings of up to 1.5 million for the accommodation provider, with the work costing as much as 2 million over two years.

Separately, the company noted a fall in applications to UK universities for the upcoming academic year from EU students and from older people who are choosing to remain in employment.

However, reservations for Unites accommodation are still at record levels, and the firm expects full-year rental growth of 3%-3.5%.
E astern European workers are fleeing factories in Britain to work in Germany for better wages, the head of recruiter Staffline said today.

Andy Hogarth, chief executive of the staffing group, said forklift drivers and other unskilled labourers who come from Poland to work in warehouses and factories were moving to the European powerhouse due to strength of the euro over the pound and its proximity to home.

A lot of the people who would have been coming over here a year or two ago are now going into Germany because the economy is very buoyant there and pay rates are much the same.

Alongside the UK, Germany has one of the highest minimum wages in Europe.

Culturaly people come to the UK because we are still a relatively welcoming nation but because of the water its much harder to go and see your mum at the weekend compared to Germany where you have a very long drive but you can do it there and back in a weekend, Hogarth said.

Around 75% of Stafflines employees come from eastern Europe but 60% of people looking for work are from the UK.

Half year results for the company released today showed a 3% rise in revenue to 427,8m. Recruiter Robert Walters also printed good numbers today, with revenues up 17% to 562.7 million.
T he heart-rending case of Charlie Gard has much to teach us about what Prospero called our little life. As Mr Justice Francis said on Monday, to lose a child, particularly at such a tender age, and in such tragic circumstances, is grief of a magnitude of immense proportions.

Yet this tragedy and that grief have compelled a debate about the very foundations of the human condition. The implacable force of parental love; the true nature of mercy; the role of justice in the case of the very sick; the border between science and feeling: all have been explored and subjected to scrutiny on a global scale.

There is nothing new about such questions. But, in this case, the drama has been public to an unprecedented extent, attracting the interventions of President Trump, the Pope and an army of digital crusaders  millions of them ready to pronounce on the extremely rare strain of mitochondrial disease suffered by Charlie.

To quote the judge once again: The world of social media doubtless has very many benefits but one of its pitfalls, I suggest, is that when cases such as this go viral, the watching world feels entitled to express opinions, whether or not they are evidence-based.

Though the depth of feeling inspired by this case is completely justified, the mob mentality is not. In particular, the threats received by staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital have been unconscionable. The notion that Charlie has been a prisoner of the NHS  especially popular among American opponents of socialised medicine  is preposterous.

It was the court, not the hospital, that ruled in this terrible case. It is disgraceful that one of this citys greatest institutions and the remarkable professionals who work there should have been subjected to such opprobrium, as though they had anything but Charlies best interests at heart.

Yet that is not the end of the matter. The battle fought by his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, exemplifies the growing confidence of patients and their families in medical dilemmas; a confidence that is not going to fade.

There have been such struggles before  most famously, the case of Lorenzo Odone, who suffered from X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy and was treated with apparent success by a combination of oleic acid and erucic acid created under the auspices of his parents.

More recently, Ashya King, a child suffering from a brain tumour, was taken out of Southampton General Hospital by his parents, who absconded to Spain, where they were arrested. Their daring paid off, however, as the High Court subsequently ruled that Ashya should indeed receive the proton therapy that he had previously been denied.

Charlie Gards case has pitted parental belief against the weight of medical advice more intensely than any of its predecessors

Yet Charlie Gards case has pitted parental belief against the weight of medical advice more intensely than any of its predecessors. For years, patients and their families have been encouraged by politicians to demand empowerment, a trend that has been radically enhanced by access to information online.

Ms Yates learned of the nucleoside therapy that she believed could help her son on the internet. Which of us would not scour the web in such circumstances?

It is important not to caricature Charlies parents as deluded scientific denialists. In Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at Columbia University, they found a pioneer in the field of neuromuscular disorders who believed that there might be grounds  however small  for nucleoside bypass therapy in Charlies case.

Since the family had crowd-funded 1.2 million for treatment, the question of public resources did not arise. Instead, the judgment hinged on Charlies quality of life and the supposed futility of further treatment.

Though some pretend otherwise, we are still in the foothills of the public debate on quality of life in the modern era. On the one hand, medical science is galloping ahead with new technologies  especially in genetic research  that hold out the possibility of extended lifespans. On the other, there is an increasingly open, but often muddled, debate about what makes a life worth living, intensified by the broader discussion of assisted suicide, living wills and even, in the Netherlands, neonatal euthanasia.

The term vegetable, for example, is applied to the cognitively impaired with appalling laziness. It is often asserted that the incapacitated are in pain without conclusive evidence to that effect. The advances that have been made in sedation and analgesia should at least give us pause for thought when considering such claims. This is not to say that the doctors at Great Ormond Street were wrong. Nor, however, could it be assumed that Charlies parents were axiomatically deluded.

Loading....

In medical ethics, the question of futility is paramount. In this context, it is vital to recall that the hospital itself applied earlier this year for ethical permission to attempt nucleoside therapy  before changing its mind on the grounds that Charlies condition had deteriorated. What has been lost in the headlines is the fact that the only significant difference between the parents and Great Ormond Street was over timing. Mr Gard and Ms Yates wanted to pursue this possibility  and who can, in all conscience, blame them?

If one certainty has emerged from this awful saga, it is that the courts are not the ideal place to decide cases in which time may be the enemy of hope. It is to the credit of Mr Justice Francis that he declared on Monday that mediation should be attempted in all cases such as this one, even if all that it does is achieve a greater understanding by the parties of each others positions.

And sadly, there will be other such cases: the growing assertiveness of parents, the pace of medical research and the digital revolution in medical information mean that we are on new terrain. Let us look for ways to negotiate this landscape with the minimum of pain.

Let Charlie Gards legacy be one of gentleness.
S adiq Khan has spoken out about the challenges he faces governing London in the shadow of recent tragedies and terror attacks, saying that he didnt campaign to be mayor to go to funerals.

During an interview with The New Yorker the Mayor of London was asked about what it was like to run the city in the wake of terror attacks in London Bridge and Finsbury Park and the Grenfell Tower blaze.

He said that the city was living through unprecedented times and added: Nothing prepares you for this. I didnt campaign to be the mayor of London and go to funerals.

But the Mayor added: We will be O.K. We always have been. We take these things in our stride, not because it is part and parcel of life or because we are used to bad times but because that is who we are.

'Unprecedented times': The Mayor spoke out about recent events in London and the UK / Getty Images

Its in our DNA, this sense of bounce-back and resilience. The best of London.

In the interview, he also hit out at Donald Trump for acting like a 12-year-old and accused him of breaking basic political rules.

The Mayor was asked about his on-going feud with the President  specifically when Mr Trump posted a critical tweet about Mr Khan in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack implying he was being blase about Londoners safety.

Trump:Khan accused the President of acting like a 12-year-old / AFP

Hours after the attack, Mr Khan said there would be an increased police presence on the streets of the city but that there was no reason to be alarmed by the officers.

Mr Trump then tweeted: At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed!

The interviewer asked Mr Khan why he got under Trumps skin and he responded: The short answer is I dont know, but I can understand if we were both aged twelve years old.

The basic rule amongst politicians and amongst leaders is a sense of solidarityit is almost like our version of NATO Article 5, he added.

Donald Trump slams Sadiq Khan on London terror attack

So I was extremely surprised when the President of the U.S.A., our strongest ally, said what he said. It was disappointing, to be honest.

Following President Trump's tweet, Mr Khan said in an interview on Sky News that he has "better and more important things to focus on".
H e's pulled about two million pints of London Pride, served visitors from Alan Titchmarsh to Prince Edward and says his regulars are like family.

But after more than three decades, Gerry OBrien, 66, the landlord of The Churchill Arms in Notting Hill, is calling time and stepping down.

It has been 32 years, my goodness me, he told the Standard. I had to make the decision as my knees and feet are no longer what they used to be. You get the feeling that maybe it is time to stop. It is terribly sad.

Mr OBrien was born in Co Clare, Ireland, and came to London aged 17. He took up the post in July 1985 and has made the pub, in Kensington Church Street, famous for its colourful exterior: it has some 100 flower tubs, 42 baskets and 48 window boxes. Last December, it was adorned with 21,000 lights and 90 Christmas trees.

The Fullers pub was built in 1750 and given its name after the Second World War. Under Mr OBrien, it opened a Thai restaurant and has won awards including the 1999 Evening Standard pub of the year. Simon Emeny, Fullers chief executive, said: They just dont make people like Gerry any more.

On Friday, Mr OBrien will hand over to general manager James Keogh, who has worked there for 25 years. Mr OBrien will then have a send-off on August 3 before flying to Ireland. One regular, Terry Bird, who comes to the pub from Kent almost every day, said: Im not sure it will ever be the same without him.

Best London beers - in pictures 1 /8 Best London beers - in pictures Scroll to see our pick of the best London beers... Shutterstock / Dean Drobot Fullers London Porter From Londons most historic brewery comes this world classic style. Chocolate malt and coffee flavours mix with just the right amount of hop bitterness to deliver a smooth and creamy mouth feel. Its well-balanced aromas deliver a great lingering finish. Not overwhelming, but a highly-satisfying porter. Goes well with rich meats and chocolate desserts. 1.89, Ocado, Buy it now Redemption Trinity A light ale crafted with 3 types of malts and 3 different hops, the award-winning Trinity comes from Tottenham craft brewery, Redemption Brewing Company. The low strength beer packs an impressive punch for its 3 per cent abv, with great layers of flavour until a nice dry finish. The sweet malty aroma is rounded off to notes of citrus fruit. Bright and extremely drinkable. 2.40, Beer Merchants, Buy it now Brixton Reliance Pale Ale Bright citrus aromas and a hoppy hit to boot make this the perfect tipple for long summer days. Named after Brixtons iconic Reliance Arcade, its pairing of zesty fruit and delicate floral notes lead to a dry finish. Malted barley provides a crisp background for the generous hop flavours. A true artisan ale. 2.45, The Whisky Exchange, Buy it now Pressure Drop Pale Fire A local favourite, Pressure Drop is a microbrewery located in Hackney  which is known as one of Londons major beer destinations. Pale Fire is a full-bodied pale ale with tropical fruit notes and plenty of new world hops to give a bold flavour. The best part? Its made with different hops each time. An ever-changing crowd pleaser. 2.39, Honest Brew, Buy it now Beavertown Gamma Ray This American pale ale from Londons Beavertown Brewery is a superstar in the craft beer world. The beer is dry hopped for days to give it the huge aromas and flavours that you can smell immediately and taste from the first mouthful. New world hops shine through a sweet malt backdrop, leading to a long dry finish. Praise all round. 2.49, Honest Brew, Buy it now

Mr OBrien said: I will take away so many memories. So much has happened, I think I could write a book on every year  Im not joking. But sometimes you cant go on for ever.
T he latest Scandinavian airline to start selling cheap transatlantic flights is one you've probably never even heard of.

From April 2018, Primera Air will be offering services from London Stansted and Birmingham to New Yorks Newark Airport and Boston from just 121 one way, or return for only 271.

The price is fare-only, meaning that in true budget airline fashion, seat selection, checked luggage, and meals, will all incur additional costs.

The seats also offer the same amount of legroom as a Ryanair plane, according to The Independent.

Checking in a standard 23kg bag will set you back 25 each way. Seat reservations start at 22 for a normal seat, 40 for an extra legroom seat, and go up to 55 for an exit seat.

However, an "XL" seat apparently only offers 32 inches of legroom  the same as a regular seat on long haul flights with British Airways and Virgin.

Meals cost 30 each way, but you can opt to up your fare category to include a meal, baggage, and "priority" seating for 50 each way.

Cheapest Holiday Destinations 2017 1 /14 Cheapest Holiday Destinations 2017 Valparaiso, Chile Shutterstock / f11photo San Antonio, Texas Shutterstock / f11photo Belfast, Northern Ireland Shutterstock / Kanuman Yerevan, Armenia Shutterstock / Stanislav Samoylik Las Palmas, Gran Canaria Shutterstock / ZM_Photo Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina Shutterstock / Photokanto Braga, Portugal Shutterstock / dvoevnore Kalamata, Greece Shutterstock / LMspencer Panama City, Panama Shutterstock / Sylwia Brataniec Sofia, Bulgaria Shutterstock / meunierd Lviv, Ukraine Shutterstock / Tainar

Flights will be operated by a new Airbus A321NEO aircraft which has two cabins  full-service premium and low-fare economy  free Wi-Fi and onboard charging points.

The news comes after Norwegian Airlines announced its plans in December to slash the price of flights from Edinburgh to smaller airports in the Big Apple to as little as 56.

Primera Air tickets to both destinations are on sale now with prices starting from 149 one way inclusive of all taxes, fees, and charges.

The airline said it expects to announce another transatlantic route by the end of the summer.
The RJD chief said Nitish Kumar, who's set to return as Bihar CM tomorrow with the BJP's support, was scared of his son Tejashwi's rise in politics.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: After an evening of high drama which saw Janata Dal United (JD(U)) chief Nitish Kumar resign as Bihar chief minister, and later stake a claim to return with the BJP's support, his former ally, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said Nitish had "betrayed" him.

"I trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me," Lalu Prasad told India Today.

advertisement

The RJD chief said Nitish Kumar went with the BJP because he was "scared" of his son, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav's "rise in politics"

He said the corruption charges against Tejashwi were "part of the political conspiracy" in which he said Nitish and the BJP were involved in. While Governor KN Tripathi should call the RJD to form the government as it's the largest single party, this won't happen, he said.

In 2020, the RJD will form a government in Bihar and Tejashwi Yadav will be chief minister, he added.

TEJASHWI LEADS PROTEST MARCH TO RAJ BHAWAN, RECEIVES INVITATION FOR DISCUSSION

Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav tweeted that he'd asked the governor for a meeting, and that - being the largest party - the RJD would stake a claim to form a government.

After Nitish received an invitation to form a government, Tejashwi led a protest march to Raj Bhawan, following which he and 5 RJD MLAs were invited by the Governor for a discussion.

The numbers are stacked against Tejashwi. The JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110. There are four independent MLAs who are likely to throw their weight behind the coalition which enjoys majority support.

(Inputs from PTI)

ALSO READ

Nitish Kumar to be back as chief minister with BJP support: Bihar political drama as it unfolded

Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bihar and the perfect storm of coincidences

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
I nfidelity is one of the biggest causes of breakups  and of divorce.

For New York Times best selling author and "love life strategist" Matthew Hussey, cheating is "whatever the two of you have decided is beyond the boundary of what is OK."

"There can be no one definition of cheating," he told Business Insider. "It's whatever it is to each partner. In an open relationship, this could be that one of you slept with someone and didnt tell [the other]."

The bad news is that cheating appears to be more common than you may have realised.

A 2015 YouGov survey for The Sun found that one in five British adults had had an affair, while a third said they had thought about it. A quarter admitted to having had two affairs, while 20 per cent had had three or more, and 8 per cent had had five or more affairs.

According to Hussey, though, there are three types of people that are more likely to cheat than others.

1. Narcissists

"For the narcissist it's all about proving how lovable they are," said Hussey. "It's not enough one person loving them; they want to make sure that everyone loves them."

"They'll only feel validated when someone else flirts with them, sleeps with them, or kisses them," he added.

A study found that narcissism is linked to people feeling less committed overall in ongoing romantic relationships, in part because they like the idea of finding someone better.

2. Insecure people

"Insecure people are something to be careful of. And I don't mean a basic level of insecurity that we all have, because we all have our own self-doubts and worries about ourselves. But when someone is so deeply insecure that if you don't give them love today, they're going to find it somewhere else  that's dangerous."

"In any relationship we have to be real," Hussey added. "If someone goes without love for a long time, the propensity to cheat is going to increase. Over a long enough period of time if someone treats you coldly or is distant, anything can happen. But on a short timeline, if somebody is constantly making how much you love them today the condition on whether they'll cheat or not, [this is] also dangerous and it stems from ego."

9 break up signs you should know 1 /12 9 break up signs you should know Youre arguing all the time You try and try, but you keep fighting over the same things. Or one big thing. Either way, you never resolve it so the arguing continues. If you cant get past your problems, then maybe its time to part ways before things get worse. Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission. You dont want to make sacrifices Compromise is a major part of being in a relationship, but if youre growing resentful about the amount of time, effort and money youre putting into a relationship, chances are youre not invested in the long-haul. If a night out with friends consistently takes priority over spending the weekend at your partners parents house, it might be a sign that youre yearning for your independence. Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission. You dont make time for each other anymore In the early stages of the relationship youd message each other all the time. Now you can barely be bothered to text them back, let alone spare some time for a call. If youve reached the point where youre actively ignoring their attempts to contact you, its time to have the talk. Copyright (c) 2013 Rex Features. No use without permission. The reasons to stay together are trivial Hes financially stable. Shes good at cooking. These might be nice additions to a relationship, but they shouldnt be the reason why you're still together. The same applies to the I'm scared I wont meet anyone else excuse. Copyright (c) 2016 Rex Features. No use without permission. Everything your partner does bothers you Remember how you used to find their strange laugh endearing? Or his stubborn nature cute? Now you they just drive to despair. Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission. Youve stopped having sex Theres no normal to the amount of sex you should be having, but theres a difference between cooling down after the initial honeymoon period, and cooling off all together. If youve swapped orgasms for a DVD box set of Downton Abbey, it might be time to reassess. Copyright (c) 2013 Rex Features. No use without permission. You want different things Kids. Jobs. Mortgages. These are big decisions to make as a couple that will only work if both of your lives are heading towards the same goal. Perhaps you want to travel for a year, or take an opportunity abroad? Before you go any further, make sure youre both on the same path. Otherwise, it might mean its time to move on. Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission. The people closest to you express concern Youre friends, family and co-workers have an objective view of your relationship. If several people sound the alarm about how your relationship is negatively affecting you, its time to listen up. Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission. Youre thinking about what else might be out there It used to be that you wanted to spend every night and waking moment together, but now youre daydreaming about bachelorhood, romanticising past relationships or even making contact with old flames. Either way, you already have one foot out of the door. Copyright (c) 2016 Rex Features. No use without permission.

3. People who are just plain selfish

Hussey said "selfish people who don't have a moral standard when it comes to their relationships" are the third type most likely to cheat. "They know if they cheat their partner would hate it or be traumatised by it, but their own selfish needs just take over," he said.

"Either they have a different code of ethics in private for themselves  which is just unfair  or they're simply a hypocrite."

For advice and tips on women's dating head to Hussey's blog at howtogettheguy.com
T he sister of a young man targeted in the latest horrific acid attack in the capital said it has changed his life forever as she revealed pictures of his badly scarred face.

Shakwat Hussain, 24, and his friend ran screaming in agony into an off-licence in Bethnal Green and begged for help after being sprayed with corrosive liquid.

Dramatic footage shows the pair in their underwear being washed down by firefighters and paramedics in front of shocked passers-by.

Mr Hussains sister Zackiya, 22, today shared pictures of her brothers life-changing facial injuries, and told the Standard: I just dont understand what these people are thinking, what are they getting from it? How can they just go around throwing acid at people?

Its going to be so hard for my brother from now on. You can see already that it has completely changed his appearance. He is devastated.

Men hosed down by firefighters following acid attack

He was just about to start his new job in security, but obviously now all this has happened we dont know whats going to happen.

She added: Its breaking him. He keeps looking in the mirror and he feels so insecure about everything now. Completely different.

Mr Hussain is hosed down after the attack / Rex

Its going to change his life forever.

Shakwat Hussain, 24, will have to undergo skin grafts after the attack

The suspected attack at just before 7pm last night is the latest in a string of similar assaults to hit east London in recent weeks.

The shopkeeper, who asked not to be named, said: They were shouting and I gave them water and they were washing their faces. They said: Weve got acid on us.

They were pouring the water over themselves in the shop, and it had got into their clothes. One of them was pouring it down his trousers.

I was really scared. They were crying and saying: Put the water on me.

His face was badly scarred and his clothes 'melted' after he was sprayed with acid

Fire crews from a nearby station connected hoses to a mains pipe below the pavement and spent more than 20 minutes dousing the two men on the pavement in Roman Road.

A police officer said that the colour of their faces had changed as a result of the incident.

Both Mr Hussain and his friend were taken to hospital as detectives launched an investigation.

The men are treated by medics at the scene

Mr Hussains sister said he was discharged from hospital at 3am and will begin to receive skin grafting treatment in Chelmsford today.

A black jacket belonging to one of the victims was pictured with its sleeve melted and burnt away to reveal the insulating fabric.

The attack comes days after a Standard investigation revealed the ease with which industrial strength sulphuric acid, sold as drain cleaner, could be bought over the counter with no questions asked.

The victims had to be hosed down by firefighters / Rex

The Standards investigation saw reporters buy litre-sized bottles of 91 per cent sulphuric acid for as little as 6 in a number of east London hardware stores.

When questioned most shopkeepers expressed shock at the strength of the chemicals they were selling and admitted they were unaware of Home Office guidance on suspicious purchases.

Following the investigation Home Secretary Amber Rudd urged business owners to be vigilant and Met officers are being equipped with 1,000 acid response kits.

Police figures reveal that east London is at the centre of the epidemic, with Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney the four boroughs with the highest number of acid attacks in the past three years.
T he bodies of Manchester arena attacker Salman Abedi and Moors murderer Ian Brady remain in a mortuary two months after their deaths.

The pairs remains are being kept in a secret location, dubbed the monster morgue, on the outskirts of Greater Manchester, the Daily Mail reported.

Manchester City Council has barred local crematoriums from taking the remains of Abedi who killed 22 people when he blew himself up after an Ariana Grande concert at the citys arena in May.

The 22-year-olds remains are likely to be sent to Libya, his parents homeland, an inquest opened into his death heard last month.

Salman Abedi: CCTV from the night he carried out the Manchester Arena terror attack / PA

A Manchester City Council spokesman told the Daily Mail: Under no circumstances would we allow the body of the perpetrator of the heinous attack on Manchester Arena to be buried or cremated in Manchester.

Manchester Arena explosion aftermath - In pictures 1 /46 Manchester Arena explosion aftermath - In pictures Stephanie Brodie and mother Lisa Brodie who were inside the foyer when the explosion happened Jeremy Selwyn Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Police close to the Manchester Arena the morning after a terrorist attack at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande left 22 dead PA Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the media in Downing Street Stefan Rousseau/PA A police officer moves a floral tribute close to the Manchester Arena PA A man embraces a woman and a teenager as he collects them from the Park Inn Hotel where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at the Manchester Arena Getty Images Police forensic officers investigate the scene of an explosion at Victoria Station Getty Images People affected by the deadly terror attack at Manchester Arena look out from a hotel window in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Police stand guard at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack during a pop concert by Ariana Grande in Manchester AFP/Getty Images A flag flies at half-mast from the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester. PA Police forensic investigators walk along a bridge linking Victoria Station with the Manchester Arena where a suspected terrorist attack at the end of a concert Ariana Grande PA Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester Ben Birchall/PA The scene at Manchester Royal Infirmary as the death toll from the Manchester bomb attack rose to 22 with 59 injured PA Armed police patrol inside Victoria Station adjacent to Manchester Arena Getty Images A flag flies at half-mast from the Treasury Office in London AFP/Getty Images Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester PA Greater Manchester Police chief constable Ian Hopkins speaks to the media in Manchester where he said that the death toll from the Manchester bomb attack has risen to 22 with 59 injured PA Susan Walton and her daughter Katie who attended the pop concert by US star Ariana Grande pose in Mancheste AFP/Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images A police officer escorts people near to Manchester Arena Getty Images Police stand guard at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack during a pop concert by Ariana Grande in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester PA A man embraces a woman and a teenager as he collects them from the Park Inn Hotel where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at the Manchester Arena Getty Images People leave Victoria Station adjacent to Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the attack in Manchester Reuters A Union Flag flies above Victoria Railway Station, close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images An ambulance arrives as police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, near the Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Home Secretary Amber Rudd arrives for a COBRA meeting in Downing Street Getty Images British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon arrives for COBRA meeting at the Cabinet Office on Whitehall Getty Images Flags fly at half mast above Downing Street, London, after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester PA

Despite child killer Bradys body being released to his solicitor it remains in the same mortuary after councillors in his native Glasgow refused to have him interred in either of the citys crematoriums.

Moors Murderers: Myra Hindley and Ian Brady

The 79-year-old, who murdered five children with accomplice Myra Hindley in the 1960s, died in May following 32 years in prison.

The pair buried their young victims on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

Hindley was cremated following her death from cancer in 2002, however, prison officers were forced to recruit an undertaker in Suffolk - 200 miles away from the city  to do the job.

Child killer: Ian Brady / Public Records Office/PA

Bradys solicitor Mr Makin refused to comment and said a date for the killers inquest was yet to be set, according to the Daily Mail.

Undertakers called for colleagues to stand together in their refusal to bury to the pair.

A Facebook post from Sheffield funeral director Micheal Fogg read: Rot in HELL.

And thank you to every funeral directors in the country.

We all need to stand together and say no.
T he family of a young woman who was allegedly raped and murdered in a suspected honour killing have paid tribute to her as an amazingly talented and loving daughter.

Celine Dookhran, 20, was found dead at an address in Kingston, south-west London, on July 19. A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as an incised wound to the neck.

Her family paid tribute to her on Wednesday and said she brought happiness, joy and laughter to her relatives and friends.

A statement released by Met Police on behalf of her family, said: "Celine Dookhran was an amazingly talented and loving daughter who brought happiness, joy and laughter to her family and friends.

"We are proud of Celine for everything she had achieved and were looking forward to seeing a loving, caring and innocent young girl fulfil her potential in life and carry on making us proud."

The family, who thanked those who have offered support and asked for their privacy to be respected, added: "We have sincere belief and full confidence that the perpetrators will face the full force of the law.

"We would like to reiterate our thanks to all that have offered their support and ask everyone to pray for both victims and their immediate families, and that the vile individuals involved face the full weight of justice upon them."

Two men will face trial at the Old Bailey in connection with the murder, rape and kidnap of Ms Dookhran, and the kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a second victim.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, of no fixed address, who is also known as Mujahid Hussain, is charged with the murder, rape and kidnap of Miss Dookhran.

He is also charged with the rape, kidnap and attempted murder of a second victim.

Vincent Tappu, 28, of Spencer Road, Ealing, is charged with the kidnap of Miss Dookhran and the second victim.

The pair appeared at the Old Bailey for a brief hearing on Wednesday, and are due to appear at the same court on October 11.

A provisional trial date has been set for January 17 next year.
A teenage girl has been charged with terror offences after allegedly arranging to receive weapons from an Islamic State fighter for an attack in the UK.

The 17-year-old is alleged to have been given instructions on how to train and use weapons and asked for assistance in completing the plan.

She is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday after previously being charged on April 12 with acts in preparation contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

The charge follows an investigation by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

The teenager was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Her alleged communication was with an Islamic State fighter in Syria.
A fraudulent HSBC bank employee who stole more than 150,000 from an elderly man with dementia has been jailed.

Issachar Stainrod-Holness, from Balham, changed the victims telephone banking details to his own, siphoning 156,700 into his own bank account.

Stainrod-Holness, who worked at the HSBC branch in Bayswater, transferred the money on several different dates.

The crime was only spotted after the victim had died, when his widow noticed the fraud and alerted the bank.

DC Stephen Westlake, the investigating officer from the Mets fraud and cyber-crime squad, said: "Stainrod-Holness shamefully plundered the victims account.

It is tragic that the victim died before Stainrod-Holness could be brought to justice.

The bank worker, of Old Hospital Close, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.


A former pub chef who raped and murdered teenage model Sally Anne Bowman is facing another life sentence after admitting raping another woman when he was just 16-years-old.

Mark Dixie, 46, is serving at least 34 years of a life sentence for the horrific killing of 18-year-old Ms Bowman, whose naked body was found in a pool of blood on the driveway to her home in Croydon.

She had been stabbed repeatedly by Dixie, who then raped her as she lay dead or dying on the ground, in September 2005.

He refused to accept what he had done, subjecting the teenage models distraught family to an Old Bailey trial in 2008 at which he was found guilty.

However, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC today revealed Dixie has now confessed to murdering Ms Bowman and admitted two more attacks on women from his past.

Sally Anne Bowman was murdered by Dixie in Croydon / PA

In January 2015 the defendant wrote to the police indicating that he wanted to tell the truth about what had happened to Sally Anne, because at the trial he denied being responsible for the murder, he said

When interviewed by police in the early part of 2015, he now admitted it.

He also admitted to other serious attacks on women that had taken place some time before.

At Southwark crown court on Wednesday morning, Dixie pleaded guilty to the 1987 rape of a woman who was ambushed in an isolated car park.

An earlier hearing was told Dixie raped the woman before tying her to her car and setting fire to it. However she managed to escape and raise the alarm.

Dixie also pleaded guilty to a 2002 attack on another woman, admitting hitting her over the head with a chefs steel, which is usually used to sharpen kitchen knives.

Dixie dragged her to a flight of stairs and indecently assaulting her, telling the terrified woman I am going to kill you.

He was only caught after the attack on Ms Bowman because DNA samples, taken after a pub fight, linked him to the horrific attack.

But at trial, Dixie ventured the bizarre claim - rejected by the jury - that he had happened upon Ms Bowman while high on cocaine and drunk and had sex with her before he realised she was fatally injured.

He was remanded back into custody by Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC to face sentencing in September.

Dixie admitted rape, GBH, and indecent assault and could now face another life sentence.

Rob Davis, from the CPS, said: These were serious crimes which followed the pattern of Mark Dixies offending both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

These offences took place many years ago and we thank both victims for supporting this prosecution.
T he flash of his firearm is clearly seen as a robber wearing a hi-vis jacket guns down a man in cold blood.

The shooting followed a scuffle in which robbers tried to snatch a womans Rolex watch on the couples doorstep.

Nyrome Hinds, 32, and accomplice David Sterling, 34, ambushed victim Andrew Campbell and his wife Rebecca as they returned to their home in Leyton just before 10pm.

The two men, both wearing hi-vis jackets, had been lying in wait for the couple, pouncing on them before they could get through their front door. Mrs Campbell is seen on dramatic CCTV footage valiantly squaring up to the robbers in a bid to protect her 36-year-old husband.

But Hinds fired the gun at Mr Campbell as they snatched his wifes Rolex, and shot him again as he lay on the ground follow a tussle.

Mr Campbell suffered gunshot wounds to his stomach and leg, and though now recovered remains physically and emotionally scarred by the attack.

Yesterday at the Old Bailey, Hinds was jailed for 32 years after being convicted of attempted murder, robbery, possession of a firearm, and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Sterling was cleared during their trial of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life after telling the jury he did not know Hinds gun was a live weapon.

Jailed: Nyrome Hinds and David Sterling

But he was jailed for 11 years after admitting robbery and possession of a firearm. Judge Paul Dodgson told Hinds: You are clearly prepared to use weapons and I think it very likely at this point that you would do it again.

You not only took a loaded firearm on to the streets in London, but you then went on to fire it twice into a mans body with the intention to kill him.

Detective Sergeant Nick Hamer, who led the investigation, hailed the bravery of Mrs Campbell for saving her husband from further harm.

[She] courageously fought off the attackers and attempted to get between them and her husband, he said.

The robbery victim's husband was shot twice but survived

If it had not been for her actions, it is highly likely that more shots would have been fired at her husband, and the outcome could have been worse.

Sterling, a crack cocaine addict who committed crimes to fund his 700-a-day drug habit, was linked to the robbery, on November 23 last year, by blood-stained clothing he had dumped in a skip while fleeing the scene and DNA on a mobile phone which was dropped at the scene.

When he was arrested the following day, he had an untreated gunshot wound to his elbow believed to have been inflicted during the robbery.

Hinds, from Walthamstow, who was jailed for 14 years in 2005 after being caught with a sub-machine gun and a pistol, was linked to the robbery through phone contact with Sterling.

He denied all the charges against him.
B oys are under just as much pressure as girls and should be encouraged to talk rather than man up, one of Londons leading head teachers has said.

Sarah Fletcher, the first female head of the 16,000-a-year City of London School for boys, said todays teenagers are under more stress than any generation before  and it is both boys and girls who are feeling the strain.

Mrs Fletcher will become the new High Mistress of the 23,000-a-year St Pauls Girls School in September.

She was also head of the co-educational Kingston Grammar School and is thought to be the only person to have led all three types of school, giving her a unique insight into the differences between the sexes. She said boys struggled in the same way as girls with low self-worth, body image and the pressure of social media.

People in the past assumed boys are a lot more robust and will get through it all and man up and it will all be fine. Thats very far from the truth. What they really need is to be able to talk about it, she said.

During her three years at City of London School Mrs Fletcher overhauled the pastoral system, created more offices where boys can talk to their tutors about problems, and increased counselling services from three days a week to five. A feminist society and an LGBT society were also set up.

She said: I am very keen on the connection between wellbeing and academic happiness. You cant succeed academically if you are feeling miserable.

She described overhauling the pastoral system at the all-boys school as like opening a gate. She said: One of the things some parents said is having a woman as a head produced a softer feel to the school that permissioned the boys to talk. She said her approach to pastoral care was the same at any school because both male and female teenagers were under more pressure than ever. Many youngsters had real issues with self-worth and self-harm.

She said: There isnt a huge difference in the sort of issues boys and girls are concerned about. There are different manifestations, such as how they view body image. For boys there is an issue of masculinity and the expectation on them as men. Especially for LGBT boys it can be quite a burden.

For women its different but the same. Anxieties and feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-worth are common threads and huge concerns.

Part of the reason for the stress on young people was the pressure from social media, Mrs Fletcher said.

She added: We used to be able to retreat into our house but its not a protection any more. All the pressures you feel at school come into home.

Her comments come amid a growing acceptance of the importance of men to speak about their feelings. This week, Princes William and Harry told of grief they experienced over the death of their mother.
A feminist who founded a liberal mosque in Berlin where burkas are banned is planning to open another site in London.

Seyran Ates, 54, has been placed under 24-hour police protection after receiving a deluge of death threats over the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in the German capital.

The Turkish-born human rights lawyer, who is herself a Muslim, opened the mosque capital along with six colleagues in order to cater for a modern interpretation of Islam.

Worshippers of different branches of the religion, as well as homosexuals and atheists, are welcome at the mosque, which counters convention by allowing men and women to pray together.

Muslims attend Friday prayers during the opening of the Berlin mosque / Getty Images

The mosque has both male and female imams and does not allow full face veils for "security reasons".

Ms Ates said she had received thousands of abusive messages each day after the mosque opened in mid-June, with some branding her "the devil incarnate" and telling her she should burn in hell.

Undeterred, she has visited London this week to investigate potential sites for a similar place of worship.

St. Johannis Protestant church which houses the Ibn Rushd Goethe mosque in Berlin / AFP/Getty Images

She told the Guardian: Im not alone with this idea. It is a movement, its a revolution.

I may be the face of the liberal mosque, but I alone am not the mosque. We have millions of supporters all over the world.

Ms Ates said she hopes to establish the new liberal mosque within a year, before moving onto other European capitals.

There are more and more people wanting to break the chains. In many countries you can find people who are practising what were doing, but they are doing it under cover, privately, she added.

Liberal and secular Muslims are squeezed out by radical Islam, so they decide to be silent. Its not so easy for liberal Muslims to be out. Its like being homosexual. They are tarnished as the enemy of Islam.
Nitish resigned yesterday, but later staked a claim to form a new government with the BJP's support.

By India Today Web Desk: Nitish Kumar today took oath as Bihar Chief Minister with Bharatiya Janata Party as partner of his Janata Dal-United, within 24 hours of quitting the Grand Alliance.

The BJP's Sushil Modi was sworn-in as the deputy chief minister. A floor test will take place tomorrow.

This is his second innings in the last two years, after he snapped ties late on Wednesday with the Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

advertisement

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath of office to Nitish Kumar at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.

Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy CM of Bihar respectively, at Raj Bhawan in Patna. pic.twitter.com/r2Ar9oSPva ANI (@ANI_news) 27 July 2017

Sushil Modi tweeted a photograph of himself and Nitish leaving the Governor's residence after receving an invitation to form the next government.

Here's how Tejashwi reacted to the news of the swearing-in schedule on Twitter.

Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

He warned that his party would stage a dharna if it weren't asked to form a government, since it's the single largest party.

We are going to governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

And after Nitish received an invitation to form a government, Tejashwi led a protest march to Raj Bhawan, following which he and 5 RJD MLAs were invited by the Governor for a discussion.

The RJD's handle tweeted a message for the Governor.

A Governor should act as custodian of constitution, not as Centre's stooge. He can't ignore single largest party & largest prepoll alliance.- Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) July 26, 2017

ALSO READ

Nitish Kumar to be back as chief minister with BJP support: Bihar political drama as it unfolded

Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bihar and the perfect storm of coincidences

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

ALSO WATCH

Dost, dost na raha: Frenemies Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav over the years

--- ENDS ---
T he judge leading the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster was tonight told "we need someone who's real" by a member of the public at a meeting with Grenfell Tower survivors and residents.

Retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick held a consultation meeting with local residents on Monday night to hear their say on what they want the probe to cover.

The room applauded when one of the first members of public to speak said: "I don't think you are going to do us justice.

"I'm just watching you here. We need someone who's real."

Hundreds gathered inside Notting Hill Community Church on Tuesday evening for the second meeting with the judge. The member of the public continued: "We need justice and we need it fast, and we don't need someone who is going to play around for six weeks.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick leaves after speaking to Grenfell Tower residents. / PA

"Six weeks people have had to wait for this and you are only just looking into this now?"

During his initial address to the room, Sir Martin promised the inquiry would consider the design and construction of the tower, as well as the decisions that were taken in light of recent works done to the tower.

He said: "We are going to investigate and find the facts in relation to the whole course of events.

"And we will do that in a way that means we will get to the bottom of that."

Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures 1 /18 Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures The top section of the death trap Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn The tower today, after the flames were extinguished Jeremy Selwyn A close up of the tower's damaged windows PA Fire service personnel survey the damage PA The tower today, after it emerged at least 17 were killed Jeremy Selwyn Rows of blackened windows after the fire Jeremy Selwyn Police sent in sniffer dogs today to search for bodies Jeremy Selwyn PA The Grenfell Tower at dawn today Jeremy Selwyn Donations have flooded in for victims Jeremy Selwyn Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower PA Rows and rows of blackened windows. It is feared over one hundred people may have perished Jeremy Selwyn Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP Fire crews examine the wreckage PA

He promised the room that the role of building regulations, the specification of the cladding and insulation, the tower's gas pipes and the role of supervision of works carried out would also be investigated.

Shouting broke out periodically over whether people other than survivors should be able to take the microphone and address the room.

Further yells of "answer the question" were directed at the inquiry head whenever one member of the public finished speaking and a microphone was passed to another.

Responding to appeals for people to be brought to justice, he said: "An inquiry is designed to find out what happened.

"I have no power to do anything in relation to criminal responsibility."

He confirmed that the issue of deregulation would be looked at by the inquiry.

The meeting was brought to an end just before 9pm, although many local community members had already left their seats.

Of the multiple suggestions for more diversity in his panel, Sir Martin said: "I'm certainly going to give consideration."

Asked if he felt his team could deliver justice, he said: "If by justice, you mean getting to the facts, yes."

Calls of "Do the right thing, judge" and "Resign" were shouted at the inquiry head as he left the church.

Additional reporting by Press Association.
N ew diesel and petrol cars and vans will be banned from 2040 as part of efforts to tackle air pollution, the Government is expected to announce.

A 255 million fund is expected to be unveiled to help councils speed up local measures to deal with pollution from diesel vehicles, as part of 3 billion spending on air quality.

The measures are set to be included in a court-mandated clean air strategy the Government is due to publish on Wednesday, just days before the deadline set by the High Court.

The expected move to ban petrol and diesel vans and cars follows similar plans announced in France this month and amid increasing signs that the shift to electric vehicles is accelerating.

On Tuesday, BMW announced plans for an electric Mini to be assembled at its Oxford plant while earlier this month Volvo unveiled its moves towards cleaner cars.

The Government was ordered to produce new plans to tackle illegal levels of harmful pollutant nitrogen dioxide after the courts agreed with environmental campaigners that a previous set of plans were insufficient to meet EU pollution limits.

Despite government efforts to delay publication of the plans until after the general election, ministers were forced to set out the draft plans in May, with the final measures due by July 31.

It is thought ministers will also consult on a diesel scrappage scheme to take the dirtiest vehicles off the road.

Campaigners have demanded the final plans should include government-funded and mandated clean air zones, with charges for the most polluting vehicles to enter areas with high air pollution, as well as a diesel scrappage scheme.

Their calls for charging zones were backed up by an assessment published alongside the draft plans which suggested they were the most effective measures to tackle nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from diesel vehicles.

But ministers have been wary of being seen to "punish" drivers of diesel cars, who they claim bought the vehicles in good faith after being encouraged to by the last Labour government on the basis they produced lower carbon emissions.

Loading....

They favour local measures such as retrofitting buses and other transport to make them cleaner, changing road layouts and even altering features such as speed humps and re-programming traffic lights to make traffic flow more smoothly to reduce pollution.

The expected move to ban diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040 comes after similar plans were announced in France this month and amid increasing signs that the shift to electric vehicles is accelerating, with BMW announcing plans for an electric Mini and Volvo unveiling its moves towards cleaner cars.

Air pollution is linked to around 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK, and transport also makes up a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions.

A government spokesman said: "Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible.

"That is why we are providing councils with new funding to accelerate development of local plans, as part of an ambitious 3 billion programme to clean up dirty air around our roads.

"Our plan to deal with dirty diesels will help councils clean up emissions hotspots - often a single road - through common sense measures which do not unfairly penalise ordinary working people.

"Diesel drivers are not to blame and, to help them switch to cleaner vehicles, the Government will consult on a targeted scrappage scheme, one of a number of measures to support motorists affected by local plans."

Environmental law firm ClientEarth took the Government to court over its clean air strategy.

Its chief executive James Thornton said: "The Government has trumpeted some promising measures with its air quality plans, but we need to see the detail.

"A clear policy to move people towards cleaner vehicles by banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans after 2040 is welcome, as is more funding for local authorities.

"However, the law says ministers must bring down illegal levels of air pollution as soon as possible, so any measures announced in this plan must be focused on doing that.

Reporting by Press Association
T he parents of Charlie Gard have been given until noon on Thursday to reach an agreement with hospital bosses over their son's final moments.

No full agreement has yet been reached over the details of little Charlie's final days, although both parents and doctors have agreed the baby will be taken to a hospice to die.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard had said they wanted Charlie to spend his final moments with them at home but doctors said it was not practical to provide life-support treatment at home. They say a hospice would be a better plan.

The couple today had a change of heart and dropped their bid to take Charlie home to die. They said they have found a team of doctors willing to take the terminally ill 11-month-old to a hospice for "a week or so" before dying.

But lawyers added Charlie's parents were still in dispute with doctors over the detail of care plans.

Ms Yates left court crying on Wednesday, shouting: "I hope you are happy with youselves".

Connie Yates, the mother of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard, arrives at the High Court on Wednesday. / Getty Images

Mr Justice Francis began analysing the current dispute over moving Charlie at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Tuesday and said he would make a decision on Wednesday.

But he halted a hearing this afternoon so that all parties could have discussions. A lawyer has since told the judge that agreement has not been reached.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates speak to the media after ending their legal fight to take Charlie to the US for experimental treatment / Getty Images

Mr Justice Francis told the court if parties could not agree by noon on Thursday, Charlie would move to a hospice and life support treatment would end soon after that move.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had originally asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help and that life-support treatment should stop.

Loading....

Mr Justice Francis in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Charlie's parents subsequently failed to overturn his ruling in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

The couple returned to court recently, saying they had new evidence and asking Mr Justice Francis to change his mind.

But they abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the "point of no return".
T he Conservative Party has come a long way on gay rights, Theresa May has said ahead of the anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.

The Prime Minister acknowledged many people may be sceptical about the Tory record on gay rights, but insisted she was proud of the role the party had played in tackling discrimination in recent years, adding "where we have been wrong on these issues in the past".

In comments to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales, Mrs May said there was "much more to do" to achieve equality.

Mrs May was joined by former UK prime ministers and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in writing comment pieces for PinkNews to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Act.

Mr Corbyn urged the Prime Minister to stand up to US President Donald Trump - who on Wednesday said he wants transgender people banned from serving in the US military - on LGBT issues.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson at a vigil for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. / Getty Images

Mrs May said: "I am proud of the role my party has played in recent years in advocating a Britain which seeks to end discrimination on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity, but I acknowledge where we have been wrong on these issues in the past.

"There will justifiably be scepticism about the positions taken and votes cast down through the years by the Conservative Party, and by me, compared to where we are now.

"But like the country we serve, my Party and I have come a long way."

Mr Corbyn said: "In America, the Trump presidency has incited hatred and discrimination against LGBT people. Trump opposes gay marriage and his vice-president, Mike Pence, enacted a religious freedom bill which legalised discrimination against LGBT people.

Pride in London 2017 1 /20 Pride in London 2017 Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Police officers at London Pride PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA

"Other world leaders have been unequivocal with the US president but not Theresa May, who has failed to challenge this in the strongest terms.

"I am a great believer that through dialogue we can open minds, unite people, and change the world."

The Prime Minister has faced criticism over her pact at Westminster with the Democratic Unionist Party, which opposes gay marriage.

Her predecessor David Cameron said one of his "proudest achievements" in office was the Same Sex Marriage Act which legalised gay weddings in England and Wales.

"Marriage is a great institution and I have long believed that it should be there for everybody; it now is and Britain led the way," he said.

Labour ex-prime minister Tony Blair said: "We have come a long way over the last 50 years and it's right to celebrate, but while there are still challenges, such as pupils subject to homophobic and transphobic bullying or LGBT people having to think twice about even holding their partner's hand walking down the street, there is still further to go."

Sir John Major warned that "bigotry" still existed in society, as shown by the Brexit arguments over immigration, but "most people today - and especially the young - have moved on from the social prejudices of earlier generations".

He said: "In fashioning the public mood, we need to acknowledge successes as well as challenges.

"Bigotry hasn't gone: witness the shameful hostility that was whipped up during the Brexit campaign - raising irrational fears about the effect of immigration. But, overall, such sentiments are generally in retreat and out of time."

Additional reporting by Press Association.
T he American doctor accused of giving Charlie Gard's family 'false hope' has denied having any financial interest in the experimental treatment he was offering.

Dr Michio Hirano travelled to London last week to examine the youngster and discuss the case with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) doctors.

The professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Centre, in New York, had been seen as terminally ill Charlies only hope with his experimental nucleoside treatment, NBT.

But on Monday, the boy's mother Connie Yates and father Chris Gard abandoned their five-month battle to persuade a judge to let him travel to America for the treatment.

In his first public statement since their decision, Dr Hirano said: "I became involved in Charlie's case when I was contacted by his parents, and I subsequently agreed to speak with his doctors to discuss whether an experimental therapy being developed in my lab could provide meaningful clinical improvement in Charlie's condition.

Charlie Gard's parents' statement in full - 'We are sorry we could not save you'

"As I disclosed in court on July 13, I have relinquished and have no financial interest in the treatment being developed for Charlie's condition.

"Unfortunately, a MRI scan of Charlie's muscle tissue conducted in the past week has revealed that it is very unlikely that he would benefit from this treatment."

Charlie's parents ended their legal battle on Monday / PA

His comment comes one day after GOSH told a court hearing it was disappointed to find the professor had some financial interest in the treatment suggested for Charlie.

In its positioning statement, the hospital submitted that Dr Hirano contacted it in December last year about NBT (nucleoside treatment) and at the beginning of this month said he had new information.

It expressed concerns that his July 13 evidence to court offered false hope because at this time he had not examined Charlie, read his latest medical records, or the opinions of experts who had seen him.

The statement added: "Further, GOSH was concerned to hear the professor state, for the first time, whilst in the witness box, that he retains a financial interest in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie.

"Devastatingly, the information obtained since 13 July gives no cause for optimism.

"Rather, it confirms that whilst NBT may well assist others in the future, it cannot and could not have assisted Charlie."
T he distraught mother of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard said I hope you are happy with yourselves as she left court crying after fighting over her sons final moments.

Connie Yates, became distressed as the judge made his decision to issue a deadline of noon on Thursday for doctors and Charlies parents to reach an agreement.

Both parties have agreed that Charlie should spend his final moments at a hospice, but the details of his care plans are still in dispute.

Parents Ms Yates and Chris Gard had wanted to take their son home to die but today had a change of heart after finding a team of doctors willing to take Charlie to a hospice for a week or so before dying.

On Wednesday afternoon, when an agreement was expected to have been reached, lawyers told Mr Justice Francis that no deal had been made.

Charlie Gard has a rare genetic disorder and brain damage. / PA

The judge said if an agreement could not be reached by noon on Thursday, Charlie would be moved to a hospice and life support treatment would end soon after.

Charlie's mother, Connie Yates, became distressed as the judge made his decision. She left court crying and said: "I hope you are happy with yourselves."

According to the Mirror, she also shouted: What if this was your child?

Chris Gard and Connie Yates speak to the media after ending their legal fight to take Charlie to the US for experimental treatment on Monday. / Getty Images

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had originally asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help and that life-support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Supporters of Charlie Gard's parents have been outside court most days. / Reuters

Charlie's parents subsequently failed to overturn his ruling in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

The couple returned to court recently, saying they had new evidence and asking Mr Justice Francis to change his mind.

But they abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the "point of no return".
C aitlyn Jenner and Chelsea Manning have hit out at Donald Trump after he banned transgender people from serving in the US army.

Mr Trump blamed disruption and tremendous medical costs when he announced the ban in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

Ms Jenner and Ms Manning, both transgender activists, fired back, with Ms Jenner criticising the US President for breaking a promise to fight for the LGBT community.

Ms Manning meanwhile accused Mr Trump of "cowardice".

Reality television star Ms Jenner, 67, who voted for Mr Trump and is a Republican Party supporter, tweeted: "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?"

Trump had previously voiced his support for the LGBT community, tweeting in June last year: "I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs."

Chelsea Manning hit out at Donald Trump on Wednesday / AFP/Getty Images

Ms Manning, a former soldier, also tweeted, saying: So, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35?

"Sounds like cowardice.

The 29-year-old said militaries like the US army have always been a social experiment just as much as a fighting force.

She added: Today is further reason we should dismantle the bloated and dangerous military/intel/police state to fund #healthcare for all.

A Pentagon spokesman has refused to answer questions about what the announcement means for the current policy.

Navy captain Jeff Davis told reporters to call the White House.

Mr Trump said in his tweets that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in "any capacity".

He added: "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
T he US Senate has begun debating a new healthcare bill in a key step forward in Donald Trumps efforts to repeal Obamacare.

Politicians voted narrowly to begin debating the bill  that would repeal policies introduced under Affordable Care Act  on Tuesday evening.

But the President's initial victory was quickly undermined by the Republicans' failure to pass the first amendment, which would have made deep cuts to health insurance and reduce healthcare subsidies to lower-income people.

Mr Trump hailed the opportunity to move forward towards truly great healthcare after the Senate voted in favour of debating the bill by 51 votes to 50.

Debate: Vice President Mike Pence, right, cast the deciding vote / Getty Images

Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote to win the Republicans a majority and Senator John McCain, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour, was applauded when he arrived at congress to vote.

But the initial proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare failed to get the 60 votes needed for approval, with nine Republicans voting against the measure.

The healthcare replacement plan needed 60 votes to pass but instead was halted by a vote of 43 to 57.

The amendment would have made cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, and reduced Obamacare subsidies to lower-income people to help them with the cost of health insurance.

It was the first of many expected votes this week on repealing or replacing elements of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

Senators are deciding between the initial plan to repeal and replace Obamacare or different bills which would either delay the repeal by a couple of years in a bid to come to an agreement or just scale back existing measures.

President: Trump celebrated the debate starting at a rally in Ohio / Getty Images

The latter two may be easier to pass through by gaining a wider consensus but, regardless, the outcome of this weeks votes could have huge implications for healthcare and families across the United States.

Prior to the debate, protesters gathered in the Senate gallery chanting: Kill the bill, dont kill us! Shame, shame shame.

The President later celebrated the start of the debate in Ohio where he addressed the voters who helped put him in office.

"We're now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare and delivering great health care for the American people," PresidentTrump told a crowd of several thousand in Youngstown.

"You think that's easy? That's not easy," he said.

About 20 million people gained healthcare insurance as a result of President Obama's reforms. Experts have warned an extra 32 million people could be left without health insurance by 2026 if Obamacare is repealed without replacement.
T en thousand people have been forced to flee homes and campsites overnight as wildfires raged across parts of southern France.

Wildfires have engulfed swathes of forest in southern France and on the island of Corsica in the last three days.

Up to 4,000 firefighters and troops using water bombers have been trying to put out the flames since Monday.

Some 4,000 hectares (15.4 sq miles) of land has burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous area and on the island of Corsica.

Inferno: firefighters tackle the blaze in France / AP

On Wednesday morning, a huge new blaze was raging near Bormes-les-Mimosas, southwest of the popular Saint Tropez holiday resort.

A fire service official said: "The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire. It's an area that doubles or triples its population in summer."

British holidaymakers at the Camp du Domaine campsite in Bormes-les-Mimosas were among those evacuated overnight.

France wildfires - In pictures 1 /21 France wildfires - In pictures Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel People enjoy the beach as they look at a forest fire in La Croix-Valmer, near Saint-Tropez Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images A fire burning the forest in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire burning in Artigues, southeastern France AFP/Getty Images Firefighters spray water as they try to douse a fire near the village of Biguglia, Corsica island, Franc AP A firefighter takes a break at the site of a wildfire near the village of Ortale, Corsica island, France AP Smoke fills the sky as a Canadair firefighting plane releases water to extinguish a wildfire near Seillons, in the Var department, France REUTERS People stand outside a house in the courtyard and look at a the smoke coming from fire burning a forest in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. AFP/Getty Images The wreckage of a burnt down car following a forest fire in Ramatuelle, southern France AFP/Getty Images Smoke fills the sky as flames from a wildfire burn trees near Seillons, in the Var department, France REUTERS Smoke rising from a fire in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images An anti-fire Canadair airplane drops water over a forest fire near the village of Ortale in Corsica, France AP French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb (2nd right) speaks to Upper Corsica Police Chief Gerard Gavory (2nd left) after a flight in a helicopter during a visit to the firefighters working to fight the fire in Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel

Lisa Minot, the Suns travel editor, told Sky News tourists in 1,000 camping plots were forced to flee after an evacuation began at about 2am.

"We could see the flames just behind the campsite and we were told to evacuate right down on to the beach," she said.

A forest fire burns near Seillons-Source- d'Argent, southern France / AP

"The camp I'm at, Camp du Domaine, has its own private beach and then it goes all the way up into the hills.

"Everybody was told to evacuate to the beach and they're still there and they have not allowed us to go back to our caravan.

"It's utter chaos, there are no provisions or anything else... there's no one telling us what to do."

Firefighters prepare to fight a forest fire in Carros near Nice, southern France / EPA

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since Monday, officials said.

In Corsica, hundreds of homes have been evacuated.

On Tuesday, France asked its EU neighbours for help fighting the fires and said the situation was not under control because the country "does not have enough resources."
A Los Angeles man has been arrested for arranging the smuggling of three highly-venomous king cobra snakes into the United States - hidden inside potato crisp tubes.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was charged after a parcel from Hong Kong was intercepted by US Customs and Border Protection agents in March containing the two-foot-long snakes concealed inside the packaging.

Three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles were also found, prosecutors said, adding that Franco on that same day posted a box to Hong Kong with six protected turtles inside.

He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

A king cobra snake seen hidden in a container / REUTERS

The king cobra is the longest venomous snake reaching up to 18 feet in length.
Nitish Kumar has called a meeting of JD-U MLAs later in the evening today. The ruling party MLAs are likely to again put forth their demand to remove Tejashwi Yadav from the cabinet ahead of Assembly's Monsoon Session.

By India Today Web Desk: After a brief lull, Bihar politics is again bustling with activities with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar calling a meeting of all MLAs. Nitish was in Delhi on Tuesday to attend President Ram Nath Kovind's swearing-in ceremony. He was back in Patna later in the evening.

Immediately after landing in Patna, Nitish called a meeting of MLAs to be held later today triggering speculations that he may take a call deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, who is under pressure to step down after being named by the CBI in a corruption case.

advertisement

Sources said that the meeting was first scheduled to be held on July 28 but Nitish decided to prepone it. Lalu's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is the largest of the three alliance partners of Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance, is also holding a separate meeting today to chalk out its strategy.

Nitish Kumar had met his party legislators at his residence 1 Anne Marg, Patna, on July 11. During the meeting JD(U) leaders demanded that Tejashwi should quit but Nitish intervened and suggested that Lalu's son should come out clean and explain his stand to the people of Bihar.

Earlier this month, Tejashwi and Nitish had a closed door meeting during which the deputy CM tabled his stance and claimed that he was being framed. Insiders said Nitish was not convinced with Tejashwi's explanation.

It is believed that Nitish is miffed with Tejashwi as he has failed to present solid evidence in support of his 'not guilty' claim despite being given ample time.

Bihar Assembly's Monsoon Session is starting from Friday (July 28) and the main Opposition BJP has already announced that it will not allow proceedings in the Hous until Nitish Kumar removes Tejashwi from his Cabinet.

The next couple of days are going to be crucial from Tejashwi and Bihar Mahagathbandhan.

ALSO READ:

Tejashwi Yadav to quit before July 28? Nitish Kumar firm, Lalu Prasad may relent

Nitish meets Rahul amid reports of rift in grand alliance

Nitish Kumar 'babbar sher' of moral values, Tejashwi must come out clean: JD(U)

Revealed: What Tejashwi Yadav told Nitish Kumar in their 45-minute meeting behind closed doors

WATCH: Lalu Yadav after CBI raids: Ready to be hanged, but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

--- ENDS ---
S enior politicians rallied around Great Ormond Street Hospital today to defend it from ill-informed and vitriolic abuse over the Charlie Gard case.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said staff at the world-leading hospital provided extraordinary treatment for patients every day.

The Labour MP spoke out after the courts backed a decision by doctors that experimental treatment in the US was not in the terminally ill boys best interests.

The ruling prompted offers of help from Donald Trump and senior Republican politicians, and unleashed a torrent of abuse towards the hospital, much of it from the American Right, who used it to attack socialised health care.

Hospital chiefs were even forced to contact police after staff received death threats and abuse, which have been condemned by Charlies family.

Mr Ashworth said: Every single day the staff at GOSH achieve the most extraordinary things.

They dont deserve recent ill-informed and vitriolic abuse. It takes a special kind of person to care every day for the very sickest childen.

Dr Onkar Sahota, chair of the London Assembly health committee, added: This has been a traumatic time for both parents and doctors, who only want to do the best for the child in a difficult and complex medical case.
" Plucky" rabbits hopped on to the backs of sheep as they escaped a flood in New Zealand.

Kiwi farmer Ferg Horne photographed three wild rabbits balancing on the herd as torrents of water tore through Otageo, on the countrys South Island, on Saturday.

The flood sparked mass evacuations across the island and forced authorities to declare state of emergency.

Mr Horne rushed to check on a friends livestock, fearing they had been killed in the deluge but found the flock perched on a high spot in a paddock, the Guardian reported.

He told the newspaper: "Ive never seen anything like it, they were just sitting there keeping out of the water, they must have got to the high spot and then jumped up on to the back of the sheep to stay dry.

It shows you how resilient they are and why they survive so well.

Mr Horne, who regularly shoots rabbits spotted on his farm said the "plucky" creatures fell off when the sheep moved.

But, he added, that he couldnt bring himself to kill them.

He said: I thought those guys deserved to live, so I left them alone.

According to the Guardian, New Zealands government have vowed to wipe out rabbits by 2050.
A merica's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is taking a little time off amid reports he may quit President Donald Trumps scandal-plagued administration.

Speculation over a possible Rexit grew after Mr Tillerson, former chief executive of the Exxon-Mobil oil company, was reported to be unhappy about the presidents unprofessional attacks on embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Mr Tillerson, 65, was already frustrated with Mr Trumps involvement in foreign affairs and staffing decisions, according to CNN.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert tried to brush aside suggestions that Mr Tillerson was on his way out.

Donald Trump: I can be more presidential than any former president

Just taking a little time off, she said. He does have the ability to go away for a few days on his own. Hes got a lot of work, he just came back from that mega-trip overseas, she added, referring to the G20 summit in Germany.

Hes entitled to take a few days for himself. The Secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at the State Department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us. He recognises that. Hes deeply engaged in that work.

She added that Mr Tillerson does, however, serve at the pleasure of the president, just as any cabinet official would.

Attorney General Sessions future seemed in doubt after Mr Trump again criticised him for being very weak and said that only time will tell if he keeps his job.

Donald Trump 'disappointed' in attorney general Jeff Sessions

Speaking at a White House press conference the president blasted Mr Sessions decision to remove himself from any involvement in the investigations into alleged Russian meddling with the US election because of his own involvement in the Trump campaign.

He should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and I would have quite simply picked somebody else, said a clearly-irritated Mr Trump. He added: Its unfair to the presidency.

Mr Sessions, a former Alabama senator seen as one of Mr Trumps most loyal supporters, appears to be standing firm despite being the target of another Twitter tirade from the president. His latest tweet said: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!

The White Houses new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, likened the relationship to a marriage row and said: They need to either get together or separate. He added that he thought it was correct that Mr Trump wants Mr Sessions to quit.

At least three protesters, one waving a Russian flag, were thrown out of a rally in Ohio last night as Mr Trump urged support for replacing Obamacare health reforms.
A woman destroyed her partners $1million violin collection during a furious breakup in Japan.

The 34-year-old smashed her violin-maker husbands 54-piece set to bits after breaking into his apartment in Nagoya.

Her fit of rage took place in 2014 in the middle of their messy breakup but she has only just been arrested, according to the BBC.

The most valuable instrument among the causalities was an Italian-made violin worth 50m Yen, the Kyodo news agency said.

Her 62-year-old husband is said to have been both a collector and maker of the string instrument.

The woman is a Chinese national and was arrested on Tuesday when she returned to Tokyo from China, according to Japanese media.
A ngelina Jolie has told Vanity Fair that things got bad during her marriage to Brad Pitt, saying shes still healing from the events that led to their 2016 divorce.

Speaking about the breakdown of her marriage for the first time in a magazine interview, the Hollywood actress said shes been going through the hardest time.

Things got bad," she told the magazine. I didnt want to use that word...things became difficult.

Its just been the hardest time, and were just kind of coming up for air.

The September issue of Vanity Fair is on news stands on August 4. (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott exclusively for Vanity Fair ) / Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott exclusively for Vanity Fair

Jolie added: Were all just healing from the events that led to the filing. [The children are] not healing from divorce. Theyre healing from some...from life, from things in life."

Angelina Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt: Twitter reacts

In the interview, the actress also revealed that she had been diagnosed with Bells Palsy last year, a result of damage to facial nerves which causes one side of the face to droop.

Jolie and Pitt ended their 12-year relationship last September after two years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences in divorce papers.

Angelina Jolie's relationships - In pictures 1 /13 Angelina Jolie's relationships - In pictures Brad Pitt Jolie and Pitt hit the headlines when they began dating after meeting on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005 and denied they had hooked up while Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston. The pair became one of the biggest power couples in Hollywood and had three adopted children, Maddox, Zahara and Pax and three biological children Shiloh and twins Vivienna and Knox. Jolie filed for divorce in September 2015 with her lawyer revealing the decision had been made "for the health of the family". Dominic Lipinski/PA Billy Bob Thornton Jolie and Thornton were famous for their unusual displays of affection  most famously wearing one anothers blood in vials around their necks. The pair  who met while working on Pushing Tin in 1999  married in Las Vegas on May 5 2000 and announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002. But they separated three months later and finalised their divorce in 2003. Jolie said the split took her by surprise and told Vogue at the time: I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet. Lucy Nicholson/AFP/Getty Images Timothy Hutton Jolie was reportedly dating Timothy Hutton - who she met on the set of Playing God - shortly before she began dating Billy Bob Thornton Buena Vista Colin Farrell Jolie was rumoured to be romantically linked to Farrell before she met Pitt. The pair worked together on Alexander but the actress reportedly grew tired of him not reciprocating her feelings. Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images Val Kilmer Jolie and Kilmer were reported to have had a fling around the time they were filming Alexander. Julien Behal/Getty Images Nicolas Cage Jolie was reportedly spotted kissing her Gone in 60 Seconds co-star Nicolas Cage at a black tie event in 2003. Touchstone Elizabeth Mitchell Jolie and Mitchell - who starred together in Gia - are rumoured to have dated in real life Jonny Lee Miller Jolie and Miller met on the set of Hackers in 1995 and the couple tied the knot the following year after eloping in Vegas. Keen to show her love for Miller, Jolie shunned a traditional wedding dress in favour of black rubber trousers and a white T-shirt  which had Millers name written in her blood across it. The couple divorced in 1999 but have remained great friends. Evan Agostini/Getty Images Jenny Shimizu Jolie said it was love at first sight when she met Shimizu on the set of Foxfire in 1996 and went on to have her first same-sex relationship with the model and actress. Jolie was so in love with Shimizu she once said she would have married her if she hadnt reconnected with Lee-Miller. Speaking to Girlfriends magazine in 1997 she said: I fell in love with her the first second I saw her. I probably would have married Jenny Shimizu if I hadnt married my [first] husband. Dario Cantatore/Getty Images Mick Jagger Jolie starred in The Rolling Stones video Anybody Seen My Baby? in 1997 and allegedly embarked on a brief fling with the rocker.

The A-list actress gave her first TV interview about her divorce to BBC News back in February, saying: I dont want to say very much about that, except to say it was a very difficult time and we are a family, and we will always be a family.

Pitt spoke about the split during a candid interview with GQ Style earlier this year, telling the magazine that he was keeping the ship afloat for his children.

Kids are everything. Kids are your life. Theyre taking all the focus, as they should anyway, he said.
G eorgia May Jagger says growing up in leafy south-west London had its dangers  the squirrels of Richmond Park.

Asked about her earliest memory of London the model, 25, whose parents are Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, told ES Magazine: I grew up by Richmond Park, so it would probably be being bitten on the finger by a squirrel when I was feeding it a Skips crisp.

I received a lot of tetanus shots growing up.

She also shared the story of a more recent perilous encounter in London  with a cab driver who made a sexist comment following the Womens March in January.

She said: My friends and I were in the back of a cab, all worked up about it and chatting.

When we paid the cabbie he said, Well you girls have had fun at the Womens March. Now you can go back to cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry and doing all the things you do best.

Party People - In pictures 1 /84 Party People - In pictures Katy Perry leaving Cafe Royal Hotel, London SplashNews.com Lizzie Cundy, Jilly Johnson, Jo Wood and Ingrid Tarrant attend the launch of Jo Wood's new podcast "Alien Nation With Jo Wood" at The Groucho Club Dave Benett Kate Moss attends the Bella Freud 'Happening' poetry session Dave Benett Carol Vorderman attends a special screening of "Amazing Grace" at The Ham Yard Hotel Dave Benett/WireImage Laura Bailey and Mary Charteris attend the Bella Freud 'Happening' poetry session Dave Benett Emeli Sande attends a special screening of "Amazing Grace" at The Ham Yard Hotel Dave Benett/WireImage Kate Moss and Bella Freud attend the Bella Freud 'Happening' poetry session Dave Benett Bella Freud and Noel Fielding attend the Bella Freud 'Happening' poetry session Dave Benett Jemima Khan and Bella Freud attend the Bella Freud 'Happening' poetry session Dave Benett Jourdan Dunn and Melanie C attend a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Caroline Flack and Betty Bachz celebrate the 90th Anniversary of JW Marriott Grosvenor House London Dave Benett Laura Whitmore celebrates the 90th Anniversary of JW Marriott Grosvenor House London on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Poppy Ajudha at the 2019 Jazz FM Awards at Shoreditch Town Hall PA Caroline Flack celebrates the 90th Anniversary of JW Marriott Grosvenor House London on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Ayesha Perry-Iqbal attends a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Vick Hope attends a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London, Dave Benett Ashley Roberts attends a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Ashley Roberts and Vanessa White attend a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Montana Brown attends a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Melissa Tattam and Sophie Habboo attend a party hosted by Jourdan Dunn to celebrate Maybelline being named the NO.1 Mascara brand in the UK on April 30, 2019 in London Dave Benett Beverley Knight at the 2019 Jazz FM Awards at Shoreditch Town Hall PA Camilla Kerslake stuns in Gyunel Couture dress arriving at the International Opera Awards at Sadlers Wells Theatre Backgrid UK Lily Collins poses on the red carpet arriving for the UK premiere of the film Tolkein in London AFP/Getty Images Kate Moss is seen in high spirits as she has lunch with friends in Notting Hill, Londo SplashNews.com Fleur East attends The Screen Nation Film and TV Awards at May Fair Hotel in London SplashNews.com Olivia Colman attending the launch party for the Art for Eve campaign at Bonhams Auction House in London PA Megan Barton Hanson attends 'Art For Eve', a charity auction in aid of The Eve Appeal at Bonhams Dave Benett Poppy Jamie at the UK launch of Coca-Cola Companys new water-plus drink Aquarius Lily Collins and Nicholas Hoult attending the UK premiere of Tolkien held at Curzon Mayfair, London PA Jessica Ordonez Barnett and Olivia Colman attend 'Art For Eve', a charity auction in aid of The Eve Appeal, at Bonham Dave Benett Heather Watson attending the BT Sport Industry Awards 2019 at Battersea Evolution in London SplashNews.com Charlize Theron seen out and about in London SplashNews.com Olivia Cox attends the British Academy Television and Craft Awards nominees party at Sea Containers Dave Benett Michelle Heaton attends the British Academy Television and Craft Awards nominees party at Sea Containers Dave Benett Lauren Black attends the British Academy Television and Craft Awards nominees party at Sea Containers Dave Benett Nina Toussaint-White attends the British Academy Television and Craft Awards nominees party at Sea Containers Dave Benett Madonna arrives for the big MTV reveal in a risque outfit Rex Features Camilla Rutherford, Yasmin Mills, Jasmine Hemsley, Emma Weymouth and Arizona Muse Dave Benett Zac Efron and Lily Collins attending the Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile European Premiere held at the Curzon Mayfair, London PA Becky Tong attends a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcade Dave Benett Lily Collins attends the European Premiere of "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile" at The Curzon Mayfair Dave Benett Megan Barton Hanson attends the European Premiere of "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile" at The Curzon Mayfair Dave Benett Kevin Pietersen launching an exclusive National Geographic screening of 'Save this Rhino' documentary at The Ham Yard Hotel in partnership with Dimension Data and Cisco Denise van Outen attends the 1st birthday gala performance of "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" at The Aldwych Theatre Dave Benett Kathy Lette attends the 1st birthday gala performance of "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" at The Aldwych Theatre Dave Benett Emma Weymouth, Cameron Saul and Deborah Ababio attend a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcade Dave Benett Naomi Isted attends the European premiere of the SKY CINEMA original "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" at The Curzon Mayfair Jeff Spicer/Getty Images Kimberley Walsh and Denise van Outen attend the 1st birthday gala performance of "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" at The Aldwych Theatre Dave Benett Eleanor Tomlinson attends the 1st birthday gala performance of "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" at The Aldwych Theatre Dave Benett Iwan Rheon attends a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcade Dave Benett Kimberley Walsh, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe and Denise van Outen attend the 1st birthday gala performance of "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" at The Aldwych Theatre Dave Benett Ashley Roberts attends Skinny Tan VIP product launch party at 100 Wardour Stree Dave Benett Kara Marshall (L) and Diana Vickers attend Skinny Tan VIP product launch party at 100 Wardour Stree Dave Benett Victoria Brown attends Skinny Tan VIP product launch party at 100 Wardour Street Dave Benett Diana Vickers attends Skinny Tan VIP product launch party at 100 Wardour Street Dave Benett Jacqueline Jossa attends Skinny Tan VIP product launch party at 100 Wardour Street Dave Benett Matt Smith attends the UK Premiere of National Geographic's new series "Hostile Planet" at Cineworld O2 Arena Dave Benett Alexis Knox attends the UK Premiere of National Geographic's new series "Hostile Planet" at Cineworld O2 Arena Dave Benett Gizzi Erskine attends the UK Premiere of National Geographic's new series "Hostile Planet" at Cineworld O2 Arena Oti Mabuse attends the press night after party for "Ain't Misbehavin'" at The Southwark Playhouse Dave Benett Martha Ward attends a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcade Dave Benett Arizona Muse and Jasmine Hemsley attend a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcade Dave Benett Melissa Hemsley attends a cocktail supper hosted by BOTTLETOP co-founders Cameron Saul & Oliver Wayman, along with Arizona Muse, Richard Curtis & Livia Firth to launch the #TOGETHERBAND campaign at The Quadrant Arcad Dave Benett

Read the full interview in ES Magazine, out tomorrow.
J ohn Barrowman told fans he felt as though he had been hit by a car after being rushed to hospital with an appendicitis.

The TV star, 50, underwent emergency surgery at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California on Tuesday.

Barrowman  who felt like he was coming down with flu  said he was in agony and praised the doctors for catching the infected appendix before it burst.

Speaking in a video from his hospital bed while on oxygen he told fans: I was woken up at 6am and whisked right into surgery. I feel like I have been hit by a car.

Recovering: John Barrowman in hospital / John Barrowman MBE/Facebook

Im just sore all over and my voice is sore because of the tube going down my throat.

He continued: The staff in the surgery knew who I was, they were fans which was kind of funny.

I was just lucky my appendix didnt burst, they caught it in time.

I was in a lot of agony yesterday. I knew something was up, I felt really bad. I felt like I was getting a flu.

He added that he has three holes in me from the laser surgery which was used to remove the infected organ and that he is preparing to return home.

Proving to fans that he was nearly back to full health he joked in a live Twitter video that hes got gas which is coming out rapidly like a machine gun.

The emergency procedure came hours after he attended Comic Con in San Diego wearing a Doctor Who theme dress.

He continued to show off his love for the sci-fi show by wearing a pair of Tardis socks in his hospital bed where he was surrounded by family members.
W arner Bros has confirmed that Gal Gadot will make her big screen return as Wonder Woman at the end of 2019.

The studio has revealed that the seriously successful female-led superhero film will be getting a sequel, with Patty Jenkins returning to direct.

Just a few months after Wonder Woman broke the record to become the biggest ever live-action film by a female director, a follow-up is already in the works.

On Wednesday, producers confirmed that the next instalment is slated for release on December 13 2019.

Wonder Woman - Trailer 2

I had an epiphany about Wonder Woman 2, Jenkins recently told Collider. I was like, You don't have to do this. It doesn't have to be a foregone conclusion that you do Wonder Woman 2.

But then as I was falling asleep I had an epiphany. I was like, 'Wait a minute. You have the greatest character of all time that you love dearly, with a cast that you love sitting in the palm of your hand at this day and age  you can do whatever you want with them  are you crazy?

Wonder Woman - In pictures 1 /25 Wonder Woman - In pictures Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Clay Enos Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman PA Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman PA Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Clay Enos Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman Clay Enos Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Robin Wright in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Clay Enos Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Clay Enos Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Clay Enos Connie Neilsen in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Danny Huston as Ludendorf and Elena Arrya as Dr Maru in a scene from Wonder Woman PA Connie Neilsen and and Lilly Aspell in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Robin Wright in a scene from Wonder Woman AP Gal Gadot in a scene from Wonder Woman Warner Bros

Wonder Woman recently overtook Mamma Mia! to become the biggest ever live-action film by a female director.

Gadot, 32 , has won critical acclaim for her turn as the superhero on the big screen, with many describing it as a career-defining performance.

The film, which has received universally positive reviews, was controversially banned from screening in Lebanon thanks to the casting of Israeli actress Gadot.

The Lebanese government has made the decision to ban the new superhero film from all cinemas after discovering that the lead actress previously served in the Israeli Defence Force.


B BC Twos Against the Law is a one-off 90-minute film dramatising the events of the Montagu trial, which saw three men sent to prison for homosexual activities based on the testimony of their former lovers.

Whats it about?

An adaptation of the novel by the same name, docu-drama Against the Law tells the story of a privately gay journalist, Peter Wildeblood, played by Daniel Mays.

Wildeblood was found guilty of homosexual activities, and sentenced to 18 months in prison after his lover Eddie McNally gave damning evidence against him as part of the Montagu Trial.

Set in the 1950s, over 10 years before the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the drama documents Wildebloods downfall but also his determination to change the laws around homosexuality so that gay men like him could lead freer lives.

Whats the Montagu Trial?

The Montagu Trial was a landmark moment in the fight to decriminalise homosexuality. It saw Wildeblood accused of homosexual offences alongside Edward Douglas-Scott Montagu (the British lord after whom the trial was named) and Michael Pitt-Rivers.

The journalists lover Eddie McNally turned Queens evidence against him which was used to send him to jail for a year and a half. After serving his time in Wormwood Scrubs prison, Wildeblood became a gay rights campaigner and wrote the 1955 book, Against the Law, on which the drama is based.

The high-profile nature of the case, Wildebloods activism and the persistent refusal of Montagu  a member of the aristocracy  to concede any guilt, helped raise awareness, changed attitudes towards homosexuality and ultimately the law.

Best LGBT films and TV shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime - in pictures 1 /13 Best LGBT films and TV shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime - in pictures Ru Paul's Drag Race Netflix Scrum Amazon Prime Orange is the New Black Netflix Carol Amazon Prime Paris is Burning Netflix The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Netflix The Invisible Men Amazon Prime First Girl I Loved Amazon Prime Sense 8 Netflix Dallas Buyers Club Amazon Prime

Who is Daniel Mays?

Mays is a British actor best-known for his role in hit BBC crime series Line of Duty  where he played arch-villain Danny Waldron. The star has also managed to make the leap across the pond and joined fellow Brit actor John Boyega in Star Wars film Rogue One, as Tivik.

Whens it on?

Against the Law airs on July 26 at 9pm on BBC Two.
After Nitish received an invitation to form a government, Tejashwi led a protest march to Raj Bhawan, after which he - and five RJD MLAs - were invited by Tripathi for a discussion.

By India Today Web Desk: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav today said he and other party members had asked Bihar Governor KN Tripathi to stall Nitish Kumar's swearing-in, and give them the chance to prove a majority on the floor of the state Assembly.

After Nitish received an invitation to form a government, Tejashwi led a protest march to Raj Bhawan, after which he - and five RJD MLAs - were invited by Tripathi for a discussion.

advertisement

"I've been defamed. People of Bihar are watching. Being the largest party we should have been invited (to form a government in Bihar), Tejashwi said before his meeting with Tripathi.

'DESCENDANTS OF GODSE'

After the meeting, Tejashwi said the "RJD, Congress, and all those who oppose the BJP-RSS and Nitish Kumar" would "protest, hold dharnas, and burn effigies."

He said Nitish had been accused under Section 302, and that he was now forming a government "with the descendants of Godse."

"On what grounds is he questioning us? He himself is tainted," Tejaswi said.

Bhool gaye isi Modi ne Nitish ko DNA wali baat kahi thi, gaali di thi. Ab ye Godse ke vanshaj ke sath sarkar bana rahe hain: Tejashwi Yadav- ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

He also said recent developments seemed "planned."

Each development seemed planned it was all pre-decided. Why was everything so rushed?: Tejashwi Yadav on #NitishKumar pic.twitter.com/j9i7mc8dY2- ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi's brother, said Nitish Kumar had sat "in the RSS' lap."

He has sat in RSS' lap. It is betrayal of the mandate given by the people of Bihar: Tej Pratap Yadav on #NitishKumar pic.twitter.com/2WIp4dKkjr- ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Nitish received an invitation to form a new government from Governor KN Tripathi, hours after he resigned as Bihar chief minister. He'll be sworn in as CM at 10 AM, and BJP leader Sushil Modi will be appointed his deputy.

TEJASHWI'S LATE NIGHT TWITTER RANT

A rattled Tejashwi took to Twitter early this morning to question Nitish's "morality and honesty." That's when he threatened to stage a dharna if his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) - the single largest party - wasn't invited to form a government.

Tejashwi spoke of "caged MLAs," and a "midnight rush," alluding to the late-night meeting between Nitish, Sushil Modi, and KN Tripathi.

Nitish Ji if u hv belief in ur morality & honesty thn Y u hv caged JDU MLAs in ur https://t.co/0XdOQXDH8T thm,they wil tell ur morality rate- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values & honesty, He would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for govt. Honest man doesn't fear- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

We are going to governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

advertisement

Here's how Tejashwi explained Nitish's "midnight rush." In fact, he said he would "get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," while staking a claim to constitute an administration.

Half of JDU MLAs in our touch therefore Nitish Ji rushing to Raj Bhawan in midnight. Listen the inner voice of ur MLAs also- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

And here's what his father, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, had to say earlier.

All JDU MLAs caged in CM house since evening. Why so mch insecurity?Just cuz MLAs realise tht they are elected against BJP's divisive agenda- Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 26, 2017

When Nitish Kumar broke alliance with BJP in 2013 he choreographed & followed the same script to secure himself. He surrenders as per needs- Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 26, 2017

advertisement

ALSO READ

Nitish Kumar gives list of 132 MLAs to Governor, to be sworn in CM in Bihar at 10 am

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bihar and the perfect storm of coincidences

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

ALSO WATCH

Corruption charges against Tejashwi part of political conspiracy of Nitish, BJP: Lalu Yadav

--- ENDS ---
Ahead of the Monsoon Session of the Bihar Assembly, it is likely that Nitish Kumar may take a crucial decision pertaining to Tejashwi Yadav.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar chaired a crucial meeting of the JDU legislative party at 5 pm on Wednesday evening at his residence 1, Anne Marg. The meeting holds significance, as it comes just two days ahead of the beginning of the Monsoon Session of the Bihar Assembly, on July 28.

Earlier, this meeting was scheduled to be held on 28th July. However, Nitish on returning from Delhi, after attending the swearing-in ceremony of President Ram Nath Kovind rescheduled this meet and held it on Wednesday.

advertisement

It is possible that the Bihar Chief Minister may take some crucial decision pertaining to Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing charges of corruption. Notably, the last meeting of the JDU legislative party was held on July 11. It was in this meeting where several party legislators demanded that Tejashwi should resign from his post. However, the Nitish camp planned to give Tejashwi some time to come out clean. The JDU, then asked Tejashwi to present clarification on the charges in Court.

Incidentally, even after a fortnight, Tejashwi has not come out with adequate response. Also, the JDU has maintained that it was not satisfied with the arguments being put forward by the deputy chief minister in his defence.

As per the sources, there could be a fresh demand coming from the JDU legislators asking Nitish to sack Tejashwi from the cabinet.

Also Read:

Tejashwi Yadav to quit before July 28? Nitish Kumar firm, Lalu Prasad may relent

Nitish meets Rahul amid reports of rift in grand alliance

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Lingayat: CM

Bengaluru, Jul 26 (PTI) As clamor grows for granting separate religion status to the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, Karnataka ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah today said he was yet to receive anyrequisition in this regard.

"Requisition has not yet come, how will the recommendation come? I have said if you all (communityleaders) together give a requisition, the government willconsider it," he told reporters in response to aquestion about sending a recommendation to the Union government in this regard.

advertisement

His comment came at a time when the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha has said there is no question of going back on the demand for a separate religionstatus.

Stating that the proposal to this effect was made tothen Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde during the UPArule, Mahasabha President and senior Congress MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa said it did not attain finality as the government fell.

"At a felicitation to the Chief Minister for making it compulsory to have Basaveshwaras photo at Government offices, we had made a request that a separate religion recommendation besent to the central government... he has agreed... there is no question of going back, Veerashaiva-Lingayat as an independentreligion status," he said.

The demand for a separate religion status gained momentum after Siddaramaiah reportedly gave an assurance at an event organized by the Mahasabha that he was ready to recommend to the Centre to make Veerashaiva-Lingayata separate religion status if the entire community evolved aconsensus.

At least five ministers from Karnataka have announced plans to tour the state to gather opinion about separate religion status from community leaders and mutt pontiffs.

Minister for Mines and Geology Vinay Kulkarni alleged that no one, including Karnataka BJP chief B SYeddyurappa, who hails from the community, had taken steps to realise the long standing demand for a separate religion.

"The Chief Minister is taking steps towards it on our request andit is our duty to support him," he said.

"The Chief Minister was in a hurry, we have already requested him. Pontiffs from all mutts will be comingto Bengaluru to convince...," he said when asked about the CMs statement on not yet getting any such requisition.

The Veerashaiva-Lingayat community that pays allegiance tothe 12th century "social reform movement" initiated by Basaveshwara has a substantial population in Karnataka, especially in the northern parts of the state.

They are also present in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana, among others.

Congress support to separate religion cause aheadof the 2018 assembly polls is seen as an attempt by it to damage the BJP which enjoys considerable support from thecommunity.

BJP state president and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa hails from the community and is often addressed a "Lingayat strongman".

advertisement

The BJP and several sections of the Hindu community are opposed to the move to give Veerashaiva-Lingayat separate religion status.

There is also resentment within for projectingLingayats and Veerashaivas as one and the same, as a sectionof Lingayats feel that Veerashaiva is one among the sevensects of Shaivas, which is part of Hinduism. PTI KSU RA APR IKA

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) India has not imposed any restrictions on medical visas for foreign patients but in case of those from Pakistan, a recommendation letter from Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs is required for obtaining a visa, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said the government has issued more than a lakh of medical visas so far in this year.

advertisement

The government has not put any restrictions on medical visas for foreign patients, and requests for such visas for urgent medical cases are expeditiously processed and issued on the same day, he said.

"However, in case of Pakistan, we ask for recommendations letter from Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, to process genuine and urgent cases," Singh said.

In 2017 till date, 1,05,163 medical visas have been issued while 1,77, 972 such visas were issued in 2016, Singh added. PTI PYK ZMN

--- ENDS ---
SCOTTSBLUFF  A Scottsbluff man arguing for a reduced sentence found himself with a stiffer penalty.

In November 2016, Martin Palomo, 45, was sentenced in connection with charges in a September 2016 pursuit. Troopers had attempted to stop the man, who failed to use a turn signal while changing lanes, and he led law enforcement on a pursuit that went through Gering and exceeded 80 miles per hour. At one point, Palomo lost control of his vehicle, slid and hit a building at Tenth Street and Morrison Road. The chase ended shortly after near Morrison Road and Seventh Street when Palomo got out of the vehicle and attempted to flee on foot.

At the time of the crash, Palomo had a preliminary breath test of .224 grams per 210 liters of breath.

A Scotts Bluff County judge sentenced Palomo to an aggregate sentence of three years and 60 days imprisonment, nine months post-release supervision, a $400 fine and a six-month license revocation on charges of driving under the influence, operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest and obstructing a police officer. Palomo appealed the sentence to the Nebraska Court of Appeals, saying that it was excessive.

According to the ruling, released Tuesday, the appellate court will not disturb a sentence imposed within the statutory limits absent an abuse of discretion by the court. Palomo argued the courts sentence was excessive, despite that he had a lengthy criminal history and had been on parole for just two weeks from Wyoming at the time of the crime.

However, the court found that the sentencing court had actually erred in its sentencing, not imposing a mandatory two-year license revocation on the operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest charge and a $500 mandatory fine on the charge of driving under the influence. The Court of Appeals amended the sentence to add those penalties.
North Korea threatens to carry out a "merciless" nuclear strike on the "heart of US" if the supreme dignitary of the nation is threatened.

By India Today Web Desk: After the CIA director Mike Pompeo's controversial comments about separating North Korea from Kim emerged in the media, North Korea made sure to retaliate and show their power.

North Korea is one country which doesn't sit back when challenged, we all know that.

North Korea threatened a nuclear strike on "the heart of the US", if it attempts to remove Kim Jong-un as their Supreme leader, Pyongyang's state-run news agency reported.

advertisement

According to a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report, a spokesman from North Korea Foreign Ministry said, "it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones."

"Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

North Korea's response was an answer to CIA Director Pompeo, who said Donald trump administration needed to find a way to separate Kim from his ever-increasing nuclear stockpile, according to a CNN report.

"As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system," Pompeo said last week.

"The North Korean people I'm sure are lovely people and would love to see him go."

North Korea's threat comes amid an ongoing assessment from the US intelligence community that Pyongyang has accelerated its intercontinental range ballistic missile program, CNN reported.

With inputs from IANS

--- ENDS ---
BRIDGEPORT  A celebration of culture, tradition, religion and all things Greek returns for its 91st anniversary at the annual Greek Festival in Bridgeport.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 12, and Sunday, Aug. 13 at the Prairie Winds Community Center in Bridgeport. Its sponsored by the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Bayard.

Saturday is usually the busy night with numerous food booths open from 4:30 to 8 p.m. The tastes and smells of Greek cuisine come alive in Greek sausage, gyros, calamari, pork and lamb kabobs, Greek salads and seafood, baklava sundaes and other Greek sweets prepared by church members.

The Athenian Dancers will also perform during the evening, which concludes with an auction and silent raffle. Food tickets are available at the door and there is no admission charge.

The Saturday food event has become popular, with about 1,000 people attending last year.

Sunday is a more traditional after-church buffet style meal of lamb and beef, roast potatoes salad, dessert and beverages. Serving is from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $6 for children and are available at the door. The Athenian Dancers will also perform at 1 p.m.

Most Orthodox churches have a festival to celebrate the name day of their church, said Publicity Chairman Steve Plummer. Our name day on the church calendar is Aug. 15, so the celebration is usually the second week in August.

The Assumption Church was founded in Bayard in 1926, built by Greek immigrants who came to help build the sugar factory. One of them was Peter Lapaseotes, grandfather of Plummers wife, Helen.

The extended Lapaseotes family, including in-laws, grandchildren and cousins, is still instrumental in the life and mission of the church today.

Our Greek festival started in 1926 as more of a potluck for church members, Plummer said. Church members started inviting non-Greeks to join them and it grew from there.

After the gathering outgrew the church facility, the festival was hosted at the farms of some church members. Back then, the festival was only on Sunday.

About 20 years ago, the Prairie Winds Community Center was opened in Bridgeport and the festival moved to its permanent home. With the ability to prepare traditional Greek foods onsite, a Saturday evening event was added.

During both the Saturday and Sunday events, the Athenian Dancers wear traditional costumes and perform Greek folk dances. They range in age from young children to high school and college students and some adults. The groups instructor is Allison Liras, Plummers daughter.

The group started dancing around 1993, she said. We kept the tradition by teaching our own children the traditional folk dances. Weve had really good participation and its been good for the kids to learn.

Liras said everyone tells her how much they enjoy watching the dancers perform and how much fun the kids are having.

After the Athenian Dancers perform, the dance floor is open for anyone who would like to participate in the tradition.
The Calibraska Arts Initiative Animation Camps bring the Panhandle opportunities to explore the world of animation.

Erica Larsen-Dockray grew up outside of Scottsbluff and graduated from Mitchell in 1999. After leaving the Panhandle to attend the Cal Arts school in Los Angeles, where she graduated with a degree in experimental animation, she decided to bring her knowledge and experience back home with Calibraska Arts.

Larsen-Dockrays animation camp is currently wrapping up its fifth year. With almost 40 kids attending the camp, divided into three separate levels, Larsen-Dockray is bringing animation to her hometown communities.

I really have three reasons for bringing the camps back to Nebraska. One, Im able to give back the opportunities that I didnt have while growing up here. The second thing is I have the opportunity to give back to the community. Another factor is giving artists a reason to come to Western Nebraska. Its about bridging different communities through the arts, said Larsen-Dockray.

For three out of the five years, Larsen-Dockray has had fellow animation artists travel from Los Angeles to Scottsbluff with her. She loves that the artists get the chance to experience a small town, friendly environment that varies drastically with life in Los Angeles.

Hunter Janos, a student who traveled with Larsen-Dockray, said, I love to do (this camp) because there are so many young kids eager to do it, but they dont have the opportunity.

One of the artists that helped with the Animation Camps in 2014 continued on to become a storyboard artist at Cartoon Network. Larsen-Dockray said they fell in love with western Nebraska and were happy to come out the next year to teach.

Throughout Animation Camp 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, the artists have gotten to explore various aspects of animations. The classes are open to all ages, as long as they start at the first level of classes.

For Animation Camp 3.0, the students pitch ideas and create animated short films. The film will be presented on Monday, Aug. 1 at the Midwest Theater as part of the National Night Out.

Guests can meet for a reception at 5:30 p.m. at the West Nebraska Arts Center, where the camps are held, and then walk to Broadway in Scottsbluff to view the films.

Were trying to create things that will continue to happen long after were gone, said Larsen-Dockray.

The Calibraska Arts Initiative is attempting to facilitate an animation club for young artists to join, along with setting up Skype interviews and lessons with animators from Los Angeles.
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.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today reiterated its single judges order asking four JNU students to pay the fine imposed on them by the varsity if they wished to get registered for the next semester of their PhD course.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had imposed a fine on the four students for allegedly "barging" into an academic council meeting on the admission criteria for MPhil and PhD programmes.

advertisement

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli allowed the students to deposit their fines by July 28 and said that if the fine was paid then no other hindrances be created in the registration process.

However, if the fine was not paid then the students would have to vacate their respective hostels, the court said and listed the students appeal, against the single judge order, for hearing on July 31.

Earlier, a single-judge bench had on July 20 told the four students -- Mulayam Singh, Shakeel Anjum, Dileep Kumar and Prashant Kumar -- to deposit the fine and to go ahead with registration for the next semester.

The single judges order had come on the students pleas challenging JNU Chief Procters July 13 order by which they were not only slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000 each, but were not allowed to register for the next semester, their scholarships and library facilities were stopped and they were asked to vacate their respective hostels.

The students, represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, have challenged the JNU order on the grounds that they do not have the means to pay the fine as they belong to poor families.

In their plea filed through advocate Gunjan Singh, they have also claimed that the order disallowing registration was "unprecedented and contrary to the practice" as students, who did not pay the fine imposed on them, have always in the past been allowed to register, subject to payment on leaving the institute.

All the four students, who are in the third and fourth year of their respective PhD programmes, have contended that they were not provided with the documents and material based on which the final report of the Procter was arrived at on June 19.

The report had charged them with forcible entry into the meeting and raising slogans, thereby disrupting the proceedings, their pleas have said.

Their petitions also claim that their appeal against the report was dismissed by the Vice Chancellor on July 5, subsequent to which the Chief Procter passed the order of July 13.

According to the JNU report, a group of students was protesting outside the room where the Council meeting was underway.

advertisement

They allegedly "broke open the latch of the meeting room door" and came inside and "shouted at" the Vice Chancellor, it had said in its preliminary report of December last year.

The varsity had said that the students belonged to Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), Democratic Students Union (DSU), Students Front for Swaraj (SFS) and United OBC Forum.

It had said that the protesting students were demanding that the Academic Council reconsider its decision to "adopt" a UGC gazette notification, dated May 2016, whereby interviews became the sole criterion of admissions to MPhil and PhD courses. PTI HMP PPS RRT AG SMJ

--- ENDS ---
Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (134) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (347) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (440) Jan 2014 (544) Feb 2014 (475) Mar 2014 (525) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (470) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (441) Oct 2014 (471) Nov 2014 (496) Dec 2014 (535) Jan 2015 (535) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (579) Apr 2015 (657) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (921) Nov 2015 (801) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (864) May 2016 (946) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (966) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (808) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (934) Jul 2019 (949) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (848) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (787) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (811) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (683) Dec 2021 (693) Jan 2022 (694) Feb 2022 (654) Mar 2022 (740) Apr 2022 (745) May 2022 (748) Jun 2022 (701) Jul 2022 (704) Aug 2022 (702) Sep 2022 (699) Oct 2022 (737) Nov 2022 (277)
President Klaus Iohannis and Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu met on Wednesday to discuss the Army's endowment plan to be presented during the next meeting of Romania's Supreme Defence Council, informs a press release of the Presidential Administration.

During the meeting, the National Defence Minister showed the head of state the Romanian Army endowment plan for 2017-2026 which provides for the compliance with and the implementation of the political commitment assumed in 2015 by all political parties to allocate 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product to the Defence sector, for ten years starting with this year.

"The project, in its current revised form, will be the presentation topic at the next meeting of Romania's Supreme Defence Council meeting," reads the release.

The 2017-2026 Romanian Army's endowment plan establishes the systems and the equipment planned for acquisition through the public acquisition annual programme of the National Defence Ministry regarding the endowment with weapons, combat technique and military-oriented material.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Carmen Dan, next to the United States' ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm and the secretary of state with the Ministry of Interior (MAI), Raed Arafat, attended the closing ceremony of the courses organised by the U. S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), granting diplomas to the 21 graduates.

"Together with His Excellency Hans Klemm, the U. S. Ambassador to Romania, and the state secretary Raed Arafat, I have handed today the graduation diplomas of the course organised by the FEMA, attended by 21 fire brigade officers. Their training took place last year in Bucharest under the coordination of the American specialists, but this kind of training for the Romanian fire-fighters will go on this year, too," Carmen Dan wrote on her Facebook page.
Prime Minister Mihai Tudose has announced he will meet Health Minister Florian Bodog today to discuss the vaccine issue.

Asked if the report on vaccines he requested from Bodog is completed, Tudose replied: "He called me to say the report is ready and I will meet him when I get to the Government."

At the same time, the PM reiterated that he will not dismiss Bodog from office. "I will not dismiss Bodog today (...) and I won't do so tomorrow either," Tudose said.

agerpres.
Romania's first mandate to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union is an opportunity that cannot be missed, the Prime minister Mihai Tudose says, specifying that a faster mobilisation is required for a "successful mandate", a government release sent to AGERPRES informs.

Premier Tudose asked his ministers for this Thursday's government sitting to present the full lists with the persons nominated to be part of the ministerial working groups to preparing Romania's mandate to the Presidency of the Council of EU.

"This first mandate of Romania to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union is an opportunity we cannot allow ourselves to miss, not from the political or administrative point of view or from the country's image viewpoint. The year 2019 seems far, but it is not, so that we should mobilise faster and set up earlier all the details as regards the organisation, the functioning, the logistics, the human resources and the financial allocations necessary to a successful mandate," Tudose asserted.

He demanded that each ministry makes "an objective assessment, on technical and professional criteria only" of the persons who are to be appointed to perform in these working groups, and of the persons sent to their job within the Standing Representation of Romania under the EU, so that "they who will represent Romania in Brussels and will have decision-making attributions regarding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, to face their mission with success."
Attorney General K K Venugopal argued on behalf of the Centre in the right to privacy case in Supreme Court.

By India Today Web Desk: Arguing in the right to privacy case before the nine-judge Constitution bench in Supreme Court today, Attorney General K K Venugopal said that privacy does not enjoy the status of a fundamental right.

"Privacy is part of Right to Life under Article 21, but does not enjoy the status of a fundamental right," said AG Venugopal on behalf of the Centre.

advertisement

The debate on privacy as a fundamental right is a part of the larger debate on Aadhaar and if the scheme violates one's right to privacy.

The Centre has earlier said that petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar over violation of privacy cannot be entertained under Article 21.

ATTORNEY GENERAL MOUNTS DEFENCE

Arguing for the Centre, AG Venugopal said that framers of the Constitution intentionally omitted mention of privacy as a fundamental right.

There are several aspects to Right to Life such as right to food, shelter and employment but everything does not enjoy the status of a fundamental right, said K K Venugopal in the Supreme Court today.

The Attorney General said that there is no absolute Right to Life and deprivation of the right in certain instances is in-built in the Constitution.

He said that while life and liberty are qualified rights under the Constitution but their every aspect is not a fundamental right and it cannot be elevated to that status.

Petitioners want privacy on a whole to be declared as a fundamental right but it will have grave consequences, argued Attorney General Venugopal.

He said that a World Bank report has identified Aadhaar as a great scheme for developing countries.

THREE STATES SUPPORT PETITIONERS

Kapil Sibal, appearing for the states Karnataka, West Bengal and Puducherry, told the nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khekar that the states support the petitioners on the argument that privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Kapil Sibal said that while privacy is not mentioned in the Constitution of America and Australia but it is a fundamental right.

WHAT HAVE THE PETITIONED SAID

Senior counsel Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court last Wednesday that the Preamble to the Constitution intrinsically guarantees the right. He said that liberty, which is fundamental to a democracy, cannot exist without privacy.

Senior counsel Arvind Datar argued that right to privacy flows from Article 14 (Right to Equality), Article 19 (Freedom of Expression) and Article 21 (Right to Life). Arguing for privacy as a fundamental right, Dattar said that the court must not strictly lay the right to privacy under a single article.

advertisement

Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee , appearing in support of privacy right, said that even if the Constitution did not "explicitly" provide this right, it could be deduced as had been done in the case of freedom of press.

WHAT HAS THE COURT SAID SO FAR

While hearing the petitioners, the Supreme Court observed that right to privacy cannot be absolute and the state may have powers to put reasonable curbs.

The nine-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Khekar, comprises Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

"We live in an age of big data and the state is entitled to regulate the data whether it is for the purpose of regulating crime, taxation or other activities... Right to privacy cannot be so absolute that it prevents the state from legislating or regulating it," the Constitution bench said.

The Supreme Court also observed that ignorance of citizens on how personal data furnished by them was being used could not be the basis for not testing the validity of a law, in this case the Aadhaar Act.

advertisement

(With inputs from Anusha Soni and agencies)

ALSO READ:

Aadhaar vs WhatsApp: How privacy changes meaning for government in different cases

Right to privacy cant be absolute, may be regulated: SC

Liberty cannot exist without privacy, Gopal Subramanium argues in Supreme Court

ALSO WATCH: How 4 cows - Bholi, Bhuri, Kamla, Shanti - got their Aadhaar IDs

--- ENDS ---
Ram Jethmalani wrote a letter to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal asking him to settle Rs 2 crore due on him as legal fee. Jethmalani has been representing Kejriwal in a defamation case filed by Arun Jaitley against the Delhi CM.

By India Today Web Desk: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani won't represent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the defamation case filed on him by Union Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jethmalani has asked Kejriwal to settle Rs 2 crore due on him as legal fees.

Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that he never instructed his counsel Jethmalani to use objectionable words against Jaitley during hearing of the case on May 17.

advertisement

Moments after Kejriwal's submission, Jethmalani wrote a letter to the Delhi CM accusing him using even more offensive language against Jaitley during private discussions on the case, reports said.

In his affidavit, Kejriwal said it was "inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words."

The CM denied the charge of Jaitley that the questions with derogatory remarks were "clearly designed to insult and/or annoy" him.

Kejriwal said that he has even instructed his counsel on record, Anupam Srivastava, to remind Jethmalani that no such instructions were issued to him in his meeting with him.

Jethmalani, during the May 17 proceedings, had claimed that the words were used by him in pursuance to instructions received from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo.

"That with due respect it is submitted that neither the answering defendant (Kejriwal) nor the counsel briefing the senior counsel (Jethmalani) gave instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words on May 17, 2017," the affidavit filed before Justice Manmohan said.

The cross-examination of Jaitley by Jethmalani on May 17 had witnessed heated exchanges between them.

Jaitley, who had filed the civil defamation suit claiming Rs 10 crore damages from Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders, had filed another defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against the Chief Minister alone.

ALSO READ:

When Arun Jaitley lost his cool over Ram Jethmalani in Delhi High Court

Arun Jaitley, Ram Jethmalani in another legal duel in defamation case against Kejriwal

Jethmalani to Jaitley in defamation hearing: You tested your reputation in Lok Sabha polls and lost by over 1 lakh votes

WATCH: Will work for free for Kejriwal if he can't pay fees: Ram Jethmalani

--- ENDS ---
Celine Dookhran was kidnapped, raped, murdered and was found inside a US$1.5 million house butchered to death because of her relationship with an Arab Muslim.

By India Today Web Desk: Celine Dookhran, 19, a Muslim teenager of Indian origin was found inside a US$1.95 million house butchered to death because of her relationship with an Arab Muslim.

Celine Dookhran was kidnapped, raped, murdered and was found in a Kingston home on July 19, 2017. Another woman in her 20s who managed to flee the house even after a slit in her throat, informed the police about the horrifying incident.

advertisement

The two women were tasered, gagged and raped by two masked men. They both were taken to a house in Coombe Lane West where Dookhran was murdered and butchered to pieces. Her body was kept inside a fridge.

A 33-year-old man named Mujahid Arshid with no fixed address has been charged for rape, murder, kidnapping and attempted murder by a Wimbledon Magistrates' Court.

Another 28-year-old man named Vincent Tappu was also involved in the kidnapping of both the girls. Tappu appeared with Mujahid in the court and has been charged with kidnapping of both.

Photo: Twitter/@asadshan

According to a report by The Sun, Binita Roscoe, prosecuting, told the court that Dookhran was an Indian Muslim and was involved in a relationship with an Arab Muslim man and was killed for the same.

"The deceased was involved in a relationship with an Arab Muslim and the family members didn't approve of this relationship because they are Indian Muslims."

According to Dookhran's post mortem, the cause of death was an incised wound in the neck.

The survivor's hands were tied with a cable tie and a sock was stuffed in her mouth to shut down any noise after she heard Dookhran's screams.

"She believes a sock was placed in her mouth. She heard the deceased who was in the shower screaming. The deceased was brought down, tied up. They were bound in dust sheets and placed in a vehicle." said Roscoe.

Both men are taken into custody and will be appearing in court on Friday for further proceedings.

--- ENDS ---
A $7.1 million project to build 43 apartments is planned in the north St. Louis neighborhood of the Ville, a sizeable project in an area of the city that has suffered from disinvestment and vacancy for years.

Northside Community Housing, a community development corporation focused on the Ville, is leading the project along with Rise Community Development. Its proposal calls for nine new buildings on land owned by St. Louis land bank and the rehab of three existing structures near the intersection of St. Ferdinand Avenue and North Sarah Street, including the old Star Laundry building.

Its the second phase of housing development in the area just west of the former Homer G. Phillips Hospital (now apartments) and Sumner High School. Around 2008, Northside Community Housing built dozens of single-family homes in the area. This phase, expected to break ground in September and take about a year, will be multi-family and include community space in the Star Laundry building that will be used for financial education classes and other programs.

Once the cultural hub of the black community in St. Louis before its population declined, the Ville still has a huge need for affordable housing, said Mona Majid, Northsides community development coordinator.

The Ville as a whole has had some struggles and challenges, but this area that weve been developing has remained strong, she said. Theres very low vacancy in the homes weve constructed. I think weve done a lot to strengthen the immediate area.

After years of applying for tax credits to help finance the project, the Missouri Housing Development Commission finally approved state Low Income Housing Tax Credits for the project in December. Combined with federal low income tax credits, the credits should yield about $7.8 million in financing for the project, according to commission materials. Total project costs were estimated at about $9.5 million, according to MHDC materials.

On Tuesday, St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority recommended 15 years of property tax abatement for the project. (Even though nonprofit organizations may spearhead projects, low-income housing tax credit projects use the credits to draw private investors and companies are structured as for-profit partnerships.)

Its good to see some activity there, LCRA Chairman Chris Goodson said.

For now, Northside Community Housing is focused on constructing new houses saving the buildings it can along North Sarah Street and St. Ferdinand Avenue.

The North Sarah area has risen up to meet us in a sort of way, Majid said. I almost see it as kind of completing that corridor of North Sarah.
DEARBORN, Mich.  Ford Motor Co. had a better-than-expected second quarter despite lower sales and upheaval in its executive ranks.

Net income rose 4 percent to $2 billion, thanks in part to a change in the company's tax rate and a strong performance from its credit arm.

Adjusted profits of 56 cents per share easily surpassed Wall Street expectations of 43 cents, according to analysts polled by FactSet. One-time items included a $248 million charge as the company shifted production of the Ford Focus from Mexico to China.

Ford's automotive revenue of $37 billion was in line with Wall Street's expectations. Total revenue rose 1 percent to $39.85 billion.

There were big changes over the past three months for the automaker, based in Dearborn, Mich. In May, Ford abruptly replaced CEO Mark Fields with Jim Hackett, a company board member who had been leading Ford's mobility unit. The former CEO of office furniture company Steelcase Inc. is in the midst of a 100-day review of operations at the company.

"We're all energized and excited about what we're finding," Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said.

Hackett, seeking to accelerate decisions at the century-old company, has shuffled Ford's management team. Shanks said the company is adjusting its plans and expects to invest more in SUVs, commercial vehicles, mobility and other growth areas.

The elevated performance in the second quarter was due mostly to a lowering of the company's corporate tax rate, from 30 percent down to 10 percent, Shanks acknowledged. Ford has put some overseas losses back on its books in anticipation of changes in the U.S. corporate tax code, Shanks said. The company expects to have a 15 percent rate this year, but that will return to 30 percent next year.

Full-year guidance did shift upward due to the tax change. Ford expects adjusted earnings of $1.65 to $1.85 for the full year, up from its previous guidance of $1.58 per share, Shanks said. Last year Ford earned $1.76 per share. Its automotive revenue will be about equal to its 2016 revenue of $141.5 billion.

It was the best quarter since 2011 for Ford Credit, which is seeing stronger-than-expected auction values for Ford's off-lease vehicles, Shanks said. Ford Credit's revenue rose 7 percent to $2.7 billion in the quarter.

Overall sales fell 3 percent to 1.65 million vehicles. Much of that decrease was due to lower sales of the Fiesta in Europe as the company prepares to launch a new Fiesta, Shanks said.

Ford earned $2.2 billion in North America, its biggest market. That was down 19 percent from the April-June period a year ago as Ford spent more on incentives and commodities, including steel. The company broke even in South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Shabir Shah was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday evening in a money laundering case.

By India Today Web Desk: After the India Today expose on how separatist leaders are fueling unrest in the Kashmir Valley by taking funds from Pakistan, the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested Shabir Shah, founder and president of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP).

Shah was shifted from his uptown Sant Nagar residence in Srinagar to Humhama police station in Badgam district on Tuesday evening.

advertisement

Here is what we know so far:

Talking to reporters outside the court, Shabir Shah said he was under house arrest and that is why he couldn't appear in the case before ED. "This is politically motivated. The people of the country should understand this. The allegations are baseless," Shah said.

The Enforcement Directorate got a 7-day custody of the separatist leader who was produced in the Patiala court in Delhi during the day.

Shabir Shah was flown to Delhi today following his arrest by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.

ED officials "executed a non-bailable warrant issued against Shah by a Delhi court".

The central probe agency has issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.

The arrest followed disclosures by Aslam Wani, who has admitted having passed on hawala money worth Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

In the wake of the arrest of Shabir Shah, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, speaking exclusively to India Today, Abdullah said that the Jammu and Kashmir government is in cahoots with the Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir.

Seven separatist leaders, arrested on Monday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), were produced before the designate NIA court in Delhi on Tuesday.

The court remanded the accused to NIA custody for 10 days for custodial interrogation in connection with a terror funding case being investigated by the agency.

Srinagar police tried to stop NIA from flying arrested Kashmiri separatists to Delhi.

The seven arrested Hurriyat leaders were taken to BSF camp in Chhawala today.

Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani are already under house arrest while Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik is also under arrest.

Also read:

India Today impact: Kashmir separatist leader Shabir Shah arrested; NIA, ED to question

NIA gets 10-day custody of 7 Hurriyat leaders: 10 Developments

NIA maintained top-level secrecy before arresting separatist leaders. The inside story

Caught on Camera: How Pakistan funds Kashmiri separatists to burn the Valley - India Today Exclusive

WATCH | Jammu and Kashmir Police arrests separatist leader Shabir Shah on money laundering charges

--- ENDS ---
Heres a helpful hint if youre going to hear Dierks Bentley on Saturday night: Pay attention to that bluegrass band likely to take the stage before the other opening acts.

Thats right, before Bentley, before Cole Swindell and before Jon Pardi. At the time when most concertgoers are milling about, checking out T-shirts and buying their beers. Because thats not an ordinary no-name band onstage for a little 15-minute set.

The fact that were opening for our opening act is kind of fun, and we wouldnt be doing that if we werent having the best time of our life, Bentley said this month from California. He was wrapping up a two-week camping vacation with his wife and their three children.

When Bentley brings his What the Hell World Tour to Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, not only will his band both open and close the concert, he promises he will bring the good times with him.

He calls it the most fun tour Ive ever done in my life. His shows mean watching him sprint around the stage and challenge a fan (almost always a dude) to a beer-shotgunning contest.

Bentley is undefeated in the beer challenge this year, and hes ready to goad someone in St. Louis into claiming his crown. Ill be wearing the title belt, and Im going to give someone the opportunity to take it, he says.

Bentley pours more than beer onstage. He also pours out energy, and so do his opening acts.

They attack the stage every night in their own right, he says.

Fans can also expect to see a video compilation that shows Pardi taking in local landmarks in questionable clothing choices. Why? I just like to mess with them a little bit, Bentley explains.

What hell try not to bring is the rain. When Bentley played in St. Louis last year, massive thunderstorms kept opener Cam off the stage and meant a shortened set for Randy Houser. The worst of the storms passed and let Bentley take the stage, but after the show his bus left without him. Oops.

Bentleys tour passed the 500,000-tickets-sold mark earlier in the summer, which is a milestone he tends to minimize. Instead, he focuses on making sure the show is good and people are having fun.

He prepares for the show in a way many folks would consider crazy.

Unless you think filling a giant trash can with ice water and immersing yourself for 15 minutes sounds like a good idea. How, exactly, does a person force themselves into that kind of bone- and mind-numbing cold for that long?

You sort of breathe your way through it, but you come out feeling a lot of clarity, Bentley explains to a very skeptical reporter. You feel so clearheaded and alive.

Thats probably a good way to be for Bentley, who sometimes brings his wife and kids on tour. His son, Knox, recently got out of the cast he had to wear after taking a fall and breaking his arm in Telluride, Colo.

That led to some inventive use of tape and plastic to keep the cast dry when the kids wanted to swim, Bentley says.

The summer tour is to support Bentleys album Black, which has spawned three No. 1 songs since its release last year. The Arizona native considers it the most complete album hes ever recorded. The most recent single, What the Hell Did I Say, is an upbeat cut.

I know my fans, and What the Hell is a good song  its a fun song, he says. Its a celebration of the success.
Seems like a hometown news anchor plans to stay around a while longer.

Anne Allred, main co-anchor at KSDK (Channel 5), has signed a three-year contract to helm evening newscasts, which she does now with Mike Bush.

"Its an honor to be a journalist in my hometown," she said in a statement.

A graduate of Villa Duchesne, Allred returned to STL in January 2013 after having worked in Boston, North Carolina and Ohio.

In 2016, Allred missed several months of air time because of health issues. After her daughter, Nora, was born three months premature in May 2016, Allred developed a kidney disorder and had to undergo a transplant in January.
Double steakburger, large order of fries and the Archbishop of New York, please. For here.

On Monday, native son Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan will record a Catholic Channel radio hour from the Steak 'n Shake at 7606 Manchester Road  aka, the "Maplewood Steak."

The show is produced by the New York Archdiocese and Sirius. Dolan's segment, which is not open to the general public, will be recorded from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and then broadcast at 1 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 129 of Sirius XM satellite radio.

Dolan, who was baptized at Immaculate Conception in Maplewood and then attended Holy Infant in Ballwin, has long touted the fast-food chain as being his favorite place to eat. One of his guests will be his niece, Kathleen Dolan.

He will be in town next week to prepare for the Knights of Columbus convention on Aug. 1-3.
ST. LOUIS  A new pilot program that assigns 20 to 30 Missouri Highway Patrol troopers to patrol the interstates in St. Louis has sparked fear that the new influx of police could lead to increased racial profiling.

Gov. Eric Greitens announced a series of initiatives this month to combat crime in St. Louis, including collaborative efforts with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the state Departments of Corrections, Social Services and Mental Health. His plan also incorporates crisis intervention training for police officers and trauma training counseling in the citys public schools.

But the 90-day program putting troopers along Interstates 55 and 70 has raised questions for civil rights groups including the ACLU of Missouri, which has requested public records regarding what data are being used to strategically place troopers and called for more transparency surrounding the plan.

The organizations director, Jeffrey Mittman, points to data on vehicle stops released annually by the Missouri attorney generals office. The most recent report, put out by Attorney General Josh Hawley in June, showed that black motorists in Missouri are stopped at a rate 75 percent higher than white drivers.

The same report also found that roughly 7 percent of traffic stops of black or Hispanic drivers resulted in arrests, compared with about 4 percent of the stops of white motorists. According to the data compiled by Hawleys office, black and Hispanic drivers are searched more often than whites, and arrested more often as well.

We know communities of color are overpoliced. Thats simply data, Mittman said. We know that weve been doing it wrong. Any attempt that doesnt acknowledge that weve been doing it wrong is a step backwards.

Comparing the effort to hot-spot policing, Adolphus Pruitt, head of the St. Louis NAACP, said there was a risk for higher incidents of racial profiling, though he agreed it was practical to have the Highway Patrol on the interstates.

Im not condoning it, I just expect it to happen, Pruitt said.

Asked for comment on the concerns, Greitens spokesman Parker Briden pointed to a St. Louis Public Radio interview in which the governor said he was confident that the influx of state troopers in the city wouldnt lead to an increase in racial profiling.

In fact, when I spoke to all of these volunteers before they went out on this assignments, I said one of the things that gives me so much confidence about sending them out onto the streets is I know in every interaction they have with every citizen of the state of Missouri that theyre going to bring that same level of respect and dignity, Greitens said.

At the end of the 90 days, the governor will assess the success of the program and continue elements of the safety plan that are getting results, Briden said.

He is certainly open to extending the Highway Patrols presence there, Briden said.

A byproduct of poverty

Pruitt argues that although bringing in more officers may help reduce contraband coming through the city, it doesnt get at the root of the citys public safety problems.

The notion of out-policing crime physically is a fallacy, Pruitt said. A byproduct of poverty is crime. And as long as we have poverty, were going to have a black market. As long as we do, were going to have crime.

There has to be some real serious efforts to increase household income in the neighborhoods, he said.

At his announcing of the plan, Greitens was met with vocal protesters opposing his decision to let a law nullifying the $10 minimum wage in St. Louis take effect in August. He also had a tense moment with Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, 22nd Ward, who questioned how much the governor could deter crime given Missouris lax gun laws.

I dont think the NRA should be governing how cities and states operate, Boyd told the Post-Dispatch last week.

But officials  including Boyd, who represents one of the most poverty-stricken and crime-ridden swaths of the city  say theyre not in a financial position to turn down any federal or state help they can get. Boyd is hopeful about the governors plan, though he questioned his tactics.

On principle, what they talked about sounds like a good strategy. It seems to be holistic and well thought-out, he said, adding that he hoped troopers could curb speeding throughout the city. The problem is, when you parachute down to a city as the governor, and you dont communicate with people responsible for public services in the community, that doesnt go over well.

Mayor Lyda Krewson reiterated that she welcomed state help with guns, drugs and speeding on the citys interstates, despite fundamental disagreements on policies such as a statewide minimum wage or gun control laws.

I wish that we had the minimum wage still in place after Aug. 28, but we dont. But that doesnt mean I dont want the Highway Patrol to help us with the highways, Krewson said.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with the Maldives opposition partys reaction)

Male, Jul 26 (PTI) Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accused India of "undermining" the spirit of the SAARC by "casting shadows" of bilateral issues on the multilateral forum for regional cooperation.

In a joint press conference with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen here, Sharif yesterday said that the last Islamabad SAARC summit was not the first time that India caused harm to the SAARC by seeking its postponement.

advertisement

"It had done so on four occasions," he claimed.

After holding talks with Yameen, Sharif said Pakistan and the Maldives have agreed to work together to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a vibrant organisation and a vehicle to realise their shared dreams for a peaceful and prosperous region.

"India undermined and violated the spirit of SAARC Charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

"We, however, remain grateful for President Yameens support regarding the SAARC summit in Islamabad," he added.

Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue.

India pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad last year citing increased "cross-border" attacks after heightened tension with Pakistan over Uri terror attack.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.

Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) slammed President Yameen for his "deafening silence" while Sharif attacked India during the press conference.

"President Yameen said nothing" when Sharif accused India of harming SAARC and claimed that both Maldives and Pakistan share similar views on SAARC, the opposition party, headed by ousted president Mohamed Nasheed, said in a statement.

"We are extremely concerned about Yameens refusal to clarify the Maldives position on the SAARC," it said.

It said that by failing to correct Sharif at the press conference, Yameen had "effectively sided with the Pakistani version of events."

"The SAARC summit in Islamabad had to be postponed because of continued instability in the region. Terror attacks in India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, as well as in Pakistan, made the timing and location unconducive to a high-level meeting," the party said.

The party reminded President Yameen that it was India which came to the Maldives assistance and protected its sovereignty during the November 3, 1988 attempted coup.

advertisement

Nasheed became the Maldives first democratically-elected president in 2008, but he was narrowly defeated by Yameen five years later in a controversial run-off election.

In 2015, Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. He lives in exile in Britain after being granted leave to go there for medical treatment.

Sharif, who is here on a three-day official visit on an invitation of President Yameen, attended the island nations 52nd Independence Day celebrations as the chief guest.

During the meeting between Sharif and Yameen, the two countries agreed to further enhance their bilateral ties in various fields, overcome common challenges and work jointly to make SAARC a vibrant organisation.

Sharif also briefed Yameen on Pakistans efforts to fight the scourge of terrorism.

"We have launched successful operations against terrorists and have won important victories," he said.

The two countries signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, trade, education, capacity building of civil servants and training for diplomats. PTI SH PMS ZH PMS

--- ENDS ---
ST. LOUIS  St. Louis County residents and others accused of supporting an area man who fought and died for ISIS in Syria cant be prosecuted because that fighter was engaging in lawful combat with other groups, according to filings by defense attorneys Friday.

The defense motion to dismiss two counts of the indictment says that Abdullah Ramo Pazara fought for groups supported by the U.S. government and therefore qualified for combatant immunity for their acts of legitimate warfare against the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Pazara lived in St. Louis County before leaving for Syria.

The motion also seeks to minimize his role, saying that Pazara was part of a whimsical group of fighters who mainly served as guards and cooks, the defense filing says.

Pazaras group dubbed themselves the Potato Peeler or Facebook Brigade, because of the amount of time they spent on the social media site and the punishment they received when caught, a fellow fighter told defense investigators.

Prosecutors have not yet responded to the filing.

They have said that Pazara fought for groups affiliated with the designated terrorist organizations al-Qaida in Iraq and ISIS, also known as the Islamic State and ISIL, and discussed his exploits on Facebook.

It is the first time in eastern Missouri that the defense has been tried, lawyers have said. A similar effort in Minneapolis failed in 2016, when a federal judge ruled that the defendants there were being being prosecuted only for unlawful acts, not acts that may fall within combatant immunity.

HELPING WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Three investigators traveled to Bosnia to research Pazaras role, according to affidavits filed in court, including Chris Chang and Dr. Brian Williams, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Pazaras former comrade, Jasmin Jasaveric, said the pair went to Syria to help women and children and those fighting against the Assad regime, Chang wrote.

Between 80 and 120 Bosnians traveled to Syria to join the anti-Assad forces, Williams wrote. Most seemed to feel that they were fighting for the Free Syrian Army, which was backed and supported by the U.S. government, and were not fighting to establish an Islamic state but to stop the slaughter of civilians, he wrote. The allegiances of commanders and groups were fluid, and the Bosnians, Williams wrote, were at a loss in Syria when it came to understanding the ... birds eye overview of this complex battle zone.

Jasaveric said that there was no plan and little organization. For the Free Syrian Army, they secured a hospital, helped the injured, worked in the kitchen and handed out food, Chang wrote.

Militarily ineffective, they dubbed themselves the Potato Peeler or Facebook Brigade, Williams wrote.

They were little coyotes following the hardened Chechen fighters, or wolves, who were also there, Jasaveric told Williams. Pazara probably exaggerated his exploits on Facebook because he dreamed of being a wolf, Williams speculated.

They wore American military uniforms and were armed with M-16 rifles, Jasaveric said, although he did not know where either came from.

After two to three weeks, Jasaveric and Pazara joined Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (The Army of Emigres and Helpers).

Amid infighting between anti-Assad groups, Pazara joined in January 2014 a smaller group of fighters from Bosnia, the Chechen Republic and other places known as the Bayt Commandos, Chang wrote.

Jasaveric said that Pazara was not a leader, as has been claimed, because he did not speak Arabic or Russian.

Jasaveric declined to join Pazara and went back to Bosnia. He said he did not know if Pazara later became allied with ISIS.

Investigators also spoke to a Bosnian Imam, Ibrahim Delic, who had traveled to Syria to teach his countrymen about their religion, Williams wrote.

Delic met Pazara and called him a good man and echoed Jasaverics claim that the group were third-rate guards, Williams wrote.

Williams said that Pazara had adopted several families and was feeding them with donations from abroad. Pazaras efforts seemed to be a result of his own experience seeing his nation destroyed by war in the 1990s, he wrote.

Delic and Jasaveric both faced charges in Bosnia after their return.

The defense filing doesnt mention what happened to Pazara after early to mid-2014. He is believed to have died in September 2014, at the age of 38.

An indictment in the St. Louis case was handed down in February 2015.

One defendant, Jasminka Ramic, then 43, formerly of Illinois, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in September 2015 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

In her plea, Ramic admits that she was aware that Pazara was fighting in Syria and that hed written of a coming Islamic caliphate.

Two other defendants, Ramiz Hodzic, of St. Louis County, and Nihad Rosic, of New York state, would still face a charge of conspiracy to kill and maim persons in a foreign country if the other two charges were dismissed.

And the defense attempt to dismiss the two charges may have little effect. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Drake has said in multiple hearings that prosecutors were prepared to add a charge of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, but would wait for the outcome of the defense motion.

Federal prosecutors havent responded to a request for comment about the filing.
The University of Missouri-Columbia has turned over a case of possible embezzlement to police after a preliminary, internal review.

A spokesperson said an employee in the Office of Greek Life reported "suspicious activity," spurring the internal review.

It's not clear how much money is involved, but a statement from Mizzou said the case involves possible misappropriation of funds from student organization accounts affiliated with the Office of Greek Life.

The statement from the university indicates that "a former staff member" is part of the investigation. A question-and-answer webpage set up by the university Wednesday says the former employee was fired after it was confirmed that university policies were violated.

The Greek Life office recently lost a few employees in a round of layoffs amid a complete restructuring of all offices under the umbrella of Student Affairs. The layoffs were said to be part of a larger effort to address ongoing budget issues from declining state funds and tuition revenue.

Greek Life employs two full-time staff members after the recent layoffs.

Mizzou leaders announced an immediate restructuring of the way external accounts for student organizations are managed, including a multi-signature approval process.

If Mizzou police find that embezzlement occurred, they will encourage prosecution, the statement said.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouris governor checked another box on his political resume Wednesday, signing legislation to tighten regulations on abortion clinics.

Republican Eric Greitens, a newcomer to elected office, ended the second special session he called in his first six months as governor by approving a law that abortion opponents say will protect women.

The governor signed the measure during a closed-door ceremony in his office in front of more than a dozen lawmakers and anti-abortion lobbyists.

The measure exempts agencies that offer alternatives to abortion from a new St. Louis ordinance barring discrimination against women on the basis of whether they take birth control or have had an abortion.

It also requires that doctors explain the risks of abortion to women 72 hours before an abortion is performed. And, the new law calls for annual inspections of clinics, adds new whistleblower protections from employees of clinics and boosts requirements for pathologists who provide services to abortion facilities.

The bill is focused on protecting the health and safety of women across Missouri, said Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, who sponsored the legislation.

Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro Choice Missouri, said the session was political theater designed to help Greitens burnish his record for higher office.

Women in Missouri already face some of nations most burdensome restrictions when it comes to accessing reproductive healthcare. Now, Gov. Greitens is trying to make it even more difficult to access basic care. This is a sad day for women and families across Missouri, Dreith said in a statement issued Wednesday.

The measure comes as Planned Parenthood has filed plans with state health regulators to open at least three new clinics in Columbia, Springfield and Joplin. Currently, St. Louis is the lone facility in Missouri where abortions are performed.

Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, said the new law is not an attempt to block Planned Parenthood from opening the new clinics.

There really is nothing in this bill that prevents clinics from opening, but they have to open under situations in which the health and safety of women is safeguarded, Onder said.

The new law is the result of a special session that Greitens called six weeks ago to address abortion-related issues. Action on the matter was delayed by scheduling problems for lawmakers, many of whom spend the first five months of the year away from their full-time jobs as they attend the regular session of the Legislature.

The GOP-controlled Senate approved the legislation on Tuesday after four hours of sometimes heated debate.

The cost of the session was expected to top $60,000.

Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh, D-Bellefontaine Neighbors, said Greitens was using the special session as a way to build up an otherwise empty political resume.

You dont get your way, so you keep calling everybody back (in session) until all of your points are checked off your list. Thats not how this body operates, Walsh said.

But leaders in the House praised the passage of the measure.

Obviously were pleased by the outcome, said House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. I think we got a really strong bill to the governors office.
The CBI which has launched an extensive probe into the infamous rape and murder case of a minor in Shimla has vowed to crack the case in 10 days.

By Manjeet Sehgal: The CBI probe into the infamous Shimla gangrape and murder case is inching towards the logical end. The agency has claimed it will crack the case within 10 days.

A 10-member CBI team including forensic experts headed by a SP level officer reached the crime spot again on Tuesday and closely examined tree trunks,rocks ,grass and path within 200 metres for over two hours.

advertisement

Victim's maternal uncle who had first spotted victim's naked body on the spot on July 6 also accompanied the CBI team. Sources said that the victim's uncle was asked about the position of the body, whethere any rocks were moved near the body and was there any dog present at the spot.

The CBI sleuths are also believed to have questioned the former SHO of Kotkhai police station who was placed under suspension for giving a shoddy treatment to the case.

The CBI team also questioned mother of prime accused Raju for over 30 minutes after she had claimed he was innocent .

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SOCK

Victim's missing right sock is a big lapse on part of Shimla Police as it failed to retrieve it. While CBI is yet to find the sock, speculations rife that it was found at the house of one of the accused but it was deliberately ignored by the police.

The CBI team which scanned the crime spot on Tuesday also found a pair of gloves, a female and a male shoe but the same were left at the spot as the things did not belong to the victim and accused . The CBI team also noticed disposable glasses,chewing gum wrappers and plastic bottles near the spot.

The CBI has also taken into custody all the arrested suspects including three labourers including Subhash, Lokjan, Deepak, Rajinder alias Raju and Ashish Chauhan who were currently on a judicial remand.

Ashish Chauhan is the son of a local orchard owner and Rajinder is prime accused who had given lift to the victim in his vehicle.

CBI TO GRILL THE ACCUSED

Sources from CBI, said that the agency can question the suspects individually besides taking them to the crime spot to recreate the crime scene.

The CBI team is yet to meet the victim's parents.The family kept waiting for the CBI sleuths on Tuesday but they returned back.

Victim's family members have started agitation on the historic Ridge of Shimla.Her parents are expected to join the protest soon after the CBI team meets them.

Also Read:

India Today Investigation: Shimla gang rape victim was subjected to horrific torture

advertisement

Shimla gangrape: CBI sleuths reach crime spot, loopholes found in police theory

Shimla rape case: Three CBI teams reach Himachal's capital, probe underway

WATCH: Rape caught on CCTV, Delhi Police ASI arrested

--- ENDS ---
The Russians are not our friends. They are our enemies. Today wherever an AK-47 opposes an American soldier, communism is there. Vladimir Putin is a student of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

The core values of Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan offer opposition to communism in any form. The Russian oligarchy opposes the very concept of a democracy. Within their own country, freedom of speech has been trampled if not by arrest then by assassination. Scores of journalists have been murdered to date.

As a former Vietnam veteran and intelligence specialist, I believe I have a good understanding of Russias motives for tampering with our democracy. There are three reasons: One is to make up for the embarrassment they suffered with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The second is to discourage democracy across the globe. Finally, they want to be the most powerful county in the world to the detriment of the United States.

Recently the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Russian sanctions bill. The senators who regularly receive intelligence briefings on Russians' clandestine motives against the U.S. understand what is going on.

Now the president, who has dismissed our own intelligence communities opinion and supported Russia, has put in power as the White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. He told the Russian news agency TASS that he did not support the sanctions, saying the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nations president. Putin is promoting the downfall of democracy.

Michael Phelan  Shrewsbury
By Indrajit Kundu: A Kolkata court on Wednesday granted bail to actor Vikram Chatterjee, arrested after model Sonika Chauhan's tragic death in a car accident on April 29.

Vikram was arrested late night on July 6 by the Kolkata police. He was taken into custody for further questioning after multiple inconsistencies were recorded in his statements earlier. The actor, who had surrendered before a local court after the mishap, was out on bail for over two months till his arrest.

advertisement

After rejecting Vikram's bail plea earlier, the Alipore Sessions Court on Wednesday granted the actor bail on the condition that he won't be allowed to leave the city without prior permission from the Kolkata police.

The actor has also been asked to furnish two sureties of Rs 25,000 each and surrender his passport with the police.

WHAT VIKRAM's COUNSEL SAID

"He has been granted bail today. We had moved the bail plea based on two points - that he was not drunk and neither was he speeding. There is no evidence to prove that he was drunk as the medical report does not support that claim", said Vikram's counsel Rintu Chakraborty.

Initially, Vikram was only booked under Section 304 A (death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). But after massive public outcry, police added the non-bailable section 304 (culpable homicide) against the actor.

Last week, Kolkata police had filed a chargesheet against the actor, claiming that there was evidence to prove that Vikram was driving his car at a high speed. A report of the forensic test conducted on the ill-fated vehicle states that the car was speeding at over 100 km per hour when the accident took place, the police claimed.

Also read | Sonika Chauhan death case: Actor Vikram Chatterjee arrested

Also read | Exclusive: Autopsy report reveals how massive head injury killed model Sonika Chauhan

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: Kolkata lab says it got inadequate sample of Vikram Chatterjee's blood in Sonika Chauhan's death case

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) There has been a spurt in diarrhoea, diabetes and hypertension cases in Delhi between 2015 and 16, while dengue cases increased by almost seven times from 2014 to 2015, an NGO today claimed.

The Praja Foundation, which compiled data from various hospitals run by the Delhi government and the three civic bodies, however, did not take into account the cases from private hospitals and the four major central government hospitals in Delhi -- AIIMS, Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia and Lady Hardinge Medical College, saying they were denied information to their RTI queries.

advertisement

A White Paper on the state of health of Delhi released by the NGO claimed that HIV cases have increased eight times from 2014 to 2016.

As per its report report, 78,067 institutional deaths had taken place in 2015, with highest number of deaths being due to hypertension at 3,890, almost 50 per cent increase for 2014 followed by tuberculosis at 3,635 and diabetes at 1,356.

The cases of death data in institutions were attributed to online medical certification of cause of deaths reported by the Delhi government for 2014 and 2015.

When reached out for comment, a Delhi government official said they will only react after checking the "authenticity" of the NGOs report.

Also, the official argued that if one considers GTB Hospital which is run by the Delhi government, 70 per cent of the cases come from outside of the national capital. "So, we cant react to some claims made by an NGO," the official said.

Civic bodies said the data compiled by the MCD for vector-borne diseases are collected from sentinel hospitals and only verified cases are included in the final report.

The NGO in its report claimed that dengue deaths increased by almost seven times from 2014 (74) to 2015 (486).

As per its report, diarrhoea cases increased from 5.64 lakh in 2015 to 6.22 lakh in 2016, while hypertension cases increased from 3.22 lakh in 2015 to 3.61 lakh in 2016.

Diabetes cases also rose from 3.40 lakh in 2015 to 3.92 lakh and HIV/AIDS increased from 2,211 in 2014 to 17,332 in 2016, it said.

A senior official of the SDMC, when contacted, said, "The data compiled by the MCD for vector-borne diseases are collected from sentinel hospitals and only verified cases are included in the final report."

"The report goes to several agencies including the central government, Delhi government, and therefore, there is no scope for fudging of data," the official added.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation compiles data on vector-borne diseases on behalf of all civic bodies in Delhi.

A senior official at Safdarjung hospital said it comes out with an annual report about the all disease conditions, admission for specific diseases, deaths and discharges.

advertisement

"So the NGO could have taken the data from there. Also, what I can remember, we have not received an RTI request from any such organisation," the official said.

An AIIMS official said, "First of all we need time to check our records. Also if they were denied a reply, which is what they are claiming, why did they not approach the appellate authority?

It can be mentioned here that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had recently issued a notice to the 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 foundation also claimed that among various civic issues, the maximum number (2,27,444) of civic complaints in 2016 by far were on water supply.

These constituted 50 per cent of the total complaints in that year, the foundations report claimed.

The white paper also included estimated data on the household expenditure incurred on health by Delhi citizens which was collected through a survey commissioned by Praja to research organisation Hansa Research.

advertisement

"Shockingly, the average Delhi household spent an estimated amount of Rs 1,07,793 on healthcare in 2016-17. Further, only 15 per cent of citizens were estimated to have health insurance," the NGO said in its statement.

"This means that while on one hand, authorities are not taking enough preventable measures to check the spread of diseases, citizens are spending humungous amounts of money on their healthcare needs.

"Further, as highlighted by the data, health risks disproportionately affect poorer households," Anjali Srivastava, Assistant Manager at Praja Foundation, said. PTI PLB KND TDS KIS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Incidents of stone pelting in the Kashmir Valley have reduced drastically and come down to half this year due to the "effective" action of security forces and probe agencies against separatists and others, the CRPF DG today said.

According to R R Bhatnagar, while a total of 1,590 incidents of stone pelting were registered last year, this year the latest figures are 424, which is "half of what was last year".

advertisement

"Why or how has this happened? I would say it is a complex phenomenon...it is a mix of everything.

"It is a mix of what the NIA is doing, it is a mix of state police and security forces doing the kind of control and hence the efforts of the law breakers, stone pelters and violent mobs is effectively blocked and hence pelting has gone down," the DG said while talking to reporters on the eve of the 78th Raising Day of the paramilitary.

"Our assessment is that situation in the Kashmir valley has improved," he said, adding the CRPF was coordinating with the NIA (National Investigating Agency) in its crackdown against separatists and their operatives.

Bhatnagar said with the use of less lethal ammunition, the force which has deployed 60 battalions (about 60,000 personnel) in Jammu and Kashmir, has "effectively been able to control" mobs.

"We have not allowed violent mobs to interfere in the conduct of anti-militancy operations. There is a very close coordination between the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the CRPF and the army," the DG said.

He added good intelligence was coming from the state police and other agencies.

The CRPF top boss said a number of steps were taken in the recent past like re-positioning of the troops, having a new strategy and standard operating procedures (SOPs), to achieve the results that are being seen now.

"With the use of less lethal weapons (like pellet guns and pump action guns) we are able to minimise injuries to our troops and also to the mob," he said.

"The number of our personnel injured has also come down to one-third of what was the picture last year. We have had good successes," the 1983-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre said.

Talking about terrorist incidents in the valley, Bhatnagar said these also have "come down".

Answering a question on a recent incident where a vehicle carrying Amarnath yatris was ambushed by militants-- killing eight of them-- the DG said some changes in security drills have been effected till the remaining part of the yatra.

advertisement

"This particular incident occurred because the party (the ill-fated vehicle) was travelling outside the parameters of the main security arrangements that has been made for the yatra," he said.

Then the question comes, the DG said, could the vehicle have been stopped and taken to a safer location? But there are many things involved here, he said.

"What we have done after that in collaboration with the J and K police is that we have set up more check points and efforts are being made to ensure the security is vigilant and night time bandobast has also been increased," Bhatnagar said.

According to figures provided by the force, it killed 75 militants, apprehended 252 and recovered 118 arms this year in its operations in the Kashmir valley.

The Central Reserve Police Force was raised on July 27, 1939 as Crown Representatives Police (CRP) and at present is the largest paramilitary of the world with about 3-lakh personnel in its strength. PTI NES ZMN

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: collapse: CM

Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) The ongoing structural change on the ground floor of the Ghatkopar building appears to have led to its collapse yesterday in which 17 people were killed, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Assembly today.

He informed the House that besides the police probe, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been directed to investigate the incident and submit report with the government within 15 days.

advertisement

The chief minister said the nursing home on the ground floor of the building was being converted into some other facility for which permission from the BMC had been sought.

According to residents of Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society, the pillars of the building got weakened due to ongoing renovation of the nursing home.

Sunil Shitap, a local Shiv Sena worker, reportedly owned the ground floor and has been arrested by the police.

"The ground plus four storey building had a total nine flats with 46 occupants. The nursing home on the ground floor was to be closed and it had obtained the necessary permission from the BMC for the same.

"As per the available information and photographs taken by fire brigade department, it appears that the ongoing work was damaging the beam and the column of the building. There are marks as well on the beams, which could have led to collapse of the building. The inquiry is still on," Fadnavis told the House.

Congress leaders Naseem Khan and Sanjay Nirupam had last night alleged that the BMC had failed to act on the complaint of the residents of the building about ongoing "alterations" in the nursing home.

The chief minister told the House that no resident of the ill-fated building had filed any complaint about the ongoing structural change on the ground floor with either the BMC or any other authorities.

"Sunit Shitap had sought the permission for running a nursing home on the ground floor (of the building) on July 18, 2009. The permission was valid till July 17 this year. The permission was sought under the name Sunil Shitap and Others for setting up the nursing home. Later, Shitap filed an application with the BMC to close the nursing home and necessary permission was given in July this year. Shitap had plans to use the facility for some other purpose," he said.

Though the civil work was going on, as per the available information, no resident of the same building had filed any complaint with the BMC, Fadnavis said.

"I have directed the commissioner of the BMC to investigate (the collapse) and submit a report within 15 days," he said.

advertisement

After the building crumbled, some 14 fire engines and 300 workers rushed to the spot and undertook rescue work. The officials rescued 31 residents, while 17 have died and 12 are injured in the accident, he added.

Fadnavasi said the state government has set up an inquiry committee. The BMC commissioner, deputy commissioner, and chief civil engineer will be members of the committee.

"As per the demand of the Opposition leaders and other members of the House, a senior-level IAS officer will also be appointed in this committee to bring more transparency," the CM said. PTI ND NSK KIS

--- ENDS ---
A strategy to grow geothermal energy use in New Zealand by 2030 is receiving a warm welcome from energy suppliers and venture groups.

The Bay of Connections Energy Group has been working to grow geothermal energy use on a commercial and industrial scale and says the launch of the Geothermal Association Geoheat strategy fits well with their plans.

The Geoheat strategy focuses on developing continuous and sustainable direct geothermal energy use on a commercial and industrial scale, says BOCs energy strategy leader Brian Carey.

We have been looking to promote the growth of direct geothermal energy use in our area.

The Geoheat strategy will provide BOC with support and expertise on how to further grow this opportunity, says Brian.

The strategy envisages the creation of four or five large direct use projects like timber processing and large glasshouses, as well as a range of smaller ventures over the next 1012 years.

Bay of Connections Energy Strategy leader Brian Carey.

The strategy focuses largely on the Central North Island, which has the higher temperature geothermal resources.

A number of timber processing plants are already using geothermal energy for kiln drying in the Central North Island region, with milk processing and commercial glasshouses also operating in the area sourcing heat directly from geothermal.

Theres good opportunity for employment with 500 new jobs anticipated should the target of 7.5 Peta Joules per annum with the new projects be reached, says Brian.

New Zealand has a long history of utilising high temperature geothermal resources with approximately 60 years of extensive large scale geothermal energy use for industrial direct heat and electricity generation.

We are in the perfect position to take full advantage of the shift towards cleaner and more responsible energy. Its a great opportunity for us to use a renewable resource and help reduce our CO2 footprint.

Some BOP timber processors use geothermal energy.
There is no evidence of the 39 missing Indians in Iraq being dead or alive but search for them will continue till there is concrete evidence about their fate, Sushma said.

An agitated Opposition did not let EAM Sushma Swaraj complete her speech on the 39 Indians missing in Mosul issue.

By Poulomi Saha: Making a statement on 39 Indians missing in Iraq for more than three years, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today clarified she did not mislead the nation on the issue since the government cannot declare anybody dead without evidence.

"We came to know about this issue after Harjit Masih returned to India... Why should I believe Harjit Masih's claims that the 39 Indians are dead? It is a crime to do this without proper proof," she said.

advertisement

"Declaring anybody dead without proof is a sin I will not commit," the minister said."As long as we don't get concrete evidence of their death, we will not close their files," she added.

"Its very easy for me to say that the 39 Indians are dead. No one including their families will ask me anything after that," she said, adding that even Iraq has never said that the missing Indians are dead.

"I didn't say they are in Badush. This picture shows prison has been razed. Doesn't say when prison was razed, were our Indians there when it was destroyed? Were they shifted out before the destruction or were they killed? If so, then are their bodies in a condition for DNA analysis," the minister asked.

Here we would like to point out that the India Today report did not suggest anything about the fate of the Indians, except for the fact that their last known location, as per the government, has been non-existent for months now.

The question is: Was the External Affairs Ministry in India being misled by their Iraqi counterparts?

Sushma, however, countered that she was relying on information coming in from six different sources, that included a President and a Foreign Minister of two nations respectively, that told her to keep her hopes alive.

Sushma Swaraj told the House that she told her Iraqi counterpart on his recent visit to New Delhi that he should look for the prison warden of Badush prison and seek details of the missing Indians in their records, or if the latter had been destroyed, coax him/her to press his/her memory hard to fish for information that could bring any sort of closure to the families back home.

On July 16, Sushma - based on information gathered by her junior minister General VK Singh during his visit to Mosul after its recent "liberation" from the Islamic State - had stated that the abducted Indians may be lodged in Badush jail, located in northwest Mosul. Iraq has confirmed the jail was destroyed by the ISIS.

However, the Iraqi government earlier this week said it has no "substantial evidence" on whether the 39 Indians taken captive in Mosul three years ago are alive or dead.

advertisement

RUCKUS IN LOK SABHA

Earlier in the day, Sushma was prevented by an aggressive Opposition from making her statement. "It is a very important issue. The whole country wants to listen over this sensitive issue," Sushma had said in her opening remarks.

"I want to answer your questions since you are saying that she's misleading," she said, after the Opposition raised the issue of Iraq saying it has no idea where the Indians are.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also pleaded. "Please cooperate. Do you want to hear or not? She wanted to make statement yesterday too," she said.

When the Opposition continued its protest, Sushma said, "I will not speak if the Opposition members do not go back to their seats." Mahajan had then adjourned the House till 12.45 pm.

INDIA TODAY FIRST TO REACH MOSUL

Last week, India Today became India's first media group to travel all the way to Mosul after the fall of the ISIS in Iraq's second largest city, but found no sign of the missing Indians in the restive region.

The India Today crew navigated its way through some of the potentially dangerous zones to Badush prison, where it found the jail itself had been flattened to the ground. There was no sign of the prison, let alone the missing Indians.

advertisement

Also read: India Today first to reach Mosul after ISIS fall. No sign of missing 39 Indians

Also read: Are 39 Indians missing in Mosul still alive? Iraq government has no clue

Also read: Mission Iraq Impact: Complaint lodged against Sushma for misleading info

Also read: Missing Indians in Iraq: Without proof, no country abandons its citizens, says MoS VK Singh

WATCH | Didn't mislead nation, won't declare missing Indians in Iraq dead without evidence: Sushma Swaraj

--- ENDS ---
A Bay of Plenty rescue centre has gone kid crazy with 29 goats finding permanent homes in three days.

Mana Rescue owner Fiona Montgomerie advertised on Facebook that 46 baby goats needed homes over the weekend, and by Monday 29 kids were given away to good homes.

The kids come from a farm in Palmerston North and without someone to rescue them, they would have been killed.

She says goats have on average two or three goats a season, so when a farm has 400 does, they could easily have 800 to 900 babies.

The last farm lady I was talking to said she was only keeping 100 as replacement milking girls, so all the rest, if theyre not homed, they get disposed of.

Mana Rescue has been running for six and a half years and finds homes for all kinds of animals from household pets to rural animals, but baby goats have been the most successful by far.

Ive had one lady come back twice from Reporoa, she got one for herself, and got several others for people as well. So its really nice that people are getting behind it.

She says not everyone can look after a kid, but they can be really great animals to have on a farm or rural property.

People need to understand that you cant have goats in the city limits. Most councils say youre not allowed to, so they have to be rural homes.

Fiona advises people to do homework on what plants they have in their home, because contrary to the belief that goats can just eat everything, they cant eat things like avocado leaves, theyll drop dead.

She gets lots of photos back from the rescuers of the goats and the houses that theyve build for them.

We are doing the best we can to get them into the best homes they can get. They deserve a chance.

I think because of the good response and the fact that weve been able to save so many, I think Id like to carry it on.
Bay of Plenty community groups have received $199,011 in funding from The Southern Trust over the first six months of this year.

Figures from The Southern Trust  one of the countrys leading gaming trusts  show 34 Bay of Plenty groups have received grants ranging from $30,000 to $1000 for a range of community initiatives.

The Southern Trust is licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs under the Gambling Act 2003 to return gaming machine proceeds to the community. The trust provides funding for amateur sport, education, community purposes, welfare organisations and arts and culture.

In the Bay of Plenty the trust works with four venues: Kope Turf Bar (Whakatane), Imbibe (Mount Maunganui), the Masonic Hotel (Opotiki) and Matata Hotel (Matata).

We are pleased that our partnerships with Bay of Plenty venues means that we have funds to assist community organisations, says Southern Trust CEO and trustee Karen Shea.

Highlights within the grants to Bay of Plenty community groups between January 1 and June 30 2017 are:

$30,000 for the Photoplayer Restoration Trust to rebuild and carve two side cases that hold the percussion instruments and organ pipes

$20,000 for the Opotiki Baptist Church to purchase and install storm water tanks, build fences and decking for its new facility

$15,000 for the Matata Volunteer Fire Brigade to upgrade its kitchen, purchase gymnasium equipment and a thermal imaging camera

$13,680 for Waiotahe Valley School to purchase of materials for construction of a cricket training facility

Community organisations throughout the Bay of Plenty can apply for funding. The Southern Trust continually reviews applications with most processed within 20 working days. Requests larger than $30,000 are reviewed at the monthly Board of Trustees meetings.

Karen says for Bay of Plenty community organisations considering applying, the first step is to call The Southern Trust funding team on 0800 4 CHARITY (0800 42 42 74).

Our team can easily advise on application criteria, which can save organisations a lot of time.
Labours Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford will join local Labour Party candidates at a public meeting in Tauranga tonight.

He will cover Labours policies around housing, and how to solve issues with accommodation in Tauranga.

Its important, because Tauranga is right in the firing line, and has seen some of the worst effects of the housing crisis, says Phil.

The median house price in Tauranga has gone up 56 per cent in the last three years  more than $200,000.

He says the median house price is now seven times the median household income in Tauranga.

A factor of three is considered the international benchmark for affordability. We havent had that ratio since the 1980s, however. Rents have gone up by more than $5000 a year in the last five years, too. That explains why youve seen a huge increase in homelessness  people cant find anywhere affordable to rent.

He says its a clear sign the National governments housing policies have failed Tauranga.

It cannot be acceptable, in a society as prosperous as ours, for people to be living in garages and cars, or for a younger generation to be denied the opportunity for home ownership that their parents and grandparents took for granted.

He says Labour still plans to build 100,000 affordable homes for Kiwi families.

Where the demand is most acute is where we will build the houses, and Tauranga will be near the top of the list.

Speculators who sell a house within five years of purchasing it will also be required to pay full income tax on the capital gain.

Tauranga MP Simon Bridges says the governments recent investment of $230 million in Tauranga infrastructure will future-proof housing growth in Tauranga.

The $230 million interest-free loan for the Tauranga City Council will provide for 35,000 more houses through three major new infrastructure projects in the city.

The governments KiwiSaver HomeStart scheme has also helped 842 people into homes in Tauranga, with grants totalling $4.47 million.

The public meeting with Phil and local Labour candidates Jan Tinetti, Angie Warren-Clark, and Tamati Coffey will take place at the Arataki Community Centre from 6.15pm tonight.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Homegrown auto major Tata Motors today announced the launch of a range of commercial vehicles in the Philippines to expand presence in the South East Asian nation.

The company said it has entered into a distribution agreement with Pilipinas Taj Autogroup Inc, a business conglomerate engaged in local distribution of motor vehicles in the Philippines.

advertisement

"Through this partnership, Tata Motors will commence the supply of its commercial vehicle brands," the company said in a statement.

The range includes Tata Prima Range of tractor trailers and tippers, the LPT range of light, medium and heavy trucks, SFC 407, and the mini trucks range of Ace and Super Ace.

"The Philippines is one of our key markets in South-East Asia and we are delighted to be a part of one of the fastest growing ASEAN nations," Tata Motors Head (International Business), Commercial Vehicles Rudrarup Maitra said.

The company is confident that the partnership with Pilipinas Taj Autogroup will be successful in establishing a long-term relationship with customers, he added.

Tata Motors had entered the Philippines market in 2014 with cars and small commercial vehicles.

Pilipinas Taj Autogroup President Jon Fernandez Jr said the partnership offered a new opportunity to cater to the commercial vehicle market in the Philippines with India?s largest and most trusted automobile brand.

Besides the Philippines, Tata Motors commercial vehicles are present across several South-East Asian markets, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.

It has manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. PTI RKL ANU

--- ENDS ---
The fate of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance (RJD, JD-U and Congress) is likely to be decided today or by tomorrow as the JD-U is firm on Tejashwi's resignation.

By India Today Web Desk: As Nitish Kumar meets his party - Janata Dal United - MLAs later in the evening today in Patna, senior alliance partner Lalu Prasad today reiterated that his son Tejashwi Yadav won't resign. Deputy CM Tejashwi is facing corruption allegations after the CBI filed a case against him.

"Tejashwi will not resign. Nitish Kumar is leader of the alliance but he has not asked for his resignation," Lalu told reporters after a separate meeting of RJD MLAs.

advertisement

"Nitish Kumar is leader of grand alliance. We will not tolerate any disrespect towards him. We have formed the grand alliance, made Nitish CM. Why will we break the alliance," Lalu said.

"We have spoken to Nitish Kumar and he said he is not asking for Tejaswi's resignation. BJP is trying to frame us but are we are not afraid of their tactic," former CM Rabri Devi added.

The fate of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance (RJD, JD-U and Congress) is likely to be decided today or by tomorrow as the JD-U is firm on Tejashwi's resignation.

Nitish Kumar is expected to make some tough decision before the start of Bihar Asssembly's Monsoon Session (July 28) which the BJP has threatened to disrupt demanding the CM to take a call on his deputy.

Tejashwi and his party RJD, which has most number of MLAs of the three alliance partners, have repeatedly described the corruption charges as a conspiracy by Opposition BJP.

Earlier this month, Tejashwi and Nitish had a closed door meeting during which the deputy CM tabled his stance and claimed that he was being framed. Insiders said Nitish was not convinced with Tejashwi's explanation.

It is believed that Nitish is miffed with Tejashwi as he has failed to present solid evidence in support of his 'not guilty' claim despite being given ample time.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi have also tried to bridge the ever-widening gap between the JD-U and RJD but in vain.

The JD-U has made abundantly clear that Nitish Kumar's taintless image is more important to the party than sticking with power.

"Nitish is the leader of Mahagathbandhan, no one else. Those who are threatening of having 80 MLAs with them should not be in any kind of confusion. It will not take us even 5 minutes to quit government, power," JD-U spokesperson Ajay Alok had told India Today.

The Janata Dal (United) has 71 MLAs, while Lalu's RJD has 80 seats in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly.

advertisement

ALSO READ:

Nitish Kumar calls meeting of JD-U MLAs, pressure mounts further on Tejashwi Yadav

Revealed: What Tejashwi Yadav told Nitish Kumar in their 45-minute meeting behind closed doors

Tejashwi Yadav to quit before July 28? Nitish Kumar firm, Lalu Prasad may relent

Nitish Kumar 'babbar sher' of moral values, Tejashwi must come out clean: JD(U)

WATCH: Lalu Yadav after CBI raids: Ready to be hanged, but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh quotes of lawmakers)

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 26 (PTI) US President Donald Trump said today transgenders will not serve in the US military "in any capacity", asserting that their service would bring "tremendous medical costs and disruption".

Announcing the decision on Twitter, Trump said the military would not "allow or accept" transgender service members, reversing a major last years decision of his predecessor Barack Obama.

advertisement

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the US Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals toserve in any capacity in the US Military," he said in a series of tweets.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump wrote.

Last year, former president Barack Obama had decided to allow transgenders to serve in the US military.

Announcing the decision on June 30, then defence secretary Ashton Carter had argued that the Defence Department and the military needed to avail themselves of all talent possible in order to remain the finest fighting force the world has ever known.

Last July, the Pentagon lifted a long-standing ban against transgender men and women serving openly in the military, removing one of its last discriminatory hurdles and placing gender identity on par discrimination based on race, religion, colour, sex and sexual orientation.

The policy part of the Obama administrations "Force of the Future" initiative which aimed to make the straight-laced, male-dominated US military more inclusive.

In 2015, the administration opened all combat positions to women and in 2016 appointed the first openly gay Secretary of the Army, Eric K Fanning, local media reported.

The Obama plan allowed transgender service members currently on duty to immediately serve openly.

Armed services had to come up with medical and training plans and until July 1, 2017, for full implementation. The Trump administration initially pushed that date back, and now has reversed the policy.

While there is no definitive data on the number of transgender service members, Carter had said that according to RAND, an US global policy think tank, there were about 2,500 people out of approximately 1.3 million active-duty service members, and about 1,500 out of 825,000 reserve service members who were transgenders.

The upper end of their range of estimates is around 7,000 in the active component and 4,000 in the reserves.

Meanwhile reacting to the latest move, Democratic lawmakers denounced the decision.

"It is a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who stepped forward to serve our country," said Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.

advertisement

A study commissioned by the Department of Defence found that the cost of providing medically necessary transition- related care would be a paltry two to eight million per year ? one one-hundredth of one per cent of the militarys nearly USD 50 billion healthcare budget, she said.

"This mornings tweets reveal a president with no loyalty to the courageous men and women in uniform who risk their lives to defend our freedoms.

"This disgusting ban will weaken our military and the nation it defends. Once again, president Trump has shown his conduct is driven not by honour, decency, or national security, but by raw prejudice. This is a dark day for thousands of heroes in our military and for our entire country," Pelosi said.

Senator Dick Durbin said: "The presidents announcement this morning banning transgender individuals from serving our military ironically falls on the 69th anniversary of president Harry Truman signing an executive order to desegregate the military. Instead of honoring the progress we have made on this historic day, the president chose to put our military, once again, in the middle of a discriminatory policy".

advertisement

Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair, said this "arbitrary decision by Donald Trump" does nothing, does not make the US safer or improve readiness.

"Banning qualified and trained transgender individuals from serving in our military weakens our national defence. I am committed to ensuring that our military is the best trained, best equipped and most supported fighting force in the world," Sanchez said.

Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter.

He said the statement was unclear. The Defence Department has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving.

There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military, regardless of their gender identity, McCain said.

"We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so and should be treated as the patriots they are," McCain said.

advertisement

Congressman Joe Crowley, Democratic Caucus chairmans, said that this is an extremely offensive decision by the Trump administration.

"Capable, motivated and talented Americans who want to serve their country should be welcomed into our military as patriots ? not shunned because of who they are. President Trump and his administration should be ashamed," Crowley added. PTI LKJ MRJ CPS

--- ENDS ---
coolboy007 Senior - BHPian



Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: New Delhi Posts: 1,847 Thanked: 2,075 Times

re: Air India plane flies from Kolkata to Nagpur with landing gear down, Pilots clueless! Quote: NiInJa Originally Posted by - How could the pilot miss such a simple yet important task ?



With gear down, three big green lights shine in your face above the gear lever, you just can not miss it.

Quote: - What kind of training do our pilots receive ?

-

Quote: If the plane is unable to climb at normal rate, didn't they sense something wrong ?



Quote: - Isn't there any kind of alarm/warning to retract the landing gear in the aircraft ?

-

Quote: What if the forces were too high to create any problems with the landing gear (and the plane itself) ?

There is a procedure in our fcom - "flight with landing gear down" but such flights are only for ferry flights/maintenance purposes with no passengers on board and so many precautions, these pilots tried it with passengers.



Quote: what kind of training they get and the level of competency these pilots have. I cannot imagine what such pilots will do in dangerous circumstances.

As for dangerous situations, we are trained adequately for that, India's aviation safety record is good, there could be 1-2 instances like these but that does not mean all airlines in India have such casual attitude towards safety.

My company has 100% monitoring of voice recorders and data recorders and the moment some parameter is exceeded, we have to explain why that happened over email or coffee with flight safety department, have not seen a single pilot so far who took check lists casually, not doing them is impossible.



Quote: libranof1987 Originally Posted by Any chance they did pull the switch (or whatever it is to execute) to retract the landing gear but it didn't? To miss some thing like this is virtually impossible, the first thing on an A320's after take off/climb checklist is "Landing gear" - the other pilot replies with "up" after confirming the gear is up. This shows that the crew did not follow normal check lists, there are waypoints on a CFP - computerized flight plan and you keep checking those to match your fuel figures en route, if that was done, the pilots could have caught it out earlier but seems even that was not done. The landing gear produces 180% fuel penalty and this is the reason they almost ran out of fuel and had to divert midway, gear down causes so much more noise but nobody noticed it here.With gear down, three big green lights shine in your face above the gear lever, you just can not miss it.Training is standardized but as a company, one expects its pilots to follow standard procedures and rules, not calling out check lists etc is a gross violation and DGCA would take strict action if this was not done when the cockpit voice recorder is examined. There is a reason why 2 pilots sit inside the cockpit, sadly no one noticed such a major goof up in this case.They seem to have ignored every thing and turned a blind eye, forgetting to put landing gear up till cruise is criminal, check lists are there for a reason, if you do not follow the rules, such mishaps are bound to happen.No, there is no reminder to take the gear up, there is one in case you come to land and forget to put it down.A320 has no landing gear limitation in terms of altitude, as for speed restrictions - you can extend it till 250 knots and keep it extended till 280 knots. If these speeds were not exceeded, every thing would be fine.There is a procedure in our fcom - "flight with landing gear down" but such flights are only for ferry flights/maintenance purposes with no passengers on board and so many precautions, these pilots tried it with passengers.As a pilot, i understand your concern. I usually advice people to stop pouncing on flight crew before more information is there but as per news, this instance seems like all rules and procedures were just not followed, there is absolutely no way on how a pilot could afford to forget putting the gear up, and both crew members did not notice it. In a private carrier, both people would have lost their jobs.As for dangerous situations, we are trained adequately for that, India's aviation safety record is good, there could be 1-2 instances like these but that does not mean all airlines in India have such casual attitude towards safety.My company has 100% monitoring of voice recorders and data recorders and the moment some parameter is exceeded, we have to explain why that happened over email or coffee with flight safety department, have not seen a single pilot so far who took check lists casually, not doing them is impossible.Not possible, that would have triggered a warning inside with an ecam message and the crew would have advised ATC about it, the crew would have a hard time explaining things to dgca. Last edited by coolboy007 : 26th July 2017 at 03:02 .
Salesforce finished up the second quarter with a strong showing at its developer conference in San Francisco, TrailheaDX, roughly quadrupling last years attendance and flooding its developers with new technology.

Over the last few years, the company has built out a multidimensional matrix of product offerings that include customer relationship management components like sales force automation and customer service, but it has been careful to introduce back-end technology products that support administrators and developers as well. It makes all the sense in the world.

Salesforce rapidly is transitioning past a point where it can grow only by selling more CRM seats. Market research shows that only a plurality of businesses use CRM today, implying that theres room for further growth  and there is. However, many of the businesses that dont have CRM either are too small or dont fit the model. A tire dealer and a restaurant are both businesses, but not likely candidates for CRM.

Thats not to say that they cant benefit from application support. They can, and the bottleneck always has been the limitations of a spreadsheet app on one side, and the effort needed to build something new to fit a business.

You could say the same about smaller businesses that already use CRM: They need ways to build and tailor apps, and thats what made the TrailheaDX conference so interesting.

3 App Development Paths

TrailheaDX encompasses all of the knowledge that one needs to develop applications on the Salesforce1 platform, and there are a lot of moving parts.

Trailhead is the name of the self-teaching/learning system that people can use to learn everything about app development on Salesforce.

There are three modes of configuring/customizing/developing apps that Trailhead teaches about, corresponding to the three development modes Salesforce offers: completely codeless, some code, and traditional professional developer mode.

Corresponding with these modes are roughly 200 learning units, each with a badge for the resume of everyone who passes an exam.

At the TrailheaDX conference, Salesforce introduced some sweeteners that enable development of very robust apps that go way beyond traditional database applications.

Briefly, they include the following:

Einstein Sentiment, which enables classification of the tone of text in a message. This rating capability will be useful for helping the Einstein AI tool to rank situations from negative to neutral to positive.

Einstein Intent, which helps developers train models to understand the underlying intent of customer interactions, which further will help to determine next actions and offers.

Einstein Object Detection, for training models to recognize different objects in an image.

At last years Dreamforce, CEO Marc Benioff said this would be the year of Einstein. The company has been executing on that strategy by embedding the artificial intelligence solution in all of its clouds, so it was time to make those tools available to developers too.

By the way, the developer tools are classified as Salesforce DX, which I find confusing  a naming convention that probably needs revisiting.

Two new partners  Atlassian, an agile development methods company, and GitHub, which provides source code management and collaboration capabilities  have joined the partner ecosystem to help ensure that developers leverage the new capabilities optimally.

The emphasis throughout Salesforce DX seems to be configure if you can  but if youre going to code, leverage all of the modern capabilities, like agile methods, that you can. These partners appear to be testimony to that thinking.

CRMs Future

What does all of this mean for CRM? Lots.

First, it further opens up the greatest opportunity for Salesforce to sell seats by enabling many more apps to be built and subscribed to through the AppExchange.

Second, it puts a friendly arm around developers at a time when all of the major software houses offer something to make developing code easier and faster. This might seem to defy a Salesforce precept that coding never would be needed with its products, unlike other CRMs, but the fact of the matter is that in a general-purpose development environment, coding isnt going away. Instead, the little coding that will be done in the future will be really hard stuff that machines cant do.

Third, this approach from no code to full code is expected to discover thousands of new people who can do the work  talent that might have been overlooked in another era. In a time of talent shortages, programs like Trailhead should help businesses find additional people to at least do some of the easier system maintenance, saving the developers for the hard stuff.

Salesforce DX is in an open beta and likely will show some results by Dreamforce. Einstein Sentiment and Einstein Intent also are in beta, while Einstein Object Detection is in pilot, and no pricing was available at the show for any products not fully GA.

Its not too early to begin wondering what Salesforce will want to announce at Dreamforce. I suspect there will be more Einstein capabilities, especially in concert with other products like IBM Watson. Meanwhile, this company continues to impress. While other vendors are puffing up their reputations with cloud basics, Salesforce continues to imagine a bright future.
Google's next Pixel-branded phone, tentatively dubbed the Pixel 2, will come equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 system-on-a-chip.

Google Pixel 2 to Ship With Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 SoC?

That's according to unnamed industry insiders, although they didn't confirm if both the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL will be powered by the same processor. Recent reports, however, say that there'll be more differences this time between the regular Pixel variant and the larger one, and that might include the processing power department.

However, this new rumor runs in conflict with other previous ones suggesting the Pixel 2 will ship with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, as is the case with a lot of smartphones released recently.

True or not, reports say the Snapdragon 836 will only offer an incremental performance upgrade over its predecessor, so it likely wouldn't even matter that much. As Android Headlines notes, it might be akin to how the Snapdragon 821 improved over the Snapdragon 820. The base clock might increase slightly or not at all. The resulting chip might deliver slightly better performance and battery efficiency improvements.

Google Pixel 2 Rumors

Google unveiled its pair of Pixel flagships back in October 2016, so it stands to reason that it will unveil the sequels on a similar period this year. Rumors for both phones already run rampant, with some suggesting squeezable frames, slimmer bezels, and a massive camera lens.

Several alleged renders of both phones have also been surfacing of late, each of them adding to the overall confusion of what the flagships will look like. One concept sees the phone as having a nearly bezel-less display, a thinner glass back panel, and only a single camera. They also come in black, blue, and red colorways.

Specific details about specs are murky, but "leaked" benchmarks last month give an idea of their power. The Pixel 2, according to that benchmark listing, will sport a 4.97-inch Full HD OLED display like the original Pixel. It will allegedly come with a Snapdragon 835 chip, 64 GB of internal storage, and 4 GB of RAM.

The Pixel 2 XL, on the other hand, is believed to sport a 5.99-inch Quad HD OLED display, and that a 128 GB variant will be available. It will come with the same processor and RAM as the Pixel 2's.

As always, it's best to take all these rumors with caution and wait for Google's official world instead. October isn't really that far, anyway.

Thoughts about the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 26 (PTI) President Donald Trump said he will not let Bashar al-Assad get away with using chemical weapons on his people in Syria, as he slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for not taking enough action on "horrible acts against humanity" in in the war-ravaged country.

"Had President Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I dont believe youd have Russia and I dont believe youd have Iran to anywhere near the extent, and maybe not at all, in Syria today," Trump told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri yesterday.

advertisement

"I am not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what hes done to that country (Syria) and to humanity is horrible. I have been saying that for a long time. I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do," he said.

In the "red line" warning of 2013, Obama responded to reports that Assad had used chemical weapons by saying he would meet further chemical weapons use with force.

Later, Assad again used chemical weapons, and Obama opted to have Russia step in to remove them.

"He (Assad) did it a number of times when President Obama drew the red line in the sand, and then he should have crossed that red line, because some horrible acts against humanity took place, including gas and the killing through gases. That was a bad day for this country," Trump said.

He said the US is having extraordinary success against the ISIS.

"One of the things that we have made tremendous strides at is getting rid of ISIS. We have generals that dont like to talk, they like to do," he said.

Trump said the US has made "tremendous strides" against the Islamic State terror group in Syria, Iraq and other locations.

"Our military is an incredible fighting force. And as you know, I let the commanders on the ground do what they had to do," he said.

The US president added that before he took charge, "The commanders had to call the White House and speak to people that didnt know what was happening, where they were, what locations, practically, probably never heard of the countries they were talking about or the towns."

Responding to another question, Trump said he would be making his position clear on the Hezbollah clear in the next 24 hours.

"Ill be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours. Were going to see what is exactly taking place. I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others. So Ill be making that decision very shortly," he said. PTI LKJ ASV

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 26 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has said that he is not planning to sack Attorney General Jeff Sessions, even as he reiterated his "disappointed" over the latters position on the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential polls.

"Well, I dont think I am doing that. But I am disappointed in the attorney general," Trump told reporters yesterday when asked whether he would be firing Sessions after he went against him on twitter.

advertisement

Trump was addressing a news conference at the White House with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Earlier in the day, Trump accused Sessions of being "very weak" in the investigation into former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons emails.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" he said in a tweet, expressing anger against the man who was the first US senator to endorse his candidacy.

Over the last few days, Trump had gone public in expressing dissatisfaction over Sessions position on investigations related to Russian interference in the American presidential elections last year.

Sessions has recused himself from the governments probe of Russian meddling in the US election.

"He (Sessions) should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. If he was going to recuse himself, he shouldve told me prior to taking office and I wouldve, quite simply, picked somebody else," the president told the news conference.

The president called it a a bad thing not for the president, but for the presidency.

"I think its unfair to the presidency. And thats the way I feel," he said.

The attorney general has said that he would stay in the position as long as it is appropriate.

Responding to another question, Trump said he wants Sessions to be much tougher when it comes to leaks of classified material.

"I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen," he said.

"You know many of my views in addition to that, but I think thats one of the very important things that they have to get on with. I told you before Im very disappointed with the attorney general. But we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell," Trump said. PTI LKJ ASV

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
"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
United Airlines has come in news again, and again for all the wrong reasons. A Hawaii woman was forced to hold her two-year-old on her lap during the flight.

By India Today Web Desk: Guess who is in trouble again - United Airlines. Trouble indeed loves their company.

A Hawaii woman has sued the airline after she was forced to hold her child on lap during her flight.

Shirley Yamauchi, who is working in Kapolei Middle School of Hawaii, on Tuesday hoped her lawsuit would help protect other passengers from this type of treatment.

advertisement

"United said they would change and I want to see that happen. I don't want anymore passengers possibly in danger," Shirley said.

According to Shirley, it was an over three-hour flight and she had to hold her two-year-old son on her lap. This happened during the final leg of an 18-hour flight from Hawaii to Boston.

THE RUCKUS

Shirley had to hold the two-year-old on lap despite paying nearly $1,000 (Rs 65,000 approximately) for the baby's seat.

When they boarded the flight after five hours layover in Houston on June 29, another passenger showed up, claiming the seat of the toddler as his.

Shirley complained to a flight attendant that she bought the seat three months ago, but the latter only shrugged and said the flight was full, then walked away.

THE APOLOGY

United Airlines issued an apology, five days later.

Shirley said the airline gave her free upgrades and perks on her return trip back to Hawaii from Boston, but she felt the gestures were not genuine.

UNITED AIRLINES' RICH BOTCH UP HISTORY

APRIL 2017

In April, 2017, video of a police officer dragging a passenger from an overbooked United Airlines flight sparked an uproar on social media.

As the flight waited to depart from Chicago's O'Hare Airport, officers grabbed the screaming man from a window seat, pulled him across the armrest and dragged him down the aisle by his arms.

The airline was trying to make room for four of its employees on the flight to Louisville, Kentucky.

In another incident which took place in April, an engaged couple flying on United Airlines from Houston, Texas, to their wedding in Costa Rica were removed by a federal law enforcement officer from the flight.

United said the couple repeatedly tried to sit in more expensive seats for which they had not paid and would not follow flight crew instructions.

MAY 2017

United Airlines came under fire again in the month of May after one of its employees cancelled flight reservation of an Indian-origin man who filmed a dispute over charges on luggage.

advertisement

The Indian-origin man was refused entry on a flight to the West Coast after he started recording his experience on his phone.

FYI || US: United Airlines passenger dragged off overbooked flight, video of incident sparks uproar ||

FYI || United Airlines does it again: Engaged couple en route to wedding booted off flight ||

FYI || Nosedive: United Airlines cancels flight reservation of Indian-origin man for filming dispute ||

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 26 (PTI) The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to impose new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea for their dangerous and belligerent actions that undermine America and its allies.

The Russia, Iran and North Korea sanctions bill was passed with a 419-3 votes in the lower house of the US Congress yesterday.

advertisement

The bill is aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. It also seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its "continued support of terrorism."

The bill, that notably constrains President Donald Trumps ability to waive the penalties, is now headed to the Senate, where there is support for sanctions but debate about whether to include penalties on North Korea.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the is one of the most expansive sanctions packages in the history.

"It tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," he said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said the bill seeks to make it harder for Russia to use that type of coercion and empower other nations to join us in standing up against Russian aggression.

"These three (Russian, Iranian and North Korean) regimes, in different parts of the world, are threatening vital US interests and destabilising their neighbours. It is well past time that we forcefully respond," Ed Royce, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, an author of the bill, said after the passage of the legislation.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said the House vote on this tough sanctions bill sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that meddling in US elections will not be tolerated.

"Senate Republican leaders should move this bill as soon as possible, so that it can be on the Presidents desk without delay. Passing the bill on a bipartisan basis will send a strong signal to the White House that the Kremlin needs to be held accountable for meddling in last years election," he said.

On the House floor, Congressman Joe Crowley alleged Putins interference in the 2016 presidential elections was a blatant attempt to undermine and weaken American democracy, threats that have been met with disregard from the Trump administration.

"Im glad my colleagues in the House voted to impose stronger sanctions on the Russian government and make it harder for the White House to lift existing sanctions. House Republicans should have moved on this long ago, as this is an important step forward to ensure that Russian leaders will face consequences for their actions," he said.

advertisement

He added that this vote will hopefully also allow the Congress to get back to work for the American people.

"The numerous scandals emanating from the Trump White House on Russia are a distraction that has kept Congress from focusing on the issues Americans want to see progress on jobs, the economy, and expanded opportunities for growth," Crowley said.

According to The Hill newspaper, the vote amounted to a rebuke of Trump, whose administration had pushed to water down the bills provisions giving Congress the power to veto the lifting of sanctions.

"While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the Presidents desk," White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders said.

Royce said the bill represents broad bipartisan, House-Senate agreement that the United States must enforce tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

The bill, he said, gives the administration important economic and diplomatic leverage by targeting the things that matter to Vladimir Putin and his allies the most, their corrupt efforts to profit from the countrys oil wealth and their ability to sell weapons overseas.

advertisement

To ensure the current economic sanctions remain in place as long as Russian aggression continues, Royce said this bill empowers the Congress to review and disapprove any sanctions relief.

"This strong oversight is necessary and appropriate. After all, it is Congress that the Constitution empowers to regulate commerce with foreign nations," he added.

Tehran continues to threaten Israel by providing funding and advanced rockets to Hezbollah, its leading terrorist proxy, Royce claimed.

"It continues to hold Americans hostage while developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. To strengthen the US response to the threat from Iran this bill includes provisions originally introduced by my counterpart, Senator (Bob) Corker, which increase sanctions on those involved in the regime?s human rights abuses, its support for terrorism, as well as its ballistic missile program,? Royce said. PTI LKJ ASV

--- ENDS ---
Animation lobby group Animated Women UK has announced Beth Parker, who manages the production of current series and development across Disneys EMEA channels, as their new Animation Chair.

Parker takes over from Founder and current Animation Chair Lindsay Watson, who remains on the AWUK Board, but who is taking a step back to pursue other projects after nearly five years getting the organisation off the ground.

Parker joins VFX Chair Louise Hussey  Executive VFX Producer at Double Negative  in setting the agenda going forwards.

AWUK is a non-profit that exists to support, represent, celebrate and encourage women in the animation and VFX industries in the UK.

Founded in 2013, they aim to change the gender landscape by building a network that facilitates mentoring, knowledge exchange and education resulting in women in animation and VFX fulfilling their potential.

Animated Women UK says that in animation in the UK the average male salary is 45,803 compared to 34,382 for females.

Parker, who will actively take up her post in September, said: Having spent over 20 years as a woman working in the creative industries, Im very aware of the inequalities that exist. We have made positive inroads and I have seen the benefit of shared experience both as a mentor and a participant. Im thrilled to be joining Animated Women UK, because of the opportunity to expand on the positive foundations established by Lindsay and the team. We still have a long way to go.

Founder, Lindsay Watson, who remains on the board, said: Beth has the skills to continue the great work that weve started. She has already proved a great supporter of our agenda and will no doubt prove invaluable as we continue to grow AWUK and have a positive impact on our industry.



VFX Chair Louise Hussey adds: Were really excited to have Beth join our team. Her credentials speak for themselves and Im eager to see what we can accomplish together.

Share this story
The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

By Reuters: Iran will respond if the US government passes new sanctions, deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday, according to state media.

"New sanctions being discussed in the US Congress are a completely clear hostile act and against the Islamic Republic of Iran and...will be met with a definitive response," Araqchi, who is also a top nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

advertisement

He did not specify what actions Iran would take.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support.

It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for US President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

Separately, Trump issued a veiled threat against Iran on Tuesday, warning Tehran to adhere to the terms of a nuclear deal with world powers or else face "big, big problems".

A week after certifying Iran as complying with the 2015 agreement negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, Trump made clear that he remains extremely wary of Tehran.

New sanctions could reduce the benefits that Iran receives from the nuclear agreement, Araqchi said, according to IRNA.

"America has committed to follow the nuclear deal with goodwill and in a productive environment and to hold back from any steps that would have an effect on the successful execution of the deal," he said.

Also Read:

Defying Trump, US House of Representatives approves new Russia sanctions

--- ENDS ---
The duties provided below are general guidelines for the job description.The executive could be asked from time to time to do work outside of those listed below but will still be relevant to the...
By PTI: (Eds: Adding more information)

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate today got three more days from a Delhi court to interrogate a woman director of two Dubai-based firms, in connection with its probe in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper money laundering case.

Special judge Arvind Kumar extended the custody of Shivani Saxena, a director of Ms UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, both located in Dubai, after she was produced from her earlier ED custody.

advertisement

The ED had sought her custody for five days, alleging that she was required to be confronted with various incriminating documents to ascertain the proceeds of the crime and the money trail.

It also told the court that due to her poor health, the probe during her custody period moved at a slow pace.

Her advocate, however, opposed the plea citing her health condition.

The court will also hear arguments on Saxenas bail plea on July 29, the next day of hearing.

The ED had arrested Saxena on July 17 from Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

The agency had said she was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Saxena and her husband Rajiv are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The ED alleged that the two Dubai-based firms Saxena was involved with are those "through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others" in this case.

The agency had said that its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.

"These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to Ms UHY Saxena and Ms Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," it had said.

The ED had also claimed that Saxenas husband Rajiv is the "beneficial owner of Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius".

It alleged that both the Dubai companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm.

The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan last year and he is out on bail at present.

The probe in the deal had gathered pace after a Milan (Italy) court sometime back sentenced Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanicas former chief Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini on corruption charges in the sale of these helicopters to India.

advertisement

The Milan court order also mentions the name of former IAF chief S P Tyagi at several points.

Post this, the ED and the CBI began a fresh round of questioning of the accused in this case and collection of further evidences.

The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and had named 21 people, including Tyagi, in its money laundering FIR.

On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanicas British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal. PTI UK KUN

--- ENDS ---
Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission
NEW ROADS  The Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury is hoping state and local leaders can convince lending agencies holding the mortgages for residents living in a flood-prone area to suspend their monthly payments for at least six months.

The Police Jury is trying to give residents of the Pecan Acres, a low-income subdivision that has flooded at least 17 times in the last 20 years, some temporary relief while they ponder possible buyouts and relocation offers from state and federal housing agencies.

"A lot of these residents are being forced to make mortgage payments when they haven't finished repairing their homes (after the last flood)," Juror Cornell Dukes said at Tuesday night's meeting.

Residents from the Pecan Acres subdivision filled the jury chambers Tuesday night to hear updates from state officials regarding the potential buyout plan.

"It's a request that needs to be made," Dukes said. "That way, residents can have time to make a critical decision while there is help on the ground now."

There are only a small percentage of Pecan Acres residents who still owe on their homes, officials said Tuesday.

The Police Jury in January entered into a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in response to pressure from Pecan Acres residents.

Pecan Acres has been dubbed "Flood City" by residents who say the community has been swamped by storm waters at least 17 times over the past couple of decades. The community, which includes about 40 households, is inhabited primarily by low-income black and elderly residents and was built in an area that used to be a parish dumpsite.

Most homeowners can't afford flood insurance.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service program involves buying out homes in Pecan Acres and restoring the area to a flood plain after the homes and infrastructure have been demolished and removed. But there has to be 100 percent participation from every resident to implement the buyout.

Mark Riley, chief of staff for the state's Office of Community Development, informed residents Tuesday that his office has set aside funds that could be used to help Pecan Acres residents relocate and move into homes comparable to their current houses. Or, Riley added, the residents can choose to have the state rebuild a new subdivision on undeveloped land outside a designated flood zone if enough of them want to remain neighbors.

But the only way either option will be available to the residents is if they get every neighbor to participate in the buyout.

Residents of flood prone New Roads subdivision say they're wary of buyout program NEW ROADS  The Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury has entered into a partnership with a feder

"If we can't get decisions made, this money is going to go somewhere else," Riley told the residents. "As soon as NRCS says it's a go, we can start the process of identifying a piece of property (and/or) develop a community."

Parish officials intend to hold a community meeting in the next few weeks to poll residents about whether they'll take the buyout.

In the meantime, Riley appeared hopeful about the jury's resolution seeking the six-month suspension for mortgage payments.

"It's of value to the bank," Riley told the Police Jury. "They would rather see NRCS come in because then (lending agencies) will get their mortgage paid off instead of being stuck with it if they can't pay for whatever reason."
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand hugs his wife Shawn Normand after making a 'bittersweet' announcement that he is retiring as sheriff to fill the WWL Radio spot left vacant by Garland Robinette at JPSO headquarters in Harvey, La. Tuesday, July 25, 2017. State Senator Daniel Martiny claps behind them.
Praveen Yadav was charged in connection to the scam in 2012, the same year he cleared PMT (Pre-Medical Test). A resident of Maharajpur village, Yadav was running an oil mill.

By India Today Web Desk: An accused in the Vyapam scam, identified as Praveen Yadav allegedly committed suicide at his civil lines residence in Madhya Pradesh's Morena today early morning.

Yadav was charged in connection to the scam in 2012, the same year he cleared his PMT (Pre-Medical Test). A resident of Maharajpur village, Yadav was running an oil mill.

advertisement

Vyapam short for (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal) or Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) is an autonomous body that conducts major entrance exams for Madhya Pradesh government jobs.

The scam involved 13 different exams conducted by Vyapam, for selection of medical students and state government employees (including food inspectors, transport constables, police personnel, school teachers, dairy supply officers and forest guards). The exams were taken by around 3.2 million students.

Cases of irregularities in these entrance tests had been reported since the mid-1990s, and the first FIR was filed in 2000.

More than 40 people associated with the scam have died since the story broke in 2013.

With inputs from Hemender Singh

--- ENDS ---
They are the Canberra couple who met in Cyprus while on United Nations peacekeeping duties, she with the Australian Federal Police; he with the Irish national police, the An Garda Siochana.

Now they are turning their focus to helping the families of AFP and state or territory-based police officers who have been killed or who have died while in service.

Former member of the Irish national police Ken Brennan, with his partner the AFP's Sgt Louise McGregor on Route 66

Almost 40 riders will travel across America's heartland on the famous Route 66, raising a target of $70,000 for police legacy schemes across the nation.

Police legacy, entirely volunteer-run, helps families with a range of services including bereavement support, financial assistance, support to legatee children through their school and beyond and social activities including school holiday camps.
You never have to leave the house again, Canberra.

As winter hits its stride in the capital, McDonald's and UberEats have joined forces to launch McDelivery in the ACT.

McDonald's plans to extend to service to the entire territory. Credit:Erin Jonasson

From Wednesday, orders within a 10 minute delivery zone will be available from stores in Mitchell, Dickson, Manuka, Canberra City, Braddon, Woden Westfield and Belconnen, with plans to expand further in the future.

The full menu is available to order, from breakfast items, to McCafe coffees, and burgers, fries, salads, wraps, desserts throughout the day.
"Deal volumes are down... it's a competitive market again," said one person close to the CAF division. The unit isn't just junk debt, it also includes mundane businesses like aircraft leasing and auto finance. But its growth was driven by the bet on non-investment grade debt in the aftermath of the financial crisis. "It's not a conscious decision to wind it down," said Omkar Joshi, portfolio manager at Regal Funds Management, which doesn't have a position in Macquarie as it sees the shares as fairly valued. "It's just that the opportunities don't exist for the moment." The loans in the CAF book mature on average every three to five years, according to a Macquarie presentation. And with few new options, that's a concern for CAF's high-flying boss, 46-year-old Ben "Brains" Brazil, one of the bank's best paid executives. Casting around, CAF is increasing its presence in Britain, where it has been sizing up the mortgage market, and it is setting up an office in San Francisco, according to recruitment advertisements, to tap the technology sector.

It financed a 30 million ($49 million) acquisition of three office buildings in London in May, and last year supported a 300 million ($440 million) refinancing of a private hospital in Dublin. In New York, it's promoting itself as a provider of middle-market leveraged finance solutions. 'Ben's book' Sometimes referred to as "Ben's book", the CAF portfolio includes bonds, bank and mortgage debt, and loans that Macquarie originates. "The portfolio is predominantly senior secured loans which have numerous covenants and are secured against high quality assets - almost 90 per cent of these are to non-investment grade borrowers," a bank spokeswoman said in a statement. But part of the mystique around CAF is that even investors who follow Macquarie closely don't know what's in it.

The bank doesn't record mark-to-market gains and losses on the book because, it says, it holds the vast majority to maturity. This means shareholders don't see the highs and lows of what could be a volatile part of the business. That opacity also helps ward off prying eyes - and rivals. But healthier credit markets since the European banking crisis mean there is less disruption for Brazil's team to profit from, and more competition. Brazil's short-term bonus - a rough gauge analysts use to measure the junk book's profitability - slipped to $6.4 million in the year to March, from $6.7 million a year earlier. He declined to comment for this story.

Caveat emptor The son of an affluent Queensland farmer, Brazil joined Macquarie over two decades ago. He was the protege of the current CEO Nicholas Moore, and one of his first jobs was to advise the late media mogul Kerry Packer on a potential buyout of Qantas, the country's biggest airline. In 2006, he took part in a complex deal to start selling PBL Media, then run by Packer's son James, to private equity group CVC. He would go on to sit on the board of Packer's Crown Resorts. "He's very smart. When it comes to sniffing out opportunities in imperfectly priced markets, there are none better," said a Sydney lawyer who worked on the CVC deal. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the Rudd government said it would allow banks to pay a small fee in return for using the government's AAA rating to issue debt. Brazil swooped.

Stressed banks like Royal Bank of Scotland offloaded their loan portfolios at steep discounts to free up capital. The debt was cheap, but the quality was decent and - Brazil and Macquarie reckoned - likely to be repaid in full. Buyers could make 400 basis point spreads on a single trade, and there were principal gains on the maturing portfolio. For example, Brazil's team bought debt in motorway service station operator Tank & Rast Germany in 2009 by picking up senior loans from a distressed European bank. By the end of 2013, the company was able to refinance all its debt at par, realising what Brazil later described as a "significant profit", though he didn't disclose how much. "They were one of the few banks able to actually buy these loans, and at a good price, because their funding cost was much lower," Regal's Joshi said, raising the issue of the cheap funding behind the junk bond bet - which has prompted some public criticism of Macquarie. Then-treasurer Wayne Swan said the guarantee was necessary. "We acted in an entirely appropriate way and a way that basically stopped the destruction of a significant part of our economy at a really difficult time."

A Macquarie spokeswoman disputed that Macquarie took advantage of the guarantee, noting the bank's total loan assets fell while the guarantee was in place. It may take another major market jolt for Brazil's unit to cash in once again. "It was a great little opportunity while it lasted, but trying to recycle it is pretty tough," said a veteran banking analyst. Loading "They won't close it down. They'll just wait for credit spreads to blow out again and try to trade around it."
Car manufacturer Ford will face court over allegations it misled customers who had purchased faulty vehicles, and on-sold surrendered vehicles without disclosing their mechanical faults.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched proceedings against Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited on Wednesday, alleging the manufacturer had engaged in unconscionable and misleading or deceptive conduct, and made false or misleading representations in its response to customer complaints.

The complaints related to Ford's Focus, Fiesta and EcoSport vehicles, which experienced excessive shuddering and jerking when accelerating, loss of gear selection, sudden loss of power and excessive noisiness, due to a transmission system known as PowerShift Transmission.

All complaints related to models sold between 2011 and 2016. It is alleged that about half of the 70,000 vehicles sold had at least one repair relating to the transmission, while some vehicles were returned up to seven times.
Hotel developer Jerry Schwartz has joined forces with a Melbourne-based Liberman family-backed funds manager, Impact Investment Group, to develop the new Four Points by Sheraton in downtown Sydney.

IIG entered into put and call options with joint-venture developers Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia in April to acquire a hotel and an office building that form part of the Central Park precinct for about $190 million.

Jerry Schwartz has done a deal with Melbourne's Liberman family. Credit:Anthony Johnson

The buildings are due for completion in mid-2018. One is a six-level, 5413 sq m commercial office property known as '100 Broadway' and the other is the 297-room 'Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Central Park' hotel.

Both properties will be owned by IIG-run investment syndicates and it is understood Dr Schwartz has invested in the syndicate that will own the hotel.
"Hello, you have reached the United States of America. We're sorry no one is here to take your call right now. We have taken leave of our senses and are unsure when they'll return. Please try again in three-and-a-half years."

If America had a voice-mail message to the world, this would be it. We are running an experiment in exploring the consequences of suddenly having the world's most important power go absent without leave on the world stage.

George W. Bush had the War on Terror. Donald Trump has the War on Truth. Credit:AP

Some of the signs of US withdrawal have made international headlines. But some of the ways we are abandoning our leadership role are less visible. For example, few things are more directly associated with American leadership than our standing as a source of innovation, research, and scientific and technological expertise. Yet, President Donald Trump - who has struggled to successfully conceive or maintain many policy initiatives - has shown remarkable steadfastness in his campaign against science.

George W. Bush had the War on Terror. Donald Trump has the War on Truth.
A four-year fixed parliamentary term will always look pretty good to the incumbents and pretty bad to the challengers. That's one reason this important constitutional reform for Australia has been so long talked about but never achieved. Now there is an opportunity for progress, after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called for a cross-party push towards a referendum on it and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull seemed receptive to the idea.The two men have resolved to discuss it when next they meet.

The Herald has long backed a switch to four-year fixed terms. With non-fixed, three-year terms for the House of Representatives we are condemned to a perpetual election campaign, considering that the average life span of a federal government since 1910 has been only two and a half years. The ritual statement from defeated party leaders the day after an election  that their next campaign starts now  is not just rhetoric. While governments beholden to the 24/7 news cycle remain fixated on the next vote, long-term policymaking on complex issues looks too hard and too risky, and we end up with piecemeal but palatable change and fragile short-term fixes. There's not enough time to bed down big change, let alone get an idea of whether it's working, before the bells ring again for another bout at the ballot box. What else holds us back from much-needed changes to the tax system to increase fairness and efficiency? Why else are we still without an effective emissions trading mechanism or plausible policy on climate change?

Political co-operation alert: Fixed-term parliaments require bipartisan support. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

When, as now, federal elections must be held within three years of a new parliament's first sitting but a prime minister can call an early election at almost any time, the incumbent can manipulate the electoral cycle to his or her party's advantage. There's also the cost pointed out by Coalition MP David Coleman, who has put forward a private members' bill: businesses and consumers tend to hold off on spending decisions during election periods and the "phoney war" that precedes them.

Britain recently introduced fixed five-year terms and most other countries have four- or five-year terms, often fixed, at no apparent cost to their democracies. Australia is one of very few advanced democratic nations stuck with three-year terms. All our states except Tasmania now have four-year fixed terms.
The test case initiated by a Sikh man who claims a Christian school refused to enrol his five-year-old son if he wore a patka, the child's version of a turban, is fascinating and complex. And, in one of the world's most multicultural nations, it's potentially so divisive and significant that the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has intervened to assist the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal interpret the law "in a way that best promotes the rights of children".

Sagardeep Singh Arora argues Melton Christian College, which he wants his son Sidhak to attend because of its high standing in an area with a limited choice of schools, is breaching Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act by discriminating against his son, for whom the patka is an essential part of religious practice. The school, which has many non-Christian students, says it has the right to determine the uniform of its students.

Sagardeep Singh Arora with his son Sidhak.

Ostensibly, the school's position is reasonable, for schools do have the general right to set school uniforms. And religious schools such as Catholic, Islamic and Jewish colleges have the right to favour enrolments within their faiths and to insist that students are taught their faith's values and practices. Melton Christian College is relying on two exemptions in the state law, one that allows schools to enforce "reasonable" standards of dress for students, and another that allows a school that is "wholly or mainly for students of a particular sex, race [or] religious belief" to turn away students of a different group. Both propositions are rejected by the commission.

Overarching national law obliges schools not to discriminate, even indirectly, on the basis of race or physical features, and holds that a blanket rule is discriminatory if compliance would be unreasonable and result in a specific group being denied any human rights  which include the right to education. The school's principal, David Gleeson, says racial and religious differences between students "have no relevance to the classroom, in the playground, at school events, and that's because differences are invisible". Under national law, indirect discrimination can occur when an apparently neutral rule disproportionately affects a group.
The hearing lasted just six minutes, before Magistrate Duncan Reynolds adjourned the case to October 6. The cardinal leaves court, surrounded by police and a media pack. Credit:Jason South The cardinal will not have to formally enter a plea unless a magistrate decides there is enough evidence for him to stand trial. "It's only if the accused is committed to trial that he will be called upon to enter a formal plea," Mr Reynolds said. Cardinal George Pell, with his lawyer Robert Richter QC, leave court amid chaotic scenes. Credit:Jason South

Prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC, told the court it was important reporters and social media users "abide by the rules" when reporting the case and discussing it online. Mr Tinney said prosecutors were due to pass on the brief of evidence to Cardinal Pell's legal team by September 8, but would likely do so by next week. Cardinal George Pell, as he arrived at Melbourne Magistrates Court about 9am on Wednesday. Credit:Jason South Supporters gather with the media As the cardinal left the courtroom, four people in the foyer called out: "God bless you, Cardinal Pell."

Cardinal George Pell makes the trip from his lawyers' offices to Melbourne Magistrates Court. Credit:Justin McManus He emerged from the courthouse at 10.10am to chaotic scenes, as he was swarmed by the media pack that had assembled at the entrance. Police were forced to close part of Lonsdale Street as the cardinal, flanked by a dozen officers, made his way through the throng of reporters and camera crews. One woman repeatedly called out, "Shame on you George Pell," while another yelled: "Fair trial for George Pell". Another woman shouted: "How does it feel?" Cardinal George Pell leaves the car park of his lawyer's offices. Credit:TRACEY NEARMY

The cardinal did not respond to the comments and showed no emotion as he left the court building. He was pursued by photographers and camera crews along Lonsdale Street, before he disappeared into his lawyers' offices. Julie Cameron holds a painting of the Virgin Mary and child outside the Melbourne Magistrates Cout. Credit:Justin McManus Among the handful of supporters for Cardinal Pell was Karen Baxter, who held a sign that read, "Thanks for helping our family". She said she was not "here to say someone's innocent or someone's guilty", but wanted Cardinal Pell to be given the benefit of the doubt and not be subjected to trial by media.

A sketch of Cardinal George Pell in the courtroom. Credit:Joe Benke "I knew him as kid, when he was ordained as a bishop. We had no problem, he's always been nice to me," she said. "He's always been polite and friendly, he's always been very methodical in his thinking." She said the cardinal had ensured her adopted children could attend a Catholic school. "I have adopted children. They all go to a Catholic school," she said. "My kids wouldn't have got in if it wasn't for him personally; he made some of the Catholic schools affordable. My kids are benefiting from the effort he put in when he was bishop here."

A man standing next to Ms Baxter recited prayers as he held rosary beads. Another supporter, Beverley Hastie, said the cardinal had a lot of support in the Catholic community. "He came to all the dinners and debutante balls," she said. "He's a really nice, good guy, it's very sad that it's happened to him." The cardinal was not obliged to attend court on Wednesday, but said last month he was looking forward to his day in court, when he would vigorously defend the charges, and flew back to Australia a fortnight later. How the morning unfolded

Reporters, including a large crew from US broadcaster CNN, were assembled outside the court building well before 6am on Wednesday. The media pack steadily grew until the doors opened at 8.30am. Several protesters also arrived early, with one woman holding a framed painting of the Virgin Mary. The court long maintained it would take a business-as-usual approach to the high-profile case. Although he was surrounded by police when he arrived, the cardinal was screened by court security, like everyone else. The courtroom was opened at 9.15am. The small courtroom's 37 seats were quickly filled by media and members of the public. With only standing room left, media sketch artists had to sit in the dock.
The sexual transmission of HIV in gay couples can be stopped, a groundbreaking Australian study has shown.

In what has been described as "revolutionary" for gay people, the study proved the virus was no longer transmissible if the HIV-positive person had been properly treated.

The Opposites Attract study, conducted by UNSW Sydney's Kirby Institute, surveyed 343 couples where one man was HIV positive and the other HIV negative.

In each case, the HIV-positive partner had been treated to achieve an undetectable viral load.
A woman has been arrested after allegedly holding a knife to a teenage boy in a park in Sydney's west on Wednesday afternoon.

Dramatic footage of the incident shows the woman, 28, allegedly threatening the boy, 13, before police disarm her.

Police said the woman was taken into custody on Centenary Road, South Wentworthville about 4.45pm on Wednesday after they received reports of a concern for welfare.

The woman allegedly assaulted the child and threatened him with a knife as he lay on the ground.
When was the last time you had a proper sick day? That is, you took the full day and night off, stayed in bed and avoided work emails, phone calls and tasks.

For many, a sick day now means telling the boss you will work from home. In between sneezing and wheezing, you answer work emails and finish urgent tasks.

The problem is when staff who should be in bed blur their sick day with a work day, prolonging their illness.

Although better than going to work, it is hardly a true sick day. Stupidly, you "soldier on", when the sensible thing is to be in bed and sleep off a nasty cold.

I thought about sick days after a colleague complained about working when ill. Her company is so short-staffed that it's near impossible to have a sick day at short notice. Taking the day off means more work and stress when she returns.
Before there was "fake news"  and before there was anyone around to debunk it on the internet  there was Snopes.com. The fact-checking site started busting myths, blasting urban legends and generally calling out bull in 1994, well before many people even got near a Web browser.

But here's an apparently true fact about Snopes itself: the pioneering site says it may not last much longer.

Snopes.com is asking readers to donate money to keep the lights on.

In a note posted on the site this week, Snopes  which has debunked stories about everything from Bigfoot to Miranda Cosgrove to US President Donald Trump  said it was "in danger of closing its doors" as a result of a legal dispute with an "outside vendor." Snopes is asking its readers for contributions as the dispute drags on.

Originally hoping to raise $500,000 in donations, the site had more than $582,000 in pledges at the time of publication.
Police are searching for five siblings from East Gippsland who have been missing for two days.

The children, 13-year-old Savannah Tomlins, 11-year-old Indiana Bohning, nine-year-old Charlie-Beth Dargie, seven-year-old D'Artagan Clark and five-year-old Lynkon Quigley, were last spotted in Orbost on Monday.

A photo of three of the five missing Victorian siblings who were last seen in Orbost, East Gippsland on Monday.

Victoria Police said in a statement that there were concerns for the children's welfare due to their ages.

A Victoria police spokeswoman said it was believed they may be with the father of one of the children in the Bairnsdale area, more than 90 kilometres away from where they were last seen.
A muesli company director has been charged with the murder of a co-director who was stabbed at her Richmond home.

Peter Pavlis, 75, of Richmond, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court for an out-of-sessions hearing on Wednesday night.

Jennifer Borchardt, 49, was found dead in a pool of blood inside her kitchen at her Westbank Terrace house about 4pm on Tuesday after she failed to show up at work.

In documents tendered to the court, police allege Mr Pavlis murdered Ms Borchardt on Tuesday.
A police officer has been accused of raping a 16-year-old girl at a park in Mildura, the latest allegation of serious predatory behaviour being investigated by an internal taskforce.

It is understood the girl has taken an intervention order out against the officer, preventing him from contacting or approaching her, after she made allegations of multiple sexual assaults.

A police officer is being investigated for the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl. Credit:Georgia Matts

A senior constable was arrested on January 25 as part of the Taskforce Salus investigation, and suspended with pay.

But it is unclear why it took more than two months after the complaint was made for taskforce detectives to interview the girl, whether the girl is the only alleged victim, and whether the offences occurred while the officer was on duty.
Perth is set to be blasted by freezing temperatures, heavy rainfall and gusty winds on the weekend as two strong cold fronts build momentum off the WA coast.

The first cold front is due to hit late on Thursday evening, and is expected to deliver massive amounts of rainfall through to Sunday morning.

The rain is set to wash out the weekend in Perth after a deluge on Wednesday morning. Credit:Tim Carrier

Weatherzone senior meteorologist Jacob Cronje said Perth residents should batten down the hatches for heavy rain, gusty winds and a potential thunderstorm.

"The first pretty big cold front will be coming through late on Thursday and should be around until Sunday morning," he said.
London: Hospitals have become "soft targets" in the war on terror, French medical experts have warned.

And they say countries facing terror threats must prepare to deal with attacks with chemical weapons such as sarin or mustard gas, and attacks targeted at "iconic victims" such as children or emergency care responders.

A group of French doctors have set out lessons learnt and advice for dealing with future terror attacks in a review in leading medical journal The Lancet, published on Wednesday.

After the terror attacks in November 2015, French paediatric surgeons realised they did not have enough experience treating the kind of injuries that could have occurred if the attackers had succeeded in their attempt to get a bomb inside the Stade de France.
Washington: Russia has reacted to new sanctions approved by the US House of Representatives saying it takes the relations between the two countries "into uncharted waters".

The House approved a sweeping package of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday US time, clearing a key hurdle in Congress' effort long opposed by the Trump administration, to punish Moscow for its aggression toward its neighbours and interference in last year's US presidential election.

The landslide vote, 419-3, brings President Donald Trump one step closer to a choice he has strained to avoid: whether to sign legislation that is embraced by Republicans in both the House and the Senate but which undercuts his attempts to ratchet down tensions with Moscow, or to veto the bill even as Russia-related scandal consumes his administration.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the country's Interfax news agency on Wednesday saying the sanctions against Russia leave no room to improve ties between Moscow and Washington in the near future.
Moscow: Russian legislators called on Wednesday for "painful" measures against the United States in response to plans for new US sanctions, while the Kremlin focused more on the damage to relations between Washington and Moscow.

Apart from demanding a tough response, many in Russia declared dead any hope for improved relations with Washington under a Trump administration, and there were suggestions that European pique over the proposed measures created an opening for an anti-US alliance.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, noted that the proposed US law was still a draft. The House and the Senate must reconcile their versions before submitting it for President Donald Trump's signature.

Any substantial response by Putin would require more study, Peskov said. Using one of Trump's favourite adjectives in describing the law, he said, "In the meantime, it can be said that the news is quite sad with regard to Russia-US relations and prospects for their development." He added that it was "no less depressing with regard to the international law and international commercial relations."
Athens/Moscow/New York: A Russian man suspected of being the anonymous mastermind behind one of the world's oldest crypto-currency exchanges and of laundering at least $US4 billion ($5 billion) has been arrested in Greece, police and sources said on Wednesday.

Police sources identified him as Alexander Vinnik, 38, who was arrested after a tip-off in a small beachside village in northern Greece on a US warrant. Police said the United States would seek to extradite him.

Two sources close to the BTC-e virtual currency exchange, who declined to be identified while the case was open, said Vinnik was a key person behind the platform, which has been offline since reporting "technical problems" late on Tuesday.

"An internationally sought 'mastermind' of a crime organisation has been arrested" Greek police said in a statement. "Since 2011 the 38-year-old has been running a criminal organisation which administers one of the most important websites of electronic crime in the world."
Mr Mattis cautioned at the time that the delay "in no way presupposes the outcome". "Since becoming the Secretary of Defence, I have emphasised that the Department of Defence must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?" Mr Mattis said last month in a statement. "Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America's military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services." The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment. It was unclear whether Mr Trump's action applied to transgender people already in the military or only new recruits. It also was unclear what legal mechanism Mr Trump could use to forcibly discharge existing transgender troops. US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis had ordered a review into transgender people serving in the military. Credit:Cliff Owen The Senate's most prominent veteran, Armed Forces Committee Chairman John McCain, called Mr Trump's announcement "unclear", an example of why policy announcements should not be made on Twitter, and inappropriate given an ongoing Pentagon study on the issue.

"I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress," said Mr McCain, a Navy pilot and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. John McCain was among Republicans speaking out against the president's announcement. Credit:AP The senator noted there were already transgender people serving in the US military: "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military - regardless of their gender identity." Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said "transgender people are people" and that "I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone." Chelsea Manning, the transgender former soldier, denounced the decision. Credit:Twitter/@xychelsea87

Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified data, said Mr Trump's action "sounds like cowardice." Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner defended "patriotic transgender Americans" in the military and asked the president on Twitter, "What happened to your promise to fight for them?" Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council advocacy group, was among those praising the announcement. "Our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically correct distractions," he said. Under the former defence secretary, Mr Carter, the military lifted the ban on transgender troops and was given one year to determine how to implement a policy that would allow transgender service members to receive medical care and would ban the services from involuntarily separating people in the military who came out as transgender. Thousands of troops currently serving in the military are transgender, and some estimates place the number as high as 11,000 in the reserves and active duty military, according to a RAND Corporation study that has been cited by the Defence Department. Following Mr Mattis' announcement last month, Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Centre, a think tank that has helped the Pentagon research transgender people serving in the military, released a statement condemning the move.

"For the past year, transgender troops have been serving openly and have been widely praised by their Commanders, as is the case in 18 allied militaries around the world including Israel and Britain," Mr Belkin said. "Yet members of Congress are denigrating the value of military service by transgender troops, and Service Chiefs are pressuring Secretary Mattis to continue the transgender enlistment ban despite having no new arguments or data to back up their long-discredited assertions. "In light of the success of transgender military service, the extensive research confirming that inclusive policy promotes readiness, and the sad history of 'don't ask, don't tell', loyally-serving transgender troops deserve to know whether Secretary Mattis stands by the claim he made at his confirmation hearing that LGBT troops can indeed serve in a 'lethal' military. Stonewalling on full inclusion will, just like 'don't ask, don't tell', compromise military readiness." Richard Soccarides, a longtime gay rights advocate who advised Bill Clinton on gay men and lesbians serving in uniform, called Mr Trump's decision "a tragic betrayal of all LGBT Americans and a shameful effort to win over social conservatives at the expense the vulnerable". "But, what Trump will now learn: don't mess with us," Mr Soccarides said. "This gets him a fight he will not win." Mr Carter also criticised the decision on Wednesday.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Mr Carter said in a statement, noting there were already transgender individuals serving "capably and honorably." Gay rights and transgender organisations have long threatened legal action against the Pentagon if it decided to roll back or hinder the service of transgender troops. Their legal and political advocacy successfully convinced Congress and President Barack Obama to repeal the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gay troops through legislation. Mr Trump's announcement comes two weeks after the House rejected an amendment to the annual defence policy bill that would have blocked the Pentagon from offering gender transition therapies to active duty service members. Twenty-four Republicans joined all 190 Democrats voting to reject the measure. But the issue has remained a pet cause for House conservatives, who believe the federal government should not be funding gender reassignments. Conservatives have offered several amendments to a pending appropriations bill funding the military that would target transgender service members. But not would exclude them from serving entirely. During the debate on the initial amendment, Republican Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, argued for the therapy restriction but explicitly stopped short of calling for an overall ban: "We're not stopping transgender people from joining. We're saying taxpayers in this country right now are not going to foot the bill for it."
Bangkok: Six years after being swept into power on a landslide victory Thailand's first female prime minister is facing financial ruin and jail.

But Yingluck Shinawatra, whose fairytale leadership ended before generals toppled her administration in a 2014 coup, has denied speculation she intends to flee the country like her famous elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who has lived in exile for more than a decade.

"What I can say is that I'm still strong and ready to fight to prove my innocence," she said in a Facebook post.

Ms Yingluck questioned a move by the military government in Bangkok to freeze her assets in relation to a $US1 billion ($1.2 billion) fine imposed over one of her government's policies to subsidise rice farmers, the latest in a barrage of legal battles she has fought since leaving office.
Leretta Choate, Terri Burger and Billie Rae Smith decided on a night out Tuesday and stopped by Texas Roadhouse.

But it wasn't just to get a serving of rolls with some cinnamon honey butter or to cut into a rib-eye steak. The group of friends came to the restaurant specifically so they could donate to Tip-A-Cop.

The Tip-A-Cop event features Brazos County law enforcement and firefighters who work as servers to raise money for Special Olympics. While most agencies statewide will devote Thursday to the Tip-A-Cop event, the Bryan and College Station organizers stretch out the act of service to four days. Tuesday was the second night for the event.

For Choate, Burger and Smith, they say they couldn't get by without first responders. Burger said police and firefighters helped her at her home in Wheeler Ridge after the 2016 tornado. Smith said she likes that Tip-A-Cop supports the Special Olympics, as she is a special education teacher with College Station ISD.

"Special Olympics is great," she said. "It gives kids an opportunity to excel and participate in physical activity and fitness. It's something they can do all their lives, not just in school. It's also life-changing for anybody who volunteers with Special Olympics."

While Texas Roadhouse's staff still takes food orders and accepts regular gratuities, first responders refill drinks, deliver rolls and clean tables, all while collecting for charity. Tuesday's theme was "Tip-A-Firefighter," and children were provided with firefighting hats, wait staff dressed as firefighters and local firefighters helped out police officers. On Monday, volunteers collected $8,000 in eight hours -- breaking a Bryan-College Station Tip-A-Cop record for opening night.

Lead organizer Bryan police Sgt. Jason James said that after raising $29,000 total last year, he hopes Tip-A-Cop will break $30,000 by Friday.

Rick Wagner, a volunteer firefighter with Brazos County VFD District 2, picked up steady donations before it even hit 5 p.m. Tuesday.

"I'm retired, but in my previous life I've done Tip-A-Cop since its existence, when I was with law enforcement in California," Wagner said.

Wagner said a large majority of those he served donated money, and children were excited to get plastic firefighting hats.

Katie Duffee, a Texas A&M student and Texas Roadhouse manager, said it's evident that the Brazos Valley community is eager to donate to and participate in Tip-A-Cop. She said the wait staff enjoy participating by dressing up for theme nights, and it's all around a positive experience.

"I think it's an amazing event [the officers] are having for a great cause, taking time out of their busy line of work for those kids," she said.

There are still two nights of Tip-A-Cop left at the College Station Texas Roadhouse. Tonight's theme will be "cops and robbers," where wait staff will be dressed like "robbers" next to the uniformed police officers. Thursday night the public is invited to wear Special Olympics Torch Run T-shirts. T-shirts can be purchased from Tip-A-Cop volunteers at Texas Roadhouse each night. Donations may be made at the restaurant from 3 p.m. till closing both evenings.
The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service Fire School's public demonstration is scheduled for this evening.

The event will be at the Brayton Fire Training Field, 1595 Nuclear Science Road, with gates opening at 6:30 p.m. A children's fire-awareness class will begin at 7 p.m. and afterward, TEEX instructors will explain and demonstrate techniques used to extinguish fires on several full-scale, live-fire training props.

This year's annual school began Sunday and lasts through Friday. Thousands of firefighters have streamed into Bryan-College Station to attend.

Tonight's public demonstration event is free and open to the public.
About 35 per cent of British Columbia's 11,000 active oil wells, abandoned wells and water injection wells in the northeastern part of the province are leaking significant amounts of methane, according to a forthcoming new study.

The report will be released later in the summer and submitted to the industry-funded British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission.

Researchers with the David Suzuki Foundation measured leaks from abandoned, suspended, shut-in and active oil wells in the Montney shale gas play near Fort St. John.

According to John Werring, senior science and policy advisor to the Foundation, the study found that the average rate of flow of methane gas from surface casing vents from oil wells was conservatively estimated to be between nine and 11 cubic metres per day. That amounts to 14.2 million cubic metres, or 10,617 metric tonnes of methane a year from roughly 11,079 active oil wells, alongside abandoned, suspended and water disposal wells in B.C., said Werring.

Surface casing vent flow, or leaks at the wellhead, often signal failed well integrity. Cement seals erode and crumble as they age, creating pathways for methane to migrate to the surface.

"Methane leaks from abandoned wells are a huge problem and issue in this province," said Werring. "As Alberta goes, so too does B.C."

Both provinces have similar legislation that gives industry an indefinite time period to clean up inactive wells. Neither province has required industry to set aside even a fraction of the funds necessary to cover the cost of fixing these environmental liabilities.

The new study follows research with a mobile sensor mounted on a vehicle that detected large amounts of methane emanating from oil and gas wells in northeastern B.C.

That peer-reviewed study found that methane emissions from B.C.'s shale gas basins are now at least 2.5 times higher than provincial government estimates. That makes the oil and gas sector the largest source of climate pollution in B.C., a greater source of pollution than commercial transportation.

"The field study told us methane was floating around the region, but we didn't know if it was coming from venting from pneumatic devices or leaks from the wellhead," explained Werring.

Last August, Werring used a Flir infrared camera to identify the source of methane leaks at well sites. Where possible he put a balloon over the leak, and then measured the length and width of the balloon to calculate the volume of methane being leaked over time.

With a Flir camera, "The vapour coming off the sites looks like smoke," Werring said.

Of 178 wells that Werring examined, 62 were abandoned or suspended wells. Twenty-nine per cent of these wells were leaking methane.

Werring also took images and methane samples from 25 producing oil wells and found that seven were leakers, or 28 per cent. In addition, more than half of all water injection wells were leaking methane, too.

The new study also found that 86 per cent of pneumatic devices, which help to control the flow of gas, at the provinces 12,000 gas well sites were venting methane into the atmosphere.

"The number one reason the industry is not dealing with the problem is the cost. It has nothing to do with the technology," said Werring.

In jurisdictions such as B.C. and Alberta where the oil and gas industry is not required to post reclamation and clean up bonds, there is no incentive for industry to address these environmental liabilities.

"The problem is getting worse as the wells age, and the clean up of these wells shouldn't be put on the back of taxpayers," Werring said.

Out of 25,000 wells drilled in B.C in the last 100 years, nearly 7,000 have been abandoned and nearly 3,000 are inactive and await proper cement plugging and reclamation

This Author

Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about the energy industry for two decades and is a contributing editor to The Tyee

*This article is shared with the Ecologist by www.TheTyee.ca
A Franklin County preliminary rendering of the multi-use trail shows the path connecting Booker T. Washington National Monument with Sunken City Brewery, Carilion Clinics new fitness and wellness center, the Runk & Pratt senior living community and businesses in Westlake Towne Center.

HARDY  Franklin County and the Booker T. Washington National Monument have been awarded a federal grant to build a multi-use trail in the Westlake community connecting to the national park.

The county will receive $617,412 from the Federal Highway Administrations Federal Lands Access Program.

The funding is technically for fiscal year 2019, which means construction of the trail likely wont begin until fall of 2018, said Steve Sandy, the countys director of planning and community development. But he hopes some money will become available earlier to allow for preliminary engineering and environmental work to be completed in the next year.

The project is, in a sense, a continuation of the work of the citizen advisory committee whose findings helped shape the Westlake-Hales Ford Area Plan adopted by the county in November. The land-use plan is meant to serve as a guide for the future growth and development of the area.

Even after the citizen advisory committee completed its work, individuals interested in trails continued to meet to discuss how to bring them to the Westlake area.

When Carla Whitfield, superintendent of Booker T. Washington National Monument, heard about the federal grant, she pitched it to the group. The park worked with the countys planning and parks and recreation departments to submit the grant application.

The trail is designed as a 2-mile loop with what Sandy describes as a spur off the trail leading to the national park. The connection to the park will be gated, as that portion of the trail will only be open during regular park hours, he said.

The grant provides 81.5 percent of the funding, and the remaining 18.5 percent will be covered by a local match. But Sandy said that match doesnt necessarily have to come from the county. Other grants, private donations and in-kind services could cover the roughly $151,000 still needed for the project.

Carilion Clinic, Runk & Pratt and the Willard Companies have discussed dedicating easements for the trail to the county, though nothing is official yet, Sandy said.

The hope is that this multi-use trail, which will allow for biking, running and walking, will be the first step toward building a trail network in Westlake.

It could certainly stand alone by itself, but the whole idea would be to have some more connections in the future, Sandy said.

Whitfield said she hopes the trail will bring people to Booker T. Washington National Monument more regularly  not just when their relatives are in town.

The trail provides an alternative entrance to the park located off the highway, which isnt ideal for walkers or bicyclists, Whitfield said.

With so many active seniors in the community, theres a great demand for recreational opportunities, she said. This trail meets that need, while also giving the park a boost.

This may be one of those kind of activities that will bring people in just by happenstance, Whitfield said. Get on a trail and oh looky looky, youre right here in the park.

Gills Creek District Supervisor Bob Camicia said the trail will provide access not just to the Booker T. Washington National Monument, but also the businesses in Westlake Towne Center, Carilion Clinics new fitness and wellness center and the Runk & Pratt senior living community, all of which are located along the trail. It even runs by local brewery Sunken City, he noted.

Its connecting the whole place. I think because of that a lot of people will find it of interest and theyll utilize it, Camicia said.

The supervisor said hes glad to see county staff and citizens in his district work to implement the plan, when a lot of times we just do plans and we put them on the shelf.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Connecticut is building a strong residential real-estate market  and one that appears to have a foundation for more growth, experts say.

Some seven years after the end of the states last recession, home sales are showing signs of a significant recovery. Both volume and prices rose in 2016, and Realtors are seeing similar gains this year. While the revival is not complete, many real-estate agents anticipate sustained demand for their listings as buyers grow in confidence.

At the entry-level markets  whether its Stamford, Norwalk or Fairfield  its hot, Craig Oshrin, a Stamford-based Realtor with Coldwell Banker, said in an interview this week. Stuff is going quick.

Gaining momentum

In 2016, the number of sales increased significantly, a trend state officials attributed to a generally improved economy, higher consumer confidence and low mortgage rates.

The states single-family home sales hit 32,235 in 2016, up about 9 percent from the 2015 total and a nine-year high, according to statistics from real-estate data firm The Warren Group cited in this months edition of the state Department of Labors Economic Digest.

Statewide, June sales of single-family homes in Connecticut increased 6.4 percent to about 4,450, according to the Connecticut Association of Realtors.

Home prices have taken longer to recover, although they are edging upwards. The median single-family homes sales total ticked up 0.4 percent to $247,000 in 2016, according to The Warren Group. The 2016 median price still trailed the 2007 peak of $295,000.

The median Fairfield County home sold for $538,000 in June, according to Stamford-based William Pitt Sothebys International Realty, up 7.5 percent from a year ago. The median Connecticut home sold for $280,000, a 1.8 percent lift from June 2016, according to the Connecticut Association of Realtors.

Stamford, Norwalk, Westport and Fairfield were among the select southwestern Connecticut municipalities to record gains in home sales, average prices and median prices in the first six months of 2017, compared with the same stretch a year ago, according to Smart MLS data.

Sellers are not satisfied  its still a buyers market, said Peg Koellmer, owner of Realty Seven in Wilton and president of the Westport-based Mid-Fairfield County Association of Realtors. But the buyers are not getting the red-hot deals they are thinking are out there.

Reflecting increased competition among buyers, Oshrin said he has been involved this year with 15 sales of Fairfield County homes that have each attracted multiple bids.

A good agent works with their clients and is well-informed about the market and potential problems, Oshrin said. That was the one thing I noticed in some of our multi-bid situations was how my clients would play the negotiation tactics, and sometimes I would find myself in a challenging moment.

Matt Rose, of Matt Rose Realty Group: Keller Williams, describes similar trends in northern Fairfield County. He said he sold a house this summer in Danbury that was on the market for one day  and his client was competing with other buyers.

Such cases are becoming more common, especially with homes going for less than $300,000, Rose said. Homes with other price points, such as $600,000 to $650,000, are also attracting strong interest, he said.

Even in the last six months, weve seen a surge, Rose said. Were definitely seeing that type of movement here (in greater Danbury). Its a strong market. Its good for the seller but can be tough on the buyer because they are bidding against other buyers.

At the upper end of the market in Greenwich, Realtors also see auspicious signs. A jump in sales of homes between $5 and $8 million from the first quarter shows confidence in the market, said Cynthia De Riemer, a Greenwich realtor with Coldwell Banker.

And at the low end of Greenwichs market  properties going for less than $1 million  homes are getting gobbled up, she said.

Five to seven months of inventory is considered a balanced market, and right now, we only have three months of inventory under a million, De Riemer said. If something comes on the market under a million, it gets snapped up quickly.

The trend has helped spur what Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants, described as a rapid acceleration in the pace of the market in Byram, Glenville and Pemberwick in the firms second-quarter analysis of Greenwich home sales published by Douglas Elliman Real Estate last week.

Those three sections of Greenwich boast many homes at opening price points and buyers see a lot of value there, De Riemer said.

More growth?

Real estate experts are expecting the market to continue performing solidly through 2017.

Existing homes sales are projected to grow roughly 2 percent this year, while median home prices are projected to rise around 4 percent, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.

With Stamford, Trumbull and the Norwalk markets, were functioning really well, Oshrin said. People are still going to buy.

As the market recovers, some new trends could be emerging. A boom autumn market in 2016 deviated from the patterns of previous years.

We dont know what the busy season is anymore, Koellmer said. Last fall was an incredible market. ... Is that a new normal? I dont know  I hope so.

Macaela J. Bennett, Chris Bosak and Alexander Soule contributed reporting to this article.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
Real estate site Estately scoured Guinness World Records to find some of the strangest things each state has broken a "largest" record for.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  After Paul Manafort declined an invitation to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his interactions with Russian officials while serving as President Donald Trumps campaign manager, the panel Tuesday forced the issue with a subpoena.

But according to Politico and other publications, the Judiciary Committee rescinded the subpoena Tuesday, because Manafort had agreed to talk to investigators.

Late Monday, Manafort agreed to produce documents an negotiate the date of a future interview with the committee. In exchange, the committee withdrew the subpoena.

Faced with issuance of a subpoena, we are happy that Mr. Manafort has started producing documents to the Committee and we have agreed to continue negotiating over a transcribed interview, Grassley and Feinstein, said in a statement.

Manafort, through his lawyer, had told Grassley and Feinstein he would only provide one transcribed interview to Congress. The 68-year-old New Britain resident appeared early Tuesday before staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the Senates main investigation of the Trump-Russia affair.

Manafort served as Trumps campaign chairman between March and August 2016.

The political spotlight refocused on him when reports emerged earlier this month that Manafort, along with Trumps eldest son, Donald Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York.

In emails to Trump Jr., the Russian lawyer was said to be from the Russian government and would furnish damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In front of the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Manafort recalled his role in the June meeting and handed over notes documenting it. He agreed to meet with the committee again at a later date to discuss other topics, The Associated Press reported.

Manaforts spokesman, Jason Maloni, said he answered their questions fully.

Blumenthal has said all along he wants Manafort and Trump Jr. to testify in the open and under oath, with all requested documents provided.

Far from a bit player in the unfolding Trump campaign-Russia investigation, Manafort may well prove to be at the center, Blumenthal said.

He was the campaign manager; that is hardly a lower-level technocratic functionary, Blumenthal said.

He had a lot of connections to Russians; they knew him well. The whole purpose of the investigation is to know who said what, who knew what and when they knew it, including the president of the United States.

Cayla.harris@hearstdc.com
NORWALK  As part of a nationwide initiative to boost police-community partnerships, Norwalk police will host an evening filled with food, fun, and education.

Known as National Night Out, the annual community-building campaign will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Norwalk police headquarters, 1 Monroe St.
Noonee

Look, it's fairly easy to dismiss The Chairless Chair -- a wearable exoskeleton developed by Swiss company Noonee that allows you to sit wherever -- as a ridiculous piece of technology.

But once you shake off the initial giggles of seeing someone wearing a robot suit and squatting by their workstation, the applications of the device become clear. For people who work with heavy machinery or on production lines or do other jobs that require long periods of standing, The Chairless Chair could be a lifesaver.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NORWALK  The father of fallen Norwalk soldier Wilfredo Perez Jr. has asked the city for approval to install at Oyster Shell Park a monument honoring Connecticut servicemen and women who volunteered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

We are writing to formally ask the City of Norwalk to approve the location at the top of Oyster Shell Park for the monuments honoring our states soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq & Afghanistan, wrote Wilfredo Perez Sr. in a letter to the Department of Recreation and Parks. We are pricing the monuments and are ready to put our 3rd mission objection in motion.

The Wilfredo Perez Jr. Memorial Fund was founded in honor of U.S. Army Specialist Wilfredo Perez Jr., who was killed July 26, 2003, while guarding a childrens hospital in Baqubah, Iraq. Two other soldiers, Sgt. Daniel K. Methvin and Spc. Jonathan P. Barnes, also lost their lives in the grenade attack.

In his request to the city, Perez Sr. said the funds mission is to award annual scholarships to college-bound ROTC cadets at Norwalk and Brien McMahon high schools, support Connecticut nonprofit veterans organizations, and erect a memorial to the 65 Connecticut soldiers who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A monument such as this will not only honor the brave men and women from out state who have sacrificed all, but also serve as solemn reminder, Perez Sr. wrote. Further, it will assure future generations that we value their service and sacrifice.

Perez Sr. provided the parks department a conceptual drawing, showing six memorial stone pillars placed in existing stone planter beds in the paved circular gathering area atop Oyster Shell Park. A flagpole stands at the middle.

Members of the Common Council Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee reviewed the drawing and discussed Perez Sr.s request at their July 12 meeting. While committee members supported the concept, there was disagreement about the location.

Mr. Perez, hes been doing great by his son, but I think the city, weve given him several memorial sites, said Councilman Travis Simms, a District B Democrat who chairs the committee. We have to kind of look at the bigger picture. Veterans Park was built for that reason: to honor our veterans.

Simms said placing the monument elsewhere  such as Oyster Shell Park  would be a disservice to the city and to Veterans Park.

I think its beautiful, Simms said of the proposed monument. However, I think these would be more fitting in Veterans Memorial Park.

Council Majority Leader John Kydes, a District C Democrat who also sits on the committee, isnt averse to providing the space at Oyster Shell Park given its proximity to Interstate 95.

Some committee members felt it would be more appropriate for the memorial to be at Veterans Memorial Park, Kydes said. But I like the idea of a flag pole and monument that would be visible from the highway. Im curious to see what the Arts Commission recommends. I dont mind the idea of it being at Oyster Shell Park. Its an underutilized park that could use some more attention.

The committee decided to seek input from the Norwalk Arts Commission, which is scheduled to discuss the matter Aug. 8.

Perez Jr. was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but spent most of his young life in Norwalk. In 2007, the I-95 bridge over West Avenue was named after him. A monument honoring him also stands along outside The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.
Some area shelter dogs learned new tricks thanks to kids at an Edgerton Explorit Center camp.

Edgerton held the Mars Petcare Canine Sciences Camp last week, July 17-21, at the Central Nebraska Humane Society. Edgertons executive director, Mary Molliconi, said the camp is in its fifth year. This is the second year the camp has partnered with CNHS. The camp has continued to also partner with Auroras pet shelter, Aurora Adopt a Pet. The Aurora petcare camp was held the previous week, July 10-14.

During the camp, kids get to learn about how to care for dogs, obedience training, make dog treats and collars and hear from several speakers, such as local veterinarians. The kids can bring their own dogs in for the camp or work with shelter dogs. Participants in the Grand Island petcare camp heard from Dr. Wilcox Morris at Stolley Park Veterinary Hospital, worked with three trainers and got to see a K-9 State Patrol demonstration. The three trainers who volunteered their time to help the kids were Tara Peterson, Kelli Eriksen and Chelsea Murphy.

At the end of the week, the campers have a graduation ceremony with their dogs they worked with throughout the week. They do tests on what they learned, including taking their dog through the agility course.

Its fun to see the shelter dogs and how excited they are to work with the kids, Molliconi said.

The kids learn about dog nutrition and anatomy during the week, too. The Grand Island camp is held in a large room at CNHS for three hours each day, making it convenient for the program and a partnership.

Cole Epp, 11, worked with shelter dog Ensley throughout the week at CNHS. Ensley is a female gray and white pitbull. She is four years old and is still up for adoption. Epp said he liked working with Ensley and that she is very smart and very nice. Hes done the camp for the last three years.

I just like dogs so much, Epp said.

He said having the camp at the Aurora Adopt a Pet and the Central Nebraska Humane Society is neat because he gets to see a lot of different dogs.

Molliconi and Laurie Dethloff, CNHS executive director, said throughout the partnership with the camp and shelter, some dogs have been adopted by kids who worked with them at the camp.

Clara Garton, 8, of Grand Island said this year was her first time participating in the camp. After finding out she wasnt able to do a different camp she originally chose to do through Edgerton, she chose the petcare camp.

I thought, Hmm. I have a dog, I could do this camp, Garton said.

She worked with Cuddles, her beagle and longhair doxen mix. She said hes about five or six years old. Before the camp, Garton said Cuddles didnt know a lot of tricks, but he was potty trained. She worked with Cuddles on the agility course and how to do a figure-8 through cones.

Garton said her favorite part of the camp is that I can be here with Cuddles and train him.

The dates arent set in stone for next years camp, but they usually happen in June and July, Molliconi said. For more information on the camps or how to register, call the Edgerton Explorit Center at (402) 694-4032 or visit www.Edgerton.org.
The calendar says that Nebraskas sesquicentennial year is half over, but Grand Island residents still have plenty of opportunities to enjoy events commemorating the states 150th anniversary, with the first one occurring this Sunday at Stuhr Museum, which also happens to be celebrating its 50th year of operation.

Mike Bockoven, marketing director at Stuhr Museum and also a member of the Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission, told members of the Grand Island Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon that Painting the Legacy of Nebraska, which features more than 100 paintings by internationally known artist Todd Williams, is now showing at Stuhr.

Bockoven said the sesquicentennial commissions work includes creating events to celebrate the 150th year of Nebraska statehood and then create awareness of those events. He said the commission also assigns status to different long-standing groups who put on an annual event or perhaps have created a special event to celebrate the sesquicentennial. That gives those groups the right to say, We are now part of Nebraskas 150th anniversary celebration. The commission grants status to groups and events that have some historic value or societal value or are in some way making an effort to be in the spirit of the 150th celebration this year.

He said the commission also creates special events, one of which includes the Nebraska 150Express, which will be celebrated in Grand Island from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, at 280 E. Front Street. The event will involve the Streamliners, Union Pacifics high-speed diesel-electrics. Locomotives 951, 949 and 963B are the last of Union Pacifics high-speed diesel-electrics in existence.

Bockoven said the locomotives are famous for their classic design, which is what he pictures whenever he thinks of a Union Pacific locomotive. He noted the locomotives will be doing a whistle-stop tour across the entire state, with Gering serving as the stop farthest west and Grand Island serving as the final stop before the locomotives arrive back in Omaha.

Around 11:55 p.m. these trains are going to pull up Railside (downtown Grand Island), said Bockoven, who noted the stop in Grand Island will last about an hour. However, the Grand Island celebration will start earlier so that there will be a welcoming party. The front of the train should stop about even with the YMCA.

The Grand Island event will feature performances by the Grand Island Senior High cheerleaders, Grand Island Northwest High School Band and United Veterans Honor Guard. Food trucks will be on hand to serve lunch and downtown restaurants will offer discounts to rally attendees who present their flag and/or their pennants. Both flags and pennants will be distributed at the Aug. 6 event.

To keep everything on schedule, the public will not be allowed to ride the train as part of its whistle-stop tour across the state. Bockoven said that he will not be able to ride the train even though he is a sesquicentennial commission member.

Another event created by the sesquicentennial commission is a Mobile Childrens Museum, said Bockoven, who noted that this special event got a lot of attention when it was first announced. He said people in many Nebraska communities said they hoped the museum would stop in their town. He said the current itinerary has the Mobile Childrens Museum stopping in 41 locations, with the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island scheduled as one of those stops.

This is a very big trailer, Bockoven said. You can kind of picture it: Its got a lot of Nebraska art work on the side of it and inside it kids from about ages 5 to 12 are going to find a number of activities. There is a kiosk that talks about the history of Nebraska.

Bockoven said young people will be able to use three types of material to build a shelter, which will then be tested in a wind chamber to see how the structure holds up to the winds on the harsh Nebraska prairie. I think we at Stuhr Museum had a hand in the research for that.

Another museum activity is Homestead Hero, where youngsters will create a 10-acre homestead.

Its kind of a survival puzzle, he said.

Bockoven said he has seen newspaper photographs of young people visiting the Mobile Childrens Museum, with the pictures showing the kids having a really good time.
Its hard to sum up how much the Central Nebraska Humane Society means to retiring executive director Laurie Dethloff, but only one phrase comes close: a blessing.

Angus the Swift Dog, the stray cats, the dogs rescued from puppy mills and abusers, the guinea pigs born at the shelter and the adopted animals are only snapshots of Dethloffs everyday blessings. Those blessings are possible, she said, because of the dedicated staff and community.

Dethloffs retirement was announced July 11 via a news release from the humane society. The news release said the CNHS Board is working with Dethloff to make the transition smooth. The selection process for the new executive director will take place through the summer. Dethloff, who has been executive director for 10 years, said shes thinking her last day will be sometime in late September.

Though its hard leaving a place thats a big passion of hers, Dethloff said change is good. She said though the shelter has been her life, its good for the organization to take a new path with new energy.

Were in a good place, Dethloff said of the shelter.

For the last decade, the shelter has had many successes and a lot of progress.

The shelters press release said under Dethloff, the euthanasia rates have dropped and animal adoptions have increased. Dethloff said last year the shelter had 1,308 adoptions. Currently, she said the adoptions are about 100 ahead of that. Nationally, shelters have to be at 93 percent of animals that arent euthanized to be considered a no-kill shelter. As of late last week, the shelter was at 86 percent. Also during Dethloffs time as executive director, the shelter has been able to bring on a full-time veterinarian, build community relationships, increase public awareness (especially of spaying and neutering pets) and have worked with law enforcement to aid in prosecution of animal abusers and those who neglect. Dethloff said having the full-time veterinarian also aids in having more adoptions and fewer euthanizations, since the animals are under less stress.

Her love for each animal is matched by the love and gratitude for the community who continues to support the shelter and the animals.

I have always been proud of the facility the community built and the staffs dedication to animals, Dethloff said.

She said its beyond my words to express my gratitude to the communitys support. Dethloff said whenever the shelter needed funds, foster families, equipment or food, the community responded. Being on the frontlines, Dethloff has witnessed and experienced heartbreak. However, the communitys support of the shelter and the animals has kept her going. The shelter aims to help make a positive difference for the animals there, many who may have never been properly cared for.

We run at capacity, if not over, to make that difference, Dethloff said.

Shes gotten to hear the success stories of the pets adopted from the shelter through letters from families.

Wow. Thats always my standard word, Dethloff said of when she reads the letters.

She gets to see the change in an animal from when theyre brought to the shelter to when they find a furever home. Dethloff said it also speaks volumes when the shelter receives letters from families that have had someone donate their estate to the shelter without her knowing beforehand. In those situations, Dethloff said its heartbreaking because she never got the chance to share her deepest gratitudes.

They did it because of their love for the animals, Dethloff said.

Dethloff said she credits city and county officials and law enforcement in prosecuting animal abusers and those who neglect. She said its been good to see how law enforcement takes whats happening to animals seriously.

Animals are on the frontlines of what is usually abusers, Dethloff said. Those animal abusers, she said, often are the same people who commit other crimes or also abuse people.

She said not only in monetary donations has the community helped the animals, but with their time. Dethloff said many people come in to walk dogs and its an honor to see how the animals behavior evolves over time. Thank you just doesnt seem like enough, Dethloff said about the shelters support and to the staff.

She said she knows the shelter will be just fine without her, because the community is still there and people are still passionate about animals.

As far as what Dethloff is looking forward to, she said she may do some house and yard work and relax in retirement. Shes thankful for her time as executive director, even with all of the heartache and the joy.

Even when you look back at the tough days, its a journey I wouldnt trade, Dethloff said.
Stuhr Museum officials are asking the public to come to the museum free-of-charge on Sunday to help it celebrate 50 years of operation.

The museum will open from noon to 5 p.m. and will incorporate Nebraskas Sesquicentennial celebration into its own 50th anniversary.

One special event will be the Painting the Legacy of Nebraska display, featuring more than 100 paintings by internationally known artist Todd Williams. The paintings collectively represent at least one portrait from each of the 93 counties in Nebraska. Williams paintings are an the official exhibit for the Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission.

Williams commission was to paint significant historic, geographic and figurative elements from each Nebraska county. Stuhr marketing director Mike Bockoven said the artist created 124 paintings for the sesquicentennial project, with the paintings traveling throughout the state as part of the 150th anniversary of Nebraska statehood.

Williams was educated at Central City grade school and Central City High School before earning his associate degree at Central Community College in Columbus and his bachelors of fine arts degree at the Kansas City Art Institute.

He worked 10 years for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City before resigning to pursue his own career as a painter.

As part of Stuhrs 50th anniversary celebration, Williams will be working on a new painting. Visitors are welcome to watch Williams work as he creates a piece of original art. Bockoven said Williams has not told them what he will use as the subject of his painting. Bockoven said Williams sesquicentennial exhibit will remain on display at Stuhr through Aug. 21, the day that the total solar eclipse will pass through Nebraska and the Grand Island area.

Railroad Town also opens at noon, which will give visitors an opportunity to visit its 1890s living history community, which includes historic homes and shops. People can take a look at whats new in the Mercantile and they can meet living history interpreters that show how people lived during the 1890s.

A free ice cream social will be held at 2 p.m. in Railroad Town.
One change order for the Federal Building project was approved and three others were pulled from the agenda during the Hall County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning.

The county board voted 7-0 to approve a change order for doors at the Federal Building.

Supervisor Jane Richardson, who chairs the countys Facilities Committee, explained that the doors were two inches too tall and needed to be changed from a seven foot, two inch height to a seven foot height. She added the Facilities Committee also recommended the doors have windows.

Supervisor Gary Quandt asked if the frames on the doors would be changed. Hall County Facilities Director Loren Doone Humphrey said they would not be changed and the doors are being changed as part of the change order to fit the door frame.

Quandt also inquired as to why there are seven-foot doors at the Federal Building, as opposed to any other height.

I dont know why they would put seven-foot doors in, Humphrey said. I dont know if thats standard or what, but that was what was on the plan and that is what was on the bid.

The three change orders pulled from Tuesdays meeting agenda deal with HVAC rerouting, restroom exhaust fan ductwork and the second floor urinal. Supervisor Karen Bredthauer questioned Humphrey on why these three change orders were pulled from the agenda.

The other ones are off because we do not have enough information, he said. There are just some questions that need to be answered before we move forward with those.

Humphrey told The Independent after the vote that these three change items are expected to return to the county board in two weeks for approval.

Prior to the vote on the change order to the doors, Richardson gave the board an overall update on the Federal Building project. She said everything is on schedule with painting beginning, walls up and drywall complete. Humphrey also gave an update on the project.

They are going to be putting in the ceiling grid this week, he said. We are also working together with (Hall County Information Technology Director) Doug Drudick to pull tables in the computer room. The tiles for bathrooms are ordered and should be in by the first of August.

The county board also voted 7-0 to approve an agreement with the State of Nebraska Board of Parole to house prisoners who violate their parole.

The Nebraska Board of Parole is trying to get a program in place where they use sanctions within parole, said Hall County Corrections Director Todd Bahensky. If they have somebody who violates parole, rather than sending them back to prison, theyll give them sanctions or a 30-day sentence. They want some jails around the state that they can use for that.

Bahensky added the state is only expected to authorize about $15,000 for the year. The contract would be good for one year, but can be renewed after one year if the county wishes to do so.

This is not a big revenue source for us, Bahensky said. It will bring in some money for us, but not a whole lot.

Bahensky told The Independent Monday that he does not know how many parole prisoners the state will request be housed at the Hall County Jail since it is a new program. However, he said the contract allows for a maximum of 10 parole prisoners at a time.

Supervisor Doug Lanfear called the agreement with the Nebraska Board of Parole a good idea that would allow for future relationships between the state and the county.

I think we are at the beginning of something we need to follow through with, he said.

For the record

In other action, the county board:

- Voted 7-0 to award a bid to Skyview Tree Service for $11,900 for tree removal service at Veterans Park.

- Voted 7-0 to approve late homestead exemption applications filed during the 20-day extension period.

The Hall County Board of Supervisors meets again Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to discuss the countys fiscal 2018 budget.
Police/Sheriff

Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, (308) 381-8822. Callers will remain anonymous.

A reward of up to $1,000 will be paid after law enforcement agencies have determined the seriousness of the crime and the usefulness of the information.

Inmate custody status can be obtained by calling the VINE hotline at (877) NE 4 VINE or by visiting www.vinelink.com. Information is available 24 hours a day.

If you see a crime happening, call the Grand Island-Hall County Emergency Center  911.

Grand Island Police

The following felonies were reported:

- A 17-year-old male was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver Tuesday morning at East 17th and North Oak.

- Kara Murphy was arrested for criminal impersonation Monday night at North Webb and West Faidley.

- Brian Aguilar was arrested for possession of a controlled substance (wax) and third-degree assault on a police officer Monday evening at 1207 N. Webb.

- Braden Galvan was arrested Monday at South Eddy and West Louise for felony flight to avoid arrest.

- Douglas Luth of Capital Car Wash reported a counterfeit $20 bill Monday at 2009 N. Diers.

- Kristina Lathrop reported a robbery Monday afternoon at 704 W. Second.

Hall County Sheriff

Law enforcement arrested three people on warrants in three cases. There were 27 calls for service.

For more information visit www.hallcountyne.gov and click on the sheriff link.

Court report

Hall County District Court

- Zachery James Shultz, 25, Grand Island, possession of a controlled substance, one year in jail with credit for two days served, 12 months post-release supervision. Also guilty of possession of a controlled substance, one year in jail, 12 months post-release supervision. Sentences will be served concurrently.

- Charles J. Knapp, 57, Grand Island, possession of a controlled substance, 18 months probation, $450 probation fee.

- Jesse James Tobin, 29, Grand Island, guilty of two counts of violating a protection order with a prior protection order conviction, penalty for each is 48 months probation, $100 fine and $1,200 probation fee.

Hall County Court

- Kara J. Murphy, 18, Grand Island, was charged with criminal impersonation-first offense, having no operators license/nonwaiverable and driving under suspension before being reinstated by the state, all on Monday. Trial set for 9 a.m. Sept. 15.

- Daniel Ramirez-Castaneda, 17, Grand Island, was charged with delivery, dispensing, distribution, manufacture or possession of a controlled substance-Schedule 1,2,3 and possession or use of drug paraphernalia, both on Tuesday. Preliminary hearing set for 3 p.m. Aug. 28.

- Brian J. Aguilar, 18, Grand Island, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, third-degree assault of an officer or health care professional, attempt of a Class 3 or 3A felony, first-offense resisting arrest and unlawful acts relating to drugs, all on Monday. Preliminary hearing set for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 12.

- Kent L. Hartmann, 53, Wood River, issuing a bad check worth $500 to $1,500, fined $200.

Driving Under the Influence  Martin E. Paget, 41, Beloit, Kansas, $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days; William F. Mechem, 33, Alda, enhanced DUI or refusal to be tested with one prior conviction, $1,000 fine, 30 days in jail, 12 months probation, drivers license revoked 18 months, ordered not to drive 45 days.
HASTINGS  It may have been hot Tuesday afternoon, but to more than 300 people, a dozen donuts was the right remedy.

Hurts Donuts in Lincoln brought its Emergency Donut Vehicle to Big G Aces parking lot at noon. The donut vehicle visits different towns and cities in Nebraska to sell boxes of dozens of donuts, while giving a portion of the sales to a local charity in that town. This was the second stop the vehicle has done, having been to Columbus in December 2016. Start Over Rover was the local charity that Facebook commenters picked, so 10 percent of Tuesdays sales went to them.

Hurts opened a little more than a year ago in Lincoln and is located in the Grand Manse downtown. The donut shop has a few other locations across the country, including locations in Springfield, Missouri and Middleton, Wisconsin.

By noon on Tuesday, about 250 people were in line. Hurts brought about 450 dozen donuts and 75-100 maple bacon donut bars. They sold out within a few hours. There was no limit on how many dozen each person could buy, and each box had the same random assortment of their specialty donuts. Hastings was chosen for this visit because of the number of Facebook comments, likes and shares on the Hurts Donut page. The local charity was also chosen by the amount of people sharing the post and nominating Start Over Rover.

Kelly Zubrod, director of the animal shelter, said the community started nominating Start Over Rover on Tuesday. She said people kept sharing it and sharing it.

We have a lot of community support, Zubrod said.

She said the whole thing happened fast and she was excited that the shelter was chosen.

We run off of purely donations, Zubrod said. It keeps us going.

The first people in line were Stephanie and Justin Curtis of Blue Hill. The couple said they never had a Hurts Donut, so when they heard the donuts were coming closer to their town, they wanted a taste. Stephanie and Justin said they planned on buying a few dozen. They arrived at Big G Ace around 9:30 a.m. and stood in line a little before 11 a.m. The donut vehicle, which is decked out in donut decor and decals, arrived at noon.

Some people showed up in Wanna Hurts Donut? t-shirts, including Hastings teachers Sarah Snell and Ann Kiolbasa. Snells 7-year-old son Gabriel was also along for the donuts.

I love Hurts Donuts! he said while waiting for the emergency donut vehicle to arrive.

Sarah and Ann planned on buying enough to share with family. Theyve had Hurts Donuts before, as a coworkers son lives at the Grand Manse, so she brought some to share a few times.

Once you try one, you have to go back, Sarah said of Hurts.

Melody Hill, store manager for Big G Ace, said the store was well-prepared for the amount of people. She said shes glad Hurts picked them for the place to park the vehicle at. Big G Ace had drawings and fidget spinners to help entertain people who were in line.

I knew from the response on Facebook it got that it was going to be big, Hill said.

The donut event is dear to Hills heart, though, because it helped Start Over Rover. Hill adopted her two Pekingese dogs from Start Over Rover and currently is fostering another dog.

Its a good group, Hill said of the shelter. Those animals wouldnt have a chance if it werent for Start Over Rover.

Trent Vargason also spoke on behalf of his wife and owner of Hurts Donuts in Lincoln, Whitney.

It fits the whole theme of Hurts Donuts, Trent said of the Emergency Donut Vehicle and helping local charities. When the whambulance, as they call it, was in Columbus they brought about 100 fewer boxes of donuts and sold out within 21 minutes.

The business model is unique, Trent said, as the Hurts shops are open 24/7/365.

As far as opening a location in the tri-cities area, Trent said the city would have to be able to support the 24/7/365 business model.

Were always looking for expansion, Trent said.
The purpose of this statement is not to rehash history or make excuses. The purpose is to clearly explain why police officer and police sergeant wages have increased in recent years and what that process looked like throughout the time period.

In 2011 the City of Grand Island hired the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) paying approximately $85,000 for an in-depth study into the efficiency and effectiveness of the Grand Island Police and Fire Departments. The study was completed in 2012 and results showed that GIPD was understaffed by approximately 10 sworn officers/sergeants and seven non-sworn support staff positions, such as community service officers. Five of the necessary police officer additions were made in the 2012-2013 budget year, under the terms of the old contract. The second five were hired in 2013-2014.

Employee group wages are set using a comparable array of cities according to state law. Prior to 2013, the cities that were used to compare wages and benefits for Grand Island police officers and sergeants were Kearney, Hastings, North Platte, Fremont and Norfolk. FOP 24 felt the array of all smaller cities with dramatically lower historical crime rates was not accurate for comparison. However, we followed state law, while repeatedly warning city officials that due to population growth the array was likely to change in coming years. That change took place in 2012 when Grand Island became a Metropolitan Statistical Area due to increased growth and unique population characteristics.

In a Grand Island Independent news article dated March 23, 2013, then Human Resources Director Brenda Sutherland said, Those are a lot larger communities than weve looked at in the past. Were going to be sized a little more comparably really.

Nearly half of that same article speaks of opportunities to get a sustained amount of money instead of having to compete with other communities across the state and that there should be additional funds from several federal government agencies coming due to the MSA designation and a plethora of grant writing opportunities.

In 2013 the city and FOP 24 agreed to a new three-year contract using a new array of cities: Sioux City, Iowa; Manhattan, Kansas; Lawrence, Kansas; Ames, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; St. Joseph, Missouri; Jefferson City, Missouri; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Rapid City, South Dakota.

Its extremely important to note that both the additional manpower numbers and new comparables were known prior to the city agreeing to the three-year labor contract. As president of FOP 24, I assisted with the negotiation process, with both sides coming to an agreement in less than three days.

The largest change in the 2013 contract occurred in wages, which increased approximately 22 percent. In an effort to lessen the sticker shock to the citys budget, FOP 24 agreed to allow the significant increase in wages to be spread out over the three-year term of the contract rather than demand the entire increase in the first year. The contract also included modest cost of living adjustments for 2014 and 2015.

In a Grand Island Independent news article dated Aug. 19, 2013, Brenda Sutherland was quoted in a memo to the City Council: This increase will bring the wages for the two positions into comparability with the assumption that the market will increase over the same three-year period.

She also stated, The proposed wages represent the amount they are behind today, and have some consideration for future growth in the market so that when we go back out and survey three years from now, we should be very close to midpoint. Once we get caught up we wont have such large wage increases going forward.

And, I believe the city should be planning for wage increases of 5 to 6 percent for the next three to four years.

In the same Aug. 19, 2013, article then Mayor Jay Vavricek said, Public safety is first and foremost an investment in the general fund and first and foremost on the minds of people in our community. It obviously deserves funding and a long-term agreement is in the best interest. And, It is what it is, we knew that Grand Island would be uniquely affected when we reached MSA status. We are following the law of comparability.

During the summer months of 2016, the FOP 24 negotiated terms of yet another three-year labor contract that will expire Sept. 30, 2019. For the 2016-2017 year wages were to increase by 2.75 percent. Cost of living adjustments for 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 were negotiated at 2.5 percent. I was once again part of the process as were four additional members of FOP 24. During the process, there were no doom and gloom comments about the upcoming budget or dire statements demanding wage freezes. The process went smoothly again and was completed in a couple of days.

The 2016-2019 contract received unanimous approval by the Grand Island City Council and was signed by Mayor Jeremy Jensen on Oct. 11, 2016, without objection.

We hope that the information we have provided in this statement will better help people understand wage increases that occurred over the last few years. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #24 has always been and will continue to be committed to serving the citizens who live in, work in and visit Grand Island. It should go without saying that we are most effective when GIPD is fully staffed.

If you would like more information about the FOP or if you have questions about the information in this statement, we may be reached on Facebook and by email at fop24@yahoo.com.
Congressman Adrian Smith claims on his website that he has earned praise for his leadership, hard work and dedication to Nebraska common sense. Was Rep. Smith using his Nebraska common sense by voting for the House repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act before it was scored by the independent Congressional Budget Office?

This vote took place on May 4. Rep. Smith claimed on his website that the process is working as it should. Yet, almost three months later we have no repeal and replace bill, just a lot of confusion. It certainly does not seem like the process is working as it should. Nebraskans are facing uncertainty in how to access health care services as Medicaid may be cut, pre-existing conditions may not be covered, marketplace insurance rates cannot be calculated and rural hospitals are facing a murky financial future.

Nebraskans use their common sense to help out their neighbors by providing material aid when range fires rage, tornadoes and snowstorms hurt crops, livestock, families and our communities. We used our Nebraska common sense to organize cooperatives to bring in rural electrification systems, buy agricultural inputs and market our agricultural products.

What Nebraska common sense is Rep. Smith using in voting to kick our neighbors off their health care plans and how can this mean that the process is working as it should?

Rep. Smith, you need to hear some Nebraska common sense about how the process to access affordable healthcare should work.
When paramedics arrived at a home in rural Granite City, they found a 25-year-old woman who appeared to be overdosing on narcotics. More alarmingly, her 17-month-old son, cradled in her arms, seemed to be overdosing as well.

The infant was unresponsive, and preliminary reports from toxicology tests show that he had methamphetamine and fentanyl and his system, according to Madison County Sheriff John Lakin.

Paramedics administered Narcan, an antidote frequently given to reverse the effects of opioids. Still, Lakin said, a single dose this time did not bring the desired result.

Its very alarming to us that they had to administer Narcan to a 17-month old child several times to make him more responsive, Lakin said at a news conference Wednesday morning at the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

The infant was rushed to an area hospital and Lakin said he will probably be released Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, charges have been filed against Billie Jean Cottle, of 136 Troeckler Lane, in rural Granite City. She is charged with felony aggravated battery to a child, misdemeanor aggravated battery to a child, felony reckless conduct, and endangering the life or health of a child, a misdemeanor.

She was being held Wednesday at the Madison County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.

Coddle also has a fugitive warrant for her arrest from St. Louis County.

The latest incident began unfolding around 7:50 pm Monday when the Sheriffs Department received a 911 call. Several family members had been outside the house at 136 Troeckler Lane when one of them noticed the mother and child hadnt been with them for several minutes. That prompted one of the family members to enter the house, pounded on a locked bathroom door, and force their way inside, Lakin said. Emergency responders soon arrived from the Mitchell Fire Department and the Alton Memorial Ambulance Service. They began a criminal investigation and seized suspected drug paraphernalia, according to a news release from the Sheriffs Department.

Lakin said it is still unclear how the infant ingested the drugs. But I think back on being a parent myself, and I realize that when young children pick something up, the first thing they do is it goes toward their mouth, he said. It could be a situation where the mother was using narcotics in the bathroom and, as the drug starts taking effect she drops something on the floor and the child just immediately picked it up and put it in his mouth.

Lakin characterized fentanyl as a very, very strong and dangerous drug that has more and more become part of what were fighting here.

Its just very disturbing to us, Lakin said. We know that every day there are people overdosing on heroin and other drugs, but when we have reached a point where its a 17-month-old child, its even more disturbing.

Lakin praised the family member who realized that Cottle and her son had not been seen for a while, and took action to find out why.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is actively involved in the investigation and is coordinating placement of the child. Lakin said he believes a family member will step up and take good care of the child because they care deeply about him.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 11:01 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5f0b5 1 Health health,#health,weight-loss,#weightloss,research,#research Free

Those who want to lose weight should think twice before enjoying the wafting aroma of food.

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found a connection between the sense of smell (olfactory) and regions of the brain that regulate the metabolism, particularly the hypothalamus, which can cause weight gain.

Berkeley News reported that the study, which was published in Cell Metabolism journal, involved temporarily smell-deficient mice, regular mice and mice with boosted sense of smell.

For the research, all mice were fed a similar amount of high-fat foods. However, the smell-deficient mice experienced weight loss due to the readjustment of their sympathetic nervous system, which causes fat-burning.

Read also: True or false: Drinking ice-cold water leads to weight gain

On the contrary, regular mice gained double their normal weight. Meanwhile, the mice with boosted sense of smell proved to gain more weight compared to the regular mice.

Celine Riera, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow, said that similar to humans, mice are more sensitive to smells when they feel hungry than after they have eaten. This could imply that the lack of smell in smell-deficient mice tricks the body into thinking it has already eaten.

Meanwhile, the study's senior author Andrew Dillin said that the sensory systems play a role in our metabolism, and weight gain could not purely be measured from calorie intake as it is also related to how those calories are perceived.

Dillin also mentioned that if they could validate the study in humans, there would be a possibility to develop a drug that could block metabolic circuitry to help people lose weight. (jes/kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 11:46 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa616e3 4 Art & Culture art-and-culture,painting-exhibition,painting Free

The issue of identity is often a complicated matter. One description of identity reads: Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In fact, identity speaks of selfhood and uniqueness.

An exhibition titled I too am untranslatable curated by independent curator Roy Voragen presents four artists who explore precisely that  the uniqueness of the self.

Theresia Tere Agustina Sitompul, who holds a PhD in printmaking, often deals with issues of personal memory and gender perspectives, using print and installations as her tools of expression.

In the exhibition, her wall installation Moment shows sculptural revelations of the development of the female body by way of growth of the body, which is accentuated by the nipple in several stages of womanhood.

Remarkably, this is done so from the inner side of the breast. One might wonder whether she did so to avoid being accused of displaying pornographic images, or whether there is another reason behind it.

Moment by Theresia Agustina Sitompul (Ruci artspace/File)

Tere explained that she wanted the viewer to get a sense of inner growth that goes beyond the visuals. Made of silicon and steel, the breast plates seem to dance to a capricious rhythm, perhaps mimicking the whims of life.

Another work of hers on display is Decrease-increase. She uses the method of carbon tracing, a technique originally used by secretaries and seamstresses. In an artists application, it has become a unique way to create singularity of print.

Different from Tere, Deden Hendan Durahman, a Meisterschueler from the Brausnchweig Fine Art Hochscule fuer Bildende Kuenste, who also studied art and design and photography, specializes in refined images.

To achieve perfect prints, the 43-year-old Deden acquired his own printer and uses specialized Hahnemuehle cotton paper, achieving images of bodies with a beautiful skin surface within a quality of pearly luminosity.

Peer features bodies entangled and morphed into each other, evoking a sense of sculptural magnificence in which the self tends to be lost. This is different compared to the three works that make up Peerless, where the pictures are sliced up, conjuring images of barcodes referencing logarithms used by social media sites to categorize and distribute images.

Peerless 01 and Peerless 02 by Deden Hendan Durahman. (Ruci artspace/File)

No doubt, the Eve series of paintings by Jabbar Muhammad explores issues beyond the body alone and could be considered existential.

Jabbar, who holds a Masters of Fine Art from the ITB Faculty of Fine Art and Design, said that, at one point, the question of who he was bothered him a lot.So the 31-year-old explored the self through interactions with the other, or women who were total strangers.

A fine painter, Jabbar holds an interest in Carl Jungs school of analytical psychology, which highlights a dual concept of a feminine inner personality in the unconscious mind of a man and a masculine inner personality in the unconscious mind of a woman.

Eve series by Jabbar Muhammad (Ruci artspace/File)

The process of such exploration led him to create a work in which he painted layer over layer, resulting in a parallax, an effect whereby the understanding of a person alters when perceived from different positions. Eve 3.6 holds mystery in such duality. While this work uses acrylic on canvas, other images featuring the process were made with watercolor and gouache on paper.

Jakarta-born Kelvin Atmadibrata, who studied interactive media at the School of Art Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, often takes to performance art to express his artistic urges.

In the large-scale installation site, he features a performance titled Benched. In it, the 29-year-old goes back in memory, reflecting on his first adolescent crush, a water polo player who, as a reserve player, never really plays. Being benched, he supposedly misses the opportunity to be a man.

_________________________________________

I too am untranslatable

A joint exhibition at RUCI Artplace

Runs until Aug. 13

Jl. Suryo no. 49, Kebayoran Baru

South Jakarta
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Sigit Pamungkas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 13:14 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa699c8 4 Art & Culture Mount-Bromo,East-Java,Tengger,Yadnya-Kasada,ritual,tradition Free

Mount Bromo in East Java is renowned for its stunning scenery and as host of the annual Yadnya Kasada ritual.

The ritual is thought to have started when Princess Roro Anteng and Prince Joko Seger, believed to be the ancestors of the Tengger ethnic people, prayed to the gods to bestow them with offspring.

After having 25 children, the deities asked the last one, Raden Kusuma, to be sacrificed in the Bromo crater. Raden Kusuma obeyed and plunged into the volcanos crater while calling on the Tengger community to express gratitude to Sang Yang Widi, the Almighty God, and beg for prosperity by offering sacrifices in the form of some property or agricultural produce and cattle every year during the full moon of the 14th of Kasada, the 10th month of the Tengger calendar.

Read also: Thousands of tourists witness the Yadnya Kasada ritual in Mount Bromo

This years ritual was held on the night of July 9 to 10 as the full moon reached its peak.

A week before the ritual, Tengger people from various regions and religious backgrounds gathered to take part in the ritual.

They started by collecting sacred water from Widodaren cave on the slope of Mount Batok, which was taken to their spiritual leaders to be prayed for before being later offered to the Bromo crater.

The culmination of the ritual began with prayers conducted by all spiritual leaders at Mt. Bromos Luhur Poten temple, where diverse offerings or sacrifices were arranged by means of bamboo containers called ongkek.

After being blessed by the spiritual chiefs, the ongkek from several villages were dropped into the Bromo crater as it neared sunrise.

The event inevitably drew the attention of a wide range of tourists seeking to witness the exotic spectacle and local culture.

This year around, a number of cultural figures and artists from many parts of Indonesia also marked the 200th anniversary of Thomas Stamford Raffles arrival at Mt. Bromo as described in his History of Java, on the eve of the ritual, while the dance drama program added more charm to Bromos exoticism.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:00 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa74d40 1 Lifestyle barbershop,hair,hairstyle,beauty,#beauty Free

Strategizing first on the matter of your haircut could be helpful in avoiding disappointment thanks to an incorrect cut, which could translate into weeks of bad hair.

There are also some things you can do to make your visit to the barber smoother for you and them.

Bring reference(s)

Bringing along a picture of the style you want would go a long way to helping not only your barber but also yourself. It can be anything from a magazine cut-out to a photo on your phone.

Bumble and Bumble stylist Andrew McCormick told Esquire that bringing along examples wont offend barbers but instead would be a more efficient way to communicate a vision.

Have realistic expectations

The haircut that you want must be within reason. Dont expect your barber to be a magician. When you bring along a reference, keep in mind the result wont be the exact same; this is because of differences in hair type and scalp shape.

McCormick says that at most a barber can create an impression of fullness and provide products to fatten up locks of thinning hair, but dont expect to suddenly have more hair after coming in. Also, let the barber choose the tools.

Read also: 7 must-try barbershops in Jakarta

Be patient

J. Clark Walker from Fellow Barber in New Yorks West Village told Business Insider that a good barber is usually a busy one and also likes to take their time.

Sticking to schedule wont always happen, especially with pickier customers. Also, dont jump in the chair immediately after the previous client is finished.

Its also usual to have conversation with the barber while theyre performing their service, but avoid nodding. A clear sign to stop is when the barber has to steady your head.

Hair weight

If you feel your hair is too thick, too heavy or grows out too quickly; McCormick says this is caused by hair being cut too bluntly. Ask for point cut, for use of razors rather than shears so itll be a softer cut and remove weight from the interior seamlessly.

Read also: Barbershop gains popularity after Jokowis visit

Clean and dry

Make sure your hair is clean, especially when theres no pre-cut shampoo. Dont slather your hair with product, just comb it.

McCormick states that some hair weight isnt apparent until the hair dries and inflates. Dont leave the barber with wet hair; its important to know how your hair will do when it's dry. The barber will trim as necessary if its too fluffy.

Take notes

If you want to recreate the look from the way it was after it was freshly styled by the barber, pay attention to your cut. The barber working on your hair is the expert, therefore ask for their process and home tips. Also pay attention to what products or heated tool they use. (dan/kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Joe Dyke (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem  Wed, July 26, 2017 18:45 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7e177 2 World Israel,Palestine,Jerusalem,security,Holy-Land,diplomacy,unrest Free

A tense standoff was underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at a Jerusalem holy site Wednesday despite the removal of metal detectors, with concerns of major unrest later this week if a resolution is not found.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed new security measures at the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The measures followed an attack that killed two policemen and included metal detectors at entrances.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since, with clashes breaking out around the compound in Jerusalem's Old City and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three of them.

There are concerns the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa -- will lead to serious clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Following intensive international diplomacy and warnings of the potential of wider unrest, Israel removed the metal detectors in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday.

Cameras installed in the wake of the attack on the police were also removed.

But Israeli officials said they were to be replaced with "advanced technologies" -- widely believed to be smart cameras with facial recognition technology.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 10:06 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5b156 1 City pornography,students Free

The Jakarta Education Agency is tracking down students who allegedly watched a porn movie using a classroom projector, as captured by a photo that went viral on Facebook.

The deputy head of the agency, Bowo Irianto, said on Tuesday the agency believed the incident happened in a school in East Jakarta, although he still did not know the exact location of the school.

I have asked some departments in the education agency to track down the [students], Bowo said as quoted by tempo.co.

If the incident really happened, the agency would question the students involved and impose sanctions on them, he added.

The agency would also question the teachers and sanction them if they were found to have been negligent in the case, Bowo said.

On July 23, a Facebook user named Gua Syahrul Gunawan uploaded a photo of some students who wore Scout Movement (Pramuka) uniforms watching porn in a classroom.

A Facebook user named Andi Awal reported the photo to the polices account Halo Polisi on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, the head of the special crimes directorate of Depok Police in West Java, Firdaus, said the police were still investigating the case. (cal)

Topics : pornography students
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:15 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa75db4 1 City Sunda-Kalapa,Pasar-Ikan,revitalization Free

The Jakarta administration is drafting a gubernatorial decree on the Sunda Kalapa tourist area in North Jakarta, which includes Pasar Ikan, an area which came into the spotlight following a forced eviction last year.

Jakarta Tourism Agency head Tinia Budiati said on Tuesday that her office had prepared a master plan to revitalize the area.

"[The master plan] is needed as a basis for the decree. We will draw up zoning, purposes and borders to delineate which areas are allowed for construction. It's still in process," Tinia said as quoted by kompas.com.

The eviction carried out at Pasar Ikan faced resistance from its inhabitants, who claimed ownership of the land. Dozens have refused to leave the site and built makeshift homes amid the debris.

Separately, Jakarta's Maritime Museum head Husnison Nizar said that compared with the previous decree No. 36/2014 on the Kota Tua (Old Town) district plan, the planned decree would be more detailed in revitalizing the area, including the development of the fish market area.

"The new decree will be sharper, particularly on Pasar Ikan. It will specifically outline the preservation of cultural heritage," he said. (fac)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 13:20 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa69ba8 1 City school,electricity,PLN Free

Jakarta administration secretary Saefullah has expressed regret over state electricity company PLNs cutting power to West Jakarta schools because of their late payments.

Saefullah said that PLN was to tolerate the schools, which were only a month late in paying their electricity bills.

We have had a good relationship with PLN so far, there has not been any chronic debt. Being a little late in payment is likely due to the [schools'] budgeting, which PLN should have understood, he told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.

(Read also: PLN cuts power to three high schools in West Jakarta)

Saefullah said that PLN should have been more lenient in the matter, especially in connection with education, adding that PLNs substations using the capital's electrical assets had never been a problem.

PLN uses many of our assets for its substations. They should have been more understanding and not simply cut off the power [and] disrupting the learning and teaching processes, which sometimes involve using computers. This is not an appropriate decision, he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Saefullah also said he hoped that the schools' administration could better manage the Education Operational Fund, which was disbursed once every three months, to prevent the situation from reoccurring.

Schools should have better budgeting. They must plan all expenses for every three months and allocate alternative funds, Saefullah said. (dra)

Topics : school electricity PLN
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:22 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa79533 1 Politics Perppu,HTI,Constitutional-Court,yusril-ihza-mahendra,freedom-of-expression Free

The Constitutional Court held its first session on Wednesday to hear a complaint from the now-disbanded Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), which has challenged the legality of a presidential regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) issued as the legal basis for disbanding the Islamic organization.

Representing the organization is senior lawyer and former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who in his first statement to the court asked the justices to decide who should file the complaint in the first place.

"We have a bit of a legal problem regarding the legal standing of who should file the judicial review. We want the panel of judges to provide clarification on this," Yusril told the hearing.

Responding to the statement, Constitutional Court justice I Gede Dewa Palguna said both individuals in the organization or officials representing HTI could file the judicial review.

Earlier this month, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed a the Perppu to ban organizations deemed anti-Pancasila. Last week, the Law and Human Rights Ministry issued a follow-up regulation to disband the HTI based on the Perppu.

The HTI said it would also challenge the decision at a state administrative court.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (center) meets with ambassadors from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jakarta on Tuesday. Retno called on the ambassadors to help resolve the Al Aqsa Mosque crisis in Palestine.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)(center) meets with ambassadors from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jakarta on Tuesday. Retno called on the ambassadors to help resolve the Al Aqsa Mosque crisis in Palestine.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:33 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7c51b 1 Business Freeport-Indonesia,contract,extension,negotiation,government Free

Gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia is still seeking a contract extension to 2041 as its representatives are negotiating with the government about the conversion of its Contract of Work (CoW) agreement into a Special Mining License (IUPK).

Meanwhile, the government has offered Freeport an extension of its operational permit until 2031 as long as the company agrees to switch to the IUPK scheme.

Freeport Indonesia vice president corporate communications Riza Pratama said the contract extension until 2041 was needed so that Freeport could meet the requirements set by the government.

[The extension is needed] so that we can invest US$15 billion for improving our underground mining and $2.3 billion for constructing the smelter as well as for a tradeoff of the divestment scheme, said Riza in Jakarta on Wednesday, as reported by kompas.com.

Apart from being required to construct a smelter, the company is also required to divest 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian entities.

Riza said Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of United States-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, and the government were still negotiating.

We are negotiating those issues with the government. All of the issues are negotiated as one package, he stressed. (bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 09:00 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa57c9b 1 Business social-forestry-program,land-distribution,Perhutani,Java-island Free

The government will distribute idle forest land controlled by state-owned forestry company Perhutani to farmers through a social forestry program next month.

Perhutani controls 2.4 million hectares of plantations in Java, around 17 percent of the total land on the island. The social forestry program will distribute 570,000 hectares of idle land to underprivileged people in Java.

"The government will distribute approximately 2-hectare plots to each farmer," said Economic Coordinating Minister Darmin Nasution at a discussion on land productivity improvement through the business scheme cluster in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The forest-land distribution will begin in East and Central Java.

The program will allow farmers, who have passed the selection based on the program's requirements, to cultivate the land for 35 years, and the land will be managed in cluster schemes to improve productivity, Darmin said.

The cluster schemes would be implemented by ensuring each village in the country had a superior product, he added.

The social forestry program is part of the governments efforts to improve the welfare of the people in the lowest 40 percent wealth bracket. (rdi/bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 09:03 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa58763 1 Business Jakarta-Surabaya-medium-speed-railway,feasibility-study,JICA,BPPT Free

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Tuesday that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had joined the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology in conducting a feasibility study on the Jakarta-Surabaya railway project.

The Japanese government has expressed its intention to be more involved in [projects], said Luhut after meeting with representatives of JICA in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Ridwan Djamaludin, who is in charge of infrastructure coordination at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, said the feasibility study would also involve experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Diponegoro University (Undip) and the 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS).

The study is expected to answer a number of questions related to the project, including the speed of the trains, the technology to be used and whether new tracks are needed or the train will use the existing tracks.

Earlier this year, the government decided to appoint Japan as its main partner in developing the railway connection between the two cities. The project is expected to increase train speeds to 160 kilometer per hour from the current 90 km/h.

The government is also still mulling whether the train will be powered by diesel, which would cost some Rp 30 trillion (US$2.2 billion), or electricity, which would cost Rp 80 trillion.

Japan lost to China in the project for a high-speed railway connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java. (dis/bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 12:41 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa66221 1 Business redenomination,Jokowi,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,agus-martowardoyo,preparation Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said that President Joko Jokowi Widodo instructed her to carry out with Bank Indonesia a comprehensive study on the rupiah redenomination plan before the policy could be implemented.

The redenomination plan intends to issue smaller denominations of the rupiah.

Sri Mulyani said on Tuesday that the President underlined the importance of detailed plans, including concrete benefits for the economy and the people when the national currency was finally redenominated.

Jokowi also stressed the importance of public knowledge about the redenomination, she added.

The President has ordered us to prepare [plans] on how to explain it to the public and how to set each step of the redenomination. It is also important to know the benefits of the redenomination for our economy and for the citizenry, she said in Jakarta.

Sri Mulyani said the President had agreed to organize a Cabinet meeting to discuss all aspects of the plan: legislation process, transition period and adjusting to the recalibrated currency.

Earlier, Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardoyo had called on lawmakers to start deliberating the redenomination bill, citing the current good economic condition for redenominating the rupiah by eliminating three or four zeroes from the currency.

Sri Mulyani said the redenomination plan would be followed by price adjustment measures to ensure that Indonesian citizens would not incur financial losses as a result. (mrc/bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:46 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7c805 1 City kalijodo,Berlin-Wall Free

An artist will grant Jakarta pieces of Germanys historic Berlin Wall for the park in Kalijodo in North Jakarta, says Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat.

He wants to donate pieces of the Berlin Wall to the park as a symbol of peace, he said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

He did not, however, reveal the artists identity.

The pieces, which will be handed over on Oct. 5, are expected to be placed at several points in the park.

There are three or four pieces that he [the artist] has kept for 20 years. They will be spread over the park in Kalijodo, he said, adding that with the pieces he hoped the park would become a symbol of peace.

The Berlin Wall, which divided then East Germany and West Germany, collapsed in 1989 marking the end of the Cold War era that divided capitalist West and communist East for 40 years. (agn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 18:53 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7e8f4 1 City stealing,telkom Free

The police in Tebet, South Jakarta, have arrested a man for allegedly stealing a substation battery belonging to state-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

The police said the suspect, identified only AS, 26, and an accomplice, identified only as D, committed the crime late on Tuesday evening at a Telkom substation on Jl. Tebet Utara Dalam IV.

However, one of the firms employees, Saipulloh, caught them red-handed and immediately gave chase.

They were shouted at [by Saipulloh] and fled by motorcycle, said Tebet Police chief Comr. Maulana on Wednesday.

Saipulloh caught AS, who fell from the motorcycle, and brought him to the Tebet Police.

From AS, the police seized the battery, two screwdrivers, an angle grinder and a motorcycle.

We are still questioning him, said Maulana, adding that the suspect was now in the custody of the Tebet Police.

Topics : stealing telkom
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 10:31 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5dede 1 National novel-baswedan,attack,KPK,corruption-eradication Free

Novel Baswedan, a senior investigator of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), has stated that he will not back down despite the attack, which wounded his eyes.

I am going to prove that the hopes of the people who want to stop my steps in eradicating corruption are in vain and useless, he said on Monday.

Novel said the accident would not weaken his determination to eradicate corruption. This accident will boost my spirits instead.

Novel is currently undergoing treatment in Singapore to heal his eyes, which were wounded after a stranger threw acid at his face on April 11.

The process to heal my eyes, particularly the left one needs more time because more stages of surgery are needed to return its function, he said.

KPK commissioner Laode Muhammad Syarif said the commission was ready to assist the police in investigating the attack.

The team from KPK is ready to accompany the team from them [police] to Singapore to meet Novel, he told The Jakarta Post. (kuk/ecn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 11:00 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5eb45 1 City public-transportation,bajaj-qute Free

A potential replacement for the bemo (three-wheeled vehicles used for public transportation) is set for trialed across Jakarta this month.

Currently, there are 17 new mini four-wheeled vehicles, called bajaj qute, serving a route from the Jakarta Kota railway station in West Jakarta to SMAN 40 state school in Pademangan, North Jakarta. The rate for each trip is Rp 5,000 (50 US cents).

The vehicle, which was launched in 2012, was imported from one of Indias largest automotive companies, Bajaj Auto.

I have been driving this [bajaj qute] for twelve days now. I like it, because every time I drive, this beautiful thing becomes the center of attention, driver Rohim, 45, said on Tuesday.

However, Rohim, who had been a bemo driver since 1985, said he had to work twice as earn money with the bajaj qute because it could not carry as many passengers as the bemo.

Bajaj qute's size is smaller than the bemo with a capacity of five people including the driver. A bemo could carry seven people per trip, but now I can only take four, he said.

The Jakarta administration officially banned the bemo from operating in the city on June 6, after a year phasing out the old vehicles, which were environmentally unfriendly. (hol)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 19:21 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa82811 1 Business Batam,Darmin-nasution,Trade,Singapore Free

The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, the Riau Island regional administration and Batam Indonesia Free Zone Authority (BP Batam) are currently working on options to end legal and management uncertainty over Indonesia's free trade zone.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said on Wednesday that his office would soon come up with the options to determine whether the regional administration or BP Batam would manage the area.

We have discussed several options regarding the management and we will discuss it in the next meeting, he said.

Darmin said the discussion had resulted in three different options in managing the zone, which consists of Batam, Rempang and Galang islands.

The first option, Darmin said, was to appoint BP Batam as a single supervisor in managing the three islands, while the second option was for BP Batam to manage only the area in Batam while the management of Rempang and Galang would be under the supervision of regional-owned enterprises, or the central government. The third option, he said, was to invite private parties to manage either Rempang or Galang.

Darmin said the options would eventually transform the status of Batam, Rempang and Galang into a special economic zone from the current status as a free trade zone. It is expected to take three years for the transition. (rdi)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 18:09 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7d54d 1 City ojek-service,protest,police Free

Police are expected to intensify patrols along the Casablanca elevated road in South Jakarta to prevent motorcycle riders from passing along the route, which is exclusively meant for cars.

At least [the patrol] from morning to 10 p.m., Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansyah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

If they [bikers] continue violating road traffic regulations, just take away their [driving] licenses so they learn from it Andri said.

On Tuesday morning hundreds of motorcycle drivers protested the police for banning them from the overpass and blocked it, causing terrible traffic congestion around Casablanca.

The Casablanca overpass, which connects Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta and Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, is prohibited for use by motorcycle riders for safety reasons.

The wind is strong up there, so it will be dangerous for motorcycles, Andri said. (hol)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Wed, July 26, 2017 15:05 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa7220d 1 National Semarang-Immigration-Office,Semarang-Police,online-scam-network,Chinese-citizens,human-trafficking,China,#HumanTrafficking,trafficking Free

The Semarang Police handed over five Chinese nationals thought to have been victims of human trafficking to the Semarang immigration office on Tuesday evening.

We continue to investigate the case, Semarang Police Sr. Comr. Abiyoso Seno Aji said on Tuesday.

The five foreigners were reportedly from Guangzhou, China, and have been identified as Cheng We, 29, Cheng Kang, 29, Cheng Guan, 30, Shen Zhong Tsu, 39, and Zhan Zhi Hao, 20.

The police took the five into custody at a house on Jl. Kawi Raya, Candisari, Semarang, on Sunday evening. During their search, the police found 72 phones and other communication equipment.

During interrogation, the five Chinese nationals claimed they had been recruited by migrant worker recruitment agents and promised employment as drivers in Bali with a monthly salary of Rp 10 million (US$749.85) to Rp 14 million.

As soon as they arrived in Jakarta, they were taken to Semarang and confined in a house in Candisari. In the house, they were asked to phone a number of people in China, raising their suspicions that they had been duped by an international online scam network.

None of the five were in possession of immigration documents. They claimed their passports had been kept by three people who they identified as Liu Xhung, A Dong and A Gei. The police are tracing the whereabouts of the three people, said Abiyoso. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26 2017

Indonesia claims it is serious about clean energy. Yet, it is doing everything it can to boost the development of coal-fired power plants, data shows.

Southeast Asias largest economy recently launched the General Planning for National Energy (RUEN) for the 2015 to 2050 period in an effort to slash its greenhouse gas output by 29 percent by 2030.

to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content

e-Post daily digital newspaper

No advertisements, no interruptions

Privileged access to our events and programs

Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 17:21 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa787d3 1 Politics SBY,Susilo-Bambang-Yudhoyono,Prabowo-Subianto,Democratic-party,Gerindra-Party,2019-elections,2019-presidential-election Free

Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is ready to meet with his Gerindra Party counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, and is waiting for a formal invitation from the latter, the Democratic Partys spokesman has said.

Pak SBY is a close friend of Pak Prabowo. They just need to make a phone call to be able to meet. The question is, whether or not the meeting takes place at the right moment, Democratic Party spokesman Dede Yusuf said as quoted by kompas.com at the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday.

He said the possible meeting between Yudhoyono and Prabowo was discussed in passing at a party meeting attended by the former president on Tuesday.

Dede said the Democratic Party warmly welcomed the potential for Yudhoyono and Prabowo to have a meeting. However, he did not want to comment further before an official invitation was sent by the Gerindra Party.

Dede said it was possible for the meeting to happen because both party leaders had similar perceptions, such as on the newly-passed election bill.

Both the Democratic Party and the Gerindra Party supported revoking the presidential election threshold. There were some measures that had to be taken by party leaders regarding the ratification of the election bill into law [last week]. Maybe the discussion will be focused more on this matter, said Dede, who chairs House Commission IX, which oversees demographic affairs, health, manpower and transmigration.

On Monday, Gerindra Party secretary-general Ahmad Muzani said Yudhoyono and Prabowo were striving to match their times to have a meeting, where they would likely discuss preparations for the 2019 elections. (kuk/ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Michael Mathes (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Wed, July 26, 2017 10:49 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5e87f 2 World health-care-overhaul,trump,congress,Obamacare,debate,US Free

Donald Trump's drive to abolish Obamacare scraped through a key Senate vote Tuesday, with John McCain coming to the US president's rescue in a dramatic return to Congress following cancer surgery.

The vote, which allows the Senate to begin debate on health care reform legislation, was a victory for Trump, who had spent weeks cajoling, strong-arming and warning Republicans to get on board with his effort to overhaul Obamacare.

In recent weeks, several measures have been proposed -- but ultimately collapsed, revealing fissures within the Republican Party on how to reach a goal they have had since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010.

But the path forward was no clearer, as the Senate soon after voted down a Republican plan to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama's signature health care reform.

Nine Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the amendment in the first of several votes expected to repeal Obamacare.

Despite the skepticism of some Republicans over how the effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act might affect millions of Americans, Trump was thrilled that debate could go ahead.

"This was a big step," he said, calling Obamacare a "disaster for the American people."

McCain, who announced last week he is suffering from brain cancer, cast a critical vote for the measure, leaving senators evenly split and forcing Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie for a 51-50 final count on allowing debate.

All 48 Democrats and independents voted against, along with Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 10:15 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5cf62 1 City cemetery,inundation Free

The Jakarta Forest Agency plans to remove 3,800 graves from Kapuk Teko cemetery in West Jakarta, due to water and mud inundation since 1993.

Agency head Djafar Muchlisin said the 1.3-hectare cemetery was currently being drained. We will remove the graves to Tegal Alur [also in West Jakarta] afterwards, he said as quoted by tempo.co, adding that the draining process would be finished in the next three to four weeks.

To remove the 3,800 graves, the city administration requires about Rp 2 billion (US$150,000) in funds.

Djafar further explained that the Kapuk Teko area would then be transformed into a green open space after the removal.

Meanwhile, Djafar also said Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat wanted to construct a reservoir at the site of the former cemetery, requiring the administration to acquire 97 plots of land in Kapuk Teko. (vny)

Topics : cemetery inundation
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 09:22 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5a3bf 2 Business World-Bank,Jim-Yong-Kim,Indonesia,reformasi Free

The World Bank is calling on Indonesia to improve its investment climate to lure more investment into infrastructure development.

World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim advised the government to provide a clearer calculation of risks and returns on investment. Furthermore, it should only offer project guarantees where necessary, so that they did not function as a subsidy.

"By using that principle, you can maximize the governments support, so you can distribute the budget to the other projects. Tools like the guarantee fund cannot be used as a way of subsidizing private-sector investment," Kim said at the Indonesia Infrastructure Finance Forum in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The leader of the Washington-based institution is on a two-day visit to Indonesia to discuss policy reforms with high-ranking officials, including President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani. The declared goal is to increase state revenue and spend it more efficiently.

Kim also advised the country to reduce privileges for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over private firms to create healthy competition, cut red tape and further develop the capital market, which could provide long-term hedging for investors. (lnd)
The Failed Prophet (2009)

The late Milton Friedman was a provocative teacher at my alma mater, the University of Chicago. He got his students involved with their studies. He was a gifted writer and communicator. And he received a Nobel Prize for his contributions to economics.

But Friedman was more than an academic. He was an advocate for, and popularizer of, a radical right-wing economic ideology.

In todays political and social reality, the University of Chicagos establishment of a $200 million Milton Friedman Institute (in the building that until now has housed the renowned Chicago Theological Seminary) will not be perceived as simply a sign of appreciation for a prominent former faculty member. Instead, by founding such an institution, the university signals that it is aligning itself with a reactionary political program supported by the wealthiest, greediest, and most powerful people and institutions in this country. Friedmans ideology caused enormous damage to the American middle class and to working families here and around the world. It is not an ideology that a great institution like the University of Chicago should be seeking to advance.

Those who defend the Milton Friedman Institute will assure us that it will encourage a free and open exchange of ideas. That may very well be true. But if the goal of the institute is simply to do nonideological research, there are a lot of names that one could come up with other than that of the most polemical and ideological economist of his time.

My suspicions only deepen when I read on the University of Chicago website that donors who contribute more than $1 million to the project will have a special relationship with the institute as members of a Milton Friedman Society and will be expected to facilitate the institutions connections to leaders in business and government.

I work in Washington, D.C., and I know about the power that big money has over process. When the insurance companies and the drug companies and the oil companies and the banks and the military-industrial complex make contributions to political campaigns, we usually know exactly what it is they want in return.

The timing of this project is a little ironic. Friedman earned his bread by denouncing government at virtually every turn. He, like his acolyte, former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan, believed that a largely unregulated free market constituted the most superior form of economic organization imaginable. Well, the tune of the right-wing free marketeers has changed a bit in the last few months.

My colleagues in the Senate and I are now picking up the pieces of a banking system brought to the edge of collapse by this theory of deregulation and by the insatiable greed of a small number of wealthy financiers playing in the market and engaging in incredibly riskyif not illegalbehavior.

In the rush to bail out Wall Street, we saw President Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the people in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtablefolks who loved Friedmans ideas and who, no doubt, would be prepared to financially support a Milton Friedman Institutereverse their longstanding rhetorical opposition to government intervention.

Instead, they demanded that we come to the rescue of the financial firms that had lined up in front of Congress for their emergency welfare checks.

For years, all of these people, including the president of the United States, have been telling us that government should not be involved in ensuring health care for all Americans as a right of citizenship. (What a terrible idea!) They have been telling us that the government should not be involved in making quality education affordable to all people; that the government should not be empowered to ensure that we reverse greenhouse gas emissions; that the government should not regulate pollution that contaminates our air and water and land; and that the government should not provide a strong safety net for our children, for our seniors, or for the disabled.

Well, it turns out that when the shoe is pinching their foot, they have become the strongest believers in government interventionespecially if working people and the middle class are bailing them out.

But the issue here is not just economic policy. It goes deeper than that. It touches on the core of who we are as a society and as a people. Are we as human beings supposed to turn around and not see the suffering that so many of our brothers and sisters are experiencing? Are we content to be living in a nation where, thanks in part to the Friedmanite ideology, the richest 1 percent owns more than the bottom 90 percent and the top one-tenth percent owns more than the bottom 50 percent?

With all due respect to the late Milton Friedman, his economic program is nothing more than a wish list for the greediest, the most monied interests in our society. At the same time that this ideology is supported by the rich and powerfulexcept when theyre lining up in Washington for their welfare checksthis same ideology is almost unanimously opposed by working families and middle-class people across this country.

What would some of the items on Friedmans wish list be? First of all, the Friedmanites would be supportive of the concept of a culture of greed. They want people making billions of dollars on the covers of Time and Newsweek because these people are supposed to be our national heroes. We are not supposed to recognize a teacher who makes $40,000 a year opening up the minds of young people. We are not supposed to recognize a childcare worker who makes $18,000 a year giving poor children an opportunity to grow intellectually and emotionally. Those jobs are not considered important work.

But if youre a billionaire on Wall Street creating exotic financial instruments that end up being worth nothing, you are considered a hero. The fact that this culture of greed has permeated our political culture means that corporate CEOs can now earn more than 400 times what their workers earn without fearing a political backlash.

Now we have a case study for what happens when the ideology of Milton Friedman becomes the operating ideology of the government. Under Bush, the median family income has declined by thousands of dollars. Millions of Americans have entered the ranks of the poor. Some 7 million have lost their health insurance. Some 3 million have lost their pensions. And the gap between the very rich and everybody else has grown much wider.

Our country is due for a transformation. We have endured years of right-wing ideology, and we are eager to move in a different direction. I believe that we will see a major reordering of social and economic priorities and that this last general election represented a repudiation of right-wing economic arguments.

In the Bush eraa period in which some of Friedmans greatest admirers managed the U.S. economythe top 400 families in this country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion.

Yet we have children in this country who have no health care, children who are undernourished, and children who sleep out on the streets. From an economic perspective, from a moral perspective, and from a philosophical perspective, the ideology of Milton Friedman is dead wrong.

Learn more about the new book, The Age of Inequality.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 14:00 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa6d6be 1 News South-Korea,Muslim,halal-food,halal-tourism,halal-restaurant,restaurant,tourism Free

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has encouraged the opening of 117 new Muslim-friendly restaurants across South Korea.

There are now a total of 252 spots that Muslim tourists can feel comfortable dining at.

The Muslim-friendly restaurant classification system is a project that the KTO has been working on so that Muslim tourists in Korea will be able to enjoy their meals without any worry, stated the organization as quoted by kompas.com.

There are four different certifications for restaurants: halal certified, self-certified, Muslim-friendly and pork free. Restaurants that are halal certified are those that only serve halal food and have earned certification from an external certification organization, after an evaluation process. Restaurants that are self-certified are those where the owners themselves declare that their menu only serves halal food. Meanwhile, Muslim-friendly restaurants offer a selection of halal meals on their menus, as well as non-halal meals, while pork free restaurants do not contain pork in their products.

Read also: Muslim-friendly spots for holidaymakers on Nami Island

Out of the 117 restaurants that are being developed, 75 percent are located in rural areas to ensure accessibility for halal foods in more areas, thereby offering further convenience for Muslim tourists. Moreover, of these restaurants, 71 are regular restaurants, while one is a franchise.

The KTO has announced that throughout the two months of September and October, they will be hosting "Halal Restaurant Week. They plan to invite renowned chefs to help promote these Muslim-friendly restaurants in Korea. (tha/kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 11:28 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa5f783 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,house-of-representatives,Banyuwangi,East-Java Free

Several members of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission X recently went for a work visit to Banyuwangi in East Java.

The groups leader Ridwan Hisyam said the visit aimed to learn about Banyuwangi's tourism development and the commission had been eyeing on the regency for quite some time.

This is an early visit to witness the tourism in Banyuwangi that has been increasing rapidly. From this visit, were going to give an input to the Tourism Ministry, said Ridwan.

Read also: Heres why Banyuwangi is perfect for nature and culture lovers

According to Banyuwangi Regent Abdullah Azwar Anas, ever since Banyuwangi became a tourism-based regency the place has attracted many domestic and foreign tourists. Hotels in the area are usually fully-booked on weekends especially during the Banyuwangi Festival.

Abdullah says there are currently three new hotels being developed and slated to open by the end of this year.

There are 4,000 rooms at the moment and all of them have been booked by visitors. Therell be additional hotels by the end of this year, said Abdullah.

Tourism Ministry's Archipelago Marketing Development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said Banyuwangi has the potential for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism. (kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 13:10 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa68f0b 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,religious-tourism,Tanjungpinang Free

The Tourism Ministry together with Tanjung Pinang administration have signed an MoU to develop religious tourism in Penyengat Island, Riau Islands.

The signing was done during Penyengat Island Festival on July 21.

Tourism Ministry's Archipelago Marketing Development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said that the signing of MoU means that the island has to focus on promoting religious destinations to neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Read also: Five places to go in Jakarta to observe religious diversity

Were sure that Penyengat Island will be the lead in border tourism due to its historical value. In the future, it will be presented in the form of religious tourism that offers pilgrimage activity, said Esthy.

Penyengat Island is considered to be the center of Malay culture that is closely related to Islam.

When they are culturally related, they will be interested to pay a visit not only for a vacation but also for silahturahmi [communal togetherness] to their ancestors who came from Penyengat Island, she added.

This year the ministry is targeting for Riau Islands to welcome 2.2 million foreign tourists. (kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 26, 2017 16:39 1935 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa743c4 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Ubud,bali,travel Free

American travel publication Travel+Leisure recently made a list of the "Worlds Top 15 Cities".

Every year for our Worlds Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globeto share their opinions on the top cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines and more. Readers rated cities on their sights and landmarks, culture, cuisine, friendliness, shopping and overall value, as quoted from the article.

Taking the 9th spot with the score of 90.13 is Ubud in Bali, right after Cape Town in South Africa that has the score of 90.24. Meanwhile, topping the list is San Miguel de Allende in Mexico that scores 92.12.

Read also: Despite infrastructure issues, Nihi Sumba Island named worlds best hotel

In a separate article from Travel+Leisure titled "The Top 10 Cities in Asia", Ubud takes the 4th spot with the same score, coming after Hoi An in Vietnam that takes the 3rd spot with the score of 90.31. The 1st winner is awarded to Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the score of 91.40.

High up in the interior of the island of Bali, Ubud continues to draw those who favor the arts and reflectionrather than beaches and parties. I loved everything about Ubud, said one reader. I was spoiled by the kind and thoughtful people I met everywhere I went, the article wrote.

Ubud has arguably become more famous after being shown in the popular movie Eat Pray Love that featured Julia Roberts, where it showcases the beauty of Ubud Monkey Forest. These days however, Ubud is known as the best place for yoga.

Read also: Six glamping sites in Indonesia for adventure seekers

Other attractions that you can visit while going to Ubud include Campuhan Hill, Nyuh Kuning Village, Tegalalang, Ubud Temple, Sarawati Temple and Apung river where you can do rafting.

Just like other Balinese, Ubud residents adopt the traditional philosophy of tri hita karana that epitomizes the balance and harmony between the three sources of life: humans, nature and God.

Below is the list of the Worlds Top 15 Cities according to Travel+Leisure:

1. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

2. Charleston, United States

3. Chiang Mai, Thailand

4. Kyoto, Japan

5. Florence, Italy

6. Oaxaca, Mexico

7. Hoi An, Vietnam

8. Cape Town, South Africa

9. Ubud, Indonesia

10. Luang Prabang, Laos

11. Santa Fe, United States

12. Roma, Italy

13. Siem Reap, Cambodia

14. Udaipur, India

15. Barcelona, Spain

Top 10 Cities in Asia according to Travel+Leisure:

1. Chiang Mai, Thailand

2. Kyoto, Japan

3. Hoi An, Vietnam

4. Ubud, Indonesia

5. Luang Prabang, Laos

6. Siem Reap, Cambodia

7. Udaipur, India

8. Bangkok, Thailand

9. Tokyo, Japan

10. Thimphu, Bhutan
Read the digital edition 2020-09-25 E-Edition

The Jewish Advocate is a not-for-profit reader-supported 501(c)3 organization. We rely on your donations which are tax-deductible.
Some Democrats the accused the Republican Party of stalling the bill as a result of objections from President Donald Trump regarding the Russia-related provisions and specifically the effort to constrain presidential authority to change enforcement mechanisms and suspend or eliminate the newly imposed sanctions at a later date. However, the Republican leadership of the House proceeded to introduce a virtually identical bill, which passed easily and is now expected to go to the Senate before the mid-August start of Congress summer break.

Despite lingering presidential objections to certain aspects of the bill, it seems to be generally expected that Trump will sign it into law, since the extent of its bipartisan congressional support makes it veto-proof. In any event, there are no apparent points of disagreement between Congress and the White House over the Iran or North Korea-related provisions. And indeed, the new Iran sanctions are very much in keeping with the presidents pursuit of more assertive policies toward the Islamic Republic, which has been ongoing since he took office in January.

That effort has not been without its obstacles, though. Last week, Trumps foreign policy advisors reportedly convinced him to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear agreement negotiated by his predecessor. It was the second time that Trump provided such certification, which is due every 90 days, and he apparently did so begrudgingly in both instances.

Immediately after moving to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in force at the beginning of last week, the administration imposed new executive sanctions on 18 individuals and groups with ties to the Iranian ballistic missile program, its Revolutionary Guards-operated fast-attack boats, and reported instances of the theft of American software. Furthermore, the White House indicated that it would be undertaking a thorough review of overall US policy toward Iran. This is certain to keep interested parties watching closely in order to understand the emerging strategies and the ultimate goal that the Trump team has in mind.

While campaigning for office, Trump promised to tear up the nuclear agreement, which he described as the worst deal ever negotiated. But since taking office his administration has seemingly maintained a broader focus, as by putting Tehran on notice over its contributions to regional instability and urging the international community to make priorities of that and the Iranian ballistic missile program. The recent reporting on JCPOA certification suggests that the president is still anxious to follow through on his campaign promise, but not everyone who is critical of the previous administrations handling of Iran policy believes this is the right approach.

Politico published an editorial along these lines on Tuesday, which argued that the nuclear agreement had done too little to constrain the Iranian nuclear program but should be kept in force over the long term while the Trump administration pursues the broader aim of restoring leverage against Tehran and thereby creating the conditions that could lead to a more comprehensive fix.

In the view of the authors, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman and General (ret.) Charles Wald, cancelling the JCPOA would undermine this goal by putting the US at odds with some of its allies and diminishing the long-term chances of rebuilding a multinational sanctions regime like the one that was credited with bringing the Iranians to the table. The article goes on to make several concrete suggestions for what could be done instead to build up pressure on the Iranian government and its paramilitary force. Some of these recommendations clearly reflect the content of the new sanctions package.

In fact, sanctions themselves are well understood to have the effect of making potential Western investors more wary of providing financing and encouraging international engagement. Despite a handful of post-JCPOA deals, most would-be business partners have kept Iran at arms length because of the ongoing threat of sanctions enforcement and the Iranian regimes failure to bring itself into line with international standards of transparency. The sanctions that result from the pending US legislation will almost certainly amplify this effect, and it is also possible that Tehrans response will establish justification for further actions along the lines of what Edelman and Wald recommend.

While not calling for direct military intervention in the region, the authors do highlight the need for a credible threat of force, as in the threat of airstrikes against nuclear infrastructure in the event that Iran is found to be in violation of its obligations. In a recent interview with Tablet Magazine, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton pointedly said that Iran is already not in compliance, even though international authorities and even the Trump administration have stopped short of acknowledging outright violations of the JCPOA.

Bolton did not, however, use that interview to actually call for airstrikes, and it is not clear that Edelman and Wald actually advocate such a course of action at this point, either. However, all three men agree upon the need for forms of pressure on the Islamic Republic which stretch beyond economic sanctions. In theory, the pending sanctions bill lays the groundwork for this, in that it identifies the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization. This is in line with recommendations that Trump himself made soon after taking office, as well as recommendations that have been made over a period of years by opponents of the Iranian regime such as the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

The NCRI held its annual Free Iran rally in Paris on July 1, with the attendance of approximately 100,000 Iranian expatriates plus hundreds of political dignitaries and scholars from throughout the world. There, NCRI President Maryam Rajavi urged not only terrorist designation for the IRGC but also an internationally coordinated effort to push the IRGC out of regional conflict zones and to diminish its overall influence in the Middle East.

While the former recommendation is certainly being addressed by Congress through the sanctions bill, it actually appears that the White House may be moving away from the latter recommendation, as evidenced by last weeks announcement that the US would be ending its financial support for moderate rebel groups fighting against the Iran-backed dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

According to Reuters, the Assad government has responded by publicly boasting that this represented the beginning of the end of the more than six-year civil war, in the early days of which Assad had reportedly been on the verge of overthrow before the intervention of Iran. In his Tablet interview, Ambassador Bolton was asked whether these new developments represented the Trump administration ceding Syria to Iran. He responded by saying that the administrations strategy was not yet clear, but that a poorly formulated policy could fail to prevent the formation of an Iranian-led Shiite crescent spanning Iraq and Syria, with alienated Sunni populations looking to their own militant groups in order to defend their interests.

A response to this threat may or may not be clarified once the White House completes its policy review and makes it clear once and for all whether the president intends to sign the new sanctions bill into law and fully support it. In the meantime, figures like Bolton may still be in a position to influence the development of a comprehensive anti-Iran strategy. Bolton himself is close to the administration, was reportedly considered for Secretary of State, and has already been credited with helping Trump to decide upon the need for a policy review following the latest certification of the JCPOA.

Similarly significant is the fact that Bolton is a longstanding support of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and a regular attendee of the summer rallies, which take place annually. The latest such rally conveyed clear recommendations for what can be done following the imposition of comprehensive, terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC. Not only that, but the NCRIs overall platform puts US strategy into the context of a defined goal that has recently been hinted at by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other Trump administration officials, namely the promotion of domestic Iranian forces that would exploit the weakness of sanctions-damaged institutions in order to facilitate a peaceful transition to democratic governance.
Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: 

Home Page
Tentang Situs Slot Online Resmi MGS88 Nama Situs  MGS88 Minimal Deposit  Rp. 10.000,- (Sepuluh Ribu Rupiah) Proses Deposit   2 Menit Metode Deposit  Bank Transfer,  Pulsa,  E-Wallet Judi Online Terbaik  Slot Online,  Judi Bola,  Casino Online,  Togel Online,  Tembak Ikan Provider Slot Gacor Mudah Maxwin  Pragmatic Play,  PGSoft,  MicroGaming,  Habanero Slot Gacor Gampang Menang  Gates of Olympus,  Sweet Bonanza,  Wild West Gold,  Starlight Princess Win Rate 98%

RTP Live Slot Gacor Tertinggi Hari Ini Terbaru Terlengkap

Selamat datang di halaman RTP live dan informasi soal slot gacor hari ini dari situs MGS88 yang setiap hari selalu update. Berdasarkan RTP Live MGS88, Anda bisa mendapatkan informasi tentang slot online yang saat ini yang sedang Gacor atau onfire dengan persentase yang terbukti akurat, ini bisa menjadi rekomendasi anda sebelum memilih permainan slot online di situs MGS88. Cek RTP Slot sekarang juga bosku

Klik Provider Slot Untuk Mengetahui RTP Slot Secara Real Time

Selamat datang bagi kalian yang sedang mencari situs RTP Live terlengkap dan terkini hari ini. Sangat sesuai jika Anda mengunjungi website MGS88 RTP live untuk informasi tentang permainan slot yang lagi gacor dengan slot RTP yang terupdate. Persentase kemenangan yang kami berikan tentunya diambil dengan data yang sangat valid dan hanya untuk permainan slot yang tersedia di situs MGS88. RTP yang tersedia juga akan selalu diperbarui setiap hari berdasarkan level kemenangan yang diberikan kepada member kami.

Memang sih untuk bermain slot itu tergantung hoki dari setiap pemain, Namun RTP live atau bocoran slot dari yang kami sediakan ini adalah data autentik dari banyaknya pemain yang telah bermain dan mencapai kemenangan tinggi. Sederhananya, kalau banyak pemain yang menang di dalam 1 permainan slot, karena itu permainan slot tersebut akan mempunyai persentase RTP yang sangat tinggi.

Namun kami tegaskan sekali lagi, ini bukan sebuah paksaan kami situs MGS88 untuk anda bermain di game slot yang mana. Ini bisa dijadikan sebagai referensi atau tolok ukur, boleh dicoba kalau anda mempunyai feel yang kuat dalam memainkan permainan game slot. Anda dapat mengakses kapan saja dan di mana saja selama anda siap bermain. Jangan ragu untuk bertanya ya seputar pola putaran terhadap kami, sebab kami juga menyediakannya loh.

Apa itu RTP Live?

RTP Live ialah informasi mengenai persentase tertinggi saat ini dari hasil RTP Live dengan bocoran kemenangan pemain saat ini. RTP Live merupakan singkatan dari Return To Play atau bisa juga diartikan sebagai Return to Player. Karena itu, para pemain slot sekarang jika ingin mengetahui seberapa besar kemenangannya, bisa dengan memainkan permainan yang akan dimainkannya dan bisa untung dengan mudah dan tentunya maksimal.

Apa itu RTP Slot?

RTP Slot juga dikenal sebagai return to player atau pengembalian ke Pemain. RTP slot ialah persentase dari nilai pengembalian semua uang yang dipertaruhkan pemain dari waktu ke waktu. Dengan kata lain, RTP juga dianggap sebagai salah satu fitur slot yang mengembalikan uang pemain saat pemain kalah.

Persentase digunakan untuk menghitung RTP dalam permainan slot. Misalnya, jika slot memiliki RTP 97%, itu berarti untuk setiap 100.000 koin yang hilang di slot, slot dapat mengembalikan 97.000. Jika Anda mengetahui RTP sebuah permainan slot, Anda dapat memutuskan permainan slot mana yang akan dimainkan tanpa kerugian besar.

Apakah Angka Persentase RTP Slot Itu Penting?

Biasanya pemain slot itu tidak memperhatikan RTP dalam permainan yang akan dimainkan, biasanya setelah anda mengisi saldo utama anda akan langsung buru-buru memainkannya. Yang terakhir 90-96% mempengaruhi jumlah kemenangan. Semakin tinggi jumlah RTP yang digunakan, semakin luas peluang untuk mendapatkan keuntungan.

Akan namun itu segala tak secara 100% menjamin kemenangan kau dalam bermain, RTP itu cuma sebagai kalkulasi pengeluaran anda saja selama bermain slot.Dengan adanya RTP, kau dapat mengerjakan pengaturan atas uang yang akan kau pertaruhkan nanti pada ketika bermain.Untuk itu pada ketika kau bermain slot dan telah mengalami banyak kekalahan di satu permainan, direkomendasikan kau pindah ke permainan slot lainnya yang RTP nya lebih tinggi dari permainan yang tadi kau mainkan.

Keuntungan Menggunakan Bocoran RTP Slot Hari Ini

Situs MGS88 Akan dengan senang hati akan beberapa keuntungan yang didapatkan jika anda bermain slot dengan menggunakan RTP Live yang telah disediakan. Berikut Keuntungannya :

Peluang Kemenangan Meningkat Tentu saja, saat bermain slot online, menang adalah hal yang paling penting. Di sinilah RTP berperan sebagai metode atau metode baru yang akan membantu Anda memilih permainan slot persentase tinggi. Mendapat variasi dalam Memainkan Game Slot Pastinya banyak pemain slot online yang hanya memainkan 3-5 permainan slot saja. Namun dengan RTP Live slot akan memberikan banyak game slot lain yang bisa anda coba. Tentunya semua permainan slot memiliki potensi kemenangan yang besar, jadi jangan hanya mengandalkan beberapa permainan saja. Menambah Pengalaman Dalam Bermain Slot Keuntungan terakhir adalah Anda tentu saja menambah pengalaman dan keahlian dalam permainan slot online. Dengan berbagai macam permainan slot yang dimainkan, Anda pasti mengetahui karakteristik dari setiap permainan slot yang Anda mainkan. Akibatnya, Anda pasti bisa dianggap sebagai pemain slot yang andal, yang pasti akan meningkatkan peluang Anda untuk menang besar menggunakan RTP.

Daftar 8 Situs Dengan RTP Slot Live Tertinggi Hari Ini

Ada banyak penyedia mesin slot online di internet. Tetapi tidak semuanya memiliki peluang tinggi atau RTP Live Slot yang sangat tinggi. Tapi jangan khawatir, berikut ini adalah situs slot gacor yang akan memberikan bocoran slot dengan RTP Live Tertinggi:

RTP Live Slot Pragmatic Play (RTP Slot 97.85%) RTP Live Slot PG Soft (RTP Live 96.15%) RTP Live Slot Habanero (RTP Slot 95.89%) RTP Live Slot CQ9 (RTP Live 98.83%) RTP Live Slot Spade Gaming (RTP Live 94.99%) RTP Live Slot Micro Gaming (RTP Slot 95.39%) RTP Slot Live Top Trend Gaming (RTP Live 96.14%) RTP Slot Live JOKER123 (RTP Live 97.45%)

Itulah Daftar 8 Provider Slot Gacor dengan RTP Live teratas diatas tentunya kami analisa terlebih dahulu. Anda bisa membuktikannya langsung dengan mengklik banner atau meprovider game slot yang sudah tersedia di atas. Saran kami yaitu Anda harus memainkan semua penyedia slot di atas untuk mencapai peluang kemenangan terbaik.

Daftar Slot RTP Live Tertinggi Sering Kasih Jackpot

Selain mempertimbangkan RTP Slot Gacor yang ada, sebenarnya ada banyak faktor penting untuk menang dalam permainan judi online. Sebab ada banyak game yang memiliki fitur dan mekanisme unik dan bisa membantu anda meraih Jackpot yang sangat besar.

Berikut ini akan kami ulas daftar 5 game slot paling populer karena sering memberikan jackpot:

RTP Live Gates of Olympus Gates of Olympus adalah game slot teraneh dan terbaik di Indonesia. Karena permainan mesin slot ini paling populer karena kakek Zeus dapat mengizinkan pengganda x500. Selain itu, fitur dan mekanik Gates of Olympus juga sangat menguntungkan untuk memenangkan Grand Jackpot. Secara teoritis, RTP slot langsung Gates of Olympus bernilai 96,50%, yang berarti peluang Anda untuk memenangkan MaxWin cukup tinggi. RTP live Sweet Bonanza Sweet Bonanza adalah permainan slot terpopuler kedua. Game slot bertema buah dan permen yang lezat ini sepertinya akan menarik banyak perhatian karena tergolong slot gacor yang mudah menang. Secara teoritis, slot Sweet Bonanza RTP bernilai 96,48%, yang berarti peluang Anda cukup tinggi untuk memenangkan jackpot. RTP Live Wild West Gold Wild West Gold adalah permainan slot bertema koboi yang juga populer di kalangan penggemar konspirasi. Permainan slot Wild West Gold sendiri kerap menawarkan kejutan jackpot bagi para pemainnya. Selain itu, nilai RTP Live Slot menunjukkan indeks tertinggi hari ini, yang berarti sangat layak dan sangat direkomendasikan. RTP Live Starlight Princess Slot Starlight Princess ini memiliki gaya dan fitur yang mirip dengan Gates of Olympus. Perbedaannya hanya pada desain dan karakter gamenya saja, karena memiliki fitur dan mekanik yang sama tentunya RTP slot teoritis pada game slot ini sama yaitu 96,50%. RTP Live Cash Elevator Mungkin sebagian dari Anda baru mengenal slot Cash Elevator. Namun dari data benchmark yang diungkap, ternyata banyak sekali yang menikmati permainan slot ini. Dengan fitur dan mekanisme unik seperti Lift up and down asli, slot ini juga memiliki slot RTP Live dasar 96,64% yang juga memiliki mekanisme yang sangat menguntungkan untuk memperlancar tingkat kemenangan besar.

Bocoran Jam Main Slot Gacor Hari Ini

Dalam bermain permainan slot online itu tidak bisa dilakukan dengan sembarangan yah. Jadi, Jika anda bermain pada waktu tertentu seperti yang akan kita bahas sesaat lagi, ada kemungkinan anda untuk mendapatkan kemenangan lebih tinggi. Jam RTP Slot Gacor merupakan bocoran jam main slot yang akan memberikan anda kapan waktu yang pas dalam bermain game slot.

Tentu saja seluruh provider slot online memiliki jam tertentu dalam memberikan peluang kepada para pemainnya untuk mendapatkan kemenangan. Disini kami akan memberikan anda Bocoran Jam Slot Gacor yang Paling Akurat Hari ini:

Jam Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play 02:30 WIB - Jam 05:25 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Habanero 14:26 WIB - Jam 17:38 WIB Jam Slot Gacor CQ9 00:45 WIB - Jam 05:53 WIB Jam Slot Gacor PG SOFT 14:25 WIB - Jam 17:35 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Joker123 17:41 WIB - Jam 20:42 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Microgaming 22:30 WIB - Jam 00:35 WIB

MGS88: Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Pay4D Resmi dan Terpercaya

MGS88 adalah situs game slot online Gacor terbaru yang bermitra dengan Pay4D, Pay4D sendiri merupakan daftar situs game slot online terpercaya dengan berbagai macam permainan judi yang mudah dimenangkan seperti Game Bola, Casino Online, Slot Pay4D, Tembak Ikan dan Pay4D Online Permainan togel seperti Singapura, Hongkong, Sydney dan lain-lain. Tujuan utama kami adalah menjadi situs judi online Pay4D yang menyediakan layanan judi online terbaik di Indonesia.

Kami juga salah satu situs resmi PAY4D di Indonesia yang pasti akan membayarkan semua kemenangan kepada semua member kami, karena kepercayaan dari semua member kami adalah prioritas utama kami sebagai mesin slot 4d Asia terbaik di Asia, khususnya di Indonesia.

Dalam melakukan sistem transaksi sistem simpanan dapat dilakukan dengan mudah melalui mobile banking dan electronic banking berupa bank BCA, BSI, BRI, BNI, Cimb Niaga, Permata dan Mandiri. Selain itu, transaksi e-wallet juga tersedia melalui Dana, Gopay, LinkAja dan Ovo serta dapat digunakan untuk pulsa tanpa dipotong.

Untuk mempermudah dan kenyamanan dalam melakukan registrasi atau melakukan setiap transaksi, MGS88 menyediakan layanan live chat dan Whatsapp terhubung langsung dengan customer service online 24 jam.

Mengenal Istilah Dalam RTP SLOT

Di slot RTP Live Anda akan melihat berbagai fitur yang mungkin tidak Anda pahami masing-masing. Namun jangan khawatir, disini sebagai situs slot gacor MGS88 kami akan memberikan penjelasan lengkap mengenai tentang istilah yang ada di RTP SLOT dibawah ini.
Home >Police Enforcement > Tickets and Cash > New Jersey Appellate Court Says Accidents Not Always Careless
[July 25, 2017] Janet George of Western Digital/SanDisk, to Present at Rock Stars of Machine and Deep Learning 2017

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Machine learning and deep learning have exploded far beyond data prediction and analysis to solving previously unsolved problems. The IEEE Computer Society will host Rock Stars of Machine Learning and Deep Learning on 12 September 2017, where experts who are driving this technology, including Janet George, Fellow/Chief Data Scientist, Western Digital/SanDisk, will share their visions of its disruptive impact to our future. A technical leader with more than 15 years' experience in big data platform, machine learning, distributed computing, compliers, and artificial intelligence, Janet George will speak on the topic titled "Big Metamorphosis: Spinning Up Well-Architected Stacks for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence." "Machine learning and artificial intelligence require a different treatment of data than the more traditional methods," says George. "The topology and different dimensions of data need to be easily accessible. Distributed platforms and dynamic data structures lend themselves well to scale the models in near-real-time." George will further discuss best practices in spinning up well-architected stacks for machine learning and artificial intelligence for scale in an industrial/enterprise setting with practical uses cases, tradeoffs, challenges, and storage layers required. Registration is now open for the must-attend event, wih early pricing packages and professional development hours available for individuals and teams. To register, visit www.computer.org/machinelearning.



Speakers and topics at this action-packed event are: Hassan Sawaf , Director of Applied Science and Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services: "Machine Learning Technology around Human Language for Higher Level Services"

, Director of Applied Science and Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services: "Machine Learning Technology around Human Language for Higher Level Services" David Rosenberg , Data Scientist, CTO Office, Bloomberg Engineering: "Extracting Data from Tables and Charts in Natural Document Formats"

, Data Scientist, CTO Office, Bloomberg Engineering: "Extracting Data from Tables and Charts in Natural Document Formats" M. Anthony Lewis , Sr. Director/Sr. Member IEEE, Qualcomm: "Understanding How Biologically Inspired Computing May Help Us Build Machines that Perceive the World as We Do"

, Sr. Director/Sr. Member IEEE, Qualcomm: "Understanding How Biologically Inspired Computing May Help Us Build Machines that Perceive the World as We Do" Rajat Monga , Engineering Director, Machine Learning, Tensorflow: "Trends and Developments in Deep Learning"

, Engineering Director, Machine Learning, Tensorflow: "Trends and Developments in Deep Learning" Veryan Allen , Data Scientist, Machine Learning & Deep Learning, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: "Programming Machines to Deep Learn and Solve Big Data Investment Problems" The one-day event will address all aspects of machine/deep-learning technologies, including:

How can your organization employ the proper analytical models from machine learning that allow your researchers, data scientists, engineers, and analysts to produce reliable, repeatable decisions and results?

What are the promises of deep learning on business?

Are machine learning and deep learning the technology solutions that your businesses can use to analyze the massive amounts of data becoming available? Seating is limited for this must-attend event. Register now at www.computer.org/machinelearning while early pricing it still in effect. About IEEE Computer Society

IEEE Computer Society, the computing industry's unmatched source for technology information and career development, offers a comprehensive array of industry-recognized products, services and professional opportunities. Known as the community for technology leaders, IEEE Computer Society's vast resources include membership, publications, a renowned digital library, training programs, conferences, and top-trending technology events. Visit www.computer.org for more information on all products and services. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/janet-george-of-western-digitalsandisk-to-present-at-rock-stars-of-machine-and-deep-learning-2017-300493820.html SOURCE IEEE Computer Society

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 25, 2017] Dippin' Dots Holds Military Appreciation Event at Six Flags America

Dippin' Dots, LLC, the leading maker of flash-frozen beaded ice cream and frozen treats, this weekend showed its support for the U.S. military by donating cups of its famous beaded ice cream to military personnel and their family members as part of an appreciation day held Saturday, July 22, at the Six Flags America theme park near Washington, D.C./Baltimore. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006352/en/ Lt. Col. David Dulaney and family enjoying refreshing cups of Dippin' Dots during the company's July 22 military appreciation day at Six Flags America. (Photo: Business Wire) As part of the event at which approximtely 500 cups were donated, Lt. Col. David Dulaney, U.S. Army, and his wife, Mindy, conducted a Facebook (News - Alert) Live session with Dippin' Dots CEO Scott Fischer, in which they discussed the realities of military life and the support that makes their sacrifices possible.



"A common saying in the military is that the strength of our nation is the army; the strength of the army is our soldiers; and the strength of our soldiers is the family," Dulaney stated. "My experience as a career military officer echoes this refrain. My fellow soldiers and I would not be able to do our jobs successfully without our families and the military community as a whole behind us." "Dippin' Dots stands for fun and family, and nothing goes with fun and family like freedom," commented Fischer. "As Americans, we enjoy freedom because of the sacrifices and effort of our armed forces. As a company, we wanted to do something special to honor the members of our military and their families who dedicate their lives to ensuring our safety and security."

Active duty military personnel visiting Six Flags America Saturday received vouchers for themselves and their guests to each receive a free 5 oz. cup of Dippin' Dots redeemable at any of the Dippin' Dots kiosks located throughout the park. Mrs. Dulaney added, "The military life can be nomadic and stressful. As a military spouse, you have to be resilient to handle overseas deployments, long separations and frequent moves. Military families form a unique bond and share a tightknit community that pulls together in times of need to support their own. Thanks to Dippin' Dots for recognizing and celebrating both our soldiers and their support network with this event." About Dippin' Dots Dippin' Dots has produced and distributed its flash-frozen tiny beads of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet and flavored ice products since 1988. Made at the company's production facility in Paducah, Kentucky, Dippin' Dots distributes its unique frozen products in all 50 states and 11 countries through its franchised and direct distribution network. For more information, including franchise opportunities, please visit www.dippindots.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006352/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 25, 2017] Containership Blasts Kubernetes Into Multicloud Orbit

PITTSBURGH, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Containership, the company making multicloud computing easy, has announced support for Kubernetes on their Container-as-a-Service platform. This will allow developers and IT operators using Kubernetes to easily build cloud-agnostic, portable, containerized infrastructure with developer self-service across any cloud provider or data center. Containership's support for Kubernetes enables developers to instantly deploy their clusters using Containership's powerful cloud-native features. At the same time, IT operators can manage all of their company's cloud providers and data centers through one interface to fully embrace a true multicloud approach to containers. With this launch, Containership pairs their intuitive multicloud management layer (available through UI, API, CLI or CI/CD) with Kubernetes while attaching advanced functionality and value-added features, including: Cluster deployments on any of the 14+ integrated hosting providers

Cloud-agnostic firewall rules, load-balancing, service discovery & data volume management

Marketplace of instantly provisioned applications, projects, and services

Ability to snapshot the entire containerized stack (clone entire Kubernetes clusters to create ne environments, DR, or to expand into new availability zones, regions, or cloud providers instantly)



Phil Dougherty said, "When we looked at the vast landscape of projects supporting Kubernetes, there was a clear gap in pairing multicloud with end user simplicity and lightweight management. You should not need to travel to a Dojo or Garage to learn how to use a product in this day and age and you should definitely not put all your proverbial eggs in one basket when it comes to hosting providers. We have solved all of these issues with an easy to use multicloud platform that is cost-effective and future-proofs your container investments with no lock-in to infrastructure...or even us for that matter." Visit Containership.io to get started for free.

About Containership: Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2015 and founded by developers and IT operators that required more from the existing landscape of platforms to manage containers at scale across any cloud or server, Containership has grown to become an emerging leader in multicloud docker deployments. Backed by Draper Triangle Ventures, Birchmere Investments, and Riverfront Ventures, Containership is Multicloud Made Easy. Visit www.containership.io for more info. Press Contact:

David Cohn

Containership

[email protected] Related Links Containership Kubernetes Launch Special Offers - Managed Services & More Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0wyCcVry_U View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/containership-blasts-kubernetes-into-multicloud-orbit-300493859.html SOURCE Containership

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Dear Mama Liberia,

In less than 24 hours, the tickling clock shall rest at the day you made a leap and bold step forward by informing the comity of nations that you could now steer your own affairs - government, breed your children and determine how your economy should run. As I write you these somehow meaningless words, I am mindful that you may not get to read them, but somehow by imagination I assume you will.

Monday, July 26, 1847, it was - you seized the moment and declared unto yourself independence, making you the first African and second black nation to do so. On that day, freed slaves became founders of a nation  a near-nightmare and impossibility for those once sold into slavery, hopes were born and dreamers thought their dreams of freedom, liberty and equality could now be realized. Those (inhabitants) whom the former slaves met on your territory rhymed in unity: Independent at last! Independent at last! Thank God Almighty, we are independent at last! A day of joy and laughter, of decorum and serenity  thats how it must have seemed to the proponents of independence.

Through the vicissitudes of time, some of your children started to arrogate unto themselves the monopoly of wisdom, thus leading you through short cuts to chaos: one group of people started suppressing the other. The seedy-thought that political power was some kind of Mandate from Heaven soon germinated, to an extent that names and origins were used to determine what rights, freedoms and sayings individuals should have and opportunities to access. In your early years of sovereignty, the typical African politicians emerged and started getting used to the trappings of power. This would go on for nearly 133 years!

Then came December 24, 1989  the beginning of two brutal bloody civil wars. Thousands of your children were killed  yet you were silent, destroyed and did nothing because you were condemned already as unworthy of being a mother. Hate and animosity had besieged them! Such horrible past can be neither unremembered nor scrubbed from the memories of times; women and girls were raped, and child soldiers raised. The events of 1989  2003 demonstrate mans inhumanity to man. How is it possible that you would forget all these, because even water appeared thicker than blood? Your children inflicted enormous pain on themselves, and for 14 years, peace went into exile. In spite of all, you survived; you moved from a thorny past to a now-tormenting present. Weep not, Mama Liberia! Our actions in the past caused you immense suffering and sorrow, and they are even repeated today, but you can rest-assured such melancholic past will not be replicated.

For 170 years, youve been weighed down by poverty, and hunger continues to starve your children. A privileged few have, for too long, stagnated and marginalized their compatriots. I can imagine you in anguish, perturbed by the high degree of ethno-centrist demagoguery in display by few of your children against the greater good of the rest. I can imagine you in disgust for holding the rank of the fourth poorest nation on Earth and the dubious distinction of the most corruption election in the Guinness Book of Records: the Elections of 1927. I can imagine you want to take that desired sleep, but how can this be when the education system is a mess? I can imagine you seek the comfort of the cool wind, but how can this be when the health sector is appalling - women deliver unsafely, malnutrition and infant mortality rates are high, no treatment for curable diseases, and expired drugs are still imported into our markets while substandard ones exist? I can imagine you struggle to make clean water and energy available for your children, but how is this possible when patriotism is no longer alive? I can imagine you strive for transparency and accountability, but this battle can only be won when there is some sanity in our politics. I can imagine you have the thought to make an intermittent pause to reflect on the achievements you are told youve made, but where are the achievements, when the annual Gross Domestic Product per capita is no more than US $470? Where are the progress when one of Africas oldest airports and runways  RIA  as well as other infrastructures including roads lie in ruins? Where are the success stories when only 2 out of 68 concession agreements may benefit your children? Where are the gains when children are dying from hunger and curable diseases and men and women seem to have nothing for which to hope? In spite of the agony you feel, it still seems nothing aches you. You have demonstrated that ahead of us lies a brighter and better future.

Mama, when I look at you from a distance  I see anger, frustration and regret because of the monstrous character of some of your children who made the solemn decision that they would treat you callously by squandering your resources and comfortably looting from your covers while amassing wealth! I see your thirst  for justice, equality and respect for rule of law  yearning to be quenched! In you, I see an avid quest to end injustice, eliminate violence against women and children! When I look at your face, I see despair but determined you are! When I look in your eyes, I see tears but Weep not Mama Liberia. Despite the existence of the forces of micro-felony and unprecedented corruption, weep not! Despite the problem of leadership and deficits in governance, weep not!

Mama, I look forward to the day when you will sit at the dinner table of civilization where you will not always plead for or solicit donations or be seen as an acceptor particle as chemists would put it, but rather a donor to some other nations. Weep not, Mama Liberia! The day is coming when your day of misery will be turned into eternal happiness and unremitting glamour. Keep hope alive!

Abraham M. Keita is a global child rights advocate and high school graduate. He fights for justice for child victims of violence, especially sexual violence and speaks for quality education. Keita envisions a world free of violence against children and the rule of law is upheld. He can be reached at info@abrahamkeita.com.



What is your take? Please post your comments below:


All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require. In order to ensure democratic government which responds to the wishes of the governed, the people shall have the right at such period, and in such manner as provided for under this Constitution, to cause their public servants to leave office and to fill vacancies by regular elections and appointments.(article 1, Liberian Constitution of 1986)

I heard of his reputation as a jolly, backslapping, finger-snapping fellow, who could carry his liquor well, popular with women of a certain type, and a careless spender of his own and other peoples moneyWe did not move in the same direction.



I gave my support to a candidate with whose personal characteristics, I was unacquainted, whose real intellectual attitude towards government was unknown to me and whose interpretation of governments obligation to society I was ignorant. I took him on trust from reports of his friends and from what I afterwards learned, were his hypocritical letters to me (Wreh, p. 59:1976). Former President Edwin James Barclays acceptance speech on August 27, 1954 as standard-bearer of the Independent True Whig Party (ITWP).



The 2017 general and presidential elections slated for the second Tuesday in October, as mandated by our organic law, will offer an almost unprecedented moment for power brokers in the country and the Liberian electorate at large, to be manifestly assured, or to assure themselves, that every bona fide citizen of the country who has attained the requisite age, qualification and competence, actually has an equal opportunity in seeking the presidency, irrespective of ones socio-economic, political, or ethnic background, if such person is preferred by a majority of the voters, as might be reflected in their vote. To begin with, this will be the very first incumbent-free presidential election in 74 years, whereby the elected president, who is actually administering the entire territorial confines of the country, is expected to transfer authority to a successor without being a candidate in the election.



If my recollection is accurate, the last time such pivotal political moment availed itself was in May of 1943, when the de facto one-party True Whig Party hegemony was still in full swing. In other words, not only that the incumbent president will herself, not be a candidate in the impending presidential election, but also the election will, unlike in the True Whig Party era, be held in a multiparty environment, which evokes the intrigues of competing interests. In the 1943 election, it was the erudite Edwin James Barclay who was retiring after 14 years on the throne, having been dramatically thrust to the mantle of state power in the melee of the Fernando Po opprobrium in December of 1930.



Now, 74 years after that monumental occasion, I dare say that the 1943-44 fiasco was not an exemplary transfer of power. It must therefore, serve as an instructive historical guide for ALL LIBERIANSpower brokers as well as the down-trodden massesto avoid repeating such colossal mistake in the annals of our history. To put it candidly, the authentic political will of majority of the Liberian people must impartially be allowed to prevail at the ballot box in the impending presidential election, rather than a certain small group of people arrogating the privilege of deciding who becomes the next president to themselves, supposedly on behalf of the vast majority of our people.



When Barclay was relinquishing the presidential chair, most Liberians were still being disenfranchised by the ruling elites; only so-called property owners were allowed to vote at the time. Likewise, women did have the right to vote then. In short, the prevailing political culture was a sort of token democracy among the coastal settlers, even though the pauperized citizens of the rest of the country were being taxed without a say in the government. Even at that, intense rivalries prevailed among the political elites within the TWP. For example, during the 1943 transitional period, Messrs James F. Cooper, a well-known rubber farming tycoon and Counselor Clarence L. Simpson, Sr. were interested in seeking the presidency, but Barclay, the outgoing president basically hand-picked his successor, against the popular will of the TWP permitted electorate at the time. The pre-eminent presidents argument, which probably convinced some TWP stalwarts was that Montserrado had dominated the presidential stage for a long time and so, it was time for the ruling elites to give chance to someone from the leeward counties. It was through such unmeritorious argument that Edwin Barclay effectively quashed any modicum of competition and imposed the autocratic William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman on the unsuspecting Liberian people.



From a public policy perspective, Barclays decision to hand-pick Tubman was myopic, because the outcome subsequently turned out to be disastrous, not only for Liberia, but also very tragic for the former president himself. Barclays anointing of Tubman reeked of nepotism, because four years after Tubman took over the mantle of state power, he married Antoinette Padmore, Barclays niece, who was for all practical purposes, his foster daughter. The future first lady, along with her younger brother, the late Ambassador George A. Padmore, had been orphaned as a result of their parents drowning when their canoe capsized on the Saint Paul River. The two kids, then 9 and 7 years respectively, had been raised by their maternal uncle, the future President Edwin Barclay. What is not clear is whether Ms. Padmore and Mr. Tubman had had a courtship prior his assumption of the presidency, or he (Tubman) was simply practicalizing a quid pro quo arrangement with his predecessor.



The tragedy for the country was that seven years after Tubman ascended to the presidency, he manipulated the feeble TWP Legislature to abrogate a key constitutional provision, which limited the presidential tenure to an eight-year one term. His 1951 incredulous amendment to the constitution reads, No President may be elected for two consecutive terms of eight years, but should a majority of the ballots cast a second or any other succeeding election by all of the electors voting thereat elect him, his second or any other succeeding term of office shall be for four years.



It was through such comical amendment of a very crucial constitutional provision that William Tubman fiercely embarked on his epic decimation, degradation of the countrys political process. When the eminent Didwho Twe and the Reformation Party/United People Party coalition attempted to challenge him, Tubman brutally resorted to jungle justice and chased the Harvard-trained statesman into exile. There is no doubt that by 1954 or thereabout, Barclay himself was profoundly regretting the costly political blunder he had made 11 years earlier. However, being a politician, the former president didnt want to take the blame. When he realized that the autocrat whose formal educated had ended at a Cape Palmas seminary, had no intention of peacefully transferring power to a successor, he teamed up with some forward-looking political stalwarts of the TWP in minting the Independent True Whig Party (ITWP) to wrestle power from Tubman.



Unfortunately, it was too late! Tubman had, by then, formidably entrenched himself into power to the extent that it was now extremely difficult, if not impossible, to democratically dislodge him from power. It was against this backdrop that ex-president Barclay made these assertions in 1954, in his capacity as the newly nominated standard-bearer of the ITWP: I heard of his reputation as a jolly, backslapping, finger-snapping fellow, who could carry his liquor well, popular with women of certain type, and a careless spender of his own and other people moneyWe did not move in the same direction.



The question here is: Do such weirdly colorful characteristics in any way, portray a basic aptitude of suitability for the presidency of a country? If Barclay actually knew that Tubman was a boozing, womanizing socialite, as clearly indicated in the quoted statements above, why did Edwin Barclay, one of Liberias foremost intellectual presidents, impose this apprenticed lawyer with such checkered characteristics from Cape Palmas on the unsuspecting Liberian people?



In his desperate attempt to absolve himself of the ominous political situation that was, by then unfolding in the country, Barclay further noted, I gave my support to a candidate with whose personal characteristics I was unacquainted, whose real intellectual attitude towards government was unknown to me; and of whose interpretation of governments obligation to society I was ignorant. I took him on trust from reports of his friends and from what I afterwards learned, were his hypocritical letters to me. From my laymans assessment, either the well-learned Barclay was such an inept human resources manager when it came to recruiting a qualified, highly competent and capable person to exemplarily administer the executive authority of the country, or he was being disingenuously dishonest about his nepotistic anointment of William Tubman at the expense of our strategic national interest. It is astoundingly incredible that Barclay, a former Attorney-General, a former Secretary of State (Foreign Minister) well entrenched in the highest echelon of the domineering Monrovia power elites, claimed that he didnt know the political attitude and aptitude of Tubman, a former Senator from Maryland County, a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, a fellow lawyer.



More importantly, when Barclay delivered the above quoted speech on August 27, 1954, Tubman had already been his nephew-in-law for six years, the gentleman having married, Ms. Antoinette Padmore (Barclays late sisters daughter) in 1948. Against this backdrop, was it not laughable for the former president to claim that he was not au courant with the political rectitude of his foster daughters husband? Apart from Barclays close marital relationship to Tubman, Edwin Barclay, then as Secretary of State, his uncle, former president Arthur Barclay (by then operating a very powerful post-presidential law firm in Monrovia), then Speaker Samuel A. Ross of Sinoe County, Vice President Allen Yancy of Maryland County, President Charles D.B. King and then Senator William V.S. Tubman of Maryland County had all been accomplices in the disgraceful 20th century slavery enterprise on the Spanish island of Fernando Po (now Equitorial Guinea), which was later euphemistically tagged as a forced labor episode by the League of Nations, precursor of the United Nations.



The only distinction is that Arthur Barclay, Tubman and Edwin Barclay on the one hand, were the white-collar accomplices while then President King and his vice president were identified by the League of Nations as the primary blue-collar culprits, hence they had to resign in disgrace. When indigenous Liberian boys were being shipped to Fernando Po for as low as $9 per person, to intensely work and die in inhumane, degrading conditions on Spanish coffee plantations at the beginning of the 20th century, Arthur and Edwin Barclays law firm vigorously represented the interests of the Spanish companies involved in such reprehensible human trafficking. Moreover, as Secretary of State, Edwin Barclays State Department (now Foreign Ministry) was responsible for issuing the final clearance for the captured slaves, or the slave ships to depart Liberia.



Of course, when this mind-boggling human degradation was brought to the attention of the international community and the League of Nations subsequently set up a commission of inquiry to probe this disturbing issue, William Tubman resigned as Senator of Maryland County to represent Yancy and King, even though at some points in time, he (Tubman) and Yancy, a fellow Marylander, had fiercely collaborated in raiding villages and capturing young boys in the southeastern region of the country to be sold to Fernando Po slave traders. Following the initial verdict, when Speaker Ross was outmaneuvered by the Monrovia cabal with the appointment of Secretary of State Edwin Barclay as president, he swiftly appointed William Tubman as Associate Justice, a sort of big thank you for defending the status quo. In short, the lengthy collaboration of Tubman and Barclay prior to their political fallout of 1954-55 has already been well documented in numerous publications.



What I, however, want to stress here is that political patronage is not only a nefarious attempt at egregiously undermining any burgeoning democratic process, but also a gross disservice to the strategic interests of any country. The highly anticipated October elections in Liberia present a grandiose opportunity for us, as a people, to test our unequivocal commitment to majoritarian democracy. Because as a nation, we had in the past, unwillingly gone down the treacherous valley of political patronage, this time around, Liberians must say an emphatic NO to any form of tele-guided, or remote-controlled democracy, however camouflaged, or sugar-coated it might be. In the 1943-44 True Whig Party elections, when Edwin Barclay hook-winked the political establishment imposed Tubman on the country, it proved to be dangerous, even for those who had preferred to supinely sit on the fence at the time. Now that we are in this 21st century of unprecedented enlightenment, we must all prudently heed the instructive lessons of history, by ensuring that the actual political will of the Liberian people is reflected in the results of the October 10th elections.



The forthcoming elections must serve as a moment for Liberia to shed its deficient political past for the betterment of the country. The dismal sub-culture of manipulating the electoral process through all sorts of chicaneries, rampantly putting state resources at the disposal of certain politicians, political party(ies), or stipulating bizarre laws designed to hijack the popular will of the people must be discontinued forthwith. Liberias ethnic mosaic must be open-mindedly seen as an asset, rather than parochially perceiving it as a sort of liability. Those sordid political chicaneries in the past, whereby certain people were denied the right to seek the presidency, or whereby self-appointed power brokers blatantly hijacked the will of the people in a brazen, shameless fashion must now be things of the past. The conduct of this election must be utterly transparent, free and fair in order to send an unambiguous message to all of our compatriots that indeed, this country actually belongs to all of its citizens, irrespective of ones ethnicity or surname.



Political patronage smacks of myopic arrogance and elitist snobbery. Hand-picking a successor is tantamount to saying that all the people in the whole country are stupid; that the people lack the basic capacity to freely decide for themselves. As a people, our last experience with a hand-picked successor was extremely tragic. Seven years after a hand-picked successor was sworn in, Didwho Twe was mercilessly flushed into exile; eleven years afterwards, Samuel David Coleman, once Tubmans buddy in the Senate, was brutally butchered along with his highly educated son. Likewise, on November 6th of the same 1955, Tubmans primary benefactor, for President Edwin Barclay was dead. Although his death was said to be natural, one cannot rule out the heart-wrenching bloodletting surrounding the deaths of the Colemans and others as part of the causalities.



In other words, usurping an orderly process, just to insert a detestable political patronage therein had in the past, not served the best interests of Liberia. Having been severely victimized by a hand-picked political imposition in the past, this time around, all Liberians must resolutely reject any form of political patronage. Having gone through 14 years of fratricidal upheaval, which snatched the precious lives of over 250,000 compatriots and foreign residents, having endured famines, starvations, diseases, and all other forms of human degradation, dehumanization, we have already seen some of the worst can befall us; we have already been through hell-holes as a people. Our steely character having been collectively molded by the intensity of those memorable calamities, we must not allow ourselves to be cowed into a subservient submission by shamelessly selling our fundamental birth rights for worthless alms and crumbs. On October 10, 2017, we all must collectively assure ourselves and posterity that indeed, All power is inherent in the people, as sacredly enshrined in the very first article of our constitution, by conscientiously voting for a virile, resolute leader with the requisite gallantry to move LIBERIA forward.



Columnist Joe Bartuah studied English (BA), Political Science (BA) and Conflict Resolution, Public Policy and International Relations (MSc.) at the University of Liberia Boston and its McCormack Graduate School of Public Policy and Global Studies. His forthcoming book is entitled, An Agenda for a Better LiberiaA Common Sense Approach to Nation-Building. He formerly edited The News newspaper in Monrovia. Bartuah is accessible on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media. His email: mienwon2001@gmail.com or akesseh06@hotmail.com.

We are facing some technical difficulties with our comments scripts. Please use the Facebook comments space provided below:


[July 25, 2017] Solarflare Opens Market for 10 Million Firewalls Per Year with World's First NIC-Based Hardware Server Firewall

Solarflare (News - Alert), a pioneer in the development of neural-class networks, today introduced a NIC-based platform for security "inside" the data center where 90% of all IP traffic exists. Proven by hyperscale cloud service providers with millions of servers, Solarflare is transforming the enterprise server security market based on appliances and FPGAs and NPUs costing thousands of dollars, into a 10 million server per year market leveraging security that is "just there" on every standard NIC (News - Alert) costing less than $300. Available September 1, 2017, SolarSecure can be enabled concurrently with ethernet NIC, acceleration, monitoring and capture solutions in a Solarflare XtremeScale Smart NIC fabric. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006583/en/ Smart NIC Fabric infographic The infographic illustrates how an XtremeScale Smart NIC Fabric can be deployed to tailor acceleration, security, monitoring and packet capture for thousands of virtual NICs in a single server. (Photo: Business Wire) The foundation of SolarSecure is innovative Solarflare chip hardware with the power to inspect packets at line-speed, and which cannot be breached with root access to a software application or operating platform. Deployed as a fully featured firewall platform, SolarSecure provides integrated packet surveillance, filtering, and server cloaking. The high-speed chip hardware solution is tamper-resistant, scales-out with every server, and allows micro segmentation down to virtual machines or microservice workloads for fine-grain security policy management. SolarSecure is also a platform for machine learning. The software defined SolarSecure NIC hardware and applications maintain surveillance of every packet which allows SolarSecure to provide network flow analytics with application granularity, and to feed data lakes with the massive volumes of the right traffic data needed for effective big data security analytics. Trading Technologies and CDL are two managed service providers integrating SolarSecure hardware technology into their service platforms. Trading Technologies makes the tools which the world's premier traders trust to maintain their edge, and their TT Platform is a next-generation trading framework that allows trading anywhere-on virtually any device. "The whole challenge in providing a low-latency trading platform is to make the infrastructure as thin as possible, said Dan Feldman, vice president of systems and network engineering at Trading Technologies. "Adding firewall appliances adds hops and latency. By placing a Smart NIC with SolarSecure in line with the transactions, we eliminate hops and deliver a similar security narrative." CDL provides a managed security solution scaled for the enterprise providing server cloaking and packet capture everywhere solutions for compliance, risk mitigation, security and forensic preservation by securing packets within data lakes in the cloud. "Our business is modernizing data security for scale-out environments," said Mark Schreiber, General Manager at CDL. "With software defined network processing on every server, SolarSecure provides both the granularity and scalability we need in a security platform to cloak data lakes from prying eyes."



SolarSecure represents a trend which will soon be a best practice for Enterprise IT: micro segmentation of security policies down to a VM or container microservice workload, combined with NIC-based security services which can be delivered on a per-VM or per-microservice basis. SolarSecure solutions are made possible by the XtremePacket Engine inside of every plug-and-play Solarflare XtremeScale 8000 Series NIC, which can inspect every packet at line-speed and with no loss of performance. Solarflare has also published a rich set of traffic engineering APIs for Solarflare and third-party security application developers.

The portfolio of SolarSecure security services is shipped with every XtremeScale 8000 Series Solarflare NIC. Using the SolarSecure Manager, security policies can be micro segmented, packet surveillance can be initiated, and firewalls can be configured for each local TCP/IP address including learn and enforce modes, white listing or black listing; alerts, and cloaking a server by dropping packets. With extensive information about traffic flows provided by the XtremePacket Engine, Solarflare provides a software defined machine learning platform for Solarflare and third-party security analytics applications. SolarSecure offers the unique ability to supply a security data lake with a rich set of data about 100% of the packet traffic in a data center using a low-power, low-cost, standard form-factor NIC. Security data scientists have access to the data and traffic engineering tools through open APIs. According to Ahmet Houssein, Vice President of Marketing at Solarflare, "A new class of standard NICs which can inspect packets at line speed is making it possible for security to follow in the footsteps of networking, storage and databases--all of which migrated to distributed architectures that scale with each server, and all of which will incorporate machine learning for self-driving capabilities in the future." Hyperscale Model for Granular, Scalable Security Inside Every Server With millions of servers inside their data centers, hyperscale cloud service providers need a security solution they can trust, that is affordable, and which can scale. The answer for major cloud service providers like Google (News - Alert) is to instrument thousands of servers with their own security chips delivering line-speed packet inspection, that cannot be hacked with root access to the server OS, and which allow network engineers to define application-specific firewall policies down to a single server. Google is publishing information about how they are instrumenting servers with security chips to offload servers from a variety of applications such as performance acceleration and security. In the Google Infrastructure Security Design Overview, the company says that both the server boards and the networking equipment are custom-designed by Google. Google also discloses they design custom chips, including a hardware security chip that is currently being deployed on both servers and peripherals. These chips allow Google to securely identify and authenticate legitimate Google devices at the hardware level. Solarflare XtremeScale Architecture, Smart NIC Fabric and Software Defined NICs The Smart NIC hardware and software deployed by hyperscale cloud service providers is proprietary. Solarflare has developed an XtremeScale Smart NIC platform which provides server-level granularity and scalability and is now commercially available. The platform consists of the: 1) XtremeScale Architecture-All new Solarflare chips, adapters and software are designed under an architecture designed for scalable and granular Ethernet traffic engineering, 2) XtremeScale Software Defined NICs-Join FPGAs and NPUs in the Smart NIC class of server adapters. The powerful, software defined products are the industry's first Smart NICs with FPGA-like capabilities at the cost of a NIC, and 3) XtremeScale Smart NIC Fabric-Once XtremeScale NICs are installed, XtremeScale Fabric applications are available to provision performance, security and visibility applications tailored for specific workloads running on physical servers, VMs and container microservices. About Solarflare Solarflare is pioneering server connectivity for neural-class networks. From silicon to firmware to software, Solarflare provides a comprehensive, integrated set of technologies for distributed, ultra-scale, software-defined datacenters. The Solarflare XtremeScale Architecture is a design framework which includes a comprehensive suite of features for ultra-scale environments: High-bandwidth, ultra-low-latency, ultra-scale connectivity, software defined, secure with hardware firewalls, and instrumented for line-speed telemetry. Solarflare solutions have earned a sterling reputation in financial services and are used by virtually every major global exchange, commercial bank and hedge fund. This exacting, regulated performance uniquely qualifies our solutions for use in ultra-scale applications in IoT, big data and artificial intelligence where low latency, robust security and insightful telemetrics are critical. Solarflare solutions are available from leading distributors and value-added resellers, as well as from major global manufacturers. Solarflare is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK and New Delhi, India. Related Links Google Infrastructure Security Design Overview Cloudwick Technologies Trading Technologies Solarflare Communications View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006583/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Hamlin senior throws standout Gracelyn Leiseth headed to Florida

Hamlin's Gracelyn Leiseth to compete in women's track and field at the University of Florida.
[July 25, 2017] DBAs and App Developers to be Empowered by IQLECT's Newest Predictive Analytics Solution

BANGALORE, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IQLECT, which recently launched the SaaS version of its real-time analytics platform, has announced new solutions to simplify monitoring of DBs and improve overall application performance. The latest solutions from IQLECT include specific apps to analyze database performance, server infrastructure, application environment and other custom business metrics. These are meant to provide a holistic and correlated view of an entire application stack rather than just individual components which is the norm in today's available tools. Application performance and availability is largely dependent on the infrastructure that it runs on, with database as one of the most critical and central components. Using IQLECT's predictive database and infrastructure monitoring solutions, companies can reduce the operation cost, time spent in firefighting and improve the experience for their customers or users along with improving the bottom line. Most of the tools in the market can handle one type of data at a time therefore customers need to buy different tools for different components. This makes the overall proposition costly and ineffective. Further, it becomes very difficult to join different data to figure out the root cause for a probem which may occur in many different places. Finally, almost all the tools in the market don't analyze or monitor these infrastructure in a predictive manner which always results in downtime and loss of business until the issue is identified and fixed.



IQLECT's full-stack predictive analytics platform can be applied to multiple databases (Oracle, MongoDB, Redis), servers/VMs, JVM and even other infrastructure like firewalls, routers, load balancers, etc. Monitoring all data at a single place, coupled with predictive analysis and anomaly detection engine, users can just focus on business problem and let IQLECT handle all other infrastructure, availability, performance, etc. related issues in an autonomous manner. "We're constantly moving the needle to provide our customers with useful insights rather than just a tool to visualize thousands of data points," said Sachin Sinha, CEO at IQLECT. "They will be empowered by advanced analytics like pattern detection, correlations and predictive modelling which can be applied in real-time to make DB/Application performance monitoring really simple."

With prices starting at $39 per month, it makes for a compelling alternative to popular tools for application performance monitoring. About IQLECT IQLECT helps companies optimize their business through real time data insights. IQLECT has built the converged predictive software platform to process all kinds of data in a real time manner. IQLECT offers the platform and solutions on cloud as SaaS and also to enterprise for on premise deployments. IQLECT was founded by Sachin Sinha in 2015 and is based out of Bangalore. IQLECT works with well known enterprise companies like CISCO, DELL and other large data centers. IQLECT has also developed one of the fastest NoSQL database, BangDB which has more than 20,000 users across the world. To learn more about the company or product, email at [email protected], or visit http://www.iqlect.com. Media Contact:

David Sangama

Marketing Manager, IQLECT

[email protected]

+91-8105371892





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] New EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7: Agile, Reliable, and Secure Management of Postgres

BEDFORD, Mass., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EnterpriseDB (EDB), the database platform company for digital business, today announced the release of EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7. Part of the EDB Postgres Platform, EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 provides an easy to use web client with capabilities that make it more efficient to control and manage large numbers of Postgres databases. "Today's administrators require greater flexibility in monitoring, managing, and optimizing database performance across a wider spectrum of global installations in their organizations," said Marc Linster, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Product Development and Services, EDB. "EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 is the most complete management tool in the marketplace for Postgres deployments." EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 is a component of the EDB Postgres Platform. The tool provides a single graphical user interface where database administrators and developers can easily administer, monitor, and tune large Postgres deployments. EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager also integrates with failover and disaster recovery toolsrequired for creating highly available, mission-critical database architecturesand features a rich set of APIs and alerts for management and monitoring. The newest version is based on a flexible architecture that enables it to be deployed as a web application, making it easier to use. EnterpriseDB engineers developed the new architecture for the pgAdmin open surce project, with contributions from the community. EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager extends capabilities of the open source tool to include monitoring and alerting capabilities that are critical for digital business solutions that must meet stringent SLAs and performance requirements.



The key capabilities provided by EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager 7 include: Web Client: The new web client adds greater flexibility for DBAs, and provides a responsive layout with dockable panels, partial page loading, and grid-based layouts with inline editing. The client also provides real-time database monitoring and management of database objects. The client further provides a key feature for developersa feature-rich, performant, and flexible query tool and debugger.

The new web client adds greater flexibility for DBAs, and provides a responsive layout with dockable panels, partial page loading, and grid-based layouts with inline editing. The client also provides real-time database monitoring and management of database objects. The client further provides a key feature for developersa feature-rich, performant, and flexible query tool and debugger. Precision Management: An extensive series of wizards, dashboards, and probes simplify the maintenance, monitoring, and administration tasks of database administration. This includes status monitoring, auditing, log analysis, replication configuration, capacity planning, forecasting, and more. A SQL Profiler assists with identifying and optimizing poor performing queries. With more than 225 preconfigured alerts, the tool is highly customizable with dashboards and charts to summarize and display trend information. Developer tools provide query tuning and index recommendations, and enable execution of DDL and DML commands. Custom probes, dashboards, charts, and alerts also support developers with standardized monitoring.

An extensive series of wizards, dashboards, and probes simplify the maintenance, monitoring, and administration tasks of database administration. This includes status monitoring, auditing, log analysis, replication configuration, capacity planning, forecasting, and more. A SQL Profiler assists with identifying and optimizing poor performing queries. With more than 225 preconfigured alerts, the tool is highly customizable with dashboards and charts to summarize and display trend information. Developer tools provide query tuning and index recommendations, and enable execution of DDL and DML commands. Custom probes, dashboards, charts, and alerts also support developers with standardized monitoring. REST API for Deeper Ecosystem Integration: The API enables DBAs to create, update, and retrieve probes and alerts; retrieve historical statistics and metrics; and manage configurations of EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager. For more information about EDB Postgres, contact [email protected].

About EnterpriseDB Corporation

EnterpriseDB (EDB), the database platform company for digital business, delivers the premier open source-based data platform for new applications, cloud re-platforming, application modernization, and legacy migration. EnterpriseDB integrates with enterprise technologies and infrastructures for hybrid cloud management, data integration, and data warehousing. Our customers benefit from the highest performing, most reliable, flexible, open, and cost-effective data management platform available. EnterpriseDB is based in Bedford, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.EnterpriseDB.com. EnterpriseDB is a registered trademark of EnterpriseDB Corporation. EDB and EDB Postgres are trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. MEDIA CONTACTS

Cairbre Sugrue

Sugrue Communications

+44 (0)1932 429 779

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-edb-postgres-enterprise-manager-7-agile-reliable-and-secure-management-of-postgres-300494147.html SOURCE EnterpriseDB

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] DNI Director Coats, USCENTCOM Commander & White House Cyber Coordinator to Keynote at Cybersecurity Summit

CHEVY CHASE, Md., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 8th Annual Billington CyberSecurity Summit is expected to attract up to 1000 attendees at the leading cybersecurity summit in the nation's capital. With powerhouse keynotes from the Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Central Command, the White House, industry and the United Kingdom, the event will attract senior level decision-makers to tackle the tough issues of cybersecurityand will examine where we are headed next. The theme this year is "Today | Tomorrow | The Future: Ensuring Cybersecurity in Uncertain Times." The Summit takes place at the Walter Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. on Sept. 13. "The Summit comes at a pivotal time, as cyber attacks increase in frequency and intensity, affecting all segments of government, the military, and the private sector," said Thomas K. Billington, chairman, and founder of Billington CyberSecurity. In addition, CIOs, CISOs and other cyber experts have confirmed from: The Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Defense

The Department of Treasury

U.S. CyberCommand

National Security Agency

Office of Director of National Intelligence

Federal Bureau of Investigation

California Department of Technology

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Air Force

Among many others



The Honorable Daniel Coats, Director of National Intelligence

Robert Joyce , Special Assistant to the President and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator

, Special Assistant to the President and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Gen. Joseph L. Votel , Commander, U.S. Central Command

, Commander, U.S. Central Command Conrad Prince , U.K. Cyber Security Ambassador

, U.K. Cyber Security Ambassador Grady Summers , CTO, FireEye

, CTO, FireEye Ron Zalkind , CTO and Co-Founder, Cisco CloudLock

, CTO and Co-Founder, Cisco CloudLock Grant Schneider , Acting Federal CISO, OMB (invited) Sessions at the Summit will examine:

The Cybersecurity Threat Landscape2018 and Beyond

Top Cybersecurity Priorities for CIOs and CISOs in FY18--Implementing the Executive Order

Beyond Information Sharing to Prevention: Tackling Spear Phishing, the Insider Threat, Ransomware and IOT

Next Generation Continuous Diagnostics & Mitigation

Securing the Endpoint

Deep Dive into the NIST Framework

Combatant Command CIOs: Cyber Successes, Challenge and Priorities

... and Emerging Cyber Technologies View the agenda here. The one-day Summit offers attendees and press a deep dive into the current state of cybersecurity and perspectives on the next challenges and opportunities during this unprecedented time of cyber upheaval. Sponsor opportunities are available. Please contact Sandy Nuwar at 443-994-9832. Media Contact:

Helen Hoart

[email protected]

1-203-536-5545 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dni-director-coats-uscentcom-commander--white-house-cyber-coordinator-to-keynote-at-cybersecurity-summit-300494288.html SOURCE Billington CyberSecurity

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] American Signal Corporation Offers Enhanced Cell Broadcast Notification System with Integrated Threat Detection

MILWAUKEE, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of recent, deadly flash flooding in Arizona's Tonto National Forest, American Signal Corporation (ASC) is announcing the complete integration of its NEXGen threat detection systems with the CompuLert NEXGen Cell Broadcast Platform. The system, which leverages cellular service provider coverage to broadcast emergency information to targeted populations, is now fully-integrated with the company's CompuLert NEXGen Intelligent Alerting Server. Integration of these industry-leading technologies extends the NEXGen platform's reach and unifies threat-detection and multi-channel mass notification into a single system. The system interfaces with numerous threat detection devices, such as flood, rain and wind sensors, CAP feeds, chemical and radiation detectors, and more. Threats are processed in real time and disseminated to at-risk populations quickly and effectively. Notifications can encompass both indoor and outdoor alerts, including via voice and tone systems, digital message boards and signage, stroes and more. Local-area recipients can also receive smartphone alerts in the form of a general public emergency notification.



"People are asking how the fatalities in Arizona could have been avoided or what could've been done to prevent loss of life. The best-case scenario starts with better alerting protocols," said Richard Roe, Executive Vice President, American Signal Corporation. "Our systems leverage numerous threat detection and mass notification tools in a fault-tolerant infrastructure, to make sure life-saving messages get to the people who need to see them. Our mission is to save lives every day. That mission helps form all of the solution we bring to market." The NEXGen Cell Broadcast Platform is the integration of the CompuLert NEXGen Intelligent Alerting Server, NEXGen Cell Broadcast Entity and NEXGen Cell Broadcast Center Interface Server, implemented in compliance with 3GPP cellular network standards. This end-to-end system expedites threat detection awareness and mass notification lead times, delivering potentially life-saving information before an emergency, as well as recovery information throughout an event.

For more information about ASC's products, visit the company's website at http://www.americansignal.com/. American Signal Corporation (ASC) is a leading designer and manufacturer of mass notification solutions for a wide variety of applications worldwide. The company combines advanced engineering, innovative software and state-of-the-art equipment with an extraordinary record of longevity and expertise in the field, to develop and install compliant, versatile and effective notification systems. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-signal-corporation-offers-enhanced-cell-broadcast-notification-system-with-integrated-threat-detection-300494574.html SOURCE American Signal Corporation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
After being in the news for all the wrong reasons in the wake of the party's back-to-back electoral setbacks besides the raging intra-party power struggle, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in damage control mode and has decided to avoid the media glare for some time to improve its public image.

Sources told The Statesman that the continuous negative media coverage of AAP has created an adverse impact on the minds of public who had voted in huge numbers in favour of the party in the 2015 assembly election.

Since the day AAP formed the government, some media houses, especially the electronic media under a well-planned strategy have been consistently working to defame the party. And the way these media houses blow things out of proportion after the partys recent electoral losses, the party has decided to disengage itself from such media outlets, sources said.

Sources said AAP has shifted its focus to re-energise the party cadre and work at the grassroots level to reconnect with the people that voted the party to power in 2015.

After AAPs dismal performance in the Goa and Punjab assembly polls as well as the Delhi municipal elections followed by the partys internal rift, Kejriwal is toiling hard to iron out the differences over the functioning of the party and focus on administration work in the national capital.

AAP also went in for a major internal restructuring with top leaders resigning from important party positions.

AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey was replaced by Labour minister Gopal Rai. Vice chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission Ashish Khetan was appointed as a new advisor to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after Ashish Talwar's resignation. Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh also resigned from his post.

Sources said AAP is now focusing on social media to highlight the developmental work carried by its government in the capital.

The strategy is bearing fruit. All AAP leaders have a huge following on Facebook and twitter and people are recognising their work in the government, sources said.

Talking to The Statesman, AAP's chief Delhi spokesperson, Saurabh Bharadwaj said most media houses in the country have lost their credibility when it comes to the ethics of journalism.

Most of the media houses are being run by private investors that have made them biased. There is no neutrality in media these days, he said.

Bharadwaj said even though the party is not avoiding the mainstream media, it prefers to communicate through social media because of its impartiality.
[July 26, 2017] Versive and Peiter "Mudge" Zatko Release Next-Generation Adversary Detection White Paper

Versive (News - Alert), the leader in automating enterprise operations with AI, today announced the release of a new white paper, "Next Generation Adversary Detection: Artificial Intelligence Meets Mission-Focused Threat Hunting." The white paper, written by Versive advisor and network security expert Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, outlines the mission-focused approach to adversary detection and discusses how to use AI and open-source technology to both automate and enhance cybersecurity. The white paper outlines how applying advanced AI to a mission-focused strategy is transformational for enterprises seeking to gain the upper hand against sophisticated attackers: Map behaviors to the stages of the adversary mission to discern whether activities are coincidentally anomalous or match the blueprint of a real attack

to discern whether activities are coincidentally anomalous or match the blueprint of a real attack Connect isolated events across time and devices for visibility beyond human-scale; eliminating the false positives that plague existing tools

for visibility beyond human-scale; eliminating the false positives that plague existing tools Deliver contextual Threat Cases that paint an easy-to-understand picture of an adversary campaign; enabling analysts to act within minutes Mudge is a network security expert, open-source programmer, writer, hacker, and was a senior official at the US Department of Defense, where he was a recipient of the Medal for Exceptional Public Service (the highest award that can be bestowed on a civilian by the Office of the Secretary of Defense).



The full white paper is now available for download at https://www.versive.com/white_papers/next-generation-adversary-detection-artificial-intelligence-meets-mission-focused-threat-hunting/. About Versive

Versive is making the AI-powered enterprise a reality. Our software-only platform, built on scalable, open-source technology, enables businesses to capitalize on the power of AI in ways never before possible. Versive's unique approach, driven by our Adaptive Decision Engines (ADEs), systematically automates human expertise with advanced AI. Our first ADE (News - Alert), the Versive Security Engine, enhances and automates critical, data-intensive security processes, including the detection of APTs and insider threats. Versive is recognized on CB Insights' prestigious AI 100 list of the most promising, privately-held artificial intelligence companies, and the Versive Security Engine won "Best of Interop (News - Alert) 2017" for emerging security solutions. Learn more at www.versive.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005129/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday imposed on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a cost of Rs.10,000 for his failure to file his response with regard to a fresh Rs.10 crore defamation suite filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the use of an objectionable word by Kejriwals counsel.

While granting him two more weeks to file his response, the Chief Minister was directed by joint registrar Pankaj Gupta to deposit the cost amount.

On 23 May the High Court had sought Kejriwals response on why defamation proceedings should not be initiated against him.

However, it was submitted in the court by Kejriwals counsel Rishikesh Kumar that they needed more time to file their response which was opposed by advocate Manik Dogra, counsel for the Union minister.

The Union minister filed the second defamation suit after the Delhi Chief Ministers then lawyer Ram Jethmalani allegedly abused him in an open court during proceedings in defamation suit filed against Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders.

Jethmalani had allegedly used a term which was found objectionable by Jaitley during his cross-examination on 17 May before the joint registrar in the High Court.

Another High Court judge had termed these as scandalous a day after the remarks allegedly made by Jethmalani against Jaitley before the joint registrar.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the prevailing situation in Darjeeling, where normal life has been hit due to an ongoing strike demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.

During the 20-minute meeting here, Banerjee apprised Singh about the security situation in the hill district and the steps taken by her government to bring back normalcy in the region, an official privy to the meeting said.

The home minister assured Banerjee of full cooperation and asked her to take all necessary steps to restore normalcy in Darjeeling, the official said.

Darjeeling has been witnessing indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), demanding the separate state of Gorkhaland, since June 12.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said there was no proposal to constitute a committee to look into the separate state demand of the Gorkhas and others agitating in Darjeeling.
Rajasthani food is a perfect blend of traditional Indian culture, nutritious food and rich spices for the taste buds. Khandani Rajdhani in Park Street offers the wholesome dining experience of Rajasthan to the food crazy city of Kolkata. The restaurant has a traditional and cultural ambiance. It emits a family like vibe that is why it's called Khandani, said

Soumali Chakraborty, marketing manager, Rajdhani Thali.

The large steel platter laid out beautifully attracts people from all communities for the ultimate maharaja style experience.

The guests are welcomed with Aarti and a Tikka on the forehead as part of the tradition. They believe in the age 

old saying of Atithi Devo Bhava and treat their guests with hospitality.

The thali consists of 26 different dishes like Dal Bati Churma, Paneer Rajwadi, Aloo Kofta Lasuniya, Palak Moong Dal, Phulka, Puri, Papad, Jodhpuri Khichdi, Steamed Rice, Butter Milk, Pineapple Jalebi and many more.

Each katori is a medley of colours, textures and flavours that complements each items on the plate. To keep the food highly authentic, the entire kitchen staff are from Rajasthan. The chefs are trained at the head office of Rajdhani at Mumbai and are called corporate chefs.

These chefs then go to different outlets of the restaurant on a rotation basis to train the outlet chef.

The place is specific about the size, colour and quality of the vegetables it buys from the vendors. There is a chef

to specially check the texture, freshness, smell, colour and taste of the food before it is served to the guests. The restaurant has a sign on the kitchen door that says Rasoi mai apka swagat hai. People enter the kitchen not just to give complements but can also make their own Roti! This also gives the customers the chance to see the hygiene and authenticity of the food.

There is a traditional copper plate at the entrance of Rajdhani. The delighted guests can hit the plate with a stick

before leaving. The reply to this is Hao Jo which means Do come back in Gujarati. This practice is called Aao Thali

Bajao through which the guests express how much they loved the food and the service.

Apart from Rajasthani food, the restaurant also serves extraordinary Gujarati and Maharashtrian food. Jazzed

up items such as Pizza Dhokla and Mogerdal Bhakarwadi are definitely a must try. Undhiyu is a Rajasthani Food Festival celebrated during the winter with great enthusiasm on a regular basis.

This makes the guests feel closer to the culture and tradition. Not only this, Mango Festival is also celebrated in the months of summer. The serving staff are really hospitable and urge the guests to take more in a kind yet persuasive manner.

Khandani Rajdhani truly is the King of Thali.
BJP chief Amit Shah will contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, the party announced on Wednesday.

Shah, currently a legislator in Gujarat, will be making his debut in Parliament once he is elected, given the numbers the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party enjoys in the state assembly.

Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has been re-nominated for the other seat.

The announcements were made by Union Minister JP Nadda after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board here on Wednesday evening.

Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the state.


As China toughens its position on the Doklam standoff, Army Vice Chief Lt General Sarath Chand said China is bound to be a threat to India in the years to come.

Addressing a joint seminar of the Army's Master General Ordnance and Confederation of Indian Industry, Lt Gen Chand also slammed Pakistan for shelling a school.

Referring to China, he said: "On the North, we have China which has a large landmass, huge resources and a large standing army. Despite having the Himalayas between us, China is bound to be a threat for us in the years ahead."

Taking into account the standoff with China and Pakistan continuing to encourage terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt General Chand emphasised on the need for the country to pay more attention to security.

"We have to pay much more attention to security than what we are doing now. India being at the center of the volatile region is the net security provider," he said.

He said that China was racing with the US in militarisation. "As the second largest economy in the world, it is racing to catch up with the US," he said.

According to latest figures released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US remains the world's largest spender on defence registering a growth of 1.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016 to $611 billion while China is second on the list spending $215 billion in 2016, an increase of 5.4 per cent. India was the fifth largest military spender in the world in 2016 at $55.9 billion, with its military expenditure growing around 8.5 per cent from the previous year.

The Army Vice Chief also noted that a large amount of China's defence spending remains undeclared. "A large portion of Chinese defence expenditure remains undeclared On the west, Pakistan smaller economy, smaller army thus they took route of low intensity conflict, which suits China," he said.

Lt General Chand also slammed Pakistan for targeting a school building in cross border firing, adding that India would never do something like that.

"Pakistan shelled schools, it is not something we would do; when we retaliate we assure Pakistani military is targeted. It is unfortunate to see that they've stooped so low and caused casualty to the children," he said.
Saluting the courage and grit of the armed forces, citizens across the country came together on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas to pay homage to the fallen heroes of the 1999 conflict with Pakistan.

Celebrated annually on 26 July, Kargil Vijay Diwas marks the success of Operation Vijay and remembers the supreme sacrifices made by the personnel of the Indian armed forces.

On Wednesday morning, #KargilVijayDiwas was the top trending topic on Twitter with thousands of tweets pouring from across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to pay tributes and in his message he said: Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War.

Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of Indias military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe, he added.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who paid tributes to the martyrs at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate tweeted: Salute to the valour of our soldiers on #KargilVijayDiwas.

Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy tweeted: On #KargilVijayDiwas, we salute India's brave soldiers who fought gallantly to protect our motherland and led us to victory.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said: Facing vagaries of nature, fearlessly protecting our Borders and our HonourI salute the sacrifices of our brave Jawans. #KargilVijayDiwas

A wreath laying ceremony was also held to pay tribute to soldiers who lost lives in Kargil War at Jammu and Kashmir's Dras War Memorial.

While many Twitter users posted photos and posters extolling the Indian Army and remembering those who had laid down their lives, the iconic snapshot of Indian army soldiers hoisting the tri-colour atop Tiger Hill, which brought the conflict to an end, was perhaps the most popular.

And then there were those who added a dash of humour by mocking Pakistan.

Happy Teachers Day Pakistan. Hope you've learnt your lesson well. #KargilVijayDiwas, tweeted Tejas M. Vaidya.

The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmirs Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts. It took about three months for the Indian forces to recapture the posts including the iconic Tiger Hill.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the Indian armed forces for their prowess and sacrifices for the country on the occasion of 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'.

July 26 is celebrated as the anniversary of India's victory in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

"Remembering our brave soldiers who fought gallantly for the pride of our nation & the security of our citizens during the Kargil War," Modi said in a series of tweets.

"Kargil Vijay Diwas reminds us of India's military prowess & the great sacrifices our armed forces make while steadfastly keeping India safe," he added.

The Kargil conflict in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region took place after Pakistani troops occupied Indian posts on the heights.

It took about three months for the the Indian forces to recapture the post
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed his unhappiness over the manner in which a large number of BJP MPs and MLAs goofed up while casting their ballot during the recent presidential elections resulting in their votes being invalidated.

Modis angry outburst at his party's central and state legislators came during the parliamentary party meeting of the BJP here which was chaired by him and attended by party members from both Houses of Parliament, including Union ministers.

Modi told the party MPs how a large number of their votes were nullified during counting after it was found that they were not cast as per laid-down procedures.

In his hard-hitting criticism of the party MPs and state legislators, the Prime Minister accused them of belying the expectations of their respective constituencies who voted them to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas in the state. It was pointed out that no less than 21 of the 77 cancelled votes were of BJP MPs.

Seeking to further pin down party MPs on the issue, Modi told them that cancellation of the votes took place despite the fact that at an NDA meeting a day before the polling it was explained in detail how to cast votes during the presidential election.

Earlier, the Prime Minister also reportedly took strong exception to the alleged poor attendance of the party MPs during the Parliament session. He told the members that he was far from satisfied with the attendance of BJP MPs, especially in the Rajya Sabha.

Modi is learnt to have told the party MPs that there was an urgent need to address the issue of poor attendance during Parliament proceedings.

He is also learnt to have said that henceforth he would keep a track of the members whereabouts and not hesitate to call them up at any time of the day to quiz them on the ongoing proceedings of their respective Houses of Parliament.
Hariyali Teej is celebrated on the third day of first fortnight in the Hindu month of Shravan with extreme jollity and piety by women flock in Hindu community all around the world. The festival commemorates abundance of greenery and good harvest. The day is celebrated with traditional songs, dances, swings and delicious food. All these gears escalate the dynamism of festivities.

Facts about Hariyali Teej festival:

In the name of monsoon season: The festival of Teej is a devotion towards Mother Nature. It marks the beginning of monsoon season India. Hariyali symbolises greenery and prosperity that is all around during this time of the year. It is a celebration of rebirth of the Earth after the scorching heat of summer.

Dedicated to Goddess Parvati: It is believed that Devi Parvati underwent a reparation and prayed incessantly to show her devoutness towards Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva listened to her prayers and accepted her as his wife after her 108th birth. Hindu women honour Goddess Parvati on this day and seek her blessings, imbibing her spirit as a dedicated wife to her husband Lord Shiva.

Women fasting: Hariyali Teej is a festival for Hindu women (married or unmarried) celebrated for marital bliss and the well-being of their husbands and family members. Women witness fast to please Goddess Parvati. Those whore unmarried fast and pray to be blessed by a husband like Lord Shiva.

Solah Shringaar: On the day of Hariyali Teej, married women adorn themselves with Solah Shrigaar comprising of traditional dresses (lehngas and sarees), sindoor, bindiya, kajal, mehndi, nail paint, all other makeups, maang tika, nose rings, ear rings, mangal sutra, bangles, anklets, toe rings etc. Solah shrigaar is believed to be worn to protect husbands from all evil spirits.

Sindhara: There is a custom of sending Sindhara to the daughter and her in-laws by her parents. The newly-weds go to their parents house as a part of the ritual on their first Teej. The colour of mehndi on hands tells about the love showered by husbands. There is an inordinate connotation of wearing green traditional attire and green bangles on this day.

Dancing, singing and swinging: Women especially in North India embrace this festival by singing, dancing and playing in the swing. It is a customary practice for the women themselves to sit in swings in imitation of deities, Lord Krishna and Radha. This is because at the time of Hariyali Teej, swings are laid down in the shrines of Vrindavan for Radha-Krishna to swing upon. The main attraction is the gold-ornamented swing of Lord Krishna which comes only once a year. This religious ceremony is called Jhullan Leela. Because of this ceremony, swings are hung on the branches of trees everywhere in North India where Teej is celebrated. Women spend their day swinging along with their family and friends. They sing traditional songs and dance with all freedom to make merriment inside out.

It is one of the most loved and celebrated women-related festivals. Green colour is its symbol. Use more and more of green colour in your Teej celebration. Happy Teej!
Is Mayawati preparing to contest a Lok Sabha bye-election from Phulpur in UP as a joint opposition candidate?

Opposition circles are buzzing about the prospect of testing out a BSP-SP-Congress mahagathbandhan in this east UP constituency which has been represented by stalwarts like late prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and V P Singh.

The current MP from Phulpur is UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

He has not resigned from the Lok Sabha yet, although he is now a member of the BJP government in UP, because he was told to wait till the presidential and vice presidential elections are over. Phulpur is one of the two Lok Sabha seats that will become vacant when Maurya and chief minister Yogi Adityanath, MP from Gorakhpur, quit to seek election to the UP assembly.

Political circles say that bye-elections for these two seats are likely in NovemberDecember along with assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

UP experts believe that Mayawati is a strong candidate to win from Phulpur if she is backed by SP and Congress.

The constituency has a large Yadav presence and enough Dalits and Muslims to beat back the BJP if these communities come together in an alliance.

The question is this: will Mayawati accept the challenge? A victory as a united opposition candidate will not only enhance her stature, it will set the mahagathbandhan on a roll for the 2019 general election.

On the other hand, a defeat could mean the end of Mayawatis political career.

She will not survive a fourth consecutive defeat for the BSP.

New found bonhomie

The new found bonhomie between Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav after the BJPs stunning victory in the UP assembly polls earlier this year was on display at the first meeting of the united opposition front at 10 Janpath to discuss names for a joint presidential candidate. When they came face-to-face, Mayawati patted Akhilesh on the back and exchanged pleasantries with him. The physical gesture was most unMayawati-like.

The BSP chief is a reserved person and rarely indulges in physical demonstrations of camaraderie or affection. Those watching this moment were surprised. It was a reflection of how much the ground has shifted after the BJP decimated both SP and BSP in UP.

Remember, Akhilesh is the son of Mayawatis most hated rival, Mulayam Singh. She has never forgiven Mulayam for organising the attack on the guest house in which she was staying after she withdrew support to his government in 1995. Opposition parties are hard at work to forge an understanding between the BSP supremo and son of her biggest opponent for the 2019 election.

The pat on Akhileshs back was the first sign that their efforts may not be in vain.

Onerous duty

TDP Lok Sabha MP J C Diwakar Reddy flew to Delhi in a private chartered plane to cast his vote in the presidential poll. The drastic measure became necessary after he was banned from flying by all airlines because of his unruly behavior at Vizag airport one month ago.

According to political circles, after landing in Delhi and voting, Reddy has been trying to get the Lok Sabha secretariat to foot the bill for the chartered flight.

His argument is that he hired the plane to fulfill his constitutional duty as a member of the electoral college for the election of the next President of India. Fortunately for Reddy, even as he haggles with the Lok Sabha Secretariat for reimbursement, the airlines have agreed to lift the ban.

Now he can fly back to his hometown. Significantly, Reddy has not had to apologise for his rude behavior. The airlines caved in after the government intervened on his behalf. After all, he is a member of a valuable ally of the BJP.

Parliament TV

With vice president Hamid Ansaris term drawing to an end, his aide and CEO of Rajya Sabha TV, Gurdeep Sappal, will also be exiting from the parliament channel. In fact, Sappal is believed to have already handed in his resignation. It is expected that the new vice president to be, Venkaiah Naidu, would like to place a person of his choice as CEO of the Upper House channel.

However, according to BJP sources, party organisational secretary Ram Lal is likely to try and push someone he wants. Ram Lal is close to the RSS and functions as the bridge between the BJP and its mentor. BJP circles say that he is informally in charge of hiring and firing for both the parliament channels, Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV.

But while Ram Lal may have a say in lower level appointments, the chairpersons of the two Houses naturally want to decide who heads the channels as CEO.

The new CEO of Lok Sabha TV is Asheesh Joshi who hails from Indore, the hometown of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Will Naidu follow suit by appointing the next CEO of RSTV from his home state of Andhra Pradesh?

Old friends

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is not the only leader to switch his allegiance back to the united opposition front in favour of its candidate for vice president, Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Odisha CM Navin Patnaik has also crossed the floor and announced that his party, BJD, will back Gandhi for vice president.

Politically, Patnaiks decision can be interpreted as part of his continuing effort to stay equidistant from the BJP and the Congress. He went along with the BJP in the presidential election but hes with the opposition for the vice presidential contest. But theres more than politics at play here.

Theres a strong personal element to Patnaiks decision. The Odisha CM and Gandhi are close friends and have known each other socially for several decades.

They were in Delhi University at the same time, although in different colleges. Patnaik went to Kirori Mal College while Gandhi studied at St Stephens.

Patnaik underlined their closeness back in 2012 when he said that Gandhi was an old and valued friend from the time when he was not in politics.
The Karnataka government recently constituted a committee to explore the possibilities of formally adopting a state flag in addition to the national flag.

The genie is out and it may be difficult to put it back in the bottle. If the committee finds that legally it is not permissible to adopt a formal flag by the state government, then there will be demands for constitutional amendments.

The issue of separate flags for state governments has generated intense debate about the formal symbols of state power.

The opponents of the move argue that the ruling party is looking for an emotive issue to overcome anti-incumbency, as the elections for the state assembly are round the corner. On the other hand, the supporters argue that in other federal/ democratic countries such as the United States, states have separate flags as a celebration of local identities. Therefore, similar symbolic measures can also be adopted in India.

The call for the celebration of local identities need not be framed as a secessionist tendency. Similarly, concerns about Indian states having a separate flag need not be tossed aside as a manifestation of a cultural homogenisation tendency.

After all, India has witnessed and continues to experience armed insurgencies in different parts of the country.

So, proponents on both sides of the argument should view each other with empathy and refrain from questioning each others commitment to ideals such as patriotism or a desire to find common ground through deliberation.

The discussion on a separate flag for the state governments once again brought into relief the growing salience of identity politics and the demands for further strengthening the federal impulse, not merely in the financial domain but also in the realm of symbols. The rise of identity politics and associated anxieties are also a consequence of growing interconnectedness in our society.

With the growth of social media, people with different linguistic, religious and cultural identities are interacting with each other with greater intensity on the virtual domain.

A Facebook post by an individual, tweets by a small group of people within or even from outside the country, and conversations between friends on social media today have a pan-India impact.

The photograph, which shows a few individuals blackening Hindi words on a signage, is being seen by millions on their mobile phones. What would have been a small news item in a local newspaper a few years ago now amounts to an in-your-face act, which triggers a nation-wide conversation on the language policy.

In the face of such rapid spread of information, sometimes rumours, there is a renewed attempt to symbolically assert different identities. It is being argued that the current demand for a state flag is a response against homogenising tendencies such as the alleged imposition of Hindi by the central government. However, the concepts of homogenisation and celebration of difference needs careful evaluation.

Just as India is an incredibly diverse country, various states in India host considerable linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. Take Karnataka for instance; it consists of Uttar Karnataka, Dakshin Karnataka and the coastal regions to name a few.

Even within these regions, there is considerable diversity with places such as Coorg having distinct traditions. Andhra Pradesh has three regions  North Coastal, Central and Rayalaseema  which are similar and also distinct. The Uttar Pradesh assembly in 2011 has passed a resolution for division of the state into four different states. West Bengal is currently experiencing agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland. In the light of such tremendous diversity within states, the demand for a single flag to represent a state is not recognition of diversity, but rather is a celebration of singular identity based language.

The linguistic sub-nationalism, like all other nationalisms, also seeks to homogenise rather than celebrate diversity. The debates on Indian federalism, which often focus on centre-state relations, should now reflect on effective ways to respond to the calls for celebration and inclusion of diversities within the states in the governance process. It is not mandatory that such steps should always result in the formation of new states.

The local self-governments, which now have constitutional sanctity after the 73rd and the 74th Amendment, should be strengthened with a substantive devolution of funds, functions and functionaries. This is necessary, as common people often interact with the local authorities more often and with greater intensity than with the central government.

The local governments, which are the third-tier of Indian federalism should be strengthened by ushering in District Government with a directly elected chief and a small pool of ministers answerable to the Zilla Parishad.

Such devolution of power will break the hold of a few dominant caste/ethnic groups on the governance process in the states. After such decentralisation, if the state governments are to have separate flags, then even the Zilla Parishads may be allowed to have separate flags.

Since we have a penchant for citing the US experience, let it be noted that various counties/municipalities in the USA also have separate flags. It is time to fly the flag of decentralisation in India as well.

(The writer works as a Senior Consultant at the ICRIER, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.)
Russian cyber, security firm Kaspersky Lab has launched its free version of antivirus software 'Kaspersky Free' to "secure the whole world", a media report said.

"We believe that everyone has the right to be free of cybersecurity fears," Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky lab said on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Xinhua news agency reported.

In announcing the release via a blog post, the company founder said they have been working on it for a good year and a half, and the software would roll out globally across the next few months.

Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the US, Canada and several Asia Pacific countries on the heels of being piloted in 2016 in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China and also in the Nordic countries.

The company said this free software would "positively affect the quality of protection of all users," since an increase of installations would bring more numbers to big-data bases for better machine learning.

According to the company's website, over 400 million users are protected by its technologies and they help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them.
Why are the pubs of London more delightful than British tea? What can Indians learn from Switzerland? In which European country does the President cycle home after work? And where do people worship a stone that resembles our Shiv Ling? These and many other questions get answered in this delightful book of travel stories as Sundeep Bhutoria, a self-confessed wanderer, takes us to one country after another, from Peru to South Korea, from South Africa to Russia.

Bhutoria is not a tourist. He just loves to travel, living out of the suitcase. But he has an eye for detail that ordinary tourists often lack. And wherever he goes, he tries to compare the lifestyle, civilization, traditions and discipline of the people with India and Indians. Naturally, it turns out to be an eye-opener.

South Korea, he says, has proved wrong the Indian argument that over population is the cause of most of Indian ills. Seoul has more people than Kolkata but the South Korean capital is sparklingly clean and its residents are extremely punctual. But a trip to Moscow after the Soviet collapse is shocking: a grand chandelier at the once lively Moscow airport doesn't work while toilets are full of broken and dry taps.

The Indian sense of making a quick profit where possible is evident at Sharjah airport where the old one rupee coin is used to buy cold drinks, beer and snacks from vending machines  because its weight equals a 40 dirham coin! But if Indians need to learn amiability, humility, discipline and cleanliness from the Swiss, Venezuelan capital Caracas is so shabby  in every sense of the term  that Bhutoria vows never to return to the country. But not every place in Europe is minus blemish; France may be the global fashion capital but bribery is rampant.

Bhutoria comes across small and big Indian communities in almost every country, and most, although they have never been to India, are very proud of their Indian roots. But Indians in South Africa not only insist on being known as South Africans (not Indians), they also don't want to be linked to India in any way.

Standing outside the President's House in Luxembourg, Bhutoria is flabbergasted when he learns that the man who has stepped out  alone and on a bicycle  is the country's President! As for cows, Indians must learn how to take care of the animal from the Dutch. In Amsterdam, the Kolkata-based author and a West Bengal minister (who pleads with the author not to tell anyone that he is a minister!) dash into a little restaurant called "Gandhi" and devour on rice and fish they are so badly missing. But in Brazil, failing to get vegetarian food, the author buys a sandwich, removes the pieces of fish, washes it clean with milk and eats the bread!

When Bhutoria landed in New York in September 2001, he didn't bargain for the world's most horrific terror attack. The author was to visit the World Trade Centre 9/11 but got delayed  and that saved him. After the first plane rams into the building, Bhutoria, from his shaken hotel room, actually sees the second plane commanded by terrorists collide with the other tower. He is scared to death. And he prays and prays. "I had not prayed to so many gods in my whole life." (IANS)

Title: My Life My Travels: A Travelogue; Author: Sudeep Bhutoria; Publisher: Vani Prakashan; Pages: 188; Price: Rs 399
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged all Muslims to visit and protect Jerusalem after violence broke out over metal detectors Israel installed and later removed from a sensitive holy site in the city.

"From here I make a call to all Muslims. Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque," Erdogan said in Ankara. "Come, let's all protect Jerusalem."

He was referring to a site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the mosque compound, which also contains the Dome of the Rock, following an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers.

Palestinians viewed the security measures as an Israeli attempt to assert further control over the site, and large protests led to deadly clashes.

"They are attempting to take the mosque from Muslim hands on the pretext of fighting terrorism. There is no other explanation," Erdogan said in a speech to ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers in parliament.

He said Israel's legitimacy rested on the extent of the respect it showed to Palestinians and their rights.

An Israeli foreign ministry statement called Erdogan's comments "mind-blowing, false and distorted", and suggested that he "deal with the problems in his own country".

"Jerusalem is a city whose government is committed to security, freedom, freedom of worship and respect for the rights of all minorities," the Israeli statement said.

Erdogan earlier also denounced attacks on synagogues in Turkey, referring to reports that an ultra-nationalist group threw stones at a synagogue in Istanbul last week.

"It does not make sense to attack synagogues here because something has happened at Al-Aqsa mosque. This does not suit our religion and it is not allowed," he said. (AFP)
US President Donald Trump called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East, accusing it and Iran of fuelling a humanitarian disaster in Syria.

"Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region," Trump said at a joint press conference alongside Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the White House.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel

With the support of Iran, the organisation is also fuelling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."
Sri Lanka's Cabinet approved the sale to a Chinese firm of a 70 per cent stake in the strategically-located Hambantota port, tweaking the deal after the initial agreement sparked protests.

Parliament will debate the $1.12 billion-deal on Friday and formally enter it over the weekend, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

State-owned China Merchants Port Holdings will have a majority stake in the port, he said.

The Chinese will manage port operations and Sri Lanka will handle port security, the minister said, indicating that it should allay fears that the port could be misused by the Chinese.

"Security of the port will not be given to anyone else.

It will be handled 100 per cent by Sri Lankans," Samarasinghe said.

His comments are being seen as an attempt to allay Indian concerns over the Chinese presence in the Hambantota port.

India perceives it as a danger to its national security.

The Maithripala Sirisena government had earlier faced public protests over handing over 15,000 acres of land for a Chinese industrial park in Hambantota. There were violent protests in the area as the local people refused to part with their land.

Earlier, the Sri Lankan government had planned to offer an 80 per cent stake to the Chinese firm, media reports said.

In 2014, New Delhi had protested to Colombo when a Chinese submarine called at the Colombo Port where Sri Lanka is currently developing a financial centre on the Chinese assisted port city project.

Samarasinghe said no favours would be granted to China.

"We will not provide special treatment to any country. We want to maintain good relations with all and we don't want to antagonise anyone."

The announcement came as petroleum workers stopped work at midnight on Monday, opposing the deal at Hambantota and the proposed lease of oil storage tanks in the eastern district of Trincomalee to India.

Long queues were seen at fuel stations with fuel distribution coming to a halt.
US President Donald Trump said he was "disappointed" with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but declined to say he would fire him, the media reported.

"I am disappointed in the Attorney General. He should not have recused himself," Trump said during a joint news conference with the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday, hours after firing off his latest missive targeting Sessions.

"If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and I would have quite simply picked someone else," CNN quoted the President as saying.

Pressed further on whether he wants Sessions to resign, Trump simply added once more that he is "very disappointed" in Sessions.

Trump said he also hopes Sessions will crack down on what "leaks" from various intelligence agencies.

"I want the Attorney General to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies," Trump said. "These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen."

Earlier in the day, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci defended Trump's public critiques of Sessions, saying Trump "wants his Cabinet secretaries to have his back".

Trump tweeted on Monday and Tuesday to call his Attorney General "beleaguered" and "VERY weak," raising the specter that he may soon seek to push Sessions off his perch atop the Justice Department.
US President Donald Trump has accused Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad of committing "horrible" crimes against humanity, and vowed to prevent his regime from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

Speaking at a White House press conference with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Haririon Monday, Trump also called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East.

"I'm not a fan of Assad. I certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible," Trump said. Recalling that he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Assad for using chemical weapons, Trump said: "I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do."

Trump also said he believed there might not be any Russian or Iranian involvement in Syria today had former president Barack Obama taken action against Assad.

Trump accused Hezbollah and Iran of fuelling the humanitarian disaster in Syria.

"Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region," he said.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel," Trump added. "With the support of Iran, the organisation is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."

Hezbollah's "true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran," he said. Trump demurred when asked to comment on sanctions against Hezbollah.

"I'll be making my position very clear over the next 24 hours," he said. "I have meetings with some of my very expert military representatives and others, so I'll be making that decision very shortly."
Two Moroccan UN peacekeepers were killed in an attack in the Central African Republic's southeast, two days after the death of another soldier from the same contingent, the force said, blaming pro-Christian militias for the violence.

"The MINUSCA (peacekeeping mission) regrets to announce the deaths of two more blue helmets yesterday afternoon in Bangassou," a town 700 kilometres (430 miles) east of the capital Bangui, the peacekeeping force said in a statement.

The Moroccan peacekeepers "were killed in an ambush by suspected anti-Balaka fighters, while another peacekeepers was lightly injured," MINUSCA said in its statement.

The country is struggling to emerge from a civil war that erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition.

The coup led to the formation of "anti-Balaka" (anti- machete) vigilante units, drawn from the Christian majority, which began to target Muslims. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.

A similar ambush in Bangassou on Sunday left another Moroccan UN peacekeeper dead.

On Friday, a patrol of peacekeepers was shot at and one of the attackers killed, a MINUSCA spokesman told AFP, again blaming pro-Christian militias.

Former colonial power France intervened in 2013 to stop violent Christian-Muslim clashes and formally ended its peacekeeping mission only last month, hailing it a success despite fresh outbreaks of violence.

That leaves mainly the UN's 12,500-strong MINUSCA peacekeeping mission to protect civilians from armed groups.


The US ambassador in Vietnam called on the Communist government on Wednesday to release an activist who was sentenced to nine years in prison on what the envoy says are vague charges of propaganda against the state.

Tran Thi Nga was convicted and sentenced in a one-day trial Tuesday on charges of producing videos that defamed the country's leadership. The 40-year-old campaigned against environmental pollution, police brutality and illegal land confiscation, and called for a tougher stance toward China's assertive territorial claims in the South China Sea.

US Ambassador Ted Osius said all people have the right to the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and of peaceful assembly. While Vietnam has made some progress on human rights, the trend of arrests, convictions and harsh sentences of peaceful activists is deeply troubling, he said.

The court also imposed five years of house arrest following Nga's prison term, her lawyer Ha Huy Son said.

I think this is an unjust verdict, Son said. She did not commit the crime for which she was convicted by the court.

Nga maintained her innocence during the trial, saying she did not oppose anyone, but was only against corruption and injustice, Son said.

Nga's trial in Ha Nam, about 60 kilometers south of Hanoi, came a month after a court in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa sentenced prominent blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh to 10 years in prison on similar charges.

Son said there was no proof that 13 videos used against Nga in the trial 11 taken from the internet and two allegedly found on her computer were hers.

The videos were about subjects such as toxic chemicals dumped last year by Formosa Plastics Group's steel complex in central Vietnam in one of the country's worst environmental disasters, Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, and corruption, Son said.

Vietnam opened up to foreign trade and investment three decades ago and has one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, but the Communist government continues to have almost no tolerance of dissent.
The Pentagon has picked up signs that North Korea is prepping for another missile test, a US defense official said on Tuesday as the United States cited progress in pushing China to impose tough new UN sanctions.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that if the test goes ahead, it would "probably" occur on July 27, which is the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

The date is a public holiday in the nuclear-armed North and celebrated as Victory Day.

The official said the test would be of either an intermediate-range missile or North Korea's ICBM  known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14.

That would be the second time Pyongyang has tested an ICBM, after its July 4 rocket launch that caused global alarm.

Experts assessed it could have put Alaska in range, bringing Pyongyang's long-held dream of a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States within reach, and presenting President Donald Trump with a stark challenge.

South Korea's news agency Yonhap quoted a government source as saying Seoul had seen North Korea moving transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province.

"They're setting up for something," a second US defense official told AFP.

After North Korea's July 4 test, the United States launched a push at the United Nations for tougher measures against Pyongyang.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley today cited progress in talks with China on imposing what she termed as "pretty serious" new UN sanctions.

The United States has been locked in negotiations with China for nearly three weeks on a new raft of measures, and Haley said China was negotiating with Russia separately on possible tougher sanctions.

"I think we are making progress," Haley said.

"It's not as fast as I would like but these are pretty serious sanctions and so I think that there is a lot of thought going into this."

Haley told the UN Security Council after the test that she hoped to present new measures in a few days, such as cutting off oil supplies, banning North Korean guest workers or imposing new air and maritime restrictions on North Korea.

In all, six sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but two resolutions adopted last year significantly toughened the sanctions regime.

Haley said the true test will be Russia's role. Moscow maintains the July 4 launch was not an ICBM, citing its defense ministry's assessment.

Moscow has also argued that sanctions are not the answer to rein in North Korea, and that talks, as advocated by Beijing, were needed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the July 4 launch, described it as a gift to the "American bastards."

CNN cited a US defense official saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment were seen arriving at Kusong in North Pyongan last Friday.

Kusong has been the scene of past tests, including in May when an intermediate-range ballistic missile traveled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).

The North last week refused to respond to the South's offer to open dialogue to ease tension. (AFP)
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, media reports said.

Congressmen voted 419-3 to pass the bill, with three Republicans  Justin Amash, Jimmy Duncan and Thomas Massie  voting against the bill.

The overwhelming support for the bill, which was voted under special procedures to pass with a two-thirds majority, means that the House could override a presidential veto, Xinhua news agency reported.

The measure aims at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the North Korea in response to their weapons programs.

"These three regimes in different parts of the world are threatening vital US interests, and they are destabilizing their neighbours," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said on Tuesday. "It is well past time that we forcefully respond."

In addition to imposing new sanctions on the three countries, the bill also grants Congress the power to block Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia. This came despite that Trump administration officials had called on lawmakers to grant "flexibility" to the White House in dealing with Russia.

According to the bill, Congress will have power to veto any decision made by the president that would "significantly alter" US foreign policy in connection with Russia.

The White House on Sunday signaled that President Donald Trump would accept the new legislation despite initial opposition.

"We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia," said newly appointed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.


North Korea has threatened a nuclear strike on "the heart of the US" if it attempts to remove Kim Jong-un as Supreme Leader, Pyongyang's state-run news agency reported.

The report in Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday quoted a spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

The spokesman said the law stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the nation was threatened, "it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones."

"Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time," the Foreign Ministry spokesman added.

The threat was in response to comments from CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who said the Donald Trump administration needed to find a way to separate Kim from his growing nuclear stockpile, CNN reported on Tuesday.

"As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system," Pompeo said last week.

"The North Korean people I'm sure are lovely people and would love to see him go."

North Korea's threat comes amid an ongoing assessment from the US intelligence community that Pyongyang has accelerated its intercontinental range ballistic missile program, CNN reported.


SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) welcomes the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) to the newly created Division of Historic Sites within the IDNR Office of Land Management.

These two offices will complement and enhance our mission as the agency responsible for protecting our natural and cultural resources in the state of Illinois, said IDNR Director Wayne Rosenthal.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) benefits the economy in every corner of our great state, from state parks to outdoor recreation to regulation and permitting. Activities associated with IDNR support tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact annually.

This merger will further bolster IDNRs impact by adding historic sites that attract nearly 1 million visitors a year and a tax-credit program that generated more than $1 billion in private-sector spending on historic rehabilitation projects.

By combining these offices, the IDNR will be able to further deliver services and programs to the people of Illinois while at the same time creating efficiencies and saving taxpayers money, Rosenthal added.

Under the merger, the new Division of Historic Sites will have two major functions.

One is operating sites that preserve and celebrate Illinois heritage. The sites include places connected to Abraham Lincoln, such as New Salem and the Old State Capitol, and the homes of famous Illinoisans like Ulysses S. Grant and Carl Sandburg. Other sites mark the location of important events like the start of Lewis and Clarks expedition across America. One, Cahokia Mounds, has been designated a World Heritage Site because of its international importance.

The other major function of the Division of Historic Sites is housing the federally mandated State Historic Preservation Office. The office oversees nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, administers tax incentives that encourage rehabilitation of historic buildings, and reviews construction involving government money or permits to assess their impact on historic resources.

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency also included the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The presidential library, which is also home to the states 128-year-old historical library, will now operate as an independent state agency.


remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
CHARLESTON -- A public reception will showcase the work of 55 high school students who are participating in Eastern Illinois Universitys inaugural English Studies Summer Camp on Saturday, July 29 from 10 a.m. to noon in the Doudna Fine Arts Center (Recital Hall and Concourse). Educators, students, and community members are welcome to attend.

The Showcase Reception will feature live performances, creative readings, poster presentations and digital work displays as the campers show off the work they have completed during their week at EIU. Course sessions the campers are attending include Shakespeare in His Time and Ours, A Novel Idea, Monsters, Inc., Reading & Writing Historical Fiction, Cyberpunk Fiction, Spoken Word, Writing Comedy, Gender & Sexual Diversity in Literature, and The Power of Craft in Poetry & Fiction.

The campers represent 60 high schools across the state. Local campers hail from Charleston High School, Mattoon High School, Neoga High School, Paris Cooperative High School, and Taylorville Community High School. They are each enrolled in a morning and afternoon session where they are being mentored by expert faculty from EIU and guest instructors.

For information concerning the Showcase Reception or the English Studies Summer Camp, contact camp director Dr. Melissa Ames at mames@eiu.edu, visit the camp website at www.eiu.edu/english/camp.php or call the Department of English at 217-581-2428.
Organisation: United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Position No.: 10027569

Vacancy Notice: 23/2017

Reports to: Senior Field

Officer

Duty Station: Uganda

Post Grade: GL7

About UNHCR:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was

established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.

UNHCRs mandate under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees is to lead and co-ordinate action for international

protection to refugees; seek permanent solutions for the problems of refugees

and safeguard refugee rights and well-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate

concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under

Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:

Undertake regular visits to various sites

in order to assess needs of persons of concern, with particular attention

to vulnerable groups.

Guide the supervisor on programme

requirements and formulate project submissions, including community

development and self-reliance activities, where applicable, in

collaboration with authorities and implementing partners.

Regularly monitor and supervise the

implementation of UNHCR programme including the delivery of all assistance

items and monitoring of infrastructure and make the necessary recommendation

for its improvement.

Keep regular contacts with local

authorities and implementing partners as requested by supervisor.

Act as interpreter when required.

Significantly contribute to the

preparation of status and progress reports by providing info, preparing

tables, etc.

Regularly monitor refugee movements

related to repatriation and other inter-camps transfers.

Inform and act on the reports received on

persons of concern within the refugee community or from the local

authorities.

Handle, in coordination with implementing

partners, the reception, registration and provision of assistance to

persons of concern to UNHCR.

Undertake other relevant duties as

required.

Key Performance Indicators:

UNHCRs policies, standards and procedures

are constantly and coherently applied in the area of responsibility (AoR).

The needs of persons of concern in the AoR

are assessed and analysed in a participating manner and using an Age,

Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective to form a firm basis for planning.

Negotiate with local authority

counterparts, partners and populations of concern. Represent UNHCR in

physical monitoring of projects. Provide inputs for the country operations

plan and other submissions and reports.



Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience:

The ideal candidate for the United Nations

UNHCR Senior Field Associate job placement should have completed Secondary

Education with post-secondary training/certificate in Business

Administration, Law, Political Science or related field.

At least eleven years of previous job

experience relevant to the function.

Knowledge of International legal affairs

relating to asylum, migration and related issues.

Good computer skills.

Excellent knowledge of English and working

knowledge of another relevant UN language or local language.

How to Apply:

All interested Ugandan nationals who wish to join the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the aforementioned capacity are

encouraged to click on the link below and follow the application instructions

after reviewing the job details.

Deadline: 4th August 2017
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
July, for films, began with a dry spell. After a critical and lukewarm response to Salman Khan's Tubelight in June, Mom (July 7) starring Sridevi and Guest In London (July 7), too, couldn't do any wonders at the box-office. In the following week,(July 14), Ranbir Kapoor's Jagga Jasoos got extreme responsethe audiences either enjoyed it thoroughly or didn't like it at all. But, at the box-office, it couldn't create any magic. Onir's Shab, too, fizzled out. Last week's (July 21) much-talked about Lipstick Under My Burkha got a good response from the critics. The box-office collection (Rs 8.44 crore till Wednesday), the team claims, is good enough for a festival film. Director Alankrita Shrivastava said, "The response of the Indian audience is phenomenal and unprecedented. It is a victory for honest storytelling and the power of the stories of women. However, the other release, Munna Michael failed.

Now, there's a lot of hope from the four releases this Friday.

Mubarakan

Starring Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor in a double role along with Athiya Shetty and Ileana DCruz, Mubarakan is touted as a laugh riot. A romantic comedy, the films charts the story of cousins and look-alike Karan and Charan. While Karan is born and brought up in London, Charan is born and brought up in Punjab. There's confusion and chaos because of the similarity in their looks, both in their love life and personal life, and it's their uncle Kartar (Anil Kapoor) who is trying to help them sort it out. Directed by Anees Baazmi, the film can be expected to a madcap comedy. A 156-minute film, it has got a U/A certificate from the CBFC.

Raag Desh

A film on the famous Red Fort trials that changed the course of India's azaadi movement, Raag Desh tracks the story of the three officers who were court martialledPrem Sehgal, Gurbaksh Dhillon and Shah Nawaz Khanfor treason against the British. Written and directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, the cast includes Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh and Mohit Marwah, and is being presented by Rajyasabha TV and produced by Gurdeep Singh Sappal. Unlike many films, the promotions for which are unending, Raag Desh's promotions has been low-key, except that for the first time a film's trailer was launched at Parliament House. Like Dhulia's previous films, Paan Singh Tomar, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, this, too, may work on the word-of-mouth, of course, if the content is good. A 137-minute film, it has got a U/A certificate from CBFC.

Indu Sarkar

Like all Madhur Bhandarkar films, there's already been a lot of talk around his next Indu Sarkar. Based in the Emergency era (1975-77), the film revolves around a stammering poetess, Indu (Kirti Kulhari) and her diplomat husband. Bhandarkar says that this film was waiting to be made. The controversies around the filmfrom Congress opposing it because of the resemblance of many characters to the members of the political party to the CBFC's proposal to cut many words, sceneshas made sure that it remained in the limelight. But when has it not happened to a film directed by Bhandarkar. Even if it is through controversies, the filmmaker makes sure to keep the buzz on. Now, only time will tell whether he has created a critically acclaimed film like Page 3, Chandni Bar and Fashion or duds like his last, Calendar Girls or the controversial Heroine. A 139-minute film, it has got a U/A certificate from the CBFC.

Baarat Company

The second rom-com of the week is set in the interesting backdrop of Lucknow. According to the film's team, it comes layered with a message. Directed by Syed Ahmad Afzal, who has previously delivered the hard-hitting social drama, Laal Rang (2016) set in Karnal, the claim can easily be bought. The film stars Anurita Jha and Sandeepa Dhar. It is 125 minutes long, and has a U/A certificate.
Among mental health teams that care for patients with severe and persistent mental illness, a growing concern is patients' limited access to psychiatric support. One contributing factor is a shortage of psychiatrists, especially in community-based and outpatient settings.

Physician assistants (PAs) historically have been used in settings with physician shortages. The role of PAs in psychiatric care in the United States is evolving, and examples described in the literature include community mental health clinics, after-hours care in inpatient or long-term-care settings, and mental healthcare under the provision of family physicians.1 In Canada, this method of delivering psychiatric care with PAs is less common despite similar physician shortages. This is likely attributable to the smaller cohort of civilian PAs practicing in Canada and more recent introduction of civilian PAs to the Canadian system in 2006; civilian PAs were introduced to the US healthcare system in the 1970s. Despite the well-established role of psychiatric PAs in the United States, little research exists on the use of PAs in psychiatric care, despite calls for additional research on this topic.2 In particular, no research has examined the role of PAs in the care of patients with severe and persistent mental illness. Using an exploratory qualitative analysis, we examined the effect of this clinical model.

METHODS

The setting of this study was an Ontario-based assertive community treatment (ACT) team, a common model of providing comprehensive multidisciplinary care to patients with severe and persistent mental illness. Due to limited access to psychiatric and primary care, a PA was hired to assist with intake psychiatric assessments, physical examinations, preventive care, and follow-up of psychiatric and medical complaints. A qualitative analysis of this new model was undertaken.

Information was collected from key informant interviews and semistructured focus interviews. An open-ended thematic topic guide was used to ensure common themes were explored in interviews. Study participants were chosen by purposive sampling and included the ACT team members (three social workers, one psychiatrist, two psychiatric nurses, one occupational therapist, one recreational therapist, and the PA). Questions focused on the perceived effect and challenges of delivering psychiatric care in this model (that is, frontline PA supervised by psychiatrist). Transcripts were generated from audio recordings and conceptualized and indexed by an independent researcher.

RESULTS

The following themes emerged from the exploratory descriptive analysis:

Improved access to primary care

Participants described improved access to primary medical care for their patients. The PA was able to assess semiurgent medical concerns more rapidly when they arose. One nurse reported: When we see UTIs, we can deal with things before it gets full-blown for the consumer. Another participant described the PA service as one-stop shopping for the patient. Participants felt that the PA helped them to coordinate care more efficiently with family physicians. Additionally, the PA's former training in primary care enabled the ACT team to provide more preventive health services, with an emphasis on smoking cessation, diabetes management, and women's health.

Improved access and quality of psychiatric care

Participants described more timely access when managing patient mental health complaints, as well as longer and more collaborative appointments. The PA let the team conduct more home visits and assessments than previously. Participants described increased opportunities for medication reviews, and improved continuity of care during physician absences. Though quantitative data were not collected, this model let the ACT team expand its roster from 75 to 85 patients. In terms of team cohesion, participants reported equal levels of satisfaction between the PA and psychiatrist.

Effect on health system navigation

Participants described decreased wait times and ease of referrals to tertiary care treatment, especially when preadmission physical examinations were required. They also noted improved liaison with community specialists and improved access to publicly funded screening programs.

Implementation challenges

Participants warned against the risk of developing a triage hierarchy, in which the PA merely relays patient complaints to the psychiatrist. Consideration must also be given to the psychiatrist's scope of practice, especially as primary care treatment is undertaken. Participants cautioned about the need for educating patients about the term physician assistant and the PA's role in the team.

DISCUSSION

This represents the first study to explore the role of PAs in comprehensive psychiatric care. Our results suggest there are several benefits, including improved quality and access to primary and psychiatric care. These early results support the increased use of PAs in care for patients with severe and persistent mental illness, and highlight the need for further health systems research in this domain.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who is also the Special Representative for the India-China border talks, is in Beijing to attend the BRICS NSA summit scheduled to be held on July 27 and 28. His presence on Chinese soil comes at a time when India's border standoff with China in Sikkim's Doklam has entered the second month with little signs of abatement.

If Doval gets an opportunity to have bilateral talks with his counterpart Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the summit, he will not waste another second to raise the border issue and put his best foot forward to try and end the impasse.

"It is highly unlikely that Doval will not raise the issue if he gets an opportunity to have a private word with his Chinese counterpart. But what is important to observe is what kind of an approach will the NSA display?" said a senior security official.

China has been playing tough as far as border talks are concerned. Beijing had said it would not hold talks unless and until India withdraw its troops from Doklam. However, with the Indian NSA now in their territory, there are mixed signals on the possibility of a bilateral discussion where the border issue is expected to crop up.

Notably, Doval has made it clear over the last several months since the Narendra Modi-government came to power that India's territorial integrity is paramount and a "defensive offensive " approach will be adopted when it comes to the nation's policy of guarding its international borders. Such a policy has not only been displayed but translated into some action when India launched the covert commando strike in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to avenge the Uri killings of 2016.

Will the policy be any different from a "defensive offensive" on the China border remains to be seen, said an official.

New Delhi's move to openly assist Bhutan to keep the Chinese PLA at bay in Doklamthe India-China-Bhutan tri-junctionhas displayed its grit to Beijing. But whether India is able to match its military grit with its diplomacy remains to be seen.

For political observers, it is a time to test the waters and Doval should do just that. Rather than adopting an unwavering aggressive approach, the NSA might have to show some diplomacy and craftsmanship to send the right signals to his counterpart, said an official.

Interestingly, this is an area that had been mastered by his predecessors like Shiv Shanker Menon and Brajesh Mishra.

"There may be no immediate solution in sight given the fact that Chinese president Xi Jingping is preparing for the biggest political eventthe 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party likely to be held in early November in Beijing. For Jingping, it is a time when he has to keep the factions of Jiang Zemin and his former mentor Hu Jintao at bay during the politburo meet. The border tension with India gives him that leeway and allows him an opportunity to emerge bigger and stronger," said a senior intelligence official.

Doval will have to manoeuver his way through Beijing's military ambitions and political compulsions. Definitely, testing times for Doval.
There is no evidence of the 39 missing Indians in Iraq being dead or alive but search for them will continue till there is concrete evidence about their fate, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on Wednesday.

Making in a statement in the Lok Sabha, the minister refuted the allegation that the government was misleading the nation on the issue. She said it would be a "sin" to announce the 39 Indians who went missing in June 2014 in Mosul as dead as long as there is any proof.

She said she has asked the Iraq government to give them an update with evidence on what happened to the 39 Indians, who were mostly from Punjab.

The minister said that Harjit Masih, who was part of the group abducted by Islamic State militants but had escaped, claimed the Indians were shot dead in a forest in Mosul, but no bodies or evidence had been found.

"After listening to the story, I told the Embassy search the whole of Mosul, and around, you will find the 39 bodies somewhere, or blood stains would be there. I also said the ISIS has a habit of issuing lists if they kill many people of a country.

"We did not find any bodies, list, video or any photo. I thought we should at least search for them," she said.

The minister said while one person (Masih) has said they are dead, at least "six sources" have said they may be alive.

She also said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.

She also said that all the information was culled from different sources and there was no evidence to support any of the claims.

Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the Minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians. She however said that in all her meetings with the families of the missing people, she has always made it clear that there was no evidence about them being alive, just as there was no evidence that they were dead.

"I have suggested that the prison warden (of Badush jail) should be contacted, they may have a list. Otherwise there will be bodies, are the bodies in shape to do a DNA test..." she said.

The minister said that in a war there are four categories of peoplethe prisoners of War, the missing, those killed and those believed to be killed. She said there have been cases of people believed to be killed but have been found alive several years later.

"The file will not be closed till there is concrete evidence," the minister added.

Earlier, Sushma Swaraj faced ruckus in the House from opposition members, mostly the Congress, as she was about to speak.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked Sushma Swaraj to make a statement on the issue.

Sushma Swaraj urged the agitating Congress members to maintain silence. "I will speak when there will be no slogan shouting. You all know the matter is very sensitive and needs to be heard sensitively," she said.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, were working in a construction company near Mosul when militants captured the Iraqi city in 2014.

Some relatives of the missing people in Amritsar have said they received phone calls from some of the workers five days after Mosul was captured.

Masih, who was a part of the group and managed to escape, had claimed the Indians were all shot dead a few days after they were abducted.
The controversy over inauguration of a government trauma centre has snowballed into a major political controversy. After a BJP MLA forcibly cut the ribbon, a day ahead of a similar event scheduled by Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia in Ashoknagar, the latter re-inaugurated the centre on July 23. Seeing an opening, the BJP pounced, claiming that Scindia insulted MLA Gopilal Jatav, who hailed from the dalit community.

With BJP vociferously tagging Scindia as anti-dalit, the past three days of the Congress leader were spent explaining a statement that he had never given in the first place. He even submitted a challenge that if BJP could prove the statement attributed to him, he would quit Lok Sabha.

BJP burnt Scindia's effigies saying he insulted dalits, even as the latter moved a privilege motion in Lok Sabha and a defamation notice against the state BJP chief.

On Monday, Scindia, while touring his constituency in Ashoknagar, inaugurated a trauma centre. BJP MLA Gopilal Jatav claimed to have sanctioned the centre.

A day before Scindia could actually perform the inauguration, Gopilal Jatav, along with his supporters, went to the site and placed a stone-plaque with Jatav's name, proclaiming that the trauma centre was inaugurated by him. Scindia's supporters did not take too well to the move.

Scindia's supporters, including a dalit leader Amit Tanware, declared that they will not accept the inauguration. He said that they would arrange for another inauguration and purify the area with ganga jal". Tanware's statement kicked off a political storm across the state. On Sunday, BJPs Anusuchit Jati Morcha passed censure motion against Scindia.

Tanware, an office-bearer of Congress party, was quickly expelled from the party for making irresponsible statement. Later, Scindia inaugurated the road with a new stone-plaque carrying the names of BJP MLA and himself.

The next day, when Scindia went to inaugurate the centre, he profusely praised MLA Jatav. He said, Our MLA is good person who has had a long-standing relations with my family. But he has been misguided by his top leaders in Bhopal.

While Scindia made this statement, the BJP leadership in Bhopal, particularly state president Nandkumar Chouhan, said that Scindia has insulted dalit community and should be taught a lesson. He announced that effigies of Scindia would be burnt all over state.

BJP said that Congress MP has insulted dalits by objecting to the inauguration of trauma centre at Ashok Nagar by BJP MLA Gopilal Jatav. It said that his statement to get the hospital cleaned by ganga jal was a an insult to dalits.

BJP has planned a strategy to defame Scindia as he is emerging as a strong leader of the Congress, effectively challenging BJP rule, said Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi.

In the state, BJP president Chouhan himself sat on dharna in Ashoknagar, the constituency of Scindia. At the same time, two dalit BJP MPsVirendra Kumar and Manohar Utwalraised the issue in the Parliament.

Jyotiraditya Scindia said, The BJP is creating a issue out of air. They should listen to my speech. In fact, they want to hide the atrocities on dalits in Madhya Pradesh by making an issue out of nothing.

Scindia, on the same day, issued a defamation notice to Nandkumar Chouhan. The notice, issued from Delhi, mentioned the whole sequence of events. It said that Chouhan was maliciously spreading lies in a ploy to malign him.

In Parliament, Scindia, while moving privilege motion against two MPs, even challenged BJP to prove that he has given the said speech insulting dalits. Scindia said that he will resign from Parliament if he is proven wrong. Otherwise, the BJP leaders who made the false allegations should resign.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the top most separatist of Jammu and Kashmir, and his family have amassed wealth worth crores and also own benami properties.

According to sources, government agencies have full details of the wealth amassed by the 13 top Kashmiri separatists. The huge wealth of these torchbearers of azadi in Kashmir poses an important question: what is the source of their income when they do separatism, which they term as movement for azadi, as a full time job?

The separatists, whose properties and wealth are under the scanner of government agencies, are: Syed All Shah Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah a.k.a Fatoosh, Naseem Geelani, Nayeem Geelani, Farooq Ahmad Dar a.k.a Bitta Karate, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Shabbir Shah, Yasin Malik, Mir Waiz, Mehraj-ud-din, Bashir Ahmed Bhat a.k.a Peer Saifullah, Asiya Andrabi and Nayeem Mohammed Khan.

SYED ALI SHAH GEELANI

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman, All Party Hurriyat Conference, (Geelani faction) [APHC-G] has an ancestral bungalow at Dooru, Sopore, in Jammu and Kashmir that is worth Rs one crore. It is a two storey house on two kanals of land (one kanal is equal to 605 square yards or 1/8 acre).

His office cum residence is built on 1.5 kanals land at Rehmatabad colony, which is registered in the name of Milli Trust with five membersBashir Ahmed Shot a.k.a Peer Saifullah, Mohd Ashraf, Sehraj, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Jawahira Begum and Dr Nayeed Geelani.

Geelani's two story house at Bulbulbagh, Barazulla has been transferred to Jel, Jammu and Kahsmir.

There is one Unique Public School in Dooru, Srinagar, of which the land is partially donated by villagers and partly out of Geelani's property. The school is run by a Trust, and Geelani has appointed his younger son Naseem Geelani as chairman of the school.

Geelani also owns a two-bedroom flat at Gupta Colony, Khirki Extension, Delhi for which Geelani paid Rs eight lakh and it has been registered in the name of GM Bhat (hawala conduit).

He owns a two storey house at Bagh-e-Mehtab, Srinagar and has been registered in the name of Geelani's eldest daughter Chasfida.

Geelani's another three-storied bungalow built on half kanal land at Bemina, Srinagar has been registered in the name of his daughter Zahida. The octogenarian separatist also owns around 100-150 kanals of land at Singpore Pattan. Geelani has a double storey house at Rehmatabad in his name.

Four vehicles in Hyderpora belong to Geelani.

Sources say that Geelani's son Naseem Geelani looks after real estate matters of the family.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Funtoosh, who has been looking after his affairs for year, owns land in Dompora Sow. Altai Funtoosh, Advocate Shahfi Rishi and his nephew Yaseer Rishi (MLC) own around 100-150 kanals of land in Sumbal, Zainkund-Bandipora Road.

So far, four Benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.

ALTAF AHMED SHAH

Altaf Ahmed Shah is chief organiser of APHC-G and son-in-law of Geelani. He owns a two storey house built on half kanal at Bagh-e-Mehtab, two-room house at Bhatindi and ancestral hosiery shop at LaI Chowk, Srinagar, eight kanals land in Handoora village, Ganderbal district, Srinagar. He also owns a double storey house, No. 119 at HIG Colony, Bemina worth Rs 1.50 crore.

So far, three benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.

NASEEM GEELANI

Naseem Geelani, son of S.A.S. Geelani, owns house built on five marlas (one marla is 272.251 square feet) at Rawalpora, Srinagar and land/orchard at Doru, Sopore. The NIA says that Naseem Geelani, in March 2017, took over the charge of Unique Public School, Sopore as its chairman, after a long tussle with G.M. Bhat (former chairman). The Geelani family also wanted to own eight kanals of land in Sopore that may have been given by local villagers in 1980 for construction of the school.

So far, two benami properties being needs further verification, say the sources.

NAYEEM GEELANI

Nayeem Geelani, son of S.A.S. Geelani, jointly owns four canals of agriculture land at Humana, Rawalpora Byepass, Srinagar with his brother Naseem Geelani.

He also owns land/orchard on 40 kanals in Dooru, Sopore. Besides this, he also owns some ancestral property in the form of land and orchards.

Nayeem is also owner of an eight-room house at Sanat Nagar, Srinagar. He also owns a flat in New Delhi's Vasant Kunj area, and also a single storey house having 10-12 rooms that is worth Rs 75 lakh.

He also owns apple orchard and two houses built on 5.5 Kanals. The market value of per canal is Rs 5 lakh.

He is also the owner of Asian Minerals (limestone quarry) which is in the name of his brother Muneer Khan.

So far, two benami properties need further verification, say the sources.

The Kashmiri separatists are under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after several top Kashmiri separatists were caught on camera confessing to receiving funds from across the border.

The sting operation, carried by a news channel, showed Hurriyat's Provincial President (Geelani faction) Nayeem Khan admitting on camera that Pakistan is funding the violence in Kashmir Valley.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA has so far arrested seven Kashmiri separatists and produced them, on Tuesday, before a Delhi court, which sent them to 10-day NIA custody over money laundering charges to fund terror in the Kashmir Valley.

The arrested separatists are: Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate.
The political scene in Gujarat is heating up with former Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela threatening to resign as MLA ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, if Congress in-charge for Gujarat Ashok Ghelot did not withdraw his allegations against him.

On July 25, Ghelot had alleged that Vaghela had resigned from the party under pressure from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.

Vaghela had resigned from the Congress on his 77th birthday on July 21 after several of his demands, including changing incumbent state party president Bharatsinh Solanki, were not accepted.

The former Congress leader said in Gandhinagar that he had kept his one vote reserved for Ahmed Patel, but if Ghelot did not withdrew his allegations then he would resign as MLA before the Rajya Sabha elections. The election is on August 8. Patel, political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is seeking re-election for the fifth time. He filed his nomination papers on Wednesday.

Gujarat sends three RS members. Terms of Patel and two BJP representatives Smriti Irani and Dilip Pandya will end in August. The BJP has still not announced whom would it nominate in the Rajya Sabha.

Vaghela categorically said that it cannot be condoned. "On one hand you have expectations that I vote in favour of the Congress candidate and on the other hand you level baseless allegations."

The former Congress leader dared Ghelot to reopen cases against him and said that he was not afraid of any raids. I know of CBI but I do not know what ED Ghelot was talking about, Vaghela said.

He claimed that the CBI did not find anything from his residence in earlier raids and that his dealings were transperant. He warned Ghelot to keep his tongue in control, at least publicly.

Alleging that what Ghelot said was as good as character assassination, Vaghela asked him to be a sport like him. Parties may come and go. Relations remain. Do not try to create a problem in mine and Patel's friendship, the former chief minister said.

He said on July 25 night that when Patel met him, the former offered that Vaghela file papers for the RS. However, I told Patel that I had already suggested your name one and a half months ago, Vaghela said.

As regards changing of the incumbent state Congress president, Vaghela said that there were several state party leaders who wanted him to go and the sentiments were conveyed to the party. According to him, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had also asked him to suggest the names. I suggested the names. Then I got a message that a decision will not be taken, Vaghela said, adding that it was then that he conveyed that he would take a decision on July 21.

Replying to a question, Vaghela said that he would not contest the assembly election. When asked about the future course of action, the former Congress leader said that he would tell later. In lighter vein, he said, "There are lot of things to do. I will sit and talk to you (media persons)."
The Armed Forces Tribunal's suspension of the life imprisonment of five soldiers, including a colonel and captain, involved in the killing of three civilians in a fake encounter and passing them off as foreign militants, at Machil, Kupwara in 2010 has come as a shock to most people in Kashmir especially the families of the victims.

The Army had decided to court martial the accused in December 2013, three years after the investigations by police found the three youthShehzad Ahmad, Riyaz Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi of Nadihalwere civilians lured with a promise of work and then killed in a fake encounter.

The accused were sentenced to life in 2014 by Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) in the 2010 Machil fake encounter case.

The accused were imprisoned after the then General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda confirmed the sentence given to the accused by the Summary General Court Martial.

The Tribuna's orders have come as big relief to Colonel Dinesh Pathania, the then Commanding officer of 4 Rajput Regiment, Captain Upendra, Havaldar Devendra Kumar, Lance Naik Lakshmi and Lance Naik Arun Kumar.

The five, who were lodged in different jails of the country, will walk out of the jails on bail in a couple of days, sources said. The trial will, however, continue till the final decision is pronounced.

We don't accept it,'' said Muhammad Yousuf, father of one the victims, Riyaz Ahmed. ''We have been suffered so much all these years and the murders of my son have been set free with any punishment.''

Two counter-insurgents Bashir Ahmad Lone and Abdul Hamid Bhat along with Territorial Army Rifleman Abbas Hussain Shah had lured three youths from Nadihal village in north Kashmir to Kalaroos in Kupwara district with the promise of a job.

The fake encounter was exposed after the families of the youth lodged a missing complaint with the police.

Later the families identified the bodies of the three youth prompting police to initiate action against the Armymen.

We are shocked by this action by the Tribunal, '' said Showkat Ahmed, brother of Shehzad. ''How can this happen? There is enough evidence that our sons were murdered in cold blood.''

Showkat said he would not let the accused walk free and would fight even if it meant selling all his property. He said they suspect Lone and other co accused will also be released. ''We want an eye for an eye verdict, my brother was innocent, said Showka.

Human Rights activists have expressed dismay over the decision of the Tribunal.

We are not surprised by this verdict. Present government does not want the morale of the armed forces to be affected in any manner,'' said right activists Parvez Imroz. ''It happened with Pathribal fake encounter, Kunan Poshpora rape and now Machil fake encounter,'' Imroz said and added that the institutions had failed the victims of the human rights violations in Kashmir.

The Machil fake encounter had triggered an outrage across Kashmir which turned into an uprising in which over 110 people, mostly youth, were killed and hundreds were injured. The agitation continued for five months and nearly cost Omar Abdullah his chief ministership.

The Centre had sent a parliamentary delegation to Kashmir to talk to the people and find a solution to the crisis.

After the delegation went back, then home minister P. Chidambaram appointed a three-member team of interlocutors on Kashmir. The Interlocutors submitted a report to the government but no action was initiated.

The decision to suspend the life term will pile more pressure on the PDP-led government which has struggled to win support of the people after its alliance with the BJP.
Made in Pakistan, screams Indias latest dossier to its neighbour. The National Investigation Agency prepared the dossier on the Uri strike of September 18, 2016four terrorists had crossed the Line of Control and lobbed grenades at the Army brigade headquarters in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, killing 18 Indian soldiers. In retaliation, the Indian Army destroyed seven Pakistan army-guarded terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control on the night of September 28, and vowed that it would produce evidence of Pakistan's complicity in the Uri attack.

New Delhi handed over the dossier to Pakistan through diplomatic channels in June, said top NIA sources. THE WEEK has accessed the dossier. It contains questions which, if Pakistan truthfully answers them, can expose its role as a terror sponsor.

The NIA has unearthed minute Pakistani connections to the terrorists who carried out the Uri attack, the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in more than two decades. The dossier says Pakistani masterminds leave nothing to chance when it comes to arming terrorists. Interestingly, the four terrorists were carrying stuff made in Pakistanfactory made shawls, medicines, batteries, biscuits, chocolates and Tang (instant drink mix).

The 13-point dossier contains details of several companies, such as Coronet Foods Pvt Ltd in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which makes Sooper egg and milk biscuits; Mondelez Pakistan Limited, which makes Tang in different flavours; and National Foods Limited based in Karachi, which is famous for making Fruities, a drink.

We have got enough evidenceboth material and technicalthat shows the Uri attack was carried out from Pakistan, NIA Director General Sharad Kumar told THE WEEK. All the evidence has been shared with Islamabad and we want them to respond so that we can take the case forward.

He said no charge sheet was filed as all the terrorists had been killed and there was no other accused in the case. For further progress in the case, Pakistan will need to tell us about all the evidence we have shared with them, he said.

The dossier was sent as letters rogatory through the foreign ministry. The NIA wants Pakistani agencies to share complete details of the items made in Pakistan, as well as the imported items, that the terrorists carried.

Pakistan may be able to explain away all such items but not the coordinates recovered from the GPS device that the terrorists carried. These coordinates reveal the places where the terrorists stopped by on their way to Uri via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The NIA says Pakistan is unlikely to answer its questions in the dossier because of such 'smoking guns'. Besides, Pakistan has consistently denied, over the decades, allegations of state patronage to terror camps and safe havens on its soil.

It has been their standard practice to not even acknowledge the receipt of any request, said N.R. Wasan, former NIA special director general. India and Pakistan do not have a mutual legal assistance treaty. There is no other mechanism in place that makes it mandatory for them to cooperate and share evidence. So, we cannot force them to part with any information. It is a dead-end kind of situation because the political bosses in Pakistan will never be able to take any step against the interest of its own agencies. What we can try to ensure is that we gather enough evidence in our own investigation back home so that we can book the culprits.

It is for the first time after the Mumbai attacks of 26/11 that such a detailed dossier has been prepared and sent to Pakistan. The dossier also mentions Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, who is said to have supported the attack. I have dealt with Pakistan even before the Mumbai attacks, said former home secretary V.K. Duggal. We must understand that what they say in meetings cannot be taken at face value. They are the least trustworthy of all the neighbours we have. They will not listen to our baat cheet (talk) or hugs. In today's scenario, it is also in our own interest not to open two fronts. Given China's aggression on the border in Sikkim, we must realise that we need to count each step. The policy of tackling Pakistan firmly and China diplomatically is a correct policy and must be followed.
Mr. Smith is dying, Dr. Yarhi said as I walked through the door of the office.

Dr. Yarhi was the hematology-oncology fellow at the VA and my supervisor. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and a long, tightly buttoned white coat that almost touched the ground. His accent required focused attentiveness to understand, but it was well worth the effort as he was an insightful teacher.

How do we know? I responded as I hung up my jacket.

He is septic. His serum lactate is 4.8, and his creatinine and LFTs are elevated and rising. We discussed this with the patient and his family yesterday, and they have decided to stop all treatments. He paused and looked into his computer screen as if trying to gather his thoughts.

You should go see him. He glanced up and caught my eye to make sure I understood what he was saying.

Mr. Smith was my patient, so it made sense that I would check on him. I had been following him since he was admitted 2 weeks ago for a pleural effusion. In fact, he was the first patient assigned to me during the rotation.

BY CHOICE

Two weeks earlier, I was excited to start my hematology and oncology rotation because it was my first elective. I was an older student who had come to PA school after a career in business. I have always wanted to work in oncology.

On day 2 of the rotation, I was on the hematology/oncology inpatient consult service with Dr. Martin, the attending oncologist. He handed me a fax for a new inpatient consult for Mr. Smith, recently diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC).

I looked up SCLC in UpToDate, and the prognosis of 8 to 13 months instantly caught my eye. I started thinking. Has anyone told Mr. Smith this news? Am I expected to tell him? I asked Dr. Martin what I should do.

Go tell him what you know, he responded.

I asked hesitantly, Has anyone told him that he has cancer?

He paused, looked over his glasses, and stared into his computer as he said, They should have told him they suspect that he has cancer, but I doubt anyone has actually told him that he has cancer because the pathology report just came in this morning.

Are you going to go with me? I asked.

He looked at me quizzically and replied, You can handle it. If he asks anything you don't know the answer to, let him know we will be meeting as a team this afternoon and then coming to meet with him.

As I walked down the hall, he shouted, By the way, SCLC isn't curable. We can only offer palliative chemo.

The words stopped me dead in my tracks. I stood there contemplating my next move. Should I turn around and refuse to see Mr. Smith on my own? I had never told anyone they have a terminal illness.

My body seemed to move in slow motion, but my mind was racing. I reminded myself that I wanted this rotation. This was my elective, I was here by choice, and I had specifically asked to not be sheltered as a student. I decided to proceed, reflected on what I knew on SCLC, and walked to meet Mr. Smith.

He was 65 years old and a bear of a man: 6 ft 2 in and 260 lb. He looked like a Harley rider with a white handlebar mustache and long white hair tied back in a ponytail. He appeared tough on the exterior, but when he saw me, he quickly sat up on the edge of his bed. I saw fear in his eyes. He knew why I was there.

Hi, I'm Greg. I'm the PA student working with hematology and oncology. So, what do you know about your condition? I asked, hoping he was already aware of his diagnosis.

His voice was gruff and deep, and I was surprised at how well it fit his look. Well, I know that I have fluid around my lungs and they are concerned that a cancer might be the reason the fluid is there.

His eyes were glued to mine, as if he was trying to get a read on what I was about to say.

Some of the fluid that was removed from around your lungs was sent to pathology for analysis yesterday. We received the results back this morning, and I am sorry to inform you that you have cancer.

For the first time in our interaction, he looked away, as if deep in thought.

We also know from the pathology report that you have a type of cancer called small-cell lung cancer. Because we found the cancer in the fluid around your lungs, we know that this is a metastatic cancer. Unfortunately, it is incurable.

As I spoke the words, he started to sob. His head hung as he sat on the edge of his bed. I walked over to his side and rested my hand on his shoulder.

I am so sorry.

Through his tears he asked, So how long do I have?

I remembered the 8- to 13-month mortality statistics I had previously seen, but I also recalled Dr. Martin's advice that if I felt I could not answer the questions, I should inform the patient that we would be meeting as a full care team later this afternoon.

We do have palliative chemotherapy options available. This will slow down the cancer in your body, which should allow you to have a better quality of life.

I realized as I was saying this that I was not directly answering his question. He seemed to accept my answer, though, and replied emphatically, When do we start?

We will be meeting as a team today to discuss your case, and I will be sure to let them know you would like to proceed with chemo. When we return this afternoon we will discuss the next steps.

He nodded his head, acknowledging his acceptance of my statements.

Do you have any family in the area that could come and stay with you while you are in the hospital?

I have a couple of nieces close by. I have a son, but I haven't spoken to him in a while.

At the mention of his son, he started choking up again. I imagined that there must be a deeper story that he wasn't willing to share with me, and I wasn't going to prod him. In that moment, I felt I had reached my limit on the amount of information I was comfortable sharing with him. Even though our time together was brief, I was exhausted and thought we both needed time to process what had just happened.

If you don't have any more questions, I will plan on seeing you this afternoon.

Okay.

I walked slowly back toward the office, replaying the conversation in my head. Had I said the right things? Should I have been more emotional? Had I shown enough compassion?

HEALING A BREACH

Mr. Smith's case became more complex in the days that followed. He did not start chemotherapy right away as he was still accumulating a lot of pleural fluid, which required the placement of a chest tube. Pulmonology wanted to perform a talc pleurodesis to prevent a recurrent pleural effusion once the chest tube had drained off most of the fluid. This delay in initiating chemotherapy became more of an issue as Mr. Smith was becoming more symptomatic with each passing day. I met with him daily, often stopping by twice just to see how he was feeling. And so I got to know Mr. Smith. Underneath the gruff exterior, he was a teddy bear of a man. He was kind, accepting, generous, and never complaining. During one of these daily meetings, I found out about his son. I'm glad I broached the subject. I was concerned that he was deteriorating and felt his son needed to come to the hospital if we wanted to see his dad again.

You mentioned that you have a son you haven't spoken with in a while. Have you reached out to him?

I haven't called him yet. I haven't spoken to my son in almost 10 years. It's a long story. Besides, I don't think he would come anyways.

Do you mind if I speak freely?

Yeah, sure.

You are very sick. If I was your son, I would want to know. Irrespective of what may have happened in the past, I would still want to know that my dad has cancer and is in the hospital. I would want to know so I could decide if it was time to bury the hatchet.

Nodding his head he appeared to be acknowledging my suggestion.

Will you consider it?

Yeah, I will think about it.

I changed the subject and explained that we were considering starting chemo with the chest tube still in. I told him the team had discussed his case and were concerned that delaying chemotherapy might give the cancer a chance to spread to his brain. I told him too that chemotherapy depletes the immune system and increases the risk of serious, even life-threatening infection.

I realize this is a change from what we were talking about before, but we are more concerned about how your symptoms are progressing. What do you think about that plan?

I asked the question more as a rhetorical one, as I knew that he wanted to start chemo and was concerned about the delay.

I told you before that I want to start chemo. I will take the chance of infection. I've been looking on the Internet, and everything I'm reading says that small-cell is really aggressive and should be treated immediately.

I jokingly cautioned him about doing too much Internet research. I assured him that the only reason we had not initiated treatment was the risk of infection. I told him we would be back in the morning with the full team to discuss starting chemo.

The following morning, Dr. Martin, Dr. Yarhi, and I made our way to Mr. Smith's room. As we entered, a man was standing in the corner. He looked like a younger version of Mr. Smith. Obviously, Harley riding ran in the family. Before anyone could speak, Mr. Smith said, This is my son, John.

Mr. Smith gave me a wry smile. I chuckled on the inside and was glad to see he had followed my suggestion.

Dr. Yarhi started the discussion by making sure Mr. Smith understood all aspects of the plan. We are gravely concerned that if we delay treatment any longer, you may develop metastatic disease in areas that can cause severe, if not fatal, complications. Small-cell lung cancer is known to spread to the brain. Because you presented with metastatic disease, we feel that delaying the start of your chemo any longer is taking a huge risk of brain metastases.

Mr. Smith nodded that he was in agreement.

The obvious risk is infection caused by depletion of immune system cells. However, we will take all necessary precautions to prevent infection. Dr. Yarhi said.

Mr. Smith continued nodding throughout the entire talk. Let's do it, he responded.

I continued to stop by each day while Mr. Smith received chemo. He spent about 3 hours receiving the infusion and the rest of the day resting. He started experiencing adverse reactions on the second day. He never really complainedjust noted that he didn't feel well. Every day that I visited, his son was there. John asked a few questions but otherwise didn't say much. After the third day of chemo, you could see that the treatments were difficult for Mr. Smith. He was vomiting and looked miserable. He ended chemo on a Wednesday, and by Friday I thought he had turned a corner. His blood counts were low, but he looked healthy. He was joking with me about his plans versus my plans for the weekend. I wished him and John a good weekend, and I reminded him that I would see him Monday morning. He smiled and said, Have a good weekend!

THE TSUNAMI

When I returned to the hospital on Monday morning, Dr. Yarhi told me that Mr. Smith was dying. I grabbed my white coat and walked to his room. I knocked softly on Mr. Smith's door and entered. His son, standing in the corner, acknowledged me with a simple head nod. I walked over to the side of the bed. Mr. Smith was heavily sedated, and his respirations were labored, shallow, and irregular. Skin pallor demonstrated the lack of perfusion in his body. I took his hand. It was cool to the touch.

I quietly stated, It was a pleasure to have met you, Mr. Smith.

I didn't know if he could hear me or not. It didn't matter. I was going to say what I felt. The first time I came to his room, I had been told, tell him what you know. I told him only what I knew. I never speculated, never guessed. If I didn't know, I told him so. I knew that I wanted to let him know how much he had affected me on my journey in medicine.

Thank you for allowing me into your life. I am a better person for having had the experience. I wasn't sure if I was imaging it, but at that moment I felt his hand move ever so slightly in mine. Looking up, I met his son's eyes and saw tears streaming down his face. I responded with the same nod he had given me when I arrived, and I turned and left the room.

Doctor .... Doctor, the man's voice called, louder and more forceful than before. Doctor, the man was almost shouting now, and I turned to see if he was calling out to me, as patients often mistake me for a doctor. The voice came from Mr. Smith's son.

Yes, sir, I replied, walking back toward the room.

We stepped back inside. He looked down, as if trying to find the words that he wanted to say. He looked completely broken.

I wanted to say thank you, he said, his speech interrupted by tears that were turning into sobs. I don't know if I would have been here if you hadn't been involved in my dad's care. I don't know how I could have lived with myself if I had missed this.

He extended his hand, I took it, and we looked deep into each other's hearts. I didn't respond verbally. I didn't need to. I walked back into the hallway. I felt a tsunami of emotion sweep over me as I moved quickly down the hall. I was almost running by the time I hit the front doors to the hospital. I ran down the sidewalk and found a bench away from people. I buried my face in my hands and let the tsunami of emotions consume me.

About an hour passed, and I eventually began to gather myself. I noticed how warm it was outside. The sun was out, and birds were singing. A grizzled veteran out for a morning walk sat down on the bench next to me.

Awfully nice out today, he noted. Feels like spring has finally arrived.

I nodded, acknowledging that I was listening to him. I didn't want to turn and look at him, as I was sure my eyes were bloodshot.

Great day to be alive! he added.

It sure is, I replied, struck by the irony of that statement given what I had just experienced. Well, I'd better get back to work. Have a great day, I said as I walked back into the hospital.

LOSING AND WINNING

As I entered the office, Dr. Yarhi was working at his computer. I sat down, and he stopped typing. He knew what had just happened to me. He turned his chair to face me.

That is the business of oncology, he said softly and very deliberately. His accent somehow seemed more pronounced.

You are going to lose people. In fact, you lose a lot of people. But not everyone dies. There are a lot of patients who respond very favorably and go on to live a long time where they would otherwise die untreated. Also, there is always that person who comes in with metastatic cancer that no one gives a chance to. They make a miraculous recovery and you are able to tell them that they are cancer-free. You let those who die push you to make sure that you are offering the next patient the best possible care, paying attention to every detail in hopes that they have a great outcome. You bask in the moments when you experience the shared joy of telling a person their body is cancer-free.

He turned back toward his computer. After a moment, I logged into the health record. Instinctively, I clicked on Mr. Smith, as I had done every day for the past couple of weeks. A box that I had not seen before popped up in the middle of the screen.

Patient is deceased. Do you wish to continue?

I took a deep breath and paused.

Are you okay? Dr. Yarhi asked, without turning away from his screen but sensing what had just happened.

I am fine, I mumbled, my emotions still too raw to share.

I clicked on the no button and the warning box disappeared, replaced by the next name on the consult list.
When Molex came to Lincoln in 1977, it had 31,000 square feet of space and 27 employees.

The Lincoln location was the company's first manufacturing plant outside its home state of Illinois. In 1999, then-plant manager Iain MacDonald told the Journal Star that the company chose Lincoln for expansion because the area had a good technical and education base.

Fast-forward 40 years later, and the maker of electronic cables, connectors and switches for automobiles, cell phones, appliances and other products now has more than 700,000 square feet of space in three plants in west Lincoln and more than 1,000 local employees.

Wednesday marked the company's 40th year in Lincoln, and both company and local officials held an event to honor employees and celebrate the company's local growth and success.

Reaching 40 years of operations is quite a feat in todays business climate. Its a testimony to our dedicated employees, who continue to embrace change and pursue the innovation that has made Molex successful, Molex CEO Martin Slark said in a news release.

Getting to that point hasn't always been easy, though.

Molex, like other manufacturers, was hit hard during the late-2000s recession. From 2007 to 2008, the company went from having more than 800 employees in Lincoln to less than 700.

But unlike many other manufacturers, it rebounded quickly. By 2011, its local workforce had swelled to more than 1,000 people, where it has since stayed stable.

In 2013, after more than 40 years as a publicly traded company, Molex shareholders approved a $7.2 billion sale to Koch Industries.

Molex now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch, but little has changed, including in Lincoln.

Molex has been an instrumental part of Lincolns economy since it began operations in 1977, said Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Birdsall. The success of the company is a tribute to the quality and high performance of the entire Molex organization, the leadership of the local management team and the incredible work ethic and productivity of their employees."
Fraudsters in Germany have proven it is possible to hijack text messages sent by banks to their customers.

The O2 Telefonica network said some customers in Germany had texts intercepted, allowing crooks to steal passwords and drain accounts.

Some banks text passcodes to customers wanting to transfer money with online banking. The payment is approved only after entering the code.

Fraudsters in Germany have proven that it is possible to hijack texts sent by banks

U.S. regulators already warn that banks should stop using texts for this. Yet some UK ones, such as Santander and Metro Bank, still do so.

The crooks also need to get the customer's online banking details, by tricking them on the phone or buying their data online.

A spokesman for Santander says it invests in security and UK mobile companies must meet requirements that should thwart such an attack.

A spokeswoman for Metro Bank says it has safeguards in place, and a spokeswoman for O2 Telefonica in Germany says: 'Police investigations are ongoing.

'The protection of our customers is of highest priority.'

We have published several stories from our readers who have lost money through sophisticated banking scams.

Earlier this year three Santander customers came to us who had lost a total of 36,200 in a month via text message scams, and they were unable to get their money back.

These scams generally work by fraudsters sending out a text message to victims pretending to be from their bank.

They then use a technique called number spoofing to make the text messages appear on an existing thread of genuine messages from the bank.

In the cases we reported on the messages were made to appear as if they had come from Santander and they usually told the customer there was some unusual activity on their account. In a panic, victims are then tricked into calling the fraudster or visiting a website and handing over further details.

l.milner@dailymail.co.uk
The message from much of the business community during the 2016 referendum campaign was invariably negative, with the charge led by the CBI.

In the final days of the campaign, then director-general John Cridland visited us here at the Daily Mail to underline the case against Brexit.

So it is paradoxical that of all the business surveys in recent months, the CBI has proved most positive about prospects for manufacturing.

Not even the most committed of Europhiles could accuse it of bias.

A Honda Civic on the production line at the company's plant in Swindon. The CBI has proved most positive about prospects for manufacturing

The CBI's survey for the last three months shows that manufacturing grew at the fastest pace since 1995, headcount and hiring are strong and export orders are healthy.

The parallel with 1995 is highly relevant because it followed Britain's exit from the exchange rate mechanism, the precursor of the euro, in 1992.

The devaluation of sterling, then, ushered in a robust period for the economy as exports became more competitive.

There has been scepticism since the Brexit vote that depreciation will make much difference because of weak world trade and a reluctance of manufacturers to invest.

Wrong and wrong again. The world economy is picking up and International Monetary Fund forecasts show world output rising by 3.5 per cent this year and 3.6 per cent in 2018.

Headwinds of the financial crisis of ten years ago are still being felt, but the velocity has declined. As for investment, we have just seen a couple of useful counter indicators.

During the Brexit campaign, and more recently when during an industrial dispute at Cowley in Oxfordshire over pension rights, BMW indicated production of the 'electric' Mini might move to the Netherlands.

It now confirms that the vehicle will be built in the UK, although critical components including electric engines and batteries will be imported from Germany.

As Britain bolsters its work in battery research, it becomes possible that BMW may yet choose to source power units from the UK. Amazon, meanwhile, demonstrates what should have been obvious.

The West Coast digital giants know no real borders. They are global enterprises that float above normal trading and tax regimes, and are only brought to earth by the occasional intervention, such as the European Commission's fine on Google for fixing the priority of advertisers on its pages.

In spite of all the warnings we hear from academics, the NHS establishment and others about the potential problems of finding and hiring the staff they need, Amazon insists it can take on 450 engineers in Britain without pain at its new Shoreditch HQ in hipster East London.

Amazon is supportive of the Government's approach to a deal on non-EU citizens and the urgency it has been given.

None of these means that Brexit is a breeze and that there will be no disruption. But if does provide an excellent counter-view to the armies of pessimists and naysayers.

Joyeux Noel

Media luvvie Noel Edmonds has done 67 customers of Lloyds Bank's former HBOS branch in Reading an enormous favour.

By shouting the word 'fraud' from the rooftops and claiming Lloyds is seeking to minimise compensation payouts he has gained the attention of the bank, which has now put top commercial banker David Oldfield in charge of sorting out the mess.

Edmonds's decision to raise his claim from 50million to 300million for losses at a firm with estimated revenues of 3million does test his credibility.

Lloyds efforts to bring the issue to a close have so far been unsuccessful despite the appointment of an 'independent adjudicator' in Professor Russel Griggs.

Of the offers made to 16 impacted customers so far, only five have been accepted. This is hardly surprising.

Faced with a very profitable bank proffering money, defrauded customers, even in 'challenged' enterprises, are right to be cautious.

Maybe they have been reading Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal. Distrusting big banks, after the horrors of the last decade, is sensible. Seeing Lloyds as a get-rich-quick scheme at the expense of investors is quite another.

Dutch auction

No one can accuse Dulux owner Akzo Nobel of ignoring the venomous attentions of Elliott Advisors.

In short order, the activist investors have driven combative chief executive Ton Buchner from office with ill-health, undermined chairman Antony Burgmans, forced the sale of speciality chemicals and encouraged Akzo to deploy veteran banker David Mayhew of JP Morgan Cazenove to improve relations with shareholders. Enough already.
Heading to the sun?Don't use your Post Office card at foreign cashpoints

The Post Office is telling holidaymakers to avoid using its travel money cards at ATMs abroad after a customer lost 100 in fees in a week.

Travel money cards, which you can load with euros or dollars before you fly, are often advertised as an easy and safe way to spend on holiday.

However, last month we revealed how some cards are riddled with fees and catches that make them more expensive than some ordinary bank cards.

For example, while most travel cards are fee-free in shops and restaurants, some charge you to withdraw money from cash machines.

Post Office, one of the most popular providers, charges $2.50 (1.91) or 2 (1.79) for each withdrawal from its Travel Money card.

If a family visited an ATM twice a day on a two-week holiday, it would cost them $70 (54) or 56 (50).

Customers also risk huge fees if they press the wrong button on the ATM and elect to be charged in British sterling, rather than in the local currency.

Following complaints about these fees, Post Office has told Money Mail that customers should 'if possible, avoid using ATMs abroad'.

In the next few weeks it will begin issuing new leaflets explaining how to avoid the extra charges. These will be handed to every new card customer, it says.

Trevor Grundy, 77, put 900 on a Post Office travel money card so that he could withdraw money when he needed it from ATMs while on holiday in Chalkidiki, Greece.

He says the leaflet implied you 'put the card in, punch in your PIN and take the money away with you  safe, secure, no problems'.

Yet after using the card regularly during his stay in Kriopigi, the author, from Whitstable, Kent, was unable to get the final 100 (89) out of the machine.

The ATM said there was nothing left on his Post Office card, so he took a taxi to a nearby town, tried again and got the same result. The same happened in another town. When he contacted Post Office it said his 100 had been eaten up in charges.

Not only had he been billed 2 every time he used the cash machine  10 over his five withdrawals  by Post Office, he had also lost around 90 to the Greek bank operating the ATM.

Most cards are fee-free in shops and restaurants but may charge you to withdraw money

Without realising, he had been pressing the option to be billed in pounds, rather than euros, via so-called 'dynamic' currency conversion.

When paying on a card abroad or withdrawing cash, you're often asked if you want the transaction to be in pounds. If you select pounds, it means the currency conversion is done by the foreign bank instead of your home bank  and the rate is likely to be terrible.

Trevor claims Post Office did not make these fees clear at any stage.

'There was no advice  or any kind of warning  about the options while withdrawing money overseas from either Whitstable Post Office or in the information pack sent to me by the Post Office Travel Money Card people,' he says.

'Fortunately, I had enough cash to pay the final bills before returning to the UK.'

After complaining, Trevor received a letter from customer service staff saying: 'We appreciate this may have been confusing for you.

'I have raised your issues with head office and they have taken steps to make customers aware of options to choose at ATMs in the future.' The Post Office has offered him a 20 payment in compensation.

Trevor says: 'I have never used a travel card before and I will not be using one again. Next time, I will use cash or travellers' cheques.'

A Post Office spokesperson said: 'The Post Office's Travel Money Card can be used like a debit card in millions of shops, bars and restaurants across the world. That's the best way for our customers to use the card; paying with it is commission and fee free when used in one of the 13 currencies we support that can be loaded on the card.

'When making purchases abroad we strongly recommend completing the transaction in the local currency, as converting the transaction to sterling will result in additional fees. These fees include a Dynamic Currency Conversion fee, none of which is levied or received by the Post Office; for cash withdrawals, ATM charges are very common and apply to credit, debit and prepaid products.

'We try to make our explanation of how best to use our Travel Money Card as clear as possible, providing welcome packs with the cards and setting out the details of potential fees that may be incurred on our website. Our colleagues in branch are also on hand to answer any questions our customers may have.

'We apologise if Mr Grundy feels he didn't receive all the information he needed on this occasion, and we have offered him a goodwill gesture to say sorry. To try and make it even easier for customers, we will be introducing leaflets that will come with every card purchased, both in branch and online, to provide customers with a further explanation of how to avoid these fees.'

Other charges on the Post Office card includes a 5 fee to close the account. If you don't, you will start paying a 2-a-month maintenance charge one year after it expires.

l.eccles@dailymail.co.uk
A 63-year-old man serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a Lincoln woman has won a push to get new DNA testing on previously untested evidence that he thinks could clear him of the crime.

Herman Buckman has served more than 29 years for the first-degree murder of Denise Strawkowski. He is at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

On Feb. 19, 1988, she was found dead in the front seat of her car in a ravine near U.S. 34 and Northwest 48th Street. Strawkowski had been shot twice in the head.

At a trial, prosecutors said Buckman had killed her over a drug debt. The Lancaster County jury found him guilty.

Last September, Buckman filed a motion for forensic DNA testing of biological material asking that testing be done on the victim's underwear, as well as the floor mat and steering wheel cover.

Buckman contends that the testing could point to someone else as her killer.

He said the state never tested the evidence before and that the floor mats and steering wheel cover hadn't shown up on an earlier inventory.

In an order late last week, Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong sustained the motion over an objection by the County Attorney's office. And she appointed the Commission on Public Advocacy to represent Buckman.

It's not the first time Buckman has filed a petition under the DNA Testing Act, which enables convicted people to request DNA testing at state expense if it could lead to a new trial or to outright exoneration.

In 2004, he lost his bid for a new trial after testing on cigarette butts found at the crime scene were inconclusive.

At best, Buckman could neither be included or excluded as being a contributor of some of the genetic material found on the tested cigarettes, according to the Nebraska Supreme Court opinion.

In 2001, Buckman petitioned the Lancaster County District Court for DNA testing on bloodied clothing belonging to him, and on cigarette butts found in the back seat of the car in which Stawkowski was murdered.

A judge approved the testing, but the examination of the clothing found no blood traces to test; and testing on the cigarette butts was inconclusive, partly because of contamination during storage.

At the 1988 trial, an expert witness for the state testified the butts had blood substances consistent with Buckman's blood type.

The later tests found DNA from more than one person, one of whom could have been Buckman.
Tim Warrillow, the co-founder of Fever Tree, has sold 1.5million shares in the trendy tonic maker for 29million.

It comes a day after the Chelsea-based drinks maker posted a doubling of profits in the six months to June 30 - jumping 104 per cent to 24.1million - while sales were 77 per cent higher than a year before at 71.9million.

Back in March last year Warrillow enjoyed a 5.4million pay day by dumping 853,816 shares at a price of 635p each. While in May this year his business partner Charles Rolls sold 4.5million shares in the company, earning himself 70million in the process.

Cheers: Warrillow, a former advertising executive, established Fever-Tree alongside Charles Rolls in 2005.

The stake sales have made the two founders rich, in what has been a remarkable stock market success story.

Founded in 2005, the two men got together after discovering most tonics were filled with artificial sweeteners and cheap aromatics.

Rapid growth saw the company float in 2014 at a price of 134p. The shares are now worth 215.0p and the company's market cap has grown to nearly 2.5billion.

And there is no sign that the firm is slowing up. Yesterday the firm said earnings for the full-year would come in ahead of expectations, after toasting rising sales and profits.

Profits more than doubled in the six months to June 30 - jumping 104 per cent to 24.1million - while sales were 77 per cent higher than the same period a year before at 71.9million.

The UK remained the companys key market - up 113 per cent thanks to distribution deals with airlines and supermarkets.

The news sent shares soaring and this session the shares are up 5 per cent at 2,164.0p. Shares have risen by more than 1000 per cent since it listed on the London Stock Exchange three years ago.

The graph shows Fever Tree's share price movement since its flotation Source: Bloomberg

Someone who invested 1,000 when the firm floated at 134p in 2014 would be sitting on shares worth 15,358 today.

Fever-Tree has also been boosted by strong sales at pubs and supermarkets amid rising gin sales, which surpassed 1billion for the first time last year.

Earlier this month it signed a deal with Virgin Atlantic to supply its Indian tonic, light tonic, premium lemonade and ginger ale across the airlines fleet.

The firm previously struck a similar deal with British Airways and also supplies drinks to budget flyer EasyJet.

Fever-Tree was founded by ex-advertising executive Tim Warrillow and gin expert Charles Rolls in 2005  whose shares in the company are worth a combined total of nearly 425million.

The pair met in 2004 and decided to enter the tonics business after discovering most tonics were filled with artificial sweeteners and cheap aromatics.

The duo spent 18 months finding a recipe they were happy with and, in an effort to find the perfect ingredients, flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo to source pharmaceutical grade quinine.
ITV has seen sales and profits fall in the first half as advertising revenues continued to fall but the Love Island broadcaster said the outlook for the year remained unchanged.

With an average audience of 1.6million, the popular dating show has boosted ITV in recent months, attracting a big share of the young audience - which has increasingly moved towards services like Netflix and Amazon - with viewing up 15 per cent.

But the commercial TV giant said advertisers had reined in their spending in the first half amid continued economic and political uncertainty, although it expected the decline to improve in the third quarter and to 'outperform' overall in 2017.

Tough love: ITV was boosted by popular dating show Love Island, but revenues and profit fell

Net advertising revenue, which makes up around 45 per cent of the groups turnover, fell 8 per cent to 769million in the six months to the end of June, ITV said.

Its production arm partly offset the fall, with revenues rising 7 per cent to 697million as it benefited from new dramas including Unforgotten, Little Boy Blue and The Loch.

Overall, group revenue fell 3 per cent to 1.45billion, while adjusted profit before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) fell 8 per cent down to 403million.

Chairman Peter Bazalgette said: ITV's performance in the first six months of the year is very much as we anticipated and our guidance for the full year remains unchanged.

'We expect ITV Family net advertising revenues in quarter three to be down around 4 per cent, again impacted by wider economic uncertainty, and over the full year we expect to outperform the TV advertising market.'

ITV share price was 2.3 per cent, or 4.2p higher at 180p in morning trading.

The slump in profits comes as former easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall is to join the firm in January next year after Adam Crozier stepped down at the end of June.

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Carolyn McCall is yet to check-in as ITVs new CEO, so these results were never going to contain too much in the way of sharp deviations in strategy. However, when she does start her new job, it looks as though she will need to navigate ITV through what remains a difficult environment.

Despite her predecessor, Adam Crozier, bulking up the production studios business, a significant portion of group revenue still comes from selling advertising space. With Brexit uncertainty lingering, ITV is finding customers are putting the brakes on.

However, in other areas performance looks pretty good. Studios sales are rising strongly in the US, where ITV is the largest independent non-scripted production house. Back at home, the phenomenal success of Love Island has provided a shot in the arm, while big names like The Voice and Britains Got Talent remain essential viewing for millions.

New job: Former easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall is to join ITV in January

Investors will be hoping content like this, which gives the group the ability to pull in consistent viewing figures, will help ITV fend off the challenge presented by new rivals such as Netflix and Amazon.

ITV also said it was on track to deliver 25million of cost savings and a 25million reduction in its programme budget over the full year and signalled a strong slate of new and returning programmes including Victoria, Cold Feet, Liar and I'm A Celebrity.

Analysts at Liberum said this was a sign the group was more confident about its second half.

They said: The message that we would take from this is that ITV is confident that its existing cost savings programmes are sufficient and that it does not need to cut more i.e. it does not expect a further sharp drop off in the TV advertising outlook.'
Mortgage rates for first-time buyers are creeping up over fears that house prices may fall.

Over the past six months lenders have slashed rates to record lows for borrowers with larger deposits.

But the average rate for someone with a 5 per cent deal rose from 3.89 per cent in January to 4.24 per cent, according to Moneyfacts.

Over the past six months the average rate for someone with a 5 per cent deal rose from 3.89 per cent in January to 4.24 per cent

For a borrower with a 10 per cent deposit it has risen from 2.72 per cent to 2.77 per cent.

Banks and building societies told the Bank of England they want to lend less to those with smaller deposits over the next three months.

UK Finance says lenders are worried about house prices growing at less than two-thirds the pace they were a year ago.

If prices fell, those with smaller deposits may be trapped in negative equity, unable to move.

Andrew Montlake, of mortgage broker Coreco, says: Lenders may increase rates more for first-time buyers.

p.thomas@dailymail.co.uk
New petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2040 to improve air quality.

The crackdown could also see the introduction of levies on busy roads for owners of the most polluting vehicles.

And hopes of a major scrappage scheme to help those who were encouraged to buy diesels appear to have been dashed.

The strategy will be launched today by ministers Michael Gove and Chris Grayling.

It was forced on the Government by defeat in a High Court case on air pollution.

From 2040, drivers will be able to buy electric cars only  ending the near 150-year reign of the internal combustion engine.

Mr Gove today hailed Britain as leading the world, joining France and Norway on the path to a low emission future on Britain's roads.

The crackdown could also see the introduction of levies on busy roads for owners of the most polluting vehicles

The strategy will be launched today by ministers Michael Gove and Chris Grayling (right)

From around 2020, town halls will be allowed to levy extra charges on diesel drivers using the UK's 81 most polluted routes if air quality fails to improve.

Diesels might even be banned at peak times. Judges ruled the Government was breaking the law by allowing concentrations of nitrogen dioxide to build up in urban areas.

Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the huge changes were essential.

He said: 'We can't carry on with diesel and petrol cars, not just because of the health problems that they cause, but also because the emissions that they cause would mean that we would accelerate climate change, do damage to our planet and to the next generation.'

Asked if there was no alternative to more wind farms and nuclear power energy stations, Mr Gove replied: 'There is no alternative to embracing new technology.'

Told the Conservatives had a manifesto promise against more wind farms, Mr Gove said: 'The Conservatives had a manifesto promise to ensure by 2050 there would be no diesel or petrol vehicles on our roads.

'Today we're confirming that should mean no new diesel or petrol vehicles by 2040, and critically President Macron in France has a similar aspiration... and Norway wants to reach that goal by 2025 so we are, quite rightly, in a position of global leadership in shaping the new technology.'

ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, argued successfully that ministers were not doing enough to tackle the issue.

A judge ordered ministers to unveil the new air quality strategy to cut illegal levels of pollution from diesel vehicles by next Monday.

The Government also faces fines from the European Commission, which has sent Britain a final warning to comply with EU air pollution limits for NO2 or face a case at the European Court of Justice.

From 2040, drivers will be able to buy electric cars only  ending the near 150-year reign of the internal combustion engine

From around 2020, town halls will be allowed to levy extra charges on diesel drivers using the UK's 81 most polluted routes if air quality fails to improve

Any suggestion that drivers of diesels should be penalised will be greeted with anger from motoring organisations. They point out that the last Labour government had encouraged people to buy the vehicles.

It was thought that efficient diesel engines were the best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It later emerged that the nitrogen dioxide they emit was harming air quality.

Levels have been above legal limits in almost 90 per cent of urban areas in the UK since 2010.

The toxic fumes are estimated to cause 23,500 early deaths a year and the problem was declared a public health emergency by a cross-party committee last year.

New guidance to councils will see them urged to introduce a range of measures to bring down pollution.

These include making buses more environmentally-friendly, changing the phasing of traffic lights, removing speed bumps and changing road layouts. Town halls will be told to do all they can to avoid hitting diesel drivers, who bought the cars in good faith, with punitive measures.

But if these do not work, the Government will allow town halls to charge drivers of the dirtiest vehicles using the most polluted roads.

They could also restrict the times of day when they can use these roads  banning them during peak hours, for example. Town halls will not be allowed to bring in city-wide restrictions. They will only be able to take action on the 81 most polluted roads in the country.

Pressed on charges to enter city centres and other areas with high air pollution, Mr Gove cited London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plan to introduce new charges before adding: 'I don't believe that it is necessary to bring in charging but we will work with local authorities in order to determine what the best approach is.

'If a local authority believes that charging is necessary in order to secure compliance then we'll work to ensure that plan be implemented appropriately, but on the evidence I've seen while charging could bring local authorities in to compliance with the law, it's not necessary.'

Mr Gove described charging as a 'blunt instrument', adding he would prefer a 'series of surgical interventions' as they are 'fairer' to drivers and 'likely to be more effective, more quickly'.

The clean air plan will be unveiled by Mr Gove's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Mr Grayling's Department for Transport. The Government said poor air quality was the largest environmental risk to public health

Evidence from the World Health Organisation shows that older people, children, people with pre-existing lung and heart conditions, and people on lower incomes may be most at risk, a spokesman said.

Mr Gove will tell councils to concentrate its action to reduce emissions on some of the busiest roads and junctions. Analysis of more than 1,800 of Britain's major roads by the government's Joint Air Quality Unit shows that 81  4 per cent  are affected, with 33 roads outside London.

In many areas  including Nottingham, Bolton, Bristol, Cardiff and Middlesbrough  a single road is affected. Although ministers have not ruled out charging and restricting access to polluting cars at the busiest times, they want town halls to exhaust all other options first. An extra 255million will be given to councils to help them bring in the plans, which will have to be drawn up by the end of 2018.

The future? More electric cars could be seen on the roads after the ban

The Government will also invest money in a Clean Air Fund. Councils will be able to bid for money to support improvements that avoid the need for restrictions on polluting vehicles. But ministers accepted that if this did not succeed in reducing emissions, councils may need to consider restrictions on polluting vehicles using affected roads.

It could mean preventing polluting vehicles using some of the roads at certain times of the day  or introducing charging, as London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced.

A source said: 'The Government is clear that local authorities should exhaust other options before opting to hit drivers with new charges for using vehicles they bought in good faith. 'Any restrictions or charging on polluting vehicles should be time-limited and lifted as soon as air pollution is within legal limits and the risk of future beaches has passed.'

A consultation will also be launched in the autumn on mitigation measures including a possible scrappage scheme to support drivers affected by any restrictions on polluting vehicles.'

Last week a cross-party group of MPs wrote to Mr Gove demanded restricted access for polluting vehicles in urban areas.

Electric mini built in UK: Huge boost for Brexit Britain as BMW defies Remoaners with car plant pledge on day of economic good news

BMW delivered a vote of confidence in post-Brexit Britain yesterday as it pledged to build the electric Mini here.

Having previously warned it could move production to the Netherlands, the German car giant revealed the next generation of the car will be assembled at its historic home in Cowley, Oxford.

The first fully electric Mini E will roll off the production line in 2019, just as Britain cuts ties with the EU.

Going for a spin: The BMW Mini factory in Oxford. The German car giant revealed the next generation of the car will be assembled at its historic home in Cowley, Oxford

The electric drivetrain  the components that transfer power from the transmission to the wheels - will be built in Germany, before being shipped to the UK.

Bosses at BMW had told shareholders that the electric Mini could be manufactured at its smaller plant in the Netherlands, as they ratcheted up pressure on ministers to thrash out a favourable deal for the car industry in Brexit negotiations.

There had also been mounting speculation that the firm would build a plant in Germany.

But yesterday BMW became the latest international carmaker to back Britain, with Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota all revealing plans to ramp up production and invest in their UK car plants.

It also became the latest manufacturer to outline plans to boost production of electric cars. BMW said it would be able to offer a fully electric version of any new model of BMW or Mini launched from 2020, if there was enough demand.

The first fully electric Mini E will roll off the production line in 2019, just as Britain cuts ties with the EU

BMW said it would be able to offer a fully electric version of any new model of BMW or Mini launched from 2020, if there was enough demand

Tory MPs last night described the firm's decision as a 'clear endorsement' of British car manufacturing, its workforce and its long term economic prospects.

It is also a boost to the 4,500 workers who churn out around 1,000 Minis a day at the 100-acre plant. BMW employs 24,000 staff in the UK, from the factory floor to its dealerships, including the Rolls-Royce factory in Sussex, and other plants in Birmingham and Swindon.

Business secretary Greg Clark, who is said to have met BMW board member Ian Robertson four times this year, said: 'This landmark decision is a vote of confidence in the determination of our industrial strategy to make Britain the go-to place in the world for the next generation of vehicles.

'BMW's decision recognises the strength of the excellent workforce, our record of innovation and the productive relationship between the automotive sector and the Government. The automotive industry is a great British success story and the Mini is a big part of that.'

BMW's move comes after a string of dire warnings from the car industry about the damage from Brexit.

Tory MPs last night described the firm's decision as a 'clear endorsement' of British car manufacturing, its workforce and its long term economic prospects

BMW said that it was committed to selling 100,000 electrified vehicles  hybrids or electric cars  this year, as many as it has sold in total since production started four years ago

The motor trade body the SMMT has described leaving the EU without a free trade deal as the biggest 'threat to the car industry for a generation', amid fears that hefty tariffs will be imposed. Car makers have warned that the prospect of tariffs could push up the cost of manufacturing, forcing them to increase their prices.

With 80 per cent of the 1.7million cars built in the UK exported  mainly to the EU  some are worried that plants in the UK will no longer be able to compete.

Last night pro-Brexit MPs and City experts said common sense had prevailed. Sir Bill Cash, Tory MP for Stone, said: 'The doomsayers and the prophets of fear are being given a lesson in practical common sense. This is an extremely important endorsement of the British workforce, and British car making.'

Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover and Deal and a supporter of the Change Britain campaign group, said: 'The fact that this iconic car will be built in Britain is a huge vote of confidence in the UK economy and great news for British jobs.

'This is yet further evidence that Britain remains an attractive place to invest, with companies looking to develop the technologies of tomorrow here in the UK today.'

David Buik, a veteran City commentator who works for stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: 'We're the second largest car assembly country in Europe for good reason. There is absolutely no need to move production elsewhere as we have the innovation, skills, driver and zest to take on all comers.'

BMW said that it was committed to selling 100,000 electrified vehicles  hybrids or electric cars  this year, as many as it has sold in total since production started four years ago.


MBABANE  Government is facing a severe liquidity crunch.



This bombshell was been dropped by the Minister of Finance, Martin Dlamini, who said governments cash flow position was in a deficit of approximately E1.79 billion.



This figure was revealed in the ministrys first quarter performance report for the financial year 2017/2018, which was tabled by the minister in the House of Assembly on Monday.



The report states that governments cash flow position had become a cause for concern in the recent past and as such, at the end of the quarter (June 30), government was faced with the crunch.



Preliminary estimates indicate that governments cash flow position is in a deficit of approximately E1.79 billion by the end of the quarter, the report reads.



The report, which is yet to be debated states that the total recurrent spending amounted to E3.3 billion of the overall annual budget allocated, which amounted to 22.5 per cent.

The ministry said this was roughly in line with expectations, but it was expected to increase once all payments for already committed expenditures had been made.



Planned spending amounted to E3.4 billion for the quarter and actual spending, including amount requested for early release, became E3.3 billion, according to the report. The ministry said along with relevant stakeholders, who included the Central Bank and the Treasury Department, executed the responsibility of cash flow for government.
The coordinator of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force welcomed an auditorium full of school administrators Tuesday to the statewide effort to stop those who sell children for sex.

Weve just recruited you into this army, said Glen Parks, who coordinates the state task force organized in 2015. Theres not one tell-tale sign. Youve got to use your intuition ... this is a crime that happens in the shadows.

Parks and Erin Aliano, a special projects coordinator of the Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers who focuses on child sex trafficking, gave Lincoln Public Schools administrators a short course into that dark world and how to recognize signs that their students might be victims.

Look for changes in behavior, unexplained absences and truancies, she said. One of the good thing about educators is that theyre with students all day, so they may notice changes.

A student who was outgoing and participated in class and suddenly is quiet and timid could indicate somethings going on. Another possible sign: Students who typically cant afford luxury items who suddenly have the newest iPhone or manicured nails, she said.

Such changes warrant a conversation. Maybe theres a ready explanation -- mom got a new job, stomach flu kept them home. If not, it might be a sign that something else is going on.

Sex traffickers often brand their victims with tattoos, she said, and students reluctant to talk about new tattoos could be victims. Typically, Aliano said, people love to talk about their tattoos -- where they got them, what they represent.

Something that makes your stomach go ugh usually means something is not right here, she said.

School is a safe haven for students, a place they sometimes come even when theyve been reported missing to police, Aliano said.

She urged educators to be part of a cultural shift away from seeing children reported missing simply as runaways and instead as victims.

Instead of asking what did you do? (when missing), ask what happened to you?, she said. Look at the child first as a victim.

She urged patience, said its important educators believe what students tell them and then get them help. LPS Security Director Joe Wright said if educators are worried something might be going on, or if a student discloses abuse to a teacher, they should contact him or the student services director so they can coordinate with child advocacy services and police.

Understand that disclosing (abuse) is a huge step for these kids, Aliano said.

Wright said he asked Aliano and Parks to speak during the annual LPS administrator days in an effort to coordinate with stepped-up efforts by Lincoln police and the state attorney generals office to stop human trafficking.

We want to get out in front of it, he said.

The task force has focused primarily on training law enforcement and caseworkers and other service providers, but recognize the important role educators can play, Parks said.

This is the kind of thing we would never say no to, he said.

Teachers can also help educate students about how to be safe on social media, and what a legitimate job opportunity looks like -- and doesnt.

Sometimes traffickers masquerade as salesmen, offering the young and vulnerable chances to sell magazines or other ways to make money that turn out to be something else entirely, Aliano said.

Traffickers target children at risk -- those who have been abused before, whose families are dysfunctional, or those who struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, Aliano said.

Much of the trafficking happens on social media. Traffickers use sites like Craigslist and Backpage.

The Human Trafficking Initiative on sex trafficking in Nebraska estimates 900 people a month are sold for sex online in the state, including 200 in Lincoln.

We used to worry about who physically had access to our kids, Aliano said. Now we have to worry about everyone in the world having access to our children.
MBABANE  Former Minister Nelisiwe Shongwe allegedly pawned her car to a company which offers shylocking and pawn services for a loan of E12 500.



The erstwhile minister of ICT has since been taken to court by Shylock Pawning Services in Manzini, after she allegedly failed to handover the white Nissan Sylph registered ESD 135 CM.



The car, which is now being demanded by the shylock, was reportedly attached by another messenger of the court in a different matter against the former minister, for alleged rent arrears. The company has since obtained an interim order directing Shongwe to release the motor vehicle.



The court further directed that a messenger of the court should seize and attach the motor vehicle from Shongwe.

The police were ordered to assist the messenger of the court in the event he was obstructed from carrying out his duties as per the court order.



The director of the company, Ben Dlamini, stated that on March 13, 2017, they concluded a written pawn agreement with Shongwe under pawn agreement number 806/17.



After that, Shongwe negotiated not to surrender the motor vehicle since it was her business tool and I acquiesced to her request but required that she surrenders its blue book, submitted Dlamini.



He informed the court that since the blue book did not reflect Shongwes name, she produced a letter from a car dealership company acknowledging that she paid for the car in full.
MBABANE  For Swazi Mobile Director Victor Gamedze, the idea to offer free shares was inspired by the belief among Swazis that they expected a foreign company to join the local mobile industry.



Gamedze said together with his team, they came up with the strategy because after being awarded the licence, they started seeing Swazis believing in them.

Worth noting is that this is the same man who once took the country by storm after opening a lotto company. Instead of revealing his secret of having a marketing skill, he chose to sing praises to the whole team that he works with.



At first, we were aware that Swazis expected a South African company to operate. However, things changed after we won the tender as we started receiving messages of hope, with Swazis saying they believed in us. I would get messages from even old people telling me that they were praying for the company, he said.



He mentioned that after seeing that many Swazis were behind the company, they then decided to come up with a strategy of showing that they were indebted to them.



So this strategy is just about giving Swazis what is due to them. We felt that for now this is what befits the Swazi nation for believing in us and I can proudly say that more is coming, he said.



He emphasised that the whole idea was not his alone, as he was working with a dedicated team including the companys consultants and legal team. For the first time he revealed his business partner in the company, Mitchelo Shakantu, who is with Inyatsi.

...
Nancy Hicks Reporter Nancy Hicks reports on Lincoln city government, but shes been following the leaders of local and state government for more than 40 years. Follow Nancy Hicks Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

The state of Nebraska is going to grow by several hundred thousand people on Eclipse Monday by all estimates. And some of these visitors have reserved motel and hotel rooms in Lincoln.

As of last Friday, there were fewer than 100 motel and hotel rooms left in the city on Sunday night, Aug. 20, the night before the eclipse, said Jeff Maul of Lincolns Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That will be a big weekend for Lincoln, with Ribfest outside the arena, major Pinnacle Bank Arena events featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar and boxer Bud Crawford, a Sunday concert at Pinewood Bowl and students returning for the first day of classes at UNL.

But most of the motel and hotel rooms are reserved for eclipse watchers, Maul said.

People started reserving rooms several months ago, beginning with rooms in south Lincoln, closer to Beatrice and areas where the total solar eclipse will be the longest, he said.

Check spelling on new signs

It didnt take the city long to learn that two new street signs didnt pass the spell test.

Holdrege was Holdredge on two new signs installed at major intersections last week.

Several people, including a Public Works employee, pointed out the mistake and the city removed the signs within two days.

New signs have been ordered and the Public Works and Utilities Department has taken responsibility for the mistake, which occurred when the signs were first ordered.

The new signs for arterial streets, being installed next to traffic signals at major intersections, do not provide block information.

Without the detailed information -- 1400, at A Street intersections, for example -- the signs are smaller. And Public Works and Utilities opted to save money with smaller signs, said Lonnie Burklund, engineering services manager.

People can use their smartphones and other devices and generally dont need the extra information on the sign, he said.

But Lincoln Fire and Rescue drivers use the information, as a backup.

Neither police cruisers nor fire and rescue apparatus are equipped with GPS systems. Instead police and firefighters are required to memorize arterial street positions, according to Tom Casady, Public Safety director. They should know that "4200 south" is Pioneers Boulevard, "4400 north" is Superior Street.

However having the block number on the street sign is helpful, Assistant Fire Chief Pat Borer said.

And Casady says he uses the numbers.

I think the general public likes them. I like them.

Hefty guards and prisoners

The growing obesity problem is evident in Lancaster Countys bid on uniforms and equipment for the county jail.

Tucked in among the requests for stun gun holders, gold sergeant stripes, radio holders and flashlights are bids for two black leather belts, size 58 to 60 inches, and two XL handcuffs, called Big Brutus.

Following voters' wishes

By all accounts Robert Selig, a retired airport executive with 40 years of experience, is an outstanding addition to the five-member Lincoln Airport Authority board.

So when Selig was not elected to the unpaid position in the May city election, board member Jim Lauerman elected to resign -- in part so Mayor Chris Beutler could appoint Selig.

Beutler did, and his reappointment was before the City Council this week.

Selig most likely lost the election because his was not a well-known name. But Councilwoman Cyndi Lamm said she needed to be guided by the voters and was the lone vote against the appointment.

Originally Selig was appointed to the board in January to fill the term of Anna Wishart, who had been elected to the Legislature.

Selig served for several months, but lost his seat after finishing third in the city election.

Incumbent Richard Nuernberger and newcomer Zachary James were elected in May.

Voters generally dont know much about Airport Authority candidates, nor is there much campaigning for board seats.

Generally people with good local name recognition, like Nuernberger, are elected.

In this particular election the Democrats worked hard to promote candidates who were members of the party. So Zachary James' name was on party literature and many Democrats, smarting from the presidential election, voted straight tickets.

Selig, registered as an independent, had no group promoting his name.

The City Council approved Seligs reappointment on a 6-1 vote.

Spur to be given to city

The city and state are getting close to signing an agreement on the South Beltway that will save the city $10 million.

The city is paying its share up front in exchange for a reduced total obligation.

Under that agreement the state will also turn over two streets to the city -- a portion of Warlick Boulevard and 14th Street now labeled as Spur L55W on state maps.

Public Works and Utilities Director Miki Esposito recently outlined the benefits of city control over these streets.

Improvements to Warlick Boulevard and 14th Street are wrapping up this summer, so the city will be handed a fully improved and reconstructed road segment. And the city will avoid the time and cost associated with obtaining right-of-way permits on a state-controlled highway when Lincoln begins work on an elevated roundabout to improve traffic flow at intersections with Old Cheney Road.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

By Bill Parry

More than 750 job-seekers were able to meet with over 30 potential employers last week at the Queens Center mall and almost all of them had on-site interviews, according to state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), the host of his 7th annual job fair.

Apple Store, Game Stop, H&M, Yankee Candle and Pink by Victorias Secret were among the companies represented at the event co-hosted by Woodside on the Move.

I am sure people that participated in the fair will end up with a job offer, Peralta said. This is what we have gathered from previous experiences, since many job-seekers have follow-up interviews and end up with job offers days after the event.

Peralta organized his first jobs fair as a response to the recession in 2008 and Queens has recovered well with an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent in May, according to preliminary date released by the New York State Department of Labor.

Although our economy continues to improve, hardworking New Yorkers are still having a difficult time making ends meet, Peralta said. Bringing resources to the community continues to be my No. 1 priority, and it is crucial we do all we can to help unemployed people find work. Every new hire means much-needed resources for a family.

In total, the companies that participated interviewed 744 candidates on the spot, and scheduled another 236 follow-up interviews. Additionally, several organizations provided career counseling and resume preparation for employment seekers.

Job fairs like this provide an opportunity for the unemployed to visit with nearly 50 businesses, all in one convenient location, Queens Center Mall Marketing Director John Scatturo said. The mall is proud to be a part of this important community event.

Meanwhile, Peralta announced a $75,000 allocation from this years state budget for 82nd Street Academics, which will go to the centers initiative to complement public education with after-school programs. These provide students with the necessary tools to gain access to higher education and other educational opportunities.

Education is the key to success, and this is why we must ensure schoolchildren have access to programs that encourage them in taking steps toward college, Peralta told middle school students at the center. Its never too early to start thinking about college and possible areas of study.

Located at 81-10 35th Ave. in Jackson Heights, 82nd Street Academics provides after-school programs for students from kindergarten through the fifth grade.

Any advocacy towards youth achievement in our neighborhood is appreciated, 82nd Street Academics Director of Instruction Mallory Tompkins said. Our students are in silent crisis  high school graduation rates of 65 percent and 38 percent high school graduation for English Language Learners. Our students are not slow to learn, they are slow to receive the education all students deserve with normal class sizes. Sen. Peraltas grant will be used in our mission to protect the path to college for students of New York City.
Bridgewater looks to become a regional nightlife hub in western PA

Bridgewater bars offer patrons a nightlife experience that is unique from any other in western Pennsylvania
President Donald Trump's praise of an Apple supplier's decision to spend $10 billion for a Wisconsin campus  and his remarks that upstate New Yorkers should go where the jobs are  left some in his home state disheartened.

Foxconn Technology Group announced Wednesday at a White House event with Trump that it would build a new liquid crystal display factory in southeastern Wisconsin and create up to 13,000 jobs over time.

Wisconsin beat out New York, which had been a finalist in Foxconn's selection process and had pitched a 400-acre location outside of Utica owned by SUNY Polytechnic Institute called the Marcy Nanocenter.

Trump's praise of Wisconsin and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou came a day after he trashed upstate New York and the state's job creation efforts, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday night.

Trump said upstate New Yorkers should pick up and move to states like Wisconsin, which have better job prospects, leaving their lives and homes behind.

"You're going to need people to work in these massive plants," Trump told the Wall Street Journal. "I'm going to start explaining to people, when you have an area that just isn't working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you'll have another area 500 miles away where you can't get people, I'm going to explain, you can leave. It's OK. Don't worry about your house."

Those comments particularly irked officials in Oneida County, who hoped to land Foxconn at the Marcy Nanocenter after an Austrian computer chip maker canceled a $650 million project there back in December. Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. had directly pitched Foxconn earlier this year and invited company officials to tour the Utica-area site.

Picente, a Republican, said Trump's remarks were disheartening to him and others in Oneida County who have been working so hard to attract manufacturing jobs and keep their children here.

"I'm working every day to make this place better, and I would have hoped that he would have done the same," Picente remarked, noting that it's been decades since America has had a president from New York. "I'm trying to get more people here."

And like most upstate counties, Trump won Oneida County in the 2016 presidential election, receiving nearly 57 percent of the votes.

Foxconn chose a site in the Kenosha area, home to Snap-on, a tool company that Trump visited back in April. Kenosha is south of Milwaukee, just north of the Illinois border.

The Foxconn factory would initially employ 3,000 workers  about the same number that work at GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 campus in Saratoga County. The additional jobs would come with expansions of the facility, which will make LCD panels for TVs, computers and other devices.

"It's a great day for American workers and for manufacturing," Trump said. "It (the factory) will be about the biggest there is anywhere."

Blowback about Trump's remarks also came from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

"We deal in facts  not fake news," Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. "The facts are unemployment has been cut nearly in half and private sector jobs are at an all-time high in New York. We may not be a swing state, but New York  upper and otherwise  has every industry, every culture, and everything else to offer."

The state has vowed to find a high-tech tenant for the Utica site, which has enough space for three computer chip factories and sits next to SUNY Poly's Utica campus and its Quad-C lab that will soon be doing computer chip packaging for silicon carbide chips for power electronics that are being made at SUNY Poly's Albany campus.

The Foxconn jobs are not as lucrative as those at Fab 8 or the types of computer chip factories that the state is trying to bring to Utica. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said the Foxconn jobs would average salaries of $53,000 about half of what the average salary is at Fab 8.

The $10 billion investment by Foxconn will also be offset by $3 billion in government incentives, according to Walker, who called the Foxconn deal one of the largest economic development projects.

"This is likely No. 1," Walker said.

Walker said Foxconn would be building out 20 million square feet of space, an amount that would rival even Intel's large computer chip manufacturing campuses in Oregon and Arizona. However, at least one press report said that would include space for housing, stores and service businesses that would accompany the factory.

Trump also told the Wall Street Journal that Apple is planning "three big plantsbig, big, big" in the U.S., a shocking statement since Apple generally outsources all of its manufacturing, including its microchips.

It is unclear if New York state, which has several other potential sites available in addition to Utica, would compete for any of the Apple projects as well.

Apple recently announced a $1 billion fund to invest in U.S. manufacturers, although there was not the expectation that Apple would build its own factories.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

President Donald Trump's praise of an Apple supplier's decision to spend $10 billion for a Wisconsin campus  and his remarks that upstate New Yorkers should go where the jobs are  left some in his home state disheartened.

Foxconn Technology Group announced Wednesday at a White House event with Trump that it would build a new liquid crystal display factory in southeastern Wisconsin and create up to 13,000 jobs over time.

Wisconsin beat out New York, which had been a finalist in Foxconn's selection process and had pitched a 400-acre location outside of Utica owned by SUNY Polytechnic Institute called the Marcy Nanocenter.

Trump's praise of Wisconsin and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou came a day after he trashed upstate New York and the state's job creation efforts, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday night.

Trump said upstate New Yorkers should pick up and move to states like Wisconsin, which have better job prospects. "You're going to need people to work in these massive plants," Trump told the Wall Street Journal. "I'm going to start explaining to people, when you have an area that just isn't working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you'll have another area 500 miles away where you can't get people, I'm going to explain, you can leave. It's OK. Don't worry about your house."

Those comments particularly irked officials in Oneida County, who hoped to land Foxconn at the Marcy Nanocenter after an Austrian computer chip maker canceled a $650 million project there back in December. Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. had directly pitched Foxconn earlier this year and invited company officials to tour the Utica-area site.

Picente, a Republican, said Trump's remarks were disheartening to him and others in Oneida County who have been working so hard to attract manufacturing jobs and keep their children here.

"I'm working every day to make this place better, and I would have hoped that he would have done the same," Picente remarked, noting that it's been decades since America has had a president from New York. "I'm trying to get more people here."

And like most upstate counties, Trump won Oneida County in the 2016 presidential election, receiving nearly 57 percent of the votes.

Foxconn chose a site in the Kenosha area, home to Snap-on, a tool company that Trump visited back in April. Kenosha is south of Milwaukee, just north of the Illinois border.

The Foxconn factory would initially employ 3,000 workers  about the same number that work at GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 campus in Saratoga County. The additional jobs would come with expansions of the facility, which will make LCD panels for TVs, computers and other devices.

"It's a great day for American workers and for manufacturing," Trump said. "It (the factory) will be about the biggest there is anywhere."

Blowback about Trump's remarks also came from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

"We deal in facts  not fake news," Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. "The facts are unemployment has been cut nearly in half and private sector jobs are at an all-time high in New York. We may not be a swing state, but New York  upper and otherwise  has every industry, every culture, and everything else to offer."

The state has vowed to find a high-tech tenant for the Utica site, which has enough space for three computer chip factories and sits next to SUNY Poly's Utica campus and its Quad-C lab that will soon be doing computer chip packaging for silicon carbide chips for power electronics that are being made at SUNY Poly's Albany campus.

The Foxconn jobs are not as lucrative as those at Fab 8 or the types of computer chip factories that the state is trying to bring to Utica. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said the Foxconn jobs would average salaries of $53,000, about half of what the average salary is at Fab 8.

The $10 billion investment by Foxconn will also be offset by $3 billion in government incentives, according to Walker, who called the Foxconn deal one of the largest economic development projects.

"This is likely No. 1," Walker said.

Walker said Foxconn would be building out 20 million square feet of space, an amount that would rival even Intel's large computer chip manufacturing campuses in Oregon and Arizona. However, at least one press report said that would include space for housing, stores and service businesses that would accompany the factory.

Trump also told the Wall Street Journal that Apple is planning "three big plantsbig, big, big" in the U.S., a shocking statement since Apple generally outsources all of its manufacturing, including its microchips.

It is unclear if New York state, which has several other potential sites available in addition to Utica, would compete for any of the Apple projects as well.

Apple recently announced a $1 billion fund to invest in U.S. manufacturers, although there was not the expectation that Apple would build its own factories.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
COLONIE  In an era of political anxiety, state Democrats on Tuesday issued a call for a band of eight Democratic state senators to abandon their power-sharing agreement with the chamber's Republican majority and reunify with the mainline party conference.

The request came with a tacit threat: Continue partnering with the GOP, and risk losing your seat.

Meeting Tuesday at the Desmond Hotel, the state Democratic Committee approved a resolution that calls on the Independent Democratic Conference to "leave its coalition with the Republican Party and rejoin the Democratic majority" and to give up their Democratic ballot lines if that doesn't happen. It's an idea that isn't new, but has recently been boosted by a groundswell of progressive activism in some districts following last year's state and national elections.

But as with most things in the Senate, forming a Democratic majority is a complex task.

Even if the marriage of the 23 mainline Democrats and the eight members of the IDC were to occur, another Democratic senator, Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, would need to leave his current alliance with the Republican Conference to give Democrats the 32-member bare majority needed to control the flow of legislation.

Tuesday's resolution did not include mention of Felder.

Progressive Caucus Chair Rachel Lavine, a Democratic committeewoman from Manhattan, drew a line of difference between Felder, who is a conservative Democrat, and the IDC: The Brooklyn lawmaker isn't mentioned in the resolution because he is a lone senator, she said, while the IDC is its own political organization.

"When you have another political entity being formed in a very sort of parasitical way  they all run as Democrats and then they create themselves as a separate political entity to leverage their political power  that's just unacceptable," Lavine said. "Don't run as a Democrat then."

It remains to be seen what stick state Democrats would use to prod the IDC to fall in line. State Democratic Chairman Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, deferred comment to Democratic Committee Executive Director Basil Smikle, who said officials will now go to IDC members and directly call on them to return.

"The party itself doesn't really have the kind of mechanism in the sense that we don't get involved in primaries," Smikle said, adding that the resolution "encourages more and more people to primary these members.

"We try not to get involved in family business, so to speak, but I think what this resolution does today is it puts (the IDC) on notice and says that everyone's paying attention and either they're going to make a decision about with whom they should caucus or the community, the street, will make the decision for them," Smikle said.

State Senate Democratic Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins issued a statement Tuesday applauding the state Democratic Committee's action.

"I'm glad the delegates of the state Democratic Party join our conference in recognizing the need for the IDC to abandon its coalition with the Republicans and work to ensure a Democratic majority," she said. "I want to thank the Progressive Caucus for its commitment to this cause and all the delegates for unanimously passing this important resolution. In the era of Trump it is crucial that Democrats work together."

The IDC has faced this sort of rhetorical challenge before. In May, they released a video saying it was time to "call the roll" to see where all Democrats in the Senate stand on various progressive issues the IDC supports, including codification of Roe v. Wade into state law and the creation of a single-payer health care system. Those bills have passed the Democratic-dominated Assembly, but not the Senate.

In a statement after the committee approved Tuesday's resolution, IDC spokeswoman Candice Giove shot back.

"The reason why the Democratic Party is losing across the nation and at home is that they are coopted by a small band of misfits who continue to talk to each other in echo chambers and refuse to acknowledge that the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton no longer has the ability to communicate with working-class voters," she said. "The Independent Democratic Conference will continue to fight for the working class and espouse the hopes and aspirations of all New Yorkers. Big tent Democratic politics is good government and good politics. We will see you at the polls."

Giove later took aim at Smikle, a one-time Senate candidate, calling him a "failed candidate and political operative who has no ability to elect candidates or himself to political office."

"If the Democratic Party is serious about beating Republicans, he's certainly one failed operative we can do without," she said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the party's leader, did not attend Tuesday's meeting. He spent the day in New York City instead, according to his public schedule. Smikle said he assumes Cuomo is in line with the position Democrats took.

Two weeks ago, Cuomo, who has faced rounds of pressure to broker a truce between the mainline Democrats and IDC, told reporters that he can't force a reconciliation.

"I have the legal authority and sometimes the moral persuasion to perform marriages," he said. " ... But that assumes you have two parties that want to marry each other. If they don't want to marry, I have no power or role in forcing a marriage. There is no political shotgun marriage equivalent of the old days."

The IDC resolution joined others that reflected the increased influence of the party's progressive caucus, which numbers around 80 members.

"In real human terms, people are seeing the consequences (of Republican policy)," Lavine said of the committee's support for the IDC resolution. She added that the 2016 election generated a deep desire for change.

Another sign of a progressive realignment was the initial appearance of recently elected committee member Zephyr Teachout, who staged a maverick primary challenge against Cuomo in 2014 and fell short last year in a Congressional run for the seat now occupied by Republican John Faso.

Smikle was loath to divide the party into a Hillary Clinton wing or a Bernie Sanders wing, saying the election fortified Democratic principles overall.

"This moment in time ... is reinforcing what it means to be a Democrat," he said. "And I think we took a huge step in that direction today."

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
BOLTON LANDING - The Adirondack Winery will celebrate the opening of its second tasting room at 4971 Lake Shore Drive in Bolton Landing with an afternoon of free tastings and food samples beginning at noon on Wednesday, July 26.

Owned by Michael and Sasha Pardy, the Adirondack Winery opened nine years ago on Canada Street in the village of Lake George.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  A village man is accused of selling crack cocaine in Saratoga County, sheriff's deputies said Tuesday.

Vasco D. Hale Jr., 41, of Spring Street, is charged with counts of criminal sale and of criminal possession of a controlled substance, deputies said. He was arraigned and jailed on $50,000 bail pending his next court date. Deputies were assisted by the South Glens Falls police.
Detroit

A German Volkswagen executive who has been in a Michigan jail for months plans to plead guilty in the company's U.S. emissions scandal, a court spokesman said Tuesday.

Oliver Schmidt, former manager of a VW engineering office in suburban Detroit, will appear in federal court on Aug. 4. His lawyers disclosed the plan during a brief conference with a judge, spokesman David Ashenfelter said.

Schmidt is one of many VW employees charged in a scheme to cheat emission rules on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles, but most are in Germany and out of reach of U.S. authorities. He's been in custody since January when he was arrested while on vacation in Miami before he could return to Germany.

VW admits using software to get around diesel emission standards. Schmidt is charged with conspiracy and fraud. He's accused of lying to U.S. regulators by saying technical problems  not sneaky software  were to blame for the difference in emissions in road and lab tests.

Messages seeking comment were left for prosecutors and Schmidt's lawyer Tuesday.

VW pleaded guilty in March and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties, on top of billions more to buy back cars. U.S. District Judge Sean Cox has refused to release Schmidt on bond, saying he might flee.
At a place like the South by Southwest Film Festival, movies are one thing; movie stars are quite another. And so Austin's Paramount Theater bubbled over with energy recently night when Charlize Theron took to the stage to introduce "Atomic Blonde" alongside director David Leitch and co-star James McAvoy.

In the film, adapted from a graphic novel  "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart  Theron plays a British secret agent being sent to Berlin just ahead of the fall of the Berlin Wall to retrieve a sensitive list of clandestine contacts. The story is told in flashback, as she is debriefed by superiors played by Toby Jones and John Goodman, which renders everything the work of an unreliable narrator and provides any number of surprises along the way. The cast also includes McAvoy, Eddie Marsan and Sofia Boutella.

More Information At a glance "Atomic Blonde" Stars: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman Director: David Leitch Opens: Friday See More Collapse

Leitch had previously co-directed "John Wick," and from that film he brought along cinematographer Jonathan Sela, composer Tyler Bates and editor Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, along with new collaborators in production designer David Scheunemann and costume designer Cindy Evans to create the specific look of the film, a mixture of old-world grime and new-world shine awash in garish colors and decadent anything-goes vibes. The film's soundtrack buzzes with '80s synth-pop, including New Order's "Blue Monday 88," David Bowie's "Cat People," George Michael's "Father Figure" and Falco's "Der Kommissar," to further burnish the film's sleazy, dimmed neon sheen.

Theron wholly owns every moment she is on screen, strutting through the film in a series of finely cut costumes with a leonine presence. The film hits the bull's-eye of being a tough action thriller without taking itself too seriously, enjoying the playful twists and turns of its storytelling.

When the movie was over, Leitch, McAvoy and Theron came back out for a Q&A.

Asked about the oddly prescient timing between the movie being set against the fall of the Berlin Wall and the recent re-emergence of Cold War-era tensions, Leitch said, "It's pretty interesting with the Russians. The Russians are back in. Perfect timing."

"He's Trump," Theron said, pointing at McAvoy, who in the film plays a British agent of shifting allegiances and uncertain motives.

Leitch noted how Theron was already attached to the project before he became involved and that he was drawn to it for the chance to work with her. Her subsequent dedication and commitment to training meant that he could include the dazzling fight sequence in which Theron fights in, up, down, around and out of a tenement apartment house in what seems to be a long unbroken take.

It is a breathtaking piece of choreography and camerawork, in which Theron seems to become more and more battered and exhausted as she takes on one opponent after another in hand-to-hand combat and with all manner of weapons. Even people who don't care for "Atomic Blonde" as a whole will be talking about this fight.

"It was something I had been wanting to do for a long time," Leitch said. "It had been in my brain, this extended piece of fight choreography, and it's just a matter of finding someone who can do it, who puts in the time and the training and is willing to commit to the multiple takes it takes to get that done and the months of training to get it done."

Theron brought out producer Beth Kono on stage, thanking her for the dedication to developing the project over a multi-year period.

"This whole thing for me, I just want to say this," Theron added, seeming overcome by a sudden wave of emotion, her voice trembling, "because I've been doing this for almost 20 years, and tonight was really special for me. Thank you so much."

In a question from the audience, it was noted that in one shot Theron's face seemed to slam hard into a wall.

"Yes, that was my face," she responded. "You're welcome."

Asked about the intensity of her training, Theron responded, "It was so hard, are you kidding me? When I started, I called Beth and I said this is never going to work, I look like Big Bird."
OPENING FRIDAY

13 MINUTES: This 2015 German film tells the true story of Georg Elser's failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in November 1939. (R for disturbing violence acnd some sexuality) http://sonyclassics.com/13minutes

ATOMIC BLONDE: An undercover MI6 agent (Charlize Theron) is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents in this very violent adaptation of the graphic novel "The Coldest City." Also stars James McAvoy and John Goodman. (R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity) http://www.atomicblonde.com

THE EMOJI MOVIE: Sony Pictures Animation's latest follows Gene, a multi-expressional emoji who lives in a phone, as he sets out on a journey to become a normal meh emoji like his parents. Voices include T.J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Farris, Patrick Stewart and Sofia Vergara. (PG for rude humor) http://www.theemoji-movie.com

A GHOST STORY: Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck star in one of the most polarizing films of the year, a dark meditation on love and loss in which the ghost of a recently deceased man  clad in a sheet with eyeholes  remains in the house he shared with his girlfriend. (R for brief language and a disturbing image) https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story

LADY MACBETH: Based on Nikolai Leskov's 1865 novella "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," this drama transplants the action to 19th-century rural England, where a young bride who has been sold into marriage to a middle-aged man enters into an affair with a worker on her estate. (R for some disturbing violence, strong sexuality/nudity, and language) http://www.ladymacbethfilm.com

Love movies? Love talking about them? Love reading about them? Go to Times Union Movies blog, moderated by C.J. Lais Jr. and join the conversation. http://blog.timesunion.com/movies
Some cookbooks are essentially manuals, providing detail on the techniques and mechanics of how food preparation works. Others, like novels or nonfiction tales, tell stories as they progress, sharing a bit more narrative with each page turn.

Community cookbooks fall into the latter category. While giving proper instruction on how to make a recipe, community cookbooks also provide insight on the traditions, history, economics and flavors of a location, time and people. They give a holistic view of how life was when the cookbook with published; a view that happens to be edible.

"Community cookbooks tell you not only where you are today, but where you come from and where you are going," says Kathy Merrick of Sharon Springs. Merrick spearheaded a community cookbook project in 2015 to benefit the Sharon Springs food pantry. Postcards were sent to village residents to gather recipes. Just over 500 recipes were offered to the project, with about 80 percent of them being handwritten, says Merrick. (She notes there are only 587 residents within the village.) It took her three months to arrange and edit the book, including the time to collect kitchen stories from residents in the local nursing home. As of July 2017, 577 copies of "The Sharon Springs Community Cookbook" have been sold at local events, in area stores and online through Amazon and Beekman1802.com. The book was honored by Otsego 2000, a historic preservation nonprofit in nearby Cooperstown.

The success of the Sharon Springs cookbook continues a long history, in the Capital Region and beyond, of neighbors coming together to pool their culinary identity and raise funds for local causes. The books are often associated with area women's social and church groups.

The first known charity cookbook in America  "A Poetical Cookbook"  was published in 1864 in Philadelphia and had recipes compiled by Maria J. Moss. Profits from the book subsidized medical care of Union soldiers in the Civil War. The book was republished in 2008.

The trend continued into the 20th century, which culinary historian Sarah Wassberg calls "prime community cookbook era." As production became cheaper and print advertising became more prolific (many cookbooks ran ads for local businesses to help cover costs), a cookbook was a default fundraising endeavor as engagement across socio-economic groups grew.

"There was an increased number of educated, community-minded women," says Wassberg, adding that "club women"  members of groups like Sorosis and the Junior League  also began to flourish during the Progressive Era, or 1890 to 1920. By 1930, there were 5,000 women's groups in America dedicated to serving the community.

Michael Maloney, librarian and archivist for the Grems-Doolittle Library at Schenectady County Historical Society, says most of the community cookbooks in the county's collection are from the 1940s and 1950s.

"(Community cookbooks) gave women a voice. In the newspaper, women were still represented by their husbands. Community cookbooks give us a chance to look back and see how women were acting in the home, in their own voice. They were the Pinterest of their time," Maloney says.

The oldest book in the county's collection is the 1890 "Schenectady Cook Book," compiled by Ladies of the First Reformed (Dutch) Church. "The First Reformed Church Cook Book," by the Ladies' Aid Society in Schenectady, dates to 1903 and shows the political nature of community cookbooks: there are six recipes for doughnuts in the book, nearly all similar, that come from six different women and are listed as "doughnuts," "Dutch oelycooks" (that recipe has a footnote that dates the recipe to 1750), "doughnuts (very nice)," "delicious doughnuts," "dough nuts," and "dropped doughnuts."

"What was included was all related to who was in charge of putting the book together," says Wassberg, adding choosing one recipe over another for the book surely would have ruffled a few feathers.

The Schoharie County-based Esperance Historical Society's forthcoming community cookbook, which is slated to be released next year to commemorate the town's bicentennial, will prominently feature the history and variations of ''jumbles,'' a type of early cookie with Dutch origins and roots in the county.

Wassberg says community cookbooks began to decline first in cities around the 1970s and 1980s, as women began leaving the home and entering the workforce in bigger numbers, paired with the rise in commercially produced cookbooks and food magazines. The spiral-bound laminated paperback books gave way to fancy tomes of glossy paper and high-end photography, and recipes like "No Name Cake," "Yum-Yum Cake," "Daffodil Cake," "Date Marshmallow Roll," and "Grape-Nut Whip" (from the General Electric Women's Club Cookbook of 1948) or "Group Counseling Cake" (from "Our Cup Runneth Over, 1872-1972" by the First United Methodist Church in Schenectady) were relegated to family jokes and memories.

The cookbooks depicted the culture and eating habits of their respective times. Maloney says community cookbooks helped to trace immigration patterns, as churches with increasing ethnic diveristy tended to put out books. Depression-era books omitted butter and sugar, and pre-World War I books offered sparse instruction for such ingredients as extracts and salt, relying instead on common kitchen knowledge to prepare recipes. Technology is traced through community cookbooks, as early books call for "slow" or "quick" ovens (or no temperature setting at all in wood-burning instances), unlike books from the era of thermostats in appliances. Miscellaneous recipes for stain removal and furniture polish disappeared after World War II, as commercially produced cleaners became popular.

"Community cookbooks had a real impact on people's lives," says Merrick, preserving a culinary legacy and shedding insight into how people lived and celebrated over time. We are what we eat, but as society becomes ever more of a melting pot, community cookbooks allow us to eat what we are, too.

Deanna Fox is a freelance food and agriculture writer. www.foxonfood.com @DeannaNFox

HOT BREAD-BUTTERSCOTCH CURLS

Note: Many community cookbooks rely on general kitchen knowledge of the time, leaving out many ingredients and techniques in each recipe. For this recipe, combine the ingredients as if making biscuits, combining dry ingredients, blending in the butter then stirring in the milk (sweet milk is just common milk today; it was called sweet because it was not buttermilk). Roll out the dough with extra flour to prevent sticking and roll the dough over on itself with other listed ingredients, as if to make cinnamon buns. A "gem" tin today is a muffin tin, and each "curl" or "bun" should be placed in a buttered muffin tin well and baked until golden at 425 degrees.

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1/2 cup sweet milk

Roll out, spread with butter and sugar (brown or soft maple), roll up, slice, and place in gem tins. Bake 20 minutes. Or dot with butter, sprinkle with sugar, dust with cinnamon, currants and raisins and roll the same as jelly roll.

Submitted by Edith Miller from the Otselic Valley Grange Community Cookbook, early 1920s
ALBANY  In a city where Democrats have ruled for nearly a century, two mayoral candidates will vie for the Green Party line in September.

Park South resident Bryan Jimenez, 22, recently announced his plans to run for Albany mayor as a Green, forcing a primary against 28-year-old Sheridan Hollow resident Dan Plaat.

There hasnt been a Green Party primary for Albany mayor since 2001. However, in recent years, Green Party candidates from the local to the federal level have grabbed attention and votes.

Historically weve done very well in local elections, said city resident Peter LaVenia, who is co-chair of the statewide Green Party and a member of the Upper Hudson Green Party. There have been times where the Greens have come very close.

In 2007, Green Party candidate David Lussier was defeated by a Democrat by 23 votes for Albany County legislator, and in 2005, Alice Green, the executive director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, garnered 5,548 votes for mayor against incumbent Jerry Jennings's 14,295.

LaVenia also pointed to prominent party members like Jill Stein and Ralph Nader as evidence of the growth and interest in the third party, which offers an alternative to the major party politics.

People being less interested in mainstream parties and more interested in change  thats what we represent, LaVenia said. Were looking to shake up the discourse and talk about issues not necessarily being talked about in the media and campaign.

Yet Green Party enrollment is down in the city since April 2016, from 237 to 204.

The Upper Hudson Green Party, which covers Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties, did not endorse Jimenez or Plaat, allowing the voters instead to determine who moves forward, LaVenia said.

More people coming to party meetings want to participate, he said. I also think there is certainly a discontent with the one party in Albany  the Democratic Party.

Some political insiders argue votes for the Green Party could lead to fewer votes for Democrats, particularly those who are progressive.

But Albany County Democratic Committee Chairman Jack Flynn said he doesn't expect there to be that big a swing so that a Democrat wouldn't win the general election.

"History will tell you whoever wins the Democratic Primary has a 99 percent chance of winning the general election," he said. "The Democrats are still very core to their values with the party. I don't see people switching alliances."

Overall, the two Green candidates messages parallel, both seeking a more participatory, collective government and focusing on issues that matter to Albany residents  like public safety and transportation.

Where they diverge is in their strategies moving forward. Both want to change the taxing structure in the city, but Jimenez wants to do away with property taxes and fund the city budget through income tax. Plaat wants taxes based on land value.

Originally from New York City, Jimenez has lived in Albany for four years and aims to introduce grassroots-based programs when it comes to business development and public safety.

Jimenez said a cooperative business program would allow city residents to own a stake in a business theyd operate themselves, while an auxiliary police program would have well-trained volunteers to supplement the city police departments force.

We could look at New York Citys program  its one of the better ones in the nation  and try to implement something similar where you have deeper community involvement in public safety, he said.

Democratic mayoral candidates and party affiliates have taken to social media and the press to criticize their opponents, but Green Party candidates say often no solutions are offered and the concerns of average residents arent brought up.

Bryan and I are not attacking each other, or saying how one or the other is going about things wrong, Plaat said. I would say that building interparty relationships makes the party and myself, stronger. Having an open and noncompetitive conversation is healthy, and part of a sustainable future and more civil politics.

afries@timesunion.com - 518-454-5353 - @mandy_fries
Lake Luzerne celebrates its 225th anniversary with "Heroes and History Day" from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, July 29, at the Pagenstecher Pulp Mill Park and 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

New York State Historian, Devin Lander will introduce himself at 11 a.m.

Plans are to meet the re-enactors, visit the Pulp Mill Museum, enjoy the "Loggers Lunch" and then off for a "History Stroll Around the Block".

Walk will include following the Wells Creek Native American trail, once called "Lover's Ramble" that connects Lake Luzerne to the Hudson River's water edge a portage necessity.

Will also include quick stops at the Kinnear Local Museum of History, Gailey Hill Schoolhouse, the Adirondack Folk School, the Rockwell Information Cottage, The First United Methodist Church, Col. Butler's Church, St. Mary's Episcopal and the Lamplight Inn, past home to the Ketchum Family who's manufacturing company that still serves in this community for over 100 years.

7 to 8:30 p.m.

Richard Nason, retired forester and a Finch Pruyn historian will give a presentation, " 1930's Logging on the Hudson"

Includes artifacts, lots of facts and short 16 mm films.

Lake Luzerne Town Hall, Main Entrance
ALBANY (AP)  New York state officials are asking swimming pool owners to look for a tree-killing invasive beetle when they clean their pool filters.

The Department of Environmental Conservation is running its annual Asian long-horned beetle swimming pool survey through Aug. 30. This is the time of year when the insects become active outside of the trees they are infesting.
If you grew up in the 20th century, there's a decent chance you wanted to be like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, Albert Camus, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. In their own ways, these people defined cool.

The cool person is stoical, emotionally controlled, never eager or needy, but instead mysterious, detached and self-possessed. The cool person is gracefully competent at something, but doesn't need the world's applause to know his worth. That's because the cool person has found his or her own unique and authentic way of living with nonchalant intensity.

In his entertaining book "The Origins of Cool in Postwar America," Tulane historian Joel Dinerstein traces the diverse sources of this style  from the West African concept of "itutu," which means mystic coolness, to the British stiff upper lip mentality. Jazz musicians, especially people like Lester Young, brought these influences together into what we now call the cool style. Jazz influenced the film noir directors, and then carried cool over to France, where it was embraced by existentialists like Camus.

Dinerstein shows that cool isn't just a style, it's an "embodied philosophy" that is anchored in a specific generational circumstance. Cool was first of all a form of resistance and rebellion, a rejection of the innocence, optimism and consumer cheeriness that marked the mainstream postwar experience.

It emerged specifically within African-American culture, among people who had to withstand the humiliations of racism without losing their temper, and who didn't see any way to change their political situation. Cool culture in that context said, you can beat me but I am not beaten, you can oppress me but you can't own me. It became a way of indicting society even if you were powerless, a way of showing your untrammeled dignity. It was then embraced by all those who felt powerless, whether they were dissident intellectuals or random teenagers.

Cool had other social meanings. It was a way of showing you weren't playing the whole Horatio Alger game; you weren't a smarmy career climber. It was a way to assert the value of the individual in response to failed collectivisms  to communism and fascism, to organized religion. The cool person is guided by his or her own autonomous values, often on the outskirts of society.

To be cool was to be a moral realist. The cruelties of the wars had exposed the simplistic wholesomeness of good and evil middle-class morality. A character like Rick Blaine in "Casablanca" is trying to live by his own honor code in an absurd moral world.

I asked Dinerstein if cool was dead. He said that cool may not be dead, but it is rare. You can see cool figures like Kendrick Lamar and Lorde, but it's hard to think of any contemporary cool movie icons in the manner of Bogart and Dean. These days Hollywood pushes actors into the blockbuster mainstream.

The big difference, he continued, is technological. Fans viewed Miles Davis from afar. He was mysterious. Today because of social media, everybody is close up.

I started to look around to see if there might be another contemporary ethos that has replaced the cool ethos. Hipster ethos you find in, say, Brooklyn qualifies. That strikes me as less of a cultural movement and more of a consumer aesthetic.

A better candidate is the "woke" ethos. The modern concept of woke began, as far as anybody can tell, with a 2008 song by Erykah Badu. The woke mentality became prominent in 2012 and 2013 with the Trayvon Martin case and the rise of Black Lives Matter. BLM is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

The woke mentality has since been embraced on the populist right, by the conservative "normals" who are disgusted with what they see as the thorough corruption of the Republican and Democratic establishments. To be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures. The woke manner shares cool's rebel posture, but it is the opposite of cool in certain respects.

Cool was politically detached, but being a social activist is required for being woke. Cool was individualistic, but woke is nationalistic and collectivist. Cool was emotionally reserved; woke is angry, passionate and indignant. Cool was morally ambiguous; woke seeks to establish a clear marker for what is unacceptable.

Culture is the collective response to the core problems of the times. Today's general disgust with institutions is producing a new style of collective action. It remains to be seen how substantive, rigorous and effective this new collective action will be.

David Brooks writes for The New York Times.
Farmers do not believe that there is adequate price competition in the beef sector, according to IFA national livestock chairman Angus Woods.

He made it clear to senior officials in the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in Dublin that it was their responsibility to guarantee robust competition in the beef processing sector.

Farmers have seen no evidence from the CCPC that they are prepared to take any action to tackle the competition issue at processing level, he said.

Mr Woods said developments on mergers in the beef and sheep sectors raised serious concerns for farmers about price competition and increasing the power of processors.

The CCPC is currently considering the merger between Dawn and Dunbia.

It is the responsibility of the CCPC to carry out a proper and full investigation into this merger and to publish the outcome so that farmers can see what investigative work was carried out and what rationale they use to arrive at their decisions, said Mr Woods.

He told the CCPC that studies conducted by independent competition consultants pointed to a strong body of evidence that competition in the primary procurement markets for cattle was weak and that additional mergers were likely to weaken competition even further.

Mr Woods said the lack of transparency around market returns, wholesale prices and profits across the meat chain from processing right through to retail level was unacceptable and impedes competition.

He called for action at national and EU level to address this issue and pointed to the clear and robust system of transparency in place in the US. Under legislation introduced in the US, meat processors are required to report wholesale prices and stocks twice each day across all beef cuts sold.

Meanwhile, beef production and cattle numbers for the second half of 2017 will be much less that originally forecast, according to Mr Woods, who said this painted a much more positive picture on the beef trade for the remainder of 2017.

There are three key factors impacting to lower beef production and numbers.

For the first six months, the kill is already up 40,000 head; carcass weights are down significantly, which will result in the equivalent of a 30,000 head reduction in numbers, and live exports are running 43,500 head higher than last year.

At the start of the year, Bord Bia forecasted an increase in finished cattle supplies of 100,000 head on 2016. This forecast was based on AIMS data and the combined impact of an increase in calf registrations and a reduction in live exports in 2015 and 2016.

However, the changes due to the increased kill to date, lower carcase weights and the increase in live exports all mean production and numbers for the second half of 2017 will be much lower than originally forecast.

In addition, Mr Woods pointed out that the kill to-date was up 40,000 head and live exports up 43,500 on last year.

While a lot of the increase in live exports are calves, the continuing export of young bulls to Turkey and other markets will take from slaughterings at the back end of this year.

It is estimated that live exports will reduce the kill by 30,000 head. When this is combined with the lower carcase weights and the increased kill to-date, the impact will be that the original forecast of a 100,000 head increase in slaughterings will be completely wiped out, he said.

Some 139,155 animals have been exported with 10,171 head sent to Turkey and a further 1,830 to Libya. In terms of Continental Europe, Angus Woods said 44,701 have been exported to Spain, 41,334 to Holland and 14,289 head to Italy.

Mr Woods also stated that beef prices in our main export market in the UK had risen each week for the last 15 weeks in a row and were now at the equivalent of 4.53/kg.

He said these price increases outweighed any change in the sterling exchange rate.

The IFA livestock leader said the clear message from the recent Beef Forum meeting on the trade was that beef markets were in a strong position and there was no basis for any pressure on cattle prices.

He said IFA has worked hard on live exports, securing the opening up of the important Turkish market and getting some cattle moving to Libya again.
A group set up to oppose a new 'solar farm' for Roscrea has said it will continue to oppose the project.

A spokesperson for the group issued a statement to the Tipperary Star on Tuesday saying they will hold a meeting this week to consider a way forwards.

Our group are meeting this week to discuss our options and to agree our next steps, said the spokesperson. As well as an An Bord Pleanala appeal we are considering a legal challenge to the decision as we have been advised that many of the conditions are not legally enforceable. We are seeking advice on how a small rural group with minimal resources can initiate such a case.

IGP Solar 8 Ltd. was granted planning permission by Tipperary Co. Council on July 17th for a new 'solar farm' in the townlands of Leonards Bog, The Sheehys, Derrymore, Roscrea.

The development consists of the erection of a 58.11 hectare Solar PV Farm.

The proposed solar farm will consist of the installation of a 30 year operation and subsequent decommissioning of a series of ground mounted solar photovoltaic PV panels, mounted on steel support structures 3m in height, together with 1 single storey ESB control room, 25 electrical transformation enclosures, and underground cabling. The project will also involve CCTV poles and cameras, deer type security fencing, wooden fence along part of the M7 Motorway, a wooden fence placed along the western site boundary, site entrance and access roads, including landscaping along the western and south eastern site boundaries, and other associated development works, for the purpose of generating renewable energy electricity. The proposed solar farm will have a capacity of 25MW.

The plans were lodged on October 10th, 2016. F urther information was sought on November 30th last year and was received by planners on on May 25th, 2017.

Submissions were lodged by the following parties: Inland Fisheries Ireland; the Environmental Health Service; Robert Roe and Peter Roe; Liam & Josephine Cahill; Seamus & Francis Murphy; Michael Smith MCC; Transport Infrastructure Ireland; and the Commission for Energy Regulation.
A report on the extent of structural issues with the South Perry Street Bridge sent on Tuesday to Crawford County Commissioners by the enginee
Patients and visitors who regularly enter Titusville Area Hospital will be pleased with the 
[July 26, 2017] Ridgeland to partner in C Spire's first "Smart City" technology trial in Mississippi

BILOXI, Miss., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ridgeland, widely known as one of Mississippi's most tech-savvy cities, will partner with C Spire in a smart city technology trial this fall involving smart lighting and vehicle traffic analytics applications. City leaders and executives for C Spire, a Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology services company, made the joint announcement today at the Mississippi Municipal League's 86th annual conference here. Over 3,200 local, state and federal officials attended the three-day conference at the Coast Coliseum and Convention Center. Ridgeland is one of a growing legion of cities across the U.S. and around the world that plan to invest an estimated $41 trillion over the next 20 years to upgrade their infrastructure using smart technology across a network of connected devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT). While the two-month trial planned for October and November is being financed by C Spire, city officials said they are excited about becoming one of the state's earliest test beds for new smart city applications in two of the most promising sectors - energy management and transportation-traffic control. "Our community is well known across the state for our award-winning master plan that guides our smart development efforts and our commitment to healthy lifestyles and green spaces," said Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee. "This is a new way of thinking abouthow we use technology to make quality-of-life improvements our citizens want and need."



New research and smart technology advances are helping cities make wholesale changes in how they tackle traffic management issues. "A smart city can optimize traffic flow and commerce on congested roads and arterial streets through data analytics and connected signal sensors, saving time, fuel and operating costs," McGee said. A Money Magazine Top 100 place to live, Ridgeland was one of the first cities in Mississippi to receive C Spire's ultra-fast fiber-to-the-home Gigabit speed internet access services in 2014 and has been recognized by technology titan Google for being home to the state's strongest digital and online business community.

"We're excited about taking the first step to bring smart city applications to communities like Ridgeland," said Craig Sparks, vice president of Technology Strategy and Planning for C Spire. "This is not so much about deploying many disparate applications, but developing a broader vision to help cities become more efficient and reap important financial, social and environmental benefits." McGee said Ridgeland will measure the success of the trial and develop future potential forays into smart city technology and IoT based on increased efficiencies, cost benefits, quality-of-life improvements for residents and economic development opportunities for businesses. C Spire will use its experience with Ridgeland to help guide its statewide smart, connected city and IoT strategy with other applications, including smart waste, smart lighting, smart parking, smart tourism and smart building initiatives, among others, Sparks said. About C Spire

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class customer-inspired service and a superior comprehensive suite of wireless communications, high-speed Internet access and a range of other telecommunications products and services to consumers and businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ridgeland-to-partner-in-c-spires-first-smart-city-technology-trial-in-mississippi-300494501.html SOURCE C Spire

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 25, 2017] GI Dynamics Selects Proven Process Medical Devices as Contract Manufacturer

GI Dynamics Inc. (ASX:GID), a medical device company that has commercialized EndoBarrier in Europe, the Middle East and South America for patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, today announced the selection of Proven Process Medical Devices, Inc. (PPMD) as its contract manufacturing partner. PPMD is one of the nation's leading designers and manufacturers of Class II and Class III medical devices. The company was founded in 1994 to address the unmet need for an outsource provider to the medical device industry with the in-depth technical, quality and regulatory knowledge needed to develop and manufacture sophisticated medical products. To ensure success, the company founders developed a "proven process" that combines creative, state-of-the-art research and development with exceptional design, process and quality controls to achieve new product development and manufacturing success. Proven Process Medical Devices will manufacture EndoBarrier at its facilities in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The company was selected for its deep experience in the medical device field and ability to support production of implantable medical device technology. "We are pleased to be selected by GI Dynamics for the manufacture of EndoBarrier," said Ken Fine, president and co-founder of PPMD. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with GI Dynamics to provide this important product for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity." "We look forward to working with PPMD as our manufacturing partner," said Scott Schorer, president and chief executive officer of GI Dynamics. "We have been workig towards the transfer of our manufacturing to PPMD for the past 18 months, and expect that PPMD will manufacture EndoBarrier to the highest quality and in a tightly cost-contained manner."



"The implementation of our contract manufacturing partnership is another critical action as we move to make EndoBarrier available around the world for patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and obesity," said Schorer. About GI Dynamics

GI Dynamics, Inc. (ASX:GID) is the developer of EndoBarrier, the first endoscopically-delivered device approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. EndoBarrier is not approved for sale in the United States and is limited by federal law to investigational use only in the United States. Founded in 2003, GI Dynamics is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.gidynamics.com. Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on GI Dynamics management's current estimates and expectations of future events as of the date of this announcement. Furthermore, the estimates are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those indicated in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, risks associated with obtaining funding from third parties; the consequences of stopping the ENDO trial and the possibility that future clinical trials will not be successful or confirm earlier results; the timing and costs of clinical trials; the timing of regulatory submissions; the timing, receipt and maintenance of regulatory approvals; the timing and amount of other expenses; the timing and extent of third-party reimbursement; risks associated with commercial product sales, including product performance, competition, market acceptance of products, intellectual-property risk; risks related to excess inventory; and risks related to assumptions regarding the size of the available market, the benefits of our products, product pricing, timing of product launches, future financial results and other factors, including those described in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Given these uncertainties, one should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We do not assume any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, unless we are required to do so by law. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006562/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 25, 2017] ZGlobal Power Engineering & Energy Solutions Donates $250,000 to Imperial Valley Food Bank

The Imperial Valley Food Bank announced today that ZGlobal Inc. Power Engineering and Energy Solutions has pledged to donate $250,000 over the next five years. ZGlobal is a local engineering and consulting firm known for its contributions throughout Imperial Valley. "We are extremely grateful to ZGlobal for their substantial support of the Imperial Valley Food Bank by contributing to our Capital Campaign," said Sara Griffen, Executive Director. "Their commitment to our mission, with this gift, shows that their commitment to engineering, efficiency and the proper use of clean energy extends beyond their business to helping the neediest people in our community." "Everyone at ZGlobal is excited to be able to give back to the community and support the Imperial Valley Food Bank," said Ziad Alaywan, President of ZGlobal. "We look forward to a long-lasting relationship in the fight against hunger within our community." The mission at the Imperial Valley Food Bank is to aim to ensure that all residents have access to nutritionally valuable food. The programs and staff support the distribution of food as well as increased self-reliance to improve the quality of life within our community. For more information about the Imperial Valley Fod Bank's capital campaign, please contact Sara Griffen, Executive Director. Additional information and ways you can contribute or volunteer are available at http://www.ivfoodbank.org/



About the Imperial Valley Food Bank Imperial Valley Food Bank (IVFB) is an independent, non-profit charitable corporation, created and operated for and by residents of Imperial Valley with the purpose of feeding those in need living in Imperial County. The food bank was established in 1991 and over the years has grown in size, structure, and purpose responding to increased need for food assistance by Imperial County residents experiencing hunger. Limitations at its aging facility have forced the IV Food Bank to raise funds to build a larger, energy-efficient and food safe storage facility to continue to serve the unique needs of the food insecure in Imperial County as long as there is a need.

About ZGlobal Inc. ZGlobal offers a wide range of services in the energy sector, including round-the-clock scheduling and operation services and reliability/compliance services for several large solar, geothermal, and biomass facilities and utilities throughout the western United States. ZGlobal was formed in 2005 and is staffed by veterans both from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) as well as various utilities. The group is led by Ziad Alaywan, who was one of the first employees that led the rapid implementation and operation of the CAISO in 1998. More information is available at http://www.ivfoodbank.org/ View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725006602/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Commences Investigation on Behalf of Envision Healthcare Corporation Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of Envision Healthcare Corporation ("Envision" or the "Company") (NYSE: EVHC) for allegedly issuing false and/or misleading information to Envision investors. To obtain information or aid in the investigation, please visit the Envision investigation page on our website at www.glancylaw.com.

On July 24, 2017, The New York Times reported that physicians associatd with Envision's subsidiary EmCare Holdings Inc. were disproportionately likely to engage in practices referred to as "surprise billing" in which patients who go to in-network hospitals are treated by out-of-network doctors and subsequently billed at higher rates.







On this news, shares of Envision fell $2.33 per share or over 3% on July 24, 2017, thereby damaging investors.

Follow us for updates on Twitter (News - Alert): twitter.com/GPM_LLP.

If you purchased Envision securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased.

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/20170725006604/en/
[July 26, 2017] Best Lived Launches New Online Course "It's the End of Your World as You Know It: 15 Days of Adventure & Self-Discovery"

SAN DIEGO, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Best Lived, a well-being media brand, is launching a brand new online course, "It's the End of Your World as You Know It: 15 Days of Adventure & Self-Discovery." This new course promotes emotional well-being while helping participants develop greater mental strength, focus, and clarity. For many people, investing time in mental and emotional well-being often takes the backseat to other priorities like work and their to-do lists. However, healthy mental and emotional well-being are two of the most vital components to living a happy, healthy, and well-adjusted life. The course helps guide its participants to better understand who they are, what they want in life, and identify what's important to them so they can more fully understand where they are headed and what to prioritize. Through the course, participants will improve well-being, foster self-confidence, explore compassion, heal past hurts, and more. Participants will discover just how much fun they can have exposing themselves to exciting new experiences while practicing being present in every situation. Bryan Williams, founder of BestLived.com. "Our hope is that the course will help inspire people to embrace who they are and own what they want for their lives. Most importantly, we want them to have fun while moving towards their best life."



The course provides an adventure for each of the 15 days, which are designed to encourage each individual to live a little outside of their comfort zone, to continuously explore new experiences, and gain new perspectives. With each adventure, there is a self-discovery exercise for each day. Writing, meditations, and affirmations are all used to help with self-reflection and introspection. The course is optimized so participants can use it on their desktop or mobile devices, and access never expires. To learn more and sign up visit, BestLived.com.

About Best Lived Best Lived exists to promote the idea that life is best lived and most fulfilling when relationships, a sense of adventure, and mental and emotional well-being are top priorities. To learn more, visit BestLived.com. Media Contact:

Bryan Williams

Phone: 858-799-0913

Email: [email protected] Related Links Course landing page Best Lived View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/best-lived-launches-new-online-course-its-the-end-of-your-world-as-you-know-it-15-days-of-adventure--self-discovery-300494161.html SOURCE Best Lived

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] Frost & Sullivan Commends Tacton's Leading-edge Tacton CPQ for Facilitating Manufacturing Companies' Shift to Industry 4.0

LONDON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Tacton with the 2017 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership. Acknowledging the manufacturing industry's gradual transformation towards Industry 4.0, Tacton has strategically developed a CPQ solution that provides the connectivity, speed, and insight needed for manufacturers to digitize their processes. Tacton's flagship product, the intuitive, browser-based Tacton CPQ, defines product configuration rules and updates them as products change, thereby synchronizing engineering and production with sales. Tacton's intelligent configuration engine, a model-based constraint solver, enables smart manufacturing. Tacton CPQ offers the following features and benefits: Fast configuration of complex products and systems suggesting best-fitting solutions

Development of country- and role-specific proposals after taking product variations into account based on local laws and regulations, in multiple currencies and languages

Automated solution optimization for selected result aspects, like price, durability, or weight

Integration with computer-aided design systems for engineering with configured products

Integration with customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and product lifecycle management systems to facilitate data transfer "Tacton CPQ minimizes the need for costly and time-consuming customization with its constraint-based configuration, as it imposes far fewer rules," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Brendan Read. "The solution considers all variables simultaneously, resulting in error-free, valid, and consistent configurations. Additionally, it facilitates tasks for sales personnel by enabling guided selling, collaborative quoting tools, built-in commercial and technical approval workflows, and automated branded proposal and supporting docuent generation."



Tacton CPQ's stateless configuration engine handles complex models and high user loads. Its Professional and Enterprise market-tailored editions are available as hosted-on-the-cloud and on-premises solutions. Cloud/hosting on a multitenant platform lowers up-front investment and system maintenance costs for users. More than 250 customers have benefitted from Tacton's solutions in various ways. Importantly, Tacton keeps its product updated and relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace. For instance, it launched its new CPQ platform in late 2016 with the following features:

Sales engineering process automation through fully integrated CAD functionality

Native live 3-D product visualization as products are being configured

Order entry to ERP systems, with feedback to the CPQ application on order status

A new intuitive user interface with responsive design Tacton Salesforce has also released an extension for Salesforce CPQ, which is built and hosted on the App Cloud. Furthermore, it has added apps for iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. "The company is looking to expand in markets outside of Europe, particularly in North America," noted Read. "In line with this goal, it is laying emphasis on growth through a series of strategic partnership with companies such as Salesforce, Birlasoft, CirrusCPQ, and also through acquisitions like Lumo Graphics. Overall, Tacton has positioned itself very strongly with its Tacton CPQ, serving a wide array of applications and diverse needs for quality, functionality, and price/performance value." Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality and that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it supports. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About Tacton Tacton Systems is a world leader in advanced product configuration. Tacton's technology redefines how product configuration is managed, making it radically simpler to configure, design and sell complex products. Tacton's solutions integrate easily with surrounding systems and have standard integrations for many leading e-commerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, PLM, and CAD systems. Tacton is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with customers and resellers across the globe.

Frederic Laziou, CEO, P: +46 709 564312 E: [email protected]

Anders Ekman, CMO, P: +46 739 202412 E: [email protected] About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion. Contact: Samantha Park

P: 210.247.2426

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/frost--sullivan-commends-tactons-leading-edge-tacton-cpq-for-facilitating-manufacturing-companies-shift-to-industry-40-300494447.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] Mattress Innovator, Leesa Sleep Launches New Products, Including Limited-Edition Blanket With Multi-Gold Medalist Aly Raisman

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leesa Sleep, the leading direct-to-consumer online luxury mattress retailer, today announced the official launch of two new products: a beautifully-designed pillow that looks as different as it feels, and a limited-edition patriotic blanket inspired and co-created by Leesa ambassador, multi-gold medalist gymnast and "nap queen" Aly Raisman. The Leesa pillow features the company's proprietary Universal Adaptive Feel designed to adapt to all body types and sleeping positions. With these latest products, new celebrity partnerships and the continued growth of its world-class social impact program, Leesa continues to lead the shake-up of an industry that is in the midst of complete upheaval. The announcement this week of $23 million raised in Series B funding and the addition of Seventh Generation CEO John Replogle as its Chairman of the Board further demonstrates Leesa's commitment to becoming a global leader in the sleep category, while using business as a force for good with the most powerful and far-reaching social impact program in the mattress industry. Both the new Leesa pillow and the new Aly Blanket by Leesa were officially unveiled at a private event at Leesa's Dream Gallery in New York City, where Leesa Co-Founder and CEO David Wolfe, reinforced the Company's commitment to elevating life through better sleep. The new pillow uses Leesa's exclusive cooling Avena foam and offers Leesa's unique Universal Adaptive Feel to solve two of the most common pillow-related problems: overheating and flattening over time. Consequently, Leesa's pillow retains its shape and doesn't need fluffing. The Leesa pillow was developed as a direct result of incorporating customer feedback that requested a pillow as comfortable as the Leesa mattress. The new Leesa pillow combines the beautiful design and luxurious feel of Leesa's signature cover with the cooling and support benefits of the highly-reviewed and much loved Leesa mattress. Leesa also revealed more of its product pipeline with a sneak peek at its "soon-to-be-launched" foundation. Throughout the coming months, Leesa plans to share more innovation  with its products, its distribution channels, its sleep research, its brand partnerships and its commitment to social impact. "Like all Leesa products, our latest line of pillows incorporates intensive testing and iteration. After more than two years of research and prototypes, this pillow delivers the perfect amount of support for any kind of sleeper," said Jamie Diamonstein, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Leesa and 30-year mattress industry veteran. "While there are many differet pillows in the marketplace right now, consumers are unsure of how to distinguish what makes any of them different  Leesa's Universal Adaptive Feel provides unmistakable and lasting comfort for all sleepers."



Product Information: Pillow:

Made with Avena  foam and featuring Leesa's Universal Adaptive Feel, the pillow is designed to ensure proper ventilation while maintaining coolness  both sides of the pillow are equally as cool, so flipping is optional but not required

foam and featuring Leesa's Universal Adaptive Feel, the pillow is designed to ensure proper ventilation while maintaining coolness  both sides of the pillow are equally as cool, so flipping is optional but not required Designed for all styles of sleeper and all body types

Available in Standard and King sizes

Stylish cover crafted with Leesa's distinctively soft luxury heather grey fabric

Retail value: $85 for Standard size, $115 for King size

for Standard size, for King size Included in Leesa's One-Ten Program, one pillow will be donated for every ten sold

The Leesa pillow will go on sale on the company's website in late August The limited-edition Aly Blanket by Leesa came out of early discussions with Aly when she joined forces with Leesa as a Brand Ambassador. Aly talked about how she traveled to gymnastics meets with a blanket as source of comfort during long car rides and hours spent in cold arenas. The Aly Blanket by Leesa, co-designed with Leesa's Head of Design Mitch Murphy, combines Leesa's extraordinary soft fabric with a patriotic design inspired by Aly's incredible achievements when representing her country with pride as well as her appreciation for sleep! The blanket features Leesa's notable four brand stripes in conjunction with the red, white and blue stars making for a striking, patriotic display. "My partnership with Leesa is rooted not only in my belief that great sleep remains an important factor in my performance, but also in Leesa's commitment to improving the lives of people in need of a comfortable and secure place to lay their head at night. Last week, I was able to help deliver mattresses with Leesa to Heading Home, a shelter in Boston close to my hometown. It was an incredible experience to see the excitement on their faces and the real impact that Leesa is having among the homeless community, which is something I'm proud to be a part of," said Aly Raisman, multi-Gold Medalist and Leesa Sleep Ambassador. "The signature blanket represents my love for sleep and the comfort it brought me when I was traveling to gymnastics meets, not to mention I love anything patriotic!" Product Information: Limited-Edition Aly Blanket by Leesa Double-sided and made with a blend of polyester, viscose and nylon

Designed with patriotic red, white and blue stars and stripes

Dimensions: 60" x 78"

Retail value: $149

5% of proceeds will go to Heading Home, a nonprofit in Boston dedicated to ending homelessness

dedicated to ending homelessness The Aly Blanket by Leesa will go on sale on the company's website in late August. As with all Leesa products, customers will order the new pillows and blankets online, hassle-free, with zero delivery fees and a 100-night return policy. As part of its social impact program, particularly its One-Ten Program, Leesa donates one mattress for every ten it sells, and has donated more than 17,000 to date to nonprofits that serve people seeking refuge from homelessness, domestic risk and human trafficking. The program will now include the new Leesa pillows. One pillow will be donated for every ten pillows sold by the company. In addition, 5% of proceeds from the limited-edition Aly Blanket will go to Heading Home, a nonprofit organization near Aly's hometown in Boston dedicated to ending homelessness. For more information, please visit https://www.leesa.com/. About Leesa Sleep, LLC Based in Virginia Beach, Va., Leesa is a direct-to-consumer online luxury mattress company that offers 100 percent American-made mattresses delivered directly to consumers' doors. From its start, Leesa has measured its own success not just by the bottom line, but by the company's overall social impact. To date, Leesa's One-Ten program has provided more than 17,000 mattresses to those in need. Leesa offers a 100-night risk-free trial, free shipping, and no-hassle returns. In 2016, Leesa was recognized as a certified B Corp, joining forces with more than 2,100 companies like Ben & Jerry's, Patagonia, Eileen Fisher and Warby Parker using business as a force for good. The company currently offers free shipping to the U.S., U.K. Germany and Canada. For more information visit www.leesa.com. Media Contact:

Dina Binney

Kwittken

[email protected]

(646) 747-0156 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mattress-innovator-leesa-sleep-launches-new-products-including-limited-edition-blanket-with-multi-gold-medalist-aly-raisman-300494284.html SOURCE Leesa Sleep, LLC

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes Receives Public Servant Award at International Leadership Foundation Annual Gala

Last week, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes was honored at the annual International Leadership Foundation (ILF) Business Conference and Awards Gala with an international Public Servant Award for his outstanding professional achievements domestically and globally, including training leaders from other nations and partnering with them to fight global crises like human trafficking, hunger, cybercrime and corruption. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005975/en/ Utah Attorney General Reyes receives Public Servant Award at International Leadership Foundation Gala (Photo: Business Wire) At home in the United States and Utah, he has led out on some of the biggest cases and most consequential issues, including the opioid epidemic and dismantling white collar crime. In a short time, Reyes has restored public trust, transparency, and workplace excellence to an office that was previously mired in scandal and allegation of corruption.



The son of an immigrant Filipino/Spanish father and Japanese/Hawaiian mother, Reyes was also recognized by the ILF for his decades-long career contributions to the improvement of the Asian Pacific American (APA) and other minority communities. Among his achievements on behalf of the APA Community, Reyes was a co-founder of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce and the first APA elected to statewide office in state history. Approximately 500 guests attended the Washington, D.C. awards gala at the Capital Hilton, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, distinguished APA business and community leaders, entrepreneurs, international business delegates, ILF Fellows and international students.

"I am deeply honored and humbled to accept the Public Servant Award from such a distinguished group of APA leaders," said Reyes. "My team has worked tirelessly to protect the citizens of Utah and the U.S., while we help empower our friends globally to benefit the world. In Utah, we have also worked hard to improve the quality of legal work, ethics, transparency and morale in our office. This award provides additional affirmation for all of the efforts and progress we have made in just four years." ABOUT INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION The International Leadership Foundation (ILF) is a non-profit organization that promotes the civic engagement, leadership empowerment, and economic prosperity of the Asian Pacific American (APA) community to enhance the representation of diversity in our country. The mission of ILF is to cultivate civic-minded future APA and Asian leaders in public service, in particular. This is accomplished through civic leadership training support from the ILF's network of 15 national and global advisory boards. Board members serve as examples of leadership, with tenured professionals who span business, civic, and community-focused industries. Since 2000, ILF has provided scholarships and educational programs with over 7,000 APA and Asian students to make them emerging leaders. ABOUT UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL SEAN REYES The Honorable Sean D. Reyes is the 21st Attorney General and first ethnic minority elected statewide in Utah. Reyes has received wide praise for regaining public trust and successfully handling many of the most important cases in the state's history. The first ethnic minority elected to statewide office in the State of Utah, Reyes won re-election in 2016 by a landslide. Prior to serving as AG, Reyes held the position of General Counsel for a Utah company and before that was one of the first minority partners at Utah's largest law firm, where he was recognized by the American Bar Association as its first ever National Outstanding Young Lawyer in 2008. In 2015, Reyes was selected by the Republican National Committee as a national rising star; he was asked to serve on President Trump's SCOTUS, Hispanic and APA advisory committees during the 2016 presidential election and has been discussed as a possible candidate to serve as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. www.seanreyes.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005975/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] Edifecs Updates Tennessee Medicaid Program with Payment Reform Solutions

Edifecs, Inc., a global health information technology solutions company, today announced it has been selected by the Tennessee Medicaid Program (TennCare) to support the agency's payment reform and clinical quality initiatives. One of the longest standing Medicaid managed care programs, TennCare provides healthcare for approximately 1.5 million Tennesseans, covering approximately 20 percent of the state's population, 50 percent of the state's births, and 50 percent of the state's children. As part of a larger effort to change the way healthcare is paid for in Tennessee - away from paying for volume and toward paying for value - Edifecs has partnered with the state Medicaid agency to help align its payment model with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) national payment reform initiatives. Edifecs' Payment Reform and Value-Based Care solutions bring scalability to TennCare's initiatives by providing near-time quality calculations, ongoing visibility into performance, and the capability to apply non-claims based measurement data to performance goals. "TennCare is a leader in the move to value-based payment models. They are laser-focused on their goal to see a significant benefit to healthcare outcomes, while cutting the cost for the people of Tennessee," said Fred Guthrie, associate vice president of Edifecs. "We are proud our solution is part of this transformation and to be partnered with TennCare to better serve their populations." Top features of the Payment Reform and Value-Based Care solutions include: Centralized and consolidated platform for all program quality data entry and submissions

Near real-time visibility of program metrics via role-specific dashboards, reports, and notifications

Flexible quality engine for calculation of program-specific customized clinical and outcomes based-measures

Ability to configure, group, monitor, and associate clinical quality values to all episodes in TennCare's eight phase episode of care initiative

Partnership with CNSI, an industry-leading firm specializing in large-scale, mission-critical IT implementations for many state and federal agencies, to integrate MC-Track for provider compliance and collaboration



"CNSI is proud to bring its extensive managed care experience to our partnership with Edifecs," added CNSI Chief Strategy Officer Sharif Hussein. "Tennessee is showing great initiative in the progression toward value-based care. We are honored to be a part of the effort and look forward to producing great benefits for the people of Tennessee."

"States are taking a more active role in shaping payment terms between managed care companies and healthcare providers, and Edifecs recognizes the criticality of the healthcare industry's successful transition to value-based," said Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs. "We're committed to helping our customers make these transitions as smooth as possible, ultimately helping to ensure that payments align with quality outcomes for the many patients affected." About Edifecs Edifecs develops innovative, cost-cutting information technology solutions to transform the global healthcare marketplace. Since 1996, Edifecs technology has helped healthcare providers, insurers, pharmacy benefit management companies and other trading partners trim waste, reduce costs and increase revenues. More than 350 healthcare customers today use Edifecs solutions to simplify and unify financial and clinical transactions. In addition, Edifecs develops supply chain management solutions to support worldwide customers in non-healthcare industry segments. Edifecs is based in Bellevue, WA, with operations internationally. Learn more about us at www.edifecs.com. About CNSI CNSI delivers a broad range of health information technology (IT) enterprise solutions and customizable products to a diverse base of federal and state agencies. We align, build and manage innovative, high-quality, cost-effective solutions that help clients achieve their mission, enhance business performance and improve the health for over 28 million Americans. Formed in 1994, CNSI is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India. CNSI employs a world-class team of technologists, program managers, and subject matter experts, all of whom have experience with large scale mission-critical IT implementations. Formed in 1994, CNSI is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India. CNSI's website is: http://www.cns-inc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005981/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Sen. Ben Sasse described Wednesday's failure of Republicans in the Senate to vote to repeal Obamacare as "a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal."

"Today's repeal-and-delay amendment should have been an easy, kept promise," Nebraska's Republican senator said.

The amendment failed on a 45-55 vote, with seven Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against the proposal.

Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed a similar repeal bill passed in 2015 but vetoed by then-President Barack Obama.

"Here are two whoppers," Sasse said in a written statement. "Democrats promised 'if you like your plan you can keep your plan' and Republicans promised to 'fully repeal Obamacare.'"

As the Senate continues to debate health care, Sasse said, "I'll dig into every amendment my colleagues  both Republican and Democrat  offer, make no mistake."

Failure of Wednesday's amendment ranks as a huge disappointment, he said.

Both Sasse and Sen. Deb Fischer voted for the amendment.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing Obamacare without replacing it would cost more than 30 million Americans their insurance coverage, and that was a key factor in driving away more Republican senators than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose in the closely-divided Senate.

What the party's senators will end up agreeing on is far from clear. One possibility taking shape in talks among senators was a "skinny repeal" that would abolish just a few of the key elements of Obama's law, including its mandates that everyone purchase insurance and its taxes that all GOP senators can agree to oppose.

But in a sign of the general confusion, some said the tactic was aimed chiefly at moving the process forward into the purview of a committee of Senate-House bargainers, while others expressed the hope that the House would swallow a "skinny bill" whole, freeing Congress to move on to other issues.

Either way, after weeks spent on the issue, the realization was dawning on senators that they may be unable to pass anything more complex for now than a lowest-common-denominator bill.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Farm Bureau urged the Senate to replace the Affordable Care Act with new health care legislation that would include creation of a Medicaid block-grant program that "reduces federal liabilities" for the program.

The 61,000-member statewide organization also urged senators to eliminate many of the mandatory coverage requirements included in Obamacare, eliminate the individual mandate to purchase health care insurance and eliminate penalties for employers who do not provide health insurance coverage for their employees.

The Farm Bureau urged the Senate to expand the program of health care savings accounts and establish authority for new small business association health insurance plans.

"Time and again, we receive calls and have had conversations with members who indicate the cost of health insurance has now become either their No. 1 or 2 family living expense," Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson wrote in a letter sent to Senate leadership.

"This is unacceptable and unsustainable," he stated.

"With Nebraska now only having one health insurance provider in the health insurance exchange marketplace, it is clear the promises made by the ACA are failing to live up to expectations."
[July 26, 2017] Tennessee Student Elected Vice President of the 2017 American Legion Boys Nation

James Blackburn has won the vice-presidential election for the 2017 American Legion Boys Nation at Marymount University. "It's a really humbling feeling right now," said the Shelbyville, Tenn. native. "I'm excited for the future. To hear people that are passionate about something they believe in the government, it's really great because it shows that there's a future in America." Boys Nation, a signature program of the nation's largest veterans' service organization, provides an intensive week-long, hands-on education in American politics and the legislative system for a select group of high school students each year. "Going through Boys State in Tennessee and coming to Washington to be a part of Boys Nation - it's an amazing program," Blackburn said. "We're here to make connections that will last a lifetime and that's what this program is about  everybody is really tightknit with eachother, we're really close and everybody is a super good friend. I can't thank everybody enough."



The incoming senior at Shelbyville Central High School, Blackburn plans on attending the University of Tennessee and pursuing a career as a lawyer. Two representatives from each of the 49 Boys States represent their home state as a senator. The senators caucus at the beginning of the session, organize into committees and conduct hearings on bills, allowing delegates to learn the proper legislative procedures according to the U.S. Senate. Activities include mock party conventions, legislative elections, debates, speeches and visits to Capitol Hill and other historical sites. Delegates will also visit the offices of their state's respective members of Congress and present bills of their own creation.

Since Boys Nation began in 1946, a number of its graduates have been elected to public office, including presidents, congressmen, state governors and state legislators. Photos of Blackburn at Boys Nation are available at http://elvis.legion.org:8080/?w=WiZdJQ- View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006003/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] FOX Television Stations to Offer Programmatic TV Ad Sales With WideOrbit

FOX Television Stations (FTS (News - Alert)) has agreed to offer ad buyers programmatic access to premium local broadcast advertising inventory through WideOrbit's WO Programmatic solutions. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006009/en/ FOX Television Stations Group is the largest local broadcast group in the United States to commit publicly to programmatic advertising sales. FTS is comprised of 28 stations in 17 markets and covers over 37% of U.S. television homes. The agreement with WideOrbit enables FOX Stations to offer programmatic advertising sales with three buying models: an Open Marketplace to facilitate programmatic offers on FOX stations-controlled ad inventory; Programmatic Direct to automate transactions with selected buying partners; and an integration with CoreMedia Systems for Direct Response ad buyers to place orders programmatically. Jim Burke, President of Sales, FOX Television Stations, added, "Based on our tests over the last year, we are convinced that programmatic advertising will be a complementary additional sales channel for our stations. Opening a programmatic sales channel is a clear winfor everyone involved in the media buying process and we're proud to be the first network owned-and-operated group to offer it to our buying partners."



WideOrbit's programmatic TV footprint is the largest coverage of any programmatic TV platform with inventory from more than 750 stations that reach over 93% of U.S. households and 270 million people. "FOX Television Stations has a well-deserved reputation among its peers and customers as an experienced, knowledgeable and future-forward media company," said Eric R. Mathewson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, WideOrbit. "FOX's embrace of programmatic advertising shows that it is committed to setting up its stations to capitalize on new revenue opportunities and offering its customers robust solutions for making better audience targeting decisions and automating processes."

About WideOrbit WideOrbit is the technology platform for media companies to connect audiences and ads, everywhere. Its mission is to simplify media buying and selling by focusing on innovation, customer delight, and value creation for both sides of media transactions. Starting with its core traffic management solution, WideOrbit centralizes operations and streamlines workflows for radio, cable, and television companies. The company continues to introduce new benefits to the media industry, including a programmatic media exchange for increasing demand for advertising inventory and improving campaign efficiency. WideOrbit is headquartered in San Francisco with offices worldwide. Learn more at wideorbit.com. FOX Television Stations FOX Television Stations is one of the nation's largest owned-and-operated network broadcast groups, comprising 28 stations in 17 markets and covering over 37% of U.S. television homes. This includes seven duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Houston; as well as duopolies in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Orlando and Charlotte. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006009/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] MDA to provide communications subsystem to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) for Dream Chaser transportation spacecraft to support the International Space Station

VANCOUVER, July 26, 2017 /CNW/ - MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ("MDA" or the "Company") (TSX:MDA), a global communications and information company, today announced that it has received an Authorization to Proceed on a multi-million dollar contract from Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). MDA will provide a communications subsystem for on-board communication signal processing capabilities for the Dream Chaser Cargo System, a cargo transportation spacecraft being developed by SNC under the NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS2) program. The spacecraft is scheduled for at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the International Space Station between 2020 and 2024. Joanna Boshouwers, MDA's vice president and general manager responsible for this business said, "We are pleased to continue our partnership with SNC and to contribute to the success of the CRS2 program. MDA is a long-term supporter of SNC's innovative Dream Chaser space vehicle, and we look forward to working closely with SNC to bring it into service for NASA." About MDA

MDA is a global communications and information company providing operational solutions to commercial and government organizations worldwide. MDA's business is focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, primarily in the Communications sector and the Surveillance and Intelligence sector. In addition, the Company conducts a significant amount of advanced technology development. MDA's established global customer base is served by more than 4,800 employees operating from 15 locations in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Company's common shars trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDA."



About Sierra Nevada Corporation Recognized as one of "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Space," Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) provides customer-focused advanced technology solutions in the areas of space, aviation, electronics and systems integration. SNC's diverse technologies are used in applications including space exploration and satellites, aircraft integrations, navigation and guidance systems, threat detection and security, scientific research and infrastructure protection. Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Sparks, Nevada, SNC operates under the leadership of owners, CEO Fatih Ozmen and President Eren Ozmen, with a workforce of more than 3,000 personnel in 34 locations in 19 U.S. states, England, Germany and Turkey providing global support to customers.

Related Websites www.mdacorporation.com Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements and information, which reflect the current view of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ("MDA" or the "Company") with respect to future events and financial performance. The forward-looking statements in this regard include statements regarding MDA receiving an authorization to proceed ("ATP") for work related to a satellite subsystem. Any such forward-looking statements are based on MDA's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. The factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this release include the ATP not being terminated and the ability to reach final agreement on the subsequent contractual terms and conditions. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. MDA cautions readers that should certain risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. The risks that could cause actual results to differ from current expectations include, but are not limited to: risks inherent with performance on fixed price contracts, particularly the ability to contain cost overruns and schedule delays, risks associated with satellite manufacturing, including competition, cyclicality of MDA's end-user markets, contractual risks, creditworthiness of customers, performance of suppliers and management of MDA's factory and personnel; failure of third parties and subcontractors; failure of systems to meet performance requirements; and failure to anticipate changes in technology, technical standards and offerings or compliance with the requisite standards, or failure to maintain technological advances and offer new products to retain customers and market position. For additional information with respect to certain of these risks or factors, plus additional risks or factors, reference should be made to the Company's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which are available online under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com or on the Company's website at www.mdacorporation.com. The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the form or content of this release. Contact Wendy Keyzer | MDA Media Contact | 1-604-231-2743 | [email protected] Marissa Poratto | MDA Investor Relations | 1-604-331-2044 | [email protected] SOURCE MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] E.I. Medical Imaging Produces World's First Underwater Ultrasound

LOVELAND, Colo., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- E.I. Medical Imaging (EIMI) has partnered with Dr. Tristan Guttridge and the Bimini SharkLab to custom design the worlds first ultrasound system to be used underwater to produce diagnostic images of sharks in their native habitat. In preparation for a piece produced by Icon films for Discovery Channel's Shark Week, Dr. Guttridge approached EIMI with the idea of an underwater ultrasound system to take pregnancy diagnosis directly to hammerhead sharks underwater. EIMI produces portable, highly ruggedized ultrasound systems for veterinary use. While highly water resistant, their production models were never designed to be used underwater. When Dr. Guttridge approached EIMI with the idea of waterproofing a system to support the project "Great Hammerhead Invasion," the engineering team at EIMI took up the project with great excitement. "They loved our crazy idea of attempting to ultrasound a great hammerhead in Bimini!" said Dr. Guttridge. Designing an ultrasound system to operate underwater held many engineering challenges. To operate at the depths required for Dr. Guttridge's work was especially challenging. Being land-locked in Colorado also posed some logistical testing challenges. The team at EIMI worked on the first iteratio of the submersible system and shipped the system to the Bahamas for Dr. Guttridge to test. "We design products to perform in the harshest environments- above the waterline. When you factor in water pressure at depth and salt water, now that is a whole different story," says EIMI President Charles Maloy. The unit performed as intended and allowed Dr. Guttridge to capture the underwater images of pregnant hammerheads he needed to validate his theory on hammerhead breeding patterns. "Since then we have managed to detect pregnancies in two other species - lemon and tiger sharks. Such information is crucial as we can begin to learn more about the importance of Bimini's environs to gestating females and coupled with satellite tags track where they might pup," said Dr. Guttridge.



This is certainly not the first time EIMI has partnered with shark researchers to support marine conservation efforts. Last year, EIMI worked with Dr. Neil Hammerschlag and the University of Miami on Tiger Shark research that was featured in Shark Week's Tiger Beach. This time EIMI was able to produce the world's first in-field images of pregnant tiger sharks. About E.I. Medical Imaging

Based in Loveland, Colorado E.I. Medical Imaging was founded in 1984 on the singular vision of developing state-of-the-art, portable, durable ultrasound systems to serve veterinarians and livestock producers worldwide. E.I. Medical Imaging is the only manufacturer of portable ultrasound systems engineered and developed in the United States specifically for the animal industry. Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg Media Contact Charles Maloy, President

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ei-medical-imaging-produces-worlds-first-underwater-ultrasound-300494911.html SOURCE E.I. Medical Imaging

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[July 26, 2017] The 2017 BIO World Congress Comes to a Close in Montreal

The 2017 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology concluded today at the Palais des congres de Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The 14th annual BIO World Congress was held July 23-26 and drew 954 attendees. The world's largest industrial biotechnology event hosted more than 227 speakers in seven education tracks and five plenaries and set a new conference record for partnering meetings. Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial & Environmental Section, said, "From the robust plenary sessions to the record number of partnering meetings, the 2017 BIO World Congress was a resounding success. This event continues to provide industry executives, investors, policy makers and academics the best opportunity to form connections and partnerships that will drive growth in the sector for years to come." During the three-day conference, 893 delegates representing 535 companies participated in 2,130 partnering meetings. The number of partnering meetings facilitated by BIO's One-on-One Partnering system represented a 9 percent increase from 2016. BIO and sponsor IowaBio presented the 2017 George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology to POET CEO and Chairman Jeff Broin. The annual award was established by BIO 10 years ago to recognize significant contributions by individuals in the field of industrial biotechnology and its application in biological engineering, environmental science, biorefining, and biobased products. BIO and sponsor The Rosalind Franklin Society presented the 2017 Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology to industry veteran Vonnie Estes. The award is presented to an outstanding woman in the industrial biotechnology sector who has made significant contributions to the advancement of the biobased economy and biotech innovation. Estes is the fourth recipient of the annual award. BIO also honored Dr. Gord Surgeoner, OOnt, with its second annual BIO Leadership and Legacy Award in Industrial Biotechnology. Photos of the 2017 BIO World Congress are available on the official BIO Flickr account. Videos of the award presentations are available on BIO's YouTube channel, in the 2017 World Congress Highlights: Montreal, Canada playlist. The 2018 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology will be held July 16-19, 2018, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. About BIO BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW is BIO's blog chronicling "innovations transforming our world" and the BIO Newsletter is the organization's bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe to the BIO Newsletter.







Upcoming BIO Events BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology

July 23-26, 2017

Montreal, Canada

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006421/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
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.
GRAND ISLAND  A former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee has been charged with burglarizing the service office in Wood River and stealing property from the service and cash from Crane Trust.

John Cochnar is charged with felony burglary and theft.

Authorities say he broke into the service's field office at the Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center on March 21 to steal property. Authorities also say he took $508 from the visitor center's donation box.
OMAHA  Two fired Omaha police officers will face assault charges in the death of a mentally ill man who was shocked with a stun gun a dozen times and repeatedly punched, even after he was on the ground, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine made the announcement while revealing police video that captured the altercation officers Scotty Payne and Ryan McClarty had with 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels at an Omaha convenience store. Kleine said he wouldn't file more serious charges against the officers because a coroner could not directly link their actions to the man's death.

Police cruiser video shows Payne using a stun gun to shock Bearheels and McClarty punching Bearheels. Some of the blows came after Bearheels was on the ground and not resisting. Kleine said he would charge Payne with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He said he's charging McClarty with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.

Bearheels, a Native American from Oklahoma, was lost in Omaha after being kicked off a bus going from South Dakota to his home state, according to his family. Police were responding to a report of a man causing a disturbance who would not leave when they encountered Bearheels. Kleine said Bearheels "had committed no crimes."

Police have said Bearheels was acting erratically and fought officers' efforts to take him into custody. After the altercation, Bearheels was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Matthew Burns, an attorney for Payne, said his client is hoping that bail is set low enough that he can be released Friday, when he's set to turn himself in to police.

"He feels awful," Burns said of Payne. "He's not a bad person. He didn't set out that day to go to work with the intent to hurt anyone."

Joseph Naatz, an attorney for McClarty, did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment.

The officers, both of whom are black, were fired earlier this month based on the recommendation of police Chief Todd Schmaderer. Two other officers who witnessed the altercation were placed on administrative leave following Bearheels' death but do not face any charges.

Asked why he didn't charge Payne or McClarty with murder or manslaughter, Kleine said, "there's no evidence whatsoever that these officers intentionally killed Zachary Bearheels." Kleine also cited an autopsy report that said Bearheels died of "excited delirium," but couldn't say that the shocks or punching of Bearheels caused his death.

Bearheels' mother has told police and media in Omaha that her son was bipolar and schizophrenic. Relatives believe he had stopped taking his medication.

Nebraska law requires a grand jury investigation any time a person dies in police custody or while in the process of being arrested. Kleine said a grand jury has been set to convene Sept. 26, but that the charges he's brought "likely make the grand jury process in this case moot."

An Omaha police union blasted Kleine's decision to charge the officers. The Omaha Police Officers' Association accused the Douglas County Attorney's Office of bowing to pressure and said prosecutors should have allowed a grand jury to determine whether charges were warranted.

The case prompted the city of Omaha to announce the forming of a Native American advisory board and training for police officers on indigenous culture.

Several members of the Native American community were present Wednesday for the announcement of charges, with most expressing outrage that Payne and McClarty aren't facing more serious charges and that no charges have been brought against two other officers on the scene.

April Gladfelter, 52, of Omaha, is a member of the Omaha Tribe and issued an emotional plea during the news conference for police to better learn how to interact with the mentally ill. Gladfelter said she has a son who is mentally ill, prompting her to contact Bearheels' mother after his death. The women now speak daily, she said.

"I fear for my son's life every day," she said, sobbing. "Are the police going to shoot him because he's talking to himself?"
Independence police are asking for help in identifying a man suspected of stealing DVDs from the library. Police said that the man has stolen multiple DVDs from the Mid-Continent Public Library on U.S. 24 at least two separate times. Investigators said that after removing the sensors, the man puts the DVDs down his pants and then leaves the library.
Police identify man killed at Kansas City car wash The Kansas City Police Department has released the identity of a man who was shot and killed at a car wash last Friday. Anthony Clark, 41, was killed while he was parked inside the Avenue Car Was...

Both authorities and locals struggle to keep up with the rate of local carnage. Checkit:
Cleaning Up Angry KCMO Tagging

Local businesses vandalized with hateful graffiti Racist graffiti and semi trucks set on fire - it happened overnight at a business park off of Front Street. "This truck right here, the front side of it was on fire." Aaron Farrar doesn't understand why this happened.

Kansas City Killing Cry For Help

'Enough's enough,' father of KC's 'homicide No. 83' says in plea for peace, justice Tasha James and Tony Nevels sat shoulder-to-shoulder Tuesday morning on the concrete steps where someone shot their younger brother dead. His name was Freddie Nevels, they said. He was 23. They want peace. They want justice. But both seem maddeningly out of reach here on the 3800 block of East Sixth Street in Kansas City's Northeast neighborhood.

Show-Me Street Life Debate

Lawmakers ask public to critique MoDOT funding options A group of lawmakers is asking for feedback on a few ideas to deal with the Missouri Department of Transportation's budget, which is inadequate to fix the state's crumbling roads and bridges.MoDOT has about $825-million in high-priority projects that are not funded.

Look What Grandpa Burried

Police investigating after a grenade was found in an Independence neighborhood The Independence Police Department is investigating after a suspicious devode was reported in a neighborhood. The incident happened Tuesday afternoon in the area of East 9th Street South near South Huttig Avenue. A man told KMBC 9 News that he was digging up his backyard looking for items his grandfather had buried.

Home Team In the Homestretch

Mental Ward: The Royals are going for it Monday nights are terribly unremarkable. It is the first day of the work week for most, after the tumult of Saturday hobnobbing and the abbreviated recovery of Sunday afternoon nap sessions, Mondays have a tendency to come and go with little in the way of decoration or celebration.

Hottiebrings us to this last news blast of the day and a glimpse of local life in action . . .And this is thefor right now . . .
A Leawood, Kansas, couple whose home was raided by a police tactical team in a bungled SWAT-like search for marijuana will get their day in court after all. The couple, both retired CIA agents, sued the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning and seven sheriff's deputies over the botched 2012 raid, but a federal judge threw out the case in December 2015.
Overland Park Catholic priest charged with child sex crimes Authorities say a Catholic priest charged in Wyandotte County with child sex crimes has been arrested in Maryland. The Wyandotte County prosecutor's office announced Tuesday that the Rev. Scott Kallal was charged Friday with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

More deets on this nasty story of suburban sacrilege that was thankfully reported to authorities but still reflects an ongoing crisis in The Church. Checkit:
Missouri Department of Transportation engineers are warning policymakers that inadequate infrastructure funding could close bridges and snarl traffic in the Kansas City area. "If a road degrades slightly, you can still drive on it. If a bridge is weight-posted, you can't drive a heavy load on it," says MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna.
TODAY COURTHOUSE INSIDERS ARE BUZZING OVER $25K CONTRIBUTED TODAY TO JACKSON COUNTY EXEC FRANK WHITE!!!

"These days Frank is looking to cash in just like another in a long line of sleazy politicos who have leveraged the patronage power provided by running the courthouse. Yesterday, as the entire community was abuzz with the news that Frank was looking to use (abuse) his position to get rid of a new found political enemy in Sheriff Mike Sharp, what was Frank doing? Fixing the broken doors at the jail? Balancing the budget? Holding staff meetings? Actually doing his job? Oh, hell no!! Frank was out raising cash from unions with connections to the County! Good to see that Frank is in true politician form . . ."

Whilst a great many Kansas City residents are concerned about the fate of the Jackson County Jail and costs to taxpayers amid constant reports of human rights abuses . . . The top politico at the Courthouse is busy securingpolitical donations.To wit . . .Here's the word on an important cash grab in the absence of Mr. Peanut's political patronage which started Frank White's career as an elected official . . .According to Watchdog.org: ". . . CHIPP operates out of the unions St. Louis headquarters."Now, of course Exec White has the right to seek fundraising cash . . . The problem is that his constituents don't get the same sense of urgency when it comes to fixing the jail crisis.You decide . . .
Editorial: You want to be Kansas City's next police chief? We've got questions Kansas Citians will get a chance Thursday to visit with the two remaining candidates for chief of police: Maj. Rick Smith of Kansas City and Chief Keith Humphrey of Norman, Okla. Questions must be in writing. We have a few.

Obviously it's something related to the homicide rate and putting more police on the street. For now, here's Dead-Tree media transcription of an upcoming public forum . . .
Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) signed a $1.5-billion deal to finance the electrification of a high-speed rail line between the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad, said a report.



China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) will be responsible for the electrification of the 926-km line from the capital to the holy city in northeast Iran in partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR), according to Iran Daily.



Iran's holding group Mapna is a subcontractor in the project. It has signed an agreement with Germany's Siemens for the joint manufacture of 70 electric locomotives to be used on this route.



China Railway Group Limited (CREC) is already carrying out another project worth $1.8 billion for the electrification of a high-speed rail link between the cities of Tehran, Qom and Isfahan, stated the report.



Exim has so far provided loans for 26 Iranian projects in the electricity, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, oil and gas sectors, worth $9 billion, it added.
When it comes to diversifying America's teaching corps to better reflect the increasing number of Hispanic students, there's a big question: If Latino public school students rarely see a Hispanic teacher, how will they ever come to see teaching as an attractive profession?

It's not a trivial concern.

While there's no specific research data showing that Hispanic students receive an outsized benefit from having teachers with the same background, there are studies that confirm a positive link between teachers of color and the academic achievement of all students.

And a recent study found that low-income black students who have at least one black teacher in elementary school are significantly more likely to graduate from high school and consider attending college.

But while the benefits to an increasingly diverse student body are easily imaginable, one aspect about recruiting more teachers of color is rarely spoken about: How challenging it is to actually be a Hispanic teacher in a teaching corps that is overwhelmingly white (only 8 percent of all teachers are Hispanic).

For starters, becoming a teacher is expensive.

Not only do you need to earn at least a bachelor's degree but, depending on your state, there are a battery of general and content-area tests to take, each of them costing a nice chunk of change. The capstone test -- called the edTPA and now the standard for certification in 16 states and growing -- requires a high quality video-taking device, video editing skills and super-fast internet access to create and upload an extensive submission.

This is in addition to 15 to 20 weeks of unpaid mandatory student teaching during which you'd have to be crazy to try to work elsewhere -- if your university even allowed it -- regardless of how dearly you needed the income.

And, as if that weren't enough of a mountain to climb, for those altruistic souls devoted to teaching in low-income schools where the majority of students are black or Hispanic and the pay is likely to be low, the Trump administration is threatening to end the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which helps teachers who take on these extra difficult teaching assignments.

Then there is the actual experience of being a teacher in a school where there are few or no other teachers of color -- it's not always a walk in the park.

I've been blessed to teach in schools chock full of absolutely caring, devoted, selfless and hard-working teachers and administrators who would do practically anything to ensure the academic success of all their students.

But even in such environments of pulling out all the stops to make sure all kids progressed, there were still obvious ways in which white students were seen as academically ready to thrive while black and Hispanic students were considered lesser -- too poor, too devoid of resources at home, too far behind peers or otherwise too downtrodden to succeed.

At best, some of these students of color were given extra resources and attention by adults, though sometimes these efforts were tinged with pity. At worst, some kids -- even as young as first grade -- were simply written off as unsalvageable.

Throughout my years in education, I've been present at meetings where such students were referred to as stupid or hopeless. Their parents were savaged as being clueless, unhinged or having been purchased by a spouse as a mail-order bride from a foreign country. In one case, my presence was not enough to hold the tongue of a teacher who suggested that a male Hispanic student's career trajectory would peak with becoming a janitor.

This behavior, however, pales in comparison to the impact minority teachers can make. It may sound trite, but there is relief and even pure joy when minority students experience having a teacher who shares their culture.

A more diverse teacher corps is not a panacea -- the single most important factor in student achievement is the quality of the teacher regardless of race or ethnicity.

But if more Hispanic college students can be recruited into teaching through a variety of supports and incentives, the way in which struggling students are perceived in schools can slowly begin to change.

Teaching is not easy or particularly lucrative, relative to other highly skilled professions. But walking into a classroom and being a living, breathing example of all the possibilities that a good education can open up offers its own rewards.
RACINE COUNTY  Wisconsin clearly wins with Wednesdays White House announcement that Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn has chosen Wisconsin as the place it will build a huge plant that will employ thousands of people.

But two state legislators think this area, specifically, will win the grand prize of having the Foxconn plant.

Its probably the most exciting thing that will happen in Racine County this century, said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who attended the announcement.

Although Vos said Foxconn likely wont announce an exact location for a few weeks, he fully expects the multi-billion-dollar plant to be built in Racine County or very close to it in Kenosha County.

All the indicators are that Racine County is at the top of the list for a Foxconn site, Vos said.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard also said he thinks Foxconn will likely build in this area. Im hoping its Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant, said Wanggaard, R-Racine. I believe thats what its going to be.  Its either going to be Racine or Kenosha (county).

The most likely area appears to be on Highway 11 near Interstate 94, according to media reports. Several property owners in that area have reportedly been approached about selling their land.

One resident near Highway 11 and Interstate 94 refused to comment Thursday about Foxconn, while two others said they were advised by their lawyers not to discuss it.

Vos said the purchase offers to property owners in that area have been astronomical. But even if some property owners choose not to sell their land to make way for Foxconn, Vos pointed out municipalities have the tool of eminent domain that could be used to buy them out.

Foxconn hopes to be operational in 2020, Vos said.

The company will initially employ about 3,000 people but could grow to about 13,000 employees.

Vos offered a comparison to bring home the employment number: SC Johnson employs roughly 2,000 people in the Racine area but, even at 4,000 or 5,000 jobs, Foxconn would at least double that.

During the White House announcement, Walker said the project will create about 10,000 construction jobs and another 22,000 indirect jobs will be created by Foxconns presence.

Vos said Foxconn coming to this area will be transformational. The way it operates in partnership with other companies, he said, will increase its economic impact. It will be so much more significant than one company, Vos said.

It will be so huge, it will be way beyond Racine County in its impact, he said.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave issued a written statement that said in part, While we would welcome this type of investment in Racine County, it is our policy not to comment on speculation around potential development opportunities.

We are also committed to transparency. If and when we have further information that we are able to share, we will engage in a full dialogue with the community.

Sturtevant Village President Jayme Hoffman said he didnt know where the company plans to build. Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot said, Its great news for Wisconsin, but I cant say more than that.

State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, said, This is the biggest economic news in my lifetime.

Overall, he said, we cant help be really excited and enthusiastic about a project like this coming to our backyards.

Good-paying jobs

During the announcement, Walker said the Foxconn jobs will have an average salary of $53,875 plus benefits.

Most entry-level jobs will pay about $13 to $15 per hour and up, Vos said, and I think the vast majority will be more than that. For example, he said Foxconn will employ many engineers.

Wanggaard said Foxconn would create jobs of about $15 and up for entry level, with most of the jobs being mid-level of about $22 to $30 per hour.

I think they will have to talk about it in the coming weeks, Wanggaard said, as legislators will need to know. He was referring to the fact that Walker has been negotiating with Foxconn on an incentive package worth up to $3 billion over 15 years.

We have to make sure we get this right, Wanggaard said, with incentives tied to the things that Foxconn says it will do. A legislative team will put that bill together, he said.

Asked if he thought the economic incentives look appropriate, Vos noted that Wisconsin is not traditionally an incentive-heavy state. With a jobs announcement this big, he said, we need to step up our game.
Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed GST as a good and simple tax and said it is aimed at ending harassment of small businesmen, in reality, it is not so. Small traders, especially those having turnover less than Rs 20 lakh, are being harassed by wholesalers. The wholesalers in Delhi and Ambala are not willing to sell products to them.

Call it a confusion or misinterpretation of GST, small traders in Punjab having turnover less than Rs 20 lakh are a harried lot, as the wholesalers in Delhi have refused to sell products to them in the absence of a GST number. However, according to rules, small retailers having turnover less than Rs 20 lakh dont need to have GST number.

For Mohali-based Avatar Singh, life has never been worrisome ever since he has been in retailing business. Singh runs a cloth shop in Mohali and is having a turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh. These days he is not having any stock as the wholesalers in Delhi have refused to sell him stock as he doesnt have a GST number.

We are being harassed by the wholesalers. The PM had clearly said small retailers dont need to have a GST number. However, the wholesalers are not ready to do business with us in the absence of GST number, he said.

Dalbir Singh, another small trader from Punjab, said, I ventured into retailing of cloth last year thinking its a lucrative business. From past fortnight, I am out of stock as the wholesalers refused to do business with us.

Vaibhav Jain, a wholesale merchant in Ambala, said, We were advised by our tax advisers not to deal with firms who dont have GST number, so we are not accepting orders from them.

What rules say
New Delhi, July 25

Countrys largest telecom company, Bharti Airtel today posted 74.89% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 367 crore for the June quarter of the current fiscal, hit hard by the disruptive pricing of newcomer Reliance Jio.

In contrast, its net income was Rs 1,462 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal, 2016-17. Total revenue fell 14% to Rs 21,958 crore in the first quarter of 2017-18, from Rs 25,546 crore in the year-ago period.

The pricing disruption in the Indian telecom market caused by the entry of a new operator continued with industry revenues declining over 15% year-on-year, creating further stress on sector profitability, cash flows and leverage, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel said.

Hero MotoCorp Q1 net

up at Rs 914.04 crore

Riding on its best-ever quarterly unit sales, two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp on Tuesday reported a 3.5% increase in profit after tax at Rs 914.04 crore for the April-June quarter. Revenue from operations during the period under review stood at Rs 8,612.91 crore as against Rs 8,010.66 crore in the year-ago quarter, up 7.52%.

Vedanta profit doubles

to Rs 1,525 crore

Mining conglomerate Vedanta Ltds consolidated profit after tax doubled to Rs 1,525 crore for the quarter through June, driven by strong show in zinc and oil and gas businesses, the company said on Tuesday.

Total income during the quarter was at Rs 20,397 crore, an increase of 23 per cent over a year ago. The quantum jump in profit during the April-June quarter was on account of volumes and improved zinc pricing, CEO Tom Albanese told PTI over phone.

Axis Bank Q1 net profit falls 16% to Rs 1,306 cr

Private lender Axis Bank on Tuesday reported 16.06% decline in net profit to Rs 1,306 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, as the bad loans almost doubled during the period.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 1,556 crore in the June quarter of 2016-17.

Revenue of the bank, however, rose to Rs 14,052.30 crore during April-June quarter of the current fiscal, compared to Rs 13,852.18 crore in the year-ago period, Axis Bank said in a regulatory filing.

GlaxoSmithKline net profit nosedives 63% in Q1

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday reported 63.44% decline in standalone net profit to Rs 26.42 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, mainly on account of trade destocking due to transition into GST.

Sales revenue of the pharmaceuticals business declined 14.2% during the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, GlaxoSmithKline said.  TNS/Agencies
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Markfed Chairman Amarjit Singh Samra yesterday said they would increase exports of ready-to-eat (RTE) products to Canada. He said this while welcoming Rameshwar Singh Sangha, Member of Parliament, Canada, who visited the Markfed head office here on Monday.

Arshdeep Singh Thind, Managing Director, Markfed, said the company had been exporting Sohna RTE products and basmati rice to Canada since 1988. Canada is the second largest buyer of Sohna RTE products, basmati rice, mustard oil and whole wheat atta after the Middle-East.

During 2016-17, Markfed exported 17 containers of RTE products and during 2017-18, the company intends to export 22 containers of RTE products besides 10-12 containers of whole wheat atta to Canada.

Canada is the largest producer of wheat in the world and it is for the first time that a government organisation has secured an order to supply 12 containers of whole wheat atta to Canada.

Sangha showed keen interest in Markfed products and said the company should supply its products not only to Punjabi stores but also to other Indian stores in Canada.
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The Supreme Court today said it did not intend to send Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy to jail as he had enough property to shell out the money ordered by it.

Our mind is clear, we dont intend to send him to jail because he has property, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said while extending Roys parole till September 11, the next date of hearing.

Roy was sent to Tihar jail on March 4, 2014. But the top court granted him a four-week parole on May 6, 2016 to attend his mothers funeral. His parole has been periodically extended since then.

The Bench, however, asked him to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by September 7.

The order came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the Bench on behalf of Roy that the Sahara Group chief had deposited Rs 247 crore as against the promised amount of Rs 552.21 crore ordered to be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by July 15. He said the remaining amount of Rs 305.21 crore would be deposited by August 12.

But the Bench ordered Roy to deposit Rs 1,500 crore, including the balance amount of Rs 305.21 crore, by September 7 to prove his bona fides.

During the hearing, Sibal sought 18 months to deposit the over Rs 9,000 crore of the total Rs 24,000 crore investors money which was supposed to have been deposited by Sahara. He also requested the court to allow the Sahara Group companies to do business.

He sought to emphasise that the company had already deposited over 16,000 crore.

As the court threatened to go ahead with the auction of Aamby Valley  Sahara groups property worth Rs 34,000 crore in Maharashtra, Sibal said, Bare asset is of no value. If we develop the property, it has value. If we auction it right now, the buyer would think we are selling it under distress and we will never get the price it deserves.

The Bench directed Vinod Sharma  the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court  to go ahead with the publication of sale notice for auctioning of Aamby Valley. An earlier order issued by the top court required Roy to pay Rs 1,500 crore by June 15 and Rs 552 crore on July 15.
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, July 25

The Education Department today suspended the science teacher of Government High School, Sundran, and also transferred the school principal after their video of assaulting each other went viral on social media.

The purported video of the incident shows school head Veena Bassi and science teacher Kailash Rani pushing and beating each other on the school premises in the presence of other staff members and students on Monday morning.

Notably, school head Veena Bassi and science teacher Kailash Rani of Government Model High School at Sundran village had given a written complaint to Education Secretary Krishan Kumar levelling allegations against each other.

A counter-complaint was also filed with the Dera Bassi police station.

According to sources, the Education Secretary had formed an inquiry committee to look into the matter. Following a report from the panel today, school teacher Kailash Rani was placed under suspension and school head Veena Bassi had been transferred to Government School at Saidpura.

High drama was witnessed at Government High School, Sundran, on Monday when a teacher was allegedly beaten up by her school in-charge and colleagues within the school premises in front the students.

The police had lodged a DDR after recording the statements of the victim and the school head on Monday.
Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Like any other child her age, the 10-year-old rape victim, who is now seven-month pregnant, was fond of chocolates. Each time after raping the minor, the 55-year-old accused offered her a chocolate.

Family members narrated the hair-raising tale while interacting with a woman counsellor, who visited their one-room tenement this afternoon.

The family is perplexed over the fate of the medical examination of the girl. If doctors decide not to terminate the pregnancy, who will look after the baby.

The family has been demanding the termination of the pregnancy. The case in now in the apex court.

She will soon be shifted to the hospital where she will be kept under constant observation for the next few weeks. I will stay with her in the hospital, said the victims mother.

A day before the all-important medical examination, which will decide whether she will deliver the baby or the pregnancy will be terminated, the victim is being made to relax.

She spent her day watching Shin Chan and Doraemon cartoons at a bungalow of a government official where her mother works as maid. According to her mother, she is fond of reading books.

The poor child does not know that she is carrying a seven-month-old baby. The family has told her that she has stone in her stomach and it will be removed after a small operation. Sources said a child counsellor will visit the girl in the morning to explain the treatment.

She is good in studies and loves reading. The family is worried that the pregnancy and its aftermath will affect the studies of their daughter.

Sources said the Child Protection Society authorities are planning to arrange a teacher who will provide her tuitions at home so that her studies are not affected.

About the accused

The accused, a distant relative of the victims mother, used to visit the victims one-room servant quarters during the afternoon on the pretext of meeting his brother, who works in the adjoining residential bungalow.

The accused is married and has two children -- a married daughter and a son. The children are shocked by the grotesque act of their father. Now, they have decided to support the victims family, said sources.

The police are also probing whether the accused, who was working with a local hotel, was a paedophile.

The fact came to light after another relative of the accused, who lives in Delhi, stated that the accused had tried to make sexual advances at her daughter too.

Pratibha, the investigating officer, said, We are probing the matter with utmost care since it involves a child who is seven-month pregnant. We are waiting for the completion of the medical formalities.

Who will take the girlto the hospital?

Till the filing of this report, neither the State Child Protection Society nor the police had received any orders regarding taking the child to the hospital. Despite repeated attempts, Mahavir Singh, Member Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority, UT, was not available for comments.

Rajeshwar Singh, law officer, said the medical examination of the victim would be conducted between 9 am and 10 am tomorrow. He said Member Secretary Mahavir Singh was busy conducting a meeting with the board members of the PGI to discuss the modalities of the medical examination.

Elder sister pillar of strength

The incident has devastated the victims parents and they are in distress. However, the victims elder sister is proving to be a pillar of strength for the family. Despite the incident, she did not stop going to school. She is attending her classes and back home, she accompanies her sister.

She has become more protective about her sister and spends a majority of the time with her after school, said the girls mother.

Girl has a heart condition

It will not be easy for the eight-member board constituted by the PGI as the girl has a heart condition and was operated upon for ventricular septal defect. The opinion of the cardiologist, Prof Rohit Manoj Kumar, will play an important role. The girl weighs 44 kg. Sources said initially the family suspected that the girl was gaining weight due to the heart problem. It was much later that they learnt about the pregnancy.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 25

A masked robber looted Rs 7.50 lakh at gunpoint from the State Bank of India branch at the Industrial Area, Phase VII, here today.

The incident occurred around 2.15 pm. A bank employee sustained injuries while attempting to catch the robber, who fled in his Volkswagen car, which he had parked near the bank. The robber appeared to be in his mid-20s.

According to the police, the robber, who was wearing a red cap and had his face covered with a hankerchief, entered the bank branch, which had no security guard, brandishing a pistol and fired into the air. After issuing a warning, he went to the cashier and asked him to hand over the cash. He stuffed the cash in the rucksack, which he was carrying on his back, and fled away, said the police.

When the robber was running towards his car, bank cashier Gaurav and peon Ashwani Kumar chased him while raising the alarm. A young onlooker, Manvir Singh, also followed the robber and hit him, but the latter managed to sit in his car. Some cash fell from the robbers bag in the melee. Ashwani attempted to break the windowpane of the car, but the robber hit the peon with his vehicle following which the bumper of the car also broke. Ashwani sustained injuries on his foot and leg.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal said the police recovered a bullet shell from the spot. The police also recovered a part of the cars registration number plate on which HP 93 was mentioned.

The robber has been caught on a CCTV camera.

The SSP said teams had been dispatched to various locations to nab the robber.

DSP Alam Vijay Singh, who reached the spot, said they had got vital clues in the case. The robber would soon be in the police net, said the DSP.

According to sources, the bank has no security guard and no security alarm system. A case has been registered at the Phase I police station.
Melbourne, July 26

A Sikh man in Australia was asked to take off his kirpan and get out of a bus when a passenger called police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said on Wednesday.

Police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland on Tuesday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

We looked out the window and we could see and the police car behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand and said to the guy, Get your hands up so we can see them and get out of the bus, New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.

The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved sword-like kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed, said the witness.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan.

She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed.

Police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh. He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in New Zealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken, the report said

The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated.

Australia is home to more than 72,000 Sikh, a population that is expected to rise in this years census. PTI
London, July 26

Sister Nivedita's family home in London, where she lived before moving to India in 1898 to set up a girls' school and help the poor, is to be commemorated with a special plaque on her 150th birth anniversary.

"Sister Nivedita, the educationalist and campaigner for Indian Independence," is the inscription confirmed by English Heritage for the blue plaque to be unveiled on October 28.

The London Blue Plaque Scheme, run by English Heritage, celebrates the link between important historical figures and the buildings in which they lived or worked. Founded in 1866, it is believed to be the oldest scheme of its kind.

The Scottish-Irish social worker and disciple of Swami Vivekananda began her professional life as a school teacher in southwest London and set up the Ruskin School in the area.

The school was to later become the inspiration for her girls' school in Kolkata, then Calcutta, she set up in 1898 after accompanying Swami Vivekananda to India that year.

Born Margaret Elizabeth Noble, the name Nivedita or 'the dedicated one', was given to her by Swami Vivekananda.

In India, she served the poor in Bengal during the times of flood, plague and famine and was a very vocal campaigner against the partition of Bengal proposed by the British in 1905.

"We are happy that English Heritage is recognising her contribution in the areas of education and as a campaigner of Indian Independence on her 150th birth anniversary for the first time on English soil," said Sarada Sarkar, a London- based teacher who led the campaign for installing the plaque.

Later, Sister Nivedita briefly travelled back to London with Swami Vivekananda, arriving at the 21 High Street in Wimbledon on July 31, 1899. He stayed there for a couple of days while Sister Nivedita's family found him an accommodation nearby.

The house remained Sister Nivedita's family home until January 1902, though she had permanently moved to India.

The Ramakrishna Mission and Sister Nivedita's followers have invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to deliver the keynote address at the unveiling of the plaque.

PTI
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has followed his conscience and has put in his papers rather than put up with Lalu Prasads cocky assertion that his son, the indicted Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, would not be asked to step down. Nitish Kumar has obviously allowed himself to see the corruption issue as per the narrative being scripted by the BJP. The brewing Bihar crisis has boiled over. A very stable government stands destabilised. The ruling party at the Centre can, in turn, allow itself a smile of satisfaction that its use of the CBI/ED has paid such disproportionate dividends. After all, the Lalu-Nitish alliances victory in the November 2015 Bihar Assembly elections was the most definitive rebuff to the Modi leadership; it was that victory that had restored Nitish Kumars status as the potentially most formidable challenger to Narendra Modi in 2019. All these calculations and ambitions now stand comprehensively revised.

Though praise would be lavished on Nitish Kumar for sacrificing his chair in the interest of probity, it can legitimately be asked whether he was not aware of all the allegations against the Yadav clan when the JD(U)-RJD alliance was worked out. It need be recalled that it was an indicted Lalu Prasad who led the spirited campaign in November 2015; yet the voters preferred the RJD as the largest party. Now, perhaps, Nitish Kumar felt that a CBI indictment had materially changed the situation. His desire that his deputy should withdraw from the Cabinet was not respected; and, his conscience kicked in.

Having taken a principled position, it remains to be seen how Nitish Kumar will work around another principle: integrity of the 2015 Bihar vote. The mandate that was sought and granted in 2015 was against Narendra Modi, BJP and its communal politics and in favour of a certain kind of social compact. Any kind of working arrangement between Nitish Kumar and the BJP would be most unprincipled, to say the least. Nonetheless, corruption is now deemed to be an over-riding mantra that can be chanted to consecrate any opportunistic manoeuvres. In the short term, both Bihar and Nitish Kumar would be the losers.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

AICC media incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala today charged the state government with betraying the interests of small and medium home buyers by diluting the RERA.

He accused the government of playing into the hands of the builders lobby and sacrificing the interests of ordinary home buyers. He said the Congress would expose the duplicity of the BJP.

Surjewala said the government ignored objections raised by him as well as several NGOs and a large number of project-affected people. The decision to exclude all ongoing projects showed an unholy nexus between the government and the builders lobby.

He criticised the government for changing the definition of term ongoing project to create multiple loopholes for the benefit of the rich and resourceful builders.

Surjewala said the government surreptitiously excluded from RERA all projects the applications under which are made to the Competent Authority by July 30.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Haryana State Cooperative Apex Bank Limited (HARCO Bank) with deposits of nearly Rs 4,000 crore is putting depositors money at risk by allowing login passwords of its core banking system (CBS) to its contractual employees across the state in gross violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

The Tribune has learnt that National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at a recent meeting had termed the practice as a terrible risk that be stopped immediately.

NABARD, which refinances state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks, has also suggested other measures such as merger of HARCO Bank with Central Cooperative Banks at the district level to cut its operational cost and to reduce staff strength so as to improve the banks fiscal health.

Sources say that Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (HSCARDB) is already facing difficult time as its recoveries have plummeted to 27 per cent. Any jolt to HARCO Bank will deal a blow to cooperative banking in the state, which is responsible for a major chunk of agriculture funding at the micro level.

Contractual employees do not have accountability and many of them keep changing organisations. With the CBS login available, any official can play havoc with hundreds of account holders whose money is deposited in the bank, was NABARDs concern, say the sources.

HARCO Bank has a three-tier system: The apex bank at the state level with 13 branches across the state and two extension counters in Chandigarh and Panchkula; 19 District Central Cooperative Banks with 594 branches across the state and 718 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies, also called mini banks, in villages that grant short-term agriculture loans to farmers.

The bank had deposits of Rs 3,934.32 crore and a reasonably good recovery percentage as on August 2016, according to its website.

Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, which also has District Primary Agriculture and Rural Development Banks in districts and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies in villages for providing medium and long-term loans to farmers, is in complete mess. It has not extended any loans in the past three to four years. The bank had borrowings of over Rs 3,800 crore, loan outstanding of Rs 3,678 crore and accumulated losses of over Rs 1,300 crore till July 31, 2016, according to its website. Among its defaulters are some well off political leaders and the issue surfaced in the Vidhan Sabha recently.

A senior functionary of HARCO Bank says as no recruitment was made in the bank after 1996, they have to depend on contractual staff. He, however, maintains that the login password for core banking has been given only to some contractual employees.

On the other suggestion by NABARD regarding the merger of the apex bank with DCCBs, he says only the board of directors can take a decision in this regard.
Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 25

Yoga guru Ramdev faces the prospect of being declared a proclaimed offender (PO) by a local court, which had issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him last month in a case pertaining to his beheading remark made during a speech delivered at a Sadbhavna Sammelan organised here last year.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Harish Goyal had earlier issued bailable warrants against the yoga guru. Prior to that, Ramdev had been summoned by the court under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke the breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

However, Ramdev, who has been accorded the status of Brand Ambassador by the Haryana government, has not appeared before the court nor have the police been able to produce him before the court till date.

If Ramdev fails to appear before the court by August 3, the next date of hearing, he may be declared a proclaimed offender by the court, maintains senior advocate JK Gakhar.

Informed sources said efforts were being made to ensure that the yoga guru was not declared a PO. The management of a local math is said to be facilitating the damage-control exercise. The sources maintain that Ramdev is likely to issue a public apology for his remarks for which he may visit Rohtak soon .

Former Haryana minister Subhash Batra, who had moved the court against Ramdev, may withdraw his complaint after the apology. Batra has, however, denied having reached a settlement with the yoga guru over the matter.

Supporting the chanting of Bharat Mata ki Jai during a Sadbhavna Sammelan organised here on April 3, 2016, Ramdev had maintained that Thousands of heads would have been cut on opposing the chanting of Bharat Mata ki Jai if we were not bound by law.

Batra had lodged a police complaint against Ramdev. However, as the police did not register an FIR, he approached the court.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Home buyers in Gurugram and other big towns of the state are disappointed with the Haryana Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Authority (RERA) Rules approved by the Cabinet yesterday even as the government claims that the final rules do not dilute the Central Act.

Gaurav Prakash, a founder member of the Dwarka Expressway Welfare Association, Gurugram, alleges that the government has tried to favour the strong builders lobby in the RERA rules announced yesterday and has deviated too much from the Central rules.

Central rules exclude only projects having a completion certificate from the category of ongoing projects, but the state government has replaced the requirement of a completion certificate with an occupation certificate. And for that too, it has not given any time limit if a developer applies for the completion certificate before July 30, he says.

Just apply for the occupation certificate before July 30 and you come out of RERA. Use delaying tactics in completion of formalities for the grant of occupation certificate and you can keep evading the provisions of law, Prakash says sarcastically.

Sources in the Town and Country Planning Department, however, defend the Rules saying they take care of the interests of home buyers as well as builders, but not the interests of speculators.

The Central Act does not clearly define the concept of ongoing projects, but it lays two important parameters that a project should be ongoing on a site and it must have procured the completion certificate. In Haryana, it is occupation certificate/ partial completion/completion certificate, they add.

Further, the occupation certificate in Haryana is equivalent to the completion certificate in other states. In Haryana, the completion certificate is given after all internal and external works and community sites have been developed. In other states, the completion certificate is given once more than 75 per cent of home buyers take possession, the sources say.

They add the only problem is that the state RERA does not take care of the interests of speculators.

Speculators put their money in projects for profit and will like to get refund of their money if the market is slow. Even if 10 per cent of speculators manage to get refund of their money due to RERA, it will affect the whole project and eventually home buyers. If we do not address the issue, we will be doing disservice to actual home buyers, say the sources.
Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 26

The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) has decided to hold more rallies to press for their quota demand and expedite the implementation of their agreement with the state government. A decision to this effect was taken at a state executive meeting of the samiti held here today.

Interacting with mediapersons after the meeting, samiti president Yashpal Malik maintained that the state authorities had agreed upon six demands of the samiti at a meeting on March 19.

While some of the demands have been met, work on others is still pending. Besides, BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini has been making derogatory remarks against our community and its leaders. We will hold a state-level rally in Jhajjar on August 27 to remind the state leadership of its commitments, he stated.

As per the decision taken by the samitis state executive, the next rally will be organised in Hisar on September 13 and the third rally, the venue for which is yet to be finalised, will be held on November 24.

Malik said an institution dedicated to skill development and helping the students prepare for competitive examinations would soon be established and named after Chaudhary Chhotu Ram.

On being questioned about the allegations of misappropriation of funds collected through the AIJASS dharnas during the Jat quota stir, he said the allegations were baseless and the persons levelling these were playing in the hands of certain political leaders of the ruling as well as opposition parties.

Malik said representatives of the samiti would meet BJP president Amit Shah during his visit to Rohtak and apprise him of their concerns.
Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 26

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) and its contractor firm face a fine of Rs one lakh per day from July 16 onward as ruled by the National Green Tribunal ( NGT), which has summoned the company on July 28. The company is yet to make the much-delayed Rs 46 crore waste-to-energy plant at Bharyal functional even after it missed the July 15 deadline.

According to sources, the private company has moved a fresh application in the NGT seeking extension of deadline till August 7.

The NGT has directed both the SMC and the Elephant Energy company to make the plant functional by July 15 and if it fails to do so, it is liable for paying a fine of Rs one lakh per day after that till it makes the plant functional, the sources said.

Now, the green court will decide whether the company has to pay or not the fine for missing the deadline for starting the plant for the third time in a row, said an SMC official. The NGT has summoned the company and the SMC on July 28, he added.

We are supplying about 65 to 70 tonnes of garbage daily to the plant as per agreement signed with the company, said the Municipal Commissioner, GC Negi. The company is doing the trial run and there are problems in the machineries, he added.

The company has started producing the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from solid waste after a team of German experts plugged the problem of excessive production of oxygen in the plant, said the project coordinator of the SMC.

Another problem that needs to be fixed is the problem of dust being produced in the plant. The company has also replaced the two machines and the trial-run is on, he said.

The waste-to-energy plant segregates the garbage in the plant. The waste is shredded, dried, baled and then burned to produce electricity. The plant makes good use of waste that otherwise go waste and pile up in landfill, the MC engineers said.
KENOSHA  Taste of Wisconsin, a three-day celebration of food from around the state, will return for its ninth year on Friday, July 28, bringing with it more than 40 food vendors and 80 musical artists.

The free event, which takes place near the lakefront at Celebration Place, 5400 Ring Road, runs the whole weekend from Friday through Sunday, July 28-30.

Youre never bored, said event organizer Candy Eisenhauer. You can spend a whole weekend and never eat the same thing, never see the same band.

Food ranges from the simple (Boy Scouts serving lemonade and pickles), to the homey (pulled pork, corn- on-the-cob and cheese curds), to the canine (gourmet dog treats and novelty doggie cookies). Vendors are encouraged to keep their prices low and accessible to encourage attendees to try many different dishes, Eisenhauer said.

The festival has come a long way since its first year, when it was only a two-day affair and raised $30,000 from 15,000 people in attendance. Last year, Eisenhauer said, 42,000 people showed up and about $60,000 was raised.

Besides food and bands, visitors can also hang out in a demo tent, where they can watch various presenters curated by Gateway Technical Colleges Culinary Arts Department.

A kids zone complete with inflatable bouncy houses, obstacle courses, arts and dance shows should provide fun for the younger folks. Guests are also welcome to bring along their canine companions, provided they are on a leash.

We are very proud of the fact that Taste of Wisconsin is a family-friendly event, Eisenhauer said.

People come from all over to enjoy the festivities. In years past, attendees were polled at the door, and more than 60 percent of people were from Illinois the first year Taste of Wisconsin was held. Kenosha-area hotels fill up to facilitate the event, Eisenhauer said.

As soon as the event ends, the Kiwanis Club of Western Kenosha will get right back to planning next years iteration. The club works well together and has gotten the hang of organizing everything over the past nine years, Eisenhauer said.

Racine involvement

All of the musical artists play their shows for free. The Kiwanis Club has trouble getting new acts to play every year  not because of the lack of pay, but because so many enjoy the show so much they play year after year, Eisenhauer said.

Racine-based independent rock band Well-Known Strangers, who placed second in Summerfests Land the Big Gig contest in 2016, will make their first Taste of Wisconsin appearance as they rock the main music stage from 7:10 to 8:10 p.m. on July 29.

Ive known Candy for years, said Well-Known Strangers vocalist Betsy Ade. Anything she would want us to do, we would be totally down for.

Well-Known Strangers has somewhat of a history with community action. Their music video for the song Voices was made through a partnership with Fight for I-94, an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking. Ade said that playing Taste of Wisconsin is an extension of the bands community involvement since all of the proceeds go back into the community.

Well-Known Strangers was not able to play Taste of Wisconsin last summer because of a scheduling conflict. This year, though, Ade said she expects a lot of support not just for her band, but for the entire southeastern Wisconsin music scene.

Im not sure people will know how much support the local music scene has, Ade said. (Taste of Wisconsin) is getting bigger, which is great. Were happy to be a part of it.

Taste of Wisconsin hours are 3 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Proceeds go right back into the community, supporting anything from handicapped-accessible areas to high school and college clubs.
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 26

The ordeal of grief-stricken Mamta ended today with the cremation of the body of her husband Suraj, who died in the police custody in Kotkhai eight days ago.

One of the six accused in the rape and murder case, Suraj was allegedly beaten to death by the main accused Rajinder, alias Raju, in the lock-up on July 18 night. Surajs body was re-examined by the CBI last evening, paving the way for his cremation.

The funeral took place at the Sanjauli crematorium under tight police security. Mamta, 24-year-old widow of Suraj, along with two children Asha (7) and Sameer (3), has been lodged at the Nari Niketan, Mashobra since the death of her husband.

Poignant scenes were witnessed at the cremation ground as a wailing Mamta with two children oversaw the funeral rites. The pyre was lit by the children. Mamta ensured that all rituals were performed as per Nepalese tradition and insisted that the head of her son be tonsured.

A handful of fellow Nepalese people arrived at the cremation ground when the body was brought for cremation. Members of the Akhil Bharat Nepalese Ekta Manch initially refused to cremate the body, maintaining that the relatives of Suraj had not been informed about his death and even the Nepalese community at Kotkhai and other places was not aware of the cremation.

The plight of Mamta is unimaginable as her in-laws in Nepal and Surajs brother in Gujarat have still not been informed about the turn of events which have happened here, said Jakhi Ram, an activist of the manch. He added that if the body was cremated without their consent, Mamta would be blamed by Surajs family.

She steadfastly maintained that her husband could never indulge in such a crime. She broke down repeatedly while thinking about the future and repeatedly asked how she would bring up her children without Suraj.

Member of the manch argued that Suraj was only an accused and not convict and, therefore, the government must give adequate compensation to the family.

Second tragedy in the family

The cremation of Suraj was a low-key affair and none of politicians or social organisations spared a thought for the hapless family. This is the second tragedy that has struck the family as Mamta lost her daughter barely nine months back.

He could never indulge in such crime: Mamta

The funeral took place at the Sanjauli crematorium under tight police security. Mamta, 24-year-old widow of Suraj, along with two children Asha (7) and Sameer (3), has been lodged at the Nari Niketan, Mashobra ever since the death of her husband. She has maintained that her husband could never indulge in such a crime. She broke down thinking about the future and repeatedly asked how she would bring up her children without Suraj.
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 26

Mamata, the 24-year-old wife of Suraj, one of accused in the Kotkhai rape and murder case of a school girl, stares at a tough life ahead as she doesn't know how she would make both ends meet.

Still not ready to believe her husband was involved in the crime, Mamata has been left to fend for herself and her two children, daughter Asha (7) and son Sameer (3).

Also read: Custody death, Kotkhai on boil

All she worries about is how she will raise them in a different country without money and a house.

Suraj was cremated on Wednesday under heavy police security at the Sanjauli crematorium. The Nepali community has alleged that Suraj's relatives were not informed about the cremation.

The community earlier refused to perform last rites as Suraj's family members in Nepal and brother in Gujarat were not informed.

But the Shimla SDM persuaded them to perform last rites as the body was lying in mortuary for the past seven days.

As immediate help, the Nepalese community collected some money for Mamata who is currently lodged in Nari Niketan at Mashobra.
New Delhi, July 25

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) tonight arrested Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with over a decade-old money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing.

Officials said Shah was arrested in Srinagar and is expected to be brought to Delhi tomorrow. He would be produced in a court here. The ED had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the agency.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

A Delhi court had this month issued a non-bailable warrant against the separatist leader. The warrant has been executed, an official said. The agency had issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case, wherein the Delhi Polices Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. Shah had claimed the ED case against him was politically motivated.

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Shah and Wani. Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, in 2005.  PTI
New Delhi, July 26

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was on Wednesday sent to seven days' Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody by a Delhi court in a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror financing.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the custodial interrogation of Shah, who was arrested yesterday, by the ED after the agency told the court that he was not cooperating with the investigators.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The ED had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central probe agency.

A Delhi court had earlier this month issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the separatist leader.

The agency had been issuing to Shah summons earlier too in pursuance of the August 2005 case in which the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.

According to the police Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.

Wani was arrested with a large cache of ammunition and Rs 63 lakh, allegedly received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, on August 26, 2005.  PTI
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 26

The arrest of seven separatist leaders by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) was the beginning of a decisive war against terror, said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today while appreciating the J&K Government headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for facilitating action against those involved in fuelling violence in the Kashmir valley.

For the first time, governments both at the Centre and state have identified the real troublemakers in the Valley and concrete efforts are being initiated to contain their activities, RSS leader Indresh Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

Indresh, who was in Jammu to attend a function to pay tributes to the Kargil martyrs, congratulated the J&K Government for facilitating the arrest of seven separatist leaders by the NIA.

On Monday, seven separatist leaders, including the son-in-law of hardliner Hurriyat leader Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, was arrested by the NIA for allegedly funding militancy and unrest in the Valley.

Indresh, who is a member of the RSS core group, said that it was an open secret that separatist leaders were involved in patronising terrorism and spreading bloodshed and destruction in the Valley. Previous governments have failed to take any action against them. It is for the first time that governments at the Centre and the state have launched an offensive against such leaders, the RSS leader said, pointing out that peoples poor response to the strike call against these arrests has exposed the waning appeal of these leaders.

The RSS leader said the Centre had decided to deal with terrorists and separatists with an iron hand and this strong-arm tactics had yielded desirable results. Instead of reacting to the action of terrorists, now the Centre has given a free hand to the forces to chase and track down terrorists active in any part of J&K, he said, adding that the recent killing of dreaded terrorists was a result of the new policy.

Indresh, who worked in J&K as Prant Parcharak when militancy was at its peak, said: Gone are the days when lakhs of people participated in funeral processions of terrorists. Now a huge chunk of the population in the Kashmir valley is coming out against terrorism. The RSS leader, however, asked the state government to continue the offensive against terrorists and separatists to take the war against terrorism to its logical conclusion.
Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has issued notices to 13 Kashmiri separatist leaders, asking them to explain the sources of their properties. As part of its investigation into terror funding in Jammu & Kashmir, the agency has found that these leaders have amassed properties worth crores of rupees, including benami ones.

Meanwhile, the Centre today claimed that it was not expecting any trouble in Jammu & Kashmir in the wake of the arrest of separatist leaders in connection with investigations into alleged terror funding. The Home Ministry is not expecting any adverse reaction from the general public in the Valley, a ministry spokesperson said here today.

Noting that many properties were purchased by separatist leaders when they were under house arrest, sources in the NIA said such acquisitions were under a cloud of suspicion. These were being probed further, they said.

As many separatist leaders have remained under house arrest for a prolonged period, how have they acquired such palatial properties in Delhi, Srinagar and other places? The wealth accumulated by them does not match their income. We have sent notices to them and asked them to explain the source of funds with which they were procured, said an NIA officer.

The separatist leaders who are under the scanner are Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Fatoosh, Naseem Geelani, Nayeem Geelani, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Shabbir Shah, Yasin Malik, Mir Waiz, Mehraj-ud-din, son of Mohd Amin, Bashir Ahmed Bhat alias Peer Saifullah, Asiya Andrabi and Nayeem Mohammed Khan. Geelani has acquired movable and immovable property worth several crores of rupees in the state and also in the national Capital, details of which are with the NIA. Similarly, NIA sources claim that Yasin Malik virtually owns half of Lal Chowk, which is a prime location in Srinagar. In its investigation, the probe agency got hints that these leaders have used funds received from Pakistan to foment unrest in the Kashmir valley for their personal gains. For example, Shabir Ahmad Shah has accumulated huge wealth during the two decade-old militancy in the state, sources in the NIA said.
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 26

The Member of Parliament (MP) from Brampton, Canada, Ramesh Sangha, who is currently on India tour, has stressed on the need for more mutual cooperation between the two countries. Underlining the need for strengthening of ties between India and Canada, Sangha said it would be favourable for both the nations.

Addressing a function organised in honour of Sangha by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) general secretary, Pawan Dewan, here today, the Canadian MP said, Punjabis have contributed a lot in the development of Canada. Now, it is our wish that I should also do something for the betterment of my home state.

Sangha said the main idea behind his tour to India was to establish good ties with the new Congress government in Punjab headed by Captain Amarinder Singh.

It will help Punjabi NRIs settled in Canada contribute for development of Punjab in a much better way, he added

Speaking on the occasion Dewan said Sangha had always helped Punjabis, who wished to settle in Canada.

Captain Amarinder government is bound to protect rights of NRIs, which the previous SAD-BJP regime failed to do so in the past 10 years, he said.

Sangha was honoured by Dewan and other dignitaries preset on the occasion.
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 26

Bharat Jan Gyan Vigyan Jatha (BJGVJ) had paid homage to Prof Yash Paul, a renowned scientist, on his demise.

In a statement issued by Ranjit Singh, president, Dr Arun Mitra, general secretary and MS Bhatia, organising secretary of the BJGVJ said that this is an irreparable loss.

They said Prof Yash Pal was not just an astrophysicist but he related himself with the common people of the country. It was in 1992 that under his leadership a jatha of BJGVJ carrying the message of science in 50,000 villages and several hundred towns and cities from Kutch to Kohima and from Ladakh to Lakshadweep.

The BJGVJ leaders said while moving as enthusiastic well trained group, the volunteers had interacted with millions of people in dozens of dialects and languages. It helped them to grow as better humans and increased their wisdom.

The barriers of caste, creed and culture broke down. Women lifted their veils to look at what these young volunteers were doing in their village chaupals or around their wells. Old people nodded in appreciation and commended about the scientific practices that they had inherited from their past. The children and young examined the vision of tomorrows India.

The leaders, further added that the jatha had covered six varied themes like health, water, environment, superstitions and scientific thinking; appropriate technology and illiteracy. Under the leadership of Prof Yash Pal, the jatha had brought hope where despair reigned, they said.
TNS & Agencies

Mumbai, July 25

Twelve persons, including a three-month-old baby, died and 11 injured after the building they were living in collapsed this morning.

Among those killed were Ranjanben Shah (62), V Renuka (3 month), Sulakshana Khanchandani (80) and an unidentified woman (45).

According to the police, both wings of the four-storeyed Saidarshan building located in Ghatkopars Damodar Park came down a little before 11 am today. Survivors blamed the building collapse on the renovation work going on at the ground floor of the building, which was owned by a local Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap.

Shitap was reportedly constructing a guest house on the ground floor. He could not be contacted for comments. Officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), however, said they would question him on the issue. The 35-year-old building was in good condition till Shitap began carrying out renovation work, residents claimed.

Chief Fire Officer P Rahangdale said 14 fire engines and two rescue vans were deployed for relief and rescue operations.

Until 9 pm, 23 persons were extricated from the rubble, out of whom 12 were declared dead while 11 injured have been admitted in various hospitals," said Mahesh Narvekar, chief of the BMC Disaster Management cell.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry into the incident, according to Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. Fadnavis has asked the BMC chief to submit a report within 15 days, Mungantiwar said.
Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

About 400 cusecs of Sutlej water that rightfully belongs to India under the Indus Waters Treaty has been flowing into Pakistan each second due to leakage in Hussainiwala barrage gates near the border town of Ferozepur in Punjab.

The quantum of water, say government sources, is enough to irrigate 70,000 acres of land. This, in turn, can contribute Rs 250-300 crore per annum to the Indian economy in terms of crop production and allied commercial activities.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Under provisions of the treaty signed with Pakistan in 1960, India has complete control over waters of the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi that originate in the Western Himalayas and flow through India before entering Pakistan.

A detailed report on the state of the Hussainiwala barrage and its consequences as well as the maintenance work carried out earlier this year at nearby Harike barrage, which also faced a similar problem of leaking gates, has been submitted to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The Punjab Irrigation Department, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of Hussainiwala and Harike barrages, has drawn up plans to repair the gates at an estimated cost of Rs 55 crore. The repair work was last carried out at Hussainiwala over a decade ago.

While leakage from the Harike barrage is now negligible, we expect outflow of water to Pakistan to stop once the Hussainiwala barrage is repaired and additional water can be diverted to areas in Rajasthan, an officer said. Silting of the pond area at Hussainiwala, which offers marginal storage capacity, is another issue to be addressed, he added.

The repair of the Hussainiwala barrage would be funded by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development. The tendering for the project is yet to be undertaken. The Harike barrage repair had been funded by Rajasthan since the state is the main beneficiary of water being diverted from the barrage.
ATLANTA  Meek Mill faced scrutiny during his highly publicized rap feud with Drake and relationship with former girlfriend Nicki Minaj.

Some may think Mill lost in both situations, especially after Drakes Grammy-nominated diss track Back to Back. But the Philadelphia-bred rapper doesnt view it that way, saying there were other pressing issues in his life he considers as losses  from the death of close friends to a probation violation that landed him three months in house arrest last year.

While wearing a gold pendant in remembrance of the late rapper and protege Lil Snupe, who was shot dead in 2013, Mill spoke with The Associated Press about his new album Wins & Losses, which came out Friday. He also touches on empowering young black youth, Minajs ex-boyfriend Safaree Samuels being jumped during the BET Awards weekend and his aspirations of doing film.

AP: What compelled you to name your album Wins and Losses?

Mill: Everybody saying that Im losing and I lost. I lost my case. I lost my friends to the streets. Those things really meant something to me. I started off in the basement on a karaoke machine. Now Im in million-dollar studios, making a lot of money being able to feed my family and take them out a crazy environment, still being able to wake up on my own time and do things how I want to do it. Thats my definition of winning. I determine my definition of losing on this album.

AP: Your single Young Black America has a politically charged tone. What do you want people to take away from it?

Mill: Its an eye-opener for the young people for my culture. Its to help them open their eyes and see what they are really dealing with in real reality. A lot of rap isnt based off reality most of the time. Sometimes its ignorant. ... I just wanted to give young people in our culture an understanding of whats going on. In one video, we got young kids with guns with KKK masks on, basically saying we killing our own.

AP: What run-ins have you experienced with the law that youngsters can relate to?

Mill: I was 18 and got beat up by a cop and almost killed by cops. I was just a statistic coming up. The cops are in a dangerous neighborhood thinking everybody else in the neighborhood is dangerous or everybody in the hood is killers. They caught me and treated me like I was a killer. I dont think thats really right. The cop gave me a 100 charges with trying to kill a cop. I dont want to kill a cop. They basically put me on probation for the rest of my life from that point on when I was 18. Im 30 now and still on probation. Ive been to jail three times from that one stint of probation. Any mistake you make, youll be put in prison. Your freedom can be took.

AP: Your relationship with Minaj and beef with Drake really put a spotlight on you. How did you take to the criticism?

Mill: Ill look at the internet and see comments like, Meek got Nicki money. You cant know nothing about Meek Mill if you saying something like that. They be like Meek Mill cant rap.... Somebody wrote Meek Mill raps. ... I came up on YouTube rapping since I was 14 years old. Thats my importance to the streets. They seen me come up. My story is not a facade.

AP: Did you have anything to do with Safaree being jumped?

Mill: I dont know nothing about him getting jumped on. I pulled up and actually seen him getting into an altercation. You can look at my face and see that I was surprised. Me and my friends had a party at that spot that night, so thats somewhere we were supposed to be going. I dont communicate with him. I dont know him. I dont even want to base those guys in this interview. Thats not even on my level. Street fights take place all the time. I aint touch nobody. Didnt put no hand on nobody. Im on strict probation. Im just trying to handle my business and feed my family. I dont think those dudes are worthy of being talked about.

AP: Does your short film, Wins & Losses: The Movie make you want to get more involved in film?

Mill: I want to do something that expresses the things we go through. The things we feel. I have a lot of older white friends who dont understand our culture. They might see ignorant or wild things and dont understand why its going on. But I might have to break it down like, Yo, this guy is on drugs for 15 years. I believe I can express things through film.
New Delhi, July 26

Altogether 450 incidents of communal violence took place in Uttar Pradesh in the last three years, 162 of which were reported in 2016, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said that in Uttar Pradesh, 155 such incidents took place in 2015 and 133 in 2014.

In Maharashtra, 270 communal incidents were reported in the last three years, 68 of which took place in 2016, 105 in 2015 and 97 in 2014, he said in a written reply.

Madhya Pradesh reported 205 communal incidents in the last three years of which 57 took place in 2016, 92 in 2015 and 56 in 2014.

In Rajasthan, 200 such incidents were reported in the last three years, of which 63 took place in 2016, 65 in 2015 and 72 incidents in 2014, he said. PTI
Sanjeev Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Giving powers to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to refer large defaulting companies for bankruptcy proceedings, the government has introduced the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Regulation Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill seeks to replace the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, promulgated by the President on May 4, 2017.

As per the Bill moved by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday, stressed assets or non-performing assets in the banking system have reached unacceptably high levels and hence, urgent measures are required for their speedy resolution to improve the fiscal health of banking companies.

It was considered necessary to make provisions in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, for authorising the RBI to issue directions to any banking company or companies to effectively use provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, for timely resolution of stressed assets, the Bill said.

Analysts say the fear of liquidation would speed up the resolution of bad loans. India Ratings says, The fear of liquidation or winding up could have a positive impact as stakeholders would be willing to arrive at common ground to escape liquidation, nevertheless haircuts specially towards the larger exposures are inevitable.

Following the ordinance issued in May, the RBI has issued directions to banks for referring 12 accounts (or companies) totalling about 25 per cent of the gross non-performing assets of the banking system to initiate insolvency process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016. The RBI has constituted an Internal Advisory Committee (IAC), which arrived at an objective, non-discretionary criterion for referring accounts for resolution under the IBC 2016.

The IAC recommended for IBC reference all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5,000 crore, with 60 per cent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016.

With regard to other 500 NPAs, the IAC recommended that banks should finalise a resolution plan within six months. In cases where a viable resolution plan is not agreed upon in six months, the banks should be required to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC.

A Crisil Research report said with this step, the RBI has sent a strong signal to borrowers to adhere to credit discipline and encouraged banks to break resolution deadlock with definite timelines. It has also addressed the reluctance of banks to further mark down the asset values of these NPAs by having an oversight committee to provide guidance.

Industry body Assocham expects Rs 8 lakh crore NPAs are likely to undergo bankruptcy proceedings by March 2019.
Patna, July 26

JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar is all set to take oath as Bihar Chief Minister once again at 5 pm onThursday. The announcement came soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Wednesday evening that it would support him to continue as chief minister. Hours earlier Nitish Kumar had resigned from his position over corruption charges against his deputy Tejaswi Yadav.

BJP leaders arrived at Nitish Kumar's residence at 1 Anne Marg in Patna late in the evening.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai submitted a letter supporting next government under Nitish Kumar to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) has 71 legislators and BJP-led NDA has 58 MLAs even as 122 are required to form government in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

Legislators of NDA constituents and JD (U) will meet and elect Nitish Kumar as their leader, BJP will be part of government, senior party leader Sushil Modi said on Wednesday evening.

This came after the party announced it was not in favour of mid-term elections.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Emerging from the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board attended, among others, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after Kumar made his announcement to step down, senior party leader J P Nadda said the board is against mid-term polls in the state.

He also said a three-member panel has been formed in Bihar to talk to BJP MLAs and report to the leadership to help it take a final call.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Nitish Kumars decision was along expected lines.  TNS/PTI

READ
Beijing, July 25

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi has claimed that India admitted to entering Chinese territory and said the solution to the standoff was for its troops to conscientiously withdraw from the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

The rights and wrongs are very clear and even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian territory, Wang said yesterday in Bangkok, commenting for the first time over the standoff between the troops from the two countries.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"In other words, the Indian side admitted to entering the Chinese territory. The solution to this problem is very simple: conscientiously withdraw," he said in a brief quote in Chinese posted on China's Foreign Ministry's website today.

The standoff has happened in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan after the Chinese army tried to build a road in the disputed area.

Read: Chinese state media divided over outcome of Dovals visit

India has said the "unilateral" Chinese action to change the status quo near the Bhutan trijunction poses a challenge to India's security.

In her address to the Rajya Sabha last week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj accused China of building roads using bulldozers and excavators, which has been protested by Bhutan in writing to Beijing.

She also said India was not "unreasonable" on the issue and all nations were with it.

The issues is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries  Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa  on July 27-28.

Yesterday, the Chinese Defence Ministry said its military will safeguard China's security interests at "any cost".  PTI
KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The CPM central committee today outvoted a proposal by the Bengal unit to allow party general secretary Sitaram Yechury an unprecedented third term in the Rajya Sabha with the support of the Congress.

An intense debate over taking Congress support was vehemently opposed by Kerala-led units that did not want any truck with the Congress, its political opponent in the southern state where CPM has a government. Contours of the ideological debate articulated by the hardline faction led by former general secretary Prakash Karat versus the pragmatic approach by the Bengal-led unit favouring Yechury were being drawn for the past few months.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The argument that Yechury is a powerful Opposition voice in Parliament whose presence is needed at a time when all forces against the BJP were joining hands did not find favour within.

Yechury on his part told the Politburo yesterday he was not interested in a third term. The party norms allow only two terms for its members.

At the last Politburo meeting, the proposal was shot down by majority but the Bengal unit wrote to the Central Committee, which is the larger body, to consider the issue.

The committee that has been meeting since Tuesday today disposed of the proposal, voting by a huge majority in favour of the Politburo decision, party sources said.

Former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achutanandan came out in support of the Bengal move. It came at a time when former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee through a newspaper interview reminded that Karat prevented him from becoming President of India in 2007, which, he said, was not as important as the historic blunder of 1996 when Jyoti Basu was not allowed to become the Prime Minister.

Achutanandans opponent in the party and current Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today came out against the support.
Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at latters residence here and requested Centres intervention in the ongoing Darjeeling unrest.

Mamata reportedly met Rajnath following an advice by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, sources said, after the swearing-in ceremony of Ram Nath Kovind as the 14th President of India, while leaving the venue, noticed Mamata sitting almost in the last row. Both leaders had a brief conversation, as TMC sources claimed she was advised to meet Rajnath to resolve the Darjeeling crisis.

The hour-long meeting was attended by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and his successor Rajiv Gauba. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mamata said, she apprised Rajnath of the ground situation in the hill district. Whatever information I have under my command as the executive head of the state was shared with him and central assistance sought for defusing the crisis, she said.

When asked if the BJP was fuelling the crisis, she said, May be some local leaders, but not the national leaders. We may have our ideological differences, but on issues of national interest we are together and we are bound by our constitutional obligation of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country.

Meanwhile, the Centre in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha contended today that there was no proposal to constitute a committee to look into the separate state demand of the Gorkhas and others agitating in Darjeeling. There is no proposal to appoint a committee to look into the merits and demerits of the demands of the Gorkhas, Adivasis and others, MoS (Home) Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said.
Beijing, July 26

Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

Officials here confirmed that Doval who will be taking part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing will be meeting President Xi.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

China has said no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area.

However, it has acknowledged that talks through diplomatic channels are taking place and hinted at a meeting between Doval and Yang.

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

Though the BRICS NSAs meeting is scheduled for two days, it was open for the media only on July 28, the last day when the top security officials of the five countries will formally meeting to discuss on global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security and energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

Besides Doval and Yang, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo of South Africa, Minister Sergio Etchegoyen of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of Brazil, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of the Russian Federation would also attend the NSAs meeting.

China hopes that this meeting will help safeguard the common interests of the BRICS countries, move forward political and security cooperation and strengthen the solidarity and influence of the group, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said on Monday.  PTI
Patna, July 26

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejaswi Yadav.

In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

He did not rule out taking BJP's support for forming a new government.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"I tried to work it out....I did not ask for anybody's resignation...I just asked Tejaswi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

The sudden development throws the politics of Bihar into chaos with no party having a majority in the 243-member Assembly.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption (by resigning as CM).

            - 

             Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Kumar's JD(U) has 71 seats, while RJD headed by Tejaswi Yadav's father Lalu Prasad, has 80. The BJP has 53.

Asked if he will now form a government with BJP's support, he said, "Whatever had to happen has happened. Now see what happens next."

Kumar, who led the grand alliance that also included the Congress to a stunning victory, was sworn in on November 20, 2015.

Earlier in the day, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out resignation by Tejaswi Yadav. Nitish, however, said he did not ask anyone to resign, but only sought a clarification.

"The Governor has accepted my resignation, and asked me to continue working till the next development," Nitish said.

"Before resigning, I had informed Laluji and Congress Bihar incharge CP Joshi."

Nitish added, "Gandhiji always said needs can be met on the earth, but greed can never be fulfilled."

Congress voiced its disappointment with Nitish's decision.

We are deeply disappointed by the news of Nitish Kumar's resignation. Congress respects Nitish Kumar as a leader, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. Mahagathbandhan (the grand alliance) was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar. We shall continue to strive to ensure that the mandate given is fully respected.

'Conspiracy'

Lalu Prasad Yadav accused Nitish Kumar of having colluded with the BJP.

Nitish Kumar has colluded with the BJP and RSS. What set up! PM Modi tweets immediately to congratulate Nitish Kumar, he said

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the CBI registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri devi and son Tejaswi in a land-for-hotels case.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

Giving a new twist, Lalu said a pending case against Kumar and not the differences over corruption charges against Tejaswi was at the root the JD(U) leader's "resignation drama".

In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, a woman was killed at a polling station in Pandarak and Nitish Kumar is among the accused. He had made a mention of the case in the affidavit he filed while contesting the Legislative Council election, Lalu told a press conference.

He claimed a court in Barh had taken cognizance of the charges against Kumar in 2009 and that the case was still alive in the Patna High Court.

"Nitish knew that he was soon going to be hauled up by the court and will have to quit in any case. He made the Tejaswi issue a ruse to exit before that happens," the RJD boss claimed.

He slammed Kumar for seeking explanation from Tejaswi over graft charges against him, saying, "We will give the documents to CBI. Who are they to ask for it? Has Tejashwi engaged in any act of corruption as a minister in Bihar?" "There is the involvement of Narendra Modi in all this.

Nitish has slapped the people of Bihar and now people like Sushil Modi (a top state BJP leader and former deputy chief minister) are eager to form government with JD(U)," he said.

Replying to a question, Lalu said he had not sacrificed the grand alliance government for "love of his son".

"We were the largest party in the grand alliance.

Tejashwi got the post of the deputy chief minister. We had the mandate of the people," he said.

On his part Nitish Kumar said, "While supporting demonetisation, I had suggested that it could yield good results only if there is a simultaneous attack on benami property (a property which is not registered in the name of its real owner). How can I back out of it."

Several members of Lalu's family, including his MP daughter Misa Bharti and son-in-law Shailesh Kumar have been accused of acquiring benami properties with tainted money.

Nitish said he had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi seeking his intervention to resolve the issue.

"I met Rahul Gandhi who had torn an ordinance that sought to enable people sentenced to more than two years in jail to contest elections (a move that was seen as an attempt to help Lalu). But except for some superficial talk nothing happened," he said.

"I heard the voice of my conscience and decided to pull myself out of this coalition," he said.

He said he "knocked every door" to salvage the alliance, but in vain.

"They wanted me to save them in their time of crisis.

Given my nature and style of work that could not have happened," Nitish said.

He said had Tejashwi resigned of his own volition, he would have grown in stature. "But everybody chooses his own path. I don't want to blame anybody."  Agencies

READ
New Delhi, July 25

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for most part of the day today on account of the presidential inauguration and later due to Oppositions protests on a range of issues, mainly the suspension of six Congress MPs for misconduct yesterday.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned proceedings at 11 am until 3 pm to enable MPs to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Ram Nath Kovind.

When the House reassembled at 3 pm, it was again adjourned with the Congress-led Opposition disrupting proceedings over the suspension of party MPs, denial of debate on lynchings in the name of cow protection and alleged false remarks by some BJP members against Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The day began with leaders of the Congress, TMC, Left, RJD and NCP staging a protest outside Parliament in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue against the suspension of six members.

It continued again when the House met at 3 pm and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded the revocation of suspension of MPs.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumars retort that Kharge was siding with unruly members didnt cut ice with the Opposition that stuck to the demand that suspended MPs be called back.

Scindia also dared two BJP members  Veerendra Kumar and Nandkumar Singh Chouhan  to prove charges they levelled against him in the House by saying that a health centre inaugurated by a Dalit local MLA in Ashok Nagar, Madhya Pradesh, was re-inaugurated by Scindia with the objective of purification.

If these charges are proven, I will quit as member of the House, Scindia said with Kharge defending him and accusing Ananth Kumar of adding fuel to fire. The Speaker adjourned the House saying, If you are bent upon creating ruckus, how will the House run? I have told you to raise your concerns under rules ... Dont try to teach me .  TNS
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said Iraq Foreign Minister had never said that the 39 missing Indians were dead.

Speaking amid uproar over the issue in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj said the government would not close the file on the missing Indians in Iraq till they got evidence of their death.

She said: "It is a sin to declare a person dead without concrete evidence."

She said the Opposition was free to declare the missing Indians dead, but it would be their responsibility if anyone turned out alive later.

She said: Its very easy for me to say that the 39 Indians are dead. No one, including their families, will ask me anything after that", adding that the government was not misleading anyone over the issue.

She said the Iraqi authority had said that the Indians were last heard of being lodged in Badush jail until early 2016 and they had lost contact with them after that.

She said Iraq never said that the Indians were in the jail when it was razed, adding that the question now was where they went after 2016.

She said Iraq had assured the Indian government that they would come up with hard evidence on the issue.

I've told them I will not accept any information from secondary sources and will accept only new information with evidence, said Sushma.

She said: I've met the families of the missing people 12 times and will now meet them only after I get hard evidence suggesting something.

Sushma will make a statement on the issue in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
RACINE COUNTY  After weeks of speculation, electronics giant Foxconn is officially headed to southeastern Wisconsin  and possibly Racine County  to build a plant employing thousands of workers.

President Donald Trump participated in the announcement Wednesday at the White House, surrounded by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, also attended the event.

The Taiwan-based electronics giant will build a liquid-crystal display factory in southeastern Wisconsin as part of a $10 billion capital investment.

Walker called it "the single largest economic development project in the history of the state of Wisconsin." The plant will reportedly employ 3,000 people initially and could eventually have up to 13,000 workers.

"This is a great day for American workers, and manufacturing, and for everyone who believes in the concept and the label 'Made in the USA, " Trump said.

While the exact location hasn't been specified, Racine County is widely seen as a favorite to land the facility  potentially transforming the area's economic landscape. Vos and other state legislators say they expect Foxconn will wind up in Racine County. Kenosha County is also reportedly in the running.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said the county "would welcome this type of investment," but would "not comment on speculation around potential development opportunities."

We are thrilled that a company of this magnitude has recognized the business opportunities available in Wisconsin," Delagrave said in a statement. "We will be proud to have them as part of our great state."

Delagrave added that "we are also committed to transparency. If and when we have further information that we are able to share, we will engage in a full dialogue with the community."

20M square feet

According to a project fact sheet, which called the development "WisConn Valley," the Foxconn campus will have a floor area of 20 million square feet and become one of the largest manufacturing campuses in the world. The entire complex will be located on at least 1,000 acres.

"For southeastern Wisconsin, this is an absolute game-changer," Ryan said.

Walker, who noted the project could hold 11 Lambeau Fields, will also create 10,000 construction jobs and 22,000 indirect and induced jobs throughout the state.

A special session of the Legislature will be called to pass an incentive package for Foxconn to locate in Wisconsin, according to the report. Foxconn could earn up to $3 billion in tax credits over 15 years.

The facility will manufacture LCD panels for a variety of industries, including automotive, health care and entertainment. The jobs will reportedly have an average salary of $53,875 plus benefits.

Caution urged

Foxconn is the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other products for Apple and other brands.

Ryan, who represents Racine County in Congress, and his staff met several times with Foxconn executives, Walker, state officials and the Trump administration to help make the deal happen, according to Ryan's office.

Walker first reached out to Ryan in early June. Ryan met with Foxconn executives in Washington on June 20, and then at a dinner about three weeks later. Among the topics of discussion was federal workforce development and training programs and an incentive package.

"We are confident that making American products will be a great success," Gou said.

Trump promoted his administration's work to eliminate "job-killing regulations," saying it helped lure Foxconn to the U.S. He also used the event to highlight efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and upcoming bills on infrastructure and taxes.

Ahead of the announcement, Democrats said officials should proceed with caution.

"In order to have an economy that works for all us  not just the millionaires and billionaires  state-subsidized private sector jobs need to be a good investment that offers a living wage and ensures safe working conditions," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairwoman Martha Laning said.
Patna, July 26

RJD president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday ruled out resignation by his son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav as Bihars deputy chief minister in the wake of the CBI filing an FIR against him as an accused in land-for-hotels case.

Has Nitish asked for the resignation of Tejaswi Yadav?" Prasad asked in reply to a volley of questions by scribes regarding JD(U) insistence that the embattled deputy chief minister should come clean on accusations in public which is politically being construed as JD(U)'s demand of his resignation.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"Are they (JD-U) police that we have to answer them?" he shot back to another question that JD(U) spokesmen have been regularly saying that Tejaswi Yadav has to come clean in the public domain.

In its legislature party meeting, the RJD had earlier too ruled out resignation of Tejaswi Yadav.

Prasad, who was speaking after a meeting of the RJD legislature party at the 10, Circular Road residence of Rabri Devi, said, "The RJD legislators will discharge their functions under the leadership of Tejaswi Yadav and Rabri Devi in the state assembly and legislative council, respectively."

The RJD's decision on the resignation issue comes ahead of the JD(U) legislature party meeting to be held this evening. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will chair the meeting.

The RJD legislature party meeting was advanced by a day as Lalu Prasad has to go to Ranchi tonight and would stay there for the next three days in connection with a fodder scam related case.  PTI
Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Providing relief to a Military Engineer Service (MES) officer whose name figured in an Army staff court of inquiry convened to investigate alleged lapse in procurement, the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has held that the jurisdiction of the military court of inquiry does not cover civilian employees posted in defence establishments.

Quashing an order that denied vigilance clearance to Joint Director General (Personnel and Training), Western Command, Dev Raj, an Indian Defence Service of Engineers (IDSE) cadre officer, the CAT observed that civilian officers, though liable to participate in a court of inquiry against military personnel, are governed by the Central Civil Services Rules and not by the Army rules under which a court of inquiry is convened.

The convening order of the staff court of inquiry mentioned that it was to ascertain irregularities committed by military personnel and Dev Raj was summoned before it as a witness. The MES has a mix of Army and IDSE officers.

The Ministry of Defence had relied upon a letter issued by the Engineer-in-Chief stating that disciplinary action against civilian officers should be taken after receipt of concurred court of inquiry and show-cause notice be issued to all officers blamed for the lapses.

The Bench held that to assert emphatically that an indictment by the court of inquiry of a civilian officer in the absence of attendant requirements to have full legal force seems unfair and incorrect. The Bench said that the respondents offered no explanation as to why the court of inquiry, being beyond jurisdiction and not instituted to inquire against the conduct of the applicant, amplified its scope to include the applicant and give findings on his conduct.

The applicants case was that when he was promoted to the rank of Chief Engineer after the court of inquiry, there was no vigilance issue. However, when he was to be posted to an important executive post as the Chief Engineer of a Zone, he was denied vigilance clearance, which was contrary to rules.
Mumbai, July 26

A Shiv Sena worker was on Wednesday arrested in connection with the building collapse in suburban Ghatkopar which left 17 people dead.

According to residents of the Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society, the pillars of the building got weakened due to renovation work of a nursing home on the ground floor owned by Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap, leading to the collapse on Tuesday.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Shitap has been booked under IPC sections 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).

Shitap, who was detained on Tuesday night, was arrested after questioning, a senior police official said.

The death toll, meanwhile, on Wednesday rose to 17 after five more bodies were pulled out from the rubble of the four-storey building during overnight search and rescue operations.

Our rescue team, along with the fire brigade and NDRF jawans, extricated 28 people from the debris, out of which 17 people have been declared dead. Eleven injured have been admitted to the nearby Shantiniketan and Rajawadi hospitals, an official of the disaster management unit of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Five bodies were pulled out during the night. Two firemen were injured in the rescue operation and shifted to a hospital, the official said.

The search and rescue operations are still underway.

The city and its suburbs received heavy rain over the last several days, though there has been some respite since Monday with downpour giving way to intermittent showers.

The BMC has made temporary accommodation arrangements for the affected people in three nearby municipal schools, however, survivors preferred to stay at homes of their relatives.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the collapse site on Tuesday night and said, An offence has been registered and police are investigating. I have directed the commissioner of BMC to investigate and submit the report within 15 days. PTI
New Delhi, July 26

An electrical engineer-turned-politician, Nitish Kumar gave a shock to RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday in circumstances as dramatic as in 2015 when he surprisingly joined hands with his arch-rival to become chief minister of Bihar for a fifth term.

Often referred to as Chanakya of Bihar politics, Kumar, 66, quit today as the head of the coalition government in the politically crucial state that could have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar led the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) that comprised his JD(U), the RJD and the Congress to a stunning victory few thought possible after being bruised and bloodied in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Kumar, who first became chief minister on November 24, 2005, was sworn in for a fifth term on November 20, 2015.

For the cool, suave and workaholic Nitish, he knew his association with 69-year-old Prasad, whom he called his 'Bade Bhai', would be the main point the BJP-led opposition could always score off, but he had always found a counter: an answer to anything and everything thrown at him.

Soft-spoken, sharp and articulate, Kumar, who speaks in a measured tone, had an answer ready with a subtle fact that he himself "had been with BJP too but never been coloured, and in any case Lalu is and remains a socialist.

Persuasive, sometimes adamant, Kumar is known to carry strong likes and dislikes and never forgets a slight -- a trait for which Prasad described him as having 'aant mein daant' (teeth in his belly).

Working with his new tactician Prashant Kishor, a key BJP strategist for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kumar worked a carefully crafted soft campaign template for Bihar in the 2015 Assembly elections.

He invoked only his work, the potential of the next government with him, the slights to Bihar and his own self, strident appeals to Bihar's 'Asmita'(pride) and speaking for himself as the lone Bihari against the 'Bahari' (outsider), a veiled reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Even Sushil Kumar Modi, the tallest BJP leader from Bihar and once his deputy and friend, acknowledges Kumar to be a visionary who changed Bihar.

His breakaway from the BJP in June 2013 stunned the nation, as did his resignation from the chief minister's post after the JD(U)'s massive Lok Sabha defeat in May 2014 and elevation of his protege Jitan Ram Manjhi as chief minister and then pulling the latter down to assume power again in February 2015 for a fourth term.

Kumar is also widely known as the 'Sushashan Babu' (Good governance man) and 'Vikas Purush', whom even critics credit with turning Bihar around.

Following the age-old proverb enemy's enemy is friend, the JD(U) leader whose party won just two of the state's 40 seats in the Lok Sabha poll, joined hands with Prasad to halt bete noire Narendra Modi's juggernaut in Bihar in the 2015 Assembly polls.

Prasad and Nitish, friend-turned-foe in state politics, sank their differences to revive an alliance that began over 40 years ago with the students' agitation, which soon turned into a pan-India movement led by veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.

Though Prasad got lucky in his very first outing in the electoral arena, winning Lok Sabha poll in 1977, it took Kumar, an electrical engineer from NIT Patna, then known as Bihar College of Engineering, eight more years to get elected to the state assembly for the first time in 1985, after having lost twice.

Though as different as chalk and cheese, Kumar backed Prasad in bagging the chair of the Leader of Opposition in the assembly in 1989 and again when he challenged Ram Sundar Das and Raghunath Jha, nominees of Prime Minister V P Singh and Chandrashekhar, respectively, for the chief minister's post after Janata Dal came to power in Bihar in 1990.

Kumar, who won the 1989 Lok Sabha polls from Barh, shifted his focus to Delhi, getting elected to the lower house in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. He became Minister of State for Agriculture in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and then briefly the Railway Minister in 1999. He resigned after the train tragedy at Gaisal in West Bengal in 1999 in which nearly 300 people were killed.

Kumar again became Railway Minister in 2001 and continued till 2004 during which period he was credited with introducing several reforms in the public sector behemoth like internet ticket booking and Tatkal system of instant booking.

The Godhra train burning incident in February 2002, which provided the spark that led to communal riots in Gujarat, occurred during his tenure at Rail Bhavan.

The JD(U) stalwart reworked his social engineering strategy and made a rainbow coalition of OBCs, EBCs, Mahadalits and minorities that helped him sweep Bihar in November 2005 elections, thereby uprooting 15 years of uninterrupted Lalu-Rabri rule.

Bihar became a completely 'dry state' last year banning sale and consumption of all kinds of liquor in a move seen as fulfillment of a poll promise to women by Kumar.

Kumar's passionate pitch for prohibition citing the adverse affects of domestic violence and broken families besides economic and health costs had earned overwhelming support from women for the ruling JD(U) in the 2015 assembly polls.

He reiterated his commitment while announcing the ban.

Kumar's backing to BJP presidential candidate and former Bihar Governor R N Kovind by breaking ranks with the opposition and his support of the Modi government's demonetisation drive had triggered speculation that he was warming up to the saffron party.  PTI
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, July 26

Political parties in Maharashtra are trading allegations over the collapse of the four-storeyed building in Mumbai's suburban Ghatkopar on Tuesday that has claimed the lives of at least 17 people.



Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at first blamed Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap for carrying out illegal alterations in the ground floor premises owned by him in the ill-fated Sai Siddhi building. Fadnavis told the state assembly that Shitap was in the process of renovating his Shitap Nursing Home on the ground floor of the building

during which the concrete beams holding the building were cut.



When the opposition Congress and NCP MLAs expressed distrust about the Shiv Sena-run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation carrying out a fair investigation, Fadnavis said a committee of IAS officers under Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta would conduct it and submit a report in 15 days.



While Fadnavis told the assembly that the residents of the building had not complained of illegal alterations being made by Shitap, survivors from the building collapse told reporters that the BMC and the local police refused to entertain any complaints against the Shiv Sena leader. Shitap's wife had unsuccessfully contested the municipal

elections on a Shiv Sena ticket.



After the residents filed an FIR against Shitap he was arrested early on Wednesday, police said. He was produced before a magistrate's court, which sent him to police custody till August 2.
New Delhi, July 25

Eminent scientist Professor Yash Pal, noted for his contribution to the study of cosmic rays as well as for being an institution builder, died last night, his family said today.

Dr Pal, who was 90, passed away due to age-related illness, his son Rahul Pal, also a scientist with the Science and Technology Ministrys Department of Biotechnology, said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

PM Narendra Modi said on Twitter, Pained by Prof Yash Pals demise. We have lost a brilliant scientist & academician who made a lasting contribution to Indian education.

The former UGC chairman, who started his career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, had been awarded the Padma Vibhushan.

Thank you Professor #YashPal for all the Science! It's sad to see you gone, its a huge loss, but youll always stay with us. Om Shanti," Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan tweeted. The country has lost a link with the generation of Dr Homi Bhabha and Dr Vikram Sarabhai, said Vijay Raghvan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology.  PTI
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

Every year India observes July 26 as Vijay Diwas to mark victory over Pakistan in what is termed Kargil War of 1999.

Away from the flag raisings and solemn official ceremonies to lay wreaths, militarily and strategically the war thwarted Pakistan Armys audacious attempt to cut-off supply routes to Siachen Glacier and northern parts of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Today, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley led the forces in paying homage to the 527 Indian soldiers who died in the Kargil War. He, along with the top brass of the forces, laid wreaths at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate in New Delhi.

From May to July in 1999 Indian soldiers forced out the Pakistan Army along the 168-km Himalayan ridgeline that forms the Mushkoh-Drass-Kargil-Batalik-Turtuk axis along the Line of Control with Pakistan. Gen Pervez Musharraf, the Army Chief of Pakistan, planned to cut-off the two road approaches to Siachen.

One road passes through Drass-Kargil to sever the Srinagar-Leh national highway (NH-1A) to isolate Kargil district and cut Indias lifeline to Leh, with a plan to choke supplies to Indian troops holding the Saltoro Ridge on the western edge of the Siachen Glacier. The second road access to Siachen and north is via Manali. North of the Khardungla Pass it leads to Turtuk valley area, which adjoins the Siachen glacial belt. It was to establish a base and then attempt to cut the road link.

140 posts which the Indian Army used to vacate in winter were occupied at altitudes between 15,000 and 19,000 feet in the rugged, undulating and punishing territory.

Lt Gen Shahid Aziz of the Pakistan Army, who worked in its intelligence agency (ISI), authored a book Putting our children in line of fire in which he says: Our clearly expressed intent was to cut the supply line to Siachen and force the Indians to pull out.

General Musharraf in his book In the Line of Fire writes how 800 sq kms of area was captured.... and it created strategic effects.

Col Ashfaq Hussain (retd), who was a senior officer in the Pakistan Armys media arm, wrote a tell-all book Witness to Blunder: Kargil Story Unfolds in 2008 in which he lambasts the plan of Gen Musharraf. He says: The plan was a success only till Pakistani forces came face to face with the enemy. Our troops crossed the LoC at a time when the enemy (India from his perspective) was not present.

Pak planned to cut off two road approaches
MOUNT PLEASANT  Many questions remain in the discovery of a womans body on Monday on a rural parcel in Mount Pleasant, just off the ditch line of the 11000 block of Louis Sorenson Road.

Investigators consider the death suspicious and an autopsy done Tuesday morning did not reveal a cause of death.

There is more testing that needs to be done, Mount Pleasant Chief Tim Zarzecki said.

Zarzecki said despite no identification on the body at the scene, investigators have identified the woman and are notifying family before releasing it to the public.

Sharon Stollenwerk, who saw the body on her property, said the woman is not a neighbor and shes never seen her before.

We really dont know much more than just finding the body, Stollenwerk said. I thought it was a mannequin, but it turned out not to be.

Stollenwerk said the 45-acre parcel had trails cut in the brush for neighbors to use for walking.

Our property is for our enjoyment ... We cut the paths and we have people that walk on it, Stollenwerk said.

Zarzecki has ruled out the possibility of it being Dover resident Lynn Rickard, who has been missing since June 25.

The death appears to have happened in the last few days, Zarzecki said.

The Mount Pleasant Police Department is being assisted by the State Crime Lab Response Team and the State Patrol Reconstruction Unit.

Weve taken casts of everything that may have made a mark (at the scene) whether it be a shoe print, vehicle print or anything like that, Zarzecki said. Were doing everything we can to solve the case and find out what happened.

Anyone with information that may help investigators is asked to contact Mount Pleasant Police at 262-886-2300 or Crime Stoppers of Racine County Inc., via the following options: Crime Stoppers anonymous tip by telephone (888-636-9330); Crime Stoppers of Racine County, www.racine.crimestoppersweb.com; or by text messaging RACS + message to CRIMES(274637).
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

The government today said it will continue the search for 39 missing Indians in Iraq until hard evidence of their death emerges, and wont close the files.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said her Iraqi counterpart, recently in India, never said our missing citizens were dead.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

All he said was he did not know if these people were dead or alive. He has assured us of a comprehensive search. I have told the Iraq government that we will not accept any information from secondary sources now and will need all news to be backed with proof. Thats when we will come back to the families, Swaraj said, denying the Opposition charge of misleading the families on the status of their missing kin.

She said it was a sin to declare anyone dead without proof. I wont be party to this sin. Opposition leaders who feel I am misleading can tell the families that their kin are dead but would be doing so on their own responsibility. Families, if they have lost hope in me, can perform ardas but must bear the onus tomorrow if their wards return, Swaraj said.

Claiming she never said these 39 Indians were alive, Swaraj noted, All I said in Parliament earlier was that while one source, Harjit Masih, says they are dead, six say they are alive. So what should I do? Continue my search or abandon it? The latter is an easier option but we cant close the file on our people till we find proof of their death.

Among minor interruptions by Punjab MPs Bhagwant Mann (AAP) and Gurjeet Aujla (Congress), Swaraj clarified reports of missing Indians not being found in Iraqs Badush jail.

I never said these people are today in Badush jail. When MoS VK Singh went to Iraq after the news of Mosuls recapture, sources told him the 39 were captured from the Mosul airfield, and lodged in Badush jail in early 2016. Since then there has been no contact. This is what we told the families, Swaraj said.

Since June 2014, when the Indians went missing after capture by ISIS in Mosul, Swaraj has met their families 12 times.
Patna, July 12

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday refused to buy the defence of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav that he was a minor without a moustache at the time of the land-for-hotels deal.

When Tejaswi Yadav became the owner of the property, he had turned an adult with a moustache and a beard, he said in a statement here.

He cannot put a veil on his crime by pleading that he was a minor at that time, added Modi.

The BJP leader claimed that the Kochhar brothers had sold a commercial property on February 25, 2005, in the form of a three-acre land in Patna, through 10 sale deeds for Rs 1.47 crore, to Delight Marketing, in which Sarla Gupta, the wife of former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta, was a director.

After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, owned by the Kocchars, the ownership of Delight Marketing also changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav between 2010 and 2014, he alleged.

Modi dared Tejaswi to announce that he did not own the said land, on which Bihars biggest mall was coming up.

Tejaswi should also announce that he does not own a four-storied building at New Friends Colony in Delhi, the value of which is Rs 115 crore today, he said.

The BJP leader once again urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to sack Tejaswi.

When Tejaswi Yadav and his family have refused to resign, should the CM not show the courage to sack him? he wondered.

Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai also dismissed Tejaswis defence of being a minor at the time of the land deal and alleged that he was putting the blame on his father (RJD supremo Lalu Prasad).

Earlier in the day, Tejaswi virtually ruled out the possibility of resigning from the state cabinet and dubbed the FIR against him as a part of a political vendetta.

The FIR (in the land-for-hotels case) is part of a political vendetta. BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are conspiring against me and my family members because of political reasons, he told reporters.

Can you believe that a 14-year-old child, whose moustache is yet to come, will indulge in corruption? he asked and dubbed the FIR as a farzi (fake) one.  PTI
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

China today continued to send hostile signals on the Doklam standoff. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Indian troops must withdraw as senior Indian officials had openly admitted that Chinese troops did not enter the Indian boundary. He also demanded that Indian troops must conscientiously pull back from the area if they wanted to resolve the issue.

The rights and wrongs are very clear and even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter the Indian territory, Wang said yesterday in Bangkok. His comments are significant since this is the first time a senior Chinese government official has commented on the standoff.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

In other words, the Indian side admitted to entering the Chinese territory. The solution is very simple: conscientiously withdraw, he said in a brief quote posted on Chinas Foreign Ministry website today. In another hard-hitting editorial, the state-run Global Times referred to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval as the main schemer and also made it clear that Dovals visit wont sway the Chinese. Another publication, China Daily, however, hoped that Dovals visit would help both countries come to a peaceful resolution.

In an op-ed, GT made no bones about how China views the issue. The fact that Indian troops need to withdraw as a precondition is the basis for any start to a dialogue, it said.

GT drew a dismal picture of Dovals upcoming visit. He will inevitably be disappointed if he attempts to bargain on the border disputes, said the op-ed.

Dovals visit to Beijing later this week is primarily to attend the BRICS NSA meet but China indicated yesterday that a bilateral meet is possible between him and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 25

The Kapurthala police yesterday arrested all three members of a gang that was involved in 34 ATM burglaries in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh over the past four years.

The gang had looted Rs3.26 crore so far, including Rs11.43 lakh from an Oriental Bank of Commerce ATM at Sultanpur Lodhi five days ago.

Their Hyundai Verna car was stopped at a naka in Sultanpur Lodhi. The presence of gas cutters, an LPG cylinder, an oxygen cylinder, regulators, pipes, gloves and multiple car number plates made the police suspicious. Inderjit Singh of Rama Mandi (Jalandhar), Amrik Singh of Tarn Taran and Prince of Jalandhar Cantonment were taken into custody.

During a search, country-made pistols, cartridges and intoxicating pills were seized. The trio was booked under Sections 392, 482, 457, 380 and 411 of the IPC.

Kapurthala SSP Sandeep Sharma said, My police teams were told to check Verna cars as we had spotted this vehicle in the CCTV footage of the camera installed outside the ATM kiosk. Those arrested were also involved in car thefts. They had taken away the Verna from a doctor in Amritsar two months ago.

The gang did not carry any mobile phone while committing crimes. They used two walkie-talkie sets, which have been recovered.

The police have recovered only Rs10 lakh so far. Jalandhar Zone IG Arpit Shukla said the accused had bought property from the looted money. Inderjit owns a house at Rama Mandi. He also has a 9-marla plot there and an 11-marla plot at Hazara, Amrik owns two plots (9 and 10 marlas) at Tarn Taran. We will attach these properties, he said.

The burglars were involved in three ATM cases in 2013, 20 in 2014, two in 2015, eight in 2016 and one this year (at Sultanpur Lodhi). The police said the gang targeted 22 ATMs of Punjab National Bank, mostly unguarded and located in semi-rural areas.

Avoided use of mobile phones
Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Banks have agreed to share the data on farmers crop loans with the state government, said Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal after a meeting with bank executives, officials of the Finance Department and Cooperative Department, and the expert group headed by Dr T Haque.

Just as the government is taking such a big step of taking over bank loans, the banks should offer one-time settlement for the Rs 6,000-crore loan. We are hopeful that the modalities of the scheme would be finalised in a month, he said.

The government wants to get a loan of over Rs 10,000 crore for settling the farmers crop loans (Rs 3,600 crore of cooperative banks and Rs 6,500 crore taken from commercial banks). While the money to be paid to cooperative banks is almost arranged for  the National Cooperative Development Corporation has agreed to provide the loan  the state has not made much headway over commercial banks loan.

Banks have now been asked to get consent forms signed from 10.4 lakh small and marginal farmers, who will get debt relief of Rs 2 lakh, so that the loan details can be shared with the government. Thus, Aadhaar linking of these farmers bank accounts will have to be done. PS Chauhan, convener, State level Bankers Committee, said after the meeting that some headway had been made.

Credibility at stake

"Farmers are angry at the delay in implementing waiver. Suicides are on the rise. The Congress government's credibility is at stake. They must hurry up with the scheme, else farmers will be pushed towards non-institutional credit." Balbir Singh Rajwewal, BKU president

Doing our best

"Our agenda is not only to waive farmers loans, but also to ensure best price for their agricultural produce and creating abundant employment opportunities for their next generation. Whatever step we take, other states will follow suit." Manpreet Singh Badal, Finance minister
Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Perturbed over high GST rate on paddy processing machinery, the paddy equipment manufacturers of Punjab will meet on Saturday to discuss future course of action. The manufacturers would request Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to take the issue to the GST Council meeting which is scheduled on August 5.

The manufacturers are seeking lower taxes under the GST regime. Under the GST, some raw material used in the manufacturing of rice-processing plants is placed under the 18-28 per cent bracket. Prior to the GST regime, it was 6-18 per cent. They also want that input tax credit should also be extended to them like other manufacturers.

There are over 200 rice mill machinery manufacturers in Punjab spread over Rajpura, Moga, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, etc, and supply units across the country.

There are certain raw materials purchased by us for making rice milling machines being taxed at 18-28 per cent under the GST which were earlier taxed at 6-18 per cent. Moreover, the GST on the sale of processing unit is 5 per cent. This will result in escalation of input cost by 9-10 per cent, thus making the business unviable. Further, under the GST Act, we are not subjected to claim input tax credit as we are classified under end users. We are suppliers to the millers who set up units and not end users. said Balbir Singh, general secretary, Rice Mill Machinery Manufacturer Association, Punjab.

According to Balabir Singh, pulley used in a rice processing unit is now being taxed at 28 per cent, which was earlier 6.05 per cent. Similarly, bearing is taxed at 18 per cent (earlier 6.05 per cent) and brackets at 28 per cent(6.05 per cent earlier).

We are going to meet on Saturday to decide future course of action, he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, Balraj Singh, spokesperson for Rajpura-based Vishwakarma Machine Tools ( P) Ltd, said, At this juncture, we cant pass on the increase in the GST rates to the buyers. This will hit our bottom line. Also, small and medium entrepreneurs will find it difficult to sustain.
Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Keen on saving around Rs 40 crore a month, the Punjab Government has set July 31 as the deadline for its offices to vacate rented private buildings. However, the respective district authorities are not prepared to move out. Adequate government accommodation is not available, even as the departments concerned will no longer get rental money from the government.

Dozens of offices across the state will feel the pinch next month.

The Finance Department has told all heads of department to ensure that all such offices shift by the month-end. Instructions have been issued to the deputy commissioners to facilitate the move.

From August 1, the departments concerned will have to foot the rent bill. The deadline will not be extended, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told The Tribune on Monday. The department is particularly concerned about offices that continue to function from rented accommodation despite having their own buildings.

The exercise to shift offices to government accommodation has revealed strange arrangements that were in place for decades  underutilisation of space, employees tendency to shirk work, shady deals to benefit private parties, and encroachment.

While some districts have dozens of offices without accommodation, the situation varies drastically from one to another. In Chandigarh, the Department of Social Welfare and the office of the DGP (Jails) are looking for accommodation. The latter, which is paying a monthly rent of Rs 4.73 lakh in Sector 17, has sought time to continue there till alternative arrangements can be made.

In Ludhiana district, about 15 government offices in the city and various towns are located in rented buildings, with the bill usually being more than Rs 1 lakh per month.

HUNT FOR ALTERNATIVES

In most districts, the district administrative complex (DAC) was either already full, or has now been filled up, with many offices still to be accommodated. Some districts are moving certain offices to rural areas, which might cause inconvenience to the visiting public.

In Ferozepur, around a dozen offices are looking for premises at the district headquarters and various subdivisions, but Public Works Department (PWD) officials say there is no space in the DAC now. Deputy Commissioner Ramvir, however, says he is not aware of any office operating out of a private building. However, in case there is any, it will be shifted, he adds.

Mansa is better off, with only two offices yet to be shifted. Muktsar is trying to solve the problem by shifting some offices to government buildings in villages. For instance, the District Horticulture Officer, Muktsar, has been shifted to Badal village. Deputy Commissioner Sumeet Jarangal says the DAC has very little space to spare.

The Bathinda administration has thus far been able to shift only four of the eight offices that applied for accommodation. The agriculture office in Phul town had a unique arrangement of functioning from rooms in a gurdwara. Deputy Commissioner Diprava Lakra hopes to meet the deadline.

In Nawanshahr, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum is being moved to the old Civil Surgeons office.

Hoshiarpur is much better placed, with ample space available in the Mini Secretariat, which has offices for all departments, including Labour, Languages, Poultry and Agriculture.

FINANCES, IRREGULARITIES

In Chandigarh and neighbouring Mohali, the government has been paying about Rs 70 lakh as rent for 30 accommodations  with half of them locked in litigation with landlords, according to details that emerged during an in-house exercise carried out the Department of General Administration. Across the state, the monthly rent is around Rs 40 crore.

Many landlords are upbeat over the prospect of getting their property back. In several cases, the market rates over the years had risen to far more than what the government paid, such as in Sectors 22, 17 and 34, Chandigarh. Sumit Marwaha, owner of the building that houses the Punjab Human Right Commission in Sector 34, says he has been in litigation over the property as the market rate is thrice the rent the government is paying him. There are at least 15 such cases in Chandigarh alone.

Nawanshahr has also reported such discrepancies in market and government rates.

Some officials, however, have a different view. One of them who was yet to shift to government accommodation, when asked who will pay the rent from August, said, We will request the owner to give us exemption for a month, to which he should agree. After all, the space we are vacating will be given out for thrice the amount we pay.

METHOD IN MADNESS

No one seems to know what exactly is the procedure to go about hunting for alternative accommodation. Innovation is, therefore, the key.

In Chandigarh, the Department of General Administration has been asked to provide space in government buildings for all 30 state offices located in the city.

Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Aggarwal says all supervisory officers of various affected departments have approached the administration, but we have expressed our helplessness for the simple reason that there is no space available in the Mini Secretariat. The departments have been asked to take up the issue with their respective headquarters.

Though no official in Ferozepur would give specific information, sources say the PWD office had asked for requirements from various departments, but many offices gave incorrect data as they did not wish to operate from the DAC, which they feared would entail greater supervision and, thus, more work.

Nawanshahr DC Sonali Giri says they have put in a request to continue with eight to nine departments in rented spaces as they have no alternative.

Hoshiarpur DC Vipul Ujjwal says for the larger offices that need around 15 rooms, they plan to write to the government for digitisation of records or provide them modern furniture for better space utilisation.

Favours, squatting too

FARIDKOT: In the absence of its own premises, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) here is operating from a building on a monthly lease of Rs 55,000 for more than four years. Situated around 3 km from Faridkot town, this building catering to Faridkot, Moga, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts is located on the Ferozepur road, close to a mortuary and wastewater drain. This arrangement has been continuing despite the fact that many vacant government buildings are available within the town. According to sources, the office on the outskirts was taken at an exorbitant rent because the owner of the building was close to an Akali leader. The agreement for Rs 55,000 per month also has a clause for 25 per cent increase in the rent every three years. PPCB Executive Engineer Harpal Singh said they would be shifting out soon.

MOGA: Some police stations  such as Moga City (South), Charik village, and Fatehgarh Panchtoor village  are functioning from private buildings. The building housing Moga City (South) police station belongs to Arya Samaj Public School, and has not been vacated despite many requests from the school. The police department had occupied the building during the days of militancy.

(Inputs from Kuldip Bhatia, Balwant Garg, Anirudh Gupta, Nikhila Pant Dhawan, Archit Watts, Kulwinder Sandhu, Sukhmeet Bhasin and Deepkamal Kaur)
New Delhi, July 26

A Delhi court said on Wednesday that Congress leader Jagdish Tytler would not undergo a polygraph test in connection with the 1984 riots without his consent.

The court however allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct the test on arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in the case.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The court also ordered Delhi police to provide Verma round-the-clock protection until he underwent the test, and allowed advocate Maninder Singh, Vermas counsel, to be present.

The test will be conducted at an independent place. The Central Bureau of Investigation must submit a report to the court on August 1 about when and where it would be conducted.

While Tytler refused to take the test, Verma agreed provided he was given protection. He claimed he feared for his life.

The CBI's asked the court permission to conduct the test on both Tytler and Verma after the court said on December 4, 2015, that it was willing to allow it.

The case the court is hearing pertains to riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi in which three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The CBI has cleared Tytler of all charges thrice so far for want of evidence, but the court had asked the CBI to reinvestigate the case in December 2015 after victims had filed a protest petition contesting its closure reports. The court also asked the agency to report its progress every two months.

The agency was asked to reinvestigate the killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court refused to accept its closure report in December 2007.

The CBI has filed three closure reports in the case. PTI
Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Centre, Haryana, Punjab and UT to specify whether or not a policy could be framed for settling the matter of non-payment of fee to lawyers once and for all.

The HC Bench also asked them to specify the status of pending bills of advocates. The High Court Bar Association was granted the liberty to assist the court in the matter.

The direction by Justice Rajan Gupta came about a fortnight after the HC had said it would decide whether non-payment of an advocates fee bills amounted to infringement of right to life and livelihood guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal said he would inform the Bench whether the matter was considered by the ministry concerned at any stage, if so the decision taken.

Another advocate Ranjana Shahi, representing the Union of India since 1999, particularly the Department of Central Excise and Customs, submitted that her fee bills running into lakhs of rupees had not been cleared.

Advocate BS Taunque, an ex-serviceman who joined the Bar in 1999, also alleged that his bills running into several lakhs had not been cleared, though he had been representing the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.

During the course of hearing, Bar Association Secretary RS Randhawa intervened to submit that he, too, wished to assist the Bench on the matters involved and, if necessary, move an application for becoming a party.

Justice Gupta granted the Bar Secretary the liberty and asserted that the larger question framed in the case vide order dated July 7, whether inordinate delay in clearing bills amounted to infringement of right to life and livelihood, was required to be answered.

Meanwhile, Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal, Advocate General and Standing Counsel for UT shall seek instructions regarding the status of pending bills and whether any policy can be framed for settling this issue once and for all.

The points for determination were framed after Justice Gupta was told that the petitioner  Indu Mehtas husband, a senior standing counsel for the Income Tax Department, conducted a number of cases on its behalf before he died in March 2013. But payments of most bills were not cleared during his lifetime.
Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, July 26

Amid celebrations of Kargil Vijay Diwas today, the family of Sepoy Darshan Singh, who sacrificed his life in the 1999 Kargil War, awaits the construction of a stadium and a memorial in the districts Sheron village.

The village is proud of my brother Darshan Singh, who sacrificed his life for the country. We got the money and other facilities promised by the government, but money is not everything. At the time of cremation, several leaders had visited our house and promised to construct a stadium and a memorial in the name of my brother. But nothing has been done yet, alleged Ravinder Singh, Darshans elder brother.

After leaders promise, the village panchayat had announced to give panchayat land for a stadium and a memorial, while a written request was sent to the government. But village awaits a response to date.

Our village is still willing to provide land for a stadium if the government takes initiative. We request the state to take action, Ravinder said.

Deputy Commissioner APS Virk said the village could construct a memorial on panchayat land by passing a resolution. If the village wants it to be constructed on government land, it will need permission from the government.

We have not received any such request from Sheron village, the DC claimed.

Gurjinder Singh, president, ex-servicemen wing of the SAD, said the party had written to the government to construct memorials of martyrs at the district level. We will take up the matter with the government, he said while honouring families of Kargil martyrs in Barnala.
Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

The Punjab Government has now sought the help of the Reserve Bank of India for its debt waiver scheme. It has asked the RBI to restructure crop loans worth Rs 6,000 crore taken by small and marginal farmers in Punjab.

A high-powered delegation, led by Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, is learnt to have met officials of the RBI, seeking their help in implementing the loan waiver.

They are learnt to be pressing the regulatory bank for asking the nationalised and commercial banks to not just let go of a part of the interest on crop loans, but also give them directions to offer a one-time settlement scheme for settling the farmers loans.

Sources say the delegation, in the meeting held late this evening, is understood to have presented the states proposed debt waiver policy. After a meeting with the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) here yesterday, the bankers had expressed some apprehensions regarding rolling out an OTS scheme or restructuring the advances given to small and marginal farmers. The bankers are learnt to have told the state government functionaries that both these issues could be implemented only if it is approved by the RBI.

Of the Rs 9,500 crore waiver that is proposed to be given to 10.40 lakh farmers, these commercial banks have advanced Rs 6,000 crore. For the debt relief scheme to be implemented, the government needs to first repay this loan to the banks, and only then the banks will start advancing fresh crop loans to farmers.

It is learnt that the issue of ensuring that the loan accounts of intended beneficiary farmers, who have not repaid the loan to the banks in hope of getting waiver, are not categorised as bad/NPA accounts, was also discussed. The government is learnt to have pleaded that if these accounts were declared as NPA, they would lose the interest subvention on crop loan (of 4 per cent) and could turn to non-institutional sources of getting credit (arhtiyas).

It may be noted that the same issue of getting Centres help  by converting this Rs 6,000 crore crop loan into term loan that Punjab will be repaying to banks on behalf of farmers -- was also discussed in a a meeting of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley a few days ago. Sources say the meeting with RBI officials was held as a follow-up to that meeting.

Meanwhile, the government delegation is also meeting top officials in NABARD to seek it help in getting refinance for the states cooperative banks. With the deadline for repaying the loan approaching on July 31, the date government is seeking additional time to repay this loan of Rs 3,600 crore.
Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 27

The Justice JS Narang Commission, which is probing the sand mining auctions scam, today questioned the employees of Power and Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who were awarded mining contracts worth crores of rupees despite having limited income. The minister has claimed that their services were dispensed with even before the mining auctions were held.

Official sources revealed that the employees -- cook Amit Bahadur and Kulwinder Pal Singh -- and the ministers charted accountant (CA) deposed before the commission.

The sources said the commission first summoned the employees. They were questioned about their source of funding for mining projects. The employees claimed that were participating in the auction on the behalf of firms with which ministers CA Sahil Singla of Kansal Singla Associates and Sanjit Randhawa, son of ministers aide Captain JS Randhawa, were associated with.

While deposing before the commission, the CA mentioned names of a few financiers from whom they claimed to have received money on loan to participate in the auctions. Following this, the commission also summoned the financiers.

The sources said at present around 15 individuals claimed to be associated with these firms had been asked to appear before the commission.

The ministers CA had also submitted some documents related to financial transactions to the commission.

The Tribune had, on May 25, highlighted how four employees of Rana Gurjit bagged mining contracts for four sites. Taking cognisance of the news report, the Chief Minister had constituted a one-member judicial commission of inquiry under Justice JS Narang.

Amit Bahadur had got the contract of mining site at Saidpur Khurd village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) for Rs 26.51 crore; Kulwinder Paul Singh of Mehadipur quarry for Rs 9.21 crore; Gurinder Singh of Rampur Kalan site in Mohali district for Rs 4.11 crore; and Balraj Singh of a site at Bairsal village for Rs10.58 crore. Later, Balraj Singh and Gurinder Singh backed out at the time of depositing 55 per cent of the bidding amount. They were thus not allotted the sites.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the central agriculture secretary along with Punjab and Haryana agriculture secretaries to appear before the Bench in a case involving procurement of crops on minimum support price (MSP).

The direction by the Division Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Avneesh Jhingan came during the hearing of a petition filed on public interest against the Union Government and other respondents by Gurnam Singh and other petitioners through counsel JS Toor.

The Bench asked the officers concerned of procurement agencies to be present in the court on July 31  the next date of hearing. The Bench was told that Punjab was already reeling under a loan of Rs 32,000 crore. A sealed envelope containing details of meeting held between Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the Prime Minister in Delhi on farmers issues was also placed before the Bench, but returned.

The Bench was earlier told that there was a procurement cap of 25 per cent of the total sunflower seeds production, but it could be raised after seeking Centres permission. The Bench asked why permission was not sought. The court was then told that the Centre had permitted 25 per cent additional procurement.

But later only 10 per cent more was allowed. The Bench then asked the state to explain the reason behind the imposition of the cap. Initially the Bench wanted to call the Deputy Secretary, Agriculture. But the Bench decided to call the Secretary to resolve the issue.
Our Correspondent

Abohar, July 25

Abohar circle SAD president Ashok Ahuja, his brother Vijay Ahuja, cousins Janak Raj Ahuja, Rajiv Bhatia, Sunny Bhatia and Ved Parkash and some other locals have been booked for allegedly thrashing four Dalit women, who were picking rags from a street here.

A case has been registered under Sections 323, 509, 354, 342, 316-A, 109, 511, 336 and 149 of the IPC and the SC & ST Act, 1989. Deputy Superintendent of Police Gurbinder Singh Sangha will investigate the case.

Ashok had taken over as SAD halqa incharge following the arrest of liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda in the Bhim Tank murder case in January 2016. He also served as senior Vice-President in the Municipal Council.

A case is already pending against him, besides other SAD activists, for illegally entering the Fazilka jail to meet Doda in January this year after the announcement of the Vidhan Sabha elections.

BJP legislator Arun Narang described it as a case of political vendetta claiming that Ashok and Janak were not present there and they had been falsely implicated.

As per the FIR, Kajal (22), a married Dalit woman of Thakur Abadi here, alleged that when she along with Sapna, Rekha and Radha were picking rags from a street yesterday, Vijay accused them of committing theft in his house. They refuted the allegation, but his accomplices dragged the women inside a house where they were allegedly thrashed and molested by miscreants who claimed they had instructions and support of SAD leader Ashok.

Preliminary investigation reportedly indicated that Kajal, who was pregnant, started bleeding due to thrashing. She has been hospitalised.

A video that has gone viral shows four women surrounded by a dozen persons on the rooftop of a house. One of the persons carrying a lathi is seen forcing a woman remove her dupatta from her face and another is seen misbehaving with another woman.
Wellington, July 26

A Sikh man in New Zealand was asked to take off his kirpan and get out of a bus when a passenger called the police in panic after seeing the ceremonial knife, a media report said today.

The police boarded a busy commuter bus in Auckland yesterday after a passenger was seen carrying a ceremonial knife, traditionally worn by Sikhs.

We looked out the window and we could see and the police car behind us with sirens blaring and armed men all around us. One policeman stormed into the bus with a gun in his hand and said to the guy, get your hands up so we can see them and get out of the bus, New Zealand Herald quoted a witness as saying.

The passenger, thought to be in his 20s, was wearing a turban and had a long, curved sword-like kirpan strapped behind his back on the left side, which the police removed, said the witness.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called after a member of the public reported seeing a kirpan.

She said the armed offenders squad was not sent and the officers were not armed.

The police spoke with the man, who is a Sikh. He was in possession of a ceremonial kirpan, which is customary for Sikhs. The man, who is lawfully living in New Zealand, was polite and cooperative and no further action was taken, the report said

The spokeswoman said the ceremonial kirpan was not confiscated.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 26

State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt today claimed that the previous Congress government had failed to waive off the loans of farmers even though Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had written to the government in this regard.

Bhatt mentioned a letter written by Rahul Gandhi in 2016, asking the Harish Rawat-led Congress government to waive off farm loans. The doublespeak of the Congress is fully exposed as they did not fulfil the wishes of their leader, who in a letter had urged for a loan waiver, setting up a commission for farmers and declaring an MSP for crops, said Bhatt at a press conference.

He said the Congress, which was now out of power, had no right to point fingers at the BJP when its own track record had been dismal on the farmers issue.

To a question as to when the Rawat government would deliver on the loan waiver issue as promised in its partys vision document, released before the elections, Bhatt said, We never said that we would fulfil this promise in two or three months but we will do it during the course of our governments five-year tenure, he said.

He cited weak financial health of the state as the reason for not delivering on the issue immediately. What we inherited from the previous government was an empty treasury. Our governments focus is on improving the financial health of the state, Bhatt added.

Further, the Uttarakhand BJP will hold a training workshop for its MLAs on July 27 in Dehradun. On July 29, the meeting of the state executive will be held.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 26

Tehri district Congress workers under the leadership of former state Congress president Kishore Upadhyay will try to explore ways to repay the bank loans of the deceased Tehri Dalit farmer.

Rajkumar, a Dalit farmer of Chamba block in Tehri Garhwal district, had committed suicide a few days ago after he failed to repay the bank loans.

This was the sixth farmers suicide in the state. All these farmers were under a huge bank loan debt. Among the six deceased farmers, four committed suicide and two died of cardiac arrest after they received a bank notice for loan repayment.

Kishore Upadhyay, a former Tehri MLA, who went to the victims house in Chamba block, expressed concern over the pitiable condition of his family. Deceased Rajkumar was the sole bread winner of his nine-member family and it is now very difficult for the family to even make ends meet, Kishore Upadhyay told The Tribune.

He said Congress workers in Tehri had now decided to collect donations among themselves and explore ways to relieve the deceased farmers family of bank loans. I have deputed Suraj Rana and Sahab Singh Sajwan, two key Congress leaders in the region, and have asked them to try to find some ways in which Congress leaders could help the victims family repay bank loans, he said, pointing out that farmer Rajkumar had taken two agriculture loans and was to repay Rs 60,600 to the banks.

He said farmers in Tehri would also take out a rally in the first week of August to highlight the plight of farmers. He called upon the corporate sector in the state to come forward towards setting up Kisan Rahat Kosh in the state. The fund that could be part of CSR could be used to help farmer in difficult situations.
Tokyo, July 25

Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being questioned in Parliament about a cronyism scandal after opposition lawmakers alleged he testified falsely a day earlier when he denied using his influence to help a friend.

Parliament has heard allegations from lower-level staffers and gathered documents that show Abes office intervened to help Kotaro Kake to open a new veterinary school in western Japan. Parliament is continuing to question Abe about his personal role today.

He repeatedly yesterday denied using his influence and said he learned of his friends plans only after Kake formally applied in January.

Opposition lawmakers say its unthinkable Abe was unaware of a years-old plan that other officials knew.

Abes popularity has plunged by nearly 15 points since June, when he was accused of using his influence to help close friend Kake win a bid to set up a veterinary school, reports Efe news.

Japan has not granted license to new veterinary schools for more than 50 years, owing to surplus veterinary doctors in the country.

The new school was to be set up in the Ehime prefecture in the south of Hiroshima, part of a national deregulated zone, where these rules are relaxed.

The scandal has roiled Japan and led to the crushing defeat of his party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, in two key regional elections.  Agencies
Beijing, July 26

China is planning to build a space-based, solar-powered drone telecommunications network capable of providing week-long emergency assistance on the ground, according to a state media report today.

A research institute affiliated with China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp is developing the project "Feiyun," which means "flying cloud," the Global Times reported, citing another report in the Science and Technology Daily.

The network will be based in "near space", it said, adding the system will be able to provide week-long emergency communications access and likely to go on trial this year.

The drones can fly as high as 20 kms above the ground for days - somewhat like a telecommunications satellite - and can undertake remote sensing and relay signals, the report quoted Ma Hongzhong, head of the institute, as saying.

Experts believe the technology can play an important role in aiding rescuers in the aftermath of natural disasters.

However, they warned that the severe environment in "near space" - 20-100 kms above sea level - poses a challenge to the UAVs as the thin air inhibits the functioning of fuel- powered aircraft engines.

The high-flying drones are easy to maintain and control, and can better provide high-resolution data than satellites.

They can also be used as "airborne Wi-Fi hubs" to provide convenient mobile telecommunications and Internet access for remote areas and islands, which would save on construction and maintenance costs of traditional infrastructure.

Wang Peiji, an expert at Harbin Institute of Technology's School of Aeronautics, said the UAVs have military uses too.

"Its remote sensing technology can help the military get accurate information with higher definition." China's first solar-powered UAV, the Caihong (rainbow), completed its first successful near-space test flight in June.

PTI
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, having cast a deciding vote Tuesday to open debate on an as-yet-undefined bill to repeal  and potentially replace  former President Barack Obamas health care law, said his vote advances the debate about what should replace the law, also known as Obamacare.

Johnsons vote carried considerable suspense. He represented the 50th vote on whether to begin debate, and unlike other senators, Johnson did not say in advance how he would vote.

The yes votes cast by Johnson and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., allowed the measure to advance to Vice President Mike Pence, who broke a 50-50 tie to pass the motion.

Johnson, speaking to reporters after Tuesdays vote, acknowledged that Senate Republicans have yet to agree on what should replace Obamacare. All Senate Democrats, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, voted against Tuesdays motion and staunchly oppose repealing the law.

Two members of the GOP joined the Democrats in dissent: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

But had Johnson voted no, the mess that is Obamacare wouldve remained in place, he said. Weve got to keep the process going.

The vote was a potential turning point for Johnson, who wavered on or flatly opposed previous Senate GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare.

But details of the actual measure on which Senate Republicans will vote remained unknown Tuesday afternoon. Reports suggested they could vote on various measures to only repeal parts of Obamacare or also replace it.

Johnson said Senate GOP leaders talked to him about taking up an amended version of the Senate GOP health care bill previously considered in the chamber, which would include Sen. Ted Cruzs consumer freedom amendment. That amendment would allow insurers to sell  primarily to young and healthy Americans  stripped-down health insurance plans that dont meet Obamacare coverage requirements, so long as they offer at least one other coverage plan that does.

Supporters say the Cruz amendment would drive down health insurance premiums; critics and many nonpartisan voices say it would drive up the cost of coverage for older, sicker Americans.

Johnson said hes pushing to make affordable health insurance legal again, and to save traditional Medicaid for the elderly and disabled.

Moments before casting the vote, Johnson chatted on the Senate floor with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in what some reporters described as a visibly tense exchange.

I just wanted to convey to (McConnell) that I wanted to be a positive influence on getting as good a bill as possible, Johnson said.
Ankara, July 25

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today urged all Muslims to visit and protect Jerusalem after violence broke out over metal detectors that Israel installed and later removed from a sensitive holy site in the city.

From here I make a call to all Muslims. Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque, Erdogan said in Ankara. Come, lets all protect Jerusalem. He was referring to the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the site, which also includes the Dome of the Rock, following an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers.

Palestinians viewed the security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site and deadly clashes erupted during protests.

They are attempting to take the mosque from Muslim hands on the pretext of fighting terrorism. There is no other explanation, Erdogan said in a speech to ruling Justice and Development Party lawmakers in Parliament.

He said Israels legitimacy rested on the extent of the respect it showed to Palestinians and their rights.

Erdogan also denounced attacks on synagogues in Turkey, referring to reports that an ultra-nationalist group threw stones at a synagogue in Istanbul last week.

It does not make sense to attack synagogues here because something has happened at Al-Aqsa mosque. This does not suit our religion and it is not allowed, he said.

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the compound after two police officers on guard there were fatally shot on July 14. The security move touched off the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians for years.  AFP

Israel will suffer most from Aqsa dispute
Colombo, July 25

Sri Lankas cabinet cleared a revised agreement for its Chinese-built southern port of Hambantota on Tuesday, the government said, after terms of the first pact sparked widespread public anger in the island nation.

The port, close to the worlds busiest shipping lanes, has been mired in controversy ever since state-run China Merchants Port Holdings, which built it for $1.5 billion, signed an agreement taking an 80 per cent stake.

Under the new deal, which Reuters has examined, the Sri Lankan government has sought to limit Chinas role to running commercial operations at the port while it has oversight of broader security.

Chinese control of Hambantota, which is part of its modern-day Silk Route across Asia and beyond, as well as a plan to acquire 15,000 acres to develop an industrial zone next door, had raised fears that it could also be used for Chinese naval vessels.

Lankans demonstrated in the streets at the time, fearing loss of their land, while politicians said such large-scale transfer of land to the Chinese impinged on the countrys sovereignty. Details of the new agreement have not yet been made public.

But according to parts of the document seen by Reuters, two companies are being set up to split the operations of the port and allay concerns, in India mainly but also in Japan and the United States, that it wont be used for military purposes.

China Merchants Port Holdings will take an 85 per cent stake in Hambantota International Port Group that will run the port and its terminals, with the rest held by Sri Lanka Ports Authority. The companys capital will be $794 million.

A second firm, Hambantota International Port Group Services Co, with capital of $606 million, will be set up to oversee security operations, with the Sri Lankans holding a 50.7 per cent stake and the Chinese 49.3 per cent, according to the document.

Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said several foreign missions had sought clarification from Colombo about whether the Chinese navy would be using Hambantota port as it steps up its presence in the Indian Ocean.

We told China that we cant allow the port for military use and that 100 per cent responsibility of security matters should be with the Sri Lankan government.

China has been building ports in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and smaller island nations in what military officials call a String of Pearls in the Indian Ocean, or a network of friendly ports where its warships can refuel.

China Merchants Port Holdings also agreed to reduce its stake in the Sri Lankan joint venture running the commercial operations of the port to 65 per cent after 10 years, the document says.

The cabinet approved the deal and now it needs parliament approval. We will send it for approval this week, cabinet spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekera said. He didnt provide details.

A Chinese embassy spokesman said it had no comment to make on the deal. A source close to the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said both sides had reached a compromise and that Sri Lankas concerns had been addressed. The latest agreement relates to the port while the pact for the industrial zone will be handled separately, Sri Lankan officials said.  Reuters

New deal: Port wont be used for military purposes
Washington, July 26

The US state department has said that a military strategy may not necessarily yield results in Afghanistan and a permanent solution to the conflict can be found through peace talks with the Taliban and other parties involved.

Afghanistan has been battling insurgency for more than a decade. The Taliban offensive against the West-backed government in the country increased this summer. Two days ago, a Taliban suicide bombing killed at least 26 people in Kabul.

This was the third major attack in the last two months.

The comments by the state department came ahead of a review of the Afghan war strategy by the Trump administration.

On Monday, top US lawmakers criticised the administration for lacking a compelling strategy to fight terrorists in the region. Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was disgraceful that the US had no strategy to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

Reports have said that the United States could be exploring ways to harden its approach towards Pakistan-based militants who often launch attacks in war-torn Afghanistan.

State department spokesperson Heather Nauert said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson feels very strongly about continuing the peace process. That means actually sitting down and talking with members of the Taliban and starting to facilitate that kind of dialogue, Nauert said.

Ultimately, like in many situations in many other countries, military options or our military strategy is not necessarily going to win those countries and put peace back together...in the long run, you have to bring both sides to the table or multiple sides to the table together to determine their future, she told reporters on Tuesday.

But this does not mean discounting the military option, she said. Of course, the military option is a piece of it. The Taliban had become more dangerous and more deadly and had been involved in the kinds of attacks that perhaps previously they had not been involved with, she said.

Nauert said it is premature to say that the department is optimistic about the peace process with the Taliban. Until then, we will continue to support our Afghan partners.

The state department spokesperson refuted reports that the Trump administration had shut the Office of the Special Representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Theres been a lot of reporting on that. Those functions will still remain here at the State Department, she said. PTI
Kandahar, July 26

At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in Kandahar province, the defence ministry said today, the latest blow to struggling security forces.

The militants attacked an army camp in Karzali area of Khakrez district of Kandahar last night, MoD spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said. Afghan soldiers bravely resisted, he said, killing more than 80 insurgents.

Residents in the area described an hours-long attack launched by a 30-strong convoy carrying hundreds of Taliban who assaulted the base from multiple directions. Air support was called in, several residents told AFP, though that was not immediately confirmed by officials. The insurgents claimed the attack via their Twitter account. The resurgent Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against beleaguered government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in the war-torn country.

Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and non-existent ghost soldiers on the payroll, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

According to US watchdog SIGAR, casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed. The insurgents have carried out more complex attacks against security forces in 2017.  AFP
Washington, July 26

The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow, in a rare rebuke of the Republican President.

It was unclear how quickly the Bill would make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The Bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the US healthcare system as lawmakers try to clear the decks to leave Washington for their summer recess.

The sanctions Bill comes as lawmakers investigate possible meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Republican Trumps campaign. Moscow has denied it worked to influence the election in Trumps favour, and he has denied his campaign colluded.

The White House said the President had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure. Rejecting the Bill  which would potentially hamper his hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow  would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers. While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing

the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the Presidents desk, said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

House members backed the Bill, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, by a near-unanimous margin of 419-3, with strong support from Trumps fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, despite objections from Trump, who wanted more control over the ability to impose sanctions. The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the Bill with near-unanimous support. The House added the North Korea measures after becoming frustrated with the Senates failure to advance a Bill it passed in May.

Senate leaders have not said when they might consider the House Bill.  Reuters

Kremlin talks tough

Proposed new US sanctions against Russia are an extremely unfriendly act and sad news for Russia-US relations, the Kremlin has said, adding the approval of the law would be the work of the enemies of Russia and the United States

The authors and sponsors of this (sanctions) Bill are making a very serious step towards destruction of normalising ties with Russia, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov

The attitude to this (law) will be formed on the basis of a thorough analysis, and the decision will be taken by the President, said Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putins spokesman

Iran will respond to N-deal breach: Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said Tehran will respond to any breach of the nuclear deal by Washington after the US House passed new sanctions. Irans national security and foreign affairs committee will hold a special session to discuss its response

Iranians well know that they should resist and stand against their enemies over the past 40 years, Iranians have faced numerous sanctions and accusations by US politicians and their propaganda machine. Americans cannot tolerate an independent and influential country (like Iran) in this sensitive region, he said

Energy security at risk: EU
AZ: Department of Transportation

adds Armed Driver Guidelines

By Dean Weingarten. July 25th, 2017

Article Source

The Arizona Department of Transportation has added a section to its drivers manual suggesting the proper behavior for an armed driver, when stopped by police. The change was prompted by the tragic Philando Castile case.

From fox10phoenix.com, the manual change was requested by Democratic state Representative Reginald Bolding, from District 27. District 27 is a solidly Democrat stronghold in South Phoenix. Bolding was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2016.

From azdot.gov , page 57 of the Drivers License Manuel :



Inform the officer of any weapons on

your person or in the vehicle.

In addition to the guidelines above, drivers

with firearms in the vehicle should keep

your hands on the steering wheel in a visible

location and when the officer approaches

let them know that you have a firearm in the

vehicle and where the firearm is located. If

requested, the officer may take possession

of the weapon, for safety reasons, until the

contact is complete.

Arizona law does not require that people carrying concealed weapons notify police, but it requires that people carrying a concealed deadly weapon answer truthfully if asked by police if they are carrying . If the officer does not ask, a person who is carrying a concealed weapon is not obligated to tell the officer they are armed.

From azleg.gov 13-3102:

A. A person commits misconduct involving weapons by knowingly: 1. Carrying a deadly weapon except a pocket knife concealed on his person or within his immediate control in or on a means of transportation: (a) In the furtherance of a serious offense as defined in section 13-706, a violent crime as defined in section 13-901.03 or any other felony offense; or (b) When contacted by a law enforcement officer and failing to accurately answer the officer if the officer asks whether the person is carrying a concealed deadly weapon;

If the driver has a concealed carry permit, an alternative is to hand the officer the permit along with the driver's license. Then the officer will be responding to the positive information of "concealed carry permit holder", instead of "armed driver".

If you do not have a permit, use a positive phrase. Many officers have been trained to react negatively to the word "gun". Telling the officer that you are "legally armed" is better than saying "I have a gun".

The perception of concealed carry permit holders changed considerably in 1999 when permit holder Rory Vertigan captured a cop killer with his legally carried Glock pistol. Police called Vertigan a hero and donated money for him to buy a new Glock while his was impounded as evidence. More recently, an armed citizen is credited with saving Arizona State Trooper, Edward Anderson.

There are numerous stories of people with concealed carry permits seeing a positive change in police attitudes when the police were informed the person stopped had a permit.

The acknowledgment in the DOT drivers manual that many drivers are legally armed is a sign of the normalization of armed citizens.

The tragic circumstances of the Philando Castile case will be cited for and against the advisability of notifying officers if you are armed. In some states, the notification is required by law. In others, it is conditional, depending on whether the officer asks or not. In other states, no notification is necessary.

Minnestota law is similar to that of Arizona. Castile was not required to notify the officer that he was armed until asked. The shooting of Castile might have been avoided if he had not volunteered that he was armed, or if he had kept his hands on the dash while waiting for the officers instructions.

2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch

The issue of vehicular carry can be contentious - some claim it's no one's business whether they are armed or not - others see it more from the law enforcement angle whereby we realize the potential dangers faced by an officer during a traffic stop. The Arizona model could well be seen as a good compromise but most important in any state is the use of common sense such that a 'situation' is not allowed to develop with potentially dangerous consequences.

Back to Top


Coke Zero fans are beginning to buzz about news announced by Coca-Cola that it would soon stop production of the popular calorie-free carbonated drink.

The move by Coca-Cola, reported by Business Insider, includes ceasing sales of Coke Zero in the U.S. in August and replacing it with a beverage with a different recipe, design, and name: Coke Zero Sugar.

"It is a reinvention of Coke Zero," CEO James Quincey said in a call with investors.

According the story by Business Insider, Coke Zero Sugar will taste more like Coca-Cola Original, and offer zero sugar and zero calories. Coca-Cola expects the drink will appeal to customers seeking lower-sugar options.

Coke Zero is available in other varieties including Caffiene-Free Coke Zero, Coca-Cola Cherry Zero and Coca-Cola Vanilla Zero. In Great Britain, the Coco-Cola Zero Sugar brand has already launched along with a Coca-Cola cherry with zero sugar.
Significant risk of dangerous heat is forecast for Thursday despite the possibilities of thunderstorms.

A heat advisory issued Tuesday was extended overnight to expire at 8 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Tulsa. A cold front is predicted to push south through the area during the weekend.

National meteorologists predict heat indices will range from 105 to 110 degrees on Wednesday. Similar heat indices are predicted for Thursday.

The potential for isolated thunderstorms will develop and exist along side Thursday's potential for dangerous heat. Thunderstorm potential will increase throughout the weekend as the cold front moves through the area.

Many counties north of Interstate 44, where the strongest potential for thunderstorms is predicted, are excluded from Thursday's heat advisory.

Wednesday's air temperatures are predicted to be in the mid-to-high 90s, with some areas in eastern Oklahoma breaking into the triple digits. Thursday's air temperatures are predicted to range from the mid-to-high 90s in southeast and east-central Oklahoma. Northeast Oklahoma is predicted to range from the low-to-mid 90s.

For Wednesday and Thursday, high humidity and high air temperatures will create the risk of dangerous heat.

"Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside," meteorologists state in the heat advisory. "When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening."

The National Weather Service in Tulsa encourages people to "know the signs and symptoms of" heat illnesses, according to the advisory.

Cooling stations in Tulsa can be accessed at the following locations:

The Salvation Army Center of Hope

102 N. Denver Ave.

Hours: 24/7

Tulsa County Social Services cooling station

2401 Charles Page Blvd.

Hours: 8:30 am to 8 pm

Dennis R. Neill Equality Center

621 East 4th St.

Hours: Noon to 9 p.m., Seven days a week

John 3:16 Mission

506 N. Cheyenne Ave.

Hours: 24/7

Senior Nutrition sites throughout the Tulsa-area are also available.

For more information about cooling station hours or for applying for a free, loaned air conditioning unit, dial 211.
4 held for hatching plot to abduct businessman

Police on Monday arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in hatching a plot to abduct a businessman of Ratnanagar, Chitwan, impersonating as RAW agents.
It was on a whim and out of frustration that Teresa Danks made a panhandling sign seeking school supplies  a sign now seen around the world.

After spending weeks scouring garage sales and hitting up stores for discounts on classroom supplies, the teacher and her husband were talking about the sad state of legislative affairs around Oklahoma education funding.

She has been an educator working in private and public schools, including some child-care centers, since 1996 and is currently a third-grade teacher at Grimes Elementary School at 3213 E. 56th St. State records show her gross annual salary (before taxes and withholdings) to be $33,956. She estimates that she spends about $2,000 of her own money on classroom supplies each year.

Honestly, it started with a conversation, Danks said in a telephone interview from New York City on Wednesday. We were getting stuff for my classroom, spending out of my pocket, which is something Ive done every year Ive taught; then we got back on the budget cuts and how frustrating it is  wanting legislators to get behind educators and children in the state.

My husband jokingly said the worst-case scenario is making a poster and getting on the street like panhandlers do. I thought that would make a great picture and get the conversation going. It might get people talking about it again.

They headed to a nearby intersection on July 19 with a Teacher Needs School Supplies/Anything Helps sign. A passerby handed her about $20 while they took a snapshot.

An hour after Danks posted the photo, a reporter from FOX23 News called and asked her to re-enact the panhandling so the station could get video. While filming for the news crew, more drivers pitched in another $100 in spare change and cash.

But more important were the words she heard.

It only took about six minutes, Danks said, but more people offered not only financial support but support and encouragement  Thank you for teaching, and Thank you for what you do. One woman said, Teachers like you are the reason Im alive today. That really touched my heart.

For whatever its worth, there wasnt any planning involved. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Then the flame of social media ignited, and people were calling with donations.

Danks set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of $50,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had reached nearly $26,000. She created a Begging For Education Facebook page to post more videos, news stories and other information.

While in New York City for a segment on Good Morning America, Danks was also interviewed by Inside Edition, CNN Headline News and Fox and Friends. The segments have been picked up by international wire services and run in countries as far away as Australia.

Im putting out the message that education in Oklahoma is in a bad situation, and we definitely want it to get better, Danks said. I know we have teachers at the Capitol every week, and no one gets heard and nothing is happening.

Kids are our future. My feeling is that an educated nation is a better nation.

The amount raised has gone well beyond Danks classroom needs. She intends to give the rest to other teachers for classroom materials and plans to start a nonprofit foundation or fund.

Danks said RCB Bank has an account set up for any of its branches to take donations for the project. Details of how funds will be dispersed and whether the project will continue beyond this year will be decided later, she said.

Were going to see where this goes and make as many positive changes as we can, Danks said. We want everything going directly to the classroom. My goal has been to raise awareness and raise money for Tulsa schools and, hopefully, then go out of state. I definitely want to take care of people at home first.

When the media storm hit a week ago, Danks decided to just ride the waves, but she knows normal is soon to return.

Its been surreal and exhausting, but Im keeping my goal to do as many positive things to promote it, she said. I hope it raises awareness that education needs to come first  not for education but for children. I want for Oklahoma children to compete with children in the nation and children in the world.

Tulsa Public Schools will start classes Aug. 21, and Danks is ready to return to the classroom.

Its given me more excitement knowing that Im very prepared and able to do more hands-on projects with kids and not scrambling to find materials, she said. Ill already have them in the classroom ready to go.
Another unfortunate ranking: Oklahoma is among the top five U.S. neurology deserts. Neurology involves all systems that coordinate signals throughout the body. States deemed neurology deserts face significant gaps between available neurology workforce and health needs of people with dementia, as well as resources for caregivers.

Oklahomas fifth-worst status was revealed July 16 before more than 5,600 experts and researchers at the 2017 Alzheimers Association International Conference in London. Our state has more than its share of embarrassing standings. Do not, though, dismiss the significance of this one.

Tulsans with Alzheimers dementia and their caregivers number at least 24,000  more than three times the capacity of ONEOK Field. Add a circle of coworkers and friends for each, and the ripple effect is far-reaching.

The number of Tulsans prime for dementia is expected to increase for the next three decades, and the human and financial costs will be staggering. For the first time in U.S. history, the annual cost of care for Americans living with Alzheimers will surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars in 2017. Thats more than the cost of cancer and heart disease care combined.

The World Health Organization recently adopted a global dementia strategy. It sets targets for the advancement of dementia awareness, risk reduction, diagnosis, care and treatment, support for care partners, and research. Paola Barbarino, Alzheimers Disease International CEO, said, Governments need to act now. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically change the attitude to dementia from fear and inaction, to fighting back, understanding, inclusion and support.

The good news is that Tulsa is a step ahead of Barbarino.

Mayor G.T. Bynum announced in January his commitment for Tulsa to become Oklahomas first dementia friendly city. The Dementia Friendly Tulsa steering committee already is in motion. Alzheimers typically is associated with older age, but Mayor Bynum noted it also strikes those as young as 30 and its progression can take from four to 20 years. That means, he said, people with dementia are able to work, shop, participate in community activities, worship, play, handle business transactions, and enjoy fairly full social lives for much longer than society acknowledges.

As the initiative rolls out, Tulsans will have access to free resources and training to enhance life for customers and employees impacted by cognitive decline. Dementia Friendly Tulsa  or DFTulsa  also will acquaint families with organizations providing guidance about dementia. Among those: the Alzheimers Association, INCOG Area Agency on Aging, LIFE Senior Services and Morton Comprehensive Health Services.

Also encouraging: Presbyterian Health Foundation announced on July 18 a $3.7 million grant for Oklahoma medical research. The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center receives $2.65 million for projects including one focused on communication among nerve cells in aging brains. Researchers hope it will advance early diagnosis and treatment of diseases like dementia and Alzheimers.

During 2012, U.S. scientists set a goal to develop an Alzheimers treatment by 2025. The annual National Institutes of Health research investment to achieve that goal was estimated to be $2 billion. Federal funding hasnt reached that level; designated gifts such as that from Presbyterian Health help advance the cause.

Each of us also can help drive change.

 Reduce your risk now. The Lancet report released July 20 suggests one-third of dementia may be preventable through nine lifestyle modifications: maximize education; quit smoking; get treatment for hypertension, treat hearing loss (which leads to isolation), depression, and diabetes; stay physically active; avoid loneliness; and maintain a healthy weight.

 Consider neurology and geriatrics careers. Aging Baby Boomers plus WHOs brain-health focus generate scientific opportunities and create markets for older adult care. The American Geriatrics Society says fewer than 7,300 certified geriatricians practice nationwide, while 20,000 are needed. By 2030, demand is projected to be 30,000.

 Support Alzheimers research. Encourage Sens. James Lankford and Jim Inhofe to support the proposed $414 million for NIH Alzheimers research in the fiscal year 2018 Appropriations Budget. That boost brings funding just $200 million shy of the $2 billion target.

 Volunteer for groups like DFTulsa. Train and educate others to reduce stigmas associated with dementia and enhance the well being of those impacted by it.

 Make sure your physician is informed. Medicare and Medicaid now cover functional assessments and care planning for patients with cognitive impairments. This planning can improve quality of life, reduce hospital visits, promote medication management, and help control care costs.

With more proactive steps in Tulsa and in Congress, Oklahomas status can evolve from a desert to a thriving support center for people impacted by neurological decline.

Susan Dornblaser is a Tulsa native, Alzheimers advocate, and former public policy chairwoman of the Alzheimers Association  Oklahoma Chapter. Shes a Dementia Friendly Tulsa volunteer and previously owned a consulting business for more than 30 years.
Five projects have been announced as part of ABC MEs Girls funding initiative with Screen Australia.

Two dramas and three documentaries, are all led by female creatives will premiere in October.

Production has started on all films and the combined projects featuring 30 female actors ranging in ages from 9 to 14 from across Australia including Byron Bay, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

Teams have $80,000 each to make their project, and are receiving mentoring from Jan Stradling and Libbie Doherty from ABC Childrens TV and Nerida Moore from Screen Australia.

The ABC would like to congratulate these five creative teams. Their proposed film ideas not only capture the heart of what its like being a 12-year-old girl in Australia today but also represent the incredibly wide-ranging spectrum of diversity of Australian children which was a key part of this proposition. We look forward to sharing their vision with our ABC ME audience later this year, says Michael Carrington, ABC Head of Childrens Television.

The calibre of entries received was incredible, proof once again that there are many extremely talented Australian female content makers ready to lead the way with fresh, innovative and compelling stories.

The Girls season will premiere on ABC ME, the ABC ME app and ABC iview on October 11th as part of the ABCs International Day of the Girl celebrations.

The dramas explore the pivotal and challenging moments in a twelve-year-olds life that will resonate with all young girls. Summers Day, produced by Di Robertson, written and directed by Hattie Dalton, is about the transition into womanhood when Summer gets her period for the first time and tries to make sense of her blooming body. First Day, produced by Kirsty Stark, written and directed by Julie Kalceff, tells a story about the fears associated with the transition between primary school and high school  but in Hannahs case, the stakes are even higher: this year, she will be attending school for the first time as a girl.

The documentaries put twelve-year-old girls in the driving seat as they share exactly what it is like to be them, striving to achieve their hopes and dreams. The girls in The Funny Ones, created and produced by Belinda Dean and directed by Genevieve Bailey, dream of a life as comedy performers, and get the chance to learn from some of Australias funniest comedians. Jaral in Shame, is struggling with the embarrassment of being a 12-year-old girl while trying to learn Noongar language to honour her family and culture. Shame is created, written and directed by Karla Hart and produced by Paloma Bartsch. A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl, produced by Katrina Lucas and written and directed by Tilda Cobham-Hervey, gives twelve girls the task of investigating their own species in an innovative blend of theatre and documentary.

Sally Caplan, Head of Production at Screen Australia said: The quality of submissions for the ABC Girls season was extraordinary, and we were bowled over by the diversity, range of perspectives and stories that were presented to us. The five bold, imaginative projects selected are not only from new creative voices, but promise to reveal, dissect and perhaps reconsider the realities of being a young girl in Australia today.

The Girls season is part of the ABCs Corporate Plan to contribute to the diversity, quality and innovation of the Australian film and television industry, as well as Screen Australias target of achieving gender equity.
Art historian Bangdel is no more

Internationally acclaimed art historian Dina Bangdel, who was known for her expertise both in traditional and contemporary arts, passed away on Tuesday in the United States, her friends confirmed. She was 54.
This week on The Living Room, Dr. Chris goes paddle surfing with a pooch and Amanda Keller chats to Bodyguards Paulini and Kip Gamblin.

Travel with Chris Brown: SUP Dog

Melbourne may be the most pet friendly city in Australia but when it comes to adventure holidaying with your best four-legged friend the place to go is Noosa. Chris travels to the Queensland coastal town with Gypsy, an older dog that has had a tough life and has recently moved into a new home. Rather than take a few long walks on the beach, Chris and Gypsy will hit the surf together with dog surfing guru, Chris de Abowitiz who gives them a lesson in stand-up paddle boarding.

Celebrity with Amanda Keller: Bodyguard

Amanda heads backstage on the set of musical The Bodyguard to catch up with star Paulini, and her bodyguard actor Kip Gamblin. Following a chat about all things Whitney, Amanda who leads a very dangerous life, gets Kip to test his skills by acting as her personal bodyguard for a day.

Food with Miguel Maestre: Pepper Berries

Miguel hears that in Tasmania, local is the new black. Looking for the best local produce, he travels around to source the best beef, vegetables and native pepper berries to create and bake the ultimate meat pie.

Declutter with Peter Walsh: Bedroom  Glenwood

Kylie and Jarrod do not have a walk in wardrobe  it is more of a floordrobe. With clothes overflowing into the room, and covering every surface, their master bedroom is not the relaxing sanctuary it should be. When Peter Walsh pays the couple a visit, he finds there is more at play than simply too many clothes. Kylie has bags of clothes on the floor that still have tags on them and is hanging onto a large amount of items that are up to three sizes too small for her, in the hope of fitting into them one day. Peter has seen this scenario before and knows that before anything else he and Kylie will need to drill down to the real issues behind her cluttered bedroom in order to de-clutter it for good.

7:30pm Friday on TEN.
Foxtel will screen a one-hour documentary The Queen & Zak Grieve, which tells the story of a young Indigenous man convicted of murder and facing a life in prison as a result of the Northern Territorys mandatory sentencing laws.

But it was a decision the judge himself described as an injustice.

The project from national crime reporter at The Australian, Dan Box, will first be available as a six-part vodcast for The Australian. Box has has teamed up with In Films (Hitting Home), with production investment funding from Screen Australia.

Director Ivan OMahoney said: This was a unique opportunity for us to work with one of Australias best reporters, on a story of national importance and pioneer a new way of long-form documentary storytelling.

The Queen & Zak Grieve brings together the talents of reporter Dan Box and the team at In Films for a powerful examination of justice that audiences will find shocking, said Liz Stevens, Screen Australias Senior Manager Documentary. Its an important development that The Australian is providing a new platform for audiences to view Australian documentaries.

Foxtel will screen it as a one hour edition in September.

The team spent weeks in the Top End town of Katherine investigating the killing and the events that led to Zak Grieve being jailed, despite evidence he was not there when the crime took place. They conducted exclusive interviews with many of the people involved, including the judge who sent Grieve to jail, and obtained rare access to crime scene footage, forensic photographs, police interviews with suspects and trial recordings from the case.

The hard-hitting series raises questions about the criminal justice system itself. How could this apparent injustice have happened? Is it time for the mandatory sentencing laws that led to Grieves lifelong incarceration to finally be revoked?

The Queen & Zak Grieve is written and presented by Dan Box, national crime reporter at The Australian, whose Bowraville podcast has been downloaded over half a million times. The series is produced and directed by Ivan OMahoney and executive produced by Nial Fulton at In Films, the Walkley and AACTA award-winning team behind Hitting Home, Borderland and Matilda & Me, with John Lyons as executive producer for The Australian.

The Queen & Zak Grieve is produced by In Films for The Australian and Foxtel, with production funding from Screen Australia, in association with Create NSW.
facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

Published July 26, 2017

Seth Tackett, afirst-yearr graduate student in psychology at the University of Louisiana Monroe, will travel to Washington, D.C., Aug. 3-6, to present his research at the 125th Annual American Psychological Association Meeting.

Tackett, from Oak Grove, earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from ULM in 2016.

This is the first time a ULM psychology student has received the APA Student Travel Award, which according to Bill McGown, Ph.D., of the psychology department, is quite an honor.

Tackett was among more than 250 students to apply and only a few were selected. McGown said the award is rarely given to masters degree students, and that it usually goes to doctoral candidates at Tier 1 schools who are completing dissertation research.

Selections were based on the merit of the students research, McGown said, with some really big players competing.

In Tacketts research, he examined minority students graduation rates, fears of failure, gender-role conflicts and choices of college majors.

He believes that if minority students and their advisors become aware of psychological factors that shape students expectations and performances, it will lead to optimal career planning and better goal setting.

I am from a small Louisiana town, but at ULM I have been exposed to people and ideas from all over the world, Tackett said. My research mentors, Dr. Janelle McDaniel and Dr. Jack Palmer, are as inspirational and as dedicated as anyone could find anywhere.

Tackett plans to follow in the footsteps of his mentors after he earns his Master of Science in General Psychology.

After I graduate I plan to pursue my Ph.D. in psychology and achieve my dream of becoming a professor, he said.

Tacketts being chosen for this award is a testament to his dedication and the ULM program.

I cant imagine any other university preparing me better for the next phase of my life. The skills I learned here will be with me forever.
Magdelena, 35, a Nigerian returnee and her two-week old son, Musa, came back from Cameroon in mid-May 2017.  UNHCR/Rahima Gambo

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is launching a supplementary appeal for an additional US$9.5 million to scale up its activities in north-east Nigeria, as a result of an unexpected surge in self-organized returns of Nigerian refugees since the beginning of the year, mainly from Cameroon.

This is a new emergency, which requires urgent attention. Many of these returnees are unable to go back to their homes due to security concerns and end up being displaced again, in dire humanitarian conditions. Even if UNHCR does not promote or facilitate these returns, we must do everything we can to assist these vulnerable people, said Volker Turk, UNHCRs Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.

Many returnees stay in camps and displacement sites in precarious and overcrowded conditions. The situation is particularly difficult in the town of Banki, in north-east Nigeria, where many are forced to live outdoors and have limited access to drinking water, food and medicine.

During my recent visit to the region, I was not only appalled by the scale of the humanitarian needs, but also deeply shocked at the level of trauma, social division and distrust, said Turk, who visited both Nigeria and Cameroon over the past three weeks.

We urge the international community to pay more attention to this highly complex and challenging humanitarian and security situation, said the UNHCR official.

As vulnerabilities increase over time, funding is, unfortunately, lagging behind needs. So far, UNHCR has received US$41.1 million from donors out of a total funding requirement of US$179.5 million for 2017 for Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

The current funding for the relief effort does not do justice to the exceptional hospitality offered by host governments and communities, said Valentin Tapsoba, Director of UNHCRs Regional Bureau for Africa, during a donor briefing on the Nigeria situation on 24 July, 2017.

Additional funding would allow UNHCR to increase its presence in border locations and improve border and protection monitoring. The UN Refugee Agency also plans to expand reception facilities and launch mass information campaigns to ensure that Nigerian refugees in Cameroons Far North have accurate and updated information on the situation prevailing in areas of return in Nigeria.

In my recent discussions with both Governments, I also stressed the need to set up a mechanism that can both address legitimate security concerns and the protection needs of refugees, he added. I received assurances that action had been taken to stop involuntary returns, an issue that has been of deep concern to UNHCR, said Turk.

The first meeting of the Tripartite Commission which is expected to take place early August will be a positive step forward, he added. The Commission was set up after the signature, last March, of a tripartite agreement between UNHCR, Nigeria and Cameroon on voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees once conditions are conducive.

Between January and June 2017, nearly 135,000 refugees returned to Nigeria, mainly women and children. The majority left Minawao and Kolofata refugee settlements, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

UNHCR is helping to respond to the needs of more than 2.5 million people who have become refugees, internally displaced or returnees across the Lake Chad region as a result of armed conflict.

Media contacts:
Australian ambassador visits refugee camps

As the large-scale resettlement programme for Bhutanese refugees draws to a close, Australian Ambassador to Nepal Peter G Budd visited the Bhutanese refugee camps in the eastern region on Tuesday.
Chitwan tourism seeks new route for travel

Tourism entrepreneurs of Chitwan are seeking an alternative road route to the district after experiencing a sharp decline in tourist arrival due to sorry state of Narayanghat-Mugling highway.
Nick Hernandez is a proud alum who greets new Runners at the UTSA Welcome Center.

(July 26, 2017) -- Meet Nick Hernandez 11. Hes working to create the best experience for students by showing them what it means to be a Roadrunner.

Hernandez was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. Living in an area with few choices for college, he decided to venture out and take a trip to San Antonio to visit UTSA.

I had a great campus experience during my visit. I fell in love with the campus and the culture of the city. I knew right away that UTSA was the place for me, Hernandez said.

Hernandez enrolled at UTSA in 2007 and held different jobs while pursuing his degree in communications. He started as a resident assistant at Chisolm Hall then became a leasing assistant at University Oaks. Shortly after that, he began working as a tour guide at the Visitors Center, which is now the UTSA Welcome Center.

After graduation, I was fortunate to get a job as an Admissions Counselor, where I got to travel and recruit Roadrunners from all over Texas. That role helped me get to where I am today  a senior admissions counselor, where I get to oversee the Welcome Center.

The UTSA Welcome Center is equipped with 12 to 15 tour guides and two additional staff members. The center hosted more than 44,000 students and family members last year at both the Main and Downtown campuses, a number that is expected to grow next year.

Hernandez credits UTSA with giving him the resources and skills he needs to succeed as a UTSA staff member.

Growing up in a small town, I was always shy and closed off, but that changed when I got to UTSA, Hernandez recalls. I got involved on campus and attended events. I got to know a lot of people and truly made the most of my college experience.

In addition to managing the Main Campus Welcome Center, Hernandez assists in coordinating other signature admissions events on campus, such as UTSA Day and the universitys Spring Break Tours.

I want to enhance the campus experience for Future Roadrunners. The best part of my job is that we get to show admitted and prospective students our campus and make them feel like no matter what, they are welcomed at UTSA.

Another big part of Hernandezs role at the Welcome Center is mentoring UTSA student tour guides, just as he was mentored. He has implemented a ladder system for his tour guides, developed a senior guide structure and always attempts to have an open-door policy.

He regularly asks his tour guides and professional staff for feedback about how to improve the Welcome Centers experience, and he attributes much of the centers success to their leadership, passion and energy.

My journey from student to staff member has definitely made me an even prouder Roadrunner, he says. Its humbling to now see our students learning the same traits and skills I once learned and paving their own path.

Now and Forever, I am a Roadrunner is a phrase that I live by, Hernandez adds. I truly feel like UTSA is home and this is where I belong.
UW Moves Forward with Housing Plan, Capacity Study

Seeking to update its residence halls and more precisely determine its enrollment capacity, the University of Wyoming is enlisting the services of outside firms.

The UW Board of Trustees last week approved the expenditure of up to $300,000 for development of a 10-year housing plan by KSQ Design, a national planning, architecture, engineering and interior design company that specializes in campus planning and student life facilities.

The housing plan stems from UWs desire to upgrade its outdated residence halls and increase enrollment, two goals identified in the universitys new strategic plan. Previous studies have concluded that UWs residence halls do not meet the expectations of todays students, putting the university at a competitive disadvantage with competitor institutions.

UW Residence Life and Dining Services manages seven residence halls, housing about 2,100 students; and accompanying dining facilities. The last new residence hall, White Hall, was built in 1967, and the last comprehensive housing and facilities plan was prepared in 2001.

Meanwhile, the university is soliciting proposals from firms for a study of UWs enrollment capacity, including the possibility of offering reduced tuition rates for some out-of-state students. An Aug. 7 deadline has been established for firms to submit proposals.

As planned, the study will look at UWs enrollment capacity within current resources, as well as the marginal cost of adding more students. UWs new strategic plan calls for growing enrollment from 12,366 at present to 13,500 in 2022.

Additionally, the study will examine the possibility of reducing out-of-state tuition for students from Colorado and Nebraska, including the reductions needed to attract those students -- and the level of growth needed to overcome any losses in current tuition revenues from Colorado and Nebraska students.

A bill that passed the Wyoming House last spring proposed a special UW tuition rate for residents of Nebraska and Colorado.
Deported Nepali teen Bivsi Rana can return to Germany

A Nepali teenage girl who was removed from her classroom at Duisburg-based school, in North West Germany and deported to Nepal, has been allowed to return to Germany on a study visa, BBC reported.
Five loaded guns seized from Dang

Police have confiscated five loaded guns from a forest area at Rajapur rural municipality-7 in the district.
Going the wrong way

Two recent political decisions involving the Nepal Army (NA) have dragged the national security agency into controversy and have rightly raised questions about the proper role of the Army in a democracy.
Headquarters of the HCM City-based Agribanks Central Sai Gon branch.-Photo baotintuc.vn

The police recommended criminal charges against nine suspects, including former branch directors Pham Thi Mai Toan and Phi Thi Ong, former branch vice director o Thi Yen, bank officers and directors of companies that falsified documents to get loans from the bank.

According to the police investigation, American national Hoang Tien Dzung founded six companies based in HCM City and hired people to work as company directors to borrow money from the bank.

The companies reportedly failed to pay the bank interest.

Subsequently, in November, 2009, Dzung falsified a project to get a loan of VN90 billion (US$4 million) to help the six companies pay interest. Fake documents were submitted to the bank, claiming that one of the six companies  A Chau Company  had earned profits, while in fact, the company had incurred losses. Despite knowing the truth, Toan still approved the loan.

Earlier, in April 2009, the Central Sai Gon branch offered a loan of VN75 billion ($3.3 million) to ADN Company, whose director is Hoang Van Cuong. Cuong also falsified documents that claimed the company needed investment for a rubber tree growing project in southern Binh Thuan Province.

Former branch director Phi Thi Ong signed papers authorising the loan although she was aware that Cuongs company was unqualified for it.

At present, Hoang Tien Dzung has escaped from Viet Nam and police have issued a wanted notice for him.
Despite joint venture partner Emaar Properties' withdrawal, Bitexco wishes to go ahead with Binh-Quoi-Thanh Da urban area

According to newswire Cafef, the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee has submitted Bitexcos proposed plans to the prime minister for approval.

The project was approved by the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee to develop a cultural, sports, and tourism center. In 2004, Saigon Construction Corporation was selected as the project investor. However, in 2007 the city decided to take the project away from this investor due to its lack of financial capacity.

In late 2015, Bitexco Group partnered with Emaar Properties PJSC to establish a joint venture to take over the project with an estimated total capital sum of VND30.7 trillion ($1.4 billion).

In September 2016, Emaar asked for unprecedented incentives for the project as well as asked the local authorities to calculate the exact compensation and land clearance expenses. However, in October 2016, the foreign investor officially quit the project.

According to the Land Law, within three years after the project is put into the land use planning, the acquisition of land must be completed or the project will have to be adjusted or cancelled. Thus, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment submitted a document to the prime minister to ask for solutions. Before this, Bitexco expressed its development plan to the citys leaders.

According to the initial plan, the project would cover a total area of 427 hectares. The construction would be developed in three phases. In the first phase, from 2016 to 2020, the investor would complete site clearance and basic infrastructure. Functional areas will be developed in phase two, from 2021 to 2025, and the whole project is scheduled to be completed in phase three, from 2026 to 2030.

Bitexco has a good track record in developing and completing landmark property projects in Ho Chi Minh City, including The Manor condominium complex and the 68-storey Bitexco Financial Tower. It is developing a twin tower complex in the second city that will be home to the first Ritz-Carlton hotel in Vietnam.

Its porfolio in Hanoi includes The Manor residential complex and 5-star JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel.
Land Revenue staffer caught red handed with bribe in Bajura

A technician at the Land Revenue Office in Bajura has been arrested red handed while take bribe on Wednesday.
The EVFTA is expected to bring benefits to both Vietnamese and Italian enterprises

Themed "Doing business with Italy," the event also helped Vietnamese enterprises understand Italian consumption trends, provided information about export-import activities between the two countries, as well as held trade and investment promotion programmes.

"Trade between Vietnam and Italy hit over $4 billion in 2016. The countries have opportunities to further increase the figure, especially as the EVFTA is expected to take effect in early 2018," said Natalia Sanginiti, Vice Ambassador of the Italian Embassy in Hanoi.

At present, many Vietnamese and Italian enterprises want to boost export-import activities to meet their demands.

According to David Doninotti, secretary general of AICE, with a population of 60.7 million people and GDP growth of $1.85 trillion in 2016, Italy is a potential export and import market for Vietnam.

Italy was the world's ninth major exporter, with an export turnover of EUR417.1 billion ($486 billion) in 2016 and the world's 13th major importer with a value of EUR365.5 billion ($425.9 billion) last year.

Italy exports machinery, luxury goods, processed food, car engines, shoes and fashion items, while it imports industrial machinery, chemicals, oil, metals, agricultural products, and transportation vehicles.

Currently, Vietnam is Italy's 15th largest importer and 19th among Italy's export markets.

After the 2008 world crisis, the Italian demand for goods has been showing signs of recovery. Thus, there are more opportunities for Vietnamese firms to export goods to the market.

Vietnam is also an attractive market for Italian firms thanks to a growing population, growing technology demand from the industrial sector, steady economic growth, and the EVFTA, said Doninotti.

The EVFTA will bring benefits to the two countries' enterprises thanks to the removal of technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation efforts, recognition of sanitary and phytosanitary measures for food, and rules of origin for products made in the EU or Vietnam, among others.

For example, almost all EU exports of machinery and appliances will be fully liberalised from duties, while around half of EU pharmaceutical exports will be duty free as soon as the FTA enters into force and the rest after seven years.

Pham Hoang Hai, ICHAM executive director, said that machinery and pharmaceutical products will be among the major export items to Vietnam in the coming time.

As planned, ICHAM will organise a similar event in Ho Chi Minh City on July 27.
A branch of the MB Securities Joint Stock Company in Ha Noi. - VNS Photo Truong Vi

These are some of the drastic measures being considered by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Government Office (GO) as part of efforts to speed up equitisation and induce more transparency into the process.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has also instructed the MoF and GO to investigate and hand out stiff punishments to businesses and commercial banks that do not finalise the procedures despite being qualified to list on the UPCoM.

The MoF will compile a list of equitised SOEs where the State still retains 36 per cent or more of its stake, as well as those with zero to 36 per cent of State capital, though the decision for the latter to become listed is contingent on the companys shareholders.

In the last six months of 2017, any enterprise tardy about going public on the UPCoM will be heavily fined under Circular 36/2017/TT-BTC which has been in effect since June 15, 2017.

Companies failing to list or register 12 months later than requested by the State Security Commission of Viet Nam will attract fines of VND300 million to VND400 million (US$13,342 to $17,790).

The MoF has also asked the Government and responsible departments and localities to consider disciplinary action against the leadership of companies that are dragging their feet on completing listing procedures.

The disciplinary actions would range from demotions, transfers, salary cuts to more serious criminal charges.

The threat of severe action has prompted several companies to hasten their listing procedures. Officials expect a spate of companies being listed in the second half of the year.

In just five days (July 17- 21), 14 companies have successfully listed their stocks on the HNX, UPCoM and the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), with a total of more than 500 million shares.

On July 20, the Binh Duong Water Environment Joint Stock Company, with stock code BWE, listed 150 million shares listed on the HOSE at the referential price of VND14,300 per share (63 cents); while the Viet Thang Corporation, stock code TVT, listed 21 million shares at VND35,000 per share ($1.55).

Meanwhile, the PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power) is preparing its initial public offering (IPO) for late next month. The Government is seeking strategic investors for the firm and planning to decrease its holdings to below 50 per cent. Around 45 per cent of PV Powers total shares will go to the strategic investors, while three to four per cent will be reserved for the IPO.

The Deputy PM has ordered that all State-owned commercial banks are listed on the UPCoM in order to improve transparency in their operations and generate more opportunities to raise capital.

As of now, at least 10 banks with a total charter capital of VND95 trillion ($4.2 billion) plan to be listed on the UPCoM. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank, with a chartered capital of VND14.06 trillion ($625 million), has registered to list more than 1.33 billion shares on the HOSE.

In a document published last week, Deputy PM Hue also demanded that a list of 730 equitised companies yet to be listed on the UPCoM as of June 2017 be published on the Governments online portal.
Cao Thi Anh at the first instance hearing

On July 25, 2017, the Hanoi Peoples Court opened the first instance hearing of the case of Cao Thi Anh over charges of misappropriation. After the hearing, the court found Anh guilty of forging HSBC Vietnams stamp and documents and sentenced her to four years in prison.

In 2012, Anh was the employee of HSBC Vietnams credit department. At the time, HSBC Vietnam was implementing a programme of lending unsecured consumer loans for individual clients.

Regarding preferential borrowers who work for HSBC Vietnams corporate clients, their documents should reflect a monthly income of at least VND5 million ($220) and at least one year of employment. Clients did not have to submit their account statements, instead, they needed their companies confirmation about their jobs and income.

The monthly income of other clients should be at least VND8 million ($352) and they had to submit account statements reflecting their income in the last three months.

Anh was responsible for seeking borrowers and helping them finish their documents. The appraisal department will check the documents by calling the clients companies. In some cases, the appraisal staff checked documents by dealing with other parties besides borrowers and their companies. Based on each income level and borrowers requirements, HSBC Vietnam would decide on the loan amount. The maximum amount was ten times the clients income specified in their documents.

Cao Thi Anh admitted that due to pressure to reach the banks targets, she took advantage of some of her family and friends with private firms, asking them to confirm the employment status and income in the fake documents.

From January to March 2013, Anh helped complete 15 applications for credit cards for individuals who did not meet the requirements to borrow unsecured consumer loans. In particular, she asked her acquaintance in Bien Bac JSC to make six fake documents for her clients to borrow VND915 million ($40,260) in unsecured consumer loans.

Similarly, Anh colluded with a friend in Acom Investment Corporation to confirm the fake documents of 13 individuals who were not the real staff of the company, so that these individuals could borrow a total of VND980 billion ($43,120).

Up till now, these borrowers have failed to pay off debts, which resulted in a loss of VND1.7 billion ($74,800) for HSBC Vietnam.

These clients said that they were not employed at HSBCs corporate partners and their documents to borrow money were supported by Anh. All they had to do was to sign the application forms to apply for credit cards. Cao Thi Anh told them to tell exactly what the documents mentioned when HSBC Vietnams appraisal staff called them to check.

HSBC Vietnam admitted that those falling short of the set targets would be penalised or dismissed. The lawyer of Anh said that her crime was forging the documents of HSBC Vietnam. The uncollected money was considered civil transactions. Regarding civil liabilities, the court allowed HSBC Vietnam to prosecute clients who failed to pay off debts.
The two airlines held a series of discussions on expanding their networks in response to the growing demand for travel in Vietnams neighbouring countries as well as for air travel between Japan and Vietnamese destinations.

As a first step, JAL and Vietjet have agreed to start code-share cooperation for all flight services between Japan and Vietnam and Vietnam and other Asian countries, as well as the two companies domestic flights.

These significant add-ons are expected to create more customer convenience. JAL and Vietjet will further explore opportunities to develop the partnership in various areas, including a frequent-flier partnership, aircraft operations and maintenance, as well as ground handling services and training.

According to Tadashi Fujita, JAL executive vice president, the launch of this partnership with Vietjet represents a significant milestone for the two airlines to provide customers better access to destinations between Japan and Vietnam and beyond.

We believe it will generate more passenger and cargo traffic between the two countries and open up commercial opportunities for the two airlines international networks, said Fujita.

Luu Duc Khanh, managing director of Vietjet, said that through the agreement signed with JAL, Vietjet once again affirms its commitment to innovation, leading market trends, and offering new services to complement global integration and international standards.

Japan remains our key market even as we expand the airlines flight network in the Asia-Pacific region. The partnership between Vietjet and JAL will diversify our air transportation products, while stimulating the movement of people between the two countries as well as developing the two airlines relationship in line with our international commercial operation capabilities in the coming time, Khanh said.

Leaders of the two airlines exchange souvenirs after the signing ceremony

In line with Vietnams rapid economic growth, the demand for air travel to and from Japan has been growing steadily. JAL is already operating daily non-stop services between Tokyos Narita Airport and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, as well as between Tokyos Haneda Airport and Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietjet, the first privately-owned airline in Vietnam, started flight services in 2011 and now operates a network all over Vietnam and Asia. Vietjet offers convenient and friendly services with reasonable fares and succeeded in creating new demand in Vietnam. Yet as a new-age carrier, it offers a higher-class service called SkyBoss, which has been very well received among passengers expecting quality service.

Established in 2007, Vietjet is now leading the domestic aviation market in Vietnam and is actively expanding its international flight network.

After five years of operations, the airline has flown nearly 40 million passengers, and has been awarded 32 domestic and nine international accolades, including being named one of the Top 500 Brands in Asia 2016, Vietnams Favourite Airline, and Best Asian Low Cost Carrier at the TTG Travel Awards 2015.

Currently, Vietjet operates a fleet of 48 aircrafts, including A320 and A321 models, and operates over 350 flights per day. It currently operates 67 routes in Vietnam and across the region to international destinations, such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, and Myanmar.

JAL was founded in 1951 and became the first international airline in Japan. A member of the Oneworld Alliance, the airline now reaches more than 344 airports in 56 countries and regions, together with its codeshare partners with a modern fleet of more than 227 aircrafts.
Customers and staffs at Shinhan Bank office in Hoan Kiem District, Ha Noi. - VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

The observers, who declined to be named, told Tri thuc tre (Young Intellectual) online newspaper that there could be big deals involving South Korean companies in the future, following a series of co-operation agreements between South Korean and Vietnamese financial institutions recently.

In the middle of July, a major South Korean bank, Daegu, announced that a comprehensive co-operation agreement had been signed with Viet Nams Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB).

Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of OCB, said Daegu would support OCB in various areas, such as international money transfer, product development, SME services, training exchange programmes on risk management, information technology, and product development in South Korea.

Daegu Bank has pledged to provide the best companion programmes to facilitate OCBs growth among the South Korean business community in Viet Nam, and to share its experience so that OCB will eventually hold a 50 per cent market share in SME services in the country.

In South Korea, Daegu holds over 50 per cent of the market share in the loans to local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) area.

In mid-April, Korea Development Bank (KDB) marked its presence in Viet Nam through a comprehensive co-operation agreement with Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV).

KDB is the top bank in South Korea in terms of total assets and equity, and ranks 94th in the world. It has a presence in 22 countries.

With the State holding around 95 per cent of its charter capital, BIDV, which tops Viet Nams commercial banks in total assets, has most room for foreign investors among Viet Nams privatised banks, of up to 30 per cent.

Ever since BIDVs shares were listed on the stock market in 2014, its leaders have repeatedly stated that the bank is looking for foreign strategic partners, and could sell 25 to 30 per cent of its stake. With the co-operation, there is a possibility that the Korean partner may become one of BIDVs strategic shareholders.

Besides co-operation agreements, financial institutions from South Korea have also been taking more direct, stronger steps into the Vietnamese financial market.

Take the case of Shinhan Bank, which received a licence and became one of the first five banks with 100 per cent foreign capital in Viet Nam in 2008.

In April this year, Shinhan surpassed its four rivals to acquire the lucrative retail segment of ANZ Vietnam.

Previously, after acquiring a 50 per cent stake in Shinhan Vina (a joint venture between the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam or Vietcombank and Shinhan Bank with 50 per cent stake for both), the bank was renamed Shinhan Bank Vietnam in 2011.

ANZs retail segment serves around 125,000 individual customers in Viet Nam and A$320 million in outstanding loans. The handover is underway and expected to be completed before the end of 2017, sources revealed.

In November last year, the largest lender by assets in the Republic of Korea Woori Bank also officially set up a wholly foreign-owned bank in Viet Nam. The banks representatives said that Woori Bank would boost its retail business and target becoming the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnamese market.

With the advantage of established trade relations, Viet Nams untapped potential and global integration goals will make it an ideal destination for South Korean banks. So Vietnamese banks, though they have been receiving investments, should be well-prepared to compete, if they want to survive and grow.

While Vietnamese banks are still struggling to lend to FDI firms and have seen very modest results in the area, foreign banks, especially South Korean ones, are showing much stronger initiative in not only providing loans to local enterprises but also to Viet Nams huge projects.

Most recently, South Koreas Keximbank expressed interest in investing in several metro lines in HCM City and received enthusiastic support from the transport sector. Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia has encouraged Keximbank to invest not only in the metro lines in HCM City, but also in metro projects in Ha Noi. In particular, Nghia hopes Keximbank will fund three other transport projects of Tan Van-Nhon Trach, Lo Te-Rach Soi and My Thuan 2 bridge.
A general view of the Qatari capital Doha. (Photo: AFP)

The move by the four Arab governments came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt last month released a list of 59 people and 12 groups they alleged had links to Qatar, accused by the four states of ties to extremist groups in the region.

Qatar has denied the allegations.

Tuesday's list blacklisted nine charity and media organisations and nine individuals "directly or indirectly linked to Qatari authorities" as "terrorist", read a joint statement released by the four states.

"We expect Qatari authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people," the statement said.

"The four countries and their international partners will ensure that Qatar has ceased its support and funding of terrorism, has stopped welcoming terrorists and has stopped spreading extremist and hate speech," it added.

The Saudi-led bloc, which now blacklists 89 persons and organisations accused of ties to Islamist groups they say are backed by Qatar, also dismissed an amendment last week to Doha's counter-terrorism law as "insufficient".

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate's only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a "terror group" by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar's efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

The four governments on Tuesday blacklisted three organisations based in Yemen and six based in Libya accusing them of ties to Al-Qaeda.

They also blacklisted three Qataris, three Yemenis, two Libyans and a Kuwaiti they said were implicated in "fundraising campaigns to support (former Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist militias in Syria".

Qatar and its neighbours support opposing sides in the conflict in Libya between a UN-backed unity government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east.

Saudi Arabia has led a military intervention against Shiite rebels in neighbouring Yemen since March 2015.

Jihadists of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have since expanded their presence in areas of the south under the nominal control of the Saudi-backed government.
Workers manufacture women handbags at the Simone Accessories Collection Viet Nam TG Ltds factory in Tan Huong Industrial Zone, Tien Giang Province - VNA Photo Vu Sinh

The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) announced recently that Viet Nam was the fifth largest exporter of handbags and suitcases in the world, accounting for 5.4 per cent of global supply.

The country produces over US$3.2 billion worth of handbags, suitcases and backpacks that are exported to 10 major markets. A large number of factories have become trusted producers for major multinational brands.

Nguyen Duc Thuan, LEFASOs Chairman, said the nations leather industry has grown by 10 to 15 per cent per year for the past five years, driven significantly by international fashion brands moving their handbag manufacturing facilities to Viet Nam.

Thuan said a majority of fashion houses have chosen to replace Chinese manufacturers with Vietnamese ones through foreign direct investment.

In the first five months of 2017, the US was the largest market for Vietnamese suitcases, backpacks, and handbags worth $555 million, a six per cent increase over the same period in 2016, according to the General Department of Customs.

The EU was second, importing goods worth $365 million, up 8.2 per cent year on year.

Exports to other main markets included Japan at $146.5 million, up 1.7 per cent; China at $57.6 million, down 6.8 per cent; and South Korea at $52.8 million, down 0.4 per cent.

Nguyen Minh Phong, Head of the Economic Research Section of the Ha Noi Socio-Economic Development Research Institute, had said in June that bag producers in Viet Nam should diversify their export markets, with emphasis on the US and EU markets.

Phong also said that the founding of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 would pose new challenges for Vietnamese leatherware industry. However, he believed the country could turn this into an advantage and expand exports to other ASEAN markets instead.

He recommended that Vietnamese bag makers work together with their counterparts in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia to create better value chains, cut costs and increase productivity, as materials are more accessible within the AEC than outside.

As local bag and suitcase manufacturers mainly perform outsourced tasks for FDI companies, they need to increase investment, expand production scale and improve product quality to gain a foothold in the domestic market.

At present, China still reigns as the worlds largest producer and exporter of backpacks, suitcases and handbags, churning out more than 40 per cent of total global output every year.
Anup Ojha is a reporter for The Kathmandu Post primarily covering social issues and human interest stories. Before moving to the social beat, Ojha covered arts and culture for the Post for four years.
The Dangerous Side-Effects of Plastics, and How to Minimize Their Toxic Impact

Plastics are not only an environmental disaster; these man-made conveniences introduced a century ago are also harming our physical and mental health. Phthalates  chemical compounds used to make plastic more flexible and durable  are found in more products than you might imagine, and have become the human bodys
New machine readable tags launched

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has ordered manufacturers of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes to affix machine readable excise duty stickers on their products in a bid to boost tax compliance.
The MI6 is recalling its men after the botched Arab Spring. It was Sir James Craig who in 2004 put this project together, its essential aim being to produce an Arab Revolt just like Lawrence of Arabia had organized against the Ottoman empire.

During the First World War, Thomas Lawrence promised the Arabs their unity and freedom if they succeeded in toppling the Ottoman coloniser. At the end of the day, they had the British Empire.

This time the Arab Spring was conceived with Iran in mind. The aim was to put the Muslim brotherhood in power everywhere, for it was the Muslim Brotherhood that was the vehicle by which Anglo Saxon imperialism handed over power.

One of the key agents in this programme, Angus McKee, was appointed the UK charge daffaires to Syria, in December 2011. When the UK embassy in Damascus closed, he continued his functions under the same cover, albeit with a change of locus to Beirut. In March 2012, he became the consul at the Iraqi Kurdistan. He has just been recalled by the MI6 to London.
Celebrities: just like us. Photo: Getty Images

Today in celebrities arent just like us, Alice Cooper found an Andy Warhol print worth millions that he forgot he owned for more than 40 years just casually rolled up in a tube in one of his storage lockers. The piece, a red Little Electric Chair silk screen dated either 1964 or 1965, was part of Warhols Death and Disaster series and is based on a 1953 photo of the death chamber at Sing Sing prison, where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for Russian espionage. Cooper made the discovery four years ago after his manager, Shep Gordon, had dinner with an art dealer who told him the pieces value. Coopers mother remembered that it got mixed up in storage with Coopers memorabilia, including, coincidentally, one of Coopers electric-chair stage props from the 70s. Warhol and Cooper became close friends at that time over their mutual love of celebrities, so Coopers then-girlfriend Cindy Lang bought Cooper the print in 1972 and gave it to Gordon for safekeeping.

Alice says he remembers having a conversation with Warhol about the picture. He thinks the conversation was real, but he couldnt put his hand on a Bible and say that it was, Gordon told The Guardian of that foggy period in Coopers life. Lang paid $2,500 for the print, but a similar green version went for $11.6 million at auction in 2015. Cooper said he didnt want to be responsible for anything potentially that valuable and put it back into storage. That print is also unsigned and the Andy Warhol Foundation stopped authenticating his works in 2011, though a Warhol expert confirmed to Gordon, Cooper, and The Guardian that Coopers print is real. Gordon says that Cooper has had a change of heart about displaying the forgotten print in his home now that its been appraised by the Warhol expert. Cooper apparently never thought the print was a big deal and had this reaction when he found out: Are you serious? I own that! As for the rest of you famous people, maybe check your attics.
Zoes Chocolate is a Waynesboro, Pennsylvaniabased confectioner owned by Zoe Tsoukatos and her brothers, Pantelis and Petros. Their family has been in the chocolate business for more than a century, and family is why they started their shop in the first place: Their dad, George, is a Greek immigrant who serves as their master chocolatier. In 2007, the 40-year veteran sweet-maker was unexpectedly laid off from a previous job, so Zoe and Pantelis  then working high-powered, non-chocolate-related jobs in D.C.  wanted to do whatever they could to help, including founding a company.

Their gorgeous chocolates may taste amazing, but Zoes sales have sharply declined. Is the Tsoukatos legacy doomed to melt? Lets see what ails them.

 Although Marcus  who would have you know he eats chocolate literally every single day, thank you  gives stellar reviews to their 18 Mediterranean-inspired flavors like baklava and sesame tahini, he cant help but notice that their largely empty case looks anemic. But expanding their narrow product offering will be challenging. When Marcus suggests adding relatable basics like chocolate-covered pretzels (they are in Pretzelvania, after all), Zoe bristles because you could get that anywhere.

 Theres even more tension when they talk about the companys story. One of Marcuss biggest problems with Zoes Chocolate is that their compelling background  a rich family history, an immigrant success story, a family banding together  isnt really mentioned in their branding or brochures. Telling a good story, Marcus says, is vital for a retail business. But Zoe wont budge. I can tell that Zoes getting uncomfortable with it, but I dont care. Im going to keep pushing, Marcus says. He takes her aside and asks her upfront about the reasoning behind her reluctance: Shes wary of embarrassing her dad.

 As is all too often the case on The Profit, this business is seriously lacking in process and organization. The shipping, storage, and kitchen facilities are part of the same narrow yet deep space that stretches past their storefront, and all are crying out to be KonMaried.

The ownership of Zoes Chocolate is divided among the siblings: 35 percent for Zoe (who runs the whole operation), 35 percent for Pantelis (who handles outside sales and finances), and the remaining 30 percent for Petros, who runs the kitchen with his dad. All three have sacrificed a lot. They will often forego their earnings or split a smaller sum among themselves  even their dad hasnt been paid recently. In 2015, they made $757,000 in revenue, but in 2016, that fell to $675,000. That big drop is partly because they lost a lucrative deal with Whole Foods and some other accounts because they failed to develop new products, out of a resistance to fall into step with the mainstream. Marcus finds this attitude counterproductive. Stubbornly refusing to expand the brand isnt the same as protecting it.

Nevertheless, Marcus makes them an offer: $250,000 for 50 percent of Zoes Chocolate, with that money to go toward paying down their $162,000 in debt, updating their retail space and online store, and developing new products and packaging. When the siblings express their desire to hold onto a majority of the family business  thats what would make their dad happiest  Marcus counters with $200,000 for 40 percent. And of course, hell need full financial and operational control. They take the deal.

As a first step to rethinking the online business, Marcus records a Facebook Live video (watch it here!) as a massive focus group, telling his viewers to place online orders with Zoes so he can test out their wildly unorganized process. Within about 15 minutes, the store has a whopping 150 purchases to contend with  considerably more than the exactly one (1) theyd received so far that day. All hands are on deck to fill these orders, in a chaotic swirl of cardboard boxes and airborne Styrofoam peanuts. Now that its clear to everyone involved that having no system whatsoever isnt going to work out, Marcus assigns Pantelis to organize the entire facility from top to bottom, all on his own.

Next, Marcus sets out to remodel the meatspace (chocolate-space?) store, expanding the cute but cramped shop and installing a window so customers can look into the working kitchen. During construction, product development keeps chugging away, with Marcus asking George and Petros to develop 12 more products, incorporating on-brand flavors like ouzo.

Zoe and Petros meet Marcus in L.A. for a meeting with a company he previously invested in called Flex Watches, who are masters at marketing and branding. (How watches fit into any of this is unclear.) Inspired by Mediterranean imagery, these guys propose a blue color palette for the new Zoes packaging, and a vaguely religious white-on-white logo with a cross. Zoe hates all of this: Whats the story to this? That were Greek? Marcus is shocked by Zoes attitude, which I get, but also, I think shes probably right. I like you, Zoe.

Back home, she uncomfortably broaches the topic of leaning into the family story in their branding with their parents, who are remarkably encouraging. Her mother, Eleni, tells her that the family shouldnt be embarrassed by their all-too-common struggles. How strong we got is because everybody love each other, because of you, George tells Zoe. Is it just me, or are all of these chocolates suddenly tear-flavored?

Panteliss first go at reorganizing the shipping department  which still relies on the time-tested giant stacks of paper system of organization  is not good enough for Marcus. Dont let it fool you. Its not that bad, Pantelis tells him, which is perhaps mathematically the worst possible thing he could have said in this moment. The kitchen looks even grodier: A plastic tray covered in chocolate-drip stalagmites under one machine seems to particularly enrage Marcus. Do you guys want me to be your business partner or not? he asks his co-owners. I dont want to be here because of shit like this. The siblings protest that they did as much as they could, raising their voices to match his, before Marcus fussily picks up a broom and starts cleaning up himself.

Things quickly take a turn for the better when Zoe and Marcus compromise on new branding: a modern yet whimsical cocoa-bean-centered image that, its worth noting, bears zero resemblance to what Flex Watches pitched them. Petros has devised new products, like a delicious-sounding quinoa brittle. Pantelis has converted the guts of the facility into a well-oiled machine, with everything labeled and sorted. Thats all just in time, because Marcus has made them an important appointment: In one week, theyll be meeting with Norwegian Cruise Line to pitch their chocolates for inclusion on all their boats worldwide.

Aboard a ship in Miami, the Tsoukatos family pitches to three senior execs, telling them the origin story of their business and what it was like to grow up with a Willy Wonka dad. The human angle is effective, and even more effective when they ply the Norwegian Cruise Line team with new offerings like a coconut-curry chocolate, chocolate-covered edamame, and treats printed with custom logos. One executive isnt thrilled to hear that their largest order yet was for just 7,000 bars  thats less than what theyd need for two ships  but Zoe maintains they have the capacity to produce five times their current output. She convinces them to commit to a handshake agreement that Zoes Chocolate will develop a program for Norwegian Cruise Line, impressing Marcus and, more importantly, me, because I am now prepared to bestow upon Zoe the inaugural Profit Recap Amazing at Business Medal of Business Excellence.

Back in Waynesboro, the remodel is complete. Marcus poured $100,000 into the Zoes Chocolate storefront, and it shows, with new floors, new lighting, new seating, new everything. One wall is prominently decorated with a large portrait of George, who ceremoniously flips the door sign from CLOSED to OPEN at the grand opening. Locals flood in to snack on samples and peruse the sweets for sale. Someone even calls it the best chocolate hes ever had.

Thats just the taste of good business, friend.
They swear its not shady. Photo: Soudcloud

Earlier this month, SoundCloud laid off 40 percent of its staff amid rumors of near bankruptcy, in an effort to remain independent. SoundCloud has since passed along the message through Chance the Rapper that the company is going to be fine, but theyre sticking with the layoffs and office closures to stay afloat. With 173 exSoundCloud staffers now free agents in the tech biz, WeTransfer already wants them. Recently, the president of the file-sharing service, Damian Bradfield, began individually poaching the former SoundCloud employees  whose names SoundCoud made public to help get them new jobs  with an intriguing offer to bail them out: $10,000 to invent the next SoundCloud. Below is an excerpt from the letter each employee received, a copy of which Bradfield has also shared:

So wed like to make you an offer. $10,000 to start something. This is not a loan or equity exchange.

What we would like to see is a proposal for something you could design, build or manage that could be the new mail-order record club, SoundCloud or iTunes.

This is not an investment. I hear you  10k is a modest amount  but we started small too, and it could act as a runway. Or it could pay for the lights on a runway. Somehow, it could help you get off the ground.

We arent a bank or a VC. We dont want equity or thanks. Wed just like to ensure good talent doesnt go to waste. We all need to be challenged. Well be there to help and advise if we can.

Bradfield has since explained in a Medium post that he came up with the plan to source ideas for a SoundCloud rival from the companys former staff while watching SoundClouds CEO speak on a panel in Berlin after the firings. Bradfield then returned to L.A. to propose it to the rest of WeTransfer. I heard all sorts of responses, but for the most part what rang out from the company was one resounding sound. Do it, he writes. Bradfield admits that $10,000 is not enough to build an entirely new company, but it could fund an app. He also claims WeTransfer is not doing this to be shady, start a war with SoundCloud, or take advantage of laid-off workers, despite how it might look. They allegedly just want to inspire innovation: We arent trying to compete and dont want to own anything. Its a chance to have some fun. Bradfield hasnt said if there have been any takers yet, so play at your own risk.
Nitish Kumar steps down as Bihar CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from the post on Wednesday citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.
The Hewitt Public Library is having a Splash Day from 10:30 a.m. to noon Wednesday at Hewitt Park, 801 S. Hewitt Drive.

The event will include water slides and more.

For more information, call 666-2442.

Shadow puppets

Matt Sandbanks Shadow Factory will present a Wild Goose Chase shadow puppet show, with dancing pants, guitar rockin grannies and more at the following times, dates and locations:

10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Central Library, 1717 Austin Ave.

10:30 a.m. Friday at the South Waco Library, 2737 S. 18th St.

The program is being held in conjunction with the McLennan County Librarys Summer Reading Club.

For more information, visit waco-texas.com/ cms-library.

Crawford 150th cookout

The Crawford Sesquicentennial Committee will host a hamburger and hot dog cookout with Blue Bell ice cream from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Crawford High School cafeteria. It will be a fundraiser for the Crawford Sesquicentennial Celebration this fall. A free-will offering and donations will be accepted.

For more information, call 717-3458 or 486-2366.

Kiwanis Seniors

The Waco Kiwanis Seniors will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Golden Corral, 618 N. Valley Mills Drive.

A. Marcus Nelson, the new Waco ISD superintendent, will be the guest speaker.

Visitors are welcome to attend.

For more information, call Dick Rood at 399-0072.

CRRC meeting

The Community Race Relations Coalition will hold its quarterly meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Albans Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 305 N. 30th St.

The program will be Celebration of Cultures through music.

Dinner will be provided by the coalition board, with donations accepted. The event is open to all, but a reservation is required by calling 717-7903 or emailing Jo@welterfamily.org.
A Waco attorney who drafted an agreement between Stephen M. Cutbirth and Lacey Newman to split a $1.24 million gambling bonanza testified Wednesday that Newman was excited, happy and satisfied with the arrangement.

Both sides rested their case Wednesday afternoon in the trial that pits Lacey Newman and her husband, Jonathan, against Cutbirth, who invited Lacey Newman on an all-expenses-paid gambling trip to Louisiana in July 2013 and who gave her the money with which she hit the slot machine jackpot.

Jurors in Wacos 414th State District Court should start deliberations Thursday morning after attorneys give final summations. The jury will be asked to decide if the 54-year-old Cutbirth tried to defraud Jonathan Newman out of his share of the winnings and if he is entitled to the money.

Jonathan Newman had filed for divorce and the Newmans were separated when Cutbirth, a longtime friend of Lacey Newmans stepfather, asked her to accompany him on the trip to Bossier City.

After Lacey Newman, 32, won the jackpot, she and Cutbirth both asked officials at Diamond Jims Casino to put the winnings in Cutbirths name so Newman could conceal the winnings from her husband until after their divorce was final. The casino refused since Lacey Newman pushed the button on the winning bet.

Jonathan Newman, a Lacy Lakeview police officer, sued his wife and Cutbirth for fraud after he learned about the jackpot shortly after the pair returned from Louisiana. However, the Newmans have since reunited, have had a second child and now they have teamed to sue Cutbirth, alleging he improperly influenced Lacey Newman to cheat her husband out of community property proceeds.

Lacey Newman admitted in testimony Monday that she lied while under oath in depositions in her divorce case before she and her husband reconciled, but she assured the jury she was telling the truth at trial.

Cutbirth, who operates a custom hay-baling business in Downsville, testified he and Lacey Newman agreed before they left on the gambling trip that he would pay for everything and that they would split any winnings 50-50.

Lacey Newman told the jury there was never any such agreement beforehand and that Cutbirth concocted the story that he was playing the slot machine and asked her to play for him while he went to the bathroom.

She hit the Wheel of Fortune jackpot while he was gone, both said shortly after they returned.

Kathleen Dow testified Wednesday that Cutbirth called her law office on the way back from Louisiana and asked her to draft documents indicating that they wanted to split the money equally.

Lacey Newman appeared to understand the documents, knew she and Cutbirth would be splitting the money and was excited about it, Dow said.

She seemed very happy when she was in my office, Dow said.

The document Dow drafted, which she said was legal and binding on them both, recounted what has become known during the three-day trial as the bathroom story and said the money deposited in the slot machine belonged to Cutbirth and all the winnings were Cutbirths.

Cutbirth and Lacey Newman each split about $800,000 after opting to receive a cash buy-out.

They left Dows office, put the money in a joint credit union account and Lacey Newman bought a $63,000 pickup truck the same day.

Jonathan Newman testified Wednesday that he and his wife have no money left from the winnings and owe the IRS $500,000 in taxes, penalties and interest. He said he found out about his wifes winnings when his aunt and uncle, who are avid gamblers, sent him a casino flier with her picture on it announcing her good fortune.

He said he spent a lot of sleepless nights after he and his wife separated because of his son, telling the jury he and his wife got back together for their sons sake, not the money.

Under cross-examination from Cutbirths attorney, Ken Rolston, Jonathan Newman said the most important things he has as a police officer are his honesty, accuracy and credibility.

Your wife lost her credibility by lying under oath, Rolston said. She committed perjury. Do you understand that is a criminal offense? She admitted to breaking the law.

Jonathan Newman said he might not necessarily have a problem believing someone who admitted they committed perjury.

Thats exactly what Im telling this jury, he said.

Are you embarrassed about coming in here with your hand out asking for half this money when you contributed absolutely nothing to that jackpot? Rolston asked.

Absolutely not, Jonathan Newman said.

You werent shocked when your wife tried to hide this money from you? Rolston asked.

Thats something I think many people would do, but it is out-of-character for my wife, Jonathan Newman said.

In defense testimony Wednesday, Michael Butler, a friend of Lacey Newmans, said she told him the bathroom story when she returned from Bossier City and said she had agreed to split the money with Cutbirth.

Butler said Lacey Newman bought him a $41,000 Ford pickup truck as a gift with the money she won in the summer of 2013. He said after her divorce started heating up and the lawyers were trying to account for the money she spent, she asked him to give the truck back to her or pay for it.

He said he gave her back the truck and she refunded him about $2,500, the amount he got when he traded in his truck for the new truck.
Sajha and Bibeksheel to unite, announcment today

It was not that people did not speculate this; many actually had even suggested that the Sajha Party and Bibeksheel Nepali Party, the two young forces in the countrys political spectrum, should unite.
A Downsville man who financed a gambling trip for a family friend testified Tuesday he and the woman agreed to split their winnings before she won $1.24 million on a slot machine.

Stephen M. Cutbirths testimony contradicts that of Lacey Newman, who told jurors Monday there was never an agreement to split the money and that she only went along with an initial scheme to hide the winnings from her husband because Cutbirth told her to.

Cutbirth spent several hours on the witness stand in 414th State District Court on Tuesday, the second day of trial in a fraud suit brought against him by Lacey Newman and her husband, Jonathan Newman.

Cutbirth, 54, who operates a custom hay-baling business, said he invited Lacey Newman to come with him to a casino in Bossier City, Louisiana, in July 2013 in an effort to cheer her up because of her separation from her husband.

He said he offered to pay for everything, including the room, transportation, food and gambling money. Before they left, they agreed to split anything they won 50-50, he said. After she won the huge jackpot with a $100 bill he gave her to play with, he said it never occurred to him not to split their winnings because of their deal.

My Daddy raised me that if a mans word is no good, hes no good, Cutbirth said. If you tell a lie, youre no good.

Cutbirth testified Tuesday that Lacey Newman continued to lie during her testimony Monday.

Lacey Newman was 10 days away from finalizing her divorce from Jonathan Newman, a Lacy Lakeview police officer, when she and Cutbirth went on their trip.

She and Cutbirth split roughly $800,000 in a cash buyout after she hit the jackpot and she and Cutbirth agreed then to try to conceal the winnings from Jonathan Newman until after the divorce.

After Lacey Newman bought a new $63,000 truck and posed for publicity photos at the casino, Jonathan Newman found out about the winnings and sued his estranged wife and Cutbirth for fraud. He alleged at the time they conspired to deprive him of his lawful share of community property from the marriage.

The allegations changed after the couple reconciled a few months later. They have since had a second child, and now they are suing Cutbirth, alleging fraud and seeking his share of the winnings.

Lacey Newman, a 32-year-old dog groomer, admitted to the jury Monday she lied multiple times during depositions in her divorce case before she changed her story after getting back with her husband.

Under questioning from Don Raybold, one of the Newmans attorneys, Cutbirth said he called Waco attorney Kathleen Dow on the way home and arranged for her to draft documents showing that he and Lacey Newman intended a 50-50 split of the jackpot.

Raybold asked about Cutbirths response to the initial lawsuit filed by Jonathan Newman, which also came with a restraining order preventing Cutbirth from tampering with documents, bank accounts and cell phone records.

Raybold said Cutbirth submitted a cell phone other than one he had with him at his March 2014 deposition, and charged Cutbirth got rid of his other phone because he knew they would be looking at any contact, including text messages, between him and Lacy Newman after they got back to Waco.

Cutbirth denied he intentionally destroyed his other phone and said Raybolds expert analyzed the only phone he had.

In other testimony, the attorneys read from a deposition from Josie Goodman, a slot shift manager at Diamond Jacks Casino in Bossier City.

Goodman said casino officials put the winnings in Newmans name because surveillance video showed she pushed the button to hit the jackpot.

She said both Cutbirth and Lacey Newman asked if they could put the winnings in Cutbirths name because Newman was going through a divorce and didnt want her husband finding out about the money. Goodman declined, saying casino protocol prohibited such a request.

Lacey Newman testified Monday that she lied in depositions because she trusted Cutbirth, who she said told her to stick to the story they discussed on the way back from Bossier City and no one would be able to prove she lied.

She said they gambled the night before and planned to leave that morning. She and Cutbirth went back to the casino and Cutbirth gave her a $100 bill. She said she put it in a Wheel of Fortune slot machine, and hit the jackpot after several tries.

She said Cutbirth told her to put the money in his name so her husband wouldnt find out and she could keep half after their divorce.

Lacey Newman testified in her deposition in her divorce case that Cutbirth put the money in the machine and was playing it when he had to go to the bathroom.

He asked her to keep playing for him, and she hit the jackpot while he was gone, she said in the deposition.

Lacey Newman said before she consulted with an attorney, she was convinced that the winnings belonged to Cutbirth because he paid for everything.

Testimony continues Wednesday morning.
McLennan County voters will have one more polling location available starting in November after a move by county commissioners Tuesday.

The bump to 33 vote centers comes as a result of several factors, including the countys effort to resolve its more than 350 Americans with Disabilities Act violations. The county reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice in 2015, after a surprise inspection of county properties in 2011. Violations included issues at vote centers, many of which are privately owned.

McLennan County started using vote centers in 2014, moving from 59 precinct-based polling locations to 40 vote centers available for use by all voters in the county, County Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe said. The next year, the county reduced the number again, this time to 32 locations.

Meanwhile, filing has started for anyone interested in running for one of the eight city councils or five school boards holding elections this November. Prospective candidates can file until 5 p.m. Aug. 21.

The list of vote centers approved Tuesday places nine vote centers in Precinct 3 and eight vote centers in the other precincts.

Woodway city leaders issued a very strong request for their city hall to serve as a vote center, County Attorney Mike Dixon said.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Will Jones said those city leaders in his precinct did not come to him with the request.

Ive never heard one word from them, he said.

Commissioners agreed to add the new location to the list of vote centers.

Former locations

During the meeting Tuesday, Jones took issue with the county not using two formerly-used locations on Lake Shore Drive because of ADA violations. Jones said those spots have served a large community of active voters for many years.

I understand the issue with Central Christian Church completely, Jones said of the church that faces more than $71,000 in repairs needed to make it ADA compliant. Its in my neighborhood. I go there all the time, so I understand that. Im just simply asking that we accommodate, help the Lake Shore United Methodist Church for now and keep it open.

Jones proposed the county spend about $11,000 to make Lake Shore United Methodist ADA compliant.

He said he was not asking to have nine vote centers in his precinct, only that Lake Shore United Methodist Church not be removed as a center. Jones said if he had to choose between Woodway City Hall and Lake Shore United Methodist Church he would choose the church.

County Judge Scott Felton said it wasnt county leaders idea to have properties audited by the Department of Justice. However, now that the violations have been identified, the county has to comply, Felton said.

The unfortunate thing is any time you have a change in voting centers, it causes a disruption, he said.

The county has invested in public transportation and it is much easier to vote now than in past years, Felton said.

Precinct 4 County Commissioner Ben Perry asked if the county was opening up a can of worms, so to speak by spending tax dollars on a private building.

Dixon said to offer enough vote centers, the county relies on private groups opening up their facilities.

Jones made a motion to make the modifications at Lake Shore United Methodist Church to make the building ADA compliant for $11,196, subject to the church agreeing to remain a vote center for multiple election cycles.

The motion passed, with Felton voting in opposition.

After the vote, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Lester Gibson asked to change his vote to align it with Feltons.

The decision still passed with a majority.

Jones said it is worth discussing expanding the number of vote centers for future elections.

Im a little concerned that we have too few polling places, in my opinion, across the entire county, Jones said.
A Waco man was arrested Tuesday by federal authorities on one felony count of possession of child pornography, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday.

Roberto Cruz-Lara, 57, was arrested after the Child Exploitation Unit of the Texas Attorney General received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip led to the execution of a search warrant at Cruz-Lara's residence and authorities seized several digital storage devices that will be examined for child pornography.

According to a press release from Paxton's office, Cruz-Lara admitted to possessing child pornography. He was arrested and taken to McLennan County Jail, where he was booked into custody Tuesday on a third-degree felony charge of possession of child pornography.

He remained jailed Wednesday. No bond information was immediately available.

Jail booking records indicate he is also being held on an immigration detainer.
WASHINGTON  In light of reports President Trumps team is scouring records for conflicts of interest on special counsel Robert Muellers team (the essence of chutzpah) and contemplating pardons (of aides and/or himself), its worth considering how this may all play out. Among the scenarios:

Is there a sixth scenario in which Mueller exonerates Trump? Thats the least likely outcome after Trump fired the FBI director and threatened the special counsel. Why would he do those things unless there was something really, really bad to find? And if there is something bad, Mueller will find it. You can understand then why Trump sounds frantic. In no scenario does Trumps presidency recover.
Ten years on

It was on June 2, 2007 that a senior Human Resources Development Ministry official handed me an appointment letter on behalf of the President of India and the Gazette notification simultaneously mentioning there cant be a University without the Vice Chancellor and there cant be a VC without the University.
WAHOO  The Welcome Home signs along Highway 92 east of Wahoo Monday said it all  community members were ready to embrace the travelers that have been in their thoughts and prayers since last Thursday night.

Three of the four First Presbyterian Church teens injured in an elevator accident while on a mission trip to New Orleans returned home on Monday, while the fourth was expected to fly home by midweek.

The signs were a show of support for the group of five teens and three adults from the church in Wahoo who spent last week in the Louisiana city still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

After arriving July 17, the group was put to work scraping houses in preparation for a new coat of paint as part of an outreach program called RHINO, Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans.

But that service work stopped abruptly the evening of July 20.

Rev. Kathleen Splitt, pastor at First Presbyterian Church, said they had been invited for dinner at a private home.

The homeowner was a member of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, the church that was hosting the outreach program. She said he wanted to show them something on the third floor of the house.

Maddie Talbert, Emma Hastings, Jack Maass and Sapphire Quintana went with him to an elevator.

They piled into the elevator to go to the third floor, but a brake or something failed when they got there and the elevator crashed down, she said.

All five of the elevators occupants were rushed to the hospital for injuries in their legs, ankles or feet. Two of the Wahoo teens and the homeowner underwent surgery for their injuries.

Splitt reported last Friday afternoon that all injuries were isolated to broken bones.

Its broken bones, she said. They have done all the tests they can do in the last 24 hours and its only broken bones. Bones will heal.

The mission group was originally scheduled to leave New Orleans on Saturday.

That departure was delayed. But when it was learned the first minivans from New Orleans would be arriving Monday, talk began about welcome home signs.

First Presbyterian Church Session President Denise Lawver said about 16 people gathered Sunday evening to make the signs for the highway.

Most of them were friends and classmates, she said. They wanted to do something to show their support.

The idea for the signs started Sunday morning after church service.

Continuing prayers and finding ways to support the teens and their families was very evident Sunday morning.

People had lots of questions and definitely were concerned and wanted to show their support, Lawver said about the mood during Sunday mornings gathering at First Presbyterian Church.

Those prayers and offers of support were felt all the way to New Orleans.

Splitt said Friday and again this week that the outpouring of concern, prayer and support has been beyond imagine.

Its just overwhelming, she said Monday. I dont know how to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

That support has come from beyond the Wahoo community too.

The accident made regional news and was also spread over the internet. Splitt said she is receiving messages of prayer and well wishes from people all over the world.

The mission group from Wahoo is also getting a lift from some youth at Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha church, who were scraping homes alongside the Wahoo contingent last week.

The two groups were bonding even before last Thursdays accident.

The kids are getting to be friends, Splitt said. The Dundee kids are really concerned and are asking what they can do to help.

The pastor said she hopes to be able to arrange a meeting with all the kids before the summer is over.

But perhaps even more encouraging than the support that has been shown by others is the support the teens are finding with each other and their faith.

Splitt said they were encouraging each other all week, especially after the accident. The accident, she added, didnt shake the good work they were in New Orleans to do or their belief that God was watching over them.

I asked one of them Where is God in this? the Presbyterian minister recalled on Monday. She said he is here, in all the support we are receiving.

That was an even better answer than Splitt was hoping for.

The teens and family members who raced to New Orleans immediately following the accident have also been showing support for the injured homeowner.

Hes doing OK. Its very hard for him and he is feeling terribly responsible, Splitt said.

Some of the teens and family members have visited with him since the accident.

He too, Splitt reported, has been overwhelmed by the support shown to him.

That has meant so much to him, she added.

Back in Wahoo, the community support continues to build. A prayer chain was established over the weekend, with community members asked to sign up to pray for healing and recovery.

A fund has also been established at Great Western Bank in Wahoo.

Lawver said a secure link to that fund is set up on the churchs website http://fpcwahoo.org. Donors may also walk into the bank and ask to give to the mission emergency fund.

Since the mission trip was done through a host church and the accident happened at a private residence, Lawver said insurance coverage is expected from both the homeowner and the church in New Orleans.

But, the leaders of the church in Wahoo wanted to set up the fund for all the families involved in the mission trip.

It could be something for the future because who knows what will happen, Lawver said. It could be for something that insurance doesnt cover or something that pops up.

For now though, Lawver was just happy to hear the injuries were not even more serious and the group was coming home.

This will definitely be a trip they wont forget, she said.
VALPARAISO  The Valparaiso Knights of Columbus Council 8625 honored a charter member July 23 with over 30 years of perfect attendance.

Don Kobza has not missed any of the Valparaiso Knights 400 meetings since the council began in 1984.

It was just a personal goal of mine to make all the meetings, Kobza said.

Whenever the council gets new Knights, theyre sent Kobzas direction to show them what to do, said State Deputy Lou Gasper.

Ive always enjoyed helping people and we do quite a bit as an organization, Kobza said.

Council 8625 Knights of Columbus is an organization that raises money for birthright, educational scholarships and other endeavors.

Kobzas community efforts go beyond the Knights of Columbus, as hes been on the Valparaiso Fire Department for 44 years, a member of the American Legion Post 371 for 46 years and with the VFW Post 10491 for 17 years.

Kobza said he gets a lot out of being involved in the community.

Hes also on the Valparaiso Days Committee and the local businessmens association.

We have a lot of dedi-cated community members, but we have some that dont belong to anything. Theyre missing out on a lot, he said.

Kobza said he greatly enjoys the camaraderie with each group.

I guess if I didnt enjoy it, I wouldnt do it, he said.

Kobza has no intention of slowing down, but said at some point age will dictate how well he continues with consecutive meetings.

Nearly 50 gathered July 23 in Valparaiso to honor Kobza at the councils annual picnic.

Grand Knight Jeremy Jordan said there are close to 180 Knights in the council that includes the Touhy parish.
Unusual Indian security check hits Nepals trade

The countrys imports and exports from Nepal-India border point at Bhairahawa in the west have been severely hit, as Indian border security personnel have started conducting thorough inspection of cargo vehicles.
IF you are one of those parents who bought your child a bicycle for the new year but are struggling to find somewhere to...
Sigma Healthcare is dropping legal proceedings against My Chemist/ Chemist Warehouse Group over an alleged breach of a supply agreement, after the two parties agreed to enter formal negotiations to resolve the dispute.

The pharmaceuticals company said if a commercial resolution is not reached the parties have agreed to confidential and binding mediation and arbitration.

Sigma had commenced legal proceedings in May alleging the My Chemist/ Chemist Warehouse Group was breaking their contract. l Credit:Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Sigma commenced legal proceedings after alleging in May that the My Chemist/ Chemist Warehouse Group was looking to obtain certain products from another wholesaler, in breach of the existing supply agreement.

Sigma's shares took a hit as the company warned its earnings would fall $5 million to $10 million a year if the My Chemist group were allowed to buy certain products from the rival wholesaler.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.



Cardinal George Pell has arrived at a Melbourne court to make his first appearance as the highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with sexual offences.

One of the most powerful people in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Pell made the short trip from his lawyers' offices on Lonsdale Street to Melbourne Magistrates Court just before 9am on Tuesday.

The 76-year-old has taken leave from his position as Vatican treasurer to return to Australia to fight charges relating to historical sexual offences involving multiple complainants. Details of the charges are yet to be revealed.
Bormes-Les-Mimosas: Backed by planes dropping water and fire retardant, more than 1000 firefighters battled wildfires that billowed smoke into the sky over France's southern Cote d'Azur coast and forced the evacuation of 12,000 people.

Large swaths of Mediterranean forest have been left bare and blackened after three days of fires.

About 250 trailer homes, a hangar, an artist's studio and several vehicles were burned in the blazes but no one so far has been injured, according to the prefect of the Var region.

Residents and tourists were evacuated early on Wednesday after a ferocious fire whipped by strong Mistral winds spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas.
Washington: Senator John McCain was greeted by applause from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday as he walked onto the Senate floor, delivering Republicans the critical 50th vote to begin debate on an unknown plan to overhaul the health-care industry.

Then the Arizona Republican, done with the niceties, delivered a 15-minute excoriation of the modern Senate. A Senate riven by partisan infighting and almost no effort to work across the aisle. A Senate that has abandoned the principle that legislative committees had provenance of the process.

A Senate so broken that the only way to even begin a health-care debate was to drag an 80-year-old man, diagnosed last week with brain cancer, 3700 km across the nation from Phoenix to cast that critical vote.

"Let's trust each other. Let's return to regular order. We've 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," McCain told his colleagues, who gave him the floor for an unusual address usually reserved for a retiring senator. "We're getting nothing done, my friends. We're getting nothing done."
Mumbai: The news in Mumbai, an economic driver of India, was horrifying but sadly familiar: A five-storey apartment building collapsed on Tuesday morning, burying many residents under tons of concrete and debris.

At least 12 people died and as many as six others were feared trapped in the rubble of the collapse, whose cause was not yet known.

A survivor waits to be rescued under the debris of a collapsed building in Mumbai on Tuesday. Credit:Anadolu/Getty Images

A severe housing shortage and lax regulation in India has resulted in too many people crowded into old, weak and substandard structures.

The building, known as the Saidarshan, was non-descript, at the end of a cul-de-sac in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood of Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb of Mumbai. A nursing home, unoccupied at the time, took up the ground floor. Apartments on the upper four floors were filled with residents when the building shuddered and pitched to the ground about 10.45am.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Britain has launched an aggressive public pitch to build Australia's new $35 billion fleet of warships, pledging the British design is better than that of rival bidders at hunting down enemy submarines in an "unstable and tense" part of the world.

Speaking exclusively to Fairfax Media ahead of a summit in Sydney with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Defence Minister Marise Payne and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has outlined his case for the lucrative contract, promising the nine vessels would be built in Australia using local labour.

He has also linked the contract to an expansion of arms trade between the two countries, saying Britain is open to buying more Australian-made military equipment.

A three-way race is under way between Britain, Spain and Italy to win the $35 billion Australian tender, which would see new ships under the so-called Future Frigate program replace the ageing fleet of Anzac Class frigates by the late 2020s.
In cooperation with the World Customs Organization (WCO), the National Board of Revenue (NBR) of Bangladesh/Bangladesh Customs held a national ceremony to launch the WCO Security Project in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 25 July 2017. The ceremony was attended by high-level guests representing government and business.

The WCO Security Project aims to support Member administrations in South East Asia and surrounding countries in their efforts to enhance security against the threat of terrorist attacks. The Government of Japan provides financial backing for the Project. Although the regional launch ceremony was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 23 March 2017, this is the first launch ceremony for the Project to be held at national level.

In his keynote speech, the WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya, highlighted the significant role played by Customs in securing and facilitating the global supply chain through implementation of WCO standards and programmes. He emphasized the importance of developing collaboration between Customs, other law enforcement agencies and the private sector to contribute to security at borders. This in turn should improve the business environment through trade promotion and investment as well as domestic resource mobilization, and thus contribute to social and economic development.

Bangladeshs State Minister, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning, Mr. M. A. Mannan MP, together with the Commerce Secretary and Home Affairs Secretary (Public Security), shared a sense of urgency about combating terrorism, and underscored the significance of enhancing cooperation between Bangladesh Customs, other government agencies and stakeholders. They welcomed the Security Project and expressed their hope that it would contribute to addressing terrorist threats and supporting trade expansion, an engine for economic growth.

Mr. Md. Nojibur Rahman, Chairman of the NBR, stressed that Bangladesh Customs should strengthen its security dimension, referencing the terrorist attack that took place in Bangladesh in July 2016. He expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government of Japan for financing the Security Project and gave assurances that the NBR would adopt a whole-of-government approach.

On the previous day, Secretary General Mikuriya took the opportunity to meet Bangladeshs Minister of Finance, Mr. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, and to discuss a range of Customs reform issues, including the Security Project, Mercator Programme and revenue enhancement which all support each other through capacity building.

He also met the Minister of Commerce, Mr. Tofail Ahmed, to discuss the role of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation in implementing the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation as well as the need to secure the supply chain. In addition, Dr. Mikuriya briefed the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan, on how Customs could contribute to bolstering security through the Security Project.

All three Ministers expressed their support for the Security Project, which will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Customs. The NBR members held a meeting with Dr. Mikuriya during which they updated him on progress with Customs modernization in Bangladesh and exchanged views on recent WCO activities.
Home

Engagement Ideas & Rings

A Surprise Engagement in Italy Thats a Real Life Fairytale

A Surprise Engagement in Italy Thats a Real Life Fairytale

This beautiful photo session in Italy turned surprise engagement is what fairytales are made of. William, the modern day prince every girl will soon swoon over, wanted to surprise his beautiful girlfriend with a romantic trip to Varenna. With help of stylists and planners from Benevent Planner, it was flawless from beginning to end!

The over the top details throughout this shoot add to the the fairytale feeling. Like Simona's stunning flower bonnet, flower belt and dreamy blush dress. As if that wasnt enough, they even stopped for a romantic picnic on the dock before heading off for the biggest surprise of all. See more of this magical day below captured by Irene Fucci, and you really won't want to miss the full gallery after!

Love session turned proposal

From Irene Fucci: This love session turned proposal with Simona and William has a special place in my heart. They live in the States, but Simona is from Italy, so when they came to visit her family in the Como lake region, they decided to have a photo session with me (lucky me!). But William wanted to surprise his beloved. So he got in touch with Elena and Anna (wedding planner and stylist from Benevent Planner) and organized something special for her.

"See you in Varenna. W"

She knew she had to arrived at Como dock at 7:30 am, wearing a long dress and that's all she knew. So when she arrived she found me and Elena with an amazing flower hat (by Chiara Sperti) and a message for her "See you in Varenna. W". We then took the boat and arrived in this tiny, colorful village called Varenna where William was waiting for her.

Picnic for two

And then the fun started: they explored the village, had a walk hand in hand, had fun playing and dancing in the streets and picnicked on a small green dock. They both work for a catering, so food has a special place in their lives. They had a break to enjoy typical Italian salami, cheeses, fruits and canapes - not to mention- the stunning cake by Lisa Bakery!

Proposal on the bridge

Finally we moved to this ancient bridge to take "some final pictures at sunset" when William proposed and asked Simona to be his wife and wear this ring made in Italy by My Golden Age. It was such a sweet, perfect moment with the sun setting, the wind blowing and a ferry-boat on the background. As a photographer, I couldn't ask for more
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 25, 2017 | 06:33 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

A Graves County man suffered serious injuries in a rollover wreck Tuesday morning.

Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon says the crash happened about 6:10 am on KY 381 just south of KY 94. Deputies arrived at the scene and found a tri-axle dump truck off the side of the road, overturned onto its side.

According to police, 57-year-old Eddie L. Franklin of Farmington, was traveling south on KY 381 when he lost control in a curve. Franklin's truck dropped off the left shoulder of the road and overturned.

The Mayfield Fire Department and Mayfield/Graves County EMS had to extricate Franklin from the wreckage. He was transported by ambulance to meet with Air Evac, where he was air-lifted to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, IN.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 19, 2018 | 10:24 AM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Police are asking for the public's help finding a Graves County man who's been missing for more than two months.

According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, 36-year-old David Craig Mangrum hasn't been seen since Feb. 7. Mangrum's family has reportedly been searching for him since then, but only filed a missing person report with the sheriff's office on Wednesday.

Mangrum is described as a white male, with gray hair and a black beard. He was last seen wearing a blue and white jacket, blue jeans and brown boots.

According to deputies, Mangrum was last seen at 919 Clark Street in Mayfield around 8:00 am on Feb. 7. Deputies say it's crucial he's located as soon as possible.



Anyone with information on Mangrum's whereabouts is asked to call the Graves County Sheriffs Office at 270-247-4501.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 25, 2017 | 08:48 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

One adult was arrested on drug charges and two juveniles were cited after a traffic stop Tuesday in Graves County.

The Graves County Sheriff's Office says deputies conducted a traffic stop Tuesday afternoon on a vehicle driven by a male juvenile. There were two passengers in the vehicle, a female juvenile and 18-year-old Sarah Hendrickson, of Mayfield.

Police said the driver failed standardized field sobriety tests and was arrested for DUI. A search of the vehicle was conducted, where deputies found marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. He was additionally charged with possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hendrickson and the female juvenile were both charged with possession of meth, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hendrickson was lodged in the Graves County Jail. The court designated worker was contacted and both juveniles were cited and released to their parents.
Alec Baldwin sues to 'clear his name' in movie set death
Loading...

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage



"This is the kind of play that makes me want to punch the air in celebration  it exudes as much energy as the protons pinging around the Large Hadron Collider, which is one of its settings, and one of its subjects."

"But playwright Lucy Kirkwood's real triumph here is to combine the thoughtful enquiry and large themes that marked her previous hit, the award-winning Chimerica, with a portrait of a dysfunctional family that exerts its own gravitational pull. The result is emotionally involving as well as intellectually satisfying."

"Her themes encompass faith and doubt, the responsibilities and challenges of knowledge and the nature of fear and its effects. In the course of nearly three hours, she examines different visions of Armageddon in tones that range from profoundly funny to deeply moving. But she never loses her essential hold on the idea that ties the entire play together  the way a family can be a mirror of the universe itself, a child's conception as important and devastating as the big bang."

"As the mother says: "Everyone thinks love is the greatest force in the cosmos and it isn't you know It's just something we invented to help us survive chaos"."

Natasha Tripney, The Stage



"Rufus Norris' production takes the approach that, as this is a play about science stuff, it requires the deployment of all his toys. The play is staged in-the-round in the Dorfman on Katrina Lindsay's set, an iceberg-blue disc with a second disc suspended above it which occasionally descends to become a screen on which video imagery can be projected. Norris makes a mini-planetarium out of the stage in a way that is at times both dazzling and a bit bludgeoning; the over-emphatic sound design robs the delicate final seconds of their emotional clout."

"Fortunately, Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams are bulletproof performers. It's a joy to watch them work together, evoking the strengths and fragilities of these two women, the tenderness and rivalry and frustration of their relationship. Joseph Quinn more than holds his own as Luke, a smart kid but a kid all the same, while Amanda Boxer gives a performance of subtlety as their mother, a women of pride and intellectual might facing up to her physical and mental decline."

"Kirkwood is a writer of reach, intelligence and ambition. There's a hunger to her work, an urge to fill her plays to brim. She knows how to spring-load a joke and can write lines of total emotional devastation, but she's also prone to on-the-nose dialogue and her plotting contains moments of implausibility. Certainly Jenny, the 'stupid' sister and 'crazy' aunt, doesn't seem as vulnerable and susceptible as the plot needs her to be, despite Colman's rich, funny and poignant performance."

"It's a joy though to see a play devote this much space and time to examining what it is to be a sister, a mother and a daughter, while also effortlessly contemplating the universe."

Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard



"Let's start by listing the best things about Mosquitoes, a new play by that admirably bold and ambitious dramatist Lucy Kirkwood, of Chimerica fame. It is, unfortunately, a very short list comprising just two words: Olivia Colman. Colman, unstoppable star of screens large and small, is a perpetual triumph in this misfiring look at two very different sisters, generating what little warmth, light and humour the evening has to offer."

"There's a trend in drama of late to use the Large Hadron Collider as a metaphor for, well, big and difficult and important things. There's more, much more, of this here, as Alice (Olivia Williams) is an experimental physicist living in Geneva and working towards the great switch-on of the LHC. Her sister Jenny (Colman) lives in Luton, dramatic shorthand for the back of beyond, and has a very ordinary life."

"The science sections in Rufus Norris's centrifugal production feel very boggy and bolted on to the family drama, which in turn resembles nothing so much as EastEnders Goes to CERN, so many times do Alice and Jenny argue and make up and then threaten never to speak again. Still, at least the family segments mean we get Colman, a spinning top of grief and humour and anger and destruction, both of self and others."

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail



"Alas, [a] potentially fruitful storyline is obliterated by a mass of pseudish science stuff, delivered by a badly-shaved man in a white coat [Paul Hilton], waving his arms in the air."

"We are also delayed (at length) by a sub-plot about Alice's son (quite well done by Joseph Quinn), who is plainly on the autistic spectrum. Add a dotty mother (Amanda Boxer) and a remote boyfriend (an almost incomprehensible Yoli Fuller) and plenty of bad language. A giggly first-night audience actually laughed at the petulant line "I hope she gets multiple sclerosis"."

"During the science monologues, which take us 14 billion years into the future and envisage the creation of a new Earth by brilliant scientists, director Rufus Norris tries to hold our attention with lighting effects. They are certainly whizzy but do not by one atom explain how that part of the story connects to the stronger material about the sisters."

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out



"Plot-wise, it's substantially set in Geneva, where a boozy Jenny is attempting to get over a devastating personal tragedy by foisting herself on her sister and her awkward teen son Luke (Joseph Quinn)  both of whom are still haunted by the disappearance of Luke's dad, years ago. Also in tow is their mother Karen (Amanda Boxer, very amusing), an even more brilliant scientist than Alice."

"Kirkwood lobs so much in that it's often hard to stay on top of it all... In particular the collision between glib, sassy humour and bleak personal tragedy feels awkward  it never has the emotional heft it might if left to breathe a bit, and perhaps even feels a bit callous. It's a domestic drama done at the scale of Kirkwood's globetrotting thriller Chimerica, which is kind of ridiculous, but again, Mosquitoes carries it off, in no small part thanks to Rufus Norris's big, brash direction. Full of projected galaxies and cosmic cacophony, he attacks Mosquitoes like an action movie, and it's tough enough to handle it."

"The authors's elegiac recent Royal Court hit The Children shared some concerns but was a stronger play and at least as smart. But under these lab conditions  in this theatre, with this cast and this director  this younger sibling is nearly its equal. Like the universe itself, it's sometimes hard to see exactly how or why Mosquitoes works, but it does."

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph



"Williams and Colman are well supported by a cast that includes Joseph Quinn, nervy and mercurial as Alice's troubled son, Luke, and the great Amanda Boxer, her voice in a state of perpetual querulousness, as the sisters' mother, herself a scientist who has been denied proper recognition and is now in the early stages of dementia (the rational thought on which she prided herself now cruelly lost)."

"It is safe to say that you do not need to understand particle physics to appreciate Mosquitoes (the title refers to the force of two mosquitoes hitting each other, like particles colliding), but there are moments when the science becomes overwhelming. This usually happens when Paul Hilton's Boson appears at intervals to explain the theoretical side of Alice's practical research. He sets out thoughts on Chaos theory and the Big Bang which act as a sort of counterpoint to the sisters' lives which are in freefall."

"Kirkwood stuffs much into two and three quarter hours, arguably too much, but Mosquitoes has a lot to recommend it  not least that, for a play about science, it is very funny and very sad  often at the same time."

Mosquitoes runs in the Dorfman, National Theatre until 28 September 2017.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shes six years old, healthy, active and happy but Canadian immigration officials say she might be a burden on the system one day so her American family, who owns a tourist lodge and set down roots in Manitoba, has been ruled inadmissible.

Karalynn Warkentin was two years old when her parents, Jon and Karissa, bought Harvest Lodge on Waterhen River in 2013, planning to make it their permanent home.

In 2014, the little girl started having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy and global developmental delay.

Karissa and Jon Warkentin with four of their children: son Gabe, 14, Grace, 17, Shataya, 18, and Karalynn, six. The American family may be forced to leave Canada in November when their work visas expire.

She hasnt had a seizure in more than two years, but Karalynns health condition was enough for the federal government to deny her and her familys application for permanent residency in Canada.

It might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services, said the rejection letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Your dependant daughter, Karalynn Faith Warkentin, is a person whose health condition, Global Developmental Delay and ADHD might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.

With her parents work visas set to expire Nov. 24, the future of Karalynn and her family is now in limbo.

Its been a lot of sleepless nights, said her mother Karissa in Waterhen, a four-hour drive north of Winnipeg. What are we going to do?

Theyve invested in the lodge and the tiny northern community and the couple and their four children are part of its fabric year-round, she said.

We specifically wanted to make a new life where we had the businesses, she said. Were not taking our tax dollars with us and living in Florida in the winter, she said.

Child needs extra supervision, but is otherwise healthy

The Warkentins have been rejected by Canadian immigration officials because of a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that says a foreign national is inadmissible on health grounds if their health condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.

Look at our package as a whole  what were bringing in and paying in taxes. Look at the benefit of having a rural economy supported by a business like ours  the benefits would outweigh the potential costs. Karissa Warkentin

Their daughter isnt an excessive burden or drain on social spending and shouldnt be seen that way, said Karissa Warkentin.

At home and in school she needs extra supervision  she needs more direction, said her mom. If a child needs to hear something seven times to make a memory, she may need to hear it more, said Warkentin. She doesnt require any physical adaptation. Shes a relatively healthy child and rarely gets sick with colds or anything. She doesnt have behavioral issues, which is a blessing. She enjoys her classmates.

The help she needs in school is covered in block funding allocated to the Frontier School Division. If she ever needed more care, the Warkentins say they can cover the cost.

They have 10 years of our business and financial records. We have savings in our 401K and investment in our business  a business that brings in tourism dollars and residual dollars at the local store, with hunters buying groceries and liquor and (hunting and fishing) licences, Karissa Warkentin said.

Guests at their lodge often fly to Winnipeg, stay in a hotel then rent a vehicle for the four-hour drive to the Warkentins lodge at Waterhen. In 2016, the taxes and fees they collected at the lodge were in excess of $20,000, Jon Warkentin said in a letter to the Canadian immigration officer handling their file.

Look at our package as a whole  what were bringing in and paying in taxes. Look at the benefit of having a rural economy supported by a business like ours  the benefits would outweigh the potential costs.

Family well-liked in community: mayor

The family is actively involved year-round in the life of the northern community, said Warkentin, who has letters of support to prove it.

They are well-liked, friendly members of our community, wrote Waterhen Mayor Larry Chartrand. They are always willing to help out within the community, said the mayor, noting the Warkentins provide an important service to the area: a restaurant and lodging.

Waterhen School principal Craig Parks letter said the Warkentins are contributing members to the community and actively involved in the school. Karissa is a member of the Waterhen and District Day Care Board. Parks letter said funding for Karalynn at school is covered by the province without any significant impact.

The Warkentins have hired an immigration lawyer in Winnipeg to appeal the decision on their inadmissibility. She said the legislation as it stands now is discriminatory.

What we hope for most is for this policy to be reviewed and changed so other families arent discriminated against this way, said Karissa. Review the policy. Its not a good policy.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it was not prepared to comment Tuesday.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In an emergency situation, every minute counts.

Thats why Winnipeg-based municipal software company All-Net has launched a new product, called Connect, which automates emergency alerts in rural communities.

It gets information to residents by notifying them directly on their smart phones via a local app. Residents with the app will be sent any alert messages directed to their communities from Environment & Climate Change Canada, RCMP and federal and provincial officials.

The new product automates emergency alerts in rural communities. (Image: All-Net)

Canada has a national emergency alert system in place, which sends out notifications and warnings. In the past, rural communities would be sent alerts from the national system but would need someone present to manually pass the message onto residents.

But with Connect, that now happens automatically, getting the information to residents faster and freeing up municipal officials to begin organizing a response sooner.

Municipal officials then have the ability to send out follow-up alerts to the residents, to further co-ordinate local response in emergency situations.

Communication was cited as the number one issue when it came to the flooding back in 2011, said Vernon Sabeski, managing partner of All-Net.

The product has been introduced in a number of different areas in the province, including Headingley.

Its immediate  we dont have to get to a computer somewhere if it happens during off hours, said Chris Fulsher, chief administrative officer of Headingley.

Before going live, the new technology was tested throughout winter and into spring in order to work through any potential issues.

Lets say youre in your yard, or at a community event, or for whatever reason not in front of a TV, locals will now be notified immediately in their pockets of any emergency situations, said Sabeski. Itll pop up on their phones immediately.

Aside from Headingley, the product is now available in the towns of Swan River and Beausejour, and the rural municipalities of Rhineland, Macdonald, Emerson-Franklin, La Broquerie and Lac du Bonnet, among others.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marnie Scott isnt completely capable of explaining why shes worked countless hours putting together the only listing of Canadian food and beverage products that are exclusively Product of Canada labelled or of similar Canadian content.

The website  canadiancoolfoods.com  is a non-commercial listing of truly Canadian products, from small craft enterprises making things like international cheeses, Saskatchewan gin and B.C. herbs, to popular items that we may not have even known were Canadian, like Canola Harvest, made by none other than Richardson International.

Each listing is given the same treatment. For instance, the listing for Canola Harvest canola oil is followed by Pristine Gourmet cold-pressed canola oil, made by a small company in Waterford, Ont. Each is exactly the same size in every respect, with a link to the respective companys website.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Canadiancoolfoods.com is Marnie Scotts labour of love. The website listing only truly Product of Canada foods. The only other retriction is that they can be bought online or in a store. Scott makes no money and does not promote any of the products per se. It is the only place to find all-Canadian foods. Scottposes with a wide variety of Canadian-made products in a Vita Health food store, which carries many such items.

Everything that is certified and labelled Product of Canada will be listed, and Scott uses some discretion in listing other products that have not gone through the labelling process but would likely otherwise be certified. The only other requirement is that the products be available for purchase online and/or via some retail outlet.

On the surface, that may sound like something that already exists. But it does not. And it is surprisingly challenging to track down such products. For instance, food processing associations in Canada are agnostic in their support of their producers irrespective of how much imported goods are contained in the product.

To top it all off, Scott has not taken a single step towards making canadiancoolfoods.com a commercially viable enterprise.

Everyone is out there trying to take a piece of the action, she said. I dont want to do that.

At this point, it is strictly a labour of love.

Maybe it will be my gift to Canada on its 150th anniversary, she said. Maybe its also a way to recognize what Canada began with. Lets celebrate Canadian ag.

Scott is a veteran independent industry consultant who does economic development work, most recently in the aerospace industry in Manitoba. But she has also worked in the agriculture sector, financial institutions and environmental industries.

Her passion for promoting Canadian foods is partly driven by her interests in regional economic development and her understanding of the jobs and wealth creation the agriculture industry is responsible for.

I want the site to be useful to everybody, she said. Maybe its my economic development background, but I want to help to grow the economy.

Canadian food products are heralded around the world as being of the highest quality.

For many years, the Canadian Wheat Board was always able to get top dollar for Canadian wheat and grains. The exploding middle class of consumers in China is said to covet any Canadian food products.

But at home, we rarely make a big deal of it, especially the true Canadian produce, as opposed to items labelled Made in Canada which could include plenty of imported ingredients.

When pressed, Scott says it irks her that grocery stores across the country probably only carry about one per cent Product of Canada items, not counting dairy and meats. And the retailers themselves likely dont know or care. Thats even more motivation for her to do what shes doing.

The idea is that the site can help consumers make informed online purchases, or learn more about a company. There is no fee for companies to list their products and the site does not sell products directly to consumers, nor does it collect a fee when visits to product sites result in sales.

One of Scotts recent favourite listings is Black Fox Distillery, located on a farm outside of Saskatoon. The two-year-old operation grows most of the ingredients for its vodka, gin and liqueurs (the whisky isnt done yet), and what it doesnt grow, its neighbours do.

John Cote, the husband and father in the family business, said he cant point to any sales as a result of Black Foxs listing in canadiancoolfoods.com, but loves the spirit of the thing.

Weve been shipping Prairie produce in trains to other parts of the world for so long, he said. Its great to be able to show how were capturing some of that processing value.

When Scott launched the site in April, there were 1,350 listings. There are close to 2,000 now, and she will continue to look for more.

Ideally, she said, she will get some financial support from companies that benefit from the agriculture industry, like trucking companies or ag equipment companies, but she has no desire to make money from it and does not want to charge any company to be listed.

I have to watch it though, she said. I need to go out and find some contract to work on.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than three years after the tragic death of a Peguis toddler, Crown and defence lawyers are expected to ask for a life sentence without parole for at least 14 years for the mother who admitted to killing her 21-month-old daughter.

Vanessa Bushie pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder, admitting to the abuse and neglect that led to the death of her daughter Kierra Williams after the child was returned to her biological family by Child and Family Services. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence.

A publication ban on the case imposed in error earlier this year was lifted Wednesday. After both the Crown and defence agreed the court didnt have jurisdiction to impose such a ban in the first place, Court of Queens Bench Justice Chris Martin cancelled the court order that previously prevented Bushie from being identified.

Kierra Elektra Star Williams died on July 17, 2014. She had severe internal injuries, broken bones and bruises, and she was malnourished and dehydrated. (Handout)

Crown attorney Daniel Chaput told the judge he and Bushies defence lawyer, Mike Cook, had planned to ask the court to impose a parole ineligibility of 14 years along with the life sentence.

Bushie was to be sentenced Wednesday, but the sentencing hearing was delayed so a private report could be prepared detailing her history. Under the law, before imposing a sentence, a judge must consider the background of an Indigenous offender and any trauma they experienced as a result of Canadas history of colonization and residential schools. Court heard the report was meant to be ready for the sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for more than three months after Bushie pleaded guilty, but it wasnt ordered in time.

A new sentencing date was arranged for early December, but Martin was not prepared to wait that long.

I think its not appropriate, frankly, the judge said. Theres no way its going to happen that late.

Martin ordered that Bushie be required to appear in court Thursday so lawyers can discuss how to move the case along more quickly. She is being held in custody awaiting sentencing.

Kierra died on July 17, 2014 after being rushed to hospital in Hodgson in an unresponsive state. She had severe internal injuries, broken bones and bruises. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and her tiny body looked more like that of a nine-month-old infant than a nearly-two-year-old girl when paramedics brought her in, medical professionals previously told court.

Kierra suffered months of abuse and neglect leading up to her death, including being force-fed, pushed, slapped, kept in a locked room and forced to sleep on the floor. With her guilty plea, her mother has admitted to causing fatal damage to the toddlers internal organs, including her liver and pancreas, on the day she died.

Kierra had been taken into foster care at birth in October 2012. Domestic-violence allegations had been made against another family member, and as a result, Kierras older siblings were already in the care of Child and Family Services. Her parents worked to regain custody, and after they completed all required programs, Kierra and her siblings were returned to their family in July 2013. CFS officials visited the family occasionally until January 2014, found nothing of concern, and decided to close Kierras file. Six months after the CFS visits stopped, Kierra was dead.

RCMP began a lengthy investigation that culminated in January 2015 with charges against Bushie, Kierras father, Daniel Williams, and her adult sister, Jasmine Bushie. All charges against Jasmine were dropped late last year and she has since sued the RCMP for its handling of the case. The lawsuit is still before the court and the Attorney General of Canada is defending itself against the allegations.

Williams is charged with manslaughter and failing to provide the necessaries of life. He is set to go to trial in February. After Bushies guilty plea to second-degree murder, the Crown is expected to drop her charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba Court of Queens Bench judge denied a local developers urgent request on Wednesday for an injunction against protesters camped out on the Parker Lands.

The motion for an injunction will be heard on Nov. 2, and the defendants have until Aug. 25 to file statements of defence along with affidavits.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Debbie Belcourt was among the protesters at the law courts this morning.

Im very pleased with what the judge has said, said Jenna Vandal, one of four named defendants.

Vandal is the leader of the Rooster Town Blockade  named for an informal Metis community once located near the Fort Garry property  an encampment set up July 14 to prevent Gem Equities Inc., and its contracted companies from clearcutting trees in preparation for future development.

The protest group  which includes some unaffiliated demonstrators along with members of both the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee and the Rooster Town activists  began the action by blocking mulching equipment after Westshore Construction, a firm hired by Gem Equities, had cleared nearly one-third of the propertys 42 acres of aspen forest and grassland.

Cal Dueck, a defendant and the conservation committees chairman, said he is thankful he and the other defendants have more time to prepare properly for the injunction hearing. Duecks lawyer Raymond Oakes said he received court documents Monday.

Its not an appropriate amount of time to properly address the materials, Oakes said.

Protesters masked, one carried axe: Gem

Lawyers representing Gem and its owner Andrew Marquess argued the situation at the property, which Gem owns, has intensified and that demonstrations have led to irreparable harm for the company in terms of both financial loss and relationships with other businesses.

Im not too sure of many other cities where lawbreakers get to have meetings with the mayor, but apparently Winnipeg is now on that list. Kevin Toyne, the lawyer representing Gem Equities

It is difficult to determine what the plaintiffs losses will be at this point, Marquess wrote in an affidavit notarized July 19.

Justice Herbert Rempel said he didnt see evidence of irreparable harm done.

Kevin Toyne, the lawyer representing Gem along with two numbered companies connected to the propertys ownership, told court several protesters were wearing bandanas on their faces, one was wearing a mask and one carried an axe while following a worker on the site.

He said the owners believe the site is being fortified with lumber and called the alleged activities aggressive and extremely concerning, repeatedly calling out the Winnipeg Police Service for its lack of action.

Im not entirely sure how the presence of a weapon isnt something that would be of grave concern to the Winnipeg police and everyone in Winnipeg, Toyne said referring to the axe.

Vandal said the bandanas and masks were worn as a means of protection from dust clouds and to conceal protesters faces to avoid identification and subsequent legal action. She called the allegations the camp had been fortified with lumber false, and said the axe was used to prepare that wood for a campfire on the site.

Our claims are legitimate and valid: protesters

Toyne also suggested there might be other hidden weapons in the six tents set up on the property, which Vandal denied. Rempel called those allegations a great concern.

Anyone at the site would tell you its been a peaceful protest since Day 1, which is how we intend to keep it, of course, she said. (Marquess) is trying to turn people against our cause, but our concerns are legitimate and valid.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protesters, including Jenna Vandal (right), have been camped out on the Parker lands development site since July 14. A lawyer says the situation has escalated with protesters covering their faces and using lumber to fortify their encampment.

Members of the blockade believe Indigenous people werent properly consulted when Marquess acquired the land from the city in 2009 in what many regard as a controversial land swap. Vandal has said shes willing to risk her own safety or be arrested in order to protect the land.

Im just trying to assert and protect Metis rights, she said before court proceedings began.

In court, Toyne discussed the protesters meeting with Mayor Brian Bowman Monday, saying that in addition to his clients dissatisfaction with police response, the mayors already invited (the protesters) for tea.

Im not too sure of many other cities where lawbreakers get to have meetings with the mayor, but apparently Winnipeg is now on that list, Toyne told reporters outside court. He wouldnt comment when asked whether his client had also requested a meeting with Bowman.

Bowman told Vandal and Dueck that he favours a pause of both tree removal and demonstrations until Gems development plan is approved, although Bowman said the city has no legal rights to prevent further tree removal.

Vandal said a time out would allow the development opponents to do their pre-hearing research and due diligence from home, rather than in tents on the property.

If it doesnt happen the blockade wont budge and protesters plan to remain until the November court date, she said.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Ten protesters by a tree clearing vehicle in the Parker wetlands on Friday morning to halt clearcutting of the land, saying they are determined to stop the machines "at any cost."
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The situation at the Parker Wetlands is escalating and protesters are emboldened  with some covering their faces with masks and using lumber to fortify their encampment, a lawyer for the Winnipeg protest sites landowner said Tuesday.

More tents have been popping up each day and a project manager employed by real estate developer Gem Equities Inc. has been followed around the property by a protester carrying an axe, Kevin Toyne said.

The claims come on the eve of the first step in a legal battle between Gem Equities (owned by local developer Andrew Marquess) and the protesters who have encamped on the disputed 42-acre ecosystem since July 14 in an effort to halt clearing of its trees.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protesters, including Jenna Vandal (right), have been camped out on the Parker lands development site since July 14. A lawyer says the situation has escalated with protesters covering their faces and using lumber to fortify their encampment.

A spokesperson for the protesters was unable to be reached for comment Tuesday about the allegations.

The matter is set to go before a judge at 10 a.m. today, when Toyne will argue for an injunction and monetary compensation for his client.

Should the court refuse to provide an injunction and Winnipeg police continue to remain uninvolved in the conflict, Toyne said, it is within his clients legal right to remove the protesters from the land.

Using as much force as necessary, court documents said, citing the Manitoba Petty Trespasses Act.

One of the points I will raise (today) is the situation is escalating, Toyne said. The police arent stepping in. The size of the encampment is growing.

The illegal trespassers are growing emboldened, taking it to another level. Those are things that should be very concerning to every Winnipegger.

The protesters have previously vowed to go to jail if necessary to stop further clearing of the land some claim is unceded Metis territory, due to its proximity to the former Metis settlement known as Rooster Town.

Marquess and Toyne have called for Winnipeg police to intervene since the encampment shut down development on the property.

It is believed about one-third (some 15 acres) of the trees on the land were cut down before protesters arrived.

When asked if he thought whether one of the protest leaders, Jenna Vandal, being the daughter of Liberal MP Dan Vandal (Saint Boniface-Saint Vital) had anything to do with a perceived lack of police response, Toyne said: lets just say if this were you or I, wed have received a very different response. Miss Vandal has not only been allowed to continue her illegal activity, but also had an invitation to meet with the mayor (Brian Bowman on Monday).

Gem Equities gained ownership of the Parker Wetlands in a 2009 land swap with the City of Winnipeg.

Marquess disputed claims the deal was controversial, while protesters said Indigenous groups were not consulted in the process.

Should the injunction be approved Wednesday, Toyne said he will further argue the protesters claim that a consultation process was required has no basis in law  as municipalities such as the city arent held to the same duties as the province or federal government.

A number of defendants in the case could not be reached for comment Tuesday. It was unclear if they had secured legal representation ahead of Wednesdays court date.

In an interview Friday with the Free Press, Cal Dueck of the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee expressed doubt the areas trees could be saved.

I have this insane belief a little butterfly can cause a hurricane, Dueck said. Once in a while it happens, but if we dont keep flapping our little wings, then nothing is ever going to change.

There doesnt appear to be much hope, maybe its too late to save the Parker Wetlands. But if we could save one future forest, then our advocacy would be worth it.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP have arrested a 23-year-old suspect in the 2013 slaying of a teenage girl in Gods Lake Narrows.

The arrest comes just over a week after police said they had made significant progress investigating the death of 15-year-old Leah Anderson in the isolated community of 90 located on Gods Lake First Nation, about 550 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

We put out a plea to the community in the hopes that wed get to this point, RCMP major crime services Staff Sgt. Todd Doyle said Wednesday in a news release. This arrest is significant.

RCMP / TWITTER Leah Anderson's body was found on a snowy trail in January 2013.

Investigators have been working since Jan. 6, 2013, to get justice for Leah. She was a young girl with a bright future, which was violently stolen from her. This is far from over, but this is a good day.

RCMP did not release the suspects name because he had not been charged as of Wednesday afternoon.

Police launched a social media campaign July 18 seeking information from area residents.

On the evening of Jan. 4, 2013, Leah went out to go skating at the local rink with a friend, who later cancelled. Leah sent her a message to let her know she was going to go alone.

The last Leahs friend heard from her was a quickly typed ttyl, read a post on Manitoba RCMPs Facebook page last week. Somewhere between her door and the arena, Leah met her killer. The popular, funny girl with so much potential was gone.

Leahs body was found on a snowy trail two days later. It appeared she had been killed by stray dogs, but it was later determined she was killed before the dogs mauled her corpse. Not long after, band officials called for a cull, during which an unreported number of strays were rounded up and shot on the First Nation, an area with a total population of about 1,500 residents.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Guards with a private security firm are acting as the after-hours gatekeepers at one of the citys largest health care facilities, raising new concerns about patient safety in the wake of the provincial governments hospital reorganization plan.

Staff with Securitas Canada are now stationed just inside the front doors at Misericordia Health Centres Cornish Avenue entrance between 8 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., telling would-be patients that the urgent care centre is no longer open around the clock.

The overnight shift at the urgent care centre was axed after less than two weeks notice on July 5. One doctor and one nurse remain on staff overnight to care for patients who remain in the urgent care centre when the doors close  and to respond to emergency situations that might arise within the larger health care facility. The two health professionals are also there to ensure the safe and timely transportation of anyone who might show up with significant care needs.

But first would-be patients need to get past security guarding the entrance.

Obviously, our position would be that security guards are not triage nurses.  Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union

Security staff have been told to let in patients requiring emergency eye care. The eye centre within Misericordia remains open 24-7.

Patients with other health issues are directed to other city urgent care centres and emergency rooms  unless their health condition seems grave enough to be examined by the lone doctor or lone nurse on staff.

But the discretion as to whether to summon the doctor or nurse appears to be left with security staff.

Critics find it bizarre that untrained workers are in effect performing some of the duties of a triage nurse.

I think its very concerning, certainly from a patient safety point of view, said Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union.

Obviously, our position would be that security guards are not triage nurses, and they certainly dont have the expertise or knowledge to determine the severity of an illness or injury, she said.

Its not always obvious how ill a person is based upon their demeanour when they arrive, Mowat said. My question would be, How does that security guard determine that level of (medical) distress?

Security providing direction: WRHA

Lori Lamont, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authoritys vice-president of interprofessional practice and chief nursing officer, rejected the notion that security guards at Misericordia are being asked to do triage.

Not at all, she said. They are responding to the public as they come in the door and providing direction to them.

Lamont said the security function at Misericordia is similar to what it is overnight at most other health facilities. They do ask what the person is coming in to the centre for, which is our normal practice in many areas.

It seems odd to me to have the security person essentially doing triage, particularly when you have a doctor and a nurse there. Jon Gerrard, Liberal MLA for River Heights.

Generally, security staff are redirecting patients who arrive late at night to other facilities, Lamont said.

But certainly in the event that someone comes in in any form of distress the security guard would not be triaging as to what their problem is. They would be alerting staff within the facility to address that, the WRHA official said.

Its that apparent responsibility, left with security, for deciding what constitutes a serious enough medical situation to require immediate medical assistance that worries critics.

It seems odd to me to have the security person essentially doing triage, particularly when you have a doctor and a nurse there, said Dr. Jon Gerrard, Liberal MLA for River Heights.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Misericordia Health Centre

Gerrard said it would be better to have the doctor or the nurse examine patients as they arrive and determine whether they needed immediate assistance. If they were becoming overloaded with work, they could refer patients to other facilities, he said.

He noted the WRHA has already indicated that few patients use the urgent care facility in the wee hours of the morning. One official estimated the volume at one patient per hour between midnight and 6 a.m.

If they have one person per hour why arent they able to see them? Gerrard remarked.

NDP health critic Matt Wiebe said it is unfair to put a security guard in a position to decide whether a patients situation is serious enough to alert a doctor.

I think its a totally dangerous and irresponsible situation, he said, adding that it could have life and death consequences.

Securitas Canada did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Misericordias urgent care centre is set to close entirely on Oct. 3 as part of the citywide hospital reorganization plan. The urgent care space will become a community-based intravenous clinic.

Wiebe accused the PC government of setting arbitrary timelines for the hospital system overhaul, saying it has left the WRHA scrambling to cope with the fallout.

While the Misericordia urgent care was to have remained open around the clock until it closed, WRHA administrators soon found that health professionals at the centre, seeing the writing on the wall, were taking positions elsewhere in the system. That caused officials to cut back the centres hours of operation.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the last three decades, hog production in Manitoba has become increasingly industrialized with the number of pigs per barn jumping to the thousands and the number of actual pig producers dropping from over 14,000 in 1971 to a mere 200 today.

The pigs that are the basis of this industry are often referred to as animal units. The production system is under constant pressure to produce more piglets at less cost, resembling an industrial assembly line.

The pigs never see the light of day or have the opportunity to root in straw or breathe fresh air.

NELSON CHING / BLOOMBERG NEWS FILES Industrial hog production is leading to devastating issues for Manitoba, according to Vicki Burns and Janine Gibson.

How far we have moved from family farming to this industrial model, where thousands of animals are kept inside buildings with minimal human contact, feed is automated and they must live above pits of their own feces and urine.

This industrial hog production that dominates the Manitoba landscape is resulting in devastating issues that are in the headlines now.

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) has now infected more than 50 barns in Manitoba, caused the death of thousands of piglets and is creating fear about how widespread this epidemic will become.

The intense confinement of thousands of animals in barns closely located to each other is a significant part of the problem.

The hog barn fire near New Bothwell in June killed 3,500 pigs, bringing the total number of pigs killed in barn fires over the past decade to 64,000.

But instead of seeing this as a problem to be solved, the Pallister government  with Manitoba Porks support  has reduced the fire-safety regulations in the barn building codes to require fewer fire alarms, fewer smoke detectors and cheaper firewalls.

The use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in hog production is part of a growing worldwide problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as MRSA.

Small amounts of antibiotics are fed to the pigs to allow them to grow in industrial conditions.

T. Khanna, R. Friendship, Dewey and J.S. Weese in 2007 showed MRSA is common in pigs and provides further support to concerns about transmission of MRSA between pigs and humans.

Other studies are demonstrating the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in manure lagoons and nearby groundwater (J.C. Chee-Sanford, et al.).

The pigs are not the only things that suffer in industrial production.

The environmental impacts are very real, as evidenced by the declining water quality of many lakes, most notably Lake Winnipeg.

Phosphorus and nitrogen in the animal manure, which is spread on fields as fertilizer, runs off and gets into waterways that end in Lake Winnipeg.

These nutrients feed the sometimes toxic blue-green algae blooms that occur each summer. The phosphorus and nitrogen causing the algal problems also come from human sewage and chemical fertilizers, but there is a correlation between the expansion of the hog industry in Manitoba from two million to eight million pigs per year in the 1990s and the doubling of the phosphorus in the lake from 0.05 mg/l to over 0.10 mg/l (Bunting, L., P.R. Leavitt, et al.) in that time period.

Since the closing of the single-desk marketing system for pigs in the mid-90s and the resulting vertical integration, the hog industry has seen many ups and downs financially.

In 2008, Canadian hog producers were actually paid $50 million to decrease their sow herd size as the market price had dropped so low.

There are other models of hog production, similar in some ways to the family farms of decades ago.

One such model is organic management, which is good for the animals, good for the environment and good for people.

In Quebec, organic hog farming has taken hold and now accounts for 10 per cent of the industry with revenues of $25 million annually.

In Manitoba, we still have a few small-scale hog farmers who are feeding the growing public desire for humane and organic meat, a market that is expanding every year.

The Canadian Organic Trade Association has verified that more of the income from organic production remains in local communities, providing healthier direct agricultural employment (Crowder, D; Reganold, J.P. Financial Competitiveness of Organic Agriculture on a Global Scale, 2015).

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in their 2017 report The Future of Food and Agriculture, states Business as usual is not an option.

The industrial model of hog production is simply not sustainable and Manitoba would do its hog industry a favour by pushing for more ethically, environmentally and economically sustainable methods.

Vicki Burns and Janine Gibson are members of the Hog Watch Manitoba steering committee.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There have been pigs in Manitoba from the beginning of European settlement. I have been a hog farmer for 35 years and, as descendants of the original Selkirk settlers, my family has been continuously farming near Stonewall for over 200 years. I believe I speak with considerable knowledge of farming sustainably.

Farmers have been called the original environmentalists. We live here  as do our parents, our children and our grandchildren. We intend to leave the land and water in as good or better shape than when it was passed on to us. Sustainability is all about ensuring that upcoming generations can have a good future with the land and other resources.

Is hog manure getting into our rivers and lakes? No. Manure itself does not get into waterways but, as it breaks down, some of its phosphorus binds to soil particles. Occasionally (e.g. during spring melt) some phosphorus-bound soil particles may run into ditches and eventually make their way into rivers and lakes. Again, this is not manure running off, but rather soil particles with some of the element phosphorus in it. By the way, it has been estimated that about one per cent or less of the phosphorus in Lake Winnipeg may come indirectly from hog manure.

CHUCK LIDDY / NEWS & OBSERVER FILES According to farmer George Matheson, there are neither too many pigs nor too much manure in Manitoba.

The vast majority of hog manure (about 85 per cent) is injected into and/or immediately incorporated into the soil. This method of application effectively stops manure from running off the land. I cannot over-emphasize this point: manure does not get into rivers and lakes. In fact, it is against the law for a landowner to let manure leave a field. Injecting manure also reduces greenhouse gases and significantly reduces odour.

Also by law, a manure management plan with soil test results is filed annually with the provincial government, showing where the manure will be applied, at what rates and what crops will be grown that season. Farmers are then required to follow that plan.

Is hog manure bad for the environment? No. Manure is an excellent fertilizer and has been used by humans for about 10,000 years. Manure is locally sourced, natural, organic and renewable. It builds up soil and breaks down very quickly in the environment.

On the other hand, synthetic fertilizer, which must be used if manure isnt available, is imported, manufactured or mined, non-renewable, inorganic, costly and does not build up soil. Over 90 per cent of agro-Manitoba is phosphorus-deficient, so the use of fertilizer  either organic or synthetic  is essential.

While human waste must be treated, manure is not, because untreated manure is better for the soil.

As well, unlike all municipal systems that eventually discharge their effluent into waterways, hog manure is never allowed to go into ditches or waterways, so there is no need to treat it.

In Manitoba, manure is used responsibly and is good for both the soil and the environment.

Crops love manure and grow vigorously as they soak up its nutrients. Some of those crops are then fed back to pigs, forming a perfect nutrient cycle: local organic manure fertilizing local crops and feeding local pigs.

Are there too many pigs in Manitoba? No. The best way to determine this is to compare available crop land to the amount of manure produced. Some jurisdictions, including North Carolina, the Netherlands, South Korea and Quebec, do not have enough crop land to apply their pig manure at practical, environmentally sound rates. They must export or treat their manure with expensive treatment systems.

In Manitoba, we have about 11 million acres of crop land, about 10 million acres of which do not receive hog manure. In fact, with about 3.2 million pigs in Manitoba at any given time, the amount of manure produced by these animals can only fertilize a total of about 10 per cent of the provinces crop land. That means about 90 per cent of provincial crop land must be fertilized with imported synthetic fertilizer. So not only do we not have too many pigs, we could safely handle many more.

Manitoba hog farmers take care of their animals and follow national animal care codes of practice.

Our herds are regularly checked by veterinarians and our sows are being moved into group housing environments. Farmers use antibiotics only when necessary and never use growth hormones. Barns are engineered and constructed to high standards set out by national building codes, ensuring animals are protected from the harsh environment.

The industry regularly invests in research to ensure that we are continuously improving our methods for raising livestock and managing nutrients.

Manitobas hog industry employs about 13,000 people and generates up to $2 billion in annual revenue for the province.

This is a good industry: good for the environment, good for the economy and good for the people of Manitoba.

George Matheson, of Dunsmore Farm, raises hogs near Stonewall.
WASHINGTON (TNS)  A president whose brand is all about flouting basic political manners is getting matched in misbehavior more and more by fellow Republicans in Congress.

The first six months under President Donald Trump have been marked not only by a further coarsening of GOP rhetoric, stoked mainly by incessant infighting in backrooms, but also by increasing defiance of decades of behavioral norms  from Trumps nominal friends and skeptics alike, when theyve been trying to work with him and when theyve been scrambling to maneuver despite him.

The declining standards of congressional comportment are remarkable, but, in a sense, have been easy to anticipate:

When the formalities of procedural and political regular order get abandoned at the Capitol, a world of informal and sometimes even infantile irregularity will quickly start shaping how lawmakers approach the legislative process, their political calculations, and their dealings with one another.

A return to normal for the Hills Republicans is essentially impossible so long as their partys leader is someone who unabashedly, even boastfully, violates Washingtons already lowered expectations for minimally collegial conduct  and whose win-at-all-costs, never-admit-mistakes code is fundamentally at odds with proper political manners.

But its also true that even before Trump, the partys high command, first and foremost in the Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, had started whacking away at procedural regular order and thereby helping to define decorum down.

His stature as the longest-tenured top GOP official in Washington, and someone who used to wear the institutionalist label with pride, makes all the more striking McConnells behavioral shift toward embracing indecorous conduct on the Hill he could once be counted on to deride as deviant.

This is not about the partys inability to live up to one of the most fundamental requirements of having good manners: Keeping the promises you make  in this case, the vow, incessantly repeated for seven years, that putting Republicans in charge would make repealing and replacing the 2010 health care law the first order of business.

Instead, this is about the breakdowns in interparty comity and institutional standards for fair play that helped push that promise near to oblivion.

The start can fairly be traced back to the night of Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016. That was when McConnell waited less than 90 minutes after learning that Justice Antonin Scalia had died before transforming the period of mourning into the setting for a bold partisan power play.

In turning a moment for unexpected grieving into an opportunity for Machiavellian maneuvering, he tossed aside two centuries of precedent saying that every president  no matter that his party was different than the Senate majority, and especially one with a quarter of his term remaining  deserved the senatorial courtesy of a hearing and at least a committee vote for any high court nominee.

McConnell won his discourteous and bold bet: Holding the seat open and making the future of the judiciary a prime campaign issue helped Trump score the biggest upset in presidential election history and create the first all-GOP power structure in Washington in a decade.

And since rewarding ungentlemanly behavior will inevitably produce more of such conduct, its not surprising that a secretive, churlish and entirely-outside-the-normal-channels approach has, from the start, distinguished his balky and now repudiated tackling of the defining legislative battle of Trumps first year.

Straightforward legislative etiquette would have required at least a few hearings and legislative markups on health care where Democrats could have gone on record in opposition and Republican skeptics, on the hard right and in the center, could have vented concerns and offered mollifying language  long before spreading anxieties at both ends of the GOP ideological spectrum crippled the bill.

And proper political politesse would have also had the top party bosses providing supportive cover to rank-and-file members before they got called on to cast votes destined to make their public lives more difficult.

But McConnell and, to a lesser extent Speaker Paul D. Ryan, did not succeed at the Hill leaderships customary work of enlisting important trade associations, think tanks and other big-money advocates to get behind the GOP health care bill.

(Of course the president, for his part, hasnt made any real effort to help Congress get to yes by taking the bully pulpit. There has been no Oval Office speech to the nation on behalf of the legislation, no town hall meeting and no rally in any on-the-fence senators home state devoted to the cause.)

Propriety in Congress has historically meant the leadership does not make members cast tough votes for no lasting reason  especially when defeat seems guaranteed, so going on the record can do harm back home without any chance of making progress toward new policy. But, at Trumps insistence, the Senate is on course to vote this week on whether to open debate on the health care bill  a motion that will force more than half a dozen wavering but keeping-their-powder dry Republicans to take a stand with only the slimmest hope of producing anything meaningful in return.

Maybe this is an antiquated Republicans-at-their-country-club notion of manners, but it might have been courteous as well as savvy to invite at least one female senator in the initial GOP working group in search of a passable bill. Is it just coincidence that the three senators who came out quickest against McConnell most recent fallback  repeal now, replace later  were Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, each of whom has health care policy chops meriting a spot in those talks?

A consequence of all this discourteousness from the top is that Republicans one step down the food chain have felt free to act increasingly impertinent.

Wisconsins Ron Johnson has accused his own majority leader of a pretty significant breach of trust in the negotiations  fighting words in a business thats still supposed to be regulated by handshakes and verbal assurances.

Mike Lee of Utah turned on his best friend and closest ideological soul mate at the Capitol, Ted Cruz of Texas, by voting to kill a bill reliant on Cruzs unusual efforts at deal-making instead of conservative combat.

Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas then decided to announce their opposition in the middle of a Trumps steak and cobbler dinner with about half a dozen other senators  ignoring customary courtesies about informing your leader or the president of your own party before dropping a bad news bomb on them.

Trump had all GOP senators to lunch two days later, Lee and Moran included, a gesture toward comity quickly nullified by his awkwardly uncouth approach  He wants to remain a senator, doesnt he?  to the pivotal GOP senator seated next to him, Dean Heller of Nevada.

To top that off, the president kept the Republicans so long they all had to cancel their next collective meeting, a rude affront to none other than Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Just a dozen years ago, Howard Deans screaming exhortations after losing the Iowa caucuses were so collectively derided by the nation as ill-mannered that his presidential campaign crashed that night. This spring, Greg Gianfortes patently offensive body-slamming of a reporter was so readily shrugged off by the voters in Montana that he won a seat in the House the next night.

Starting his State of the Union speech a decade ago, President George W. Bush bathed in warm bipartisan applause after striking the simplest of grace notes  declaring it a distinct honor to be the first president who got to address Madam speaker from the rostrum. Arriving for her husbands first speech to Congress this winter, Melania Trump had to endure the sight of many Democrats declining to clap and slumping back into their seats at her introduction.

In spite of the glamorization of outlaws and gangsters, people do not naturally think that their leaders should violate the standards to which they subscribe, Judith Martin, the syndicated columnist Miss Manners, wrote in a February essay for The Atlantic on declining political etiquette. We still pay obeisance to virtue. What has happened is that the virtues have been redefined.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency Friday for La Crosse and 16 other southwestern counties hit by storms this week.

Accompanied by the head of the Wisconsin National Guard and key state agencies, Walker surveyed damages in Arcadia and Ontario, two communities hit by flash flooding after storms brought high winds and rainfalls of up to 8 inches across the region Wednesday and Thursday.

There have been no reported casualties, but homes and businesses were flooded, and sandbagging efforts continued across the region, according to the governors office.

Walkers executive order, which also covers Buffalo, Crawford, Jackson, Monroe, Trempealeau and Vernon counties, calls on state agencies to assist those with flood damage and authorizes activation of the National Guard as needed.

In La Crosse County, authorities closed West Salems Lake Neshonoc to boat traffic and were monitoring the dam as the water level remained dangerously high Friday morning, although water levels were dropping quickly by the afternoon as additional storms failed to materialize.

Water was flowing through the adjacent powerhouse and gushing from the front door Friday, but the dams owner said the structure is sound.

We dont have any concerns at all, said Scott Purlee, regional manager for Eagle Creek Renewable Energy. Its structurally sound and behaving the way its intended to behave.

The building has been disconnected from the electrical grid and none of the generation equipment is at risk, said West Salem Village administrator and backup dam operator Teresa Schnitzler.

Its just going to be a mess for us to clean up, she said.

The 77-year-old dam was last inspected in June 2015, according to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources records. It is scheduled to be inspected by its owner in 2017. Purlee said the dam has also passed federal inspections.

Boats have broken loose on the lake and at least one got stuck in the dam gates. Schnitzler said grass mats the size of trucks  ripped from shorelines upstream  are going over the dam.

Dam operators are warning people to stay away, noting that debris has torn away warning buoys.

They shouldnt be sneaking up on the dam to get a better look, Purlee said. Theres a lot of velocity there and its misleading.

The La Crosse River crested for a second time Friday in La Crosse at 4.22 feet above flood stage but was expected to level off as a line of storms missed La Crosse, said National Weather Service meteorologist John Wetenkamp.

In West Salem, the river crested around 4:30 a.m. two feet above the top of the dam but was falling rapidly Friday afternoon, according to the Weather Service.

It will continue to fall, Wetenkamp said. The threat for heavy rain has shifted south, which is good news.

In Monroe County, there were no concerns with the Angelo and Perch Lake dams as of mid-morning Friday, according to Monroe County Emergency Management.

The Mississippi River is not projected to reach flood stage in La Crosse, but the La Crosse County sheriffs office said boaters should use extreme caution because of debris in the water.

Public health officials also caution against swimming in any open water  including the Mississippi  during flooding.

These are contaminated waters, said Carol Drury, La Crosse Countys environmental health and lab manager.

Health officials also said residents with private wells near flooded areas should used bottled water for drinking and cooking until they can have their wells tested for contamination.
On July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong informed Mission Control in Houston The Eagle has landed, the space program changed humanity. Inasmuch as the first nuclear reaction ended the industrial age, the space program expanded the atomic age.

The Experimental Aircraft Association is recognizing the accomplishment this week at Airventure 2017 in Oshkosh. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, leads a cadre of the surviving Apollo astronauts in a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the program at the EAAs annual fly-in. The EAA reports that more than half of the living Apollo astronauts will be at the convention Friday.

The most famous of those astronauts, aside from Aldrin, includes Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8 around the moon on Christmas 1968, and Milwaukees James Lovell from Apollo 13. Lovell and his crew were not among the 12 people to walk on the moon. His mission was well-chronicled in the hit movie Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks. Lovells heroism, along with Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, saved the potentially doomed mission. Swigert died in 1982 at the age of 51.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed to putting men on the moon by the end of the decade in a race with the USSR. The space race evolved out of the atomic bombings of Japan at the conclusion of World War II. The former Soviet Union recognized that superiority didnt simply exist on land or sea. It began to exert its presence in space. As the nuclear bomb launched a new era, the space program would take what we learned about science and rocketry and catapult us into to the future.

The first mission, Apollo 1, ended in the first fatalities of our space quest. Gus Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died before they even left the launch pad in a preparation exercise three months prior to their scheduled launch 50 years ago. We could have aborted the program then, but victory in space would neutralize the nuclear threat that favored the Russians.

Nearly 2 years later, Apollo 11 accomplished Kennedys mission when Armstrong uttered, Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Armstrongs footprint into the soil of this planets only natural satellite gave the United States the ultimate stronghold in the race for space.

Since that time, we have launched hundreds of additional missions into space. While the atomic age ushered in a new age, space exploration gave us technology even the earliest visionaries of manned flight could not have conceived.

As part of NASAs initial mission, Congress required the agency share its discoveries. That information paved the way for several inventions. We can thank the space program for scratch resistant lenses, memory foam and a lot of the equipment used in todays fitness centers. Their work also led to expanding telecommunications by launching satellites that aid our ability to relay information from one end of the planet to the other.

Space exploration has ushered in a ton of technologies that we often take for granted. We now have water filters, cordless power tools and more  all of which can be credited to the space program. They join other simplistic inventions such as the grooves in highway pavement for tire traction. The pavement grooves were designed to keep space shuttles glued to the ground when landing during a rain storm.

Right here in Wisconsin, Quantum Devices Inc. of Barneveld teamed up with the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics, a NASA-sponsored research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to develop Astroculture 3 for the space shuttle program for plant experiments. Quantum later adopted that same technology to develop WARP 75  a device that reduces the painful side effects suffered by cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Last month, President Donald Trump showed his commitment to continuing these advances by re-establishing the National Space Council to develop a national space strategy and to foster close coordination among civilian, commercial and military partnerships.

Hes also supporting the Orion program: a mission with eyes on Mars.

We can only hope to hear what the next space hero has to say when he sets foot on another planet. Meanwhile, the technology we continue to develop in outer space will continue to benefit mankind here on Earth.
My opinion on the marijuana legalization in Wisconsin debate is influenced by change in emergency room visits in the state of Colorado. According to World Magazine, June 2017, 639 is the total marijuana-related visits by teens and young adults at one Colorado hospital system in 2014; up from 146 such visits in 2005 before the state legalized the drug.
After 15 years, the Rev. Carol Hermann of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbus will be delivering her final message on Sunday, July 30 at 10 a.m. The congregation will say farewell to her with a luncheon immediately after the worship service.

The church is extending an invitation to anyone who has ever enjoyed lunch with Pastor Carol at the Columbus Area Senior Center, heard her participate in the city's ecumenical services, or reflected on one of her "Amusing Musings" from her column in the Columbus Journal to come and hear her preach of hope and forgiveness one final time and to stay for the luncheon.

First Presbyterian Church is located on the corner of West Mill and North Spring streets.

West James Street (Highway 16/60) in Columbus is currently closed for construction. People driving into town on Highway 16/60 from the west should follow the posted detour and take Highway 151 south to Exit 115 for Highway 73. At the top of the ramp, turn left. Stay on that road through the stop lights and turn left at the following intersection, which is Mill Street. The church is located at 321 W. Mill St.
Kilbourn City Live will return to Wisconsin Dells this fall with a new name, a larger downtown footprint and an ambitious musical and artistic lineup.

Rechristened the Kilbourn City Live Music and Arts Festival, the second edition of the downtown block party-style event is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 30 and will include an artisan and farmers market with up to 50 vendors selling their wares, a family-friendly daytime slate of activities and night-time musical appearances by 1990s alternative chart toppers Smash Mouth and Cracker, according to event co-founder and co-organizer Joe Leute.

The 2016 event drew almost 5,000 for its night-time headliner, Uncle Kracker, and organizers hope a robust day-time lineup and the other additions will draw more visitors to the downtown Dells during the day. The daytime lineup features rhythm-and-blued songsmith Anderson East and local favorites Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts.

We had a huge crowd last year for our headliner, and our goal this year is to see a lot more people during the day as well, Leute said.

The event again will be free of charge and will take place at the natural, parking lot-topped amphitheater formed by La Cross Street as it climbs the hill next to Showboat Saloon. The events musical stage again will stretch across La Crosse Street where it intersects with Broadway, a configuration that apparently worked well for the inaugural event.

During the day, parents can bring the whole family, Leute said.

The music will begin at noon and run non-stop until 11 p.m. The lineup also includes regional band Rascal Theory  which has performed this summer at both Taste of Wisconsin Dells and at the Duchess Plaza  as well as another possible up-and-coming act, regional touring schedule permitting, he said.

Food and beverages also will be sold on the festival site, Leute confirmed.

Another addition to the festivities could be a Friday night event  at a venue to be determined  which organizers hope will result in more out-of-town visitors as well, Leute said.

That and a $60,000 advertising and marketing budget, thanks to a JEM Grant the Wisconsin Department of Tourism and matching funds from the Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau, also should help boost regional interest in the event, he said. Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells returns as the events most prominent sponsor, Leute said.

Were spending triple what we spent last year on marketing event, and that effort will start fairly soon, Leute said.

Headline act Smash Mouth is touring this year in support of a 20th anniversary acoustic version of its 1997 album Fush Yu Mang, which spawned their breakout hit Walkin on the Sun.

Cracker also made a splash starting in the 1990s. The bands appearance ahead of Smash Mouth is in keeping with the tone set with Kilbourn City Lives inaugural eclectic lineup, Leute said.
A Wisconsin Dells man is facing felony drug and misdemeanor child delinquency charges after a authorities found a sick girl in the downtown area.

Corey Chest, 36, appeared in Columbia County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon charged with felony manufacture and delivery of marijuana, felony possession of marijuana as a repeated offense, and misdemeanors of contributing to the delinquency of a child and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The incident began on the afternoon of July 19 when Dells police responded to a call along with emergency medical services just after 5 p.m. to assist a 15-year-old girl who, according to court documents, was suspected of suffering from a drug overdose, throwing up on the sidewalk in downtown Wisconsin Dells.

The girl was taken to the hospital, then later that day spoke with officers at the Wisconsin Dells Police Department, where she reportedly told officers that she had been at Maurers Market, where she ran into Chest outside the store.

The girl, who said she knew Chest through Facebook, said she asked him if he would buy her cigarettes. Chest said that he would buy her cigarettes at a different store, and while en route asked her if she smoked marijuana, then changed the destination to his apartment.

After they had smoked at his apartment, he dropped her off downtown, where she became sick and was found by first responders.

The next day Dells police officers spoke with Chest, who said that he had met the girl and invited her to his apartment with the intention of trying to hook up with her before the two smoked and he dropped her off.

In court on Monday, Judge Todd Hepler allowed Chest to be released on a signature bond, conditional on having no contact with the girl in question and no unsupervised contact with juveniles outside of his own children.

If convicted of the charges of manufacture and delivery of marijuana, Chest faces up to 3 years in prison plus up to six additional years because Chest was convicted of manufacture and delivery of cocaine in 2003.